Moo Moo Biking continues to Fubon Financial Business Park

CowParade at FuBon Financial Business Park.

I arrived at the Park at 5:15p. Around 20 people in all ages were circling and taking photos of the cows. There were 17 cows parading here, 10 standing in circle on the plaza, one in the fountain, one near the entrance and the rest inside the lobby. The cows here are beautifully decorated and painted, implying artists' imaginary and creativity.

The Space for Friends

The Space for Friends

上學了，放牛吃草去 ! School just for Fun!

探險家 Explorer is riding a space-ship cow.

三隻鹿 3 Deers is supposed to be a satire of present day's dairy productions.. but I do not understand it...

金色、童年、夢 The Golden Dream of Childhood has been brought to live in child style drawing on a golden cow.

哪裡？哪裡？ Where? Where? -- "豆皮在哪兒？"

肉兵器牛 Flesh Weapons tells a war within or from cell?!?

奔藤牛 Gallop! Rattan-Cow

蹬蹬腳尖兒馬戲劇團─之牛不懂馬戲 (Circus of Den-Den-Ciao-Jean) depicting life of circus performers.

"I am with the Bull Man's Love." His injured arm is holding a rose.

吽~狂歡派對 Let's Go Party and 羽牛 Feathers Cow

I am ready for 吽 oh no 咩~

羽牛 Feathers Cow---if I had wings, I would fly away.

Tired? Take a rest with 疲軟世界 - 牛 The World of Fatigue- Cow.
As you lift her horns up, she is awaken but slowly returns to her deep sleep until her horns will be lifted up again.

愛分心 Distraction (by love?)

A 水乳交融 "Milky Way" entertaining herself in a water fountain.

牛言板 Moossage... someone left "I love Edwina."

A circle of artistic cows embracing my Bike before a gusty wind blows the bike down to the ground.

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Moo Moo Biking along ZhongXiao E. Rd. with CowParade

Activities/Actions:

• Biked to Taipei Main Station for Lunch with Wayne, Xiao Bing-bing and Pang-pang
• Biked back along Zhongxiao E. Rd and Civic Blvd. with CowParade Taipei 2009

Stat & Course condition:
Dry at noon and early afternoon, but drizzling in the evening with strong wind throughout the day.

How I felt:
(the 5-point scale)
Physically 5
Mentally 5
About my nutrition 4
About my sleep 3


How hard did I work? 7
(the 10-point scale)

Note and reflections:
(see other CowParade Posts at CowParade Taipei 2009)

I thought that I would bike to get on MRT at Nangang Station but I ended up bike on the way to Taipei Main Station for lunch with friends. After lunch, I thought that I would go back to lab and work but I ended up biking around following CowParade on Zhongxiao E. Rd. and Civic Blvd. It was a good bike in a windy day, though.

I met a cowboy to take care of the cows on Parade near SOGO cleaning all five cows there. I mentioned to him about the fenched-off cows at National Palace Museum, but he said that many cows have been damaged and showed me photos he took. After gave me a brochure with a map of CowParade, he suggested me to go to HuaShan Creative Park to see five cows and especially the only "live cow" in this CowParade. I did follow his suggestion as I was planing to stop there but was not sure about the place. I got lost because the map showing Huashan Creative Park located between Bade Rd. and ZhongShan N Rd, near Hi-tech Plaza Mall. It was totally wrong! The park was located near Xingsheng N. Rd on Bade Rd. Well, well, this was not the only mistakes on the brochure; locations of the cows were not correct either.

The park itself was quite interesting with many run-down buildings with graffiti. I saw many people came with camera and took photo shoot there. I guess the location was intended to be in this artistic atmosphere (need to find out why later on). I caravaned around the park to meet all those four cows and the "live one" (含笑 -Banana Shrub) because of plants and flowers on its back.

I later continued my way on Civic Blvd. to FuBon Financial Business Park, back down to SOGO and Taipei City Hall for Dinner with Meng-Shin. After dinner I biked back to the apartment. This part of the story will be told in the next post.

Due to strong wind today, my bike was fallen down three times in its parking position (once at SOGO, Fubon Biz Park and near Eslite Bookstore in Xinyi).

Photos:

Surfer Cow (on a remote controller) by Chunghwa Telecom.

扭力+牛力 (Pump the MooPower) in its daily cleaning up session by a cowboy of FunCapital.
CowParade needs cleaning up every day.

扭力+牛力 (Pump the MooPower) being checked its engine.

Nokia 5800觸控牛 (Nokia 5800 TouchCow) in front of Zhongxiao SOGO.

奔牛 ‧ 白布丁 (White Pudding Cow) is one of kids' favorite. A girl in pink says "Look at my face!"

火花 (Spark) at Daylight will spark when Daylight disappears.

金庸武俠牛之笑傲江湖 (the Smiling, Proud Wanderer) at Huashan Creative Park

"The live Cow."
Among over-100 cows on parade, 含笑 (Banana Shrub) is the only one that breathes.

Let's "peep" inside to see how the inner of the 窺 cow moves.

Another view of 含笑 (Banana Shrub)!

Bullfighter Warrior!
阿美族的勇士牛 Amis Bullfighter depicting a warrior society of Amis indigenous people.

Expressive art on 被肢解的奶媽 (The Baby Sitter that be Disassembled) Cow telling how hard a cow produces milk to feed a human child (in addition to its meat).

Continue reading the rest...

another rest week

Activities/Actions:

• Stationary rowing for 10 minutes each day (~2,000 meters)
• Stretched and strength training

Note and reflections:
The knee injury has healed early of the week but I still continued on another "no run" week. Even though this week schedule was pretty busy, I still spared about hour (or 20 minutes) to exercise in the gym. For example, I woke up at 3:30 to work on my presentation scheduled at 10A on Friday morning. Luckily, I finished the slides at 9 and took a half hour for gym before the presentation. It was a good wakeup exercise. :D

After her bike was assembled, Meng-shin started to bike to lab. On the first day of the ride, she got a small accident but it was OK. We biked home together for almost every night.

Azhong did not show up this week. He ran once last week from his training office to campus.

I canceled the tentative schedule of 2009 Taipei Freeway Marathon (臺北國道馬拉松) for the Half on 2009/03/15 because of the lack of training, the injury and miss the deadline for registration. Need to find another race and call the gang up to join. Azhong is the one who will join the coming race!

2009 Taipei Freeway Marathon (臺北國道馬拉松) not to be my coming race!

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Saturday Evening Bike to National Palace Museum Resumed

Activities/Actions:

• Biked to/from GuGong
• Paraded with three Cows on CowParade @ NPM
  
• Snack @Shilin and Dinner @Roahe

Stat & Course condition:
A section of North Bank Keelung River bike path between DaZhi Bridge and Grand Hotel was under construction with only one lane available. The weather was nice.


Note and reflections:
Last year, the weekend bike trips to National Palace Museum started on the 19th of April [April Runs] and ended on the 25th of October [Octorber Runs: Where is a long run?]. The cease was due to weather, other activities and my completion of all exhibition rooms. Recently, the museum exhibits new themes and artifacts, so it is the time to begin a ride into Chinese's rich treasures.

Today, I started my journey around 5p and got to Shilin Park and found many totem poles at the entrance of the park. I stopped to take some photos of these craved poles in various shapes; some were made by other materials (bronze cast; recycled engine parts). I arrived at GuGong just before 6p and found three artistic cows of CowParade being fenced off by red strip. How come??!! As public arts, these cows were supposed to interact with people but, instead, being fenced off (Poor cows)--could not even take a good photo without the red tape surrounding them. (see other CowParade Posts at CowParade Taipei 2009)

The exhibition was fine with a puppet show at Saturday Night @ NPM from a Hakka Puppet Theater. I came back home around 10p after a short stop in Shilin Night Market for a fried chicken and at Roahe Night Market for BiBimBap (石頭拌飯). At a Shilin fried & grilled chicken stand, I told the seller that I want "very spicy (大辣 Da La)." She asked me three times to confirm that I really wanted "very spicy." I guess that no one ordered spiciness at this level. Actually, the "Da La" chicken was not spicy at all. (PS. Both markets were crowded as usual).

Photos:

Totem and Legend (We Are Family): A large piece of wood carved nicely.

Totem and Legend (We Are Family): Art from recycled metal and woods.

祥雲牛 Lucky Cloud-Cow

水牛翻身 Turnover Buffalo

四季平安(青花牛) Peace and Joy-Ming Blue

Hakka Chinese puppet show at NPM.

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the left side of the open finger gloves found

Well, after more than two months, I found the left side in my apartment during the house rearrangement and clean-up. I had been thinking of getting a new pair, but .... I found it this morning. Is a "welcome back" appropriate since it has been in the apartment for the whole time?

Related posts:

• a glove has gone
• 15.6 mile (25.1 kilometer) Wednesday

The 3-year old gloves [Harbinger 155] are still working well, bought just before 2006 New Year Road Trip to Mammoth Cave with Kou, Rina, Yeong-shin and YS's friend.

Continue reading the rest...

a resting week

Activities/Actions & Note/reflections:
Well, the week of slow runs did not heal the pain [วิ่งไม่หยุด: a week of slow runs], I decided to take a rest and do therapy. For the whole week I did some strength training and 10-minute stationary rowing. On Tuesday Meng-Shin brought me a polyfoam bag for my cold therapy [วิ่งไม่หยุด: Frozen pea bag - cold therapy for Runner's knee], but it has to be returned on Friday. I felt much better on Thursday, so I decided to start a slow run on Saturday (or a long bike ride) if the weather is nice.

After a used shoes test, my right and left feet is not"excessive pronated." The test was performed by placing NB 476 (my most used running shoes) on a table, with its toes pointing away from me. After squatted down to eye level, I found that the shoes does not tilt inwards. In addition, after examined its outer sole, extreme wear and tear along the balls of my right foot was not observed, but the wear and tear at the ball of both feet was not "extreme." Thus, I believe that I am NOT "excessive pronated." The wet foot test also confirmed that I have neutral feet.

(tests followed http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pronation.htm)


A light-green Nalgene bottle: I got this bottle more than a year ago, but I just started to used it this week. :D

Photos:

A light green Nalgene bottle born in USA, adopted in USA, residing in Taiwan and speaking three languages.

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2009 Taipei Lantern Festival

Activities/Actions:

• Biked to/from Taipei City Hall
• Visiting Taipei Lantern Festival

Stat & Course condition:
Good weather (did not rain)

Note and reflections:
Visiting the festival at its last day was nice because of a good size crowd. This year Taipei lantern exhibition was much smaller than that of the last year (probably due to Taiwan Lantern Festival in Ilan). Cows and Taiwanese water buffaloes are the main guys along with some pandas and Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009 mascot, Taipei green tree frogs (I do not know their name). One of popular things is the illuminating party light sticks in various shapes and styles sold by street vendors. Two love stories (Chinese and Western; a main character in Chinese version is a cowherd) are told by rows of lanterns on both sides of the City Hall Plaza. It is the right timing because the festival falls during the St. Valentine's Day this year.


About Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009 Mascot
From http://english.2009deaflympics.org/files/13-1027-865.php

The 21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009 has adopted as its mascot the lively Taipei green tree frog (Rhacophorus taipeianus). While it is the tiniest of Taiwan's eight indigenous species of frogs, it is remarkable for its ability to jump long distances. Similarly, although Taiwan is a small island nation, it has impressed the world with its economic power, springing to new heights.

The banyan leaf worn by the male mascot and the azalea flower on the female are respectively the Taipei city tree and flower. They symbolize the city's vision of a fresh and environment-friendly future. The mascots have their arms wide open, in a pose that looks like the Chinese character for north “bei”, which represents the host city, Taipei. With open arms and cheerful smiles, Taipei enthusiastically welcomes participants coming from every part of the world!

Photos:

A orphaned cowherd and an Emperor's daughter: Chinese Love Story

Orphaned Cinderella and the Prince: a western love story.

Thailand to participate in the 21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009 in September

Besides cattle, Pandas featured in this year lantern.

"Do you want one?"
Illuminating party light sticks at several street vendors

Cows from a milk carton

The first prize lantern (of a category) depicting three cows

The main lantern in front of SYS Memorial Hall in a full display.

Along Ren-Ai Rd, Mascot of Deaflympics Taipei 2009.

Ren-Ai Rd. wall of Taipei City Hall turned into the main Lantern illuminated by fusion of modern technology and traditional/contemporary arts.

For me, "All Pass" this year!

Just a day after St. Valentine's Day

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Frozen pea bag - cold therapy for Runner's knee

Although the pain on the inner side of the right knee (actually, the medial side of the right leg) has bothered me from time to time, I still on my bike to almost everywhere. I did research over the web and found that cold therapy is a common treatment of the pain around knee. The pain I am experiencing is located around the end of femur around the end of possibly vastus medialis (a component of Quadricep femoris) or satoris. Well, I am just guessing. According to this Q&A "My Knee Aches" at RunnerWorld.com, it seems that I may experiencing Patello-femoral Pain Syndrome, a.k.a. Runner's knee or Jumper's knee (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runner%27s_knee). Causes of this syndrome include "a tight iliotibial band, neuromas, bursitis, overuse, malalignment, core instability, to name but a few." However, I think that in my case iliotibial band is less likely to be involved in. I probably need to focus on Quadricep femoris muscles. However, the pain area is very close to the medial ligament. Maybe my medial collateral ligament is sprained.

Also, it is possible that the pain is one of the collective symtons of "Shin Splints" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_splints or http://www.watfxc.com/TF/TF%20Education/shin_splints.htm. The pain is around the medial side of the right leg and a bit lower than the knee cap. Running down hill or excessive pronation can cause this. I did run down hill in Taroko Marathon, but how about "excessive pronation?" http://www.selfsource.com/footflex/shin.html. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pronation.htm

According to www.runnerplanet.come, applying cold to the injured area 5 times a day for about 15 minutes a time is a recommendation for almost similar injuries. Cold reduces flow of fluid resulted from tearing and thus reduces inflammatory at the area. Two simplest ways to apply the cold are 1) Ice bags and 2) Ice massage. The skin during the cold application will go through 4 stages of sensations from first Cold to Burning to Aching and Numbness. It is suggested to stop this therapy once the skin feels numb, which is at around 15 minutes of application (http://jointhealing.com/pages/productpages/cryotherapy.html). Then, I need to go to get a frozen vegie bag from supermarket (a frozen pea bag will do) or a polyfoam transportation ice bag from the wet lab.

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