SZCZROB

Rainy morning in Vancouver with a fantastic finish

2012-02-11T21:55:00.001-06:00

So when we got another rain day after the aquarium we were kind of at a loss for what to do. The last time we were here we went to the Vancouver library, though more as tourist seeing a new architectural landmark. This time would be more about building blocks and coloring books.

This was a particularly dark and gloomy day so I'm posting some pictures from other days. The library was as nice as I remember with an interesting covered courtyard slicing through the books. They also have an entertaining Children's section - with French and English books. After a morning of building and story time we headed back to Robson for lunch. We found a great pita place with some interesting options. Like a felafel sandwich with pineapple on it. It works - and the hummus was great.

Through a mutual Ultimate contact, we managed to arrange a playdate (for Kalvin and us) with a great guy and his 3yr old who happen to be living in the Kitsilano neighborhood, near Kit's Point. Ultimate is a great network to have when traveling. Kitsilano is a great area near the water - and home to Greenpeace and lululemon. Our destination was a short ride across the Burrard Street Bridge in the 2 or 22 bus. From there is was a few blocks walk to Kit's Beach. A really nice beach with huge logs arranged along the water. There are also a ton of other activities there like museums and in the summer pools, sports, and fairs. But in the winter it is rather subdued. We were headed to the playground - which was also quite nice. We had seen a lot of kids running around town in these suits that kind of resembled Maggie's star-suit. Looking like if they were dropped into water they would bob around like a buoy - fully encased in waterproof material and thick patches on their knees and butts. On a day like this we saw the beauty of these suits. On a fully wet day, it wasn't too cold but anything short of these perma-sealed bubbles would eventually let wetness in while sliding down a slide or wrangling with some monkey bars. I wish I had gotten some pictures of them.

After we got back to the hotel and Kalvin in bed I got to sneak out and check out the local Ultimate league. This night they were playing 5v5 turf-rule a few train stops outside of downtown at Trillium Park (exit the Main Skytrain stop east towards the Pacific Central train station, continue behind on the dark side road and you should see the lights - less than a 10 minute walk). Turf rules play more like goaltimate or hockey - on a smaller field (roughly beach size) with rolling subs. So you can sub at any point, though it is usually better to sub out on offense so it is easier on the incoming player. There are no pulls, the defensive team simply takes possession at the spot of the score making for very little stoppage in play. The play this night was solid, with the folks on the team I picked up with nearing spectacular. Including the best timeout I have ever seen called (stopping an opponent's run of points, resulting in our own run and the game - that actually works!), a Callahan goal, and a huck accidentally self-macked into the endzone to cap a comeback ending the final game. A fun group to pickup with. There is also genuine pickup listed on the league's homepage - you are supposed to register with the league and file waivers, but I was not checked. The only thing better than the play was the surface. Turf fields are amazing. Several locals were surprised that I liked them so much, mentioning that they can be a little rough on the knees and scratchy to lay out on. But coming from Chicago where the choices for your knees are frequently swampy bog or concrete-like dirt and, unless you are in the aforementioned bog or on a foot of snow, laying out involves a mid-air prayer that you don't land on a rock or piece of glass - it was like playing on clouds with grip. You can even play in the rain - though minor bummer is that there is no snow play allowed.

'Sorry' - In Canada even the buses are polite

The present and future of engineering.

2012-02-09T10:53:00.002-06:00

There has been a lot of talk about science and engineering lately, I decided to add to the conversation. Though I think I asked more questions than I answered, like - what is the real current status of engineering? And where is it headed? The full article is HERE.

When this question was forming in my head I kept thinking of a sports analogy. There are the big 3 that get all the attention and money - NFL, MLB, and NBA. But there are other pro sports like NHL, MLS, volleyball, etc. These other sports have to fight for their slice of the spectator pie as well as lure athletes dazzling enough to provide entertainment for said spectators. Sometimes an athletes decision comes down to skill set - there are some mediocre basketball players that have become rock star tight ends in the NFL. Sometimes it comes down to desire or money - John Elway threatened to play baseball if he didn't get the team/money he wanted. Though other times it goes the other way with athletes turning down the NFL for sports with greater longevity. Many players will drop soccer or other less compensated sports for even a brief shot at glory in a big 3 sport.

There are similar forces at work with engineers - competing against doctors, lawyers, or bankers. More money, more prestige (in the US). First a student has to complete the engineering degree, sometimes are tough sell. Then they have to like the work and the pay. Another tough sell for some. It can be seen as the slow and steady pace - not the fast life of a big-money banker. I think baseball would be a good fit for engineers of the sports world. Lots of stats, methodical, conservative game. Maybe less money, but a more stable career.

So while I think that engineering is a great starting point for anyone that can hack it...it might not be the final destination. Does that make engineering schools more or less valuable? Does it make for a shortage of engineers? Does having so many career alternatives to engineering make an engineering education a easier or harder sell? If companies are really worried about this can they pay more? How important is this to the future of the country?

Rainy Day - Vancouver Aquarium

2012-02-05T14:07:00.001-06:00

When you visit Vancouver in the winter time you should be prepared for wetness. Either with a good moisture tolerance (and low expectation of direct sunshine) or with indoor plans. Or you should be in the mountains with some sort of ski or board under you. Since our packing method was more like playing the game "How little can we travel with?", we needed some indoor activities

We settled on the Vancouver Aquarium for this morning. We hoped back on the bus to Stanley Park and it is a short walk from the end of the #50 bus terminus. The Vancouver Aquarium has a lot to offer, but it still seemed a little expensive. Though it might just be that we hadn't been to one in a while. There are beluga whales, porpoises, seals, sharks, otters, and the numerous standard fish. There are a good number of stand alone tanks that let you get a 360 degree view while reading about the fish and their environments. These tanks were usually separated by region of the world. They even have a bird house.

I liked the layout and there were plenty of presentations with the animals for the kids to watch. Most of the big animal venues are open on the top, so to see the shows from the seats still requires a little of outside gear. This weekend was a little special as they were having a diver's event. There were several dive organizations and companies with booths talking about their groups and activities.

On the way back to the hotel we walked down Davie Street, that last major neighborhood of downtown Vancouver we had not explored. The sightseeing was again focused on the food here, another nice walk through town. There is a little more food on this street as Robson is also for shopping. Our breakfast friend at the hotel had recommended a quality carryout Chinese place - Ho-Hos Yummy Food. I have not eaten like that since Liaoyang - for me that is a positive review, but others it might not be as favorable. This is Chinese in the style of there are a dozen different trays filled with different entrees. Chicken, pork, beef, veggies, tofu - everything. Select the combo you want, the staff builds a good bed of rice or noodles. Select the "toppings" toppings to be added. The lady that served us piled it on, and when we thought she was done she threw some more in - creating a mound that perfectly fit the clamshell container when it closed. Every available space was filled with hot yummy food. And really amazing prices too. Cash Only

A good walk in Vancouver

2012-02-02T22:27:00.000-06:00

With a healthy dose of Northwest gloom in the air we set our for Stanley Park. The generalization is that it always rains here, but this means something different that what might, especially from the Midwest, might think. I think of rain as the stuff we get in the spring and summer, soaks you in minutes. But the harder it is the shorter it is. I have been caught in serious rains that last five minutes. Here is the long slow rain. Most of the time I would call it a mist. There is moisture in the air, it takes a long time to get soaked. Being out for 15 minutes, it is not worth rain gear , in my estimation. It was in this general sense of moisture that we headed out for a walk through Stanley Park. Named for Lord Stanley - yes that Lord Stanley - the park is located on the northwestern tip of Vancouver. The park is huge any includes numerous attractions besides the obvious natural beauty: totem poles, Vancouver Aquarium, hiking, biking (rental available outside the park on Georgia St.). The sea wall trail around the park is a great way to get a cursory look at the area and there are also biking and hiking trail throughout the interior.

There is a retired lighthouse at the tip near Coal Harbor that provides a nice vantage point of the harbor, port, and Lions Gate Bridge. The Lions Gate Bridge is a Vancouver landmark. Named for mountain peaks of North Vancouver and built with significant funding from the Guinness family - yes that Guinness family - this bridge crosses the First Narrows. It is slightly confusing, but the First Narrows was crossed after the Second Narrows. Vancouverites were reluctant to built the bridge, fearing infringing on Stanley Park, but an accident resulting in the closure of the Second Narrows bridge motivated the electorate.

After spending the morning walking around the island and letting Kalvin get some running in it was time for lunch. We walked down Denmen Street, one of many popular streets crossing through downtown with quality eateries. We locked in on Kintaro a Japanese ramen place. Slightly larger than a hole in the wall, authentic Japanese styling. Great noodles and broth. You can order your broth light, medium, or rich and your pork lean or fat. Seeing the giant broth pots when we entered foretold good things. The spicy garlic bowl did not disappoint. I recommend it, but warn against bringing anything bulky in since the space is so tight.

After that it was nap time so we continued our walk, using Robson to return to the hotel. Robson could probably be called the main drag through downtown for its selection of shops, diners, and other food. Also a nice walk. During nap time the sun came out. We were able to get out a for a little of it in the evening. Walking around the area seeing everything in a new light. And that Vancouver has food truck. Some are more like carts - like JapaDog and the little Korean hot dog/taco stand I found. But some are full-on food-trucks. Bada-Bing was parked outside our hotel for our entire stay and smelled delicious the entire time, but this was the only day that we caved to the siren's call. It was for the only dish that I know is Canadian. (Tangent: We had this conversation about how Canadian food is like American food - it is really hard to define it. So outside of poutine and Tim Horton's - what is Canadian? Bacon?) This poutine was rather traditional - fries topped with cheese curds and smothered in gravy. The only departure might be that this gravy was vegetarian. Kind of a shocker but might coincide with the fact that their meat is Halal. Either way the fries were good and the curds were good though not fresh (not sure if they should be in this setting), but the gravy was the let down. It didn't add anything. Still a decent way to end a good day - dreaming of the day when Chicago finally catches on with reliable street food.

Return to Granville

2012-01-21T16:42:00.001-06:00

One of the most anticipated destinations of our return to Vancouver (a city that we have been to a surprising number of times and seen surprisingly little of) was Granville Island and the Public Market. The Island is nestled under the bridge crossing the finger of English Bay connecting to downtown Vancouver. Comprised of parks, a seaside trail system, some heavy industry, and a great market for produce, meats, seafood, cheeses, and assorted eateries, Granville Island can easily swallow a day. As we were with Kalvin and sleep has been a challenge we only had the morning...with a promise to return later in our stay.

The Public Market is open at 9AM 7 days a week (except Mondays in January). Accessible easily by car or bus. The 50 gets you pretty close but so do almost any that cross the Granville bridge - like the 10 and the 16. Our highlight on our last trip (2003) was the Granville Island Tea Company. Then it was a small booth staffed by the owner overseeing a few glass containers of tea and mixing the finest chai spice mix I have tasted in all my travels. He would not divulge the spice mix but would share one secret as he mixed our drinks. He mixed the spices with butter for spice dispersal and richness. A lot has changed as it now is a wall of teas with dark wood trim and seating. A real cozy corner of the market. The butter/spice mix is now scooped out of a large container - but just as delicious as we remembered. We had been ordering their teas and mixes for home delivery and likely will return to that habit after we return to a stationary home.

There is also a Kid's Market on the island. We took Kalvin there thinking he might have a little more to do there. But it was a little disappointing. More of a collection of toy and clothing stores. Good ones, but the only real activity is an arcade, some cheesy stationary rides, and an expensive ball pit. The food stand is a little sad given the food down the street. Kalvin had more fun listening to the street musician and the lentil salad we got at the Public Market.

There are other ways to get to the island such as the aquabuses. I think we might explore these options later in the stay. Cost the same as a bus and might be an interesting way to see the city from the water.

2 Monkeys Jumping in the Bed

2012-01-16T20:09:00.000-06:00

Disappearing Spoons

2011-12-29T22:45:00.002-06:00

I wrote up a review about a book I read (The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean), it was a real interesting book combining science and history. The full review is HERE.

Hualien - River Tracing

2011-12-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

I was doing a little housekeeping and found this draft post hanging out in my unfinished pile. It is from quite a while ago, but has some nice pictures and was a really good time. Take a peek...

For our second day in Hualien we decided to do some river-tracing. (River-Tracing is basically hiking up a river or stream. Kind of like canyoneering, but without the steep walls. This can range was a novice damp walk to an extreme trek with climbs and river crossings). I had wanted to try some rafting (or even try to hunt down the rumor of a kayaking scene) in the wake of the recent typhoon. But I was traveling with a buddy, so even if I found the kayak scene and was able to score some equipment it would have been slightly awkward to ditch him. And no rafting companies run trips until 5-10 days after typhoon. Something about the chance of large trees screaming downstream or being jammed up somewhere.

Amigo's (our hostel) had a few pamphlets for providers of River-Tracing tours. We took the one they recommended - The River King - and the owner set everything up. This also was the only company running a trip so soon after the typhoon. The whole day trip was NT$1800 (off-season price). We started by climbing over a dam near the bottom of the valley. After that it was making our way upstream wading through channels and bouldering.

It seemed like normally this much be a pretty basic route. There were only a few difficult moves and the guides commented that the water level from pretty high from the recent storm. It was a beautiful walk and swim. Not only is there crystal blue water in this tremendous gorge but it is running over the prized marble that has made this region famous. In some places the marble has been polished to a fine finish, like the most beautiful water slide.

We made it to a wonderful waterfall and pool, marking the high point of our walk - and lunch. The pool made for some refreshing swimming while our guides started some lunch of hot ramen and cold chicken. The pool was also deep enough for jumping off the waterfall - over 15ft high. As is customary in the area, lunch was followed by naptime. I took the time to do a little extra exploring upstream. About half the way back down it was time for our final stop of the day - the mandatory coffee break.

And by coffee we mean the 3:1 coffee, prepackaged single serve packets of coffee with a lot of non-dairy creamer and sugar. Like if you were making coffee ice cream you would probably be using less sugar. The intention is to simulate a really milky sweet coffee, not for everyone but definitely the norm here. The funny part was that there were only four of us on this tour, but they pulled out enough packets for about 20 people. Now these are individual packets, they could have just opened a few but they opened all of them and started heating this huge pot of water. We all have our coffee and cookie snack. Then the guides start pushing us to have just a little bit more...just a little more...until we are all full on this hyper-sweet coffee. Then the real game starts. We start playing a rock-paper-scissor variation where you throw numbers with your hands. Loser has to chug the coffee straight from the pot. There was still enough left in the pot for 3 good loser chugs. And then one of the guides lost for a second time...and then lost his lunch. Everyone that didn't hurl kind of waddled back down the river. A really stellar outing.

A day in Jamnagar

2011-12-21T05:13:00.000-06:00

This is my second time in India and I still don't think I have figured out how to sight see here. I want to attribute this to the locations that I am in and the company I am keeping, I hear too many good things about travel here to completely write it off. But I enjoy the journey, the exploration and it seems that here it is more about being taken to a sight, seeing it and getting a move on. No enjoying the moment. But it kind of seems that I get set up with "handlers" that both aren't interested in looking around and don't seem to believe that I am interested in looking around. I get a lot of "Why would you want to see that? - Hey check out my friends shop - buy something." Enough of the belly-ache, here is what I did get to see...

First up on my tour of Jamnagar was Lakhota Lake and Fort - first picture up top. Hey it has its own FB page! I actually kind of liked this place, a little fort set in the middle of a decent sized lake in the middle of town. Probably the closest you will get to quiet and space in the city. There is a small collection of artifacts, but something from most periods of settlement in the area. The hours are a little funny, but I believe they open at 1000 and close around 1800 with an hour or two lunch in the middle. And I heard that they are closed on Wednesdays. Worth a stop, after my visit I found a bunch of photos online that looked way better that what I saw, maybe it was just the time of day.

Next stop was a complex of Jain Temples. The one I went in was rather nice. Upon entering these temples there is a path to to walk through the temple and visit various rooms - be sure to head left upon entering and walk clockwise. I was looking to go through the other temples, but my driver was pushing me to get moving - turns out he has a friend in the neighborhood that sells saris that I just had to see.

After I convinced these guys that I, in fact, did not need a saris I was able to get a few quick photo drive-bys. I had a list of possibilities that pulled from TripAdvisor (also try HERE) that I asked my driver about. He was able to pick out the Wellingdon Crescent (a crescent shaped building housing some small shops), Jumma Masjid (mosque pictured), Grain Market Gate (dingy remains of city walls), Pancheswar Tower, and the Palace (private property, no visitors). Literary, we just drove by them. Not really anything to walk around in or see. The most memorable thing I saw was a camel being used to pull a cart full of goods.

After lunch my driver took me in the opposite direction of the city to another temple - Aradhana Dham. This was a rather nice temple with some grounds for a little walk and quiet. There was an interesting note posted regarding women not being allowed in during certain times - apparently some bad mojo there. Maybe they believe that myth about attracting bears.

Along the back side of the temple was a museum of sorts. There were some dioramas of religious stories. Some sections where you put a rupee coin in and a light and puppet show starts up. Like a religious Chucky Cheese, totally worth it. Some historical dioramas. And then there were some like this one here, that were a little vague. There were several spread throughout the museum. Either it was something about the evils of alcohol (this is a dry state) or The Hangover is actually a tame, modern version of an ancient parable.

There were some more straight forward health messages. Some people illustrations of the evils of drinking and smoking and like this one here - the evils of mainlining junk food.

I put together a Google map of the highlights of the days sights HERE.

Slippery world of oils

2011-12-18T19:17:00.000-06:00

I haven't read the book 'Olive Oil - the Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil', but have listened to a few interviews and read some summaries. Enough to be disheartened. I haven't felt this bad about the food supply chain in the US since I started following fish labeling in restaurants and markets. Sad that a growing desire by the population to eat better food is not improving the food world but mainly increasing the scams and half-truths.

As the awareness of the benefits of olive oil is rising so are the chances that what you are eating is not actually the olive oil that you think it is - especially in the US. The increasing demand in combination with lax labeling rules creates a perfect marketing storm. As more olive oil is stocked on shelves, the more the labels get distorted.

Extra virgin, virgin, light have no objective definitions. No restrictions on the quality or condition of the olives that are used. Bad olives can be pressed and blended with high quality olives and still labeled as extra virgin. The green hue could be from added chlorophyll. Italian olive oil provides little comfort as it doesn't guarantee its true origin. The end result is that the bottler or retailer can charge according to the classification on the label and not be held to any kind of standard.

This not only cheats consumers out of their money, but maybe also out of the health benefits also. Olive oil is a fruit oil, pressed straight from the fruit. This keeps the bounty of complex compounds that provide the complex flavors and health benefits. If old or low quality olives are used these compounds are reduced. Or even worse if the olive are treated like other oils, these compounds are completely lost. Other oils (such as corn, soy, canola) are obtained through chemical extraction (usually hexane) and other processing steps. This produces a very stable but one-note and lower quality oil.

The summary of the story is that thanks to improvements in equipment and methods, some of the best olive oil are being produce right now. But it is getting harder for consumers to connect with these producers to ensure that consumers get what they think they are getting and producers are able to stay in business.

I swear I was doing my homework...

2011-12-01T09:29:00.001-06:00

I was watching a webinar presentation from the man with the greatest list of job titles I have seen. Charlie Bamforth has at one time held the position of Head of Malt and Wort Production, Director of Brewing Research International, and Endowed Professor of Brewing Science. And did you know that there is a pilot brewery at the University of California - Davis?

Nitrogen stabilizes foam, providing a smoother texture though covers hop flavors. Silica has been shown to prevent osteoporosis. On his way talking through process of brewing and the significance of each component it inevitably gets to beer with the highest alcohol content. BrewDog has provided three leaders in this area, whose names are pretty much the impetus for this post. First was Tactical Nuclear Penguin with 32% ABV (and a great YouTube video), then came Sink the Bismark at 41% ABV. Aimed at the German brewery rivaling for strongest beer. Their final venture off the deep end is The End of History crashing in at 55% ABV. If that wasn't enough for you, each of the 11 bottles bottled for sale was individually packaged in taxidermied roadkill. In case you are interested, beers this strong are made by pushing the yeast to their limit and then chilling the resulting brew to the point of freezing. The water freezes first and the ensuing crystals are skimmed off concentrating the alcohol in the remaining liquid.

Go ahead, quiz me on the function of alkyloids in beer.

Food v. Energy 2.0

2011-11-26T02:02:00.001-06:00

I caught an interesting article discussing the most recent crop of guar and how this legume is intertwined with the newest rage in energy exploration - shale gas.

If you haven't looked at an ingredient list lately, guar (native to South Asia) is an emulsifier or thickener that is used in most processed foods and some other household products. It provides a better "mouth feel" and consistency without excessive fat or calories. This crop has found it's way into the food chain for it's chemical properties and cost.

As the debate rages over shale gas drilling (I'll leave that for another discussion), there is a strong desire to use plant-based or food-grade products to lessen the controversy. Enter the chemical properties of guar gum. The same properties that keep the fats emulsified in products such as chocolate milk and ice cream, keep other chemicals and fracking agents suspended in drilling fluids. The catch is that guar is a small time crop that is mainly used as soil replenishing crop rotation with some value. The total harvest is not tracked annually and it is not covered by futures markets or other insurance mechanisms (leaving farmers open to more risk than major crops). Energy companies try to encourage more production but it can be a difficult sell to farmers and if push comes to shove, they can easily outbid food producers on the open market.

An example of unintended consequences, energy from any source has ripples of effects.

Happy BirthMonth!

2011-11-07T19:55:00.001-06:00

I used to wonder if Kalvin's birthday would get lost in the holiday season.

Now I wonder how long it will be before he realizes that the holiday season is not for him.

Halloween comes around and people start giving him candy for no reason.

Then the birthday presents start rolling through. Due to our lack of schedule control and traveling we have to take any chance we get for a mini-birthday celebration.

Though we finally got a real one put together, he had about 12 days of "Happy Birthday". He can say 'Happy Birthday' really well now, just doesn't totally realize that we are talking to him not near him.

But of course, he just rolls with it and is soaking it up for as much as he can get. Thanks to everyone especially if we didn't get him to say it to you! He is having a great month.

Sharing a Nice Ride in Minneapolis

2011-10-18T11:13:00.000-05:00

While I am in Minneapolis for the AIChE Annual Conference I was able to try out the bike-share program and see some sights. I even found a nice bike/coffee/art shop. The full post is HERE. I was truly stunned at the number of stations that are in the downtown area. And a daily membership is really reasonable for visitors.

Start them young...

2011-10-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

Talk like a Pirate Day

2011-09-19T06:18:00.000-05:00

Good old times

2011-09-16T06:42:00.002-05:00

Here is a post that I wrote a while ago and finally got up....HERE.

A fated trip to Montevideo

2011-06-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

I spend all this time in Argentina and my one meaningful post is going to be about Uruguay? Well it was the most "travel" I put in during this visit. Only the second time in 3 months I was able to put 2 non-working days together. The weird part about this trip (it was required due to the 90-day per visit limit to Argentina) was that there was a weird set of coincidences leading to it. It was a while ago so some of the details are fuzzy, but it was either the day before or the day of our departure for Argentina that the Wall Street Journal did a travel article on Montevideo. This was weird because it seems way off the normal path of WSJ and it was so close to where we were going. And at the same time were leaving to go there. Usually they do "how to enjoy your private Fiji island" so this was a little weird. But here I found my self on a trip using a 3-month old WSJ article as my only guide. I didn't even have any time to do my own research.

You can read the article HERE for yourself, nice collection of local tips. About half of the things I looked for were closed because of the season or it was Sunday. Not a lot of tourists wandering around the streets other than me. After a ferry to Colonia and bus trip - around a 3 hour trip - I walked from the bus station to the hotel. Bad idea, that was a longer walk than expected, the Buquebus bus station is pretty far from the Old Town and the port. The first place I was going to look into was a little place that spins records and is a bar on the side. La Ronda is a tiny place hidden on a nondescript street without an obvious sign. I had the address and I walked by it twice, turning around because I hit the water. But once in, it is a great place to hang out. The walls are covered in albums and great classic tunes were spinning all night. Lots of stuff like The Smiths, Neil Young, and the like. The food is surprisingly good and the Cuban Libres equal to the task. The only problem I had was that I could only go there once.

The hotel I was in had a salt water pool, though with the temperature of the water it was more of a really big hot tub. But it had a nice view of the city and port, and was relaxing. My first target for the morning was the Feria de Tristan Narvaja. Listed as an open air market that is listed as starting at Tristan Narvaja and Ave. 18 de Julio and running north on Tristan Narvaja, but in reality also spills onto the neighboring parallel streets for a long way. At first I was wondering everyone in the city was there that morning wandering the stall with their mate in one hand and thermos tucked under their arm. After walking most of the city in the afternoon and evening, I pretty much confirmed that. I don't know how to describe this, but open-air market doesn't seem to do it justice. There is a section where there are produce, pasta, cheese, meat vendors. But then it keeps changing with the occasional repeat. Veggies gives way to cheese gives way to wood carving gives way to mate and bombillas gives way to books gives way to ancient stacks of vinyl gives way....and on and on. With produce, cheese stalls, and hot dog stands thrown in at regular intervals. To say that people sell antiques doesn't describe it either. More like a million basements exploding onto the same street at the same time. I challenge you to think of an item that wasn't there. Tiles, ancient pharmacy and soda bottles (some with the original soda in them), bike parts, watches, computers (who buys a computer from a guy on the street?), ancient pasta makers (if I had a kitchen), electronics, cords that go to electronics, any kind of collectable, tasers, simply incredible. You could easily lose your self here in an anthropological study the human culture every Sunday. And there are stands with some really good fried dough.

After spending the morning wandering, I started walking. Looking for some recommended places to eat. All of which were closed. A long walk along the Rambla, the waterfront on the south side of town. There were a few people enjoying the day, not many but easily the most I saw anywhere else. I wound up at a local chain - La Pasiva. The big draw was supposed to be their mustard. An interesting substance that tasted like flour, liquid cheese, and a hint of mustard. And it was white. Not bad, just weird. Hot dogs are pretty popular, the boiled variety. I got one straight up and one Portenos style, which if you knew anything about the food in BA would not surprise you to learn that it is a hot dog topped with ham and cheese. Nice light lunch.

More walking of empty streets. There are many pocket plazas spread throughout the city. Nice places for quiet reflection - especially on a Sunday during the fall. Plaza Zabala, Matriz, Independencia, Libertad, all open areas with statues and benches. The architecture of the city is mostly European Colonial with some dashes of 70's Modernism. On this trip it felt like wandering through and abandoned European village, like everybody had a reason to split but I missed the memo. An interesting thing that I noted however, was that there seems to be a pretty strong Korean presence. I walked by at least 3 Korean restaurants with pretty authentic looking menus. They were the picture menus so I could tell. After trying almost all the places on my list that sounded like fun to hang out in and finding them closed, I decided to head towards the port area and get an idea of where I needed to be to catch my ferry back to BA. I inadvertently found Mercado del Puerto. This happens to be a big indoor market that is a labyrinth of delicious pits of charcoal grilling meat.

The cocktail of choice here is a "medio y medio" - a mix of champagne and moscato white wine. Quite delicious. But as I sat there enjoying that the places starting closing up after lunch...it was like 6PM. I went to the last one open since I needed to eat before getting on the ferry back to BA. I decide to play a little roulette since they were closing up. I went off the house specialty list and I was pretty confident in my Spanish menu skills, figured that was pretty safe. I recognized the words for mushrooms and onions, grilled onions and mushrooms sounded good. Yeah...oops. I got seafood stew. Yup, went to an asado and ordered seafood stew. But at least it was good. As I ate the crew started cleaning the grill up in a way new to me. They broke down the cardboard boxes from the day and placed them on the hot coals. When the pieces flared up it caught the greasy bits sticking to the grill and they burned off. There were a lot of greasy bits. I got on the ferry and after a series of contorted transfers (the ferry and bus stations are close, but not close enough and taxi stands here are worthless when you need one) I made it back.

It was a nice trip. Relaxing, good sights, and good food. If you have the time it is a good place to see, maybe it is worth making the time for when more places are open.

Wh...?!?

2011-06-12T09:15:00.000-05:00

Yup, I'm still alive. Just been a bit busy. All boring stuff, but should be getting to the end. Hopefully, I'll be back more regularly now. I'll can only start slowly though so here are a few pictures.

Wandering around Buenos Aires

Going after some yolk

Kalvin enjoying bath time...he doesn't even need water

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

2011-03-16T17:20:00.000-06:00

I heard about a detective novel that sounded pretty unique. Move over Nancy Drew this new detective is an 11 year old chemist. Flavia de Luce uses a chemistry lab built by a long gone uncle to experiment, plot revenge on her sisters, and work on the great mystery that was deposited on her doorstep.

Set in a small town in the English countryside in 1950 provides a pretty unique ambiance which I think the author exploits to the fullest. The book is filled with wonderful characters and interesting places, all with lots of history and backstory to slowly deal out over the series (this is the first book of the Buckshaw Chronicles). I would also highly recommend the audio book. Narrated by an English woman who wonderfully adds to the background setting, gives Flavia life, and portrays the other characters quite well. I love the dialogue that is set up in the book and the story, for me, has just enough twists to keep it interesting, but not too many to make it feel forced. I look forward to continuing the series.

I wrote a longer review that has been posted here. With fun links.

The River of Doubt

2011-03-08T09:17:00.001-06:00

I have always been a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt. "Speak softly and carry a big stick" National Parks. All that grade school history stuff. And he always seems to be the kind of guy that did things because they were hard. He enjoyed pushing himself, finding his limits, and busting past them. He tells a story of his childhood, he was a weaker child and troubled with asthma. His father told him that he would just have to work through it. He committed to arduous labor until his body became strong and the asthma was banished. I don't know how much of that I believe, but it sums up his philosophy pretty well. After reading about his journey into the Amazon that whole concept is cemented into place and guaranteed his Top 5 spot in my list of people to go on an adventure with.

After his final run for the office of The President of the United States of America with the Progressive party in 1912 he assembled a trip to South America. This trip is much less famous than his African Safari, but was much more dangerous. This trip started as a publicity tour, the money was good and he was entranced with the hint of adventure. Teddy liked to set out on a challenging adventure to clear his head and get ready to go back to work. Once his work was done he planned to take a trek through the Amazon, nothing heroic but not a stroll in the park either. Due to a series of events, misplanning (his quartermaster's experience was nearly exclusively failed Arctic expeditions), and chance encounters along the way his plans changed to include an attempt at mapping an undiscovered river buried deep in the jungle while carrying the wrong equipment and not enough food. Oh and there are hostile natives too.

He convinced a man to join his expedition as a guide who just happened to be Brazil's greatest explorer and cartographer of the Amazon of all time - Candido Rondon. Once they were into the jungle he put forth an option to map this mysterious river - so mysterious that even in the great unknown of the Amazon jungle it still earned the name River of Doubt. Roosevelt couldn't turn this down. But as they were already packed and traveling on a different expedition they were too large of a group and woefully under-prepared. They tried to do their best by trimming down the size of the group and altering their baggage as much as possible. But the expected slew of accidents, missteps, high potency illnesses, equipment debacles, insects, and natives came together to make this a tall tale of danger and adventure. It was pretty amazing that they made it out let alone with as few loses as they suffered - even though almost everyone in the party was affected in some significant way by the hardships. Roosevelt was deathly ill and at one point was contemplating suicide in order to lighten the load of the party. This is a really interesting historical perspective (both as a historical event and a look at Roosevelt's character) and travel book.

Catching up...

2011-03-03T19:46:00.000-06:00

There hasn't been much action in these parts lately. Not because there isn't anything going, quite the opposite. Logistically and just in flat out amount of time posting has gotten a little more difficult. Lots of running around and seeing people that we (mostly I) haven't seen in over a year. It is great to see everyone, but there is a lot of movement. The worst part is that the next few months might be like this - this next assignment looks like it is going to keep me quite busy. So it isn't that I have fallen off the face of the Earth or anything, but there might be fewer posts coming. I'll try to keep some highlights coming and put some stuff into storage to be shared when my spare time returns. But this is all a result of good things, so just hang around for a bit and it should all work out.

Here are a couple of photos of Kalvin on our way back to Chicago. We spent the night in Wis Dells. Weird, the town looks like a deserted kiddie Las Vegas. The hotel we stayed in had a pool with a small waterslide and a wading pool with a couple of kiddie slides. We were the only ones there for most of the afternoon and Kalvin really got to run around.

He seemed to really enjoy having the water at his depth and being in control of it. The highest it got was to his chest, but he charged on into it. And when he fell and went under water it hardly phased him. Much different than the other times I took him swimming...and we won't talk about shower time. He really enjoyed the kiddie slide, too bad the bigger slide wasn't open. We got the goggles to stick on for a little and he really looked like he knew what he was doing. But it didn't last long and pretty soon he was just a cute little mess.

Last weekend we stopped by for some breakfast with the Bolligers and Kalvin got to play one-on-one with a kid of similar age and temperament. I think this morning was much more successful. He had a great time playing with Kaya, playing with her toys, and setting up shop inside the tent in her room. Their favorite activity was pushing her shopping cart up and down the hallway. It was a fine line between sharing and just hanging on so the other one doesn't get the whole thing. We got some great catch-up time with her parents also.

Shark Snack

2011-02-14T12:56:00.001-06:00

Baby goes in the cage. Cage goes in the water. Shark's in the salsa - our shark. We're going to need a bigger boat.

MN Winter Carnival

2011-02-13T12:45:00.000-06:00

I was hoping to take a very small bit on consolation from missing the Harbin Ice Festival - as also recently shown by NatGeo - by visiting a portion of the MN Winter Fest. I don't want to be too negative, but I think the MN Winter Fest website might be the least helpful website I have seen since the last time I went to a restaurant website and couldn't find the address or the menu. Part of this must come from the fact that the events are spread across the Twin Cities, but I would think that they could be a little more helpful with maps and other pertinent information. But back to the happy stuff - another beautiful day in the snow.

Kalvin loves being outside in the snow. Not sure if it is just being outside or the snow. But he hardly stops smiling and takes to all the challenges to mobility really well. He can't climb anything or walk in anything more than a couple of inches, but he is itching to have the ground clearance to do it. We ran out of time and supplies, so sledding didn't happen on this trip. But it will soon.

We checked out the snow sculpting competition at the MN Fairgrounds. The temps have been nice and low so even though the sculptures were a week old or so, there was very little degradation. Lots of really nice designs and execution.

More Chilling in Minneapolis

2011-02-12T17:00:00.000-06:00

Our last big day exploring downtown Minneapolis was a good one - sunny and not too cold. We started with lunch at Tao's. Good vegetarian food with a nice diner feel. It was so good to have good mayonnaise again, the sandwich I had didn't even need to have anything else on it. They also made a killer mocha milkshake using cold pressed coffee. Usually I like my milkshakes to be thick - more ice cream than milk. But this one was so good I was ok with it - struggling not to finish it in one quick gulp. We got Kalvin some of the squash soup which he enjoyed. This seems to be a developing theme with him - he really likes soup and it is a good portion size. Though I think we will eventually get a little worried about the salt.

Next stop was the ice cream parlor - Sebastian Joe's. Now some may have heard my story of a visit to a city out West that likes to think of themselves as a tough city. Mountains, snow, cold, etc. And the one night that they got some snow (maybe 6" or so), I was out so decided to swing by for a cone - and it was closed due to weather. Well as the photo shows, here in Minneapolis they not only remain open during winter weather but they reward the patrons for coming out. A little cool - 5% off. Have to put a jacket on - 10% off. Hat - 15%. Gloves - 20%. Nose hair freezing - 25% off. That other place did things with bourbon, whiskey, and ice cream that I did not think was possible. But Sebastian here has equally delicious under-21 flavors and is open all the time. They were working on their new coffee roaster while we were there. Had it hooked up to the laptop and getting it started up. That looks like something nice to have in the pantry.

We took the bus to the river (nice free route in the downtown area) to take a little walk in the afternoon. The bridges and ruins of ancient millworks were interesting. With more time (and less snow to be able to see the old remains) I would have liked to see some of the museums and signage regarding the history of the Mill District. But due to temps and time we stuck to a walk out over the water and along the water front. Great to see more than a few bikers out and about despite the temps and snow on the ground. I always think of here (and the folks we recently left in Liaoyang) when people say that it is too cold to bike in winter.

The end of our day was a walk through the new Guthrie Theater. A marvelous building that provides many great views of the river and city - and in many hues. There are lots of colored windows. Some simply windows such as the view from the observation deck (free to visit) on the 4th floor, as pictured here. Or as extreme as the deck on the 9th. This box of yellow glass, dedicated to the residents as a 'Thanks' for the bonds issued to help finance the building, is a mind altering experience. On a sunny day the cube puts you into what feels like a off-color version of Tron or maybe you are in a space ship that is entering close orbit with the sun. But everything becomes yellow. I almost thought I could taste yellow, it was so intense. It was nice and warm, but I think if I had spent enough time there, I would be a little off my rocker. It wrapped up a great day though.

Energy Policy Challenges

2011-02-08T07:19:00.000-06:00

I have commented in this blog a few times on the benefits and requirements for consistent energy policy. I came across a couple of stories recently that highlighted to me some of the various methods this can be used - along with results. I put together a post and it has been posted on ChEnected.

Chilling in Minneapolis

2011-02-03T11:19:00.000-06:00

We are hanging out in downtown Minneapolis this week. They had their big storm a while ago, so there is some to play in but none of the drama going on in Chicago. Though I am loving the pictures and kind of miss being there since it has been a while since I have been in a good snowstorm. But we will have to comfort ourselves with well manicured walks and parks to pass the time. We took Kalvin out for his first big snow day. He seemed to really love it. Not sure if it was just that we were letting him run outside or the actual snow that he was enjoying. Either way we were ready to go in before he was - he creates proportionally more heat running a few blocks than we do.

I tried to get him into the fresh powder, but as you may be able to imagine it can be difficult walking when the snow is up to your midsection. So really just succeeded in getting him his first white-wash. He was pretty happy with the snow in his face until the cold of it started to set in. Then he got a little upset. But calmed quickly and was off running again. I think this bodes well for the planned sledding excursion later.

Flatware does most of the decorating duty in Hell's Kitchen

We have also been exploring some of the lunch options in the downtown area, so for anyone that is looking for suggestions we found a couple of winners. Hell's Kitchen starts off with some really cool comic-book style artwork and an reputation for a killer breakfast menu. While the breakfast all day was really tempting we decided get something more lunchy. A plate of ribs walked by that looked great, but there was also Minnesota-raised bison. I compromised with a BBQ burger. They make their own fantastic tangy BBQ sauce. Sweet potato fries here were among the best I have had (Kalvin enjoyed them too). They came with a chipotle mayo that I was skeptical about but turned out to be on the mark. Kalvin had just about an entire cup of their carrot-ginger soup (which we thought was pretty good too). Beth went with the mac'n'cheese. This was a blue cheese version with stellar blue cheese. My only nitpick is that mac'n'cheese, for me, can not be called such with penne pasta. That is just pasta with a cheese sauce. Mac'n'cheese needs elbow macaroni or fusilli or corkscrews...at least something rounded. Maybe that is just my little hangup. But the flavor was good. We wished we had room for some desert, but did not. Would like to make a return visit to try some more.

The other place, in the other direction towards Eat Street (some say on Nicollet between 14th and 26th, but I think is really more clustered in the high 20s) was Jerusalem's. A Middle Eastern place with a nice lunch buffet. Kalvin tore into the hummus, babaganoush, and would demand a refill if the bowl of lemon chicken soup ran empty. Again we agreed with him on all counts. We also enjoyed some of the more solid offerings of falafel and shwarma. There was a solid lamb one and a beef with veggies that was more like a roast. I really liked it, just thought it was unexpected. Dessert was really good with a flaky chocolate baklava with a good amount of cinnamon and nutty flavor. My only caveats here are the low head clearance and old, lame, flavored coffee that came with it.

Slightly shocking

2011-01-30T20:24:00.000-06:00

There is always a little culture shock when I return from an extended stay in Asia. Usually a collection of little things. Not having to duck for every doorway. Not being able to find the end of a line...because everyone is spread out and just milling around. Tipping. Having to listen to every conversation within a 10ft radius simply because I can understand them. Now I am taking my first road trip in almost 2 years. On smooth roads with everyone driving on the right side of the road in the same direction. All vehicles on the road are road-worthy (designed and maintained to exceed 25mph - oh and they are all mechanical vehicles - not animals). And while cramped in our small car...there is still a good amount of room.

Then we make our first pit stop - in the heart of Cheeslandia! There is a reason that I try to stay quiet when people start talking about the cheesy, lame, silly, things that people do in Asia (or anywhere). Because I know (and have been reminded) that it is just as bad back home.

Did I mention that we landed in that Inner Circle of all Midwestern Children? That's right we stopped for lunch on a Saturday afternoon in The Dells! I don't think I ever realized how long I had been gone. There were kids everywhere - cigar store Indians, trains delivering food, and more stuffed animals than you could shake a rifle at. Just Wow.

Kalvin actually was entertained by the train, which surprised me a little. I didn't think he would pick up on it, but he stopped and watched it when it went by. The real reason we stopped - the pulled pork sandwich - was good. It has been forever since I have had a waffle fry, that was nice. And they had a classic salad bar complete with chocolate pudding. Bad instant pudding, but as it was my first pudding since returning it hit the spot. We made it to Minneapolis before he flipped out too bad, but not exactly looking forward to the return drive just yet.

Due to some technical problems the picture of the ice sculptures (they were pretty good) in the parking lot is not coming through. Hopefully, I can get some from downtown later this week to make up for it.

Wish List

2011-01-29T21:45:00.000-06:00

I know we just missed Christmas, but at over $600 (list price - you can find some deals out there) we might need to start saving now for this new much needed series of books - Modernist Cuisine. A 6 book set that starts with the beginning of culinary history, historical techniques, movements, ingredients, and in depth tutorials of cutting edge techniques. I have recently been thinking of whatever happened to the molecular gastronomy movement, in relationship to the slow/local food movements and with the great cutback of crazy food art and spending. Thinking fondly of our visit to Moto and kitchen experiments with liquid nitrogen when I heard about this on Freakonomics Radio - and the website is worth a look to. There is some really cool high-speed video of kitchen science and a thought provoking blog. There is some wild stuff here, radio piece even mentioned a concept for printing food - as a way to deliver meals easily to emergency situations. I am going to be doing some reading and maybe post some highlights at a later time.

Travels, Plans, Misc...

2011-01-28T10:41:00.000-06:00

This update is long time coming, but things have been pretty packed recently. We were released from China. We spent a few days in Korea soaking up the luxuries - like cheese, yogurt, and a pool - that we had been missing that last few months. Kalvin must have had a little bit of a culture shock because he got his first significant illness. He was running a pretty good fever, sleeping more, and not eating as much. But all things considered, he took it pretty well. He got better just in time to get on the plane back home - though it did disrupt his eating and sleeping habits again, he was still pretty happy about it all. Getting over the jetlag for him is necessarily getting easier, but it is different. He is back to normal now though.

We made it back to Chicago. But we are now headed to Minneapolis for a couple of weeks for some family time and maybe see a few sights in the Sin Cities. While here though I got to take Beth out to a Happy Birthday Lunch thanks to the wonderful babysitting services of Grandma. After much contemplation we landed at the The Gage. The menu sounded delicious and the bar had a really wide selection. We couldn't decide if it was a bar with really good food or a good restaurant with a really good bar. Either way, it seemed busy for a Thursday lunch. We started with a Half-Acre (feeling the hometown thing) and Blue Moon, though after we saw the cocktail of the day was a Cherry Lime Rickey...missed an opportunity there. Beth had the pulled pork sandwich and I had the Fish'n'Chips. The sandwich was really good. I liked the fish. Tarter sauce was good, fries (another surprising thing that I missed) were great. I was slightly conflicted though. Since this was our first real outing (Sunday's pizza didn't really count) I was kind of craving some 'regular' food. So we didn't try the elk ragout poutine, or any of the more complicated selections. The fish was good and hit the spot, but I would like to go back and try something else to get a truer feel for the place.

Here are a couple of fun videos from China. We had a divided room there and one of Kalvin's favorite activities was running from one side to the other. Later we had some pillows piled up near his bed to block the draft and he started to dive onto them. I mean really dive, towards the end he was getting some baby air on his layouts. I didn't get one shot that I was really pleased with and the lighting was pretty horrible. So I couldn't pick one, hopefully these 2 convey a little of the fun he was having.

Local Scenes

2011-01-10T07:37:00.000-06:00

Not too many words this time, just some random pictures I have been collecting from our stay here. Go to the end I saved the best for last...

On a recent cold day we saw this person walking down the street. At first I thought he was carrying a sack on his shoulder...nope he cut out eyeholes and was wearing a sack.

Some cobbler stations set up on a nearby corner. Each one has a smokestack for its coal-fired heater. This leads to weather conditions that can include 'smoke'.

Kalvin and Popcorn (that was how she introduced herself to us). They grab him just about the moment we walk in, sometimes they meet us outside before we even get in.

They let him have the run of the place. Here with the owner, don't know how she got a Pittsburgh Pirate hat.

Ad on the street, apparently this toilet can inspire a strong son? Not sure where they are going. But that is definitely how they use urinals...there is almost always a sign saying stand closer and the floor is wet.

Who needs Wheaties? Grab some Shredded Promises off the breakfast buffet to fuel you for that long day of crushing dreams.

Liaoyang Wanderings....a series?

2011-01-08T20:56:00.000-06:00

Most of the attractions listed under Liaoyang are actually near Liaoyang, as in they are out of town. So most of what we see while staying in town are places that we can walk or wander too. I have found a website that provides a little bit of information of the area - A Book About China. While the most solid source of information I have found so far about being this far from the tourist's routes, there is not much in the way of maps or detailed directions. It also has an interesting couple of sections at the bottom collecting links to recent news stories or blog posts about the city. Kind of ironic since you can't see the blog posts from inside China under normal conditions.

Near our hotel, about a 10 minute walk south from the White Pagoda, there are a couple of old temples. The first that we looked for was the Wu mosque. I am slightly surprised that there is not more written about this mosque as it is quite old - reportedly built before 1651. Slightly remarkable to still exist in China, especially in this area and since the Muslim community in this area seems pretty limited. I asked about the mosque at work, but there waslittle to no information. I was interested because it was an old religious landmark in China and provides a different look and feel from typical Han culture. Also a little because in my experience Muslim neighborhoods in China usually have pretty good food. Turns out that we have walked embarrassingly close to the mosque already. We have seen the tower, just didn't know what it was. It appears to be little used now, with the main worship area clean, but shuttered. The rest of the complex appears to be in decent condition but closed off with few people around. Though one of the old men inside took a liking to Kalvin and chatted with him a bit.

There was also a bustling street market going the Saturday we were there, with all kinds of meat, vegetables, and other supplies available. Turns out that we have also already been to the restaurant row too as this is the area of our favorite noodle shop - we were just coming at it from a different direction previously. They have delicious lo mein (long, skinny noodles in broth) and many varieties of chow mien (sauteed noodles or noodles tossed with chopped vegetables and various sauces). Even some with a flat squarish noodle that is easy for Kalvin to eat - even though he has gotten pretty good at slurping long noodles into his mouth. He will definitely be a noodle pro by the time we get home. The family that runs it - especially the little kid there - is enthralled with Kalvin. He really likes to try to hold Kalvin's hand, which doesn't work well since that would require Kalvin remaining still for an extended period of time. He will sit and watch us eat if there is no school.

Finished product

The assembly line of deliciousness

Walking along the canal - nuts/seeds for sale for snacking

On another day, we walked along the canal that runs through the area. A slightly queiter stretch that would be a nice walk on a day without a howling wind chill. And maybe some green. This led us to a park. Not sure of the name, not a lot of signage in English. An area where the canal spreads out and is encircled with small walking paths. There are also a pagoda in the middle of the canal with smaller structures along it that are used by people practicing their musical instruments or tai chi. They provide a nice soundtrack for a little walk. With the temperatures being so low there were also some people taking advantage of the extra space that the ice provided.

There aren't any hills in the city, but they made an attempt at sledding. They cleared the snow from a stretch of ice, making a runway. One person sits on a small pallet of wood pieces nailed together and another person uses the attached rope to drag them along the iced runway. This doesn't usually get very far since it is hard to run on the ice, but also hard to drag someone in a straight line not directly behind you. They invited us to join in, but we didn't think Kalvin was suited up properly to be playing in the snow. It appears that in the summer there are boats docked here. Not sure if that is for pleasure cruising or what exactly. But I can easily imagine the entire park being packed on warm summer mornings and evenings.

Longings....

2011-01-05T08:01:00.000-06:00

I get the Food & Drink weekly update from The Reader, which usually gives me my weekly dose of what I am missing in Chicago. This last weeks installment really piqued my interest, as well as hinting that
spring might actually be getting closer. Who arrives in Chicago first? Spring or the SZCZTrio? It's a Race!

But back to the story...this guy, Joe Baldwin, is raising funds to put together a Mobile Garden. This will be a planted flatbed that would ride the CTA tracks like a one-car parade roving the city handing out seeds and promoting after-school educational programs. This is a really cool idea if they can get it to work, I am sure at the very least it would brighten the day of a lot of commuters and start some conversations. How fun would it be to be standing on the platform waiting for your train when a garden comes rolling by?

Baijiu from a street vendor - pick you poison by its strength

I am also missing the Food Truck experiment, not actually 'missing' it since we can essentially eat out of the back of a truck here - just without the whole internal combustion engine part. But I am missing taking part in the street-food movement back home. There is just something that attracts me to fresh food made while I watch by skilled operators.

Apparently, the most recent addition is a little futuristic...a Tamalespaceship. Yeah, we (or at least I) could go for some good Mexican food right about now. Guess I will just continue to drown my sorrows in Sweet Tomato Pork...

Feliz China-mas??

2010-12-31T05:26:00.000-06:00

There are no breaks during this phase of work, so the crew has been trying to find a way to salvage a bit of the season between shifts. Somehow some of the crew that frequents a local Korean restaurant was able to convince the owner to let us use her kitchen for a night. The obvious choice for celebrating Christmas in China was with a 'Taco Night'. A couple people onsite were going on trips to bigger cities in search of ingredients. From Dalian came Cumin (this was the key one being the only thing we had to give anything close to a "Mexican" flavor) and Baking Powder (for homemade corn tortillas). From Beijing came Avocados, Black Beans, and Jalapenos. Everything else was sourced locally - tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, ground mystery meat, chili powder, lemons (lime stand-in), tequila (I don't how or why they were looking for this), and vinegar. On the menu was salsa and taco/fajita/burritos with a dessert shot of Tequila.

It was interesting being let into the working part of a restaurant. It was fun to get to work with some real hardware again...even if the working surfaces were a tiny bit low. The biggest difference was that instead of a sink, there was a campground-style water tap with a drainage basin on the floor in the middle of the kitchen for water and washing. Otherwise, everything else was pretty standard. The salsa came together pretty well being able to visually adjust the ratios. The meat seasoning was a little more of a shot in the dark - a taste-test seemed like a roll of the dice a little more loaded than usual. The tortillas were challenged from the beginning. Our tortilla expert was working with improvised ingredients and without the measuring tools he was accustomed to. Add to that, there was some disagreement as to the proportions.

We took everything out to the tables for cooking. They set up a self-draining skillet, which was a really great since, despite appearances, the meat must have been approximately 45% fat. But the flavor was good. The tortillas came out a little closer to tiny, flat, dry cornbreads than tortillas. And heavy on the baking powder. Fortunately, we had a Plan B in place - we found some frozen scallion pancakes at the store. These cooked up into gordita-like shells. Lay a couple of the cheese-like product slices on a warm one and layer with lettuce, meat, beans, and salsa - a delicious handful. Our Korean host was not really impressed. But she moved to this tiny hamlet after tasting what was being sold as "Korean" food and opened a restaurant to defend the noble name of her cuisine. She might be a hard critic to win over to the merits of Mexican food.

Everyone was left smelling of smoking meat and garlic - a good Chinese-Korean-Mexican fusion meal was had by all. The evening ended introducing the Chinese contingent of our crew (and staff of the restaurant) to tequila shots and giant flare/sparklers in the street.

Bus to Shenyang

2010-12-27T06:04:00.000-06:00

This is how they do snowmen in China

We finally got the motivation together to visit the "big city" in the region. I use quotations because Shenyang, while containing exponentially more things to do and see, still does not qualify as a major destination in China. Liaoyang and Shenyang are relatively close, but the transportation options leave something to be desired. Taxi is the fastest (<1hr) and most convenient but most expensive (150-200RMB). The train is the cheapest (11RMB) and is fast point to point (~1hr). But this leg is usually part of a longer, slow-train route. Meaning that the actual departure time can be highly variable - guaranteed to be late unless you are. The bus runs regularly, leaving when it fills up (usually about every 10-15 minutes). It depends on traffic so can take 1-1.5hrs, and costs 20RMB. And it is going to be full. Whichever way, corralling Kalvin has become more interesting since he has stopped sleeping in moving vehicles. He now sleeps better (which isn't to say great) in the carrier than a car. This is getting awkward also as he is no longer fully supported by the carrier. The little Chinese ladies we walk by see him folded over in half and get worried that he is going to fall out.

Circle where the bus picked up

When we got o Shenyang, we found a decent dumpling restaurant. Our hunt for lunch was slightly limited by the fact that we needed a place with seats so that Kalvin could eat also. The staff, led by a guy, started trying to play with Kalvin before we were even able to place an order. They took him and had their pictures taken with him, pretty standard stuff. The funniest moment was when we started to feed Kalvin and the lead guy would take a fresh napkin and wipe Kalvin's mouth after each bite. He didn't stay for long, but it was amusing while he did. On the plus side they sent out a complimentary plate of watermelon and tomatoes - including toothpicks with sparkly streamers. And they didn't charge us for our drink.

Some offerings in the supermarket

The people watching in Shenyang is infinitely better than Liaoyang. The bus stop is close to a major shopping district and watching the Chinese show off their fashion choices while doing their holiday shopping was entertaining. I am a little sad to report that the highlight of our visit was deciding which Western treat to indulge in. We went to the grocery store and got Kalvin some real cheese and other supplies. Dunkin Donuts got a visit since those are portable. The real debate was Starbucks or Dairy Queen. It was a little late in the afternoon and the recent cold snap had broken - it was only a little below freezing. Dairy Queen won out. They serve their Blizzards upside-down like they are supposed to. Somehow Beth managed to keep me out of the ice cream cake cabinet. It wasn't like it was going to melt...

Toot! Toot!

2010-12-20T18:58:00.000-06:00

That is the sound of my own horn. I was selected as AIChe's Young Professional of the Month for December 2010. You can read the full article HERE (if only to check out the rocking head of hair). There isn't a trophy or anything, but I think it is pretty cool. And I made it just before becoming a Not-Young Professional.

Alternative Energy in Action

2010-12-20T08:22:00.000-06:00

I wrote a post for ChEnected on the use of energy saving technology or alternative energy sources in the military. You can read the full post HERE. I didn't know if the whole post would be interesting to everyone, but I wanted to raise some points for discuss if anyone has any opinions.

- The DOD is a major consumer of energy, especially in remote areas. Any benefit they see from an energy saving technology is more significant that the typical energy consumer. Should they pursue energy technologies based on their specific needs or technologies that could be easily transitioned into civilian use? Are they the same? I think this is a great opportunity model of how a government agency can drive innovation.

- Many of the new technologies or practices being implemented, I would said, qualify as "boring". Nothing more flashy than increasing operational efficiencies and insulating structures that need to be heated or cooled. But this is the easiest place to improve and still provides significant savings.

- Despite the previous point, there are a couple of really interesting areas that I think they are making tremendous progress. They are really driving implementation of the new generation of biofuels - like breaking the sound barrier using algae derived jet fuel. They have the pull to really get this ball rolling. The military is also putting a lot of solar power applications into the field. I don't think this will provide any immediate blockbuster success, but what they learn about durability and logistical issues will be invaluable.

Fordlandia: Henry Ford's attempt to put a bit of Americana into the Amazon

2010-12-19T04:55:00.000-06:00

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin

In 1928 Henry Ford bought approximately 2.5 million acres of Amazonian rain forest with the intent of supplying his Michigan factories with rubber. In 1945 after losing approximately $20 million (approximately $200 million in today’s dollars) he sold the land back to the Brazilian government for barely enough money to cover the severance packages for the remaining employees. Ambitious engineering project? Personal folly? Cultural Clash? Privatized colonialism? All of the above?

I have read a few books on industry or other topics of the first half of the 20^th century where the huge figure of Henry Ford has been mentioned. This was my first read focused on Ford and the Ford Empire as operated by its founder. He was a complicated visionary that in some respects was ahead of the times but, in others behind the times. He popularized mass production techniques and valued zero-landfill operations (the classic example is of the planks from incoming shipping crates used for running boards for his trucks). He foresaw industrial applications for agricultural products (in 1935 it was reported that 2 bushels of soybeans went into every car). He preached the benefits of healthy living (he was a proponent of soy, oatmeal, brown rice, whole grain breads, and Prohibition), but the work required in his factories could be mentally and physically grueling. He paid high wages and provided health care and schooling for employees and families, but violently fought the formation of unions. He made his money by revolutionizing manufacturing, but did not like change (the Model T) ran essentially unchanged for 19 years). He was a man of fascinating contradictions.

This massive project, well researched and chronicled in this book, is a peek into the world as Henry ran things. While striving, ruthlessly at times, to increase the pace of production (he implemented forced speed-ups of production lines) he also wanted to preserve “American values”, such as agricultural ways, self-sufficiency, and old-time dances. He wanted employees to farm off-the-job and factories to build inventory so that they could shut down during the planting and harvest seasons allowing the employees to go home and tend their fields. He built company towns where every employee had the same style house and usually included a plot to grow their own vegetables. Ford ran many village-industry projects, though most were in Michigan such as: Alberta, Pequaming, and Tecumseh.

It was interesting that many of the missteps in Fordlandia can be seen in the world of international business today. Supreme confidence and failure to understand local conditions are dangerous bedfellows anywhere, but especially in international relations.

In the end I think that Henry Ford saw himself as an enlightened industrialist that was kind of a father figure to his employees. He reminds me of James Arnold Ross, the industrialist in Oil! by Upton Sinclair. Trying to do the right thing for his employees while still keeping the profits and not really understanding the problems of the employees. Ford was trying to make things better, but without an organized plan or true understanding the web of interconnecting effects it was like fighting quicksand. Sometimes he made problems worse. He forged the way for modern American Industry and left us with many lessons to learn from. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the time period and Ford history.

Eels, Donkeys, and Ear Juice?

2010-12-10T08:52:00.000-06:00

I don't have much other than some interesting sights from the last week. So here is interesting story I heard - a Japanese aquarium is harnessing the power of electric eels to light a Christmas tree. Practical? Probably not, but fun.

We were out to lunch with Jason and we saw this team of donkeys (not a strange sight here) pulling what looked to be a rail car bed or truck bed. Something that looked heavy duty, too bad it wasn't fully loaded. Also in this first shot is one of those front loader trikes that are so popular here. I might have to learn how to build a bike just so I can have one of these when I get home. I have included the series as it passed and at the end is a drink that I might have to build up some courage to try.

Jason can't believe that it stopped for the light

I haven't tried it, don't ask what it taste like

Finding our way a little bit at a time

2010-11-30T03:38:00.000-06:00

Our favorite produce stand

There is a nice little alley market near our hotel that we frequent on the weekend. There is anything that you could dream of using in a kitchen. Fresh chicken - dispatched and defeathered while you wait. Equally fresh eggs. Rotisseries chicken and ducks. Several butchers, bakers, fruit and produce stands - including our favorite who has a tree in their store. There are a few stands that make a local fry bread - there are 2 kinds. A large one, a little less than a foot in radius that is similar to a naan-style bread. This is made on a large round pan. A small one that is a swirled round of bread cooked in butter on an flat top grill, very nearly deep fried.. Either one of these makes a great side. Or if Kalvin had his way - an entire meal. We give him small pieces with his regular food. When he finishes them he points at the bread and refuses to eat anything else until he gets some more unless we hide it. Aside from the hard cheese that Beth brought with, this is the only thing that he never, ever drops on the floor. There are also a couple of stands that make fresh noodles, another thing that would be great if we had a kitchen.

A kitchen with a view

We have tried a few local restaurants - mostly with simple or picture menus. Aside from a few stand outs, there is a lot of similarities between restaurants. My favorite are the couple of open-air kitchen shacks on these market streets. The menu is strictly Chinese with no pictures. But a strategy that has worked rather successfully (other than my initial menu roulette try) is to stand at the kitchen and watch orders being filled. Once I see or smell something good I grab the waitress and have her point out on the menu what that dish is. We have already got a couple of favorites. They do a green eggplant fry in a brown sauce with peppers and sometimes carrots. My favorite is the sweet tomato sauced pork (though during a misremembering of my Chinese symbols I thought it was beef). This is super close to sweet and sour pork at home. But this is done with pork back, battered and fried crispy. In a separate wok, the sauce is made and then the pork added, thrown into a plastic bag and ready to go. This and some fry bread could fill my menu for a long time.

The second benefit of this is that it is just entertaining for me to watch these guys work. Each cook mans a couple rows of burners with different sized woks. Large ones maintained with oil for frying and others for general use. Lighting a burner is a spectacle. He turns on the gas, reaches his arm down inside the burner, flicks the lighter, and quickly retreats ahead of the FHWOO! in order to keep his eyebrows. For my dish he then heats the wok in a tower of flame and begins making the sauce. He pours in some vinegar, grabs a bit of garlic from the mise en place. Then grabs a ladle full of tomato paste and sugar - mixing vigorously. As this heats he accelerating the time it takes to cook down by lifting a ladle-full of the hot sauce and pouring it through the air like a bartender making a fancy cocktail. In the winter this makes an impression shroud of steam that the ladle disappears into and pops out of. From the big fryer the pieces are added, coated, and put in the bag to go. I love that everything is done fresh, to order, and with the same tool. When the place is packed it is impressive to watch a kitchen full of these guys at work. With the assistants chopping away in the background there is a fun rhythm to it all.

Our dumpling and fry bread place, with a bakery, and etc

As you can see we got a healthy dose of snow this weekend. The first snow turned to ice on the roads making traffic, that is normally interesting to watch, a little more interesting. Kalvin continues to get yelled at for not wearing enough clothes. He has lined pants on, I don't know what everyone's problem is. Though we have yet to determine if he would complain if he was cold. We haven't seen any indication of that yet. And Christmas decorations have gone up in the hotel. How about that? They don't even have Thanksgiving here but even they can wait until Thanksgiving to put up Christmas decorations. OH and the Christmas carols. They are cranking those in the hallways - that might get old towards the end of the month.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T22:57:00.000-06:00

The Spread

The customer here wanted to be nice and take us out for a Thanksgiving dinner, since most of the crew is American. They spared no expense - walking into the restaurant was like walking into a well stocked aquarium. All different kinds of fish, shellfish, mollusks, you name it. If it lived in water it was there in an attractive tank. Dinner had approximately 30 dishes. The spinning portion of the table was motorized and about 7ft in diameter. Somehow on the way in I missed the seal tank (more on this later) because as we were sitting down to eat Katie said "If a seal comes out on a plate I am not eating it." Apparently, they were very cute.

The largest lobster I have seen and a glass of the "Evil Stuff"

There were plenty of snails and odd looking creatures, but the masterpiece of the evening was the giant lobster with claws the size of my hands. It didn't taste too good, but was visually impressive. Most of the food was really good though, many traditional dishes and a couple of local ones. Other than that the main event was baijiu. They brought out a seemingly never ending beautiful bottle of the stuff. My review for the night was "This tastes like dirt that you can light on fire." My system was not properly calibrated for this high-octane brand. That is putting it lightly. Very lightly. The evening started well, but ended in a pool of shame.

Right before things started going badly

The only good decision I made last night was that I did not go home and sleep in my own bed. Can't say that often. Beth is wonderfully forgiving, but I don't think we are going to be here long enough for me to work that one off. I can say that it provided a long list of things that I am thankful for. Jason for taking me in out of the hotel lobby to spend the night. Beth for putting up with all of this. Liz for going down fighting. Katie and Jainbo for being record keepers and doing all the work last night so today has some breathing room. Mike for companionship. Naka-saurus (that requires a visual that I almost got on video - when you see me ask for a demonstration).

I can really close to an homage to "The Hangover"

For those that stood guard while I watched the seals play (I don't know how I didn't go swimming). The lesson.

Baijiu, like all powerful forces of nature, demands respect. If you don't respect them, they will knock you on your butt. I had forgotten to respect the baijiu.

A little job description

2010-11-22T23:04:00.000-06:00

I was asked to do a little description of our travels for the AIChe blog, posted HERE. If you have not been following along it is a quick summary of the last year with some work stuff thrown in and a bunch of new pictures.

Walking 101, 201

2010-11-20T05:49:00.002-06:00

Kalvin has been working hard on his walking so we thought we'd share the progress with everyone. He took his first steps the first week of October, just before Rob had to be in China. The first video is from the last week of October; he gets a start using the furniture, then steps away. The camera turned out to be pretty good incentive since he likes to grab for it. He is pretty wobbly, but doesn't seem to mind when falls (which is good for Mom and Dad) and gives a nice scrunchy face at the end. The second video is from last week. He has set up a path in our rooms here in China: from the windows in the bedroom, through the connecting doorway and back to the windows in the living room. Holding objects in front of him seems to improve his balance; this day that happened to be his shoes. He still doesn't seem to mind when he falls, just sticks his butt back in the air, wiggles it a little, and stands, then continues on his way. It is amazing how much he has improved in even the last week.

We apologize if the videos are sideways; we seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties.

Wintery weekend

2010-11-14T06:30:00.000-06:00

This weekend was our first weekend together without anyone having a serious case of jet lag. Things are beginning to settle into some sort of rhythm. We spent a little time shopping - looking for different food for Kalvin and maybe a rice cooker to start making our own food for him. I had predicted that Kalvin would cause a little sensation - based on the looks that I got without him. Beth had warned that he draws a pretty significant crowd. Now I got a look for myself. As we moved through the store you could see people looking, hitting their neighbors so they could look, even some people pretending to be shopping for items near us to catch a better peak. Nothing out of the ordinary. But if we stopped to look closer at something - they inched closer. If we stayed longer...they got closer. And if they had children themselves - they moved even faster. When they get close they poke and grab. I have heard this is an Asian thing, but it seems to come in different degrees with this being one of the more aggressive. We had to keep moving to avoid having to run too deep of a gauntlet.


Kalvin waiting patiently for his noodles

We also got a good blast of snow on Saturday morning. With the gloom and cold we thought it would be a good day for a local noodle soup that was recommended to me by some people at work. You order a pot based on the size of your group and get a basic broth with noodles (that are similar to udon), tiny tofu strips, some veggies, and meat bits. You can also get more veggies, different meats, meatballs, seafood, or other add-ins if you want more. I think I even saw some hot pepper stuff. It is delivered to your table in a boiling cauldron. The trick is to pluck the long noodles out of pot and place them in your eating bowl without landing it all on the table. The first time I tried this I was the laughing stock of the restaurant. The second time...Kalvin was there to distract them. He loved the noodles and tofu. He chowed his own little bowl of them. He eats off of chopsticks quite well also. I am not sure what this is called or what region exactly it hails from. While it is tasty, the part that interests me the most is one of the condiments. A cloudy, yellow oil is on each table - and I have been repeated warned to use only sparingly. A splash into an entire pot is plenty and a couple of drops into a small bowl could be too much. I have tasted nothing like it. Maybe somewhere in the anise or tarragon or rosemary directions (I know those are not really anywhere near each other). It taste kind of herbal - like a medicine. And if you use too much of it there is a tingle on your tongue from it. We also had it in a shrimp saute dish - just a hint. So if anyone is familiar with weird spices from Northeast China, I would love to hear some ideas. None of the people at work know the English word for it.

Kalvin working with his blue circle

Kalvin also got to try out his cold weather gear for the first time. It is nice walking around with a little heater strapped to my chest. Also provides more entertainment for the locals. Lots of stares and giggles. He had a great wintery look going with rosy nose and cheeks. He seems to like being out in the snow and cold. Which is good since it looks like we will be here for a while.

Kalvin catching up to the camera

Single Man's Day

2010-11-10T22:46:00.000-06:00

Train Ride through China

Our translator informed us of an interesting holiday that is celebrated in China - November 11th is Single's Day. When written as 11.11 this has a lot of 1s signifying singleness. Traditionally celebrated by single men (since there are so many more of them in China) with a breakfast of 4 youtiao (deep fried sticks representing the 1) and a single baozi (signifying the dot). Later in the day groups of singles might gather for dinner parties or go out to dinner. They will all pay individually to signify their independence.

As our translator summed it up - "They gather in groups and be sad together."

In other news: November 11, 2011 will be the most depressing day of the millennium.

Don't take my word for it...

2010-11-09T23:13:00.000-06:00

Mike was nice enough to video our baijiu tasting panel last weekend. He posted the results here. Pretty good summary.

What is up DPRK!?

2010-11-05T23:40:00.001-06:00

Mike, Jason, and baijiu

As a person that enjoys unplanned adventure, this trip impressed me. On Friday we confirmed that we would in fact have the weekend off. So we did 3 things before heading to the train station: picked a destination (Hello Dandong!), booked a hotel room (English speaking base of operations), and got "We would like to upgrade to a sleeper" written in Chinese. We made it to the train station and buying tickets was easy - the Liaoyang train station is the most empty Chinese train station I have ever seen (until we saw Dandong). Only hard seats (think economy seats but facing each other) from the Liaoyang station - hence we brought the translated upgrade request as you can upgrade once on the train. And after the standard delay (those K trains are slow and it originated in Shanghai about 12 hours earlier) and still barely making the train we were off. No one was interested in trying to recreate my last overnight train marathon in the hard seats so we found and attendant and showed our Chinese phrase - then the magic started. Walking to our new assignments we stopped in the dining car. It was closed, but we were not ready to start sleeping yet - figuring that had 7 hours left on the train. Jason has been talking a lot about how he wanted to try biajiu. He hasn't been to China before. Feeling the need to educate this poor misguided youth, I jumped off the train at the next stop and grabbed a bottle (there apparently was some debate whether or not I was going to make it back). Being the friend I am, when the lady tried to upsell from the cheapest bottle (3RMB) I agreed and splurged on the 11RMB bottle. Then the learning started. Jason is now fully aware of the danger. We weren't being rowdy, but were shortly booted from the dining car and had to quietly finish our bottle (no dead weight) in our sleeping car. 3 bunks to a side, about the same size and clearance of my bunk in college. I need the top bunk so people passing through the car don't trip on my feet.

By some miracle of time and space the train arrived in Dandong to within a minute of the originally scheduled time. Do you now what it feels like to be shaken awake by a screaming Chinese lady after less than 3 hours of sleep? I do. It is not all that pleasant. For any Delts that might be reading - this lady could teach a seminar in 3rd wakeups. So there we were in Dandong at 530AM, not sure where we were going. The town's main claim to fame is that it is across the river from North Korea, so there wasn't much going on. The 3 of us wandered towards the river and joined the predawn exercisers watching the sunrise over Sinuiju. After some taxi misadventures (phone GPS not that accurate here) we found our way to the hotel, that let us check in really early, and as nothing else was open we had breakfast. The hotel also had a translation card with the top 6 things to do in town written in Chinese - made a well priced hotel an even better deal. This also matched the short list we had assembled in 5 minutes of internet research.

Mike and Jason crossing a cable bridge

The first one we tackled was the outdoorsy one - the Hushan (Tiger Mountain) section of the Great Wall. From the parking lot there is a short path to the stream that separates China from DPRK. There were a lot of old military veterans having their pictures taken with DPRK in the background - but if you tried to take a picture of only the background there were guards to stop you. There are also some boats docked if you want to take a short boat ride down the stream. Alternately, there is a path that winds along the stream and up the face of the rocks on metal pathways bolted to the rock. This walk gets a little adventurous and eventually meets up with the end of the wall section. At the bottom of a very tall, vertical set of stairs. We saw a lot of DPRK farm fields and even some military people walking the border with guns. But definitely not the DMZ.

The view from the top is worth the hike. On a clear day you have great views of the Dandong, DPRK, and the surrounding hills. Reportedly even the Yellow Sea in the distance. Originally, this section was built during the Ming dynasty but has been rebuilt as a tourist attraction in the last 10 years. It is the eastern most section. Taxi from town will run you about 50RMB or there is a morning and evening bus for 3RMB. There are only a couple of shops there, but we found the souvenirs to be higher priced that the rest of town even though all of it could be found elsewhere. With our first attempt to get as close as possible without touching DPRK done we headed back into town for lunch and the Museum to Commemorate the War Against American Aggression and to Aid Korea (MCWAAAK). No border crossing, but no international events either. We'll put that in the win column. Random note: CNN just published a post on Dandong here.

We walked into a place that looked busy near the MCWAAAK. The menu was a wall of trays with various water based animals. I pointed at the table next to us that had some stuff that looked good and then to octopus (those are usually pretty safe) and took a chance on the giant shelled animals. The snails(?) were a little chewy and tasted a little like the part of the shrimp that is not the tail. If it was the only thing we ordered I could have eaten more of it. But the octopus were really good (if you don't mind that they were cut in half - and that was it) and the dishes ordered from the table next to us (fried eggplant and pork joint in a mild sauerkraut-like setting) were also winners.

The Museum sits on top of a high hill with a huge monument to Russian aviators outside the entrance. I was expecting some big, bold lies. They were a little more subtle than that. While facts were definitely selectively shared and motivations were invented I guess I was expecting something a little more "The US is EVIL!!". It was more that China is kind and benevolent and the US is imperialistic and inept. They were kind of surprised that we could even find the Korean peninsula let alone try to fight a war on it. Regardless, it is a little awkward being there as an American. We are not painted in a good light and there are obvious facts missing. But an educational trip - and one that left me asking why are people have been so friendly in my experience here? We are obviously bad people that you shouldn't want to meet. There are a lot of clothing, munitions, photos, and equipment on display. All displays have English translations. It is quite a large museum, if you take your time it could take a few hours easily. A must do is the ending pinnacle of the museum. You walk up a spiral walkway to a tower dome where there is a 360-view of a battle scene telling the story of the war. Close to the center is life-sized diorama changing to painting when the wall is reached. Thought the subject matter could be better, the effect is impressive.

We only had enough time and energy left to see the Yalu Bridge. There are 2 bridges that used to connect China and Korea. Both were repeatedly destroyed and repaired during the war. The newer rail bridge (completed just before the end of WWII by the Japanese) was repaired after the war and is still in use. The older, swing bridge remains half destroyed - the Koreans have not repaired it as a monument to the fact that they were attacked by the US. You can walk to the end of the bridge from the Chinese side, examine the twisted metal and mechanisms, and a get another dose of Chinese propaganda. The damage from shrapnel remains and is highlighted throughout the bridge. Near the base of the bridge there are several tour boats that operate. These range from slow 'floaters' to speedy ones that you can buzz the opposing shore from.

It is kind of interesting the this town has developed an entire industry from a game we used to play in the car as kids. The one where you aren't allowed to touch your sibling so you get real close and taunt them with "I'm not touching you!". Though this version is enforced by guys with guns and no reason not to fire.

We went to Korean place for dinner with dancing and a show. Pretty good food, but considering it almost cost as much as the hotel it needed to be. After that we tried to find some night life, but the majority of the options are KTV for loud, groping old men. Not really what we were in the mood for. We managed to convince a taxi driver that we were not looking for women and he dropped us near a place from where we could get to a place that was a regular bar. Sounds confusing? Because it was. By then we were pretty drained from the day and total lack of sleep the previous night and decided to retire to our hotel. Train ride back the next day was quite tame and even relaxing. Watching Chinese farm field go by, farmers tending to the remnants of their crops. You can check out Mike's version if you are interested - here - he has more pictures.

Welcome to Liaoyang!

2010-10-29T00:55:00.001-05:00

I have been slacking quite a bit on my writing the last couple of weeks, but I have done a good job of catching up on my reading and getting a little workout routine going - that will shortly be destroyed. I have arrived in Liaoyang, China. A small Chinese city of just over 1.8 million in the Northeast, nestled between the 'Steel Capitol' of Anshan and Benxi - 'The City of Coal and Iron'. Maybe a little like being between Gary and Pittsburgh back in the day. This is one of the earliest established cities in the area - first appearing in the Tang Dynasty (sometime in the 600s).

We had a small window before the work started to see some sights and headed to the main attraction in town - The White Pagoda. In the White Pagoda Park there is also a large rebuilt temple complex. Rebuilt after WWII this is home to a quite large sitting Buddha. An impressive sight. We saw it on a nice sunny day and the complex is a nice place to take a walk and hang out. Admission was 50RMB, though rumor has it that if you are there during the week or slow times there is no charge.

We could not enter the Pagoda, but there was a nice pond that you could sit by. The story was that people buy fish and, instead of eating them, release them into the 'Free Captive Pond'. Thus doing a good deed. The pond is full of brightly colored koi - I take this to mean that no one actually released table-bound fish - and when visitors toss in food the water boils with a feeding frenzy. It is also entertaining to watch the swirling color streaks as the schools move throughout the pond. Hopefully, there are more places like this - and I get some time off to see them.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possiblities For Our Time by Jeffery Sachs

2010-10-15T01:33:00.000-05:00

In this book the author makes the case that extreme poverty, as defined as <$1/day, can be eliminated by 2025. This is the type of poverty in which people can not meet any of their needs and have no hope of improvement without outside help. He examines this in different regions of the world - it causes, effects, propagators - using an interesting mix of economic theory, field work, logical reasoning, sociology, and battle tested hypotheses available to few people in the world.

He argues that ending poverty is not a zero-sum game. Meaning that we don't have to take jobs from one group of people to give to others. It is possible to boost the bottom rung of the economic ladder up - which would actually push everyone above up as well. There is some transfer of job-type, but this is normal economic development. An economy begins with low-skill, low-wage jobs which open the doors to economic development. As more education and better health become available, workers move up into higher skill positions and continue the move up. As societies move up, more investment in education is required, but there should be more economic success at the end of that investment. Fixing extreme poverty is a localized issue, meaning that in each area the resources and obstacles are unique and will require a unique analysis and solution. He uses the medical term differential diagnosis. The symptom might be a fever, but further investigation is required to find out if the cause is a mild infection or something more serious.

While maintaining that each situation is different, there are a few themes that emerge during the analysis. Geography is important (in a different manner than discussed in Guns, Germs, and Steel - but there are similarities). Such as are the people close to transportation (natural - waterways or man-made - roads, canals). What are the natural resources available - quality farmland, minerals, natural products, water. What diseases are in the area? He argues that disease can hold back development through missed work days, low productivity when at work, shortened life span, and an extra burden on the remaining healthy family members. Analyzing the many factors he breaks it down into actionable steps that will build upon each other and remove people from poverty. Again, there are many solutions but there are themes. Agricultural capitol - maybe of the extreme poor are farmers but do not have the means to make the initial investment on fertilizer or other means of yield improvement that would be self-sustaining once started. Education - improved agricultural methods, higher skill jobs, organization, disease prevention, family planning. Infrastructure - roads to enable improved yields or goods access to markets, access to healthcare, or education., electricity, communications.

He makes a very compelling argument and does a really good job of parsing the problem and the steps that are needed for the solution. He dispels many myths about poverty and poor areas with solid research and analysis. The overall goal is quite ambitious, but he had it broken down into very manageable pieces, each building on the predecessor. He is optimistic about the programs and chances of success - maybe a shade overly optimistic. But I think that is part of his goal here. He is not only presenting a solution but playing head cheerleader - both to sell the idea, but it is a rather grim topic and people involved in this work need to keep their morale up.

In his wrap up, he makes a number of arguments as to why the developed world should be providing support to the extreme poor. There are all great and compelling reasons, but I will try to sum it up in 3:

1. We (the developed world) have already promised the equivalent of 0.07% GNP towards helping the extreme poor. The approximate amount delivered - 0.02%. Not only is this a really low number, but it is really low compared to what was promised. We should be able to stand by our commitments. This also includes the argument of why should continue to half-ass aid operations that barely string people along, responding only to the latest natural disaster when it is fully within our capability (and promises) to work towards and actual and lasting solution. Bonus: if we fix the problem we won't have to continue to invest as heavily in it.

2. It is the right thing to do. As the small portion of the world that are enjoying the majority of the benefits, shouldn't we do something to help the large number of people in the world that are just struggling to live?

3. Poverty doesn't help anyone. Elimination of poverty is for the greater good. Education, markets increase. Everyone benefits. There is reduced load on aid and emergency services. Larger talent pool. Poverty and poor education provides hiding places for terrorism and other malfeasance. The environment wins - if people are no longer struggling to live they can stop over-exploiting natural resources and preserve them. There are many symptoms that we are fighting out there that we can make much easier by simply fighting the root cause.

Where am I?

2010-10-07T17:41:00.000-05:00

I got to spend a frantic week in Chicago last week. Trying to get visas, catch up on paperwork, multiple resupply runs, try to remind my manager who I am, and squeeze in catch-up time with friends and family. I managed to cram a lot more highlights than I expected, the least expected being Cathy and Joe's wedding weekend extravaganza. The only part that we were able to make it to was the Sunday Goaltimate and Piece. Got a little running around and disc-time with a bonus of good pizza. Kalvin even got his first taste of the glorious pie. He didn't take too well to the crust, but really chowed down on a middle piece. It was a really great week, made it much harder to get back on the plane.

I really wasn't planning to do a "Hey, I made it" post. Though it might be useful to remind people (or tell for the first time) that I am in China. A town about an hour drive south of Shenyang (which is actually a sister city of Chicago). It is in the northeast of China, north of North Korea. It might also be useful to remind folks that I won't have access to fb. Send me an email if you want to talk. But the thing that really got me to write was while doing some research at the local grocery store I came across the above picture - I actually stopped in the aisle and stared trying to confirm the reality. There are Hipsters in Liaoyang, China. There is PBR here. A lot of PBR. It is in some of the local restaurants. In the store they have it in bottles, cans, tall boys, and special edition US Army (commemorating their work in WWII) cans. The crowning achievement is that there is a dark PBR. Who even makes that? It is still cheap, so if it is imported it must be transported by self propelled sail boats. If it is made here...who thought that would be a marketable idea? We'll be looking into this more later. In the meantime I'll be looking for answers, folks in skinny jeans, and a bike polo match.

Hualien - Taroko Gorge

2010-09-26T12:02:00.000-05:00

Amigo's was able to fill in a couple of the gaps in our intel for the Gorge. There is a free bus that runs from the Hualien visitor center to the park entrance, park visitor center, and continues through the park with stops along the way at major attraction points - Buluowan, Swallow Grotto, Nine Turns, Lushui, and turning around at Tianxiang.. This bus is convenient and free, but be warned that the schedule might be more of a guideline than an exact timetable. An interesting note while waiting for the bus in the morning - we were treated to some fighter jet flyovers from the local military base. Felt like a mini-Air Show. I think it would be better to take the free bus rather than other bus tours, since you can choose how long and where you stop. If you want a longer day, faster travel, or to see things not on the route I would recommend hiring a taxi - there are many options in the area from one-way to all-day. The visitor center is a good place to stop for the latest information on the park and any trail conditions - this was mandatory due to the recent typhoon. There was only one area of trails "officially" open. English is functional. There is also a cafe with drinks and snacks - and a nice seating area from which you can take in a nice view of the gorge. There are a few cafes with food and drinks throughout the park, I imagine that since they were open this day, they are almost always open.

Sculpture near the visitor's center in Taroko Gorge

I was surprised to see many of the most frequently mentioned sights of the gorge are simply stretches of the road and typically seen from a moving vehicle. For example The Tunnel of Nine Turns is simply a group of small tunnels. It is impressive that a road has been placed there, but I was expecting something a little more majestic and a little less functional. There are short trails that run in the area, but as they were not cleared to be open by the park the staff would not give out any information on them and the bus would not drop us near the trailheads. (Some nice longer trails in the region) We did do a little hiking and what we saw was really nice. The walls are steep, so the trails (at least some that we were on) are carved out if the mountainside.

View from the drive through Taroko Gorge

We started on the Lushui Trail which is a major stop on the bus route. There is a ranger station, mountaineering school, park display, and cafe. There is even a nearby campground - Heliu Campground. Camping can be done in multiple places through out the park, usually a group of 5-10 sites (tents to be placed on wooden platforms) with water supply. Really wish I had a tent, Heliu is a beautiful location. But the Luchui Trail is a nice walk. It heads up the mountain side for about a km - including a small Japanese memorial to lives lost by police or park officers during occupation (there are many, though most are not very well preserved), some cliff side walking, and about a 30m section of tunnel. Then almost a km downhill on a rough road back to the main road along the river. Near the beginning of this trail there is also another one that starts, headed upstream - the signs say it goes for about 5km. Due to our time constraints we were not able to explore it, but it looked promising.

Liwu River rushing through Taroko Gorge

Next we hiked it up to the Tianxiang - the end point of the free bus. This was during the lunch break of the bus schedule, so the 10 minute walk was a much better option than waiting for the next bus. And it was a pretty nice walk. At Tianxiang there is a temple with a couple of large Buddhas and some other sights. There is a visitors center, a church, and some food stands. We wanted to try to see some of the other sights on the bus route, so we did not explore too much here.

Bridge at Tianxiang (endpoint of the free bus shuttle)

On the way back we stopped at Buluowan and looked around some, eventually taking a trial (basically a long set of stairs) up to the tourist center and ranger station. They have on display some artifacts from the local tribes and on sale some handicrafts from the local artisans. Some really nice paintings on cloth, leather goods, and woven items. A lot of the work is done with hemp - kind of surprising to me, I didn't realize it was a popular medium here. There is also a hotel here, but again we did not have much time to explore as we needed to catch the last bus back into town. It sounds like we were hurried on this schedule but we covered a lot of ground and some was our own design. We did not catch the first bus to the park and on busier days (mostly weekends) there are 2 later buses.

Temple at Tianxiang

Back at Amigos, we rested up a little, caught up on emails, and hung out with the rest of the guests. It was an interesting mix. As far as I could tell there were a couple of Asians, French, and a lot of Americans - quite a surprise to not run into any Germans. Not quite a party scene - though there was a group of American girls that were looking to score some betel nut because they heard heard it provided a good buzz. As this would be the general equivalent of a bunch of girls visiting the Deep South looking for a Red Bull-type experience and asking for chew, I had a really hard time not laughing out loud for the hour or so they were asking where to get it, getting it, and then asking how to chew it. Unfortunately, we left before they actually started consuming it. I am pretty sure that I would have lost it at that point. Judging by the general habits over the night, while not a party scene it is not an experienced hostel scene either - so not the best I have slept in a hostel, but not too bad.

We headed to Tzuchiang Night Market. There are a few in Hualien - the biggest being Tzuchiang and Nanbin. Tzuchiang is better know for food, while Nanbin is better know for games, goods, and other attractions. Both are quite a walk from the Amigo's/train station area of town (40-60 minutes walking). Given we were a little crunched for time we took a taxi - $125 (a little over the min fee of $100) and took about 5-10 minutes. There is a lot of food available. The dumplings I had were really good, stinky tofu was mild but tasty, and goat with noodles was solid but not amazing. Worth a return trip if we were staying more than a couple of days.

Karate-Chop!

2010-09-25T20:52:00.001-05:00

Like it says - I am back. Thank you to Fall, who greeted me at the airport. The air was a little cool (at least coming from the tropics) and smelled of fall. Should be a pretty busy week here in Chicago. I hope that I can get everything done.

Headed East...ish

2010-09-24T10:05:00.000-05:00

After a long project my window of opportunity came as the schedule wound down - the treasured long off. I had 5 days - but had to subtract one due to a national "Typhoon Day" Everything was shut down for the Fanapi. So, no trains, no buses, nothing. This did give me some time to do some internet research. The target of my reading was Hualien, centrally located on the east coast (just about directly across the island from where we are staying). Frequently used as a cheap staging town for Taroko Gorge, it is a town that also has its own charm. More laid back than other Taiwan cities and a major player in the marble industry (the mountains and Gorge are made mainly of high quality marble). Many of the sidewalks are inlaid with large pieces of marble. Large marble sculptures are placed throughout the city. There are shops selling marble goods and carvings in all sizes from desktop dust collector to giant garden piece.

On the train passing through rice fields

The first train out of Douliou left at 12:37, I was hoping to get on this train and get into Haulien in the evening. Due to the Typhoon Day, this train was booked. But it was easy to get on the next train at 16:28 - this put me in around 2300. Well, would have. A one way trip is $970 (all prices in New Taiwan Dollars), but a round trip can be purchased for $1740. The return trip does not have to be specified, you just get a voucher for a return ticket. This is nice, you get the value of a return ticket but don't need to commit to anything too early. We lined up on the specified track, a train pulled in at the specified time, and we jumped on. Sat back and watched the countryside roll by. This route is labeled as the mountain route, but it still goes all the way up north to Taipei and back down the east coast to Hualien - this is why the trip takes 6-8 hours depending on the type of train. About 3 hours in we find out that we are actually on the wrong train. We are on the slow train instead of the express and we will need to wait for a transfer in Taipei. This was a pretty bad mix up, but the advantage of being on a small island is that we lost less than 2 hours. If we made this mistake in China this could have cost us days.

Front side of Hualien train station from the visitor center (daytime)

But these 2 hours meant that the hostel we were planning on staying was going to be closed. We exited the front door of the train station, normally the visitor center on the right is open and can give you directions to anywhere you need. But as it was after 0100, we just walked to the hotel across the street and got a room ($500/bed for 2). It was an interesting building. Nice marble lobby that looked nice (and was also used for motorcycle storage), but also directed noise upstairs quite effectively. If you stay, get a higher room for less noise. The water was cold (nice given the weather), internet, and A/C. But we didn't run the A/C since after 2 minutes of it running I could feel my sinuses clogging, breathing labor, and eyes water. The room was relatively clean, but there was something fierce growing in the A/C unit. There are a lot of hotels near the train station, if you aren't there during a busy period I imagine that finding a room would take about 5 minutes and cost about the same.

In the morning we headed out (after declining the offered tour of the gorge - basically a bus ride through the gorge for $700) for breakfast and to find Amigo's. Amigo's is about a 5-minute walk - straight out the train station (visitor center on right), through the first intersection, go to the next stop light, make a right, and walk about 2 blocks. Amigos is on a small side street corner just after a hot pot place and next door to a pink Spa place. You know the kind of spa....

When open, all the walls roll up for an open air layout with a bar and tables and chairs. There used to be a big blue sign announcing the location - but the typhoon ripped it off. Their phone number is listed on their website and can be very helpful on the phone, the afternoon staff (including the owner) has better English. There is 1 common computer and wifi. Coffee and tea available all day, breakfast is a sandwich. There will be more info on following posts. Bunks are $450 ($550 at peak times). There are also other hostels in town with similar services.

Break

2010-09-18T10:23:00.003-05:00

Shouldn't we all get a lunch break like this? I think we would all be more productive and cheerful at work. Avoid the afternoon doldrums. Maybe someday we will catch on.

As I get my first scheduled consecutive days off in 5 or 6 weeks, I have made plans to explore the east coast of Taiwan, specifically the area near Hualien. There is the great Taroko Gorge and some whitewater near there. Enter Typhoon Fanapi. Forecast to hit Hualien tomorrow. A day earlier I could have ridden out my first typhoon. couple of days later and most of it would be gone.
The real shame is that everyone I have asked about kayaking and rafting seems to think that no one will be going because of the high water. I thought that would be the best time to go. Then they started talking about the logs and boulders running down the rivers with the storm water. Yeah, that could be a bummer. I am still going to try to make a run for it. If the trains are running. Hopefully something will be open when I get there, or I'll find a Plan B. There are supposed to be some hot springs there too, maybe I just sit in some of those for a couple of days.

I'll wrap up with a little shot of our slice of paradise where we are staying - this was on a nice day a little while ago. And a message at the ATM from the most truthful bank in the world. Always read the fine print.

Milestones

2010-09-05T18:55:00.004-05:00

What's in a number? I have seen plenty of websites and blogs celebrate 'birthdays' or a number of posts that sound good - even numbers such as 200 or something relevant to the writer. Some numbers are assigned a value that is not always relevant to whatever is being counted. The 99Cent Store weathered a lawsuit when they raised their prices to 99.99 cents. Nevermind the actual increase or the changing value of 99 cents, it is about the perceived value of the number. If they had moved to $1 pricing I am sure there would have been riots. Everyone worries about the Dow at 10,000 - it is only a relevant number in their head. Hotels in China don't have a 4th floor. Why is home run 400 more valuable than 399 or 401?

For all the goofiness, sometimes they serve a purpose. Some of these numbers can be meaningful. Some serve as goal markers, something to be striving for. Some are simply good arbitrary points to reassess or put things into perspective.

This post is the 366th for this blog. I don't know what that means or signifies. Or if it is important. The only meaning I can get out of it is that if you read 1 post per day it would take a leap year to finish. With that in mind I have collected some milestones. Some meaningful, some not, mostly travel related. In no particular order.

1. Trips around the world: 2. I am in the middle of 3 and would have completed it, but made a right turn at Spain while Beth and Kalvin continued along. Beth has 2 and Kalvin has one. Both Beth and I are even - one in each direction.

2. Languages that I can count to 10 in: 4.5. English, French, Mandarin (though know one claims to understand me), Spanish/Italian (I am going to give myself partial credit - 0.5 each - for each since they are so close), Korean/Japanese (again partial credit - 0.5 total - since I can 'sort of' understand, but can't speak).

3. Broken bones: 3. Though only my thumb was a traditional impact break that required serious medical attention (and my second surgery).

4. Countries visited: 24. Now this is a great example of how things can get silly. What is a visit? What makes a country? What is official recognizing body? TripAdvisor doesn't count Hong Kong and only gives me 23. But if I was going from China to Hong Kong it would count as an exit on my visa (and by the way I don't need a visa to go to Hong Kong). If I had been there 10 years earlier, it wouldn't even be a debate. On cultural and bureaucratic grounds I am going to take credit for it. Some would say Taiwan shouldn't count either. What does Gibraltar count as? Slovakia was me literally me jumping over a line on a mountain ridge...how much is that worth? This would have been a nice round 25 if there hadn't been The Great Paperwork Shuffle that caused me to miss Morocco. Which leads me to...

5. Continents I have seen: 6. Though I have only visited 5 - see point above - having only seen Africa from a distance. And this is still in some doubt as New Zealand might not actually be in the Oceania continent, but only a subcontinent. So where does that fall?

6. Beautiful and amazing wives: 1. No explanation needed.

7. US States visited: 42. Missing: Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware (I saw it across the river), New Jersey, Idaho, Oregon, Hawaii. No Districts or territories either. I really need a road trip to finish this list off. Maybe a nice bike ride.

8. Crazy kids: 1. See Item #1. I have it on pretty good authority that he might be the cutest kid in the whole world. Survey still in progress.

Dou Liou - Return

2010-09-02T22:00:00.005-05:00

I got a half day off and went to Dou Liou to get some more information for future travels. Got the bus thing all worked out - pretty easy though still and hour ride. I spent a good amount of time with the tourist information booth at the train station. There are a lot of train lines and stations that are closed for maintenance or other work. Good thing I checked first. It narrows the options, which makes decisions easier, but cuts out the closer stuff. I think my target is going to be the east coast. It promises a nice train ride through the mountains, cliffs, canyons, and possibly some white water adventure. I talked with an outfitter there and it sounded like there are some good options. Unfortunately, it is a 6hr train ride - so I am going to need a couple of days in a row.
I started walking the city. Most of everything is close enough that walking is the best option. The map they give is pretty good and represents the streets well. I found an interesting book store, not a lot of English options. But there was a great bilingual story that might be making a trip home.

I found some more food options too. The Dou Liou website lists the a Yunlin Gourmet Square (first picture) that I thought sounded worthy of a visit. In reality it seems more like a aged food court. An indoor strip of restaurants. I had a good lunch, about the same as the last time we had lunch in town. Japanese steak houses seem to be really popular here. I also ran across another similar looking place called the East DouLiou Food District (or something like that). It looked a little bigger and I'll be trying that next time, if I can find it.
There was a burst or rain in the afternoon and I ducked into a coffee shop - Green Coffee. Had an interesting conversation with the shop owner. First, he knows zero English so when I say conversation it was him speaking to me a lot in Chinese, me nodding when appropriate. When he wanted a more detailed response he would summon his employee and get her to translate. Pictures of Beth and Kalvin were a big hit, that always makes me look a lot better. Then she asked me if I have any single co-workers. The owner wanted me to come back and go out for drinks anyways, so we'll try to make something happen. Worst case - they made the best cappuccino I have had in Asia, that will be good to have again. When they found out I was from Chicago there were a lot of gun and shooting motions. I think they kept asking if I was in a gang. They eventually pulled out Google translate and the words they got back were 'reactionary gang' and 'sinister gang'. Fun times. The owner was nice enough to give me a ride to the Catholic Church.
The information I found said that the church has been there since sometime in the 1700s. If that is true it was not in this building. It is a nice simple church with some small stained glass windows. But definitely not that old. After some more wandering of the streets it was time to head back. On the bus met a nice guy from New Zealand. He is teaching English in the area and seemed pretty interested in meeting some English speakers. He'll probably be a good contact to have if we ever get some significant time off.

Overall, a productive trip. But back to the grind as there was a problem last night so we might be working more over the next week - at least I will be. We'll see.

Another Beautiful Sunrise...

2010-09-02T05:05:00.004-05:00

...from work. Seriously, no one told me about all the great sunrises I would see from excellent vantage points overseeing fantastic bodies of water and exotic foreign lands. The flavor of the project is China - too far in the distance to actually see. But it is over there. We have been struck by the windmills on the coast - literally as far as the eye can see. Sometimes that means upwards of 15...some days that means 1.

On a truly sad note, I keep trying to find something to do in the area (i.e. less than an hour bus ride). The most knowledgeable resource I have is the internet (most of the locals agree that the only thing to do is leave town), but even that isn't that helpful. Wikipedia has a 3-line entry stating area and population. Other than that, all I get returned are stories about the recent fires and how the complex is destroying Taiwan.

This is bad on 2 counts. One this is pretty much why I tried to stay out of the refining industry out of school. Have I sold out? Maybe a little. I try comforting myself that this is only temporary.
I'll eventually be part of the solution...

And the other thing is that every new piece of information that I get confirms that this will be a "no-baby" zone. When that third leg started growing out, I would not be able to forgive myself. Even if that meant seeing first steps and first birthday. Oh well, here is to happier days coming.

Bus Roulette - Dou Liou

2010-09-01T10:03:00.003-05:00

I finally got a day off. We have been holed up in the complex long enough that getting out was relief enough. It didn't matter where. The plan was to head to the nearby town and take the first bus headed anywhere. Unfortunately, the bus stop that we were directed to only had buses going to Taipei - almost 4 hours away. Not a great day trip, especially with our leisurely start. But the lady at the counter suggested that we take a taxi to another bus stop that would take us to a closer town. She pointed on our map - to a blank space - where to catch the bus. We were in a small town, but at least it was a dot on the map. This was going to require a little faith to head to a blank space (though she drew a dot on our map to make us feel better) and catch a bus to somewhere.
But we did it. And after figuring out that you had to buy the ticket on the bus in exact change (and introducing my traveling partner to shaved ice) we hopped on the mini bus to Dou Liou. I think it was a significant measure of where we were coming from when I got excited that this place had a train station. With an information booth! There is some good stuff on the other end of a train ride, the challenge is going to be getting more than a day to try some of these things. After picking up some maps and pamphlets at the train station (and resisting the urge to get on the next train anywhere) we headed into the city to see what else there was.
There is a large market street with stands selling clothes, shoes, purses, doughnuts, and other snacks are crammed together for blocks. Nice to see some action again. There was also a rather large meat market. We turned off the main drag a little and found a little place to sit down for some noodles, soup, and extras. Some real basic stuff, but still a great change from the mass produced (not bad, just mass produced) cafeteria food. We also walked down the Taipeng Historic Street. This is a street of storefronts of a European styling. The buildings are supposed to be over 100 years old, but no information as to the source of the design.
There are also a couple of temples, that had seen better days but were still nice and peaceful. The Taiwan temples are so detail oriented with lots of carving. Not wanting to discover the entire city in one day we went home a little early. I have a list of sights to try to find on a return visit - there is supposed to be a 'Yunlin Gourmet Square' with some interesting sounding restaurants, a Catholic Church from the 1700s, maybe a lake. Plus, more questions to ask about the train timetables. There is one that goes through the mountains to the east coast that I am very interested in, but the ride is 6 hours. I'll need a couple of days to go there and back.

The Alchemist

2010-08-29T19:49:00.004-05:00

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would, it put me on a line of thought I had not been on in a while. It makes an argument for ideals, they are not just for the young - they are for the living. It also kept bringing me back to one of my favorite words - allegory. The dictionary states this as a representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form, but when I hear the word I conjure thoughts of a story that tells of something that everyone has experienced in their daily lives, but haven't really noticed the great truth in it. Allowing you a little moment of zen or motivation everyday. A step up from a parable.

This allegory brought home two concepts that I really like. One is that everything is interconnected. All actions have an effect, the hard part is seeing those effects no matter how small they are. I loved the conversations Santiago has with the wind and the sun. Not only for the lesson on systems (sun nourishes the plants that nourish the mice nourish the hawks that return to the desert - all providing a reason for the sun), but that a good question can challenge anyone into self discovery and improvement. Who would think to question the wind or the sun? But the questions asked transform not only Santiago, but the wind and the sun. Without change in one, you can not have change in the other.

The second is, as Daniel Burnham might have said - Make no little plans. The best way to learn is by doing. The best way to grow is through challenge. A little fear and uncertainty is a good sign, this means that it is actually challenging. With the crystal merchant he raises the question - is it better to have a dream and achieve it or always have the same dram never achieving it. My question - if you aren't trying to achieve it, is it really a dream? There is the issue of setting an ambitious goal that you have to work long and hard for, achieving it presents itself a significant challenge - now what? This is a good problem to have and if you continue to challenge yourself, one that will be resolved shortly. The struggle of an idealist, always striving for perfection while constantly faced with reality. But the alternative is a static life that does not go anywhere. Better to shoot for perfection and miss than to shoot for mediocrity and hit. As I see the message of Santiago, this requires love and passion. This can be for something specific, such as alchemy or sport, or just for life itself. The key is to not get bogged down trying to "make do", occasionally we need to strive for the way things are supposed to be done even if it is the hard way.

Get busy living or get busy dying..

Water - Challenges and Sucesses

2010-08-26T17:38:00.003-05:00

I finally stitched together some smaller projects that have interested me into a full article. It is a little lengthy - the full post is here.

I copied some of the interesting projects that got me started below - though the links don't work. Go to the full story for working links:

Some Positive Industry Example of Water Use:

Industry also has plenty of room for improvements. There have been some very sizable and innovative projects undertaken recently. The common link between these is that it is hard to tell if these companies are dedicated to making the world a better place or if they are simply running efficient businesses. These two concepts are extremely intertwined.

Frito-Lay recovers water from the incoming potatoes, cleans it, and uses it for washing incoming potatoes or corn.
Gatorade has reduced water consumption by about 15% (with overall energy savings of 30% in some plants). Among the changes is that Gatorade bottles are cleaned with a high velocity burst of ionized air before filling instead of water. This project was led by the Atlanta-area plant and motivated by the regions recent water problems. The results were so positive that it was rolled out across the nation.
PepsiCo India achieved a water balance in 2009 on its Aquafina brand. Demand was reduced through process efficiency improvements and water was returned to Indian aquifers through a portfolio of projects throughout India. This included rain collection at their plants, funding public rain collection projects, and water conservation projects throughout the country.

Reader's Digest

2010-08-22T18:59:00.002-05:00

Here are a few articles I have found interesting lately - going a little back, I haven't been able to do this in quite a while:

A Chicago Reader story about a really interesting guy trying to start a self-sustaining vertical farm in an old meat packing plant on the South Side. As a vision, The Plant will house aquaponics that will purify the water (while harvesting waste nutrients) from the tanks growing tilapia. Potentially, even a brewery that will add to the organic cycle of the building. In his grand scheme he even plans to use waste heat and biomass from the operations to power the buildings. Completely closed loop. Hopefully, he can put it together. He is even working with an IIT professor and what sounds like an IPRO.

A WSJ article exploring fuel efficiency of airplanes. Flying on a full plane is actually a reasonably efficient way to travel - though any benefit is heavily balanced by the longer distances usually traveled by plane. And that it is hard to fill a plane. As far as the 'seat mileage', of course a full efficient car still wins for all but single travelers. I just didn't think it would be so close.

Another WSJ article (what can I say, their Audible version is working for me) on Porsche's hybrid work. This has added interest because the reviewer has no interest in hybrids, but is really astounded by the performance - the gas mileage is more of an interesting footnote to him. But they are doing some interesting work. My favorite part of the entire review is when he sums up the 918 Spyder with "If it were a Romanian prince, it would eat infants".

New Setup

2010-08-22T12:54:00.002-05:00

Here is a photo of my view from our last site. I could see Africa from the top. Unfortunately, that was the closest I got. Next time.

I have completed the move to Taiwan and we are in full swing here - understaffed and overworked. Let me amend that - we are in the office too much. Contractor is having labor issues and has a hard time putting together a full crew, so the work is pretty slow. This is a pretty big complex, below is the lawn map of Taiwan that we see from the elevator of the guesthouse. We are approximately at the white spot on the left coast (the one next to China).
And lest we forget where we are there is this great corporate poster hanging in our office. Not sure if we are the farmer, or the cow, or maybe the output of the back end. Good times all around.

A moment of Zen

2010-08-22T12:49:00.003-05:00

This is an old clip, but still good. Kalvin has a little spot near his shoulder that almost always works.

Back for a quick note

2010-08-13T18:22:00.002-05:00

The marathon work schedule is over. The Joe Han European/African Adventure is over. I'll share a funny story there quickly - The project was over early but I need a visa for the next one, perfect still get to be in the country when Joe arrives and not doing too much work. Just need to drive to Madrid and back in one day and then do stuff until heading back to Madrid for pickup and travel. By the way that La Linea to Madrid drive is like Chicago to Eau Claire - not too bad unless you have to go there and back in one day. Had a great weekend of Gibraltar and Morocco planned. We purchased tickets for the ferry to Morocco....and then realized that you need a passport to go there. My passport was left with the Embassy in Madrid. Also counted out the trip to Gibraltar. So Joe and Beth hit the Rock on Saturday and across the Strait on Sunday. Joe has been to Africa before I have been. So has Kalvin, and Beth. Not that we are counting or anything.

So right now, I am sitting tin the Beijing airport waiting for my connection to Taipei. It was a little interesting since the flight landed before most of the staff was on duty. Passport lines were non-existent. Temperature checkpoints (and some customs) were not manned. None of the shops were open, lights were all off, the place was totally empty. Kind of eerie walking through an airport this big without any people in it. Kalvin would have totally enjoyed the acoustics. But Beth and Kalvin are back in Chicago for some doctor stuff - and maybe a little to avoid dealing with what this next site is like, if the rumors are true.

Once in Taiwan, looks like they short staffed us again, back to 70hr work weeks for 3-4 weeks. I should be able to get back to posting, catching up on some of the stuff I have missed in the last month or so. I have a lot of pictures to go through. We'll see what I get to do.

Pooltime 101

2010-07-24T01:21:00.011-05:00

As longtime swimmers, of course it was our goal to get Kalvin in the pool as soon as we could, but it just didn't work out that way. In Japan, our local pool didn't allow children under 3 and in Korea we couldn't find swim diapers. But in Spain all these problems had a solution. Our hotel has a pool and swim diapers are readily available--you even have your choice of brand. So we suited the little guy up and introduced him to the pool.

At first he didn't know what to think, but as he got more used to it he began to splash and kick--yes, kick. He did OK until he was hit by bigger splashes from another girl in the pool, then he got a little upset. Hopefully we'll have many more opportunities to acclimate him to life in a swimsuit.

Things we are missing...

2010-07-22T03:52:00.003-05:00

In our old neighborhood Stephanie Izard's place Girl & The Goat is finally open. This would have been such a nice short walk. Well, another thing on the list. In the meantime, I hope someone can tell us how it is.

In other news, I will probably be on hiatus for while as we have changed our work schedule and I probably won't have a real day off for a few weeks. Hopefully, sooner.

Want to help us win an iPad? We'll share...

2010-07-20T02:43:00.003-05:00

The engineering site I have been contributing to (including another article I'll talk more about later) is running a contest. Simply follow the link and vote for the picture that best exemplifies chemistry and chemical engineering in the real world. I wouldn't want to sway any voting, but I will share that my favorite is the beer pancakes one (though the Milwaukee, Korea, Japan, and PET ones aren't bad either).

As for the article, I visited a park in Seoul that had taken a wastewater treatment facility and turned it into an ecologically themed park and presentation space. There are also plans on display for a master plan for the river front. The goal is to transform it from the dead space it currently is into living neighborhoods and business centers while reducing the city's impact on the river. It was an interesting plan from what I could tell in the plans and renderings. I never got a blog post here on it, so this will have to do.

New Google Labs?

2010-07-19T03:40:00.003-05:00

I have seen a couple of pieces about Google non-computer related investments - such as their foray into solar power generation. Goes along the line of their regular business and their feel good mission. Then I saw this article on their investment in a biopharm company. That one is an interesting diversification. One step closer to global domination? Or is this going to be a leading force in driving all technologies. Will be interesting to see where else they go.

First Impressions...

2010-07-14T16:35:00.004-05:00

We have made it to Spain. It is definitely summer and coastal here. Quite hot and smells like the ocean. First glance of the area is a little surprising since I had been told that this is one of the better assignments on the Road. We are staying in the border town of La Linea de la Concepcion. It feels like a dusty border town, like there are areas where you would not want to wander into at night alone. The border I mention is with Gibraltar - the Rock - which is visible from almost anywhere remotely close to the town.

I am looking forward to exploring some of the local history - definitely some interesting stories and relics waiting out there. We had been hoping to get some of the sightseeing done early when we first arrived but I was needed on night shift right away and Beth has been looking for necessities. I was sharing this with the trainee on site - she is Spanish and recently returned from the home office from her year of training. I was looking forward to being in Spain for the World Cup and getting some hometown-celebration since I missed our local team winning theirs. She respnds with "Oh you mean the Blackhawks?" Surprised to hear that the Spanish follow ice hockey, I say yes. She then tells me that she was in Chicago for that and got to watch all the matches with her friends from work and it was a really great time. I typed that correctly, she called them matches. She might have said something about a pitch too, but I had tuned out. Of course I was on duty for the World Cup, without even internet access at work. So the tally for
world championship celebrations - Spanish colleague - 2 Me - 0.

The food has been good so far. We are not going to really get to explore anything related to dinner since nothing opens before Kalvin's bedtime. After spending a lot of time in Asia it feels like cheese and cured ham is falling from the heavens - and the people look like it too. There is
also a shortage of clothing in parts, which given the constant sun can be a little brutal. So amazing to go from one place where everyone is doing everything to block the sun and stay as pale as possible to the next where everyone is doing everything to embrace the sun and get
as dark as possible. But the lunches and breakfasts have been tasty, lots of meat and cheeses. Tapas will take some exploring since there is quite the variety and not a lot of English. I would say there is some menu roulette coming, but Spanish is much more decipherable than Japanese or Chinese so not quite the gamble. Dessert is dangerous here.

As with most extended stays in Asia, The return is a little jarring. I think even more so this time. The Spanish are very much not Japanese. Sure there are the obvious, they look different and dress different. To paraphrase Beth - there's boobs everywhere! But the sound is probably
the most noticable to me. I was sitting in the hotel lobby and 4 people walked in and started talking. If you had filled the room with 100 Japanese people the 4 would still have been louder. If you walked into the place we stopped for dessert the other night with your eyes closed you might have thought that it was packed to the rafters. Nope, just the 8 grandmas sitting in the corner. The good news is that if Kalvin gets a little loud, no one can even hear him. Hopefully he doesn't raise his game. It would be great if the energy and passion is contagious, I have a feeling that I am going to need a little boost soon the way the job and the weather are shaping up.

One fine layover

2010-07-13T09:35:00.003-05:00

One last parting shot of great labeling. We are SMAP! Who knows.

And the last shot of us in Japan and our mountain of baggage.

We took a day in Paris on the way to Spain. Made a beeline for the first market we could find. Drooled all over the fresh fruit, bread, meats, and cheeses that we have not seen in the last 4 months. We bought a selection of goods and headed to the nearby boulevard for a nice family picnic. The hotel was nice enough to give us a bottle of wine, which we figured...when in Rome. We got about half way with lunch and I had an inspiration for help the second half with Orangina. While this sounds questionable, in fact this is actually a fantastic easy on-the-road sangria. Another trick to put in the toolkit. We wandered the rest of the day and enjoyed the gardens in the summer, something that none of us had experienced before.

Lots going on and some parting thoughts

2010-07-05T21:18:00.003-05:00

There is a lot going on this week, so I picked up some of my new favorite yogurt. Not sure if it is a fist-bump or a right hook, either way the message is clear - 'Get Going!'.

There are a lot of posts that I have not been able to get up - more on Kurashiki, Seto Islands, Soja, Takahashi, and sake. Now that we are close enough to share that we are leaving I'll put my closing thoughts out there and hopefully get to those missing posts later. We are headed to Spain for a month - get those tickets now if you want to visit! We are going to be living basically on the border of Spain and Gibraltar. Coincidentally, near the location of our current reading selection, The Alchemist.
We have been extremely fortunate with our travel plans also, as there is a lay-over day in Paris. Very lucky, hopefully will make up slightly for 12hr flight with a squirmy, wiggly newly crowned (and standing) 8-month old.

Last night, after a couple of logistical glitches, we were able to celebrate the 4th in pyrotechnic style. Fireworks are legal, but finding an open space to use them is a little more of a challenge. But the work, and walk, was worth it. Good times were had and very few Japanese people were startled or frightening during the event.

Some final thoughts and impressions on Japan. I think we came here with the expectations of an area closer to Tokyo, leading us to misconceptions and surprises.

1. Bikes on sidewalks. There is a pretty good bike culture here with almost all junior to high school children riding their bikes everywhere. There are also a lot of adults riding, doing errands, and tons of kids in kid seats. Normally, I would label this a success. But there are no rules - it is like driving in China. Bikes ride on sidewalks, bikes ride on roads with traffic, bikes ride on roads against traffic. IF there is any doubt that bikes belong on the road with traffic rules, as someone that has experienced this chaos I safely remove all doubt. Pedestrians and bikes are not a productive mix. Bikes are better riding with traffic and bikes lanes are magical things.
2. Curry Surprise. The Japanese love Curry and Rice. It is tasty and I don't see anything wrong with it, just didn't expect to have a curry and rice place on every corner. Side note - lack of street food in the area was very disappointing.
3. Baby-pokers. With all the talk about the Japanese not having babies we expected to babies to be at the least unnoticed and maybe a little rare. But kids are everywhere and everyone has been real excited to see Kalvin (ok, maybe the blond hair and blue eyes help). Baby supplies have been easy to find (even if without a lot of choice). This might be because we are not in or near Tokyo - that is likely a different world. And when these baby enthusiasts set upon Kalvin they are quite likely to begin jabbing at his feet, hands, and cheeks. Though they also buy him strawberries and milkshakes. He has adjusted pretty well and begun to enjoy the attention.
4. Packaging. This has to be the most packaged country in the world. Many things come with 3 layers of packaging, not counting the mandatory plastic bag. And everything - food, electronics, everything - comes with a package of desiccant or oxygen absorber, that is a little disturbing.
5. Auto-door Taxis. As a service the taxis here have a lever by the driver that opens the passenger side door. This is very convenient as the customer gets the door opened for them and the driver doesn't have to get out and run around the car. But after a couple of close calls from over zealous drivers nearly taking off a limb or throwing you out onto the street (Buckle that seat belt!), you start to think that this might not be the greatest idea in the world.
6. Spacing. Almost everyone has heard that Tokyo is incredibly dense and people there make extremely small spaces do amazing things. But as I said before, we didn't make it to Tokyo. Where we have been, there is a good level of density but there is also open fields and farm plots (even though they are quite small), and the buildings are not that tall. There are a good number of buildings squeezed onto crazy small plots - like I can reach both walls at the same time. But nothing crazy dense like I was expecting - and it is surprisingly easy to find peace and quiet.
7. Safety. Japan is refreshingly safe and theft is not a problem. People riding up on their bike to a store, parking it, and walking in without locking anything is the norm. Walking around without worry of pick pockets, or petty theft is comforting. But as we get back into the real world we will have to make sure to reset our habits.

It has been a great visit. There were a number of things that we didn't get to see, hopefully we get another crack at it. But at the same time we are greatly looking forward to returning to Europe. Food markets, street food, visiting friends, and it is one step closer to home. Very excited.

More refined thoughts on Plan B

2010-07-05T21:03:00.004-05:00

After sorting through the comments on my earlier post and some revisions, I have posted a more refined review (more review and less discussion) on the ChEnected blog. It is gentler and steered towards what engineers can do. I have kept my favorite points from the book - Demand reduction, Water Issues, and Off-grid production. And a discussion point - Shifting taxation from income to a product's cost to society.

An interesting link about locally produced methane from biomass in India. Details and considerations for a low-tech solutions that can have a significant impact to the energy grid.

Don't forget, ChEnected is running a iPad contest if you are looking for a new toy.

Exploring some antiques and the countryside

2010-07-05T00:03:00.004-05:00

I posted earlier about the antique shop that we wandered through near the Kurashiki Canal and on of the shop keepers that had recently visited Chicago. He had invited us to come and see his house outside the city. This last weekend we took him up on the offer since it offered a closer slightly easier day. Especially since it rained all day. He showed us his goats - he has 2 older goats, a couple 1yr olds, and a couple of newborns that are going to be moving down the street soon. We also spent some time wandering around his house which is jam packed with old stuff. Literally, all the way to the rafters and including the warehouse out back.
There are some kitschy pieces that were kind of interesting and there were some really nice pieces hidden in the collection. Some of the wooden trunks and furniture were fantastic. Some of the screens could be very nice with some touch up or cleaning. After the little tour he took us to the shrine in the neighborhood that had a little museum and noodle shop attached. The rain continued, but everyone told us it was lucky that we were there in that kind of weather since it was how the garden was best viewed. It was a nice garden. The noodles were very good, as was the rest of the meal. Of course, Kalvin was a big hit and he enjoyed having all the new space to crawl around in. The only time he stopped was to show off his standing.
At the end of our meal there was a music lesson in the adjoining room. Very nice end to the meal, though Kalvin needed to get going for a nap and our host was driving back into Kurashiki and offered a ride. An enjoyable rainy weekend.

The last photo is purely for entertainment value and not related to the story. Bags for people with doughnuts and tarts on the mind.

Climbing 101

2010-07-02T17:55:00.003-05:00

Now that Kalvin has mastered pulling up on every vertical surface he has moved on to climbing. Since we don't have any stairs--which is both good and bad--he chose the suitcase to practice on. He pushes up to standing using the edge, leans over until most of his weight is over the suitcase, then lifts the knee. This was as far as he got for a day or two until he figured out the weight transfer. Then he was good to go.

It would be nice to have some stairs that he could practice on. But then, maybe not. Not until he figures out how to get down.

Kal-TV: Standing 101

2010-06-27T19:32:00.004-05:00

Kalvin has recently mastered using furniture to achieve a standing position. Though we haven't got it on video yet, he is also starting to try to climb imaginary steps and pulling up to get on top of the furniture. Not that any of it has worked yet, but he wants on top. He has also started to stand in the crib - no easy feat with the soft, slick sides. The image of him peeking over the top of the crib is both tremendously cute and (after trying to get a crying baby to sleep for 30 minutes) difficult to see.

Flying in Asia

2010-06-27T00:15:00.003-05:00

For those familiar with flying in the US, and flying with children in general, might dread the trip to the airport with little ones in tow. Well, there are places where this is not the case. Granted nothing can quite eliminate the trials of changing air pressure and bottled energy, airlines in Asia generally make it better than others. Everyone is interested in helping, they still serve food and drinks (even on short flights), are usually priced nicely, and they give nice goodies bags. One airline gave us a kind of etch-a-sketch board. They are usually aimed at the 3yr old set, but the thought is appreciated. This last trip on Korean Air - besides taking us to a nice place - had a toy that amused me also.
The warming label reminded me of Happy Fun Ball. Good times abound!
Read carefully for your children:
- Do not run the toy into an other people or live animal
- Do not throw the toy (not to shake heavily)
- Do not play such as violent and rough
- Do not bind out the string on the finger
- It will cause unexpected blood circulation interruption

Materials: Body - Fabric, Chain - Plastic

Internet Book Club - Chapter 3: The Alchemist

2010-06-23T22:42:00.002-05:00

For anyone interested, the next book we have selected for reading is The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. We are aiming to have this highly recommended book about chasing dreams finished by the end of August. Hopefully, for some discussion. If you are interested let me know and I can send you a note when I post the review.

Kal-TV: Laugh Track

2010-06-22T09:35:00.007-05:00

Sometimes Kalvin finds something we do extremely funny. Here is some video of a sound that we made that he enjoyed. It doesn't always work, but when it does it is pretty amusing. Enjoy!

Korea Seoul Trip

2010-06-22T09:12:00.004-05:00

Our 90-day Japanese visa ran out a couple of weekends ago. This means a few things. 1) this post is quite overdue 2) we have been in Japan for quite a while 3) we are going to be in Japan for a while longer 4) visa trip to Korea!! Due to some flight issues, we got to spend 5 days in Seoul, almost a little mini-vacation though I still made the show of going to the office. There was a lot on the agenda though so there wasn't a lot of touring. And the hotel we landed in was too nice to leave. First thing was to stock up on diapers - since we didn't have enough room in our one bag to pack more that a day or so of diapers. Second thing was to chop the mop.
Being without my clippers and summer already here, it has gotten a little hot up top. I could have gotten it cut in Japan, but that would have been about 20,000-30,000JPY ($22-$33). So I waited. Down the street from the office - 6,000Won (<$6). The lady gave me layers, trimmed up the neck area, and was done in about 15 minutes. First haircut I have paid for in about...I don't remember the last time I paid for a hair cut, but this one was worth it.

We did make a little run up the Seoul Tower to get a little sight seeing in. There is an interesting wall there. Couples right sweet nothing on a lock and clip it to this fence as a sign of the longevity of their relationship. There are a lot of locks there.

The rest of the time we enjoyed the hotel - the Korean baths, the swimming pools (including pro Korean photo shoots), and the food. We had some BBQ, kimchi, duk-bok-kee, sundae, and mandu. And the breakfast had some really good cheeses.

Kalvin really enjoyed the extra crawling space - and that it was new. He really likes looking out windows (and banging on them) so he spent some time enjoying the view.

We did get out for one more thing - Ultimate. Met up with Houtrow a couple of times, including Sunday pickup. Felt really good to run and throw with some of the new and old friends we had made last time we were in Korea. Always interesting to see how many people are still there molding young Koreans in the ways of the English language.

So that was the trip in fast summary, lots still in the backlog.

Safer Pest Control Project

2010-06-17T08:11:00.003-05:00

Some might remember that I mentioned a swimming buddy from high school that is working with a group advocating chemical-free or chemical reduced pest control. I wrote a more in depth piece on it and it has been published. It has some nice pictures and plenty of informative links. To long to repost here, so if you are interested check it out - here.

Bonus: if you are looking for a way to get an iPad without paying for it the website is running a contest with 3 iPads up for grabs. By either contributing to the website (comments to other peoples posts count), suggesting site improvements, or getting interesting pictures with the logo you can win one. Full details are here.

Lots of pictures to be posting, hopefully some time soon. Work has picked up and there is actually a lot of work to do now, some time might clear up this weekend.

Kal-TV: Crawling 101

2010-06-13T03:06:00.004-05:00

Here are some old Kalvin videos - by that I mean a couple of weeks. He is already much more effective at crawling. We are going to get some more recent ones up soon. The first one is pretty tame until the end when he owns a book. The second one has a little of his 'butterfly' mode at the end.

Book Review: Plan B 4.0 (Draft)

2010-05-29T19:48:00.005-05:00

We are running a little short on time with the upcoming travel and such, so this is going to be a quickie review with some talking points to get people started. Don't take these as the only talking points, I am really interested to see what everyone else picked up on since there was so much material here. I am going to try to keep the points short with extended explanations at the end for those interested, or comment on the point for further discussion. Hopefully, I'll be able to followup in a reasonable time.

Overall - This felt more like a collection of ideas that were obtained from all the pamphlets he had read in the past few years. There were a lot of data points and ideas - some good, more bad. For a book with the word 'Plan' in the title I thought that was one of the main things lacking. He has a rough assessment of where we are and where he wants to be. He thinks he knows how to get there...waves some hands...and presto! Job complete. I think his style gets in the way of some of his best ideas, it is tough to filter those out - but there is some good stuff in there. While I think that a person could get a more well rounded understanding from a year subscription to National Geographic (they did a story a couple of months ago on the water issue covered more issues, more in depth, and with better more current solutions), this is a decent primer to the argument. Like I said, his strengths are local ideas and 'thinking outside the box'. Weaknesses would be big scale planning, understanding human society, and practicality. He would make a great alderman, lousy Mayor. Good Representative, bad President. Donald Trump, not Daniel Burnham.

A list of some of the best and worst of the book with some expansion at the end. I'll start with the bad and end with the good because I think the good points are more worthy for further discussion. I tried to go from most to least relevant so you can stop reading when you want:

Bad:

Sham-WOW! - His basic writing style is a major obstacle to most of the debate out there. Think PETA or Green Peace. You may even agree with his intent, but his attempt to persuade is so over the top and factually questionable that you get lost in the argument instead of the ideas. He is trying to get an emotional response because it is the only way that the rest of his plan works. He picks 3 glaciers - #1 is going to disappear in 50 years...#2 is in much worse shape and going to disappear in 10 years. If we don't change #3 is going to disappear next week! Oh, wait updated satellite photos it is already Gone!

Climate Change - A lot of his data and claims are suspect or at the very least outdated. He tries to use a mountain of extremely local data to show world weather patterns. Again, think he hurts his argument more than helps. Note #1.

Motivation/Dictation (Human nature) - A major linchpin of most of his plan is that we will have a 'WWII-style' revolution of industry. The President will give a speech about 'having nothing to fear, but the end of the planet', we put up some motivational posters with 'We Can Do It!', and we can all line up at the corner store for our ration stamps. I don't think he has even considered, if this even happened, what kind of manufacturing capacity we even have or how fast it can be increased. Just to replace all the autos and electrical production capacity is a ridiculously huge endeavor.

Data Points - Much of data comparison is where you draw the boundaries. He changes his ranges and the data he compares like it doesn't even matter or ignore large influences coming from outside his model. At one point he argues that public sentiment is finally turning against cars - sales dropped dramatically in 2008. There was a brief mention that there was something going on with the global economy that might have influenced this a little. Same as bottled water in 2008. There was also a slight dip in car production in 1942 for some reason. He also makes a passionate argument against cars while on the following page references a residential development miles outside the Ft. Myers area that while promoting car-free existence within their boundaries would only have car access to get in and out of the development. (There is a similar development in the Chicago area but it actually has a Metra Rail stop.)

Electricity/Tech Issues - HUGELY simplifies this issue. Wind solving the world energy problem is a little...crazy. He treats other technology issues this way also, find a solution that looks pretty good and that is the only one needed. Note #2, #3.

Good/Bad

BPA - He didn't actually talk about this issue but I think it is a better example of the change that he would like to see. Consumers found something they perceived to be a wrong in the products supplied to them and demanded change. Within a year or so the products brought to market had been re-formulated based on consumer demand without government or regulation (still might be coming but the issue is kind of passed already) input. Very fast decisive action. The bad? Based off of information that might have been slanted for profit and the initial 'solution' wasn't exactly safer.

Good

Centralization - All good. Everything gets more efficient. Roadblocks are people adapting to city lifestyle ("American Dream" = big house and big yard) and designing liveable cities (yes, it is possible).

Food Chain - Moving down the food chain is good for everyone, healthier people and fewer resources. Again, convincing people that shouldn't buy yummy food enough though they can is probably the biggest obstacle. The local movement is going strong and seems to have solid fundamentals. I love the idea of turning empty city lots into farming lots. Turning unused land into something productive has no negatives.

Water - Water management is definitely key to future development everywhere in the world - some much more important than others. The buzz-phrase is 'Water is the next oil'. Except that it is a much tighter resource and much more vital to life than oil. He has some good ideas about helping specific locations - there is a lot that can be helpful but most solutions are location specific. PepsiCo/Frito-Lay have actually done some good work in this area.

Off-grid Energy - For undeveloped locations this would be a much easier way to deliver electricity where a grid does not exist. Also provides a bigger consumption swing as these people are usually using older less efficient methods.

Taxation Shift - This gets a little more complicated. Shifting taxation from income to 'carbon-based' is probably the only way that this tax plan would get enough support. This would provide motivation for people to recognize emissions and other costs. But, would this be similar to a sales tax that people argue is regressive? Would this tax most the people that can least afford it?

Failed State Repair - Is there anyone that argues against helping failed states? Now how about the best way to do that? I think the landscape is littered with examples of failed attempts. To argue that simply eliminating the military and using that money to fix other governments is, at the best, naive. At worst ignorant. These states need to be partners, not some bird with a broken wing that we just nurse back to health. The military has a tough time with it (Iraq, Afghanistan) but NGOs don't have a much better track record (Haiti).

Note #1 - Some of this argument boils down to what are your reference points. NatGeo did a story a few months back about water in the Southwest. Back in the 50s and 60s when people started moving out there the water was somewhat plentiful, if not well located. Dams and canals were built, populations were served. Along come the 90s and into the 2000s. Precipitation in the region starts dropping along with lake levels. People start calling it the worst drought in years. The NatGeo article refers to research on the growth rings of trees in the region - old trees, going back a couple hundred years. The rings are larger, indicating more water, from the 50s to the 80s or so. So are they in unusual drought conditions or returning to normal after a few 'wet' decades? The problem with change is that it is all relative...change from what? to what?

Note #2 - Power generation from wind and sun is complicated. Everyone wants power at the flick of a switch, not only when it is sunny or windy. Then there are the numbers. A 100MW wind turbine is capable of producing 100MW. As long as the wind is blowing at the correct speed, and then only for that long. The rest of the time it will produce less or, in calm periods, nothing. To have power on demand this shortfall must be overcome in some way. In some of the articles I have read, a safe number is 30%. That is a wind turbine can consistently provide 30% of its nameplate capacity. This causes many problems (we can ignore the <30% style="font-weight: bold;">Note #2a - There are some arguments that wind/solar power with some sort of storage is a better solution. So the 100MW farm is constructed. Instead of stringing cables for 100MW, cables are strung for 30MW. Along with the farm is installed Massive Electricity Storage (MES). The money saved on smaller, lighter cables is used for the MES. The added advantage being that excess energy is stored to be released when demand is greater than output - getting more out of the windmill and providing a smoother, more reliable amount of power.

Note #3 - I saw a guy speak that was advocating solar power as the way to go. He wasn't saying it was the only way, since so much about renewables is dependent on local conditions, but it should be the primary. He goes through the numbers of other options, calculating the total maximum potential energy and showing that it can't meet demand. Hydro, calculate all the elevation change through all the rivers in the world and subtract out those that can't be practically dammed due to gradient or location. Wind, calculate the potential energy of all the winds of the world and subtract out the areas with wind speeds that are too low. All the tidal potential, etc. Add these all up and they don't come close to the total current demand...let alone in 50 years. Nuclear - if we build 1 plant every day for the next 50 years all the projected demand can be met. But aside from today we are already 1 behind as of today, there is only 1 facility that can produce the large dome needed. And it takes them 2 weeks to build one. (Not taking into account the amount of nuclear on the planet) But if you go after solar power, taking into account 5%-10% efficiency, a relatively small area can supply the equivalent of the world's demand. Not saying this is the only solution for every location - it will take a basket of answers, but that the potential energy available makes it the most promising to be a big percentage player - especially when combined with good storage technology. I have been trying to find his info online for the last month...but I misplaced it and it looks unrecoverable. So I can't reference my source, so take it for what you think that is worth.

Ahhhh Chicago....

2010-05-29T06:53:00.005-05:00

We have spent the last week wondering if we were going to be headed back to the States anytime soon. And as coincidence would have it in the last 2 weeks we have met 2 Japanese people that have been to Chicago more recently than we have. Jealous. The first person was there for an International Rotary Club meeting, that would be pretty cool to see.

Today we went out for our walk and stopped into an antiques-mall store. This place was crazy. If you have been in an antique shop in the States, it was similar to that. A lot of old American signs and stuff, but there was also some Japanese dishes, bowls, lamps, and furniture. Surprised at the amount of American stuff and how expensive everything was. But sure was an interesting catalog to spend some time looking through.

Upstairs is an almost famous Japanese Piggy Bank - a room jam-packed floor to ceiling with piggy banks. All made in Japan. Baseball figures, comic books characters, cartoons, buildings, you name - it is there. The curator of the shop and museum was in Chicago last week for the Toy Show. Lucky guy. He invited us to his farm house to meet his goats. We'll see how that works out since as I have not mentioned yet, apparently to build suspense, we are headed to Korea. Funny story. We wanted to go to Hong Kong, take some vacation time, and spend a week there. Manager says don't take the vacation. Ok, but by the time he tells us what to do all the flights are booked. The only seats out of Japan in time for us to meet our visa requirements are in business. And there are 0 (zero) seats returning until the 8th. So we have to spend 4 days in Seoul. Bummer, huh? If we made the arrangements when I first asked it would cost about half and we would have spent the same amount of time away. Looks like we are going to be in Japan until the end of June at least.

Fun Fact: The term 'Piggy Bank' comes from the old English term used to describe the basic clay used to make household objects - "pygg". Apparently, 'pygg jar' (used for money stashing), became 'pygg bank', became 'piggy bank'.

This writing thing might become a habit

2010-05-26T18:52:00.003-05:00

The folks at the Reactor have published another article by me. It is a slight expansion on my previous post on the Ciautou Sugar Refinery. You can check out the new article here.

Look who's hanging out together...

2010-05-25T20:05:00.002-05:00

I was forwarded a story about Green Product Institute opening in California. Marquee members include Google, Wal-Mart, and Herman Miller. Interesting crew of characters. The institute is aimed at certifying products for their 'cradle-to-cradle' value. Hoping to become a certification system for products similar to what LEED is for buildings.

Kal-TV: Food Channel

2010-05-21T20:29:00.002-05:00

Here is a little video of Kalvin's first shot at avocado. Usually when he gets a new food he gives a great bitter beer face that says something along the lines of: "What kind of garbage are you trying to feed me?" Here I think he is a little distracted with the shiny camera - after I put it away he gave me a pretty funny face. Baby food here is a little interesting. There are not a lot of varieties and the ones that are here are a little different than those in the States. Maybe you saw the horse meat jar I posted. The food here seems to use a lot of thickeners. The main flavors are pumpkin, , potato, apple, and carrot. No peas. We have been trying to make our own, but kind of hard with the limited resources we have. We have used a microwaved sweet potato and pumpkin with mild success. The avocado went ok, but he is not as interested with that as the fruits.

Patagonia

2010-05-19T23:12:00.002-05:00

No, not that Patagonia...this Patagonia. Does anyone else get their catalog? It is a fine piece of work, almost art. The pictures are always stunning and the writing a little inspiring. Climbers chasing peaks, surfers chasing waves, everyone searching for the perfect something. The ramblings of people living in a idealist bubble, searching the globe for next better experience with a big budget followed by really good cameras. You might have to be a little in this bubble to buy an $80 tshirt.

Not to diminish the goals or experiences. It isn't like I would turn down an invitation into the bubble - or the shirt if anyone out there is shopping. And the company does some really great work outside the clothing biz. But as I try to eliminate the mailing lists I get on, I can't bring myself to drop this publication that always makes me a little jealous and usually inspires thoughts of grandeur.

Update to Japanese Ultimate

2010-05-10T22:30:00.003-05:00

The television piece was aired as promised, though not at the promised time. I didn't have any way of capturing the piece, so I grabbed a couple of bits with my camera. Nothing like low grade video pointed at a crappy old TV to scream classy. If you are in the mood for a really low grade experience you can check out the flickering pixels. I tried still shots also but my camera was well timed with the refresh rate of the screen and only got half screens. The summary is that the sportscaster came, joined the game, and got some highlights on TV. The piece shows some tips on throwing. I managed to avoid getting most of my embarassing moments on film but there are a couple. Including a horrible throw out of the endzone that our ride made a flying dive that looked pretty good on camera. They told me to throw it high for a jumping catch, but I forgot we were playing on field the size of a hotbox endzone. Well, he still caught it. By the way they did miss the part that would have made Joe Han proud - one of the 10-yr olds receives a pass in the middle of the field and proceeds to wave everyone off and send them down field for a huck. It was beautiful. So if you want to check out a red hatted Sasquatch (sorry I mis-packed my stylish visor) make his Japanese TV debut and representing Chicago - I get in the middle of a couple of the shots. Thankfully, since I was usually on defense my face never makes it onto screen.

Japanese Ultimate

2010-05-09T20:32:00.005-05:00

After some internet searching I was able to find a couple of Ultimate sources in the Okayama area - and another in the amusing series of coincidences in the world. My first find was a gentleman named Diasuke. I found his little webpage here and while he advertises a pickup game in Okayama, he lives in Kurashiki a short distance from us. He graciously offered to pick us up and drive us to the game. Little did we know that this was a pretty special game and that the local television network (NHK?) had scheduled to interview our host and do a segment on the game. The proceedings got to a slow start as he was teaching the host some basics of throwing and the game.
Plus 'Ultimate Time' does exist in Japan - though instead of planning on being 30-40 minutes late it is only 10-20. The game would be interrupted occasionally so the camera man could get a specific shot that he wanted, but generally went pretty smooth. At the end the host interviewed the little kids and the foreigners that were playing (they got the other 3 but not us - maybe scared away by Kalvin who was kind of noisy. One of the other players commented that he didn't think such a sound could come from a human.) It was a fun laid back game with mostly kids and beginners - good since it was on such a small field. About the size for a good game of hot-box but with 5-7 on a side. We'll try to make it back, but a lot depends on our schedule of the next few weeks.
Which brings me to the great coincidence of the weekend. Turns out there is a big (for the area) tournament in Kurashiki next Sunday. Of course we had made plans to be on another island that weekend. So we'll see how that goes and when we get back. Maybe we can make it to watch the finals, but I sure won't be playing. There is a college team in Okayama that is apparently rather serious - and large one person said there were over 50 people involved with the team. I don't think there is going to be enough time to get that worked out. But either way, this makes country #7 I have played some form of Ultimate in which I think is a pretty good achievement.

Happy Mather's Day!

2010-05-08T20:18:00.003-05:00

Or Happy Mother's Day, depending on where you are. Happy day to my Mom, Beth, and all the other Mothers out there. Thanks for all the hard work and patience and support. And the occasional ice cream cone.

As Kalvin's half-birthday roughly coincided with Mother's Day we went to the pottery shop at Ivy Square for a piece to commemorate the day. You can make your own piece or paint a pre-made piece. The make-your-own apparently can only be made at certain times, we couldn't figure out what they were. But after looking at the only choice of glaze - a muted plain light green - we decided that our money was better spent on painting a pre-made piece.
The pre-made pieces have a white base coat already applied and we were given the blue to make our own design. We wanted to put Kalvin's hand prints on the cup we were painting, but due to the squirming and fast drying qualities of the coloring what we got were Kalvin-sized smudges one either side. Not very artistic, but probably an accurate representation of what a cup would look like if Kalvin had handled it. There were a couple of fingerprints evident and you could generally make out that hands had made the smudges. The essence was captured - besides we couldn't redo it. Maybe foot prints would have been easier - maybe a plate next time.
Beth finished up the painting and we got ready to turn it into the operator. They only ship domestically, fortunately a fraternity brother in Tokyo has agreed to play receiving agent. Then we can ship it home for my Mom. For some reason, they say it will take about 2 months to fire and ship. So there is a long wait ahead of us, but it should be nice once it completes its long journey.

My Review of Honey Stinger Protein Bar - 10 grams

2010-05-07T06:57:00.002-05:00

Originally submitted at REI

Chocolate-coated Honey Stinger Protein bars provide big taste and 10g of protein.

Tasty cool weather energy

By Wandering Robert from Heavy traveling, based in Chicago on 5/7/2010

Gift: No

Pros: Nutritional, Good Taste, Provides A Boost, Goes Down Easy

Best Uses: Meal Replacement, As A Snack, Men, Women

Describe Yourself: Weekend Warrior

Tried the dark chocolate coconut flavor. Agree with many of the other reviews that it is similar to 3 Musketeers bars, though a little firmer and thinner chocolate. I thought the flavor was really good with good chocolate and good enough middle. Similar to a candy bar but filling and nutritious. The BIG con is that the chocolate melts easily. So while I will return to this product it will only be used when and where I can guarantee low enough temps to avoid a gooey mess.

(legalese)

Green Drinks - Not the St. Paddy's type

2010-05-06T22:26:00.004-05:00

Many of you (hopefully) enjoy knowing where your food comes from and what goes into making it - as well as enjoying a tasty end result. Well, the next Green Drinks can help you with the beverage you might choose to wash down said tasty meal. On May 12th (sorry for the late notice) at the Jefferson Tap 3 local companies will be represented. The president of Koval Distillery (Chicago) - at the very least I like their artwork, owner of Death's Door Spirits (Madison), and brewing manager of Goose Island (Chicago) will be speaking. No word on samples being available. This one seems interesting, sorry to be missing it. (Pre-registration is required).
Also, I forgot if I have already given this shout-out. But for anyone looking for some safer pest control a high school swimming friend - Steve Pincuspy - is the rep for the Safer Pest Control Project. They do outreach and educational work to reduce pesticide use. Pesticide free techniques and when needed how to smart apply pesticides. He hangs out at Green Drinks, look him up and tell him I say Hi.

Exploring the Seto Inland Sea - Manabe Island

2010-05-05T23:12:00.005-05:00

These posts are going to be a little out of order, but I am a little excited about our island trip and wanted to get it out while it was fresher. Golden Week is winding down here, the hotel is quieter, the streets are a little more manageable. At the tail end of the week we took a ferry out of Kasaoka (between Kurashiki and Hiroshima) to one of the islands we had heard about with a local festival over the weekend - many of these small islands have local festivals over this weekend. This particular one involved men without pants running around the island carrying carts. We were late arriving to the island and just missed the end of the run - though as you can see there were still thong clad guys walking around. Here is a great video of past festivals - here.
When we landed on Manabe Island (part of the Kasaoka chain) we could immediately sense there was a party afoot - aside from the pantless guys wandering around. We followed the sounds of the drumming to a small town square where there were a team of children drumming with a dragon dance. Seemingly the whole town was gathered for the show. This was the end of the official program but we found the drummers and dancers all over the town all day making visits to friends and any of the smaller gatherings - as the large crowd gradually dispersed into smaller parties. At one point while were wandering the small windings alleyways we saw a group pulling out a half-drum grill I said that we needed to follow those guys. An hour later when we were still looking for a restaurant and they were surrounded by a cloud of meat-smoke I was kicking myself.
The reading I had done on Manabe spoke of 2 places to eat. One place was on the waterfront with no menu other than whatever was hauled in from the sea that morning - and apparently served not quite dead. The other was a okonomiyaki place - Nagisa - positioned up on the hill with a view of the harbor. We were looking for option #2 but not having much luck. A fellow visitor was admiring Kalvin and asked what we were looking for and, of course, we said 'food'. She was there visiting friends and their mother had a place to eat - amazingly enough it was the same place that we were looking for. We had walked right by it, it looks like a hardware store. But enter at the back corner and up a short stair and there is a room with enough space to house a very small neighborhood dive bar. One table for cooking, one very small table for sitting (barely big enough to hold 2 plates), the bar, and a few seats at a counter - with that nice view of the harbor. Good food also. Kalvin gathered a crowd here - he was descended on by about 5 ladies that wanted to hold, poke, and prod him. He took it pretty well, though by the end of a day of this he was pretty upset - plus the excitement meant he didn't eat well or get his napping in.
We did manage to get a little sight seeing in between all the visiting and meeting of new people. There are not really streets to speak of, with the exception of the road running along the water, but mostly just winding walkways between homes and backyard gardens. It makes for a really intimate and interesting scene - one that you might not expect visiting Japan. The main thoroughfares are wide enough for a few people to walk abreast, while the small sides are barely big enough to be carrying a backpack. There is an old wooden schoolhouse that is reportedly the oldest wooden structure in western Japan - I forgot the source, but regardless, it is quite old. We also visited the starting point for the parade route - the Enpukuji Temple. As with many temples in this area it's most famous visitor (and sometimes 1st) was Kobo Daishi, a monk and early leader of the Buddhist movement in Japan. There are some interesting stories related to his birth and death. He is also given a lot of credit with establishing aspects of Japanese culture and was renown for his engineering skills.
To round out the trip the new friends we had met brought out one of the outfits that were worn during the running and we took a bunch of pictures - while being buzzed by other participants cruising the island in their pick-up truck. Kind of a moving party flatbed. Here is a photo of the whole group. Though amazingly enough soon after this a Jamaican woman who teaches English near where we are living (and whose friend is the teacher of the girl with pink) got off the ferry. She and her friends had a late night last night and she was the only one that got out to do sightseeing (though this was about 4pm). We were just passing each other and didn't get new group pictures since we were headed back. It was a great day, even if a little tough on Kalvin. Amazing that this Japan still exists and is less than a half days travel from big city Japan, a recommended addition to your itinerary if you are in the area. We are making plans to visit another island for a little longer later in the month and that should provide some really interesting experiences since we are going to be staying with a family and they will be cooking for us from their garden and their catch. Hold on tight!