Daily Scribble

newton’s three laws of graduation

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We all had learnt Newton’s famous three laws of motion in highschool physic, which all of us accepted as universal truth since then. (Well, at least in non-nano, non-quantum scale). Now someone has discovered the long lost Newton’s three laws of graduation. I think that can explain why I’m still stucked with my degree right now.

First Law: A grad student in procrastination tends to stay in procrastination unless an external force is applied to it
Second Law: The age, a of a doctroal process is directly proportional to the flexibility, f, given by the advisor and inversely proportional to the student’s motivation, m
Thrid Law: For every action towards graduation there is an equal and opposite distraction

Sigh…

The full version of the laws can be found here

Daily Scribble

worldwind

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Worldwind is createdby NASA and is free to download. It is a model of earth with satellite photos overlay on the 3D terran, which you can fly over using different camera angle. The software also provide animation on different measurements on scientific data such as ocean current or cloud movement. The major drawback is that the ultra high resolution satellite photos only covers U.S. cities. There are major problems in overlaying city names of certain countries, hopeful this bug will be fixed on the next release. I had spent quite some time exploring and really fascinated by this virtual globe. It can be download at here

Daily Scribble

soccer shoes

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Today I went to Richmond to get soccer equitment with Jackson out of the blue. I didn’t plan to go, but somehow I just bump into Jackson on his way out and decided to tag along for the discount. I end up bought a soccer t-shirt, a pair of shoes and a pair of socks for almost a hundred buck. Since I had invested so much in soccer gears, I gota use them more often to get the worth out of them. The shoe we went to is a speciality store only sells soccer related stuff. I wonder, how can it survive in this niche market. My guess is that the owner is a soccer fans himself and the store runs like a hobby more than a business.

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soccer

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I used to had a prejustice on soccer, somehow I always thought soccer is not fun, just a whole bunch of guys chasing the ball. I think it’s partly due to the bad experience I had back in Lasalle. When I was young, I can’t run and I don’t have any training on soccer skills. When I played soccer in P.E. lesson, I end up not having much action. Tonight I played a soccer game with friends the first timeafter so many years, and I found I actually like it. I think partly it is because this time it’s an indoor game and we have plenty of subsitute players, so I don’t have to run that hard. Most players are inexperience, I’m not the worst one. There some other players about my level. The biggest difference is I treated the game differently. Now when I am getting old, all I want is just some excerise that I can run around and sweat alot. Getting control of the ball and score goals is no longer my focus. Even I got the ball, I’ll probably lose it if I try to push in myself. So I just have some fun, ran up and down, while trying to block the attack of other team. I think I like the feeling of stealing the ball from other players. I know I’m not the type who can score and be the hero of the team. Playing middle field defense, pass the ball to the front and occationally get a kick on rebounce suits me. I’m going to buy a pair of soccer shoes and socks for the next game. I think Pat would say I’m become more manly after playing soccer.

Daily Scribble

wine tasting festival

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Tonight I went to wine tasting festival with Pat. The festival has vineyard from all over the world, provides sampling over 300 different labels. The theme of this year is South Africa wine, and there is live South African music performance. I never had that much wine in a single day, I had tried over 50 different kind of wine, including some expensive ones that are over hundred dollars.

The most expensive one I tasted is almost $300 a bottle, the booth use a dripper to measure the amount of wine to serve. Each serving worth almost $10, I don’t think I will drink this wine if I have to pay for it myself. That wine is too concentrated, a bit strong, not the type I like. On top of all the wines, the festival also has chess and snack tasting and a cooking show. I happened to be at the cooking show when the chef just finish the dishes. So I get to try out the halibat and duck breast, very delicious. There are quite some other freebes in the show too, I drank a few bottles of water, even brough two bootle home. To help the shower goeres go home safely, it gives out free skytrain ticket when we leave.

I don’t know much in wine drinking and actually I can’t even taste the difference between all those wines. All I can tell is whether the wine is sweet or bitter, whether it irritate my throat or not. At the end, the only guideline I use is the price of the wine to determine which one I will try. I think use the information of the market to determine quality should be most accurate. The event really worth the ticket price I pay for. I feel pity for my cheap friends who don’t come just because they think it is too expensive. Since I had consumed too much alcohol, I had a bad headache right now. Hopefully it will go away after I had a good night of sleep.

There is an intering small thing I had noticed today. When I was tasting wine at one booth, there was an old man come by and try some wine. The exhibitionist offer him to try out their best bottle. He replied that he can’t afford it and walked away without trying. Didn’t we all come to the festival to drink free expensive wine to optimize our return on the ticket fee? I can never understand the mind of those who refuse a shot from a a $80 bottle, yet taste some cheap $20 bottle from the same vineyard.