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来了加拿大后读的第一本英文小说，是William Golding 的《苍蝇王（Lord Of The Flies）》。这是一本跟 Anthony Burgess 的《发条橙（Clockwork Orange）》和 George Orwell的《1984》同一时代的作品。虽然是幻想类小说，但分别反映的意识形态，恰恰重合了我们这个世界成长的影子。1954年，英国作家 William Golding 创作了《苍蝇王》这部小说，并因此获得了1983年的诺贝尔文学奖。很多人把《苍蝇王》阐述成一部关于伦理哲学的作品。故事开始，一群十几岁的孩子被流浪到了一座孤岛。之前所有成年人都因为空难没有得以存活，存活的只有这些从来没有走出过现代社会的儿童。

故事背景中的独特的孤岛，拥有着充足的水和食物和一切其他必须品，于伊甸园无二样。孩子们在没有束缚的环境下自由地生活，谁也意识到这样的自由带给他们的后果。由于对未来没有任何计划，孩子们的生活形态回归到了原始社会，即饿即食，安枕无忧。孩子们欢乐的生活在所谓“怪兽”的出现后发生了转折，像极了《创始纪（Book of Genesis）》一书中所描述的“邪恶”的出现。人类历史的头一堂课到此结束。

当他们第一次意识到恐惧之后，由于意见和矛盾的产生，生活形态发生了变化，比如说权力。当 Simon 标志性地拿起烤熟的猪头吆喝众人的时候，等级分化立刻被明显出来。那猪头就好像《射雕英雄传》里丐帮的打狗棒，在人们的潜意识里面行成了官衔爵位的角色。就像我们的幼年一样，霎时间众孩童之间的分帮别派不可避免地发生了。在人类历史的第二堂课中，这个圈子的分化被由 Ralph 和 Piggy 所代表的多数集合派和由 Jack 所代表的少数集权派变成了两部分。

就这样，故事由最初的和睦，变成了后来的对立；由最初的自由物资索取，变成了后来的条例行物资分配。于是，矛盾产生了。可笑的是，当若干时间后，现代社会派出了船只，来寻找并营救这些未成年人，当时所有以上提到的一切，立刻消失的无影无踪。每个之前的“人物”，再一次变为了依赖成年人的孩子。而来营救的人并没有意识到过去一段时间历史的短暂重演，自然不会震惊地说：多么可怕。

或者，我们也是孩子呢。

But this time, maybe I will.

翻 Email，翻出许久前 Seven 传书让我猜《天下第一》结局，之后的回信：

闻启，

数日未系于书信，思慕之心倍增。念态势昌平，权姑娘动止万福。末家感冒稍愈，方如实报来，不情之数，乃恐姑娘忧心于末家。又因末家醉心于《新宋》，拜读数日方怠慢于书信，如此孟浪，还望姑娘心慈而恕之。

人之生死自古有定数，某家不敢妄加断疑。某家蜀黍猜列，不尽愚昧：

凡传记细说，无不为大灭奸恶，次人尽之，善人处之。如数猜列，必先细而分之。大恶者，非小人也。古人云，大恶必大谋。如此指疑，数种种枭迹，神候当之无愧，将死之人以为之。次人者，可小人，可非小人，且同乃得志者。富千万，赵皇，曹太后，云清郡主赵云罗，柔姑娘，于故事之细说，可归于次人，未死以为之。善人者，惩恶锄奸者也，天下第一四士大夫乃为之。于情理，未死以为之。不过英雄大悲之壮举，实乃戏说常用伎俩，某家于一刀，成是非以为之。另又倭国柳生飘絮，因情大恶，善为次之，实属悲情，将死以为之。

人物生死实属戏说，姑且莞尔而忽之。《新宋》中人物其一，汴京名妓楚云儿，亦为石越石学士讪于小人算计，补慌而罪于衙内重板之下，却念石某人府上桑妻姊妹情，未献可怜求之于，终死于郊外陋屋。情戚戚泪以慰，书扉合而叹之。

末家将下周回屯，恐于时日紧凑，忙于裹包。以为与姑娘相见于数日内，心绪大好，念甫而保之。望姑娘心于顾己，不必担心，以怠末家小礼将送之。

末家虎某敬上

文绉绉地，有点傻。

I have just created a little simple test for Windows Live Contacts Gadget. If the current page is not under the domain of wangxiaohu.com, please visit the original post.

Seven 在天虹给我买的黄水晶，据说可以带来财富和保护五脏。看看我送给 Seven 的是什么？

Hope the following steps help someone.

1. Find something else interesting to you instead of your research area.
2. Solve at most one problem per week, e.g. a typo.
3. Never look at any related work that have already done by others.
4. Forget about time management and stay up whole night, for games.
5. Be tired of discussions with your supervisors.
6. Remember the definitions without understanding it.
7. Be inconsistent on anything.
8. Refresh interesting websites every 5 min, such as /.
9. Write thesis in the same way as writing blogs.
10. Think about how to fail your graduate study all the time.

What do you think?

凌晨一点从办公室狼狈地赶回来，渐渐变冷的天气冻得我抖抖瑟瑟的。于是在开房门的时候，发现了门口厨房摆放的咖啡冲剂。

一定是新搬来的室友 Jeffery 送的。早上跟他聊天，他很热情地送了我三包高丽参茶。我随口一句：“ I drink coffee. ”，竟然被这小子记下来了，呵呵。

顺便提一下，Jeffery 是个学音乐的白人。奇怪他怎么会有这些写了中文的东西？有意思。

谢谢你，Jeffery！

I am always aware of my health and sensitive to even a slight change of my body, so I regularly do health check-ups. Having been studying in Canada for almost 7 years, I found that all the nurses and doctors I met here a very nice to me. What disappointed me is that, the appointment scheduling for health checks is not that efficient.

Last week, I wanted to do a blood test to see if my cholesterol becomes lower after I changed my diet style several months ago. But I couldn’t book the blood test directly. Instead, I had to book an appointment with a doctor first, and the appointment was scheduled a week later. Thus I has to wait for a week ’til the day of appointment. What happens next is that, I see the doctor and then I am sent to the lab for the blood test. But I don’t get the result directly from the blood test lab. What I have to do, is to book a follow-up appointment with the same doctor to get the result, and the new appointment is a week later, again.

It takes me two week in total to see my blood information.

What happens if it is in China? OK, here are the steps:

1. You go to the hospital in the morning, say 9am;
2. Do your blood test and get a bar-code associated with your ID card;
3. Then you get the test result in the afternoon, say 3pm, by showing your bar-code and ID.

In case you don’t understand the statistics in the result sheet, you go to your doctor and get the explanation. The whole process costs less than 12 hours. The point is that it’s your blood and you are the first person who has right to know the information about your health, even prior to your doctor. And if the mechanism is well managed enough, the process can be efficient.

Anyone has any comments? Let me know if I am wrong.

读 John Xu 的 关于工作的故事－Positive Thinking，很是认同里面提到的积极思考的四点：

1. 分析职位的需求和自己的价值所在。
2. 了解自己的优势，强化优势。
3. 了解自己的弱点。
4. 交流的时候把重点放在自己的价值和优势上。

在过去两年的时间里，积极思考带给我的力量是可观的，帮助我抛弃了浮躁和肤浅、学会了乐观和耐心。除了以上四点，我还要补充四点积极行动（Positive Behavior）：

1. 不要忽略细节。细小的事物也有成为关键的可能，例如与人交流中用到的词藻，就很可能代表了态度和看法。利用细节所得进行事态分析，往往四两拨千斤。
2. 保持笑口常开。麦当劳快餐店里面的价格表常常会有一条：Smile for Free。在任何，笑容不会给你带来损失。特别是不太令人满意的事件，往往可以为双方带来新的契机。
3. 学会换位思考。利益是双方的，否则就是单方面的掠夺。在最大化自我利益的同时，尝试去保证对方的利益，或者至少让对方知道这种尝试的存在，会让你获得更多获利的砝码。
4. 崇尚诚实和遵守信用。这些年一直号召的诚信，对你来说是和利益同等重要的财产，甚至更加重要。因为诚信的流失比利润的流失更容易，诚信的重获比利润的重获更困难。

智慧的你学会积极思考和积极行动，受益无穷。

This evening I had a wonderful time with people who came to our first Talk8 event. It’s what we expected and well done, thus I have many thanks to all of us, include myself.

For those who doesn’t know about Talk8, please refer to this entry I posted last week.

For those who didn’t come, the speech can be replayed above. Sui’s speech is not provided here due to his request.

For those who eager to take a look the pictures we’ve taken, here they are (Thanks to our photographer Yi):

I am looking forward to attend our next Talk8. Recall the steps to set up a Talk8 are:

1. Post a topic you want to discuss at somewhere (such as your blog).
2. Let everyone know about it (e.g.. send emails to spam your friends).
3. Choose a date and a place (8am? no way).
4. Go for it (free style, open ideas).

Are you ready?