About 2012

There are similar predictions from several sources - Mayan calendar, the Bible, and American Indians.

Bible Codes Predict Solar Flare Holocause in 2012
The approach of a large comet in 2012 could trigger a solar eruption that will fry the Earth like a rotisserie.

Hopi prophecy
According to American Indians (in current Arizona), the world has been destroyed 3 times, by fire, ice (the ice age), and flood (as implied by the Bible), we are in the fourth stage.

Hindu


I-Ching

Smog Check re-test

Even though I reset the car electrical system (disconnect and reconnect the battery), cleaned the MAF sensor, I am still very nervous when I took RX300 for re-test in the morning. "Check Engine" light was still off after restarting the car at the test station, the mechanic moved it in after 10 minutes for the re-test - it was probably the longest 10 minutes, I was thinking what to do next if the test still fails but luckily it passed the re-test. We will be watching the "Check Engine" warning light for a long while to see the MAF cleaning worked even though we won't need to go through this for this car the next 2 years (smog test is required once every two years).

RX300 smog test fail

Took RX300 to a test-only station (at 1756 Houret court near Montague express) for smog test, waited for 40 minutes before my turn and another 20 minutes for the test and got a fail result. All the usually actual emission tests pass except the one that says Mil/Check Engine light related item. Drove across Montague Express to "捷誠" and got a quote for $200 to fix it, but since they do'nt have a spare car for me to drive home, I'll have to come tomorrow. After contemplating it, I decided to check the Internet for clues on the issue, there was one article that has detailed instructions and photos on how to clean MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor - possibly the cause for the problem, fairly simple - disconnect the electrical wire connector, unscrew two screws and remove the sensor. Went to Fry's and got a can of "Pure/99% Isopropyl Alcohol" spray to clean the sensor. RX300 does not have the "Check Engine" light when I drove to Frys as I did another power reset before hand - this at least will temporarily remove the light. I disconnect the car battery again before took out the sensor and cleaned it. Reinsert the sensor and reconnect the battery, starting up the engine OK, after taking it out for a test drive (about 30 miles), it is, for the moment, ready to go back for re-test.

A follow-up on car in the street

Several days after the previous C guy incidence, he brought in another car (actually the one that has parked across the street for nearly 2 months) and started working on it, he started the work in the afternoon but we wanted to see how it took him, by late night it is still going on so I did not wait any longer and called 311, police came after some 50 minutes and watched him cleaned up the mess a little and left. But the next morning he resumed his act, called 311 and went to the movie at Santana Row (Capitalism: A Love Story). The car was gone (moved to his own drive way) by the time we came back - obviously the police came and gave him a good lesson (to be fined a bunch or something like that otherwise no such move can take place) but there was a big pile of dirt in the street which he used to cover engine oil - I thought I'd clean it up the next day but it is taken away and washed clean - likely the effect of police giving him the warning. He now worked on the car on his driveway. It has been almost a week since the last call to 311 and the street has been relatively empty except occasional come-and-go vehicles. Thank God for this.

A break finally

Two days after reporting the C guy, heard a short conversation - C guy's father told him that police wanted to talk to him. Later the day, he finished (not exactly sure) the car and his customer came over and drove the car away. There's a big and extremely heavy axal on the side of the street, I could not move it at all - got very pissed and frustrated. There's also a big pile of dirt he used to cover engine oil in the street. The next day, the C guy somehow moved the axle away but left the dirt and some junk parts and garbage in the street. It has been a couple of days since any car (to be serviced) parked there, but I was worried that this is a temporary thing like before - a short break and another car came in waiting to be serviced, and then the same scenario repeats. However one thing is different from last time, the tool racks on his driveway has since disappeared, close to a week has gone by and no new car showed up - hope this will last a long long time, thank God.

Tortured

I have been sick and tired of the C guy doing his usual again and again - fixing cars in front of our house and making a mess of the neighbor, I have run out of options - call the city, call the police. I don't know what to do next, obviously I don't want to confront him directly knowing what will happen as he is a bully who would mess up other people's life without regard - I can only pray that God give me a break.

Called 311 once to report someone repairing repairing car in the street, the reply is that they could not do anything if no one is at the car, suggest that I call the city, so called San Jose city twice, once to report someone running a car repair business in the house, the next to report someone fixing car in the street with parts, tools, engine oil all over, nothing happened for 2 days.

2009 Baltic Cruise on Emerald Princess memo

Baltic Cruise 2009 - I

<2009/07/23>

San Jose, USA

SFO, USA

London, Britain

Copenhagen, Denmark

Don gave us a ride to SFO; we got there around 5:00 pm. Since we already got boarding pass through online check-in, we only need to drop off the luggage at the counter (no waiting in line), the lady there also helped us check-in our connecting flight from London to Copenhagen as it is not possible to do it online. As the flight has been delayed over an hour, four of us (we met one of Anita's classmate and her husband taking the same cruise) paced the concourse a while before sitting down to wait for our flight. We got one slice combo pizza and a Polish sausage from Costco in the morning to serve as our dinner.

We finally took off at 9:00 pm. The total flight time is about 10 hours (it is now 2009/07/24), but there was another delay when we got close to London Heathrow airport due to high volume air traffic, our plane circled 30 minutes before getting permission to land. Our connecting flight was scheduled to leave for Copenhagen at 4:45 pm (2009/07/24), but it is also delayed (we later found out it was late not because it's waiting for us but it was caused by rainstorm in Copenhagen as well as air traffic in Heathrow airport - this plane flies round trip between London and Copenhagen). After we landed at Heathrow airport, we rushed to terminal 3 where our connecting flight is, we had to pass another security check before entering terminal 3, this time our carry-on was thoroughly checked, each item is removed from the luggage, examined, swiped, and verified before we can put them back and move on, this took another 10 minutes, but luckily our connecting flight was still delayed - their status only shows gate number after they decide it is ready to board, it appears that they want o keep people in the lounge area where the stores are, this also made the lounge area like a bus terminal. We finally got to the gate (it was a really long walked - 20 minutes – and there wasn’t any people carrier) and boarded shortly after. However, the flight was once again delayed after we were all seated. There was a small incident after boarding, Anita and I were seated on different rows, mine is a window seat and there was a guy sitting next to me (the 5 seats on each row was arranged as 2+3 with isle in between, I was on the 3 side), the guy later moved to the isle when he found out no one was using it, this was perfect for me, but it was soon changed when the stewardess wanted to rearrange seats for a Moslem lady with 2 boys so they can sit together, two guys in our front were asked to move to back seats but one of the guys did not like window seat he was getting so he moved to the seat next to me, the mother and 2 boys than moved in the 3 vacant seats. But after 5 minutes, there was another problem, the carry-on the 3 brought could not fit under their seat (all overhead bins were full) but our row could fit so we switched seats, the two boys are like 7, 8 years old, they acted spoiled, making all kinds of noise and the mother did nothing to calm them, luckily this is a short flight (2 hours).

After one more hour delay, we finally took off at 6:40 pm. The wait on the plane wasn't too bad as the air-conditioning was kindly turned on.

The flight took only one hour and 25 minutes, much shorter than the scheduled two hours. It took us a while to figure out how to take train to Copenhagen city center - we asked several people on the platform and on the train, turned out it is only 3 stations away and pre-arrival announcement was made in English as well, one thing is that no one checked tickets, not at the airport where we purchased the tickets, not on the train, and not at the exit (there was no gate at the station), pure honorary system (this is a real civilized nation, wonder when Chinese can achieve this). Hauling luggage, carrying backpack, and walking to the hotel (Cabinn Hotel) in the rain was a bit challenging but we got there safely in 20 minutes (would have been 10 minutes if we didn’t have to ask around) – it is now 11:15 pm. The hotel room was really, really small, merely 10'x10' - even smaller than our cruise cabin, but it amazingly (and cleverly) packs everything in – a bunk bed with portable ladder, an all-purpose shower/wash basin/toilet bathroom, a bench, a couple of chairs, a closet, and a TV.

<2009/07/25>

Got up at 3:45 am after turning and tossing most of the night – since it has stopped raining, we went out and walked around a bit. Had breakfast (~$12 each) at 7:30 am, also packed some for lunch (again, there’s no one in the cafeteria checking if you paid for the meal (you pay at the counter in the lobby upstairs, since guests can go to the cafeteria directly from your room, taking either stairs or elevator, not sure if we are the only ones paid for it J). Bought family ticket for the train - a two-day pass including bus ride (it is cheaper even though we are only using it for one day), could have saved a bunch if knew this yesterday. Got to Roskilde (old capital) in 20 minutes (3 stops), visited Viking Museum and Cathedral church, stopped by local farmers market – there was a sudden heavy rain at time we were there, every patron ran for cover, took a video clip of this. Visited nearby farmers market, Anita bought a Viking ship facade plate for 50 Kronor. While we were in the farmers market, a sudden rainstorm temporarily disrupted the excitement of the crowd, everyone ran for cover, it lasted more than 5 minutes, since it's close to our regrouping time, we used the small umbrella and started walking toward the train station, met Elly and her husband, gave them the umbrella so they can enjoy the church and, possibly, farmers market. We walked back to where Elly's parents were and waited for Elly and her husband to finish their adventure. After riding the train back to Copenhagen central station, we went back to the hotel to retrieve the luggage (we stored them in the hotel locker, 2 for us and 5 for Elly family), while Elly' parents waited in Copenhagen city central station, four of us managed to get 7 luggage back to the train station.

A special note: while we were pondering how to get back to the hotel after visiting Viking museum (the bus we took goes around once every 30 minutes, and we are not sure if we are waiting at the correct stop), a local lady stopped and offered help, she was so enthusiastic and eager, she even offered to go home and get her car to give Elly's parents a ride back to Roskilde train station, but was kindly declined by the Elly’s - the lady was one of a kind, may be it was small town's inherent quality.

Going to the closest train station (Nordhavn) where Emerald Princess docked wasn't a big problem, but getting to the pier from the train station with luggage on foot presented some challenge – first, we have a total of 7 luggage plus 5 backpacks, secondly, it was raining, and we didn't know exactly where the pier was - we could see Emerald Princess in the distance but there’s no clear path leading to it. After asking everyone we met on the street, endured the ever heavier rain, plus a good deal of patience, we got to Emerald Princess check-in point at 3:10 pm, probably not the best time to check in (check-in recommendation was 1:00 pm) - long lines, especially bad when we are socking wet. But after ~20 minutes check-in process, we got our blue ID cards which we'll need to get on/off ship, open our cabin door, as well as purchasing anything on board (it linked to our credit card). We got to our cabin E322 (Emerald Princess deck 8) around 3:40. There was a fire drill at 5:15 to get passengers familiar with safety issues. Joined Anita's high school classmates in Michelangelo Dining Room for dinner, it was probably the best meal I had in years, the cold soup (Piña Colada something) and the Texas slow-cooked beef rib were very special and tasty. We were tired from jet lag and went back to our cabin to rest - call it the night at 9:00 pm.

<2009/07/26>

Woke up around 3:30, watched some TV, reviewed dinning options and decided to try the buffet (there were two buffet restaurants – Café Caribe and Horizon Court), they open the earliest - 5:00 and 6:00, respectively. It turned out that neither was very good, just ok for meal, and most of the dishes from them are the same. There may be too many cafeteria staff trying to help you, going there early seemed to escape this. Went back to our cabin and rested until joining the "PORT TALK: STOCKHOLM" at Princess Theatre, a good session on how to visit the city.

Had lunch at Da Vinci, service was good, but the Snapper wasn't too tasty - over cooked - probably should have added dessert to compensate.

I went back to the Princess Theatre to listen to PORT TALK: ST. PETERSBURG - "STORY OF AN IMPERIAL CITY", I kept dozing off through the talk, hope nobody I know noticed. Went back to our cabin to rest a little more.

Formal Night: Starts at 6:00 in Michelangelo Dining Room, put on my new sports jacket and non-matching pant plus polo shirt and tie - looked ok :) We were a little disappointed as the menu did not show high-end seafood (something like lobster), and the fish I ordered tasted so-so. Went see a musical show in Princess Theatre at 8:30, similar to that of Great America Theme Park- i.e. ok

.

Baltic Cruise 2009 - II

2009/07/27

Stockholm, Sweden

Since Stockholm is our first port of call, Anita and I went up to top decks after breakfast (plus some rest) to watch port approaching (better term?), although it was windy and chilly, we managed to experience some of the best views - scores and scores of islands passing by on the sides of the ship, the dream like houses, boats, and fresh water made photo taking effortless.

Although there was a huge crowd trying to get off the ship at the same time but it took only 25 minutes for us (those not taking Emerald Princess’s excursion package) to step on Stockholm pier – considered reasonable. We took the shuttle bus ($11 each) to the Royal Opera House just outside of the Old Town. Took a 15 minutes walk to the ferry ($11 each), which took us to Vasa Museum (on a small island) in 5 minutes.

Since we had been here before (1999), we quickly took some photos of the warship and got some souvenir then went to regroup location. After walking another 20 minutes, we made to City Hall, also the place where Nobel prizes were awarded each year.

Although I had no idea at first, but I realized that I have been here before (1999) after exploring outside the building. Took a few more photos. Walking back, we stopped by the Old Town to see a few famous vista points - Royal Palace (under renovation), Coronation Church, and World's Smallest Statue. After walking back to the bus stop, we boarded the shuttle bus and returned to the pier, embark Emerald Princess, and returned to our room, all these took only 20 minutes. Enjoyed some dance and music on deck 16 (pool and jacuzzi area) while waiting for the ship to leave Stockholm pier and head toward Helsinki, since it’s getting chilly, we decided that sitting in the Caribe Cafe and watching the view is much better - no disruption, warmer, and food is readily available. The ship turned around in the harbor and then exited the same way we came in. We decided to dine in Caribe Cafe, realized it was a brilliant idea since the variety and quality is actually better than Michelangelo or Da Vinci Dining Room. Went to bed after watching some Helsinki tour video.

<2009/07/28>

Got more out of watching "Port Talk: Helsinki" reruns on TV several times. Disembarkation was a snap - less than 5 minutes. The group took city bus #16 to Market Square, because we were a little behind other cruise passengers, we weren’t able to get on the first bus, plus that bus #16 is scheduled every 20 minutes, we waited more than 30 minutes before the next bus showed up - then there's the problem with the driver, he's not good in math, and he is running out of printer paper to print tickets, luckily all these were resolved within 10 minutes. The bus took us to Market Square in 15 minutes, we took the ferry to Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, a small island south-east off Helsinki, built to be a fortress hosting the U-boat during WWII, although the tour map showed a number of points of interest, but the only thing interesting was the German U-boat (the only one left in the world). Due to the lack of information on exact boat schedule going back to Market Square, we found out that we won't be able to get on the city boat until 1:00 pm which is a waste of time so most of the group took a privately operated ferry (paid additional 4 Euros each) to get back to Market Square. Anita and I then visited Temppeliaukio Church (the Rock Church), National Museum, Uspenski Cathedral, the Cathedral, and, of course, the farmers market, all on foot. Rode bus # 16 (standing) back to the ship at about 4:15pm.

Baltic Cruise 2009 - III

<2009/07/29>

St. Petersburg, Russia

Russia is the only country requires visa on this trip, and traveling as a group is recommended, most people, if not all, joined some kind of excursion – this means everyone will have to get off ship to join their respective tour guides. As a result, disembarkation was a challenge as expected, and since those who purchased Emerald Princess Excursion package were to go on shore first, unfair, absolutely, but there appeared nothing we could do. We got off around 7:25 am (35 minutes later), passed Russian Custom around 7:45 and started the tour at 7:57 (we booked our own excursion from local travel agency, it’s much cheaper but still cost ~$400 per person for two days). First stop is the Academy of Fine Arts and Sphinx (real one from Egypt). As always, the bus stopped by a designated (by the tour guide) souvenir store for 20 minutes - the same one we stopped by 10 years ago – after one hour tour bus ride into St. Petersburg. After the souvenir store, our first destination was the Grand Palace (Summer Palace), again, we were here 10 years ago, since we took many photos that time, we weren't as disappointed when we found out that photo taking is no longer allowed. Our guide took us for a ground tour, this didn't happen the last time though. We took hydrofoil to Winter Palace right from the pier on the premise; the ride was about 40 minutes, we had lunch (we prepared last night) on the hydrofoil. Winter Palace is now National Art Museum (confirm the name!!), tons of paintings, sculptures, and many other artifacts are on display daily. Got back to the bus and rode to church on Sobornaya Square to see burial place of Peter the Great (and his wife, son?). Got back to the ship afterward.

Paper work requirements to St. Petersburg Excursion: In order to be allowed into St. Petersburg, Russia, one must have (1) Valid passport, (2) Two photo copies (one is actually enough) of passport - immigration officer may or may not want to keep them, just in case, (3) Tour ticket - booked on organized shore excursions, (4) Completed "Migration Card" - much like the form filled when entering the US, Full name, passport number, excursion company, time & period of stay. These 4 documents are to be presented to the Immigration officer, who will take half of the "Migration Card", return the other half, along with the passport photo copy, and issue an "immigration pass". The "immigration pass" and the second half of the "Migration Card" will be taken back upon exiting Russia.

<2009/07/30> (Day two of St. Petersburg excursion)

Got off ship and went through immigration like a breeze (since the ship stay docked last night, many people got on shore earlier).

First stop of the day was Catherine Palace, similar to the Winter Palace in design – detail skipped. Our tour guide took us, again, to another shopping break - her commission source - this kind of souvenir store serves free coffee, sweet wine, and Vodka, I went for Vodka, sweet wine and coffee, no purchase at all as a silent protest. Next stop was lunch; nothing good in the meal worth mentioning but they do have pretty waitress and handsome waiter. Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (nicknamed Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood) is probably the most beautiful church in St. Petersburg, but we were only given 5 minutes to take photos - shame on the tour guide. Neva river tour, interesting since this is my first time on a tour boat, looking at the same vista points from different angles. Got back to the ship after finishing the boat ride. Since we didn't like the way our guide (Helen) handle things, we gave her $10 tips - come to think of it, we should have given her much less to emphasize our displeasure.

Baltic Cruise 2009 - IV

<2009/07/31>

Tallinn Estonia, Capital of Estonia, has a medieval old town in its center, a very popular place for people all throughout the world. Also a harbor based town, cruise ships can dock right next to it, visitors from cruise ships can easily walk into the old town within 15 minutes. That's exactly what we did. Visited Church of the Holy Spirits, Town Hall, St. Nicholas Church, Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral, and The Parliament. Since we have visited most of the points of interest nearby, and I was having a terrible headache – it was very cold and windy (I was in shorts and T-shirt, no jacket) when walking from the pier to old town, I had been trying to hold it down with Chi but it didn't work too well, so I returned to the ship while Anita stopped by Sada Market to do some window shopping. I took a nap and had a pear, seemed to ease my headache a little.

Tried lunch at International Cafe, although there were only 4 selections free of additional charge, but they were more tasty than buffet - we'll likely try it more often.

After TFGH group photo session, we had another formal night. We experienced a rough ride going to Gdansk, Poland, it felt like continuous small earth quakes – lasted most of the night.

<2009/08/01>

Gdansk, Poland

Tried to get some sandwiches from "International Cafe" for lunch but it only carries sweets in the morning so we had to go back to Horizon Court for the same old stuff - bagel with smoked salmon. Still has a headache, but after struggling a while, I decided to go on shore regardless. Went and got an orange and a pear to help fight my cold symptom. As expected, getting off the ship took longer than did yesterday, but it was still fairly smooth. We (12) found a taxi (Caravan) that charges only $10 for 6 people - normal taxi sits 4 for $10, we arrived at Gdynia Glowna station in 5 minutes, gave the driver $12 for his good service and enthusiasm. The train to Gdansk is SKM system, fair is $9 Zloty (~=$4 dollars) round-trip, it took 32 minutes to get to Gdansk Glowny station, and 10 minutes walk to Ulica Dluga (Long Street) where most tourist attractions locate. We visited Amber Museum (Torture House), Arthur's Court, Neptune Fountain, Green Gate, St. Mary's Church, and Great Crane.

Anita got everything she planned to buy within 2 hours.

Baltic Cruise 2009 - V

<2009/08/02>

Warnemunde, Germany

This is a small but popular East Germany vacation town. The ship docked around 7:30 am. This is the longest day the ship docks in port - all the way until 10:00 pm. Most of the TFGH group are taking Berlin excursion, so the remaining four of us (Anita, Gloria's husband Peter, Gloria's sister KC, and myself) walked into Warnemunde on foot, making a right turn after exciting German custom office, then making a left turn at "Tourist Information" office and pass through an underpass of the train station. After a short stroll in the city, it was decided that Peter and I would continue walking the town then go back to the ship when we got tired, while Anita and Gloria's sister KC would leave for Rostok immediately. I got 10 Euros for beer. Since it's Sunday and around 10 am, most stores are either patron less or closed, and there appeared no one is drinking beer at this hour, so we walked around trying to find stores with customers sipping beer - so that we don't look too strange - we finally gave up after 10 minutes, entered one restaurant and asked to see their menu, voila,

Rostocker Pils: 2 Euros for 0.25L and 3 Euros for 0.4L. We each got one 0.4L

Rostoker Pils dark - enjoyed it and the view (we were sitting in a glass enclosed dinning area where boats, harbor, and other tourists are the scenery) for half an hour. Peter was interested in buying a couple of beer mugs but we could not find any that resembled the nice ones we drank in just now, so we went back to the ship. Had some salad and fruit for lunch and went back to E322. Anita and I went back on shore for a walk on the beach after she came back from Rostok.

<2009/08/03>

Helsingborg, Sweden

As anticipated, it was a cloudy day with light rain. Instead of the original 10:00 am arrival time, we were told that we’d be offloaded to tender (ship's life boat, used as transportation) to get on shore. First the group gathers than went to Princess Theatre to get tickets to the tender, we waited 10 minutes and boarded the tender, the process seemed organized, and the tender ride was smooth, we got on shore of Helsingborg, Sweden in 10 minutes. We walked 15 minutes to the ferry which carried us across the 3-mile channel to Helsingor, Demark, fare is 45 Kronor one way (for Anita) and 59 Kronor round trip (for me). The only place we are visiting here is the Kronborg Castle. A nice contrast to all other palaces we've seen so far, this one is anything but luxury. Anita, Gloria, and her sister KC continued their excursion to Copenhagen via train (they will return to the ship at Copenhagen, Denmark instead) while Peter, his two sons, and myself went back to the ship after visiting Kronborg Castle. I went to the Internet Cafe to try to check in our returning flight, after some struggle, I finally got in UA website, but the itinerary showed that we are going to Seattle, WA, I couldn't figure out what to do and had to log off the Internet as the charge meter kept going, even though I had accomplishing nothing, I was charged almost $14 in less than 5 minutes, it's outrageous! Went back to the room and started packing. Emerald Princess left Helsingborg, Sweden and arrived at Copenhagen, Denmark, Anita returned to the ship safely at around 9:00 pm, tired but still in good spirit. Our assigned disembarkation time was 9:25 am, a bit rush for our flight at 12:20, so we got it changed to 8:00 - in fact, almost everyone did just that.

Baltic Cruise 2009 - VI

08/04/2009

Copenhagen, Denmark - Disembarkation

It had been raining since we got back to Copenhagen, and occasionally pouring, but it got better in the morning, the ground is almost dry, our walk to the train station should be easier. Got up at 5:00 and had breakfast at 5:30, although the buffet food is pretty much the same stuff everyday, but it seemed more tasty this morning, possibly because this is the last meal on the ship. The disembarkation was so easy as there were absolutely no crowd at all. It took us 25 minutes to walk to the train station (Nordhavn), since Anita already bought a 2-day family ticket yesterday, we board the train to Central station then change to another train to the airport (Kastrup). Since we could not check-in on the ship last night and the plane was over booked, we got boarding passes without seat assignments, we were told that we'll get seat assignments at the gate one hour before taking off (or before boarding, not sure), but when we got there one hour before taking off, there's a long line waiting to cross the gate (only those with seat assignments can go through), when we got to the counter to get seat assignment, we were asked to wait, we got 23G and 23H after half an hour, not bad for adjacent window and aisle seats, it's worth the wait. This is the second SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) flight we took on this trip, the first one was from London to Copenhagen, and it was much like a 1960 style airplane seating and flight operation, but this one was fantastic, we simply could not believe what was transpiring in front of us. They actually provided complimentary wine and liquor for economy class passengers, this is something we have not seen in the last 10 years, I had a small bottle of Absolut Vodka before Dinner, and Anita asked for a bottle of red wine while I did a white wine, each came in a small but cute bottle (we brought home all three empty bottles for souvenir). There were so many items in the meal (rice with chicken, cracker, cheese, sweets, salad, and a couple of special but tasty buns) that we simply could not finish them and decided to take them home for breakfast instead. This is the best meal I had on any airplane ever (economy, that is)! We got to Washington D.C. airport after about 9 hours, after nearly 30 minutes waiting in line to pass immigration, we retrieved our luggage and went through security check point, drop off the luggage for continuing flight and walked 30 minutes to gate D26 - the longest walk I've ever experienced at any airport, it is unbelievable that there's no transportation of any kind, we had to stop and rest a bit half way through. We landed at SFO after 5 hours and 30 minutes. Our luggage did not show up at the claim area, after checking with the UA counter, they found out that there was nearly a dozen luggages missing but promised it will be delivered to us at home within 24 hours.

Don and husband Jihua picked us up – they had to wait with us at SFO because of the luggage issue for almost one hour.

If it was the former scenario then it was a really lousy job, no damage should have been done to the luggage even for security reason!!!!!! But I guess there is little we could do except being happy that it came back. >

2009 Movie Experience

- Up
- The Proposal
- Duplicity
- Mall Cop
- 500 days of Summer
- Julie and Julia
- Coco before Chanel
- The Hurt Locker
- District 9
- Food Inc.
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Inglorious Bastards
- Taking Woodstock

- Capitalism: A Love Story
- Michael Jackson's This Is It
- Up in the Air

Santa Clara County Superior Court Jury Duty - almost

On call this week for SCC Superior Court Jury duty. Since Monday is Labor Day, all potential jurors need to check 11-12 Tuesday. Sending Anita to SFO for 1:20pm flight back to Taiwan was to take only 40-50 minutes, due to a traffic condition on 101 near Mathilda, we were delayed by 20 minutes, her flight was ok but I didn't have enough time to go home and check jury status online (I later realized that there's a number I could've called to get the same info, but i simply wasn't thinking clearly at the time), so I stopped half way and asked Yung to check for me, luckily I was scheduled to check after 5:00 pm which I did and found out I need to report to Hall of Justice (190 W Hedding Street, San Jose) and park at Civic Center Parking Garage 8:30am Wednesday.

Got up at 7:00 and took care of everything before 7:45, got to the parking garage (8:10) and had no problem finding a space (the document says we need to park at dedicated jury parking space which I could not find and parking space is limited which is hard to believe). Enter the HOJ building after security check, reported at the counter and validated the parking ticket, went into the jury waiting room and WAIT (8:15).

A judge came into the waiting room and gave some general jury information - sacrifice, duty, understanding, possibility out of court settlement, short trial,.... We were called into court room 52 (9:25) to get ready for juror selection. Juror selection begins after everybody has sworn in (9:35). Judge Gregory Ward asked potential jurors to express concerns for serving as juror, about 20 people (out of 50) raised different concerns - physical condition, job related travel, financial hardship, illness,... Judge Ward excused 7 or 8 of the 20 people, we are officially in the selection process. 18 people were called to sit in the jury box (12 regular plus 6 backup). Judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney take turns questioning them, general questions, specific questions, and questions targeting specific individual were all used. The judge excused 2 jurors during his interview session - one due to past experience with the police, the one replacing him was also excused due to her instance on certain opinions. This session of the proceeding took over 3 hours, 4 jurors were excused by the prosecutor and 3 by the defense attorney at the conclusion of this session. As a result 7 more people from the pool were called upon, I am one of them, but lunch break was called before continuing with the proceeding.

I decided not to drive home even though there was one hour and 20 minutes before resuming court session. I bought a turkey sandwitch ($6.50) and consumed it in the car. rested a while than went back to juror waiting room (12:50), we were finally called back to the courtroom at 1:45. The judge announced that the case has been settled (no detail were given), all of us were excused.

Baltic cruise summary

1. Transportation to and from the embarkation/disembarkation port: We flew from San Francisco to London, than to Copenhagen, a total of 20 hours with a few hours delay. We got to Copenhagen at 10:30 and got to the hotel at 11:20 (we need to take atrain at the airport to central station than walk about 10 minutes to the hotel), we wanted to see Copenhagen a little bit before going on to the cruise. Our checkin time at the cruise was from 1:00pm to 4:00pm the next day, since the hotel check out time was 11:00, so we checked out the hotel and rented lockers to store our luggages and then went on to tour the city. Pick up our luggages at the hotel, rode the train to the station closest to the port and walked 25 minutes to the pier where the cruise was - this was another experience since it rained during our walk to the pier, you can imagine us hauling our luggages and walking in heavy rain trying to find the cruise, but we maganed to get there in one piece :-)
Coming back is pretty much the same route except we land at Washington D.C. instead, this was the worst since there were so many people waiting to go through custom, it took 45 minutes to pass immigration, going to our connecting flight was even worse, the gate was about 30 minutes walk from the immigration check point, we had to stop half way to rest before continuing. We only checked in one luggage but it is the one that's missing when we arrived at San Francisco airport, it turned out to be misplaced/delayed due to unspecified reason but was promised to be sent to us in 24 hours. We did get the luggage the next day at home, it has been opened with cutter and stuff inside were all messed up - not sure if this the act of Homeland Security checking suspicious luggages (if this is the case then they are doing a lousy job as the zipper pulls instead of the lock were cut, although in useable form, it is totally disformed - bad act) or people in Washington D.C. airport trying to steal from it.

2. The cruise ship and its services: Emerald Princess is one of the largest cruise ships in the world, it can carry 3100 passengers and 1300 crews, 15 decks, and started service in 2007, so it's a fairly modern and complete cruise ship. There are over 10 cafes/restaurants, a casino, several bars, a theater (house 1500 people), an art gallery, a gym, a spa, 3 pools,... There are 7 different types of cabins - Interior, double, obstructed view double, double with view, double with balcony, mini-suite with balcony, suite with balcony, and family suite with view, each with difference price tag. We originally book the obstructed view double (the window is partially obstructed by a life boat) but the one we have has additional traffic as it is close to a stair, so we changed to interior double which is $100 cheaper, but we did not get cabin assigned until the day before we are to leave San Jose, turned out they overbooked and had to upgrade us to obstructed view double, so we actually pay less but got a better obstructed view double (this particular one is not close to any stair). the view turned out to be ok as we can view the outside fairly well through the top half of the window. There are two buffet cafes where had most of our meals, we did have several meals in two of the sit down restaurants but they do not necessarily provide better food than the buffet, 3 of the other resuaurants charges additional fee (between $20 to @30) to dine there, also we need to pay for bottle water, soft drink, beer, wine, and liquor. They also charge Internet access, almost $1 per minute, the thing is that charging starts right after you login to the system regardless if you are accessing the Internet or not, since it was slow (satellite based) and most of time it is waiting, I tried to check-in our return flight the night before and spent 8 minutes without sucess and was charged $14, was very unhappy about that but could do nothing. There were various onboard entertainments, from musicals, dance, movie, work shops, to art exhibition, there were also programs designed for kids so the parents can enjoy without them around, it is possible that you don't have to leave the ship at all and still have a lot to do or not to do - pure relax.
Our cabin was about 170 sq ft with toilet, sink, shower, queen bed, a couple of chairs, a small table, closet, safe, and writing table - pretty much like a small motel room.

3. Land excursion: Aside from the entertainments provided on the ship, most people will take land excursion once docked at port of call. There are three approaches to touring on land: (1) Book through the cruise ship - The cruise ship advertise before and during the cruise, this is usually more expensive but they do provide some advantages, you get to board the tour bus right at the port of call, no need to take other transportation to get to the tour bus, you get priority when getting off the ship, the down side is that it is more expensive. (2) Through local independent service - this is usually booked at the time of travel arrangement, it is usually less expensive but you need to do some home work (to see which service is more reliable,...) and (3) Self-guided tour - most tour services rush through vista points(barely enough time to take photos, you won't have time to really enjoy it if you like it the place) and take you shopping (weather you want it or not) where they get commissions (this seems to be true for all travel agencies), so a self-guided tour will usually give you more flexibility, you only visit the places you want and stay as long as you like, this, however, means you need to do a lot of research before and during the trip, walking, taking bus, train, metro, ferry are all part of the self-guided tour, probably not good if traveling with the very old or the very young. We self guided all our tours except the one in St. Petersburg, Russia is the only country in our tour requires visa, it is very inconvenient (and probably unsafe) to travel there on your own. We got to see more, experience more, and enjoy more on self-guided tours - sometimes more adventurous.

Anita and I both agree that this will likely be our one and only cruise trip (we think because we can only go on shore where the cruise dock, and this greatly restricted how much time you can spend on shore and being able to tour, for instance, during our port of call at Warnemunde Germany, the excursion to Berlin is 3 hours train ride one way, 4 hours Berlin city tour and another 3 hour train ride back) unless we run into another good deal. The cruise cost is $1100 per person for us, excluding excursion ($380 per person for St. Petersburg excursion) and airfare($1200 airfare per person).

Baltic Cruise

xw4m7m - 用伊堳兒做UN.

Webcam access

75.18.217.???

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Passport Usage

Leaving USA and entering Taiwan:
1. Fill out passport information(online or at the counter) - Enter ROC passport(USA passport info may also be needed depending on carriers) info at Airline used(i.e. China Airlines, Eva Airlines), this information is necessary when entering Taiwan with ROC passport to gain citizen status and unlimited length of stay as well.
2. Present USA passport at ticket counter to check in
3. Pass through US security check point with USA passport and boarding pass
4. Board plane with USA passport, if necessary, and boarding pass
4. Enter custom check point in Taiwan with ROC passport

Leaving Taiwan and entering USA:
1. Present ROC passport at the ticket counter to check in, USA passport may be needed to show USA entrance eligibility
1. Present ROC AND USA passports at the custom check point (to leave Taiwan as well as to get exit stamp on the USA passport)
2. Go to the special counter to get entrance stamp for the USA passport
3. Enter US custom with USA passport

餃子餡做法

Visited 誠品書局東湖店 this afternoon. Took bus 284, the path instruction advise to get off at 明湖國小 but after getting off and walked around I discovered that the 康寧路三段 stop is right in front of the bookstore, oh well, next time. Found a book about preparing all kinds of 餡, but the one that is more fundamental and crucial to all 餡 is the basic 餡 preparation - you can say it's the mother of all 餡, I was going to buy the book but after flipping through it I decided I on;y need the first few pages so I attempted memorizing them as much as possible, this is what I remembered:


1. All 餡 has 絞豬肉, usually 600克(~1.2 pound)
2. Chop 絞豬肉 a few more times
3. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 絞豬肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
4. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
5. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

<白菜, 韭菜, 韭黃>
1. Cut to small pieces
2. Sprinkle salt and mix them in a bowl
3. Let it sit for one hour
4. Squeeze and remove water
5. Let it sit for one hour in the refrigerator


<高麗菜>
1. Cut to mid size
2. Broil water
3. 燙高麗菜至半熟
4. Soak in cold water
5. Let dry
6. Chop to small pieces
7. Squeeze to remove water

<雞肉餡>
1. Fine chop 600克(~1.2 pound) 雞肉
2. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 雞肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
3. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
4. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

<蝦肉餡> needs editing
1. Prepare peeled shrimp - ????????
1. Cut 16 mid-size 蝦 each to 4 or 5 pieces
2. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 雞肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
3. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
4. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

First local health care visit

Got up at 6:00 this morning, didn't sleep much through the night though - possibly the thought of going to have my heart examined kept me awake :-)

Got on Bus 617 - this one is supposed to go into 三總 campus and stop at the door, or at least I had this impression that it would - it reached 三總 outer station after about 11 stops, but before it turned into its campus, it moved on and left the area, I hurriedly got off at the next stop(Neihu District Administration Building) and , it took me a while to figure out which bus(across the street) to take me back to the previous stop, by then it was 7:45(15 minutes later), and my registration number had ran up to 96(it would have been below 50 if made it the first time), but luckily I was able to line up for the morning session although my turn (#57) appeared to be close to the end of the session. the session won't start until 9:00 am so I went back home to have a light breakfast, in order not to miss my turn, I went back to the hospital around 9:30. I checked the number that is currently being serviced and decided to take a walk (in fact, I took at least half dozen such walk later on) to kill some time. To my surprise, the hospital was full of people/patients no matter which section of the hospital I strolled by, maybe this is normal in Taiwan but the easiness for people to see a doctor may not be a good thing because people would stop taking care of themselves seriously thinking doctors/hospitals are readily available whenever needed/or not. Seeing so many people on crutches, walking canes, walkers, and wheelchairs made me think about my own fate - I'd rather live a short but healthy life than long and miserable one.
The morning session doctor had 80 patients registered, he has to finish all within 3 hours (maybe 30 extension), you can see the amount of attention he can provide to each patient is very limited.
I went to a electrocardiogram before seeing the doctor, I told the doctor about my irregular heartbeat and rapid heartbeat encounters but he brushed it off and saying it is not abnormal and he couldn't do anything for me - no prescription, no additional tests,... and simply let me go, well it is for better and for worse - I can simply stop worrying about problems with my heart but still need to take care of it by myself. This will likely be my last stop here.

National Health Insurance Application

After nearly 10 days of agonizing, I finally got my Health Insurance IC card - I can see a doctor without paying full price now. Here are the stuff I went through:

- Arriving Taiwan at 10:00 pm 5/8/2009
- Went to Neihu District Administration office to submit health insurance addition application. It on;y took 2 minutes wait for bus(630) and 5 minutes ride to get to Neihu administration building, was called right after I got the number. getting a copy of the household registration paper took a while but the process completed in 10 minute, but they said because they are in "停檔" period from 5/12 to 5/20, my information won't be entered into the system until the 20th, meaning I am not officially qualified to see a doctor under the National Health Insurance policy - I need to personally go to the Health Insurance Bureau on the 20th to get the IC card to be qualified,.. sigh.....
- Called the Administration office to confirm that the Health Insurance Bureau have my information. Took the 630 bus and got off at 仁愛中山路口 and walked 10 minutes to National Health Insurance Bureau Taipei office, took only 2 minutes to process the application, but took 15 minutes to get the IC card - but it is well worth the waiting - time was 10:30 am. Walked to 228 Memorial Park, found out that the National Taiwan Museum is open free to the public the whole month of May, on exhibition were "Deep Sea Wonders", "Native Taiwainese tribes", and a few regulars. Spent one and half hour there - could have been loger but the air conditioning was too cold for me, had to get out before I cought a cold. Walked around the blocks for a while and had lunch at Burger Kings - Warper meal as usual, cost NT $139. Browsed at "天龍 bookstore" but didn't buy anything. Took MRT at "臺大醫院站" and got off at "圓山站", took Bus 21 instead of Bus Red 2 to come back - 21 appeared to be faster probably due to fewer customers - the driver had to asked me where I was getting off because I was the only person left after driving into Neihu.