breath-holding sounds

I listened to this song before seeing the movie. I was on a bus from home to school. The bus driver was tunning in an English station (the only English station at that time in Taiwan). I got goose bumps while the music was licking every pore on my skin. Immediately, I decided to see the movie and bought the sound track afterwards.
I had done this kind of things many times for Chinese music albums (for example, 楊乃文的 "你就是吃定我"，蔡健雅的 "紀念"，陳潔儀的 "輕挑"). This was my first time to be pushed by one English song and made a purchase.

This is my first time watching the music video of "You Must Love Me." Argentine tango appears two times! There are three dances shown in the clip, and tango is the 1st and the 3rd dances.

Music is very important for movies too. But it is not very often that I fall for a movie because of its music. It happens of course. For example, the movie Closer: I can't take my eyes off it. Just can't.



Another example is a very recent one, Atonement. The music blended with the typewriter was fantastic. And the movie, actually, was beyond my expectation probably because the soundtrack was so good.



Music is something amazing that I believe only humans are capable of making. I believe some other animals have similar things like human language to communicate with each other as a great product of evolution. But music is probably what makes humans so "superior" to others. Don't be so humble and give God this credit. We humans are awesome.

Like last Sunday, friends and I accidentally went to a live Jazz restaurant for brunch. The sound of cello made my whole body smile. Awesome.

beauty of winter

Now I am typing with gloves on.
You think I'm at my desk in office? I was typing with gloves and scarf and little heat fans on yesterday in office.
But no, now I am home, typing with gloves on.

I woke up with a unpleasant feeling around my head. The feeling was named COLD. Not a virus kind of cold. It was a sensation kind.
My apartment is at the corner of the building. Most of time it is not as warm as the other parts of the building. But I usually take it as a luck because I don't like my room so warm and dry.
I got up and felt the walls. They felt like ice. I felt like I lived in an igloo, a not-so-warm one.
My feet touched the floor and immediately felt cold and awake.

Let me take a shower, I said to myself, and tucked my feet into my fluffy slippers. Oh, I love my fluffy slippers. They have been with me since my first winter in the US. That was the longest winter in my life. It snowed for an unusually long period of time: 6 months.
I walked to the bathroom and immediately sensed badness in terms of COLD.
The bathroom is the warmest part of my apartment. It often keeps me in longer than necessary because it gives me warmth. But this morning, it was COLD. The radiator was not as hot as a stove top! There must be something wrong. Very wrong. I turned the faucet and waited for hot water running. Water was COLD. I frowned, not happy.
Above the radiator is the window. It appeared white as if someone covered it with white paint over night. I stared at it, wondering how I should name this kind of white. As white as paper, like how we describe a terrified face? As white as tofu, like how we describe a beautiful skin tone in Asia? As white as snow, like ...? Is it snowing now!? My soul jumped out of my body, and I ran to the living room window and rolled up the curtain. It was snowing hard. Very hard. Everything was covered with snow.
Beautiful. I guessed I am going to have a long weekend.

Kim called and said she could not make her SUV out of snow.
Dr. Anna called and said she could not make her car out of snow.
Peggy S. emailed and said no one should get out of the house.
Accidents have been reported on highway since very early this morning.
Neighbors answered my door knocks and said they didn't have heat or hot water either.
Snow is expected to continue until tomorrow morning.

I called the super. Where is heat? When can it come back?
Snow is beautiful when I stay indoors and warm. Now I need the warm component to kick in so that I can appreciate the beauty of snow. Please.

OH it worked! My complaint on my blog worked! As of now 9:55am, after 1.5 hour of my COLD sensation, heat has come back to my apartment.
And my warm delicious seafood Chinese soup is ready on the stove (I thank to myself for going to the great Chinese grocery store 4 months ago). I am ready to sit into my lovely couch and watch the lovely snow fall. Perhaps I'll turn on the online Jazz radio, which I listen to on radio in my car and in my shower too (FM 88.3).
Arh.. beauty of winter~
It's like the beauty of typhoon when I was in high school.
The power of Nature always amazes me. It can always be so powerful that it stops daily routines that I don't particularly like.
To enjoy the beauty, please stay in your house and keep the distance so that you can see a nice view. Don't try to drive through it. As I know, it's very dangerous. The beauty does not want to be touched. Just stay away and smile at it :)

一點貢獻

埃及與它周圍許多的中東北非國家目前充斥著年輕人，二十五歲以下的年輕人佔全國百分之五六十，大學畢業生遠遠多出於工作機會，沒有好工作就代表沒有好薪水，沒有好薪水就代表結不了婚 (娶親要花至少兩萬多美金，但是年輕人的月平均所得不過上百元)，結不了婚就代表沒有性生活 (至少台面上是如此)，沒有性生活就代表還不是大人。未婚率和失業率被視為埃及目前最糟糕的社會現象。
過得如此不順，所以現在許多埃及年輕人投入宗教，多讀可蘭經，多修習，於是少去想自己現在的經濟狀況，少去想要花錢娶老婆，少去想現世的不順利而去寄望來世的可能性。雖然教育比從前普及，但是比起幾十年前，越來越多的女人戴上頭巾遮住自己，越來越多的新興保守主義者，越來越多人嚴厲實行每天五次的膜拜 (沒工作所以時間多啊)，越來越多公共場所把男人和女人分開。埃及的第一夫人沒有趕上這新興的戴頭巾潮流，被批評不守婦道。

這是今天紐約時報頭版頭條的大意，我看得心情非常不好。
我能怎麼辦?　皺眉也沒用。他們已經受教育啦，已經會自由思考啦，已經會為將來前途操心啦，但是整個社會經濟壓著他們的胸懷大志，連肚子都餵不飽，追尋什麼大志和享樂啊？只能妥協。
我頂多慶幸不是生在埃及，慶幸我可以自由戀愛，慶幸我不需要遵從嚴厲的宗教社會規範，慶幸我不用天天被耳提面命的提醒三從四德。我能為埃及的年輕人做什麼？什麼也不能。

想起在研究所的時候修了一門社會心理學，討論美國對女性和弱勢族群的不公平待遇，每次討論我每次就不太爽，我問教授，你看到這些現象不想要做什麼去改變一下嗎，她說她頂多只能研究和觀察，社會現象不是說要改就改得了的。
其實我知道答案是如此，我不過是得到一個更確定我心裡答案的答案。
無奈兩個字而已。

小時候，我可以說是有遠大志向的小孩，夢想要做一番大事，改變一堆我看不貫的規範，而現在體驗越多看越多，卻越是看不盡莫名其妙的現象，我的眉頭就越是難開，就像電影 no country for old men 的無奈結語: 你就是不會懂為什麼有人可以做出那樣的事情，你想都沒有想過，你想改變什麼? 世界不會因為你而改變。
就是仍然會有人以殺人為樂，就是仍然會有人認為男人比女人值得讀書識字，就是仍然會有人認為美國的槍枝管理不需要做改變。過去一個禮拜，美國又有至少三起的公共場所槍擊案上全國新聞，其中兩起在大學校園。我家附近的大學宿舍裡，一個來訪的男生自己槍枝走火，差點自殺。
我能怎麼辦?
自保還是利天下? 哪有能耐利天下啊? 少時狂語罷了。現在走路回家都還在心驚膽颤嘞。

但是我不會放棄的，我還是小小的夢想著我可以做些什麼，一定有什麼我可以做的，我可以閃躲過我無能為力的事情，例如埃及的社會現象，例如美國的槍支問題。但是我應該可以做什麼其他事情，例如多多去 Whole Foods買菜和添購民生必需品，所有的東西都是有機的，我剛買了一支有機牙刷，從包裝到握柄到刷毛都是再生或是有機的材料。沒辦法對埃及有什麼貢獻，就對地球有點貢獻，心情就好一點。

心情好一點，也是對我自己有一點貢獻。

happy b-day, god

By coincidence, ... well, not really, I clicked on Answers.com quite frequently because of my poor English. Anyway, on the homepage of Answers.com, Michael Jordan is Today's Hightlight. February 17, today is his birthday. I didn't know it even though I was a huge fan of his.

Back in junior high and high school days, I was crazily watching NBA because I fell in love with Jordan. In Taiwan, Jordan was THE Jordan. It did not mean the name of a country or anyone else's names. When I said Jordan, people knew whom I was talking about.
In US, not really. When I told my officemate that I was going to see Jordan playing basketball, she went "Jordan? Who?"
Alright, the point is that I was following NBA at least until the second or third year of university. I knew a bunch of players' names and what they were good at and rumors about them. Guys liked to talk with me because I knew all the "cool" stuff about NBA.

Oh yes, I went to see Jordan.
It was January of 2003. Jason and I traveled to DC and spent hundreds of dollars just to see him and to hear his voice. And also Iverson, the cute player in the 76ers. But mainly, I was going to see Jordan.
He was not as good as he had been when he led the empire of Chicago Bulls. He did not score as many as before either. But I had to see him. I had to see him before he retired for good.

Here is a picture from my camera. You can see more pictures on my old Chinese website. I wish I could sit even closer to feel the wind as he flew off the ground.

The first time I noticed him was when a classmate played a video of Jordan's best performances during our lunch break. Yeah... I went to a quite expensive private school where every classroom had two TV sets and a video player (and AC). The video showed Jordan's flying skill and his incredible speed passing through the opposite team, reaching the basket, putting the ball in, and of course, sticking out his tongue.
I was amazed totally. His movements were not just playing a ball game but dancing. He was performing an art. He was the god of basketball.
A Japanese comic book series was inspired by Jordan and the NBA. The comic book became the textbook of all teenagers. It also became movies and many other commercialized items.
Jordan's Nike sneakers were sold at high prices but everyone had at least one and boys had more than one. People stood in line before the stores opened so that they could buy a "fresh" pair of a new version of Air Jordan. My Jordan sneakers were not actually or officially Air Jordan, but they were Nike and got Jordan's "flying slam dunk" logo and got "AIR" covering the sides.
It was crazy and fun.

The championship game was always at the end of June, when was the busiest time for we students. I was preparing for the University Entrance Exams. Everyone appeared in the area around the Taipei Train Station was preparing for some important exams that were going to take place in June or July. The streets were super busy partly because so many students or exam-takers were walking around from class to class anytime during the day. But people would stop studying and stop at a TV anywhere one could find on the street. For example, I stopped at a McDonald's. We stopped because Jordan was on TV and Chicago Bulls were winning.

Ah.. youth. I miss it.
Like today I was cleaning up my dressing room and decided to put LaoTaiPuo 老太婆 into the closet so that it will stop collecting dust. So that it will stop reminding me of the old time.
LaoTaiPuo is a stuffed animal: a Pooh pretending to be a penguin. He (I know his name indicates that he should be a female but I think he is male) came to the US with me in 2002. He was a gift of a boyfriend who occasionally appeared in my dreams.
Dreaming of an ex is some kind of message, I guess. My best guess is that I miss youth. I miss the time when I was with him. I miss him but I don't miss him. You know what I mean?
I miss being so happy. I miss that the only thing I had to worry about was my grades in school. I miss that I could laugh easily.

Another reason that I was so mad about Jordan was his figure. He was hot.

Face is important of course. Some men just cannot stop me from looking at their faces. I like beautiful people.
And a butt like Jordan's is something that I would stare at if no one stops me.
Happy 45th birthday, Jordan. Stay in shape!
You are still the god of basketball for me.

As to my youth, I miss it but don't dwell on it. Dreams are not reality, between which I know the difference. I smile but don't cry over a scene of an old time memory.
45 is too old to play NBA. 45 is not too old in life. New hightlights are still more than just possible.
I am younger than 45. I move on and should create new highlights of my life.
I still miss my youth. For now I place it in my closet and sometimes dream of it with no harm done but smile.

natural or radical

Dee is a 29 year-old successful senior software consultant. His personal life is also doing very well with a wife and little children. Several weeks ago, the left side of his body started going out of control: his left arm and leg have suddenly been so weak that he is not able to move them. He cannot walk independently. He cannot type. He cannot raise his left arm.

Worst of all (from my perspective), he cannot see clearly in his left visual field. He is fully aware of his "neglect" symptom. Well, actually a person with neglect usually is not aware of his/her neglect symptom.
For the first sight, Dee sees an object or a word incompletely. Being aware of his neglect, he will move his head to the left to see the entire object or word. It does not matter how big the object or word is. For example, a word as short as "apple" is seen by him firstly as "pple". His strategy of consciously scanning from left to right helps him to do things, but this consciousness is totally abnormal. Normally we see a thing with little effort before we recognize it. Normally we don't need a strategy of scanning to read "apple".

He behaves like a person with right hemisphere injury.

He told us about what his symptoms have been in a totally intelligent articulate good-mannered way. His understanding on his condition is as if he read chapters of medical textbooks (I bet he must have googled everything.)
After staying in three different hospitals and seeing tens of neurologists and being examined on hundreds of different tests, he is frustrated about the mysterious cause of his condition, which results in today's interesting case.

If he was a stroke patient or had a tumor or showed any abnormalities in his brain imaging results, this case would not be as difficult or interesting as it is presented in front of our eyes.
Negative. Nothing. Nothing decisive was found in his brain or blood.

We, including Dr. Anna, Kim, a resident, two medical students, and me, were looking at him with our full attention, trying very hard to extract anything that other previous doctors did not see.
Dee was actually very happy that he got such attention because he wants to get better asap and he wants to know what's wrong with his body.

An hour later, we made a conclusion based on our best guess: Vitamin B12 Deficiency.
There was almost no B12 in his system.
He was not very convinced with the conclusion. Because he is a meat eater. Because he has been taking B12 shots every day since a blood test revealed his lack of B12.
As an Indian, he might be a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian means the probability of lacking B12 is higher than being a meat eater. But he is a meat eater, meaning his diet is rich with B12.
So the problem is in his stomach, not in his brain. Somehow he simply is not able to absorb B12.

B12 plays an important role in formation of red blood cells and is an essential component in the creation and maintenance of the myelin sheath that lines nerve cells. Large amounts of B12 are stored in the body of a non-vegetarian, so this condition may not become apparent until as much as four or five years after B12 absorption stops or slows down (for example, when the person decides to become a vegetarian or a vegan). B12 Deficiency can cause loss of muscle control and loss of sensation in the legs, hands, and feet, and other symptoms if the the affected part is somewhere in the nervous system. In this case, Dee cannot perceive the visual world normally even though his eyes are good.

Since Dee started taking B12 shots, his left arm and leg are gradually coming back to his voluntary control. We hope to find other B12 sources for him, or better, to find the cause of his inability of absorbing B12.

While looking for more information on B12 Deficiency, a thought comes to me.
Is being a true vegetarian (no fish or egg) or a vegan against our nature?
When pursuing nature becomes unnatural, one should stop and think about what is human nature.

I love the earth. I like to share the planet with other species. I do not like to kill. But I do not want to be a vegetarian for diet preferences: I like sushi, red meat, seafood, egg tarts, and organs. I do not want to be a vegan for diet preferences too: I like latte, taro, and fresh whipped cream on a warm pumpkin pie.
Now knowing that animal products are the source of B12, eating eggs, drinking milk, and swallowing sushi probably are good not only for my taste sensation but also for my health.
Humans eat everything because we are poor at self-generating every nutrient we need in order to have a healthy life.

Dee is unfortunate that he is lack of B12 for some unknown reason that is not related to his diet habit. But I am thinking about vegans who have normal functions of absorbing B12. Do they accept taking vitamin pills as a natural thing to do? Do they accept a B12 shot as organic? Do they realize that they are probably insisting in living a life against their true nature? Are they some kind of radicals?

Naturally, we humans are able to digest animal and vegetable products. This may naturally mean that we need both.
Now I can accept some vegetarians who actually eat fish and/or eggs. Good for them.
But they should not call themselves vegetarians. Fishitarian or eggitarians?
Please label yourself correctly.
Hi, I am an everything-eater, naturally.

get balanced

Why do people keep happiness away (and to the left) from them?
Or do they?

In the latest issue of Neuropsychology, a group led by my boss's mentor Kenneth Heilman reported an emotional influence on spatial attention. Essentially, this is a topic that has interested me since I learned the mutually inhibitory interaction between left and right cerebral hemispheres, and inhibitory regulation from anterior toward posterior brain areas. You know, our brain likes balance, and left right anterior posterior all work together to keep the balance. Om.

Basically, the right hemisphere (RH) is associated with attentional allocation in the left hemispace in the world relative to the viewer. That is, you allocate or orient or place or shed attention (whatever verbs that you like to play around for the metaphor) toward your left side of your body via functional networks in your right brain. Conversely, the left hemisphere (LH) is associated with attentional allocation in the right hemispace.

Kenneth Heilman and other researchers have also found that not only left and right but also proximal and distal space are differently associated with different cerebral hemispheres. Overall, studies have agreed that RH has a distal, left attentional bias, and that LH has a proximal, right bias.
And this spatial attention orienting network is more on the posterior part, than the anterior part, of the brain.

I know less about emotion and never officially did formal research on it but always like to read about it. And somehow most job seekers gave talks on emotion when I was a graduate student in Penn State. And somehow I liked to attend to job talks. I am always supportive to job talks. Job seekers are young researchers who are nervous and want attention and are afraid that no one else in the world cares about what they are doing.

What I have learned from the job talks, which were professional and full of up-to-date scientific knowledge, is that positive emotions are associated with LH and negative emotions are associated with RH. For example, a happy scene activates more frontal areas in LH than in RH. Frontal areas are anterior regions of the brain.

Therefore, it is like that there are two seesaws in the brain. One in the anterior part, and the other one in the posterior part. RH and LH are the players on the seesaws. And keep in mind that anterior inhibits posterior.

OK, let's play. Just play with the logic, nothing psychology or neuroscience. Ready?

If RH anterior is more activated, RH posterior will be inhibited more. And at the same time, because RH anterior is more activated (more weight on the seesaw), LH anterior will be less activated. The result of a less-activated LH anterior is a less-inhibited LH posterior. Also the result of a more-inhibited RH posterior (less weight on the seesaw) is a more-activated LH posterior. In summary, if RH anterior is more activated than LH anterior, LH posterior will be more activated than RH posterior.
Fun?
Let's add emotion and attention in.

The research team that I mentioned above (Foster et al., 2008) hypothesized that activating emotionally associated RH anterior would result in more activated LH posterior which would result in an attentional bias toward the right and proximal side of the body. And activating emotionally associated LH anterior would result in more activated RH posterior which would show an attentional bias toward the left and distal side of the body.

They found that positive emotional words (happy, joyful, and surprised) labeled on pegs were placed more toward the left distal part, and negative emotional labels (scared, sad, disgusted) were placed quite at the center of the space.
In short, their results partially support their hypothesis.

I have some critics but I am not going to bore you with my professional opinions and abstract jargons in my interesting blog.
Let's focus on their positive finding: positive emotional words were placed on the left side and distant from the body. For people who do not read the whole paper or understand a bit about this particular research field, the result sounds amazing and puzzling.

But 1 centimeter to the left and 31 centimeters away from the body (= 1 centimeter away from the center) are not "distal" to me.
The theoretical model sounds very cool but the result, even the positive result, is not practical.

This is what I mean by a gap between scientists and lay people.
Emotion and attention are used so commonly in daily conversation, but are narrowly defined in experimental psychology (so that we can experiment on them). And the data we present are averaged numbers. For example, the 1 centimeter difference was an average from 138 people who did the task. However, it is very likely that a lay person just comes across the title of the report and is surprised by the advance of science and quickly interprets that "Oh, emotion influences how we pay attention!"

I am not against the report title. I don't belittle the significance of their findings. I am just considering what a lay person may react to a journal article. Not just job seekers but all scientists who publish articles want to be acknowledged with what they are doing.

What are we doing?
Is positive emotion keeping our attention distant from us? You know, the so-called spatial bias. Do we see the word "happy" and feel happy and put it a bit away from us?

There is a word "philosophy" in my degree, and I consistently think why this word is on my diploma. Now I kinda understand.
As a postdoc, uncertain about the career future, insecure about the financial present and future, I meditate more and more and think about why we place "happy" a bit further. We are optimistic. We believe happiness is further and as long as we keep reaching and reaching (it needs some distance to reach), we will touch it.

If all 138 participants in the study were postdocs, "happy" might have been placed 30 centimeters farther (the peg board was 61 x 61 centimeter square). Since the participants were all actually undergrads, they did not keep happy too far and still easy to touch--no sweat for simply lifting a finger for a 1-centimeter distance.

Emotion influences everything, not just attention. I personally appreciate the work done by the Heilman group. I wish I was one of the authors.
What influences emotion? The weather, definitely.
So if the weather is cold (as cold as 10F like today), I'll have some negative emotions, and my spatial attention will bias toward the right proximal side. Uh.... so?
So I should put a cup of hot chocolate close to my right hand.
After having the hot chocolate, I'll feel happy and my brain will be balanced.

Let me do a hot chocolate now. Isn't science great?

摺紙

我摺了一個紙盒，裡面放了大家送我的巧克力，放在掃地阿姨一定會經過的角落。
這幾天掃地阿姨都沒來，巧克力早已經被吃光了，那個紙盒昨天我丟掉了，今天我又摺了一個新的，丟小紙屑用。
上一次摺紙盒的時候，應該至少是五年前，應該是在台北，應該是在奶奶家。

雖然說我們都叫那個地方「奶奶家」，爺爺也住在那裡。雖然我叫他們爺爺奶奶，其實是外公外婆。
爺爺不回收廣告垃圾紙，他都叫我們小孩子把廣告紙摺成紙盒，丟骨頭用。就是飯桌上的食物殘餘專用盒。
有些時候，紙盒摺的太多了，還要分送給親戚，阿姨舅舅們都是受惠者。大概就是我家不接受吧，因為我家不用紙盒丟骨頭，我家的傳統是木碗。如果你聽到我麻嗎喊「去拿木碗」，就代表今天的菜色裡有魚或是雞啊鴨啊蹄膀啊，所以在我家「去拿木碗」的口令等於奶奶家的「去拿盒子」。
所以我很會摺紙盒，也很會拿木碗。
紙盒輪不到我拿啦，我下面的表弟表妹們搶著拿勒。

以前啊，一邊看電視一邊摺紙盒是習以為常的事情，摺的又好又快。
現在啊，一邊說話等上菜一邊摺筷架是非常簡單熟練的事情，摺的又好又快。
我忘了是誰教我的，也忘了是從什麼時候開始，如果我在餐廳裡用筷子，一定摺筷架，在台灣的時候從來不會這麼做。
跟我一起吃飯的朋友，不管是來自哪個洲陸的，都想跟我學一下，害我給人家一副手很靈巧的錯覺。靈巧這兩個字跟我一點都不搭，偶爾在我摺筷架的時候跟我沾一點邊我都偷笑。

摺紙跟我也不是很搭，小時候大家在流行摺紙鶴摺星星的時候，我一點都不感興趣，即使說摺一千隻紙鶴可以許願，摺一萬顆星星願望可以實現，都誘惑不了我，我就是皺一下眉頭繼續看我的金庸小說、讀我的空中英語教室，從小就是不喜歡玩這種摺紙遊戲，不過我會摺青蛙。
幼稚園老師教我摺青蛙，我超愛的，因為摺青蛙跟摺「東西南北」是幾乎同樣的程序。
(唉唷，哈哈哈哈哈，我以為是我中文退步還是記憶退步，那遊戲真的叫做東西南北啊，我小小google了一下，這個網站還有圖示說明喔，給你兒時記趣一下。)
我很懶啊又不靈巧，能夠學一種摺紙等於學兩種，當然愛啊，所以有一陣子我愛摺青蛙，也愛玩東西南北。那一陣子已經過了。

現在我又開始摺紙盒，辦公室裡了廢紙超級多，因為美國人很浪費，說也說不聽，怎麼樣也不喜歡使用雙面列印，所以我存了很多單面用過的廢紙，偶爾我會用它們印一些文件，偶爾拿了墊餐盒，偶爾拿來塗鴉，偶爾拿來紀錄我隨想的靈感，我喜歡紙筆的觸感，是鍵盤和螢幕沒辦法給我的觸感。
摺紙盒也用這些廢紙。不需要爺爺提供廣告廢紙了。
我距離爺爺半個地球的距離，爺爺住院了。

今天是爺爺的生日，他是除夕寶寶。

爺爺，新年要快樂，身體就算很難比去年好，心裡要開心才是最重要。
要開心好不容易活了八十五年，不是很多人能做得到的。
要開心老伴一直陪在身邊，不離不棄不抱怨，不是很多人有你這福氣的。
要開心你女兒生了個我，給你虛榮的享受了一下「我孫女在美國拿博士」。
要開心你小兒子娶了個好媳婦，現在和將來照顧他也照顧你老婆。
要開心你的兒孫們都不需要你操心，要開心你該玩的該體驗的都走過了，要開心你還記得所有家人的名字。
這些都多麼不容易啊。
要開心，要多微笑，要開心，要多微笑，爺爺。
新年快樂，生日快樂。

在台北，標準紙張是 A4，非常適合摺成紙盒。美國就是要標新立異，就是要跟全世界用不一樣的規格，letter size 比 A4 肥短，摺出來的紙盒不是很牢固，不過我就將就點用囉。

sunday special - dumb laws

Good evening, world.
This is just so funny that I have to share with all of you. This is also a good example that America is not a state, but a bunch of states that make their own weird laws.



I'm not a fan of pick-up trucks. I think they should not exist wasting energy without actually carrying things around. But this is just my opinion. Good luck to people who drive a pick-up in Florida. I hope you can change to something that is more environment-friendly.
Talking about weird laws, New Jersey has a bunch. I realized it since I got a ticket for turning left at a green light in New Jersey.
So I googled a bit and found in New Jersey,
#It is against the law for a man to knit during the fishing season.
# You may not slurp your soup.
#If you have been convicted of driving while intoxicated, you may never again apply for personalized license plates.
# It is against the law to "frown" at a police officer.
# On a highway you can not park under a bridge.
# Car dealerships are forbidden from opening on Sunday.
# You cannot pump your own gas. All gas stations are full service and full service only.
# Automobiles are not to pass horse drawn carriages on the street.
# It is illegal to delay or detain a homing pigeon.
(The above are copied and pasted from Dumb New Jersey Laws)

What can you do?
Sigh or laugh.

saturday special

Good morning, World.
I clicked on a link posted on a friend's gmail chat.
And I started smiling.
I always have a thing for cars. Since I was 18 or 20, I set my goals: my first car is VW New Beetle and my last is a Jaguar.

Click here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjHkj-uSt_Y

Of course, it's a great song too. Timeless classic.