'The thing with the stuff'

'The thing with the stuff' is the classic joke I have made in American because of me poor English. I have a friend, Malvern. He is Chinese American, who was born here and cannot speak Chinese. My English is poor, espicial a idiot in cooking vocabulary. and his Chinses is in the same level as my English. So when we get together try to make something to eat, it must be a funny time. One day, I told him I was missing his mom's dishes, but I forgot the name of that dish. So I said: 'the dinner you mom cooked last week is very dicilous. Can you cook it?' 'What's the name?' 'I don't know!' 'What's it like?' 'The thing with the stuff, you know, the thing, with, the stuff' I was expaining to him while acting with my hands and feet in the air. He was more confused,'xxx ?' He said a name of a kind of food or condiment, but I didn't know the words. 5 minutes later, we were both exhaust ahout this puzzle game and we both don't know what was I talking about. I only hope next time his mom will cook the same dish, then I will say: 'Look, the thing with the stuff!' Until today, Malvern still make fun on me. Every time when we go to restaurant, he will tell the waiter: 'I want a salmon, give this guy a thing with the stuff..... '

The question about the story Lottery

What is ironic about the discussion of the traditional or ritualistic activities surruond the lottery? What point do you think Jackson may be trying to make? When the viliagers talk about the lottery, it give us a sense: it is very old trandition and it seems to be very normal. It sounds like a ritual raised every year and gether every body together to celebrate something. No one will think it will be such a brutal thing. children are playing, adults are chatting about the crops, as if they don't know someone will be killed. There is only one conlusion. Every body is familar with it and every body gets used to it. From the dialogue, we can see the the hearts of these villager are stone; the spirit of them are numb; the soul of them are dead. They don't care about others' lives. the only thing they care about is their crops. I think the author here just want to emphasize the barbarity of the lottery through describing the calmness of these villagers. Additonally, by the end, the poor women still yell:' it is unfair.'. it also highlights that no one think it is wrong. The one who draw the paper with black spot is only a unlucky guy.

Just Like Flowing Water

"Belief, like any other moving body, follows the path of least resistance."-----Samuel Butler

Indeed, individual deeds and beliefs are easily influnced by environment and others, just like intangible flowing water which flows through a path with least obstacles. Water always flows downwards becasue of gravitation; water also chooses a easy pathway because of fluid mechanics. Belief, embodied in the individual behavior, is in the same truth.



People trend to convert their deeds, even beliefs, into easy ways to obtain benefits or save troubles. In this case, they may not change their minds or thoughts, but their behaviors or words will obey the environmental resistance. When a person who is a homophobe finds that his superior is homosexual, his belief is facing challenge. He has two choice: quits the job or keeps silence. I am not sure how many people will choose to quit, but I am quite sure that there will be many people changing their position and publically declaring that they are tottally Ok with gay and lesbian stuff in company. Maybe they still hates homosexual in their heart. However, in order to avoid losing their jobs, they change their words and deeds. Similarly, in such a classroom, everyone is bad student who doesn't do homework. If there is a good student who hand in homework on time everyday, he/she will be in a danderous position. All the other students hate and exclude him/her because his/her excellence highlights the other students' defects and failure. Therefore, if this good student doesn't want to experience terrible school days and look for his/her stuffs in trash can everyday, he/she will also pretend to be a bad student like others.



Sometimes, people totally change their belief when they are persuaded and convinced. As an old Chinese idiom, many praises can cast gold and accumulated detractions can melt bones. If everyone keeps talking bad words of your neighbour, you will trust that he is a bad guy and refuse to contact with him. Maybe it is only a misunderstanding. The most obvious example is the relationship bewteen German people and Jews during WW II. When fascistic government ceaselessly incited hatred on Jews, many German people lost their saneness and became blindly hostile to Jews. Thus, when Nazi Gestapo began to arrest and slaughter Jews, few German people standed out to protect them. Although almost all the German people's benefits were not violated by Jews, and even though they used to be neighbours or friends, they still watched these innocent Jews being captured. This is the horror of people's belief following the surroundings.

As social population, human cannot avoid their belief or behaviors being challanged by others or enviornment. choosing a easy way to access the goal is always the natural truth, like birds flying to south to pass the winter and fish schooling to seek protection. However, as intelligent creatures, human have their values and morals. We cannot change our belief or behavior at will. We must evaluate whether these behavior transforming will harm others' benefits. Just like solomon's experiment, changing the answer to a incorrect one will not hurt anything. But if people accept misleading to support a injustice invading war, this will be terrible. 'Everyone is stealing' is not a excuse for people to shoplift and 'Tom is always absent' is also not a reason for students to leave school. In a word, when we change our mind, consider it for a moment first. We are not flowing water. Although water flows downwards, man still need struggle upwards.

Glory at sea---How does individual behavior affect group

For this independent film, I want to give a couple of simple comments in some specific aspects.

Although it seems short and simple in content, it is actually rich and deep in meaning.

First, the attitude of people towards sea is affected by that man.
people who live by the sea are always holding veneration and awedness towards the sea. They live by the sea and depend on the sea. The ocean can provide their food and also easily deprive all they own. The scene that surviving people still live in the devastation by the sea after the tsunami indicates that how people depend on the natural environment they used to live with. These people choose to linger out their feeble existence. However, the man's behavior of building a boat with garbage encourage these folks to challenge the thing they used to respect and fear.

Second, the attitude of people towards their life stituation is affected by that man.
After the catastrophe, people don't stand up and rebuild their home. Instead, they revel; they drink and they burn. all of these not express their joy; instrad, all come from a sort of nihilistic choas standing for an innocent hopelessness----they have nothing else to do and have nothing left to lose. Nevertheless, that man's behavior awakens them from their meaningless revelry and delusion, and makes them to face the reality.

Third, the belief of people towards God is affected by that man. Some people who are not disordered also don't come down to earth. They choose to turn to God to seek hope and peace. Actually, the one who can offer help is not God or the priest. That religious leader cannot do anything to change the situation except for mourning death. Yet their faith is challenged by that man's behavior. They realize that praying and blessing is only a spiritual sustenance. They should do something practical. Even that priest offers his help with donating a wooden cross to bless the safeness at the sea.

Finally, the hero, the silent man, who lose the one he love in the disaster, is not an agitator with heart-stirring speech, but a soundless doer who cheers up people with actions. He is also a dogged and clinging guy who never abandons hope and surrenders to reality although there is little hope to rescue those people so many days later. His persevere and faith affects those folks and make them give out their only 'treasures' one after another. TV set, radio, skate shoe and birdcage, no one knows how these mess could help at the sea, but they just want to grip any chance they might get. When people find the ones they love at the sea, they know they have made the best choice----where there is life, there is hope.

In the end, I think these words from film will perfectly express the theme: "I try and think about how this storm and all these people dyin' was all a part of God's plan. But mostly, I just stare up through the water hopin' I can have one last look at them."

The One That I Read Today

I read a poem about chirsmas by Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) from a small book today. I really admire it and want to share it with you guys.

Twas the night before Christmas Poem also called “A Visit from St. Nicholas"

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

I especially admire the beautiful words in the last stanza. The poem vividly pictures the image of Santa who spreads all the joy to the world. what a amazing poem!

Why I Read?

As the words going in Francis Bacon’s essay 'Of Study', ‘Reading make a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.’ Exactly, reading, writing and discussing are all essential parts in our study. ‘And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not.’ For writing, you may need a lot of time to continually write and edit; for discussing, you may need many different peers to patiently analyze and criticize; however, for reading, you only need a little spare time and yourself.

Calm your mind down; keep off all your world business for a while; find you a good book. Sitting into your comfortable chair in warm sunshine of Sunday afternoon, you can enjoy you reading pleasure peacefully as me. Although it sounds like an elder’s retirement life, you will really enjoy it when you try once. This is my reading pleasure.

The changing world makes us confused and lost; the changing world makes us sophisticated and polished; the changing world makes us trustless and careless. For many times, I wished I could go back to my childhood when I was more pure and free of worry. I would not be so anxious like now; I would not be so angry like now; I would not be so depressed like now. Nevertheless, I could not. Once when I feel bored and tired, I read. Reading makes me forget all the trouble and unhappy. Although I would find all the annoying things are still waiting for me there when I get back from books, I actually have a better and easy mood to deal with them and I also find this makes me more effective and comfortable. This is my reading panacea.

I like to read and I read a lot. I don’t care what to read; I only care how to read. I like all kinds of books: novel, story, history, essay, poem, autobiography, newspaper, magazine and even dissertation. As the words in 'Of Study', 'histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtitle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores’; every book makes me rich. I had once read a paper about cynology for the whole afternoon hours and also spent two weeks on a book of Stephen King. I trust in reading and admire reading. About reading, I only concern about the way I read. I hate throwing away after reading; I also hate flitting from book to book and rarely paying. I read; I read again; I read again and again. Meantime, I read; I stop; I think. This is my reading way.

Reading is my only time I enjoy with myself; reading is my only time I talk with myself; reading is my only time I dig with myself. I don’t want to share my precious reading time with the world business. It is my treasure I don’t want to lose. Recently, I found I read less for all kinds of excuses. I want to forgive me but I am shame on me and judging me deeply. It makes me uncomfortable. So I should recover my reading. Begin with what? Let me pick one......

Heresy itself is actually the searching for one's own value----Analyzing of the Figure of Luke

In the eyes of authority, Luke may be a heresy;
In the eyes of peers, Luke must be a hero.

Because of missing the first part of the movie, I found the entire one with subtitle this weekend and tried to watch it carefully. During watching this movie, I had to stop it and thought for several times. In the end, I sighed: What a man!

The Chinese tittle of this movie is <鐵窗喋血>，which means 'bloodshed in a window with iron grating' in Chinese. I must say it is really a horrible name which totally distort its original idea and categorize it as a prison breaking action movie. Maybe the translators just wanted to attract audience's eyeballs and made up such a typical Hong Kong Kong Fu movie's name. How ridiculous it is!

Okay, come back to our subject.

I cannot exactly remember how many cheaters and liars who Paul Newman have played in other movies, but the figure of Luke is totally different from Paul Newman's consistent acting style, which used to be funny and amusing. In this film, Paul perfectly illuminated the image of an unyielding man and how was he transformed mentally and emotionally during his prisoner's life. Another aspect which I very appreciate is that there is abundant metaphor and montage used by the director in the movie, which leaves audience much space to deliberate.

First of all, metaphor is an important feature of this movie. The talented director, Stuart Rosenberg, likes to utilize metaphor everywhere in his movie skillfully to insinuate the reality. In this film, the jail is not only the place confining freedom, but it is also a symbol of restriction in humanity. In another words, the jail is just our life, our world. In reality, people have a lot of thing they may desire to do but cannot do and people always have all kinds of dream to break the line between them. However, Luke does it, so he becomes a hero who is respected by other prisoners. Actually, We are these prisoners and Luke is the restless desire of freedom in our mind. The jail is the representation of the national machine which could trample on our right, freedom and even life without restraint, such as the prison officers could shoots birds, turtles even human as his pleases in the film. Luke was put into this jail as drunk vandal. Deeply, drunkenness is just the escaping of the social reality, but when he wakes up in the jail, he will find there is no difference between outside and inside. And the three failures of his escaping also indicated that there is only a bigger jail outside and his soul is confined everywhere. In many scenes of the movie, prisoners are working along the road. The tiny prisoners, the wild flatland and the endless road, there is such a strong contrast between confined people and open space. What a sarcasm it is: such a open free space contains a group of poor people whose freedom are deprived. The tragical reality is that the individual who refuses to yield to the control of authoritative ideology is exiled by the society finally.

Another feature of this film is that it conveys a mount of religion insinuation through Luke's behavioral and psychological transformation. At the beginning, Luke lost his believe during the war. He suspect the reality God brings to him: there is only slaughter and death in the battlefield. When his mom died, his love to his mother made his believe resurrection. In the film, Luke played many hymns and anthems to express his memory to his mother in the Heaven when he was forbidden to go to his mother's funeral. In the scene of eating eggs, the picture of Luke lying on the table is exactly the posture of Jesus' Crucifixion. Moreover, when Luke was shot in the chapel, the up shooting camera and the gradually emerging of the cross also sublimes Luke's death to height of crucifixion for the equal freedom and the image of policemen becomes a kind of evil force smashing the believe and destroying the freedom, which is the opposite of righteous . In the last scene of the film, in the endless road, there shows up a big crossing road which could be read as the confusing of people in their believes---turning right or left---or another religion insinuation of cross. Here, Luke transforms from a simple cynicism figure who blindly conveys his dissatisfaction to authority through destructing government's property to a real hero who has his own believe and value.

The reason why Stuart Rosenberg is a special director is that he refuses to convey his idea directly to audience, which makes us rethink our life through watching the movie. Unlike 'The Shawshank Redemption', which blurred the age background and emphasized generalized freedom, and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', which just wildly and directly cries out the word of freedom, 'Cool Hand Luke' is more specific and veiled. Stuart Rosenberg tries to tell a story implicitly about freedom which more agrees with spirit of a specific era and culture---the 60's American. The authority and equal freedom, the Vietnam War and peace, Luke's mermaid tattoo and sexual liberation, all of these leave us a lot of space to think deeply.......