My Favorite Reader Comments #2 and Carnival Roundup

Well, after blogging for almost a year I have collected over a thousand comments on my articles. Some of them are really quite interesting. Previously I highlighted some, and here are some more of my favorites.

In my article about California, a woman named Nancy Lynn left a poem and I really loved it:

From Nancy Lynn

I have lived here since 1996, and realized the other day that I still don’t feel at home here. Here is my poem about California:

California

It never rains here
This long-legged mistress is a mystery,
She is fake and beautiful
With no soul
But never changes.

The year is like a stack of blue cubes,
Square as windows of an Internet Company
Reflecting the sky
Of daily brightness
And vapid valleys streaming in cars
Climbing one hill and another
Which exit only for take-out coffee

The ocean is untouchable
Cold, colorless darkness
A metaphor for “the beach”
Where you may look, but don’t touch
It’s all a part of the perfection,
And you can insert your image everywhere.

The natives, having pushed out
Indians, Mexicans
But sit in trees and fight for the condor,
Must always defend how beautiful
And bounteous their land is,
Vain and proud of their humility,
Political correctness and perfection.
I listen, but only hear
The sky, void of thunder.

Thank you Nancy Lynn!

Speaking of poems, my dad is a budding poet. He left this comment a while ago that made me laugh a bit:

great job, Xin!

Send you a Chinese poem I just wrote for your future education of your kids in Chinese.

沿路春光

行进在加州12号公路上

苏醒的

呼啦啦一片

何止

是那五彩的春天？

路边绽开的黄花

向我坐车的大灯眨眼

沿路清澈的湖边

过冬的加拿大天鹅

盘点着回迁

雨后微涨的湖面

泛起美丽的漪涟

迎来成群的白鹭，水鸟，

鸣呤，盘旋—

广阔无垠的原野

带着雨季的寄托和眷恋

把生命的绿

在大地洒遍，向远山伸延

浅黄色的澳洲长毛羊

黑白相间的奶牛，

牛马群一点点，一片片

象繁星将这绿的苍穹装点

大洋春天的季风

顺着三角洲的水道线

牵动那百座百呎高的风车

飞旋—

高大的三角铁架

化作那永动的能源

电灯亮了，电车通了

风车啊，

天空感谢你

留给她一片蔚蓝的天

车还在向前

春光让我陶醉

突然

路旁车速灯提起意见

“超速，超速！”

刹车，减速，

我醒了，

醒来的还有那

永远赞不完的春天！

This my translation of it:

The Light of Spring Along the Road

Driving along California Highway 12
I am awakened
by a windy plain
it is the multicolored spring
The yellow flowers blooming next to the road
are blinking at my car’s headlights
The clear lake along the road
is surrounded by many Canadian geese.
The surface of the lake ripples after a soft rain
and welcomes flocks of chirping and hovering egrets and water fowl
The vast and endless wilderness
Carries the loving care of the rain season
and spread the green of life across the plains and towards the mountains
The light yellow long haired Australian sheep,
And the black and white cows
dot and flock the plains like
stars upon a green sky.
The winds of the ocean
flows from the peninsula’s shorelines
and make the windmills fly.
Its tall steel frame converts the renewable energy
The lights are lit, and the electric cars are moving.
Windmill, the sky thanks you for leaving her a blue body.
My car is still moving, and I am still mesmerized by the spring.
Suddenly the car next to me flashes its lights.
I am speeding.
I brake and slow down.
I am awake, and I still have the spring that I can never stop praising.

Anyway, hope you have enjoyed these diversions from personal finance and two views of California. My dad works for a foundation that helps people save energy all over the world so that poem has a bit of a hippie environmentalist ring to it, which is kind of cool.

If you want to read more about personal finance. Here are some recent carnivals I participated in:

Carnival of Personal Finance #155 hosted by Pinyo.
How to Make Money Doing What You Love Carnival
Carnival of Money Stories #61 at Piggy Bank Blues

That’s the ones I remember, but if I didn’t link you feel free to tell me! Have a great day everyone.

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