I can never get enough of these.
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Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Calling All Monet
Fall color is beginning to be in full swing. For kids, they don't worry about the financial crisis, nor do they have the agony of your football team losing, all they call is the 16th birthday of Hanna Montana! Yay! For adults, nothing is quite like a sunny weekend to brush the mood up. I find the pictures loose a bit of color and brightness, so I decide to leave one of them dark and in black and white in protest.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Pictures of Austria
[Filing up my photos of Austria, I find most of them are palaces and churches, the usual postcard material. What surprisingly pleases me are pictures with people in them. The tranquility of abbey and boisterousness of square are better caught with human figures. Austrians, they really like the taste of icecream, they never work overtime, and they see themselves as more cultured than those soccer hooligan states. That's my general impression of them.]
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整理奥地利的照片，多为皇宫歌剧院等处，和明信片上可见也没太多不同。最后却还是最喜欢画面上有人的几张，修道院的静和广场的动因画面中的人物而丰富。
昨有朋友中国回来。下飞机手上所拿读物竟是《读者》！问之何以看这老古董。答曰：别人随手给的，机场无可看杂志，前面所买中国现今的小资杂志，其语言和所云实在甚难理解，读不懂了。呜呼如是，我实在承认，我做文盲已经好多年了。就好比奥地利人如此懒散，也终有点没落贵族气质。一边数着欧洲杯的钱，一边数落着没有素质的球迷们。一边感慨经济不振，一边满不在乎地啃着3，4欧元一个的冰激淋，而商店简直有一半时间不在营业状态。 Related Content of This Rocking Post
Saturday, June 21, 2008
More pictures of Namibia
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纳米比亚曾经是德国殖民地，但她的官方语言却不是德语，而是英语和非洲语。也许是想尽早摆脱殖民阴影的原因。可是由于教育跟不上，普通民众却很少有人会讲英语。
纳米比亚幅员辽阔，人口相对很少。大片大片的庄园，之间无法建立有效的经济联系。庄园主很多都是德国人，本地黑人则大多是打下手。因为文化知识的缺乏，他们也无法参与庄园里高级一点的管理工作。庄园生活虽然工资低微但能节省许多城市生活的费用。纳米比亚虽然不富有，生活费用却并不低廉。很多生活用品价格和中国美国没有很大区别。和中北非相比，这里起码没有战争。
从作为一个游客的观察角度，纳米比亚的经济应该还很是很依赖德国。大批的游客都是来自德国和欧洲，很多庄园顺带作游客生意，政府对于德国游客也有额外的优惠规定。好一点的餐馆里就餐的绝大多数都是本地和来自欧洲的白人，乍一看几乎不相信到了非洲，黑人只有服务生才能看到。倒是麦当劳里大多是本地黑人。非洲人大概有乐天的天性，生活并没有让他们失却乐观，他们会三五成群围聚在建筑物边歌唱。
如果中国当初一直沿着二战前的轨迹走下去，纳米比亚的这些现状会不会也是中国的现状? 从绝对来说应该不会，因为中国人向来重视教育， 而且人多。但从相对来说，应该也会有这种依赖性的尴尬。又，听说美国开始对中国游客开放。当他们带着照相机和升值的人民币来的时候，是传统地“到此一游”还是会看到更多的生活？ Related Content of This Rocking Post
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Pulse of a Nation
[tracking the disaster and rescue]
"There was an earthquake" she said, "I'm feeling dizzy." We were talking on the MSN. She's in Northern China.
We joked about it.
Only to be shocked by the headline on New York Times when I woke up the next morning. CNN, BBC news, Washington post, I began to check on all kinds of English language news. The numbers of casualties were all over the place. But the information was sporadic. Before long, clutchfans, a bbs I visit regularly, has a thread running about the updates. Someone then pointed me to Shanghaiist. Shanghaiist? Is that even a correct word? I've always thought people from Shanghai were called Shanghainese. Or was that Shanghainite? But the folks there did a really good job of updating the situation in the confusing hours until..until they were too dead tired to do so.
Numbers continued to rise. Hundreds, thousands, 7000, close to 10,000, more than 20,000...Numbers were cold, it numbed you after a while. The early pictures and videos though, many of which were taken by ordinary people in the affected region, helped putting on a human face.
I could then understand why 24 hour cable news could have markets. Trying to find out the fate of people could be addictive. My appetite for coverage couldn't be satisfied by the English-language news no more. I began to search out Chinese sources.
[Finest moments]
Chinese websites responded very quickly. The culture of bbs came in handy also. Citizen reporters on sites delivered painful details or heartwarming stories to supplement the reporting from official media, which was very open and responsive this time.
I wandered to baidu postbar and tianya, the usually raucous places. People were mostly discussing the news and how to help. Some set up online vigils to pray for the victims. Still, some were arguing vehemently, but mostly because they were so stressed by the tragedy and were thinking out loud how to better. What happened in Sichuan grabbed everybody's mind.
BY this time, Shanghaiist had relayed the news that Red Cross China opened a call for donation. But the website was down when I tried to get on. It was overwhelmed by millions of people trying to get there. Thankfully it went back up later, for a while. (I later learned you can directly donate through Red Cross Hong Kong also. )
（On Tianya, the age-old Chinese attitude toward the riches were on display also, as many people hold donating in proportion to their ability as the moral responsibility of the new riches.)
The calamity was sickening. The outpouring of support was touching. The blood banks all over the country were filled in a day after the call for blood drive. There were these rescuers who walked 90 kms on foot overnight in order to reach the epicenter. There was that 13 year old boy who dig 4 hours by hand to save his classmates. There was these student who was trapped inside the collapsed structure, encouraging each other and singing under the debris to keep the hope of life. Every passing of ambulances brought loud cheers because that meant another life was saved.
My co-blogger helped packed her friend's truck with food and supplies. Her friends was to drive all the way down to the disaster area and volunteer there.
So I leave myself with this question: can we actually find encouragement and solace during such natural disaster? I believe we can. Cuddling together, Chinese people show they are strong and resilient in face of calamity. They show they care for one another, as a nation, more than ever. They show they are capable. The rescue and relief effort, like any human endeavor, is not going to be perfect, and grief will forever be etched in our heart. But this is also China's finest moment, and can potentially be the defining moment, as a modern nation.
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some quotes:
All I want to say is: your livelihood are from people; so you decide (what to do). --PM Wenjiabao to rescuers and soldiers about to begin effortRelated Content of This Rocking Post
Please, I'm begging you, let me go to save another, I can save one more.
-- A firefighter upon being ordered to temporary withdraw during the after-shock
Please spare my legs (from amputation), I will need them to take care of my parents when I grow up -- A rescued pupil before going to the surgery
I was very cold and hungry. I had to keep on reading to relieve my fear
-- A rescued school girl describing her 40 hours in debris with her book and flashlight
There is no Beichuan county any more
-- A member of Red Cross assessment team
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Spring at a Glance
I would love to add to those, time permitting. For now, 200 by 200 size squares seem the way to go.
Update: I just experienced the horror of blogger photo-upload. I've deleted a picture link to move the square around. Now I have no idea where that picture is!!
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