O mio babbino caro

Mr. Puccini, thank you for the music, and happy birthday!



O my dear papa
I like him, he is handsome, handsome
I want to go to Porta Rossa
to buy the ring!
Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if my love were in vain,
I would go to the Ponte Vecchio
and throw myself in the Arno!
I am aching, I am tortured!
Oh God, I'd like to die!
Father, have pity, have pity!
Father, have pity, have pity!

Remembering a Prosperous Time

Even the most decorated house in JP feels the pain of the current economic downturn. This picture was taken this time last year. The house was lit in its full extravagance, costing the owner thousands of dollars in the electricity bill each month. This year, the lights were cut back dramatically. No lights in the yard. House was lit by at most 20% of those bulbs used last year. Thus it doesn't warrant a photo taken by me, who happens to be a very economic photographer.

Danny Boy

Beautiful Irish tone Londonderry Air, with lyrics written by an English lawyer.




Danny Boy - King's Singers

O Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone and all the roses falling
It's you, it's you must go and I must bide

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
For I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so

But when ye come and all the flow'rs are dying
If I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me

And I shall hear though soft you tread above me
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me

Birds, Back Yard, Black Friday

Many birds came to my back yard after the heavy morning rain. They were quite noisy, chirping all the time. Here are some of the birds I saw:

A blue jay.

Starlings. Quite gregarious.

A starling.

A robin.

Then all the birds left as suddenly as they came. The back yard turned quiet again, until something strange caught my eye, and I started taking pictures non-stop:
This bird landed in the garden, with its wings spread out, looking quite suspicious. I wonder what he was doing, what he was up to. What I saw and heard next would shock me for a whole afternoon.
It turned out that this bird was a sharp-shinned hawk, and it caught a starling. Since they arrived in the garden, the hawk had been plucking feathers out of the poor starling, which cried every time a feather was plucked. (I'm ignorant about birds. This was identified by our resident bird expert A. Before this, I didn't even know a hawk could look like so innocent and small.)

I thought about weather I should save the poor starling from this cruelty, but then I decided I'd better let Nature run its course. It had been a quite difficult experience, witnessing the killing with my own eyes. I hid safely in my study, while the unfortunate starling was being torn apart little by little. At some point, I coughed, hoping my existence would scare the hawk so he would leave the starling alone. Being a predator, he didn't even care. He knew I was watching, and he looked directly into my lens:

In this picture he looks like a hawk.


Minutes later, he took off, with the starling in tow，只留下一地鸟毛。

Sinterklaas

Last Friday, Dec. 5, was Sinterklaas, a traditional Dutch holiday celebrating the birthday of Saint Nicholas (280-342), patron saint of children. We came back from JC, and were surprised to find personalized gifts on our desks! I got a flower shop, filled with chocolates.

Thank you, Sinterklaas!

Arches National Park

I visited Arches National Park on one of the hottest summer days. It is a very strange place: all the rock formations look so out-worldly. You can draw your own conclusions from the pictures.

Park Avenue

Park Avenue

a dear on Park Avenue

Three Gossips, Park Avenue

Sheep Rock and Tower of Babel

Sheep Rock

Delicate Arch viewed from Garden of Eden, 7.3Km away

Delicate Arch viewed from Garden of Eden, detail (can you see people there?)

South (left) and North Windows

Turret Arch

One of Window Arches can be seen through Turret Arch

Double Arch

Skyline Arch

Landscape Arch. It is huge!

Wall Arch
Here I mourn for it, because it is lost forever.
Its demise came unnoticed one early September day.
It collapsed. No one witnessed it.
I used to think geological time scales are big. Maybe not so much.

Fins northeast to Double O Arch

Double O Arch

Double O Arch

I don't know what this arch is, but I was looking towards northeast from Double O Arch.

Delicate Arch, viewed from Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint

After about an hour hiking under 102F temperature and a setting sun, 146m elevation gain later, I finally saw Delicate Arch from its west side. La Sal Mountains in the far background.

Balanced Rock, sunset

sunset at Arches NP

Crazy Jade in Blossom

Ever since Jade bestowed her elegant Jade plant upon me, the poor plant hasn't been having a good time on my window sill. In my hands, it grows out of control. And finally, today I found out what has been going on: it's blooming!

Dear Jade, I'm sorry that your Jade plant looks like this now:


请忽略窗台的凌乱。窗外的日落还是不错的。

US Politics

It's going to be really interesting this fall. As J pointed out, the White House is going to have an occupant who is not a white man for the first time. I knew the VP candidate for the GOP: she was running for the Alaska Governor when I was in that state two summers ago. I remember she was young and good-looking, and was surprised at her winning (being a woman and all that). My memory was right: she was a beauty pageant queen. I commented jokingly to J, "maybe P. Hilton should run for office, too." Then the White House will become the Pink House.

北京奥运2008

今天我很高兴地向我的同事宣布：“我最近非常地为我的祖国自豪，为我们成功举办的奥运。当然，这并不是我成年后第一次由衷地为我的祖国感到自豪。”同事们都很会心的笑。

这届奥运真的很精彩，各国运动员们表现出色，比赛项目安排井井有条，运动场馆很漂亮，开闭幕式壮观辉煌。要说最让我感动的时刻还是《歌唱祖国》，可爱的小姑娘，天籁般的歌声，真挚的情感，很让我骄傲我是中国人。就算是双簧我现在也原谅他们了。要说咱们中国代表团这次真的很厉害，拿了那么多金牌，咱们中国是真的崛起了。我的感想就说这么多了。

Dead Horse Point State Park

Imagine a place where eons were spent sedimenting layers of rocks, and then water came in to cut away what was laid down in the course of millions of years. Dead Horse Point State Park is such a place with a grand scale. My first sight of Colorado River, which is 2000 feet below.
The overlook is a promontory. From left to right you'll see the following 6 (overlapping) views:




To the west is the Island-in-the-sky district of Canyonlands National Park. An afternoon thunderstorm provides some much-needed water.
Legend has it that cowboys used to drive mustangs to this point to pick the best horses. The rest were left here but they were too afraid to escape from the 30-yard wide narrow neck of the highland, so they died of thirst with view of the Colorado River 2000 feet below. Thus the name of Dead Horse Point.


偷拍MM。后来我也跑到这个台子上，不过风吹来的时候，我居然觉得脚下（实际上是臀下，我有些恐高）在动，吓的我赶紧爬下来。今天看到Wall Arch坍塌的新闻，很让我后怕呢。看来这种砂岩真的不够结实啊。
Living in this dry and hot land is this colorful lizard.

Views on SR 313. These two buttes are named after two battle ships in the Civil War: Merrimac and Monitor.
La Sals in the distance.

仓颉造字

转自百度百科

相传仓颉在黄帝手下当官。那时，当官的可并不显威风，和平常人一样，只是分工不同。黄帝分派他专门管理圈里牲口的数目、屯里食物的多少。仓颉这人挺聪明，做事又尽力尽心，很快熟悉了所管的牲口和食物，心里都有了谱，难得出差错。可慢慢的，牲口、食物的储藏在逐渐增加、变化，光凭脑袋记不住了。当时又没有文字，更没有纸和笔。怎么办呢？仓颉犯难了。
　　仓颉整日整夜地想办法，先是在绳子上打结，用各种不同颜色的绳子，表示各种不同的牲口、食物，用绳子打的结代表每个数目。但时间一长久，就不奏效了。这增加的数目在绳子上打个结很便当，而减少数目时，在绳子上解个结就麻烦了。仓颉又想到了在绳子上打圈圈，在圈子里挂上各式各样的贝壳，来代替他所管的东西。增加了就添一个贝壳，减少了就去掉一个贝壳。这法子顶管用，一连用了好几年。
　　黄帝见仓颉这样能干，叫他管的事情愈来愈多，年年祭祀的次数，回回狩猎的分配，部落人丁的增减，也统统叫仓颉管。仓颉又犯悉了，凭着添绳子、挂贝壳已不抵事了。怎么才能不出差错呢？
　　这天，他参加集体狩猎，走到一个三岔路口时，几个老人为往哪条路走争辩起来。一个老人坚持要往东，说有羚羊；一个老人要往北，说前面不远可以追到鹿群；一个老人偏要往西，说有两只老虎，不及时打死，就会错过了机会。仓颉一问，原来他们都是看着地下野兽的脚印才认定的。仓颉心中猛然一喜：既然一个脚印代表一种野兽，我为什么不能用一种符号来表示我所管的东西呢？他高兴地拔腿奔回家，开始创造各种符号来表示事物。果然，把事情管理得头头是道。
　　黄帝知道后，大加赞赏，命令仓颉到各个部落去传授这种方法。渐渐地，这些符号的用法，全推广开了。就这么，形成了文字。
　　仓颉造了字，黄帝十分器重他，人人都称赞他，他的名声越来越大。仓颉头脑就有点发热了，眼睛慢慢向上移，移到头顶心里去了，什么人也看不起，造的字也马虎起来。
　　这话传到黄帝耳朵里，黄帝很恼火。他眼里容不得一个臣子变坏。怎么叫仓颉认识到自己的错误呢？黄帝召来了身边最年长的老人商量。这老人长长的胡子上打了一百二十多个结，表示他已是一百二十多岁的人了。老人沉吟了一会，独自去找仓颉了。
　　仓颉正在教各个部落的人识字，老人默默地坐在最后，和别人一样认真地听着。仓颉讲完，别人都散去了，唯独这老人不走，还坐在老地方。仓颉有点好奇，上前问他为什么不走。
　　老人说：“仓颉啊，你造的字已经家喻户晓，可我人老眼花，有几个字至今还糊涂着呢，你肯不肯再教教我？”
　　仓颉看这么大年纪的老人，都这样尊重他，很高兴，催他快说。
　　老人说：“你造的‘马’字，‘驴’字，‘骡’字，都有四条腿吧？，而牛也有四条腿，你造出来的‘牛’字怎么没有四条腿，只剩下一条尾巴呢？”
　　仓颉一听，心里有点慌了：自己原先造“鱼”字时，是写成“牛”样的，造“牛”字时，是写成“鱼”样的。都怪自己粗心大意，竟然教颠倒了。
　　老人接着又说：“你造的‘重’字，是说有千里之远，应该念出远门的‘出’字，而你却教人念成重量的‘重’字。反过来，两座山合在一起的‘出’字，本该为重量的‘重’字，你倒教成了出远门的‘出’字。这几个字真叫我难以琢磨，只好来请教你了。”
　　这时仓颉羞得无地自容，深知自己因为骄傲铸成了大错。这些字已经教给各个部落，传遍了天下，改都改不了。他连忙跪下，痛哭流涕地表示忏悔。
老人拉着仓颉的手，诚挚地说：“仓颉啊，你创造了字，使我们老一代的经验能记录下来，传下去，你做了件大好事，世世代代的人都会记住你的。你可不能骄傲自大啊！”
　　从此以后，仓颉每造一个字，总要将字义反复推敲，还行拿去征求人们的意见，一点也不敢粗心。大家都说好，才定下来，然后逐渐传到每个部落去。
　　还有相传说仓颉造字成功，发生了怪事，那一天白日竟然下粟如雨，晚上听到鬼哭魂嚎。为什幺下粟如雨呢？因为仓颉造成了文字，可用来传达心意、记载事情，自然值得庆贺。但鬼为什幺要哭呢？有人说，因为有了文字，民智日开，民德日离，欺伪狡诈、争夺杀戮由此而生，天下从此永无太平日子，连鬼也不得安宁，所以鬼要哭了。

Capitol Reef National Park and Route 24

Few people visit Capitol Reef National Park. I think that is only because it is located in the middle of nowhere. Its scenery is as breathtaking as the other 4 NPs in Utah.

View on Route 24.
A gooseneck. 28mm is not wide enough for it.
Castle Rock at the entrance to the Scenic Drive.
On the Scenic Drive. Capitol Reef is big, but there is only a 9-mile paved road to go inside the park. You pay your $5 fee in an envelope and then drop that into a box. No one is stationed there to collect your fee in person.
Interesting rock formations.


Doesn't this look like a painting of one's face?
Very dry climate. Clouds were gathering, but it never rained that day.




Driving back towards the entrance. Trees appeared where there was water.
A barn.
Trees. There are orchards at Capitol Reef where you can pick fruits. Apparently they were not in season yet.
Mormon's one-room school. It is more than 100 years old.
Indian's petroglyphs.
River. There is a 1-mile trail starting from here that goes to a natural bridge. It was a hot day, and an Indian couple who had just returned warned me to bring lots of water if I go. Because I'd visit Natural Bridges NM later, I opted not to take this hike. The white colored dome in the background might be the one which gives this NP its name (the US Capitol is white).
Rock formation on road to Waterpocket Fold. I wanted to see this 100-mile-long gigantic fold on earth so I set out to drive down there. However, about 50 feet into the unpaved road I turned around: I was already convinced neither my rental or me would survive the bumpy ride.
Route 24 outside Capitol Reef. Exposed were completely different sedimentations.

Threatening sky.
Rocks. They have cute names. One is called 'Prairie Dog', not sure whether it's the one on the right.