Stardom

One day I watched the Major League Baseball games on TV,and soon realized the faces like Derek Jeter,Jorge Posada and some other big names had been in the baseball career for a long time.

Sure they were with talents when they were young. Scouts had good comments on them. They practiced and played hard on the field. But they would not be household names if they drop out in the halfway. They've worked their way up and achieved their stardoms.

I began thinking about my own career. I should stick to the curent one and take it as my life career. If I choose to be cross-country and swith the to another lane,it might take me to a new territory and need more time to build any sense of that industry.

No venture,no gain. I'm already in one good business,is there anything worth to try out for ?

America,in Autumn!

I will travel to the U.S. in about two and a half months. I've got my itineraries settled down. The first stop is New York,for five days,then Boston,Chicago and L.A.,each for two days.

I look forward to be traveling in New York City,to see so many famous tourist spots like the Empire State building,Central Park,the Broadway,Manhattan,and of course,the Yankee Stadium.

After New York,I'll take an Amtrak train to Boston,the schedule in the Beantown may be tight,so I can't squanter any moment but hustle to explore the cultural city of Northeast America. Harvard and Charles River are must-sees,they have been broght about from time to time in movies related to Boston.

Chicago,the Windy city,was where I had my first American getaway. Soon I'll revisit it again,and go to the places I missed last time,like the Northwestern University in Evanston. Graping a ticket and enjoying myself at Wrigley Field is also nice,if the Cubs could make it again to the playoffs when I am there at the bottom of September.

Last,Los Angeles,will be my gateway home. I'll get my suite case stuffed with souvenirs and gifts,like vitamins,purchased there. The prices were good when I was looking for pills for health last time. So I think I'll find bargains there again.

So is the plan for my Autumn trip to America. I hope I can meet some friends there,too.For I will be joyful to talk to them again and know all goes well for them. 

Volatility

Several years ago,I watched a TV program arguing the ever changing world. It had used some data to prove that the world was changing faster than ever. It thought the world would alter even faster,by a mathematical function,in the near future.

Nowadays we can prove that theory in stock markets. The world is bounded altogether now.With crippling effect everywhere,one single stock market would be infected by a news happening far far away,and thus triggers reaction by near-by markets,forms a chain reaction and eventually leads to massive selloffs.

Due to the state-of-the-art technology,information can flow back and forth around the globe in real time,which can multiply the already contagious market fear and make people to overreact.

That is volatility. For us,volatity would not fade away,but would get to strengthen in this information age. 

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill incident has all the world's attention. It has been developing since,maybe,two months ago,and has showed no signs of stop.

The oil may have seeped into streams,which would circulate around the Atlantic and carry it all the way to Canadian East,and probably western Europe as well.

Since the day of one of BP's many rigs exploded on the sea,it was doomed to be a disaster. Now that this incident is known to be caused from one mile below water surface,it's more complicated and diffulcult to rescue.

Everyday,when news broadcsats the oil relentlessly coming out from the underwater well,one just hopes it could be capped or collected as soon as possible,but no one actually knows how to do that even they're genius scientists,for now.

Cycle

Sometimes I felt that life is a couple of cycles repeating itself again and again. Take 25 years as a cycle,I feel like I have experienced a full one and started expecting another one.
I've saw children walking in their schools' uniforms on the streets like I did before,I've saw stores closed and opened in the same place,and I've saw ups and downs of stock markets and witnessed them retreating to where they began to rise.

Could I seize a cycle to make a fortune in my life? By using the experiences I've learned from the past?

On low interest rate policy

Another interesting piece of news: The longterm low interest rate policy keeps the cash in banks always at high levels. Thus drives banks to lend money in a reckless way but vulnerable to a volatile market. Consumer banking,credit cards and house loans,were the main fields banks flocked to prosper,though those sectors had been too crowded with providers.

Newly emerging businesses need capital,but due to the low interest rate environment,banks cannot afford to risk lending money to those venturing enterprises and ideas,which may bear bigger possibilities of default,and may probably be tomorrow's competative edges.

Banks barely profit from a sheer difference between the lending rate and depositing rate in Taiwan,causing them fear to lend money to corporations venturing to develope new technologies. And that has harmed the island,making local industries incapable of adjusting to the R&D-led knowledge economy,and has been threw behind by other nations elsewhere,like Korea.

To be or not to be,it is a question. To abandon a low interest rate policy and instead implement a relative high interest rate one is something we can think about and will be a topic expected to be hotly debated.

Activated

Sometimes I recall the places I've been to,especially for the places abroad.

I spent only short terms of time there,many of them are far away from Taiwan,and I can't help but think of them from time to time.

I thought of Frankfurt today.There were a few images poping out in my brain which featured Frankfurt's street sights.

It was vivid,I can still recall how I got lost in the night in Frankfurt and how I got out of it.

There's a Chinese saying goes"Read tens of thounds of books and travel tens of thounds of miles." You travel to prove what you've learned and improve what you haven't known. You read to know what you haven't know and travel to prove it.

That's the beauty of learning. You assume you have got the idea,you don't until you are actually got involved in it. When you're invoved,you dig more to find out what have confused you and afterwards answer yourself.

If I have never been to Frankfurt,I wouldn't know the difference between Paris and it,and I wouldn't try to figurt out the reason and thus lose an opportunity to get a closer tight with that city.

So it's activated. Amazingly lured by the machanism of learning and human curiosity. So is the beauty of learning!