Amiram Hayardeny's My China Experience

Visit to Da-Tong: Don't Miss

Neither Dorit nor I wanted to miss even one day of work for this trip.  We planned this trip like we never planned another: it was to be short, quick, comprehensive.  We decided to fly out of Beijing on Saturday morning, use the day for a tour of the Hanging Temple and the Wooden Pagoda.  Check into a hotel, walk around town, sleep.  Wake up, have breakfast, visit the Yungang Grottoes and rush to the train station, to catch the 12:48 back to Beijing.  Impossible?  Read this.

Like a military operation, we woke up at 4:00 AM Saturday, left home at 4:30, and took off at about 8:00 AM (the flight left about 50 minutes late).   Right before 9:00 we picked up our single suitcase carousel number 1 at the Da-Tong airport.  It was the only carousel, and for the sake of comparison, the train station in Da-Tong is much larger than the airport.  We were picked up by Nancy, our local tour guide and her driver, and we started our way to the Hanging Temple or Xuankong Si (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanxi/datong/hanging.htm).  The drizzle didn't interrupt our fascination.  It's an outstanding tourist attraction.  You can read about it on the web, but I must document the following observation.  When it was built, the area looked completely different.  Right under it, a river was running, and I'm not sure whether or not there was a way to approach it other than climbing down from the top of the mountain.  The tour guide explained that the way it was built was that the builders would climb to the top of the mountain, tie a rope to their waste, and do the work.  The work included digging inside the cliff side, and inserting sizable beams of wood into the rock to support the structure.  The place is breathtaking, and in my mind symbolizes peace, as three different relgions are represented in this unique place: Buddhism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism), Taoism (道, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism), and Confucianism (儒家, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism).  I can't imagine other religions living under the same roof anywhere else.  In fact, I can't think of practices of the same religion living together under the same roof.


Surprisingly, there was no pressure to move on, or to finish quickly.  We took our time exploring the place and enjoyed it very much.  Then we moved on to the Wooden Pagoda.   The Wooden Pagoda is considered the oldest and largest wooden structure still standing in China.  You can only climb to the second floor, although it has nine, and only five are seen from the outside.  Being used to steel and concrete structures, you can feel the difference right away.  Massive wooden beams are everywhere, the rail and the stairs are made of wood.  In fact, everything is wood.  So much so that hundreds if not more of swallows are circling around the area, and it's quite obvious that they chose the Wooden Pagoda as their home.  It's also obvious that no attempt is being made to drive them out.  Guesses?  Easy.  Wood means wood worms.  Juicy and delicious, they are a preferred delicacy for the birds.  Apparently, the birds are good for the Pagoda, as it keeps the worm population at bay.

We went back to the hotel.  We were almost ready to sleep at about 17:00 PM, but decided against it for the simple reason of not wanting to deal with a fully charged five year old at 4:00 AM the next morning.  We went for a walk around the hotel, which is exactly one hundred paces from the city's old Drum Tower.  Not a lot to write about.  Main Street China.  Fruits and vegetables, small restaurants, and a lot of very curious people.  We went for dinner - nothing to write home about, and back to the room.  Shiri and I stayed up the latest.  At around 20:30 PM, we were all sleeping.

Up at 7:00 AM, surprisingly good breakfast, and off we went to the most amazing and unexpected surprise of this trip.  The Yungang Grottoes.  From afar it looks like a bunch of holes in the cliff side.  It doesn't change when you get closer.  But stepping into the first cave: breathtaking.  A ten meter Buddha carved into the wall of the cave.  Beautiful, smooth, detailed work.  Around it, more Buddhas, and other figures.  The place is peaceful (as much as an outstanding tourist attraction can be), it's perfect for meditation, for reflection.  As we went on, we saw more and more Buddha figures, in various states of completion.  Some already eroded, many still intact.  The one I liked the most was the one who was apparently carved by a slightly inexperienced craftsman.  The feet are actually below ground level.  As the tour guide explained, the artist misjudged the distance, and in order to complete the feet, he needed to dig underground.  A failure in project management and execution well over a thousand years old...

As we always do, we bought a few souvenirs, and hit the road for the train station.  As I mentioned before, the train station is way bigger than the airport.  Nicer too.  We boarded the train, and I must admit, generalizing based on our trip to Xian was an apparent mistake.  The soft sleeper train from Da-Tong to Beijing was dirty, stuffy, it had no AC, no TV, and in some stretches it felt like it was crawling at the speed of a four legged animal.  And I'm not talking about cheetah.
But something good came out of it nonetheless.  I looked up the distance between Da-Tong and Beijing and found this world distance calculator.  http://distancecalculator.globefeed.com/World_Distance_Calculator.asp.  I'm embarrassed to admit that the distance between Beijing and Da-Tong is merely 265 kilometers.  165 miles.  On average, the train traveled 44 kilometers per hour.  35 MPH.  Shameful.

Lessons: a 39 hour trip can be satisfying but very tiring.  Be more selective when you take a train.  Da-Tong is outstanding, if you live in Beijing, don't even think of missing it.

Posted at 08:53PM Jun 30, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[154]

Thank You Miss Ruth II

For almost forty years I never missed an opportunity to bash teachers.  I always believed that I accomplished what I have despite the teachers I've had, and not thanks to them.  I often propose that at the age of six I was tried, convicted and sentenced to twelve years of hard labor without the possibility of parole.  My school years were depressing, without inspiration, aspiration or hope.  I clearly remember the last day of school.  It's been thirty years, and I haven't looked back yet.  I don't go to reunions, I don't want to hug and kiss with the warden or the correction officers.  Did I just say that?  I meant the principal and the teachers of course.  Forgive me.

Only in college I discovered the joy of pure learning, the satisfaction in understanding abstract concepts, the accomplishment in solving a hard problem, expressing a complex algorithm, I became a scholar.  I learned to respect education and educators.

Almost thirty years later I'm ready to state that the generalization is wrong (dah, of course it is...).  I was subjected to the worst bunch of teachers on the planet.  As if they were carefully selected for some freak show.  I'm ready to say that there are other teachers.  Caring, giving, understanding.  Teachers who listen to children, respect them, even love them.

Shiri's teacher, Miss Ruth is that kind of teacher.  I never attended her class.  Nonetheless, she taught me a whole lot.  Seeing Shiri's reaction to her made me understand many things about students, teachers, parents and education.  Students will learn out of fearing their teachers, parents and bad consequences.  They will learn better if they respect their teachers, and have the understanding that their parents really want what's best for them.  They will excel if they love their teachers, identify with them, see them as role models.  Shiri is a curious child, who loves to question everything, who needs to understand the details as well as the big picture.  In grade school, she had found the joy of studying that I only discovered in my twenties.  I attribute that to Miss Ruth.

Today, as the school year concludes, I want to thank Miss Ruth.  Again.  I want to thank her for taking part in the painstaking job of raising Shiri to be the young lady that she is.  But in fact, I thank her for much more than that.  I thank her re-introducing me to the education system.  To teachers who care, to teachers who love.  To teachers who can truly say: this grown-up was my student, and be able to say it with pride, knowing that they really had part in shaping his or her personality.

Shiri wanted to express her gratitude to Miss Ruth.  She was really at it for a while, until she had found the following poem, By Joanna Fuchs.


Dear miss Ruth

Teacher for All Seasons

A teacher is like Spring,
Who nurtures new green sprouts,
Encourages and leads them,
Whenever they have doubts.

A teacher is like Summer,
Whose sunny temperament
Makes studying a pleasure,
Preventing discontent.

A teacher is like Fall,
With methods crisp and clear,
Lessons of bright colors
And a happy atmosphere.

A teacher is like Winter,
While it’s snowing hard outside,
Keeping students comfortable,
As a warm and helpful guide.

Miss Ruth, you do all these things,
With a pleasant attitude;
You’re a teacher for all seasons,
And you have my gratitude!

You are the best Teacher in the whole world.  Wherever I may go in my life, I will always remember you.

Shiri  Hayardeny

Posted at 07:54PM Jun 26, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[2]

To Imad Ghaleb - An Exceptional Response

My dear friend Imad,

I won't even make an attempt to rebuff your statistics, or even bring my own statistics to the table.  Except one little detail.  The UN and the Geneva Convention never condoned massacres and suicide bombings.  The point, my friend, is that as in many epic stories, everyone is right, and everyone is wrong at the same time.

Conventional wisdom suggests exactly what you did: you guys are bad, and this is our way to right things.  And then we do it again, and again.  Will this dance yield winners?  Never.  Only losers will come out of this.

So for as long as you see things the way you described - with numbers measuring the evil done to you, and I do the same, the bloody dance shall continue.  You will not win.  Neither will I.  We'll be forever losers.

What I offered is a way to break the cycle.  That's all.  Not interested?  Too bad.  You think you have a winning strategy?  Not even close.

Posted at 07:38AM Jun 23, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[2]

Free Gilad Shalit. Please.

I don't know Gilad Shalit.  I don't know his family, his friends, his circumstances.  I don't know what he did in his military service, I don't know his favorite food and drink and whether he had a girlfriend or not.  All I know is that he is alive, that he was captured in a successful raid on some Israeli outpost near Gaza, and that he's being held captive for over a year now.

I don't know who's holding Gilad Shalit.  Yet I have this urge to address him.  To talk to him, directly.

I'm confident that your perspective justifies this action.  I'm sure that in your mind, you're promoting the cause.  Whatever the cause is , quite possibly, you actually are promoting it.  I'm sure that the pain that you've caused, and are still causing to many is nothing compared to the cause.  You are devoted to it, you see yourself as a small part of a bigger organization dedicated to a purpose.  The big purpose.  You know that you are almost successful in bringing an entire nation to its knees.  Quite possibly, you are.  But you can do more.  A lot more.  For the promotion of your cause.  You can actually become a hero.

But let me offer you a slightly different viewpoint.  Possibly a better way to achieve your goal.  Possibly, a breakthrough.  Just look at it, consider, digest, while there's still time.  Free Gilad Shalit.

At first, it may seem as counterproductive to you at first.  You may actually think of this suggestion as moronic.  But please consider the following.  You get up tomorrow, make a few phone calls, arrange a pick up, and get Gilad Shalit back home.  Tomorrow.  You will earn something that Israelis and Palestinians have lost long ago.  Trust.  A tiny little shred of trust.  Millions of Israelis will celebrate the return of Gilad, and it will buy you and your people so much more than thousands of dead Israeli soldiers.  One life.  Think about it.  You may have the key to some peaceful resolution between our peoples.

Free Gilad.  Free Gilad today.

Posted at 09:00PM Jun 22, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[2]

The Open Revolution

Indeed, I work for Sun Microsystems, and indeed, Sun promotes Open Source software.  It's been doing so for many years now.  My personal blog is just that, personal.  If you take a quick look at my posts, you shall find that almost all of them describe my personal experiences, adventures, impressions, observations.  They describe my feelings, thoughts and philosophies.  Less than a handful discuss work related topics, and even those are covered from a very personal viewpoint.  You can judge now.  You can choose to classify this post as a "Sun employee doing his job", or you can choose to classify it as "a technologist who has been exposed to numerous technologies over the years, and is trying to point out to as many people as possible that the way of the future is Open.  Open standards, open source and open hearts.  Free choice.  Your choice.

The trigger for this post was a news item:

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union's top antitrust official has called on member governments to use open-source software, an apparent jab at Microsoft's proprietary technology."No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first," European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said last week at a conference organized by OpenForum Europe, a nonprofit group that advocates open standards.  Choosing technology formats that can be used by different vendors -- often without paying a fee -- is "a very smart business decision," Kroes said.

Consider the choice of words.  Ms. Kroes did not say it's more fun to use open-source software.  She didn't imply that it was cheaper.  She didn't mention the community aspects, the contributions.  She chose to look at it from the business viewpoint, she brought up the business benefits rather than the individual's.  In her words: "a very smart business decision".  The reason I chose to write this post, and use my personal blog to publish it was to try and remove some myths about Open technology, to try and open people's eyes into accepting, installing, using, and contributing to open software.

The other trigger was a few days later, with the release of the much anticipated (by me and quite a few millions of others) Firefox 3.0.  It was a nice gimmick to add the "lets break the Guinness Record for downloads in twenty four hours".  In fact, only five million downloads were necessary for breaking the record.  The outcome, though, exceeded even the most optimistic predictions.  Eight million downloads in twenty four hours.  I am proud to have been four of them.  Every computer in the house was installed with the new Firefox.  Why do I like Firefox better?  Probably for the same reason the other fourteen million people who downloaded since.  It's great technology, developed by communities, tested by millions, and expanded by millions more.  It's rather outstanding.  And by the way, if I need a good extension which isn't available today, there's a good chance it will be available tomorrow.

I am well aware of the many myths surrounding open-source software.  Let me describe a few, and try to explain why they are nothing more than myths.

The Open-Source Cult Myth - only bearded geeks, with bottle bottom spectacles and athlete's foot take part in development communities.  Completely untrue.  Community developers are engineers by profession or by hobby, whose first and foremost motivation is to be able to do something they currently can't, and the drive to have other people share the feature.  Why?  Because they understand that sharing their own is a good motivation for others to share their expertise as well, resulting in millions of people contributing talent others don't have.

The Open-Source Free (As in Free Lunch) Myth - indeed, you can download it, use it, change it, and even redistribute it (pay attention to the license, it may be different).  But please consider.  If you want to run your business on it, if you have a data center, customers, mission critical applications, you may want support.  You may want to be able to call someone on New Year's Eve at 2:00 AM and ask for help.  That, my friend, isn't free.  That comes with a service contract.  So if you were wondering about the business model of companies that are in the open source business, then there you have it.  Subscriptions and support pay the bills.  I'm not sure what the percentage of source code that Red Hat contributes to Linux, or SuSE, or Mozilla.com.  But it is obvious to me that they're doing pretty well.  Selling distributions and support is the answer.

There's No Free Lunch - this isn't a myth.  But if we indeed compare software to lunches, we shall find that there's quite a difference.  Most people are likely to pay for their lunch after they have consumed it.  You seldom get to try your lunch first, see if you like the flavor, and test how your digestive system reacts to it.  You select, you consume, you pay.  Then you may come back for more or spend the night with your head in the bowl.  With open source software you get to test the flavor, change the menu, dd some dishes if you wish, see if the results are to your liking, and pay only if you're absolutely satisfied.  You can get up and leave anytime, if you wish, at no cost...  Free of charge?  No sir.  Convenient, safe, customizable, yes indeed.

The Open-Source Poor Quality Myth - Imagine that.  Firefox 3.0 released after many months of alpha and beta versions used by millions.  Yes, me too.  Millions who used it the way the use any browser.  They opened bugs, and some actually delivered the fix as well.  Commercial, close code applications can't possibly compete with the power of the community - in testing and in fixing.  Open source projects have better chances of being of much better quality than commercial ones.  Years ago, Firefox was dismissed by the commercial software giants.  I believe that at 20% of market share and growing, it isn't dismissed anymore.  I am proud to say that although I have a couple of machines at home using Windows, none of them is running Explorer.  I'm not a religious fanatic about MS.  I simply like Firefox better.  A lot better.

Remember, source code is in a common repository.  It needs action, selection, choice, and good professionals to actually make something useful out of it.  Not all source code from the repository actually makes it to the distribution.  Only some.  The distributions that eventually hit the market come with a good choice of packages, quality assurance and are well tested.  Let me explain further.  Linux is a collection of source code.  Gnu Linux, or Red Hat Linux or Red Flag Linux are distributions.  They aren't the same, they aren't even close.  Same with OpenSolaris.  Solaris is a bunch of files.  Solaris 10 is a distribution and so is OpenSolaris, now from Sun.

Here's my prediction.  A few years from now commercial close source applications, including operating systems, databases, virtualization engines, even games, will be a thing of the past.  Robust open source applications will replace them all, providing users, customers, businesses with (you thought I was going to write - better applications?  Wrong) choices to make.  Choices between a quickly changing application, to a very stable one.  Between games and serious business applications.  Between generic and customized, between being a user, to being a contributor.

I must add this.  Someone a lot bigger than me already figured it out.  That's one of the reasons Yahoo was being courted for acquisition.  Tomorrow's business model in software is delivering service, not code.  Advertising is a good way of making in a buck in tomorrow's world.  Selling DVDs, investing billions of dollars in pirating prevention is the way of the past.  Where do you belong?

* Written in Open Office, posted with WordPress in Firefox from OpenSolaris.

Posted at 03:25PM Jun 22, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[0]

A Slightly Different Look at Genesis

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" the book of Genesis suggests.  It then goes through the description of the rest of creation for five more days, coming to a screeching halt with the creation of man.  The bible and its interpreters propose that once the crown jewel was created, God rested.  I propose that once the goal was accomplished, the project concluded, and God took a day off to reflect, to run a postmortem on the project, got discouraged with the results, and took a day off.

Here's how it went.  God created the heavens and the earth and waited.  He then threw in some light.  But neither the heavens nor the earth offered a prayer, a sacrifice.  They just sat there and watched.  God went on.  He separated the skies and the waters and waited some more.  In vain.  Nobody was excited to see Him.  The continents came out next, with plenty of plants, shrubs and greenery.  Failure.  No recognition of greatness.  No gratitude.  God started to feel somewhat discouraged.  But He still went on and created the moon, the sun and the stars.  Nada.  Silence.  The birds and the sea creatures followed, but they had no time for God.  They were too busy reproducing and chasing each other before dinner.  No attention to their Maker.  Finally, with whatever motivation he had left, God created the land animals - still nothing, and finally Man.  When he turned around to leave the failed experiment he noticed the altar, the praying man, the recognition, the admiration.  Bingo, he thought, jackpot.  That was it.  God liked it, paid himself a nice bonus and called it a day.  Mission accomplished.  A creature was created that actually took the time to develop creation stories, a way of life, all centered around Him.  Can you ask for more?  Can anyone do better?  Or worse?

But then He noticed that it wasn't all good.  The first political assassination happened when there were a handful of humans on earth.  Cain killed Abel because he developed the perception that God was paying more attention to Abel's sacrifices than to his own.  Then there was this all charade about the serpent talking Eve into eating some apples, sharing them with her husband or something.  Finger pointing, nasty headlines, it wasn't looking so great.  But God let it go for a few generations, until He realized that no good will ever come out of this.  He asked Noah to prepare the arc, and flushed the earth.  Another unsuccessful attempt to curb these no good humans.

God started attending a support group for disappointed Gods.  Other Gods shared their experiences in creating ungrateful, deceitful, destructive species.  The conclusion was unanimous.  Just leave them alone, they will destroy themselves, they will destroy their environment.  The humans were left alone.  The original God was not sufficient anymore, they came up with new ones, with stronger powers, tougher demands.  They appointed priests who made up Heavenly instructions of killing other humans in whatever God's name.  God packed and left for some other planet, free of humans.  He was cured.

Today, thousands of Gods walk the earth.  They communicate to a very well selected few.  They accept gifts, cash and checks.  They advertise, they instruct, they teach you how to be better, what to eat and whatnot, they know it all.  The representatives that is, not the Gods...  Some people are already asking: who created whom?  Did God create man?  Or did Man create god?  I have no inside information on this one.  Apologies...

Posted at 11:59AM Jun 21, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[0]

A Free Marketing Tip...

Recently, in a business meeting, while watching a presentation given by an esteemed colleague, I noticed the following pricing scheme: an entry level system marked as "good", the next one marked as "better", followed by "best".  Surprisingly, this was not the end of it.  Following "best" came "ultimate".  I was rather confused.  How can something, anything, be better than best?  And then it dawned on me.  Entry level doesn't sound so great.  Obviously, it can't be marked less than "good".  So "good" was chosen as a starting point.  The language did its job in providing the next two: "better", and "best".  But they still had one system to mark.  What do you do if the language provides only three words, when you have four items to scale?  You get creative.  They came up with "ultimate".  I loved it.

By the same token, "pretty", "prettier", "prettiest", and "Angelina Jolie"?  "ugly", "uglier", "ugliest" and "Ugly Bettie"?

And why stop there?  What's wrong with "bester"?  Followed by "bestest" between best and ultimate?  And why not ultimater, and ultimatest?

Coming to think about it though, the English language is so rich, that it has a very wide variety of words to describe almost anything.  Here's an example.  Size.  From big, through biggest to a lot more than that...

big, bigger, biggest (feel free to add biggester, biggestest here), gigantic, giant, enormous, monstrous, huge, colossal, vast, immense, tremendous, massive, hulking, towering, mammoth, prodigious, elephantine, mountainous, monumental, titanic gigantic, and there are more, I 'm sure.

Thanks for bearing with me.  I had to get it out...

Posted at 10:26AM Jun 17, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Substitute to Pervasive Email - Stories Worth Sharing

I often get emails with some stories, lessons, self improvements.  Often, I throw it away, since it provides little value, or it's just obvious.  Occasionally though, I do get something cute, interesting, that's worth reading.  Rarely, I get something worth sharing.  Here are two I collected in the last six months.  I received them in Hebrew, and the translation is mine.  The rights are reserved, only I don't know to whom.

The first is a short but more realistic version of the first chapter of the book of Genesis.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was covered with broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and green, yellow and orange vegetables of all kinds.  And Adam and Eve lived a very long and healthy life.

Then the Devil created Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and the New York Bagel.  And the devil asked Adam: “would you like some cream cheese with that?”, and Adam replied: “absolutely!”.  And Eve said: “so do I.  And some pickles too”.  And the two gained five pounds each.

Then God created yogurt, so Eve can keep in the shape Adam loved so much.  And the Devil created white flower, and white cane sugar, and he mixed them together.  And Eve then started wearing size 44.

And God said: “thou shall eat from the green salad in my garden”.  And the Devil said: “with blue cheese dressing and garlic bread on the side”.  Then Adam and Eve loosened up their belts.

And God said: “I have sent you healthy vegetables for the heart, and some extra virgin olive oil!”
And the devil started a barbecue with lamb kebab, large T-Bone steaks and crispy fried chicken “all-you-can-eat” buffet.  And Adam's cholesterol shot up through the roof and to the heavens.

And God created the naturally low fat potatoes, and filled it up with potassium and other healthy minerals.  And the devil peeled them, cut them to strips, and fried them in lard and called them “French Fries” and added salt.  Lots of salt.

And Adam became really large, and Eve started having zits.

And God created the running shoes and gave them to the children so they can burn the extra fat.  And the Devil created cable TV with remote control so Adam won't work too hard while switching the channels.

And Adam and Eve started laughing and crying in front of the screen and buying their clothes at the Big & Tall stores.

And God gave Eve and Adam lean meat and diet products and light sausages, so they consume less calories.  And the Devil created McDonald's  and the $1.00 double cheeseburger, and the Devil asked Adam: “would you like some fries with that?” and Adam said: “yes, and supersize it please”.

Then Adam and Eve had heart attacks, and God created the triple bypass surgery.  And the Devil smiled and created the Health Ministry, the public hospitals, and the HMOs...

The second I liked because nobody's perfect, but some people need a reminder to the fact.  Surprisingly, the people needing the reminder think that they are perfect, but they are the only ones.  The truth is nobody's perfect.  Yes, you too.

An old Chinese lady had two large jugs, hanging on ropes from both sides of a wooden stick.  Every day the lady would wake up in the morning, walk down to the river and return home with water.

One of the jugs was perfect, while the other had a small hole at the bottom.  The way back from the river was long, so the broken jug would always lose half the water on the way home.  For two years, this was the lady's routine, leaving the river with two full jugs of water, arriving home with only a jug and a half.

Naturally, the perfect jug was proud of its accomplishments, while the broken one was ashamed of its imperfection, and the fact that it was doing only half the job for which it was meant.

One day, right next to the river, after two full years of self perceived failure, the broken jug spoke to the woman and said: “I am so ashamed that due to my imperfections, you lose half the water on the way home”.  The old woman smiled and said: “have you noticed that there's a small garden of flowers on your side of the path and not on the other side?  I've always known about your disability, that's why I planted your side of the way with beautiful flowers, and every day, on our way home, you have watered those flowers”.  “For two years, with your help, I was able to pick nice flowers and make the house look nice”.  “If you were any different, I wouldn't have been able to bring all this grace into the house”.

We all have our special imperfections.  But its the faults, and the flaws and the imperfections of every one of us that make our lives together so interesting and fulfilling.

Every person should be looked at for what he is, for the good in him.

So to all my imperfect friends: may you have a wonderful day, and may you always remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

I like these two very much.  I wouldn't dream of sending emails to all my friends and acquaintances, I think it's way too pervasive and impolite.  But publishing it here, well that's a whole different story, is it not?

Posted at 08:55AM Jun 15, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[0]

So What Happens in the End?

Not the end you think.  I was actually referring to the end of a TV show.

For quite some time, maybe as long as a full year, friends have been telling me about a "must see" TV show.  The level of enthusiasm was somewhere between excited and lunatic.  And while curiosity is my middle name, I took my time.  After all House had a few more patients to be rude to, and Start Trek had a few more places to visit in the Delta Quadrant.  But curiosity, as it may imply, does its job picking at the brain to the point where you actually go to the video store, see the show and decide to actually get it.  The first season only though.  I never thought that multiple seasons should be purchased upfront, before the quality, interest, added value can be established.

But truthfully, I wasn't that excited.  The name of the show implied a lot of noise, for a singular event.  If you wish, a two year buildup of a storm that ends up in a single shower.  Tons of smoke and ashes ending up in a single small, minor eruption of a volcano.  Get the drift?

Prison Break, by definition is the act of, well, let me think how to say it, breaking out of prison.  It's a one time thing.  You get into prison, and you break out.  I believe that the show actually aired three years ago, counting about twenty two episodes per season, I assumed that it meant a volcanic storm.  A major buildup for something next to nothing.  So my expectations weren't very high to begin with.

After cleaning the fish tank, watering the plants, pumping the cornered bicycle with a manual pump, and washing the clean dishes, I ran out of excuses, and Dorit and I sat down to watch the pilot.

It was a grand moment.  We felt like we are part of some mysterious, obscure cult, which secretly convenes after the children went to sleep to watch something suspenseful and intriguing.  I wasn't disappointed.  As it turns out, though, I ran out of luck.  The worst possible scenario happened.  I thought it was boring.  Dorit loved it.  We have to watch it.  As we enjoy each other's company, parting during prime time is not an option.

There are many shows that I like.  Many shows I don't, but at least I understand why other people like them.  For the life of me I don't understand why people like this show.  Is it the squinting that happens once every two minutes, when the leading character surveys his surroundings trying to make sense of it?  Is it just the prison setting?  The conspiracy?  The script is shallow, predictable, and as full of holes as Swiss cheese.  A funny error (I think it's an error anyway) is a VHS videotape of the "murder".  The tape is watched multiple times, and each time, the subtitle "rec" is shown as part of the tape.  Now, I'm not a professional photographer, but as far as I know the "rec" subtitle only shows on the monitor while you're recording, but it doesn't show on the tape.  By the way, if you choose to watch the tape on the camera itself, the subtitle would say "play"...

I like to watch shows with objectives.  Shows that present a problem, a bug if you will, whether it's a murder, or a sickness, or even a new race of aliens in the Betazoid System.  The plot continues as multiple reasonings are used, possible solutions are presented and scrapped, and then, finally, in a climactic scene, the actual solution is presented.  What's the point in a problem that continues on and on and on, for multiple seasons?  And as for the question in the title?  Lets guess.  The brother on death row is put to death, while the other brother gets out on parole and marries the lawyer.  Right.  Let me guess again.  They run away, for two seasons they dodge the secret service, until finally their innocence is proven on the fourth season.  One of the brothers marries the lawyer.  End of story until the next bore is released.

I guess I'll have to make up for it with more popcorn...

Posted at 04:11PM Jun 12, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[2]

Are We Ready?

I'm being asked so often and so many times, I decided to deliver a collective answer to the following question: is Beijing ready for the Olympic Games?

I remember four years ago, just before the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Greece, there were doubts.  There were questions.  There were rumors.  Is Athens ready for the Olympics?  2004 came and went, and it's a few weeks before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and the questions are being asked again.

You may ask what can possibly qualify me, yours truly, to even try and answer the question.  I moved to Beijing in April of 2006.  I live in the north-east part of town (Chaoyang District), and work on the north-west part of town (Haidian District).  Twice a day, close to five days a week, and sometimes more, I drive by the National Stadium.  Yes, the "Bird's Nest".  And twice a day, the same twice - going to and fro work, I see the Aquatics Center.  Yes, the one next to the Bird's Nest...  For two years I've been watching the structures get erected, covered, finished.  I've seen the road leading to the stadium, and paid the traffic price involved.

So let me be very clear and direct.  From where I sit in the car, it's clear to me that with the exception of that next to last tree in the front row of trees, which is kinda leaning to the left, everything else is waiting for the athletes to start running, jumping, swimming and well, compete.  Beijing looks like it's already ready for the Olympic Games of 2008.  The streets are clean, full of flowers, repaved.

I'm willing to bet that the Olympic Games in Beijing will be outstanding.  I'm hoping that we, Beijingers, will be able to enter the Olympic season on July 1, and exit on September 30 in one piece.  Why?  Because there are side effects to the Olympics.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Traffic restrictions, congested roads and public transportation, and high prices.  About the high prices, let me suggest to the vendors: no tourist in their right mind will pay European prices for local goods.

And yes, I do have tickets to three events.  All at the National Stadium.  I can't wait, although I have no idea how to get there with public transportation...

Bottom line y'all, yes, we're ready for the Olympics.  Are you?

Posted at 08:55PM Jun 10, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[1]