Oscar 2021: Nomadland
5/9/21 this year, my papers are all published at the wonderful locations: Madrid, Vienna and Amsterdam, but I can go none of them, yikes
As a downgrade, I am going to the badland national park instead, lol. Then I remembered the movie Nomadland that I watched the day before the Oscar ceremony. One day, I was randomly glancing IMDB and came across a review something like “deep, meaningful, joy to watch”, so I watched it. It has a feeling of an independent movie, peaceful and gentle. There are no dramas, conflicts, shouts or fights, but you can sense the heaviness of the life behind the unspoken. Visually, it lays out the small human beings moving across the vast landscape of the planet (the picture is tearing). Those people on the road are not friends and family, and they share their life and death between causal conversations.
It is not a typical Hollywood movie and even made by a Chinese-American director, but it is very real compared to what I have seen about American culture and people. They eat burgers and wear Walmart clothes, but they are happy and kind ordinary people. These ordinary people always touch me. Every 2/14, when I go to store to get the balloons for my son, I see this kind of ordinary people, quietly waiting in line to buy the flowers for their loved ones. I always send them the best wishes quietly.
2020 
2019
I like the award speech given by the director. She mentioned a Chinese poem “people at birth are inherently good (人之初性本善 )”, and she said “I always have found goodness in the people I met, everywhere I went in the world. So this is for anyone who has the faith and coverage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and hold on to the goodness in each other no matter how difficult is to do that.” Ting (the director) and her boyfriend did not take any friend/family to the Oscar ceremony. Instead, they took Swankie and Linda May, whose stories their move is based on, and the ordinary people who struggle their life on the road. American people are sassy about what they want to do, even those who live at the bottom of the social escalator and even what they want to do is very weird to other people. For example, in the movie, Swankie devoted her last trip to rocks and Linda May wants to build an earthship.
After this movie, many people may remember “see you down the road”. My favorite line is “if I left, it would be like he never existed.” In this movie, there is this Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. Flowers come and go, and hopefully there is still something eternal.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and Russell’s paradox
4/18/21 My favorite picture lately: the blue sunset on Mars! I heard that the Uranus’s sunset is turquoise!
Some of the fun intellectual moments: listen to smart people to explain difficult movies, and discuss math theorems/astrophysics.
I recently watched Tenet, and I was not able to figure out the relativity quick enough to follow the movie. Christopher Nolan became more and more abstract nowadays: Inception and Prestige are complex but manageable, Interstellar is good and I even like Dunkirk quite a lot. Then came this super insane Tenet. To give you a taste: “Everything that has happened will happen, and will always have happened” #^S*&%???
One of my favorite theorems is Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. Gödel has two incompleteness theorems, and I am talking about the first one today. This theorem said that in any consistent axiomatic systems, there are truths about arithmetics that cannot be proved or disapproved.
(1) an axiom: a statement taken to be true
(2) an axiomatic system: a set of axioms and the truths derived/proved from them
(3) consistent: no contradictory (among the truths derived from the system)
(4) truth about arithmetics: arithmetics on natural numbers (maybe beyond ?)
(5) prove: deductive reasoning (can be coded in algorithm procedures?)
The implications are: (1) the math is limited; there are truths that cannot be proved/disproved by maths (anecdote: some mathematicians quitted from their math career as a result of knowing maths is limited) (2) Roger Penrose and J.R. Lucas: human intelligence is able to recognize inconsistencies, which under Gödel’s theorem, is impossible for Turing machines. Thus, computer cannot reproduce human intelligence.
Russell (earlier than Gödel)’s paradox is an indication of Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. Let R be the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. If R is not a member of itself, then its definition dictates that R must contain itself, and if it contains itself, then it contradicts its own definition as the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. An informal version is “barber’s paradox”: the barber is the “one who shaves all those, and those only, who do not shave themselves”. Does the barber shave himself?
The lightness of the pandemic (2) – getting fat shamelessly
4/11/21 the awesome marker did make a difference! See how smooth this skin is!
When I am getting old, happiness becomes the most important thing. That means I deal with everything naturally, including getting fat! My deal readers, if losing weights is your current priority, I recommend you don’t continue reading this post. I don’t want to mislead you, haha.
During pandemic, my eating business is expanding significantly. For example, see these cute Chocolates from Japan,
as well as these tasty ones (from Royce)! I also bought Venchi and Caffarel, the Italian ones for a while. These are not as sweet as American chocolate.
My mom heard that I no longer go to grocery stores during pandemic, so she delivered the giant boxes from China, as if my parents moved the entire supermarket from my hometown. I looked at those shipping slips —- even the shipping costs hundreds of dollars per box. Aww, I am still spoiled as an old daughter (happy).
In addition to the online grocery/snack shopping, I also use an awesome online takeout app. I now can order very good Chinese takeouts from flushing NY and so on, including bubble teas, snacks, cakes, breads, buns, restaurant dishes, hotpot ingredients (authentic ones aligned with the market in China). The shipping is weekly with cooling. One time, I ordered 40-50 dollars of duck feet/wings/necks (sorry, my dear American friends, haha) from a few stores from different parts of US and intended to select the best one 🙂
When the tasty food boxes arrive, me and my son will have a “rotten party” —- we indulgently eat different food and maybe watch our favorite shows for a few hours.
Besides buying the food, my another food source is the vegetable garden and fruit trees in our back yard. I only buy seedlings that can get fruits or smell/looking good, very practical 🙂 I still spend a lot of time cooking at home and my food album has 762 pictures by now, covering all random styles of Asian food, from Shanghai, Sichuan, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese …
Last year, I saw these peppers were rotten in the garden, so I made some fermented peppers using some made-up-by-myself recipe. It turns out to be super tasty and useful cooking ingredients.
I once grew some bean spouts, totally not very successful. A lot of work but very little spouts …
I like to make things from scratch instead of buying from frozen sections of the store:
Here are some soup collection from my food album:
noodle soup 
tofu mushroom soup 
turnip soup
miso soup 
spinach soup
This is the trick I learned about cooking instant noodles. It is simple but may be useful for many people who need quick food from time to time: when you cook instant noodles, it is recommended that you cook one noodle block a time. You first put the noodle block in the cold water, and when it is heating up, you keep stirring the noodle using forks or chopsticks. Then you put the seasoning package in a bowl, when the noodle is boiled one or two minutes, you can put the noodles and some water in the bowl. I followed this process for a few times, it makes good texture ramen noodles.
The lightness of the pandemic (1) – funny news
4/4/21 mRNA vaccine is a cool idea. It tested to be effective and no significant short-term side effect. Although we don’t have the data for long-term effect, the uncertainty of the unknown is considered low?! Can’t wait to go back to rock climbing and night clubbing 🙂
This year is not easy for all of my friends in US. While pandemic is serious, Camus’s “the plague” is serious, I still felt funny here and there:
My message boxes are never bored lately:
(1) Today, I received an invitation to attend a free self-defense class related to #stopasianhate#, and an online one. Wander how online self-defense class can work 🙂
(2) Yesterday, I was invited to some solidarity #stopasianhate# rally. I remembered that a while ago, some stranger punched a 65 Asian lady in the street. The lady fight back hard and kept saying “why do you beat me”. Later, this offender was rescued by the ambulance …
(3) The day before yesterday, I was asked to join in some newly formed local XXX Chinese faculty and staff association. Wander what the membership will bring me 🙂
(4) Four days ago, I was notified with the links of Vaccine Spotter and Vaccine Hunter. They find you Vaccine a few hours drive away.
(5) Five days ago, I was recommended to login at 12:10am to a few remote Iowa town Vaccine signup websites to secure a spot 🙂
The following is the post from a local resident. He not only lost his favorite tree, but also need to pay to get the stub out. The thief is amusing (bear with me for my lack of sympathy here).
Another amusing story is about Christmas gift. One of my acquaintances got a Christmas gift from his sister, and it was a calendar. He found that following the date marked on the calendar, the church did not open on Sunday. So he called his sister “why did you send me a 2020 calendar but not 2021’s one?” His sister said “Oh shit, you know what, I bought 10 of those for my friends and family”.
After a chuckle, have a good week, my dear friends!
Recent drawings (1)
3/28/21 Recently, my papers often get a bunch of weak acceptances + one weak rejection, really challenging my rebuttal skills. Maybe a better approach is to write for acceptance from the beginning, with the recipe of a sexy problem, a smarter-than-you-reviewer solution, a tight execution, and an interesting and accessible presentation.
When I am not writing blogs, I feel a favorite part of myself is absent, lol. The below is my recent drawing pad. People might think those comics/cartoons are influences of my son, but not really. I just like to draw these beautiful girls …
Helicopter/bird views
Some cool videos made by my friends lately …
@Hangzhou by Jinjin
@Shanghai by Jinjin
@Chicago by atppp
Guess
Guess if she is drunk or awake
Guess if she is broken or delighted
Guess if she is hiding or wanting
Guess if she is escaping or longing
Guess if she is forgiving or resentful
Guess if she is forgetting or remembering
Maybe she is just idle
Maybe she is just uncertain
Maybe she is just awaiting
Maybe she is just riding the waves
Maybe she is just randomly walking on a street
Like any other day like nothing had happened
Miró Museum
1/17/21 People have different ways to miss travels. I heard that the round tickets from the same airport are sold out very fast last year 🙂 I started playing a traveling board game, called Tokaido. You can do shopping, stay in hotel, eat tasty Japanese meals, go site-seeing and hot springs. Oh, you also can visit temples and donate money 🙂
The other day, I was discussing with a friend whether romantic and emotional means equivalent when talking about a piece of art. This is certainly drawn to me. Another related trait of an art work is freedom and personalization. For example, paintings and drawing can be very subjective and the authors can have a lot of controls.
Jean Miró is another my favorite Spanish painter, besides Picasso. A while ago, I visited his NYC exhibition and are surprised to see the connection of his work with poems. Coming to Barcelona, I am so excited to see the entire museum of his work! It is located in a scenic area of Barcelona, here is the entrance:
The museum is on top of a hill (see the view on the left) and you will walk through a very beautiful residential area of Barcelona (see on the right).
The museum is not very busy. I did not buy an online ticket and still was able to get in immediately.
It is just good looking and harmonic. The title of this picture is called “the poem”. The text introduces “the pictorial space becomes a metaphor for the blank page on which the painter’s words appears: loose lines, visual signs like the abbreviation of a possible text”.
This one is gold and futuristic looking. I have this impression of “carnival in the dessert”. Animals are dancing and socializing like people. See they are all standing up??
What we see here is simple and symbolic. The brush looking stroke hints the Asian connection. The picture and its description together embodies the artistic effect. “After a first visit to Japan in 1966, Miro described himself as deeply in harmony with the Japanese soul. Some titles evoke the poetic brevity of haikus, and the highly restrained paintings of translating their statements into a small number of visual elements.”
These two remind me of some kind of landscape?! The left has a sun, some cloud, the wind and some sort of an alien. They reminded me of all the colorful landscapes I have seen: the reddest land I remembered is on top of the Haleakalā National Park, and maybe also grand canyon? The canola flower field is the largest yellow I have grown up with. The lava field in big islands is black, the Shenandoah mountains have endless greens in summer …
This one almost looks like Chinese characters. He also did sculptures of similar styles, colorful, weird and childish looking. They are displayed on the roof of the museum.
This one is a “King”?! It is displayed on top of the mountain and faces the entire city, adding the power of this sculture. The sculpture and the view support each other to make a piece of art.
There are also pieces with which I have no clues??? It looks like it attracts quite a few people though …
Little Mr Sunshine
1/10/21 Have you watched “soul”? While the Chinese forum is mostly fascinated by this movie (maybe 3D version is great!), it appears only so so to my taste. I am quite amused by the cute 22 and the real-looking NYC streets in the movie though 😀
Today’s blog is named after one of my favorite movies 😉 …
What I am mostly proud of Amos so far is his bright smiles and crazy spirits. He is born with a sense of humor. One day, I waked up and found my weight room looks like this:
One time, we were watching a gala. He saw the scene something like on the left and asked “mama, what she is holding” “a microphone” A minute later, he saw a scene on the right, he asked “mama, is this also a microphone?” Wow, 0.5 shot learning!
Similar things happen often. One day after my boxing bag is installed, he said “mama, see this boxing bag” (on the right) 🙂
One day, he decided to make some new fashionable underwear for himself, using … his diaper bag. See below:
The left materials are made for a top:
and then put on a paper train he made for styling, following my suggestion. Oh, he made some pose too to star in my picture
The story is not yet over. Next day, in the morning, I opened his closet and tried to get some clean clothes for him for the day. His fashionable outfit jumped out of his closet 🙂
He is very amazed by firetrucks, ambulances, police cars and airplanes, and did a lot of artwork for them, from 2D to 3D. I never suggested such stick-paper-together or 3D techniques to him so I wander where he learned them. He told me “I just knew things :)”
My toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls are never round because:
I never know there is a rainbow in my house!
I also never know when we open a toilet paper roll, it is a diamond like this.
Parenting is like love education. I am certainly not the one who loves kids in general, but when this little dude wanted to buy a shirt printed with “love mama like crazy” and wear it days and don’t want to change it, you naturally will be willing to give him a good apple and leave yourself a not-so-good one. This also adds a new flavor in my life. Before, I have very minimum tolerance for people and that’s very dangerous as a teacher. Nowadays, whenever I started acting aggressive, I typically wait until the finals/holidays are over. I will think that he/she is also some one’s most lovable son/daughter. How sad their moms will be if I handle it inappropriately!
Some of my friends already sent their little kids to various (online) classes to learn skills. We are still at the stage of playing whatever. Sometimes, I bought toys for him because I myself want to play 🙂 For example, I bought a scooter for him, and then I am the one who only played it. My neighbours probably are horrified to see someone who wanders around wearing strange clothes and riding a tiny scooter like a retarded 😀