Cats

A friend of mine keeps 4 cats at home. She started with one and brought her along all the way from HK to the US. The cat is 12 years old now.

My friend works long hours everyday and wants to give her old cat some company. So she adopted 2 young cats from a shelter. One of them is a long-fur baby cat with grey hair. He was only 4 months old when she adopted him. His is very very energetic and lovely. When we watch TV, he will climb up on us and hug on our faces.

The other cat is white with black patches. He was a street cat before he was taken into the shelter. So he is very curious with the trash can in the kitchen. My friend has to keep all the food in plastic boxes, and the trash out of his reach all the time.

Somehow my friend adapted the forth cat. She has a wooden coat hanger of 4 kinds of cats, and it happens that she has 3 of them in real. So when she saw the forth cat in the shelter, she took her without doubt.

But her old cat doesn't appreciate her new acquaintances too much. She was very annoyed by the curious baby cats who follow her all the time. She is an old lady used to be alone after all.

My friend said she has spent too much money on the cats and is in a stage of severe poverty now. She should consider buying medical insurance for her cats.

Funny enough. She works with rats at work.

Travel

I was looking at the pictures I have put on my Picasa Web Album (see the link on the right). Yes, I have been to many places in Europe. But what is the point if no one shares with me the memories of being in those places? To me, there is no such place in the world that attracts me as much as the people who I want to see.

朋友二號

對不起，這是我最後一次在這裡提這件事。

我以前很少留意任何歌的歌詞，但在我最低落的時候聽到這首歌，我竟然一邊聽，一邊喊（在一個女仔面前）。我一直都想將這首歌的歌詞post出來，因為歌詞所講的內容和我的遭遇一模一樣。

朋友二號

作曲╱編曲╱監製：林潤明 填詞：甄健強

某個背叛你　來這邊找我出氣
彷彿世界　只得我了解你
誰叫我看著你　還捨不得生氣
寧願聽聽你　來換多幾次一起
之後　突然忘掉我
之後　來到我早知的結果

朋友二號　完美任務　捱到絕路
讓對方感動到自豪　還不哭方算最好
做你好友二號　賠了熱度　還有量度
連傷心都不傾訴
如果可以為你效勞

我會照料你　留很多歡笑給你
可否愛我　不必說那些禁忌
誰替你費力氣　誰這麼珍惜你
撩動你同情　然後他講對不起
走吧　別人懷念你
走吧　難過也始終不至死

啊　繼續做　朋友二號　捱到絕路
你的手若有若無　還怎麼想對你好
做你好友二號　賠了熱度　還繼續做
連想哭都不知道　還怎麼決定我命途
誰又會因這個密友自豪

ps. 朋友號

『萬能俠﹐出黎啦﹔朋友號﹐落去啦﹗』鐵甲萬能俠平時藏在瀑布裡﹐要打怪獸時主角就會開著戰鬥機『朋友號』來到瀑布前召喚鐵甲萬能俠。鐵甲萬能俠破瀑而出﹐打開腦袋讓『朋友號』下去。所以『朋友號』其實是鐵甲萬能俠的腦袋﹐主角就在『朋友號』裡控制鐵甲萬能俠。

摘自這裡

In Hong Kong

I am back in Hong Kong again. I was here only last Sept.

Maybe I have not seen HK girls for a while, I am not very used to see them so skinny, if not bony.

Both trips were not planned. I only hope I can go back to Boston soon.

ps. Click here for an interview of the illustrator of the Phoenix.

Gravity

I called grandma this morning and told her that I would go see her soon. We didn't talk a lot, just caught up something trivial. After I hung up, I cried very badly. I felt I was like the little boy comforted by grandma after being bullied decades ago.

I had never felt that strong before. Maybe it takes time and some bitter encounters to get to feel the gravity of the bond that links you to people who love you.

樹欲靜而風不止，子欲養而親不在
《漢·韓嬰·韓詩外傳·卷九》

I will not let it happen to me.

Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation:


p.s. To some extent, Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation applies to people: the bond that holds 2 people together is inversely proportional to the square of their distance apart.

Paul Bishop

Paul invited me over to his home for dinner tonight before I go back to Hong Kong. We have been playing squash together twice a week for over 2 years but I have not been to his home or met his wife. I have seen his kids quite often though. He brought them over to the squash club from time to time.

Paul's wife is American, talkative and warm. Paul grilled some chicken, mushrooms, peppers and potato on his porch in freezing temperature. I brought a bottle of wine from home (a left over from one of the parties) and the chocolate bar Yvette gave me for Valentine's day. We had a nice chat and dinner there. His kids, Gavin and Malanie, are energetic. Malanie is 3 years old and really lovely.

Paul and Mary poured me with their love story over the couch and dinning table. I only knew today that they met in India. They were both taking a few months off from work in their early 20's and explored the world. They met in a backpackers' home and went on for a 5-days' hike in the Himalayas. They didn't plan to go hiking alone, but the girl from another couple who went with them had high attitude sickness the first day and was sent down the mountain right away. So Paul and Mary spent the next 4 days hiking together.

They didn't start dating until a few months later when Paul had a heart surgery in England. Paul proposed in a pub after a few pins of beer, and Mary needed to ask him whether he was serious. After they married, they spend 9 months seeing all the wilderness in the US without a job. When they spent most of their money, Mary called her former boss and he offered her a job in NYC. So they drove back to NYC and Paul found a well-paid job here after a couple of months. Now they own a big and comfy house with two kids zooming around. They are kids of some characters, but they hug and kiss their dad before going to bed everyday. Gavin even insists to get up before 6 am everyday just to have breakfast with his dad before he goes out for work.

Every friend of mine who has kids says it is not easy to raise kids, but it worths it.

The Himalayas, taken by Mark Galer, Creative Media Unit, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Sweet

Yvette gave us some small gifts for Valentine's day. I had a card, a chocolate bar and a post-it pad. The post-it pad says "Banging your head against the wall burns 150 calories an hour."



Sophie received the same things, but her post-it says "A dog accepts you as boss, but a cat wants to see your resume." Haha... that's why I love cats.

Thanks Yvette. That was sweet.

For My Roomates

Sophie loves chocolate and chocolate cake. She made chocolate cakes from time to time and I enjoy them a lot.

She said that I should make a cake for Yvette and her for Valentine's day. She showed me all the material we had for making chocolate cake. She said that it is a lot simplier than following a cloning protocol. I told her I would think about it.

I looked up the web and found a recipe for chocolate cakes:

INGREDIENTS

• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch round cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder.
2. In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Slices can also be reheated for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.

I followed all it was said except the sugar. Everybody says that they add half of the sugar recommended in recipes from the US. Of course.

This is my first cake ever baked. I made it the shape of a heart for Valentine's day. Easy and tasty. A few girls came by to watch a DVD. They all love the cake.



The recipe comes from Allrecipes.com

Love Frozen in Time

I was watching the news on TV. On Feb 6, 2007, a team of archaeologists found the skeletons of a couple who were buried in hugging pose 5000-years ago in Mantau, a northern city of Italy. The archaeologists are trying to dig the whole turf in one piece so as to preserve the pose. The skeletons will eventually went on display in a museum in Mantau after data is extracted for research.

Mantau is only 25 miles south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set the story of Romeo and Juliet. And Romeo had been sent to Mantau for a sword fight.

Not a conventional story to tell on Valentine's day though.

News from Anthropology.net

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The last book of Harry Potter will be published on July 21. It has become the best seller of Amazon already.

I am not a big fan of Harry Potter, although I have read all the books and seen all the movies. I was stunned by the creativity of the story and the referrals to the old literatures and legends of wizardry when I read the first book. I have to say Rowling had added too much detail at some points when the story moves on. But overall I like the way Harry stands up to the evil.

J.K. Rowling had said that two main characters will be killed in the last book. People guess they are Harry and Voldemort. I don't think so. I think Harry will kill Voldemort at the expense of a person very important to him. In the sixth book there is a clue that Aunt Petunia has been doing something important to Harry. I think she will turn out to be a key person in the whole story and die in this book. Harry will live in bitterness and regret after that. Mark my word.

J.K. Rowling was a jobless single mom when she wrote the first book of Harry Potter. She believed in herself and didn't give up her dream in the most difficult time of her life. I love writing too, and I am now stuck in a similar situation. Maybe it is my chance to take on a better path.

Oil Cravers

It is a twisted situation. This world relies too much on petrol oil.

The OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is going to discuss to cut oil production because of the "falling price" .

What the fuck? You guys are relying on the black gold sitting under your asses for your Rolls Royce and Ferrari. Can't you be more decent?

Well, actually raising the price is not bad at all. The price of petroleum, especially in the US has been too low to give people any incentive to develop alternate fuel. When the price at the pump was over US2.7 per gallon, the most talked topic in the radio here was the source and technologies of alternative fuel.

You don't even need to debate about carbon emission or global warming. There are 2 obvious reasons not to rely on petroleum:

1. Petroleum is not replenishable, at least not in the next 1 million years. Obviously, it will be used up one day. Surveys had predicted that the oil fields in accessible area will be used up in the next 100 years. There might be more oil fields in deep sea, but the cost of mining them will be too high to be profitable. But still, oil will be used up one day. We need to find other energy source before that day comes.

2. You put yourself in a very bad strategic position to rely on a few countries for your major energy source. To keep themselves in a better position, the US had put a lot of effort to "secure" its interests in Middle East, and messed up the whole Middle East and irritated the Muslim world. Iran is still the second largest exporter of petroleum oil!! What the fuck? The West gives Iran money for the oil, and Iran uses the money to buy weapons from Russia/China/US for the militants in Iraq and Syria, and now threating to attack the US if the US stop their nuclear program by force. This is a karma completely avoidable.

I was looking up the web about geothermal energy. To my surprise, the country with the biggest production of geothermal energy is not any European country but the US. The Philippines is the first runner up. The biggest dry steam field in the world is The Geysers, only 145 km North of San Francisco. There are dozens of geothermal power plants in California and a few dozen more in the Mid West of the US. Of course, each of these states are bigger than France and the energy production from these geothermal plants do not contribute to a very big fraction of the whole energy consumption. But it is a good start.

I expect we need to use multiple sources of energy in the future. Geothermal energy is not everywhere. We can harvest wind power in the coast or even off the coast and solar power in the deserts. Setting up solar power farms in the deserts can actually keep the sand from the sun and trap moisture too. Has anyone done any experiment on it?

I know I know. We need a mobile and easy energy source for cars. Fuel cells. I know nothing about material science. But I am thinking to sacrifice the pleasure of acceleration and go for a hybrid engine car when I need to change my car. Well.. the design of the suburb of the US is based on cars. I need a car to do everything. I will do my best to save more energy.

The Story of O

I was visiting a friend's home a week ago and she had the book and the DVD for The Story of O. Out of curiosity about this classic, I borrowed them but only managed to watch the DVD today.

Well.. the girl has pretty face and body. Her gaze is attractive too. Her face and custom reminds me of 鍾楚紅. But I don't get the logic of the story. There are plenty of nude and sex scenes, but there are quite some disturbing whipping scenes too. If it is an account of Sadism and Masochism, it seems to me only a shallow and one-way account of female submissiveness.

The book was published in 1954 and the film was made in 1975. I am not sure whether S&M in that era was so male-dominant, or it was just the writer who wanted to take on this vision. But my friend told me the book is better than the movie. I have to start with the book soon.

Pictures captured from the movie (not by me)

Valentine's day

We have only spent 1 Valentine's day together. But to me, everyday is Valentine's day before she left.

Seriously. Valentine's day is the traditional day to express your love for each other. I did that everyday, because she had opened my heart and let me express myself. I didn't like to speak out my feeling before meeting her. You have changed me in a better sense.

Suffocating

It has been a few months since she left me. I am being occupied by some serious problems lately, but when I think about it, the thought of losing her is still suffocating. I mean literally short of breath (I just learned that short of breath is also one of the symptoms of acute anaphylactic shock.)

Anyway.. life has to go on. You never know what is ahead.

薑汁撞奶

多年前睇過一段麥嘜漫畫：

薑汁問鮮奶：
為什麼你要撞我，以後都分唔開了。

鮮奶說：
那天我撞了你，便分不開了。

我有一對朋友，男的是美國人，女的是法國人。他們都很年輕，只有24、25歲。他們在美國認識，男的跟女的回到法國，一年後結婚。之後兩人一齊返美國。女的在一家公司找到一份穩定的工作，男的工作卻不太穩定。

不久之後，男的發現有了腎病，原因是自身免疫力失衡，不斷殺死自己的腎臟細胞。他不可以再工作，只可以待在家中，每隔幾日還要太太送他到醫院洗腎。因為洗腎令身體很疲倦，而且日日留在家中很悶，所以男的心情經常都很差。

幸好太太對他不離不棄。每天中午都回家陪他吃飯，下班馬上回家照顧他。晚上和朋友的聚會，只要他身體應付很來，即使只是停留半小時，她都會帶他出來見見朋友和走動一下。

現在他轉用了一種洗腎機，可以在晚上睡覺時接上，機器便會在他睡著的時候幫他洗腎，日間便可以做些較輕鬆的工作。因為他的患的是一種自身免疫力疾病，所以他要長期服用免疫力抑制藥。但這些藥同時會令他很容易受感染，和令他吃不下食物。現在他每日只可以吃小量蔬菜和水果。

每次見到他們兩人我都感到很溫暖。我相信他們倆人相處可能有很多困難，特別是要照顧一個腎病病人，和處理他的情緒問題。但從他們望著對方的眼神和說話的表情，你可以看見他們還是很快樂的。

所以我相信，只要兩人相愛和走在一起，不放棄對方，世上沒有事情可以傷害到他們。

薑汁撞奶
做法

Stranded

I was changing train to go to the airport in Munich.

Only the front part of the train goes to the airport. I was about to board the train, and a man came out of the door and ran to the front part. I simply follow him to the other cartridge instinctively. But the door closed immediately after him and I couldn't get in. The train went away. I waited on the platform for 20 minutes in freezing temperature and strong wind.

I could have got on the train and moved to the front part a few stops later, but it happened to have a mindless man lured me into the trap. Whatever. Everyone is affected by random events.

Passing, Germany, Dec 31, 2006

Prost

Prost for the passion for beer!

Counceling

When I think about it, it seems to me that all that I have learned from my mistakes do not benefit myself a lot. I find myself giving good advices to friends who are going through what I have gone through (and made the wrong choices).

I should seek a career in counseling instead.

This blog

The more I think about it, the more I understand why I started this blog.

I always have things that I do not tell everyone, just like everyone. Now I have no one to talk to. So I write them down and hope that people who care will read them.

At least I found a way to take care the dark side of my feeling.

The calendar page on the date of my birth. My grandfather saved it in a photo album.

Harsh

I studied hard, I work hard. I go through tough terrains, luckily with help from friends at times.

I do all a man should do: being tough and decisive, proactive and keep my promises.

I run and run...

People ask me what kind of girls that I like.

I said as long as I am comfortable to look at and stay with.

Bad phrasing. I should say I want a soul mate whom I am eager to tell every triviality I face and every secret and fear of mine. I will let her see the part of mine hidden from the others. We understand each other and love each other. You don't meet that many soul mates very often.

Most the time I know what I should do. I ask not because I am indecisive, it is because I want your support.

Life is harsh. Things that had happened cannot be reversed. It is always cold and lonely to walk along. Why don't we hang on together and get some warmth from each other?

I always have the fear that I will be thrown out to the street and live a miserable life.

I have only told this to one person. Now you all know, if you care to read on.

Me at the age of 2. I have just realized that 30 years have passed.

Friends

I know I have many friends. But I didn't know I had so many good friends who were so willing to listen to me, give me advice and help me out of my trouble. I am really thankful for all of you who have offered. I am very proud of myself having made so many good friends in these years.