A crazy 2 carat diamond ring

  I heard from my wife that one of her male friends has just proposed. What he brought in front of his girlfriend was a diamond ring, a 2-carat diamond ring! That's super crazy!Do you have any concept about a 2 carat diamond ring? I mean not only in term of size, but more importantly in term of price! When I was young and studied Mathematics in secondary school, there was a topic called "Ratio". I remembered there was a word question which impressed me. The question is something like that : "Mary has brought a diamond for 5000 dollars, Wendy has brought another diamond with the size double of that of Mary. It is known that price of a diamond varies with the square of the size, what's the price of the Wendy's diamond?" Then I knew big diamond are very rare. This was the first concept of the diamond price. I searched from web that 1 carat "D" diamond worth about HKD60,000. Can you calculate the price of 2-carat one for me?

  2-carat-diamond is overwhelming huge. I believed his girlfriend should be overwhelmingly surprised. I cannot imagine after she calmed down and try to figure out the price, how mixed feelings she will have. When I talked about propose ring with my friends in the past, one of my friend said: "Do not feel any pressure from it. It's up to her and up to you. If you are sincere enough, a coke ring is also OK!" "It's romantic!It can draw the sympathy of a kindhearted girl." I laughed. May be there are different meanings behind various ring size. Let talk about this next time.

talk about eye muscle

  Continue the previous post, do you know why having two pair of glasses is good? Let have a look at the eye structure.

 For person who has short-sighted. Image is focused in front of the retina. Glasses with concave lens can make the light beam diverse and the image can then be focused on the retina and become clear.

  How do the eyes regulate the thickness of the eye lens? There are ligaments which are group of fibers linking with the eye lens. It is not hard to imagine when the fibers are tensed up, the lens will be pulled and become thin. A thinner lens results in longer focal length and distinct object can be focused.On the contrary, when the fibers are relaxed and loose, the lens will not be pulled and become thicker.A thicker lens has shorter focal length and close object can be focused.

  Then, what's the relations between ciliary muscle and the ligaments?I must warn you it is not as obvious as you may expect. I have pretended to understand and attempted to explain. But after a while, to be honest, I still have no idea but just memorizing the fact. I memorized this since I have been in high school: "Contracting the ciliary muscle will let the ligaments relax and the eye lens will become thick." The opposite surely holds. Do you sense something weird? Try to imagine a string is tied on a pillar and your hand is holding the other end. When you contract your arm muscle and pull the string, the string will then be tensed. When you release the string, then the string will be loose. Hand is in analogous to ciliary muscle and string is for ligament. But the fact about ciliary muscle is completely opposite!

  Back to the story, why should we prepare two pair of glasses? First of all, short-sighted glasses are designed for seeing distinct objects clearly. But when you wear glasses to see close object, the concave lens in glasses are overkill. It let the light beam diverse too much and therefore the ciliary muscle should contract more to let the eye lens thicker.Contraction needs force and energy and you will feel tired. Therefore, if you wish to see close object, let wear another glasses with lighter degree(less concave) and the light beam will not diverse too much. It results in thinner eye lens, less eye muscle contraction and you will feel less tired.

My history of wearing glasses

  When I was a kid, I had perfect eye vision and could see objects far away clearly. But as more and more classmates wore glasses, I wanted one also! Wearing glasses looked intellectual, smart and mature. Although I could still look at the blackboard in classroom effortlessly, I urged my father to bring me to the glasses shop to have short-sighted measure. After the measurement, I was told to have nearly 100 degree short-sighted.I need a pair of glasses.(actually not really need...) Yeah! When I wore the glasses at school, one of my classmates who also wore glasses was interested. He detached his glasses and asked for mind one. After he tried my glasses, he exclaimed : "That's no different!" The lens of my glasses were so flat that have nearly no effect on his deep short-sighted. I felt embarrassed because he was likely proud of his deep short-sighted as if he was more mature than me.

  I ridiculously wanted my short-sighted to be deeper. I let my short sighted surged in three years and  reached 350 degrees. After then, I noticed something wrong. I found no glasses suited me as I had big eyes and thin chin. It was strange to has small-lens glasses on big eyes. It was also strange to has big-lens glasses on narrow face! I looked shy, tired and thinner when wearing glasses, especially taking photo in dimmed environment. Therefore I always detach my glasses when taking photo. This is troublesome and also draws attention from my friends.

  When I am older and older, I am tired of wearing glasses for long hours. I regretted to start wearing glasses when I was a kid just because of looked mature. Starting from last year, I have two pair of glasses for daily life. One is 200 degrees for reading and operating computer. One is 300 degrees for walking and seeing distant objects. I feel better when wearing a 200 degree glasses in front of computer and my eye muscles seem more relax. Do you know why it is better to have another glasses for seeing front objects?

Mixed feelings in Lunar Chinese New year

   Lunar Chinese New year just passed. I always have mixed feelings in every Lunar New year.
When Lunar New year is coming, I will feel worried on this busy festival. I will always yell in my mind:"Who invented festival!" My mother will be super busy on making cakes which are the gifts of relatives. And everyone will rush to supermarket and snap present boxes which are mainly chocolate, sweets and biscuits.

   This year, I am glad that my wife has already bought many beautiful present boxes. We thought these may not enough for the gifts of all of our relatives. Then we rushed to another supermarket and bought some. I always have an idea. I can redistribute the presents I received from relatives to another. But my wife thought this is risky. We have no idea how many and what type of presents we will receive. And the presents may not be adequate enough to redistribute to our lovely relative! Timing is another concern. In order to redistribute, we should first receive. But what's about we should give first? Finally, we paid safe to buy several more presents. Other people, including my mum also shared the same thinking. Therefore we all rushed to supermarket. We all have a risk of facing a flood of chocolate after festival!

   It is quite odd to contact friends that you have not met for whole year. As I grow up, I am responsible to take initiative to contact the friends and relatives. I am a bit afraid of picking up the phone and dial to my friends. That's not good but that's my genuine feeling.

  Over the course of the four-days busy holiday, my wife and I have visited many friends and relatives. Our family members and friends also visited us and we endeavoured to prepare many meals. We used up of all our limited cooking skills! In the party, all of us celebrated and talked happily. We shared opinions and feelings of all topic, all events happened in this year.

  Lunar Chinese New year have passed and we resumed to our normal life. It is a festival with mixed feelings. It mixed with worries and fulfillment, exhausting and energizing.

The AIA Great European Carnival

On the Friday before last, My wife and I ,accompanied with her friends went to the AIA Great European Carnvial located at the New Central Harbourfront. It was a funny place where everyone could surely find what they liked to play. Our friends liked the traditional game stalls very much. Each stall has a mini-game which are mostly throwing balls or shooting. The games were very hard to win though they looked easy. It demanded both luck and skills. One of our friends won a lovely doll from a throwing game. The staff rang the bell and we laughed and yelled and celebrated.

My wife is a passionate girl loving to play. A gun shooting game caught her attention. She picked up the gun and looked more masculine than her husband. Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! The pyramid of red win corks have been shoot down. She received a dinosaur doll as reward. Such a supreme performance! I then found another silly game. It was an inclined wood board with a basket on the floor. The task was super easy. If you throw a plastic ball touching the wood board and rebound to the basket, then you can win a doll! I was confidence but failed after two trails. Our friends found from web that this was a cheating game and almost no one could win.

Finally, my wife led me to the bumper cars playground. It was the first time I drove bumper cars. It was so exciting to bump with each other. The car has no wheels. When I was accelerating, I felt like surfing!

There were too many games we have not tried. There were scary 'thrill rides' rolling above our heads. They looked horrible and none of us dared to have a ride. A whopping blown slide was very funny, many kids climbed up and sliding down the elastic slide. But as we are adult, we refrained from approaching it. There was an ice-skating rink and we could not visit as time was running out.

It was nearly mid-night. We found a restaurant and sought something to eat. When I sat down, I saw a plastic bag carried by one of our friends which holding the dolls. The plastic bag printed with a slogan, "Life is a Carnival". I felt a sudden touch. Right, life is a Carnival and my parents bought me the ticket. Thanks my dearest mother and father for bringing me to this beautiful world. In this Carnival, I should work for survival. But don't forget to look around and try something interesting. Also, don't spend too much time on deliberating. Time is precious!

My mind controls my ear wax

  I said in the previous post that I was skeptical of the pharmacist's claim. He claimed that ear and throat are in connect and the solvent can let the softened ear wax flowing to my throat. I contemplated on the diagram of ear structure and decided not to believe him. It is because there is a ear drum, although delicate, blocks auditory canal and auditory tube. Ear wax accumulated in auditory canal has no way to penetrate the ear drum and reach auditory tube. I am not sure though. May be the ear drum is smaller than the diameter of the auditory canal. And the ear wax can reach auditory tube by passing through the edge.
 
  Although I have no idea about the real physical structure of ear, I notice there is psychological linkage on ear discomfort. I searched through my memory. I discovered that when I felt depressed, upset or tired because of lack of sleep or sick, I would also suffer from discomfort on left ear. It seemed that the auditory tube contracted and the left ear was blocked by ear wax. In that situation , I would try to use cotton tip to let myself feel better but mostly failed.

  Last week I also suffered from that discomfort. Now, I remember that something(my wife and my dear family members knew what that is) made me upset and down on that evening before. Then I felt my left ear was severely blocked in the next morning. After several days, I let go of that problem and became optimistic. My discomfort on left ear then disappeared unconsciously. May be human body can really regulate the amount of ear wax automatically, provided that I should have a healthy emotional state.

Ear wax discomfort

  I sometime have ear wax discomfort because my left ear always produces lots of ear wax. They are abundant and very viscous. I want to find a feasible way to get rid of them. Using cotton tip is straightforward but many doctors disagree. Doctors always say using cotton tip will push the ear wax inner. They claim that excessive ear wax will be automatically removed. We should not bother to remove them and the human body will regulate the amount of ear wax for us. I don't think this persuasion can comfort me. I suspect even doctors will use cotton tip too!

  In a last week morning, I felt something jammed in my left ear when waked up. I sought a cotton tip and started to dig. After a while, some red, sticky ear wax came out. I am satisfied on my mining. Unfortunately, my left ear was still jammed. It seemed that some pressure has exerted on my ear drum. I then bought a ear wax remover after work. The pharmacist explained that after I dip several drops of oily solvent, the ear wax will be soften and flow to my throat through auditory tube. "Really?" I am surprised. "Sure! Ear, Nose,Throat are in connect." he said.

  I used the solvent several days but no improvement at all. No ear wax reached my throat therefore I could not taste it. It should be bitter as I have tasted it when I was a naughty child. I searched through the web and found some diagrams about the ear structure. "Was the pharmacist correct?" I suspected again. Can you have a look for me?

Venture to speak

  This Wednesday was the eve of the Chinese Lunar News year. We had a practice to order lunch box every Wednesday at lunch time. But on that day, a senior colleague suggested to eat out and seek something better.  We reached a shopping mall and found a restaurant which offered hot pot buffet. We felt happy because we were so reluctant to enjoy a luxury lunch for long times. We deserved it!

  After the pots were settled, we snapped many delicious food from the bar and poured them all into the pots. When the pots were steaming, we were excited and ate as many as we could. We also talked during the lunch. We talked about our family life, female movie stars, especially the fresh girlie barristers in TV drama. We didn't believe there will be such beautiful barristers in real world. But that was enough to fill up our hope and imagination and escape from the cruel reality.

   Was such topic so boring that could not draw attention from two of our colleagues? They played with their smartphone all the time throughout the lunch hour. Such situation has already occurred in every lunch in the past. The senior colleague finally said, "Playing game is OK, but we need to talk and build friendship when we gather!" May be the young guys were too shy to talk in a table of staff.

   His says reminded me an interesting word I have read from a novel. When we quote someone's speech, we use phases such as "he said", "he asked". For example, "Do you think I am too fat?" he asked. But in that novel, the author expressed in this way: "Do you remember Tony?"I ventured. I think "venture" is a precise word to describe that atmosphere. It is elegant also. Sometime English reading is pleasure. Words I expect should be noun or adjective, can be used as verb and give special meaning.

    When we faced dead air in a gathering and wanna break it, we should breath up and say some silly stuff first. For example, "Such a cold weather!" We wish it can trigger the conversation. But it fails most of the time because IT guys are very shy and not talkative. Then I should find another funny topic to start. Some kind man will try to respond so that the starter will not feel embarrassed. But someone will continue to play the smartphone silently anyway. That's why it takes risk to start talking. And that's why the word "venture" draws my interest.

Myth about Greenland

  Ha! I admit the title is quite misleading. I have no mysterious story about Greenland although Greenland is indeed a mysterious area. It has horribly low population of about 50,000. I think the estate I currently lived in has more residents than there.

  What I want to talk is about her size. Continue the previous post, do you know why Greenland is not as large as that apparently shown in the world map? I think you know the answer. It is because Earth is a sphere but not a sheet of paper! As a human being, we divide the sphere into many pieces of squares by longitude and latitude. And now, every squares on the surface of the sphere are projected into map with similar size. But at the sphere in fact, the squares are smaller when nearer to the north or south pole. Greenland is the northernmost area across the arctic circle. Although it occupies many squares, it is not large indeed. Her size is severely distorted in the world map.

  The explanation also holds on Brazil. Brazil lies across the equator where every square there is large. But as Brazil only occupies a few, it looks small in the world map. Same as Brazil, Africa looks small in map whereas it is the second largest continent. Therefore, if you wish to visualize the actual size of every place in the world, let have a globe like me!

Surprised when looking at the world

  I have said before my wife bought me a beautiful globe. The globe drove me to  read more geographical article in wiki. My brother-in-law last months has introduced me an exciting Android game ,"blood and honor". It's a game similar to a famous board game called "Risk". What's the romance of men? Blood! I, as a general, have to fight against different regimes in order to conquer the whole world! I felt too addicted on this game that I finally uninstalled it and ended my day-dream.


Why do I talk about this game? It is because I have read an article in wiki. It ranked the countries in the world in term of area they owned. To my surprise, the land area of Brazil is larger than Australia. I have already known Brazil(8.5Mil km2) is the largest country in South America. But I don't believe it is even larger than Australia(7.6Mil km2) which is a large continent lying on the southern hemisphere. Even more, I found the land area of Brazil is comparable to U.S.(9.2Mil km2) and China(9.3Mil km2). Don't forget U.S also owns a northern chilled area called Alaska(1.7Mil km2). Alaska has been purchased by U.S. from Russia Empire at a damn cheap price in 1867. Brazil is very large indeed!

The second thing I notice is India. India(2.9 Mil km2) is far smaller than I expect. It is less than one-third of the land area of China. But the population in India exploded for years. It is the second highest population(~1.2billions) country in the world, where 1.35billions for China.

The last thing is what I am proud of. I will not get trapped in the area of Greenland (2.2 Mil km2) anymore. It is far smaller than you may expect. In my childhood, I stared on the world map in a textbook. I amazingly found that there was a super large area at the northern right corner of North-America continent. I guessed it was larger than China and even the whole south America or Africa. And Africa is the second largest continent which I learned in secondary school. Then I knew there was something wrong. What's about you? Following is the world map. And do you know why Greenland is actually so small?

Two stories about devil money

  Can money fuel passion? Someone says, if I can do something I want, that's good. If I can do something I want which can make money. It's even better! I will be more energetic because my devotion gets reward. Is that true? I heard two stories about devil money.

   The first story is actually a joke. Long time ago, there was an old man. He was retired and loved to sit on the garden and enjoy the warm sunlight every afternoon. But there were three kids who were his neigbour, they played and yelled all the time. The old man asked them to keep quiet several times but failed. He finally came up with a great trick. He gathered all three kids and said: "Hey kids!You are all cute! I love your yelling very much. Please yell as loudly as possible. I will give you sweets and pocket money for reward!" The kids overjoyed. Every afternoon, they got sweet and money from the old man and yelled. After several days, the old man gave them less amount of sweet and money.The kids knew that and were less enthused to yell. Finally, the day came. The old man asked the kids to yell but refused to pay. The kids were very angry and complained: "Why should we yell for you without any sweets!" Then the old man could finally bath in the warm, quiet and wonderful sunshine.

    The second story is quite similar. Once upon a time, there was a retired healthy old man. He liked hiking and he hiked on the mountain nearby every morning. When he stood on the mountain top and breathed the freshest air, he was fulfilled and thanked Gods for giving him life and health. One day, in the way of the mountain road, he found something shiny under the grass. He came closer and looked. It was diamond! He thought he was very lucky. After one week, he walked on the same road. He accidentally found something shinny under the grass. It was diamond again! He became crazy! Starting from that day, he waked up at drawn and rushed to the mountain. He searched through the mountain up and down. He believed it was a diamond mining camp in the old days. But after one month, he found nothing. He was depressed in every sunset. He finally abandoned his belief. After then, he slept until afternoon every day. He didn't hike any more.

   So, you can see how money can devastate passion.It can completely turn some funny, interesting activities into boring and demanding. If you have dream and want to monetize it, you may think carefully and to be aware don't let money drive your passion out. Please treasure your dream.

the movie "Begin Again"

  In the evening before Valentine's day, my wife and I saw a movie in the theatre inside a villa's club house. It was a special club event invited by my older sister and brother-in law. When we stepped into the theatre, a staff greeted by giving us a red rose and taking us a lovely photo. This is a luxurious theatre. We can enjoyed the movie by lying on the comfortable massage chair. It kills two birds with one stone!

  The movie called "Begin again". It is a romantic movie filled with pleasant songs. They pursued their own dreams by singing their songs in the ways and at the places they preferred. Did they face problem? Did they struggle? Likely not. Or they treated the seemingly problems not so seriously. I may say the main theme of this movie should be one of the sentences in the theme song "lost stars". "Are we all lost stars, trying to light up the dark?" Although we are lost in our life, we are still trying to devote our tiny little light to light up the dark.

  What they have done is simple, but also too simple to be everlasting in the whole life. They listened the small and humble voice deep inside their hearts. And then they knew what they want to do! Or what's their ego need them to do! Did their dreams manifest when they have finished the album and put them on sales? Not so late. Their dreams came true when they were recording the songs at the street, on the rooftop and inside the tube station. Process was already the reward.

  What's about our own deep inside voice? We may don't know yet. We do not notice as if it has not ever existed. The voice is so little and soft. It can be easily distracted by something bigger. Among the big issues, I think money is the BIG, BIG, BIG one. I have heard two devil stories about money. Let's talk about them next time.

facebook "unfriend"?

  I have just "unfriend" a guy in my facebook. I think "unfriend" is not a suitable word to describe this action. This word is too sentimental and lead us think emotionally. In good old days, we used the word "Contact list" in ICQ. It is a perfect neutral word that do not mislead us or hint anything. Now the so-called "friend list" in facebook imply what?  Are all people in this list your friends? The answer is clear. Therefore, "unfriend" a guy does not mean the friendship between us is broken. The suitable word should be "remove him from contact list" which is the terminology in ICQ world. When I removed someone from "contact list", the friendship between us can still here or the friendship has literally not built ever! Reasons behind "unfriend" varies, but cannot solely concluded as the relationship is broken. That's why "unfriend" is a bad word.

  A friend, who is my real friend actually, said in facebook that unfriend needs courage. Facebook successfully developed an atmosphere that every act in facebook contributes an emotional effect. Instead of just "I see", I have to "like" a post. And the countable number of "like" hints self-recognition is also countable and can be demonstrated under the sunlight.  "Unfriending" a "friend" means the number of friends I have is decreased. But no one want others know you have less friends! That's why "unfriend" needs courage. It is not as simple as clearing the messing phone list. Worse still, the "friend" you have "unfriended" will lead to silently removal of you on his/her "friend list" too! This will exacerbate the anger when one discover it. Such a horrible arrangement!

My Chinese New year's resolution

Lunar New year in Coming. In the last weekend. I did many housework such as sweeping the floor, clearing useless stuff and wipe the stubborn oily stains in range hood,etc.

There are still lots of housework not yet finished. But one thing is more important, what's my News year's resolution? In the past, my wishes were either too ambitious or too abstract. For now, my wish is quite concrete. I wish to improve my language skills. How to improve it? Just one word: "Effortless". I wish to listen English effortlessly. I wish to write English effortlessly. When I am listening, reading or writing, I wish the process is so natural that I am not aware I am learning or practicing English. I am just communicating. I am either receiving some interesting messages or expressing my feelings and views.

Training my intuitive mind to speak out and write down English promptly. That means I should engage my right brain and let my left brain takes a rest. When I grow up, I have been trained to use my left brain heavily for criticizing, finding out mistakes and cough out words slowly, carefully. It is a frustrating process as the flow of idea is always blocked ruthlessly. This problem also occurs in my Chinese(my native language) writing and speaking. I am good at Chinese writing but I find it is a painful torture. I always swallow the word when I criticize it is not precise enough. Therefore, "Effortless" is my target. Please communicate effortlessly first, and let the refinement comes later.

A beautiful luminated globe

Today is Valentine's day. I walked in shopping mall with my wife leisurely. When we walked in a furniture store, I found a lamp which is incredibly beautiful. It is not a normal lamp light. It is a globe! I think it is a fine-art actually. The diameter of this globe is around 20cm. It is not big but very detail! It shows not only all the countries in the world, but also many well-known cities. I can learn many place in English from it. When I touch the globe, the raised surface indicates there is high mountain, it is interesting!

I hesitated to buy it. Why? Because I decide to live in an edited life. Don't buy stuff which is not necessary. But I really love this globe. My wife then said:"Let me buy it as the Valentine's day present!" She said it was very rare I discovered stuff that I really liked. Living in an edited life does not mean that you cannot buy stuff, but you should buy stuff that you love for years!

When we came home, I cannot wait but open the lamp globe. I stared on it for more than 15 minutes. I obsessed with it! I talked to my wife that when I was a teenager, I have ever looked at the world map for hours and hours. I cannot explain why I did that. And now, when I turn on the lamp light, rotate the globe ball, I find the whole world is in my hand! It's fantastic!

The first post

This is my first post. In this blog, I wish to write English essay in an easy,leisure and intuitive way. Don't think too much. Just write down my feeling.

I want to improve my English listening and writing skills. I listen English radio, audio MP3 everyday. I write down the vocabularies, including the complete sentence, which I think it is interesting to learn. I eager my English vocabulary can explode .But I know memorize vocabulary in a brute force way is absurd. It hurts my passion and I tried it before when I was in high school.

What should I do? I remember an idiom :"Use it , or lose it". Let me use the vocabularies I have learned in  my writing.