Taiwan Picture of the Day

"Taiwan HSR at Night", from http://fotozon.com/daily/taiwan/

剛發現了台灣每日一照的網站，這個網站每天都會刊登一張跟台灣有關的照片。很喜歡上面2009/10/18這天刊登的夜晚高鐵站照片，剛剛就是被這張照片吸引到這網站。這張照片一整個很有氣氛，表現出一種遊子的心境(*1)(*2)。

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(*1) 雖然我返鄉的交通工具根本是飛機，以前也沒有坐火車返鄉的經驗，生活和鐵路根本扯不上邊。不過可能這幾次回台灣常常晚上坐高鐵回新竹，和台灣這塊土地若即若離的情感，在深夜的列車上尤其明顯，所以一看到這張照片時，有種「你怎麼把我的心情照出來了」的驚奇。

(*2) 剛剛很認真地想看出這是哪一站，後來連到原作者的相簿，這是新竹站耶！難怪我會有莫名的connection，哈哈。

Old Diary and New Memory

When cleaning my apartment last night, I found a diary I kept from junior high to college. It has been stored in a box covered by dust under my bed. It was surprising that my memory has gone so bad that I forgot a lot of things. I couldn't remember what some pronouns I used referred to. I couldn't even feel anything for some of the things I felt so strongly before.(*1) Time flies and things change. Sometimes things go so differently than we expect. But sometimes things go back to the origin after detours. I can't believe in my first year in senior high school (oh, sweet 16~) I said in my diary that "I am gonna major in economics in college"; "Because Nobel has a prize in economics" (Not that I ever thought I would ever win one. It was just that I thought awarding accomplishments in economics by Nobel prize implied that this discipline had real contributions to human beings. And I was gonna study something meaningful.) Looking back to it from now, I am not sure whether it was a teenager's audacity or it was simply naiveness. I feel a bit shame on my current passionless self. It did make me burst into laughter though. More than ten years later, I am indeed in this field and have been the field for many years, but nowhere close to making a contribution and at most a mediocre.

My conclusion is that, bad memory could be good sometimes. You can see old things coming out in a novel and interesting way, like reading somebody else's life.

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(*1) For example, in one log I said I was so touched by 「用君之心，行君之意」in 屈原《卜居》. I don't remember what was going on on that day. I have no clue about the circumstance under which I felt in that way.

Post Vacation Syndrome

This summer was unusually hot. And the winter came so early that I couldn't even be aware of it.

According to Wikipedia, post vacation blues include symptoms such as tiredness, loss of appetite, strong feeling of nostalgia and in some cases depression; jet lag may intensify those symptoms. It might take up to 1.5 times the length of the trip. 1.5 times? If I do adjust for 1.5 times of my trip length, the quarter will be gone half. I can't let this happen!!

I overestimated myself. I came back just a few days before school started because I thought I had the ability of falling asleep whenever I wanted and I thought I could switch back to a work mode when I had to. It turned out that I wasn't that flexible. I am still lagged in the summer time.

I am desperately in need of a sharp mind. Right now.

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It's so easy to become lazy. But it's thousand times harder to get the momentum back.