San Diego always feels pleasant to visit I guess....

We decided to take an one day trip to SD on Sat and see if we could take some cool photos. We left home and got us McDonald's breakfast to eat on the way. The trip started kinda smooth but then we got stuck in traffic for about half of the whole ride. By the time we got to SD it was almost 2 in the afternoon. I gave up the thought about calling Pauline since I don't think Hades would be too happy at home if we do eat dinner together and get home late at night....

We 1st went to La Jolla beach since Billy said he has never been there before. I guess that turned out to be the place where we took most of the photos. Stroll along the shore and taking photos of various little animals was kinda fun. The place was crowded, but not as annoying as all the LA beaches.

Our 2nd stop then was the seaport village since Billy said he has never been to the place either. I guess compare to him I am such a San Diego pro. We ate dinner there at a restaurant which had an outside section where we could sit and watch all the people walking along the shore. We ate while the sun was sinking into the ocean so I guess that was nice too. My camera ran out of juice cuz of our excessive tries of catching flying birds in sports mode and little crabs which were super sensitive to human movements. With the little left I was still able to take the photos of the sunset...kinda anyway....so here are the photos we got from the heavy traffic trip....Yeah...and Hades was kinda upset when we got home. He didn't go to pee at all for the whole day and was super hungry as well...This cat sure has attachment problems....sighs...

We stopped by this view point place half way to SD. Got some good photos of the seagulls (not really sure if they were...) Here is one with two of them...

When we were at La Jolla I took some photos of the squirl which posed for me for a long time...


After the squirl I concentrated on taking photos of the sea lion ? and the tiny crabs hiding in the rocks...


Billy....concentrated on taking "flying" birds that requires certain techniques and practices with the "sports mode". Here are two of his best shots of the pelicans...

On the street at La Jolla I shot this flower which reminded me of Hawaii for some reason...maybe because it appears on all the Hawaiian shirts? lol

We went to Seaport Village for dinner. Like I said...we sat outside and enjoyed dinner. Billy took a shot of me with two heads in the back...but then I guess it's good he got the restaurant sign. The waiter took a photo for us too. Food was kinda salty and we got REALLY fat after that dinner. I am still super fat two days after...sighs...I think it's the amount of cheese we had with all the seafood...

Billy took this 1st picture below and I altered the color. I think it looks very nice this way since the original color wasn't all that impressive cuz of the lighting and where we were sitting. The 2nd photo is the last one I took for the day because my battery just refused to stay alive after that. The sunset with the boat turned out nice enough with one try though....That concludes our photo trip at SD :)

You think crying would work? not all the time....

Today is the last Fri I can go without teaching anyone cuz it's the last Fri before EVERYONE starts school. Billy somehow decided to work at home today so I guess it's kinda interesting I am having a person working right next to me while I type and get my morning greetings with most of my MSN friends in the morning. Well....I sold another 5 CDs to a friend this morning so I guess it was somehow productive with the time spent chatting....?

Yesterday I had a bad time with that little girl who claimed she wants to learn violin (which I talked about around 1 month ago....the not yet 7 years old girl). I think this kid really has some issues cuz she usually does not even look up when I ask her simple questions, and it feels like her mom has to beg her to do things. I also found that she has this uncontrollable emotional problems cuz one min she would be alright and happy, and then next min she would be very angry....and I was thinking....what the heck? who is the person that cannot do those simple stuff? what the heck are you angry about?

So anyway....I asked her one simple question "what is the note on your D string if you press down your 2nd finger?" and she started crying when she could not figure out what the note is. It's been like 3 weeks since I asked her to memorize around 10 notes in the 1st position. 1st of all..I do not get why she would not be able to answer "what is one note higher than B?" if she has been playing piano for a while....and then what perplexes me is that there are only 10 notes to memorize!!!! how hard can that be? especially when the mom claims that at home she can always answer pretty quickly?

My suspitions are as followed...It's either 1. the kid is really slow and the mom is lying....or 2. the kid knows she can get away from everything just by crying...or 3. she wants to quit learning now cuz it's difficult and she is trying to put up a show to get out of the whole thing. I think both 2 and 3 are quite possible, but hey I was not the person who begged her to learn. I did not want to take her as a student, and her mom knows very well on that. The kid is just not get whatever she want with me cuz I don't care about her little 30 min payment and would not die without that 25 bucks.....

Knowing the little girl does have a problem (both with her eyes and her emotions....I think the eye problems probably caused the mom to spoil her somehow...) I told her I would let her try one more time in the next lesson. If she wants to put up another show then it will just not work. I was frank to show that she is not the 1st kid who cries in my lessons, and you either deal with your attitudes or there will be more teachers you can find on the street. I am usually friends with my students, but not with the ones who think they can control how I react by putting up a show. My other 8 year old little student knows not to lie when I am around now, and we have a good time even when she is not doing so well with some stuff.

Yeah I guess I am lucky in a way I get to choose who I don't want to teach....but then giving them enough chances before I fire is also a tough task for me. I wish I would not see so many details which may cause the problems on the surface so I can just fire whoever without thinking about it twice....but this is how the world is....messed up in many aspects...usually a messed up kid is kinda created through a messed up environment....and I do know there are other problems in this particular situation....sighs...not gonna mention about it now...not really my business anyway....knowing too much may not always work...right?

Weird nightmare....

I think I was dreaming throughout the night. Hades of course helped me have breaks from the dreams by bugging me several times in the night. I don't know what is wrong with him but he seems agitated at night a lot recently. I wonder what he is unhappy about in the room...

With all my dreams I only remembered one nightmare. I dreamed that one of the students I fired (or I should say student's mom that I fired) called me (or I should say the mom called) and pretend nothing happened and set up new schedule with me for the new semester. After I hung up the phone in the dream I realized I fired her before and I really didn't want to deal with the mom at all. I tried to call back and then the dad and the brother (which does not exist in the real world) tried to tell me their phone wasn't working properly. I got really pissed off and told them to give me the mom's cell numbers, but they told me that her cell phone was lost. I was thinking....dang....this family is really full of liars.....and then of course I woke up after that for a break and realized I really don't have to deal with that annoying parent in my life now....

I guess the nightmare really showed how much parents can become problems for teachers when they are not supportive and when they try to mess up everything. Sometimes I just don't get why parents would spend so much money for all diff. kinds of classes on their kids and not realize they are not learning everything well. I guess for those who have kids and cannot teach them properly this is the only way they know how to deal with it....providing that they do have enough bucks in their pockets.

I have an elementary classmate who is in special education now. I have never thought she would go into this career really since she was always a very outgoing character when we were kids. She 1st studied in the "tourism" major? and was being a tour guide for some years. Whenever I read her blogs nowadays I have to admire those teachers in the special educations. Of course there must be bad ones in that environment, but for those willing to sacrifice their time and energy dealing with the kids who need special attention....really something I am not sure I will ever be able to accomplish....

Anyway....teaching is now even part of my nightmare...isn't this just wonderful?......

Speak? Listen?

Can't believe I am actually done reading the old testament with my daily reading plans..man...such a long time....I wonder what I remembered through all those messed up Israel histories really. In the inspiration section today there was something quite interesting though...."Henry David Thoreau once wrote ' It takes two to speak the truth. One to speak and another to listen'"

I wonder how many people can really be a good listener?

Why do people try?

CL was chatting with me last night, and told me that she helped her ex with the loan and stuff. That guy is now done with buying the house and I guess he will just stay up in SF. I couldn't help thinking why she would be so "generous" and help him through things even after that ugly break up cuz he was having affairs in China. I guess not a lot of people really care about what I think when it comes to relationships...and yet most of the time when I think someone is not worth keeping, it's usually bad at the end. I certainly hope in the future I don't have to feel fishy about my brothers' girls cuz I doubt any of them would actually listen to me....especially the youngest one....sighs....

Anyway....I don't think I would ever be generous on any relationship when I know I am being cheated. Betrayal is just a big thing that I don't get over with. I guess that is the thing that finally got me to leave both of my previous jobs. I just think if there is no more trust between people, then there is no point staying close. This world is already too fake to start with anyway. I don't think we need to make it even worse...

It just amazes me how most people want to find a person and get married and yet not that many actually have a good marriage. I wonder if that is a desire that God puts into human so everyone is still trying so hard even after seeing so many failures...I wish I can see more people around me with REAL sweet and nicely maintained marriages so that adds a little faith in me. Again there are plenty of people FAKING it just so they feel better about the whole thing....but what is the point? I guess I am not all that depressed about my own, but a lot of times I just wish everyone can be happy somehow. Well...I guess happy can also be a relative term too? Who gets to decide if we are happy? right?

We sure wasted a lot of energy and time over the weekend....

This weekend was kinda funny....We 1st started it off with a LONG drive along the coast....why? well....1st of all Billy was having problem connecting to his computer at work from home. We decided to drive all the way to Huntington beach so he can reboot the work computer and then I can get gas cuz price there is a little lower. (I know....driving like almost whole hour to get gas that is only 2 cents cheaper? that sure makes a lot of sense...hahaha)

After rebooting the computer we then wanted to check out if any of the beaches along pacific coast highway would be a good spot to take photos with our new camera. Unfortunately the weather was kinda foggy, and there were just way too many people EVERYWEHRE....plus it was just too HOT to walk anywhere really. At the end...we drove all the way down to Laguna beach, and didn't take one single photo...right...funny....so that was Sat...

Sun we wanted to go to Ontario mall for this discover card deal which you get a 10 gift card when you spend 100 dollars. It turned out that the mall ran out of gift cards so we will probably have to go again next weekend...Funny thing about this whole mall trip was....Irene and Jack actually helped us reaching the 200 dollar spending with the lunch we ate together and the stuff they bought. At the end Billy and I only got this massage oil which is about 17 dollars.....and if we do get a 20 gift card at the end we basically didn't spend any money other than the food? lol...anyhow it was sure time and gas consuming though....

After we got home Billy wanted to try our "fry daddy" making onion rings, 鹽酥雞, and French fries....So here are the photos....I thought they didn't turn out all that bad, but Billy didn't think it was working too well even though he spent a long time frying stuff. For some reason he just thought the taste wasn't good enough. I guess fried food is not good for us anyway so it's ok we won't be frying much....lol....


Anyway....Since we didn't get any cool photos I decided to just post the photos we took for the cutest cat on earth....:)

Hades loves the pants Billy always wears to cut grass....I guess Hades really likes the smell of freshly cut grass or something....2nd photo is how Hades shakes hands with us every night for treats that brush his teeth.

I don't think I need to say much here....Hades is for sure the cutest cat ever....

Scheduling mess

Life has been kinda slow this week. Not much is happening, and yet I am getting more anxious each day. I think I am just kinda annoyed with school starting in a week or 2. It's been a little hard to schedule the students since everyone is starting school at diff. time....plus nobody seems to really know their after school times and all...I can't believe summer is already over and I will back to teaching 5 days a week again....sighs....I wonder why it makes any difference since I didn't really do much with that extra day in Aug anyway....

My head has been acting kinda weird too. I am not sure if the brain is functioning slower cuz I didn't sleep well, or indeed I do have a very mild cold. I have been waking up with headache every morning for this week, and yet the symptom of a cold seems very minor. Maybe the routine of life staying the same everyday gets my brain rusty or something....I don't know....Not really sure having a very routined life is good for me, but seems to be good for Hades. He has now been off the collar for several weeks. That is for sure a big accomplishment in the past few years of his life....

Alright....let me go on with my boring life today and finish my 2 students of the day now. Too bad it's a 5 day week for me already....scattered schedule is really annoying.....Arhhhh....

Old friends...round 2....

We had dinner with a friend back from Interlochen last night. It's been 13 years since I last saw her. She was one grade older than me at school and plays piano. Recently the China gang got in touch with me through facebook, and I didn't really expect Jing being the 1st person I see after all these years....Anyway....Taeja my Japanese-Korean friend was in the same studio with Jing so she wanted to join us for dinner as well. We went to Buca di peppo at Pasadena and I had fun listening to all their updated storied of Interlochen + various people from Interlochen...I have to say I feel completely out of the circle now that I am in the west coast and also don't play classical music as much. It's quite amazing how many of the Interlochen people are still in touch with each other though. I guess it was a very unique school for everyone after all....Jing even went back to work for the summer camp as a piano accompanist this past summer, and many of our past staff are still there in that small town. I think someday I should really go back and visit the place which gave me very a happy high school experience...

More photos + weird Sat....

Well....Hades kinda has been the only model we have at home for taking photos....We took many photos of him...and here are just some....The last 2 with Hades sitting as if getting ready for something were quite cute, and Billy took them....


We also went to the LA science center to look at the "human bodies" exhibition today with Irene. It's a while since I saw her last....It's always cool when she wants to hang out. I have to say the whole thing was not all that pleasant since we were basically looking at real human bodies with all the muscles, intestines, veins, bones, and all those disgusting stuff which kinda kept me away from any medical related career. I guess it was good that the museum prohibited us from taking photos or none of the photos would turn out too pleasant to look at anyway...especially late at night when I am writing this blog...

Yeah I don't know why but I am kinda having problem sleeping again for tonight. I hope I am gonna be able to stay alert tomorrow. Billy once again had a headache problem which he claims to be caused by his pimples....and also some stomach gas related issues (personally I think he just ate took much....) so he was complaining ever since we got home from dinner. I just told him to sleep early and we will see what happens tomorrow.

Anyway....because of the no photography rule...here are the only photos I took....not too great but I guess worth to post for a proof that we really went to the science center....The outside of the building was kinda cool. They had this weird decoration at the ceiling close to the ticket office. The light pattern created by the purple glass looks cool when it's on the floor....The 4th picture was just taken at this weird "cloud creating thingy" which Billy thought was ugly...I liked it though....hahahaha....I have a weird taste I know....


These are photos we took at the rose garden out side of the center. The roses were kinda ugly...I guess because I don't like roses when they are fully open. I think the last time I had a picture with Irene was at least more than a year ago...Pay attention to how wrinkled Billy's T-shirt was in the 2nd photo...and that was the exact reason why we took the 3rd photo...lol

The bees were busy getting honey from those roses. I was not able to get good shots of them cuz they were flying everywhere....plus my reactions were kinda slow. orz....but if you zoom in to the photo the honeys that they tuck in under their feet were pretty clear. Too bad the flowers were ugly too....oh well....have to find better places for photos next time....

man...life is too boring to talk about really...Why am I even writing?

It looks like I will be meeting with another high school friend again this coming weekend. I guess it will be interesting to meet up with her since last time I saw her was when she graduated from Interlochen. Since she is one year older than I am, I guess it was 13 years ago !!!!????? I guess most of people who are still in music stays in the east coast and visiting the west coast always get them excited....We will see how the dinner goes on Sun then...

Howard also e-mailed me and told me the 2nd EPs were delivered to his door and we should celebrate tonight by going to a meal together. For some reason I can't feel the excitement as much...perhaps because this thing just dragged way too long...but then he said it looks great so it must be....lol....I have started writing a song but somehow just don't have the urge to finish it...maybe I need to hang out with Howard a little and talk to him about writing songs...oh well...

Life has been a bit dull cuz I keep on feeling lazy due to the excessive water in me....I think...I think lately the TV amount also increased a bit much due to the Olympics...I guess it's good since when I get too much of something I just get sick and tired of it... so maybe later on I will just stop watching TV all together....??? I have been reading here and there but nothing seems interesting enough for me to continue for a long time. The 1st photography book I got also seems a little boring and perhaps outdated too since it's not on "digital" photography much...Well....at least it talks about the basics which would be easy to skim through....

My new little student already got me a little worried about the future. She seems to like violin a lot and the mom is really helping her....but then I think this kid is a bit spoiled as the youngest in the family. It's always annoying to teach the youngest kids cuz you rarely meet one that can concentrate. It's really not the age thing, but more of them knowing they are the prince/princess of the family....I don't think I am biased on this....It's easy to see from my previous teaching expericnes. Most of the youngest kids tend to be just a little ADD...

Two more students today and I am done with the week. Man....summer schedule sure is nice...I kinda wish summer does not end and my students don't return...if not for the money part of course...:p Ok...Take that back...two of my students on vacation now should return....They are good kids....the other two...hum...let's just say I can survive without them around....right...

Fakes....

I was reading the yahoo news this morning and one news caught my attention after I checked the metal counts of Olympics. The story was about that China girl who sang at the Olympic opening being fake. Apparently the real girl who is talented in singing was not cute enough for China to put on the show so they chose a pretty looking little girl to fake sing while the real girl was hidden. Quite interesting huh? I guess China is good at faking everything. I wonder how many real musicians would care about a really talented little girl being a little bit "not so good looking"...Of course being good looking is always a plus, but not so when you don't have the talent while faking it to make people thing everything is perfect....

Anyway....I am also quite impressed with all the swimmers from US. I think they are the reason why US has more metals added together than China now....and Korea is the # 3 right now? Since when did Korea get so good in everything? They are catching up on the electronics and now Olympics too? wow....

Weird Sunday

Really didn't do much on Sun. but there were two things worth taking a note of. Mom told me they might be going to Tainan to see Xiao-Zhen last time before she takes off to come to US for school....and then at night I got this crazy skype call from aunt which was a 4 way conference call!!! It turned out mom did go to Tainan, and Xin-Zhuang auntie called Taipei Auntie (who was in Taipei I think), and Xiao-Zhen (with mom and grandma by the side), and me on Skype. They were trying to see if grandma can learn how to use Skype. I would not be surprised if she really learns, but then it would be really scary....cuz now not only my mom's generation is hip...my grandma's generation will also be super hip...yeah....some of them even have facebook...can you imagine that?

2nd thing was about the Olympics. I was just about to go crazy cuz TV was almost always on whenever we were home for the weekend. I am not a person who is particularly interested to watch sport events, but I guess I was trained by dad and my youngest bro so I learned how to put up with it. After talking on that conference call which was terribly blurry cuz everyone tried to speak at the same time, I was just browsing through stuff while the swim competitions were going on. 1st it was kinda sad Hoff lost the women's 400 cuz she was so close to winning the gold but lost to the British last sec....but then what happened in the men's 400 relay was quite amazing. The French was really prideful and said they would smash the American to the press before the competition. It really looked like they would cuz till the 4th hundred the Americans were still losing it. However the captain of American team, who looked kinda old for an Olympic swimmer, just shocked everyone. He started catching up the big distance which previous teammates lagged behind, and right at the last sec passed the French guy. The US team won the competition by 0.08 sec....I just got super excited even though I am not really a US citizen or anything....lol

Watching the competition last night kinda reminds me how our lives are like a long race. We really can be winning most of our lives and then lose at the last min....or vice versa....It's just so hard to tell what the end result will be...but then if we do happen to fight a good fight like the swim team captain Jason Lezak very last min of our life, I guess it would not be too shabby at all. By the way....I am not really sure why they always take bad shots of the simmers. The photos always look much worse than what you see on the TV. lol....

Had WHOLE BUNCH of dreams last night I couldn't remember. I think that might be caused by too much TV and also my inflating gum. At least I didn't have nightmares so I should stop complaining now. I would not want my life to depreciate too much...The end....

Eddie's wedding....FINALLY....

Well....we basically spent most of our day on a wedding today. Eddie finally got married after two cancellations of the wedding previously, and I guess I am quite happy for him to finally get it done. I was quite amazed how long a drag a wedding can be since I really rarely attend any wedding from beginning to the end. We went to the wedding in the morning at this South Pasadena church which is like 3 min away from our place. I really don't have much idea why they picked that place cuz to me the church didn't really look all that fancy or anything. Chih-Lin took some photos for us, but they both look kinda weird. I think people should always be careful to pick taller people to take photos cuz those shorter than you usually take photos with weird angles.....but anyway....nothing special about the church.

We were quite surprised that the wedding was quite big. I guess Eddie collected enough friends with all the churches he had been to. Even Sam Mazur said he was surprised to see a lot of his old friends who left his current church a while back. I guess weddings are the best places to bring old friends back together. It was funny that I saw whole bunch of the relatives at the wedding since Eddie knows a lot of my relatives...the younger generation at least. Man my family is surely EVERYWHERE...sighs...(even the best man was somehow related to me by a distant marriage....oh well...)

We also saw Theo at the wedding since he was one of the groomsmen. I think he got a lot bigger this time. Maybe he will be the next one to get married if his girlfriend keeps on pushing for it. I guess next year we can then attend his wedding even though he doesn't seem to have too great of a time thinking about wedding. I think Tina does look like she is in love with Eddie even though he family does not like him and all that. It must be difficult for them but then if they love each other enough to have the wedding called off twice and still do it now I think they will be ok no matter what.

I didn't really take photos of any people at the wedding since I am sure there will be enough photos going on from more professional people for the couple. I also didn't think there was much to shoot for at the places. The reception was at Twin Palms in Pasadena. I personally didn't like the food that much but maybe it's because it was wedding food. The band was quite good though even though the drummer keeps on picking up his beats. I guess LAMA professors should be quite decent for a wedding :)

Below is my favorite photo of the day. I wish I shot that one with my new camera and not my old point and shoot. The barrels and the window really turned out nice. The 2nd photo here taken by Chih-Lin again is just kinda funny. Our color difference in skin tone is just way too obvious....lol....anyway....other than seeing too many familiar faces which makes me kinda uneasy....I guess the wedding was alright....just way too long with all the time delays...but hey at least I was able to sit through it from beginning to the end. I guess that means this new couple really has all my blessings on their marriage....I think the last wedding which I sincerely wanted to attend was Ivy and Paul's....and for Jay's I KINDA didn't mind going but I didn't want to stay that long either after I finished playing....hahahahah.....ok....just not a big fan of weddings....The End....:)

Staying up?

Billy stayed up real late last night (or really early in the morning I suppose), and now I guess it's my turn. It's past 1 in the morning now and I just somehow cannot sleep right. I have been having nightmares for the whole week and yet I don't really remember what nightmares I had. Few days ago the both sides around my chin was kinda hurting around the bone and I also couldn't figure out what the cause was. This morning one of my teeth was feeling kinda weird....and then that got me to think maybe I was grinding my teeth during the night...??

I was trying to think why I would have so many nightmares in a row cuz honestly I really don't have that many nightmares. I only recently started to dream actually....yeah....went through many many years without dreams before....Billy came up with one possible reason which I was actually suspecting myself. He said the earplugs I have been wearing might be the cause of my nightmares....

Well...so here is the thing....I started wearing earplugs again this week. I just thought it would be easier for me not to hear all the noises in our building at night. The method kinda helped me to fall into sleep easier, but then nightmares began as well....I personally hate it when people cover my ears. Not being able to hear things just puts this weird fear in me for some reason. Whenever I cannot hear clearly I just get anxious....but I didn't relate that to my earplugs and nightmare situation.

So after the discussion of earplugs I decided to try again just for tonight. I put the earplugs in even though I was not all that sleepy. The earplugs actually helped me fall into sleep....but only for a min.....I then noticed that I was biting my teeth really tightly, and I woke up feeling short of breath at the same time....so here I am writing about this weird experience. I probably went through the previous nights with this "unheard" fear on mine, and thought I had nightmares while I was just sleeping with this fear. It's also possible that I couldn't remember any of the nightmares because I didn't actually have them but I thought I did....

I know....all of these are very confusing...I am gonna try and sleep now without the earplugs....and with Billy's loud snoring next to my ears....If the snoring does not damage my ears I sure hope it will sooth me somehow and put me into sleep....

New Kid

I started teaching this little kid this morning...and think I probably got myself into more trouble again....So here is the story....Many years ago this mom asked if I can teach her daughter on violin. I was not into teaching and really didn't want to bother with young kids so I said just wait till she gets older. I started traveling a lot and I guess I just kinda told people I would not take any new students....so that was that....Few years back this mom called me again and asked if I can teach her 2nd daughter since the 1st one was already too old to start. I was like....hum....let's do this....just wait a few more years.....maybe till she is in school so she can at least understand me better and I would not have to struggle through the lessons....and that was that....

Last month.....this mom gave me a call again....she said "hey....can you consider teaching my daughter now? She is 7 now and I think she really wants to learn..." So I started feeling really bad about this whole thing....I said...."fine....bring her to me and we will just do 30 min for now. I really don't want to kill her interest and all....but if she wants to learn then I will just be as strict to her as to my other students...."

1st of all....I don't understand why the mom wants her kids to learn violin so much (or just music in general)....and I don't know why she insists on finding me either. I don't even freaking know how she got my new cell phone numbers....but I am sure she really tried hard cuz I don't think more than 5 people from EFCLA knows my new numbers now. I didn't even go to the church for many years just to think about that....I really hope I won't have to kill myself teaching a young kid like this again. I don't want to be mean either so help me God....

Sometimes I just wonder if all is worth it when parents try to put their kids through stuff the kids are not necessarily interested in. Why not just let them go with what they love and soar on those aspects? or is it just so hard to tell what a kid is talented with and interested with? Maybe that is....since not a lot of kids know what to think about or do while growing up....but I personally think it's because a lot of parents don't even spend enough time exploring the world with their kids...anyway....

It's always good to get some extra work....but hopefully it will be a pleasant one since teaching is really not my favorite activity....It's good the mom is gonna watch the kid so I don't have to push much. I am just hoping the kid has a little talent so we don't have to get stuck on things and all lose interest. I think Hades is upset now since I had to lock him in the room for 30 min since the mom is afraid of cats. It's quite amazing how many girls are actually afraid of cats...what's up with that? Is it because girls tend to act like cats and they don't like the similar crowd? Ok....My topic is drifting too far away....lol....

oh....the mom thought my husband is some sort of artist and decorated our apartment with all the photos and stuff...She guessed photographer....right....I was cracking up....who took all the pictures? lol....

I guess there is not much going on...thus my boring blog...

Susan (my high school pianist who accompanied most of the people from my studio) was chatting with me last night. It felt kinda weird chatting with someone who used to be the staff from high school so many years ago. I guess getting to know them when I am all grown up is really diff. I just can't believe how much she remembered about me from those years I was at Interlochen. She remembered what pieces I played....even the piano concerto I was playing with orchestra for practice preparing for a major competition which was held at our school at that time....and she remembered what subjects I was good with back back in school....even suggested that I should really seek for a medical degree....right....at my age....lol....

Compared to Susan's good memory, I really don't have much idea what was happening around the school back then. Julia was totally right I didn't pay attention to other people's lives....or maybe Milan was right that all my sleeping disorders through the past years erased my memories....Susan was telling me about her 1st marriage which happened when I was actually still at Interlochen. She was married to that guy for 6 years and I didn't even know???!!!!!! I wonder what is going on with my brain which most people think is functioning quite well....hum.....

Man...This China soap opera is endless....and the way China people talk just kills me....talking about cultural differences...Ok...better wake Hades up before he sleeps too much and wakes me up at night....

Photos....

I got my new camera this weekend. I am planning to develop photo taking as a serious hobby....I have always liked taking photos growing up, but then didn't do much about it other than just using my natural talent on that. My youngest brother who got the 1st DSLR in the family kinda trigger my desire to know more about the techniques on taking photos...plus I just don't see much else in life that can kinda both entertain me and give me some sort of satisfaction at this point. So...photography it is for now....

I decided to go with a mega zoom camera that is like a "DSLR wanna be" which is the Fujifilm s100fs. I was kinda amused when my other bro Clement told me he was looking at the exact same camera for a while. I guess the same blood does run in us. Anyway....we went to the LA arboretum on Sat, and I tried my new camera for the 1st time. I don't think there was too much to shoot for, but the result of the photos was ok I guess.....

There were whole bunch of peacocks in the arboretum. They are into making loud voices and they sound like cats from a distance. They even act like cats cuz I saw one sweeping the sand with her feet....yeah...kinda weird...The 2nd photo here is taken from this weird tree art piece. I just kinda peeked through one of the holes they created with the tree branches within this big weird thing which I have no idea what it was...

Dragonflies were everywhere....but then they were kinda hard to capture cuz most of the time they would not stay still, especially when people are around. If you zoom in the photos, details were actually quite clear with the macro zooming I used. I hope next time I can find some better looking color bugs to shoot...

Well....these were from the Asian garden....yeah...American people tend to think lotus can represent Asian. Wherever you go there are always lotus in Asian Gardens....lol...

This lizard actually turned out to be nice with the weird tree skin in the back. The 2nd photo was taken in the horse coach's firehouse place. Those reminded me of Mei-Nong somehow...

Well....I hope next time we will find more interesting places to take photos....We will see about that then....Hopefully before we get a house or condo I will have cool pictures to decorate it with....