Chinese Opera

Well, in Frank and Manjit's going away drink the second day (the celebration lasted for 2 days), Frank did several crying gestures when being asked how he feels about leaving Sungard. Very interesting, his movement looked very opera-like. Maybe it has something to do with the fact he is from Beijing, where Chinese Opera was formulated.

Chinese Opera is far away from reality (just like most other performing art forms), its world is narrow and neat, built on the dirt-free moral system. Characters speak out their mind but language is not enough. The costume, the pattern of make-up, even crying has its rhythm - a chain of marble balls, from large to small...

Would like to study more on this subject...

XiaoHo is trying to cook... Most adults don't know how much kids know, we are all deceived by their cute look. Their eyes are electrifying like the angels' eyes in the final judgement day, seeing through you with serious naiveness.

I guess kids frighten me because they came from such an unknown force. They came from nowhere. They learn and grow into something you can hardly predict.

XiaoHo is Kevin and Grace's son but my mom spends a great deal of time with him since he was born. In theory, My parents are like his grand parents, however, my mom is really the person talking to him (even when he is several days old), feeding him and teaching how to make of the world.

Interesting thing is that he can properly addressed his dad, mom, all pretty women (he called them A-Yi, but refuses to address not-so-pretty or elder women A-Yi) and relatives. However, he cannot address my mom properly to this day.

Walking Home at 2AM

Few minutes after I parted with the party I started to feel very uneasy. The familiar streets and alleys seemed quite deserted at 2 am in the morning. There was a guy walking on the other side of the road, few yards behind me, which worried me much.

Tried to walk in the middle of the road, the longest distant I can keep with an attacker coming out from the dark side of the road. No more short cut but my heels are not the best shoes to walk with. I guessed I can take off my heels and run if danger approaches. Well, what else I can do? Hit an attacker with my hello kitty bag? Strike him with my heels? Poke his eyes with my keys? Where are my keys? Well, the Finding-Nemo Dory keychain gets in the way. What if I poke his eyes with Dory instead of a key?

Finally got back home, perhaps I should take off the Dory key chain.

Male pheasant looks prettier, I wonder if it tastes better...  

Have not seen a Squirrel

Well, Manjit mentioned that male squirrels chew on tree barks to impress female squirrels. It sounded funny at first but if you can imagine a male squirrel drives a sports car to attract the opposite sex's attention?

Wa and XiaoHo, the picture is so pleasant to look at, right? 

Grace and XiaoHo... Nothing really special, just want to have a pleasant picture. I got scared every time opening my blog and seeing the frightening facial treatment picture .

Asexual Visibility And Education Network

Just read a quite interesting article about asexual. Common perception about asexual is that she/he must be sick, either mentally or physically. Strangely, we don't question people who don't like contry music or onion rings.

The facial treatment was the beginning of a 3-day painful experience. There was a severe inflammation first. Followed by dry, chipped and hardened skin for 1.5 days. And they peeled like snowflakes for another 0.75 day. I love scary movie when I am in it.  

Kaiping, myself (with the sunburned face) and Irene

End of My Vacation...

Mai came to Taipei to meet with Wa and me, we went to the tranditional Taiwanese tea house in the afternoon when the super typhoon just touched down Taipei. It was raining so hard, we had to take a taxi instead of walking all the way.

The taxi driver initiated a chat, asking why three pretty girls are going to the tea house instead of going out for a date. He then complained about the bad economic weather and said being a girl is easier because she can always marry a rich guy.

Wa politely replied that it is not as easy as he claimed because it is possible to be beaten up by the rich guy.

The taxi driver said to us "you should fight back but do not throw any objects to your husband".

We were all curious, "Is it because it is going to hurt?"

"Nope, it really costs money." said the taxi driver.

A day in Dorney Lake

We did surprsingly well in our last race. Timing was right, direction was correct (didn't go out of lane or hit anything), we won other teams by miles. We then went to enjoy our victory beer with no delay. Of course, we were all burned and I have no idea what they are looking at in the first picture.

Memory is shaped by language

I attended my first London Taiwan Seminar early this year. One of the talks was a study about how unexpressive were the survivors of the massacre in a small villiage in northern Taiwan. The incident happened in early 50s, most men in the villiage were accused of being communist party members. They were arrested by the Nationalism party police. There seemed no trials and no one returned to his home alive.

The research was conducted recently, widows are around 70 of age, the children in their 50s were interviewed. Their memories of grief and pain are beyong description, literally. According to the research, very few can clearly recall how they felt, many claimed their memories were blocked out.

One possible explanation is that the survivors were not actively talking about their experience until recent due to political reasons. The memories were not formulated in an expressive way for 40+ years. Claiming a block out could be an quick way out of describing it.

Language dictates how we process logics in every day life, not surprisingly, memories are shaped by our language usage. How you remember an event largely depends on the culture and values you grewo up with. Opinions forms and memories were so what altered.

I am talking shit, I don't really know anything of this subject, but it is indeed interesting. I remember when I was a kid, my dad told me many stories about his childhood. I always imagine a little boy wondering around the farmland and the little boy has my father's grown-up face.

Attack with spitball 

Will we ever feel safe again?

What happened this morning was dreadful. Charles Tye called me several time and raised various issues about Adaptiv, I was completely obsorbed in thinking how to get out of this misery until 8pm. Then I walked home, not surprisingly, most streets are blocked and I had to detour.

When I was walking, I kept thinking how and when anything else will be happening. Freakonomics told us that we are more responsible (or terrified) to some unforeseeable events. For example, we are more scared of Mad Cow disease beacuse the half-life form virus is so unknown to mordern sceince. In the same context, the common bacteria living in our kicthen work surface claim more lives than Mad Cow virus. Nevertheless, we have this irrational fear about beef but not our kitchen sink because we know we can easily cleanse and scrub the workstation before every cooking to prevent cross contamination.

I guess that's why terroist acts are so effective. Random violent threats and indiscriminate killings scare us the most. But not car accidents even though there are more people die of traffic accident than terroist attack every year.

What if there is a bomb exploding right next to me? Do I have any other unfinished business? Well, it is hard question to answer....

Paul's airplane 

BA flight was delayed again

I flew home with BA from Copenhagen and the flight was delayed again. 1 hour late in taking off and 30 minutes late in touching down. Rosemarie booked me the business class, the food was OK and the wine was delicious.

Paul N. always gets his food before every one else on BA flights because he filed a special meal request with BA that he can only eat SEAFOOD!! I do admire my boss.

My uncle Thomas

My uncle Thomas, Jennifer and Sandy's dad, is such a character. Every time he goes to Toronto, my aunt and cousins have to clean up the house and speak Cantonese. My cousins are well-prepared to be a corporate employee, do the hardwork when someone is seeing.

Uncle Thomas recently went to Canada for Jennifer's convocation. He does not do very well with long distant flight. All we remember about him in Toronto is his incredible tendency (and ability) to fall asleep soundly. I would be very proud of him if he stayed awake for the whole thing.

He talks loudly, quickly and impatiently (typical Hong Kong guy), always about money. He scolds every living thing in sight (except me, I guess he likes me). But he keeps his volume down for Jennifer these few years, I guess Jennifer somewhat intimidates him as the oldest, the most square-head person in Huen's family (I have to say, Jennifer has a very rigid sense about right doing, God knows where she got that from. The rest of the family is more or less crooked).

Anyhow, uncle Thomas keeps doing things that embarrass Jen. He walks around the house in underwear and innocently said "hi" to all Jen's friends in one unexpected encounter.

Another day in Copenhagen

Another day of dining alone. I went to breakfast room by myself, I skipped lunch even though I felt really hungry, I went back to the hotel and ate in the hotel restaurant alone... Lucky me, quality of foods is quite good and the waitress was nice. However, food is just something to stuff my stomach, it doesn't really taste anything. I am losing both appetite and sex drive slowly. I am really wondering what can bring back my passion to life.

I swear I am not picking my nose. 

I am finally home but have to go again

The weather in London was so grey and humid when I returned from Copenhagen last night. This trip was like hell, I encountered delay in all forms of transportation and exceptionaly long queue every time I had a chance to get in line.

The BA flight getting back to London on Friday night was fully booked and we were trapped in the run way for almost 45 minutes waiting to take off. I was not in the business class and the big fat guy sitting next to me just expressed his impatience in every way possible during the whole course. Flipping the newspapers, magazines, moving his body every 5 seconds, coughing and spraying unidentifiable particle in the air, calling his darling every 10 minutes. He scratched his balls under the newspapers and thought no one has seen it. I do believe firmly it is so true that you have to wash your hand throughoutly before every meal.

Finally got home from the long and dreaful trip, only to be informed that I have to fly out on Sunday night. GEEEEEEEEEEEE...