How does a lock work

水仙花- spirit of water

水仙花 is one of my favourite flowers. I remember growing them every year in China. They are so beautiful and I love the scent. I think i wrote a prose about it at school, something about how they represent our lives. I will see if I can still find it in my homework piles (it was written in year 3, yeah it's a long time ago). I remember I used to bug aunty to grow them again and again, but it is only around during the spring season. We grow them in New Year, and if the bud open on the first day of New Year, it is considered lucky. Ah~ brings back childhood memory~


In English, it can be translated as "spirit of water". I love how they grow from a bulb, which is like an egg of the water, and bloom into dancing stars. 


The pictures below aren't as beautiful as the ones we grew in China =P

冰雪中的水仙花

水仙花

A yellow clay

He calls him occasionally, just to check up on him, about his wants and health, if he wants to buy some pork from Flemington or something. This morning when the wind is freshly cold, the birds are quiet and sun still rising behind the apartments, he decided to give him a call. After all, 93 years is an old age and needs to be taken care of. He asks him if he need anything and if he feels fine. He answers back that he is fine. Then he tells him maybe he will come over to take a look at him. The moment he says that, the phone call hangs up. It is strange.

The rusty bronze door handle is lose. The door is locked. The maroon colour door has such antique sense. He likes the feel of it, the hard, hollow and soft feelin when he knocks. The silence is uncomfortable behind the door. Something is wrong. The pushing was not difficult and in minutes the door is down. He calls his name. The kitchen is silent. The sofa is empty. The toilet has no one. Alas, there he is! So peaceful, flat on the white mattress. He is sleeping like a baby. Gently and peacefully still, so effortless. The slightly opened mouth, he feels no regrets, no pain. The hang up on the phone, he must know his time is coming. How does it feel? Is it painful? To slowly seize the air in the lungs? Or numb? Did he leave not even knowing his departure and sink into his dream? You never know the day will come. Everyday, every morning you say hi, he’s there and you could feel it. You think he will always be there, there’s always time you and him together. Everyday the silent presence, but all of sudden it’s vapourised into thin air. It’s gone. He could no longer feel him. There is no warning, so sudden, and he’s gone. Though the hinting , he eventually forgets and it feels the same, he couldn’t imagine it. He’s here and then he’s gone. Screw the estate,house, property or the 4 million, he’s gone! Don’t they feel the same? From the same blood, brother and sister, not a caring word about him, only legal terms, will, by law, rights, etc out of their slithering tongues. It is great he’s gone, not know what they say after he has passed. It’s better that way, it’s better that way for him... not to see them fighting over his remains. No, i don’t care, i don’t care how much he gives me i know being there is enough for him. Oh did he really leave in peace and have not a single thought about his quarreling children? Did his last thought sails to china and the house he grew up in? Perhaps memories we don’t share? That subtly opened lips that seems like a smile—its all the happiness he sees in the white flashes.

how can these employees even keep up with their job, dealing with it all the time, their profession, how depressing oh how i pity them. a rectangular shape? A something wood, 2000, or a round curved edge.... i don't really care, for god sake, i do not care if the coffin is waterproof, air concealed, if the door's lock is broken, if tomrrow dinner is steak, if ___ ___ won $ ______ in deal or no deal, if our earth revolves around the sun, or if the sun will explode, or the end of the world.... a death certificate, this piece of paper, merely just a label of your once existence on earth and never to be read again. the great things he achieved in life, only i will remember, and silence lost in the wind... in the end, everyone, every olds and youngs are named, on the bare soil hundreds of grey stones lined where beneath the rocks and flowers are all ones whose common in one thing: death. And all human form, skeletal vertebrates, all the same, all the same.... a blessing from the priest will be nice-- $900? no one cares! No one cares! He needs a blessing from someone sincerely, not someone with a title and reciting over the same lines he rope learned over again and again. a priest or a monk, should be volunteering, do it out of good heart/sympathy. Someone who works to be paid is not a monk/priest. What’s the use of claiming territory, this is my land, this is your land, this is mine, and in the end, you claiming a land where to die, all the same, you die and you die, does it matter if you were beauty once young, if you are the president, if you invented the calorimeter, what's the point?

The piece of paper, is written for him, his last words for him. The meaningless address seems unfamiliar in the boldly written letters. But it is written with love.

{this is not edited. It can be seen as a practice in writing modernist story. but really this is written out of my head and i have no intention of crafting and refining it. I wasn't even aware of exploring techniques}

Hacking

Today I remembered something that makes me feel ashamed just like every time I recall it. It was one year ago, my very close friend and I were hanging around the computer room. That day, Ms XXX forgot to log off the computer, hence leaving open access to any one, meaning you can go on youtube, open limited folders, etc... My very good friend, let's say her name is Sarah, happened to discover the unguarded account. She whispered with excitement in my ear: "I've just hacked into the teacher's account!" Though I wasn't sure if she fully understands the meaning of hacking, I smiled and listened, curious to find what she will do-- maybe decoding the teacher's password? Browsing through some unauthorised files? I don't know what... I admit I was excited for a few second as I always have interest in the computer field, but honestly I don't see anything you can do on the teachers account except decoding her password or doing a Rick roll prank =P

Anyway, there's this teacher monitoring program installed the computer that lets the user to see other computer's activities in the room or control their actions as well. Of course, this was the first thing Sarah went on and prank the other juniors in the room. She watched what they were doing on the computer—seriously, i don’t really care about whether Ninemsn says Justin Bieber has a girlfriend, nor reading private emails of other kids—and sarah just looked at me exclaiming the fascinating discovery of power. I didn’t know how to react, excited with her? Ignore? Tell her that it’s not really something amazing? Then she took it further, she started taking control of the girl’s computer. Poor bony hair girl on the left side of the room‘s google search suddenly disappeared and was invaded by a random screen of Ms XXX’s computer.  Then the other girl on the right side put a WTF face seeing her mouse moving on its own. Sarah was laughing for her achievements. I stood behind her, watching her torturing the poor juniors in the computer room. 

But it only around one minute they found out who was the culprit behind this—it was quiet obvious who was playing with them—and all eyes and disapproving face glared into our direction. I hushed Sarah quietly and told her she should stop. And that was the end of the story. But that day I felt terrible, guilty, shameful because I didn’t warn her to stop earlier. And i felt sick, having to find someone dear, sweet and innocent to me is actually not she really seems like (or maybe she just doesn’t understand the meaning of hacking).

Ok, hacking. I can’t really say i’m a geeky professional hacker and I often seek help in hacking but i know enough to understand the world of hacking. Here’s some of the reasons why people hack:

1. They see it as a challenge, a puzzle to bypass and solve the security or barriers. 
2. Sometimes it is convenient to do something (for good reasons/no harmful intentions)

That’s why i am a proud hacker with dignity =]

On the other hand, some people do it because they:

     3.       Feel in control and power 
     4.       A computer version of bullying in real life
     5.       Gain unauthorised information for other advantages

Oh btw, hacking is a broad field and it covers different areas of the digital world. There are varying types of attitude from hackers as well.

Here’s an extract from 

Why Do People Hack? :

As noted above, most of the public perceives hackers as purely malicious. However, within the community there are varying attitudes of hackers. According to Steven Levy, author of several books on hacking, the principles of hacking are: access to computers should be unlimited and total; information should be free; "mistrust authority--promote decentralization"; the creation of art and beauty with computers; the bettering of lives through computers; learning should be done in "hands-on" fashion; and hackers should be judged by their accomplishments and skills, rather than degrees and titles. Though not explicitly decried, the fundamentals of hacking do not require malicious behavior.
Within the community, there are several different types of hackers "White hat" hackers hack for purely benevolent reasons, often alerting system administrators of holes in their security. "Black hat" hackers use hacking in order to steal personal information, such as credit cards and social security numbers. "Grey hat" hackers operate in ethically and legally ambiguous territory, practicing methods that may be construed as immoral by some parties.
Other types of hackers include "script kiddies" or a "lamer" (people who use software developed by hackers but do not fully understand its function) and "hacktivists" (those who hack to spread political messages).

Not bad-mouthing my friend here or whatsoever, but that incident brings me back to reality there are those people who are selfish, cruel and a bully in doing malicious hacking. Anyway, i’m a proud hacker and next time when i see my friend doing that again, i will try to stop her rather than standing there with my mouth shut.