Sunday 26 November 2006

Sequoia National Park

Went camping in Sequoia over Thanksgiving. My first camping trip here. Loved it.


Campsite with our 2 tents


Nice tree at campsite


Look at the size of that sequoia tree. Sequoia trees are the biggest trees in the world by volume. They are the largest living things on earth actually. And they can live for a few thousand years, survive diseases, fires.. Resilient wise old creatures.


The most common cause of death of sequoias -- toppling. Toppled tree.






Shooting of Kung-fu movie


Rock climbing


Kings of the world

Mysterious forest, reminds me of harry potter


Hanging on to stuff so they don't fall out of the car when the trunk is open


Clouds coming in


Entering the giant forest
Some time ago in the beginning of the quarter when I was free enough to roam about and take pretty pictures of sunsets and the Pacific Ocean.






Apples

Some time ago at the beginning of the quarter, we went apple picking at Julian.

Pretty apples hanging from apple trees


Quaint town of Julian. The town practically lives on apple farms, apple pies, apple cider.. yum..


Happy Halloween


Fallen apples


Apple girls

Tuesday 21 November 2006

Everything banks on this essay, and I don't even think it's good.
this is one time that I really feel hopeless..
Will an A+ final save me?
That's if I can get an A+, I've never even gotten an A anywhere before.
There isn't a magic spell thingy/ superstition that's going to save my final essays. I'm on my own.
Merry Christmas.

What am I doing? What am I working for? My grade? My understanding? Perfection? Not to disappoint my TA? Or a 3.8? Am I working for myself or to satisfy some requirement by a distant organisation? How different would I approach this if I don't have a 3.8 pushing me forward?

Monday 13 November 2006

I knew it when I saw a 3-page comments on a 6-page essay. Looking at the grades that I'm getting, you'll think I'm doing this on purpose. I have no intention of torturing myself. I wish I could control my grade too. I hope this is not too devastating yet. When can I EVER get an A in this class? grr..

Sunday 12 November 2006

Have been dao-ing this person. Hung up 3 times. Feel bad. But I'm not calling back. Need to figure out what I want and what I should do before there's no more decision to be made.

Never thought I'll enjoy reading Shakespeare. He's quite a funny guy. =)


September


Ayura

The expert at work. Andoh as guest player in Yamaha Electone Fest 2006 in Malaysia.

Friday 10 November 2006

Submission

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF_jfHrDJns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6Wrhivp7eQ

Went for a Making of the Modern World mini series lecture. It was on contemporary art and how it might offend various religious groups. This film was one of the recent examples. The director of the 10min film was shot and stabbed to death by a religious fanatic and a death threat to the writer of the film was pinned to the corpse with a knife. Scarios. This film was made in the Netherlands.

Among other things, one of the key arguments was that US has less power to act as a state to control what people says with regards to religion than European countries. US places more importance in the freedom of speech, freedom of religion than harmony between different groups. Most European countries have anti-blasphemy laws, US doesn't. US leaves such matters to the people and society, emphasising on the 'melting pot' where everyone compromises and be less radical.

Personally I don't think this film was particularly provocative/ insulting to any religion. It's just stating one aspect of the religion, which is more of an interpretation problem by the society than a problem with the religion itself. You might argue that this girl is unreligious and isn't interpreting the religion right, she's blaming a social problem on the religion, whatever, there can be many reasons. No matter what, it's not controversial enough to have the director killed.

Suspected witches and heretics were burned in the 16th century. The rationale was that if they're good Christians, God will come and put out the fire. Isn't it obvious that such things wouldn't happen? Don't the burners know, with 16th century science, that the fire wouldn't go off on its own? They know that these heretics will be burned. Aren't their actions proving that this God doesn't exist?

Sunday 5 November 2006

Protein synthesis epic



I'm glad I don't have to do this for class. The clip gets interesting after the introduction by this Stanford professor at about 3+ min. It's a 70s video made by UCSD chem dept and Stanford some dept. The translation process, as depicted by human beings.

Saturday 4 November 2006

Really interesting idea came up yesterday. Storing information in nucleotides like storing in computers. Instead of using binary 0s and 1s, use the 4 bases ATGC. Much more efficient system than binary, isn't it? And if you need to mass copy it, PCR it. Perfect for publishing encyclopedia or something, if it's cheap enough. Maybe one day we can build a computer out of DNA. Hmm.. but it's organic huh, it might degrade..

Strange things people say to me. I was at senior house today, it's this apartment complex specially catered to old people living alone. we went there to entertain the chinese-speaking oldies, so i was chatting with this granny and she said go get married immediately after you graduate, cannot don't marry. And I'm like huh?? Nice old people though, super duper on.. They really compete hard to win the games. Scarios.