in jeonju, south korea, they really like their bean sprouts. two english-speaking, (drunk) old men i met at dinner laughed at this observation of mine, saying its actually "something in the special water" here that makes them delicious.
i have possibly eaten my weight in bean sprouts over the last few days.
exhibit A, breakfast: several types of kimchi, tiny salty shrimps, barley tea, and two varieties of spicy bean sprout soup! (they like to eat big breakfasts here...)
Kongnamul gukbap (콩나물국밥)
the flavours might not have had huge depth, but the spiciness more than made up for it!
actually, that dish on the right was my favorite! it was two eggs with dried seaweed mixed together (and cooked) with the hot broth from the center dish of bean sprout soup. the women who served the food prepared that dish for me, as it must have been pretty obvious that i had no idea what to do with the two raw eggs sitting silently in the bowl in front of me!
this is the text of a commencement speech given by steve jobs on june 12, 2005 (video below):
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
the nobel prize in physics for 2011 has been given to three people: Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae."
of the three, i know brian schmidt who is an astronomer based at the australian national university in canberra. after i gave a seminar talk there a couple months ago, brian gave me a bottle of wine he makes at his winery, a customary gift he bestows upon all visiting speakers.
when brian attended the supernova and their host galaxies conference in sydney in june, he led a wine tasting event one evening. this is where i learned he is really into wine, and he kindly opened a bottle for us all to try! it was indeed a tasty red, and since i've tried it, i think i might hold on to the bottle i have for a while longer ;)
brady was on this announcement quickly and shares not only what the prize was awarded for, but also the story of how mike has lost a bottle of fine whisky as a result of the prize announcement, in this sixty symbols video:
during my first night in Beijing, i managed to entertain some locals by eating something completely the wrong way. but i'll get to that...
the Donghuamen Night Market in Beijing, China is known for its unusual food options. this market is a bit overpriced and caters to the tourists, but you can bargain for deals if you want. in general, the strangeness of the options makes up for the overall blandness of the flavours, in my mind.
for instance, in the image below you see silk worm at the lower left, and snakes on sticks in the middle of the upper row!
you choose what you want and they either fry it or grill it over the coals in front of them, as this woman has done to the skewered snake she's happily handing off.
i did not eat snake.
i have no idea what the mound of thing below is. i couldnt guess from the items listed on their signs and they couldnt tell me when i asked. they chop it up and serve it in a stir fry or a soup. the locals seemed to like it.
then, of course, there are the creepy crawly things: scorpions, centipedes, grasshoppers, lizards, massive crickets, etc... all deep fried to order.
i did not eat anything with too many legs to count, nor did i eat or photograph the sheep's penis, the (seriously) stinky tofu, the pig ears (a true delicacy here), the testicles, you get the idea.
what i did eat were squid, oysters, dumplings, and a starfish!
a guy at the stall offered to take my photo, and my expression mostly describes the experience. i wanted to like it, but...
it had a very confusing and gritty texture. i didnt really like it at all. i took one more apprehensive bite as i walked along the stalls and was about to toss the awful thing in a bin, when an old lady mercifully waved me over to her stall and showed me the proper way to eat a starfish (between her fits of laughter with her friend)!!
apparently youre supposed to crack it open and only eat the dark flesh inside!
oops! i was completely embarrassed, but happy to learn the right part to eat! doing my best as a silly westerner to entertain the locals ;) the inside bit was definitely better, but kinda bitter and salty and not actually that tasty. a woman stopped just then and asked if i could give her some money to buy bread. i offered her the rest of the starfish, but she refused, and turned quickly to rush away. hmm.
i ended the evening on a sweet note, with fruit glazed in sugar!
today was an exhausting and incredible day. i cannot believe how much we lucked out with the weather while we climbed up to and along the unrestored Jiankou section of the great wall of china. absolutely amazing.
until recently, i never really understood the desire some people had to walk along large sections of the 3500 mile long wall, but my opinion has changed dramatically. not only have i been reading a great book about a wall trek called embracing the dragon, by polly greeks, but now the experience of feeling the long mountain spine leaves me craving more.
but i remember when my tiny niece was obsessed with chasing these harmless spiders around the yard and her way of saying "addy ong wegs" (or something) was absolutely adorable!
it's almost easy to forget where i am after a day of sitting at a desk with my laptop thinking about the same type of universe-related questions that i think about most days.
but then i get up to use the bathroom and find squatting toilets waiting for me. oh right, still in asia!
most toilets stalls dont provide handles...
many places offer both the squatting option and the western-style toilet... just remember not to flush the toilet paper!
so far this trip reminds me of something my good friend said recently about adjusting to having a new baby and a toddler in her family:
"it’s a question of managing all the moving parts and making sure everyone eats, sleeps and poops in the appropriate places."
only i just have to look after myself. props to all you parents!
ps. today i'm off to the western social media deadzone of mainland china, during their national holidays, which should be a sufficiently crazy time to visit beijing! talk to you from hong kong next week...
i managed to get out of the city over the weekend and up to taiwan's northern coast. i went with some seasoned rock climbers who, thankfully, let me borrow their equipment! i'm not a very strong climber, but it was a lot of fun and the views from high up the rock face were worth the effort!
i also walked around a bit and found a family fishing. overall, the day was lovely - even when it started really raining late in the afternoon!
the populations of taiwan and australia are roughly equal at 23 million people, yet taiwan is an island 500 km (310 mi) long and 200km across, while mainland australia is over 7.5 million square kilometers! taiwan has roughly 200 professional astronomers compared to australia's 500.
after my talk yesterday, there was a reception with an array of snacks set out to welcome a mexican concert pianist who gave an amazing piano recital! the event was to honor mexican and tawainese relations as they move forward to build a telescope in mexico with the aim of detecting small (~1 km diameter) objects in the Kuiper Belt at the edge of our solar system.
listening to piano music in a lovely recital hall is now officially my favorite way to relax after giving a talk.
my hosts then took me out to dinner to a very famous dumpling restaurant in taipei city. there were many people standing outside waiting and i thought we would never get into the tiny place, but they took our table of six up and up and up 5 flights of stairs to a room with a large table!
the food was incredible! some of the steamed dumplings actually had soup inside so they morphed their shape as i picked them up with my chopsticks, dipped them in the vinegar, soy sauce, and ginger mixture, and placed them on my spoon to cool. the bite was an explosion of goodness.
i was so entranced by the textures and flavours of the food and the scientific conversation, that i forgot to take any photos! i realized this at the end of the meal and so my hosts insisted on ordering another round of red bean dessert buns so they could take this photo for me ;)
anyone living in australia during the last ~year knows how exorbitantly priced bananas have been since the floods hit queensland and wiped out most of the crops.
anyone who knows me reasonably well understands how devastated i have been about this unfortunate occurrence! but despite my love of bananas, i refuse to pay $15 to $20 AUD per kilo (or even more) for this delicious fruit.
now i hope everyone can appreciate just how big my eyes must have grown today at lunch with astronomers in taiwan, when i was finishing my bowl of noodles and the woman placed on our table one tasty, tiny, bright yellow, gorgeous looking banana for each of us!!
maybe it wasnt the best early impression to make on the professionals here, but i dont really care, because i was incredibly excited. and after hearing the sad story of the floods, i was offered another banana, which i happily accepted!
the other dessert offering was a bowl of hard candies. i took two that looked peculiarly interesting, pictured above. one was corn flavoured, which didnt seem quite as odd as the apparently goldfish flavoured sweetie. the fish one was colored pink and surprisingly tasted quite good! i ate it first in case it was horrid and i needed to cover the flavour. this was a mistake, because the brown colored "cornee" thing was absolutely awful! i cannot do any more justice to the flavour other than to say that i had to spit it out.
in other food news: sushi-flavoured pringles!?!
ps. there were probably supposed to be at least 10 hyphens in the post, but i gave up trying to remember the rules and just removed them all! please forgive me (or teach me...).
successfully made it to taipei! it has the old familiar smell of asian cities in the summer: sewage.
the trip was mostly uneventful, but i managed to get in a bit of light reading on the plane ;)
off to work today - give my first talk tomorrow. the extragalactic astronomy community in taiwan is rather small, but quite active, and apparently they will all be at my talk tomorrow! looking forward to it.
tomorrow i start another extended research tour - this time around asia! i'm giving 9 talks at nine different institutions in 5 countries. in my experience asian countries are exhausting to travel in, mostly because i have no intuition whatsoever for the languages and outside of big cities, there is not much english spoken or written.
so i've been getting myself mentally ready for this trip by doing some research about the different cultures i will be visiting: taiwan, china (beijing), hong kong, south korea, japan.
i went from feeling very excited a few weeks ago, to being a bit anxious over the last week. now my talks are ready, my research is at a relatively settled state, i have ideas to discuss, and i'm *really* excited again! i cant wait... to eat...! :)
but i still have to pack :( i want to travel, but i dont want to pack. i want it to be that moment where i sit on the plane and wonder what movie i will watch.
anyway, i should get on with the packing. hopefully i'll be able to post regularly over the next 5 weeks and fill you in with stories and photos.
here is a timelapse video taken from the international space station as it travels around the earth. i think the lightning looks amazing as does the edge of the atmosphere floating lightly above the surface.
that might be what the sunset would look like if you lived on "Kepler-16b" (astronomers still arent very good at naming things...)
there are currently 680 known exo-planets, which is a dramatic increase to the last time i remember checking, which was just a few months ago, and there were about 560 or so! exciting astronomical times to be living in for sure!
i knew this announcement was coming today because all day yesterday, i could hear my office-neighbour, simon o'toole, talking on the phone to several newspaper reporters, radio people, and various other media outlets about it. simon searches for planets too and is the AAOs resident expert on all things exo-planetary. as he described to the sydney morning herald:
"When you have two stars forming close together you have a big cloud of gas and dust and gravity pulls this into a disc of material which orbits both stars. If there is enough gas and dust left over you can get a planet."
since i knew this announcement was coming today, i wore my star wars t-shirt to work in honor of the new system :)
note the great view from my new office (i can hear very odd and interesting bird sounds all day), and my new hair cut!
(i'll update this post with a fun photo later today.....)
