GNU~~我的老山羊

Analects

bbbush — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 02:29:36 GMT

Just finished another round reading The Analects. It was part of BP Asian sequence. We used 5 weeks on Kongzi, and the next half would be Mengzi.

The translation we used was Edward Slingerland, published by Hackett. It is a beautiful copy of book, the print edition feels soft and comfortable in hand, while the ebook edition has represented the font size and margin changes accurately — very readable. However, when it comes to the occasional Chinese characters, the print edition is miles better than the ebooks. I thought the issue only happened in the abridged version of ebook, but it turned out the Chinese characters are frequently misplaced or mistaken in the complete edition as well. I'm not sure if submitting feedback has any use, since the intended reader might not read Chinese, such feedback might be the lowest priority..

As one of the Chinese students in the class, I have the advantage of being able to read more versions of commentaries. I read the English text first, then again the Chinese text, finally 丧家狗 by 李零. There is a website https://ctext.org/analects that also has link to full commentaries. The reason I enjoyed the Slingerland book was that it selected a few commentaries that were important. When we started I was wondering how can one select from hundreds of ideas — in 镜花缘 it was mentioned as hundreds, in 程树德 it was said to have 600 — and a hundred years nearly passed since that. If they all are similar but different, would it be necessary to associate with their time and occasion, to understand why? And that would require to understand the personal story of the 600 learners and teachers. It would be impossible. Well in the end I got to know more than when I started, maybe another iteration would yield even more. One should be satisfied by that. The attitude of Li also matches the discussion style of BP — we try to understand the author via text, we try not to deviate too much. So we are not treating Kongzi more special than other authors, not treating the text more special than other writings.

This round of reading, personally I would like to remember the meaning of a few Chinese characters, that has changed meaning a lot in modern usages. It would be absurd or misleading to use its nowadays meaning to parse the text. The class focused on the relations Kongzi with others. I named my son after the text, so I would rather figure out what is so good about Zhi (质，直) but to be honest I didn't get much more understanding. On the other hand, I had some thought on the relation between father and son — the word is "affection", and of course one would want affection between father and son. However, does this relation come naturally? To what extend can we inspect it, put it to test, or assert we have or have not lost it? Apparently it is part of the essence of father and son relations, and yet if we govern it with ritual, it cannot be explicit or unnatural. It is just awkward to say this father has a better relation with his son, while the other pair did not do as well because they did or did not do anything. It might be just their nature to have that distance.

I am surprised to learn that Kongzi as a teacher can give up on a student, and give up on certain group of human beings (下愚). When we think about him, usually it is 有教无类, means he would not mind teach petty person or women, as long as he is paid. But if the person did not seek his teaching, he would not say one word more about it. I believe in the end he even gave up on his best students, so that his comments on his students became labels that his students attacked each other with. It might take a lifetime to know oneself, and he might have realized that none of the teacher or students can reach the perfection.. But there are people who would not learn at all. At least learning is not a priority for such person. If everyone evaluates himself, "I am an above average driver", it is overestimating. If everyone believed they are smart, yet cannot learn from the past, cannot learn from other people, they fall to that group that Kongzi would give up. How many are there among us? By not giving a fuck to education, not give a damn about truth, work for salaries, and rage baiting online for personal gains, and mix up everything to form a new politically arresting society: who would realize their petty status? Scholars starve and die without notice, who would turn to them and start learning?

Technical Doc Writing

bbbush — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 21:35:07 GMT

I think I have been in the business of writing documents for long enough time, but the problem is still tough.

Problem one, what documents are needed? There are so many ways to categorize documents, and there are reasons to write them. But most times the reader is oneself, a self in the future; and occasionally the team has other members who have to take care of sh*t.

The best documents are still the ones better funded, who have the luxury to perform user analysis, and that have one domain to cover. Unfortunately most people's document would cover several domains: business, computer engineering, support, design.. Even the "design" domain has many levels, and it would be confusing to discuss high level architecture with a document that involves deployment — specific vendor technology like AWS.

Problem two, what documents are consumed by human, and what are consumed by the computers? Nowadays there is a third category, that are consumed by AI.

In the "matrix" way of classifying documents, a document is either theoretical or practical. The other dimension is that a document is either useful when one is studying or working. It feels that "working" is more practical, but I understand it talks about the depth and how detailed it can be. A fire drill followed by a training.

Problem three, how to remove false information. Bit-rot happens so frequently and so quickly, while useful information get purged as frequently (our Confluence wiki manager keeps purging pages that are not updated, especially those important design documents that were written years ago, describing important systems that were built to last. We also call it legacy systems.)

My experience:

— for the first problem, don't write documents, unless it is urgently needed. For example, if we need to discuss a design, then it definitely makes sense to write, specifically for that discussion. It is so helpful to discuss complex topics with a document (preferably a diagram), because at least one party in the conversation has given the sh*t some thought.

— for the second problem, just remember people would not learn these days. They don't even bother to watch free courses. If they need anything, just let AI read the codes and explain to them.

ℹ️ If there is a document, it has to be filled with emoji to mark which sentence is a warning, which is an alert _against_ doing something.

⚠️ Make it short, so that people would finish reading in a glance.

💡 It is easier to write document that is for computer to consume. That is, containing a lot of code snippets so that user can copy and execute. If it didn't work, add another emoji for how to recover from loss of data.

— for the third problem, whenever writing a decision, or a sequence of steps, or anything that is substantial, also add a timestamp. In the Confluence wiki, the shortcut is "//" and in Emacs Org-mode, it is C-c!

Someone told me that important documents should be archived in Sharepoint in addition to the internal wiki. That's good suggestion, Mostly I wrote in README.md now and upload to the code repos, still learning how to use Writerside.

马放南山

bbbush — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 12:16:34 GMT

Another school year is over. Another term is over. In the old Chinese saying, people (off-shift soldiers) put away their weapons (刀枪入库) and let go their horses (马放南山) who could easily take care of themselves.

That horse part reminds me of Shahnameh. We read the Dick Davis translation of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. When a hero finished fighting, he would let the horse go, and later recall it; nobody but the hero would be able to capture the horse, nobody can defeat the hero. But when the hero's life coming to its end, ~~it is the horse that got captured and killed first~~ they died together in the most ~~ignoble~~ unfortunate manner.

Shahnameh characteristics always have sad stories, no matter how excellent the person is, they always make questionable choices. If a hero would live and die that way, why a general human being would do better? In the class I praised the king who never stopped seeking for trouble, endangered himself and everyone. It is either admitting that human fallacy and be defiant, or conforming to the human fallacy and be destructive. The book also always present kings and their knights in conflicts. It is a rich book, sometimes custom and honor forced people to do things, sometimes greed and selfish, sometimes fear. It also has a mystical part (Simorgh) and a part of culture invasion (the White Demon). I wonder how we even finished reading and have time to discuss so many things at once.

So, this year's BP was good. It was the Asian series. I signed up mostly because I wanted to know new books, and it was satisfying. So far we touched Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam (why cannot we say Christianism and Islamism?)

Next year (the Asian series is like other alumni series, consists of 2 years of readings.) it would be Chinese, Japanese, I hope it is easier to catch up on the reading tasks. The past year was like the core ones — the books were fun, I often lost momentum when a book comes to the end and fail to read all the text. It is either something tiresome happening (most reading worthless web novels) or change of routines or both. Honestly these readings are so good that I should have re-read them, read them twice and take notes before the class discussion, etc. — but how can I give up on other things? I guess this question would bother me forever.

Now the class is over (more than a week now), I thought I would catch up on other things, like the magazines or refresher readings. But things happen really fast, and doom-scrolling was so easy and fun to lapse into. It requires a block of time doing nothing and taking devices away, in order to write anything; the habit of reading magazines or refreshing knowledge of computer, finance, the habit of picking up a book and finish it, can easily get lost.

I have accumulated two years of magazines to read. On the books of computer field, I might be too out of sync now. I only got one bookshelf and an overflowing table. Looking at any other people who own 4-5 bookshelves, or whoever processes 10-20 books in a single week, I just wonder how people can do that. Either read (and think) a wide scope of things, or go in depth, and never misses an episode of new things. How is it possible?

Last weekend was the THOTCON. For many years I have been enjoying the conference, but this year was the best. I got to talk to more people, even though I still don't know anything about hacking. The enthusiasm others show made me happy. They believe in what they are doing, and they seem skilled and have creative solutions and think critically.

On a side note, I have no idea I could use the word "think critically" — English is not my first language, and to think with proper reasoning is not my first language either. Usually we don't think "to reason" but just to live. It is a luxury to isolate the problem and prove them or solve them step by step.

Outline:

catch up on magazines

THOTCON

AI comparison

senior and junior

one ideology

what is debatable: China 1980

priority

broad vs specialized, people are different, people have feelings

kindness and practical sequence

curiosity, expectation, judgement: smelly face

"how to make friends" too many car sales? Does that mean lying is OK?

Resize a partition

bbbush — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 22:37:26 GMT

My laptop was re-partitioned to install Linux, but the partition size was not large enough. For a month or so I just don't want to touch it, but today I got to resize them.

The original partition: 1TB disk, 6 partitions (boot/FAT, Windows_reserved, Windows/NTFS, boot/EXT4, Linux/btrfs, Windows_recovery/NTFS).

The Linux/btrfs partition was about 30GB because in Windows, the NTFS can only shrink that much. And it was not enough. After today's resizing, the partition number didn't change, only size.

I thought I had to use a 3rd party tool to resize the partition because of some unmovable files. But I was wrong. The partition cannot be resized in Linux because of BitLocker. Once I turned it off, the GNOME Disks utility can resize it just fine. I was amazed by how well it went though. Full disk encryption would be a nightmare for users to disable and enable, had it been implemented by myself.. so many steps and they all could go wrong. But now it is just a matter of click twice. The keys are backed up in Microsoft account.

Next step is to move the /boot partition. I created a smaller partition, and because it is EXT4, "dd" seems to work best? The issue with moving /boot partition seems to be the UUID, which is referenced in many config files. After copying the filesystem content with "dd", the new filesystem has the same UUID as the old one. The filesystem labels will be copied as well, so one has to be careful which partition is being worked on. There is a "tune2fs" to set UUID. After verifying the new partition can boot and everything is fine, I deleted the old ones. There is also "resize2fs" that will automatically use the new partition size.

Before working on EXT4 partitions, it should be umount (or at least remount with "ro" flag). It is safe to umount /boot, but /boot/efi should umount first.

For the data partition, because it is btrfs, it is said that you can simply "add" the new device (partition), and the "remove" the old.

From the fstab and "mount" output, the same filesystem UUID is mounted to multiple mount points, it is quite confusing at first. When "add" or "remove" a device, the CLI asks for a <path> as the last argument. It turns out <path> can be any one of the mount points — in my case it is "/".

The operation to add/remove partitions do not affect the filesystem UUID. That is one less trouble to worry about — the fstab file does not require any changes before and after. (There is "btrfstune" to set UUID as well.)

After adding and removing partitions, the partition can be deleted and then the existing partition can be extended to occupy the available space, using "sfdisk". The utility can also re-number partitions after all the changes.

The GNOME Disks utility crashed when resizing the partition. The partition size was changed, but it would print some error messages. The "btrfs filesystem resize" cli worked fine.

The GNOME Disks shows the partition size in GB while the fdisk or "df" output in "G" which is GiB so size seems smaller (1TB becomes 930GiB). "sfdisk" can print if there is any un-partitioned space.

What replaces a king

bbbush — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:17:02 GMT

Democracy, of course! Why in doubt.

If you believed in that a king can grab the people by the pussy, I mean, if economy foundation determines politics, isn't that communist school of thought?

Nobody would contribute to a king to receive a better governance. There is no loyal servant, but people should control their own fate. Tocqueville thought a king might be what people wanted, and the US is just don't admit that until this day. Tocqueville said luckily the US branches are minding their own business, the ones who make policy do not interfere with execution until this day. Look! A king would kindly answer any request from loyal servant and punish defiant slaves today. Isn't Tocqueville a prophet or lack of imagination?

This is going to break up the central government hard and fast. Nobody would trust a central government if half of the nation want higher tariff for the well-beings of some people, and the other half of the nation want better living and lower cost, better international commerce conditions. I am not describing the economic cause of the civil war during Lincoln's time. It is perplexing because there is no crisis by most people's standards. It is more like disagreeing on how good or how bad things are, and suddenly a crisis is created through overreaction?

There is only one good thing left, which is the American way of negotiation. There is no pussy to grab, everything can be sold at the right price. If one realizes central government can only do that much, local government will try their best to stop the revenue from reallocation. Historically, whenever there is tariff or barrier, trading company like EIC becomes a necessity, so are pirates. There is basically nothing to collect, and nothing to tax with.

So far the king has not restricted free will so people are still migrating to new places to look for new dreams, and that makes a nation a whole economy unlike fragmented. People choose one place and implicitly agreed to the law and culture there (and die there because of their own choice). If on the other hand, not only people of a place refuses new immigrants, but also refuse people from other states, or refuse to go to another state and give up miserable life because everywhere is the same, watch out!

我怀念的

bbbush — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 18:35:39 GMT

Somehow my Spotify listening keeps changing since the new year. The piano album Spotify recommended was Beethoven sonatas by Wilhelm Backhaus (1884-1969). Then I was searching for some Korean songs, got a Korean OST playlist. Lastly some Yanzi Sun songs, which brought more and more Chinese singers in the old days. It had been a while since I listened to the game music, upbeat stuff, maybe due to foot injury and reduced running pace.

Apparently Wilhelm Backhaus was a big name. I wish I have learned music so that I could know more about music and musicians, but right now everything is new. Only a few records or musicians can be commercialized, winner takes all, and only a few people could see the trend, test water, and manipulate people's taste. When even such people fail to connect to the audience, 人力有时穷, the ancient knowledge is lost except in small circles around them.

What surprised me was the recording quality of the Wilhelm Backhaus album. From his age, recording technology was never as refined. Usually the sound would be full of noise, thin because it would lose all the details. But the album has rather fine details. The dynamic range seems comparable to any modern recordings. Somehow I wonder if this is remastered or fixed by AI/ML programs.

At this point it reminds me of an old album (Heifetz) that also surprised me in recording quality. It was mono. It was my first time buying expensive CDs back in Shenzhen, in Huaqiangbei. The audio/video equipment shop has a small CD collection for sale, and the shop owner suggested it might be too plain; but it turned out quite interesting and very moving.

Anyway, recording quality is what makes an album great. For some singers, I searched for the recordings. It was very disappointing especially for some live performances, nothing was clearly captured.

Another reason an album might be great, is the application of digital instruments. A midi sound library has limited capacity, and not everyone has access to the top line of products. Unlike instruments, sound library lacks variations. For one song, there is only limited chance to try some sound, and the ability to pick the best sound is again limited. Just imagine a conductor and music director has around 100 musicians at disposal, each a thinking being, which could easily create 128 tracks of sound — then compare to the capability of a top of line midi station: would one person spend a whole career's worth of effort, to refine a single track? — then come back to recordings. In the old days, due to the limit of processing power, I wonder if the "top-of-line" device can do anything fancy.

It is kind of sorry when newer music sounded better, just because of technology has advanced; while old music went out of print, even when they could sound really good, if they had the chance.

Same as the album covers. Before Y2k, there were not even high definition digital camera. The album covers back then has not enough details or contrast, full of noise. Anything that is not abstract themed now looks bad. Again, gems cannot be hidden but they are harder and harder to find, just because of this.

Last reason for an album to be great, is the ability for the singer to sing a different language. I don't think any "native" singer can have longer life than an "international" singer, simply for the sake of the depth, when we go back to the musician and inspect the relation between the musician and the music.

Again only "a few" people can introduce the new music styles from another culture, "test water" and make something a trend. Isn't that another thing to feel sorry about? Good music in one culture might be well received in another, or it might never get recognized except in a rather small circle.

I remember there were the debate whether music should try to associate with the Chinese culture, whether the western music were bad, especially the ones proliferated after WW2, get introduced to China after opening up. On one hand people enjoy Lisa Ono, on the other hand people debate if Jay Zhou is good or bad, and everyone got a voice back then.

That "back then" was now 25 years ago. Can you believe that? Back then I was not aware how good they are. Each and every singer has its reason to be popular, but I didn't understand. I was so ignorant and didn't have a way to learn. And somehow I didn't like it when others knew better. Maybe today I am still the same person, that is ignorant, still dislikes people who know better.

I think what helps me to accept all, is what I learned recently, that musicians have unimaginable ability to adapt. They have enough depth. The voice we hear is the one they chose to let us hear, but they could imitate any other voice and generate effects. They can sing all languages, go with all music genre, and instruments. They just choose what is more recognized, more impressive.

The landscape is better when they could sing more, have more ways to connect to listeners, either the listener know their hidden abilities, or just listen and connect to oneself.

The songs from 25 years ago were too good to be true. And since then I didn't even listen that much. There are some Spotify playlists that contain newer singers. I feel obligated to follow those and try to tell whether they are simply speaking in disguise, or high-end midi station in disguise, or there is any attempt to introduce western music genre, or if musician is making an effort to hide their natural voice and play with their abilities. Such is sweetness of listening in depth, I wish I had known them before.

I wish I had access to all music genre many many years ago. I wish I could stop disliking any music just because of one or two harsh sound, inferior recording or cover images, or a wrinkle or imperfect makeups of a singer. I wish I could accept all the differences, and can still tell the truth.

Back to Ms Sun, the beloved singer. Her songs were good, her voice was perfectly clear — much better sounded than we who speak Chinese better than English. Currently what I don't like, is the crying and the sense of being weak. Many songs were successful because it was so easy to connect to oneself, when one believes themselves being weak. But the songs were great for other reasons.

I totally don't like songs that focus on lyrics rather than music, when there is no variation at all in singing, when singer simply create tongue twisters. Catchy songs easily makes connection with listeners, tongue twisters were easy to grasp, as if the entire song is just A-B-A. The Chinese language has too strong sound for each character, and the easiest way is to fit all the down beats, right? Filling all the down and up beats with equal length sounds, that makes a song rather boring.

What replaces DEI (from gpt4o)

bbbush — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 21:29:02 GMT

This entire post is generated by AI.

Developing a complementary mandate that has a better cost and benefit trade-off after averting a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy often requires balancing the competing interests of inclusivity, fairness, compliance, and budget constraints. Here are some considerations and potential entities that might spearhead such initiatives:

### Likely Candidates for Creating Complementary Mandates:

1. **Human Resources (HR) Departments:**

- **Role**: HR departments are fundamental in crafting company policies that address the workforce's needs while balancing costs.

- **Potential Policy Focus**: Policies centered on workplace safety, non-discrimination, employee well-being, mental health support, and merit-based advancement.

2. **Legal and Compliance Teams:**

- **Role**: These teams ensure that any policy complies with current laws and regulations.

- **Potential Policy Focus**: Policies ensuring compliance with anti-discrimination laws, labor laws, and workplace safety regulations.

3. **Executive Leadership:**

- **Role**: Executive leaders set the tone and direction for company culture and policy priorities.

- **Potential Policy Focus**: Initiatives focusing on leadership development, ethical conduct, and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

4. **Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committees:**

- **Role**: These committees often focus on the broader impact of company policies on society and the environment.

- **Potential Policy Focus**: Policies promoting community engagement, environmental sustainability, and equitable practices.

5. **Finance Departments:**

- **Role**: Finance teams evaluate the cost implications of potential policies and their financial trade-offs.

- **Potential Policy Focus**: Cost-efficient employee benefit programs, financial incentives for performance, and budget allocations for training and development.

### Example Complementary Mandates:

1. **Workplace Safety and Well-Being Programs:**

- **Focus**: Create a safe and supportive work environment.

- **Benefits**: Reduce workplace accidents, enhance employee morale, and increase productivity.

- **Costs**: Investment in safety training, mental health resources, and ergonomic equipment.

2. **Non-Discrimination and Ethical Conduct Policies:**

- **Focus**: Ensure fair treatment for all employees and adherence to ethical standards.

- **Benefits**: Promote a positive company reputation, reduce legal risks, and foster a respectful work culture.

- **Costs**: Implementation of training programs and regular policy reviews.

3. **Merit-Based Advancement Programs:**

- **Focus**: Promote employees based on performance and skills.

- **Benefits**: Encourage high performance, retain top talent, and improve overall company performance.

- **Costs**: Development of fair evaluation criteria and performance metrics.

4. **Work-Life Balance and Flexible Work Arrangements:**

- **Focus**: Support employees in achieving a balance between work and personal life.

- **Benefits**: Increase job satisfaction, reduce turnover, and enhance employee well-being.

- **Costs**: Potential adjustments in scheduling and investment in remote work technology.

5. **Talent Development and Continuous Learning:**

- **Focus**: Provide opportunities for employee growth and development.

- **Benefits**: Enhance skill levels, improve job satisfaction, and prepare employees for future roles.

- **Costs**: Investment in training programs, workshops, and development resources.

### Conclusion:

The most suitable entity to develop complementary mandates with favorable cost and benefit trade-offs will depend on the specific context and needs of the organization. By leveraging the expertise of HR, legal, executive leadership, CSR, and finance teams, organizations can create balanced policies that promote a positive and productive work environment while managing costs effectively.

Rama

bbbush — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 18:18:58 GMT

Start reading Ramayana.

How to read a book? Starting from obtaining one. I live in such good times that for any books I need to read, there are so many versions to use. The other day I had to read "Life of Buddha" or Buddhacharita by Aśvaghoṣa, the first canto. Patrick Olivelle's translation is printed as a very beautiful very neat book, which you can hold dearly by your heart. I also found the PDF version. Then the book mentioned the old translation of E.H. Johnston, which was published in 1936 or so. Luckily there are PDF files from the Internet Archive, and the scanning was from a book that was donated to some institute in India. I also came across an Indian government website that provided download and PDF viewing of some buddhism text. The last version I located was from the 中华电子佛典协会(CBETA) project — 佛所行赞, or T0192 — once that is found, I saw two copies of the same text in WeChat Read as well. By itself didn't mean much, but WeChat Read has a large library and can recommend related books. From that on and on.

There are so many threads for a book, by printing, translating, storytelling, editing. What we receive is one or two copies that may be significant. The original might still be somewhere, like the Bible; or maybe the best one can get is the one written down, like Valmiki's Ramayana. I've got required version from BP. The translator Arshia Sattar was very contented of the work, comparing it to the Princeton version by Robert P. Goldman and others. There is also "for Children" version by Arshia Sattar. I should feel lucky when the Basic Program helped to choose such a version. On my hands I also have the R.K. Narayan version (Kamba Ramayana), also samples of Linda Egenes, and Bibek Debroy. I'm pretty sure William Buck is there too. Which one do I like better? Can I even tell the difference? One thing is for sure, BP would prefer a version associated by UChicago, or endorsed by Wendy Doniger. Read the beginning of it:

— Princeton/Goldman: "Valmiki.. questioned Narada, bull among sages.. (who is the bull?)

— Debroy: "Narada was a bull among sages.. Valmiki asked him"

— Narayan was a different version so Valmiki is out, Kamban is in.

— Sattar: ".. Valmiki was a bull among men.. said to the eloquent Narada.."

— Egenes: ".. Valmiki.. was eloquent in speech.. Suddenly his own illustrious teacher, Sage Narada, appeared to him.. Do you have a question? asked Narada"

— Buck: ".. Valmiki searched through the world.. Valmiki sat inside the anthill for thousands of years.. Narada flew from heaven to Valmiki and said, Can you help me?.."

Totally bewildered right? It is a traveling journal, where every city or town has a story. One establish near a grove or in a wood, lots of stories. It reminds me the vocation trip to the south! Everyone got their own special memories of trips. American Gods is also this kind. What is the beginning of that?

I might be taking the story to literal and read like a child. The story might be simple, but adult read the deeper meanings, what is not written. Adult readers make connections and bring in baggage that author didn't intend to say. There is a need to understand the author, if you follow BP's approach.

It is too difficult to follow the approach as there is no way to prove it right or wrong. "Yes", our dear teacher said. With group discussions, everyone's opinion might be correct and acceptable interpretation.

I think I enjoy the exploring more than read in depth. I hoard books, not read them by heart. I collect stamps, or browse wikipedia, read maps, but don't even understand the text as sentences. I need visual clue, and I need a way to organize thoughts, as why this guy could say that in certain condition. (But now things are said by different people in different versions.) And it becomes confusing after a while — typically at the end of 10-week term, it may feel like everyone has said enough. Exploring or understanding, or extrapolating. I was not paying enough attention but just flipped the pages, the story did not really move me, the logic or ethics I didn't really understand. How to change that..

Running through 2024

bbbush — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 23:50:19 GMT

For any sports there is a cycle of training and harvesting. Peaking and decline, maybe.

Running must be the simplest sports of all. So simple that not much is invested to standardize terms and methodologies. Everyone can start running after walking is fully mastered. It is a Chinese saying that you have to learn how to walk then how to run, followed by how to fly. Because nobody has mastered how to fly yet, maybe the wisdom of the first part is doubtful as well.

In 2023 all I did was two HM and then running 5K for almost every week — thanks to the Chicago Parks District and CARA, the GoRun event series were so good. It is very good training. At the end of 2023, I decided a formal training would be helpful, so I joined CARA Winter HM trainings, got my first Garmin watch, also started a Strava paid membreship. At the beginning of 2024, I already became so invested — I signed up for so many running events throughout the year. It felt as if I was substituting the CSO subscriptions with monthly races.

The reward of taking Winter HM training and Summer Marathon training, was a good outcome of my first Chicago Marathon. In fact, every race makes me wonder if that is my fastest. And I have to thank Min Cheng for his encouraging words: you will do better, that is for sure! There is always room to improve. Of course I also want to thank Dan, Darren, KJ, KB and all other running buddies, trainers and volunteers. They are always around and I feel safe running with the group. There is always some healthy attention and competition, always kind words and friendship. I think that is making the training less boring.

So more scientific approach is necessary. I think it might be helpful to define terms, also associate medical and autonomy terms to running ones. Even if the training is individualized, the mechanics of muscle and bones follow some physical rules, right?

Lenovo P14s

bbbush — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 20:00:46 GMT

Just got a new laptop, Lenovo P14s

JY already observed a pattern that I would buy computers from time to time. Actually every two or three months. I am happy he has got a good observation. And I am even more satisfied because my computers are getting "better", from a few GB of memory to now 64GB memory, from having to buy another SSD right away to having 1TB pre-installed in either Steam Deck or the new laptop.

Let's say it is just a smaller version of buying a car at retirement. Or rather, find satisfaction before getting too old.

I am quite satisfied by this one — it is less buggy and seems faster, and the device is warm to the touch. Precision 5540 is nice but rpm-ostree is exceedingly slow with nvidia modules, and inside and out are sharp and cool, which is good for external monitor/keyboard setup, but not for sitting in bed.

I installed F41 Silverblue and wanted to try Bluefin as well. So far I ran into some issues but Reddit or SO gave answers. The first issue was that the Microsoft CA was disabled in the BIOS, and there was an explanation that it was expected since 2022. The second issue was that keyboard was not detected during first start, which is solved by a kernel parameter. The other issue was that Windows cannot shrink NTFS partition more because the $Mft::$Data file cannot be moved. TIL there is such a file — and on this laptop, sysinternals can print file location and reserved size — and it is indeed at the end of the partition.

Also TIL there are many polished software in Flatpak. Previously I only tried to install stuff in toolbox, as rpm-ostree was intolerably slow; never checked the Flatpak repo. From Bluefin's documents, I see options of using Homebrew as well, also some other interesting parts. I don't doubt that the same can be achieved without a new laptop — but a laptop with healthy battery and comfortably used in bed gives more satisfaction.

The software installed for now:

— Shortwave, for internet radio, actually behaved better than TuneIn — I can listen to multiple KBS channels.

— Tuba, for subscribing to both Mastodon and Threads.net.. I only follow two or three people and they all enabled Mastodon

— Gapless, a nice music player. Since I got Spotify, I have not listened to anything locally.

— Foliate, a reader app

— Gapher. Some terms are unfamiliar there.

Shout out to Rainbo Skates

bbbush — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 02:40:32 GMT

As a bad skater I always wanted new boots.

In October I finally got my Jackson FS2192 from Rainbo, but I disregarded their good advices and settled on a larger size (Men's 8) at the first sight. It was pressing hard on the ankles, I thought it might go away after some breaking-in, but once I got on the ice, it was hurting me so much whenever I tilted or glide backwards. I only skated a short while and spent more time tying and re-tying them.

Today I spent whole two hours to try different sizes, put them on and off, walked around, tried to feel them. My foot was measured 7, left foot being smaller, and I used to wear JS1592 size 7.5 — Both size 7.5 and 7 of FS2192 actually felt better and squeezed/pressed less hard than the size 8 pair. Eventually settled on the size 7 ones. All the time people at Rainbo were very helpful and offered good advices, encouraged me (and all the kids coming in for shoe-fitting) a lot. They were very proud of their work and how unique they were: the only place in state for certain services. I heard a lot of stories in the most recent visits, and I wish their business doing well.

Rule of thumb:

make appointments and better leave enough time for travel and shoe-fitting. One hour before closing time would be too much hurry.
trust professional opinion. The size of foot changes from morning to evening, and running can also affect foot size (for running I wear size 9.5 and about 35mi per week)
try all sizes and understand what is the feeling of good/bad fit. If possible experience more models and sizes.

I remembered that once a parent blamed the child really hard for unwilling to size up. One pair of shoes for that level was nearly a thousand, so I understood the parent and also always did the same to my own kid.. but now I felt their pain.

In the running club, occasionally we have the chance to try on brand shoes and run for an hour or so. If only skates can be tried like this! Unfortunately skates have not progressed so far as running shoes. If a "super shoes" business model is applied to skates, making them highly technical, have a ultra short but performant life, would that be of any appeals?

x-posted at https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/1gjwdle/shout_out_to_rainbo_skates/

Apocrypha

bbbush — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 04:22:23 GMT

I was always interested in the Apocrypha piece but never dug into it. Recently with a little tuition cost I was able to catch a BP session dedicated to that — it was a very informative 10 weeks.

BASC70248 - The Apocrypha and other Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period(400 BCE to 100CE)

The BP course was regarding the 2nd temple period and Hellenization of Judaism, and it covered the history from the end of Athene empire to some time after Jesus' time. Honestly that sentence contained so many things I had no idea of. In BP courses, we studied Thucydides (the Landmark Series), also touched some Roman history from Shakespeare and Plutarch. For early Christianity BP had some books too (Augustine). The Apocrypha course was supposed to connect Jewish literature and New Testament, the instructor Stephen Hall was quite knowledgeable on such topics — I can only infer from the past 10 weeks — I believe the other sessions would equally be enjoyable.

The difficulty of Apocrypha was that it was not translated to Chinese. Even though the NRSV bible had included all the text, I just could not push myself into it. Before taking the class, the only thing I knew was that Maccabees were written in Greek, and for sure I would read it some day. After taking the program, not only my curiosity was satisfied, but I also think the Roman history was made accessible. The history of any region or culture is a huge opaque piece to tackle. To learn something, to know the connections, one has to start somewhere. I am glad that I can somehow open a window this time.

I am not taking the NT sessions, but would take the Asian series in the fall. Similarly, curiosity makes that decision. Even if I cannot finish reading all the material (twice in the 10 weeks I fell behind), or if I cannot express myself in the discussion (usually the case, I can at best give one idea or ask one question per session..) the education so far has been good. It has been good for me, similar to other trainings.

Traveling Runner

bbbush — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 05:45:53 GMT

The two weeks day off was very helpful. First week was staycation, I remember going running and then to the gym and then having ample time to stretch and recover. The second week was vocation, and similar to the trip last winter, I ran a lot.

I was having a few ideas looking back, first one being that how much time was spent on each activities. Monday I was running HM distance, then cycling, then drove 6h to MN, then another 2h cycling. Tuesday was all running/walking, 3h in the morning, 2h at noon, then 2h in the MIA (an eye opening museum, Institute of Art), finally 1h for a group run (Mill City Running). Wednesday, too tired for anything, so just 2h cycling around the lakes, then another 1h in St Paul, driving for 4h to Madison. Yesterday, spent 1h in trail running, another 1h in track running (McKee Farm Park at Fitchburg), 4h walking in UW-Madison, 2h driving home. Today: 1h running, 1h workout and stretching, 1h cycling and rest.

It was fun experience to run in a different city, but the time was not balanced. When traveling it was not possible to find quality tracks, and no chance to use a gym, so workout has to be interrupted. I imagine a triathlon athlete would find more difficulties.

But running in a different city is all necessary. The land in Chicago is just too flat, and the routes too familiar. I wonder if muscle memory can play a role here. In a different city, the adrenaline is elevated without a race. If I could afford it, I would really like to do the winter trip and summer trip again. The southern cities have good hills, and the west ones have beautiful trails and lakes. To constantly feel the difference with home city, to think the reason why one city prefers this route of development and another city prefers that, to measure a city with footage, to appreciate the beauty and condemn the ugliness. One must have countless words to say after such. And all pain or tiredness would be forgotten.

Driving was such a large part of a trip. It made me wonder whether I "rested" only when I drove. If taken that way, maybe driving is something I should try to enjoy and appreciate as an experience. I listened to podcasts in the trip, then some music. During the winter trip, it was all Ella Fitzgerald and only that one CD, and we eventually listened to it so many times to feel excited about it when we encounter her songs again. I tried to use cruise well, to place myself against the traffic flows. Sometimes it was just peaceful, and sometimes there were "episodes" of traffic got congested and people try to get out. I kind of enjoy it now, to have the cycle of relaxed driving and then some tensions. Watching the cars interact or interacting with them, making conversations, let the time flow easily. I believe my driving skill is still bad, and I still don't know how to communicate with lights or horns, there are still many driving etiquette to learn. At least I can cruise!

No matter how much breaks one takes, the remaining driving time is the same. It is a sad fact that applies to our work, too. There got to have some hard work to do, and I tend to spread the work too long, thinking we might generate a different outcome.

Past Tense

bbbush — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 05:09:15 GMT

Recently I paid a lot of attention while writing in Strava. Because it was always regarding a just finished activity, I tried to record something interesting, it had to be past tense. And that made me aware how I had tended to make grammar mistakes.

Summer had past. The most important indication was Retro on Roscoe, the big block party I had been waiting for a year. What did I do was just selling beer, 3.5 hours in the "Rush hour" on Saturday, and 2.5 hours of low traffic on Sunday. I didn't drink much myself. The weather had been cooler since and the grass showed yellow patches. I took two weeks time-off because at the end of summer break, there actually had no camps anywhere. JY was finally "free" from all camps and activities and could claim some free time, and I thought it would be a great idea to keep him accompanied/occupied, maybe to take a vocation like last time (the Boston memory was still sweet.)

No it was not the case. A teenager can be occupied by anything from reading to gaming, JY can sit in front of a screen for days for his "work" in the game jam. The least thing a teenager want is to be occupied by what he or she is told to do. Unfortunately I am the kind of parent that is hypocritically stringent in terms of enforcing kids behavior. The things I have tried to force on him, include reading specific books, running specific distance, going to concert at specific time, and punishing by removing screen time immediately if anything went wrong. And JY would always fall into a sullen state, lay in bed doing nothing, until the next reinforcement of relationship crushing mandate cometh in the way of running extra miles.

People who have good temper are also wise. They are smart enough to foresee that anger would not change anything (one step ahead of animal instincts), and foresee the consequence of anger which would be really bad for family and kids growth (many people can do this too), and already have a better plan to get out of the confrontation (not many people can do this), and can decide whether to go ahead with the corporal punishment anyway because that is sometimes required to establish authority, and can still look for better models of education (a true leader would always look higher and hope better achievement.)

I would say I am at the first level: animal instincts. Even if the though process simulation has been done so many times, where one can easily pick something from the armory, would it be so possible if the kids just turn a deaf ear? Would the kids withhold their true feelings and decide to say nothing help?

Most people are baseline players. They set a moral baseline, the agreement of platonic good. The moment kids don't agree with you and consider doing good is against them, kids become uneducable. When people believed that abortion is against god's will, of course that is valid point. From the history we knew god prefers a huge family tree with well recorded bloodlines, even if only one branch would be the "chosen" one and precious. We also know from the societal fact that the earth is producing more than the population and the nation is producing more than enough to keep everyone occupied. Those are the physical condition that makes safe heaven possible and the reason city can be sanctuary of all sorts. Same arguments for the universal healthcare: as long as you understand someone has to pay for it, then healthcare is just like school lunch, where physically can afford it and it is good charity because without school lunch some people would starve for real, without healthcare people would not have quality life. Many people dislike school lunch and bring their own, but such family cannot direct the school district to spend lunch money for their own kids education. Can people reach any agreement on the two aspects, physical condition and charity? We don't have to go out ask everyone about higher goals or practice the same argument with everyone at their own steps of the same thinking process. People who don't have rights to dictate the resource allocation in this society have been punished enough.

Lollapalooza

bbbush — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 05:40:08 GMT

Three days after the event, my ears still could hear the heavy beats.

Many years ago a friend at work took days off to watch Lollapalooza. Instead I just watched at home on Hulu. There were maybe 3 channels live-streaming, and switching between channels or play them all together was really convenient.

This year, Peacock live-streamed the Paris 2024 Olympics with a 4-in-1 view. The main view has the sound, and one can choose any of the views to watch full-screen. Lollapalooza can totally do this. Or I suppose one can pay for VIP+ and stay in a lounge all day long, they must have screens for all stages in all angles, and the sound would be perfect.

Take the opposite of that, it basically summarized my first live experience. I decided to give up the couch and join the live frenzy. I was taking a stay-cation, it only made sense to check out the most important local event in my city. AND it was a rest day from running, I got plenty spare time (other than to catch up with the BP readings.) So as early as 11am I was already at the door.

Sunday was the last day of the 4-day event. The weather was brutal, predicted at 90F without any clouds. As a runner I was confident, but how about others? I was so happy to find cooling stations and hydration stations immediately. The cooling system had huge fans blowing mist of water, and there were many of them. Generally I found equipment like this and beer/food and rest rooms very adequate and satisfactory. Whenever I felt thirsty, I could find a beer tent right away. There were 4 strips of food suppliers lined up along the main passage. The variety of them felt like a "Taste of Chicago" event, also there were separate "dessert villages". It was quite convenient, maybe too convenient, to associate the wrist band (NFC chipped) to a credit card, and then wherever one needed to pay for anything, just scan it. The default "tip rate" was quite high: a beer after tax and tip was $17. It was just too convenient to even change the amount of tips.

Some people said they walked 14mi on a single day at Lollapalooza. I didn't know that before I went. Oh my how much walking was it! The timetable showed concurrent programs, however walking from one venue to the other was such a waste of time. The south end had a main stage (T-Mobile) and a DJ stage (Perry's), it was about 5 minutes to walk between them. The north end also had a main stage and a side stage. Between the north end and the fountain, which was the middle point, there was a small stage (BMI) of big fame. The BMI stage also had the best shade of all, by the way. One could almost see the other main stage from the middle point or from another, but walking between them took at least 15 minutes (0.6mi)

Then the best strategy would be just go to one's favorite band, grab the best spot and never leave, risk dehydration or heat exhaustion. Unfortunately I didn't do my research and didn't have a favorite either — my purpose was to sample all the flavors. It felt more and more like going to a conference, be it either technical or finance focused. At a conference, the rooms were always so far apart, and one had to choose what to attend and what to give up. It was quite possible the musical event was organized in a similar way, except that not all programs started at the same time. Main stages had longer programs, and it took more time to setup. The extra time would allow people to walk over and form a nice crowd. After "sampled" a few programs I was completely exhausted. To be honest, I really prefer classical music where only one program can be played at a time. All the music sounded the same to me, especially at the DJ stage: whenever I walked by, all day long I could only hear the same transition piece, as if they used the same synthesizer.

One big reason I didn't enjoy it much, was that I got myself a pair of "party plugs". I was so proud of the decision b/c I didn't want to lose my hearing after a day of blast. But it also made all bands sound the same. It also had an interesting effect at the "T-mobile" main stage: only the main singer was audible, the other singers in the band completely lost voice. It could be me or it could be some technical issue, but the J-anime singers just sounded terrible, and then the PTV band — oh my. P was amazing, but the other band member was just screaming without sound coming out. It was so silly and funny, the singer got so excited, I could see their twisted face on the big screen, but I couldn't hear anything.

The bands I watched and liked: one of the guitarist in Good Kids, or maybe the entire band was amazingly alive; the PTV band esp. the drummer; the Venezuela girl and the British both interacted with audience a lot. On the DJ stage, ZD was the last one and had so many light effects, the music mixed with old video tapes and faded pretty well.

教学相长

bbbush — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 05:07:09 GMT

To echo David's reflection on the BP experience.

I totally agree with him that this is a beginning not an end. I got two things, both are recognition of sorts. First is the teaching methodology. I did some searches for the Great Books, and found that the methodology is being trained and sold as a wholesale solution, and the audience would be classrooms and schools. I also found two schools that applied the books in rigorous or credit programs — one is the Wilbur Wright college, that has a list of 270 books, have numerous credit classes for many subjects. The other is Shimer college which historically was affiliated with UChicago, but now is part of North Central College in Naperville. I heard that the credit program of UChicago is also quite good. Then what would be common for all of them? What is the difference from reading any book — why the selection by Alder, or generally classic text? And why it has to cover vast area of human knowledge including math and physics, why those in particular? Then in the form of program: the students would not read all books, how to reduce it to 4-years and yet have enough coverage? If any books can be omitted, I wonder how "practical" to create a fine collection for every student. But it seems do-able in the case of GB Foundation, where selections of text are recommended as well. Lastly is the form of classroom. I cannot help but to notice how BP instructor withhold answers or point people to topics and clues. When people engaged in the discussion, it seems the most satisfactory moment for the instructor. Maybe the instructors are doing that all the time (other than to rephrase students' questions.) However, just how come it is so easy for every instructor to develop their own style, yet do the same thing?

Another recognition is that it might be a good choice to start with BP, where both selections and full text are read; but for myself who is not a native English speaker, it is too demanding to read many of the texts. To read something in depth, I might have to start from middle school and high school readings, catch up from those. Or I can still stay in the program, and spend more time read difficult text, hoping one day I can be good at it without the basic trainings. I doubt it though, if anything not already taught in Chinese, I would not know how to see it. If an stylistic/rhetorical device shows up in English, would I be able to recognize it? Not the case for poems at least — before the teacher told us those patterns of AB-AB, CD-CD, etc.

Same and Different

bbbush — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 17:25:57 GMT

求同存异

The words strike me as wars going on, as another election cycle is close, as people with radically different opinions try to eliminate the other instead of the problem.

I tried to think of an image for this topic, and of course there are several infant books already. Some dramatic distinction of white and black! Lo people on the other side of world walks upside down! No I don't think kids' books can describe the "same" experiences. Mostly are different, mostly are indifferent.

Human Family by Maya Angelou

Comments & analysis: I note the obvious differences / in the human family. / Some of us are serious, / some thr

allpoetry.com

LTAC quote of the day was "Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations." and there was also Maya Angelou's poem, "Human Family". Recent BP program was regarding poems, so this poem caught my eye naturally.

I believe the more experience one has, the more one can find the subtle difference among the different people. Something like to find a friendly face among strangers. If all your understanding is that they speak a different language, they have different customs, you are ignoring the dialects and individual preferences. You may be watching the same Internet memes and laugh together easily, you may be build your life's work, collect your fair rewards in the same way, you may even work towards the same goal.

No school November

bbbush — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:48:47 GMT

November is great for kids, for it is a preview what's to come in December.

Haven't written anything for almost two months. In October I decided to get a Garmin watch, and did receive it and started running like crazy. After that, for the Thanksgiving shopping season, I got two more watches and returned the first one, regrettably creating some e-waste. LZ did not like it so that one was returned anew. The one I am keeping is Garmin FR955, which is a last generation of MIP display, and quite light and comfortable. I believe it is the best balance for runners.

What a Garmin watch (with its outdated app environment) can give you:

— nervous when the battery runs out. My last watch was CASIO for about $10, and its battery runs for who knows how many years.

— nervous when heart rate is high or low, or pace is high or low.

— candidate routes, also route back to start point. This is kind of my favorite, since I would not have followed such routes and just go for whatever seems interesting, but as the joke said when you have run too far, you'll have to take a Uber back. Now it is safe and easy to choose route of any length!

— music without cell phone. For the first month I did this pretty much for every run, but now it is cold outside, I don't think music is that important.. Anyway the favorite music is still "Swinging Bach" for about 3h, or "Cuphead OST" for about the same length.

— certainty of pace and distance. I was troubled by how many miles and how much time I need, but now I got a lot more certainty. Running to the nearby neighborhood is only 3mi, and going to the lake short trail only takes that much time, etc.

— community and kudos on Strava

— training plans. I have signed up for CARA winter training but without a paid training plan, the built-in one or the Connect coach are good too. The challenges and Strava events look motivating, but I think a reminder of "rest days" is assuring.

— subscriptions

— AI

— readings

— predictions

Immature game

bbbush — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 22:56:41 GMT

Message to the maker of "Throw Bricks at Pedestrians Simulator Deluxe"

Hi- as an adult player this is my opinion:

First of all, the idea of the game is immature. It is not suitable for any serious consideration, because nobody should throw bricks at pedestrians. Even when it is funny as hell, the idea is not enough to support a good/great game.

There could have consequences once this game is used to judge your personality. If you enjoy this game, people may say you have a base preference of fun over life. If you make the game, it is even worse because your cleverness can be applied to something more fun and useful. The game probably cannot be part of your resume or cover letter, no matter how many followers you gain on social media and won how many friends. Worse still, if it was indeed included as reference material by a reviewer or hiring committee, it may change their attitude in a subtle way.

For that reason I understand the original author's willingness to severe the ties to this game. I also understand the developer's choice, if the developer choose not to follow suit. One should make choice for himself or herself, not doing something if others were doing it. That said, can we look at the game if it is suitable for, let's say Steam, or if it can be profited from at all? Is it ethical to support such a game, assuming the developer is not a bad person, but have paid effort to improve the program, visual and interaction? Because the game is basically applying Newton's laws, rewriting using Godot as a platform. The developer does not have the ability to change the storyline or texture (for example, throw something else to someone else, kill zombies, etc. and do not involve gunman as the first measure.) To me it is not a good reason to believe the developer should profit from it. To become a Steam-worthy game, it has to be much, much better, having fresh ideas and artwork, completely rewritten storyline so that the play will not stop at the player's death punishment.

I know there are much more horrors in real life, and there are unspoken rules in movie and game making, that such idea "take pleasure in watching innocents suffer" would never be treated lightly. It is true the storyline followed the movie's tradition, that the bad guy will be punished at the end. And we can see similar examples in movies and other games. That is the sole reason this game can exist and the author can be proud about it. Injuring pedestrian is never acceptable in real life, and I trust the developer would never do so even by his/her current immature moral standard. Rather, having fun and make friends say "wow" are having their full focus. For the same reason, internet bullying may worry someone, but such immature personality may not realize he or she is bullying or getting bullied. The game would probably have little impact to anyone's life, but it is the interaction that may leave someone unhappy. That is contrary to the goal of the developer, to make people laugh, isn't it?

To withdraw game because of negative review is same as self-censorship. Same as banned-books, the game has its own value, and the punishment received by the player cannot be replaced by moral educations. We all agree that the idea of the game is improper, it would be up to the developer to decide how to improve it. That said, the developer should NEVER mark the game for sale, for commercializing a game requires mature mind and clear knowledge what is allowed, what is not in the society. Unless a game is acceptable by most people, it should not be published, because it is the developer's privilege to reach more people, then it is the developer's responsibility to make conscious decision and bring the public only good.

Shoes

bbbush — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 02:49:01 GMT

After running for a couple of years I feel myself a pro on shoes.

The running shoes have some distinct features for running. I got Saucony Guide 14 in 2022, in the beginning I didn't quite like it, for it feels weird in the rain, also the shape of toe box is rectangular like of a boot. Coming from heavily cushioned shoes (Skechers, I mean) the sole of Guide 14 was stiff, not as comfortable. But now I am used to it — the Skechers were too heavy compared to it, and any shoes that is unfriendly to flat foot were thrown away, any shoes that change shape while running is also out of the question.

Guide 14 is good because of the toe box. I used to have blisters but not anymore. It might also be that I started to run more. When running, cushion is important, but having enough room for the foot is as important. My friend even suggests to buy shoes half size larger because the foot changes size during the day. It swells so much in running a marathon — I have not run a marathon, but I believe what he said.

Today I just unboxed a new pair of Saucony Guide 16. The design has changed, with the toe part more "sharp" like other shoes, and it feels narrow with my usual pair of cushioned socks. It might be that the new shoes need some break-in. After a 5-mi run it was not bad, but only time will tell.

The sole is supposed to be two parts, I read from an article, because runners usually have two ways to touch down, either mid-front foot or heel. If the front is not flexible then it would be unnatural when touching the ground; but the mid-back part should be rigid so that the foot can be lifted as a whole. And I remember the article mentioned a test — try to bend the shoes. It should bend at the front area, but not bend at all from mid to back. That makes it feel more like dress shoes though? I think some oxford shoes have a thin and long metal piece in the middle, making it quite rigid.

I read that some shoes can be springy, because the use of carbon fiber. Just wonder how that feels like.

The construction of trail shoes would be different, I guess, it might need to have thicker soles, and be non-slippery, waterproof, etc. Then the separation of front and mid parts might not be as clear?

Lastly is the support — the most important piece for a flat foot. My understanding is that the "support" comes in two components, one is the medial post part of the sole, and the other is the heel. For everyone else, the heel should be snug too. I think in skating or roller skating world, the "support" only refers to the heel protection. For a skater, maybe flat foot is not a problem as in the runners' world.

The foot doctor showed me how to properly tie running shoes — make use of all the holes so that the heel can "hug" more. There is a separate "stability ribbon" on Guide 16, controlled by the shoe laces, that I suppose serve the same purpose — also seen on Nike shoes and rollerskate shoes. But the doctor's advice is still helpful, I think I need to tie my shoes that way.

Some articles were contradictory. Some says rotation is fine and whatever stability can be compensated. Some are as if correct stability is the only thing that makes it healthy. I would like to think it as something related to how much experience a runner have — how much the runner can maintain correct posture during running. A new runner may get tired quickly, and it is more likely to get injured; while an experienced runner can avoid getting too tired to maintain posture, or can maintain the posture after being tired. A new runner may complain about all injuries, while experienced runner may "tolerate" minor issues. Lastly, a new runner may need to develop some muscles, while experienced runners have developed cross-training routines to make sure core muscles and thigh muscle (knee control) are in good status, heel tendon is properly stretched and relaxed, foot tendon is not inflaming, and bones do not have hairline fractures.

Every brand has some supportive/stability shoes. Saucony Guide is often listed with some others, HOKA Arahi, Asics, On, etc. If a brand gives too many models, it soon becomes confusing. It would be nice to list the "scores" as in the skating shoes. But again even for skating shoes, I don't think the "scores" are portable across brands.

I used to wear Nike Structure. It was long ago, I cannot remember the feeling. At that time I was not used to running, and knees were having problem after maybe a few miles. It might be related to the weight of the shoes.

Lighter shoes is not necessarily better for your health. Lighter shoes have less cushion, and the heel is not as supportive, so either Achilles or knees will get tired. But it did feel good because it feels like running with bare feet. On the other hand, the tap shoes must be heavy to have great sound, and with light foot it is more difficult to develop the muscle for tap dancing.

All my workout are foot works.

Language

bbbush — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 17:14:06 GMT

In Ch.17 of the book "How to Read a Book", "How to read science and mathematics", there is a quote that I find the most interesting. It was Lavoisier, "Elements of Chemistry", and the quoted text said that a science subject is possible when there are facts, ideas, and words. Without words one cannot describe the ideas. Without ideas there cannot have created the words.

That is very helpful to deal with the singularity or information proliferation. Back in the days of college, for the subject we studied, there is a dedicated language course. If you are not in the field, you would not speak that language; and every time a new framework or process or concept shows up, new words are added to the pool. So a preamble class on the language, a subset of English used in the computer science and technology field, was necessary. When we studied new aspects of computing, we are constantly expanding the vocabulary.

Similarly when we studied finance, the first year was almost a language class. The subset is quite limited when one is taking econ, then another subset in financial statements, then investment. The math is limited in a Pre-algebra level. Yet the language stuck. When you describe new stuff like trading, planning, digital assets, you are adding those into the same thinking model. As long as the words are limited, it is OK to add them piece by piece.

The difficulty right now is nobody writes good books, and nobody reads good books, for a new topic. Nothing is "definitive" to fluently apply the new words for a subject in one book, and give a solid foundation for that subject, when it comes to a new subject or phenomenon. People are buried in SDK documentation, so they say "books get outdated too easily". Or people read too much papers on AI, where each contribute several new words, then form their own thinking model individually.

It would be nice if someone can write such a book similar to Econ or Investments. Most basic approximation have been proved correct, like the Newton's physics and applicable in daily life. Like Lavoisier. Like Alder. It does not have to go deep, but must have a wonderful coverage of all the keywords.

Specialized words in a field is such a weird thing. I sometimes hope English speaking teams would explain everything in daily terms, instead of inventing new terms. It is difficult to determine if a word is badly invented. On the other hand, if something is invented or accepted by the community at all, it might be making some sense. Hype it might be, after it is part of the language, we have to think with the same terminology. Even though what it is not all clear.

慈心

bbbush — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 16:30:41 GMT

My favorite blogger recommended a book 观呼吸 and he said the most important line (he underlined it among the first of all readers in Wexin Read) was to give 慈心 to everyone.

I like the ideas of that book because I believe the ideas in the book gave that author strength/confidence. Unfortunately I am not reading the books as carefully as he would like.. so theoretically speaking I should not even write anything. That's a disclaimer.

On the other hand, if someone can swallow an AI-translated book in a short time, that does not sound much different when a regular reader skim a book, either. And that regular reader, would not hesitate to write anything comes to his mind, because that is what he owns, he is speaking himself. It does not matter if the reader reads at all, even if one sentence is received. That's another disclaimer. It would be for all the books I read.

In another word, the writer would not care about anything others say, he is giving what he has, that is his own moral instinct to give out ideas. Especially when writing on one's own blog space.

I was not able to sleep well last night. Waking up at 2:47am and I was on my belly, pressing my chest against the bed, heart beating fast, and I dreamed of black colors, the black silky dress, some obscure place, and some familiar people. That might be what I worry most at the time, since I have nothing else to worry about. My son is doing well, my wife is recovering, and September is a new semester for everyone. Usually this happens when one is very excited and tired at the same time on the previous day, which was true — I was excited because of the recognition in work, the team's love to each other, and I spent 1h riding my inline wheels home — it was not that tiresome considering it was only 7mi in 1.5h — the best I had so far and the safest. The sudden waking up at night does not occur often, it had been a long while since I had the last period. It might be related to BP, but more likely to how excited and tired occur at the same time — maybe how much more I ate for dinner, too. When you are excited and tired, it is natural to stuff your mouth with whatever you can find.

I was awake and thought about that line. It is a difficult line! You cannot understand the meaning unless you read the book. By reading that one sentence alone, each word is giving vague meanings so it can be interpreted one way or another. What is 慈心, who is everyone, and how do you give? After you give, do you have to confirm it is received? What do you respond when others received it? I skimmed the book today (found that the author was writing in English, named "Mindfulness in Plain English", and there is a 3-book collection edition. But of course I can only skim a Chinese PDF version.. It would be two or three months' effort to go through a 600+ pages book.) And recommended to LZ and discussed a little bit. Does it matter if the "everyone" means nearby people (that we can perceive physically, and that they can receive physically?) One big issue is if some evil mind is going to use atomic weapon, should anyone give 慈心 to such a person? It is so remote, and I don't doubt the evil mind is OK with deploying it because killing happened before and to the evil mind it removed hurdles, thus more feel like a convenience to kill; then mass extinction would not be an issue at all. For such an evil person and such a remote idea that probably for your lifetime you would not get in touch with such a evil mind, you would never have any impact to either parties. What would you even need to care about?

I believe the book is one that both practical and theoretical. Using the methodology in "How to read a book", if the book wants you to do something, it is a practical one. Of course the book would you like to do something. On the other hand, the thing to do is purely theoretical. It is a book of moral just the same as Plato's work, where there is a moral standard, sets by the author. I suppose the 慈心 is but one approach to reach that moral standard. And it is important to realize the author would like everyone to hold the same moral standard. What is not explicitly said is whether the moral standard is absolute rules or can it be used to find relative right or wrong. By pointing your enemy (or the evil mind) to the right way of living, that's how to "give", yet if the other party cannot receive it, then the "give" is reduced to "wishful thinking".

And it takes time. The "wishful thinking" helped the author to clear misunderstanding and make friends. That's all well, except that if the author had reached out more, to clear the misunderstanding, the friendship might come earlier.

In the English translation, "Mindfulness in Plain English"，“禅修” corresponds to "Meditation", “正念” corresponds to "Mindfulness", “慈心” corresponds to "Loving friendliness".

Finally Final

bbbush — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 12:33:14 GMT

The book "A Tour of C++" is kind of difficult reading. A programming book that is written like essays, I cannot imagine how B.S. was able to implement such a class of writing. It is as dense as a piece of Python code, where keywords are highlighted and cross referenced all to LATER CHAPTERS; and the words in between keywords are highly sophisticated as if it is a financial literacy to reinterpret the marginal utility.

Disclaimer: haven't used C++ since 10+ years ago, and haven't read the LATER CHAPTERS.

One paragraph is rather confusing, ch5.2 "Concrete Types". "The defining characteristic of a concrete type is that its representation is part of its definition. For ... class, that representation is present in each object of the concrete class. That allows implementations to be optimally efficient in time and space."

So that's a very philosophical way to say being able to allocate object on the stack; but the text also said (for a container like vector) "that representation is only one or more pointers to data stored elsewhere."

Java made the distinction between interface and abstract class. It does not enforce "override" checking, and interfaces can have default implementations (means representation does not matter.) Python does not have overloads or overrides, so as long as the name is found, it is chosen from the inheritance lattice. Without strict "overloads/overrides", the complexity of code is reduced by a dimension, as one does not have to guess which "version" of method. You would think that makes people use more inheritance because of the simplified approach? Wrong. More code created with Java or Python are essentially "final". I came across some cursed base class code in Python, it calls a method that _should have been pure virtual_ but undeclared in the base class. The code smelled so bad — it is a data access utility, but it requires business logic to inherit from it and do nothing else but to implement the result handling. The only way to refactor the inverted control is to make both the business logic and the data access utility "final", break the inheritance.

I thought inheritance is going to be used less and less. With configurations, or infrastructure, templates are more useful than inheritance. Each unit test has its own occasion that should NOT be shared. The data access is generated and unique to the business logic. The code can be packaged as templates too — as a docker image, and each instance has its own specific resource and configuration. There is no time to read the code to figure out which class in the hierarchy implemented the method — each abstraction level in the hierarchy represents a distinct idea, too many ideas just are too difficult to understand. Eventually all code will be "final", "write once", like a shell script that has no reference to undeclared environment variable or functions.

A little nice things

bbbush — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 03:29:26 GMT

— was able to submit a write-up that should have taken less than 1 hour, but delayed for so long. Totally sorry for the delay.

— skating tests today, both JY and I failed again on the same single foot spin exam. But his spin looks nice and brave, while I took my time on some edges. The one time ice dance class and the rollerblade time definitely changed me towards the better. I can do slalom with more confidence. Even the normal edges feel better, what I need to do is put the inside foot a little bit forward, about half step in front of the outside one. That helps move the center of gravity and prepare the outside leg to either move back or front.

Before the skating, it helps to drink coffee, do some running, and like today, some dancing. After the sad pass away of Tony Bennett, I have been listening to his songs. The recording with Lady Gaga was really made with care, so good. Cannot help but to find more jazz tempo for the steps.. even though I am not sure what jazz means, Mr. Reggio said you have to feel it.

— since JY never used external monitors, I took the monitor and installed on the standing desk. The combination worked nicely (though very costly):

Standing desk is a Fully. Very stable.
Ergotron arm for the monitor. It is so stable and so flexible. (LX Single)
Dell 38" U3818DW
Dell WD19 dock, standard model for work
Dell Precision 5540 laptop

I don't know why but previously I didn't even bother to connect the laptop or use it. Maybe that's the reason I rarely write anything. But today good things happen — the laptop was able to detect the USB-C connection to the external monitor, and everything seems normal! The native resolution is fine, no issue scrolling, etc. The built-in panel is high definition, and the scaling seems fine too.

Fedora 38

The graphic hardware on a Dell (Intel Optimus with Nvidia) is so tricky. I cannot understand the community forum threads like this and this. The external monitor only worked with a HDMI connection on Linux. If I read the posts correctly, that means HDMI is connected directly to the gGPU without iGPU in the way? But now it seems Linux can use the same USB-C connection. That saves so much work to switch between work and personal environments.

The good old days

bbbush — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 03:36:57 GMT

Today at the library (CPL Sulzer branch) there was a small seminar on Gershwin brothers. The speaker was a Purdue professor specialized in information, and apparently Gershwin's golden age was her hobby.

A few video clips were played, featuring Gershwin's music. One of them was a dancing piece of Rhapsody in Blue, where the stage looked like the Emerald City of Oz. Everything on stage was so cool and humid — the actors apparently tried to be funny.

I wanted to tell the speaker that Mr. Reggio also played similar pieces in his History of Tap programs. That annual event was fun to watch, tap is much more fun, and the history covered is longer — has to divide to two sessions and still cannot play them all. The black faced players were impressive, so are the variety shows, acrobatic shows, etc.

It is easy to bring up memory of the old times in Chicago. Or in New York. Or generally Jazz. Yesterday's news, Tony Bennett passed away, he was 96. I think most songs I heard was on PBS, he and Lady Gaga sang beautifully in that program. Unfortunately PBS only provides short previews for Great Performances S42E2 now. On Paramount+ there is "One Last Time", somehow not very satisfactory (after all he is that old.)

I kind of wonder how many songs were "original" sung by Tony Bennett. By singing Jazz, lots of vocal and band interactions are creations of the occasion. The author of the music or lyrics is as important or less than the interpretations. Is it? So the "Original" is in the sense that the song becomes famous by the first singer, because that interpretation gives the song its life. And such songs with every singers giving it a new life, it becomes so rich. Then which songs are like that?

After the tap class, at the old town school of folk music, I came across a classical guitar conversation between a guitar teacher and the familiar volunteer friend. In the hallway outside the Maurer hall, the teacher showed 5-6 Bach pieces; for one song, played lower and higher sounds separately, and combined, and said "every notes had a purpose"; and then showed some a simple motif that started a fugue. I appreciate the clear short introductions to the beauty of Bach. And I so much appreciate that I live in Chicago, a great city where you can find those beautiful music and history and feel the love to them easily.

So much for good old days.