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! :)

蜂蜜脆片

蜂蜜脆片; 是我幫Honey Crisp翻譯的中文名字，是一款我愛吃的蘋果 :*) 今天跟得源、布瓜去Milk Pail Market(牛奶桶市場，好Q~) 蔬菜水果們很新鮮又便宜。逛Trader Joe's，裡頭有起司麵包冷凍巧克力可頌跟冰淇淋餅乾等，可頌是以麵糰的形式出現，要捏成一球球丟到烤箱去考，我馬上就想到小毛。

昨天是人生裡的第三次滑雪，去Tahoe的NorthStar。不禁要說NorthStar好美喔!山腳的商店街是木製的歐式房屋，屋頂都覆著薄薄一層雪，山坡地上是雪白色的，錯落著針葉樹們；天空卻是大片蔚藍的。下次一定至少要呆兩天啦，半天的滑雪怎麼夠呢!滑雪成員是得源、Sam & Kevin，我們可是很Hard Core三點半就從Stanford出發搭巴士的滑雪團 :)。

這是第一次坐纜車到山坡上滑雪(上次實在沒辦法)。坐纜車是個挑戰，要急急忙忙在纜車轉過來前滑到定點，讓纜車靠近能正好接住屁股；到站的時候又要趕緊站起來往下滑，還要小心跟同車的人不要靠太近不然會干擾XD，總之每次上下車我都有點緊張~ 不過纜車路途上看看大大澄澈的天空、底下雪白的山坡，順便晃晃腳下的ski、跟得源幼稚地用ski打架(加上莫名的低吼) 真是一種很平靜又快樂的好感覺:")

滑雪本身，我在big & easy坡(想嘗試綠色長線的時候已經三點了無法去QQ)。不過好在 big & easy就有大約四條不太一樣的路線，有的陡峭有的平緩，還有"Rolls" (連續的起伏坡)。我現在已經會控制方向速度，做大小轉彎，只是實在沒膽，一切都要低於某個速限。根本還不敢加快速度，呼~ 待我哪時候真正學會平行緊急煞車。不過必須要不怕摔倒才學得快XD

無止盡hang-out 年代

無止盡hang-out，真是很青春的標題!

我想到小時候(不就是一年多前?)在小巴，有一段時間莫名的心灰沮喪，主要是lab work太無頭緒(不是很有趣)。那段時間多虧Eleen, Victoria, Pauline, Jaclyn, Amy Clifford... AC (Asian Club) ，提供了我可以無止盡hang-out (?)的時間場所，大約是五月底。

地點是在604，我後來一年的家。時間總是晚上十點到半夜(?)，時常在玩Mario Party，我每次都選Yoshi，而且手腦反應太慢都最輸。

時間跳到2009，Eleen感恩節拜訪Stanford。首日我們去大食了一頓日本午餐@ Menlo Park :")
Hopkins朋友清楚知道，我做決定的理由和轉過的彎，知道我不想唸PHD，知道我 ... 很多事情都不必特別說。我也喜歡他share給我的 UCSD biomedical science experiences! (I think they are pretty cool and fun and I am so glad she enjoys it :)) 談話很放心，很大方自在

最近，跟很多人交談，有些用筆，有些用說。自己多想了很多，更能釐清一點方向，指向未來的箭頭。PHD現在也在選項中，不過我還是想先工作一兩年 (see if I like working life?)，也很謝謝爸媽、Polly，世青阿姨，陪我跑步的得源，還有小毛，我們可以慢慢仔細地想!

天才小廚師

今天心血來潮，蒸了五個胖胖的高矮不一的高麗菜捲。
高麗菜捲們排排坐在蒸盤上，好像作美勞。

好久前買到一顆台灣高麗菜就想做了　:)
今天只有得源是我的座上賓，我早該請她吃飯　:p

從前到現在，每次到有賣菜捲的店，我都會忍不住買，買了之後，
總是不喜歡。但是下次看到高麗菜捲，又會用奇怪的衝動買下。

我想到一家西門町的台式日本料理，很嘈雜但是美好的。
又想到在柏林跟Albert舅跟Drawing，點了包心菜捲，
於是巨大的包心菜一層又一層剝開，在深處的最深有一小丸肉，
大概是三顆魚丸大小。我們都傻眼 :")

baby talk

我發現身邊的人很擅長baby talk。

首屈一指是林楊興。
「我這個PHP都不會寫...」
「你知道不會寫代表什麼嗎? 」
「因為他們太難了。我們家哈尼這麼聰明都不會寫」
「可是我只是要花時間慢慢摸，因為語法不熟。可是快來不及了。」
「對啊，所以你不是不會，你是還需要時間嘛。這是不一樣的喲。」

類似這樣。

再來是得源。
「得源，我會改PHP字型了耶!」
「好棒喔!」 <- 其實是一件簡單都不行的事。可是我輕易得到誇大的讚美。 哈

得源真的很棒。在大家都瘋狂寫作業並且有做不完的工作的史丹丹，她是唯一總是兩肋插刀，總是全力幫我解決問題的朋友。總是讓我一直煩，卻還是幫忙我 :")

昨天與前晚，都急急忙忙在gchat上丟得源。下午在系館4樓，得源陪我(幫我)一起 trace很多細微末節的 code抓蟲子們。我真是幸運的孩子。