stevew918's Xanga

Yes, I can "Fly"

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:08:36 GMT

Earlier this month, I visited Southern part of USA, and now I am in Taiwan. I need catch up on some travel blogs. During the US driving trip, I rented a car in New Orleans, and drove the SE region. I visited Savannah (Georgia), Charleston (South Carolina), Biltmore Estate, Outer Bank and Kitty Hawk (North Carolina) and Fisherman Island (Virginia). I am describing the Kitty Hawk stop today, the highlight of the trip to me, and will detail the other stops later.

As some of you already know, Kitty Hawk is the place where the airplane was invented almost 110 years ago. The Wright Brothers flew the world’s first successful heavier-than-air plane here. All the planes in the world now are based on the concept they invented.

This is the main museum building.

There are several models of the planes the Wright Brothers test flew.

During the day, there are talks and movies. She was quite a good speaker and demonstrated the three smart inventions ideas by the Wright Brothers. They owned a bicycle renting shop in Ohio, and many of the parts of the plane were actually bike parts.

This is another building which house hands-on exhibits and a hall that show movies.

This is a life-size model of the sheds that the Wright Brothers braved the wind and cold weather for several years before finally they succeeded. They lived in Ohio, and would travel here (three train rides and two ferry rides away) and stayed here for a month or so every year to try out their ideas. That must be an expensive hobby. They selected here because it is remote (so the press would not know of their failed attempts), windy (needed to fly gliders that would help them finetune the shape of the plane and mechanical controls), and sandy ( to soften the crash landings).

The rock at the front marks the starting place where they launched the flights. The rocks further away marked the distances of their flight attempts. The first rock was about 100 ft., the next 120 ft and so on. If you look closely, there is a rock way at the end which marked the final attempt, about 850 ft away.

It was starting to rain hard, and everyone went back to the museum buildings. I was alone, and I start to imagine the feeling of the history-making event over 100 years ago and how it changed the world. I wanted to make the most of my visit. I walked from the launch point to the first marker. I was soaking wet from the rain! Then I decided to walk all the way to the 850 foot mark. Suddenly, I did not know what made me do it. I stretched my hands wide to my side, pretending they were wings, and imagined myself flying along with the Wright Brothers. I would close my eyes briefly to sense the wind sound blowing by, and start running faster and faster. It was fun! I told myself, think back 100 years and feel the experience of first man in the world flying. That is the excitement moment of a "virgin" experience? lol. Some people must have thought I was crazy! A grown man acted like a kid, with arms outstretched, pretending to be a plane, hehe. Think back, I am smiling, as it was great fun feeling. I was in my own little world, enjoying the moment.

Afterwards, I walked back a hundred feet and video tape the path so I can share with my Xanga friends. Here is the video! Can you imaging yourself flying with me on our first flight of mankind? lol.

Here is the marker at the 852 ft location! Welcome to the Stevew918 airline. Safe landing! Hope you enjoyed the trip!

(Note from yesterday: oops, run out of time to complete blog, will update later today.)

travel

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:26:00 GMT

I plan to take it easy for the next several months and travel some.

Tuesday, flying to New Orleans and spend 10 days drivig through the southeast: Louisiana, Georgia, North and South Carolina. Never been to N. C and S. C. Any suggestions of things to see?

Then after three days of rest, join a 10 days tour of Taiwan, followed by 12 days in Hong Kong to see my mom. She jumped for joy when she heard I was going to be in HK for almost 2 weeks.

On the horizon, Greece cruise, China tour, South America tour. East Europe tour. and more to come, hehe. Life is good!

where are you, Steve?

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:45:33 GMT

It has been a few months since I last wrote a blog because it has been overwhelmingly busy for me. I do owe you, all my Xanga friends an apology. Thanks for those who sent me messages asking me how I have been. It is surely nice to be back in the blog world.

After I announced my departure from the company, my boss and her boss panicked a bit. I started to complete some projects and passing other projects to coworkers. On my last day at work, my boss and her boss flew in from out-of-state to have lunch with me. The boss's boss kept asking if I would be interested to be a consultant for them someday. I told him I would treated him as a preferred customer. He smiled braadly, and showed a sign of relief. I have been approached by other companies to consult on project, and university to teach a class. But I have been taking it easy, catching up with personal stuff first.

In the mean time, I decided to sell my condo in San Francisco Bay area and moved back to Los Angeles, Orange county area. First, I found an real estate agent, decided on the price, and staged the place for open house. Good news was someone made an offered before we had the open house. I got the price I wanted which is more than others sold in the building for the last 12 months. Guess the location and view of my condo is great, and I staged it top nodge, and of course, I was lucky. The escrow was closed within 21 days and I had to coordinate moving all my things. Now I have settled in Orange County area in the same house where I used to live. A lot of packing, and unpacking, What a mess!

Interestingly that I had forced all these recent changes. Big. big changes at that, From now on, my life direction is in my hands! Sucesses or failures will be in my own hands. Kind of mildly scary and yet excited.

Independence Day

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:30:58 GMT

First, wish all a Happy July 4th Independence Day!

I have decided to declare my independence from my current job. It seems I do not have any life, besides work, most of this year. I need my life and sanity back. Although my relationship with my boss has been getting much better, but that has been taking way too much of my sacrifice to achieve that.

Hence, after months' of soul searching, I will be writing an email to my boss, right after this blog, that my last day of work will be July 31. She would be pissed if she finds out that you, my Xanga friends, know about this before she does.

Wish me luck, and crossing my fingers regarding my decision on becoming an independent consultant!

Eat out Tips

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:08:37 GMT

I got the following list from Yahoo, and want to share with you. Do you have other eating out tips to share?

1. Avoid eating out on holidays and Saturday nights. The sheer volume of customers guarantees that most kitchens will be pushed beyond their ability to produce a high-quality dish.

2. There are almost never any sick days in the restaurant business. A busboy with a kid to support isn't going to stay home and miss out on $100 because he's got strep throat. And these are the people handling your food.

3. When customers' dissatisfaction devolves into personal attacks, adulterating food or drink is a convenient way for servers to exact covert vengeance. Some waiters can and do spit in people's food.

4. Never say "I'm friends with the owner." Restaurant owners don't have friends. This marks you as a clueless poseur the moment you walk in the door.

5. Treat others as you want to be treated. (Yes, people need to be reminded of this.)

6. Don't snap your fingers to get our attention. Remember, we have shears that cut through bone in the kitchen.

7. Don't order meals that aren't on the menu. You're forcing the chef to cook something he doesn't make on a regular basis. If he makes the same entrée 10,000 times a month, the odds are good that the dish will be a home run every time.

8. Splitting entrées is okay, but don't ask for water, lemon, and sugar so you can make your own lemonade. What's next, grapes so you can press your own wine?

9. If you find a waiter you like, always ask to be seated in his or her section. Tell all your friends so they'll start asking for that server as well. You've just made that waiter look indispensable to the owner. The server will be grateful and take good care of you.

10. If you can't afford to leave a tip, you can't afford to eat in the restaurant. Servers could be giving 20 to 40 percent to the busboys, bartenders, maître d', or hostess.

11. Always examine the check. Sometimes large parties are unaware that a gratuity has been added to the bill, so they tip on top of it. Waiters "facilitate" this error. It's dishonest, it's wrong-and I did it all the time.

12. If you want to hang out, that's fine. But increase the tip to make up for money the server would have made if he or she had had another seating at that table.

13. Never, ever come in 15 minutes before closing time. The cooks are tired and will cook your dinner right away. So while you're chitchatting over salads, your entrées will be languishing under the heat lamp while the dishwasher is spraying industrial-strength, carcinogenic cleaning solvents in their immediate vicinity.

From Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip-Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by The Waiter (Ecco/HarperCollins)

I do not have much time lately to eat out or compose sensible blogs. Here is a piece just to tell you I am still alive, . Hopefully things will change soon on the work-life, and I will have time for my blog-life.

Learning to survive a nightmare

Mon, 18 May 2009 04:28:29 GMT

Since I completed all the milestones at work two week earlier than the deadline, I sent an email to my boss for a monthly review on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I relaxed over the weekend somewhat. Did laundry, grocery shopping and catching up with Xanga blog reading, and of course sleep. Also watched part of the LA Laker / Houston Rocket basketball final. LA beat Houston by 19 points. This is the first and only ball game I have watched this year. Since I am from LA and my boss came from Houston, what a sweet revenge.

I also start reading and digesting advise from Chris and Matt (Thanks, guys!). I went to two bookstores and could not find the books recommended, so I bought a book called "Monster Boss - Strategies for surviving and excelling when your boss is a nightmare".

At least, it seems there are many monster bosses besides mine, and there are people suffering monster bosses just as I am. Glad to know I am not alone! After answering a series of questions, the book labeled my boss as a Bigfoot, Dracula, and Argus. Hope these picturs are not giving you nightmares!

Now I just have to learn how to slay the monsters or tame them. Back in my mind, I am ready to resign and become an independent consultant. I have enough money for a conformable life and I am working just as a hobby anyway. This incident is almost like a ego trip for me to learn how to deal with difficult bosses, and show her I am not as bad as she thinks. In the second case, it maybe a lost cause already! We will see during Tuesday meeting with her.

This is a challenge that make life interesting as long I do not get eater by the monsters!

stressed, and barely alive

Tue, 12 May 2009 02:52:03 GMT

I have so busy lately, it is not even funny. The only good thing left is that I am still alive.

New lady boss is very demanding and pushy, wanting more, more, more, and more. Expect 24/7 work. A deadline of September becomes past due in July so she could please her boss. It is hard to understand what she wants, as she wants me to guess what she wants. She imagines that if I am not at the desk, I would not be working on the project. She does not think I need sleep or bathroom breaks. I need to vent here before I become insane. lol Imagine me coming up for air now, just enough time to write something so you know I am alive, and then go dive into work again.

Suggestion on how to balance work and life, or how to satisfy a lady boss are welcomed. See you later, my Xanga friends!

Earth Hour

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:55:50 GMT

I joined the Earth Hour effort this evening. Not that I am totally convinced of Global Warming, but because I am totally convinced that we should not waste the energy. Use it wisely, that is my motto.

To be honest, I missed the start as I was reading Xanga blogs, hehe. That is a good excuse, right? As soon as I realized it was supposed to start at 8:30 p.m. and lasted for an hour, I turned off all the lights in my condo, put my PC to sleep mode, and turned off all electric heaters in the condo. Then spend the time looking out the window.

Sad to notice that most people in my neighborhood kept their lights on, and there were thousands and thousands of cars on the freeway. We in US are wasting so much energy, it is a shame. I also noticed that SF bay area can be a little too cool and wet for me from LA. The condo was cooling off fast without the electric heaters. I put on extra clothing for that hour.

I think the Earth Hour is just a symbolism, I believe in continuing effort to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint. That is the right thing to do! I have replaced all my light bulbs in my condo to LED lights, which use only about 10 percent of regular lights. I am looking into double-pane windows, and replacing the old power hungry refrigerator. I walk to the nearby shopping mall instead of driving. I did look into public transportation to work. But man, that adds two extra hours of commute time each day. I need to continue to drive to the office, and may be start to look for carpool.

Did you participate in the Earth Hour? Have you taken any measures lately to reduce energy consumption or carbon footprint?

Movies

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:05:02 GMT

Below are some movies I watched this year: on the cruise, on airplane, on DVD and in theaters.

Quantum of Solace

This is the latest in the James Bond series. A typical action movie with more fights and faster pace than most previous James Bond movies. However, I felt the plot was ridiculously difficult to follow, and most of the time, I could not tell which one body belong to James Bond as the faces were not clear at all. Most likely, the fights were by doubles.

My friends, even the Bond enthusiasts in the group, felt very disappointed. Several people said they almost walked out. Two were snoring, lol. They did not walk out only because it was too awkward to climb over my lap to get out in the middle of the movie. If they told me during the movie, I would have walked out with them. 2 stars out of 10.

Taken

This is about a father, an ex-CIA(?), whose 17 year old daughter went to Paris for vacation against his wishes. She was kidnapped on the first day. Just before the kidnappers snapped her, she hid under the bed and called her dad. From then on, the movie accelerated to 200 mile an hour; nonstop action and suspense. The father used all his CIA skills to track down the kidnappers who drugged his daughter to become a sex slave. Wonderfully directed and edited.

What amazed me was that the critics trashed this movie big time, while the movie-goers gave A++ consistently. I was curious! Guess what, the movie-goers won hands down. If you enjoy fast pace action movie with suspense, you would not be disappointed. I was at the edge of my seat for a solid two hours. GREAT movie. 9 stars out of 10.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Crystal Skull

I forgot any of the plots and details, lol. Well, for Indiana Jones movies, who cares about the plot, right? It is a typical Indiana Jones movie: brainless, no logic, survive at the last minutes, crazy as Disneyland ride You know what I mean.

One memorable character is Indiana's "son" from a one-night stand 20 years ago. That hunk was likable, and did a very good job. If you are a non-waivering Indiana fan, you would continue to enjoy this series. 4 out if 10 stars.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This movie was nominated for a lot of Oscar awards and was edged out by Slumdog Millionaire. It describes the unbelievable lifelong story of a guy (Brad Pitt) who was born old, and grew young with time. He eventually died many years later as a baby. Very creative and imaginative theme. Brad did a very good job!

The movie started with a great lead-in, and stirred my curiosity. However, I think the movie was one hour too long (it was three hours). It kind of drag on a little bit too long at the end, and spoiled it. Wish they had left more movie clips on the cutting room floor. Comparing the SM with this BB movie, I think the better movie won the Oscar. 8 out of 10 stars

Three Nights in Rodanthe

This movie is about two people, with a lot of turmoil in their lives, met by chance on a beach-front bed-and -breakfast motel. "Diane Lane" was stressed because her husband had an affair and moved out but then wanted to move back home after a year with his young girlfriend. Her teenage kids were pressuring her to take him back. She went to the motel that weekend to help out her best friend to be the motel's receptionist/cook/waitress/maid. "Richard Gere", a medical doctor, was stressed because a patient died on his operation bed, and her husband was suing him big time. Another stress was that Gere's son, also a medical doctor, was upset with him, said some hateful things before moving to a foreign country to practise. Gere was the only guest in the motel. He was there so he could meet with the dead patience's husband to try to convince him not to sue. Needless to say, Gere and Lane felt in love, big time.

This movie is quite thought provoking. The ending was very sad, and got me thinking. After watching this on the cruise boat, I went for a long, long walk, by myself on a deck with a round-the-boat running track. It seemed like hours that I walked and had real heart-to-heart soul searching to prioritize my life. For all its worth, I almost decided to move back to HK, lol. If you like romantic movies with a serious theme, you would fall in love with this. 7 out of 10 stars.

Seven Pounds

This movie is about a guy who felt very guilty because he killed his fiancee on a freaky car accident. He signed a organ donor's card and start looking for worthy people to donate his organs. Blood, spinal fluid, kidney, and so on. Then he identified possible organ recipients for his cornea and heart. You probably can sense the movie ending.

Will Smith worked very hard in this movie. He has been doing a wide variety of characters in recent years, and almost feel like he is gunning for an Oscar. Too bad deep in my mind, I cannot forget the happy-go-lucky Will Smith character in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" TV series. It will take a long time for the memory to fade. http://www.warnerbros.co.uk/television/freshprince/index2.html

It is an OK movie. 6 out of 10 stars

Easen Chen Concert

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:32:50 GMT

Last Sunday evening, I went to a Easen Chen 陳奕迅 concert in San Francisco area. It was exciting and a packed stadium. It is part of his world tour of the Moving On version. This is the 18th stop I think.

He has a good voice, carefree personality and connected well with the fans. The cheaper seats were all sold out, so I spent $100. There are a lot of people spent $200 per person. I saw family of grandparents, parents and kids. What a show! Easen was singing and dancing nonstop for almost three hours. He certainly worked very hard to give us our money's worth and well entertained. I would call it a show, rather than a concert.

Here is one of his songs.

Here he danced and sang.

He hinted at the beginning that he add something for the SF crowd. Watch and you can understand. Kind of xxx, lol. Enjoy and dream on, hehe.

Here is another dance routine.

Here he played for the crowd. Typical Easen!

Another song!

A fan rushed on stage, and Easen let him join for a few seconds before the security got the fan away. Easen has good manners and great attitude.

Exciting fans! I was waving my hands also, lol.

The security came by and told me to stop video, or he would take my camera away. Sorry, folks, I did not video anymore as I want to keep my camera.

Easen Chen definitely know how to work the crowds.

Below I cut and copied someone's utube video clip to show you that Easen got the fan wild and excited. Wonder how this guy could video for so long near the stage and in front of the security and got away with it.

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If he comes to sing again, I will definitely make time to go.