Everything happens for a lesson?

I feel I should stop from drinking any more beer..

I went with a bus to Taichung today to visit Aileen. It has been a year when I last saw her. Last time when we traveled together was 2 years ago, before X'mas, to Strassbourg...

This time I brought her an important piece of news - what I heard in Tokyo some 2 months ago from a Japanese friend. I met only 2 friends in Tokyo. This piece of news is an answer to her question since 6 months... How can I imagine that these 2 apparently unrelated visits are in fact connected somehow?

We exchanged our stories for 2 consecutive nights. There are some similarities between our stories too. If there is a lesson from this visit, what can it be?

P.S.: Heard something more indirectly from the Japanese friend again. Everyone is breaking up... What a world...

Met ChiChi in Taipei

Finally I opened a facebook account on Wednesday. ChiChi sent me a message, and behold, she travels to Taipei for her job almost every 2 weeks, and she came again on Thursday. We had a dinner together in Sogo, Taipei. I heard many stories from my old classmates. 2 of them are getting married.

She is the 4th persons I met in Taipei, the others are:
1) Ronald - at Taipei airport, for my first arrival for job interviews
2) Prof Chin and SiuMing - on the same flight TPE -> HK

Just like my stay in Germany, met ShuChen at Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof on my arrival. Are all these random events carrying no special meaning? At least, they make me feel "fateful"...

沒完沒了？

昨天跟 Linda 的車到台中﹐本來還常常猶疑要不要找他當作 farewell； 最後決定了不要找他的。怎料 Linda 途中郤說要打個電話給 Tony 和他打個招呼。更意外的是 Tony 告訴 Linda 他己經回美國了!! 不是說我不知道，只是沒有想過他走得那麼快。他上星期五問我哪裡換錢的匯率比較好。隔天我問他是不是要走了，他又沒有回答... 他這個怪胎就是每次都非常間接和簡短地告訴你他的事，真的少了一點思考都不能理解。 近來兩個星期都覺得他心情不好。我問 Tony 覺得他看上去有什麼異樣嗎，Tony卻說他只是趕著回家興祝聖誕罷了。我打算回家問他為什麼走了也不說聲再見。 回家收到他的 hi。一問之下，他的室友搬走了，還把他的床和家具都拿走，網路也 cut了。 不難想像為什麼他心情那麼壞：住在那個遠離市區的小鎮，交通不方便，又有個不好相處的室友，每天上學對著那些打架的學生，下班回家是個連網路也沒有的"自閉屋"。有時住在台北的我也覺得受不了，我想我是他也會瘋吧？ 雖然我想他回家後漸漸會悶得要命，然後又要找人出氣，但是應該會比他一個人住安全：有時會擔心沒有人會發現他的"憂鬱症"。 Linda 說和這個人一起生活是要讀個PhD。我想我還是不要向難度挑戰 (不竟我的 EQ 是非常的低)，聽天由命好了。 ---- 註一： Linda 是個台大心理學系畢業、再婚、50+ 的女強人。 註二： 也許也不是沒完沒了的，是應該完了...

Taichung 台中

東海大學和台中市中心

What am I seeking?

One of the questions which I am investigating lately is - the authenticity of the gospels, although I believe my investigation will be shaky. After all even if the bible scholars cannot prove its authenticity, who am I to come up with an answer more than an educated guess? Nonetheless, it is entertaining to read about different debates between atheists and theists, and to recognize the inconsistencies within the bible verses. On the one hand, I read about Noah's ark was built with a magical ratio revealing inspired fore-scientific knowledge, on the other hand here says Noah's story was based on a myth. Despite all these doubts, it is pretty certain that the bible we have now is 70/80% the same as the one at 70AD. Here is an article describing the process, textual criticism, of how scholars came up with the new testament.