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

I have been playing Dynasty Warriors 5 , a beat-'em-up PS2 game about the Three Kingdoms , created by the legendary Japanese game-maker Koei . Now I can barely type this post because my thumb hurt from smashing the buttons. Due to its heavy references to Chinese history, literature and culture, this game received a relatively low rating in US. (Probably the same reason that I could never understand why Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was hailed as "the greatest video game ever" by US gamers.) I had to order it online because it wasn't available in most stores. "Three Kingdoms" is one of the most turbulent periods in the history of China. Partly due to its incomplete historical documentation, it sparked a great amount of imagination among story-tellers and novelists of the latter day. Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" became the most famous of all. In the Asian gaming world, games based on this novel have such a great cult follow...

To hear Handel's "Messiah" in its entirety has been on my to-do list for a while; now I can finally check it off. When I was checking out Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 's schedule for December, I found two performances of "Messiah": One traditional interpretation led by Edward Polochick of Baltimore Choral Arts Society and one with a gospel twist, led by BSO's own Maestra, Marin Alsop. I ended up choosing the former because it was my first time hearing it. The latter seemed very interesting, though. Prior to this event, I have only heard two numbers from "Messiah" on CD: "Rejoice, O daughter of Zion" and "Hallelujah!" After the performance, they are still my favorites. As I learned in my music class, the main character in this oratorio is the chorus, of which I haven't been a big fan before. Strangely, many songs, especially those arias sung by the vocal soloists remained me a lot of Peking Opera , or Chinese Opera in...

Finished the story mode of the game, "Rayman: Raving Rabbids" , in less than two weeks - a personal record! It was a hysterically fun game and I just couldn't wait to see the rest of it once I started playing. Originally created for Wii, its PS2 version would not be as fun as the Wii version with the famous Wii remote controller but the rabbids still win me over with their unique personalities. Check out the following video compilation from youtube: My personal favorite is the one that they created for Valentine's Day:

Came back from my second Election Night party. This time without disappointment. We made a huge map and colored the states with blue and red crayons. We witnessed history with chips, pizza, beers and blue-colored drinks. It was fun.

Fells Point on Halloween Originally uploaded by yisu79 Finally went to the Fells Point on Halloween , an annual event usually completed with a costume contest. Pamela Anderson Baywatch Costume Originally uploaded by yisu79 Before 7pm, it was the kids' costume contest, where cuteness was the goal. After the sun set, the show went from PG-13 to R rating. Participants took turn to go on the stage, to be mocked by a radio station host with irreverent comments. "Sexy" and "scary" are always a good blend so we saw costumes like the "Pamela Anderson in Baywatch". Some of the costumes were quite original, though. Enjoyed it as a spectator.

I spent a considerable amount of time planning this trip and the result was a very satisfying itinerary. The first thing to do in planning a trip is to prioritize your goals. To me, the order is 1) safety, 2) cost, 3) content and 4) comfort. Because I care about safety, I ruled out the much-recommended option of taking night trains, which also increased comfort. Because I care about cost, I chose to stay in hostels, instead of hotels, whenever I could. Because I like art museums more than night clubs, I kept a tight daytime schedule while reserving most nighttime for sleep/recovery. Next I had to decide where I would visit in this trip and how. Use maps from here to help you decide. There were two cities I wouldn't miss for the world: Paris and Roma. So I reserved four and three days, respectively. Then I tried to cram as many cities as possible in between. The main means of transportation was, of course, by train because of its great convenience and low cost. But when I needed to...

Just came back from the Charles Theatre , watching the third /last presidential debate in big screen. It was organized by the Obama Campaign so no surprise there. Watching the debate with friends was fun. Big turnout, about 270 people came to the party. Glad to see democracy working. Sadly this kind of grassroots events happen in China only for the Chinese version of "American Idol"...