As of late, I’ve decided to take some time off from working. I’ve been grinding out the years in startup mode for too long and really started to notice that I was pretty well banged up. I haven’t had more than 2 weeks off of work at a time since I first started working so this is some new uncharted territory for me. I’m really hoping to use this time to work on growing some hobbies and to re-connect with family and friends.

So far its been going pretty well. I’ve been going to the gym pretty regularly and getting into making jams and cooking dinner. I’ve also been spending a good bit of time working on my portable container garden. Its important that I can move my garden in 5 minutes should I feel the heat coming ’round the corner.

I’ve also been spending a good bit of time at the San Mateo Public Library. I have to say, this is one souped up public library. Lots of natural light, cutting edge technology, free wifi, cafe, and plenty of workstations of laptops. The one thing I have noticed is that the public library is full of crazy people during the day. I never noticed when I was coming on the weekends. I’m currently sitting next to a lady who has cracked out eyes and is constantly mumbling crap to herself. I saw someone bring in a laptop and a 17″ LCD monitor to setup shop. I also once sat next to someone who was constantly burping for about 10 minutes until I finally couldn’t take it anymore. Perhaps these are people who work for the library who are designed to make sure that people don’t spend too much time here.

Anyhow, I think my next hobby challenges will be some origami boxes, bake soft pretzels, and possibly get into sprouting. I’ll keep you posted.

Saw this article (via) and am going to try it out the next time I am traveling. I am definitely one of those people that usually get clobbered by jetlag. Of course, I’m not sure fasting for 16 hours is such a no-brainer.

Last weekend Vicky and I visited the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory for some free chocolate and a nice tour. There wasn’t that much activity on the factory floor since it was the weekend, but overall was still very informative and I definitely recommend it.

This weekend Vicky and I visited Muir Woods just above San Francisco again. Something about forests just never seem to get old for me, especially these Redwood Forests. I really like how majestic, dark, and quiet they are but with all kinds of goodies. Here are my two favorite pics of the entire outing.

Saw this on Metroblogging San Francisco and thought it was cool.

[From SF is Totally Metal]

Metal cookware, that is. Beijing artist Zhan Wang has sculpted this version of San Francisco as a part of the exhibit On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from the Sierra at the Asian Art Museum. He has painstaking crafted a model of San Francisco with mirrors, pots, pans, and rocks specially selected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains before being transported to his studio in China to be integrated into his sculptures.

I’m not sure how this came up but somebody tried to give me a description of what the difference between the two of these are. The initial definition was not nearly precise enough for me and so I tried to come up with an answer (and of course couldn’t). Over the last few weeks I’ve been informally asking a bunch of people and nobody really came up with anything (and I asked a bunch of no-it-alls as well). So today, I finally caved and looked it up on the internet…gasp! and the answer is…

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At the airport now waiting for the delayed flight to finally leave. PDX is a pretty nice airport. Free wifi and workspaces with desks and outlets. A key sign of a civilized society.

Here’s a shot from the beach at Seaside, OR. We were there on Saturday hanging out at the finish line of the Hood To Coast 200 mile relay race (crazy). While the runners were coming in exhausted, I was equally tired and sleeping on the beach.

After the race finished, we drove up to Astoria, Oregon and stayed at a nice little Bed and Breakfast. 1st time at a B&B which is a sure sign of getting old. Was very nice and had a great view of the Columbia River. Here’s a shot from a little further up the hill from where we stayed.

All in all, Portland and the Oregon coast was a really nice trip. Very chill and relaxing which is exactly what I needed after a bunch of hectic months at work.

Good thing I recently bought some sandals, its helped me fit in here in Portland. The weather up here has been fantastic. We’ve been eating outside for every meal.

My goal for today is try this so called Stumptown coffee that I keep seeing propaganda posters for everywhere.

This past June I was in Beijing for a few days for the SIGMOD database conference. It was good being back in China. It definitely broke back alot of great memories. While I was there I got to experience why Hunan cuisine is considered the spiciest of the chinese regional cuisines. Here’s a shot of the broth. The milky side was not that bad, the other side was crazee hot.

Other patrons had a huge pot that was all peppers. The air had so much peppers in it that it tickled ones lungs to the point that you were always coughing or eating (or drinking beer). Here’s a shot of me during the sweaty feast:

Anyway, I did enjoy it. I can’t say that I tasted a whole lot of what I ate. After a while it was just about getting it down as fast as possible.

Well its been a long time… like almost a year long. I finally got around to changing the top pic since I’m no longer in Shanghai. Somehow I sold my soul (and easy China lifestyle) for moving to the Bay Area (San Mateo to be exact). Hopefully I’ll start finding (making) time for some new posts.