Me All Me

2010 Christmas Midnight Holy Mass

2010-12-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

Elvis sing "Miracle of the Rosary

2010-09-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the Elvis Youtube:

And here's the lyric:

Oh blessed mother we pray to thee
Thanks for the miracle of your rosary
Only you can hold back
Your holy son's hand
Long enough for the whole world to understand

Hail, Mary full of grace
The Lord is with thee
Blessed are thou among women
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Oh holy Mary dear mother of God
Please pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death
And give thanks once again
For the miracle of your rosary

(Words & music by L. Deanson)

Restoring Honor, America!

2010-08-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

The trip that was!

2010-07-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

The internet on the boat has became unworkable with only four open lines and it's often not available even when a line is open. So the daily posting for this blog became unworkable. The followings were some of the unpolished feelings I jotted down from time to time -- some recordings of the trip and the conference. All in all it was a good conference, I am glad that I was being invited to attend and accepted the invitation even my physical condition is not quite in good shape. As an older person limping around through out the conference, I made peace with my inevitable condition. Now that I am home and have been relaxing for a few days, I am glad that I have this experience. At the end, the conference organizer sent a questionnaire inviting us to evaluate the conference and asking if we'll be back. My answer was not sure -- most others answered positively. Nevertheless i made all kinds of conference travels, this Volga River Cruise will be certainly be one of the most memorable ones!

7/14/2010

Woke up in the morning before 5 am and felt pretty much refreshed. Since it’s a bright morning out there, the sun has already been up for a while, so I got up, washed up, and took an early morning walk around the deck. It’s so tranquil and peaceful, the boat, the river, along with a few early morning fishing boats near the river banks here and there, and all are so peaceful and quiet. One can unmistakably feel these are all God’s creation, what a wonderful handiwork He made, and He is out there looking over us.

I chatted with Efim Pelinovsky briefly last night at the party. I thanked him for inviting me to this symposium and I can hardly believe that I am really cruising in the Volga River right now, which holds so much of my fascination since childhood. As I suspected, he was interested in seeing me bring some message of real life freaque waves to the theoreticians. I am not certain that I could, because I did talked to a theoretical physicist who talked about theoretical modeling as I indicated to him we need real measurement to find out what is needed to modeling. Somehow there was no meeting of mind as he politely thanked me for the discussion and left. That’s probably the kind of realms I have expected from this conference, no surprise here!

Well, today is just started!

7/15/2010

Yesterday I tried to be restful except went onshore briefly to find a bank and changed for some local money, bought some postcards and a travel book in English about this area we are passing through. I enjoyed the early morning walk around the deck very much, so I’ll try to make it a daily exercise. Somehow when I come into the internet connection room early morning, I can’t get connected. O well, I’ll come back later. It seems that no one can fix the not operating internet connection this morning. That’s what’s happening!

There will be an excursion this morning I think I’ll be joining them to do the touristy thing. The boat has already arrived in Yaroslavl. So stay toned!

Well, I took the excursion to Yaroslavl, an old town that is preparing to celebrate millennium later this year. We visited a couple of monasteries. I can see plenty of catholic connections there. Somehow I did not derive too much spiritual feelings. I guess I am more of a tourist than a pilgrim. Besides, it’s a typical hot summer day and my walking was still far from healthy as expected. Nevertheless I generally enjoyed the excursion. Love to take pictures. Tomorrow there will be another one.

7/16/2010

Now that we are drawing closer toward St. Petersburg, this morning we’ll be arriving at the town called Goritsy, we are no longer in Volga River anymore. We are now in a large lake called Rybinsk Sea after gone through a major lock this morning. Actually yesterday we also went through a similar set-up called Gorkiy Sea. If not noticing the widening of the viewing field, one can hardly notice the difference. All are nicely smooth and quiet – no waves except those generated by the ship’s track!

Today’s excursion is a visit before lunch to the town of Kirillov on Lake Silverskoye, only a short bus ride away. We are allowed to take pictures of outside but not inside where they have collections of historical stuffs. The monastery was known to have assembled a number of cathedral and churches. I did not really see any actual churches around somehow. As all the things are basically in the renovation mode, we are just witnessing tourist attraction in preparation. I guess the monastery properties were nationalized during the “Soviet” times, only now they are returned to the church people and they are rushed to make them available for tourist business. So far all of our excursions have been monastery visits. Another day, another monastery visit! My main complain would be that amidst the tourist attractions, spiritual aspect of the visits that could be a nice by-product of a visit but it has been completely lost. Oh well!

7/17/2010

I first got up at 2 am local time to try to make use of the internet. I was able to read Tina’s message and her travelogue. I composed a reply but the internet was out again. I then slept for a couple more hours when the internet is nicely working again to finally send the message out to Tina. They are just about at the finishing days of their cruise while we have still about 3 days to go yet.

This morning our boat is going down stairs toward lower levels. It has already gone through a few locks. It is going down on another one as I am typing right now. There is nothing special, just new experience for me.

Being alone, even though everything is reasonably comfortable, I am getting a little bit impatience. Tomorrow afternoon can’t come soon enough for me to present my paper. At least today should be leisurely since there is no excursion today. My hip recovery is still ongoing. Yesterday I went on to the excursion with carrying my cane. Somehow I don’t feel that sufficient progress has been made yet. A couple of people have been jogging around the deck this morning. I wish I could do that again someday s

7/18/2010

Today is my regular calendar birthday that I never celebrate. A date only my mother had noticed and told me. It should be my birthday. But since my parents always celebrated my birthday on the 18^th day of the lunar sixth month, this has become only the birthday I now notice to myself in passing.

This afternoon in the session of “mini-symposium on rogue waves in nature” after the afternoon coffee break, I presented my paper following the opening talk of Efim Pelinovsky. It was held in the top deck bar room, a very comfortable room. The room was quite full when I was making my presentation. I think I did reasonably well. Later in the dinner party, Efim personably thanked me for the presentation. He is a busy guy who organized the session, presented two papers in the session, and tomorrow will be also give a plenary lecture. Anyway, I was happy that it was over and done with. I messaged to Tina tht “My mission is accomplished!”

The dinner party later in the early evening was not much fun, too crowded with boat full of people in a rather smaller room. Not enough vegetables or fruits to choose from. I just managed to eat whatever I can grab through the crowds.

Well, one more day!

7/19/2010

We arrived at Valaam this morning, the last stop before St. Petersburg tomorrow. We took a long excursion to the monastery 6km away on a different part of the island from where we port. We actually took a boat ride to get there. With my walking difficulty, I managed to make the excursion. At one time there was a lot of stairs to climb up. I almost decided not to do it. But I did otherwise there will be no excursion. So the story is that I did not my slow recovery get me down. Every hurdle I get over, I told myself so far so good! That’s the characteristics of this trip: every so far so good at a time!

7/21/2010

The conference is over. We arrived at St. Petersburg early morning. After breakfast, a bus took us to the airport. On the bus ride we went through of the city so we did have seen some sights of the city. That’s good enough for me. I am ready to go home! Spend some time waited for the flight at St. Petersburg Airport and a 3 and ½ hour SAS flight took me to Zurich and had a comfortable night at the airport hotel, Radisson Blu. Now I am back at the airport lounge waiting for the flight for Chicago. (On hindsight, maybe I should choose to go through Frankfurt again that way will get me home sooner. There’s a Chinese saying roughly translated as “A home-bound heart is like an arrow!” That pretty much sums my current feeling right now!

Eight hours and 44 minutes flight took me from Zurich to Chicago. Things have been relatively fine as good as one can be expected under the circumstances. My initial reaction to ORD was that’s a mad house with crowded people everywhere, at the immigration control and security entrance, thousands of people waited to rush through. But somehow just following the movement it all get through in due time. Now I am waiting for the flight to Detroit. The last part of the long trip is no short cut. I just called and talked to Teresa, a few hours yet to go through and I’ll be finally home sweet home! Deo gratias!

First port visit

2010-07-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

We made our first port of call today on the afternoon of the conference, a visit to a charming little town called Gorodets that has nearly a thousand year history. The town was found in 1152. Prince Aleksandr Nevsky died here. There was a statue of the prince. The above is a picture of me standing in front one of their Master Craftsmen’s house with the prince’s statue on the up right corner. I did not go into the house behind me when everyone else did, too much walking.

In the evening there was the conference opening party on the upper deck plenty of all kinds of foods with lots of Vodka’s around, I settled for my usual orange juice.

A long day

2010-07-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

Well, a long day indeed, I finally came aboard the conference boat – George Zukov, named after the WWII famous general. The flight from Frankfurt to Nizhny was nice and smooth and by virtue of my special order of low salt diet I was even served a nice piece of fresh fish for dinner!

There were 40 people from that flight supposedly to come to this conference. The organizer had prepared a big bus to take us all to the boat. The Russian immigration officer took time to check out each and everyone before let everyone in. I waited outside his booth for at least 10 minutes before got my pass. The bus ride was kind of long and slowly went across the city to come to the boat harbor. It was close to mid-night and naturally dark outside so we did not see much. It’s a relatively small boat with only three floors of cabins. No comparison to ocean cruise ships here. But all in all a reasonably comfortable arrangement.

I guess I must be tired, I fall soundly sleep before waking up in the morning.

So far so good!

2010-07-12T01:55:00.000-07:00

Here I am relaxing at the Sky-club-lounge in terminal 2 of the Frankfurt airport. After a delayed 7 hour Lufthansa flight from Detroit. I am still having plenty of time for my next flight to Nizhny Novgorod this afternoon. I like the non-rushed flight schedule, especially now my walking is always at the super-slow-motion mode. Anyway, the trip is so far so good. The only drawback is that I am travel by myself. I enjoyed our trip too Orlando to visit Tina, Mike, CJ, and Anna so much because Teresa was with me. Now that I am going to a conference basically, I am on my own. Come to Europe does not really feel like foreign anymore. But going to Russia, at least in anticipation, I am very much having the feeling of going to a foreign land. But this is an opportunity I welcome; I have been really looking forward to this trip. It is interesting that Tina, Mike and the girls are on a cruise in Alaska right now. We are traveling at the opposite side of Siberia. Tina has been writing a travelogue, I am committing my thoughts on this personal blog. As I have told Tina that old Chinese saying of traveling 10-thousand miles would equivalent to reading 10-thousand books. Traveling is always educational to everyone even old guy like me!

Getting ready for FNP 2010

2010-07-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

I am getting ready to go to Russia tomorrow to attend the FNP, Frontier of Nonlinear Physics, 2010 Conference onboard a Volga River boat cruise. It will be an adventure. I will be presenting an invited talk in the mini-symposia “Rogue Waves in Nature” next Sunday. Until then I should just relax and enjoy the adventure. I pray God to keep me safe and sound for the weeklong cruise.

This day!

2010-06-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

I just realized that today, June 29, 2010, which is a feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul for Catholics and it is also an important milepost day for me personally. On June 29, 1950, when I was 15 years old, I was baptized to be a catholic by Father W. W. Cheng along with a few others. Yes, it’d been 60 years. Oh how times fly! Over the years, I have been deeply faithful, I have been crudely indifferent, I have been practicing, I have been non-practicing, but through it all, I have always firmly kept my catholic faith and maintained my catholic identity even during the years when I was not practicing. I don’t think that’s anything I can claim credit for but clearly something I have to be grateful to God’s mercy that He did not abandon me throughout all these years. May be the last part of Reading II in today’s mass, 2Tim 4:17-18, is pertinent :

And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat

and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.

To him be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Station of Cross (Vatican 2005)

2010-04-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus takes up his Cross
3. Jesus falls for the first time
4. Jesus meets his Mother
5. The Cyrenian helps Jesus carry the Cross
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls for the second time
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem who weep for him
9. Jesus falls for the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
11. Jesus is nailed to the Cross
12. Jesus dies on the Cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the Cross and given to his Mother
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb

Station of Cross

2010-03-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

Holy Rosary Joyful mysteries

2010-02-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part I

Part II

Part III

Holy Rosary Luminous Mysteries

2010-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

Part I

Part II

Part III

Holy Rosary Sorrowful Mysteries

2010-02-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

Part I

Part II

Part III

Holy Rosary Glorious Mysteries

2010-02-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

Part I

Part II

Part III

A Prayer in sickness…

2010-02-06T23:43:00.000-08:00

O Jesus, You suffered and died for us;
You understand suffering;
Teach me to understand my suffering as You do;
To bear it in union with You;
To offer it with You to atone for my sins
And to bring Your grace to souls in need.
Calm my fears;
increase my trust.

May I gladly accept Your holy will and
become more like You in trial.
If it be Your will, restore me to health so that
I may work for Your honor and glory and
the salvation of all men.

Amen.

Mary, help of sick, pray for me.

Hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help

2010-01-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion fill my soul when I pronounce thy sacred name, or even only think of thee. I thank God for having given thee, for my good, so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely pronouncing thy name: let my love for thee prompt me ever to hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.

1. Behold, O Mother of Perpetual Help, at thy feet a wretched
sinner, who has recourse to thee and trusts in thee. O Mother of
mercy, have pity on me; I hear all men call thee the refuge and
hope of sinners: be therefore my refuge and my hope. Help me for
the love of Jesus Christ: hold out thy hand to a fallen wretch,
who commends himself to thee and dedicates himself to be thy
servant forever. I praise and thank God, who of His great mercy
hath given me this confidence in thee, a sure pledge of my eternal
salvation. Alas, it is only too true that in the past I have
fallen miserably, because I did not come to thee. I know that with
thy help I shall conquer; I know that thou wilt help me, if I
commend myself to thee; but I am fearful lest in the occasions of
sin I shall forget to call upon thee and so I shall be lost. This
grace, then, do I ask of thee; for this I implore thee, as much as
I can and know how to do; namely, that in the assaults of hell I
may ever run to thy protection and may say to thee: Mary, help me;
Mother of Perpetual Help, permit me not to lose my God.

Hail Mary, three times.

2. O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant me ever to be able to call
upon thy powerful name, since thy name is the help of the living
and the salvation of the dying. Ah, Mary most pure, Mary most
sweet, grant that thy name from this day forth may be to me the
very breath of life. Dear Lady, delay not to come to my assistance
whenever I call upon thee; for in all the temptations that assail
me, in all the necessities that befall me, I will never leave off
calling upon thee, ever repeating: Mary, Mary. What comfort, what
sweetness, what confidence, what tenderness fills my soul at the
sound of thy name, at the very thought of thee! I give thanks to
our Lord, who for my sake hath given thee a name so sweet, so
lovable, so mighty. But I am not content merely to speak thy name;
I would utter it for very love of thee; it is my desire that love
should ever remind me to name thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.

Hail Mary, three times.

3. O Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of every
grace that God grants us in our misery; it is for this cause that
He hath made thee so powerful, so rich, so kind, that thou
mightest assist us in our miseries. Thou art the advocate of the
most wretched and abandoned sinners, if they but come unto thee;
come once more to my assistance, for I commend myself to thee. In
thy hands I place my eternal salvation; to thee I entrust my soul.
Enroll me among thy most faithful servants; take me under thy
protection and it is enough for me: yes, for if thou protect me, I
shall fear nothing; not my sins, for thou wilt obtain for me their
pardon and remission; not the evil spirits, for thou art mightier
than all the powers of hell; not even Jesus, my Judge, for He is
appeased by a single prayer from thee. I fear only that through my
own negligence I may forget to recommend myself to thee and so I
shall be lost. My dear Lady, obtain for me the forgiveness of my
sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance and the grace to have
recourse to thee at all times, O Mother of Perpetual Help.

Hail Mary, three times.

Best time-line for Chinese history

2009-12-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

As one who was born and grown up on Chinese Mainland and Taiwan before coming to the United States, I must confess that I have never really pay much attention to Chinese History. Only now after spent a practically life time away from my native land, do I realize the profound and richness of the history I failed to appreciate and learn as a youngster. Fortunately there's internet now so that I can slowly pick up some of the knowledge somehow I should have learned long time ago. Better late than never!

One of the drawbacks in the history classes I had was the disconnect between the Chinese history we learned and the World history in general. For instance I can casually recite the sequence od major dynasties in history, but never know the centuries those dynasties are corresponding to. Today I discovered a detailed timeline from this web site to remedy that. I have seen a number of timeline types over the years, I think this one is the best.

I think the table is by and large historically correct. Except an impoetant flaw on the item next to the last one needs to be pointing out. At the end of the timeline it indicated that the Republic of China to be "A.D. 1911 - 1949" which is absolutely WRONG! The Republic of China did not ended in 1949, not at all! The Republic of China is alive and well in Taiwan, has instituted the best democratic system all the future Chinese people can expect to follow, and will celebrate her centennial in two years. If there is one thing the commie thugs that's controlling the mainland government are afraid of the Republic of China in Taiwan right now is ROC's flourishing democratic system. They are trying everything to destroy it. One technique they are using currently is the vain "unification." Fortunately people in Taiwan are too smart to fall for this. Long live the Republic of China!

Me and my birthdays

2009-08-17T05:13:00.000-07:00

The following is an entry to my Yahoo blog last year after my birthdays. Since yahoo blogs are closing and this entry says something about me, now I am another year older, I thought it's appropriate that I copy it here with some small modifications as part of this new "Me all Me" blog.

I was born on the eighteenth day of the sixth month of the twenty-fourth year of the Republic of China, which was really July 18, 1935 A.D. As most of the people in my parents’ generation, however, life’s festivities such as the new years and the birthdays are mostly celebrated according to the lunar calendar dates. So for most parts of my grown up years at home, my birthday is always the 18th day of the 6th month of the lunar calendar. The other dates never really registered in my mind. When I applied for a passport for the first time to prepare coming to the U.S. for advanced studies, I filled the form for my birthday without thinking as 06-18-1935. That, of course, is really not my birthday but had become my official birthday for the rest of my life. The result of all these is that makes me strangely to be a person of three birthdays: the lunar birthday which my parents celebrated with me when they were alive; my official birthday on all the documents; and a regular calendar birthday (i.e. July 18th) which should be my birthday in the first place but I never celebrate. I don’t usually celebrate any of them anyway, but somehow every year only when all three of the birthdays come and gone before I am really able to feel that I am finally getting a year older.

Today, July 20, 2008, is the 18th day of the 6th month on the lunar calendar this year. Yes, today is my birthday – the last of my three birthdays. I am really 73 years old now! What’s the big deal of being 73? Well, to me it’s a psychological milestone. I suspect many Chinese may feel this way. Because at 73, I am officially exceeded the life span of Confucius. One of the Confucius’ famous sayings that most Chinese have learned at one time or another and can recite readily is this: "吾十有五，而志于學，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳順，七十而從心所欲，不踰矩。" which can be approximately translated as:

At age fifteen, I dedicated myself to learning.
At thirty, I established my own stand.
At forty, I extricated myself from delusions.
At fifty, I fully perceived my predestination.
At sixty, I can recognize truthfulness from all that I’m hearing.
At seventy, I can follow the wish of my heart’s content without fretting about wrong doing.

Then he died at age 72.

So being someone who made it into exceeding Confucius’ life span, to me, it also signifies that I am now entering a brand new reign in life which is totally free from the shadow that Confucius cast over Chinese life for over 2.5 millenniums. As one whose ambition is to be a centenarian, this is certainly an important first step toward that goal.

Que Sera, Sera, I am on my way!

Wait a minute. No one can make it here on their own. Everyone who celebrates birthday should always be thankful, thanks be to God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth. It is Him that decide whatever will be, will be.

Sing Hail Mary in traditional Chinese

2009-08-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

With this singing of Hail Mary in traditional Chinese I found on the Youtube, I am starting my 3rd blog. This is all personal, all about of, by, and for myself. It is Me, all Me, nothing but Me!

This version of the singing of Hail Mary in traditional Chinese serves as the gateway for me to get in touch with my own past. By the way, I say traditional Chinese, that does not mean the written characters. The Catholicism has been in China for more than 400 years since Ming Dynasty. The many Catholic prayers in Chinese must have been in use for hundreds of years. For reasons I can never understand, in the late 1980's the Catholic church authority in Taiwan decided to "modernize" the prayers by changing them all to newer versions. For instance the Hail Mary is traditionally as:

萬福瑪利亞，滿被聖寵者，主與爾偕焉。
女中爾爲讚美，爾胎子耶穌, 並爲讚美。
天主聖母瑪利亞，為我等罪人，
今祈天主，及我等死候。
亞孟

Now becomes:

萬褔瑪利亞，你充滿聖寵 ! 主與你同在。
你在婦女中受讚頌，你的親子耶穌同受讚頌。
天主聖母瑪利亞，求你現在和我們臨終時，
為我們罪人祈求天主。
阿們

I don't see any valid reason to justify the change this new version whatsoever. I still think it's silly, if not wrong, to do this. For one thing the Catholics were unified for two thousand years, now they drive the older and younger Catholics into separate camps. Totally senseless. (I notice the Catholics in U.S. also tried to do some modernization, such as change "the Lord is with thee" to "the Lord is with you" which most people just ignored them.)

Now back to Me, an important element of my past was being a member of Sodality of Our Lady under the spiritual direction of Father Michael Chu during the few years before my coming to U.S. to start a new life. Our Sodality met weekly on Friday evenings as I remember. Every time after the meeting we all stand up and sing together the Hail Mary before dispersal. I never thought about it for many, many years until about 10 years ago when I had an opportunity to watch the video of Father Chu's funeral mass recording. The recording including the burial at the Jesuit Cemetery at Ching Mountain in central Taiwan. Everything went smoothly, then at the end they all standing around Father Chu's new grave and sing this Hail Mary. I have not heard or sung that for all those years, but suddenly that beautiful and familiar melody brought back of all the memories of those bygone years and instantly drove me into uncontrollable tears. I was alone then and I realized that song of Hail Mary is more than just a thing of my past, it is part of my life. I am happy now the Youtube brought the song to my fingertip. It is not a very good rendition, similar but much better than what we did at those Sodality meetings. I guess in there it meant for the audience to join in the singing but they did not seem to have. Anyway I am happy to have found this song and use it to start this personal blog of Me All Me. Yes, it is personal, therefore may be boring to others already, please feel free to leave.