12月 31, 2006

告別 2006最後一天

耶和華在滄海中開道, 在大水中開路, 耶和華如此說: 你們不要記念從前的事, 也不要思想古時的事。看哪, 我要做一件新事; 如今要發現, 你們豈不知道麼? 我必在曠野開道路, 在沙漠開江河。(Isaiah 43:16, 18-19)

2006 was a year of rediscovering myself. Although this is a life-long process, I guess I have at least find the direction of where I should be heading.

2007 is going to be a year of risks, challenges, and living with nothing but faith.

And I'm all set.

***

Thanks for the cakes! The homemade cheesecake was YUMMY! And the greentea mousee cake was unbeatable.

And of course, the souffle and the serradura were all very good.



I look forward to trying your homemade stuffs again one day in my life!

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12月 28, 2006

packed!


Wondering why they said Amazon had the best holiday ever in its 12-year history? Look at this publicized Amazon UK warehouse pic....

Photo from digg.com.

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07 我想……

健健康康!
平平安安!
快快樂樂!
雙雙對對!
甜甜蜜蜜!

And I wish the same to you all, my family, friends, enemies, those I know and those I don't know :-)

***

Oh well, looking back last year, I've only done four things out of 22! And unfortunately, all I really need to do for the things that I've done was to pay the bill (well, of course that involved a lot of psychological struggles when paying those bills!). Most of them are things that don't need a single penny, but I've left them undone.

Ha, those are actually luxuries that are free of charge.

***

People relationship is such a difficult problem to tackle!

真係……攞命!

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12月 27, 2006

Merging

Is this a hoax or is it true?

12月 26, 2006

wiimote

No wonder everywhere has the wiimote sold out, you can not only use it to play games, but also use it to control virtually every thing that can be controlled by infrared, like what this guy did with his Roomba, and a Perl script:



***

I'm brewing up an idea with some friends. Hopefully they would agree with it :-)

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幸福何時敲門?

The Pursuit of Happyness》 has a plot that is pretty easy to predict--you almost know what's going to happen next even without watching the trailer or summary. However, it's still a very touching story, not to mention that Will Smith did a very good job.

And the story was just in time when I was discouraged by a recent setback during the quest for my career.

In the movie, Chris lost his wife, and almost lost his son when he's approaching the bottom of his career because of an incorrect investment. His son and Chris needed to sleep in men's room since they got expelled from a motel because of long delayed rent. After that they lived in an emergency shelter every night.

However Chris never gave up. He wanted to give the best to his 5 year old. Unfortunately he didn't know where he's heading to. And when his son asked one day, "Where are we going?", all Chris can replied was, "You gotta trust me, all right?"

"I trust you." replied his son.

It was this trust that Chris hanged on to, and he worked hardly to earn a full time position as a stock broker.

I was thinking, what would I feel if I were Chris that all I had left with was a luggage that I had to carry to work every day? May be struggling in a kitchen some where around the world trying to wait for my break? What if all the bad luck kept happening to me, and I had a family to feed?

I don't know. But I surely will need the trust and encouragement from my loved ones.

Just like in the movie, when Chris' son, who suffered together with Chris every day, said to him, "You're a good poppa." It meant a lot, I mean a whole lot, to Chris.

I need your trust.

Some quotes that hit me:


Christopher Gardner: You gotta trust me, all right?
Christopher: I trust you.
Christopher Gardner: 'Cause I'm getting a better job

Christopher Gardner: [to his son] You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.

Christopher Gardner: Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me.
Christopher Gardner: All right?
Christopher: All right.





I don't know what I'm going to choose, but in prayers I seek.

全因主的聖名,勞苦可得安靜;
行走於孤單困惑裡面有主傾聽。
全因主的聖名,愁心可得歡樂;
祈禱的必得勝,我以性命來做證!

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12月 24, 2006

Wikiasari

For those following search engine technology would know that Amazon and the founder of Wikipedia teamed up and will launch a "Google rival" early next year, named Wikiasari.

So far, none of Amazon's new services has gain traction: Unbox, Mechanical Turk, S3, Askville, and A9--all these services are quite disappointing to a forced investor like me.

Will Wikiasari make the break?

To be honest, I'm doubtful--the name doesn't sound attractive to me :-)

Also, it's so difficult to determine whether Wikipedia's explanation on a term is authoritive or not. I mean, the terms are explanined by the community, which doesn't always accurate (oh well, it's hard to justisfy "accurate" anyway).

Christmas is a good example.

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有了你 了不起

I didn't have a good impression about 張敬軒, since I thought that he's a bit exaggerated, and the lyric is often difficult to understand (at least to me).

His newer song 《笑忘書》 is one of those songs that I don't quite get it. I was guessing together with a friend that may be it's a story of someone who committed suicide? Or is it talking about the confusion and struggles one has to go through when getting older?

Either way, it reflects the sad reality of growing up (at least to us who are over 30:)

「人大了.開心都想哭」
「我 前路有右與左 面對抉擇難兼顧」



老了十歲》 is again a sad story--you really will get an extra 10 years after listening to it!

A more positive song I've listened to so far is 《遇見神》. Oh well, overall it is still a "sad" story--if we haven't encountered with God.



***

It was nice talking to you, hum, although there were quite a bit static because of your basement :-)

***

Mom said dad wasn't feeling good these days. Hopefully things are getting better for him.

After hanging up with mom, I have a stronger urge going back to Toronto instead of going anywhere else.

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12月 23, 2006

犯了罪

Just read this blog 《末日誘惑》, pretty thought-provoking.

To be honest, if I were to accuse Christians I know of, I can point my finger to a lot of people.

Myself included.
因為世人都犯了罪, 虧缺了神的榮耀 (羅馬書 3:23)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

That said, the spreading of rumours, the finger pointing, the comparison, the teases, the boastful thoughts, the 虛偽, 表裡不一, and... all these add up kill a lot of Christians, and non-Christians.

Myself included.

I guess it's a good time in Christmas to rethink why and how the birth of Jesus relates to me. But no matter what, I'm thankful that I am blessed by something that happened 2000+ years ago.

****

A very touching blog about the story of 棋棋...

Yeah, it doesn't matter how long your life is!

What matters the most?

"跟隨主腳縱 ,活出超凡生命。"

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冬至

Finally, the longest night of the year is going to pass! Starting from tomorrow I'll enjoy a little bit more sunshine every day.

Hopefully, things can work out too.

Starting from tomorrow.

12月 22, 2006

停下來的季節

This is what it looked like one week ago in front of my house... As you can tell, the storm was pretty crazy. A few of my friends are still living without power even now.

****

I was chatting with a friend over dinner, and she mentioned that Toronto is really warm this year--so far there isn't' a single snow, and it's been warmer than Seattle--40F/4C! A lot of birds flew back as they thought winter is over, flowers are budding, and a lot of other animals came awake from their sleeping mode...

What have we messed up with this world?

****

I feel like I'm not the old self anymore, that something is changing. Like, I started to lose the interest of blogging. I used to write every little things that came to my mind, but recently this interest seems to have gone away.

What is changing within me?

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12月 20, 2006

高尚職業

What do I really want to get from my career?

This question has been on my mind for the longest time. Every time when I was asked the same question, I reply in a heartbeat saying "A job that can help ohters".

But then, I came across this article recently, and it's pretty paradoxically interesting.

Whether a job is 高尚 or not, it all depends on the person. As long as you're excelling in your position and finish a job well done, you're contriuting to this society.

In the end, all services come with a price.

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擦身而過

I have some thoughts lately that haven't materialized due to my home's internet is still out, and I'm dead busy during the on call week...

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12月 17, 2006

456

Very entertaining!



Can't wait the hip hop class to start!

***

Went to the international district to do some shootings with Jim. His view camera rocks! But it takes quite long to set up. And for every picture you take, it costs $5!

蘊味深長

I just don't understand why: the recent 告別 albums are done really good. Previously we had 自然捲's, and now comes 楊千嬅's!

The last album of Miriam 《Unlimited》 really stands out, and apparently she's a lot matured in this album.

Here's my pick of the best:

《她成功了他沒有》( 試聽/歌詞 ) is a sad story that talks about a then good-matched couple has to break up because of their different dreams about life.

「青春理想失去不意外...」
「為了錢 手裡沒餘錢...」

《大傻》( 歌詞/KV ) is a totally opposite story! The couple sticks to each other even though their dream goes astray.

It also is my favorite. It could be that the MV is somewhat related my to dream :-) Well, hopefully I don't need to close the store in the end--if I do have one in the future. But even so, it's not the end of the world! 辛苦不算醜!

This song also gives me insight about the recent power outage--yes, it'll be the fourth night I sleep wihtout power tonight. Last night was REALLY chilly. All my fish died already in the morning, and Sassy (my cat) and I were sleeping together trying to keep each other in warmth. When I woke up early in the morning, I felt like I'm living in a forest. Huge chilly forest.

But then I think, hey, the power is just out for a few days, but my house hasn't been damaged, and I'm still alive that I can enjoy Christmas and New Year (and more kakaka).

「我們還有 手仍能拖 (acutally not yet) 夢仍能造 眼仍能看 心仍能開
我們還有 嘴仍能親 (same here :) 事仍能做 戲仍能看 歌仍能聽 天涯陪著走!」

「誰都想很富有 誰都不必富有...」



生有限、活無限!

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12月 16, 2006

home sweet home

It's the first time I indulged myself in the office so much that I call it home! Sadly, it happens in times like this--there are still 320,000 households served by my energy company living in darkness over this chilly weekend (26F/-3C')!

One thing I'm touched though, is that there are many people who do have power at home calling on to the radio station saying that they can open their place as a shelter to those who are in need.

And thanks to my power-ful friends who extended thier offer saying that I can stay at their place :-)

And thanks for treating me dinner :-) I wish you the best whereever you go!

***
The Devil Wears Prada》is a good one! I don't know if the editor of American 《Vogue》is like that or not, but one thing I'm sure--Andy Sachs looks a lot better after she puts on the big name skirts, shoes (Jimmy Choo!), hand bags, and all those accessories.

A good reminder was from another change of Andrea. She used to say "I have no choice." since she was such a "good" employee that she fulfilled the Devil's every unreasonable request. She gained trust (but not appreciation) from her boss, but lost friendship, her boyfriend, and herself. And in every single setback in her life because of work, she found her execuse by saying "I've no choice". But then the Devil once said to her, "You're not no choice, and that's your choice." Finally Andrea knew what she should go after in her life, so she quit her job.

We do have a choice. We all have to choose.

***

Photoshop CS3 Beta is available for download, which is supposed to work better under Mac Intel system. Hopefully it's worth the wait!

Here's an overview of the new features.

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wii

The good thing about power outage? You can go to friend's house that has power and kill your time doing things you won't do otherwise -- like playing wii...

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12月 15, 2006

住了罷!靜了罷!

Last night was horrible. The deadly wind storm arrived slightly after 10pm, which claimed lives of four people, causing power outage to one million people around the Seattle metro area, and the fallen trees smashed houses and blocked numerous roads. At least two of my neighours lost their homes as the fallen tree split their houses.

Thankfully, my house stayed intact. And thanks for a reminder from a friend, Hor Gor and I moved down to basement to sleep, since we're surrounded by huge pine trees.

We lost power shortly after midnight, and when I looked out to the windows, the trees were blown as if they're grass. The noise was horrible. I was terrified.

All of a sudden this verse came to my mind:

我必安然躺下睡覺,因為獨有你 ─ 耶和華使我安然居住 。-- 詩篇 4:8
I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8


****

Apparently people are happy about the power outage. When I called my group memebers about the fellowship cancellation, some of them are already off from work, and some of them are having hot pot!

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12月 14, 2006

(巴黎有) 摩天輪

If there isn't, create one!

***

Thanks for your insight! Institut Paul Bocuse is a dream next to impoosible, but that could as well open up a lot of opportunities.

***

Finally I got a chance trying out Lynn's Bistro. I heard a lot of good things about it, and was always curious about the food.

Apparently this is a small restaurant full of a lot of group dinners. We waited for an hour before we can be staged on a small table, served with bread (since we're complaining about the long wait and we're all starving).

The food turned out pretty good. I ordered one of their signature dish--crab cake, which was made with chunks of dungeness crab meat. A little bit try, and the lobster sauce wasn't generous enough. Also it's a little bit too salty and too rich to my taste. 評分:75

We also ordered their anotehr signature dish--French onion soup. Apparently this is one of the most famous dishes, since one of the tables ordred it at the end of their dinner! The thick bread soaked up hot and sweet onion soup, topped with a generous layer of well baked gourmet cheese. It's the best to try in this cold weather! 評分:85

The Owner and the Chef is a very friendly person. Since we (well, especially I) were curious enough she told us her culinary life:

She worked in the jewelry industry backed when she was in Vietnam. She then moved to Seattle and spent four years working as an apprentice in a local restaurant. She then flew to Houston, trying to get a job in restaurant. Unfortunately she was looked down pretty bad and wasn't able to get any.

One of the restaurant owners said that she didn't have any certificate, so no one would trust on her. So she flew to New York City, studied in French Culinary Institute, one of the best culinary schools where you can get a certificate in six months.

She then got a job in NYC, being paid $80K a year working as a chef, and those were the days in 80's.

She went back to Seattle, and was hooked up with some French businessman who wanted to hire her in the then unopened W Hotel--for merely $8/hour!

Well, of course, she is now the owner of her own restaurant that has been running for six years.

I asked if she would recommend people (like me) going into the industry. She answered without a thought, "Don't!"

Well, I asked the same question to every chef I met in the past (well, around four now). And every one of them gave the same answer--except Chef Christian, the executive chef at PICA :-)

Oh well, Chef Christian acutally did tell me the bad side of working in the kitchen, and he just can't say no to a person questing for a culinary school, right?

Anyway, thanks for much for the dinner. I got a lot more than the food--meeting Lynn, and had a great fellowship. I will sit on your suggestions!

After all, spending 5 years learning how to cook and get an MBA seems to be attractive.

***

Hope you'll get the paper done soon! I also want to know more about your profession :-)

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12月 12, 2006

hip hop'n

Ha, first new year old resolution--get in shape!

I just registered a hip hop dance class from the Experimental College--only $10 for 6 weeks, 1 hour class!

Woo hoo!

You can get a list of their dancing class here.

***

If you want to 試聽 自然捲's last album 《自然捲 C’est La Vie 2.5-資源回收》, you can try this link.

Too bad it requries Media Player 10....

****

Read this touching story tonight...

12月 11, 2006

多背一公斤自然捲



According to some numbers, there were 120.29 million inbound travelers going to China in 2006. How powerful it would be if all of them supported this organization!

***
自然捲 is going to break up... how unfortunate. Hopefully 娃娃 will have her throat healed up soon that they can bring more good new songs again soon.

They have the last album released recently, which I haven't had a chance to listen to it. But their previous album 《大捲包小卷》- 自然捲《C’est La Vie vol.2》 was pretty good. Very natural, very comfortable. Their lyric is lovely, and the melody 動人心弦.

Especially this one.

答應要一個人生活 有沒有把握 不會淚流
答應要一個人走 有沒有把握 無論多久 心還是熱的


Although at some stage in life it canhttp://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif be unavoidably lonely, never give up the right to stay passionate about it! And not to mention that I'm not all alone--He is here with me!

答應要

詞.曲:奇哥

答應自己學會燙衣服
答應自己學會煮咖啡
答應自己一個人看電影
哭著笑著睡著了

答應自己學會坐公車
答應自己一個人吃晚餐
打包行李 要去旅行
呼吸一點新鮮空氣

這樣的日子 有多久了
影印一樣 反覆不停的複製著
這樣的日子 還要多久
像在沙漠上面奔跑 沒有盡頭

答應要一個人生活 有沒有把握
不會淚流
答應要一個人走 有沒有把握
無論多久 心還是熱的

搬家》is another song I like:

Are we moving moving moving
To a place with free
Are we moving moving moving
To a place wihtout lonely
I wish


I am moving to that place...

我相信。

***

Thanks for the shrimp chips and the soup. I've already finished half of it! Yum!!

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12月 10, 2006

Fly Fly

VSF seems to be a really good school, go check out their showcase section!

12月 09, 2006

(巴黎沒有) 摩天輪

王菀之's talented! It's pretty funny to watch this live version of her 派台之作《雷電》in her new album 《詩情.畫意》:



The 《(巴黎沒有) 摩天輪》is not bad too. I like the lyrics! Everything can be perfect--if it's a fantasy.

 (巴黎沒有) 摩天輪 王菀之
 作曲:王菀之 作詞:林夕 編曲 / 監製:The Invisible Men

 大家闔起雙眼 幻想在凱旋門吃早餐
 也許雪花四綻 然後你驚鐵塔很冷

 聽講花都是情人必經之地
 真跡的畢加索看到我想飛
 參觀畫展後二人相擁滋味
 羅浮宮都不可以比

 然後登上摩天輪 迎著細雪轉動 我笑你超重
 凝望北歐的晚空 美得我怕轉面你會失蹤
 為何竟有摩天輪 全為要我感動 何必不去相信
 一直聽你亂說 逼真到 連頭髮亦冰凍

 花都的聲浪突然歸於肅靜
 你說你很想娶我叫我清醒
 真跡雖真實未如假想豐盛
 憑言語你我已曾經

 為何想到摩天輪 然後更會轉動 替你我相送
 停在思想的半空 這可算作快樂我也不懂
 如能擁有摩天輪 寧願永遠不動 隨風宣佈婚訊
 哭著講我願意 多得你 成全快樂的痛

 如何拖你手旅行 從沒有這好運
 我故作興奮 然而虛構的旅行太真

Talking about fantasy, the recent visit to the school gave me the picture of reality--it's going to be tough, and the system setup in kitchen can be soul destroying too. No vacation, long work hour, limited social network, disgraced pay scale, spend no time with the family, and all those things. Chef Christian himself had three marriages already. Asking Chef what's the most important factor to become successful. "Passion, followed by attitude." Hum, how would one be passionate still if the job is to repeat the same tedious procedure over and over again? True, I won't stay inside the kitchen for a long time (at least I hope I don't need to). But starting from scratch isn't easy.

Next steps? Interview the South Seattle Community College. Not that I'm going there, but I wanted to meet someone who can inspire me. If I'm still positive making this career change, I'd go east to the Culinary Institute of America located in Hyde Park (a "non-profit" school that charges $10K per semester for a three-year program), and the George Brown Chef School (a government funded school that's on the top list within N. America) in Toronto.

I was told that Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, Frnace is a top school as well.

Ha, European trained! A good selling point.

(巴黎沒有) 摩天輪, dude.

***

Have been printing again for the entire day again. For some reasons I can't print the hightlight detail on Kodak's Ultra Endura, while comparing to the digital scan of the same film. I have burned 100% but the highlights on the right side of the following picture is missing the detail. This is the second time I encourter such limitation. May be the paper is too contrasty?

12月 08, 2006

光彩・不光彩

The other day I had an opportunity to visit one of the schools on my list, the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. The visit was mostly positive, with some caveats.

A few things I like about the school and the program it provides:
1. Very hands-on training. They claim 90% of class time is practicing in kitchen. Their philosophy is to well equip students by setting up a real world environment. The program splits into two halves. In the first half you'll lean the basic techniques and theory, and then try it out in the practice session. The second half is preparing food for the customers of their own restaurant and pastry shop. Very practical.

2. The students are very serious about what they are doing. Who doesn't need to be serious and passionate about the job after all :) Especially in food industry there is often no second chance, and everything has to be precise.

3. Small class size--the instructor to student ratio is 1:12 for the pastry class.

Things that I don't like?
1. I was told by the friend who studied there before that not all the instructors are good, and students complained about their instructors.

2. Too labour intensive, as it's training people to get into the lowest class of the industry as soon as possible. I know, you need to start from the bottom, which translates to doing dirty kitchen work, but you also need to inspire the students to go beyond that level.

3. Limited facilities. No library, no computer, no student meeting rooms or whatsoever. Also limited backup--they only have one administrative staff--the director of admission. Other than that? The founder, who also assumes the responsibilities of president. Under this admin structure (good/bad) things can happen easily and quickly. Also marketing of the school can be difficult.

Oh, and one more thing that really bugs me-- I picked up an almond croissant (very expensive... CND$2.5) in their bake shop on my way out, and guess what it tasted like?

The texture is like an overdone beef steak--actually even tougher. I had a hard time chewing it.

Well, true, the students are there for a reason. But isn't it more like problems with the recipe/preparation?

I'm in doubt.

***

I'm glad that Amazon "teamed" up with Audible.com that we can have digital book download now, that also works with ipod (unlike their twin brother unbox that only works for Windows user :) Audible.com is treated as yet another merchant that fufills the digital version of the books.

Recently I'm listening to Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business, which was introduced by CL (and I'm sure he's practicing the essence of the book by doing so :-). A very good book that illustrates what hospitality really means, and how that helps in completing business transactions (which I believe also applies to building personal relationship). Highly recommend for those who need to work with people (i.e., all of us :) And don't forget the audible version if you commute by bus like I do!

***
Talking about books, the PICA Executive Chef Christian mentioned Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, a book I later found out had been translated to many other languages, including Chinese (《廚室機密:烹飪深處的探險》).

On 阿麥書房部落格 it has this review:

《廚室機密:烹飪深處的探險》的作者伯爾頓是著名的廚師作家,他寫這本書,不是要教人如何加入廚師行列,而是要揭露餐館廚室中鮮為人知的秘密,當有既有趣聞韻事,亦有毫不光彩的勾當。但閱畢全書,你根本讀不出揭人陰私的臭氣,反而能體會到一件廚師對食客的重視。畢竟在餐館制度下,廚師和食客被重重隔開,使廚師的心意,未必能完全讓食客感受到。但其實,真正的美食,必定由用「心」的廚師所煮的。
--- 原載於 《細嚐飲食文化的情


Although those are the stories in the 70's or 80's, I'm sure similar 不光彩 things can happen today inside the restaurant kitchens.

After all, the dark side of business world is always there.

****

I wandered around on Robson St. for over two hours, mainly just to get a feel of this vibrant city--and, may be more importantly, trying to decide which restaurant I should go for dinner.

I wanted to try Guu. I heard a lot of good things about this restaurant, and I told my friends to try it out when they asked me for recommendations. Oh well, they tried and thought it's awesome, but I never get a chance myself. But then those restaurants are filled with couples and it'd be awkward eating alone in their settings (not to mention that I won't be able to try out a lot of different dishes). So I decided to step into Gyoza King, located just a few stores next to Guu with Galic.

The restaurant is a little run down, but the food is awesome. In fact it's the second time I've been here. The first time I was dumb I didn't order their signature dish--Gyoza! So this time I redeemed myself and got the shrimp/pork/chives gyoza.

It was the best I've ever had.

Similar to Shanghai's 小籠包, the gyoza is very juicy!

You can forget their ramen, at least not with miso soup base. It's too salty. The ramen isn't crisp enough to make your teeth... jump!

Oh well, maybe I'm just too used to eating instant noodles.

12月 06, 2006

我的80年代



Hope we'll soon have a chance to take a picture like this!





I guess my crave for cooking started when I was about 6 years old, where I used to stay in the kitchen while my mom was preparing dinner. She explained all the little steps she went through for each dish. We seldom sit together on a table having dinner, as my mom would put everything on a plate--while in her bowl I could hardly find anything in it... and the dinner were started while dad's still in his store...

這是我的生活,屬於我的八零年代。

《我的80年代》- 雷光夏

那天吹來的風 穿過我的手中
卻又不肯停留
它就轉身飄離 被握到你的手裡
你也忘了 認真地對我說 究竟什麼相同
屬於我們的八零年代
是你的笑容 或那首情歌
和走不完的鋼琴前奏
鼓手們還在昨天 靜靜等候

一封未寄的信 春天綻放了花
清晨醒來時候
是否你偶爾想起 那首未完的歌
認真地對我說 究竟什麼不同
屬於我們的八零年代
是你的笑容 或那首情歌
和走不完的鋼琴前奏
哭泣的音符 已被緊緊擁抱

離開得越遠越好 我那軟弱的夢 誰也不在那裡面
用我的美好思念 和你的過去相逢 在下一個時間

一封未寄的信 春天綻放了花
清晨醒來時候
是否你偶爾想起 那首未完的歌
認真地對我說 究竟什麼不同
屬於我們的八零年代

而你的笑容 已散失在風中

12月 04, 2006

20/20 vision!

Well, soon to be.

It's one month after I had LASEK (LASer Epithelial Keratomileusis) surgery. I went back to do a check up today and it turned out I'm on the right track to recovery. I was told that I'd most likely have 20/20 vision. The healing process is generally long though (it takes around three months).

A lot of people asked if I would recommend this surgery. I'd say... yes--if you set the right expectation.

First of all, LASEK is different from LASIK (Laser ASsisted In-situ Keratomileusis). The later, as far as I was told, has a very comfortable healing process. The reason being is that in LASIK part of your cornear will be opened as a flap, where it will be put back on after the surgery. This flap protects the wound so apaprently nothing unpleasent can happen to your eyes if there is no severe inflammation.

However, there are several disadvantages to LASIK:
1. Since you need to open up a flap on your cornear, there is a higher risk of damaging its deeper tissues. For example, the very fine nerves on the cornea will be damaged because of the flap, which result in Dry Eyes--sometimes this can be a permanent damage.
2. The flap may not healed up properly and it will get shifted or fall off--although this is a rare case.
3. Halo... since the deeper tissue of the cornear can hardly healed up so it left a scare that causes halo.

(a full list of risk can be found here).

In LASEK, since it doesn't need to have a flap, a lot of the risks from LASIK can be avoided. However, the disadvantage is that it takes a long time to heal up, and it can be very painful and uncomfortable during the first week of surgery. In LASIK you can probably go back to work the next day after the surgery, whereas in LASEK, you probably need to take a whole week of doing nothing but resting on the bed -- no TV/reading/computer or whatsoever.

I have considered doing the surgery for a long time. Early in the year, around March, I went for a pre-op examination where they'll tell us if I'm a good candidate or not. My cornear was found out to be suitable for both LASIK and LASEK, and since I don't want to lose the flap, so I chose doing LASEK.

However, I was so scared that I didn't actually go for the surgery until seven months later! On the day of surgery, KK gave me a ride to the UW Medical Center (yes, since you can barely see and cannot drive, you need to arrange your ride for the surgery day).

After paying a few grands and sign off my life, I was taken to a waiting room. My surgeon is Dr. Shen, a UW assistant professor of ophthalmology, and the director of the Refrative Surgery Center. After explaining the procedure, I was taken to the operation room. I was not given any sedatives.

In the room there is a huge machine, and a few other people standing around it. I lied down on the operating bench, and they sterilized my eye lids.

They covered my left eye, and moved position me to under a tube like part of the machine. I saw a bright red dot at the end of the tube in front of my right eye. In order to get me familiar with what's going to happen, Dr. Shen covered the tube, and turned on the laser. I heard a series of cracking sound from the machine. Some anaesthetic eye drops were applied to my eyes.

Then the operation began. My eye lashes were taped, and my eye lips were supported by an eyelid speculum so that I can't blink.

Then the scary part. Some more eye drops were applied to my eyes. Then I feel some pressure on my eye ball--something was circled once around it. I believe Dr. Shen was removing the epithelium--and I saw it moved across my eye.

I was then asked to keep looking at the blinking red light during the surgery. There was an emergency system in the machine where it will automatically shut down if my eye ball moved.

The laser was applied for 42 seconds. There was a nurse counting down by every 5 seconds during the procedure.

At the end of the 42 seconds, I started shaking uncontrollably... I think I'm nervous (for those who know me well, I'll easily black out in situation like this :) While I was shaking, my epithelium was replaced, and Dr. Shen put a bandage contact lens on it, removed the eyelid speculum and the tape....



By the end of all these, I shaked even more seriously! I felt cold, really cold. Fortunately KK was smart enough to hold my hands, which calm me down a lot (and now I understand why people would hold someone's hand when they are about to die....)

The same procedure repeated for my left eye. But since I had something to hold on to, this time was shake-less :-)



I didn't feel painful after the surgery, since I had some powerful pain-killer. However I went to play with my computer and took a few pics, and I believe that teared off the wound a bit--and then I got really painful from that point on.

But anyway, it's a long story. I wonder if anyone is still reading this now kaka!



I wanted to thank a lot of friends though, who comforts me while I was jailed in the room during the recovery. Special thanks to KK/Leon/CL for giving me a ride; Peggy for the chocolate; Stephanie & David Long, Katherine and Eugene, Eva and Felix, KK and Leon, Judy and Peter for stopping by! And fo course, Ho gor for his cooking.... And all who left messages :-)

12月 03, 2006

只因為愛...

I came across this site accidentally, and it awed me for a long time... from Elsa's work I feel that she really loves what she's doing. I don't know much about her, but from the comments I found out that she experienced some difficulties in life, and then she built up her interests in making cakes:

終於見到你又振作起來~ ^^「轉戰」麵包。人生總有高低,你能夠有自己的小天地,有自己的健康,可足以感恩。:)因為,我這兩樣也沒有,但卻依然懂得,enjoy life,之及珍惜眼前所擁有的~共勉之


Her blog stopped in July this year though. Don't know what happened to her from that point on...

I'm sure no matter where she's now, she brought blessings together with her cakes.

12月 02, 2006

何解?

I started worrying of having no income after going back to school, so I thought it'd be a good idea to start earning from being various websites' associate (that's why you are seeing a little change in my layout).

It wasn't easy... it took me few hours to come up with what I'm having now. But then... I'm not sure how much I'm going to earn, since I only have 30+ hits per day, and I'm sure most of my friends don't (need to) buy CD/DVD/books....

Sigh... it's particularly discouraging after I knew that 周麗淇's blog has 800 thousands+ hits within half a year!

Hum, I guess I better start some real associates sites again...

Great class!

So I did show the pictures during tonight's final critique. Others are showing like 10+ prints and I'm only showing 5... I wasn't in a good mood since I know I'll not pass, but it turned out to be pretty good. Seth that there are a couple of them good for enlarging--if they're in focus :-) Oh well, I shot using handheld so I couldn't use a small aperture to keep the depth of field...

And it turned out that "incomplete" actually means that I can continue to work on my assignments until the beginning of the next quarter, and if I submit the assignments by then, he'll change the grade and there will be no trace of it. Ha, I think that's even better since I can continue to use the facilities for free even though the class is over!

We had a lot of wine and cheese tonight--we have six people and we opened four wines! It was a great class. Everyone is talented and hardworking!

I still haven't decided whether I should continue to take classes next quarter. I guess I should. There are two instructors that I really want to meet...

PCNW is having a Members' Juried Exhibition now. Stop by if you happen to be in the area!

This is my favorite.