Concept about death

I read Lucas a book about stars. One of the chapters is about Red Giant.  It is predicted that our Sun will reach this stage in approximately five billion years.  It is a dying stage of a star.

'Will everything die?' Lucas asked.

'Yes' I replied briefly, and added 'everything has a beginning and an end, it is what I believe.'

'Will everyone die?'

'Yes, just depends on time, human's life span is usually within 100 years or less.'

'I see.  How about trees?'

'Yes, they will, although they live much longer than people usually.'

'How about our Earth?'

'Sure! When the Sun becomes a red giant, or when an asteroid attacks us severely.'

'Why would our Earth die if the Sun would become a red giant?'

'Because the Sun will stretch and expand and swallow not only us but the whole solar system.'

'I see. So how about volcanoes?'

'Of course they will die based on what I believe.'

'How will a volcano die?'

'By erosion and disintegration through wind, rain and heat.....'

'No!' Lucas didn't agree. 'Volcano will die when it extincts.'

I replied, 'to me, it is not dead, an extinct volcano just means it is not active, but it still stands on the ground. You can only describe it is dead if it is completely gone.'

Lucas is not convinced, 'no! tell me what is the Chinese name of an "extinct volcano".'

'死火山!'

'See?'

'No, it just means inactive, but it is still there standing up straight....'

Then we quarreled for another five minutes.

What a good debate about the concept of death... with a five years old boy.

Horrid Henry's series

Horrid Henry' is an unusual fictional character of children readings.  He is not a role model for kids, he is naughty, ill-mannered, even a bit anti-social.  He is an absolute contradiction of his decent, well behaved younger brother, Perfect Peter.

Horrid Henry series was created since 1994, which was very popular worldwide and had been translated into different languages.  However, Henry is controversial because some schools/ parents are concerned that his mischievous behaviors will lead to bad impact to students.  

It seems not the case to my children, they were engaged since the first page of the book, they laughed out loud when Henry whined or played tricks, but they could judge who was right or wrong in the story.  Frankly, every child wants to be rebellious sometimes, I believe that such a misbehaved character may help them fulfill such 'wish' and 'fantasy'.

On top of these, the stories are well written, the English is simple and amusing, it is a perfect material of English learning for young readers.

香港的博物館

我喜歡逛博物館，無論是香港或是國外。

慢慢，我發現到一個有趣現像: 香港博物館內的保安員遠比歐美的博物館保安員「盡責」。

每當有人走進香港的博物館，那些保安員便會金晶火眼的盯著。當有人從口袋
掏出手機，他們便會緊張地趨前。當發現那人只是用手機查時間或在notepad記錄，他們立即止步，隱伏在那人後面，直至他將手機放回袋裏。若果那人真的舉手機拍照，保安員便於0．001秒內，以方圓30米能聽到的聲線說：「這裏不能影相呀！」好作出殺一儆百之效。

當有小朋友來參觀，保安員更顯緊張。當孩子們走近一點展品，保安員立即走近他們，當他們快步行過，保安員會立即喝止（只是快步，不是跑）。

記得我還是中學生時，我參觀了一個關於流行藝術的展覽，那時興起讓參觀者互動的展品。其中一件展品是一本簿，參觀者可在上面塗鴉，旁邊還附有一支筆。我覺得很有趣，便在上面畫了一點東西。怎知一位保安員走來責罵我，問我怎麼畫花展品，我向她解釋她卻聽不進。我也懶得跟她理論，反一下眼便轉身離去。

上年夏天，我帶著小孩到某一藝術館內的兒童玩樂區玩，那裏有很多家長及小朋友。有一位保安員，我想她的角式是負責提醒在場家長必須盡做家長的責任﹣ 她的工作是不停地巡邏，然後指著一個小孩，問是不是你的。當你說是，她便會叫你好好看管他。我們待在那裏10分鐘，被提醒了4次。

我不是惱這些保安員，某程度上，他們的工作態度盡忠職守，藉得別人的讚賞。但這種有點反智的管理模式，是否藉得博物館管理層反思一下？

Lazy holiday

One of the best entertainments during a holiday is watching Discovery Science channel hour after hour, to pretend that I am a MIT graduate that's why I can understand what the hell those scientists are talking about.