What happened on March 7, 1082?

Back in 2008~2009 when I was soaked in the underground music scene in Beijing, I thought about creating an English podcast to introduce indie rock music from China to the western audience. The inspiration came from a four-hour mp3 file of Anthony Wong of Tat Ming Pair of Hong Kong in his early radio DJ years. In this audio clip Anthony Wong was commenting in Cantonese on Depeche Mode's latest album in the background music of Tour de France by Kraftwerk. It was devilishly cool.

Amusing moments of two brothers

房子是个很奇妙的东西，往往第一眼就让人一见钟情。我们在康桥镇住过的这套公寓是由工厂厂房改建而成的loft。阳光从顶层天窗里跨越金戈铁马的层层横梁洒入空寂的大厅，四周廊灯微泛黄光，森然而略有凉意。

客厅里的面积虽然不大，但层高达7米，中间配上近3米的玻璃窗，摆炷香就可以拜佛了。

为了配合公寓不同寻常的比例，我们专门选择了狭长型的家俱，譬如沙发前的茶几和餐桌。餐桌极窄，适合小规模四人聚餐，鼻子碰鼻子，眼睛瞪眼睛，菜碟都得错开摆放才放得下。

那时我们刚刚从法国回来，很多照片跃跃欲试，想跟以前的西藏，圣托里尼一争雄长。为了公平起见，遂在楼梯上做了个简单的相廊。

相廊从一楼的客厅延续到二楼的书房，那个时候我的工具还没有进化到vim/MOU/Sublime，书房里的设施也很简单，唯书和沙发而已。

三楼是卧室，窗外隐隐传来Kendall Square的喧嚣，麻神理工神经叨叨的学生们又要开工了。

我们经常走去公寓旁秀丽的查尔斯河畔散步。点点白帆在河面上掠风而行驶向海湾，挥汗如雨的大学生们在皮划艇上奋力吆喝，金色晚霞抹在河对面波士顿市中心的层层高楼，夏季的查尔斯河生机盎然。

公寓旁的Kendall Square有家艺术影院。到了周末，我们站在一群白发苍苍的老爷爷老奶奶中，安静地排队买票，听听大家的吐槽和分享，逐渐接触到了《老男孩》里爆裂阴沉的朴赞郁，《春夏秋冬又一春》里禅意绵绵的金基德，和《色·戒》里忍无可忍无需再忍的李安。

离公寓更远一点，就是北美华人第一膜拜圣地 - 哈佛广场。这里的一家电影院里，每个周六晚都播放同一部电影《Rocky Horror Picture Show》，来自全世界各地的死忠粉在电影院外cosplay的场面能把无辜的路人吓个半死。

更偏僻的一个小巷里，有一家Brattle电影院，每年的2月14日都播放同一部电影《卡萨布兰卡》，粉丝情侣们不光在看电影，还会随着鲍嘉默念每一句铭心刻骨的台词。

很怀念那个在康桥镇风和日丽的日子。我们精心打造的工业化路线，在后来朝阳新家里峰回路转，发生了很大的变化。

The six habits of a highly likely technology noob:

1. Your have more than ONE personal email addresses and your friends are always confused which one to use and spend countless hours verifying and re-verifying if you have received that missing email.

2. You use work email address for personal emails.

3. You still use XXX@yahoo.com for email (except if you're from Taiwan or Japan originally).

4. You have more than TWO mobile numbers in one country and your friends are always confused which one to call you at and they often end up not calling you at all out of frustration and confusion.

5. You have more than ONE WeChat account. You forgot how to delete the first one and you keep your two WeChat accounts in the same chat group and confuse the hell out of everyone else.

6. You still don't have your personalized URL on Linkedin, so your Linkedin URL reads like an unrecognizable random character string.

How many have you been hit on?

住在湾区斯坦福大学周围时经常去的中餐馆

If you are a native Chinese, please skip.

If you are a fan of General Tso Chicken, please skip.

If you are not a native Chinese but aspire for good Chinese food once in a while, read on.

When you walk in a Chinese restaurant, whether in the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles or Hawaii, you might fancy ordering like a native Chinese and get something really authentic, not invented-in-America kind of Chinese food (such as General Tso chicken or Beef & Broccoli). The challenge is, it's very difficult to navigate through a Chinese restaurant's menu as no one really understands the English portion of it. Chinese would just go straight to the last two pages that are written entirely in Chinese (so called "Chef's Recommendations") to order (and speak in Chinese to the waiter/waitress). If you don't read Chinese, this option is not available to you.

Well, unless you read on ...

Here's a cookie-cutter guide of ordering authentic dishes in a Chinese Sichuan style restaurant (known for spicy food). It borrows the menu from Da Sichuan Bistro at 3781 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306. You can either just show the Chinese characters to the waiter/waitress, or just give her/him the ID numbers. You will find these same dish names in Chinese in almost any authentic Chinese Sichuan restaurant.

Chinese dishes have very funky English translations and most of them don't make any sense (many sound just utterly terrifying) as nobody reads them anyway. My English comments are not meant to be a literal translation but explanation of what it is.

The numbers in brackets are the corresponding IDs from Da Sichuan, if you don't even bother with showing the Chinese characters.

It goes without saying that they are ALL very delicious. This guide is not meant to cover 100% of what's available out there, but what I'd like to recommend to my non-Chinese friends who might have been deprived of the real joy of tasting quintessential Chinese delicacies. If you can order any of the below dishes, you'll win instant respect and admiration from the waiter/waitress with a look, "well this Lao Wai knows what he/she is doing".

Appetizers​

• 红油抄手, meat dumplings, spicy (306)
• 口水鸡, chicken, salty (101)
• 夫妻肺片, beef & ox tripes, spicy (106)
• 蒜泥白肉, pork, spciy (109)
• 川北凉粉, bean jelly, spicy (111)

Fish​

• 水煮鱼片, fish, spicy (F510)
• 醋溜鱼片, fish, non-spicy (F512)

Pork​

• 干煸肥肠, pig intestine, spicy (P109)
• 鱼香肉丝, shredded pork, spicy (P102)
• 回锅肉, sliced pork, spicy (P104)

Beef​

• 水煮牛肉, beef, spicy (B112)
• 葱爆牛肉, beef, non-spicy (B102)

Chicken​

• 重庆辣子鸡, chicken, spicy (625)
• 三杯鸡, chicken, non-spicy (available in Taiwanese restaurant)

Lamb​

• 孜然羊肉, lamb, spicy (P705)
• 葱爆羊肉, lamb, non-spicy (P701)

Vegetables​

• 虎皮青椒, green pepper, spicy (V117)
• 干煸四季豆, green beans, non-spicy (V110)
• 麻婆豆腐, tofu, spicy (V103)
• 红烧豆腐, tofu, non-spicy (V104)
• 清炒丝瓜, luffa, non-spicy (V114)
• 青椒土豆丝, shredded potato, spicy （V116）
• 清炒空心菜，water spinach, non-spicy

Rice & Noodle​

• 担担面, narrow noodle, dry (N108)
• 牛肉炒河粉, wide noodle (with beef), dry (N403)
• 榨菜肉丝面，minced pork noodle, soup (N112)
• 炸酱面, Beijing noodle, dry (N116)
• 扬州炒饭, fried rice

Drink & Beverages​

• 青岛啤酒, Qingdao beer
• 王老吉, non-alcohol

With that, now you can walk into any Chinese Sichuan-styled restaurant, with this web page on your cell phone screen, and proceed to place your order with absolute confidence and effortlessness.

How we did the first trip to Yosemite National Park

This series ran for 62 episodes, taking notes and reflections during my 12 months in Stanford Graduate School of Business' Master of Science for Experienced Leaders (MSx, aka, Sloan Fellow) program. The original episodes were scattered around in my blog, together with photo series, dance videos, rock band videos, and self-invented theoretical frameworks. I didn't intend to put them in nice order because the structure of this blog was meant to force readers to read every article.

My presentation to the incoming Class of 2014 at the Stanfor Sloan Orientation.