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The Buried

I have only been to Egypt on a short trip about ten year ago. Majority of my first hand experiences has gone with my vague memory, only some here and there bits remains: the heat and crowds of Cairo, the calling from the mosques, the huge ruins predate us for 50 centuries, the calm and vast desert. Fortunate enough, reading Peter Hessler’s book The Buried, it not only brings back some of my lost memory, but also enables me to experience what life in Cairo looks like, supplementing my own glimpses. 

Peter Hessler himself is an unrivalled non-fiction writer. His previous books about China gave him certain degree of fame among the the Chinese readers: educated intellectuals living in the city, who never really know about the countries and small towns in China. His book River Town and the later book Country Driving is the best example of his thorough, observative writing on such topics. Even since I heard that his family is moving to Egypt in 2011, I has been expecting his book on such a journey, eventually in Summer 2019, my wish come true.  

On the surface, one might argue that the focus in this book seems scattered: the records of an revolution, accompanied with his day to day interactions with his garbage collector; the Egyptian Arabic language school, history and his experience at archeology sites; and Chinese merchants living in Egypt. but in the end you’ll find that these stories are interconnected and each of them represents a colour in the Egyptian culture mosaic.

It is hard to document a revolution, I think. In an apparent ongoing chaos, to gather what is going on while keep an eye and ear on what is the sentiment among people, as well as capturing as many voices as possible. His approach in my opinion is the most `scientific` way of doing it.

2019.08.26

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July 26, 2019

Mu daughter asked me a simple and straightforward question: Why are we living in Canada?

My mind was running fast: There are reasons that seems obvious to me - a democratic society that grants basic human right? No internet Censorship? Wonderful public library system? The first two are hard to go by for a 4 year old, the last one might be less obvious still - she must have already taking the library system as granted - A library that doesn’t have tons of different kids books, toys nor crafting time must be unthinkable for her.   

I decided to go by the easiest answer I could think of: Do you like our backyard? We wouldn’t have a backyard, let along the mulberry you love to eat, if we weren’t live in Canada. 

Her answer is: but I would like to have a bigger backyard, so that it could fit all of these: bouncing castle, a slide (which we already have) and a swing.

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What moves the needle to sale?

Recently I started watching an Audio/Hi-Fi video log called Darko.Audio. He made great content in a very beginner friendly way of describing home audio equipment, it is enjoyable to watch, highly recommended.

One of my favourite video from that channel is actually not about audio equipment, but his share on some of the vinyl shops in Berlin for techno lovers. This touches me the most because I enjoy buying vinyls (more than playing them, as Darko claims) as well. This video lists his recommendation vinyl shops, along with the record he purchased, with thoughtful shot/editing and his comments & stories with them, very enjoyable to watch. Darko also kindly links those techno music he mentioned in this video on major streaming platforms, so that the viewer can easily check these musics out. Very thoughtful.

Then I found that I started listening to these musics. I’m by no means a techno fan, but would like to try something new when my needle is being pushed - sometimes it’s just something that triggers you to do new things. While I’m listening to these musics, I began questioning myself, what’s the element in his video makes the needle to move? What actually sales me these musics?

I bet there are thousand’s of sales pitch / strategy / success books mentioning the same thing, probably in a more systematical way, but still I just want to capture my raw thoughts here: It’s the experience that sales these music to me - the likeable feeling of being in a record shop, browsing through records just flashed me back those pleasant memories. His passion to techno music (not to mention at the beginning of the video, he mentioned the reason why he moved to Berlin is because it has the best techno music scene in the world - of course people were amazed and you can see that in the youtube comment section) is so firm and you can literally see it from the video. Is the music good or bad? I don’t know and I don’t really care - I just want to try them out. 

That’s a point you’re making a sale - not just for displaying the meta data, not just because what it is - but a story and the passion in a pleasant form that people can look at and feel.

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The biggest protest in Hong Kong's history since 1997 is happening right now. More than a million people are on the streets to protest the extradition bill. The bill itself allows Hong Kong citizen to be sent to mainland China for trial. Because of China's lack of rule of law and murky judicial system, most Hong Kong people consider this is the direct blow to its legal independence, which was supposed to be kept and maintained until at least 2047. Furthermore, many see this as a crucial step in eroding freedom in Hong Kong from China.

I'm with the people who protest against it. As I'm from Beijing, I was moved by the speeches Hong Kong people gave at the Tiananmen massacre vigil: 'People from Beijing inspired and influenced Hong Kong people 30 years ago...'. The sad fact is, it is now, maybe their last chance, to protest against an extremely powerful authoritarian regime.

I feel ashamed, as seeing Hong Kong's young generation rises up, to fight for their right. The very same generation in mainland China choose either move away or gave up their rights. Not to even mention the worst case: they have been educated to be not knowing their rights, the new generation could be, and is brainwashed by propaganda.

What can I do? To be very honest, I wasn't really sure. But I know one thing for sure, is that the so-called `technology advances` doesn't or couldn't make the world a better place on its own. Ironically, it might be made it a worse place by providing more effective censorship and propaganda.

I hope, maybe there is a way to help. I want to learn, and hopefully, help others to learn more about political science. This might seems indirect to help what Hong Kong people are doing. But I believe that my generation, the lost generation of political participation, deserves a better way to know what they don't know, even if it might not ignite the sparks for most people on this subject.

After watching the `Tiananmen Square: What happened in the protests of 1989?` video from BBC News, I was shocked to see what's the face of a young generation which pursues freedom looks like - energetic, optimistic and maybe naive. These are the qualities I haven't seen among my generation. I hope we could see more faces like them in the future.

God bless Hong Kong.

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Window Screens

I Installed two window screens in the last two days, there is some stuff that is worth writing down.

The window screens on two bedrooms are missing since we moved in. Specifically, the screen itself has been torn away, but its frame is still intact. Since summer is almost here, we figured it would be better to fix them, for better air circulation on our second floor.

Though I don't have much experience in almost any home improvement project, after watching this youtube video, I generally have the idea of what made the window screen and what needs to be done: Buy two new frame kits to make frames, put the screen on, then put the made window screen back on.

I managed to take the frames down and to use them to measure the new frame kit. Though while doing it, by not knowing much of how the frame is installed, I bent one of the frames, which I thought it was okay since I'm not planning to re-use them anyway. Two frame kits cost me about 55 CAD at Home Depot (v.s. 20 USD mentioned in the 2016 video above). Luckily almost all the tools and accessories are included in frame kits and the screen itself. The only other thing I bought was a junior hack saw for cutting the frames.

The first step was to build the frame. To my surprise, cutting the frame is not hard at all. Comparing the length of the existing frame, cut and assemble the frame. To attach the screen was not hard either, just took some time to get the spline in and don't forget the pull tab (which I did). It looked like it is all set, all left was to put the screen back on.

However, the problem arose: I could not put the frame back on, even though I know I've cut the frame to be the exact size of the previous frame. I thought I wasn't putting enough force to it, but a second try bent one side of the frame, so I have to re-do it with another one. After that, I still can't put the frame back on. So that I assumed it must be a sizing problem because it is really hard to fill the frame in, considering I've put the clipping in the right place and using the pull tabs this time but still failed.

So that I carefully cut the frame even further, try to make the frame `fit` the window by cutting, assemble the frame without screen and trying to fit in the window. At the very end it `worked`, though the bottom side seems to have too much tension so it bends up quite some in the middle (Gave me the impression that the length is still a bit too long, which is wrong and costly for me on the next day). It was not perfect at all but was acceptable, we can adjust our window opening to follow what it is.

The next day, we went shopping for some more frames, to replace the bent one and to get a new screen: the screen we bought yesterday is large enough for one window, but not for two.

The second frame goes smoothly given yesterday's experience. For the sake of `sizing` problem, I cut short the size a bit further than yesterday's to make sure I can fit the frame in. But in the end, I found that I overcompensate: the height of the frame seems perfect, but the length is definitely not enough, it can't be clipped in the window.

While wasted another set of the materials and frustrated enough, I began to dismantle the older frame (which I wasn't aware of in the first place because the spline seemed too hard to remove), in order to use the parts. When I was trying to connect the older frame part and my new frame kit together, I just realized that they differ in DEPTH, the corner connector cannot connect them.

This difference should be obvious enough to be observed, but since the video doesn't mention it and Home Depot doesn't have the options of the depth of the frame, it got completely slipped away. The difference in depth also contributes to the fitting problem: the re-assembled, slimmer older frame fits easily in the window.

The rest is easy, put up the clipping, pull tabs (the soft pull tabs from the older frames are way superior to the hard ones comes with the frame kit) and the screen, clipping it in without much effort into the window, a perfect window screen is made.

In the end, it seems I could have saved at least 60% of the costs on materials. The upside is that now I have enough material to further practice my window screen making skills and if needed (though not in my house for quite some time), make any smaller screens.

The issues I encountered along the way, are actually not far away from the typical errors people made in software development, or any problem in general: lack of observation (why the frame doesn't fit, the difference in depth), blindly use the assumption without much verification (use brute force to put on the frame and damages it) and lack of planning (I could have just bought one large window screen instead of two).

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Start reading Why Nations Fail

Just started reading the book Why Nations Fail, written by Daron Acemoglu and James A.Robinson. It has been on my reading list for a while, and after a three-hour reading session, the book seems very engaging so far.

Though it doesn't mean it is perfect. I'm reading the Chinese version translated by Taiwanese translators. In the forward written by a Taiwanese economical scholar, he argued the potential ex-post rationalization claim in some of the examples by providing the facts that the book is based on authors last 15 years of research. One example is from the paper The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation. In it, the European morality rate is used as the instrumental variable to estimate how institutions affect on income per capita. In the first chapter, while explaining how Mita, a forced labour practice from the Spanish colonist, changes the economic status between two provinces, Calca and Acomayo. It eventually declares it was because Acomayo is in the Mita region enforced by Francisco de Toledo in 1574. but it doesn't explain why. This is exactly like an ex-post rationalization to me.

Of course, this is just one tiny example I happen to feel. It might already be addressed in the following chapters and I'm simply not there yet.

Reading this might probably require more homework for me though: these early North American settler's stories are fascinating and would require extensive readings for me. As well as the history of Mexico. I tried to find Cadiz Constitution's effect on political institutions of central and south American countries in Fukuyama's book The Origins of Political Order, but couldn't find it in a quick glance.

There's always more the read and learn I think. Goes back to the paper I mentioned above, The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation (https://economics.mit.edu/files/4123), after a quick skim I found I'm totally foreign to statistics on social researching (or statistics in general) therefore that's a good field to start some introductory reading I guess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_variables_estimation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_research

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Untitled

It is hard to find something to write about. Ever since I started this new weekly writing exercise, I have already skipped two of the sessions, due to procrastination, pure laziness and mainly the absence of a concrete subject. In the book Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott tells us to just try to sit down and try your best to write, even it means a struggling session of staring the ceiling. I could find a gazillion of excuses of why I'm not simply doing that regularly but that's not the topic today. Due to my pure laziness, I'm trying to figure out what I was writing outside of my writing session, then use those as the material, to get away the thinking part of my exercise.

The answer is movie reviews, specifically, extremely short movie reviews. I wrote those because I'd like to write down my feelings when I finished a movie. They are short, usually one or two sentences, but I'd always try to give a movie the honest opinion out of my best judgement. Though it must be subjective, I would also try to make these reviews useful for people, by either saving them some time or hoping to get feedback from them. I figured this is probably the way to go, the constant material/topic I could retreat to because these short sentences, are something I wrote and somehow I care about.

The dilemma is, as I noticed from my second writing session: I don't know how to write them in English. I realize that I don't even have the equivalent vocabulary to justify my thinking. I do not have enough input for that domain.

I recall one of my friends who wrote Beer reviews on Instagram used to say: 

Your thought is only formed when you can put it into words, writing them down is how I learn and preserve the thoughts.

Therefore I opened my dusty Feedly account and added a few Movie reviews feeds into it. Hopefully, this is not the end of it but rather a start.

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Untitled

A theme I noticed during the early 30s is that in order to find answers in life you'll have to spend some time to know yourself better. It sounds funny and for people who had made up their mind with their goals early on, maybe late. But it is nonetheless important. I spent the time asking myself: what makes me happy? a question that should really be asked during the teenage years (but I wouldn't have a better answer by then) or in my 20s (was busily making a change instead of asking questions internally). Surprisingly, the answer is simple and straightforward, and it encourages me to better use my time and helped to shape my future learning goals.

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Untitled

If your every sentence admits a doubt, your writing will lack authority.

- The Elements of Style

One amazing revelation to me, when reading Francis Fukuyama's The Origins of Political Order, is how confident he is in his book. His theory of how society evolves is sounding and convincing, but like other theories, it is hard to prove it, Let alone his research ranges from the pre-historical era into modern days, across several major civilizations.

Your writing is the vehicle of your thoughts. Your reader would like to communicate with a person who holds his idea firmly.

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Untitled

To make the best use of my commute time, apart from reading books that I'm supposed to read, I started watching movies from my everlasting wishlist on Hoopla. If you don't know what Hoopla is, it is a movie/music/comics rental service that uses your public libraries account to subscribe - if your public libraries already paid for them. Luckily, both of my public library subscriptions can access Hoopla. Better yet, It's mobile app supports to play movie offline, it is a blessing for my long, mobile signal-less subway train ride.

I have watched a few documentaries: The Farthest - Voyager in Space is one and by far the best among them. It tells us the story behind Voyager 1 & 2, the only two artificial objects travelled into interstellar space. It is an inspiring documentary to recommend to everyone.

Anthropocene The Human Epoch is another documentary I watched. It has stunning cinematography and striking revelations to the damage Human caused to mother earth. However, its approach of leaning towards revelation rather than lecture does have quite some appealing, but I found with the structure of breaking down the theme into various sections made the narrative felt shallow and wasn't compelling.

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记录一下这两天早上认真聆听21号钢协的一些感受

尽量使用具体的表述，联系使用具体的词语来描述感受。

发现了很多平时收听不到的细节，比如钢琴部分在进行独奏的时候，其实很多时候并不是只有钢琴而已，在很多小的地方，弦乐都在起配合的作用，在聆听的时候，就有一种在欣赏高棉雕塑的感觉，弦乐的配合让钢琴的部分更加立体，更加细腻。

还有就是各种���比，钢琴独奏和乐团的对比，甚至是钢琴中自己与自己的对比（有一段非常明显，钢琴中一个突如其来的向下走的节奏和前一句有非常鲜明的对比）。主次关系的演进和变化，钢琴在大多数时间是主体，但是也有不少时候钢琴在引出乐队后，就沉寂一段时间。还有一个注意到的东西就是钢琴在结束Solo的时候有一个非常明显的不和谐音，感觉这个音是提醒乐队Solo结束，马上切换到尾声的。还有一段在听的时候感觉钢琴部分似乎变成了第一女高音（领唱）的这样一个角色，而乐队变成了后面的合唱团，这两者之间有很多细节的切换，令人惊叹的还是那些配合。

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人类社会已经演变为一个非常复杂的机器了，以股市为例，将人类对于未来的预测作为商品进行估价，买卖对于未来的期许，利用人类贪婪的本性。这其中有赢家和输家，但是与一般赌博不同的是，这里面的资本运作，又确确实实为人类社会带来了生产力上的改变。这或许是人类社会最大的变革之一：通过这个机制调用更多资源、赢取更多时间，用于完成以前所无法完成的巨大创造和跳跃

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质感定位

在Page'one一样的现代书店里陈列的铜版纸印刷的全彩书籍，虽然描述的内容是古代遗迹，但实际上是在现代便利的都市生活中体现的，黑底白字和字体的选择的设计体现了它作为现代印刷品的风格

现代有独特品格的都市人会喜欢阅读这样的一本书，它的信息翔实，图片精美，但是不必细致和枯燥到和考古资料一样，清晰地列出所描绘的要点即可。它也不必是旅行者的工具，在当地自由有导游和旅行指南可以帮助他们。这个应用最直接的效果是可以引出这些独特品格的都市人对于旅行的憧憬和向往。同样，对于刚刚对这些景点有过体会的人，也是会非常乐意保存这样一本书籍到自己的设备中的。

不是所有人都需要在社区里和别人交流，对于大多数的人来说，社区的目的是可以让大家看到更多的同种类精美图片。

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MIstakes

So you made a mistake, eat your own dog shit. Everybody makes the same scale things, not a big deal. If would be helpful if you learn something from it. That is the daily routine, you may made a mistake, if you do, fix it.

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What I have to do with my current projects.

They are yet to be completed. You need a strength to catch up the work, to finish them. As for the online games, I'm stucked with its HTML5 interface, actually it is not even an 'game' interface yet, it's a unpolished messy HTML layout. I have to do something to make it playable. With a propery interface. The subtitles for that cartoon, is stucked with some unidentified English accent, which is hard to be distinguished. Got to listen to it twice, then polishes the mandarin translation. Egypt Tour Notes is yet to finished. Maybe you could write apart of it in English.

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The Beginning

Sometimes, you will need some stories to keep you in such a mood. Be Passionate. Is it hard? Or just something you have to do all the time.