Yellowstone

August 2, 2006
Yellowstone
by cherryflute

再多的驚嘆號
也不夠拿來形容黃石公園的美

至藍的天，清透的水，廣大無邊際的山稜
多的看到膩的溫泉池
由不同溫度下生長的細菌裝點成炫爛的七彩
藍到不能再藍的泉水，深到不能再深的底
河裡的水透到裡面的魚阿蝦的和水草都像在空氣裡飄
遠遠望去水面的波光粼粼像草原中閃爍的銀河
獨特的地理特性造成的不同自然景觀
極熱下背風坡才有的飛碟雲，各種不同外力下生成獨特節理的岩石
一場大火燒的滿山的樹都成了一支支灰色直立的電線桿
一整片的電線桿，畫出了甚是驚人的景觀
可以養顏美容的泥火山，一點也不嫌浪費的像瀑布般灑出
大的看不到邊的像海的湖，水一樣是清澈見底
白色的沙和藍到令人失神的水襯著遠山，旁邊就是或活或死的泉
顏色多的連彩虹的顏色也不夠拿來描繪
美麗的星空點點比在天文台看的星象盤還要清楚
無數星點聚集的銀河像是不小心打翻的糖粉硬是灑在牛郎和織女之間
七顆清楚至極的北斗七星和被比下去的一點也不亮的北極星
和不時偷偷露臉一閃而過讓人來不及許願的流星
在群山中顯的極小的瀑布，是火山和噴泉作用下組合而成
分成兩層落下的瀑布，水量多的轟隆隆響
深深的綠，朝瀑布下深不見底的潭宣洩而下
一樣是美麗的驚人
深刻的往下切的大峽谷縱橫交錯
水流在谷底刻出一條清澈蜿蜒的綠
河畔湧出的溫泉舒服的讓人留連不想離去
一邊是沁人心脾的河水，一邊是滾燙泡的令人酥透的溫泉
仰望天邊是一抹彎月與鑲在一邊閃亮的金星
一大群一大群在草原吃草的牛和馬
不知為何落單的圡狼coyote
悠閒在路邊走重量可達１８００磅(約8,9百公斤)一般站姿６英尺(約１８０公分)跑起來速度驚人長的像牛魔王的野牛bison
超大鹿茸的北美麋鹿elk,
一家子在gift shop 旁吃草的鹿 white tail deer
一群一群在草叢中像是駝鳥的雁
黑又大的像貓的烏鴉
築在樹頂臉盆大的鳥巢
在河裡排水上芭蕾隊形的鴨
展翅呈現美麗藍色背影的鳥
飛一飛停在原地突地俯衝而下的鷗
大草原裡吃草的有著美麗顏色的羚羊or 鹿
黃昏時分在河邊飛著覓食的燕or 蝙蝠
迷你的大概只有１０公分會用兩腳直立跑起來神速的花栗鼠

怎麼也說不完的
黃石公園的美





~~~
這是我去年從黃石公園回來後心情悸動之下寫的文章
我想，這是篇需要留下來的文章
曾經作了一個此次旅行的slideshow
後來因為種種原因
甚至於備份的檔案都沒有留下
至少，還有這一篇文章留著，幸焉
把他貼上來，附上幾張美美的相片，紀念

......Read More

Can't Take It Anymore

一整天渾渾噩噩，頭好痛
花了一整天，把鍾曉陽的遺恨傳奇看完
早知道會被影響心情
還是被他的文筆給吸引了去
一切都是悲劇，當然，鍾曉陽
可是因為文筆細膩，又寫實
自己又常常都會入戲太深
好難過
看的，心好痛，哭的，頭好痛
說不出的鬱悶
不可否認的，人生就是如此的無可奈何
主角不管是懦弱或好，愚昧也好
這世上可也不少這種人
或許自己也是其中之一
很駝鳥的，不想把故事內容寫出來
因為不想再想起
也是因為，故事實在複雜
前前後後牽扯太多
多少的誰是誰非
多少的愛恨情仇
說實在，是一本好書
可是掉到故事中無法自拔如我的人
實在不推薦
感覺就像是看笑傲江湖或是紅樓夢
看完心裡沉悶悶的
被壓的喘不過氣來

......Read More

拌肉

很愛吃又很愛煮的yyc又突發奇想
想到一個自己覺得很讚的
生活小妙方
瓜仔肉是一道超下飯，可以放，很好買材料，又很容易料理的家常菜
只要把材料調味全攪在一起，放到電鍋裡蒸就可以吃到香噴噴又好吃的家鄉味
霸特，要把所有的材料拌在一起的時候
還真是苦了我
好吧，也許我笨，老覺得用筷子把所有東西拌勻是一件很痛苦的事
要一直攪一直攪的，常常覺得虎口的地方都要抽筋了
還是沒把東西拌勻
今天又很開心的去買了絞肉回來
完全無視於賣肉的又一大把的，把我要的肉抓到快要2磅
一到家就開始切切切的，想著我這個禮拜就靠這盆肉啦
終於把材料全準備好，要把肉加進去的時候
嘿嘿，靈機一動
反把材料全丟到裝絞肉的塑膠袋裡
這樣，只要隔著塑膠袋，在外面用拳頭把肉垂來垂去推來推去的
哇塞，效果可好的，三兩下顏色馬上均勻
用不到幾分鐘的時間，就都好啦
而且拌完，完全不用擔心筷子或手難洗
完全不沾手呢，再來只要放著醒味就好囉
全部很難清洗的東西，都跟著塑膠袋一起說掰掰就好了
我可愛的瓜仔肉，真是變的更可愛啦
這招，不錯唄?

......Read More

思念

今天忽然發現，我還滿想念Sophie的
Sophie是一個學生
是第一個讓我知道，也有放暑假就不補習的家庭
所以從暑假以來，我少了一個可愛的學生
她是個大孩子，所以特別的好教
用中文或日文來說，應該就是所謂的"麻吉"吧
用英文嘛，或者你可以說是"pal"
因為比較大，比較懂事
我從來就不需要罵她，或給她任何臉色
而且一直都是很認真的跟著進度練習
一個鐘頭的上課時間
我們可以有進度，她也愛天南地北的跟我鬼扯
我其他的學生，都是小小孩
雖不至於到把屎把尿
也總要連哄帶騙的，常常心裡氣的快瘋掉
臉上還可以溫和的繼續上課
老覺得總有一天會憋到內傷
這下能了解上她課的這一個鐘頭對我來說是多麼的可貴了吧?
今天又多了三個新的學生，來彌補暑假就不上課的小孩的缺
跑來跑去，又要來適應新的學生
雖然上課的時間其實並不長
可是我要應付好多個小鬼頭
所以，忽然好想念Sophie呀..... T_T

隔了好久
剛剛終於跟馬上就要回國的同學通了電話
她是個韓國人，名字叫南容 女巛，炫吧?
星期五就要回去了，不知道明天到底能不能見到她
這下，真的要跟人離別了
這一別，大概再也沒機會見面了
忽然，好想哭

......Read More

The Class

Learning how to create a website has always been on my to do list. By taking this class, I can now make things live from my little head. I remember my trying to create a website when I was in my undergrad. I did it successfully in my computer, but after uploading it, nothing showed up but all the little X's in the places where I put pictures or texts in. I couldn't fix it and no one could help me at the time. So my little dream of making a website of my own failed. Here I am now, creating something on my own. Of course there's still some thing more to learn, but now I know how to fix it. It's a great thing to know how to solve your problem. Learning Flash and Dreamweaver helps a lot when it comes to creating a site. I didn't know how useful Flash is before learning it this semester. You can do many magical things if you know how to utilize it. Dreamweaver makes everything easier and even the Flash. It's still not comfortable for me to do Flash, especially the action script. It takes lot's of time to use it and to get to know it better. Creating a website is like teaching or playing the music, you need to know what you want to do, and plan it in advance. Once you know the outline, you can do much more in depth to perfect it.

About the class, I like the way of interaction. It is always important to have an interactive atmosphere in the classroom. That's the best way in terms of learning. The blogging assignment is also a good idea of interactive learning. I'm always a blogger and I love blogging. But it is the first time my putting something serious on the blog. I had to think about the way to present my thoughts into words. It has been a nice activity of brainstorming for me. For the thing I would like the class to improve, I don't know if it's possible, but since we have the multimedia lab, it'll be great if we can have the meetings in the multimedia lab. It's always good to do what we learn immediately. Not having the program for the class or the expiration of trial version is an annoying thing for me. Having the opportunity to use the computers with the programs we need during the class was the first thing came into my mind when thinking about the improvement of the class.

......Read More

Classmates' Sites

It has been a tough semester for me. It's hard to tell but aside from the academic class I took this semester, I had a really hard time fighting against homesick. It's funny because it's already the 3rd semester, but I didn't feel it before, not until my coming back here from home in January. Reading the classmates' blogs and websites has always been a pleasure. Maybe because I'm always surfing the net, I feel very comfortable reading through different blogs and pages. And it has become an activity for me to spend the time when I'm just alone by myself, especially when it's the perfect timing for homesick to occur. I would feel disappointed when there was just no new entries to read.

The blog I like very much is Cathy's Notes. It is the blog that I can always find new entries when I checked from time to time since she updates and posts on a weekly basis. And the entries she wrote are always interesting, with the source of the topic and her thoughtful response. Eva's website is very organized and professional, I can always remember my first time viewing her website, my jaw just dropped. I think I would never do such a great job as she did. And about adding the "click here to download Quicktime" note, it is really important and a reminder for the designer to always think about what the viewers will need and be prepared in advance. Maria's website is also a very good one. She updated it more in depth and made use of the Flash we learned from this semester's class. One thing I want to stand out for her, is the FluteNow she and her friends created. It has many good features. And their interactive thought about the site is very inspiring. With a good appearance and clear navigation, it is a site worth recommending, especially for flutists. Kai's blog and website are also the sites I like very much. He doesn't have many entries on his blog, but each one is based on his research or the experience he had encountered. As for his website, you could see the progression along with the topic we talked about through the classes. And he always has some interesting thoughts to put them into his own style. That is also important for a web designer to have a unique yet simple style when it comes to the creation of a page. One more website I want to talk about is Danby's page. I LOVE the colors she uses as well as the table. The one I love most is her Gallery. With the utilize of the table and matching of colors, her Gallery is a really impressive page when I clicked into it.

As I mentioned above, it's always interesting to explore on the net especially when the sites are created by your friends/classmates. One can be very related to it when the owner/creator is some one she knows of. Great job, everyone! I really enjoyed it!!! ^0^

......Read More

End of Live Pit Orchestras?

It is an article Kai blogged about the program which might replace the live pit orchestra. The issue of reducing a live pit orchestra is not news any more ever since 9/11. I know it's all about budget, but because of being a musician, and more important of all, a listener, I can never tolerate the idea of not having live players in a show. The MIDI teacher in my undergrad college always believes that MIDI can replace musicians. I just can't agree with it. You can always tell if it's MIDI or live players no matter how real the MIDI sounds. At least I haven't heard any really real MIDI so far. There is the value and the importance of having live performers in a show. That's why people still go to live concerts from time to time instead of just listening to the recordings. Like what Kai said, I think it should be a more assistant way to make use of those new technologies. To help or to create the sound a musician can't make, is the best way I think to utilize any new technology. Just don't use it to reduce the live performances. Our lives will be more colorful if we have all kinds of sounds around us, not just the sounds from the same machine faking it.

......Read More

Music Deja Vu?

I've gotta blog this out. I stuck with the movie Air Force One when switching from one channel to another the other day. I guess I've seen the movie a long time ago that I didn't really remember about the details anymore. It is a fast-paced movie that you can be dragged into it once it starts. But rather than the story, the thing that really drew my attention is the music. When I listened to the music, the familiarity came into my mind and I just stuck there and couldn't focus on anything else. After the quick search in my mind, I told myself "This composer must be the same one as Mulan the Disney motion picture!" I got so excited and turned on my pc immediately to check the factuality of my thought. And here it was!! Jerry Goldsmith, the film composer, did compose the music for both Mulan and Air Force One! Reading through the website I found, it is amazing that how many movies he had composed for, and some are really big hits on the big screen like The Sum of Fear, The Hollow Man, The Kid, The Mummy, among the others. Especially when I found he also composed for Star Trek, the TV show that my brother and I are fond of very much. Things became interesting that without noticing it, the music I like is from the same composer. I knew the music of Mulan before really seeing the movie. It was some strategy of the film company, I suppose, to release the soundtrack prior to the release of the movie. As far as I know, there are only two soundtracks out in advance before the movies, one is Titanic, and the other one is Mulan. They both have good music, you don't have to agree with me, but I love both soundtracks! And they both succeeded in some way though some people started to criticize it after they became blockbusters, especially for Titanic. It is such a thrill to know that the music I like is from the same composer who I didn't know before. I don't know if you can say it's like the restaurants you like are having the same chef providing the food. But it's just AMAZING. I knew some good film composers before listening to their music, but it was the first time I listened to the music and then FOUND OUT the music is from the same composer. How interesting it is that a person can be attracted to the same kind of style, same kind of food, or same kind of people. And that's why you can always tell if the music/song is from the same singer/composer. It's a mystery that you can recognize a person by the voice, sound, and MUSIC without really seeing/knowing the person.

......Read More

Beatbox Flute

Saw the title of it from one of my friends' Facebook note, but I didn't really pay attention to it; not until I tried to catch the weather forecast on WCBSTV.com and saw the Beatbox Flute links on the top list of the content did I notice this new(?) emerged Beatbox flute player Greg Pattillo. We did a little beatboxing last semester in the flute ensemble class which was such a great and fun thing to do with your flute. And then suddenly it is not new any more that people are really playing it in the Washington Square Park! Or maybe they already did that for a long time that I just didn't pay attention to what people are really doing in the park. I did a little research on it, of course on YouTube, and found out there are MANY clips by this keyword search. Here are the top three on YouTube. I love all of them, can't say exactly which one I love most. Each of them is amazing. I just couldn't stop laughing when I heard his version of Peter and the Wolf. XD

Super Mario Brothers Theme

Peter and the Wolf


And then I found this ConcreteBeat blog doing the promotion for the street performers by collecting/displaying videos of their performances and offers the contact information of the performers. Whoever does this and came up with this idea, I really think it is a smart, and nice action for the street performers. Don't you think s/he just utilize the concept of Web 2.0 very,very well?

......Read More

3D Browser

Always amused by how games affect our daily lives in different dimensions, especially when students start to ask you how to play some specific songs they heard out of some games, there we were having our first experience of another influence by games, the RPG-like 3D browser by Three-B International. Got this interesting information from the class, I turned on my PC and started to download the program right away when I got home last night. This is really fun that I spent some time choosing the outfit for my Avatar who I decided to be a hot chic which you would say is a total opposite of me. And then began to explore and play with this new stuff for like two hours after I first started it. The interface is just like when you start a new game, there are options for you to choose. The most interesting, or the smartest part is, you can choose from cities and categories that you are willing to see and explore. And you can really move around by walking, running, taking taxi, subway or by plane. The cool thing is, once you entered the city, and the category you like, there are endless sites(well, sure there are a certain amount of websites, but it's hard for you to finish them all, you know...) for you to discover. And you can choose the theme you like for the layout, just like how you do it with your blog! There are many different cool and amazing layouts to select, and my favorite one is the "Christmas" theme which sparkles with Christmas trees and gifts, and elks rest with bobsleds on the side. Now do you feel the warmth of the holiday even if it's quite cold outside? Done with the appearance, now let's get back to business. I started to try the functions of the browser. Basically I think it's quite a nice browser to use. It reads JavaScript and Flash well, and it also uses tabs like Firefox and Opera. The interface is almost the same as Firefox. I just have this feeling that it's just like how Firefox works. But you can say all browsers work the same way from some sort of aspect. Like all the other browsers, you have the buttons for Home , reload current page, stop loading, go back one page and go forward one page. The only difference is, besides these selections, there is one button for you to switch between the Web view and the 3B view. Once you're done with the page you're viewing, you can switch back to the 3B view to keep walking around the village you're in. Finishing the pros of it, now it's time for the cons. I don't know why, but 3B is like Opera, when you open a page, they both take more time than Internet Explorer and Firefox loading pictures. I have no idea how it works, but it's like they reload the page and images every time you start it. Don't cookies work for this purpose to save some time? But Firefox and Explorer don't have this kind of problem when they open a page for the first time. One annoying thing is the big navigation toolbar which I think is taking too much space on it. But the big navigation bar function is cool that when you are in the 3B view, the web you were in would be on the top for you to switch back, and vice versa. The Full Screen function is all the same except Opera that would clear every thing but the content of the page on your screen that I think is fancy and neat for viewing. Once you want to do some change you will still want it as the Explorer and 3B which are both very user-friendly in this aspect. The best part of one thing could also be the worst. For this 3B browser, because it starts with the 3D interface, it takes time loading those images for the fancy appearance, and for the different functions for you to choose, as well as the huge selections of Cities and Categories. If you're in a hurry searching for something, you will definitely NOT want to use it because you'll need plenty of time waiting for the start-up process. You will want to use Firefox instead which I think is the fastest and the stablest of them all. Despite of these disadvantages, which aren't really big problems, I have enjoyed using this fun and new 3D browser, and think it will become my default browser for a while.

*The Full Screen picture shows even in the full screen mode, it still has the big navigation bar. The parts I marked are the places and the button for Web/3B view switching.

*This picture shows when I'm in the 3B view, the web page I was viewing would be on the top for me to switch back.

......Read More