Family Circle

[2007.06.24] As Boeing 747 hovering over the spawling city with many large and small green spots, I could see the Thames river and some palatial buildings through between the pockets of clouds. Yes this is my first time approaching the great city of London.

After a short ride of Heathrow Express to get into city center, an old-fashioned taxicab (a really old car) swinged around the large green area of Hyde Park/Kensington Garden to get me to Holiday Inn - Kensington Forum, where Natural History Museum and Imperial College is just several minutes away. Even after more than 10 hours of traveling, I decided to explore the surroudning area of Kensington. Wandering around the Hotel, I checked out Waitrose to buy daily supplies, and most of things are really expensive with current exchange rate of 1 pound = 2+ dollars. Also found a Underground Tube station (London’s subway) and bought an Oyster card which is travel pass of getting around London. In the evening, I tried to take the Tube, which is really like very old crampy tube - no comparison to San Francisco’s BART, to a nearby shopping center where has famous Harrods and Harvey Nick’s. Unfortunately, the shop closed already at 6:00pm, and it was raining. My water-proof jacket helped me in the misty rain.

It is Sunday, June 24, 2007. And it is going to come with a week of quite big events. First, I learned that Tony Blair stepped down from PM post, and Gordon Brown will be move to 10 Downing St soon. Second, the Wimbledon Grand Slam (Grass Court Tennis) is going during next two weeks.

A few days ago, on May 17th, we had a “Gold Rush Day”, when we pretended to be prospectors, the people who were searching for a place to “strike it rich”. We used bags of “gold” with numbers on them showing how much they cost to trade.

We had many different stations, such as the General Store, where we buy toys and candy using our nuggets, the Doctor’s Office, when we pretend to have ailments and pay for medicine, and the saloon, where we played blackjack and bought chips and drinks. It was very amusing, and we had delicious beans (yes, beans) for lunch. I liked everything, but the fact that the Jacob’s Ladders were sold out, I wasn’t happy with that. In the end, we had a hoedown when we square danced. It was exciting, especially the time when Lola Montez (alias Mrs. B) fast-forwarded the CD and everybody started tripping and falling down.

Lola Montez (Mrs. Buckingham) on the “river” directing us to our next stations. The tents around the river were where the old gold miners used to live.

We’re in line, ready to eat lunch. Quite a crowd!

Oh yes, we all had fake pioneer names. Dawa was ‘’Hog-Eatin’ Johnson”, Kate was ‘’Clementine'’, and I was ‘’Piano Playing Butterfingers'’. I actually played the piano for the whole fourth grade in the end, when we were all singing ‘’Clementine'’ and ‘’Oh, Susanna'’. Everybody cheered me in the end.

Anyways, the gold rush days were fun. But that was not how real people folt in the gold rush. It was very tiring. A miner usually only mined $4-$6 a day, and eggs at that time was $3 each! Usually the entrepueneurs, or people who start their own company, really got rich. Levi Strauss created blue jeans out of tents and earned a fortune. Mr. Stanford owned a supply store and got so much money he created Stanford University. If you were there, what would you be, a prospector or entrepeneur?

A couple of days ago, my brother called me that my high school classmates were planning a reunion event during the 5.1 week-long holiday, then I just realized that it had been almost two decades since we graduated from Lishui Middle School. Time flies by quickly, oh it is 20 years ……

Looking back the path of my past 20 years? Bid farewell to friends, took the train to Beijing, 7 year study in Tsinghua Garden, then flew to Los Angeles, studying at UCLA and working for startups and large companies, and then arrived in the Bay Area.
And my those dear friends, what kind of trajectory are you flying by?

Still remember the days at Lishui Middle School:
the classical buildings, the central lawn area with mountain fountain……
crossing the board vegetable fields and woods to go swimming in Er-Jiang river…….
publishing class newspaper Xiao Zhu Ling……
running around sports field every morning before dawn with all boarding students……
visiting classmates in groups during the first summer break after back to Lishui from college……

Just like a dream, so many things can flash by, in one dream, by 20 years!

On Wednesday, I went with my friends to the Exploratorium, and Dad boutght us each a gift. I chose a “Plato’s Glo- Mobile” kit, where you create 5 polyhedrons, the Platonic Solids, out of sticks and soft, glow in the dark connectors. It was very fun! Here’s the story about it:

Hundreds of years ago, Plato produced the five Platonic Solids, which all were polyhedrons. There was Tetrahedron, which resembled a triangular pyramid. There was also Octahedron, the eight-triangular-sided polyhedron. Then, there was Icosahedron, which contained of twenty triangular sides. Hexahedron resembled a cube, and Dodecahedron consisted of twelve pentagonal sides.

He also associated them to five different “atoms”. Since Tetrahedron has the least sides, Plato gave it fire, the lightest “element” of that time. Additionally, it had the sharpest sides, so he thought it was responsible of the sharp pain. Octahedron had the second least sides, so he granted it the second heaviest atom, air. Icosahedron was the last one that had equilateral triangle sides, so he gave it water. He thought the Hexahedron was stable, and the Earth was stable too, so he gave it Earth. He thought Dodecahedron was very peculiar, so he gave it the Cosmos.

Tetrahedron

Fire -60 sticks -20 connectors -4 faces -4 vertices -6 edges

Please note: when adding levels to the Tetrahedron as above, it has an interesting mathematical property to count the number of connectors and sticks. For example, when it is one level Tetrahedron, it has 4 connectors and 6 sticks; when it is two level, it has 10 connectors and 24 sticks. So if you keep adding the level, how many number connectors and sticks for you to construct 5 level Tetrahedron? how about 10 level one? (Answer in the comments of this post)

Octahedron

Air -50 sticks -25 connectors -8 faces -6 vertices -12 edges

Icosahedron

Water -30 sticks -12 connectors -20 faces -12 vertices -30 edges

Dodecahedron

Cosmos -90 sticks -32 connectors -12 faces (once stabilized, 60)

Hexahedron

COMING SOON!

A few days ago, I went to this CM (Certificate of Merit) testing, a test for the piano to see how good you are. I was being tested for LVL. 3, and that was the first time I went to this testing. First, they asked me to play the scales in C, G, F, and D MAJOR, and a, e, d, and b minor. I did pretty well on that. Then ,they told me to sightread (play without practice) a small piece, and I only started off on a wrong note in the last measure. After that, they told me to play pieces for them, and I played MUSETTE IN D MAJOR by Bach, ARABESQUE by Burgmuller, and THE CLOWN by Kabalevsky. I missed a bit in the ARABESQUE but I don’t think that affected much on my grade.

After the playing was done, I went to Holiday Inn to have my theory testing. It was very easy, and I’m sure I passed.

Anyways, Mrs. Wilkins, my piano teacher, said that “I passed with flying colors” but she dosn’t have the details. I’m just very happy that I passed!

I was sitting around with nothing to do and a thought up of a math problem that would keep me busy: 5 by the power of 5 by the power of 5 by the power of 5 by the power of 5. So in short, it’s 5 by the power of 5 5 times. What would I call it? Igndgeration, igndgerate, and igndger (IGD-jer). It’s a # by the power of that # that # of times. So it’d be like 32 by the power of 32 32 times. Wondering the answer for my question? It’s 7.18212087483073508066162477348e+436. (Don’t be mad, but I used the computer Calculator.)

Oh yeah, on the math equation, it is the # with a square around it.

I was thinking about making a sequel to a story I was reading, HOW I SAVED THE WORLD. Then I noticed the book wasn’t written by me. (I knew that a long time ago, but that’s when I recognised it for a “reason”.) So I wondered, Why couldn’t I just write it? Well, I wrote the summary of my sequel, HOW I SAVED MY DAUGHTER. What would the word for it be, a sequel of a book by a different author? I made up a word for it: ARPFTOSEQUEL(ARF/to/see/kuel). How do you like it? If you want to make one up too, give a comment.

Shingles… What do you think it is? A type of flower? A type of bell? A type of disease?

Shingles is what Mrs. Brown, my band teacher, experienced. Last Monday, she woke up and noticed she couldn’t open her left eye! She looked in the mirror with her other eye and noticed that the left eye was swollen shut. Mrs. Brown immediately phoned 9-1-1, and she was sent to the hospital.

She was told that she had contracted the Shingles, the offspring (child) of Chicken Pox. If you have experienced Chicken Pox, the virus stays “asleep” in your body and turns up anytime as Shingles. Unlike Chicken Pox when you get a rash all over your body, Shingles goes to an isolated and commonly used part of her body. Usually it is on your back, but the unfortunate teacher had it on the left eye. “It was very painful,” she comments. “I couldn’t put on my glasses because it had spread on to my nose and the pressure was too much for it to handle. Good thing it’s uncontagious!”

My friend Nick’s mom had it too, when she was in college. She had it on her back. It seems that is may be passed down, because Nick’s grandma had it on the same spot.

If you’ve had Chicken Pox, watch out for the Shingles!

After returning from a trip to Toronto, Canada where the temperature was hovering around minus 20 degree, it is heaven to live in the sunny California, and see the Magnolia blossom in front of our house.

	Markham, Ontario, Canada (IBM Toronto Lab)
	Walnut Creek, California.

玉兰，别名玉兰、望春花、玉兰花。

形态：落叶乔木，高达15m。树冠卵形或近球形。幼枝及芽均有毛。叶倒卵状、长椭圆形，长10～15cm，先端突尖而短钝，基部广楔形或近 圆形，幼时被面有毛。花大，径12～15cm，纯白色或紫红色，芳香，花萼、花瓣相似，共九片。花3～4月，叶前开放，花期8～10天；果9～10月成熟。

观赏特性及园林用途：玉兰花大、洁白而芳香，是我国著名的早春花木，因为开花时无叶，固有“木花树”之称。最宜列植堂前、点缀中庭。在唐朝时它的花朵被看作是纯洁的象征，并且栽种在皇帝宫殿的 花园里。民间传统的宅院配植中讲究“玉棠春富贵”，其意为吉祥如意、富有和权势。所谓玉即玉兰、棠即海棠、春即迎春、富为牡丹、贵乃桂花。玉兰盛开之际有 “莹洁清丽，恍疑冰雪”之赞。如从植于草坪或针叶树丛之前，则能形 成春光明媚的景境，给人以青春、喜悦和充满生气的感染力。

Happy Chinese New Year from the Xies!