Purposive without Foresight

This weekend I added 250+ pictures to my online gallery. The newly added albums are:

Holiday in Tübingen 2007 summer: Dirk’s hometown Tübingen is a very beautiful small city in South Germany. The Necker river flows through the city and there are many interesting small lanes among the old houses built on hills in the city. [...]

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My graduate thesis EatSmart: A Personal Nutrition Management System Leveraging Artificial Intelligence Methodology can be downloaded here. Keyword: combinatorial optimization, dynamic string-matching, fuzzy string-matching, knowledge based systems, Rete-based rule engine, Java Enterprise Edition. Copyright Ning Zhao. Any constructive critics and/or comments are most welcome. Please write to ellen_zhao@web.de. Thanks!
Days ago I passed the theoretical exam [...]

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Weeks ago I ordered two CDs from cdbaby.com. Here is the shipping confirmation from cdbaby:

ellen -
Thanks for your order with CD Baby!
…
Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure [...]

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Weeks ago I had my birthday. It was not a particular Thursday and I had to go to the drive school and practice, and the theoretical exam in the drive school was around the corner. The weather was cold. I was not really in a mood to celebrate anything. Nevertheless, Dirk made my day and [...]

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For readers do not read Chinese: the content here is too difficult for me to write in English or German. Too much Chinese mentality and nostalgia here. Sorry for my clumsiness.
老公去奥国公干， 一个人在德国的家里过中国的春节。 对牢南窗新装的竹簾突然乡情泛滥， 給我们的工作间起了中国名字。 我们住的小街在老城区，一百年前的格局，窄窄的黑石板街道两边是连排的红砖老公寓， 像是两堵高墙。 只有我们工作间的南窗对面有一道窄窄的缝隙， 晴天中午时分投来耀眼的阳光。 眼睛怨电脑屏幕上的内容没法辨认， 心里却是喜欢这温暖和一瞬间满屋子的澄莹通透。 我把工作间叫凿壁斋，一来应景， 二来愿效古人凿壁偷光之孜孜 （太喜欢玩Civilization了， 玩物丧志啊玩物丧志）， 惟愿勤能补拙而已。 如果在中国， 免不了要请人赐字， 然后装裱。 以我现时的处境只能从简。 斋名用550磅颜体打印，直接糊在门上， 足够端庄大方。 新置的文竹兰花等等， 一一起了名字， 贴在花盆上。 [...]

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My life was rotating during last months. Thesis defense, graduate, relocating from three source cities to the target city Hildesheim, loads and loads of housework in the new home, loads and loads of local bureaucratic works after relocation, engagement and getting married, getting my drive license (it is a big deal in Germany, Americans can [...]

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