A Big Earthquake

Magnitude 5.6 - SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
2007 October 31 03:04:54 UTC

⊙Earthquake Details:
Magnitude>> 5.6
Date-Time>> Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 03:04:54 UTC
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 08:04:54 PM at epicenter

Location>> 37.432°N, 121.776°W
Depth>> 9.2 km (5.7 miles)
Region>> SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
Distances>> 8 km (5 miles) NNE (31°) from Alum Rock, CA
11 km (7 miles) E (91°) from Milpitas, CA
15 km (9 miles) NE (45°) from San Jose City Hall, CA

Location>> Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.1 km (0.1 miles); depth +/- 0.4 km (0.2 miles)
Parameters>> Nst=250, Nph=250, Dmin=3 km, Rmss=0.07 sec, Gp= 32°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=3
Source>> California Integrated Seismic Net:
USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR

Event ID>> nc40204628

⊙Data Source: <http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc40204628.php#details>


mmm......the picture on the top is changing, and I just noticed that. =. .=;;

Never mind! That's talk about something in this earthquke.↓


The day before Halloween, we met the First big earthquake in the U.S. at that night.
It looked like a spooky present from God, especially the following day was Halloween.XD
However, Carol and I still sit on our chairs and didn`t want to run outside because it jsut moved horizontally.
We jsut waited to move when it started to move vertically, but I think the problem is where we come from because Taiwan has lots of earthqukes.
Even though Louis had already hidden under his desk, and James run everywhere, we totally didn't want to move away from our bedroom.XDXDD
Thus, I just looked the pile of my books and DVDs fell down. ( Maybe it was time to clean them up.= =;;;;)
About 20 second later, the earthquake stopped, and my uncle said that we didn't have enough alertness to face the earthquake.
Nevertheless, we just are used to meet an earthquake. (It sounds a little dangerous.)
In conclusion, we got a spooky expreience from the night before Halloween.

"I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry"

Yesterday, it was the first time I went to movie theater in U.S.A.. My friends and I decided to see the latest one, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry."

This movie is about two firemen, Chuck(Adam Sandler) and Larry(Kevin James), they are good friends. One accident in their job, Chuck says he can do anything for Larry who saves his life. Because Larry wants to guard himself from naming his own children as his life insurance beneficiaries, he decides to find Chuck to help him. And the way to slove this problem is that he needs Chuck marries with him!?

I think it is very interesting and funny!! My mouth couldn't stop laughing from the movie to start. However, when the plot mentions some felling of a family, I also feel it is so touched. Although the critics only give normal appreciation, it is top-grossing in U.S.A., even better than "Harry Potter." I still think it is a good comedy to me.

By the way, you can see the tralier and guess who the pastor in their wedding. It is an amzing guy ! XD



If you want to see more information about this movie, you can go to here:
Yahoo! Movies@ I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007)

Yosemite

After the tour of Golden Gate Bridge, next day we turned to Yosemite. It was a long journey to arrive there. We took four hours go to Yosemite, it was 1 pm.. After lunch, we decided to drive for our trip.

Yesterday, we went to San Franscisco, it was so cold. Today, when we depart form San Jose, the weather looked as cloudy as yesterday. Some people wore more clothes because they were afraid the clod and strong wind, especially we wanted to go to the mountain. Who knows? The weather in Yosemite was very nice. Big sunshine, cool wind, no more cloud, everything looked great, expect the heavy clothes. XD That's ok, we drove to see the view, it was a way to avoid ouselves being more sweat.

The air of Yosemite was very fresh. You can breath the smell of trees, it made me feel relax. It let me forget I still had lots of homework not finish. When we drove along the road, every changes of the scenery made me amazing. Every scenery looked like a painting. I though that a camera can't catch its really beauty and brilliance. My uncle asked me what different between Yosemite and Hualien in Tiawan. I said it is lots of differences. The trees in Yosemite were slimer but taller. The mountain were higher, but as beautiful as Hualien.



We also saw many crows and squirrels in Yosemite. When we left Yosemite, we also saw a younger deer jump across a barrier beside the road. It was pity for me not to take a picture for it. Because we drove too fast, when I found my camera, we had left it far away. T-T Whatever, I had to think what I can do for the next four hours. It was an other long way home.

Golden Gate Bridge

Last Saturday, I went to Golen Gate Bridge in San Francisco. That was a clod day, cloudy, and a little rainy. About one hour, we arrived San Francisco Bay form San Jose. When we stoped, I could see the Golden Gate Bridge. God, SF was more colder then SJ! You didn't see the sunshie, only cloud liked mist above the sky. So, the top of Golden Gate Bridge also was covered by the white cloud. I thought we didn't wear enough coat to keep warm, beacuse I felt cold.

We kept driving to next stop, the Front Point. It was nuder the brdige. There was a guard stood in the fornt of the door. The building had three flood high, and there were some wepons for exhibition. You could buy some post cards in the Front Point bookstore.

After lunch in the back of cars, we decided to walk form Front Point to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a little long distance, when I climbed higher, I could see more clearly. We arrived to the red Golden Gate Bridge, there were lots of tourists visit there, everyone held a camera and took many pictures,and we do so. But, I was colse to the bridge, the wind was stronger and colder. We only went the half distance of the bridge, about 0.6-mile-long, but our hair were a mass. My friend told me, the ropes of the bridge could be around the Earth three times, and this building was a great engineering marvel of the world. Now I saw it, and I agreed that.

We drove again, then arrived Fishermans Wharf. We wnated to take a boat to travle San Francisco Bay. Before we aboard, we had some time to view the strees. There have lots of people, maybe it was weekend, and there were many interesting signboards and performance. We even saw a tricker who stood on the stage played trick, it was very funny. Then we went to see the sealions, but maybe it was so cold today, few sealions we could see. It was time to aboard, everyone took a small radio to choose which langurage you want to listen and start our jounary. We could see all San Francisco Bay area, and the famous prison, Alcatraz. I knew it because some movie, but it was famous by its history. The boat drove to the Gloden Gate Bridge then back. When I closed to the briger, I felt this engineer was so great. There was a good trip for me, except the clod wind.

Juay 4th, 2007

July 4th was USA's birthday, and it was also the first time I met. That was a holiday, so I didn't go to class and took a rest. This noon we went to my uncle's brother's house to have a potlucs. My anty and uncle's mother and his anty waked up early to cook. They were good in cooking, many delicious food were made. When we came to the place, they had aready for waiting us. I had a good lunch in this afternoon.

Maybe yesterday I was late for going to bed, I felt too tired. Then I came home earily to sleep. When I waked up again, it was 8pm.. After dinner, I heard the sound of the firework. I thought this is my first time to see the firework in US, my cusion and I took ecah field glass and went out to find a clear view to see. Near the house, there was a building like a temple, because it stood in perch, so we went to there. There were lots of cars and people came here waiting for the firework to start. We stood in parking area and saw the firework shoot off in the dark sky. When you looked form the mountain, you could see all downtown. The night scenes and the little fireworks arise a special view. When I was in Taiwan, I always saw the firework was bigger and splendour, but now it looked like small flowers open everywhere. I had very different feeling at this night.



By the way, I took my camara and wanted to took some pictures of the firework, almost of them were failed. Although I failed, a few of them still had interesting pictures. Like this picture, don;t you think it look like a UFO? XD

Oh yes, I also saw some SMILEs in the sky. Did anyone see them? ^_______^

Let's Go Yankee!! Let's go Giants!!

Last Saturday, my cusion and I took Galtrain to San Fransisco for wathcing a baseball game. It was New York Yankee vs. San Fransisco Giants. It was a interesting thing on the train. A checkup man spoke by the speaker to all passengers, "If you come from California and you want to see Yankee, you will in big trouble." But I was not in any trouble.XD That's really funny. When we arrived to SF, there were lots of Giants's and Yankee's fans, they almost crowded the train station. Giant's fans yelled louder for cheering. The feel was very exciting. I really liked it.

My purpose was to see the Yankee's picther, Chien-Ming Wang. He come from Taiwan, many Taiwanese came here specially to see him, including of us.^________^ We sat in the outfield, although it was far, but we brought field glasses, even the bullpen, it made us see very clearly. God! field glasses was very useful!! \⊙▽⊙/ I tried to use field glasses to take more clear pictures. In fact, some pictures prove that I success. You see! What clear the picture is!! ﹨(╯▽╰)∕



When the game was playing in the bottom of the 7th inning, Wnag was changed suddenly by his coach because his finger got hurt. It was sad for this result. At the same time, Yankee won. But later, in the bottom of the 7th inning, Giants got 1 point and pull back. Ahahahahahah~~~~ what's happened???!!! I couldn't believe it! Giants even led 1 point in this inning. A-Rod's home run ball , though, only got the Yankees back to even in the top of the 9the inning. Passed by 3 hours, the game still played. Moreover, it total had 13 innings, about 5 hours. Jeez Louise! I was distraught with the time. Both they felt tried, and we did. We almost missed my last bus for the way home. Finally, the Yankee lost the game, it was 5-6, and the Giants was the winner... T-T It was pity to say, but they lost......Orz



However, I took so many Wang's pictures that they could comfort myself for the Yankee's loss. But, I still liked the feeling of the outfield for steping the ground and cheering, no matter they were Giants' or Yankee's fans. That's crazy, but interesting. I think I never foget this game in my life.

Go to the Church

Since I come to the United States, every Sunday we would go to the church with my aunty's family. They are christianizer, but my cousin and I are not.

The church in Canaan, San Jose. It is a branch of the Mountain View Church. Because my aunty's family lived there before. Moving to here, they still drive to the church in Canaan every week. All of them are from Taiwan, so they have Taiwanese worship service. Not Chinese, it is Taiwanese. Is it special? I think it is in America.^_______^

There also has English worship service. My aunty and uncle hope us can try to listen and talk to the youth for training our English skill. In fact, it's too difficult to me. When the pastor says very fluently, in the same time, I feel very confused. What is he talking about??? I can't understand any words!!!! Needless to say, I don't know how to talk to these youth at all. But, sometimes, in Saturday, the youth in church has some acitvies, like singing, playing, and studying the Holy Bible. Of course, all in English. Although I can't understand what they say, they tell us very friendly.

Pass by three weeks, I feel more comfortable than before. Now I can talk to the youth in English, even my English is very poor, and I still can't understand what the pastor says. But, I can understand when he is kidding.XD

Goodbye, Taiwan. Hello, San Jose

In the end of May, I left my hometown in Taiwan and fly to San Jose, CA, US.

When I arrived in the airport, the lady who worked here told us, she can change to bussiness class for us . OH, GOD!! Bussinsee Class!!!!! This is my First time to take a plane for business class, and it made me feel so exciting!!! BUT, only Taiwan to Hong Kong. For this 1 hour travel, we felt very comfortable. The seat was very big and had very function, the service was the best, no any machine didn't work, the food was very delicious, and the jam looked so expensive.XD



But we have to transfered to San Francisico form Hong Kong, it was VERY TIRED to waiting. We had to wait 4 hours to take the next plane to SF. Everything in the airport looked very expensive. Some sotres only recive Hong Kong's money, but we only have dollars. So, there were many foods what we want to eat, but we couldn't. It made me sad, because I felt hungry and asleep ...... in that time.



Finially we took the plane, it spent us many time. I believe NEXT TIME I dont want to transfer form Hong Kong, it was really tired.

When I see the sun of CA, it was spent for 11-13 hours. Oh, God. I only thought one thing: I wanted to fall into a soft BED right now.

Hello, San Jose, nise to meet you. But I had to sleep first. =. .= zZ