Thursday, September 25, 2008

TBBT Se 02: The Bad Fish Paradigm

Episode 01

Why don't we just figure where we're going and when we want to get there, and then, rate of speed equals distance over time. - Leonard

***
Leonard: Sheldon, how can you let them spy on me?
Sheldon: They were clever Leonard. They exploited my complete lack of interest in what you were doing.

***
Howard: No, it's like, "This fish tastes bad, so I'm gonna slow down and spit it out."
Raj: You being the fish.
Leonard: I'm not the fish!

***
Raj: He was a lot more fun when he had no hope.
Howard: Give him time.

***
Penny: Sheldon? Can I ask you a question?
Sheldon; I would prefer that you not, but I won't go so far as to forbid it.
Penny: Alright, I heard "yes", so...

***
Sheldon: Oh. Well, a few years ago he did go out with a woman who had a Phd in French Literature.
Penny: How was that not a brainiac?
Sheldon: Oh, for one thing, she was French. Another is literature.

***
Sheldon: You're asking to keep a secret?
Penny: Yeah.
Sheldon: Well, I'm sorry but you would have had to express that desire before revealing the secret. So that I could choose whether or not I wanted to accept the confidence of secret-keeping.

***
Penny: I would absolutely die of embarrasment.
Sheldon: Physiologically impossible.

***
Penny: Look, I'm asking you as a friend.
Sheldon: So, you're saying that friendship contains within it, an inherent obligation to maintain confidences?
Penny: Well, yeah!
Sheldon: Interesting. One more question, and perhaps I should've lead with this. When did we become friends?

***
Howard: Shouldn't you put him on a brown paper bag and set him on fire?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

House (Season 2)

You know how people say you can't live without love, oxygen is more important. - Dr. House

...if Stacy can't trust you, you can't use her. - Dr. Wilson

Why is a guy on death row suddenly try to off himself? - Dr. House

Can't it be enough that I want to cause you pain? - Stacy

Oh no! Now you have left your entire body in my chair. - Dr. House

I'm the client, you moron! - Dr. Cuddy

It's the only reason why anybody does anything. - Dr. House

Everyone's got an opinion. - Dr. House

Don't worry. If it is you, no one would lift a finger. - Dr. House (to Dr. Chase)

Oh, you'll get all warm and cuddly around the dying girl and insinuate yourself and we'll end up in a custody battle. - Dr. House

If your patient's DNA is up by 1%, she'll be a dolphin. - Dr. House

Didn't sleep. Didn't breathe. I'm dying. - Dr. House

Exactly why you can't touch my markers. - Dr. House

Is it still illegal to perform an autopsy on a living person? - Dr. House

If it's Tuesday, I'm wasted. - Dr. House

So, her bravery was not a symptom. - Dr. Wilson

She stole a kiss from Chase. What have you done lately? - Dr. Wilson

I'm not gonna kiss you no matter what you say. - Dr. House (to a 9-year old girl)

The first casualty of this case is her sense of humor. - Dr. House

It's weird. Nothing funnier than almost killing a guy. - Dr. Wilson

The only good news is he won't be bitching about his arm if he can't breathe. - Dr. House

What if he was sick before his run in with gravity? - Dr. House

Sure. Only pavement hits that fast. - Dr. House

She's scarier than you are. - Dr. Chase

Why are you so curious about his curiosity? - Dr. Wilson

Four of them did. The question is why did I hire him. - Dr. Cuddy

My god, you're subtle! Something on your mind? - Dr. Cuddy

You two are just too nasty to each other not to have been... nasty. - Dr. Chase

Hey, I can be a jerk to people I haven't slept with. I am that good. - Dr. House

Oh. Check this out. It's fuzzy. It's black. It's alive. - Dr. House

You're right, I'm right. On the bright side, it has the advantage of keeping you totally responsible. - Dr. House

She's not acting like Cuddy. It's a pleasure. - Dr. House

My god, it's contagious! You're feeling guilty, too! - Dr. House

You're a good boss and you're not gonna be happy. - Dr. House

We'll if you live by the the river, I got a bag. - Dr. House

You see hypocrites everyday. Why is this one so special? - Dr. Wilson

You own disease? - Dr. House

Can't we just agree that you're just incredibly annoying? - Dr. House

Bizaare is good. - Dr. House

We are who people think we are. - Dr. House

Molecular mimicry. Nice! - Dr. House

Yeah, except in this universe effects follows cause. I've complained about it, but... - Dr. House

He was feeling better. He was never getting better. - Dr. House

You're just afraid of being wrong. - Dr. House

You just don't know how lucky you are. - Mr. House

I know. You're absolutely perfect just the way you are. - Mrs. House

Just the insane moral compass that won't let you lie to anybody about anything. It's a great quality for boy scouts and police witnesses, crappy quality for a dad. - Dr. House

He hates being a disappointment. - Dr. Wilson

So air is keeping him from breathing air. - Dr. House

I love it when you do both sides of the conversation. It's like white noise. It's very peaceful. - Dr. House

Either you screwed up or he's got cancer. - Dr. House

Congratulations Chase! He's got cancer. - Dr. House

Or repeat everything I say in question form. - Dr. House

Anger is not rational. - Dr. Wilson

You are healed. Rise and walk. - Dr. House

I want to apologize. Maybe I've been punishing you for a little too long. Or maybe you've been punishing me... I need to know, do you hate me? Or do you love me? - Dr. House

I hate you. And I love you. And I love Mark. - Stacy Warner

You'd be surprised what you can live with. - Dr. Wilson

Now let go of my cane before it becomes your new boyfriend. - Dr. House

It's not what you think. I know it looks like we're cleaning dishes but actually we're having sex. - Dr. House

His meds make him so much better so he made himself sick. - Dr. Foreman

Trying to win Stacy back by killing an animal. You're a caveman. - Dr. Wilson

He's too pretty to be straight. - a patient

Love is love. Satisfying is social validation, fun can wait. - patient

In a closet. Your girlfriend's other boyfriend showed up. - Dr. House

Why put on a raincoat when you're already wet? - patient

My giving a damn or not is not going to change anything. - Dr. House

Would you stop being nice? It's useless, and worse, it's boring. Get angry. One stupid night I end up with HIV. Do you have any idea how pissed off I was? - patient

Why, I had to? Mark isn't here. - Dr. House

Steve McQueen without hair? It's a blessing he died young. - Dr. House

She's fine. Probably getting bored by the question. - Dr. House

He though he was dying. Dying people lie, too. - Dr. House

What did you say when you thought you were dying? - Dr. Cameron

Playing by the rules makes everybody else, happy. Now, I'm happy. - patient

She thinks that he thinks that she's still have feelings for me. - Dr. House

He's alright. For a rat. - Stacy Warner

Sorry you're miserable. - Dr. House

Don't mind me? I'm just here for the show? - Dr. House

He steal her signature look? - Dr. House

I'm not an idiot. - Dr. Chase

Obviously not. Who doesn't sleep with a drugged-out colleague when they have a chance? - Dr. House

Not the kid, the rat! - Dr. Wilson

Not the rat, the dad! - Dr. House

Touch a dead fox, they jump aboard, they can hunker down for decades - growing, spawning, shopping, putting on plays... - Dr. House

Okay, it's cancer. You happy? - Dr. House

That's it? Okay? No name-calling? No squawking? No rending of garments? - Dr. Cuddy

You wanna kill yourself? Fine, but stop recruiting! - Dr. Cameron

Sure, why not! He hit me first. - Dr. House

I'm gay! Oh, that's not what you meant. - Dr. House

Monday, September 22, 2008

House (Season 1)

You can live with dignity. You can't die with it. - Dr. House

Here's what you need to know. It's dangerous. It could kill him. You should do it. - Dr. Foreman

Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. - Dr. House

It's either that or get my hair highlighted. I think smugness is easier to maintain. - Dr. House

Beauty often seduces us from the road to truth. Dr. Wilson

Reality is almost always wrong. - Dr. House

People don't bug me until they grow teeth. - Dr. House

It's a very sad thing - an uncalibrated centrifuge. - Dr. House

I'll keep the kid alive. For a while at least. - Dr. Chase

What can I say? Chicks with no teeth turn me on. - Dr. House

Her only sign of mental illness is that she disagrees with you. - Dr. Cuddy

Clarification. It's a beautiful thing. - Dr. House

Neither is being obnoxious. Looks like you're clear. - Dr. Chase

'cause you irritate me. - Dr. House

Like I always say there's no "i" in team. There's "me" though, if you jumble it up. - Dr. House

The guy's already paralyzed, how badly can he screw it up? - Dr. House

Saturday, September 6, 2008

DaTong Trip: YunGang Grottoes (YunGang ShiKu)

We checked-out of our hotel early Sunday morning. We saved more than a few kuais because the hotel only charged us for a night though we checked-in around 4 am Saturday.

We walked to KFC for breakfast then took a cab to YunGang Grottoes. We've planned to take the bus but I got a headache looking for the bus route. I had this map I bought Saturday which turned out to be outdated (published last 2000... go figure).

on the way


From Wikipedia: The Yungang Grottoes (simplified Chinese: 云冈石窟; traditional Chinese: 雲崗石窟; pinyin: Yúngāng Shíkū) are ancient Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the Chinese province of Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The others are Longmen and Mogao.

map

near the entrance


From Wikipedia: The site is located about 16 km south-west of the city, in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. The grottoes were mainly constructed in the period between 460-525 AD during the Northern Wei dynasty. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues and statuettes. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Yungang Grottoes is considered by UNESCO a "masterpiece of early Chinese Buddhist cave art... [and] ...represent the successful fusion of Buddhist religious symbolic art from south and central Asia with Chinese cultural traditions, starting in the 5th century CE under Imperial auspices."

UNESCO World Heritage Site

From chinamuseums.com: Fifty-three grottoes remain at Yungang today, with some 51,000 statues. The tallest among these is 17 meters high, the smallest is only a few centimeters. Carving techniques build on and further develop the traditional arts of the Qin and Han dynasties, but also absorb and merge into these the artistic traditions of both India and western regions. The grottoes are divided into three distinct sections, east, central and west.













I didn't get to buy a lot of souvenirs because I don't have a bus ticket to Beijing yet, and it's kind of a far to walk back home...

Souvenirs galore

DaTong Trip: Sights within the City

The Nine Dragon Screen was built in the 25th year of the reign of Hong Wu of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1392). It was orignally situated in front of Dai-King Zhu mansion who was the 13th son of Zhu Yuab Zhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It dates back 600 years ago. It is 45.5 meters long, 8 meters high and 2.02 meters wide. This is said to be the largest glazed wall in China.






Datong Drum tower in the middle of the city. With the weather unusually cooperative, it's a very pretty sight.



DaTong Trip: Wooden Pagoda in Yingxian County

This place is not in DaTong but in Yingxian County, Shuozhou. Our cab driver recommended that we come here after visiting The Hanging Monastery in Heng Shan.

From Wikipedia: The Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple (Chinese: 佛宫寺释迦塔; pinyin: Fógōng Sì Shìjiā Tǎ) of Ying County, Shanxi province, China, is a wooden Chinese pagoda built in 1056, during the Khitan-led Liao Dynasty. The pagoda was built by Emperor Daozong of Liao (Hongji) at the site of his grandmother's family home. The pagoda, which has survived several large earthquakes throughout the centuries, reached a level of such fame within China that it was given the generic nickname of the "Muta" (Chinese: 木塔; pinyin: mùtǎ; literally "Timber Pagoda").


three wheeled car (or is it a tricycle?)

From Wikipedia: The pagoda stands on a 4 m (13 ft) tall stone platform, has a 10 m (33 ft) tall steeple, and reaches a total height of 67.31 m (220.83 ft) tall; it is the oldest existent fully-wooden pagoda still standing in China. Although it is the oldest fully-wooden pagoda in China, the oldest existent pagoda is the 6th century Songyue Pagoda made of brick and the oldest existent wooden buildings in China date back to the mid Tang Dynasty (618–907), which are Buddhist temple halls found at Mount Wutai.


Mushu? Is that you?

hutongs

buying a map

Train Ride and The Hanging Monastery (Xuankong Si)

At last I was able to go to Datong. Mel and I have been planning to go there for ages. We went last weekend with Day and Mario (Susy is otherwise occupied...). I got us 27 yuan train tickets from huochepiao.com delivered to my apartment. I can't believe how cheap the fare was - imagine 27 kuai for a 7-hour trip? (140 pesos lang 'yun, kulang pa papuntang Batangas!)

I should have known better. I immediately regretted being cheap when I saw the old train. It was crowded, the seats are narrow, people smoke, and it DIDN'T announce the stations it stopped at - we ended up counting the stops. It's kinda scary because Datong is only a stop in the 1185 train line, not a terminal. (I keep imagining waking up in Batou which is like 6 to 7 hours away from Datong, 13 hours from Beijing).


We arrived at 3:30 in the morning, asked a cab driver to take us to the hotel the elong reserved for us. Along the way, we called the hotel for directions only to be advised that there are no rooms available, and they have given our room away. It's a good thing that our cab driver knows this hotel near Jiu Long Bi (Nine Dragon Screen). We slept for 3 hours, and then we're off to the Hanging Monasteries.


From Wikipedia: The Hanging Monastery stands at the foot of Mt. Hengshan and is one of the most dramatic sights at Hengshan - a wooden temple clinging to the cliff side, appearing to defy gravity with only a few wooden posts as support. The Hanging Monastery, built in 491, has survived more than 1,400 years. The extant monastery was largely rebuilt and maintained in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The buildings were restored in 1900 and there are 40 wooden halls and structures linked by an ingenious system of pillars, posts and walkways.



The Hanging Monastery is an hour and a half ride from Datong City. Tickets cost 60 yuan plus 1 yuan insurance (in case you fall off the cliff, i think). The place is amazing but fell short of my expectations. We took a lot of pictures, though.