Tag: Mars

To Die Another Day

Those gene combination keeps going, mutating and evolving.

Buddistically or biologically, we aren’t going to die today. Maybe another day. But not today (I am obviously blogging still, 957 and counting).

Unlike a line in American Pie “too much whiskey and wine…this will be the day that I die”. Meanwhile, in the land of the living, some rules stay : what you sowed, you reap; do unto others as you would like to be done unto.

The sun rises and it sets; the usual tempo except when asteroid hit Earth. Death uninvited.

Every day, we got Twitter but not every day we got twister (depends on what region of the country, the impact and differences are quite significant). The later lifted trucks, cows and roofs high into the air.

Who said it’s peaceful when you die in your sleep.

I got a rare glimpse into the process of aging and dying this past week: accompanying elder siblings to doctor visits, pharmacy waiting rooms etc…

My brother is a pharmacist. And he will soon be waiting outside the counter for his own prescriptions. We all will be waiting in front of those counters (unless they streamline the process).

To die another day. But not today.

In Ishtar, Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty shooed away the crows “Go away, not dead yet”. The movie however was a bomb. Just desert sand and deserted seats.

The journey however continues, whether we are on a quest to Mars or to the Mall, in stages: born, live, reflect and die..

I am glad to have been shown by great writers how they searched and sifted through the details of their lives.

Still there are many great stories remain untold, while more mundane stuffs got printed.  Who can tell what sells?

Consumer’s taste is quite fleeting.

We avoid risks, unless it’s other people who take the fall (Oscar‘s host).

It’s called sacrificial lamb. Someone dies in our places. To appease death and atone for sin (collective).

Winter is soon over. Spring is forthcoming. Symbols of life are about to show forth and, to remind us once again that life won’t go away.

The gene pool, 99 per cent plus, will go on through the lives of our children. To die another day. Not today.

We can do better!

We all campaign for our own survival and decency.

Our term limits are long, and the road is hard.

It was still dark when I got to the park.

A guy with backpack barely crossed the street. That early!

Then it hit me: the street is his home. He never got out of any house. So being around there early or late, geography is irrelevant.

America, we can do better.

Let’s tackle the issue (I blogged once, though unfairly, to make a point, that Curiosity Rover was looking for any sign of life on Mars, while on Main Street, all kinds of life are evident, but no one cares to lend a hand.)

The payload (admin overhead) for any program perpetuates itself. In short, we trample upon our own device, good intention or not.

So America sees its sons (and daughters) walk the street at dawn to dusk, with no specific purpose.

(ironically, the unemployment office is named “One Stop“) With 10 per cent of payroll revenue loss, America is bleeding by interest payment.  Next generation of homeless kids end up with scars and shame, fast food instead of fast track to college.

Think strategic. Think long-term. Think with a heart. America, ask not. We can do better!

Algorithmic social

People who connect with so and so, tend to be interested in so and so….

Once you clicked down that path, you entered a maze that leads you further down the path of algorithmic and formulaic social links. No backing out, no return.

So, my machine-led social graph has taken on new twists and turns as I went back and forth between Vietnam and the US. During the downturn, I have followed the advice “Go East, Old Man”. So most of my Linkedin connections turned out to be friends of friends and associates in Vietnam. Now, back to the US, I hardly get any algorithmic recommendations for “white folks”.

Should I stay with machine-recommended linkage? Ignore it altogether? Go out and hustle for new connections in the US?

It’s a perfect storm: new apps, new austerity and new attitude (cash only).

All happened within the span of 4 years.

I  value friendships made during the downturn.

For everyone realizes we need one another more than ever.

A bit of self-advertisement, not self-aggrandizement.

Just nudging, swaying. Just in case. For the next job.

Friends in both high and low places. Need them both. The former to lift us up, the later for mutual support and empathy.

In the Strong and the Weak, Paul Tournier talks about how we need both (just look at Japan‘s aging population).

Virtual friendship is even more delicate than platonic. It’s out there, in the ozone (like pics sent from the Curiosity Rover in Mars), unreachable, but real nevertheless.

How impactful can it be? To what extent can we help one another online? What are the measures of a man/woman? Glowing recommendations? List of degrees and accomplishments? Or just his/her smile, transparency and potential?

Perhaps all of the above. For we start relying on machine-matched relationships. We are developing relational skills that have never existed nor been taught in school. Welcome to 21st-century network effect. Now go, shake hands (virtually) and introduce yourself.

The flow

We woke to all sorts of noise, among them the flow of traffic.

Resting by the lake after my few-mile run in the heat, I noticed all sorts of creatures: squirrels, rabbits and ducks.

As peaceful as could be, yet we don’t often say “I’ve got peace like a lake”. We say, “I ‘ve got peace like a river”.

River flows. Water moves. Ocean and  tide. Moon and Mars. Can’t stay still. Thought flow, money flow from hand to hand.

New games got invented everyday. Skin rejuvenation, sex drive rejuvenation and self-reinvention. Press “reset”. Be kind and rewind.

Get to be old hats.

One birthday piles up on top of another.

Summer time.

Vacation time.

Sabbatical.

Just lay low. Under the radar. Poor man’s vacation. But vacation nonetheless.

Dollar Stores are still doing well. Costco is expanding. And any kind of drinks is still sold for a buck at McDonald’s.

Money is changing hands, but not a lot .

Us, playing and making a living by being in the middle, got less, by the percentage.

Nokia shut down its offices at home. Industries see a lot of volatility and fluctuation.

Brands however endure especially in uncertain times: Ford, Coke and Costco. Sweet and more sweet as we got sweated.

Got to reward ourselves. Got to have that Gatorade, under the scorching sun. Can only stand in opportunities’ way that long. Not without taking a break . Jackson Brown says, ” opportunity likes to dance with those who were already on the dancing floor”. So swing and sway, but stay the course. Go with the flow of music. The tempo will change. It always does, even in the worst of times. Even now, things don’t stay static. It flows even when we are asleep.

Long Winding Road

To your door……

I woke up to a Friday. Not any Friday. But a birthday Friday.

Long and winding road. Like a graph, your life can be “manipulated” to make it a more positive-trending (not Bell-shaped).

Depends on how you look at it. People have said that President Obama looks older than when he first took up office. Oh well, who wouldn’t  after three and half long years.

I share concerns with friends these days. Always with long shots, and high hopes, from Electric Vehicles to Electronic Medical Records. Stuff that earlier generations had never heard of.

(except for the EV part).

The same with Mars and upcoming discoveries in Science. How they will shape and reshape the human race.

Yet one thing stays unchanged: human nature itself. We still react under certain principles, Pavlovian, for instance.

Ring the bell, the dog salivates. Facing danger, fright or flight.

Oh well. Long and winding road.

Friends said no matter how far and how much traveling they had done, when they came home, they just wanted mama’s cooking. Acquired taste. Subliminal and unconditional trusting. Talk not to strangers (yet I keep connecting with the multitude of you out there via Social).

Talking about networking. Since it’s my birthday. Can you send me a referral. Some doctors who need to install EMR?

Or a telecom engineer department that need their software tested offshore. Long shots? Yes. Long winding Road? Yes.

We , social animal, do need each other and do reciprocate.

I am here today thanks to the help of many friends and families.

I in turn have helped friends and again, some families.

That’s how the circle of Life operates. How pay-forward  works. And how the virtuous cycle is. There is no need to recast that graph. Just be and become better. Each life is different and each person unique. Born on a different day and dies at a  different  hour. While living, let’s make it a pleasant journey. The tilted clock on the wall reminds me that there was an Earthquake a few days ago. Even time is not standing still. Nor is the clock that shows time. How can you assume too much that it (Life) is going to be a straight line? To me, it’s more like a long and winding road.

Machine and Man

The Curiosity Rover landed intact. Mission Control jumped up and down. Machine and Man. One giant step. Let’s hug, even the meanest-looking of guys.

From Moon to Mars (better known as a candy bar), machine as modern-day Columbus.

Something in the way she moves.

Knowledge gap will be filled in the days ahead, on-screen and online.

Ask Not.

We are going places after running in place.

Some of us don’t run at all.

Austerity and sedentary.

Maintenance mode and screen-saver mode.

Let’s hope it’s just a temporary condition. What if it’s a new norm?

Industry anticipated deadlock. Companies scaled down orders, translated into non-expansion, translated into hiring freeze, translated into low consumer confidence and purchasing parity, translated into slower growth which feeds stagnation further on the downward spiral.

Stuck in high gear and high prices.  The harder you push, the more RPM, but no progress still.

Just revving noise.

Distraction (London) and attraction (Mars).

Summer breeze  for scorched Earth.

Wild fire and gun fires.

The State of the Union is not that good.

But no one is here to listen.  Even when they try “they do not know why”. Starry starry night.

From Moon to Mars.

Machine jolting Man to jump for joy. What happened in Mars got our full attention. What happened in Maine no longer triggers our curiosity despite its obvious and deteriorating “signs of life”.

Machine and Man.

 

Mars or marble

Have you submitted your name to be shuttled up to Mars?  Space and sea travel or your names on Mars and not marble. This is to show our preference for progress over permanence  – technology over religion.

While it’s good to sit on one of the benches with our parent’s names “in memory of…”, it’s better still for our grandchildren to travel in space to look for ours on Mars.

I found my parent’s graves without a hitch. Right here on spaceship Earth.

In the Far East, people want to travel back to where their ancestors were buried (as of this edit, I have just stepped on a bunch of fake dollars, burnt during an early morning funeral).

Thus, “the Last Train Home” documentary about Chinese factory laborers trying to get home for New Year via train, plane or automobile (their version of White Christmas).

Modernity forces huge displacement. South-South movement will be next, not Earth to Outer space (Indian mobile phone companies are buying up Middle Eastern phone companies to cater to fast growing African markets, while Vietel engineers are rebuilding Haitian and Myanmar telecom infrastructure).

When you are uprooted, your sense of identity suffers. One used to be known by his/her relationship in a communal network. Now, with new “ID“, he/she is known by an employee number. Welcome to KFC, how may I take your order.

With industrialization comes frustration (discontent): who is going to move in those Shanghai towers , and who will have to relocate to make room for the 5th-ring highway?

Uprooted dreamers.

No place to go back to. No bragging rights for aging parents e.g. “my son went to the city and came back a millionaire”.  Bentley in Russia, Ford in China. Wealth shift. G-20+ (make sure Brazil is included, since they know how to party).

For years, we saw a steady rise of “emerging countries”, but we still resort to yesterday’s play book. (Remember the Yugo joke?).

The poor was materially poor, but not in spirit or intelligence. From a near-zero base, the only way for emerging countries to go is to “emerge” i.e. create better-paying jobs, while union and progress in the West , once a blessing, now a hindrance in this post-Recession recovery.

Darwin was right: survival favors the most adaptive. Instead of fighting for a seat on “the Last Train”, those smart entrepreneurs already built alternate-energy bullet trains. It’s not your names on Mars, it’s the challenge to think beyond the marble which for centuries was the last stop for even the most famous of names. A Roman Emperor once hired an assistant, whose main job is to remind him every so often that: “Your Majesty, you will die soon”.  Memento mori.