Blog Reboot

I haven't posted anything new on my blog for almost two years. The main reason is my study and work occupied most of my time. I didn’t have time to write because I usually do extra research to make sure the information I provide via my blog is correct. Doing research and translating them into English is time consuming.

I passed my thesis defending few months ago and I had been thinking to resume blogging since, but I didn’t do it because I didn’t have a clear thought about what to do with my blog.

Few days ago, I got emails from a reader in Amsterdam. I was surprised and happy to receive those emails. They encouraged me to restart blogging and gave me a lot of constructive suggestions.

Thanks to his encouragement and suggestions, I decide to resume blogging.

I will fill in the two-year blank to tell what happened and also share something happened recently.

2009-02-03 Rescued Stray Cats

Three of my friends rescued two stray cats in the vicinity of my school. I have been a cat-sitter (Okay, I coined this word.) for one of their cats several times, so they asked me if I could take care of them for few days, and they will try to find people who are willing to adopt them. I am packing and will relocate myself to other place, but I still live in a roomy apartment now and have spare space for those two kittens, so I told them I could take care of them until I move to new place.

Soon my friends bought those two kittens to my apartment. It seems that they are brother and sister. They weren't timid even though they were surrounded by four people. They explored every corner in my apartment soon after they came out of carrying box.

They were really cute and energetic.

As we were busy with preparing litter box for them and trying to figure if they need toilet training, the brother came to my guest room and poo on my blankets, and soon the sister follow suit.

It seemed that they love the blankets.

They played for a while and eventually got drowsy.

When I took pictures of them, the sister already fell into sleep.

2009-01-25 Wei-lu And Ponyo

I've been on Chinese New Year vacation for 5 days, and only two more days-off left. Looking back what I've done during my days-off, I found I had lived in a nice slow pace but done a lot of things: dinning with friends, seeing movies, hiking, reading, writting, and packing. I didn't disturb my circadian rhythm even though I didn't control my diet well, too much sweet cockies, pies; but I am trying to get my diet back to right track.

On the eve of Chinese new year, the year of cattle, I attened to my friends' family dinner. The dinner we had were really great and rich food. We sat around a round table, around a hotpot on the middle of the table, which let me understand what Wei-lu (圍爐) means. I never sat around a round table to dine with my family for many complicated reasons, and I will never be able to do so. My friends unconditionally shared their family warmth and happiness with me. I really appreciated my friends' kindness.

After dinner, I went to see Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea, Mr. Miyazaki's animation. I expected that I would be the only moviegoer at the time because most Taiwanese should be Weilu with their family. I was happy because I would enjoyed the movie completely with myself. The room was empty at first, but at the last minute, eight to nine young kids came in. Fortunately, they didn't cause too much noise, and I could immerse myself in the movie.

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea is a very good movie, and I think it's Mr. Miyazaki's best work so far. It reminds me of feelings I had after I saw My Neighbor Totoro—delightly to revisit children's innocence. I was amazed with how Mr. Miyazaki tranformed daily ordinary things into vivid scenes, and he fulfilled a lot of day-dreams that kids have in his movie. He brought my memories of childhood back to me: the first taste of honey, the first sight of Keelung harbor. A lot of experiences that made me eyes bright and made me smile came back to me.

Trailer of Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea with English Subtitles

Theme Song of Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea

2009-01-24 NT$3,600 Shopping Vouchers

My NT$3,600 shopping vouchers.

After my glasses broke, I found my hot-water heater broke down as well. Well, it's funny that I always encouter strange problems in Chinese New Year holidays and also other Chinese holidays. I am thinking I should leave Taipei or Taiwan next year.

I had a lot to say about the voucher policy, but I will be busy with fixing my glasses and water heater, and pay the bills with those vouchers. Ah....a lot of thoughts in mind, but I don't know how to express them. Dealing realistic problems is the best policy for me now.

2009-01-24 Broken Spectacles

I haven't undated my blog for a while. I thought I could do it in the past two weeks, but many things went out of my expectation. I made a breakthrough in my research progress, thanks to my advisor's push. I worked on my experimental design for a while, and I revised it by following my advisor's suggestion, and the design became feasible. I am working on collecting proper stimuli, and soon I will have to learn E-Prime to write computerized experiment program.

Things have gon well when it comes to my study.

I still have some free time, but I would rather go hiking than stay home or at lab in front of monitors; so I haven't write things about hikes I've done recently, and I haven't uploaded pictures I took during my hikes, either.

I am getting busy and busier, I won't be able to update my blog regularly. It's been two years since I started my blog, so I don't want to close it. I am thinking what specific feature my blog has and what I should do to maintain my blog. Most of my articles are about my hikes. It's not necessary for me to give information about hiking in Taiwan in English, my written English is poor, and Robert's blog, Pashan, gives way better stories about hiking in Taiwan. My blog isn't as informative as his blog is, and will never be.

Since few weeks ago, I've started using twitter as an alternative interface. I am thinking about adopting similar format here. A post with one picture or two about hikes or life in Taiwn with few comments cost me little time. I think I can manage that.


This is my second broken pair of glasses. Well, I can't believe that I broke it twice. It seems that some accidents always happen when I get extra income. I got NT$3,600 shopping vouchers and then I broke my glasses. I will have to get it repaired and use vouchers to pay off this unplanned expense.

I think I should take some pictures of my shopping vouchers for memorial before my use them all. They are sperical things for all Taiwanese resulted from critical period of time.

p.s. When was posting, there was an earthquake.

p.p.s Second earthquake.

2008-12-24 Go to See A Doctor Of Traditional Chinese Medicine 看中醫

Last week, I went hiking in Sanxia and explored the region around Yunxin Waterfall. I was very happy that I got to this beatiful waterfall.

Caption: Yunxin Waterfall in Sanxia.

It's a popular spot for Taiwanese photographers, and a lot of photographers were there taking pictures of the waterfall when I rested close to the waterfall.

Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle on my way home. I sometimes injure my right ankle during hiking in forest, I think it is because I have a weak right ankle, and it is resulted from a car accident I had several years ago. It seems that I never completely recover from the bone crack I had from that accident.

I knew I must protect my ankle from further injury and I managed to get back home and tried to get a good rest for the sake of my right ankle; however, I still felt sharp pains in the following days. I decided to turn to a doctor for help.

I went to see Dr. Chen who was one of my acquaintances. He was a clinical psychologist before he accepted traditional Chinese medical training, and He started to practice for a while. I think he is pretty good because he takes care of his patients's physical problems as well as their feelings.

I went to his clinic at the intersection of Roosevelt Road (羅斯福路) and Fu-zhou Street (福州街), it's a cozy place that people won't be intimidated. The first thing I saw as I entered the consulting room was the blossomy flowers, and it immediately made me feel relaxed.

Hello Doctor!

Nice to see you!

I am joking, of course.

This is Doctor Chen.

There are many different ways for traditional Chinese doctors to observe their patients's physical conditions—checking their eyes, observing their faces and feeling their patients's pulses as well.

Because I had acute pain, Dr. Chen decided to give me acupuncture therapy after he examined my conditions.

Dr. Chen pricked several points on my feet with needles. It looks horrifying from those pictures I took; however, they didn't cause pain at all, I only had some funny sensations. I felt it incredible that every points bought different kinds of sensations to me. Sometimes it is like an electric current flowing though my arm, sometimes it is like a short electric shock on my foot.

My injury happened to my right ankle so most of those needles pricked on my right ankle, around the region nearby my right heal.

Yes, heal, my Achilles' heel, my weakest part when it comes to get engaged in hiking.

It looks pretty scary, isn't it? But I felt much better after accepting acupuncture therapy.

After Dr. Chen retrieved those needles, I felt my acute pain stopped. It worked like a charm.

After the acupuncture therapy, Dr. Chen kindly explained some ways how to take care of injured heel to me.


I felt much better these days and I think I can get back to hiking soon after I finish writing my research proposal.

2008-12-21 躲貓貓 A Hidden Cat

跳到我家冰箱上的大白貓不是我的貓，是嘉琳家的麻薯 a.k.a. 王小薯。王小薯常來我家作客。這週，因為嘉琳家裡有事，得回台中幾天，所以王小薯再次來到我家作客。

只要和食物有關的事情，王小薯是很聰明的貓。可是，其他方面，王小薯有時會笨的很可愛。
王小薯喜歡躲在箱子裡、櫃子裡、抽屜裡還有高處。這次，王小薯跳到我家冰箱上，覺得沒有人會看到牠，她可以很安心觀察環境。其實，她的一舉一動，都在我的觀察中。

王小薯愛巧拼、愛躲在箱子裡，也愛躲在窄小的地方。王小薯發現我有個紙箱收納著不用的巧拼，覺得就像發現天堂似地，三不五時地往箱子裡鑽。很好笑的是，她以為躲在箱子裡，大家都看不到她。可是，她卻露出一雙耳朵，暴露她的藏身之處，笨的很可愛。

王小薯被發現後，心不甘、情不願地爬出紙箱。這幕讓我想起「愛心動物醫生」裡的一段關於貓咪：三毛 的躲貓貓故事。可愛喔～

2008-12-14 Christmas Party in Katannya's Apartment

Katannya, one of my hiking partners, threw a Christmas party in her apartment. The reason that she had this party several days before Christmas is because she planned to hike Jade Mountain during Christmas holiday, so that she won't be available at that time. A lot of her friends, co-workers, hiking partners were invited. It's a fun party with plenty of delicious food that many people from different background getting together, exchanging ideas and thoughts on a relaxing occation.

Caption: Our generous hostess, Katannya.

Caption: This is Katannya's home-made , er....I don't know its name.

Caption: It filled with cheeze and vegetable.

Caption: Katannya and her sweetheart, and our Christmas turkey.

Caption: This is Katannya's 仙草 (Xian-cao), she is very energetic and friendly and smart.

Caption: This is Katannya's 小不點, she is kind of nervous when there were a lot of guests around, but she is cute and happy when Kat and I walked her and 仙草 outdoor.

Caption: Kat's drowsy cat. Sorry, I can't recall her name.

Caption: Kat's shy cat.

Caption: Kat's home-made lasagna and her friend's turkey. They were really, really good.

Caption: Those lasagna were really good. And the turkey matched the cranberry jelly perfectly.

Caption: Everyone was happy in conversation while helping Kat serving Christmas meals in the kitchen .

Caption: Kat was making one of our desserts

Caption: One of our desserts, fresh strawberry mixed with yoghurt. Yummy!

Caption: Cute babies always get the spotlight.

Caption: Friends, families, babies, dogs. It's a relaxing and happy party in a cozy place.

Caption: She is a baby full of curiosity. She explored everything surrounding her. She almost got it.

Cpation: Cute note written by Kat's student.

Thank you, Kat. We had a really good time at your party.