Day 356 - Magician

Thought of the day: I finally got around to organize the books I was reading this afternoon. It made such an impressive pile that I decided not to get any more books until I finished up the current pile. I was frequently irritated by the fact that Jasmine read multiple books at the same time and scattered them all around the house. Now I know where she got her habit from. Time and again, when I observe puzzling behaviors of my kids, I can often find the clue by merely looking in the mirror.

Photo of the day:

A magician playing fascinating tricks in a local restaurant. It's easier to uncover the secrets behind his tricks in books than watching his moves carefully as he is really good.

Day 309 - Keynote Speaker

Thought of the day: I attended a YWCA luncheon today with some wonderful women from our neighborhood.  It was nice to catch up with old friends and meet up with some new ones.  We had an inspiring keynote speaker and two women served by YWCA telling touching stories of their personal journeys.  The speakers were all very frank, articulate and their speeches were thought-provoking.  It was an all-women event and I could feel a tangible, emotional connection among the audience and between the audience and the speakers. After spending years in a male dominated tech world, I have rediscovered and enjoyed the companionship of some amazing female friends in the past few years.  Our friendships are comforting, supportive and fun.  In a way, I think I'm trying to make up for what I have missed in the earlier part of my life. Today's lunch reminded me yet again of the power of our collective being. Together, we can overcome obstacles that life throws our way. Together, we can achieve what we can't achieve alone, namely, the finding of truth and the attainment of happiness.

Photo of the day:

Robyn O'Brien, our inspiring speaker and the author of "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It".  Reading her book had changed our family's diet in a fundamental way and we are all very appreciative of her efforts.

Day 290 - Spider Web

Thought of the day: We visited the Los Altos Library this morning. The library had a nice children's section and both Jasmine and Lila found some books to take home.  My parents and I also found some books for ourselves in the collection of Chinese language books - it's a decent size collection especially compared with the tiny collection in the Boulder Main Library. We ended up walking out of the library with a tall stack of books. There was no limit to the number of books we could check out and that really saved our day.

Photo of the day:

Other than reading books and playing with friends, a favorite thing for Jasmine to do was to use her spray bottle in the yard.  She found a new target today - a spider web!  The poor spider must be shocked at the amount of water she and her web received in such a perfectly sunny day.

Day 266 - Lila

Thought of the day: Since we've been away so much lately, we are glad to be back home and see some dear and familiar faces again.  This morning I had a long chat with Monica.  I have known her for several years now, but every time I talk to her, I seem to learn something new of her. My fascination in Monica is, in many ways, similar to Henry Miller's fascination in the curious Greek figure named Karamenaios. Henry Miller described his encounter and lengthy conversations with Karamenaios in a dramatic yet poetic language in a book titled "The Colossus of Maroussi", my serendipitous find in the Atlantis Bookstore in Santorini, Greece.  Karamenaios was a Greek story teller who had the gift of captivating and enchanting his audience within minutes of a monologue.  It was the same way with Monica.  Just like Karamenaios, her monologue was infused with her wisdom, warmth and passion, a unique mix that was brew out of an intelligent and inquisitive mind over years of solitude in the mountains.  We talked about horses today. It's a fascinating topic on its own right, but regardless of the topic, it was always enchanting and mesmerizing talking to Monica.  It was a gift to be able to spend some time with her, and I hope I will continue receiving the gift in the years to come.

Photo of the day:

Lila playing with her balloon butterfly during dinner at the Dushanbe Teahouse.  To her left, it's a bag of  produce we bought from the Wednesday Farmer's Market outside of the Teahouse. Both my girls love spending time with Monica and I sure hope that, over time, they will receive as many pearls of wisdom from her as I did.

Day 231 - Book and Tea

Thought of the day: We are on a Greek island! We have had kids for eight years and this is the first time in as many years that David and I travel together on our own. The kids are staying back in Switzerland with the grandparents - not a bad arrangement for them because there are many things they can do. When we left this afternoon, Lila took it in stride, but Jasmine had a hard time saying goodbye. We are already missing them but it's also nice to have this opportunity to travel on our own.  When we travel with the kids, naturally, much of our energy goes toward keeping them safe, happy and entertained.  Traveling on our own, we can focus more freely on what's going on around us and focus more on each other. It makes an entirely different kind of travel experience.  I think all the couples with kids ought to try this once in a while, if they can.

Photo of the day:

Enjoy a fine book with hot tea on the flight from Switzerland to Santorini. The food served on the Swiss Air flight was surprisingly good - my favorite part was the ice cream and Swiss chocolate!

Day 217 - Swimming

Thought of the day: A friend was asking for book recommendations on Facebook the other day.  I followed up with her and ended up exchanging physical books with her today.  The experience demonstrated to me how easy and fun it could be to exchange book recommendations, and maybe even books, in a local community.  So tonight I set up a prototype "book swap club" for the neighborhood using a bunch of Google tools including spreadsheets, forms, and groups.  If this was a serious venture, it should probably have been a dedicated service or a specialized app.  Of course, the idea of book swap is nothing new and there are applications out there that help you do just that and plus some.  College book swap seems to be most popular because a textbook can be ridiculous expensive and its useful lifespan tends to be short.  However, I'm not seeing applications that promote book sharing within a local, non-college community.  To me, sharing with friends locally makes more sense than sharing with strangers globally - it saves the unnecessary overhead and hurdle of shipping, it takes advantage of common tastes and local interests and promotes a better sense of community.  If something is good for the self, the community, and the environment, it's certainly a good thing that is worth doing.

Photo of the day:

Finally a sunny day - Jasmine swam in the outdoor pool in the afternoon.  Jasmine is a book lover.  I am sure she would love to do book swap with her friends too.  A junior books sharing project?

Day 202 - Playground

Thought of the day: I just finished reading a booked titled "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman.  It was highly recommended to me recently by his niece.  I couldn't recall how or when I met her but the book was definitely worth the recommendations.  Dr. Groopman explored the unusual subject of how a doctor's thinking can adversely affect the diagnosis of a patient.  With 15% of the medical diagnosis being inaccurate, this subject is definitely an important one.  Doctors are only humans and their thought process can often be influenced by the past experiences, the emotional state, the affinity with a particular patient, the fear of litigation, the subtle and not-so-subtle financial incentives, and the pressure to think and act quickly under a time constraint often imposed by the insurance companies.  No matter how skillful or experienced they are, they can make mistakes in their thought process and make a wrong diagnosis which may severely affect the outcome of a patient.  I really admire the honesty and courage of Dr. Groopman for exploring this thorny subject, especially considering that he is a physician himself, as I am sure few physicians would admit or even realize that he is fallible due to his own weaknesses.  Many of the issues he raised in the book don't really have good solutions.  However, he did take away some of the mystique surrounding physicians, and he made a few suggestions for the patients to take more control of their own care and to steer the physicians away from some of the pitfalls in the thought process by asking pointed questions.  The book opened my eyes by offering a physician's angle of view on medical diagnosis and treatment, but hopefully I will not have to make use of any of his suggestions any time soon.

Photo of the day:

My girls playing in a Lafayette playground after Jasmine's music lesson.  I am so glad that they are healthy and capable of enjoying life in its full glamor.

Day 175 - Books

Thought of the day: It's hard to shake off that caffeine addiction.  I felt dull and sluggish all day until taking in two cups of Chai at dinner time in the Indian restaurant.  The generously caffeinated Chai had the effect of instantly bringing me back to life.  And that's exactly why I want to stay away from caffeine.  I don't like the fact that my energy and mood depend on a substance and take a mandatory roller coaster ride every day, even if the substance is socially acceptable and perhaps even encouraged.  But it's been proven a difficult habit to get rid off, especially during cold and overcast days like this.  I'm missing the sunlight and the exercise, both of which can serve as an energy booster and mood modulator for me when my body is screaming for caffeine.  Perhaps I should get back in the gym in a day like this to set me on the right course again.

Photo of the day:

Our local library branch just put out some books for the upcoming Earth Day.  I grabbed a pile so everybody would have something interesting to read.  Getting books is another harmless way to boost my energy level. We're lucky to have a few libraries and bookstores to get books from, in addition to Amazon, and receive an instant gratification much like receiving an instant shot of espresso, but in a much more healthy way.

Day 168 - Lights

Thought of the day: The annual Conference on World Affairs is taking place at CU this week.  CWA started in 1948 and had attracted a wide variety of experts in different fields to talk freely about pretty much anything under the sun.  This morning I attended a discussion called "Artists and Scientists in Pursuit of Light" with two artist friends.  The panel included Danielle Feinberg who is a director of photography at Pixar and did the light-up of Wall-E.  She talked about the lighting for a few Pixar movies which made me want to watch them all over again as her talk gave me a new perspective in animations and a new appreciation for the making of them.  Another panelist was Jeff Lieberman who is the host of Time Warp on Discovery Channel.  His talk began with the origin of the universe and ended with the future of human consciousness.  So as you can imagine, his talk jumped all over the place from science to human emotions to mythology.  It was unusual and yet he made it all seem coherent.  I could tell that the audience was quite captivated by him and his topics as most of the followup questions were directed to him.  The third panelist was a physicist and science writer. He made some interesting observations on how science eventually brought many sci-fi dreams into reality.  And the fourth panelist was a storyteller.  Her sense of humor and keen observations of human nature added a nice touch to an otherwise quite serious discussion.  All in all, I found the whole session to be scintillating and mind-opening.  To say the least, any discussion that would make me go online afterwards and research for a dozen of new books to read is definitely not a waste of time.

Photo of the day:

Lights on Pearl St.  Danielle said that one of the joys of photography is to make the most mundane objects look special.  How true! Similarly, I think one of the joys of life is to make the most routine days feel special.  To make an object special, the key is in the light.  And to make a day special, the key is in the mind.  Stimulating thoughts can enlighten a day just like dancing lights can bring an object to life.