Christmas at Longwood Gardens

25-ft Christmas tree with living garland

It was a rainy Christmas. Right after we entered the temperature and humidity-controlled conservatory, the rain started pouring down, slashing and pounding hard on the glass ceilings. At 3:30pm's Organ Sing-Along, the organist asked us to do a medley of "let it rain" after we did "Rudolf the red-nose reindeer". Truly there was no better place to go to on a rainy Christmas day other than the Longwood Gardens. There were so many beautiful flowers to see. Your eyes will never get enough of them.

Amarylis

Amarylis, too, with thinner petals

Five years ago when I first visited Longwood Gardens, I stayed there for a whole day. It was in early May, tulips were blooming. I probably shot several rolls of films, a little worried about running out of them. This year, armed with three CF cards (256M, 1G, and 2G), I would never worry about not having enough memory. In fact, looking at the 100 pictures I took that day, I wish I had done more. How fast technology has advanced in the past few years!

Poinsettias and day lilies

Day lilies

Day lily, close-up

Orchids are my favorite. There are thousands of different orchids at Longwood Gardens. People were snapping shots all over this orchid room where hundreds of them live, and some of them were taking photos with their cell phones. I think that people should bring better photographic equipment when visiting Longwood Gardens.

A lovely green slipper

Close-up of an orchid petal

like butterflies

Twins

Words are not enough to describe the beauty of orchids. Let's leave it to our eyes for the enjoyment.

I learned my photography lesson of the day when I quickly mounted my macro lens in the conservatory. I had left the lens out in the car overnight. It was too cold and water condensed on the glass. Being stupid I wiped the glass with velvet. Things only got worse as I found out that those annoying yellow fibers from the velvet were hard to remove from the lens barrel. It ruined some pictures, but hopefully at this reduced resolution you won't be able to pick up those ugly lines.

椰香土豆饼 Coconut-covered Potato Cakes

I brought these to our Christmas party, and people really liked them. In my opinion, they taste best just coming out of the oven.

3 pounds of potato (~6 large ones)
2 cups of glutinous flour (~0.6 pound)
½ cup of milk
1 egg
½ cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of butter, some vegetable oil
2 to 4 ounces of sweetened coconut flakes

1. Peel potatoes and cut into large chunks. Boil for 10 minutes until well cooked.
2. Mash the potato. Add ½ cup of milk and 1 egg will help the process of mashing. Add 1 tablespoon of melted butter and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Fold in ½ cup of sugar and 2 cups of glutinous flour (it works well with the potato masher). The dough should become less sticky to hands. Add more flour if it is too sticky.
3. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
4. Place sweetened coconut flakes in a shallow baking pan.
5. Pinch off a small amount of dough, about 1/3 the size of a fist. Work it into a ball, and then flatten it. Press both sides of the dough in coconut flasks to make the flakes to adhere. Brush melted butter on both sides. Place in onto a large greased baking sheet.
6. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven until the bottoms are golden brown, about 30 minutes. Turn the cakes over and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Serve while they are still hot. I made ~28 cakes. They taste more like sweet-rice cake rather than potatoes.

The Disappearing Bill of Rights Mug

M received an interesting present for his birthday. It is a mug. Printed on the mug are the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, known as the Bill of Rights. It looks just like any other mug.

Until you pour a cup of hot coffee, then:



Well, this mug prompted me to study the Bill of Rights for the first time, carefully.

The Bill of Rights defines the scope of individual freedom and establishes basic American civil liberties that the government cannot violate. The States rectified it three years after they rectified the Constitution, in 1791. The rights provided in the first ten amendments are the cornerstones of democracy in the United States.

The following is the Bill of Rights: (I highlighted the disappearing rights, the liberal ones, red, for your reading convenience.)

Article I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


Article II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.


Article III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Article IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Article VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Article VII

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Article VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Article IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Arcadia, the Play

J putting the final touch on the tortoise shell

M and H inspecting the set

The set lit by a projected slide

Actors on stage before the start of the play.
Thomasina and her tutor Septimus

Thomasina and her tutor Septimus

Charactors from 19th century and present day all on stage in the last act.

This year I was involved in the Longwood Players' production of "Arcadia" as a scenic artist, just like what I did for last year's "Pygmalian". Of course I am not some sort of an "artist". This was all volunteer work, and the skills involved were just some kind of painting, on a large scale.

My friend J was the set designer for "Arcadia", a play by Tom Stoppard. J envisioned that the whole play happened on the back of a tortoise. This was because that a tortoise was referred to several times in the play. So H and I drew a gigantic tortoise shell on 6 3X6 panels and painted each plate of the shell as concentric hexagonals with three different shades of brown. It took us two afternoons. After the first day my legs became very sour from working low on the ground. On the second afternoon we blended the three shades of brown together so that the colors changed gradually. I learned how to do dry brush. Painting on such a large scale is just fun. I also helped M outlining the stones in the stone wall. They look good, don't they?

I was very excited to see the play last Friday. A lot of people came for the performance at the Cambridge YMCA despite of the big snow storm earlier that day. The tortoise shell was tilted on the stage, and on it were a table and several chairs. The play was a complicated one. It happened in the early 19th century and also present day, in a single room. J had to send us an email to explain it before we went so that we would have an idea of what to expect. Still it was quite hard to catch things because every line was important. Characters in this play were all very witty and they talked about the second law of thermodynamics etc. The story was about a young girl (13 years old) in the 19th century who loved science and poetry and dreamed about marrying Lord Byron The Poet, but she died from a fire on her 17th birthday. Decendents of her family in the present time try to figure out what had happened from all the records they can find and they piece together science and literature. The play had a sad ending. Audience left knowing that this girl was going to die that night after waltzed romantically with her tutor.

The following is J's summary of the play, written for our sake:

(for a more complete summary, check out:)
http://www.cherwell.oxon.sch.uk/arcadia/actshead.htm
http://www.sff.net/people/mberry/arcadia.htp

All of the action in this play takes place in a single room in a English country estate called Sidley Park. The play opens in 1809, and scenes alternate between 1809/1812 and the present. In the 1809/1812 scenes (the action jumps ahead three years between Act1 and Act2) a young girl Thomasina is being tutored in many subjects by Septimus. She is really a genius, though, and is fooling around with ideas of thermodynamics (the 2nd law figures prominently in the play) and fractal geometry (which of course hadn't been invented yet).

Meanwhile, Septimus is being called out for boinking the wife of another guest, Mr Chater, Mr Chater being encouraged in the duel by Captain Brice who is in love with Mrs. Chater. Septimus really is in love with the lady of the house, Thomasina's mother (Lady Croom), though, while his friend Lord Byron (the now-famous poet) is basically boinking everyone in sight.

So you're not confused, Mrs. Chater and Lord Byron never appear on stage.

The third plot line in the 19th century involves efforts by Lord Croom (opposed by Lady Croom) to tear up the pastoral grounds of the home in favor of a Romantic landscape, which involves a Holy mess made possible by a "new and improved" steam engine, brought to Sidley Park by the landscape artist, the obsequious Mr. Noakes. The Romantic landscape includes ruins, craggy rocks, and general gloom, along with a hermitage that becomes important in the present-day scenes.

In the present, three scholars are trying to reconstruct the events that occurred at Sidley Park back in 1809-1812. Hannah, an independent scholar (basically a gentleman scholar but she's female), is trying to determine who the hermit was who lived in the hermitage. Bernard, a flamboyant Byron scholar who (unbeknownst to Hannah) panned her last book [note that there is much in the play about the disdain academics have for independent scholars], is trying to prove a theory has has that Chater was killed in a duel, but with Byron, not Septimus, but he doesn't even have proof that Bryon was ever at Sidley Park.

Meanwhile, a Croom descendant, Valentine, is trying to come up with a mathematical model that describes the population flucuations of grouse on the estate over a century. His data comes from the estate's game books, which are a record of who shot what when. These game books are central to the resolution of Bernard's theories. Valentine's sister, Chloe, is not trying to prove anything but falls in love with Bernard.

The final character is Gus/Augustus, who is the brother to Thomasina (as Augustus in 1809/1812) and to Chloe and Val in the present day (where he is called Gus).

Note that Thomasina is 13 at the beginning of the play, and 16 at the end. The play ends the evening of her 17th birthday. That's important. Also, try to follow the fates of Septimus and Mr. Chater.

Language is critical to this play, so pay attention to the wordplay. for example, the beginning lines are a play on words involving the word "carnal" and its root meaning "of the flesh", as in meat, as in carnivore. Also, pay attention to the many parallels between the two time periods, especially lines spoken by characters in each period.

A final note, so you're not confused: in the final scene, characters from both periods are on stage at the same time, with the present-day characters dressing in 19th century clothes for a party. In this scene, Hannah discovers what happens to Mr. Chater by reading Lady Croom's diary, while Lady Croom is speaking the very same lines on stage. It's an amazing juxtaposition, but hard to catch if you're not looking for it.

Other things to watch for:

1. Septimus slipping his letters into a book that will be discovered 200 years later by the present-day scholars. (and note that he burns two of Byron's letters)

2. The drawing of Septimus with his tortoise, kept by Augustus late in the play and later revealed by his counterpart Gus.

3. Note how Lady Croom's description of the events that happen one night differ from the version given to Septimus by the butler.

Finally, there is too much in this play to catch everything, so just sit back and enjoy it!

-J

More on the play from J:

A major parallel in the play between 1809 and the present is the concept of academic review. In 1809 Septimus turns out to have panned Mr. Chater's two literary efforts, and ultimately it is for this, and not for boinking Mrs. Chater, that Septimus is challenged to a duel by Mr. Chater. In the present, Bernard panned Hannah's book but shows up at Sidley Park without knowing that Hannah is already there, so he tries to hide his true identity. Hannah gets over it, at least enough that she and Bernard help each other solve their respective mysteries.

One minor thing that I never understood until I asked Sarah: at one point Septimus is having Thomasina translate a difficult latin passage, which he then translates himself with ease. It's a passage from Shakespeare (leave it to Tom Stoppard to translate Shakespeare into Latin for a play), hence her anger when she realizes the true source.

Okay, I'll shut up now!

-J

M's addition to the explanation:

J promised not to send any more addenda, so I will:

The title of the play, "Arcadia", refers to a part of Greece that, according to legend, is sort of this idyllic pastoral haven.

The famous phrase about Arcadia that appears in the play is: "Et in Arcadia ego"
It appears, most notably, as the title of some well known painting of a bunch of shepards standing around a tomb.

Roughly translated it means either 'I, too, am in Arcadia' or 'Even I am in Arcadia'. The distinction matters because, in the former the idea is that the dead Shepard has made it to paradise. In the latter case, generally accepted as more likely, the idea is that Death (with
a capital 'D') appears even in Arcadia.

There is a bit of playfulness in the play about how to translate this phrase. The implications, though, you'll be able to figure out. There's death in the form of a duel, there's the death of the
landscape after the redesign, there's the death of academic theories, and there is the death of a bunch of people's ideals, all of which can be seen in the context of the title.

Okay, now I'll shut up too!

M

What A Storm

Last Friday Dec. 9th saw the first major snow storm of this season. It started early and when I went on my late morning commute, there were already two inches accumulated. However, we still braved the weather to go to Chinatown for a delicious lunch. At that point, the precipitation changed to rain. An hour later out of Hong Kong Eatery we were greeted by gusty winds swerving larger-than-before snow flakes and lightenings in the sky. Promptly thunders followed. This was really odd that lightening and thunders accompanied a winter storm here in Boston. I soon learned that we were very lucky that we made back just in time to escape from the worst of the storm.

Stata Center, 2:28pm

Stata Center, 2:34pm

Stata Center, 2:56pm
Auto focus on camera stopped working. There was nothing to focus on! I used manual.

Stata Center, 3:53pm

Stata Center, 4:07pm.
Clearing from the west. Sunset.

Campus, 6:27pm

A Mostly Black Sculpture

Festive Lighting

Beauty is only Illusion

I got this in my mail today. Per my friend's instruction: look at these faces closely (real close); then step back, look at them from afar. What do you see?



I was really amazed at the trick my eyes played on me. Then I talked to the friend who sent me this. We took a drawing class together two years ago. She claimed that this perfectly illustrated our drawing teacher's point of "from afar (or when squinting) we see shadows; we see lines when we get closer". How come I couldn't remember our teacher ever said that? No wonder I can't draw well!

Pumpkin Buns 南瓜饼

I have wanted to make these pumpkin buns for at least a month now because they look so happy and so fit for autumn. Finally I made them for my friend's small gathering last Saturday. It took me more than two hours in total to make these 8 buns, and that was really unexpectedly long. However, I was really glad that they were well received by the hosts and guests. My little friend, Emma, probably gave me the most unique approval, though at 14-months of age, her vocabulary is only limited to "要" and "不要". She first started by licking the outside of the bun; then she licked the red bean paste inside and ate that. In the end, she was taking big bites of the sticky flour skin and the filling altogether. She said no words, but I knew she really liked it.

Here is the recipe in case you want to try it in your kitchen (note: the amounts are only my guesses):

pumpkin: 1/2 pound
sticky rice flour: 1 pound
sugar: ½ cup
red bean paste: 1/2 pound

Microwave or steam the pumpkin until it's well done. I think steaming might be better. I had to microwave it forever.

Remove the skin. Chop/blend (or use whatever method you like) to mash the cooked pumpkin. Make sure not to add water to it (it's wet enough!).

Add 1/2 cup of sugar (add more it you have a sweet tooth), and 2 cups or more sticky rice flour. Mix well with the mashed pumpkin. Keep adding flour until the dough is no longer sticky to your hands. Divide the dough into 2, 4, 8, or 16 (or more) smaller pieces. Make a small circular wrap with a piece of dough, and wrap some red bean paste inside to make a bun. Use a knife to make the shallow incisions so that the bun resembles a pumpkin. Steam for 5 to 8 minutes.

Devour.

Two Evenings with the Orchestra (Part II, Julia Fischer)

Julia Fischer after the last note

Thanking the conductor

Greeting Associate Concertmaster Tamara Smirnova

Conductor Pavvo Berglund at the end of the concert

The second evening I went to the Symphony was on October 25th. The program was the last of the four concerts celebrating the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Sibelius' Violin Concerto. The conductor, Pavvo Berglund, was Sibelius' fellow countryman. The Finnish conductor, one of the most distinguished musicians, has won his reputation on the podiums of the world's greatest orchestras. Not until he appeared on the stage did I know that the old gentleman had to walk with a cane. He conducted the whole concert (about 2 hours) from a chair placed on the podium. Even though he was not free to walk, his music ideas, expressed through his baton with the orchestra, were brilliant and upbeat. His conducting was anything but an old and fragile man.

Julia Fischer, the 22-year-old German violinist, made her BSO debut with the Sibelius Concerto. Her 1750 Guadagnini violin in her hand, she walked onto the stage in a red dress, very beautiful and elegant. Before I went to the concert, I checked out Julia's website. I saw that concert-goers in Boston had already signed her guest book and she had really impressed her audience. Thus seeing her bowing gracefully on stage to the audience, I had already started loving her. Music ensued soon after. From her violin came the melancholy opening, quiet, sweet, and nostalgic, like the northern wind sweeping through a wintry landscape. The violin concerto is in B minor. So it was no surprise that it was a little sad and moody at times. But it eventually went through a lot of developments and in the end of the third movement, it gave the audience a satisfying upbeat ending. I had not paid much attention to this concerto before because I was too absorbed with the big four violin concerti (Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky). But since this concert, this has become my new favorite.

My observation: Concertmaster Malcolm Lowe did not participate in the violin concerto, though he showed up for the Shostakovich Symphony and played some prominent solo themes. My understanding: 一山不容二虎。

I totally love Shostakovich's 8th Symphony! From all that I could find in the program I had the impression that this was a very sad and dark piece and so it was a big surprise that it was relatively very much upbeat. Maybe it did not end in the ultimate triumphant note, but in my opinion, the darkest symphony would be Tchaikovsky's 6th. Shostakovich's 8th is a long symphony, running for more than 1 hour. I especially liked the third movement. It was very rhythmic and witty and I thought that it was some kind of dance. Only afterwards did I learn from the program that it was a death march. Oh well. Who says I have to follow the program? I have my own rights to imagine.

Here you can listen to excerpts:

Sibelius Violin Concerto - BSO, Leinsdorf, Perlman
It shows the technique, not necessarily the beauty of the concerto.

Shostakovich's 8th Symphony - BSO, Previn

全民都博客

这世界变化是快。忽如一夜东风来，漫天遍地的到处都是博客。我这回时髦可是赶大发了。我可不是什么写手，从来作文是我的弱项。这个博客呢，只是想用来分享我近期的照片和胡思乱想什么的，毕竟我那个摄影的网页更新起来比较麻烦。只可惜我写得差，读者都很少的。

大概一个多月前，看到了张海迪的博客，我真得很兴奋。海迪姐姐是我小时候的榜样。我们小学生中学生都学习她身残志坚，刻苦学习的精神。这么多年以后又在网上遇见她，读她写的充满感情的文字，看她每天更新，真是一种很奇妙的感觉。

然后就发现新浪在实验他们的博客了。他们邀请了一系列的名人 建博客，真是个不错的商业构想。我也很无聊地跑去看，居然有一些炙手可热的明星什么的。看一下可不得了了，这下知道哪个明星有文化，哪个明星没水平了。徐 静蕾不错。李冰冰还行。范冰冰就没什么意思了，只知道每天贴自己的大头照，好像怕有人不知道她漂亮似的。哎，我喜欢的她的歌声的张靓颖怎么也那么没水平呢，真让我失望。

大家都写博客，所以我都怂恿爸爸也弄一个了。爸爸爱写文章，但是还不知道网络的好处。要是哪天爸爸也博客了，那就全民都博客了。

The Near-Demise of My MP3-Player

Last year before I embarked on a two-week trip back home, I searched for a portable mass storage device for backing up my digital pictures in lieu of a laptop PC. I landed on an Archos Gmini220 based on its good reviews at dpreview.com. At 170 grams and 20 GB, it is a small yet powerful device with a multitude of functions: it plays mp3, wma music; it records voice; it reads data from a CF card and downloads on to its hard drive; it displays JPG images (in gray scale). It was just what I wanted for a long trip. I used the Gmini220 to store digital picture on at least two trips and I was very happy with it. Lately the main use of the Gmini has been an mp3 player. I have about 14 GB of music on the device to choose from according to my taste and mood of the day. I find the large storage very necessary.

Then last Friday I listened till the player stopped. I thought that the battery died. I couldn't wake up the screen. That was normal. But something was strange: the light on the power button was still on. A bit odd. I didn't think much. I pressed on the power button to shut it off. I recharged it. I wanted to listen to the Sibelius Violin Concerto again because I want to write about it in my Part II of Two Evenings with the Orchestra. I pressed the power button. The screen lit up. Then it froze and in the mean time the device made several clicking noise. Very abnormal. After a long wait, the device said, "read access error: can's read from hard disk. Power off." OMG! If you can't read the hard disk, you can't do anything!

Panicking, I googled online for that error. There is not much information about it. Basically many things can cause read access error. It could be the firmware, or electrostatic, or simply a defective hard drive. The last thing is the one thing I worry about these hard drive-based mp3 players: it is not solid-state. It breaks when it's dropped. I dropped mine once, about 10 months ago. That can't be the reason why it's not working now. I updated the firmware, about 6 months ago. I recently installed Chinese font, two weeks ago. I had the player in my pocket while playing it this afternoon. No running or jumping. Nothing seemed to explain the read error. And of course, my player was out of warranty. I tried all the tricks people talked about: press on power button for 10 seconds to reset the player; plug in and unplug from a USB. Nothing worked. I checked its CF card reader function. That still worked. So it can't be the firmware. I was starting to get really frustrated. I was ready to open it up and had already started looking for a replacement 1.8" hard drive, which turned out to be very rare.

I suddenly realized how much I depended on this player. True, these ear buds in lab somehow make us stay in our own isolated realm (we probably have one player per person), but music makes tedious repetitive lab work less boring. Besides, now no one can complain about other people's choice of music. I loved my player. I still haven't used much of its recorder function yet.

Turning to our resident computer expert Dave for help, I plugged my player into our newest, most powerful PC. The PC couldn't recognize the new device because the player itself couldn't read. Dave was convinced that the hard disk wasn't spinning after carefully listening to it. Bad sign. He asked me to plug it into another USB that had been tested working. I turned off the player, and turned it on again. Miracle happened just like that: my mp3 player came back to life after two whole days' worth of revival attempts. I believe that it must be the powerful magnetic field of the new PC that released the electrostatic in my player. No matter for whatever reason my player came back to life, I am just happy that it did. It has been working just fine since. But I am not sure it will be my sole backup device on my next photo trip to, let's say, Africa.

A Life Well-lived

Roodi
April 15, 1998 - November 2, 2005

Roodi left us last Wednesday. It happened all so quickly. Now I still can't imagine that he will never come to work anymore. We are all very saddened by the loss of a very special member of the lab.



Roodi was our advisor's Vizsla (Hungarian hunting dog). Ever since he was a little puppy, he started coming to work daily. He was well trained. He knew he should never come inside the lab, so he stayed in the office on the carpet, most of the time. He brought us so much love and affection, and received so much attention from us in return. He had a certain routine: he would come to work early in the morning, and demand people to play with him for about 5 minutes. Then he would go to sleep in his kennel. He would wake up for his noon walk, waiting impatiently for Steve to come take him. He would basically take himself on the walk route (he needed help getting out of the building, though), running all the time only to stop at certain trees to jump at the squirrels, and to point at the corner of Walker Memorial to some imaginary animals. Coming back from his walk, he would play a rope toy called "Kung" for a long time, shaking the rubbery Kung so violently by the rope that it clashed with his skull while he ran around the office constantly avoiding all the furniture. He was just full of life. Though there were signs that he was getting old, such as the appearance of white hair on his chin, cauliflower-like skin tags popping out here and there, and worse, cysts on his chest and belly (which the vets said were benign). But he was only seven and a half, which was about 52-years old for a person. No one had expected him to go so soon.

Roodi was smart. He saw people putting on their jackets he would think that they would take him out for a walk. We tried not to put on our jackets in front of him. He understood several words such as "go out", "walk", "treats", "Kong", "ball". We would not say "go out" loud in the lab. Instead we say "go O-U". We couldn't even say "T", because he would associate that with "out". If you asked him "do you want...?" he would tilt his head sideways and raise his eyebrows as if expecting something. Sometimes he whimpered and whined to get attention. He hated fire drills. The fire alarm must hurt his ears. He would cry so sadly and loudly and I believe everybody in the building would hear his cry. His cry alone would get everyone out safely.

Though he was a hunting dog and he had the instinct to point and chase animals, Roodi was very timid. He was afraid of almost any new things to him, from a small magnet lion to a large inflated rhino. He was even afraid of ice buckets. Sometimes he would overcome his fear and become fond of certain things, or even become overly possessive, like what happened to the magnet lion or the mouse cover in the shape of a mouse. But sometimes he would run away as fast as he could to take refuge in his safe haven - his own kennel. That usually cracked us up.






Roodi loved people. Though he would bark at strangers and sometimes he was a racist (he especially liked to bark at young Asian females), he would get to know them very fast. If people got down to his level, he would not hesitate to bestow on them his kisses. He rolled over for certain people (he was very selective on this) and asked them to rub his belly. I heard that this was the ultimate show of submissiveness of dogs. That did not necessarily mean that Roodi was submissive. Most of the times he was, but he changed a lot since Strider arrived a year and a half ago. Strider is the younger Vizsla. Roodi was very dominant to Strider. Roodi bond to his caregiver very quickly. I took care of Roodi and his older sister for about a week around one Christmas. I left them for two hours on Christmas day. I came back home he was not in the living room where he used to be. He dashed into the living room hearing me and I was wondering where he was while I was away. I saw that my bed looked a little messy though I made my bed that morning. I could faintly make out the outline of a dog and four paw prints. I touched the bedding and it was still warm! It turned out that Roodi slept in my bed because he couldn't find me in the house but wanted to get closer to me. My bed, which had my scent, was the closest thing he could find! What a sweet dog!


To me, Roodi was a very special dog. He was my most loyal photography subject. I went through all the Roodi pictures I have taken over the years in the last couple of days. I was surprised that it came to a total of 2.5G JPG images. He had certainly helped me improving my skills.

It was so shocking when Dave told me that Steve postponed his trip because Roodi was very sick last Wednesday morning. The whole lab was very disheartened. I knew Roodi was in surgery and they found cancer on his liver and spleen. I thought that they would just remove the tumors and Roodi would recover at Angell's and come back to work later. But he didn't make it.

At least Roodi didn't suffer long. Just Tuesday he was still running around the campus like any other day. He even successfully begged Wendy and I into giving him a bonus walk around 1:30pm that afternoon. Like any other walk I took him on, he got so many compliments from people for his boundless energy and superb ball-catching ability. It was such a nice day: temperature in the 70s, only two days after two inches of snow. Roodi had the sense for a good day. I was so glad that I let him win, let him go on his usual walk instead of playing ball right downstairs. I will always remember him as an energetic dog that loved people's attention and released our stress and tension.

Rest in peace, Roodi. I will miss you a lot.