Author Archives: sinyaw

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Time exists only when heat exchanges. Heat exchanges only when particles interact with each other. Really? Read on. Imagine a pendulum that swings back and forth and imagine it swings with no heat exchanges what-so-ever. Since there cannot be any … Continue reading

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A Village with My Name: A Family History of China’s Opening to the World

In 2006, I visited the village where my ancestors settled late in the Song Dynasty, about 800 years ago. I found myself in a village where half the inhabitants shared my last name and probably more were my blood relatives. … Continue reading

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On Aging

What’s the deal with aging? Gosh! Everything time I hear “For people of your age..”, I brace myself for the onslaught. Fragility, senility, dementia, low-T, hypertension, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight, bone density, cancer, … Nothing good comes after that opening. … Continue reading

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Saturn Run

If you need to go to Saturn, the planet, in a big hurry, how would you do it? Oh, about 50 years in the future. John Sanford tried to solve the problem, in two ways: the traditional rocket or an … Continue reading

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Before the Wind

I was into sailing, I was also living in Seattle. I visited the Bellevue branch of the King County public library and there was this display table for “Seattle themed books” and this book stared at me. I put it … Continue reading

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Aliomenti Saga (7 books series)

The 8th book, Adam’s journey, appeared to be a sequel or “release to video directly” after thought. For all practical purposes, the story ended by book 7. As a pretty standard marketing tactic by now, the 1st 3 books are … Continue reading

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Long Commute

For 7 years, I had the best commute. The joke was the vertical distance is longer than horizontal. Where I lived was merely 2 blocks away from where I worked. I saw my work building outside of the window at … Continue reading

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7 Years a Seatteite

“If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Sinatra meant New York. After living in Beijing for 3 years, I thought the same. It wasn’t that hard a decision moving to Seattle for the job. That was … Continue reading

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The Psychology on Job Changing

John is a good friend. He has worked for the same company on essentially the same job for the past 5 years. During these 5 years, he received moderate raises that roughly kept up with the inflation. His boss valued … Continue reading

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The First 15 Lives of Harry August

This book reminded me of Life after Life. I don’t know if Claire North was inspired by Kate Atkinson, or it was the other way around. Both books were excellent, this one being a thriller. Life after Life was about … Continue reading

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