Le Blogger

Upgraded to a Prince O3 Tour . I've reached a point where I think a high end racquet is necessary for my game. I now have pretty good swing control, and more importantly, I need a larger grip size otherwise I will definitely run into tennis elbow problems. Bought the racquet today, getting it strung up and should be good to play by Monday! It's almost that time---2006! Happy New Year's to all...make those new year resolutions and hope 2005 ends with a bang!

Here's an interesting read . Found on Medo's site... annoyingly cute . Stress on the annoying. Books I plan to get/ read/ finish in the next couple weeks: How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker, Computational Physics by Nicholas Giordano, A Feast for Crows (waiting on paperback) by George R R Martin, and re-reading Tao Te Ching (or Lao-Tzu as it's called in old days) by Lao-Tzu. Good mix of heavy and light stuff, though George R R Martin's fantasy novels are not exactly the lightest reading. There's tons of characters in there and it's full of suspense, sex, intrigue, betrayal, vengeance...just an awesome series so far. Another great bunch of relaxing reads is Jing Yung's kung fu novels. I need to pull those out sometime and re-read them too. Lao-Tzu is also great reading, especially on the john. Read a bit everyday...philosophy for the soul. Don't like it? Flush it with the rest hah. Spark those neurons! Empty apartment for the next few days. My room

aww so cute!

Ask me for his English name. We received him on Sunday, Taiwan time. The gift we gave was white sugar and rice. He was a little disoriented and probably nervous as this is his first time away from mommy. So he didn't shit or pee until 3 am...my mom unfortunately had to clean that mess! I can't wait to see him!

***** There once was a peaceful land full of life and warmth as any good spring. The land was ruled by a good but proud king. Certainly the king had much to proud of, for he ruled wisely and well. But he often boasted far too much of his accomplishments, and this angered the gods. So they cursed him with deep magic such that when he breathed his breath would turn to ice. When he spoke the temperature would drop, by several degrees! Whatever he touched would immediately turn to ice. He had become the King of the Cold. The land he ruled over became all ice and frozen, but he remained a wise and good king and ruled over it as kind as any king could, given the situation! He lived alone, with his servants of course, in his now Crystal Ice Palace at the top of the snow covered mountain. One day, as he was traveling in his ice sleigh to the lands below, he saw a beautiful and fair maiden. Her hair was flaming red, like that of fire, and skin brilliantly fair, with eyes piercing blue. She shon

I forget where I found these photos, I think Reuters.com, but they're very nice. I love the juxtaposition of colors. The subjects of study are also extremely passionate activities, and the image definitely conveys that. In one you have the intimacy of man and woman in dance; the other is the fierceness and brutality of man and bull (not shown). The dance consists of elegant interplay of movements between partners that climaxes in a sweep or embrace of love; the bullfight is a violent, bloody battle between man and animal that comes to a death, usually for the bull. The key here is interplay. Life is all about interactions, some are collisions and others are less frontal. Life isn't a one lane one way road, or put another way, it takes two to tango. These are thoughts evoked from seeing the pics...great art makes you think.

Below is a photo of a Nepalese guerilla fighter taken from the Taipei Times photo site. She is very pretty, and I can tell there is an underlying fierceness about her. Yet somehow, her face also speaks of a kind of innocence, one that starkly contrasts the image of her propped with a gun. Perhaps this is the innocence of those who truly believe in what they want, what they are fighting for. It makes the bloodshed and violence all worth the while. I think we all need to have something worth fighting for. I think I do...do you? Also, quite coincidentally, another photo taken from the same site showing puppies. These are indigenous Taiwanese dogs, and guess what, one of them is mine!

Photos taken on my camera. One of beautiful clouds in the sky on a sunny fall day (actually day of our Tristate softball game). Second is an advertisement I saw while at Epcot Center. Amazing McDonald's is. I was talking to a friend last night, and she had worked in Guatemala for the Peace Corps teaching to 4rth graders. Once a month though she had to go into the capital to "check-in" at both the headquarters and at McDonald's. As nasty and oily McD's may be, I guess it does just remind you with a flavour of good ol' US of A, i.e. home. No real profound statements today. I am slightly disappointed in the scandal surrounding the Korean cloning research team. It seems that their work was fudged! I still remember how amazed I was when I first heard about that paper. Think of the potential. Now it seems like it's all fake. Here's what one of the Schapiro Se7en from Columbia has to say about it... (that would be Ed).

One cannot live life without art and music! Below are pictures taken by my mom. I think they are pretty nice. She also paints occasionally...I guess I know where my artistic side comes from. Hrm..but my dad also writes very elegant calligraphy, so perhaps it's a mix (as usual the diplomatic son, never cross either haha). The second picture was taken in the lake near my high school, situated in the Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The Taichi sculpture was made by Ju Ming, whom I've mentioned before in an earlier post . It was an idyllic time (really?) growing up in Hsinchu and going to school at NEHS. I think I am blessed to have such an upbringing.

The following are wise words from Abian! "面對、接受、處理、放下它" This of course refers to the recent local election loss that the DPP suffered at the hands of the pan-blues, and not to being rejected by some girl. What's it take to win a heart over eh? Though I am not affiliated with any party, I do admit that I agree more with the basic ideals of the green party. I think it's important to recognize Taiwan for what it is, and for those who inhabit the island to cherish the land, people, community and culture. I get the sense that the pan-blues don't inherently think this way, and instead constantly have their eyes and hopes directed towards mainland China. And yet they have families in Taiwan, supporters in Taiwan, businesses and interests in Taiwan. But they don't have their heart in Taiwan. The general feeling I get from the greens is they have heart, but they haven't got their minds set on what to do. There's too much bravado and not enough long term plannin

It's getting too cold to play outdoors. So here's an awesome game . From my fav gaming blog, Jayisgames.com . Check out the Frappr map. I think I'm the first to hail from Taiwan. I also know the dude from Beijing. He sits right next to me in our office! I think I'm again the last in the department...no internet at home for the next few days I think. Anyways there's work to do in lab... Oh some fun news. I won a raffle at the department lunch today! Free half hour massage at Duke Student Health...yea it'll do my back good. Hope the masseuse is a hot chick (interesting how the word is defined as female massager, that may not be the case at the health center..ack)!

It's convenient for us kids that my parents' birthdays are only three days apart! So we do all the celebrating (and remembering) at once. Card and wish made for my parents.

Awesome movie. I really enjoyed it, though it doesn't seem to be doing so well at the box office. The gist of the movie: virus wipes out 99% of humankind. Scientist Goodchild comes up with cure, and this leads to the Goodchild dynasty that rules the one remaining city, Bregna, on Earth for 400 years. But something is wrong in this perfect city; people disappear and no one is allowed to leave. The Monicans, are a rebellious group that wants to overthrow the Goodchilds and open the walls of the city that enclose its people. They want to find out what's happening to the missing. Aeon is their top assassin, and she is sent to kill Goodchild. But there's a twist, as Aeon and Goodchild have a past...this is because the "cure" is really cloning. The virus wiped out fertility and no new human has been born in 400 years. What keeps the city alive is each time someone dies their DNA is recycled and secretly injected into a new mother to give birth to that same person again.

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.

I went hiking at the Eno River State Park again this morning. This time we went through a different entrance, so I got to see a part of the park I've never seen before. It's so refreshing. Early morn the air is so clean and invigorating. Below is a photo I took (one of many, the rest I'll be putting up soon) that reminded me of an art piece I saw at the Nasher Museum. The work in the Nasher is a photo of a huge tree, with many branches that fork into more branches that go on---"fractal"-ing out. But the stunning part of the work is the photo is hung on the wall upside down! I was really captivated by that piece, since it motivated a new perception of the tree, a point of view one normally would not see, and thus, also made me try to look at life from different viewpoints. Here, I am looking at roots from a tree, but with the leaves scattered about it's almost an image of a tree! Nature IS beautiful. The invention of photography was brilliant. To find out more

I really like Coco's cartoons. I think he/she hits the spot precisely with these images. Below is something that I have contemplated and perhaps feared for some time. But I had faith that at least during John Paul II's papacy this would not come to pass. For though I am not a Catholic, nor a Christian, I do believe John Paul was a godly man, and he did intend to do good for the world. I do not know enough of Benedict to say anything. The Vatican is one of the few sovereign states that have full diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Obviously, since their existence could be considered more religious and faith based than political (though it is also true from years of history how politically influential the Vatican is) or economical, one would think that the Vatican should maintain ties with all nations. If their "greed" to Christianize China allows them to sacrifice their friendship with Taiwan, I think it will be quite clear that the Vatican no longer has a direct line to God.

It takes courage to speak the heart. So for example, the student who failed the following test should not feel too disheartened, for there is a chance to make up for it! Nothing particularly insightful today..I'm majorly sleep deprived. Did get a chance to watch a nice Batman cartoon movie today. I think he's one of my all time favourite "superheros," precisely because there is absolutely nothing super about Batman. He's all human, well of course not the typical average Joe. Nonetheless, his brains and some family ties made him what he is...though he is definitely good at heart, he can be dark. I like that. The dark brooding type. Sometimes though, just stop thinking and follow instinct, follow the heart.

I have thought of getting one of these before, but I suppose my instinct in the end led to a better judgment. After all, it's not a particularly good sight if someone walks into your room or office and you have one of these on the desk. The first reaction would be, wow that's uhh unique. Play around, press it a bit, then eventually, start wondering about the owner with thoughts like, "What a loser!" or "Nice!" depending on perhaps your gender. Seriously though, some statistics need to be done to see whether a product as this sells well. I know the adage "sex sells" but this is more of a "catchy ah hah that's cool but I probably won't buy it though I'll take a picture of it" product than an actual, well, uh hem kind of product. I mean, if I wanted to get anywhere with girls I probably wouldn't want them to see a mouse pad like this; instead a cute dog pic or fancy Van Gogh would do much better. Not that a mouse pad will dec

From the NPR website "Legend has it that the mathematician Archimedes invented a giant mirror that used the sun to set Roman warships afire during battle in 212 B.C. But many have wondered whether the story is a myth. Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Wallace decided to test it out with a team of students." The website for the MIT team is here . Definitely check this page out. The photo below is actually from the Mythbusters TV show, I think. It's just neat isn't it? Even though the ship didn't actually burn, and thus, brings into doubt whether Archimedes really succeeded...but this is what I like so much about Western education and science. People can get creative and try to prove things, and often it's not only important ideas, but fun along the way too. We've really got to bring this aspect into the typical Asian education; replace rote memorization of useless, banal facts with creative endeavors. I've also learned today that mi

The world's largest natural pearl. This picture would be slightly more perfect if it wasn't for that zit! Imagine a pimple the size of that pearl. Nastiness! This pearl was once owned by Napolean or Napolean II's wife. So I did a little searching to find out how pearls are formed. Let's say there's an oyster. The oyster consists of a shell and then inside is the meat. The shell is created by an organ called the mantle that uses nacre, which is basically from the nutrients the oyster intakes, to produce the shell. Let's say while the oyster is open some dirty stuff gets inside between mantle and shell. This irritates the oyster and causes the mantle to form nacre around the stuff. This then becomes a pearl. It's kind of funny that an object deemed to be a sign of purity and beauty actually forms from essentially junk that is not wanted, like the leftover greens stuck between your teeth, that left unpicked will end up rotting the cavity. Perhaps aliens who com

This is outrageous ! What kind of peacekeeping troops are these? Instead of keeping the peace I bet they are causing more trouble! How can one keep the peace and get away with crimes like rape? I don't know why the big countries turn a blind eye to this. It's just plain wrong. This just proves further to me how useless the UN has become. It can't get the Taiwan issue straight, and it can't even keep itself clean. One would think that at the least if the organization didn't have much power, they'd at least stick to honor and higher ideals. This just shows that underneath all the brouhaha, it's really crap. Here's a great site . I love this guy's work. He just chooses some great colours to mix together, and the subject matter is often quite entertaining...sometimes it can be downright morbid though.

Interesting read in Taipei Times on women's enhanced spatial abilities during menstruation. Hopefully women's ability to say yes instead of always no when guys ask them out are also enhanced during this time, perhaps? It's clear that there are some fundamental differences between man and woman. There are just some things that the male brain is more suited to do, and same with the female brain; certainly our physical bodies differ. But the important thing to stress is that despite these innate, biological differences, society should not structure things so as to make differences a hinderence. Of course this is being idealistic because it is also precisely the differences in ability that makes one either outstanding or just regular, regardless of race or gender. So I just sort of went in a circle there. I guess I want to say I am for equality and fairness without comprimising excellence. In some sense we need to say its ok to have an elitist system, because only when there i

I found this to be very interesting (read it in Nature): ...the fact that negatively charged sperm have the most intact DNA(C. Ainsworth et al. Hum. Reprod. 20, 2261–2270; 2005)...It is not known why negatively charged sperm have the most intact DNA. Researchers think that negatively charged sialic acid, added during the final stages of sperm production, is an indicator that the sperm has successfully assembled and matured. "It's like the cherry on the cake," says John Aitken, one of the researchers who developed the technique. "Everything else has to have gone absolutely normally for the sperm to get to that point." So Negative is good! At lab right now, trying to get that darned sample to work properly.

The best thing to sooth the soul is to look up into the dark vast beyond of space with stars shining brightly, the infinite and finite all in one beautiful cosmic picture. Tonight, though the moon was near full and bright, I got a treat when I reached home and looked up to see a clear cloudless sky with stars everywhere. It's so beautiful and soothing to look up into the dark starry night and the only thing that eventually moved me in was the cold wet breeze as I had forgotten to bring a sweater with me. When one looks up into the night sky, the feeling of the individual is lost and one almost merges with the whole universe, becoming just a speckle amongst all the particles quarks and leptons randomly scattering and colliding to create new planets, star systems and galaxies. The silent, dark, motionless sky actually belies the truth of what's going on: fiery collisions and bursts of energy that destroy worlds while creating new ones. But looking at such a scene, one no longer f

Life must be lived with passion! Recently I have taken up salsa and tango. Classes meet once a week on Sunday evenings, and it's lots of fun. But at this point, even kids dance better than me (see below!). One of the Schapiro Seven, and my roommate at that, came to visit over the weekend. It was good seeing Jason again. Columbia provides housing for all four years, and most of the rooms are singles. But due to a terrible lottery pick, we ended up picking doubles for sophomore year. Jason and I got along very well so we decided to room together. It was a great year, though the room was the smallest on the floor! Jason, Ed and I still regularly get together online for some Starcraft, the best game possibly ever made. They've actually moved on to other games such as World of Warcraft, but several factors have prevented me from trying it out. Maybe some day...I know they are itching for me to join hah. You know we are crazy about gaming when even though I have experiments to run, w

I've been up since 6 am today. Had a long, relatively productive, busy and tiring day. Now I'm all alone at home since my roommates are out of town on vacation, and it's nice and quiet. Actually it's a little too quiet. I wish I had a dog, a huskie to be exact. Slightly grayish white/black fur with those sharp intelligent blue wolf eyes... What a long day it's been. Have I mentioned that already? I've probably overexerted myself today as my back started to spasm...it's been tense all week long from basketball on Tuesday. Better get it checked. I think this was made worse as I was stuck in traffic at 1230 am!! WTF! The culprit---the Rolling Stones. They gave a concert at Duke's Wallace Wade Football Stadium. Supposedly 35,000+ people showed up, and each paid on average 100 bucks to listen to them. That's more than 35 million in a day!! And they caused a terribly traffic jam when I wanted to get home to sleep. Fucking bastards! Sorry to the fans out th

So the Yankees are facing an uphill battle against the Angels. Hope they pull out of this one. The game today was pretty intense. Down 5-0 then went up 6-5 only to be beaten 11-7. Ugh! I don't know, they just lacked the stamina to pull things through today. Then again, I don't fault them. NY has a pretty tense weekend with the bomb alert, and I pray that all will be well. After all, in my heart NYC is still my home. This weekend is Fall Break. Unfortunately for me, the weather is bad so I probably can't go hiking, and then my boss told me Thursday that we have work to do over the weekend. Right now I am busy testing the microwave/rf generators for our quantum dot gate pulsing. We need to make sure that we can maintain the pulse form sent down to the sample with minimal distortion, reflection, attenuation and loss. This is made particularly difficult due to the size of our metal gates (which I made), on the order of 100 nm or less in width and less than 20 nm in thickness. S

Haven't posted in a while...lots going on lately at work and in life. Lots on my mind. Sometimes you wish there was someone with all the answers. But then, this is what life is all about. Learning as you go, not being afraid to do what your heart tells you while keeping your optimism...and remember to always have a good time. I think this also applies to work, except there, one probably needs to use a little more brain and a little less heart. Still, intuition is a powerful guide at times. Below is a nice photo taken before the "Longwang" typhoon hit Taiwan last week. The clouds do indeed look like a Dragon King, don't they? Here's a funny video with similar topic to the last post. Got this from my daily read JustJared who has all sorts of gossip and fun stuff.

Can you guess what this is? For those who can't read Chinese, the three characters with TM on the box on the left reads "Kuh lin dwun" and those on the right "Lai wun shih gee." The Clinton condoms are to be marketed to a higher end user base, while the Lewinsky ones are for the masses!! Only in Hong Kong! I have to admit it, Asians know how to do business.

Had a very fun event last night at the Nasher Museum of Duke. The museum officially opens this Sunday, but last night was the Director's reception in honor of Ray Nasher who funded the museum. I was invited to go as I'm on the Duke Council for the Arts. The museum is still pretty empty in terms of art pieces, but hopefully Duke will make the effort to fill that up. There's already a lot of good going for the museum; the building was designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, who is a rising star. Another interesting piece of news lately---Japanese scientists have finally videotaped a giant squid live! This long hidden in the deeps mysterious creature has always evaded capture and has only ever been found dead floating onto shorelines. The scientists were very clever in following sperm whales, the main predators of giant squid. You know my first reaction when I heard the news? I was thinking what the Japanese were probably thinking---SUSHI! I mean, just look at the tentacle! Poten

New picture story posted--- Camp Out 2005 . Our star pitcher Wang Chien Ming got another win under his skirt. Literally I mean skirt!

I'm having trouble uploading pics onto the site...I guess I'll have to put them on my personal web page. here's the car: 1 2 3 Addendum: So I probably hit my picture limit. So I'll be posting pics elsewhere and linking to them from now on.

Actually not this guy, but his likeness. He basically treated Taiwan like the dough he's mucking up. Ok, that was a bit too vehement, but CKS really only thought of Taiwan as a temporary home. Still one cannot deny his greatness. His legacy still affects Taiwan today, some for better and some for worse. Moon Festival just went by, and I had a great weekend. Lots of mooncake leftover though, so I'll probably bring them in to the lab to share. Can't possibly eat all that stuff and not feel good about myself afterwards. So a couple jokes...told by a friend during the party this Friday. A guy is engaged to this girl. Several weeks before the wedding, the girl runs off with a doctor. From that day on, the guy started eating apples. Da da dum! Ok, this one's requires Chinese. 那個cartoon最黑暗? Ans: 小叮噹. Why? Because...daa daa dum...伸出圓手不見五子. Hah. This one is actually rather funny. For those who don't know, its Doraemon! This joke doesn't stop there, but somehow I've f

Nature reports that aerobics is good for you, not just physically but mentally! Comparing two groups of over 50s, one that did only stretching and others that walked actively, the second group faired better with mental tasks. Exercise helps create brain derived neurotrophic factor, and also helps the growth of new capillaries. So I think it's pretty clear that breaking a sweat daily is important for keeping both mind and body in shape. The researchers also stressed healthy lifestyle, good nutrition, thinking positively such as replacing words like "grey" and "old" with "healthy" and "active." Needless to say, these words of wisdom should be applicable to all age groups, perhaps besides the newborn to 3 month old babies, who obviously have trouble even walking...

This is pretty sweet. I need to get myself one. From a CNN article, "Humping along just under 85 pounds (38 kg) of weight in the backpack can produce up to 7 watts of electricity, Lawrence Rome and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania report. This is more than enough electricity to simultaneously power an MP3 music player, a personal digital assistant, night vision goggles, a handheld global positioning satellite navigation device, and a mobile telephone." I also learned that the human hip rises roughly 2 inches when we walk as we pivot about one foot while swinging the other one. This is actually how the backpack generates energy, as it is essentially moving up and down with the hip. This idea is really good cause it utilizes biological energy to generate electricity. Nature always has the most efficient way of doing things; only by tapping into that will we truly benefit and progress.

This weekend I was in California for my high school classmate's wedding. Actually he's not just a high school classmate, but elementary school and middle school too! So needless to say I've known this guy for a very long time. It's fun to see how far our class has gone. I still remember the first day at school, and it wasn't entirely the most pleasant one. I was kind of on the more than chubby side, and was immediately told so by several members of the class (fingers pointing, "He's fat!"). Actually, quite a number of them weren't that skinny either, Ron being one of them. Quite obviously, it took me some time to get to know people in the class. I think it's universal, perhaps from our survival instincts, that chubbier kids are not the most immediately popular. Usually having extra meat signals wealthier conditions which might be envied; this of course is just a theory. But I think I was also very used to having my way with things, and slightly

Quick, short update---the car has been bought! Pictures to follow soon...time to start thinking of a suitable name for my new car!! Suggestions?

Check out this cute little game . Needs several tries to get win. Basically choose the right sequence for placing objects on the world to guide the hero to victory! A great site for finding little games to play is Jay is . Still haven't gotten a car...need mobility.

This is so bad its milk up my nose funny. More amazingly my dad actually sent them to me, and to just about everyone he knows (I think). Good sense of humour dad! Speaking of bad English, check out www.engrish.com . Remember, whenever you visit a non-English speaking country, be on the lookout for funnies. This isn't us being mean and trying to make fun of other people (well it is actually sort of), but sometimes its really funny! I'm sure we can find some Chinese or Japanese in America that just doesn't make sense either...but of course, its not as common, since English is the most spoken language in the world.

Went to say goodbye to my car. I learned to drive with this car! It's too bad I have to let it go as it's time is up. What an amazing car though! Look at the mileage. The engine was fine too up until the last minute. I called it Shadowfax because it was white and at its age could easily still hit 80+ mph on the highways. Of course, the real King of Horses wouldn't look as dirty, hehe, but then, I'm no real Gandalf either.

This is not a good week. Yesterday as I was on my way to the airport to pick up a new student, my car died. Fortunately I had enough sense to steer towards the curb when the car suddenly started shaking extremely violently. Not entirely sure what the problem was with all that shaking, as no warning signals had lighted up nor was the engine temperature too high. I decided to restart. And could not. Thank God for the invention of the cellphone! Of course, I think another divine intervention also delayed the flight of the new student, so my replacement picker-upper arrived an hour before the student did, but my car's bust. And living in the outbacks (as compared to NY) without a car I'm as good as useless. Can't go anywhere except my kitchen, and the fridge is unfortunately rather empty-looking. Bummer. Good time to have lots of friends with cars. Hopefully I'll know what to do about a car in the next few days. Aiya.

I'm totally stunned...this site is great. Basically they have pictures of urinals from all over the world! Check it out! www.urinals.net . I have to say, I'm pretty picky about urinals. I don't think I could go at some of these, it's just nastiness. I dunno, if things were that urgent, I'd probably rather piss in my pants than stand in front of some of them. Others are just way cool. I would probably drink lots of water just to be able to say, hey I pissed there! Imagine, going to the Vatican and using the Pope's personal urinal! Or his toilet even! You know, you could boast, "I plopped a good one in the Holy Father's!" There does seem to be a site about toilets too. Here .

I've been meaning to put these up for some time. These pics were taken before Wang Chien-ming moved up to the Major Leagues to pitch for the Yankees. He happened to stop by Durham to play the AAA Durham Bulls, and so several of us decided to support our Taiwanese star! He really packs a punch with those pitches and has such a calm, cool control. We are all really proud of his achievements. Here he is in the bullpen prior to the start of the game, and chatting/ giving autographs afterwards! And some may think the flag is sort of "tu (dirt)," but I think there's nothing wrong with it! It's Tai-kuh, in a good way!