Heading for Taiwan

My 3-week-long west coast trip has come to the end, and I'll be in Taipei on June 28.

Farewell, the US.

Packing my luggage

Only 4 hours left. I'm packing like crazy.

Leaving Boston Tomorrow

It's around 27 hours before I leave Boston. So soon to leave; so many things undone.

My immature nostalgia now become more and more real.

Clearing my workstation

It's time to clean up my workstation in my office.

hooper % uptime
23:36:38 up 199 days, 10:54, 10 users,  load average: 5.65, 3.32, 2.13

Sailing by myself

I felt bored this evening, and when I walked by the dock, I decided to see if I can sail on my own.

It turned out that the lecture on Sunday is not enough without some actual practices. Since I didn't really remember how to replace the sail and there was no one for me to mimic, I made several mistakes. It was a little bit embarrassed to get lots of help after telling them I have taken the courses on Sunday. What's more embarrassed, I am not very familiar with all these vocabularies, I couldn't understand their instruction when I was on the boat, so that I had to sail back to make sure what they talked about. Oh, I also forgot to put on the safe jacket so I had to return to the dock. Orz

After everything was ready, I found out that sailing on my own was also more tiresome than my expectation. The wind was stronger and the direction also changed from time to time, so I had to try harder to keep the balance. However, without a crew to compensate my torque, I cannot sit when the boat is tilted, which made my feet tired.

Anyway, although it was really frustrating to have bad communication, now I feel more confident on sailing and get some skills refreshed.

2007-06 ROCSA Niagara Falls Trip

我拍的照片、天雲拍的照片、Betty拍的照片、白佳靈拍的跟選的照片、Favonius拍的照片。

直接copy BBS上寫的懶人遊記好了。下面那段是2007-05-30寫的。

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很多人都說在canada那邊看好得多，中午group去吃飯聊到，老師也說只去US那邊很浪費，應該要從對面看。晚上跟JJ還有tim吃飯，JJ倒是比較明白講出到底差異在哪裡。簡單講，US這裡是在國家公園旁邊，附近還有一個camping site。而加拿大側，就是充滿了商業化與大都市感。一堆高樓飯店，還有賭場等，完全適合生意人去快速看盡繁華與美景。就如JJ說的，直接坐在飯店房間床上，吃著room service的東西，看著下面的燈光秀。

說到燈光show，US這邊的角度真的滿不好，只能從側面看，光線沒有很漂亮。加上燈光是從canada打過來的，擺明了就是從那裡最好看。所以US這裡還是主打自然知性風吧。搭著maid in the mist進去弄個全身濕，然後走個步道，跑到瀑布旁邊給大水沖，看歷史介紹影片，地質博物館，還有知性水族館之旅（這個比較不知所謂一點）。加上連熱水都沒得洗的camping，完全就是與怕麻煩的都市人相斥的玩法。

我自己是覺得兩種玩法各有好壞啦。倒是趁年輕，青春的US side早點來比較好，老了或跟家人一起來，似乎也就只剩下Canada的選擇比較適合。

update 2007-06-17: Favonius' pics.

Sailing at MIT

今天帶小保羅到MIT玩帆船。

我們參加的是週日初學者班，從早上九點半到下午兩點的密集課程，從講解課程到下水一次搞定。因為沒有得預約，先來先贏，早上還特地約了八點半要去排隊（可是睡過頭了，囧rz）。

課程講解滿清晰的，很大一部份是教具的關係。儘管我聽不懂大部分的詞彙，應該不外乎什麼帆啊舵的左舷右舷，可是技能方面都有學起來。教具是一台小帆船模型，配上電風扇XD。這樣講解配上動作超清楚的，帆要張得多滿，如何左轉右轉，配合風向控制帆等等，都是實際要用到的知識。航海專業詞彙好像也不是美國人就會，聽台下發問英文很溜的，有些字還是講不出來。

下水前的demo也滿炫的。講者真的跑上船示範該坐在那裡，還有如何控制船的平衡。模擬船身傾斜還滿笨的，由一個助教在旁邊拉繩子，把桅桿拉到傾斜。

上課的時候風一直吹，超冷，穿著外套都有點冷。我們一直很怕等一下萬一落水直接失溫。還好水溫不錯，甚至有點溫溫的。

我們一直在河的兩岸來回走8字形。因為什麼東西都沒帶，完全不能照相也不知道時間，大概來回開了快兩小時吧。一開始大家還不太能掌控船向時，簡直就是在玩碰碰船，而且好像有一艘翻了。大概來回兩趟也就順了，都能互相避開。

我們一艘帆船坐兩個人，簡單的玩法是一人控制帆，另一個掌舵。兩個角色可以互相交換，都熟了之後就可以一人控制了，這時候另一個人只負責平衡重心。一手拉帆一手掌舵真的是有困難度在，一開始都會手忙腳亂，不過熟了就很順，速度跟方向都可以完全控制住。

總之帆船很好玩的啦～希望星期三天氣好，可以再衝一發。

今日照片：http://www.flickr.com/photos/wychen/sets/72157600306726439/

坐姿錯誤示範

不可以坐在這裡，不然會卡到舵。

出航示範

下水前

下水前