June 30, 2006, 6:58pm

I was packing in my office. Jess's Christmas card is still here. She asked me to send her my phone number. I forgot if I sent her my number. I have her phone number but I didn't call.

Hopefully she's now in the heaven. That way I can talk to her whenever I want to.

June 29, 2006, 11:59pm

I actually dreamed about driving all night... I must be very anxious...

June 28, 2006, 3:10pm

Don't know how many traffic laws I'd have to break before I can really drive competently.

I didn't stop on the red before I turned right. I didn't yield for the car in the opposite lane when I was trying to turn left. I couldn't stay in the same speed when i was trying to switch lane...

All very scary.

I studied all the rules when I was taking the written test. But when I'm actually on the road, my brain is blank and I cannot apply all those written words into my body coordination.

Terrifying...

So hungry every time after driving...

June 28, 2006, 12:35am

My advisor said he had something to give me. I said, "More work?"

He gave me a "2006 World Cup" mug from Germany. :)

He said, he promised to give me a mug after reading my story about my mother throwing away my mug that my kindergarten teacher gave me.

She made me so mad that day. I went home and didn't see my mug. It was with me for at least 20 years. She said it had a crack. I knew but it's not leaking. Even if it was leaking, I might just use it as a pen holder. Yet she threw it away without asking me.

She's just destructive. Doing things that cannot be reversed. No undo.

It's just an ordinary mug if it's not a gift from my kindergarten teacher. I forgot who that was or what year. Probably it's my graduation. It had a white background with a picture of birdview of a brown house in the middle of green. The bottom said it's made in Japan.

That mug can never be replaced but I may not be able to get other things without losing it.

June 27, 2006, 3:37pm

Just back driving with Kim. My goodness, I was going 50 miles. I have no idea how I have survived that.

Well, I hit the curb when I was backing up trying to park near my office. But good enough I finally learnt how to switch lanes smoothly. :)

Got to learn how to turn left smoothly and get into the correct lane. It's like a roller coaster every time.

June 26, 2006, 11:11pm

Du Lin and Jian like my soy sauce chicken drumsticks and winter melon soup!

:DDDDDDDDDDDDD

I'm so happy. It's so lonely to cook and eat alone. So, I have decided that I should cook and share with them.

June 26, 2006, 2:23pm

This is just crazy. I took me one hour to call and wait in those customer service lines to disconnect my residential phone service. It was another hour last week when I wanted to disconnect my internet service.

I have no idea how Americans can live a life like that. So much time to waste. Wasting life.

June 25, 2006, 9:50pm

One discovery is that, the Disney staff do not have the so-called standard smile all the time. They only made it up for me when I asked them to take a picture.

Almost every staff who were not on the stage, they were simply ordinary Americans. No smile. Little eye contact. Or even look away from you.

Well, how can they be compared to just any ordinary Greek people in the street?

This is the view when I was at the highest point of the falling elevator in the Tower of Terror. Horrible horrible horrible. The feeling of weightlessness is really scary.

It's really interesting to see kids. They are happy to see the characters, staying in line for their autograph. :D

A little girl tried again and again to grap the 3D image in the Muppet 3D show. She didn't know it's just an image that seemed to be coming so close to the audience. If she would take off her 3D glasses, the 3D effect would be gone.

Why, everyone seems to have a family.

June 25, 2006, 1:28am

Just back from Disney MGM. Oh, well, it's like they make you watch TV all day. 3D, big screen, water screen... whatever, it's just TV.

Paying more than $60 and get into the long lines to see TV all day. Even when they have stage shows, it's from soundtracks and not live singing.

The most boring is the Millionnaire. The question was, what is Westminster Abbey. The guy picked art museum! Yet, the "answer" was church. My goodness. Please don't compare the gorgeous Nave I went several times for the evensongs to the churches here.

Organ. Choirs. Latin hymns. Bells.

I need the West End musicals and operas. Real people doing real performance. Not "entertainment." TV...

Sucks.

June 23, 2006, 11:36pm

Got to write all these down. I have had such a crazy day.

1. I made soy sauce chicken drumsticks. It's my first time. They are really good. Shara also said so. :)

2. I drove again. First in the Office Depot parking lot. I'm sure the owner and the customers hate me. Then, I drove to Shara's place... It's so long... Then, went to the grocery store to buy rice crisps... Oh, it's almost dark. It's only 2-minute drive but it felt so long... Then, I drove back from Shara's place to my apartment. Oh, I was going 35 miles/hour...

Couldn't think. Couldn't decide for myself. Shara made commands and I just followed. Couldn't look through the windows to watch out for cars before I switched lanes. Come on, I was looking at things ahead. How could I turn my head and look at the things behind? Horrible horrible horrible.

3. Shara and I made the rice crispies with marshmallow. Well, it tastes really good. But just think about what it's made of. How much margarine and marshmallow...

By the way, I had the cup noodles for breakfast. It tastes the same as those in Hong Kong. Well, a really good taste.

June 23, 2006, 12:12am

Well, maybe I shouldn't complain. I have been swimming three times a week... Enjoying the water...

But hey, my m is late for eight days already!!! No clue. I had dong gui already... Would that be I'm very excited about moving to Colorado? Or too excited for that fact that I can swim?

I have begun packing stuff... Will need to get things ready so the moving company can take my advisor's stuff together with mine.

What should I do other than counting the days?

June 22, 2006, 10:42pm

I found the cup noodles in the grocery store this afternoon. Sure enough the shelves have been there for ages but I only noticed it... nearly a year later.

It's so cheap! Three for only $1. Even cheaper than the same brand in Hong Kong but they don't have all the variety of flavors here.

I'm not a fan. I just want to see if they make it taste the same for a different market.

June 21, 2006, 11:04pm

So, I began packing stuff yesterday. So very tiring. So many things I cannot decide if I should pack them...

I am also trying to learn the freestyle... Very tiring. Too tired that I had a hard time riding my bike back home after swimming.

Du Lin was swimming in the deeper end... 10 meters... Horrible. Like risking life... Well, maybe I'll try next time. Makes me anxious even thinking about it...

I had a roach walking around last week. I sprayed the bug killer and it didn't seem to work. This roach, it's like it had paid the rent that it was entitled to live here. It was walking around everywhere. I am never able to step on a roach. And now, I cannot risk my knees to stramp.

So, I had nightmares about roaches for two nights... Then I found a dead roach in the cupboard this morning... My goodness, how am I going to take it out to the bin? Why can it not go out and die somewhere in the bushes?

Such a stupid roach.

June 18, 2006, 10:16pm

I went driving again! Nie and Ning took me to go around and around and around and around the parking lot near the law school this afternoon. Well, hit the curb don't know how many times.

Came back hom and dropped dead in bed for an hour. Too exhausted. Too much stimulation. Too much things to take care. Yet, they were watching out for the cars. I was only steering and giving gas. Couldn't watch out for myself.

Feel like after riding the roller coaster... Hopefully I can do better next time.

June 17, 2006, 11:59pm

It's just so very hot. Dropped dead in bed when I got back from Pam's yard sales. Anyways, it's fun to see what people shopped.

This cowboy bear would be the only thing I would have desire to own. A lady bought it the end of the day.

The couple dolls look like they are from the Einstein family.

Pam made the yard sales so big it's more like a shop. :)

June 16, 2006, 11:56pm

Here is my itinery. :)

July 22
Orlando, FL - Oakland, CA

July 31
Oakland, CA - San Diego, CA

August 9
San Diego, CA - Denver, CO

Well, still need to arrange my trip to go to Orlando. Also from Denver to Fort Collins. Will see how it can work out.

I really miss the Hong Kong airport and London Heathrow. Just so easy to get there.

Cities, here I'm coming!!!

June 16, 2006, 10:50pm

I saw an owl! I was walking in the parking lot near my office. Then I saw this big bird with a big round head!!!

Amazing.

Cindy, the GatorLift bus driver took me from McCarty to the Newell Drive bus stop earlier in the afternoon. I was going to catch the 5:45pm bus route 13 to go to Tanglewood for the pool and dinner with Du Lin and Jian. Well, I missed the bus.

Cindy stopped behind the bus but the bus driver didn't wait for me. She took me to chase the bus to the next stop but still, the bus driver simply didn't wait for me to get off from the GatorLift. Only if I can run, I'll catch the bus driver and kick his/her ass.

One more thing. Cindy gave me a bag of banana peppers she grew in her garden. It's like the green bell pepper but lighter in color and sweeter. So, I brought the peppers to Du Lin and Jian. And they cooked.

Thank you so much for the peppers and the cooking. :DDDDD

June 15, 2006, 11:55am

It all began 10 years ago.

May, 1996, HKAL was over. June, 1996, watched Up Close and Personal. Could never (and still not) forget June 4. September, 1996, got into JLM, CUHK.

Was expecting a career life of adventures, excitement, challenges, satisfactions... Theories were great. Professional ethics were fantastic. Homework was challenging.

Yet the internship in Wen Wei Po in 1997 taught me journalism at least part of the reality in the Hong Kong media. Self-censorship, 16-hour work day and 1 day day-off in two weeks (a slave in postmodern time), waiting and waiting for hours for nonsense high and low officials to speak nonsense, write "news stories" not for its newsworthiness but to please the rich and influential (or those half-way rich and influential)...

The 1997 handover was always roast piglet cutting for me.

Sick.

Fortunately, I found a way out in the total darkness. I found psychology. I saw far too many suicides every day I wanted to see in the two weeks as a spot news reporter. Other reporters might see those tragedies as everyday life. Peeked into private homes to take pictures. Acted as spy to listen what the suicide survivors grieved about in the hospital counseling room. Joked about the guy who jumped, lying on the ground as a layer of broken bone pieces, pants off...

Sickened.

I wanted to change. I don't want to be in the frontline going to the scene when tragedies happen. I want to learn what has happened before suicides. Until today, I am still trying to learn about human psychology. How we are stressed. How we are sad. How we are happy.

I has taken me so long in this life full of questions. I'm glad that I'm still going.

June 13, 2006, 8:25pm

So, I'm through the tropical storm Alberto. The rain was horrible the whole night. Peeked out from the gaps of the blinds and felt like it's going to flood any time.

Now everything is calmed down, no more strong wind.

So, I cleaned my apartment. Tidied up my notes and papers into the cabinet. Made the dong gui, long yan, red date, and egg soup. Baked the shrimps. Finally, I can enjoy the daisy tea.

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8F%8A%E8%8A%B1%E8%8C%B6

Leanne, thank you so much!!!

December 13, 2006, 12:16am

This is such horrible rain... feeling anxious. Looks like it's going to flood...

June 12, 2006, 6:18pm

So, Tropical Storm Alberto is turning into a hurricane... Very worrying... I never worry about my personal safety with any typhoon in Hong Kong. Yet, this place, they're stupid enough to build houses with wood that a wolf may blow the roof off. I do need to worry.

The campus will be closed tomorrow. Well, no excuse not to clean my apartment...

June 10, 2006, 9:44pm

It's so hot. Such a long day... So, I have one cup of American ginseng and honey water every day. :D

Thank you so much, Leanne. :)

June 9, 2006, 10:30pm

Shirley and I went to see the Dixie Hummingbirds concert.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060608/SCENE/206080321/1004

More than once that I was in church sings where the music was horrible. This time they had some other performers before the Dixie Hummingbirds. Well, I'd give them a 50 but the Dixie Hummingbirds is real good.

So, I have finally got the email of offer from CSU. Will need to begin looking for campus housing or apartments there. Need to plan how I can arrange the time to go to California before going to Colorado.

Mark, I'm coming. Ling, I'm coming. Irene, I'm coming. I need a city!!! :D

June 7, 2006, 10:46pm

I can swim, finally!!!

I went to the pool in Tanglewood, where Du Lin and Jian live, yesterday. Was thinking, no hope... Was trying to swim with the floating aids. Then my ear was painful the whole night. Probably got some water in it. Terrible.

I went again this evening, began with the floating aids again but all a sudden I was swimming.

Natalie, now my Speedo stuff doesn't harm my self-esteem anymore. I can swim! :D

June 7, 2006, 12:02am

So, finally, I went (learning) swimming again. :D

I planned to go yesterday. Then it began to have thunders when I arrived at Du Lin's house. So, I went again today after Shirley's "what to do with blueberries" demonstration.

I don't think I remember what to put in there and what to mix. In the end, we had the blueberry pie and blueberry muffins.

Muffins half-done.

Muffins well done.

Will make a webpage for the blueberry demonstration. Need a webpage instead of a blog. I don't want to wait to upload all the photos.

June 4, 2006, 10:44pm

Maybe I will need to read this book...

A Briefer History of Time.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553804367/104-5691153-7558353?v=glance&n=283155

Have been reading about longitudinal studies in developmental psychology, that studies aim at studying changes in time...

Yet, what is time? Is it OK to measure age to study changes in time? What is age?

June 4, 2006, 1:12pm

So, I learnt to wrap the rice dumpling. Also had one for lunch. This is heaven. The heaven has to have good food. :D

Was in Du Lin and Jian's house overnight. Watching movies and teaching her Cantonese. Saw many TV programs that I never had time to see... Du Lin actually knows a lot more about the TV people than me...

Got to put Sister Chu here. She was in a movie Qu Yuan, the poet who committed suicide feeling too frustrated about his country. A friend said when she's a little fans of Sister Chu, every teenage girl saw that movie in Shanghai 20 years ago.

http://www.yndaily.com/html/20050422/news_84_222203.html

How come I can find no pirate version of the movie. All the time I only listened to her about her movies and saw her old photos. Never got any chance to see any motion pictures...

June 3, 2006, 12:16am

I'm phobic with roaches for don't know how many years. Maybe I should begin a therapy myself...

http://www.artchinanet.com/artlife/qibaishi/images/zuopin/42.jpg

http://www.artchinanet.com/artlife/qibaishi/images/zuopin/17.jpg

June 2, 2006, 11:34pm

http://www.orbis.org.hk/hk/pinday/index.html

It's still too hot. So hot. Terrible.