2/27/2010
11/02/2009
老头儿又发飙了
以前我有在博客上贴过Greenberg老头儿给学生发的“慰问信”。今天上课回来一看，又一封杰作躺在邮箱里。这小老头怎么就这么可爱咧……
Living with Conflict
Folks,
I was born two blocks from Yankee Stadium. On hot days during summer weekends, I still recall sitting on my father's lap, watching a Yankee game on a tiny television screen, and hearing the cheers of the crowd through our apartment window when someone hit a home run. The Yankees were my team as I grew: Mantle, Maris, Whitey Ford, the wit, wisdom, and superb catching of Yogi Berra. The best ballgame I ever saw was when the Yankees defeated the Red Sox in a deciding league playoff game; Bucky Dent, a most unlikely batter, hit a home run to win the game. I watched from a hospital room where my mother was recovering from surgery. These are times and images one remembers.
I lived in New York from birth to age 22. But as I aged in other places, I always considered myself a New Yorker. No longer a resident, I still visit regularly to explore the museums and shops, walk the streets, and eat the great food. When the twin towers were destroyed and my city left in ruins, I felt a personal sense of loss and anger. I had just celebrated my 50th birthday with my family at Windows on the World-the restaurant perched on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. Obsessively, I watched the news reports and repeated images of destruction around the clock during those first few days. Like an addict, I knew the constant watching only made me more upset, yet I could not stop. My connection to the city of my birth was just too strong.
For 30 years, my family and I have lived in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. My wife completed her medical training here; my two daughters were born and raised here; our best friends are here; and this is the place where I have lived longest. For all these years, I've also been part of Drexel, and its students, faculty, staff, and unique culture have become part of me. I've grown to love Philly, with its rich history and rough edges, and its spirit. I like working in this city, and my family and I are most often found in the city on weekends, enjoying great music or theater or museums, and some of the best food available anywhere. I consider myself now a Philadelphian.
Hence my current conflict-and why I am taking your time with this personal reflection. I'm not an avid sports fan, yet this World Series presents a challenge, which by now you have probably anticipated. I write because that challenge opens a small window on the nature of life and how education can help us live it.
The great American poet Robert Frost writes, "Nothing in life runs unmixed." The challenge of living comes from its complexity, its multiple perspectives and possibilities for interpretation, its uncertainties. Solving an equation correctly is satisfying; it provides closure. A really good movie or novel or poem-or a complex scientific or engineering problem--prompts more questions than it answers, poses challenges that are not resolved easily or perhaps at all. Friendships and relationships do not run unmixed. Major life decisions do not run unmixed. The great art of living well involves learning to live with uncertainty, becoming comfortable with conflict, even becoming able to balance two competing theories or perspectives at once-or affiliations to two sports teams locked in fierce competition. That's why it's an art and not an exact science. And that's what a good university education offers: a challenge to linear, often narrow thinking. It does so by cultivating discussion of competing, often equally valid ideas, modes of interpretation, and analysis. It prompts thoughtful reflection on life's great ironies. It helps us learn to live with uncertainties, conflicts, doubts, and fears. It helps us become human.
At Drexel, we are opening the curricula of our majors to encourage students to learn more broadly and to engage learning in different ways; and each College and School at Drexel will be developing courses aimed at presenting to a general audience of students the riches of its disciplines and the complexities of its approaches to thinking. Each discipline and major has much to offer in this regard, for thoughtful practitioners of what appear to be exact sciences understand that once you begin questioning deeply, more questions than answers arise.
I have studied arts and sciences and dedicated a large portion of my life to trying to interpret and teach great works of art. I've grown more comfortable with doubts and uncertainties, with not knowing, and with un-resolvable conflicts. Part of this stems from education and part just from living. The important question, then, is how is a New Yorker, now a Philadelphian and educated in irony, handling the competition between the Yankees and the Phillies? I stand with most of my colleagues, friends, and our students: I'm rooting for the Phillies. I want the Phillies to win. But I'll hate seeing the Yankees lose.
Mark Greenberg
11/01/2009
10/25/2009
10/15/2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyluTTt9avA
Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart and Kurt Russell.
10/01/2009
6/19/2009
我爱新发明
我说：因为我是工程师，所以能够改善人类生活质量的产品都要利用起来。
因为妈妈来，我跟她说，室友在家里有个压力锅可以用。
她笑我落后：现在人人都在用电压力锅！
为了造福各位职业女性男性，我决定把这个伟大的发明创造公告于世。
我找到的这个是Wolfgang Puck 5升容量（有7升版的）的。在网上卖，新的大概$100左右。我在ebay拍到refurbished的，免运费$31……真是不买白不买。买了回来终于体会到工具解放人类劳动力去从事智慧型劳动的终极意义！
一锅白粥，不用看火，12分钟就绵绵的。没错，就是12分钟！留学生的凄凉在于晚上回家肚子饿却没有妈妈准备好的一桌丰盛晚餐，只能先把饭煮了等个40分钟再来做菜，等到坐下来吃的时候就什么胃口都没有了。以后就不用再烦恼到底什么时候要把冰肉拿出来解冻，不用提前想好今天晚上吃什么，……只要有材料，即兴发挥，30分钟内全部能够搞定。
我简直觉得我是从猿猴变人了。各位姐妹兄弟们，你们要是有和我一样在厨房里的烦恼，就省下一件t-shirt的价钱，买个电压力锅解放自己吧！
（我发誓这不是广告文）
职场烦恼
得知我8月底之后就打算回学校当一个乖学生以后，魔女开始心理不平衡。
她开始觉得“哦，你快要走了,是不是会连带偷我的东西？”
上个学期因为拿了两个课，期末开始紧张起来（我真是太贪心了）；
加上研究所的事情确实很累人。你追我赶，万事都确定不下来的事情，真的跟恋爱初期那种焦虑很相似。
我又偏偏是那种凡事很上心，不愿意（也不懂）say no的人。又加上一些个人的杂物。
工作上出了些小差错。魔女跟我说：你太stress out了，不如一个礼拜上三天班吧。
工作上出了错，我自己也很难过，很自责。
当时她这么说，我第一个想法是：那钱不就少赚很多了吗？（其实也真的没赚多少，只是足够当个月光族而已）
回来跟爸妈和元释同学哭诉，他们都说：私人老板难免会做出这样的事情来，她自私也是合理的。
然后我自己冷静下来仔细想想，也可能跟我前段时间心理有关。
现在开始觉得公司虽然忙，可是魔女一年多来从来没有跟我“上课”，没有系统地跟我讲过。
只是我数算错了，让我重做。有时候解释的话，也听得我云里雾里，没有说“哦，因为你还没有正式学过，所以我来给你详细地讲讲为什么”。和我从小在家在学校，父母老师教授很懂得按照我的理解程度（当然是很低能的），用我听的懂的话来解释为什么。
所以一年多来，我都基本是在自学。不是不能够问公司里别的consultant。只是他们都很年轻（只比我大那么三几年而已)，我帮忙的project基本是魔女的，他们也不敢给太多意见。而且有几次我听取他们的意见，放进了模型里面，魔女会推翻，让我重做。
现在很多我经手的project，都是我算好了给recommendation，和魔女过一遍没问题，我写好大部分的report，她更改核对再加一些我不太懂的内容，然后签上她自己的名字就发出去给客户的。
我之前还是觉得自己的不足，就是没有办法能够一次做对，而且能够写一个完整的report。跟别的consultant差距还是挺大（他们只比我大那么几年而已啊！！）
魔女跟我说:我才给你比最低工资才高一点点（你也知道哦……），当然不会期望你跟他们一样啊！
听到这一句，其实才是最伤我心的。
从学校家里得到的价值观是：做得好，可是可不可以再好一点？这样才能继续进步啊。
我从第一天开始就是希望：拿一半的工资，学到真正的知识。结束实习以后我读研究生的话，我就更有体会，比别人高出一截。
可是魔女真的只是觉得她很便宜地请到一个实习生，还很傻地帮她做这个做那个。然后忽然发现，哦，原来你是有居心的！
我是傻的才放着两倍人工的工作不去做，到你这里来熬比打便利店还便宜的实习……
于是接下来的一个多礼拜我都不好过。魔女趁我没上班借机会翻我电脑，桌上的文件，找机会挑我的不是。
可是我又不能说辞职不干，这个行业真的很小，以后我要在这里混，见面的机会多的是。
只好凡事忍气吞声，你说一我就做一。每天上班就提心吊胆的，不知道会不会被人家揪到尾巴马上炒鱿鱼。
幸好这个礼拜她终于恢复理智，虽然还是指使我做这做那，不过起码语气好多了，而且不会翻我的东西。（真的没什么不见得人的东西好么……）
我现在是对小型公司失去了信心。真的，公司太小连上个洗手间大家都知道。想take个10分钟的break都不可以，更加不要说走神打瞌睡的了。
现在我只希望平平安安过了这两个半月，然后结束实习，赚个好名声，我就回学校当我的好学生去了。现在是越来越喜欢待在学校里，风平浪静的，教授不喜欢我又不用死，等级关系没那么明显。最重要的是，大家聊天都是有趣的、有脑的、知识激荡的话题。和教授聊天真是当学生的一大privilege，每次聊完总是觉得精神境界上了一个层次。总是在他们身上学到很多东西，得到很多启发。跟在公司里很不一样，秘书没来上班，老板找不到人聊，就抓着我说她前夫家里乱七八糟的、儿子病了、男朋友工作忙一个月都见不了几天……搞到我真的不知道怎么答话。只能说“oh...That's too bad...really?”这些跟我真的没有关系，而且我也不同情你，好不好？
不过一个礼拜上三天班也有一个好处，那就是，我现在可以坐在家悠闲地看看书，午后来个下午茶，写写博客。
这个夏天，真的希望能够悠悠闲闲地过去。
妈妈下个礼拜六就过来了。其实我“被强令”放假最开心的人其实是她……
我们要放暑假咯！
5/12/2009
形容词更新
来美国之前就听说，这里的花粉树很多，春天很多人中招。不过一般中国人都不会在头一两年有症状，我一直不以为然。3年8个月之后，我的过敏症终于发作了。诱因是元释同学清理冰箱，把旧的泡菜扔进垃圾桶，满屋子的酸辣味让我连续打了两分钟喷嚏。接下来的24小时里，鼻涕不止，异常壮烈。没想到，最后其实是败在泡菜手上。
破纪录
上个礼拜天母亲节，我越洋送花，把我妈和婆婆给高兴坏了（还给我撞上那天是婆婆八十八大寿），电话讲了破天荒三小时。究竟两个女人有什么那么好倾的呢?男人是不会明白的，讲你都不明，元释同学就不明。他主动问过我,说：我跟我妈打电话5分钟搞定。真是比打XX都快。其实也很容易明白，不外乎就是讲男人，我讲我的男人（张某某），她讲她的男人（就是我爸）。重重复复不要紧的，最紧要是大家互相成为对方的倾诉对象，有个宣泄的地方。最后我们一致通过，觉得男人真是烦，我们有时候需要离开一下，让他们冷静下，感觉一下我们平时为他们付出的种种其实不是理所当然的。（姓张的你给我记住了！）
我很忙
婆婆在电话上问我意见，说她要去医院立遗嘱注册遗体捐献。说得我两眼汪汪。不过听人说，老人家把身后事都准备好了的话，反而会更长寿。我跟她说，你别想那么多，有空帮我想想你那些朋友同学（她现在还在上老人大学，快要出诗集了）有没有孙子长的俊俏点的，我回家的时候你给我相亲吧，过两年我就结婚生仔，让你抱曾孙。她很不给面子地说，我不跟你想这些事情，你自己搞定，我就想着明年去美国参加你的毕业典礼。我从来觉得我婆婆就是从张爱玲小说里面走出来的三十年代新式女人，那种自我、那种洒脱、那种矛盾、那种爱面子。不忙给我介绍男朋友找曾孙抱，却给我送的花即兴填了首江城子……投诉我爸（怎么我爸老被人投诉？）揶揄她“比温家宝还忙”，老太婆答曰：他有多少个秘书啊？我才有半边脑袋。我问最近都在忙啥，她说：马上汶川地震一周年了，诗社搞活动，我得翻好多资料找灵感写诗，能不忙么我这半边脑！