13th Floor Lakeside

[m] The Wedding Vows

2010-05-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

当年的婚礼简单而幸福，至今每一个字都还是记得很清楚：

I will take you to be my lawful wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health while we both shall live.

我娶你为自己的合法妻子，从今而后，无论顺利还是艰苦，富裕还是贫穷，健康还是疾病，我们都相拥相依，直到终老。

[d] Channel Islands国家公园游记 (Log of the Channel Islands National Park Trip)

2009-05-26T21:49:00.001-07:00

萝卜未种，坑先挖好。

[m] 夏威夷初体验 (My Very First Trip to Hawaii)

2009-05-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

你站在窗前看风景
看风景的人在桥上看你
明月装点了你的窗子
你装点了别人的梦

从夏威夷回来两周整，我决定完成这篇在写与不写之间纠结了数次的游记。然而工作太忙，加上随后的各种事务，本该2009年5月完成的游记竟然拖到了2010年～～～。拿起久已不用的博笔把作业交了吧。

这次旅行起于偶然。Wanping和他女友在网上发现了两人从洛杉矶到火奴鲁鲁往返四日只需750刀的行程，懒于生活的我便欣然拖上LD加入。其实后来发现Wanping相当喜欢自助游，也很有经验。对他来说，这个偶然其实也是必然。这是题外话了。我们四人一行5月1日一大早离开圣迭哥前往洛杉矶，10:00从洛杉矶出发，12：45抵达火奴鲁鲁机场。

[d] 我穿山越岭，是为了看人生的风景 (Some Thoughts about Life)

2009-04-25T00:23:00.001-07:00

周五的晚上泡办公室到午夜，当然不是因为无家可归。

是因为附近那所大学的图书馆提早关门了。
能做自己感兴趣的事，是一种幸福。
累则累矣，乐在其中。
正如那风吹日晒中的hiking。
听行者在路途上快乐地歌唱吧。

我穿山越岭，是为了看人生的风景。

真的很美。

[d] Weakness is a Joke

2009-04-14T21:33:00.001-07:00

Go forward, my dear friend! You asked for blessing, and I am standing firmly side-by-side with you. I know you have a strong heart, and weakness... it is just a joke.

[d] 各地的包子 (Meat Buns of Various Places)

2009-02-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

周末在家里聚会，做了荠菜包子。早间起来，坐在床边读汪曾祺的《五味》，笔触很随意清新。让我也来写一点包子吧。

我家乡阆中的包子是小笼包。这个名字其实不完全符合事实，因为包子虽小，蒸笼却是竹制的而且很大，直径约有一米。几个蒸笼垒起来，一次蒸个四五百只是没有问题的。阆中的包子是鲜肉馅，菜料则只有葱一种，而且葱肉各半，吃起来香味十足。吃包子时必浇上红油，单看颜色已是开胃。佐餐用的是骨汤或是鸡汤，汤上也满撒葱花。红油和葱之于川菜，如同泡醋之于意大利菜，是特色鲜明的签名档。

阆中的包子，我去的多的是北街的赵包子一家。冬天的早晨薄雾刚散，坐在店里点上十只二十只享用是人生乐事之一。县城不大，吃早餐的人并不结伴而来，却常常因为遇到熟人而互相抢着买单。这是古城人的独特经历，外乡客是遇不到的。

成都小吃如云，有名的包子店也多。W常带我去春熙路上的韩包子。店门口的牌上，大书“北有狗不理，南有韩包子”。似有夸大的嫌疑。不过成都人爱成都的感情，和我爱自己的家乡完全一样。W在本地长大，对韩包子是特别情有独钟。韩包子是以包子为主食，配以各种小菜和粥。包子也是小笼，馅料有多种，不过都是酱肉而非鲜肉。春熙路之名得于“众人熙熙，如登春台”，韩包子的客人自然永远不会少。

在天津的时候，我专程去吃狗不理。现在的狗不理店已经快餐化，虽然去的是总店，吃包子时无论如何找不到百年的感觉。北方饮食较粗，即使是狗不理这样的名吃，在我尝来也觉少味。窃以为经营者太注重运营品牌，而忽视了食以味美的道理。小米粥做为佐餐，口感倒是大佳。这一点为南方包子所无。

很难想像在芝加哥繁华的商业区中心，Michigan大道上，会有一家包子店。这家名叫Wow Bao的店是2005年开张的，地点是在Water Tower Place的二楼。距离鼎鼎大名的芝加哥水塔仅有百米之遥。Wow Bao的包子有小笼蒸包也有叉烧，做工比较精致，价格亦不算低。饮料的选择包括果汁和茶。这家店走的是精品东方路线，面向的是来逛商场的顾客，和一般唐人街的餐馆风格完全不同（老唐人街有一家Mulan木兰餐厅，风格倒是与之很像）。芝加哥圣诞季节严寒，走进Water Tower Place, 看看楼顶垂下来的巨型小丑公仔，听听圣诞音乐，品品包子，真是别有一番风情呢。

[d] 早起偶得（A Verse on Palm Trees)

2009-02-13T08:54:00.001-08:00

图配韵文，受汉歌辞^＊启发：

北国冰雪胜，加州独有棕；
叶秀堪比菊，茎直不输松；
雨中一妙处，众鸟鸣其中；
音婉若天籁，形微难觅踪；
借用汉歌辞，略补拙笔空--
鸟鸣棕之南，鸟鸣棕之北，
鸟鸣棕之西，鸟鸣棕之东。

^＊汉歌辞《江南可采莲》
江南可采莲，莲叶何田田！鱼戏莲叶间。
鱼戏莲叶东，鱼戏莲叶西，鱼戏莲叶南，鱼戏莲叶北。

[d] My recent runnings

2008-09-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have been running regularly in the mornings in the past two months. Morning runnings help me in building the endurance, maintaining a working momentum and losing weight. One of the proofs is that I was able to hike the Hollyburn Ridge trail in Cypress Provincial park with relative ease. This trail, being "moderate" as rated, used to be a challenge for me.

When I was at Vancouver I ran in the neighborhood of UBC, on SW Marine drive. The route starts from St. John's college, ends at Westbook Mall, and follows the same way back. This route boasts very scenic view, and best fresh air in North America.

The San Diego route starts from Regents Road and Executive Drive. I run to UCSD campus, going as far as the Computer Science and Engineering building, and take the same way back.

On 9/17 after staying one night at University of Chicago's International House, I started from I-House and toured the whole U. Chicago campus. The temperature was a bit cool but after a while it became okay. Chicago's summer is really nice, albeit after October you basically will be forced to run indoors unless coldness is your favorite.

On 9/20 (today! I am back to San Diego now). I did a morning running from UIC to Chinatown, and took the bus back. The route starts from UIC, takes Halsted street all along till Archer street, and then turns into Chinatown Square. This is what I have never done in the whole past 5 and 1/2 years when studying in Chicago, and brings lots of fun :).

[m] What is Google Chrome aiming at?

2008-09-05T11:07:00.001-07:00

Google released its Chrome web browser on Tuesday, September 2. Being a long-time Firefox user, I have downloaded and tried out Chrome. The browser is light weight. Its user interface, just as described in the release news conference, is "simple enough to make you forget the existence of the browser itself". Google claims that the release of Chrome is to contribute to the diversity of browser user's choice. Nothing wrong with this statement, but what's more?

Here are my two cents:

- A defensive attack at Microsoft to protect Google apps. To ensure a significant control of the platform where one's own applications runs on is a key factor for the success of internet giants. An analogy is that we never heard an Amazon statement claiming "powered by Microsoft SQL Server technology". Google has invested considerable effort in the new business of Google apps (docs, mail, calendar) that have both light local existence and tight integration with the service cloud. Putting the user experience of these applications in the hand of a well-know rival is a threat of today, and will be a disaster in the tomorrow.

- Make official endorsement to a non-IE platform. Isn't there Firefox, and it is backed up by Google already? The answer is both yes and no. OEMs can hardly bundle Firefox with a Windows PC, even if Microsoft does not offer incentive for such deeds. Simple reason: nothing offered by Mozilla foundation. On the other side, another open source browser endorsed by a money-making company as Google could potentially bring money-making opportunities to the OEMs too. The time-to-market cycle of business stimulated feature development, such as adding a security control for online shopping checkout, will be much more assured in this case.

- Think about Opera, think about the mobile markets. Opera makes its own share in the mobile browsing market largely due to it is so far the best candidate who achieved seamless user experience both on desktop and mobile devices. The light weight and concise user interface of Chrome makes its expansion to a mobile platform quite feasible. As for Google's future in the mobile OS field, I am optimistic. Remember Robert Love is on its side...

Well, with one of the players makeing a big move, let's wait and see how the whole chess game goes on.

[m] 俄罗斯教训格鲁吉亚: 小国滥玩"大战略"不足取

2008-08-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

格鲁吉亚选择在奥运开幕之际进攻南奥塞梯, 结果被俄罗斯反戈一击. 搞得军事行动失败不说, 主动要求停火还不被别人理睬.

俄罗斯作为前苏联的主要继承人, 当然是霸道的, 和原来的小兄弟们关系也都不太亲密. 我有好几个朋友就是从前苏联加盟共和国过来的, 说到俄罗斯都颇有微词. 问题在于像格鲁吉亚这样明知在南奥塞梯有俄罗斯驻军, 还敢于不宣而战的二愣子却是仅此一个. 究其根底, 还是盲目相信美国和北约必会撑腰. 四百万人口的小国, 何以能确定俄罗斯, 美国, 北约三大势力能被自己运筹帷幄? 这次滥玩"大战略", 吃亏真是不小.

[r] Hostels in Rio

2007-05-18T04:14:00.001-07:00

Although Brazil is considered a developing country, the hotel cost is far from low. This is especially true in tourism-flourished Rio. The hotel I stayed costs $150/night. For a single student, a good way to cut lodging cost will be staying in hostels. Two websites to find them:

http://www.hostelworld.com/
and
http://www.hostelz.com/

The hostels in Rio charges $15-$20 a day, and quite a few of them resides in areas that have good views (e.g. Copacabana Beach).

[d] Flourish 2007 Conference

2007-04-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

The UIC ACMers and LUGers organized a very successful Flourish 2007 Conference. It is the same group of people who turned SEL 2262 from a boring TA office into a friendly lounge for computer science lovers. My respect goes to these young & energetic boys/girls. They are the real hope of pushing UIC forward towards one of the top school names, well, at least from the current 50-or-so ranking in CS.

Being one of the attendee, One of my pleasures is being able to listen to Chris Dibona's talk in person, and take a picture with him. Information age shortens the communication distance, but not necessarily the geographical one. Obviously getting travel money to go to open source conferences like OSCON and PyCon will be a dream for my Ph.D. career at UIC ... , not even likely after starting full-time job... So, thanks Flourish!

[d] New Year, New Car

2007-01-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

我的老丰田Camry已经开了两年整了，故障也越来越多。年底假期期间它连连抛锚，终于让我下定了买新车的决心。上周末买下了这辆07款福特Escape. 自己开车上班是安全多了，爸妈要是今年来也能舒服不少啊（想念中）。主要指标：

入门级四门SUV ，2.3升185马力
油耗23/26（街道/高速，英里每加仑）
自动档五级变速

[m] “Aggressive" 的百度

2006-09-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

上次老陈来芝加哥的时候，我开车陪同。他对我在高速路上驾车的两个习惯颇不以为然，一是换道时回头看盲区，一是经过高速入口时减速让支道车并入。按老陈的说法，在成都要像我这样，大概是寸步难行的。"在国内就得Aggressive!"

"Aggressive"的注解，我在生活中当然颇有体会。早在当年申请出国时，实验室一位常年做学生干部，而同时在申请的兄弟，即“无意”地用嗅探软件获得了我的邮件密码，并侦听三个月之久。我的所有电子邮件，均被抄送一份给他，直到被我发现，并投诉至网络中心为止。此兄目前在某银行开发软件。仅此记忆，已让我不敢对国内银行“保守客户隐私”的承诺太过认真。

无独有偶，百度在裁员风波以后，最近又惹出了一个新麻烦。那就是修改搜索结果，把用户对知名下载网站的搜索结果，引导到自己旗下的下载网站去。搞得人家不依不饶打整版广告抗议。这起事件说明，对有些公司标榜的“诚实”、“严谨”、“用户至上”、“商业道德”，只需要完全按相反意思解读就对了。2002年，Google的搜索结果中忽然出现大量的天x门，法x功关键字，导致Google在中国被屏蔽了好一阵子。当时就有许多证据指向新兴的百度，使用了垃圾链接技术，诱使Google的自动搜索提高被禁页面的搜索评级，然后再匿名向监管机构举报，以此打击竞争对手。

我很奇怪象百度这样的公司为什么没有被用户抵制，或是出现股市信任危机。同样的作为在美国，对公司的影响是相当负面的。对此，大概只能用中国国情来解释了罢。

[m] 最近的一个小爱好

2006-07-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

就是到新浪去看blog。自己写blog两年了，就是自娱自乐。新浪的全是名人（现在也有一些草根了，象非常真人），充分满足大众的8卦心理。要是美国名人也自己开博，估计我早把Jennifer Aniston的订上喽，还看什么八阙啊。

先是以为名人也跟风，今天看了几篇文章才发现蛛丝马迹，原来新浪的内容编辑联系了300多名人，而且反复做工作（估计也提供一些代写服务）才竖起的这面大旗。高，实在是高！blog不比邮箱，估计没人愿意开两个，看来搜狐是棋输一招了。

我看要做社会网络的研究，还是得在中国，随便点开个博客文章评论都上百。跟中国比，美国的互联网社会网络太小儿科了，不过蕴含的商机还是多点。

[d] 印度房东家的晚餐

2006-06-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

到科罗拉多来的两周确实过的相当充实。细细算来，公司组织了午餐两次，烧烤一次，漂流一次，日子过得还比较腐败。在公司的项目和Summer of Code上也颇有进展，厚厚的一本"lucene in action"居然已经看完，这种效率是原来从来没有过的。可见好的环境是多么重要。
印度房东晚上有客人来，邀请我一起进晚餐。我再三推辞，倒不是因为吃不惯印度食物（我对curry颇有爱好），而是因为来的人中有长者，而据我推断一般老人都不说英语，怕自己混迹其中让别人交流不便。房东一再说明语言不是问题，英语绝对通行。盛情难却，于是答应了。
7点左右客人陆续来齐，连主人夫妇和我，共有10人之多。大家先是围坐聊天，主人捧出面包待客。不出所料，几句英语过后，果然就是!@#%##. 好在印度话有一个好处，和日语一样，就是夹杂很多和英语同音或相近的单词，所以我还不至于完全云里雾里，居然还听出大家谈论的是板球：）。谈话里大致知道在denver地区有8个印度板球俱乐部，也有自己的赛季，累积分冠军和淘汰赛冠军，觉得颇为新鲜。
晚餐桌上摆出了五样菜：烤辣鸡腿、酸沙拉、炖蔬菜、咖喱米饭和咖喱汤。大家各拿盘取食，然后坐在一起聊天。男人们到了沙发上，都自然地脱鞋盘腿坐上去。我想就是传说的印度人吃饭时盘坐手抓大致就是如此了罢，只是时代进步，餐具不是直接用手而改用刀叉了。女主人的手艺真是不错，味道和平时在印度餐馆吃的有些不同，不过我想要比正宗程度，肯定还是今天的更高了。饭后大家打牌，兼有小赌，我就没参加了。倒是因此，有了小小的对双扣和麻将的思念...

[d] Another Summer of Code

2006-05-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

It is summer again and Google is organizing the second Summer of Code. Although I am going to start my internship soon in Colorado, I still wrote two project proposals and both got accepted. Due to time constraint I could just take one, from Open Source Application Foundation.

Being a developer for open source projects is fun. It means lots of email exchange, coding in the midnight and in the backyard, trying hard to understand others' ideas and making self understood by others. But so what? it is FUN, that is worthy of all the efforts.

There are quite some rule changes this year for SoC, overall Google is much matured on managing stuff. Started to involve in open source communities from last year, I also gained experience for a better participation. Let me start the keyboard exercise today.

[d] Feelin' Good

2006-03-09T06:12:00.000-08:00

Chicago is welcoming 2006 spring now. In the morning when I walked out the house to the car, oh, the gentle breeze make me feeling so good. Mild weather, a little bit moisture, a non-crowdy I-290, what can I expect more?

I am still working on the grant proposal. Kinda of slow, yet there is progress. The past project is a deviation from my career goal, but if it could be funded, the whole idea will not be too bad. I wish that a month later, I will be updating this entry with joyful comments. Anyway, let's see how it goes.

[updated 04/20/06]
I am glad to put it here that my research grant is funded today. Yay!

The summer internship is going to start on May 15, and there will be less than two months for me to stay in Chicago in the upper year. Since 2003, I've spent every summer at the lakeside and seldom realized those wonderful aspects of Chicago's hot season. Although it is often implicit, I do have to admit my love for this city in heart, for its diversity, social events, various people I met, and most importantly, the Ph.D. student experience.

[updated 05/24/06]
The export licensing is still under processing, and internship start date gets deferred to uncertainty. Let's wait and see.

[m] Notes about Staying at Shanghai

2006-01-18T05:09:00.001-08:00

My staying at Shanghai, which was between Jan. 13th and Jan. 21th, was definitely involuntary and unexpected. The U.S. consulate general in Chengdu sent my visa application for background clearance and I could do nothing but just wait. Although the checking process was annoying and the hotel cost was expensive, I did found something interesting and worth writing down. This could act as a memorandum for my next Shanghai visit, however readers should warned that China is changing so rapidly and any experience notes could get outdated quickly.

[trip-planning]
e-trip is now becoming popular in China and a site to recommend is ctrip(www.ctrip.com). Ctrip is like a Chinese version of hotels.com, and provide lodging searching and booking services in major Chinese cities. Another convenience it is providing is booking ticket over the phone and picking it up at the airport. This service is especially in China as electronic tickets are not commonly provided by the flight carriers yet.

There are also several Chinese hotel chains that have online service. To name a few, Motel168(www.motel168.com) and JinJiang Inn(www.jj-inn.com). To save your cost instead of browsing Hyatt, Marriot and Ramanda sites, you should defintely give them a try first.

[on-site at the airport]
There are lots of services at the airport. You can find lots of small travel agency counters that could help you for lodging and ticket booking. But remember to bargain! Almost all quoted prices are negotiable and the final deal could be 40% to 50% less in price. I found my hotel at one of the counters, and get a RMB160/day price with free airport picking up. There are also car rental at the airport, including lots of international brands as Hertz, Budget etc. However, to rent a car, you need either be a foreigner (with non-Chinese passport) or company-endorsed.

There is an outlet mall at the airport, which consists of 40-50 stores. Most brands are European and North American and the prices are a somewhat higher than at Chicago. Be careful to read the "Made in" tag, as lots of the mechandise are actually made in China.

[monetary matters]
Although credit cards are now commonly used in Shanghai, cash is still the king. Don't count on traveler's cheques unless you could find a nearby bank. At the same time, there a lots of limitations to use credit cards, such as inconvenient refunding. I used to pay the hotel bill with Unite Visa and found a mischarged item later. When I called the hotel, I was told that my card is needed again for refunding, even if the card number was known.

Despite of the temporary inconveniences, I could expect credit cards to be in majority of Chinese's wallet soon. There are so many credit card advertisements on the news paper, and the offers vary from reward points/miles to VIP travel service. I also saw quite a few chain stores issuing their own credit cards, with a bank partner.

[other things]
1. Ask and keep all the receipts as possible as you can. The cash-transaction nature makes purchases hard to manage, unless you keep all the receipts.
2. Be cultural "billingual". When you are back to China, think and act as normal as the local people there. This is especially true for daily life.
3. Be ready for new stuff and make quick decisions under new circumstance. At least for me, China is now is somewhat as fresh as I arrived U.S. three years ago. Never hold prejudices of the local environment, but be open minded and willing to learn.

[m] became a Ph.D. candidate

2005-12-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

I proposed and defended my dissertation topic towards Ph.D. degree on Friday, December 16th. According to UIC regulations, I became a Ph.D. candidate and finished the second milestone towards degree completion (the first one was the Qualification Exam).

The dissertation topic, called Personal Augmented Computing Environment (PACE), was based on my long-time thoughts about how the advances in mobile computing and grid computing could benefit individual users. Having been a mobile handset developer for one year and a research assistant with EVL for three years, my past experience backed me up perfectly in conducting a research project as proposed. Particularly I am interested in three aspects of PACE: 1) effective clustering and utilization of mobile device resources, 2) scalable multi-modal human-computer interaction and 3) context-aware methods and models.

[updated on June 22, 2006] One keynote on this year's WWW conference specifically addressed personalized web search in mobile environment, which was very close to the paradigm of PACE. As I will start my internship at Motorola Lab from August, I feel quite motivated in exploring the "Seamless Mobility" concept heavily prompted by Motorola.

[d] Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

2005-12-09T17:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Chicago had its biggest snow blast this winter. Although I had to leap among snow piles on the streets and spend half hour to dig the old Camry out, the feeling of holiday season was sweet and warm. Next Friday will be the prelim exam date and I expect it to go through smoothly. This year had been a hard time for me (I even did not have time and mood for the Thansgiving turkey). However, it is good to see things changing gradually and positively.

On X'mas day, I will be flying home. How I missed my parents, the view of Jingpin Hill from the window of my bedroom, and the delicious meat buns served with hot soup! No place is better than home. That is so true. So let me turn the radio louder and sing along with the music: "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow......".

[d] Da Sox wins!

2005-10-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

The recent hot topic of the game between Chicago White Sox and L.A. Angles finally has its result revealed: Sox won the game 9:6. This morning when I was waiting for #8 bus on Halsted, I saw trees on the road side were decorated with -- white socks! Needless to say Bridgeport has been the area that most celebration took place. Being a southsider, especially one lives near the home field of this team, feeling of pride and joy also comes to my heart. Wish White Sox all the best in the World Series!

[d] ipod nano scratch

2005-10-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

There has been tiny scratches on my new ipod nano already, although I have just used it for two days. This little cute thing is also vulnerable. Here is how the screen looks like now.

With the doubt whether I was just a careless user or there was some problem with the coating plastic, I googled "ipod nano scratch". Ouch! My worry was true: the first 15 records were all about user complaints on this issue. Clearly, Apple did not do a good job on the screen manufacturing (it's shipped from Shengzheng, China. Whom should be blamed for? ......).

Luckily (or surely), issues are always followed by solutions. I also found one post by Todd Dailey: Restore your iPod nano to new condition with a $4 can of Brasso. Todd claimed that his solution to be successful, with proof of pictures before and after treatment. I will look into that later. His post was also a good beginning of the "scratch fix" thread, where over 100 people followed up with their experiences.

At the same time, I need to start to look for a nano case now. Even after treatment, this is still a necessary accessory. The lowest price I can find online is about $17. Apple really created a good business, exactly as the other fashion creator: Google.

[Edited on 11/15/05]
I got the case from U. of Washington bookstore, during HitLab visit. The final price is $19.99 + tax. The rubber case doubled my nano's thickness, and the cumbersome coat I recently putted on doubled my figure as well ......

[d] Meeting Mr. Galvin in person

2005-09-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

I get a precious chance today to attend the talk given by Mr. Christopher Galvin. Chris was Motorola CEO when I was still at Chengdu site, and his retirement was six months after my leaving, on June 2003.

One funny thing I remembered was that when our team was developing voice dialing software on a PDA cell phone, Chris' name was used as a sample contact list entry. In the demo video, I spoke the name "Chris Galvin" to the phone, and Chris' contact list automatically popped up with pictures.

That was things three years ago, good memories. The topic of today's lecture is how Motorola succeed to grow into a manufacturing giant, and Chris did tell some stories I did not known about before. Before founding Motorola, his grandfather founded two other companies and they both went bankrupt. The reason? No innovation and following existing business patterns. This story actually inspired me to change perspective on my current situation, of which I am trying to not mimic other's way but deal with things in my own style and is starting to get positive results. Success comes from perseverance. If every dog has its day, then I will definitely wait for mine.

[d] SoC deadline finally came

2005-09-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

The deadline of SoC is Sept. 1, and it came yesterday. My TSC-I2 project final released version 0.08, which is for sure not perfect for the coding geeks but good enough for me.

What did I get besides the stipend and the T-shirt? Well, I got to know that open source force is now really powerful: the software construction tools, the operating system platforms, and a very, very big and active community -- on sourceforge.net alone, there were over 50 new software released or updated on the single day of Aug. 31; I also worked together with a group of smart people, regardless of their nations and levels of education; more? a motivation to take care of something with "Made by Xun" logo:).

[d] long time no update

2005-08-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

There has been apparent discontinuity for my blog since the end of July. During the past three weeks, I had been badly stuck by implementing PLL for tsc-timekeeping. The scale of the source code was not big, but some of my understanding of the whole mechanism was not correct. The annoying problem of integer overflow also took me over a week to spot and fix. But that was real life.

What I learned from this lesson is two kinds of work are at least as important as, if no more than, coding: planning and analysis. After I decided not to mingle with the code anymore but sit down and work it out on "pencil & paper" fashion, all were solved within two afternoons. Analying the data with matlab helped me to find out the overflow problem, which is almost impossible to spot by bare eye.

I also learned that one should show good communicating skills. Not just to promote oneself, but also make the best use of the team power. Comment the code in detail; talk to mentor whenever failures are observed or bugs are fixed; actively make team mates involved in testing and using the deliverable...... These are so important that I will definitely put them as a gauge in my resume.

[d] get time to start the cool summer

2005-06-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

ICORR2005 is ending tomorrow. My poster presentation and lab tour are both today and at this moment, I am done. It is time to start the cool summer and delve myself into open source codes.
After acceptance of summer of code, my email box on bert is flooded with maillist emails and I didn't have time to look at all of them. When I am reading them today, I found lots of things have been going on, and the first weekly update was due on Tuesday (ouch!). Well, a cup of coffee and 2 hours after midnight always work for the overdue projects ( I hoped they also work for the credit cards :-) ).
Doing a mentored project with peers to discuss with is of much fun. These used to be my happy memories in Moto, and now google is bringing them back.

[d] back from Atlanta

2005-06-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Memories vanish with time. I remember the Chinese proverb: "good memory is not as useful as a crapy pen". But still two days passed away before I get time to write something about Atlanta trip. Next time (I always say this), I will do things timely.
Started from Chicago, along I-57, I-24, then I-75, the 800 miles trip was a good drive. Although along the highway, Kentucky and Tenesse seemed to be all wildness to me, Atlanta was just great. I should also say this for Nashiville, where we stayed for the first night.
We toured world of Coca-cola, CNN center, Centennial Park, State Capitol and MLK historical site. The last night we went to Stony Rock Park and watched the laser show. The rock and the show were gorgeous. Oh, I forgot to mention that I bought a basket of genuine Georgia peaches along the way, and distributed it to office mates:).

[e] China is getting more attention

2005-06-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

I got my June 2005 IEEE Spectrum today. The cover page features a Chinese Engieer, with the bilingual descriptive language 中国的技术革命 (China's Tech Revolution). Being the largest society in the hi-tech field, it does mean something for IEEE to choose China as a special report topic.
This is not an individual event. From the far side, I noticed that on May 22, 2005, NYTimes published columnist NicholasD.Kristof's article: 从开封到纽约--辉煌如过眼烟云(Glory is as ephemeral as smoke and clouds). From the near side, two Chinese Postdocs and two Chinese research Engineers joined SMPP this month, making Chinese researchers the second largest racial group here.
Another interesting fact is that in the recent Summer of Code hold by google. The number of proposal authors ranked third among the whole applicants. No wonder visa regulations for Chinese students and scholars to enter U.S has been greatly relieved.

[d] I am like a travel agent !

2005-05-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

As I chose to drive to Atlanta for RESNA, I need to arrange all the on road stuff myself. The whole work took me over a hour this morning.

Call the Hyatt Regency Hotel to make room reservation.
Find and book the lodge at halfway.
Print out the driving directions.
Make additional air ticket and room reseravations for Ran.

Parties involved:

Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Frontier Airlines.
Red Roof Inn SEA-TAC.
Greyhound.
AAA.
National Car Rental.

I am really like a travel agent.

[e] Human Learning; Machine Learning

2005-05-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

Driving on Essenhower this morning. I suddenly rised the idea of my own learning process of life. How are people adapting? It's still a black box to me. Yet I do know the machine learning techniques: use training cases to accumulate knowledge; apply it to new, undecided cases; (optionally) adjust the learning effect by feedback.

Now, let me treat myself as a learning machine (LXLearner). It is hard to say that LXLearner is a good one. First, LXLearner don't make judgements fully based on accumulated knowledge, instead, a big portion of arbitory factor is introduced, which makes the output pretty unstable and not converaging; second, LXLearner uses quite outdated and limited training data, makes the decision process inaccurate; third, the robustness is bad: LXLearner is easy to be stressed by faulty and malicious data.

:).

[d] You are a dog, I am a dog

2005-05-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

Summer comes in a sudden: the hot air; swimming pool in next door neighbour's yard; I even saw people grilling outside. While change of season does mean little to me, it means much to Sam. Today when I started the car and backed up out of the yard, Sam was following me and greedily sniffing the roadside grasses.
I got down the car and called Sam's name loudly to get him back. He looked back from time to time, but apparently wanted so much a chance staying outside. This called up my sympathy -- poor dog, he stayed in a small yard all day and seldom had a chance to enjoy running in the alley.
I parked my car, put Sam in the harness and brought him to the nearby two blocks. He was so happy, and this mood influenced me. I love dog walking, as myself is also a dog who had long been confined in a cage. A dog's life is anything but just dog food.
It was midnight when I called it a day. Walking on Miller, clock seemed to be spinned back to two years before. A dog, who tried unsuccessfully to be a great dog and just recovered from long-time-no-freedom depression, is now walking himself again.

[d] EMEBC abstract submitted.

2005-05-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Let me cross my fingers......

[e] 盲艺人和他的琴盒

2005-05-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

小时候读过一个故事：从前有一老一少两个盲艺人，流浪四方，卖艺为生。奔波的生活，日复一日枯燥的工作使他们疲惫不堪而又无从逃离。要是眼睛能复明多好啊！老盲人一次认识了一位江湖医生，交给他一张可以让盲人重见光明的秘方--只要用一千根弹断的琴弦做引。医生把秘方放在老盲人的琴盒里，嘱咐他收集完药引后才能打开。
老盲人怀着希望，带着少年卖艺弹琴，遗憾的是他终究没有等到收集完一千根琴弦的那一天，就撒手西去。少年拿过了琴盒，继续流浪四方，他从少年到了中年，鬓边已有白发的时候，琴弦到了一千根。
当他满心激动地拿着药引，让人打开琴盒拿出秘方抓药时，药店的人呆住了--秘方只是一张白纸。

最近老是回忆起小时候读过的故事。经历，让我慢慢增长了对人生的理解力。生活的意义到底是流浪，弹琴，在希望中等待，还是最终见到桃花源式的光明时的喜悦？幸福和伤痛都是少数，人生更多地是平凡的日子。为得而喜，为失而悲，莫如看淡得失而静心去做。且弹一千根琴弦再说罢。

[d] EMBC05 paper almost finished

2005-04-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Writing is boring, but rewarding. When I got to know that EMBC05 extended paper submission dealine to May 2. I decided to submit another one to it, which incorporates the work I've done in the past one year. The paper was finished today, about two weeks from the kicking off. It is true disseminating your work is a good way to make you look at it again and thoroughly.

[e] 4.15现象

2005-04-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

每年的4月15日是美国报税截止的日子。这一天人们拥挤到各个邮局直到凌晨，邮寄出报税的表格。还在上初中的时候，我在卡耐基的《人性的弱点》中就读到过这样的描写。
路上人头攒动，邮局灯火通明的景象，如同泰国繁忙的水上市场，或是富士山的赏花时节，虽然非常熟悉，终究未曾亲历。最近忙于赶文章，干活常到深夜，还真让我赶上了这一幕。4月15晚12点，开车经过Harrison街上的中央邮局.平常到了这个时候，Harrison街早已是“路上无人车马稀“，这一天却是车水马龙，数百辆轿车堵得水泄不通；各个路口，均有警察指挥交通秩序。车里的人们神色严肃，手里拿着装报税材料的白色信封，等待着停车冲入邮局。电视台，报社的记者，也在这个时候凑起了热闹，拿着话筒扛着摄像机在车流里穿梭。邮局为方便大家投递，在路边的drop off邮筒旁，也各配置了一些工作人员，现收现盖邮戳。情形颇是壮观。
千军万马赶deadline的事情，来美后已是颇有经历。课程的项目作业，学术会议的投稿，往往选在凌晨12点截止。这种时候，大家无不“email加咖啡，一杯又一杯". 生活中时不时这样冲一把,倒也不失小小的乐趣.

[d] 做学问与判案

2005-04-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

昨晚重新审读了自己被ICORR接受的文章。本来打算深化内容后投往EMBC，然而发现数据处理的几个欠推敲之处。自己原来的解释虽可说通，但有牵强附会之嫌：
1。关于数据拟合，在中段出现钟型曲线的情况下，仍对整个数据作线性拟合非常不妥。
2。使用最大值和平均值说明所收集的数据不合适。平均值或有意义，但最大值无论在统计上，还是在实际实验中都不能说明任何问题。
反复考量，还是决定不把文章投向EMBC。尽管直观上我们所用方法的效果是显著的，但在一个个体实验中取得的数据还远不到可以证明的作用。有文可发，特别是对EMBC这样审稿不甚严, 会场地点又具有吸引力的会议, 放弃投稿确实让人可惜. 昨晚想来想去, 到下决心放弃也花了两个小时.

似有天意安排,今天看新浪就见到一起因错误证据造成的大冤案. 湖北省京山县的佘祥林, 由于法院的错误判决蒙冤狱中11年. (链接). 审案人员为了证明卷宗的正确, 从修改关键证据, 隐瞒不利证词, 到被披露后低调掩盖. 与做学问中的修改数据, 隐藏反例, 答问时狡辩何其相似! 警方要破案率, 法院要判案率, 所受到的诱惑和在会议上发表自己的文章, 实在是颇有共同之处啊. 板凳坐得十年冷, 看来走研究之路还是要有宁静之心.

[e] 老鼠爱大米

2005-03-27T21:22:00.000-08:00

老鼠爱大米，是一首歌的名字。初次知道他，是Alex发来的链接。其时正是夏天，心情也浮浮躁躁，听过以后，一笑了之，大概是当买买提上笑话版的东西来着。今晚寂静无人，写完该当的论文部分以后，重听这首歌，看看Flash版的MTV, 忽然感觉就出来了。闭上眼睛，川大的荷塘，雨中的64路车站， Sheridan Park里的秋千和棒球场，随着吉他声，带着夏夜的气息，真真切切地浮到脑海里。
7年前的老鼠， 7年后的老鼠。人生变化如是。感觉的微妙，已是我言之所不能及*。

*LY说"我喜欢王菲的歌和钱钟书的小说,因为它们总能说出我自己言之所不能及的感受".

[e] 随想

2005-03-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

天气慢慢转暖。从办公室的窗望出去，虽然草地还是斑斑驳驳，但蓝蓝的湖水和明媚的阳光，不容置疑地宣示着春天快要到来。这已是到美国后的第三个年头。身边的人来来去去，换了一间办公室，新的办公室扩建也已经有半年。如果把来美后的轨迹画成散点图，多半是无从拟合；即使用电影艺术里的快进来重现，起承转合也够一部大片的长度了。

时光的流逝，首先唤起的记忆是朱自清先生的《时间》，再次想起的，是坐在长椅上回顾人生的阿甘。每一个人回看一段人生的时候，大概都会有阿甘的感觉：几十年的过往可以在等车的时间里一一浮现 -- 如携一本小书；又可以走五洲，过大洋，见形形色色的人，品味各种各样的心情故事 -- 书却是起伏跌宕，可百读而不厌。

[m] military units translation.

2005-03-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

squad: 班; platoon: 排;company: 连; battalion: 营; regiment: 团; brigade 旅; division 师; corps: 军; army group 军团;

this is an useful link from PLA daily.

[m] Datasheet for the world's skyscrappers

2005-03-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

Searching courtesy of X. Li:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001338.html

[e] 杂记一篇

2005-03-08T17:44:00.000-08:00

花开两支，各表一朵。学习工作固然烦心事儿不少，把自己看成一个普普通通芝加哥市民的时候，身边倒也不缺可乐的素材。

今天在公交车上就看到一对小情侣。男的老外，女的国妹，都26，7左右。上车甜甜蜜蜜的，女孩手里还拿一星巴克咖啡，上面插着两支吸管儿--这情景大学时不少见，到这里可是久违了。上车后，男孩儿交钱买票，女孩先找位子坐下了。看这老外掏着掏着钱，问题就出来了--怎么都凑不够（自从cta涨价以来，类似的事儿我见到好几起）。没办法，叫女孩：“你还有一毛钱吗？”

字正腔圆，带着北京味儿。我一下来了兴趣，边上瞅着。

女孩的回答也够意思：“你今天不是在路上捡到一毛钱吗？”自自然然的。

今天外面气温0度，要干的活也还有一大堆。可我没法不乐：p.

[m] Interesting online image collections

2005-03-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

Java look and feel Graphics Repository.

Card images: this is something I have being in need for long time.

[e] 生活的平凡

2005-02-25T19:32:00.000-08:00

世间很多东西，都不是可以同时得到。鱼和熊掌算是一例。还有可举的是闲钱和闲情，就像一首歌所唱的那样：

我想去桂林啊我想去桂林,
可是有时间的时候我却没有钱,
我想去桂林啊我想去桂林,
可是有了钱的时候我却没时间
........

诚然如是. 小到吃的东西, 拥有的东西都不可兼得, 人的体验更是如此. 世界之大, 让我们虽能如小小跳虫一般, 在各个点中移动, 但要由点至面, 便是穷其一生也难得探索多少. 在Keyhole里查找地图,能从整个地球转眼找到自己的小小巢穴, 这一zoom in/zoom out之中,更让人感到个人之小.

[d] 6 hours dedicated to the old good Camry

2005-02-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

The success of repairing the battery problem encouraged me and I got more interested (and confident) in auto repair DIY. On Thursday's Tribune there were leaflets for Sears and Pepboys, all advertising on Presidents' Day tools sale. I kept the leaflets and went to Pepboys this afternoon. Which is a bit far (12 miles away from RIC).

Long words in short, I bought a 2-ton jack combo, an oil drain and a 1-million unit spot light. The first two should be able to help in oil change and brake check and replacement. The latter could be used in camping. Actually the spot light was so strong that it seemed that it could be used as an anti-air light:).

[d] Another busy day.

2005-02-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

Temp dropped to 16F today, the effect is significant as I lost vitality: absented for one class and felt sleepy for the other.

I went to bed at 6pm and got up at 9pm. Gave a try to setup a blog at: http://smpp-ric.org/~xluo/wordpress/. Failed. The reason was PHP compilation didn't generate libphp4.so file. PHP+Apache+Mysql, these were things so far away.......

The 3 hour attempt proved again my recent finding: effort should be spent on tasks, not tools. I will give it up and use blogspot directly, as my task is to use a blog, not necessaried to be built by my own.

Hello World!

2005-01-24T10:27:00.000-08:00

My first time experience with a personal online blog.

Test Watering......

[Edit] Category markers will be put before the title of each article, tentatitive assignments are:

[d] for dairy
[r]for travel
[t] for tech
[e] for essay
[m] for misc.

[r] Canada Story(7): The finale

2004-08-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

Our stay in the two national parks added up together to be 5 days. On the morning of August 19, it was time to go back.

We went just as we came, except a small incident on the way. That afternoon at 5pm, after passing Coquihalla toll plaza[*], our car ran out of gas. This forced us to stay there for a hour, waiting for roadside assistance from CAA. During the time, we entertained ourselves by pretending to shoot a TV soap.

On the night of August 20, Wei, Ran and me hold a farewell dinner at Tanpopo Sushi Bar on Robson St. Farewell, Vancouver! Next year, let's meet in the Windy City.

I spent a sleepless night in Seattle, looking north, it seemed that I could still feel the damp air from English Bay. This was indeed a successful trip, and that moment was a perfect finale. ( The End ).

[*] On trans-Canada, 30 miles north from city of Hope.

[r] Canada Story(6): Lake Medicine and Lake Maligne

2004-08-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

It was then August 18. We still had two places of interest to go: Lake Medicine and Lake Maligne. Set out earlier, we arrived at Lake Medicine at about 11.

The name of Lake Medicine came from its mysterious disappearing in the winter. Indians couldn't explain and believed that must because of treatment of some "medicine". Modern research found the root cause, which were the underground river and lakes that absorbed water in the winter. We found a family of wild goats along the lakeside -- a male, two females and two lambs.

The majority of our time that day was spend in Lake Maligne. It would take 6 hours single trip from boat renting dock to the island in lake center. That was much beyond us, as we were all new to rowboating. The first two hours we advanced only 300 meters off shore. Most time our boat was just making circles. But soon we got trained, and the rest 4 hours were full of fun of oaring.

At dusk, we came back to town of Jasper. That day happened to be match day for Olympics boat racing, what a coincidence!

[r] Canada Story(5): Bow Lake, Mistaya Canyon and Columbia Ice Field

2004-08-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

It was August 16 night, back from Lake Louise and Six Glaciers, all of us were still in excitement. After shower, I proposed we going Banff to do laundry and have dinner at McDonald's. This was agreed upon. We carefully calculated the time and made sure the closing time of Laundromat could be met. However, an important fact was missed: the time difference between Pacific Time and Mountain Time. The consequence of this ignorance was obvious:). We still caught McDonald's, and enjoyed driving under a skyful of bright stars.

Monday morning, we set out for Jasper, another national park 100 miles to the north. Along the Banff-Jasper highway we met Bow Lake, which was feed by the Bow Glacier and was the headwater of Bow River. The lakeshore was a bit tilted to its feeder, like a bow cord. My guess was this was how the lake got its name.

Continue going north, about 15 miles more, was Mistaya Canyon. Water fought rock heavily and cut deep scars over its face. Standing at the edge of the canyon, the book of millions of years' natural history was clearly shown before us: the potholes witnessed how rapid swirls washed over, and the wave line on lime rock told how water rushed by into the downstream Saskatchwan River. There must ever be dinosaur wading through, elephants drinking and our far far away ancestors awing before the power of nature. Now came me, a young, new visitor to spread its grand name.

Go 30 miles further towards Jasper, the road expanded greatly and on the left side, appeared an enormous ice field. That was Columbia Icefield, 325 square kilometer in coverage and up to 1000 feet in ice depth. The part we could explore by hiking, was just a small part of it -- the Athabasca Glacier. Warning signs were all around on the path ways, but that didn't hinder us to hike to the upper limit of hiking trail. When we made the top, everyone was so excited that Ping directly lied down to get maximum contact with the most gigantic ice block she ever saw :D.

[r] Canada Story(4): Lake Marion and Lake Louise

2004-08-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

The next morning, we went to Banff for sightseeing. In my eyes, it was quite European, no wonder someone named it as "North American Switzerland". I especially like the cute Bear Street, fence walls on street were painted with various colorful bears, and all kinds of bear souvenirs were sold in the gift shops.

After lunch, we drove to Trailor Campground, which was at Lake Louis, about 30 miles northeast of Banff. As planned, that afternoon, it was the visit to Lake Marion.

Lake Marion was uphill, about 3 miles away from Trailor Campground. The emerald water was fantastic, I had seen the water of JiuZhaiGou[*], but the water there was colorful, and here it was pure; I had also seen the water of SanYa[#], but the water there waved jazzily, and her it was so peaceful like a gentle virgin. In a word, it was something special and unique in the world. There were two easy hiking trails, one was up a small hill about 220 feet high at the west side of lake; another was along lake side till to its feeder creek. We took both of them.

Back to Trailor Campground, it was already dark. We had a little problem: there was only one shower place in this campground, and from the map, it seemed to be half miles away. I volunteered to go first as scout and went with a small flash light. The scouting proved to be quite unsuccessful: it was such a dark night, that I took nearly a hour walking there and another back, and lost my way on the return:). This happened on Saturday, August 15.

August 16 was a Sunday. That day belonged to Lake Louise. Hollywood fans should be familiar with the Chateau of Lake Louise, as it was one of the favorite place for the stars and their well-dressed parties. The lake rest in great harmony in the arms of its feeders -- the Six Glaciers. The scene was so beautiful and it appeared on hundreds of Canadian post cards, and even the old twenty Canada dollar bill. The trail along lake side finally connected to the trail to the Six Glaciers plain, which was 3.5 miles hiking distance, and 7,000 feet in elevation. We made it to the end, which was a wearing-out hiking but absolutely worthy. The view of glaciers were gorgeous: in millions of years the ice moved slowly but continuously, carved big valley upon the snow mountains. And for our awesome mother nature, this was just a small game of its 5 billon years of land shaping!

[*] Natural park in China's Sichuan province, famous for its water and forest views.
[#] "Oriental Hawaii" in China's Hainan province, which has the best tropical beaches in China.

[r] Canada Story(3): Heading to Banff

2004-08-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

The next morning, another friend of Wei -- Ping came and soon a busy day started. We bought the food and snacks, packed the car, and consulted people who just went back from Banff. Just as the Chinese proverb said, "three is always better than one". All were done quite efficiently.

On the morning of August 13, four travelers set out from Vancouver. Our route was along the trans-Canada highway -- Canadian One, roughly 700 miles to Banff town. British Columbia boasted it as "beautiful B.C.", and that was proved true along the way. Conifers thickly covered the mountains and valleys; Waterfalls appeared from time to time, and often unexpectedly; Ice cones topped remote mountain tops. It was late summer, so the greens were still greens, not as colorful as the Midwest foliage view in the fall. But lighting was fantastic, together with depth of scenes, so you would still feel God as a great artist, painting everything with his magic brush and palette.

We took two breaks on the way that day. One was lunch at the hot noon on roadside. Another was at the town of Revelstroke. The town was not big, but being a must-pass on trans-Canada, there were lots of visitors on its streets. I especially like the road signs to the city centre, which always said "follow this sign till you see the bears". Of course, I finally met the bear statues and gave them big hugs.

Continue going east, roadway became narrow and winding, forecasting our approaching the famous national park. For some places, the road was so narrow that walls were built along its side to avoid possible vehicle falling down the hill. The uphill and downhill added up together was about 30 miles, then all of a sudden, before us in the basin of snow mountains, appeared Banff town.

It was midnight already. Mist rose off on the road and the town was in quiet sleep. Slowly drove along the church, gift shops and old pubs, we were like a group of fairies sneaking through. The campground, village two, was uphill about 2 miles from town. Setting up tent, everyone soon went sound sleep after a long journey. Till next morning I got up early and took this picture of our site.

[r] Canada Story(2): First day at UBC

2004-08-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

I planned my days off to be Aug. 11 to Aug. 22. The first and last days would be in Seattle, and the eight days in between would be in the lovely north neighbor country. All the routine stuff went smoothly, soon my travel case was filled up with everything: visa, sleeping bag, air bed, tripod, cowboy apparel, ......

The day of Aug. 11 came finally, that noon at Cheese Cake Factory in the basement of John Hancock[*], people in lab held a farewell luncheon for Chrissie's leaving, Derek's vacation to California, Tiffany's vacation to Minnesota and my vacation to Canada. In the best wishes I left Chicago at five.

Made a connection at Salt Lake City and arrived Seattle at midnight. It was really a hot night, the temperature, together with my excitement, made me twisting around on the hostel bed and fell sleep till two.

Morning came. After a short walk along the nearby Pike Place Market[#], I went to the airport, picked up my powerful horse -- a Chevy Equinox SUV, and started going north. Blue sky, white clouds and a not-packed highway #5 then became the scene, together with Dido's White Flag:

And when we meet Which I'm sure we will
All that was thereWill be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think That I've moved on....

All those made the 120-mile trip delightful and easy. At 5, the knight and his horse were already at UBC campus. Time for surprise! Push open the door of apartment 3301, Wei's familiar smiley face showed up again: "Supper is ready."

This was the first time I got to Canada, UBC, and the Thunderbird residential hall. But anywhere with an old friend was not strange. Around the table, we talked a lot about life in North America, the old days in the city of Chengdu, and our friends. I also made a new friend, Ran, who was going to begin her Ph.D. in economics. After dinner, three of us walked to beach, sat there till sunset. We talked and laughed a lot at that time. Though most of the contents already couldn't be remembered, the scene became one of my best memories.

[*] Second highest skyscraper in the City of Chicago, which has a nice observatory for the city and the lake.
[#] The crowded but pretty nice market started since 1907.

[r] Canada Story(1): From here it had a start

2004-08-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

It was a late July afternoon in Chicago. Looking out of my office window on 13th floor, everything looked so nice -- yachts scattering Michigan Lake, sea gulls flying around, future lawyers, business men and doctors walking in and out Northwestern courtyard -- a typical and wonderful summer scene along lake shore. Yet my mind was not there right then. I was planning to visit Wei, one of my old friend, who was graduating from UBC and then busily preparing her thesis.

With a nice beep Wei logged on MSN.

- "How are you, Wei?"
- "Pretty good, almost done with it. So how are you?"
- "Can't be better. I earn a paid vacation for 10 days. We will be having happy hours in Vancouver."
- "Well, you said before let me handle all the itinerary for you. I made a little change and am sure it will be better -- you will see -- instead of wondering around Vancouver, let's go Banff."
- ......

So all was decided in five minutes. No 'why's and no 'how's, as I knew Wei was a professional traveler and trip planner. O.K., then I knew the destination was Banff. A place I did heard of on Backpacker magazine, but only limited to the one-page story written by a Eiffel Peak[*] hiker. This time I was going to explore it myself. I started to imagine all the wildness, snow mountains and glaciers. Two weeks later when I came back, I found all my dreams about this Canadian National Park came true, and even better.

[*] a 10,120 feet ice mountain peak in Banff National Park, Alberta.