Happy Heroes: Chapter 1 (2)

Mowed my lawn today which took me 3 hours! Phew! Anyway, enjoy today's chunk of translation:

It was spring at that time. As the old sayings say, “The whole year’s work depends on a good start in spring.” Spring is a season good for many things and is also the best season for the escorting business.

The best season for the escorting business is also the best season for robbers and bandits.

Luo Zhenyi, the Chief Escort of the “Central Region Escort House”, an experienced escort despite his young age, naturally understood this very well. Therefore, he was extra careful on his escort trip. Besides, it was in the spring season and the goods he was escorting were especially valuable.

Yet, being careful alone is not enough to guarantee a successful escort trip. Also needed are fine Kung Fu skills and good luck.

Luo Zhenyi’s Kung Fu skills were not bad; nevertheless, his luck this time was no good. Of all the bandits he could have run into, he had to run into the most notorious and vicious gangster of the entire region, Brotherhood of Ouyang.

Brotherhood of Ouyang was not a gang with two, three, or more members. Brotherhood of Ouyang is the name of a single person.

Although he was only a single person, he was more difficult to fend off than a gang of forty. Wielding a short dagger in his left hand, a long knife in his right, he could still launch seven or eight types of projectiles at the same time. No one could tell where those missiles and darts were launched from.

Luo Zhenyi couldn’t, either. He had barely dodged away from three “Brocade-Back Crossbow Arrows” and a batch of “Shooting-Star Throwing Arrows”, when Brotherhood of Ouyang turned the back of his knife and shot out a pair of “Icy needles.”

These deadly needles came out from places where no one could have guessed and landed on Luo Zhenyi’s right shoulder squarely. Although these needles didn’t kill him right away, all he could do was to wait for Brotherhood of Ouyang to finish him off.

Even if Brotherhood of Ouyang didn’t kill him, once he lost the escorted goods, he would have no choice but to finish himself off, whether to hang himself or drown in the river or slit his own throat.

Right at that moment, all of a sudden, there came a galloping horse from afar. The horse was a fast horse, but the rider was even faster. Before the horse had approached, the rider had already arrived. Brotherhood of Ouyang only saw a figure falling out of the sky. He didn’t even have a chance to shoot out any one of his eight kinds of projectiles, when both of his wrists had been slashed by a sword.

The savior falling out of the sky was, of course, none other than Guo Dalu.

Luo Zhenyi not only was grateful to this savior, but also felt great admiration for him, so much that he almost groveled before him. After escorting the goods to the final destination, he firmly insisted on inviting the savior to visit the Escort House.

Naturally, Guo Dalu went. He didn’t have anything else to do anyway.

Even if he had other things, he would have gone anyway.

This was the first time he ever fought someone for real. He suddenly realized that he had not only fine Kung Fu skills, but also fine personalities.

That made Luo Zhenyi wonder, so he asked, “Brother Guo has such excellent Kung Fu skills! Why aren’t you an escort?”

Guo Dalu didn’t even ask, “Why people with good Kung Fu skills must become escorts?” He simply thought that being an escort would make him look quite awe-inspiring and sounded like a fun idea.

For a man who just barely left home to become the Deputy Chief Escort, it was awe-inspiring and impressive, indeed!

Guo Dalu had only one regret: The ‘Central Region Escort House’ was not the largest escort house in the Central Region. It couldn’t even be considered a first-class escort house.

The first business only came after he had waited for several days, and it wasn’t even a significant one. All they were asked to do was to escort a few thousand taels from Kaifeng to Luoyang^[1].

The trip is short and the goods are unimportant. Besides, the Deputy Chief Escort would be going. Naturally, the Chief Escort had no worries, and felt very comfortable to stay at his comfortable home for a recovery.

It was still in the season of spring. In the morning, the escort wagons left right on time.

---

[1] Both Kaifeng and Luoyang are cities in the Henan Province in China.

One cannot reason with a pregnant woman!

Random Thoughts: Lanny-5, Your Personal Robot

This is something I wrote a while back as an assignment for a machine learning class. Enjoy!

Old Ben sat at the breakfast table, feeling grumpy. It had started raining since last night and his joints were hurting badly again. It was a quiet morning just as it had always been, with no one he could talk to, except Lanny-5, an assistive robot his son had insisted on giving him on his 70^th birthday last month because he had insisted on keeping the house and living in it alone. Out of boredom, he cast a side glance at the robot. It just stood there stupidly as though it was deep in thought.

[Meanwhile, inside Lanny-5’s head:] Initialize neural network … retrieve date, time, weather, temperature, humidity, past action history … evaluate training set, test set, validation set … train … probability of arthritis pain at 87% … determine action …

“Would you like me to get you some painkillers?” Lanny-5 turned his head toward Old Ben and asked, an artificial smile blooming on his metal face.

That’s interesting! This is the first time it offered that without me asking, Old Ben thought. “Will you?” he confirmed.

“My pleasure!” Lanny-5 replied joyfully and proceeded to retrieve the medicine.

Old Ben watched as the robot swiftly navigated toward the medicine cabinet, pulled the drawer open, and retrieved some Tylenol. As forgetful as he was, he could still clearly remember the day when it first arrived. The technician showed it around the house, and among many things, also taught it hand-by-hand how to get the right medicines from the cabinet. It was called something like “learning by demonstration” as explained by the technician, a term he vaguely remembered and could care less for.

Swallowing the pills down improved Old Ben’s feelings somewhat, but he didn’t show that on his face, just as usual.

[Meanwhile, inside Lanny-5’s head:] Initialize facial expression recognition … train … identify expression using Bayes Net … probability of grumpiness at 95% … determine action …

“Would you like to hear a joke?” Lanny-5 said, an artificial tone of excitement present.

“Why not!” Old Ben gave up.

[Meanwhile, inside Lanny-5’s head:] Initialize wireless connection to Internet … download jokes … initialize Decision Tree to select … train on training set accumulated … when the word Bush is present, remove joke from collection due to bad past experience) … alert: all jokes removed … repeat from downloading step … appropriate joke identified …

“John walked into a bar. ‘Ouch!’”, Lanny-5 said, using a random funny tone selected from his database.

“Why don’t you give me the news headlines?” Old Ben suggested, clearly not appreciating the sense of humor from the robot.

“Certainly!” replied the robot.

[Meanwhile, inside Lanny-5’s head:] Skip news headlines from Slashdot.org from reinforcement learning penalties (flying beer cans) … download headlines from CNN.com … filter out all headlines with the word “Iraq” from reinforcement learning penalties (flying beer cans) … select headlines …

“CNN.com headline news: Biggest single jackpot winner remains mysterious. Woman run over trying to rescue dog,” Lanny-5 went on reading.

Hearing nothing interesting, Old Ben had had enough with the robot. “I am going to read a book now. Get me an apple and then leave me alone,” he commanded.

“Of course!” Lanny-5 replied, and then proceeded to retrieve the apple.

[Meanwhile, inside Lanny-5’s head:] Retrieve apple images from Google Image … extract features of an apple … learn possible locations for apple retrieval … calculate probability of possible locations user really meant … delete grocery store, apple tree, Circuit City, etc. from list … most probably locations identified: refrigerator with 34% probability and kitchen counter with 62% probability … construct a probability distribution map of apple locations … extract features of the map … train using past map dataset … classify most efficient algorithm for path planning … plan path … turn gimbaled camera following plan … navigate following plan … apple identified with probability at 92% … initialize retrieve routine …

=============

Three hours later, Old Ben threw the book onto the couch and yawned.

“Did anyone call me while I was reading?” he asked.

“You had one legit incoming call from your son, Steve, and three sales calls, which I’ve taken the liberty to remove. Would you like me to play the message for you?” Lanny-5 said delightedly.

“Play.”

Immediately, the excited voice of his son echoed in the room.

“Hi Dad, remember the book you haven’t been able to find? Turned out Emma took it and hid it under the mattress of her toddler bed. Guess what I found in the book??!! Oh my god! You wouldn’t believe this! The lottery ticket you used as a bookmark is the winning ticket for the Jackpot! You’ve won 400 million dollars!! Dad!! You are the mysterious winner everyone has been talking about! This is crazy…”

Old Ben felt a sudden difficulty to breath and sharp pain shot out of his heart. Slowly, his body leaned backward until it rested on the back of the couch. He tried to scream, but nothing came out of his mouth. He wanted to raise his arms so he could grab onto something, anything, but they only became heavier and heavier. Three minutes later, all become still and his body turned rigid with a blank stare in his still-open eyes.

[Meanwhile, inside Lanny-5’s head:] Initialize facial expression recognition … train … identify expression using Bayes Net … probability of grumpiness at 81% … determine action …

“Would you like to hear a joke?” Lanny-5 said in the same artificial tone of excitement as before, a big artificial smile blooming on his metal face…

Never be afraid to ask stupid questions!

Happy Heroes: Chapter 1 (1)

A few words first: Survived the class in Spring!! And started teaching a class today for Summer. Since today is Monday and is the first day of the Summer term, it is a good day to start blogging regularly. I'll try to post daily starting from today. And here below is a chunk of translation:

ONE

Guo Dalu’s name fits him well. “Dalu”, in the mother tongue, is normally used to describe someone somewhat bighearted, yet reckless and careless, even muddle-headed some times, who doesn’t really care much about anything. And Guo Dalu is indeed a very “Dalu” person.

Wang Dong, where Dong means move in the mother tongue, however, doesn’t like to move.

TWO

“Dalu” people are usually very poor. Guo Dalu is especially poor, so exceptionally poor that he is completely off the chart.

In fact, he shouldn’t have been so poor at all.

In fact, he could even be considered a very wealthy man to begin with. When a wealthy man suddenly becomes dirt poor, there are only two possible explanations: 1) he must be dumb; 2) he must be lazy.

But Guo Dalu is not dumb. He knows more skills than most people and is better at them than most people. For example –

Horse-riding. He can ride the fastest horse and tame the most violent-tempered horse.

Fencing. His thrust can pierce a knight’s suit of armor; it can also pierce the willow catkin dancing in the spring breeze.

If you are a friend of his, and when he happens to be in a very good mood, he might dive into the Yellow River and catch a few carps with bare hands before leaping out from the water to snatch a couple of wild geese, so he could cook you some steamed fish and roasted goose, and watch you gulfing down the delicious dish. You won’t be disappointed once you taste them, since his cooking skill is no less than any famed cook in the entire capital city.

He can sing poet Su Shi’s “East Going Yangtze River” with iron pad and copper pi-pa^[1]. He can also play a bandore and sing poet Liu Yong’s “Willow shore, morning breeze and lingering moon.”^[2] Hearing him singing, you would probably have thought he had been singing for a living all his life.

Someone even believes that he knows how to do everything except giving birth.

He is not lazy, either. Actually, he is always looking for things to do and have done all kinds of work. How can a man like this be poor?

The first job he had was an escort.

At that time, he just finished vigil beside his parents’ grave, and had just got rid of the family land, sold some and gave away some. He wanted to adventure the world with his various skills.

Of course, he is not a very capable businessman and is not interested to become one, either. Hence, the farmland worth three hundred taels^[3] per acre only sold for one hundred and seventy. Then after he gave a bunch of taels away to poor relatives and friends, there was not much left.

However, there were still enough taels left to buy him a fast horse, to make a sharp sword, to order a few suits of handsome robes, to live in the best hotel, and to enjoy the best restaurant.

---

[1] Iron pad and copper pi-pa are two ancient Chinese instruments that are commonly used to play resounding and heroic songs. “East Going Yangtze River” is a famous poem by poet Su Shi of the Song Dynasty. It was used as the lyric for a song with the same name, and the style of the song is courageous and heroic.

[2] “Willow shore, morning breeze and lingering moon” is a famous poem by poet Liu Yong of the Song Dynasty. It was also used as the lyric for a song with the same name, and the style of the song is slow and gentle.

[3] Tael is a unit of weight (about 32.5 grams). It was popular as the unit for silver currency in ancient China.

"With great power comes great responsibility -- Spiderman"
"With a big yard comes lots of yardwork -- Lanny"

Picture of the Day:

 

Given that wife is happy and professor is happy, what it the probability of an ugly lawn?

European Cup (Started on 6/7/08)
P(e)=0.6

Wife Out of Town (leaving Lanny home alone with the kid)
P(w)=0.65

Lazy
P(l)=0.25

Sick
P(s)=0.45

Busy
E W | P(b|E, W)
===================
T T | 0.999
T F | 0.61
F T | 0.95
F F | 0.5

Ugly Lawn
L B S | P(u|L,B,S)
======+============
T T T | 0.999
T T F | 0.5
T F T | 0.88
T F F | 0.3
F T T | 0.92
F T F | 0.45
F F T | 0.85
F F F | 0.05

MCMC Lab Late
L B S | P(m|L,B,S)
======+============
T T T | 0.9
T T F | 0.71
T F T | 0.76
T F F | 0.01
F T T | 0.89
F T F | 0.7
F F T | 0.75
F F F | 0.02

Wife Happy
U | P(w|U)
==+================
T | 0.01
F | 0.4

Prof. Happy
M | P(p|M)
==+================
T | 0.75
F | 0.90

Finally, The Beginning

Hello there, and welcome to my blog. I had wanted to start this blog a year and a half ago, hence the title. And for all those who I have told about my intention to start the blog, here it is, finally!!

As described in the title above, Lannyland is a land of imagination. I strongly believe that one cannot live without imagination. Children are always blessed with the gift of imagination. As we grow older, we tend to get bogged down by choirs, daily routines and fixed schedules, and forget that we still are capable of imagination. I sure hope reading my blog provides inspiration for you to use your imagination again, which leads to creativity and passion. In this blog, I will share with you things I am VERY passionate about, things that always inspire my imagination and creativity. Maybe after reading my posts, you will become passionate about them too! Then maybe I've contributed to making the world a better place!

So what kind of things am I passionate about? I have to admit that I have many hobbies and am passionate about many things. However, in this blog, I will focus on two subjects: AI Robotics, and Wuxia (武侠) novels.

Ever since I was little, I've always being a great fan of science fiction novels. Specifically, I have always been fascinated by the many varieties of robots. That passion grew throughout the years as technology advances rapidly. Eventually the passion grew so strong that I quited my job and went back to school. I am currently a PhD candidate student at BYU (under Dr. Goodrich) researching Artificial Intelligence in Robotics. In this blog you can read about many cool robots that have been developed, great ideas people are working on, and ideas I have relating to my research. I'd love to read about your opinions and bright ideas, so don't be shy in commenting! One thing I can promise is that it won't be boring. Come on, how could robots be boring? :)

I have read many books in the past. However, one book clearly stands out as my all-time favorite book, ever. In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that after reading it over 20 times, I simply had to own it. It is called "Smiling Proud Wanderer" (aka "State of Divinity", and "笑傲江湖" in Chinese) and is a Martial Arts fiction novel written by the great Hong Kong author, Mr. Louis Cha (aka "Jin Yong", and "金庸" in Chinese). This is one famous book in China (also Southeast Asia). Many movies (including one featuring Jet Li) and TV series have been made based on the story. If you have any Chinese friends, ask them about this book. Chances are that they have read it and watched it on TV or in a theater, and immensely enjoyed it. The book falls under the genre called "武侠" (meaning Martial Heroes). Books in this genre are like fairy tales for adults and normally tell stories about Martial Heroes who are great martial artists who uphold justice with their amazing Kung Fu skills.

I guess one main reason why I liked the book so much is because I see myself reflected in the main character of the story. Of course the great story and the great writing skills of the author also had great impacts. I liked the book so much that I wanted to share it with all the non-Chinese speaking people in the world. That's how the translation project started. During the project, I met many friends from all over the world (Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, to name a few) who also enjoyed the story immensely and had a great time reading it. I got as far as half way through (20 chapters and over 1000 pages). However, life got busier, and the project was put on hold. Ever since then, I have received hundreds of emails from fans inquiring about the status of the translation project, but I have kept many of the waiting. Sorry! One reader suggested that I translate just a little bit everyday to keep the momentum going. I think it is a good idea. That is also the reason why I am doing this blog. I hope that by posting smaller chunks of the translation, I will continue on with the project and eventually finish it. For all those people out there who got hung up with the story, I sincerely apologize. The good news is: I am back working on the project again! For all those of you who have not heard about this book, trust me, you will enjoy reading it! So here is how it works: I will post small sections in this blog once in a few days. By the time I have a good chunk translated, I'll still post it at the translation web site where you can find all finished chapters.

I also would like to post translations of two other "武侠" novels by great Mr. Gu Long. They are: "Happy Heroes" (欢乐英雄) and "Full Moon Crescent Saber" (圆月弯刀). I hope you'd enjoy them too.

Occasionally, I will share my random thoughts on things too. Once I took an online IQ test out of boredom, and the result indicated that I should really be a "Visionary Philosopher". So if I sometimes get too philosophical, don't be surprised.

It is 3:45 am right now, but I would still consider it Monday! Good night! (And shout out for Boyce!)




The hardest part to make dream come true is to gather enough courage and actually start doing it. I quit my job and went to Grad School; I finally started this blog. What do you want to do?

Picture of the Day:

 

To mow or not to mow, that is the question!

Have not had the time or energy to mow my lawn. (Compare mine to neighbor's lawn in the background!) They are actually seeding now. And what's shown here is only 1/20 of the workload.... This picture was actually taken on June 4. It is even worse by now.