Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

I like to take up the pen when I am bored (like right now , as I sit through another few hours in San Diego airport), it makes me fill productive, well, at least my random thoughts are not wasted, haha... motivation to write indeed) For any writer, the ultimate goal is always the same: to publish your works and allow others to know you by the views you express in your words...yet, it seems like the number of aspiring writers is just so great in number, that published newspapers/magazines that accept open submissions seems infinitesimal in comparison. Sure, most of these writers are jokes: their images of their own writings are so great that they generally refuse to even proofread their own works after the initial rush to get the words down on paper. For anyone else who read their works, their often expressed self-confidence is the hallmark of their ludicrousness in proclaiming themselves to be "writers." I am a typical example of this bunch. My writing, especially when expre

In case you didn't realize, that was pure sarcasm coming from someone who is now in his 19th hour being stuck at San Diego airport on his way to China (yes, he never left). Just to give a quick summary of the situation: I was originally scheduled to leave San Diego yesterday (the 16th) at 10am for Salt Lake City, transfer to Tokyo, then onto Shanghai, arriving 9:20pm on the 17th...then, flight from San Diego to Salt Lake City was delayed nearly two hours, meaning that I cannot connect to the Tokyo flight from SLC. The ticket representative thus rebooked me for San Diego to Detroit (at 11pm, a 12-hour wait...) from then onto Shanghai, a direct flight arriving 7pm on the 18th... THEN, after a murderous 12-hour wait in the airport, San Diego to Detroit flight got cancelled, leaving me to reschedule once more: this time leaving from San Diego to Minneapolis to Tokyo to Shanghai, leaving here at 7am (another 6 hour wait at airport...eh...) and arriving at 9:20pm on the 18th (so, exactly

As I mentioned previously, I became a US citizen not long ago , and the celebrations of my fellow citizens at the ceremony, waving their American flags, were quite a sight to behold. And when I was looking at the waving of the flags, a flashback just randomly popped into my head of a major controversy at Yale. Three Yale students, all of whom international, were caught burning an American flag on private property (i.e., they torched a flag that was hanging on the roof of some random house). The discussion of xenophobia and patriotism suddenly spiked because of the incident, and many, students and school officials alike, questioned the motives of the three students and the suitability of their continuing their studies at Yale.

Recently, there has been a big fuss about a Japanese company adopting English as its official language. Rakuten (which happens to be the company I will work for starting October) has decided to abolish all use of Japanese within the company by 2012, and all employees who do not learn English by then will be fired. Sounds rough...especially considering the senile board members are all Japanese (the CEO is Harvard grad so speaks English but what about others?) AND all business or casual communications within the company (water cooler talks and random chats over lunch included) will be conducted in English (even the ones between two Japanese employees). Now, there are praises for Rakuten's "ambition" and criticisms that the move is completely unnecessary because the company is not that global (yet, at least), but no one seems to be considering this radical proposal from a socio-cultural perspective. Yes, we all know that English is language of global communication and no lan

In the document code he created in 1760 BC, King Hammurabi of Babylon used the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” philosophy as a central principle of punishment for all crimes. While often resulting in disfigurement or death penalty for the offenders, the Code of Hammurabi, as the document came to be known, ensured stability and domestic harmony within the ever-growing Babylonian Empire, bringing the ancient Mesopotamian civilization to its zenith. However, such a legal tradition is coming under attack in the modern society, where there is a growing trend of perceiving the concept of capital punishment as immoral or even barbarian. Mounting evidence, on the other hand, suggests that capital punishment can significantly increase the welfare of the society as its increased implementation can bring about many economic and psychological benefits to the populace. One of the most severe problems our country faces today is the ever-growing cost of law enforcement. A large portion of the incr

When people ask me where I stay during my many solo trips (yes, I take them a lot), I plainly tell them, "Hostels." I immediately receive facial expressions of absolute horror in return. Asked why, "don't you have to share some crappy, bunk-bed-filled rooms with complete strangers who might steal all your stuff and kill you in your sleep?" Sometimes I am absolutely amazed by the utter ignorance people display when they decide to open their mouths. Yes, you do have to share rooms with strangers in a hostels, and yes, sometimes you do have roommates with questionable backgrounds (such as newly freed inmates), but considering the purpose of a cheap hostel is completely the same as an luxury hotel, I don't understand how can people ever imagine a hostel to be something analogous in appearance to a prison cell... Granted, I have many friends who have never stayed in a hostel and probably never will (for example, the "Yalies who will never leave the comfort