Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday to my son! He's now officially one year old. It's hard to believe that a year passed so quickly. Thank our families and friends who celebrated his birthday on different occasions. Thank those who visited him and sent him many gifts in the past year. Thank my mom for taking good care of him. Thank my wife for bringing him to the world. Thank himself for growing up healthily and exploring the world bravely.

Fireflies in Fuyang Park

Tonight we saw many fireflies in Fuyang Park. Lots of orange-yellow lights twinkling in the trees and flying in the air. It made the park looks like Christmas time. I didn't know there are fireflies inside Taipei city, so it's a big surprise for me and the best birthday present for my boy.

My First DSLR

I finally got my first DSLR yesterday. I knew it's a road of no return, so I kinda resisted my desire to get one. As my son grew up, I found it more and more difficult to take photo of him because he's never still for five seconds but the auto focus of my Olympus 5050Z could never focus on the right spot at the right time. Okay, this is just a great excuse for myself. Anyway, I bought a SONY Alpha 300 with two lenses this month. Tonight I took a test drive and it's not bad.

KUO Made the Front Page of MLB

Kuo Hong-chih started for the Los Angeles Dodgers today. It means a lot for a pitcher who has gone through two Tommy-John surgery and a lot of minor injuries. After 75 pitches in four innings, Kuo finished his work today. The front page of the MLB official site noted Kuo's start with his photo when he stepped down. Though it was just a short moment, but it's something to be remembered for Kuo and his supporters.

He was wild in the first inning when he threw 3 consecutive walks to lose the first earned run this season, but after that, he struck out 5 batters in a row. His record today was 2H 3BB 6K 1ER, with 0.84 ERA this season.



After the game, Kuo was also put on the home page of Dodgers web site.

Fallig Grand Hotel

Once upon a time, the Grand Hotel was the best hotel and symbol of Taiwan. I had a chance to visit the legendary hotel last Sunday, but I was very disappointed on what I saw. The service crew were not friendly or polite as what I expected. The service was much worse than what I experienced in China last week. That's not the worst yet. WHen I went to the men's room, I saw a big piece of dirty cloth lying in the middle. How sadly fast a legend falls!

New video of Yoshi

Auto Drug Vending Machine

Saw this in Shanghai. You can buy almost any common drugs and condoms on this machine.

Internet Rocks

I use Skype to make video calls with my home on this trip. It's amazing that you can still see and talk with your family even when you're thousands miles away. It's not that I didn't know that, but it is so great that I have to thank modern technology and internet. BTW, it seems that Blogspot is no longer blocked in China, at least I can read my blog now. I can access some google pages, including mail and calendar, but no picasa. I can't figure out what Chinese government is thinking.

Screwed Up

Today sucks. I visited the most important partner of the product line I'm working on, and found out that things is not going to happen as we thought. We may have wasted our time and money to give away to this "partner". And, it can get a lot worse. The entire line can become a bubble and cause a big hole in our income forecast. Besides this, I forgot a contract I brought from Taiwan.

Glory for China, Shame on London

I ate well in this trip, thanks to J.J., whom I'm traveling with. But, I'll leave that in another article. I'd like to record a few things I read today on my way to Shanghai. My plane to Beijing was using the latest terminal opened one month ago, the Terminal 3 (T3) of Beijing airport. I read on a magazine saying that they recruited a "golden tulips" task force to actively serve travelers or local people who visit the new terminal. T3 occupies over 10,000 square meters, and is the largest single air transportation facility in the world. Beijing airport now has three runways and three terminals in operation, which can serve over 650 million travelers this year. Besides Beijing, Shanghai Pudong Airport also has a new terminal (T2) and a new runway joined the service last month. What I noticed is that besides the hardware construction, China is now emphasizing their software (service) in these recent developments. For example, the Golden Tulips team was trained by senior instructors from the Hong Kong Airport and is determined to impress the world in the year of Olympics at the new front door or China. And from my experience in this trip, they are really getting there. How hard is it? Just compare it to the new terminal of London Heathrow Airport, the Terminal 5. T5 has been a complete disaster since the opening day, and the chaos is still getting worse. Oh, by the way, T3 in Beijing only took half the time of London T5, and spent half the money.