I did a little temporary career switch this week. If you can receive Singapore TV advertisement, you can spot me as skin care specialist explaining the high tech devices and services of Adonis. Shooting the commercial was fun. Today I'm back to Domino, XML and human behaviour.

Found this there, liked it, share it:

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung. The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know it's nature is to sting?"

"Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature."

Triggered by a post on vowe.net I digged out lyrics from on of my favourite song writers: Heinz Rudolf Kunze. I like his older songs best. When I talk to people here, especially to young students, I hear a lot about qualifications and titles they want to achieve to make a stellar carrier preferably in the government or a MNC. How different that is from what is driving me:
" Ich geh meine eigenen Wege,
ein Ende ist nicht abzusehn.
Eigene Wege sind schwer zu beschreiben,
sie entstehen ja erst beim Gehn."
-- HRK Meine Eigenen Wege.

(for non German speaking readers):
"I go my own ways,
the end cannot be seen.
Own ways are difficult to describe,
they unfold only when you walk them." (sorry the Rhythm and rime got lost in translation).  

If I need something to lighten my day I continue my studies of Chinese writing. Even simple words tell little stories, which makes them easy to remember:

The Chinese word for man/person is rèn: 人. It looks like somebody standing there with legs spread (for an marital arts exercise?). The sign for tree is Mù and looks like a tree with roots and branches: 木. Now imagine, that you are a hard working peasant in ancient China and you get tired? You would seek shelter from the summer sun by sitting or leaning under a tree. This would look like: 休. And in deed this is the word Xiū which means rest.

Most of the little stories are as old as the Chinese language. Some of them told today would make excellent material for a discrimination law suite, but that is another story for another time.

Update 2013: for a complete list of this stories head over to Chineasy or check this book on Amazon:
Fun With Chinese Characters