More Airplanes

Uh-oh, I think I'm addicted. I didn't have anything planned after church today so I went back to El Segundo to take more photos. This time I used the Tamron 70-300mm zoom lens that I bought for our older Sony a100 DSLR. At full zoom, the lens has an aperture of f/5.6, which is slightly better than my Sony lens: f/6.3 at 250mm max zoom. Similar to Friday afternoon, there were lots of people hanging out on Imperial Hill. This time it seems like there were more plane-spotters than photographers.

Since Imperial Hill is on the south side of LAX, the planes taking-off and landing are primarily from terminals 4 through 7. That is why most of the photos have planes from American (terminal 4), Delta (terminal 5), and United (terminals 6 and 7). Also, planes using the southern gates at TBIT (international terminal) also use runways 7/25.



Some interesting planes I saw today (not going to post all the 737s and 757s):


Frontier 414 LAX-DEN (Airbus A319-111)
Is that an otter on the tailfin?!


Skywest 6372 LAX-SBA (Embraer EMB-120ER)
This plane was busy today too: Palm Springs - LAX - Palm Springs - LAX - Santa Barbara - LAX - San Luis County - LAX - Palomar


American 137 LHR-LAX (Boeing 777-223ER)


Asiana 204 ICN-LAX (Boeing 777-28EER)


China Airlines 5107 LAX-SFO (Boeing 747-409F)
This is a China Airlines freighter headed for San Francisco and probably to Taipei afterwards.


Skywest 4464 LAS-LAX (Embraer CRJ-900)
It appears that Skywest operates flights for both Delta Connections and United Express... and they paint their planes to match.


Air Tahiti Nui 7 CDG-LAX (Airbus A340-313X)
CDG = Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris


Spirit 411 LAS-LAX (Airbus A319-132)


Lufthansa 457 LAX-FRA (Boeing 747-400)


Bombardier Challenger 604


American 183 LAX-PVG (Boeing 777-223ER)
I thought I stood around so long that that flight AA137 from London was ready to fly to Shanghai already... but it was a different plane (different tail numbers). The older American Airlines 777-200s look different from the Asiana 777-200 I saw earlier and definitely shorter than the Cathay Pacific 777-300s.


Horizon 602 LTO-LAX (de Havilland Dash 8-400)
LTO = Loreto International Airport in Baja California Sur, Mexico


Cathay Pacific 882 HKG-LAX (Boeing 777-367ER)
I'm guessing this is CX882 which should have landed much earlier. I think they're moving it to the remote gate area to free up space at TBIT. This plane should fly back to HKG later tonight.


Gulfstream G-V owned by Lockheed Martin Corporation
The last two companies I worked at did not have corporate jets but all the founders (at both companies) had their own personal jets.


China Airlines 5 LAX-TPE (Boeing 747-409)
I only got a few shots while it was leaving the gate. I tried to take a video of the take-off but I screwed up so I didn't get photos or videos at all.


British Airways 283 LHR-LAX (Boeing 747-400)
It was landing on the northern runways at LAX, probably runway 24R. It's a different plane from the one on Friday; you can see the big oneworld logo painted on the side of this one.

Lunch Hobby

Since I work close to LAX, I brought my new camera (Sony a55V w/18-250mm lens) to Imperial Hill during lunch to take some photos. Imperial Hill is near the corner of Imperial Highway and Main Street in El Segundo. There is a tiny observation area with benches and mounted telescopes for people who want to watch planes taking off. I got there around 1:30pm and there were quite a few people with binoculars and cameras with huge telephoto lenses. Some people were taking notes... not sure what that's about. Plane spotting?

Here are some planes I saw:


CO 1256 LAX-IAH (Boeing 737-800)


BA 237 LHR-LAX (Boeing 747-400)


K4 368 LAX-HNL (Boeing 747-200)
I've never heard of Kalitta Air before


AA 3037 LAX-SAN (Embraer ERJ-135)


DL 1934 LAX-JFK (Boeing 757-200)


UA 843 LAX-ORD (Boeing 757-200)


CX 882 HKG-LAX (Boeing 777-300ER)
I've been on this flight once before. Typically I come back from HKG on CX880 which arrives at ~9pm.


DL 2204 LAX-SLC (Boeing 757-200)
Wide shot of the south side of LAX. Delta flight is small plane on upper left of photo.


AA 2446 LAX-ORD (Boeing 757-200)
I never realized that US carriers operate so many Boeing 757s. I think I've only been on this type of plane once, from LAX to IAD (Dulles Airport). Three most common planes I've been on are Boeing 777s, Boeing 737s, and Airbus A320s.

.
DL 1719 DTW-LAX (Boeing 757-200)
Another Boeing 757! This plane was busy today; it flew 4 times for a total of 10+ hours: Minneapolis/St. Paul to Detroit to Los Angeles back to Minneapolis/St, Paul and finally Denver.


Since I had to pick up Leon from LAX last night, I stopped to take some pictures at Imperial Hill at ~9pm. It was too dark to see individual planes clearly.

My work is actually right next to Hawthorne Municipal Airport. I know our CEO sometimes fly in/out in his Dassult Falcon 900 jet but it's mostly small prop planes. I must have caught some kind of rush hour since I saw 4 planes land in ~7 minutes. The FlightAware website only shows 1 of the 4 arrivals in its activity log for HHR. Maybe they don't have to file flight plans for some flights?


Cessina Skyhawk


Cessina Citation CJ2


Beechcraft Duchess


Another Cessna Skyhawk

SMS Scam Part II

I dug up all my T-mobile bills for the past few months and found that this Pure Crush Flirt scam (yes, I'm 100% sure it's a scam) has billed me since June and the next bill still has this $9.99. I called T-mobile back again to check on these other charges and a different CSR told me they couldn't do anything about it since I already got a credit, but they could put a block on this 3rd party charge. Strage... the other CSR told me that they removed 2 $9.99 charges and a block has been already put in place. All she was willing to do for me was to give me the phone number of the scammer (1-800-416-6129) so I can waste more time calling them myself.

I then asked how much it would cost me to terminate my agreement and got forwarded to a "specialist" who deals with angry customers. I gave him my story and told him I was pissed off because: a) T-mobile allows scammers to bill their customers and take a cut of the fees; b) T-mobile was unwilling to reverse these fraudulent charges; and c) the first CSR misled me into thinking all was taken care off when she didn't even put a block on future scam charges. He obviously did not want to answer how or if they vet their outside partners and gave me some attitude when I pressed him on this issue. Anyway, after going back-and-forth for 5 minutes, he went away for 60 seconds and came back to tell me that all 4 $9.99 charges have been credited back to my account. I asked why the first 2 CSRs were unable/unwilling to help me and I had to threaten to cancel my account before getting results. He gave me some story that I was a good customer, blah, blah, blah... but I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

So hopefully I'll get a $40 credit on my next bill but I'm not optimistic. I'm guessing I have to call T-mobile again before this is fully resolved. I'm also pretty sure they won't credit all the individual scam text messages (I have no text plan so they cost me $0.20 each) but I'll probably let that go. I ended up stopping EasyPay (auto-payment) so I'll be forced to open each bill and check for fraudulent phone charges since it's obvious T-mobile has no interest in protecting their customers.

If I have to call them again on this case, I'll definitely change phone vendors when my contract is up, unless T-mobile merges with AT&T but their customer service experience is probably not any better.

When We Left Earth

I borrowed the set of DVD by Discovery Channel from work. It's the story about NASA's manned missions to space. I watched it on TV awhile ago but DVDs are much better. Anyway, the 3rd (out of 4) DVD dealt with the Space Shuttle and ISS. One of the people they interviewed extensively was Ken Bowersox. He flew on 4 shuttle missions and stayed 5-1/2 months on the ISS. They weren't supposed to stay that long however; while Expedition 6 was at the ISS, the shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry. With the shuttle program grounded, Ken and his crew had to come back on a Soyuz.

Anyway, he sits a few rows away from me at work. I'd imagine he would have some good stories.

SMS Scam

The problem with autopay is that I don't check my bills regularly. As long as I have some money in my account, all my bills are paid on-time. Tonight, I finally looked at my T-mobile bill and noticed a lot of text messages and a "premium" plan on my mom's phone line. Since I don't have a text plan, each incoming text costs me $0.20. My mom has been deleting the spam messages, not knowing that we get charged for them.

I called T-mobile customer service and they quickly removed the text message charges and the monthly "subscription" fee of $9.99. After some Googling on the text description (71528 and Directtoconsumer), it turns out to be a "service" that sends you text messages regarding all sorts of useless crap. I think what was charged to my bill was some sort of flirting tips or equally inane junk text. Seriously, what's my mom going to do with that?!

The company name associated with the text number is Pure Crush Flirting Alerts Subscription. I'm pretty sure it's a scam... i.e., they randomly charge people's phone accounts hoping that they wouldn't notice. Seriously, why can't these a$$holes get real jobs and contribute to society? With Internet access everywhere, who would pay $10 for useless crap sent to their phones? The major phone carriers are probably in on the scam as well since they get a cut of the billing. Lame.

Sony Rewards Inflation

I just got this email from Sony:

Dear Sony Rewards Member:

Effective October 8, 2011, the rate of points required when requesting a statement credit for a Sony product purchased on your Sony CardSMor PlayStation® Card is changing. We will now credit your Sony Card or PlayStation Card account at a rate of $1 for every 115 reward points deducted from your Sony Rewards account.

So basically they just increased the cost of redemption by 15%. Dang it... I was just considering to buy a new Sony a55 DSLR camera. I'll have to do it in the next 10 days I guess.

Wardrobe Malfunction

(not what you think)


fast forward to 0:42

New Brown Eyed Girls

Back on this side of the GFW, new single from Brown Eyed Girls...

Chinese TV

One reason I probably couldn't live in China is the lack of good TV programming. I understand there are cultural differences but I can't find anything good to watch. CCTV9 is a total waste of time and the rest of the channels typically shows historical dramas or anti-Japanese dramas. There are only two channels that I found something decent to watch: Hunan TV and Jiangsu TV. Hunan TV shows a lot of Korean dramas and also the popular Super Girl singing shows; Jiangsu TV shows the dating game where 24 girls decide whether they want to go out with male contestants. Good stuff.

Super Girl has gotten into trouble with government censors (SARFT) before since they allow viewers to vote on the contest winners and we know how the CCP views voting and any display of democracy. Anyway, it looks like Super Girl is in trouble again.

BBC News

Chinese regulators have told a TV station to stop broadcasting a popular talent show called Super Girl.

The authorities say the programme is too long - although many suspect other reasons.

Hunan Satellite Television, which makes the programme, said it would air shows that promote moral ethics and public safety instead.

Chinese officials often ban programmes they think are too vulgar or not suitable.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) told the Hunan station that Super Girl broke time rules for this kind of show.

They should be no more than 90 minutes long, but episodes of Super Girl - in which women of all ages compete in a singing contest - can last more than three hours.

But a senior employee at the station told the BBC that regulators were jealous of the popularity and financial success of Super Girl.

"It is widely believed that the real reason for the ban is that Hunan TV's talent programmes have been extremely popular," she said.

"Sometimes its audience can exceed that of the national broadcaster, something that causes unhappiness in SARFT. It's all down to interests."

Some also suggest that the programme was too low-brow or in bad taste - a reason often given by regulators for banning a programme

Too long?! Why don't they show it over two episodes then. Weird.

Hunan Satellite Television said it would abide by the regulators' decision to ban Super Girl next year and would instead show more uplifting programmes.

"The channel will air programmes that promote moral ethics and public safety, and provide practical information for housework," Li Hao, the station's deputy editor-in-chief, was quoted as saying.

Wow, gripping television... moral ethics, public safety, and practical information for housework. I'll bet that will spike the ratings.

High Speed Internet

Through wifi on my work notebook computer

Monday Morning Traffic

Since I don't have any meetings this morning, I thought I would go into work a bit later to avoid traffic. Well... it's not working out. It's ~9am and this is what I see in Google Maps. I am in Orange and need to get to Hawthorne. If I leave now, I'll probably get there ~11am. :(

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I ended up getting gas on the way to work. The gas station is about 5 minutes down the street. I left the gas station at 9:30am and got to work by 10:20am.

Fantasy Football - Pre-week 1

I joined a fantasy football league at work with 12 people. We held our live draft last week and of course, I got the last pick. Here is my (lame) team in drafted order:

RB - Maurice Jones-Drew (UCLA!)
WR - Andre Johnson
QB - Eli Manning
TE - Antonio Gates
RB - Felix Jones
WR - Santonio Holmes
RB - Brandon Jacobs
QB - Joe Flacco
DEF - NY Giants
K - Garrett Hartley (out for week 1)
RB - LaDainian Tomlinson
WR - Braylon Edwards
RB - Ronnie Brown
WR - Jordy Nelson
DEF - Houston (traded for K - David Akers)

I'm playing against my manager this week. He has both Arian Foster and Peyton Manning; they're both out this week. Yay!

Work, Traffic, and GPS

This is the third day in a row that my commute to work (one way) has taken over an hour and 45 minutes. It used to take 45 minutes to an hour before Labor Day. I'm screwed this week since I have meetings at 9:30am; otherwise I'd come in even later. I'm not sure why there's such a huge difference. People say it's school but are there that many students (I assume college) that drive on the freeways? Don't they live in dorms?

I also have 2 GPS devices in my car: Google Navigate (beta) on my Android phone and Waze (free GPS app) on the iPhone. Interestingly, they often give me different directions along the way. However, both suck at estimating time of arrival during heavy traffic. When I left the house this morning, GN said it would take 1 hour and 7 minutes while Waze said 60 minutes. After driving for about 45 minutes, GN said 48 minutes to go. Waze OTOH, keeps popping up messages changing the ETA. I think today it extended the ETA 4 times. Another difference is that GN picks a route when you enter the destination and reroutes only when you deviated off the given path. Waze is different in that it keeps trying to find a shorter route. While I was on the 91 freeway, it told me to get off the freeway, drive on local streets for 5 miles, then get back on to the 91 again. Strange. It claimed that I could have saved 2 minutes.

Heckler's Veto

OC Register

SANTA ANA – Prosecutors called it a “heckler’s veto” and a planned disruption of an Israeli diplomat’s speech at the UCI campus by 10 students with the intent to shut down the event.

Attorneys for the students on trial labeled it a carefully planned peaceful “interruption” and a “lawful expression of free speech.”

With those descriptions, opening statements got underway Wednesday afternoon in the trial of the students – seven from UCI and three from UC Riverside – accused of disrupting the Feb. 8, 2010, talk by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States.

What a bunch of whiny, arrogant, hypocritical jackasses. They're so full of themselves that they think there's no consequence for their actions. This is not about freedom of speech but a bunch of thugs wanting to shut down an opposing point of view. They have the option of inviting their own speakers or use other means to spread their message but they do not have the right to shut down someone else's event. After disrupting the Israeli ambassador and preventing him from speaking (basically censoring him), they have the chutzpah to hide behind a freedom of speech claim after denying it to someone else... then lie about conspiring to so it. Totally lame.

I hope they get kicked out of school and serve jail time. There are millions of Chinese students in China that would kill for a chance to go to school in the US. Instead, my state tax dollars are wasted on these losers.

Pork scam scam... only in China

I read the story twice and I'm still a bit confused about who is conning who and whether I should eat pork next time I'm in Beijing. The money quote is the last paragraph:

The reason is that cheaters from both sides know bribes work in China. It shows that some of our law enforcement bodies can easily become compromised and there's space for bargaining in the process of law enforcement.

Global Times

Accompanied by 10 security guards, Zhao Zilong, a journalist from the Beijing-based magazine Merchandise and Quality Weekly, and his accomplice Huang Yuhuan, intercepted the victim surnamed Li, who was on his way to a warehouse in Daxing district to fetch 4,000 kilos of pork on June 5.

The two media workers claimed they were from the "315 Anti-counterfeit Office" and that Li's pork was unfit for sale, according to a press release issued Thursday by the Xicheng district branch of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Well aware the pork was indeed unfit, Li accompanied the group to an office building in Xicheng district, where he was told he could be handed over to police if he refused to pay a fine. Li paid 50,000 yuan before regaining his freedom.

Li went to the office the next day, hoping to recover his lost pork, only to discover there was no "315 Anti-counterfeit Office." Li realized he was cheated and immediately reported the con to the Xicheng police.

Here is a summary of the original story that better explains what happened.

Depressing K-pop

Jeez, what's with the depressing MV? Do they lyrics even match up with the video plot? It reminds me of the Kiss video: guy meets girl, they fall in love, girl goes blind, guy donates his eyes, etc.



There's an English translation of the lyrics here.

iPad Brick

Sigh... sometimes I really really hate Apple and their closed operating systems. I plugged my iPad into my main computer and it asked permission to update iOS to 4.3.5. I backed everything up (good thing) and clicked okay. I just walked back to the computer and there was an update error. It would be okay if it just ignored the update but instead, I had to restore the iPad to factory original and try to restore my data from the last backup.

I hope this works... I have 50 floors on my Little Tower app/game that I don't want to recreate.

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Arg! It didn't work. I have nothing on my iPad. Dang it... what kind of system restore is this? Now I have to manually sync and pray. Can't I even update iOS without bricking my iPad. I cannot describe my level of frustration right now. I'm not buying anything from Apple again... okay, probably just until next week.

This sucks.

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Dang it. It's also doing something to my computer. Each time I select an app (manually) to restore, the process starts to eat away at my disk space. I had 4GB+ free before; not it's at 1.5GB. During restore, it goes all the way down to 300MB... I'll bet iTunes will crash my hard drive too.

==========

So I sync'ed Garage Band and a Sudoku app and it seemed to work. Hey, if it works for two apps, maybe I can restore all my 60+ apps. Nope. I spend 10 minutes rearranging the icons on iTunes, hit the [Apply] button, and iTunes crashed. Hard. I think I have to shut down my computer and restart.

This sucks.

Wedding Trip

My cousin Amy (father side) got married this weekend (Friday) in the Bay Area so I took a day off and drove up with my parents and their friend visiting from Taiwan. They were going to fly up but it was cheaper to drive with 3 (or 4) people; fuel cost for my 2011 Nissan Maxima came out to ~$170 for Super Unleaded gas.

We left Thursday afternoon at ~2:30pm from work. I got a ride with a co-worker in the morning and my parents picked me up so I wouldn't have to leave a car at work. I split the drive with my dad and we got to Fremont at ~8:45pm, including a 20 minute dinner/rest stop. The new car is pretty solid, even at 85 mph, and the VQ35DE engine didn't struggle at all on the Grapevine. On Saturday, I drove the entire way home and it took ~7 hours from Foster City (uncle's house).

The wedding was held in a Methodist church in Palo Alto and dinner was at a Chinese restaurant in Cupertino, about 2 blocks away from Apple HQ. The banquet was 27 tables of 10 and took up the entire main hall of Dynasty Seafood Restaurant. It was good to meet up with family; even though most of my uncles and cousins are in California (except Larry in Singapore and Teddy in Shanghai), we hardly meet up.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere on I-5 in Central Califrornia

Holy cow, that's a lot of cows!

On both the trip up and back from the Bay Area, we saw lots of trucks carrying a red agricultural product. We couldn't figure out want it was except it appears to grow on trees (not tomato).

Sunset near junction of I-5 and highway 152

We stayed at my mom's college friend's house... she was also my mom's bridesmaid at her wedding. I wasn't there...

First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto

Wedding party "on stage". My other uncle's family and our family were sitting in the 3rd row at first. It was roped off so we thought it was for family (there were no ushers). Right before the wedding, we were booted out by the wedding coordinator. The three rows were reserved for the bride's mom side family (not us) and for coin/veil/cord sponsors... huh? Evidently this was a Filipino wedding tradition. Anyway, seats were pretty much filled up near the front at this point so we had to split ourselves up... it was a bit embarrassing.

My cousin Stephanie taking pictures of the wedding with her phone

One of the side rooms at the restaurant. The wedding banquet was in a large hall in the back.

Banquet hall before they let everyone inside

Cupcake cake

For some reason, they kept all the lights off so we couldn't see very much. Even during scheduled "events" like toasts, it was still dark. Weird. This is a longer exposure shot with me trying to hold my Sony a100 DSLR steady... shoulda brought my new monopod. The toasts were excruciatingly long... probably almost 45 minutes for all 4 speeches.

All the single ladies out for the bouquet toss. My cousin Stephanie is in the blue dress* at the rear... she didn't even try. *Lighter colored blue dress, right in front of my camera, i.e., not the other girl with parts of her dress missing and her boobs hanging out.

Newlywed couple getting ready to dance. The crowd looked young (but really wasn't) and lots of people were drunk (well, really just their college friends). We left about this time.

Top layer of cake (non-cupcake). We ate it the next day at my uncle's house. I guess they didn't want to keep it in their freezer for one year.

Strange Weather

It's been hot here for the past few weeks; our A/C has been on all day each day until way past sundown. Today however, it was cloudy and the temperature has been cool. Anyway, I was just woken up by the LOUDEST thunder I've ever heard. I think the echo (rolling thunder) went on for 10+ seconds and all the dogs on the block started barking. This was followed by really hard rain, which forced me to get up and shut all the windows. However, it stopped raining at about the same time as when I closed the last open window... got me out of bed for nothing.

Weatherbug did say thundershowers for tonight.

Omotesando Hills

Weird. I was randomly surfing the web and found myself back to this place again (and again). I recently bought an iPad 2 and installed the Flipboard app, which is a cool news reader. One of the channels(?) you can add is Harajuku, basically photos of strange Japanese people in Tokyo. Long story short... I was reading the Wiki description and saw this under location:

Harajuku is an area between Shinjuku and Shibuya. Local landmarks include the headquarters of NHK, Meiji Shrine, and Yoyogi Park.

The area has two main shopping streets, Omotesandō and Takeshita Street (Takeshita-dōri). The latter caters to youth fashions and has many small stores selling Gothic Lolita, visual kei, rockabilly, hip hop, and punk outfits, in addition to fast food outlets and so forth.

Omotesandō has recently seen a rise in openings of up-scale fashion shops such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Prada. The avenue is sometimes referred to as "Tokyo's Champs-Élysées". Until 2004, one side of the avenue was occupied by the Dōjunkai Aoyama apāto, Bauhaus-inspired apartments built in 1927 after the 1923 Kantō earthquake. In 2006 the buildings were controversially destroyed by Mori Building and replaced with the "Omotesando Hills" shopping mall, designed by Tadao Ando. The area known as "Ura-Hara", back streets of Harajuku, is a center of Japanese fashion for younger people—brands such as A Bathing Ape and Undercover have shops in the area.

Hmm, for some reason Omotesando Hills sounds familiar. A Google search and a few clicks later, I found that this was the super-expensive apartment listing I blogged about in 2006 and 2008. "Tokyo's Champs-Élysées" eh? No wonder the rent was so expensive. Unfortunately, all the units are occupied so I don't know what the rent is like in 2011.

This Internet is a small place... :)

Some more "fashion" photos from Harajuku. Maybe I'll visit here next time I have a layover in Tokyo that's not at 5am in the morning.

Shark Fin Soup

At cousin Amy's wedding this weekend... yummy!

Isn't this illegal in California now?

This explains the poor driving in China

Awesome parenting... how old is she? Five? Shouldn't she be in a car-seat?

Here's what the dad says to the daughter:

(0:43) - 你好好开你的车 (drive your car properly)
(0:53) - 开车要注意 (pay attention when you drive)
(1:42) - 好了，加加(?)停下来让爸爸开吧 (okay, stop and let dad drive)

Well, at least she's not honking the horn every 2 seconds.

天不怕 地不怕 就怕老外說中國話*

*Days are not afraid to speak Chinese are not afraid afraid of foreigners

Google Translate is off by a bit lot... it's more like "(I) do not fear heaven nor earth; just afraid of laowai (foreigners) speaking Chinese"

Government Bureaucracy... Step 1 Done

Woohoo, I take it all back! K-1 visa application approved (step 1) 2 months ahead of schedule.

Your Case Status: Post Decision Activity

On August 29, 2011, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E).

Free Money

Well, kind of. When I sold off all my employee options from old work last month, I left some barely-in-the-money options un-exercised in case there was a sudden run up in stock price. Well, with the debt ceiling mess, S&P downgrade, and Steve Job's retirement, the stock price has dropped significantly over the last month. For many days, my remaining options were underwater, reminding me that my greed didn't pay off. Since these options expire in about 3 weeks, I can't wait forever for the stock to rebound.



Anyway, the stock was up a bit today so earlier this morning I exercised the remaining options; they were only $1.85 in the money. If I had exercised all my options together, I would have got ~$4.50/share for these... but $1.85 is much better than zero and I'm tired of checking stock quotes everyday. I still have some more employee options but they've been underwater for months so I'm not expecting to cash out before the expiration date.

To my primary anonymous reader, I'll buy you lunch with some of this free money when you get back from Sverige. After that, maybe I'll buy a TV with the leftovers. ========== As expected, as soon as I sell stock, the price goes up. Oh well, last week it was worth $0.

False Patriotism

I saw this article while browsing through articles tagged "China" on Flipboard (iPad).

BERNAMA

Adapt Yourself To Your Country And Prove Your Patriotism

Dr Teo said genuine unity would only exist if there was psychological assimilation, meaning the non-Malays were willing to identify themselves with Malays as the original and dominant people of the country.

"They should accept the way of life of the Malays in the framework of national culture, including the use of Bahasa Melayu as the national language, and not feel that this will erode their ethnic identity.

"Why is this difficult as compared to the Malaysian Chinese who migrathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifed to Australia and underwent psychological assimilation very fast.

I don't usually read/post about Malaysia (new tag!), even though my mom was born there. I think my maternal grandmother's family emigrated to Malaysia from Southern China in the 1800's to plant rubber trees. I have heard enough family stories to know that Dr. Teo is full of crap; the article basically blames the Chinese for ethnic tensions in Malaysia and conveniently ignores government sponsored discrimination. He begins the article by talking about unity and "non-Malays" but soon focuses on how the Chinese minority should "identify themselves with Malays as the original and dominant people of the country." Similar to Obama telling the GOP, "I won," Dr. Teo is telling the Chinese-Malaysians to accept that they're getting screwed.

According to my mom, my grandfather was the Minister of Education for Malaysia before its independence from England. We have a copy of some honor he received signed by Queen Elizabeth II. Anyway, after independence a lot of stuff changed. My grandfather probably lost his job and he fought to keep Chinese-language education available in Malaysia. Here's an abstract from a research paper:

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country with three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese, and Indians. Malays are the largest ethnic group, comprising 57% of the population. Unlike the majority population in most modern countries, the Malays have been the least advantaged group both economically and educationally since the beginning of the independence period. After independence, Malaysian policy makers believed that establishing Malay as the national language and creating a national system of education would promote a unified culture, as well as the social and political development as a nation. Two policies were implemented to achieve these ends: the National Education Policy (1961) and the New Economics Policy (1971). In fact, the policies resulted in an educational system “preferential” to the Malays. The implications of this “preferential system” on the Chinese in Malaysia are discussed.

These "preferences" equated to quotas based on ethnicity. Whether appropriate or not, Chinese emigrates dominate the economy in Southeast Asian countries which generates all sorts of tension, jealousy, and resentment. In Malaysia, the new government reserved most (cushy) government jobs and higher education opportunities for ethnic Malays, leaving Chinese and Indians out in the cold. In response, the Chinese community created a parallel education system. My mom, and the rest of her siblings, received their primary education in Chinese language schools and went to college in Taiwan; none of them speak Malay nor currently live in Malaysia. How's that for unintended consequences (e.g., brain drain). Dr. Teo is quick to compare cultural assimilation of Chinese in Malaysia to those in Australia. As far as I know, Australia (and US/Canada) does not have ethic quotas that limit the opportunity of its Chinese immigrants.

This article also led me to think about my nationalism and patriotism. If you ask me about my ethnicity (whatever that means), I would say I'm Chinese-American, which is something different from "Chinese" or "American". Even though I'm 100% Han Chinese, Sindy's relatives in Beijing refers to me as an American. Unlike the CCP, I don't equate being Chinese to supporting the party or socialism/communism, but I don't have a concrete definition either. If pushed, I guess I identify more with Taiwan than mainland China, even though I'm not "Taiwanese" nor do I support the DPP.

Ultimately, what I think I believe in is best modeled (though far from perfect) by the "Western" liberal democracy... and by "liberal" I don't mean the Democratic party in the US. There is no inherent "Chinese" or "Malaysian" nationalism; we should be proud of our heritage but only support a minimal government that provides equal opportunities (not outcomes) for all its citizens. In my opinion, a government definitely should not redistribute wealth (USA and Europe), maintain ethnic quotas (Malaysia), or place itself above the law (PRC).

My Web... or whatever

Webify Me



I'm not sure what this means; I was too lazy to read the results. I think it measures how much you are addicted to the web. There is a lot less stuff on my "page" than then ones I saw on Mozilla's website.

우리 처음 만난 날 - Han Hee Jeong

Not your typical K-pop... better.



우리 처음 만난 날 - Han Hee Jeong

Panoramic CCCSB

I've a feeling we're not in Irvine any more

One thing I've noticed is that the cars around new work (Hawthorne) are not in the same class as the cars near old work (Irvine). I saw this fine automobile on the I-105 yesterday:



Usually I can tell the make/model of cars on the road. This one is a bit tough. I see a Ford logo/badge... is this a Taurus?

There are also a lot of crappy cars with really loud stereos. My cubicle is right next to the window so I hear every "boom" car that drives by on Crenshaw Blvd. Is this part of African American culture?


We like the cars... wow, what a terrible song.

Free Food!

Every last Friday of the month, a local restaurant would provide free lunch at work. This month the restaurant was Petit Cafe, a Mediterranean grill in El Segundo. Extra tables were set up in the lunch area so I ate with some other finance people. Typically Friday is a huge visitor day but I noticed a lot of red badges (visitors) while eating.

At the table next to us sat an Asian (Chinese? Vietnamese?) family of 10. I looked and only one person was an employee; the rest had visitor badges (2 were small kids). Way to milk the free lunch.

1911, The Other Revolution

The 100 year anniversary of the end of the Ching dynasty is being celebrated big time in Taiwan. My parents went on a semi-government sponsored tour in March where they visited a lot of government sites and even met President Ma.

Granta Magazine

There were two historic anniversaries this year in China. The first was celebrated in pompous ceremonial and portentous speeches. The second, the overthrow of the imperial system in 1911, seems doomed to slip by, noted without fanfare in a few museum exhibitions. Anniversaries, of course, can be a two-edged sword: they invite historical reappraisal. In China, revisionism, other than the Party’s own, is not encouraged.

Kpopella

... is back up!

http://kpopella.org/

I was feeling withdrawal syndromes from not being to download HD K-pop MVs and performances.

Wumaodang

It's a tough way to make a living... 0.50 RMB at a time. I hope he's not related to Sindy.

Ming Zhao

Comment: China has no choice but to reign control on the social media in China. As I have said above, US intelligence services use the social media in the countries they perceive as unfriendly to spread pro American propaganda. Readers may google using the words found in the Huffington Post link I put above to find more information from other sources. US is to blame for the lack of freedom in China because the former will always use China's lax to bring destabilization to China.

...

Comment: Dear readers,

Please NOTE that in a not distant future, I will be banned from posting comments in wsj forum for the simple reason that I will maintain to argue against false and unreasonable accusations against China. I shall forever keep my comments away from profanities. I shall prove of my ultimate disband and return with a different pseudonym to vindicate my conviction of this pseudo western journalistic fairness.

...

Comment: Well, the Americans are free to self deceive themselves or to spew rotten lies. However the trade imbalance trade is still caused by the Americans themselves and China is free from blame.

...

Comment: Chris

The fact was there was no Tiananmen massacre and the accusation on the Chinese government was proven to be a total farce. And to your claim of the alleged major killings that happened on the approach roads to Tiananmen was just hearsay in the secret cable, as the cable only mentioned hearing gunshots. The fact was in the last 22 years the western media did not mention of such killings. So from are you simply basing your lie on hearsay?

...

Comment: Running a country is more difficult than operating a brain. If brain surgeons are not elected but trained and appointed, why should a government is made by the process of campaigning and election. That process is good only for choosing a beauty queen or an academy award winner.

...

Comment: Americans are self righteous and cowards. WSJ blocks comments and commenters from those defending China while the Americans are mostly self deceived, bitter and blind. What a pathetic country of fools that deserves to collapse.

WSJ forum is nothing more than self gratifying mental masturbation by the Americans.

Yet he posts 30+ comments in 2 days. It must be a full-time job.

Sigh... it only takes one trolling jackass to ruin the comment section... see "korean_guy" on any (and every) ChinaHush posting.

Government Contracts

I sat through a two hour seminar on federal government contracts. It was mostly about how they determine which costs are allowable on cost-plus contracts and the ridiculous record keeping and auditing requirements. I guess the goal is to make sure contractors don't make too much profit on government contracts yet are able to recoup costs plus make a profit on special (non-commercial) projects. This just leads to all sorts of inefficiencies and waste in my opinion. Since the government only allow a small profit margin, the goal is then to categorize as much as you can into "allowable" costs, which then means lots of lots of audits. It's like a huge game of hide-and-seek except it's costing me and every taxpayer. The government infrastructure required for these DCAA audits and accounting resources at contractors to respond to audits can surely be put to more productive use. The entire process is so counter-intuitive to how business is done in the private sector that I sat there shaking my head multiple times throughout the seminar.

I just wish the federal government would apply the same financial rigors to themselves. How many jobs did TARP/Porkulus create again?

FAR 31 - Contract Cost Principles and Procedures

31.205-51 Costs of alcoholic beverages.
Costs of alcoholic beverages are unallowable.

Definitely not how business is done in China.

Really Really Bad Google Voice

I tried calling Sindy this morning while driving to work. I've noticed that Google Voice connections are very inconsistent, especially when I'm calling China. Sindy also said that the caller ID on my calls appear to come from random numbers all over China. Maybe they're using multiple networks and some are more flaky than others. Anyway, here's the call log from this morning:

8/22/11 9:25 AM 6 minutes long and cost $0.10
8/22/11 9:24 AM 1 minute long and cost $0.02
8/22/11 9:22 AM 1 minute long and cost $0.02
8/22/11 9:08 AM 2 minutes long and cost $0.02
8/22/11 9:06 AM 1 minute long and cost $0.02
8/22/11 9:03 AM 1 minute long and cost $0.02
8/22/11 9:00 AM 3 minutes long and cost $0.04
8/22/11 8:58 AM 1 minute long and cost $0.02

Most of the calls were made on my Samsung Galaxy (T-Mobile) but one call was made with the work iPhone (AT&T). Typically the call would go through and cut off immediately or the audio was so bad (choppy) that it was incomprehensible. I did have a decent conversation with Sindy during the drive but that was using Skype over AT&T's 3G network... but that got cut off too. Since I was driving, that meant I also had to struggle with the temperamental phone connect system in my car, especially with 2 Bluetooth phones.

Before my anonymous critics jump all over me, I'm not complaining about the cost. It's really cheap to call China for only 2 cents/minute. I just wished it worked more consistently.

China's Dead Sea

WSJ - China Realtime Report (slide 7/7)


Supposedly that's the local name for this salt water swimming pool in Daying county, Sichuan (50 miles east of Chengdu)

Apple Control Freaks

I plugged my iPad into my PC this morning and got a message that basically said unless I authorize my computer, all 54 apps on my iPad would be deleted. WTF? I then tried to authorize my PC and it said all 5 slots have been used and I need to deauthorize something else. Arg! I have lots of computers (probably too many) and I can't remember which ones I have authorized on my really old Apple iTunes account. Fortunately, the first computer I picked (Sony Vaio) was authorized.

Anyway, now the iPad is backing up onto my PC. I also plug in my work iPhone and iPods into the same PC. Each time I switch devices, iTunes would freak out and give me all sorts of warning messages since it/Apple wants to managed everything everywhere. I've selected that I want to manually manage my songs/apps but to no avail... I constantly get these conflicting messages about deleting everything on each device.

I blame Steve Jobs.

==========

Great, iTunes is "not responding" while backing up my iPad (it's sitting at 100%). I guess I can't update iOS without wiping out everything on the iPad. Arg!