My  Hobbies

I am, in nature, a quiet person. But I enjoy listening to people. I believe I am patient, understanding, compassionate and modest. My friends usually tell me that I am courteous and sweet.

I have lots of hobbies and it is impossible to list them all. Here are just a few:

Reading - I like to read. I read all kinds of books, in English or in Chinese: literature, science, fiction, non-fiction, history, religion, politics, philosophy, and of course, economics.

Blog I visit economics blogs. Professor Paul Krugman's blog is my favorite. Professor Paul Krugman is 2008 Nobel Winning Economist.

Chinese Painting and Calligraphy - I am a beginner of Chinese painting. My paintings are not good enough for showing. The following pictures were painted by my teacher - artist Gerald Liu.

    Craft - I like to make craft. Paper cutting and paper folding (Origami) are my favorite. 

Examples of Chinese Folk Art	- Papercuts

	Examples of Japanese	Folk Art - Origami

Listening to music - I like all kinds of music, soft rock, Blues, Jazz.... I also like music from foreign countries or from different culture. Among the music groups, Classical is closer to my soul and New Age describes more of my mood.

Cooking - Cooking is fun. The Food channel is one of my favorite. I like to watch Iron Chief.

Swimming and jogging - In the summer, I go swimming. When the weather is too cold to swim, jogging or practicing Tai Chi become my daily exercise.  

Internet surfing - Well, you know what it means. Oh, I recently opened a Facebook account and connected to lots of friends. Would you like to be one of my FB friends?

Travel - Visit different places, taste different foods, experience different culture, meet different people... What a life! 

Collecting pebbles - Most of the pebbles I collected are agate. Two of them are very special. One is Turritella agate. It contains the fossil remains of the Turritella specie - a small snail - that lived some 40-60 million years ago in an ancient salt water sea covered what is now Wyoming. The other is Petrified Algae. Algae is estimated to have lived some 2 billion, 300 million years ago. The one in the picture below was found from Wyoming. The one I keep was found in Minnesota, the place once covered by warm seas.

Turritella agate	Petrified Algae	My collection	My collection