I am not a Mac user, nor am I a particular fan of any other Apple products. In fact, the only Apple device I have is a iPod shuffle I bought about four years ago. I am among the group who are not willing to pay for an extra 50% for something that Windows can…

Finally reach an age when I need to count “accepted rejections and rejected acceptance” with both hands. It seems to be the time to reflect and learn something about myself. But when I do, I find that my thoughts do not amount to much, so I have to borrow some of my experience with friends…

These are the numbers of papers published in the journals that I skimmed/read last year. Data (of the year 2010) are taken from Journal Citation Report. Nature: 862 Science: 862 Nature Chemistry: 143 Nature Nanotechnology: 130 Nature Materials: 137 Nature Physics: 158 Nature Photonics: 105 Nature Communication: 149 Chemistry Review: 188 Angewandte Chemie International Edition:…

Type Talk At Work is the last one in the series of books on Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI) that I have read. The first book Gifts Differing, by Myers, is  my favorite among the three. The other two, both by Broeger and Thuesen, contain more description, more application, and less theory than the book by…

When I dragged my 30 pounds of luggage bag with me to the bus station two weeks ago, I said to myself, “on the road again”. It is a mixed feeling, leaving my $950 dollar shared apartment behind and getting into a completely new environment. There is a part of me that just wants to…

Three restaurant along the same street (Rue de Rivoli) have totally different prices. One of them is just insane, which makes you wonder whether the pleasure of food comes from the act of spending money or the consumption of actual food.

“Superchic, stylish, sexy, charming, arrogant, rude, bureaucratic, sexist, chauvinistic…” These are the words that Lonely Planet France used to characterize “The French”. On the matter of being rude, it is hard to fit my experience in Paris into the stereotypes described above.  To me, besides being the most beautiful city I have ever visited, Paris…

I thought that I am person with a pretty good sense of orientation, until when I got completely lost in the English Garden in Munich. It was in the afternoon, about 5pm, but it was completely dark already in Munich. After walking in the downtown area, I thought I’d check out this Chinese Tower in…

On the overnight train from Paris to Berlin, I lost my luggage. The train left Paris at around 8:30pm, and I was in this sleeping chamber with five other guys. My bed is the lowest one on the right side, so I don’t need to do any climbing, which is good. The train started on…

I was randomly browsing over Android Web when I found a compilation of all the major works in Daoism. Out of curiosity, I started reading and excited to find out the treasure box. The one quoted above beautifully summarizes two states of minds on travelling (Sorry, cannot find any English translation, nor do I feel…