fear of unknown

This photo reminds me of an interesting experience in my 3-day trip to Hualien (花蓮), the west coast of Taiwan early this month.

Myriam, Rodolphe, and I decided to walk from TienHsiang back to Taruko (17 kms) the second day of our trip, since we arrived Taruko in the late evening and didn't see much scenery on the way up to TienHsiang.

This photo was taken before we went thru this TienHsiang Turnel (天祥隧道). I didn't expect this turnel didn't have lights installed and was so long that we walked almost all the way in the dark like blinds. Only when cars driving thru, which were not much, did we see the road via the car lights. My eyes were completely useless in the dark turnel. While in the dark, my fear raised from nowhere and I found myself using my right arm leaning tightly against the wall as the senser for the direction. I walked very slowly with cautious and sometimes hestiated stepping forward. However, when with the dim lights, I saw the road, felt relieved, and fasten my steps. Interestingly, I started realising how deeply I had been counting on my eyes for sensing and experiencing this world, plus how coward I was when facing the unknown...

How about life? I keep complaining my current life but don't or haven't dared to change it! Is it also due to my fear of unknown?

Merry Christmas

This Christmas eve, I prepared the Christmas gifts for each of my families though we are not Christians and I have not been the fan of Christmas celebration for years. I don't know why I did so... anyway, my second niece has joined this world since this May and her father is currently having the 2-month overseas assignment and her mother has to work late usually on Fridays and... whatever..., so I decided to become the Santa Claus that night and celebrate the Christmas with these two little cute angels. Interestingly, I felt very contented when arranging these gifts under the plastic Christmas tree decorated with lights, bells, and candies that their mother set up a week ago...

Another funny thing was that I also received great Christmas presents from friends, in a virtual way: a funny talk with my lesbian friend and some emails from some of my favorite friends, including a great Christmas present from K: a cute blog and a synical but cool comment about Shanghai.

So happy to receive K's response cause I was so worried about his disappearing and being in his down time too long. Now, at least, I am aware that he's staying alive and kicking and so delighted to see his arrogance's coming back little by little...

I also feel happy receiving P's greetings though it's a pity we couldn't meet each other before his leaving Taiwan...

This Christmas, I was both happy and lonely and oddly I enjoy it ...

Sake

My preference of warmed sake having a better taste than the chilled one is defeated by myself again tonight in a Japanese restaurant. The Japanese friend introduced two different kinds of Japanese sake (chilled, of course) to us and confirmed that the poor quality of sake can be disguised by serving in warm. This reminds me of the discussion about the sake temperature in June with K... Is he ready to come back from the down time?

okay, back to the dinner... sitting between the Norwegian and French guys, two of my favorite languges, discussing about the Sophie's World and Freud, enjoying the tasty Japanese food and sake... all and all, brought me back to my study in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1996... ahh...I want to be a student again....

dilemma

Dilemma is translated as 進退兩難 in Chinese?! Pronounced as "Jin4 Tuei4 Liang3 Nan2" How come I don't know this expression?!

While googling, I find this word is used as "騎虎難下" in this Chinese-English idiom site... hmm... interesting...

busy

Recently, heard a lot from friends and colleagues complaining about their being busy... busy at work, study, families, relationships, life, etc. I is complaining about her work and not quite happy about her life living in a foreign country. K is disappearing and I so worry about if anything gone bad at his side, ill, accident, down time, so and so...and which silly thought I should have stopped since... *sigh*... Anyhow, is busy becoming a fancy word people hung at their mouths nowadays?

I have been in fact also quite busy these days... yet, what on earth am I busy with? let me think...

- work, working like a dog... don't know where those workload springing from... oh, and handling a brand new type of project which I have never dealed with... struggling with the project sizing estimation and yet on the other hand feeling motivated in these new stuff...

- helping a good friend moving from another country to settle down in Taipei for her one-year stay and Chinese language study... visiting apartments, meeting landlords or potiential flatmates... (this could be a great experience for my future flat hunting!)

- acompanying a colleague having an overseas business trip in Taipei for sightseeing... she is excited in planning, with my company, to visit many famous sightseeing spots each weekend for her 4 weekends in here, whereas I feel worried for my short of time excorting her.... gosh... why everything is all bumpped into each other at the same time!!!

Then, today, I suddenly realise, "hey, wait...what about me myself?" seems that I have been placing myself in the lowest priority in all kinds of relationships... I should have had my priority focusd on my taichi course on Sundays, my weekly squash time spent with my old time friends (athena and meihsin), my long-overdue assignment (which would probably affect my salary), my certificate exam preparation (should be done by Dec this year), and my exhausted and desperately-need-to-rest body...and my healing the... *sigh*...

Friends gathering in Taipei (continued...)

My French friend, Myriam, arrives Taiwan today and starts her one year of studying Chinese and living in Taipei. She has talked about this plan since last year, moving her life to this city in which she's been in love so much. She said if she wouldn't do this now, she will probably never do it in her life. Now, she finally makes her plan for real...

Now, Andreas and his family, Laurent, and Mimi are finally all living in Taipei... wondering who else will be the next?


ps. Admire and envy her courage and execution on her dream... then me? how about my plan?

attitude: Kerry vs Lien

On Nov 3, 2004, Kerry lost the US presidential election of 2004 with a minor difference of vote counts. Though regret, he's showed his respect to the choice of American people and accepted the vote result for unity of his country.

On Mar 20, 2004, Lien lost the Taiwan presidential election of 2004 by a margin of 0.22% of valid votes. With upset to the two-bullet effect, he refused to concede and is challenging the vote result. On Nov 4, 2004, Lien lost the High Court Lawsuit. Again, he refused to accept this verdict and made a shocking statement.

When will this man realise that accepting the lost and facing the truth may move on a new life for him?

huh... this question seems to be for me too... *sigh*...

Gift of Life (生命)

Just watched Wu Yi-Feng's latest documentation, Gift of Life (生命), a 142-minute film focusing on residents of Chiufen Erh Shan (九份二山) about families dealing with loss after the 921 earthquake and putting their lives back together again...

feel touched by how these people got thru this disaster and struggled with their sadness of losing their familes, no matter the two couples' "life has to go on" for their loosing their children or Hui-Ru's anger and lost for losing her parents... time, also playing an interesting role...they somehow found a way to move on their lives... time...

and... how about my ilfe? live my own life... *sigh*...

sick leave

nose running, body aching, headaching...
heart hurting, heart bleeding, heart breaking...

cold soon getting better,
but a broken heart?
*sigh*...

sick away,
leave now...

photo (continued...)

happened to find my post of photo may become true, just in another setting and even...

time frozen at that certain moment... heart squeezed... mind blanked... unconsciously browsing all the pics, walking here and there, left messages but no dare to know the answers... until, all of a sudden, what are you doing? asking myself and stopping these silly actions...

disappointed, sad, lost, feeling left alone... huh, disappointed, sad, lost, and left alone by the image you created for yourself? hehe... *sigh*... facing the truth, you have been alone all the way, haven't you?

cotton candy clouds transform into sour rain drops... feet step back to the solid ground... reality revealed...

kurumi

Get your handkerchief ready for Mr. Children's K u r u m i...

Remember your dreams and keep going...

Vicky the Viking

Vicky the Viking (北海小英雄, the Chinese title) was one of the popular animated TV series when I was a kid. Seemed most of us kids would urge heading home directly after school just for the main character Vicky's advantures with his fellow Vikings...

From Little Gems: "... All the characters lived in a village called Flake which lies somewhere on the coastal regions of Norway or Sweden. It is based on the stories of Runer Johnson and is centralised on Vicky who is not a brave, fierce, strong Viking like his father but is a small boy who always relies on thinking through a problem before applying the correct solution..."

The terms used in this animation become a common expression among us in the same generation. For example, my old time painter friend, Meihsin, has been named 小威 (Xiao Wei. huh, yep, Vicky was named Xiao Wei in the Chinese version) as her nickname since we were in school.

Now, this animation is replayed on TV and has attracted my 4-year-old niece`s attention. She even can sing along when listening to the theme song...

Namtso Lake, Tibet

The beautiful clouds over the Namtso Lake, Tibet.

Would be nice to see the clouds in person...

MIT OpenCourseWare

The link for this info, in case my tiny little brain can't recall where I place it...

Some Chinese literature

- 老子道德經: Liao Zi's Tao Te Ching
- 三字經: San Zi Jing
- 詩經: Shijing, The Book of Songs or Poetry (my favorite one... can't believe this ancient Chinese book has been translated in English!)

Learning French

Learning French will surely the item in the top of my Mid Year Resolution List, so that I will be able to read some sentences like "Je m'appelle Kai Carver et je réponds à l'appel! (salue)" in this post or some tour guides of Paris like this...

Plus, I will feel more delighted when read "I am sorry, I am sorry, It's in French." :p

ps. Is the sentence in English like:
"My name is Kai Carver and I...bla bla bla... > <'' (greetings)"??

Honey Yang

Honey was brought to us by chance when my mom took my brother Lucien for a pet shopping after his serveral months of long pleading.  In front of a pet shop, a woman asked them if they wanted to keep one of her new born mixed puppies, instead of buying a dog.  Heard that woman wanted to give us a white puppy but that little one was having a bad stomache that day. She was afraid that we did not know how to handle that situation since we had never raised a dog.  Thus, Honey became one of our family members.

At first, my father complained about Honey's loud barking a lot and strongly disagreed to keep a pet in the house.  Funny thing was, Honey never hid her love and passion to my father.  Honey could amazingly recognise the sound of my father's steps.  Whenever she heard my father's, she would immediately run toward to the door and wag her tail hard and excitedly to welcome him home.  We were thus informed Father's back when hearing the "bump, bump, bump" sound hitting on the door.   Gradually, we found Father softened his attitude and seems very pleased to enjoy this warm welcome.  We also found he even looked forwards to this greeting when coming home.  

Honey had some wierd behaviours that we even could not understand where they came from.  She did not like dog food at all but was a great lover of meat mixed with rice.  She liked lying in the middle of living room so as to watch all of the family members with her innocent-like watery round eyes.  I so love her eyes...  She used to sleep in my bed leaning against my legs.   I liked the feeling of touching her brown furry back with my foot.   Thinking of this... she's really the best heater in winter and the coolest pillow in summer.   

Maybe because we saw Honey as a little sister of ours, interestingly, she sometimes acted just like a spoiled little girl.  She didn't like to be left alone in the house.   When we had to leave her at home, she barked so loud that we still could hear her barking all the way down the road.  Seemed she thought herself a human being like us or she thought we were dogs like her...  

Due to aging, Honey died when she was 14 years old of human being's age.  When she was sent to the vet, my sister Shengwen, planning to get married in the next year, whispered to our dying dear old dog that, if possible, she would like her becoming her daughter in the next life.  hmm... when my niece Yaya was very little, some of her movements were increditably like those of Honey, such as the way she wiping her face.

I was so sad for Honey's passed away and cried a lot for losing her.  I dreamed of her sometimes.  In my dream, she was as cute as usual, especially for her innocent-like eyes...

Orlanda

An interesting novel by Jacqueline Harpman, sparked by Virginia Woolf's Orlando, also one of my favorite films.

- French version: original language (would love to read this novel in French... pity... ok, todo: one of my new year resolution of 2005...)
- Chinese version: 歐蘭達
- English version: Editorial Reviews by Amazon.com.

From translation viewpoint, the English translator uses this novel as an example of cultural adaptation from vous/tu switching in conversation to body language/gesturing, so as to convey English-speaking reader with equal subtlety.

Wonder how this part is presented in Chinese version?

Metro maps in the world

UrbanRail.net, a site collecting the metro maps all over the world.

Metros I've taken so far:

Taipei, Taiwan (wow, this site contains the detailed and future plan. Cool!)
Paris, France
New York, USA
San Franciso, USA
Newcastle, England (I miss this map a lot.)
Glasgow, Scotland

uhh... it would be nice if a world metro map of mine can be drawn like this.

Japan guide

Appearance of the newest Japan for foreign visiters before their being troubled?

Some interesting topics:
- No.1 vending machine of the world (gosh, automatic blood donation machine!)
- The police in Japan (Ninja?)
- The taboo in Japan (American) with "lucky strike"

This link is provided by Yukako and Ken. Thank you...

Taiwanese aboriginal dance performance in Paris

Henri, Mimi's father, sent me two photos from his watching a Taiwanese aboriginal dance performance by the Amis Kakeng Musical Group at Centre Culturel de Taiwan a Paris.

Amis is the largest indigenous tribe in Taiwan (11 tribes in total). Wearing the traditional Amis clothing, the troupe performed rousing traditional Amis songs using the kakeng (a percussion instrument made of bamboo) and other traditional Amis instruments, including bamboo nose flutes.

photo

Photos reflect the moments of truth
Distance is beautiful but sometimes cruel
No one can not be replaceable
sad but true...

sweets vs poison

Fool asks advice for jealousy...

Wiser:
Love is like sweets with different fillings. When the nasty green-eyed monster jumps in, jealousy is then filled and the sweets becomes a poison...
It tastes sweet but turns out to be toxic in the end, blacking your heart, clouding your eyes, consuming your soul, and making you a real nasty monster...

Fool:
*sigh*...poison wrapped in the candy... it tastes so sweet and strong, when I try to quit it, it doses more and manifests itself as sadness, hurt, anxiety, fear, loneliness, paranoia, self-doubt and anger...

Wiser:
What are you afraid of?

Fool:
I am afraid of... I don'know... being left alone? losing the one I care?

Wiser:
you sure? you have known the answers, haven't you?
you need courage to face the truth...
and you need time to heal the wound...
understand its nature to avoid hurting yourself again in the future.

Fool:
How long will it take? I feel silly and helpless...

Wiser:
That's why you need courage.

Fool:
Ha, I am now like the lion in the Oz
lacking of courage...

Wiser:
Soon you will realize and do what you should have done...

global citizen

An international course provided by IBO for young people. Three programmes are offered: Primary Year Programme (for age 3-12), Middle Years Programme (for age 11-16), and Diploma Programme (for age 16-19). Their mission looks quite cross cultural:

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

Here is the curriculum module.

three cat cookies

soul is free...

both sides, now

Took this photo of Mom when she was going to the appointment for her knee problem checking. She was trying to get herself tidier for a better post (in fact she looked already good enough). All of a sudden, she sighed and said, "this photo is recording my worst moment in life..." When hearing so, my heart was like being squeezed and tears brimming in my eyes... a wrong investment decision of hers has created a critical issue in Family and also an argument between she and us. Now, this issue has been solved temperately but the argument still hangs...

Parents raise children enduring all the difficulties in no matter physical, emotional or financial aspects. Children at that time are, in fact, sort of their burdens, sweet or bitter whatever, blocking on the way of this man and woman's personal career/life. Gradually, things are changed... parents are aging and becoming dependent, whereas juniors grow up and start their own lives. Now, parents seem become... hmm... sort of the burdens, standing on the way of the youngers' career/life, especially if financial or physical problems encountered. How ironic! Parents sacrify their most precious period in lives bringing up the kids without complains, whereas we now complain their ruining our lives.... even though we are upset, can we really say so? how can we?!

Both Sides, Now - Joni Mitchell

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons ev'rywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on ev'ryone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

...

Walking in the park, part 1

Promenade plantee, Paris (2004.04.23)

Just post a fotolog for this park. Yet, I have much more nice memory of that park to say...

This park is one of my favorite parks in Paris, an old elevated railway transformed into a pedestrian walkway and a garden.

Walking along the walkway with various kinds of beautiful flowers and plants (and... bamboos!! can`t believe my eyes!!) aside all the way, the bright blue sky decorated with cotton white clouds swinging at the end of the road (which seemed never ending), people here and there having their lunches alone on the bench or chatting with friends, noise made by cars and people being quarantined away down the road, all and all, made me feel like being in a wonderland. How lucky Parisians are to have such an oasis in this big city....

When entered this park, two guys passed by seemed having some discussions with each other briskly in French. (of course, I was in France!) Unfamiliar with French at all, I thus thought their talking in French cute. Kai let me know at last that these two gay guys were discussing some issues about the gay rights. ha!

working on by...

A nice piece of work in flash. I like the end especially...

free webphone

This free webphone looks pretty easy to use, compared with those I tried to adopt to my graudate profolio long time ago...

Can not help admire those who have such smart brains, whereas my brain will soon play dumb and better go to bed soon... try it tomorrow then.

Day trip in Paris on my birthday, April 23 2004

Kai toured me a day trip in Paris on my birthday. We visited several parks (Square Leopold Achille, Square George Cain, and exhibitions, as well as explored some interesting local and foreign food shops.

This is just exactly what I would like to experience, doing what the locals do when visiting a place, city, or a country. More exciting for me was that, all the way, I felt like being in a movie...

hmm... probably no one would understand how great it was for me to experience these local spots with him in these parks, the exhibitions in Swedish cultural center, the Ikea bea armchairs, the Tunisia snack shop, sitting in the square, having snacks, walking in the parks, taking photos, standing closely in the crowded bus... and how pity and lost I felt when the phone rang...

My world map

Inspired by Kai's blog, Empire of Kai...

This is my empire:
- My world map by May 8, 2004
- My US map by May 8, 2004
- My Europe map by May 8, 2004

Will see how these maps being enlarged in 3 years...

Pastry shops in Paris

I have a great memory in th patry shops in Paris, some are in Parisian style and one is is Tunisian...

1) Les Petits Mitrons

My eyes were widely opened when seeing this lovely Parisian Pastry shop, not only for the colorful and fairy-tale-like drawing on the wall outside of the shop, but also for these beautiful and mouth-watering pastries. Heard this is a very famous Parisian Pastry shop, especially for their tarts. I, of course, had a try and... woa... soooo yummy...

By the way, this pastry shop is situated in front of the Cafe Tabac des Deux Moulins, one of the filming places for the movie Amelie.

For the other two, one Parisian pastry shop Mimi goes every morning and the Tunisian one is introduced by Kai. Yet, I am so sleepy now. ha, 2:30am, quite early now... need to get some sleep. will try to add them tomorrow...

A painter near Montmartre, Paris

A painter in the flee market near Montmartre, Paris (2004.04.17)

Before touring me to the Montmartre, Mimi and I had a walk in this temp flee market so as to meet her friends. Suddenly, a painting in which a girl in white dress holding a teddy bear and a boy in navy blue sailor suit playing with a kyte at the beach attracted my eyes and stopped me in front of this painting stand. I like its simple composition and these two characters reminded me of the Raggedy Ann and Andy story series, yes, my childhood reading memory again.

Then, I saw this old lady painter sitting next to this small stand. She told me that she painted all the paintings. For these girl-and-boy paintings, she added a Teddy bear in each painting of this series. Thus, I found the lovely Teddy appeared at the beach, in the park and in some other places. I couldn`t resist this cute little bear and thus bought the painting that I loved at the first sight. I also asked her permission to take some photos with her, this painting, and her small stand. She signed her name, Pauline Bordeeux, and her telephone number at the back of this painting.

Looking at her signature, I hoped I would have a chance to meet her again when my next visiting Paris... yet, a dim hope maybe...

flats

Quite impressed to see no TV sets in my friends' living rooms when visiting Paris this time. Instead, these flats are equipped with musical instruments or a full wall of books. An organ (harmonia?) sits in Mimi's living room and a music keyboard is placed in Rodelph's. A wall of books stands in Kai's flat, too, pretty cozy. Compared with us here that used to have TV sets placed in the center of a flat and occupied most of the leisure time, no TV is really a cozy idea...

arrhhh.... wanna have a flat of my own. wanna arrange my space as I wish. wanna have some rooms to share with myself...


ps. While searching for the name of the organ musical instrument, find this beatiful Flemish harpsicord in the Baroque music site. Like the sound from the harpsichord a lot, though it reminds me of a horror vampire movie seen at the age of 10 or something. I was scared so much in the theater that I hold my mom's arms tightly and hided myself in her back whenever the vampire showed up. Plus, I had several bad dreams the next few days...

Hello Paris

Can't believe I am in Paris now... gosh... it's almost been 8 years since my last visit!

The strange but exciting feeling started from my transferring the plane in Bangkok Airport. After serveral days of working overtime until midnight in office, I didn't feel any excitments for my coming holidays. Yet, in the boarding room, most of the passengers were Europeans and spoke in French language. Interestingly, I became the minority in that room. Seeing these sun-tanned Europeans and hearing the cute and sexy French pronounciation of "r" and "-tion" sounds, I started to feel and sense, "ahh... I am going to Paris!!"

More interestingly, the first thing I did after my arrival Paris was attending a Taiwanese birthday party! My French friend, Myriam, the cute gal I am visiting, was invited by her Taiwanese friend for his birthday party yesterday evening. I thus went along. Again, most of the guests were speaking in French (Gosh!! I really fall in love with this language.) Though I understood almost nothing but only "ca va" and few greeting words, I enjoyed listening to the music-like conversations so much and, of course, trying hard to reply them with my servival-no-where-at-all French and... silly smile. People were nice to switch to English for me and a French gril even spoke in her limited Chinese to me...

Sashimi and sushi

Went to a Japanese restaurant with Franz and Marcus (Andreas' visitor) this evening for the sashimi (sliced raw fish) and sushi. We reserved the seats in front of the bar, where no menu was offered and needed. Only thing we did was telling the chef our preference to either sashimi or sushi or both.

Accordingly, the chef choosed what fish/seafood he had today and arranged the sashimi/sushi for us. We thus chatted while enjoying to see how the chef prepared the food. We had several nice surprises when the dish was served. I have been to this restaurant serveral times and still got surprises everytime! This time was the white flower sushi roll. The white flower was in fact shaped by a slice of squid with one side cut like a flower, quite cute...

My favorite food there is the perilla seasoned apple sushi roll. It looked like Tekkamaki (raw tuna roll) and the texture tasted like tuna at the first bite. Then a bit sour of perilla smell bursts into your nose... very very tasty....

huh... was trying to note the "puppy theory" suggested by a friend, which said to help people get their low mood away... yet, why turning to sashimi and sushi now? okay, next time then...


p.s. This site lists many sushi terminology in English...

distorted truth

All of a sudden, my world turns turmoiled by various shocks and surprises at work and in my personal life.

A favor on resource locating for a colleague at another dept turning into a business line potically incorrect judgement. My email closing signature, with all the correspondence removed, is now used as the arrow in the complain letters shooting to my dept heads and that colleague's dept from everywhere by those 'gladiators' who claim to own the correct process... wait... excuse me...what is the definition of "correct process"? Who can judge if their "correct process" complying with other's?

Moreover, some accusations are based on a second hand and incorrect information. Interestingly, those big heads who shooting complain letters never ever ask their doubts to the email sender, who? ME! Instead, they simply speak from their viewpoint, based on a distorted truth... how ironic! This just so reminds me of our current president election dispute...

Some say that this is just politics. When you are at a certain level in a large company, you are not doing the business anymore, only politics remained... I can understand why they send out such complain letters and cause the snowball effect to strive for their "rights"... hope not, but I probably do the same if I were at their positions. Yet, is this common and a must to survive in the business jungle? If so, my disappointment will be added on the top of my depression... and if really so, is this time for my changing?????? i am soooooooooooo depressed and struggled...

sigh... the shock and arguement in personal life to come in the next posts...

Friends gathering in Taipei

Seems many of my friends are gradually gathering in Taipei...

Andreas is now living in Taipei along with his family for an overseas assignment. Franziska is thus attending a Chinese language course to fit herself more into the local life. Little cute Jakob now greets "Xie Xie!" during the weekdays after spending most of his day times in the local daycare center. He switches to "Danke!" during the weekends when spending more time with his parents and back to "Xie Xie!" in the next week. In addition, Andreas' sister will come to Taipei for a short visit next week. The last time I met her was in Newcastle, wow, in 1996 or 1997!! Oh, then our old time common friend Ruth would certainly have a visit to Taipei sooner or later...

Ralf, Andreas' colleague, will also have his business trip here next week. We become friends thru Andreas when their first business trip to Taipei. It's just so coincidence that we often miss meeting each other. His arrival date to Taipei is usually the same date of my departure to Raleigh. Last year in March, he arrived Taipei in the morning and, the same day, I flied to Raleigh in the afternoon. We had a quick lunch together near my office, along with some of my colleagues... ahh... in a vegetarian restaurant... This Jan, the same thing would almost happen again. He decided to postpone his business trip and we at last will meet each other next week too...

My French friend, Laurent, is having his 1-year Chinese language course here. He is very brave to make such a big move in life, stopping his freelancing jobs, leaving his flat in France, and being a student again. He works very hard on his study, dedicating all of his time on practising pronounciation, conversation, writing and memorizing Chinese characters. By the way, another French friend, Myriam, is planning to move to Taipei for a short stay later this year too...

The interesting thing is... while friends are flying and moving over here, my plan of leaving this city is soon ongoing and my craving to life change is growing larger and lager... why so... i dunno...

odd country name for Taiwan

How come the country name for Taiwan in the ISO 3166-1 Code List as "Taiwan, Province of China"?

Taiwan is OF COURSE NOT a province of China!

Okay, the followings might explain the country name source coming from:

Fourth, the country names used in ISO 3166-1 are all from United Nations sources. Using these country names officially notified by the countries to the UN Secretary General helps in keeping ISO 3166-1 politically neutral and thus acceptable to as many users as possible.

Yet...Taiwan is OF COURSE NOT a province of China!

Yeah, we may take the "China" in the "Taiwan, Province of China" as that in "R.O.C". But, to be practical, a letter with Taiwan, ROC on the envolope may directly be sent to PROC and the recepient may never receive it ever since...

*sigh*.... now, I am blaming myself being lazy and not joining the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally human chain activity...

Peanuts

Just read the Peanuts 2004 daily calender bought in Raleigh and find this hilarious comic strip.

A cool site for Peanuts:

- Snoopy first appeared in Oct 4, 1950!
- The very first Peanuts comic strip and the first time Charlie Brown is called 'Good Ol' Charlie Brown!
- and for the other characters...

Charles M. Schulz, what a great author!

Static and Silence

Just got one of my favorite CD back, The Sunday's Static and Silence. Thought it was lost but actually lent it to a colleague long time ago...

This page contains short sound clips for each song in this CD. Here is all the lyrics for The Sundays. Among them, this one is my favorite. The followings is what I like the most:

...
when you're searching your soul
when you're searching for pleasure
how often, pain is all you find
but when you're coasting along and nobody's trying too hard
you can turn around and like where you are
...

Some news for The Sundays, though the latest one is in Feb 2002...

NY and RTP, NC

Photos taken in New York and RTP, North Carolina for my trip in Jan & Feb, 2004.

Somehow, a faint vague voice deep inside murmuring, just hope the photos taken in RTP can be found under "that" directory... yet, a vain hope...

Wake up! silly gal...

my first photo logs

Two of my photo log sites:

http://www.fotolog.net/littleislander/:
This free fotolog site can only add one photo per day...

http://littleislander.fotopages.com :
This free fotolog site can add more photos at one time...

Getting start now...

snow in Durham!!

Erik posted two beautiful photos of the snow last night in Durham!!!!!
And here is my comments when seeing these photos: snow wood in Narnia!!

How I wish I were there to experience the snow, especially in such a low low mood, being torn apart again and falling from the altitude of 36,000 feet...

Valentine Heart

nothing much to say, just...

I'VE GOT A VALENTINE HEART!! a valentine heart formed by slices of apples!! AN APPLE VALENTINE HEART!!!

flying 19 hours at the altitude of 36,000 feet, this heart had accompanied me enjoying the Orions at my right hand side on the way to Alaska and back home to Taipei, contented...

lost and found

the 12-year-old left his sunglasses at the heart-broken's.

Heart-broken: hey, you left your sunglasses yesterday.
12-year-old: see, you're not the only one who loses things...

Heart-broken: yet, your lost can be easily found. my lost can not...
12-year-old: yeah yeah. we all have things that are hard to find. believe me.
Heart-broken: right right... just my lost can be found by someone, but that someone does not want to find it for me... what can i do?
12-year-old: hmm...

12-year-old: get coffee?
Heart-broken: ^_^... yes, let's go!

lost

the 12-year-old teased me,

you've lost your pot;
you've lost your car battery;
you've lost your room key, and
you've lost your voice.
what will you lose next?

huh? next? of course no next...yet...

just realised i've lost my heart... but...

found broken.

with a broken heart, i am finding my way out... and... have to...

charades

Charades is called "bi3 sho3 hua4 jiao3" in Chinese .

Last Friday, after the dumpling and Taiwanese rice noodle party, me, Kai, Erik, Tracy, and some testers played this game tegether. Amused to see how people from different countries acting out the words using various gestures and movements which are underminingly affected by their cultures or how they were brought up.

For example, Kai, the half American & half German & resident in France, placed one arm near his nose and raised up that arm to act out "An Elephant", whereas I, the Taiwanese, used two hands, placing my right thumb and point finger on my nose to form a circle in front of my chest and then my left arm streching out of this circle to form "An Elephant"! Do elephants look different in Taipei/Newcastle or New York/Boston/Paris?

How about the next... when Kai used two arms to round a circle in front of his belly and then bent aback his waist, Kenji the Japanese suddendly shouted "fat" and then "American"... the answer is......

Santa Clause!!!

Okay, okay, I was also teased for acting out "The Berlin Wall" and "Skiier"...

Plus, it's very interesting to see how quickly people guessed the correct answers. Erik and Tracy the couple always easily shouted out correct answers from each other's acting. Amazingly, I could quickly get the right answer from Kai's. This guy was soooooo kind to comment that it must result from my watching his behaviour closely! ha! seemed he could quickly guess mine too... anyway, in this case, how people think seems not affected by nationality and culture... interesting...

Playing this game was with loads of fun... we laughed out loud when the presenter kept using the same but audience-didn't-understand-at-all guesture or movement to act out the words. The presenter also laughed when audiences kept shouting out his/her every moverments, especially when Kai's acting... "uhh...touching his head, touching his face, uhh... thinking, wondering, ..." For one moment, I seemed to see a 12-year-old boy with a navy blue shirt, bursting out laughing with a sunshine-like face, wondering nothing and worrying nothing...

Lost in Durham

Gosh! It took me almost 1.5 hours to reach Duke University....

Followed the direction in the Yahoo map but turned out useless... turned right on "BARBEE RD/OLD DURHAM - APEX RD/S BARBEE RD" and, excuse me, I drove onto the wet muddy so called "Barbee RD" and ended up in the front yards of some country houses!! *sigh*...

Okay, then turned back to the East 54 and drove along the Chapel Hill RD (why are there so many Chapel Hill RDs in this area?)... so... I found myself in Cary! Cary (Concentrated Area for Relocated Yankee)!!! At last, got the correct direction info in a gas station and a supermarket. The warm-hearted middle-aged black man, with cute white short beard, even noted down the directions step by step, took me out of the supermarket, and showed me the direction back to N147. Though i was shiveringly standing in the cold weather with a thin T-shirt, my heart was warmed and full of appreciation.

In addition to kind and warm hosipitality of Durham locals, my adventure today also worths a bunch of good things! Found a beatiful lake, Lake Crabtree, on the way back to N147 and a nice state park (ahh... forget the name... dxxx). Plus, Duke Univerity is sooooooooo beatiful in the winter!!! It's really worthy to re-visit again and again!!

a party in Durham, NC

Went to Tracy's birthday party last night in Durham, NC and enjoyed a lot the easy-going party flow.

Felt a bit didn't-know-what-to-do at the beginning cause most of the people in the party were so new-face for me. Also, most of the testers had not arrived and in fact I haven't had time getting to know them well yet. Kai was busy smoking and talking with Tracy outside of the kitchen. Chatting with Erik was nice and that helped getting thru my ice breaking time. (Erik is very keen at obversation when he vividly described the water fall from the huge water tanks in LAB and the appearance of Chinese Thousand Egg in the party. He seems more like a writer to me than a software engineer... getting to admire his talent...)

Get back to the party... is this sort of a culture shock? Taking the time going to the party as an example, in my culture, attending the party on the dot is showing the respect to the host. However, my party experiences in Newcastle, England had me getting used to a different aspect. My German friend Ruth once commented from her observation, "If the invitation lists the starting time at 7pm, then eventually we'd better show up after 8pm in case the host hasn't done the preparation and to avoid the awkward ice breaking period." Ha, this finding helped us enjoy many parties thru our staying there. Interestingly, I kind of still arrived early in the tester group (though at 9pm, an hour later than the listed time. Plus, Kai may not be counted as a guest, I assume.) hehe...

Secondly, parties I used to have are among closed colleagues and good friends. We have more common topics, similiar life experiences to share, no matter happiness or problems. Last night, it was also a new experience. Amazed to find that there were several groups from the hosts' friend nets, including colleagues, neighbors, friend's friends and... friends met via the Internet communities. Eli and Emily were two of them and said that they met each other and Tracy in person the first time last night... wow... I felt surprised but impressed by this kind of first enounter...

The party went on more relaxing for me when getting to know more people and when other testers arriving. Yet, felt left alone when Kai suddenly left the party and dropped the words that he would be back later but didn't before I headed back. Although I usually can manage myself well in social activities (thanks for Mom) and not a too attached person, deep in mind, I find myself need a fimilar person/thing around to feel secured. In that case, Kai was the one since he was the person I knew the best in that party (uhh...did I?)

Ha, loads of self-finding from last night's party... wait... wasn't it supposed to a birthday party? Tracy didn't make her birthday wishes though... ahh... okay, maybe another different view on the birthday party...

Last question, can't help wondering why people are now getting more closed via the text conversations, but lack of the feeling of intimacy or fimilarity when meeting face to face?

Strand

Strand, a great bookstore in New York City for art, fiction, history, children and all other sorts of books, in a fairly bargained discount price, 1/2 of original price for most of the paperbacks

almost can't resist my shopping desire when spotting Winnie the Pooh, Raggedy Ann, and even MARY POPPINGS!!! all are in my childhood reading memory. My parents bought a set of children's reading novels and the above were all there, of course, in Chinese version... ahh... start getting the sense why i am now involved in translation business...

Making dumplings in New York

Guess what? Lucien and I just made dumplings here in New York, which is the first time in 10 years we've made the dumplings together. Lucien wanted to do it to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year but couldn't find time. So, now the sister comes visiting, serving as a Taiwanese food express delivery person and a cook...

okay, in fact, it's quite fun doing the dumplings. Have to recall our home recipe and buy all the ingredients we did in the old time. Quite amazed that we actually did find all the stuff needed in the Chinese supermaket, especially for the dumpling skins. Chopping the chives and cabbages, mixing the vegis with the minced pork, wrapping the dumplings while chatting with Lucien, making the corn soup... all in all, reminds us of many memories we have long forgotten...

and the strange thing is... we had the dumplings with the couple Lanchi (tw) and Taka (japan) together for the Golden Global Award watching party...

will add the photos tomorrow...

Freezing in New York

gosh! New York is sooooooo cold... -9C... it's like walking in the freezer...how can Lucien and Shaye bear with this freezing weather? Hope Raleigh would be warmer...

by the way, heard Taipei is also cold too. even snowing in YangMing Mt, 20 mins driving distance from my house, almost the city center... what happen, World?

better go to bed soon to get the jetlag away...

referendum

here is the vedio clip for the interview on "謝志偉嗆聲". Choose the date of "2004年1月8日".

here is the discussion on that interview:

"台視的「謝志偉嗆聲」1 月 8 日的節目訪問了譚慎格教授及岡崎教授，譚教授以不甚流利的中文，闡述布希之前被誤導而說出「反對台灣公投」的內幕，美國政府後來對台灣公投立場的轉變（由「反對」變成「不支持」），美國為什麼從來不承認台灣是中國的一部分，以及他為什麼堅決主張台灣一定要舉辦 320防衛公投的原因。..."

i am now more and more wishing the preventive/defensive (whatever) referendum will be held on 3/20....

Live in Skudeneshavn and Flipper

The webcamera in Skudeneshavn

This corner reminds me of the dolphin Flipper. When meeting him, he was sleeping and sometimes snoring under the ferry in the harbour...

Yet, Grete said that Flipper has been missing for a long time and heard dead already... pls, don't be true...

News for Flipper:

October 2002: Flipper is missing, and some people fears that the popular dolphin is dead. The Norwegian Institute of Marine Reserch has no information supporting that theory. The dolphin has not been seen since June.

November 2002: A carcass found on a beatch in Karmøy is supposed to be Flipper. Investigations of the 3 m. long carcass (witch had no head), shows that is was a small basking shark.

July 2003: Members of the foundation: "Flippers Venner" (Flippers friends) are worried. Flipper has not been seen in Norway this year.

last minute

suffering from my unorganised and "everything in the last minute" behaviour...

- missing the River Dance performance in Taipei last night so to grade the final exam, which i should have done so one week ago... plus, the ticket is quite expensive... : (
- hurrying to the college this evening so as to deliver the scorecard, because i again missed the due time for inputing students' grades via the website...

priority... priority...*sigh*...

foot massage

how come people claim foot massage a good therapy? it's just so painful!!.... huh... okay, sometimes comfortable, yet, not too much...

had a foot massage this afternoon and advised that i'd better take more care of my brain, arms, shoulders, and some other parts of body... heard that people working with computers usually feel painful in these reflexology areas when having the foot massage... ha, looks like i have been abusing my brain and body too much...

so, for the sake of my health, better strive for understanding the foot reflexology area and the hand reflexology area...??

Alone

Also this book, Alone, the 8th book in the "Net and Books" series...

The publisher, Rex Hao, says:

"你隨時都可以不是一個人。你可以二十四小時隨時走進一個便利超商，一家KTV，一家書店。你可以二十四小時隨時在網路上找到一個剛剛早上八點起床的人和你聊天，甚至不止聊天
(Translation: You can choose not being alone anytime. You can, anytime, go to a 24-hour-open place in Taipai, such as a convenient store, a KTV, a bookstore. Also, you can, anytime, surf in the Internet and chat with a person just getting up at 8am in the morning... even not just chatting...)

看了許多對孤獨和寂寞的定義，還是覺得蒂利希（Paul Tillich）說得最好：「語言創造了『寂寞』這個字來表達因一個人而感到的痛苦；『孤獨』這個字來表達因一個人而感到的光榮。」（Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.）"

Uncategorized Youth

Just finish reading this book, 青春無法歸類 (Uncategorized Youth). The author, 柯玉棻 (Ke, Yufen), a 1968-born single woman, living in Taipei, notes down the worries she and her also-30-somthings girl friends facing: weights, work, money or spending money, love, hate, etc...

Can't stop laughing or weeping when reading some of the articles. Just like reading my own diary...

New Year's resolution

Just realize that my wish list for 2004 in fact should be my New Year's Resolution for 2004.

Now, 5 days has passed in 2004 and I am trying to keep some good habbits on
- have a one-hour walking (not bad, went for a hiking in XiangTien/MianTien Mountains and now suffer from the sore legs)
- work less (hmm...trying... especially with the new time card system... )
- spend time with myself more to think... for myself or simply not doing anything... (yes, i am doing so...)
- less greedy on friendship, time, etc (huh...)

Tamshuei? Danshuei?

Interesting to find two different spellings of 淡水, while driving Taipei City to Taipei County. In Taipei City, 淡水 is spelled as "Danshuei", followed by the Pinyin system; whereas as "Tamshuei" in Taipei County.

Gosh! while searching, more spellings of 淡水 are found more different spelling, Tamshui,

Okay, in the MOI site, here is the translation rule of places and here is the intructions when translating place names from Chinese to English. For example,

使用u(e)i與 i(o)u拼音時，一律用全寫，不採用縮寫，並去除括號，例如淡水為Danshuei，而非Danshui 或Danshu(e)i；斗六為Douliou，而非Douliu 或Douli(o)u。

Quite clear enough though! However, seems not implemented completely enough...

How can a non-Chinese reader know which one is which and in fact these spellings means the same place?