California trip photos are up
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2096953323

Grand Canyon photos are also up, but more of my cousin's family than of the canyon
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2097014636

Comments are welcome.

Newton's amazing rules of reasoning

1. We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. (cf Occum's Razor)
2. Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.
3. The qualities of bodies are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever. (leading him to conceive of some indivisible particle that makes up everything, or maybe there isn't one, but all bodies follow the laws of gravity)
4. In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions collected by general inductions from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined. (objective science, but no hypotheses formed in science? Plain observation and deduction?)

"This most beautiful system of the sun, the planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being"

While I'm waiting for my photos to upload, very slow today, hope they don't timeout on me, I shall research on stuff that have been fluttering in my mind this holidays.

White Chocolate
White chocolate is a type of chocolate based on cocoa butter without the cocoa solids. It also includes milk solids, sugar, lecithin, and flavorings (usually including vanilla). Cocoa butter is the ingredient used in other chocolates so that they remain solid at room temperature yet melt easily in the mouth. Thus, white chocolate has a texture like that of chocolate but does not have the same taste. Unlike chocolate it does not contain caffeine. As white chocolate does not contain cocoa solids or cocoa mass, it does not meet the standards to be called chocolate in many countries. In the United States, since 2004, white chocolate needs to be at least 20% (by weight) cocoa butter, at least 14% total milk solids, and less than 55% sweeteners such as sugar.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/chocolate.htm

Piano roll
A piano roll is a roll of paper with perforations (holes) punched in it. The position and length of the perforation determines the note played on the piano. The piano roll moves over a device known as the 'tracker bar', which first had 58 holes, was expanded to 65 and then was upgraded to 88 holes (generally, one for each piano key). When a perforation passes over the hole, the note sounds.
That's how the piano can play by itself and how the earliest recordings were made. What I don't get is how the holes can transmit information, is there a stream of air that blows through the paper? Light sensor? Electric sensing? Anyone care to enlighten me?

Scientology
The Church says that Scientology is concerned with "the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life." Dianetics is more narrowly focused on getting rid of the reactive mind, the "bank" of traumatic memories known as engrams which are said to inhibit one's success and happiness. Basically it's to reach into the good and logical part of the soul and use that to achieve goals in life. They do this by talking to each other and solving each other's problems. We visited this Church of Scientology in SF and listened to this sweet old lady tell us all about scientology. According to her, scientology is an open-minded religion where you choose to believe in anything you believe, scientology just helps you achieve your goals. We concluded that scientology is a huge self-help group. Wiki seems to think otherwise though, talking about mind control and disconnection from people who are in objection to scientology. Reading Wiki, scientology sounds like a computer game where you have to advance through the levels to uncover more secrets of the world. And somewhere in it all, there's an alien manipulating everything. Fun.

End of winter break. End of all trips. I'm actually really glad that they're over. They've been fun but travelling is draining. Using words from this trip, I'm shagged and I need to chill.

Grand Canyon
Spectacular first view. First glance and we go WOW! And then as we drive to more points to look at it, it's just, well, it's just the canyon. Pretty amazing how flat the top of the canyon is and it's so jagged and deep in the canyon. All these done by the Colorado river and the uplifting of the plateaus. "The canyon, created by the Colorado River cutting over millions of years, is about 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 0.25 to 15 miles (0.4 to 24 kilometers), and attains a depth of more than a mile (1,600 m)." ~ Wikipedia
Just finished snowing when we went, pretty cold. We concluded that it will be a much better way to visit the canyon by a helicopter tour. See more stuff, less boring. Or maybe hiking will make it more interesting too. We couldn't hike at all cos there was snow all over the trails and we didn't have any shoes equipped for snow.

Drove through Sedona after Grand Canyon, thought that place was beautiful. Red rocks, redder than Grand Canyon, very shapely mountains. Apparently when waterfalls are running in spring, the rocks become a natural slide and kids slide down the rocks in the Sliding Rocks State Park. Should be very beautiful.

Medical breakthrough: Why surgeons are more handsome than doctors

Can't believe channel news asia has this kind of ridiculous news. Entertain yourself.

Check out my Hawaii photos at http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2097847895

I have concluded that the more I do, the more I get done. So I'm going to take a whole bunch of classes and do a whole bunch of activities next quarter. This quarter has just been a failed experiment. Got an ugly mark on my transcript.. ugly. And spending way too much money this quarter..

Life is made of trials and errors, think about it, if the consequences are not too nasty, try it, if it doesn't work, at least you'll know that it doesn't work. There are times to stop and re-examine, but mostly, push on.

Just got back from Hawaii. It's a beautiful place and I've definitely seen the spirit of Aloha. Many firsts, glad I went with a friend cos I'll never do many of those things on my own. I think that 19 and 20 are still a bit too young to travel alone.
Things that I've done:

1. hiked into the craters of 2 volcanos,
2. 6h hike in weather that can't decide between clearing up and sprinkling,
3. snorkelled in a bay created by a collapsed volcano,
4. watched naked people do fire dances,
5. watched many hula dances,
6. bummed on the beaches,
7. watched a pro surf competition,
8. hitchhiked,
9. took a 3h bus ride around half of Oahu island,
10. saw many beautiful rainbows
11. saw a sky full of stars
12. shot a pistol, revolver and rifle
13. been mistaken for a Japanese countless times
14. been offered a beer by some random guy

Hawaii is definitely worth going. This trip wasn't very thoroughly planned, but ended up ok. Could be a lot more fruitful, or a day or 2 shorter, but it was fun. I need to loosen up and not get freaked out when things don't go as planned, just let things be, they might end up better than plans. Learn from the Hawaiians: Hang loose. Whatever it means.

End of another quarter. Time's zooming past. But since I've already realised that, I'm treasuring every minute I have here. Leaving for Hawaii on Saturday. I'm getting the inertia again, just want to slack my time away, don't want to start planning/ packing/ preparing for the tiredness of travel. But I know that I'll be super sian diao if I stay here in San Diego, even if there's my 3 yr old cousin to keep me busy. So this is going to be a travelling travelling winter break. Hawaii, Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Yosemite, San Diego. Daddy's complaining that I'm playing too much.. I worry for my finance after this break.

Finals are over. Another useless set of finals with my cramming for exams and forgetting them after that. I really should learn how to remember stuff in quarter systems. What do I remember of genetics? Nothing. What do I remember of MP3? Not much too. What do I remember of Montaigne? Quite a bit. What do I remember of the bible? Little. Wrote a christmas/ thank you card to my TA, thought it was quite lousily written, but I couldn't be bothered to save it. Since when am I this cynical?

More pictures of Sequoia. The really pretty ones


On top of the Baldie. The baldie is this huge piece of rock where no trees grow. Beautiful view though. Sea of clouds. Wanna jump in?


Everything turning red on sunset. It's the reddest sunset I've ever seen. I know that I have plenty of chances to see perfect sunsets but this is the first time I see everything turning red instead of golden. Maybe the air's different.


General Sherman tree. The biggest living thing on earth. Uncle Sherman here is THE biggest living thing by volume, it's not the oldest, not the tallest, but the biggest, cos it grows really fast and doesn't die. It survived fires and nowadays tourists. It's probably a kid around Jesus' time. Wise old tree.

I just want to cry when I saw the comments. sigh. He wants to give me an A so badly and I want the A so desperately but he can't. sian.. I've lost the ability to make arguments. Why should I work so hard for this dumb thing when people get the same grade or even better from just BS-ing?
There goes the class. What a terrible end to the year. He asked me how I did for the final, I said good, so what??? It's still a goner grade.

I'd better start looking at my kinemages if not I'll lose more As.

"I sometimes hear people who apologise for not being able to say what they mean... they cannot deliver it for want of eloquence. That is moonshine... It is a matter of shadowy notions coming to them from some unformed concepts which they are unable to untangle and to clarify in their minds: consequently they cannot deliver them externally" ~Montaigne
"Once you have mastered the things the words will come freely" ~Horace

All I have is shadowy notions, no words.

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

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?

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..

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.

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?

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.

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.