Last minute trip decision, last minute planning and last minute change in itinerary... that pretty much sums up the reason why I'm now sitting in the Chengdu airport waiting for my next flight out of here to JiuZhaiGou Valley (www.jiuzhai.com). 

From my last post, I mentioned that there were quite a few updates from me that are long overdue and this is just one of the many. As each day of my life always seems to be packed here, the decision to take this arduous trip, especially during somewhat unsafe times (aftershocks in Sichuan,  flood, and storm) and daily rain in Chengdu and JiuZhaiGou Valley, was made rather quickly and unexpectedly. 

 Just the day before I read on Forbes.com that a city equidistant between Chengdu and JiuZhaiGou Valley had 14 dead, 40 missing and 5300 buildings destroyed from storm and torrential rains. However, JZG and Chengdu don't appear to be affected at all, so we decided to embark on this trip anyway.

 This has long been a trip that I've talked about going on ever since I set foot in China in 2006 and I'm finally on my way there. Last year, I almost went, however because of catching the flu, I had to cancel all my plans.

 So, everyone wish us luck and hopefully wish JZG & Sichuan luck so that these forces of nature can at least be gentle for a while and let tourism return, so the economy can begin to recover.

 I'll post up photos as I can. :) Wish everyone a happy National Holiday!

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Well, it's been nearly one month since I've posted up anything. Life has been extremely busy here abroad, as it always has been and doesn't appear to subside anytime in the forseeable future.

The Mid-Autumn Festival has just passed in China and this is the first time China made it a national holiday, making the previous weekend a 3 day weekend, whereas before people would hardly celebrate it because they had to work through it. This was following the cancelling of the May National Holiday, which frees up days to be allocated to smaller holidays.

 I spent this Mid-Autumn Festival with colleagues and friends making dumplings at my apartment and watching movies. It was a great relaxing weekend and much needed.

 On another note, we now have a new member to my apartment... more info on this new flat-mate soon. ..

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Finally something non-Olympics related to share with everyone...

a fun Slideshow my colleague sent me on the Human Brain.

I'm so bad... It took me forever to see dolphins!!!

I recommend viewing this in Full-Screen mode.

The only slide that doesn't work in SlideShare is the pink and green dot illusion one. To see that illusion, you can download the original Powerpoint Slide.

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 Following the Re-Cap of the Beijing 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony, I found some more photos from Xinhuanet to share with everyone. See the original article with photos from the Chinese website or read on to see photos with some descriptions translated to English by myself.

August 8th, 2008, 8pm, the 29th annual Olympics Opening Ceremony in Beijing China, at the Birds Nest. These are the opening fireworks from within the arena.

Please note that there seems to be word going on around the net that a lot of fireworks seen in the NBC syndication of the Olympics Opening Ceremony were digitally added-in because the camera couldn't get all the fireworks in there. Which means these photos might've been altered too... Wow, what a let down if that was true.

Enough with the fakes China, please.... well, anyway rea/fake pictures below for some eye-candy.

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