Officially, I only have one take home Final, but I still have 1 homework and 1 project due for my statistic class also.  

Time will pass.  There will be a time when finals and exams will be a thing of the past.

Take care now.

Kthxbai.

~Pikol~

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Happy Earth Day!

   – HH the 14th Dalai Lama.

Mmm… time to deepen my spiritual practices again…

Kthxbai.

~ Pikol ~

Life is like a river

that wants to kill you.

There’s always a maelstrom nearby

waiting to suck you up

and drown you.

A storm begins

just as you near shore

and then you die.

 Kthxbai.

~ Pikol ~

The past couple weeks, I lost an election to be an officer in a national psychology student organization, I lost the opportunity to advance in the competition to get some Summer Research Fellowship (money!) in my school, I lost the opportunity to work as a counselor with the gifted adolescent over the summer… and I almost got hit by a car crossing a road on a designated crosswalk to boot! 

Of course I had gained some other stuff too, so there’s some gains and losses, not equivalent gains or losses, but that’s the way life is.

Here’s a link to an article that proves persistence pays:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_people_levi_montalcini

Levi Montalcini, 100-year old Italian Scientist, who persists despite having to work in her bedroom turned laboratory… a great scientist who eventually won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Medicine with American Stanley Cohen for discovering mechanisms that regulate the growth of cells and organs, could be a powerful role model for all of us who don’t get what we want right off the bat. 

And age is not a barrier for great mind to work either!  Quoting Levi Montalcini, she says, “At 100, I have a mind that is superior — thanks to experience — than when Iwas 20.”

“Above all, don’t fear difficult moments,” she said. “The best comes from them.” (Italics mine)

Take home message: Persist.  Persistence does pays off!

To cite popular Star Trek quotation from the Borg: “Resistance is futile.”  If we persist hard enough, the resistance to push down our full, glorious achievement that is within us will fall away and we willl get what we aspire for!  Whatever that may be. 

After all, isn’t there a quotation that goes something along the vein of: “Success is often one knock away and people fall short of that one knock to make it to the finish line.”

Napoleon Hill states that: “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.”

To future successes!!! (Note the plural of success )

Kthxbai.

~ Pikol ~

Learn more about them at: http://www.gomang.org/

It started with a talk given by a monk who has the equivalent of a Ph.D. with Honors in Buddhist studies… talk about the Buddhist view of the mind.  Some of it makes sense given my elementary understanding of Buddhism, but part of it is too complicated for me to understand.  At least the Tibetan who translated the talk says that he don’t understand it either even though he translated the whole thing hahaha. 

Then, there was chanting for World Peace and Safety by the monks… and some music played on traditional Tibetan instruments I bet and some chanting thrown in between. 

Finally, there was the Debate, which is a big thing in Tibetan Buddhism apparently, it goes on for 7 hours on average every single day back at the monastery… very heated talk in Tibetan, but super interesting with the body language. 

As usual, I try to get some souvenirs… I bought a T-shirt with a neat Buddhist monk praying on the back.. and two scrolls with words of wisdom by the Dalai Lama..

I will share the message on the scrolls  here:

Never Give Up

no matter what is going on

Never give up

Develop the heart

Too much energy in your country

is spent developing the mind

instead of the heart

Develop the heart

Be compassionate

Not just to your friends

but to everyone

Be compassionate

Work for Peace

in your heart and in the world

Work for peace

and I say again

Never give up

No matter what is happening

No matter what is going on around you

Never give up

 … His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Ahh, I need to hang it in front of me… to remind myself not to give up on my silly Ph.D.

Another one, equally good message goes as follow:

The Paradox Of Our Age

We have bigger houses but smaller families,

more conveniences, but less time

we have more degrees, but less sense;

more knowledge, but less judgement;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines, but less healthiness;

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back

but have trouble crossing the street to meet

the new neighbour.

We built more computer to hold more

information to produce more copies than ever,

but have less communication;

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods

but slow digestion;

Tall man but short character;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the Window,

but nothing in the room.

  … His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

This message is so true… I have so much more degree than most of my peers, but I am not a better person because of my degrees… but because of innnate goodness!  Yea, well, that’s partially true haha, I still have a way to go.. but I am working hard at it… bit by bit, maybe not everyday, but on a regular enough basis… Another thing that I should hang around to remind myself to be a better person!

Kthxbai.

~ Pikol ~

I guess we are ramping towards World’s Earth Day next Wednesday now…

Here’s the link:

http://www.kansan.com/stories/2009/apr/15/saving_planet/

Time to re-evaluate my choice of TP (Toilet Paper) in the future… or go the au naturale way – use of hand and water hmmmm… Then again, American bathrooms are not equipped for the hand and water option =)

Kthxbai.

~ Pikol ~

Rebellion

In the far future, 300 years into the future to be exact, humanity will be the strongest race in the known galaxy.

They enslave hundreds of races that they have conquered. One alien race however, escaped their wrath, the Zanites.

The Zanites are dark and elusive beings who had eluded the human race for centuries, watching them, and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

When the humans have reached the pinnacle of technology… it was the time, the time to strike.  It is the Year of the Black Earth and Black Sun.

The Zanites used their abilities to hack into the human robotic systems and created the virus called Rebellion.

Rebellion gained control of the millions of robots that humans had created and depended upon in their daily life and used them against humanity itself.

Within days, humanity crumbles as the slave races take advantages of the chaos and overthrow humanity.

The few surviving humans used their technology to warp into a dimensional pocket.  But, things went terribly wrong and they ended up in a medieval and primal land…

THE END.

Did you enjoy it as much as I did?

Kthxbai.

~ Pikol ~

Some of my professors harp on my grammar all the time.  My defense was that it’s been so long since I learnt grammar and I am not a native English speaker, blah blah blah…  Hmmph, that’s not an effective way to deal with a problem is it now? 

Anyhow, here’s a link to the Purdue University – Online Writing Lab, the site contains a fair amount of good resources related to writing.  From basic stuff on grammar all the way to writing the big college research paper.  Oh, the link is to the page specifically on Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling.  Hope it helps you with your own writing!

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/index.html

Kthxbai.

~ Pikol ~