Foreigners surveyed about Chinese cinema

So how do you factor in?

After coming to China, what do you think the greatest difference is between China in the movies and China in reality?

2. It's not a bunch of fighting all the time - you never see people who know kung-fu or who can fly: 18%

EVE

Playing EVE itself is a constant lesson in market capitalism.



I started a strip miner manufacturing business with the help of some capital donation. Since I have no compunction to generate a return right away, I squandered a few million ISKs just shopping around, buying a few frigates and fitting them to my fancy. By the time I started manufacturing, the business is under tremendous financial pressure from daily operating activities.

Another mistake was inadequate research: I got into the strip miner manufacturing business because EVE's economy is based on mining; strip miners, along with their tech 2 cousins, Strip Miner II, are the most powerful mining lasers in EVE. My logic was to tap into this constant demand and go for a steady stream of income... but a variety of factors proved that the initial optimism is simply nativity.

One, I chose to manufacture and sell in the most competitive solar system in the game: Jita. It is the biggest market exchange in the universe with 500 players buying and selling on average and 700 on peak time. The pricing arbitrage that takes place is a killer. Not only are input prices high due to the fact a lot of rich players shop here, but the margins for end-user products are extremely low because of the price competition.

Two, the capital involved for strip miner manufacturing is tremendous. Aside from the blueprint, the materials involved in making a strip miner costs more than 1 million ISKs. As an upstart industrialist researcher, my character's low manufacturing skills means that the production process is very wasteful. Around 25% of the input materials are discarded as waste. This puts the manufacturing cost of one unit of strip miner around 1.5 million ISKs. At one time, the prices for strip miners in Jita are little more than 1.5 million ISKs, recouping the initial capital will take weeks at this rate.

Three, time and distance is a big factor in buying and selling. Since all the public manufacturing facilities are already in use in the region, I had to establish my base of operations in a system one jump away from Jita. The difference in this one jump is between night and day. Because the new system is not in The Forge region as Jita, the products do not show on the Jita market. Here the demand for mining tools is really erratic and unpredictable. Sometimes it takes weeks to sell one product. In addition, materials are just as difficult to procure as for end-user goods to sell. Transporting the finished good is not the problem, but getting the raw material input to the location is a huge headache. By myself, I had to spend hours in my destroyer hauling the materials purchased in Jita. Later I was to mitigate this factor by learning the skills and purchasing an industrial for the hauling. One problem is apparent: the operation is going to face big scaling challenges.

The Stasi on Our Minds - The New York Review of Books

The Lives of Others

Liked this movie very much, despite its faults.

when the petals depart from the flower
当花瓣离开花朵

the faint aroma remains
暗香残留

the aroma fades after wind and rain
香消在风起雨后

and no one comes to smell
无人来嗅

if love tells me to continue on
如果爱告诉我走下去

I will press forward to the end
我会拼到爱尽头

if heart dies in the splendor
心若在灿烂中死去

love would revive in the ashes...
爱会在灰烬里重生


难忘缠绵细语时
用你笑容为我祭奠
让心在灿烂中死去
让爱在灰烬里重生
烈火烧过青草痕
看看又是一年春风
当花瓣离开花朵
暗香残留

Erinnerung an die Marie A.

On that day in blue-mooned September
Quietly under a young plum tree
I held her there, that silent pale love
In my arm like a graceful dream.
And above us in the beautiful summer sky
was a cloud, which I saw for a long time
It was very white and immensely high
And when I looked up, there was no longer a sign.

Since that day many, many moons have
Quietly swum down and past.
The plum trees probably have been chopped off
And you ask me, how is it with the love?
So I say to you: I cannot remember.
And yet, sure, I do know what you mean
But her face, I really do not know it anymore
I only still know: Once I kissed it.

Even the kiss, I would have forgotten it long ago
had the cloud not been there
That I still know and will I always know
Very white it was and came from above.
Perhaps the plum trees are still flowering
And that women now perhaps has her seventh child
But that cloud blossomed only for minutes
And when I looked up, it already was disappearing in the wind.

In the lovely month of May

Haven't written a real post in a while.



Probably read more books outside of class in the last four years than in class. The bad news is that the total number of those books are not many. The more interesting authors are Naipaul, Borges, various contributors of the LRB. At the moment I feel like reading nothing in particular and just something in general.

Some occasions, realized that the girl in front of me is a pale imitation of the woman I want. It is hard to imagine less when you think you have seen your ideal.

Staying another year in school. Why? To take ballroom dancing, read a bit more outside of class, build the resume a bit more, take a few more Chinese lit classes.

Wish there are more peers with the same interests and more lofty ideals. Most people just want to get by and not leave their mark on the world; they scoff at the notion of contributing something back to society, of making it better through sheer will and intellect. Even in this day and age of specialization and free exchange of ideas... disappointed.

Apocalypto

"My son... don't be afraid."

Spiderman 3

Too much exposition; where is the inquiry? where is the subtlety?

Rushed. Good overall, but the other points prevented it from being great.

安静 - 周杰伦

...
你要我说多难堪
我根本不想分开
为什么还要我用微笑來带过
我沒有这种天份
包容你也接受他
不用担心的太多
我会一直好好过

你已经远远离开
我也会慢慢走开
为什么我连分开都迁就着你
我真的沒有天份
安静的沒这么快
我会学着放弃你
是因为我太爱你
...