Shot by: me -- Stayed awake just to get pictures of dawn like this one. There are no street lamps or any sort of lightings so it is pitch black at night and visibility is only about 10m from residences. 

Shot by: me -- Snowdon, the highest peak (1586m) in all of England and Wales. The highest of all is in Scotland. 

Shot by: me -- The river before me overlooking a sheep's farm not too far away from our bunkhouse. 

Shot by: me -- More sheeps and lambs. Notice that each one is color marked. I don't know what each color means but they look too skinny to be in the market. 

Shot by: me -- The heart of Snowdonia and one of the towns like this one is called Bryn Dinas, where we lived for 2 nights. I could have gone up to that waterfall there (a third of the pic rightward) if there this place is not a sheep farmland because I couldn't possibly climb over barb wires. 

Shot by: me -- Follow the path and you're on your way home. I am actually amazed by the millions of slate stones properly laid to build walls as high as 6ft from ground zero to a few thousands of feet on the mountains thus creating property borders. Stairways like this reminds me when I was climbing The Great Wall of China in Beijing. 

Shot by: me -- The Waaaaaaterfall!! (and me!) B-e-a-uuutiful! 

Shot by: me -- (Used Sony T1 Digital Still Camera) Taking a pose against a 20ft wall of huge boulders stacked on one another. 

Shot by: me -- There is a quasi-paradise that resembles that of beautiful gardens often described in fables and/or fantasies. Being here definitely took my breath away into that realm. The stream of water from the waterfall behind me flows towards the road and across. The sound the waterfall seranading the very soul of mine; so soothing. So pretty! 

Shot by: me -- Lamb. Baa! Baa! (Good Lord! I'm clothed! How do you like my new woolen dress? Pretty eh?!) Been waiting a long time for a pose like this one. T'was worth the wait. 

Shot by: me -- Slouching with legs on mini table relaxing after a long day walk. 

Weekend trip

I'll be heading off to Snowdonia over the weekend but we'll be leaving later this evening at 6pm. It doesn't cost much really, £30 for the weekend trip includes lodging and meals, and of course the trip's fare.

[I] guess I'll be writing about it more when I come back. later.

Poppy flowers symbolizes Remembrance Day

"Please wear a poppy," the lady said
And held one forth, but I shook my head.
Then I stopped and watched as she offered them there,
And her face was old and lined with care;
But beneath the scars the years had made
There remained a smile that refused to fade.

A boy came whistling down the street,
Bouncing along on care-free feet.
His smile was full of joy and fun,
"Lady," said he, "may I have one?"
When she's pinned in on he turned to say,
"Why do we wear a poppy today?"

The lady smiled in her wistful way
And answered, "This is Remembrance Day,
And the poppy there is the symbol for
The gallant men who died in war.
And because they did, you and I are free -
That's why we wear a poppy, you see.

"I had a boy about your size,
With golden hair and big blue eyes.
He loved to play and jump and shout,
Free as a bird he would race about.
As the years went by he learned and grew
and became a man - as you will, too.

"He was fine and strong, with a boyish smile,
But he'd seemed with us such a little while
When war broke out and he went away.
I still remember his face that day
When he smiled at me and said, Goodbye,
I'll be back soon, Mom, so please don't cry.

"But the war went on and he had to stay,
And all I could do was wait and pray.
His letters told of the awful fight,
(I can see it still in my dreams at night),
With the tanks and guns and cruel barbed wire,
And the mines and bullets, the bombs and fire.

"Till at last, at last, the war was won-
And that's why we wear a poppy son."
The small boy turned as if to go,
Then said, "Thanks, lady, I'm glad to know.
That sure did sound like an awful fight,
But your son - did he come back all right?"

A tear rolled down each faded check;
She shook her head, but didn't speak.
I slunk away in a sort of shame,
And if you were me you'd have done the same;
For our thanks, in giving, if oft delayed,
Thought our freedom was bought - and thousands paid!

And so when we see a poppy worn,
Let us reflect on the burden borne,
By those who gave their very all
When asked to answer their country's call
That we at home in peace might live.
Then wear a poppy! Remember - and give!

by Don Crawford

extracted from http://canada.kos.net/remembrance.html. See also In Flanders Fields.

In commemoration of this special day, The Royal Mint of Canada has released the world's most unique coin bearing the Poppy flower.

About Love & Friendship

Nobody is perfect until you fall in love with them.

Love starts with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear.

Don't cry over anyone who won't cry over you.

What do you do when the only person who can make you stop crying is the person who made you cry?

If love isn't a game, why are there so many players?

Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.

You can only go as far as you push!

Actions speak louder than words.

The hardest thing to do is to watch the one you love, love somebody else.

Don't let the past hold you back, you're missing the good stuff.

Life's short. If you don't look around once in a while you might miss it.

A best friend is like a four leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have.

Some people make the world special by just being in it.

Best friends are the siblings God forgot to give us.

When it hurts to look back, and you're scared to look ahead, you can look beside you and your best friend will be there.

True friendship never ends.

Friends are forever.

Good friends are like stars.... you don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

Don't frown, you never know who is falling in love with your smile.

Everything is okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end.

Most people walk in and out of your life, but only friends leave footprints in your heart.

If u love something... let it go.
If it comes back to you its yours....
If it doesn't then it never was.

A kiss is just a kiss until you find the one you love.
A hug is just a hug until its from the one your are thinking of.
A dream is just a dream until you make it come true.
LOVE is just a word until its proven to you

---
I should think about that when I'm taking a dump. How interesting!

Fugitive of commitment

Although I have been pursued by a girl before, this time is a little wee bit different. It's one that I found it difficult to accept because the situation is different from the first one.

I am not really familiar with Sally WSZ as we have just met not long ago. Could have been about a week now and she said on Friday, when I made her talk her heart(s) out, that she have feelings for me since the day she met me. I was utterly shocked mixed with the feelings of surprise and happiness. Am I not the ugly duckling as the old fable goes? Was it already time that that ugliness is gone? Hah! Thoughts of a pessimistic and a low self-esteemed person. However, that's not the case.

Somebody likes me and have feelings for me that she couldn't help thinking of me, couldn't sleep, couldn't properly eat; whatever she does involves me in some ways. Not knowing her enough is already a terrifying, petrifying, mortifying thought. What more to those?! Sure, my friends tell me it's cool and that I'm lucky to have "found" love. But the issue is that I did not "find" love, she did, and I do not want to feel obliged to comply.

Over the week, she has been very persistence to get my attention. She cooks for my friends (which she never does) and indirectly hinted to leave some for me. Anyway, the list can go on.. and on... to even staying in her room, with lights out watching Sex and the City, and Friends. *gags!* No, i don't watch those stuffs although I like it and find them interesting to watch occassionally. She's leading me to mislead her in ways I cannot comprehend. She's aggressive in her pursuit, this I know.

Apart from all that's happening to me, the reason, ah, the reason I cannot comply is partly because of my current situation. I'm a bloody English Law student that don't have much time to spare. (lol! it's not that bad, actually). This is the only situation I am not really sure how I should handle "with care".

Can you love a person whom you do not know? Some would say yes, others like me would be more inclined to say no... but would still consider the possibilities of a "yes". She's reaching out for me and I'm afraid to bridge out that gap between us. I'm running away. I'm a fugitive of love, commitment, and relationship.

Ultimately, in my mind I have decided to stay as friends.

Halloween Time

It's Halloween and you can be anything weird you want and won't be labelled a freak. Anything you want and you can, sure... EXCEPT yourself.

Today, we turned back our clock 1 hour.
That is a very good thing for ravers and drinkers -- 1 more hour to get more drinks and more drunk as bars are open for another hour longer. Once you get hammered, you have one more hour to sleep in.

It's weird that they have day light savings here. Why can't it be like Saskatchewan? No such hassle. I wonder if the rest of the world knows about this. Now it gets dark at about 5pm, rather than almost 6pm. nonsense.

I'm learning Latin from my law books. gee. how very daunting already just by the number of have-to-read-cases.

Not a shadow missing

Shot by: Cherie Cheng WY -- I am very pleased to look at this photo. I find a harmonious balance in everything from the shadowed background to the pure green of the plant that essentially signify life and from there how the light cast its shadows.

Composition wise, in my opinion, is simply at its best. I very much like how the shadows are casted against the table or was it the floor. The sun lights falls on the floor through a window creating the correct distracting for the eyes that would naturally travel across the picture diagonally. just love everything about this picture.

that's about all I'd say. without much elaboration, I hope you can appreciate it as much as I do.

From Sarah with love

Sarah Wen Shanzi, got her diploma in medicine from China. Currently doing international trade with Leeds Met Uni. Recently, I suspect she has a 'thing' for me and I am, oddly, confused as to what to do about it.

Could it be just my imagination? I have discussed this with my friends and they couldn't agree any more with me. Do they know something that I don't?? I don't know but seriously I don't know what to do. She's a very, very gentle girl and emotional as well. I like her but... it's hard to say.

Ben, BEN!! Help!! You're better looking than I am and have more experiences so I would need your advises and Scott's. Gee, bunch of dinks... too far away.

Actually, there's a song called "From Sarah with Love" by Sarah Connor.

Maybe the best thing is to stay cool and be who I really am... let things happen naturally. If it works, then good; if not... sigh.

An email to myself

You're not going to believe what i just thought up for my Christmas gift. I wish I can spend 2 weeks in the Rocky mountains soaking half my body in the hot springs of +33 centigrade, and the other half minus 22 centigrade. Then head off to see mah'aunty liz... with brother, heard he's going to spend time with you too. I could then bagged some finest Montreal's bagel I dearly miss, and store them in my freezer for 1 year like what I did to the last bag in 2002. We can piggy back our hope-still-small-in-size cousins till they yell out for mommy to stop us. Then teach Chinese Sword-fighting to L'll William how to defend himself from the 4 classic witch sisters found in the tales of the Princesses of the Montralotz. Buy lots of stuffs as I'm richer in terms of pounds sterling per Canadian dollars. hah, i'll pay for the rent for putting up a couple of nights in montreal... coz anybody who hails from the Oukay land is flithy rich, and they speak funny and disproportionated English largely because they don't know their "A" as in "Canadians, eh!?" *grins* whatever... I think living with polar bears and sleeping in igloos like what I've done for the past 4 years is so much more interesting than stepping on snails trying to cross the sidewalks on rainy evenings, and almost getting killed by rackless drivers(i mean women too, okay?) who do not know the meaning of yield to pedestrians.

Sounds like a great plan for me this December.......... for dad to consider if he's financially capable to wrap up this gift and send to me... via wire-transfer. I highly doubt the possibility of this gift, so, it'll always be the great plan.

The weather here has been spitting on us everyday, none stop. Little rains, i realized, has driven me crazy. but snow...*smiles* just makes me happy. something wrong with me? Not really. There's no aesthetic values attached to rain as oppose to snows, maybe that's why I like the latter more although they are both gloomy days.

Maple leaves are now found all over the ground assorted with multiple colors. Like Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty would say, should he describe what I think is... B-E-A-UUUuuuu-tiful! Canada-eh? Toronto Mapel Leaf (TML) fans' site.

I was up in Manchester on Sunday's afternoon to meet up Wang's friend, who was her business partner. The 2 Korean friends, apparently are also 2 fanatics for soccer. When we arrived back in Leeds, we realized we've spent £24.60 unnecessarily for the travel just to watch the match on TV in a bar. We chatted and got to know them better as well. because of the disgusting UK weather, we didn't go anywhere else. heard Manchester's Asian street or typically known as China town is one of UK's best. Waay better than Leeds, hence warrants a must-go-and-check-it-out next time.
*in deep thoughts* hmm, sounds like a familiar story. did i tell this story already??

I had not slept and I'm at campus at this moment. Too much thoughts running in and out of my overproductive brain; should be in the dumpster... before i kill myself. *gasp!* that's a tabooed word! mom will kill you! *gasp!* again!!

So, ladies and gentlemen, you have now visualized the psychological paranoia of an insomnia, which I think I'm turning out to be... because of our coffee-drinking Korean friends which, out of respect, I have to comply.

I hope I have entertained myself. Certainly, this is NOT a cause for worry(-ies to mom) to myself...

On to the desktop

Once again, Google makes Microsoft (MS) look out of date.

Hardly a month goes by without Google, the world's most popular internet search engine, launching another cool product that annoys its arch-rival, Microsoft. "Google desktop search" (GDS), a tiny bit of free software that puts a cute little licon on the taskbar of MS Windows OS. It calls up the usual Google page that is used to perform web searches, except that users can now also find almost anything they have lost on their computer's hard drives.

Google thereby addresses one of the biggest problems with today's Windows "desktop"; that stuff is increasingly hard to find. The Macintosh system, which Apple pioneered in the 1980s, and Windows, Miscosoft's rather clumsy imitation of it, were appropriate when most PC users needed to keep track of just a few dozen files. Today they tend to have thousands, including pictures, songs, and e-mail. If you want to find all the files that have something to do with, say, your friend Jane, forget it.

With GDS, however, this becomes easy. What makes it so embarrassing for MS is that the world's biggest software company's answer to this problem was supposed to be contained in a new file-storage and search system in the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn. Alas, in August MS announced that Longhorn would not be available until 2006, and that its new storage method, called WinFS, had been dropped.

It gets worse for MS. For months already, Google has also been letting people test its new web-based email service, Gmail, which I am now subscribed to. This offers new and more intuitive ways of viewing trails of emails. More importantly, it offers a huge amount of free storage (1 GB), so that users can store their digital stuff on Google's server computers rather than on their own (Windows-run) PC's. Google, in other words, is attacking from every side. And there is more in the pipeline. "Google Print" is a software that will help people search inside books (similar to a technology now provided by Amazon.com). "Google SMS" will help people to search the web from their cellphones (Microsoft hates this too). Even a Google web browser is apparently in the works.

To be sure, nobody is yet counting Microsoft out. The firm has a record of coming late to new technologies, but then playing so rough (and wielding its OS monopoly so shamelessly) that it still manages to be the last one standing. In an effort to catch up with Google, Microsoft plans to launch a new search engine for both the web and the desktop, separate from Longhorn, by the end of this year. But what little of it is visible so far looks remarkably like, ahem, Google!
-edited. extracted from The Economist, oct23rd; pg. 73
Hyper links nodes, very intriguing. However, you do need Java JRE 1.3.1 13 installed in your system to view.