After giving a talk at a high school,I was asked to pay a visit to a special student.An illness had kept the boy home,but he had expressed an interest in meeting me.I was told it would mean a great deal to him,so I agreed.

    During the nine-mile drive to his home,I found out something about Matthew.He had muscular dystrophy（肌肉萎缩症）.When he was born,the doctor told his parents that he would not live to five,and then they were told he would not make it to ten.Now he was thirteen.He wanted to meet me because I was a Gold-medal power lifter,and I knew about overcoming obstacles and going for my dreams.

    I spent over an hour talking to Matthew.Never once did he complain or ask,"Why me?"He spoke about winning and succeeding and going for his dreams.Obviously,he knew what he was talking about.He didn't mention that his classmates had made fun of him because he was different.He just talked about his hopes for the future,and how one day he wanted to lift weights with me.When we had finished talking,I went to my briefcase（公文包）and pulled out the first gold medal I had won and put it around his neck.I told him he was more of a winner and knew more about success and overcoming obstacles than I ever would.He looked at it for a moment,then took it off and handed it back to me.He said,"You are a champion.You earned that medal.Someday when I get to the Olympics and win my own medal,I will show it to you."

    Last summer I received a letter from Matthew's parents telling me that Matthew had passed away.They wanted me to have a letter he had written to me a few days before:

Dear Dick,

    My mum said I should send you a thank-you letter for the picture you sent me.I also want to let you know that the doctors tell me that I don't have long to live any more,but I still smile as much as I can.I told you someday that I would go to the Olympics and win a gold medal,but I know now I will never get to do that.However,I know I'm a champion,and God knows that too.When I get to Heaven,God will give me my medal and when you get there,I will show it to you.Thank you for loving me.

Your friend,

Matthew

♦ Conaught Rd. West, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island

About the flat share

    Who lives there

    3 females, from 13 to 40 years old

    Description,

    880 sq. ft. Sea view Balcony with one bedroom &1 toilet for rent. Good for Kids to play around or dog feeding area. No short term lease and no commission(佣金). For more information, please contact Mr. Wrong on whats App.

     Room for rent Wan Chai

    About the flat share

    Who lives there

    2 adults and 2 kids

    Description

    Room for rent is available in heart of Wan Chai with families of 4 and we are looking for female students/ tourists. For more information, please kindly contact Mr. Li on what's App... thank you!

     U Lam Terrace, Midleverls Central, Hong Kong Island

    About the flat share

    Who lives there

    3 mixed gender, from 20 to 30 years old

    Description

    The flat is 5 minutes from SOHO (small office/ home office) and 2 minutes from Sheung Wan café area. The area is super quiet and convenient. There is a supermarket within 3-5 minutes' walk.

Reasonable price of 9,500 HKD per month.

     Bright Room in Share Flat near Time Square in Causeway Bay

    About the flat share

    Who lives there

    1 male, 21 years old, professional, nonsmoker

    Description

    A room in a share flat, near Time Square in Causeway Bay, available on 28 April. 5,500 HKD per month all bills inclusive, including water, electricity, WiFi Internet and cleaning service twice a week.

Dear Derrick ,

    Although under great pressure, we all get on well with each other in this large office. You are one of the people who keep the social temperature at such a comfortable setting. I don't know anyone in the office who is better liked than you .

    You can perhaps help with this. The collection of contributions towards gifts for employees' personal-life events is becoming a little troubling. Certainly, the group sending of a gift is reasonable now and then. In the past month, however, there have been collections for two baby shower gifts, one wedding shower gift, two weeding gifts, one funeral remembrance, four birthday gifts, and three graduation gifts .

    It's not only the collected-from who are growing uncomfortable(and poor), but the collected-for feel uneasy receiving gifts from people who don't know them outside the office, who wouldn't even recognize their graduating children, their marrying daughters and sons, or their dead relatives.

    This is basically a kind gesture (and one that people think well of you for), but the practice seems to have become too wide-ranging and feels improper in today's office setting .

    Thank you for understanding .

    If you don't use your arms or your legs for some time, they become weak; when you start using them again, they slowly become strong again. Everybody knows that. Yet many people do not seem to know that memory works in the same way. When someone says that he has a good memory he really means that he keeps his memory in practice by using it. When someone else says that his memory is poor, he really means he does not give it enough chance to become strong.

    If a friend says that his arms and legs are weak, we know that it is his own fault. But if he tells us that he has a poor memory, many of us think that his parents are to blame, and few of us know that it is just his own fault. Have you ever found that some people can't read or write but usually they have better memories? This is because they can not read or write and they have to remember things; they can not write down in a little notebook; they have to remember days, songs and stories; so their memory is the whole time being exercised. So if you want to have a good memory, learn from the people: practice remembering.

    Oil Painting Workshop

    Jan. 7, 2019

    For Ages 15 and Up

    Beginners Welcome! Experience Not Required!

    Registration (登记) Deadline —— Dec. 31, 2018

    Class Schedule

    9:30—10:00 am            Welcome and Registration

    10:00—12:00 am          Painting Session

    12:00 am—1:00 pm        Lunch

    1:00—3:00 pm            Painting Session

    3:00pm                    Evaluation and Departure

    Instructor

    Judy Moore Gist, Alexander Certified Instructor and Ross Certified Instructor, is making great efforts to give people of all ages the opportunity to experience Alexander's The Magic of Oil Painting and Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting. Both, William Alexander and Bob Ross, PBS TV hosts, have inspired thousands of first-time painters. The “wet-on-wet” technique have encouraged people of all ages to pick up a brush and put their dreams on canvas (油画布). Judy will do the same, and you are welcome to take a class and see for yourself. At the end of just one session you will be amazed at the beautiful painting that you create in just a few hours. You will become more aware of beautiful cloud shapes and colours you ignored before. There is nothing more inspiring than seeing the beautiful scenery that you paint and others will treasure forever.

    For more information about Judy Moore Gist, click here.

    Cost

    $75.00/a person. Prices include all instructor fees, materials, and lunch.

    If you wish to pay by check, please print the OilPaintJan.pdf printable registration form and mail it in with payment to: Holiday Lake 4H Educational Center, 12674-H Camp Road, Appomattox, VA 24522.

    Refund(退款) Policy

    Full Refund: Dec. 31, 2018

    Nonrefundable: after Dec. 31, 2018

    For more information, contact Heathern Benninghove at 232-268-6777 or heathern@vt.edu.

    Nowadays, most people have a device that features artificial intelligence (AI), with the likes of Siri always there to greet us with a friendly voice.

    But Microsoft's XiaoIce is different. Launched in 2014 for the Chinese market, "she" has a creative advantage over her competitors. While most AI assistants simply read out information they get online, XiaoIce has a "realness" that the others are short of. Indeed, if you asked nicely, she could read you a poem from the weekly column in China Daily.

    The newspaper has been printing XiaoIce's self-penned poetry each week since Aug 19, taken from her own book of poems, The Sunlight that Lost the Glass Window.

    To turn XiaoIce into a master of poetry, Microsoft scientists "fed" her the works of over 500 influential modern poets, reported China Daily.

    This led to her figuring out a writing style of her own and creating over 70,000 original poems. Most of the poems are so comparable to those written by humans that they cannot be easily distinguished, and XiaoIce's book even got good feedback from experts.

    "XiaoIce's work carries a strange taste. The more you chew on it, the more interesting it becomes," Scholar Zhang, a literature professor at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, told China Daily.

    However, it seems not everyone is a fan. "The poems dissatisfied me with their slippery tone and rhythm. The sentences were aimless, lacking the inner logic for emotional expression," Yunnan-based poet Yu told China Youth Daily. This isn't the first AI to attempt poetry. Last year, Google's Parsey McParseface made some poems of its own, although they were branded "wrongly" by reviewers. While it seems like AI is becoming more "intelligent" and less "artificial" all the time, when it comes to creativity, perhaps this is one job that software should leave to us humans.