Quote of Guess Who ?

[ When you are a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers,  you are not going to use

a piece of plywood on the back,  even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it.

You will know it’s there,  so you are going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.

For you to sleep well at night,  the aesthetic,  the quality,  has to be carried all through.]

n

[ Your time is limited,  so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Don’t be trapped by dogma —– which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions down out your own inner voice. 

And most important, have the courage to follow heart and intuition. 

They somehow already what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary. ]

—– If you are familiar with Zenist’s word,  it may sound one of them.

Or if you are an artist,  it sounds somebody,  accomplished Japanese craftsman’s words.

n

They are the words of  Steve Jobs’ who just left this world.

On the first glance,  I couldn’t  imagine that this is the words of  Steve Jobs’ but somebody a Japanese Zenist.

Then I learned that when he was young, he was a fanatic of the Japanese culture, especially Zen.  (He married to his wife through the Bhddist ceremony)

From those words,  I guess,  it might have formed his base of the psyche to be a creator, as his

words are typical expression of mindfulness and showed the confidence to be a free minded person.

Steve Jobs learned his Zen from Soto-Zen Master Kobun Otokawa through Walking Zen Practice —– he was

made to walk round a rock,  endlessly round and round and round —– and he mastered the Mushin.

non

When he conceived his first gadget business ( iPod ), he knew what makes the product as a desired object,

learned from the Japanese products, especially such as Sony’s Walkman and their CD player = down to the

minute detail of craftsmanship ( [ use beautiful wood, where no one would see ] kind 🙂 ) not only the sound

quality = hence it can sell with a premium price.  Yet still, if the gadget is a electromechanical product

he knew, he may not able to compete with Sony,  though the time was his side = end of  the mechanical era.

Digital sound technology has been established long since.  So that the matter was only the size of  memory.

Luckily for him, the size of memory was increasing every day, the price was dropping day by day.

So, he was able to produce beautifully made iPod, with new recording format of  MP3.

non

Unlike mechanical system ( if you remember, think the battle of U-Matic and VHS video system ), digital

electronic system is very easy to design a distinctive own format just using a  key-board, which can still be

copy-righted = hence Apple could easily establish the monopoly of  MP3 and easily organize monopolized

Music distribution / download system using Internet.  Everything was there for him to utilize.

n

—– One episode of him to enforce this view was, when he visited Japan last year in summer, stayed at

Kyoto,  he bought Ninja throwing knife, and on return journey,  it caused a trouble with Kansai Airport

security who confiscated it.  Mr. Jobs who was going to fly by his private jet argued with the officials saying

” Who is going to hijack my own aircraft ? ”  😀

Peace for his departed soul.

___/\___

n

I hate Plants

Well, it is ” I hate to have plants in the house” more precisely.

When I was a boy, I didn’t believe Harry Potter kind of magic, instead I was more fancied  Ninja.

And fascinated by the poisonous plants.  Instead dreaming with magic, I chose much more

feasible practical plot using a root of such as Aconite (Monks Hood)

—— (What a dangerous evil boy !  😀 )

Fortunately or unfortunately I couldn’t have an opportunity to test its magic portion  😀

So, I did make hundreds of pressed plants specimen along side the insects specimen.

Naturally, when I found rare specimen, I was so grad and delighted to pick it up —– then one day,

suddenly I realized that the one, I just picked up (and killed ) might be the very last one.

I changed to take photo of them instead of killing.

So that, when I was in the Uni’, as a member of the Alpine Club and has been doing Botanical Photography

often I was asked to help the botanist to go to the remote mountain or remote islands as a mountain guide.

—–

Though, when I witnessed those top academic people collecting the rare species in the industrial scale,

not one or two but hundreds in one-go, I really annoyed.  We are the one pushing the species to extinct.

( Botanical research institutes all over the world, exchange the specimen each other, therefore needs

to collect hundreds, as there may not be another chance to go such remote place, and the next time, that

species would have extinct then —– collect as much while you can ) —— m m m ? ? ?

—–

Since then, I stopped to pick a flower.  As a specimen, to have a flower is crucial though, it is just before

them to produce seeds, it’s a disaster for the flower and for the survival of its species.

And stopped to buy  potted plant, as I realized, I’m not entitled to have another life in my hand.

—– except a discarded dying plant I found on the street. Like a half-dried stem of a Cheese Plant.

Soak its stem in the water until its root and a bud appeared, then put it into a pot and let it grow.

—— To watch it revived and grow big, is an exciting pleasure — (on the beginning  😀 )

I don’t think I got green-finger as others say.  I just give a necessary care that’s all —– though, the plant

grow and grow —– Once before I had to (forcibly) give a Cheese Plant to my friend ( which was started

to grow from 10″ bare stem to 10 feet big )  when I suddenly needed to move out a big house.

A person who was  wealthy enough to have a space to accommodate 10 feet big plant, tend to have long

holiday —– long enough to dry up all the house plant ( —– its mean not wealthy enough to have

a butler to take care of the empty house  😀 )

—–

The Photo above is the plants I got in my kitchen window.   The left is a Sycad plant, dubbed as a living fossil

ancient species I found on the street.  Next is a Ginger plant which was started to shoot before I eat, so,

I had to put it in a pot.  And next two pot are so-called Money-plant, came from a friend’s place in miserable

state.  Then last long one is a kind of Cacti from the street.  Now I know why this Cacti was thrown out.

It just grow and grow,  3 feet long now. (not cute at all, and its thorn is very sharp  😀  )

Rescuing Plant —– its intention may not bad though, the window of my flat are all eastward, therefore

the sun light hit there only on morning,  not enough to the plants.  And the windowsill is not big enough

for the plant to grow big.  When it grow, I had to change the pot larger with pigeon dropping in the bottom,

—– with good fertilizer, it grow even more  😀   Head heavy plant fallen from windowsill, then I needed

to tie the blanches —– what the troubles.  People says ” Just chop them smaller ” which I don’t want to do,

since I had to put those chopped blanches into another pot to have the roots, then more and more plants.

To see a poor dying plant, it got to be rescued —– but,don’t expect rescued-plant is any docile-plant  😀

Plants got their own rationals / Dharma to live.

To give an adequate environment for the plants to grow,  I should move to much larger sunny place ?

( It must be the same headache to have a wife and a family )

—– I’m not sure what is the best.  Should I left the dying plant in her Karma.  Interfare it and try to rescue it,

was not a too simple emotion ?     This is why, I hate to have plants.  Ha ha ha 😀

___/\___

—