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.

Harold Ford, Jr. for Vice President

Obama should pick Harold Ford, Jr. as his running mate. A liberal from Mid-west pairing up with a moderate from deep south can be a winning ticket. Harold Ford Jr. reminded me a bit of Al Gore: smart, articulate, cool and passionate. I see him occasionally on MSNBC. He always maintains his composure on tough questions. It’s reported that in November 2005, when Ohio Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt implied that Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha was a "coward" in response to Murtha's proposal for a redeployment of American forces in Iraq, Ford charged across the House floor to the Republican side during the resulting uproar in the chamber, shouting "Say it to Murtha!" while waving his finger at Schmidt. He was engaged last year, disappointing many ladies. But he looks very happy these days despite being a skilled politican without holding any serious office.

He is a moderate and his voting record is too conservative for me. But he will be a perfect fit as a running mate for Obama. Hopefully he will help to win Tennessee.

Meaning of Life

I'm obsessed with this question. Sometimes I ask Yang for fun. She always replies that she would slap me, just like a Zen master responding to a stubborn pupil.

I might have met a couple of true Zen masters lately. Some responses that I got recently when I asked the question are:

• No – Just one word, no explanation.
  
• I got slapped repeatedly until I have to run away.
  
• Take a bath- what does that mean
  
• Flip over
  
• Stupid
  
• I cannot see
  

These were the answers given by my sons 4 year old and 3 year old. This has been fun for them, being chased by me asking this silly question. But I might be closer to understand the meaning of life after this experience anyway.

The long car pool line

I noticed a sudden change of my commute routine this week: I have a more predictable morning drive to work nowadays.

I drive from East Bay to Redwood Shores every day. Typically I pick up two commuters from a casual car pool staging area, and get on I-80's car pool lane and avoid the Bay Bridge toll booth. Several months ago a typical situation is that the cars waited in a line in the staging area for commuters. The wait time ranges from five to ten minutes, sometimes fifteen minutes. The situation is reversed. Cars don't have to wait; people wait in line now.

The highways are still crowded with cars. But I do notice a few traffic congestions along my commute route. The traffic slows down a couple times along I-80 and 101, but it doesn't slow to stop and go anymore.

Is this the result of high gas price and slower economy?

Save Water

California declared statewide drought a few days ago. We received several letter from our water company on the rules during the drought period. We are required to save water usage by 10-15%. If we use the same amount of water, then we'll pay about 20% more, but if we save 15% water usage, our water bill will remain about the same.

We are also prohibited to waste water. If we violate the rules, there will be fines, water flow restrictions or cut of water service. Some rules are:

• Use water for decorative ponds, fountains.
  
• Washing cars.
  
• Washing sidewalks, patios.
  
• Irrigating outdoors on consecutive days.
  

Our water usage has been low in general. But we have about 20 trees, about 10 tomato plants and several other vegetables. We need to water the vegetable plants every day. We have been recycling kitchen water to water the garden. We will just have to save more. I fixed two toilet leaks recently. This should help to cut down the water.

The water company even recommends everybody to flush toilet less often. I guess California is serious about the drought!

Brothers

Oliver and Victor were close before the Hawaii trip. They become inseparable now. They play together, quarrel with each other, and make trouble together all the time. Oliver had been repeating everything coming from Victor’s mouth. In this way Oliver is following Victor’s lead on many activities, whether it’s going to the garden to play or running around the house. They are actually communicating now with their limited vocabulary.

This evening we were in Victor’s room. While I was sitting on his bed before my evening conference call, both of them charged at me and let me push them to the ground. This simple activity created so much fun for both. They kept doing this for at least ten minutes. At the end, both didn’t want to stop and ended up crying. This is their daily routine. Different each day but predictable outcome. It's so much fun for everybody.

Oahu 1

Our extended family went to vacation in Oahu last week. We treated Mom and Dad for this vacation. The planning took some major effort from Yang. She put together my miles from AA and United to get enough tickets to Honolulu. The trickiest part is to figure out the ride to the San Francisco airport. We tried to book the shuttle van to take us there, but the timing was bad. We also tried to find out BART, again there was no BART to the airport on Saturday morning. Finally we decided to drive and park near the airport. We packed six people in my mid-size car. Mom had to crawl in front of the backseat the whole time. But it worked.

The day that we arrived in Honolulu, Yang had a medical emergency and needed to see a doctor. Fortunately Kiser has several local hospitals near Honolulu. We called the hospital and rushed there after unpacking in the hotel. Yang could not be too active for the duration of the vacation. This limited our activity options and made the vacation more relaxing.

Honolulu had some unimpressive Chinese restaurants. We had Dim Sum in the first day but the food was no way near the quality of the Bay Area Chinese restaurant. The shrimp dumplings were dry and had no taste. I could have made better ones.

The living cost of Honolulu must be very high. Yang and I went to Safeway, a supermarket chain that has stores in California, to buy some vegetable. We were shocked at the price tag. Many vegetable and fruit are twice or three times as expensive as the same item in the Bay Area. For example, broccoli sells for three dollars per pound. Green onion is $1.5 a bunch.

MercyCorps

I read some stories about fraud and corruptions about some Chinese Red Cross officials while handling earthquake relief. This was heartbreaking. In one instance, one Red Cross official tried to get a 50,000RMB receipt for a 10,000 RMB purchase. In another instance, a relief tent showed up in downtown Chungking, cause a near street riot.

I lost faith in the Chinese relief organizations completely. I thought long and hard on whether I should still make the donation. At the end, I still decide to find a reputable charity to contribute. There is so much misery there; I cannot risk not trying just because some corrupt Red Cross people. A colleague at work recommend MercyCorps. So I rushed and made the biggest one time donation that I ever made.

Better use of the Tax Rebate

We received the Bush tax rebate over the weekend. While I completely oppose this rebate gimmick from Bush, I cannot say no to the money.

Our plan was to pay down some debt we owed to a relative in China. We have a change of plan now. We'll send more than half of the rebate to the China earthquake relief fund from American Red Cross. This is an easy call for us. When I mentioned the idea to Yang, her question was how we could send the check.

Hopefully our contribution will make a difference. It will take them a long time to rebuild. I can see hope based on the news reports.