对酒当歌，人生几何？
譬如朝露，去日苦多。
慨当以慷，忧思难忘。
何以解忧，唯有杜康。
青青子衿，悠悠我心。
但为君故，沉吟至今。
呦呦鹿鸣，食野之苹。
我有嘉宾，鼓瑟吹笙。
明明如月，何时可掇。
忧从中来，不可断绝。
越陌度阡，枉用相存。
契阔谈宴，心念旧恩。
月明星稀，乌鹊南飞。
绕树三匝，何枝可依？
山不厌高，海不厌深。
周公吐哺，天下归心。
If I complain about Chicago, it really isn't my fault...
America's Most Miserable Cities
By Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes.com
Feb 6th, 2009
Lousy weather, long commutes, rising unemployment and high sales tax. Welcome home.
Chicago would seem to be on quite a roll these days. The city is a leading contender to host the Summer Olympics in 2016. The hometown Cubs had the most wins of any team in the National League last year and are one of the early favorites to win the 2009 World Series. And, of course, one of its own just became the most powerful person in the world (we're not talking about Oprah either, but she's close).
So with all of the good vibes coming out of Chicago, how does it show up as the third worst city on our second annual list of America's Most Miserable Cities?
Lousy weather, long commutes, rising unemployment and the highest sales tax rate in the country are to blame for the Windy City being near the top of our list. High rates of corruption by public officials didn't help either.
Misery was up around the country in 2008. Market meltdowns, bank blowups and bailouts and cratering home prices often overshadowed the incredibly positive stories of 2008 like the Beijing Summer Games and the historic election of Barack Obama. The highly watched Misery Index spiked as the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate surged to 9.6 in 2008, up from 7.5 the previous year. It was the highest annual level since 1993.
Our own Forbes Misery Measure saw a shuffling of the deck among the top 10 cities, with five new candidates getting a failing grade this year. Topping the charts is Stockton, Calif., which was the runner-up on our list last year.
The Most Miserable City
Stockton ranks in the bottom seven in four of the nine categories we looked at: commute times, income tax rates, unemployment and violent crime. Only New York City has a higher income tax rate than what Stockton, and all California residents, are forced to pay.
Stockton was ground zero for the housing boom and now the subsequent bust. Home prices more than tripled between 1998 and 2005 and then came crashing down last year. Stockton had the country's highest foreclosure rate last year at 9.5%, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed property. Things are not looking much brighter in 2009 as housing prices are expected to fall another 36% on the heels of a 39% drop in 2008. Also, unemployment is expected to jump to 13.3% from 10.4%, according to economic research firm Moody's Economy.com.
"We are engaging the entire community and encouraging everyone to get involved and help us find solutions that meet the needs of our community," says Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston. "Volunteerism is encouraged, looking out for your neighbor, and taking personal responsibility where individuals can make a difference. We are partnering with all community organizations--schools, churches, non-profits-- to provide support services and help individuals and families get through these difficult times."
We compiled our rankings by looking at the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., which meant those with a population of at least 378,000. We ranked those metros on nine factors: commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes (both income and sales), unemployment, violent crime and weather.
For this year's ranking, we added the corruption component. We used the criminal conviction of government officials in each area over the past decade as compiled by the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice. This division of the Justice Department was created in 1976 to focus on "crimes involving abuses of the public trust by government officials."
A Little Corruption Problem
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Chicago, has been very busy in recent years. They convicted 385 public officials of crimes over the past decade, a per capita rate that puts it in the bottom third of big U.S. metros.
The Northern District office boasts of recent successful prosecutions, including "a corrupt former governor of Illinois, Chicago officials who rigged city hiring, individuals who lied about their support of foreign terrorism, corporate executives who cheated public shareholders and traditional organized-crime bosses who were responsible for notorious murders."
Illinois' record of public corruption, particularly in the governor's office, is staggering. Five of the past nine governors have been charged with crimes, and three, as of now, have served time in prison. Whether former Gov. Blagojevich will do any jail time is still to be determined.
The misery in Chicago runs much deeper than just corruption, though. Unemployment is expected to surge to 9.2% in 2009, up from 6.6%. The Tribune Co. is mired in bankruptcy, while big local employers like Midway Games, Motorola and the University of Chicago Medical Center have all announced big layoffs.
Residents have been showing their dissatisfaction with Chicago with their feet, perhaps fed up by the average low temperature of 17 degrees in January. There has been a net migration of people out of Chicago for seven straight years, a trend that is expected to continue. And for all of the recent success of the lovable Cubs, last year marked the 100th straight season without a World Series championship. The title drought is 40% longer than any other major professional sports team.
Memphis Blues
Sandwiched between Stockton and Chicago is Memphis, Tenn. The home of FedEx has an incredibly high rate of violent crimes, with only Detroit faring worse. The 1,218 violent crimes per 100,000 residents is more than twice the rate in the New York City metro area. The city's sales tax and rate of government employees committing crimes also fall within the 10 highest in the U.S. Pro sports has been a mess in Memphis in recent years as well. The city's lone major franchise, the Memphis Grizzlies, has lost 74% of its games during the past three years, the worst in the NBA.
Detroit relinquished its 2007 crown of most miserable city despite a memorable 2008 that included a jailed mayor, the further deterioration of the auto industry and the NFL's first zero-win, 16-loss season.
The Motor City benefited from our revised criteria this year (we added sales tax and sports teams in addition to corruption). Its 6% sales tax is one of the lowest in the country. The success of Detroit's winter sports teams more than offset the ineptitude of the Lions. The Red Wings and Pistons won two-thirds of their games, including a Stanley Cup title for the Wings.
Driving to Wisconsin through the night
Conghan and Shawn totally knocked out
Driving through some park near the ski resort
Finally at Devil's Head Resort in Wisconsin. This is the single Black Diamond slope that was about the most difficult we tried all day.
Boston
Boston Public Garden
Glass Flower Collection from Harvard Museum of Natural History. Large collection of life-like flowers, each crafted entirely from glass. Meaning, everything you seen in this picture is made of glass, even the leaves!
The famous Freedom Trail in Boston, which links all the main historic attractions in Boston that were key sites in the American Independence.
Boston State House
Quincy Market, well known for its eateries indoors.
Old North Church, also on the Freedom Trail.
New York
What remains of the World Trade Center.
Times Square, a plaza with many bright neon lights and signboards, really amazing at night. It's something like Tokyo, I suppose.
View from the Empire State Building...unfortunately, it never occurred to me to take a photo of the building inside.
New York Stock Exchange
Wall Street at night
Phantom of the Opera, which we watched and which was very good!
The stage in the theatre
Phey Wa and me in the theatre
On the cruise to Liberty Island
Statue of Liberty
Madison Square Garden, famous basketball stadium and venue for concerts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the Met, the most famous museum in New York.
Display of armor collection in the Met.
A really long painting by the Qing Dynasty Chinese painter Wang Hui (王翚), whose works in the museum I really liked both for the level of detail when using a brush, and the magnitude and size of paintings such as this.
Washington DC
The National Archives, which houses the most important documents in American History: the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights.
The Declaration of Independence.
Supreme Court
Capitol
Capitol
White House
So after a brief flirtation with Wordpress I have decided to return, because we are creatures of habit, because there is an archive here, and because, well, no more because actually.
Going through archives makes me somewhat regret deleting my previous blog, because it contained 4 years of memories and angsting and what not. And I did not back that up anywhere at all and I miss accessing thoughts from before.
Anyway it's 2009 and I wanted to post these but I always found some reason or another not to, but I might as well now:
2009 Resolutions
1) Have a healthier, stronger body
2) Appreciate academics
3) Increase general knowledge
4) Tighten monetary expenditure
5) Deepen emotional bonds
6) Speak basic Cantonese
7) Improve culinary skills
Boo I think I've only been fulfilling three of the seven so far.
Anyway, for anyone who has been wondering what's happened since the long lull, well, spent quality time with my loved ones over summer (read: I was slacking), came back to Chicago and was excited to move out to a spanking new apartment. Took a course called "Building the New Venture" last quarter and we had to come up with our own product/service and write a business plan and give an investor presentation at the end of the quarter, and that was by far my favorite class in UChicago. Mainly because it was hands-on I guess, and it was something real and practical - my education here has made me realize I do not have much tolerance for waffle and smoking.
Doing Economics, Math, Investments, and Business Ethics courses this quarter, and Business Ethics is actually quite interesting. Taught by a Nobel Laureate, Robert Fogel, who is extremely knowledgeable though not the best teacher (incidentally I have just found my best teacher so far in Econ class). But Business Ethics is mostly GP I guess, learning about how religion or politics or history has shaped the way things are today. Not that much of what we learn is directly linked to ethical business decisions as of yet, but it's good in the sense that I am gaining general knowledge (in which case that's 4 resolutions I'm achieving!).
Outside of class, well, playing Dynasty Warriors on the Playstation has been replaced by Guitar Hero, and because of the workload (lots of reading for Ethics, lots of understanding for Investments) I have hardly had time to cook, let alone for leisure and learning. Feeding myself seems to be the priority, even if it's order-in.
It might as well be a perpetual statement, but I miss volleyball - the sport, and the team. I do get to play it here, but it's different without the very people I associate the sport with. I'm looking forward to summer already.
And on that note, I would like to point out that I'm in week 5 of second year here, which means I'm more or less halfway through UChicago life. It dragged on last year and I was unhappy, I guess in significant part due to the dorms, but this year I've been really happy sharing this experience with my friends all here in the same apartment. One thing's for sure - we all know that we're going to miss this lifestyle terribly once we go back for good. Which is why I'm treasuring everyday here, and enjoying this life.
突然觉得，心里老了很多。曾有的希望逐渐消失时也只能苦笑，因为终于明白了，而只能默默地接受。
Bon Jovi's "Make a Memory" is on loop in my mind right now. The thing about memories is that they are a done deal, a snippet of vivid animation recorded and locked away somewhere in the brain. Accessing them allows you to reenter a particular mood or state, a not unimportant tool. Too often have I found myself trying to recapture the same happy feelings, and when I see the same faces again then I am glad. Somewhere in there is a tinge of sadness that we've grown, that we've changed, that things would never be the same again. But that doesn't stop me from remembering fondly, from replaying the same scenes and living them over and over again. Because that might well have been the best time in my life, and the people who made me feel most real. I think back now and realise how different all of us were - such different dreams, hopes, desires, yet always together, supporting and accepting of each other simply because of a shared passion. It didn't matter what grade you scored or what antic you pulled off in the lecture theatre; because at the end of curriculum time you would go back to the same faces. It's like going home, minus the expectations of who you should be, because the only expectation was that you brought your passion, and that we did everyday. More than ever I miss them, and those days filled with color and noise and excitement, because I sure am short on those now.