Smiling face in Angkor

南城門
Originally uploaded by yawwenc.

At the last few holidays of Chinese New Year,
I visited one of the most famous ruins in Cambodia, the Angkor wat.
This picture was taken at the south gate of Angkor Thom.
At the top of the gate,
there were four smiling faces.
Looking at these faces up there,
I was thinking about the same question that every tourist might ask.
That was why the king Jayavarman VII putted his own faces there.
Can any one answer this question?

Where to study

Nowadays students can study either in their home country or in the United States. Some perfer to stay in their home country and study. Others think studying in the United States is more beneficial. As a matter of fact, each situation has its own advantages.

When students study in their home country, they have no language barriers. They can read books in their mother tongue very easily. They cane discuss theit lessons with the teachers or the fellow students very freely and since they are accustomed to the way they have been living, they have little difficulties in life. Besides, they have little financial difficulties in their studies because they can easily get financial support from their parents or their relatives.

When students attend schools in the U.S., they can act as mediators between peoples of different cultures to promote international understanding. They can also tend to be spokespersons for other cultures and people who may be misunderstood by Americans. They can enjoy the contact with new and different cultures to increase the awareness of their own culture. In addition, they can learn advanced knowledge of science and technology, and learn English much more quickly than in their own country.

I think it is better to study in the U.S. because the advantages to studying in the U.S outweight those to staying in one's home country and studying.

Asian Iron Man

The Asian Iron Man, Yang Chuan-Kwang, died of liver cancer today.
My attention was cought by the bad news on TV in this evening.

He was a hero in Taiwan because he was the first man who won the silver medal in Olympics games.

In 1960, Yang represented Taiwan and participated in the Olympics games in Rome, Italia.

Although he got silver medal in that game, Yang broke the world records in another game in U.S. in the following year.

After that, he never won any medals in the international games in his life.

No matter what he had done in his later years, he still was a hero in the Taiwaneses' minds.

I decided to wrote it down because I think it was neccessary.

School life

Usually we see two types of students: those who are active in school activities and those who spend more time on their studies and do not take part in school activities.The students who are active in school activities say that it is imposibble to keep in good health unless they take insufficient physical recreation. They often cite the saying:" All word and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The students who do not take part in school activities have a different opinion. The argue that art is long, but life is short, and that school life is still shorter; so the have to make the most of their limited school days to learn as much as they can so that they can be fully prepared to make contributions to the society after graduation.
I prefer to be one of the first type because I think good health is indispensable to knowledge-acquisition. Facts show that students who are in poor health are less vigorous and energetic than those who are in good health. Healthy and strong students can absorb knowledge more readily. And a good way to keep us healthy and strong is to go in for activities such as boating, cycling, tennis-playing, dancing and fishing, ets., which are beneficial both to our muscles and to our brains.
When we take part in any of these activities, no only our bodies are trained but also our minds are taken off from our work or study for a while and get relaxed. As a result, we become more acute and vigorous, and our studies can be improved.

Telecommuting

Many workers are seduced by rosy illusion of life as a telecommuter. A computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquil Adirondack mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer. A manager comes in to his office three days a week and works at home the other two. An account stays home to care for her sick child; she hooks up her telephone modem connections and does office work between calls to the docter.
These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality. Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time. Before a certain age, young children caanot recognize, much less respect, the neccessary boundaries between work and family. Additional child support is neccessary if the parent is to get any work done.
Management, too, must separate the myth from the reality. Although the media have paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting, in most cases it is the employee's situation, not the availibility of technology, that precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.

The advantages of the Internet

The Internet has changed the world we live in dramatically, so that in some ways, it is unrecognizable from the place we lived in twenty years ago. Communications have been revolutionized. Not only have cell phones found their way into most peoples pockets or purses, but they are also used for text messaging and as cameras. Long distance phone calls have been replaced by e-mail and video conferencing. Communications, person to person or company to company, have turned into a fast-paced exchange with instant response. In fact, it has become more convenient and efficient.
The other kind of communication the Internet provides is information. School children and medical researchers alike will tell you that they could not work without the Internet and its ability to connect them to any number of website and database of information. Many people do their banking on-line. Others plan a trip and book a flight for themselves. People do their own stock trading through the Net. Sports fans follow scores and statistics on websites. Political junkies gather campaign statements and debate topics, even between elections. And almost everyone who owns a computer and has Internet access has bought at least one item on-line. No wonder some young people can not imagine what life was before the Internet.
The real advantages of the Internet are not just the convenience and accessibility that it provides the average person. Its invention has made an enormous difference to the lives of physically challenged people. Those who are physically unable to get around easily can now access the outside world easily - to oerder groceries, pay bills, take university degrees, communicate with friends, family and business associates. The can develop their own business, providing services using their skill on-line. The freedom that it has meant to those previously referred to as shut-ins is perhaps the most valuable form of progress brought by the Internet.

Open! Dean & Deluca Taipei

At the end of year 2006, a new supermarket Dean & Deluca opened in Taipei.
In recent years, there were a lot of internatinal supermarket opened in Taipei.
The last one, Jenson's Market Place opened in the basement of the world highest building Taipei 101.
These markets are quite different with the local chain supermarkets such as Welcome or Mutsukei Market.
Customers can find lots of new and interesting foreign porducts there.
However, the price is much higher.
My wife and I went to Dean & Deluca because chocolates that were new in Taiwan.
Especially Chuao, the most famous cocoa in the world.
I bought some chocolate bars there.

The Flight That Fought Back - UA 93

Last night, my wife and I watched the film "the flight that fought back" on Discovery channel.
The story was about the one of the four planes hijacked by the terrorists in Sep. 11, 2001.
And the plane was the only one that crashed in an open field, not on a structure.
Passengers on UA93 decided to fight back rather then just sit there after they knew that there were two planes hited into World Trade Center earlier.
Their courage saved thousands of lives, althought they had to sacrifice their own.
I believe that they were alike us, just normal people.
What they decided to do was because they still wished to see their families again.
However, this courage made them become heros and heroines.

Cryptogenic cirrhosis

In this afternoon, we had a small discussion about this topic "cryptogenic cirrhosis".
Cryptogenic cirrhosis is the liver cirrhosis that the cause is not well known.
The speaker said that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) should be taken into account.
Recently, more and more evidences showed solid relation between obesity, diabetes, and NAFLD.
Some patients with NAFLD will progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis which will cause the inflammation and injuries to the liver cells, then resulted in fibrosis, even more, cirrhosis.
Therefore, once you are told having "fatty liver" after a sonography, don't overlook it.
That might be a small disease that causes huge consequences.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!
It is Jan 1st, 2007 today.
Where did you go last night?
My wife and I went out with some old friends.
One of them was Jane who came back with her husband to Taiwan from Indiana, USA for Christmas holidays.
We havn't seen each other since we graduated from university.
Now she is an associate professor in University of Indiana.
Wow! She is alway the best.
That was wonderful night.

And this is the vedio of firework show of Taipei 101.
Enjoy it!