Treo700p rumored photo leak!

Here's the photo of the yet to come Treo700p, from 1src.
Yeah, I know it's yet another incremental update of the Treo, which isn't that exciting, but still, with the Palm area being so boring for a long time, it's still better then nothing.

I'm still waiting to be impressed by the rumored "ultra-thin" Treo. Hope that one would be groundbreaking.

Prius is now avaliable in Taiwan (officially)

It's just distributed to select Toyota dealers on Friday, and displayed since yesterday(Satturday). Just saw it Today, and although it an old model from Japanese standards(avaliable there for years), it's still really impressive. Should post my photos tomarrow when I get to school, and my thoughts if I happen to find the time to do it.

First thought:
1130000NT really isn't expensive for a hybrid.

Link:
Prius promo site for Taiwan
http://www.prius.com.tw/

Great article: 中時/自行單車的台灣奇蹟

2006.03.15　 中國時報
獨立評論 自行單車的台灣奇蹟

剛剛在羅的鳥的個版上看到這個，真是好文啊，讓我百分之百認同。
臺灣的自行車業真得很了不起（尤其去看車展時有深深的體驗），身為一個單車迷，住在臺灣還滿幸福的。

Losing appetite

Some how, I've lost the desire to eat. Well yeah, I am hungry, but just don't have the motivation. Since yesterday, I've only got 1 meal, 2 snacks. Everything at school seems so disgusting. None of the resturants nor venders sell food, they tend to sell some kind of goo, or slime, dipped in thick oil, with a profusion of salt, suger and MSG. At lunch time, you first go: "I'm hungry, right, time for some grub." Then you remember the MSG-rich-oil-dripping-slime, and you're like "Never mind."

Something good about home is that it is one of the scarce places where you could get some real food.

Giant- 達文西單車生活館

今天到柚子剛開始打工的新車店去逛逛，去買鏈條，也順便看看大家口中神奇的車店長什麼樣子。本來在地圖上找時覺得有點遠，不過走羅斯福路左轉和平東路，約1 block後不知不覺中進入和平西路，就看到了，真快。外表看起來，就是一家堆滿單車的捷安特。櫥窗中有一張達文西畫的單車設計圖，不過已經被一堆實際的單車淹沒就是了。走進去才看到特別之處：一座玻璃櫥櫃bar台，裡面滿滿的變速、煞車、碳纖管材，而上面有一台咖啡機，天花板上一塊有如Starbucks的黑板寫著價目（都是一般咖啡店的價格），而bar後面柚子（一顆？）在洗咖啡杯...... 柚子快樂的跟老闆聊著天。老闆超親切的，不過問題是，他太親切了，somehow，你會覺得老闆比柚子更像車店小弟。木頭地板、亮著藍光的木製展示台、花瓶中的向日葵、加上依品牌擺得漂漂亮亮的單車用品，使整體感覺很棒。可惜我晚餐時間去，在播東森新聞；後來關電視，播爵士樂後，更棒！

捷安特該有的幾乎都有，如Yukon, Rinkon, Iguana, Flight M2, halfway, Trence, TCR...等。不過，其他品項也都很乾淨，只有捷安特代理的品牌，如Toppeak, Finishline, Cateye...等會出現，老實說，有點缺乏多樣性。不過同樣是捷安特代理的Bell安全帽為何缺席呢？

今天買了鏈條和打鍊器，價格滿平價的^^ 老闆看大家咳嗽聲此起彼落，還煮了很棒的花茶。嗯，以後，又多了個敗家之地。

Dreams

Dreams are so sweet, it's part of what makes your sleep feel good. It's too good to be true, in fact, surreal. Do not confuse it with reality. Reality is crual.

Keeping a little freshness in life

I read today in the book "Call of the Mall by Paco Underhill" an intresting passage on the differenece between urban adult pedestrians vis-a-vis Tourists. The previous put less trust in their peripheral vision, they just see where they are going, while visitors are described as: "In cities they do that little gee-whiz-ma-lookit-how tall-that-one-is dance when seeing a real skyscraper up close", and, "There's something so innocent, so childlike and trusting, about how tourrists walk in a city." Urban dwellers usually don't pay much attention to their surroundings, thinking that it's just the "same-old-town" that they know, and keeping their mind on "the important business, whatever that is; while tourists and kids pay attention and get excited to every detail that comes into sight. Why must the town that you know by heart seem so dull? Most people take life in the city as boring, and here you have located a provenance of apathy. Chears!

Do you remember the feel of being a tourist in a foreign town, where everything is new to you? Next time you walk down that same-old street, you could look for the details of your suroundings, notice if there's a new shop opening, if there's new decorations for the up comming event, if there's flowers blossoming, if there's anything conspicious. Or, zoom out, picture the whole vision beholding your pupils, take it all in, imagine yourself on a tour, with a camera in hand. Then you'll realize that the "same-old-town" is still alive with vigor and fun. It's also much more beautiful and spectacular then you thought, and took for granted.

And, that reminds me of a similar statement on people. The week before last week, at the "Forest school" of the Humanistic Education Foundation(人本森林小學), one of the faculty told us how they coped with pestering children: "The teachers usually clear up themselves inside each weekend, forget about the bad side of the kids, and the folowing week, they love the kids as if they first met." Maybe that applies to day-to-day relationships, too. We could see our friends and loved ones as new found friends from time to time, expecting nothing of them, and appretiate them as they are. Less expectections curtails unneeded arguments and missunderstandings. Makes life around us much more peaceful and pleasent.

Much of the bordom in life comes from the familiarness of things of everyday life that we accumulate from day to day. It's like some side-effect that comes with convenience of our memory. Dump it out, and add some spice to your life. Sometimes forgetting stuff is necessary.

Evolution and reproduction

昨天脊椎動物學上到魚類的生態與演化
忽然，老師大叫：

「你們還坐在那幹什麼？
還不快出去生小孩，提昇演化上的競爭力？」

（心裡暗想：「老師，我是好人啊～～」）

囧rz

"鐵馬年"? Eat crap!

根據校方在杜鵑花節開幕典禮的宣傳
學務處想搞個"鐵馬年"
口號為:
安全, 管理, 紀律

這種口號, 還叫"鐵馬年", 實在是讓我很難接受
(單車運動應該是自由的)
不過, 細節還是要等看到了, 才知道

當然, 重點是要"管什麼"?
若是管停車, 那我偏向保持中立
雖然說一般來講, 守法是應該的
不過看校園裡合法的停車格逐年取消
如: 小福旁的停車格就被劃掉, 鹿鳴廣場附近皆禁停(那要停哪?)
校方似乎只在乎哪裡停車會"有礙觀瞻"(對破校園車的歧視)
Where do you park is your own business
對於這種做法, 我實在無法支持

若跟上次"鐵馬週"一樣, 要限制校園某些區域禁止騎車
那我覺得跟車社精神嚴重相牴觸
不但不能支持還要反對
在一個到處都是單車的校園裡, 單車已經成為我們校園文化的一部分
學校沒事要反單車幹麻?(還有臉稱之為鐵馬週)
在沒有任何替代道路規劃之下, 就叫人不準過
實在是很機車

若今年再這樣搞, 我想,
到禁騎區時, 我會想升檔, 帶頭衝線吧!

學務處在未經我們同意, 就擅自把單車社列入鐵馬年協辦單位
令人有背利用的感覺
若實際內容還是跟去年一樣帶著反單車色彩
我想說的是:
Eat Crap, you basterd!

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google 'planning total storage'

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google 'planning total storage'

This looks so good. I'd really like to have a free hard drive backup on the web. However, Google should promiss that they them self don't have access to your files be for they launch this. No one would like the idea of a court subpoena Google and force them to revail your files for investigation. So you might want to think twice before uploading MP3s, Movies and cracked software, if you have any. But backing up your own documents might be a good idea.

Deore 煞變合一把^^

剛剛去做服務課，整理魚標本，赫然發現助教擺了一台跑車在那（Tiagra的變速喔），跟助教聊車聊得很愉快。最後，要走時，發現了這個Amoeba的握桿，上面還留著Ritchey的握把和Deore 煞變合一把。看它擺在房間的角落，就試探性的問問看，有點想買（我自己的Deore變把只剩半條命，煞把又是廉價煞把）。沒想到，我剛問完，還沒說想買，他的竟很直接的問：「要不要，送你！」好感動～～。雖然不好意思，不過最後......我當然是拿回來了^^

根據助教的說法，極東買的，本來想給跑車換平把的，不過一下子就不習慣換回彎把了。他只用過一個禮拜耶！

^Amoeba的握桿和Deore 煞變合一把

^Shimano ST-M510, 不知哪一年款的...

^Amoeba AL6061橫桿，陽極藍。不過我比較喜換自己原來的。助教：「看車社有沒有人要，沒有人要再還我」XD

^Ritchey握把，滿好握的，不過有一小道被刀割過的痕跡。還在考慮要不要。

人本後森

>>photos here

真是開心的兩天，除跟朋友見面外，也去學一些待人處世的觀念。
心得先寫一點吧，其餘以後有空再寫。（兩天回來積了一些書還沒念）

＞Hedonism
婷瑛帶隊很能體諒活動員的辛勞，這次終於知道為何了。
人本似乎有句話：「以人為目的，而非工具。」因此，在把活動帶好之外，也要盡量讓活動員也能愉快，也能學到東西。我想，這真是個新奇的觀念。之前生科新生宿營時，所有工作人員簡直就是如地獄般，大家拼死拼活的工作，大家一起來爆肝。也許，為人著想，也是一個能讓眾人跟隨的領導人所需要的特質吧！

＞Praise
懂得讚美真的是種美德，能讓別人開心一整天，也讓人有自信，而盡力去把事情做的更好。不過，在討論過程中，發現這個社會並不懂得讚美。當有讚美出現時，不是一直否認，就是認為對方不誠肯；甚至懷疑對方對自己刻意討好。美國反而非常注重一個人的自信心，"Good job!"是個常聽到的詞。也許因此造就了某些自大者，不過卻讓大部分人更能去做一些有挑戰性的嘗試，因而增進的國家整體的競爭力。雖然有時覺得人本強調「讚美」到一種誇張的地步，不過也許要救一個病態的社會就需要誇張一點的手法吧！

Ignominiously defeated by anomalous lexis

My cerebrum is repleted with astronomica amounts of data, my congested hipppcampus slowly succumbed and arrested.
I am in vocabulary Hades. How can I assuage my self of this affliction?

(Using as much bizzare words as I can, to give a taste of the abominable, evil GRE. If you don't understand the words, it's okay, because without a reference book, I don't recognise them either...)

The provenance of a.m./p.m.

Here's some intresting stuff from my GRE vocabulary studies...

The word root "ANTE", is Latin for "before" or "in front of".

Ante Meridiem, which means "before noon" is abbreviated as "a.m.".
Similarly, "p.m." stands for "Post Meridiem".

---

Also, some sort of joke
"MAL" , as in "maladies" and "malfunction" means "bad".
But how about the word "male"? Does that mean all men are bad ? :D

預防運動傷害：保護你的膝蓋

這是即將po在車社網站上的宣導文(修改版),
各位看官, 給點建議吧
---
Preface: why protect your knees?
若你會來單車社，想必對騎車有一定的喜好吧！膝蓋是騎車時最重要的關節之一，它背負著把大腿伸縮的力量轉換成腿部的上下移動的使命。膝蓋受傷可能造成你終身不得再騎車，甚至行動不便。想像一下，當你的膝關節只要轉動，就會讓你痛不欲生，是何等痛苦啊？

膝關節是腿部活動的一個活動點，是大腿骨和兩隻小腿骨間接合的地方。為了讓關節上下的硬骨間能順利的活動，中間墊了幾塊軟骨和一些分泌液在其間，作為潤滑之用。到老年時，軟骨磨損，可能會受傷、感染－而發展成關節炎。從目前西醫對膝關節的了解，因軟骨細胞都已分化，無法再分生來修補磨損的部份；反而將由硬骨中的幹細胞(myoblast)取代而新生硬骨。之前上動物組織課時老師說了一個半開玩笑但可怕的說法：大腿和小腿間的軟骨被應骨完全取代後，兩段硬骨會完美的合而為一......

而在年輕時運動傷害所引起的膝蓋痛，一般是因為肌肉出力過度，疲累乏力，使膝蓋骨鬆動，晃動而跟附近的肌腱磨擦，造成劇痛。因此，以下將說明如何較省力而有效率的踩踏。

Knowing your derailers
擅用變速。買車時都花了大錢買高級變速了，幹嘛擺著不用，踩重檔虐待自己？
較低的檔位（也就是踩起來感覺較輕的檔位）雖然踩起來車速較慢，但力量（扭力）較大，用來起步、加速或爬坡。較高的檔位，每踩一圈，輪子轉得更多，車速較快，但力量較小。當你達到一定的速度，有了足夠向前的動量(momentum)後再升檔加速。
另，因變檔需要鏈條的轉動來把鏈條帶到別的齒輪去，所以請在"需要變檔前"就先變過去。例如：看到前方有坡時，在開始爬坡之前就先降檔；或在停紅燈前先降檔，以利稍後綠燈時的起步。

Paddling correctly
在踩踏時，你的目的是為了帶動齒輪旋轉，因此，踩踏並不只是死命的用大腿力量往下踩。踩踏的出力，可以分散至腿部的各個肌肉群。想像自己要踏一個正圓，動做應分為向下踩(用大腿)、往後帶(用腳板)、向上拉(用小腿)、放鬆，而完成一個圓形的運動軌跡。踏板應踩在腳板的前半段，也就是腳趾至足弓間肉多的部分。

How your muscles work
肌肉在正常的適中長度下出力最大﹔在緊繃的狀態下，出力效率反而較低(*見註解)。因此讓雙腿保持在放鬆而較高的踩踏速度（又稱轉速）下才能得到最佳的踩踏效率，同時也能減緩肌肉疲累並減少關節中軟骨的磨損。

Acknowledge your body's limits
每個人的身體都有一個體能極限。不要一看到別人很神的往前飆就不服輸的硬踩重檔跟上。除了天生的強者以外，體能應該是漸近式的慢慢練出來的，而不是跟漫畫情節一樣，「只要我有骨氣，就可以把體能極限逼出來」。利用意志力和腎上腺素逼出自己的體能極限是很傷身體的。記住，善待自己的身體並不是懦弱，而是有長久發展的遠見，一種有智慧的表現。

Conclusion
因此，最理想的狀態是保持在你踩踏最舒服的檔位，在踩起來感覺太輕或太重時隨時適時的變檔調整至最舒適的檔位。放輕鬆騎，想騎快一點的話可以把轉速拉高。若騎累了，就下來休息一下沒關係，休息是為了走更長遠了路。
膝蓋是要用到老的東西，受傷了很難再生，所以奉勸各位好好保護自己的膝蓋。

*註：
肌肉在正常的適中長度下，肌動(Thick filaments)與肌凝纖維(Thin filaments)間的連結(cross bridges)最多，出力最大﹔在緊繃的狀態下，因肌動(Thick filaments)與肌凝纖維互相重疊部分過多，可以形成的連結(cross bridges)較少，出力效率反而較低。

さよならありがと・一青窈

上週剛買 一青窈的最新專輯：＆
整體感覺下次再說吧，來談談其中最後一首歌：さよならありがと
因為日文聽力很弱，剛開始聽只覺得旋律很棒，很喜歡，而不知道其中在唱什麼。

今天心血來潮來研究一下歌詞（這也是要買正版CD的原因之一～有精美歌詞本＋翻譯）。一青窈的歌詞一向都如詩一般，形容事情的方式很奇特，不過也必須要細細品味，多念個幾次才會懂。

*sigh*

這次，是失戀歌啊。

跟我去年的心情很符合。對於一個人盡是一些不可能實現的幻想，而回憶中的笑容也永遠是美麗的。沒有苛責，沒有怨恨，除了逐漸消逝的遺憾外，只有簡單的一句：「再見謝謝（さよならありがと）。」

我文學造詣不好，這裡描述得更棒：
本の蟲～赤の淵の日記～：さよならありがと（日文blog）

---

感謝一些好朋友的關懷
去年跨年就把那些不悅，隨著當時玩的「真心話」，就丟掉，留在去年。那荷爾蒙的一年期限也在去年過期了。

快樂，是珍貴的。現在，既然在車社找回來了，就要好好珍惜^^

Taipei International Cycle Show

今年的車展又來啦！
這一定要去的啊

雖然說這次的時間很爛（週三～週六）
不過至少最後一天要進去！！！

去看看今年最新的發展，還有什麼奇怪的新零件
（也看看有什麼贈品XD）

今年想找一票人一起逛，最好可以找到技師級的導覽^^

展出日期：
95年3月8日（星期三）至10日（星期五） 　上午9時至下午6時
95年3月11日（星期六）　　　　 上午9時至下午3時

門票：
入場券每張新台幣200元 （每日展覽結束前1小時停止售票）
＊12歲或身高120cm以下孩童謝絕入場

Press release | Map | Site link

Isolated identity

Great, so I'm one of the "in between" guys.

Being a foreigner studing in Taiwan means no scholarships, no awards and no jobs.

Being an American studing abroad means no American scholarships nor internships either.

My identity is something in between, and there's nothing in between.

Power outage at dorm

The power just went out. All of a sudden everyone started to walk out of their rooms and talk with friends. Everyone depreved of internet access, the normally quiet hallways are now filled with the noise of chatting people. What a difference! Dormmates are finally talking with each other. These guys normally don't talk, they just sit on their seats, their eyes glued to their screens for hours. There's even sounds of playing guitars, fireworks and cheers.

The long lost interactions between humans, deprieved by technology, are ephemeraly restored by the temporary outage of a modern power grid.

Me? Now blogging on my handheld :)
---

Just went outside to see the commotion. It was full of laughter, full of people, fireworks going of here and there. Someone even put a "firework wand" in front of their bike and rode around, in the end setting the bike on fire accidentally. The atmosphere was totally bacchanalian!
---

It was said that some TaiPower guy accidentally cut of the power to the whole campus... Geez.

收卡XD

曉嫚說要給的"松智好人好事事蹟錄"終於出現了XD
不過，第一次在社辦信箱收到東西，還是今年生日唯一的生日禮物(雖然晚了2天)，還是頗高興的^^

PocketMod: The Free Disposable Personal Organizer

It is said to be the next best thing to a PDA. Some even say that it's better then an electronic organiser. Behold, the PocketMod!

Some people just don't like electronic, or some feel that they like the feel of pen and paper. Well, here's a great way to get organised, and save money on dayplanners.

PocketMod is actually a flash application that helps you lay out all the stuff need for your organiser on one piece of paper. You design your own, print it out, fold it, find a pen and get going! You've got no learning curve for input, since it's just pen and paper; it's even lighter then any other organiser you could find on the market, because it's just a piece of paper! So, for all those who want an alternative to pocketbooks and PDA, enjoy!

The definitive Firefox communicator

In the history of Mozilla, the original Mozilla suite, which originated from the Netscape communitator, in addition to the core browser, consists of an email app, an instant messenger and a webpage editor. Sure, it's rich in features, but it's very big, takes a long time to download, and early versions of it were buggy. Some one came up with the "keep-it-simple" idea, and made a great single purpose browser: Firefox.

But with it's powerful extendable architecture, and the advent of AJAX based web applications, Firefox is now almost the all purpose communicator once again, and with a much smaller foot print on computer system resources. Here's how I did it:

E-mail:
I use Gmail, now that makes a lot of difference. It's one of the best AJAX based web apps I've used. Unlike most webmail interfaces, everything in Gmail responds instaneously, as if it were a mail app on your desktop. You click on a title of a mail, and boom, it expands and is ready for your reading pleasure within less then a second. Everything is where you'd expect it to be. Replys to the same mail stream are grouped together, in what they call: conversations. Right after you finished reading the mail, the reply input box is right there under the mail. And, expected from Google, you can, of course, search your mail and contacts. No more digging around in folders. Because the whole interface is streamlined and carefully crafted for your ease of use, it feels so good that I ditched my real mail apps (Thunderbird on PC and Snappermail on handheld) altogether.
(P.S. need Gmail? I've got some invitations around to share)

RSS feeds:
Well, Firefox covered that right out of the box. They called it: Live bookmarks. Sweet.

Instant messaging:
The best experience here comes from Gmail chat, which is a feature of Gmail. However, all my friend are on the MSN network, and web MSN isn't that good, so I still have to keep my MSN messenger on my desktop. Pitty.

Telnet/BBS:
Here's the PCman plugin that lets you use telnet with Firefox. Although sometimes a little buggy, it feels good to have everything under one roof, with the convinence of Firefox's tabbed browsing. I like it.
Mozilla Taiwan 討論區: pcman - ( firefox 1.5 ) 懶人包 by 新注音 新倉頡

What's next?
I recall seeing a FTP extension for Firefox, maybe I should try it sometime.

So, when Firefox does it all, I can eliminate several softwares and keep my system clean and neat.

Yesterday

Yesterday just finished a few minutes ago. Nothing special, no nothing.

But, yeah, you're the invisible guy, remember?

Yeah, the guy who easily blends in and who was always forgotten...

Mood...

1. Self-control
I seem to feel much more happier when certain intrinsic desires are inhibited. I on purposely force the unwanted desires out of my ego, into my superego, and with them, getting ridding of the related bad thoughts as well. However, I guess this kind of inhibition needs a clear mind, since whenever I'm tired and overwhelmed with stress, those stupid thoughts start to come back and hector me.

I need to get some good rest, keep a clear mind, and focus on what I have, on what's important, and on the happy side of life.

2. On relationships
Something inside seems to shout at you that you need a mate. You disagree and tell that voice to shut up. For from experience, love only brings sadness and torture while friendships usually brings wisdom and happiness. So you ignore that nagging voice and forcefully set out in search of happiness. However, you still have doubts on how long that voice could be ignored.

3. Back to school
After an insanely busy semester of workaholism and a crazily event filled winter vacation of hedonism, it's back to school again next week. Back to the stressful and lonesome world of study. Hope I could survive without crumbling this semester, since I'd be spending much more time on boring and depressing exam prep.

---

The firewall of self-protection of the soul is crumbling under the power of inherent desires. Hold on and fight back.

Using the address field of Firefox wisely

The address/URL field, that's where you normally type in the web address of the website your looking for. And I've always used it in it's most traditional and normal way.

However, I noticed that with some sites, like Google or Yahoo, you could omit the "www." and ".com" and just simply typing what's supposed to be in-between. I originaly thought that Firefox just added on the "www." and ".com" for you, but, today, accidentally, I saw what's going on in the status bar at the bottom of the window: when you type a word or phrase that doesn't like an URL, it first tried adding on "http://", then it sent your input to Google, and then shows you the first entry from the Google search! In other words, Firefox clicked on the "I'm feeling lucky" link of Google for you!Also, since it's just a search quary, you could type any language there. You could even get rid of some of your bookmarks.

What if you just wanted to do a google search? There's always the search field on the top right corner of Firefox at your service. But I realized that typing "google ***" (*** being whatever you want to search for), and boom, there it is!

Firefox is sometime much smarter then you think :)
---
Don't try this in IE, it just takes you to a stupid MSN search page telling you that they can't find what you want. Well to hell with it, who care if MSN search can't find it?

Kids are so cute...

剛從金山回來
去帶了人本的單車營隊3天
感覺好像剛從另一個世界回來似的

那真是個和平常生活完全不同的世界
平常無論是系上還是社團, 我的生活圈都是以年紀相近的自然組男生為主
那裡, 則是小五小六小孩子的天地; 工作人員則幾乎都是社會組的女生
不能說哪邊不好, 但真的是個完全不同的體驗

那是個歡樂的世界
連工作規劃, 開會都是開開心心, 輕輕鬆鬆的
雖然小朋友偶而闖禍會令人頭痛, 但也會因為那神奇的闖禍方式而發出會心的一笑

來說說蝌蚪事件吧
他們到學校生態池中撈了一堆蝌蚪, 然後帶回寢室玩
因為怕水中氧氣不足, 又撈了一些水草, 晚上還輪流拿手電筒照, 讓它行光合作用
不過也有因為不小心打翻, 而弄濕別人枕頭, 或害蝌蚪乾死的
有拿熱水燙蝌蚪的, 還有拿別人吃飯的晚來裝蝌蚪的
任何千奇百怪的事情都會發生
不過都在人本的工作人員耐心的溝通下一一解決

小朋友玩夜市(園遊會)時最可愛
一開始有一個攤位說: "給我2張衛生紙就可以免費玩一次"
我看了他一眼, 他就很老實的說: "因為我要醒鼻涕"
(要不是我身上剛好沒有帶, 我還真的想給他兩張的)

射飛鏢的, 我花200(遊戲鈔)玩2次, 反而贏了500
一開始認真拉客的男孩說: "這樣我們虧錢耶"
然後要他的夥伴們各出一點錢

他們的寫的字也很經典
每一張海報上都有20%的注音
還有$符號被畫成一個3加兩槓的
我還抽獎抽到一張紙, 上面寫著"餅幹5片"

生意太好的攤位, 價格倍數成長
生意差的, 老闆自己跑掉去玩
還有給人優待券, 然後惡性倒閉不認帳的攤位XD

帶小朋友拆裝車的時候, 他們很明白的說了: "我們只想破壞"
然後就很興奮的拿出各種工具開始肢解那些車
連最複雜的變速系統都被拆的慘不忍睹

出去騎時, 最刺激
有些小朋友非常不穩, 左晃又晃, 還不敢按煞車, 一直把腳伸下來踩地
還有一個小妹妹, 一出去就從馬路的左邊衝到右邊,
然後又好像打彈珠一樣又彈回左邊, 快撞電線桿時又衝回右邊...
一邊下坡一邊大叫: "這什麼軌下坡? 會死人的!"
然後死命的案後煞, 後輪一直鎖死, 左甩尾, 右甩尾... 但都不會摔

離開童年這麼久了, 又去跟小朋友玩在一起
感受那充滿活力, 古靈精怪, 歡樂, 吵吵鬧鬧的生活
還有小朋友用全身的力氣在你耳朵旁邊大吼叫別人...
真的會令人懷念起自己的童年生活
也忘掉平日生活的一切煩惱, 盡情的一起玩樂

GRE prep: Damn, I'm so in trouble

I just bought that blasted GRE preparation book today, and read through the introductions. As with any exam introduction, it includes examples of the questions that might appear in the test, one for each question type. Going through it, I realized that I don't understand even one of them.

The uncomprehensionable sentances, the never-ever seen words, the twisted logic. The fear added on with each minute I read on, eventually morphing into panic, the panic of the realization of my own weakness.

I AM REALLY IN DEEP SHIT

---

As I finished the whole introductory literature, I finally calmed down and layed out my conclusions.

• My poor vocabalary must be improved.
• I must invest much time and energy in this, compared to GRE, TOEFL is like child's play.
• The math part of the GRE, however, is so easy that it's almost ignorable.
• I must further slim down the classes/credits I take for the next semester. This is not a time to take intresting but unnecessary classes.
• The next helf year of my life would be one of much more cortisol (stress hormone).
• My temper would be really bad for the next half year.

And my plans:

• Read a vocabalary builder daily.
• Dig deep into that book, daily.
• Find more resources, expecially more books.
• Although the math part is much more enjoyable, restrict the time invested on it. Of which, my skills should be good enough.
• Manage time better, throw out the unnecessary, including computer play time and unneeded class taking.
• Workout a rough schedule for the time I have in the States this summer. Find a slot for GRE test taking and register.

Hope I could pull it off nicely like I did with my high school and university entrence exams. Wish me luck.

[Stupidity]花東趣事筆記

雖然過了這麼久，還是要po一下，因為這實在太經典了XD
---
今年花東又玩了一次小天使小主人。

一開始本來抽到了一個自己覺得有點無趣的人，而且還是之前我花了很大的力氣去說服她安全帽的重要性的一個人，總之就是一個給我的第一印象不怎麼好的人。隔壁的朋友則抽到了一個老朋友。他說這難度太高了，就說要跟我換。（整個遊戲的重點就是要在照顧小主人的同時讓她以為自己的小天使不是你）
我想了一下，嗯，我跟她比你還熟，對我來說，要我耍她難度比你還高吧！不過我是個喜歡挑戰的人ＸＤ

好吧，交換！

然後，我們兩個就聯合起來準備好好整一整她。朋友當軍師，我當主角，前兩天我都很順利的耍低調，直到第三天我開始出紕漏。第三天我不小心讓自己的小隊輔知道了我的小天使是誰。當時我以為小隊輔和她不熟，所以小小放心了一下，天知道這可是洩密的源頭。

某天，我的小主人在猜她的小天使是誰時，我那個很天才的小隊輔給了一個提示：「他是個好人。」

然後，最經典的來了，我的小主人的回答據說是：
「嗯，那麼，應該是松智吧。」
．．．
　．．．
　　．．．
原來我是好人的代言者。

囧rz

都怪我之前在blog上po太多好人文了，我的形象T_T

Happy lunar new year: 過年

過年，沒什麼想做的事，也沒什麼可以做的事。大部分的東西都留在學校的宿舍，如課本，和那該死的生科營網站設計圖(為什麼我忘了帶出來……); 帶出來的只有兩本小說。結果，除夕到初二，除了晚上睡前小小看一點小說外，整天只做三件事: 吃、睡、看電視。

過年，反而成為冬眠，睡眠時間多得像無尾熊。整天頭腦渾沌，肌肉鬆弛，四肢無力，眼皮沉重，就一直睡，一直睡，好像要把過去一個學期所缺乏的睡眠和24學分7重科所耗費的體力全補回來似的。一個癱瘓的身體與一個不斷幻想的頭腦，這幾天做的夢大概有一個禮拜的分吧。有點覺得「過年」，是個浪費時間的東西; 一年之初怎麼可以過得如此痿靡呢？不過過去一年來也真的是有夠累人的，為了將來，也為了忘掉某些東西，發狂了似的，找了一堆事來做，修了一堆重課，累死自己……最後發現不這樣操自己，大概也進不了好的研究所，人生啊！嗯，現在的修習是為了走更長遠的路吧，那麼再多睡一點吧！

家中是不看電視的，妹妹乘過年出來，狂看電視。我則還是比較喜歡網站＆PTT(鄉民啊！) 其實真的沒什麼好看的，柯南怎麼看都差不多; 東森「娛樂」新聞爛得無人能比; 連續劇一個比一個芭樂; 台灣的綜藝節目都很無聊; 日本綜藝節目也看膩了。結果過年期間最好看的竟是「功夫」！以前只有卡通裡看得到的搞笑武打招式都以電腦特效在真人電影中重現了，強啊！

最後，在此炮聲連連的年節中，祝大家新年快樂～

On thoughts & languages

I guess it's been a long time since I last blogged in English. How do I decide what language do I blog in? Well, normally, I just write down what's on my mind, which means that I use what ever language I was using in my mind at the moment. Now that brings an intresting question: how do multilingual people decide which language they use to think? I guess most modern people just simply use their mother tongue. But I'm now living in an environment that's using my 2nd language, and there are many things that I don't know how to say in the other language. OK, I think in what ever language I like, sometimes it depends on my mood; sometimes I switch when I don't know how to say it in one language; sometimes I switch when I am reading a book in another language.

This is an age of frequent travel and intercultural interaction. More and more people are equally fluent in multiple languages. Some of them may even have difficulty deciding which is their home country. I guess I might be considered one of these strange people of this awkward age. A life of ambiguity, I guess.

Family trip to east Taiwan2(continued)

東臺灣之旅: 全家出遊版 part 2 ~ (補)

嗯，上次來不及寫...
康橋大飯店還提供了有趣的免費宵夜：擔仔麵。
進去，自己選一碗麵或米粉，然後交給站在那西裝比挺的服務生。
接著，服務生拿著你的麵到一個只有膝蓋高，古色古香的竹製煮麵台子去，然後你就看到兩個至少有１８０以上的男人，穿著西裝與皮鞋，煮麵！偶而還投下一點豆芽菜。

Histerical, totally comical!!!

實在很想拍下來，不過覺得若被拍到這種畫面，那些服務生一定很尷尬，還是算了ＸＤ

Family trip to east Taiwan2

東臺灣之旅: 全家出遊版 part 2
(photos here)

接著，來談談拍照吧！這次帶了三台XD 我隨身帶的PDA就拿來亂拍; 輕薄方便的sony F77則拿來當備用; 最後那就是老爸的Nikon D100 DSLR。數位單眼用起來真是爽啊！雖然很重，容易手震; 也因為技術太差，拍了成堆的廢照片。不過，光可以控制那麼多東西，那種in control的感覺就是會令人上癮。而想拍鳥類時也只有單眼相機的超大顆感光元件和拍遠距離用的長鏡頭才能拍清楚。就這樣，我拿D100的次數越來多，F77則逐漸被我拋棄; 不過昨天也因此多了一堆手震糊掉的照片。

大型鏡頭，可以讓照片漂亮很多，不過也比較容易髒。今天拍了一個早上後才發現鏡頭不乾淨T_T

昨天經高人指點，今天開始玩快門先決模式。手震和過暗問題，都在調好快門速度和曝光補償後獲得解決。不過，還是因為第一次玩，每拍一張就要調好久好久，然後一直玩trial and error。結果，只要時間不夠，還是要回到全自動模式。以後有錢了再自己買一台單眼自己慢慢玩吧！

---

關於這幾天住的飯店．．．

嗯，住了幾間一般窮大學生自己玩的時候根本不敢進去的旅館。

第一天住的是宜蘭礁溪的「和風溫泉會館」，有濃濃的日式裝潢，一切走小巧精緻風（旅館建築本身也不大）。其實房間還不小，不過因為有個泡湯用的oversized bath tub，結果浴室超大，聯帶的壓迫了臥室空間。房間內和浴室間的隔間完全用玻璃做的，平時看起來很寬廣，洗澡時則可以拉起窗簾。比較有趣的是，浴室整個也都是透明的，可以邊泡澡邊看外面風景。怕走光的人還是可以拉窗簾，不過我覺得，房間在八樓，而且洗澡時都是霧，應該OK吧。有免費寬頻網路，不過每幾分鐘會自動掛掉，然後，請自己拔線重插﹔說實在的，撥接可能會比這個順一點。這個旅館較奇怪的則是到處都可以出現台階，讓你連在房間內都有跌倒的可能==|||

第二天的，是花蓮市的「藍天麗池酒店」。沒錯，就是市中心中正路上的麥當勞對面的那家！（有特價訂房管道真棒）一般貴一點的商務飯店該有的都有，不過，他們總是能把東西藏在很隱密的地方。例如，刷牙用的漱口杯，明明是四人房，浴室李卻只有兩個杯子，整個房間就是找不到杯子﹔打電話問櫃檯，他叫我們找找電視下面的櫃子（那種地方也能有櫃子？），不過還是找不到。最後，服務人員來了，把手伸到某個台子下面，很神奇的，拉出了一個不像抽屜的抽屜，找到了那兩個消失的杯子！另外，拖鞋，也是隱藏在一個隱密的衣櫥內的黑暗的角落裡！網路，也是有線的。我試著掃掃看有沒有無線網路，卻只掃的到對面麥當勞架的Hinet WLAN，這，當然要錢。有線寬頻，住戶須知中寫著十五分鐘免費，然後一個小時100，不過櫃檯卻說免費，原來文件是舊的。這家有提供單車出租，我想，對於有南濱／北濱公園美麗單車道的花蓮市，提供這服務是必要的。一小時100，乍看之下有點小貴，但到外面一看，有Giant Yukon和 MeMe耶～騎高級單車道果然要高級一點的車。我們沒時間騎，所以沒租，反正我之前也自己騎過了XD

今天，第三天，來到了台東市。這次是「康橋大飯店」。英式造型建築漆成綠色和黃色真是另人汗顏，不過內裝還不錯，而且似乎是新開的，設施都很新。房類也不錯，還有復古風的引水機，不過長得很像點唱機。這裡奇怪的地方除了外表外，進房間到走道床邊，也有一堆陷阱台階，先上升，再下降（門檻），再下降（玄關），再上升（放床的木製台子）。這比礁溪和風還毒啊！這是最新流行嗎？更奇怪的，「溫馨四人房」內竟有免費保險套，嘖嘖嘖！（搞4P啊？）這家可以免費借單車，Giant Action 100校園車，可惜在下雨。另外，除了早餐外，還有免費擔仔麵消夜。最後，從這篇的出現，你應該也能猜中，還是有免費網路(ADSL)。不過還是沒有無線網路，還是不能靠PDA，還好有帶筆電。

Family trip to east Taiwan

東臺灣之旅: 全家出遊版
(photos here)
在和車社玩了好幾次東臺灣後，這次改和家人一起來。整體而言，感覺真的差很多。光就旅遊型式而言，單車旅行本身就跟坐車差很多。騎單車旅行，在路途中也是在玩; 不但騎車本身是個享受、運動，也因為速度受限、而且人就在戶外，和所在的地方、人們、文化、大地、大自然都少了點隔閡，並且可以細細、用心的去體會身邊的一切。坐車雖輕鬆，不過和外界隔了一扇窗，車速也很快，很多東西都在不知不覺中過去了，不覺得自己在做什麼，就這麼一路睡過去了。一個景點又一個，火速到達又快速離去，到最後空虛的覺得什麼也沒玩到，就這麼回飯店睡了。

不過伙伴也許也有差吧。和車社出遊，在報名前總是會先確認有可以談得開的朋友才報，在路途上就算再無聊也可以找到伙伴聊得很開心。也或許同年紀的人總是很容易嗨吧！家中，父母本來就不是會high的人，跟妹妹也沒什麼共同話題; 一個被ptt鄉民化的死大學生跟一個動漫ㄎㄨㄥ、可以聊的實在是不多。原來社團是這麼一回事。

2006花東旅情照片

照片~~
on Flickr

Bell Protos

今天發現, Costco 又進一批Bell入門安全帽了
Bell Protos, 629NTD, made in USA!!
全台灣我只知道這裡找得到美國進口的Bell, 其他的都 made in China


不過青少年尺寸較多, 有藍色&紅色&白色; 成人尺寸則有黑色&白色


今天還發現一個裂掉的(哪個死小孩玩的?), 裡面還看的到塑膠骨架耶

Papaya river trip

木瓜溪遊記

(照片... is here!)

Day 1

早上5:00起床幫要到車站集合的2人morning call，計畫5:30再叫住學校附近的另外2人。結果清鍊條+上B(手賤XD)5:49才打給柏翰和達逸學弟……我對不起你們！

拍完第一張團照後6:15從校門口出發，約6:45到車站和美聿&蒼蠅開始裝車袋。吃完早餐後大伙抓起黑色不明行李上車。那天的莒光號十分的誇 張，一開始車上就已經沒什麼人了，過了八堵後還全下車，之後我們那節廂簡直就好像被我們包下似的。可以大聲聊天不怕吵到別人，車也不會擋到別人真好。在車 上，美聿拿出後燈的電池，準備要換，之後卻恍神拿出碼表，然後又找出硬幣，轉開電池蓋，正要把後燈電池塞入碼表時才罵一聲「幹！我拆碼表幹麻？」此時碼表 也莫名其妙的掛了！之後雖然在多次reset後回來了，不過里程數不見了，輪徑設定也不知要設什麼(要看說明書中的對照表)……囧

新城下車後，大家開始裝車、收車袋、調整。裝車袋還滿傷車的，尤其變速都不準了。車裝好再調好變速花了很多時間，但最囧的是大家一準備好就下雨了XD

吃完飯，我們把車袋寄回去然後上路，此時雨也停了。回到武嶺時來過的太魯閣，繼續狂拍照。要到沙卡噹溪的河邊，必需從一座橋邊走一個很窄的鐵樓梯下去。偏 偏剛好碰上一大群人來畢旅，害我下去時帶著車抬著前輪被卡在半路動彈不得，等近百人上去。等到我們5人都下到河邊，就開始逸樂的走走停停，每 offroad一段，又停下來拍照。這感覺跟太魯閣主線不太一樣，我們不再是從高處遠遠的往下看; 在這裡，我們更接近河道、更接近山壁，更接近大自然。很可惜因為時間不足，我們必需半徒折返; 而就在折返的過程中，又開始下雨了，我們就十分刺激的在雨中offroad回去。是否該說木瓜溪的詛咒又開始了呢？學期中時訂不到車、木瓜溪坍掉、最後流 掉就夠慘了; 這次來了，又發生了很多事。在沙卡噹要回橋邊時柏翰的前煞卡泥巴，開始磨框，停下來一看發現掛了一邊的彈簧。做完暫時性的調整後，雨變大，大伙在又濕又冷 又餓的狀況下騎到花蓮市; 途中又因水太多，碼表一直接觸不良，柏翰的速度超高(歡樂表！歡樂表！)，我的則不時掛零。

到了花蓮市，一時找不到建國民宿。建國路上竟可以兩百多號的隔兩間變九十六號！但最扯的時，花蓮市建國路繼續走，接上吉安鄉建國路一段，門牌號碼重算！原來『建國路』和『建國路一段』是不一樣的XD

建國民宿，很神奇的沒有招牌，還躲在一家飲料店樓上。5人睡5張雙人床，大家除了可以睡大字型，還有多一個枕頭當抱枕。因太晚到了，晚餐到夜市吃吃不飽的火鍋，讓第一次參加活動的學弟鄒達逸見識了車社搶食的厲害！(*^^)v

Day 2

一早下樓整理車，上油，準備上路。此時發現蒼蠅斷鍊了= =||| 不過柏翰也正好帶了有打鍊器的工具組。嗯，老天沒放棄我們，不但剛好有打鍊器，我很幸運的不但沒把pin打掉，接回去後還沒有死目^^

往木瓜溪的路上，學弟不小心摔車了。人只有小擦傷，但壓到後變，變速掛了！之後我調線張力、上下限、甚至放線重拉，一直調不好。最後發現(是美聿發現的 嗎？忘了)是勾爪彎了！很好，武嶺時看德技玩過的工具組彎勾爪大法竟被我用上了！最後是調好了，不過，學弟的快樂時光只維持了一個下午……

另一方面，柏翰的後變也不順了(why?)，我搞半天救不了他，只好叫他晚上再去找車店。

剛過橋見到木瓜溪，一想到說我們是排除了眾多困難才見到它，就感到些許的興奮。不過騎著騎著，竟離木瓜溪越來越遠，到了鯉魚潭了！！我開始覺得越來越奇 怪，於是把手往後面的背包伸，開始邊騎邊找我的PDA，想看地圖。PDA被埋得很深，一直摸不到; 我的速度也因此慢了下來，前面3個不知道路的正往光復前進，一下就不見人影。正著急時，突然『碰，噗斯……卡噹、卡噹、卡噹……』爆胎了，我3天前剛買的 法國輪胎破了……囧。一條頗粗的鐵絲垂直的插在輪胎上，還一直打到車架。我換胎的時候，美聿乘機看地圖，原來我們真的走錯路了。此時前面3個己經騎很遠了 (據說約10km外)，等到他們回來，我己換完胎很久了。

往銅門的路是剛過橋後路邊一條很隱密的上坡，難怪沒發現。銅門本身則是個詳和而美麗的小村落，我在此找到了那種久違的樸實感。村中的人都講一種我不認識的 話言，不過用中文還是可以溝通的，而且對我們很親切。銅門派出所的警察們也很親切，除了幫我們辦好入山證外，也熱心的提供了一些入山後的觀光意見和安全注 意事項。

過檢查哨之後不久，路面換成了小小的水泥路面。由於是管制區，幾乎沒車，而且除了發電廠和水泥路面外也幾乎都是自然原始風貌。這裡的路面比昨天的溼也更 滑，不過風景實在是很棒。木瓜溪比沙卡噹溪小多了，但也比那光溜溜的岩壁多了一分綠意。我金黑相間的美利達和山谷交織出一個美麗的畫面。一些小小的岩洞也 為騎乘過程中增添了不少樂趣。只是很可惜只時間不足必需提早回頭。

回程時我、蒼蠅＆美聿在半途停下來等能高越嶺過來的緯隆一行4人組，衡較快的柏翰、達逸則先回去找捷安特修車。一陣子後，四個泥人以飛快的速度輪車出現。 兩天就背著睡袋、爐具從西部offroad越嶺過來還能單手offroad邊騎邊拍照……強呀！聊夠了之後我們一起以30km/hr輪車回花蓮。半途看到 美聿跟不上，腦中浮現自己環島時孤單的被拋在後面的畫面……好吧，陪騎再幫忙破風。不過努力拉速度的表情還頗猙獰的……。回到花蓮市，據說柏翰、達逸才剛 到XD 感謝子傑學長請的珍奶，剛飆完車喝這個還真不錯。

傍晚幾乎都在捷安特度過的。據說柏翰的後變彈簧掛了，回來要把後變整個換掉。達逸的變速我不知老闆做了什麼，只覺得我調好的又被老闆搞砸了。達逸還買了顆 貴得要死的無線碼表，功能確少得可憐。蒼蠅換了新鍊條(因沒裝好，將於兩天後又斷掉)。不過我們倒是用老闆的東西清鍊條、飛輪清得很高興。晚上還用跟老闆 要來的一小段鍊條做了幾個鍊條鑰匙圈^^

木瓜溪團報告

目前狀況

馬錶不小心reset x1
勾爪彎掉 x1
煞車彈簧掛掉 x1
變速線鏽死 x1
摔車 x1
變速彈簧老化 x1
爆胎 x1
花鼓鬆掉 x1
頭腕鬆掉 x1
斷鍊條 x1

以上, 在我們能力範圍內的皆已解決
剩 變速彈簧老化, 花鼓鬆掉, 頭腕鬆掉 未解決

真是個修車訓練營
沒想到連德技去年武嶺在pz車上玩的工具組彎勾爪大法都被我用上了
(可憐的學弟, 碰到這種鳥問題...)

再裝過車袋+offroad後之前的車檢都沒用了T_T
不過花連捷安特老闆超熱心的

大感謝

Life science math exam notes

>Malthusian
dP/dt = kP

>Logistics
dP/dt = kP(1-P/M)
k= intrinsic growth rate;
M= carrying capacity of the environment

>Competition
dx/dt = k1x(1-x-ay)
dy/dt = k2y(1-y-bx)

>Predation
Predation efficiency: ε
if ε>1, the predator population survives in the long run
dx/dt= k1x(1-x/ε-y)
dy/dt=-k2y(1-x)

>Volterra eqnt.
dx/dt = (-a+by)x
dy/dt = (c-kx)y
eq. @ (0,0) or (c/k, a/b)
Laws of Volterra:
1. Flutuations are periodic, the period increases with the amplitude of perturbation.
2. The average predator & prey over a period are, respectively, c/k, a/b

>Harvest
dx/dt = (-a+by)x - H1x
dy/dt = (c-kx)y - H2y
*Harvest is bad for the predator, better for the pray

>Markov process (genetics of inbreeding)
*discrete-time dynamics based on probability, see page 500 in the textbook.

@図書館

Jan 11, 8:50 AM
感謝早上第一堂的軍訓譲我早起、早走、早到這裡念書。没準備還瞬殺的考試還真是没成就感XD
不過重科考試已経很多了,軍訓還是這様比較好。
還有3科,不過2科3學分的,1科4學分的...

Situation:
4F左側
個人座：全満
開放式多人座：全空

個人座這麼熱門？

Good bye old friend

It's a day to say goodbye. I've always dreaded this day, but knew it had to come.

Yesterday my Clie NX73v busted my 1gig memorystick again, a sign that I can't go on using it any more. (My clie ate my memory stick...) After about 2 and a half years of use, it's now chiping paint off, has a dead camera, a dead power slider, has a bad connection in the hindge part, has spontaneous crashs due to the shorts in the hindge, a self shorting memory stick slot with read/write errors (which busts sticks), and a shakey CF slot. What's more I was doing extensive use that requires launching huge programs from the card, becaue it has a tiny on board RAM.

I now officially switch to my new TH55, and quite enjoy the huge RAM, which is 3 times that of the NX73. The built in WIFI, the battery life and the new Clie organiser is also superb. However, I miss the brighter and beautiful screen, the thumb board, , the faster CPU, the audio remote, the built-in TV remote IR port and the metalic feel of the casing. There is no doubt that the NX series is the high end, while the TH is the mid end, thus the less features and lower price. But the NX is an older model, starting to feel inadequate for the latest software out there. Expecially when you can now easily find games that is so big that it can't even fit on the NX. I might consider sending the NX73 for repairs once again, but that might cost at least half the price of a TH55, since the problems are quite big, and I've got to send it to Japan.

But for now, I'm using the TH55, experiencing the amazing battery life and smooth operation. Big memory really makes everything smooth, stable and blazing fast, except for the occasions that require faster CPU speeds. At least I'm happy to say that the transition between the 2 devices are very smooth, since they are very similar. Oh well, move on, and wish the TH55 will live long enough till the next dream device (maybe a PalmLinux one?) comes out.

As for my good old NX? It exchanged places with the TH and now takes the place as Dad's "Sudoku machine"! (lol)

Google Goodness at CES

Among all the keynotes at CES, I like Larry Page's keynote best. It's a blend of excitment, coolness and friendliness. See part of it here, where he introduces the Google video store:
http://news.com.com/1606-2-6022641.html

The special part of Google video store, is not only the easy way of searching for what you want, which is expected of Google, but some fun innovations, like: they've got a Google video player, that lets you only choose to watch the good part of the program :)

But here's the surprise. You can download to an iPod or a PSP, which means that this is on a colision course with the iTunes video store. And, the video you get at Google is clear and of good resolution for you to watch on your PC; which is, contrary to the pathetic resolution you get from iTunes (only good for watch on a tiny iPod screen) Now, let's see how Steve Jobs is going to react :D
---
They also announced the Google pack, which is a whole package of what they think are "must have apps" for your PC.

In addition to the great Google colection of freebees, namely, Google desktop, earth, toolbar and Picasa, here's the unexpected:

• google pack screensaver
• with google toolbar!!!
• Ad-aware
• Norton antivirus with 6 months of free definition updates!!!
• Adobe reader 7

Wonder how they get to give out free Norton AV... But Google sure is genorus.

The package comes in the form of a software updater that installs the latest versions of those software, and updates them for you. Anyone who lacks the above tools may get them now. I, however, am not downloading, because I've already got them all, except the screen saver. But it sure feels good to see the coolest company on the web spreading Firefox ^^

Nature Podcast!

Seems like a promissing scientific podcast, try it out!
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html

The exciting thing about this is that we know that Nature is one of the best scientific journals, and this podcast has interviews with scientists talking about their own research.

This is a British podcast, so get prepared for some British accent.

Working on next summer's research oppertunity

Finally got in touch with a professor at UCLA. He wanted a CV (Curriculum Vitae, the academic version of a resume) and more info about my past research experiences. Now this is getting more and more exciting. My first resume!!!

But then comes the sad part: My CV is nearly empty! Past research experience:1, Publications:0, Awards:0, Grants:0

I guess I'm getting my next bullet point for my next CV with this one, but will this one work? How do you show how good you are when you have no proof? Or is there any thing I missed?

It's 2006 already...

I remember at this time of year, last year, I listed here a summary of what I did during the past year. I'd like to do that this year, also, but I don't think I'd ever have the time to list them all. All in all, in an approach to fullfill a meaningful life, I stuffed my life full of priorities. Yes the list would be real long, and no, I don't have enough time to finish them all; so yes I screwed up some of them. But anyway, such a shame I couldn't record it now, so much to do...

For goals this year, I've listed them before, but...

1. summer intern
2. GRE general test
3. GRE subject test
4. send out the application forms for grad school
5. and, still find time to ride my bike in the midst of all the business :)
   

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)

嗯
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^^

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」。

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...

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！

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...

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.

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。

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.

Upgreading 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!

By the way, care for some Firefox ad videos? See them here:

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.

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...

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!

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/

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」。

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？！
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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。
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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。

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

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。」

丟掉新注音，擁抱「新酷音」輸入法吧！

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

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.

一部很棒的電影~ 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!

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

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？

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

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

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.

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."

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.

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

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？

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!

Official Google Blog: Guess what just turned 34?

Official 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

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

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〜

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.

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