What's wrong with the world we live in today?

In today's news, I read three main types of headlines: murder, disaster, and iPhone.

Murder: We've got news from the Pickton trial about a witness seeing a dead body hanging in the barn, 24-year old Steinke killing his 13-year old girlfriend's family in Medicine Hat, Alta., a double-murder suicide in Toronto, and a double-murder involving WWE Canadian wrestling star Chris Benoit in Atlanta.

Disaster: Heavy rains in Britain kills 3, tornadoes sweep through Manitoba, and a tropical cyclone that kills 10 in Pakistan. Add that to the TV program that was talking about the 1995 and 2003 heat waves in Chicago and Europe respectively that took 50+ thousand lives.

iPhone: Since last week (and maybe earlier), Google News seems to continuously collect new reports on the Apple iPhone. Talking about whether or not it'll succeed and the implications on technology and stocks.

Is there any GOOD news to look forward to anymore?

==== added 1 hour later =========

To make things more fvcked up, I just MSNed with my highschool friend. His little bachelor suite off West 12th was broken into... while he was sleeping! He woke up to realize there was someone in his room. My friend pretended to sleep until the intruder left. The guy came through the window and out the door, taking some DVDs and his wallet. Fortunately, the wallet (which had no money) was found in the alley, and more importantly, my friend is fine - just a little shaken up.

What a crazy week and some! I've been so busy through these 10 days of vacation that I didn't get a chance to post anything on my blog. So here're my thoughts and feelings from coming back home after being away for close to 3 years.

Arriving at home was a little strange at first. Just being away for such a long time and then having a rush of familiarity. My parents haven't changed the house too much - a few improvements and fixes here and there. Other than that, it felt very much... like home. Things like instinctively running up the stairs in the same steps and cadence, and the feeling of gliding my hand across the wooden handrail, made me quickly feel like I had never left.

The buildings around Greater Vancouver have changed plenty. In my 10 days, I went by Yaletown, Kits, SFU, Lake City, New Westminister, and Metrotown. The way the landscape has changed in some areas (Yaletown and New West in particular) is outright scary. So many crazy condos have gone up, and tons of townhouses too. My friend's mom told me that a 50-year old unrenovated house down her street near Kits highschool sold for $1.1M. Not liking that.

Aside from that, Vancouver feels mostly the same. There seem to be a whole lot of Chinese immigrants. When I left Vancouver, I used to hear Mandarin only from Taiwanese people, or from the Chinese people in my Masters class. Now, 4 out of 5 people I hear speaking Mandarin have a China Chinese accent. This, from a Taiwanese point of view, is kind of annoying. We just don't like their accents, and I much less like the way they conduct themselves. I also feel like I hear much more Spanish-speaking folks around Vancouver. Not sure if it's just a heightened awareness or if there are that many more Latin Americans.

But of course the best part of my trip was seeing my parents and friends, who as always, are great. In some groups, it's like nothing has changed at all. In other groups, it's as if nothing's the same. It's truly fantastic to come home to see your most cherished friends. But even with 10 days, it's not enough to touch bases with everyone. It was extra special this visit because it was after such a long time. I'm pretty sure there won't be another 3 year lapse from here on in.

Overall a superb trip. See you guys next time!

This blog concludes Chapter 1 of my North American trip o' business and fun.

San Diego has been fun. The exhibition at the Convention Center was a success for us, generating plenty of good leads. And I've eaten very well since my coworkers arrived from Fremont.

What I did and what I ate.

1) Sunday


2) Monday
The day started off frantically, trying to get a few last things covered -- especially on the side of contacting editors from magazines and publications. This was the busiest day of the 3.5-day show because it was the free day. We gave lots of demos, had some discussions with some big potential potential customers, and I ran around a lot. That night, our sales guy and I went to a party held by Jasper (a company) where the booze was free, so all you needed to pay was a tip for the bartender. Not all that much fun of a party, but still an experience.

Lunch: Starbucks sandwiches which were between $7 - $8US, too salty, and not very good.
Dinner: Gaslamp Strip Club on Fifth Avenue, which isn't a strip club at all - it's a steak place. It's a cook-it-yourself steak place, in fact - very tasty food. Basically, when you order, you get a lump of meat, and then you take it to a big grill and cook it yourself. I got the Sashimi-grade Ahi, which I seared slightly on all sides, eaten with wasabi and soy sauce.

3) Tuesday
The tradeshow was much slower this day, and I didn't have to run around nearly as much. There was a huge party held by Denali (a company), but I didn't want to go - simply because I didn't want to hang out with our sales guy (who I may blog more about another time). So, the group of us tried to ditch him, but were almost caught as we decided to go for ice cream and saw him on the street again. Anyway, we had some tasty ice cream at the Marble Slab. I had the sweet cream flavor.

Lunch: Royal Thai on Fifth Avenue take-out. Just some warm
Dinner: BluePoint on Fifth Avenue, a well-known upscale restaurant. I had the roasted lamb, which was US$37. Good, but not worth $37.

3) Wednesday
Like Tuesday, the tradeshow was less hectic. Did a few demos here and there, ran around a bit. In the evening, a group of us went to the San Diego Padres vs. LA Dodgers game at Petco Stadium. It was pretty fun. Their relief pitcher had his 500th save (first in the MLB league).

Lunch: In-N-Out Burger. I had the double-double combo, also known as #1.
Dinner: A hotdog, Coke, churro, nachos, and peanuts at the Padres game. At > $20US, pretty pricey.

4) Thursday
Last day of the tradeshow, although I was in early (7:30am) for breakfast and a panel on online marketing. After lunch, I went around Balboa Park, one of San Diego's top siteseeing spots. With the great weather, it was beautiful. Finally, after a bit of travel, I arrived here in Vancouver! Now I'm at home... will blog more tomorrow!

Lunch: Rockin' Baha Lobster on Fifth Avenue
Dinner: Microwave lasagna.

Sitting around at LAX's main departure lounge right now. After 11 hours between Taipei and LA, I didn't realize I'd be waiting for 4.5 hours before my next flight to San Diego. I kind of wonder if the other flight option Taipei -> San Fran -> San Diego would have gotten me there faster.

I've been so busy with planning the business part of this trip that I haven't had any time to research San Diego. I'm staying at the Hilton Gaslamp -- and from what I hear, the Gaslamp Quarter is a nice touristy area. So I might go there on Saturday after doing some work at the Convention Center right across the street from my hotel.

In 1 week, I'll be back in Vancouver for the first time in nearly 3 years. Wow. It's been a while, huh. It'll be great to be back, and my schedule is packed packed packed. But that's the only way I'd have it. But for now, I'll first focus on my busy work week, and then worry about play.

In another note, here are two things I noticed at the airport here.
1) People arriving at LAX actually wait until the seatbelt light goes off before standing up and getting their carry-on luggage. Unlike most places in Asia.
2) Vietnamese people like to travel using carboard boxes as luggage. At least on my flight.

More updates as my work days go on...


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[A couple hours later...]

I seemed to have started something. Now I'm at the American Airlines terminal. I was trying to find a socket to plug in my laptop, and the first one I saw was up against the wall (as opposed to a floor socket). So I took out my laptop and sat on the floor leaning up against the wall next to the socket, charging my computer. 20 minutes later, I look up and see 2 other guys sitting on the floor doing the same thing at other socket locations.

Drinking games. Just about everyone loves them. And those who don't shouldn't be invited to parties.

It usually goes something like this... You say the wrong word, you drink. You play the wrong cards, you drink. Basically, when you lose, you drink. But isn't the point of a drinking game... to drink? So, shouldn't it be: winner gets to drink?

That's, of course, unless the drink is some communal jug of mixed nastiness.

Getting to the tail end of my cold now. The fever has gone away, and I spent most of the last couple of days wheezing with asthma and hacking up juicy dark yellow whoppers. This brings me to today's blog topic.

Do you ever do this?

Sometimes you cough up a real thick phlegm, but you`re not close enough to a spitting station (a sink, a planted shrub, or a sewer grate). So the only choice is to hold it in your mouth until you find somewhere to spit it out. But now and then, for no particular reason, while you've got a loogy in your mouth, you might just flip it over from beneath your tongue to over top. Then after you taste that salty slime, you think to yourself, "Eeww... that was kinda gross."

Lately, I haven't had time to blog. But alas, here I am blogging twice in one day! Why? I'm in Taipei on a business trip. We've hired a video editor to help us make a video to introduce our product at the trade show I'll be attending in June in San Diego. Here's my day.

I got to the LongShan Temple MRT station at 10am and was picked up by the video designer on his scooter. We got to his studio/office, and spent about 1 hour going through the changes I wanted made to his last revision of the video. Thereafter, I tended to some work emails, watched some Ask A Ninja episodes, had lunch, blogged, and went to my uncle's place which was a mere 4 minute walk from this location (which was a total coincidence, because this small company is in the outskirts of Taipei). My uncle gave me some fruit as I left. 4 mangoes and a box of lychee. As I walked back to the studio, I saw an old woman -- crooked like a NY cop -- bent over eating directly out of someone's trash. Most old people with bad backs bend around 1/3 along the vertebrae from the head. This woman was a folding chair, bending just above the hip. It was kinda crazy... and kinda sad. So, after I walked passed her, I doubled back and gave her one of my mango (which I'm sure will be an excellent mango).

Now I'm back at the studio. Blogging again, and watching more Ninja episodes.

It's 34 degrees out. Cooler than yesterday's 37. Hot enough to give me a headache with this cold I'm still suffering from.

Still. It's been a fun day away from the office.

Does this happen to you too?

There's always a high probability when I brush my teeth that a glob of toothpaste will fall out of my mouth and into the sink. Why is that? Is my toothbrushing process faulted?

I squeeze toothpaste onto my toothbrush, run the head of the brush under the faucet to get it wet, insert it into my mouth, and then start brushing. In theory, the toothpaste should get scrubbed into a foamy lather against my teeth. But instead, half of the toothpaste falls out as a clump. It makes me feel like I'm waiting toothpaste and it's annoying to scrub off the sink if it dries.

What gives?

Intel introduced its new Centrino chipset today, Centrino Pro. It was the announcement I was kind of waiting for before buying my notebook - not so much because I wanted the latest and greatest. More because I wanted to see how much prices on existing products would dip. Unfortunately, I ended up buying my laptop a couple of days ago due to anxiety for a new computer. I'll ask my sales guy whether or not the Intel announcement made any impact on the price of my ASUS F3Jp. Hopefully not. I'd hate to kick myself for jumping the gun early. But such is technology. I'll probably skip the Centrino Pro and get something with a Centrino Super-Duper Awesome Pro in 2011.

Now here's an interesting project: Encyclopedia of Life

This website / massive database is a collaborative research effort of scientists all over the world with the aim of documenting all lifeforms on Earth. Sounds incredible, doesn't it. They're estimating this to take a decade at a cost of roughly $100M US. In the future, this should be a great resource for kids at their school science projects. As for us adults, it should be a fascinating read whenever we get bored of sitting around at home.

As a side-note, while writing this posting, it occurred to me... does Encyclopaedia Britannica still have door-to-door sales people? Do they now just carry a DVD set instead of a set of heavy books? You used to be able to tell when your friends' parents cared a lot about their education by the 26+ edition leatherette-covered set sitting on their living room shelf. Certainly a sight you'd be hard pressed to find now. You could almost consider that antique!