Recently in encounters Category

Having worked in China for 4 years, 99% of the things I bought that's made in china failed, earlier this year, the one last thing that I thought it would NOT fail for a while, failed. My question is why is the same item that's exported here from China so good, while their domestic item SUCKS ASS. List of items failed on me that's made and sold in China below:

TV - Changhong brand, failed after 2 days, TV repair man had to come in and fix it.
Closet - the steel rod bent and it collapsed 4 months after purchase
Cordless Phone - worse than a cord phone, can't use it 3 feet away from the base
Humidifier - this actually didn't fail, it's Beijing's water that made it unusable after 3 months.
Kingston USB flash drive 8gb - fails after 3 months.
then I bought a different brand, PNY - fails after 3 months.
then I bought a domestic brand aigo - fails after 3 months as well, on the day.

Now the Hard drive... sigh...

Pier 23 is a bar on Embarcadero we often go to. These were taken one of our colleagues' farewell party.

In my blog I rarely write about fashion accessories, in this case, it's something more than that. The messenger bag was about a 100 bucks, it was 2002 on a cold rainy day in New York when I had to buy it to store all my internship paperwork. I remember grinding my teeth about the purchase, back then a 100 bucks meant 3 weeks of my allowance. My dear friend Miki used her store manager power to get it down to 90, but still, it was a lot. I kept the bag for years, and it followed me to all the places, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Prague, Tibet... So as you can imagine, I'm having a "Toy Story" moment.

The journey slowly came to an end in Boston. After 6 years, The canvas became more and more threaded, and finally came apart. I really didn't want to give it up, as often the case it was the only witness to my discoveries on my journey, like a loyal friend, carrying my stuff as I wondered about in the world.

I'm sad to get rid of it, but had to. I kept all the pins I've collected over the years and hopefully they will go on a new canvas bag. This entry is dedicated to you, my favorite messenger bag.

So on this business trip to Europe, a member of the production crew Ron had an dental emergency. As soon as the plane took off from LAX, his gum started to swell up, and midway above atlantic he was in so much pain that the flight attendant had to broadcast out "is there a doctor on the plane" message. Right after we landed, Carlos (our photographer) decided to take him on an emergency visit to the dentist.

Now we're talking about downtown Paris, one of the most expensive cities in the world. The French dentist treated him while realizing that he's a foreigner, and does not possess dental insurance in France, or EU for that matter. He gave Ron an emergency root canal, patched up, and told him its only temporary and he needs to get a crown later on, not because he wouldn't do it, its just due to our production schedule we can't be in Paris long enough to wait for the it being made.

In the end, the bill came out to be 50 Euros, that's it, 50 euros.

So to everyone that have stumbled to this entry of mine, my question to you is, if you don't have dental insurance in America, how much would you have to pay to get an root canal? More than 50 euros I'm sure.

While Ron's happy with his dental bill, all the Americans in our production team stood there, wide-eyed with our jaws dropped, surprised, and ashamed.

I want public option and I want it now!

Jenny is the youngest of 4 cousins that grew up with me. Her graduation is in a school called University of Valparaiso. This trip was one of those typical "don't judge a book by it's cover" strips. The midwest was just swept with a blizzard, Valparaiso was one of those places people don't really know, in a state that I have little interest in - Indiana.

Coming into O'hare, overlooking the massive flat midwest covered in snow was pretty magical, almost like a scene from Starwars.

Marianne is one of Jenny's buddies who was there when none of her relatives are around.

Sally

U-Valpo is actually a pretty charming campus, complete with a post modern Library and Chapel, complete with a bell tower.

In their graduation speech, and this is something I haven't yet heard from all the graduation speeches I've heard before, was that they stressed on the balance of religion and knowledge, faith and reason. I thought that was really interesting.

I got this special aluminum coke bottle, previously only seen on design blogs. I put some typical things next to it for scale reference. The aluminum is thicker than the can, in fact, so thick you can't squeeze it to crush it. It's a very good looking bottle, kudos to Coke for finally spreading this around.

30 miles west of boston there's a city called Stow, and in that town, there's a really cute farm called Honeypot farm. We went there for apple picking over the weekend. It is not my first picking activity, but it's definitely the most fruitful one ever.

I've always had a special feeling towards apple trees. My parents planted one in my grandfather's garden when they got married, and another when my mom was pregnant with me. Every year, for as long as I can remember, my family, along with my cousins' would collect a full bushel of apples from the two trees. The apples were not particularly attractive looking nor sweet, but I always enjoyed the freshness of them. To me, the trees also were the proof that my parents are extraordinary, since they possessed the power of making trees bare fruit.

As China's environment deteriorated in the 90s, so did the two trees and the rest of the plants in my grandfather's garden. What used to be a tiny oasis for us in the city during the 80s quickly became an empty, colorless yard. The trees from the Honeypot farm are far bigger and bore far more fruit than the apple trees in my memory. When I walked along them, smelling that apple wood flavored air, seeing the unpicked, ripened apples on the ground, my overloaded senses made me think of the days where my grandfather stood in his garden, smiling at his grandchildren, giggling around apple trees.

Polaroid of the week this week continues on our Fall theme. I just can't get over it. New England's fall is beautiful, besides the maple trees turning red, there are this type of birch trees turning bright golden yellow around my apartment and office.

I kicked my self for not making the foliage trip last fall, and this year I was determined to see it in its glory. Turns out, it was more stunning than what everyone has already told me. Glad I went. O, and I'm sorry Shoshanna, for not making it to the house warming party. :-/

Fall started across from my apartment today.

BAM!

I never cooked crabs my self in my life... until now. Sorry little fella...

Sally did most of the killing though, I mainly was responsible for eating. :-/

one Silver and one Bronze, not too shabby I guess. It was a fun night.

Recently I had two paper bags in my possession, one is a parcel envelope from Switzerland, the other, from the local Shaw's supermarket. The parcel envelope, being an international parcel envelope, contained a plastic bubble wrap out of necessity, unlike the 3m bubble wrap envelops you get in the States, it had precise instructions on how to separate and recycle both paper and plastic, the bubble wrap can easily be taken out of the envelope despite it being very sturdy during use, and judging from the info graphics, it's clear they have a pretty robust recycling program and infrastructure.

The latter, a bag of felafel chips I got, is almost the antithesis of the parcel envelope. The packaging was labeled "organic", and was the only product in the category that had paper bag packaging as opposed to plastic, I chose to buy it solely because I thought the paper bag would be environmentally less harmful, but little did I know, it was a paper bag that contained an additional plastic bag. Congratulations Felafel Chips & Dips LLC, I will never buy your products again.

Saw this handsome fella on my way to work one morning.

Some times it sucks to be in the middle of a hectic life, you are pulling your hair out because you've got no idea where to start. "Living tumultuously", as I call it. But you know, there are other times, where, you're stuck in mutual, like a tiny sail boat in a vast, windless calm sea, where nothing happens, absolutely nothing. As quiet as it can possibly be,like the world had stopped. Its a bizarre feeling I tell ya.

Over the weekend I went to MIT museum. Yeah, that's right, the tech school has it's own museum, and I have to say, it is pretty impressive, definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Boston.

This is one of it's architecture structural studies, it's like watching math come alive, I felt smarter as I stood next to it, hehe.

Puerto Rico pictures up, click here to view, comments are welcome.

I don't think I've raved about a pair of sneakers ever, but that changed when I decided to get a pair of New Balance shoes for my trip to Puerto Rico. Since I'm a camera snob, on my trips I usually walks around with 10 pounds of stuff on me, that makes my feet not too happy. I learned that the hard way last year when I was in Spain.

So this year I was determined. After 2 days of shopping in usual places, I discovered Brighton had a New Balance factory store, this made me all giddy and drove in the next day. I'm glad I did because I found the most friendly sneaker selling staff ever, sure, they give you the usual retail bull shit on the sneakers, but it's way better than not getting serviced at all, especially when you start asking for the perfect, lightweight, well cushioned, standing/walking/running, road/trail shoe.

In the end, I picked the 790, a bit tight around my ankles, but I really felt like walking on clouds. This pair of shoes saved me in San Juan, and now I will have to say, I'm a New Balance convert, and a fan of their factory store.

On a separate note to New Balance, how can you have adverting that's virtually non existent when you're trying to sell your awesome shoes no one knows about??? Please approach me for ideas.

The first credit card I've ever applied for is a Sony card, back then, it was distributed by Citi, and is currently owned by Chase. I've been a loyal customer with this card for close to a decade.

I remember using it when I went to dinners and movies with my first girl friend, later, on my expensive art school equipment, my first, second, and third laptop, 5 different digital cameras, my trips overseas, Amazon purchases, you name it. Just when I thought I have earned enough "Sony points" for a flat screen TV, my card somehow was cancelled. Just like that.

When I called, of curse, Chase bank's credit cart support is in India, no offence to my Indian peps, but, I couldn't really tell comprehend what they were saying, and why they canceled my card, they did tell me they sent me a letter, which I didn't get.

Well, good riddance Sony Card, if you are thinking about doing business with Chase bank, or getting a sony card, think twice about doing so.

Spent the weekend dog sitting for Popita. I swear her dog Sasha is the smartest dog I've ever met. She took commands after just one or two trailings. She never begs for treats, and when she gets one, she hides them for later. Only down fall is that I had to walk this tiny Yorkshire terrier at astonishing 4 times a day, first one starts at 7 am :(...