New Year Tradition: Polar Bear Dip

Not all countries in the world celebrate the new year at the same time, in the same way. Different parts of the world use different calendars and have different traditions.

In British Columbia, Canada, there is a traditional polar bear swim, where people of all ages put on their bathing suits and plunge into the icy water surrounding Vancouver.

China. The Chinese New Year lasts about 15 days, beginning some time between Jan. 17 and Feb. 19, depending on the moon. The Chinese have the Festival of Lanterns, which is a street procession that lights the way for the new year.

Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the Dutch burn their Christmas trees in the street and launch fireworks to purge the old and welcome the new.

Spain. The Spanish eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve to ensure 12 months of happiness for the coming year.

Japan. The moment the New Year begins, the Japanese begin to laugh to bring themselves good luck. They also forgive misunderstandings and grudges from the previous year.

United States. Probably the most famous tradition in the United States is the dropping of the New Year's Eve Ball in Times Square in New York City at midnight. Thousands gather to watch the ball make its minute-long descent, while millions more watch on television all around the world.

Another popular American tradition is the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day in Pasadena, Calif. It includes a parade of elaborate and inventive floats, later followed by a football game.

There are some widely observed New Year's symbols and traditions, such as resolutions, fireworks and noisemaking. It's believed that the Babylonians were the first to make New Year's resolutions.

People all over the world have been making and breaking them ever since. Noisemaking and launching fireworks on New Year's Eve is believed to have originated in ancient times, when noise and fire were thought to dispel evil spirits and bring good luck.

Around the globe, colorful celebrations will mark the beginning of yet another year.

Happy New Year to all!

Good bye 2004

2004 in many ways has been a good year.

I thank all my friends and family for making this year yet another memorable one.

Here are some of the highlights of 2004 on my end (in no particular order of importance), all of which I'm grateful for:

1. Discovering the joys of blogging and being able to find new things to talk about.
2. Seeing old projects flourish
3. Finding new tech opportunities
4. Meeting new friends
5. Connecting with old friends (mostly through friendster or email)
6. Finishing Oxford

Canada Place

One can never miss visiting Canada Place when coming to Vancouver. The five white sails roof mimics the Sydney Opera House. Directly under the sails are the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Pan Pacific Hotel and the CN IMAX, for movie enthusiasts.

From Canada Place's angle, one can see the northern mountains, Stanley Park on the opposite end and the whole Vancouver harbour.

Festival of Lights

Supposedly an Indian tradition, I went with my family and Assad to the Festival of Lights park in downtown Vancouver. The park features several pavilions, miniature lakes with water fountains highlighted with different lights dancing in sync with Christmas music.

The most popular spots in the park were the lamp post heaters as it was drizzling and chilly.

Coal Harbour in Downtown

Coal Harbour is a community set in front of the sea with the northern mountains posterizing the whole scenery. It's a relaxing and serene environment even if it's right in downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver Sea Wall

A picture taken by Assad while walking by the sea wall at Stanley Park.

Touchdown in Vancouver

Second Day* - Disregarding the obvious presence of jet lag in our fragile frames, we drove to downtown Vancouver for our second day. First stop was at Stanley Park. We had lunch in front of the Pacific Ocean coast line, trying oh-so hard to wash away the morsels of stress from the 30hr travel time. Assad, the ever-so hungry fella had to have food again as it's 3 hours since we had lunch. We went to MetroTown (a mall), where we had Tim Horton's donuts (Canadian Krispy Kreme).

First Day -We might not have completely succeeded (from shaking off the jet lag), but we wanted to eat a lot and be merry. Our first meal was in a Japanese restaurant near the Vancouver airport. We had a huge meal with california maki, tempura shrimps, chicken teriyaki, soft-shelled crabs, spicy tuna sushi among others. It's nearly 11pm and we look forward to our second day in Vancouver. *-Our first day at Vancouver commenced 20:30, so I start talking about the second day in this blog entry.

Transiting for 12 hours in Amsterdam

I'm in amsterdam now at an internet cafe. I just have one minute left.

I walked around duty free shops and it's quite nice. I haven't bought anything.
We spent 10 minutes walking around and ended up not getting to a proper restaurant. We just bought sardines and pringles chips from a small store because all the restaurants have closed when we discovered it was nearly 10pm.

Will post later when I arrive in Vancouver.

X'mas Bear

A number of Limited Edition Oxonian Bear key chains will be on its way to Vancouver this X'mas.

Last Trip to London

These red double deckers that roam around central London will be taken out of commission the next few months. Taking my last snap of it. We do however still have a handful of red open-air double deckers in Oxford.

My friends and I spent a good day in London capping it with a dinner at Leicester Square and a short walk around Picadilly Circus (supposedly the Times Square of London). What I will miss is the bustling environment of this city when I go home to a laid-back Vancouver.

A picture taken on my way to Kensington to attend a social function. This sculpture known as the Fountain of Life graces Hyde Park in Central London.

Delayed

My flight back to Vancouver is delayed as I still need to complete a few more things before I leave Oxford. My friend Assad will be spending X'mas with me in Vancouver. We will be flying to Seattle, USA sometime next week and will be taking a 3-hour bus ride to Vancouver, Canada.

Oxford Dining Hall

One of the things I will miss when I leave Oxford for Christmas would be the dining halls which is always a delightful place to be served, to enjoy the food and meet friends. Picture courtesy of Mickey (Worcester)

Students of Worcester College waiting for the Fellows to arrive before sitting down. Picture courtesy of Mickey who apparently is standing on the High Table platform where the College Fellows dine (it's not illegal, but can be frowned upon by some butlers).

Walking Back Home

A hazy picture of Broad street where half of it is only accessible by foot or bike. Most of the major streets in central Oxford are all decked up with Christmas lights. Right in front of Balliol College is a huge 30 foot tree all spruced up with lights and ready to be one of the Christmas centerpieces of Oxford.

For Those Who are Bored

I answered yet another internet quiz, thanks to my sister:

You Are the Achiever

3 You're confident and competent - with a lot of energy. Eager to reach your goals, you are ambitious and competitive. You are good at movtivating yourself and motivating others. You're also a charmer, with a great sense of humor.

What number are you?


Now, I like that last bit, 'charmer' part ;).

College Guest Dinner

One of Lincoln's most popular traditions is its guest dinners. They are held throughout the year and are sumptuously well catered and wined; a four course meal and some of Kevin the Butler's choice selections from the cellar.

The event is formal (all stiff & polite) and everyone is asked to arrive 40 minutes early for pre-dinner sherry at the MCR.

The College butler pristinely dressed as usual, served us fried fish w/ tartar sauce (Goujons de sole frit) for starters. We then had roasted duck basted in a magnificent citrus brown sauce (Canton Braise) and a good serving of vegetables (Legumes de marche) for main course. We had profiteroles for dessert and coffee. For our night cap we were served several glasses of Port. I met one of my housemates, Julia (left) who's doing her DPhil in Chemistry. I went with Jenny (right). I wasn't sure if cameras were allowed as the whole atmosphere was kind of stiff and formal. I just thought it would be an excellent opportunity to create a lasting memory of the wonderful dinner, the ambiance, the good food and fantastic company.

Clifford Meets Blogger Founder

I didn't get to meet any of the UK CEOs or Directors except for one. However, I got to meet and talk to Evan Williams (right), the founder of Blogger at the Oxford Business School reception. This more than made my week.

Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford

I've been praying to get one of the 25 coveted tickets to join the panel discussion at the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford Event (last Monday, 22nd Nov 2004), and I got one!

I didn't know what to expect from it, but I was surprised that there were more than 100 high powered CEOs/Directors/Presidents of UK companies or subsidiaries (like MS, Oracle, HSBC, IBM to name a few) in attendance.

I arrived at the venue quite early just to make sure I get inside the theatre. At around 7:15pm, the host then introduced the 7 Silicon Valley panelists. I started to become excited and took out my trusty camera. Each panelists were asked to give a brief bio to acquaint the audience. Evan Williams (first on left), founder of Blogger who later sold his company to Google exudes humbleness. He introduced himself as a man from the midwest (Nebraska) who found it difficult talking to people about his software, let alone get people to understand its use. Mr Williams then moved to California where he experienced the highs and lows of the dot-com era, where he had money and to a point where he had to fire people and learn how to maintain the java servers all alone.

"Sometimes, you need to be insane enough to believe that your idea is great."
-Evan Williams, 22nd November, Oxford

There were two venture capitalists (third from left and sixth from left) on the panel who talked about the role of VCs in forming Silicon Valley. Raymond Nasr (fourth from left) who works as a Director for Google is perhaps the most unique in terms of looks: sporting his dotted bow tie and round spectacles. He looks geeky, but doesn't talk like one. Raymond talked about how Google received a 100K check from the SUN CEO and how Google slowly grew and broke the myth of 'first-mover' advantage long held by Yahoo!.

Overall, it was a great event giving me a chance to meet interesting people mostly from the Said Business School and of course the panelists. This for me, is a once in a lifetime experience.

Forecast for the Rest of the Month: Bright

I'm in a delightful mood despite the short daylights that we get on this side of the planet. I'm happy because of many reasons:

• I'm drinking loads of peppermint tea
• I got a pass to attend an event called 'Silicon Valley comes to Oxford'
• I will be doing my X'mas shopping
• My thesis supervisor's happy with my work.. and will be continuing to do more work.
• I'm going home in two weeks
• I think I'm well rested to do all the above.

Winter Postcard

Quintessential 'Oxford' view (as Nash aptly described) from Christ Church Meadows. The Oxford Regattas training hard under the chilly afternoon weather. My admiration goes to the swan and ducks that tread the icy river.

Standing in front of Brasenose's picturesque courtyard. Some of the Brasenose crowd claim that the dome (Radcliffe Library) on the left and the tower spire (St Mary's Church) on the right are all part of Brasenose.. or so it shows as a facade from inside the College.

Dreaming Spires Silhouette

Countryside view of Oxford. This picture was taken from my Christ Church Meadows stroll with friends last Saturday. ChCh Meadows is only a five minute walk from the city centre.

Weekly Filipino Social

Nash needing a break from his DNA experiments at Oxford's fabled Bio/Physics lab invited us to savour Saturday brunch at Brasenose with Assad, Alex, Nash and Isabela (left to right). It was one of those opportunities where Nash naturally demonstrated his charm and popularity at Brasenose especially with the continental ladies.

Keble College's Formal Hall

This is a a view of Keble College's majestic dining hall. This is one of the better pictures that I took of their Hall when I was kindly invited by a friend for one of the College's nightly formal dinner.

Autumn View

ChristChurch Meadows still magnificent despite the lack of sunshine and lush green trees.

Multi-Tasking

I'm aiming to finish several tasks before December arrives. My mum recently asked me to work on her flower shop website , while I've been working on a few of my own undisclosed projects.

Jenny and I posing in front of Lincoln's ivy covered courtyard walls after dinner.

Guy Fawkes' Night

The normally conservative Ashmolean Museum turns to 'electrified blue' on Guy Fawkes' night. It's a pretty stunning sight with everyone trying to absorb the neon blue radiation while enjoying the fireworks lighting up the sky. Guy Fawkes is remembered each year on November 5 for his audacious attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

We started posing like tourists in front of the blue building.

Coffee Season

Went strolling yesterday at Cornmarket street. It was one of the 'brighter' days of the gloomy winter season which is slowly creeping yet again. With all the complaints about the weather, I still love Oxford for its bustling and lively ambiance. Oxford's coffee shops provide a refreshing break from those (hardly) long study sessions. Any excuse to have a break. I'm still pondering whether I should get this stovetop espresso maker.. I don't drink espresso, but I'm planning to use it as my coffee maker.

Christmas Breeze

I walked into the covermarket at Oxford yesterday and particularly felt the yuletide atmosphere. I can't wait to see my family and friends when I go back to Vancouver this Christmas.

Halloween

Halloween went by this year for me without too much partying except for a quiet dinner. The Worcester crew celebrated the night with a pumpkin carving and spring rolls. Rather odd non-traditional combination, but the jack o' lantern more than enough covers the lack of tradition.

There was a small bash upon Nash's return to his college accomodation at St Cross Annexe. Nash had to move to Univ College for about a week because of bug infestation (eek!).

Worcester's Hall

Assad invited me to Worcester's formal hall two weeks ago. The entree was a scallop, shrimp and crab dish delicately baked with light cheese. We had roasted duck basted with apple and orange sauce for main, and passion fruit cheesecake for dessert.

Cliff feasting on the roasted duck.

The rest of the lively Worcester people dining on the same long table.

Lorraine Going for More Work in Malaysia

Dining at Worcester College's student accomodation. Assad (3rd from left with a devlish grin) once again prepared a sumptuous meal. This is the 3rd night in a row - farewell party for Lorraine (4th from left) who is leaving for her DPhil. field work in Malaysia. Heiko (1st from left) brought wine, but the rest of us were too faint-hearted to drink alchohol (at least last night). Good bye, Lor. Have a safe trip and don't come back married.

The University's broadband connection has been erratic the past few days. The last few nights were spent either in the library or at my friend's place.

Last night, Assad (MPhil Economics), Lor (DPhil Education) and I were invited by a friend (Heiko, MPhil Economics from Germany) to visit Nuffield College. We watched a movie in one of the many rooms with an enormous plasma TV and free drinks. I might be spending a lot more nights at Nuffield enjoying the movie facilities, since it's only a 5 minute walk from my place at High Street.

I will be driving down to London tonight with a few Oxford friends. I can't wait to see downtown London at night again.

On a more academic note, I've been trying to finish my XML work and hope to finish by this Friday (deadline is next Tuesday). I've also been working on the back-end system of iAteneo.com for awhile now. I'm constantly tweaking the content management system that I created because the editorial department is ever expanding (30 writers).

Last Wednesday, I had an opportunity to meet two producers from the British Broadcasting Corp at their office. After the rather stressful meeting & filming, I went for a walk in central London. I was unable to take photos anywhere inside or near the BBC compound as it was heavily regulated.

Inside a bookshop in London

View of the Magdalen Tower on a sunny day.

It is a tradition for most Oxford colleges including Lincoln's to wear a gown whenever one goes to the Hall for dinner every night. This is one of the shops that sell the gowns. This is the same gown that one wears for matriculation. Matriculation is an event that every Oxford student has to attend where one is formally welcomed to the University. The local stores in Oxford are now preparing to welcome (and sell the gowns to) the new students who are bound to arrive in the coming weeks.

Street Sign Number 2

Street sign number 2. Three colleges share the street, with Lincoln being the smallest. The other two colleges are Jesus College and Exeter College.

The bike's color is not one of my favorites, but the wooden basket certainly looks useful for carrying items after shopping.

From today, I shall be taking street sign photos and see how many street signs I can find with bikes attached to it here in Oxford (where do I get all these corny ideas?). This is also a chance to showcase the different bikes of students (not that they're anything fancy, unlike this car).

Here's street sign number one, just around the corner of Lincoln. Brasenose College is at the other end of this street.

The bike sports a nice metallic blue color, but has a very tattered (perhaps useless) steel basket*.

*-why do i talk about baskets? i think baskets are important for bikes especially if you have lots of books to carry around the university and if you do a lot of shopping. imagine a car without a trunk/boot (but, i wouldn't really know, cuz i dont own a bike).

I got locked out today in the department, as I forgot to bring my swipe card. I decided to go to Borders (a book shop) and spend the rest of the morning reading a Java book.

Jenny and Ayako enjoying their cocktails.

A Night Out in Oxford

Cocktails with Sascha, Ayako and Jenny after a hard day's work. We went to this modern and clean restaurant called the Noodle Bar and had a sumptuous dinner. We capped the night with a few drinks at one of the bars on Little Clarendon Street here in Oxford.

An obfuscated night picture of Nash and Clifford at the Radcliffe Square.

Assad visits Lincoln library after dinner at the college. Nash pointed out that my second home (the Lincoln Library) is an inspiring to place to study (or rather sleep?).

A Picture from Work

My obscure workspace area at the department. I don't have much specs of my Sun Java computer except that it runs a distressed Solaris OS. Too much work this week, so I had to bring in the camera to cut my computer and espresso-choc routine this week (all-you-can take caffeine is free courtesy of the department's vending machine. the coffee is awful!) .

St. Giles Fair

This fair is full of beer drinking teenagers at night (presumably, as one of my profs suggested), so I decided to dropby the fair during mid-day instead. Fatty food served in every corner (chips, oily burgers). I didn't have any food, and didn't take any rides (it's already pathetic enough to be visiting a fair in the morning).

Phantom of the Street

A Rolls Royce Phantom caught a few steps outside the accomodation gates today. This V12, 8.5 litre car weighs around 3 tonnes (3000 kg). The vanity plate: 28 RR is all about being vain and showing off the Rolls Royce (am I just jealous?).

The Ashmolean Museum at Beaumont Street from Assad's window.
For some eagle-eyed viewers, the black speck on top of the picture is something I still have to figure out. It's either a bird or a plane and quite possibly your typical summer bug stuck on my camera lens.

Autumn in Two Weeks

The sun's been hanging out too long here in Oxford. I can't help but take my camera with me whenever I go out for a stroll. For one, the sunshine doesn't help me with finishing a 10,000 word paper due on Monday. On to the lighter side of things, the Radcliffe Camera is one of Oxford's most visible and most photographed structure. Recalling what I just said, I think I'll be sad to see summer go away. Autumn is looming yet again.

Bridge of Sighs at Oxford named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. The Bridge of Sighs in Venice connects prison cells to the interrogation rooms. The name comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice before being taken down to their cells. Take a look at Cambridge's Bridge of Sighs(perhaps better looking than Oxford's).