Contemplation in a Subway

When I take a subway I peep at the other people and let my imagination fly. For example, yesterday, a man who was knitting drew my attention. Maybe he was knitting for his grandmother, living in a nursing center in his country, just waiting for him. He has not visited her for many years. He might not go this Christmas either. So, he decided to send her the scarf with his love. That’s why he was knitting. He was quite good at knitting. The scarf was pink and purple. That would look well on her and he smiled. He has not had enough time to finish it, so the knitting material was always on him.

On the other side, there was a guy who looked upset, almost crying, but he did not cry as other men did. Beside him, there was another man. I supposed that he was his lover. Five minutes passed, tears flowed down his cheeks. His lover tried to mop his tears. It is Christmas season when everyone is supposed to be happy. Why was he crying? The man was white and the other Asian. No matter what color they have, it was obvious they deeply loved each other. Even if one was a man and the other was too. I think how beautiful true love is.

In the corner, there was a girl with a big backpack. Maybe she was just coming back from her trip. In the backpack, there were a plenty of gifts to make her family happy and dirty clothes tasting of fatigue. One sunny but sluggish afternoon, when she saw an antique mug at a flea market in a small town, it might have reminded her of her mother. She did not hesitate to purchase it. Her mom would be able to have her dark brown coffee in it every morning. There was also a well-worn teddy bear for her younger sister. She could see her hugging it. And a fur hat, it was for her father. She was pleased that it keeps his ears from being attacked by cold.

I stepped out with their happiness thinking of the warmth of my house.

The Conquest of Happiness

Many people suggest reading lots of books to improve English.
Ben also emphasized that however, I haven't started yet making an excuse like I have finial.
To tell the truth, I have neither studied for my exam nordone anything.
Today, I got an exam and I got this book from my professor.
When he asked me to know the writer Bertrand Russell, Russell came to my mind as an actor, but I hardly remembered him I learned about him at high schooland middle school.
Wake up Mijin.
After I got home, I googled him and I felt a little bit ashamed.
Whatever...whoever...I am surprised at my ignorance...
Anyway,
One goal for this winter break is reading this book.

http://russell.mcmaster.ca/~bertrand/

12 Angry Men

Today I watched a movie of 12 Angry Men. It was an old movie, but I think it was worth to invest your time. Reasonable doubt-if you have reasonable doubt about something, don't jump to a conclusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Angry_Men

Cinderella

When I was a child, one of my favorite fairy tales was Cinderella like many other young girls, but when I was a high school student, my teacher told us Cinderella story made many girls passive people just waiting for Prince Charming on his white stallion. She said in the real world there is no prince and no white stallion so we need to improve our lives by ourselves not a prince.(It's hard to explain in English) The point was we needed not to focus on our appearences but to focus on our study and internal life for our better life and better future. However, I needed to learn two things from Cinderella.

One thing is her courage to go to a party alone. Because I am very reluctant to do something alone, Usually I admire people who do something well alone like Cookie and Cinderella. Last night, after class, one of my classmate invited me to his dormitory party and the class was the last class of this semester. Therefore, he might have thought we shoud have fun, but I hesitated a little about going there because it was already night and going alone to a new place made me uncomfortable. Therefore, I got another classmate to go together, and we thought we could stay for a short time. Everytime I feel comfortable with a company.

Second thing I needed to learn from Cinderella is her determination to keep her word. She went back home before 12 even though the party was fun. Time passed fast, and it was hard to get a chance to say bye while the host was explaining enthusiastically about his country. I hardly could say I should go to take a bus and when we arrived the place where we could have taken a shuttle to the subway station, the shuttle just left. while we were waiting for the next shuttle, I started being anxious about what if I would miss my bus to go home. We tried to take a taxi, but it was also hard to get. At last we took a car making a deal. Fortunately, I could take a bus and get home safely. I should have left when I was supposed to leave like Cinderella.

Anyway, I have to remember what I have learned from my childhood princess. Her courage and her determination. ;-)

Follow your heart

A couple of days ago I read Injun's article about who lives by following his heart.
I think people who live by follwing thier dreams can live with full of joy and happiness.
How about your life?
Here is another guy living by following his urge.

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By Barry Schiffman

Before I returned to school several years ago, I was a newspaper reporter and editor, and until 1998 had worked for The New York Times. I have also worked at The Wall Street Journal and The Hartford Courant. At the Times, I was a copy editor on the National Desk, which handles news from Washington and the rest of the U.S., besides New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

I became involved in computer science mostly out of idle curiosity in the early 90's, after I bought my first home computer. Fooling around with that outdated (even at the time) machine must have rekindled my old interest in math and science and I taught myself some programming. After awhile, I started taking classes through the CUNY BA program at Hunter College. At first I had not intended to get another bachelor's degree (my first was a BA in history from New York University), but at some point my interest in my courses overtook my job. After I finished the program at Hunter, I entered the M.S. program at Columbia, took the Introduction to NLP the first year, and in February 1998, left The Times and became a full-time student.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

This isn't just a turkey.
As anyone can see, I made it with my thumbprint.
Which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love.
Especially to say,
I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving Day.

(It's from my lovely nephew Paul(5))

I also you have a very happy Thanksgiving Day.

Baku

Can you guess where it is?

It's from my lovely friend Lika in Baku in Azerbaijan. I had never thought about this country before I met her, because it is so far from me(my country, my thought, my heart). However, thanks to her, Azerbaijan comes closer to me.

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I am sending you a picture of view from our balcony. You will see a park down there, it is very luxurious park, but it is covered with marble, so it is very slippery ever when it is dry, when it is rainy, you have a danger to “kiss” it several times, but when it is frozen… for God sake, Don’t ever think to stand on it, if you don’t need extreme, and just going to work. Don’t know who projected this stupid stuff. => from Lika

Fall in New York(Central Park)

Last Saturday Cookie and I went to Central Park remembering the movie "Fall in New York".

We tried to find the way in the movie and we thought we found it. It was very beautiful. Sometimes, a camera can't take a picture of the beauty, so we took a picture with our heart.

This is for Lika who is really missing Central Park.;-)