FireFox Plugin

This is a nifty feature of Firefox, which I just found out recently and loved. Note that the input area in the upper right shows dictionary.com. So when I read any page, and find some word I don't understand, I just have to select that word, right click, and choose "Search dictionary.com for xxx", and Firefox will open another tab in the background and shows the result in the tab, without interfering my reading. Of course the search engine shown in the pop-up window matches the one in the upper right corner. I love to use it to search on dictionary.com and wikipedia when I read. So convenient.

Guild Party

We had a guild party last week on WoW. Guild owner set up some activities to look for thief, and to flight against each other in Ironforge, just for fun. It has been a long time since someone is willing to hold an activity like this, so I was glad to join. We also had picnic basket from Valentine's day, I have pink blouse from Chinese New Year. It was fun. I play a female gnome mage, Shanana, the one with red hair and pink outfit. Attached is the group photo before we say good bye, something to remember.

My Funny Valentine

I had been waiting for so long, when Melinda Doolittle finally released her first album, my funny valentine, this month. I was amazed at her rendition of 'my funny valentine' at the early episode of American Idol, and could not wait to see her performance week after week. Later I liked Lakisha too, and really hoped one of them could claim the title. So after they were both eliminated and Melinda was only one step from the final, there was such huge disappointment that the final competition was irrelevant for me.

I purchased from iTune store before, and was not very happy with it. Because the songs from iTune have protection, so, without an iPod, I can only play the music on iTune. As I listen to music on my cell phone all the times, I find that unacceptable. This time I wanna try Amazon MP3 download.

The single costs only 99 cents, the same as iTune store. It came in 256k MP3 format, so the quality is great. Amazon provides a download software, which adds the songs to iTune automatically after a successful download. I tried to upload the song to my cell, and the cell plays the music without any problem. The only glitch is that I tried to pay with my Taiwanese credit card first, it didn't work. The website simply explains that they only sell music to US territory, at least not Taiwan. Luckily I still keep my American credit cards, so this time it worked and the download started. Now I just need to remember to make the payment. It will be stupid to have bad credit score for a late payment of just 99 cents.

I love the Amazon's way. It's online shopping, very easy to shop, no physical CD that I have to find space for, no need to convert to MP3 myself, affordable, and, most important of all, I can carry the music any way I am pleased. So far I can't find any complaints.

So what about the song? Is it good? Oh dear, I can't wait to see her complete album, and this time, I'll also shop at Amazon.

Huge Cost, Broken Heart

So, the quotation to repair my iMac came. The failure shows it is mother board failure, and without warranty, the repair cost stands as high as 21800NTD, which is around 700USD. 700 USD is good to get a fairly good PC system, and the new iMac costs twice as much, with warranty, most updated hardware and software. If I shell out 700USD, then the system still does not have warranty, and who knows when it is going to fail again. But I know I'll be very unhappy to have to use PC again. Not an easy decision to make.

Magic Flute

I had been trying to get friends to go with me, but I still ended up going alone today. Interesting setting of the movie. It is kind of funny to see a war scene dubbed with the overture as the background music, airplane, and Queen of the Night showing up for the first time on a tank. Wonderful music of course, good computer animation, and the lyrics has been translated well into English. Making an opera like a movie is not a new thing. Domingo did it 20 years ago, but still, it makes opera more accessible to the general public like myself. I never like live opera's video recording when I see those singers standing still singing. There is no acting whatsoever in that. One time, in Rigoletto, Pavarotti laid on the floor dying and singing beautiful notes for minutes, and I just found that more amusing than anything. It would be better to listen to CD than to watch the video when there is more room for immagination.

It's fascinating to see an opera movie again, and this time, in English. At least I can capture the lyrics directly. I will highly recommend this movie, as this is the kind I enjoy, but it might be dull for many people, as people sing and sing, and sing, in the movie.

Lamp Thing

I should have rotated this photo by 90 degrees, but it will pretty much look the same, so I'll save this effort. I bought it in Jatujak park of Bangkok as souvenir for my nephew. He did not like it, so I gladly put it together myself.

It came in a package of 30 pieces of identical plastic. According to the instruction, there is only one way of assembly, which is to put the curved edge of one piece against the flat edge of another. It is quite amazing that it will end up being such a beautiful thing. The remaining work to do is to place a light bulb and socket in it to make it a complete lamp. I bought one in white color and one in orange color. Should have got 3 of the same color, and put them side by side to make it a more presentable decoration in the room. A click on the light switch, and 3 little gems shine in the room. Hm.. Maybe another trip to Bangkok?

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I finished this book over Chinese New Year. I bought it in Bangkok last December as I forgot to bring any Chinese book over, so decided to get one just in case I was bored. Read a few chapters in Bangkok, but then had kept it in my bag for a while after I returned, but was never able to read a few more pages without being sidetracked. Having a TV in the bedroom, and a computer for online game is definitely a bad idea for reading. Glad I brought it back to Tainan. No internet connection at my parents', so the laptop was rendered useless. There was not that much to do there, and I planned to stay for a week. So after doing nothing for 3 days other than eating and sleeping like a pig, I finally picked it up and started to read it again.

Fascinating and mesmerizing story. Although it is hard for me to imagine what happened to that couple could continue to affect them for the remaining decades of their lives. Things happen, we fall, we get up, then we move on. Scars heal over time. But I still take the story as is. Friend M will probably scoff at me for what I am saying here. He still hears me whine for something that happened long time ago. Poor guy.

Sidewalk

The bus I take every day to work changed its route beginning this month. Instead of running by my office, it now turns one huge block away. I'll have to then get off one stop ahead of time, and walk over, stop to buy my breakfast and then head for our building. The weather has been warm for 2 days. Last week I was still trembling in the bathroom hoping the hot water to come sooner, then yesterday I was sweating so much during the lunch hour thinking if it's cheaper to get an air conditioner as early as February. This morning when I walked down the same sidewalk, it looked so beautiful. It has to be the weather.

Night Life at Pattaya

Night life in Pattaya does not have much to see. We were thinking of having a drink, but we walked by pub after pub, there were all old white guys holding Thai girls. We felt so out of place. It looks like a different town from during the day. Luckily, we were able to find an outdoor place, where beer was served and live music was played. What a relief. It was a oasis.

Spider Lilies

I saw Spider Lilies a long time ago. Not a very good movie. Actors seems very immature, and the story is dry. I am not sure if it has more to do with actors' performance, or something wrong with the directing, or what. The whole movie feels incomplete to me. The scenes of earthquake, if my memory serves correctly, are silent scenes, which may be created to show the desperation and alienation of the brother and sister, but turns out quite boring and could use some music to fill it. Just a few note on the piano at least might help, and the same boredom repeats several times. The best thing that happens to the movie is this song. I like the music, and the soft voice, which seems very suitable to express love between young girls. I happened to find it and decided to attach it in the blog.

Koh Larn

Koh Larn is located off Pattaya Beach. We went to the pier with the intention of just looking around, and getting the ferry schedule. We had the idea of spending one day on Koh Larn and Pattaya, but did not have a detail schedule when to do what. But as we got there, one ferry was about to leave. So we bought tickets and hurry aboard.

As ferry moved away from the beach, we started to get a full view of the whole Pattaya Beach, which reminded me a bit of Monterey, but prettier. I guess weather helps. It was hot and windy, a perfect feeling for a vacation. Earlier we had this conversation. I really don't think Bangkok is that wonderful when I think about it. Buildings? For regular residents, those are just ugly concrete boxes with metal cage on the windows and covered with dirt, pretty much like Taiwan. Kind and friendly? I do not have Thai friends to compare, but generally if I go shopping or dining in the restaurants, I expect to be served, and friendly attitude is the minimum requirement. I have a lot of experience with rude taxi and tuk tuk drivers though. Their shopping malls are very nice, but for a cheap person like I am, it is not a big draw, though I enjoying walking in it, at least to stay cool in the scorching afternoon. But as the ferry sped towards Koh Larn, the island was just so beautiful that it took my breath away. Blue ocean, green trees, white beach. When I looked at the photos again, let me tell ya, it is so much different, and so much better to be in it, than to look at the 6x4 photo or 15" LCD screen. I always like swimming pool with blue paint at the bottom. Now that ocean on the beach was just like that, but enormous. That beach view beats my impression of the beach in Taiwan.

We rent 2 seats, and then I started to doze off. There was no way I could read or do anything that requires brain power. It was so hot that every part of me returned to the state of an animal. Eat, poop, talk, drink, pee, doze, a complete process to empty out all the thoughts and stresses and to get myself recharged, as MM said.

The interesting thing is that there are not that many Asians on that beach, and most of the white people spoke languages that I could not tell. Some of them are very rude. As the ferry company only run 3 ferries back to Pattaya Beach, and if you missed one, it would be another hour's wait. So although we started to form a line waiting early to ensure our return, when the ferry boat came, many people still shoved their way to get ahead of others. It was messy and made me wonder if we were escaping from the civil war, and this was the last boat to the free America.

MM took many photos of and on Koh Larn. This came as my fovarite. I really like the kid on the photo. He gives the photo a sense of energy and life.

P.S. I Love You

After watching the preview, I did not want to watch this movie. The main reason is, the actor and actress are not attractive. It looks like a love story, so the scene is supposed to be beautiful, and actors be handsome and beautiful, which is the bottom line. Secondly, the idea of getting mails from the deceased is really creepy.

It turns out to be a fine movie, though I am still not crazy for the actress. She looks like a b, her role in the movie is really a b, and she plays that role very well. But the actor, hm, kind of interesting, attractive, nice body, etc. And the supporting actor, William, hm hm good with a great smile, I'm gonna dig out his film history.

The scene that touches me is when the actress calls the actor's cell phone just to hear his voice, after he passes away. I am sure anyone who has deeply fallen in love, and who has lost his beloved ones, all have done that at some point, to feel the sweetness of love, or to grieve over the losses. The other storyline is not bad. The movie is quite ok. If you feel like watching a love story, then go. The only complaint is that the ladies behind me were crying too often. It is not that sad. Come on.

iMac Broke

The computer had been acting weird for few days. I would play online game, and then this kind of strange lines showed on the screen, and the computer froze, but after reboot it would be fine. 2 days ago, I started to get it upon bootup. It was only 2 years old. Sometimes I get to login and play with it for few minutes, but sometimes I cannot even get the login screen. I guess this is hardware problem.

Of course I need to find a repair center to get it fixed, but it seems like a nightmare already.

I did not have too many problems with my previous PC's before. Now apple hardware looks bad. If I factor in my dislike for their keyboard and mouse, I am not sure I would recommend apple as much as before.

MacBook Air

A coworker to brought a MacBook Air today, and I need to have a picture taken together. A few thoughts:

* It is really thin, but it feels heavier than what it looks like.

* No optical drive. Need to rely on external drive or the second computer to rip CD's. But I don't have 2 mac's to play with that function.

* There is no latch to hold the lid and the keyboard part together, but I feel the 'latch feeling' when I close the lid. That's cool. The hooks always look out of place and stupid to me anyway. I can also easily open the lid with just one hand without having to hold the keyboard in place. The hinge is very well designed.

* The built-in camera and the speakers look like pretty decoration. No more need to drill a bunch of holes for the sound to come out.

One Day Trip

I did not do a lot of homework about where to go in Chiang Mai. The rough idea was just that I wanna go to the Sunday Market. I wanna go to Doi Suthep. An elephant ride would be nice, but I don't wanna touch the animals. If there is nothing to do, I can always sign up for cooking class. I love Thai food anyway. But after I checked in the guest house, had coffee with Rainy and was finally alone, I still needed to plan what to do. So I went to the local travel agent.

I do not have any recommendation which agent to go to, so I just picked one from the 10+ or 20+ around the Tat Pae gate. A very cool lady greeted me. She looked a bit over 40, dark, loud and low voice, almost like Cher, and she is very nice and patient to ask what I'd like to. I don't wanna sweat too much? oh then this package is not good for you, because you'll need to hike in the sun for 2 hours. I don't wanna get wet? Oh then rafting won't be such a good idea for you, but rafting would be fun. Well, I was just being fickle and could not make up my mind. I asked to look around all the posters they have on the wall, packages on the brochures. No problems at all, and she did not give me any pressure. I love that.

So I settled down with a 1000B package, which includes orchid farm, paper factory, village visit, elephant ride, and rafting.

The car was kind of bad. Just a regular truck with a roof. I did not feel it was that bad until we reached the orchid farm. Another tour group got there at the same time, and they had a nice, air-conditioned SUV. I was tempted to ask how they found the tour and how much they paid for it, but decided to hold that thought. I knew if they told me they only paid 800, then I would be really pissed off at myself.

Orchid farm was ok. Orchid is not uncommon in Taiwan, and we can get some really cheap. My dad grows some at home too.

Then we stopped at the paper factory, which is just a short distance from the orchid farm, so, of course, that hateful SUV showed up again. It was a shock to visit there when I realized, the beautiful handmade paper of all those beautiful notebooks or photo albums I saw from the night markets are made from elephant manure! They collect manure, put it in the sun, then wash it a few times to get the fiber out, and wash a few more times, then put the remaining fiber in a basin. A screen is then used to pick up the fiber. A person will shake the screen a little bit to make the fiber spread evenly in the screen, then a thick sheet of paper is ready to dry to form the final product. It was fun, really, but I truly tried to avoid those merchandise in the night markets afterwards.

To get to the village, we had to walk around 20 minutes one way. Easy walk, even 5-year-old was doing great, though we had to go up and down some hills. There were long-neck people and black-teeth people living there. They did not live there originally, but came from their hometown to that place to do business, with the permit from Thai government. Men went out to hunt for food or work as tour guides. Women stayed in the village to take care of kids and sell souvenirs. Tourists are free to take as many pictures as they want. I guess some people don't like this idea as they feel this village is more like a zoo, which I disagree.

Elephant ride was fun. They prepared one elephant for each group. There was a group of a family of 3, a group of a couple, and the a group of myself. Well, I rode alone. We got on the elephant, and then the elephants went down a slope to the river, as shown on the picture. The view of the river, elephants and forest made such great excitement like something is going to happen, and it is gonna be a wild wild safari. Well, the fun part was, at one point, the elephant owner jumped off the elephant and left me alone on the animal, and it started to wandered around the field with its own pace. It was a bit scary at first but in few minutes became a fun thing to see how the elephant pulled the weeds, searched for food, etc. After that the elephant walked in and along the river. That was also fun to see how this powerful animal move people around.

When I saw the picture of bamboo rafting, it looked so mild and easy. I should have thought about it, but did not realize it until I got on the raft and it sank in the water! My feel and pants were wet immediately. And when the raft made a sharp turn, one side of the raft sank in the water so much that my butts were soaking wet. That 5-year-old kid was not very happy, and blamed the dad all the way, and that dad was just laughing.

We had gong too far out of Chiang Mai at that point, so it would take 2 hours to drive back to Chiang Mai. I dozed half the way on that very uncomfortable truck, and my butts were wet all the way back. Mind you, it could get chilly in the evening in Chiang Mai, and I could really felt the breeze. It was 8 when we said good bye. That was a long and fun trip.

Moat of Chiang Mai

If I ever go back to Chiang Mai again, I may like to spend 2 days or 3 to visit some villages, or go hiking to Golden Triangle, but one of the main reasons will be the moat.

I followed the tour guide and went to a restaurant called Kaffee, which sits right by the moat. It was a late morning when I went there for my lunch. I finished my curry, and started to work on my coconut shake. I took a sip, wrote a few words on the postcards I had bought earlier, looked up and saw the trees and the water of the moat. I felt a sense of happiness and calmness, which I had been missing for a long time. It makes me feel like... ordering a second coconut shake. You've gotta try it if you go there. Coconut can never taste better than this, and it costs only 40 bahts.

I am not sure what happened to the wall, but all of the 5 gates are well preserved. I definitely like the fact that it is a large area inside the wall where people still actually live and do business. For me there seems to be a magic that the traffic outside the moat is so heavy and crazy, but when you step inside, it is slow and, bearable. I am not surprised if people here will just cover the moat and make it a wide straight road.

History

Few months ago, I organized my old photos left at my folks' , put them in a box, and shipped it to Taipei. The idea was to scan all those pictures into my computer and toss the physical ones. Considering photos taken just merely 10 years ago are now so blurry, I really don't have the desire to keep them forever. But of course, I was lazy to kick off this project. Then I remembered J had done some before, so I asked for a copy. But then the CD sat on the desk for ages, until yesterday when I finally picked it up, and spent 3 minutes to import to the computer.

Attached is one of my favorite. It shows the good old days when I was slim and beautiful. I used to tell J if the difference between my height and weight (in metrics) falls below 100, I'd rather die. With the weight hitting the record by the day, I guess it is high time to try to stop the trend.

Tainan Old City Hall

I went out this morning to get some snacks before I came back Taipei. Drove before the old Tainan City Hall, and was amazed at her beauty. As far as I know it has been converted to a museum. Need to check what kind of exhibit they have the next time.

Taste of Nyonya

It is a story of foreign workers in Taiwan. One thai guy comes to make money, falls in love, but ends up in jail. One Indonesian girl started out bad because of cultural differences but ends up marrying a local Taiwanese and stays. Another Indonesian girl, as part of the story and a narrator at the same time, experiences the connection with her employer, loss of her husband, and comes back to Taiwan to work again. I did not think twice when the Indonesian narrator won the best actress in our film festival and they made a big deal out of it, but was really moved by how those amateur actors tell this story naturally, which may happen anytime around me when it showed on TV during Chinese New Year. Too bad I cannot find any English information.