Phaedon

今天上Human computer interaction seminar的時候，發現Phaedon(我同學)的太太Tanya跟他一起出席了。下了課我跟 Tania 互相認識了一下，發現她是拍紀錄片。目前正在製作一位在紐約拍了七十年照片(從1930年開始!)，已去世的女攝影家的紀錄片。她說希望明年能夠完成。我充分表達了很想看的意思，說一定會e-mail Faden and ask about the movie when it's out! :)

認識不同領域的人覺得很新鮮。不懂CS的Tanya(?)，也可以因為對今天seminar有興趣而出席。最讓我感動的其實是，在這背後，有多少分享跟溝通呢。有多少的分享讓 Tania知道Faden修的每一堂課，甚至今天演講的內容都做了瞭解；有多少的分享讓Tanya從未與我見過面，就知道我跟Faden這學期跟上學期一起修過哪些課，就算我跟Phaedon只是除了打打招呼沒有更多交集。:) 他甚至問候了遠在台灣的小毛耶。(竟然連這個都知道)

從小地方就可以知道他們之前的溝通平台是多麼良好又完整。互相分享的對方的世界，那麼鉅細靡遺。我想到有一些偉大的愛情之間，不一定有完整的了解與溝通。比如聞一多這麼有學問的人，太太(家裡給他選的)卻是大字不識得一個。即便如此聞一多還是寫出了動人的詩句:

我把這些詩寄給你了，
這些字你若全不認識，
那也不要緊，
你可以用手指
輕輕摩著他們，
像醫生按著病人的脈，
也許可以試出
他門緊張地跳著，
同你心跳底節奏一般。

可是我說，能夠enjoy分享與溝通，是relationship的充要條件。(我沒辦法當偉大的詩人吧)
熱情，好的個性，好的外在條件，沒有辦法愉快地分享，交流，感情都是難以繼續的。也許很多情侶之間，會慢慢忘記了喜歡分享‧或是被其他生活的壓力磨掉了。那樣多麼可惜。或者情侶變成家人，溝通不良還是毫不保留也沒有選擇地愛。多可惜!

也許Phaedon的太太拍紀錄片、Phaedon還在上學，賺不了幾個錢，我看得出他們精神層面的富足與幸福。完美關係。也許我們都想不通愛情的來源是甚麼(如果真的要想是會糊塗的)。喜歡過與被喜歡，大大小小也發生了幾次戀愛，我的感情狀態，有些是最愛的爸媽也不知道的。只是想說，我一直沒有失去自己的冷靜與理性，是家人不需要為我擔心的那種。男朋友也是最好的朋友，我想是個好的開始。:)

Say Hi

舊金山的第五個月。生活還是由五花八門的功課組成，雖然我已經很努力要排一些我喜歡的覺得有趣的又不會太操的課在裡面。可是世界總是有一好沒兩好呢，上學的時代是沒有輕鬆的一天。:p

這學期房間進駐了大眼仔。大眼仔要詳加介紹可能就篇幅很大了。總之他是一個圓圓伸出兩隻手臂的device，學名是NOVINT FALCON。以USB連到電腦，用C++ program他，握著他的knob(一個圓球)，就像滑鼠一樣可以tour around the program(knob位置map到螢幕上) ，然後寫程式作 force feedback。大眼仔的手臂會給你力回饋。簡單舉例，就是螢幕上假如有一個球體，使用大眼仔的手當滑鼠，在接觸到球的時候，大眼仔的手會傳給你力，所以好比你真的摸到球了一樣。

所以大眼仔的演算法是要用到很多奇妙的向量數學，八百年沒碰過的微積分、內積都跑出來!周末可以跟三維空間向量專家林小毛討論一下。可是我今晚碰到了大瓶頸啊。跟上次長得差不多的程式架構，跑出來竟然是BLANK ... :;( 我都哭泣了。

看San Francisco Ballet 演出很開心。想到上學期結束跟得源看The Nutcracker :*) 胡桃鉗。真是非常活潑繽紛的舞劇，花俏的 costume + 女孩跟胡桃鉗王子四處遊覽(印象中都是去到春暖花開的國度)，芭蕾舞炫技的部分也是不能少的。除了浪漫優雅的雙人舞，還有許多許多喧鬧又精緻的合舞，是一個快樂的孩子氣的童話，我非常喜歡。

這次的天鵝湖，就多了很多抑鬱和悲傷的慢舞，是獨白和芭蕾內心戲呢。他深沉深沉許多。這學期比較努力省錢，午餐都自己煮，但看來似乎省下的錢都轉去每個月看一次的表演裡了。

Back from LA, and ...?

I had a great visit in Irvine @ Vanessa's place. :) The whole Pau family greeted me so warmly and kindly. Auntie even prepared home-made almond tea and 85-degree bread for me! I had great Shanghainese food at Yao-fat the first night, had dumplings, noodles, sweet and sour fish stuff, had met Vanessa's two sisters: Bonnie and Regina, both brothers-in-law: Michael and Pete, Cara, Regina's uber cute three-year-old daughter, and her cousins: John and Karen. We had so much fun together at the "game night": we played Mafia, which I've not been able to play after graduating from JHU. I still sucked at the game, but whatever, :p I had fun. It was hard for me to come up with strategy to identify the Mafias and to defend myself, let alone to disguise myself as a mafia. sigh. I missed the game dearly though. We had quite some really fun ones back in Illinois, and i guess in 604: the one which I got completely cheated by Lu and Vanessa. haha.

The second day I woke up late. We had a late lunch at BJ's with Ming and Michael-zai (the deep dish Pizzas, with very thick and rich taste!) I ordered the spinach and artichoke pizza (i love artichoke!), which is an originally not-welcomed flavor by the rest party, but it turned out good ah-ha! :) We then chatted and had tea at Ming's house (major thanks to auntie) and went to the Santa Monica Beach! It was still, very pretty and touristic. I just love the little street star-shaped lights. There is an entire fair thing at the beach, with roller-coasters, merry-go-round, and fairy wheel... etc. We went onto the fairy-wheel! It was very scenic, as it went darker :) We totally overlooked the sea, and i felt like we had extra time on the wheel (YAY!) The speed of the rotation varied, which made the ride more fun! We then went to the fame walk @ Hollywood as I requested. I like the design of the chinese theater, with the gigantic dragon on it :) So this is Hollywood. Did I feel the magic? Dinner was with Ming's friend, Young, who worked for Disney at LA! Young is a very cool and energetic girl! It was fun to hang out and the Argentina food (Lalas) was tasty ( and exotic).

The third day is the most exciting. We woke up at 5 and went Skiing! I can't believe I went skiing twice in 10 days. Most of the group snowboard, making me kind of like minority. I first went on the "summit run" with others, but was totally overwhelmed by the steepness. I stared at the slope and could not put up my courage to ski down. :"( Man the run was l--o--n--g! I spent a long time struggling with it and just to know that I was not even half way down. I finally made my way to the bottom, with all my scare and sweat. I called John up and went together to the bunny slope after lunch. Bunny slope is just comfortable for me, not that challenging, but a bless. We then got caught up to the summit run again. The second time was much better. There was this steepest slope that I was still very terrified to go down. I got to see the dusk far at the mountains as I skied down, and I felt a little bit worth it to struggle with the mountains seeing that. :)

Accident did happen. I saw many people carried down by those little cars. The impaired populations grew as it went late. Scary! I fell like three times per run. Once I bumped into a snowboarder and bruise my knee. The other time I was hit by a fast snowboarder and ended up fell on-top-of the guy! He had to move my legs (alone with my ski) away from him. :( Glad that since I didn't go fast at all, the falls were all manageable. Once I fell and my ski went off. I could not put it on again because my boot probably turned icy. I tried for like 15 mins and was full of frustration. How could I go down without my ski on! Luckily, John climbed up all the way to check on me and help me put my ski back. It was very kind of him because he did it without me calling him or anything. hooo! I am glad that I get to know such a good friend! :)