Brisbane Night

On the second day of the school holidays, we went to South Bank to watch the musical fountain. There was a facility installed in the Brisbane River. When the music started, water streams sprayed out from the river, forming different patterns. There were colourful lights shining on the water streams, creating an enchanted scene. I raised my toddler a bit so that he could see the show more easily. My wife had led his elder brother to a corner, which was said to be a fantastic place to admire the show. 

After the musical fountain show, we went across the bridge and entered Queen's Wharf. "Why not go up to the Sky Deck?" the elder brother asked. The Sky Deck is a deck on Level 23 of the building, surrounded by glass fences through which we can see the entire city.

"What a splendid night view of the city!" my wife said. "I didn't know Brisbane had such a beautiful night view." "Yes," I responded, "it is in a different style from other cities I've been to before, such as Hong Kong and Shanghai." "Frankly speaking," I continued, "I didn't expect Brisbane's night view would be on such a scale. It's a long time since I have even gone out at night." 

However, deeply in my mind, I was very unwilling to see the city growing that fast. I often think I was born in the wrong era, as I was more keen to live in ancient times. The development of science and technology, the blooming of material civilization, and the fashionable, modern style of night life will make people rather confused, as the environment lures people to pursue material enjoyments while accumulating sins. The colourful night lights in their different forms perplexed our own desires. "Maybe it is time for us to go home," I suggested, worrying that we might be unable to resist the lure of this complicated night.

School holiday

 Today is the start of the school holidays between Term 3 and Term 4. Children may have longed for this holiday for weeks, whereas for parents, it is always a time of great challenges.

When I was a child, I did long for school holidays like others. But when they finally came, I often felt bored and longed for school. My parents operated a convenience store in our residential neighborhood. When school holidays came, especially the summer holidays, I would usually help my parents look after the store. Noon was usually a time with little business, so that was the time I would sit in the store so that Mum could have a rest at home.

One sunny day, when I was reading a storybook in the store, a man came in to ask for soy sauce. I got one for him, and then he asked for a few more items. It seemed that he was looking at the shelves and repeatedly asked for items located in corners that were hard to reach. He asked for more and more things, and then suddenly said, "Oh! I am busy and have to go now." I then had to put all the items back on the shelves. Suddenly, I realised our container for exchange money was gone. "That man was not a customer, but a thief!"

Many years later, when I was living with Grandma in Australia, I told her the story.

"Had you been able to get back the money box?" she asked.

"No," I said. "But mommy didn't blame me. Instead, she cuddled me and told me not to be afraid of it."

"Of course she wouldn't blame you!" Grandma said, and then she fell into contemplation.

Single But Not Simple

 Last night, when everyone else had fallen asleep, I got up from bed to paint a riverbank picture based on a rapid sketch I did from life using a ballpoint pen. This time, I chose to paint in the Chinese ink and wash style using sumi ink on a piece of rice paper. I thought this would be easier than watercolour since it only uses one colour—black.

However, I soon realized this was a misconception. The brush was hard to control, especially the water level. If the brush contained too much water, the lines would become too thick. If the brush contained too little water, the lines would not be solid. Furthermore, if the background was painted first, the rice paper would become too wet to be used for drawing the foreground objects.

When a painting contains only one colour, the ratio of ink to water in the brush determines the light and shadow, as well as the depiction of objects in different colours. Therefore, it is much more challenging to represent a complex world this way.

A long time ago, I thought the recorder was a musical instrument that was easier than the bamboo flute simply because it lacks the degree of adjustment offered by embouchure. However, losing that degree of adjustment means you have to achieve effects through a limited number of ways to adjust, which is also challenging from another perspective.

Concentration

Yesterday, during the teacher-parent interview, the teacher told me that my boy sometimes does not listen to her while she is talking. I said he was most likely thinking about something else.

I know he is just like me. There are many occasions when I haven't responded to my wife while she was talking. She has often complained about this. I know I have this problem, but sometimes it is just hard to control. In addition, it is not always a bad thing. It means that when you are deeply focusing on a matter, you can filter out all other information from the surrounding environment.

When I was young, teachers and parents often told me that I should study in a quiet environment, blocking out all noise and focusing only on the books or homework I was engaging in. However, when I grew up, I discovered that I could think about very complicated matters in any environment. For example, I can understand a paper full of mathematical proofs in a train station while waiting for the train. I can conduct scientific research while listening to music. It seems that it is a double-edged sword. On one side, it can cause mistakes, and on the other side, it can achieve unusual productivity. This is why I don't think it is really a problem.

Enviousness

After tutoring my primary school son with his homework, I agreed to bring the Snakes and Ladders board game to the dining table for him to play, given that he had done so well in mathematics. While he was rolling the dice, his younger brother cried out to snatch them. The two boys began fighting over the dice, causing a chaotic scene. "Stop!" I said. "You have to share with each other!"

The next day when I went to work in the city, I bought a bag of colourful wooden dice, each a different colour. When I arrived home, I found the little one waiting for me at the garden gate. "Gift! Gift!" he asked. "No worries, I did buy you a bag of dice in different colours. But you have to share them with your elder brother," I said.

The bigger boy came down merrily upon hearing our conversation. "I want the yellow one!" he yelled. "Yellow! Yellow!" The little brother cried. Then the scene became chaotic again, with the two boys snatching the yellow dice.

I was blamed by both my wife and mother, who thought I shouldn't have bought dice in different colours. "You should either buy the same things or not buy them at all," my mum said. Before I became a father of two boys, I hadn't known that enviousness was so natural for human beings. From fairy tales such as Snow White, we blame it a lot.

Because we blame it too often, we usually underestimate its popularity. We view it as a great sin and refuse to admit its existence within our minds. But in rare situations, we are still brave enough to admit it. I think the problem here is not whether we have an envious mind, but whether we can control our behaviour when we envy others.

In 2013, when Ruan was about to leave QUT, we had a farewell lunch with him in South Bank. I was sitting at a table with some students from Sri Lanka. We discussed many things, including research, war and peace, marriage, religion, and finally, the topic of who was Sridha's best student.

"I know," I said, "Sridha's best student must be Professor Simon Lucey!"

Rajitha shook his head and said, "I'm very sure he thinks you're the best of all."

"Are you kidding?" I said. "Simon Lucey is a renowned professor who worked at CMU before."

"But you cannot compare your current level with Simon Lucey," Rajitha said. "Simon Lucey might not have been as good as you when he was a student. Of course, at the moment he is much better, but you have the potential to overtake him."

"You behaved the best," Ahilan said. "If people didn't bully you, you would have achieved much more research output than what you currently have. I feel guilty that your research progress was slowed down under the collective bullying."

Sabesan then said, "We came here to study almost at the same time. If it weren't for the bullying against you, we should be close friends. But it's hard for us to face you after what we've done." He paused and said, "But it is only because we envied your research capability."

"Yes," Kanes said sadly. "We just cannot accept your progress being that fast. I think we should tell Sridha the truth."

"Yes," all those students said, “we have decided to tell Sridha the truth.”

About Mathematics

More than 20 years ago, in a calculus class, the lecturer told us during the last lesson of the semester: "Now we've learned a year of calculus. But in the real world, you will probably not do it the way we do our homework anymore, as there are lots of software products such as MATLAB to perform these tasks. But I think it is still necessary to understand the theories and concepts in order to use those software tools properly."

Then he paused for a moment and said, "It is also important to note that thesesoftware tools do not work the same way you do for homework or examinations. They don't use formulas for differentiation or integration. Instead, the programs simulate the fundamental core of calculus by approximating the area under an irregular curve with a large number of rectangular bars. The result will be more accurate if you cut it into more pieces, with the trade-off of a higher computational cost."

I am grateful to have had such a young and excellent mathematics teacher during my first year of university. I still consider him to be one of the best teachers I've ever had. He focused on explaining the concepts and theirmotivation in a very intuitive way.

Whenever I contacted him to ask questions, he always tried his best to explain everything patiently. He reassured me that no matter how poor my foundation was at the beginning, given that I had passed the entrance exams to enroll in the university, my classmates who seemed to achieve much better marks did not actually have a distinctive advantage. "Four years is not a short time. By continuously studying hard, you can reach a level equal to anyone in your class."

He highlighted the generality of an approach rather than focusing on methods that only applied to very specific situations, which are unlikely to occur in the real world.

I didn't fully understand his words back then. Several years later, when I read the mathematical analysis textbook authored by Professor Terence Tao, I was drawn to the in-depth discussion of how definitions are constructed and how to derive theories from them, as well as how the system would change if we defined a concept differently. After reading his textbook and many posts on his blog, I think I've gained a basic idea of how to construct mathematical models by abstracting physical reality.

Then I wondered why one plus one equaled two. It doesn't have to be that way! In a binary system, one plus one equals "10"!

Then I kept thinking: why do we need a binary system**?** It is because an electrical switch is a robust way to represent data in a digital system. Can we find a way nowadays to represent data directly in a more complex manner? Would it be beneficial because we could skip many intermediate steps in computations? Yes, that is the motivation behind quantum computers!

Outside the Window

Spring has finally arrived in Brisbane, and the daytime is becoming much longer. Early in the morning, I can hear birds singing in the trees nearby. There are usually a few daisies waving on the curbside lawn. Spring is definitely the most pleasant season in Brisbane.

Last week I drew a watercolor picture titled "Outside the Window." On the left side of the picture is a soft curtain, indicating a warm and cozy room where the painter was. The right side of the paper shows the window, through which we can see a nice sunset street view. The central idea of the painting is that, despite the room where the painter was being warm and comfortable, they were longing for the freedom outside. The outside world is much bigger, more splendid, and more diverse.

To understand the picture, we can think of the many contrasts between the inside and the outside of the room. The inside of the room may represent a career you have been in for a long time and are very familiar with; consequently,you may be eager to switch to another career path. The inside of the room can also be a place you've lived in for a long time, and you now want to migrate elsewhere. Any of these interpretations are rational.