The Need to Create

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…

Chapter 9 Family begins with a lighthearted story about Michelle Obama asking Barack Obama to buy ant traps on his way home from DC, followed by more personal stories about how they met and stories involving their two daughters. Obama put these stories in the large context of the struggles of ordinary American families: how…

Chapter 7 Race first introduces the reality of racial conditions in US, and then broadly treats two topics — inner-city black community and immigration. Having read his first book Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, I understand how personal this chapter is to Obama. In a sense, it is a problem…

Chapter 5 Opportunity starts with accounts of his first private jet experience, a visit to the Google headquarter and a small town called Galesburg in Iowa, and gradually introduces the central discussion of this chapter on the economy. With a brief overview of the reality of globalization and a quick survey of the history of…

As I was sifting through unread emails during the new year’s eve, I found one email from Wikipedia. Dear Wendong, This is incredible. With just a few days to go in our 2011 fundraiser, we’re so close to reaching our annual budget. Then we’ll have everything we need to keep Wikipedia going in 2012. Only…

This is my fourth MRS meeting. Although I still remember the excitement I had when attending my first MRS meeting at San Francisco a year and half ago, I feel that excitement in me is gone. I guess it is partially because I have learned more and more about what the whole community are doing…

Last time I updated my reading list was five months ago on Obama’s first book. During this five months, I also finished Type Talk at Work, and began to read novels. Sherlock Holmes Collection is the series that I always wanted to read but felt too costly to buy the paper version of it. After…