God's Creation

Having grown up in a Christian family, one can just imagine the number of times I have heard the creation story.  In fact, I have heard and read about it so many times that I do not feel the need to revisit it anymore until yesterday.  I started helping out in Tim and Tab, one of the programs of our church's children ministry which aims to share God's word to nonchristian children, last year.  Every Saturday, a Bible story would be told, and for Tim and Tab's first formal session this school year, the story chosen was the creation story.  While the storyteller was enumerating everything that God created, she was also showing corresponding pictures in a powerpoint presentation at the same time.  Suddenly, I realized that because only one word is used to represent the whole of God's creation (animal for all animal types, water for all water forms, etc.), I had already forgotten the diversity that these words stand for (animal for tiger, lion, zebra, elephant, etc.; water for sea, lake, river, waterfall, etc.).  God has indeed created a beautiful place for us!

If you are having the same feeling, try reading the story again, but this time enter the words in Google Images.           

牵牛的夏天

牵牛的夏天 是根据电影 我的野蛮女友 改编的。我觉得改编得相当不错。虽然引用了不同的故事背景，却保留了原来男女主角的角色，还适当地融合了电影里经典的剧情：

地铁的相遇

男主角顺了女主角的意思与她交换鞋子改穿高跟鞋

女主角在地铁站/飞机场着急寻找男主角

最后的相逢


绝对会让你回味无穷。

Why I Love Watching The Vampire Diaries

I share the study table at home with my sister. The same as any other day, she was watching an episode of a series in her laptop. I caught a glimpse of one scene, I saw Nina Dobrev, and I asked my sister to play the series from the first episode. This was how I started watching The Vampire Diaries.

I was after the romance that would develop between Elena and Stefan, but the show gave far more than what I expected. Every time I think that the story has already come to a dead end, it proves me wrong by unfolding things that open new possibilities. It never stops giving me surprises.

It does not dwell on obvious questions like "Should Elena choose to become a vampire?," or "Who should Elena choose between Stefan and Damon?" These questions certainly need to be answered, but the story does not revolve around them; rather, the answers to these are molded by the sequence of events.

The series keeps me thinking. In the story, one can only kill a vampire by staking him (using a wooden stake) through his heart. In other words, a vampire lives long, if not forever. The very nature of vampires, that of feeding on blood, puts humans at risk. Moreover, vampires possess powers that can control humans to act against their own will. The existence of vampires does not only go against the natural, but is also a threat to the human race. Given these, killing the Originals would be ideal as this would bring an end to the whole vampire race. However, having known Stefan and friends, we have already grown fond of them. We want them to live, because we know that they have not lost their humanity. Now we ask: Is it right to allow vampires to live, to put humans' lives at risk, for the sake of the few? I find the question interesting as we are often faced with similar questions in life, questions that have no right or wrong answers.

Moreover, the characters are well-developed. Take Rebecca as an example. Rebecca is certainly not a likable character, but we cannot bring ourselves to fully hate her. Ironically, we begin to sympathize with her for having a brother who chooses to live with his fellow hybrids than his own family, for having a mother who wanted nothing but to kill her and her siblings, for the betrayals she experienced after choosing to trust.

How about you, what do you like about The Vampire Diaries?