FIVE Movie Reviews

Well, I haven't written anything about movies on the blog lately even though I have seen 5 movies in the past one month: Wolverine, 17 Again, Star Trek, Angels & Demons, and Terminator Salvation.

Where should I begin? Everyone knows that it's gonna take double or triple the efforts if one doesn't finish one's assignment in time. Now with 5 reviews yet to be published here, I am feeling kind of lazy, even reluctant to write anything about them.

Maybe I will come back to these movies some other time, or maybe I will just copy & paste the reviews I wrote on Facebook to this blog.

But if I am going to compare these five movies, I would say:
Star Trek > Terminator Salvation = Angels & Demons > 17 Again > Wolverine

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tryout for my new camera

So I got a new camera. To try it out, I decided to go hiking yesterday on Qixing Mountain. It was sunny in downtown Taipei, but as soon as I got off the bus in the mountain, I could see fog coming from all directions.

I took some photos of the mist in the woods,

some photos of the steam coming out of the rocks,

some photos of lizards (some blue-tailed ones, and a HUGE brown one (see above)

I also tried the panorama function of the camera.

The hike was good, but I'd rather hike on a clear day. I also had to hike in the rain sometimes this time. Generally, it was a good camera, but I still have to try it out again on a sunny day.

For more photos, visit my photo album by clicking on the album on the right side.

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(p.s. I adjusted the size of the original photos so that it was easier to upload.)

問路 / Directions

When I was walking in the alleys to the south of Zhongxiao East Road today, a scooter driver stopped in front of me, and asked me for directions to Lane 233 of Dunhua South Road Section 1 (敦化南路一段233巷), I guess. I, of course, gave her the most detailed directions I could think of to help her find her way.

After making sure she understood what I had said, I kept on walking. All of a sudden, it hit my mind that I probably gave her the wrong directions. The whole time I was thinking about "Lane 223 of Zhongxiao East Road Section 4 (忠孝東路四段223巷)," which is to the north of Zhonxiao East Road. I immediately turned around, wanting to make prompt corrections to the scooter rider, but she has already been quite a distance from me. I was not able to tell her the correct directions. I felt so bad right at the moment, for giving her the wrong directions.

Oh well... I hope she was not in an emergency. I hope she's found her way by this time.

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加州見聞錄04 (brown puddle at a showering room)

昨晚在某健身房的廁所外，偷聽到清潔人員的抱怨。

聽完後讓人覺得超級噁心，怎麼會有人在淋浴間拉屎。

嗯…其實這並不是第一次聽說了，我也聽朋友說過他的親身經歷，不過當然不是說我朋友曾經在那裡拉屎過，而是他親眼在淋浴間看到那種黑棕色的塊狀物，受到驚嚇的他，迅速逃離現場，更換淋浴間，所以他也無法證實那幾塊深棕色的塊狀物，是否為「人造物」。

昨晚清潔人員抱怨的說詞大致上是這樣：「拉屎就拉屎，一塊一塊的還好，可是怎麼會有這種一大灘的，而且還到處都是，地上有，牆壁上也有…」

...

about historic trails / 關於古道

Expecting a possible hike on the well-known Batongguan Historic Trail (八通關古道）, I thought of the historic trails I had been to.

Well, the most memorable one must be Caoling Historic Trail (草嶺古道) since everything started from there. Anyway, this trail, in the past, was the only way people traveled between the current Ilan and Taipei areas. It's actually a part of the longer Danlan Historic Trail (淡蘭古道), with Dan referring to the old name of Taipei area (any connotations to DANshui?) and Lan referring the name of Ilan area. I've been to this historic trail several times, and I still like this place. It takes about 3 hours to for this hike, and then you can go sit in the water at Fulong（福隆） if it's summertime.


I've also visited Yulu Historic Trail (魚路古道, that is, fish road historic trail, being the path by which the fishermen in the past carried their fish to Taipei to sell), a.k.a. Jinbaoli Path（金包里大道）, linking Jinshan (金山) in the northern coast and Taipei basin in the past. I've hiked the northern section of the trail, from Qingtiangang (擎天崗) at Yangming Mountain to Bayan（八煙） with the section between Bayan and Jinshan replaced by car roads, several times. As for the southern section, I think I've only hiked once, but I am not sure since the southern section is quite short, and mostly gone. The northern section of the historic trail takes about 2 hours. If you are hiking out of Yangming Mountain, you can catch a bus at Bayan to go to Jingshan and enjoy the beach there in the summer, or just stroll around the historic streets and have some sweet potatoes. YUM

I've walked downward on Tianmu Historic Trail（天母古道） several times. It's just a short hiking path for people to have a quick exercise. The view is quite nice on clear days. The stairs can be quite steep at some points. Now I wonder if Tianmu Historic Trail has anything to do with Yulu Historic Trail. Some people say it might possibly be the southern most section of Yulu Historic Trail but I don't know. I'll just let other people worry about it, and keep enjoying the hike and the scenery.

I just checked on the Internet and found that there are actually several historic trails in Yangming Mountain National Park. Maybe I've been to some without knowing it.

My Own Hiking Trip

So yesterday I decided to go hiking by myself on Qixing Mountain. I think the total distance I've walked was nearly 5 kilometers on the winding steep hiking paths.

I startde from Xiaoyiukeng and walked all the way to the main peak of Qixing Mountain, and then, instead of cotinuing on to the east peak as usual, just hiked down to Miaopu (another hiking entrance), and finally back to the bus stop.

The weather was awesome. I saw some lizards on the way, but only one or two of them were the kind with a golden-bluish tail. I think I saw more during the past hiking trips.



I tried to take photos of downtown Taipei, especially Taipei 101, but my phone camera is actually not very good. It came out as some blurry dark spot. I think I should really go get a good camera so that I can take better photos.




My phone camera, however, still takes good photos of a strange sign whose illustration probably means "do not set yourself on fire" whereas it is actually telling poeople not to burn incense or paper money:

I also took a photo of a cute caterpillar:


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