Moon rise seen from my cage

A full moon rises when the night darkness falling, and the lights in the city opposite are turned on one after another. In my cage I see this scene, quiet and beautiful. I remembered a story that someone trapped in a well sees the reflected image of the moon in the water when he almost gives up. It’s amazing. He is moved and finds the courage to live on. Actually we all live in a cage or are trapped in a well, we cannot escape from the earth (at least in the present), we are tied to the life we are living. So, despite how hard the life is, do not miss the beautiful reflected image of the moon in the well water.

The Double Ninth Festival

Today is the Double Ninth Festival. It is the thirtieth Double Ninth Festival I have lived. I felt the autumn cool and smelled the autumn flavor. I sent a cell phone message “How about some wine tonight?” to my friend who is in another distant city. He answered that “Ok, ok, ok”. I recite the poetries, imaging we are toasting each other.

九月九日忆山东兄弟
Recalling my hometown brothers in the Double Ninth Festival
(唐) 王维
by Wei Wang in Tang Dynasty
独在异乡为异客，
Being a lonely stranger far way from hometown,
每逢佳节倍思亲。
I miss my family even more in the festival.
遥知兄弟登高处，
I know my brothers are climbing a mountain today,
遍插茱萸少一人。
They all have cornels on the heads, but I am not there.

采桑子·重阳
Song of Picking Mulberry·Double Ninth
毛泽东
by Chairman Mao
人生易老天难老，
The heaven never goes old while man easily,
岁岁重阳。
The Double Ninth Festival belongs to every year,
今又重阳，
Today is its another advent,
战地黄花分外香。
The chrysanthemum in the battleground is all the more aromatic.
一年一度秋风劲，
The yearly autumn gale is so forceful,
不似春光。
Making it distinguished from spring,
胜似春光，
But rather exceeds spring,
廖廓江天万里霜。
While overlooking the vast frost-like river.

My little neighbours

Every morning I wake up in the singing of all kinds of birds. Some sound sweet, some sound rough. Those are some of the most beautiful nature sounds. I have tried recording them, but I have not obtained a clear record due to high background noise.

I like dogs. They are loyal to the owner. They are so cute that I think they can communicate with the owner. When I was a child living in the countryside, my dog would run out and welcome me home with its swinging tail when seeing me back from school.

This is Xiao Bai (little white), a white cat with blue eyes. It often lies on the stone steps in front of our gate. It will move its lazy body and meow toward us when we pass by it. We are good friends. If I do not see it for a long time, I will look for it. It may be lying somewhere, quietly enjoying the sunshine.

Embracing the sea

Gulangyu is the sea’s little baby, enjoying her carefree life in mama’s warm embrace. Stretching out her arms, the little baby holds her mother tightly. They love each other so much.

Try installing VMware Workstation on my Debian OS

I usually work on Debian OS. However, sometimes I have to switch to Windows Xp system when processing some documents, figures and playing games. Windows system is installed on another hard disk of my laptop. To switch systems the machine has to be rebooted. I don’t like this, so I tried installing VMware on the Debian OS. VMware Workstation allows me to use Windows system on a virtual machine that runs on Linux system.

Before installation, I have googled some references on installing VMware Workstation on Linux. It seems very easy. First, I downloaded a trial version of VMware Workstation for Linux from VMware website (http://www.vmware.com/). It is the newest version with a .bundle format. Then running the .bundle file began the installation. After answering several questions and waiting for a while I was told that the installation is successfully completed. I was glad and couldn’t wait to start VMware Workstation. However, it asked me to tell the path of kernel head files for compiling something. I remembered that my kernel was recompiled and the linux-heads-2.6.26.8-x.deb (x represents the custom version mark) file wasn’t installed. Then I installed this file. I thought there should be no more problem after I told VMware the path of kernel head files. HOWEVER, it began the compilation and the compilation immediately stopped. The log didn’t show any reason for the failure (I think this is a bug of the software).

Afterwards I tried a lower version. The installation also failed. After a lot tries of installation and searches on internet for help, I found the problem was in the kernel head file. These files were not those in the linux-heads-2.6.26.8-x directory. They should be in the source directory after kernel sources were compiled. My kernel source directory had been deleted after the kernel was recompiled. So I compiled the kernel sources to obtain the kernel head files by running:
make mrproper
make oldconfig
make

VMware Workstation was eventually successfully installed after solving the common problem about version. The problem, “the directory of kernel headers (version @@VMWARE@@ UTS_RELEASE) does not match your running kernel (version 2.6.26.8)”, was solved by replacing the first line of the file /usr/src/linux-2.6.26.8/include/linux/utsrelease.h with “#define UTS_RELEASE “2.6.26.8-x” “. This problem and the solution can be easily found on internet.

Although VMware Workstation was installed on the Debian OS, I found later that my laptop has too small memory to run both the Linux and Windows systems. So I had to give up it on this old machine. This experience may help me a lot when I install this software next time, but I am confused about two problems: one is that there is not any reason given in the log for the failed installation, the other is why the correct kernel head files are in the kernel source (compiled) directory, not in the installed linux-heads-2.6.26.8-x directory.

Today’s lunch: steamed fish head with chopped peppers

My wife and I both like steamed fish head with chopped peppers. It belongs to Hunan cuisine, also known as Xiang Cai. I am from Hunan where people like spicy food. We looked for Xiang Cai restaurant in Xiamen city from one street to another before. At last we found one that is cheap and very tasty and we frequently went there. Now I learned to make steamed fish head with chopped peppers in our kitchen. We can have this delicious food at home now.

Yummy, yummy!

Life

Life is not having breakfast, having lunch and then having supper. Life is not getting up in the morning, taking a nap after noon, and then going to bed at night. Life is not regretting the failure of yesterday, postponing today’s things to tomorrow and then doing nothing next day. What is life? One will know the answer when trying the best to achieving what one must do, what one should do and what one like to do.

A PSALM OF LIFE
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
SAID TO THE PSALMIST

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
“Life is but an empty dream!”
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act to each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, — act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labor and to wait.

Chinese hand-made cloth shoes

This is a paint showing the Chinese hand-made cloth shoes. What title will you give to this paint?

The title is 青出于蓝. The literal mean is dark blue stems from blue, but is bluer than blue. It implies that the pupil outdoes the master.

Gulangyu flowers

One can see all kinds of flowers everywhere in Gulangyu in four seasons. It is the first time for me to see most of them. I don’t know their names. I just remember their beauty.

A big yellow flower.

This flower grows on an unknown plant . The plant looks like cactus. I think it’s ugly. But its flowers are so beautiful.

Little flowers by the roadside.

Green, red, blue.

Dropped red flowers.

I’m a big worm. I like flowers.

A trip to Jilin province in China (V) – Tianchi (Heaven Lake)

Eventually I arrived at the top of Changbai Mountain. Clouds were just above my head, letting me feel like I was reaching the heaven. Tianchi (Heaven Lake) appeared before my eyes. What a lake! It is so quiet and so blue, like a huge sapphire inlaid in the mountain peak. However, under the mirror-like surface it is said that there exist monsters. I was not so lucky to see the monsters, but I was already very lucky to see the Heaven Lake. The guide said that seeing Heaven Lake depends on luck, many of the time the lake hides behind the thick clouds. He told us that once a national president came to the top of Changbai Mountain twice, but he didn’t see Heaven Lake both times.