Crossroads of the West

"Crossroads of the west"
-- does anyone recall the origin of this phrase? Similar to the game of 50-state license plates, this is part of my game of the state quarters.
-- no surprisingly, this is the tag line for Utah, the fifth and last 2007 quarter that made its way onto my collector map.

Let me also peruse this excuse to restart year 2008, why not: Chinese New Year isn't over yet, and I will be looking out for the first quarters imprinted with 2008 :) Of course shrugging off disappointments in 2007 and early 2008 and indulging in a few new wishes would also be nice. Say, actually visiting the marvelous sceneries in Utah, or the attainable: gathering all state quarters, only five more to go :)

Tomorrow will be another sunny day, for sure.

the half-decay periods of blog ideas

Once a while, an itch to write creeps up -- be it inspired by reading, stimulated by travel, or stung by actual or imaginary mosquitoes. Some ended up being a post on an infrequent blog, like this one; some continued to itch for sometime but ended up nowhere, like most.

I wonder how long the itches would last with the normal wear-and-tear of life. Is there a half-decay period for the urge to express in writing? The geek in me wanted to launch into a three-sectioned discussion about the nature of motivation, and what the internal fading and the external grinding can do to writing itches, while the blogger in me said that this is utterly unnecessary. The commonsense in me hopes that the happy thoughts and positive revelations would fade slowly, while frustrations, anger and disappointment would decay fast -- since they are supposed to just stay as itches, albeit being no less true to ourselves than any of the better feelings.

I had thought the revived blog would focus on external subjects such as books, films, gadgets, and maybe food and travel to come. This is certainly a diversion. This said, I am hoping to salvage and revive some of the nicer itches from over a month ago, and one thing about exponential decay is that it will never be exactly zero :)

superbowl xlii

i've always been a fake soccer fan through a project in early grad school days. today i also certified myself as a fake football fan -- watched the superbowl xlii from beginning to end, and came to understand it quite a bit, towards the end.

american football is an accessible sport, by complete novelties and fake fans. someone said 10-yards-at-a-time is the way to american dream, quite true! and this takes a lot of strength, skills, courage, wisdom, teamwork ... and can be appreciated at any depth. being a fake fan, it suffices to enjoy the drama and the story of a winning underdog -- football is also round, at least in some directions! and btw, ny giants won, why not?

needless to say, this was my first game, with a joyful small crowd at jimeng and huiming's apartment ... bookmarked with this blog post :)

"China Road"

I was driving along the east PA stretch of I-80, when the narration for Rob Gifford's China Road slowly filled the egg-shaped compartment of my bug2k, and completely occupied my heart. For the "ocean readers" (洋人), this book is a faithful first-hand travel account backed up by years of experience living and working in China. For me, one of the ordinary souls among the "old hundred names" (老百姓), I just cannot help but resonate with Gifford's vivid literal translations, candid descriptions and poignant observations. I helplessly found tears flood behind my glasses in one moment, and smile creep in with tears in the next.

Maybe it is the winding mountain roads, drab winter fields and isolated country houses that zoomed by my windshield, maybe it's the lonely long drive, maybe it is the chronic nostalgia ... but, does it matter? Big thanks to Wilson and Ming for recommending the wonderful book, and I shall go on to enjoy the remaining chapters.