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April 22 Be HappyBe Happy "The days that make us happy make us wise."－John Masefield When I first read this line by England’s Poet Laureate, it startled me. What did Masefield mean? Without thinking about it much, I had always assumed that the opposite was true. But his sober assurance was arresting. I could not forget it. 第一次读到英国桂冠诗人梅斯菲尔德的这行诗时，我感到十分震惊。他想表达什么意思？我以前从未对此仔细考虑，总之认定这行诗反过来才正确。但他冷静而又胸有成竹的表达引起了我的注意，令我无法忘怀。 Finally, I seemed to grasp his meaning and realized that here was a profound observation. The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception, not fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom, and without the blind spots caused by fear. Active happiness－not more satisfaction or contentment－often comes suddenly, like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what kind of wisdom has accompanied it. The grass is greener; bird songs are sweeter; the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable. Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision. Nor are the insights of happiness limited to what is near around you. Unhappy, with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is cut short as though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles. The long vista is there for the seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about you－people, thoughts, emotions, pressures－are now fitted into the larger scene. Everything assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the beginning of wisdom. 你的眼界变得更为宽广。你脚下的大地，你身边的世界，包括人、思想、情感和压力，现在都融入了更为广阔的景象之中，其间每件事物的比例都更加合理。而这就是睿智的起始。 Dig Dig Digging 006Upcoming Episodes
And the most visited TV shows are listed as following (from tvrage.com): April 18 Dig Dig Digging 005加菲猫语录集 [on seeing Odie bringing Jon's paper in for him] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 14 Babbling and Blabbing (9)"The Best Mistake I've Ever Made" by Joanna Wang is a great song. 所以我选择的“飞驰”健身房倒闭了，老板在毫无迹象的情况下，把我们这些完全不知情的客户和更加不知情的员工通通打包卖给另一家开在小巷子的健身房。新东家加“英皇”，和年初闹出艳照门事件的唱片公司同名，抛开商家有欺诈行为不说，即使不考虑小巷子晚上的安全问题，我都不愿意去名字这么“把”的健身房。我想大多数人和我的想法是一样的，于是我们这群女人，各个年龄层的女人——最小7岁（学跆拳道）最大年龄不便透露——为了讨回一个公道，发挥各自的力量，先是叫来了警察，接着又是律师，最后电视台也来了。符MM说的好：女人不发威，当我们是Hello Kitty呢。由此可见，女人是不可以惹的。尤其是正在追求减肥而健身的女人。 最近学习不在状态，在京都天满宫，导师给我求的“勤学御守”丢失了很久，突然在前天又出现在我的桌子上，很是诧异。然后看看自己零乱的书桌，觉得很不好意思，大概它一直就在桌子上，只是自己懒的整理和找。对外，还是很脸皮城墙拐弯的对朋友说：我其实是个很有洁癖的人。由此可见，人总有活下去的借口和理由。 XJTU为了树立武书连的“全国第十”大学形象，邀请一群高中生来参观，所以我们机器人队也像“机器动物园”一样的被参观了。小杰DD和这群孩子大讲控制理论，小佥DD看着这群小女孩来了句“好久没有看到这么多MM了”，小哲MM说了句“我老了”。由此可见，女人最害怕的岁月的流逝。 在仓库讲电话，刚开始坐在今年的白油上，嫌太小，又换到去年的积木上，很有质感，心里觉得坐着很舒服，其实本质没有差，也许因为那是块载着亚太区机器人大赛冠军荣誉——中国在这个赛事的第一次冠军——的积木。由此可见，人除了物质满足更是需要精神自满。 最近很爱听王若琳的歌，已经太久没有这样一个让我感动的女声了。比起刘若英和王菲，Joanna的歌，不像刘若英“成全”那样怨妇，不像王菲“感情生活”那样泛滥，而像豆瓣一篇评论说的：一切都举重若轻。
Dig Dig Digging 005Labor vanquishes all - not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.
劳动征服一切。这里所指的劳动不是断断续续的，间歇性的或方向偏差的劳动，而是坚定的，不懈的，方向正确的每日劳动。正如要拥有自由就必须时刻警惕一样，要想取得伟大的，持久的成功，就必须坚持不懈的努力。
BO -> Body order 体臭
AWOL -> Absent without leave 【军队用语】擅离职守 BYOB -> Bring your own bottle 【party专用语】请自带酒来 GQ -> Gentleman's Quarterly magazine 绅士季刊杂志 PJS -> Pajamas 睡衣裤 PMS -> pre-menstrual synodrome 经前综合症 RSVP -> Repondez s'il-vous-plait 用于邀请函末尾，要求对方回复是否出席 11APR08 Eyes on the prize 混战雅虎收购案以下翻译仅为本人休闲练习英语之用，文章以及照片版权归The Economist所有
TIME is running out for Jerry Yang, the boss of Yahoo!, in his increasingly desperate struggle to rebuff Microsoft. The software giant is itching to buy the web portal he co-founded 13 years ago. Yahoo!’s board is reportedly planning to meet on Friday April 11th to consider a frantic week of move and counter-move. 留给杨振远的时间已经不多。作为雅虎的老总，他正在努力抵抗微软的收购提议。微软这个软件业的巨头对这家门户网站窥视已久。据报道，雅虎董事会计划这个周五召开董事会讨论下周决定去留的关键事宜。 The latest round of the battle started with Microsoft’s boss, Steve Ballmer, sending a stern warning to Yahoo!’s board to begin discussing a deal or face a hostile takeover. Yahoo! responded with a letter whose subtext was, “keep it friendly, please, we’re only holding out for more money”. At the same time, Mr Yang was planning another tactic: to stall, by making everything really, really complicated. 最近的双方交战源于微软老总Steve Ballmer，警告雅虎董事会要么接受收购要么面对不留情面的并购。雅虎董事会这样回复到：“请对我们友好一些，我们只不过想再提高一点收购价。”然而与此同时，杨先生却在筹划另一方面的策略：将这场收购-反收购案变得越来越复杂。 Step one was to feign an imminent advertising alliance with Google, which Yahoo! announced on Wednesday. This consists of a brief trial, during which Google, which dominates both web searches and the advertising that goes with them, would place ads next to less than 3% of Yahoo!’s search results in America. The volumes are trivial, but the agreement succeeded in frightening Microsoft, which wants Yahoo! precisely in order to become an advertising counterweight to Google. 首先，假装在周三与Google联盟。雅虎宣布将在不超过3%的搜索结果中试用Google的搜索广告技术。这项合作本身是微不足道，但是却足以让微软紧张了一把，因为微软收购雅虎的本意就是能使其在网络广告收入中与Google抗衡。 Step two was to encourage rumours that a deal is imminent between Yahoo! and Time Warner, an old-media giant. In one possible scenario, Time would transfer AOL, a struggling web portal it owns, to Yahoo!, along with an additional cash investment, and would end up owning about 20% of Yahoo!. Yahoo! in turn would use the extra cash to buy back its own shares. Taken together with the Google alliance, all this should leave Wall Street fiddling with its valuation spreadsheets for a while, during which time investors presumably can’t force Mr Yang to sell out to Microsoft. 其次，广撒谣言说雅虎有意接受老牌媒体大亨时代华纳的合并。而在这之后，美国在线将收购时代。根据协议，时代华纳将把AOL的内容和广告业务整合到雅虎中，外加一部分现金。作为回报，时代华纳将获得合并后公司20%的股份。这样新雅虎将获得更多的现金回购自己的股票。加上之前与Google的合作，雅虎的这一系列眼花缭乱的举动将让华尔街不安静一阵，与此同时，时代的投资者们也不能压迫杨致远将雅虎卖给微软。 April 10 10APR08 The comeback of private equity以下翻译仅为本人休闲练习英语之用，文章以及照片版权归The Economist所有
SOVEREIGN-WEALTH funds did not do it. Joe Lewis, the billionaire investor who bet and lost on Bear Stearns, definitely did not do it. Will private-equity firms be any more successful at calling the end of the credit crunch? 主权财富基金(sovereign-wealth funds)没有办法。英国亿万富翁刘易斯(Joe Lewis),这个贝尔斯登(Bear Stearns)收购案中最大的个人输家，显然更没有办法。 那么私募股权(private-equity )投资基金公司到底能不能挽救这场次贷危机呢？ They seem ready to do so. TPG, a large buy-out group, led a $7 billion injection of capital into Washington Mutual (WaMu), a Seattle thrift that grew into America’s sixth-biggest bank and came a cropper in subprime mortgages. TPG is also among a trio of big-name private-equity firms (Apollo and Blackstone are the others) that are reportedly negotiating with Citigroup to snap up $12 billion-worth of leveraged loans that have been stuck on the bank’s balance sheet since the credit markets froze. A deal may be announced when Citi reveals first-quarter results on April 18th. 私募股权投资基金公司似乎已经准备好了来迎接这场盛宴。PE巨头得克萨斯太平洋集团(TPG)，将为发家于西雅图的第六大抵押贷款提供商Washington Mutual（WaMu）提供70亿美元的财团融资。TPG和其他私人股本财团（百仕通集团和阿波罗管理公司以及其他)联合与花旗集团达成协议，以卡锁的折扣价购买其120亿美元的杠杆贷款，这笔杠杆贷款自次贷危机曝发后就给花旗集团带来了巨大的压力。这项协议将在花旗4月18日宣布其第一季度报表后宣布。 The transactions highlight two things. One is the changed environment in which private-equity firms are operating. Frothy markets, public-to-private deals and easy lending terms have given way to distressed prices and lesser degrees of leverage: TPG is using $2 billion of its own cash to take a minority stake in WaMu, which will remain firmly listed. 这次事件有两大亮点。其一，私募股权投资基金正是从金融危机中诞生的。在泡沫经济下，公对私交易和管理松散的抵押贷款交易导致抵押贷款证券贬值甚至杠杆贷款，正是在这样的背景下，TPG购买WaMu发行的转换优先股中的20亿美元，余下由财团的其他成员购买。 The other is that the industry still has lots of capital to put to work, no small matter in the current environment. Funds continue to flow in. The amount of money raised by America’s private-equity funds in the first quarter of 2008 grew by 32% compared with the same period of 2007, according to data from Private Equity Analyst, a newsletter. 其二，市场还是有大量的资本投入。据Private Equity Analyst分析，美国私募股权投资基金今年第一季度比去年同期上涨了32%。 April 08 读书笔记 The Kite Runner重读，看风筝比赛的那段，一遍又一遍，体会Amir渴望得到Baba肯定的心情。风筝比赛的规则，又何尝不是人生赛场的暗示。我们在这简单的游戏中，找寻自信和地位。
The rules were simple: No rules. Fly your kite. Cut the opponents. Good luck. |
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