USA trip Dec 2010 - Los Angeles

The last part of our USA trip taken in Dec 2010 was spent in Los Angeles.

Day 11: We spent the day doing final shopping at Camarillo Premium Outlets. Okay, we didn't buy a lot of stuff, but we did a lot of walking... since the place was huge!

And the weather was so great, it was sunny California, after all that rain in the first part of the trip.

We even had airplanes flying overhead (seems like there was a small airfield nearby).

While we didn't get to do a lot during this trip, it is spending time with family that was the real goal of this. I managed to spend time with my cousin (whom I grew up with), and the two distant cousins (my son, and my cousin's son) were also able to play and get to know each other.

Day 12: Time to go. We got to the airport to catch our flight across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, where we intended to spend the new year.

Total distance driven: 218 miles

We had a Nissan car this time round, but never got round to taking a picture of it. And it was a "keyless" car... the kind that you start by pressing a button. Never driven such a car before... so it took a while to figure out how to start the car!

USA trip Dec 2010 - Mechanicsburg

The second part of our USA trip taken in Dec 2010. This was a visit to a family friend living in Mechanicsburg, a small town in Pennsylvania.

Day 6: We set off from San Diego for Philadelphia (a cross-country flight!) that took about 5 hours. Arriving at Philadelphia airport at night, we spent the night at a nearby hotel (yet another Residence Inn by Marriott). Here's a weird looking science contraption at the airport arrival.

Day 7: We woke up to a sunny winter day. The kid decided that Elmo should live in a shoe, so he put Elmo into one of his mother's boots.

It was a great day for a drive to our friends' place. We stopped over for lunch at King of Prussia shopping mall (it was huge!) before continuing on our way to Mechanicsburg. This is how the house, built in 1785, looks like.

It also happened to be Christmas Eve, so we were greeted by a huge Christmas tree in the living room.

Day 8: Christmas Day! And Christmas isn't complete without a reindeer, so we did have one... though he didn't look very happy when he first put on his antlers. Maybe it was because he didn't get to see himself with them?

We did have a fun time opening up presents. Christmas is about giving and receiving, and the kid kept himself busy (and useful) ripping open everyone's presents.

Our hosts prepared a wonderful spread for dinner... and we ate ourselves so full...

A heavy snowstorm hit the US east coast that night, but being a bit further inland, we didn't get any snow at all. The snow, however, caused many airports to close and got us a bit worried that our flight back to LA may be cancelled. But the weather forecast seems to suggest that things would turn out well, so we weren't that worried.

Day 9: Boxing Day, a day to take things slowly. We took a walk in the countryside surrounding the house. Here's the view of the back of the house.

There is a creek nearby, and small puddles would accumulate when it overflows its banks... the cold, however, turned those puddles into ice.

My wife cooked dinner that night, a Singaporean dinner (even though she is Japanese). We had bak kut teh and fried rice.

Here's a picture of our hosts and the kid.

It was great being able to spend time with friends, especially Christmas. The hearty welcome and warm hospitality, plus being able to just chat about how things are going, made this trip flying half the world around (and crossing many many time zones) so worth it.

Day 10: Our last day for this part of the trip. After getting up early in the morning and checking out the flights (to make sure ours was not cancelled due to the snow), we hopped into the car for the drive to Philadelphia airport. On the way, we passed by snow country... snow accumulated from the heavy snowstorm that hit the US east coast on Christmas. It was the first time I have ever driven in the snow... and the GPS decided to bring me down some small roads (instead of the well-maintained highways) which were covered in snow. It was the first time I saw the "skid" lamp lit up in my dashboard.

The snow caused our car to get stuck at the petrol kiosk, but with the help of some passer-bys, we managed to get it out. We made it to the airport and this was the view out of the window.

The snow did cause some delays... our co-pilot was absent and in the end, we waited in the plane for about 4 hours while the airline arranged for another co-pilot. But we finally took off and reached LA way past dinner time. Here's a view of Philadelphia from the sky.

Total distance driven: 250 miles

We had a Toyota Camry for this part of the trip, but we never took a photo of it in our rush to get out of the cold (remember, the airport was still covered in snow...)

Japan trip Oct 2010

I was in Japan (Tokyo, to be exact) in Oct 2010 for work, but there was a bit of sightseeing as well.

I managed to visit the Imperial Palace at Tokyo.

Here's the place where the Imperial family usually give their New Year's greetings.

There was also a visit to Sensoji (浅草寺), and I was privileged to be able to see the art collection housed here. A lot of ema (絵馬) are housed here, and this is one of the more famous ones.

The exhibit hall has a statue of the Goddess of Mercy as well.

To round it all up, I also got the chance to visit Nikko's Toshogu (日光東照宮) where Tokogawa Ieyasu is buried. This is the path leading up to the temple.

The entrance itself.

The famous Three Wise Monkeys - see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb.

It was a short trip, revisiting places that I have been to before, but still, meaningful because of the people who went along with me. Plus each time I go, I learn a little more about these places.

USA trip Dec 2010 - Southern California

December 2010. We visited the USA, mainly Los Angeles and this little town called Mechanicsburg.

Here's the start of the journey, Changi International Airport. There is an area where you can use the Internet for free!

Day 1: We reached LA after a long flight across the Pacific Ocean, and rented a car to move around. First stop was to get to my cousin's place. After setting up the GPS and taking a slow drive, we finally made it.

We got to LA at a very bad time, actually. It happened to be the rainy season, and this year's rain was a lot more than usual. In fact, it was the worst rainy season they had in decades. The rain caused landslides and minor flash floods. It is totally not like the sunny California that we are so used to hearing about.

Day 2: We visited the Natural History Museum, driving there in the rain. It wasn't as interesting as we thought, just full of static displays.

The kid managed to get some hands-on though, trying to find buried fossils.

Right beside the Natural History Museum was the Science Centre. We managed to get there despite the rain, and it was a fun experience for the kid, since he was able to play around with the exhibits.

My cousin's husband had a Christmas party at his workplace and we were invited. The kid got a chance to take a photo with Santa Claus.

Day 3: We wanted to visit Kidspace Children's Museum, but it was closed due to the rain. So we went shopping instead at Desert Hills Premium Outlets. It was harrowing to say the least, driving in the rain... it was worse at night, trying to drive in the heavy rain on unlit and unfamiliar roads (you can barely see the lane markings...) and it is made worse since I was driving on a side of the road that I am not used to. But we made it through fine.

Day 4: The original plan called for a visit to Disneyland. The rain made sure that plan didn't materialise. Instead, we spent it shopping again, this time at the nearby mall.

Day 5: We left LA for San Diego. It was a nice drive down, during which we made a stop to get the kid an Elmo toy. We had wanted to visit Legoland, but it was closed due to the rain. Instead, we visited the aquarium (know as Sea Life Aquarium) at Legoland, and thought it was a good experience. The kid loved playing with the Lego bricks so much, we got him his own set.

We spent the night in San Diego before leaving the next day to catch our plane bound for Philadelphia.

Total distance driven: 493 miles

Here's the Mazda 6 that we rented for this part of the trip.

Hawaiian summer 2010

In summer 2010, I spent some time in Hawaii (Oahu) due to work, but also managed to squeeze in some time to explore the island with the family.

The famous Waikiki beach, with Diamond Head in the background.

You can't say you have to been to Hawaii if you never visit Waikiki. Here's a shot of the sun over the beach.

Another famous beach: Waimea Point. People so love jumping off the rock here.

It's a great place for the kids to play in the sand too, since it is not as crowded as Waikiki.

Hawaii is full of beaches, here's the view from another beach, Sunset Beach.

And the family photo, taken at Pali Lookout.

The sightseeing was short but enjoyable. I wonder when we will be able to do this again?

My Kindle 3

After finally getting myself an Amazon Kindle 3, here's some updates.

My wife, ever so good at sewing, kindly produced a case of her own for my Kindle 3. It allows me to keep my Kindle safe from scratches while carrying it around from place to place. Here's how it looks like:

The case itself:

The case with the Kindle in it:

The case with the Kindle on it:

Also, to those who worry about security checks while travelling with the Kindle, so far, I have not been told to remove the Kindle from its case at airport security checks. But onboard planes, they will still ask you to stop using the Kindle during take-off and landing.

The Kindle 3 is great for reading novels and books without pictures. Being able to change the font size and line spacing really helps. But if there are pictures... they may not turn out as well. It is also very convenient when travelling. I like to read several books at a time, switching between them as my interest switches. With the Kindle, I was able to switch between books without having to carry physically more than one book (and the Kindle is lighter and smaller than most books too). The Internet browser is not that great, though... given that the e-ink screen does not refresh as well as a normal LCD screen.

If I have a wish for how the next Kindle would be like:
- Colour screen (now that colour e-ink is out)
- Better way of viewing the notes (instead of everything in a single file)
- A standalone notepad application (that way, I can use it as a notepad too!)
- More robust web browser

Get your Kindle 3 today at Amazon!

Welcome 2011!!

Happy New Year 2011!

This year, we spent the holidays in Japan as always. A more detailed update will soon follow... once I manage to get the pictures sorted out.

Meanwhile, hope everyone has a great year ahead!

Christmas 2010

This Christmas, we are spending it with a friend and his family in the United States, so it will be filled with Christmas carols, a real Christmas tree, decorations, turkey, cold (and maybe snow) plus church. Standby for photos post-trip!

Amazon Kindle 3

After hearing about the Amazon Kindle 3 from my colleague, and reading about it on the Internet, I decided that it was the e-book reader for me, and went ahead to get one for myself.

My interest with e-book readers came about because I am going to have to move soon, and having a lot of books is bogging me down. Yet I cannot bear to part with my books. So I have decided that the best way is to keep my books in digital format, while keeping the paper versions of those books that I really want to keep.

So now, I am trying to find digital versions of books that I have, so that I can part with the paper versions...

By the way, for those interested to get themselves the Kindle in Singapore, please read the following:
Jeff's Blog on Amazon Kindle 3
A forum for e-book readers in general
I would advice using Borderlinx... I used VPOST and regretted it. It took almost 11 days from the time I ordered my Kindle before it finally arrived in Singapore... and that was after choosing 2-day delivery from Amazon. Amazon delivered as promised, the choke point was VPOST.

Do note that Amazon Kindle content is not supported in Singapore, so do follow the instructions in Jeff's Blog above. There are two versions, the WiFi only version, and the version that has both WiFi and 3G. If you are a frequent traveller, I would suggest getting the 3G version, else the WiFi version would suffice.

以德服人 Part 2

The other day, someone was saying that Japanese warriors (武士) are formidable because they are always ready to die. And Japanese martial arts are simple and effective, not flashy. When a Japanese warrior draws his sword, he draws it to kill.

Someone rebutted that it is not that Chinese warriors draw their sword without aiming to kill. When a Chinese warrior draws his sword, he draws it to kill too. It is just that he does not draw his sword easily.

I think it is not about race. Whether Japanese or Chinese, the wisdom behind this is the same.
仁者，不以力制人，以德服人。
A person must have compassion for his fellow men, and when he does, it is no longer about how well he fights, because he aims not to use his martial skills, instead relying on his heart to reach out to the people around him. He gains respect not by the number of people he defeats, but by the number of lives he touches with his sincerity.

The old martial artist sitting in the background may not be able to move as fast as when he was young. But he doesn't need to. Because he no longer relies on his hands and legs to defeat his opponents. The strength of his character is his true weapon.

Parting with Dungeons and Dragons

Updated on 2 Dec 2010 at 2330H:

Due to the need to clear out my old stuff in preparation for a move in the near future, I intend to part with some of my Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) Second Edition (2nd Ed), and Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Third Edition (3rd Ed) stuff like rulebooks and supplements. Most of them are in near mint condition, except for the core rulebooks (Players Handbook and Dungeon Master Guide) for 2nd Ed. Do drop me a mail or leave a comment here for me to contact you if you are interested and we can then negotiate a price and a method of delivery. Most convenient if you live in Singapore.

The books available:
AD&D 2nd Ed:
Players Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Monstrous Manual
Legends and Lore
The Complete Ninja's Handbook
The Complete Psionics' Handbook
The Complete Thief's Handbook
The Complete Wizard's Handbook
The Complete Priest's Handbook
The Complete Book of Elves
Arms and Equipment
Player Option: Skills and Powers
Player Option: Combat and Tactics
DM Option: High-Level Campaigns
Faiths and Avatars
Heroes' Lorebook
D&D 3rd Ed:
Players Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Manual of the Planes
Monster Manual
Oriental Adventures
Sword and Fist
Masters of the Wild

Follow your heart

There are times when no matter how hard we think, how much logic we apply, we come up against a dead end, and we cannot decide on which option to choose.

In those cases, follow your heart. Because when you follow your heart, you remain true to yourself.

以德服人

仁者，不以力制人，以德服人。

That was something that rang in my heart when I heard it.

We should not use fear (the threat of using force) to get people to do things. We should show them that it is because we care for them, which is why we are asking them to do those things. Sometimes, we take the easy way out because fear can be a big motivating factor, but we must always remember that fear only works when the threat is there, but if you gain a person's respect, he will continue to do what you ask even when you are no longer around.