Some thinking from the talk by Prof. Gan

Prof. Gan is one of the most influential person in the world who has been contributing to the issues of water resources and irrigation. He gave a talk in the seminar today. He proposed a novel and exciting research result which can reduce the desertion along the coastal area. Prof. Gan found that the horizontal infiltration is about 4 times greater than the amount of vertical infiltration at the irrigation area, especially for farms of paddy rice. In addition, he also mentioned that the illegal groundwater extraction at farmland of vegetables is prevalent now. It can cause the significant drawdown of groundwater levels and thus the ground level residence.
These findings can be exciting for some potential further research.
For example, the illegal pumping detection and the amount of horizontal flow estimation.

World Games in Kaohsiung

自從2004年返台期間與阿昇小軟的短暫高雄之旅後，我對高雄市產生了無比的好感，一個之前我以為只有佛光山、澄清湖的無趣城市。這一次高雄舉辦世運，心中一直有個念頭，要去幫看他，要去幫這個城市加油，尤其在國內政治惡鬥的情境下，去年以來看著中央及媒體努力不懈地打壓世運會，提升台北聽障奧運。就連路透社四月初的新聞都有提及高雄在舉辦這次世界運動會的艱難處境，我想要去看世運，順便再去看看那五年前給我眼睛一亮的城市。

高鐵一到高雄，就讓我印象深刻，方便的觀光資訊取得，友善的態度，以及捷運站內的裝置藝術，讓人眼睛一亮。

可惜颱風來擾亂，第一天晚上城市下了些雨，因而只能就近到旅館附近的城市光廊，聽著Jazz順便解決一下遲來的晚餐，雖然天空不好，但是發現裡頭的人，都洋溢著開心的笑容，有人和著音樂一直扭腰擺臀，這是在台北去類似的場合時，不太有的經驗。 .... to be continued

新社莊園 (Hsih-Sueh Manor)

I heard this place while I visited Taichung for a presentation in China Medical University early May. A friend then told me there is a "castle" in the area with great view and food which have been the outdoor scenes for several Taiwan-made dramas. Being curious, I made my trip to this place during this Duanwu holidays. Even though crowds paced everywhere over the entire place, they still can not bring down the great achievement by the architect and landscape gardener of Hsih-Sueh Manor. The estate area is so beautiful and well-organized, and well-balanced among the manor, water, and garden. This place reminds me the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, the largest home in America. Even though I believe this place can still be improved in several aspects, especially in its management, which can make this place not simply have a beautiful landscape rather a place have its own style and spirit.

棉花糖

I first heard this new lovely voice yesterday. Two young people dressed casually as college students were singing at the little plaza next to 師大 night market. I thought they are just common street performers at the beginning; however, the singing voice from the singer is very impressive and made me willing to stay around to hear more. Actually, they got their new album just come out and provided a cozy night by their great music last night for the lucky people around there. I guess there will be a seat for their good and lovely music for a while. Good luck to them. After listening to their entire album, I like the song 2375 the most due to not only its melody but the lyrics.

獅甲國中

The name of this junior high school "獅甲國中" is so popular these days since the pronunciation of the reverse of its name sounds like "China go eat shits". The hatred to China results from the long-time tense relationship across the strait. The opposition party, DPP, planned use this trick in their coming demonstration. Anyway, this reminds me another similar pronunciation trick to convey the hatred to China. You can read "中國護理系", (Dept of nursing, China Medical University) by Taiwanese. Ha ... I guess DPP can use this trick instead of the original one which has been blamed by the public these days.

Resume blogging

It has been a while since my last post here. This blog was shut down because of the posting of my NSF project by word in which the content was supposed to be confidential. After reading my past posts, it recalled me many things and made me realize that this blog can be very precious in which many little emotional or exciting things from my common life are somehow kept for my future references.

Here is a song I heard at 清水 rest area on Freeway 3 close to Taichung. I went there after my talk at China medical university. The talk was going nicely along with the invitation to be the adjunct professor in the dept by their dean of the college. Even though it may not be feasible, the invitation is still a compliment expressing their appreciation of my research outcome...:-D Anyway, the song I heard was sang by a male guitar player with his husky but touching sound. I like it very much and will sing it in my next KTV trip ... :-p The second song was heard sometimes last summer or fall. It fully attracted my attention and echoed in my mind for a while.

Ten years

Last Saturday was the commencement of NTU. 恩慈 asked to have a picture with me since she can be one of the first students under my advise. I suddenly realized that this is the tenth year from my college graduation from NTU. Ironically, It was impossible for me to foresee that I can be still in the same campus after 10 years. Maybe I am a very lucky guy.
Ten years, I have visited so many places more than I expected then. I even went aboard to complete a PhD degree which is out of my plan 10 years ago. Ten years everything is different from my expectation ten years ago. I do not know where or who I am ten years later. I can say that I have a fruitful trip in the past ten year and I hope I can keep up my young spirit for me to have more adventure trips.