Intern

I watched the movie Intern tonight. For me it is a great movie; curing, funny and let me see something I never think before.

First, I never seriously think about how I would look like when I am old. Being 25, young and healthy enough,  I never worry too much because it seems so far away from me. But is it? Maybe it isn't. At least I have seen my parents aging during the last several years. They are more vulnerable to  fatigue, disease; and getting less and less strong. Yet they have so much to worry about, the loan, the stocks, work, grandparents, me, everything. If similar case is with me, I would also be doing this in my 40s and 50s. Would it be interesting? Maybe not. How about my 60s and 70s? I would be retired then; traveling around the world or staying home looking after my grandchildren? I would prefer to balance such life.

Back to the movie. Ben is a 70 years old man, with music in his heart. He is very observant and considerate, always being there to care about people. I guess no one would not like him as a friend. It is the character that he cares about people deep from heart, not just a personality. As an intern, he offered to help other people, create opportunities for himself and use his business experience, in a very comforting way. I could not imagine one who had been an VP would like to do that again. Is it a normal status for old people? Maybe not. At least I know some old people are not really into this amiable feeling. They sometimes like to be the teacher of other people and dictate them what to do, in a not so comforting way and call it 'for your good'. Yet I also met old people who are very very caring and nice, offer their best help if needed but never try to be the dictator. What you might need is advice from them, only if you seek for it.

Thoreau once said, "What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new." I would argue that it is partially true. Yes, old people might not know the young generations so well. The gap is not easy to fill up. However being old doesn't mean useless. They compose such an important part of our society. They might have more wisdom on how old people would think about things. If you want to know old people's needs, there is no better way to ask or observe them. They usually have more traditions kept than young generations. Actually in the movie Ben as an old school guy, has very good memory and highly organized personal life. In contrast young people in the movie are much more lazy, more forgetful and less organized. They have a life after retirement; they also need love from another one, could be spouse or not. 

Compare life of China and West, it looks quite different. My grandparents seemed not very enjoy their life after retirement. To be honest, as peasants, they never felt it a good time to enjoy life. Grandma, widowed for about 20 years, is always looking after her chickens, ducks, vegetable fields and also like to play majo. Grandpa, widowed for more than 20 years, likes to drink some alcohol and talk with other old people. They seem not so interesting to travel around. I don't know if I will also be bounded by something when I am old.

荨麻疹

由于荨麻疹已经两个月还没好，医生建议我做过敏原测试。
测试前五天不能吃药，于是我开始经历非常痛苦的断药过程。
第一天断药，没什么事，大概体内还有残留的药起作用吧
第二天断药，白天也还好，轻微的有点痒。夜里却终于开始折磨我了。临睡前，我发现胳膊上，大腿上， 已经起了包，隐隐的开始有不太好的预感。果然，半夜时醒了，开始只觉得像是被蚊子咬了一下，骤然之间，这些点有了一种井喷般的感觉，似乎遍布了全身。如果能够具象化的话，感觉就是一个烽火台点着了，所有的烽火台便都开始亮了吧。虽然脑子里一直说，不要去抓，但又怎么能忍得住，顺手一摸一大把包，指甲已经不能自已开始挠。。然而此时又觉得手的感觉也很奇怪，竟然觉得手掌变厚了，指头也是肿胀的，似乎不太能够完全地合拢。。。于是我只能把手贴在墙上，让因为抓挠而感觉到痒的手掌稍微降降温。如果说有什么地方被蚊子咬了最难受的，大概是手掌和脚掌的皮肤了吧。它们的角质层比较厚，抓挠的时候相同的力度别的地方都已经可以感觉到痛，而这些地方却好似挠痒痒。总之，连手都开始痒了，感觉有点绝望。。。于是这一夜，也昏昏沉沉没有睡好。
第三天断药，早晨勉强到了十点多起床了。镜子里一看，嘴唇也是肿的，尤其是下嘴唇。我一笑，感觉还有点僵，嘴角居然感觉扯不开呢。吃东西的时候，下嘴唇也会隐隐地涨痒。好在白天总归是可以干点别的事情分散注意力的。下午补睡了一觉，晚上看了一晚的幽游白书和灼眼的夏娜（为什么能不连续看？只是因为网太卡，缓冲需要时间）临睡之时，竟然发现手已经不肿了。非常开心！夜里也还是到处会痒，不过成片的包并没有那么大了。睡着了还做了一个美梦。梦见和爸爸一起出门旅行，回家之时老爸也不知在哪里找来一个神奇的老司机送我们回家。路上司机说要带我们去看神奇的景象，于是画风一转，我们到了一个荒野之地，满地的白色，而天上数不尽的繁星，还时不时略过几颗流星。我问司机这是什么地方，他说这里是极地。然而我非常困惑极地怎么可能这样随意到达，他却没有回答我们，只是默默把我们送回家了。之后我四处找人打听，却没有听任何人说过极地是分分钟可以到达的地方。。。这么说起来竟然很像桃花源记。
第四天断药了。先写到这里吧。基本上是重复的痛苦。夜里做了另一个梦，梦里我去了加州，参加类似于万圣节的活动，然后大肆破坏，但是醒来以后觉得还蛮过瘾的。

到了第六天，早上8点多起了床，开车去了医院。这是一个私人诊所，叫Barry R Paull MD。签到之后，填了一些表格，然后静静等待被召唤。护士姐姐漂亮而且非常温柔，金发不戴眼镜，穿着紫红色的制服，测完身高体重血压后让我在一个小隔间静候。 小隔间的设计很有意思，靠墙是一个卡座，可以坐两个人，还堆了一些医学杂志，卡座前有一块可以横放也可以收起的小小隔板，放下可以当桌板写字。隔间里有把我叫到医生办公室。办公室不算很大，有点像我家的书房。其中一面墙整个是书架，堆满了书。大约在人站着的视线处有一排照片，其中最左边的是尘螨的电镜放大照，右边有很多人物照片，可能有他年轻时候和孩子的照片，也可能有病人的，当然关于这个我并不确定。医生是个看上去60多岁的老爷爷，瘦巴巴的，头发梳的向后背，不过很精神。他没有戴眼镜，西装穿戴非常整齐，手上似乎还有一枚医学院的戒指，因为上面有蛇的图案。
医生让我把后背衣服撩起，然后用看上去像是冰棒棍子的东西在我背上划了个X，过了几分钟，再看就有划痕且红肿起来，医生说这是过敏的一种表现。然后他让护士带我去做皮试。先在左胳膊上写了两排很长的字，然后用塑料针（很难真的说是针，看上起像是钝头的）刺穿表皮，静静等待反应。过了一会，有打组胺的地方果然红肿，护士拿尺子比对着然后挑选了一些新的试剂在我右胳膊上再试。这次是真的针头了，不仅刺破了表皮还流了血，而且由于注射的关系那块地方都鼓起来了。此时已经确定我是对尘螨，蟑螂粪便，mesquite 树和某些野草过敏。
测试完之后，护士带我去医生那里开药。医生拿了两本小册子，讲了关于过敏的原理，然后开了药给我。一种是Allegra，白天吃，一种是晚上吃的药，吃了会瞌睡。一般来说，六个月还是能自愈的。期待中。

The Review of Allergy Fighting Garden

I was moved by the story that Tom became interested in allergy-free gardening and kept researching for more than 25 years because his wife has asthma and allergies. As an entry level landscape designer, I have to admit I never considered allergy-free landscaping before now. This book opened up my eyes. This book not only talk about technical problems like plant selection and management do's and don'ts, but it raise the awareness of designers and planners about health issues.

I learned that the allergy problem is almost man-made problem. Because female plants are messy, USDA encouraged the usage of male trees, which produced large amount of pollen. Therefore, less mess, but 10,000 times more pollen than when both male and female were planted. I like this thorough explanation of how pollen evolved to be crisis and how we prevent it from the origins. The tips for management to avoid mold, is also very valuable for gardeners. For designers, the most important part might be the A-Z planting list with OPALS allergy rankings. Hope in the future most cities will update their plant list with allergy consideration.