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Funny story from Florida trip (better told in Chinese, but I type like a turtle crawls): There once was a brilliant astronomer. He knew every star in the sky. He liked to take daily evening strolls to gaze upon the sky, and would often plead with his beautiful young daughter to join him. But she was just not interested. Little girl grows up and heads off to college, and one November day, father receives a letter from his little girl. "Dear Papi, Early this evening on my way home with just an ordinary friend, I finally gazed up and saw Orion and the Big Dipper! What a beautiful sight...could you please tell me what's the names of each star?" To which the father replies "Dear Daughter, I went for a stroll with your mother this early evening too, and though I could see Orion, the Big Dipper doesn't appear in the night sky until around 2 am. Thus, I am very curious to know who this "ordinary friend" is!" Somehow it's a lot more funny when told in C

Several interesting news articles today: Here's an article discussing the need for longer needles for fatter asses. I don't know why someone reported on this, and neither do I know why I read it. Kill time, and perhaps, it goes to show that we should all be running more! Most Americans especially will need an XXlong needle... Here's how four women overcame their commuting problem. They married their driver! What a lucky guy. Good morals, drives well, what else could you ask for? This one's actually interesting. I may go buy the book and read it. An article on insects as the dominant organism on Earth. Somehow as I was reading this article, I was reminded of the zerg from Starcraft. Since insects are relatively simple organisms that reproduce quickly and on a massive scale, it's easy to understand that they must be evolving much more rapidly than say, humans. It's therefore understandable why cockroaches continue to pesk us! I don't quite agree with the st

Got back Saturday night from an awesome Thanksgiving trip to Orlando, FL..home to Disney World and other amusement parks and attractions. I met up with a group of good friends from the old days of "Blink the Eye Assassin" game. We actually got to play that game while waiting in line for several of the rides at Epcot Center. Basic idea of the game: group of people, and depending on the size of the group, there is an assassin. Sometimes we also include a policeman and doctor, but we were eight in number, so we just did the basic 7 civilians and one assassin. The idea is that the assassin tries to "murder" you by winking at you, or if winking is difficult, by flashing a signature move. Of course, the objective for the assassin is to do this without getting caught. The civilians have a chance to out the assassin, but it takes two or more together to do it. Basically, if two people have suspicions, they raise their hands and on the count of three, point to their suspect.

This is sooo wrong. You don't have to be an idiot to conclude that one should never buy music again. The record companies already make tons, and it's surprising that they wouldn't at least be willing to give up a little since so many consumers have been dl-ing music. I think the costs of making a disc with music amounts to definitely no more than 2 dollars. The CD's themselves are cheap, and with an initial investment to do mass copying, that doesn't cost much either. Since albums are sold anywhere from 10-20 dollars, they are making a heckuva lot of cha-ching. And now, Sony BMG hides spyware software under a program that must be downloaded in order for the CD music to actually be played. EVIL! PURE EVIL! I hope the law punishes them severely for this breach of trust and teach them a good lesson. Stop being so greedy yo! It is a deadly, deadly sin. We managed to win one softball game this past weekend. I didn't play, and that's probably the reason, haha! Se

Found this on Funny Times: What New Toys Did You Get? (compiled by Phil Proctor) Capitalism: He who dies with the most toys, wins. Hari Krishna: He who plays with the most toys, wins. Judaism: He who buys toys at the lowest price, wins. Catholicism: He who denis himself the most toys, wins. Anglican: They were our toys first. Greek Orthodox: No, they were ours first. Branch Davidians: He who dies playing with the biggest toys, wins. Atheism: There is no toy maker. Polytheism: There are many toy makers. Evolutionism: The toys made themselves. Church of Christ, Scientist: We are the toys. Communism: Everyone gets the same number of toys, and you go straight to the opposite of heaven if we catch you selling yours. B'Hai: All toys are just fine with us. Amish: Toys with batteries are surely a sin. Buddhism: Wanting toys causes suffering. They either break, or you outgrow them. Taoism: The doll is as important as the dump truck. Mormonism: Every boy may have as many toys as he wants. Vo

I was standing outside just a moment ago because I forgot to bring my shoes in, and I noticed that I could hear sounds a lot clearer than on a warmer night. This intrigued me enough to think about what's going on. The simple explanation I could come up with is the air is a lot stiller, and there's less scattering going on. Colder air tends to be dryer too, so perhaps less water vapour to do the scattering. It's also denser, so the sound travels a bit faster. Looking online, it turns out (I'm now too tired to think more deeply since I've been up since about 6 am today) that during cold nights, there is a layer inversion such that warmer air is above and colder air trapped below, this does make sense since warm air rises. This inversion traps sound waves and allows for the sound to travel farther and better horizontally. So no wonder I could hear conversations about half a mile away and the plane above sounded so loud, though it must be pretty darn high up. Cool huh?

The standards of what's acceptable in terms of public display of sexually related material or content differs greatly in America and the rest of the more democratic and advanced nations. Below is a photo of a newspaper/tabloid from England. The ironic thing is that the United States is certainly not a country made of puritans. Think about the Janet Jackson warddrobe malfunction on tv, which is just a sophisticated and sanitized way to say simply that her boobs showed on tv, and in England they have weekly photos of topless women. Something's wrong here! It's just that somehow, through the influence of evangelical churches, talking about sex or looking at sexually explicit material is taboo in the United States (perhaps also in other countries in Asia for example, but ours is the so called most democratic). Somehow I find this to be slightly perverted since one would think that sex is perhaps one of our basest instincts, and from a more scientific viewpoint, absolutely essen

Here's an article praising Taiwan's democracy. But democracy requires at least the loyalty of its people to the country itself. I get first hand information on how some legislators don't even have their heart in Taiwan. All they see is some day unification with China. This dictates how they want to formulate Taiwan's future, policies, budgets, etc. Don't they see that if you work hard, there's always hope? If you truly want something, and you know you deserve it, then you shouldn't let anything stand in the way until you get it? No one, not even a large neighbour, should make you feel like you don't deserve something. Certainly cutting the budget for the Science Park isn't going to help make Taiwan better. Perhaps some of these legislators do what they do so that they can say, "See, we were right about things. We need to unify with China!" I think that's so evil, and the people need to see through this veil of lies and vote them out of

I think my tennis game made a huge leap today. Sometimes you kind of plateau for a while and then all of a sudden, you get it. So it was with tennis today. I just got the hang of the backhand. It's much smoother now, more natural. It's a good feeling. So if the weather permits, I will definitely be back on the court tomorrow! Now it's sleepy time. I think I used a lot of neurons today. They need to take a break.

Here's a poem that popped into my mind describing what I saw as I stood outside my apartment when I got home. Dense clouds Fill the Night Like a Shroud Blocking all light. Then, an opening And the full moon shines through. Reading lots of scientific papers lately, so I need my occasional artistic balance. To note, movies I am looking forward to -Harry Potter!!!!!!! -Chronicles of Narnia -Aeon Flux

This is absolutely beautiful calligraphy. You can feel General Yueh Fei's passion and love for his land. The strokes evoke a forcefulness and power of one who lives by the sword. Four simple characters written with such intensity, you can almost see the great hero himself writing the words and feel as he must have felt---knowing that your emperor has betrayed and forsaken you and plans your eventual murder and that you may never see the day your land is recovered from the northern barbarians. I need to put more passion into my calligraphy. This is the step that transforms mere stroke work into art. Anyways, today was supposed to be my loner day. Every now and then I just need to get away from friends and do my own thing. I like having this kind of individualism; get away from the crowd. It's so much less noisy. I think everyone needs to be able to live with who they are and be happy about it. Enjoy your own company. I know I can and do. I have plenty of interests and this gives

The new playboy bunny look below...what do you think? We lost all matches at the Trischool games; we played with heart but that's not enough to win. Next time we'll be better practiced. Sunday was an event packed day: first the games, then dancing, then speed dating, then homework! After the games I was already nearly drained; my legs were near cramping and that made learning salsa and then swing all the harder. Still I wouldn't miss dancing; I'd go even if I was in a wheel chair. I was also really hungry since I had basically eaten only some veges earlier before the games. That was remedied with a delicious beef noodle stew and shiaolongbaos that I wouldn't mind having again. Then speed dating. I was convinced to go by a friend, and though initially reluctant, it was pretty fun! Basically you have eight minutes to have a conversation with a girl (eight in a night) that was prearranged by the sponsors based on how you answered a questionnaire. All participants are a

Isn't that robot playing the harp just soo cool! I am always so fascinated by new tech stuff. It's in my blood. And the second image is so uplifting. Despite all that's going on in the world today..riots in France, potential avian flu danger, corrupt politicians in the US, potential for far right/conservative leaning in the Supreme Court, the human will and spirit continues to show us there is good out there! I bet they dance better than I do too, though I'm getting there in terms of learning more moves to Salsa. Last week's dance class was a killer though...none of us could manage the samba turn. Anyways really need to sleep. Worked a little too much on homework and lab stuff tonight. Somehow our samples are still not working. It's frustrating! Tomorrow is likely going to be a full day of no work---we have our tri-school basketball and volleyball games. May the best team win! *pics taken from Taipei Times .

I really like Ju Ming's works. Find out more about him at www.juming.org.tw . I especially like his Taichi works (there are many all around the world) and also was touched by the "Girl Playing With Sand" piece. Got this excerpt from my high school bud's xanga . Interesting! ***** Harry Burns: Would you like to have dinner?... Just friends. Sally Albright: I thought you didn't believe men and women could be friends. Harry Burns: When did I say that? Sally Albright: On the ride to New York. Harry Burns: No, no, no, I never said that... Yes, that's right, they can't be friends. Unless both of them are involved with other people, then they can... This is an amendment to the earlier rule. If the two people are in relationships, the pressure of possible involvement is lifted... That doesn't work either, because what happens then is, the person you're involved with can't understand why you need to be friends with the person you're just friends wit

Trust is such an important concept in this world. I adhere to the belief that all humans are born good, and compound that with my innate optimism for things, I am naturally inclined to give people my trust. That's not to say I blindly trust others, but I generally do not think others mean to do me harm. Still I sympathize with those who have given their deepest trust to another and then suffered a betrayal. It's often very hard to be able to give trust so quickly or easily after such events---perhaps only time and love from family and friends can mend the wound. I think an important part of my Asian upbringing, from reading the ancient philosophies of Confucius, Mencius and other non-Confucian thinkers really helped to shape how I think today. There are five important characters that all should really try to ponder upon and perhaps live by---loyalty, trust, honor, truth, and love (the characters I've written below). I think often times the Western education, particularly i

Here's an interesting story, mice sing ! Check out the sound clip at the bottom of the page. Apparently during courtship male mice sing. This was discovered when researchers let male mice sniff on female or male mice urine, and though the original intention was to see how the male brain differentiates the pheromones, they noticed a rather complex ultrasound pattern erupted when hetero (whether there are homo mice is a question) male mice smelled female pheromones. This places mice in the same league as some other complex singing beings such as birds and dolphins! This is interesting for many reasons, but one I can think of is since mice are relatively easy to manipulate genetically, and the fact that they utilize complicated vocal patterns to court mates means perhaps mice have some simple language abilities. So we may be able to understand how language and vocal abilities develop and play such a crucial role (obviously as in birds better singers get to procreate!) in animals. We a

Perhaps this article could explain why I can't get a full grown mustache, in particular the spot right under the nose never grows out at all! So I have these two long sides, very manchu! Very sleepy.