March 29, 2001

feb-mar 2001

[140201] got frog #9 & #10 today =) makes it a total of 8 stuffed & 2 plastic frogs, including 3 from San Francisco & 1 from Melbourne.

[210301] "Observe the cormorant...Why is it that of all the different vertebrates the cormorant has been chosen to slave away day & night for the fisherman? Were the bird not greedy for fish, or not efficient at catching it, or not readily trained, would society have created an industry to exploit the bird? Would the ingenious device of a ring around its neck, and the simple procedure of squeezing the bird's neck to force it to regurgitate the fish have been devised? Of course not"
- Siu, R.G.H.

"We too are prime candidates to be exploited to serve someone else's ends if we are talented, have the ability to learn...& are greedy. Ironically, these are precisely the qualities that our schools, professions, & employers strive to instil in us. Without self-awareness and a clear sense of self-identity, these same qualities will gradually but surely put us on the path to becoming a cormorant, not the path with a heart."

- Hall, D.T. & Mirvis, P.H. (1996) The Career Is Dead - Long Live the Career. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. p22

[210301] just found out that there is a 1704m tall Mt. Huaying in a red karst area of the Sichuan Basin, Sichuan province, China.

[250301] (left) e scrunchie & hairpin holder (fish) & (right) e cat that got e fish!



Thanks to Kuan for taking these pics =)

[290301] "A little chicken sitting comfortably in e henhouse without a care in e world was startled by e appearance of a man & ran away. When it came back e man was gone but there was some corn lying on e ground. Having a degree of scientific curiosity e chicken began to watch & it soon noticed that when the man appeared e corn appeared. It did not want to commit itself to any theory in a hurry & watched e sequence 999 times. There were no exceptions to e rule that e appearance of e man meant food, so it swallowed its skepticism & decided that there must be a necessary connection between e man & e corn. In e language of casuality this meant that whenever e man appeared e corn must appear. On e basis of this conclusion it went out to meet e man on his 1000th appearance to thank him for his kindness & had its neck wrung."

- Marcus Long

[290301] "Those who rely upon e arc, e line, e compass & e square to make correct forms injure e natural constitution of things. Those who seek to satisfy e mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies & music & affecting humanity & justice have lost e original nature of man. There is an original nature in things. Things in their original nature are curved without the help of arcs, straight without lines, round without compasses, & rectangular without squares; they are joined together without glue & held together without cords. In this manner all things grow with abundant life, without knowing how they do so. They all have a place in the scheme of things & ... [e scheme] may not be tampered with."

- transl. by Lin Yutang

[ filed under: thewonderingstraycat + 9_lives_2001 + art1 ]

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