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Showing posts from July, 2006

Acadia National Park - VII

Lobster Trap Lamp Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . We ended our trip with another lobster feast in the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound , where I found the creative use of a lobster trap and buoy. (This time I was sane enough to order a two-pounder. Whew!) Bicyclist Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Finally a picture of me on a bike again after four years. Still good. PS, we got our bikes from Acadia Bike and enjoyed the Island Explorer free shuttle service for going on and off the Carriage Roads . PPS, did I mention the weather was pleasingly cool and Baltimore was hot as hell when we were in Bar Harbor?

Acadia National Park - VI

Eagle Lake Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Our last day in Acadia was getting physical: biking for the day and kayaking for the evening. Turned out biking was very pleasant but kayaking was so-so. Only on bikes could you get close to and fully enjoy the breathtaking views of the lakes in Acadia. I'll let my pictures do the talking. Jordan Pond Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Jordan Pond House was conveniently located at the south end of the Jordan Pond. Enjoying some freshly baked popovers and a clam chowder in the outside while watching the water was like a dream comes true. Bubble Pond Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Can you feel the cool water flowing onto your feet? Lupines Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Not so many colors other than green could be found in summer but the purple lupines were there in the water. Blueberries were another symbol of Maine. You could find all kinds of food or drink made from blueberries like i

Acadia National Park - V

In the Sunset Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . We went to the Cadillac Mountain again in the afternoon for the sunset and joined by the same-minded people. Photography was so easy that even I looked great in the golden light. Sunset on Cadillac Mountain Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . I recorded a four-minute video of the sunset. However, don't expect too much because of the limited video-recording ability of my camera. And sorry, no English subtitles available.

Acadia National Park - IV

Whale! Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . One of the most exciting programs in our trip was whale-watching. We took a roller-coaster ride on a lovely and fast boat called "Friendship V" with the Bar Harbor Whale Watching Co. and spotted at least seven whales including humpbacks, finbacks and minkes. A couple of them were frequent visitors of the Maine Gulf and people gave them interesting names like they did with their pets. You could identify them by the patterns of the tails. Bald Porcupine Island Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . The weather was crystal clear so even a simple picture of the island between the sky and the sea looked unforgettably beautiful.

Acadia National Park - III

The Bubbles Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . A pair of mountains on the north side of the Jordan Pond was called "The Bubbles", whose smoothly round shape unmistakably reminded you a perfect female body part. (Interesting choice of word, wasn't it?) It was a beautiful view; Hopefully girls also enjoyed it. Bubble Rock Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . We hiked the Bubble Rock Trail and reached the top of the South Bubble, where the Bubble Rock was dangerously placed. Don't hate me if you can't find it anymore next time you come to Acadia. After the Rain Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Soon after we finished hiking, the weather turned severe. Heavy rains and hails were pouring down. We waited in the Visitor Center for a while and the weather turned sunny again as I had expected. We wasted no time to go to the Cadillac Mountain for some beautiful views and ended our first day as such.

Acadia National Park - II

Sand Beach Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Our plan of the first day was sight-seeing in the park. Following the Loop Road, we came to the cozy Sand Beach, which, with water temperature below 50F, was good for walking, maybe tanning, but not for swimming. (We did see one brave man trying, though. Good for him!) Otter Cliffs Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . After the beach, the road was winding along the coast with beautiful views of cliffs. Thunder Hole Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . A particular place of interests in the cliffs was the Thunder Hole, a sharply narrowed cliff which caused the sea making thunder-like sound when the water rushed in. A creative use of the name of this place was found later in a nice family-run restaurant, Poor Boy's Gourmet . Guess which part of the restaurant was named "Thunder Hole"?

Acadia National Park - I

The Five-pound Lobster (Before) Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . After a tedious two-day driving, we started our Acadia trip with a jaw-dropping meal of Maine's unofficial mascot, the lobster. Without any hesitation, I ordered a hard shell jumbo at the Beal's Lobster Pier and found myself facing a five-pounder, alone. Those of you who have eaten a lobster before might have already dropped your jaws but I honestly didn't. (I did later.) Let's just say I (way way) overestimated my capacity of lobster-eating. The Five-pound Lobster (After) Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . For the record, I finished the monster with only one claw left! We went to Bar Harbor downtown at night and saw lots of lobster or blueberry-themed cool gifts.

ssh without password

Thanks to Radu Florian! Q. How do I setup my account such that I can ssh to the computers without typing in my password? A. You need to generate a set of private/public keys, and setup the ssh configuration to use them. Here's how: ssh-keygen -t dsa cd ~/.ssh cp id_dsa.pub authorized_keys # If you already have such a file, do 'cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys' echo 'Done.' # You need to make sure that the permissions for the .ssh directory and id_dsa file are 0700 # If you want to allow for password-less connection into the cluster (from your site), repeat # the commands at your site, and copy the contents of the id_dsa.pub file into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

The Village

M. Night Shyamalan might not agree but "The Village" (2004) was, to me obviously, a political satire of Communism, a profoundly flawed and hopelessly naive social theory. The fact that a self-appointed "best ever" human society had to be built on lies and determent of "Those We Don't Speak Of", which properly refered to the overwhelming propaganda and ferocious censorship every Communist regime had to rely upon, was ironically sad. Even if the decision of living an eighteenth centry Communist-like life was made by a group of benevolent and presumably wise people like your parents or grandparents, the movie posed the thought-provoking question without asking: Do I or do I not have the right to choose my own way of living? To me, it is out of question.