麻省理工學院開放式課程

上班前，在各Blog中逛來逛去的時候，無意間在Inside the box那兒發現了「麻省理工學院開放式課程」的消息。 在網站中，有不少課程的資訊。很快的找了幾個有用課程先列著，有空再來好好研究：

• Advanced Geotechnical Engineering, Fall 2003
• Groundwater Hydrology, Fall 2004
• Advanced Soil Mechanics, Fall 2004

PS. 英文版網站 (MITOPENCOURSEWARE)

Coming Musicals

West Side Story November 1 thru 13, 2005 American Musical Theatre San Jose San Jose, California

Mamma Mia November 29 thru December 4, 2005 American Musical Theatre San Jose San Jose, California

Masse's Pastries for Jamie

趁著幫Jamie過生日的機會，特別讓Stanley從Berkeley帶來二個Masse's Pastries的蛋糕。Masse's的糕點，目前還是個人在Bay Area裏甜點、下午茶及生日蛋糕的第一選擇。 第一個是Tiramisu，上面舖滿了巧克力做成的小捲子，四周圍著Lady Finger；入口甜而不膩，令人回味再三。

第二個，二層的Fugde Brownie夾著Chocolate Mousse，說真的是太甜了一點，very rich and chocolate-y。雖然並忘了明確的名稱為何，但整個蛋糕以巧克力包裹，並做成的仿布料般的波浪及皺摺，光看，就令人心醉不已。 PS. 享用之前，還得先把刀身加熱，不然還真難下刀。

生活中的表情符號

從酥餅那兒看來這個有趣的串連遊戲，就像回應所說的，「藉由這個遊戲不自覺的就會更用心的觀察周遭的細小事物。」 星期五在工地混了一天，東看西看還真找著不少表情。 「去Robots試鏡，人家還是不要我。」 「那......中午吃什麼？」 「Where...Where am I??」 (Dory from Finding Nemo?) 灰頭土臉，眼神到是挺深邃的。 還是開心過日子卡實在！

我們都是中年人

節錄自一篇在世界周刊上看到的文章，似曾相識?? :P

(click to enlarge)

還有十年，我們到是等著瞧......

Annie - the musical

September 17, 2005 Golden Gate Theater San Francisco, California 一 開始是沖著"Tomorrow"、"It's the Hard-Knock Life"這幾首歌去的，對"Annie"的故事其實並不是太熟悉。大概查了一下，此劇時代背景為1933年，美國大蕭條(Great Depression)之時，全劇大意是描述在孤兒院裏長大的小女孩(Annie)一心一意想尋找親生父母，而卻意外的結職富豪(Oliver Warbucks)的故事。 整齣劇中，不但小女孩們準確而清亮的嗓音令人驚豔，在第二幕的當Warbucks決定要收養Annie，並準備舉辦X'mas party，在賓客名單中，除了Babe Ruth等當時的名人，最後提到了一個......"Chiang Kai-Shek"！?等等，如果沒聽錯的話，我們空一格蔣公的大名竟然在百老匯舞台劇裏出現了！功過不論，看來起碼空一格蔣公在當時還真算得上一號人物！

A morning at the City Hall

Second floor, City Hall, 9:15 am “Hi, I’d like to apply for the excavation permit. Can you verify if the locations are on City’s property?” “Well, if the locations are on private property, then you don’t need a permit.” “Yes, I understand that. Are those locations under City’s jurisdiction?” (showing the aerial photo with proposed boring locations) “Well, you tell me.” “err……err……” “If the locations are on private property, then you don’t need a permit……” “err……err……Is there a map or something that I can look it up?” “You might want to talk to the Real Estate Dept. on 4th Fl.” “Oh, thanks!” Fourth floor, City Hall, 9:45 am “Hi, we’d like to find out whether our boring locations are on City’s property” “Do you have the street number?” “Actually, it’s on city street.” “Do you have the APN numbers?” “err……no……” “Sorry, we don’t have the mechanism to find out whose property if you don’t have those information.” “err……ok……thanks……” An hour at the City Hall, what have I learned?? NOTHING!!……%*^&%)(*&^%(&$……damn…

New Template

I was trying to adopt the "read more" function into Blogger.com by following Kwei's method. However, after playing with the old template, "read more" just won't show on the main page at all. By the end of the day, the whole template was messed up! Well, might as well get a new template. So, here it is. Also, I officially gave up the idea of the "read more" stuff......

T.G.I.F.

Cool, it’s Friday again.

However, it’s the “Admission Day” today. Never heard of it? Me neither!! This morning, it took me $3.35 and about 40 min to take BART to get to Oakland City Hall from Fremont, and it’s closed because of the “Admission Day”. When I came back to the office, nobody knows what the heck the day is.

“It gotta be one of the make-up holidays just for the government workers…” Gary said. Well, it turn out the great California entered the union on September 9, 1850, as the thirty-first state. No wonder people want to work for the government. They probably got about 3 to 4 more holidays than us. And we are paying for this?? That's just great!

Maybe it's the weather, it's been pretty hard for me to concentrate this afternoon. It's like the brain is officially shut-down. I was trying to do some analysis, but my mind is wondering somewhere else. So, there we go, blogging again. :)

Seattle - Top of the Space Needle

Seattle - Sign

Seattle - Downtown

Seattle - Public Market

Before the storm... New Orleans, LA

These were taken during our trip to New Orleans, LA, last X'mas. Ironically, there was a snowstorm right before our arrival. That's right, it was snowing in New Orleans. The highways were closed because it's too icy. And now, they are suffering from the terrible flood... Jackson Square

Garden District

Besthoff Sculpture Garden