Priest (2011, Movie)

Its a comic book sort of adventure. The plot twists between the Priest and Lucy revealed later allows everything to make sense. Although set in a different future on a world ruined by wars, it includes modern conveyances, and set decorations that are clearly from the 50's. Even the prayers and gestures of the Priest were similar to those of catholic priests in the 50's as well. It was a cool juxtaposition which made the movie visually interesting as well.

Philomena (2013, Movie)

Judi Dench again delivers an outstanding performance as an aging Irish woman trying to find the son who was wrenched away from her some 50 years previously by the sadistic system of the 1950's when girls who had sinned, i.e., gotten pregnant out of wedlock, became virtual slaves of convents. The sad thing is that this was based on a true story and all the characters are based on real people. Its based on Martin Sixsmith's book "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee." 

Starpower World Championships 2014

STARPOWER is entering its 27th year in the world of dance competitions and is stronger than ever. Starpower began as an eleven city tour with one National Championship and has continued to grow, keeping its status as one of the largest talent competitions in America. Although most of the competitors are juniors, I can feel their enthusiasm, energy and professionalism!

Driving all the way to Las Vegas to compete is a big chore, according to my hubby. However, winning two trophies is another story. Yuing Yuen said, "It's worth the drive". All I can say is, it builds great memories for a lifetime.

The two trophies are: 1st place of 20+ adult Pointe and 1st place of 20+ adult overall category.

Half day at Huntington Library

Finally, we got to see 袁志鐘老師的墨寶 at "清越臺".

A moving video and touching poem in memory of Shamar Rinpoche

大地舞者的香巴拉

2002年，23岁的万玛尖措凭借舞蹈《出走》，荣获第五届全国舞蹈大赛创作金奖，成为当时年纪最小的金奖得主。
“香巴拉”是藏语的音译，又称“香格里拉”，是极乐世界、自由净土的意思。以《香巴拉》命名，万玛想表达的是“人生来会被包围在物质和欲望中，要做出很多选择，但不管是生命不可承受之重，还是不可承受之轻，都应该用平和的心境去面对和平衡，以寻求精神的自由和灵魂的安静。”　　在《香巴拉》中，万玛尖措采用了现代的舞蹈剧场形式，以舞蹈为主体，融合音乐、歌曲、对白等多种元素，称得上“一部舞台上的电影”。但藏文化元素才是架构整部作品的血肉：经过重新解构的藏舞动作，未做任何加工的原生态道具，还有回归质朴的民族服饰。

ASUS Transformer Book T100

I got it from my dear husband as an early birthday gift. It's a Windows tablet with netbook roots with  a 10-inch Windows tablet that comes with a keyboard dock in the box.  The internal storage we got is a 32GB model that goes for $349. 

What's especially nice is that when the tablet is docked inside the keyboard, it stays put in the lap. As it happens, the 1,366 x 768 IPS screen offers pretty wide viewing angles anyway, with a 300-nit brightness rating allowing for easy readability under harsh fluorescent lights. So, the T100 looks like a netbook, and offers the same typing experience as a netbook. And it feels like one too: With the tablet docked so that it's in clamshell mode, the whole thing weighs 2.4 pounds (the tablet itself comes in at 1.2 pounds). It's just about as heavy as a netbook, and just as easy to carry in one hand.  

One convenient thing about having the keyboard dock in the box (aside from all that typing) is the selection of ports you'll get -- namely, a USB 3.0 socket on the left side of the dock. On the tablet itself, you'll find micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports on the right landscape edge, along with a headphone jack and microSD slot. 

Over on the left, meanwhile, is the volume rocker and Windows Home key.  One disappointment for me is there is only a rear camera. That's right, there's just a 1.2-megapixel webcam here for the occasional video chat. A bit of a surprise, given that ASUS normally puts out decent tablet cameras, but then again, it had to cut costs somehow.

The T100 is the first device equipped with one of Intel's new Bay Trail-series Atom chips -- specifically, a quad-core Z3740 processor, clocked at 1.33GHz. With the help of 2GB of RAM, the tablet handles the overhead of Windows 8.1 just fine. Performance almost always felt smooth. It also takes just 11 seconds to start up.

As for battery life, the 31Wh cell is rated for up to 11 hours of casual usage.

OK, I'll start playing with it now.