October 2009 – Junjun's Home

To Be A Teacher: Why Only For PhD?

Quite occasionally I get the ticket for admission of a employment conference this morning, accompanying with my friends I participated the employment conference as my first time of doing so after the last participation of such activity two years ago in Nanjing. But this conference, frankly speaking, is not a good one, no matter whether it is evaluated under the organization or its size. While, it does offer quite numerous positions for those who are willing to be a teacher.

For those who are holding a master’s degree and with strong willing of being a teacher in a college, the experience today seems to be a dilemma. If you are willing to be a tracked for a teaching position in an acceptable university, a PhD degree seems to be a must. But if you can accept the comparative low salary for the similar position in a technical school, then you have the opportunities of being accepted. While once accept such position, new problems will occur. The low probability of being a professor and tutor for doctoral students, and the enforcement of taking the Ph.D study can all be coming problems that are waiting to be solved.

There has been quite long for me to consider, but never provide a substantive answer that, whether it is necessary for a teacher holding a Ph.D degree, especially for those technical school. It is of no doubt that teachers with good academic training, and holding an advanced degree can obviously help students broaden their horizon, rather than keeping a narrow vision on the skills and knowledge points printed on the books. However, with the concern that the main task for the undergraduate students is to build a solid foundation, I don’t know if the research experience of a Ph.D students or a Master’s student would help. What I argue more practically, is to hire some teachers with working experience in an accounting or consulting firm, who can deliver some practical skills.

However, for the training on academics for graduate students, things are totally different. These students require more training on the research issues, such as the theory explanation, research methodology and some introductory lectures on contemporary research. For undergraduate students on accounting, they are not required to know Williamson, Coarse, Watts, Beaver, etc, but for graduate students, good familiarity on such classical works is to be a must. So with full experience of research can help the lecturer deliver a better and deeper understanding on these issues. For these purposes, Ph.D graduates is a good source to get the candidates of the lecturers of the issues on graduate levels.

This is only quite an initial consideration on the issue of employment for colleges, for any comments, you are welcome to follow and discuss.

China: Is Our Motherland Welcoming Her Children?

好久没有上网去关注一些学界的消息了。今天偶然上网却看到了一条新的丑闻。与以往学术剽窃等不端事件相比，这件事情可能对海外的学子以及很多大陆的学子而言都是一个不小的打击。确切说，这事件是对去年国家发布文件欢迎海外学子归来拍了一记响亮的巴掌。这就是浙大涂序新博士的跳楼事件。

1. 事件梗概

消息来自浙江大学的一则新闻：九月二十九日上午八时三十分，涂序新老师遗体告别仪式在杭州殡仪馆举行。参加告别仪式的有学院领导、学校相关部门、部分师生及涂老师亲属与同学，共100余人。涂序新老师于2009年9月17日凌晨2点因病不幸坠楼去世，终年32岁。这件事情迅速在各大论坛和博客成为热点新闻，其自杀原因也有了多种版本的猜测，如工资待遇问题、口头承诺未承诺等。具体可参看各大论坛的讨论。这场讨论也很快被演变成了爱国主义和其他人的一场大争论。当然，我非常怀疑其中有五毛党参与。

2. 涂序新博士其人

涂序新老师1977年8月生于浙江金华，1995年9月——2001年6月就读于清华大学，2000年6月获水利水电工程专业学士学位，2001年6月获法学学士学位。2001年9月——2007年6月就读于美国西北大学，分别于2004年和2007年获得岩土工程硕士和博士学位。其后在美国西北大学从事博士后研究工作，2009年6月中旬回国到学院工作。

3. 评论：中国真的欢迎海外人才回来？

首先，我并不愿意相信作为一个中国知名大学的浙江大学会因为待遇和爽约而毁掉了这样一个人才。之所以将其作为人才，是因为我们国内实在是非常缺人才。即便涂序新博士在美国西北并不是出名的毕业生，但是他在中国绝对是个人才，甚至可以强于很多那些“欺世盗名”的博导级人物。但是这么多年的经验，亲眼也见到了很多的事情，让我们不得不去相信这种很可笑的事情的存在。的确，这样的一个教学科研制度怎么能不让耶鲁大学的校长当成笑话呢？

自改革开放以后，我们的人才流失是非常严重的。甚至于公派留学都存在大量的违约情况，以至于现在派出去的人基本都是穷山沟里出来的孩子。理由是国家实在是受不了违约率，而且国家也不提供学费，只是提供了生活费。这样就有了问题，仅仅靠着一个月一千多美金的生活费怎么可能买到人才的心？近年来国家也开始大量从国外引入人才，但是呢，引进的人才真的在重要岗位上发挥了重要的作用了？事实上是很难。试问有哪个既得利益者会抱着求贤若渴的态度去把自己的利益拱手让给人才呢？在今天的中国，这类事件基本是很难见到的了。

所以涂序新博士就成了制度的牺牲品。他显然只是作为了一个卒子，与其他博士一样，并没有被作为重点人才特殊照顾和培养。更多的，他的待遇可能还不如本校毕业的博士，原因很简单，人家的博士是领导。尽管水平差了几个台阶，但是收入却没有差异，或者更高。这让一个海外归来的人才如何适应呢？

种种迹象让我生疑，中国真的在欢迎自己的人才回流么？我的感觉是，这似乎又是一场我们司空见惯的作秀吧？！

GRE: A Temporary Farewell

GRE, a famous exam that is required by most graduate schools overseas, ranging from top universities like Harvard and MIT, to some ordinary schools, carries the dream of the youngsters who are willing of going abroad. Since its first in mainland of China in 1980s, millions of excellent young students and scholars has started their career. And for me, within the new generation of the dreamers, comes into the team as well with the first step of preparing for TOEFL and GRE.

Thanks to my solid foundation that I formed in high school and college, I get a reasonable result on TOEFL, though it is not very high, but acceptable considering my two week preparation without any guidance from the experienced takers. However, the good fortunate on my trial stops here. The experience that I obtained during the process of my GRE seems to be totally different, with one word in general, it is a experience full of depression, from the first attempt in June to this time. The only difference here is that the flu gets involved.

Preparing for the GRE do occupy quite plenty of spare time. For Chinese students like us, especially like me who don’t have that solid foundation on vocabulary, and little experience of living abroad that can help building up the routine of thoughts with the language of English. Unlike TOEFL that is focus on the basic vocabulary and grammar points referring to the ordinary usage of the language, GRE is a academic ability test, with the English as a medium. That is, if you are a GRE taker, you are expected to read and write as the native speaker does.

Taking the lesson from the failure in June, I focused on the vocabulary. After the hard-working of some months, my vocabulary is somewhat improved. Though I cannot correctly tell all the words but I can approximately figure their meanings. But then the flu comes again after the cold at the beginning of October. In a day my temperature was boosted to 39.8 degrees and was sent to the hospital by my dorm mates. I really appreciate their kindness in this very moment; it is their kindness that accompanies me in that two days that withdraws the homesick that a patient can always suffer from. While, my best female friend, tingting, came to my dorm mate and help me doing some cleanings. They are indeed my best friends permanently!

Now that the failure of my attempts on GRE is partially determined, I don’t want to be depressed again. Instead, I would prefer some alternatives besides going abroad. Though it is my initial power of learning English, which directly drove me the boost on my English since high school, but it is not the only purpose. With solid foundation on English that was built during the preparing of these two most difficult exams in mainland, I get some benefit on preparing for the graduate entrance exams in China. I wish I can successfully obtain a PhD degree in China, though it is not the best choice that I am longing for.

Maybe such is the nature of the life!

Enjoy Yourself, But Not Others

今天跟一个朋友去参加了一个婚礼，在艳阳天。菜还不错，至少比食堂好得多，仪式也不错，搞得我都在憧憬自己的婚礼了，呵呵，不过这个至少是若干年以后的事情了，先不去考虑那么多了。婚礼上有一个抽奖的过程，很是好玩，之前有一个小女孩给很多宾客（包括我们几个）用数码相机拍了照，然后在电脑里随机抽取。然后抽到的人可以拿到一个暖水壶。我在苏州的婚礼上几乎没有见到过这个情节，想来或许我们也可以借鉴下。在敬酒的方式上，不知道是否是人员构成问题，这里的婚礼似乎没有苏州的那种热闹，大家都在以“民以食为天”办事，或许这就是当地风格吧。

吃完饭坐车去了中南路。由于最近实在是让GRE折腾的有点郁闷，我决定借这个出门的机会好好玩下。车子路过徐东，我第一次看到了徐东的夜景，很漂亮，尽管以前去机场和武广也路过这个地方，但是却从来没有像今晚这样近距离的去看过。第一次知道了那里也有很多的大型超市，有WalMart，有Carrefour，还有正在建造的麦德龙。其实这样看来，武汉也是个很适合生活的城市，如果撇掉它那可恶的气候条件不谈的话。果然是中部地区的一个重镇，这里有着齐全的国际知名超市和品牌商店。是个败家的好地儿。

但是由于我很少出门，结果直接坐车坐过了中南路，坐到了丁字桥去了。不过歪打正着，我突然发现那里汇丰银行门口围着一大群人，跑去一看，他们是在唱歌。这个对我而言其实不新鲜，在数年前我就在苏州公园看到过。但是显然这里的规模更大，而且还有贝斯手。尽管设备只是原始的二胡，笛子和琵琶，音箱设备也很简陋，但是他们却唱的兴致勃勃。我在那里静静的听了几首歌，有《天路》，《咱老百姓》还有歌舞剧《白毛女》。说实话，他们的演唱水平也够半专业了。尤其是高音部分的换声和颤音还有那么点意思，呵呵，不简单啊。其实作为旁观者，我很是佩服他们的自娱自乐的精神。很多的观众也在静静的听着，一曲唱毕，掌声四起，我想，无论是对演唱者还是组织者，这都是最好的鼓励和支持吧。其实这也让我见识到了武汉人可爱的一面。

其实想来这跟我们写博客也有着异曲同工之妙。与专业的站长相比，我们并不会去很关注我们的访客，不去关注我们的博客的流量，更不会去主动迎合读者的口味。因为我们不追求流量和搜索引擎的索引量，更多的，我们只是在自娱自乐。只是希望通过这种方式来展现自己，在互联网站的数以千万计的网页中占有一席之地。但是可悲的是，真正做到自娱自乐的博客主又有多少呢？看看博客论坛我们就会知道，技术已经占据了过多的思维空间了。

有时候，或许我们需要的，就是这种自语自乐的精神和状态，而不是其他吧。有句话说得好，叫做走自己的路，让别人说去吧。

Short Address Forbidden: Internet or Intranet?

This post is quite occasional, I don’t even plan to discuss the GFW again since it can repeat my previous article on this related topic. It is Bill again, that told me some errors occur on my short link posted to the Twitter when updating my newly posted articles. Though due to some faults he temporarily closed his personal blog, he kept the professional perspicacity as a software engineering. Thanks for his help on helping me fix numerous faults since the start of this blog.

It is due to some political reasons, though I can hardly identify what they are indeed, that the world-famous Twitter was forbidden. But we were still able to use a gadget to login based on the Gmail. While today,I eventually find the gadget is forbidden as well. And the technology for this filtering is great improved. Any links with the word ‘twitter’ is definitely forbidden. And great piles of products that can be applied on Twitter are also enjoying the same treatment, including the short links, twitterfeed, are totally forbidden.

To solve this problem, some posted an article that describes the process of building up a private platform with Python based on Google App Engine. Here is a solution and introduction written by William Long (in Chinese). But which is a great trick that, the official site of Python was later forbidden as well. The reason why I call it as a trick is that Python is only a programming language, i really cannot explain the potential harm from a language to the security of the country. If anyone can provide a reasonable answer, do tell me!

I really don’t know if we are using the internet or just intranet. Since the beginning of this year, many great service has been forbidden, including Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Youtube.com, etc. And now, the Twitter and its byproducts are forbidden as well. Wish one day our Email and instant messaging can be forbidden as well, then there would be no child get addiction to the internet!

Windows 7 is Approaching: What Can We Do?

Windows 7, a next-generation operating system developed by Microsoft, has released its RTM versions some months ago and it is now also available to the MSDN and Technet subscribers as well as the volume licensing customers. Following the tradition for the computer fans that the latest versions of ISO can be easily obtained from a P2P source, either ed2k or BT torrent, I get my copy of ISO image some days ago. Thanks to the high transfer speed here on campus, I spend about 2 hours for downloading that.

As a end user of Windows 7 like us, especially for us, we have three different routines to get a valid key for our copy:

Purchase a package directly from Amazon.com, Microsoft.com, or some resellers as BestBuy, etc. But for most users in China, I suppose this won’t be a popular way since the high pricing of that package comparing to the local salary levels. More practically, most valid copies of operating systems are distributed through the channel of OEM, a specially plan for newly sold computers.
Register an account as the student membership of IEEE or ACM. A MSDN AA account will be awarded when you are submitting a valid application for such organizations. You are entitled to a copy of Windows 7 Professional (Key Only) with the price of 19 dollars annually. Comparing to the reselling price, this is much cheaper. But do remember that you can never try to use this authority for commercial purposes. But unfortunately that due to the numerous of applications that are not holding the valid student identity, this service has been temporarily down.
Volume License on Campus. It is another efficient way to use the Windows 7, you can connect to a KMS server for activating the system. But it is still unavailable in China.

Once you get the key, you can legally activate the copy of Windows 7 on your computer and use it without any limitation on function. And of course, you can either use some illegal methods for activating, or say cracking. But I won’t discuss it here. For more details, please try Google.

I am planning about to take a tutorial on this new system, then I installed it on my laptop. Everything works properly now, the issue on my Norton product has been successfully solved when updating it to the Norton Internet Security 2010 which perfectly supports Windows 7. But a new problem still occur, that is, there is no compatible client for logging into the campus network. I can hardly understanding why the manufacturer never try to develop and updating their clients keeping the pace with the development of software. And they only develop their clients on Windows. Never expect to logging into their systems with the system other than Windows, such as Mac and Linux.

TT: Still Remember?

时光回到了1995年的夏天。我父亲带着我去了当地的少年宫，第一次我接触到了计算机，这是80286电脑，非常古老。我当时学的是英文打字，先后学了有两年多，期间也得过一些小的奖项。之后就转向了别的方面。不得不承认的是，14年前的英文打字的功底给我的后来计算机学习也好，专业学习也好帮了很大的忙。我不用再担心因为打字速度而影响我的计算机等级考试，论文写作，以及托福和GRE的考试。而今天在网上闲逛，我却找到了14年前的古董。当我面对这个今天看来很是原始的软件的启动界面时，我的思绪飘回到了14年前，我想起了第一次摸电脑时候的兴奋与迷茫，也想起了耳边一阵阵的敲击键盘的声音，更想起了我的计算机启蒙教师——刘德元先生。

这是一个很古老的打字练习软件，名字叫做TT，全称Typing Test。如果有那个时代过来的读者，应该对下面的启动画面不陌生哦~~

唯一的区别在于，今天我是双击图标在Vista模拟DOS环境中运行，而不是在纯DOS 6.22的环境下

这个软件的科学在于它的循序渐进。我们当时的练习都是从最基本的指法开始的，即A，D，S，L和J，K，L，；左右手各四个键，以及大拇指控制的空格键。软件的练习模式往往是短句，界面如下：

然后在下一句的练习时在练习框的下方会显示上一次练习的成绩。在一定数目的练习以后会显示一个总的成绩

之所以说此软件的优点在于循序渐进，是因为在你的练习成绩达到一定的成绩以后，就会开始增加难度。所谓的增加难度就是在接下来的练习中具有更多的键。而在增加新的键时，软件会自动给出一个适应练习，界面如下

在练习到了一定阶段以后，我们会开始进行全键盘的考核和测试。所谓全键盘练习，是指文章的内容包括了键盘的所有字母，数字和符号。即使是我今天来看，这个练习还是很有难度的。下面给出一个全键盘测试的页面

我试着练了下，结果很是丢人，我发现我第一次练习的速度居然跟我十几年前还是一个孩子时候的成绩差不多。不过呢，我所使用的是笔记本键盘，而不是以前的标准键盘了。另外，不知道是不是我的CPU双核的问题，这个程序运行时候有点卡，并不流畅。如果打字过快，他往往会有延迟现象。这是第一次成绩

还有一次比较好的成绩

一般当时的比赛是会给出20分钟，然后在记录给出的四次成绩中取最好成绩作为比赛结果，如下是比赛用的记录结果，其中给出的是我现场四次测试的结果。不过这个软件显然有千年虫的问题，所以我的时间只能设为1999年。

更具有戏剧性意味的是，这个软件也具有初步的准确率和速度的统计显示，统计结果按照每个键进行统计。这应该是我看到的最早的统计结果了吧。

当然这个软件还具有其他功能，如小键盘的专项练习，游戏，外部文本导入等等，限于篇幅，我就不赘述了。最后给出TT软件的一个菜单界面。

这是一篇看似测评的文章，但是却饱含着我对过去的回忆和怀念。任何事情，总会有它的第一次，比如我们第一次走路，我们第一次说话，我们第一次自己吃饭，我们看的第一本书，甚至我们的初恋，这都会让我们难忘。而这个软件，也代表着我与计算机的第一次接触。它对我的影响深远而强烈。正是通过这个软件，我知道了计算机二进制处理的另一种解读：那就是只有0分和100分，永远没有99分。尽管我当时并不知道何为二进制。

限于空间提供商的条款，我不能把这个程序上传。如果有兴趣，可以留言，我会第一时间把程序发到您的邮箱里。

Nobel For Chinese Scholars: Is It Still Far?

今天早些时候，瑞典皇家科学院宣布了今年（2009年度）的诺贝尔物理学奖得主。其中我们再一次看到了华人的身影。黄锟，作为一名在光纤通讯领域做出了卓越贡献的物理学家，他继早年的杨振宁，李政道，以及近年的朱棣文之后，又一位华裔物理学奖得主。让我大感意外的是，今年物理学奖的两个项目均是对现当代数码生活起到了极大促进作用的成果。光纤通讯技术极大提高了数据传送的效率，使得国际通讯的成本变得低廉；而CCD的发明，则使得我们今天数码相机的使用成为了可能。与杨振宁、李政道和朱棣文他们的研究项目偏重于理论相比，今年的成果无疑具有更大的实际意义。

按照惯例，在每年的这时候，各类媒体都会大张旗鼓的来讨论诺贝尔奖，其中已经讨论了多年的一个话题就是中国何时能够产生诺奖得主。其中有褒有贬。而解释无非有中国的教育体制路后，实验室设备落后，科研能力低下，没有创新精神等。但是很奇怪的是，这类文章往往出自于媒体之手。本人并不反对媒体的讨论，但是事实上，很多的问题往往非业外人士所能了解，正如陶渊明所言“不足为外人道也”。于是本人决定从自身经历出发，继续老调重弹一番。

不可否认的是，我们的教育制度的确是有些问题的。但是也不尽然。以初等教育为例，我国以及东亚地区的学生（包括日本，韩国和我国台湾）往往都具有很好的基础。这源于这些地区的严格的初等教育。笔者数年前曾在Times亚洲版看到过一篇介绍韩国（South Korea）的孩子们如何痛苦的文章，其中所涉及的韩国，日本等教育与中国大同小异。正是如此严格的基础教育，使得他们在高中毕业之时已经有了相当不错的英语，数学，物理，化学，地理，历史等方面的基础。或许有人说美国的学生在大学里可以非常努力，然后赶上我们的水平，使得我们大学生的毕业水平并不高于他们。

其实这个解释就有问题。我们可以做如下假设：假定人的努力程度有限。而大学期间水平的提高就是关于努力程度的一个函数。为了方便分析，我们忽略掉方法所导致的效率差异，即我们认为学生努力无差异。基于此，如果两者学习努力程度接近，那么水平提高程度应该类似。而事实上，两者的提高水平差异巨大。这就不能不利用努力程度来解释了。其实作为80后的大学生，我们可以扪心自问，我们在大学期间，本科也好，研究生也罢，我们都做了什么。我们学到了什么，我们的大学老师都在讲些什么？作为一个市场经济环境下的教学机构，适当的面向市场并没有错。但是，当一所大学或者学院，甚至研究生院，开始套用职业技术学院的价值观的时候，我们不得不为这个制度感到悲哀了。我实在不清楚这类教育中的短视行为是否是转型经济的特点？望相关专业读者赐教。

正如Joseph和TJ所言，很多问题都可以归集到制度层面去解决。而这个问题也不例外。以今年的两位物理学家的项目为例，他们的研究成果距今已经有了几十年，充分经历了社会的考验，确被证明为对人类做出了巨大贡献。这说明，一个好的研究，需要花时间去做，同时也需要花时间去验证。倘若没有一个开放，自由和包容的学术环境，这是万万不可能的。大家或许不会忘记五十年代的“大跃进”，而事实上，现今的中国学术界正在经历着“大跃进”。从高校老师的职称到研究生的奖学金评定，一律都按照论文来说事。我并不反对这种科研评价方法，只是，他们已经承受了他们不能承受之重。对理科生而言，这种压力更大。于是就产生了从定题到投稿SCI期刊只需短短两三个月的奇迹。尽管说研究是站在巨人的肩膀上，但这种只在肩膀上跳舞，却不会更上一层楼的研究本身就让研究的意义打了折扣。

从浙江大学的贺海波，到武汉理工大学的周祖德，我们都发现了上述“大跃进”的影子。而在这样的环境下，学术道德直接被无视。而作为一个学者，正直和良心是他们的核心竞争力。如果做不到这两点，就不配做一个真正的学者。可是很不幸，我们看到，在出现问题时，教授把所有的责任都推给了学生。试问，这样的教授可能培养出诺奖的得主么？答案诸位心中自有分量。

现如今的中国，已经不比从前。科研的条件和实验器材已经好于过去百倍，甚至于有实验室都已经达到了国际水准。在硬件问题可以得到保障的情况下，我们是否该考虑下人性本身的问题呢？只有这些问题都做好了，我们才有可鞥培养出自己的诺奖得主。否则只能是任重而道远。

Cold or Flu: Be Seriously Distinguished

For those who take English as a foreign language and seldom stay in a native language environment, we may find many mistakes when speaking English. Here is quite a common example that we always confuse the word of ‘cold’ and ‘flu’, what’s more, very few English teachers put this in their explanation that where are the differences. Quite occasionally I get a table from the official site of Timaflu when google for it.

Here is a comparison table between the flu and the cold.

Symptom	Cold	Flu
Fever	Fever is rare with a cold.	Fever is usually present with the flu in up to 80% of all flu cases. A temperature of 100°F or higher for 3 to 4 days is associated with the flu.
Coughing	A hacking, productive (mucus- producing) cough is often present with a cold.	A non-productive (non-mucus producing) cough is usually present with the flu (sometimes referred to as dry cough).
Aches	Slight body aches and pains can be part of a cold.	Severe aches and pains are common with the flu.
Stuffy Nose	Stuffy nose is commonly present with a cold and typically resolves spontaneously within a week.	Stuffy nose is not commonly present with the flu.
Chills	Chills are uncommon with a cold.	60% of people who have the flu experience chills.
Tiredness	Tiredness is fairly mild with a cold.	Tiredness is moderate to severe with the flu.
Sneezing	Sneezing is commonly present with a cold.	Sneezing is not common with the flu.
Sudden Symptoms	Cold symptoms tend to develop over a few days.	The flu has a rapid onset within 3-6 hours. The flu hits hard and includes sudden symptoms like high fever, aches and pains.
Headache	A headache is fairly uncommon with a cold.	A headache is very common with the flu, present in 80% of flu cases.
Sore Throat	Sore throat is commonly present with a cold.	Sore throat is not commonly present with the flu.
Chest Discomfort	Chest discomfort is mild to moderate with a cold.	Chest discomfort is often severe with the flu.

For details, you can visit: http://www.tamiflu.com/about/coldflu.aspx

Mid-Autumn Day: Share With My Friends

今天是传统的中国节日——中秋节。古人都有在此日聚友欢庆，把酒赏月，吟诗作赋的传统。但很多诗句都透有思乡的情怀。如李白在《月下独酌》中写道“花间一壶酒，独酌无相亲。举杯邀明月，对影成三人。”而透着点点凄凉；王建则在《十五夜望月》中以“中庭地白树栖鸦，冷露无声湿桂花。今夜月明人尽望，不知秋思落谁家！”中的语句透出了作者的思乡之情。而作为一个离家多年在外的我，淡淡的思乡之情油然而生。在宿舍看着书，听着马思聪的名作《思乡曲》，思绪飘到了千里之外的故乡。而相比较李白和王建，我无疑是幸运的，因为我有了一群很好的朋友。今晚我与他们共度了中秋。

其实今天的出游计划是昨日在吃饭时聪聪向我提起的。本来我还在发愁这个中秋怎么过，而他的提议正中下怀，于是便干脆恭敬不如从命。正好也借这个机会扫一扫最近压在我心头的GRE的阴影。而这两天的计划也就成了连续放松的两天。先是拜我舍友和他女友所赐，去著名餐馆“谭鱼头”大快朵颐了一回，紧接着又跟着一大群死党去过了个很有意义的中秋。

出于价廉物美的考虑，我们在南苑解决了晚饭，这里就不赘述了，说实话，吃饭没什么好说。只是饭菜还是挺丰盛，到底人多力量大嘛（AA制的功效）。

饭后去了下中百买月饼和柚子。呵呵，不知道是中秋还是什么原因，今天超市里的人真是多啊。然后就看到了月饼大减价，那里围了一大堆人。倒不是鄙视一些武汉市民的素质，见到便宜的东西就死命的往前钻，毫无半点谦让的意思，连我站在旁边的局外人都直接无视。哎。。。不就是几个不太便宜的月饼嘛，犯得着么？

后来就去了江滩。看到了好几个人都在放孔明灯。尽管我以前在初中时代的科技活动周上就见过很原始的孔明灯，但是与今天江滩上所放的相比就相去甚远了。还有朋友在江中放了彩灯。以前不记得在哪本书上看到说泰国有专门的水灯节，大家都会放水灯来祈福。而在中秋节放彩灯和孔明灯则不知道是什么缘由了，姑且当作祈福来理解吧。毕竟节日嘛，总是透着那么点喜庆的。

后来他们找了个地方开始玩杀人游戏。但是我对这类游戏实在是没什么兴趣，于是决定好好逛一圈，以感受下节日的气氛，尽管这对我那饱经风霜的鞋子而言可能是个“灭顶之灾”。不过俗话说有得必有失，故暂且也不管赤脚回家的风险了。

不知道曾几何时在户部巷旁边弄了个户部巷风情街。而今天可能是国庆和中秋的原因，我在路边看到了几个所谓的民间艺人，但无论规模和水平都远不及苏州的玄妙观。首先映入我眼帘的是一个玻璃制品艺人。按照我方言的话，他所做的叫做“吹玻璃”，就是用酒精喷灯把玻璃融化，然后做出各种东西来，如小牛，小猪等等，造型还是很可爱的。但是要十块钱一个，似乎贵了点。另一个艺人则是米雕，这个其实比较常见，我也就不多说了。

我最要提的，则是一个卖魔术道具的魔术师。此人的来头不小，好象是组织了一个民间的艺术团，而且参加了2007年的世界魔术师大会，并且和刘谦同台表演过。或许就是机遇的差异，或者别的吧，一边刘谦已经火了，世人皆知，而另一边当年同台演出的伙伴却在户部巷卖道具。他家的道具并不便宜，一个很简单的连环就卖30，而我数年前在苏州“轧神仙”时候看到的是10块钱。据他说，他的魔术扑克牌则卖的更贵，从50到300不等。希望他能有个更好的发展吧。

而在江滩上，一个拿着家用相机和三脚架的老头则引起了我的兴趣。他在给人拍照，然后随身包里带了个佳能的打印机。拍完的照片可以直接打印出来，价格10块钱一张。不过他的参数设置很好，2.8的光圈，0.6秒的曝光，正好可以拍出江滩的夜景。看来有空我也得去买个伟峰的3110A的架子来试下了，用架子拍风景的确是更稳定些，要不效果的确要打折扣。

先写到这里了，不过今天的中秋节的确过得很开心，也很有意义。