Dumbledore is Gay

After selling millions copies of Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling announced the beloved good wizard and Harry's mentor Dumbledore is gay. That is enough to anger plenty of self-righteous people around the globe. By and large, she received thousands of supports in the Harry Potter Website.

Rowling doesn't write beautiful sentences like Charles Dickens or Jane Austin, but her simple prose tells intriguing stories of many interesting characters. There are also quite a few very adult sides of Rowling hiden in her children's books. Dumbledore being gay will be one of the most talk-about for many years to come. Her shocking announcement is not going to change the minds of bigots. I admire her since I believe the stories she creates have done more to promote love, human kindness, friendship, loyality and tolerance in children's young minds than anything else in literature.

p.s. I am not a highbrow reader; I like easy stuffs. I never finish James Joyce's Ulysses that my ex-girlfriend gave me years ago and am still wonder if that is part of the reason she left me.

Every Love Relationship Has Its Destiny

For each living human being, there are two universes. One is the physical universe that fills with billions and billions stars independent of what people think. The other universe is what people perceive in their minds. For most people, their universes include the breakfast they eat, the clothes they wear, the money they earn and so on. Occasionally a person’s universe is turned upside-down when there enters an object of affection.

I am of no exception being just one of the people. Love hit me when I was not looking for it. It brought me to an ecstasy that I had never felt before. All the little things she did seemed to be amplified a hundred times more delightful. Even with burning passion, friction is unfortunately inevitable when two persons get too close. We fought, once a great while. So, I established this no-carry-on-overnight rule to dissolve the anger before the end of the day. And I used to call it the magic of love since I saw anger easily evaporated when we forgave each other.

Little did I know that was only my perceived universe. Love on her side had long burnt up and dried out. The magic had long gone since her heart went to someone’s else. Suddenly the long walks along the river, the laughter and all the treasured moments had little meaning to her. Then I eventually realize every love relationship has its destiny, like each of the billions and billons stars above us.

Cosmos

It has been a gorgeous weekend this weekend. I set aside my bike, sat on the beach, enjoyed the warm sun light originated million miles away, and cannot help not to amaze the order of the universe. The sun energy is transmitted by electromagnetic waves (heat) across the solar system and affects us in the most significant way—it gave all living things lives. The sun (and the moon) also affects us by pulling us constantly with its gravitational force. We may not be able to feel it, but we can see the tides going up and down in daily cycles.

All these celestial objects seem so far away are actually very much connected. In fact, at the beginning, universe was started 15 billions years ago from a mathematical singularity where all the mass of the universe were packed as close as it could be (big bang). What happened before that? Our lives seem so infinitesimal short and our planet so insignificant. I cannot help to ask the same questions I had asking many times before: why the universe the way it is? Where did all these mass and energy come from? If there is an amazing god who created this amazing universe, who created god?

Al Gore

Today I am glad to hear Al Gore, the man who almost the president of U.S., received Nobel peace prize for his global warming work.

Temperature fluctuates day to day and annually. Therefore global warming is not as clear cut as black and white. Years back while I was still a University student, I read an article in Student Daily by a statician using advanced statistics to show the earth is gradually warming up. He emhasized it was a big concern since the increase was not linear but exponential. I remember it because I was impressed by the math.

Over a decade later, I felt the chill went up my spline when I saw the statistican's prediction was becoming reality shown by Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." While the Canadian natives are watching the Arctic ice disappearing and thousands of scientists around the world from various fields confirmed the trend, special interest groups continue to denny the overwhelming scientific facts. Aren't those people care the earth our children will inherit from us? Those are perhaps the same people who insist weapons of massive destruction are still hidden somewhere in Iraq.

Giving Gifts

Christmas is around the corner, I noticed since I began seeing gift categories in my mails.

I recalled hearing a woman on radio that she brought all kinds of nice Christmas gifts for her boyfriend, only to find out she received a $25 McDonalds gift certificate from him…she was wondering if she should stay with him or move on. No offense to dudes who give McDonalds gift certificates, but I would run as fast as I could if I were her.

Women seem to like to get men shirts; they especially love it when their men wear them. (And when they start “borrowing” your shirts, it elevates to a totally different level of intimacy.) Thoughtful gifts are universally appreciated. It is of course not about money. It is about how much you care and how much you care to give. Overall balance, I am guilty of receiving too many thoughtful gifts and not giving enough in reciprocation.

One of the worst gifts in North America must be fruit cake. I guess it is a traditional American Christmas gift (I don’t even bother to find out its history). Nine out ten people who receive it will wrap it up again and give to someone else. Lucky me, I received a 5 lb fruit cake in gift exchange in a summer party. Don’t know how many times the cake has changed hands since Christmas or since the Christmas the year before. I put an end to it—garbage can it went.

Brooklyn Bridge

Today I went see this one of the oldest suspension bridges in United States. Hundred some years, it still stands majestically in NY harbor.

Ken Burns’s The War

Six years of making, Ken Burns’s documentary for World War II was finally released on PBS last week. I am a big fan of his earlier series The Civil War. I caught only 3 episodes during the week’s broadcast. Since it is receiving good reviews, I am sure I will catch reruns in the next few months.

For most Americans (and in this series), the WW II began in Pearl Harbor in 1941 and ended in 1945 with over 400,000 American deaths. Ken Burns masterfully adds human touch to the deadliest war in human history and I like the series a great deal. As much as I like it, I cannot help to wish it could go deeper than what the series offer.

What about the other 70 millions deaths during the war? German committed the horrific atrocity of killing over 20 millions Russians and 6 millions Jews. It is easy to blame it on Hitler or Nazi, but one would have a second thought when they see how the common German people being galvanized by Hitler’s speech, or when they see the prewar German harassed Jews on the streets. Those little harassments eventually turned into genocide.

What about the Nanking massacre? 300,000 Chinese were slaughtered, many beheaded. The Rape of Nanking’s author Iris Chang perhaps didn’t realize the power of the atrocity when she started research on the subject. She ended up committing suicide after extended depression like the American heroine missionary she described in her book. Are these thousands of Japanese soldier just ordinary people turned sadistic killers?

It is war. It does what it does best—brings out the worst of human nature.

An Invitation to Friendship

It is fall in New Jersey. Lushly green trees begin to turn yellow and red. I like crispy sound when I walk on the dry leaves. I like distinctive four seasons. Fall reminds me another year will be over soon.

With all the seasons passed by, I selectively remember the fall that I met Lotus. She has thick dark hair and dark eyebrows above two big bright eyes. She sat next to me by the window in first grade. I used to steal glimpses of her while she was not playing attention. If I got caught, she would give me a smile.

I was born shy and did not know how to mingle with other kids then. One day, out of the blue, she walked over to me and asked me if I want to play hopscotch. Then we played tag, and cat’s cradle, and tick-tack-toe, and so on. Before you know it, we became inseparable.

In first grade, life was much simpler. You hung out with the person you like and you shared everything with your best friend. I showed her the presents I received on birthday, or told her about the vacations I went with my parents. Soon I found out she didn’t have all that. She was from a less fortunate family struggling to make ends meet. But all that didn’t matter; we were happy just being together.

The school ended and I didn’t get to see her for the whole summer. I missed her and the feeling was strangely strong for a boy at that age. I got a little booklet that people usually use to put telephone numbers (this is before mobile era) and wrote down one entry: Lotus- my love. I was content for a few days, but then the feeling was so overpowering that I had to show it to someone. I showed it to my little sister, two years younger, who had not yet learned to read. It turned out one of the worst mistakes in my life; she snatched it and showed it to my older brother and sisters. I was teased to no end until my cheeks, my ears, my neck, all turned as red as cherry.

The dreadful summer was finally over, and I couldn’t wait to go back to school to see my girl. To my great distress, she never showed up that year. For a very long time, I wish she would suddenly show up in the beginning of every school year, but she never did. Years gone by, I still remember that one beautiful day in fall when she asked me if I want to play hopscotch…the big bright eyes under dark eyebrows…and the smiles that brighten the sky.

Autumn in my hometown

I hang out on that beach a lot, and always get sands in my shoes...thus, A Grain of Sand.

Multi-Touch Ipod

I was in an Apple store the other day. Two young women were looking at the Ipods. I overheard one said, "I love this multi-touch Ipod". The other said, "Hmmm, multi-touch me."

Women with sense of humor are so sexy.