Mapping our way to the Golden Gate Bridge the old-fashioned way

While Chris was visiting this past weekend, we decided to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. I drove and he (in theory) navigated. I kept asking what the exit was and he just said it was the last exit before the bridge. As we get close to our destination, I ask "Is this the exit?" He replies "Yes".

But it wasn't. We found ourselves on CA-1 South for a while before we had an option to turn off to reverse direction. All the while Chris is trying to access a map on his cell phone (web-capable but not quite a smart phone). With his phone, it takes him a while to navigate the map (I assume it's because of the map refreshing each time he moves in one direction), and so after a while I realize something:

"You know, there are some actual maps over there." (Referring to the slot on the passenger-side door)

At first it seemed like Chris had forgotten how to use a real map, but his apparent confusion quickly becomes fascination: "Look at all the detail I can see without having to zoom in!" "There's so much stuff on here!" "You have to blog about this." (Here ya go, Chris. Happy?)

With the help of the good old-fashioned map, we finally made our way to the parking lot near the foot of the bridge and were rewarded with a spectacular view on a beautiful day:

Taiwan High Speed Rail

While we were in Taiwan, my family took advantage of the Taiwan High Speed Rail quite a bit. On January 23rd, we took it down to Yunlin county from Taipei—a journey I've made over a dozen times in the past either by traditional rail road, bus, or car. These methods usually took around 5 hours (and sometimes twice that when hitting really bad traffic).

The high speed rail took a mere 1.5 hours to get us to Chia-yi, followed by a 30 minute car ride to our destination. Not only was it fast, but it was comfortable, fairly clean, and fun. They had a food and snack cart that came through from which I bought a katsu-don (pork cutlet with egg and rice) meal for 120 NT, or about $3.60! It was pretty good and a great deal (of course one of my aunts thought it was "robbing the bank" to charge so much). One nice little "feature" they had was a pull-down screen to shade from the sun, similar to airplanes but made of nicer materials:

The experience reminded me of how fun traveling by train can be. You get to get a sense of the towns and countrysides you pass through in far greater detail than from a plane, and without the hassles of getting to airports (which are usually not as close to the heart of major cities) and passing through security checkpoints. And, at least with the THSR, the trains were punctual. Here's a little video I recorded while on the train:

The only downside of the THSR is it reminded me of how underwhelming rail travel in the U.S. is.

Inauguration Day, 2009

I'm in Taipei, Taiwan right now—on the day of Barack Obama's Inauguration. I'm ever-thankful for getting CNN here and their thorough coverage of the events that are taking place on the other side of the world.

January 20, 2009 started for me a little earlier than most Americans. I spent most of it walking around with my family, and wearing my "I'm fired up! / He's ready to go" Obama t-shirt.

All the walking around, not sleeping a lot last night, and having arrived in Taiwan just two nights prior have made me thoroughly exhausted.

But I'm also energized and excited to witness this moment in history. The past few days, I've been trying to grasp the enormity and significance of this moment. The best I can do is to say that it's a momentous reaffirmation of the American Dream—the opportunity to imagine a better life and to pursue that vision. Today, America and its people begin a new chapter. One where we can imagine our nation's return to a brighter future, and can reshape how we and the world perceive us as a country and people.

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

While the past few years have seemed to just zoom by, 2008 really stands out in my mind as one of the most eventful ones. It saw me as an MBA student at MIT Sloan, working at FriendFeed, visiting Japan and Germany, moving back to the west coast, and get back into regular WingTsun teaching and training.

In the second week of the year I was interning at a 3-month old startup. I quickly realized that FriendFeed was a special place and that I'd love to work there full-time. Which is what I'm doing now (a little sooner than expected). After spending much of my four years living in NYC and part of my first year of business school trying to figure out what job would be right for me—something that has the potential to impact people's daily lives, that I could be passionate about and that wouldn't make me depressed to spend most of my waking hours doing—I'm happy to have finally found such a great fit.

This year will inevitably be a historic one because of Barack Obama. I found myself engaged and curious about the U.S. election process and government policies. It was inspiring to see this man who had blazed his own path make history as our first African-American Commander-in-Chief. I truly believe this to be an important step in American history because of the instant credibility it lends to the dreams of present and future generations of American children, regardless of race. Obama inspired many of us this year, and of the many inspirational speeches he gave, the one he gave in Virginia on the eve of the election stands out: Fired Up? Ready to Go!.

In personal life events, I got to watch Brett Favre play live for the first time (though they lost a game they should've won). It was particularly meaningful since I got to share the moment with my Dad, who's also a big Favre fan.

2009

My New Year's Eve was not particularly notable, but I was happy to get to spend it in New York. We watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, grocery shopped, then ate dinner (Indian food) and hung out at a buddy's apartment in Fort Greene (Brooklyn), where we played "Dig" (a speedy version of Scrabble), watched TV, and consumed snacks and beverages.

I've had enough resolution attempts to realize that my list doesn't have much variance: more music playing/writing, try to improve Chinese, play more basketball/tennis, read more, ... I used to get frustrated at the slow progress I make in each of those, and wonder whether I should just give up something. But I can't. So here's to continuing along the path in my areas of interest. Maybe one of these years they'll have their 'hockey-stick' moment. Maybe it'll be 2009.

Swollen Uvula (aka hanging ball thing in the back of your mouth)

So i awoke on the morning of January 1, 2009 really dehydrated. Mouth and throat were ridiculously dry, and worst of all, the hanging ball thingy in the back of my mouth was swollen. It was pretty much in contact with my tongue, which made swallowing hurt (since I was trying to swallow the hanging ball thingy). So i searched Google (on my iPod Touch) for "hanging ball throat" and found out that it was my uvula (from latin root uva, meaning grape).

Then i searched for "swollen uvula", and the first result was: http://swollenuvula.blogspot.com. It has just one post that perfectly described what i felt and said that I should eat ice cream! Now i'm not especially crazy about ice cream, but having to consume it for medical purposes is a pretty awesome concept. :) It said orange juice and throat drops are good too.

What I've Learned in 2008

Esquire is my favorite magazine, and what first got me into the magazine is when I first read one of their "What I've Learned" interviews, where they interview prominent people about the things they've learned in life. So here's my "What I've Learned" in 2008, either through my own experiences or those of friends:

• Do what you want to do, not what you think you're supposed to do or what you think others want you to do. This has been a work in progress for me, as I used to fall into the trap of doing the latter. But this year I've made big strides in this department.


• When it comes to tough decisions, going with your heart can't be wrong.


• The best way I've found to de-stress or clear my head is with good music.


• Sleep is good. If you can make time for it, sleep more. My dad advocates 8.5 hrs—I've found that being closer to that number is better than being further.


• New York is the best city in the world. I've believed this for a while, but now that I'm over a year removed from being a resident, it rings even more true.


• Macs are better than PCs. I've had one of my most frustrating years as a PC user, and finally decided to give Macs a try. It was a good decision. (@MichaelMorrissey–this recent development has no bearing on our disagreements on Apple VS IBM in 5th/6th grade.)


• Always, ALWAYS firmly negotiate a price with a locksmith BEFORE he performs his services. Otherwise be prepared to hear an absurd number.


• When sick, just because you feel all better doesn't mean you're fully healthy yet. Take it slow.

Follow-up thoughts on being a Mac (1+ month in)

Just wanted to follow-up on my previous post with some things I forgot to mention and my impressions now that I've been using my MacBook Pro for over a month.

One of the biggest positives of OSX is no longer having the lame Flash bug I had on both Vista machines I was running. This annoying bug only played flash videos for 2 seconds and without sound. It effectively made it impossible to watch most online videos, including YouTube! It's amazing when things work as you expect them to.

The lack of a right-mouse button on the notebook itself hasn't been as bad since I use a USB mouse at work that has a right mouse-button that works fine (without any configuring on my part).

I was frustrated that tabbing with the keyboard seemed to always skip dropdown boxes. Thanks to writing this post, I forced myself to finally try figuring it out and a google search helped me find some help in changing this. I just activated it so haven't used it in normal browsing yet, but one thing i've noticed is that when tabbing to the dropdown box i don't seem to be able to expand the list of options, only cycle through them. Hopefully there's a way to do that, but i'm too tired to search for that answer right now.

All-and-all, i'm pretty surprised how quickly i adapted to using my MacBook Pro and OSX, and it's amazing how clunky PCs feel to me now. So far, the MacBook Pro has proven to be a more elegant machine, and OS X has not surprisingly been a far superior OS to Windows.

Learning to be a Mac

It's been about 2.5 weeks since i got my MacBook Pro for work, and so far i've been mighty impressed. As a quick background, i've been a PC user since i was 6, and a ThinkPad user for the past 11 years. I absolutely loved my T42 (running the stable and usable Windows XP). Last year i got an X61 running Vista Business and have been very disappointed. I love the form-factor and size of the X-series ThinkPads, but it was crashing constantly, among other issues. So when i got the choice of choosing a laptop for work, my decision wasn't too hard:

• ThinkPads are no longer IBM machines
• I've been punished by Microsoft for way too long already
• Most of the other people at work use MacBook Pros
• I was fairly clueless around Macs/OSX and felt kinda stupid as someone who's supposed to be relatively tech savvy
  

So how's it been so far? Pretty awesome. :)

The goods:

• It is so freakin' fast to boot up, sleep, wake. I remember my X61 took about 5 minutes to hibernate or resume.
• Its sleep mode is so impressively battery efficient (as Paul had told me before)
  
• OSX (10.5.5) is really stable. I've had one or two programs freeze up, but haven't had the whole OS freeze up on me (*cough*, Vista, *cough*).
• Most of the functions are fairly intuitive and logical once you know how to do them, and work really well (i.e.--scrolling using two fingers on the touch pad).
• Seems to be a short-cut key for everything (just need to learn them all; http://www.usingmac.com/2007/11/21/mac-os-x-leopard-200-productivity-booster-hotkeys is a great resource).
  
• Built-in iChat is so easy to use and performs pretty well.
• Beautiful bright screen, good speakers.
• No longer having to deal with Windows.
  

The not so goods:

• I still don't know whether to use control, option, or command when i want to skip to the beginning/end of a line or skip from word to word. I don't think it's even consistent among programs.
• No right-mouse button. Yes i can hold control while clicking, but it's so much slower.
  
• As people have said, the machine does get quite hot.

While i felt really strange about it when i first took my Macbook Pro out of its pretty packaging, i've quickly grown to love it, and to enjoy being among the increasing number of people who "are a Mac".

Sad day in Packers' history

What a tiring week for Packer fans. The anticipation and feeling of near-certainty that Brett Favre would be under center again in Green Bay quickly turning to a skipped heart-beat as Mike McCarthy (coach) and Favre's conversation dragged on and on. And then the dagger. McCarthy and Favre couldn't patch things up and move forward together. A couple of hours ago, it was announced that the Packers have traded Favre to the NY Jets.

While this might make "good business sense" in terms of planning for the future, that's about the only sense it makes. With McCarthy declaring as loudly as possible that the team has moved on with Aaron Rodgers as his starting QB, he drove a chasm between Favre and himself. A gaping hole so large that there was no way for it to be patched up at this point, especially with McCarthy having no intentions of doing so. So now you've put your team in a position where its chances of winning the Superbowl are less than they could have been. For the record, I do believe the Packers are a very good team and will do very well this year. But that's beside the point. In the end, all Favre wanted was a little appreciation. A little respect. After all that he's done for the franchise, I don't think that's asking very much.

I'm growing weary of sport management teams' egos and poor decision making ruining my love for my teams. Take Exhibit 1: James Dolan (owner) runs the Knicks into the gutter and keeps them there for years. Finally with GM Donnie Walsh and Coach Mike D'Antoni there's a ray of hope back at Madison Square Garden. Dolan's left an awful taste in my mouth that won't go away until his family sells the Knicks to new ownership.

I have the same feelings now toward McCarthy and Ted Thompson (GM). From the events of this past summer, they've struck me as extremely egotistical and stubborn. Yes, Favre might have caused their lives some difficulties by retiring and then wanting to unretire, but he's Brett Favre. He's the one that's given everything he had to the team for 16 seasons. He played hurt. He suffered concussions. He had personal tragedies, yet through it all he didn't miss a single game. And that's also the problem McCarthy and Thompson have. That he's Brett Favre, and everyone knew that the Packers were Brett Favre's team. Well congratulations to them. Now they can say it's Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson's team. And as long as that's the case, i'll have the same awful taste in my mouth, and have trouble fully embracing the Packers.

I'll still root for the green and gold, because McCarthy and Thompson will be but a blip in the Packers' storied history. But I'll always be rooting harder for Brett Favre.

Favre VS Packers

I'm sure a lot of people are tired of hearing about the Brett Favre/Green Bay Packers standoff. They must be, because as a fan of both Favre and the Packers, i'm getting pretty sick of how long this has dragged on. I'm posting my thoughts here, and then attempting to read no more about the situation until a resolution is reached.

Frankly, i'm disappointed in the Packers organization. Brett Favre poured his heart and soul into playing football and bringing prominence back to Titletown (Green Bay). For 16 seasons he never missed a game, brought them to the NFC conference championship game, to the Superbowl, and to a Superbowl victory. This is not how you treat your people, let alone a legend and iconic figure in your team's history. It may be different if Favre was hobbling along and no longer the player that he once was. But his performance last season proved that he is still one of the best QBs to have on the field.

Favre is not without blame. You can blame him for committing to retiring in early March and then changing his mind. But Packers' management should've been well-aware that no retirement decision is ever final, especially in sports, especially with atheletes who have been at the top of their sport, and especially with a fierce competitor like Brett Favre. Favre maybe should've left the media out of it and just filed for reinstatement and showed up for camp, before the Packers made statements of their commitment to Aaron Rodgers. Though this thought is just speculation, as i'm sure there's far more going on behind closed doors than most of us are aware of.

Sadly, i've come to the point where i'm fairly disgusted at the Packers management. All Favre wants to do is suit up and play the game that he loves. For the game and team he has never let down, despite encountering more personal tragedies than one person should have to endure.
If #4 isn't the starting QB for the Packers this fall, i just might retire from being a Packers fan. And i won't expect the Packers to plan for me to change my mind on that.

"Only" Week 3

Last Friday it was somehow brought to my attention that we had just completed the second week of classes—it was actually a shock to realize that only two weeks had passed. It really felt much more like eight weeks. I had expected to be busy, especially with all of the forewarning about the intensity and craziness of MIT Sloan's Core Semester, but the level of intensity and busyness has definitely exceeded my expectations.

Now you may think, "Wait a minute—this is business school we're talking about. Don't M.B.A.'s all just drink and socialize?" I can't speak for other schools, but at Sloan they've definitely been piling it on. To clarify, it's not a matter of any particular tasks being incredibly intellectually difficult, at least not when compared to science/engineering (although Econ and DMD (data, models, and decisions) aren't pushovers). The best analogy is drinking from a fire hose.

In addition to classes and their respective high volumes of required assignments and reading, much time is required for the many interesting student clubs and interest groups. The idea of opportunity cost is well ingrained in us since nearly every lunch period or evening is an exercise in deciding which of the two (to six) meetings/presentations/events to attend (or to simply find time to catch up on assignments).

Although it's been stressful and tiring, it's been a great experience. Life certainly won't get much easier in the near future in terms of time management and prioritizing things, so I'm certain I'll look back on this experience as an invaluable lesson to draw upon throughout my career.

To speak a little more personally, the Core classes (required for everyone) I'm taking are:

• 15.010 - Economic Analysis for Business Decisions
  
• 15.060 - Data, Models, and Decisions (DMD)
  
• 15.515 - Financial Accounting
• 15.280 - Communication for Managers
  
• 15.311 - Organizational Processes (OP)
  
• 15.328 - OP Team Project

Of the below two electives we have to choose between, I'm taking Marketing.

• 15.401 - Finance Theory I
• 15.810 - Marketing

And lastly, as part of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program, I am taking the course:

• 15.360 - Introduction to Tech Entrepreneurship

What I've found impressive is how all the classes blend fairly well together. Ideas from the various classes are often introduced or play a role in other classes, so it makes sense from a practical standpoint how you can use the lessons in real workplace situations.

I'm just starting to get my head around prioritizing the countless activities available on campus, so hopefully I can touch upon that in my next post!

Beginning my b-school adventure

although i haven't even officially started school, the past couple of weeks have been ridiculously busy for me. to be fair, a sizable chunk of time has been for social activities ("networking") with my new classmates, but this is still without assignments, projects, tests, or student orgs. this busyness results in very little free time to do things, such as blogging. i prob won't have time to update regularly, but hope to do some more "meaty" ones every now and then. so... some highlights from these past couple of weeks:

two weekends ago i went on a pre-term "E-trek" for white water rafting with some other '09 Sloanies. at the last minute, we were informed that no second year ('08) Sloanie could go with us, so they were looking for first years to volunteer to lead the trip. Raphael and I offered to co-lead the trip and, for better or worse, we did. :) we went on the Kennebec River which had class 3-4 rapids. it was seriously a lot of fun, though i wish there were more rapids to take on. despite the cold and at times rainy weather, the trip was a lot of fun and a great bonding experience. a lot of my closer friends now are still the ones i spent time with on the trip.

another notable thing is that i ate lobster 3 times in 9 days. these lobsters were full lobsters (except for the amputee lobster i got during the Sloan Orientation Clam Bake) and so i'm rather experienced now at eating lobsters. :P i don't plan to keep this up though.

in addition to the white water rafting, i also learned to sail last Sunday. went with Nita and David and now are allowed to take out the 'tech dinghy' boats by ourselves. it wasn't too bad, except for when the boat started tipping severely and fear of being submersed in the Charles River crept into mind. i definitely would like to sail more and get certified to take out larger boats, but am guessing it won't fall high enough on my priority of activities.

yesterday, as part of Orientation, i went out to the Warren Center and did a bunch of great team building exercises. so as not to spoil this for future Sloanies, i won't comment much about it, but it was a great time and a great way to bond with my core team.

we ended Orientation activities today by playing the Beer Game. no beer is actually involved in playing the beer game (beer is just the chosen product). again, won't say too much about the specifics; however, i will say that of the 43 teams there were, the team i was on (Sloan Adams) came in first place! was fun/exciting/unexpected to have done as well as we did, although the professor was quick to remind us that our performance was still far from optimal. :P

now on to the many other things left on my to do list as i go into labor day weekend (a four day weekend for me) before classes commence.

I think I'll go to Boston

She said I think I'll go to Boston...
I think I'll start a new life,
I think I'll start it over, where no one knows my name,
I'll get out of California, I'm tired of the weather,
I think I'll get a lover and fly 'em out to Spain...
I think I'll go to Boston,
I think that I'm just tired
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind...
I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset,
I hear it's nice in the Summer, some snow would be nice...

- Augustana, "Boston"


so chris met up with me around 8 am on East 117th St. to pick up a Budget moving truck for
the big move. it was a beautiful day out, making both moving stuff and the drive up enjoyable. it was a good time to just chat with chris. although we talk often, you always touch upon different topics... naturally, with the move, we reflected on the past and such. one thing is how it was my second time saying goodbye to New York. Chris added "but this time for good." but that's what i thought last time too. i guess we'll see...

we made it to my new residence by about 5 pm. unfortunately, once here, the lady at the front desk said there was no indication that i was to be moving in that day. naturally it was a little irritating after the early morning and long drive. she was only a temp for the weekend so wasn't sure what to do. i had to insist a bit to try to talk to an authority figure since she had said no one was working on the weekends. fortunately, after a bit she started pro actively trying to find someone to help sort things out. about an hour (or more) later, i had a key and was in my new place.

Robin and Karin kindly came by to help me unload and move stuff in. The extra hands definitely helped speed things up. Afterward we went and had dinner at Basta Pasta. Good stuff and definitely helped Chris and me recharge. Next, we went back to Robin's place and hung out, played some video games and Robin and Karin also taught Chris and me how to play a card game called Bohnanza. in it, you are a bean farmer. it's much funner than it sounds. really. apparently Bean farming can be time consuming. we finally got back to my new home nearing 2 am.

my room's still disorganized, but i'm liking it so far. the first time i've ever really had my own place (it's a studio / "efficiency"), although there are plenty of other students all around me.

on that note, i should get back to unpacking/organizing...

Back in the U.S. of A. -- celebrated with a supersized post

my flight was rather tiring. i attempted to sleep most of it since i'd arrive in Cali around 8:45 AM. unfortunately, i simply was not able to fall asleep. there were also external factors such as getting bumped by the person behind me, next to me, and the people walking by in the aisle. it could've been my imagination, but every time somebody left the restroom on my side, i felt like a gush of wind brought the fragrance my way.

needless to say, i was very happy when we landed in SF. i was less happy when my luggage was one of the very last to come out. i was about ready to fall over at that point from exhaustion. i was in much better spirits once stepping outside the door and breathing in the beautiful and fresh Bay Area air. wow. California is a tricky one. it sneaks up on you unexpectedly. maybe i just take it for granted too much, but it always makes me feel welcome and comfortable when i return and i always find myself saying "why did i ever leave?"

mom and sister picked me up and the ride home was not too bad as i sat slumped in the backseat. upon returning home i lugged my stuff inside then changed and crashed into bed. that's when i started feeling less great. my stomach was rather upset. *cue dramatic music*

turns out i had some sort of food poisoning and/or stomach flu/virus. oh the irony! after being warned and being somewhat cautious during my 8 weeks in China/HK i am struck upon my return to the states! on the upside i had the comfort of my parents' house here to recover in, but man was it painful. i had said before that the worst kind of (common) illness one can contract is anything relating to the stomach (that i can speak of from experience; i'm actually sure there could be worse, which i don't want to think about, but food poisoning or stomach flus are seriously painful). at one point i started laughing because of how painful it was.

ANYWAY... of course i reflect upon what could have caused this. none of the airplane food seemed particularly likely (although for that matter, anything served on the plane could easily be the culprit), and i didn't eat anything upon returning. the following day i was talking to my dad on the phone and he said it might've been the yogurt i ate the morning i left from China. our 阿姨 (what they call the "maid" in China) bought a new brand of yogurt that we never had before, and my father said he also didn't feel that well, though not to the same extent as me. i reasoned the flight exhausted me, weakening my immune system's ability to handle the viral yogurt. so in all likelihood i did get some food poisoning in Asia. not from a street vendor, not from milk tea (which i drank plenty of), but from yogurt bought in a supermarket. thank you, China, for the send-off gift.

like many things, we tend to take our health for granted (until we lose it). i use to wonder if this was from greed (focusing on wanting more and spending resource elsewhere), laziness, or immaturity. i came to a conclusion the past few years that it's probably involves a bit of each of those things, but also that it's natural to take your status quo as the norm and to just accept it as the way things should be. it's almost like an abstraction layer we create for ourselves so we can focus on other things and "accomplish" more. an example of this is standard of living. although tipping is non-customary in China, people do it from time to time. when i have thought of tipping, i struggle with how much to tip. 1 RMB is less than 13.5 US cents. having lived in NYC the past few years, where you hear of bums and panhandlers refusing or being insulted by being given less than a quarter (or sometimes by that very amount), it's hard to imagine someone being grateful for a "gratuity" of such minute value. But considering there are factory workers who make around 10 RMB a day, 10% gratuity from one customer seems quite good when put in perspective.

While I've started to digress, let me continue to do so by mentioning how, while in China, I also started reflecting on people's spending habits and the different priorities they place on what to spend money on or not. Everyone has something they don't think too much about spending money on. For some it's candy, for some it's nice meals, for others it could be fancy sports cars or expensive electronics. Part of this has to do with your affluence, but it's also largely influenced by what type of products or services you personally place value on. (Now i haven't considered any economic theories or anything, so feel free to chew me out, Mr. Lee) We all spend money. And when our most basic needs are met without much problem, we have money to spend on perceived needs (new clothes, Harry Potter books, iPhone, etc.) or the luxuries of life we choose to indulge in. Since it's a digression, I'll choose to let it trail off here and perhaps touch upon it another time...

so where was i? (yeah, i'm lost too) well, i pretty much slept through day 1 being back. my sister was kind enough to run to safeway to get me my usual stomach prob items (Gatorade, 7-up (or ginger ale), jello; we already had saltines and apple sauce). she and my mother were wondering why i was so familiar with what i needed. "do you get food poisoning a lot?" i think i've had it every couple of years for about 6-8 years now... not a trend i'd like to continue. (for the curious--sources of previous 3 times: Taiwan street cart, Pasta Pomodoro on College Ave in Berkeley/Oakland, day of McDonald's and unhealthy eating in Chinatown, NYC).

i was worried i'd not be able to sleep at night if i slept all day. i got up around 6:30 PM, still not feeling all that great. went back to bed around 10:30 or 11 PM and slept soundly 'til around 10:00 AM the next morning. i also felt much better! but still not super (but in the case of food poisoning, much better is AMAZING). after being up for a bit in the morn and sorting through some mail, i eventually went back to bed. i got back up around 1:30 PM and had some more lovely saltines, soda, and jello. sometime later in the afternoon i decided to play some Zelda since i had never gotten very far in it. plus, i reasoned, it'd be a way to take my mind off the illness without tiring myself out too much. 5 hours later i had finally freed all the monkeys in a dungeon level, played through a mission as a wolf and got transformed back, acquired a new skill, learned to sumo wrestle, and rescued a kid on an exciting horse-back chase and duel of sorts on a bridge over a deep chasm. i'm currently inside some mine with hot lava or fire all over, and don't have the mental energy to take on another dungeon-level quite yet.

yesterday was a great improvement on the day before and things seemed great except i could not fall asleep. so i couldn't really get up this morn. i finally dragged myself out of bed around 1:45 PM. ate some stuff, played some piano. i really feel much better today! just fatigued. might be the jetlag kicking in (and i thought i had conquered that when i spent pretty much my first 24 hrs back in bed). i'm hoping for dinner to try something mildly more adventurous to eat, like pasta with some tomato sauce? i'll have to check to see if tomato sauce is harshly bad for stomachs.

anyway, i've spent more than half an hour on this post, and feeling tired. perhaps i need to lie down again (or maybe go slay some more evil creatures). excuse the long rambling for this entry. i blame it on being sick and being too tired to think coherently or with much of a filter.

wish me well soon!

禮拜天

禮拜六晚上我不知道為什麼睡不著。隔一天早上覺得還是很累。早上在家裡沒做什麼特別的事。中午去了松子(Matsuko)吃午飯。松子是有很多選擇的日本料理自助餐。吃了太多東西了以後離開了飯店﹐去買了朝陽劇場中國雜技晚上表演的票。買票是應該要排隊。可是﹐中國人大部份不受這種規矩。一直往前推。很討厭。買了票以後坐了出租車去王府井。通常坐出租車都很舒服。問題是﹐我們坐的那輛車有個很臭的味道。

王府井大街上就是一大堆店。我們一到先去了一家百貨公司。他們剛好有個TRANSFORMERS的展覽。有很多舊的TRANSFORMERS玩具﹐很多我小時候想要的玩具﹗參觀完以後﹐我們回到大街上繼續走下去。我們只是隨便的走﹐沒有什麼特別要看的。在走過的店比較特別的就是有很多賣奧運的店。也看到一個大書店掛了很大的新HARRY POTTER書的廣告。在回頭路上﹐我決定進去書店看看HARRY POTTER書有沒有英文版的。其實他們只有英文版的﹐而且有兩種--美國SCHOLASTIC版的還有英國BLOOMSBURY版的。我其實不是那麼愛HARRY POTTER﹐可是因為最近有很多朋友在念或討論這本書﹐然後因為有英國版的書﹐我就決定買了﹗

逛完街以後就去了朝陽劇場。其他的觀眾都是旅遊團或外國人。其實我六年半前跟旅遊團第一次來北京的時候去過了同樣的劇場看雜技節目。那麼久以前已經不太記得了。可是知道節目是有改進。他們特技表演的很利害而演的很不錯。

看完戲以後﹐我們還是不怎麼餓。決定去吃麥當勞﹗麥當勞和其他快餐在亞洲做的比美國好多了。吃完以後就回家了。

jumping on the bandwagon

so i was in the 王府井 district today to walk around and take it in a bit. at one of the malls there, they had a TRANSFORMERS exhibit going on with a lot of old school toys in display cases. talk about bringing back memories! after all these years (what's it been, 20 or more?!) i still would love to get my hands on an original Optimus Prime and certain other toys. they must've done a good job conditioning my brain as a kid, 'cause their programming's still there!

after prying myself away from the kiddie stuff, i noticed a big Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sign outside a large book store. after walking further down, grabbing a drink and sitting a bit to rest, i decided to stop in on the way back and see if they had the English version and possibly book 6 as well. turns out they only had English versions, but two kinds! both the American version as printed by Scholastic, and the British one printed by Bloomsbury. quick recap for those unaware: i'm not a HP fan and haven't read any of the books. i've seen the first five movies, and tried reading the first book but couldn't make it even halfway through. anyway, since they had the British version, i thought i'd pick it up. my sis got the Brit version of first book when we were in Europe four years ago, so i figure i'd get the last. i figure i'll watch the 6th movie then read this book. then, if i make it through this book okay, i'll go back and try re-reading the first 6 books. since you know, i'll have bundles of time on my hand when school starts... (yes, i'm being sarcastic.)

練習“寫”中文

其實我的目的不是給自己練習寫中文而是給你們練習念中文。=) 如果我寫的有任何錯誤﹐請原諒我。更好就是在評論上提醒一下或送個 email 給我。

今天我早上起來以後﹐練了一下中文課本。我妹妹借給我她大學的課本--伯克利的100AX/BX (她的中文程度比我好多了)。我父親起床以後我們一起吃了早餐。吃完早餐﹐休息了一下﹐到了公寓的俱樂部去打乒乓球。可是到了俱樂部以後發現有人剛開始打﹐要一個小時以後才有空。那時候已經十一點半了﹐所以我們決定跑步和舉
重就好了。運動完了以後我父親問我還想不想打乒乓球。我當然說好﹐可是已經有另外一些人開始打了。我們決定晚一點再試試看。

我們回家洗個澡﹐換了衣服﹐就搭了計程車(出租車)去浮士德餐廳吃午飯。我們家人常常去這家餐館吃牛排。他們菜單只有套餐。我們兩個都吃了鵝肝沙拉﹐牛排﹐芒果摩絲而且喝了冰咖啡。我爸喝了法國洋蔥湯﹐我喝了奶油野蘑菇湯。吃了又好又飽了以後﹐我們去了潘家園舊貨市場逛一逛﹐買些小東西。市場三點半就開始收
攤了﹐所以我們就回家去了。

回家不久就去打了一個鐘頭的乒乓球--真好玩﹗玩完以後回家換衣服﹐又去吃飯了﹗晚飯去了鼎泰豐(鼎泰丰)﹗我們兩位吃了兩個半籠小龍包﹐一份痘苗﹐而且還吃了一大碗芒果冰。今天吃了那麼多好東西﹐還好有夠的運動量。我們晚飯八點鐘才開始吃﹐吃完就九點半了。回到家就休息﹐準備睡覺。

the Banana Factor

the cover story of the latest City Weekend magazine here in China (www.cityweekend.com.cn) is entitled "the Banana Factor: Peeling away overseas Chinese stereotypes." i always feel mixed when something that i am or relate to gets labeled or categorized. it's good sometimes to realize you're not alone in a circumstance and for it to be recognized, but then again, you don't want it to become a typecast or stereotype. the article talks about how many overseas Chinese (華裔) feel when they start living in China.

they basically interviewed several ABCs/CBCs (the first C is for Canadian, not Cookie) on their experiences, and for the most part, i could very much relate to their stories.

i've always spoken 國語 ("普通話") with my parents, but despite having taken two semesters of intermediate level Chinese in college, i find my level of fluency still having much room for improvement. the older i get, the more urge i feel to improve upon something that seemingly should be so basic -- communicating in my ethnic native tongue. i realize more and more that perhaps the only way to truly succeed at this is to immerse myself for a prolonged period of time in a Mandarin speaking country. i plan to work on it as much as i can, which no doubt will help, but i'm convinced living somewhere for 6-12 months (and not hanging out exclusively with ex-pats) will do more good than any amount of private tutoring or classes. a simple example of the "use it or lose it" aspect of evolutionary theory.

so i do hope to evolve myself to becoming more of a 中國人 (speaking generally, regardless of the distinction between 中華民國 and 中華人民共和國; i see the words 中 and 國 in both). amongst my ABC friends, i've always held an above average inclination toward knowing my ethnic culture and heritage. and as time passes, i will grow older and no doubt look like an old Chinese man, and China's influence will continue to grow as well. beyond these two reasons is also the desire to better understand this side of my heritage, almost as a duty or responsibility. to be able to have pride in the good aspects of the long long history, as well as to understand the living philosophies inherent to the culture.

of course, i can't guarantee to anyone that i'll make constant improvements in Chinese language, culture, and history, if forced to prioritize it against career, family, or my passions and interests. but i do hope that it is something i can achieve. (then maybe one day i can also finally learn to speak 台語, but i'll worry about one language at a time...)

Unnatural disaster strikes Manhattan

i was disturbed to find out from Chris today that there was a major "steam blast" in Midtown (article and photo: NYTimes) that killed one and injured many. it happened around 6 PM yesterday at 41st and Lex, just a block from Grand Central Terminal.

i always feel affected anytime anything major happens in NY, but it feels even weirder to have something so big happen in an area i'd walk through everyday while commuting, and is just 7 blocks from where my old office is.

not a surprise that ConEd has screwed up again...

Blue Sky Day in Beijing

it was nice to wake up this morn to see a 青天 (try zhongwen.com if needing to translate 中文 words) in normally gloomy 北京. it was so nice that i thought i should go out to enjoy it. alas, i haven't. :P but that's not to say i haven't enjoyed my day!

i know i've been meaning to say, but i'm not sure if i have, how fortunate i feel to have had the past several weeks to relax and basically bum around in China and Hong Kong. although i've totally slacked on my Chinese self-studying, i feel like just being immersed here helps. it's also fascinating to spend time in a foreign place for a pro-longed period of time because you definitely can get a more authentic feel for life.

my first couple of weeks in China (北京 and 上海) were focused on enjoying time with family, since the whole fam was together. my time in 香港 was intended to be partly spent on studying 中文 and some creative writing, but time was largely focused on WingTsun and being a bum.

with my last week back in 北京 before returning to the states, i'm looking to catch up on sleep that i fell behind on in 香港, spend time with my dad, and hopefully get my self a bit more disciplined (without stressing about it) in taking care of personal projects (studying 中文 and creative writing projects).

the sky's a little less blue now, and the puffy white clouds are gone, but it's still a blue-ish gray that's far better than the norm i've seen here. :) here's another pic from this morn looking out the window of my parents' apartment here:


i think i may start diversifying my posts some. i'll keep blogging now and then on what (very little) i am up to, but also go back to blogging about things in the news that are notable to me or cool products that are coming out. i may also attempt some posts in 中文 as a means of practicing. the title of the post should usually indicate which of these "types" of posts you'll be seeing... or maybe i should quit blogging and focus on my projects... :P