Han's Joke

Here is Han's another joke although last Sat. when I released him for a little break, he run out the field. It made me angry that I didn't mention he would be out of control like that. Okey! I should recall the funny thing that makes me smile.

Aug. 31 night, when I took Han home, we met Rainbow's masters (Rainbow is a four-month-old female golden-retriever). Han treated them as old friends whom have not seem for a long time and he even laid down on the street. I told them maybe sometimes they can take Rainbow to our lab to let them two cute dogs play together. (Actually, they took Rainbow to my lab next night that's Han's fourth birthday!!) It was a little late, so after about 15minutes, we said goodbye to each other.

On the way we went home, there is a guy took a bowl of instant noodles with him just several steps ahead. Han was so happy to see him and trying to say hello in his special way--jumping and biting someone. I stopped him even though the guy looked like to say hello to Han too, but he soon realized that Han is an over excited dog!! ^^: I took Han across the street, but he still was excited about approaching the guy over the street. I yelled "what are you doing?" to stop him, and the guy said "I just want to get across the street." with a scared tone. ^^:

Do you like this one? There's another one. I'll tell you later......:-)

Han's Diary 20080903

上個星期天晚上(8/31)，志偉心血來潮帶小馯去校園逛了至少半個小時，回來後，志偉去拿開水要給他喝，就在這個空檔，這小傢伙不停地在實驗室穿梭，我心裡才在納悶，明明他看起來很累，為何一點都不喘，很安靜地在實驗室裡繞來繞去。我怕他熱，還說要開電扇給他吹，他就在我腳邊躺了下來。忽然這傢伙的嘴巴動呀動的，就奇怪沒給他東西吃，為啥吃東西吃的津津有味，喝令他吐出來，你猜是啥?竟然是雞骨頭！！一邊覺得他亂吃東西，一邊又覺得這傢伙真是老實的可愛，從外頭叼了美味的骨頭回來卻沒有偷偷吃掉，硬是在我面前表演！看樣子～小馯還得跟小馱多學學，才能享受打野食的樂趣！哈～

9/1是小馯的生日，煮了紅蘿蔔排骨湯幫他祝壽一下！雖然我覺得他不太懂為何有大餐可以吃，還真感謝這個小朋友常帶給我們生活裡不停的爆笑效果。喔！～晚上rainbowl小妹終於出現了，一隻只有四個月大的小黃金，跟小馯玩得不亦樂乎。小馯多了個小小玩伴囉！

狂奔於中大湖的小馯

久違中大湖，帶小馯去了三次，第一次陰雨綿綿，第二次大雨滂沱，第三次太陽則微微露臉。而我最喜歡大雨滂沱的中大湖，除了沒有行人打擾的清靜，穿著雨衣陪小馯在雨中欣賞美麗的中大湖。小馯似乎很喜歡沒人的中大湖，在相思樹林裡前後左右不停地狂奔，還不忘回奔撞得我一身溼。這跟在家裡總是呼呼大睡的他很不相同，我也樂見大雨滂沱與興奮狂奔的小馯。

別離

我不喜歡離別，但因為相處過。在異鄉與異國人譜出難以抹滅的回憶。

送Saki去機場時，才意識到要分離了，雖然還是說說笑笑，雖然八月還可能在台灣相見，但就是有點捨不得。她是個知進退的瘋狂可愛小女生，朋友成群。我想她的人生會很精彩！希望她找到好工作，跟大地(Daichi)能續緣。

Yui則是同班兩期的同學，還住在一起兩個月。很懷念有她的日子，在她離開後，我就窩在她原來的房間裡寫這個回憶。言行舉止很規矩的她，是個派對女孩，平日乖乖地上課，週末則是個晚出早歸的女子。尤其回日本前的十幾天，她常不在家。One day she said, “Sorry! I’m a bad girl!!!” I said, “No! When I was your age, I did the same thing!!”  嗯！很有趣的對話，但我相信在最後的這幾天，她活的很開心！尤其最後一個晚上，家裡來了近二十個人，快把家裡給擠爆了！也快把這個安靜的社區搞翻過來。把她送上飛機，這難忘的二十個小時。

TV Programs Worth Watching

AECP A1 Essay #1

How many hours a day do you watch TV? Do you never stop switching the remote control to change the channels when you watch it? TV is one of the most popular entertainment media in the world. Many people spend a lot of time watching TV programs; for instance, the average Taiwanese watches TV for more than seventeen hours a week. As a result, it becomes more and more important for us to choose worthy TV programs to watch. There are numerous ways to pick suitable TV programs, but I think that TV programs worth watching depend on the age of the audience, the audience’s purposes, and the opinions of experts.

First of all, TV programs worth watching depend on the age of the audience. Actually, TV programs are always designed for different ages in many countries; thus, many countries have already set up a TV rating system, especially for protecting children. There are four ranks of TV rating systems in the U.S.; for example, TV-G is suitable for all audiences, TV-PG is parental guidance suggested, TV-14 is parental guidance for children under fourteen, and TV-MA is suitable for mature audiences. If the TV rating system is complete, you can easily choose the fit of TV programs to watch.

Second, TV programs worth watching depend on the audience’s purposes. The common types of TV programs are comedy, news, education, sports, game shows, reality shows, talk shows, teenage shows, soap operas, etc. Sometimes, we can learn new knowledge from TV, such as the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and National Geographic. If you like to travel, the Lonely Planet will be a good option; moreover, you can pick the news channels, like CNN, BBC, ABC, etc, and realize what is happening around you, in your country, or in the world. I like to watch the sports and dramas, such as ESPN, Friends, Lost, and the Nanny. By watching these TV programs, especially after an exhausting working day, I can feel really relaxed.

Finally, TV programs worth watching depend on the opinions of experts. An investigation that was made by the University of Washington in Seattle in 2006 found 40% of three-month-old babies and 90% of two-year-old children watched TV programs more than one hour a day in the U.S. Furthermore, if children are too young to start watching TV, there will be more serious effects than on older children. Other experts have said if children watch TV more than one hour a day, it will affect their attitude in school; in addition, if they watch TV more than three hours a day, they will have more problems in studying. For these reasons, parents should take care about not only what kind of TV programs their children watch, but also when they start to watch and how long they watch them.

All in all, we have different ways, like the TV rating system, your purposes, and the expert’s opinions to choose TV programs worth watching. At present, there are so many programs on TV, and in fact, you don’t want to watch most of them even once. If you want to spend a lot of time or you just have a little time to watch them, you had better have your own way to select the suitable TV programs for yourself and your children before you turn on the TV set.

The Snowy Owl

AECP A1 Assignment #2- Summary & Quotation

The Snowy owl is one of the biggest owls in the world and also the biggest bird in the Arctic area. Its length is 21-26 inches, but when it spans its wings, it could be 60-65 inches. The female owl’s body is about 20% bigger than the male’s. Although most of the owls go out for searching prey at night, the snowy owls always do that during the daytime. Their sharp claws called talons and eyesight help them to catch the lemmings and other kinds of mice for main food easily, and sometimes they eat rabbits and birds.

However, during the long and extremely cold winter in the Arctic area, it’s too hard for them to find enough food. The Wildlife Fact File (1991) stated, “The snowy owl is capable of fasting up to 40 days at a time. It survives on the thick deposits of fat under its skin” (p. 3), or they would migrate to the southern places, even to the Caribbean Sea. In the article, they indicated “they have long been rare in Europe, but a careful protection program enabled one pair to breed successfully in Scotland. In eight seasons, they had borne 23 healthy chicks” (Wildlife Fact File, 1991, p. 3).

Every May to September, the female owls that are more than two years old can lay one egg. It takes about one month to hatch the eggs; then the chicks can break the shells by themselves and stay with their parents about one and a half months before they have the ability to take care of themselves. The article says, “The owlets hatch after a 30-day incubation period, using a temporary ‘egg tooth’ to crack through their shells. At hatching, they are covered with thin, white down, which is soon replaced by a coat of sooty, black down. At 43-50 days, they can fly. After 60 days, they are able to hunt” (Wildlife Fact File, 1991, p. 2). The life-span of the owls can be up to fifteen years; on the other hand, if they are raised by humans, their life-span can be up to twenty-eight years, almost twice longer than life in the wild.

*Reference

Wildlife Fact File. (1994). Snowy owl. (Card 11, Group2: Birds), 1-4.

The Hairy Mammoth

AECP A1 assignment #3-Summary and Quotation

ps. I put it & "Snowy Owl" here because I love them and hope I did a good job in summary! Ha!

The hairy mammoths are the biggest elephants in the Earth’s history, but they all were extinct ten thousand years ago. The average hairy mammoth was 12 feet tall, and its weight could reach 13,225 to 15,450 pounds. The scientists discovered them in the Arctic area, such as “Siberia, northern Europe, northern Eurasia, and North America” (Wildlife Fact File, 1991, p. 4) and found there are many similarities between them and the modern elephants. By studying the modern elephants and the fossils of mammoths they have found, scientists can rebuild the amazing creatures now.

The hairy mammoths were vegetarians; therefore, they had big flat teeth to chew the plant that had a lot of fibers. They lived in one of the severest cold areas in the world, so they had to eat a large amount of food to maintain their fatty body and had hair to keep them warm. The Wildlife Fact File (1991) stated, “Their fat, which was especially thick around the shoulders, was used as an emergency store of food” (p. 3). Although they were the biggest animals at that time, they still had some predators, such as humans, Saber-toothed tigers, and wolves. Humans hunted the mammoths with spears and axes for food and clothing. The scientists guessed that only humans and wolf groups could hurt the adult mammoths because they hunted the mammoths in groups or with tools; on the other hand, the Saber-toothed tigers would prey only on the young mammoths.

The female mammoths could be pregnant after they were ten to twelve years old; furthermore, it took twenty-two months to gestate and just have a newborn from a conception. They liked to live together; thus, the pregnant and young mammoths could get good protection from other adults, and their lifespan could be up to sixty years.

*Reference

Wildlife Fact File. (1991). Hairy Mammoth. (Card 4, Group7: Prehistoric & Extinct Animals), 1-4.