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?