November sky

The weather is colder and we had a day between sunny and some clouds. Another failed try on the personal side, but I expected it. A real pity.

The sunset, though, was spectacular. Really worth anything.

BT

A difficult weekend in my emotional side, because it seems that I will never learn, but I finally managed to solve two small problems, with udev and Bluetooth, that I had in my Slackware. Now, I can dowload and upload the pictures, and other files, from my cellphone via Bluetooth!. As a sample, a picture I took on my way to Kenting last May,

which also fits what I feel about some people right now.

Sanctuary

And one day you wake up.

And you know what you must do.

Look for the CD where you stored the files. Copy them to the laptop. Load the song into the player

... and wait for the guitar to play the first accords

....

The sparkle in your eyes
Keeps me alive

She Sells Sanctuary

(Wolf child dixit)

Wow

And that is all I can say right now.

Sky Lantern Festival

Late again, but that is how things are. Last Saturday, I went with a couple of post-docs to Pingsi, about 30 or 40 km from Taipei, to see the Sky Lantern festival. A truly spectacular celebration.


What are the sky lanterns (天燈, tiān dēng)?. At this time of the year, towards the end of the Chinese lunar new year celebrations, people in some places write down good wishes for the new year on the outside of big lanterns, along with their names, and then using the fire burning at the bottom of the lantern, makes them fly.

The lanterns go up very fast and fly away following the wind. If it is dark, the sky is full of small lights, like little stars, floating away.


We also sent up our own lantern. First, write down some good wishes

unfold the lantern

and get the propellant ready.


Large bunches (hundreds?) of lanterns were launched from the playground of a nearby school every fifteen minutes. To create a very impressive effect (pictures are very poor, compared to it)


I see a drawback to the whole thing. When the fire dies down, or sometimes before that, the lanterns fall back down to the ground. From Pingsi, they are supposed to fall into the ocean —as if that was cleaner—, but we saw many fall all over the place. Some even caught fire and landed on trees. Fortunately, everything was very wet, it was drizzling too, and there was no danger, except for your head.

We had to queue for an hour and a half before boarding the buses that would take us back to the city. It is a crowded island.

Autumn

Of course, I had been told that fall in Taipei was very nice. Now that winter is coming, at least the astronomical winter, I can confirm it. That does not mean that we did not have grey or rainy or cloudy days, some not very pleasant, or that we did not suffered sudden drops in temperatures, but it has been almost a week with clear blue skies and a very nice Sun. It was a little bit chillier towards the end of last week, but this one is almost perfect. A few real fall days, even if it is already December.

As for me, I really like these mornings when I walk to work and I can gaze at those clear skies and see how the light slips through the green trees. I could even smell the just-cut grass in front of my office this morning.

No news, I know, it reminds me of those very cold days in Columbus, when maybe all was covered in white because of the snow, the river was frozen, but there was that nice Sun that, at least, brought some warmth to your heart. Small daily joys.

And this afternoon, to Hsinchu, going to the ALMA-jT workshop, with my half-finished presentation. The forecast for tomorrow and the weekend says it will be colder. We'll see.