Photos and Musings of Gobdol

The Great Wall Chase

2007-10-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

I would like to say the reason I've been away from blogging is because I've been working on the short film below for the last 6 months. (But the reality is not this sexy, the busy-ness of life had simply gotten the better hold of me.) Anyways, here is a little bit of fun for you to enjoy... A special thanks to my friend Gabe and the Chinese Hawkers on the wall...

Click To Play

This is a comedic short about the hawkers who peddle you goods on the Great Wall. It's shot on location in the Shimatai stretch of the Great Wall. If you get a chance to visit, please do say hi to the two ladies who starred as themselves in the film. (and congratulate them on their newly acquired internet movie stardom!)

I have to give credit where credit is due. The idea for this film came from the hawkers. They just kept following us up and up the wall, even when we repeatedly told them that they were wasting their time and energy. We weren't interested in those tour books at all. It was their persistence that gave birth to the concept for this short video.

Well, in the end, the hawkers persistence paid off. (I have a suspicion they knew what they were doing all along.) They sold two books to us. You can check out the hagglers teaching Gabe, my friend and the other star of this short, a lesson on haggling at the end of the film.

Enjoy!

So That's How They Felt...

2007-04-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

We woke up yesterday morning to hear the news of the sunken cruiseliner off the shores of Santorini, luckily all the people were rescued.

You see, we are going to Santorini this summer for my cousin's wedding. We are planning to take a little 4-5 day cruises in the Aegean before arriving in Santorini. And what is the name of the ship we are scheduled on? You guessed it, the Sead Diamond!

What are the chances of that?!?

Strangely, I found myself thinking of a group of people that I have never once in my life thought about before, what about those people who were booked to go on the Titanic after its fateful voyage?

A Guizhou Photo Slideshow

2007-04-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a slide show of photos I shot in Kaili, Guizhou during a rehersal for a performance for some visiting VIPs back in November of 2005. (You'll see the Miao and Dong people represented in these photos)

Click To Play

Kaili is in the eastern part of Guizhou province and is a gateway city to minority villages in the area. Some of the major groups in the area are the Miao, the Dong, and the Ge. Enjoy!

Loy Krathong

2007-04-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

Testing out a New Video Serice with this old slideshow that I had made of photos I took at the Loy Krathong festival back in Nov 2005.

Click To Play

One of the neat things that is done here, in addition to the traditional float, is the the floating of lanterns that fly up into the air. It is pretty awe-inspiring to see the night sky lit up with hundreds of these flying lanterns, a symbolic act of people purging themselves of their sins and impurities.

Here is an Excerpt from Wikipedia:

"Loy Krathong is a festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand. It is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar, in the western calendar this usually falls into November.

“Loi” means “to float”. “Krathong” is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions often use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river. Governmental offices, corporations and other organizations also build much bigger and more elaborate rafts, and these are often judged in contests. In addition, fireworks and beauty contests take place during the festival...

... the act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot. People will also cut their fingernails and hair and add them to the raft as a symbol of letting go of the bad parts of oneself. Many Thai believe that floating a krathong will create good luck, and they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae."

Chinese Ingenuity - Part II

2007-04-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

One of the unsettling things in China, that takes a bit of getting use to, is that most value judgements are made from a practial point-of-view.

A case-in-point of how this plays out can be seen in the traffic pattern in Shenzhen. It is very common to see people driving the wrong way onto an off-ramp of a highway. (or the vice-versa: getting off an on ramp) This happens usually for two reasons:

1. The driver went off at the wrong exit, so is re-tracing his steps.
2. It is shorter and less of a hassle to get onto the highway than taking the long roundabout way of properly getting on the highway.

This is a pretty common occurence in Shenzhen. However, recently, the police have caught wind of this and have began cracking down on this. The city has recently installed thousands of new surveillance cameras.

A problem you say? Not at all, it's just another opportunity to see Chinese ingenuity at work.

The other day as we were getting on a highway, we saw some cars coming off of it in the wrong direction, I also saw some people parked along the side of the street. Apparently what was going on was that there is a camera on the on-ramp, so what the drivers were doing is pulling over before they performed their counter-flow manuvering, putting a cardboard or plastic bag over their license plate, perform the manuver, then afterwards removing the incriminating evidence. Naturally the obvious solution, right?

Well, that's the Chinese, practical approach to solving the camera problem, which enables people to continue to pursue the practical, shortest paths approach to driving.

Chinese Ingenuity - Part I

2007-04-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

My parents' company had a large shipment of merchandise that was coming into China from the US by air. It was being taken care of by a shipping company and it was suppose to go directly into the interior of China, to Sichuan province.

The delivery was taking longer than expected so they decided to track the shipment. The shipping company indicated that the cargo was being sent by air through China Eastern Airlines. It had a legitimate air tracking number, upon more detailed detective work, they found out to their dismay that the cargo arrived by AIR into Shanghai and then was put on a truck by China Eastern Airline where it made the two day ground journey to Sichuan. Luckily the merchandise made it safely and cleared custom in Sichuan province.

Only in China would you send something by AIR and they would tell you it's by AIR, only to find out later it was put on a truck to complete its journey. (although to their credit, it was an "AIR"line truck)

The only upside is that it was a bit cheaper. (And that it DID arrive!)

I guess the lesson is that you never know what you are gonna get in China, it's full of surprises and "ingenuities".

Anshun - A Photographic Impression

2007-03-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

Anshun is a small city in the western part of Guizhou province, we just happened to be there on 元宵节 (yuanxiao festival), the fifteenth of January on the lunar calendar, which officially marks the last day of the New Year celebration. Locals display lanterns and eat rice balls to celebrate! Oh, and they set off a whole bunch of fireworks and firecrackers. (right in your path at times!)

Enjoy the pictures...

A girl selling fruit, it's pretty amazing that they take the time to carve out the pineapple and prop it on a stick for you to eat like a popscicle.

A lady trying to peddle off one of her colorful balloons to one of the passer-bys celebrating new years.

Grandma and granddaughter spending some time together, the new year's all about families getting together.

Some more modern lanterns for sale for the kids.

A row of old houses left over from the yester-years of Anshun

A typical Chinese billboard/bulletin board. (aka Somebody's front wall)

An old catholic church built by early missionary and converts, I believe it's over 100 years old.

a sign found in the catholic church courtyard, which states: "Fully implement government policies, Respect citizens' faith."

The church has a mix of Chinese and western architecture, it has a pagoda and a steeple.

The locals associate big inflatable things with Chinese New Year, so here is a rainbow bridge thing-a-majig in the celebration spirit.

the lady sun lantern is now shining and displaying her glory. (Make sure you don't miss the cool skateboarding lantern in the background)

Ahh... the Anshun Candyman with his mobile cotton candy maker.

Here is a picture I took while running away from a firework gone awry. It was suppose to explode in mid-air, but didn't do so until it hit the ground.

"Take your best shot with the pellet gun, break a few balloons and walk away with a chintzy gift you didn't want in the first place!"

Somebody got to stay up past their bed time.

My friend Gabe checks out the local BBQ Pit, where you can get any type of meat on a stick and pineapple on a stick. My friend from my college days use to fondly refer to these stands as peddloing "Hepatitis on a stick".

Oops... this picture is out of order, but anyways, here is a girl joining in the festivities by trying to pick out her favorite lantern. She was having a real hard time, because I think she liked all of them.

A lady selling tofus on the grill to the throngs of people out celebrating New Years! Guizhou is known for street side eateries like this one.

A water color work done by a local artist of what Anshun use to look like in the 1960s.

Hair Appointment

2007-03-12T07:10:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Shenzhen last night after a couple of whirlwind weeks of traveling throughout Southwest China. (Some pics to come later)

After being on the road for two weeks, I decided it was time to pamper myself and splurge for a $5 Shampoo/Hair cut. Getting a hair cut in China is quite the enjoyable 1 hour experience, 45 minutes of which is spent shampooing and massaging your scalp.

As I was getting my head massaged and my hair shampooed for the nth time, I decided at that moment that if this is any indication of what being a metrosexual might feel like, I could be a metrosexual. I mean, how can anyone not enjoy this kind of pampering?

I digress, what I meant to share with you is a bit of the conversation I had with the girl who was shampooing my hair. She is part of the huge migrant labor force in China trying to make a better life for themselves by going off to the big cities. She arrived in Shenzhen from Hainan Island about 5 months ago.

Me: "What's the weather like in Hainan this time of year?"
Girl: "Similar to here, it's very tropical."

Girl: "So what's the weather like in America?"
Me: "Well, it depends on where you are in America..."
Girl: "Oh..."
Me: "It's kind of like China, if you are in the Northeast, the weather is different from if you are here in the south."
Girl: "Really? I thought America was just America. So it's like China, huh?"

Girl: "So where is Australia in America?"
Me: "Mmm... actually Australia is not in America..."
Girl: "So where is Australia?"
Me: "If you go Southeast from here, you'll get to Australia, it's like a big island."
Girl: "Hainan is a very big island, people think that it's just a little island and are surprised at how big it is."
Me: "Yes, Australia is a very, very big island."

Girl: "So... do you use American money in America or do you use Renminbi?"

The Dreaded Day Arrives...

2007-02-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

The dreaded day has finally arrived.

Today marks a significant day in my life. As those of you who know me well, I love food. I am not so much of a connoisseur of fine and exquisite haute cuisine, as much as someone who just loves good, meaty, hearty, down-home-cooking type of cuisine. (Basically food that real people eat)

Ever since my first memories I can remember preferring meat to vegetables, dark meat (legs and thighs) to white meat (breasts), and fatty meat to lean meat. (Btw, Asians can perform the miraculous when it comes to preparing fat.) Over the years of training I have come to appreciate vegetables more and more. (First for their nutritional and health value, and now slowly for their taste. ) Eating Vegetables is like drinking wine, it's an acquired taste.

I remember in college I would eat a salad "naked", namely with only lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and no dressing, no bacon bits, nor croutons, or anything that were considered "excess". I would justify my eccentric salad eating habits to my friends by explaining that I ate salad strictly for health reasons and not for taste. I didn't enjoy it, but I needed it.

Well, to put it simply, a lot has happened since college and it culminated in what happened today. The moment I've been dreading as a kid and vowed that I would never do...

I had a salad for lunch.

I've had salad with many meals, but today against my better judgment and my primal instinct, I crossed over the threshold, I had only a salad for a meal. During my layover at O'Hare Airport, I passed on McDonald's, American Chinese food, Pizza, hot steak subs, healthier subway subs on my way to the salad bar.* What is going on?

It is a seismic event in my life; I feel the foundations of all that I've ever known shifting. My world is spinning, I need some time to process this, and I need some red meat.

*I hate to admit this, but I found my body and my mouth craving a salad today as I passed over my normal selections. Well, at least it was a chicken Caesar salad, not completely vegetarian, I loath the day when I eat a completely vegetarian salad!

To the One I Love

2007-02-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

To the girl I fell in love with when we were both young and naive.

To the woman whom I have come to love deeply through the laughs, the fights, and the tears.

We were both in way over our heads. Our marriage and our love were far more real and raw than I could have ever imagined with my childish, romantic notions.

Thank you for loving me for whom I am with all my faults and quirks. Thank you for putting up with me and my cheesy humor, my overly-optimistic outlook, and my girly-man romantic heart.

I love you. Happy Valentine's Day, "Laopo"!

Favorite Treats: Macarons

2007-02-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

We have never eaten as much pastries as we did while in France. (nor have we ever enjoyed eating pastries as much) Personally, I got my recommended daily allowance of at least one croissant a day plus bites of baguettes. (We learned from our friends that the prices of baguettes are regulated, so that all people can afford to buy baguettes. In other words, it is the right of every person in France to be able to eat baguettes. Don't know how true this fact is, didn't get a chance to check it out.) We quickly learned that there is nothing more Parisian than to walk down the street with a couple of baguettes in your hands. (If you really want to blend in, then start chomping on the baguettes as you are walking along.)

And when it comes to pastry, Traci discovered the Crème de la Crème of it in the Macarons. They are little hamburger looking things that have a crunchy exterior and a soft-mushy interior. (Kinda like me.) They look like this and come in many different colors and flavors:

Traci also quickly discovered her favorite place for these little treats, which also happens to be the place that invented them, the famous Ladurée.

Traci took me to Ladurée on my first day in Paris. What an amazing place! All the vibrant colors and beautifully decorated pastries, I wanted to try them all. (My mouth is watering right now as I type this) And all these beautiful arrays of pastries are only the appetizers leading up to the main prize which most people come here to buy, the Macarons. Ladurée has been perfecting the art of making these little macarons for about a century, not too shabby!

On top of the beautiful and tasty treats, they have impeccable packaging! The whole experience is very aesthetically pleasing. It was not only good to eat, it was pleasing to the eyes as well. (Wait a minute... this sounds vaguely familiar...what else was not only good for food, but pleasing to the eye as well?)

The macarons were definitely Traci's favorite treat in France (I think I would still consider myself more of a croissant man). In fact, it was so good that we decided to go out of our ways for a last minute Laduree run before we left! So if you ever find yourself in Paris, make sure you drop in for one of these delectable wee-lil' hamburgers.

Best Would-Be Blogger. Bonjour!

2007-02-04T07:22:00.001-08:00

I am convinced that I would be the world's best "Would-be" blogger, (or the worst Actual Blogger). You see I visualize and think through interesting posts, then fail to carry them through by doing the critical part of typing them down and publishing them.

In any case, I figure that I should probably put up a few entries now that I've been in Paris, France for 3 plus weeks now. (Thank you Noa for your much needed encouragement in finding my blog!)

Here are some pictures from our time in Paris:

Traci and I on top of the Arch of Triumph

Here is the street we live on, a little studio a few windows behind those glasses on the right. There is a used book store underneath of us that promptly closes each night at midnight. (and a bar across the street which unfortunately does not close until much after midnight) Our street is quite happening at night with a lot of restaurants and hipsters.

Traci pondering the glory of France.

For those of you who are wondering, unfortunately, speedoes are not allowed on top of the Arch of Triumph. Wha?!?? (This public annoucement is brought to you by bobble-head Herman)

Of course no post about Paris would be complete without the obligatory Eiffel Tower photo. (More of those to come later.)

Merci... Au Revoir! (25% of all the French words I know and I've used them every chance I get.)

Mongolia

2006-11-07T15:50:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I am off on another trip already, I haven't even had a chance to complete some of my unfinished post from my last trip. Well, anyways, here is a short 7 min video I made from footage shot in Mongolia. It's mostly of Mongolian kids singing in church along with some scenary and people shots. Enjoy!

Larry and His Mongolian Mini-Me

2006-10-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

In the midst of going through my pictures of Mongolia and posting about Larry's wedding, I found Larry's Mongolian Mini-me! What do you think? The kid is got the "Larry" expression down, the similarity is uncanny!*

* Or am I too tired to think straight, blogging at a time when I should be sleeping...

Larry & Amanda

2006-10-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

On Oct 7, 2006, our good friends Larry and Amanda celebrated their happy day and tied the knot in Mt. Dora, FL. It was a beautiful and fun wedding, I feel very privileged to be a part of it. Congratulations Larry and Amanda!

I brought a camcorder instead of my camera, so here are a few pictures I took on my camcorder.

Here are a few more pics on my flickr page

Larry and Amanda, welcome to the married world... the beginning of many adventures (and misadventures).

Globilizing Manufacturing

2006-10-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

So I came across this label on some batteries made by Panasonic in Mongolia.

"Made in Indonesia, China, or Brazil"*

What?!?

*So here is the question: if you really had to choose between these 3 countries to have your batteries made, which one would you choose?

Catching Up

2006-10-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

Still trying to catch up from my trip... Got back from Asia last Monday, then went down to Orlando three days later to be a part of my buddy Larry's wedding, followed that up with three days of various meetings for work before returning late on Wednesday evening. I could do without flying for a while.

Lots of postings to catch up on, I've had quite a few moments where I've thought to myself, "this would make a great blog post." (Man, I am a big dork.) Anyways happy reading...

Running in China

2006-09-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings from China! I really needed to stretch my legs and get some exercise with all the long plane rides and bus rides, so I went for a run a couple of days ago. I kept getting funny looks, that's when it occured to me that what I was doing was fairly unusual in this part of the country. I guess most people here only run, if they are running away from something or running to catch something, not just to run for running sake. Exercise is really a luxury reserved for the well-to do people who sit all day in cubicles. Why exercise when you are already doing hard labor all day?

Anyways, I ran to an "exercise" park, where they have built-in work out machines. (What a great idea! why don't we have these in our parks in America?) I am especially fond of the Gazelle (as seen below and on TV in the informercials*)

I am always amazed at how many of the old people work out here in China. (and how fit they are) Here is a picture of one on the "Wax on, Wax off" machine as made popular by the Karate Kid movie.

So I was doing some pull up on the monkey bars, being out of shape I was only able to do sets of three. As I was resting between my sets, this old guy, in his late 60s, came by and did three pull-ups! (Just to be clear, he only did the wimpier-bicep curling type) It was a moment of pure amazement and embarrasement all at the same time.

This gave me ample motivation on my run home, where I passed three men on bikes, one mule cart, and two trikes. (before images of grown men on tiny little trikes (ala MXC) begin flooding into your head, these are manly man full-size pickup trikes)

*I am embarrassed to admit that yes, I know that it's called the Gazelle and it's developed and sold by Tony Little. Actually this park made me wonder What would it be like to have a "As seen on TV" park. Think how cool that would be!

Another Short Starring Larry

2006-08-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Larry and Amanda are getting married on October 7. Congratulations! But as the clock ticks down to the big day, will Larry be able to find a suitable honeymoon place for his new bride in time? The search continues...

Hanging out with Larry

2006-08-27T01:32:00.000-07:00

It was fun this past week to have my good friend Larry out here in California. We ate alot of good food, played, and had some good times of evaluating our lives are dreaming about the future. Here is a video I made of a hike we took to Castle Rock State Park. Enjoy!

Whizzing Reindeer

2006-08-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

I Hate Puppies ... Disgusting!

2006-08-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

That is probably just about the most politically incorrect thing one can say... But doesn't this look like the perfect caption for this picture?

Before Traci starts getting flooded with hate mails, I better tell the rest of the story:

Snow Dogs ...

2006-08-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

During our port of call in Skagway, we went on the musher's camp and sled dog excursion.

The van took us out to Dyea where the camp is and the sled dogs train for the iditarod by dragging tourists around on wheeled sled. (We opted for this one instead of the helicopter/glacier sled dog ride, partially because of the $300 per person price difference and partially because we really just wanted to play with some cute puppies.)

It's the first time I've ever done anything like it. It was pretty exhilirating and made me yearn to experience the real thing. (On a sled on the snow) The ride ended all too quickly though, I think it was only about 10-15 minutes.

These dogs were atheletes, they were all so lean and very eager to run. Our romantic bubble from Snow Dogs and 8 Below were dashed as we learned that most of the competitive sled dogs are "Alaskan Huskies" which are mostly mixed breeds, bred for stamina and speed. (Unlike their Hollywood counterparts with their airbrushed faces and well-groomed furs.)

After the ride, we had a chance to meet an ER doctor from Seattle who came here to live out his dream of sled dog racing. He told us about his first race this past year in the Iditarod. Here is my cousin trying on the parka that a racer would wear to keep warm. One fun little fact I discovered was that most of the stuff they wore were very warm, but not water proof. I felt a little dumb when he told me that the reason why they weren't water proof is because it is so cold, the snow and ice would not melt on the clothing. Here is my cousin Firmin in a parka:

And then came the funnest part of the afternoon. Playing with Puppies:

Celebrating the Big 6-O!

2006-08-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

This is my old man. (Never really thought of him as old per se... He is always full of energy and always keeping busy doing something.)

We celebrated his 60th by taking a cruise together to Alaska last week. (Technically by western calenders, he will only be 59 this year, but it is a Chinese tradition to help propel/ensure a person into a new decade of his or her life by rounding up on the 9th year.*)

Happy 60th Dad! We are so thankful for your love and providing for us all these years. I admire your work ethnic, your frugality, and your desire to provide the best for your family.

We love you very much!

*By this same ancient Chinese age counting technique, I am 30 this year, how scary is that?

Chocolate Heaven ... Alaska?

2006-08-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of Jervis and Traci as they've died and gone to Chocolate heaven! Who knew it was in Anchorage, Alaska?

They are last seen here taking a bite out of a 10lb chocolate bar, behind them, is a stack of chocolate bars weighing 500lbs all together. And directly behind that is supposedly the world's largest chocolate fountain.

Where is all this chocolate goodies, you ask? It's at the Alaska Wild Berry Product Store.

Are You Building a Bypass through My House?

2006-06-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

In the hilariously funny "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", the book opens up with the protagonist, Arthur Dent, trying to protect his house from being bulldozed because of the construction of a bypass. Soon after, he narrowly escaped the destruction of earth. The reason for the destruction was to clear way for a intergalactic bypass.

There has been a flurry of superhighways being built in the western part of China; all a part of the government's plan to modernize and grow the economy of western provinces.

I came across this one in Guizhou province on my last trip. Can you spot the shack still standing in the shadow the super highway?

The nice thing about being a communist country is that you, as the government, can decide to build a highway, make way, demolish buildings, and construct the highways all without having to worry about popular opinion. Things definitely move much, much faster this way.

While we are on the subject of building big things, the Three Gorges Dam Project, is very impressive as well. I recently found out that they had to relocate 2million people to build this dam! This dam would have never been built in America or any other democratic country, can you imagine having 2 million of the following conversations?*

"I'm afraid you're going to have to accept it," said Mr Prosser gripping his fur hat and rolling it round the top of his head, "this bypass has got to be built and it's going to be built!"

"First I've heard of it," said Arthur, "why's it going to be built?"

Mr Prosser shook his finger at him for a bit, then stopped and put it away again.

"What do you mean, why's it got to be built?" he said. "It's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses."

*Excerpt from "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

China Country Side

2006-05-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a couple of weeks of traveling in southwest China. It was quite an exciting time, which included my mom traveling with me, and her deciding that this will probably be the last time she would venture out to rural minority villages with me. (more on the story behind that later. ) Here is a picture of tiered-farming in the mountainous part of Guizhou province. The rocky and mountainous geography of Guizhou is one of the main reasons why it has always been one of the poorest provinces in China throughout recent history.

Toast Cleavage

2006-04-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

Some people see Jesus in their toast, some people see Mary...

Running on Empty

2006-04-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

"Kramer and that other guy, oh, they went further to the left of the slash than anyone ever dreamed!"

For some reason it is not uncommon for me to find myself on the left side of the E slash (In my car, it's South of the slash mark)
In my humble opinion, nothing does a better job of taking the dullness out of your routine commute than driving south of the slash mark.

Well, last night I found myself in this dilemma again, but this time to no fault of mine own. It all started when I drove up to Brighton, MA to a couple of friend's house for a Easter Eve dinner party. As I got off at their exit, I noticed that the gas light had come on. Since they only live about 4 miles off of the highway, and I was already a little late to the party, I figured that the logical thing was for me to get gas when I left. (I even scoped out the gas stations that I would do this at on the way back.)
So 11:30pm comes around and I left their place. I pull up to the first gas station to find it pitch black. What! Gas stations that close at night !?! This would never happen in SF Bay Area. "No need to panic at this point..." I comforted myself, "I saw at least a couple more gas stations on the way in." What do you know, every single one of them were closed!
Out of desperation, I tried the pump at one of them , hoping that maybe the credit card service is on after hours. I only managed to buy $0.12 of gas before it stopped pumping. Bummer! By now, my meter is definitely completely South of the E slash mark. Come on Massachusetts, what kind of place shuts down their gas station at 10pm!?!
Running out of options, I decided to get on I-95 head down towards Providence and see if I can make it to a exit with a gas station that's open. I drive a few miles on the highway, bypassing a couple of exits, trying to stay at 55mph, because I remember that's where most cars are most fuel efficient. After what seemed like eternity, I saw a sign that said gas this exit. So I pulled off at the exit and coast my way through the neighborhood only to find myself in the middle of a residential neighborhood with no signs of any gas station. I look at my meter and now there is a gap between it and the slash, I was completely cleared of the slash.
Having no options, I turned back and made my way back on the highway, my thoughts bounced back and forth between cursing the state of Mass and the more and more certain reality that I am going to be spending Easter Eve waiting on the side of the highway for AAA.
After a few more miles, there was another sign that showed gas station at the current exit. I am now trying to gather enough momentum so that if I ran out of gas on the off ramp, I can coast into the gas station. To my dismay, the Shell station next to the highway is closed again! I tried again to pump gas at the closed station, hoping again for a few cents of gas... nothing this time.... It looks like my luck has finally ran out.
Well, what was one to do, so I thought well, I'll keep driving down rt-1 and see how far I can go before I the car stops running. (This is where the Seinfeld episode kept flashing through my head)
A few miles down the road... could it be? Like an oasis in the desert, right there... a shiny, lighted sign that said "Rojo Shell". Could this really be? A gas station in the state of Mass that is actually open after 10pm? I felt the elation of a weary, parched, and stranded traveler in the desert upon seeing an oasis. Is it a mirage?
Thankfully, I am to say it was not a mirage. I pulled in to a long-line of cars filling up. (I wonder how many of them were running on empty like me) From the looks of it, you would think that this is the only gas station in the state that is open tonight. I've never felt such gratitude towards a gas station owner, I wanted to go and shake their hand and personally thank them for being open. I felt indebted to them. So much so, here is the link to their gas station should any of you ever need gas in Massachusetts after 10pm.
Anyways, I just want to say that 1) in lieu of Easter, running on empy sure made me pray a lot last night. 2) I am so glad that Traci wasn't in the car, I would hate to have her experience this kind of emotional turmoil ... again.
Here are a couple of pictures from a similar event back in January that earned me the worst husband of the year award. (These pictures should be self-explanatory)

Now, I should have sufficiently inspired you all enough go watch "The Dealership" episode of Seinfeld from season 9 where Kramer takes the car salesman for a test drive to empty. Here is the transcript to the show.

Happy Easter and happy driving!

Introducing My Nephews...

2006-04-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Introducing my nephews... (or are they my second nephews? I get easily confused by this.) This here is Elijah, seen paying tribute to Traci's home state, with the Idaho salute.

While we were in California, we had a chance to hangout with my cousin Joe and his family. They were on their way back to Taiwan for a week. It was so fun to hang out with him and Tasha and to play with their kids Eli and Jacob.

Here is their youngest one, Jacob, seen here with grandpa Carl

I put some more of their pictures on our flickr page

Y is the Peace Sign (A Rebuttal)

2006-04-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

Unbeknownst to me and us, something comical happened last night...

Here is the set up to the story (from Traci's perspective)

Here is how it went down from my perspective:

Dexter and I were asleep in bed. Sometime in the night, Traci comes in giggling...

Me: "What's so funny?"

Traci: "I drew the peace sign upside down" (At least, I thought that's what she said).

Me: "Y is the peace sign upside down." (the witty humor not quite up to snuff when I'm mostly a sleep)

Traci: "garble...garble...garble" (obviously not understanding nor responding to what I am saying)

Me: "No, Y is the peace sign upside down! Grunt!" (repeat with emphasis this time)

Traci: "okay..."

I fall back asleep, leaving Traci puzzled for the next half an hour.

This is one example of the type of miscommunications we've had in our marriage. (Though most of them don't end with us rolling on the ground laughing at ourselves the next day. But then again, I don't blog about most of our other miscommunications.)

Tribute to Silver Wings - the End of an Era

2006-04-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's a sad day when one of your favorite restaurant goes out of business. It's a still "sadder" day when you go all the way back to California with the intention to eat at the restaurant. To top off the sadder-ness factor, it's "sadder" still when you show up at the restaurant with your family to celebrate your birthday only to find them closed and out of business.

That is what happened to our beloved Silver Wing Restaurant in Cupertino. Here is Traci and I showing our disappointment at the discovery.

Apparently, it is being replaced by a Korean Tofu House. Urgh! Stupid Tofu and stupid market-driven economy!

Here is a tribute to Silver Wing, a place where we've enjoyed many fond memories of celebrating life's milestones such as birthdays, graduations, and many other family get-togethers. You will be sorely missed...

... And a tribute to my personal favorite dish from Silver Wing, the Lion's Head, (aka Spi-cey Meat-Ball) I will now have to start a search for another restaurant that serves up this specialty. Thanks for all the good memories!

I never knew a restaurant could become so intertwined into the background of family memories until I found out that this restaurant has closed. Actually, on second thought, that is not true. As I am writing this, I am reminded of a childhood restaurant back in Taipei that we use to eat at all the time. Then it closed. Sadly, my favorite dish from that restaurant was the Lion's Head as well. We still talk about that restaurant from time to time, though it has been at least a good 15 years since it closed. Here is to you, Silver Wing, thanks for all the good memories and the good food! You will be remembered and missed...

Oh Christmas Tree

2006-03-24T05:22:00.000-08:00

Can anyone tell me what the name of this tree is? This is known as the Christmas Tree to the locals. The reason being that it blooms (yellow like this) around Christmas time. It's certainly quite different than the Christmas tree we are accustomed to. (My first thought was, "this tree is no good for hanging ornaments")

The story goes that when an Australian Missionary first came to the area in the early 1900s , he brought over these seeds as a little piece of home in a foreign land. The church among the minority people in this area grew over the years (as did the trees he planted). Now the tree serves as a memorial to God's faithfulness to the people in the area and whenever they build a new church building, they plant these trees around it.

One of These Thing is Not Like the Others...

2006-03-24T05:03:00.000-08:00

"One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?"

Remember that song from Sesame Street? Well, my good buddy from College, Tom, came with me on my latest adventure to Asia. We were invited to attend this church service out in the country side. Can you pick him out of the crowd?

(if you are having trouble with this, try sharpening your skills by watching some old Sesame Street episodes. Or better yet, remember those old issues of Highlight magazine, where you pick out what's different between the picture on the front cover and the picture in the back? There is always the beloved "Where's Waldo" books as well...)

Flying Blues (Purple)

2006-03-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

For those of you PC folks (like me in my former life as a CS major and software developer) who abhor the blue screen of death, this here is the frequent flyer's version, the purple screen.

Yesterday afternoon, I walked on the jetway in the pleasant, sunny 70F degrees of Orlando only to be greeted a few hours later by the 28F degrees and heavy snowfall of Rhode Island. In fact, the landing came as quite a surprise, because all I could see was pure whiteness and thought we were still descending through the clouds.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Being on the last plane to land on time, we barely escaped the wrath of the purple screen. (Though getting home in the snow storm was another story*.)

*Involving deciphering the morbid sounding public transit known as RIPTA, sitting in stop-n-go snow traffic, running through the snow with my luggage, ... etc.

Regarding My Last Post...

2006-02-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

It must have been late and/or I wasn't thinking too clearly with the whirlwind of travels, or maybe it was the thrill to finding out that blogging on blogger was possible in China. Whatever it was, (Thanks to my wife) I noticed that my last post was a complete disaster.

In any case, I think you got the jist of my last post. The only thing I can say in my own defense is "when in Rome, do as the Romans" and it's lesser know corollary: "When in China, blog like a Chinese person".

That and the Chinese Censor who changed my English post into a gentler, more politically-correct but grammatically discombobulated post. *

* - Now that I am in Taiwan, I gaurantee that this post and all its mistakes are 100% genuine.

On the Road Again...

2006-02-16T05:16:00.000-08:00

So, I've been MIA from the whole blog world, because I am on the road again.

Apparently, my blog and blogspot in general is blocked in China, so I haven't been able to blog. In fact, just today I realized that blogger.com itself is not actually blocked. (Which means I can blog now, so I am taking advantage of it to catch up a bit.)

This is actually pretty smart from their part. Because they can say, "we don't block blogger.com." But since they block blogspot domain name, which means people can't access any of the actual blogs.

新年快乐! Happy Chinese New Year!

2006-01-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

It's the year of the Dog! Happy Chinese New Year Everyone! Here's to our cat dexter who thinks he is a dog! (It's practically his year)

As to why the cat did not make the Chinese zodiac, here is a rendition of the popular story I heard when I was a kid:

"Once upon a time, the Jade Emperor announced to the entire animal kingdom that there would be an amazing race. The first twelve animals to cross the finish line would each be awarded one year in the lunar calendar. The news spread quickly and excitement grew everywhere.

Now Cat and the Rat were the best of best friends. They did everything together: eat, play, sleep. There wasn't a day that would go by where they didn't say "howdy" to each other. When Cat heard about the great news, he immediately told Rat whom excitedly jumped to his feet and agreed they should both enter the race. After many restless nights, all Rat could think of was winning the competition. But he said nothing to Cat who was happily dreaming about chasing butterflies. Finally, the day of the race arrived. All the animals gathered at the starting line and with a "BANG!" the race began.

With fantastic speed, Rat and Cat grabbed the lead, scurrying through prickly bushes running over grassy meadows until they came upon a vast river. The current was so strong that they could not swim across. Just as they were thinking of what to do, the sturdy Ox came upon them. Being full of ideas, Rat suggested, "Ox, since your eyesight is very poor, let's help each other. Cat and I will get on your back and direct you across the river." That sounded like a great plan to everyone. Ox was very strong and had no trouble swimming across the river.

As the party neared the other side, Rat let out an excited shriek. "Look, look! The Jade Emperor's palace!" Sure enough, bright red festive lanterns were shining all around the magical kingdom. Now, even though Rat and Cat were the best friends, Rat wanted to be first more than ANYTHING in the whole world. So without even a whisper, Rat pushed Cat off Ox into the fast moving river. "Meowwwwww", yelped Cat. "What was that?" Ox asked. "Oh...oh nothing...must have been the wind. Quick! Quick! We're almost there!" shrieked Rat. As they reached the shore, Rat leapt off Ox's back to the finish line, dancing and cheering.

The Jade Emperor rewarded Rat with the first spot followed by a very tired Ox. Shortly after, the strong and powerful Tiger roared to the finish with the lucky Rabbit hopping right behind. From the sky, the noble Dragon descended to the ground; through bushes the Snake slithered to take its place. Next came the Horse and Goat in a tight race. From the trees, Monkey swung in vine to vine. Rooster scrambled in with a few feathers ruffled, trailed by Dog who was in a very good mood. Finally, last but not least Pig trotted in wanting to know when dinner would be served. As Jade Emperor congratulated all 12 animals on winning the race, Cat, who was soaked head to paw, scampered in to the palace. Jade Emperor thanked Cat for joining the race but that he was just too late. From this day onward, Cat swore he and Rat would be enemies forever.

And that is the story of the Chinese horoscope and why Cats and Rats can never get along."

As I was looking for this story online, I found a few different versions with components that sounded very familiar to me. There is one side story where the ox took off the night before, thinking that he ought to get a head start because he moves slower than the other animals. Another familiar sounding side story is the one where the rat was suppose to wake up the cat for the race, but the rat either forgot or just decided not to. For those of you who are interested, you can read more about it here

I'll have to find my old Chinese Story books the next time I am back at my parents' house. I have this set of Chinese folklores for kids that I grew up on. It has a story for every day of the year. When I do I'll have to share some here on the blog.

Bonjour... Merci...

2006-01-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

Traci and I ventured to Montreal this past weekend to see some of my beloved family and my friend Alex from China.

I had a chance to bust out my very limited French. (very, very limited French that I learned when I was in Francophone Africa for a month back in 2000. Here is what I did back then to express myself, say the word in English with a French accent, and if that didn't work, try the Spanish word with a French accent, all with lots of gesturing. It was like a big game of charades. Sadly enough, my French had become more limited since then) It was fun to watch my cousins switch from English to Mandarin to Cantonese to French depending on who would call them on their cell phone. These non-Americans, they all speak so many stinkin' languages!

Montreal is a very charming old city with beautiful European architecture and the whole French speaking thing just adds to the romance of the city. Sad to say that I really did not get any pictures of Montreal in our hectic weekend.

One thing we did do (as we always do around my family), is that we ate well. Since we spent much time eating, I do have pictures of some decadent desserts. If you've ever wondered how people turn out, growing up in a culture where there is so much good dessert, I will give you exhibit A: my cousin Thomas.

We show up at this nice French Restaurant, and the first thing he tells the waiter was, "please set aside one of each of the desserts for us." (Apparently they are very good and they tend to run out of them.) We teased him about it quite a bit, though to his credit, he was right, the dessert was quite good.

If you want to hear about the Chinese food we ate, check out Traci's blog entry.

Bon Appétit!

Blogging Slacker

2006-01-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

Well, as of late, I have been a slacker at blogging. It's gone the same way as my going to the gym routine. Now that I've started getting back to the gym, I figure I should probably get back into blogging. (I must give props to Mike and Caryn and their blog The consistency of their blogging inspires me!)

Traci and I are both taking a photography class. (You can see some of her beautiful work here) She is doing Black & White photography, so doing quite a bit of dark room work (which she loves!) and I am taking a digital photography class.

Here are a couple of "motion" pictures I took today of us playing at the playground.

Happy New Year!

2005-12-31T20:50:00.000-08:00

3...2...1... Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a new year filled with deepening friendships and fulfilling experiences! Happy 2006!

Provision

2005-12-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

Something that I never thought would happen to us happened today. God provided specifically for our needs.

I have always read in those missionary biography stories about how God provided specifically, almost miraculously, for people in their time of need. Whenever I read stories like that it lifts my spirit, much in the same way Christmas movies, such as Miracle on 34th Street, do. And just like watching a Christmas movie, I can readily dismiss what happens in the movie with the reality of life: "yeah that's nice for stories and stuff, but it won't happen to me." It's not that I don't want it to happen, but I didn't see the need to get my hopes up for things like that. And after all, God has and does provide financially for us through our paychecks, and provides emotionally through our loved ones, and so on. We've never had to go hungry or naked. I think at a heart-level, the question is not whether or not God could do it, but whether or not he would do it. I find that I also feel this way when I pray for healing.

Well, since I am on the subject, here is a well-know story of this sort of specific-kind of provision. It's a story about George Muller, it's taken from this website:

One morning the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the larder, and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal, when Mueller said, "Children, you know we must be in time for school." Lifting his hand he said, "Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat." There was a knock on the door. The baker stood there, and said, "Mr. Mueller, I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread, and have brought it." Mueller thanked the man. No sooner had this transpired when there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the Orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it. No wonder, years later, when Mueller was to travel the world as an evangelist, he would be heralded as "the man who gets things from God!"

Well, Traci and I are definitely no where near the league of George Muller. But here is what happened to us today. (Now that I've sufficiently over-hyped it, hope it's not too much of a letdown.)

We've incurred some unexpected expenses this last month due to our oven going kaputz. (cost $880 to install a new one in its place) That in addition to a couple of short paychecks we received in the past month have us scraping the bottom of the barrel. So the last few days, I've been thinking about how we will make ends meet this month. Traci and I were thinking maybe we will have to carry some balance on our credit card for the first time, which we really didn't want to do.

Then today, I spoke to my mom and she informed me that some of the people at our church back in Caly gave us a love offering last week and she deposited into our account. I checked the donation and it came out to be $875! (Okay for those skeptics out there, I acknowledge your thought. A part of me joins you in thinking, man, that is $5 short. There is nothing miraculously about that.) Despite the protest of the skeptical part of me, I gave thanks and rejoiced and celebrated God's provision! I called Traci and we celebrate it together. We are so thankful and so humbled by God and his people who gave so generously!

There are a lot of things that God could have done, and this little experience is pretty insignificant, it didn't save any lives and really only affected 2 lives, but it's special to us. Because in it, He showed his love for us in a very personal way. He showed us that He knows our needs and He will take care of us.

I think the best part of all of this is that we weren't expecting it and we weren't praying for it. God simply took the initiative and surprised us with it. It is the best kind of present one can receive at Christmas.

(Btw, no one except Traci and I (and our friend Larry who helped us in getting a new oven) knew that we had a busted oven and how much it cost to replace it.)

Merry Country Christmas to You!

2005-12-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from small town Idaho! Here is a picture taken of a tractor in mom and dad's front yard.

Maomart

2005-12-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting around to posting some entries from things I experienced on my last trip to China. Well, I've got to hand it to Walmart, they are really something. I can't believe that they manage to put in a store underneath People Square in Guiyang. As many of you who have been to China knows, you can find a People's Square in most big cities in China, they were put in place as a symbol and reminder for the communist ideals.

I find this to be such a telling picture of what is going on presently in China: On the surface you still have the rhetorics and the ideals of Communism, but below ground sweeping the nation is the tide of capitalism. Everybody is trying to get ahead and make a buck from themselves. (If you look closely, you'll see in the background of the picture a statue of Chairman saluting the square)

I recently read an article that appeared in the Washington Post that indicatest that the leaders in China are becoming increasingly aware of this apparent contradiction. Here is the article:

China Confronts Contradictions Between Marxism and Markets (December 5, 2005, The Washington Post)
"The Communist Party has launched a campaign among political leaders and senior academics to modernize Chinese Marxism, seeking to reconcile increasingly obvious contradictions between the government's founding ideology and its broad free-market reforms. The campaign involves the allocation of millions of dollars to produce new translations of Marxist literature and to update texts for secondary school and university students obliged to study the official philosophy, officials said. In addition, the campaign will promote more research on how Marxism can be redefined to inform China's policies even as private enterprise increasingly becomes the basis of its economy, they explained. The undertaking, which coincides with an 18-month campaign to reinvigorate the party rank and file, seems designed as a response to frequent complaints about the chasm between official discourse in Beijing -- emphasizing "socialism with Chinese characteristics" -- and the growing reality of often unbridled capitalism in which party officials are eager partners. Unease over this gap has become particularly apparent among university students, who often chafe at their required classes on Marxist theory. A prominent university's party secretary recently told a visitor that his school had resolved the problem by simply teaching traditional Chinese philosophy during the time set aside for the study of Marxism."

I wonder if Mao is rolling over in his grave, I mean in his "Maoseuleum"

Meat Stick Story

2005-12-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

I bought lamb sticks from these guys above. I met them on the street corner in the city of Guiyang They are Uighurs from Xinjiang and they spoke questionable Mandarin. What led me on to their lack of Mandarin was the following:

when I ordered lamb sticks from them, I told them that I wanted it a little spicy. "Not too spicy" were my exact words. Then I proceeded to wait as they liberally coated my lambsticks with red spices (I thought it was a bit strange, but I was pretty sure that I made my request clear. Maybe he's putting on paprika was the thought I comforted myself with.)

There was a little girl who had ordered before me and she told him, as he was toasting our sticks, "No spices, please". He also continued to liberally toss on the red stuff. (Must be paprika, right?) When the meat sticks were almost done, I saw he pile on a bunch of white powder as he rotated the skewers. (Hmm, is that msg?) In the spirit of taking in the local culinary traditions, I did not protest.

Finally, my lamb sticks were ready. I was really looking forward to them as it was a rather chilly day and it'll be good to have something nice and warm in my stomach. The first bite was awesome! Umm...Yummy! Then the spices kicked in! (Not too spicy, huh?) It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck my tongue. I felt like I was in a cartoon and I had flames coming out of my mouth. I was puffing out white steam as I desperately inhaled the cold air around me in the hopes to cool my tongue. This was by far, the hottest thing I have ever eaten. I now realized the obvious fact: That wasn't paprika that he was basting the meat sticks in while they cooked, they were peppers!

One funny thing about me is that my head sweats when I eat spicy food, with the amount of sweat directly proportional to the degree of spicyness. So I must have looked funny to be sweating profusely when the temperature is nearing freezing outside.

The inhaling cold air trick didn't quite work, so I was thankful for Dicos, where I washed my mouth out with cold water and then doused down a cup of cold drink to put out the fire. All the while feeling bad for the little girl that ordered before me, boy, she didn't know what she had coming!

Trying out w.bloggar

2005-12-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

Found this free blogging tool, w.bloggar that enables me to blog offline among other things. Gonna test it out and see how well it works. Looking for more things to do to help me pass time on my long flights. Maybe now I can blog while I am traveling. Because I really hate doing catch-up blogging after I come back from trips. Well, let's see how this goes. I'll post a review once I get acquainted with it.

First annoying thing: I am trying to insert a picture and there is no browse button. They expect me to type in the path for the picture. What is this? MS-DOS?

Well, folks, it turns out it's for entering the URL of a picture. I guess I'll try to figure out whether or not I can upload a picture from my computer through this program. I'll have to do it tomorrow. Me sleepy now.

Winter Colors - Black & White

2005-12-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

Yup, winter in the Northeast has officially began. It's been a good 6 years since I've experienced a Northeast winter.

I took this picture right outside of our apartment door. It is in it's original color. If you look closely at the blurred background at the top of the picture, you can see faint hints of color coming through.

If my memory serves me correct, this is what winter is like here: It is as if you took the world and put it into photoshop and hit desaturate. Winter is life in gray scale. (Now I could never remember here in the US, if we use grey or gray) Anyways, Black and White has its charms as seen in the photo above.

Being a warm climate person most of my life (with the exception of the banishment to Ithaca for college for 4 years) I still hold a very romantic view of winter. We'll see how it holds up over the course of this winter.

Winter Wonderland

2005-12-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

So I woke on Sunday morning, brush my teeth, go about my Sunday routine to get ready for church. In passing, I glanced outside and saw ... Snow!

It's amazing how the sight of snow covering everything filled me with a sense of awe and wonderment. It took me out of my routine and made me stop in my tracks to admire its pristine and beauty. I felt like a little kid in awe and couldn't help but grin ear to ear.

I find that as I grow older, I grow more cynical and less things fill me with wonder and awe. Life becomes routine with bills to be paid and responsibilities to be fulfilled. It becomes more about enduring then enjoying.

So it was nice to be surprised again by awe!

It is very cool to go to bed with everything normal (no snow) and wake up and everything is white and covered. It made me happy.

It drew my soul to prayer and thanksgiving. It made me smile and want to exclaim at the top of my lungs,*

"MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE !!!"

May little things in life restore to you moments of wonderment...

Now, back to reality, that is me in the picture... yup, I am the one taking out the trash in the snow. Not so much awe there.
* I didn't actually scream out loud, Traci was still asleep from her late night of finishing some of her final projects

Lobster Feast

2005-11-29T19:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! After having 3 days of turkey, it was time for a change. With my brother (Jervis) and his girl friend(Michelle) in town, we decided to live it up and try the famous Maine Lobster. We went to Carrie's in Providence. It's sounded like my kinda place, not too expensive and fancy, but good food and the lobster comes highly recommended.

To Traci's credit, she did give it a try. (she wouldn't let me take a picture of her reaction) It was very cute, she made a quick squinty-face (indicating her disapproval) and reverted to the quick-swallowing-it-whole-Fear-Factor-survival tactic.

The lobster was definitely a thumbs up from the rest of us, it weighed in at 3+ pounds. Stuffed with all kinds of seafood, prawns, scallops, and calamares. (Kinda random, but it reminded me of aliens. The imagery of Jervis pulling a giant prawn out of the lobster's chest is still vivid in my memory.)

As you can see from the progressions of pictures above, we had a lot of fun with our lobster. Unlike true New Englanders, eating lobster is very much a novelty and we could not resist playing with our lobster.

So if you ever get to New England, make sure you put on a lobster bib and enjoy a tasty Maine Lobster!

ps - I managed to find a picture of Traci's aforementioned expression, this is the result of drinking honey Kumquat juice.

Priority Handling?

2005-11-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

I wonder what the priority tag actually means to the baggage handler behind the scenes. Do they set it aside in the priority pile? Do they put it into the plane last so it comes out first?

I was pleasantly surprised when they placed a priority tag on my bag when I flew from Hong Kong to Chiang Mai. "Alright, it's my lucky day" Boy was I wrong.

Apparently, it did not mean much to the baggage handler at the Chiang Mai Airport. One by one, the tagless luggages came rolling out on the conveyor belt, each one seeming to mock me and my "Priority" handling. It felt like a cruel joke. My bag ended coming out last.

Actually, now I think about it, the baggage handlers probably did not speak English and could not understand the tag. Maybe what they should have is a more universal system to help the baggage handlers. And why is the priority tag red? If I couldn't read the langauge there, I would associate the color that's with stop, caution, or fragile, but not priority. I say it should be green light the traffic lights. That's a pretty universal color for go.

Well any ways here is me waiting for my priority handling bag ... and waiting ...

While waiting I realized that all my traveling to Asia has slowly turned me Asian. You'll note that I am squating as I am waiting, that's a very Chinese thing to do. Not the western squat where your heels are off the ground. That gets tiring fast. The heel is on the ground in the Chinese squat. The Chinese squat is not for everyone, some people, like my wife, are not anatomically built to do the Chinese squat. (Not sure if it is a question of nature or nurture...)

Can you do the Chinese Squat?

Over 115 Million Served

2005-11-11T22:38:00.000-08:00

Quanjude, definitely one of the most famous restaurants when it comes to Peking Duck.

They roast their duck in a brick oven much like we do our pizzas here in the US. And each duck comes with a commemorative card certifying the duck's place in history. Our duck was the 115,145,626th duck served since the establishment of the restaurant.

Well, just by numbers along this may not be as impressive as McDonald's over one billion served. But when you take a look behind the numbers, the real story emerges. How many burgers make up a cow? Let's say that we get 10 burgers out of a cow. That would bring McDonald's number down to over 100 million cows served. Now we see how impressive the Quanjude number is. (It's practically a duck genocide, though we will not go there)

After that totally unprofound and utterly futile analysis of burger patty to cow ratio, let me just say that the Peking Duck there is again very tasty (my mouth is watering just thinking about it now) and business is as good as usual at the most famous Peking Duck place in China, in spite of the scare of the Avian flu and all.

(After doing some research for this post, I feel a bit slighted, I found out that Bianyifang is the oldes Peking duck place in Beijing and I've never tried it. Next time I will be sure to try it and provide a full report.)

Shower Toilet - Tokyo Style

2005-11-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

The Japanese have always been know to be on the edge of technology, and on my layover through Narita airport I had a close and personal encounter with this phenomena. Yup, like the picture shows, it's the "Shower Toilet" folks...

After you get over the initial shock of the "posterior shower" and relax a bit, it is acutally quite an enjoyable experience. (It's very hygenic too if you think about it.) What I can't get over is how well it aims, very impressive! It's just what my aching posterior needs after a 14 hour trans-pacific flight - a nice shower. So give your weary posteriors a nice shower if you are ever in the Tokyo Airport, they will thank you for it. (but be fore-warned the water strength buttons does not really work, I could not tell a difference between weak and strong. It all felt like the same water pressure and as a newbie, I must say that it's a little more water than my posterior is accustomed to)

Like Father, Like Son

2005-10-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to visit my good friends Johnny and Melody in California. Here is a picture of Johnny with their newborn son, Daniel. Now they have 2 boys in the house.

There is a myth in my household that goes like this, "He who eats lots of meat will have boys." This is what explains the unbalance in my family with something like 14 boy cousins and 5 girl cousins. Apparently, many of my uncles are meat lovers.

I guess if this holds true, Johnny must enjoy meat as well. Check out His blog, where he, like a good Software engineer, manages to model Daniel's behavior using a state diagram. (If the previous link does not work, try this. It's the Oct 24, 2005 post)

Us - Southpark Style

2005-10-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the South Park version of us. Pretty funny stuff. This guy created a South Park Studio where you can partake in the joy of recreating yourself and your loved ones South Park Style. Here is my rendition of myself and Traci in Rhode Island, she's a bit overwhelmed by school work.

Kudoos to all the creative people (like this guy) who come up with fun ways for the rest of us to waste time!

Fumble!

2005-09-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

In honor of the NFL opening weekend, here is a picture of a "duck"pile. Oh, how I love football!

Last Days of Summer

2005-09-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

It was surprising when I was walking around Providence a week ago to see leaves changing color already. Yikes, I can't believe it's Fall already. (Considering that I have not experienced Fall since I moved to Florida 2 years ago. Now I think about it, California didn't really have a Fall either.) Apparently, Fall starts in August up here in Rhode Island.

Our Beloved British Neighbors

2005-09-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of our beloved neighbors from England, Richard and Wendy. Their family were definitely one of the highlights for us living in Florida. Did you know that one of our favorite secret past time is doing a British accent? (We've actually been informed by our British neighbors that there is a wide range of accents that will tell people which area you're from, your education, and your class) The truth is that Traci is much better than I at this. Since English is my second language, I had enough trouble getting down the American accent, needless to say that I have a hard time not butchering the British accent. (For those of you British accent experts, you will probably pinpoint my accent as the Chinese immigrant from America that just got off the boat.)

One funny thing we've discovered after we arrived in Providence is that the host of the show "Top Gear", Clarkson, looks uncannily like our neighbor Richard. Don't believe me, you be the judge:

http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2005/08/stories/02/3.html

Strider the Pup

2005-09-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my father in-law's slobber dog, Strider, doing what he does best.

WaterFire

2005-08-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Traci and I, along with our friend's Isaac and Dana, went to WaterFire in downtown Providence. It feels as if the whole town was out that night. Very fun.

Providence at Night

2005-08-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the Providence cityscape I took a couple of nights ago. It is quite a beautiful little city. I've really enjoyed playing with making panoramic pictures. If you want to try your hands at it, here is a good tutorial on the free software I used.

China in B&W (4)

2005-08-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Lijiang, China

China in B&W (3)

2005-08-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

Roofline at Summer Palace, Beijing.

China in B&W (2)

2005-08-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

Old lady in Yangshuo, China

China in B&W

2005-08-22T17:52:00.000-07:00

this is a picture I took of a giant urn at the summer palace in Beijing. It says that it is made in the Qing dynasty during the reign of emperor Qianlong.

Along Came a Spider...

2005-08-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here is an experimental picture I took of a spider at dusk... I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. The beauty of digital photography: trial and error.

On the Road Again...

2005-08-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

The cab in the yellow truck is where my friend Larry and I spent the last two days of our existence as we made the journey from Orlando up to Providence.

Something I learned: Did you know that tolls are actually a good deal for a regular car? (For example, crossing the George Washington Bridge costs $6 for a regular car with 2 axles. When we crossed the bridge with the contraption pictured above, we were charged $6 per axle! 24 Big Ones!)

More Shout Outs...

2005-08-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

Since I am on a roll with the shout out thing, here is one to someone who looks like Sadie's vet to me.

Shout out to Sadie's Mum!

2005-08-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

How can I show-off Sadie without showing Sadie's beloved mum? Who we will fondly refer to as IGJ...

Shout out to Sadie!

2005-08-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

This is our dear friend's beloved Italian Greyhound, Sadie. The camera loves her.

Rhode Island or Bust...

2005-08-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

I've been out of commission on my photo-a-day blog because I have a heard time with following through. :) That and also that we were boxing up our house to move to Rhode Island (RI).

Wabbits

2005-08-10T18:54:00.000-07:00

I took this picture in the weekend market in Bangkok. It cracks me up. Not so much the dressed up bunny, but the one behind the bunny sniffing her backside. :)

Layover

2005-08-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

This is a very familiar place for me.

Eat Your Heart Out!

2005-08-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

One of the fantastical creatures we encountered in Florida. I think they are the not-so-cuddly cousins of the Snorks.

The Color of Tourists

2005-08-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Mailand Chinese Tourists are a special breed. (If you have encountered them in China you know what I am talking about.) So it's ironic that they look so graceful here in this picture.

Salud!

2005-08-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went out to a great Cuban restaurant with our neighbors. Afterwards, we stopped in at the bar to hear a couple of guys perform. I love the passion of Hispanic music. (Is this right? Is it Hispanic music or Latino music or something else? I apologize for my ignorance... )

Anyways, it was very enjoyable to watch a couple of guys having a good time making great music.

Complexity

2005-08-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

relatively speaking.

"How do I dismantle this metal capsule?"
This is my entry for this week's Photo Friday Challenge

complexity is in the eye of the beholder...

Somber

2005-08-04T18:56:00.000-07:00

This is my entry to "Photo Friday". The subject is "Somber". Go figure... My first entry turns out to be the lucky "666". Definitely somber.

A Photo a Day

2005-08-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

My wife has encouraged me to start posting a picture a day. So here we go...