/UPDATE 1
Confound those broadcast copyright laws!! Elite XC has already forced the featured videos off of YouTube...
/END UPDATE 1
Quick, before they take it off of YouTube, the following several clips show Still Undefeated Cung Le's victory over MMA legend Frank Shamrock by TKO in the third round of the "Battle for San Jose", improving his overall pro record to 22-0 and his MMA record to 6-0. It's a great win for Sanshou and the Chinese Martial arts!!!
Amazingly, the fight never really went to the ground, as Cung Le was able to evade any groundfighting, even after getting knocked down. In fact, Cung Le even pushed Frank to the ground a few times but opted not to go for the submission, preferring to use his Sanshou skills as he showcased most all of his striking arsenal, complete with spinning hook kicks, spinning backfists, single leg sweeps and all! Early in Round 3, Cung appears to even break Frank's right forearm with a well followed-through left roundhouse kick! Towards the end of Round 3, Frank appeared to be turning the tables, but Cung closed the round with some vicious round kicks and Frank Shamrock was unable to begin Round 4 on time, ceding the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship to Cung!
Watching the video, I noticed that I left something out of yesterday's Sanshou post. Note that Cung Le fights in a "Southpaw" stance, or left handed stance. This is not necessarily because Cung is a left handed fighter, but rather because Sanshou is taught primarily out of the Southpaw.
Anyhow, enjoy the videos while they're still there!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Kung Fu Facts Issue 9 - Sanshou
Recently, some guys from work have started training Kung Fu with me. Really brings me back to the early days of the Meihua Student Association of Martial Arts when I was in graduate school! So far, there have been four guys to come out to train with me: Nick, who trained with me a few times when we first started working, Alex, Joe, and Mike. Interestingly, these are all guys that were on the football team when we played flag football last summer!
The guys have come out pretty consistently, and the small number of people is pretty ideal because it gives me pretty good control over what and how everyone is practicing. As I've learned over the years from teaching engineering classes and kung fu clubs, teaching always helps me to understand the subject being taught that much better, and it's always more fun to do things in a group.
Anyhow, I figured it would be a good time to add another issue to my Kung Fu Facts series. One criticism of the Chinese Martial Arts recently is that Chinese Martial Artists rarely prove themselves in the ring. The cheap way to sidestep this accusation is to cite how successful the various types of kung fu have been over the last, oh, several thousand years or so, and as such, we have nothing to prove, but I'm not a big proponent of this argument. The fact is, a lot of kung fu practitioners don't often fight, and many really do simply do forms and treat kung fu as more of a gymnastics or dance type activity despite its martial origins. However, there is a major sport combat component of kung fu, and it is called San Shou.
Kung Fu Facts Issue 9 - San Shou
San Shou, sometimes spelled Sanshou (散手), is loosely translated as "free hand". It doesn't refer specifically to any particular style of kung fu, although some practitioners do practice sanshou exclusively. Rather, in its current form, it is a sport venue where practitioners of different types of kung fu can test their skills. As such, it is similar to mixed martial arts. In fact, a famous American Vietnamese Sanshou stylist, Cung Le, entered mixed martial arts two years ago and has since been undefeated with a 5-0 record. Cung Le actually has a fight today, March 28, 2008, against one of the early UFC legends, Frank Shamrock, televised tonight at 9PM on Showtime Sports! A victory over Frank would be a huge victory for Sanshou!
History
Sanshou was actually originally called Sanda (散打), which translates as "free hit" or "free fighting". I'm not sure where the "sanshou" term originated, but today, in the states, Sanshou is the term predominantly used, while Sanda is the term used mostly in China. Sanshou's origins date back to the lei tai (擂台) challenges of kung fu masters of old. These open hand, no gear challenge matches were held on a raised platform, called a lei tai, and competitors fought until a fighter was thrown off of the platform, gave up, was knocked out, or killed. Since being thrown off the platform constitutes a loss, fighting on a lei tai promotes circling footwork and avoids situations where a fighter is stuck in the corner and just gets beat down. Today, Sanshou matches are sometimes still held on a lei tai (sometimes with the platform over water!), but they are often held in a traditional boxing ring as well.
Lei tai matches were forbidden in several periods in history, as each government tried to limit the amount of violent and martial arts activities in hopes to prevent hostile takeover by skilled fighters (ironically, many dynasties were created by kings skilled in their own family martial arts!) Most recently, the Communist Chinese government forbid the practice of martial arts, but gradually relaxed these restrictions, permitting the practice of martial arts for demonstration and performance purposes around the 1970s and then promoting combat sports in the form of Sanshou after reportedly losing in several publicized matches against Japanese Karateka in the 1980s. Since then, Sanshou has gained in popularity, particularly in Southern China and overseas, and claimed victories over practitioners of other combat sports, such as Kyokushin Karate, Muay Thai, and Mixed Martial Arts, although it should be noted that, as with any martial art, it's usually the fighter, not his art, that wins matches.
What makes Sanshou so special?
How does Sanshou differ from any other sport fighting arts? To an uninitiated eye, Sanshou can look very similar to boxing, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, kickboxing, or muay thai. However, there are a number of differences.
Differences to boxing are readily apparent - you can use your legs in a variety of kicking techniques. Favorite kicking techniques are round kicks to the thigh, side kicks to the torso, and hook kicks to the head. In addition, in boxing, tired fighters will often hold on to a clinch to rest. In Sanshou, there are two things that discourage this kind of clinching. First, most referees will break up a clinch after about three to five seconds. Second, and more importantly, Sanshou awards more points if you are able to perform a takedown (throw the opponent to the ground) than just common strikes. Lastly, fighters cannot be passive and not initiate engaging, as they will be penalized for avoiding the opponent. Modern Sanshou is usually fought in three to five rounds lasting two or three minutes each, as opposed to the fifteen rounds in professional boxing.
Sanshou differs from Kyokushin Karate, Tae Kwon Do and kickboxing primarily in that, in those arts, striking below the belt and takedowns are not allowed (and in the case of Kyokushin, strikes to the head), while, in Sanshou and Muay Thai, kicks to the legs and thighs are among the practitioners most valuable weapons. Muay Thai, however, also does not allow takedown and grappling techniques, but promote the use of knee and elbow strikes, which are forbidden in most Sanshou bouts. However, when the Chinese Sanshou Team was decimated by Muay Thai elbow and knee attacks, the likes of Liu Hailong and Baoligao practiced these techniques and used them to defeat Muay Thai in subsequent style-vs.-style events, as the Muay Thai fighters had no answer for the hip throws, suplexes, and grappling takedowns of Sanshou.
Sanshou differs still from MMA in that it does not allow fighting on the ground, which is what made Brazilian Jujitsu so dangerous in the early days of MMA. As a result, Sanshou matches are usually more high-energy and flashy. Sanshou stylists can successfully transition to MMA, moreso than many other stand-up martial arts, due to the need for Sanshou stylists to train in takedown avoidance - but they still have to be able to fight their way out of a grappler's hands and legs if they do indeed get taken down in order to be completely successful. On the other hand, most Sanshou experts have much better developed striking technique than most MMA fighters.
A number of Kung Fu schools also promote Sanshou as a complement to their forms and self defense training as well as provide an academy to train fighters to represent their school in full contact events at martial arts tournaments. My sifu was a well known Sanshou fighter who had great success with his scissor takedown technique and was sought out by several good fighters from other schools to improve their own ring fighting prowess! Sanshou provides a good format to test your skills, as many techniques are able to translate to the ring in some form, especially Choy Lay Fut techniques such as swinging Sow Choys, stabbing Chop Choys, spinning Bin Choys, uppercutting Pow Choys, and of course kicks! Just make sure you have your cup on!
The guys have come out pretty consistently, and the small number of people is pretty ideal because it gives me pretty good control over what and how everyone is practicing. As I've learned over the years from teaching engineering classes and kung fu clubs, teaching always helps me to understand the subject being taught that much better, and it's always more fun to do things in a group.
Anyhow, I figured it would be a good time to add another issue to my Kung Fu Facts series. One criticism of the Chinese Martial Arts recently is that Chinese Martial Artists rarely prove themselves in the ring. The cheap way to sidestep this accusation is to cite how successful the various types of kung fu have been over the last, oh, several thousand years or so, and as such, we have nothing to prove, but I'm not a big proponent of this argument. The fact is, a lot of kung fu practitioners don't often fight, and many really do simply do forms and treat kung fu as more of a gymnastics or dance type activity despite its martial origins. However, there is a major sport combat component of kung fu, and it is called San Shou.
Kung Fu Facts Issue 9 - San Shou
San Shou, sometimes spelled Sanshou (散手), is loosely translated as "free hand". It doesn't refer specifically to any particular style of kung fu, although some practitioners do practice sanshou exclusively. Rather, in its current form, it is a sport venue where practitioners of different types of kung fu can test their skills. As such, it is similar to mixed martial arts. In fact, a famous American Vietnamese Sanshou stylist, Cung Le, entered mixed martial arts two years ago and has since been undefeated with a 5-0 record. Cung Le actually has a fight today, March 28, 2008, against one of the early UFC legends, Frank Shamrock, televised tonight at 9PM on Showtime Sports! A victory over Frank would be a huge victory for Sanshou!History
Sanshou was actually originally called Sanda (散打), which translates as "free hit" or "free fighting". I'm not sure where the "sanshou" term originated, but today, in the states, Sanshou is the term predominantly used, while Sanda is the term used mostly in China. Sanshou's origins date back to the lei tai (擂台) challenges of kung fu masters of old. These open hand, no gear challenge matches were held on a raised platform, called a lei tai, and competitors fought until a fighter was thrown off of the platform, gave up, was knocked out, or killed. Since being thrown off the platform constitutes a loss, fighting on a lei tai promotes circling footwork and avoids situations where a fighter is stuck in the corner and just gets beat down. Today, Sanshou matches are sometimes still held on a lei tai (sometimes with the platform over water!), but they are often held in a traditional boxing ring as well.Lei tai matches were forbidden in several periods in history, as each government tried to limit the amount of violent and martial arts activities in hopes to prevent hostile takeover by skilled fighters (ironically, many dynasties were created by kings skilled in their own family martial arts!) Most recently, the Communist Chinese government forbid the practice of martial arts, but gradually relaxed these restrictions, permitting the practice of martial arts for demonstration and performance purposes around the 1970s and then promoting combat sports in the form of Sanshou after reportedly losing in several publicized matches against Japanese Karateka in the 1980s. Since then, Sanshou has gained in popularity, particularly in Southern China and overseas, and claimed victories over practitioners of other combat sports, such as Kyokushin Karate, Muay Thai, and Mixed Martial Arts, although it should be noted that, as with any martial art, it's usually the fighter, not his art, that wins matches.
What makes Sanshou so special?
How does Sanshou differ from any other sport fighting arts? To an uninitiated eye, Sanshou can look very similar to boxing, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, kickboxing, or muay thai. However, there are a number of differences.Differences to boxing are readily apparent - you can use your legs in a variety of kicking techniques. Favorite kicking techniques are round kicks to the thigh, side kicks to the torso, and hook kicks to the head. In addition, in boxing, tired fighters will often hold on to a clinch to rest. In Sanshou, there are two things that discourage this kind of clinching. First, most referees will break up a clinch after about three to five seconds. Second, and more importantly, Sanshou awards more points if you are able to perform a takedown (throw the opponent to the ground) than just common strikes. Lastly, fighters cannot be passive and not initiate engaging, as they will be penalized for avoiding the opponent. Modern Sanshou is usually fought in three to five rounds lasting two or three minutes each, as opposed to the fifteen rounds in professional boxing.
Sanshou differs from Kyokushin Karate, Tae Kwon Do and kickboxing primarily in that, in those arts, striking below the belt and takedowns are not allowed (and in the case of Kyokushin, strikes to the head), while, in Sanshou and Muay Thai, kicks to the legs and thighs are among the practitioners most valuable weapons. Muay Thai, however, also does not allow takedown and grappling techniques, but promote the use of knee and elbow strikes, which are forbidden in most Sanshou bouts. However, when the Chinese Sanshou Team was decimated by Muay Thai elbow and knee attacks, the likes of Liu Hailong and Baoligao practiced these techniques and used them to defeat Muay Thai in subsequent style-vs.-style events, as the Muay Thai fighters had no answer for the hip throws, suplexes, and grappling takedowns of Sanshou.Sanshou differs still from MMA in that it does not allow fighting on the ground, which is what made Brazilian Jujitsu so dangerous in the early days of MMA. As a result, Sanshou matches are usually more high-energy and flashy. Sanshou stylists can successfully transition to MMA, moreso than many other stand-up martial arts, due to the need for Sanshou stylists to train in takedown avoidance - but they still have to be able to fight their way out of a grappler's hands and legs if they do indeed get taken down in order to be completely successful. On the other hand, most Sanshou experts have much better developed striking technique than most MMA fighters.
A number of Kung Fu schools also promote Sanshou as a complement to their forms and self defense training as well as provide an academy to train fighters to represent their school in full contact events at martial arts tournaments. My sifu was a well known Sanshou fighter who had great success with his scissor takedown technique and was sought out by several good fighters from other schools to improve their own ring fighting prowess! Sanshou provides a good format to test your skills, as many techniques are able to translate to the ring in some form, especially Choy Lay Fut techniques such as swinging Sow Choys, stabbing Chop Choys, spinning Bin Choys, uppercutting Pow Choys, and of course kicks! Just make sure you have your cup on!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
My Weed Killing Adventure
Those of you who don't live in Florida might not know about the strange winters that we have. First, since Florida is such a long state and stretches north to south for that length, there's quite a climate difference between South Florida and North Florida. In addition, due to the coasts, there's differences in vegetation and weather from the coast to inland as well. But perhaps the oddest thing is the temperature variability over time itself. One day, it will be swelteringly hot, and the next, we can drop to close to freezing or even below freezing temperatures.
That's all good and well, for in general, the weather is nice enough to hang out outside for most of the winter, but it seems to confuse our plants and grasses. In the last several months, I've not had to mow my lawn since it hasn't grown in the cold weather, but the flashes of warm weather, coupled with my recent fertilizing of the lawn, have allowed an infestation of "dollar weeds" to develop over a large part of my back yard. What are dollar weeds you ask? They're these round clovers that grow near water (my house backs into a pond) that cover your lawn so they can't get any sun and suck away the nutrients your grass needs as well from the ground!
Anyhow, I went on a brief mission yesterday to Home Depot to use up part of my Home Depot gift card and get some weed killer. After searching online a bit, I already knew to look for some weed killing chemical called Image, only I found out that there were quite a few different types of Image at the store. So, what's a shopper to do? I ask the cashier to get someone to help me, of course. The cashier calls on the intercom for someone to help, but I wait close to 45 minutes (the cashier called in about five more times!) before finally noone came, but the guy on the other end of the intercom call told my cashier which Image I should get.
So I bought the stuff, and since it was in a concentrated form, I bought a little spray bottle to mix it in and spray it with. Unfortunately, I hadn't read the instructions prior to buying the spray bottle. Not because I was lazy, but rather because the instructions were in a booklet that was sealed on the bottle, and as such, I wasn't able to read them until I had actually bought everything and went home! You are supposed to use about one quart of chemical-water mix for every 100 square feet you wanted to treat. Problem was, I had several hundred square feet to treat, and that's a lot of spraying with one little one quart bottle. Needless to say, my fingers and forearms got very, very tired. Plus, I'm not even sure I got all of them!
The guy at Home Depot said it would take about 14 day to take effect. I check back in on this subject in two weeks to give you an update!
That's all good and well, for in general, the weather is nice enough to hang out outside for most of the winter, but it seems to confuse our plants and grasses. In the last several months, I've not had to mow my lawn since it hasn't grown in the cold weather, but the flashes of warm weather, coupled with my recent fertilizing of the lawn, have allowed an infestation of "dollar weeds" to develop over a large part of my back yard. What are dollar weeds you ask? They're these round clovers that grow near water (my house backs into a pond) that cover your lawn so they can't get any sun and suck away the nutrients your grass needs as well from the ground!Anyhow, I went on a brief mission yesterday to Home Depot to use up part of my Home Depot gift card and get some weed killer. After searching online a bit, I already knew to look for some weed killing chemical called Image, only I found out that there were quite a few different types of Image at the store. So, what's a shopper to do? I ask the cashier to get someone to help me, of course. The cashier calls on the intercom for someone to help, but I wait close to 45 minutes (the cashier called in about five more times!) before finally noone came, but the guy on the other end of the intercom call told my cashier which Image I should get.So I bought the stuff, and since it was in a concentrated form, I bought a little spray bottle to mix it in and spray it with. Unfortunately, I hadn't read the instructions prior to buying the spray bottle. Not because I was lazy, but rather because the instructions were in a booklet that was sealed on the bottle, and as such, I wasn't able to read them until I had actually bought everything and went home! You are supposed to use about one quart of chemical-water mix for every 100 square feet you wanted to treat. Problem was, I had several hundred square feet to treat, and that's a lot of spraying with one little one quart bottle. Needless to say, my fingers and forearms got very, very tired. Plus, I'm not even sure I got all of them!
The guy at Home Depot said it would take about 14 day to take effect. I check back in on this subject in two weeks to give you an update!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
New Wii Games!!!
Been a really busy week thus far, in and out of work. So busy, that I didn't even get a chance to write about my recent acquisition of Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Zack and Wiki - The Quest for Barbaros' Treasure!
Cherrie got me both of these highly acclaimed games for my birthday last week, but I didn't really get a chance to play them until this week, and even then, I didn't play them much since I had to do some homework. Actually, I probably didn't have to do homework, but this last weekend's test showed me that I can't just expect to cruise right through the last two tests of the semester, so I'm trying to maintain discipline over the next month to get those A's!
Anyhow, Smash Brothers is obviously a continuation of the series that began on Nintendo 64 almost ten years ago. Since I didn't have an N64 back then, I never got to play it that much until recently, when I downloaded the ROM for it a while back (I think I wrote about it, too!). The second game in the series, Super Smash Brothers Melee, was released on the Gamecube some time ago, and I never played that except for one time with Billy when I went to Atlanta. Melee was quite possibly the most popular game on the Gamecube, vastly improving on its Nintendo 64 ancestor, adding nearly a dozen characters and tons of collectibles to get in the game.
Smash Brothers Brawl took it another step forward and increased the character roster to thirty some odd characters, including, for the first time, non-Nintendo characters - specifically Solid Snake of Metal Gear fame and Mario's most famous 16-bit rival, Sonic the Hedgehog! Perhaps most importantly, however, is adding multiplayer online to the game, meaning that you don't have to have three friends and four controllers to play Smash Brothers all together at your house - you can Brawl with them from anywhere in the world!!
It so happened that by buying Smash Brothers Brawl, I got a great deal on a second game, namely Zack and Wiki - The Quest for Barbaros Treasure. Don't be fooled by the kiddie artwork and the ridiculously long and descriptive title. This is one of the most beautiful games I've played, and one of the most original for some time. It obviously takes cues from the old point-and-click PC games of the 90s, like King's Quest and the many highly acclaimed LucasArts graphic adventures such as Sam n' Max and Full Throttle, in the sense that you make Zack and Wiki walk around using the Wii-mote as a pointer to investigate and find things that might be useful. Where it sets itself apart, however, is how you use those useful things to solve puzzles - you have to turn the wiimote like a key, or rotate it like a wheel, or click it open like an automatic umbrella, or many, many other cool little motions!
So, just like that, I've increased my Wii library three-fold! With so many good games coming out, like Mario Kart Wii, and so many good games already out, like Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda, I'm starting to worry about both my time and my cash budget!
Cherrie got me both of these highly acclaimed games for my birthday last week, but I didn't really get a chance to play them until this week, and even then, I didn't play them much since I had to do some homework. Actually, I probably didn't have to do homework, but this last weekend's test showed me that I can't just expect to cruise right through the last two tests of the semester, so I'm trying to maintain discipline over the next month to get those A's!
Anyhow, Smash Brothers is obviously a continuation of the series that began on Nintendo 64 almost ten years ago. Since I didn't have an N64 back then, I never got to play it that much until recently, when I downloaded the ROM for it a while back (I think I wrote about it, too!). The second game in the series, Super Smash Brothers Melee, was released on the Gamecube some time ago, and I never played that except for one time with Billy when I went to Atlanta. Melee was quite possibly the most popular game on the Gamecube, vastly improving on its Nintendo 64 ancestor, adding nearly a dozen characters and tons of collectibles to get in the game.Smash Brothers Brawl took it another step forward and increased the character roster to thirty some odd characters, including, for the first time, non-Nintendo characters - specifically Solid Snake of Metal Gear fame and Mario's most famous 16-bit rival, Sonic the Hedgehog! Perhaps most importantly, however, is adding multiplayer online to the game, meaning that you don't have to have three friends and four controllers to play Smash Brothers all together at your house - you can Brawl with them from anywhere in the world!!
It so happened that by buying Smash Brothers Brawl, I got a great deal on a second game, namely Zack and Wiki - The Quest for Barbaros Treasure. Don't be fooled by the kiddie artwork and the ridiculously long and descriptive title. This is one of the most beautiful games I've played, and one of the most original for some time. It obviously takes cues from the old point-and-click PC games of the 90s, like King's Quest and the many highly acclaimed LucasArts graphic adventures such as Sam n' Max and Full Throttle, in the sense that you make Zack and Wiki walk around using the Wii-mote as a pointer to investigate and find things that might be useful. Where it sets itself apart, however, is how you use those useful things to solve puzzles - you have to turn the wiimote like a key, or rotate it like a wheel, or click it open like an automatic umbrella, or many, many other cool little motions!So, just like that, I've increased my Wii library three-fold! With so many good games coming out, like Mario Kart Wii, and so many good games already out, like Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda, I'm starting to worry about both my time and my cash budget!
Friday, March 14, 2008
26th Birthday!
On last year's Pi Day, I wrote about how I had become officially closer to age 30 than age 20. Well, apparently, a lot of people didn't agree with me, and claimed that I was merely at the center point. Being trained in the secret arts of mathematics all these years, I know that to not be true, if for no reason other than the fact that the probability of being at any one point in time as given by the probability density function of the distribution of that event happening is zero, which in turn means that at any given time, you are either within a range of time before or after the center point in time! Having said that, mathematically speaking, I was officially closer to 30 than 20 at some point during this day last year.However, I realize that not everyone is as mathematically Teh Awesome as me, since, you know, I'm Asian (see the results of my Stereotype poll below!), so I just let it go at that. Plus, the fact that no one commented on that particular post sort of ended all discussion anyhow. But this year, there is no more disputing it - you can't argue that 26 is not closer to 30 than it is to 20! Happy birthday to me and happy Pi Day to all of you who don't have their birthday today!
Results from the latest poll:
Am I a walking Asian Stereotype?
Six of seven voters (85%) said Yes
One of seven voters (14%) said No
So, there you have it! I should be cast in the next teen movie that needs an obligatory short, rice eating, kung fu fighting, ricer driving, Asian character who's good at math!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
17-Month-Old Girl Can Read!
I started reading childrens books at four years old, and have always thought I was pretty hot stuff because of it. Elizabeth Barrett, however, blows my early reading talent out of the water, being able to read whole sentences, both in print and in cursive, and even use sign language at just 17 months of age!
The article makes note of the fact that Elizabeth's parents, both speech pathologists, began reading to her from the day she was born and only let her watch educational programs - in particular, a PBS show called "Signing Times", which teaches kids sign language. From this nurture, and most likely a bit of natural born talent, Elizabeth read her first word at just 13 months old!
Check out the full article here: Baby’s got book! Tot shocks parents by reading
Make sure to check out the video too!
The article makes note of the fact that Elizabeth's parents, both speech pathologists, began reading to her from the day she was born and only let her watch educational programs - in particular, a PBS show called "Signing Times", which teaches kids sign language. From this nurture, and most likely a bit of natural born talent, Elizabeth read her first word at just 13 months old!
Check out the full article here: Baby’s got book! Tot shocks parents by reading
Make sure to check out the video too!
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Monday, March 03, 2008
Dr. Lin Develops Wireless Charging Station
Dr. Lin was my RF systems professor in grad school. He was a big influence on both my school career and career path of choice. In fact, had not been for him, I might not have even graduated, since he approved my exit interview. I am also friends with a number of his former and current Ph. D students. Plus, he even visited us at my grandparents' house in Taiwan when I was there in 2004!
My coworker Tarang showed me this video of a project that Dr. Lin and his students have been working on recently. Pretty neat stuff. Go Dr. Lin and Go Gators!
My coworker Tarang showed me this video of a project that Dr. Lin and his students have been working on recently. Pretty neat stuff. Go Dr. Lin and Go Gators!
Saturday, March 01, 2008
If I got a dime for every visit in February...
... I would have earned over $130 this month! That's right, for the first time ever, Grant's Pad broke the 1000 visit barrier. Plus, to add oomph, it did it in a short month! In just 29 days, February trounced previous champ January's visit count by nearly 200%!I really don't know what I did differently lately than I ever did, but towards the end of February, Grant's Pad was averaging close to 100 visits on a daily basis... maybe it's time to start thinking about Google Adsense? A little extra revenue never hurt anyone!
So, my cousin Leo came down from Ann Arbor this week with his new Chinese girlfriend Melody to hit the Disney parks and savor subtropic weather instead of spending their spring break in below-freezing Michigan weather. Leo is my favorite cousin, mostly because we he and his sister are our only cousins on this side of the Pacific. He is also more closely related to us than our other cousins, in the sense that we are tang cousins, or cousins that share the same last name, instead of biao cousins.
Chinese lesson for you guys! In traditional Chinese culture, because "carrying on the family name" is so important, tang cousins are considered more closely related to your own immediate family, while biao cousins are not any more related to you than anyone you consider to be your "blood brother", although in reality, they could be as close to you generationally as your tang cousins. For example, even children of your father's sister (whom, in China, would retain her maiden name, which is the same as your surname), are biao cousins, since they would have a different name from you (although, in China, this sometimes isn't the case - not due to inbreeding, get your mind out of the gutter! - but because there are so few surnames in China compared with the population). In the same vein, anyone on your mother's side of the family is also a biao cousin, since your mother also doesn't typically share your surname.
Anyhow, I wasn't able to take Leo and Melody around very much - to be honest, there's not a whole lot to see in Melbourne other than the beach. I took a day off, and we just played some Wii, went to the Island Pasta Company, and spent an hour at the beach before they headed back to Orlando to hang out at the parks. We took a few photos around the house and at the beach though, keep an eye out for the photos!
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