More snowy pictures from Vegas

We drove out to Red Rock, this is the first time we've seen the entire desert landscape covered with about 4 inches of snow.

Pictures on Facebook

Snow in Las Vegas!

It snowed this past week in Las Vegas, a rare thing indeed here in the desert.

這個禮拜賭城下了一整天的雪，聽說是三十年來最多的。沙漠裡下雪．．．

From Snow in Las Vegas

North Carolina BBQ

I was really looking forward to this business trip, for the sole reason that I will get to taste the famed North Carolina BBQ for the first time. I have to say, I was rather disappointed. The clients took me to the local BBQ place that is supposed to be the best in town (Wilson, NC). It was buffet style, and they actually had a whole cooked pig out on the table for you to pick off the parts you want. The sight injected authenticity into my mind and boosted hopes, and perhaps that's my problem. The pork was rather dry, and actually reminded me more of the Hawaiian Kalua Pork (but much dryer). The meat did not really have any flavor to speak of, so I placed all of my hope on the BBQ sauce and the North Caroline specialty, vinegar. Well, the BBQ sauce was okay, nothing that knocked my socks off, but I did like the vinegar. From what I could tell, it was a mixture of vinegar and crushed chili pepper, perhaps with some salt in it.

Strangely enough, I think everyone else was eating fried chicken... Oh well, I may get another chance to hunt down another place in Raleigh tomorrow before boarding my flight... I had some fried green tomatoes and grits for dinner, those were not bad.

Got cold fast!

When I returned from Taiwan on September 26th, we had turned off the air conditioning completely (not a smart move), that the house was at 93 degrees a little past midnight when we got home. It got so hot, that my home server overheated and turned itself off. My guess for temperature during the day would be about 115 degrees. This kind of heat persisted until right before I left for my trip to Dallas on October 6th. Just a little less than a week after that, the temperature dropped to a nice breeze, and we had an entire day of just cool breeze in the house with open windows. But that didn't last long... this past weekend the temperature dropped suddenly and quickly to 55 degrees in the morning, and roughly 65 during the day. That's a pretty big change from our triple-digit days last week. It usually doesn't cool down this fast until Halloween...

從臺灣回到拉斯唯加斯是九月二十六日清晨將近一點，房子內部室溫高達華氏九十三度（約攝氏三十四度），熱到我的電腦主機自動關機。白天恐怕高達華氏一百一十五度（約攝氏四十六度）。前兩年熱到主機板燒壞，這次又傻傻的把空調關掉，還好沒怎樣．．．我十月六日去德州達拉斯的時候，天氣還是熱到不行。沒想到回來之後，氣溫馬上降到五十五度（約攝氏十三度），三天之內從開冷氣到開窗戶到幾忽要開暖氣的地步．．．雖然沙漠氣侯變化快，但通常氣溫下降應是在十一月初（萬聖節後），今年早了快三個禮拜。

More videos from Taiwan (2008 September)

Posting other videos from the September trip.

其他在臺灣拍的影片也放上來：

Waiting for Train in Tao-Yuan, Taiwan 桃園火車站

On the train 1 莒光號

On the train 2 (Wind Power) 莒光號上拍的大風車

Mom Playing Koto 媽媽彈古箏

Sunrise in Yuan Li 小鎮日出

High Speed Railroad, Kaohsiung Station 1 左營高鐵站之一

High Speed Railroad, Kaohsiung Station 2 左營高鐵站之二

High Speed Railroad, Kaohsiung Station 3 左營高鐵站之三

Cindy demonstrates how to open door on HSR 心怡示範如何開高鐵車門

It's a boy (for sure)

Another ultrasound today, we've confirmed this time it's gonna be a boy.

今天確定是男生

Baby Ultrasound 2008/10/06

Dad's surgery in Taiwan 老爸的手術

We went back for my dad's surgery, some quick videos.

Eating Lunch at Hospital before Surgery 在醫院吃三阿姨作的好料

Josh playing with dad's wheelchair 好玩的孟謙

Waiting outside of the Surgery Room 在手術房外面等待，好像只有我們這群人還有心情拍照

Mom taking picture of the monitor 媽媽很興奮地要拍下爸爸在顯視器上的名字

YouTube channels

For those of you who know me, I have been living without a television for more than 5 years. Online videos have pretty much replaced television for me. And more recently, with the YouTube reaching a more mature state, I am getting even more content, for free. One of then newer features that I like about YouTube is the channels, this really brings it much closer to a TV-like experience, rather than just a bunch of random home videos.

Some of my favorite shows on television such as Myth Busters and Dirty Jobs are available here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/discoverynetworks

Since Google bought YouTube, it's only logical that there's a Google Channel. Some surprisingly useful information include where to vote, and all the cool Google Talk videos.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Google

Finally, the Johnson's baby channel should come in handy for me real soon, it even has a video on how to properly install a baby car seat (Maria, don't you wish you had watched that? ;-) ):
http://www.youtube.com/user/baby

New Baby Ultrasound 超音波掃描

Our second ultrasound, we didn't know you could get the pictures on a CD, so we got that this time, and as a bonus, we also got a short video clip on the CD :-)

Won't know the gender for sure until next month.

去做了第二次超音波掃描，這次影像比較好，下個月才會知道生男生女。

New Baby Ultrasound 2008/09/05

A bunch of videos

Aubrey and Felicity visiting Las Vegas videos (May):

Aubry, Felicity, and Josh @ Red Rock Canyon 賭城附近的「紅石公園」

Driving in Red Rock 在「紅石公園」裡面繞

Dog Park in Vegas 1 賭城狗公園之一

Dog Park in Vegas 2 賭城狗公園之二

Driving to California City 去荻荷家途中

Eating at Mad Greek 中途停下來吃希臘餐(瘋狂希臘館)

Outside of Mad Greek 希臘餐廳外面

Central Park in California City 荻荷家附近的中央公園

Outside of Aubrey and Effie's Home in California City 荻荷家外面

Scott Joplin

So nice to finally have a piano at home. I immediately printed out all my old favorites, from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata, Chopin's etudes (fingers hurt!) and nocturnes, Debussy's Clair de Lune, to Rachmaninoff's intense preludes... then I peeked into the territory that my piano teacher forbit me to enter: Jazz. To be more specific, Ragtime music by Scott Joplin. For some reason, I had a copy of The Entertainer lying around, so I started to play it when taking a break from Chopin's finger-bleeding etudes (oh Op. 10 No. 4, why do you hurt so much?). Then out of curiosity, I looked up what other music Joplin has composed, then I found the Maple Leaf Rag and Fig Leaf Rag. Both are just wonderfully cheerful and easy to play. Now I am hooked! The music is so bouncy and addictive, that even when on my businss trip this past week, I can't help but move my fingers and hum the tune of Joplin's music.

Now I know why my teacher didn't want me to touch any of these before. They are easy to pick up and very addictive :-)

The Dark Knight Rocks!

I have been waiting for this movie for a long time. I got distracted by "Wanted", which based on most reviews, turned out to be a disappointment. I patiently waited for "The Dark Knight", and while raging reviews are pouring in from all places (including my favorite movie reviewers at Spill), I was a little afraid that it won't live up to my expectation. I have read more Batman comic book than any other comic books. I never bought any, but I read quite a few Batman comic books while waiting for the bus transfer at Kahala Mall's bookstore.

To my relief, the movies does not disappoint.

People tend to overuse the term "emotional roller coaster ride". This movie does that phrase justice. Everyone who went to the movie with me felt exhausted at the end of the 150 minutes, because the movie was just that intense, from beginning to end.

What bothered me a little was seeing some parents taking their young children to this film... this is by no means a kids movie. The Joker in this movie is the perhaps the darkest portrayal of the character yet, and falls more in line with the darker comic book story lines, some of which can be very disturbing even to adults.

Overall, I was very very pleased with this movie, it had great story line (been a while since we get one of those!), great action, and great acting (been a while since we seen these too!). The only thing that I wish I had done differently was showing up to the movies earlier so I didn't have to sit on the very first row pushing my neck back during the entire movie.

Minnehaha Fall

Visited Twin Cities again on a business trip, this time made it out to Minnehaha Fall and Mall of America.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27295&id=626979824

Taro desserts

Cynthia is attempting haupia pie at home, and it called for some sweet potatoes (purple). We cooked them, mashed them up, and had some left over. So I just added some coconut (one can to be exact), mix it up, and put it in the freezer and forgot about it until this morning.

Took it out, and it was pretty good! A little on the bland side (I should have added a little salt), but with some crushed walnuts, this is a nice little dessert that feels almost like ice cream.

Aubrey @ Bellagio Garden

Aubrey came to visit Las Vegas last week (2008-05-26 to 2008-05-31), and we visited the Bellagio garden.