Immigration
So it’s been over two months since I last posted. Lots of changes going on, as usual. Landed a new job based in the US (instead of China) however my family is still in China! They should be coming over any… month… now. It’s excruciating having to wait for them. Going through the immigration process is a complete nightmare, even though we are married. It takes so long and there are so many requirements. Whenever the consulate needs some new document from you it takes them 3 months to get back to you after you send it! I’m literally missing my son grow up because of this hellish visa process. All the while I’m surrounded by illegal immigrants (since I live in LA and take public transportation). Too bad China doesn’t share a border with the US.
Reading List
So here is a list of books I recently bought:
The book I’m currently reading in this list is Faust. I’ve heard of it before and most recently read references to it in the book on Archetypes. The translation by David Luke is really fun to read and the story itself is brilliant. There are many pearls of wisdom to be had in this epic fairytale along with much wit to make it go down smoothly. I’m not normally one to see plays but Faust is actually one play I would like to experience a performance of.
For those who don’t know, Faust is an old German legend and Goethe is a German author who wrote his take on the fairytale piecemeal throughout his life (from the late 18th century into the 19th). Goethe is considered to be one of the fathers of German Literature.
Before reading Faust I was reading both the book on Archetypes and on Synchronicity by Carl Jung. I’ve read Jung in the past but I believe at that time I was really too young to understand it. Since that time I’ve experienced a lot of what Jung calls “synchronicity”, however unlike Jung I don’t find myself able to make sweeping generalizations about the fundamental aspects of creation by accounting for it in my world view. In fact, I’m still of the position that I can’t account for it! If your familiar with the concept yourself you’ll know that it is basically a physical paradox and has profound metaphysical implications. And since we know the first rule about metaphysics is not to talk about metaphysics, I’ll just leave it at that.
The book on Archetypes is a must-read I think for anyone interested in human behavior and how the mind works. While I don’t completely subscribe to all of what Jung says, I agree with most of it. Archetypal figures do pre-exist in the human psyche and are expressed through human myths, art and religion. If you truly want to find God this is where God would be, in the collective psyche. Just as Faust has made me interested in seeing plays when I normally don’t, Jung’s idea of archetypes and how they are expressed through mankind’s myths also makes me interested in mythology and religion (not as a practitioner of it however!) as I normally wouldn’t be. It also makes me wonder whether we can ever engineer machines with convincingly human behavior without accounting for the archetypes. I’m sure when that time comes we’ll understand a lot more about our collective psyche and hopefully discover some empirical facts about it (Jung calls the archetypes empirical however I don’t think this agrees with our modern sense of the word).
EVE
Yes, I’ve succumb to the siren call of space travel, immortality, and Crystal Delta Cybernetic Sub-processor implants! I know it’s probably going to be all over when my wife and son do come back, but hey, it gives me something to do to kill the time waiting for them to arrive! I just joined my first non-NPC corporation yesterday, EVE University. Hopefully I’ll now be able to get some support and do higher-level missions. My ultimate goal is to train Science skills heavily and eventually become an Archeologist, Hacker, or both! I’m also looking forward to the day I can participate in PvP. Right now I would get blasted out of space!
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Hey man,
Hope your family will arrive soon. I didn’t know you had such a interest in german literature. I stopped hanging in #mandarin so guess we won’t run into eachother there anymore.
Good luck with your job!
August 30, 2009 at 11:10 pm
@Almagest
Yeah, everything’s falling into place. Looking at that reading list yes it is they all happen to be German works. I don’t typically read poetry or classics but Goethe’s Faust is special =).
August 31, 2009 at 12:01 am
..I hope your family has arrived.
and I hope you to take your experience and look at immigration via kinder eyes..even those “illegals’ each have their own story…many of which have nothing but love & light to propel them forth.
best regards & congrats on your beautiful boy!
Thanks for your comment Claudia. While I’m generally liberal (I voted for Obama, I strongly support civil rights, etc.) I also strongly believe in the rule of law and building a strong and sustainable United States. The current situation with immigration is certainly unsustainable and the federal government should be enforcing immigration law. Each person may have a heart-warming story to share but when it comes down to it the US can’t have an open-border policy. I’m just being realistic and pragmatic! The world is full of suffering but no single nation can take that all on. Every nation is responsible for the well-being of it’s own citizens first and foremost.
May 12, 2010 at 5:27 pm
GIve me a call sometime, do you still have my number?
August 24, 2009 at 12:27 am