Plurk Captures

We just had an earthquake, and when it happened, I heard a lot of dings on Plurk. Many people start to write message about it on plurk, and I am one of them. It's funny to see people writing the same thing at the same time, and the timestamp is so clear on Plurk, 2:05am.

Keyboard Layout Not Right

I remember when Steve Jobs released iPhone, he rediculed in his keynote smart phones with physical keyboards, and claimed iPhone had been well designed with software keyboard when keyboard can be customized. My question is, so can you customize the keyboard to be 2 rows? or even 4 rows?

Apple just released iPhone OS 3.0. One of the much anticipated features from me is new way to input Chinese characters, either Phonetics, or Changjei, or something else, and it did. However, when I activated it (Settings->General->International->Keyboards->Chinese (Traditional)->Zhuyin) and tried, I just could not believe my eyes. The keyboard layout is completely wrong. The second photo attached here shows the keyboard of my mac. The layout of our Zhuyin keyboard is from top to bottom and then left to right, instead of left to right and then top to bottom, as shown in the first photo, and we use 4 rows of keys. So I am not sure if Apple is only able to customize the keyboard in 3 rows, or they can do 4 rows but did not want to bother with the format that local people are used to. I don't know. Apple has been so careful in the details, but this time they are lousy. If they had had any keyboard from Taiwan, or asked any of their Taiwanese employee, they should not have made this outrageous mistake.

Photos

Complaints, complaints, complaints, and complaints work.

I know I have not been doing quite well updating the blog, and the main reason is not that I'm lazy, but just that I've been using plurk, and plurk has been fun as a fast way to share quick and short information, and receive feedback from friends. Having used it for about 3 months, I'm not surprised to read an article some time ago, which says that plurk and twitter may likely replace blog soon as the dominant way to share information online.

So I chose some photos few days ago and had them developed. This morning after M complained about lack of update on my blog, I decided to put photos in. 3 frames are old ones. 6 are new ones from IKEA. I bought them for very low price. It was like 3 for around 3USD, so I thought I would give them a try, maybe I can even add some colors to them if I'd like. Well, not very good decision. When I tried to put photos on, I could tell immediately the plastic color is so much cloudier than the glass of other photo frames, and the triangle marks for the plastic are just driving me nuts. How would anyone want to have those annoying triangles in front of the photos of their best selections? IKEA is just a total idiot to things like this, and I was a total idiot to even buy them.

So they would be for temporary use only. I would use them to get a feeling of what I like and where I'd like to put them, and once things have improved on my side, I'm going to get some nicer to replace them. I have not decided how to arrange them yet. Maybe 3 in a set, 3 of the 5x7, then 3 of the scenic photos, and the rest of the 3. I'll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomrrow is another day.

Ex-In-Law

My apartment is very empty. Been thinking of doing something about it. I've got a dreamcatcher, a painting of an Indian chief. Both are my beloved souvenirs from my first trip to US. I also have one silk knitting from China. 3 are not enough to make this apartment homely, and I'm afraid that 3 completely different style of collections do not go well with one another on the same wall.

It may be a good idea to use some photos. I found these 3 while I did the cleaning few weeks ago, took them out, and put them on the bookshelf, and could not decide what to do with them. For some reason I do not feel like tossing them in the trash bin, but do not feel like keeping them anymore either. Now this does not sound like a major tosser like myself, but that is still part of me.

Having said that, I'll definitely re-use the photo frames for my decoration.

Da Endorphine

About 3 years ago, I went to Bangkok alone. I think the was the second trip, in May or June, when it was so hot and sweaty, not not rainy season yet. I took the subway for transportation, and the overhang TV kept playing songs of a female singer. Very nice song, so I wanted to get a CD for my souvenir.

I went to the shopping mall, found a music store, but did not know how to explain to the guy there. Tried to explain the song was played extensively at the subway station, but I guess they did not take subway. I just had to hum the music, and the guy did not have a clue what I was singing. I said, ok, so could you recommend any good CD? He recommended Da Endorphine. I took it. It is a souvenir anyway.

Of course the music was put in MP3 format once I came back. I listened to it few times, and was never quite into it, as I did not understand the lyrics. Not until few weeks when I had to take a bus often, and I tried to listen to this CD again did I realize the music is so great, and quality of the voice is so fascinating.

I feel lucky to find the MV from youtube, and this particular person has added English subtitles to a lot of Thai songs. The first one is the fourth song of the album I have. Looooove this song.

This second song is the 3rd song in the album I have. I also like the rythm very much, without even understanding the lyrics. There is something in the pronunciation that really intrigues me.

This song is from an album last year. The lyrics is very good, and so sad at the same time. I am so determined to get this album. I'm just a huge fan of Da Endorphine.

Bow River

Fred and I went biking. He had bought a bicycle and had a lend of another one from his friend. We brougt some water, fruit, cheese, grenola bars with us, so we could stop on the way and relax. There was no set destination or schedule, so it was easy ride along the bow river. It is still early spring here, cold and sunny. I had to put on the gloves, and it was very cold on the way back that my fingers were freezing even with the gloves on.

Most of the trees are still bare, and some trees have started to grow leaves. The combination of different colors from the branches, sprouts, leaves was really nice. It reminded me of the paintings from the impressionists. They wre good at capturing colors and light, and I felt like walking into one of their paitings while we stopped for lunch.

I do not know how far we biked, but we started at 10:30, and did not return until 3:30. I even had some cramp on the thighs when I tried to go up the last ramp to get on the bridge. That was really the exercise for the whole day. We had planned to go to a bar, but decided we would rather pass and maybe go next Wednesday.

38

I turned 38 today. Today is so absolute. No matter if we talk about lunar calendar or solar calendar. I was born today, 38 years ago.

Few things to note. I left the company 2 days ago. Nothing lies ahead. Had lunch with J yesteday, and I really do not want to make it into an annual thing, even though it is really hard to say no when he still remembers my birthday, after so many years. He mentioned he may want to adopt a kid, and there is a age limit to do that, and the limit is 40 years ago. Nothing I could say about it. It is ironic that he still considers it anyway.

I started to use plurk back in March. Today I re-connected with Joseph, who let me stay with him when I started to work in Taipei 10+ years ago. He mentioned he still thinks of me and J sometimes. I'll try to get together with him after I return from Canada.

Going to the airport soon for the Canada trip. I have not done too much homework on the trip. Was completely lazy. Whatever comes up will be nice.

Type rest of the post here