Lunarmony’s Journal

"I am not loyal to the Chiss because my parents were accepted by them, or because I have grown up among them. I'm loyal because they embody traits I admire and respect; they make those traits part of the very fiber of our society. Traits such as strength in the face of aggression, such as acknowledgment of duty before self-interest. The Chiss, however, are not the only people with admirable traits, not the only ones who deserve to survive the Yuuzhan Vong, and not the only ones I identify with. Not anymore."

*

"I was raised among them, raised with them, judged by their standards. I met those standards. I exceeded those standards. I won command of my squadron. These people competed to join that squadron. They wanted to fly with me, not because I am a man or because I am an Imperial, but because I am a superior pilot and leader. And as for fighting for my freedom, I've been doing that in the Unknown Regions for all my life."

*

Never thought that there would ever be a character in the extended universe that would impress me as much as Jagged Fel had.  But the fact is, he really had.

I am not talking about the storyline here; truth be told, Legacy of the Force series is not that creative; the series is more like a ... rehearsal ... of the original Trilogy.  Then again, no one is solely impressed by creativity alone, either.

Complexity isn't power. It's instead the simple daily acts that really touch and move us.

* 

Despite the fact that he had no Force talents whatsoever, and he was trying to hunt down one of the most dangerous dark Jedi, Alema Rar, at that time.

Talking about fighting Force-users without using Force skills. It's no different than using bare fists to defend yourself against someone who's pointing a blaster pistol at you; for most people, from the moment the fight started... you're doomed. No sane people would go down this path. No sane people would even try.

And yet it is Jag, a man "with not enough to live for" who tried... and won.

Because of a purpose, which had in turn resolved into unshakable commitment.

*

"But most of all, you die because you refuse to learn." (Alema Rar)

"Oh, but I do learn." Jag said to himself.

- Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - 07 - Fury

The decision to find a way no matter what.

Easier said than done. 

Yet Jag did what others - with superior talents and skills - never succeeded in doing.

*

It is said that the moment one definitely commits oneself, Providence moves too.

One wonders how many miracles the nature would present.

If only we're willing to go deeper every time obstacles show up.

*

For responsibility. Duty. And honor.

似乎之前配置的comment系统有这样一个bug，即当用户没有完整键入name / email / content信息时，提交后转到的是空白页面而不是提示错误信息。这个似乎和IIS / wp-comments-post.php的权限设置有关系，但是我觉得那种模式也不太完美，于是直接换到了ajax模块……然后问题就出现了。

安装ajax comments v2.08后返回的错误信息提示窗口总是空白内容。研究了一下ajax-comments.php，基本确定产生问题的原因是header输出406信息之后exit($s)的信息被截住了。改成echo方法直接输出javascript + 正常exit(), 问题解决……

目前经过测试留言模块在IE/firefox下均工作正常。如果哪位同学在留言时还有异常现象请直接Email / GTalk 联系Lunarmony [at] Gmail [dot] com, 多谢:)

另外请注意现在只需要键入昵称和内容即可提交留言；如果键入Email信息请确保Email合法。

当然这个解决方案还不是很完美，我倾向于通过div来实现无弹出窗口的错误信息显示；但是这种细节美化工作估计要留到5月份以后做了……

P.S., 前面的bug应该是和我用的主机环境为IIS有关……所以这个事实教育我们，要省时高效的解决wordpress blog托管还是应该用LAMP~

P.P.S., 今天才刚知道wordpress.com.cn是和wordpress官网没有任何关系的网站……-_-

P.P.P.S., Beijing Regional 2007已经在UVA上放出来了，据说数据比现场有加强:) 有兴趣的同学可以去尝试一下^_^

题外话：最近有一个很热的时间管理方法GTD。其实这个东西还是很不错的，但我不明白的是为什么这么简单的东西可以被扩展到书/CD等等媒介……它本质上也就是linux的一个发行版，即很多东西的一个包装整合。

但是很遗憾的，系统如其名，Getting Things Done，既然我们不是机器人，完成任务也不能带给我们精神上的满足，所以我们做事的目的显然不应该是完成手上的任务:)

结束跑题:) 这里总结一下几个时间管理过程中比较重要的观念和原则。

另外*号部分是需要展开说明的……具体内容请参见后续文章。

*

焦点：

• 不要将注意力放在你要做的事情上；相反的，你应该聚焦于你想达到的结果，并根据结果决定你要做的事情。
• 思考自己的行动对自己人生的塑造与对社会的潜在影响。我们可以在一瞬间内决定改变，但最终我们的社会是由我们每个人每天做出的决定采取的行动所塑造的。所以如果你对社会的任何一方面不满，你所应该做的不是顺应潮流，而是决定从自身做起去改变现状。

规划：

• 长期/短期目标的设定：明确你的行动方向。举个最简单的例子，蒙上眼睛的神枪手打中10米之外的目标的概率是多大？
• 明确自己是怎么使用时间的。这是优化时间利用的第一步。(*)

选择：

• 在做一件看似很无聊的事情前首先问自己：我之前为什么觉得我需要做这件事情？我的目的是什么？我可不可以选择用一种更好，更有趣的方法去做这件事情，使我不仅仅能达成我最初的目标，而且可以享受做事的过程？
• (如果上面问题的答案都是否……那么我可不可以选择不去做这件事情？)
• 所有重要的决定一定要在纸上进行。完整的记录下你为什么做出这个决定。

进度：

• 是的，你可以选择同时去做5件，6件事情，我不反对这一点；但是这样的结果就是短时间内你在每件事上都不会做出显著的进步。因为一个人的时间是有限的——7*24小时/周。
• 虽然你可以通过时间管理的方法来提高自己做事的效率，但是达成短时间的目标最终所需要的是一种全力以赴的态度。

行动：

• 达到任何目标的关键是长时间坚持不懈的积累。短时间的过载只会带来身心上的疲惫和对这件事情的反感。
• 永远不要多线程做事情。(*)
• 学习他人的经验。(*)
• 用各种工具来帮助你忘掉日程表。(*)。将注意力汇聚于现在，因为只有现在是你可以完全掌控的。
• 永远保持轻松的心态。追寻梦想和完成任务只是人生的一部分而已。不要愁眉苦脸的去面对生活^_^

管理：

• 不断的检查你与目标间的差距。
• 不断的检查你的行动是否可以帮助你成为你想成为的人，对他人以及社会做出你想做出的贡献。
• 反思：我在哪些方面可以做得更好？

其他：

• 学会感恩。珍惜你拥有的一切。
• 重视细节。
• 重视健康。
• 在任何情况下都坚守自己为人的准则。
• 追求可扩展性，以及协调统一的美。

(To be continued…)

Not exactly a review, alright.
Just something I felt after reading the book, Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Fury...

The Jedi Code
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Used to think that those lines were a bit old-fashioned. And the fact is that I still do. It's just that I am now beginning to appreciate the Code from a different point of view, considering what happened recently.

It's only when you have absolutely nothing to lose that you can truly open yourself.

As long as you have two different – conflicting – area of interest to protect, at some point you'll be forced to compromise your principles, alter your beliefs, justify your wrong doings, all because the two aspects are incompatible in nature.

In other words, there's no integrity without pure commitment.

=======================================================

Updated @ Jan 21:

Just read another article, Anakin Must Die, posted by Abel G. Pena, in which the author said:

I want to do the right thing, one says, but not at the expense of myself. Not at the expense of myself! What guarantee do I have that if I pass up this opportunity to seize my destiny -- yes, at the expense of this other -- that such an opportunity will come again? That I will not have betrayed myself forever?

Alas, we may now mourn together. Because, there is no guarantee.

And that, called alternately the annihilation of the self and the faith that hope lives forever, is what it is to be a Jedi.

=======================================================

A clear, unquestioned objective.

=======================================================

I will not go into details of what has happened here - because everyone who needs to know the thing already knows the entire process, and reiterating that thing would be meaningless and pointless, not to mention frustrating and irritating. (And by the way, if you have no idea of what I am talking about here... I suggest that you stop reading because continuing reading would be a waste of your time) Pretending that everything is alright is the easiest thing on this planet; but it's not the cure. Ignorance isn't bliss; ignorance equals pain, which is exactly the reason that I am writing this entry. We can't just 'wish away' the things we would rather forget for our entire lives.

The point of matter remains that I am not entirely sure whether this is merely a matter of compromising with personal principles. What I am really seeing is a tendency – a tendency probably caused by social conditioning, to over-simplify the problems. There are certain rules that seem right at the moment; and the actions implied by those rules are ethically justifiable. Moreover, the fast-paced society today forces us to either accept the rule or else endure the unbearable pain, and given little time for consideration, we have no choice but to accept the rule, despite that we know that loopholes might be found here and there.  Day by day those rules seem to have become more and more natural; gradually they become a part of our lives…

And one day we end up finding that those rules are actually incompatible with the structure of our lives. Or rather, what we think our lives should be. It's not until when the consequences of accepting those rules finally come crashing down upon us that we discover we're only meters away from the lurking monster's nest; and yet we cannot escape except by abandoning the very same rules that we've learned to rely on, rules that we've grown to trust, - and which have also brought us to the disaster.

Which is why most people choose to walk into the monster's nest rather than fleeing.

The fear of losing one's identity. 

On one side of the balance is the pain of being a victim; on the other side of the balance is losing the identity. Without faith the latter one is far more hurting than the former one. 

Yet the latter one, of losing (and eventually rebuilding) our identity, is the only morally sound option that we have. As long as we're willing to face the challenge boldly, there is nothing that we could not solve.

*

But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone's freedom is at risk. Those who favor censorship should recall that one of the first books ever burned was the first English translation of the Bible. As President Eisenhower warned in 1953, "Don't join the book burners...the right to say ideas, the right to record them, and the right to have them accessible to others is unquestioned -- or this isn't America." And if that right is denied, at some future day the torch can be turned against any other book or any other belief. Let us never forget: Today's moral majority could become tomorrow's persecuted minority.

- Edward M. Kennedy, Truth and Tolerance 

Bolding mine.