Chieni's Secret Garden

A Garden of childhood dreams, lifetime treasures, growing pains, laughter and S-E-C-R-E-T-S.

Hi, welcome to visit our class web pages. Take a look at What's New in our web.

What's New    Updated Date: 06/24/2000   

Boston, MA Sunny as my mood, 77°F Change to your city

• What's New about Chieni? I am just engaged (June 21, 2000 WED. I am afraid I will not remember exactly the date so I write it down here, but I am sure that I will never forget the lovely and interesting process at that night in Boston , which is the best moment that I and my intelligent, thoughtful, caring, adventurous, respectful and creative fiancé Damon together have ever had and could never forget. xoxoxo Love you, Damon, my Iron Giant.) There surely will be some challenges and traps in out life, but we will work together as we always did. Best wishes to our relationships, families, friendships with true friends and goals of the life. 

• It has been long time not having the chance to update the website. I worked 10-10 so hard and got so many things to concern. Before July 4th, I have a break and am enjoying the sweetness around me. I am also speeding up on preparing to open my little shop by Oct. 1 as well as the online store. Everything is interesting and worthy to learn. Hopefully I can settle down most of it down before the fall semester starts. The year 2000 is sure a very significant year in my short life (I am so energetic whenever I think about how many years left for my legs to move, for my ears to hear, for my mouth to talk, for my eyes to see, for my memory to store, for my teeth to chew, for my arms to lift, and for my heart to try something new....not much, live in this moment and makes it memorable) I certainly very much wish your Year 2000 is the most fruitful one than ever.

• Happy Birthday to Chien-ning Yu. His birthday is around the corner. On 6/26, please do not forget to send him your warmest wishes to brighten his big day. :)

• (animated picture contributed by sina)

The following is a list of recent additions to our web. The most recent changes are listed first, and each item is linked to the page with the updated content. For the near future improvement of the site, see Schedule

• What no one else ever tells you....Census...you are very important to the benefits of Taiwanese community in the North America...... Please see the Shared  Thoughts.
• The news below is contributed from Lycos (has only Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea localized sites)
• I added the resource on Chinese and English search engines. You could just search "Chinese search engine" in the main search engines to find out, or save your time from here.(Chinese Viewer required), But the list didn't include the www.pchome.com as one of the small search resource...p.s. personally, MSN Taiwan, Yahoo Taiwan, and Sina (order Chinese magazine and books, chatting with local friends, etc.) will be useful for multi-function needs...but Globepage (Globe), China.com, also offers plenty of well-categorized URLs on Searching functions. 

April. 5, 2000 

Web a safety net for late tax filers By Greg Sandoval Staff Writer, CNET News.com April 3, 2000, 1:10 p.m. PT Procrastinators take heart: Online tax firms are beefing up their Web sites to prepare for the expected onslaught of last-minute filers. More Americans than ever have filed taxes online this year, according to IRS figures, and that's put pressure on online tax-preparation companies to prove their sites are fast, secure and easy to use. A crush of late filers is expected between now and the April 17 deadline.  Quote Snapshot   HRB 44.75 +0.31   INTU 49.78 -1.91 US Stocks Watch Enter symbol: ·  Symbol Lookup Quotes delayed 20+ minutes "This is the defining year for this industry," Punishill said. "With 2 percent of the U.S. population expected to file online this year, this is going to put online tax preparation on the map."  Industry leaders H&R Block and software maker Intuit offer Hrblock.com and Turbotax for people to log on and do their own taxes.

Mar. 19, 2000 EST 12pm

Taiwan's Chen Declared Presidential Winner

Saturday, March 18, 2000   I put the English report from Reuters frist

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian was officially declared the winner of Taiwan's presidential elections on Saturday, ending more than half a century of Nationalist rule.

"The trend cannot be reversed. Chen Shui-bian has been elected," Yu Ming-hsien, director of the Central Election Commission, told reporters.

Tens of thousands of jubilant supporters thronged Chen's campaign headquarters in central Taipei, setting off firecrackers and honking horns.

There was no immediate response from China, which has threatened to invade if Taiwan declared independence and has issued dire threats aimed at Chen's Democratic Progressive Party.

Chen has softpedalled the independence issue, promising that if elected he would not hold a referendum declaring a separate state or change the flag and constitution.

Mar 18, 2000 Taiwan Election 2000

Sina

	4,664,932	2,925,513	16,782	79,429	4,977,737
	36.84 %	23.10 %	0.13 %	0.63 %	39.30 %

　　中新社台北三月十八日电 （本社记者刘北宪发自台北）台湾地区领导人的选举活动今晚揭晓。民进党候选人陈水扁得票领先。

　　台湾地区此次共有五组候选人参加选举。据此间公布的选举结果，陈水扁与他的搭档吕秀莲得票四百九十七万七千七百三十七张，宋楚瑜、张昭雄得票四百六十六万四千九百三十二张，连战、萧万长得票二百九十二万五千五百一十三张，许信良、朱惠良得票七万九千四百二十九张，李敖、冯沪祥得票一万六千七百八十二张。

MSN Taiwan 中選會公佈陳水扁當選第十任總統、呂秀蓮當選副總統 第十任總統大選開票作業已經結束，陳水扁以接近 500 萬張的得票數，成為中華民國第十屆總統，中選會已經發布正式公告，同時陳水扁也發布了當選感言。 中時電子報：陳水扁當選第十任總統 陳水扁發表當選感言 陳水扁的專屬網站 到 MSN 社群來聊天吧，談談你對新總統的期許

Yahoo Taiwan

(1)宋楚瑜 4664932票	(2)連戰 2925513票	(3)李敖 16782票	(4)許信良 79429票	(5)陳水扁 4977737票
直播及票數統計與中選會開票同步展開(約為下午3:50)。要獲知最新票數，請按"重新整理"(reload, refresh)。開票結果以中選會為準。
分區票數 〈每分鐘更新〉

Mar.15, 2000 Add New Stuff at Life Is Beautiful (check out the new site.)

 Chess Web site launch will feature Kasparov, Becker in match                      

    Becker is one of three my favorite tennis players; and I can play chess whole day, never being bored. My friend Markus is very good at it. Chris, Damon, James like it too. Yahoo has the online chess and other games..

Mar.14, 2000 Add Mona's fabulous wedding picture

Please visit at MEMBERS/#21 Mona Lou

Mar.14, 2000  Special announcement!! Attention!

We are going to move the class web site to www.geocities.com/sunny_ko/, for complete components (forms, search, discussions) functions. Enjoy it, use it to communicate with others, so all of you  will be the gardeners, and please seed for the spring. IF you search Jennifer(#40) then you can get three results from the entire site and link you to those pages. If you post any comments or articles, then it will be shown in Table of Contents of discussion-knowledge base. For instance, I have posted my opinion in the category of Taiwan Politics.

Please send me your comments. Thank you very much. Thank (#11)Volleyball Boy for your message in the prior temp guest book. *

Mar.18, 2000  台灣三月十八日舉行總統直選

(中央社渥太華十三日專電) 溫哥華太陽報今天的報導指出，台灣三月十八日舉行的總統直選，勢將導引大中國邁向新領域。如果台灣初熟的民主政治經此考驗出現了亂局，中共將會幸災樂禍，且將振振有詞的繼續鎮壓統治(鎮壓統治??Very Funny, just don't know how other people could believe Taiwan is part of current People's Republic China without Taiwan all citizens' and the government's agreement, any attack from Mainland China, or attack from Taiwan to mainland China is 100% offense, not protection, not oppression, they have no law and any authority practiced in each other's land)。

溫哥華太陽報特派員曼索普發自台北的報導指出，台灣選出李登輝的繼任總統，等於完成民主傳承，不過黑金政治的改革尚待努力。台灣從列寧式的一黨獨大，快速發展成多黨民主政治，再一次證明與全面抵制多黨政治發展的中國大陸形成強烈對比。(Mainland people are smart, hardworking, and friendly, but their Government are losers, are treating their people unfairly, this kind of government should be reformed, Mainland government, before you want to take over Taiwan, just ask any neighbor, or any of your alliance, who wants to be ruled by such a lousy government like you? HEY, SIZE DOES NOT MATTER. People admire China by its history, culture, and beautiful landscape and resources, as well as the huge market...however, none of these is contributed by the People's Republic of China) ~Sunny, Mar. 14, 2000

台灣要推選一位有能力接穩與北京談判這個滑手的球的新總統，是此次大選的主要議題。多項民意調查結果顯示，台灣選民仍不十分清楚三組主要總統候選人當中，究竟那一組最值得信賴，可以確保台灣的前途。

各組候選人都試圖推出切合輿論的大陸政策，絕大多數的台灣人都贊同台灣宜維持模糊的國際地位，而不要作出激怒中共的舉動。

曼索普說，因此，此次台灣總統大選的變數很可能在內政方面。

萬一民進黨的候選人陳水扁當選，他將會有一段時間必須與國民黨掌控的立法院週旋。陳水扁推出的強力競選主題是政治革新與掃除黑金。他要推動這些改革，必須獲得立法院的支持，而在民進黨未能掌控立法院的情況下，這個願望難以達成。

同樣的，國民黨總統候選人連戰也將面對類似的問題，因為如果他當選的話，那代表黨機器獲勝，並非他個人受到全民託付。

獨立總統候選人宋楚瑜的處境是三人當中最艱難的。如果他當選的話，他將須設法掌控國民黨，然而在歷經人身攻擊不斷的競選活動之後，這個工作的成敗難定，尤其是李登輝在二○○一年八月任期屆滿前，仍將繼續擔任國民黨主席職務，其影響力仍在。

曼索普說，因此台灣即將進入初熟的民主備受考驗的時期。

台灣如何處理未來歲月的狀況，其影響至深且遠。曼索普指出，如果台灣政局出現分裂內訌，美國對台灣的大力支持可能就此縮手。

【 僑報】對於1973─74、79─80及1990年三次世界石油危機記憶猶新的人，現在恐將再度受到夜夜失眠的痛苦。前三次的能源危機，原油價格暴漲三倍，導致全球性的通貨膨脹惡化，全球經濟進而深陷不景氣的泥淖不可自拔。此次油產國減產所引發的能源危機，雖然多數人不若前三次驚慌失措而能夜夜好眠，但這些人所懷全球經濟不會因石油危機導致不景氣的美夢，恐將幻滅。

據《中國時報》3月13日報導，具有全球石油價格指標的北海布蘭特原油價格，上星期已來到每桶32美元的新高價，這與1998年底的每桶不到10美元的價位相比，短短一年多，油價一路往上攀升已三倍之多，并創下1991年海灣戰爭以來的新高。這一波的石油價格飛漲，反應出石油輸出國組織（OPEC）的減產協議及遠比預期高出甚多的全球性石油需求。盡管如此，極少數的經濟學家對這一次也是第四次的能源危機表示憂心。這些經濟學家普遍認為，與前三次石油危機相較，全球几個富有國家這次較不受高油價的影響。這些國家的共同特色是已發展新經濟，而新經濟仰賴的是資訊而非石油。

事實上，與七十年代的兩次能源危機比較，此次石油價格的暴漲對經濟的影響較不嚴重，這可由四個理由來解釋。

首先，此次的石油價格在飆漲前是先處於油價的曆史低檔。1999年初石油實際價格（未考慮通脹的因素）是1972年以後的曆史新低，即使油價最近屢創新高，但石油實際價格仍只有 1981年的一半水准。

第二項原因是經濟富國已不若以往相當仰賴石油。這些國家的能源儲備（由於高稅率政策）已由石油為主漸漸轉移至其他的能源項目。另外，重工業的沒落亦是這些國家較不倚賴石油的原因。畢竟，軟體高科技公司比汽車制造商是較少耗費能源。自七十年代初期以來，富有國家的國內生產毛額（GDP）每個單位花在購油的消費，已減少約一半之多。

第三個原因是前三次石油危機都是與戰爭或是革命有關。戰爭與革命都讓許多國家對於未來產生不確定性，此次的石油價格飛漲是OPEC達成減產協議的結果，因此對企業及消費者信心影響較小。

第四項理由是前三次能源危機發生的經濟背景，都是經濟富國的經濟過熱及通脹惡化。此次，即使美國經濟是處於過熱的現況，但歐日几個國家卻都還有相當的經濟發展空間。例如，經濟學人的非石油商品物價指數，最近几年上升不到5％，但在1973年，這項指數卻在一年內成長70％。

雖然過高的石油價格現在對經濟的影響已相對較小，但影響卻不容忽視。

首先，石油價格節節高升，明顯造成消費者物價上漲，此現象已在富國中發生。去年美國的通貨膨脹率由1.6％上升至2.7％；歐元區的國家通貨膨脹率也由0.8％上升到2％。而目前生產者物價持續上揚，亦顯示通貨膨脹率往上竄升的趨勢。舉例來說，歐元區今年1月之前的一年內生產者物價上升了5％，但在之前的那一年，生產者物價卻是下降2.7％。

另外，石油價格高漲可從兩方面減少GDP的產出。第一，高油價會使實質所得減少，企業及家庭支出因此也會跟著下降。

第二，高油價將導致石油進口國的GDP減少及石油輸出國的GDP增加。

但高油價對經濟的確切影響，仍得視高油價居於高檔的時間而定。

舉例來說，以每桶30美元計算，富國經濟每年花在購油的成本支出，約只占GDP不到1％，這個百分比約是七十年代的一半水准。

經濟合作暨開發組織（OECD）認為高油價所導致的通脹，在歐洲會比在美國及日本來得高，原因是歐洲的勞力市場較為緊縮。但OECD預估，日本受到高油價的沖擊卻是最大（每桶石油增加10元美金，GDP將減少0.4％），理由是日本經濟相當仰賴石油的進口。

即便如此，OECD對高油價的分析建議卻是：“不要驚慌，高油價今年對富國原先3％的經濟成長預測不會影響太多，也不會有陷入不景氣的立即危險。”

但可不要輕易地相信經濟學家的說法，1990年的能源危機，OECD對富國經濟的經濟成長預測是2％，但結果卻只有0.8％。

美國聯邦儲備委員會今年已對美國經濟過熱的現象表示憂慮，現在再加上高油價的因素，聯儲會很有可能再度升息。屆時，美國高科技股價可能一潟千里。美國雖是全球新經濟的代表，但也仍無法擺脫石油危機所造成的必然後果。 

Mar.09, 2000

• I add something about Boston in this site today, because I wish my friends feel free to come to visit me and explore more about the city I love very very much. Taipei has so many singers, actresses, free concerts, local and international arts performances, galleries (I personally like ET Park, Elite, ShaMen and A-Po-Lo Da-Sha, tons of stimulating or experimental visual or multi-media works out there; the best hair saloon and real world-class SPA, and so many delicious food and creative food stands and night markets, "we-have everything from Japan, HK, Europe, America, and Australia" department store (frankly, I can't stand Macy's and Filine's called themselves Department store, in my "narrow" impression, Department Store has Huge Arcade or Game center, has neat B1 B2 Food Courts, Beautiful elevator service girls, Many many floors, very very bright, has gallery, pop concerts or exhibitions on the top floor, whole floor of audio and recods sold there, has Mechanical Cat Ding Dang displayed), and supermarket (I do miss the taste of some snacks available there, Americans seem only eat and produce candy, chips, nuts, dry fruit, and chocolate) native TV programs are lousy, Radio programs are funny, energetic, and soothing)...however, if I can not just stay indoors or suburbs, then I appreciate the fresh air, the wide blue sky, the nearby seashore and harbor activities, the Charles River banks as your open bed and reading desk, the clean streets, and wide (only few few motorcycles) sidewalk.  I feel so rich just by walking along the Charles River, see the sailing boats and skaters. I feel so young and pretty just by breathing in the chilly wind and dustless neighborhood. Just saying no matter where I am I will remember both, and will cherish what I can have now, think positively, and live happily and richly in the place I finally belong to.
• The temperature here hits new record of today, 75 degree, and Mar.11, or 12, we might have snow shower again. :)  #$%@&*# New England's weather is really like women unpredictable/unstable? But anyway, I love it, so fun to have surprises, and to wear 4 season cloth in one week. Yay Yay Yay.
• And about myself, I drive very well and comfortably. This is one thing exciting and a progress to me. You know, I am always lazy and afraid of driving, even I got my license last June, I never drove after June:) till now. 

Mar.03, 2000

• Taiwan News: Will the U.S. sell advanced weapon to Taiwan?
• 陽明山花季揭幕 花卉大展相競豔 (from Taiwan Yahoo)

Mar.02, 2000

• I found some of your pictures taken at the 6th grade! I just don't know if you mind that I post them in the site or not??? We will get the time stamp, counter appeared without frontpage server extension...Have a wonderful weekend and the Spring break. See spring is around the corner.

Mar.01, 2000

• Hay, Today is National Pig Day. Have you heard about it? ^_^Anyway, pigs are cute and they contribute us a lot! Let Chieni's Secret Garden honor all of Piggy Friends, who were born in 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995. 
• 2.26 ~ 3.1 I was preparing my paper and just finish a mid-term exam. I wish I will be back working on these flowers, trees, pond, and "Ting-Tai-Lou-Ge" soon. 
• Thanks Andrea and Dacan for those sharing emails. I will post them as soon as I make the scroll text box for articles. You take care. < >

Feb.25, 2000

• Fixed the snoopy cartoon (image\friend.gif -> friend.gif )within the homepage, so hopefully it can be seen with both IE and Netscape  on windows as well on the unix system.
• Thank you, Liu.  I am sorry, #16 Liu's email is syl@caltech.edu or syl@astro.cattech.edu in case you just join the email users. I just corrected it in the Members page.
• Ah, not getting any individual's recent pic yet. Please send me again if you did. I could not save these pic earlier, but I think they are lovely, really, Chuan, Jennifer, Teng, Mona...please...when you get time, thanks a lot.
• And the heart bullet was bumping...but they are sleeping now...will ask Gioying..then fix it soon.
• Also let you know that the search form, discussion, and guest book, even the hit counter will be fixed by Mar. 12. Thanks 

Feb.23-24, 2000

• Inform friends and classmates about the site and have got response from Milton, Gwai Mei, Damon.  Thank you. 
• Fix the table with Wine Opener under the Archive>Tools.

Feb.22, 2000

• Chieni's Secret Garden was born. Chieni just bought the Frontpage2000 for her home PC, so she could try to maintain the pages better in the future, as a caring gardener.

Feb.19, 2000

• Chieni attended her senior friend Ray's funeral service in VT. And she wants to build something for her friendship and people who have had long relationship with her before she dies.

Feb 6-12, 2000

• The previous version of the classweb was built with the theme travel from FrontPage98 in the BU's lab. But Chieni had not come out a good idea about how to make the best use of the website for our classmates. Basically, we certainly will post the contact list, and some shared emails for classmates who have the internet access but haven't set up any e-mail account.
• Suggestion: set up the worldwide free email account with hotmail, yahoo, excite or collegeclub. There are a lot of free email account providers now. 

Jan 2000

• Got the domain names: www.sunny-ko.com and www.worldbrain.org.uk
• So Chieni will set up the http://people.bu.edu/chieniko as her personal site, www.sunny-ko.com for prime schoolmates, best co-workers, friends and family, www.worldbrain.org.uk as the memorial site for her very respectable friend Ray for educational purpose, to learn and explore the universe with people on the internet for the interests, beauty, and sheer happiness of growing without gossips and "pollutions".

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Last updated: June 24, 2000.