Neither Here nor There

2011-02-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

Change for change sake?

2009-11-04T08:58:00.009-05:00

I haven't been paying too much attention to the Boston mayoral election this year, or ever. In the past there barely anyone there to challenge the incumbent mayor, Mayor Menino has been in the office for as long as I've been living in and around Boston, 16 years.

When I first moved to the city, I was told to stay out of the east side of Mass ave, street like Tremont Street and Columbus Ave at night. Apparently Chinatown was filled with prostitutes and street lined with adult entertainment businesses.

Gradually, those place weren't that "scary" anymore, Columbus street and Tremont street, the Southend as the local called it are now bustling with fine restaurants and Chinatown is no longer the adult entertainment paradise.

Just 3 weeks ago I took couple of hiker friends from out of state to Chinatown, we walked around the corner of Essex St and Lincoln St. I was amazed to see a clean and beautiful small Chinese garden along South St. Years ago that area was a dump, streets filled with potholes, trash everywhere, homeless make a home in the back alley. Now, there is a small bamboo garden with a man-made stream flows along it. Side streets being rerouted and turned into a clean open square with cast-iron benches for visitor to rest.

I have yet to visit the waterfront and South Boston, but from what I read and heard, that area seems to be doing very well too. South Boston back then was one of the "scary" place, now, it is the home of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Few years ago, the institute of Comtemporary Art made a new home in waterfront area.

I don't know much about the politic in Boston, all I know is what I see, and I have seen good things happening under Mayor Menino's leadership. The younger and better looking Flaherty may be a good leader too, but I have yet to hear a compelling reason why we need the "Courage for Change". If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Congratulations Mayor Menino, now get back to work!

Heal the World

2009-07-07T21:04:00.003-05:00

There's A Place In
Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could
Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You'll Find There's No Need
To Cry
In This Place You'll Feel
There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways
To Get There
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

If You Want To Know Why
There's A Love That
Cannot Lie
Love Is Strong
It Only Cares For
Joyful Giving
If We Try
We Shall See
In This Bliss
We Cannot Feel
Fear Or Dread
We Stop Existing And
Start Living

Then It Feels That Always
Love's Enough For
Us Growing
So Make A Better World
Make A Better World...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

And The Dream We Were
Conceived In
Will Reveal A Joyful Face
And The World We
Once Believed In
Will Shine Again In Grace
Then Why Do We Keep
Strangling Life
Wound This Earth
Crucify Its Soul
Though It's Plain To See
This World Is Heavenly
Be God's Glow

We Could Fly So High
Let Our Spirits Never Die
In My Heart
I Feel You Are All
My Brothers
Create A World With
No Fear
Together We'll Cry
Happy Tears
See The Nations Turn
Their Swords
Into Plowshares

We Could Really Get There
If You Cared Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
To Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

RIP Michael Jackson.

Hiking cat

2009-06-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

Cat goes on a crime spree

2009-04-10T08:08:00.003-05:00

The significant of a date.

2009-03-24T21:50:00.007-05:00

It has been more than a year since Neko passed away.

My life has changed in many aspect. I let myself loose to explore many things. Spent most of my summer last year in the woods, hiking, meeting new friends. But my apartment remain mostly unchanged since then, I still have her blanket/mats at her favorite spots, still dread to look under my bed, where I last seen her alive in our apartment. It is still very hard to think about all these. My life seems to go back on track as long as I'm not thinking about that day, January 10, 2008.

This date has since become a point of reference to me. Every time I see a date of the past, I'll associate that to when I still have Neko around, or after I've lost her. All the memories and emotions will follow, especially late at night, like tonight. She has been a big part of my life, I'll miss her forever.

I love you Neko.

Amazing performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons by Kyung Wha Chung

2008-12-01T19:06:00.004-05:00

I'm currently vacationing in Milwaukee at my sister's place. Both my nieces are into violin. While doing nothing at their place, sitting around waiting for the next meal, I browsed youtube for violin performance and found this performance:

Here is her biography.

Thank God I don't have to move to Canada!

2008-11-05T00:04:00.002-05:00

Anywhere but Here

2008-08-06T08:31:00.009-05:00

This is the forecast for Chicago:

This is the forecast for San Jose:

This is Boston:

After enduring the months long of cold winter shoveling snow, digging out our car, do we not deserve a nice summer!?

Even Seattle has better weather than us!!!

What's next?

2008-06-28T13:00:00.003-05:00

First time in my life I absolutely don't know what I want. Should I take a volunteering job move to Nepal for 2 years? Can I survive Nepal for 2 years? Do they have high speed internet there? Should I start looking for new/old job, back to 9-5 routine? Should I continue my dying T-shirts business which I have lost ambition to persuade? I am so uninspired.

I have been volunteering at a feline rescue shelter for a while now, I started doing it when Neko was still with me, and continue till now with a more regular basis. I have been thinking about getting another cat, but the thought of other cat playing her favorite toys, sitting on her favorite spots bother me.

Are we gonna have a summer this year?

Anyway, I think I need watch the amount of foods I feed my house guests, 2 of them obviously have gained some weight.

My house guests

2008-06-18T09:42:00.009-05:00

My pigeon friends had moved out of my balcony last week. I think what happened was one day when one of the pigeon was dining on the feeder, the feeder let lose and fell off the rail. That may freak out the pigeons. I hadn't seen the pigeons for many days to follow, even the nest was empty without the baby in it. But one day I saw mama pigeon came back and then papa pigeon showed up too (man, always late!), I have yet to see the baby pigeon though.

I guess the words that free food are available on my balcony spreaded in the "wildlife" community. The next few days I saw different kind of bird and even squirrels were running around on my balcony, feasting on the bird seeds.

Neko would have loved to see all these wildlife on our balcony. I wonder if I start using the deck, would I scare them away?

The Mantra of Prajna Paramita

2008-06-17T10:13:00.006-05:00

This is one of my favorite Buddhist Sutra:

When the free seeing Bodhisattva practiced the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom, he saw through that the five aggregates were empty in their being, and overcame all sufferings.

Sariputra, what is seen does not differ from what is empty, what is empty does not differ from what is seen. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. It is the same for feeling, perception, intention and consciousness.

Sariputra, all things having the nature of emptiness have no beginning and no ending, they are not impure and not pure, and cannot be increased or decreased. Thus, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no intention, no consciousness. There is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. Therefore, no sight, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object, no knowledge. There is nothing from visual world to conscious world.

There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so on up to no aging and death, and also no extinction of aging and death. There is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no supression of suffering, no path to annihilation of suffering. There is no knowing and no obtaining.

Since nothing can be obtained, Bodhisattvas realize the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom, and so their minds are unhindered. Because there is no veil, they have no fear, and they are far from incorrect and illusory thought. They are already enjoying Nirvana. All the Buddhas of the past, present and future fully accomplish the An-nut-ta-ra Sam-yak Sambod-hi by realizing the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom.

Therefore, the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom is known as the most divine mantra, the great enlightening mantra, the utmost mantra, the incomparable mantra, destroyer of all sufferings. This is all true and not a lie. The mantra of the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom is said like this:

GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA

(Gone, gone, gone beyond, completely gone beyond. Awaken! So be it.)

Team DOM

2008-06-14T09:21:00.007-05:00

A group of my friends just came back from their Mt Denali attemp few weeks ago. Here is a link to their report and pictures:
http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23042
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563358974HDKwSO

Brief background on the name of the team. Dominic is a son of our other friend, Neil, who was killed in an avalanche accident this January, few days before I lost Neko. In memory of his spirit, the team took his name, and carried his ice axe to Denali.

To me what make this group of people and this attempt so special are not because they're climbing the mountain of my dream, but the friendship and humanity they showed during the process. It really doesn't matter if they summit or not, but they're all safe and home now.

RIP Dom and all fallen climbers.

John McCain '08

2008-06-10T12:51:00.004-05:00

http://www.cafepress.com/vote008

Happy Family

2008-06-02T10:03:00.005-05:00

The morning after I got back from my months long vacation, I went out to my balcony and saw many twigs at a corner of the balcony. It was kinda odd, but I thought to myself it must be from a storm while I was away. It happened before, many leaves and twigs being blown to my balcony during a rain and wind storm. But rarely only gathered in a corner. So the logical thought is that over the time wind would sweep them to the corner.

Then shortly after that, a pigeon landed on the rail of my balcony, stared at me as if it was wondering: "Who are you?" It stared at me for a very long time and then flew away. Few days later, I went out the balcony again, this time I looked up at my wall mounted a/c unit and saw a pigeon in a bird nest on top of it. Now that all make sense now, the twigs, the pigeon now the nest.

So I began to feed the pigeon. Yesterday I say the mama pigeon on a tree branch across from my apartment, hours later a larger more stocking looking pigeon joined her, which I think must be the papa pigeon. Mama pigeon immediately gloomed papa pigeon, a very loving scene. This was the first time I saw mama pigeon away from the nest.

This morning I went out to the balcony again. Looked up at the nest and saw a baby pigeon next to mama pigeon! I guess the egg must have just recently hatched, so that mama pigeon could leave the nest and took a break.

Good thing I rarely need to use my AC at all even in the heat of the summer, so the happy family will have a safe and quiet place to stay for as long as they want.

Few good quotes

2008-05-30T11:49:00.004-05:00

While looking for a good quote for my new travel web page, I came across many good ones, thought I'd post here. Enjoy.

“I'll go anywhere as long as it's forward.”
David Livingstone

“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”
G. K. Chesterton

“Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.”
Benjamin Disraeli

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be”
Lao Tzu

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still”
Lao Tzu

“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.”
Lao Tzu

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
Lao Tzu

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
Lao Tzu

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
Lao Tzu

Proverbs:
“It is better to travel than to arrive”
“The heart that truly loves never forgets.”
“What soberness conceals, Drunkenness reveals”
“The longest journey a man must take is the eighteen inches from his head to his heart”

All quotes above were found in ThinkExist.com

Missing her...

2008-05-26T22:02:00.003-05:00

This is one of my favorite movie clip of Neko:

HH Karmapa in America 2008

2008-05-20T06:43:00.028-05:00

Last weekend I had the great privilege to attend His Holiness the 17th Karmapa first public teaching in America. To me it was more than just privilege but very fortunate to have this opportunity to receive His Holiness teaching in person, because I was only very recently took refuge in Tibetan Buddhism, April 28 to be exact.

His Holiness arrived in New York City on May 15, the first stop of His inauguration trip to America. Here is a very good website detailing His Holiness daily activities.

The following are my account of the event. First day's teaching was in Hammerstein Ballroom on West 34th Street, the 16th Karmapa had also given a public teaching there more than 3 decades ago. There was a morning and afternoon teaching on"Awakening the Heart of Enlightenment" I mistakenly thought that they're the same teaching in 2 sessions, but in fact it was 2 different teachings, the afternoon session was the continuation of the morning session. Bummer!

I arrived to the afternoon session around noon, there're already a long line of people standing in front of the Manhattan center. As I stood there waiting to be let in, I noticed there were about 5 NYPD cars parked across the street. Curious about the security measure the city provided for His Holiness visit, I asked the security personnel and glad to find out that the FBI and even Secret Service were involved to ensure His Holiness's safety. However the security at the door was not as tight. There was only metal detector but no X-ray scanner to scan bags, all bags were searched by hand.

I was on the 3rd floor box seat, very closed to the stage but on the side of the stage. I was under the impression that cameras were not allow inside the ballroom, mainly because it said so on the website. So I didn't bring my camera, as it turned out no one enforced the rule and flashes were fired all over the ballroom, bummer #2 for me. Never again will I obey rule posted on a website. However I was managed to take a few pictures with my cell phone when I was outside, but the interior of the ballroom was too dark for my puny camera phone. Among the audience, the majority was caucasian and a large number of Tibetan dressed in beautiful traditional costume. To me coming to the event is religious and intellectual pilgrimage, a privilege to see His Holiness and to receive His Holiness teaching in person. It doesn't matter if you're a Buddhist or not, we're all believer of kindness and compassion. Not to say that we're all kind and compassionate, but we're here to learn, to become.

The afternoon teaching began with a musical guest performing contemporary music, which I found to be a bit out of place, I'd expect to hear chanting of Karmapa Chenno or singing of Buddhist Mantras instead of a folk song. While impatiently waited for the song to end, I had a glimpse of His Holiness from behind the curtain. As soon as H.H. stepped onto the stage, the whole place went silence, everyone immediately stood up, with palms closed in front of their chest. It was surreal, His Holiness, the 17th Karmapa was right in front all of us. I had never seen anything in such extraordinary high fidelity before, His Holiness literally glowed on stage. The color of His robe, His glasses and His entire profile were in such clear and sharp focus. But the crystal clear image of His Holiness was quickly distorted by my teary eyes, I didn't know why I cried, it just happened.

His Holiness's teaching was very lively and humorous. My favorite was when His Holiness noted that the stop-and-go traffic in New York City was "a challenge" for patience, especially if you have a cup of hot coffee with you :).

Day 2's teaching was at the Waldorf Astoria, I was told that His Holiness was staying in this hotel during His visit in New York City. As expected, the line was formed long before noon for the 2 PM teaching. The hotel staff made a mistake arranging the seats in my seating area. Our seating area was in a room separated by a wall of French doors next to the main floor. Before the teaching began, the doors would be opened and we would have a partial view of the stage. But believe it or not, the staff arranged the chairs to face the opposite direction of the stage. Obviously most of us turned our chair around, to face the stage. It was a pretty chaotic scene, many not only turned their chair around, but rearranged the chair to ensure a good view of the stage. As you can imagine the result was many chairs right along the wall of doors. Just before the teaching began, someone from the hotel came to our room, announced that once the doors open, we're allowed to enter the main floor and stood on the side line. Woohoo! Sure better than sitting in a room watching the giant screen.

Needless to say, I brought my camera with me today, but only after taking 2 pictures before His Holiness even arrived, a security personnel came to me and told me that no camera was allowed, at the same time flashes were going off all over the ballroom, whatever! I put my camera away and thought to myself, unless she was going to stare at me the whole afternoon, she would not stop me from taking more pictures.

HH took the stage and received the same respectful silent standing ovation from the audience. But today I noticed a handful of people gave the highest respect to His Holiness with the 3 kneeling-bowing ritual. I didn't see anyone did that yesterday, and was caught by surprise. I thought to myself that I should have done that too. After the intermission, the security was loosen up a bit so I walked to the back of the main floor directly facing the stage, as soon as His Holiness stepped back onto the stage, I took my chance to perform the ritual to His Holiness, this time I noticed there were more people did the same too. It's never too late to learn and never too late to give your respect.

His Holiness teachings were full of philosophical wisdom, which I don't pretend to understand all of them, there were many thoughts for this new Buddhist to ponder that's for sure.

The afternoon began with the representative from Major's office proclaimed this week to be "His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Week" in New York City; ended with the event coordinator from the New York City side gave a slightly inappropriate yet touching closing note. She referred to His Holiness as "His Hottie-ness" as she was struck by His Holiness's good look.

It appeared to me from her speech that from the beginning coordinating this event was a messy job to her, but toward the end, after meeting His Holiness and watching His Holiness stood in the rain offering flowers and prayers to the victims of 9/11 at Ground Zero, she began to "fall in love", as she said with her voice began to break down and choked up with tears, His Holiness tremendous kindness, grace and compassion touched her. She expressed gratitude to His Holiness for stepping up to lead the world when the world so desperately needed a good leader, a round of applauds roared through the ballroom. That was a good line to mark the end of the evening.

I left the event feeling rejuvinated and inspired.

For you, my beloved Neko, I want to be a better person.

Day 7 and 8

2008-05-12T00:04:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm already back in Boston now. So here is a quick summary of the rest of my vacation in Japan.

Day 7: Took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima, visted the awesome Miyajma Shrine on the sea, and the somber memorial of the Atomic bomb site.

Day 8 was the last day in Japan, I traveled back to Tokyo early in the morning. Spent few hours wandering around Shibuya and Shinjuku, before taking the JR Narita Express back to Narita Airport. Concluded the 8 amazing days I spent in Japan.

Here is the link to all the pictures:
http://www.huiyengchang.com/places/08japan/jp1/index.html

Enjoy!

Day 6: Easy day in Kyoto

2008-05-05T09:17:00.008-05:00

I stayed in Kyoto today fear the rain would be too inconvenient to travel around, but as it turned out, it was just some drizzle here and there, no big deal at all. I got a 1 day bus pass and armed with a Kyoto city bus map (more story to tell about this map later) visited Kinkaku ( Golden Pavilion), Ryoanji and some other shrines around the area. Walked the Path of Philospohy and end the day with a delicious bowl of Kimchi pork and rice.

I have been using Lonely Planet as my primary guide book. I particularly like the walking tours they recommended. However the direction they provided were not always correct, so you need to ask around a bit and do some wandering around. One instance was instead of a left turn, the book suggested a right turn etc. Sometimes the point of interest just not as interesting as they suggested. For example, the guide book described a small shrine built on a waterfall along a walking tour, as it turned out, the so call waterfall was just a tiny rush of spring water flowing from a short ledge. But nonetheless, I enjoyed how the guide book would intrigue my imagination of the site, as if I'm embarking on a treasure hunting trip, armed with the guide book as my treasure map. The result may not always rewarding, but the process itself was exciting enough.

Day 5: Lost in Transportation!?

2008-05-04T05:48:00.006-05:00

Today's plan was to go to Fushimi-Inari Taisha shrine while on my way to Nara. Once in the train I noticed another sightseeing place Tofukuji is just a stop before Fushimi-Inari, so I hopped off the train to check out the temple first. I figured since there is only one train bound for Nara, it should be a very straight forward detour, just hopped back to a train from the same platform, right? WRONG! Instead I hopped on to an express train (on the same platform) to Nara, which didn't stop at Inari :(. So I ended get to Nara first and vIisited Inari on my way back.

I spent a good 5 hours in Nara Park, there are many temples and shrines there, most famous one is Todaiji Temple. The park is known far its deer population, they're very comfortable being with and fed by people. Almost every way you go, you can see them strolling along. That also mean you need to watch where you step especially on the grass, you might just got "lucky" and got a special souvenir from Nara.

So on my way home I took the express again, which save me abot 10 min versus taking a local train. Once got back to Tofukuji, 2 minutes later I hopped on the local train one stop to Inari. Japan Rail system is amazingly puncture, when it say 13:59 it really mean exactly that.

Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, I think I will stay in Kyoto do some shopping or checkout some local tourist spots.

Day 4: Himeji-Jo and Osaka-Jo

2008-05-03T06:44:00.005-05:00

Today I took the JR to Himeji. The main interest of my trip to Kansai area in Japan is to visit Himeji Castle, one of the greatest, original castle in the world. I first fell in love with this castle was when I was in college. I took a Japanese art class, instead of writing a paper at the end of the semester, we have the option to do a art project that is related to Japan. I chose to build a model of the Himeji castle. I have never really finish the project, but what I'd managed to complete earned me an A for the class, not too bad huh. The model I built managed to survive my numorous moves, I'll take a picture of what is left now and post it here when I return to Boston.

The visit to Himeji was surreal, well so was the whole visit to Japan. The best part about the visit was that unlike almost every historic building that I've visited, we're allowed to photographed inside the castle! I took about 400 pictures in and outside of Himeji Castle, check back in few weeks for the link to the complete album.

After Himeji, I went to Osaka and visited the Osaka-Jo. As you can imagine, my battery died after a whole morning of pictures taking in Himeji. I at least managed to capture few nice shot from out side. I didn't go in to the castle for 2 reasons, one was that it was quite late by the time I arrived to the castle; secondly I had just visited Himeji Castle and was quite tire of walking, Osaka-Jo just didn't compel me to do a tour again.

My feet was soooo sore now. I may take an easier day tomorrow to sightsee Kyoto, or if I am feeling well in the morning, I will take the JR again to Hiroshima.

Day 3: Kyoto

2008-05-02T08:05:00.011-05:00

First full day in Kyoto. My guest house location is far from convenient, and Kyoto subway system is pretty limited. So have to learn to take bus. I bought a day pass for 500 Yen, so that i can comfortably exploring the city and the bus system. a single ride is 220 Yen, so Y500 is a good deal.

I went to Kiyomizu-dera and walked the old streets to Chion-in, both temples are amazing in both size and design. After a long morning, I went to Nijojo Castle. And last trip of the day was Gion, the Gesha district, but unfortunately I didn't see any of them, I must have been there too late and they're already at their work place.

So far I managed to keep my budget quite low. My guest house is Y2500 a night, I spent about Y400-Y600 for a meal. So far only 1 meal cost more than Y500, most were around Y400, and they'e very delicious. I'll be heading to Himeji tomorrow, the Himeji Jo is the hi-light of my whoe trip to Japan, can't wait!

Day2: Tokyo- Kyoto

2008-05-01T08:51:00.010-05:00

Lots of travelings today. Kinda tire now.

But the hi-lights today were the giant scallops at the Fish Market; sushi for breakfast; meeting my long lost friends from Singapore here in Shibuya . As it turned out, Emily and Galvin were also in Tokyo. Funny how we didn't get to see each other while in Singapore, but by great chance all ended up in Tokyo. And meeting Kim Kim's lovely daughter (can't remember her name:() Lastly was the Shinkansen (bullet train) ride to Kyoto. More to follow...

Day 1 in Japan: Tokyo

2008-04-30T07:37:00.004-05:00

I'm in Tokyo now. Everything is fine, I have very little problem finding my hostel, and have already made a friend there.

Most people here can understand some English. I was confused while trying to get on a connecting train to Tokyo from Narita. I approached a woman asked which platform should I get to to catch the train to Asakusa, she said something in Japanese and pointed the platform opposite the one she was on. I thanked her and walked over and there was a train at the station waiting for commuter.

But since there were many trains use the same platform, I thought the train wasn't the one that goes to Asakusa, so there I was looking like an idiot standing in front of the train trying to figure out, suddenly the woman walked to me and conversing with me in Japanese but was frustrated that I can't understand her, she then sighed softly and said very slowly and carefully: "this train goes to Asakusa." You can imagine how comically I reacted and jumped on the train that was just about to close the door.

Tomorrow morning I will be going to the fish market with 2 of my hostel-mate, and then meet up with my long lost friend Kim Kim from Singapore who I just few weeks ago dug out from FaceBook and happened to have relocated to Tokyo. Afternoon, I'll catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto and stay for 7 days.

100 lonely day

2008-04-20T20:42:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was the 100th day since Neko's passing. I still miss her very dearly, will miss her forever.
--------------

I'm currently in Changi Airport, waiting for my flight to ChiangMai. I have been using Changi Airport all my life but this is the first time I take public transportation to get there. Like most of my experience in Singapore, the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit, Singpore's subway) ride to the airport is a jiffy. Not only that the airport provides FREE wifi, but also provides more than 10 terminal for folk who does not bring along a laptop.

Anyway, I'll be travelling with AirAsia one of the many budget airline to Bangkok and then a local flight to Chiang Mai, Betty's sister April is living in ChiangMai, I have promoised to visit her while I'm in Malaysia. I planned a 5 days visit there with likely a 3D2N hiking trip into the mountains and villages of ChiangMai and 1.5 or so day sightseeing ChaingMai. Should be fun!

Another 45min before my flight departs...

Long vacation

2008-04-15T23:22:00.007-05:00

I've been back in Malaysia since March 5, spending a 2 months vacation at home with family.

My original plan was to take few days to Chiangmai, but instead I went to Shanghai, Melaka (Malaysia) and a day trip to a small island on South China Sea call Sibu Island.

I'll be going to Kyoto Japan on April 30 for 8 days before going back to Boston.

Love, Forever.

2008-02-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

One month has passed since my beloved Neko left this world. It was very hard to hold back tears every time I think of her. When she left me, I felt like a chunk of my heart was being ripped away, I felt my heart withered. Till today I still can't talk about our last day together without breaking down, so I won't get into that.

I was blessed to have her for the best 14 years of my life. All the great memories we shared help me fill the void in my heart. My life had changed forever on that calm January night. In life she gave me comfort and joy. Now she inspired me to be a better person. I'll love her forever, I know she will to.

In loving memory of my most beloved Neko. You're forever part of me.

Thank You for the Memories, My Sweetest One.

2008-01-11T02:37:00.001-05:00

My beloved Neko passed away last night after 9 PM in the ER, with her head rested on my hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5AHThpsDWQ

Hot summer afternoon

2007-07-25T15:09:00.000-05:00

It was rather hot today but my cat Neko still wanted go out to our southwest facing porch. Worry that she might be over heated, I set up an umbrella together with a box for her. Oh, not to mention a fan blasting from inside out toward her. She looked pretty cozy to me.

The Ocean State

2007-07-22T21:57:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder why the state is called Rhode Island, after all it isn't an island state like Hawaii. You see, back in 17th century, Rhode Island was referred to the island where Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth are located today. When it became a state, Rhode Island joined its mainland neighbor which is called Providence Plantations and form the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which until today is still its official name. making it the smallest state with the longest official name.

I went to Providence the capital city of Rhode Island Saturday to attend a convention. Nothing exciting about Providence that I can write about. Not that I don't think Providence can be fun, just that I didn't spend enough time there to encounter anything special. Well, one thing worth mentioning is that the parking meters near the convention center allow up to 10 hours of parking, at the cost of 25 cent/15 min. Too bad I have only 2 quarters with me, so like a sucker, I parked in the parking garage.

There are 2 places I visited before that I think has better system to pay for parking fee that do not require an attendance, Seattle and Montreal. Both places have machines along the streets or in the middle of the parking lots where you can use your credit card to pay for the parking, and then put the receipt on your dashboard of paste it on your window. I only carry about $10 cash with me, and usaully with no coin in my purse at all, not even a penny. I'm all plastics, and the whole point for me to use credit card is so that I don't need to carry any loose change with me. I really don't mind paying for the parking, just wish that they will make it easier for me. Is that too much to ask?

Anyway, I left the convention center around 1 PM with plenty of time and sunshine left for the day, so I decided to take a drive down to Newport to see the famous mansions, the summer "cottages" of the wealthy. I stopped at the Elm and the Breakers. Unfortunately both places do not allow visitors taking picturs of the interior of the mansion. Both are extremely elegance, and historically tasteful. somehow I like the interior of the Elm but the exterior architecture style of the Breakers. The walls in the Breakers was designed with panels, but the Elm with fewer panels and larger surface painted with deeper colors. The Breakers on the other hand has a lighter summer tone with flora wall paper or fabric on the walls. It was Mrs Vanderbilt desired for such effect. There are many facts and stories about the mansions can be found on wikipedia.org: the Elm and the Breakers. We're allowed to take picture of the view from the 2nd floor of the Breakers, here is a video clip of the view.

Washington State - Summer 07

2007-07-19T21:15:00.001-05:00

I went to Washington state for my climbing vacation during the last week of June (6/23 - 7/1). As usual, we estimated more time than we needed, this time we have 2 extra days to kill. I was hoping we would go to Oregon to check out My Hood. But since we all had a bit too much to drink on Thursday night celebrating our failure :-) we opted to have a shorter ride to Mt St Helens instead. I wasn't too happy about that, but the majority rules.

It was raining on and off the whole drive to Mt St Helens. Once we arrived at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, the rain was dying down but the thick clouds were lingering around covered the view of Mt St Helens.

We drove back to Tacoma area that night and spent most of the next day at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, a wildlife refuge kinda place. We saw many animals there. All the carnivors were confined in a fenced area. Herbivores live freely in the 723-acre park. It was very cool. I am never a brave person, the only way for me the enjoy seeing these beautiful animals without freaking out was to see them in a controlled environment, so the wildlife park sounded like a good place to visit. The guide did mention that some animals in the park were rescued and adopted by the park, but I'm not sure about the others. Hopefully none of them were captured from the wild and shipped here for the enjoyment of wimps like me. Sorry. Here are the rest of the pictures.

It's a Tomato

2007-07-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

After 2 long months, my tomotoes plant finally produces a baby tomato :-).

The Beckhams have arrived

2007-07-12T23:48:00.000-05:00

This is a cover picture for a fashion magazine?

Beach Day

2007-07-12T22:42:00.000-05:00

I live 20 miles north of Boston, the area is collectively called the North Shore. I have easy access to at least 2 beaches, Dane Beach in Beverly and the ass kicking Crane Beach in Ipswich. Dane beach is a public beach, free parking and all, but the price you pay is huge crowd and coarse sand. The supreme Crane Beach on the other hand is a very well maintain beach , with sparkling white fine sand and nicer facility. But it cost $15 to park, $22 in the weekend.

So as soon as I moved here about 6 years ago (wow), I drove around and found myself a nice free beach. It is nicely tucks behind some beautiful but not flashy beach houses, and a destinated but very limited parking for non-residence. So I'm not going to tell you where it is. Good Harbor and Long Beach in Glouceter are another great beaches, it also cost about $20 for parking. As outrages as it sounds, the parking is always full in a warm summer day.

Mt Rainier June 24-28

2007-07-11T00:51:00.000-05:00

Since my last failed attempt to climb Rainier, I have been constantly thinking about my next attempt. In February when few friends from the Summit Sensations plan a trip to Rainier this June, I immediately took interest and discussed the plan and people with Tom, and with Tom blessing and encouragement, I signed up for the trip. The plan was a 5-day quest via Emmons/Winthrop Glacier: Day 1 to Glacier Basin, Day 2 to Camp Shurman, Day 3 a rest day, Day 4 summit day, Day 5 another summit shot or hike out. 4 months later... With great anxiety and anticipation, I packed my bags headed to Seattle last Saturday. I met up with 6 other climbers at Renton to spend a short night and headed up to White River Camp the next morning.

Day 1. We arrived at the White River Ranger Station at around 10 AM under steady drizzle. Tom who has moved to Seattle last year was already there waiting for us at the parking lot. He would join us on our hike into Glacier Basin. The hike in to the Glacier Basin was uneventful. We hike through the area where the trail was washed out by last November storm. The trail crew made excellent progress rerouting the trail marking them with yellow caution tapes. The reroute wasn't hard to hike on and was very easy to follow, I guess we the Northeast hikers are very used to rock hoping and mud stumping, no big deal for us.

The rain drifted in and out during the hike, by the time we arrived at Glacier Basin, it died down a bit. With Tom supervision, I quickly set up my tent, which I borrowed from him. The supposedly awesome view from the meadow was hidden behind the thickening cloud, as quickly as the rain stopped, it picked right up and abruptly turn into snow shower. Tom left me with well wishes and headed back to Seattle where he told me he will be thinking of me while having his sirloin steak in his soft warm couch. Nice guy huh.

I was feeling good and truely enjoyed the serene snow scene. We walked through the snow drifting meadow to the river where we pumped our drinking water. On our way back, we saw a deer walked slowly cross our path and into the field. Who care about the snow and coldness when you're at a place like this. For a minute there, I forget about my fear and anxiety of the challenge in the days to come.

Day 2. We woke up to a clear blue day. We took our time to pack up our wet gears and enjoy the awesome view. We started up our trek up to Inter Glacier around 10 AM, we're joined by a father and son team who would be following us all the way to Camp Shurman. We passed the meadow to a yellow mud ridge where we'll cross over to the foot of Inter Glacier. Looking up the headwall of Inter Glacier, all I can think of was that will be so cool to glissade down. Which also mean, wicked steep to climb up. After a break to regroup and fuel-up , we began heading up the headwall, taking turns kicking steps (Yaro, our strongest climber actually did most of the work).

The long and tiring slog up the headwall never seems to end, as we thought, that's gonna be the top of it, only to see another hump raise above it. Another short break later, I took the lead up the second part of the slope, there we began to see 2 small opening of crevasses. As I approached the top of the headwall, I notice the boot-path diverged, one straight up to the top, the other busier boot-path bear to the left. My instinct told me to go with the busy boot-path so we beared left. As it turns out, if we go straight up we would reached the top of Inter Glacier, where on the another side of it was a shear rock wall, that drop more than 100' directly and insanely steep down to Camp Shurman, a shortcut for the rangers. The left turn brought us toward the ridge of Mt Ruth where we had a great view of Little Tahoma on our left, and behind us the Glacier Peak and the hazy Mt Baker. That was quite rewarding. From the ridge, we drop steeply onto Emmons Glacier. The drop itself wasn't all that bad, but what made it scary was a mouth of a crevasse was at the bottom of the slope, waiting for a good meal to drop in. Slowly and steadily, we made it down safely. Less than an hour or so later, we finally crawled our way into Camp Shurman.

Day 3. Another great day. We would kick back and relax today to hydrate and prepare ourselves for the summit climb. Throughout the morning into the afternoon, we saw many happy climbers descended back to the camp. Some skiers skied down the mountain, artfully avoided the crevasses and made it into the camp smoothly. Remember the steep rock wall? apparently in was also a "safe" way for skiers to get back to Inter Glacier. We sat and watched them climbed up the rock face in their ski boots and skis on their back. Just like that, almost effortlessly, they made it to the top and disappeared behind the wall. Amazing!

I called Tom for a latest weather forecast, according to the NOAA, our summit day would be a windy one with wind speed predicted at 40 MPH, and snow later in the evening. Thursday forecast was worse with snow and shower all day. So based the latest forecast, we decided our only chance for summit was tonight. We plan to start before midnight hoping to got down early and packed out to Glacier Basin to avoid the snow shower at Camp Shurman. So that was the plan.

Late into the afternoon, I climbed into my tent to try to catch some sleep, but the wind began to pick up significantly and wobbled my tent in all direction. I began to worry if my tent could with stand the occasional gust of wind. After all this was the first time I pitched a tent at a 9000+' camp, Tom has warned me about the wind at Camp Shurman can be fierce. I regretted not buried the stakes deeper than I did, second guessed my choice of tent location, should have pull the guylines farther away and etc. Then came a hugh gust which I could feel my tent lifted up briefly. That's it, I wasn't gonna just lay there and bit my finger nails anymore. I got out of my tent and inspected each stacks and guylines, reburied the iffy ones and covered all of them with more snow. Finally quite satisfy with my craft, I looked over my shoulder and saw MikeO was up, damn, it's time to get ready. I had about 2+ hours sleep in total.

Day 3-4. The night wasn't even completely dark yet when we're all up and getting ready. As planned ahead, the father and son team would be joining us on our quest to the summit. While waiting for other climbers, I pulled out my camera hoping to take a picture of the night-line of Seattle, but found out that the batteries were too low for pictures. So I recorded a panoramic view and tucked the camera inside my chest pocket hoping to warm up the batteries. Finally by the time we're all set to go, the sky was completely dark, it was about 10:30 PM.

The snow at the lower section was still very soft and sluggish, we made our way up very slowly. The wind at this point was still bearable, only an occasional gust now and then. Although it was dark and I couldn't see much around me, but I did recognize few places from pictures I've seen before, like the traverse along the side of the mountain, with the night-line of Seattle on our right. Wondering why it's sleepless in Seattle? Try turn off the lights. Among the many disadvantages for a woman climber, top the list I think has to be trying to take a piss while roped up, with pack on and on a slope. I couldn't unrope from the team, I couldnt remove my pack (if I want to see it again) and I really needed to go. Astronaut diapers jumped right to my mind, but it's too late now. Anyway, after some tricky maneuvering later I finally did it. I thought I was well prepared for the trip, but this is one important maneuvering that I failed to practice at home.

Off we went. The higher we climbed, the stronger the wind get. I could feel the wind was pushing us from the top down, bringing snow and ice palettes with it and knocking on our helmet. We reached a pretty steep but short section where we needed to kick the front points to climb. The training in Huntington Ravine this past winter did prepared me for this kind of terrain, I kicked my way up, a little tire but with confidence. As I looked back I saw layers of orange stripes cut across the sky, it's dawn! I absolutely not aware that we had been climbing for almost 6 hours, it felt like 2. The crack of the dawn really help boosted our spirit. The sky rapidly lite up after that, and we're braced in the morning sun. At around the same place, we noticed the boot-prints has became scarce and we're facing a short snow wall, the first thought was we wandered off the beaten path. But on the other hand the area was steeper and with thinner snow, the boot prints could have been wiped out by the wind. We belayed both rope teams in, together with the father and son team, took a break and surveyed the surrounding. The son took the lead headed up the snow wall, but only to turn back. He thought we're off the path and that behind the snow wall were many crevasses, he didn't feel that's the right path. Somehow Dave the leader of our other rope team decided to see for himself, he led the team up to the top of the wall, and managed to spot some boot prints and most importantly a wand marking the lip of a big crevasse. So we followed him up the wall and walked over a small crack of crevasse right at the top of the wall into a vast field of many many crevasses. I later learned from Yaro that MikeL sank into a crevasse up to his thigh and swarm his way back up.

Good news was the terrain after the short snow wall was slightly less steep, bad news was it was very very windy after that. We pushed our way against the wind slowly making progress. Somewhere around here 2 RMI groups caught up and passed us one after another. Every big gust of wind, we need to quickly plunged in our axe and curled over it. I was pretty tire at this point and suspected that our people were too as we're almost crawling our way up. We took a quick bundle-up break and all of us were wrapped in our down jacket on top of our wind breaker, it was cold and windy. At this point, my mind was repeating the same phrase over and over again, "one step at a time, you can do it." Every bump we climbed over, we hoped to see the rim, but it just wasn't there yet. Here the first time during the climb we made an assessment, Yaro and MikeO expressed thought of heading down, BillD volunteered to lead them down. But somehow, all changed their mind last minute and we continued to push on. We managed to caught a sight of the RMI groups that passed us awhile back, that kinda energized us a bit. So with all our mights, we forged into the gust and pushed ourselves all the way to... yet another snow wall, this one with a big tall crack of crevasse wall next to it. We've arrived at the bergschrund. We tried to hunker down near to the crevasse wall but there provided zero shelter to protect us from the gust. BillD pulled out his glacier glasses and the case was swiped right off his hand into the crevasse. No one was pulling anything out of their pack after that. We waited for our other rope team but as soon as the father and son team arrived, BillS our rope team leader and the son led the teams up the bergschrund to survey the situation. According to them, it was near whiteout condition out there with crevasses to negotiate and the rim was still far away... That's the news and turn back were the word. I was staring at the top of the bergschrund just few steps away, looking at the snow danced ferociously at its mouth and swooshed toward us. Nobody said a word. I could feel my heart shredded into pieces and blew away by the wicked wind. But all heart aches aside, I knew we're making the right decision, today's not the day and it didn't matter how close we're.

Between the 3 altimeters we have, the reading showed we've reached between 13,980' and 14,010' when we turned around. So 14,010' it is! it was a personal record for most of us, not too bad. We got back to the camp at around 2PM, I was very glad to see my tent was still there. No one have any energy left to pack and leave, so we stayed one more night at Camp Shurman and hiked all the way out the next day.

Of course there were some should have, could have going on afterward, it's all part of the learning process. In the end, it was a great experience for me. We climbed into the wind and gust and made it to 14,000-ish; I looked into a crevasse and hopped over it (well, most of them just walked over it); I not only survived 4 nights in a tent but actually enjoyed it, even in a cold damp night I made 2 trips to the out house; I had no altitude problem and hey, we made it to the top of the Glacier.

And so it is... Mt Rainier has become my mecca, my most faithful yearly pilgrimage.

Here are the pictures. Enjoy!

Summer's Here!

2007-05-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

Neko posing with my "garden", well, actually she was caught trying to eat my plant :-). Check out more cute pictures of Neko with the flower here.

Lazy Day

2007-04-24T11:18:00.000-05:00

Hmm, for those of you who listen to Enya, you will see a trend here :-) I spotted a squirrel outside of my balcony taking a nap, at the same time Neko is napping on the balcony. Very cute.

A Day Without Rain

2007-04-20T14:47:00.000-05:00

We have been having 4-5 days of rain straight, yesterday was the first day without rain, not only that, it was a warm sunny day. I took a drive to Dane beach in Beverly, 10ish minutes from where I live to take some pictures.

There really wasn't anything too exciting to take, so I ask a local walker is there a nice garden. As it turns out, there is a nice park right around the corner from Dane beach. Here are the pictures.

Presidency Highlight

2007-02-22T17:35:00.000-05:00

I heard this from "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", an NPR radio show a while ago, a question to a panelist about Bush's answer to the highlight of his presidency. The following are the Q and A:

Peter Segal (the host):
"Adam, when asked to name the highlight of their presidency, Jimmy Carter said it was the Camp David Accords; Bill Clinton said it was ending the war in the Balkin. Well in an interview with a German magazine, President Bush was asked to name the highlight of his presidency, he thought about it and then answered what?"

Adam Felber (the panelist): "... He said that it was catching a 7.5 lb perch in his own lake."

Peter Segal: "That's what it was!"

A round of laughter broke out from the audience and the panelists.

And then Roy Blount Jr. (another panelist) suddenly cut in to defend the president: " I would like to... I would like to defend the president on this," he said, " I think he was right!"

That was pretty funny. You can hear that portion of the show from here,
scroll to the bottom and click on the link "When Panelists Work Together"

Under the influence of alcohol

2007-02-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

You know how you can always count on your friends to prevent you from calling that old flame of yours when you're drunk. But they don't seems to put too much effort to stop you from driving home after that.

Nora, the piano-playing cat

2007-02-21T15:43:00.000-05:00

Found this on youtube.com

Another episode of "In the Waiting Room" starring, you know who.

2007-02-20T16:30:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my car dealer for 2 diagnostics, one is brake light came on and off at will, the other is strange noise while driving on 5th gear.

2.5 hours waiting in the fume-saturated waiting room later, here are what I've learned:
Britney Spears marched into a salon and asked to shave her head. The owner of the salon tried to talk her out of it. Instead, Britney Spears took the shaver and shaved her own head, the owner only performed the final touchup. According to the owner, Britney Spears seemed to enjoy shaving her own head.

Anna Nicole Smith, I felt like I've known her for ages now. Her son Daniel died last September. She had been feeling depress since. She had planned her own funeral, and was initially wanted to be burried next to her idol Marilyn Monroe in California, but was too expensive. According to Howard K Stern , her "boy friend" and alleged father of her daughter, Anna Nicole Smith then decided to be burried next to her son in Bahamas. But her mother wanted her to be burried in her home state Texas.

Yes, I did bring a book to read, but the TV was so loud that I couldn't read a word into my brain, and the fume was really giving me a headache. But I was able to read a short article from a magazine, Family Circle?? Anyway, the article titled "How to choose a microwave". What? Just pick the one that is on sale, that's how. Apparantly according to the wisdom of the writer, there are the followings to consider: Shortcut Keys (preset buttons for Popcorn, Defrost etc...) Removable Turntable (so that you can clean it?). Sensor Technology (ability to sense the meat temperature.) and a Child -Proof Door. What? If you read the popcorn package, it will say do not use the preset button on your microwave. My microwave has 8 preset buttons on it: Auto-reheat, Popcorn, Potato, Coffee, Chicken pcs, Fish, Vegetables, Frozen Food. I have only used 3 of them (Auto-Reheat, Popcorn and Frozen Food) a few times and they're never reliable. Don't they all come with removable turntable? Do people cook with microwave really care about meat temperature? Just peek in and if you don't see blood flowing out from the meat, then it's cooked! "Ding! Enjoy Your Meal"

Mind numbing is the best way to describe my afternoon.

Happy New Year!

2007-02-18T18:50:00.000-05:00

I went hiking at the Adirondacks last weekend, and had a minor accident. I slid off an icy slope and broke my trekking pole into 2 while trying to stop the fall. I was just glad that it wasn't my arm or leg that was broken. Anyhow... At first I was kinda glad that the pole broke and that after all these years I finally have an excuse to buy a new set of poles, but the designer in me just not ready to let it go. I woke up the next morning suddenly realized a super easy way to fix the pole, click on the thumbnail below to see how I fixed it.

Last day of the year of Dog

2007-02-17T16:55:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking about switching my MSN space blog to Blogspot for a long time, finally, today's the day. Here is a link to my old blog: http://7summits.spaces.live.com/

The reason I chose currynoodle as my blog url was simple, because all my other choices were taken, including currynoodles. Besides, I love spicy food and noodle and I was pretty hungry when I was creating this blog, curry noodle jumped right to my mind.