Chengdu Trip #7 - PMI Pictures

Professor Yan gave us a quick tour of the factory today. The last time I was here in Sep-08, the building was pretty empty and not much was set up. Six months later, all the production is at the new factory.


New signage at the top of the building.


Chickens in the back of the factory. There were only three last time I was here.


Our $100,000 400 ton vacuum hot press.


Construction next door has been halted since the Wenchuan earthquake. Not sure what they're building here.


Every Chinese company has to have a ping pong table.

Chengdu Trip #7 - Chengdu, Day 1

I finally arrived in Chengdu ~48 hours after leaving my home in California. Since Cathay paid for all the hotel and food, I guess it wasn't too bad. On the flight from HKG to CTU, the pilot told us the weather in Chengdu was good but a bit misty. It's always "misty" in Chengdu; I wonder if that's the official CCP term for smog. I also ended up talking to someone on the short flight. She was returning home to Deyang after two years in Perth, Australia. She moved there with her husband for a better job and now she's back to get her 12 year old daughter. It was interesting to hear her perspective about westerners vs. Chinese people. She was amazed how nice and polite Australians were and the high level of customer service. I can attest to the crappy customer service culture here in China. She thinks the quality of life is much better in Perth and she's applying for Australian PR/citizenship even if it means giving up her Chinese citizenship.

I'm staying at a friend's apartment again and the Internet connection still does not work for my computer. However, Blogger seems to be unblocked by the Great Firewall for the moment so I can see and update my blog from her computer. Last night, we went to the local supermarket to buy a rice cooker and some other foodstuff. Like everything in China, the place was totally chaotic. At least the rice cooker was cheap (¥108), not like some of the US$300 Zojiroushi ones I saw at Mitsuwa back home. Since I spent a night in Hong Kong already, I thought I was jetlag adjusted already but I was wrong. As soon as we got back to the apartment, I fell asleep on the couch. Of course I was wide awake at 3:00am local time this morning.


Supermarket lady chopping up our ribs.


Fresh (and some not so fresh) vegetables

Today is going to be a PMI work day. I'm going to the Sheraton Lido a bit later to meet up with a business visitor, and bringin him to the factory. Since Leon won't arrive until this afternoon, I'm going be the translator until then. Sigh... I've only been here for 18 hours and my nose is killing me.

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I've been religious about checking expiration dates in China now. Good thing too since this is what I got on the Dragonair flight. I know sometimes they put the manufacturing date, but this clearly says "EXP: 01 04 08" on the cover. There's no way to explain this other than the fact that it expired a year ago. I looked at the package for the person next to me and it said "EXP: 04 02 09" so something is definitely wrong with mine. I didn't drink it.

Chengdu Trip #7 - Hong Kong Airport, Day 2

When in Hong Kong, you have to eat dim sum somehow. Since I'm stuck in the airport, I'm eating breakfast at a Maxim's Chinese restaurant inside the terminal. It kinda sucks eating dim sum by yourself because you don't get to try many dishes. I've ordered (and finished) three so far: fried turnip cake, lotus wrapped rice, and seafood wrapped in tofu skin. I can get free food in the lounge later but since I have a HK$40 voucher from Cathay, I thought I'd use it. I probably spent more than that but it's worth it.


Yummy, even for an airport restaurant. I had dim sum in Irvine Wednesday and it was US$15 per person; not sure what the $$$ damage will be for this.


I'm eating, blogging, and playing Mousehunt at the same time.

Last night was pretty uneventful. I got a snack from 7-Eleven and went back to the room to sleep. This is the final leg of my long trip; hopefully nothing else will go wrong. Here are some photos from last night:


Hotel hallway... lots of pretty colored lights.


Hotel lobby


Hong Kong airport taxis. From my last trip, I think the red ones are the ones that go to Hong Kong and Kowloon. There are also blue and green taxis.

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The bill came out to HK$114.40 which is pretty close to what I paid for lunch in Irvine. The food is probably even better and cheaper in the city.

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Arg! I think I've been on the road/air for too long. I just noticed that I'm wearing my t-shirt inside-out... had to run to the washroom in the lounge to change. :(

Chengdu Trip #7 - Hong Kong Airport

Finally arrived in Hong Kong. Cathay said that there are no earlier flights than tomorrow morning so they gave me a room voucher for the Regal Airport Hotel right outside the HKIA terminal. Since the entire airport has free wifi, you would think that the airport hotel would have free Internet as well... nope. I just unpacked some stuff and I'm going to head into the terminal again to get something to eat and access the Internet.

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Well, I'm in the HKIA terminal and uploaded some blog posts and photos. It's weird seeing the same people for the past two days at the LAX lounge, Westin LAX, the actual flight, and now at the Regal Airport hotel.


Room at the Regal Airport Hotel. It looks similar to all the Hong Kong business hotels I've stayed at before. I'm still a bit upset that Internet is not free.

Chengdu Trip #7 - 6+ miles above Iwo Jima

It's now 1:20am Pacific Time and we're about 4 hours from Hong Kong. As usual, I've had a difficult time getting sleep. So far, I've watched The Day The Earth Stood Still (so so), Slumdog MIllionaire (awesome), and six episodes of CSI. The flight has been pretty smooth so far, other than 5 minutes of really bad turbulence. Looking at the moving map display, we definitely took a more southern route than the most efficient Great Circle route. We're couple of hundred miles south of Japan whereas the normal route goes between Japan and Korea. Maybe they're taking crazy Kim Jong-il's threat to shoot down civilian planes seriously.

Earlier this afternoon, Leon came to LAX 12 hours after he first dropped me off to get lunch with Fred. Since my delayed flight was scheduled to depart at 2pm, we only had time for some fast food. After lunch, I didn't have time to go to the lounge so I didn't get a chance to upload the previous post. While waiting at the gate, I saw a coworker walking to her gate. She told me that the part-time MBA program at USC was departing on their international trips. She was going to Japan on Japan Airlines but there was about 30 people going to Singapore and Thailand on my flight. We didn't have this trip 14 years ago when I was in the USC MBA program, but I probably spent a lot less on tuition back then.


Japanese high school(?) kids at LAX. I guess there are still people with money in Japan.

Sigh... another 3:45 left to Hong Kong. This is the worst part of traveling to China: the 15 hour flight from LAX to HKG. This is the first time on a Cathay Boeing 777; usually I'm on one of their older 747's. The only noticeable difference is the 3-3-3 seating configuration in coach vs. 3-4-3 in the wider 747. This plane also has the newer interior with individual entertainment systems and working AC outlets at each seat (which only has enough power to run the computer but not charge the battery).

Chengdu Trip #7 - Still stuck at LAX, part 2

What a frigging disaster. Right now it's 9am Friday morning and I'm sitting in room 550 of the Westin LAX. That's right, LAX. What's worse, there's no free Internet so I have to upload this after I get back to the oneworld lounge.

Anyway, after sitting around the lounge for an extra hour last night, I overheard some people from China next to me talking about "hotel" and "tomorrow morning." I went to the counter and they were telling us to either wait for a Cathay representative to come to the lounge or go back to the ticket counter. I went back out to the main terminal and there was a huge line of people. Since it was already 2:30am, there were only 3 counters open so I would probably be still in line if not for my super duper AAdvantage card. Here's what it says on the hotel voucher/letter they gave us:

Dear Valued Customer,

Cathay Pacific Airways regrets to inform you that your flight CX881, scheduled to depart Los Angeles (LAX) at 01:05 AM on March 13, 2009 is not delayed due to ill [sic] of Cockpit Crew Member.

From what I heard, the First Officer is not available so they have to wait for a replacement to fly in from Hong Kong. The flight now won't depart until 2:00pm and arrive in Hong Kong at 8:15pm. I made them look up the schedule in Hong Kong and found out that the last Dragonair flight to Chengdu leaves at 7:00pm. They said they will try to find a flight on another airline or pay for another night's stay at a hotel in Hong Kong so I can get on the Sunday morning flight to Chengdu. At first, I thought of going home and trying this again tomorrow but I left my car & house keys with Leon and I didn't want to wake him up. I ended up getting the hotel voucher for the Westin so here I am. I guess it's not too bad since my schedule wasn't too tight. I also didn't check anything in so I had all my luggage; a lot of people only had their carry-on. The only bad thing is that I had to burn a vacation day for nothing.


Line to check in at 3:30am.


Room at the Westin LAX

BTW, they also gave us a food voucher for $20. I just had their breakfast buffet. It was pretty lame compared to breakfast at Asian hotels (it was better than Jinghou Hotel though) and cost $21 + tax. Time for a quick nap before heading back to LAX for round 2.

Chengdu Trip #7 - Still in LAX

I guess I should learn to trust the announcements. All night, the PA system in the lounge has been telling us that our Cathay flight is not ready to board. At around 12:30am, I figured that I would walk down to the gate anyway. Since they put us in gate 105 which has a smaller waiting area, it was packed full of people. After a few minutes, an announcement said that due to a delay with the previous flight (Quantas), our plane was just being towed into the gate. Well, after another 15 minutes, they then told us that the crew was on board but the original First Officer is unavailable and it will take another hour to find a replacement. Good thing there is so much slack in my itinerary. Since we have to wait that long, a bunch of people, including me, made the trek back to the oneworld lounge. At least the elevator is fixed now. I want to lie down on the couch but since I already took two NyQuil gelcaps, I'm afraid that I'll fall into a coma and miss my flight.

I guess this shouldn't bother me. I was expecting the flight to take off at 1:50am anyway. :)


Waiting...

Chengdu Trip #7 - LAX

I must be getting old and senile. For some reason, I thought my flight from LAX to HKG departed at 1:50am. Instead, the flight leaves here at 1:05am. Good thing I was here early enough that it didn't matter. Maybe because it's a Thursday night vs. the weekend but Bradley Terminal is pretty empty tonight. There was not many cars dropping people off and the lines were pretty short at the Cathay counter. I was able to get my boarding pass and through security in <5 minutes. Even the oneworld lounge is fairly empty, much different from the past few times I've been here. Let's hope the flight is empty too... :)


Food counter in the lounge.

I did run into a glitch at check-in. Since I got the cheap "M" fares, it won't transfer to my AAdvantage account so I paid $50 to sign up for Cathay's Marco Polo club. At the counter, the guy didn't give me a lounge invite. I asked him and he said my Marco Polo status did not have lounge rights (I knew that) so I pulled out my AA card with oneworld Sapphire. He then went and changed my frequent flyer info to AA. I know that my miles will not transfer so I have to send an email to Asia Miles to get credit. However, I also wanted the miles to count towards my Marco Polo Club since it's the only chance I will get lounge access next year. I'm afraid now it won't accumulate there and I paid $50 for nothing.

I'm also having problems with the wireless connection in the lounge. It's showing the same problem as I had with Time Warner last week. Websites won't connect but stuff with IP addresses will. Good thing I have my VPN dongle to connect through work. How else am I going to update my Mousehunt page on Facebook?!


The elevator is busted again. I had to carry my luggage up two stories using the staircase.

No Dissent Allowed in Communist Paradise

The Washington Post

In China, Would-Be Protesters Pay a Price
Nation Had Promised Outlet During Games

ZHANGZHOU, China -- When Ji Sizun heard that the Chinese government had agreed to create three special zones in Beijing for peaceful public protests during the 2008 Summer Olympics, he celebrated. He said in an interview at the time that he believed the offer was sincere and represented the beginning of a new era for human rights in China.

Ji, 59, a self-taught legal advocate who had spent 10 years fighting against corrupt officials in his home province of Fujian on China's southeastern coast, immediately packed his bags and was one of the first in line in Beijing to file his application to protest.

It is now clear that his hope was misplaced.

In the end, official reports show, China never approved a single protest application -- despite its repeated pledges to improve its human rights record when it won the bid to host the Games. Some would-be applicants were taken away by force by security officials and held in hotels to prevent them from filing the paperwork. Others were scared away by warnings that they could face "difficulties" if they went through with their applications.

Ji has spent the past eight months in various states of arrest and detention. In January, he was sentenced to three years in prison, the maximum penalty allowed, on charges of faking official seals on documents he filed on behalf of his clients. Ji is appealing.

I knew before the Olympics that all this talk about allowing protests was propaganda BS. There's no way the CCP will allow any dissent when the primary goal is maintaining their hold on power and wealth. Why risk their privileged lifestyle just to listen to some poor peasants?

This is why you're fat

OMG!

Some of the stuff looks fake, especially the McDonald's non-menu items. This looks authentic though I've never seen it at a supermarket. Eewww, why milk?

Love Train

I think this is another new K-pop group called L.E.O that has a rapper (Leo Kekoa) and a DJ. Originally they released the song and MV featuring Kim Hyung Jun (guy) of SS501 but lately they have been featuring Kim Bo Reum (girl)... not sure if she is from another group. I like this version better. :)

Since the verses of the song are raps, there are a lot of words. I fixed a couple of obvious English typos along the way. Not sure if my Korean is getting any better, though I recognize some words:
- 바보 (babo) = fool
- 사랑 (sarang) = love
- 슈팅스타 (syutingseuta) = shooting star
- 슈퍼스타 (syupaseuta) = super star
OK, the last two are kinda lame. Why didn't they just use English instead of Konglish?

Love Train

I love you you you 너 밖에 없는 걸
Tell me love love love
Tell me that you know
Can't let go go go 단 한순간도
Baby 난 난 너를 찾아 헤맨걸
I love you you you
Don't you ever go
언제든지 달려가 BOY
이제 말할게 네게 말할게
Tonight love forever

L O V E
너를 향한 내 마음의 암호
난너 밖에 모르는 바보
날 가둬 둔 너라는 감옥
너는 나의 따스한 햇살
사랑스러워 귀여운 네 뱃살
Yes sir you're the love of my life
You're my 슈팅스타
L O V E
뜨겁게 불타는 가슴이
내가 느끼고 있는 바로 이 느낌이
우리 둘만의 영원한 이끌림
이런 내 모습에 모두 다 놀라
나도 내가 왜 이러는지는 나도 몰라
드라마 로맨스 아무 거나 골라
난 너만의 슈퍼스타
너와 함께라면 I'm ok
우리 둘만의 Holiday
주위에서 뭐라 하건 뭐 어때
I love you Monday to Sunday

I love you you you 너 밖에 없는 걸
Tell me love love love
Tell me that you know
Can't let go go go 단 한순간도
Baby 난 난 너를 찾아 헤맨걸
I love you you you
Don't you ever go
언제든지 달려가 BOY
이제 말할게 네게 말할게
Tonight love forever

월요일부터 일요일까지
하루종일 너만 생각하지
너의 미소 너의 목소리
너의 얼굴이 머잇속을 차지
이제껏 이런 적은 없었어
여자에게 매달린 적은 없었어
But you're one in a million
너 같은 여자는 없었어
네가 부르면 어디든 뛰쳐나가
보기 전날 밤에는 뒤척여 난
끊이지 않는 이 설렘
말 한 마디에 심장이 뛰어 미쳤나봐
되어줄까 너의 슈퍼스타
두근거리는 내 맘은 I can't stop
또다시 사랑에 빠질까
This the love train so get on top

너와 함께라면 I'm ok
우리 둘만의 Holiday
주위에서 뭐라 하건 뭐 어때
I love you Monday to Sunday
[repeat]

I love you you you
Tell me love love love
Can't let go go go
난 난 너를 찾아 헤맨걸
[repeat]

Make sure you click on HD and the full-screen buttons; you may want to hit pause until the entire video loads.

I guess short skirts and knee high socks are in these days in Korea.

North Korean "Elections"

I really don't get it. Why do they even bother with this cheap theatrics? For some reason, all these dictators want to have elections where there is only one candidate and voting is compulsory. Do they think they're fooling anyone? Or are they just stroking their own egos? Do they not understand the concept of democratic elections?

BBC News

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has been unanimously elected to a seat in North Korea's parliament.

State media has claimed a 100% turnout in Sunday's elections for the rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly.

Voting, which was compulsory, was for just one pre-approved candidate in each constituency.

What gives them the right to cause pain and suffering for millions of people? It's inconceivable to me that Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao have "fans" when the CCP throw grandmas in jail and other people in mental asylums just for petitioning the government. Maybe the show of support is all paid political theater too.

Mousehunt on Blackberry

Since I was going to hang out in a parking lot this weekend, I was worried about the Mousehunt birthday thing. I had accumulated some birthday gift packages and didn't know what to do with them. I wasn't sure if the Blackberry browser can handle Facebook and Mousehunt but decided to try anyway. The page was hard to read but it looked like everything worked so I was refreshing the page every 15 minutes or so (ok, maybe more like once per hour). Good thing the swap meet was only for one day; I was running out of battery power on the Blackberry.

Off-Road Swap Meet Results

I got back from the swap meet this morning and immediately crashed for six hours. It was a really tiring 24 hours, mostly because we walked around a lot and I only got about 2 hours of sleep. We didn't find the shocks we needed but did score a rear axle.


Morongo Casino. It's one of the many Indian casinos in California trying to take business away from Las Vegas. The swap meet met in the parking lot at the old casino building which is now used for bingo and bowling. The new casino/hotel is at the tall building in the background. It's the only high-rise building for miles around.

It was pretty windy the whole time. As you keep driving east on the 10 freeway towards Palm Springs, there are many windmills. From an old news article, the Cabazon Wind Project has 62 windmills generating 41 MW,

We arrived at the parking at around 1:30pm and bought a space for $45. Regular admission for Sunday is $10/person so we spent an extra $25 to get in early. Randy brought some used racing seats to sell and actually sold them within a few hours. There were a lot of tires for sale. Our spot was near the entrance and I saw many trailers overloaded with huge tires.

The swap meet was a family affair. A lot of people drove their motor homes towing trailers of stuff to sell. Here is a kid playing in a metal tube frame ($100). The family that parked next to us brought their 2 young daughters and a golden retriever. Some of the motor homes were very nice, costing over $500k. Randy and I went the rustic route, sleeping in the back of his Toyota Tundra.

Swap meet parking lot at dusk. Seeing the big yellow Penske truck brings back memories of loading/unloading sound equipment at Newsong NOC

We had lunch at the buffet in the main casino. The food was decent, comparable to a mid-range buffet at Las Vegas (better than Circus Circus but not as good as The Mirage). It was $10.95 for lunch but dinner was $19.95 since they have prime rib on Saturdays. We ended up at the food court for dinner (Panda Express, Fatburger, Nathan's hot dogs, and some Italian place). It was really expensive ($7.25 for 2-items at Panda Express); I thought they would have cheap food to keep people at the casino. Since it was Saturday night, the main casino was packed full of people. It was bingo night at the old casino building and that was full of people too... and surprisingly not just old people. I really don't see the fun factor in bingo but maybe there's not much to do in the middle of the desert.

A few sellers brought fiberglass body parts. All this came out of one 24' truck.

Night view from our "booth." Since Randy sold his seats early, we had nothing under our tent except the 5 gas cans he bought.

As we were finishing our expensive Chinese dinner (Panda Express), Randy spotted someone unpacking their truck. He jumped up and went across the parking lot to check out some stuff. Next, I see him waving at me and pointing at a rear axle on the ground. We quickly measured it and bought it for $600. There were at least two other people eyeing the axle. I don't know much about car parts but this was a rear axle built by Currie (in Anaheim) that housed a 9" differential gear; it is supposedly the gold standard for racing, used for NASCAR and all sorts of race cars. We saw a new one earlier for sale at $1800. It was really heavy though. With this purchase, we now have five axles for our race truck, including the original two axles. The plan is to swap out both sets for the heavy duty axles and keep the extra 2WD front axle for less grueling races. Maybe we can bring the two stock axles back here next year to sell.

The swap meet officially started on Sunday morning at 6am. Overnight, a lot of people arrived with their stuff and filled up the parking lot. Randy and I went to sleep around 10:30pm Saturday night in the back of his pickup truck. There was a camper shell but it was definitely not weatherproof... it was freezing cold inside. I ended up sleeping with my jacket and jeans inside the sleeping bag since it was too cold and cramped to try and change. At around 12:30am, I woke up and wasn't able to fall asleep again for the rest of the morning due to Randy's snoring. I also needed to pee but didn't go outside because it was too cold.

Since we didn't have anything to sell on Sunday, we packed up our tent and let someone else use our space. These guys brought several truggies (truck + buggy since the engine was in the back) to sell. This one was parked right next to us. It was brand new and completely hand built from the ground up even thought it looked like a Ford. The engine was a Chevy LS1 from a Corvette so it should be pretty fast. They're selling it for $100k so if you're interested, call Scott.

Even though we didn't find the shocks we needed, we ended buying the 9" rear axle, two gas cans, and a helmet air pump for the truck. I also bought a new double-layered Nomex driving suit for $200. It is really thick and heavy but will keep me safe in case our truck catches on fire. If nothing else, at least I can wear it for Hallowe'en. I tried to buy a helmet as well but could not find a XXL; the XL sized helmets still feel too tight and gives me claustrophobia. We also tried to look for shocks for our personal cars (Randy's Tundra and my 4Runner). The plan is to use our own cars as chase trucks during races since we only have money for the one race truck. After our Barstow pre-run trip on March 28th, we'll see if my 4Runner needs a suspension upgrade; everything is stock except for bigger wheels (P265-70R16).

Love You

Tension - Love You (feat. Lee Pani)

I've never heard of this group until I saw this performance on SBS Inkigayo. To promote their song, usually each artist/group performs on all three major Korean TV channels. However, I can only find one performance for this group. The song is not all that great; the only thing that stood out was the female "DJ" wearing a ridiculously short dress. Her name is Lee Pani (이파니) and she doesn't really do anything other than introduce the song/group at the beginning and a 20 second dance at 1:45. She was a model for Playboy Korea and just recently released a mini-album.


Tension - Love You [MV]


Lee Pani - Playboy [MV]

Off-Road Swap Meet

There is an Off-Road Swap Meet this Sunday and my friend/teammate thought it would be a good place to get some cheap parts (suspension and shocks) for our truck project. Since a lot of deals take place amongst vendors while setting up, he wanted to go tomorrow and buy a cheap vendor spot. I guess I wasn't prepared for how hard-core and/or ghetto this sport can be. His plan is to go at noon to somewhere in the Inland Empire and stay until Sunday morning. We can eat at the Morongo Casino buffet and sleep in his truck. Maybe we'll get lucky and score our parts early so we can go home.

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Dang it. Rooms at the casino for Saturday night is $200. That's a bit too much for me. If it was <$100 then maybe. I guess I'm bringing a pillow and sleeping bag.

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Hey, Morongo Casino is right by Cabazon. Maybe there's a Nike outlet; I need a new pair of shoes.

Cost Cutting :(

No more soda cans and bottled water on our floor. I thought we would get an exemption since the CxO executives were on this floor. I think soda is still available downstairs in the first floor break room but the elevators are so slow... I bought a Camelback water bottle so I'm using the water dispenser that's next to the fridge.

When I started working here, the refrigerators used to have Frappuccino, Martinelli's sparking cidar, Perrier water, Tropicana orange juice, and all sorts of smoothies in addition to soda and bottled water. Occasionally there was also beer but that's not standard issue. After about 2003, it was reduced to just water and soda. Leon commented way back that if we ever lost the small cartons of Tropicana juice, it's a sign of trouble. I think we're way beyond that now.

North Korea Threatens Commercial Flights

BBC News

Two airlines in South Korea are to re-route flights after North Korea said it could not guarantee their safety.

Pyongyang's threat follows its warnings that a US-South Korean military exercise, due to take place next week, could trigger a military clash.

North Korea has long described such exercises as provocative but tensions between the two Koreas are now high.

About 30 international flights a day usually pass through North Korean airspace to and from the South.

South Korea has called on the communist state to immediately withdraw its threat.

"Threatening civilian airliners' normal operations under international aviation regulations is not only against the international rules but is an act against humanity," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said.

I think Kim Jong-il is evil or insane. However, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean Air 747 in 1983 in that area and killed 269 people; maybe this is normal commie dictatorship behavior. I still can't understand why people freak out over everything Bush said over the past 8 years yet shrug when North Korea (kill civilians) or Iran (wipe out Israel) makes these outrageous threats. Disgusting.



This is the great circle route (shortest distance) from LAX to HKG. Since I can't sleep on airplanes, I usually watch movies or stare at the flight progress display. Usually the route takes us over Seoul/Incheon which is pretty close to the DMZ. Depending on the weather, the route varies quite a bit; one time we actually flew across Siberia, Mongolia, and central China (Wuhan) to get to Hong Kong. Let's hope my flight next Friday takes a more southern route and avoid going near North Korean airspace.

Recovery.gov

Government website on the ~$1 trillion wealth transfer act. On the front page it says:

Accountability and Transparency

This is your money. You have a right to know where it's going and how it's being spent. Learn what steps we're taking to ensure you can track our progress every step of the way.

Riiight... how is it still my money if you took it from me without my consent? The way that Democrats shut out all debate on the bill, I don't believe for a minute that there's any accountability. I've already considered the $25k in extra taxes I need to pay for this mess (so far) flushed down the toilet.

I think this is a better logo:



Screwed! Obama now considers me "rich" and will increases my taxes even more starting 2011. Yet I live in a crappy (but expensive) apartment and drive a 10 year old car (the Z is still for sale!). I am very angry that despite paying a six-figure amount in taxes each year, I'm still bailing out other people's mortgages and second liens too. I am such a fool for living fiscally responsible.

Blizzard Reception

I went to a reception for UCLA Engineering at Blizzard HQ in Irvine. They made us sign a NDA so I can't talk about it.

Mousehunt Rankings

Strange. I was ranked about 80,000th when I first posted about Mousehunt on Facebook. Since then, I've been on it pretty consistently with a bunch of friends, madly clicking away. I've now progressed to Journeyman level. However, checking the scoreboard right now, I'm in 91,106th place (out of ~200k players). Maybe people with a lot of friends get bonus points or something.

Hwangbo in LA

I just saw this on a blog. Evidently Hwangbo is going to visit some churches In LA and DC as part of some charity work. From the comments, she will be at the Cerritos Presbyterian Church this Sunday morning. In her Cyworld page, it says she will be there all three services so she's probably speaking; too bad it's all the Korean services and not English. The church is about 15 minutes from where I live... I'm tempted to drop by to see if I can spot her. :)


Heh, first time I can tag a blog post with "Church" and "K-pop" at the same time.

Guitar Generation

I went to a concert earlier tonight at the House of Blues in Anaheim/Downtown Disney. The concert featured three guitar players: Richie Kotzen, George Lynch, and Paul Gilbert. The music was pretty heavy-metal-ish, especially the first two. The HOB venue is not too big and we had standing room only seats. However, if you get there early enough, there are stools you can sit on. We managed to get into the VIP seating area after the first set so I was able to take some pictures with my 2MB Sony camera. They didn't turn out that well; I should have brought my Panasonic to record some videos.


George Lynch. He said it was too hot on stage so he got naked.


Everyone on stage: three guitarists and Paul's wife Emi.

It was a pretty good show. We got there at 7pm to get seats and the concert started at 8pm. Each artist played for about 45 minutes and they played together at the end for another hour; we didn't get out of there until almost midnight. My coworker, who plays electric guitar, said it was the best concert ever. I thought it was a bit too long and a bit too loud, but I was never a heavy metal fan. I did like Paul Gilbert's music--it reminded me of Rush--so I may go find some MP3's.

China 'patriot' sabotages auction

Sigh... now lying and breaching contracts is considered patriotic? The stupid jackass just tainted all Chinese people as poor business partners for cheap political theater. I hope they take his deposit and donate it to a human rights organization.

BBC News

A Chinese man who won a high profile auction for two bronze artworks claimed by China says he will not pay for them.

The sculptures, which sold for 15m euros ($19m; £13m) each in Paris last week, were originally looted from Beijing in 1860.

Cai Mingchao, who has identified himself as the bidder, is an adviser to China's National Treasures Fund, which seeks to retrieve looted treasures.

He said his decision to bid for the bronzes had been a "patriotic" act.

Wi-Fi Detector Shirt

For $20, you can get a t-shirt from Think Geek that will show you the signal strength of any 802.11b or 802.11g wi-fi sources. I can wear it to work on Fridays but since we have wi-fi in all our buildings, the animated graphics will probably stay on the whole time.

Will this set off metal detectors at an airport? Do I have to take the shirt off to go through security?


The animated .gif image doesn't work here. You have to click on the image to see it in action.

K-pop CD's from eBay

Through one of the K-pop forums I visit (and contributed by uploading stuff in the past), I found out about someone selling their entire K-pop collection on eBay. I clicked through on the items and ended up bidding/winning three CD's. The total, including shipping, was only ~$9. Two of the CD's are by Chakra and the other is by Baek Ji Young. I think I've been able to download all three albums in the past but it makes me feel more legit if I actually own the CD's.


Chakra - For You I Will


Baek Ji Young - 사랑안해

==========

BTW, Hwangbo (the rapper in Chakra) has a large tattoo on her back. It spells out her full name in English plus a flower at the end. Large tattoos are pretty rare in K-pop for female performers.

Train Ride

Living on the West Coast, there's not much opportunity to take the train for travel. I have taken Metrolink to work before but that's only ~30 minutes. I don't think I've been on a long train ride ever. Since cities are so far apart, everyone either drives for short trips or fly for longer trips. I did check with Amtrak for trains from Los Angeles to Portland, The entire trip takes ~30 hours and the fare is ~$100 for a single seat; for an additional $200, you can get a roomette that seats up to 2 people. So if I'm traveling with someone, it costs ~$200/person (one-way) for sleeper seats. I think it takes so long to travel the ~900 miles because there are 22 stops from Los Angeles Union Station to Portland.

Looking online, I found some train schedules for China. Specifically, train number T8 which departs Chengdu and arrives in Beijing after ~25 hours; total distance traveled is ~2000 km or about 1200 miles. Fares for the soft sleeper (4 to a room) is ~$100. A flight back to Chengdu from Beijing only takes <3 hours and costs $150. That sounds like an interesting trip and a good way to see the Chinese countryside. Maybe I'll plan that into my next trip to China.


I'll need to make sure that I have a reserved seat.

Mixxer

I found this website where they try to match up people learning new languages with native speakers. In your profile, you select what languages you are learning as well as any languages with native- speaker fluency. You can then search the database for members who can help you learn and vice versa. In addition, you need to have a Skype account since the goal is to match up with a partner and practice over voice chat. I signed up and my profile says I'm learning Korean. In return, I claim native-speaker fluency in Mandarin(!) and English. Searching the database, I noticed the largest group are Mandarin speakers looking to learn English.

Anyway, early this morning at 5am, I got a Skype call from someone with a Korean name. I checked Mixxer and it's someone that just created a profile on the website. I'm a bit wary about calling him back since my Korean is so lame (hello, thank you, goodbye) that we'll probably have to speak English the whole time. Hmm, I hope he's looking to learn English and not Mandarin. I was going to put that I need to practice Mandarin but I should probably just talk to my parents or Leon for that.

Tibetan monk 'shot' while on fire

Chinese communist government efficiency in action... if someone wants to set themselves on fire, let's just shoot them to speed things up. I wonder if they put out the fire after shooting the protester.

BBC News (and Leon)

A Tibetan monk has been shot after setting fire to himself during a protest at Beijing's rule, reports say.

The incident happened in the Tibetan-populated town of Aba in southwest China's Sichuan province during a gathering of more than 1,000 monks.

The monk, named Tapey, is said to have shouted slogans and waved a Tibetan flag, then doused himself with petrol and set himself alight.

Campaign groups said witnesses then saw Chinese police shoot the man.

I am saddened by the news. Governments and dynasties come and go. The more hard-line and dictatorial it is, the more violent the eventual transition.

Food and Drink Chengdu

I found a blog that posts about food places in Chengdu. In the past, I either have lunch at an expensive restaurant courtesy of one of our vendors or at some hole-in-the-wall with PMI people. Since the kitchen is set up at the new factory, lunch has been at work in the cafeteria. For dinner, we usually just find some local place. I really want to try some different places but I don't eat spicy (too much) so that limits my choices.

Post #888

The previous post was #888 on this blog. The number 8 is supposed to be lucky for Chinese people; I guess it didn't work out that way for the people in the story.

Another 100 or so K-pop songs and I'm at 1000 posts!

Chinese set themselves on fire

BBC News

Three people have set themselves on fire in the Chinese capital, Beijing, state media says.

The group were in a car at a busy intersection in a shopping area near Tiananmen Square when they set themselves alight.

Police said the men had come to the capital with "personal grievances".

There have been a number of self-immolation incidents in Beijing in recent years. Most involve petitioners angry with the government.

The article doesn't say why these people are protesting but chances are high that it involves corruption or abuse at the local government level. They must be desperate or crazy to consider self-immolation. China has a lot of people so there are probably a lot that need mental health services. However, since the rule of law is capricious and less than 1% of petitioners are actually heard (usually they just detain the petitioners and send them back home), I can understand the desperation. Petitioning the government in Beijing (if you can actually get there) is regarded as a last resort.

Since the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989, Tiananmen Square has become a known venue for protest and its traffic is closely watched by the police.

Normally, soldiers are placed inside the square with fire extinguishers by their feet - in order to stop any intruders from setting themselves on fire, our correspondent adds.

Wow. I did see lot of cameras in Tiananmen Square but no solders or police with fire extinguishers. I wish they would address the root cause of issues (corrupt officials and police abuse) instead of just focusing on putting out fires (literally) and preventing protests/saving face. It's so lame that local officials are rewarded for blocking petitioners from reaching Beijing versus actually solving problems.


Tiananmen Square cameras: 大哥 is watching...

Just A Feeling

This is old school K-pop by S.E.S, probably the first famous all-girl Korean group. I think this is the first K-pop song I heard. Somehow I downloaded a copy of S.E.S's fifth album and this was the first track. I'm going to try and memorize the lyrics for noraebang.

Just A Feeling

Just a feeling 느낀 그대로 말해
Think about it 주저하지 마
Just be waiting 이젠 준비가 됐어
너를 내게 줘 내가 갖겠어

처음부터 다 날 보여줄 순 없지
신비스런 분위기로 Oh yeah
호기심을 자극하는 것도 괜찮아
궁금해 미칠 것만큼
결국 너는 내게 오게 될 거야
원한다면 내길 걸어도 좋아
한 걸음씩 조금 더 네게로 다가가
널 차지하고 말 거야

Just a feeling 느낀 그대로 말해
Think about it 주저하지 마
Just be waiting 이젠 준비가 됐어
너를 내게 줘 내가 갖겠어

Just a feeling
Think about it
이런 나도 맘이 편한 게 아냐
혹시라도 네가 돌아설까 봐
그만 내게 말해줘
나를 사랑한다고 기다리고 있잖아

Just a feeling 느낀 그대로 말해
Think about it 주저하지 마
Just be waiting 이젠 준비가 됐어
너를 내게 줘 내가 갖겠어

Just a feeling 오직 너만을 원하는 나의
Think about it 주저하지 마
Just be waiting 이젠 준비가 됐어
너를 내게 줘 내가 갖겠어
Just a feeling
That's what I can show you

Music Video


SNSD live performance

==========

Dang it. I transcribed the lyrics from the SNSD video and it's missing an entire verse. Sigh... there are more "words" to this song than I thought, probably too many for me to memorize for noraebang. Maybe I'll stick to English songs.

Internet Problems

Strange... I can't seem to connect to any websites on either my PC or my Mac. However, I am still able to connect and make calls on Skype. I think the DNS server that Time Warner uses is offline so I can only connect to web servers using IP addresses. Right now I'm connected to the VPN at work using my PC which has the IP addresses. The VPN software on my Mac only has URL names so it's not working. Skype must also store IP addresses since Windows Live Messenger is not working.

I was bidding on something on eBay when my connection died. I hope I didn't get outbid at the last second.

Sound Equipment Geek

A lot of K-pop groups performed at the Incheon show, including SNSD (Girls' Generation). Looking at the video, I noticed they were using the newest Shure UHF-R wireless handheld transmitters with Beta 87 microphones. We have the previous UHF system at NewSong and the stuff is crazy expensive. One UHF-R/Beta 87 transmitter/receiver set is ~$3,600 list. Even if you buy it online, it still costs almost $3,000. Since there are 9 members in SNSD, the microphones costs ~$25k. If they also use wireless in-ear monitors (IEM), then it's another $2,000 per set for the Shure PSM700. I don't know prices for lighting equipment but for just for sound, it probably takes several hundred thousands of dollars of equipment for each concert/show.

Also, I notice that when they're promoting their singles, these K-pop groups are performing almost every day. There are three large TV networks and each has a weekly music performance show (SBS Inkigayo, KBS Music Bank, MBC Music Core). They're also on radio programs, variety shows, and other performances. It's no wonder you read artists collapsing from exhaustion during performances in Korean news media.

==========

In response to the comment, here are some SNSD concert performance video snapshots:

Everyone has a wireless microphone

Close-up shot of the microphone. You can tell from the antenna at the base of the handheld transmitter and the shape/color of the mic head that it's a Shure UHF-R + Beta 87 A/C.


If you look closely, the girl in the back (Taeyeon) has in-ear headsets on (they look like Shure E3's). You can also see the wireless IEM receivers in their back pockets. It does appear that not all of them have IEM's. Depending on the stage setup, sometimes I don't use them if I can hear everything through the house speakers, or just use one ear so I can hear my own bass amp.

What else would I be looking at if not the sound equipment? :)

How, Part II

Since the last post was me whining about taxes again, here's more K-pop.

I finished typing the lyrics to 어쩌다 (How) by the Brown Eyed Girls song from a live performance. The subtitled lyrics were done with a large font so it was easy to read.

어쩌다

어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
널 사랑하게 됐는지 내가 왜 이 꼴이 됐는지
어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
내 맘 다 타버렸는지 내가 이런 바보였는지

이거 참 이럴 줄은 몰랐어
오늘도 난 지쳐 너만 기다리다
너 때문에 눈물 쏙 뺀 여자들
그 중의 하나가 되기는 싫었어

너를 바라보다 아차 싶었어
다잡았던 내 맘 놓치고 말았어
그런 나를 부르면 Oh My Honey
일분일초 만에 네 앞에 있는 나

너무 멋진 멋진 그대
널 바라보면 어질어질해
너무 나쁜 나쁜 그대
다 모르는 척 웃고만 있네 (Baby)

어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
널 사랑하게 됐는지 내가 왜 이 꼴이 됐는지
어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
내 맘 다 타버렸는지 내가 이런 바보였는지

아무렇지 않은 적해도 네게는 다 보이겠지 난
유명했어 까칠 도도 이런 내가 변해 너로 인해
고로 나를 도로 돌려놔 줘 나를 봐줘 Red Alert
너와 있으면 왜 이럴까 심장이 벚어

끝이 뻔히 보이는 께임이야
나를 모두 말려 네 말만 나오면
그래도 난 어쩔 수가 없잖아
너만 생각하면 입가엔 미소만

하루 하루 고민소민 해봐도
어의 속을 몰라 깜깜한 밤이야
나만 보고 말해줘 Oh My Darling
지겹지도 않니 그 많은 여자들

너무 멋진 멋진 그대
널 바라볼 뗀 어질어질해 우
너무 나쁜 나쁜 그대
하루라도 더 보고 싶은데 (Baby)

어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
널 사랑하게 됐는지 내가 왜 이 꼴이 됐는지
어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
내 맘 다 타버렸는지 내가 이런 바보였는지

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.ME 내가 널 더 좋아하지만
You don't be nasty 미치갰어 나의 마음이
커커커커 커 져가네 난 워워워워 워쩔까 Ye
오로지 그대에 반했죠 사랑한다고 내게 말해줘
Yo! Let's go

어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
그렇게 넌 태어났는지 내 맘을 다 뺏어갔는지
어쩌다 어쩌다 어쩌다
내 눈앞에 아타났느지 사갈하게 만들었는지
어쩌다

Here's the performance on YouTube


I think this was an outdoor concert. The concert was in Incheon and it's cold in Korea in the winter. Usually one or two of them wear shorts and short skirts, especially Son Ga In (손가인), the first girl to sing at 0:33; she has nice legs. :)

Bail Me Out Too!

Transcript

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): School bus driver and mother of two, Minta Garcia got the letter every homeowner dreads, your mortgage is in jeopardy of going into foreclosure.

MINTA GARCIA, DISTRESSED HOMEOWNER: We're going to be losing the house. We're going to lose everything.

ACOSTA (on camera): You think you're going to lose everything?

GARCIA: Yes.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Her message to the president...

GARCIA: Stop with the foreclosure.

ACOSTA (on camera): Stop the foreclosures?

GARCIA: Yes. Right now, because if people are losing houses, losing jobs, what are we going to do?

...

ACOSTA: Like countless other Americans, Garcia admits she and her husband bought more house than they could afford, but she says the lender made the purchase all too easy. Now her mortgage is worth more than her house.

(on camera): How much was the house when you bought it?

GARCIA: Eight hundred.

ACOSTA: Eight hundred thousand dollars?. And how much is the house worth?

GARCIA: Right now, it's like $675,000 on the market.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Foreclosure experts say America's home buying culture must change the president's plan to work.

PHILLIP ROBINSON, FORECLOSURE ATTORNEY: We lived in a culture in the last ten years where mortgage originators said that you could use your house as a credit card to pay off your cars, to pay your credit card bills. Well, that doesn't exist anymore.

Wow. I think I make more than a bus driver and I can't afford an $800k house. What is wrong with renting and apartment? Does this woman think she is entitled to a $800k house? Sorry, I have no sympathy for her; I want a house with a huge kitchen and a granite countertop too.

They probably took out an ARM where they can barely afford the initial low payments but fully expecting to refinance when the monthly payments start increasing. This only works if the value of your house keeps rising. If it drops as your mortgage payments start increasing beyond your ability to pay, you can't refinance the full amount of the current loan, and the Ponzi scheme crashes. At least she admits that she made a mistake but quickly blames someone else and asks for a handout. As if the bank held a gun to her head and made her buy a house she can't afford. I'm down almost 40% on my investment account... is Obama going to bail me out too? I probably won't even get an useful tax deduction out of it.

There is absolutely no reason to stop the foreclosure; they gambled and lost the house, which they should not have bought in the first place. If her family is going to become homeless because she lost her job, then I agree that the government should provide some kind of short-term assistance. However, it pisses me off greatly that she wants the government to force other people to pay so she can stay in her huge house. She needs to sell all the stuff in her house that she can't afford either and go rent an apartment. Consider it a life lesson: don't let other people talk you into buying things you can't afford, especially if they're working on commission.

Facebook MouseHunt

Elim sent me an invitation to MouseHunt a few weeks ago and now I'm up at 4:30am checking my trap. Basically, you build a mousetrap with different components and check back every so often to see if you caught something. You can also trigger a "hunt" every 15 minutes which includes your friends that are also logged in to Facebook. I have it running on my 2nd computer at work. I read somewhere that >60% of the users come back and check their page daily. They must generate a lot of advertising dollars.

I got up to pee. I didn't get up just to check my trap. No, really.

Wealth Redistribution

Here we go... I need to get married and buy a house to get some tax deductions by 2011.

Washington Post

Obama also seeks to increase tax collections, mainly by making good on his promise to eliminate some of the temporary tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003. While the budget would keep the breaks that benefit middle-income families, it would eliminate them for wealthy taxpayers, defined as families earning more than $250,000 a year. Those tax breaks would be permitted to expire on schedule in 2011. That means the top tax rate would rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, the tax on capital gains would jump to 20 percent from 15 percent for wealthy filers and the tax on estates worth more than $3.5 million would be maintained at the current rate of 45 percent.

Ingram Micro

I took this picture on Monday, December 29th in the morning as my flight was landing at John Wayne Airport; I was flying in from Portland after visiting my sister. The white buildings in the middle of the photo surrounded by parking lots are the 1600 and 1610 buildings of Ingram Micro. The 1700 building is to the right. I worked there for about 5 years after business school.



The parking lot is fairly empty because they forced people to take vacation during that week to save on expenses for Q4. Otherwise, the parking lot would be pretty full at 10:30am.

Cheer Up! (Way To Go!)

1st song in the video. I had to steal the first two lines from another website. They usually display song title and artist at the beginning of the song so no lyrics.

힘 내

힘을내라고 말해줄래
그 눈을 반짝여 날 일으켜줄래
사람들은 모두 원하지
더 빨리 더 많이
난 평범한 소녀인 걸

바람은 자유로운데
모으겠어 다들 어디론지

하지만 힘을내 이만큼 왔잖아
이것쯤은 정말 별 거 이냐
세상을 뒤집자
도무지 알 수 없는 것뿐인
복잡한 이 지구가 재밌는 그 이유는 하나
Yes it's you

사랑한다고 말해줄래
지친 널 감싸고 함께 웃어줄래
사람들은 모두 원하지
더 빨리 더 많이
난 평범한 소녀인 걸

하늘은 저리도 파란데
모으겠어 아들 어디론가

하지만 힘을내 이만큼 왔잖아
이것쯤은 정말 별 거 이냐
세상을 뒤집자
도무지 알 수 없는 것뿐인
복잡한 이 지구가 재밌는 그 이유는 하나
바로 나

I like just the way you are
You set me free, set me free my boy
네가 나타난 뒤 (I've been changed)
모든 게 달라졌어
이제부터 다시 시작해

좋았어 힘을내 이만큼 왔잖아
이것쯤은 정말 별 거 이냐
세상을 뒤집혔어
도무지 알 수 없는 것뿐인
복잡한 이 지구가 재밌는
그 이유는 하나
Yes it's you, ready for your love
도무지 알 수 없는 것뿐인
복잡한 이 지구가 재밌는 그 이유는 하나
바로 나

Singing live on a radio show

Gee - Robot Version

Awesome! That's putting your robot research grant money to use... meeting SNSD girls. :)



At 1:55 into the video, as the red robot is doing a head spin, the screen caption says 헤드 스핀! I think that's just the English words "head spin" written out phonetically in Hangul, kinda like 호텔 캘리포니아 for Hotel California. They also say 로봇 for robot (or lobot in Engrish); I wonder if that means anything to a Korean person that has never seen a robot before. In Chinese, robot translates to 機器人 which literally means machine (機器) man (人). I guess it's all the same in the end since a Korean dictionary defines 로봇 as 인조인간 which means synthetic human. It's just interesting that a new "word" is created in Korean.

==========

Partially off-topic... we went to eat Korean BBQ last night in Torrance. As we were leaving the restaurant, they were playing "Gee" on the stereo. Sometimes at Mitsuwa (Japanese supermarket), I would recognize J-pop songs playing over the PA system (they like Koda Kumi).