Victor’s Little League: Game 2

Date: March 14, 2009

V.S. # Giants

Score: Advantage Carpet Care Grizzlies 18 – Giants 9

Victor:

• 0 for 3: He stuck out twice and was thrown out once.
  

Victor’s Little League Statistic

Victor's Little League Statistic

Date: Feb 28, 2009

V.S. #5 Nation's Thunders (Exhibition game)

Victor:

• 1 for 3: 1 single and 1 RBI. He was thrown out and strike out/
  

 

Date: March 7, 2009

Time: 1PM

V.S. #5 Nation's Thunders (away game)

Score: Advantage Carpet Care Grizzlies 23 -- Nation's Thunders 12

Victor:

• 2 for 4: 2 singles and 1 RBI.
  
• He was thrown out twice. Both times he put the ball in play but nobody was in the scoring position.
  
• He was the catcher.
  

Pledge of Allegiance

I became a US citizen on March 4. After moving to the US in 1991, studying and working for so many years, I finally joined the rest of my family and become a new immigrate with full right. The ceremony was held in the Paramount Theater in Oakland. It was a warm rainy day. There are more than twelve hundred immigrates who fill the first floor of the theater. The friends and family were seated in the second floor. Outside street vendors are selling some portfolios for holding the citizenship certificates.

The ceremony had several parts. The host was very funny. He told us to turn off the cell phones but said he would keep his on in case the President called him. That got him some applaud. We watched some video about the Ellis Island in New York, some election officials gave an introduction on registering to vote, and we singed the national anthem together.

Finally we were ready to swear the allegiance. The lady read aloud all the nations and asked the people to stand up when their formal country of citizenship was called. No surprise when China was called, several hundred people stood up. We rose our right hand, swore our allegiance to the USA, then we became a citizen. I signed a voter registration card outside the theater; no surprise, I registered as a Democrat.

Victor Plays Little League

We signed Victor up for a Little League in our neighborhood. Little I know that this league is competitive. Unlike many other kids on the team, Victor never played baseball before. He was struggling in the first few practice sessions. He doesn't know how to field the balls, how to throw, or how to hit. I was in the first weekend session, and Victor seemed to have a miserable time. He didn't hit anything and was standing in the outfield most of the times. Coach Dave asked me to practice with Victor at home. I was certain that Victor didn't like baseball and was really to pull him out, but Yang told me to give it more time.

Initially Victor didn't want to practice at home. But on the second day we persuade him to try. He kept getting better and started to hit the balls. Now we practice every day and he always has a good time.

Yesterday the team played a practice game. Yang, Oliver and I were there cheering him on. He got one hit and drove in a run. Amazingly, he liked fast ball and hit the ball two out of three times. Coach Dave was amazed too. He murmured that Victor was hitting at the Major League speed. Victor is still an average player, but he is good enough to contribute to the team and have fun. He seems to be fearless when learning new skills. I wish that I always have his spirit.

The Dream Team

One of my least favorite Democrats is Bill Richardson. I so despise him that would have considered withhold my support for President Obama. So to my delight Obama didn't pick him as VP candidate last year. And this year, Richardson had to withdraw his nomination of Commerce Secretary because of an on-going investigation about corruption. I was not surprised. This guy was sleazy and opportunistic. He deserved this fall from grace.

Now that Gary Locke from Washington State is nominated, I cannot be happier. Gary was the Governor when I worked at Microsoft in the late 90's. He seems to be an efficient and progressive politician. I remembered several things about him. He landed Microsoft much needed morale support when the company was under attack from the US and EU governments. He also had a ski accident and broke a leg when vacationing in Lake Tahoe. He held many town hall style meetings across the state. I remembered some of his witty answers and he was very firm on his progressive positions. He will be a great Commerce Secretary. It's ironic that Obama nominated one prosecutor of Taiwanese immigrant for this position at first, but ended up with a Chinese American.

I

Standby in Newark Airport

I was on a business trip to Boston and New Jersey last week. Being away for a week, I was eager to return on Friday. I was on the earliest flight from Newark to San Francisco that leaves at 7:15 AM. Arriving at Terminal C, I was stunned to be in the middle of a packed terminal. It took me a while to figure out that my flight was canceled and I must be in a long line to be "re-accommodated."

The battle began and I've already lost. It took me a long time to figure out that the reaccomodation line was useless, and I need to get on the stand-by list of the next few flights. A few tricks that I realized on Friday:

1. Don't use the regular Continental web site. Use the mobile version: http://pda.continental.com/PDA20/default.aspx. You can check the current standby list with this mobile version only and see your place. As long as you are at top 10, you have a chance.
   
2. Try to get on the Elite status. Delta, NWA and continental are part of the Star Team, if you earned enough miles on any of the airlines you can get that status and be on shorter lines.
   
3. Avoid Continental airline; I have yet to be on a Continental flight that is NOT late by more than one hour. They upgraded me to first class on a flight to Mumbai once so I'm grateful to them, but they are always late.
   
4. Ask for Alma in the Elite customer service counter. She was so helpful and sympathetic to me. Without her help, I am still in Newark now: The customer support person on the phone told me that the next flight that I can get is on Tuesday.
   
5. Continental allows you to be on one standby list at a time. If you can be on a late one but a shorter list, you should take that.
   

Anyway, I thought that I got lucky and managed to get on the afternoon flight as a standby. The plane almost took off but returned to the terminal after nearly two hours. This flight was also canceled.

There was no more flight out of Newark after that. I have to find a hotel, competing with thousands of stranded travelers. All the good hotels near the airport were book. I was lucky to find a decent motel, small, cold, but a place to sleep.

Saturday morning I wait for the second flight out of Newark. The third time was a charm. I was number 6 on the standby list and got on the flight. Some late arrived travelers with tickets were met with hostile eyes from standby customers. The survival instinct was at display. I was proud of myself that I kept my compassion for fellow travelers in this difficult time.

It felt like leaving a battle field after the flight took off. I was wondering about the tens of thousands of travelers stranded at the Newark Airport: what are they doing and how can they get back from home.

 

more newspaper headlines of Obama victory

Obama Victory Newspaper Headlines

Some Newspaper Headlines

Can the Marlins Make the Playoff?

With 12 games to play, the Marlins are 5 games behind on the National League wildcard race. Do they still have a chance? If they win all the games, then they will probably be in, and likely clinch the division. The Marlins do control their own destiny. They will play Houston, Philadelphia, and NY Mets, the teams in front of them. They must do well. If by some miracle they are in the playoff, then the history is on their side, they won both 97 and 03 world series as wildcard team.

Double Birthday

Last weekend we celebrated Victor's birthday. He will turn 5 on Wednesday but we could not wait. On Saturday we went to Costco and brought a big toy emergency response helicopter as the birthday present. This toy instantly became his favorite toy; he wouldn't let it be away from him. On Sunday we brought a birthday cake for him and Grandma, whose birthday is later this month. Oliver and Victor liked the cake so much that they had it for lunch yesterday.

Victor is doing well at school. He had some homework, and when Yang and I tried to work with him, he appeared to know everything and needs no help at all. We'll try to teach him more subjects. We started with Chinese characters and poems from Tang Dynasty. The results were mixed so far.

Drill Baby Drill

The Republic Party had their convention last week. Among other things, they nominated their candidates for the US President. I didn't watch much TV coverage due to my busy schedule. But I heard that the party faithful was ecstatic about their nominees.

During a few speeches, the whole floor was chanting "Drill Baby Drill," apparently referring to the policy of drilling for oil near the US coastline. The atmosphere on the convention floor was euphoric, a few conservatives must be a bit reluctant to chant this suggestive slogan, but went along anyway.

Any political party in this type of excitement over drilling for oil doesn't deserve to win any election. This is the most reactionary policy one that can come up with when facing the energy shortage and the climate change problem. It would be a shame if the Congress will vote on this.

Republic couples may had a good time using this slogan in their bedroom, but it's the US environment and long term energy security that will suffer in the long run. Stop them.

Mount Wanda

Mount Wanda

Another hot day in the Bay Area. Victor wanted to hike. I was surprised that he wanted to do it again. So I checked the direction and we headed to Mount Wanda, which is about 10 miles east of our house. Yang and I hiked this trail a couple of times. It's an easy trail, but with initial steep climb. I had low expectation for Victor.

Mount Wanda is part of the state park system. Near the entrance, there is a big warning sign indicating extreme fire danger.

Victor wore the odometer when we started the hike. Every five minutes he would stop and got a reading. I was hoping that we can get to the 0.5 mile mark, but Victor got thirsty and tired quickly. For a few steps, he sat on my shoulder. Adding to our misery, we didn't bring the water bottle.

Victor kept on begging me to turn back. We met two couples and their dogs heading down. Then we encountered a mother and her teen-age daughter. Victor attracted their attention. They stopped and complimented him as a brave young hiker. Victor, as always, ignored them.

We stopped just shy of the 0.5 mile mark, where the trail became flat. I didn't want to push too hard so we returned. The odometer read 2800+ steps.

Victor promised me to go further next time. If the weather becomes cooler next week, we might go further.

Start of the hike

who left her heart in Mount Wanda?

Victor with the odometer

Ducks

We were back after attending a wedding in Powell, Wyoming and two days sight-seeing in the Yellowstone National Park. We decided to take a walking in the neighborhood before getting dark. Victor became excited after we mentioned feeding the wild ducks in the pond. We brought some bread.

"Are we allowed to feed the wild duck?" Yang asked.

"We will do it anyway." All of us answered.

When we arrived, to our disappointment, the small pond was empty today, not a single creature.

We were about to leave when three young people approached the pond, two ladies and a men. One lady carried something. It looked like they were here feeding the ducks too. They looked disappointed when looked at the pond. I wanted to initiate a conversation with them about the ducks.

To my surprise, I noticed that the lady carried a big rock. The other two persons carried a couple of rocks. We left quickly and quietly. I heard three of them threw the rocks into the pond. It looked like they wanted to scare the ducks. But with the rocks that big, they might injure them. We were glad that the ducks had left.

Till next year.

Obama’s VP Pick

My prediction: he will pick Senator Hillary Clinton at 3 AM on Saturday.

What do you call an invasion?

The most popular term is pre-emptive war. Since you're preparing to attack us, we have to invade you to prevent a war. Nazis used this term to launch their Operation Barbarossa against Russia.

A variation of pre-emptive war: Self-defense counter-strike. This is a term invented by Chinese when they invaded India and Vietnam decades ago.

Liberation, another abused term used quite often. The US forces invaded Iraq five years ago under this term. So did many other powers. India and Argentina used when they invaded the Gao and Falklands island respectively.

Peace enforcement operation. A laughable term invented by Russia when they invaded Georgia a week ago. Incidentally, the Russians claimed that they only wanted to "cool down Georgia's hot-heads" when their jets flew over the region.

Negative Toll at the Bay Bridge

I had lunch with V today and we discussed the idea of reducing traffic congestion in the Bay Area.

If only we can get more people to work different shifts, we thought aloud.

The simplest incentive, of course, is money, which works everywhere in our society. Thus the idea of a "negative toll" at the Bay Bridge during certain late night hours: one can collect four dollars when entering the toll booth between 11 PM and 3 AM. The amount is large enough, $20 a week, to be interesting to a person's budget for a daily journey, but not worth the gas money if one doesn't need to drive across the bridge for work.

Will this work?

Yang and I were sick over the weekend. It's so cold and windy in the Bay Area yesterday and today. I could barely go up today, took naps after breakfast and lunch. I'm still tired. But tomorrow will be a long day.

The kids are doing fine on the other hand; No flu symptom at all.

From Seattle to Beijing

A friend of mine, G, from Microsoft days visited me yesterday. He stopped in the Bay Area on his way to China. It’s been six years since I saw him last time. G didn’t change much. His family is moving to Beijing in a few months. G and his wife, Y, both work for Microsoft. Their job responsibility includes a lot of coordination with Microsoft’s international offices, especially the Beijing office.

They have a tough work schedule. G told me that he and Y both work two shifts: first the regular 9-5 shift, then after dinner, they go back to office to work until midnight. This must be very tough on their young boy. So they are making a change to move to China. They won’t have to travel to China or have late night conference call anymore.

It looks Microsoft treats relocated workers quite well. They need to take a bit of pay cut, but will receive some allowance on housing, which is actually more expensive in Beijing than Seattle.

I’m eager to see how their move works out. There is possibility that Yang and I make the same move, eventually.

Birthday

Mom is coming to my house tomorrow from San Jose to celebrate my birthday. It has been a few weeks since she stayed in my house. Oliver is coming with her. Yang, Victor and I miss Oliver badly. It will be a lot of fun tomorrow.

Garden update

Our vegetable garden is doing well this year. Tomatoes are ripe.

Lots of peaches too.