Peter’s Blog V2

Imagine this: you have a problematic neighbor who never mows his lawn.  He’s a fine person otherwise, but the uncontrolled grassy front yard really bothers you and other nearby families.  You’ve complained to him about this several times, but he’s made it clear that his property isn’t really your business.  One day, this neighbor decides to throw a big barbecue party and invites the entire neighborhood.  You suspect that he’s only trying to show off his big house, but it is nevertheless the awesomest BBQ you’ve ever been to – USDA Select quality steaks, massive burgers seasoned just right, a wide variety of chilled beers and top shelf liquors, complete with ESPN on a 72″ HDTV.

Question: now that the entire neighborhood is here, is it time to announce your criticism against his lack of yard work?

Especially right after he says to you, “let’s not talk about the grass today”?

That’s exactly what these Americans are doing in Beijing - Free Tibet and other sorts of protests.  Many were arrested immediately, most have been deported, and there are more underground demonstrations under way.

These so-called activists mastermind plans to break the laws – so do the terrorists.  The Chinese government employs a crazy number of law enforcement units to keep both of them off the streets.  These activists simply fail to understand how their childish behavior is damaging the American image, and they wonder why American tourists aren’t welcome in half of the world?

American media make this story sound like an outrageous violation of the First Amendment; but hello, its jurisdiction is kind of limited to our own continent.  Reminds me of when the American kid got canned in Singapore, and it become such an uproar that even President Clinton had to intervene repeatedly.  To us, those foreign laws may seem unreasonable and harsh; but to them who take rules more seriously, we are an uncivilized country that knows no respect.

Not that I don’t think the human rights or regional political issues should be discussed, but for everything there’s an appropriate time and place.  In ancient Greece, people talked at the public forums, and the Olympics was meant for sports.

Just watched the Olympics opening ceremony at Hong’s neighbor’s house, and got two words to describe it.  Freaking awesome.  The compliment goes to the performances, the spirit, and the neighbor’s gigantic HDTV.

It was truly fantastic.  Not sure whether the powerful choreography, the flashy technology, or the enormous budget was more impressive, but I was amazed by the huge number of performers involved.  At first I thought they just went on the Tiananmen Square, grabbed a few thousand volunteers and trained them for a couple of weeks.  But when the martial arts group did 2008 synchronized flying twist kicks, I realized that these weren’t just random average people… but then again, it’s China, aren’t we all kung fu masters? 

Those on the luckier side of Earth got to watch it on TV real time.  The rest of us watched the “replay” 12 hours later.  Everyone that I knew had religiously watched the whole thing and engaged themselves in the passion.  I had never cared about any of the Olympics games; but now I’m a fan.

You can find more of these high quality photos at boston.com.  There’s also a blog dedicated to the Beijing Olympics.  Of course, let’s not forget the official website of the Beijing Olympics.

Randy Pausch, the CMU professor who gave the famous last lecture last year, has just passed away.

Coworker Ming told me about this lecture and I watched the entire video in one sitting. Then I watched it again. It’s very inspirational and makes me hope that more professors in the world could be influential like that. Especially Computer Science professors.

If you haven’t seen his last lecture, you can watch it here.  It’s more entertaining (let alone educational) than most Hollywood movies.