sheep meadow of central park, nyc, spring 2003

Interests

I am enthusiastic about outdoor activities, especially, hiking, cycling, and jogging. Since being trapped in office recently, I spend more aerobic time in Alexander Gyms. In addition, I love golf. I am a 2-digit amateur player. It takes time but that's why hard working would render. I got my first golf membership/permit from NYC. Does it cost a lot!? No!! It's just $6 dollars for all NYC public courses. Believe or not!? Golf fee (twilight) in NYC public courses costs two movie tickets in Taipei. Sounds a bargain right!? By the way, I also look forward to joining groups or clubs relevant to the same interests.

.............So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty...........

(From a letter by Chris McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) to his friend Ron Franz, March 1992), published in the book ¡§Into the Wild¡¨ by Jon Krakauer, 1996, one of my favorites.

 

"The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I¡X
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.