Ada's Blue Sky 藍色的天空

Banana and Kiwi Muffins

2012-01-21T23:34:00.000-05:00

Made a batch of banana & kiwi muffins today... :)

The muffin tasted really good.
It was moist and not too sweet. The slightly sour taste of the kiwi added a twist to the banana muffin.

My only complain is the look. The muffins looked very good in the oven... nice and puffy... But they shrinked after getting out of the oven, so the muffin tops had wrinkles.

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Banana and Kiwi Muffins
(original recipe from Food.com)

Ingredients:

    1/2 cup sugar
    2 cups flour
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1 tablespoon baking powder
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
    6 tablespoons milk
    3 tablespoons oil
    1 egg
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    2 large ripe bananas , mashed
    3 ripe kiwi , chopped into small cubes

Directions:

Combine the first 6 ingredients (DRY) in a large mixing bowl; set aside.
Mix yogurt, milk, oil, egg, vanilla and mashed bananas together in a smaller bowl until well-combined (WET).
Add WET mixture to the DRY mixture, mix until just combined (DO NOT OVERMIX) - lumps are ok.
Now stir in chopped kiwi gently.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375°F or 180°C for 25-30mins (mini muffins take about 20mins).
Cool in pan for 10mins, then remove and cool thoroughly on wire rack.

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唂咕

2012-01-03T19:00:00.001-05:00

During Christmas holidays, my Dad told me that he missed a drink called "唂咕" (音: 谷古) in HK. He used to drink it when he was small, but he couldn't find it anymore.
Out of curiosity, I did some googling....

唂咕 is cocoa... hahaha... I guessed correctly. ;)

Hong Kong Style Tea Cafe (港式茶餐廳) used to sell this drink many years ago. Some tea cafes called it "荷蘭唂咕". I guess it's because those tea cafes used Dutch-processed cocoa powder. However, 唂咕 was not as popular as hot chocolate due to its bitter taste. So, most tea cafe in HK don't sell this drink anymore. Only some very old tea cafes still sell 唂咕. In Canada, I haven't seen any tea cafe selling this drink.

How to make 唂咕?

Add cocoa powder into hot water and then add sugar.
Some people add condensed milk as well.

What's the difference between 唂咕 and hot chocolate?
唂咕 has a higher cocoa content.
唂咕 uses cocoa powder, which has 70% cocoa.
Hot chocolate also contains cocoa powder, but it only has 20% cocoa.

Nowadays, people use cocoa powder mainly for baking.

Natrel Dark Chocolate 1% Milk

2012-01-03T17:53:00.000-05:00

I like dark chocolates, so when I saw this dark chocolate milk at grocery store, I had to buy and try. ;)

I normally don't like chocolate milk, because they are usually too sweet. This dark chocolate milk, on the other hand, is not as sweet as regular chocolate milk and I like the slightly bitter dark chocolate taste. :D

However, after checking on the label, this dark chocolate milk actually has more sugar than regular chocolate milk. I guess it needed more sugar due to the bitter dark chocolate taste. This milk also has more calories per cup than regular chocolate milk. I guess I would only drink this once in a long, long while.

Second thought... This milk would be good for chocolate muffins/cookies or other chocolate desserts. ;)

Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol iPad Wallpaper

2011-12-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

Yes... I've turned my iPad into MI4 iPad as well... :D
As mentioned in my previous post, I'll post the iPad 2 Wallpapers that I've created.

I used Dropbox to save the wallpapers in my iPad.
iTunes or other software can also be used to copy to iPad.
To get the wallpaper, just right click on the photo and select "Save Image As".
(Please don't repost them without linking back to this post!)

MI4 Wallpaper #1:

MI4 Wallpaper #2:

MI4 Wallpaper #3:

MI4 Wallpaper #4:

MI4 Wallpaper #5:

Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

2011-12-28T14:19:00.001-05:00

I've watched the MI4 movie yesterday. I really like it. Part of the reasons could be Tom Cruise.... hahahaha...
I would give the movie 5/5. ;)

Inside the movie, Tom Cruise was driving the BMW i8 concept car in Mumbai.
The car is really cool. In the real world version, I don't think it'll have the wind shield touch screen feature.
According to 3D-Car-Shows, this car will be in the Detroit Car Show next year. :)

MI4 used a lot of Apple technologies too.
Check out this article:
How Much Does Mission Impossible 4′s Director Love Apple? Let Us Count The Ways

I've created 2 MI4 wallpaper for my iPhone 4. I am using 1 for my main screen and 1 for my lock screen.

MI4 Wallpaper #1:

MI4 Wallpaper #2:

I used Dropbox to save the wallpapers in my iPhone.
iTunes or other software can also be used to copy to iPhone.
To get the wallpaper, just right click on the photo and select "Save Image As".
(Please don't repost them without linking back to this post!)

I have also created some MI4 wallpapers for iPad as well.... will post them later.

The MI4 ringtone can be downloaded from Zedge.
http://www.zedge.net/ringtone/1359706/

I am planning to turn my iPhone into a complete MI4 iPhone.... hahaha :D

Here is the official trailer:

楊枝甘露 (healthy version)

2011-11-26T01:00:00.000-05:00

If you have been to any Chinese dessert place, you would definitely know 楊枝甘露. It's a Mango, Pomelo & Sago sweet soup dessert.

Sago tastes good in dessert, but sago contains more than 90% carbohydrate. It's not that healthy.
Also, Philippines mango is hard to get in winter times. It's easier to get Mexico mango in grocery stores.
So, I've decided to make a healthier version of 楊枝甘露 that can be made in winter times.

The recipe originated from Miss Jubie's Blog and I've made some changes to it.

楊枝甘露

Ingredients (serves 5-6)
2 Mangoes (Philippines or Mexico)
3/4 Honey Pomelo
120ml Coconut milk
120ml Evaporated milk
400ml Mango Puree
2 Rock sugars
4 cups water

Directions
1) Peel the honey pomelo and remove all membrane from the pulps. Use hand to take apart the pulps into individual pulp.
2) Cut Mango into small cubes.
3) Boil water in a pot. After water has been boiled, add rock sugars. Turn down to medium heat and keep boiling until all rock sugars have been dissolved. I've added 2 rock sugars: one rock sugar the size of ping pong and another rock sugar 1/3 size of ping pong. After rock sugars have been dissolved, you can taste it. The sweet water should be a bit sweeter than what you would like the dessert to be.
4) Add coconut milk into the sweet water. Bring it to a boil and turn off the heat.
5) Wait until the sweet water is completely cooled down.
6) Add mango puree and evaporated milk into the sweet water. Stir well.
7) Add mango cubes and pomelo pulps. Stir well.
8) Put it in the fridge for a few hours.

Note: You can adjust the amount of Coconut milk, Evaporated milk, Mango Puree, and Rock sugars based on your taste. For example, if you want more coconut taste, you can add more coconut milk. If you want a thicker sweet soup, you can add more evaporated milk. I like mine with more mango taste. ;)

Overall
I would give this dessert 4.5/5.
It would've tasted even better if Philippines mangoes were used.

生炒糯米飯 (Pan-Fried Sticky Rice)

2011-11-03T00:55:00.002-04:00

Last night was my first attempt to make 生炒糯米飯.
I'd made sticky rice before, but I'd not tried "生炒".

生炒糯米飯 means you pan-fried glutinous rice from raw rice. You don't cook the rice in rice cooker first. 生炒糯米飯 will take a lot of time and energy.

I'd looked at different recipes on the web, combined them, and came up with the following recipe with a little secret to speed up the process.

生炒糯米飯 (for 2-3 people)

材料：
糯米(glutinous rice or sticky rice)　 1碗
臘腸 (chinese sausage)　 2條
冬菇 (dried mushroom)　3隻
蝦米(dried shrimp) 8 (I used the big dried shrimp and not the little one)

蛋 (egg) 2

調味料:
糖 1 tsp
老抽 1 tbsp
蠔油 1 tbsp

事前準備：

1) 浸糯米最少半天, 其間要換水。
2) 浸冬菇最少半天

3) 浸蝦米最少半天

做法:
1) 臘腸, 冬菇, 和蝦米切細粒
2) 浸冬姑的水和浸蝦米的水可以留用
3) 煲一大煲水，水滾後，把浸好的糯米倒入，不停攪拌。1分鐘後，撈起糯米，用清水沖洗，瀝乾水份備用。
4) 打蛋, 用易潔鑊煎蛋。煎好後切絲。
5) 炒臘腸, 冬菇, 和蝦米。炒到聞到香味後, 即可撈起備用。
6) 之前炒臘腸已讓易潔鑊大部份的地方沾上油。將糯米放入鑊炒。
7) 感覺到糯米水份已收乾時，加入浸冬菇/蝦米的水。每次下1-2 湯匙，沿鑊邊下。要不停炒約5分鐘。
8) 放入臘腸, 冬菇, 蝦米, 和蛋絲。當所有配料拌勻後，加調味料。繼續炒。拌勻後即成。

My Review
The sticky rice was very good. :D
The rice made using this recipe was more sticky, more chewy, and less soft than the sticky rice made using rice cooker.
Comparing this to the restaurant/food court ones, this sticky rice was already better than a lot of them.
I find it still a bit soft compared to the one I ate at 味全茶餐廳.
Winter is coming. I'll have plenty of time to experiment with this recipe to make the best 生炒糯米飯. ;-)

Updated - Jan 1 2012
Since I put this recipe, I've tried making this sticky rice a few times and refined the recipe above:
- step 3: change from 2 分鐘 to 1 分鐘
- step 7: change from 炒約9分鐘 to 炒約5分鐘

Beware of free gift or gift card links on facebook

2011-10-18T12:59:00.000-04:00

Recently, I've been seeing more and more links on facebook for getting free gifts or free gift cards.
If you click the link, it will take you to a page where it will say the offer expires today and there are remaining gifts to be given out. In order for you to get the gift, you have to do 2 things:

Step 1: You must click the facebook share button.
Step 2: Type xxxx (some specific sentence) into the comments below

I, myself, also was scam by this once before. As I see more and more of similar things appearing in facebook, I became suspicious. I didn't find anything on web related to the specific URL, so I did a little research myself.

Here is an example.
After clicking the link, it takes you to a page like this:

If you look at the URL, facebook is forwarding the page to "coffeeblends.me".

The WhoIs lookup shows that it's registered using WhoisGuard, which is a service that protects domain owner's information. WhoisGuard places their information in whois and provides an option to redirect email and regular mail to the customer's real address.
Also, the domain is created on the same day as the free gift card expiry date.

You can compare this to the Whois of the real Starbucks site. You can see that it's registered to Starbucks Coffee Company with real contact info.

This tells me that "coffeeblends.me" is 99% a scam.

Here is another example.
This facebook link takes you to "ipad4canada.com".

The domain info for "ipad4canada.com":

This site is also create on the same day as the free gift card expiry date.
Even though the registrant could be real, why would someone in UK be giving out gift cards to Canada?
It's suspicious.

Other suspicious examples that I remembered:

Free Tim Horton Gift Cards that forward you to "timhortongiftcards.com".

What to do?
If you are not sure whether the site is legit or not, do a free "WhoIs" search.
DNSQuery.org is one of the sites that offers free WhoIs search:

You can google to find other sites that offer free WhoIs search.

Vancouver & Banff Trip Overview

2011-10-17T00:19:00.000-04:00

Vancouver and Banff Trip (2011-09-26 to 2011-10-08)

Wen and I went on a trip to Vancouver & Banff. We first flew to Vancouver and rented a car. The car we got was a Volkswagen Golf.

View Vancouver & Banff Trip in a larger map

Day 1 - Flying to Vancouver

We arrived at Vancouver in later afternoon. After checking into the hotel, we went to a Japanese AYCE (all you can eat) restaurant, Richmond Sushi, for dinner. We ate hamachi sashimi, toro sushi, geoduck sashimi, sockeye salmon sashimi, tuna tataki, sockeye salmon tataki, grill black cod, etc... Their tuna was different from the Toronto ones. Their tuna was yellowish, like skin colour. The ones in Toronto were either white or red.

Day 2 - Vancouver to Kamloops

After checking out from hotel, we headed off to Nitobe Memorial Garden inside UBC. It's a beautiful japanese garden.

After that, we started driving to Kamloops. Vanouver streets in general go up and down... More challenging than Toronto. The highways had only 2 to 3 lanes. Ridicules!

On our way to Kamloops, we stopped at Tim Horton for washroom break near Hope. Since I have nothing to do in the car, I've started the journey in search of hope. What does it mean? Well, I am using my camera to take photos of any Hope signs until we reach Hope. Of course, we eventually reached Hope. Get it? Hahaha. ;)

We arrived at Kamloops around 4pm. After resting a bit, we went first to the Kamloops downtown. It's just a section of Victoria St. It was just like an old part of town... Nothing special... I was hoping that it would be similar to Main St. Then, we went to Riverside Park. Kamloops did have a lot of cars for a small town. Scenery at Riverside Park is beautiful. It was at the joint of 3 rivers: North Thompson River, South Thompson River, and Thompson River. After that, we went to the viewpoint beside Howard Johnson Panorama Inn. This was where the unfortunate accident happened. I was trying to use my camera on tripod to take a photo of us. I guess the place was too windy and the tripod was not strong enough. The tripod felt and the camera felt with it with lens faced down. That was the death of my camera. :'(

From the viewpoint, I could see the whole town of Kamloops. Then, we went to the Thompson Rivers University (TRU). According to the Inn staff, TRU had interesting buildings, but we didn't see any interesting building.

For dinner, we went back to the main downtown area and ate at an Italian restaurant: D'agostino Restaurant (258 Victora St.) Wen had spaghetti and meatballs. I had spaghetti and claims. We also had bruschetta for appetizer. The bruschetta was more like bruschetta pizza.... Instead of using french bread, it used thin pizza dough... Overall, the food is ok good.

Day 1 and 2 Photos

Day 3 - Kamloops to Banff

The good thing of traveling ourselves was that we didn't have to wake up early. ;)

The drive to Banff was a breeze. My daily drive to Bampton had well prepared me for the long drive. I didn't have to use my brain to drive. I only had to use my brain to keep me from driving too fast and to refrain from cursing the slow car/truck driving in front of me in a one lane highway. Physically, I was a bit tired for sitting in the car so long, but it would be the same even if I wasn't the one driving. The drive to Banff was approx. 6 hrs according to GPS, but I think I only took 5.5 hours.

At 1384 m (4540 ft) above sea level, Banff is recognized as Canada's highest town. After checking into our hotel (Rudlestone Lodge), we walked to town. Our hotel was actually one of the farest one from the main downtown area. The walk was about 3 km. The distance wasn't bad, but I was a bit cold. The temperature was pretty cold at night at Banff.   We had dinner at the Keg Steak House... very good steak.

Day 3 Photos

Day 4 - Around Banff

We had breakfast at Evelyn's Coffee Bar. In Banff downtown, there were 3 Evelyn's Coffee stores!!

After breakfast, we visited Surprise Corner, Bow Falls, Johnston Canyon and Ink Pots. The hike at Johnston Canyon and Ink Pots took approx. 3.5 hours. The hike would be shorter if you are just hiking and not taking photos.
(Ink Pots - brilliant blue and jade green springs, whose constant temperature remain near 4 degree celcius. The pools' bottoms are composed of quicksand.)

Day 4 Photos

Day 5 - Lake Louise, Moraine Lake

We drove to Lake Louise Gondola and had breakfast buffet there. Then, we took the ski lift up the mountain. It was a nice day, so no one want to sit in a Gondola.

After that, we went to Lake Louise. It was beautiful. The only complain that I have is a bit too man made. The side near the famous hotel was not natural enough. We walked on the Lake Louise trail along side of the lake. We also went inside the hotel and looked at some shops.

Then, we went to Moraine Lake. It was the lake shown on the old Canadian $20 bill. In the summer time, the parking could line up to 2 km long. I guess I was a bit glad that I am not here during summer. The lake was nice, bur Lake Louise was more beautiful.

At Moraine Lake parking lot, we saw a car with right front wheel turned 90 degree. Well, we heard a big noise like car stopping sound. Then, we saw a car, who was trying to turn right up a road, sat at the bottom of the road with the right front wheel perpendicular to the car. When I looked back, it was kind of funny. But ar that time, I felt sorry for the owner. Wen told me that's an old car.

After that, we went to Bankhead. Lower Bankhead was an abandoned coal mine and Upper Bankhead was the site of previous coal mining community. We went to Upper Bankhead and walked on the trail. The trail was tough. It went upward 35 degree. We saw an abandoned house and some mine shafts. After walking up for 55 minutes, we decided to head back. The end of trail was supposed to have a nice viewpoint called C-Level Cirque, but I guess this trail was too difficult for us. On our way up, we saw an old couple coming down. They had reached the top. I was a bit ashamed when I decided to head back without reaching the top since the old couple could do it and we couldn't do it.

On our way back to Banff, we did stop by Lower Bankhead to see what's there. From a distance, we saw some coal mining cart. We were too tired to go down and explore.

Day 5 Photos

Day 6 - Around Banff

Since it was a rainy day, we decided to go for a ride. We went from Buffalo St. to Tunnel Mountain Dr.... Stopped by a couple of viewpoints... Stopped at the Hoodoos... Went to Banff Ave and then Minnewanka Loop... Went pass the Upper Bankhead and Lower Bankhead that we were at yesterday... Stopped at the Lake Minnewanka... Saw a bunch of people scuba diving... (Lake Minnewanka means "Lake of the Water Spirit".)

Then we stopped at Two Jack Lake. It was beautiful! I loved this lake. The water was very clear. It made me wanted to swim in it. The lake surface was like a mirror showing the moutains, trees, clouds, and sky.

After that, we went to Johnson Lake. This one was just like any other lake. It's beautiful but nothing special. Then, we finished the Minnewanka Loop and went back to Banff Ave. I was hoping to see some animals during this drive, but all I saw was birds and squirrels.

Then, we went to Upper Hot Springs. On the way, I was 2 deers. Hurray! :D
Hot Springs was a 39 degree hot swimming pool.
Upper Hot Springs is the highest hit springs in Canada - elevation 1585 m (5200 ft).

Day 6 Photos

Day 7 - Jasper

After breakfast, we drove to Jasper. During the drive, I saw a small caribou quickly crossing the street. It passed by every fast. When we were close to Jasper, we saw an elk. Of course, I got out of car to take photos. I originally thought it was a deer. I found out it's elk by looking at postcards.

We arrived at Jasper at noon, first stopped by the visitor info office and then walked around downtown area. It looked old. Banff downtown is much nicer.

We drove to Maligne Lake, which is the most famous place and the largest lake in Jasper Provincial Park. On the way, we stopped at Medicine Lake. For Medicine Lake, the Maligne River flows in but there is no surface outlet. Instead, the water flows underground for many kilometers, emerging in such places as Maligne Canyon and Lac Beauvert.

Maligne Lake was a beautiful lake. It was less commercial than Lake Louise. This lake was more natural. I loved it.

While driving away from The lake, we saw a big rock and some small rocks on the road that weren't there before. Those rocks had been fallen off the mountain. I hope no car was passing by when the rocks felt.

Afterwards, we went to Maligne Canyon. We walked part of the trail. Then, we went back to town. We visited some souvenir shops before heading back to Banff.   On the way back, we stopped by the Columbia Icefield and took some photos.

Day 7 Photos

Day 8 -Banff to Kamloops

After checking out of hotel, we went to Banff Gondola. Gondola climbed 698m (2292 ft) to an elevation of 2281m (7486 ft) on the Sulfur mountain. I had a soup for breakfast in a restaurant inside the Upper Terminal. The restaurant had windows all around to see nice views. The views up on top on Sulfur Mountain were magnificiant. We walked up to the Cosmic Ray Station which was at the highest point of the mountain.

We started our trip back to Kamloops around noon.

Day 9 -Kamloops to Vancouver

Our first stop was the BC Wildlife Park. Since we didn't get to see any bears in Banff, we wanted to see them here. The BC Wildlife Park was not huge. It had grey wolf, black bear, brown bear, elk, bison, cougar, etc. The best part was the 2 grizzly bear cubs. They were the cutiest. I wanted to hug them and squeeze them. I know. I know. I couldn't really to that since they would kill me. However, they do look stupidly cute with their fluffy hair and their cute movements.

We started our drive to Vancouver around noon.

For dinner, we went out to Club House Sushi. This restaurant was ok. It was more geared toward western people.

Day 8 and 9 Photos

Day 10 -Vancouver

We first went to Standley Park. Then, we went to Robson area. We had lunch at Japadog and walked around the area. Robson St was like Yonge St. We had dessert at Beard Papa. The mango puff wasn't very mango. The Paris Brest puff was pretty good.

We went to Gas Town and China Town. Vancouver China Town was like Toronto China Town.... Nothing special...   Gas Town was kind of like main St.

Then, we went to MetroTown. It was a big shopping mall in Burnaby. It reminded me of Eaton Centre, but it had the same stores as Toronto's mall.

For dinner, we went to Sushi Garden, close to Metro Town. It was a very busy place. The portion was huge. The quality was good, but not excellent.

After that, we went to Cheesecake Etc. This place had very good cheesecakes and live piano music. It was a nice place to hang around at night.

Day 11 - Vancouver

We went to Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was fun with the suspension bridge (450ft long and 230 ft high), cliff walk (300 ft above the canyon floor), and tree tops adventure (10 stories high). We walked the suspension bridge and treetops adventure twice! ;)

We saw a TVB actress there: 唐寧

After google, I found out that she was in Vancouver for the 首影 of 大藍湖 in Vancouver Film Festival (Oct 4). I guess she was taking a tour after work. ;). I saw 3 other women with her too.

Then, we went to Lynn Canyon suspension bridge. It was nothing compared to the Capilano one. This was was small and little slippery due to wet wood.

For dinner, we went to Griffins in Fairmount Hotel to taste their dessert buffet.   Both of us ordered their 3 course dinner (for $23):
Me - Griffins Casear Salad (w roasted garlic, olives, rosemary lavash), New York Steak, dessert buffet
Wen - Philipane style chicken soup, New York Steak, dessert buffet

Their desserts were all western style. I had 2 big dishes of dessert.   I was so full. I had tasted:
- lemon cheesecake
- strawberry mouse cake
- strawberry shortcake
- banana cake with passion fruit
- pumpkin cheesecake
- fruit square with berries inside
- cream puff
- chocolate mouse
- some fruits

Day 10 and 11 Photos

Day 12 - Whistler

After breakfast at Starbucks, we were on our way to Whistler. The drive was pretty nice. Half of the distance was beside sea (Howe Sound). Half of the distance was inside forest & mountains... Kind of like driving in Banff, but there were tons of electrical wires. Those electric wires reminded me that we were still in city areas. You would not see them when driving in Banff.

On the way, there is a place called "Cheeye". It's a funny name. I guess next time when we take photos, we can say Cheeye instead of Cheers... Hahaha.. :D

We were there around 1pm. We walked around Whistler Village and then went to Upper Village. Afterwards, we went on a trail from Whistler Village to Lost Lake. Then, we followed the trail around the lake and went to the beach at that lake.

I think I know why this lake is called "Lost Lake"... It is a beautiful lake... It is a "lost" treasure.... The water was so clear that I wanted to swim in it.

After walking back to Whistler Village, we had a drink at Blenz Coffee. Blenz Coffee is a chain coffee shop in BC. We saw a little bird walking inside the coffee shop while we were enjoying the drinks.

After driving back to Vancouver, we then searched on Internet and decided to have dinner at The Boathouse. It was a nice restaurant at Horseshoe Bay near BC Ferries and the food was very good.

Day 12 Photos

Day 13 - Vancouver

The Fisherman's Wharf at Steveston Village was a fish market at where fish boats parked there selling their fresh catch. People were buying big fishes and shrimps. The prices were cheaper than grocery stores and the fishes were fresher. I would've brought some if I live in Vancouver. I saw salmon roe too. However, they didn't look clean enough to me for eating without washing first. Since I was not a big fan of salmon roe, I decided to skip.

Then, we went to Aberdeen Centre (時代坊) for lunch and shopping.    I loved Daiso, the Japanese toonie store. We also walked to other Chinese malls around Aberdeen Centre. The ones I remembered are 統一 and 八佰半中心, etc.   None of them were interesting. One thing did surprise me was that I didn't see any bootleg CD/DVD stores in any of the malls.

We drove around Richmond to see the expensive houses. We searched the realtor site for homes over 1 million, 2 millions, etc. Those homes had 3-4 garages. It seemed a lot of people buy old houses to get the land and rebuild with new houses in Richmond.

We had dinner at Sushi Hachi. I made a reservation for "name your price chef menu". Since the minimum was $45, we had that ordered as well. The first dish was a lobster seaweed salad. The second dish was sashimi. The sashimi were fresh and tasty. I could taste the sweet fish taste in the fishes. The third dish was grilled fish. It was really good. The fourth dish was spicy octopus cucumber fish eggs salad. The fifth dish was sushi.

Day 14 - Flying back to Toronto

Day 13 and 14 Photos

My new favourite 出前一丁 favour

2011-09-22T00:10:00.000-04:00

I don't eat 出前一丁 (Demae Itcho) a lot... may be a few times a year...
My favourite 出前一丁 noodle favours used to be:
1) 麻油麵
2) 五香牛肉麵

Recently, I've purchased the new 黑蒜油豬骨湯味.
I think it's the best. It's now my #1 favour! :)

Basically, Nissin has replaced the seasme oil (麻油) with black garlic oil (黑蒜油).
The black garlic oil added to noodles smells good and is very tasty. I guess I like strong taste in soup. That's why I like this new favour more than the seasme oil favour. ;)

1st Anniversary

2011-09-21T23:39:00.000-04:00

Sept 18 was our 1st year Wedding Anniversary. :)

Wen and I went to Kaji Japanese restaurant for our anniversary dinner. We went to this restaurant before, but this time we were sitting at the sushi bar. Actually, I like sitting in the sushi bar. I could see the chef making sushi and sashimi. :D They made sushi creation look so easy.

I had the "Waza" tasting menu and Wen had the "Takumi" tasting menu.

For my Waza tasting menu, I've got...

Grilled black cod - This is good.

Chicken nanban and sea eel & cucumber rolled with egg sheet - This is ok... It's more like Chinese than Japanese.

Simmered winter melon with duck and shrimp cake

This dish is beautiful. They made the lily to look like sakura.

Grilled matsutake mushroom / hosho style - It's interesting that they used pine in this dish. Pines were not just used as decorations. Some pines were cooked with the food.

For Wen's tasting menu:

Sauteed scallop in pumpkin sauce

Simmered daikon and eggplant - I didn't try this one since it had eggplant in it. Wen said it's spicy.

Grilled crab, tomatio & kuzu cake, and persimmon sunomono - This dish is good. I like the persimmon sunomono.

Matsutake mushroom soup in tea pot - interesting way to drink soup...

Lily bulb and sea urchin cake with crab sauce - I like urchin. ;)

Grilled shrimp and matsutake mushroom - This dish was beautiful... using maple leaves and pines as decorations...

We had some dishes that are the same for both tasting menu: sashimi and sushi & cold noodle.

For sashimi, we've got sea trout with fish eggs, lobster, cucumber & Japanese beans, bass, tuna, tuna salad with egg and potato, sesame salad.

For sushi, we had multiple dishes.

Cold noodle, urchin on top of rice, eel sushi - I love urchin. Also, the eel sushi was good. The one I had at Guu felt apart when I picked it up using chopsticks. This one didn't fall apart. It only felt apart after I bite it. ;) It was too big to put the whole piece in my mouth.

Lobster with apple sauce on rice, tuna on rice, eel on rice

Notice that the restaurant gave us a different soy sauce when eating sushi. It's darker with a stronger taste.

Last sushi dish... tuna sushi, white fish sushi (I forgot what the fish is), abalone sushi, toro (tuna belly) sushi, scallop sushi, and toro sushi again but the outside is cooked. My favourite one is toro sushi. It was very tasty and melt in my mouth. However, I did felt a little bit of tendon in it. I guess it wasn't the highest grade. ;) In HK TV series, they always say that you don't feel tendon in highest grade toro.

For dessert, I had fruit jelly and green tea macaroon

Wen had peach and strawberry

Overall, this restaurant is very good.
For me, it was a bit too much food for me. I was very very full at the end.
I love their sushi and sashmi... very fresh... very good... ;)

Review: Fish Soup Noodles House (魚湯店)

2011-09-11T23:32:00.000-04:00

Overall Rating: 4/5

Wen and I went to the Fish Soup Noodles House (魚湯店) twice. We really like their fish soup.

This store had very good fish soup. I wouldn't considered it to be the best. The best fish soup noodle I had was from 楓林閣海鮮酒家. Unfortunately, 楓林閣海鮮酒家 had been closed down for a long time.

For $7.50, we got to pick the type of soup (i.e. fish soup, tom yum goong soup, etc.) , the type of noodle (i.e. rice noodle, vermicell, etc) and 2 toppings (i.e. beef, fish balls, etc.). Additional toppings required additional charges.

The first time we went there, I had tried the fish soup with vermicelli (粉絲), pork neck pieces (豬頸肉), and fish skin dumpling (魚皮餃). The fish soup had strong fish taste but no 魚腥味. The soup was hot, which I liked it very much. In additional to my two selected toppings, the noodle soup also contained japanese crab meat (蟹柳), mushrooms (冬菇), bean curd skin (腐皮), Loofah (勝瓜), and green onion (蔥). The pork neck pieces and fish skin dumpling were both very good.

We also had 2 appetizers: pan fried fish cake (煎魚餅) and spicy beef brisket (川味牛腩). They were both good. The fish cake had small pieces of squid in it, which make the taste and feeling (口感) better than normal fish cakes. We had ordered the fish cake again the second time we were there.

Today, we went to the Fish Soup Noodles House for a second time. There were lots of customers. I had the fish soup with vermicelli (粉絲), cuttlefish balls (墨魚丸), and squid (魷魚). Wen had the fish soup with rice noodle (河粉), cuttlefish balls (墨魚丸), and beef (滑牛肉).

The additional toppings were more or less the same as last time: japanese crab meat (蟹柳), mushrooms (冬菇), bean curd skin (腐皮), white turnip (白蘿蔔), and green onion (蔥). I didn't like the white turnip. Since I don't really like white turnip except for pan fried turnip cake (蘿蔔糕), I wasn't the right person to comment on it. However, Wen also preferred the white turnip to be softer, so it wasn't just me. The cuttlefish balls were good, but the squids were a bit chewy. The squids were probably boiled a bit too long.

We also had the pan fried fish cake and the tea taste chicken wings (茶味雞翅) for appetizer. The chicken wings had a smoke taste to them, but I didn't taste any tea taste. It's good if you don't treat it as tea taste chicken wings.

Fish Soup Noodles House 魚湯店

505 Hwy 7 E
Unit 50-53
Thornhill, ON L3T 7P6

View Larger Map

Jell-O Mold Competition

2011-07-25T16:19:00.000-04:00

The entries in the third annual Jell-O Mold Competition held recently in Brooklyn, NY, are pretty impressive.

Yummy yummy.... Big breakfast with everything made with jello.... I am sure that kids would love them...

Oooo.... Coffee!!! In this case, I think I'll enjoy a cup of hot coffee more than a cup of jello coffee... ;)

This work is called "Where do eggs come from?"... The jello chicken is kind of scary...

"The Resistor Jeltone"... From the photo, it didn't look that difficult to make... but this toy piano really works with keys in real gelatine. :)

Jell-Obama... I wonder how the judges felt when they were eating this one... Did they feel like Hannibal Lecter (from The Silence of the Lambs)?
Just a thought.. if you hate someone, you can actually make a jello sculpture of that person and eat it! :P

This one got first prize... However, I don't think it's very amazing... I don't like worms...

They look like real bullets... I wonder what will other people think if they see you eating bullets... May be they will think that you are trying to commit suicide and will try to stop you... :P

There are more interesting jellos at the web site...

Source:
Gizmodo
Fine Dining Lovers

Gold kiwifruit upside down cake

2011-07-22T14:06:00.000-04:00

Last night, I made the Gold kiwifruit upside down cake. Of course, it became my dessert/afternoon snack today. I followed the recipe from taste.com.au with slight changes.

Gold kiwifruit upside down cake

Ingredients (serves 10)

30g butter, melted
2 tbs brown sugar
2 firm gold kiwifruit, peeled, cut into 5mm slices
125g butter, at room temperature
1 cup (220g) sugar (I used regular sugar. The original recipe used castor sugar.)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
(I don't have self-raising flour, so I used 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, 2 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon of salt)
1/2 cup (45g) desiccated coconut (I used those small shredded coconut that are used for making glutinous rice balls)
3/4 cup (185ml) orange juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 20cm-square cake pan with non-stick baking paper. (I used a Round Springform Cake Pan without the non-stick baking paper.) Pour the butter over the base of the pan and sprinkle with the brown sugar, then top with the kiwifruit in a single layer.
Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar for 3 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour, coconut and orange juice until combined.
Spoon over the kiwifruit. Smooth the surface. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 10 minutes before turning out.

Overall
I would give this cake 3.5/5.
The texture of this cake is in between a cake and a coconut macaroon.
The sourness in the top layer kiwi balances well with the sweetness in the cake. It makes the overall taste not too sweet.
I like the kiwi layer. However, Wen doesn't like the sourness in the kiwi layer. He prefers not to have that layer. I guess he has a bigger sweet tooth than me. ;-)

Chicken Chunks Salad

2011-07-22T13:35:00.000-04:00

Recent weather has been extremely hot, so I was planning to make chicken salad sandwich for lunch... since I have chicken breast part left over from the BBQ chicken takeout two days ago... Yes... I don't really like the breast part that much... I prefer dark meat...
Then, I changed my mine... Why not have chicken chunks salad instead?

With salad dressing, the chicken breast is not dry. The salad tastes good. This is a good way to use up the left over chicken breasts. ;)

There isn't really a recipe. I just sort of mix everything together... hahahaha... :D

Ingredients
2 cups of cooked chicken breast chunks
1 apple
1/2 onion
some dry parsley flakes (The green flakes make the salad looks nicer.)

Sauce:
4 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
a bit of salt
a bit of black pepper
(Note: You can change the amount depending on your liking. For example: if you like the sauce to be sweeter, you can add more honey, etc.)

Directions

Chop the onion into very small pieces
Mix mayonnaise, lemon juice, honey, salt, black pepper in a large bowl until everything is well combined.
Add chicken chunks and onions to the large bowl and mix well with the sauce mixture.
In an separate bowl, add water and some salt. Mix well.
Peel the apple skin and cut the apple into small chunks. Since we don't want the apple to turn brown in colour, put the apple in salt water (#4) when you are not cutting it yet.
Mix apple chunks and dry parsley flakes with the chicken chunks salad (#3).
Put it in fridge.

The perfect piece of toast

2011-07-22T12:35:00.000-04:00

Scientists have come up the definition of a perfect toast:

The 'ultimate balance of external crunch and internal softness' is the outside is 12 times crunchier than the middle
The preferred shade of toasted bread was 'builder's brew' - or a score of 24 on a 48 point scale

How to make that perfect toast?

The optimum toast thickness is 14mm
Best to use a pale, seeded, loaf, taken fresh from the fridge at a temperature of 3 degrees Celsius
Using a toaster rather than a grill so both sides of the bread should be cooked at the same time
Setting the toaster dial to 'five out of six' on a typical 900-watt appliance to produce a temperature of 154 degrees Celsius
216 seconds is the exact amount of time needed to toast the outside to the desired level before the golden 12:1 exterior/interior crispiness ratio is lost.
Should then be buttered as soon as it pops up, before the slice loses the heat required to melt the spread.
The ideal amount of butter is 0.44 grams per square inch
The cooked and buttered slice should be cut once, diagonally, and served on a plate warmed to 45 degrees Celsius, to minimise condensation beneath the toast.

===========
Source:
The perfect piece of toast: Scientists test 2,000 slices and find 216 seconds is the optimum time
By Daily Mail Reporter

Scientists today revealed the mathematical formula for a perfect slice of toast, showing that it is best cooked for exactly 216 seconds.

A team of researchers carried out a study which found the optimum thickness is 14mm and the ideal amount of butter is 0.44 grams per square inch.

The recommended cooking time gives the slice a 'golden-brown' colour and the 'ultimate balance of external crunch and internal softness'.
Perfect: The ideal slice of toast is cooked for just over three minutes, according to scientists

Perfect: The ideal slice of toast is cooked for just over three minutes, according to scientists

It has the look of 'builder's tea' and, crucially, the outside is 12 times crunchier than the middle.

The result is achieved by setting the toaster dial to 'five out of six' on a typical 900-watt appliance to produce a temperature of 154 degrees Celsius, the study revealed.

Bread expert Dr Dom Lane, a consultant food researcher, spent one week toasting and tasting a staggering 2,000 slices for his research, in his bid to assist the nation's toast eaters.

Peering into a hidden world: Stunning close-up images reveal alien landscapes of everyday food and drink

We chomp our way through more than 94.2 million slices daily, though our enjoyment can be spoiled by burnt or soggy specimens.

During his exhaustive study, commissioned by bread maker Vogel's, Dr Lane used a complex formula to help determine the toasting required to produce the perfect level of crispiness.

He found that 216 seconds was the exact amount of time needed to toast the outside to the desired level before the golden 12:1 exterior/interior crispiness ratio was lost.
The toaster should be 154 degrees Celsius to get the best results

The toaster should be 154 degrees Celsius to get the best results

He also discovered it was best to use a pale, seeded, loaf, taken fresh from the fridge at a temperature of 3 degrees Celsius.

Both sides of the bread should be cooked at the same time, using a toaster rather than a grill, to help 'curtail excessive moisture loss'.

It should then be buttered as soon as it pops up, before the slice loses the heat required to melt the spread.

The report says: 'The quantity of butter is important - too much and the toast will lose crucial rigidity, too little and the moisture lost during toasting will not be replaced.'
'The quantity of butter is important - too much and the toast will lose crucial rigidity, too little and the moisture lost during toasting will not be replaced'

It even concludes that the cooked and buttered slice should be cut once, diagonally, and served on a plate warmed to 45 degrees Celsius, to minimise condensation beneath the toast.

But it is important the plate is not too hot or it will continue the cooking process and ruin the perfectly formed slice, scientists concluded.

The report adds: 'Obviously the shape of the piece of toast once taken into the mouth doesn't affect the flavour or texture.

'But crucial butter and other toppings may be lost on entry, deposited on cheek or lip. We therefore recommend a triangular serving for ease of consumption.'

The study polled 1,913 people and found the nation's preferred shade of toasted bread was 'builder's brew' - or a score of 24 on a 48 point scale.

Getting a slice of bread to this colour typically took 216 seconds and gave an exterior-interior crunchyness ratio of 12.
The toast should be buttered as soon as it pops up, before the slice loses the heat required to melt the spread

The toast should be buttered as soon as it pops up, before the slice loses the heat required to melt the spread

The researchers made numerous changes to the way the bread was stored, toasted and buttered to find the most reliable method of obtaining this ratio.

Dr Lane said: 'When you pop a piece of bread in the toaster it gradually turns the bread molecules brown. The process is known as the Maillard reaction. It's nature transforming the mundane into the magical.

'Fundamentally, it's about the ratio of surface to inner elasticity.

'In an untoasted slice of bread it's obviously 1:1, or a difference of 0, but during toasting moisture is expelled, reducing the elasticity of the bread's surface - measured in Pascals, the international unit of bendiness - until it achieves a deformation limit. In other words, the toast gets crispy.

'This initial insight led us to develop the 'Vogel's Curve', which plots the varying degrees of crunchiness and colour during toasting.

'Taking the most popular mid-point toast tone and the terribly complicated maths behind the curve, we derived the formula for the perfect slice of toast.

'It was then relatively straightforward to develop a five-step process, allowing toast lovers to replicate our laboratory method in their own kitchens.'

Water Tubing

2011-07-19T17:34:00.001-04:00

I am surprised that most people don't know they can water-tubing in Ontario. Out of all the people I've talked to, only 1 person knows it, but none of my friends/coworkers have ever tried that.

Well, a group of us went to Elora Gorge Conservation Park for water tubing last Saturday (2011-07-16). Yes. I am back at Elora again. I was here two weeks ago. :)

At 7:15am, we (me, Wen, Sampson, Anna, Jason, Chris, Bosky) started heading to Elora. We arrived at the tubing registration place at 9am. There was a huge lineup. We were all worried that they'll run out of tubes. We felt much better when we saw there were still lots of people behind us. We were located approx. 3/4 of the lineup. Luckily, we got our equipments: helmet, safety vest, and tube... even though we had to wait in line for 1.5 hours.

We took a shuttle bus (yellow school bus) to the launch site. Never thought tubing is dangerous... Two from our group felt into water in the first little rapid. They got hurt and lost their flip flop. (We eventually found most of them them in downstream ;P )

It took us a bit more than 1 hour to go from launch site to exit site. It was fun even thought we had those injuries. The view is beautiful. Hiking is looking at the scenery top-down. Tubing is looking at scenary bottom-up. Green trees on both side.... Blue sky... White clouds... Grey/brown rocks...

At the exit site, we had to wait 45 mins to get onto the shuttle bus to go back to registration site. The shuttle bus went by twice but was full. :( While waiting for bus, one of the tube exploded. We were all surprised how easy the tube explode. Not too long ago, someone was saying that the warning sign at registration site was there to scare us. The tube shouldn't be able to explode so easily. We were worried that we had to pay for it even though we didn't think it's our fault since we had to wait so long for shuttle bus.

When we were back at registration site, we thought we had to negotiate with the staffs, but as soon as we took the broken one back, they gave us a new one. They didn't even ask what happened.

We had lunch (hot dogs, fries, pop) at the registration site.

Around 3 something, we decided to hike to launch site for our second round. This time, half of us started tubing before the first rapid. The rest started tubing after the first tube. This time, the rest of us felt down into the water at the first rapid, except for Chris. Of course, we all hurt ourselves. The rest of the ride was very smooth. :)

At the exit site, we hiked back to the registration site, returned our equipments, and headed back home.
Even though I got hurt, I do want to play tubing again. :)

Now that I have experiences, here are my advises for playing water-tubing:

must wear running shoes or sandles while playing. I wore my running shoes.
put lots of sunblock
When felt into the water, just try to swim to the shore. Don't try to stand up even though the water is only knee height. The river floor is very slippery and full of stones. If you try to stand up, you'll hurt yourself.
If you are really scared of getting hurt, put on those knee guards and arm guards for bike/roller blade.

Check out the photos!

Elora Tubing Web Site (You can check out the price.)

View Elora & Fergus in a larger map

VLC player with chinese font

2011-07-15T00:09:00.000-04:00

I am using VLC 1.1.10 for playing english movies.
I've tried to use it for a movie with chinese subtitles, but the subtitle is showing up as squares. After searching in the internet, I finally make it to work.

1) Go to "Tools" menu
2) Select "Preference"
3) Select "Subtitles & OSD"
4) Change Default encoding to "Universal, Chinese (GB18030)"
5) Change the Font to "PMingLiU".
6) Close VLC and start it again.

This works for me... It might work for you as well... ;)

芒果奶酪 (Mango Milk Yogurt/Pudding)

2011-07-14T23:14:00.001-04:00

I like the 芒果奶酪 from a Japanese All You Can Eat restaurant, so I've decided to make it myself. There are different recipes on the internet. After comparing different ones, I've decided to partially follow the one from Apa Kabar blog and added my own modifications.

So here is my modified version:

Ingredients
2% Milk - 2 cup
Half and half cream - 1 cup
Gelatin - 1 envelope (7 g)
Suger - 1.5 tablespoon
Mango - 2
Mango puree - 3/4 cup

Directions
1) Pour milk, sugar, and gelatin into a saucepan
2) Heat it over medium heat and stir constantly until you see smokes. Then, turn off the heat.
3) There could be come gelatin floating. I use a spoon to make sure the gelatin is completely dissolved in the hot milk.
4) Add cream into the milk. This will help to cool down the mixture.
5) Pour the mixture in small containers and store them in fridge overnight.

Next day
6) Cut the mango into small pieces.
7) Mix the mango with mango puree.
8) Put the mango mixture on top of the milk yogurt/pudding.

This recipe will yield 5-6 cups.

It's a success! :)
Wen likes it. He said this one is better than the restaurant one. :D

Unix commands on Windows machine

2011-07-14T17:12:00.000-04:00

I used to have cygwin installed on my laptop. After getting a new laptop, I am in search of something better...
I found in Tyler Muler's Blog about combining cygwin and PuTTY, so I've decided to give it a try.

You can get the latest version of Cygwin from here:
http://cygwin.com/install.html
and latest version of PuTTYcyg here:
http://code.google.com/p/puttycyg/

Cygwin
Once downloaded and executed, the program will ask you what packages you want to install, after you select it will start downloading everything you have selected and will complete the installation.
Make sure that the rlwrap, vim, gvim, openssl, and openssh packages are selected.

By default, Cygwin is installed in C:\cygwin\
and your home directory is C:\cygwin\home\\.

PuTTYcyg
Download the file and unzip.
Create a shortcut of putty.exe to desktop.
Change the shortcut name to puttyCyg. [You don't have to change name... I just find it easier for me... ;) ]
In the Target field, add " -cygterm -" to the end, so the Target field will look something like this:
\putty.exe -cygterm -

To run
Just double click on the desktop icon.

Day Trip to Elora and Fergus

2011-07-06T14:19:00.001-04:00

The morning of July 2 was cool and cloudy. I was kind of disappointed.
We had breakfast at the nearby Starbucks... I needed coffee... ;)

On our way to Elora, the weather became sunny... It was wonderful!
Thanks God for giving us good weather for our trip! :D

First, we stopped by the Tourist Information in Elora getting the maps.
We walked around the Elora Downtown. It's a beautiful small area.

Then, we went to Victoria Park. Inside the park, there's Lover's Leap Trail and Lover's Leap overlook.
It is called Lover's Leap to commemorate a legendary Indian princess, said to have leapt to her death here after her beloved had been killed in battle.
The trail was very short. Because of all the trees, I couldn't really tell which rock is the Lover's Leap. I guess it didn't really matter. ;)

After that, we went to Bissell Park.There was a farmers market there. When I was there, they are near the end.. a lot of stuff had been sold. I just quickly looked around. They had fruits, vegetables, honey, bread, socks, etc. I did buy a bottle of cedarwood honey. :)

We had lunch at Metcalfe Restaurant. It was a very popular restaurant. The patio was full. We had to eat inside. I ordered sweet potato fries.... yummy... :9

After lunch, we went to Elora Gorge Conservation Area. Tubing was all sold out. We continued with our first choice of activities: hiking. There are 3 trails in this conservation area. The trails are short. We hiked on all three of them.

Then, we went to Elora Quarry Conservation Area. Lots of people were swimming there. There were one crazy person jumping off the cliff. I think he got into trouble since I saw a security guard walking toward him, but I didn't stay around to see. The water was good for swimming but not clean enough for me to want to swim in it. I wished I had a floating boat. :)

We've decided to go to Fergus, since it's very close to Elora.
First stop in Fergus, of course, is the tourist information. It's a bigger office than the one in Elora.
We walked around the Fergus Downtown area. It was like a semi deserted town. 30-40% of stores were closed and waiting to be sold. It didn't look anything like the photos from tourist materials. Those photos have tons of people on the streets.

Well, we decided to head back to Elora downtown since I wanted to eat ice-cream. ;)
We went to Jenny's Place (one of the Elora Mews Shops) for ice-cream.
I had green tea ice-cream and mango sorbet. The green tea ice-cream is different from the usual green tea ice-cream. It had darker layers that had stronger tea taste with a slightly rougher texture. Wen had watermelon sorbet and mango sorbet. The watermelon sorbet is very interesting. It has chocolate chips representing the watermelon seeds. :D

Click here for my photos on the trip.

View Elora & Fergus in a larger map

What to look for in sunblock?

2011-06-20T19:03:00.000-04:00

美國食品及藥物管理局（FDA）上周宣布新修訂的防曬產品標示及用字規定，最大的改變在於產品若通過相關測試，便能標示「Broad Spectrum」字樣，表示同時防禦紫外線A及B，而非單以SPF數值反映紫外線B的防護程度，忽略反映紫外線A的防禦效果。

然而歐盟早已規定防曬產品必須防禦紫外線A及B，故此留意SPF數值外，也要留意有沒有UVA字樣加上圓圈的「UVA標誌」，確保產品具「雙重防護」。

皮膚長期接觸紫外線A（UVA）及B（UVB），會受到傷害。據歐盟的資料，紫外線A導致皮膚提早老化，紫外線B則導致曬傷及發紅。此外，兩種紫外線都與皮膚癌有關。一些研究還指出，過度暴露在紫外線A及B之下，會影響免疫系統。利用防曬產品能有效預防曬傷外，也有研究指出或可減低患上某些皮膚癌的風險。

承接化妝品及護膚品化驗業務的香港化妝品技術資源中心，其高級商務拓展主任梁國斌指出，歐洲防曬產品所採用的標示方式，同時反映紫外線A及B的防護效果﹕

★防紫外線B：SPF有數計

我們熟悉的SPF（Sun protection factor），大致上（但不完全）反映紫外線B致曬傷及發紅的時間被延後多少倍。

梁國斌稱，以SPF15的產品為例，如果一個人曬太陽15分鐘便曬傷的話，塗用恰當分量後（見右稿），可延後三個多小時才會曬傷（15分鐘×15倍＝225分鐘）；若塗用SPF50的產品，「理論上」在12.5小時後才會曬傷（15分鐘×50倍＝750分鐘）。

★防紫外線A：睇圓圈標誌 PA加號

附有「UVA標誌」——即UVA字樣外加圓圈的產品，則反映對紫外線A的防護效果（UVA protection factor）達到SPF值的三分之一或以上。

以此定義，一個SPF30的防曬產品，經測試後其UVA protection factor為10或以上，便可在包裝上標示UVA圓圈標誌，表示產品對紫外線A達到一定程度的防護效果。

與歐盟不同，日本也有其對紫外線A防護的標示系統，即簡稱PA的Protection grade of UVA。梁國斌稱，PA是指使用防曬產品並被紫外線A照射後，皮膚被曬黑的時間延長多少倍。標示方式以PA之後有多少個+號（最少1個，最多3個）表示﹕

PA+﹕延長曬黑時間兩倍或以上

PA++﹕延長曬黑時間四倍或以上

PA+++﹕延長曬黑時間八倍或以上

換言之，防曬產品若採用歐盟（SPF數值及UVA圓圈標誌）或日本（SPF數值及PA+++）的標示方式，消費者便知道它無論對紫外線B或A都有一定防護效果。梁國斌稱，歐盟普遍認為，產品附有Broad Spectrum字樣，就是表示對兩種紫外線都有保護效能，消費者可以據此選擇合適的防曬用品。

根據美國FDA上周公布的修訂，防曬產品只要通過該局的測試，證明可防禦兩種紫外線，也可以在產品上標示Broad Spectrum。

Source:
HK Yahoo News

Be careful when using melamine tableware (仿瓷餐具)

2011-06-16T13:03:00.003-04:00

Be careful when using melamine tableware (仿瓷餐具)!!!
Melamine tableware is the ones that are plastic but look like porcelain...

HK Consumer Council had tested 39 different melamine tableware. The results showed that 9 of them
do not meet health standards and will release harmful substances.

In general, melamine tableware:

should not be used to hold hot foods (such as noodles, soup, etc.)
should not be used in a microwave oven
should not be used when the surface is scratched

Melamine tableware is often used in cheaper Chinese restaurants.... How to avoid? :(

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From HK Yahoo News:

(星島日報報道)消委會測試市面出售的三十九款塑膠造仿瓷餐具，發現當中九款餐具釋出可致腎結石的三聚氰胺，其中一款中國製造的玫瑰花圖案湯碗三聚氰胺釋出量超標一成。另有五款餐具被發現釋出有毒物質甲醛，當中兩款飯碗及一款日本城筷子甲醛釋出量超標七成至三倍。市民如長期用以盛載高溫、強酸、油脂類食物，或放入微波爐加熱，可導致體內結石或腸胃問題。

測試樣本包括三十九款家庭或食肆普遍使用的塑膠製品仿瓷餐具，售價由兩元至五十元不等，結果發現有九款不符合內地衞生標準，會釋放對人體有害的污染物，包括三聚氰胺和甲醛。其中一款中國製作、No.2117玫瑰花圖案的湯碗，其三聚氰胺遷移量超標一成；另一款銘豐No.0315綠色飯碗則含有甲醛遷移量最高，超標三倍。此外，還有八款餐具含微量三聚氰胺。

疑生產程序不妥

消委會解釋，三聚氰胺為污染物，不應存在於食物中，懷疑因製作過程中，生產程序欠妥善，如原料配備、壓製溫度、壓力和固化時間等條件控制不理想，或偷工減料，以致造出劣質的仿瓷餐具。根據世衞建議，每日不可攝入三聚氰胺多於每公斤零點二毫克，否則會引致體內結石。如持續每日攝入甲醛超過每公斤零點二毫克，亦會導致腸胃問題。

結果顯示大部分仿瓷餐具都會釋出微量化學物質，不過消委會強調，市民如依餐具標籤正常使用，這些物質並不會遷移至食物，惟消委會發現大部分樣本的標籤資料不足，只有十四款測驗樣本於底部或包裝上標有「不適用於微波爐、焗爐或作明火煮食用」的字眼，其餘二十五款無相關說明；另有兩款說明不宜長時間盛載酸性及高溫的食物或飲料，三款說明不宜用於洗碗碟機、消毒碗櫃及烘乾機。

勿「叮」或盛載高温食物

消委會將與餐飲業溝通，建議餐廳依足指引使用仿瓷餐具，不宜盛載高溫食物如麵、湯等，亦不宜放入微波爐，清洗時又不應刮花表面，如餐具有脫色或花紋脫落應盡快更換。

城市大學生物及化學系副教授林漢華表示，即使用上數年的仿瓷餐具仍有可能釋出甲醛及三聚氰胺，建議新買的仿瓷餐具用清潔劑和清水沖洗，日常使用則避免長時間儲存食物，如發現餐具失去原有光澤或有變色情況，建議立即更換。

新鴻峰餐廳負責人王先生表示，全店上下均使用仿瓷餐具，約有二百至三百隻，平時亦會放入微波爐使用，但他相信「用了這麼多年，不會有甚麼事，通常衞生署check（檢查）得很嚴」。

市民周小姐兩年前為「氹」家中兒女，買了兩款印有卡通人物的仿瓷碗，一來因價錢平，二來因為小朋友喜歡有顏色。她常用以盛載熱乎乎的食物餵給小朋友，曾試過消毒後發現整個碗顏色變「瓦」，當時她只認為「質地不好」，並無意識或會釋出有害化學物質。她表示今後會用「貴幾倍」的價錢買日本製產品，認為較有保障。

Mind-numbing Tasks

2011-06-15T17:21:00.000-04:00

I think everyone working in a big company for a few years would end up in this mind numbing state... >.<

Unless your business title starts with a "C" and ends with a "O".
e.g. CIO, CTO, CEO, etc...

Excel Spreadsheet

2011-06-07T11:36:00.005-04:00

Excel spreadsheet is wonderful for complex models with lots of forumlas... hahahaha... :P

端午節 2011

2011-06-03T11:33:00.001-04:00

This year's 端午節 (Dragon Boat Festival) is on June 6... 3 more days to go...

Showing you some google logos in the past... I wonder whether there'll be one this year...

Jun 16, 2010 - Dragon Boat Festival - (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)

May 28, 2009 - Dragon Boat Festival - (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)

Jun 08, 2008 - Dragon Boat Festival - (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)

May 31, 2006 - Dragon Boat Festival - (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)

Jun 15, 2002 - Dragon Boat Festival - (China)

Source:
Official Google site with all logos

台灣食品添加物「起雲劑」含有懷疑致癌塑化劑.

2011-05-30T13:36:00.009-04:00

台灣食品添加物「起雲劑」含有懷疑致癌塑化劑. 台灣當局下令大規模回收高風險飲料.
Taiwan authorities ordered a massive recall of high-risk beverage and food products suspected of being tainted with DEHP, or di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate.

塑化劑 = DEHP (Di-Ethyl Hexyl Phthalate)

What is DEHP?

「起雲劑」是一種食品添加物，可幫助食品的乳化，多用於果汁、飲料、果凍等。人體吸收過多DEHP，會影響生殖、神經系統，並可能造成畸胎、致癌等。

DEHP, one of six phthalates and part of a family of chemicals known to cause reproductive harm and considered a possible human carcinogen, is banned in children’s toys in Canada and elsewhere.
It is also strictly prohibited to use the plasticizer in food and beverages, but Taiwan authorities suspect at least one food manufacturer added the banned industrial plasticizer to an emulsifier as a cheap substitute for the more expensive palm oil.

Impacted Food Categories:
fruit juices, sports drinks, tea beverages, fruit jams and preserves, food powders, syrup, jams, and food or food supplement tablets.
五大類食品分辨表

What happen in Canada?

I don't know about other places... but both Toronto and Vancouver have a lot of Taiwan imported drinks.

On Saturday (May 28), the CFIA issued an “individual recall” on six fruit juices and jams under the brand names Possmei and Trojan, which had been distributed by the Kuo Hua Trading Company Ltd. to retail outlets, hotels and restaurants in British Columbia.

I haven't seen any recalls in Toronto yet.

Studies have found that 90% of HK people already have this DEHP toxic in their blood. Scary!
I wonder whether I have this in my blood or not... :(

That following food had been tested with DEHP and you should avoid:

台式飲料店「日出茶太」的百香果汁 (Taiwanese bubble tea store 「日出茶太」's passion fruit juice)
台灣盛香珍生產的35克蘆薈小果凍、25克芋頭小果凍及35克蘋果小果凍 (Aloe Vera Flavor Fruit Jelly, Taro Fruit Jelly, and Apple Fruit Jelly from Triko Foods Co. Ltd.)
白蘭氏「超能金剛成長鈣片」 (Brand's Alpha Tank Chewable Tablets)
動力運動飲料，及動力運動飲品檸檬味 (TaiwanYes Sport Drinks)
動能1000運動飲料
悅氏柳橙汁12%
SunKist粒粒檸檬果汁飲 (SunKist Lemon Juice with pulps)
兒童藥水 (Children medicine syrup from Taiwan)
芒果汁 (Mango Juice), 荔枝汁 (Lychee Juice), 楊桃汁 (StarFruit Juice)
統一蘆筍汁 (Uni-President Asparagus Juice)
百香綠茶 (Passion Fruit green tea)
many more...

From the Taiwan Department of Health, you can get a list of affected food.
Here is the direct link:
List of products with cloudy agents contaminated by plasticizer ( date05.31.2011)
Chinese searchable version of the list

There is also a facebook page on this topic.

[Last updated: June 3, 2011]

Source:
Ottawa looks for contaminated food, drink from Taiwan
Food, beverages imported from Taiwan may contain toxic chemical: CFIA
FOOD SCARE WIDENS: Government mandates DEHP testing
疑致癌台果凍飲品港人難辨
本港驗出台灣兩款運動飲品及一款鈣片塑化劑超標
港府籲停飲三種台灣飲品含塑化劑
台輸港三款毒飲品回收
九成港人血含塑化劑
台藥用糖漿含塑化劑港藥劑師會促追查
兩款台灣生產沖劑飲品可能受塑化劑污染要停售

兩道選擇題 , 做完之後是沉默

2011-05-26T22:52:00.000-04:00

I got this from friend's email...

上課了。老教授面帶微笑，走進教室，對同學們說：「我受一家機構委託，來做一項問卷調查，請同學們幫個忙。」一聽這話，教室裡輕微的一陣議論：問卷？比上課有趣多了。問卷表發下來，同學們一看，只有兩道題。

一、他很愛她。她細細的瓜子臉，彎彎的娥眉，面色白皙，美麗動人。可是有一天，她不幸遇上了車禍，痊癒後，臉上留下幾道大大的醜陋疤痕。你覺得，他會一如既往地愛她嗎？

Ａ、他一定會
Ｂ、他一定不會
Ｃ、他可能會

二、她很愛他。他是商界的精英，儒雅沉穩，敢打敢拼。忽然有一天，他破產了。你覺得，她還會像以前一樣愛他嗎？

Ａ、她一定會
Ｂ、她一定不會
Ｃ、她可能會

一會兒，同學們就做好了。問卷收上來，教授一統計，發現：
第一題有10%的同學選Ａ：10％的同學選Ｂ：80％的同學選Ｃ
第二題呢，30％的同學選了Ａ，30％的同學選Ｂ，40％的同學選Ｃ。
看來，美女毀容比男人破產，更讓人不能容忍啊！

教授笑了，做這兩題時，潛意識裏，你們是不是把他和她當成了戀人關係？
是啊！同學們答得很整齊。

可是，題目本身並沒有說他和她是戀人關係啊？教授似有深意地看著大家，現在，我們來假設一下，如果第一題中的「他」是「她」的父親，第二題中的「她」是「他」的母親。讓你把這兩道題重新做一遍，你還會堅持原來的選擇嗎？

問卷再次發到同學們的手中，教室裡忽然變得非常寧靜，一張張年青的面龐變得凝重而深沉。幾分鐘後，問卷收了上來，教授再一統計，兩道題，同學們都100％地選了Ａ。

教授的語調深沉而動情：「這個世界上，有一種愛，亙古綿長，無私無求；不因季節更替。不因名利浮沉，這就是父母的愛啊！」

人一生的椅子

2011-05-26T22:46:00.000-04:00

人一生的椅子 .....
Chairs of one's life...

唉 ~ 沒有人能例外，爭什麼 ?
Nobody can be exempted, so why fight for money & power, etc.?

source:
Maiio.net

Day Trip to Prince Edward County

2011-05-24T00:10:00.000-04:00

May 21, 2011 is a beautiful day to go on a day trip...
After approx. 2 hr of driving, we arrived at the tourism office in Picton.

First Stop - Main St., Picton
We walked around Main St... saw the Regent Theatre, the Shine Hall, the Crystal Palace, and the Picton Harbour. There were some nice houses in that area.

Second Stop - Bird House City
I heard a lot of birds singing, but I hardly saw any birds. I guess all the birds are hiding in the bird houses. The Bird House City is not very well maintained. A lot of posts are missing bird houses.
I did discover a McDonald for birds... hahahaha... :D It's probably selling MacWorms... worms burgers... hahahaha....

Third Stop - Glenora Ferry
It's basically a part of the Loyalist Parkway. The ferry will take cars across the Picton Bay. According to the guy at tourism office, the ride is approx. 7 mins. Since there was a line up of cars and ferry frequency is every 30 mins, we decided not to go.

Fourth Stop - Lake on the Mountain
This is exactly what the name implies... A lake up on the mountain...
I think this is the most beautiful place in Prince Edward County.
There is a restaurant there. If I go to Prince Edward County again, I would try this restaurant since it has nice view.

Fifth Stop - Millennium Lookout
We could see the whole town and Picton Bay from this location.
This place is not very well maintained. It could be skipped if someone is planning for a visit.

Sixth Stop - Sandbanks Provincial Park
The map that we got is kind of confusing. Overall, it's a nice Provincial Park. I think it'll be better in the summer time when there are more greens and more flowers.
We went to Cedar Sands Nature Trail first... lots of leaves-less branches on the way. The trail was kind of brown in colour.
Then, we went to Dunes Beach and Dunes Nature Trail. This trail was more difficult to walk than the Cedar Sands Trail because a lot of the trail areas were sands. This trail was kind of grey in colour. We saw the sand dunes.
Since this provincial park is called Sandbanks Provincial Park, we have to visit Sandbanks Beach. The beach is nice, but the water seemed dirty. I guess Lake Ontario is polluted. Comparing to Dunes Beach, I would rather swim there even though the water is not that clean.

Seventh Stop - Huff Estates Winery & Inn
Two wine tasting for $1.
I ended up trying 4 wines.
Their red wines are more acidic. It's good but not really my taste.
I did buy a bottle of first frost. It's a fruity and playful wine. ;)

After a long day, we decided to head home...

Click here for my photos on the day trip.

Map of Prince Edward County

How to install East Asian language in Windows XP SP3 without CD

2011-05-19T12:45:00.001-04:00

After searching web, here is the method that works when you don't have the CD with you:

Download Windows XP SP3 patch from The Software Patch
Open the downloaded exe file using winRAR and extract the files to a local folder (folderX)
Download East Asian Language pack and extract files to a local folder (folderY). Someone has posted a link at youtube: http://megaupload.com/?d=YTTGBX0R
Go to Start menu
Click Run
Type"intl.cpl" and click OK
Go to Languages tab
Put a check mark beside "Install files for East Asian languages" and click OK
If prompt for "cplexe.ex_" or "cplexe.exe" file, use the browse button to find it in [folderX]/i386/lang/cplexe.ex_
If prompt for other files, use the browse button to find it in [folderY]
Reboot your computer

Michelangelo's Pizzas

2011-05-12T13:47:00.000-04:00

Some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) dedicated fans prepared Michelangelo’s favorite pizza recipes.
I admired their courage to try those pizzas.

Video link

Michelangelo’s pizza recipes includes the following pizzas:
- tuna fish, peanut butter, grape jelly
- peanut butter, clam
- peanut butter, avocado, extra pickles
- marshmallow, pepperoni
- marshmallow, asparagus
- marshmallow, guacamole
- butterscotch, onion, anchovy
- tea, toast
- chocolate sprinkles, clam sauce
- chocolate chip cookies
- chocolate fudge, garlic
- chocolate fudge, sardine, chili peppers, plenty of whipped cream
- anchovy, hot fudge
- pepperoni, hot fudge
- pepperoni, pickles
- jelly beans, sausage
- salami, double yogurt
- coconut, sweet pickles
- strawberry, anchovy
- hot oakmeal
- popcorn
- anchovy, banana
- granola, liquorice

Anyone wants to try? \

Source:
Neatorama

How to install IIS on Windows XP SP3 without installation CD

2011-05-11T14:43:00.002-04:00

I have the installation discs, but they are somewhere at home and it'll probably take me long time to find them.
After searching in the web, this is the method that I use to install IIS on Win XP SP3:

Download Windows XP SP3 patch from The Software Patch
Open the downloaded exe file using winRAR and extract the files to a local folder (folderX)
Download the IIS 5.1 required files from AP Dubey tech corner and extract the files to a local folder (folderY) [I guess I could've used all files from this site, but since this site is for Win XP SP2, I've decided to use SP3 patch files if the file exists in SP3 patch.]
Go to Control Panel from Start menu in your computer
Double click Add or Remove Programs
Select Add/Remove Windows Components on the left
In the Windows Components wizard window, put a check mark beside IIS and click Next.
When prompt for "staxmem.dl_" file, use the browse button to find it in [folderX]\i386\staxmem.dl_
When prompt for "adsutil.vbs" file, use the browse button to find it in [folderX]\i386\ip\adsutil.vb_
When prompt for other files, you'll find them in

After installation is completed, you can open IIS by:

Go to Control Panel from Start menu
Double click Administrative Tools
Double click Internet Information Services

The default web publishing directory for IIS is:
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot

Copy your personal web pages to this folder.

IIS will search for the default page in the following sequence by default:
Default.htm
Default.asp
index.htm
iisstart.asp
You can change the name and sequence of default document.

If all setup is completed, you should see your site using following URL in your browser.
http://localhost/

Sakura @ High Park

2011-05-11T12:21:00.000-04:00

I went to High Park to see Sakura past Sunday.
The flowers are very beautiful.
However, they lack the supporting garden design beside them.
In Canada, they are just like any flower trees in a park.
They are much more beautiful in Japan because those trees are surrounded by other garden design.
Ok Ok.... I actually haven't personally seen sakura in Japan... All I've seen are photos of them in Japan...

I took tons of photos... Here are some:
Sakura@High Park

唔好唔記得笑呀！

2011-05-10T09:55:00.000-04:00

I saw a cute photo of 林峯 in news today...

汪明荃（阿姐）拍《荃加福祿壽探案》，在電視城遇上拍《回到三國》的林峯，兩人搞笑地用手指篤面擺出可愛表情，阿姐將照片放上微博說：「不論時裝古裝，唔好唔記得笑呀！」

Source:
Yahoo News

Review: Guu SakaBar

2011-04-25T18:37:00.000-04:00

Overall Rating: 4/5

Guu has opened a 2nd restaurant on Bloor.
When I was there, there were so many people there and people just kept coming in.

Guu is a Japanese Bar, but I don't see a lot of people drinking and I do see kids. I guess it's because of the time. I went there during dinner time. If I go there on Sat night, it's most likely that most people will be drinking.

Guu sells Japanese Tapas and most of them you won't find in other Japanese restaurant.

Here were the food that I had tried:

- Oshi Zushi (torched marinated mackerel pressed sushi)
   -- It's hard to find pressed sushi in Toronto. This might be the only place left. In terms of the sushi, it's ok but not excellent. The rice and the fish felt apart when I picked up the sushi using chopsticks.

- Salmon Natto Yukke (chopped salmon sashimi w/ 5 friends wrap in seaweed)
   -- This was very good. We first mixed the salmon sashimi with Natto (fermented soybeans), shibazuke (purple pickles), wonton chips, green onion, and raw quail egg. Then, we wrapped the mixture in seaweed.

- Temari Zushi (torched salmon, cream cheese sushi balls)
   -- Good sushi... I guess it's the closest I'll get to sushi balls in Toronto. I won't be able to find the sushi balls in tvb series 魚躍在花見.

- Assorted oden (taro jelly, puffed fish cake, deep fried tofu, fish cake, daikon radish, egg)
   -- The puffed fish cake is interesting... kind of like tofu...
     -- You can find similar dish in other Japanese restaurants/stores.

- Assorted Kushi Age (deep fried kebab: ham, bacon, quail egg, lotus root, potato)
   -- The bacon kebab was good. It's not too oily.
     -- You can find similar dish in other Japanese restaurants/stores as well.

- Okonomiyaki (deep fried pancake with yakisoba noodles)
   -- Good pancake! I was actually expecting the noodles to be inside the pancake.

- Buta-don (BBQ pork on rice)
   -- The rice had a mustard mayo sauce. It made the rice not too heavy and made me want to eat more.

- Gindara (miso marinated black cod)
   -- You can find this dish in other Japanese restaurants/stores. May be I can make this dish at home. ;)

- Hiza-nan (Deep fried chicken knee)
   -- You'll sometimes find this dish in Chinese congee/noodle restaurants.

Dessert:
- Sake tiramisu
   -- Lots of Sake taste but not enough coffee taste. It's still very good.

- Green tea cheese cake
-- Good cake... very green tea but it's not green in colour... There were some tea leaves inside the cake. Guu probably used green tea leaves instead of powder to make the cake.

Photos of the food

Guu SakaBar
555 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Ontario

Free PDUs from Webinars

2011-04-25T17:35:00.001-04:00

Well... In order to renew PMP status, we need to get 60 PDUs.
Since I don't want to spend money attending courses, I try to find free webinars to satisfy the PDUs.
Here are some sites that I found are good. I'll add more to this list when I find them.

Recorded Webinars - free all the time:

Recorded Webinars - free for limited time:

ITMPI Twitter

Live Webinars:

Note:

Some sites may appear more than once because it has recorded and live webinars.
I only included sites where it is easy for users to claim PDUs. The sites where it claims the webinars can claim PDU but claiming info is not easily available. I did not include them.
I also did not include sites that only offer one or two free webinars.

KinnowLS Orange

2011-04-13T12:10:00.000-04:00

Scientists at the University of California at Riverside has developed a new orange: KinnowLS (the LS stands for low seeded)

The orange has been developed by mutation breeding of the mandarin variety Kinnow. It is slightly larger than a mandarin, with a thin, extremely smooth rind.

Professor Mikeal Roose, head of the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences and part of the team which developed the new fruit, said: 'People who like very sweet fruit are going to find ‘KinnowLS’ to be very appealing.

It is estimated the fruit could be on supermarket shelves in five years.

I am one of those who doesn't like orange as much due to the sour taste.
I am not sure this is a good news or scary news... The good part is that the new orange is sweet... :9 The scary part is that it's a mutation... What are the generic side effect of eating such orange?
I am not sure the difference between "mutation" and "genetically engineered". To me, both sounds bad for human health.

Source:
DailyMail

Kingdom Tower

2011-04-13T11:41:00.001-04:00

The current world's highest tower "Burj Khalifa" in Dubai will soon be replaced by another higher tower. The new tower "Kingdom Tower" in Saudi Arabia will be 1.6km high. It will have 275 floors and be twice the height of Burj Khalifa.

Kingdom Tower is expected to cost £12billion to construct and it will take 12 minutes to reach the top in a lift. It will be financed by the Saudi royal family-owned Kingdom Holding Company which is chaired by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and is the nation’s largest company.

I do agree with Rory Olcayto (deputy editor of The Architects’ Journal) that “The race to build the highest skyscraper is quite futile – where do you stop?"

With the earthquake that happened not too long ago in Japan, it makes me wonder what will happen if disaster happens to these high towers... For some reasons, this reminds me of the Tower of Babel in Bible... The money could have much better use than to show off.

Source:
Mirror

QR Code

2011-04-12T15:13:00.000-04:00

I recently got an email at work with QR code as part of the email signature.
It made me wanting to have my own QR code too.
I've tried numerous free online QR code generating site.
I find this one to be the best:
http://www.qrstuff.com/
First of all, it has a lot of templates...
And the most important part for me... I can change the colour of the QR code to match my current email signature. :D

Here is the QR code for this site:

What is QR code?
A QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones.

Nice Photo Accessories

2011-04-07T16:45:00.000-04:00

I came across a photo gear site today: Photojojo
It has some pretty nice stuff. :)

A tiny replica of the Leica M3

It's a workable digital camera... nice!

The Wide Angle & Macro Lens Adapter

Interesting... Not sure how well it'll work...
I wonder whether it's worth buying?

Mini Model Camera - A 1/6 scale model camera with 3 detachable lenses.

They are soooo cute!
I probably would buy them if they are not expensive.

4GB Camera USB Drive

It's more for display... Too big for any real use...

Photo-opoly

Personally, I don't like this version of monopoly...
Since each "place" in the game in a photo, why would I want to buy a person or a moment in life?

愛心無國界311燭光晚會

2011-04-04T12:25:00.000-04:00

無懼風雨 - 愛心無國界311燭光晚會主題曲

Please pray for Japan!

First portrait of Jesus?

2011-04-04T11:38:00.000-04:00

70 books, each with between five and 15 cast lead pages bound by lead rings, were found in a cave in a remote village in Jordan overlooking the Sea of Galilee. One of the lead booklet, slightly smaller than a credit card, had a portrait of Jesus.

Bible historians are investigating whether the picture, which can still just about be seen to depict a man wearing a crown of thorns, was created in Jesus’s lifetime by those who knew him.

It's hard to tell what Jesus looked like from the booklet.

But it would be really funny if in future, we find out that Jesus doesn't look like what we've always thought he would look like. :P

Source:
DailyMail

Review: Kyu Shou Japanese Noodle House (九州生拉麵)

2011-04-03T15:41:00.000-04:00

Overall Rating: 2/5

As time goes by, a restaurant evolves... for better or worst.
For Kyu Shou, I had decided to give it one more try after I had a bad experience several months ago. Why one more try? Well, this restaurant used to be my favorite ramen place to go.

The service is still not as good compared to when it was first opened. Now, customers are getting similar to fast food place type of service. Menu has changed drastically... more focus on bento and Korean dish. It is so sad to see that the restaurant has lost its own image of an authentic ramen place and has turned into a typical Japanese / Korean restaurant. It used to have different types of ramen, but now it only kept the pork bone soup ramen.

I had ordered Pork Cartilage Ramen (豬軟骨拉麵) and Wen ordered KyuShou Ramen (九州拉麵).

When the ramen arrived, I was shocked to see my pork cartilage ramen (豬軟骨拉麵) had turned into a Korean/Chinese dish. The pork cartilage was held separately from the ramen bowl. The pork cartilage was cooked in some soya sauce with green onion and had bones in it. It was over cooked and too salty. The pork cartilage completely didn't match the pork bone soup ramen. As for the ramen, the soup and noodle are ok. But you could not tell that it had any Japanese feel. The half egg on top was still cold from fridge. I remembered that the egg used to be soft-boiled (溏心) egg, not hard-boiled egg. The Japanese BBQ Pork (日式叉燒) in Wen's ramen was just thin pieces of pork. They were definitely not Japanese BBQ Pork.

The food gave me the feeling that the chef did not know what is Japanese ramen... Not to mention a good Japanese ramen.

If you want food court Japanese food, this would be the place to go.
If you are looking for something with quality, you'll have better luck finding elsewhere.

I guess this restaurant would better position itself as a cheap fast food type Japanese restaurant. This way, at least I would have no expectations when eating there.

Overall Rating: 2/5

twin baby boys have a conversation

2011-04-01T12:01:00.000-04:00

Take a look at the video...
It seems that they can communicate using a single word... "DA" or "打"...
The whole conversation is "打打打打打打打打打打打打".... hahaha.... :D

Supermarket Scrabble

2011-03-23T12:30:00.000-04:00

There is a facebook group called "Supermarket Scrabble", which encourages people to "make trips to the shops more fun, try arranging things on the shelves to make new, amusing and even rude words, images or sculptures."

In UK, this game has drove store staffs mad as they have to hurriedly re-arrange the letters to remove the rude words.

Here are some examples:

This game seems to be fun!
However, people could focus more on other words that are not rude.
Spelling city names or actor names is fun too... ;)

Source:
Daily Mail

福島烈士

2011-03-22T12:49:00.000-04:00

This is a very touching song about The Fukushima Fifty...

~~~~~~~~~
一名成員的妻子收到丈夫的電話短訊，裏面只有一句簡短道別﹕「我不回來了」。

~~~~~~~~~
過去一周冒險參與搶救行動的「福島五十死士」，據報其中五人已經壯烈犧牲，另有十五人受傷，其餘各人或多或少都已經沾染了不同程度的輻射，對他們的健康造成無法補救的傷害。

~~~~~~~~~
其中一名死士的妻子說，丈夫發了一封電郵給她，內容說：「好好活下去，我有一段時間不能返家。」她謂，丈夫深知道輻射好像炸彈一般，轟炸他的身體。

~~~~~~~~~
一名女孩透過Twitter發出訊息說：「我爸爸去了核電廠，我從未見過媽媽哭得這麼厲害。核電廠內的人都在搏鬥，犧牲自己去拯救大眾。求求爸爸平安回來。」

~~~~~~~~~
日本網絡瘋狂傳閱一篇署名「福島第二核電站電氣設備部門大槻路子」的網誌，作者透露，她自願留在核電站繼續工作，發表這篇文章的目的，是希望民眾了解，輻射外泄絕對不是他們所願，他們感到相當抱歉，核電站內所有人正盡全力，「用生命來保護每一個人」。她透露，雖然海嘯侵襲核電站讓員工驚慌失措，但一聽到冷卻系統失靈的警示鈴聲，所有人就回過神來，盡力補修系統。

~~~~~~~~~
「時事通信社」報道，島根縣一名在地方電力公司工作的59歲男子，再過半年就可以退休，但他加入了志願者行列，正朝福島出發。這名男子的29歲女兒說，父親40年來從事核電相關工作，上周日他告訴家人：「這次事件的應對措施會改變核電站的未來，我抱著使命感，想要去（福島）。」他的妻子表示：「他18歲起就在核電廠工作，我認為他一直有自信，自己做的是最安全的工作。」她目送丈夫出發，對他說：「為了讓當地的人安心，你要加油。」

~~~~~~~~~
「福島50人」在18日上午已經擴充成580人。「福島50人」一開始是因人數得名，但後來擴充超過50人後，仍然被稱作「福島50人」（The Fukushima Fifty），因為他們是以50人為一組的方式值勤，每10至15分鐘輪流進出廠房，一邊以傳統方式降溫、一邊清理爆炸殘骸。

報導稱，580名真英雄除了來自於東京電力公司，也有人是東電工業、東電環保工程、核反應爐製造商東芝與日立製作所等公司的員工。

~~~~~~~~~
肩負日本全國安危、死守核電站的「福島五十人」，情況日趨嚴峻。連日來在高輻射水平下工作，截至昨日已有七人證實沾染過量輻射，有報道稱部分人甚至連咀嚼餅乾和米飯都有困難，但當局為免核電站的消息外洩，不讓他們與家人聯絡，有人多日來不能與妻子說一句話，身心狀況令人擔憂。

~~~~~~~~~
「福島五十人」被禁與家人聯絡，電郵和電話都被中斷，以免洩露核電站情況危急的消息，有工人已多日沒跟妻子說過一句話。富口町一名「五十人」的鄰居說：「他的妻子告訴我，自從廠房第一次爆炸那天起，就聯絡不上丈夫。她說沒消息便是好消息，必須相信丈夫仍活着。」

~~~~~~~~~
東京消防局特殊救難隊隊長佐藤康雄和其他隊員前晚召開記者會解釋注水成果，佐藤說：「當我告訴妻子要往福島時，她說希望我可拯救日本。」說到感觸處，佐藤眼角一度湧出淚水。另一消防隊長說：「我們團隊士氣高昂，但都遺下了家人。我覺得非常抱歉，想向他們說聲對不起。」後來他也哽咽得說不出話。

~~~~~~~~~
福島烈士

原曲：你瞞我瞞
改篇詞：高登一眾巴打
主唱：會員一號
繪圖：江盤0.02、流蟻、崔秀英、模畫、毒身子、躑躅子
ＭＶ：100% 憤怒鳥
日語意譯：http://blog.livedoor.jp/japanavi/archives/51969971.html

五十烈士為　堅守這島國土地
有任何難題　卻不提起
這最後任務　縱捨身為國未怕分離
強忍過　就算擠不出那力氣

你若能重回　我感恩答謝你
人性照耀大地　這光輝遍世紀
歷劫中總不會退避
儘管很想痛哭喘氣
勇氣　已仿佛寫進傳記

無言的等等等　輻射更深
仍留守崗位　心裡沒悔恨
祈求這意外沒發生　危機都不降臨
我流淚了寄望從沒有這地震

這就是人情　那光輝暖著我
而你做成人牆　為了家鄉會怕麼
若要哭不哭訴為何
每種悲泣也都聽過
願你　挽手此刻　會渡過

無言的生身心　耗盡每分
仍寧願將身體化做劍刃
還能笑說著沒要緊
危險都不過問　你瞞住我
繼續　留在那　化護蔭

天災磅礡的海嘯算甚麼
用你肌膚頑抗用熱血維護我

無窮的風火海侵襲眾生
寒流中饑荒失意淚與恨
仍前進笑著臉強忍
還等櫻花再臨你陪著我
我亦陪著你去渡過

Nuclear Boy

2011-03-18T16:57:00.000-04:00

I am more and more enjoying to put posts in blog than facebook.

Facebook gets too crowded and I see the same article or video reappearing multiple times.

When I share my thought, I guess I like a more quiet area.

Until I decide to give up facebook, I guess I'll post some things in both places.

What we can learn from 2011 Japan earthquake & tsunami

2011-03-15T13:27:00.000-04:00

面對災難，日本人與其他人有什麼區別呢？
在這次地震和海嘯中，我們可以看到，即使在危機中，日本人不只是想自己。他們也想到別人。
日本人避難的時候，男的為女的提東西，到達的時候避難場地沒有爭先恐後，不慌不忙。
到處有免費飲料和免費食物。各大小避難場所的三得利（Suntory）自動販賣機即時提供免費的飲料，大量電器店Bic Camera提供免費手機充電服務和免費派發手機電池，無線網絡供應商Fon提供免費Wi-Fi。
日本公司不想賺錢？
不，他們想賺錢，但他們也希望為別人做一點點。他們所能做的就是免費供應。
日本人不擔心自己？
不，他們擔心自己，但他們也考慮到別人的感受。他們所能做的就是幫助他人和遵守規則。
當所有的公司和所有的日本人想為他人做一點點，我們看到的是他們在悲劇中與別不同的表現。

如果同樣的事情發生在中國，我們會看到的是混亂。公司會提高價格來獲得利潤。他們會想到的是自己。

我們可以學習的不只是日本人對災難的應對。
我們應該學習的是想想他人的感受... 即使在危機中也想想別人。

~~~~~~~~~

I've been posting a lot of things related to Japan earthquake and tsunami on facebook...
Just though I should put some on my blog as well...

--------------

健吾﹕2011關東大地震的教訓

(明報)2011年3月14日星期一 05:05

【明報專訊】我沒有意圖說日本是一個很先進文明的國家，從而反襯亞洲強國對災難的應對，但從主流傳媒、網上媒體以及Twitter（推特）看到的「文明表現」，真令人動容。

日本的確很腐敗。菅直人內閣的支持率直插至兩成以下，經濟發展沒有起色，國民的生活沒有希望，的確是事實。地震發生的那天，上午的時候日本國會仍然在膠著狀態，執政黨在野黨在「財政預算案」政策中吵得火紅火綠。下午，地震發生後，所有人官員即時換上工作服外衣，首相菅直人出來說話，簡單直接：「現在發生地震。」內閣官房長官宣布要疏散核能發電廠3公里內的市民，簡單而直接，記者知道這時候，你質問「有沒有人犯錯」、「有沒有人需要問責下台」也沒有意思。長官說了，傳媒就傳話。不是因為他們只是應聲蟲，是大家都知道在這個時候，市民需要知道什麼，才是最重要。

「文明表現」令人動容

及後，就到民間的即時回應：Google開始提供避難地圖、尋人與報平安的網頁，NTT開放所有受影響地區的公眾電話給市民免費使用，各大通訊機構包括NTT、KDDI au、SoftBank都提供報平安與災情的留言版。大量電器店Bic Camera提供免費手機充電服務和免費派發手機電池，無線網絡供應商Fon提供免費Wi-Fi，還有各大小避難場所的三得利（Suntory）自動販賣機即時提供免費的飲料。

推特那邊的即時報道，以至各名人都表現令人敬佩：

．演員松田優作的前妻松田美由紀到超級市場買東西，見到貨架上仍有食物，只是人比較多，但民眾表現也十分冷靜，沒有出現搶掠食物的電視畫面。她即時在網上發起籌款運動，所有行政手續費將由該籌款機構負擔（http://justgiving.jp/c/1515）；

．棒球選手Darvish即時發放有需要資訊，提醒各人避難時要注意的事情，如千葉縣的民眾有需要可以帶雨傘上街（因為石油廠火災有機會產生毒雨，雖然及後石油公司澄清因為燃燒的都是輕石油氣，應對人體無害），阪神大地震後會屢次出現風化案件，女性不要單獨行動等等；

．男演員城田優在Twitter為說西班牙語的朋友尋找友人，報平安，並提醒各位有iPhone而又害怕餘震的市民可以下載一個叫Yurekuru的手機應用程式，設定好身處的地區和把「通知信息」的設定調至四級以上的餘震就發簡訊，在餘震到達時，就可以發簡訊提醒，及早避難；

．《五體不滿足》的作者乙武洋匡發Tweet提醒市民保暖，記得要包裹好頭部，尤其是耳朵和肩膊背部等部位。而且要多作拉筋和放鬆肌肉的運動；

．宇多田光提醒外國人可以把收音機調到NHK的963，那頻道有7種外國語言的新聞廣播。ＮＨＫ教育台也有日語、英語、華語、韓語5種語言的地震災情和海嘯警告；

．Softbank主席孫正義宣布國內所有SMS 免費直至另行通告；

．由於全國電力供應緊張關係，日本的時裝雜誌《ELLE》的官方推特勸喻沒有受災情影響的地方所有時裝店、高級品牌店等等考慮縮短營業時間，以節省電力給予有需要地方的醫院及避難設施使用；

．成田附近的高爾夫球場的浴室免費開放，以供不可回家的市民使用；

．網絡電視台U stream和Niconico即時提供免費全國電視轉播。各大電視台只要拍到有災民在建築物上求救，在天台揮動白色床單及SOS字樣，主播們會即時認出地點，提供資料予政府部門提供救助；

．廣告人赤井重里提醒日本人：「（現在）驚慌、吵鬧，只會令事情更差。會擔心或不安，我明白，但如果不是那麼危險的人，為了正在『危險地區』的人，請繼續普通地生活吧。不要散佈焦急情緒，因為，這樣有時會令人作錯誤判斷。」

日本人的質素，足以令鄰近國家，甚至美國人感到羞恥。

沒爭先恐後沉著冷靜

微博上的報道，指日本人避難的時候，男的為女的提東西，到達的時候避難場地沒有爭先恐後，不慌不忙。沉著，冷靜。工作人員為避難者提供毛氈、熱飲、餅乾。走到街上，日本人相互詢問有沒有受傷。男的負責拉線，聽收音機廣播。沒有人抽煙，地上沒有垃圾。另一個在日本工作的中國人發微博報平安，她說，避難地點，是學校，是政府機構建築。竟然有1000張毛氈。為什麼日本人會隨時準備1000張毛氈以供需要時使用？她的公司在她入職的時候，提供了一個布袋。說那布袋一定要放在她的辦公桌下。內裏有安全帽、樽裝食水、乾糧。還有她的名字的名牌，出生年月日以至血型。這天，她就緊抱這個「地震救援包」了。她說：「一個長期準備自己會死的民族，應如何應對？」友人在facebook也報平安，說羽田機場一切正常：「真的不太差。東京狀况很under control（受控），餘震很多，但早點去機場也是可以坐飛機。機場運作正常，秩序良好，沒有吵鬧，一切正常。人是多了一點，像日本的黃金周，沒有年末假期時那麼多人。」地鐵 JR鐵路全線停駛，很多人回不了家，沒有人捉著JR的職員喝罵，說「為什麼阻住佢地返屋企」。要回家，有人徒步回家，有人就等巴士。澀谷站至少集結了1000人等待巴士回家，但大家都很平靜。巴士來了，沒有爭先上車的畫面。

有序冷靜高度的組織力

黃金72小時內，美國、韓國的救助隊即時出動，一天之內到達羽田機場。醫療隊伍的志願組織（NGO）自發組織180個醫療小隊趕往災場，連同10萬名自衛隊隊員（地震後發生兩小時就出動2萬，之後媒體說情况不太樂觀，就加碼至5萬，直至星期日就出動10萬人）出動救援。食水、食物的分配的確有點緊張，而且哪家避難中心的人流分配（即是哪個地方太多人避難，哪個地方比較疏落）雖然沒有即時發布資訊，但至少一切也是也在控制範圍。

震後，日本體現的有序、冷靜和高度的組織力。NHK作為真正的公共電視台，NHK在國家重大危機時刻成為超越一切的公共平台，維繫了國民的精神和秩序。政府的發言到位，適當，簡潔，盡量不散播不安情緒。

這些都是不會日語的人很難明白的畫面和場景。

去學校避難但在中國……

在網上，不少中國人都在感嘆很多事情。如東方衛視一直直播日本地震災情。「有網民」當然會質問「為什麼不用同樣大篇幅直播雲南地震」。傳媒人的回應如下：「（我們都想）都關注，也更想播國內地震，但，國內不是你想播，想播就能播。原因你懂。東方衛視在各種夾縫裏首發直擊，已屬不易。對於大多數沒有衛星電視和很少上網的觀眾來說，了解地震，今天的東方衛視是最好的選擇。」

我很想關心雲南，但我沒有資訊。日本的地震對策常識，對中國也沒有用。比方說，日本的國民在地震發生後，會去學校和政府機構避難，但在中國，這就不通用，有太多「敏感詞」了。中國也不容許NGO幫忙，日本的救助隊上次到達四川後被阻止救災，募款之後會去哪兒我也會擔心。

下一次，如果有下次……

至於網上的什麼熱烈慶賀震散小日本這些廢物說的廢話，我也不覺得是什麼了。

因為，我看見亞洲區有這麼一個文明國家，去告訴全世界（包括好像很文明的美國），人，其實也不是太壞。

如果面對人家的天災，旁觀別人的痛苦，香港人真的是要「上一課」，我想我們要學習的，不是愛自己，不是珍惜眼前人，而是從容面對世事無常：有，沒有；得到，得不到。

萬一天災來了，6000幾億儲備，幾個單位，幾多股票，都不過是過眼雲煙。有錢又如何？地震後，不少地方信用卡都因為電話系統故障就沒有了。下一次，歐洲大雪，機場癱瘓，表現更鎮靜沉著，不那麼慌亂。家長不要越洋長途電話指教孩子如何騙航空公司的職員家人去世而要死回家奔喪而且還要覺得自己好像做到一件很聰明的事回來在微博再Twitter曬幸福，不那麼丟人現眼。下一次地鐵因事故停駛，大家轉乘接駁巴士的時候不要人人葉問上身，前擠後擁，禮讓，冷靜，體諒一點去面對意外。下一次如果鄰近地區再有災難，我們的官員可以收起他們的個人情緒，不要說哀傷或表示痛心，而是告訴我們他們會做什麼。下一次，旁觀別人的災難時，不要只關心自己的口袋的錢會不會流走。下一次在繁忙時間由金鐘轉車到荃灣線，可以行入車廂一點點，只是一點點，對香港人而言，已是一件很好的事了。

佐保小姐，你一切安好嗎？

Source:
Yahoo News

--------------

日本得體抗災中國網民讚歎學校成避難所勾起川震回憶

(明報)2011年3月13日星期日 05:05

【明報專訊】雖然遭受地震海嘯重挫，但日本人昨天仍不失團結、守禮、守紀律和尊重互助的價值觀。東京地鐵站和便利店都是長長人龍，每個人靜靜地等候，沒有打尖、沒有搶劫、沒有互相指駡。學校禮堂是災民的安心避難所，抬頭可見堅固瓦樑，沒有人會懷疑是豆腐渣。遠方的中國網民目睹裂開的日本，為3年前的四川感慨之餘，亦不禁為災難中仍然挺直腰板顧全大局的日本人，舉起拇指讚好。

日本經歷世紀大地震之後處處人龍。鐵路在地震後停駛，大批人無法回家，東京站新幹線和JR線的攤位外，打蛇餅排著數百人靜靜等候買車票，人龍中聽不到抱怨怒哮。記者向一名女士查問班次，她很平和、耐心地解釋已取消。日本羽田機場內的長龍，同樣安靜有秩序，數十人排隊累了坐在樓梯兩側，中間是一條暢通道路供人上落。

餐廳派咖喱飯汽水機一按有飲品

東京車站沿線多間學校自發開放，供無法回家的上班族暫住，內有足夠上千人用的毛氈食物擺放井然有序。旅館不單沒有坐地起價，更換個招牌變身「避難所」供免費住宿。此時此刻商店都將「搵錢發財」拋諸腦後，仙台倖存者之中，廚師留守食店煮免費咖喱飯、電器店東提供免費手機充電，汽水機一按就彈出飲品、公眾電話一按就打通。

日本網民在地震後留言：「一定要協助不會說日文的外國人避難，就算你只會說『Hello、OK』都行」網民又互相提醒：「特別要照顧長者婦女，你的鄰居是獨居嗎？記得去敲門」、「請告訴回不了家的朋友，以下地方可以免費留宿……」

「避震完畢，地上沒有垃圾」

早前的新西蘭基督城地鎮，災後曾出現趁機搶掠、商戶大幅抬高物資價格的情况。相比下，同樣屬發達國家，東京並未出現這些情况。當然，東京並非重災區，也未有因災陷入治安崩壞的狀態。有中國網民目睹日本人逃難，於網上寫道：「幾百人在廣場避震完畢，整個過程，無一人抽煙，商店服務員跑來送上毯子、熱水、餅乾。男人幫女人拿東西、駁收音機，3個小時後，人散，地上沒有一片垃圾、一點也沒有。」

一名在日本便利店打工的中國人留言：「我媽問我：『有無趁地震加價？』沒有啊。我在7-11打工，食物飲料免費提供，沒有人哄搶。人們拿了免費食物，都會排隊到收銀台來說一聲謝謝。」也有內地網民想起2008年的5．12四川大地震：「學校啊學校，日本的學校是避難所、是最堅固的，這就需要我們學習。中國人的學校啊……」

張宏艷 ﹕日本人顧全大局

曾在日本留學的前新聞主播張宏艷，1995年親身採訪神戶7.2級大地震，當年已體會日本人面對災難的人文素養。張宏艷認為，日本民族宗旨是「顧全大局」，「日本人每做一件事，也會考慮對其他人的影響，例如人們不會在地鐵講電話。日本人顧全大局的心理質素久經訓練，在天災中發揮了關鍵作用，除了自救，亦不忘救人。」她認為，因為日本人「顧全大局」，世人才看到他們在災難面前不屈並守望相助的光輝人性。

明報記者周展鴻余俊亮東京報道

Source:
Yahoo News
--------------

Andy's China Unforgettable Concert 2011

2011-03-15T11:56:00.000-04:00

演出日期 / Date	演出城市 / City
4月23日 / April 23	北京 / Beijing
4月26日 / April 26	鄭州 / Zhengzhou
4月30日 / April 30	天津 / Tianjin
5月4日 / May 4	寧波 / Ningbo
5月7日 / May 7	上海 / Shanghai
5月10日 / May 10	江陰 / Jiangyin
5月14日 / May 14	長沙 / Changsha
5月18日 / May 18	成都 / Chengdu
5月22日 / May 22	武漢 / Wuhan
5月27日 / May 27	重慶 / Chongqing
5月31日 / May 31	泉州 / Quanzhou

View Andy Lau's China Unforgettable Concert 2011 in a larger map

EQ四段曲

2011-03-11T12:46:00.000-05:00

Haven't updated my blog for a long time... I have been staying with facebook recently...
Got a pretty good email from a friend, so sharing it here:

EQ四段曲

請照主旨之順序讀 :
1. 誤會； 2. 釘子； 3. 且慢下手； 4. 寬大

1. 誤會 :
早年在美國阿拉斯加地方，有一對年輕人結婚，婚後生育，他的太太因難產而死，遺下一孩子。

他忙生活，又忙於看家，因沒有人幫忙看孩子，就訓練一隻狗，那狗聰明聽話，能照顧小孩，咬著奶瓶餵奶給孩子喝，撫養孩子。有一天，主人出門去了，叫牠照顧孩子。他到了別的鄉村，因遇大雪，當日不能回來。第二天才趕回家，狗立即聞聲出來迎接主人。他把房門開一看，到處是血，抬頭一望，床上也是血，孩子不見了，狗在身邊，滿口也是血，主人發現這種情形，以為狗性發作，把孩子吃掉了，大怒之下，拿起刀來向著狗頭一劈，把狗殺死了。之後，忽然聽到孩子的聲音，又見他從床下爬了出來，於是抱起孩子；雖然身上有血，但並未受傷。他很奇怪，不知究竟是怎麼一回事，再看看狗身，腿上的肉沒有了，旁邊有一隻狼，口裡還咬著狗的肉；狗救了小主人，卻被主人誤殺了，這真是天下最令人驚奇的誤會。
註：誤會的事，是人往往在不瞭解、無理智、無耐心、缺少思考、未能多方體諒對方，反省自己，感情極為衝動的情況之下所發生。誤會一開始，即一直只想到對方的千錯萬錯；因此，會使誤會越陷越深，弄到不可收拾的地步，人對無知的動物小狗發生誤會，尚且會有如此可怕嚴重的後果，這樣人與人之間的誤會，則其後果更是難以想像。

2. 釘子 :
有一個男孩有著很壞的脾氣，於是他的父親就給了他一袋釘子；並且告訴他，每當他發脾氣的時候就釘一根釘子在後院的圍籬上。第一天，這個男孩釘下了37根釘子。慢慢地每天釘下的數量減少了。他發現控制自己的脾氣要比釘下那些釘子來得容易些。終於有一天這個男孩再也不會失去耐性亂發脾氣，他告訴他的父親這件事，父親告訴他，現在開始每當他能控制自己的脾氣的時候，就拔出一根釘子。一天天地過去了，最後男孩告訴他的父親，他終於把所有釘子都拔出來了。父親握著他的手來到後院說：你做得很好，我的好孩子。但是看看那些圍籬上的洞，這些圍籬將永遠不能回覆成從前。你生氣的時候說的話將像這些釘子一樣留下疤痕。如果你拿刀子捅別人一刀，不管你說了多少次對不起，那個傷口將永遠存在。話語的傷痛就像真實的傷痛一樣令人無法承受。
註：人與人之間常常因為一些彼此無法釋懷的堅持? 而造成永遠的傷害。如果我們都能從自己做起，開始寬容地看待他人，相信你（妳）一定能收到許多意想不到的結果....幫別人開啟一扇窗，也就是讓自己看到更完整的天空.....

3. 且慢下手 :
大多數的同仁都很興奮，因為單位裡調來一位新主管，據說是個能人，專門被派來整頓業務；可是日一天天過去，新主管卻毫無作為，每天彬彬有禮進辦公室，便躲在裡面難得出門，那些本來緊張得要死的壞份子，現在反而更猖獗了。「他那裡是個能人嘛！根本是個老好人，比以前的主管更容易唬！」四個月過去，就在真正努力為新主管感到失望時，新主管卻發威了－－壞份子一律開革，能人則獲得晉昇。下手之快，斷事之準，與四月表現保守的他，簡直像是全然換個人。年終聚餐時，新主管在酒過三巡之後致詞：「相信大家對我新到任期間的表現，和後來的大刀闊斧，一定感到不解，現在聽我說個故事，各位就明白了：「我有位朋友，買了棟帶著大院的房子，他一搬進去，就將那院子全面整頓，雜草樹一律清除，改種自己新買的花卉，某日原先的屋主往訪，進門大吃一驚的問：『那最名貴的牡丹哪裡去了？』我這位朋友才發現，他竟然把牡丹當草給剷了。

後來他又買了一棟房子，雖然院子更是雜亂，他卻是按兵不動，果然冬天以為是雜樹的植物，春天裡開了繁花；春天以為是野草的，夏天裡成了錦蔟；半年都沒有動靜的小樹，秋天居然紅了葉。直到暮秋，它才真正認清哪些是無用的植物，而大力剷除，並使所有珍貴的草木得以保存。」說到這兒，主管舉起杯來：「讓我敬在座的每一位，因為如果這辦公室是個花園，你們就都是其間的珍木，珍木不可能一年到頭開花結果，只有經過長期的觀察才認得出啊！

4. 寬大 :
這是一個甫自越戰歸來的士兵的故事。
他從舊金山打電話給他的父母，告訴他們：「爸媽，我回來了，可是我有個不情之請。我想帶一個朋友同我一起回家。」「當然好啊！」他們回答「我們會很高興見到的。」不過兒子又繼續下去「可是有件事我想先告訴你們，他在越戰裡受了重傷，少了一條胳臂和一隻腳，他現在走投無路，我想請他回來和我們一起生活。」「兒子，我很遺憾，不過或許我們可以幫他找個安身之處。」父親又接著說「兒子，你不知道自己在說些什麼。像他這樣殘障的人會對我們的生活造成很大的負擔。我們還有自己的生活要過，不能就讓他這樣破壞了。我建議你先回家然後忘了他，他會找到自己的一片天空的。」就在此時卻掛上了電話，他的父母再也沒有他的消息了。幾天後，這對父母接到了來自舊金山警局的電話，告訴他們親愛的兒子已經墜樓身亡了。警方相信這只是單純的自殺案件。於是他們傷心欲絕地飛往舊金山，並在警方帶領之下辨認兒子的遺體。那的確是他們的兒子沒錯，但驚訝的是兒子居然，只有一條胳臂和一條腿。

故事中的父母就和我們大多數人一樣。

要去喜愛面貌姣好，或談吐風趣的人很容易,

但是要喜歡那些造成我們不便，和不快的人卻太難了。
我們總是寧願和那些不如我們健康，美麗或聰明的人保持距離。
然而有些人卻不會對我們如此殘酷。
他們會無怨無悔地愛我們，不論我們多麼糟，總是願意接納我們。
今晚在你入睡之前，請試著去接納他人，
不論他們是怎麼樣的人；請用心去瞭解那些不同於我們的人。
每個人的心裡都藏著一種神奇的東西稱為「友情」，
你不知道它究竟是如何發生何時發生，但你卻知道它總會帶給我們特殊的禮物。
朋友就像是稀奇的寶物。他們帶來歡笑，激勵我們成功。
他們傾聽我們內心的話，與我們分享每一句讚美。
他們的心房永遠為我們而敞開。現在就告訴你的朋友你有多在乎他們。

在對別人有所決定與判斷之前，首先，請想想這是否是一個「誤會」，
然後，請考慮您是否一定要釘下這個「釘子」，
如果可以的話，請「且慢下手」。
因為，當您對別人「寬大」之時，即是對您自己寬大。

Useful Blackberry tips and tricks - Others

2010-12-09T22:52:00.000-05:00

Free Up Memory by Clearing the Logs

In the Home Screen, hold down the ALT key and then type "LGLG".
To delete the logs, press the MENU key and then select "Clear Log".

This will help your blackberry to run faster.

"Help Me" Screen for Device, System Data

Help Me screen displays useful device and system information:
vendor ID, Platform version, App version, PIN, IMEI, Uptime, signal strength, battery level, free file space and total used space.

To pull up the Help Me screen, hold down ALT and SHIFT key together and press H.
To return to Home Screen, press ESCAPE or open the MENU and select Close.

Reboot Blackberry without taking out battery

Press ALT, RIGHT SHIFT (the right bottom one) and DEL together

Useful Blackberry tips and tricks - Message

2010-12-09T22:31:00.002-05:00

When you are in the message screen...

Press spacebar to scroll down a page/screen at a time.
Press shift and space key together to scroll back a page/screen at a time.
Press b to move to bottom of the message list.
Press t to move to top of the message list.
Press u to jump to the next unread message.
Press n to move to next date.
Press p to move to previous date

Within a message...

Press r to Reply.
Press l to Reply to all.
Press f to Forward this message.

AutoText...

In the message body, type the following AutoText entries followed by the SPACEBAR will insert information into the message.

mypin - Inserts BlackBerry PIN number.
mynumber - Inserts BlackBerry Phone number.
myver - Inserts BlackBerry Model number / Software version.
ld - current date
lt - current time

Press SPACE twice - to end sentence with a period.

Different blackberry models might have different shortcuts...
Check here if the above shortcuts don't work for you.

Useful Blackberry tips and tricks - Calendar

2010-12-09T22:20:00.000-05:00

When you are in the Calendar screen...

Press T to go to "Today" in the Calendar screen.
Press N or Space to go to Next (day, week or month, depending on the view you are in).
Press P to go to Previous: (day, week or month, depending on the view you are in).
Click Trackball to create a new entry.
Press A to go to Agenda View.
Press M to go to Monthly View.
Press W to go to Weekly View.
Press D to go to Daily View.
Press G to go to a specific date in the Calendar screen.

清明上河圖

2010-11-16T17:39:00.000-05:00

清明上河圖是中國十大名畫之一...屬一級國寶... 是北宋張擇端的作品... 描繪了北宋故都汴京的景色...
張擇端成功地描繪出汴京城內及近郊在清明時節社會上各階層的生活景象。

English name for 清明上河圖 is "Along the River during Ching-ming festival".
Now a day... People use different technologies to convert this painting into animation...

China animated the painting and showed it in Shanghai World Expo.

Taiwan also did something similar on their website:
http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh96/orientation/flash_4/index.html

Some people would argue that animation is not as good and beautiful as the original painting. But who cares....
I am not an artistic person. I won't spend lots of time studying a painting.
Personally, I like the Taiwanese animated version. It's cute. It keeps me interested.

I guess this is the problem with modern age. Everyone wants everything fast... moving... and exciting.... ;)

Banana Sour Cream Cake

2010-11-05T17:53:00.034-04:00

Well, I have some sour cream left over from Waldorf Salad.
Since the sour cream will be expiring soon, I've decided to do some baking.
I've found the following recipe. It is known on web as 瓊妮老太太 recipe.
I didn't add cinnamon or nuts. Since my purpose is to use up the sour cream, I didn't add extra bananas. I think this recipe will taste even better with more bananas.
Also, I used muffin cups and bake them for approx. 20 mins.

The cake is good! :-)
I wish there is a way to keep the muffin top crispy for a few days.

材料:

1 條奶油 butter (= 1/2 杯)
1 杯糖 sugar
2 個蛋(先打成蛋汁,以便徐徐倒入)
1 杯中筋麵粉 all purpose flour
1/2 杯全麥麵粉 whole wheat flour
1 小匙蘇打粉 baking soda
1 1/2 小匙肉桂粉 cinnamon
1 1/4 杯香蕉泥 mashed banana(大約三條香蕉去皮,用叉子壓壓,擣成泥狀)
1/2 杯酸奶油 sour cream (可用原味優格代替)
1 小匙香草精 vanilla
1 杯乾果仁 nuts

香蕉泥若用得多，就減少酸奶油的用量，兩項總量不超過1又3/4杯即可。

做法:

1. 烤盤噴油防沾，或鋪上烤盤紙，烤箱預熱華氏350度(攝氏175度)
2. 麵粉/蘇打粉/肉桂粉置於碗或塑膠袋內，混合均勻
3. 奶油室溫軟化，或置於可微波的大碗中，微波加熱20秒軟化
4. 加入糖打至膨鬆
5. 加入蛋汁打勻
6. 加入香蕉泥/酸奶油/香草精續打勻
7. 分次加入粉類拌勻
8. 拌入乾果仁
9. 倒入烤盤，烤1小時或以牙籤插入不沾即可

提示:

. 香蕉愈熟愈香，快要爛掉的香蕉用來烤蛋糕最合適了。平常可以先把過熟的香蕉去皮裝入塑膠袋冷凍保存。解凍後，隔著塑膠袋用手抓捏幾下就成泥了，顏色會變深，但不影響成品。

. 喜歡鬆軟口感者，可將全麥改以低筋麵粉代替。

Recipe from:
http://mypaper.pchome.com.tw/fchih/post/1242278389

Waldorf Salad - Try #2 - Success!

2010-11-03T13:44:00.000-04:00

This is my second try using a different recipe found on web.
I've made some changes to it... I didn't add walnuts and I used fresh grapes (cut in half) instead of raisins.

-------------------------

Waldorf Salad Recipe

Servings = 8 | Serving size =3/4 cup

This recipe is listed as 30 minutes active cooking time, but you will need to allow an additional two hours for chilling afterwards. Fortunately, this recipe keeps fairly well refrigerated for about 2 days.

2 medium granny smith apples
1 medium red delicious apple
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup celery
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
1 1/2 tsp honey

Mix the cubed apples with the lemon juice.

Add celery, walnuts and raisins. Toss.

Add mayonnaise, sour cream and honey and gently fold together until well blended.

Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

From Dr. Gourmet

-------------------------

Results:
It is good! :D
Try #2 is a success!!!
This one is similar to the one Wen had on the cruise.
It's easy to make for a potluck party. ;-)

Waldorf Salad - Try #1

2010-10-18T17:23:00.003-04:00

Wen had Waldorf Salad on the cruise and really liked it.
I only have a small bite, but it's good.
Since Waldorf Salad uses easy ingredients, I've decided to make it.

This salad got its name from the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Invented in 1896 not by a chef but by the maître d'hôtel Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf salad was an instant success.

I searched the internet and found an easy recipe.
This is going to be my Try #1.

-------------------------
Waldorf Salad Recipe

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup chopped, slightly toasted walnuts
* 1/2 cup celery, thinly sliced
* 1/2 cup red seedless grapes, sliced (or a 1/4 cup of raisins)
* 1 sweet apple, cored and chopped
* 3 Tbsp mayonnaise
* 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
* Salt
* Pepper
* Lettuce

Method

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise (or yogurt) and the lemon juice. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper. Mix in the apple, celery, grapes, and walnuts. Serve on a bed of fresh lettuce.

Serves 2.

From Simple Recipes

-------------------------

Results:
I've made one salad with celery for Wen and one salad without celery for myself.
The taste of this salad is different from the one I had on the cruise.
Comparing to the one from cruise, this one is:
- more sour
- more sauce
Also, I think the one from cruise doesn't have pepper.

Grandma still in hospital

2010-09-22T23:40:00.002-04:00

I was posting my grandma's situation in my wedding blog.
Since the wedding is now over, I have more time now. ;)
My wedding related things will be posted on my wedding blog.
Other things will be posted back in my own blog.

Thanks for all your prayers!
My grandma's condition is a bit better.
Even though she is still not stable yet, but she seems to be more alert.
Doctors cannot use blood thinner on her yet. :( But they said the blood spot in her brain is around 2-2.5cm now... smaller than before...
She was eating jello & mike shake like food for 2 days, but she had to move back to tube feeding based on the speech specialist's assessment.
She has problem sleeping in the past few days... She can only fall asleep for 5-10 mins most of the time... May be it's because she cannot move her body...
Please continue to pray for her health!

Photos

2010-08-27T17:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I've downloaded a lot of photos from my blackberry to laptop...
I haven't downloaded any photos for months... decide to put some nice ones here...

Aug 15... Testing your eyesight... Can you see the rainbow inside the photo?

Took this one on July 26... on my way downtown to birthday dinner... :D

July 20... One big happy family living near my office...

With a nice front/backyard view...

July 11... A group of us were watching the World Cup Final at Wild Wings...

CaCa: Hmmm... Which team should I support... Spain or Netherlands?

Ca Ca: Let's see which team is winning...

CaCa: Score is still 0:0?? Not fun... I rather play with blackberry...

Ca Ca: The teams haven't score anything... still 0:0... I am more fun to watch than them!! :)

CaCa: Game ended and it's still 0:0... need extra time... boring!!

Took them on Metro Square Night Market... This is HK style smelly tofu...
I did try it, but it's not really that smelly. ;-)

Took this one on June 6... A happy human house... The person inside doesn't really look that happy... :P

A cheap weight-loss tip: Drink two glasses before every meal

2010-08-25T18:22:00.001-04:00

A study shows that dieters who down two glasses of water before each meal shed more pounds than those who only count calories. While prescription-only weight-loss drugs cut the body’s ability to absorb fat or tinker with the brain’s chemistry, water simply fills up the stomach. Water is also, of course, calorie-free and readily available. Water drinkers ate 75 to 90 fewer calories per meal. Over the course of a day, this could amount to almost 300 calories - the equivalent of a Danish pastry or a pint and a half of beer.

For more info:
Mail Online
HK Yahoo News (in Chinese)

Since I want to lose more weight for my wedding, I should give this method a try! :D

菲律賓挾持香港遊客

2010-08-25T18:15:00.000-04:00

In the past few days, I have heard a lot of sad news about the Philippine bus hijacking:

在馬尼拉(菲律賓)，一名遭革職警官（Rolando Mendoza）在馬尼拉市區登上一輛巴士並挾持車上香港觀光客。旅遊巴被脅持事件以流血告終...槍手被擊斃... 8名香港遊客死亡... 其他人受傷了...

It's very sad that most visitors from the hijacked bus are either hurt or died. It's even more sad that these casualties could have been prevented if the Philippine polices were more well trained and had acted properly.

Here are some articles of people talking about what could have been done if it was done properly:
退役飛虎：踩住同袍屍體都要上解構菲警五大錯斥行動遲緩
菲警認指揮無能樣樣差裝備訓練不足刺激兇徒延誤救人

Sad accident ended with six broken families... :(
I am not a police and my police knowledge basically comes from TV shows...
Even I won't make some of those mistakes that the Philippine polices have made!
It's just common sense!!

On the other hand, it is also during these sad times where we see the goodness and bravery of people...
The brave tour guide who phone in for help...
The brave husband who died trying to stop the hijacker from killing people...

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010 - Summary

2010-08-08T17:06:00.000-04:00

Summary

Photos uploaded to this blog are reduced...
To download photos with people in them...
Click here or Click the photo below to view the photo album.

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010

My blog posts:

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010 - Day 3

2010-08-08T03:03:00.000-04:00

Day 3

We had eggs again for breakfast. Those eggs are fresh farm eggs from nearby free range chicken farm. They are very tasty!

Of course... we had everyone's favourite.... Cup Noodle again!
Take a look at the lineups...

We had a closing gathering before lunch.
Lunch was our final meal at Bliss Haven. We had

salad
fried vegetable balls which are made from beans, spinach, onions, etc.
spaghetti

It was a very health lunch... ;-)

The drive back to Toronto was surprisingly good. There was no traffic jam at 401.

Guess how many cars we had inside the camp?
Hint...

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010 - Tour of the outside

2010-08-08T02:35:00.000-04:00

During the free time on Day 2, I took lots of photos around the house.

Let me take you for the tour outside the house...

Front door...

Outside the back door...

This was where the owner did some of the cooking... especially cooking eggs in the morning...

Ancient stove...

I didn't think it's meant for adults...

The neighbor had a big field...
Can you guest what's growing in the field?

The field is growing green beans...

I've also found a pear or green apple tree.... However, each fruit looked very ugly...

Can you see what's hiding in the photo?

It's a rabbit!
So cute! :)

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010 - Day 2

2010-08-06T19:37:00.005-04:00

Day 2

For Breakfast, we had:

eggs
cereals
bread

and, of course, everyone's favorite..... Cup Noodles!
We brought them with us to this camp... ;-)

You can see how energetic people are after breakfast... hahahahaha... :D

Since we were not used to the beds, most of us didn't get enough sleeps.

First activity of the day is hiking. :D

The drive to the hiking place is very short.
I still remember how amazing that God has created nature.
On both side of the roads, there were wild white flowers, yellow flowers, and purple flowers.
Behind the flowers, there were taller grasses/bushes/trees.
Those were wild flowers. No one has planted them, but they have made the drive beautiful.

Before we start, we had to spray ourselves from head to toe with insect repellent...
I hate mosquitoes! :(

After the spraying ceremony, we started walking...

Our first stop was the beach...

Some people are very well protected! :P

For some reasons, there were a lot of dried dead fish on the beach... :(

Someone had built a sand castle...
Do you see the dino security guard? ;-)

We were finally at the trail entrance...
Hahahaha.... I thought the beach was the trail entrance... but it was most likely some people's backyards...

We were walking along the trail....

Flowers and unknown fruits were along the way...

This was a weird looking tree...
It looked like "2" turned 180 degress...

We had noticed that a lot of houses are above ground...
Wondering why...

After hiking, everyone was taking a break before lunch...
Lazy people! :P

Lunch Time!!
We had:

Meatballs
Chow Mein
Soup
Buns

We all had to line up for the food....

After lunch, we had worship.
It was a very tiring experience...
Not enough sleep... Hiking.... Energy spent on lunch...
Only 25% of me was still functional during worship.... hahahahaha... :P

Then, we have a couple hours of free time.
Some guys played soccer.
Others walked around the house.
We were not allowed to leave the camp to a more civilized world... ;-)

We were all smart phone addicts... :P

Best human activities.... Sleeping and chatting... hahahaha....

How about a massage?

For dinner, we had:

beef stew
spicy vegetables
potatos
rice

Take a look at our creative way to make ice-tea!!

At night, we had Camp Fire...

The sky was filled with stars... It's something that we normally won't see in the city due to light pollutions.
I saw even more stars when I walked back to the girls' house after the camp fire... :D

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010 - Day 1

2010-08-06T01:11:00.004-04:00

Day 1

We gathered on the 3rd floor singing songs and had some ice-breaking games.

Was it really that hot???

Here is our Camp Song:

可以更精彩

我知這一生可以更精彩，
(是)若我知我為何存在，
(是) 若我知我為何懂得思想懂得去愛，Wo Ho ~~~
我不想匆匆的經過，要找世上最真的一份愛，
是我恩主賜給我十架的愛。

每當我打開心窗想高飛，世事卻叫我疑慮，
試問誰人能解釋我是誰。
一刻歡喜一刻傷悲，世事太耐人尋味，
沒法抓緊我心思、猜測我心理。

這生的方向，現實的真相，
活著是為何，我願去想。

我知這一生可以更精彩，
(是)若我知我為何存在，
(是) 若我知我為何懂得思想懂得去愛，Wo Ho ~~~
我不想匆匆的經過，要找世上最真的一份愛，
是我恩主賜給我十架的愛。

You can listen to Zion Noiz's version on youtube.

The owner cooked all meals for us in this camp.
For dinner, we had:

soup
salad
kabob
rice
pita

The soup and the kabob were very good. :)

After dinner, we had another program... acting of bible stories... very funny...

For desserts, we had:

腐竹雞蛋糖水
姜汁湯圓

Of course we had to cook desserts ourselves...
Western people don't know how to cook chinese desserts... hahahaha...

Girls stayed in a different house at night. It's not as nice and beautiful as the main house. :(

Water at that place was different from the normal water system at our own home.
The house used hydraulic system to get water and water is filled with sulfur (硫磺).
According to the owner, the sulfur in water is good for skin, but shouldn't be used for drinking without boiling it first.

After taking a shower in that sulfur water, I didn't really know how good it's for skin, but I did smell like sulfur. Snakes will definite be afraid of me... hahahaha... :P

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010 - Tour of the House

2010-08-06T00:32:00.008-04:00

At noon, we all gathered at Church.
After prayer by Pastor Yung, we started heading to Bliss Haven.
The traffic was pretty bad. It took us a long time to arrive there.

Bliss Haven is a big house that was built in 1872.

Let me give you a tour inside the house...
It has 3 floors... 2 living rooms... 2 kitchens...

This is one of the living room on the first floor...

This is the other living room on the first floor...

There is a side room that can be used for bedroom if needed.
Since there is no door, we just used it for discussions...

This is the bigger kitchen in the house...

The stove looks pretty cool... ;-)

There is another smaller kitchen that is close to the back door...

Since this is an old house, some parts of the house do look kind of scary... :O

It's not scary at all if there is enough light...

This is the inside of the front door...

I noticed that there was a spider web on the metal thing... scary! :O

This is the corridor going into the kitchen.
Left side is the first living room and right side is the other living room.

This is the stairs going up to 2nd floor.

It made a lot of squeaky noises when we walked on them.
We were told by the owner to stay closer to the stair rails.

This is the 2nd floor corridor...

There are many rooms on the 2nd floor...
Here is one room... It even has a baby bed in it...

Here is another room...

Another room...

It has a very big open bathroom...
Yvonne was demonstrating how to enjoy a bath... hahahaha.... :P

Guess what's on the other side of the wall....
Hahahaha.... It is...

The whole bathroom is very girly...
Unfortunately, this house was assigned to the guys... :(

The bathroom is big enough to put furnitures in it... Wow...

There are other bedrooms on the 2nd floor...
Actually, the owner has turned the bigger corridors into bedrooms...
There is a staircase down to the 1st floor smaller kitchen beside this bed...

Another small bedroom...

Now... Let's go up to the 3rd floor...
This is the narrow staircase...

It's a simple attic with chairs for meetings...

Contract between ancient and modern...
Ancient lamp vs modern air conditioner...
To be honest, that air conditioner is totally not enough to fill the attic...
I had to be 1-2 meters close to it to feel the cold air... :(

There is also a meditation room in the attic...

Walking back down to the 1st floor...

Inside the house, we had to wear slippers.
This is where we put all our shoes/slippers.

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010

2010-08-05T09:40:00.002-04:00

For this year's Goshen Camp, we went to Bliss Haven (1028 Canal Bank Road, Dunnville, ON, N1A 2W5) for the long weekend.

Here is the website:
http://www.blisshaven.net/index.html

I've uploaded all photos with people in them.
Click here or the photo below to view the photo album.

Goshen Gospel Camp 2010

Stay tune for more details on Goshen Camp...

Naruto - 夏日星

2010-07-20T19:46:00.002-04:00

Last night, I've watched some old Naruto eposides and came across the "夏日星" song again.
I love this song when I first watched the eposides. This song is very touching.
The story is about a mother (Natsuhi) sacrifices herself for her son (Sumaru)...

夏日星

夏日星為什麼是紅色的
natsuhiboshi naze akai

昨晚做了一個哀傷的夢
yumekanasi yumeomita

哭著閙著紅撲撲的臉
naite harashiita akaimeyo

夏日星為什麼迷茫
natsuhiboshi naze mayou

在尋找著消失的笑容
kietawarashio sagashiteru

夢見了如此如此悲傷的夢
dakara kanashii yumeomiru

I've found a wonderful video from youtube.

There is an English version, but I don't think it's as good as the Japanese version.
The Japanese version is more about the son (Sumaru). Mother sings a lullaby to her son who has a bad dream.
On the other hand, the English version is about the mother. Mother is crying for losing her son and having sad dreams.

Natsuhiboshi (English version)
Natsuhiboshi, why are you so red?
Because I had a sad dream last night.
My eyes are red from the tears I shed.
Swollen as I cry.
Natsuhiboshi, why've you lost your way.
I'm searching for a child who's gone afar.
He can't be found though I search all day.
My sad dreams come once more.

Here is my english translation of the original Japanese version:

Summer Star

Summer Star, why are you red?
Had a very sad dream last night?
crying, shouting, red face

Summer Star, why are you puzzled?
Looking for the missing smile?
Dream such very very sad dream

Wen's Baptism

2010-07-20T18:56:00.000-04:00

Wen got baptized on June 13, 2010. :D

I've finally uploaded the photos of that day.
Go here to Picasa Web Album
or
See it in facebook.

From Wen's Baptism

A computer message that everyone will understand

2010-07-06T17:56:00.000-04:00

A computer message that everyone will understand:

Wendy & Jason's Big Day

2010-06-30T10:53:00.003-04:00

More friends are getting married this year...
June 26 was the wedding day of Wendy and Jason... :D
This was the second wedding that I'd attended this year... more to come... :)
And... of course... my own wedding too... heehee...

Stay tuned for link to all photos... ;-)

Updated on July 20
Well.... sharing some wedding shower photos first...

Updated on Aug 4
Finally... I've uploaded the wedding day photos. Click here.

Jason & Wendy Wedding

12 Principles of Agile

2010-06-23T19:18:00.000-04:00

12 Principles of Agile

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

For Agile, we want to deliver value early and continuously!!

Good webinar for learning Agile:
Becoming Agile
--> When you are watching the webinar, make sure that you don't accidentally click any links.
I was watching this webinar and taking some notes at the same time in computer. Then, I accidentally clicked one of the links on the side which took me to another page. I went back to the webinar page, but I couldn't go back to where I was in the video (70%) and had to start from the beginning again. :(

我們做了牛、狗和猴子

2010-06-23T18:49:00.000-04:00

I heard this story from a pastor...

有一天，神創造了一頭牛。
衪對牛說：「你要整天在田裡替農夫耕田，供應牛奶給人類飲用。你要工作直至日落，而你只能吃草。我給你50年的壽命。」
牛抗議：「我這麼辛苦，還只能吃草，我只要20年壽命，餘下的還給你。」
神答應了。

第二天，神創造了猴子。
神跟猴子說：「你要娛樂人類，令他們歡笑你要表演翻觔斗，而你只能吃香蕉。我給你20年的壽命。」
猴子抗議：「要引人發笑，表演雜技，還要翻觔斗，這麼辛苦，我活10年好了。」
神答應。

第三天，神創造了狗。
神對狗說：「你要站在門口吠。你吃主人吃剩的東西。我給你25年的壽命。」
狗抗議：「整天坐在門口吠，我要15年好了，餘下的還給你。」
神答應。

第四天，神創造了人。
神對人說：「你只需要睡覺，吃東西和玩耍，不用做任何事情，只需要盡情享受生命，我給你20年的壽命。」
人抗議：「這麼好的生活只有20年」
神沒說話。
人對神說「這樣吧。牛還了30年給你，猴子還了10年，狗也還了10年，這些都給我好了，那我就能活到70歲。! 」
神答應了。

這就是為甚麼我們的頭20年，只需吃飯、睡覺和玩耍,
之後的30年，我們像一條牛整天工作養家,
接著的10年，我們退休了，我們得像隻猴子表演雜耍來娛樂自己的孫兒,
最後的10年，整天留在家裡，像一條狗坐在門口旁邊看門。

笑話: 愛老婆的男人

2010-06-23T14:58:00.000-04:00

愛老婆的男人....呵呵..

有一個男人跟他一天到晚只會抱怨的妻子來到耶路撒冷渡假。
在渡假當中，他的妻子突然去世了。

葬儀社的人跟他說：
您可以選擇花 $5,000將尊夫人的遺體運回您的國家，
或者花 $150把她葬在這聖地耶路撒冷。

那人想了一會兒，就跟葬儀社的人說他要把她運回家鄉。
葬儀社的人不解地問他說：
為何您寧可花 $5,000把尊夫人運回家鄉，
而不願意將她葬在這美好之地，而且花更少錢呢？
他想，這個男人真的很愛他的老婆。

男人回答：
很久很久以前，有一個人在這裡死了，埋在這裡，過了三天，他又復活了。

【聖經記述：耶穌死後第三天復活】

他繼續說著：

我就是不想冒這個險……

Earthquake hits Toronto

2010-06-23T14:39:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it... An earthquake hit Toronto and Brampton...

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit central Canada around 1:43 p.m. EDT.
People in Toronto, Brampton, Ottawa, etc. felt it.

I personally didn't feel the earthquake. It must be really minor.
Only a small percentage of people in our Brampton office felt the shake.

I was messaging a co-worker working in Toronto. When he told me that there was an earthquake, I thought he meant company earthquake... "layoffs". Then, I found out that his 2 stories glass building was actually shaking. Wow... scary!

Wen (working downtown) also felt it. It lasted for 30 sec.

May be earth is giving a welcoming shake for the world leaders going to G20 and G8 submit... hahahaha... :D

Latest info
@ 2:25pm
The 5.5-magnitude earthquake was centered 49 km north from Cumberland, Ontario.
Click here to see roughly where Cumberland is.

@ 2:53pm
The U.S. Geological Survey has downgraded the earthquake to 5.0. The quake was centered 61 kilometres north from Ottawa. No aftershocks are likely, according to a University of Toronto geology professor, Pierre Robin.

Lilian & Tom's Big Day

2010-06-21T01:49:00.003-04:00

June 19 was Lilian & Tom's Big Day... their wedding! :D

Stay tuned for the link to all photos... ;-)

Updated on July 20:
Please visit here for all photos.

Tom & Lilian's Wedding

Wedding Shower for Jason & Wendy

2010-06-15T02:05:00.001-04:00

We had a surprise wedding shower for Jason & Wendy...

Want to see how Jason propose to Wendy?

Want to see more photos?
I'll post them online... eventually... :P

Stress

2010-05-20T19:22:00.000-04:00

I went to a nutrition lunch and learn session today. The speaker talks about different things... Most of them are well known by most people... Whether we can follow them? ha ha ha... sometimes...
It's very difficult to give up some pleasures in life... especially our taste buds...
We all work very hard, so we all need something that we can enjoy.... Delicious Food!!!

But I did learn something new in this session...

"Stress"... I like the definition of stress in this session:
Stress is about not being able to meet a demand & expectation!
I've never thought of stress in this sense... When I hear the word "stress", I usually think about stress in terms of work... lots of work... tight deadlines... etc...
"Not being able to meet a demand & expectation"... That's what makes us unhappy...
In that sense, unhappy is a result of stress.
Using this definition... I do agree that I am very stressed! Not only me, I think 99.99% of world's population is also stressed. :P

Another thing that I learned is that obesity may not be caused by too much eating and not enough exercise. It could be caused by Hormone Imbalance. Different hormone imbalance will cause different body area to be fat.

The speaker suggests the following good books. May be I'll buy a copy and have a look... ;-)

The Hormone Diet: Lose Fat. Gain Strength. Live Younger Longer (by Natasha Turner)
The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why (by Jonny Bowden)

From Hot to Not for 10 male celebrities

2010-05-16T01:37:00.001-04:00

Came across an article in the internet about 10 male celebrities...
They were very hot... But now... hahahaha...

An example... Pierce Brosnan

See more here:
She Knows Entertainment

有要求

2010-05-05T22:14:00.001-04:00

對自己的工作有高要求是好事還是壞事?

如果是好事... 為什麼我覺得好累?
高標準 = 長工作時間

如果是壞事... 假如每個人都只做最低標準... 這個世界會變成怎樣?
沒有競爭 = 沒有進步

專家告訴我們要有工作和生活的平衡...
換句話來說... 我們要降低工作的標準令自己有更多生活的時間...

我相信所有的上司和老闆也不會同意這些專家的說話...
所有的上司和老闆一定會說... 工作時間可以減少但必須保持工作量和高工作標準...
哈哈哈哈... Mission Impossible!

硬齋雞粒

2010-05-02T19:00:00.001-04:00

A friend brought me some 硬齋雞粒 from HK...
I haven't had this snack for a long long time...
They are very good... Once I've started eating the first piece, I don't want to stop...
I do feel very guilty since I need to lose weight... but I just can't stop... :P
This is a battle between my brain and my mouth...
In the end... My brain wins... so I am saving the rest for another day...
Stay tune for the next battle... ha ha ha ha... :D

無力感

2010-05-01T15:47:00.000-04:00

你是否曾經感覺很無力?
一種非常非常無力的感覺...
很想要完美地完成每一件事...
但...
有很多事情不在你的控制...
他人的偏見... 他人的固執...
看到其他人走向懸崖... 想要阻止他們... 但控制不了...
所以很無力...
有時想想... 這其實不關我的事... 為什麼要在意?
但...
當看到其他人走向懸崖... 我不能什麼也不做...
這就是我...
所以感覺很無力...

Mamma Mia!

2010-04-29T23:50:00.016-04:00

Tonight is the Mamma Mia night!
I've brought the Mamma Mia show tickets a month ago...

I drove downtown after work... It was a slow drive... :(
A downtown condo near CN Tower was on fire... Cars were stopping to see the smoke...
By the time I reached closer to CN Tower, firemen have already put off the fire, but you can still see some smoke in the sky.

After the slow and boring drive to downtown in rush hour traffic, I had dinner with Wen at Verona Ristorante...

The breads at Verona come with an olive paste. I normally don't like olives, but this olive paste is pretty good. I had 2.5 piece of bread.

For main course, I had Grilled Lamb Tenderloin: Marinated with Rosemary & Pommery Mustard, Truffle Mashed Potatoes, French Beans, Portobello Mushroom, A Pomegranate-Red Wine Reduction

The tenderloin is very tender. It is very good.

For dessert, I had Traditional Tiramisu: Dark Chocolate, Sweet Mascarpone and Kahlua

The tiramisu is very good... It's not very sweet and has Kahlua taste... This tiramisu is better than most restaurants' tiramisu. However, I still prefer the Tiramisu that is made with Espresso coffee and vodka.

After dinner, we went to see the Mamma Mia show...

I would give it a 8/10. It's an excellent show. It is funny and I love the songs.
However, the backdrop is pretty simple. It has no surprises at all.
Overall, it's a good show that I would recommend other people to watch!!

I've found a site where you can download the musical recording in mp3.

枸杞水 and 老花眼

2010-04-26T16:10:00.000-04:00

Got another email from friend regarding "枸杞水"...
"枸杞" is good for health and good for eyes...

“天天枸杞水活到兩百歲”

李清雲（1677至1933年）壽享256年，是清末民初的中醫藥學者，也是世界上著名的長壽老人。在他100歲時曾因在中醫中藥方面的傑出成就獲政府的特別獎勵，在他200歲時，仍常去大學講學。這期間他曾接受過許多西方學者的來訪。李清雲一生娶過24個妻子，子孫滿堂，他認為自己健康長壽的原因有三：一長期素食，二心靜，開朗，三常年將枸杞煮水當茶飲。

英國，法國的醫學科研工作者得到這一消息後，便對枸杞進行了深入研究，發現枸杞中含有一種沒有見過的維生素，便取名為的“X維生素，也稱為”駐顏維生素。經動物實驗證實，枸杞具有抑制脂肪在纖維內蓄積，促進肝細胞的新生，降低血糖及膽固醇等作用。枸杞的返老還童作用表現為：對腦細胞和內分泌腺有激活和新生作用，增強荷爾蒙的分泌，清除血中積存的毒素，從而可維持體內各組織器官的正常功能。

中醫早已認可枸杞延年益壽，枸杞的祛疾延齡作用由來已久，早在“詩經”，“山海經”中均有記載。

中國醫學科學院研究證實，枸杞能提高人體免疫力，在抗腫瘤治療中能減輕環磷酰胺的毒副作用，促進造血功能恢復，升高周圍血的白細胞數，對機體產生保護作用。

此外，枸杞能抑制脂肪在肝細胞內沉積，防止脂肪肝，促進肝細胞新生，也能抑制單胺氧化酶的活性。

西醫印證了枸杞的強大功效，現代文明發現，枸杞至少含有：
以甜菜鹼為主的5種生物鹼，數十種甾醇類化合物，16種微量元素，多種維生素，（胡蘿蔔素幾乎是所有食品中含量最高的），3種脂肪酸，16種氨基酸。大量的水溶性多醣。

據英國科學家最近研究，天然的β胡蘿蔔素能抗老，抗癌及預防日照皮膚損傷。科學家認定，自由基是人體代謝產生的惰性因子，是機體老化及癌變的活性劑。而β胡蘿蔔素能消滅清除自由基的惡性作用，因而是延緩衰老的一種較為理想的飲食因素。科研證明，飲食中如含有大量的胡蘿蔔素，則某些癌症發病率可大為降低，尤其是口腔，肺，前列腺，皮膚和肝癌等。同時β胡蘿蔔素還可增強人體免疫系統功能。

枸杞食療配方：
服食枸杞子延年卻老的方式方法很多，數千年的食補食療文化，孕育了以枸杞子為主藥的多種劑型的藥方。以下列舉實用簡便易學的一些藥膳配方，以饗讀者。

草龍珠蜜汁枸杞子：枸杞子，龍眼肉各20克，葡萄乾50克，蜂蜜20克，菠蘿200克。以上各種用淨水沖淨，入小碗加蜂蜜及適量水入蒸籠蒸20分鐘。

常服延年益壽，充實正氣，補氣養血。

枸杞枇杷膏：
枸杞子，枇杷果，黑芝麻，桃仁各50克，蜂蜜適量，將枇杷果，桃仁切碎，枸杞子，黑芝麻洗淨加水浸泡放入鍋內，大火燒沸，小火熬煮20分鐘，取煎汁1次，加水再煮共取液3次，合併煎液，用小火濃縮至膏，加1倍分量的蜜即成，冷卻裝瓶待用，益肺腎補虛，平喘咳潤燥，用於晚期肺癌虛弱，體質軟弱患者。

“偏方治老花眼”

偏方治老花眼
配方如下：中型馬鈴薯一個去皮，蘋果一個去皮;中型番茄一個去皮;粗胡蘿蔔一截去皮。放在攪拌機，攪成一杯，最好即飲。食二，三個月，不但皮膚晶瑩，而且神奇，多細小的字都看的見，一清二楚，老花鏡根本用不上。

如果你開始老花，散光或者視力模糊，大可試試這配方，每天早上連渣喝一杯，精神爽利，男女老少咸宜。

按摩治療老花眼，具體按摩方法如下：

1。用雙手中指來回按摩眉毛20次;

2。用雙手四個手指向兩側按摩眼睛20次;

3。用雙手中指從下至上按摩鼻樑20次;

4。用雙手中指順時針按摩太陽穴20次，20次再逆時針;

5。用雙手拇指按摩耳根20次;

6。用雙手拇指和食指捏住耳垂往下拉次20。

長期堅持做這6個動作，不但可以防治老花眼，而且還能減少皺紋，保持頭腦清醒。

枸杞，具有補腎益精，養肝明目的保健功能，是中年人常用的滋補，美容，長壽的佳品，與人參，何首烏並稱益壽中草藥的“三寶。早在古代，醫學家就已經掌握了枸杞的藥性。宋代陳直“養老奉親書”中載長期服用枸杞，可使人“明目駐顏，輕身不老，明目安神，令人長壽。”

“本草正義”中載：“枸杞，味重而純，故能補陰，陰中有陽，故能補氣，所以滋陰而不致陰衰，助陽而能使陽旺。南宋大詩人陸游年老時曾眼睛昏花，後來因堅持每日吃一杯枸杞羹，最終治愈了老花眼。為此陸游作詩曰：“雪霽茅堂鐘馨清，晨齋枸杞一杯羹。”

枸杞含有14種氨基酸和大量的胡蘿蔔素，還含有甜菜鹼，菸鹼，牛磺酸，乙維生素以及鈣，磷，鐵等物質。現代醫學研究證明，枸杞不僅能用於防治糖尿病，高血脂症，肝病及腫瘤，對防治眼疾也有特殊的醫療價值。枸杞中所含的大量胡蘿蔔素，進入人體後可在酶的作用下，轉化成維生素答：維生素甲向來被稱為保護眼睛，防止視力退化的特效維生素。由此可知，枸杞對健身明目具有很強的功效。

步入中年的朋友如願意使用枸杞蜂蜜茶保護眼睛，治療老花眼，可參照以下偏方：取優質枸杞一勺，沖洗乾淨後放入杯中，再用開水兌入。待兩三分鐘後水溫稍涼時，再放入一勺蜂蜜，攪拌均勻後即可飲用。每日晨起，睡前各飲一杯，兩個月後即可見效。

此外還有幾個偏方：
1。枸杞酒。取枸杞200克，白酒300克。將枸杞洗淨，瀝乾水分，剪碎後放入細口瓶內，加入白酒，密封瓶口。每日振搖酒瓶一次，15浸泡天即可飲用。飲完後再加入300克白酒，如上法再浸泡一次。每日臨睡前飲用，20克每次飲。

2。枸杞粥。優質枸杞50克，粳米100克，洗淨後同煮成粥，可作為每天早餐食用。

3。枸杞蛋。雞蛋兩個，枸杞30克，洗淨後同用水煮。雞蛋熟後去殼，放入湯內再煮，煮好後吃蛋喝湯。連吃天為一療程3-5 ，停一天後繼續食用。一般3個療程即可見效。

Wedding Blog

2010-04-26T16:03:00.000-04:00

I've created a new blog for posts related to my wedding.
Check out my wedding blog:
http://adaandwen.blogspot.com/

日劇 - 女警奇案不思議

2010-04-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

I am watching a Japanese series called "女警奇案不思議"...
I like detective investigation type of shows, so I really enjoy this show...

春瀨奇娜（菅野美穗飾）屬「警視廳搜查一課特別班」，專門調查不可思議案件，但這「特別班」的成員只有奇娜一人。由於她的性格傻裏傻氣，沒有刑警的氣勢，做事亦天馬行空又不按常規，同事視她為製造麻煩的怪人，誰也不願意跟她合作。

一天，新人刑警山崎尊（平岡祐太飾）被指派到奇娜的「特別班」，兩人拍檔專責調查一些光怪陸離的奇案。最初山崎以為奇娜無甚過人之處，感到失望與不耐煩。原來奇娜有過人之處，她不僅能快速閱讀大量書籍，更有驚人的記憶力，所有資料過目不忘。她有敏銳的觀察力，能掌握細微的蛛絲馬迹。當大家都將案件當作無稽之談的時候，奇娜總能一步步抽絲剝繭，將人們忽略的線索，化為破案的關鍵。見識過奇娜的本領後，山崎決定跟隨這位破案天才，解開連串不思議犯罪的謎團。

第1話有記憶的心臟
第2話鬼魂附體的少女
第3話復活的死者
第4話預知死亡的占卜
第5話醫院的鬼魂
第6話詛咒娃娃
第7話虛假的記憶
第8話死者傳達的訊息
最終章神秘失蹤

The whole series can be watch here on Tudou.com.

All the strange cases are based on real stories. All of them seems to be supernatural (e.g. poltergeist, raise from the dead,etc), but there is always a scientific explanation to them. All we need to do is to dig deeper. 春瀨奇娜 reads a lot of books to find out the reasons.
Ok... In the show, 春瀨奇娜 has photographic memory and can speed read, so it only takes her very short time to find out the answer. In real life, we don't have her abilities, so we'll need to spend more time... But if we are willing to investigate and dig deeper, we can also find the answer!
This is a good show that tells people not to blame everything on supernatural...
We must go and look for the scientific answer!!!

拖手

2010-04-23T18:37:00.000-04:00

Read an online article today about 拖手...

-----------------------------------

拖手

(星島)2010年4月23日星期五

(星島日報報道)一對新聞同業夫婦結婚二十多年，女兒已上大學，某天與他們在街上相遇，老公走在前頭，老婆跟在後面，我笑問為人丈夫者為何不拖住老婆？他高聲說：「你估十八廿二咩！」他們其實不老，應該不過五十。

有人認為拖手同年齡無關，跟一段關係已維持了幾多十年也無關，並舉出楊振寧和翁帆為例，人前人後，他們都經常手拖手。只要有心，其實幾時拖手都得，但楊翁的例子卻有點不同，楊振寧與二十八歲的翁帆結婚時是八十二歲，無疑兩個人都應該很珍惜這段忘年戀，「執子之手，與子偕老」這句話，對他們特別有意思。

有很多結婚多年的夫婦，的確已將彼此的關係視為理所當然，尤其是男人，多少有「你跟定我了」的含意，已懶得伸出手，女的唯有默默的跟著走。有些感情深厚的老夫老妻，也沒有再拖手，而是女的把手穿過男的臂彎，一步一步慢慢地走向人生的盡頭，這個畫面呈現的是彼此互相依靠的情懷。

別以為一對熱戀情侶拖手是其中一種必然的舉動，因為有些見不得光的感情，唯恐被人發現，公開場合即使不視對方為陌路人，起碼手指尾也不敢碰一下。能甘心長此下去嗎？痛苦的，不一定只是女方。

劉德華拖著朱麗倩從機場禁區走出來，這個舉動不是自自然然發生的，而是經過深思熟慮——大家不要再問，我也不會多說，你們看到吧。這個拖手動作宣示了一段情，解開當事人的心結，誰說劉德華多年來有口難言不苦？這一拖，亦還了朱麗倩一個公道。

From HK Yahoo News

-----------------------------------

Holding hands do show the couple's relationship...
All mature Andy fans already know that Andy is married... long before the incident...
劉德華拖著朱麗倩... This action is already officially telling everyone that 朱麗倩 is his wife...
I am Andy's fans..... but I still don't understand why some people are so upset about this....

Iceland Volcanic Ash Clouds

2010-04-22T18:20:00.000-04:00

Well... Flights in Europe are more or less back to normal...
The Volcanic Ash Clouds from Iceland have caused airlines billions of dollars...

I've found some photos of the Iceland volcano and the ash clouds... Go here:
NationalGeographic.com
Boston.com

The photos are very interesting to look at.... They are amazing...

But it's definitely not fun for the people who are in that situation...

Acidic Rain in April???

2010-04-22T18:08:00.002-04:00

I've received an email today from a friend about Acidic Rain in April (below)...
So, I do a search on internet to see whether it's true or not...

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從今天到28號，請大家不要淋到雨。750年一次的酸雨，被淋到后患皮膚癌的幾率很高。因為歐洲的一個火山的大爆發，向高空噴發了大量硫化物，在大氣層7000~10000米的高空形成了濃厚的火山灰層，強酸性。請大家注意，把這個信息轉發給你身邊的人

From today to the end of April, try not to be caught in the rain. The volcanic eruption in Iceland has created a massive amount of sulphur in the atmosphere, resulting in strongly acidic rain. There are much higher risks of skin cancer if one is soaked in such acidic rain (which happens once in 750 years).
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Apparently, multiple versions of similar threats have been floating around internet...
One version is like this:
“Be careful from the 20th to 28th of this month, there is possibility of an ACID Rain. The dark circle appeared around the moon on 17th of the last month and this is an indication of ACID Rain. Apparently this happened once in 750 years ago. It rains normally but it may cause skin cancer if you expose yourself to it. so ALERT you dear ones this information is from NASA in the USA. Do not neglect”

Other versions are similar but with different rain dates and causes...
The common thing is that all say it happened 750 years ago and all are related to ACID Rain...

DO NOT BELIEVE IT!

I haven't found an article that clears the Iceland ashes version, but I've found that NASA Meteorologist already cleared the dark circle version. Go here:
http://thewillnigeria.com/world/3976-NASA-Meteorologist-Clears-The-Air-Acid-Rain-Fears.html

Open Source Agile Project Management Tools

2010-04-21T18:32:00.000-04:00

I want to start using agile process in a small project, so I've been searching on the Internet for a good open source tool and found a site with good comparisons:
http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/67269-comparing-open-source-agile-project-management-tools

Agilefant and IceScrum2 are the best tools available.
I am still debating which tool to use, but I am leaning toward IceScrum2. I guess I'll try it out...

Interesting video on Media Convergence

2010-04-21T13:55:00.001-04:00

Interesting video on Media Convergence....