Test run: New Comic Series, SillyCom Alley 戱谷。 This new comic series
portrays the high tech field from the viewpoint of a self proclaimed
high-tech idiot. Topics focus on California Silicon Valley anecdotes and
madness, including computers, mobile phones, Internet, Facebook, online
dating, cloud world, etc. More to come in the future.
As always, your comments are welcomed.測試: 新漫画系列 SillyCom Alley 戱谷。這系列漫画是描述高科技白痴戱看加州矽谷相関的趣事，包括電脳，手机，網路，臉書，網上交友，雲端世界，等等。歡迎指教。
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
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http://youtu.be/GkBDRUO8hAoA cute costume. |
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| I did this cartoon in 1996 |
More about the European Cruise which we took at the beginning of October:
Sagrada Família 聖家堂
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| An image downloaded from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia |
It was a humbling experience when I finally stepped into this breathtaking masterpiece. A lot of great things have been said about the design and the architect Antoni Gaudi, aka God's Architect. All I could say was simply, awesome, because I was at awe and speechless. I won't regurgitated what have been said but a short segment of CBS 60 Minutes which summarized them all the best:http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50148541n
I was blown away by Gaudi's abilities to visualize and able to express his vision into a great structure more then 100 years ago when the computer and CAD were not even born. Now the project team is using 3D software to retrace, analyze and understand Gaudi's design in order to carry out the remaining works.
We spent about 3 hours in the church as well as climbing up to one of the towers. Was 3 hours enough to appreciate Gaudi's work? Of course not, and I hope I will still be alive, kicking and be able to visit the completed church in 2026.
這個教堂1882年開始到今仍在建造，預計將在2026年完成. 建築師是有名的安東尼高迪，又名上帝的建築師. 請看哥倫比亞廣播公司“60分鐘一小段介绍他的成就： http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50148541n
我們花了3個小時左右參觀，也上了其中一高塔。3小時夠嗎？當然不夠，我希望在2026年能够有幸参观完工後的教堂。
Where is David? 大衛是在哪裡？
謠言說意大利人最自豪的大衛雕像已經退休，正在歐洲度假，甚至加入了我们的遊輪。但是，到目前為止，我們還沒有發現這位光身的帥哥。我們準備失望，但还繼續找他。
The last day of our 12 day cruise was visiting Venice, the world famous city on the water. After the cruise ship docked, we boarded a water shuttle and headed to the famous St Mark's Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_San_Marco.
旅遊的最後一天，世界著名的水都威尼斯，遊輪停靠後，我們登上了小艇，前往著名的聖馬庫斯廣場。
The traffic was hectic, all types and shapes of ships, boats and yes, gondolas, were crisscrossing along the channel. I settled on the upper deck next to the skipper's cabin and I was amazed to see him gracefully navigating the boat using his feet while crouching on the captain's chair, texting on one of his three cellphones, occasionally glanced over a monitor at the side while chatting and trading jokes with the tour guide.
當時在水上交通忙亂，各類大船，小船，漁艇，还有聞名的軽舟，穿梭其間，我當時站在船長艙外面，注意到他優雅地半躺在椅上用腳掌舵，同时用三个其中的一台手机發簡訊，偶爾瞄一下側面的過顯示器，並和女導遊聊天說笑話.
Suddenly, just when the boat was ready to make a left turn toward the marina then I saw a gigantic stature sitting on the channel bank in front of St George Church.
The stature was white, huge and naked, just like ----, wow, was that David? Look at the weight it had gained, must be from eating the foods on the cruise ship.Well, it turned out that was a 35ft-tall artwork created by Marc Quinn, a British artist, and depicts Alison Lapper, a disabled artist who was born with no arms, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Lapper when she was eight months pregnant.
Obviously, this artwork created stirs and criticism from many: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10090015/Alison-Lapper-artwork-criticised-at-Venice-Biennale.html
突然，然後我看到岸边聖喬治教堂前一座巨大白色赤裸人像, 哇，是大衛？看來他在游輪吃得太多啦. 肥得不成帥哥型了.
後來發現其實這是表揚一位無手的殘疾藝術家艾莉森的35呎高充氣座像, 顯然，這件藝術品創作引來了許多正負面的批評.
O.K. We were still on the water shuttle boat and continued being entertained by the skipper:
此時船向碼頭左轉，但他可能弯過頭, 錯过了碼頭, 啊喲！
Instead of backing up and retry, he simply rammed the boat to the piling, using it as a pivot point, gunned the engine, pushed the boat forward while steering to the right. By doing so the stern was forced to turn left and he was able to free the bow from the piling, move forward and docked the boat successfully. Dents and scratches on the bow? NAWW, there were plenty of them already.
他居然不慌不忙的直接用船頭擠向馬頭柱樁，用它作為一個支點，加足馬力頂，促使船尾向左彎，讓船頭轉直，成功的停靠在碼頭.船頭凹了，也有刮痕，没有问题，己経有太多啦! BRAVO! 精彩
I would love to see him to parallel park a Lamborghini on dry land.
Yup, these are pics what people often see in Venice aren't they beautiful? I mean the tourists are beautiful.
啊，威尼斯景色美嗎？我的意思是說遊客們美嗎？
The tour guide said that we were lucky because Venice was often flooded. 導遊說，我們是幸運的，因為威尼斯經常像這樣的洪水氾濫。
Gondola 軽舟
When visiting Venice, gondola ride seems to be on top of any tourists' to do list and the images below made us believed that only beautiful people are in Venice.
在威尼斯坐軽舟，似乎是任何遊客的的首選. 下面的圖片是都在我們的腦海中，事实呢？自己去品嘗吧.
To find out who are these celebrities and more, check out http://www.barnorama.com/retro-glamour-celebrities-in-venice/ 這些漂亮的男女是誰呢,請上網：
O Solo Mio 我的太陽
Speaking of gondolas, images of the gondoliers serenade "O Solo Mio" come to people's mind.
According to Wikipedia:"'O sole mio" is a globally known Neapolitan song written in 1898. Its lyrics were written by Giovanni Capurro and the melody was composed by Eduardo di Capua. There are other versions of "’O sole mio" but it is usually sung in the original Neapolitan language. ’O sole mio is the Neapolitan equivalent of standard Italian Il sole mio and translates literally as "my sunshine".
Believe it or not? 信不信,由你了？
But, according to a retired gondolier, Alberto, whom I met at St Mark's Square, that the legend was not quite so romantic. His great grand papa told him that dating back between year 600 to 1000 when the vessel evolved from Maltese, Greek or Turkish for "cup" or "mussel" to the present day as we know now the gondola. During those days, life were extremely tough for the gondoliers and they often brought home next to nothing so after their kids were fed, there were hardly anything left to eat except pizzas with anchovy topping, without the pricy cheese. Out of frustration, the gondoliers belched out:
"O Sorrow Meal".
So the myth stuck. Later it became O Solo Mio, for commercial purpose.
“ 'O SOLE MIO ”是全球知名的那不勒斯浪漫歌曲寫於1898年。直譯為“我的太陽＂
但是，我在聖馬科斯廣場遇見一個退休船夫阿爾貝，他說他的曾祖父告訢他，追溯到西元600年至1000之間時，船夫們生活是非常艱難的，經常回家餵了孩子後，幾乎沒有什麼吃的，所以面對難於入口的剩飯，他們喊出了，＂啊呀，我的悲傷晚餐” 。 後來，為了啇業價值，改成了浪漫的，＂啊呀，我的太陽＂.
遊客乘坐軽舟是自娛，還是娛人？
David sighting 看到大衛啦
The rumor was true, some people reported seeing David came out of retirement and became a gondolier to supplement his retirement income.
Other bits and pieces from our trip:
我們其他旅遊中的點點滴滴
Purto vs Terminal: When we checked out of the hotel in Barcelona downtown and hired a taxi to take us to the cruise terminal. The taxi driver spoke no English nor do we speak Spanish but it seemed he understood where we were going. The taxi traveled though the city streets and onto a freeway then I suddenly saw the freeway entry sign said: Airport. Wow, he was taking us to the airport instead of the port, AHHHHGH!
We managed to make him got off the freeway, parked at a side street nearby and started primitive communications by hand gestures and pointing at the map. Then we realized that when we said cruise terminal, what he heard was the word "terminal" which in Spanish meant airport. A cruise terminal is a port or Purto in Spanish for harbor, cruise terminal in Spanish is terminal de cruceros.
Fortunately, we realized the misunderstanding early without paying too much extra Euro but the lesson was priceless.
在巴塞罹那市中心上了計程車, 由於語言不通，我們要去港口上船，他差一奌把我們送去了機場.
Piracy at high sea: WiFi on the cruise ship for causal users cost 75 cents per minute or $45 per hour. I brought along my iPad and iPhone but I refused to pay the ransom, so for days I became a nonperson who was disconnected from the world unless I could find a MacDonald or Starbucks at ports which might have free WiFi access. However, the last two days of the cruise, I needed to find out if BART would be on strike which might affect my plan to go home so I reluctantly gave in and signed on to the satellite WiFi to get some information. I logged on, downloaded emails, searched the keywords for BART STRIKE. As soon as I glanced through the headlines, I immediately logged out because I learned that BART won't go on strike yet. The user log detailed my usage which showed that I spent 10 minutes, or $7.50 and downloaded a puny 11.6 MB of data, OUCH!
海盜行為：在邮輪上上網是敲竹槓，一分鈡要 0.75 美元或是45 美元一鈡頭，這不是海盗搶劫？
Homeward bound: We flew Air Canada home which made a stopover at Toronto. We were surprised to have to process through US Custom and Immigration during transit. No fellow passengers could answer my questions:
1. Were agents working at the check points citizens of US or Canada?
2. Once cleared the procedure, were we entering into US territory and the remaining flight from Toronto to San Francisco became a domestic flight?
3. When we landed in San Francisco International Airport, we were directed to pick up our luggage at Luggage Claim no. 3, Domestic Flights arrival, which seemed to have answered my last question.
I dared not to question the agents there in Toronto for fear of being suspected as a terrorist with a big mouth.
我們坐加航航班回程在加拿大多倫多轉机。我們很驚訝的在機場居然辦理美國海關和入境手續，我的疑問是：
1。官員们是美國或加拿大公民？ 2。我們是否己经進入美國境內，從多倫多飛往舊金山的航班，成為是美國國內航班？ 3。我們降落時，被指定向3號国内航班台取行李，這似乎已經回答了我的上一個問題。
我不敢問在多倫多的官員，怕被懷疑為大嘴巴的恐佈份子。
Returned home on October 14 and we were glad that BART was not on strike. But, US Government remained shot down, impasse on the Debt Ceiling and Budget were still being played out by the politicians. Then I watched this piece, Washington's open secret: Profitable PACs on CBS 60 Minutes http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50157523n which aired last week.
Aren't we, US Citizens, had enough and should start to do the right thing?
10月14日, 回到家了，很幸運 BART 还没有罷工。但是，美國政府還關門，国債問题没下落，政客們还在玩，雖然後來解决了，但我看到了這一段 CBS 60分鐘的報導：＂華盛頓的公開的秘密＂，非常憤怒.http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50157523n
我們美国公民是否應該開始做正確的事情嗎？
Home sweet home
Wife said:" Take out the garbage"
