2016年8月9日星期二

Today I begin a new life

  Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediority.

  Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.

  Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest and fullest vines in the vineyard,for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come before me,generation upon generation.

  Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily I will swallow the seed of success buried in each and new life will sprout within me.

  The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those who have failed, were they piled one atop another, would cast a shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth.

  Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts which will guide through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream.

  Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle. Just as nature made no provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my life to suffer failure. Failure, like pain, is alien to my life. In the past I accepted it as I accepted pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principles which will guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness far beyond my most extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides will seem no more than my just reward.

  Time teaches all things to him who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity. Yet within my allotted time I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never in haste. To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An onion plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesman.

  And how will this be accomplished? For I have neither the knowledge nor the experience to achieve the greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity. The answer is simple. I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated, usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.

  In truth, experience teaches thoroughly yet her course of instruction devours men's years so the value of her lessons diminishes with the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men. Furthermore, experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable and impractical tomorrow.

2016年7月12日星期二

A "prevent hangover" wine

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is claiming a new milestone -- the invention of hangover-free alcohol.
The state newspaper reported that Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory has introduced a ginseng liquor with 30% to 40% alcohol and, theoretically, no horrible morning after feeling.
The drink features six-year-old, indigenous Kaesong organic "insam," a Korean name for ginseng.
Developing the drink took years of research to figure out a way to minimize the bitter insam taste.
The factory decided to use boiled rice instead of sugar which "promoted the sweet and savoury tastes of insam by weakening its bitter taste with the delicious flavor of the boiled and scorched glutinous rice," according to The Pynongyang Times.
In theory, the hangover-fighting effects come from the use of scorched rice and from the ginseng's "medicinal effect."
The nation has already poured accolades on the new drink, giving it a quality medal for "preserving national smack."
The paper praised the product because it "exudes national flavor" and said that it has "already been registered as a national scientific and technological hit."