Got up late. Turned on the computer. The forecast displayed an alert and showed it's 90 degrees (=32 degrees Celsius). Wow! Didn't know Irvine could be this hot.

Went to the office. Everything's normal. Later I went to get lunch. When I went back to the office, the elevators were dead. I climbed the stairs up to the office, it's dark in it. Some people were talking in the hallway about the power outage and going home. I thought, other people are going, why don't I? Then I packed and came back home to have the long weekend earlier.

Fortunately there's power at home. Turned on computer, but there's no internet connection. Fine, I can watch TV! Then I found there's no TV signal. Damn it!

Ended up watching Pearl Harbor on DVD. The feeling is quite different from what I felt when I first watched it 8 years ago in China. It might be because I'm in the America now. Learned a new word: dud is "哑弹" in Chinese. Found a mistake on the subtitle when the guys learned the Chinese phrase "I'm an American."

Videos:
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Mike said it's just a psychological effect that the moon looks bigger when it's just above the horizon than when it's way up in the sky. I didn't believe it at first, but now my photos kind of proved it's true. I took the following two photos with the same lens focal length. The sizes of the moon in these two pictures are the same, although when I took the first picture, the moon did look bigger.

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Cute bunnies:

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美国全民都有医疗保险，病了国家花钱治好你

没有这么好的事。在美国医疗保险都要自愿购买。若你没买保险又正好病了，那就全额自己掏钱包吧。最近才开始在加州和另一个州（忘记哪个了）试行强制全民保险。我是比较幸运的，不用管这些，学费已经包含医疗保险，而学费又是学校付。

其实医疗保险也不是万能的，它通常覆盖一定的比例，但有可能剩下自己付的部分还是很贵。我上次看了一次比较幸运，保险全部覆盖了。前些时候有同学去看牙齿，在保险覆盖了70%以后，还得自己掏$3000多，简直骇人听闻。最近室友阑尾炎做了手术切除，保险覆盖之余估计也花了不少钱。大部分破产的人，都是因为看病看破产的。

美国比较人道的一点是，当你彻底破产了，没钱看病了，医院得免费把你治好。这事的副作用就是，免费治这些没钱的病人，那医院不能亏本啊。怎么办？从有钱看病的人身上赚回来呗。于是医院只得抬高医疗价格，然后导致更多人看不起病。

美国政府发放救济，即使没工作也饿不死

这好事也是没有的。如果失业了，政府会发救济养一年半载。之后再没有工作，那就饿死了，除非去要饭。上次在洛杉矶看NBA，结束后从体育馆步行到停车场，沿途一堆衣衫褴褛的乞丐上来乞讨，感觉真是震撼。因为平时在Irvine，自己就是最穷的人。

在美国开车撞了人，如果完全是行人违章，由行人自负全责

不是这样的。这里开车强调安全第一。任何情况下都不能撞行人，撞了一定有麻烦，即使是人家乱穿马路。

事实上，第一，很少人乱穿马路；第二，大多数司机看到有人过马路（无论按章或违章），都会停下车，耐心让行人过完，再开车。

美国大学对本地学生的学费很低，或者本地学生很容易拿到奖/助学金抵销学费

这件好事也是没有的。美国大学的学费非常贵，即使是对本地学生。奖学金只有很优秀的学生才能拿到。例外的是博士生，多数都有奖/助学金抵销学费。不过学校也不是不会算术的。即使给了这些奖/助学金，博士生也只是很廉价的劳动力，帮学校做助教、助研。尤其在Irvine这种富人区，我们就是社会最贫困的阶层，虽然这个收入水平在中国已经是相当不错。有次跟室友说起中国大学学费大概5000元/年折合约$700/年，令他们口水直流，艳羡不已。所以虽然美国没有计划生育，很多人都因为大学学费贵而不生太多小孩。

美国白人大多不会用筷子

事实上很多白人都会用筷子的，虽然熟练程度可能比我们差一点点，也就一点点而已。我不只一次地在吃饭时被他们说：“What's wrong with you? We are all using chopsticks. Only you are using a spoon.”我低头看看，真的耶，他们都在用筷子吃！不过我继续用我的勺子吃。反正我是什么方便用什么，谁说中国人就非得用筷子。