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February 14 只言片语 书好贵，买了两本，花了$440 运费更贵，是书价的25% 中国海关挺慢的，比起美国海关出口报关的速度来，花了4天 中国邮政更慢，香港寄过来的一封信寄了一个月才到，似乎五百年前也不用那么久 以下是一些在msn上看到的“我喜欢”，这里的我不是我： 我喜欢Barbarossa 我还是比较喜欢中秋节 我爱呼吸 i love snoopy i like doraamon February 02 二月初过完年仿佛休闲项目更多了。在重温着Madden 08，后搞来一台wii，superbowl的视频在下，oscar的提名影片可以看。
而且也要看书了，一直在准备着，一直没看。工作上的事情也不少，时间就这样飞快地流逝，2009年也过了1/12。
今早吃早饭时瞥到一眼100-yard int td，堪称今天生活中最美妙的一刻。 January 21 Obama Fever 无关政治，只是就职典礼的今天，我想买张东方早报看看都没买到，平时都有的。 于是我只能浏览一下东方早报的网络版。成千上万的美国人涌向华盛顿，让我联想起了金博士的演讲，虽然只看过纪录片段。但是我的确想起了5.12地震后的默哀，通过电视机看到很多人来到天安门广场，默哀后高喊“汶川加油，中国万岁”。我觉得这是2008年最激动人心的时刻。 January 13 随便写写 有段时间不写blog了，写点什么呢。 上班的时间总是过得很快，不过目前进度还在掌握，于是我会比较纠结下班或者周末干什么。同时下班后的时间也过得很快，一张报纸，一集电视剧，再加上bbs上晃晃，基本上也差不多了。四大人的聚会是很愉快的，我喜欢和四大的人呆在一起，虽然我和auditors还是有区别的。 如果有什么事情让我觉得有激情的话，那是橄榄球。田纳西输了，纽约巨人输了，Dungy退役了，费城很有机会杀入超级碗，乃至最后捧杯。费城费城人拿了MLB冠军，老鹰也有希望上演去年巨人的故事。还记得他们上一次败给爱国者的时候，我也在网站翻译他们的比赛，没有看到直播。这次估计也看不到，只有bt下看看，一定要下个高清的。 橄榄球给人希望，多么不可能的事情也可能变成现实。奇迹是会发生的，只要我们去参与，不放弃。发觉两个实现梦想的地方,一个是世界上最好的工作http://www.islandreefjob.com/ 一个是去达沃斯http://www.youtube.com/thedavosquestion 有兴趣的可以去试试，我相信小概率事件是会发生的。而我终归比较现实，所以我选择在实在无聊时翻翻US GAAP。 December 29 今天盘点2008年的体育各大媒体写了很多，我就不写了。转一篇NBC写的，把他们写美国职业体育的删了一些。显然他们遗漏了足球，而欧冠1/4决赛，阿森纳对利物浦惊心动魄的第二场，这是我今年印象最深的足球比赛，胜过欧洲杯逆转王的土耳其和欧冠决赛。 http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28187269/ The greatness of 2008 won't be forgottenPhelps' gold, Tyree's catch, Lakers-Celtics, Nadal-Federer only part of storyIf years were fish, most would get thrown back as too small, not the right kind or just not interesting enough to keep. A few would be the kind you measure and take a picture of to show off to your family and friends. There’d be others that might have been great, but they snap the line or slip the hook and get away, leaving you with nothing but stories few believe about the glory that might have been. But once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, you hook something that makes your pole bend in half and your heart race and your spirit soar. And when you finally haul it in, it’s the biggest and most glorious thing you’ve ever seen, the kind of prize that tops the record books and needs a mount the size of a pool table. Fifty years later, anybody who sees it will stare at it in awe and demand to know its story. And every new monster that’s caught will be compared to yours and still be found lacking. Such a monster is the Year in Sports 2008. Back in July, when the year was barely halfway done, we said that we had it hooked. Now, we can say it’s finally been landed, and the tale of the tape says it’s the greatest one ever. The parts are spectacular in their own right. Start with Super Bowl XLII and Eli Manning’s escape and David Tyree’s incredible catch and the Giants’ miraculous comeback win over a Patriots’ team that hadn’t lost a game all year. Fast forward to June and Tiger Woods dueling Rocco Mediate on a wrecked knee and broken leg in a U.S. Open that went into 19 holes of Monday overtime before the world’s greatest golfer finally cemented the greatest win of his career. There was Rafael Nadal ending Roger Federer’s string of Wimbledon championships in what might have been the greatest final the All England Club had ever witnessed. That same month the Celtics and Lakers finally met again in the NBA Finals and the Celtics won. In Beijing, Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympic athlete ever and Usain Bolt the fastest sprinter who ever lived. The Redeem Team brought basketball gold back to the United States, reclaiming national supremacy on the court and dignity off it. The Phillies won the World Series, beating the Rays, a worst-to-first Cinderella team for the ages. The Crimson Tide surged again in college football. Jimmie Johnson became only the second person ever to win three straight NASCAR championships. Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy Car race. Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain became at 23 the youngest F1 champion ever — and also the sport’s first black champion. You can argue with any of the individual achievements. Maybe the 1958 Colts-Giants NFL championship game was greater than the Giants win over the Pats. Maybe Ken Venturi or Ben Hogan had a greater win in an Open. Perhaps another Wimbledon final from another year was greater. But you can’t argue with the overall greatness of 2008. No year has ever packed so many all-time thrills into one circuit of the calendar. It started with the Giants’ improbable run to the Super Bowl with three road wins in the playoff during which Eli Manning came of age and silenced all questions about his ability to win big games. The NFC Championship game took them to Green Bay and went into overtime, where Brett Favre threw an untimely interception and Manning led the winning drive. The Giants had lost a tight game to the Patriots in the season’s final game, and New York was given little chance to beat 18-0 New England and quarterback Tom Brady in Phoenix. Brady was coming off the greatest year ever by an NFL quarterback, and the Patriots were on their way to undefeated immortality. In a game dominated by the defenses, Brady finally got the Patriots four points ahead with time running out. And then Manning went to work. The big play was the fourth-down Hail Mary that Manning threw up after fighting his way out of what would have been a game-ending sack. David Tyree, who had scored his first touchdown of the entire season earlier in the Super Bowl, went up, and with a defender all over him, caught the ball against his helmet. The miracle catch set up the winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress, the exclamation mark on a game that was instantly hailed as the greatest Super Bowl ever.  It started with the Giants’ improbable run to the Super Bowl with three road wins in the playoff during which Eli Manning came of age and silenced all questions about his ability to win big games. The NFC Championship game took them to Green Bay and went into overtime, where Brett Favre threw an untimely interception and Manning led the winning drive. The Giants had lost a tight game to the Patriots in the season’s final game, and New York was given little chance to beat 18-0 New England and quarterback Tom Brady in Phoenix. Brady was coming off the greatest year ever by an NFL quarterback, and the Patriots were on their way to undefeated immortality. In a game dominated by the defenses, Brady finally got the Patriots four points ahead with time running out. And then Manning went to work. The big play was the fourth-down Hail Mary that Manning threw up after fighting his way out of what would have been a game-ending sack. David Tyree, who had scored his first touchdown of the entire season earlier in the Super Bowl, went up, and with a defender all over him, caught the ball against his helmet. The miracle catch set up the winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress, the exclamation mark on a game that was instantly hailed as the greatest Super Bowl ever. ......(下面讲Tiger Woods在美国公开赛上逆转获胜的故事)...... Sports fans could be forgiven for wondering what could possibly top Woods’ win at Torrey. Three weeks later they found out when 22-year-old Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who had won his fourth straight French Open earlier in the spring, faced Roger Federer, in the Wimbledon Finals. Federer was 26 and being called the greatest player in the history of the game. In the final, played the day after Venus Williams beat her sister Serena in the women’s final, Nadal won the first two sets with relative ease. Federer won the next two in dramatic fashion in tiebreakers. The match included two rain delays which served only to draw out the drama. It would last nearly five hours in actual playing time — an all-time record. And the final set went 16 games, with Nadal finally defeated Federer 9-7. It was immediately hailed as the greatest final in Wimbledon’s long and storied history.  Federer would come back to win the U.S. Open in September for the fifth straight year — a streak matched only by Bill Tildon in the Roaring Twenties. The U.S. Open would also see the return of Serena Williams, who won her first title in Arthur Ashe Stadium since 2002 and took over the top spot in the rankings for the first time since 2003. ...... Summer would end with the Beijing Olympics, played in the finest facilities the Olympic Games had ever seen. It was a fitting stage for the greatest individual performance of all time. There is nothing harder than living up to extraordinary expectations, and no one had ever had more on his athletic plate going into the Games than Michael Phelps. The swimmer had won six gold medals in Athens, and now he was coming to Beijing in quest of eight. If he could do it, it would be the most gold medals ever won in one Olympics, one more than the seven swimmer mark Spits had won in 1972, when the competition was far thinner than that faced by Phelps. Phelps pulled it off, his quest saved by Jason Lezak, who swam the greatest anchor leg ever in a 4x100-meter medley relay, beating his French rival by inches in the last few yards of the race. He also won the 100-meter butterfly by .01 seconds, trailing the entire race and winning on his final stroke.  When Phelps was done, there was no question he was the greatest swimmer ever. The real question was whether we had just seen the greatest athlete even in any sport. Swimming consumes the first week of the Olympics. The second week is dominated by track and field, and that’s where Jamaican Usain Bolt put on the greatest demonstration of raw speed ever seen. He started by shattering the record for the 100 meters, so thoroughly trashing his competition he pulled up before the finish and cruised across the line. His time was 9.69 and could have been faster if he hadn’t pulled up.  Bolt followed that with another world record in the 200, running a 19.20 final into a headwind. Three days later, he anchored a world-record performance by the Jamaicans in the 4x100-meter relay. The other great story of the Olympics was the return of U.S. men’s basketball to world prominence. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James led a team coached by Mike Krzyzewski through the preliminary rounds. In the final, the so-called “Redeem Team” needed all their talent and passion to beat Spain, 118-107. But beyond reclaiming world supremacy, the team also behaved impeccably, charmed a basketball-mad Chinese public and restored the honor of the NBA. We returned from the Olympics in time for the final month of the Major League Baseball season that had surprises of its own. The Yankees struggled all season, finishing out of the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. And the best team in the AL East wasn’t the Yankees or the Red Sox but the Tampa Bay Rays, who had never had a winning season and had been the worst team in baseball the previous season. Elsewhere, Manny Ramirez pouted his way out of Boston and onto the Dodgers. In two months, he single-handedly carried Los Angeles into the playoffs. In Milwaukee, CC Sabathia, acquired from the Indians, was doing the same for the Brewers. And in the NL East, the Mets were in the process of blowing yet another September lead, opening the door for the Philadelphia Phillies to try yet again to win the franchises second title ever and Philadelphia’s first major sports championship in a quarter century. The Cubs were the NL favorites, and if they had won, there’d be no question about 2008 being not just the greatest sports year we’ve ever seen, but without question the greatest we would ever see. But the Cubs choked as only they can, opening up the playoffs for the Phillies. They met the Rays in a World Series whose final game took three days to complete. It wasn’t a seven-game classic, but any time any Philadelphia team can call itself champions is a year for the history books. .jpg "Brad Lidge and Carlos Ruiz") It didn’t matter what kind of auto racing you were a fan of, 2008 delivered for you. Danica Patrick became the first woman to win in an Indy Car early in the season in Japan. She didn’t win again, but she did get in fights with other drives, both male and female, and kept attention focused on the sport. In F1, the void left by Michael Schumacher’s retirement was filled by the 23-year-old Lewis Hamilton. The British driver wrapped up the championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix in November, suffering racial taunts in becoming both the youngest F1 champion and the first black champion. ...... Okay, so it’s not one of the greatest stories ever, but it kind of fits in the greatest year ever, a year that decades from now you’ll be telling your great-grandchildren you were lucky enough to witness. December 28 Andrew的年度电影提名：
->欲望都市 Sex and the City
 -> 钢铁侠 Iron Man
 -> 功夫熊猫 Kung Fu Panda
 -> 夺宝奇兵4 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull
 -> 机器人总动员 Wall-E
 获胜者：
 非诚勿扰，因为粗制滥造没有入围。欲望都市的入选有看完整部电视剧的原因，但四个女人真的老了，结尾竟然出来fifty and fabulous。钢铁侠的想像力是丰富的，感官刺激也够，但故事延续了蜘蛛侠，蝙蝠侠，XX侠的老套。功夫熊猫，喜欢游戏胜过电影，总是觉得最后阿宝武功秘籍学得太快，有些牵强，其他都很好。夺宝奇兵系列是我喜欢的，包括这一部。斯皮尔伯格和卢卡斯的组合很无敌，兼有The Amazing Race和动作大片的闪光点，最后的飞碟结局还有一点ET的味道。不过，Wall-E更进一步。前20分钟阐述了人类破坏环境的恶果，无对白的表演感染力很强。后面是温馨的爱情故事和剧情片，整个故事是科幻小说，并且带有寓言的意味。动画保持着PIXAR一贯的高水准，故事灵感让人叫绝，Wall-E不仅让功夫熊猫自惭形秽，而且让本年度的其他影片黯然失色。我实在很喜欢Wall-E，还在淘宝上订购了一个Wall-E小机器人。我上一次想要机器人是什么时候，那是我读小学的时候吵着让父母买了一个变形金刚。
December 27 Andrew的年度游戏不是一个游戏迷，也没玩多少游戏，不过打发时间总离不开它。罗列一些今年印象深刻的游戏，他们给我带来了不少愉快的时光。如果你像我一样不常打游戏的，以下的几款会有一款适合你的。 提名： ->终极弹球 Ricochet Infinity 本质上是非常简单的打砖块游戏，三四月份在写论文时玩的。画面精美，有的关卡打起来很刺激，而且花头很多，创意无限。可以自己编辑关卡并上网共享，据说已经有22000+关，全部打完必然无法。可玩性很好，也可以反复玩。     ->功夫熊猫 Kung Fu Panda 动作类的RPG，六月份毕业前蹭同学的电脑玩的。感觉剧情很好，主角很可爱，游戏不难，但是我的水平烂，还是玩了很久。画面有的地方不是很精致，声效也一般，不过对于我这个游戏菜鸟来说已经够了。游戏和电影同步发售，当时还没看过电影，玩好了游戏下定决心去影院看。    -> 粘粘世界 World of Goo 从IGN的年度游戏奖中知道这个游戏，就下了玩。一个基于物理和建筑原理的益智游戏，像搭积木一样把一个个粘性物质搭到一个地方就行了。实在很佩服老外的想象力，这样的题材也能编成游戏，适合小孩子玩（我现在还很小吗），真的很好玩。      -> QQ游戏 比较没创意，但这大概是我今年花时间最多的游戏。在寝室里和同学一起玩，或者在家里一个人玩。    获胜者：  和两款益智类相比可玩性一般，不过熊猫的形象真的可爱，想像一下你操纵一只熊猫打架。比起游戏来，电影反而一般了。当然选择它，可能和当时在毕业季玩有关。好心把电脑让给我的同学（他的“好心”从大三就开始了），可能在新加坡看着我的blog偷着乐呢。 December 21 周末这个周末过得很愉快。 先是周五晚上去钱柜K歌，把部门的group fund用掉了大半。部门内部年龄的代沟还是挺大的，唱了几首不新的五月天的歌，都说没听到过。而老大们，吻别啦，潇洒走一回啦，唱得很投入。我恰如其分地用点歌来调节K歌气氛，大家唱得喝得都挺high。 周六是师兄师姐的婚礼。开玩笑说，同门之间结婚，可以少送一份钱。不过立马受到反驳说，以后收回来的也少了。也是，不过应收账款还是少一点好，说不定以后还要提减值准备呢。想想他们也是挺不容易的，一个四川，一个福建，真像婚礼主题所写的，有缘千里来相会，未来的宝宝这回有了100%的精算基因。精算界一门两fellow的不在少数，我们部门经理级别（含）以上都是这样的。闲下来，都要考试，没什么时间也是一个因素。不过我还是喜欢有点差异的说。 参加完婚礼去打大怪，有段时间不打了。上次和精算师们打，这次也一样。大怪还是蛮好玩的，牌可以有很多种组合，尤其是最后时刻的惊心动魄，相互算计。我是感觉流的，不是计算流的，总不能打得尽善尽美。不过有时觉得算得很完美，就像把牌摊打，反而索然无味了，有趣一部分的原因是因为未知心理而产生的变化。大家以后大怪缺人时可以叫我。 周日又去看了电影，这次是非诚勿扰。看电影之前，已经在东方早报上看到了一些相关的报道。但是看了电影之后，倒不觉得它像有些评论说的那么糟糕。冯小刚的贺岁电影是我等小老百姓喜闻乐见的，它的确有些拖沓，有的地方不知所云，广告太多，有旅游风光片之嫌。但是整个故事主体还是连贯的，男一号是幽默的，女一号特写镜头有些显老，总的来说还挺好看的，表演也挺到位。作为爱情片，贺岁片都值得一看。就是我们身边的事情加上一些艺术加工。如果有一个不是像葛优那么丑又那么贫的海归，有一个不像舒淇那么漂亮的空姐通过朋友介绍认识，双方有点past，然后去海南岛玩玩，出了车祸，于是感情升华，最后结婚。这种故事可能发生在坐在电影院里的每一个人身上。 中饭时在交流职场的所见所闻所感，听上去不像抱怨，倒是挺enjoy的。enjoy就好，不过这种事情却很小可能发生在我身上，我enjoy的是周末的闲暇时光，和K歌、大怪、电影和吃饭。虽然我们有LAP（是这么拼吗），被吹风要eat hour，不过目前来讲和很多人比起来，我还是很开心的，要感恩了。 明天就周一了，又要上班了。而且碰到降温，不管是在office上班的，还是在外面奔波的，都要多穿点。 December 07 《梅兰芳》去看了《梅兰芳》，颇为失望。自然，它与里程碑式的《霸王别姬》无法相提并论。没有一个完整的故事，我不知道这部戏到底是讲梅兰芳的，还是讲邱如白的。艺术感染力不强，影片无法让我看到梅兰芳在艺术上的伟大。演员的表演颇为生涩，黎明太过拘谨，章子怡还是玉娇龙，陈红还是贵夫人。不过最让我看不下去的是编剧。怎么说呢，梅兰芳作为一代名伶，身上的闪光点太多了。中国抗日战争期间，梅兰芳为拒绝为日军演出而“蓄须”，八年间无一次演出而断去经济来源，后靠卖字画和奖杯维持家人和剧团生活。[1]这自然值得好好加工入戏，美国演出也是其人生中辉煌的一章，还有他对日本的复杂感情。他曾于1919年赴日本演出引起轰动，曾有评论“有此双手，其余女人的手尽可剁去”。1924年因曾经为日本关东大地震赈灾义演而受邀再次赴日演出，期间突患急性肠胃炎危及生命，后被一日本医生医治。医生不收费，仅要一景泰蓝袖扣。1956年第三次访问日本再次引发轰动，同时履行30多年前承诺。[2]这与他拒绝日本占领军的演出要求是很大的戏剧冲突。让我们在看看他的婚姻和家庭：1910年，梅兰芳与出身于京剧世家的王明华结婚。婚后王明华生了一双儿女后做了节育手术，后来儿女不幸夭折，后因王明华身体不好在天津养病。1921年梅兰芳娶旦角演员福芝芳为平妻。福芝芳为梅兰芳生下九个孩子，但只有四个长大成人，分别是梅葆琛、梅绍武、梅葆玥、梅葆玖。他的女儿梅葆玥唱老生，小儿子梅葆玖继承梅派京剧艺术。1925年，梅兰芳与京剧名老生孟小冬同居，5年后两人分手。[3]同居的故事自然可以写，但是第一段婚姻、如何到第二段婚姻、再如何又到同居的，可以挖掘的东西似乎更多。作为80后的一代，我不认为京剧是属于我们这个时代的。但这并不妨碍我们去欣赏京剧和梅兰芳，因为京剧是另一个时代的艺术皇冠，而梅兰芳就是皇冠上最璀璨的宝石。只可惜我们不太了解，看不出一挥手、一踱步中到底有什么细微的差别，不懂演到什么时候应该叫好。我们知道的是，走进电影院，看《梅兰芳》，然后和朋友谈论一番。这样，我们可能就不知道邱如白其实应该是齐如山，也不清楚梅兰芳之所以不朽的真正原因。October 31 Following the Script: Obama, McCain and ‘The West Wing’很难不把今年的总统大选和The West Wing联系在一起，于是我决定重温一下 When Eli Attie, a writer for “The West Wing,” prepared to plot some episodes about a young Democratic congressman’s unlikely presidential bid, he picked up the phone and called David Axelrod. Mr. Attie, a former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, and Mr. Axelrod, a political consultant, had crossed campaign trails before. “I just called him and said, ‘Tell me about Barack Obama,’ ” Mr. Attie said. Days after Mr. Obama, then an Illinois state senator, delivered an address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the two men held several long conversations about his refusal to be defined by his race and his aspirations to bridge the partisan divide. Mr. Axelrod was then working on Mr. Obama’s campaign for the United States Senate; he is now Mr. Obama’a chief strategist. Four years later, the writers of “The West Wing” are watching in amazement as the election plays out. The parallels between the final two seasons of the series (it ended its run on NBC in May 2006) and the current political season are unmistakable. Fiction has, once again, foreshadowed reality. Watching “The West Wing” in retrospect — all seven seasons are available on DVD, and episodes can be seen in syndication — viewers can see allusions to Mr. Obama in almost every facet of Matthew Santos, the Hispanic Democratic candidate played by Jimmy Smits. Santos is a coalition-building Congressional newcomer who feels frustrated by the polarization of Washington. A telegenic and popular fortysomething with two young children, Santos enters the presidential race and eventually beats established candidates in a long primary campaign. Wearing a flag pin, Santos announces his candidacy by telling supporters, “I am here to tell you that hope is real.” And he adds, “In a life of trial, in a world of challenges, hope is real.” Viewers can almost hear the crowd cheering, “Yes, we can.” Comparisons between Senator John McCain and the “West Wing” Republican candidate, Arnold Vinick, a white-haired Senate stalwart with an antitax message and a reputation for delivering “straight talk” to the press, also abound. Vinick, played by Alan Alda, is deemed a threat to Democrats because of his ability to woo moderate voters. And he takes great pride in his refusal to pander to voters, telling an aide: “People know where I stand. They may not like it, but they know I’ll stick with it.” Even the vice-presidential picks are similar: the Democrat picks a Washington veteran as his vice presidential candidate to add foreign policy expertise to the ticket, while the Republican selects a staunchly conservative governor to shore up the base. Certainly some of the parallels are coincidental. It is unlikely, for example, that the writers knew Mr. Obama had an affection for Bob Dylan when they made Santos a Dylan fan. But it is the unintentional similarities that make the DVDs of the sixth and seventh seasons, which at the time received mixed reviews, so rewarding to watch now. In both “The West Wing” and in real life, for example, the Phillies played in the World Series during the election campaign. As the primaries unfolded this year, “I saw the similarities right away,” said Lawrence O’Donnell, a producer and writer for the series who has appeared on MSNBC as a political analyst. Mr. O’Donnell had used Mr. McCain as one of the templates for the Vinick character in the episodes he wrote, though he said that “McCain’s resemblance to the Vinick character was much stronger in 2000 than in 2008.” Echoing the criticism Mr. McCain faced during the primaries, a White House aide in “The West Wing” contends that Vinick is “not conservative enough” for the Republican base. Sometimes the two candidates’ situations are almost identical: when the press starts asking where Vinick attends church, he tells his staff that “I haven’t gone to church for a while.” Asked in July by The New York Times about the frequency of his church attendance, Mr. McCain said, “Not as often as I should.” Mr. Alda and Mr. McCain are the same age. When a hard-edged strategist played by Janeane Garofalo joins the Santos campaign, she immediately alludes to Vinick’s age. “He’s been in the Senate for like 90 years. He was practically born in a committee room,” she says. In the same way that Obama surrogates have subtly knocked Mr. McCain’s lack of computer skills, the Garofalo character remarks to the Santos campaign manager, Josh Lyman: “Why are you always talking about high-tech jobs? Because Vinick uses a manual typewriter.” Conversely, Santos staffers talk about getting video of the candidate with his “adorable young children hugging their hale and vital dad.” The casting of Mr. Smits introduced story lines about the prospect of a minority president. But when an aide suggests a fund-raising drive in a Latino community, Santos snaps: “I don’t want to just be the brown candidate. I want to be the American candidate.” The Obama campaign has made similar assertions. Still, “The West Wing” — like Mr. Obama — does not ignore racial issues entirely. In the seventh season Santos delivers a speech on race at a critical moment for his campaign, and staffers privately worry that voters will lie about their willingness to vote for a minority candidate. If the show sometimes seems like a political fantasy — a real debate where politicians are required to answer questions? a candidate rejecting an attack ad? — it also reflects the tenor of the real-life campaign season. Santos wins the nomination only after a lengthy fight on the convention floor, an inexact parallel to Obama’s extended primary fight with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Just as the Obama campaign pivoted to the economy this fall, Lyman tells Santos staffers that “this new economic message may be our ticket,” and he winds up being right. An economic crisis does not ensue, but back-to-back emergencies on “The West Wing” — a nuclear power plant malfunction and a dispute in Kazakhstan — bring to mind the election-defining qualities of the actual economic crisis. “Dramatically, they are exactly the same thing: the unforseeable,” Mr. O’Donnell said. As President Bush did during the bailout talks, Jed Bartlet, the Democratic “West Wing” president played by Martin Sheen,
brings both candidates to the White House for a briefing. Facing the
prospect of deploying 150,000 American soldiers to Kazakhstan three
weeks before the election, Vinick grumbles, “I can say goodbye to my
tax cut.” He tells Santos, “Your education plan’s certainly off the
table.”Santos emerges victorious weeks later, but only after a grueling election night. Online, some “West Wing” fans are wondering whether the show will wind up forecasting the real-life result as well. In Britain, where the series remains popular in syndication, a recent headline on a blog carried by the newspaper The Telegraph declared: “Barack Obama will win: It’s all in ‘The West Wing.’ ” September 21 投资失误与资金危机将AIG逼到绝境 http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20080918/ffe134753.asp?source=UpFeature 周 二晚间长达3个小时的时间里，美国国际集团(AIG)董事会一直在痛苦权衡联邦政府提出的条件：政府同意向AIG提供850亿美元贷款，但这家保险巨头必须拱手让出控制权。这一计划震惊了AIG的董事们，有人将此称之为“令人难以承受”的提议。他们对政府下令撤换公司首席执行长维尔伦斯坦德(Robert Willumstad)感到惊讶，对他们所认为的华盛顿痛下重手怨声载道。一位董事表示，他觉得受到了冒犯。 AIG董事、曾担任里根总统经济顾问的费尔德斯坦恩(Martin Feldstein)表示，收购私营公司并不是政府的职责所在。在董事会就是否申请破产争论不下之际──此举可能会引发全球金融市场混乱──维尔伦斯坦德发话挑明了AIG目前的两难处境。 据与会人士透露，维尔伦斯坦德对董事会表示，我们面临着两个糟糕的选择：要么明天早上申请破产，要么今天晚上接受美国联邦储备委员会(Fed)的协议。周二晚上7时50分，维尔伦斯坦德打电话接受了这一协议。 下面的内容主要根据对华尔街银行家和律师、AIG管理人士以及政府官员的访谈所写，我们可以看到上周末席卷华尔街的这轮风暴是如何横扫美国金融体系，并在周二吞噬了美国最大一家保险公司的。 目前还不清楚这场浩劫会停在何处。在这些市场振荡的日子，我们已经目睹了美国政府接管AIG以及两大抵押贷款巨头房利美(Fannie Mae)和房地美(Freddie Mac)，几乎没有做尽职调查就匆忙达成交易。而雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)和美林公司(Merrill Lynch & Co.)这两大历史悠久的华尔街投行也不再作为独立实体而存在了。 正如AIG个案所显示的，即便是规模最大的公司，也可能迅速崩溃。直到本周早些时候，各方都没有提到过政府接管的想法。美国财政部长鲍尔森(Henry Paulson)周日对考虑为AIG融资的银行业人士表示，政府官员还不清楚问题到底有多大。 到了周二，仍然没有来自私营部门的融资，联邦官员认定任由AIG破产的风险可能超过当前虚弱金融市场所能承受的限度。但这一最新的拯救方案招致了美国国会异乎寻常的激烈反对，议员们担心危机正逐渐失控，他们质疑联邦政府下一步将把触角伸向何处。 保险巨头AIG的业务遍布全球130个国家，其历史可以追溯到1919年。在前任首席执行长格林博格(Maurice R. 'Hank' Greenberg)将近四十年的苦心经营下，很少有其他公司能够匹敌AIG的实力。AIG向西弗吉尼亚的教师出售年金，向美国最大的公司出售责任保险，向餐厅出售劳工保险，其业务网络甚至覆盖到印度的贾拉瓦尔。 
在很多方面，AIG依然状况稳健。该公司的问题主要来自于旗下一家出售信用违约掉期(CDS)的子公司。这一金融衍生产品旨在保护投资者免受各种资产的违约损失，其中也包括了次级抵押贷款。由于这一部门遭受了180亿美元的巨额损失，AIG不得不追加价值数十亿美元的抵押品，导致公司财务吃紧。而信用评级遭下调与股价持续承压下挫使得AIG本已虚弱的状况更加恶化。 在与花旗集团(Citigroup)首席执行长一职擦身而过之后，维尔伦斯坦德于6月15日出任AIG首席执行长。他向AIG董事会保证，会在劳工节之前制定出重组计划，决定公司的业务去留。 但这一计划遭遇了金融风暴的无情扼杀。9月初，在公布数十亿美元次级抵押贷款相关债务后，维尔伦斯坦德认定AIG必须迅速筹资。他对摩根大通(J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.)首席执行长戴蒙(Jamie Dimon)说，我们要弥补的漏洞太大了，我们需要筹集资本。这两人曾在花旗集团共过事。 上周，AIG的危机变得愈加恶化。该公司曾试图按原计划在9月25日公布业务复兴方案。但上周五它的股价暴跌了31%，标准普尔(Standard & Poor's)也发出了调降评级警告，这使得AIG的筹资行动变得更加困难。 走投无路的维尔伦斯坦德紧急打电话给纽约联邦储备银行(Federal Reserve Bank of New York)行长盖纳(Timothy Geithner)，就AIG面临的危机向后者发出了警告。维尔伦斯坦德认为，公司需要200亿美元资金，但他随后陷入了沮丧。维尔伦斯坦德对同事们说，我实在得不到盖纳的关注，雷曼兄弟正在崩溃，那才是他的关注焦点。 当天晚间，鲍尔森和盖纳在纽约联邦储备银行总部二楼的会议室召集华尔街头面人物举行紧急会议。雷曼兄弟危机是会议的首要议题，雷曼兄弟和AIG一样急需新资本，但却苦于无处筹措。不过鲍尔森对大家说，还有更多的问题要讨论。 据一位与会人士透露，鲍尔森在会上表示，我们不要只盯着雷曼兄弟的问题，应该向前看。AIG危机成为共同的担忧问题。由于当时没有AIG的代表与会，因此鲍尔森和盖纳给维尔伦斯坦德打电话，让他第二天到会介绍情况。 在AIG大楼里，维尔伦斯坦德与摩根大通和对冲基金百仕通集团(Blackstone Group)的银行家们彻夜工作，确定该公司需要多少资金。由于房地产相关证券迅速下滑，至次日凌晨，需要的资金数额已经翻一番，增至400亿美元。 纽约州保险业监管人迪纳罗(Eric Dinallo)告诉AIG，他可以不顾某些规定，允许AIG使用其分支机构约200亿美元的资金。维尔伦斯坦德忙不迭地告诉诸位高管和银行家，我们找到了200亿美元！他想AIG现在只要再筹措到200亿美元就能避免灾难的发生了。 周六上午 上周六早间，维尔伦斯坦德在AIG总部里遇到了另外一位花旗的前同事莫汉(Deryck Maughan)，莫汉在那里是为私人资本运营公司Kohlberg Kravis Roberts寻找抄底机会。其他公司也来了，其中包括德国保险公司安联保险公司(Allianz SE)以及在雷曼兄弟和AIG之间跑来跑去的J.C. Flowers。法国安盛保险集团(AXA Group)也有意收购AIG旗下寿险公司的一部分业务。 周六晚些时候，维尔伦斯坦德走出AIG，走过几个街区来到纽约联邦储备银行。由于雷曼兄弟的高管也在那里寻求救助，鲍尔森不愿出手相助AIG，直到他对AIG问题的波及范围有了更多的了解。 维尔伦斯坦德坚持说，我是在提议一项交易，而不是救助；如果我们用抵押品换得了Fed的支持，我向你们保证，如果需要，我会尽力变卖资产还给你们。 不过至周六晚间，这个银行业小组认为，如果AIG能与私人资本运营公司达成协议，他们的筹资计划就能见效，他们对此很有信心。 周日早间，AIG的顾问们发现了一件令人担忧的事。AIG旗下一个受到监管的分支机构──证券借贷业务，也需要大约200亿美元的注资。 当日，J. C. Flowers提议投资大约100亿美元，不过有几个条件，其中包括AIG要保证其信用评级不会降到某个水平以下。KKR和TPG提出斥资200亿美元收购该公司一半的股份。两项交易都是有条件的，即需要Fed或是华尔街银行提供一定的信贷额度。 AIG的高管不愿接受这样的条件。不过这一点还可以商榷。根据AIG将需要400亿美元的假设，私人资本运营公司进行了评估。至周日晚间，亚洲市场开盘、AIG资产价值处于更大的压力之后，该公司需要逾600亿美元的资金已经是显而易见的了。 维尔伦斯坦德的外部顾问告诉盖纳，AIG的亏空在600亿美元以上。他还说，他不知道这个“以上”到底有多少。 两个小时之后，盖纳说，Fed会看看自己能做些什么，不过并没有做出任何承诺。 维尔伦斯坦德晚上11点离开办公室。在政府拒绝进行救助之后，雷曼兄弟即将申请破产。 就像对雷曼兄弟的处理一样，鲍尔森和盖纳希望用私营领域的方法解决AIG的难题。鲍尔森尤其感到苦恼，因为华尔街把他视为一位救金融公司于水火之中的白衣骑士。鲍尔森让高盛和摩根大通的高管们想想是否能为AIG筹集资金。他仍然不确定AIG一旦崩溃所带来的影响范围有多大。 与此同时，鲍尔森让财政部工作人员开始认真考虑一下政府的反应可能会是什么样的。鲍尔森的顾问、前高盛银行家杰斯特(Dan Jester)开始斟酌各种选择，看看政府该如何构建一次注资行动。 周一，维尔伦斯坦德通知迪纳罗说，AIG需要高达700亿美元资金来度过难关。迪纳罗回答说，除非已经有了一个计划为AIG补足需要的剩余资金，否则政府是不会采取行动的。他说，如果你们的公司破产了，我不能冒险损害投保人的利益。 摩根大通和高盛的代表周一整天聚集在曼哈顿下城Fed办公室中开会。他们与摩根士丹利一起评估了AIG的流动性需求，另外摩根大通和高盛还评估了私营领域解决方法的可行性。他们得出的新结论是：AIG需要大约800亿美元的资金。 周一下午1:30，鲍尔森在白宫新闻发布会上现身，回答了有关雷曼兄弟崩溃的问题。当被问及政府是否不再为任何陷入困境的金融机构提供帮助的时候，鲍尔森回答说，不要把这理解成“下不为例”，而是要把这理解为，我认为保持金融体系的稳定性和有序性是非常重要的。 鲍尔森在谈及AIG时表示，政府当时并没有考虑发放贷款。他说：“纽约目前发生的事和政府提供任何过渡性贷款没有关系。现在在纽约，私人机构正在再次做出努力重点解决目前所面临的重要问题，在我看来，这个问题非常重要，以致于整个金融系统都在试图解决它。除此之外，我再没有什么可说的了。” 盖纳和Fed及财政部的官员举行了一个电话会议，该会议一直持续到半夜两点。 与会人士探讨了AIG破产可能带来的系统性影响，以及一旦AIG垮台将会发生什么。会谈是从这个问题开始的：“我们可以听之任之吗？” 在离开了盖纳的办公室后，摩根士丹利的团队一直工作到凌晨4点，制定了一项干预计划。 成本高企 雷曼兄弟的倒台已经推高了短期借贷的成本。盖纳和其他官员担心AIG的崩溃会给各个市场造成沉重打击，从散户投资者持有的非常安全的货币基金、到华尔街银行使用的复杂金融衍生品、再到那些为企业提供资金的金融工具无一能逃过冲击。AIG的规模和复杂程度意味着其触角已经遍及金融领域的各个角落，因此不可能准确预见其崩溃可能造成的影响，唯一清楚的一点就是那很可能是一场灾难。 到了周一傍晚，已经明朗的一点是高盛和摩根大通不会出手拯救AIG。这家保险公司的资产不足以获得所需的贷款规模。 周二，AIG高管认定已到了用尽自己的循环信贷额度的时候了，一般来讲，这也是一家企业在申请破产保护之前的最后一搏了。据知情者透露，大多数银行都拒绝了AIG的贷款申请，他们表示在AIG债券评级遭到下调的情况下不会为它提供贷款，除非确信这家保险公司并未濒临破产。 38.5亿美元不是什么大数目，但各家银行的回绝加剧了Fed的紧迫感。 维尔伦斯坦德知道自己所剩时间无多。他甚至不再关注AIG的股价了，当时股票已经跌破了2美元。 到了下午1:30，Fed发话愿意施救，但是需要得到理事会的批准，当时各位理事正要开会讨论利率决策。到了下午3:30，鲍尔森和贝南克向布什通报了情况。到了4点时，他们致电盖纳，确保三个人都认可即将宣布的AIG拯救计划。 这个决定做的是如此之快，以致于人们认为他们甚至没有足够的时间深入了解AIG的财务情况，或对其崩溃的可能影响做一彻底分析。但是没人想冒按兵不动、进而引发市场灾难性反应之风险。 下午4点，这份拯救方案交给了AIG管理层。那是一份三页纸的方案，上面冷冰冰地标明了超高的放贷利率，以及政府获得AIG约80%股权的权利。 维尔伦斯坦德吃惊但不震惊。一位AIG的顾问告诉管理层，鲍尔森对AIG的做法和他处理房地美、房利美、乃至贝尔斯登都如出一辙──如果政府插手了，股东就要为此埋单。 维尔伦斯坦德表示将在下午5点召开董事会会议。而在会议开始前10分钟，维尔伦斯坦德接到了鲍尔森和盖纳的电话，后者排除了所有讨价还价的可能，他说，这是你们唯一能得到的救助方案，而且还有一个条件，那就是请你走人。后来鲍尔森也重复了这一命令。 维尔伦斯坦德没有在这一问题上退缩。周二是他担任AIG首席执行长的三个月纪念日。他知道并非是自己让AIG走到了绝境，而且他也知道在这种情况下高管走人也是必须的。 在AIG董事会批准了这份提议之后，贝南克和鲍尔森周二晚间匆匆安排了一次和资深议员的会晤，他们当中许多人都对这个问题的严重程度以及政府所做的反应震惊不已。 参议院银行委员会(Senate Banking Committee)来自新罕布什尔州的共和党籍委员乍德·格里格(Judd Gregg)穿着礼服、连领带都没打就步入了会场。众议院金融服务委员会(House Financial Services Committee)来自马萨诸塞州的民主党籍主席巴尔尼·弗兰克(Barney Frank)最后一个赶来，衬衫都没有扣上。 参加了会议的伊利诺伊州参议员迪克·德尔宾(Dick Durbin)回忆道，贝南克坐在巨大的会议桌前，阐明了AIG崩溃的后果，他警告称，这将给整个美国乃至全世界带来切肤之痛。 MONICA LANGLEY / DEBORAH SOLOMON / MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG August 29 奥运回顾及其他84年奥运，完全不知道
88年奥运，Hand in hand的主题歌，开幕式的团体操表演，加拿大百米飞人嗑药，中国拿了很少的金牌
92年奥运，弓箭手射箭点燃火炬，梦一队横扫对手
96年奥运，奥林匹克公园爆炸，拳王阿里颤抖地点火
00年奥运，土著运功员水中点火
04年奥运，刘翔夺冠
好像还是我越小，记得越清楚。个么这届呢，若干年之后，应该是华丽的开幕式，Phelps八金，Bolt放水的冲刺，中国狂夺金。大概不会记得梦八夺冠（他们的很多比赛都很激烈，和澳大利亚、西班牙），pp的柳金mm，刘翔退赛。Sorry for those stars
奥运对我们的意义应该不限于金牌第一，炫耀漂亮的场馆。我情愿我们金牌少20块，男篮男排能够进四强，鸟巢和水立方的决赛场上更多的中国面孔。我们虽然摘掉了东亚病夫的帽子，可是不能只做竞技体育强国。于是我觉得全民健身要从我做起，我每周游泳1km，每天骑自行车上下班，大家也多点运动吧。
说到骑自行车，我感觉我上班像在上学。去公司的路上会经过我的初中，再往前骑5min就到了。背着书包，坐着desk（我觉得我们的bench空间有点实验室的感觉），差不多时间上班，差不多时间下班。想想我生活的空间感不大，十年前十年后每天走的路都一样。只能yy一下，要是我能像auditor那样下field，那么我应该去过新加坡、马来西亚、韩国、关岛和文莱。
希望有一天梦想可以成真。 August 18 Liu's injury a lose-lose for China, fans//"We were looking forward to watching him run," said Wang Qingchi,
a man in his 60s who lives near the Bird's Nest. "In competitions there
are victories and defeats; you never know if he can win the gold medal
or not. If he competed, we wouldn't have minded even if he had lost.
But he didn't even race. This is a big let down." By Alan Abrahamson, NBCOlympics.com Posted Monday, August 18, 2008 4:30 AM ET BEIJING - Liu Xiang's abrupt withdrawal Monday from the 2008 Olympics robs all of us of a moment that had, since 2004, when he won the 110m hurdles at the Athens Games, been awaited with high anticipation. The moment was to have come later this week, Thursday night, when Liu, who in winning in Athens became China's first gold medalist in track and field, would have exploded from the blocks at the sound of the gun.China's Liu Xiang lines up to run the 110m hurdles but leaves with an Achilles injury after a false start. The noise inside the Bird's Nest would have been ferocious, the flashbulbs from the stands like the stars in the sky -- the pressure of 1.3 billion people waiting to see if he could do it again, if Liu could affirm not only his place in Olympic history but China's station as a power to be respected among the nations, sport serving as a proxy for so much else. Now there will be no such scene. Liu pulled out of the Games, bedeviled by a nagging Achilles tendon injury. Unable to run in a 110m hurdles preliminary heat Monday morning, he ripped the number off his hip and slowly, painfully walked off the track and into a tunnel, where he sat against a wall, his face hidden, his right ankle bathed in ice. A rough analogy for those who see the Olympics through an American prism. Imagine these 2008 Games were being held in the United States, not Beijing. Then imagine Michael Phelps mounting the blocks in his first race, diving in, taking two strokes - and pulling up, clutching the lane line. It is a shame the spectacle Thursday night at the Bird's Nest will not play itself out as so many as hoped. But here's the plain truth: there is no need for that very spectacle. History, it turns out, didn't need Liu Xiang in 2008. Because China's performance at these Games has already gone well beyond anything that might have come from single athlete. The rest of the Chinese team has already put to rest any doubt there might have been about China's ascendancy as an athletic power. The medals counts make that absolutely plain. In Athens, the Chinese won 32 gold medals. Already here, they have 35. With six days to go. In Athens, the Chinese won 63 medals overall. Through Monday, they already have 61. The United States was clinging to a slim lead in the overall medals count, with 65. But the Chinese were well out ahead of the Americans in the gold-medal count, 35-19. Liu did the smart thing. If he had raced and lost, he would have lost considerable face, and so - by extension - might all those counting on him. And make no mistake: there was no way -- zero -- he was going to repeat as Olympic champion. "I think he was very courageous," Wang Wei, the English-speaking voice of the Beijing 2008 organizing committee, said. "The entire country will be disappointed but they also understand that when someone has an injury they can not help it." His coach and mentor, Sun Haiping, cried Monday afternoon at a news conference at which he called Liu a "fighter," adding, "He has been keeping fighting and fighting until the last moment." Liu hasn't run a competitive race in three months. That's no way to get ready for a Games. Liu was due to run May 31 in New York. He did not, citing injury. Two weeks later, he false-started at a meet in Oregon. Now it seems obvious that might have been on purpose. He did not compete this year on the European circuit. Hurdles is a timing event, a rhythm event. Hurdlers need to hurdle. And Liu was not hurdling. Liu had yet to break 13 seconds this year, or even turn in a top-10 mark -- this after winning the 2007 world championships in 12.95 seconds. Adding insult to Liu's injury, Cuba's Dayron Robles took Liu's world record, dropping the mark to 12.87 seconds. Asked here Monday about Liu, Robles said he couldn't care less. "I'm going to do what Usain Bolt did," he said, a reference to the world-record Bolt set Sunday in the 100m, 9.69 seconds. "The track is perfect. Anything is possible in the final." Liu Xiang's "anything is possible" moment came in 2004. Amazingly, that suddenly seems a long time ago. August 17 The trip 6飞机终于到了青岛。从飞机上看青岛很漂亮，湛蓝的天空、暗蓝的海水当中嵌着绿宝石一样的海岛，海岸线是黄色的，城市也是高层林立。可惜没时间去玩，就和同行的夏令营营员去啤酒街喝啤酒。喝了绿啤、黑啤、原浆和纯生四个品种，绿啤喝上去蛮清凉，黑啤带些咖啡的醇香，另外两种就不知道有什么区别了。海鲜一般般，不过整条马路上都是人在露天喝酒吃饭，也是一种别样的氛围。吃完饭去了标志性景点“栈桥”，夜里天黑看不见风景，吹吹海风正好醒酒。五四广场也去了，虽说第二天是火炬传递倒没什么人（包括安保），唯有对面的奥帆中心星星点点的灯火。
接下去三天半去威海参加三星夏令营。这里要感谢三星公司、感谢导师和系里的老师、感谢《上海保险》杂志等等，让我在学生生涯的最后还能体验一把summer camp。三星夏令营是典型的“吃苦夏令营”，三个晚上我大概只睡了9个小时，和大家比起来也不算少，真是提前地体验了一把工作节奏。我们要在三天内准备一个舞台剧，要有完整的脚本，配合灯光道具音效等，还要有一分钟的video录制。白天的活动也是满满当当的，比如参观三星工厂，沙滩上的运动会，讲座等。虽然最后没有拿到奖，但是我们组的表演我很满意，尤其是大家把我打扮得太完美了。夏令营收获很大的，主要能是和来自不同大学的很多优秀的同学交流并成为朋友。南大的同学好认真啊，不过还是复旦的比较会玩……
因为日程很满，威海也没有玩。海滨浴场不错，要是能去游泳就更好了。7.24晚十一点半搭乘东航的飞机回到上海，结束了二十天的旅途。有人说，去哪里旅行并不重要，关键是和谁一起去。而这次，两者都是很完美的。在这里，要感谢参加云南徒步的每一个人，感谢SSC第九组的组员，以及一路上帮助过我的每一个熟悉的或者陌生的朋友。因为你们，让这次完美旅行成为我学生时代的圆满句号，值得我铭记一生。
Ps. 三星夏令营纪事 zz from 最赞的第九组：http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Np_g2OFMnKk/
August 16 奥运改变生活全球运动员决战紫禁城之巅，北京这座城市也随之增设了部分“禁区”，改变着百姓的生活习惯。
 搬兵抢票
7月24日下午，北京奥林匹克中心区售票现场，两万多人排队待购约3万张奥运门票，记者尝试加入了抢票大军的行列，5分钟后，后面就跟进了近百人；半小时后，已经看不到长龙之尾；1小时后，记者身后至少增加了3000人。记者顺着长队从头走到尾，花了半小时，走了约两公里。一位六十多岁的老大爷说：“奥运会百年一遇，再累也得挤挤。”三十来岁的张先生说：“中午太热我没排队，否则现在应该排在前五千位。”另有三名农民工受票贩子之托从河北廊坊赶来，他们的报酬是每人每天100元，条件是排队到27日。
 进京难
北京本地人阿飞7月18日到保定看望妻子，7月19日返京，在保定进站时，安检非常严格，买票时要出示身份证，上车后有警察登记身份证。途中的收费站前的车队排成长龙，不到五百米距离走了1小时10分钟。高速路上检查岗不断，不断有指标牌提示进京货车要下道绕行，每个分岔口都设有路障。进入北京境内，警察除了检查身份证，还要询问旅客都带了什么东西。这并非最后一道安检。
进入北京市区，途中不允许停车，直接拉到汽车站。更意外的是，下车还有一道安检，不检查不能出站。保定到北京往常只需要两个小时，这次花了四个小时。
 超长假期
奥运期间，部分与奥运无关的公司开始放假。一著名娱乐公司给员工的放假时间是2个月，从7月到9月，发70%工资。不过，从未有这么长时间的假期，员工们还不知道如何打发这段时间。双井一带几家小公司的放假时间短一些，只有奥运期间20天。也有选择主动避开北京的，网络公司百度的公关经理贺先生将在奥运会期间休假一个月，他已经和朋友约好驾车到西南地区旅游。
 奥运协管
在北京东土城路怡和阳光大厦对面，一家烟酒店在门口放了一个“2008”的牌子，日前，奥运协管人员要求店主拆掉这块牌子，否则“罚款5万”。7月23日，记者看到了这块牌子，由空烟盒加上塑料泡沫制作而成，正好组成一个“2008”的标识，7月20日前，这块牌子正对着大街，现在，这个牌子已经被翻转过来。据店主介绍，“2008”其实是烟草公司做好免费发放的。另外，店外离地两米高的墙上有个三角架，店主说是奥运协管员要求加上去的，他还被要求花60元买一面红旗。
 单双号
摄影师王旭华家住南五环，借助一辆捷达车、一台相机，踩油门、摁快门是他主要的工作内容。7月20日正是实行单双号的第一天，他的车牌号正好是单号，有家杂志请他去拍摄，他一人扛着十多公斤的摄影器材，乘公交车到五号线地铁，再转车到北四环的亚运村，耗时两小时完成了一次重负荷长途跋涉。
 泡吧安检
7月21日晚记者发现，工体北门的两家酒吧已经被关闭，其中MIX酒吧留守的服务生说，工体是奥运会足球赛场之一，按警方要求，MIX酒吧将在7月14日至8月25日期间关闭。不过，数百米之外的工体西路，这条著名的酒吧街依然灯红酒绿，但多数酒吧入场要接受安检。
 邮递战术
东二环一公司职员杨玲近日为了治母亲的病，向山东某私人医生订购了价值200元的偏方中药，对方却无法将药品寄到北京。因为奥运期间邮局、快递公司被禁止邮寄药品到奥运主办城市。后来，药品只能先快递到武汉，再通过当地朋友坐火车将药品带到北京。
我也有个家 一台9英寸的KONERKA黑白电视机，是张志清花了30多元买的报废品，这是他最值钱的
家当。地震期间，张志清就靠着这台电视机关心灾区人民。
老张的故事
奥运来了，他不能再进入天安门广场捡空瓶子，收入锐减的日子里，足球是他最大的乐趣。
张志清，59岁的老北京，靠捡垃圾、空瓶子为生。现居北京大兴区南小街的一平房里。房子大约八平方米，房租每月140元，这笔钱是一天津网友捐的。一张单人床、一张桌子、两个板凳就是全部家具。
床上堆着两三床花花绿绿的被子，也是网友捐钱买的。地上散放着不少瓶瓶罐罐，床下放着4双布鞋，1双运动鞋，都是张志清捡的。桌子上有盐、有酱油，但是没有食用油。还放着一个烂掉了一部分的苹果。张志清说，邻居送的。
黑瘦黑瘦的张志清，掉了两颗门牙，操着一口京片子。纯正的京腔给他的拾荒生涯带来了便利，路遇警察一般不会受盘问。他也怕警察，因为没证——按规定，出入证、暂住证或身份证要齐全。“进了（救助站）有吃有喝的，就是不能离开那里。”
聊着聊着，张志清就大哭起来，抹着泪说：“世上有好人的，不是没好人。”
天安门广场是他平日的主要活动场所，以前可以进入，一天能捡三四百个瓶子，一个瓶子1毛钱，一天下来能有三四十块的收入，这对一人吃饱全家不饿的张志清来说，够了。但现在，不能进天安门广场捡了，只能在广场东侧来回翻垃圾桶，每天只能捡八九十个瓶子。一直到10月的国庆节，
张志清都不能进天安门广场。
买5元的玉米渣，能吃15天；1元钱买5个馒头，能吃两天；每天一袋5毛钱的咸菜。他每天吃饭要花3元，就是车费2元。他告诉记者，司机很同情他，车上有空瓶子，司机还给他留着。警察有时看见他，也会告诉他哪里瓶子多。张志清说着又哭了起来：“世上好人多呐。”
虽然一贫如洗，但是他的日子还过得有滋有味。3元一瓶的白酒喝两天，“解乏、解闷、睡觉都全靠它了”。他有时还抽烟，最大的爱好是看电视，尤其是足球比赛。他的黑白电视机能收到北京台、CCTV1套和6套，看足球得到邻居家里，哪个队都行，世界杯也好、中超也好，都看。每个周末下午的中超，他一定要看完全场。欧洲杯西班牙对德国的决赛他熬夜看了。四分之一决赛德国对葡萄牙，他也看了。“德国用头球把葡萄牙砸蒙了。”他说。
张志清还很关心朝鲜女足：“她们这么穷，怎么就起来了？”
奥运会，他肯定看开幕式的：“2008年奥运会是中国人的大事，谁不高兴？”奥运会的足球赛，他绝对会看，尤其决赛是“必须看的”。至于中国国奥队，他说赶上了就看看， “反正中国队现在也很破”。
 麝香袭人
家住回龙观的王 小药含有兴奋剂成份，她只好到 医并被要求留下购买日期、姓名 、名称及批号、家里是否有运动员痛膏也是处方药，其中含麝香，而小婷最近为父亲买感冒药，该到 医院开了处方，再回到药店，名 、年龄、联系方式、所购药品动员等信息。另外，店员解释止香，而麝香据称含兴奋剂成分。
 菜价涨
慧忠里小区的退休工人刘焕治承受着菜价上涨的压力。7月20日后，小区内的小菜市关闭了，只好到超市买菜，价格贵了近一倍：茼蒿4.00元/斤，菠菜是 3.5元/斤。“以前小菜场的茼蒿最多两块一斤，菠菜也就一块八左右。”刘焕治说，现在的月生活成本多了两三百元，他能理解。
 出入证
家住东四环世纪东方城的郭峰近日接到通知，他必须办理奥运出入证，否则有家不能归。因小区对面就是北京工业大学，那里是奥运会羽毛球比赛地。郭峰说他全家都必须办奥运出入证。小区物业处管理人员称，按派出所要求，奥运场馆周边两公里范围内的居民都必须办理奥运出入证。 August 15 The trip 5坐飞机两个手数得过来，碰到延误也不是一次两次，不过这次有点离谱。 昆明机场有点旧，不过人挺多的。到柜台开行程单就被告知飞机延误三个小时，叫我到外面去逛一圈。在KFC里坐了两个小时再进去，登机口处已经坐满了不耐烦的乘客，大家在商量索赔价格和准备采取的措施。期间，有工作人员来交涉过两次，双方没达成一致，不过我们每人发到了一听可乐和一份盒饭。飞机在迟到五个小时后到来，登机前每人发到一张道歉信，答应赔200块，但要把登机牌寄过去。大家立马就不干了，站在座位，飞机无法起飞。奥运筹备期间，警察马上上来，但调解无效，不见RMB不坐下。这样拖到九点多，昆明开始下暴雨，跑道无法起飞。又折腾了两个小时，说航班取消，把我们放下飞机。大部分人又回到了机场，还有一小部分人继续霸机。在机场又呆了一个多小时，我们才乘着借调的公共汽车去了酒店，睡下已经两点了。整个过程中，航空公司工作人员态度都很差，乘客在没有组织的情况下都处在无序状态。早上，送我们去机场的班车再度迟到，乘客到了机场后直扑柜台，我也去发泄情绪了。还好，这次态度比较好，虽然动作还是很慢，我们终于在中午登上了机。大家也放弃了和航空公司的纠缠，只想早点落地。因为青岛机场晚上一点关闭，因为空乘至少要休息八小时，因为一小部分乘客在武警的干涉下才肯放弃霸机（这部分人还是要感谢一下的），因为这一系列的“因为”，所以飞机在延误23小时候后才起飞，比预计时间晚了23小时45分后到达目的地。 通过朋友查到了民航总局关于飞机延误的赔偿文件，发扬中国法规制定的传统，写得很含糊。这样做其实在人为制造矛盾。机场建设费50块钱写得很清楚，弄个公式，延误几个小时算一下应该也不复杂吧。增加点航空公司的成本算什么，他们一套衣服做得便宜点就行了。况且，误点率高的航空公司应该多赔点钱，赔到公司破产不飞最好，谁叫你误点的。我真的很气愤，接近24个小时啊，我错过了青岛一日游的机会还好，但是同行的乘客错过面试，错过生意，很大的损失啊。所谓有得必有失，我得到了300块钱，四星级酒店半个晚上，对我这个时薪10块intern level的，倒也不是不可接受，而且成为了旅途中“难忘”的插曲。通过这次经历，我觉得碰到飞机延误还是和航空公司配合点好，毕竟我们无法可依。和航空公司对着干，虽然拿到多一点钱，但是飞机上有急事的乘客就耽误了。最后提醒大家一定要慎重，不到万不得已，不要坐山东航空的飞机，他们的飞机是会误点一天的。 |
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