Daily // January 2006
January 31, 2006
Power from the Sky?
A kite-based windmill. No, you didn't misread it. Sky Windpower have been developing a few airborne power-generation systems. In fact, they have already tested one, which "rated at 2.81 megawatts flying at a typical U.S. site with an eighty percent capacity factor projects a life cycle cost per kilowatt hour at 1.4 cents." Simply put, that would be the cheapest energy source in the world. Very gratifying, innit?
It's late now.. I should sleep. See you tmr.
January 30, 2006
Got my physics test back. Well, it turned out that I mixed up the horizontal and vertical calculations for question 3 and got three points off. How embarrassing..
No rock-climbing tmr, and long weekend coming soon. Hooray..
January 29, 2006 The Year of Dog
It's another new beginning. May the Dog year be prosperous, lively and robust, and may good fortune reach each of us.
I'd like to express my frustration here regarding the t-shirt. It's really tiring and vain to get responses that don't even relate to the t-shirt. Say, for example, those geeky gamers have suddenly bombarded the forum with inexplicable codes and ideas that simply go off tangent. Or, the country issue. Why don't you provide a list of countries for me if you care about them so much? We're deciding which design to use, not which names of the countries to put on. Then there is the whole issue with Taiwan being a country or not. Some even say that we should put individual cities on it. I mildly hope that international club has not turned into a place for a bunch of imbeciles.
Merely alleviating my stress.. Good nite.
January 28, 2006 An Eventful Day
This morning, the five of us - Vanessa, Chris, Michelle, Steven and I - walked down to Matteo's for brunch. I ordered a Shrimp Tomato Cream Pasta and recommended the Sausage Tuscan (which I really like) to Steven and Chris. The food was superb, as usual, and though we didn't talk much, we enjoyed our time. Dinner was equally splendid. Steven's aunt and uncle came and drove us to Golden Palace for a sumptuous New Year meal. It certainly is a good start to the year of dog, isn't it?
Well, perhaps when things go too well, doom really does knock in. Life is fragile, and certain things are out of our control. We can only remember that everyone is fighting a hard battle and be kind to each other.
Finally, a few magazine illusions for you today.
January 27, 2006
Physics test turned out to be horrendous. I did get through but it was not without some doubts. So anyway, tmr is the big day for juniors. Yes, yes.. SATs. Good luck to you all.
Another Chinese New Year is approaching, and well, I'm not in HK again. Remember last year I asked when it would be possible for me to celebrate New Year in HK? Yeah, maybe five years later. But what I'm doing now affects my future, and as long as I do it well and succeed, how important would these missed celebrations be? The conclusion is that it's worth it.
| Will "If you think you're beaten, you are; If you think you dare not, you don't; If you'd like to win, but think, you can't It's almost a cinch you won't. If you think you will lose, you're lost; For out in the world we find, Success begins with a fellow's will, It's all in the state of mind. If you think you're outclassed, you are; You've got to think high to rise. You've got to hustle before You can ever win a prize. Life's battles don't always go To the stronger or faster man, But sooner or later the man who wins Is the one who thinks he can." -Anon. |
P.S. Wilson finally found his tux. Turns out that someone deliberately took it as a replacement for his lost, rented one. It's probably better for that man to remain anonymous..
January 26, 2006
A tiring night with JETS meeting, physics review and chem graphs. Hopefully everything will turn out fine tmr.
January 25, 2006
Martina was so close to winning yesterday, and though she did not, she certainly left behind a lasting impression. Now let's cheer for Kim. Why? Because it always feels better when the player who beat you becomes the eventual champion..
Why am I up so late? Well, I've been making some stupid t-shirt designs.. Perhaps stupid is a wrong word to use, but this extra task just drained an hour from my sleeping cycle. So, good nite for now.
January 24, 2006 Cultural Exchange or Rivalry?
Twenty nine Chinese students from the Experimental School of Beijing (one of China's 重點中學) stepped foot into our Bingham Auditorium this morning. Well, the headmistress' speech was given in mandarin, thus most Tafties stared blankly at her as she spoke. I must say, she boasted irrelevantly in front of us 500 students, though fortunately her translator (a Taft graduate, 98) toned it down. She mentioned how top her school is - only 600 elite students are chosen from China to attend etc - and how speakers like Bill Gates visited their place. She is, of course, not insinuating the similarities between herself and Mr. Gates (at least I hope not); but she seemed to be hinting that Experimental School's success is not far from that of Taft's.
Then, during E block, Collegium had to sing for them before they leave. So, we did, and after our performance, their headmistress insisted that her students produce three prompt performances. The three performances include a somewhat shivery singing of 茉莉花, a inner-Mongolian dance, and, I'm sure you expected this, chinese calligraphy. The feeling of watching these Chinese performing is like Americans attending a Celine Dion concert at Shanghai - certainly not embarrassing, but probably a bit out-of-place.
Contrary to 'popular' belief, I'm definitely not cynical toward their visit or performance. I just hope that this truly is a mutual relationship between Taft and this Experimental School, and that it doesn't turn into a rivalry of better students, faculty, facilities and environment. The idea is globalizing and gradually accepting other cultures, not introducing direct competition between them.
Anyway, Martina meets Kim probably in two hours from now. Fingers crossed, and may the better win.
January 23, 2006 Six world no.1s march into Quarter-finals
A new chapter is inserted into tennis history when Martina clinched a gritty win over Aussie Samantha Stosur. Six former and present no.1s now gather in the final eight. Isn't that just great with everyone coming back and staying healthy in such a competitive pool? Martina meets second-seed Kim Clijsters in the quarter-finals, and though odds are not on her side, I'm confident that she'll utlize her traditional smarts and fight for a spot in the semis.
Btw, Wilson's made himself famous overnight by loosing his tux at the formal.
"Where's my tux?!"
January 22, 2006 Formal..Alternative
The day with Formal taking place at night is always infamously known as the Formal Day. Why? Because everyone (or those who choose to attend this night of well-mannered frivolity) had been dressing up themselves since they woke up. And that does not apply solely to the ladies. I saw boys spending more than adequate time in the bathroom since the afternoon, shaving off their 1-month old beard, perfecting their seldom groomed complexion, or sculpting their hair into a multitude of spikes. In short, Formal made everyone more conscious of their looks, and let's hope that, like Cinderella's pumpkin car, it only lasts till midnight..
Anyway, I took a different route this year. Around 6, Steven, Chris and I walked to downtown for dinner at Mattéos. Unfortunately when we reached there, it was closed. So we walked for another 5 minutes in the 0C weather to Pizza Hut. The pizzas were actually quite good. But one thing we've learnt is: never order thick crust pizzas at Pizza Hut. Why? Because their greasiness becomes one thousand-fold.
Martina has been playing well in Aus Open, which is why she's now in the 4th round. Let's cheer for her (in our hearts, of course) and may she outsmart her opponent once again and get a spot in the quarters.
Steven and I. (Chris is, well, left out.) Don't we look really tired?
January 21, 2006
Super Saturday. Firstly in the morning, I received my math test back, and it turned out to be the best one I did so far. Then in the afternoon, after a quick lunch, we went to Brassmill Mall. It's probably the 2nd time I've been there since last semester started. Nonetheless, it was great fun, and when we got back, we were greeted by the thriller movie Red Eye, and also a hypnosis show.
This eventful day also brought to me extreme fatique and a desire to slumber in bed. So, good nite for now.
January 20, 2006
Extreme heat policy executed in Aus Open
The temperature in Melbourne, Australia soared to 40C under the blistering Friday afternoon sun, and as many as five matches were delayed or postponed because of that. It really is a stark difference from our ~0C weather, ya?
Sometimes a saddening event happens and sets the tone for a grave, somber day. Well, today, we had a funeral service for Sarah's dad in Middlebury, and it certainly did not elevate our mood. Life is erratic, and death is inevitable. Treasure your peers, friends and family, and lead a full life before the time comes.
共勉之.
January 19, 2006
Time is now 1am. For the past few hours, I've ben writing the narrative for the Clutter murder, and it's extremely chilling to do so, alone in the room surrounded by utter silence. Thus I played some music to 1) keep me awake 2) rid the horror images in my mind that fabricated from my thoughts. Anyway, I'm sleeping now.. See you tmr..or later.
January 18, 2006
A rather ordinary day led to this rather ordinary daily. So, after the last block today, I walked into the dining hall, half-looking for friends and half-inspecting the food quality, and decided to feed on my noodle stock. When I got back to my room, Steven called and asked if I had lunch. He invited me to his room for a bowl of "authentic" japanese bowl-noodles, and the quality was truly superb. Sometimes his noodles could be the reason for sudden visits made by food-craving people just like me..
A math test tomorrow means that I need to sleep earlier tonight. (By earlier I mean ~12) Hingis will probably play when I'm well-asleep. So, good luck to her and hope that she'll get through the second round.
January 17, 2006
Say goodbye to euggb
The graph says it all - euggb has been abandoned and disregarded by us since I-don't-know-when. Perhaps we've grown up and matured to a level that scribbling others' names in colors or drawing a sequel of real-life inspired comic no longer appeal to us. But looking back, it is undenieble that we had a great time creating these artful works - there are encouragements, arguments, fights for getting the xx00 post, love letters (oh yes, there're still there), private messages - that are immortalized into this 196kb flash file. And since I couldn't retrieve a copy of the msgs if I decide to stop the service, these drawings will be forever lost, cast away, leaving only segments of memory buried at the back of our minds.
But in the end, it is the memories of what we did that linger on the longest and matter the most.
P.S. Till April 23rd, the gb will remain open for your ultimate drawing, scribbling, fooling..you name it. See you there.
January 16, 2006
Watch TV on computer without a tv card?
Yes, it is possible. I've been following closely on Aus. Open results when I found this software, developed by an unknown chinese author, that live-streams as many as 40 channels (mostly HK's or China's) using p2p technology. It streams exceptionally well - given our infamously slow connections , I'm able to stream very smoothly, and the streamed videos are usually only 4-minutes off the real television broadcast. Isn't this great news to all Hkers who crave to watch those dramas, live, on tvb or atv? Get it here.
As for the quizzes today, I did so-so. It turned out that I made some small mistakens that might cause some points taken off. For french, I performed well, or quite well. In the last two minutes, I was able to recognize three wrong answers and replace them with the correct ones.. It'll be another busy week, with a creative/analytical essay about the Clutter family murder (we're reading In Cold Blood, a bone-chilling book that should never be read at night). Plan to wake up early tmr morning to catch a glimpse of Hingis playing in AO, so, good night.
January 15, 2006 Rebirth.Recovery.Rebound
1/24 of 2006 has already passed. But it's not too late to set up resolutions for this year, right? It's going to be a year of rebirth, recovery and rebound; not for me alone, but for all of us.
Woke up this morning with Derek popping in telling me to peep into the windows. I did, and was shocked to see a giant mass of white spread across headmaster's circle. It had rained (and hailed) for almost three days and now, all the dirt, sand and mud are covered smoothly by clean, soft snow.
This nice surprise proved to be a good start for the day. I reviewed my chem and french quite successfully in the afternoon. May this state continue and allow me to finish my english essay quickly. Good nite.
January 14, 2006 Major Update + Comeback
Hello. I'm back, and to show that I understand the gravity of this situation, here I go:
| I solemnly swear that if I do not produce ten quality entries in the next ten days, this website will be closed down. |
So, I hope this can gain your "trust" and nudge you to visit more often. (A look at the records shows a disappointing number of 9 visits per day, a 20% drop from the previous month.)
As to what happened in the past week? Well, if there were a few words that could sum it up, it would be "a lot of work". It's been terribly busy lately, though fortunately I've performed well in the past two math quizzes and (hopefully) physics test. Today, which is a free day because of MLK day activities, I finished some math studying and watched The Goal with Steven. Remember Steven? Yes, "the rich kid", but scraping off the superficial, he's a sensible person with a genuine desire to make deep friendships. Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Click to see what was used to take this picture
January 7, 2006
Gladly, it has not been so stressful, yet. On thursday, we got our chem and math exams back (but returned them in after a brief scrutiny). They were not bad, but could definitely be improved. Friday was, though busy, another relatively calm day too, since no big assignments were due. The free time that these classes spared me made me prepare intensely in math, which aided me on today's quiz. Anyway, my greatest hope thus far is to retain my freshly restored, studious approach to studies.
Milano collection from the McNeills
January 4, 2006
A new beginning..
Arrived late last night after a range of hindering events. The first flight from LA to Chicago was to take off at 6am, which meant that I had to leave at 4am for the airport. This four hour flight did not satisfy my heavy insomnia or my ineffable hunger. Then, waiting in the terminal with my eyes half-closed, the air hostess announced that depsite their best effort, mechanical problems impeded take-off. All of us had to walk to a different terminal and board on another plane. We all waited eagerly for an hour, when a sudden voice announced that twelve passengers need to voluntarily get off the flight because of overweight issues. And what do they get? A free overnight stay and a $300 traveling voucher. I, of course, did not step off, and the flight left three hours after we embarked it. Arrived at Bradley around 9pm, and went I got back, it was already 11pm.
Classes resumed today. No surprising moments - but I do wish I did a tad better in French exam. Anyway, it's a new start, a new beginning, and I cannot wait to move on.
P.S. Martin: all the best on your new journey! Add oil!
January 1-2, 2006
P.S. And..see you soon, California.