Arrival of Dragon Boy

Within 60 days, our first baby boy will be coming to the new World in the year of Dragon.

重温杜牧

千里莺啼绿映红，水村山郭酒旗风。南朝四百八十寺，多少楼台烟雨中。 - 杜牧
七绝·遣怀 落魄江湖载酒行，楚腰纤细掌中轻。十年一觉扬州梦，赢得青楼薄幸名。

The Ring 3 & 4

Siegfried (齊格弗里德: 《尼伯龍根的指環》的第三部歌劇): 2011.11.27
Götterdämmerung (諸神的黃昏: 《尼伯龍根的指環》的第四部歌劇)

Block Island - one more time

Let's go to that tiny island and enjoy the beach, the sea breeze, the boat and this beautiful harbor.

Montauk, NY (in Long Island)

Block Island, RI

Paintings from Dunhuang

The art of Central Asia : the Stein Collection in the British Museum. Whitfield, Roderick.
v. 1-2. Paintings from Dunhuang, I-II   (ISBN: 0870114743)
v. 3. Textiles, sculpture and other art

Caves of the thousand Buddhas: (London, The British Museum Press, 1990) / R. Whitfield and A. Farrer
Dunhuang : caves of the singing sands : Buddhist art from the Silk Road
Cave temples of Mogao : art and history on the silk road / Roderick

Basement Remodeling Project

Project # 1:

Home Basement Remodeling

Project # 2: Deck
Project # 3: Caulking, Drywall Crack Repair

Padron Cigars

Online Order Site: www.cigarplace.biz  This site has "My Father 1922" cigar priced less than $5 a piece. Usually on the first of each month, they charge only $1 for shipping.

Shanghai retail store for Cuba Cigars (Cohiba): http://unicoscigar.com/

http://www.cigarmonster.com/ This site sells some good cigar accessories including digital humidity meter around $15.00. Watch it out after 11PM in the evening for the big deals.

If you enjoy the look, feel and smoking characteristics of a Churchill the Padron 1964 Diplomatico Natural will surely please. They are 7 inches in length with a ring gauge of 50. The Nicaraguan fillers will wake you up with dynamic mouthfuls of spicy leather and a full-bodied kick in the seat of your pants. It’s not just a power play. The extravagant blend of tobaccos also offers complexities that are there for those who look. If you have the time to smoke this cigar in contemplation you’ll appreciate its depth. If you are at the party or out on the back nine you’ll simply enjoy a rockin’ good time. The Padron 1964 Superior Maduro offers a more refined smoke that also features a bit of something sweet to offset the savory mix in the leaves.

Patch Drywall Cracks and Holes

Lowes: Materials and Instructions.
Lowes: Youtube Video

KING OF EURO ON 5/28

5/28, at Wembley, the two most powerful Football clubs will battle for the glory. Both are the teams I admired and loved to watch. Hard for me to favor one against the other. I do not like to predict who is going to win, and by what score. A few thought:

(1) Can Messi lead Barca to glory again? If so, he will be the most productive player in the world at the age of 23. He's won everything except World Cup.

(2) Can Pep outclass Ferguson one more time?

(3) Did Ferguson and his squad learned the lesson two years ago, and revenge the defeat?

(4) Will Edwin van de Sar retire his career with the highest honor as his last game?

It will be a tense game decided by one or two fine details.

Three-Day in NYC

4/25: 4:00AM Leave Home. 9:00AM Arrive at Met Opera House in NYC. Then, went downstairs to the concourse level to join Rush Ticket Line. Luckily, I am the 8th person on the line. There are totally 150 same-day rush tickets on sale for $20/seat. These are orchestra level seats valued more than $200. So they are almost free. The box office opens at 4:30 PM. I have to wait on the line for 7.5 hours. In fact I have been looking forward to it for years. James Levine is one of the best interpreters and conductor in the world for Wagner's "Ring". It's worthy of the 8 hours waiting.  Today's opera is 《女武神》.
Die Walküre: 《女武神》 （Die Walküre）是《尼伯龍根的指環》 （Der Ring des Nibelungen）的第二部歌劇，由華格納作曲及編劇。

NOTES:
SIEGFRIED: THURSDAY, OCT 27, 2011 PREMIERE. TUESDAY, NOV 1, 2011.
GOTTERDAMMERUNG: FRIDAY, JAN 27, 2012 PREMIERE. TUESDAY, JAN 31. FRIDAY, FEB 3. TUESDAY, FEB 7.

4/26: Again, I got one rush ticket. Today's opera is 《弄臣》.
11:00AM - 5:00PM: Spent most of the time in Metropolitan Museum.
8:00PM - 11:30PM: Opera Show.
Rigoletto: 《弄臣》（Rigoletto）是由朱塞佩·威尔第作曲的著名四幕歌劇，與《茶花女》、《遊唱詩人》並稱為威爾第中期的三大傑作.

4/27: 10:00AM ~ 12:30 PM
Open Rehearsal: Mahler's Symphony No. 5

3:00 PM ~ 5:00 PM: Went to Nevada Smiths sports bar and watched Champion's League Semi-Final: Real Madrid vs Barcelona. Most are Barca fans. Messi scored two fantastic goals to lead Barca 2:0 during first leg. Then, drive home towards Virginia.

Three productive days! If you love classical music, food/drink, museum, photography and fashion, no place in the world is better than Big Apple.

BarcaXRMadrid 4 Games 17 Days

Jose's luck and reputation will be put on stern test during this 17-day time period. Barca vs Real Madrid. Do you think Jose has that special magic? I don't believe that. Yes, he can motivate players better than many other coaches. He can prepare the game meticulously using good strategy. He can play mind game better than other coaches. But Pep is no fool. Pep has a very different style, he is straightforward, no mind game. What will be the outcome? The moment of truth is coming ...
Flipcard: available at [blogURL]/view/flipcard
Mosaic: available at [blogURL]/view/mosaic
Sidebar: available at [blogURL]/view/sidebar
Snapshot: available at [blogURL]/view/snapshot
Timeslide: available at [blogURL]/view/timeslide

BI DW Resources

Tech on the Net: MS Office, Oracle/PL SQL, UNIX, SQL
Vertical Demonstrations
Vertical Industry Materials
MicroStrategy Visual Insight
Big Data Presentation
Competitive Intelligence Partners
Dashboard Library (105 Demos)
Sales Toolkit
Sales Presentations
Level I - Demo Skills
Level II - Pre-Sales Management Skills
Level III - Tactical Skills
Level IV - Mentoring Program
Answering RFI's and RFP's
Advanced Topics
MSTR DEV Resources: Widget Library, Dashboard Templates Library, Jump-Start Project
Mobile Intelligence
Pre-Sales All Contents
MicroStrategy World 2013 Tracks to download
Magic Quadrant for BI (5 February 2013) : The Top Vendors are: Tableau Software, Microsoft (SSAS, SSRS, Hyperion), QlikTech (QlikView), Oracle (OBIEE), IBM (Cognos), SAS (SAS EBI), MicroStrategy, Tibco Spotfire, Information Builders (Web Focus), SAP (Business Objects).

MicroStrategy

Bryan's MSTR Blog
MicroStrategy Interactive Dashboard Gallery
On-Demand Free MSTR WebCasts (Traning & Events)
Upcoming MSTR Events
MicroStrategy Architecture
MicroStrategy High Performance Test Results
MSTR Online Courses (login needed)
The 5 Styles of Business Intelligence: Scorecards & Dashboard, Data Visualization; Enterprise Reporting; OLAP Analysis; Adv. and Predictive Analysis; Alerts and Notification.
MicroStrategy World 2013 Tracks Download
MSTR的大部分客户与一些案例
Customizing MicroStrategy Web help

Open Source Tool
MapABC APIs
开源中国社区
中国商业智能网
BIRT mobile BI

BIRT open source
Pentaho
Jasperreport
Spago
Java开源BI商业智能工具
BI商业智能开源软件 

美国俄亥俄州教育部的BI 平台
CMS Dashboards Overview (Demo & Sample)
Building SAS OLAP Cubes and Administering Cubes

Cloud Computing

15 most powerful Big Data Companies
Apache Hadoop
10 Hot Cloud Startups to Watch
Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, Cloudera
Cloud market is a land grab as of now, but there is a ton of competition already, including VMware, AWS, Citrix (CloudStack), dinCloud, AppZero, Eucalyptus, Rackspace, OnApp, Piston and many others.


Portal Technology

Microsoft SharePoint is still the most popular. Liferay is pretty good.

CMS.GOV Public Data

MA/Part D Contract and Enrollment Data
Research, Statistics, Data & Systems
CMS IT Dashboards: https://itdashboard.gov/
Three Key Interview Questions for every company:
Can You Do the Job? – Strengths
Will You Love the Job? -Motivation
Can We Tolerate Working With You? – Fit

After Home Inspection

1. 卫生间（浴室），连接瓷砖处： Silicone caulking, silicone is more expensive than latex but last longer.
2. 连接木材处（在外可以粉刷，涂漆）： Latex caulking.
3. Drywall Cracks: Concrete compound caulking (Note: first use a knife tool to enlarge the crack).
4. How to caulk: First use the little knife tool to remove residue and clean the crack surface, Use shot gun, don't put too much on the crack, use finger tip with some water to wet finger, do it in non-stop manner (一气呵成).
5. 窗户紧，不易上下移动： Spray some Old English furniture wax.
6. Woodworking sanders are usually powered electrically. Used to smooth wood surface.

Physicals of Top Soccer Clubs

The survey, of more than 13,000 players at 534 clubs across 36 leagues by the Swiss-based Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO), also shows:
* Barcelona have, on average, the shortest team in Europe: average height of 1.77 metres (5ft 9ins). The tallest sides are SV Mattersburg of Austria and Volyn Lutsk of Ukraine at 1.86m (6ft 1ins).
* Manchester United have the most stable squad: the average player staying 5.71 years.
* European champions Inter Milan have the oldest squad: average age is 29.6 years.

US vs China - story to be unfolded

For now, China's concern for regime stability, continued economic growth, markets for its goods and access to resources around the world to fuel that growth continue to drive its policy choices. Which is why in the near term China is willing to continue to benefit from the U.S. taking the lead on diplomatic issues around the world and paying the political and economic cost.
But if China continues to consolidate its economic and political power, its assertiveness will likely grow, which will leave U.S. influence on China increasingly limited. Washington dreads the day Beijing is immune to its pressure and throws Clinton's famed question back at her. How can you get tough with your banker? The answer from China, the U.S. fears, is that you can't.
Q: Can China continue its growth linearly, for how long? Where will its economy, political and legal system settle down? What if there is an avalanche.
Extra: CNN's coverage of Hu's visit to US (20110119)
Ancient Silk Road
Who made into the state dinner for Hu on Jan 19, 2011? 
Why China Reacts to Financial Crises Better than the U.S.?

Congressional - Executive Commission on China

Real Estate: VA School Zone & County Tax Assessment

Locate neighborhood school with boundary locator service in Fairfax, click here.
Great School to check ratings. Click here.
Fairfax Property Tax and it's sales records, click here.
Prince William county Property Tax, click here.
Stafford County Tax Assessment, click here.


Top 100 Top N VA Elementary School
Fairfax Listed Property Summary (Judy provided). Click Here.
Zip Code View, click here.
Redfin
Homesdatabase

12524 DETAILS:
2552 SQ FT = 237 SQ METER (FINISHED LIVING)
.1651 ACRE = 668 SQ METER = 1 亩 (LAND)
1220 SQ FT = 113 SQ METER (BASEMENT)
793   SQ FT = 74   SQ METER (FINISHED BASEMENT)
Community Management Corporation (www.cmc-management.com)
4840 Westfields Blvd. Suite 300, Chantilly, VA 20151
Tel: (703) 631-7200, Fax: (703) 631-9786
HOA Management (www.Braemarhoa.com)
On-site Office: 12300 Iona Sound Drive, Bristow, VA 20136
General Manager: (703) 361-8785, Fax: (703) 361-1425, Community Manager: (703) 230-8592
New Castle Village Board of Directors (newcastlevillageHOA@gmail.com)

1 Sq Miles = 640 Acres

1 Acre = 43,560 Sq Ft = 4047 Sq Meter = 6亩 = 0.4047公顷

1亩 = 666.67 平方米

1平方米（m2）=10.764平方英尺（ft2）