A tribute to OBEL

Todays is just another Friday - but i was lifted, and i could feel my soul swirling in the sky for a bit - during the time that one of my OBEL colleagues played the piano. It was so beautiful, so striking, and yet so natural.

The acoustics in the piano shop was of course not to be compared with a concert environment - but i felt very lucky to have met such a talented person and to have the chance to hear him play in a "buying-a-piano" setting, which just reminded me of all the little wonders of life that happened since I arrived OBEL in Perth. More than once - i felt this happy, i felt the spirit high,... and I felt such moments of joy.

I am grateful - to have met such a group of people in Australia. Almost everyone in the lab has given me a lift home before! With some of them, i have been to movies, parties, concerts, BBQs, night seeings, volleyball matches, Freo and even shoppings!!! And not to forget the most happening event - drinkies!

Thanks everyone at OBEL (although you guys may never have the chance to read this blog). But I feel very lucky to have this chance to spend the last 2 months with you, and just to write this down pay my tributes to the lovely "OBELions" (not rebellions :P)

New label for dreams

i have been thinking of recording all my dreams as some of them are really wonderfully weird. A lot of them were like a real-life movie for me and i really don't want to wake up from them! Staring a whole new blog on dreams will be too much of a fuss thus I am creating a new label to record all my interesting dreams. Maybe this way will be more efficient as my pen-and-notebook did not do well last time and i only manged to record 3-4 dreams, and hey it is e-world these days and everything is recorded electronically. Thus is my new label created here in this rarely read English blog.

Just to recount some of the lost dreams - anti-humans trying to destroy human race, detectives, more as detectives, inherit account number from diseased mafia...so much more to look forward to! It is kind of fun knowing that i am going to expect anything from this!

Impressions of Perth (after one month)

It has been one month since i arrived in Perth Australia for a research attachment. The initial days were plain, but full of little surprises. First little surprise was how beautiful UWA campus is, and my first encounters to the campus at 9am was in total owe. Old buildings from early days of this century, pond of still waters like mirrors, and loud but colorful parrots on trees that have leaves red like burning fire. Oh it is such a holy place for education!



Another little surprise is the fruit tree at the backyard of my house! There are at least 3 types: pomegranate, grapefruit and olives! So lovely to have a garden and so peculiar to pick something from wild and being able to eat them right away. well laugh at me as you wish, but for a person who grew up in blocks and concrete, this is truly a little wonder.


Then days gone by slowly with me fully immersed into the research mood. The initial wonders and surprises look more and more normal now. People never treasure what they have! I could still recall my heart leaping on the sight of lovely campus of UWA, but it is only recalling, it never happens anymore when i step into this beautiful campus.

Though another little surprise was a nasty one with a co-worker at research, life manges itself and everything just moves on. Bit by bit, I adjust and I learn, and everything turns to be sweet (if you manage to ignore enough of it)

The finale of this blog was the trip with my high school mate, who came all the way from Sydney! 4 days, we had crazy four days to travel around perth and finish every spot that a tourist would go. Despite the crazy rainy windy weather, we went with all the highest spirits. Wineries, beaches, oceans, caves, markets, port town, cocktails, prison night tour, rocks, sand, deserts, pubs and parrots!! What strange combination and we had it all! We were iron man and woman, we had little time to eat or sleep, but we saw! Every little sense of our body was complaining except for our eyes!

No languages could describe the feelings when eyes met with the great monster waves from Indian Ocean, the dazzling yellow light from weird rocks in the desert, the cheapest price of a nice bottle of wine at the winery...Strong satiation. Well sorry little buddies, eyes always come in first priority, and that's because we are just humans.

Coming home, and fully immersed in research again, but I know that somewhere inside me has changed after this month, somewhere that has been awaken and feels tingling and sweet strangely.

A special comment

It is a special comment - i left a comment on Daniel Wu's (吴彦组） blog!

I never really read much of random people's blogs. So discovering it was a pure google search of "Daniel Wu's blog" with purpose. But Oh YES! He really does have the blog and I discovered it yesterday and left a well-wish comment. It is a moderated-comment blog so at that moment i thought the remark was going down the drain...

But it is NOT!!! It was posted today on his blog and to think that he actually had to read it (let me just hope this is true, ok?) to approve it makes me feel special! Thanks Daniel! You have made my day. :)

Here is the link to his blog and my comment: :)
http://www.giantrobot.com/blogs/daniel/2007/06/6-million-dollar-man.html

Sorry about all the publicity and being a 花痴, but it was really my first-time close-up experience (If i'd call it) with a star!

It will be even better if Daniel can leave some comment on my blog too...Grin...

A boring quiz result - what will I be after reborn?

You scored as French. French! French 75% German 70% Chinese 60% Aussie 55% British 55% HongKonger 50% American 45% Japanese 35% Taiwanese 25% Singaporean 25% What will you be after reborn? (translation) created with QuizFarm.com

Trivial and non-trivial

Just saw a friend's blog - he has marked the date of his publication of SPIE on his blog, and indeed it was a remarkable day - but, why didn't I think about it at all? I was having this random email of informing me that the publication from my U.S conference was available as well...and it went straight to the trash bin without much hesitation.

TRIVIALS - it is something of smudging definition. Too many times in my life - things that I consider as trivial was noticed by others, remarked and remembered.

Nothing is trivial in this world - time, after all, is flowing without any hesitation.

Broken River and Mind

Last Saturday George and I went to a Jazz concert by Tim O'Dwyer - from NUS arts festival. The ticket was $25 per pax. The saxophone player was branded as the "most innovative and accomplished" from his official website.

The concert indeed started with tremendous amount of energy, as what the NUS arts brochure has described - "mind blowing". But I am not sure if I really appreciate the mixing of various strange sounds into music. Maybe that's the meaning of free jazz - however i thought at some moments, the squirting sound came from the saxophone did imitate a desparate bird song or even - scream of a donkey, if I'd say.

The special effects created by the bass and the percussion - was extraordinary on the other hand, The rhythmic scrambles with sticks, car plates (from NSW of Australia), dry brushes, bells and even a Chinese-style children's toy drum agree to my ear very much. These special effects gave me a horizon to imagine - as if i am on an ancient beach on a deserted island, or in a jungle with dangerous beasts lurking around, or from a mysterious kingdom's showroom before a performance starts...

Bummer - a donkey howls into the beautiful imagination of the above movies in my head and that's where the high-pitch saxophone's part came in.

oh well - i am just a layman, but i really wish the saxophone can be played a bit more on the normal side.

华人新年@singapore

新加坡的华人新年有其自己的特色 - 首先就是不可缺少的财神爷像。每年新年期间，类似庙会一样的活动会在新加坡河附近举行 - 美其名曰“春到河畔"(Hongbao Riverside). 我往年都会去凑凑热闹， 今年也不例外。大财神，小财神照例是众人的焦点，游戏，小吃的摊位也是必有的。 财神走过之处，锣鼓宣扬，人们都热情的前去握手，听听祝福。可怜新加坡比较热，财神爷的工作很辛苦啊！

今年我突然看到“糖人师傅”， 这个在中国都不常见的手艺在异国他乡显得格外珍贵。里三层，外三层的人围了几圈。我连忙凑上前去， 花了S$2 (合人民币10元）买了个小猴子。希望新年我这个小猴子会有好运！