Since I’ve moved to the graduate students apartment 3 years ago, I’ve been running or walking around the cross-country trail at least once a week, I’ve also taken the shuttle bus to and from the main campus many times a week. But I don’t understand how I could have not noticed the wild raspberries ripening among the many many wild raspberry bushes along the trail and the road during the previous summers.

How could I have missed them the past 2 summers? I only started noticing the wild raspberries when someone pointed it out to me during a hiking trip early this month.

And then, all of a sudden, I’m seeing them everywhere. They are everywhere along the trail. People are parking their cars haphazardly along the road just to pick free raspberries. I’ve even picked and ate a few.

Why didn’t I notice the wild raspberries before? It’s perplexing and somewhat troubling.

Anyway, we saw a snake during the hiking trip.

Many problems not deliberately caused by people or by lack of knowledge, but by lack of compassion.

I have 3 commitments:
#1: Emotional Human Value (Things that support a happy life).
#2: Promote harmony among different religious traditions.
#3: Tibet

Commitment #1

With a calm and peaceful mood, things will work out well. Calm mind will lead to good health. Good sleep, don’t have to rely on pills. Good digestion. Calm mind will lead to peaceful harmonious home.

DL talked about sometimes his calm mind also gets disturbed: When I sleep, sometimes mosquitoes come. My relationship with mosquitoes not that good.

Every 10th of March since 1959 (the day he left Tibet), DL said that he gets worried and experiences sadness, doubts and uncertainties.

Calm mind so sleep never disturbed. Calm mind is a very good thing. Calm mind not due to indifference but a calm, sensitive, sharp mind.

Compassion, loving kindness builds inner strength.

Two levels of love:

Our survival depends on others’ care (e.g., a mother’s love). Baby feels secure. Mother’s physical touch important.

DL quoted research about baby monkeys separated from their mothers do not thrive, are weaker and prone to illnesses.

Biological factor has nothing to do with religion. But that compassion is biased because it depends on the action of others. That compassion can reach only friends and not enemies.

2. True compassion extends to our enemies. True compassion can solve all conflicts.

20th century is a century of war. What’s happening in the 21st century is due to resentment from the 20th century.

No matter the goal, non-violence is the method. Non-violent method has no side effect. 21st century should use dialogs. We need disarmament, both external and internal.

Value of affection, not my teacher, but my mother. We survive because of our mother’s care. We all have same potential to develop warmheartedness.

Please think more. If you find nothing interesting, then forget it.

After the Question and Answer session, DL was conferred the honorary doctorate in humane letters. During his acceptance speech, DL said that he is a Hopeless Professor because (1) his knowledge is limited to one area and (2) he is lazy (lazy to grade homework).

The Dalai Lama is at Lehigh for a week-long teaching. I was a volunteer at today’s public lecture on “Generating a Good Heart”. Since tickets for the public lecture is sold out, being a volunteer is the only way I get to hear his talk.

I took copious notes. It’s not easy to understand him. Aside from his accent, he forms his sentences differently, which is quite typical of non-native English speakers. He also had his own translator beside him helping him out. After the public lecture, there was a Question and Answer session with preselected questions.

I tried to keep to his words but sometimes that may not make any sense, so I edited some parts of it.

Question 1: If you were not the Dalai Lama, what life would you pursue?

DL: That question no interest (laughter, pause). Most probably engineer, engineering.

Question 2: Why do you think there’s so many people suffering from anxiety and depression in the U.S.?

DL: Wrong person to ask, should ask American (laughter).

People always want something new and something more. People have big mission (DL makes a circle with his hands), life becomes boring but still have to go that way (gestures round and round the circle).

Excessive consumerism (DL gave example of Japan 20 years ago).

Your economy, your lifestyle, you’re the richest nation. Material values, there’s limitation because you want more. Without content, too much competition, ambition, self-centered, everything blame others.

Gap between rich and poor (DL gave example of pockets of poor people in Washington DC). This is morally wrong. Practically, this also cause many problems.

All external problems can never be solved. Change our attitude, we get more peace. (DL gave example of an old Tibetan story about covering the earth with leather in order to cover every thorn that pricks us. It is easier to cover our own small soul instead of covering the whole earth).

Unrealistic expectation. If there’s no way to overcome, no use to worry.
If Buddhist, blame on karma (laughter).
If believe a creator, then blame God (laughter).

Question 3: Is it possible to exist as a sovereign nation with a policy of non-violence?

DL: That one quite complicated.

This question very complicated, I don’t know.

Question 4: What do you think is needed to help all the children of the world?

DL: Mother’s care

Education. Secular not separate from religion, but secular equals to religion.

Question 5: What is your advice in the world of rising religious fundamentalism?

DL: Religious harmony. 4 ways

2. Meeting with practitioner

Exchange to understand other practices. [DL talked about meeting with Lady Thomas Burton (I think I got this name wrong) and a monk who stayed many months as a hermit in the mountains. DL asked the hermit what he did during those months. Hermit said that he meditated on love. DL summarized that theistic follower also meditate on love like a Buddhist.]

3. Group to group visits

Go to different Holy places (DL talked about his pilgrimage to Jerusalem).

Buddha is teacher, not God. (DL said that sometimes he is required to teach Christians about God and it is very difficult because he is a believer of a non-theistic religion).

4. Leaders of different religion come together speak with one voice…peace.

Mischievous people among the different religion: Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism. These people (terrorist) cannot represent their religion.

Since September 11, I’m trying to reach out to Muslims. The 15th DL provided to the Muslims in Tibet….(the translator corrected DL that it is the 13th not 15th) (DL chuckled) 15th DL not yet come, when come? I don’t know.

It must have been the realization that my “carefree” days in the US is almost coming to an end that made me sign up for the beginning jazz dance class. Jazz dance is another thing that I never thought I would do.

Unlike spinning, this class requires me to work physically and mentally. Memorizing the steps, counting the beats, keeping up with the rest of the class, trying to not stand out like a sore thumb (believe me, it’s easy to look awkward when you move right as everyone else is moving left). But it’s a forgiving class since there is quite a large number of never-danced-before students.

I’m enjoying the jazz dance class. I even bought a pair of black leather slip-on jazz shoes I just need to put aside any inhibitions, try my best and not worry about how I look.

It’s funny how the Chinese dance culture evolved to become a performance-only activity. In Africa, dance is part of life. It’s not a teenage-thing. It’s not a clubbing-thing. It’s not a sexual-thing. It’s not a taboo-thing. My African friends dance at every single party: weddings, birthdays, baby dedications, graduations. It’s like laughing: everyone laughs when they hear or see something funny. So is their dancing: everyone dances when they are celebrating. There’s no awkwardness. There’s no good or bad dancing, just like there’s no good or bad walking/sitting/breathing.

Spinning (Indoor cycling): I absolutely love it. I’m not sure why I like it so much. During spinning, I have to physically work really hard, but at the same time, the rhythm of the cycling movements is very relaxing.

It is also a relatively “easy” form of exercise. Since I am controlling the resistance of the spinner (stationary bike), if it gets too tough, I can turn down the resistance or cycle slower. And there’s no choreography or movements to memorize (such as those in dance or aerobic classes).

Spinning is definitely less strenuous than running. Running is hard. I think I have given up on running. I started running just to push myself to do something that I never thought I would do. Even though I ran consistently for many months, I don’t think I really enjoyed running. I was slow and it was really tough mentally and physically to keep going and going.

Yeah, I love spinning

Oh, did I mention that I was in extreme pain after my first spinning class? And the extreme pain lasted 4 days!

My legs (especially my thighs) hurt so bad. It was painful to stand up. It was painful to sit down. It was painful to walk. It was painful to go down the stairs. It was painful to get into my car. I could hardly sleep because of the pain. I never imagined cycling could cause such intense chronic pain.

Thankfully, the pain went away after 1 week. Now spinning is pure enjoyment. However, it’s hard to sell spinning to my friends. I tell them it will hurt like crazy for 1 week but they will really like it after that. But my descriptions of my extremely painful week must be scaring them off.

Or maybe it is this Danish instructor that is scaring everyone away from spinning?

It went surprisingly well. The professors were very helpful. I didn’t feel like I was under attack. And the whole meeting lasted only 1.5 hours.

I have to make some changes to the manuscript and work on the required paper work to submit to the university’s Internal Review Board (IRB) to get permission to run my research with human subjects. If/when IRB approves my application, then I can start running my research.

Now that my dissertation proposal has been approved by my committee, I am now officially a doctoral candidate.

RATE SCHEDULE

Dumb looks are still free!

Someone posted that above his/her desk in the tiny office beside the university’s media center, where I go to borrow DVDs. Seeing that poster always cracks me up

Tuesday (June 10)

I was driving up to the department for a meeting with my advisor, when I noticed that something has blocked my rear view.

The fabric covering of the headliner (or roofliner) was peeling off from the back. I turned down my windows, hoping the wind would blow the headliner up so I can see through the back windscreen. But the stronger wind blew more of the headliner down. By the time I reached the campus parking lot, the headliner looked like this.

After my meeting, I tried to use the hand grips to hold the headliner up.

When I got home, I did some temporary emergency “repair” to remediate the situation until I figure out what to do next. I rolled up the headliner, tied the ends with rubberband and tied it to the handgrips with ribbons.

Surfed the web for some do-it-yourself information and I actually found forums discussing what to do with a headliner that’s peeling off.

Wednesday (June 11)

Drove to Walmart to look for the stuff that I would need: (a) a can of 3M Headliner adhesive spray, and (b) 1 or 2 packs of twist pins (available at the sewing dept).

Thursday-Saturday

Did nothing…too lazy

Sunday (June 15)

Brought along my handheld vacuum, packaging tape, scissors, rags, brown paper, stapler, a big bottle of water for cleaning, ipod, cap, drinking water, the adhesive spray, and the twist pins. Drove the car to a nice shady spot.

Step 1: Remove as much of the crumbly gluey sponge material sticking to the fabric and to the “ceiling” of the car. I started doing that with some sandpaper but found that it’s much faster if I just use my hand.

Step 2: Vacuum away as much of the orange/brown sponge material from the car seat and the floor.

Step 3: Cover the seat with brown paper.

Step 4: Spray on the 3M Headliner adhesive. Spray one layer, wait 10 minutes, spray second layer, wait 10 minutes.

Step 5: Quickly walk back to my apartment to get camera to document my hard work.

Step 6: Press headliner fabric to the car’s “ceiling”. Unfortunately, the fabric won’t stay stuck to the ceiling.

Step 7: Quickly get out the twist pins and start pinning the fabric to the headliner board. The ceiling is made out of cardboard-like material. Place the pins in strategic places all over the ceiling. I’m not sure if the adhesive spray is needed since the fabric doesn’t seem to stay stuck to the ceiling.

Step 8: Use a scissors to push the extra fabric into the side paneling. Since I rolled up the fabric when I temporary repaired the headliner, the clean side of the fabric is now covered with sticky specks of sponge material..and it won’t come out

DIY job completed!!

Time needed: 3 hours.
Cost: 3M headliner adhesive spray ($7), 16 twist pins ($1).
Self-Reward: Combo meal #1 at Wendy’s plus a small frosty ($6.55).

Happy Father’s Day!!
My dad would be proud of my car DIY job

All 97 pages of my dissertation proposal. In the dissertation proposal, I lay out the rationale and purpose of the research that I intend to pursue in order to complete my Ph.D. Three chapters.

Chapter 1: Introduction

11 pages. 3 research questions.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

26 pages. Everything that I think I need to convince my committee that what I am proposing to do is actually worth doing.

Chapter 3: Methods

20 pages. The what, when, who, how of getting the research done.

References and Appendices

39 pages. Stuff to fatten up the proposal

June 24. I meet with the 4 professors in my committee. If the proposal is approved, then I can go ahead and start doing what I said I would do in the proposal.

School

I just received my advisor’s feedback on my latest draft of my dissertation research proposal. After glancing through the comments, I realized that there’s not much revisions to do…so, I guess this chapter of my life, struggling to write and rewrite my dissertation proposal, is finally coming to an end..whew!! Tomorrow, I’ll have to finalize the date and time (some time end of June) when the 4 professors in my dissertation committee will meet with me for a prolonged they-question and I-answer session.

As I ponder over the whole writing process, it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. I expected more revisions and several more drafts. Wow, now that this writing process is over, I wonder what should I do with my additional stress-free time. Patapon? Crochet? Cross-stitch? Update special ed blog?

Hold on, I’m not done with studies yet. I’m just almost done with the research proposal; after this, I’ll have to actually do what I proposed in the proposal, and pray that everything will go as planned and I’ll get great results in a short amount time. Yup, that would be ideal….

Great South Side Sale

Every year, the university’s community service office will have a move-out sale. They collect all the stuff that students (who have graduated and are moving away) donate. The money from this sale would go to neighborhood charity organizations. This year, I volunteered to help out during the sale. I was there at 7am, helping to move boxes and boxes of stuff from the trucks, and then arranging those stuff (e.g., clothing, housewares, electronic goods, furniture).

There was one really big Sony TV for sale. It had a crack at the back, but otherwise, in good running condition. Two guys removed it carefully from the truck, but the bottom of the TV cracked a little more. As they were lifting it to the TV area, the TV literally fell apart. The plastic casing broke into hundreds of pieces. The inner tube crashed to the ground and circuits spilled out everywhere. I’ve never seen a TV in that condition before…hahaha.

My volunteer shift ended just before the sale started. So, I stayed a while longer and shopped some. I grabbed
- 2 new Lehigh t-shirts (I’ve always wanted to get a Lehigh t-shirt but didn’t want to spend close to $20 on a t-shirt)
- 1 new random t-shirt
- 1 like-new pair of shorts
- 1 very nice reusable shopping bag
- 1 rolling pin
- 1 set of stainless steel measuring cups (I have plastic ones but they are difficult to wash if I use them to measure cooking oil, stainless steel is much better)
- 1 new cap
- 4 pot holders
- 1 small first aid kit
All these only cost $7.50…not a bad deal!