我真的老了

陈百强死的时候，我糊里糊涂得抬起头：“哦，他很出名啊？”
黄家驹死的时候，我看着新闻报道，叹了口气：“真是点背啊”
张国荣死的时候，我居然挤下两滴眼泪，“生命可贵啊，为什么要自杀呢？”
梅艳芳死的时候，我震惊的差点把吃饭的筷子戳到鼻子里，“梅艳芳这么年轻啊！！”
今天突然又听说黄沾居然也去世了，我突然觉得很可悲，这些耳闻目睹的人们居然都一个个的去了，我小声嘟囔着：“我真的老了”。

衰老的可怕之处不是自己本身的迈向死亡，而是身边那些熟悉的名字一个接一个的从这个世界上慢慢消失。

没有脑子的人们

我们现在生活在一个brain dead的社会里，这一点我一早就开始怀疑了。我一直执著的认为世界上三分之一的人要么没有大脑，要么就是拒绝使用大脑。但苦于一直没有证据，我无法证明这一切。好在有互联网，好在有mitbbs，很幸运的（或者是不幸的？），我找到了我追寻多年的证据。

以下是我曾经看到过的一些讨论话题：
“大家给个idea，ipod刻字该写什么呢?”
“没有海尔洗衣机的爸爸妈妈们怎么给宝宝洗衣服？”
“姓张的孩子叫什么好？在线等！！！”
“我该给我表妹送什么礼物？”
“有没有人觉得做完菜后手上好大味道，怎么办？”
“到底Bud Lite好喝，还是Miller Lite?”

这样的帖子在mitbbs上真是屡见不鲜，还大多是出国读书的研究生，博士们发的。这个世界真奇妙啊，脑死的人还能读博士，嘿嘿。要是我向我以前一个哥们问这种问题，他第一反应肯定就是给我一大嘴巴，然后来一句：“你丫傻B啊，这他妈问题还问人？”

生与死的抉择

今天网上看到张纯如自杀的消息，本来也不大了解她是谁，百无聊赖中通过Google四处乱点一通，仔细一看，不禁惋惜。很多人写文章写得好，文笔好，格调也高。但往往有两点我不大喜欢，第一，很多作家只知道用手写，但不知道用心写；第二，很多作家缺乏书写残酷现实的胆量。张纯如在这两方面上都非常出色，我及其敬佩。事实上，也只有这么投入的作家才会去选择自杀，我非常理解她。在她把这个世界的丑陋毫无保留的揭露出来的时候，她也彻底地丧失了生活在这样一个世界里的欲望。

她是个有胆识的人，因为她敢于揭露和批判这个肮脏的世界。她是个崇尚光明的人，因为只有这样的人才会如此痛恨世间的邪恶。但可惜她还不是个真正的勇士，她最终在黑暗面前退却了，她选择了自杀这种无声的呐喊和懦弱的抗争。罗兰说过最大的勇士是敢于面对这个黑暗世界的人。可惜，她不是我们希望的那种“最大的勇士”。真得很可惜。。。。

"Some quirk in human nature allows even the most unspeakable acts of evil to become banal within minutes" This is a direct quote from her. It's sad that what she said was absolutely true.

我很多时候对这个世界也很失望。经常想来想去觉得做人很没有意思。世间的邪恶和丑陋令人窒息。在于现状不断妥协的过程中，愈发觉得人性的沦落与无助。但我不会去自杀的，因为我不想当个懦夫。现状是残酷的，但只要自己还有一口气在，就不能放弃。只要大家都努力做个好人，尝试去宣扬正义，这个世界还是会变得美丽的。我不会投降的，就算这是场毫无胜算的战争。

P.S. 一下是她写过的三本饱受赞誉的纪实体小说：
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
The Chinese in America: A Narrative History
Thread of the Silkworm

The BEST Article about the Outcome of the Election

After the election or, to be precise, after Bosh got re-elected, I was so depressed that I didn't even attempt to write anything to express my feelings.

Today my friend forwarded me this article, which did a superb job articulating exactly what I had in mind. The truth is:

GOD HELP AMERICA

Interesting Words

There are certain words that I found quite interesting. Here are several examples.

Oblivious - For some reason, I just can’t remember what it means. I have seen this word at least 100 times, if not 1,000. I’ve look it up on my dictionary for numerous times as well. But I still didn’t know what it meant when I saw it today. So I checked the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary again, and I couldn’t stop laughing when I realized the meaning of this word.

Leverage - This is arguably the most over-used, or even abused, word in the financial industry. “We can leverage our existing platform to deliver superior results.” “By leveraging our expertise in the credit market, we were able to penetrate other segments of the fixed income market.” Just to give you two examples. I still don’t understand why this word is so popular, since it can be easily replaced by “use” in 90% of the cases.

Synthetic - This is one tough word to pronounce!! I had such a tough time to say it without either taking 5 seconds or biting my tongue. I have practiced over and over for who-knows-how-many-hours and finally got a hang of it. Because of this word, I once even suspected that my tongue suffered some kind of DNA-related deficiency.

Sorry - This word should be on the top of the I-say-it-but-I-don’t-really-mean-it list. Doesn’t the word "sorry" entail the meaning of “remorseful”, “regretful”, or “apologetic”? However, in real life no one really means it. Let’s say when you are walking on the street, someone (she) bumps into you. She may well say “sorry” without even turning her head and looking at you. Well, you better believe it because it just happened to me yesterday morning!

Oh boy, it's SOUTH again

If you look at this graph, you will notice that all southern states voted for Bush. I mean, literally, every single one of them. This phenomenon can be easily explained, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. Southerners are just as insane and moronic as Bush. People tend to like their mirror images. However, I argue that these southerners should not be allowed to vote in the first place.

My argument is that you need to be an American to vote and I don’t think Southerners are true Americans.

1) Southerners don’t even speak the Standard American Accent. I don’t know what they are speaking, but it sure sounds worse than British and Australian accents. Just you know, even Britons and Australians are not allowed to vote in US, let alone the Southerners.

2) There are quite a lot Southerners still want to bring their old confederate flags back and claim independency. If they won’t even want to be a part of the United States, why should they be invited to vote?

3) True American spirit is about liberty, democracy, and freedom. However, since southern states are still a place where discriminations against minorities are rampant, they are nowhere close to be considered “American”. You are not an American if you don’t have a true American soul.

4) Americans are humans. Southerners are not. They have all sorts of bizarre behaviors that force you to believe that they may be the descendents of some alien species. They wear cowboy hats everywhere even when they are driving a car. Who else does that?! They listen to something called country music 24/7. Who else does that?! They always have a shotgun underneath their pillows. Who else does that?! The list goes on and on. Face it, you know I am right.

In short, I don’t like Southerners and I don't think they should be allowed to vote. I am serious, and I really don’t.