红酒·绿茶 / Red Wine & Green Tea / Vin Rouge et Thé Vert

Thomas Friedman , the author of NYT bestseller "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of Twenty-First Centuary" , gave a mind-blowing and entertaining talk on globalization, kicking off the 2006 Foreign Affairs Symposium lectures. It was the most thoughful and interesting explanation I've ever heard on globalization, a challenge everyone is facing now more than ever. I was quite surprised to learn the concept of "insourcing" and how it could further reduce the cost. The way he explained it by ridiculing UPS deliverymen's "funny brown short shirt" was hilarious yet convincing. He was an amazing speaker even in the Q&A session, which I usually don't sit through. It would have been interesting to know his opinion on the intellectual property issue raised by Napster, BitTorrent, etc. and how it fits into his "flat" view of the world.

Although I'm still waiting for a final confirmation, the last bugzilla in my codes is almost surely gone. It was a memory leak, the nastiest kind of bugs a programmer can ever get. It has been bugging me for more than two weeks. What makes the task of debugging daunting is the fact that there are exponential numbers of ways you can screw things up. It upsets you because every bug is caused by your own fallibility. So it takes not only experience but also luck to get the job done.

Went to Liberty Mountain again but this time for snowboarding. I was trying to catch a beginners' lesson but couldn't find one (or missed one since we were late). So I tried to learn it by myself. One hour later I was able to control my speed using my heels in both direction. Then I went on to try to use my toe so I could finish a full "heel-toe-heel-toe" turn. That part was harder than I thought. Two hours later, however, I finally found the trick: look over your shoulder downhill. Once I started to use my eyes in the right direction, my body started to react accordingly. Now all I need is more practice. I'm such a natural , man. haha.

Watched Torino 2006 Winter Olympics on NBC. Proud of my fellow countrymen, Chinese pair skater Dan Zhang & Hao Zhang's couragous recovery from an accident and unforgetable performance to grab the silver. Read the NYT story here .

Snowstorm 2006 Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . We were having a hotpot party when the first snowstorm in this winter was hitting East Coast. We had a lot of fun dancing to DDR Max together, snowballing in the midnight and digging out cars the next day.

IBM ThinkPad A21m Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Installed Ubuntu Linux , a wonderful Linux distribution which gains its increasing popularity by its free spirit and excellent engineering. I have tried to install Linux on my IBM ThinkPad A21m for a couple of times but never succeeded before due to inadequate hardware support of the previous Linux distributions. Ubuntu worked like a charm.

Went to Rocco's Capriccio in Little Italy with my friend Steve. It was fabulous in every detail of a great dining experience; a little pricey but absolutely worth it.

Went to Liberty Mountain for a "College Nights Wednesday": $20 from 5pm to 10pm including rental. The snow was awful by Vermont standard but ok for a ski place 90 minutes away from Baltimore. Had a good time with my friends as always. Next time I go, I'll try snowboarding.

Yeah! But it's not perfect yet because 1) it's made of vodka, not gin; 2) it's in a wine glass, not a martini one; 3) it's shtirred, not shaken. I'm not sure which one bothers me most...mmm...probably the third...I'll get a shaker soon. Promise. By the way, I passed my GBO (Graduate Board Oral) today. Not exited, just relieved it was finally done. I was doing so bad that I couldn't answer even some stupidly simple questions. My advisor was happy to tell my colleagues: "He just passed his GBO!" But somehow what I heard was more like, "Yeah, we've made enough fun of his stupidity. Now he can go ahead and TRY to graduate."

Baltimore Blast Coach Tim Wittman Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Having lived in Baltimore for more than three years, I was ashamed to find out recently that we actually have a sports team to be proud of. Forget about Ravens (they suck) or Orioles (they suck too). We have Blast , a top Major Indoor Soccer League team right here in our charm city. Tonight's game vs defending champion Milwaukee Wave at the 1st Mariner Arena was a great comeback. Three goals in three minutes made the fourth quarter of the game a real, em, blast, including the game-winning low header by the current No. 1 scorer in the league, all-star forward Giuliano Celenza . Miwaulkee Wave proved themselves to be a worthy opponent with their ironclad defense. Defender Danny Kelly was, I think, the best player of this game; his ability of organizing attacks was impressive. Goalkeeper Sagu was also a highlight. The score was locked at 6:5 till end. Read this article in Baltimore Sun for complete

Baltimore Blast Cheerleaders Originally uploaded by nuance1979 .

Milwaukee Wave Defender Jonathan Greenfield Originally uploaded by nuance1979 .

Baltimore Blast Defender Danny Kelly Originally uploaded by nuance1979 .