Recent Update

Training at Chicago was good. Learn some new knowledge. It was very cold week.
Egypt trip plan is set. Will be going in December for two weeks. So excited!
Went to Hartford. It was nice hanging out with old and new friends, and went hiking.
Business trip to Salt Lake City was canceled, but will still go to DC for 1wk.

Everything is put off

Was planning to go to Indiana Dunes for camping with friends, but two of them are down due to sickness. So plan has be to put off. sucks...
All my post recently are about negativity, not so good, should start get positive about things again. On the bright side, I'll be at Chicago for training next week. That will be fun. :-)

Misc stuff

Egypt plan is up in air now,...a friend is unsure if she can still go due to some realistic reason.

I got hit on by some creep on the shuttle at workplace. And there is another wierdo in the building is stalking me too.

Still waiting on result from the drawing for Olympic pre-sale tickets. No words yet.

This SUCKS!

Oh, Wow, I forgot that Sept 1st is when I first wrote a blog. I can't believe I've been doing this for two years! That's worthed a celebration.

Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival + Ribfest

Labor Day weekend were pretty good. Watched couple live performance during the Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival. Went to the 12th annual Rib Fest, but didn't eat any ribs. Finally, I watched Bourne Ultimatum after talking about going to a theatre for weeks. Its fighting scenes were thrilling, better than the last two. Also watched couple DVDs at friend's house. The "Prestige" and "Stranger Than Fiction"

The Prestige is such a complicated movie, but really good, kept audience thinking. However I still think I like the other magician movie the Illusionist better, because the stage effects in this movie is more dreamy and artistic. There's also more romance in Illusionist. For those who don't know, I'm a big sucker for romantic films, especially when it has a happy ending. The movie Prestige started to lose me when a Cloning machine was introduced, didn't expect it to become a SciFi, hehe. Its ending was shockingly dramatic with a meaningful moral- Hate ruins everyone. Revenge is not the solution. No one wins at end.

What can I say about Stranger Than Fiction? hmm.., it is indeed very strange. Haha. But it is still a very interesting movie, if you are looking for something different and out of ordinary, i would definitely recommend this movie. Definitely one of the top performance by Will Ferrell.

Autumn Has Started Already In China

I just realized today in Chinese tradition autumn has already started. In Chinese calendar, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice are middle of the season instead of beginning of the season. I think the Chinese way makes more sense since the two Solstices suppose to be the longest or shortest day of the year, hence they should be considered as the center of summer or winter.

Following this logic, 9/21 should be the middle of Fall rather than beginning of fall. That means Summer ends and Fall starts a month and half before 9/21. So 8/7 should be the last day of summer and 8/8 should be the first day of Fall every year. Wow, hence it is already Fall now.

Even though Chinese calendar is basically a lunar calendar, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice are determined by observing the Solar system. Actually there are total of 24 solar-terms in Chinese calendar that are called "Jie Qi", which translates to "Season and Climate". There are two every month to reflect the change of weather and temperature due to change of distance between Earth and Sun. Ancient Chinese peasants use the 24 "Jie Qi" as the key for planning and arrangement of agriculture activities.