Gun N' Rose - Chinese Democracy

有在玩團或聽搖滾樂的人手上通常都會有至少一張 Gun N' Rose 的專輯,
依稀記得在我高中大學時代, 他們的歌可以說是被奉為聖經,
如果你會樂器, 都會想要練上幾段他們的經典名曲 November Rain, Sweet Child O'Mine, Don't Cry..
(雖然我家女王以前在練團室裡, 就一直覺得他們的歌就是很吵..哈哈..)

隔了17年再出專輯的 Gun N' Rose, 雖然團員多已不是當年的老面孔,
(最可惜的是吉他手 Slash 因為跟 Rose 之間的恩怨情仇就離隊了;
有玩 Gaitar Hero 的人, Slash 就是某一代盒子封面上帶著帽子的那個吉他手)
但是憑著 Axl Rose 獨特的個人魅力, 還是把我帶回了那個叛逆的80年代..
他那高亢沙啞的聲音搭配一如既往的反叛個性(看這次的專輯名稱就知道了),
就是有一股似乎能把你靈魂吸走的力量,
讓你在聽的同時感動卻又熱血沸騰..

這張專輯我喜歡的歌還挺多的, 在這裡我放了其中三首的連結,
有興趣卻又還沒聽過的人,可以聽聽看這個被譽為死前必聽的50大樂團之一...





從上到下分別是 Catcher in the Rye; Street of Dreams; Better.

PS: 聽音樂是很主觀的, 可是卻也讓我在看大家的討論時看到了一段很好笑的對話..

A君: Chinese democracy must be awesome...then why is it in 33th on Billboard´s list?..beause is a bad album..nothing more...A BAD ALBUM ...end of the discussion

B君: because theres stupid fucks like you who go out and buy brittney spears shit

哈哈哈, 所以外國鄉民的嘴砲也是很厲害的 :p

Family never froze

這兩天跑了一趟 Reno 去看我妹,
這幾年來我去這個地方的次數應該已經有超過十次了吧..
(聽起來好像我很喜歡賭博似的..)
每次朋友來找我, 自然而然就會把她們帶到這個號稱
"The biggest small city in the world"..
這次也是因為我妹跟朋友去 Tahoe 滑雪,
想想開到 Reno 總比花六個小時開到她住的 Santa Barbara 近,
所以就跑了這一趟...

但是這次去還真的是他X的冷,
過了 Truckee 就一路24度F,
最冷還給我到19度F(攝氏差不多零下6度吧~)..
真是有夠冷的...
重點是天氣很差,能見度很低,
我就給他傻傻的想說噴一下雨刷水,清一下擋風玻璃,
結果水一碰到玻璃,瞬間結冰,想當然爾當下是完全看不見啦!
把當時正在高速公路上的我嚇出一身冷汗,
一路上也就這樣在神經緊繃的狀態下到了 Reno...

不過看到自己的妹妹還是很開心啦..
雖然只是吃一頓晚餐的時間,最後看她離開還是有點捨不得,
畢竟距離上次見面也經六個月了...

妹妹,回去好好加油,
不用擔心將來的事情,船到橋頭自然就會直的...
現在就專心眼前的工作吧!!(這些話好像也應該對現在的我說一下..哈哈..)



呼~好冷~~

聖誕快樂

今天是老外最愛的聖誕節,
記得小時候老爸老媽都會在家裡擺上一顆聖誕樹,
早上我跟我妹就會趕快醒來衝到樹下開我們的聖誕禮物,
想不到一眨眼那已經是二十幾年前的事情了...
之前才跟家裡的女王大人在逛 mall 的時候聊到,
小時候是想買很多玩具但是沒錢,
現在則是有錢可以買了,但是卻也沒什麼時間玩了..

anyway, 只是要跟看到這篇文章的你說聲聖誕快樂,
新的一年希望我們都可以有好的開始..
最後就聽聽我最愛的 Foo Fighter 的一首老歌, Learn to fly,


(如果不能播放,按一下F5,再播一次試試吧!)

Hopefully all of us are able to fly high in the coming year~

Quick update for my recent publication

During the first half of this year, I got an oppurtunity to work with another professor in our department. He and other authors would like to write a report (later was also submittd to the government for public policy decision), which discussed the water resource crisis in California due to the continuously increasing demand and global climate change. Since this report covered a huge range of various research areas, he and the other authors invited many people from different research backgrounds to prepare this report (to write several technical appendix from different views, so the authors can have discussions based on these technical conclusions). Anyway, he asked my boss to see if he can recommend anyone familiar with public health risks posed by disinfection byproduct formation. Then, BANG! I was in!

I have to say, that was a tough time working in this project. You only had six months to collect all of the information you needed, review a huge number of literatures, develop and test the models, contact the state and local agencies, and write and revise the report. All of these needed to be done in six months, and you only got a master student to help you (be honest, 她沒什麼用(這句話用中文,免得被相關人等看到), so bascially I worked alone in this project). I still remember when I was in TW for a short break (this trip was decided before I got thie project, so I couldn't cancel it), I brought all the papers with me when I traveled in the South TW with Selene and worked in the hotel every night, so sad~).

Anyway, now the project is done, and I just gave a talk regarding my appendix to the audience from the government in Sacramento last month. The report has been published in this summer, so if someone is interested in what I did during those six months or wants to know what will happen to your drinking water when sea level rises in the future, here are the links for the report and my chapter.

Comparing Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
published by Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)
http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=810

Delta Drinking Water Quality and Treatment Costs (55 pages), by Wei-Hsiang Chen, kristine Haunschild, and Jay R. Lund
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/other/708EHR_appendixH.pdf

(I'm pretty sure that none of my friends would really read through the report~)

Happy Holidays,

Will

Recent update

It's been a while again that I haven't updated my blog. Be honest, there was nothing really special that I can talk about. Ha ha. Just working on revising my dissertation, doing experiments, reading other people's manuscript as a reviewer, probalby that's all as usual.

Time flies, and this is December again. Since people used to buy a number of gifts in this holiday month, I did few purchases as well (but most for myself. hey hey~). I got a new coffee maker, which is really cool. At one side you can drip coffee as normal, but at the other side, you can do espresso and steam milk. Maybe I should put a picture; but anyway, I do love it a lot. And today I bought a new keyboard and mice, so now I'm using this brand new toy to type these words. I think this is why I do this posting, ha ha (to feel the new keyboard, oh yeah~).

Btw, Selene and I are playing a Wii game called Animal Crossing: City Folks. At some degrees, I'm feeling that Selene is kind of addicted to this game (even though I also have to admit that it's really fun; maybe so am I, ha~). Anyway, just for anyone's information, if some one is also playing this game, feel free to let me know and maybe we can share the FC and have some fun together.

Happy holiday,

Happy Halloween

來秀一下今年刻的南瓜,還滿喜歡這次Selene畫的小精靈造型,挺可愛的..

首先在瓜上畫出想要的圖案,

在頭上開個洞,

取出裡頭的仔,

開始造型,

就ok啦~!

配上燭火的表情還不錯吧!!嘿嘿~


最後來幾張萬聖節小朋友的照片..

我覺得很屌的機器人..

照片右邊的自由女神小女孩很可愛..

Cat in the hat全家福...

撞衫度100%的骷魯裝..

看的出她是一隻貴賓狗嗎?

中間那個人頭上是一隻雞..

Scoopydoo嬰兒版 + 更屌的機器人

我覺得這個很讚,有看到小孩的頭其實在那件西裝的肚子那裡;
另外右邊這張要特別提一下,敲門要糖果敲超大力,我一打開門..
難怪,因為是金剛戰士跟蜘蛛人在敲門嘛~~~哈哈~~~


我的南美洲黑人頭,還遇到一個黑媽媽說我的頭很natural勒~哈哈..


大家萬聖節快樂囉~!!

表達的重要性 (英譯: What the hell are you talking about?)

身為一個研究生,除了做實驗跟研讀文獻,
剩下大部分的時間大概就是在寫作了吧..

各式各樣的格式,
包含了 journal, response, cover letter, progress report, conference paper, book chapter etc.
再加上平常基本的 email 往返,
真的是寫也寫不完,練也練不完,
但卻也提供了我們研究生很多練習文筆的機會..

寫作的技巧在別的行業也許不這麼明顯,但在學界真的是很重要,
好的文筆可以拉抬一篇不怎麼樣的研究,
而爛的文筆要毀掉一個好的研究也是輕而易舉..

之所以會有感而發是因為前兩天老闆給了我一個任務,
有一篇 paper 要他當 reviewer,正好這主題是我所熟悉的,
他就交代我代替他 review 這份 manuscript,
並準備一份 review 後的結果...

研究主題是什麼並不重要,
簡單說就是一個來自日本的健康衛生研究小組(還國家級的喔~),
針對某種特定有毒物質做了一份全國性的調查,
我老實講,研究的 idea 很好,
但是英文寫作能力跟研究結果的表達方式真的讓我看的好痛苦..
搞的我 reviewer report 寫了洋洋灑灑六大頁我覺得需要更正的地方..

在今年初,
因為手上的一個 project 到 Sacramento 的一個 federal public agency 開會,
遇到一個算是滿高階的管理階級,他當時說了一句話讓我印象深刻,
(因為時間太久的關係,細節也許不對,但大致上意思就是如此)
"Everytime people asked me what kinds of class or which areas they should focus or spend more time on when they stay in school, my answer is always English."
他的意思就是不管你在什麼領域或什麼位置,不管你是美國人還是外國人,
好的文筆跟表達方式絕對是你邁向成功的必備工具..

到美國這五年來,對這句話的感受真的是一年比一年深,
也把這句話送給每一個正在為自己的人生打拼的朋友,
不管你現在是在美國還是在台灣,用的是英文還是中文,
我想這應該都是不變的道理吧~