wanderer

Sometimes life goes in a rut, ennui becomes the theme for a period of time, the entertainment doesn't really help, because a bored person's mood just gets ornery. So let's try something new to refresh the mind. Let me make a fuss by drawing some philosophical notes from a job interview question which, urban rumor says, is credited to Microsoft. First the question.

Four people are to cross a narrow bridge in the dark, which takes 1, 2, 5, 10 minutes for each of them, respectively. At most 2 persons can go together, and every trip needs the only flashlight, which they share. What is the shortest time they use to get the other side?

In case you want to know the answer, it is 17 minutes. Now look at the person '5', if his time becomes any number between 3 and 9, the best total time is still 17. What this means is his existence doesn't upgrade and downgrade the overall performance of the team, he doesn't get the credit and take the blame for the team's record. As a member, he is the guy with the least pressure, hence supposedly, the happiest one. Are you Mr./Ms. No. 5 in your company or in your team? Don't be on the bottom rung. This is an individual's survival guide.

Say you are the boss, bully No.1. what is the strategy to improve the overall time? Aside from kicking butt on No. 10, the second most important thing is to help No. 2 get better. Genius also needs a company, a top guy also likes to have a good partner to run things well. Just think a little about sucessful business partnership, or a sport team, I bet you would agree with me. Improve the weakness and push to make the second-to-best strength strong, a team becomes a better team. This is a group's winning strategy.

Now look at it in another way. Each person's time becomes 1, 2, 3, 4 minutes, or 1, 3, 3, 3 minutes. The two set's total times are both 10 minutes, but with the same strategy, the former one makes the trip with shorter time. What does this mean? Hierachy structure works better, 'equal distribution' isn't the best. This applies to a person' priority, a group's closeness of mutual relationship, coined by American term, the chemistry should be right. The principle can even be cracked up to be in finanial or social structure. Capitalism is the essence of America's superpower, the free market will behave well and regulate itself for the self-interest. This is their economical doctrine, even ex Fed Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan confessed his mistake by citing this. But history just shows this country needs a strong central bank and powerful governing, American economy was in trouble whenever the central bank (or the equivalent) ran a laissez-faire policy, or the central bank was abandoned, like the period after Thomas Jefferson took the helm over Alexander Hamilton. China, on the countrary, not completely immune to the turmoil and feeling the chill, relished the goverment's tight control and strict mortgage policies. If China is not smirking behind the scene, China must have felt lucky and relieved. Here goes this crazy-sounding connotation from the question, again. Mathematically and logically, 'equal' members (similar size investement banks, banks, loan companies) don't produce the best result. This is why the US Fed government is infusing cash into the banks, supervising over their business decision and having a say.  It is simply to reproduce a hiearchical, ranked, edifice. 

Maybe more can be shed into light, but better stop here. Simplicity is beautiful, but too simple is silly.

Imagine you have the credentials and knack to invite two or multiple fiercest rivals to a gathering in the same room, what would happen?  Mostly it is like to keep a fire and explosives together without blow-off, a dangerous endeavor. In America this gathering is called roast. It doesn't mean to upstage the conflict, but rather for a rare chance to poke fun on oneself and one's opponents. It is perfect time to show the audience the sense of humor. After all, no matter one loses or wins, big time or narrow margin, what left is the spirit the competitor shows to the spectators. I thought the roast party was the American culture at its finest.

John McCain and Barak Obama were invited to a traditional party by Alfred Smith  Memorial Service in New York City last Thursday night. All guests were in white tie and tuxedo. The duel took turns to trade jokes and throw jabs. In sharp contrast to their solemn faces in other occasions, they acted as entertainers and were doing a terrific job. Make-believe you were McCain and think what you can do to Obama, to Hillary Clinton, who's also present, to MSNBC, its news anchor shows non-negligible leaning towards Democrat, and ultimately, to yourself. Now put youself in Obama's shoes, imagine what you can say about McCain (his age is always a target), about New York City, about the campaign attacks, about Hillary Clinton, New York Mayor, and so on. These two rendered the jokes nearly perfect, it did bring up quite some laughs (MSNBC.com has the exclusively video rights, it intentionally makes it difficult to set a link. Go to here and click 'Obama stand-up' and 'McCain gets laugh' for the clips before they update the webpage.)

Other roasts were equally amusing. I believe youtube.com has plenty. Hollywood roast party could be really ribald. I watched guys making dirty fun of Courtney Love, the drug and alchohol-troubled Rock star widow and Pamela Anderson, the famous Silicone woman. Evening show host Jimmy Kemmel ridiculed some black Rap musicians in a black music award ceremony, pretty malicious and racist, I was surprised he got away from it unscathed. In real case, I attended a graduation roast in school. The students and professors all dressed up and went to podium in line to give off poignant but always funny remarks against each other, the audience all cracked up with their heartiest laugh (Here are the lines roughly coming out of my memory. Professor Schmidt:"For the sexy student, uh, let me name her Jennifer in cognito, the reason why I gave you a B- is not that I accidentally overheard you were talking about my big fat tommy, it is that it's just not acceptable in your term paper, you altered the whole theory developed through several generation of scholars, even it is from your beautiful blonde mind." Jason the student:"We will miss you, Dr. Jennings. But please, please, keep your impeccable image as always when you come to school, bring your daughter with you more often, as she's here tonight, Hi, Becky, How are ya. Best of all, keep your meanest grading as tough as ever, because you've become the symbol of this program, for better or for worse. We've graduated anyway."  --- Jennings is a pretty lady professor. )

Are American fun-loving people? Yes, but they are not alone. What stands them out is their spirit of self-mocking, to a high level.  A person with confidence is a person with laughing nerves. Coincidentally and unsurprisingly, this leads me to think of China. China is seeking stages and opportunities to show its strength and confidence. I am wondering when some day Hu Jingtao and his brass in Politburo members have a roast party in a reclusively resort, or a snobby Beijing Rock star sits side by side with a pansy boy band in a party, exchanging snide comments, or country entrepreneurs get together with local officials to celebrate Chinese New Year,  wrapping speeches with ointment and barbs...when this kind of event becomes less of big gossip news, China then is real strong.

Big things are happening in the US. First Americans are busy picking their next president, the coverage of both candidates's campaign is a fixture on TV, on web and on paper. Interview, news analysis, debate, strong stand argumental articles, last but not the least, the evening comedy skit, even a hermetic person like me can not avoid all of these information blizzard. Americans love political show, so the political actors put their best on stage. Then without precursor, it seems like, the financial crisis stormed in. The rippling effect extended to global scale. Some report claims that the whole country of Iceland might declare bankruptcy unless some international rescue measures are in place. The things are so big I can't help trying to understand how the system is working. The economy per se is sophisticated and intertwined with many other issues, but I guess it isn't that hard to get a big picture; The president candidates now have more than celebrity status in the public eyes, their political stand, their private life, any possible blemished anecdotes,  are all on display. You be the judge. What surprised me is that, simply based on the corporate media's coverage, plus the trendy Web 2.0 blogging, a modicum of common sense does not lead to truth, or even close enough. You follow the media's guide, you are the media's fool.

First look at the financial trouble. It seems to originate from the sub-prime mortgage. The house loan lending company, Countrywide, for exmaple,  makes it easy to get the loan,  people rush to buy the house with little or no down payment. The demand drives up the house price, everyone is happy. Somehow, some bad borrowers can't pay their monthly payment, which causes foreclosure. This took a hit on the lending company, beccause they packaged the loans to invenstment bank and hedge fund and had to pay them monthly, and they have cash cycling problem. When more and more mortgage deals were broken, at nearly the same time,  Countrywide couldn't repay the investment bank and hedge fund, it went down. Similar thing happened to bigger fish like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two national mortgage lenders. Their main creditors are Bear Stern, Lehman Brothers and so on, the investment companies in Wall Street. Now here's a thing that baffles me. Reports said ther were thousands of foreclosure cases, if the house price is about 300k on average, the total debt would be 300m for, say, Fannie Mae. How could 300m cause damage severe enough to kill a company with billions of asset? Some math is wrong. And for global effect, I understand that China has huge US dollar reserve, quite some are in stock form, particularly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I haven't heard of China crying at this moment. Why is Iceland so terrible? simply because they bought too much stock in New York stock exchange or they are the victim of the economical herding behavior? This chain reaction is something beyond my comprehension. I don't get the answer from the newspaper or magazine. The TV report only adds confusion sometimes. For example, when the hurricane Eke rampaged the south, one reporter gloomly said the gas price would have gone up like crazy because 16 crude oil refineries were shut down, now gas price is nearly all year low and still dropping. Maybe I had too little TV time, but I doubt too much would help me understand better.

Let's talk about John McCain and Barak Obama. Putting aside the candidates' self statement and depending on different portraitors, John McCain is a hard-core patriotic, a maverick senator against any Washington ornery cliche bills (the word maverick so becomes cliche now, thanks in large to Ms. Palin), an experienced veteran on foreign affairs, a good man, an mind-acute man, a wiser, a hike-lover, a conservative (of family value), a caring hushand and endearing father, a populist, a jester, and (big 'and' here) an Asian hater, a wife-ditcher, a philanderer, a long-term Washington insider with hooks of scandalous benefactors, a senile who doesn't know how many houses and cars he has, a skin cancer patient with 1500-page medical record, a tech ignorant, a science dummy, a compaign besmircher, an xenophobia, a junk food lover, a too rich guy and best of all, an old version of Bush. Obama has a mixed image as well, he is a smart guy, a deep-thought thinker, a sophisticated writer, a charming world leader with JFK's charisma, a reformer, a great speaker, a capable young black man with bumpy childhood, a science and technology supporter, a new savior to the Amerians, and (here comes again) a community organizer, a neophyte never leading any one, an earmark spender, an elitist(oh, it's a bad word), a BLACK guy, a blarney stone magician with no beef inside, a diplomatic newbie, an economic brouhaha blabber, a crook, a green tech suppresser, a big oil company lobbyister, and on top of it, a guy with middle name Hussein and with possible liaison of terrorist.  How colorful they are, there is little wonder that people don't love the election game, it is like another form of Olympics.

To be fair, John McCain and Barak Obama are excellent individuals. They are pursuing their biggest personal ambition, in the meantime, serving for the noble cause deep in the mind. It is unfortunate that the general people are given some much obfuscated coverage, and sometimes conspirately, sold a biased, falsified ideology, which could have misfortunate consequence as a a whole. On the other hand, it is fortunate enough to hear so many different voices, rather than one unison ode of singing. It is troublesome to face different pictures of reality and make our judgement, it is, however, better not let the media to think for ourselves. 

Two years ago today, exactly at this moment, my mother left for the otherworld. One year ago the same day the same moment, I was running in a cementary. I was slow and schleping in motion, deeply down in mood. I have many regrets whenever I think of my mother, because I could have made her happier, have had her enjoy life in many other ways than she has. It's funny that whenever I stay at home with her for over 2 weeks, there would be unavoidable argument with her. I wanted to escape from home, wanted to have my unfettered freedom. The attachment to mother was only growing strong after I grew older. Now I recall more happy moments whenever she comes to my mind. Since she is gone, I can never hear her voice when I call home. But I feel her, I'm having the sadness and joy feeling mixed in heart.

Life is perishable, I fully understand that. Life is a miracle in the universe, coming out of nothingness, eventually we would all be submerging into dust and void. Human beings are equal in this aspect, no need to be overwhelmed by strong emotions everyday, let along the sentiment toward greed, cheat, hatred, fight, kill, all the negatives. One lives only one life, relish that. What's more miraculous is, everyone would endure the sadness the moment his/her beloved one passes away,  we can never surpass our own sentimental barrier. It reminds me of Cormac McCarthy's book: the Road. When the end of the world nears, a father and a son have nothing but their mutual trust to rely on, to carry them to continue the journey. The book is such a deluge of bearing in mind, I haven't finished it, yet.  Eventually I will, I was not ready to understand what the 76 year-old established dark-theme writer was trying to tell the readers. I believe he is an optimist in nature with the guise of the desperation, because he has this strong spiritual support he can count on.

RIP mother, I am calling father before he visits you at the cementary.