生命中最重要的是甚麼?

一个小故事:

有一天, 一个老师带了一个大瓶子到课室. 所有的同学都很迷惑, 老师首先拿出一包石头, 把瓶子装满. 然后问同学们:"瓶子满了吗?" 学生们都说:"满了". 老师摇头, 然后那出一包碎石倒到瓶子里, 还摇一摇瓶子. 到碎石把瓶子装满了之后, 他在问学生们: "瓶子满了吗?" 这次有学生在怀疑, 但是他们还是说:"满了." 老师没说话, 只是拿了一包沙出来, 把瓶子里的空位都填满了, 然后再问学生们:　＂现在呢?＂　大部分的学生都沉默不语, 但有一个学生说:"还没满!" 老师笑了. 最后, 他拿了两杯茶倒进瓶子里. 然后跟学生说: "这个花瓶就是你的时间，你可以用多种方式来填满你的时间.。正像你填充这花瓶，那些大石头就是你生命中不能没有的东西，例如健康, 家庭, 朋友. 那些碎石就是你生活中次等重要的东西，例如你的工作, 房子, 车子. 那些沙子就是生活中的其他小东西.”

有两样东西我想你们明白. 第一, 就算瓶子里只有大石头, 它看起来还是满的. 第二, 如果你不先放大石头, 之后就没有办法放进去了.

有个同学问: "那最后放进去的茶代表什么?" 老师笑着说: "这代表: 无论你认为你有多忙都好, 你总会有跟朋友坐下来喝两杯茶的时间."

Lawyer jokes of the day.

Lawyer: "Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?"
Witness: "No."
Lawyer: "Did you check for blood pressure?"
Witness: "No."
Lawyer: "Did you check for breathing?"
Witness: "No."
Lawyer: "So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?"
Witness: "No."
Lawyer: "How can you be so sure, Doctor?"
Witness: "Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar."
Lawyer: "But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?"
Witness: "Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere."

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Lawyer: "She had three children, right?"
Witness: "Yes."
Lawyer: "How many were boys?"
Witness: "None."
Lawyer: "Were there girls?"

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Lawyer: "Do you know how far pregnant you are now?"
Witness: "I'll be three months on November 8."
Lawyer: "Apparently, then, the date of conception was August 8?"
Witness: "Yes."
Lawyer: "What were you doing at that time?"

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Lawyer: "Have you lived in this town all your life?"
Witness: "Not yet."

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Lawyer: "Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?"
Witness: "All my autopsies have been performed on dead people."

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Lawyer: "Now, doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, in most cases he just passes quietly away and doesn't know anything about it until the next morning?"

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Lawyer: "Now, Mrs. Johnson, how was your first marriage terminated?"
Witness: "By death."
Lawyer: "And by whose death was it terminated?"

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Lawyer: "How old is your son, the one living with you?"
Witness: "Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which."
Lawyer: "How long has he lived with you?"
Witness: "Forty-five years."

提前买圣诞礼物

This post is written by Coco and I am too lazy to write it again, so I just paste it here:

10月23日
提前买圣诞礼物
昨天晚上ERIK回来兴奋的给我说今天有家商场开业大减价，我们可以把计划过年买的东西买了，主要是想买个液晶电视在卧室看DVD，作为圣诞礼物，这样冬天看电视就不冷。圣诞减价要1月了，我们还要等3个月。看了原价和打折价格的对比后觉得我们还是提前拿到圣诞礼物好。于是，我们就拿了宣传海报研究了打折的东西，对比了几家的价格型号。
11点就睡了。为了今天早上6点起床，因为7点开门。我们准备去抢！为什么这么讲呢，因为去年有一家商场开业，很多电子产品都减价，电视都抢断货了，一个3000块的游戏机半价1499，ERIK的一个朋友去抢了几个卖了一个给他，那个游戏机今天的价格还2250.所以ERIK觉得平时买太贵了，一定不要放过减价的好机会。

平时要睡到9点的我们，今天6点就起床了，我还洗澡吃了个早饭，6点半出发，到那里停车场已经快停满了，已经有1大排人在保安的安排下站好队，我们也家入了排队大军。排在前面的是几个外国人，我们在讨论说挪威人不会这么早起来排队买便宜东西，一会儿我们周围就出现一堆挪威人。我们到的时候是6点40分，在寒风中瑟瑟发抖，还好有6度。我们兴奋的讨论排队买东西的事情，重庆买油抢死了人，排队拿号买房子，珠宝店大减价，美国感恩节第二天的减价等等，说了半天看表才6点45分，5分钟过得真慢啊。快7点了，2个保安站在了我们前面，开始我还不知道什么意思，以为是维持秩序的，后来才知道是限量。每次规定50或者100个人进去，不能太多人抢啊挤的出事情，我们正好是101，要等第二轮，我的心里开始哭了。也不知道一轮要多久，冷啊。前面的队伍一直往前在走，我们被挡在2个高大的保安后面，郁闷着。突然，门口一个保安说可以多放50人进去。哇哈哈，太乐了。我们基本兴高采烈的在冲抢第一线。ERIK跑进去就不见了，因为堆着很高的东西转了弯就很难跟上，都不等我。我们是目标是买电视，就跑过去找他，他已经在和售货员聊起来了，我到了，他说我们就买这个，三星37寸液晶电视。我没有意见，他就去签单了。然后陆续找到了我们昨晚看好的电视挂架，吸尘器，音响，CD，吹风，搅拌机，电子称，他还发现了数码相框（6月他在香港买了一个1100港元，这个395），我发现了2个锅45块（平时一个要400块）。我们大包小包的抱着去排队给钱。

我们超级神速，出来的时候才7点半。剩下的是去货场取电视。第一次觉得挪威人这么勤劳，4－5个人轮流叫下一个下一个，平时一个等半天才有人搭理，而且现在在7点多。拿到电视，搬上车，搬回家一切都很顺利，差不多8点。嘻嘻，平时我还没有起床呢，想想今天都办了这么多大事。我们迫不及待的把买的东西都拆出来看看，摸摸，用用。ERIK更激动，要把电视安在墙上，又是拆角，又是钻墙，摆弄了1个多小时，我们的新电视已经站在墙上了。很有成绩感！我们还安了DVD，用新电视看了段经典的007,效果不错。ERIK大叫，10点了，快上班去。要我在2分钟内收拾出门。我遵命。

然后就跟以前一样的一天开始了，追火车，发呆，效率低的做事情。。。。。。

中午吃过午饭，我总觉得什么东西少拿了。想了很久才发现没有拿锅和搅拌机。上网查了下价格，搅拌机以前是699的，现在195，看到价格真的不忍心错过。于是和ERIK商量是不是要再去一次。他同意。我有跑去追火车到他公司那里，一起前往。我们到的时候3点左右，以为可以不用排队了，但是保安依旧入早上一样部分部分的进入，我们又开始第二次排队。数码相框和搅拌机都还有，就是不见锅，2大箱子的特价锅一抢而空，很沮丧。抬头寻找新的目标，转了一打圈也没有发现其他经济实惠的东西了，准备走了。突然，ERIK拿着锅笑嘻嘻的走来，他在一个乱箱子里的一个，可能是谁不要了的，哇，我们买到锅了，激动。一会一个大妈走来问我们锅在哪里拿的，我们说那边，心里很得意。还买了几条连接线，电视,DVD和音响的，因为电视在墙中间，插座在墙角上。回家后又忙活了一会。

现在所以东西终于弄好。电视可以看了，音响可以播了而且可以播CD,DVD,磁带，广播和MP3机。吸尘器也用了一下，体重也称了一下。另外要夸一下搅拌机，美观功能好而且使用方便，有直接放果汁的开关，还有说明书送了推荐果汁饮料配方。最后说一下电子相框，可以放卡可以放U盘，比较慢，现在还没有看到我们的照片出来。

好了，这就是我们的一天，提前把圣诞过了。

風姿花傳

風のその姿を
風姿花傳


作詞/作曲/演唱：谷村新司

***

風を叫ぶ人の世の悲しみを
風述說著人世間的哀愁
星に抱かれた静寂まの中で
在星辰所擁抱的靜寂之中
胸を開けば燃ゆる血潮の赤は
若是敞開胸懷沸騰的熱血
共に込りて大いなる流れに
會一同流入巨大的洪流裡

人は夢みる　ゆえに儚く
人生如夢　 所以虛幻無常
人は夢みる　ゆえに生きるもの
人生如夢　 所以栩栩如生

嗚呼　嗚呼　誰も知らない
嗚呼　嗚呼　無人知曉　
嗚呼　嗚呼　明日散る花さえも
嗚呼　嗚呼　即便是明日黃花



堅い契る爛漫の花の下
在締下堅強盟約的爛漫花叢下
月を飲み干す宴の盃
與明月飲乾了宴會中的酒杯
君は帰らず　残 れて佇たずめば
君無能歸　 餘者佇行
肩にあの日の誓いの花吹雪
肩上飄下那誓言日之落英

人は信じて　そして破 れて
人相信著　 才毀壞
人は信じて　そして生きるもの
人們信任　 故生存於世

嗚呼　嗚呼　誰も知らない
嗚呼　嗚呼　無人知曉
嗚呼　嗚呼　明日散る花さえも
嗚呼　嗚呼　即便是明日黃花



国は破れて　城も破れて
國已亡　 城亦破
草は枯れても　風は泣き渡る
縱然草枯 風仍悠然長鳴

嗚呼　嗚呼　誰も知らない
嗚呼　嗚呼　無人能知
嗚呼　嗚呼　風のその姿を
嗚呼　嗚呼　風的身影
嗚呼　嗚呼　花がつたえる
嗚呼　嗚呼　而花繪著
嗚呼　嗚呼　風のその姿を
嗚呼　嗚呼　風那姿態

***

這是動畫"三國志"的片尾曲
我小時候很喜歡看三國志(但是我家另外兩個小孩卻不喜歡...)
特別是這首片尾曲風姿花傳

其中在孔明殞落的那一集
背景圖片是關羽的乾女兒(忘了叫什麼,是個美女v)
一個人騎著馬在草原上向遠方奔馳而去....

整個音樂流露出悲壯的氣氛

有著大版圖的壯闊感
有著世事無常的感嘆


這首歌也有兩種女聲版,但我偏好谷村本人演唱的男聲版
將這首歌的精華完完全全表達無疑

歌詞很優美
像是在寫詩詞


這是作曲者谷村所說的話：

五丈原是武侯人生道路上的最後一站。
諸葛孔明的智慧妙語雖至今人人稱羨。
陳倉早已更名為寶雞而消失
棧道今安在?
以此音樂紀念武侯。

Fate

On almost every weekend I would go to my parents restaurant to help out since it is usually busier then. Despite the long drive (3 hours one way) I usually have no problem with it. Pop a CD into the player and before I notice I am there.

On my way back this Sunday I got a little sick of the songs and turned off the player and decided to call up some friends back in US to chat. So I go down my list

- my best friend, lives in India and based on the time zone he should be sleeping right now
- guy friend in Arcadia, don't feel like talk about stocks right now
- female friend 1 in Fremont, phone turned off
- female friend 2 in Fremont, didn't pick up after 2 try
- my aunt in Fremont, didn't pick up

ok, so I have pretty much exhausted my contacts and then a name popped out...

- my ex

it's been a long while, and we broke up after I moved to Norway because she didn't want to have a long distance relationship. So I called her and she picked up.

"hello?"
"hi"
"who is this?"
"it's me, Erik"
"Erik? Oh hi!"
.............................................

it was a 50 min long conversation, it ended when she has to get up and I got home already. We pretty much just update each other about our lives and she mentioned how she felt sorry for the way things ended between us. It was her who supported me to go back to Norway since there are more opportunities for me there, but the original thought was for me to go back and work, save up some money and then go back to marry her after a few years. So I did resent her for not having enough faith in me. However, it's all the past now, and I have stopped holding onto that grudge.

As Ken Watanabe had said in the movie "The last samurai": "It was a good conversation"


"Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you gonna get" - Forrest Gump

Who would have known? I came back to Norway in March 2007 and so much had happened to me ever since:
March: Back to Norway
April: Travelled to Paris
May: Got my job
June: Bought my apartment
July: Travelled to London
August: Met my wife
September: Travelled to Copenhagen
October: Travelled to Namsos for my 10 year reunion with my middle school classmates
November: Travelled to Hamburg
December: My dad got a stroke
January: Travelled to Tromsø and proposed to my wife
February: Got a part-time job
March: Bought apartment in China
June: Back to China and got married
August: Honeymoon
October: Started my 2nd job

It's like a few years of changes all compressed into one. I should note it down so that I don't forget how special this past 1.5 years has been for me.

Ice rain

My wife called me in the morning while I was working in the office. Finally I got something to do and I was excited. However, Coco was even more excited at work as she told me that it was raining ice. At first I thought she meant hail, but when I go out for lunch it was really a bunch of ice drops that falls down. Hails are usually white and is bigger, these are truely ice and is transparent. I am still trying to figure out how that is possible. Could it be that the temperature is low enough to freeze the raindrops to ice when it arrives to ground level? It doesn't seems likely since the temperature up there would be lower and it would just be snow instead. I am still clueless, but a song came to my mind. "Ice rain" by Andy Lau. 冷冷的冰雨在脸上胡乱的拍...... the winter has come.

血淚教訓

本人剛在美國的大奇蹟日成功把之前贏的和自己的本金都輸掉了。現在感覺有點像大時代裏面的丁蟹。所以特地把大時代裏的葉天的教訓放出來免得其他人步我的后塵。


股市原意，乃让集资搜资有其地，社会向荣，人皆有赚。惜人性贪婪，耗尽心思，巧取豪夺，乐土成炼狱，血雨腥风，杀戳不息，无数人荡产倾家输性命，胜者则丧良知人格。余於股坛数十载，未尝见一真正鸁者，智者应知此乃一处永无赢家之战。取胜唯一法∶“及早离去”四字而矣

中秋节大开杀界.

So I drove to my parents on Sunday. The normal 3 hour drive (one way) that I am so used to that I can do it with my eyes closed. Coco would like to focus on her studies so she didn't come with me, instead the Polish guy who is renting my room wants to come along to see the beautiful view of Hemsedal.

During the first half of the trip we saw quite a lot of birds on the road and I have to step on the brake a few times to avoid hitting them (I have killed 2 birds with my car before). So finally I got through the birds and a short while later I saw a cat crossing the road, the cat was quick so nothing happened (I have killed a squirrel before). So we keep on driving and the car in front of me all of a sudden turn the car to the opposite side. Just as I was wondering what was going on, I saw a lamb in the middle of the road, looking lost. He first look at the car who passed him, and then look at me, with no intention of getting out of the way. I slowed down the car and drove by and on the mirror I saw the lamb was seeing us off.

So after 3 hours I am almost home. The whole trip I was talking to the Polish guy about different things, mostly about politics. Just when I was engaging in a heated argument about how Democracy sucks, he pointed ahead and said: "a deer!" and I had to step on the break again to avoid hitting it. The deer start walking off and I step on the gas again to drive past it, only to see a second deer right in front of my car and despite me turning away from the deer, I can't avoid but hit it at the back leg. The impact was small, but still enough to send the deer flying off the road. I was in shock, thus without stopping to check the injury to the deer I continue driving.

It was less than 200 meters away from home this happened, and the deer was unfortunately a little too tall for the bumper. So I hit it with the lamps and they were pushed inward, breaking a tube causing the window washing fluid to be spilled. The cost of damage is yet to be determined, but it's going to cost me....

Erik's traveller magazine, part 3

Venice, Italy
(click on the images to view it in full size)





The train ride to Venice is about 6 hours. We stopped by a small town called Villach in between. Just in time for me to grab a small lunch. I couldn't eat too much because I was too excited to see Venice. Since we only got half a day in Venice, it makes planning very important and I had been doing that all morning.



We arrived at Venice Mestre (not the Venice central station) at 1:30pm and as we walked from the train station to the hotel, we noticed most of the shops are closed and it all seems so strange since it is Friday. When I saw the opening hours of the stores everything becomes clear to me. They all take a 2 hour break in the middle of the day. I have heard about that before, but it is just so weird when you see it. The area seems dead but yet it is in the middle of the day.



So we settled down in our hotel and are now feeling the hunger, we got a pizza from a small place next to the hotel (one of the few places that is actually open, an not to my surprise, it is owned by a Chinese family). So we stuffed ourselves and got some valuable information from the waitress and head out to the city of Venice. There are 3 ways to get there, by bus, by train or by boat (walking is out of the question). We decided to hop on the bus and tour the area while we are in it.







Our plan is to get a basic tour of Venice by hopping on the boat (which is basically a bus) through the Grand Canal in the middle and end up in the San Marco Plaza at the end of it. Unfortunately we got on the wrong direction and toured the outside of Venice instead. We still arrived at San Marco Plaza at the end, so it was good. Once we got there, it was everything I had imagined. Nice buildings, Gondola everywhere and music playing with people enjoying a nice coffee. After some picture taking we sat down on one of the cafe and enjoy the music and the environment. If anybody wants to get a feel of Europe, this is it. We sat there for half an hour hearing one song after another (sadly, I don't know any of the songs) and we were knock back to reality when the bill comes. 10 euro for the 0.2 liter coke and 15 euro for an ice coffee. Well, it was worth it.





After that we decided to walk around the city and tour the city at our own pace. We walked by many small canals and souvenier shops. Venice is very different from many cities due to its structure (built on water, boat as the main transportation). Although I have to say the smell by the canals isn't exactly the greatest. Due to the time limit we didn't get to visit some buildings on the outer islands nor the museums. By the time we noticed it was already 6pm and we decided to try out the Gondola tours. Multiple travel websites suggest us to bargain for the price, but then I realize that they have a price set already. They all open the mouth by saying 100 euro, but if I bargain, they would go down to 80 euros and not a dime less. I think that is good since that would limit the unhealthy price competitions. So at the end we hopped on a Gondola by the Rialto bridge.

pictures.....













Since the sun begins to go down we decide to visit San Marco plaza once more to check out the view at sunset and we took some more pictures. When it is almost dark, we go for dinner. We remembered a lot of restaurants by the Grand Canal at the Rialto bridge so we hopped on one of those "busses" to go there.





We wanted a seat by the canal, but as it turns out the tables by there are all for four people or more so it was a bit disappointing, but it was okay. The food was good and damn expensive (150 euro tip incl.). We met a couple who seems to be 40 to 50 years old. The husband was from Germany while the wife was from Los Angeles and because we went to the same univesity we enjoyed a nice, long conversation after the meal and since the husband is a photographer he offered to take a picture of us. We had a great time and we left when it is getting late.







So we took the "bus" back to the bus station and took the bus back to Venice Mestre. Since the bus offered no information about the stations and we had no map of the bus line, we had to ask someone when we were suppose to get off and we ended up getting off a station too early, but my experience with city navigation got us back to the hotel safely :) Tomorrow is another day and another place of our journey...

Erik's traveller magazine, part 2

Salzburg + Halstatt, Austria
(click on the images to view it in full size)





Salzburg is consider one of the bigger cities in Austria, but it's far smaller when compared to Munich. The city is famous for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart, so you will see many chocolates and souveniers made with his face on it. There is also a castle sitting on top of the mountain that can get a 360 degrees panoramic overview of the city.



We arrived at the trainstation at 7pm so we had just enough time to locate the hotel, check-in, take a breath and go out to find dinner. The city is beautiful at night with the lights casted on the walls of the castle. The city is somewhat divided into 2 by a small river that runs in the middle of the city with quite a few bridges connecting both sides. Coco said that fish is the thing to eat here so I located a restaurant that is still open and just grabbed a fish dish. On the way back I was whining the whole way claiming that all the souvenier shops are closed and that I couldn't do any shopping. (The fact is we still got a whole day in Salzburg for that).



The next morning we got up to catch the train to Halstatt. It is an extremely beautiful town that is located by the lake. A place that isn't widely known to the tourists around the world yet, except the Koreans and the local Austrians. Why Koreans? Because it was featured in one of the Korean drama and that is also why Coco wants to go there.





The train dropped us off at Halstatt station and we had to take a boat ride to cross the lake to the town. During the whole 3 hours we were there we did nothing but just take pictures like crazy and had a wonderful lunch by the lake. By afternoon we start seeing buses of tourists arriving, mainly Austrians and Koreans and we know it is time for us to leave. So we spent about 5 hours in the train while only get about 3 hours in Halstatt. It's worth it if you ask me.







Without taking a rest we head directly for the Castle after we come back. We took the bus to get to the bottom but Coco wouldn't spend the time waiting in line for the tram to take us up, so we decided to walk up. What a mistake that was! After the hike for the Swan Castle, now this. The worst is that the road is slippery with sand on concrete. So we made it up eventually and walked around, did the castle tour and took some very nice pictures from the top. We also saw a supersize music box. I heard how it sound in the walkie talkie we got from them, but I am more interested at how it works mechanically.

We ended up having dinner at another random restaurant by the street and I had some nice sausages. The coke we got was small, just 0.2 liter. No wonder I don't see many fat people running around.

Pictures.....