Hawthorne Airport

My work is right next to the Hawthorne airport. The municipal airport is a right next to the 105 freeway by Crenshaw Blvd and has only one 4965 feet runway. This Monday, I got lunch at a nearby Quiznos and walked by the end of the runway while a small jet was ready for take-off. I was surprised that jets could use the airport since I thought the runway was too short, and how loud the exhaust noise was, even from across the street.



I looked up the tail number (N650W) and found out it was a Cessina Citation III and it flies in/out of Hawthorne airport quite often. I know that our CEO sometimes flies his jet out of Hawthorne and turns out it's an ever bigger jet (Dassault Falcon 900).

So Cool - Sistar

New Sistar song:


So Cool

No More China Posts...

... about CCP thugs; I'll stick to personal photos or harmless stuff about China. Everyday I read news and other articles about China and a lot of it makes me sick to my stomach. If I linked and commented on every injustice, I wouldn't get any work done.

I think deep down, I'm disappointed that no one not enough local people in China cares about their society to do anything. It seems like everyone is trying to make as much money as fast as possible and ignore the fact that a corrupt dictatorship cannot last indefinitely. Of course, I could be completely wrong... maybe people in China love their un-elected government. I've visited China many times but that's completely different from living there. It's easy to criticize from thousands of miles away behind a keyboard; I wonder how outspoken I would be if I was under constant surveillance and threat of arrest/torture by the PSB.

Anyway, as I posted before, a revolution is coming. Just look at Chinese history and you see that every authoritarian dynasty comes to an end. The hope is that China can transition peacefully to a more fair and equitable society (because "socialism with Chinese characteristics" is not working) but probably change will be violent and a lot of people will die (see Libya). Sigh... :(

I guess there's nothing else to post about other than food and K-pop girls.

Government Accountability

Is this for real? How can sh*t like this happen, even in China? It costs a lot of money to keep a gang of thugs around to essentially blockade a family inside their house. Did the Cultural Revolution strip away all humanity and compassion?

Front Line

Human rights defender Mr Chen Guangcheng, along with his wife Ms Yuan Weijing, his mother, and six-year old daughter, have now been under house arrest for almost a year, during which time they have been completely isolated from the outside world, and forced to endure severe food shortages as none of the family is being permitted to leave the property.

Where are the wumaodang? How can anyone, regardless how nationalistic you are, support this BS? If a government systematically beats up blind people and starves six-year old kids, then it's illegitimate, period.

Wikipedia article about Chen Guangcheng

Government Bureaucracy... A Response!

I got a reply from the US Consulate in Guangzhou. To recap from my previous blog post, I received a request for evidence as part of my I-129F application for Sindy. The US government wants more information regarding our respective divorces though the request was kinda vague:

Submit a legible copy of the final divorce decree signed by a judge or magistrate that shows proof of filing, or the death certificate issued by the civil authorities, that terminated the prior marriage(s) between xxx, and between xxx.

When I called USCIS here, the agent that helped me had no idea what their own department was asking for. Sindy also checked with her government friends in Beijing and they have not heard of such a document. I also sent a long email to the US Consulate in Guangzhou asking for their help since they process all the immigrant visas from China. First, I'm surprised that they responded so fast as I only sent the message on Friday. However, as expected, they weren't much help. This is the entire response:

We regret that no such information is available here.

Sincerely,

Immigrant Visa Unit
U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou
1 Shamian South Street
Guangzhou, Guangdong 510133
PRC

Dang it! Who do I ask then? I get a (basically anonymous) request for documentation but can't reach anyone to clarify what they want. More than anything else, I was fearing such an encounter with the bureaucratic black hole that is the US government. I know they want to be thorough and not let any fraudulent cases through but a least give me a name so I can ask questions when necessary.

Sigh... our next step is to get an official statement from the Beijing government/court that the only document is the divorce settlement and what the USCIS is asking for does not exist (and translate it to English). Heh, that should be easy...

Government Bureaucracy

I received a form I-797E from USCIS yesterday. They government wants more documents from me for my I-129F application. I was pretty sure I sent in every piece of documentation they wanted so I was surprised they want more divorce stuff, for both Sindy and me. I looked up my divorce at the court website and found that there was a form that basically said the judgement was filed with the court. After digging around boxes and boxes, I actually found the copy that was sent to me. Whew...

However, after talking to Sindy, she has no idea what the USCIS wants from her side. I think the US government is being lazy and ethnocentric. They're asking for something in the vaguest terms and expect people from other countries to comply with a US-like form. Anyway, I placed a call to USCIS customer service center today. First, their automated menu sucks... like most systems, it doesn't explicitly tell you how to directly reach a live person. After digging through menu after menu, I reached a person who spoke Spanish to me, then hung up. WTF? On the second try, I reached someone speaking English, told her my story, she transferred me to an immigration agent, who basically told me "I dunno." Awesome. He was pretty nice on the phone but was basically zero help. I asked if I should go to a field office in person... he replied, "Sure, but the window agent probably can't help you either." Great.

I think the gist of the conversation was the form has all the info I need, even though we both agree that it doesn't, and the government bureaucracy is too big for me to actually contact the one who made the decision to ask for more info. Sigh... I ended up sending an email to the Guangzhou consulate since they handle all immigrant visas in China. We'll see if anyone answers me.

The helpful guy on the phone at USCIS also suggested I send in the same divorce papers from China (the USCIS already has the original + translation) and write a letter saying that's all we have. I'm pretty sure that won't work and will probably get my case delayed/rejected.

Ugh... I don't want to move to China!

Warning

My current boss, who was my ex-boss a few years ago, got a call from my ex-company's CFO. It was a courtesy call but basically he wanted us to stop recruiting at Broadcom. Other than me, there is one more financial analyst starting in a few weeks; coincidentally, my current boss and I recruited her from USC about 5 years ago.

I was ready to quit anyway so it really shouldn't count. Since I still have some vested options, my first thought was that he (Broadcom's CFO) should hang up the phone and work on raising the stock price. Since I was there for so long and recruited a lot of the current analysts, I know morale in finance is really low. It doesn't take much to get people interested in a new opportunity. Maybe they should fix their problems so people want to stay...

USCIS Email

I received an email from USCIS saying they sent a request for more info on the K-1 visa application through regular mail today. I'm surprised that they're reviewing my file already since it's been less than 3 months; the website said that the wait time was going to be ~5 months. I hope it's something simple, though I can't imaging what I left out of the package. I would suck if they wanted more documents from Sindy since I was just in Beijing last week.

Crossing fingers...

Tokyo/Beijing Photos (long)

I really didn't do anything this trip to Asia. In fact, I sat on my ass in the hotel quite often since Sindy had several surgeries, usually first thing in the morning so I waited for her to finish. I'll just post some photos:


More Tokyo... this was walking away from Hamamatsucho station towards Tokyo Tower (Shibadaimon?). There were lots of interesting looking shops along the street (and lots of vending machines) but since it was before 6am, everything was closed, except for the 24 hour Yoshinoya.


I posted this below already; it looks like a dimsum place. The "menu" reads (L to R): egg rolls, shrimp shiumai, steamed buns, shrimp dumplings, something mantou, pork buns, and turnip cake. ¥480 is about $6... pretty expensive. Google Street view photo does not have the red stickers on the front window.


There was a massage place next to the Yoshinoya (5th floor). Judging from the prices, it's a real massage place. The "massage parlors" charge ¥25,000 and up.


It was only 6:30am and there were lots of people on the returning monorail. China has more people but I think Japan is probably more crowded in comparison since there is so little land.


Lunch on ANA flight from HND to PEK. I got the beef option (the other choice was fish) and it was surprisingly good. The cold udon was pretty good too.


Welcome to Chi**cough**na!


Sign on the back of my hotel room door, right below the useless Chinglish emergency evacuation instructions. Basically it says "Stop/Refrain from pornography, gambling, and poison (illegal drugs)". Oh, that explains the condoms and other "adults goods" for sale on my nightstand. The police cartoons are cute; not at all like the real-life thugs that beat up demonstrators and journalists.


Food items for sale at a market next to the hotel. They rearranged everything since the last time I was here. It's much more organized but the customer service is bad as before.


Lunch at Sindy's parents' apartment. They always cook too much food when I visit.


Sindy's Chow Chow "face basin"


Dinner at fancy restaurant. There was pretty much no one else there and it was already 7pm. This is some sort of root/yam that supposed to have some medicinal properties. The purple stuff is blueberry jam.


Since it was Sindy's birthday, we ordered fish with noodles which is supposed to signify long life or something.


It rained for two days while I was there. The second day was sunny and clear, though the PM2.5 and PM5 levels are probably still pretty high.


Some awesome Chinglish at a Beijing Capital Airport souvenir store. Someone tried to fix it with a thin marker but it was only marginally better.


My flight (NH1256) from Beijing to Tokyo. The air was crappy again.


Whenever there was turbulence in the air, the pilot would turn on the seat belt sign but a flight attendant also walked up/down the aisles showing a latched seat belt. I've never seen this on any other airlines.


Since international flights at Haneda were reinstated only awhile ago, the new terminal was pretty deserted. This is the central shopping area in the terminal, with stores like Gucci, Cartier, Rolex, etc.


Rolex watch for ¥3M+


Super expensive whisky from Chivas


The rest of the terminal was empty too. This was near my gate for the HND to LAX flight. People started arriving only about 60 minutes before the scheduled departure time.


What's this? Am I back in China again?!


Whew... I don't have to squat...


... and I get to wash my "posterior" too? Awesome!


This girl kept trying to take a photo of the runway area. I think this was attempt 3 out of 4 or 5. Hello? Turn off the flash so it won't reflect back and blind your camera's CCD.


MTA Green Line platform at Aviation/I-105. I was still trying to figure out the ticket vending machine when some old black dude came up to me to ask for change. Since the fare was $1.50 and I put in $2, I gave him the 50 cents. Really... even walking around at midnight in Beijing (in the rain), I was less worried than being in LA during daytime.

I wished I had more time during my first layover to explore more of Tokyo. I thought about going out again during the return transit but I only had 3.5 hours and I really needed to be there to dump my BRCM options. Now I'm thinking I made a mistake not exercising the remaining 5,000 options. Stock is down $2 since last week so I'm out $10k (before tax)... :(

WhatsApp?

I'm always looking for cheap (or free) ways to communicate with China. Since I don't have a text plan, I was using Skype to send SMS text to Sindy and it would cost me 5.5 cents for each 160 characters. On the other side, she would also pay to receive texts but her work pays for her phone charges. Anyway, a few months ago Yu-kuan told me about WhatsApp, a free (almost... you have to pay $1.99 for the app on Android after a one-year trial) but Sindy didn't have a smartphone at the time. Now that she has a Galaxy 9003 (Android), I installed it for her while I was in Beijing and it works really well. It did get stuck for a few hours over the weekend but it sends/receives almost immediately. We connected via FaceTime and validated that messages in WhatsApp takes only a few seconds.

13 years ago, I spent ~$800 on phone bills for 2 weeks while I was in Beijing, calling back to the US on my AT&T calling card.

==========

I've decided to send all my texts to Sindy using Simplified Chinese so send/receive speed is not all that important when it takes me minutes to type a short SMS text. I'm using Google Pinyin on my Android phone but she uses another input method where you type in the first letter (Pinyin) of each character you want to type; the phone would show you all phrases that matches your input. It's much faster but I not sure if I can pick out the right phrases.

Super Duper Secret Passwords

What's the deal with websites requiring super complex passwords? Whenever I update a password or sign up somewhere, they seem to require upper case, lower case, and numerals... some even require special symbols &^%$#@!

I can understand banks or the government but USC Marshall alumni directory?! Really? Everyone can see the data I put in anyway. It's as if these people don't realize that most users have lots of sites with userid/passwords... I can't come up with unique/complex passwords for all of them.

Finally Home

International travel is tough. I'm sure many others have more difficult trips but for me, it has been a long 24 hours.


MTA Green Line Station - Avation/I-105
The "G" stands for ghetto

Funny... I traveled ~15,000 miles over five short days and the scariest part of the trip is the last bit on the MTA Green Line, both the bus ride from LAX and the actual two stop trip through Hawthorne. I may just call a cab next time.

Sindy's apartment -> Beijing Airport: 45 minutes
Checking in -> 30 minutes
Sitting/waiting in departure area -> 45 minutes
Beijing immigration and security check -> 15 min
Waiting at gate: 30 min
Flight from Beijing -> Haneda: 3+ hours
Transit time at Haneda -> ~4 hours
Flight from Haneda -> LAC: 10+ hours
US immigrations and customs: 45 minutes
Green line bus and trip: 45 minutes
Drive home from work parking lot: 45 minutes

I only got ~an hour of sleep on the plane... did see a bunch of movies though.

Goodbye Broadcom (almost)

I was online with my netbook in Tokyo Airport at 6:30am (Pacific Time) to dump my Broadcom employee stock options. Today was the first day of open period; even though I quit, I was still on the blackout list. I managed to exercise/sell all but 5,000 options. The stock went up a lot yesterday and I didn't want to risk the government screwing up the debt ceiling thing and tanking every stock market on August 2nd. The remaining 5,000 options are only a few dollars in the money so I'll risk them in case the stock goes up. I also have a lot of underwater options at ~$41 in case the stock really takes off in the next 45 days.

Beijing Trip - Haneda Airport Again

Yay, back on the other side of the GFW with free and open Internet. Dang it I hate the Chinese Communist Party. I was checking my usual sources for China news/commentary in my hotel this morning and most of the sites are blocked: China Digital Times (CDT), Global Voices Online, ChinaGeeks, ChinaHush... this is in addition to the usual blocks on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, etc. Interestingly, ChinaSmack was not blocked nor are blogs on Wordpress.

Anyway, Haneda Airport is pretty deserted at this point. I have about three hours before my flight and there is no one waiting at the gate. I thought about going out to Tokyo again to check out the night lights but I wimped out... it's close to 30C outside and our plane was delayed a bit so I'm worried about making it back for my flight. While we were waiting on the runway at Beijing airport, the pilot said the delay was to to runway congestion. However, looking out the window I saw 3 Air China flights plus one Air Macau flight cut in front of us and took off on the same runway. WTF? It would be so lame if the tower made the "evil" Japanese airline wait after domestic airlines. Maybe there were VIPs aboard those flights. I can hear the fengqing yelling 加油!

Here are some posts made I made while in Chinese Internet hell...

==========

One hour from Beijing

That was my third time in Tokyo but the first time that I stepped out of the airport. The trip feels long already but that’s probably because I took the side trip to Tokyo Tower. Usually I sit on my ass in the airport; still debating whether to venture out of the airport again on my way home.

Right now I’m about an hour east of Beijing. From the flight map, our flight didn’t take the most direct route, probably trying to avoid flying over North Korea. Don’t want to take any chances on being shot down. This flight is on a Boeing 767-300 and it’s about 75% full. The flight attendants keep trying to speak Japanese to me. When I give them a blank stare, they would try Mandarin (since we’re flying to Beijing). Finally they would speak English but it’s hard to understand with their accent. I just watched Monster House on the little TV screen in the airplane seat back. Sigh… the legroom is not sufficient; I’m jammed against the seat in front of me and he’s not even reclined. I didn’t know about the premier economy class on ANA; maybe I’ll try that next time I fly to Beijing.

==========

Quick Beijing Trip, Day 1

Two things welcomed me to Beijing this time: the oppressive heat+humidity, and the China smell. I think the smell is air pollution from burning coal and it’s actually worse in Chengdu. Oh yeah, one more thing that greeted me was the wonderful Chinese customer service attitude. It was even more obvious after the treatment I got at Haneda. Leaving Beijing Terminal 3, there's one guy flagging people at random to put their bags through an x-ray scanner. I've never been picked before but I made eye contact and the guy (it's always a guy) yelled at me in Chinese to put my bag through. Look dumbass, Beijing gets a lot of foreign visitors and not everyone speaks Chinese. A bit of courtesy would be nice. As usual, Sindy was there to pick me up and I was sweating profusely just from the walk to the parking lot. It was the hottest and muggiest day so far this summer.

At the hotel, I had to pay to upgrade to the next room level to get something on the non-smoking floor. The said they could "freshen up" one of the rooms on a smoking floor but I wasn't falling for that trick (it doesn't work). After checking out the hotel floorplan, it was good I didn't go for the cheaper room... it's 1/2 the size of the room I got. The rest of the day was uneventful. We walked over to Sindy's parents' apartment, had dinner there, and walked back to the hotel in the rain. Usually I smell lots of good stuff while walking around her neighborhood... I hate to think what was in the puddles I had to step through. I also set up the Apple AirPort Express (old 11g version) I brought so Sindy can have wifi in her apartment, and be able to use the iPad 2 I got her for her b-day. FaceTime works really good.

Beijing Trip - Haneda Airport

It's about an hour before my flight to Beijing from Tokyo/Haneda. As I mentioned before, this trip was very last minute and I think I was lucky to find tickets for <$1500. ANA flight 1005 from LAX-HND was on an older Boeing 777-200ER. The seats in the back were pretty old school; I originally thought it that the entertainment system was not on-demand but I found a controller hidden under the armrest that allowed me to choose movies/TV shows/music. It wasn't as cool as Cathay's StudioCX but I did watch two movies on the 12 11 hour flight: The Adjustment Bureau and Red Riding Hood. FWIW, I thought it was the grandma until the very end.


Some kind of ANA flight attendant pow-wow at gate 104 at LAX. When I got here, they were still boarding the previous China Southern flight to Guangzhou.

After arriving early at ~4:30am, I cleared Japanese immigration/customs and took the monorail to Hamamatsucho station. All the workers in the airport were very polite, especially the customs guy. He asked me about the "none" listed for Japan address and I told him I had a layover and want to go out to take pictures. He laughed at my "joke" and bowed as he waved me out into the terminal. Not like China at all.


Good thing most of the signs have English (plus Chinese and Korean)


Tokyo Monorail


View from Hamamatsucho station

Since it was ~5am, I caught the first monorail from Haneda into town. It was an express train so it did not stop at every station. The walk to Tokyo Tower was ~15 minutes and I took a few pictures. Even though it was early Sunday morning, there were lots of older people out walking around. On the way, there was a large shrine and there was some event going on but I couldn't understand any of the signs. On the way back to Haneda, the monorail was super crowded. Luckily, I got on to another express train and the first stop back was the International terminal at Haneda.


New vs. Old


Tokyo Tower viewed from its base


Drink Corner at the base of the Tower...


... where I got this $2 can of Fanta grape soda. We need more grape soda in the US.


Chinese restaurant on the way to Tokyo Tower from the train station


This was the last thing I expected to see in Tokyo. I guess it is a real chain from Japan. They just don't call it "beef bowl" as well...

Check-in Times

ANA has sent me three emails about my check in time later tonight. Some people are confused about an early morning flight and end up arriving at the airport that evening, after the flight has departed. For my return flight, I guess it's even more confusing since you have to check in Wednesday night, the flight departs Thursday morning, but due to the Date Line, you arrive on Wednesday at your destination.

Vacation Accrual

Since I've only been at the new job for ~4 weeks, I had to "borrow" vacation days to go to Beijing next week. We get 10 days (I thought) of regular vacation that accrue with no cap plus 5 PTO days that caps at 5 days for a total of 15 days per year... not bad. After talking to the payroll person today, I found out that since I have a director title, I get 15 days of vacation plus the 5 PTO days... woohoo! That puts me back at around the same level as my previous job (20 days) before they cancelled all vacation accrual.

ANA 777-200 Seats

Arg, I'm starting to dread my flight tomorrow already. Each Transpacific flight seems to scare me more and more. I just read about ANA's cheap seats and they seem to be even smaller than the small Cathay Pacific economy seats.

Cathay Pacific 777-300ER
Seat pitch (legroom): 32"
Seat width: 17.5"

ANA 777-200ER
Seat pitch (legroom): 31"
Seat width: 16.5"

Dang it... the seats are an inch smaller in each dimension. I thought the 777 planes were about the same size; where did the extra width go? Both airlines run 3x3x3... wider aisles? I also didn't check SeatGuru close enough for the flight back and got a seat in row D which has the entertainment box under the seat for even less legroom. Well, it was that or pay a lot more for a different airline. Sindy better appreciate the effort. :(

Haneda Again

Hmm, I think I've been to Haneda Airport before. My mom said when we left Taiwan in 1977, we took China Airlines to Tokyo, then Japan Airlines to Vancouver, and finally Canadian Pacific Airways (no more) to Toronto. I read that Narita did not handle international flights until 1978, and China AIrlines continued to use Haneda until 2002. The only other time I transited through Tokyo was in 1998 when I went to Beijing (for the first time) with PESI but that was through Narita (United Airlines).

I remember the layover in 1977 was ~7 hours and I was fascinated with the moving walkways.

Anyway, now that I've been checking out Tokyo on Google Street View, looking at the route from the train station to Tokyo Tower (and any visible soaplands), I feel like I've been there already and don't need to physically go. :)

百度百科

百度百科 or Baidu Baike is a Chinese copy of Wikipedia. Well, not quite... it's not blocked in China like Wikipedia. Like everything else on the Chinese Internet, Baidu Baike is heavily censored. The English version of Wikipedia is pretty much useless on controversial issues due to endless edit wars but Baidu Baike is even worse than useless. Check out the intro to the entry on Taiwan (translated into English by Google):

Taiwan is China's sacred territory an integral part. Historically, Taiwan has been Spain, the Netherlands, Japan has occupied. After the victory of Taiwan's return to Chinese territory. After 1949, due to reasons known to all, Taiwan and the mainland in a separate state. 50 years, Taiwan's political, economic, cultural, social undergone tremendous changes. The island of Taiwan is China's largest island, located in the southeast coast of the motherland and the continental shelf on. Taiwan, the center channel briefly the Western Pacific, China and the Pacific countries linked to important maritime hub.

The translation is not perfect but the propaganda is unmistakable. Sheesh, are the articles written by CCP members? The best line is "due to reasons known to all"... they can't even mention the 4 year Chinese Civil War?

Further down, there is a section call "A brief history" and it ends suddenly after the Ching/Qing Dynasty. The "full" history section goes a bit further and mentions the Japanese occupation and WWII but stops there as well... No mention of the KMT, no mention of elections, no mention of the DPP. The first part of the history section also states that "Taiwan's early inhabitants, the majority are from mainland China directly or indirectly, from the settlers." What utter BS... then where did A-mei and the rest of the aboriginal Taiwanese come from?

I wonder how the local Chinese view Baidu Baike? The lies and omissions are so transparent, I don't know why people bother. How do you "trust" any of the articles if crap like this is allowed to stay? Or do the Chinese people developed a blind spot to all the censorship? I think I would go crazy if I had to live there long-term.

Unfriend

Hmm, what do you do when someone unfriends you in Facebook? Do you go and ask them why? I don't know about other people but I have lots of "friends" that I never contact, like old high school friends or NewSong people. This is actually someone that I texted and emailed not too long ago about hotels in HKG. Maybe I typed something offensive by accident...

Tokyo (Haneda) Layover

Now that Leon let me borrow some Japanese Yen, I'm thinking I may take a short trip to Tokyo during my layover to Beijing. I have ~4.5 hours total... since Haneda Airport is in Tokyo Bay, there's a monorail which can get me to Hamamatsucho Station at ~6am. From there, it's a 15 minute walk to Tokyo Tower. However, the observatory doesn't open until 9am so I won't be able to go up.



The exchange rate is only ¥79 for $1 so the ¥470 train ticket is ~$6 each way. Let's hope the rain from typhoon Ma-On is gone as well. I actually want to visit areas near Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Akihabara stations... oh well, maybe I'll fly through Tokyo again on my future China trips.

Typhoon Ma-On

Since I don't travel to Asia that often in the summer (too hot/humid), I usually don't check up news about typhoons/hurricanes. I was clicking on random tweets and saw that typhoon Ma-On is approaching Japan.



From the forecast map, the storm should have weakened significantly by the time I'm supposed to transit in Tokyo (24+ hours after the last map data point).

Carmageddon?

Much like Y2K, I think Carmageddon (the closing of 405 freeway) this weekend was overhyped. Here is the latest traffic map from Google:



Yawn... not much slow traffic on any of the freeways near the closure.

"Religion is the opium of the people"

So says Karl Marx. Well, that would make the CCP a drug dealer, no?

The Telegraph

China has ordained another bishop without the Pope's approval and allegedly kidnapped four bishops to witness the ceremony, in its fiercest act of defiance against the Vatican yet.

In a three hour-long morning ceremony, China's government-run Catholic church ordained the Reverend Joseph Huang Bingzhang as the new bishop of the southern city of Shantou.

It is the third time in eight months that the Communist party - which insists that it, rather than the Pope, controls China's church - has appointed a bishop without a Papal mandate.

Thursday's ceremony was particularly controversial after four bishops loyal to the Vatican were taken away by Chinese police and allegedly forced to participate.

Hmm, it appears that the Chinese Constitution is not worth the paper it's printed on.

Article 36. Religious freedom

Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.

No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion.

The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state.

Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination.

Thursday Traffic

It's 6pm and I'm thinking of going home early... I normally leave after 7pm. However, looking at Google Maps with traffic, there's no good way home. I guess the best option is 105-E to 605-S to 91-E to 5-S to 22-E to 57-N. Sigh... six freeways.



I miss the days of living in Costa Mesa and being only 5 minutes from work.

Another iPad2

Wow, Apple is fast with their shipping. I ordered an iPad2 on Saturday, it shipped Monday from China, and it was delivered this morning.

I went to UPS to see the shipment trace:



I'm not sure where "EPZ" (Export Processing Zone) is located but it's probably on the east coast (Shenzhen?). It's interesting that Apple ships the iPad2 to Chengdu, where there was an explosion at the Foxconn polishing plant, then back to Hong Kong. From there, it goes to Anchorage, Louisville, Los Angeles, Anaheim, then to my doorstep. Since I'm bringing this to China next week, it's going back to LAX, Tokyo, then Beijing. Dang, it probably has more "miles" then I'll get all year:

EPZ (Shenzhen) to Chengdu: 830 miles
Chengdu to Hong Kong: 833 miles
Hong Kong to Anchorage: 5,092 miles
Anchorage to Louisville: 3,120 miles
Louisville to Los Angeles: 1,827 miles
Los Angeles to Tokyo: 5,507 miles
Tokyo to Beijing: 1,310 miles
Total: ~18,500 miles

Metro Green Line

Since there is a Green Line station within walking distance from work, I looked into taking the Green Line for part of my trip to work. However, that means I still have to drive to Norwalk Station (27 miles) and park. The trip from Norwalk to Crenshaw (track runs in the middle of 105 freeway) is 13 miles one way, costs $1.50, and takes 20 minutes.

I guess it's not really worth it. Without traffic, the drive takes ~12 minutes. You do save some money on gas: at $4/gallon and 26 mpg, it costs about $2.00 to drive each way. However, unlike hanging out at Crenshaw Station waiting for the train, there's not much risk of getting mugged in my car while driving on the 105 freeway.

Surprise Beijing Trip... not!

Even though I b*tch about the CCP a lot, I decided that I would try to surprise Sindy on her birthday by showing up unannounced in Beijing. I asked to take three days off work, which means going negative on vacation accrual, and found semi-cheap tickets on ANA, transiting in Tokyo (Haneda). I even made a reservation at my usual Beijing hotel.

However, Sindy called me a few hours ago and asked me if I was going to Beijing on July 24th. How did she know?! Then I remembered that I left her cell phone number on the hotel reservation and they had texted her the confirmation. Dang it. Now we'll see if the gift I ordered will arrive before my flight leaves. At least I'll be able to sneak in another China trip before my tourist visa expires on Aug 10th.

So anyway, I'm take a very short trip to Beijing, leaving on July 23rd and returning on July 27th. I figure I could only take three days off and really that's all the time I want to spend in Beijing anyway. It's going to be hot and humid and the air quality will be terrible.

Watch This Movie... or else!

Ministry of Tofu

It is an open secret that massive public funds and state-owned companies’ public money have been expended to organize cohorts of party members to watch the film. Key in the Chinese words for ‘Revival’ and ‘Party members’ in the search engine, and you will get thousands of links to local “news stories” gushing about how party members were moved and edified by the film after mass viewings were called. The city of Changchun in northeastern Jilin province has, for example, generously footed the bill for 100,000 party members. Nevertheless, the film did not fare as well as previously thought. Experts say grossing 800 million yuan is very unlikely, as now its ticket sale has been overtaken by other domestic films.

Is there anything that is not politicized in China?

Hello... 911?

Something happened to AT&T's system hardware close to work and our phone lines, in addition to everyone within a few blocks, was out of commission. Since we have an IP-based Cisco phone system, we were able to route outgoing calls to our Texas office. However, any 911 emergency calls are also routed. This was the email from our Director of Security:

Due to routing our external calling through our Texas site, 911 calls from desk phones are connecting to McGregor Police. This can cause a delay in emergency response.

Jiang Zemin... dead?

I saw a news article that said Jiang Zemin (former Chinese president) did not attend the 90th anniversary celebration on July 1st, which coincidentally is also Canada day. Sindy later told me that there was a stent surgery scheduled at PLA 301 hospital for a VVIP on July 4th, and security was super tight. She delivered the required stents to the hospital a few days earlier but was not allowed anywhere near the OR. I joked that it was probably Jiang Zemin.

Now rumors are flying like crazy that he is either dead or really sick. As usual, the CCP made no comment and censored the Internet for a few days and now appears to deny the rumors.

VOANews

Chinese authorities are officially denying that Jiang Zemin is dead after days of speculation about the health of the former president.

Reports that Jiang,84, had died began spreading across the Internet following his failure to appear at ceremonies Friday marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

After a day of trying to censor the story on the Internet, officials formally denied the reports Thursday. Citing "authoritative sources," the official Xinhua news agency said reports of Jiang's death "are pure rumor."

...

China's foreign ministry refused to comment on the rumors Wednesday. However, Reuters news agency on Thursday quoted three sources with ties to China's leadership saying that Jiang suffered a heart attack and is in intensive care at a military hospital in Beijing.

China has long guarded information on the health of the nation's top leaders as a state secret.

Why does it even matter if he's dead or not? I guess it's a kneejerk reaction to block and censor anytime something different happens in China.

BTW, Sindy said she had to deliver the stent a few days early because the hospital/doctor wanted to re-sterilize the stent. WTF?

My Tracks 2011-07-07

AM
Total Distance 40.40 miles
Total Time 53:13
Max Speed 89.48 mph
Average Speed 45.54 mph

I started tracking about a mile after leaving the house so it took ~55 minutes total.

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PM
Total Distance: 41.34 miles
Total Time: 49:00
Max Speed: 87.24 mph
Average Speed: 50.61 mph

Best. Excuse. Ever.

BBC Sports

North Korea's coach blamed his side's 2-0 loss to the United States on his players getting struck by lightning in the build up to the Women's World Cup.

North Korea - the youngest team in the tournament by average age - started well in Dresden, but eventually conceded when Lauren Cheney completed a swift move with a well-timed header before Rachel Buehler converted with 14 minutes remaining.

"When we stayed in Pyongyang during training our players were hit by lightning, and more than five of them were hospitalised," said coach Kim, without naming the affected players specifically.

"Some stayed in hospital and then came to Germany later than the rest of us. The goalkeeper and the four defenders were most affected, and some midfielders as well. The physicians said the players were not capable of participating in the tournament.

"But World Cup football is the most important and significant event for a footballer, so they don't want to think about anything but football.

"The fact that they played could be called abnormal, the result of very strong will."

Sports events are inherently unpredictable. Otherwise, we should award championships based on rankings and forget about the actual competition. Instead of congratulating the winning team, the NK coach has to come up with some BS excuse to save their own ass. Lame.

Administrator Rights

Arg. They didn't give me administrator rights on my new laptop at work so I can't install (some) new software nor update old versions. Especially frustrating is that I was able to install Firefox and Chrome but can't install/update Adobe Flash so I can't play Flash content unless I use Internet Explorer... just like my iPad except I don't have the IE option!

iPad2

Despite my intense dislike of Steve Jobs, I still ended up buying an iPad. I had it sent to my sister in Portland to avoid CA sales tax and she just handed it to me this morning. It's a pretty amazing piece of technology. I got the basic wifi model since my Android phone can use my data plan as a mobile AP... unless I lose that when AT&T buys out T-mobile. :(

I typed this up on the iPad2 using the built-in Safari browser.

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Oh yeah, the iPad2 doesn't support Adobe Flash either. Steve Jobs is such an ass.

New Job: day 2

Since I had a 9:30am meeting this morning, I decided to leave the house around 7am to see what traffic was like at that hour. I ended up leaving at 7:20am and didn't get to the office until 8:20am. Since it was before 9am, I decided to try and park on the 3rd floor parking lot. You basically have to drive up a huge ramp at the side of the building and there is indoor parking above the offices. Cool, right?

Well, when I sat down at my cubicle, I noticed the walls and ceiling was creaking and shaking each time a car drove overhead (I'm on the 2nd floor). The noise is actually quite loud and disconcerting. Maybe that's why everyone is wearing headphones in the office.

New Job: day 1

Don't worry, I'm not going to live-blog my new job everyday. Unfortunately, I can't post any pics since we're not allowed to take any photos inside the building at all. So I can't show you my little cubicle... but I can show you my empty old office.


Sigh... I miss being able to talk semi-loudly on the phone. :(


Nearest freeway exit... so the neighborhood around new job is not as nice as old job (Irvine).

Two More Days

Actually it's more like one more day of work since I don't have anything to do on Friday except for lunch, exit interview, and a company sponsored happy hour at 4pm. However, I do have many meetings tomorrow for some reason. I would think they wouldn't want me to lead any meetings on my last real day of work.

3 Novels

I just read three Kindle novels in 4 nights on my PC and I can barely see straight. The three books are the Millennium trilogy by Steig Larsson:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played With Fire
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

The books were originally written in Swedish then translated to English. The story is set in Sweden so there are lots of weird names and locations. I really enjoyed the story (that's why I read for 4 nights straight); too bad the author passed away in 2004.

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Ooh, a movie!

New Job

I turned in my two week notice today, after working for the same company for the past 11.5 years. It's the longest period of time that I've been associated with something.

Sony PlayStation Network

I haven't used my PS3 that much since I bought my new Windows PC for games. However, I did get an email today promising two free games if I logged back in. Sony has been having problems with hackers getting access to user accounts lately. Anyway, out of the five games, I already have the best two: LittleBigPlanet and InFamous.

I tried logging in to download the free games but kept getting an error code 80710D36. Looks like too many people are on PSN trying to download. Way to go Sony!