brainiac

Has he ever been involved with someone who is not brainiac?

He has no business being involved with a waitress-slash-actress who felt so insecure that she lied to him about finishing community college.

You are asking me to keep a secret? Well, i am sorry, but you have had to express that desire before reveal that secret. so that i could choose whether or not i wanted to accept the covenant of secret keeping.

You can't impose a secret on an ex post facto basis.

Secret keeping is a complicated endeavor (很有技術含量滴!). One has to be concerned not only about one says, but about facial expression. Autonomic reflexes.

When i tried to deceive, i myself have more nerve tics than a lyme disease research facility.

So you are saying friendship contains within it an inherent obligation to maintain confidences?

Rate of speed equals distance over time

... or we can just wing it...

They exploit my complete lack of interest in what you were doing.

Well, let's assume your hypothesis, we went to dinner, we talked, we laughed, we kissed, where could i possibly gone wrong?

Think back, the littlest things can set women off. Like "hay, the waitress is so hot, i bet we could get her come home with us", or "how much does your mom weigh, i want to know what i am getting into".

Yeah! They also don't care for it. if you stare at them and hyperventilate. Sadly that's my home run swing. (我的拿手絕活).

Look, everything went fine, I didn't even have to refer to my impromptu conversation starters.

Let's look at the tape. Look at her reaction to the good night kiss. No change in respiration, pupils un-dilated, no flushing of the chest....

Interesting, her jaws are clinched. No tongue access. Clearly a bad sign amongst mating humans.

We are gambling on our visions

Greek citizens carry the burden of a faltering economy.

American investors are keeping an eye on Greece and their effort to secure their bailout cash. Just a few hours ago, the country wrapped up talks with European Union and International Monetary Fund officials at an summit in Brussels. The focus: Greece's five-year austerity plan as the country works to avoid default.

On Wednesday, Parliament is set to vote on new measures, which include lowering minimum threshold for income tax to just over $11000 a year and a onetime tax between 1 to 5 percent depending on your income. Greece also agrees to impose a minimum tax on the self-employed.

But it's these austerity measures prompted this : protests on the street of Athens. They have been going on for several weeks outside parilament, and next week, the unions say they are going to hold a 48 hour strike.

This time a year ago, when Greece negotiated its first bailout package, we came to this furniture repair shop to find out how the austerity measures affect them. A year later, we're gonna find out what's happened in the meantime.

The boss has had to fire an employee since we last met. The other three work a reduced three-day week. Business is down 80% as demand has fallen away. The country is struggling under the weight of massive debt.

Then there are new taxes, which make everything more expensive.

It's the same story in many of the family-run business, so typical of the Greek private sector.

breaking the news

Who's going to break the news to SS?

You mean about pulling the plug on using their services?

Yeah, the contract we signed with them last year is almost up. And as we decided last month, we'll be going with other companies.

I think we should hold off on telling them until after all of our current projects are done. We still have two projects in the hopper.

Okay, but i don't want to drag our feet in telling them, even if we don't like their services. as a professional courtesy, we should let them know soon.

That may be true with the other companies, but SS has really let us down so many times last year, if we didn't have an air tight contract, we would have switched the company long ago.

Well, maybe they'll learn from their weakness. After all they have been in business for a long time.

But old habits die hard. If you asked me, the company is on its last legs. It's the matter of time before they lose all their customers at the rate they are going.

I don't know about that, but i do know one thing. It's a good thing you are not their PR rep.

Revenge is a dish best served cold

How about that, Einstein is wrong. What?

Approaching the speed of light doesn't slow down time, approaching them does.

Oh.. it's my mom... Are you going to answer that? I'm torn. She might be dying, and i wouldn't want to miss that. On the other hand, if i let it go to voicemail, i could play it over and over.

sliper

I bought a slipper for her, when she decided to stay in place overnight. That night we went to the lantern festival, there were so many people there, about hundreds of thousands people went to join the festival. Everybody was getting stuck at the train station, because thousands of people were hoping to make it to the platform of the railway, and the same there were thousands of people hoping to get outside for the festival.

Lin and I spent about an hour to move from the entrance of train station to the railway platform, it was so crowded, we couldn't even move at our own will, we were pushing by the people behind us. It's very uncomfortable, but when we finally got out of the crowd and make it to the railway platform. We couldn't help looking into each other's eyes and holding each other's hand more tightly. At that moment, I knew I love her.

Now, i look at the slipper which stays quietly in the corner of my room, covered with dust. All the memories suddenly jump out of my head, flowing through my eyes. I thought I forgot the details, but I was wrong. They are hard-wired in my head, in my blood, in my heart.

Loving someone

What is love actually?

Is it something makes you happy or makes you sad? In all the movies, they told us it's about both. When you start to care about someone else, when you are worried about him, when you are happy about him, when everything, every newspaper, every man or woman you see on the street reminds you that he is somewhere around there doing something at the very moment, ... then you're in love.

It's bitter sweet taste like green tea.

lost my cool

this movie baffles me every time we watch it. What do you mean? The instructions are very clear, don't feed the gremlins after midnight, don't get gremlins wet. How hard is that?

Oh~We are honey now, are we? Yeah, since their relationship became carnal, penny upgrades his designated term of endearment, thus distinguishing him from those she calls sweetie. Usually in an attempt to soften a thinly-veiled insult.

You are boring people, sweetie.

Although, sometimes, she omits the vail entirely.

Usually i go back to Taipei for thanksgiving, but this year they're calling it off on account of my brother's trial.

I guess I'll serve both. You guess, you don't seem to have much of a handle on it.

The bad news is he's getting deported?

I believe it means that the US government is going to expel him from the country. He could either return to his native india, Emigrate to another country that's willing to accept him, or wander the high seas as a stateless pirate.

Another reason to consider life of piracy, even today, i understand that's an all-male profession.

What are doing for the last 6 months? You know, checking my email, updating facebook status, messing up Wikipedia entries.

And you are taking university's money under false pretenses?

weave back and forth

I do a lot of driving in my work. You might think that driving several hours each way would get old really fast, but i have ways of making the interminable drive seem more exciting.

I like to drive really fast. I passed through slower cars by staying in the passing lane. If there's a slow moving car in the passing lane, i tailgate it until the car moves over to another the lane. If the car doesn't move away, i weave back and forth from one lane to another until i get around it. What can i say, i just don't like anyone to keep me from the open road.

SyntaxHighLight Testing

Ok, this is to test syntax high light!

using System;

public class Program
{
 public static int Main(string[] args)
 {

Ok, actually we don't need syntax highlight, we just need to use

 tag the force browser show spaces correctly.

lard

Julie grabbed a handful of lard out of the big can in the kitchen and rubbed it over blisters. "Now it won't burn so bad and probably won't even scar."

The blistered bottom gave me a good chance to lean forward at my desk that day and watch Clarence play with his little bugs, though.

We each had our own places at table, and we sat there for every meal. If one was absent, the chair was pushed up to the table.

Clarance splashed and sloshed the water in wash basin and came to the table with his red hair slick as clay mud and his round freckled face shining in the lamp light.

hide-and-seek

During recess, if we played hide-and-seek, Teddy let me get home free.

The pen didn't work, and the pencil was mashed on the end until lead wouldn't fit in it. But i flaunted the pen and pencil in front of the kids at school as if they were pure gold with a lifetime guarantee.

Winter came early in December and stayed. The first snow lay on the ground like a dirty white blanket and waited for fresh snow to fall and cover it.

One bitter cold day, Dad and Jesse butchered the hogs and our two pet lambs. I cried over my lamb, but mom said it has to be done. There wasn't enough feed for them.

The attic room never got warm. Dad didn't believe in wasting heat or using up stove wood to heat a bedroom. When Mom called us to get up for school, we'd grab our clothes in our arms and race downstairs to crowd around the roaring red-hot stove to get dressed. The heat didn't spread far from the stove, so we had to stand closer to any benefit from the fire.

One day, i was standing too near the stove when i bent over to pull on my underwear. I yelled, leaped away like a scalded cat, and fell over Robert, who was sitting on floor with a blanket around him. He became bawling and squalling, making more noise than i was.

pupil

harelip.

In the fall of the year, peers ripen and rot on the trees in Bishop's backyard because the kids are not allowed to pick up his pees.

The teacher doesn't want to be bothered with her, because of her lisp. She finally just sat in whichever grade she had books for.

I prayed a silent prayer that i wouldn't be a slow learner and still be in sixth grade when i was sixteen. Frieda hardly spoke in class because of her harelip, but on our way to and from Bishop's well that week, she spoke like a blue jay.

We will have to carry it when it's cold and snowing and wade through mud when it rains.

I didn't know which one is Teddy, but he must be the stupidest boy in school, i figured. Probably ugly, too, with big feet and overalls that struck him halfway to his knees like all the other boys; and a dirty shirttail flapping out.

He was a shy, slightly built boy with dark curls that fell over his forehead, nearly hiding his solemn brown eyes. Teddy rarely smiled, and when he did, his face and eyes lit up like a freshly trimmed coal-oil lamp.

I was a homely, rough-and-tumble, towheaded tomboy., but he chose me for his best girl, anyway.

virtual military operation

Snow clearance in Helsinki is a virtual military operation. Every 10 seconds, a trunk arrives, dumps the snow and leaves. Only with this sort of precision can they keep the city moving in the depths of winter.

Unlike many of its European neighbors, Vantaa Airport stayed operational throughout winter. It prides itself on having an infallible maintenance program. Thanks to the specialized fleet of machines, this slick operation can clear a runway in as little as four minutes.

Helsinki has barriers that have restricted its growth. On the one side, there are the existing buildings, but then you have the water. So, between the buildings and harbor, there really is only one place to go - down below.

That's exactly what they are doing to avoid urban sprawl and maintain the low-rise cityscape.

In the interest of full disclosure

Have you ever kissed a girl?

Other than my mother, my sister and my mee-maw, no. But in the interest of full disclosure, i was once on a bus, and had to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an elderly nun who passed out from heat exhaustion.

I totally want to see Sheldon dance. I bet he looks like a spider on hot plate. Really? I don't see why that's surprising. I excel at too many things. You've had my sourdough bread.

Did you take dance lessons? Against my will, in the south, preadolescent children are forced through a process called cotillion, which indoctrinates them with all the social graces and dance skills, needed to function in 18th century Vienna.

Well, what's your cotillion training say is expected of a gentleman when three ladies ask him to escort them to a dance soiree?

It's hard to say no to yoo-hoo. The name literally beckons.

Refer that to my attorney

Greek food on pizza night? This's the most delightfully cruel thing we've done to Sheldon, since we left that fake message from Steven Hawking on his voice mail.

I'd like to refer that to my attorney.

Interesting, can you just switch restaurants like that?

Good question, it turns you can't. According to the document you drew up, Sheldon, the selection of a new takeout restaurant requires public hearings and a 60-day comment period. Were those criteria met?

Opa!

Fine, i am nothing if not adaptable.

I got you the lamb kabob.

Well, if you think about it, Greek food is not that far from Italian food, they a spice palette. And what a civilization is the Greeks! They gave science, democracy, and little cubes of charred meat that taste like sweat.

I am sorry, i am meeting Amy and Bernerdette for dinner. But you are welcome to tag along.

Really, tobacco and alcohol ? Need i remind you not a lot scientific discoveries were made by people having a good time.

Why did you bring him? He's hushing my buzz.

Majure

According roommate agreement, paragraph 9 , section B, the right to bathroom privacy is suspended in the event of force majeure.

Dr. Huang, you are officially charged with two violations of the roommate agreement. Do you waive reading of the charges?

All right, based on a cursory reading. It doesn't look like you have much of a case...

A bathroom emergency is self-explanatory... Is it, if Rich forgot to trim his nose hair, can he barge in while you were showering?

My point is, the legal principle is, ambiguity in a contract benefits the party that did not draft it.

About the shower capacity issue, i cited appendix J - while sheldon showers second, any and all measures shall be taken to ensure an adequate supply of hot water. It superseded the capacity issue.

bounce

I got a notice from my bank. It said two of my check are bounced. That's so strange. I've never had an overdraft in my life.

Well, let's check your bank statement.

One of my patient has a medical condition that can be spread to her family, but she doesn't want to tell them. They are in danger of developing serious medical problems. I don't want to breach doctor-patient confidentiality.

I took Hippocratic oath to do no harm. How can i keep her secret and still adhere to that oath?

plie , releve

i think it's lovely you call your mommy and let her know you're going to be late for dinner. From what i know about these things, if a woman doesn't breast-feeding on time, it's very uncomfortable for her boobies.

Excellent, Excellent. Tire each other out, the ring will be mine. Howard, why don't you go after Raj's mother?

That was our line in the sand

Oh, no, you didn't trade the food for magic beans, did you?

...of course not, and technically, magic beans would be food. Although eating them would be quite a waste, since you can plant them, and overnight, have a giant beanstalk, which would provide enough roughage for a small town.

Yeah... sometimes i don't listen, sometimes i just watch you jaw go up and down.

seedy underbelly -- underground market.

I don't understand why in this group i never get my way... You always get your way! ... i'll stipulate to that if you give me the ring.

stipulate -- to state clearly and firmly that something must be done.

Can you hold on to it for a few days? It's a prop from a movie, and we're kind of fighting over it.

Okay, just to clear, the first piece of jewelry my boyfriend gives me is a prop from a movie, and i don't even get to keep it?

If you had gone out with me three years ago, by now, you'd have my great Aunt Ida's brooch that she smuggled out of occupied Belgium in a cat.

I get straight to the point. My client's prepared to surrender any interest he has in the ring in exchange for two Kawasaki jet skis. We are not giving him two jet skis... Look we are big boys, why don't we cut the chase and meet in the middle. One jet skis, done and done?

No jet skis!

Alright, forget the jet skis.

Forget the jet skis? That was our line in the sand!