The day he was born

Wikipedia is easy-accessed source of information and knowledge, and including kinds of many daily records. I often surf the website, especially the sites about written about each day, when I am bored or too exhausted to do anything, because it can help me find something special on every single day. Take the day Jan. 8^th for example. You may thing the day is not unusual at all. In fact, the day is some famous people’s birthday, like the Chinese poet 蘇軾, the ex-prime minister of Japan Koizumi Junichiro(小泉純一郎), the British rocker David Bowie…,and so on. The most interesting one to me is Stephen Hawking.

He is a physicist who was called the greatest physicist in the world after Albert Einstein, and published many theories with breakthrough in the field. Meanwhile, he also has some unique thoughts about the universe, what caused waves of crush to the field of philosophy. He thinks all the human actions can be explained by brain activities, instead of mind. In other words, Hawking never considers people's minds can control their behaviors, or you can say Hawking never believes that the mind exists. That’s why he wrote many books to prove his belief.

Thanks for the lecture in the class 生命價值與哲學思維, I have know who is Hawking and what he do. Before that, I had little knowledge about both physical and philosophy, never making association to them. However, the teacher has introduced different philosophy ideologies and some famous philosophers including Stephen Hawking, and guided his students to think the worth of liberty and freedom of speech. With Wikipedia, I can know much more what I got interested in the lecture, though parts of the information on it might not right. It is still a good tool to relate the small data to the deep lecture. I think so.

The Christmas Melody

When it comes to Christmas, a joyful melody will be played in my head. The song’s name is Winter Magic, is a song about my high school memory. I was a member of the school choir, and the song was my first song in the choir. Even though I had left there for two years, I can still recall clearly every detail of the singing time. The most unforgettable one was that the all the members and the teacher stood shoulder by shoulder in the campus, singing the song and sharing the happiness with the other students and teachers. I think the experience in the choir was my most beautiful Christmas memory, because the music was so softy and the atmosphere was so pleasant.

Now, I do not live at home, but I think that as long as I sing the song, I will be enchanted by the winter magic, and then I will not feel lonely anymore at the cold night. Today is my first Christmas Eve in Taipei, and is a night consisted of my memory .     

The Sacred Beauty

     After finished my only one class on Thursday, I started a special experience I had never been on December 6. Instead of going back the dorm, or fighting for the assignments in the library, my friend and I, we just got on the bus, leaving for Sansha (三峽) to visit The Temple of Sansha (三峽祖師爺廟).Having heard of the refinement and delicateness of the temple, we were both excited about the visit. By bus, MRT, and then bus again, we spent two hours getting there. The route was the most tortured part.

 

     However, as soon as we arrived at there, all the fatigue disappeared right away, and we could not hold 

 back the desire to explore the building named The Orient Art Hall. By the restoration from the great artist 

Li Mei-she (李梅樹), the temple became a destination of both religion and art. For art, the temple was famous for its exquisite curving. Different from other temples, all the curving in The Temple of Sansha 

was only made of stones except wood.A lot of curving was done by many high-level skills, and these skills were also used to make a pillar into three different layers.

     Taking the full-hearted sensation of the sacred beauty along with a bag of croissants (牛角麵包),wefinished the half-day trip and could not wait to share our feelings and delicacies with more and more people.

(photo by 蔡直芙)

Hello daddy!

It has been nearly a month since the last time I went back home.I found that I get used to the life in NCCU, and my homesick become more and more light. However, it does not mean that I do not care my family. The change means that a lot of things have filled my daily life, especially, in the first midterm for freshmen. Have to open the textbook again, deal with kinds of trivial thins, and sleep. Leave little time for my family. Last Sunday, my mom gave me a call, sharing something happened in home. Before she ended the call, she told me that” You should give Dad a call, he misses you very much.”

Indeed, I had not talked with my dad for a period of time. He is always busy in work. To not disturb his time of work or rest, I seldom call him. I think what he need is sufficient sleep, instead of listening to his daughter’s ordinary things, but the words my mom said reminded me the importance of communication with family. Therefore, today, I picked up the cell phone, dialed the phone, and said” Hello, Dad. ” His reaction to my unexpected call was a little shocked. Although in the short two-minute conversation we did not say much, I could still felt the warmth transmitted from the other end of the phone to me. November 20 was the day that I realized the importance of phoning my family because it can comfort me in the severe week of midterm.        

The Day Missing You

November 5 is my grandmother’s 74^th birthday. I really love my grandmother, and enjoy every moment with her company.Although my family does not live with her, we often go to the place she lives and talk with her, or just sit with her, watching her favorite drama together. 

Sadly, I missed this year’s opportunity to show my love and gratitude toward my grandmother. The reason was that I left for Taipei to start new my college life. Busy in mountains of difficult assignments, and various kinds of extracurricular activities, I could have little time to call back home. That was why I forgot my grandmother’s big day. Feeling sorry, I found that I often neglected to call back home leading to lose something ordinary but precious. As a student away from hometown, I often think of my family and sometimes feel lonely. But my grandmother lives alone as me, she spends most of her time alone, without children and grandson’s company. Even so, she still leads a fulfilled life. She does not make others worried about her, but is always worried about us. To relieve her worry, I think I should give her a phone call, give her late birthday wishes, and tell her that “I miss you, grandmother.”

Thanks to UN, we have PEACE!

 

Do you know the meaning behind October 24? It may be your best friend’s birthday, and the day is also the birthday of the world’s best friend. 64 years ago, United Nation, one of the most important international organizations was founded for maintaining the global peace, stimulating the economic development, and protecting the human rights.

Before the establishment of United Nation, few government view human right important. To strengthen their rights to rule, these governments started to give aggression to other countries by wars. We can easily see that the result of wars will be disasters, thinking of the terrible World War II. Refusing to make such a mistake again, governments of most all countries agreed to set an international organization to settle the international affairs reasonably instead of using violent means.

Half of a century passed, and UN has not only proved its ability to maintain peace but also made a lot of contribution in kinds of fields like education, medicine, and culture. Thanks to UN, we have peace, and have a better life. Let’s celebrate our good friend’s birthday on October 24, and be better citizens of the global village.        

 

The Ups And Downs Of A Newspaper Kingdom

                       On the day traced back to 269 years ago, a newspaper has been popular with people all over the English-speaking regions because it has uncovered a lot of secrets of celebrities and politicians, helping people know these people’s real faces. News of the World, a newspaper founded in the UK on  October 1, 1843, was one of the oldest newspapers. I became a great success in a short time. Everyone loved its various reports and the detailed description of the celebrities’ private lives. It made the masses’ hearts of curiosity fulfilled and stimulated their desire of peeping others’ covered lives. As a result, to boost the sales higher and higher, the newspaper officer went so far as phone-hacking and invasion of privacy. Its illegal behaviors had caused public outage especially after the reveal about a case of a murdered girl. Soon, the newspaper kingdom announced its failure declaration and ended it long history. When it comes to media freedom, I think it is hard to draw a clear boundary line between the responsibility of report and the invasion of privacy. Though the stories may satisfy the public’s thirst of knowledge, they may also invade others’ privacy. However, what important is that as receivers of media , we should judge the reality of reports rather than believe the words blindly. Therefore, there will be fewer and fewer persons to be hurt or manipulated by media.