Le Blogger

It's the year of the Dog! Bow wow wow yippee yo yipee yay! I wish all the best in the coming year. Luck, success, and good health to my brother, dad and mom. Yesterday the Taiwanese students association held a New Year Lunch at a local restaurant, Shanghai. The meal was good, though we had plenty of leftovers, and everyone seemed to have a really enjoyable time. As a member of the staff, I was part of the group of people responsible for organizing the event, and I'm really glad that we pulled it off so well. I think learning to organize events and bring people together is an important skill, whether when having a good time or when trying to do serious business. Saturday was a brilliant day, especially in the afternoon. It was just gorgeous weather. Fortunately I didn't end up in the lab; instead I got to spend the afternoon with someone special and drink green bubble milk tea without the bubble. In the evening, the staff and several other good friends got together at my apa

Someone took this pic of me some time ago.

Disney bought Pixar for ~7 billion! WOW. That makes Steve Jobs one of the most influential men in the world, if he isn't already with the Ipod and Apple computers. Wow. Prepare to see more style from Disney, and I mean coolness. Still, although I am a Mac user, I have to say Steve and Apple can come off as a greedy lot sometimes, and I'm curious how his operating philosophies will now affect those of Disney's. Nothing profound today. I thought this was pretty funny. I love dogs regardless.

Enjoy!

Nice photos below. Some day I'll go North and see the auroras. It must be a breathtaking sight. Auroras occur due to the earth's magnetic field, electrically charged particles, gas particles, and solar wind. I think the idea is particles like electrons travel along the earth's magnetic field lines and in collisions with gas atoms in the ionosphere light is emitted. These emissions can be made into spectacular displays as the one below via influence from the sun's magnetic field, which is what we mean by solar wind. Why do I say North? Because the earth's field terminates at the poles, and there the lines are packed more densely, i.e. the field strength is stronger. One would therefore expect the electrons to be much more energetic and in such collisions give rise to this phenomena. The second photo is that of an interesting and touching story. The mouse, I think named Gohan, was originally to be fed to the snake, but somehow, the snake instead of swallowing the mou

Interesting blog. Start reading from the first entry. http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com. Related to that blog is the following article in Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/0602,lagorio,71678,12.html Found the following on a friend's away message. Thought it was bittersweet. He loves And she loves And they love so Why can't you love and I love too? Birds love And bees love And whispering trees love And that's what We both should do. I always knew some day You'd come along We'll make a twosome That just can't go wrong, Darling. He loves And she loves And they love So won't you love me as I love you?

Anybody can get famous on the internet. Check this dude out. This is also pretty neat . As I was walking to school this morning, it struck me that the grass was starting to turn green again. Spring is coming. Life renews, another cycle begins. A season for love? I hope it won't get any colder, as this winter wasn't particularly cold. Coming to Durham has changed the way I look at things. I'm taking a different pace of life. I used to be so rushed and in a hurry to get somewhere or do something when I was in NY. Not that I wasn't happy, I was extremely happy, but I was, felt, like I needed to be constantly in motion and doing something. And there was plenty to do mind you! You can't really just stop to smell the roses, or notice the clear blue sky (not today at least!), or see the grass turning green again, unless you live right next to Central Park. It never occurred to me to just idle the day away while I was in NY. Perhaps what is different is I've redefined

Cooked a vegetarian and meat lasagna today. Not bad eh?

I have taken the following from NYTimes editorial, located here . ***** EVIDENCE OF EXTREMISM Judge Alito's extraordinary praise of Judge Bork is unsettling, given that Judge Bork's radical legal views included rejecting the Supreme Court's entire line of privacy cases, even its 1965 ruling striking down a state law banning sales of contraceptives. Judge Alito's membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton - a group whose offensive views about women, minorities and AIDS victims were discussed in greater detail at yesterday's hearing - is also deeply troubling, as is his unconvincing claim not to remember joining it. OPPOSITION TO ROE V. WADE In 1985, Judge Alito made it clear that he believed the Constitution does not protect abortion rights. He had many chances this week to say he had changed his mind, but he refused. When offered the chance to say that Roe is a "super-precedent," entitled to special deference because it has been upheld so often, he refuse

Taiwan's new China policy . Also, in unrelated news, read this . I'll be honest, I've done something similar. I've used left overs and take out disguised as my own. I think that's more about being creative than sad! Beautiful pic, though slightly eery too, from Reuters.

Check out the parody of Memoirs of a Geisha by Bobby Lee. Hilarious. Here's stuff on America's best leaders . Speaking of leadership, what makes a great leader? Do you have to be the smartest on the team? Or the best coordinator? It must really depend on the organization and job, but in general all leaders have to share similar traits. For example, I saw a brilliant basketball game today, Duke vs. Wake Forest. It's clear that Duke's leader is JJ Redick. That's because he is the most effective scorer, but also I think his will to win leads the team to achieve. Of course he is putting in perhaps the most work by scoring and playing nearly the whole 40 minutes. But he is defintely not the best defender on the team. So a leader needs to certainly be very skilled, but not necessarily the best at everything. The vision and determination is what makes a leader. Not everyone is a natural born leader. Some are better than others, by talent and nature. But I think leadership

Saw a shooting star tonight! It had a bright red center surrounded by yellow and streaked down the sky. I was looking in the direction of Orion when I noticed it. Quite an amazing sight. Naturally, when one sees a star, you make a wish. So I did! And of course, I'm not going to say what the wish was, otherwise it won't have the chance of coming true (not that wishing upon a star may work in the first place). Not much else going on.. the next semester is just around the corner. Hope to have more progress in lab in the coming two weeks. I am making small steps for sure with the SET device. Tennis has improved dramatically since the new racquet. I have much better control (still make errors on the backhand though) and lots more power. It's my new sport. I think I'm moving away from basketball, not for good, but definitely as a more sustainable long term sport tennis is the way.

Working out cuteness . Got my racquet all strung up! But rainy day and I can't use it..funny how fate makes you wait for things you most want. The hunger and desire becomes stronger; perhaps when accomplished, the feeling of satisfaction is magnified. I am itching to try my racquet! I'd really like to visit Mecca someday and feel the spirit of the believers. Unfortunately, as a non-Muslim I am not allowed to set foot in the City. It must be a tremendous experience. Pic from Taipei Times.

It's a New Year. I didn't really celebrate. Kind of sad. Just had dinner and movie with a couple friends, went back to lab, went home. Just another day of the year. I realized that I don't celebrate conventional holidays as much anymore; it's not that I don't want to, it's just that I don't see them as being really special to me. We defined the calendar year, so what makes January 1st really significant? I find more "random" dates such as birthdays to be much more meaningful and worth celebrating. Am I getting duller? When I say random of course, I mean defined without convention. We didn't define our date of birth. That was somehow decided by chance (unintentionally!) or fate (intentional). Call me a nonconformist, or perhaps just lonely. I did enjoy a heckuva lot of See's almond royal candy. Good stuff. I did get to go out with a sort of a bang though. Some dude who lives in the complex nearby was setting off these tiny single shot flares