Girl with a Pearl Earring

By Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. Watched the movie with the same title the other day, and was intrigued by the story that might be behind the painting. The stare in the girl's eyes is so intriguing and vivid. Before I could feel that there was something interesting in the painting because the head decoration and the clothes seem plain in contrast to the pearl earring. Didn't give much thought about the possible reason. The story in the movie, although fictional, seems pretty plausible.

Fairy Tale

I forget for how long I haven't heard you telling me your favorite story.
I've been thinking over and over again, and start to panic and wonder if I've done something wrong.
You tell me in tears that fairy tales are lies.  I can't possibly be your prince.
Maybe you will never understand that since the day you said you love me, the stars in my sky have brightened up.
I want to be the angel in the fairy tale, extending my arms and turning them to wings to protect you.
You have to believe, believe that we will live happily ever after just like in the fairy tale. And we will write our happy ending together.

当爱已消失时

没想到蔡康永写的一些话还很有哲理。想想也是，他口才确实很好，也很幽默，想必读的书应该不少。他说当发现爱已消失时，往往无比惊愕，不知发生了什么。可是如果回想当初爱降临时，其实也是何等的不明白没道理。

to love or be loved

to love or be loved, if can only choose one, i'll choose the former as it makes me feel more alive while the later makes me feel burdened

diet and exericise rules

diet:
no flour & no sugar diet: no bread, no cookies, no dessert, no cakes
no food after 7pm

exercises:
average 1 hour exercise per day (karate, squash, swim, bicycle, walking)

往事随风 - 小娟与山谷里的居民

你的影子无所不在
人的心事像一颗尘埃
落在过去飘向未来
掉进眼里就流出泪来
曾经沧海无限感慨
有时孤独比拥抱实在
让心春去让梦秋来
让你离开
舍不得忘
一切都是为爱
没有遗憾还有我
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你动
昨天花谢花开不是梦不是梦不是梦
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你痛
明天潮起潮落都是我都是我都是我
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你动
昨天花谢花开不是梦不是梦不是梦
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你痛
明天潮起潮落都是我都是我都是我
(music)
你的影子无所不在
人的心事像一颗尘埃
落在过去飘向未来
掉进眼里就流出泪来
曾经沧海无限感慨
有时孤独比拥抱实在
让心春去让梦秋来
让你离开
舍不得忘
一切都是为爱
没有遗憾还有我
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你动
昨天花谢花开不是梦不是梦不是梦
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你痛
明天潮起潮落都是我都是我都是我
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你动
昨天花谢花开不是梦不是梦不是梦
就让往事随风都随风都随风心随你痛
明天潮起潮落都是我都是我都是我

on privacy and facebook

there's much debate about the privacy issues with facebook. i think as long as people have a choice about how exposed they want to be, everything should be fine. the popularity of facebook shows that it does provide value to the users, and it's legitimate for them to ask for something back. nothing comes for free, otherwise how are they going to survive and how the facebook employees going to earn their lives? so we need to trade something for the service facebook provides. this is how the world works: trading governed by the law of comparative advantage. we have our own strength in doing certain things, but not everything.  in this case, facebook has the social utility service that has value, and the users have their personal information that also have value, and they trade these two things.

edward benson in his blog post mentioned two alternatives for facebook users.
1) facebook asks for a fee for using its service, but doesn't sell the user information to third parties. this could work. with such a large user base (more than 400 million active users), even a small fee can make the company very profitable and the fee can  be insignificant to the users too. maybe we are too used to the free service paradigm for internet services that we forgot about this option. if people think it's worth the price, they would pay, unless they think their personal information doesn't worth the fee. if this is the case, then there shouldn't be such privacy issues. people may have different opinions about their privacy. maybe there can be 2 options. for those who don't want to have their information shared to third parties, pay a subscription fee.

2) if our personal information and web browsing information  is valuable, why don't we directly sell it to the third party? i think this goes back to the point of law of comparative advantage. not everyone has the technical expert to build web tools to do so. if we try to do everything ourselves, we go back to the primitive society with self-sustainability. the law of comparative advantage says if parties produce good or service that they can do with higher efficiency and trade for other good or service, there is a net benefit for all the parties.