Le dîner

Beneath a sky on the verge of falling

a glimpse of other stars

Was a glimpse of other stars all they longed for?

ensemble

看过了世界，读了（太多）书。从现在只希望，和一个特别的人，在我们一起选择的生活中，共同快乐。

Ruins

Acquire a ballroom of incomparable splendour

The Wandering Earth, movie

I am probably not the intended audience for this movie as I disliked it quite a bit. The thing that irked me the most was characterization:

Yes, just as portrayed in the movie, human beings are capable of compassion, kindness, cooperation, and even self-sacrifice while working towards a common goal. But these are not revelations or keen observations of human nature.

A Metamorphosis

Magdalene's

"The staff at Magdalene's promise treatments for the deleterious effects of the High Wilderness: loneliness, desperation, folly, regret, love."

Advanced Wistful Stargazing

"This book contains comprehensive maps of the night sky, charts the patterns of several known comets, and speculates on the existence of other celestial bodies not yet perceived by kith eyes.

The author's tone is supportive and kind, encouraging those with a passion for the stars to nurture their curiosity and find deeper understanding of themselves in the vast unknown.

The maps might be useful to someone. The lesson might be useful to everyone."

"The softest of rains falls in the street..."

Does anything happen in these books?

itemised

"It is what a different postwar theoretical philosophy called redemption; all these insignificant moments of an insignificant daily life are here redeemed, by the ordinary, undistinctive sentences which write them down. They have not been transformed, or lent some higher meaning; they remain what they were before, transient and of no particular interest. Nor are they lifted into the timeless eternity of classical literature, posterity and the canon: you can dip into them wherever you like and they will not be any more quotable..."

"...this ‘being-for-the-reading-other’ makes for a new kind of otherness"

Geoscape

Trinity

Adagio Stellar

Goodbye Chicago

Before we parted, I asked you: "We all came to this city to change our lives. Are you happy how your life has changed?"

Goodbye Chicago. Stay beautiful.

Chinese SF

"Each chapter is headed with a ‘life goal’: the first is ‘Drink some water that is not bitter, make some money’; the last is ‘Fly to the stars, draw humanity’s gaze back to the depths of the cosmos.’"

from the depths of the Pacific to the edge of the galaxy

"I solemnly swear, to devote my life and ability
in the defense of the United Nations of Earth
to defend the constitution of man
and to further the universal rights of all sentient life
from the depths of the Pacific
to the edge of the galaxy
for as long as I shall live."

A game I have loved and what it taught me: SMAC

In Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (1999), we are put in charge of ensuring the survival of the last remnants of humanity, a few thousand people sent urgently in a starship to colonize the star system Alpha Centauri in the final days of Earth. Through the game, we not only get to decide how humanity may (or may not) survive, but also decide how humanity evolves into different future societies, and find its place among the stars. This unique science fiction setting drew me to Alpha Centauri as a teenager. At first, I expected to be simply entertained by the game. Yet years later as an adult, I still remember Alpha Centauri as a wellspring of ideas from which I drank and became transformed. 

Through Alpha Centauri, I discovered ideas about how future societies may organize themselves to ensure human survival and progress. I discovered ideas about what future speculative technologies might be and how they will affect future societies. I remember that playing the game made me felt less lonely in the world, because I discovered that loneliness is a universal human condition and that it is timeless. I discovered hope and optimism in an uplifting possible future in which humanity finds its place among the stars. I found and grappled with ideas that are bigger than me. I made decisions that made me reflect on my capacity for empathy. I discovered that history is not a guiding moral force. I found these ideas so unexpected and erudite in a computer game that playing the game became a way for me to meditate about my place in the world...

Lying awake in bed

Lying awake in bed last night, I heard what sounded like Chinese opera music playing from my neighbor's apartment. No it can't be, I thought and closed my eyes. And for a few seconds, I was back in my childhood bed in my grandparents' house. Then, as now, light from the the evening streets leaked through my bedroom windows. And I could hear my neighbor's TV playing audibly. When lay still, I could make out the words of the TV shows being played. Sometimes, I would lie with my eyes open, tracing out the room in semi darkness. Other times I would lie with my eyes closed. Time slowed, and nothing else seem to mattered.