Jobs quickly became bored with college. He liked being at Reed, just not taking the required classes. In fact, he was surprised when he found out that there were strict course requirements. When Wozniak came to visit, Jobs waved his schedule at him and complained, “They are making me take all these courses.” Wozniak replied, “Yes, that’s what they do in college.” Jobs refused to go to the classes he was assigned and instead went to the ones he wanted, such as a dance class where he could enjoy both the creativity and the chance to meet girls. “I would never have refused to take the courses you were supposed to, that’s a difference in our personality.” said Wozniak surprisedly and admiringly.

Jobs also began to feel guilty about spending so much of his parents’ money on an education that did not seem worthwhile. “All of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition (学费).” he detailed his experience in a famous ceremony address at Stanford. “I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay."

He didn’t actually want to leave Reed；he just wanted to quit paying tuition and taking classes that didn’t interest him. Surprisingly, Reed tolerated that. “He had a very inquiring mind that was enormously attractive,” said the dean of students, Jack Dudman. “He refused to accept automatically received truths, and he wanted to examine everything himself.” Dudman allowed Jobs to audit classes and stay with friends in the dorms even after he stopped paying tuition.

“The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting,” he said. Among them was a calligraphy (书法) class that appealed to him after he saw posters on campus that were beautifully drawn. “I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces (字体), about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically fine in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.”

It was yet another example of Jobs consciously positioning himself at the intersection (相交点) of the arts and technology. In all of his products, technology would be married to great design, elegance, human touches, and even romance. “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had so many typefaces. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.”

Meanwhile Jobs had a hard time at Reed. He went barefoot most of the time, wearing sandals when it snowed. Elizabeth Holmes made meals for him, trying to keep up with his obsessive diets. He returned soda bottles for spare change, continued his long hard journeys to the free Sunday dinners at the Hare Krishna temple, and wore a down jacket in the heatless garage apartment he rented for $20 a month. When he needed money, he found work at the psychology department lab maintaining the electronic equipment that was used for animal behaviour experiments. Occasionally Chrisann Brennan would come to visit. Their relationship developed abnormally. But mostly he tended to the beginning of his own soul and personal goal for enlightenment (开明).

“I came of age at a magical time,” he reflected later, “Our consciousness was raised by Zen, and also by LSD.” Even later in life he would credit certain drugs for making him more enlightened. “Taking LSD was a valuable experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It heightened my sense of what was important—creating wonderful things instead of making money, putting

Life in the summertime is often full of pests. Like most Long Island homeowners, I want to ensure my suburban life with pest-free living. So it was with wide-eyed wonder that I greeted the smiling exterminator who rang my bell.

“We'll be serving your neighbors, Mike and Sarah (I'm not familiar with either one by name).” he waved in the other direction. “Since we'll have a team here tomorrow, we're offering a discount.” He came out with numbers beginning from $299 then in seconds to $89.

“You've probably been seeing the ant hills around.” he moved toward my front walkway and lawn. “And have you seen the bees that dig nests in the ground?” he continued with his head shaking up and down pushing me to do the same.

“What we do is spray three feet out from your foundation and three feet up.” As he was talking and without breaking eye contact, he opened his iPad cover and began operating at the screen to show me frightening images. “It also kills other pests, like spiders. It is the best pesticide,” he said, pausing for effect.

He then went into soft talk to close the deal, correctly foreseeing that I would be concerned about safety and the environmental impact on my vegetable garden, plants and our little patch of planet here on Long Island. “The products are environmentally responsible, safe with children and pets,” he said.

I'm unkind when it comes to unwanted visitors entering on my out-of-doors moments. Any insect found in my house or on my deck is bound to be poisoned or pancaked.

Unfortunately for the exterminator, just as I was considering making an appointment. Billy, my fearless husband, pulled into our driveway, which made me ask for a business card out of politeness instead.

Chen Wei, a high school student in Beijing, had his dinner interrupted when he heard someone screaming from another table. A fellow diner at the restaurant, Zhang Tao, was choking on some steak. He was now holding his throat with his face turning red, while his desperate friends were slapping him on the back.

Chen wasted no time. He got up and ran to Zhang’s table at once. With the help of Zhang’s friends, he was able to help Zhang to his feet. Then, standing behind Zhang, Chen did the Heimlich manoeuvre. The food was instantly forced out, and Zhang began to breathe again. Ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived. The doctors checked Zhang and made sure that he was fine. They suggested he eat more slowly and take smaller bites before they left

Choking victims usually have only about four minutes before they collapse and sometimes die, leaving no time for an ambulance to arrive. To solve this problem, in 1974, an American doctor, Henry Heimlich, created the Heimlich manoeuvre, saving thousands of lives around the world. Doing the Heimlich manoeuvre is quick, practical, and easy. It is so easy, in fact, that almost anyone can learn how.

If you see someone choking, first call the emergency services. Then, make sure that the victim is really choking: A choking person cannot speak. Slapping the victim’s back will often force out the obstruction. If this does not work, you can perform the Heimlich manoeuvre by standing behind him and wrapping your arms around his waist. Make a fist with one hand and place it in the upper part of his stomach. Grabbing your fist with your other hand tightly, push up and into his stomach in one motion. Continue doing this until the obstruction is forced out.

Doing the Heimlich manoeuvre on a small child is not recommended, as you may hurt him. Instead, lay the child face down on your lap with the head lower than the rest of his body, and then give firm slaps to his upper back until he can breathe again.

With choking victims, every minute counts. You cannot just stand by and do nothing. Luckily, Chen had learnt how to give first aid in school. Seeing Zhang choking, he remained calm and reacted immediately. Chen later said about the incident, “How could I justify sitting there and doing nothing? We are all humans and we all have a responsibility to look after one another’s welfare.”