Notepad, worklog, tasks, etc.

- 红薯叫什么？
- Sweet potato
- 应该叫Red potato呀。

- 狼的英文是什么？
- Wolf.
- 那Sugar wolf是什么？
- 糖狼.
(原来桌上有一只玩具螳螂…)

In Craigslist, you can find posts for a well maintained used car from someone that is leaving the area due to job relocation, as well as for a car that looks nice, but whose owner is trying to get rid of like hell. It is important to use good keywords that can land you a larger percentages of the former. Some of the good examples that I have used are: relocation, receipts, receipt, loan, offer, ugly, bad, firm (price), hate, afford, “one/single/original owner” “service records” “two cars” title “must sell” “selling my” “selling because”. Make sure you contact the owner and chat as long as you can and as many times as possbile, and really understand the reason behind the selling. The communication efforts and time spent on chatting will never be too much …

An abridgement of the letter from Albert Einstein to Eric Gutkind from Princeton in January 1954, translated from German by Joan Stambaugh.

… The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.

I didn’t think of volunteer until I felt my English was so bad during I prepared the job interview. Since applying H1B visa is not predicatable, many big companies don’t recruit people like me who need H1B visa sponsor. That means I will still be jobless. Being a volunteer is a good way to improve my English and communicate with other people.

I  first applied to volunteer in Redmond retirement center which is next to our community. After filling the application form, I waited for a month for background checking. During the course of waiting I asked  the result whenever I passed by the center. I thought I was a little  bothersome to them. Anyway I was full of passion to be a volunteer at that time. I immediately talked with the activity coordinator as long as I knew I passed the background checking. She thought I was fit for visiting  person or playing card games with the old people. Then she asked me if I was good at painting nails after two weeks. I waited two more weeks for scheduling my volunteer. I didn’t get any notifications from them. I called and wrote to her. No reply. So finally I knew they were not interested in me. I gave up the retirement center.

Last Friday I searched the internet and learned the starlinght children foundation needs volunteer.  I filled their online application form and got a call from an activity coordinator. We met on Monday and talked about my volunteer. I volunteered at the foundation yesterday. What I did was to label and count the donated toys.  I worked with another volunteer James.  The work is simple and senseless, but I like to chat with James. I will write a post to talk more about James.