Reading Time: 2 minutes When I was in college, some of the most popular songs are in Cantonese, and sung by Hong Kong based singers. This was because at the time, the mainland just opened up, and culture wise it was way behind both Hong Kong and Taiwan, thus the Mandarin pop were mostly from Taiwan, and the Cantonese

Reading Time: < 1 minute Below was written in 2008: in the middle of the financial crisis. Making mistakes in life is innevitable, but to give up is un-forgivable. Why I am still hopeful? 1) I learned a great deal (risk, value, good business vs. bad business) in past few months: from the market unravelling, to CFA books, to words

Reading Time: 2 minutes Mainly two ways: Streaming We can use both apps and websites for below. For QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music, we can also use WeChat Mini-program (less functionality, but smaller footprint and works). Outside China: Apple Music, Spotify, YT Music and SoundCloud. The first three (Apple, Spotify and YT) probably have the most Chinese songs.

Reading Time: 2 minutes Google search – use money to buy time instead of stuff Kids (esp. 15 year old) are at an age that want material things, and I can relate to because many years ago I have been through that age many years ago – I wanted to pick out my own apparel including shoes to impress

Reading Time: < 1 minute I started to learn Cantonese 粤语 recently from Duolingo. While I forgot many 宁波话 Ningbo dialect since I went to college in Wuhan: I started to speak much more mandarin since then. I was wondering about the similarities between two dialects (Cantonese and Ningbo Dialect) 粤语和宁波话是否有共同之处 (google search). A related question I had earlier is

Reading Time: 2 minutes I don’t remember everything but let me try. Mainly I went to 2 places: my former workplace and my college (or more precisely an American college). At workplace for some reasons I need to go down many ladders in a sort of water park. I wasn’t not pay attention but I realized it after the

Reading Time: 5 minutes 她的音乐是治愈的。-yours truly She actually sing in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Her Chinese name is 何璟昕 or He Jing’xin in Pin’yin. In Cantonese, 阿昕 sounds a bit like 阿音 or Ayen in English. Both her parents are teachers when she grew up. In fact I saw her mom on this YT video (lovely mom/daughter pair, to

Reading Time: < 1 minute (Update 03-17-2025) The power is back as of 5:54 pm today 3/17/25 Monday – thanks to the folks at JF Electrics (contractor of Ameren) and Ameren the electric utility company. (Original) 家里因前晚(3/14 Friday 星期五) 的大风停电了：主要影响是 heat, 冰箱，照明和网络🛜（Wi-Fi）。因为不是夏天还不用开空调。现在过了40多小时还没来电。我在圣村生活了二十几年，经历过两三次较长时间（24小时以上）的停电，我记得有一次，快二十年前，是非常寒冷的冬天：下冰雨压到树枝，断的的树枝进尔压到变压器或电线。有一个电工在那次抢修中不幸触电牺牲。后来电力公司和抢修队是列队给他送行。美国这个国家有这样那样的问题，包括在基础设施上缺少一个长期的统一的规划。但是在消防队员和警察因公殉职的时候，这种纪念活动还是很壮观。但是从家里人亲朋好友的角度出发，其实并不希望有这个结果。所以在还有机会的时候，多陪陪家里人吧：如果他们不讨厌的话。 先听歌 #时间不等你 #粤语歌 by #何璟昕 Ayen Ho 微博 油管 让我们回到停电和现代人对电力的依赖这个话题。 偷电 我不记得我小时候在几岁时农村家里通了电的。有一个说法是1973年。大概差不多吧。那时候家里的电就是照明，没有其它家用电器。农村大家都没啥钱，连这一点电费都想省。怎么省？用日光灯。四十瓦一个房间就挺亮：比那个同是四十瓦的白秩灯亮不少。还有不太规范的省法：偷电-就是在公共电线上直接去搭电线。有时候家里吃晚饭的时候，家里的灯会一闪一闪的，我们就会说：谁又在偷电了。我家三兄弟，我小哥最早近视，我爸有时侯就会说：主要是小时候做作业时我们家的灯太暗了。 偷电的事其实我也做过：这个已经是九十年代中期了，我在读研究生。当时我们每个宿舍房间都有一个保险丝，我充分发挥了我的零级焊工的水平，我焊了一根粗的铜线上去，这样子我们房间就可以用电炉了。我们研究生院后门外面就是个菜场，我自己当时的烧菜水平大概就是烧一个西红柿鸡蛋汤的水平。但是我的室友同学里有高手：这样我们就用这个电炉改善了伙食。 停电 我记得80年代的时候，我大概十几岁，夏天暑假在农村家里。我们还没有空调，86年我家好像也有电视机了。80年代电视在我们那里逐渐地普及。我记得我在我柴桥大舅家看84年洛杉矶奥运会：我正好看到朱建华跳高的决赛。夏天晚上农村有时候会经常停电。我估计可能是需求大于供给，供电所就会时不时停电。但是我现在想想这电老虎，因为是垄断的，权利也是蛮大的。我有高中和大学同学后来有在电力系统工作的，不过他/她们都是规规矩矩的技术人员，不是拉闸的电老虎。 我忘了上大学时，还有后来在上海工作学习时有没有停电经历了。应该也是有的，但是不记得详细情况了。倒是记得在工厂的时候有一个学校没有的福利：那就是可以天天洗热水澡（hot water shower).

Reading Time: < 1 minute I think I started to stay at the Hyatt Hongqiao CBD in late 2017, when they was newly opened. One advantage of the hotel is it’s very close to the Hongqiao Railway Station, sometimes people call it Hongqiao Gao’tie Zhan in Chinese 虹桥高铁站. But the first time I went from the railway station to my

Reading Time: 3 minutes Originally written 2005-02-08 Holiday Inn Clinton After I picked up the rental car (with GPS) at Newark airport, I was on the way to my destination. I took an exit on I-78 by accident, with the help from GPS I did get back to the road without problem. At about 9:40 PM I arrived the