The house itself is an elegant one, the way I took this picture gives it a sense of creepiness.

 Our mother nature produces such beautiful scenes, yet at the same time can be so cruel as testified by the Chinese Earth Quake and Myanmar Storm.

I travel quite often when I do not teach.

Each time before traveling, I have to think hard what to pack and put a list of things on paper. It is a waste of time and paper, the environmentally friendly me finally decided to compile this list so I can come back to update and use it later.

Before the trip:

• Visa application
• Currency exchange
• Prepare audio books for a foreign language
• Book flights/hotels
• Print itinerary
• Print contact information
• Make sure to have copies of travel documents
• Recharge batteries for camera, cellphone, iPod

In the luggage:

• Medicine for fever, sleeping pills for jet lag, vitamins
• Suit, shirts, pants, tie, belt, shoes to go with suit
• T-shirts, Sweater, socks, underwear
• Swimming gears
• Umbrella

In the handbag/backpack:

• Passport
• Map, itinerary
• Charger for cellphone, camera
• DC Partner for photos
• Power socket adapter
• Umbrella?
• Some plastic bags
• Pen, paper
• Some readings for the flight

On the morning of flight:

• Call Taxi
• Eye glasses
• Watch
• Pack toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, Listerine, razor, shaving cream,
• Wallet, credit cards, ID card, membership cards
• Driver’s license
• iPod

When traveling with kids:

• hand wash
• Bib
• Tylenol, Motrin, Thermometer
• Stroller
• Diaper

I usually have a few bags with me when going out:

• Luggage for check-in
• Camera bag
• Laptop bag
• Probably a backpack

This is a photo I took recently. It has a lot of interesting components that fascinated me: lines, squares, colors, musical instrument, interesting face…

I like photography, and I like photos that view this world from different angles.

Nothing compares to the following photograph which was taken with an X-ray enabled camera.

It shows an office building, you can even see someone kneeling there to fix a copier.

While I like this photo.  I think the photographer is crazy.  If I were in the building, I’d surely sue this redneck photographer.

Our library is a very beautiful building. Here is a picture I took yesterday.

Click on the image to get a bigger version.

Captcha has been around for a while.

It is used to make sure that the reader is indeed a human. Although there are some algorithms to crack captcha, none of them is working well.

Here are some examples:

The worst one I saw (or should I say the “best one”?) is the following:

If you can get it right, you are not only human, but also a rare human.