family reunion next year?

Talked to my family just now. I really hope they can make it next year to the US to attend my commencement ceremony. Their hesitation is mainly due to the concern that my nephew's studies might not be well taken care of with my parents' rather strict oversight. I understand that, yet I've felt that I owe my family a lot, therefore coming to the occassion may be sort of a belated compensation to them, at least I think it that way. Hope they can make up their mind and get things started soon.

Feeling a bit tired. Bed time now. Mmm, how will it feel lying on a bigger bed? I was wondering...

Big finding

Really happy today! I happened to find online a huge list of Japanese original songs covered by HK/Taiwan/Chinese mainland singers over the past two decades or so. I bet this list, compiled by a Japanese guy, is so rarely seen on the whole Internet. It is a big step forward compared with what people can easily find on the web, which is mainly a quite impressively big list compiled by a Chinese friend (to a limited extent, I also contributed to that existing list). However, the one I found today is by no means flawless since at least I easily find quite a few more to be added, according to my instant self-search in the music database in my head (for example, my own revised list of Anzen Chitai/Koji Tamaki original songs showed that some were missing in the Japanese guy's list). To be sure, I spent the night doing online searching, which was sometimes frustrating yet rewarding and fun eventually because I was always finally able to find what was targeted by trying a lot of means, which by the way yielded a few surprisingly awesome music by-products. Thank God we've got the Internet!

I will keep working on the list to improve it according to my music knowledge. It will be a big treasurehouse for those addicted to finding original songs vs. their covered versions like me.

First English novel to read in years

Today's work in the library was kind of rewarding. While searching for overseas Chinese scholars, I came across a familiar name: Ha Jin, Boston University professor/writer/poet. I first got to know him a few weeks ago in a magazine in-depth report that was about his new novel: A Free Life. After he came to the US in 1984, he began to write about China only in English, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_Jin). Already he has won a number of prestigious literature awards and solidly established his position in the American literary circles. Very impressive track record. I was amazed at his ability to write widely acclaimed novels and poems with an acquired language. A very limited number of people can do that, as I have learned.

Luckily, I later found our library has a rather complete collection of his works. Almost on impulse, right after work, I rushed to the seventh floor and grabbed that A Free Life, an over-600 page novel about a Chinese immigrant and his ordeal in the US in order to find inner freedom.

It will be the first English novel that I've ever read in years (shame on myself). I hope it will be an enjoyable reading experience, and I hope it can be a sort of spur to push me to keep reading something in English every day.

Good luck, newcomers!~

Went to CSSA's orientation tonight for new Chinese students this year. A bunch of old faces showed up in the event, including the former CSSA presidents and a few guys alwasy warm-hearted to play some part in public affairs for the sake of the Chinese communtiy here. Sitting there and watching those guys do their presentations was kind of weird feeling to me, especially when I saw and heard the familiar PPT slides and all the life instructions. It was like rewinding memories, bit by bit, slide by slide. I can still clearly remember the day two years for our orientation. Quite a few funny and memorable details then. Now we've become old guns/veterans giving our advice to the eager newcomers. I could sense their faces glowing with excitement, despite minor nerves, to explore this unknown new world, when they were echoing with laughters or exclamations or understanding nods at those "old-to-me-new-to them" jokes.

The last part of the orientation was the self-introduction for us old buddies. Right after that, I was overwhelmed by questions raised by as many as six students, all in either journalism or telecommunication or communication studies or commdev, my current program. Tried to answer their questions one by one, and exchanged our contact info.

Well, adventures have started, good luck, newcomers!~

Copenhagen? Not for me.

Gave up a chance to go to Denmark in October for a conference's panel discussion. I was told about this this afternoon since the original speaker can't attend it because of visa problem, so I was expected to fill in the spot. The topic was kind of interesting. Youtube and Beijing Olympics. At first I was quite tempted, yet I soon realized that I'd better not go because of my tight budget. Although my college will probaby pay 500 bucks for my air fare, I still have to pay at least 500 more for just the air ticket, and other traval expenses (to Europe!) will just add up my costs. I guess if I should go, the total expenses would for sure exceed 1000 bucks, which is too much for me. Well, so be it. I won't regret it as JJ just wrote in her blog that Copenhagen is always so chilly and gloomy that she already started missing the Hawaiian sunny days. See? No wonder the suicide rate is the highest in North Europe than the other parts of the world. Well, maybe I've overreacted to such a missed chance....

C'est la vie.

Made a few calls tonight, to some friends here and back in China. Also had some chats on MSN with a few old friends. One is bravely and strongly battling her early breast cancer. One is busy with Reuters early shifts today. One is feeling kind of post-Olympics emptiness in life. One is pondering over the serious issue of whether she should stay in the US, after her experience back in China this summer. One is leaving for a Seattle trip tonight. One is expecting me to give him a hair cut tomorrow. One is seeing her son turn into a five-year-old big boy by the end of this year. One is saying that he wish he should have studied harder so that he could now stay abroad enjoying a better life since he feels the flowing undercurrents in the Chinese society despite the socio-economic progress in the past decades.

What a panorama of life. C'est la vie.

Sweetness in kitchen

Just wrote a post on my Chinese blog, inspired by a sweet scene in our kitchen just now. I was smiling while writing, because I can smell love in the air, together with the scent of tasty food, and because I can imagine that, some day (I'm sure it won't be too far away a day), I will enjoy that kind of scene, with you.

Mmm, reminds me of Alan's old song: Love is so sweet. : )

Bravo!!!

Now, for Chinese people, Beijing Olympics is perfectly complete with 50 golds and 100 medals. Two simple, symbolic and significant figures. Just saw a funny post on MIT, saying that this result is part of a well-thought and well-arranged plan by our farseeing leaders. Specifically, the plan was:

1. An awesome opening ceremony that shocked the world.
2. A minimum of one gold every day throughout the Games.
3. Ensure that we should get 50 golds and 100 medals.

Someone replied that now it has been revealed that Liu Xiang's quit and our surprising and unbelievable loss at yesterday's diving game were all pre-arranged. What a great plan!

Well, time to say goodbye to Beijing Olympics. What an unforgetable memory of the past 17 days showing the splendor of the world's best-of-the-best sports and sportsmanship, and highlighting countless shining moments of laughters and tears! Although I wasn't in Beijing in person, I know my heart has always been there, together with the Games, together with my motherland. Bravo, Olympics! Bravo, Beijing! Bravo, China!

Is Sha Fa really comfortable to sit?

I was wondering who coined that word "sha fa (sofa)" in Chinese as a way to reply a post. I was first amused by its vivid meaning implying that the person would be the first one to make that reply. A kind of privileged position. (Baidu has several explanations for this word's origin: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/55586934.html?fr=qrl). And this word has led to a few related coinings like "ban deng(stool)" and "di ban(floor)", respectively indicating the orders of replied posts, like the different floors of a building or tiers of a structure.

However, I am now so fed up with the word "sha fa." Whenever I view some celebrity blog, almost unvariedly, I can see the first replied post being "sha fa", followed by a string of "ban deng"and "di ban," and I can also often see people replying something like "Feels great with my reply on the first page!" Often, serious replies can hardly be visible on the first page of a post.

Is it so fun and so meaningful to occupy that virtual position to show one's superiority over others? Other than "nao can (brain lost/brain damaged/brain dead/brain damaged)", I can't think of any other word to describe this kind of stupidity. No wonder some smart bloggers like Wang Xiaofeng has entiredly blocked some posts like "sha fa" and "ban deng", and he even jokingly uses "hei xing xing (chimpanzee)" and "cao lv chong ( paramecium)" to refer to those who reply to his blog posts as a way to precaution people to avoid being among the group of "nao can" repliers. Mmm, what a nice title!

face issue

For thousands of years, Chinese people have sticked to a deeply-rooted notion: it is crucial to save face at whatever cost. This Olympics Games has revealed this clearly enough, with one after another controversial issues. First is lip sync, then performers' costumes of minority peoples, now the underage issue has re-surfaced after Western media's exposure pushed IOC to conduct an investigation. Shoot, hate to see all these disturbing issues coming up again and again. Why are some Western parties always trying to be at odds with us? Why couldn't we do things well enough, if our purpose is really to just save face? Although I know all such things, if they should be true, could be covered up by whatever means necessary, I'm afraid, some day, we could face a real face-losing time.

accidental finding

Finding by accident today led me to 51wma.com, a new music treasurehouse long aspired after because it has a huge collection of '80 and early '90 Cantonese and Mandarin pop songs that were nowhere to find before. Happy! ^_^

Olympic addict

Almost fell asleep just now. My brain seemed in a strike, refusing to run as expected. I knew that indicated a need for sleep. At some point in that drowsing state, I wished there would a kind of mind-writing gadget that could directly input what's going on in my mind onto this blog. If yes, I could remember one thing to note down: I need to get up very early to watch the men's basketball quarterfinals match. OMG, I have become a sort of Olympic addict. Can't imagine what my life will be like after the Games. Well, gotta take a shower now.

BTW, it's weird to know that the playlist link didn't work for Nian yesterday. Anyway, the album's link is here http://www.imusic.cn/music/25931/, and the last two songs are what I meant to show. When did Leslie record the songs? I remember the cover of the album, yet just feel too lazy to google it.

A long and tiring day compensated by music

Tired after searching a whole night for last year's stories on Colombia conflicts by three American newspapers. Felt like a chessman moved by others. The task has appeared time-consuming, especially after this noon's meeting with my program advisor who is going to have a presentation on such a topic in two weeks. I felt he himself had a hardly clear idea on what the piece will turn out to be; all was based on a rough assumption in order to suit the theme of the upcoming conference. I've started to regret taking the task to some extent. Although I was told that I would get sort of compensation for doing all this, that now is not so attractive to me. All I want is just to finish it ASAP. I can't afford spending too much time on this. Sometimes to say NO is not an easy thing, especially when you are asked a favor from your boss. I hope this effort will pay off some day.

Am listening to Miriam Yeung's 1997 album "Private Diary". Her third album. Very light-hearted and easy memodies sung in a next-door-girl-singing way. It helped ease my tiredness. Also, the album's style reminds me of that of the song "Flower and Alice". The link is here: http://www.imusic.cn/music/12157/

Talking of music, I came across a singer's earliest album yesterday. I know most of Leslie fans will dislike him (now you know who he is), yet the fact is that in that album, he sang two songs sung by Leslie as well, and it was just because that he had some contract issue with Capital Records' parent company TVB, so the songs, sung in 1985, were put on the shelf by the company until it was re-released after twenty years in a wave of re-distribution of antique albums. I know hard-core fans like Nian will not easily accept it, yet it is a fact. So pls listen to his these two songs, without prejudice：:)

http://www.imusic.cn/player/play.asp?id=242590242591

Give up or give in?

I guess tomorrow's press headlines will all be the same breaking news: Liu Xiang quit his game in Beijing because of injury. Already, Mitbbs's flooded with posts about his quit. I saw that moment on TV. Obviously he looked painful with his ankle. He bolted out with the false start of some other player, and he limped slowly back. He then made a perhaps his hardest decision in life. It might be a smart choice because of too much pressure on his shoulder after his amazing performance at Athens Games. Four years' hard work now ended in vain. Really sad. But I can feel he might give up this game, but he will not give in as he is still young, and he still has much potential in the future. Go, Liu Xiang!

debut

Nian asked me to start writing something to record and, reflect upon, my everyday life. Well, I thought it would be a bit intimidating in the first place because I haven't written something like that for so long. I do have my Chinese blog with the MSN space service, yet it is, like Nian labeled it, a place for me to post writings with certain subjects. In other words, I'd take that blog as a place to put up some self-assigned write-ups. It is fun because I feel I have got something to say. Here, well, I can't say for sure now. The main reason is, like I explained to her, using English to me is more like using a tool to finish a task, period. How can I make sort of transformation, switching from Chinese to English as the means to express myself, clearly and precisely? I'm still not sure. Yet, I will have a try.

Writing down this as an intro to the debut of my new blog, Leon's Wandering Thoughts.