Chuck Lin

Life in a fish bowl

Whats the difference?

One of my favorite jokes:

A Jew and a Chinese meet each other at a street corner when all of the sudden the Jew punches the Chinese.

“Why did you hit me” The Chinese screamed.

The Jew replied, “That’s for Pearl Harbor”

“But it was the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor!” complained the Chinese

“Chinese, Japanese, what’s the difference?” Said the Jew.

The next day, they meet at the street corner again. This time the Chinese punches the Jew.

“Why did you hit me?!” Exclaimed the Jew

“That’s for the Titanic!” Said the Chinese.

“But the Titanic was sank by an iceberg” the Jew cried.

The Chinese calmly replied, “Iceberg, Goldberg, whats the difference?”

Tonight my dad told the same joke to my aunt and uncle. It was largely the same except the punchline. In dad’s version

“Iceberg, Goldberg, they’re the same”

No dad, they are not.

Today I thank: Tammy, David, Cindy, Mario Batali, Dad

Mermaid Day Parade

Expressing gratitude is not hokey

In Tal Ben-Shahar‘s book “Happier” he detailed the importance of expressing gratitude.

One of his suggestions is to keep a “Gratitude Journal”. OK, this is the hokiest thing you’ll ever see me do, but I’m going to try to stick to his technique.


Here is the breakdown of hokey versus non-hokey statements from Tal:

Hokey

• “.. he co-founded The Institute for Positive Psychology in Education” – Hokey
• “Tal consults and lectures around the world to executives in multi-national corporation, the general public, and at-risk populations.” – Self-serving hokey
• Tal won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships – braggart hokey

Non-Hokey

• He obtained his PhD in Organizational Behavior and BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard – Not hokey
• Citing the Emmons-McCullough paper in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology – too nerdy to be hokey
• Teaching an online course at UPenn – Hokey because it unaccredited, non-hokey because he’s probably making money to buy another yacht

Here is a somewhat hokey and non-hokey video:

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So here is my gratitude journal for today:

Zipcar.com – Hey, they are awesome.

Jack – Funniest Jew alive. That’s saying a lot, those are funny people.

My dad – The old man might be a little weird, but he’s like a dusty attic: you’ll never guess what you can find up there.

My mom – We’re probably more alike than I’m willing to admit.

Pastrami – Jack, my dad and I had dinner at Katz’s Deli on Ludlow and Houston. Fatty meat rubbed with peppercorn. If you’re a vegetarian, you have no idea what you’re missing.

Here is the paper you nerd: Emmons_McCullough_2003_JPSP