Saturday, December 31, 2005

跨年, 2006

新年快樂!!

嗯, 第一次去跨年
累到快暈倒

跟車社的老人(發現我最小)
電動
火鍋
看台北101爆炸, 消失
然後出現"Taipei 101, Bravia by Sony"
(行銷真誇張)

接著玩國王遊戲玩到虛脫
(不過只有我先回來, 大家要玩到天亮的)


該睡了
書念不完T_T
還要找今年暑假實驗室...

---

感想:
車社真是個歡樂的好地方^^

Monday, December 26, 2005

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US woman swallows phone in spat

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US woman swallows phone in spat
Yet another bizzare news. "You want pickles to go with your phone?"

新しいCDを買った:柴崎コウ・ひとりあそび

好久沒買專輯了。本來一直在等一青窈12/21號在日本發行的最新專輯:「&」,不過硬碟中的舊歌實在是快聽膩了,一青窈的台壓版又不知道要等多久才會上市,於是在想嘗試新歌手的心理下到唱片行去找特價298的スキマスイッチ・夏雲ノイズ」。不過到了之後才發現柴崎コウ也剛發片。根據前一張專輯的經驗,她的歌大部分都很耐聽,於是就捨棄スキマスイッチ,買了貴50塊的柴崎コウ・ひとりあそび」。
Sweet Mom
令人驚訝的是,這張專輯的風格跟上一張不太一樣,該怎麼說呢,似乎多了不少異國情調。兩張專輯成功的做出了些微的風格上的區隔,不過不變的是,每一首歌都很好聽,沒有那種為了湊歌數而隨便混混的爛歌。

不過這張專輯的歌詞也很特別。有別於一般「不是戀愛就是擁抱」的流行歌,整張專輯不但「愛」這個字不容易找,「抱きしめて」根本是完全找不到。很符合專輯名稱「一個人的遊戲」,本專輯的主角不是最常被描寫的熱戀中的情侶,而是情緒複雜的單身貴族。11首歌中有9首歌詞是柴崎コウ創作,她寫的歌詞常用一些不常見又不容易連貫起來的詞語組成,聯看中文翻譯都要反覆看好幾遍才會懂;她描寫一個人在現代城市高壓又急促的生活中複雜的情緒,非常細膩。

整張專輯中我最喜歡的10首:「
若手クリエーター」。以輕快而有活力的節奏,描繪一個年輕人隻身到都市為了未來而努力,那種不畏困難努力追求夢想的感覺真的很棒。另外,第4首「Graybee」,歌詞是最難懂的,不過其中一小段看得懂的部份卻還真的有點同感。另這首個的節奏還滿high的,很適合飆車時聽:P

最後,一點小小抱怨。台壓版附贈摩斯漢堡的兌換卷,不過「台大店」除外,真是囧...

Friday, December 16, 2005

Mood: 身心大爆炸

本來想說期中考終於全部結束,TOEFL也解決了,總算可以正常一點的準備期末考,結果是動生實1個團體書面報告,1個口頭報告;實驗那邊還有HindIII cleavage test等著我,病毒報告週五就要預報一次,我還很白痴的接下總整理的工作(我似乎有看到牆就想撞的自虐傾向...)。還好明天的瑞芳活動放掉了,不然我真的要進醫院調點滴了。

之前在被發卡的打擊下,以一種自我懲罰的心情把這學期塞滿,希望用忙碌沖淡悲傷。是有效啦,不過過了快一學期的刺激生活,有種快撐不下去的感覺。下學期應該把實驗室和社團都放掉,課也址選必要的,全力充GRE吧。不過對於要放掉的東西,都是我喜歡的;反觀GRE似乎很枯燥T_T 下學期該如何撐下去?是有考慮過延畢,不過自己的自尊不准自己這樣作,從覺得這樣的自己太沒骨氣了,是台灣人就應該拿出台灣水牛的精神全力打拼?!

明天的活動放掉了,有點空虛感。似乎自己帶的活動只要暴力一點,來參加的都是一些不認識又不會聊天,只會埋頭狂騎的人。可惜社上聊得比較開的人一個一個引退,不然就是都低調私約。雖然騎車很不錯,但我還是喜歡那種一群人聚在一起歡樂的感覺。要是純粹練車,我自己去騎北47好了,幹嘛跟社上,還要負擔照顧新生的責任?之前願意付出,是為了可以騎車有伴,談天說地,不織布覺得到達目的地,然後一起拍照,一起玩。也許我討厭孤單吧,那種明明在人群中但卻被忽視的感覺。

我想,以我的個性,雖說下學期要淡出車社,但看到人多熱鬧的活動,還是會忍不住跟吧!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

I'm done with TOEFL

今天把TOEFL給解決掉了。

早上其實還有點不順,每次鬧鐘想起就在一秒內按掉,還在夢中因為鬧鐘不太吵倒是偶而沾沾自喜...... 然後一起床還我的電腦還在繼續跟我完reset loop,應是不給我開機;PDA也拒絕播音樂,算了,先丟一邊。結果早上的軍訓遲到了一節課。軍訓課時把簡章再看一遍,發現之前為了TOEFL去照的照片還遠在基隆的家裏,心想完了;又仔細看,發現PBT才需要準備大頭照,CBT的是當場照,原來這照片事件從頭到尾都是個搞笑。

軍訓課後,距報到時間還有一個半小時。本來想再複習一下句型結構的,卻太緊張靜不下來,結果只好看漫畫殺殺時間(喂,明天還要考分生耶!)。12:00還沒到,就衝到語言中心去等了。坐下來,沒事做,就把TOEFL相關的公告全看光光。然後,還是沒事作,把護照從第一頁念到最後一頁。環視一下四周,發現一件奇怪的事:怎麼考生中,男生只看到3個,其他全是女的?難道這年頭的男生都不留學的?難道為了晚點當兵,大家都在台灣把研究所一路念到Ph.D然後拖到最後才以高齡去當兵?不會吧?但是我所熟悉的實驗室中也都沒什麼男生,這麼說來大家都就業去了?不懂。

嗯,總算叫到我的名字了:「蔡 Kevin先生!」似乎全場只有我一個人護照上的名字不是中文名字羅馬拼音,真是 囧rz。正式考試果然跟powerprep很像(廢話),不過考聽力時螢幕上出現的照片解析度比較高。範例的部份,這已經是我的3次玩了,相當無聊,就暫時發一下呆。因進場時有簽一份題目保密協定,所以我似乎不能在此討論題目的內容。不過大致上,我覺得比powerprep的題目難,但不像參考書中的題目那麼刁鑽。所以不能作太快,但也不會覺得有陷阱。

其實考完之後覺得Test Of English as a Foreign Language這個名字有點不適合,考題內容比較像是"Test Of English for Campus Use",全部都只考在美國大學校園中會用到的英文,不會考到別的。聯作文都是類似老師會在學校出的報告作業的論說文形式。所以,之前以為各方面都要顧,聽ABC news podcast,讀美國新聞,結果都沒用。其實,念原文教科書就足夠準備閱讀了,聽力,多聽空英吧。反正在學生生活圈以外的東西都不會出現。

最後,感謝糖果陳和Chroma兩位幫我瞭解考試的計分方式和應考策略。

嗯,明天的分生解決後,應該開始計畫後面的步驟了:summer internships, GRE, what graduate schools to choose...

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Funny how the simplicity of Palm can win over WM5

Living with just a PDA (part 17)- another Palm convert - PDA 24/7

Yeah, the HTC Universal (called the Exec here) seemed to be the most powerful handheld in history. It's even marketed as a tiny notebook computer. Yes, the spec sheet look better, it looks more modern. But Windows Mobile does has it's problems. Thus, after the author did 16 posts of how he enjoyed his Exec, he suddenly posted that he is switching to Palm.

Here's the best part:
"What was wrong. The TX was so fast it was scary fast."
"The Exec can multi task. The TX has completed the tasks without the need for multitasking."

Hm, makes me want to try out a TX myself, too.

Friday, December 09, 2005

I feel miserable...

Accidentally droped my Clie NX73 handheld to the ground again.

Although still alive, now it's suffering multiple minor complications. Gosh, I felt like I just accidently pushed an old friend off a roof of a 3 story building...

Also, the battery seems to be holding only about 1/3 of it's original charge. I'm now charging it anytime I can as if it were a power hungry laptop.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

牽車

原來我騎一台簽一台時有時速限制,超過時速20就會失控把牽的那台車甩出去。
不過自己還可以安然無事,只摔牽的那台,已經有進步了XD

嗯,趕著紅燈前最後一秒卻在路口摔了校園車,真是對不起被我阻礙到的駕駛們。

裝滿「電子錢包」的錢包?

今天到醫圖找病毒學要報告的paper,經過休閒雜誌區,還是不改老毛病,無論是否有更重要的事,看到雜誌就坐下來殺殺時間。

翻開「數位週刊」,看到關於電子錢包的報導,深有同感。

因為某些人覺得找零錢很麻煩,於是發明的電子錢包這玩意兒,繼信用卡後又一種塑膠貨幣。或許稱之為「預付儲值卡」比較恰當。當初北市捷運/公車/停車場共用一張的「悠遊卡」推出時,還覺得挺方便的,不過當時我心裡就已經有點小抱怨:為何不能在便利商店用悠遊卡購物?好了,幾年過後的今天,我打開錢包一看,嗯,有基隆市公車卡、電話卡、圖書館影印卡、醫圖影印卡、7-Eleven iCash,又因為悠遊卡和基隆市公車卡會互相干擾,悠遊卡要另外擺背包裡。天啊,還沒出社會就有6個「電子錢包」了!(高中時期還曾經另有一張台鐵電子月票咧)據說以後還要有高速公路電子收費卡,高雄市的捷運/公車要用Master Card 的PayPass電子錢包系統......。這麼多張卡,煩不煩啊?當初期待第一張:悠遊卡可以逐漸拓展到各領域,結果是各領域的卡越來越多。基隆市公車卡本來說要跟台北市的悠遊卡和的,結果我們非常豬頭的法規不允許,造就了系統相同,卻不能共通,還會互相干擾的兩張卡!高雄用的Master Card PayPass倒是神奇了,因同系統,未來可能可以拿到美國的麥當勞或加油站使用。和國際接軌了,卻不能在國內互通。(北市政府一向耍臭屁,絕不可能會願意改成和高雄市互通的。)

反觀日本,因有Sony和NTT Docomo兩大企業主導Felica平台,真正整合了電車車票、便利商店等用途,現在還整合到手機裡面去,真的可以用手機到便利商店買購物了。NTT Docomo還為此收購TowerRecords唱片行的日本分公司部份股權,明年聯買CD都可以「刷手機」了。

期待臺灣的這些平台也有整合的一天,真正達到一張薄薄的電子錢包游天下,而不是一個傳統錢包塞了滿滿的塑膠卡。

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

TOEFL composition practice: Method of Travel

(Topic from here)

There is a place about 64 kilometers away from my home that I need to go to. I may drive, ride a motorcycle, take a bus, ride a bike or simply walk there. I would prefer riding a bike if I have enough time, here's why.

First of all, I don't have a licences for moterbikes, so riding a motorcycle is the first one off my list. Driving a car seems to be the easiest and fastest way, however, the roads aren't wide near home, and there are frequent trafic jams. I could even be caught in the long waits in front of trafic lights. Besides, driving burns gas, which isn't cheep, and causes polution. Also, finding a place to park also takes time. As for taking a bus, I have to find a bus stop, wait for it to come, take the extra time waiting for it to stop at every stop, and finally, find my way to my destination from the bus stop where I got off. Now for walking, since walking that distance might be really tiresome, 64 kilometers means I might need a whole day to get there, if you count in the time for rests and meal.

Finally, for bikes, I usually ride at an average speed of about 20 kilometers per hour. So, getting there takes about 3 hours. Biking is great exercising, nearly polution-free and cost-free, and is also a pleasure for me. I also have total control of which route I take, as I would if I drive. Thus, if I'm not in a hurry, and not too tired that day, I'd ride there.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Upgreading to Firefox 1.5

Upgrade to Firefox 1.5!
(First of all, if you don't know what's Firefox, see an intro here.)
I just upgrade last week. The most significant difference I felt was the launch speed. Firefox 1.5 sure is much faster then 1.07! And the updated pop-up blocker does work better. The previously leaked pop-ups are now successfully blocked. Not much more stuff to make you say "wow", though, since Firefox 1.07 was already pretty much refined. But please do upgrade, because the new auto-update feature keeps you up-to-date with the latest security update, keeping you safe.

There was some minor problems, though. I did some research before I made the jump to 1.5, and I found out that the Adblock extension had some incompatabilities with 1.5. You have to uninstall it, upgrade and then goto addons.mozilla.org and get the newest version. Also, the PCman extension (which is no longer updated) that I used as a telnet replacement, no longer worked. (Untill I found a modded version of PCman here) As for themes, I previously used brushed, which is not updated yet, forcing me to switch to iFox.

Other then that, all seems fine. So if you're plaining on updating to 1.5, remember to make sure the extensions and themes you love are updated to work with 1.5. And remember, after the upgrade, there's no going back unless you make a new profile.

Happy upgrading!
Spread some Holiday Cheer
By the way, care for some Firefox ad videos? See them here:
Firefox Flicks!

Brrrrrr.........

Winter is certainly here.

It's freezing cold today, with strong winds. Wonder why the cold weather make you feel really drowsy once you get inside. This whole morning it was like a tag of war between me and my eye lids: they keep closing down when I was trying to concentrate in statistics class. But any how, the statistics professor is kind of good at putting me to sleep, so , yeah, I eventually lost and dosed off. What a wasted morning.

It's obvious that we need relativly more energy to keep our body tempretures up in this kind of weather. And boy I spent a lot on food today. Sure wish this won't be the situation for the whole week, or I'll be out of dough fast.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Trying to fix my Clie


My camera on my beloved Clie NX73 suffered a rough drop to the ground last week when I accidently dropped it falling asleep in class...

Now that it's dead, and I don't like the idea of sending it back to japan at the cost of at least 2000NT dollers, I got a set of those 5T tork screw drivers and went on to dismental my most expensive toy. As you can see I took off the battery and CF card slot covers first.

In the middle of the picture, you could see how weak the plastic power switch is inside. This is my second switch, which costed me 2000NT for the repairs.

And over all view , notice that there are sponges that are ment to block out dust. Also notice how sophisticated and crowed it is inside. Most non Sony models just simply have everything on the mother board. I couldn't find a way to open up the camera module, and the ribbon cable look OK, so I could only give up, and put it back together. At least I managed to keep do no harm and it's still alive, though. (whew!)

But, no more camera, no more pictures. Now, does this mean that I should start looking for a good slim camera, or just use my TH55, instead? Neah, I guess I'll stick with my NX73. The audio remote is still very useful.
(All pictures took with my TH55, which, if you don't know, is my 2nd Clie PDA, my replacement whenever I have problems with my NX73.)

Change of mood (calmness from craziness)

The last of my midterm exams finally finish this past week(which I totally screwed up).

Right after, some friends and I went to a park for a great turkey dinner. It was absolutly great. Not only the turkey it self and the stuffing inside. It was the whole complete package, with wine, french bread, cranberry jelly, gravy and punpkin pie, all together, made it a terrific dinner. It's also about getting together with all the great classmates that we normaly seldom get together with due to the diverse classes we take. After the dinner, we began gossiping about people's "process" in their relationships. After hearing several people's storys(some failed, others are just false rummers), I started to think about my self, and that made the blues come back at me. Yeah, they had recent stories of pursuing mates, what about me? I gave up, like when? Almost a year ago? Oh well, drank a lot of alcohol, trying to see why people in a bad mood likes to drink, wondering if it'd help. But nothing happened, I was still blue, still had a clear mind, and my hand and feet are still icy cold in the blowing wind of the night. So then all I could do then was listen quietly, and occasionally lie back on the soft grass and look into the sky, and , crap, there was only one single star I could see.

The next two days of the week, I was busy working on my experiment class report. That report by it self took me 13 hours to finish. But hay, it still feels great to at least accomplish something. And yeah, being busy some times do make you forget of the sad stuff.

Weird, I guess the feeling's starting to wear off. That particular name is showing up less and less in my mind. Not only did the busy days keep my mind off there, but I guess I'm starting to let a name of some beautiful comic charactor take over that place. Hehe, never thought that reading a comic on relationships would have this effect. But yeah, I guess when I have no targets, letting a fake name fill my mind at least feels better then thinking about the girl who didn't choose me. And besides, that girl in the comic is also cute...

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Firefox 1.5 released!!!

I should be installing it tonight when I have time. I tried Dear Park Beta before, but some of my favorte plug-ins haven't been updated at the time. I'll report the new stuff and differences when I can.

Mean while, just go to http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ and get it!

Get Firefox!

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Summer Internship info...

Internship...
Seems hard to apply, but I guess I should at least try.
Housing doesn't seem to be a problem, since most of them provide them and/or stipends. (Now that's a surprise, I was expecting to do a night shift at some where like bestbuy to get money...)

One draw back is that most start in July, before I finish my final exams. (crap)

http://www.mimg.ucla.edu/undergrad/careers_interns.html

http://www.yale.edu/necuse/N99-BiologicalS.htm

http://www.ogsr.ucsd.edu/stars/program.htm

http://sea.ucsd.edu/summer_research/

Monday, November 28, 2005

The abserdity of the Sony Walkman A series

ソニ☆モバ: 本田雅一さんもウォークマンAへ失望

Seems like the new "Connect player" desktop software that "was supposed to sync with" the Walkman A series, is even less stable then the notorious Windows95. You get constant crashs, errors, and corrupt databases. The funny part, is that in this Japanese article, it mentioned something in the Q&A of that walkman, which instructed you what to do after you installed "Connect player". You'll fail to launch it, and you'd have to go to "task mannager" and "force application termination". In other words, please use "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" to close "Connect player"! This is pethetic. Releasing a software that is as stable as "Alpha-software" is like selling a gadget's innereds, and telling you to find out how to assemble it your self.

Sony fans are waiting for a good walkman because they don't like iPods. Now Sony is disapointing them with this crap? Well I guess the iPod nano is already the best music player. It's cool, sleak, small, stable and works as you expect it would. The only reason I haven't get one is that my Clie is doing just fine. However, although I like Sony, I would never buy such crap as the Walkman A. I would happily recommend anybody to get an iPod nano. No matter how strong your brand is, no one will buy unusable garbage. (Well, with the exception of Microsoft, though. Never figured why so many people liked their unstable stuff...)

學習、思考與林曜松

林曜松上生統時很喜歡岔開話題講「思考的重要性」,於是今天講完教學評鑑的事後,說自己「不吐不快」,然後就開始講自己女兒「很不一樣」的學習法XD

他女兒中學時曾問過:「為什麼你們大人要出那種考試來考我們?學習應該是我們自己的事!」
嗯,會挑戰制度果然不一樣。我國小時也問過討師相似的問題耶:「為何要考試,又不能確實的測驗出我們學了多少?」我也小小挑過考試制度呵。不過林伯伯的女兒最後修學到國外念,我則是屈服於環境,我沒有堅持啊~~!

社會化,就是在成長的過程中,屈服於社會的壓力,而成為大家所公認的「正常人」所應該表現的樣子。我在小五、小六時,徹底的被這個儒家社會社會化了;不再 挑戰權威,對於課本內容開始照單全收。不過從很多教授的言語中,可見勇於思考、懷疑、挑戰權威,是一個科學家所需要的條件。或許,在我們的升學制度中,應 開劉一點喘氣空間,給喜歡思考的人;而我們這些已經社會化的群人,則應該開始,「反社會化」。

Sunday, November 27, 2005

搞什麼?!

明明禮拜二就要考神生了,卻整個下午加晚上看漫畫晃掉... 我的意志力和自覺可真是差勁。

半年前就跟自己講好要徹底把對愛情的渴望從自己的中徹底剷除,現在卻看愛情漫畫看的這麼hi... (其實更糟,某個已經有男友的女生的名字,還是時常出現在腦中干擾我的情緒)難道真的完全忘不了嗎?也許,單性生殖的生物還比較幸福,沒有這種煩惱。

有趣的是,愛情故事中的男主角總是桃花運好的誇張,被一堆女生倒貼,還不知道要選誰。我倒是重沒見過我認識的人被倒貼;只知道每次發現朋友間有八卦都是至少已經交往幾個月了XD 遲鈍啊~

另,倒是很羨慕漫畫中人物總是有個努力的目標,有個要實現的夢想。也許,有夢想的人才有資格談戀愛吧。

不過,愛情,對我來,是什麼呢?
單戀是酸的;追求是苦的;結果是痛的。那所謂「酸甜的滋味」中那「甜」的呢?只有看別人的愛情故事是甜的吧。所以,這東西可以說是騙人的娛樂工具?!
---
好吧,神生也快唸完一半了,有學長的筆記加重點整理讀的真快。沒想到課本用借的,除省錢外還有種好處^^

之後,要考TOEFL(進度嚴重落後),準備GRE,尋找要申請的研究所目標,明年暑假要做的Lab intern 也該認真考慮了,我聯要住哪,前哪裡來都還不知道呢。

嗯,我真是個只會畫大餅,卻一直打混的笨蛋。
---
Let's see... 週二晚上和同學的火雞野餐準備了兩大包Tortilla,希望吃得完。

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Another new start at the lab

After that major setback 2 weeks ago, I was considering giving it up all together, and just focus on my studies and exams. But, I guess it's just not easy to give up something you love so much.

Since the exams is no longer that intense this week, I returned to the lab today, with plans to take care of all the undone stuff, and finish off my project, prepare it for the next one to come and tackle it. However, this morning, as the time to go gets near, I got excited, and all the hope seemed to kick in again. I rewrote my plans as soon as I got to the lab. After a discussion with my instructor and an acknowledgement of the whole situation, it turnes out that I still have the materials to start off midway. A fresh and slow new start is not nessecery. HOPE, it's really back. Haven't had this sense of hope for a long time. I'm more excited now.

OK, this time, I'll do it slowly, carefully. This maybe the last tackle at this project, since I don't have much time left. Much more major exams are closing in. With a whole new attatude, but not a fresh start, I hope I can do it right this time.

嘉南大圳、烏山頭與八田與一

今年年初書展時買的書:「嘉南大圳之父 八田與一傳」(譯自:台湾を愛した日本人 八田與一の生涯)終於找時間看完了。不僅更加認識了八田技師這個偉大的人之外,對於日治時代的臺灣歷史有了更進 一步的認識。一個日本人,可以如此無私的把自己的青春奉獻給台灣的嘉南平原。更驚人的是他那勇於定下壯大的計畫,並全利投入,完成夢想時所能發揮的力量。

嗯,看來夢想還是人生重要的一部分。想想,現在能在這個學校唸書,也是因為高中時期的自己的努力。該把過去「逐夢」的自己找回來吧。

有趣的是,我發現八田技師的生日跟我差一天,真巧。

書,越看越想到烏山頭水庫看看。去看看八田與一平易近人的銅像,去參拜一下他的長眠之處,去看一下昔日那熱鬧的烏山頭出張所現在長什麼樣子,去看看半個世 紀以前的日式工程宿舍長什麼樣子,去看看他們以前聚集看電影的網球場。最重要的,以要看看書中形容,有如珊瑚樹一般分枝,美麗的珊瑚潭,那最美麗的人工 湖。也想以單車,體驗以前烏山頭組合的人們天天在享受的大自然。烏山頭的美,在作者優美的筆法下,一一呈現;真想親身體驗。

Google找了一下,發現有單車路線介紹耶!而且還是offroad!嗯,找個時間去吧!
烏山頭風景區
單車路線介紹

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

名詞解説:Hyper Tamama Impact

Hyper Tamama Impact

ケロロ小隊のタママ二等兵の奥義であります。

翻成中文:「超級他媽媽嘴砲」是也。
簡稱:「超他媽的嘴砲。」
造句:「那個主任真是Hyper Tamama Impact。」

Saturday, November 19, 2005

丟掉新注音,擁抱「新酷音」輸入法吧!

Chewing Project logo 我想大家都非常討厭新注音,雖然它都亂選字,只會搞笑,問題一堆......不過大家看在它免費又是內建的,就將就使用。還是換個輸入法吧!之前試用過「自然輸入法」一陣子,不過因為不喜歡一個bar在那漂浮,又不習慣它切換中英文的方式,就不用了。

現在發現了「新酷音」輸入法這個結合「新注音」和「自然輸入法」的優點的超棒輸入法,幾乎不用選字,標點符號也不用忙著切換全/半形,打字真的變快了,錯字也少很多^^

更棒的是,它是採用GPL 的自由軟體,也就是本著免費分享精神的開放程式碼軟體啊!它還有各個不同平台的版本,除了Window$以外,MacOSX、Linux、Java Desktop System...等作業系統都支援。自由軟體好啊!

Links:
1. 「新酷音」輸入法首頁請到此下載
2. Blog: 「永遠的真田幸村」上的介紹

Spotlight on my dorm...

Funny.

Officially this is a male dorm room of 4, and of course, with 4 residents.
But actually, we have uh... 7, I guess.

3 normal residents, 1 perminent resident
(yes, I mean "always" by perminent, someone is rooted in this room, either in bed, or glued to "The World of Warcraft"...)
2 female weekly residents, and an additional resident who appears frequently.

We have 4 beds, 2 are occupied by 1 each(I'm one of which), another occupied by a couple, and the other occupied by 2 male + 1 female...

Is this a ghost house or what?

台北各大自行車道...

照片故事~~

第一拍

扛車扛車~~

壓隊中~~看到的只有背影(和八卦XD)

八里左岸

好帥的馬...

八里會館前休息中

主辦人大大

大佳河濱公園的噴泉

中午休息

大佳河濱公園另一景 Posted by Picasa

Monday, November 14, 2005

Good news and bad news (for me, at least)

As a friend pointed to me that my recent "mood posts" are mostly about similar episodes of lostness and misery, here's some good news for a change.

In a life with a lack of sense of accomplishment, here's a strange way of getting that taste of success. The antiviral drug (valaciclover, a guanine analouge) worked and successfully inhibited that colony of Herpes zoster virus on my leg. Ah, sweet revenge :) Take that stupid virus!

And following, today I've got a great score (let's just say, a score that I'm very satisfied with) on the Virology exam I took last week. Hmm, guess you really do better on what you like.

And the bad news: After that ride to Keelong and back to Taipei, I felt very tired for the whole day, and now my throat is hurting. (NO... I still have reports and several unread chapters...) OK, time for a rest.

Friday, November 11, 2005

一部很棒的電影~ 茄子 アンダルシアの夏

茄子 アンダルシアの夏
(c)2003「茄子 アンダルシアの夏」製作委員会

以單車為主題的日本動畫, 以西班牙為故事場景, 生動的騎乘動作, 很棒的故事情節. 今天才在社辦看了片段, 以後要找時間看完^^
>預告片
>homepage
>DVD site

Docs2go 8 is now released

The much anticipated next version of Docs2go is now avaliable. However, I'm quite disapointed. Having looking around their web site, it seems that the only difference between Docs2go 7 and 8 is the addition of "PDF to go". That's it? Yup. Over hype, under deliver. This should be released as version 7.5 instead.
Or maybe I was a little spoiled by Sony, since I've been having native PDF support with Picsel viewer on my Clie for years, while Palm user can't do that until recently. But this means that I don't need the update! Actually, Docs2go 6 was good enough. The upgrade to version 7 gives you slower speeds, eye candy and an upgraded slideshow to go that was so buggy that it's almost unusable to me. Now this upgrade gives you the addition of "PDF to go" only. Consider the upgrade fee: 30USD! A rip-off! Palm users can just wait for the open source PalmPDF to come out of beta, and save the money.
By the way, someone said that some bug in slideshow to go 7 is still there. Crap. Picsel viewer also does Powerpoint files better then slideshow to go. Horray to the Clies!

The new Palm Pilot!

Just saw this on PDA24/7.

Yeah right, a "palm" pilot...I laughed so hard...
Kudos, man!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Herpes Virus...

段考壓力大, 學分修得多, 再加上睡眠不足
造成免疫力下降
結果病毒跑來湊熱鬧T_T

周日開始, 大腿長了一堆紅斑+水泡
(當時心想: 糟, 不睡覺, 腳開始爛了...XD)

沒想到竟在我狂K病毒學課本, 背Herpes Virus的特徵時
他本尊已經在我的腿上作怪

帶狀皰疹, 原來是以前發作過的水痘病毒(Vericela Zoster)再度出來活動啊

---
插曲

今天在臺大醫院公館院區花了六百多, 活活把我身上的錢榨乾
下周還要再一次...

醫生:"有沒有得過"水痘"或打過疫苗嗎?"
me :(遲疑)"...mmm...是 chicken pox嗎?"
醫生:"是的"
me :"有得過."

囧...rz

Sunday, November 06, 2005

儲存格~胡思乱想もうひとつ〜

感覺脳中記憶人名的地方有如一整排的「儲存格」, 我們依毎個人和我們之間的關係分門別類的把各人名填入相應的格子中。其中有些格子如「父母」是唯讀的, 有些格子如「朋友」、「同學」則是可修改的, 而且我們一直在填入新的名字。

一直到現在, 我毎次到自己的記憶中找「最喜愛的人」這一格時, 想到的還是那個名字。明明去年底就知道已没希望了, 但心中最特別的這一格却還是都無法清空。想直接把這格整個除去也失敗。為何連這種事都失敗?

Friday, November 04, 2005

BX衝啊~~(鼓勵文)

據說還有希望是吧?
心動不如馬上行動!
不要龜了(看看我, 猶豫半年就沒了...)
要連我的份一起加油啊!

還在等你成功後請吃飯呢XD

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Sony's Cybershot DSC-N1, with a touch screen!

11月18日発売予定Having using my Clie handheld (PDA) as my primary camera for 2 years, I admit I am not satisfied with the 0.3megapixal built in CMOS. We do have a Sony Cybershot F77 at home, but it has no optical zoom, and battery life is unacceptable. Also, navigating the menus with a 5 way directional pad just isn't my cup of tea (once you've tried working with a touch screen, you'll love it's simplicity and ease of navigation), although every single camera I've known are made that way.

Now, behold the Sony N1, to be released in Japan on Nov 18. First of all, it looks cool. (Yeah, I've always liked Sony's designs) And best of all, it now has a touch screen, which means that I can do all the settings just as on the Clie camera software I'm familiar with. Look how big the "buttons" on the screen are. By the way, it's a huge 3 inch screen, which means bigger picture previews and bigger on screen buttons.

Another plus of the touch screen seems to be the ability to do drawing on your pictures. But that really doesn't make sense to me. I've already had that ability with the built in photo editor on my Clie, but I seldom use it. I only use it to mark up pictures I took of some experiment results, which you can usually just do it on paper of on the lab's computer. No big deal. Besides, duddling on photos or applying fancy stickers to them seems stupid.

It has 3x optical zoom and 15 digital zoom. 3x optical zoom is good for most occations while digital zoom means nothing because it usually gives you fuzzy images. Also, as with most Cybershot cameras, it's equipted with a Carl Zeiss lens. I'm no expert of lenses, but from my experience with the F77, a high end lens doesn't make much sense on a simple point and shoot. To me, as long as you don't see obvious defects or image distortions, it's good enough. As for the most important part of a digital camera, we know that Sony's got good CCD technology(well as long as their manufacturing lines don't screw up, as what caused a recent major recall of billions of 2 year old Sony CCD parts).

But here's the most rediculus part of the whole product: What do you do with a 8.2megapixal CCD in a compact point-and-shot? For consumer cameras, 5MP is already more then enough. Even some older high end DSLRs that produce huge beautiful pictures only have 5megapixal. So what's a 8.2MP CCD doing in a point-and-shot? Waist memory space and force you to buy 2GB memory cards?

OK, finally a great touch screen user interface on a camera. But also a 8.2MP CCD as a major factor to drive up the price. Sony has done it again, a great idea that's going to be killed by pricing. I don't think I'll ever be buying a 8MP camera.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Distress

Once again, I screwed up on my experiments. The set back it self wasn't that hard to accept for me, as I was half expecting this result. I was a little so anxious to get it done yesterday night that I proceded even though I don't have enough of my sample, not enough enzymes and not so good a situation. However, these constent failers make me feel in dept to our lab, taken all the resources and money that I sort of wasted; and all the help everybody provided. I really wanted to get the molecular part of the project done with and move on to cell lines and viruses. But today's results made me have to make a fresh start, and simply let almost all that I have done in the past 3 months go down the drain. So much for the hard work.

But the real scarry part is that a look at my schedule revailed that I've only got 4 avaliable weeks left (1 day free per week) of the remainder of the semester. The mid-terms, finals, and TOEFL exams each taking out 2 weeks. After that, winter break gets eaten out by Chinese New Year, when no body works(OK, an empty lab). Then GRE preperation takes out the whole of next semester. And then school registration and other stuff might take out my last school year here. My little goal seems more and more distant.

Why does everything that I love seems to get farther from me with year? OK, the whole point of getting in to a good university was to get into a lab and do experiments to explore the world of science: my life goal since childhood. Then now I have to sacrafice lab work for a better lab in the future. Also, school romance, which most normal people crave for, is not just screwed up, but essentialy hopeless to me. Making wrong decision, being shy, and choosing the wrong girl brings major consequences. (Now is this situation what "learned hopelessness" , which was mentioned yesterday in psychology class, ment?)And, as I don't have time for lab work, the same goes to bike club activities.

Great, I always hate it when you are faced with time distribution and allocation of resources. However it seems that this is essentially the norm of life. Some how, life seems to be designed to be hard to enjoy.

"Life is like a straw, it sucks."

Monday, October 31, 2005

What do you expect of this world?

The government likes to say: "Justice is everywhere" when there really is none.

You often hear: "One who does good deeds will get a reward" when there really is none.

The text books tell you that democracy brings equality and fairness, which is just a pie in the sky.

Moral sayings, government propagada and kid's hero cartoons have one thing in common: they are made of nothing but lies.

Legislators and lawyers think of this, you are working on BULL SHIT, everyday. Stop being leechs of the world.

---
After note:
The legislative units of both Taiwan and the US(legislative yen and congress hall, all alike) are nothing but leech dens. They pluage the world with unreasionable laws and eat up our money for doing so. Totally crap.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

生統要聽課的理由

你可以不喜歡老師的嘴砲
不過我還是建議你生統要聽課

因為...

他些花了"80個小時"製作的投影片
他自己拉的那堆線, 他自己拉的那些圈, 他自己打的那些字
若沒聽他講解, 是沒有人看的懂得!

囧....TZ

Saturday, October 29, 2005

武嶺會師工作有感

今天到計中幫社長key-in武嶺抽獎的得獎名單。同時還有其他人幫忙整理問卷結果。
一開始因為要等人就先在外面用PDA手寫輸入。在不用面對新注音輸入法的白痴選字系統的情況下,有種莫名的舒暢感。不過很神奇的,後來進去改用電腦打時發現計中的新注音今天似乎比較聽話...XD

越打越奇怪,為何已經輸入超過一半的得獎單了,這些人的獎項都還是Wellgo踏板?全部輸入完時又更覺得奇怪,為何獎項這麼少?把武嶺網頁叫出來一看, 恍然大悟﹔輪胎、鏈條、煞車片和變速/煞車線被歸為補給品,也就是行程中的備料。但是Jagwire送的那一堆工具呢?還有,被料其實只用了一點點,剩下 的呢?哦,仔細回想,原來被被某人A掉了!一開始聽說他要接總招時,覺得真是熱血好青年啊!後來卻看他越來越混,原訂進度一個一個往後拖。然後在行程中才 發現,原來這傢伙竟把堂堂全國大專院校武嶺會師當自肥專案辦理!照理說剩餘贊助品應訂定分配比例原則,然後依原則分配各參加單位﹔結果現在呢?都躺在他家。只是偶而社上有人跟他要他才拿出來。

本來想說同學一場,總招的工作也不輕,也就不計較了。不過前天在社辦看到他生了3個月多的成果報告書,叫出字數統計,竟然只有400多個雙位元字,仔細數數,每天只打了約5個字﹔除了精美封面外,幾個大標題中只有第一個標題下有內容,其餘都只有標題而已。完全是個"金玉其外,敗絮其中"。 本來定的deadline為8月底,他遲了2個月弄出了個完成度10%而已的東西。成果報告書是我們申請明年廠商贊助的重要依據,他卻不管明年是否能有贊 助,只會自顧自的自肥,留一堆爛攤子給人收拾。試想,若明年的贊助商要看我們去年的贊助品使用狀況,難道要畫張圓餅圖,其中45%抽獎,10%活動中用 掉,然後45%被貪走?

Friday, October 28, 2005

一青窈・かざぐるま(新單曲)


Just got Hitoto Yo's (一青 窈) latest single. Decided to get it right after the first time I heard it. Regardless of the high cost of singles, I decided if it's really great music, it's still worth the buy.

Hitoto Yo's music always gives you a smooth and sweet mixture of Japanese traditional folk and contemporary style music. Sometimes even with a little twist of Taiwanases folk (She's half Taiwanese). Once again in this release, you get

1. かざぐるま(風車)
The theme track of the movie trailer of 「蝉しぐれ」
You get the feel of the nature, scenery and beauty of ancient Japan, which is the background of the movie. Even though I've never seen the movie, it's still great music. Might be another one of her songs that I never get tired of.

2. Hotch-kiss
Playfuly describing someone who's deeply in love, who wants to kiss all day long, as if the couple was stapled together. (The name of the song is pronounced the same as "stapler" in Japanese.)

3. 空蟬
A sad song with a little blues. The "not-so-good" song of this single.

---Ranting beneath---
It's been a long time since I last saw a CD worth buying. Most of the recent releases are all crap. The kind of albums that contain only about 3 songs that are just "not-bad", the kind that you'll get sick and tired of within 3 weeks. And the rest of the album was filled up with songs that prompt you to press "next song" on your player soon after it started. What's more, I'm seeing them selling those garbage for about 400NT a piece! That's a total rip off! The record companies really should quit whining about MP3 downloads and commit their resorces to produce high quality music that will really keep us from sticking with our old music collection. Give us stuff that we really want to buy even after we downloaded it, damn it!


Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Official Google Blog: Guess what just turned 34?

GmailOfficial Google Blog: Guess what just turned 34?
And intresting take on email from a developer of Gmail. It's great that we have a company that actually thinks in terms of "how we should serve our customers" instead of "how can we squeze more money from our customers". That's the philosophy that made Gmail so great to use(or did the oppesite make Yahoo mail or Hotmail the Ad cluttered busy beast they are today?). The 2Gig plus free storage is just a gimick that draws people to register and try it out, but it's the fast, clean, unclutered interface and some revolutionary designs within that make people want to stick with Gmail as their main email account. As some like to say, "It's the little things that count." We're seeing this with Apple, Palm and Google, but absolutly not with Micro$oft.

As always, if you're a friend of mine who'd like to try Gmail, contact me, I now have 200 invites^^a

Friday, October 21, 2005

Neuroanatomy review

>Forebrain/Prosencephalon
Gray matter
├Telencephalon
│├Cerebral cortex
│└Basal telencephalon
└Diencephalon
 ├Thalamus(gateway)
 └Hypotalamus(control ANS)
White matter
├Corpus callosum
├Cortical white matter
└Internal capsule
*Sensory→Thalamus→Internal capsule→Cerebral cortex
*Cerebral cortex→corticospinal tract→spinal cord

>Midbrain/Mesencephalon
┌Tectum(roof)
│├Superior colliculus(eye)
│└Inferior colliculus(ear)
├Cerebral aqueduct(3rd ventrical)
└Tagmentum

>Hindbrain/Rhombencephalon
┌Cerebellum(spacial info)
├Pons(synapse from cerebral cortex to cerebellum)
└Medulla oblongata
*4th ventricle~CSF-filled tube

>Spine
Gray matter
├Dorsal horn(←dorsal root)
├Intermediate zone
└Ventral horn(←ventral root)

>lobes
⇔temporal
←frontal
↑parietal
→occipital

>Meninges
├Dura mater
├Arachnoid membrane
└Pia mater

*Brodmann's cytoarchitectural map

在朋友身上看到幸福的影子

在Lab認識的同學
和女友在同領域一同為未来而努力
交友廣闊,人縁極佳
能快樂的享受生活的毎一部分

完美的人生似乎就長這様子

我和這様的人生無縁,
不過誠心的祝福他

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

図書館に思う

恩,好久没在図書館念一整天的書了。
不過没次来都有以下感想:
「最可愛的女生身邊総是有個男女・・・」
好個CDPRO2哲學〜「限量是残酷的」
還是別作無謂的妄想
好人就是好人,女生〜永遠的好朋友〜

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

I'm gonna crack...

I weak up this morning and saw the face of a dead man in the mirror. Starting from the begining of this semester, I've had an average of 4hrs of sleep everyday, and also slept in every class. Now I can clearly see that blood has drained out of my face, leaving a white face; I've also caught a cold, and had been sick for months.

It was in summer that I choose these tough classes. I was in the "nice guy" mood, was feeling really down and thought that fully filling up 4 days of the week with highly demanding classes and filling up the remaining day with lab work may make me so busy that I no longer have no time to think about that girl. On the other hand, it felt like a slow suicide process.

And sure enough, I no longer think about her and am so tired that I've only got half of my life left. No I'll not get crazy, I'll die of cronic fatiuge long before that.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

現在的單車社到底是怎樣?

1.
前陣子因各種原因, 在我的ptt2的最愛中陸續加入了幾個社上朋友的個板
結果看到了不少好人文 O....................TL
話說上個學期的社上還真是熱鬧
每過幾週又一對新的社對出現; 每過一陣子又有新的八卦出現
而現在, 各個社對逐漸淡出車社, 或只剩下其中一個留在社上
(現在兩個在社上都很活躍的只有一對吧?!)
而現在, 一些個板逛完, 車社感覺上似乎成為失戀共合國...
不過大部分失戀文都在談論前男友如何可惡啊, 前女友該如何忘記等種種
像我這種只有被發卡經驗, 根本沒有"前X友"的
除了我之外似乎只有一個...
好啦, 我就是條件差啦, 註定要當個稀有的正宗好人T_T

2.
最近忙的要命, 書都念不完, 一開學就逐漸跟社上疏遠
應該說開學以來沒參加過社上任何活動
結果週五社課時發現社辦裡幾乎都是我不認識的新生
儼然有種社辦被外人攻佔的感覺
(這不是我認識的單車社! 這不是我認識的單車社!)

3.
車社檯面下的鬥爭傳言流傳已久
不過沒想到越演越烈, 成為社長一派, 其他幹部一派
昨天一位社上比較熟的朋友跟我說: "目前保持中立的幹部似乎剩我們兩個..."
色長啊, 為何如此顧人怨?
請人做事too pushy? 太自我? 完美主義? 後宮招來好人的怨念?(XD)
很抱歉, 人際關係這檔事我很外行的(看看我朋友多稀少就知道啦)
找不到問題癥結
But, to screw up your relationship with everybody is not that easy.
我不懂為何這種事會發生
昨天談論的結果, 覺得若雙方先分開一陣子, 經過一段時間冷靜
不知會不會好一點

Friday, October 14, 2005

At the handheld shop

3 days ago, I brought my beloved Clie NX73 to the handheld shop where I bought it 2 years ago. I wrote down 7 problems (yeah, that's quite a lot) on a post-it note, stick it on my Clie, and told the guy there I wanted to send it in for repairs. Some how, he can't log in to the computer that prints the recipts, so I waited for him to fix it.

Then there came a girl with a Palm Tungsten E. There was this thought for a second in my mind: "Boy, is she beautiful!" But then I went: "oh, what the hell, you have nothing to do with her..." But really, I've never seen a girl with a Palm, and it's amazing how an elagant device adds style to a person. There was this cute little sticker with her name on it, on the back of the TE, and overall, it's well protected, with few scratchs. She said that it was dead (yeah, after a summer vacation without touching it, but wait, a summer vacation? Means she's a student, right?), and the guy tried soft and hard resets, to no avail.

Oh well, eventually she decided that she doesn't want to wait (and doesn't seem happy that repairing needs $$) and left. And I eventually got that repair recipt, and off my Clie went to a pricy repair.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Sending my Clie NX73 in for repairsT

This time has finally come.
After 2 years of use, my NX73 has accumulated many problems (heck, the screen hinge is causing all sorts of short short curcuits), and I'm considering to send it back for repairs.

Don't know why, but this morning when I wake up, and look at my NX73's screen, I've got this feeling that I'll be missing this baby for the comming month when it's away. Yes, I've got a TH55 as a replacement in the time being, it's fast, stable, light, new and shinny. But putting old and new next to each other, I guess I'll miss the cool metal case, the weight, the keyboard, the CF slot and the screen that's much brighter with better contrast. This is so weird, but I do love my Clie. I don't have a girl friend, nor much close friends. This NX73 is what's always with me. It's what I share my feelings with, happy or sad(some eventually end up on my blog, though) It's what wakes me up every morning with beautiful tunes. It's what plays my favorte songs when I'm feeling down.

Well then, wish it'll come back working as well as new. I'll miss the MIDI tunes you play that the TH55 can't.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

九份偽offroad

一直很不高興為什麼我的花蓮之旅可以被破壞得如此徹底(見之前的post)。於是今天下午看到沒雨了,索性把之前已經調到最佳狀況的車搬出來,往九份騎了去。也許是一種報復心理吧,心想老天要阻撓我騎車我就偏要騎給你看……。







途中偶有小雨,不過在賭氣的心態下,就是不回頭。一路上塞車嚴重,不過這次不知為何沒有大叫"cars suck, bikes rule!"的唸頭,就只是加速往前鑽。
在 離鬧區約2km處停下來休息了一下,拿出Clie(Sony 的PDA品牌)拍照,從此開始一路狂拍。說也奇怪,好久沒有這樣任真的取景、調明暗、白 平衡、按快門了。記得第一次這樣拍照是我剛買我的第一台Clie NX73時,那也算是我第一次擁有屬於自己的、可以任意照相的機器。不過這次我帶的是新買的Clie TH55,也許又有新鮮感了; 也或許被社上某個很愛照相的感染了。下次拿我舊的NX73來重溫舊夢好了,畢竟一直到現在每天陪我的還是以舊的NX73為主。







到了九份,還是一樣擠得寸步難行。不過沒關係,慢慢走慢慢拍照。其間我還為了拍照而扛車上階梯……。

之後102縣道繼續騎,上上下下了幾公里後發現路邊一塊版子寫著"地質公園",而進去的路竟是一片芒草中開一條碎石子路上坡。心裡快樂的想著"Offroad耶!"就騎了進去。裡面有山景、有海景、有礦石,還有一個主要賣點: 一個台陽公司荒廢已久的礦坑。



不 過後面卻沒有碎石子路了,取而代之的是只能扛車的階梯上坡。我發現一個路牌寫著"黃金神社",於是我這個喜歡日本文化的笨蛋就扛了車往上爬,想說會不會是 日治時代留下來的古蹟。走了約一公里,只看到往金瓜石的長下坡階梯、前面綠油油的大峽谷,和一條超過30度的超陡階梯上坡。阿神社咧?我扛了車爬上那長長 的超陡階梯上坡。超陡段好不容易爬完,前方階梯卻繼續彎延到天邊,still no 神社 in sight……天色已暗,這種陡梯又不敢騎車下,只好扛車折返。到緩坡處試著下階梯,但凹凸不平的花剛岩階梯超難下的,簡直是一直以座墊自阿。好吧,牽車 T_T。Offroad下坡很恐怖,真是操控和平衡技巧的大考驗,不過後來發現相信自己大膽往前反而比較穩。

九份到瑞芳間車多,一開始下坡速度不快。不過中間2台客運卡往,使後半都沒車。嗯現在比以前沒膽,煞車放得不夠,下坡速度只有45上下,最高53。瑞芳路況很糟,還有一條路因兩邊違規停車使一台客運卡往,連行人都過不了的情況。

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Palm TX leaked out to the market


(From Mobile01, thank 1src for the tip)
Someone had already managed to get the TX days before Palm officially announced it!!
But, actually, it's just a model similer to the Clie TH55, years late to the market. It's a T5 with WIFI added minus the internal drive. However, the black color sure makes it look soooo much better then the T5 or TE :)

Friday, October 07, 2005

Once again, raining when I was planing to go biking

Some how, you feel that something or someone is against you.

Just this summer, a typhoon forced me to postpone my biking trip around the island; last time, another typhoon prevented me from going to Tamshui. And the trip to Hualain, where I should've been going today, is a total mess. First, yet-another-typhoon a week ago caused land slides which picked out our main destination, forced us to do an emergancy route change. Then, the one who's in charge of plaining the trip had an accident, forcing farther plain and personal changes. And now, a big rain(or should I call it a storm?) moved in for the kill and terminated our ill fated trip.

*Sigh.

Almost all the filth F-words that I could think of I had already said to my self. But what else could I say?

So much for all the work, plaining and anticipation. Yet another precious 3 day holiday, wasted.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

How to talk?!

I'm recently finding my speach abilities diminishing.
Whenever someone says something, I just go: "Oh really?" or "是哦?" or"這様哦?", "そうですか"...

Maybe I should relearn how to talk?

Cut off that mouse's toe, it'll grow back?

I can't think of any good way to explain this, as most of the related biology that I've known don't allow organ regeneration in mammals possible.
Artical on wired news
Abstract
Related publication

Totally unbelivable. Although I wish it was real.

Damn, TOEFL on line registry sucks!

(yet another way Micro$oft is making this a worse world)
Whew, just finished signing up for the exam, was that hard.

At my first try today, on the test day choosing page, I got a blank calender.
Then, after reloading several times and click on the time I wanted, I got a BLANK personal info entry page.
I clicked on "Next" and got a message saying:
"An error occured, please try again later."

Now I started all again from step 1, where you chose your country. All went smooth until I filled the personal info entry form and tried to submit. Then I got another "An error occured, please try again later."

Then even the first page gave me "An error occured, please try again later."

After several "errors" on the first 3 pages, I finally got back to the date selection calender. And then this page crashed Firefox!

After that, proceding to the 3rd step, and clicking "next" once again took me to step one.

Then, finally, I proceded sucessfully to the last step.

Damn, on one of the error pages, I saw it read "Microsoft .NET framework". Now that sucks. Thanks a lot Microshit!

The busy days are back

Yeah, it was me myself who desided to take so many classes that add up to 24 credits. It was me who decided that I also need to shell out some time for lab work. Yeah, I wanted to take the TOEFL exam to study in the states. And yes, getting involved in a club brings club priorities. And now, my long long todo list with mostly unchecked items is adding weight on me. And that long list would be adding more items day after day, now that sucks.

Mood: On depression

It's kind of weird how you tend to feel better when you get to know someone that has similar problems as you, or even worse. Gives you a feeling that you're not alone. Also, you realize that there's actually more people wearing "happy masks", pretending to be happy when being with friends, while they're actually sad deep under.

Is depression some kind of sickness? I don't know. Some go to the doctor while others don't. But I'm having some doubts on the statistics that say depression is on the rise. There actually should have been more set backs and hard ships years ago, but, like it or not, people are forced to cope with it to survive; there's so many of it that they get used to it. Maybe they have depression, maybe they don't, but who had the money the see a psychiatrist? Who could even afford to whine about it? And since there weren't much psychiatrists nor clinic visits back then, most cases don't get into the records.

Actually, what I'm thinking of is, since people could cope with all the setbacks back then, why can't we now?

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

今天在全家看到的leaflet...

今天中午在全家無聊亂逛
看到一個董氏基金會的"憂鬱症量表"
就試了一下...
做完, 拿了32分, 心想這麼好拿分, 有憂鬱症的應該超過50了吧...

結果...28分以上就是最嚴重的了...

well, uh...

Monday, September 26, 2005

車社迎新

今天到了迎新茶會的教室後我真的完全被嚇到了,好~多~新~生~啊!

於是基於好奇的心理,每一個都先問為什麼想來、怎麼知道關於車社的事?本來以為會來車社的都是經朋友介紹或有興趣自己找上門。結果竟然都是逛社團聯展的! 原來社團聯展這麼有效。不過我會因此感到驚訝也因為沒參加過啦。沒錯,我三年級了還不知道社團聯展長什麼樣子!一年級新生訓練完直接去系上新生宿營; 二年級辦新生宿營忙到忘了它的存在; 今年還在環島……。

所謂後生可畏,今年新生有的已經有騎乘經驗,有的已經對各車廠、零件很熟; 還聽說有學妹可以用淑女車平地騎40km/hr!!!(我平均的2倍XD)這不是要逼我以後多拿校園車到瑞芳練山路?

嗯,社長在迎新還沒結束就把新生全帶去買安全帽了。這對他們的安全是有幫助啦。不過第一天就全拉進後宮,小心以後沒社對業績哦!

(Feel free to comment)

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Warning: the iPod nano expires in less then a week?


http://www.flawedmusicplayer.com/

Just days ago, we were astonished by the release of the beautiful new iPod nano.
But now, seems like the beautiful LCD color screen of the iPod nano is going to break within a few days of your purchase. A quick view of the site tells you that most of them broke in about 4 days, without any noticable pressure applied to the iPod.

I can't confirm if everything on the site is real, since I don't personally own one, but there's already a scary amount of related feed back there, considering how less days had the nano been on the market. So you'd might need to do some more research on this, read more about it, if you're planning to buy one.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

環島後記(9/12~9/17)

前一天晚上已經打包完成,車也一切準備完成。但因還是對光頭胎缺乏安全感,怕會打滑; 半夜還夢見自己在北宜公路九彎十八拐過彎側滑; 於是清晨2點起來換回顆粒胎﹒﹒﹒
>出發
4AM 從校門口出發,本來要一起去卻有事的唯中騎著淑女車來替我們送行。(害我一度以為他要淑女車環島orz)唯中很hi的拍了照之後,我們上路。在市區 以時速30hm/hr很快的來到了北宜公路。人家說"紅綠燈是當參考的",柚子卻是完全的"信號無視",害我每停完一個紅綠燈就要加速追上他。

>雙人出發,單人環島
柚 子的速度爆快的,還是個騎20幾公里都不必休息的死變態,我一下子就被甩開。然後因為努力的拉高速度想追上,每天都有不同的毛病產生。膝蓋痛、大腿痛、 背直肌酸痛、手痛、肩膀痠,甚至腸胃不舒服都有: 結果我的速度反而越來越慢,一天能看到柚子的次數幾近個位數,幾乎只用手機聯絡……好吧,我這自不量力的跟錯人。一個人獨自賞風景,自己決定何時休息也還 不錯。不過柚子專門騎到離我還有幾十公里外的地方先找住宿,自己先享樂,然後打電話叫我自己慢慢夜騎倒是令人頗為不爽。(雖然說這樣才能6天環完……)

>遠離平日生活塵囂
環島,除了以騎車看風景滿足自己喜歡旅行的心之外,也暫時逃離了日常生活的煩惱。實驗、社團工作和一切心事拋諸腦後,以另一種步調過一個禮拜的生活。
此外,也暫時遠離了好人的怨念XD
同 行只有另一個男人,省道上也不常見同年齡的女生; 注意力完全在路上和兩旁風景。只是在宜蘭新城的警察在聊天時對我說: 「看你一臉忠厚老實的樣子應該還沒有女朋友; (然後對柚子說)像這位應該就有!」(此時柚子心中: 靠!我才剛被甩啦!)你是說我有好人臉是吧!好啦,我不否認啦,真有你的。

>休息點
除 了半路上累了在路邊停下來休息之外, 有兩種特別的休息點: 警察局和7-Eleven。警察局可以休息、喝水、上廁所、問路、和警察聊天; 7-Eleven則是覓食補給的好地方。各地派出所各有其特色,宜蘭的往往都有很漂亮的建築設計,臺東的有濃濃的原住民氣息,臺南的最有人情味……不過共 通點是警察伯伯們除非忙不過來,不然都非常親切,比以經不錯的7-Eleven好幾十倍。這次旅行讓我對警察的印像完全改觀。而7-Eleven也是各地 略有不同。東部的都很大,加上停車位、廁所、座位,真是個很好的休息點。南部有些"有點偏僻又不會太偏僻的"有思樂冰和重量杯喔!
>蘇花公路
據 說是最難的一段,但我還滿喜歡的。(嘉南平原才真是痛苦啊)當初膝蓋開始痛時就是為了想體驗惡名招彰的蘇花而忍痛繼續的。它平常很多沙石車,路面凸不平 又狹窄,而且共要爬三座山。不過我們騎的時候車很少,天氣又好。而延途的海景真的是美不勝收,而那三段下坡也真的很棒。總之那真的有種說不出來的爽感。



>臺灣南端
臺東到墾丁之間的海岸在陽光的照耀下有如電影中的夏威夷一般,平整的路面,右鄰青山,左靠蔚藍海面,頭上還有
藍天白雲,如此完美的體驗一開始還很難相信是真實的。
之後經南迴公路爬入山中,發現有如世外桃源的原住民部落: 東源村。這山谷有湖,有青青草原,還有一大片野薑花。傍晚的村中,大家似乎都已吃飽飯坐在家門口聊天、乘涼、看日落。很喜歡這樣悠閒的感覺。
晚上住旭海的民宿。(民宿老闆竟只請吃煮泡麵當晚餐,而那小村中也沒啥其它東西吃,餓啊~)當地的免費公共溫泉澡堂,很神奇的讓每一家民宿都可以無成本號稱「溫泉民宿」。不過公共溫泉澡堂正擴建中,所以是在鋼筋、水泥碎片之間以溫泉水沖澡。

>大逆風
一 般來講,臺灣夏天應該都是吹西南風,所以我們在東部南下時有點小逆風是應該的,而且風實在不大。而花東縱谷中因有山阻擋,可說是幾乎沒風。不過當我們在 墾丁往北轉時,風向卻跟著我們轉,而在我們到西岸時正好變成正北風!(據說在菲律賓莫名其妙的出現一個可惡的雲團造成的)而我們在西岸走濱海,無山擋風, 於是必需很廢力的龜速前進。若是在爬山路,多花的體力至少還可儲存為位能,在下爬路段很快樂的把它用掉; 但逆風時那體力卻是完全的浪費掉了。

>耍廢
話 說在東部時我可以為了美景忍住身體上的痛苦繼續前進; 在西部卻是個不好忍受的折磨。在西岸不但要逆著強大的北風前進,身邊還是極其無聊的魚塭和少數農田。我可以在一段100公里的路段中從頭到尾都看到一模一 樣的魚塭,簡直就沒有前進過。在這樣無趣又累人的路段中,我的雙腿還是在痛。於是在速度拉不上20km/hr又沒有繼續前進的誘因下,我決走在臺中放棄; 沒想到想耍廢也不容易。
離 濱海公路最近的火車站不讓我的單車上車,那些混蛋還收我退票手續費(怒),臺鐵果真是人渣的大本營……。於是我只好到臺中坐國光客運。走臺12從濱海到臺 中市竟然還要爬一座山,花了我2個多小時; 最扯的是我還經過大大小小共四所不同的大學!臺灣的大學浮濫程度可見一斑。
國光客運算我的愛車一張半票(需拆車包好),票上還寫著「寵物票」。呵呵,寵物是吧?

>Aftermath

Lance Armstrang在他的書中說過﹕「我們騎單車的都有點自虐頃向。」嗯,我現在手臂很黑,左臉脫皮中,全身汗斑奇癢,手腳痠痛一個禮拜了,手指無力,膝 蓋也還在痛,還一直咳嗽……果真有自殘到,不過磨破皮的胯下倒是好了。我想,騎車暴力環島是為了速度感和風景的視覺享受而不管身體的皮肉之苦吧!