Spring has come

At last the spring weather has come to New Zealand and it is the season for cherry blossoms here. The cherry blossoms here have their own paces and they are not so synchronised like their counterparts in Japan.

Actually large majorities of the cherry trees in Japan are cloned sisters. So they bloom at the same time in one region and the "blooming front" sweeps throughout the archipelago like a wave of cheers by a capacity crowd in a football stadium.

The spectators also go wild in the season in Japan. As the climax is short-lived, the battles to "occupy" better places for cherry blossom viewing parties are really fierce. Because even slight changes of the weather may slow or accelerate blooming, the party organisers have to watch out for weather forecasts to determine the timing of the event.

However, I prefer the way cherries bloom in New Zealand. As each tree has its own time to bloom we can enjoy cherry blossoms for a prolonged period even in one region. Also there are not intense competitions to secure a good view of them. I also like the contrast of the blue sky and the green lawn as the background of pink blossoms.

Apart from the contrast of colours, so was in Japan before cloned cherries dominated there, I think.

The moon over the rainbow

Hawaiians said, "No rain, no rainbows."

After another busy day, seeing the moon over a gorgeous rainbow was just awesome.

Through coloured spectacles

The lenses in the photo above have nearly 90% transparency and give you a high contrast view especially in dawn, sunset and rainy conditions. However, you will definitely feel strange when you wear them as you will lose sense of colours. Your view will go monotonous just with shades of yellow.

It is very interesting as they are only cutting 10% of visible lights and actually boosting your sense of contrast but you can no longer distinguish between colours.

Even more interestingly, although similar things happen when you are focusing on a particular aspect on your observation or experience, you won't notice the difference unlike the effect of yellow sunglasses.

A human is so prone to biases, isn't it?

Decision 2014

I have been always keen to vote since back in where I originally came from, but I have found New Zealand elections are much more exciting.

Everyone was talking about politics during the weeks preceding the election day, with many openly arguing which candidate and party should get their votes or should not. Some of them even tried to persuade others to follow the suit.

The result this time was the reflection of New Zealand currently doing well overall compared with other parts of the world. Definitely reemerged fears of wars and violences seem to have made Kiwis prefer stability and continuity.

It is a difficult time for lefties as the world less seems to a place of corporation, but rather of competition. However, by cleverly sharing information and knowledge utilising abundant computing power and ubiquitous network, corporation will eventually beat competition in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, not only in equality and diversity.

I think that finding the way to achieve it is the challenge for the Labour Party for the next three years.

Supermoon

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water.

From "Genjō Kōan" by Dōgen - Translated by Robert Baker Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi for the San Francisco Zen Center

After a long hard day

My job at the hospital is mostly made up with "business as usual" things but sometimes it includes a real "go-live" event. Yesterday was such a special occasion.

Fortunately everything goes well except a couple of "Houston, we've had a problem" moments which had eventually been sorted out.

Today was a kind of follow-up and we do had a tricky problem which required some guessing game but had not taken so much time to reach the solution.

After working quite long hours in two days, I found I really love this job. A successful go-live can be that much sweet!

No mater where you originally came from, we fight together for you

This post's title is from the lyrics of a song in Māori language (Te Reo) by Stan Walker, "Aotearoa", celebrating the New Zealand indigenous language week (Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori) 2014 which was last week.

"Ahakoa nō hea mai koe, ka whawhai tonu mātou mōu"

My heart goes to all those who are hoping to contribute to, but struggling to settle in this beautiful country, Aotearoa, New Zealand.