May 30, 2006, 9:43pm

It's getting so hot. Cannot even eat.

May 27, 2006, 4:31pm

64

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/

May 27, 2006, 4:04am

So tired. I forgot since what time I have been doing this translation work. This stupid job should be finished this time last year...

May 26, 2006, 4:41pm

Finally I have finished this book. :)

p. 331-332:

While they [the resilient] hardly went to choice schools (since many were poor), the contrast with home was extreme. Those who were good students probably got the best of what their schools had to offer; but for all of them, school was an ordered world, a place to be competent, a universe in which the junctures met. They could predict what would happen there.

Higgins, G. O. (1994). Resilient Adults: Overcoming a Cruel Past. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

I would add that, when I have got what I can get from school, I begin to see what the schools should do better.

May 25, 2006, 6:52pm

Shirley took Anna (Shirley's grand daughter), Luning, Du Lin, Diangao, and me to go blueberry picking. :)

I got 2.5 pounds. It's only $1.5 for one pound. If the farm people pick it, it costs $2.5 per pound. Well, for me, I can always buy boxes of blueberries in the grocery stores. Picking blueberries myself is the main point to go to the farm. This compensates all my pain without dim sum and street snacks in Hong Kong. :DDDDD

The sun was burning and we were picking and picking for one hour. I'm sure I got tanned even more. Then I'm having a headache. It's just too hot today.

May 23, 2006, 10:09am

I tried to make the malai cake the second time last night. It had more holes inside but still more like a cake than a malai cake. It also had too much taste of the baking powder. Awful.

My laptop is probably going to quit soon, again. Programs clash. Got to make sure I'll have it fixed before the so-called limited international warranty ends in July.

May 22, 2006, 3:00pm

I want to see the space shuttle launching.

http://www.ksctickets.com/kennedyspacecenter/prlapalaviad.html

Let me find out which direction to look!

May 21, 2006, 1:41pm

I tried this. http://blog.yam.com/spoon/archives/777792.html

It's not like malai cake in anyway... I didn't put enough baking powder or I didn't make enough air in the mixture. It simply has nearly no hole inside. :~~

Let me try one every day until I can make something edible!

May 18, 2006, 8:17pm

So, Shirley took Diangao, Du Lin and me to see the Santa Fe River. We went to the O'Lena State Park and the Poe Springs County Park.

It has warning signs about alligators in the O'Lena State Park everywhere. Both fortunately and unfortunately, I didn't see any. One part of me wants to see the gators in the wild. But the other part of me knows I cannot run if the wild gators come close.

This is the cypress trees in the O'Lena State Park. They are everywhere near water in Florida. The little short thing coming up from the ground is called the cypress knees. Seems like no one knows what the cypress knees are for. See the article here.

Du Lin, Diangao and I walked across the bridge but Shirley and Zhi Mei didn't want to walk on the "springy" bridge. So, this photo is to show the little achievement of Du Lin and me.

We saw a deer by the road when we were leaving the O'Lena State Park. It has a sign in the park to warn drivers about gophers crossing the road. I was hoping to see one but didn't see any. It should be like a big tortoise. Wouldn't it be interesting to wait for a gophers to walk across the road? Don't know how long it takes for them to walk the several feet?

This is the Poe Springs County Park. The water here is much clearer than that in the O'Lena State Park. It's such a beautiful day. :)))

May 15, 2006, 4:55pm

Jess died. It's her heart. Her loving, caring, cheerful heart.

May 14, 2006, 12:28am

So, I was babysitting my friend's pug again. I took her to the lake in the campus. I also got to see the bats flying out of the bat house at dusk.

Basically, this city is a very boring place. So, every day, there're people standing in front of the bat house waiting for the said-to-be 60,000 bats to fly out. This evening, there're 30 or so people waiting. I was there waiting for one whole hour. If I was in London, probably I should be waiting for Tom Cruise or the Queen. This city is really a place of nothingness, anyways.

In the very beginning, it's only 1-2 bats flying out. Then minutes later, it's all of them. So, this reminds me the idiom, the early bird gets the worm. Well, the early bat gets the mosquito. Hopefully, the 60,000 bats get all the mosquitoes.

I really think the school should have more bat houses and keep more bats. Should help eat more mosquitoes, roaches, and flies. I just don't understand why they keep the alligators in the lake. OK, they are endangered but they are also dangerous. An alligator just killed a woman. See the news on May 12 and May 13. I'd better not see any alligator. My knees won't run.

May 10, 2006, 4:21pm

So, I had my haircut today. It's summer! Got to make it short.

Well, they said, my ends are dry and very much damaged. Asked me if I had it straightened before and yes I did. My hair was just so bad when I was in Hong Kong. Poor physical and mental health. My hair is not excluded. So, I had it straightened to look nice.

They also said, my hair at the top are soft and nice. Just so completely different than those in the ends. So, those are the newly grown. Good to know. I'll have my life renewed. I don't want that suffocating life with my family in Hong Kong anymore.

May 9, 2006, 8:04pm

It was thundering the whole night, so we cancelled our blueberry picking morning.

I had a nightmare again. This is a new one. My evil mother was there screaming and shouting at me. Same as so many times before, I had no way to handle her, either, to stop her.

And Psyche, you're there with me in the nightmare. I don't remember exactly but you're there all the time in the shouting and yelling.

I tried to reason with her, no use. I tried to leave her, she's following. She has no reason when she's scolding me. It's only personal attacks.

This morning I was just exhausted. Feeling the same since September 2002 when I was back in Hong Kong living with them, all through to three months ago. Three months ago I told my counselor about my nightmares and the nightmares became less frequent for a while.

Many times I couldn't remember I had any nightmare but I would just wake up all tensed and in a shock. Bad enough I didn't tell my counselor because I had nightmares too long and too often. I took it normalized and didn't think about telling him.

I want to stop this. I have been away for more than 9 months already. I don't want such nightmares to stay with me all my life.

May 7, 2006, 11:54pm

This is the third day already. Graduation. My neighbors play whatever kind of musical instruments at 2am or later.

Or they're out there having parties from 10am. And now, a group of them are f--king, again.

I just don't know what kind of education and what kind of a culture can nurture graduates like these. My neighbors are graduate students.

May 7, 2006, 4:51pm

I am babysitting Lulu, my friend's pug. She doesn't like to stay in my apartment. Pooed, then sat down at the door waiting for her mom.

I don't want to see her sad face thinking she's abandoned. So, I took her out walking in the campus until she's tired. Well, at least she's showing me a smiling face peeing in the grass.

And now she's here in my office sound sleeping. It's the easiest for me if she's there sleeping all the time. Please, sleep until you mom calls...

May 6, 2006, 1:55pm

Just woke up at 12pm. So tired after the Cinco de Mayo party. I have little idea what this is or this day really exists. They said it's the independence day in Mexico. Basically, it's another excuse for party and getting drunk.

So, the gals drank a lot. I took one shot of tequila after repeated pressure. Yes, peer pressure. I never like it. Never know why they enjoy it. I only like things that taste good, like wine or baileys. I don't like things to make me drunk in the shortest time.

Then they got their inhibition system disinhibited. Began doing all the crazy things. One insulted the host's neighbor. A huge guy with many tatoos. It's already midnight when that guy came home with his bike. She f---ed him. Then, after he settled with his bike, he came back.

Then, they actually had to entertain him. Introduce people in the party, made him drinks, talked for hours...

Some of them got loose and showed each other their breasts. Never know what they're doing and why they're doing it. It's the second time I went to party with them and ended up with breasts shows. It's just screaming and laughing. One word, crazy.

I didn't join them and they seemed enjoying what they're doing. Good they didn't bother me. Well, people may say this is a way to release. I doubt its effectiveness. And this may not be my way to release even if I have a need to release.

May 4, 2006, 10:23pm

Have been thinking the whole day. What do I want to do? Do I just want a degree, then a job? Follow the mainstream psychology?

Gail emailed me, reminding me about all the critiques about psychology I learnt at LSE. I have been thinking for a day and still don't know how I should reply.

She has such high expectation from me. That I need to try to see through the assumptions and problems in psychology. Yes, I am aware of that. But I have tried not to think about them too much... need to get a respectable grade in class.

Should I criticize now? Or should I criticize when I get my degree? Or by that time, I have lost my ability to criticize?

May 3, 2006, 6:08pm

I'm done with my first year! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Finally I can take a deep breath of fresh air and feel relaxed. :)

May 2, 2006, 11:45pm

Shara and Jessica came to give me birthday gifts! Makes me so happy. :)

I was telling Shara yesterday about Shirley's wonderful rice crisps. So, today, she gave me this rice crisps so I don't have to worry about to learn how to make it myself. :P

I'm getting this Gator keyring too. She said, when I learn how to drive, I'll need a keyring for my car key. How nice. :~~

Mark, do you want a Gator something?

May 2, 2006, 8:38pm


Hey, Psyche, thank you so much for my birthday gift. Yes, there bound to be people older than me. :)

You know me well. I was already thinking about what to do after my statistics final. So, this book is one on my list of goals for my summer.

I have procrastinated too long with statistics. Didn't do anything in the weekend. Still not well prepared with my exam tomorrow.

Anyways my grading is all done so the exam is the last thing to get done for my first year. Yeah!

May 1, 2006, 5:52pm

So, I went out driving again. My second time... four months after my first. :P

Shara and I went to the Morningside Living History Farm for the parking lot with only two cars. Somehow two guys appeared then quickly disappeared when we told them that I was learning driving. Sure they know they got to get out of my way. :D

http://www.natureoperations.org/Pages/Parks/MNCLHfarm.html

I went there in the Christmas break to see children feeding the animals. This afternoon, the two black pigs were trying to mate... they're guys. :P And the sheep all got shaved.