The Weekender

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Interesting things to do in and around SF Bay Area

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

On this Saturday, my parents and I flew to Anchorage for the beginning of our 2 week trip to Alaska, Vancouver and Seattle.

We had a 4 hour lay over in Portland, so I took my parents to visit Powell City of Books.

Here is my Dad's article as published in Zaobao.com on the visit...

一间非常有特色的书店（2011-07-30）

　　7月初陪同太太与小儿子，到北美阿拉斯加一游，乘机前往安克雷奇（Anchorage）登上游轮的途中，在俄勒岗州的波特兰市机场转机，必需在机场停留四个小时，等待下一班机。正在烦恼这几个小时将如何打发，儿子提及这市中心里有一间号称全美规模最大的连锁书店鲍威尔书店（Powell’s Books）。长期浸濡于书业界的背景，关心和参观书店，已成为我的兴趣，便动起了前往参观的念头，下机后就立即向机场询问处查问该店如何前往，时间是否允许。

　　由机场乘搭电动火车到市中心全程约一小时，下车后走过两条街，就看到一座古旧、土红色、由四条街道包围着的巨大四层楼建筑物。进到里边才发现，这店分前后座两部分，由于地势的缘故，必需走上六、七级的楼梯，才能由前座登上后座。后座面积较前座大出约三分一左右。从书店提供的地面图看来，前座只有地面层是零售处，后座有三层作为零售，第四层则是办公室。可能是书太多，容纳不下，在书店马路对面的另一边，还有一间面积约为前座七成的零售处，专卖科技与工程的书籍。仅后座一层的面积粗略估计，约接近北京西单的“北京书城”的一层。因此全店的总面积即便没有超过西单的“北京书城”，估计也相差不远。由于必须赶在登机前，花上一小时通过机场安检，只能匆匆忙忙每一层都走马观花地随意看看。即便是如此，也要花上超过半小时才走完全店，却无法再去看科技与工程图书部门了。

　　我们抵达的那一天是周一下午三点左右，是阳光普照的夏天，店里几乎每一层都有许多不同年龄层的读者，在翻阅和选购图书，儿童图书部门更是人声吵杂。附设在书店地面层，小型的约只有十余张小椅的咖啡座，也是座无虚席，排队买饮料和冰淇淋的人龙，一直排到店门外。图书部门三台收银机前等候付款的队伍虽不算长，却也源源不绝，令人感到这家书店生气勃勃。

　　这家书店有几个特色，都是我至今在世界各地参观过数十家的书局里不曾见过的。第一，它除了卖新书之外，也兼卖和收购二手书。更令我好奇的是，同一本书，新书与二手书紧紧相邻，并排而列。许多二手书外表看来都颇新，若非贴上“旧书”（used）的标签，一时都辨认不出新旧。櫃台上的职员告诉我，新书按标价卖，二手书一般都减半，除此之外还有贴上 “sale”标签的促销图书，则按标价打个折扣。

　　第二，它的图书陈列架，都是由地面起一直延伸到天花板，一排排的书架，把门市零售处，分隔成一条条的小通道，通道的两旁则是陈列架。我仔细地算了一下，每个书架分为十层，下面七层的高度，是以洋人的一般身高伸手可及为限，上面的三层没有门，只在下方贴着，“请顾客勿动，这是本店库存”的说明，可以一目了然看到有些什么库存。

　　第三，它的后座第三层内，设有一个规模不小，有专人看管的独立房间，内里摆设许多稀缺的图书或孤本，或是有作者亲笔签名，或名人在书上加注手迹的书本与画册等，可算得上是珍稀古董图书的交易处。第四，它没有卖音像产品，没有卖教科书与教辅读本，只有微不足道的少量文具用品，即便是咖啡座也很小，触目所及除了书之外还是书，可说是名符其实的传统书店。

　　我在互联网上查看了一下该书店的网站，才知道全店的零售面积为6万8000平方英尺（6300平米）；平均每天从店里购书的有近 3000人；另有约3000人在店里浏览或喝咖啡；书店每天购入3000本二手书；店里陈列的图书超过100万册，按122个大类和3500个部门，分门别类陈设；每天约有8万人通过网上或亲临书店来寻找或浏览它的书种；《华盛顿邮报》评它为全世界最好的书店。

　　才到美国时，听小儿子说美国排名老二的博德斯（Borders）连锁书店，近年来持续亏损，尽管它已关闭了十余家门市店面以减少费用，但观察家对它的长期继续生存，大多不表乐观。此前我也曾在网上读到一篇外国报道，对美国独立的传统实体书店经营现况与前景，作全面分析与报导。结论是：由于从互联网上免费下载阅读资讯习惯的普及，加上网上选购书的方式省时省力，更受到电子书市场的日益发展与扩大等等多重打击和挤压下，传统的实体书店的生存空间，受到了极大的压缩，近年来陆续关闭了不少。

　　余下的为了寻求生存之道，都纷纷作出改变与调整经营模式。最常见的是附设咖啡座，让读者可以一边品尝咖啡，吃些小点，一面舒适地选购与浏览图书。其他的则把业务内容的重点向教科书及教辅读本，或是工艺美术品，或是文具用品等转移。看来，独立的传统实体书店经营的困境，并非是新、马华文书店才面临的独特情况。科技的进步，影响到人们和整体社会的生活习惯和运作方式。据说中国的书业，也开始感受这变化的压力。这家书店一方面顺应潮流，通过增设了完善的网上购书服务，另一方面加强了自身固有的特色，还能在逆境里，保持欣欣向荣的经营，不得不令人刮目相待。

Monday, June 20, 2011

Weight loss blues

101 workout so far this year,
My target weight I am not near :(

Swimming, paddling, lifting weights...
Total pounds lose was a measly SIX!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

President's Day Weekend in Seattle 2

I woke up at 8:30am and call K to make plans and meet for brunch this morning.

From my hotel in lower Queen Anne, I cut across Seattle Center to reach K's place in Belltown. From her place, we went to Macrina Bakery and Cafe. This bakery was mentioned in Hemisphere's Magazine 3 Perfect Days in Seattle and was extremely popular. Unfortunately, my late start to the day meant we had to wait for table. Since the cafe was rather small, I had to stand next to display cases full of decadent baked good while waiting. I got hungry in a hurry :)

After a 20 minute wait, we were seated. K and I both ordered the salmon scramble, which was a smoked salmon with scramble eggs and chive creme fraiche over bread. For drinks, both of us opted for Mimosa. I had the pomegranate and she had the grapefruit.

After a satisfying brunch, we walked to the waterfront by Pike's Place Market. The sun was shining brightly on this winter morning and the sky was especially blue. Over the azul colored Puget Sound water on the horizon were the snow peaked mountains of Olympic National Park. It was amazingly beautiful. My point and shoot camera could not do the scenery justice.

Pike's Place Market is basically an open air market full of tourist traps, the most famous being the fish toss at Pike's Place Fish Market. We found out that if a customer bought a fish, they would toss it, even to the customer! K and I had not intention of doing any cooking, so we passed on this opportunity.

Around the corner from Pike's Place Market is the first Starbucks. In Seattle, Starbucks are located a few steps from each other, but this one was extremely crowded. There was no clear sign to indicate this was store number one, but the Starbucks logo on the window was different.

From Pike's Place Market, we walked to Pioneer Square to take the Seattle Underground tour. Seattle was originally built on the flood plains. After a big fire, the city rebuilt, by raising roads to second floor height. The original first floor became "underground". Since this plan was communicated to building owners, underground doors and windows were not decorated. Hence, there wasn't much eye candy to see. But the tour itself was interesting and full of historic facts.

After the tour, we walked around Pioneer Square area a little more. This area is located near the stadiums and there are several sports bar. It also felt like a tourist trap and there wasn't much to see.

After browsing for a while, we walked along 4th Ave to Westlake Center, downtown Seattle's retail core. At this time, both K and I were a little tired. We decided to take the monorail back to Seattle Center and rest before evening activities.

At 7:30pm, K and I met up and walked to Pintxo. K and a bunch of her friends: S, J, Vik and Jessica were meeting for drinks and tapas. I ordered a hot toddy and a bunch of finger food. The goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon was delicious! I also enjoy the sweet Tequila Lime shrimp and seared Catalan sausage with red pepper sauce.

After dinner, we went to Twist for more drinks. I had a Millionaire Mojito and enjoyed it very much. Rana joined us at Twist and we chatted a little more.

By the time we were done with drinks, it was almost midnight. Rana wanted to go dancing, so K and I went with her to Frontier. K's friend Colin joined us at the club. In the beginning, we really like the music and but as the night move on, the DJ started spinning slower music. We were increasingly bored and decided to call it a night.

Friday, February 18, 2011

President's Day weekend in Seattle 1

My flight touched down at SeaTac airport at about 9:45pm. I called K from the light rail station to annouce my arrival.

"We are out having a drink!" She said, "Care to join us?"

I had a good rest on the flight over and was feeling pretty fresh. "Why not?" I figured.

When the light rail reaches West Lake Center, K directed me to White Horse Trading Company: a small bar located a block away from Pike's Place market.

When I entered the bar, I immediately like the space. The bar was a older building, but was very well maintained. The space itself were small but felt intimate and warm. There were bookshelves along one wall and along the other. The whole room felt like the library of an old English gentlemen.

I had a mead and met a few of K's friends.

It was almost 11pm when I arrived at the bar, so after my drink we decided to call it a night. K's friend Colin drove and happened to live near my hotel, so he was able to drop me off.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Chinese New Year Eve 2011

This year, for Chinese New Year, I decided to prepare my own the traditional reunion dinner.

I had planned for a proper 10 course dinner as per tradition, but after talking to my Mom, she told me a five course dinner would suffice.

So, here's my five course reunion dinner menu:
1. Steamed White Pomfret
2. Sauteed Spinach with Shittake mushroom
3. Steamed rice cake with Chinese sausage
4. Braised pork
5. Pork rib soup with Napa cabbage and carrots.

Fish is a must on Chinese year, since the word sounds like "abundance" in Mandarin. Similarly, rice cake is required, since it symbolized "Yearly increment" :) My Mom wanted to include mushroom in the menu, since it sympbolized "growth".

Frankly the quality of the produce, fish and meat at the Chinese Market were not very good due to high sales volumne during Chinese New Year. As a result, the dishes did not taste very good.

Without further delay, here's a picture of the dinner spread...

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Outrigger Canoeing, second outing

I went outrigger canoeing with the Pu Pu O Hawaii crew again on Sunday. I had always wanted to write my paddling experience as a poem, so here goes...

Arrive at Santa Cruz in the morning,
The air was cold, but the sun was shinning.
Launched the canoe with southwestern wind blowing,
Choppy seas did not stop us from paddling!

From the harbor we paddled into the sea,
Waving at boaters, surfers and everyone else we see.
The paddlers' faces were filled with glee,
Amazing weather we are all enjoying for free!

On this morning, our motion were spot-on,
Our reach were long,
Our strokes were strong.
Canoe glided with otters and dolphins swimming along.

On the way back, we rode the waves,
A little energy we all saved.
Around us the sea raved,
Time on water time I still craved!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Aerial Yoga

I am not a yogi.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Happy New Year!

A year with several first,
Cannot end without a verse!
If you feel these poems are getting worse,
My apologies, please bear with my outburst :)

A patent issued with my name,
Don't you dare infringe on the claims!
A humble dwelling to call my own,
Remodelling and furnishing to turn it into a home.

Trained and raced with BAD to feed my paddling addiction,
Outrigger canoeing in balmy weather was a paddler's heaven.
Finally experienced rock climbing in the wilderness,
Rappelling down Goat Rock was pure awesomeness!

Visiting Spain had to be put off for another year,
White Mountain, Shark's fest...I'm training for you, you hear?
More of life's adventures in the months to come,
To the status quo, I will not succumb!

Thanks for reading and....
Happy New Year, everyone!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Paddle for Life 4.0

This past weekend, I participated in the 4th Paddle for Life Dragon Boat Festival. I had been participating in the race every year since its beginning in 2007 and always had a good time.

This year, the event was held at Leo Ryan Park in Foster City. I raced at this location in 2007, and actually preferred it to Jack London Square. The water is calmer, there are no wake from ships/boats and best of all, it is a shorter drive from my house, so I don't need to wake up as early:)

I arrived at Leo Ryan Park at 8am. Summer 2010 had been unusually cold, but this morning was especially gloomy. Someone asked "What happen to the Sun?", to which I replied "They got acquired by Orcale." :)

Xilinx was the defending fundraising champion, so this year, we were rewarded with the "Ultimate Team Tent". Our tent was provided by the organizers, pitched near the finishing line, where we had a great view of the competition. Breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks were provided, as well as 2 cushioned butterfly chairs!

For the last couple of years, we share a tent with Lucy's party boat. Lucy and Marvin were married last year and they had a baby. Lucy is now too busy to organize a team :(

As per last year, 10 person boats were used for this race. I asked our team captain, Marin about this. It seems like many teams had difficulty finding 20 paddlers. So, 10 person were used instead, so that teams with less paddlers can still participate.

The Xilinx team had enough paddles to fill 2 boats, so we were divided into Virtex boat and Spartan boat. Most of the people on the Virtex boat had raced in previous Paddle for Life events, while the Spartan boat were mostly newbies. Having paddled in the past 3 events, I was placed on the Virtex boat.

Our first race was against PepsiCo, MPBA and Rainbow Coi. Marvin was our drummer. Before the race, Marvin told us his stradegy: given we were a team of veterans, Marvin expect us to be able to paddle in sync better. So, he planned to have a high stroke rate.

It was not to be. Our team did not click. From the marshall area paddling to the starting point, our paddles were not totally in sync.

I also felt the floor of the competition boat was especially slippery. I quickly took off my sandals before got to the starting line to help get more traction. Luckily, with the calmer water, the starting call was slower. The judges actually had time to say "We have alignment!" before making the start call.

Our boat got off to a good start, but during the transition from start to race pace, we lose our timing. The boat started to rock. With the 250m course, there was no chance to recover, and we came in about 4 seconds slow to take second place. I felt really frustrated after the race. With the slippery boat and the timing issues, I did not feel any power on my strokes!

For the second race, Xilinx Vertex raced with Clorox, Chu Crew and Xilinx Spartan! The Spartan team had a really good first race, so it was not clear the Virtex boat would prevail against them.

Nathalie was our drummer for this race. Given the problem with how slippery the boat was, I marshalled barefoot. This really helped my grip and I was better able to help move the boat. I felt our boat paddled better compare to the first race, but when I looked up after the race was over, all the boats seemed to have crossed the finish line at about the same time.

When the result was announced, it was explained all four boats were separated by less than 1 sec! Our boat, the Virtex team, unfortunately, came in last, while the Spartan boat came in first. Marvin was perplexed. I heard him discussed with another Bay Area Dragon teammate how the experience team actually performed worst than the novice team :)

We stopped for lunch while the organized arranged for the final race. The "Ultimate Team Tent" had our lunch provided by organizers and we were served not-fully-thawed turkey wraps and potato salad :( Just after lunch, our massage therapist showed up. Again, that was one of the perks of the "Ultimate Team Tent".

The Virtex boat was assigned to the Division E finals. In the finals, we faced Henkel ACA Dragon Flyers, VOCAL and Water Shredders. Marvin was our drummer for this final race. We had decided we would do a different call for the transition from the start to race pace since that seem to throw the timing of the boat off the most.

Again, for this final, I marshalled barefoot. After 3 races together, our team finally came together. We had a good start and did a pretty good finish! At the end of the race, I looked up and notice we had finished neck to neck with another team. As we were paddling back to the marshalling area, Marvin nodded to one of the judges at the finish line, who said "Xilinx!"

After docking, we got the official confirmation. Xilinx Virtex was the Division E champion and we were to receive Gold Medals. After 4 years of racing, I finally medal-ed.

IMHO, our team this year probably was did not perform better than teams from previous years. But we did win our division this year and I am happy to finally bring home hardware.

After the race, I got a chair massage from the masseur, then hung around for the medal ceremony. Our last minute donation push helped Xilinx won the fund raising challenge again, so next year, we could look forward to the "Ultimate Team Tent" once more.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Friend from Shanghai

On this lazy Saturday afternoon, I was watching March Madness at Harry's Hofbrau when suddenly my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and realize the call was from Tao!

Tao was a former co-worker. Both of us joined the same company about 6 months apart and became fast friends. We used to take walk every day around the campus, discussing everything from technical problems to career decisions to weekend activities. Both of us also shared interest in independent movies and skiing.

After a year of working together, Tao decided to move Shanghai, China, where he is an application engineer for Cypress Semiconductor's capacitive sensing chips for use on touch screen cell phones.

We had interesting discussion on capacitive sensing structures, the engineering cultures of various cell phone vendors, and of course SRAM designs. Tao held almost 20+ patents in various aspect of SRAM circuit design, but in our conversation, he told me he had completely forgot about transistors. In fact, he struggled to remember the term "body effect".

We also talked about his life in Shanghai. Tao told me his life is more balance now. He moved from Pudong to the Puxi, the older part of Shanghai, where life is more diverse. He is taking sketching lessons and playing soccer, things he did not have time for while working in the US.

We chatted for almost 3 hours, before jet lag starting taking its toll on Tao. We decided to call it a night, but it was great catching up.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Cinequest 20: The Real Revolutionaries

I had been sick most of the week. Feeling weak from the illness, I decided to invite A to a movie instead of going hiking.

Cinequest 20 was happening and as I was browsing through the movies, deciding on what to watch, I saw a picture of the "Traitorous eight". It was the poster for a movie called "The Real Revolutionaries".

The movie was about the history of the development of the silicon transistor, from the time William Shockley established Shockley's Lab in Palo Alto to Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore establishing Intel.

It is a story I knew well, having read Crystal Fire and hearing stories from the late Prof Henry Guckel when I hung around his lab.

The movie started with describing William Shockley, whom the movie described as a brilliant but arrogant scientist. He hired some of the smartest engineers in the US to work for him, but never quite trusted his employees. He micromanaged, was paranoid about the loyalty of his employees and egoistic. Shockley labs was going to build a new transistor device different from the device that won the 1956 Nobel prize. That effort went no where, and eight of the employees, left to form Fairchild Semiconductor, a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation.

Fairchild semiconductor division did very well and was very profitable, but when Robert Noyce found out he was passed over for the CEO position, he and Gordon Moore left to form Intel.

The movie spent some time on Shockley's life after semiconductor and his views on race and intelligence. Robert Noyce's womanizing ways were not mentioned:) There was also lots of cartoons to try explain semiconductor physics. The film mentioned some of the social events happening around the same time, such as the Kent State shootings and Woodstock, but insisted real revolutions were happening in the labs of Silicon Valley.

I felt it was too much material for one movie to tackle, and after watching the movie, I felt unsatisfied. I would recommend people read Crystal Fire instead for more detail history of the silicon transistors.

After the movie, A and I went to House of Siam for dinner. Read my review of the restaurant on Yelp!

Given my nagging cough, we called it a night after dinner.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Kirkwood in the snow

On this Sunday, I went skiing with A at Kirkwood. It was Sierra Alavanche Center's ski day and lift ticket s were only $35 each!

The forecast called for snow on Sunday morning, and chains were required. We considered taking the ski bus, but by the time we checked, tickets for the bus were all sold out! We had no choice but to go in my car.

The drive to Kirkwood was fairly uneventful. We left Bay area at 5am, and with only a short break to put on chains, reach Kirkwood at 9:30am. After a short walk from the parking lot to the ticket office, we hit the slope at 10am.

This was A's first boarding trip in 2 years, so we decided to warm up on green slope first. Since we were in the Mountain Village area, we hit Snowkirk, on lift number 1.

After 2 quick runs, A's confidence picked up a little, and we decided to move on to blue slopes.

I suggested we go up lift number 5 and ski down lower Monte Wolfe and Lower Zachary. A agreed. The snow condition was great and on the easier slope it was lots of fun.

After a few more run on the blue slopes, we broke for an early lunch. A was getting quite comfortable on the blue slopes, so I decided we would hit Wagon Trail on Lift 11 some some black diamond action. (Note: I recalled when I first ski Kirkwood 2 years ago, Wagon Trail was a blue trail. Wonder if I remembered wrong or did Kirkwood made the trail more difficult)

A really like Wagon trail! It was enough of a challenge, but not overly scary. We would spend the rest of the afternoon skiing that trial. Short spoke was opened at about 3pm, and I was able to get a few runs in on that slightly steeper slope.

On this day, I had some difficulty getting my boots into my ski bindings. This has never happened to me before. I had thought there was something wrong with the bindings or my boots, but when I had them checked by the pro-shop, everything seemed okay. I made a mental note to have the skis and binding checked before my next trip.

It snowed the whole day we were skiing and on our way back, the road was still under chain controlled. It was a slow drive.

Given it was almost 8pm when we reached Jackson, I suggested stopping for dinner at Jackson Ranch casino.

Of all my previous trips to Kirkwood, I had never stopped here! The casino was a good 1.5 miles away from highway 88. Inside, it was decent size! There were several restaurants and a food court. A and I each ordered a satisfying bowl of Pho. The hot soup was great after spending the day in the cold. I made another mental note to stop here for dinner on future ski trips, especially if we were delayed getting off the mountain.

After dinner, most of the ski traffic were gone! It made for a fast, uneventful drive back to the Bay area for us.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Sharks vs Red Wings at "The Tank"

I have never watched an ice hockey game.

There, I have said it. Despite being a semi-serious sports fan, despite going to school at 2 traditional NCAA ice hockey powerhouse, despite spending 6 years in the midwest. I have never watched an ice hockey game on TV, let alone live.

This Tuesday evening, however, it all changed. I went to the San Jose Sharks vs Detroit Red Wings game. This was a U of M Club of Greater San Francisco event.

I drove to downtown San Jose after work, found parking at the Market and San Pedro garage. The city charges $3 per entry on game night:( From the garage, it was a short walk to HP Pavilion, affectionately know as "The Tank" to Sharks fan.

I got to my seat just after the introduction of the players, which was followed by the singing of Star Spangled Banner. Then the game began...

In the first quarter, Sharks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. I thought both scores were sort of lucky since they came off rebounds from the Red Wings' goaltender. But the lead was short lived as the Wings scored twice to even the score later in the quarter. One was a rebound off the goaltender as well, and the other was a nice wrapped around shot.

In the second quarter, the Sharks had several good opportunities. There was a 5-6 minute segment where Sharks were constantly attacking, but resulted in no goals.

In the third quarter, Red Wings got 2 more early goals. The Sharks began to develop a sense of desperation. They were checking harder, skating faster. The Red Wings packed their defense, and despite efforts from the Sharks, there were no more goals scored.

I thought the better team won. On this night, the Red Wings seems more organized, control the puck better and passed more cleanly. I was surprised to learn later that the Sharks are actually ahead of the Red Wings in the standings.

Anyway, ice hockey is quite an exciting spectator sports because things are moving at high speed. Lots of good scoring opportunities could be created quickly, seemingly out of nowhere.

The game reviews can be read at SFGate.com and MercuryNews.com

After the game, our group met with Jed Ortmeyer. He is a fellow Michigan alumni! Jed was injured in the game and needed to see a trainer, but had committed to speaking with us. He shared with us his game day routine, which is pretty simple: wake up at 10am, meet team for breakfast, work on some drills, sleep, get dinner, work on more drills, warmed up for game. We shared about broomball event and immediately, a Shark media person joked "Are you guys trying to recruit Jed to be on your broomball team?" Everyone had a good laugh.

Overall, the ice hockey was a pretty fun experience. Now I am wondering if I should go to the Sharks game with Wisconsin alumni:)

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Best bargain in music...A Day of Exploration with Midori

I called San Francisco Performances' event: A Day of Exploration with Midori, the best bargain in music. For $15, attendees to this event gets to spend a whole day with Classical music mega-super star Midori, watching her perform, teach and share her music.

I became aware of SF Performances in 2004. That year, I won a cultural make over contest with this organization. As part of the program, I attended several concerts and dance events produced by SF performances and received coaching in appreciating performing arts. (Shameless self promotion here).

After the make over, I had attended a few more performances produced by SFF Performances: the Qatsi film trilogy by Philip Glass and a The Contemporary Music Symposium with Midori.

The 2006 Contemporary Music Symposium was a particular enjoyable experience, which prompted me to attend this event.

Our day began with a lecture by Robert Greenberg. Robert Greenberg is a popular classical music lecturer and I had attended several of his talks. He is quite humorous, but his style can be a little bombastic. In this lecture, Bob explained the background of and the finner points of the 5 pieces of music Midori was going to performed on Feb 6th. Midori herself provided the demonstration to illustrate the points Bob was making! It was such a treat.

After the lecture and demonstration, it was time for master class. 4 students from SFCM, SFSU and SFS Youth Orchestra were chosen to participate. The participant played a selection from the 5 pieces of music and Midori, listening intently in the audience seat would comment on the execution. While the comments were filled with technical jargon I did not understand, being present at the master class made me appreciate the music better. Many times, I thought the student's performance was flawless, only to hear Midori's comments. Upon implementing her comments, the playing seemed to improve the emotion of the music. I really enjoy this format and hope to attend more master class in the future.

After a quick break for lunch, the program continued with panel discussion. The first discussion was about composition of contemporary music. On the panel were Midori, John Adams(!), Matthew Cmiel and Joan Jeanrenaud. I was not familiar with Matthew and Joan, but John Adam was a big name, so it was interesting to see him on the panel. There was a lively discussion on how performers should play new music, are new music more difficult to play, the commissioning process. It was all quite interesting to me, a music lover that is an outsider.

Following the composition panel discussion was another discussion on Contemporary music. On the panel were Midori, Charles Amirkhanian and Mason Bates. Here, there was discussion on how to promote new music. Mason was not in favor of dumbing down the music, instead suggesting adding graphics, or changing the musical format to be more conducive to playing in clubs where people are moving around. Again, interesting discussions.

We were then treated to the Viola project. SFCM students playing violas and violins performed music compose by their peers. There was a piece which I really enjoyed. There was a strong Chinese music undertone and when the composer was being acknowledged, I noticed she was a short Chinese lady (Yu-Chu Liang).

Finally, Midori wrapped things up. She again touched on how performing music composed after she was born was important to her. Then she performed various movement from Feb 6th concert. Then, in an effort to show music history moved in circles, she asked the audience if she could play Bach?

Can she? Please!!!

The prgram ended with standing ovation to Midori's beautiful Bach music.

At the reception afterwards, I had the opportunity to ask Midori if she had chosen more accessible pieces for this contemporary music event compared to the 2006 event.

From the previous event, I recalled enjoying Judith Weir's music for 247 strings. The rest of the pieces were a blur. In this event, John Adams' Road Movie had an almost jazz like groove which was highly enjoyable. James McMillian's After the Tryst had an romantic touch which I enjoyed. Toshi Hosokawa's Vertical Time Study III was more technical, but I could clearly identify its roots from Japanese music. It was different, yet enjoyable. Even the 2 pieces I did not as much, Penderecki's Violin Sonata #2had familiar sounds and Huw Watkins' Coruscation and Reflection was quite upbeat.

Midori was super sweet. She smiled at my question and said "No, I didn't think this series of music was, the way you describe it, 'more accessible' than the last time. Maybe you are just more used to it."

Before returning to the south bay, I went to Paul K for dinner. I had driven past this restaurant numerous time on my way home from SF symphony's performances and had wanted to try it during the Dine About Town promotion. Alas, I stuffed myself with too much food during the reception and could not eat some a full 3 course dinner.

I ordered instead the braised pork shoulder with grill radicchio and creamy polenta. Please see review on Yelp!

It was a perfect end to the day. I left the city via BART, feeling very happy!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Kirkwood lift No 6

The Bay area rained for 2 weeks in a row. I had plans for the first weekend, but could not ignore the siren song of powder any long. On this Saturday, I bought lift tickets to Kirkwood.

Readers of my blog would know, I had ski a lot in Kirkwood the past 2 years. I am very familiar with terrain there, so it was a good test of how much improvement I had made in the last 2 years.

I took NAC Ski bus for this trip. Due to weather conditions, the bus actually had to put on chains during the drive to Kirkwood! It was not until 10am before we were dropped off at the Timber Creek base camp.

I quickly gather my gear and headed for lift 7. From there, I crossed into the Mountain Village area and go up lift 11. The Kirkwood ski team had training runs on Short Spoke, so I skiied Wagon Trail and the lower portion of the Wall instead.

After a few runs, I was feeling pretty bored. I had done these 2 runs too often in the last 2 years! I was also feeling hungry, so decided to break for lunch early.

After lunch, I went back to lift 5 and ski on Lower Monte Wolfe and Race Course. Then it is up lift 6 for Zachary, a black diamond slope.

I did Zachary once last year. Snow condition was not great and I was not in control. While I did managed to ski down the slope, I felt very uncomfortable and did not return.

Zachary had a very steep start. I hesitated for almost 5mins at the beginning of the run, waiting for boarders to clear the area, plan the route I am going to take and gather some courage:)

I decided to make small turns. On the first few feet, my form was all wrong. I actually formed wedges with my ski! I side slide a little to below the first post of the ski lift, gather myself more and was able to parallel ski down the rest of the way. It was a thrill!

I decided to try the run again. I was not in complete control on the first few feet and side ski some again, but did parallel ski on more portions of the slope.

I this point, I started feeling tired and had a Gatorade break at the cafe below. When I went back to Zachary, I was properly skiing even more portions of that slope! Unfortunately, the boarding crowd had return from lunch and there were a lot of bumps in the snow. I fell 3 times while coming down. That was when I decided to invoke "Tao's rule".

Tao was a co-worker, a good friend, and a good skiier. He once told me whenever he falls on a slope, he would call it a day. The reason being he must be tired and any further skiing probably meant it was more easy to get injured.

Of course, Tao formulated the rule while he was living in New Hampshire, and the ski slope was 2 exits on the highway north of this house. I had to spend a lot more time and money getting to the slope and was not able to go home that early in the afternoon.

I went back to go back to Race Course and Lower Zachary and skiied on the blue slope for rest of the day.

Personally, I felt I had improved even from last season. I skiied down Zachary with much more control compare to last year. Technique wise, I felt I was not "attacking" the slope enough. I still had a tendency to lean back a little and my stance was still too wide. This caused some problem while coming down steep slopes because the inner leg got caught and caused me to fall. A lesson might be in order on my next ski trip.

I finished the day at 4pm, skiied back to the bus at Timber Lodge for the long but uneventful ride home.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

First snow of 2010

The Tahoe Women's Services ski day was offering Sugar Bowl ski tickets for $25, good only on Jan 10 2010. It was such a good deal, I could not resist.

This morning, I arrived at Sugar Bowl Judah Lodge at about 9:30am. Since I had a short 2009 ski season, so I decided to start on Pioneer Trail, a green slope. While I felt I had graduated from green slopes, I also had a short 2009 ski season. It was better to bruise my ego than risk injury:)

On the flat part of the run, I had difficult finding my form. I was having a lot of difficulty sliding my inside ski, but as the slope got slightly steeper, muscle memory kicked in and I was able to ski better.

My confidence boosted by a good green run, I went up to Trail blazer, a blue run. Here I really felt I got my form back. I was able to go down this slope without stopping and felt I had really good control.

I would like to add that the snow condition was pretty good. There was a little ice, but mostly skier packed snow.

After a few more runs on trail blazer, I decided to push it further by trying a short black run. I went back on Pioneer Trail, but instead of skiing it all the way down, I turned right at Donner's Way, a black slope.

Donner's way was probably as steep as the easy black slope on Kirkwood, so I felt very comfortable. Unfortunately, it was a really short black and I had to ski through mostly green trail to get there. I went down Donner's way twice before deciding to move to village lodge ski lifts.

At village lodge, I went up Christmas Tree Express and started skiing Mistletoe and Ridge run. Both these slopes were steep enough to make things interesting for me, but gentle enough where I could work on my form and technique. I would also add at this time, the snow had melted slightly and all the iciness I was experiencing earlier was gone!

After another 4-5 runs, I took a break for lunch.

After lunch, I felt pretty good and decided to try an even more difficult slope. I headed to Disney express, with the intention of skiing one of the black slopes there.

At the lift, I asked an employee which was the easiest black slope she would recommend. She told me to try Crow's Traverse, the easiest way down, but also a blue slope. I decided to follow her advice on the first run. Crow's Traverse was a longer run, with parts of it steeper than Mistletoe and Ridge run, so that was more fun. But the snow condition here was more icy, probably because the slope was away from the sun.

I decided I did not like the snow on Disney Express and went back to Christmas Tree Express. Worked another 4-5 run when I decided to take a break. I was still having a little jet lag and did not sleep well the night before. I could use a snooze.

After an hour break, I went back on Mistletoe and found my form was messed up again! My skills were clearly not very stable. Looking at the time, I figured I would ski back at Judah lodge. On the way back to the lift, my trail merge with Pioneer Trail and I saw Donner's way. Figuring I could use a short cut, I went down that way.

Suddenly, the slope looked really difficult. I was tentative skiing down Donner's way, wondering what had changed between the morning's run and this run.

I decided to try Donner's way again, and deliberately tried to start at the same location as the last run. I felt my concerns were mostly mental. When I psyched myself up, I was able to do a fairly clean run down Donner's way.

The lifts were closing at 4:30pm and it was about 4:15pm when I got down. I decided I wanted to do one more run before calling it a day. Feeling a little tired and not wanting to risk injury, I decided to do Trail Blazer one more time.

It was a good start to the season. I was happy to get my snow legs under me and felt I had regained most of last season's form. This was going to be a busy year and I hoped I would ski a few more times before the 2010 season is over.

In case you are wondering about the trails I mentioned, Sugar Bowl trail map can be found here.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Tokyo 1-Ginza, New Year's Eve at Zojoji Temple

My red eye flight arrived at Narita Airport slightly ahead of schedule. From the airport, I took the hotel limo to Shiba Park Hotel.

After checking in, I took a quick nap, then it was off to my first tourists destination: Ginza. Ginza is the high end shopping district of Tokyo and while I am not a shopper, I wanted to experience the glamorous Japan for myself.

My first stop was Matsuya. According to my guide book, besides the usual fashion products, this department store also had art galleries on it top floor.

I quickly browsed through the men's fashion here, but quickly found prices to be outside my budget. Making my way to the top, my attention was immediately drawn to a calligraphy exhibition. Guessing from the name, a few calligraphy schools were showing its students' art work.

I was amazed by the works. Near the entrance were seal script and standard script pieces. The words were written well, with lots of balance and proper spacing. I was impressed! There were also several pieces with more modern format, where seal scripts words were artfully clustered to form a graphic. My favorite piece was a standard script piece called "虎啸风起龙腾云起". I inquired about the price and found it to be 10 times more than what I was willing to pay for...

There were also really creative housewares, beautiful watercolors and ceramics on display. There was an exhibit for chopsticks and bowls, which were very refined, but to this untrained eyes, not very exciting.

After browsing through the art exhibits, I was feeling a little hungry. I went to the basement food court for a quick bite. However, I quickly realized the basement was for selling food products for home consumption rather than a place to eat. There were no chairs or places to sit down.

Being a foodie, I enjoyed browsing through the different miso and pickled vegetables. There was a high end butchery place with beautiful cured meats and a cheese stall which I went back repeatedly for free samples. Finally, my hunger got the better of me and I bought several items from the bakery. The bakery had taken food presentation to a very high level! The bread were beautifully glazed and looked really appetizing. Unfortunately, the taste was somewhat of a let down. It wasn't bad, but not as tasty as it looked.

My next stop was Ito-Ya, a 100 year old stationery store. The store occupied 9 levels, selling everything from different types of paper, pens, pencils, note books, calendar and greeting cards. Some products were common, but there were also really unique items like beautiful artisan wrapping papers and designer Frank Lloyld Wright pens which I had never seen before. Given it was New Year's Eve, I bought several New Year Day card, for use during the next Chinese New Year.

The Japanese used to follow the Lunar calendar and celebrate their New Year the same time as the Chinese. Following the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese celebrate New Year on January 1st. I knew of this, but forgot about it when booking air tickets for this trip. The implication for the trip was, while the bigger stores like Matsuya were opened, many of the smaller stores were closed. Luckily, I am not into shopping:)

After the break, I walked to Mitsukoshi. Again, another department store. Slightly larger in terms of foot print to Matsuya, but with very similar merchandise and prices. I was, however, intrigued by the Shinto shrine located on the top floor.

As I went to the top floor, I noticed there were no signage pointing to the shrine. I was able to find a flight of stairs leading to the roof, but when I walked up those stairs, I saw the roof being used as a storage area with a security guard standing outside the door.

Confused, I went down to the top floor and ask one of the cute sales lady where the shrine was. With a lot of pointing to my guide book, she finally understood where I was tring to go. She took me up the same stairs, said a few word in Japanese to the security and led me to a corner on the roof. There was a stone statue, a small store and a hand wash area... everything a proper shrine needed were there!

My guide book suggested visiting several art galleries and the Nissan show room, but unfortunately these locations were closed for New Year's Eve. I also realized finding a location using its address was crazy difficult in Tokyo! An address would read 6-10-10 Ginza, Chuo-ku. The first number referred to the chrome or side street, the second number referred to the block, which may not be in continuous order and the third number referred to the actual number on the block. Even Japanese had difficulty finding their way around, and I saw them crowding, along with me, at the police post asking for directions.

As I was just walking along, I saw an Abercrombie & Fitch store. Given this was a familiar brand, I had no intention of shopping there at all. But my interest was piqued by the bouncers outside the store, waving people along and the long line of people waiting to enter the store. What made this A&F so special?

The wait to enter the store was about 10mins. Upon entering, I understood why entering the store was like going to a club. The store was dark, with loud music playing in the background. On the ground floor, a hunky, half naked male model with low riding, brief showing jeans was posting for photos with eager female shoppers! As I went up the stairs, I noticed the attendants were dressed in casual Abercrombie & Fitch clothing, instead of the more formal uniforms favored by Japanese department stores. These attendants were very young. Most of them were very cute and some were dancing to the music while working! The whole place felt like a club more than a retail store and it showed.

After walking up and down all 12 floors of A&F, I went along the back street to Sony Building. This building housed a Sony show room, where one could try the latest and greatest Sony products.

One product heavily promoted was 3D television. I was led into a room and handed a pair of 3D glasses. The TV was showing a documentary on polar bears. The clarity and experience was amazing. When an under water camera shot of the polar bear plunging into the water was shown, I swear one could reach out and touch each bubble floating to the water's surface. The glasses made the pictures look darker, which was the only drawback.

I also saw various music player, basically Sony's answer to iPod, noise cancelling head phones, computers with touch screen functionality and various types of cell phones. Since I don't usually paid much attention to electronics, I was unsure what was new and innovative.

My final stop at Ginza was Kabukiza Theater. I had hoped to catch a few acts of a show, but the theater was closed for New Year's Eve. There was some preparation of a float for New Year and TV crews were there, setting up for the evening's broadcast. With more and more shops closing around me, I decided it was a good time to go back to my hotel.

About.com recommended visiting Zojoji Temple's New Year's Eve count down party. Since the temple was a stone's throw from my hotel, I had planned to check it out.

I reached the temple at about 7:30pm. Hungry after much walking, I immediately started checking out the food stalls. The takoyaki looked especially appetizing. Here batter was poured in a semi spherical mold. When slightly cooked, boiled octopus, pickled ginger and green onions were added to the center of the batter. Then the batter was turned using 2 long needles and more batter were added to form a ball shape dough. The takoyaki was served in a small box, topped with dried bonito flakes and drizzled with Japanese mayo. Delicious!

After dinner, I walked around the temple ground a little. I visited the main chamber, took pictures of the temple with Tokyo tower in the background and looked at the various charms on sale. I was basically killing time, waiting for 8:30pm.

Before the trip, YC found out from his friend the evening's events. The temple staff start handing out wishing cards at 8:30pm. People would write their New Year wishes on the card. With this wishing card, I could get a balloon at 10:30pm. The wishing cards were to be attached to the balloons, which would be released at midnight.

After collecting my wishing card, I decided there was still a lot of time to wait. I was feeling cold and sleepy, so I went back to the hotel for a quick snooze.

I woke up at 10pm. As I was putting on my glasses, I accidentally broke the frame! Looking at the damage, I decided there was no way for me to fix it, and I did not bring my back up glasses with me. I had worn glasses since I was 10 and have never gone extended period of time without any vision correction, so the next few days would be interesting...to say the least. I had complained 2009 was a bad year, and indeed I had a terrible farewell gift:(

I took a quick shower, added an additional layer before heading back to Zojoji temple. There was a long line to collect balloons, but people were moving orderly and quickly.

Everyone then gathered in the yard, waiting for midnight. Apparently, this tradition is quite famous and many people come to the temple just to partake in this event. I could hear several different languages been spoken amongst the crowd.

As 2009 draws to a close, the crowd got more antsy. An electronic billboard started ticking when there was less than 60 seconds left in 2009. Everyone stood up, and I noticed lights on Tokyo Tower were turned off. As the seconds started ticking off, there was an excitement in the air.

Then the countdown: 10, 9, 8,... I didn't understand a word of Japanese, but it did not matter...3, 2, 1, Happy New Year! Everyone let go of their balloons and what a sight! The sky was suddenly covered with balloons and in less than a minute, it was clear again!

I found this video clip on Youtube of this event.

Lights on Tokyo Tower were turned on once more, with the letters 2010 showing. As I stood in the crowd, wondering what to do next, I felt a surge of people pushing me from behind. Of course! New Year prayers in the main chamber!

I was pushed up the stairs into the main chamber. The police's crowd control was amazing. A taped was used to stop people from advancing when the people in front of us were not cleared. Despite the anxiety to reach the main chamber, people were moving in an orderly fashion.

I got into the main chamber, saw people throwing money into a alter in front of the Buddha statue and decided to do the same. Then it's out of the side chamber door and into the temple ground once more.

I read it was good luck eating soba in the New Year and given I was slightly hungry, decided to participate in that tradition:) Then I went to take pictures of the bell ring ceremony. I did not realize this earlier, but ordinary people were joined by the priests in ringing the bell. The bell was to be rung 108 times. I timed the period between each ringing (yes, I am an Engineer). The bells were ring about 5mins apart. So, there was no way I could stay for the entire 108 ringings and still get some sleep.

It was about 1am when I got back to the hotel. I had missed the hotel's New Year reception, so this would be an alcohol-free New Year celebration for me.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Trip to Singapore 7-CK

CK is one of my closest childhood friend. We met each other in Primary school and were in the same class for 6 years. As luck would have it, we were again in the same class through 4 years of Secondary school. We went to the same junior college, and despite being in different group, continue to hang out together.

I always considered CK the smartest person I know. Right out of college, he found his own company, which was bought out by a listed company. He is now back in his own company, working on new project.

We lost touch in the past few years and I am happy to find out he is now married and has a beautiful daughter.
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This Singapore trip had been very interesting. I met with many of my friends, most of which were about my age. I had a sense we are all near the mid-life crisis age now. Most of my friends are quite successful in career and family, but now are looking into doing something more in this life. I guess in some way, I had similar feelings too.