Time to upgrade!

To my surprise my new laptop arrived almost a full week ealier than I expected! I am typing at this very moment on it and I am so thrilled! I was excited to experiment with Windows Vista. It is pretty nice with rather cool graphics and it does run like Macs. Good thing I have experience with Macs at BYU, especially while working at the ELC. There are still million things to explore on how to make it work more efficiently and smoothly for me.
At the same time, after more than four years with my old Dell Laptop, I'm laying it to rest. It's funny that it seems to realize what I was going to do that for the past couple days it "behaved" quite nicely that I was able to do what I needed to with it. I guess no more 30-minute machine booting and a full day of turning computer on and off just to get windows running properly from now on. I actually probably will miss the experience with this "little guy" which both gave me so many headaches and helped me with my achievements, most notably my MA thesis and provided me with endless hours of entertainment, i.e. all sorts of fun downloads, ha!
My last piece of news is that the big project I was involved with lately has finally come to an end. I did NOT get the job. I was one of the (up to five, I don't know how many) finalists being considered to be a guide for mandarin.about.com, I'm happy to have got this far though (I sound like an American Idol!) and honestly I did not put my fullest effort in it because I knew I would probably have trouble working for them due to my current circumstances. It was a nice learning experience nevertheless and I learned more about what I am capable of doing now and in the future. Thanks Nate for the opportunity!

Shocking and sad...

I'm still quite shocked and sad to find out the passing and loss of a friend. Even though I would not claim to be anything near as a close friend, all I can say is this guy is a nice and almost innocent man through our brief acquaintance on our church mission in Hong Kong. He actually works pretty close to where I am at in California and I was planning to get in touch with him and meet up. Well, I guess it is too late and I wish him and his family well and peace.

Life is too short! Don't procrastinate!

Word game

I watched Babel over the weekend and I loved it. I think it deserves the Oscar for Best Picture way more than the Departed or even Crash. It does resemble Crash but I enjoyed the international cultural crash and conflicts caused by communication breakdown in this one a lot more. Babel is more believable than the melodrama and sensationalism in Crash. I love the Mexican baby sitter's acting.

I'm 1/5 into reading the over 1000 pages of a report on the "June 4th Incident". Our teaching materials also touch on the crazy events in modern Chinese history such as the Cultural Revolution, Great Leap Forward, and the educated youth going into the countryside. I'm glad to be a linguist which helps me realize the power of words and language. Some people can use it to kill people physically or mentally or spiritually. I found these couple sayings particularly interesting from the book:

“文革”十年是無政府主義，改革是無主義政府；
"Cultural Revolution" was ideology without government, (Chinese) reformation is government without ideology;
“文革”十年是十年動亂，改革十年是十年亂動。
"Cultural Revolution" was ten years of turmoil, (Chinese) reformation is ten years of random movements.
~民運學生 Students in the pro-democratic movement

一個革命政黨，就怕聼不到人民的聲音，最可怕的是鴉雀無聲。
A revolutionary political party is afraid of not being able to hear people's voice. What is the scariest is dead silence.
~鄧小平 Deng Xiaoping.

Did Deng put his words into action? Maybe he did (in the opposite way: having people study his "sacred" words like Mao's instead of listening to people's voice). I just hope people either in China or anywhere in the world now enjoying the benefits from the vibrant Chinese economy would think about if there is something more important than wealth and the so-called "social stability". Is the sacrifice of truth worth it?

Ok, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.

Backup!

I am so relieved after messing up three, yes THREE! of my portable storage devices (two flash drives and my PaiPod!) that I somehow managed to retrieve or rediscover my precious pictures. I think I have more than one too many lessons learned the hard way: NEVER UNPLUGGED YOUR DRIVES WHEN THEY ARE NOT READY!!!

These are some of my favorite pictures over the years that I was able to salvage:
I love this picture that my family is trapped in this rather scary looking ride in hindsight!

One of the countless birthday pictures we took when we were little. I was soooo tiny!

With Patrick, Victor, and another HKYA (can't remember his name). I was in the Hong Kong Young Ambassadors (I guess I am destined to be a YA no matter where I go!) program before heading to Utah as an exchange student. Does Victor look like a pop star? He is Kelly Chan's brother! And I guess he is still (struggling to be) a pop singer in HK...

Here is the infamous picture... guys wearing sequins! It is the Encore Showchoir of the Salt Lake Institute. My leg was literally shaking as we'd been in that pose for half an hour or so. Those poor girls in the back kept falling and screaming while we were taking the picture!

The Salt Lake Institute Concert Choir (SLICC)

Singing at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. See who those people at the bottom are? One of them is President Hinckley!

This was my favorite baptism on my mission. It was one of those miracle baptisms in a short time out of nowhere. I GQed the man on the street and he was a communist member who turned down our invitation but he brought his wife to church and she was baptized in a week that she was so happy with her newly found religion. Too bad the magnificent chapel is no longer a church anymore (see my post on the Sun Yat-Sen Museum).

Macau the wonderland!


The crazy mission choir. I almost died doing it.

Graduating from the Chinese U of HK with my college buddies.

Swinging with Emily at a dancesport competition at the Y. We went pretty far and almost reached the semi-final but we got eliminated because we went to the dance floor late as I was busy talking with a friend that we missed the announcement! It was fun though and look at how our outfit matched!

Closing ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Games. I think everyone should at least experience the Olympics once in their lifetime!

Singing for the Beijing Olympic Committee members' visit to Salt Lake City with Benji and Becca. The Chinese girl in the front represents Beijing and the Child of Light on the right performed at the ceremonies for the Salt Lake Games in 2002.

This is real! It's Stephen Chow to my left as I interpreted for him when he was promoting his Kung Fu Hustle at the Sundance Film Festival. I got to hang out with him for two days and he really is a funny guy but in a more subtle manner. On the right is the PR lady Alison and on the far left is a new director from Beijing Lu Chuan who was the first Mainland Chinese director ever winning the Golden Horse in Taiwan. I interpreted for him as well and he is an extremely nice gentleman. It was such a lifetime eye-opening experience.

Becoming Californian?

You Are 60% California

You're fairly Californian. Unless you're really from California, you should be stoked!

How California Are You?

You've spotted a celebrity at your local Starbucks.
The quickest part of your commute is pulling out of your driveway.
You can't remember if pot is legal or not.
Half the women you know have had some "work done"
The only way you'll afford a house is by winning the lotto.
You're a raw foodist, fruitarian, or vegan.
You can't remember the last time you saw someone smoke indoors.
Your four food groups are Mexican, Thai, Japanese, and Vietnamese.
You know a baby with two mommies... or two daddies.
It's been years since you've seen snow.
You have a psychotherapist... and so does your dog.
You "just know" a lot of Spanish words.
If there's a sprinkling of rain, you complain to everyone about the bad weather. You've partied in Tijuana.
When driving, stop signs are totally optional.
If something is more than two blocks away, there's no way you're walking there.
The Terminator is your governor.
Your favorite tv show has been interrupted by a police chase.
You'd never step foot in McDonalds. In N Out is where you go.
You know you can never been too rich or too thin.
You can't imagine a place colder than San Francisco.
If a small earthquake wakes you up at night, there's a good chance you'll roll over and go back to sleep.
You go to the beach, but you don't go in the water.
You know someone with headshots.
Your condo costs more than you'll make in ten years.

You Should Learn Spanish

For you, learning a language is about career advancement and communication. Knowing Spanish will bring you tons of possiblities for jobs and travel. Bárbaro!

What Language Should You Learn?

Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ISTP)

Your personality type is reserved, methodical, spirited, and intense. Only about 6% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 8% of all men You are Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

You Are 60% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right? But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

Silly me...

I've never embarrassed myself that bad as a teacher, but on Friday there was truly a classic moment in the classroom. I was trying to explain the translation of a Chinese sentence using the "把A看成是B" grammar construction to a student. So I made an attempt to do a "literal translation" into English, which went "I looked at her as..." while I even put an emphasis on the word "as". Not until then I realized the sudden silence in the room and the students' looks of shock on their face. Only after about 5 seconds I realized what I said and the whole room erupted into huge laughs and I had no choice but to laugh at myself! I made them promise they did not record what I said. Well, you gotta love these guys.

More silly humor I found...
~Don't take life too seriously; no one gets out alive.
~Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
~Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
~I'm not a complete idiot - some parts are missing.
~Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
~God must love stupid people; he made so many.
~Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
~Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
~A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
~Procrastinate now!

We will never forget...

18 years ago. I was still in middle school. I just joined the LDS church. But that was a summer people (should) never forget. At least I haven't yet. While September 11th is the day no Americans would ever forget, June 4th should be the same for all Chinese or even the world to know that an even worse kind of terrorism was in full swing. One killing its own kind. My hats off to those who risked or even sacrificed their lives to simply voice their opinions on what is right and what is evil.