1. Innovation, innovation, and innovation! NOT innovation of bunches of INNOVATIVE financial derivatives that underlie the economic downturn; BUT truly innovative technologies that dramatically reduce manufacturing costs and profoundly modify the industry structures. We need something new, something tangible; and we need them now!

2. Investments for innovation! It’s been a great chance for companies, especially those which have products to develop on their agendas, to invest (economically, NOT financially) ever since the plummet of the stock market, when the gradually rendering deflation has been dragging investment cost down. Even though there are probabilities of failure, the sunk cost is not an investment that is to be reinvested after all; but if one succeeds, the company is certainly seeing a very promising future.

3. Frugality for innovation! From a perspective of an employee, this might not sound very attractive since cost-saving schemes implemented by employers of any kind lack a sense of physical/material comfort, like sharing cabs, hotel rooms, etc. However, if the company applies an appropriate incentive plan to accompany its frugality (distributing a percentage of the company’s earning to employees when the earning reaches a certain level) and the money saved is used for innovation plans to further decrease the cost, then even the employees themselves would think a little bit sacrifice now is very much worth a huge compensation in near future.

4. Constant innovation! Anything begins and ends. Nevertheless, companies can expand the duration of their existence through innovating their products to meet with customers’ ever-changing needs. Those who easily believe they can stand on a leading point for good are the best example of daydreamers: they’d already been dead as they were complacent with long-past triumph and decided not to move on any further. For the present situation, we’re dead if we stay where we are; but there are still hopes, albeit in small leaps, if we keep moving.

Wish Georgia had joined NATO. But our world needs peace. But Russia stands in the way. Even during Beijing Olympics. The nation will be damned and cursed. Russians are kicking their ass off themselves.

Crimes Russia committed:

1. Killing innocent people in Georgia;

2. Bombing Georgia civil airport runway;

3. Targeting civil housing compounds;

4. Shooting pistol gun at journalist reporting in Gori;

5. Violating cease-fire truce agreement;

6. Hijacking UN aid truck;

7. Demolishing basic human rights;

And many more...

May peace be with those Georgian killed. Russia shall pay the price.

I can clearly remember the Christmas Day nineteen years ago. That was in 1988, the first year I was in kindergarten. All the kids were assembled in the school yard and waited for Santa Claus to distribute the gifts. When Santa Claus appeared in front of us, I heard no applause, nor did I feel any excitement. Because we all knew there were no Santa Claus. The one that was giving out Christmas presents was the kindergarten principal. We knew she disguised herself as a fat, jolly man with a white beard, and wearing in red suit trimmed in white. Santa Claus never exists, as told by our teachers and parents, in an early stage much earlier than appropriate.

We crater for truth, but truth is never meant to be easily found. Should I have kids of my own, I'd decide to better let them search for it by making judgements themselves. Santa Claus might just be a legend, but in a world we describe and define things solely on a basis of perception processed by the brain whose working mechanism is still largely uncharted, no absolute objectivity can be registered as purely as what it actually is. At the holy moment we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, let us contemplate the purpose of life and be enlightened by every step we have made toward our destiny.

Satisfaction does not rest upon what we did, but upon what we are and we will be doing; anxiety does not rest upon how much left we must accomplish, yet upon how we shall proceed. Life is a path to keep going on: mortal made eternal.

Merry Christmas!

The business trip sometimes offers the best chance to see and experience a life we would hardly know in Shanghai. I've been out home for quite some time, with curiosity to satiate, missions to accomplish, and of course, fieldwork to perform. Exam days are coming fast, but the whole package of prep materials I take along with me does not in the least sense render any anxiety which I thought should have been coming out of nowhere. Perhaps it's because of the weather when I travel, the people I work with, the landscape I look at out of the bus window, and the serenity of solitude that I really enjoy.

Zhou Zhuang: I've been to many of China's famous water town resorts, many of which are commercialized to a very great extent, including Zhou Zhuang. With efforts made to exclude as many people outside of my shot frame as possible, comfort of paucity can still be captured.

Trip to Gu Yao Village, Wei Ma County, He Shun Town, Jin Zhong City, Shan Xi Prov., P.R. China, Earth. It's being so long a name, right? No wonder some of my colleagues call this place the countryside of the countryside. Textbooks taught us "fall is the season of ripeness", but in here early Nov. the fall I see is the season of baldness: dried up mountains, withered trees, barren lands. Uncivilized might be the best word to describe the rurality. People that spit at will, leafs that are incinerated sporadically, water we drink that contains submerged unidentified oily substance, and room service that does not make up my bed.  I am not complaining about all of these, but I am telling that people are living at a difference.

It would be a disappointing journey were I not to take some photos to help myself memorize the place once I had been to. Contrasted to the azure sky, the sterility per se reflects some beauty.

On board the plane to Tai Yuan, the capital city of Shan Xi Prov., I got a bird view of the mountainous area which I knew later is the Tai Hang Mountain, a name so familiar to Chinese who are educated to remember a war against Japan occurring in this place decades ago. Now, I am looking at the spectacle more closely than up in the sky, and the sunny weather is doing me a great favor compensating for the poor performance of my shaggy Kodak EasyShare.

My field work is located right beside a coal mining site, so I have a chance to get physically close to coal miners and the legendary mine entrance.

I bet those workers have their dreams to live with, as I have mine. Humans struggle alike, urban or rural. Thanks to those workers, we get our laptops switched on to work; and thanks to their boss, the sea level keeps rising up every year. I recently read a National Geographic article about the global warming. The article attributes the global temperature increase mainly to the emission of too much carbon dioxide released from human activities like burning coals. China now is ranking the second of carbon dioxide emission in the world, and may exceed Uncle Sam in near future. Although global efforts are now being made to solve this conundrum, the door of chances to reverse the environmental propensity is closing up fast.

Project finished within a week, I am returning home on weekend. Once again, I will soon be joining those who live a life of insatiable desires in the city landscape that is totally different from what I saw this week. Beyond prosperousness, shall there be another interpretation for life I am living? Or is what I saw what they really are? Yet, I am departing for another destination the week after the next to further seek for the answer to questions which are never meant to be answered.