You are what you meme

For those not familiar with the current language, "meme" basically means idea or a thing that represent idea (e.g. a picture) As a verb it means passing around those things. Maybe I should be glad that I started college and career before the "age of meming" As you can see I like to write (>1000 of posts on various blogs) I cannot guarantee all of them are unoffensive to no one. Kids, learn from these 10 "was-accepted-by-Harvard-but-not-anymore" students. Yes, everything you post will count against you.

《着色山水》熱

早前澳洲之旅在紐西蘭奧克蘭轉機，竟然派發免費中文報紙華頁(Mandarin Pages)，當局對中國旅客（及移民？）似乎頗為重視，我當然順手拿了一份，閒來讀一點，早幾天讀到其中一篇關於新發現中國古畫《着色山水》的報導，原來美國密芝根大學在我飛那一天舉行了和此畫有關的研討會，此畫之所以如此受重視，皆因有學者認為可能出自著名詩人兼畫家王維的手筆！專家朱紹良先生對鑒定此畫提出幾個入手點，例如服飾、建築方面，值得參考（以上連結也包括該畫的圖片。）

大笨鐘

小時候所認識的英國名勝中，大笨鐘算數一數二，大個才知那是音譯英文Big Ben，原意和笨無關，Ben好可能是紀念當時一位土木工程師Sir Benjamin Hall，他也是負責監管工程的國會議員，其名字有份刻在鐘上。我一直以為那是整座鐘樓的名字，原來Big Ben只是指那被敲出聲的巨鐘而已，鐘樓其實以伊利沙白女皇命名。

Sports highlights: Back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion, first time NASCAR winner

After the European football season is over, I had to switch my focus on another championship: this year's Stanley Cup final was a great one, pitting one of my favorite sports team, the Pittsburgh Penguins against the relatively newcomer Nashville Predators. Since the Pens have won last year, I won't feel too bad if they fail to defend. After all, it's hard to repeat as champ in many pro Sports in this day of age. (That's why Real Madrid's back-to-back European cup was hailed as a big achievement) Just when I thought it's a piece-of-cake when the Pens won the first two games of the series at home, they lost the next two away. Then won 1 at home again. So they were 3-2 at Nashville last night trying to clinch the title. And unlike the previously high-scoring contests, it was 0-0 until the last 2 minute of regulation! Both goalies were at their best and proved they were the elite of the elites. At the end something have to give and it's a lucky bounce that scored an "ugly" game-winning goal for the Pens. My family was surprised that I am actually a long time Penguin fan, which I try not to show too much when they played against the local fav San Jose Sharks! I jumped on the bandwagon in the early 90s when Super Mario and Jaromir Jagr reigned supreme winning the first two of the 5 cups they have now. The current dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have actually surpassed their predecessor by winning the next 3 together!

After writing about a five-time winner, I would like to change the topic to a first time winner on the same day. That's Ryan Blaney of NASCAR Cup Series, winning at Pocono. Seems like many rooted for him to win because of the history of his team owners, the legendary Wood brothers. (I just found out one of the driver-turned-announcer Michael Waltrip used to ride for them and won an All-Star race. No wonder) The No. 21 car has been strong and especially at the end passing the then-leader Kyle Busch with about 10 laps to go. To be fair, if there was another caution and re-start, his car will probably be over-taken by the "Closer" Kevin Harvick. FOX sent fellow cup driver Brad Keselowski as a reporter to the Victory Lane to interview Blaney, who did the opposite one day ago for the Driver-only broadcast of the Xfinity race at the same racetrack. BTW, that really made interesting TV. Hope there will be more Driver-only broadcasts in the future!