I am back after autumn

This is a busy autumn. Eddie and I went out to do shooting almost every weekend, and I can feel the difference of my photos at the beginning of summer and the past weekend. The choices of lighting is different, white balance is different, and because of shooting similar subjects for too long (such as autumn leaves), I also learned to look at them with different angles and tastes.
Another thing that's getting obvious is Eddie and my tastes in photography. He shots stuff that I am not too interested, and I took stuff he doesn't want to touch. Of course, we even have different ways of post-processing photos; and we are both stubborn that we only take each other's opion as "oh-i'll-think-about-it" suggestion.
Feeling the need of building our individual styles, Eddie decided to get second camera, which will arrive couple weeks later. I can predict in the near future, we will post photos to each of our own galleries too.

the life after

After wedding, soon I fell back into the hell of "don't-know-how-to-start-the-long-todo-list". Like right now I am working on the website for someone, while I have school website left unfinished because I was stucked and have been waiting for savior Eddie comes to rescue. Unfortunately he's not interested in the part that i need his help, so i have to push him once a while carefully, in case he complains to much and upsets me.
As for the website I am working on, i am stucked too. I know I am supposed to do some research on how to break the bottleneck, but i am here writing this blog. I wish i could be 10X brighter in one night.

Dizzy night

Friends came over for dinner, and had some drinks. Before I fell asleep, I think I love my baby. You are such a grown-up, but so innocent when you fell asleep. We're getting married next month and I think I will love you for a long long time, I don't know how long yet, but I know it will be a long long time.

Kiss, and goodnight!

Roadtrip to Redwood

we had this roadtrip during memorial weekend. The weather forecast had warnned us that it's not going to be sunny, but Eddie will have to be a mentor for new intern duing summer, this weekend might be the only weekend that he could take several days off and take a almost week-long vacation.

So we decided to go anyways. or Eddie decided to go anyways, and i just agreed. Bcoz the weather condition, we decided to go south, figuring it might give us a better chance to get nice weather, but Nah, we're wrong, it has been raining for three days until i got so pissed of camping in the rain, it finally stopped.

Yes, it is commonly said that girls don't like camping in the rain, especially Lizzie who might enjoy shopping more than camping. And, particularly, camping in that crappy california redwood state park campsite. Our site was facing north (i guess, since we've never seen the sunshine), so the moist ground has a hard time to dry out, and everything remains cold and humid. Our second day camping on that site, i found a shit on the table, yes, what a shit, looks like from some dogs, we guess, since it's too small for human being and bears. and Eddie batted away a little mouse, and i found a dead mouse body the next morning but Eddie doesn't think it's the one he batted away. After we left that campsite and headed home, we stopped by a riverside to take some photos, meanwhile i stepped on a shit, pretty moist shit and smelled soooooo bad. luckily we were in a riverside, so i washed it in the river, and felt a bit sorry for others who try to swim in the river. But I was in downstream though.

After all these we came up with one conclusion, CA is crappy. and they charged more for one campsite with less services provided than in WA & OR.

I wrote very long journals in chinese talking about our camping story, so i am kinda tired of talking it again here in english. forgive me, and just ask me about them if any of you is interested.

Btw, campsites in OR are terrific, at least the one we went to (Harris Beach on highway101 along the coast near CA border) was so nice and clean with wireless internet.

The real cost of going green

By Emil Petrie
BBC Money Programme


Is it really possible to cut your carbon emissions enough to save the planet?

As part of the BBC's Climate Chaos week, The Money Programme conducted a unique experiment. It asked the Hutchinson family from Teesdale - the area in the UK with the highest carbon emissions per household - to try and cut back their energy use.

But it was a tough task. The Hutchinsons use a lot of energy. Dad Dave runs a garage and likes to drive rally cars for fun. Mum, Teresa, is a school nurse who drives everywhere. She also has a fondness for big hot baths. Fifteen-year-old Andy likes computers, gadgets and like his dad, is also a bit of a petrol-head. He has his own off-road motorbike. And 13-year-old Helen whiles away her time playing music. On her electric piano!

'Heavy polluters'

Before the experiment began, the Hutchinsons saw themselves as just a normal family.

Dave said: "I would have said that as far as we're concerned, we're average users, but I'm probably going to find out different within the week." Well, they found out almost straight away. Dr Brenda Boardman, a home energy scientist from Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, came to audit the Hutchinson's energy use. The results surprised them.

According to Dr Boardman, an average family of four have a carbon footprint of about 13.5 tonnes a year. The Hutchinsons were almost double that. "I'm afraid the bad news is that in terms of carbon dioxide, they're rather heavy polluters," she said. They drive on average 55 miles a day, use more than five litres of heating oil and consume a whopping 24 kWh of electricity a day.

So she set them tough new energy targets for the week. She asked them to drive no more than 30 miles, use only 10 kWh of electricity and burn just 3.5 litres of heating oil each day. According to Dr Boardman, although it was a tough target, it's important for everyone to do their bit.

"Climate change is being caused by the actions of each one of us," she said. "We are causing the problem, and so therefore we are the solution to the problem."

Wasted power

A major problem for Dr Boardman was the number of appliances left on standby. In Andy's room alone, she found 12 items left on standby - a figure that shocked her.

"[In] the normal house, I'd expect there to be 26. So for there to be 12 in one room is quite a lot. The really important point with standby is that if it's on 24-seven, times 25 million households, you've got a couple of power stations, all wasted." The visit from Brenda really had a big impact on the family and the challenge she set made them realise a lot about how they had been leading their lives.

As Teresa said: "It knocked me sideways when Brenda came, 'cos I thought we were pretty good. I really did and it totally knocked me for six. And when you think that, as she put it, we're investing in our kids' futures, then they're my life, so it's got to be passionate, something you've got to do for them."

The Hutchinsons responded to Brenda's challenge with great enthusiasm. During the week of the experiment, everything was turned off standby overnight. They turned the heating down, they watched less TV and even resorted to candlelight during two nights of the week.

Energy savings

Seven days after her first visit, Dr Boardman returned and was amazed by what she found. The Hutchinsons had transformed their lifestyles. They had almost hit the electricity target of 10kWh, averaging 10.73 kWh a day over the week. Living in the countryside meant they failed the mileage, driving 53 miles a day over the week, only slightly below their normal 55 miles a day.

However, they actually managed to beat their heating oil target. They used on average 3.4 litres a day, compared to their target of 3.5 litres. Their carbon footprint went from a colossal 26 tonnes of CO2 a year, to just 14.4 tonnes CO2 a year. Brenda was impressed. They had cut down their energy use to such an extent that if everyone in Britain did the same, it could alter our future energy policy.

According to Dr Boardman, it has huge implications: "Well, for a start, we would need no more nuclear power stations. It is that level of reduction that we're talking about." For the Hutchinsons, the week-long experiment had a major effect on the way they viewed the world.

Dave says it completely changed his outlook: "Life is a learning circle and I feel we've learnt quite a lot this week with regards to how we can help the world."

Plants

Last spring/summer i decided to plant basil bcoz back in my hometown there is basil everywhere, my mom never bought them and we can always pick the fresh ones from the yard. So I decided i am not gonna pay $3.99 for organic basil coz i can grew organic ones too. However, it's bringing tiny bugs flying around it, I decided if the basil has to learn living with its vegetable-instinct and deal with mother nature, so i threw it outside in the patio when the fall came.

Poor basil can't survive Seattle winter and endless rain, it died soon after. my other plants including tea rose and green garlic survived. but tea rose has only one branch left, others were dried out. green garlic amazingly was pretty strong in winter and in the rain, and i got to harvest several times and pan-fried it with Taiwanese sausage.

This spring/summer i planted Parsly and Rosemary, those ones I use once a while and only need a small amount of them each time. they are growing just fine right now. I am hoping they can get through winter. if they are doing fine without getting bugs flying around them, i might consider bringing them in during winter.

Good luck, pasly and Rosemary.

Goodbye Xiao-ma, goodbye

i wanted to write something about xiao-ma on my blog. But when i started to write, i started to cry and couldn't stop. We kissed xiao-ma good bye in the dealer's parking lot last night, and left him behind. somehow i feel more sadness of losing xiao-ma than excitement of getting new car.

xiao-ma was first found in Willams Auto World dealer shop in Okemos, MI. Eddie later decided to bring it home, even though he didn't have many experiences with manual shift. According to Harry who went pick up the car with him, "you don't know how scary it is, i doubt if he could drive that car home."

That night I have evening class, Eddie msg me saying "I'll pick you up after class." and it was the first time he picked me up by car instead of feet. We drove to a brighter corner of the laundry room of Spartan village, checking out the car. I didn't get too excited coz I don't drive and didn't realize the differences. But I did enjoy the firm suspension and smooth stereo and its subwoofer.

There are times when people say to each other "Let's walk the dog." and Eddie always said to me, "Let's walk the car," meaning let's drive around for fun. We could spend hours on Jolly road, Farm lane, Hagadorn, Okemos, and many other roads among the communities. some nights we would go out at 3am to Natural Resource building, or 1am to Meijer, or just stopped the car at a quiet community full of pretty houses, looking at the stars through sunroof. We went to many restaurants around East Lansing areas, and visted every Meijers closeby. Sometimes we would go furthur away, to Dim Sum restaurants near Detroit, to Novi, and to Ann Arbor.

Eddie drove xiao-ma to Washington DC twice when his brother studying there. I didn't go with him but I went on a trip with friends and stopped by in Washington DC. We had too many people so I had to stay with friend's car instead xiao-ma. our car followed xiao-ma and i had the chance to take a look of xiao-ma from behind: he does have a cute butt.

xiao-ma also lived in Soo (Sault Ste Marie, MI) with Eddie for one summer. It's a rare chance to live there for a while since lower Michigan people don't really like to move there unless they have a vacation house nearby. People there were impressed by xiao-ma's appearance, and that made Eddie very happy.

When Eddie left school, xiao-ma left on a truck. Few weeks later, we picked him up in Redmond, WA. From then on, xiao-ma has beening staying in Redmond Hill Apt car port for two years. The weather in Washington makes it a better place to live for xiao-ma, since he never learned to walk in the snow. But Eddie was careless and damaged him. It took a lot of money to get xiao-ma fixed. Higher living expense and higher mantainace fee after warranty expired have seized us.

After getting our own condo and moving furthur away from work, Eddie started to take mass transportation to reduce gas expense. As for me, I started to drive xiao-jin, which was left by Eddie's brother before he moved back to Beijing. I've tried to drive xiao-ma once, but my legs are short and couldn't reach clutch easily. I kinda give it up afterwards, but now I regret that I didn't try harder.

So we didn't take xiao-ma out very often unless Eddie needed to use him or during weekends. bcoz of tight monthly budget, we didn't want to spend too much on car maintainance. But poor xiao-ma was getting older and dealers had no hesitation bumping up labor fee and part price higher than market price coz they know they are the only people that carry parts xiao-ma needed.

Last week after xiao-jin died on the road, xiao-ma's battery died as well. We worried if xiao-jin would ever come back to us and at the same time realized the importance of having a more reliable car instead of two problematic cars. xiao-ma needs new brakes, tires, oil-change, even some engine parts that would cost us 2000+ in total, but it still has a good market value. To get a new car, we had to give xiao-ma up.

Everything happens fast in few days, we found a new car and kissed xiao-ma goodbye last night at the dealer's. Before we left the parking lot, we turned back and looked at xiao-ma's cute butt for one last time. Goodbye xiao-ma, goodbye.

The new car has been sitting in our garage from last night, but I didn't want to name him coz no one compares to xiao-ma. Xiao-ma really deserves a better owner, and he needed to be fixed to a perfect state, that's what we couldn't offer to him. Leaving xiao-ma is like cutting part of our Michigan root off. He came along with us for four and half years, witness our days of dating, Eddie's job beginning, and our first home in here.

I don't think anyone would be able to replace xiao-ma. The new car will have its own value in our mind after spending enough time with us. But xiao-ma, he's already part of us. Xiao-ma, I hope they will cure all your illness and make you as brand new, I hope you find a good person who will take care of you more carefully than we did, I hope they remember to always put you in garage, wash you every couple weeks, and take you out on sunny days. Maybe we'll see you on the road.

Thank you, and goodbye xiao-ma, goodbye.

Moe?

Honestly I am not sure if the spelling of his name is correct. His name is Moe. Friend's cat.
I uploaded this photo just to see if my blog layout will go back to normal after putting something new on it, or it will be screwed up forever.

Photoshop trick - Miniatures

A friend recommands this trick, and I tried. the purpose is to make normal pictures looks like mini model construction (Miniatures). there are more better ones online at http://tinselman.typepad.com/tinselman/2006/02/micro_disney.html

Dutch Candles

Ever since I decided we're going to have a wedding, there's something I want to have in my wedding, which is Dutch Candle. People who have never seen this might feel weird what is the difference betweeen usual wedding candles and dutch wedding candles. Honestly, I don't know. I don't even know if the dutch wedding candles I have in mind is really from Holland!

One thing I can make sure, it's from Holland Michigan, and made by dutches in Dutch Village.

The summer I graduated from school, Eddie came back to Michigan to visit me (he thought that might be his last chance to visit MSU). We visited several places that we haven't been to, including Holland, which is few hours away from Lansing. That's where we found that dutch candles.

It is very beautiful of course, and for me, it's also part of my Michigan memories.

Something Funny

During this winter season, we went out to the moutain for skiing several times. Every time we went with some friends, including one of Eddie's co-worker Pat. Pat is a very funny guy but he's not a person who likes telling jokes. He's just naturally funny with his wierdo logic.

For example, he got some Cantonese songs from friends and found one of the songs very touching. He listens to it repeatedly for whole day and sheds tears for the melody, although he doesn't know a bit of the lyrics. He said he'll be very pissed if the lyrics is not touching or sad at all. Well, good thing he doesn't read Chinese.

Pat is good at playing badminton, and once Eddie asked him "hey I heard some people call you the king of badminton. is it true?" Pat answered, "well, I think I used the word God or Father, not King."

Today the weather forecast says because of the wind blowing from Arctic area, tonight is going to be coldest night for a decade. So, Pat annouced he'll witness the history outside. Well, I am curious how long he will be able to hold on there.

Alright I know these might not be too funny for you, but Eddie and I really like his "think outside the box" logic while kinda worried how he gonna survive with a different logic than the rest of the world. Ha!

For Every Woman

Read this article

I think I am exactly like the case it talks about in "Fighting Perfectionism" section. I don't know about other girls, but i hope Franny you will find this article very interesting and helpful. I am already kinda helpless, but you are my hope, go out girl, beat the crap out of other guys in your work.

alright, back to be serious, this article is pretty much true to a lot of friends I know, therefore i really hope each one of you (girls i mean) would like to spend some time and read it, and be nice to yourself, get a break through. we can do better and we deserve better!