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

create your own personalized map of the USA

Congratulations to Blue Jays for its 9th National Lacrosse Championship ! Go Blue Jays!

I started watching TV again when I came to the United States because I thought it might help improve my listening comprehension. At first I barely understood what they were talking, switching the caption on and off. So when one of the fastest-talking TV series, "Gilmore Girls" , said goodbye a few days ago, I felt a little sad. Because Chinese is a tonal language, I had a hard time listening to female English speakers because they tend to use rising intonation a lot and they usually talk very fast. "Gilmore Girls" is a mother-daughter-grandmother story where everyone talks like an AK-47 . It was such a big accomplishment for me to be able to understand them. Another interesting show I watched last weekend was "Ninja Warrior" , an obstacle course competition known in Japan as "SASUKE" . It was so addictive.

Manhattan, New York City Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . This panorama thing is addictive. I was looking at my old pictures and guess what? Six pictures I took three years ago waiting to be stitched into a panorama of Manhattan as seen from the Liberty Island. The result is admittedly far from perfect but the weather wasn't nice at all. If you have seen the original pictures I used to make it, you would appreiciate the magic of digital photography much more. Anyway, enjoy!

Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . I (re)made a panorama of our beautiful Inner Harbor out of five pictures I took three years ago, with the help of hugin , a great photo stitcher, and GIMP . Good for some hometown pride. Enjoy!

Live Racing at Pimlico Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . I've been interested in thoroughbred racing since I watched "Seabiscuit" the movie and found out that I lived minutes away from the famous Pimlico Race Course . Finally we went there yesterday, which happened to be the Kentucky Derby Day, for an afternoon of horse racing fun. AD MUSTER with Jockey Rodriguez, E. D. Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . With no experience at all, I based my bet on handicapping, appearance and status of the horse and shear luck. Luckily I won my first ever bet in Race 6 on No. 7 Ad Muster, who was the favorite and impressed me with his aggressiveness before the match. My $5 bet became an awesome total of $12! Brown Horse Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Before our first bet, we took some time just watching the horses. After an intense race, they would have a quick shower. Black Horse Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . You can see his veins on