“It was a self-fulfilling distortion,” Debi Coleman claimed. “You did the impossible, because you didn’t realize it was impossible.”

对着车里的GB挥了挥手，我转身走开，再没有勇气回头。去facial，去办公室，去office hours，去上课，都有些恍恍惚惚。下午的时候一个以前的学生来找我聊天，说起她的爸爸妈妈和ex，她眼圈泛红，我心里就更加难过。是我们要求太多吗？还是幸福真的就是这么难。我不能去想GB，否则眼泪就会不由自主地流下来。GB问我，你怎么舍得扔下我们的一切？其实我根本舍不得。可是，我又没有足够的勇气去面对，去相信这几个月来发生的一切都只是对我们的考验。而且，我也放不下对J的感情。算是我做了决定吗？不是，是GB帮我做了决定。他这些日子一直在说，让我别担心，无论什么事情都有他在扛。说离开，说放手，说等待，都是需要很多坚定和勇敢的。晚上J来接我回家，陪我看friends，陪我难过，陪我哭，可是我的心里还是那么那么地想念GB。我哭着睡着，又哭着醒来。

第一次喝到这个是在Brown的一个Cafe里，觉得很不错。热可可喝起来总是觉得有点太甜，但和茶在一起就清爽了很多。喜欢什么茶就放什么茶，很受欢迎的选择是：mint tea, vanilla and caramel-flavored teas, earl grey, green tea, 和Chai。

现在的我实在是懒得够呛，除了为了维持生计，写那些充斥了公式和数字的文章之外，从不动笔，即便是昨天读完The Help之后心潮澎湃。但今天我终于受不了自己了，短短写上几句吧。

开始读The Help真是有趣。这是我在拿到Nook之后读的第一个sample。边读我边想，这Nook的电子书也做得太没有水准了吧，怎么满篇的语法错误。看到第四页的时候，我绝望了，赶紧去找别的书，看看是不是也这样。看了一圈，发现一切正常，我就怀着满心的好奇回到了这本第三人称单数动词不加s的书。我很庆幸我回来了。

The Help的故事发生在60年代的密西西比州。略知美国历史的人都知道那是种族隔离的时期，而密西西比州又是美国在种族问题上最保守的州之一。但是我以前不知道的是，在那时密西西比的几乎每一个白人家庭里都有黑人佣人，她们照顾白人小孩，洗衣，做饭，收拾家务，无一不能；有很多时候，她们为了这份佣人的工作，不得不把自己的小孩送人或是寄养。这有点像中国旧社会的奶妈，当然，那时的白人小孩是坚决不会被允许吃黑人的奶的。在叙事上，整部小说是以三个女主人公的自述交织而成的：Aibileen和Minny是两个黑人女佣，而Skeeter则是一个二十岁出头的，受过高等教育的白人女孩。如果不是Skeeter的作家梦，如果Skeeter没有想要写一本关于黑人女佣和她们的白人雇主之间的关系的书，如果Aibileen没有答应Skeeter的谈话的要求，她们的生活仍有交集，但她们的世界却不会有。借用书中的一段话：

We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.

衡量社会进步程度的重要标准之一就是人和人是不是平等，是不是有同样的机会；而人人平等的前提就是相信大家都是一样的，无论种族，无论性别，无论出身。The Help最想要表达的就是这个讯息。书中最让我感动的莫过于这些女人的勇敢和坚强。Aibileen成为了Skeeter的第一个被采访者和书的作者；Minny为了保护大家而坚持在书中加入了她所做的那件Terribly, Awful的事情；而Skeeter，这个本可以过着安逸生活的女孩，可以为了自己的梦想而承受被排挤、威胁、和抛弃。当读到Stuwart再次出现的时候，我以为Skeeter终于遇到了那个爱她，和她志同道合的人，但是，当听到Stuwart讲起他的前未婚妻的时候，我知道，他不是。我为Skeeter而惋惜，但当我的脑海里出现那个在纽约街头、形色匆匆的她的时候，我明白，他是她可以牺牲的。在这个世界上，抱怨的人太多，而有勇气改变些什么的人又太少。而这，正是她们美丽和迷人的地方。而且，她们还很可爱，我永远也忘不了Minny在Skeeter收到纽约的工作邀请而犹豫不决的时候说，

So don’t walk your white butt to New York, run it.

***********************************************************************************
Here is a summary of the book from BookBrowse.com:

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

1. The Freedom Trail

2. Boston Public Garden

3. Quincy Market

4. Fenway Park

5. Museum of Science

6. Samuel Adams Brewery

7. New England Aquarium

8. Boston Harbor Islands

9. Museum of Fine Arts

Check Smart Destimations.

Free (and almost free) things to do in Boston.

- The Walk to the Sea. There is a map displaying the route and attractions along the way:

and here’s a cute map of Boston in 1722:

- Self-guided iPod Tours: Boston Harbor Walk, Fort Point Channel Tour, and Public Garden Tour.

- The State House

- Climb Bunker Hill Monument

- The Swan Boats

- USS Constitution

- See a Movie or Concert at the Hatch Shell

- Ride the Ferry

CharlieCard Discount Book . Also check Smart Destimations. Free and discounted passes to many Boston museums are available to library card holders at local branch libraries.

OM:

1. Management Science

2. Manufacturing and Service Operations Management

3. Production and Operation Management

4. Journal of Operations Management

Marketing:

1. Marketing Science

2. Journal of Marketing Research

3. Journal of Retailing

Information Systems:

1. Information Systems Research

- Michael Lewis. An unofficial archive of Michael Lewis writing.

- Elizabeth Gilbert

- Danielle Steel

- Nancy Horan

Daily:

- The Wall Street Journal

- The Boston Globe

Regularly:

- Let’s Go

- The Sartorialist

- 几米作品集

- Open Yale Courses

- The Operations Room

- The Becker-Posner Blog

- Apple movie trailers

- Shades of Words

I need to change the axes label of an EPS file and this is how I did it. First I open the EPS file in Adobe. Then I add a text box in order to input the new label. For the y-axis, I need to rotate the text box 90 degrees. However, it turns out (at least based on my experience) that you can’t rotate a text box directly in Adobe. Here is how I did it. I rotate the page (Document – Rotate Pages) and then insert a text box once the page orientation is the same as the orientation of the text I want to insert. Once you I have finished adding the label, I re-rotate it back to its original orientation and the text box moves along with the page. Interesting.

I use Generic PostScript Printer to save the new file to .ps file. However, the new change reflected in the added text box doesn’t show in the .ps file. So alternatively, I first use “File – Save as” and choose .eps, again, the new change doesn’t how. Then I use “File – Save as” and choose .ps, the change shows and then I use GSView to convert the .ps file to an .eps file. Kind of confusing and messy, but at least it works!

Source: http://www.cleveland.com/brett/blog/index.ssf/2006/05/regina_bretts_45_life_lessons.html

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here’s an update:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.