Ratatouille

Bro said he saw two little house guests the other day, and they have already marked their visit shamelessly, as shown in the picture. We just have to evacuate as much food from the kitchen as possible. Rice, noodles, sugar, you name it. Anything wrapped with plastic all have to go. Bro also set up baits and traps at night, but so far they are still at large. Not sure how long we'll have to put up with their existence, but I have already made up my mind that I'm gonna scream, run away to work and have bro take care of it if they do get caught. However I still have the slightest hope that someday when I come home, I'll see a bunch of rats cooking French cuisine.. wahaha, dream on.

Their Name is "Parents" Part 7

Can't wait for another episode of "Their Name is Parents"? Here you go.

This is a tiny machin to warm up milk. What happens is parents' bedroom is on one side of the apartment, and the kitchen is on the other. So parents have to run to the kitchen to microwave the milk, then the princess may wanna play for a little bit, milk gets cold, and parents need to make another run, then the princess plays difficult, milk gets cold, tired parents run.. So they decided to buy this tiny machine, so it's right there in the bedroom, within reach, no need to leave the princess unattneded, even for just a few minutes. OMG, I'm crying.

Diana

It has been 10 years since Diana passed away. Why is her death so significant for me? Actually no. She was merely a distant celebrity for me. But I do remember the day when I saw the news on TV, and the image is still so vivid in my memory.

That was a sunny afternoon. I was in Hoping Island, Keelung, in the living room watching TV. Not very comfortable chair, as we picked it up from the trash pile. That's what students do. It was luxury to have TV, and we connected cable from the neighbor so we did not have to pay for it. I was shocked when I saw the news, turned around and talked to J about it. Then I walked up to the balcony, stretched, and took a deep breath. Very sunny that day. I always loved that balcony and salty smell of the air. We had a few talks on the news, and lamented when Diana was pronounced dead. And then I can see the bookshelves that lay on the floor, the speakers we borrowed from a friend, the 486 computer that could not play MP3 at 128bit quality, the fridge which is home to so many roaches. Did not realized I still remember these until when I watched the movie 'the Queen', and now the image has its re-run.

10 years is a long time to change a lot of things. While you are busy with your career, those memories can be triggered and come back at any time. There can be pain, happiness, sorrow, anger, or any combinations of them, but you know you've gone a long way, and what you were and what you have been through make you what you are today. Now I don't remember too much about 1997 other than I made my first trip to US, to El Paso, Texas. But now I'll always remember Diana's death and that afternoon and the place I called home.

Last Day of Chinese Teaching Class

Yesterday was the last day of my Chinese teaching class. We had oral test in the morning and written test in the afternoon. During the oral test, we were given some reading material to test how well we pronounce Chinese, and 5 minutes to comment how we are doing in the whole training, what our recommendations are, and if/how we are going to explore this teaching career. I did ok in the reading material part, and was quite proud when I could read some sentimental material quite well, with some emotion of course. But the 5 minutes' comment was a total disater. My brain was total blank, and the next thing I realized is that I was using hm.. arhhh. ehhh to try to come out with some meaningful sentences, which is exactly what the teacher specifically asked us not to do. A reason to be mad at myself.

Written test was ok. Test time was 2 hours, and I was able to finish the whole thing in 50 minutes. Not that I am able to get a perfect score, but I figured I just did the best I could, and do not foresee I would fail or anything. I also realized I probably have not written so much, for so long, for a long long time. The last time was when I took the entrance exam to this training, and that happened 3 months ago.

After we finished the whole thing, 7 of us went to have some ice on campus, then we headed for dinner. Korean BBQ. The place is quite nice and popular. We sat in a corner and joked too much that I was glad we were put in the corner. Have not had such good laugh for a long while. After that, 5 of us went to Red House Plaza for a drink. Some ordered lychee wine, some Heineken green tea, some maitai. I ordered Long Island ice tea. Ice tea was quite strong. I started to feel drunk after I finished just a quarter. A lot of self disclosure time. Weather was ok. Breezy, not sure if that was natural breeze or just from the fan. We stayed there for 2+ hours, and did not leave until around 10pm.

It was a very nice day.

Gift from Japan

MM just returned from Japan and brought me this shirt. Pink color with blue and purple strips. I tried it on and it fits me quite well. It stayed on me for the rest of day.

WoW New Hat

New hat for my warlock. Now the face turns blue and there is a dark whirl behind the shoulders. The blue mask on the face is not a static mask, but it vibrates a bit like blue fire. Pretty cool visual effect.

Caught

Working 5 days in a row, and then going to school for another 2 days on the weekends can turn out quite daunting. So I feel tired sometimes in the classroom, and need to doze for few seconds... and someone happened to bring a camera and took the evidence. I swear I was consciously checking the inside of my eyelids..

Typhoon

Typhoon is gone, and this is what it left us with. Had a day off yesterday from the class, and the class is pushed out to next Sunday. So now the last day of the class will be next Sunday, instead of Saturday as originally planned. Will still have to study both days next weekend. Now I can't wait for it to finish..

Lost and Found

I took Harry Potter with me to China but left it behind at the hotel when I checked out. Did not realize that until I was unpacking. Since my coworker still would stay in the hotel for another week, so I thought I could just ask him to take it back for me. Called the hotel, and the lady insisted that my coworker should leave a copy of his ID if he wanted to take in on my behalf for 'security' reason. What security reason? I kept asking her. All she could do was to apologize and repeat that copy of ID is required for security reason. I hanged up. Later the manager called and asked who my coworker is and said they could deliver the book to his room. I still don't understand if I can identify myself where the book was found, and identify I had lived there, then what 'security' problem can this book lead to, and how a copy of my coworker's ID can possibly solve the security issue. So much for this stupid SOP.

Le Petit Prince

Musical "Le Petit Prince" is in town. MM got tickets early, so we have the best seats of the cheapest tickets. Nice view from the 4th floor. No effort at all to see the whole stage. The only disturbing thing is to have to juggle between French subtitle, Chinese subtitle and the performance on the stage. Nice to be able to understand part of the French lyrics, but changing the eye focus all the times was killing me. Music was fine. The kid playing the little prince could have improved a bit. His voice turns quite weak and unstable in high pitch. The guy playing author is pretty ok. Stage is a bit simple. They could have filled the stage a bit more.

After the show, we were the last ones to walk out of the show, so we took our time and walked down the red carpet like movie stars, and had pictures taken. MM actually was lucky to have her picture taken with the prince as shown. We had too much fun there taking pictures, shamelessly, at the age of 3x.

Costumes..

I took this picture one Saturday afternoon after I finished the class. Many people love comics so much that they want to be part of the comics, or look like the characters in the comics. They get together once in a while to show off their costumes. Many people bring their high end camera to take picturers. This is the first time when I feel my cell phone is so inferior..

Their Name is "Parents" Part 6

This is the bed for the kid. Bed frame is white color, with pink padding and pillow inside. If you make it the size for adults, that would be so romantic to sleep in there..

Chris Cheng?

I was browsing through the books I keep at my parents when I found this one, bought on April 4, 1988 by Christopher Cheng. I thought I have used 'sean' forever, but obviosly not before 1988. So can I say 'sean' is no more than 19 years old? OMG, I am a teenager. That feels good.

A Friend from the Past

How many email accounts do you have? 1? 2? I have more than that. Pick a number, maybe 10? Of course I have accounts from all major free email providers. Who doesn't? But sometimes when I registered for some online services, that account also comes with a free email account. I may have 3 or 4 such email accounts, but don't use them at all.

I have an old old old hotmail account, maybe have had it for like 10 years (I can easily tell from the password.., you know, good old days), or maybe more. As this email account was heavily spammed at one point, I stopped using it for a period of time. It was later when I came back to Taiwan to work in 2003, and realized that all the friends around me were using MSN! I am never a fan for Microsoft, but still, I tried to use it again, but only for MSN purpose. I still log in this account once in a while, just to keep it active, as per Microsoft's requirements.

So a while ago, I logged in, clicked on inbox, mindlessly browsed through all the spams (Microsoft has made great improvement in blocking spams, but still is no comparsion with others). That's when one email caught my attention.

Subject title: hi... from Greg.

My first assumption is, this is a spam. I've seen so many of those. Legimate guess, right? But I still clicked on it, just out of curiosity (BAD practice). To my surprise, it is a regular email, not someone who is trying to sell v1agra, or p0rn, or something like that.

Then few emails flew back and forth. I tried to re-organize it into dialogues for easy reading..

G: Hi Sean, I just came across your email account. We met a long time ago, and I was wondering if you are still using it. ciao.

S (smiling politely): Hi Greg, nice to get your email. As this email account is heavily spammed, I dont normallly check it anymore. Please send future correspondence to xxx@yyy.com.

G: Hi Sean, good morning. yeah, we met a few years ago. I think after we met, you were moving to California.. blah blah blah

OS: WHAT? I moved to California in 1999. How can this person know about the move, plus some further details but I cannot remember him at all? This can't be right. There has to be a plot or something. Maybe some friend is just playing a practical joke.

S (still smiling, anxiously): Hi Greg, I am afraid I may not the one you knew back in 1998 or 1999 timeframe. Attached is my recent photo. Please take a look to confirm.

G: Yes! Although you have put on some weight (I know, ok?), but that was you. I am out of town now, but will send you the picture I took when I get home.

OS: Who the f(censored) is this person? I am trying my best, but it seems to me that some of my memory has been wiped out completely. I had just started to work back then, and was just having simple life of working, home on weekends....

S (smiling, nervously): Hi Greg, it is such a delight to get your confirmation. I'd love to see the old pictures of mine. I understand that in the old days, scanners were outrageously expensive, and digital cameras were probably still a concept. It was not easy to send pictures.... blah blah

I clicked send, and then all of a sudden, the momory came back. I remember exactly how many times we met, we went to National Palace Museum, we had the conversation regarding definition of 'restaurant', his last email regarding his move, how we lost contact, etc, etc.

Such a relief. I'm not an idiot.

Attached is the picture from Greg. You'll be the judge to tell if that is your dear Sean..

Peace of Mind

It was around 7:20 when I got up this moring. Raining hard. It was 7:45 when I finally walked out of the door. I did not want to walk in the rain for 10 minutes to the bus stop, wait for the bus for 10 minutes, and had to tranfer from bus to metro, then another 10 minutes' walk. I would be soaking wet when I got to school, so I decided to take the taxi. By the time I got there, it was only 8:10. 1 more hour to kill. So I stopped at the Starbucks right acoss the street from my training building, had a cup of coffee and some breakfast. Very relaxing. I finally felt like rested after the tiring business trip and a busy day from yesterday. Now close to midnight, and I'm stilling feeling quite ok. Taking the taxi, 200 dollars. A cup of coffee, 90 dollars. Light breakfast 50 dollars. A peace of mind, priceless.

Nice Design for Commuters

If you commute often enough during rush hour, you'll understand the pain to stand in the train trying to fight your way to hold on to something. This picture is taken in the train of Hong Kong Airport that runs between terminals. I love it, and want Taipei to install something like this in our subway trains.

One More Thing....

Okok, if you watch Apple's product release closely, you'll know I copy this title from Steve Jobs, but how can I miss PopEye when I published the post regarding Krispy Kream and Ben & Jerry? In my mind, I love PopEye as much as KFC, but PopEye is another thing that I cannot get in Taiwan.

So I stopped there, had 2 pieces of fried chicken and a box of rice, which reminds me of Cajun style of rice.. and CHUCKY MONKEY, single scoop in a cup. This is a happy ending of a business trip.

Rainbow

 MM forwarded these rainbow pictures to me. We just had a typhoon in Taiwan. A lot of rain. She was having a bad day with the boss, and happened to see this beautiful rainbow hanging in the sky after having an ugly conservation with him. Too bad, I don't get to see it. Still in Shenzhen now...

Old Photo

 Picasa dug out this picture from my hard drive. Checked the date. It was taken in February 2005. Don't remember where I was, but I guess it was taken by J. Does the face show any kind of happiness?

Things You Can't Get in Taiwan

I was so happy to see it on the way out to the arrival hall in Hong Kong Airport. Krispy Kreme! This is the second thing that I love, that I can't get in Taiwan, but that is available in Hong Kong Airport. The first thing is Ben&Jerry... this is such a good airport. :-) Love you, HKG, *kiss*.

Shangri-la Shenzhen

 Business trip in Shenzhen, China now. Shangri-la is a very nice hotel. Room is not super large, but is very nicely decorated. Large bed, wide table, easy access to internet. The only complaint is that this is not vacation. I need to get something ready for tomorrow. Weary from the trip. Yawn.

Their Name is "Parents" Part 5

As you think the parents are done with their shopping spree, something else comes up! It is an air refreshener. Princess tends to sniff a lot at home, but are pretty ok at the kindergarden. So after a thorough family meeting, the conclusion is that the air at home is not clean enough! Hence this machine. :-) Pretty cool and smart machine. When it detects odor, de-odor will be activated. Hm.. fxrt as much as you want if you have machine like this. LOL

A-mei

Today after class, Mei-mei and I went to Ximen area for dinner, movie, and of course, a drink at Red House Theater. Well, soon after we got there, headed for the movie theater, we saw A-mei. She just released her new album, and I was just thinking of stopping by CD store to get her new album and Kelly Clarkson's latest album. There she was, on the stage, signing for her fans. I love her a lot that I would get her album without trying. So everything happened naturally. I took out my wallet, paid, get one album, and a free poster. MM asked if I wanted to stand in line to get signature. Big yes, of course. No hesitation whatsoever. Well, my first time to get signature from a singer, at the age of 3x. Silly, but I was so happy.

Fareware, Friend..

It was shocking to receive this email from this friend. He sold his WoW account to his friend. I thought he would be there forever, as he was always the enthusiastic person to help others. Many of us play together in this online game, we joke, chat, but we never meet, and do not know one another in the real life. No phone number, no MSN, no email account, so when one person says good bye to the game, that means we lose him/her forever.

On the emails, the title is 'heritage'. He says "I sold my account. Please accept these potions.".