Sleeping Beauty

I finally turned in my last term paper yesterday, which means I could have a short break. I was pretty exhausted and went to bed aroud 9 p.m. last night. When I woke up today, I found it was already 1 p.m. in the afternoon. Gees! I slept for 16 hours!

Even though I had terribly long sleep, I still feel tired. And worst of all, I feel I am getting sick, having headache and sore throat. GAS theory is pretty right, after severe stress, human's immue system would get weak.

Damned! I still have to work on my HRD project and complete the system design before Chinese New Year. :(

Gained Weight

Yesterday we had a function which was especially organized for graudate students of A programe, that is for study of experimental/cognitive/psychometric psychology or social/personality/developmental psychology. We went to Zhiqing's store in Tianmu and had nice food and great conversations. I actually shouldn't attend the function because I had to turn in reports in 1.5 hours after the function and I hadn't completed it yet. I still attended it becuase I knew it would be great fun. Indeed it was! And it was incredible that I completed my report in the function. Haha... amazing!

I got a photo of the function and found that I looked much bigger than I used to be. And I had a round face. Man!

I have been having less sleeping and spending most of my time sticking with my computer. I definitely need to work out or go hiking soon after the semester finish, getting back a more healthy life-style.

WONDERFUL EndNote

I have spent few weeks reading and writing proposals, reports and term papers. The most annoying thing happened to me when I was writing is to edit correct citation format because numerous citations and references must be edited in specific format which is APA 5th in my case.

My professors suggested I use EndNote-- an online software for managing bibliographic databases. I found that sometimes old people resist learning new tricks, and it seems that I am getting old. I was resistant using it. I tried to read its user's guide and found it was a almost 600-page online handbook. I thought it was crazy to waste time on it.

I wrote an HR report with EndNote's help to edit citations and references yesterday, and I found I could use it without reading user's guide or online help. It's sooo cool. I could easily manage those annoying format. Bliliant!! So why on earth it has bulky user's guide to expel users away!!

I am writing and establishing my bibliographic databases now, really cool.

Every graduate student should learn it.

Limbo of Term Papers

I am in the limbo of term paper season, busy churning out term papers. Tons of readings and writings. It's painful but it's only 10 days away from my winter vacation. I can make it!

Nanny McPhee (2006) 魔法褓母麥克菲

I never read the series of the children books, Nanny McPhee, so I don't know much about it, and I have less interest in seeing its movie version. But Emma Thompson is one of my favorite actresses, and I always want to see all of her work and collect DVDs of her movies, so I went to rent Nanny McPhee, the DVD, and watched it last night.

因為對這系列童書沒有涉略，原本一直對Nanny McPhee這部電影興趣缺缺。但又因為 Emma Thompson是我最喜愛的女演員之一，我一直很想看完和蒐集她所有的作品，所以還是到亞藝租借DVD，在昨晚看完這部電影。

The story of Nanny McPhee is predictable and performance of those child actors and actress are bliliant. At in terms of viual art design, the movie itself is amazing. The colors of it are splendid and boldly used, which makes me want to play with ideas of colors usage on mix paint plate. Emma's acting is okay in the movie owing to the structure of the story itself. But the vallians in the movie are outstanding because of their exaggeratively typical facial expressions.

魔法褓母麥克菲的劇情尚可，幾位小童星們相當稱職。但從視覺美術設計方面來看，這部電影真的很有趣。整部電影用色大膽，色彩十分豐富華麗，讓我想拿起調色盤試驗各種用色的可能性。Emma在影片裡的表現並不突出，但其實就故事架構來看，她也沒有發揮的空間。然而影片裡的反派配角卻非常搶眼。

Er....the vallians aren't those two sheep. (Er......反派不是這兩隻羊)

I am thinking I would dye my white rabbits or dogs pink or yellow if I keep some. 如果我有養小白兔或者是小白狗的話，我想要幫他們染成粉紅色或者是黃色，Pretty Cool!

The eye-catching and outstanding vallians in the movie. "The charming and lovely vallians!" quoted from Pokemon Monsters. 影片中非常搶眼，表現突出的「迷人又可愛的反派角色」。（借用神奇寶貝火箭隊的出場白）

Anut Adelaide，典型的尖嘴猴腮，英式老古板貴婦！

Mrs. Quickly，非常花俏的Fairytale Wicked Stepmother Wannabe.

看到這兩位優異的誇張表演，租借DVD的錢，花得值得！

Hairspray (2007) 明星髮膠夢

髮膠明星夢是我近期最喜愛的電影。我重複觀看不下四次。我一直喜歡歌舞片，但有很多年沒有看到向明星法膠夢這樣愉快卻不流於空洞的歌舞片。

整部影片約四分之三的時間，每個人物，主角或背景人物，無時不刻，無不歡唱熱舞。整部電影給人歡欣暢快的快樂。

雖說如此，明星髮膠夢其實從歡樂的歌舞中傳遞許多嚴肅的社會議題：種族問題，歧視與偏見，媒體操弄及主流價值的壓迫等。但這些議題隨著歡唱熱舞中，輕易而解。隨著影像和音樂，我如同主人翁，懷抱著對社會改變的純真想像和對各種嘗試的樂觀期待。

明星髮膠夢提供許多對主流價值的批評和呈現多元價值的意義。首先是對「美」的挑戰。Tracy的不做作自然美，對照Amber制式作假和媒體形塑的主流美。

然而，導演(或編劇)不需要教條式的對白，藉由人物性格的操弄，自然美很輕易的贏得觀眾的心。一切就是這麼的簡單。

影片中的怪老爸和胖老媽，提供另一種父母的樣貌。好父母的外型擺脫電視影集裡帥哥美女(請參考影集Growing Pain歡樂家庭)！好父母的社經階層除去電視影集裡的醫生或律師(請參考影集The Cosby Show天才老爹)！怪怪的老爸爸怪怪玩具店的老闆，是Tracy大膽嘗試；勇於追尋的行動後的支持動力。愛吃又胖的老媽子宅在家裡開在家洗衣店，對Tracy充滿溫暖關懷。

（因為修家庭心理學，對於父母和家庭的議題比較敏感）

我個人很喜歡這對怪喀夫妻的雙人舞，緬懷傳統歌舞片的美好。從歌曲的編寫到舞蹈的編排，充滿Fred Astaire或Gene Kelly的風味。


整個故事所提出的問題，最後都在一場主角和配角輪番上陣的熱鬧的歌舞秀中，迎刃而解。

非常熱鬧的一部電影，讓人神清氣爽，笑容滿懷。

2008-01-11 Random Cellphone Camera Snapshots

I like to capture some interesing moments that happens in my daily life.

Last night I attended my classmate's birthday party. We held it in a game stadium in Sanchong. The place provided various kind of games and sports. We played bowling, pool and PC games in turns. I did many thing at the very first time in my life. It was fun. I saw a girl playing bowling in this funny costume. Pretty cool!

Stray dogs and street cats are a serious problem in Taiwan. I was astonished to see a stray pig on my way home. I felt so bad for it and didn't knodw what to do. I called the police to figure out how to deal with this poor pig. Um....I hope it's alright now.

The animal symbol of this upcoming Chinese New Year is mouse. The fortune staues displayed in a chrysanthemum exhibition in Shilin CKS residence were two mice made of chrysanthemums. When I saw them, I couldn't figure out they were mice, but thought they were greebles--a kind of viual situmulus used in the study of facial recognition. I think I am indeed influenced by the studies conducted by Isabel Gauthier and Michael J. Tarr.


When I go hiking, I sometimes bump into some bare-foot Taiwanese hikers. I once asked them what the feeling was like when they hiked in bare feet. The anwser was "You Have to Try It!"

A narcissistic snapshot. Haha... :D

CanCan, my best friend's daughter. She looks after her mother, having a sweet smile.

My nephew. A handsome boy, the angel in my sister's family. I was once very sad and couldn't accept the fact that my handsome nephew suffers from cerebral palsy, and I spent almost three years in denial and frustration and anger. On the contrary, my sister unconditionally gives her love to her angel. My nephew is growing up in a house full of love. My sister is a remarkable mother.

My best friends' daughter. My goddaughter in Taiwanese sense. The poor couple only can see their daughter once every three monthes. It commonly happens to the Taiwanese who work in mainland China.

I was happy to take the picture. I love to see children growing up in safe environment full of love. And it shoud be the way it is.

Oops! 糟！

I have spent two weeks studying Family Resilience Framework and trying to apply it to interpret the narrative data I collected and to explain some phenomena I observed.

The worst thing is I found out the framewok isn't the best fit to my study two days before I have to present my results. It means I won't be able to sleep in the following two nights.

Damned....The two weeks before the end of semester are like a hell.

Narcissistic

I hadn't had my hair cut for few years, partly to save money and partly to avoid frustration resulted from bad hairstyle; so I had long hair for years. But last night I suddenly had an idea to cut my hair, and it lingered in my mind all night.

I fulfilled this idea this morning.

I am having a short hairstyle now which makes me look like a mushroom. I looked myself in the mirror and I couldn't recognize myself well. I look like a young and optimistic student with smile, and I am full of spirit and happiness.

I am soooo cute! Haha, it's kind of narcissistic, isn't it?

I realized long hairstyle never suits my temperaments and I am never the heavenly beautiful characters from Qiongyao's romantic stories. I have found my true face.

I like the idea proposed by Maslow. There is discrepancy between IDEAL and REAL SELF. I am feeling that I have been reducing the discrepancy between my ideal self and real self bit by bit. And I am also reducing the discrepancy of ideal family and real family if I expend its application on family study.

I am a believer of Confucian's viewpoint on human development.

"In my thirties, I find the stand." (三十而立)

I am in my early thirties, and I am finding my stand in the society, pursuing my lifetime hobbies and developing my career path.

I am finding my true nature and being the one I love to be.

2007-12-24-26 Yilan and Hualian 聖誕之旅：宜蘭與花蓮 PART III (花蓮市)

In the evening of 24th Dec. 2007 we arrived at Hualian. We went to our B&B and checked in, and we left our baggage in rooms; then we started our local-food hunt immediately.

Our B&B was right next to a beach which provided spectacular views of mountains and ocean.

I was testing my camera and playing with differently possible compositions of photos.
I thought if I magnified the frame and the boat of the picture, this picture would be a kind of surreal.

Our B&B provided free bikes to its lodgers, so we, ten people, were able to ride bikes in a gang wondering in Hualian city. We were all excited and slight in craziness that made me feel we were young and naïve kids setting out to our unknown journey.

It was chilly night, so our first stop to have excellent local food is Bawang Jianmuya (Overlord Ginger Duck.) It's a kind of fondu of duck cooked with ginger, Chinese herb medicine and rice wine which makes diners healthy and keeps them in warmth in cold winter.

(Video will be available soon)

Those two people devoted most of their time driving. Thank to their contribution to bring safe and nice trip for us. The guy in the left is Stephen Chou's fan, a smart and really funny guy. I always call him the Alien from Mars. He is too weird to be an earthling.

After having hot and spicy food, we decided to have icy cold dessert. Kind of silly, I know, but it was fun.

We went to a famous local dessert store which sold caramel ice dessert mixed with Douhua (made of soybeans) and Yuyuan (made of taros.) There were delicious.

When we are awaiting our dessert, we played a kind of game. We decided to spin a car key and, by the key's random pointing, we picked models to post as characters from famous movies. The fist round was to select out Mr. Yi and Wang Jia Zhi from Ang Lee's Lust, Caution. It turned out that our youngest guy had to play Mr. Yi and the tallest and also biggest guy had to play Miss Wang.

It was so hilarious.

The second round was to pick three of us to play Lyra, Pantalaimon and Iorek from The Golden Compass. The two LUCKY guys were picked again. The youngest one had to play Iorek; the tallest young had to play Pan, and one girl of us had to be Lyra.

The third round was to pick four characters--Will Smith, his dog, his gun and his bathtub--from I Am Legend. Our youngest guy, unfortunately, was selected out again. He had the best luck at that night. He had to play Robert Neville. Well, I was lucky to be the bathtub.

We almost brought down the store; it was full of our laughter.

When we were on the way back to our B&B, we found a pool. A game started. We played Scissors, Stone and Cloth to decide who should be threw into the pool. The two lossers had to step in the cold pool during the chilly winter night. Haha..., everyone was happy, though.

We went back to our B&B around 10 p.m. and it was close to the time we exchange our Christmas gifts. We decided to have some mixed drink when we played card games and exchanged gifts.

We played card games before we exchanged gifts. The losers were punished by the winners plucking ears. Anyone showed their true nature on the faces in the game.

We had drink; and I had too much drinking. When we started exchanging our Christmas gifts, I was terribly drunk. And it was time to how funny I was. Everyone was surprised to see I behaved hilariously. I was in surprise, too. But it was nice to get drunk in safe circumstance and have a lot of fun. We were all euphoric.

We took a walk along the beach after exchanging gifts. It was fun to walk alone a deserted road and on the beach in the midnight.

I saw a dog sleeping in the middle of a road, which put it in danger. I wanted to help it get out of danger. I threw a rock at the dog and precisely hit it even though I was drunk. I did it first time in my life. It was fun when alcohol was working. One of us danced Cha Cha Cha in the middle of the road and the smallest girl was amazingly to somersault.

We did funny or silly things in turn.

A memorable night.

Giant Halfway Folding Bike

After coming back to Taipei from Hualian, I've been thinking about buying a folding bike so that I can travel by bike and take it with me easily. I like to take time to know and to enjoy the beauty of a place so I feel like to revisit Hualian and to travel in Taidong by bike during Chinese New Year holidays or Spring holidays this year.

After doing some research online, my choice was narrowed down to Dahon or Giant. The price of Giant's Halfway module is half of Dahon's. I went to check Halfway bike out after hiking in Xiaoshitou Shan this afternoon. Halfway folding bike is really light but the wheel is really small. Mm...., I think I should also check Dahon's folding bike out to make sure what really meet my need.

Uh....I haven't finished writing my stories about traveling in Yilan and Hualian. But churning out term papers is the first piority now. It will take some time to complete the travel writing.

2007-12-23 Erge Shan 二格山(草楠)

It's 2008 but I haven't finished posting my stories happened in 2007. Well...so let's time travel back to 23rd Dec 2007.

I went hiking in Erge Shan with my friends. When hikers go hiking there in a nice day, they can see splendid views of Taipei City and Taipei County as the above picutre shows. We, unfortunately, went hiking in a overcast day. When we arrived at the platform on the mountain's top, we could see nothing but foggy surroundings.

I have known two of those three guys, Azic and Eikai, for almost 10 years, but it's interesting that the times we met in real life are probably near only 10 times. We are friends of the Internet known each other via a BBS-- the World of Psychology, and we had a lot of conversation via BBS. We had discussion everyday in the heyday of the World of Psychology. And they were excellent company when I was in the most difficult time of my life.

They are extremely smart people, and they taught me a lot in many perspectives even though we rarely meet in real life. We tried to figure out when we had a get-together last time during the hike. It happened about 2 and a half years ago, in Danshui. The memories was so vague that we barely recalled the details. Damned! We are getting old.

Four of us were psychology majors. Azic turned his focus on career to Chinese medicine after few years (or monthes?) clinical practice. Eikai seems in his burnout period, after being a counselling teacher in junior high schools for years. He is studying Creativity Development instead of Counselling. I still can remember his face was full of enthusiasm when he talked about teaching in school before, but now he rarely mentioned things related to counselling in high schools. What a pity! It seems that schools' environments of counselling in Taiwan have huge space for improvement. It's my first time to meet Accede, it seems he is in his career turning point.

Azic, Eikai and Accede are extremely smart people, and we were all once psychology majors so we had a lot of ideas in common. During the hike, I found out that this group is the most noisy hiking group I have ever had. They shared many phenomenon they have obseved, which leads me to see things in differnt ways. We had a lot of interesting topics, specially from Eikai's contributions. He shared his ideas and experiences about creativity development, which fascinated me. I know well that it's very difficult to measure creativity because I had tried to understand this concept before. It's fun to learn the anecdotes about what he is studying.

I had great time with those friends.

And a funny thing happened to me during the hike. I had registered at a hiking acitivity of an online hiking club, Zhou Zhou Pa Jiao Shan, before Azic invited me to organize a hiking get-together. I had to drop out Zhou Zhou's event. When we were on the trail of Erge Shan, I overheard a conversation of a group of hikers, and it turned out that they were hikers from Zhou Zhou Pa Jiao Shan. We recognized our screen names after a short conversation. They are nice and energetic hikers.

It's great to meet people who love hiking on trails.

Hiking in Erge Shan

Erge shan in Caonan (草楠) is one of my favoriate hiking trails, it is close to where I live, and it has spectacular scenic view. It usually costs me around 3 hours to finish the route. Hiking to Erge shan a good half-day outing in the moring when I have to work in the afternoon.

The above picture shows the trail's landmark in the side of Caonan in Muzha. When hikers talked about the trailhead of Erge Shan, they often indicate the entry near the banyan tree in Caonan.

There are many entries to Erge Shan. Hikers can go to the trailhead by bus. They only have to take Bus Xindian to Pinling at MRT Xindian station and start their hike at Laoliao (栳寮) on the road No. 9 (北宜公路). I have a scooter so I usually ride to Caonan and start the hike from the trailhead at Zhinan Road.

There is a hut located on the intersection of Erge Shan, Bijia Shan and Houshan Yue. An old lady sells hot mung bean soup and instant noodle there. It's great to have hop soup there when hiking in a cold day.

WELCOME TO YEAR 2008

I had been busy during the New Year Holidays, spending time with friends and my sister's family, which made me really happy.

I finally got HEROES's DVD and watched few episodes last night. When I watched it, my response was often yelling "WOW!" "H**ly S**t!" The show is fantastic! I want to finish the first season ASAP and want to let Eric watch it.

This afternoon, I went to Taipei City Zoo with Shipin's family. The weather was bone-chilling, but it was a fun trip. Her daughter is a little angel. We had great time with this little girl. And I love strolling in the zoo, too. It's wonderful to see those lovely animals and learn new things from the trip. My newly-bought cemera didn't work so I was unable to take photos of those amazing ceatures and Shipin's little angel. I have to vist eWhat tomorrow to figure out what happen to my camera.

Because of the cold weather, many animals in the zoo behaved in interesting ways. Monkeys squeezed each other and formed a huge fur ball on rocks. Pythons curled up and looked like huge droppings under the yellow light. A tiger was so close to us that only a thin piece of glass blocked it from us. I was attracted to elephants and beautiful birds. I love frogs, but it was funny that I just couldn't find any frogs when I was in the Amphibian and Reptile House. It was a kind of treature hunt for me to locate frogs. I was as happy as Shipin's little girl. I wish my nephew and my sister were with us. The zoo was great, it had been improved a lot since I visited it last time. I would like to make it my regular place for taking a long walk in the city.

We just finished watching The Simpons. The Simpon family always make me laugh.

Busy being happy for days, so great!

Happy New Year!