I just came back from Yosemite National Park and my heart is still lingering in the scenery of Yosemite. Here is our schedule. I hope it is helpful when you are also planning a trip to Yosemoite during spring break.
The trip lasts two nights and three days, from Saturday to Monday (March 14th - March 16th). The following schedule is very relaxed and we may add more activities when we have the energy.
Saturday: 7:00AM Go to LAX to pick up the car. Link http://www.thrifty.com/ LOS ANGELES AIRPORT, CA, USA (LAX) 5440 W. CENTURY BLVD LOS ANGELES, CA UNITED STATES 90045 (877) 283-0898
8:30AM Leave LA
12:00PM Fresno County Blossom Trail Website: http://www.goblossomtrail.com/ Fresno County Office of Tourism 2220 Tulare Street, 8th Floor Fresno, CA 93721 (559) 262-4271
This part is not worth an intentioned stop. Actually you can see many trees in blossom along highway #99.
1:00PM Continue to Yosemite Southern Entrance The scenery along highway #41 is fantastic. You will see ranches, flowers and tree decorated hills.
6:00PM check in & dinner & night life We played a new board game, Bang!, this time. It is very interesting.
Sunday 8:00AM Get ready to today's activities
8:30AM Tunnel View
9:00AM - 5:00PM Yosemite Valley The exact places and time depends on our interest. Here are some interesting places: Bridalveil Fall Merced River Yosemite Village Anwahneechee Hotel El Captain (Hiking) Yosemite Fall (Hiking) Mirror Lake (Hiking)
5:30PM Go back to the four seaons lodge 6:30PM Dinner & night life
Hetchy Hetchy is sometimes called small Yosemite Valley. It is very sceneric. We will have a hiking there.
4:00PM Going back for LA We can directly do back to LA along route 99 or if time avaiable, we may go to Highway #1 and finish our trip with the scenery of pacific coast.
This is a gift from my former housemate Crisanto. He is a really fun guy and very artistic. Unfortunately when I wanted to know more of this man, he left LA for Michigan.
Some phrases have the mysterious power to arouse the deep hidden feelings in your heart. "The call of the wild" is one of them. Since the first time I heard about this phrase at junior high school, it has been carved in my memory. From time to time it comes into my mind, sometimes when I am actually longing for the wildness, sometimes when I need to made decisions in front of uncertainties. The phrase is not only associated with adventure, deserts, mountains, forest, rivers, breast, but also associated with freedom, courage and ambition.
This phrase has been inspired and excited me since then. But it is not until now that I read the novel with the same name. This novel is authored by Jack London. The story is set in Alaska during the Gold Rush. The main character, a dog named Buck, who was raised in Santa Clara Valley as a domestic dog, was accidentally abducted to Alaska where he served as a toil dog. From the original world of love and peace to the world of fang and club (fight and blood), the hidden instinct of his ancestors emerged and finally Buck returned to a pack of wolves, living a life of his ancestors in the great plain of Alaska.
Besides this theme of Buck's struggle, I am more impressed by another theme: the process of a man growing up and adapting to the society. From this view of point, it talks about friendship, loyalty, loneliness, work ethic and determination.
We can interpret Buck's life at Judge Miller's mansion as a man's childhood. It is a troubleless time. As Pink Floyd describes in "The Thin Ice", "mom loves her baby, daddy loves you too". Parents carefully protects you from any dark side of the society.
Then after you grow up and have to face this world by yourself.
You meet different persons. Some of them are your classmates, some your colleagues, some your supervisors. You will discover various facets of humanity. [to be continued]
Progress: 2008-12-02 OK. my swimming lesson this semester is over this week. I had a great time in the pool. I swam one hour every workday for the whole semester. This semester was stressful and I got some precious relief in the water.
2008-11-17 Today I picked up sidestroke. I can do well on the left side, but usually leaped backward too much on the right side.
2008-11-14 I did not swim as much as before because the course work is heavy; Additionally, we switch to winter time now, as a result it is already dark when PED pool opens. I cannot see clearly.
I swam one hour this noon. I have mastered some basic skills; now I need to focus on balance and endurance.
2008-11-01
"Michael Phelps & me"
2008-10-29 Four full freestyle laps! Hurry!
2008-10-22 A remarkable progress: I somehow learned to breathe in freestyle, though it seemed awkward, un-orchestrated, and lack of rhythm. I was really excited when I suddenly found myself swimming across half lap.
Also I began to practice breaststroke.
Keep swimming! Floating Rock!
The amazing beauty of dolphin kicking: just like a fish
2008-10-15 "A rock got such a good score!" Thank you, William! I should be practitioner, but not be satisfied with being a theorist
2008-10-14 It was an busy and depressing week last week because of midterms and homeworks. I didn't swim as often as before.
Now I am preparing for the swimming course midterm. Here are some notes: 1. History of Swimming Founder of Red Cross swimming program: Wilbert E. Longfellow Dominant swimming stroke used in Europe in the 16th century: breaststroke
2. Survival Swimming
H.E.L.P Short for Heat Escape Lessening Posture.
Keep your legs together
Press both arms against your upper body
Keep your head out of the water
This position protects core area of the body from rapid heat loss.
Disrobing Disrobe yourself of your shoes, socks, pants, belt, shirt, hats, etc. Inflate trousers for shirts as a floating device.
Riptides Riptides, or rip currents, are long, narrow bands of water that quickly pull any objects in them away from shore and out to sea. They are dangerous but are relatively easy to escape if you stay calm. Do not struggle against the current. Most riptide deaths are not caused by the tides themselves. People often become exhausted struggling against the current, and cannot make it back to shore. Do not swim toward shore. You will be fighting the current, and you will lose. Swim parallel to shore, across the current. Generally speaking, a riptide is less than 100 ft. wide, so swimming beyond it should not be too difficult.If you cannot swim out of the riptide, float on your back and allow the riptide to take you away from shore until you are beyond the pull of the current. Rip currents generally subside 50 to 100 yards from shore.Once the riptide subsides, swim parallel to shore and then back to shore.
Boating Safety&Equipment emergency signal navigation aids: compass, GPS, life jacket navigation lights communication equipment: radio, cellphone, flares first aid kit alternative power: paddles, oares protective clothing: enough warm clothing Reference: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/equipment
Sculling Sliding the hands back and forth through the water creates a force perpendicular to the direction of the movement. This action is know as sculling. In chest-deep water, put your hands out in front of you with your fingers straight and close together. Turn your palms out and sweep your hands and forearms out to the side beneath the surface, then turn your palms in and sweep back to the center. If you scull continuously, you'll be tracing an elongated figure eight. Sculling is used extensively in back float.
Alternate breathing Breathing every third stroke, you alternate breathing on opposite sides Hypoxic Breathing Breath control swimming such as underwater swimming or breathing every fifth or seventh stroke in Front crawl. negative split
Swimming a Negative Split means that the second half of the distance is swum at a faster pace than the first half. For example, the following set:
1x 600: Negative Split
asks you to swim the second 300 yards at a faster pace and time than the first 300 yards. The idea is to control your pace at the beginning of the swim so that you have the energy necessary to swim faster at the end of the swim.
2008-10-02 Now I can finish a complete lap by backstroke, but made little progress in freestyle. The main obstacle is breathe. I gradually learn to lean my head to one side to take a breathe, but when my head gets into the water again, my nose feels very uncomfortable. So I have to grab the curb to take another breathe. This makes me a little bit of frustrated.
But I must say I really enjoy swimming. I go to the pool every workday. My muscle is becoming more powerful and I forget all worries and unhappiness in water. Sometimes I go to the deep water area, take a deep breathe and then immerse myself completely in the water. I hope to learn to how to thread the water soon.
2008-09-22 able to do 12-laps of kicking in the 25-yard pool without much difficulty. able to swim freestyle across the lap with two or three stops tried to do backstroke and can do few yards. The key point is to lean your head back and to straighten your body
But still don't learn how to breathe in freestyle. If you do, you can say you are able to swim now. Pay attention to the following points: 1) exhale all air out through the nose when you need to breathe . 2) rotate your head to the right side when right arm stroke back. 3) keep kicking and keep balance; 4) inhale quickly and deeply with the mouse
Also you need to learn to threading water so that you will be able to practice in deep water.
Here is my car, a Honda Accord of the year 2000. I bought this car about two months ago and gradually began to enjoy this big toy.
Many people are concerned my safety. Especially Laoyifu, who is an experienced driver, called me specially to teach me how to drive safely. His teachings includes: don't drive when you can't calm down; pay your full attention when driving; don't drive with a slippers on; and practice more before driving in freeway . I should feel guilty in regards to the last piece of advice because I mistakenly drove to the freeway on the very first day. I felt a little bit of scared at first; but fortunately there was a heavy traffic at that time as a result the speed was not that fast. I managed to leave the freeway few minutes later. Now I feel more comfortable when driving, both local and freeway, after two months' practice . I would like to thank all people who care about me. As far as now I am all right.
I have driven it to several places around Los Angeles, such as Santa Monica, Getty Center, Six Flags, Chinatown and Huntington Beach. It makes my world even bigger. I love it, good boy!
Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today. - James Dean
Goodbye to Randy Pausch!
It was a coincidence, but it became more meaningful if I linked those two things together.
Yesterday, I first came to know the quotation in the beginning of this post:"Dream as if you'll live forever; live as if you'll die today". At the time I was wondering in Target aimlessly. I just bought a car and drove myself to this super market. It made me feel excited and powerful to control this big toy. But on the other hand, I had a strong feeling I should do something more meaningful. The first year of my PhD life seemed so flat. There was nothing noticeable and I am not sure what I should do in the future. Then I went by the picture & frame section, a poster with a white-black portrait of a serious man attracted my eyes: there were a line saying "Dream as if you'll live forever; live as if you'll die today" and the man was James Dean.
This morning I heard of the death of Randy Pausch in New York Times: Randy Pausch, 47, Dies; His ‘Last Lecture’ Inspired Many to Live With Wonder. I expected this result when I first heard of Randy Pausch: miracles seldom happens in real life. Randy was a virtual reality pioneer, a computer scientists and a professor at CMU. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Aug. 2006; then he gave a series of lectures called "The Last Lecture" in the year of 2007, which inspired many people thanks to the internet. His most memorable lecture was about his childhood dreams and how he achieved them. If he had ever heard of James' words, he must have a better understanding of it.
CHERRY PICKING TIME: It's the season to load up on fresh cherries. For a fun family outing, head to the cherry orchards in the Leona Valley from June 6 through the end of the month.
Although more than two dozen orchards allow consumers to pick their own fruit, times and days vary. Most places provide all the equipment you'll need, including buckets, bags and containers.
Prices likely will average about $2 a pound if you pick your own (a few orchards also sell picked cherries). Take cash since some growers don't take credit cards. Ask if you can taste-test varieties to find the cherry you like the best.
If you go, make the trip worthwhile and pick plenty as the cherries will last two to three weeks in the refrigerator and are easily frozen whole with stems attached for a snack long after the season is over.
To get to the Leona Valley from the San Fernando Valley, take the Antelope Valley Freeway (14) north and exit at Palmdale Boulevard. Go left (west) 10 miles on Palmdale Boulevard to 90th Street and look for the cherry orchard signs. For more information, call the Leona Valley Cherry Growers Association hotline at (661) 266-7118.
The annual cherry parade starts at 10 a.m. June 14 on 90th Street west at Leona Avenue and goes north to Elizabeth Lake Road where it proceeds east. Plan to arrive early in the morning, before the roads close.
