2009 autumn (October)

Taking photos during the fall season is definitively fun.   All those yellow, red leaves is a must.  But it is also fun taking pictures of flowers that are still blooming.  For this year, I picked QE park Vancouver.   Feel free to leave comments to my photos.

Sign QE Park

Golden Ear direction QE

Reflection

Bush QE

Tree QE

fluffy flower

Bamboo

Purple flower

QE Waterfall

QE Fountain

Flury flower

Day 1
Arrived at the Cancun airport at about 930 in Te morning.   The plane parked really nicely and we were let into the airport with ease.  As we walk out of the “tunnel” to the airport, the first thing I noticed was a 500 square feet in the middle of the airport of shopping square.   But we didn’t go into shops instead, we waited in a line that passes around the shops to have a custom person to check our forms.  After passing him we walk down the stairs to the lower floor where we did the real custom check.  It was quick, i s not much to worry about for Mexico.   Once we passed the custom, we waited for about 20 mins for our luggage and then off we go to the Riviera Maya.BTW, there is one very funny thing about leaving the airport, it gets us to press a button to turn a green light on when we hand-in our “declaration” card.  Not sure what the purpose is but there it is.

Once we walk out of the airport, a guy came towards us and without asking, helped us to carry our bag to the bus.   As expected, we paid him tips.  Lesson one, say no when you donno what is going on.  So we aarrived on the bus and sat in there for an hour or so and we arrived at Grand Sirinis.   From the outside it looked great but we could not check-in to our room until 3.  which is almost 4 hours later.   So guess what, we went for a drink (coco-hala and magaritta) walked around and took some pictures.   Went to buffet at 1pm and finished up at 2pm.   Walk around even more and then went back to check in at 3.   once we checked it, we didn’t have time to sleep because we went to the “Air transat” briefing at 4.  We went back to the room and rested till 7 for our dinner.  Went back to the room early and took a shower and went to the sleep.

Day 2
Didn’t wake up till 830am.  So we went to eat our breakfast at 9 and start going to the beach at 10.  Found two sun chairs and we sat there and read/sunburn/drink.  I had a MaiTai and Magarita.  Till 1pm, we went for a lunch.  We left our towels there to make sure we get our spot back when we finish up our lunch.  We then went back to our room to do get snorklering equipments.  Went back to the beach chairs and tan a bit more.  At 4pm, we started snokerling.   Ju had a big problem with water, so I had to figure out wat she was afraid of.  Just about I lose my patient asking about wha tis causing the fear, I figured she is actually afarid of water  Oh well,  practice after practice she statrted to do it.  Done with snokerling, so went back to the room and prepare for our first A la carte – Brazlian.   We first started off with self-serve salad buffet.  Then the “Black-bean” soup came.  Its like the salted version of red-bean dessert.  Then we had a sour-sprite-tequilla and house-red wine.  They started us off with 2 sausages, then pork, beef, more port, 2 more beef and then a chicken.  Very full.  They then gave us the dessert – something like creme burle.   Finish a very fullfilling dinner.  So now we went to the “Mexico nite” show.  There is a nite market there which sell things at the same price as what I can get in Vancouver.  So guess what, got nothing there.  Then waiting a bit for the real Mexico show  with a “Blue Lagoon”.  Great but kind of boring – played the same thing over and over again.    But we did stay till 10pm and went back for to sleep.

Day 3

Off to our first tour in Akumal.  We woke up at 730 and prepare our-self for breakfast.  We got to the breakfast place by 820(20 mins later than we wished).  Finish off our breakfast at 850 and then went back room to do th final preparation of the Coba tour.  The bus came about 15 mins late at 855.  We waited a bit more after the small van picked us up as we were waiting for the big bus.  So we didn’t really leave for our trip till 945.   During the 45 mins ride to Coba ruins, the guide talked about there are still 8M of Mayans living in Mexico and Central America and they were originated from China.  As we get closer to Coba, we actually saw a Crocodile lake.  We actually saw 2 crocodiles spying on a bird.  Poor bird, properly won’t live too long.  So we got to Coba, did some washroom and bug spraying, then off we go.  Walked around for approx an hour and 15 mins (1230) and we finally got to the tallest ruins.  We hiked up and took lots of pictures and  came back down by  pm.  We walked back in a hurry b/c we are suppose to go back by 115 and we were not even close after we walked for 10mins.  But eventually we went back by 120, so not too bad.  We then we to a cenote.  Very small cenote and ppl who swim is suppose to take a bath first.  Mexico doesn’t allow people to use non-biodegradable suntain lotion in the cenote.  But since we only get 30mins staying there, we decided not to go into the water but just take pictures inside the cenote  Still very fun and actually enjoyed it more than going to swim.  It is very humid in there i came back out the cenote with water on my skin.  Typical humid place.  We then sat for an hour or so and went for lunch  We had it at a Mayan village, had western food mostly and paid for 15 peso per bottle of pop.  1 dollar in CAD in Vancouver and they charged 15peso in Mexico, very juicy.  We also got some 20peso coin bags as hand-letter.  After the lunch, we headed to Akutun Chen.  Amazing scenery.  Cave with sharp stones that were made like millions of years ago.  Tree roots growing from the ground towards into the stone into the water system inside the cave.   Amazing scene.   Then we went up a bit to see some monkey/deer and birds.  But after all, the animals weren’t that interesting.  We went back to the van by 522 and then back into the hotel by 6pm.  Took bath and rested a bit and went to dinner at 8.  Finished up and went to the Variety show.  Had a Mojita, sour but not bad.  The show was good, had 4 groups of audience in2 to play games.  They had this lemon rolling from one trunk of the pants to the other, had this guy, blind folded, wearing a horn and try to poke thru a hole.  The lady giving instructions.   The fun part of it is when they play the instructions back, it sounds like the lady telling the guy how to poke it.  There is also the game of copying a professional dancer.  Lastly, they had the lady running toward the guy to blow up 4 balloons.  All in different positions (lady to man)– one chest to chest, bum to ger with the guy sitting, virgina to bum and bum to ger with the guy on the ground.  The show finised so we went back to the hotel and rested.

Day 4 (Friday)
Started off an early day.  Woke up at 8 so we can try to get to the beach asap.  We wanted to make sure we get a decent spot for our morning tanning.  However, after prepping this and that, we got there by 1030.  So we only got about an hour of tanning.  At 12, we try to snoker again.  This time, it went much better, we actually went to see some dead reefs with some fish.   After seeing all these, i really want to recycle and help the environment.  Can’t believe how sad it is to see dead reef in front of your eyes.   So after that, we went back to the room and start taking showers.  At 2 we went to lunch and finished by 3.  We were planning to go to shopping at a closer town like Tulum and Akumal.  However, after asking around the conceiage and the front desk, they still suggested us to go to Playa de Carmen.  We didnt’ want to come back during night time (cause the travel time between Playa de Carmen is like 45 mins one trip, so it will leave us only like an hour in town.  Because of this, we decided not to go and stay in the resort.  We did pool, tried archery but it was closed when we got there.  The rest of the late afternoon, we just went back to the room and played around till dinner.  We had dinner at 8 and then had a bay Breeze before going to the entertainment show, “Broadway”.  Basically they got 3 signers singing all of the old time famous Broadway songs.  Good show in terms of good singing but nothing too big.

Day 5 (Saturday)
Woke up at 830 to have dinner at 9.  Finish off breakfast at 10 and off we go to Player de Carman.  Very luckily, we actually bumped into another older couple from Montreal who was also going to Player.  So we went to take the collitivo together.  The good point is when we were waiting for the Van, a taxi came who tried to get us there for $10USD.   Usually it is 25USD and the colletivo is 15peso.  So for 4 of us, 2.5 USD per person isn’t too much difference so we went ahead with the taxi.  We got there but the couples wanted to come back by 5, but we wanted to come back earlier to enjoy the resort, so we separated and onto our own journey.   We got there about 11pm and we finish shopping by 1-ish.  I got 2 match boxes for mom, a small mexico hat for Ben Lau and a shooter glass for Clem.  For my own, I got a Mescal with a worm and a necklace of “Pax”.  Pax is my zodiac sign in the Mayan culture.  I am supposed to be musical and hand-craft talented.    She got a plastic bag with very cool design.   And she also got lots of those tiny Mexico hats for her friends and family.  Walked around the remaining of the town – see the beach, walk to the square and etc.   We wanted to try to take the collectivo to come back to the resort.  However, after walking for 30mis, we couldn’t find the right colletivo.  So we ended up taking a taxi.  The stupid thing I did was the person asked 27USD to drive us back and I said 25.  I should of said more.  Stupid.   But anyhows, we got back to the resort by 255 and ran into the buffet for lunch.  Amazingly, we finished by 320 and we went back to room for a cigar. This time i ordered a Lemonada Electica.  However, the person couldn’t understand and i donno what he said but i think I got the right one.   After Cigar and some DS, i took a bath and went to sleep.   Had our Meditarrian a la carte and it was good.  Lots of seafood (crab scissor, muscle, squid and lots more.)  So we were very full and happy.   After dinner, I got a Brandy Cola for my show drink.  The show tonight is “Lip Synch”.  This is where dancers imitate the well known signers like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Shikra.   Not a bad show.  We then we back to the room to play some more DS and then sleep.

Day 6 (Sunday)
Woke up close to 9 this morning.  Went for a breakfast at 930 and finish around 10.   Then, we went back to our room for prepping another day with the water.  First we went to the beach at 11.  While walking towards to the beach, we bumped into the Montreal couple again.  Found out that they actually took the collectivo coming back.  Oh well, much cheaper than 25 USD.    So at the beach, we tan for 90 mins or so and t hen we went to play water.  The wave was huge today, wasn’t easy to swim.   So we didn’t swim too far out instead we just play around the shore area.   Once we were done with water, we went back to the room to drop off all of t he beach clothings and entertainment.  We just brought the sony camera/for video and our keys.  We wanted to go to do the lazy river right after our lunch.  The lazy river is fun, the whole trip was about 10 mins and it was very funny and relaxing.  So after the lazy river, went back to the room to prep for another hour of beach.  Didn’t do much there b/c the sun set was almost time.  So after an hour, i basically went back to the room for a cigar and finish some notes on the internet marketing book.    After taking bath, play some DS till 8 which was raining very hard.   Then needed to dress up for our 3rd a la carte – japanese.  The water there was horrible.  The cook was good thou.  Can tell he was new but he tried his best, so I liked him.  His name was Cesar – Good job.    He did a little show with us that night.  He tried to throw a piece of fried egg white from his cooking place to each of the  customer and they try to catch it with their mouth.  Of course, I have caught it successfully.  We had sushi for appetizer, then i had a deep fried cheese as my 2nd appetiser.  I chose Ebi Teppan for my main course and a “Iced Tempura” for my dessert.  The appetizers were soso.  The teppa was good and the portion was huge.  The iced tempura was quite bad.  Good gimmick but can’t get thru the soggy tempura with ice-cream.  Anyhow, finished the dinner at about 945 and then we went straight to the show of the niht  Las Vegas.  Basically very close to the “Boradway” night which is singing and performaing all of the the previous famous Vegas show.   Same ppl but still, very good performance.  Went back to the room then and had a mask.  The mask was quite small for my face.  So I am typing this blog with my eyes close to top the liquid from running into my eyes.  Oh forgot, I had a Campari Orange as my afer dinner drink tonight.  Campari is quite bad, but if you mix it well, it actually tased not bad.  So I would still fo for it next time.

Day 7 (Monday)
Originally planned to wake up at 5 to take sunrise pictures.  As expected, I didnt wake up till 8am.  Went to have breakfast at 9 and finished by 930.  Went back to room and thinking about what to do since it was a cloudy day.   We finally decided to go to the beach even it was cloudy.  So we can just sit and read some books.  So we went there and amazingly, after an hour or so, it became sunny again.  So I started the tanning exercise again till 1pm.  Then we went over to the little ruins the hotel created for a visit and it was a good scenery.   Bluewater + white sand + ruins rock.   We went back to the beach seat and sat for another 30 mins or so and then we went back for lunch.   The same guy who served us on Sunday was there as well.  He is a very hard-working guy, so I liked him and so I gave him tips both day.  He recognized me as well and kept on calling me Amigo.   So after lunch we went back to the beach for a rest.  I had a Capilianha, sugar + lime + tequila.  Very good drink.  Till 4, we started to walk back to the room.  In the walk from the beach to the room, we stopped twice.  Once at the ping pong place and second, the lazy river again.  Again, back in the room, had a cigar and took a bath and rested.  Went to the dinner at 7.  At the same time, we noticed we had to leave to airport tomorrow at 535 in the morning.  Damn, that means we have to wake up at around 430am.  This is a pain.  Anyways, its 1043pm right now so I better wrap up here and going to sleep.  In 22hours or so, i will be back in Vancouver and will be back to my routine daily life.

Would like to use this opportunity to describe a situation that happened to me.  You guessed it from the title — my paid doman got stolen from a hacker in germany but guess what, nothing can be done.

I had my domain hosting on Webserve.  They are doing fine until one day, when I wanted to visit my own site http://www.s-solution.com, it directed me to a sedopark parking page.   Obviosly, that didn’t make me feel comfortable.   I talked to their support and they were helpful in terms of answering my questions.  I do appreciate their effort of answring my questions but unfortuntely, they gave up after a while and simply told me to go to ICANN and resolve it on my own.  How nice.

done my part of complaining but now what would I suggest if you wanted to prevent this.  Based on what I have found, I think having a trademark of your company is the key.  So that way, you can actually get more help then just from ICANN.   Obviously, making good historical proves/bankup of your website is a must.

If you had a similar problem before, feel free to share this with others.  Really want to make more visibility on othis topic so it can be properly handled on our own.   The world has more problems right now (finicial crisis) so don’t think governments would spend too much time/effort on this front.  May as well we try to help each other out here.

Thanks for reading/sharing.

Unbelievable.   This year is already coming to a close.  Soon will be 2009 and guess what, this is year has been a busy one.   From trying to setup few businesses to fighting the historical finanical crisis to staying a live in work .  This has been a very busy year.  However, i don’t think this year is “learning” enough.  Learnt quite a bit about photography.  Understood all concepts from Aperture to Zoom.

So let’s discuss a bit about my new hobby.   Got my Nikon D40 early this year.   Had my 18-55mm lens as a start.  Had lots of fun with it.  Very good with landscape pictures.   With the 18mm focal lenght, a lot of good scenaric pictures.  However, 55mm is not enough to take portrait or zoom in pictures.  So a month ago, I got my 70mm-300mm VR lens.  Now this is an amazing one.   Although its aperture only goes up to 3.6, but I composed lots of creative pictures with it.  I am not a pro yet, so I wouldn’t need my dream lens (70-200mm f/2.8).    Also, it is very good for portraits as well.  My girlfriend loved it.  (I am not sure if she loved my skills, or simply she likes looking at herself in the pictures )

Right now, I am trying to learn the adjust the f/stop and shutter speed properly.  There is lot of possibility with these settings and I still lots of practice so I can compose more pictures with creativity.

Been spending lots of time on the financial world in the past few weeks. All of a sudden, I feel like I need to spend more time of some entertainments And coming down to it, I think food and drink is my favorite. So I came up with few ideas They are coffee, tea or fondue. Obviously, I can’t focus on all of them as I don’t have that much time and other resources. So which one should I choose? Coffee and tea are drinks that I intake every single day. So if it comes to being practical, I should really be choosing one of these. But when it comes to cost, I should really be considering Fondue or Tea. A decent coffee/espresso maker is about 300 to 400 dollars. When it comes to depth of knowledge, I find tea and fondue have a much longer and interesting history. Both have existed since ancient China. Fondue is a multi contenient cuisine, from Asia to Europe to North America.

So after thinking about these factors, tea and fondue really fits my style more then coffee. So I think my mind is set. Now it is time to start looking for equipments. The good thing is I already have a tea set. So all I have to start digging into is tea leaves. For fondues, I will need to get a candle and a alcohol burners with ceramic and stainless steel pot. This should start me off with some dessert and oil/broth fondues. And this shouldn’t really cost me anything more than $100 all together. With such a low cost, I can start reading more about it. And in the meantime, I will stick with my office coffee or worst comes to worst, I can go get a French press and temporary fix my coffee appetite.

Not a bad game after all. Today’s Phoenix win over the Spurs is Suns first win in 08 playoff. This win also stop the Suns from being swept by their rival Spurs. The Suns basically lead thru out the game. Bell’s started the game with 7 straight point and they never looked back. Stories on the net right now is how good Diaw and Bell played today, which I agreed. I guess I am more focus on what they can do to the next game. Skills wise, there is nothing much they can do. Running plays is the key point for the next game. If Oneal and Stoudiamare can start picking up their pick and roll defense then I think Suns win is doable. But mentality will be the major factor to the remaining games of this series. Simple leadership books can tell you that focus is the key. Always make sure the team is focus and committed to reaching the goal, winning the champ. Hopefully this is not hard to do as they just have to do it for 48 mins * 3 games so it is less then 3 hours of focus. Get with it people.

OK, let me put myself into Mike, coach of the Suns, and see what strategies I can come up with to ease up Sun’s 2nd win in the playoff. I would start off very strong with pick and roll plays with Diaw and Hill. With Oneal and Stoudairme pulling the inside defenders, Diaw and Hill should be able to take the advantage of the smaller players and start pounding. If the big defenders help then have the Oneal and Stoudaimare to run some inside cuts. With what the Suns did today of having Oneal started strong in Q1, Spurs would need to put some bigger and focus more on him. However, Suns cannot run plays with Stoudamaire as he has been proven as a scorer. Gotta attack the Spurs with something unexpected. Set the temple early. This is what playoff is all about, let your bench and 2nd line to attack. All teams know will put the best defensive players on the best offensive players. Surprise them with atttacking their weakest spots. This is what playoff is all about.

It had been a few sunny days. Apple Juice and I had been stuck with indoor activities for some time so we will take the opportunity and go out for some sunshine. Ice-cream of course is a big hit during the sunny days. No matter if it is the normal ice-cream or the Italian gelato shop, they are packed with people. But what interested me this time is the fish and chips stores. There were about 30% of the restaurants are specialized in fish and chips. And oddly enough, all of them (no matter if they are eat-in or take outs) do have decent # of customers in them.

I have been avoiding deep fried food during the hot summer days. Light, comfort food is more of my cup of tea. Since I saw so many people were eating it this time, I would give it a try. Took us like 15 mins in total to get our 4-pieces order, 2 each, into our hands. As usual, I start eating my dinner like a vulture. At first, the hot, batter really didnt’ interest me. Putting that piece of hot fish into my mouth in this hot weather makes me even more hot. But as it starts cool down a bit, I started to like this “grease”. First, fish is comfortable. Not as heavy as patty or sausage. Then with the light thin batter, it was really crispy. So I don’ feel the grease that I would expect from deep fried food. The fries didn’t interest me since it is very heavy. If they could have it done with more crispy touch to its skin, it would be more appeal to me. But anyhow, with the hot food + cold drink combination, this is definitely good choice in the summer.

Just heard a story during my dinner tonight. A friend of mine, Susan was raised in eastern Europe. She has been living there for awhile and she met her puppy love, Bob, there. Unfortuntely, the 2 didnt work out and Susan came to Canada and they never communicated since then. Recently, Bob just touch based with Susan again. The first email is about he is now a husband of a lovely lady. Susan ignored it and Bob, again, send her another email. And this time, he is showing his love to her (after he got married). From never forgot about her to want to see her again.

I wonder why would a person do this? If he is doing this for the sake of excitment, there is a lot of other activities he can do for excitment. And if excitment is all coming from doing the not ethical things, then what is next? Stealing or killing? That path doesn’t sound too right. If he is doing it because he really likes Susan. Then he is probably someone who doesn’t know himself too much. Marrying to someone he doesnt’ like. What a fun life that will be

Let’s don’t be so negative. Maybe he is doing this for good sake. Yes that he is married to a person who he doesn’t like. He is doing this cause the other lady has control over some organizations that could save the world? Or maybe he is doing this because he was forced by his parents. Poor guy. No matter what, I will not understand what caused him to do it and not that I will spend anymore time thinking about it. All I can say is, be responsible to your action.

First gamble that I did is Sports, hockey to be exact. A friend of mine introduced me with this and that is how I started gambling. Obviously, I never won so I gave up after few tries. Then the next gamble that I did is probably in a casino. I started with slots, as more people do that. Not much fun there as all you do is just sit and press buttons. I could do the same with my video games and cost much less. So with that in mind, I gave that up within few tries as well. Then next one I try is Sik Bo. Now that was fun. No need to use my brain and it is all about feeling. When that feeling comes, then just go buy it. Good way to practice your guts and trust your feeling. Too bad that this is being phased out. So I can’t really do one anymore. I tried blackjack a bit but the fellow blackjack followers think there is a way to win in this game. These hard-core blackjack believers get really piss off if you don’t follow the “rules” to win. I just don’t understand how they can think they can win through a gambling game. If it is such, I don’t think casinos will put them into their business. They spend tons of money to hire those statistical people. I probably don’t need to say much and you know what I mean.  Its a total BS to say there is a way to win through gambling. The only thing that makes a difference if you win or not is luck. OR– you have tons of money to double everytime you lose. The game that I currently still spend some time in is Roulette. No need to think and just have fun.   Good luck hard-core gamblers.

You will probably wonder what the title mean. One of the first things that could be coming up in your mind is probably about how difficult writing blogs is.   Or do I mean how difficult it is to go to sleep as work starts in about 6 hours and tomorrow basically is a full day of meetings one after the others?   Or am I simply having some difficult decisions that I have to make and I have no idea how to approach it?

Guess all of these are valid reasons for coming up with this title.  Since I currently don’t have any plans on talking about topics that are too personal on this, I will leave the details out for the last point.    So here it goes.   This blog thing is not easy at all.   I still remember my first blog was created approx 1 year ago on blogger.com.   And it is exactly 1 year when I start another blog.  Nothing done within this year.  I guess time will tell if I can really keep this blog going more frequently then once a year.

So, why am I still awake when I have to go be at work in 6 hours.  I started my work 18 hours ago and didn’t get off work till 6 hours ago.  Right after that, I went right to a nap for 3 hours and now I am all awake.  But hopefully after getting this first post done, I can have a stronger sleeping sense and go back to sleep