Warning: Explicit Language

Perhaps ...

I just need to learn to get used to falling.

Pure Sound

Remember ...

You got the fat envelope because you shot for the moon. So keep shooting.

183 days × 400,000 visitors / day

Did the Expo 2010 really impart such a good impression of Shanghai to (foreign) visitors? Did it (and the whole city, to some extent, during the event) not just seem like an overcrowded, overhyped fairground to many of them? Though I would have to admit, organising such an enormous event in such a bustling, dense, crowded city is a logistical challenge par excellence, and the organising committee did not too bad at all a job. Also possibly foreigners were generally treated more kindly, since there were so few of them, and they were guests after all.

Whether or not such positive impressions were unrepresentative and misleading, though, they can't be a bad thing, and there's some truth to them anyway. Shanghai is now indeed a much cleaner and neater place with a lot more useful infrastructure than it was, or would have been by now without the Expo. And if what the visitors saw was only the city and country putting its best foot forward---well so much the better for us, no? Just another reason why the six-month long, agonisingly disruptive spectacle wasn't just another shiny toy in town, but was actually useful. 

It's like "nothing ventured, nothing gained" writ Large.

In other news, my second language mother tongue other first language is rapidly fading into nada. Pfft.

Survival Guide for Next 14 Days

All the dining halls, plus Frist, serve decent coffee.
The USG office has free coffee between 4:30pm and 9:30 pm on weekdays
The human sleep cycle is supposedly 3 hours. When really pressed, 3 hours of sleep is more optimal than 4 or 2.
Don't go running until you've caught up on your sleep.
You cannot afford to take on any more commitments for the next 2 weeks. Period.
If you're really exhausted, just rest, even if it means missing a few deadlines. Falling ill only means the snowball continues to grow. Also, it's okay to do less because you can't juggle so much. Relax.
Also, I've been up for 21 hours straight. I should go sleep.

Deconstructing the Castle

Forest: A rich labyrinth, containing broad, wide paths, and intricate networks of connections, but also tiny little nooks and crannies which offer shelter from the passing storms. Not, one would hope, nearly as isolating or rigid as a castle.
Who still lives in castles these days, anyway? They're only really good as museums, or wine cellars, or novelty vacation homes.

Diaspora

It's a state of mind, the state of mind that comes with not being at home, with all the discomfort, unease and anxiety that entails. So even if the Promised Land is a political reality now, does it really mean the end of Diaspora? When it continues to be attacked and threatened on a daily basis, when the geopolitical basis for its existence is not at all stable? Could anyone really be at home in such a situation?