A couple of weeks ago, I attempted a brief view of Saturn with my ETX-80 AT telescope. I used low power and I couldn't see the ring that well. Must have been the atmosphere. It was windy too that my little telescope couldn't handle the shake.
Since Saturn's last equinox was in 2009, I figure I get plenty of time to anticipate a full solstice (North) of Saturn, with 2016 being the solstice maximum.
A VOA report on opera singer Beverly Sills brought my attention to a piece shown in the movie The Fifth Element. Now I know it wasn't just a made up piece solely for that movie.
It is actually partly from Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, the Mad Scene.
And I also found out that there are plenty of full length opera videos on youtube.
So I finally found the video and tried it as a complete beginner.
Since the video wasn't meant to be a recipe, I had to...decrypt the recipe.
The result was a disaster.
I had to skip a few steps due to limitations.
I don't have a whipped cream dispenser (one that is supposed to mix air into the fondue). So I was just aiming for the basic taste. Which I think I got. But here's the problem:
I am very unfamiliar to making cheese soup or fondue. So, after making this, I searched the web and found a good site that I could learn from. There needs to be technique in melting cheese such as choosing types of cheese and controlled low heat process.
The right cheese to use for this recipe is comte cheese, which I believe is meltable, eventhough it's not in the table of the site I just searched. But it's counterpart is listed: Gruyère. Which is what I bought since I couldn't find comte cheese in the city (I think Grand Central's Murray's Cheese shop would have it).
1. So my "fondue" was a bit watery. I believe I also put too much milk.
2. I may have kept the temperature of the milk too high, causing some melted cheese to harden into rubbery globs.
3. I roasted (oven) my asparagus too long. Should be less than one cycle, to stay green. It turned yellowish. But I think using vinegar was a good catch from the video as they were prepping the asparagus, and the yellowish substances on top of the shoots are what I believe to be butter.
4. Basil dressing (puree) is satisfactory. (I use basil leaves, 4 cloves of garlics, and lemon juice). But I think I should puree it longer in the blender. Not liquid enough.
5. I didn't use gelatin for the fondue.
Conclusion, I think I need to first master fondue making. After which, then I am qualified to buy a cream dispenser. Is there an ancient way to put air into the cream?
I need to do this for NYGC lab, or I'll have to do it manually everytime before TOEFL test when some students messed with the PC's.
For volume, I think NirCmd should work. Now I just need to find one for the resolution. Otherwise, I'd have to write my own codes again.
Here I shall list some of the favorite ones and ones I should learn:
1. Beneath the Cross of Jesus, by Frederick C. Maker 1881, words by Elizabeth C. Clephane 1868.
Edification does not mean we feel better; it means we live better.
by John MacArthur in his book: Worship - The Ultimate Priority, pg. 192
This well suit for John Chen, who does not care for any advices or admonitions that he cannot "feel good" about and therefore deems them "not edifying". The likes of him are many, entering churches of today, worshiping emotions, making friends of people, and not sanctifying disciples of God.
Last night was the night I went with Nadia and her family (Willy and their mom) to watch the much anticipated Igudesman & Joo concert at Carnegie Hall. The Duo's (from the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School) second perfomance in NYC, first at Carnegie.
And their surprise guests: world class violinist Joshua Bell (famed for the Washington Street Experiment) and Billy Joel, the piano man who could do harmonica simultaneously.
There were some repeated sketches that I've seen on youtube, some new ones (ie. Alien violinist, special guests, etc.), no strict asian piano teacher (which was on youtube).
The crowd were definitely having a great time. Especially the two surprise guests appeared at the end. After all, Joo's zeal for pedagogy in music motivated them to make classical fun, which is their motto/collective dream: "is to make classical music accessible to a wider and younger audience".
Seeing much repeated scenes, I thought they were out of idea and the show would last less than 1 and a half hour, but it ended after around 2:30 hours, as the crowd kept cheering for encores.
There are some silliness to the whole thing, but I perceive and deeply admire their zeal in musical pedagogy.
"It (I think this was referring to the $29 per person ticket I bought) was well worth it", Nadia told me after the show, as we marched West a couple blocks for Totto Ramen.
And I just learned from youtube that there is a virtuoso who's mastered both violin and piano in performance, a German, Julia Fischer.
Reading this article on guy took all his clothes before TSA, I had to make this quick gimmick.
Rosemary Chu: Came across this article on her retirement as Dorm Mom in 2009 after 42 years on the job since the passing of her husband. I didn't have but should have had much interaction with her during my days at OBU though she did initiated conversation with me briefly. I would have grown maturely. I was immature, misjudging a lot of things. (Update 4/24/2012: I somehow at that time concluded that she married a white husband - I think it was the name "finley" that mislead my judgment, but after reading her bio, I was shown he was chinese.) I incorrectly deemed many especially the women who 'date' white men as improper xenophiles at that time. I still do because they truly exist (not just women of course but mainly women due to the age of feminism West), but at much refined condition. I'm still learning, hence I have just ordered one of her book "A Journey From East to West". I only remember her as very strict dorm parent while I was doing dorm security at her dorm sometimes.
The other old memory is my computer science teacher old Arkadelphia and classical music loyalist Miss Caroline Cagle. Retired in 2004. Now that I think of it, she and Tante Lyna have similar characteristic minus the pedagogical discipline part, what can I say, one is a professor and one is not.
I do not have an easy way to contact either one of them except read about them through online articles.
Pasting some of the articles in case the link broke:
==================================
ROSEMARY CHU:
Dorm mom retires after 42 years, donates personal library, scholarships
May 11, 2009
In 1985, as a sophomore at Ouachita Baptist University, Pam Westburg remembers receiving an angel food cake and frozen strawberries in the mail from her mother in Fayetteville as a birthday gift.
Upset that the gift had melted on its trip to Arkadelphia and that she was alone on her birthday, she turned to her dorm mother, Rosemary Chu, known on campus as Mom Chu. To Westburg’s surprise, she shared the same birthday as Chu, May 7.
Westburg said since that day she has spent every birthday with her “second mom.” Chu, 80, has served in the same position since 1967 as hall director at Frances Crawford women’s dorm.
She has lived in a small apartment in the dorm since she began her job 42 years ago, and on Friday, May 22, Chu will retire as dorm mom and move out.
“God put me here for a purpose,” Chu said. “I have learned so much, and I have really been blessed at Ouachita.”
Before she leaves, she will donate 1,000 books from her personal collection to the library and enough money for four scholarships. The money was raised for scholarships from the proceeds of her book that was published, chronicling her trip from China to the United States.
Chu will move to Kansas City, Mo., to be near her daughter.
Chu was born in China in 1929 and came to the United States to attend college at Wittenberg University in Ohio. She moved to Arkadelphia in 1963 with her husband, Finley, when he got a job as chairman of OBU’s economics and business department. Four years later he died of cancer, leaving Chu to take care of their 9-year-old daugh-ter.
The OBU staff asked Chu to become hall director, and she and her daughter moved in the dorm.
“Me and my daughter shared the apartment in the dorm,” Chu said. “Those girls helped raise her and take care of her.”
Chu’s daughter graduated from Ouachita with a degree in music education.
Chu said over the years many things have changed, not only through her job but around the campus.
“The landscape around campus is much better,” Chu said. “And there are so many new buildings.”
Several aspects of her job have changed through the decades, including rules, curfew and inspections.
“Back then the girls had to sign in and out whenever they left the dorm,” Chu said. “They also had to be in bed at 10 p.m., and I had to check every room, every night. We also only had one phone for the entire dorm, which was outside my room. The girls had to stand in line and wait their turn to call home. There was also only one TV in the dorm, which was in the lobby.
“Another rule we had was no refrigerators, TVs or phones in the rooms. Now every room has all of those things, plus a computer,” Chu said.
Westburg said one thing she remembers about living in the dorm is the special things Chu would do for the residents.
“If you needed anything ever, she would help you,” Westburg said. “When she inspected our room, she would always leave special notes telling us if our rooms were clean or dirty.”
Westburg said Chu could remember every girl in every room who ever lived in the dorm. In the beginning, 152 girls occupied the dorm; now, because some have private rooms, 127 girls live there.
“When we have reunions or she sees someone who used to live in the dorm, she knows exactly what room and what floor they lived on,” Westburg said. “Her memory is dangerous.”
Along with living on campus, Chu attends as many campus events as possible and is a member of the local Baptist church.
“I attend everything I can,” Chu said. “It’s a great way for me to learn about the culture. I also joined First Baptist Church on Aug. 15, 1963, and I go every Sunday.”
Westburg attends church with Chu, and they walk together every week.
“Every single Sunday, everyone gets a red lipstick kiss from Mom,” Westburg said. “My kids all had red lipstick on their faces. She just has to do it.”
Chu said she stayed at OBU because of the students and their families.
“These girls are so loving and caring, and they tell me about their families,” Chu said. “God has really blessed me abundantly.”
OBU President Rex Horne said Chu’s impact on the thousands of students she has come in contact with cannot be overemphasized.
“Her life is a lesson about freedom and mission: freedom in our country and commitment to our Christian mission,” Horne said.
By Elizabeth Pannell, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Tri-Lakes edition, May 10, 2009
Update 10/28/2025: I've just learned from google that she has passed in 2021. Survived by her daugther, Jane Chu.
========================
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
Dr. Caroline Cagle Luck was born in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the daughter of Russell and Martha Woodell.
A
fourth generation Ouachitonian, she graduated summa cum laude with B.A.
and B.M. degrees in 1961. She received a M.A. in Linguistics from the
University of Illinois in 1963, and a Ph.D. in Science and Technology
Studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in
2003.
After pursuing a professional career in the computer
industry in the Washington, D.C., area, she joined the Ouachita faculty
in 1986.
She served as the Academic Computer Center Manager and
was responsible for installing the initial Internet access capability on
the campus.
During the spring semesters of 1997 and 1998, she was
an exchange professor from Ouachita to Peking University in Beijing,
China.
Dr. Luck retired in 2004. She has two children, Cary Morrison and Clarke Cagle.
First it was Washington D.C. cherry blossom trip (no cherry...not really). Too late for cherry blossom. I have learned since that cherry blossom is a sensitive seasonal occurrence. I should confirm it to the exact week next time.
This time, I wasn't the only one going. We had Myself & Nadia, Becky, Jiang Hui and his daugther. Finding the cheapest mean of touring the city in 2 days 1 night. Found a great hotel (I would give it 5 stars) 20 minute drive away from the city. Ordered 2 rooms, one for Nadia and Becky. Cost per room was around $66 per night. We had a free upgrade from single kingsize bedroom to double Queensize bedroom due to the fact that they ran out of kingsize bedroom which was what I initially booked. Could this be due to the fact that I also ordered joining rooms (kingsize) and that they only had kingsize separate rooms available? Joining room was definitely a good call. As during the evening, Nadia was able to graciously travel between two rooms making instant noodles for all of us, after a great time at the swimming pool as well as Jacuzzi.
Arriving D.C. on Friday (April 6th), we did not spend much time in the city, since it was kind of disappointing to realize we could only see green cherry (green leaves). Though we did come across quite a few good pink and white blossoms along the trip on the road. It was understood that being situated more south, D.C.'s cherry blossoms before NJ and NY, and we've missed it by a week or two. So, after a quick browse around the Tidal Basin and glance at some buildings, we decided to check-in to our hotel and rest.
I woke up around 6am in the morning. Went to the hotel gymn, did my treadmill run for the first time, for about 20 minutes. We checked out at around 8-9am. Although the choice of Jiang Hui's car (hybrid) was excellent, we made a bad decision on the parking spot, which allowed only 2 hour max toll. Such was common on most streets with some up to 4 hours. We should have gone into a private parking area for $12 a whole day. I felt sorry that Jiang Hui had to refill the parking meter (3 times). Good thing we rented bicycles.
*** Due to accidentally shutting down the window I had to rewrite about 60% of the total entry ***
We visited most buildings and monuments I have visted in my first trip. It is more crowded because I went at 7am during my first. We tried to wrap everything up early including a drive-by by the Pentagon so that we could avoid the afternoon crowd as well as go home early. We left D.C. at around 4pm. Spent our dinner at Noodlelicious, a Taiwanese restaurant in Edison, NJ, on Jiang Hui's treat, I think. On Sunday, Gabby enjoyed the trip so much that she gave me and Nadia each a handmade card.
On the following weekend, I went to Philadelphia on my own, via Megabus. Caleb was my host, whom I found via couchsurfing.org, a free web service I used for the first time. He was incredibly generous. Not only did he picked me up from Norristown to his place, made me baked turkey (Did he prepared the whole turkey just for me? seemed like no one else was eating that much turkey - I tried not to have too much since I wanted a healthy diet and convinced myself that with a dog around, those meat wouldn't go to waste), 4 loafs of breads which I had only 4-5 slices total and almond milk, he even borrowed me his bicycle to the pre-event at the ACE Conference Center, which was the point of my Philadelphia trip. It is a two day workshop (Friday being the free pre-event for everyone) on Science, Human Origins, & Human Dignity. This was hosted the Discovery Institute and Westminster Theological Seminary. The speakers (John "Jack" Collins & Denis Lamoureux) for the pre-event were theistic evolutionists. I imagine it was shocking to many of the audience as I had a brief discussion with a conservative guy, "Len" the engineer from NJ, the next day when he found out that the pre-event that he didn't attend would allow such speakers. I told him that Peter Lillback, President of WTS, had made disclaimer on both days that all speakers do not represent WTS' belief but their own. Since WTS co-hosts with Discovery Institute, I supposed certain clarity must be made, although I believe it could be less vague as far as where WTS stands on such issues - unless, it has yet reached a conclusion on challenges against Genesis 1-2.
Despite the special bike lane which was during the season of flies so I had flies buffet while riding the bike through the flies, the bicycle was a bad idea. I should have used the bus, which I did on my way back that night after the pre-event. Thanks to a seemingly broken down bus, I learned from the driver that all PA buses have mechanisms that allow 2 bikes storage in front of the buses. I then hurried to wait at the right bus stop. It was scary to bike on the streets at that time (I decided not to use the bike lane, believing that there would be no lights). After 40-45 minutes bus ride, I arrived at the Norristown Transportation Center which is 10 minute bike ride from Caleb's home or 25 minute walk. On the side note, I had some old guy after the pre-event asked but tried to convince me that the bright star at 9pm was Jupiter and not Venus, which I answered him at first as we walked out of the ACE Center. It was too bright to be Jupiter, but I wasn't sure as he insisted that it was too late for Venus at 9pm. I only confirmed that I was right with my smartphone when he and perhaps his wife left. I was rather tired and having the night bike worry at the time.
The Saturday workshop was more like what I wanted. Though, I would say I understood only 60% of what's being spoken. Most topics were biologically scientific. I had some books and references to take home to ponder at my own pace. Ann Gauger's direction was impressive inspite of the beyond me technical contents she used. If I have not mistaken, she was a theistic evolutionist converted creationist. Though I cannot be sure what type of creationist as she tried to make it mysterious. Despite Ken Ham's strong young-earth creation theory influence in the evangelical community such as the likes of Caleb, Sean Ho, etc., I can see from Tim Keller's book, and books from professors from Calvin College, WTS, and other orthodox churches, that these would prefer to take it slow, careful, as Neo-Darwinians try to regain what they once lost. I considered Evolutionism (common descent) was lost to Creationism as preachers like Stephen Tong had revealed its fallacy years ago, and I believe there's not much mention of it by these old preachers not because evolutionism has come back to triumph, but because certain lectures need not be repeated.
But there seems to be claims such as by Lamoureux that recent biology discoveries have caused many christian students to falter in their faith, these are what I believe to cause these western reformed scholars to "not jump" to any conclusion, while the evangelical like Ken Ham and MacArthur boldly proclaim 6 24-hour days of creation. I think one is being too careful (not surprising considering their 'evangelical' works) while the other being too shallow in their approach or answer, whether they are right nor not eventually.
Being careful is good, which was why I admire WTS for offering scholarships to students with science degree background, as Lillback announced at the end of the workshop. I gather he wanted to encourage and not discourage especially biologists in reformed studies, in spite of foreseeable danger in allowing so.
My sorrow for WTS faculties is that while they firmly love the evangelicals (I overheard Lillback and William Edgar were just in Indonesia at Rev. Tong's church for Easter), they couldn't give birth to new evangelicals from their own midst. Because as Dr. Tong once said it at a speech in WTS, the teachers themselves do not evangelize, how can the students be expected to evangelize. What's hopeful is that at least these reformers are the ones who would not take the extreme path introduced by the liberals and the Karl Barthians.
Going back to NYC, I had finally got the front row seat upstairs on the Megabus.
