绿色圣诞节的欢乐大趴体

加州没有也永远不会有白色的圣诞节，甚至连灰色的都没有，十二月底了，还哪儿哪儿都郁郁葱葱的，让那些“Let it snow”之类的圣诞歌曲全都落了空。看看我们在圣诞节雨夜里冒着烟儿的大趴体。

Merry Xmas,, 圣诞快乐

祝所有朋友们圣诞快乐！万事如意，心想事成！
MERRY XMAS EVERYONE!

你撒谎可以，但不许污辱我的智商

最近中国出了两件性质及其恶劣的，对广大善良群众的智力水平进行了丧心病狂的怀疑与恶毒攻击的恶性事件。

事件一：广州地铁家属免票事件

昨 日听证会上，乘客代表卢晓曌代表一位来电市民提出质疑，“地 铁公司除了政府规定的票价优惠政策以外，对地铁员工也实行免票政策，每个员工还有3名直系亲属的名额可以免票。根据地铁公司的介绍，共有员工6000余 名，这样算来就有18000名地铁直系亲属可以享受免费乘坐地铁的待遇。如果地铁员工因为工作需要可以免单，那这18000名地铁的直系亲属免费也是保证 地铁正常运营所必须的成本吗？”

广州地铁公司总经理卢光霖在会后回 应，“众 所周知，目前国际恐怖势力猖獗，地铁又是恐怖分子的重点袭击对象，所以必须加强地铁车站、月台、车厢内的反恐力度，地铁员工的力量毕竟有限，而地铁 公司又希望每趟列车在碰到任何情况时都有人能够及时地指导救援，那么这些地铁家属就义不容辞地担负起地铁义务安全员的重要职责”

评：纽约的地铁工人们可以不用罢工了，何必跟万恶的资本家们纠缠不清呢。不给涨工资不是？我们跟中国的工人兄弟们学学，咱也来个家属全免票，众所周知，恐怖势力在纽约可是最猖獗的！LOL

事件二：孙英杰服药事件

被告于海江在庭审中承认事实是他造成的，辩称动机是出于想帮原告孙英杰。于海江在法庭说：“我就是出于想帮她，因为孙英杰是我心中的偶像。可以说她的一举一动都牵动我的心，我对她特别痴迷，特别崇拜。”

于 海江乘保姆做饭之机将自己平时服用的药物胶囊（强力补）取出7～8 粒，掰开将药粉放进10月16日早孙英杰所剩的猕猴桃果汁瓶中。然后，于海江返回山海关的训练基地。当天下午3时许，孙英杰回到王德显家中，饮用了早晨饮 剩的猕猴桃果汁饮料，并于17日早将剩余的果汁喝掉。随后乘飞机赶往南京参加当日的十运会万米比赛。在10月18日十运会组委会实施的兴奋剂检查中，孙英 杰A瓶尿样检测呈外源性雄酮阳性。

对于“强力补”的来路，于海江在法庭上说，药是他在北京天安门附近的一个厕所里挂在挂钩上的一个蓝色的包里拣的，自己以为是补药，并不知道是兴奋剂，不过吃过几次后感觉身体很有劲，于是当时就想到放进孙英杰喝剩的饮料中，暗中帮助偶像。同时也有好奇心作祟。

赞：那谁谁，你可以改改行，说单口相声儿得了，说得怎么比马三立那段儿“逗你玩儿”还好呢。不过你可不知道，天安门边儿上的那个厕所的东西可不敢随便捡，搞不好是哪位“同志”用来搞变性的补药呢，这没准儿就把你心中暗恋的对象变成跟你一个性别的了。LOL

怒：这都把中国人民当傻子啦，可恶，都应该拖出去喂狗！

It rains like it never rained before

整整下了一个周末的雨，时而绵密，时而骤急，再加上吹着尖声口哨滑过树梢的凛冽寒风，时刻提醒着人们冬天终于无可争议的来了。加州比起我曾经住过的同纬度 的几个城市北京，哥伦布俄亥俄的冬天要好过多了。天气不算很冷，平均大约40-50华氏度（摄氏10度左右？）的样子，从来不下雪，就是雨多的烦人，连下 一个星期的雨有时候也是常事。尽管是在这并不寒冷的冬夜，我们围炉相拥夜话，听屋外风雨声敲打着屋檐篱笆，还是感觉异常温暖。

今天去一个朋友的告别晚餐，送她离开湾区登陆加拿大。自从移民局四月份改变了工作绿卡的申请程序，让许多本来就在绝望中苦苦等待的H-1们失去了最后的希 望，纷纷准备退路。有时想想真觉得自己是很幸运的，有最亲近的人在身边，把我从望不到头的移民监里救了出来。生活在自由的国度却呼吸不到自由的空气是一件 多么让人沮丧的事哪。听到不少朋友将要离开的消息，要去别的城市寻找机会，或是回国发展。虽说天下没有不散的筵席，迎来送往是生命中惯见之事了，可一个朋 友的离去好像就带走了一小块生命，不由心中仍是戚戚。衷心祝朋友们有好运开始他们新生活，新希望。让我们把临走前的最后一场音乐会做成对这一小片逝去永不 再来的生活的永久纪念吧。

Stanley Tookie Williams，及克隆人

两天前加州有个叫Stanley Tookie Williams的人被执行了死刑，这件事儿闹得全国上下沸沸扬扬，几乎天天上报纸的头条直到他在夜里被打了三支毒针死了才罢休。为什么整这么大动静儿 呢？这家伙26年前是LA著名黑帮Crips的创始人之一，在两次抢劫中杀了4个人，被抓住后判了死刑，等了这么多年才赶上执行。可是在等待的这段时间 里，他好像悔过自新了，写了几本儿幼儿读物劝大家不要加入黑帮重蹈他的覆辙。于是就有很多人站出来呼吁对他法外开恩，死罪饶过，活罪不免，死刑改无期。这 些各色人等中有些是黑人明星/民权领袖，觉得这是黑人被歧视被陷害的冤狱；有些是国内反对死刑的组织，呼吁全面禁止死刑；连外国（当然是没有死刑的国家） 元首们和教皇都掺乎进来了最后。可是加州的“终结者”州长最后愣是硬起了心肠没给他活下去的机会。州长给出的原因是“看不出来现在的他值得赦免”！

把 人处死当然不是什么好事儿，可我觉得这家伙还是该死。最重要的是他犯的案人证物证俱在，铁证如山可他正么多年来竟矢口否认，也从不向死者的家属道歉。就 这一点让我对他的悔过自新觉得怀疑。当然这中间确实有一个冤假错案的疑问，理论上再完善的法律系统也无法完全杜绝错案的发生，所以废除死刑确实可以把此类 问题的危害减到最低。可是永远失去自由的活着就一定比死了好么？还有一个问题就是美国死刑犯等死的时间太长了，等到最后连他们自己恐怕都把自己为什么被处 死这回事儿忘了，这时候再死确实有点儿接受不了，对这种证据确凿的还是来个快兴的罢，也许这样儿连挨刀的主儿都容易接受点儿。最后，杀不杀我觉得谁都没有 发言权，如果被害人的家属宽恕了他，那还可以留他一命，否则“杀人偿命，欠债还钱”是天经地义的事，至少本案当事人的家属很高兴看到他遭此报应。

今 天看了个电影儿“Island”，讲的是克隆人的事儿，突然想到如果有个克隆的植物人替身区被执行死刑不知道该怎么算，毕竟死的那位是从生物学意义上的 一个人那。还有就是最近闹得沸沸扬扬的韩国“克隆之父”伪造数据终于被揭穿了。搞科研真实来不得半点儿马虎的，否则搞不好就会弄个身败名裂，像这位教授一 样。昨天还是全韩国人的骄傲，被批评科研违反了伦理道德还遭到韩国人民的一致声援（他曾经被揭发用实验室女研究人员捐献的卵子做实验，结果全韩国有几千妇 女马上登记愿意为他捐出自己的卵子，又是可怕的韩国式的爱国精神！）。今天就把自己，也捎带脚儿把全韩国人民的脸都丢尽了。再次证明了科学可 不是玩儿的，我庆幸自己及时转了行儿，否则虽然不至于故意造假，可凭我这股子丢三落四的劲儿也早晚要出事儿的。害！写程序的生活是多么的轻松又不求甚解 阿，错误再多也只是多几个BUG罢了，不会搞到人要死要活的。

25 Years ago the same day, a legend died

今天是John Lennon逝世25周年纪念日。25年前的12月8号星期四，他在纽约家中的门口被狂人Mark David Chapman连开5枪杀害。一个时代随着光耀它的巨星的陨落而结束了。25年后，下一个时代成长起来的人们依旧在家里，办公室，和上下班的路上听着“永 远的草莓地”。人们仍然在这一天到纽约的中央公园的“草莓地”纪念他。他的音乐和“要爱不要战争”的理念仍然时时盘旋在这个城市的上空。这个时候，我只能 相信音乐是永恒的，列农是永恒的。贴一首“永远的草莓地”

Strawberry Fields Forever

by Lennon/McCartney

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low.
That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right, that is I think it's not too bad.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Always, no sometimes, think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream.
I think I know I mean a 'Yes' but it's all wrong, that is I think I disagree.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Lennon & Ono @ New York

流水账一篇

感恩节就这样轰轰烈烈的过完了，到朋友的朋友家大吃了一顿，也在家请朋友们大吃了一顿了事。可达同学的回归给湾区“噪音源”运动的烈火上又加了一把干柴，在我们家的饭桌上连运动口号都想好了，就叫“RB不是装的”。

上星期看了“Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire"电影版，书是很久以前看的了，情节还隐约记得可细节几乎都忘光了。感觉电影拍得很不错，把一部娱乐片拍出了百分之一百娱乐的效果。奇异的服装， 道具，魔法，怪兽和超女型男们煞是养眼。这就对了嘛，娱乐片就要有娱乐片的样子，省得高不成低不就的既当不了婊子又立不了牌坊。Harry Potter系列电影一个成功之处是每一集都要换一个不同的导演来拍，演员还是那一拨儿人，可情节叙事手法上总有新意。要是七级都有同一个人导的话，不说 观众们要烦死了，恐怕不出3级那导演也会江郎才尽，郁闷而死吧。戏里的演员是越长越大了，多少都有点儿走形儿，童星多半儿长大了都不会漂亮。要是在 Harry Potter 7 里净是一些丑八怪那该多杀风景啊。

看完电影后捎带脚儿把Harry Potter 6 的书也看了，您说这位怎么还怎么天真无邪的啊？亥，我还就是好这么一口儿。Rolling的书是越写越厚了，估计还是嫌她那几亿几亿的版税不够。就正么招 还是没把故事交待清楚，最后Dumbledore死的不明不白，慎是无理。照我看他在下一集里还得想办法活过来，那还算是个悬念把。

看书之余，还看了个特好的电视剧“动什么别动感情”，是唐大年倒的，王朔，刘震云的监制。片子拍得紧凑幽默，京味儿十足。我向来不看长篇电视剧的人都忍不住坚持看了下来。个人强烈推荐之。就说到这儿吧，洗洗睡了。

新工作的第一周

久违了的开始新工作的新鲜和激动，久违了的在大公司工作的感觉。好几年前，我几乎是每一年甚至是半年就要体会一遍这样的感觉。那时候正是互联网泡沫的高峰 期，每个在硅谷工作的工程师的眼睛里都燃烧着股票期权，钞票，豪宅和宝时捷的影子。“没有什么事不可能的！”是所有人经常挂在嘴边的一句话。初出校园的我 看到的正是这样一个极其疯狂的10年荣景的尾声，我很快便学会了像所有硅谷人一样的生活，跳槽-加薪-期权，再跳槽-再加薪-更多期权...。好景很快就 随股市的崩溃烟消云散，期权成了废纸，工作朝不保夕，大公司裁员，小公司倒闭，到处听到的是朋友失业的消息。但和大多数人一样，我终于熬了过来，等到了4 年后复苏的一天。新公司的工作还算称心如意，做好准备迎接也许是下一个荣景的到来。也许像2000年时的景象永远不会再出现了，但谁又能知道明天一定会怎 样尼，生活的意义也就在这一个个不知道之中吧。上个星期，六个在医院工作的护士们中了加州有史以来最大的乐透三亿美金，她们买彩票的代价只是每人三块美金 而已。是哈，明天这东西，又有谁会知道呢？

我的Les Paul

收到一件让我心满意足的生日礼物，一把Epiphone Les Paul Classic。特此纪念。

虽然不能比Gibson原版的Les Paul，可性价比还是很不错的，甚至有人说只要花点儿银子换个拾音器（Pickups），就几乎可以到与Gibson比肩的水平。

我 的第一把琴像很多70后的琴友儿们一样是国产的红棉，尼龙弦的古典吉他。那时候我高二，琴是我姐姐玩儿剩下不要了的，记得有一阵儿国内特流行弹古典吉 他，到处都是速成班儿，满大街的时髦青年都会弹那么几小节“阿尔汉布拉宫的回忆”。我弹着这把琴从高二一直到大学三年级，把它挂在我宿舍的墙上，作为我附 庸风雅的标志。我本来寄希望于用它搞定学校里大大小小的文艺女青年们，无奈一是我们宿舍太臭，鲜有女青年胆敢涉足，二是我校女生对种种在粪青儿中流行的雕 虫小技全都不屑一顾。于是那把琴的唯一用途就是在郁闷时拿来当弹棉花的弓弦儿一般狂砸着发泄一番。我毕业时那琴简直是蔚为奇观，琴颈弯成了一张弓，真可以 用来弹棉花了。不过也不能全怪我，据说这是红棉琴的通病，那琴是在广州造的，木质含水量较高，一但在北方被放过几个干燥的冬天就基本上毁了。毕业时我把它 送给了95级的学弟，让它继续着疏导青春期荷尔蒙的光荣工作。

在会弹几个简单合弦之后，我很快就进入了唯设备论的阶段，一直梦想能有把 好 琴无奈囊中羞涩只好望琴兴叹。我第二把琴是蓝谣造的一把箱琴，是我在大三时候第 一次给人作GRE枪手之后买的，花了整整8000大毛。那时候在北京混着的文艺青年们大概都应该知道“蓝谣”和“迷迪”吧，蓝谣好像是几个乐手合资开的， 函 授箱琴技巧，也兼卖琴和一些盗版国外的教材和琴谱之类的。那把琴还真是把不错的箱琴，音质好，不打品，我弹着他学会了我第四个和弦，还有一些很粪青的外国 歌曲，像是迪伦的“答案在风中飘扬”。有了高档的国产设备的帮助，我终于从一个只会三个和弦，在红棉琴上狂吼“一无所有”的土鳖，升级到了会四个和弦，用 忧郁而愤怒的眼神儿放着洋屁的海鳖了。可竟然还是不招女生待见，郁闷！我临出国的时候把这把琴送给了我一个最好的兄弟。

在大学的最后一 年，随着我钱包的慢慢充实，我的唯设备论到达了巅峰。我在国内的最后一把琴是从一个所谓“乐手"手中买来的一把二手Yamaha箱琴。在交 易的时候，由于我只会四个和弦，完全无法分辨这把琴比我那把"蓝谣”好在哪里。于是那位乐手自告奋勇示范一曲“花房姑娘”，他的那首歌大概用了五个和弦， 完全征服了只会弹三和弦版“花房”和四和弦版“答案”的我。我决定买下它这把1500大洋的Yamaha，天哪，花1500大洋从四和弦升级到五和弦该是 多么的爽阿！唯设备论骗了我，这把琴弹起来还不如我的那把“蓝谣”顺手儿，我依然只会四个和弦。出国的时候我把它留在了家里。上次我妈在电话了还问起“你 什么时候把你那把琴带到霉国去？”

另，周末刚从圣地亚哥第N次玩儿回来，游记过两天再写。
Genghis Blues里的Paul Pena十月一号去世了, 见我以前的博Genhis Blues，和这篇儿土摩托日记

每一年的这一天

每一年的这一天又打不垮击不倒躲不开逃不掉般如期而至。既然无处可逃，不如在知心爱人和亲密战友安排的神秘饭局上爆搓一顿。

文中图片由dotAnn提供

网上流行超强歌词改编"骑李湘"

多亏了傻逼/牛逼/二逼(R&B)歌手周杰伦的口齿不清,才成就了这段超强,超爆笑的歌词改编。

注意：歌词内容少儿不宜，十八岁以下禁入，无思想准备者慎入

“七里香"vs“骑李湘”，歌词对照，改编MV

一些问题

幸福感到底是怎么产生的，和金钱地位有没有关系？
年龄增长到底有多么可怕，六十岁以后的生活是不是行尸走肉？
有的人在工作中乐趣无穷，为什么另一些人却绝不能把兴趣变成工作？
你愿意用多少年的青春交换一生的荣华富贵？
男人命中注定在感情上是靠不住的么，是不是和那些到处播撒精子的动物一样？
为什么越小时候的记忆越清晰，是我们越活越无聊了么？
理想主义者是不是活该受苦一辈子？
应该相信命运么？

雪人

太阳出来，我流下眼泪
大地苏醒，我那么疲惫
你给我的眼睛已慢慢枯萎
我依然在这里独自憔悴

在我们欢笑过的那片山坡，我静静等着你回来
不知你是否已把我遗忘
如果风给我一双翅膀，我要出发把你寻找
只为能再给你一次拥抱

我好希望，能看到春天
牵你的手，去那片海边
和世界道别，我慢慢融解
把心中眷恋，留给冬天

在我们欢笑过的那片山坡，我静静等着你回来
不知你是否已把我遗忘
如果风给我一双翅膀，我要出发吧你寻找
只为能再给你一次拥抱

啦啦啦。。。

傻逼还是牛逼？这是个问题！

关于周杰伦的音乐到底是傻逼还是牛逼的争论，在网上掀起了一小阵血雨腥风。大家口沫横飞，龇牙咧嘴，谁也说服不了谁。

正方观点：周杰伦是台湾别有用心要把善良的大陆人民都变成傻逼的唱片公司包装出来的装逼的二逼。详情请阅
廖福美http://www.sohoxiaobao.com/chinese/bbs/blog_view.asp?id=121879
和按摩乳http://lydon.yculblog.com/post.930545.html

反方观点：周杰伦是创造性的改造了华语乐坛的新一代偶像级大牛逼。
平客http://buchimifan.yculblog.com/post.925755.html

在“原音造星运动”如火如荼展开的今天，我认为很有必要搞清楚这个大是大非的问题。我们要争当牛逼，同时避免成为傻逼。问题是很复杂的，可是事实还是清楚的：

1。一拨儿人的牛逼很可能成为另一拨儿人的傻逼。喜欢迪伦的人八成儿不会喜欢阿姆，喜欢阿姆的人也绝不会尿迪伦一壶儿。没有什么阳春白雪，下里巴人，只有流行，伪流行，曾流行，和反流行。

2。 装逼是在娱乐圈儿生存的基本技能，说好听了叫自我推销。你说你要是太平易近人了谁还尿你呢？装逼可以有效地提升知名度，和延长艺术生命。君不见那些不 装逼的人，像是Jimmy，Janis， Lennon，Kurt，大都英年早逝，而像Rolling Stones这样持之以恒的装下去的，老而弥坚，现在装的也变成了真的了。

3。现实是残酷的，像我在上一篇中说到的“出名要趁早”，在流行的问题 上，真理大多数时候是在年轻人手中的（因为他们的人数总是比较多，这年头儿，谁嗓门儿大谁就有理）。作为一个成年 人，你现在反对的周杰伦对于90后的孩子们大概就如同20年前你喜欢的崔健之于你的父母们一样。周杰伦是傻逼还是牛逼？这现在是个问题，等再过20年，就 一定不是个问题了。

狗镇之主(Lords of dogtown)

70年代进行的如火如荼的时候，在南加州Venice Beach这座小镇一群旷课逃学不务正业的顽主们狂热的迷上了冲浪和滑板，他们被人叫做Z-boys。他们每天要么拎着滑板儿在镇子里乱转，在大街上和人 家后院空着的游泳池里切磋滑板技术，要么就抱着冲浪板儿到海边儿冲浪。这帮人后来组了个“西风”滑板队（Zephyr Skate Team），Ｚｅｐｈｙｒ是最开始支持他们的一个叫ｓｋｉｐ的人开的冲浪板儿店的名字。这帮不知天高地厚的野小子们开始把冲浪的动作带入到滑板中，一时间 打遍天下无敌手。也还是这帮野小子们后来纷纷和大公司签约，把他们的爱好变成了实实在在赚钱的生意，也成了开创滑板文化的第一代先锋。《狗镇之主》讲的就 是他们之中最有名的几个，Stacy Peralta，Tony Alva和Jay Adams。很不错的Documentary Drama。

仔 细想想，所有的流行文化都是由十几二十岁的年轻人创造的，60年代的民歌运动，嬉皮运动，70年代的滑板，DISCO， 以及80年代流行至今的Hip-hop文化无一例外。这基本上就是说如果你是个不安份守己的人，而且想搞出点儿什么动静儿来，最好趁早儿。十几岁最好，二 十出头儿也还凑合，要是奔三张儿的人了那就彻底没什么戏了。流行文化的历史是留给那些荷尔蒙充足的年轻人去写的。我反正是没戏了，明天这就买个滑板儿去。

另， 再写写那几个西风滑板队的家伙的故事：Stacy Peralta很多年以后不干滑板这行儿之后成了有名的独立制片人和导演，拍了一系列滑板冲浪文化的Documentary。Tony Alva开创了属于自己的滑板品牌，至今仍在世界各地热销。Jay Adams一直是滑板高手和先锋的创新者，在退休后一直在夏威夷隐居和冲浪。瞧瞧，再次证明了这句话“成名要趁早”！

魔方

大家看看我周末花了两天时间对出来的魔方。

*我从这个网站得到了重要的帮助。

最近太忙了，BLOG暂停先

百废待兴，日理万机，实在是无法起博了，可是我胡汉三一定会回来的，嗯！

丑陋的台湾

今天在电视上听说台湾“行政院”主席宣布从即日起对所有从大陆来的游客在进关的时候都要留指印。还美其名曰是为了加强进出人口的管理，防止跨国犯罪云 云。。。 我的第一个反应就是破口大骂。一个小小的台湾政府到底算是神马东西，谁给他的权力这么羞辱我们中国人。在此之前世界上只有一个国家有如此蛮横的规定，美 国。也是遭遇９１１的惨剧的后遗症之一，即使有点儿情有可原可还是为千夫所指。而且起码美国国安部算是一视同仁，对世界上一大批国家都狠下黑手，哪像台湾 这般卑鄙。要管大陆妹，请先管管那些在台湾嫖妓，到大陆包二奶的台湾男人们。要管黑帮枪手，请先管管那些请枪手到台湾来的黑帮老大们。要管偷渡客，请先问 问有没有什么人愿意留在台湾，请先管管那些举家迁移到大陆的台湾人。从前听说到台湾旅游不但只能跟旅行团走，还要把护照上交，就打定主意从此不去台湾，我 不去一个明目张胆歧视我的地方去给他们赚我的钱。台湾的现状让很多人意识到民主并不是天生完美的制度，大众其实大多数时候都是最无知和盲从的。再有了一个 普遍文明的人民之前，民主只是给了少数人用冠冕堂皇的制度愚弄人民的特权而已。其实只是比独裁制度少了一点暴力罢了，这样的像３１９枪击案般的民主不要也 罢。陈水扁今天又过境美国去几个中美洲小国撒钱，如此种种丑态，台湾像一个跳梁小丑，在强大的对手面前无计可施，只能靠挑衅和意淫来安慰自己了。所以想去 还没去台湾的人，咱们臊着他，晾着他，让他先一边儿凉快着去吧。反正它早晚有一天是我们的。

风水大坏

今天吃晚饭的时候出了一件奇怪的事，我正聚精会神地大嚼，听见窗户那边“当！”的一声脆响。“糟了”，我心中一惊，不会是一个月前 的事又重 演 了吧？ 大概一月前，有只鸽子一头撞在我家的skylight天窗上自杀而亡。不知是当时的光线不好，还是有什么事儿想不开，不过应该就不是我家的窗户擦得太亮的 缘故，要知道我自从搬进来以后就从来没擦过窗户。我在后院隆重的为那只鸽子举行了葬礼，我虽然在医学院做实验是杀生无数，其实都是被迫的，本人还是蛮有爱 心的。

出门一看，果不其然，又是一支绿色的小鸟肚皮朝天躺在地上，双眼翻白，双脚抽搐。仔细看 看，好像还有气 儿，大 概因为个子 比上次的那只鸽子小得多的缘故，受伤也较轻。我把它捧在手心里，它完全没有反抗之力，我找了块软点儿的垫子放它在上面，静静地在旁边看着。开始5分钟，它 连站都站不稳，双眼紧闭，东倒西歪，慢慢，可以用自己的力气站住了，还在大口的喘着粗气。又过5分钟，可以闭着眼睛左右动动脖子了，然后，能睁开一只眼睛 了，两只，扑扑翅膀，又过一分钟，它腾身而起，像没事儿人儿似的飞了。我在旁边松了一口气，为着它捡回了一条命高兴，也庆幸终于没有又一只鸟撞死在我家窗 户上，否则的话就风水大坏了。

以头枪窗，自杀未遂的小鸟痛苦的恢复中

我家的skylight，仔细看看真有点儿像一片蓝天，我要不要在上面贴个“注意玻璃”的告示给那些粗心的鸟儿尼？

老崔演唱会9/24

事隔十二年，老崔终于又能在北京开大型演唱会了。9/24号在首体，真想去啊！在我看来，老崔是中国少数认认真真做音乐的人，更是从中国摇滚乐开始发端以 来硕果仅存的音乐人。他的音乐影响了整整一代人，包括我，而且至今还在影响着。看过三次他的演唱会，场场精彩，他现场的功力真不是盖的，要在唱片之上。大 家如果有机会的话，一定要去看看。也愿中国摇滚乐，能多一些认认真真做音乐的人，能多一些做出来的人，能多一些让我想看现场的人。See Link

李敖在北大的演讲

今天去外面吃晚饭的时候，和餐馆的操北京口音的服务员调侃两句，她最后强烈建议我看看晚上在这里国语台重播的李敖在北大演讲的录像。我随口应 承，却 半信半疑，都知道这种在大场面的演讲只不过是面子上的事情，难得能讲出来什么有意思的东西。结果我竟然完全错了。李敖的演讲嬉笑怒骂，尖辣风趣，让人直呼 过瘾。我几乎是眼睛耳朵粘在电视上看完了半个小时的转播（整场演讲大概一个小时出头，电台分几次播出）。这里是演讲的全文，要想下载得赶快，中国各大媒体在这场颇具争议的演讲之后都不约而同噤声，只有一些无关痛痒的零星报道，天知道能下载的链接什么时候就会被禁？有很多幽默的妙语诉诸于文字就不显得那么精彩了，所以建议大家有可能的话去BT一下演讲的视频，应该不会让人失望。

李 敖从来就是极有争议的一个文人。我个人意见觉得他和鲁迅的性格有些相像，都充满了叛逆，斗争乃至受虐的精神。简单说就是与天斗，与地斗，与人斗，其乐无 穷。这样的文人是鲁迅，这样的武人是林彪，这样的文武全才是毛泽东。文人大都是聪明人，聪明的另一个副产品叫圆滑，所以大多数文人有才却没有骨气。中国近 代文人中最有骨气甚至到了偏执狂地步的是鲁迅，他是左派，可是他得谁骂谁，六亲不认（连亲弟弟都不放过），笔下杀人无数。窃以为多亏鲁迅死得早，不然如果 活到解放以后，只要再写一篇《纪念刘和珍君》之类的文章，也就离死期不远了，像今天这样的名节也绝不会再有。这样的人，疯狂却不能不让人敬重。没有骨气的 人如郭沫若之流就多如牛毛，不提也罢。看看当年如金庸一般人物，在香港也有用笑傲江湖讽喻毛的个人崇拜的气魄，到了晚年竟全无气节，一谈到政治就顾左右而 言它，不免让人不齿。有人说李敖不过是沽名钓誉之徒，当初算准了国民党“无量独裁，无胆民主”，才放手一搏，用坐监换来下半生的名誉。可平心而论，即便如 此，世上又有几个文人有胆量去做如此的赌博呢？我敬佩李敖在台湾骂民进党，骂国民党，在美国骂美国，在日本骂日本，如今到了中国大陆也一样不禁口的批评中 共，起码是一副君子坦荡荡的做派。我欣赏李敖犀利的语言，把人们在街头巷尾的真实心声用犀利的舌头说出来，让听众都心领神会，却又不露痕迹。我羡慕李敖幽 默的语言，能把政治变成娱乐，能把一场为统战做的演讲变成一场单口相声。

谢谢李敖，让我们知道台湾不只有疯子（用鞋子互相攻击的议员们），傻子（连宋），骑墙的政客（陈水扁），卖国的杂种（李XX），还有几个聪明人。

李敖北大语录：

“一个真正的开明进步的国家，不是一群奴才造成的，是要有独立个性，有自由思考的人造成的。”

列举了自1932年以来，包括美国、德国等多国政府以军队镇压示威群众的事例，强调政府无法容忍民众占领中央政府广场，“全世界任何政府在这个时候都是王八蛋”，但人民逼使政府开枪，也要反省。

“我来这边演讲心里也很紧张，有人说我想不想看长城，但我还没到长城，可能先进了秦城 (著名关押政治犯的监狱)“

“凡是历史上发生的东西，都要在历史上消灭。因此，共产党总有一天要消灭…，我们的任务是要促使它们消灭得早一点"

”我讲我的心里话给你们听，我回头看，除了我们的刘长乐老板以外，主任及校长都不太笑，我一回头看，就很紧张。他们不算本领，我在内地最佩服的一个人叫做丁关根，你和他讨论问题绝对不笑，脸绷着一路绷到底，我真的佩服。“

”我请大家问问，社会主义不够，为什么前面要加中国式的社会主义，因为社会主义不够，可是不灵了说不出口，夹了一个帽子，中国式的社会主义，不是吗？”

My blog moved

I will be maintaining two places but the main site is moved to my personal site http://www.binanddi.com . Enjoy!

Yosemite游记之Half Dome篇

劳工节长周末跟几个朋友去Yosemite野营。大包小包的塞了满满一车，我们一路东行，三个小时后就进入了莽莽山地，四驱越野蜿蜒在无边松涛中的盘山 路，载着我们向着丛林最深处的宿营地进发。Yosemite在美国众多的国家公园中以冰川地貌著称。我来过不止一次了，其实最好的季节应该在春末夏初。当 冰融雪化，山中大大小小的瀑布都会满溢，遥看像是“谁持白练当空舞” ，再加上漫山遍野的野花，是难得的绝妙景致。初秋时节是加州漫长旱季的结束，花季是早已过了，连瀑布也壮观不在，好在满山满谷的松香还在。我们晚餐后，玩 儿累了，笑累了，鬼故事听累了，就躺在车里，透过车窗静静的看头顶那一方繁星闪烁的夜空。

Yosemite 的黄昏

我心中，却早存着另一个计划，明天我要去爬Yosemite那座有名的山峰Half Dome。之所以叫Half Dome，是因为山峰的形状像半拉馒头。本来几千万年前是一个馒头来着，由于几次冰河期冰川的残酷切割，一个馒头只剩下一半儿了现在。

Half Dome 远眺

第 二天我起了个大早儿，正式开始了我独自一人用一天时间征服Half Dome的旅程。整个旅程有18英里长（大约合30公里），垂直海拔超过4500英尺（大约合1500米），顶峰海拔8400英尺。大部分登山网站给出的 攀登时间在8-12小时之间，而且这是在进行两个月的准备性锻炼之后的估计。最恐怖的一段路是最后的半英里，人要近乎垂直的从馒头底爬到馒头顶儿上，两边 都是光滑的石壁，所谓的路就只是两根铁索和脚下几块木板。不过说实话我就是冲着那最后的半英里去的。

开始的一段山势陡峭，满眼望不尽的石 阶，随着旁边的一条小溪蜿蜒。水声越来越大，路也越来越陡峭，转过最后一个弯，就看见一条瀑布挂在眼前（Vernal Fall）。这瀑布春天的时候水多得惊人，所以通向它的这条山路有个名字叫“Mist Trail”，就是说走在上面的人没有一个不湿的。现在的水量大约只剩下1/4，不够打湿我的衣服，看上去可还是很壮观。稍事休息，继续前行，又有一面更 大的瀑布等在上面（Nevada Fall）。这两段山路虽然陡峭，但身边常有赏心悦目的景致，被我一鼓作气地爬了上来，竟没有觉得太累。

Vernal Fall

Nevada Fall

至 此大约行了上山路的1/4，我心中暗笑之前读过的登山指南小题大做，信心满满的盘算着是否能用6个小时就打一个来回。可很快就发现我错了，上山的路似乎没 有尽头，身边也再没有了遮阳的树荫，悦目的景致，甚至没了整齐划一的石阶。我气喘如牛的在烈日下奋力攀登，很快就觉得腿肚子后面直转筋。“坏了”，我暗叫 不好，在前不着村儿后不着店儿的地方抽了筋儿，就什么都泡汤了。只好走走停停，放慢速度，走了不知多久，在离顶峰还有两英里的地方我的体力终于到了极限。 我嘴唇发干，双腿如铅，眼冒金星儿，当初的万丈豪情早都变成了一片空白，不是不想，是实在没力气再想什么了。行动缓慢如６０岁的老翁，全身上下只剩双腿还 在机械地迈动．２０分钟后，终于熬过了身体的极限，双腿依然沉重，我一步步接近顶峰。

站在最后半英里魔鬼路程的起点，我再一次萌生了放弃 的念头。两条铁索直插顶峰，间或有几片木板架在上面权当作台阶。狭窄的通道只能有两人勉强擦身而过，而铁索的外面是滑不留手的石壁和下面的万丈深渊。登山 者在此排成了长长的队伍，小心翼翼手脚并用的向上或向下挪动。我从背包里拿出早准备好的手套，站在了队伍的最 后。

在Half Dome脚下

又 半小时之后，手脚同时抽筋儿的我一屁股坐在顶峰上打扣得喘着粗气，完全没有心情欣赏周围的美景。可心里知道，从此又少了一个需要去实现的梦想。站在山顶， 一览众山小，回头却看见一男一女正从另一面的悬崖下爬上来，原来是两个徒手攀岩者。刚刚还觉得自己很了不起，跟他们比起来，走前人开好的路又不算什么了， 与无路的悬崖处找出路来才是真正征服大自然的勇者。

无限风光在顶峰

回程的路并不轻松，因为上山大大超时用了6个小时，只好飞奔下山。和LD和朋友们约好了在山下见面的。紧赶慢赶还是晚了一个小时，天色将黑的时候，看见远处的爱人和朋友们张开双手飞奔而至，心里涌起一种某名的感动...

注：完成Half Dome全程用时9小时
Tips：做好充分的准备，水（起码4瓶，Camel Pak更好），Energy Bar，手套，遮阳帽，防晒油和急救药盒。

转眼又到911

转眼又到911了。今天偶尔在Channel Hopping的当儿看见了探索频道的“The fight that fought back”，讲的是美联航93号飞机的故事，就是最后坠毁在宾州农田里的那架飞机，和机上40名乘客（不算另外4名劫机者，他们在纪录片里不被算作人）的 故事。这才意识到已经是4年的时光匆匆逝去，4年前的那天，我记得清清楚楚，因为正是我到新工作上班的第一天。我起了个大早，兴高采烈的开车在空旷的有点 儿异常的路上，听到收音机里广播正在纽约发生的一切，还以为愚人节被搬到了九月。到了公司看大家都粘在电视机边上，看着里面两幢正在冒烟的大楼目瞪口呆。 被告知可以回家了，和尽量远离人多的地方。人的生命在此时渺小得犹如砂粒般微不足道，可每一个生命的失去又那么痛彻心肺。那是我第一次意识到人需要把每一 天都当作生命的最后一天来过，如果有什么事要说就赶紧说吧，有什么事没做就赶紧做吧，生命太短，太多的不确定不允许我们浪费每一天。

前不 久南部飓风的肆虐也搞得全国上下鸡飞狗跳，New Orlean 据说是被彻底地毁掉了，没个十年八年的别想恢复正常。唯一不同的是这次找不到一个可以拿来报复，轰炸的幕后黑手了。除非相金毛狮王谢逊一样竖着中指大骂 “贼老天”，可还是没法把天捅个窟窿不是。所以布什的反应就慢得多了。没有幕后黑手伊拉克，死的又都是黑人兄弟，他才犯不着着急尼。

周末 到一家批发便宜中国书的地方抱了一大堆书回来，痛苦的意识到买书是会上瘾的，就算是中国书贱卖，只卖中国定价的美元换算，也一样可以花很多银子的！十 一月人艺要到伯克利演出两场“茶馆”，机会难得，我是一定要去的，虽然再看不见十几年前的老演员演的戏了，可戏还是好戏，而且濮存昕的话剧演得不错，我看 过他的李白，天下第一楼，鸟人都很好，这次估计也错不了。还有侯振华，大概是现存人艺中青年演员中最有北京味儿的一位了。

我最近打算把我的博挪个窝儿，到我自己家里的服务器上，这样就可以为所欲为了，其实Google的博到是没禁止我干什么，就是不太喜欢他们的模版，实在是选择太少了。再说，我一个搞计算机的，当然要把所有东东都纳入我的手掌中嘛。哈哈。就到这儿吧，我去洗洗睡了。

网上传销的最下线

最近网上流行点名游戏，像方兴未艾的传销，大家自愿不自愿地投身其中，把发誓只有天知，地知，我知，没别人知的怪癖一条条陈列出来供大家观赏。早就被三只 熊点了名儿，也好，不是有那么一个圣人曾经说过什么，“一日三省吾身 blahblahblah“。。。没有怪癖的人是可耻的，我决定不作个可耻的人。

怪癖I： 睡觉总是贴边儿,而且总是趴着。我从很小的时候就自己一个人睡一个又大又黑的独门独院的房间。夜里睡觉的时候就养成了这个习惯，这样的姿势能给我最大的安全感。

怪癖II： 平时做什么运动都劲儿劲儿的，跑啊跳啊几个小时不累，可一进Mall里就两腿发软，头晕目眩，饥渴难耐，所以LD大人从来都没兴趣让我陪绑，我也乐得个轻松自在。

怪癖III： 酷爱随地乱丢袜子，而且通常会自觉地把袜子塞在连自己都找不到的地方。屡教不改。

怪癖IV： 很容易出汗，踢完一场球后我的球衣总能拧出最多的水。特别受不了手脚干干的那种感觉，如果太干了就会不停地洗手。

怪癖V： 干什么事儿都特别上瘾，兴趣爱好剧多可无一能精。总觉得生命太短，即使现在一天只睡六个小时所有的事儿可还是干不过来。

我就不点名了，就愿意当传销的最下线。

西雅图游记之Downtown篇

N年以前去过西雅图几天，是去微软面试，从早到晚在微软的各个楼里奔波，完全没有机会看看城市的风景。这会终于有机会补上上次的遗憾，好会看看这个成于拓荒，繁荣于淘金，现在因为微软，星巴克，亚马逊，和波音而著名的城市了。

Seattle Space Needle

出了机场，我们开车直奔Downtown，和三番类似，这儿的一群鳞次栉比的高楼也是在海边沿着大大小小的码头一字排开。西雅图成市于1851年，在著名的Lewis & Clark西部拓荒之旅后的五十年。在白人到来之前，这儿是印第安人的天堂，直到如今这里仍到处可见印第安地名，以及大大小小的保留地和赌场 – 印第安人在现代美国社会留下的仅有的痕迹。第一批拓荒者看到的是漫山遍野的苍翠森林，于是伐木业成了他们唯一的职业，也于是华盛顿州就有了另一个名字叫“State of Evergreen”。直到淘金热席卷整个西海岸的时候。大批的淘金者涌入这里借道进入加拿大淘金，这里成了他们采买装备，实现他们一夜暴富梦想之前的最后一站。据说所有淘金者中，95%的人空手而归，搭上了所有的投资，甚至性命，5%的 人勉强不赔不赚，打个平手，只有千分之一的人能满载而归。相比之下，那些在西雅图开店卖锹卖镐，以及衣服食品的商人，倒是个个都发了一笔横财。可见那些熙 熙攘攘的淘金者，搭上自己的性命，只不过是给那些聪明的商人做了嫁衣裳。这倒像极了国内最近红得发紫热播的“超级女声”，看上去好像是一场轰轰烈烈的全民 造星运动，其实到最后只便宜了那些躲在背后眼中只有利益的商人们，HNWS, 天娱，电信，联通，蒙牛等等。不管唱的是好是坏，他们只在乎那每场几百万的短信投票，和爆棚的收视让他们赚个盆满钵满 （嘿 嘿，有感于网上流传的种种关于超级女声的黑幕传闻）。所谓全方位包装，不如叫全方位赚钱，狠到连每个选手都要强迫签五年的合同。我倒要看看，这个包装出了 无脑儿张涵蕴的天娱，到底能把这帮超级女生包装成什么样子；那些记性好，忘性也好的娱记们，到明年这个时候，还有几个记得今年的超级女生；还有十三亿只会 欣赏刀郎和老鼠爱大米的人民们，怎么掏钱买只会跳拉丁舞的LYC，只会唱陶喆的ZBC，和只会唱英文歌的ZLY的CD。

扯远了，接着逛我们的西雅图。话说现在西雅图Downtown这片地方，是当初填海造出来的，这里山多，不适合造房子，于是人们就把锯木厂的副产品锯末填海造地，造了这里最早的商业区。只有一个问题，锯末不是石头，随着海水慢慢腐蚀，陆地就慢慢下沉，直到海水倒灌，污水横流，十九世纪西雅图的Downtown成了名副其实的大粪场。直到1889年的一场大火把一切烧了个精光，给了人们一个从新再来的机会。这次人们用石头和建筑废料填海。结果陆地倒是不下沉了，可从建筑废料中释放的汞又污染了海洋和河流，到如今大量的汞在Salmon或Tuna的身体里堆积，害得我们被医生建议一周吃鱼不能超过一次。一百年前的美国人也是同样的无知，他们的愚蠢到现在还让我们吃不消。美国人现在聪明多了，不过看着同样的故事在中国变本加厉的被重复着，怎一个心痛了得。

先驱广场

在Downtown心脏地带的先驱广场闲逛，看着周围从西雅图大火后一直保存到现在的建筑，道路和车站。看街上行人悠闲的散步，喝咖啡。西雅图的咖啡馆真多啊，每三五步就能看到一家，更别说无处不在的星巴克了，有点儿理解为什么星巴克从这里走向世界了。

鱼市场

我们在游客和本地人云集的Public Market吃了晚饭，这里原本是西雅图的鱼市场，现在成了集花市，鱼市，集市，饭馆和酒吧于一体的旅游区。如果你看过电影“西雅图夜未眠”，你会注意到汤姆汉克斯经常和他的儿子在这里吃饭和闲逛。

Sleepless In Seattle

晚上登上西雅图著名的Space Needle电视塔，在夜幕中远眺灯火闪烁的Downtown和海港，感受西雅图的不眠夜。

玩儿去了

休假去也，BLOG暂停一周。

绝妙好文

那一道灰飞烟灭的眼神 by 共同提高， 证明我们都曾年轻。

绝版青春

许巍个唱的名字，让人伤感的名字。从大学听许巍执着的歌唱到现在，他的歌儿一直是我的最爱之一。伤感的浅吟低唱萦绕在我青春的每一个日子里。如今终于要开 个唱了，终归是时候向青春告别了，“绝版青春”，我曾经喜欢的歌手们都已经不再年轻，可是青春并未在这个世界上绝迹，只是对我来说再不回来。可恼我忙碌的 生活，有哪位北京的朋友有缘能看到许巍八月十三号的演唱会，就替我鼓掌与流泪吧。

最贵的一次打盹

星期五是中国最大的网络搜索公司“百度”上市的日子。其实正式IPO的日子是8/4礼拜四，但股票要从礼拜五开始才能在二级市场买到。说到那天我的经历， 简直可以用“痛不欲生”来形容。我早早的6：30 am 就爬了起来（谁让俺住西海岸尼，想炒股票就只能早起），心里惦记着要买他几百股，发上一笔小小的不义之财。等啊等啊，一直等到花儿也谢了，市场上还是毫无 动静？受不了了，我惺忪的睡眼终于战胜了我等待下去的意志，我决定上楼打个盹儿。我信心满满的下了两个30块的限价单，觉得应该没问题抓住这支IPO25 块的股票。可是，当我40分钟后醒来的时候，惊讶得发现百度的股票已经在100块左右交易着了！这支火箭般的中国网络搜索股，从66块开盘（双倍于IPO 的价格），一路冲到100块，盘中最高点到过150块，最后收在122块。细细算来，如果我一开盘就买进的话，在顶峰卖出可以获得超过100%的回报率。 我悔呀悔得肠子都青了。你说我没事儿打的哪门子盹儿尼？这下倒好，起个大早赶个晚集，三十六拜都拜了，就差折一哆嗦！这是我平生打过的最贵的一个盹儿了。

细想想，其实百度真不值这个价儿的。大家不过都是day trading, playing on speculation 罢了。真实的价格就我看也就是30-50之间吧。很多人，包括我在内都没想到今天这个势头，不仅造就了五年来NASDAQ股票IPO的单日涨幅记录，也可 以跻身股市历史10大IPO单日涨幅记录了。如此看来我真是错过了一个千载难逢的赚钱机会，等下一次可能要5年以后了。咳，最近有点烦！

通往自由之国的门打开了

通往自由之国的门打开了，我准备迈出意义重大的第一步，换个更好的工作先。说出这个秘密应该是安全的，公司里没人知道我这个博，知道他们也看不懂！最近周围亲近的朋友都有重大关系命运的事件发生，我祝他们好运，希望我也一样。

另，严重推荐一部Documentary Drama “Touching the Void”，如果你正在困境中挣扎，怀疑你坚持下去的勇气，它会毫无疑问的给你勇气和力量。看完它，我像小时候的动画片“非凡的公主希瑞”里一样，振臂高呼：“赐予我力量吧！”

另，严重鄙视最近红得发紫的港台烂片“头文字D”，十足烂片一部，用一帮港台伪酷哥演日本动画片，简直是画虎不成反类犬。建议黄秋生去做整容手术，免得我准备看任何一部港片的时候都要准备痰盂儿，我呸那张无处不在的脸。

另，超女总决赛进行两场了，虽然有点儿审美疲劳，还是都当下来看了，我喜欢，还是很喜欢冯家妹和成都三甲。

Genghis Blues, the documentary

看了一部Documentary "Genghis Blues"。讲的是一位旧金山盲人布鲁斯音乐家到Tuva，一个紧邻蒙古国的苏联加盟共和国参加他们的传统歌唱比赛的事情。Tuva人有一种传统的用喉 咙共振的歌唱方法，可以发出奇妙的如琴弦震动般的声音。这位盲人音乐家Paul Pena学会了这种歌唱方法，创造了融合布鲁斯和喉声乐的独特音乐并借此得到了Tuva歌唱比赛的冠军。

故事本身就足够有趣了，几个美国 人到地球另一端的草原国度旅行，一位盲人音乐家，在他从未见过的，也无法沟通的人群中歌唱。他看不见那里的草原，沙漠，毡 房和牛羊。他不知道为什么那样的环境会产生那样的歌声。但当他开始歌唱的时候，一切都无需解释了，那发自内心的民歌的力量轻易的跨越了时空的界限，跨越了 黑暗，跨越了语言的障碍。Paul Pena听着台下如雷的掌声，笑了，他自由了，他不再是有忧郁症的足不出户的旧金山人，他是一只用音乐在草原蓝天下自由翱翔的鹰。

我在 想，为什么有很多盲人都成了伟大的音乐家呢？像是Ray Charles， Stevie Wonder等等，大概原因很简单，他们视力的缺失让他们更能专注的聆听心灵的声音，他们比常人艰辛的生活给他们更丰富的情感，他们的心灵比我们更接近上 帝。社会越来越发达，音乐越做越复杂，我却越来越难得从中找到让人感动的声音。有时候，我们应该闭上双眼，听最最纯朴的民歌，让它掸掸你灵魂上的灰尘，让 它教教你的心灵如何去歌唱。

超级女生

连看了两个星期超级女生，成了不折不扣的“超女迷”。没想到国内的电视节目跟风美国的这么紧，而且也能做的这么好看。看了成都，长沙，杭州和广州的比赛， 还是觉得成都赛区的水平最高，最好看。基本上进入前二十名的选手个个都不差，前五名里，唱功是张靓颖最出色，尤其是她驾驭外文歌儿的能力超强，我还特别欣 赏她最后和顺子对唱中的即兴发挥。台风是李雨春最好，她简直就是为舞台而生，每个动作都那么的恰到好处，尽管如此，我还是非常吃惊她能够得到那么多的票选 （比其他两个人加起来都多），也许因为看超女的还是女生居多的缘故。最耐看的当属冯家妹，看到她在最后一轮被淘汰真觉得可惜，可是没办法，成都的水平都太高了。不出所料的，前三名都由有专业背 景的选手占据了。一直奇怪的是，为什么没到更多的北方城市去选拔呢?应该会有更多出类拔萃的人出现吧。

还顺便上网当了去年的超女，结果大 失所望，前几名都不是以唱功取胜的。尤其是那个张涵蕴，真不知道除了发嗲还会干点儿别的什么。这样的女生都能进前三名， 还出唱片，世界真是疯掉了。也许真像某位评委说的：“市场最不需要的就是唱功”，或亦是真正的“青春无敌”吧。好了好了，该洗洗睡了，等着15号当超女决赛 吧。

周末的流水帐

周六白天：不得不全天加班，忍受资本主义周扒皮的残酷剥削。

周六晚上：我们和朋友一起去听Madeleine Peyroux的音乐会。音乐会在Saratoga山上的Mountain Winery举 行，离我家大概有30分钟车程。酒厂藏在半山腰的密林深处，远远望着山下的万家灯火，仿佛不食人间烟火的世外桃源。在酒厂爬满青蔓的酒窖前 面，一个能装两千人的场地坐了九人。其实Madeleine Peyroux原来是给Cesaria Evora给做暖场的，因为正主儿病了来不了，她就成主角儿了。她的音乐是非常小资的慢爵士/蓝调，嗓音在唱片里听象极了Billie Holiday。在这样远离尘世的葡萄园里听真再合适不过了。暖场的民歌手乏善可陈，当天渐渐黑下来的时候，Madeleine Peyroux 出场了。标准的爵士Quartet组合，悠扬的人声，台上变换陆离的昏黄灯光，很快就把大家带进了仲夏夜的梦里。我们相互依偎，望着天上繁星，远方闪烁的 万家灯火，听着歌声悠扬，身后淅淅簌簌的虫鸣，时间好像静止不动了，又好像整个晚上象白驹过隙般一掠而过。


周日下午：我们去三藩听一年一度的免费室外音乐会Stern Grove Festival, 今天是支Flamengo Hiphop Band叫Ojos De Brujo。听室外音乐会的秘诀就是放松，晒太阳，吃烧烤，喝酒和跳舞。我们在两个半小时内圆满完成了任务。


乐队的女主唱在载歌载舞



周日晚上：和朋友一起看了Sundance Festival新获奖的纪录片DIG (Grand Jury Prize)。这部片子拍了七年，记录了两只地下摇滚乐队的经历，整部片子充斥了灵魂的挣扎，人性的冲突，愤怒，绝望，狂暴，妥协，不停的战斗。又让我想起了十几年前Kurt Cobain的死，音乐真的是需要用性命去做的。我向大家强力推荐。

匆匆的周末就这样过去了。下个周末正在翘首期盼中。

周二凌晨两点．．．还有四天了。

Lost in rotation (theme song) live

我为电影"Lost In Rotation"写的主题歌和在首映式上的演出。

我恨加班，周六的演出，以及其他。。。

这周一老板宣布：因为赶project的进度，要求大家四周之内都要加班，至少一周六天，七天更好！每天公司备晚饭，吃完继续干。我靠，这是什么世道阿， 免费被万恶的资本家欺诈剥削，还敢怒不敢言。砸烂万恶的旧世界！我一面心中高喊，一面假惺惺的向老板保证：“光荣完成任务。不过，周六能不能请个 假？...”

因为周六有演出，我和小雷要在一个小型的movie launch party上唱两首歌。小雷今天探路回来，说场地和音响都不错，我们又练了一会儿琴，把要唱的合了一下。我最近在写歌儿，绞尽脑汁也写不出像样的词儿来。 总共三句半儿歌似的烂词儿只能来回来去地唱。失败呀，想当年咱也曾经是半拉儿伪文青儿，霉国几年来连中文报纸都没看过几张，是彻底伪不起来了。要恶补一 下，等一个月后吧。

San Francisco underground sound

晚上和朋友去SF的一间酒吧看演出，几个小有名气的 Asian local band。看的人不多,低矮昏暗的舞台边稀稀拉拉挤着数十人.我们到时演出早已开始,台上的菲律宾女主唱(Skyflake)正细声细气地唱着他的Brit Pop。很难想象从他胖身躯里竟能发出清脆如童音般的歌声。本人比较喜欢第二支乐队“Parting Glance"，几个模样清秀的家伙琴弹得煞是整齐，歌也写得相当不错。就是主唱的声音太弱了，也许换贝斯来唱比较好。最后的”Tomihira“的主唱简 直不会唱歌，一首歌就得跑调半首多，他自己到是唱得很high，不知是不是喝高了的缘故，因为听他在CD里唱得并不跑调。

演出直到午夜才完，总共7块钱cover可是真的很便宜。几支乐队的歌都写得不错，论水平比大多数在中国小红小紫的乐队都强很多。 于是我们在回家的路上又禁不住感慨了一番，什么时候我们自己的乐队才能出名呢？

要开始用中文blahblah了

鬼子的文字真不适合直抒胸臆亚！

As time passing by

My best friend from middle school brought me a wonderful gift on the weekend. A family video collection of our life from the old times. His dad is one of the earliest I know who had a video camera at home. The nicest thing about video camera is that it records every single detail of a event truthfully. And trust me on this, no matter how wonderful, silly or even ugly you thought when something was recorded, you will appreciate and enjoy it like a precious treasure when you look at it again ten years later.

That is EXACTLY what happened to me. I watched my life over 15 years old unfolded and replayed in front of me. Found myself filled with tearful laughter, precious memories pieced together brought me joy, my heart sinks as I realized life is so wonderful but so painfully short. As time passing by, we are gaining fortune, success, weight and burden, but losing "teen spirit" - a young heart. Brutal it is, it is a reality no one could change.

I will buy a new mini DV tomorrow and start shooting. Yes, bring back my life, at least on screen.

For those who still remember

It's the day again, after 16 long years. For those who died and those who lived to still remember... It was on the last year of my junior high when it all happened, so many years have passed without notice but the memory is still as fresh as yesterday. I don't know much about politics at the time, not even today. Who knows what would everything have became if only... No, nobody would have known, as history will not take assumptions. I only know, to the bottom of my heart, there should have been better ways to treat people who love their country, there should have been better ways to bring peace and reconciliation, there should have been a sin to fire bullets to unarmed students. And I only know, people deserve to know the truth, same as they deserve freedom and democracy, few is still fighting for it, most already forgot, or simply don't care anymore. For those who still remember!

Guild wars

Guild wars is a online RPG game released last month. Been playing it like crazy everyday for almost two weeks now. I am seriously short of sleep as a result :), but gaming is sure fun. Never thought of I could still have had the energy to playing the whole night. There are hobbies for a life time and gaming is one of them for sure.

I am not a nature born gamer though. Still remembered that one of my school mates could play game console for straight 3 hours without losing one life. At the end, the owner of the game room had to refund him money and beg him to leave :|. I tried hard to be one like him but felt short. Hard working simply wasn't able to match those who born with it. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it.

I tried WoW, THE most famous MMORPG game for about a month. It was a lot of fun but I couldn't keep up with it. A monthly subscription is too much for me since I was not able to devote large part of my spare time. I am not a hard core gamer in the sense.

With a paddle - Kayaking in Monterey Bay

North California Seal taking a sun bath

Before man starts hunting seals, Grizzly bear was its biggest predator. That explains why we see its rocky camoflage, and why they tend to stay from shore when it is resting. Millions of years of instinct is at work.

City of Monterey from the sea




After three hour straight paddling

It wasn't as bad as I thought, thanks partly to the perfect weather we had that day. Still we looked very tired.



A home made basket shop and its owner




A band called Gypsy is singing

Graceful voice, perfect for a relax afternoon, not so perfect for a busy bazar...

Napa, my sideways trip

I haven't been to Napa, until yesterday. It's strange, consider I have been living in bay area for over 5 years now, and Napa is just 2 hours away from my home, consider I enjoy drinking so much and can drink a lot that sometimes I am called "alcoholic". Similar to that I almost never visited Tiananmen square when I was living in Beijing, one don't treasure something that is too easy to get.

I put up my mind to do it after I watched "Sideways", an Oscar winning movie depict two buddies of a quite difference personalities set off to a trip to Napa a week before his wedding. An excellent dark comedy, but I was more impressed by wines and the feeling of vineyard.

So we set off to wine country, on a perfect sunny Saturday morning. Beautiful beautiful day, we sat in the sun, drinking wines, chatting and relaxing through lunch. We followed wine tour guide, walking down deep into fermatation room and smell aging wines slowing evaporating from oak barrel. We witnessed a beautiful wedding about to take place in a small vineyard hight above the hill. We watched a full 15 minute firework show on our way back home.

A day packed with top class wines, food, joy and relax. Besides knowing many more on wines, I had another perfect day to remember now.

Vineyard in distance

Wine gallery

Wine storage room (Robert Mondavi Winery)

Money is evil

Money, poison to life, opposite to every lovely thing, turn good into ugly. Don't want to talk about it, though still need it, badly...

Unlimited music, Yahoo!

Yahoo starts offering unlimited online music to over a million songs via their music engine by a price of $4.99 a month. It's a quite decent deal giving other competitors are offering at a at least doubled rate (Rhapsody, Napster etc). I am tring out its service now and are very likely to go with it after 7 day trial period. Some pros and cons I found so far,

Pros
1. Price: Nothing beats being cheaper, even it means sacriface the quality of the service a little bit.
2. Yahoo! music offers wma (MS media player) format at a 192K bitrate, higer than 128K by Rhapsody in real format, and Napster in mp3 format.
3. User can access the service from up to 3 different computers at he same time. Making it easier for different family members to play his/her own music out of the same account.

Cons
1. Lesser music selections compared to Rhapsody, can't say much about Napster since I never used their service. Although claimed that it offering more than 1 million songs, I found out many of them are not for playing online but "buy" only. I am still hopeful that company as big as Yahoo! will grow its music collections fast once it sees its business flying.
2. Not user friendly software, doesn't support uPnP, which I desparately need for my media streamer at home. Not very intuitive to nagivate and search for artists or songs. Paticuarly slow on downloading music. Consider it is still in beta phase, I can live with it.
3. Can't find any Chinese songs on it, I still have to buy Chinese CDs or download it somewhere on the net.

I believe "renting" rather than "owning" is becoming more and more popular on digital online servies. Why spend more money buying and owning a song if we can access endless selections by less money. Consider I have my earphone on all the time while I am coding, it is a must have for me and I am more than happy to pay just $4.99 a month for it.

Drummer wannabe

Enjoyed playing my bongo on a party Saturday night. This morning, my figures are still hurting from playing it 3 hour straight last night. Had a great fun jamming with my musician friends. We had one guy plays chinese flute, one plays guitar and me with bongo, the rest 10-15 ppl singing along. It's a wonderful combination putting a chinese instrument, a guitar and a lartin drum together. We covered something like 50 songs, some are very old chinese pop song I don't even know why I am stilling remembering, but everyone had such a blast at last. I want to spend more time to perfect my bongo skill, it's such a fun and I just love it.

Love, actually

An emotion strong as 'love' has two one of the two effects on your life. It takes you to heaven, or drag you to hell. You grow older, stay lonely, love is becoming less of a romantic but practical matter. Like Lao Cui wrote "若是为了生命，爱情算个屁！"

Don't jump too early before confirming you are loving a lovable person. Stay cool even when it disappoints you. Don't let it drag you too deep, move on before it gets too painful... The list goes on and on. There should really be a "survivor guide of person in love", on the other hand, who would calmly follow those instructions if he's too deep in the hole. Nothing can be done on the side line, it is a sadly cruel world, and love actually, SUX!

Google satellite is finally out

Google satellite is finally out. You can see it in action here

Our home at google satellite, hehe. Google has accquired a company called "keyhole" a while ago for its satellite imaging technology. I have seen and tried "keyhole" software before but it is still nice to see it becomes generally available for free through google map. It is said that all images are at least 6 month old but from what I can tell, it is fairly recently since I saw a bunch of new houses close to my home that I know were built for no longer than 4 months old.

With "keyhole" pro edition, user can get even better resolution, don't know how good it gets but with even now, it is just simply amazing how fast technology grows and it can change our life.

Note: Google claims for privacy purposes it is never possible to see information such as human faces and car license plate etc.

Update: my life

Last week was a total mess! I lost my Linux server by a corrupted hard drive and my stupid moves having tried to fix it. I had to build it from scrach all over again, some of my stuffs that haven't been backed up timely were gone with the dead drive too. It took me a week to bring everything back to normal. Realizing how my life depending on it, I am seriously considering a more fool proof backup solution. Yeah, I am a dork.

Listened to Lao Cui's new album. He's changing his music once again, I admire his courage to let go of previous success, go against taste of crowd, and always try something new. Many new songs are more melody oriented like many of his old old songs, in the mean time, he's mixing elements including hiphop, electronic, Chinese traditional music and dialect. He's trying hard to do something new, sometimes putting too much stuffs in a piece, making it a chaos. To me it is good to listen to but not an album I expected after 7 long year waiting. I can't have the same kind of "butterfly on my stomach" feeling when I heard him the very first time anymore. Maybe I never will. Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's alleged suicide. No other band can touch me like Kurt did, not even in 11 long years. Independent new music had died when Nirvana got signed by a big label, now only the shallowness of the corperate music has left. Time is an all mighty killing machine eroding the last bit of my teen spirit away relentlessly. I don't know if I am really getting old now.

Meanwhile I am working on writing and recording a new song for a local DV project. Just finished first round recording tonight, but loads of polishing up left to do. Spring finally came despite a few rainy days every now and then. I am going to enjoy the beautiful California sunshine for the next 6 months alright. Stay tuned.

SF International Asian Film Festival

This year's festival is about to wrap up. We went to see "Music Video Asia" tonight at San Jose Camera 12. The film is a collection of 23 underground Asian/American MVs. Some of them I found very interesting:

Empire Dog: A post modern/brit rock band from Sweden, lead vocal Sung Kyu Choi, a Korean Swedish. I loved their music and showmanship. Actually all of the songs in their album were recorded lively, and they are rated "the best live band" in Sweden by many people.
Nortorious MSG: A trio rapper group from NYC Chinatown. Their songs are just hilarious.
Black Eyed Peas: One of the more famous musicians in the group.
Scrabbel: A bay area local band, interesting melodic lines
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Another local band, intense yet impressive MV directorial.

Others I am not so impressed with:

Tin Pan Alley: a musical band from Taiwan, dizzy and boring MV directorial.
Death Angel: a bunch of heavy metal losers, got a little skill, no talent, and absolutely no spirit.

Farewell Ray

God is treating everyone equally. When you lose something, we will be rewarded with others. Yet it doesn't prevent genius born and passed this world like a shining star. When a man lose one of his senses, he's got a unique opportunity to sharpen his others. One of the reasons I believe there are so many great blind musicians out there. You hear the world so clear, much clearer than many of us see it, and you sing your heart so articulated, much more articulated than many of us say it.

A life of darkness, yet full of love, music, dreams and sensations. So rich that it make rainbow pale, make lark silent, yes, you look cool outside, but inside, there's your wild heart, never stop beating unchained heart, your sticking mind, holding you strong like a normal man, you muse soul, bringing the world so much joyful tears.

Farewell Ray, may you see how much more colorful the world becomes because of you, may your heart be free forever. Written after watch "Ray", the movie.

Lao Cui's new album is out

先听为快： Mr. Red

Wondering where I can buy it, anyone going back China now?

Tech and Gadgets

Goggle map: http://maps.google.com It's been out for a while. Goggle obviously spent their recent fortune from IPO wisely in developing nice application like this. I am very impressed by its look and usability. It's much more beautiful than yahoo map and mapquest, at the same time give user a lot of handling flexibilities. You can drag-and-drop the map area to move it around, type in a few keyword will highlight all addresses related to the keywords. It's amazing how powerful JavaScript can be these days, although I would be doomed if I were the person who's gona maintain this piece of code :) Some of the very few things I would like to see it improve, it would be ultimately useful if I can right click a point on the map and get its location (and I imagine it would not be that hard to do), the print version of the map is not as nice as it looked on screen, it loads slow even on my dsl connection.

AllofMp3.com: http://www.allofmp3.com is offering $5/250Mb LICENSED mp3 download at ANY encoding method and bitrate! That's at least 2 full albums for just 5 bucks at considerably high resolution. Even walmart's 80c/song offer sucks compared to this. This Russian site takes a loophole in Russian intellectual law and made all songs you can think of so cheap to western customers. The only concern would be that my credit card number could fall into the hand of Russian Mafia. Nevertheless, I am stopping buying any CDs or mp3 from any other places!

Woot! : http://www.woot.com I recently found out this site, which offers tech stuff at a bargain price from time to time. I bought their "Rockford Car/Home wireless audio bundle" a few days ago for a bargain at $200 bucks. It's not cutting edge technology but good enough to make it worthy. I am anxiously waiting for its arrival to hook it up on my car and load it up with thousands of mp3s.

My brain is failing

"Brain Failure" is coming to town! One of my friends is spamming all his email list excitedly. This is the second time this infamous Beijing punk band coming US. I saw their last show in Berkeley two years ago and got very impressed. They were on stage with another all female Chinese punk band "Hang on the box". Only this time they are doing a more complete US tour in more cities.

Founded in 97, the same year I graduated, they have released a few albums in Chinese. A Japanese label signed them and support this US tour promoting their upcoming album "American Dreamer", due release on 4/26/05.

We got to the bar an hour late, then stucked in rediculous long line for another 20 min before we finally got in. The music has already started with defting drum, high pitch guitar, and singer's desparate voice. 90% of the audiences were white males, most of them with dyed hair, black punk jacket, jumping and running in circle like there's no tommorrow. Only a handful Asian faces, I knew almost everyone of them, hehe.

The music was cool, just the way I'd like it to be, fast, energetic, with implicit melody lines underneath. I felt the click when they were singing and shouting like typical Chinese teenage boys. I was jumping, waving, shouting with everthing I got. They were pretty comfortable with staging performance and did a good work keep the audiences with them. No matter what music you played, public performance is always the best way to improve your skill and put your music to test. Only if Chinese bands all have such performance opportunities to perform 300 days out of 365, we will start to see great band like U2 mushroomed.

40 min show was over before we knew it (there were three other bands playing at the same night but I got out a few songs after the next band started playing, their music kinda sucked). I had a breif talk with one of the band members, bought their upcoming CD as a souvnir and went ahead to a friend's drinking party till 1 in the moring. That's the life I am talking about.

Working on president day

It sucked having to work on public holiday. What can I say, merciless Capitalism. It's been a quite wet winter so far. Storms continued hitting all California since late December. We had continuous rainy days for the last two weeks. Everything grey like the clouds, not a cheerful mood, I can't imagine what it would be like in Seattle, where it rains 200 out of 365 days.

I cheered up a little bit this morning when I was stretching my arms by the window. The rain finally stopped. Actually it was quite a scene out there. Some heavy clouds are moving inland, from the ocean crossing the mountain, rain comes with it, while the rest of the sky is shining. Like an old Chinese saying "东边日出西边雨" (sunny in the east, raining in the west). I took this picture with my phone, notice the heavy fog in the middle of the picture is actually a moving rainy zone.

A half rainy/half sunny day in the office

Be careful with your blogs

Be careful with your blogs, it can get you fired like this guy http://99zeros.blogspot.com. A former employee of Google, he was bragging about his day to day office life in his public blog. Unfortunately his comments went too far with google's business "secrets", finally cost his "could be millionaire" job. But hey, he's taking advantage of his 2-second fame by putting ads on his blogspot. He might become millionaire even faster like "William Hung" did. Who knows, it's such a crazy world! I don't give a fuzz about it but those who are still working, be careful with what you put into your blog and don't let your boss see it, there is probably no more fame for anyone who is stupid enough to do it the SECOND TIME. Be wise!

Happy rooster year everyone

It's new year day today in Chinese (Lunar) calendar, the year of the rooster has come. A few of our friends got together on the new year eve for a nice dinner. We made some dumpling plus yummy hot pots whiling watching CCTV's new year eve show on the TV. It's the next to best thing than going back China and reunite with family and friends there. Got no holidays, no fire crackers, no thousands of people on the street here, the year of rooster still comes as it has done twice before. I wish all my friends a happy new year and "Kong Hey Fatt Choi".

Rumor says no one should get married in the year of rooster. Due to some complicated calculation of the Lunar calendar, there is no spring day for the whole year of rooster. It suggested a bad year for marriage and "all wives are to lose her husband if she dares to marry in this year". Silly maybe, but people are rushing into marriage all over China right before new years eve. Hey, who knows, better listen to it than risk it, isn't it?

Digital Camera Review: Canon-SD300

We said good-bye to our three-year old Canon S40. By no means the old camera isn't good, we had some very good time using it, just look at thousands of pictures we took you will know. But we felt it is time to get a new and better one now.

There are plenty of newer models that provides better resolution from 5 up to 10 mega pixels. I am not too happy with their sizes however. As a family used DC for local trips and vacations, size is all that matters. Honestly, who can tell much difference of 4M picture with 5M one. The fact is a camera that can fit the smallest pocket of yours will save you a lot of trouble while traveling. So here comes my pick: Canon-SD300.

First thing first, the size of this camera is just amazing, the full body is even smaller than the size of my palm. Weight only 0.29 lb, it's even lighter than my key chain. Such small camera however, has quite a big LCD screen (2 inch), and loads of functions. It takes pictures up to 4.2M pixels, it has 3x optical zoom, build-in microphone, can take unlimited 30fps AVI video up to full capacity of the memory card. With build-in white balance setting of for sunlight / cloudy / night / indoor / sport / underwater shooting environment. On the processing side, it has Canon DIGIC II processor, which saves images in better quality; smart print bridge technology to directly print to a photo-enabled printer; some ad-hoc processing tool to edit images within camera.

Nothing is perfect though, a few of the "would be better" features are

• Flash: it's understandable that such slim camera cannot possibly have a powerful flash but still...
• Battery: It's said on quite a few online reivews that the battery don't last long. I bought one extra battery for shooting freely. :)
• Size: well, it's the two sides of Damocles sword, don't get me wrong, I like slim cameras, I just hate to see my figures look like overgrown carrots compared to those tiny buttons.

Overall, it's a decent camera for $320 I paid. I haven't had a chance to check out its picture qualities seriously, which I will be blogging about the next time. Enjoy!

A normal Friday night again

Our life goes back to normal a week after my in-laws left, et. We are spending the Friday night dining out with friends, and the whole weekend wandering around looking for fun...

We sit in a crowded restaurant/bar in Mountain View downtown for a few drinks and nice chat. I especially like the band playing there. It is a fusion lartin band with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavor. I have a great fantasy about lartin music, every drop of my blood is ignited when I catch a sexy lartin tune. I am dreaming driving down the lartin america coast, stop by Mexico, Chile, and Brazil, dancing in the Carnival, enjoying days and nights, good food and beers, silver beaches and mystery mountains, hot girls and warm hugs. With heart pumping rhythm, suspension yet smooth melody, no one can hold his feet on the ground any more, not even that 80 year old couple...

I started learning how to play bongo, wish someday I would be able to play the lartin music I loved myself. And let's hope that day isn't too far away.

Cascal at mountain view http://www.cascalrestaurant.com/
Kaweh the band http://www.kaweh.com/

Protest new York hot97 radio station racism DJ

New York hot97 station has been playing a song with racism lyrics for the last week, calling Chinese ch**k and making jokes about southeast Asian tsunami victims.

Please send your protest email to the station, or better yet, sign petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/endhate/petition.html The DJ has to be fired for such dispecable racist act.

hot97's website: http://www.hot97.com/
email address: hot97@hot97.com

Updates on Jan. 26, 05

Under the pressure, hot97 just announced that it suspended infinitely Miss Jones and whole crew of the morning program. While suspension is merely enough (she should be fired right away along with whoever behind if there is any), it is a victory of standing up and speaking up against discrimination.

FYI, statement from hot97

Statement from WQHT-FM, HOT 97

New York City - Miss Jones and the HOT 97 Morning team have been indefinitely suspended for the airing of a song that made light of a catastrophic event, as well as comments made at the time the song was aired.

Earlier this week, Miss Jones said on the air "I apologize to all who have been offended by my poor decision to go along with playing that insulting (to say the least) Tsunami song. I should have known better and I didn't. So I'm sorry and hopefully we can move forward from this, or I can move forward from this being a better hostess, because I am better than that, and I know better than that -- and you deserve better radio than that."

While Miss Jones has apologized on the air, in the media and on the HOT 97 website, station management felt that stronger action was necessary to demonstrate the severity of the situation.

Emmis Radio and HOT 97 will not tolerate such derogatory and racially insensitive content. This incident in no way reflects the spirit of HOT 97. The station has a long-time and well-known reputation for community involvement and support.

Emmis Radio President Rick Cummings said, "What happened is morally and socially indefensible. All involved, myself included, are ashamed and deeply sorry. I know the members of the morning show are truly contrite. They know their actions here are inexcusable."

We would like to clarify that no company advertising on our station had any connection to the Tsunami Song and no company advertising on our station endorsed or sponsored the offensive material aired on the "Miss Jones in the Morning" show. We apologize for any misunderstanding that may have caused listeners to believe that anyone, other than the morning show staff, was responsible for the material that should not have been aired.

National Volcanic Park

Last day before we left Hawaii, we took a 40 min flight to Big Island for a one day trip. Biggest and youngest island of all, big island is famous for its volcanic activities. There are places where you can see lava flowing though it would take a full day of hike. Jenny and I took a 2-hour hike in one of the silent craters in stead.

It's pretty amazing on the way down to bottom of the crater where we saw livehood on the sidewalk changed from tropical forest to deserted land. The walk across the bottom felt like walking on sizzling lava again, the heat was from top of the sky however. No one was on the road except we two. We passed a pile of stones similar to those in tibet, we added two hoping they could bring us good luck.

Before a long walk in national volcanic park



A pile of stones for passing prayers