Most simply and traditionally, people eat Longevity Noodles on birthdays here in China. Although it is called Longevity Noodles, it is a bowl of ordinary noodles with light soup, and we usually poach an egg in it as well. This bowl of long noodles expresses people's good wishes for longevity. Besides, in many more traditional families, the birthdays of the elder and children (usually aged ≥ 60 or ≤ 10) are important dates for a family reunion. Relatives get together at the birthday person's home or a restaurant to have a lively and joyful dinner party together. Young people usually hang out and party with friends on birthdays, which is common with the celebration of youngsters in many other countries. However, the difference is that the birthday person requires to pay the bills in our customs. I've once heard that in some countries such as Japan, attendants except the birthday person share the expense equally, right? Moreover, more and more youngsters would like to celebrate their birthday in innovative and meaningful ways. As far as I know, birthday activities such as doing volunteer works, making donations to charities, donating blood, traveling alone, etc., are in a fashion.

请问，在台湾，大学生日常工作学习中怎么口头称呼大学教授呢？ 带我做研究的导师是台湾人，之前我们用英语沟通，直接称呼professor就好；但今天突然变成中文沟通了，请问我按我们这边大学里的习惯称呼他“老师”礼貌吗？ 谢谢！

In my opinion, it is partially predetermined. The structures of different individuals' brains are different, determined by genes to a great extent. However, our brain is pretty malleable, according to a friend of mine who is doing psychological research. For example, the amygdala is a part of our brain producing primitive desires and impulses, while the frontal lobe is another part that gives people the ability to be rational and thoughtful. In a word, the frontal lobe and the amygdala inhibit each other. The more powerful the frontal lobe one has, the better self-control this person would have. It is worth noting that the self-control ability provided by our frontal lobe includes emotion regulation, long-term planning, rational decision-making, etc., which all pertain to personalities in my view. The key is that although the frontal lobe function hinges on greatly, it is also changeable based on how we use our brain. Keeping specific practices such as meditation, mindfulness, and yoga can help shape a developed frontal lobe, which is equivalent to changing one's personality. Thus, personalities are not entirely predetermined. (It seems I'm practicing academic writing, lol.)

I used to love buying fast-fashion clothes, but since embracing the concept of Slow Fashion (also known as Sustainable Fashion), I have hardly bought new clothes. According to a report I read once, fast-fashion brands sell only a tiny proportion of the clothes they produce and burn or bury the rest to cut inventory costing, which wastes a vast amount of natural resources each year; in addition, this industry generates approximately 20% of the polluted water and 10% of the carbon emissions of the world per year (roughly, I should check the reference later but I cannot find it now cause it's been so long) on the excessive large-scale production. However, are these clothes we usually buy of high quality? Not. The craftsmanships of many fast-fashion products are weak actually, which is an unimportant factor as the styles led by the brands to arouse the customers' desire for novelty are changing rapidly. Meanwhile, the cheap chemical materials and dyes used are often harmful to health. The only motivation for fast-fashion brands to continuously do so is the vast economic profits. All the costs, including purchasing raw materials, hiring, producing, transporting, promoting, and selling, are meager compared to their income. The thing is, our natural environment has suffered too much for their business success; on the other hand, we earth citizens are not required to approve the rapidly changing trend created by them. Since I realized the idea of Slow Fashion, I have loved beauty as always, but the yearly changed styles cannot inspire me anymore because I'm more focused on practical values; besides, I've started to believe that our personality of fashion should be seized by ourselves, not by the popular brands. What I'm concerned about now is the environment-friendliness and fashion sustainability when I occasionally need a specific new cloth, and I'm focusing on how to make my style out of the clothes I already have. Above is how I protect the environment.

Picture 1, I took it at the Olympic Sailing Center, Qingdao (also known as Tsingtao), China, in Aug 2019. Yellow and purple street lamps at dusk made the city romantic. We sat at a tranquil place, listening to the noise and the sea waves in the distance. That was one of the best days of my life. Picture 2, I took it close to the May 4th Square, Qingdao, China, not far from the place of Picture 1, in July 2018. What attracts me most about this scenery is the strong color contrast. Putting myself among the bright red of the sculpture "May Wind," which is the city's landmark, and the deep blue of the buildings and the sea, I could not help taking this photo by my mobile. Picture 3, St. Myrtle's Church, Qingdao, China. This photo is not taken by me but by a renowned native photographer whose assumed name is Ping Tiger (平老虎). He captured this by UAV in early winter. I have visited this church many times for it is a representative spot of our city, but I never thought the view from above would be so beautiful.

"Talk is cheap. Show me the code." This sentence impressed me a lot, even if it is from a programming textbook.

A few years earlier, a friend of mine told me a curious coincidence happened to his grandfather decades ago in our coastal city. His grandfather used to have a watch. One day, when he was chatting with some friends sitting on the beach to spend the boring holiday time, he kept toying his watch. However, the second hand of that watch accidentally fell into the sand. They tried to search it around for a while, but it turned darker and darker as the time got later, so they had to give it up and came back. Three days later, his grandfather hang out to that beach again. At first he had almost forgotten that lost hand of his watch, but he suddenly reminded. So without any attempt to find it, he casually grabbed a handful of sand. Magically, he found it! I even wouldn't believe it if my friend didn't seem so serious when he told me about this.