Passport

After jumping through all sorts of hoops and wading through lots of red tape, I finally got my temporary Canadian passport this week. This means I can travel to Asia in June as planned. For those that don't know the Canadian passport renewal process, we have to:

1. fill out application form
2. take two passport pictures
3. send in some money

All pretty normal so far...

4. get a guarantor to certify that the passport pictures actually look like me and I'm of good moral character; the guarantor has to be either a doctor, dentist, postmaster, or something else on their list, and has to know me for more than 2 years; they have to fill out a section of the application, sign the back of one passport photo, and also sign copies of my driver's license and green card; so far, I've been bothering Dr. James since he's also Canadian and understands the pain
5. sign in side the white box; if the signature goes outside the white box, they won't process the application
6. send in the original Canadian citizenship certificate and expired passport
7. send everything to Hull, Quebec (across the river from Ottawa) via FedEx and hope 20 days later we get a new passport
8. repeat every 5 years

So what happened was that I lost my Canadian citizenship certificate. In order to get my passport renewed, I need to apply for a replacement which requires more photos, application forms, money, a bunch of copies of documents notarized, and 6-12 months. Without the certificate, I can only get a temporary (1 year) passport which hopefully will get me to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and most importantly, back to the US. I guess the good think about becoming a US citizen, other than having to do jury duty, is that a US passport is good for 10 years instead of five.

Did I mention you have to sign inside the white box?

Happy 88th Birthday

We went to see grandma today... it's her 88th birthday. She has recovered from the latest emergency and now she is back at the convalescent home. She was also much more coherent today, at least she knew my dad's and uncle's name; I don't think she recognized me but when my mom reminded her who I was, she remembered Nancy's name too (in Chinese of course). We also brought a cake so we sang "Happy Birthday" and took some pictures.

I also got to see cousin Stephanie today as well. She's finishing up her 1st year at UCLA... I think she was about 12 months old when I started my freshman year at UCLA many many years ago. I heard that the dorm food is not as terrible as I remembered but I only paid $300/month for room and board; it's about $1000/month now!

Rosemead Cruise

I went with Shirley on Thursday night to Rosemead's farewell cruise where they invite current 4th year students and people returning for graduation on Friday. The dinner was on the Paradiso, a 85' yacht owned by Henry Cloud, as it cruised Newport Harbor. Since Shirley is graduating next year, she'll probably get invited again.



There were about 70 people on the boat and we had beef/chicken fajitas for dinner. Shirley even got to drive the yacht for about 20 minutes as we cruised near the harbor entrance. Evidently, the yacht is available for charter ($4,000/day) as is many of the large luxury yachts in Newport Harbor. We saw some pretty amazing boats on the water, including three very large yachts from Georgetown... I wonder how long that took and if they had to go through the Panama Canal.

IVC Commencement

Irvine Valley College had their commencement ceremony last Friday. The Wind Symphony was asked to play the processional/recessional plus a musical piece. The ceremony started at 6pm and didn't finish until 7:45pm. I think this picture is the band playing "Army of the Nile" which was the concert piece. I'm not in the picture since I was probably still on a bus returning from Temecula after couple hours of wine tasting. I did manage to show up in time for the recessional piece; I don't think I was even warmed up after playing the song.



I've been to a lot of commencement ceremonies. I think the best speaker so far was Nicholas Cage at Shirley's graduation from CSU Fullerton.

What about artists� survival? I began to grow up. I�m now 12 and I�m going to school on a bus. Everyday I�m getting beat up by the older bully on the bus because he wants my hostess cupcake in my lunch bag. I�m skinny and weak and I can�t fight. I wake up in the morning and I decide to wear my older brother�s cowboy boots. I put some tight jeans on, I wear a pair of black sunglasses and I�m chewing my bubble gum with attitude. I slick back my hair and I get on the bus. �I�m not Nick,� I tell the boy. �I�m his cousin, Roy Wilkinson, and if you steal his cupcake again I�m going to have to come back here and kick your ass.�

Broadcom Sues Qualcomm Over Patents

This could get ugly... Qualcomm has a lot of lawyers on staff.

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Broadcom Sues Qualcomm for Alleged Patent Infringement, Files Trade Commission Complaint

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- Chip maker Broadcom Corp. said Thursday that it is suing wireless communications company Qualcomm Inc., and filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission over several patents covering wireless technology.

Broadcom said it filed two complaints against Qualcomm in a central California federal court for unspecified monetary damages, alleging that Qualcomm's current and next-generation wireless products infringe 10 Broadcom patents. The complaint also calls for a permanent injunction barring the manufacture and sale of infringing products.

The patents cover multimedia services like audio, video, data as well as communications capabilities. Broadcom said it was filing the suit as more wireless networks are upgrading their systems to handle the increased capacity for non-voice wireless applications.

The company filed a complaint with the ITC alleging that Qualcomm has engaged in unfair trade practices by importing integrated circuits and other products that infringe five Broadcom patents. The complaint calls for a cease and desist order against the trade practices.

Broadcom expects the ITC to begin an investigation in June and the California trial to begin in early 2006.

Qualcomm spokesman Jeremy James said he could not comment on the allegations as the company has not received copies of the court or ITC complaints.

Broadcom shares rose 10 cents to $35.47 and Qualcomm shares rose 8 cents to $36.63 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.

Duct Tape Car

I saw this car on the 57 Fwy near Yorba Linda Blvd. while driving home on Tuesday. The entire back of the car was caved in and covered with duct tape (it's kinda hard to see since the car was silver and so is the tape). Isn't it dangerous to drive a car in that condition? What if he gets rear-ended again? The car is already structually unsound. I guess the guy did not have uninsured motorist insurance or did not have car insurance at all.

Of course I was risking my life trying to take the picture with my Treo while driving 65 mph on the freeway.

Stupid Lawsuit

Yahoo! News

A Russian court ruled that an astrologer could proceed with a lawsuit against the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration for plans to bombard a comet whose destruction would "disrupt the natural balance of the universe," ITAR-TASS said.

...

Bai seeks a ruling that would restrict NASA in its plans to annihilate a section of the Tempel 1 comet in a project that has been dubbed "Deep Impact," as well as punitive damages of 8.7 billion rubles (300 million dollars, 240 million euros).

"My client believes that the NASA project infringes upon her spiritual and life values as well as the natural life of the cosmos and would disrupt the natural balance of forces in the universe," Molokhova was quoted as saying.

The lawyer said Tempel 1 had sentimental value to Bai because her grandparents met when her grandfather pointed the comet out to his future wife.

==========

From this NASA article, comet Tempel 1's brightness ranged from 9th magnitude (April, 1867) to 11th magnitude (May, 1972). I think the unaided human eye can only see objects brighter than 6th magnitude (lower the magnitude, brighter the object). In addition, Tempel 1 was "lost" for most of the early 1900's, i.e., astronomers could not locate the comet. So unless her grandfather had a telescope or a big pair of binoculars and knew exactly where to look, I doubt he actually pointed out the comet to anyone.

Fingerprinting

I went to get fingerprinted on Thursday for my U.S. Citizenship application. I got there at 11:45pm and essentially sat for 45 minutes waiting for my number to be called. I'm not sure how they scheduled but no one got called for a long time. The whole process only takes 3 minutes and there were only 10 people in front of me. You'd figure with 4 machines, I wouldn't have to wait that long.

Also, the fingerprints were taken with a scanning machine. I did one of these about 4 years ago when we applied to be respit foster parents. It kind of defeats the purpose if you have to get re-fingerprinted each time even though the results are stored electronically. I think INS just wants my $70 fingerprinting fee.

At the same time, I'm trying to renew my Canadian passport so I can travel to Asia in June.

Racing School

California Poppy Reserve

I went hiking this Saturday with NewSong's hiking group to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. There were not a lot of flowers; the picture below is the largest patch of flowers we saw on the entire hike and we pretty much walked on every trail in the reserve. The Poppy Reserve is in Lancaster which is about 100 miles away; the drive (one-way) was longer than the hike!

It was good though to get out of the house and breathe some fresh air. Next week, the group is going to hike at Crystal Cove-El Moro Canyon in Laguna Beach.


Poppy Field


Close up of some poppies

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

With the release of the movie, Douglas Adam's book is now #13 on Amazon's top selling book list. I've read almost all his books, some even more than once. I also thought that there were only four books in the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy but I just found out that there is a fifth book titled "Mostly Harmless." I guess I'll need to go and buy that book.

I'm wondering if the book has always sold well or sales spiked because of the movie. It would be interesting to see how all the other books sell since his style of humor has been compared to Monty Python (I agree) which is not for everyone; just ask Shirley about banging coconuts). Right now the 2nd book is #117 on the best seller list.

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Hitchhiker's Guide is the #1 movie this weekend with $21.7M in ticket sales.

China warns new pontiff on Taiwan

(from International Herald Tribune)

China wasted little time before warning the new pope, Benedict XVI, on Wednesday that the Vatican and China could establish formal relations only if the Vatican dissolved its diplomatic links with Taiwan and promised not to "interfere in China's internal affairs."

The statement signaled that China was unlikely to make any concessions soon that would open the way for formal ties between China and the Vatican.

"We are willing to improve relations with the Vatican on the basis of two principles," said the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, in a brief statement congratulating Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on his election as pope. Qin said the Vatican must sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan and "acknowledge that the People's Republic of China is China's sole legitimate government." China regards the self-governed Taiwan as a renegade province.

Qin added that "the Vatican cannot interfere in China's internal affairs, including interference in the name of religious matters."

The Vatican is the last remaining European state to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, attended Pope John Paul II's funeral, angering China's government and "patriotic" Catholic Church.

PowerBook G4

The new Apple PowerBook G4 for Shirley arrived at work today. Both Shirley and I used to have Apple Macintosh computers before we bought our WinTel PCs. The PowerBook has Mac OS 10 (Panther); I think it was still Mac OS 6 when I last used my Mac IIsi back in the early 90's. After messing around with it for the whole day, I have to say that I miss Apple's OS. Even though I've been using WinXP for the past several years, Panther is so much more elegant and intuitive than anything from Microsoft. I'm using the built-in Safari web browser to update the blog right now. I also bought a wireless keyboard and mouse from Apple which means that there are at least 4 Broadcom chips: 3 Bluetooth (computer, keyboard, mouse) and 1 WLAN (AirPort Extreme 802.11g). The only downside is the price... I think Apple PCs are still about 50% more expensive than comparable WinTel machines.

Concert at Irvine Barclay Theater

2nd concert at the Irvine Barclay Theater on April 13, 2005. This time we played 7 songs; on the last 5 songs we were accompanying a singer (clearly seen in the picture). Most of the songs were by Gershwin and were fast and jazzy, very different from the typical wind ensemble music. The IVC jazz band were on stage after us and played for about an hour.

Asia Trip

I booked my airplane tickets for our upcoming Asia trip. Since I'm going to work in our Singapore office for three days during the trip, my company has graciously paid for my plane tickets... business class no less.

My only worry is that I have to get from Tainan to Taipei to catch a 2:20pm flight. I heard that buses take 4-5 hours so if I leave at 8:00am, that leaves only about an hour to catch my flight. I also have to get from Taipei to Taichung; my flight arrives at 9:30pm and I need to get there for lunch the next day. One option is to rent a car and drive myself but multiple people have told me that driving in Taiwan = suicide. It'll be like I'm in The Amazing Race!

Shirley thinks I'll get beat up if I speak Mandarin with my funny accent and kidnapped if I speak English. I can only say, "Have you eaten?" and "My butt hurts!" in Taiwanese which is probably not too helpful. Maybe I'll pretend I'm from mainland China, visiting Taiwan to look for long lost relatives. I left Taiwan in 1977 and I've never been back; after 28 years, it will probably be like visiting a foreign country.

Terri Schiavo...

... is dead.

"MS has requested autopsy, strongly; he believes it will show the public the full and massive extent of damage to her brain through her cardiac arrest in 1990. Dr. John Thogmartin, certified for this purpose will be doing this."
-George Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer

WTF? If he wanted to show the "full and massive extent of damage", why not consent to a MRI or PET scan before dehydrating and starving Terri to death? Sure, let's kill her first then see the "proof". Sigh...

Don't Panic!

China Protest in Taiwan

High School Dropouts

Article from today's Los Angeles Times.

Nearly half of the Latino and African American students who should have graduated from California high schools in 2002 failed to complete their education, according to a Harvard University report released Wednesday.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the situation was even worse, with just 39% of Latinos and 47% of African Americans graduating, compared with 67% of whites and 77% of Asians.



Forget the white people for now. Why do Asian kids graduate at much higher rates than Latinos and African Americans? You can try and blame racism (as many people do) but I doubt that Asians are getting any special breaks and they routinely outperform even the white students. Check out California Department of Education's Academic Performance Index Reports and you'll see that at "good" high schools, the student population is mostly Asian and white, and usually the Asian students have the highest API (the report lists 100 comparable schools as compared to South Torrance High School).

I think it comes down to culture and the emphasis that a lot of Asians place on education. I grew up knowing that I was going to go to college. Of course, I also heard the ubiqutious stories about Asian parents getting upset when their kids get bad grades like an A-. When we moved to Los Angeles, we asked friends which school districts were good and then looked for an apartment in that school district. That's how I ended up at South High in Torrance; they actually told us to go to either Palos Verdes High or Pennisula High but we couldn't afford the rent up in Palos Verdes. Of course, rent in Torrance ain't cheap but my parents decided that a good education was more important than more disposable income.

Here's a story I heard from a friend while driving to Big Bear on a ski trip. He told us that he just got accepted to UCLA Law School and everyone in the car thought that was great and congratulated him. He told us however that most of his extended family looked down on him. They though he was a wuss for not going out and work for a living; by work I assume they meant blue collar/physical labor type of work. I think every Asian parent would be proud (ok, maybe too proud) that their kid got into UCLA Law School. Of course this is the experience of only one person, but he just happens to be Latino. This does not say that all Latinos or African Americans do not value education, but I think the fight against high school drop-outs need to start much earlier. If we're counting on Affirmative Action in college admissions, it's much too late. I saw this when I was in the engineering program at UCLA. During freshman year, the population was fairly diverse (for an engineering program). However, by the time I graduated, it was mostly Chinese and white guys; everyone else had dropped out of the program.

I thought my car had ABS

On the way to work today, I almost got into an accident. Driving south on I-5 near Culver, I see this black Honda Civic weaving in and out of traffic. I was in the second lane from the right and suddenly he swerves across two lanes and tries to pass to my right; I'm already going 70+ mph. Unfortunately, a car was just pulling on to the freeway ahead of him so instead of slowing down, this maniac cuts right in front of me (by now going slower than me). If I didn't slam on the brakes (risking being rear-ended by a minivan behind me), I definitely would have hit the Civic. When I hit the brakes though, I felt my front wheels lock and the ABS never kicked in. I know it has ABS since it has "worked" before. Anyway, I guess the guy didn't appreciate me honking my horn and flashing my lights since he started blocking me for the next several exits; he would slow down (to 40 mph at one point) then accelerate and cut me off again when I tried to pass him. The crazy thing is that I was driving the 4Runner and the guy was in a Civic. If I would have bumped him by accident, he's toast. Even worse, it just rained a little bit 5 minutes ago so the freeway was still wet... crazy!

I keep forgetting that I have a camera on my Treo... should have took some pictures.

Anime DVD

Went to Costco at lunch today and bought some animation DVDs. I was going to buy them at Amazon.com but the prices were slightly better at Costco, even though I had to pay sales tax. Nothing like instant gratification.

Laputa is my favorite Miyazaki film so far but Porco Rosso is a close second.


Nausica� of the Valley of Wind


Porco Rosso


The Incredibles

Skiing (not)

I was planning on skiing this Saturday at Snow Summit in Big Bear Lake. However, when I checked the weather for this weekend, it looks like it is going to rain during the day on Saturday. Skiing in the rain is no fun, especially when I don't have snow pants and have to wear my jeans.

I haven't gone skiing for a long long time. I think the last time was right after UCLA when I went to Mountain High with some ex-roommates. It was early April and the snow sucked. I could see exposed rocks and there was a lot of mud. Before that, we skiied mostly at Mammoth Mountain. I didn't start downhill skiing until I moved to Los Angeles. In the 8 winters we spent in Canada, it was mostly cross-country skiing (at golf courses), sledding, and ice-skating. The only ski resort nearby was Blue Mountain which was not really a mountain. It was really flat where we lived (Mississauga) and the only significant elevation change was the Niagara Escarpment. This is the same topological feature that gives us the Niagara Falls... impressive waterfall but nothing compared to a real mountain, even the ones here in Southern California.

It's ironic that both time this winter I wanted to go skiing and our parachuting trip had to be cancelled due to rain. It's not supposed to rain that much here in SoCal.

==========

Actually, I think the last time I went skiing was with some classmates during my MBA program. Not really sure where we went. I want to say Mammoth but I can't remember driving that far. I've also skiied at The Summit at Snoqualmie which is outside of Seattle with my sister and some of her friends.

Speaking of driving to Mammoth, I remember driving Leon's old Camry during our last ski trip at UCLA. We left at about 6:30pm and didn't get to Mammoth until after 6:00am the next day. It was snowing most of the way on Highway 395 so we had to drive with chains past Mojave and couldn't go much faster than 35mph. There are more stories about this ski trip, including some girls and a flat tire, but I'll have to tell it in another post.

NewSong NorthOC

This past Sunday was the 2nd NorthOC NewSong service. This time, the service was held in Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton; the auditorium is part of Fullerton Union High School. I was looking forward to hearing the Steve Fee band and the speakers, but I ended up running sound for the children's ministry. Evidently they needed someone to run their PowerPoint slides and sound effects CD and I got drafted. I just hope that they taped the main service so I can get a copy of the message.

We started the day at 5:30am and didn't get done until 1:30pm. I also helped load equipment on to the truck on Saturday for 3-4 hours. I realize you want to do the best job possible but I'm wondering if all this work is overkill. To look at it another way, is spending all this money for one service the best use of resources? I'm not sure how much NewSong spent but it has to be in the many thousands.


Kids (K-4) dancing to some worship songs.

Z

Finally, after 11 months, I took a picture of our Z. It's almost 100% stock; the only modification was that I added some heavy gauge grounding wires.

Winter

My parent's house in Canada


Icicles in the backyard

Hmm, I'm craving for some pineapples...

Dole Plantation, Hawaii

Treo 600

It took the helpdesk tech 4 hours but I got a new Treo 600 and so far it seems to work fine. He even transferred all my PalmOS applications to the new phone so I don't have to reinstall everything.

Oh, in case you don't know what is a Treo, it's basically a cell phone plus a PalmOS PDA with a built-in camera. The cool part is that it syncs with my Exchange accout at work so I can receive emails and access my calendar from anywhere. They are, however, quite large...



==========

My Treo 600 that I got from work started acting up a couple of days ago. Ever since I got it late last year, it had a habit of crashing on me, which is really interesting when you're on a phone call since you can't even hang up. Anwyay, the Treo is not answering phone calls consistently. Yesterday, I only received one phone call but I had 5 voicemails and there was nothing in the missed call log.

Helpdesk has my phone now. I was waiting around for the tech to replace the unit but the "new" one failed as he was transferring my info from one phone to the other. Now I'm wondering if I can get them to replace my 600 with a 650. I don't think it's any more reliable but at least it has a built in MP3 player.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

For our next concert (IVC Wind Symphony) on April 13th, we're going to perform Swing Low, Sweet Chariot by Steve Rouse.



You can listen to a performance here. Right now I'm playing 1st Trumpet on this piece but not the trumpet solo.

Morning Commute

My parents are in LA again to get fingerprinted for their U.S. naturalization application; they were just here at the beginning of January. Since I get all their mail, I had to deliver the INS documents to my uncle's house in Arcadia this morning. I left at 7:20am from home and it took me about an hour and 10 minutes to get there (Yahoo! maps said 26 miles and 35 minutes). Then I had to turn around and drive to work which took another hour.

We moved to the U.S. from Canada about 20 years ago. Since my sister also applied for U.S. citizenship, I'm the only one that has not applied. I've actually filled out the application last year but I still need to get some pictures taken and write a check for $390. I guess I'd better do it soon before they raise the price again.

Phantom at Work

As mentioned below, a picture of the white Rolls-Royce Phantom parked outside our building at work.

GT4 Photo Shoot

25th Anniversary 350Z from GT4

Pretty amazing graphics.

SL65

Shirley and I went to John Wayne Airport to pick up one of her classmates. While we were circling the arrival area, we saw a Mercedes-Benz/AMG SL65. It was silver and had large chrome wheels. The car was really hard to miss since it was really wide in the rear and the wheels were really shiny.

Here are some specs:
2005 SL65 AMG
MSRP: $182,820
Engine: AMG-built twin-turbocharged 6.0L SOHC 36-valve V-12
Net Power: 604 hp @5500 rpm
Net Torque: 738 lb-ft @2,000-4,000 rpm

Of course, two SL65's will buy you one Rolls-Royce Phantom.

A white one is parked outside my building at work right now.

IVC Wind Symphony

We had our first concert last Tuesday night at the Irvine Barclay Theater at UCI. Along with our group, there was a performance by a professional clarinet player and also two guitarists. I think the concert went fairly well; I didn't miss as many notes as I thought I would.

Shirley took a picture with her cell phone:

The trumpet section is sitting behind the French Horns (all the way on the right).

Our next concert is also at the Barclay on Wednesday, April 13th. So far the conductor has picked a bunch of big band/jazz pieces since we're sharing the performance with the IVC Jazz Band and there will probably be a vocalist singing with us.

BTW, IVC = Irvine Valley College

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Michael Chang at NewSong Church

Men's Breakfast with Michael Chang
The Annual Men's Breakfast will be Saturday March 5 at NewSong Irvine, 8:30am�10:30am in the Multipurpose Room. Special guest speaker will be tennis superstar Michael Chang.

NewSong is also having their 2nd North Orange County service next Sunday, March 13. I'm helping out with sound again; hopefully we can set up on Saturday instead of having to meet at 5:30am like last time.

Guckenheimer

Sigh... there's nothing to eat again downstairs in the cafeteria. We contract out food services to Guckenheimer, which is a company that specializes in managing corporate cafeterias. The last company I worked for also used Guckenheimer to provide food services in all their cafeterias.

Last week, three of us went to the cafeteria, looked around without seeing anything appetizing, and decided to go out for lunch. On the way out, we were stopped by the cafeteria manager/chef. She wanted to know if we did not find anything we wanted to eat for lunch. One person in our group commented that the Asian recipes did not taste Asian at all to which the manager said that they couldn't cook like our moms and that we should send in our favorite recipes.

"Me make special won-ton soup for you..."

New Blog

I signed up with blogspot.com way back in December 2002 but have not posted anything here. I think I will continue my random posting here instead of Xanga from now on. I was going to use MSN Spaces since it allowed you to upload pictures directly but I couldn't figure out how to include web images. Blogspot is like Xanga with pictures, i.e., you have to host them on the web before you can include it in you posts. I guess I'll continue to upload pictures to my Adelphia account.

One cool feature with blogspot is that you can email postings. That will give me something to do the next time I take Metrolink to work.

Old Blog

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