A continuation of my Shan Dong chronicles. You can catch up on Part I - Qing Dao. Part II documents some of the sights on the way to 濟南.
嶗山 - Mt. Lau
Mt. Lau is a mountain range around 青島 area, also known as "海上名山第一" and "東方阿爾卑斯山" (Alpes in the East). Recognized throughout China and around the world as one of the best sources of mineral water. Thirty years ago, this mountain range was the main source of the water for the citizens of nearby Qing Dao. Nowadays, the rights to the mineral water are owned by QingDao Brewery and Coca Cola. The water is known for its slightly metallic taste and its unrivalled "pureness". Of course, I cannot tell the difference, though having watched 酒是故鄉醇 many years ago and sampled different fine wines, I can certainly appreciate the importance of water. As an aside, Qing Dao's water nowadays comes from filtered Yellow River water.
Mt. Lau was one of the sights I was looking forward to the most on the trip. The saying goes "泰山雖雲高，不如東海嶗", in reference to the strong waves of the Pacific sweeping upon the rocks of Lau. The beauty of the range has been described by many famous scholars and poets over the years. On this trip, I only got to visit a small section of the scenic park - a 3km trail along a river known as "九水十八潭" (Nine waters, eighteen pools). The trail winds along a river through a narrow valley with soaring cliffs on either side. Each "water" and "pool" consisted of impressive rock formations along the river. Most of the locations were worthy of a visit by themselves and I found myself always looking forward to the next location. At most of them, you can easily make your way carefully down to the water's edge.
My favourite part of the hike was around near 四水, where there was a little pavilion on the opposite side of the river. While most of the group decided to hike on, I made the detour by skipping along some rocks to visit the pavilion. I wanted to see what the interior decorations of the structure was like, but it didn't turn out too be that impressive. However, the view was quite spectacular from that side overlooking the river downstream.
Unfortunately, moving as one big group, I did not get a chance to walk the entire trail and visit all nine waters. Only got up to 5 waters and 11 pools. I would have loved to go on, but oh well... :(
On a side note, Mt. Lau is one of the holiest sites for Taoists back in their heydays. The only thing I know about Taoists is 王重陽 and his 全真教 and their "獨門陣法" - 北斗七星陣! The little section of Mt Lau I visited only had one Taoist temple along the way, and it was under repairs at the time, so I didn't get to visit. It would have been quite cool to visit and learn more about their culture and history. Maybe next time.
臨淄中國古車博物館 - Ancient Wheeled Transport Museum
Went to an interesting museum on the way to 濟南. During the construction of the highway connecting 青島 and 濟南 (濟青高速公路), construction workers uncovered fossils of horses and horse carriages dating back to more than 2000 years ago, before the time of the Terracotta warriors. One of the top 10 archaeological finds in China. You literally stop on the side of the freeway, walk down a set of stairs to go under the highway, and you'll see the ancient fossils. A little freaky considering that these horses were drugged then killed for the burial of some rich guy over 2000 years ago.
They built a little museum detailing the history of carriages in China. Interestingly enough, wooden carriages and many advancements such as shock absorbers were developed before the era of palanquins (轎). Palanquins were more comfortable, so emperors and rich people eventually favoured them more, leading to the decline of carriages. As always, military needs really drove technological development. Pretty impressive seeing how far advanced China was compared to the rest of the world in those times.
濰坊 楊家風箏博物館 - Wei Fang Kite Museum
濰坊 - Wei Fang plays the host of a famous international kite festival every year. Scores of kite lovers from around the world invade this small town to showcase the latest and greatest in the art of kite flying. Paper making and its close ties with kite making have been part of the roots of Wei Fang for many centuries.
We took a tour of Yang's family kite museum. We first visited some of the facilities where workers were busy creating ... you guess it... kites. All the kites made by Yang's family kite factory (they been in this trade for many many generations) are hand made. Each kite is tested multiple times to ensure their flight worthiness. If it fails to take off, then the worker who made the kite is responsible for fixing it, or else it comes out of his/her salary. I was really impressed by the level of detail on these kites - the individual layers of colour, the perfection in the bindings, the fragility of the paper. Overall, I came away with a much greater appreciation on the art of kites.
They had this giant courtyard where we saw some workers flying kites. It is quite cool seeing some oddly shaped kites in the air that you'll never expect can fly. The most impressive kite in the museum was this one of the dragon - apparently winner from a past international competition. I bet it would have been quite a sight to see this take to the air.
After kites, we visited this master who has been creating these multi-layer paintings (埠木版年畫) for over 60 years. He was once featured on Discovery Channel too. You start off with these stencils onto which a single colour of paint is applied. Using a brush, the paint is transferred to a sheet of paper specifically at certain locations, as defined by the stencil mask. Each colour has a different stencil. Extreme skill is required to ensure the paper is correctly aligned for each stencil and that the paint is evenly transferred. A typical painting requires at least a dozen paint layers. This master just breezed through the process. I was just thinking, if you hesitate for a split second and misalign your paper by 1mm, your painting would be screwed. I was tempted to buy one of the paintings, but all the good ones were quite pricey.
Saw many more Chinese art, including detailed etchings, cool origamis and paper cutouts, little trinkets and toys. I imagine foreigners would swipe these goods up really quickly.
As we left 濰坊, we passed by the following statue. We were like, "What was that?!?! Brokeback action!?!"
Apparently, the statue commemorates the bonds between the soldier and farmer during the rebellion.
To be continued....
I was installing some software on a linux image over the weekend. During the installation, I ran out of space in my root mount, so I decided to move some stuff to another mount.
I had meant to type:
mv ./lib /opt/lib
instead, I typed:
mv /lib /opt/lib
Since the software I was installing required root access, the latter command actually succeeded. After that, I could only run 'cd' and 'whence'. Most of the other commands didn't work, like 'ls', 'mv', 'ln', 'mkdir', 'rm'. It was so sad, the files were RIGHT THERE in /opt/lib, but I couldn't move it back to /lib.
Anyway, it took three different system programmers two shifts to fix up my boo-boo. Thank goodness for backup images. I felt so horrible.
Everyone else had a good laugh at my expense though...
GCZZZ2. Bruce Trail Hike Event - Caledon Hills Section Part I.
The Bruce Trail is a scenic nature trail stretching over 800km along the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara Falls to Tobermory. This past Saturday, I attempted the first part of Caledon Hills section, which stretches 37.1km.
Day started off with a couple quick caches in the dark. In a moment of carelessness, I got this 2 inch long shallow cut starting half-a-cm from the corner of my eye towards my ear. Eek. Close to losing my eye!
The GPSr routing was kind of useless, as it led me down some side roads that were not winter maintained. Given the snow storm we had this past Thursday, the roads were covered with snow and ice. One section in particular featured a downhill S-curve. I couldn't see the downward slope in the dark, so I approached the first turn a little faster than I should have. I didn't get a chance to equip my car with winter tires yet, so I knew I was in trouble when I saw the second bend. My car slid on the ice. Fortunately, I knew to pump my brakes and was careful not to over-steer. TochiMobile regained control and came out of the turn safely. Afterwards, I realized how close I was to going off the side of the road. The years of winter driving experience do make a difference, and I was lucky to not have panicked during that turn.
Well, that wasn't the last episode for TochiMobile. Met up with Fababoo later at the Trans-Canada trail. Fababoo and I were going to leave our cars at the end of the hike, so we could shuttle people back afterwards. As he got to the trailhead, he slowed down his car. I was behind him going 15km/h. I applied the brakes and TochiMobile skidded again. This time though, Fababoo was in front of me!! In a split second, I decided that bailing out was better than rear-ending someone. Spotted a nice big snow bank on the side and calculated that I was going slow enough to not take any damage. I guided TochiMobile towards the bank. Poof. TochiMobile stopped. Reverse. Vooooom. Vooooom. TochiMobile was stuck in the bank! Good thing Rover3 and Goju were there to help push. TochiMobile was back on the road in no time. Three close calls to start the day.
Team Goju took us to the start of the hike. Met up with the 10 other fellow hikers/cachers and a bunch of paparazzi and fans. Took photos with the official banner and we're off! The hike started off at a nice pace. NorthernPenguin led the way and we passed through some forested regions. Caught a quick glimpse of the hilly badlands. The trail was covered with maybe an inch or two of snow. Didn't really notice the impact of the snow yet.
At one point, we came out onto Grange Sideroad. We looked around and couldn't spot any of the Bruce Trail blazers. Backed tracked a bit to find the trail leaving the driveway we had walked down. Must stay on the trail! Fizbot came by to check up on us. On the downhill slope, his car had a tough time coming to a complete stop. First time I saw car curling!
Passed by some large properties and saw some a couple equestrians coming down the road. Who needs horses when you have your own pair of feet? Pfft. The next point of interest was Devil's Pulpit. A sharp drop of about 100m about 9.5km into the hike. The main descent consisted of a couple switchbacks of steep slopes with cable guardrails and a length of very narrow steps. Pretty glad that I was only hiking down this drop, instead of coming up.
Coming out of the pulpit, we decided to take a side trip to the ruins of some old lime kiln for a cache. I had read that this was a beautiful, little explored area. It is now more accessible since the Bruce Trail Conservatory built a side trail to the ruins. We opted to follow the railway tracks, as it was a few hundred meters shorter than the trail. Branched off the tracks and into the forest. As we emerged from the trees, we came upon the entrance of this trench.
Wow. What an unique area. Stone walls on both sides, with little furnace holes embedded into the wall. A tall square tower rose on the left hand side, which was apparently the chimney for some of the furnaces. I always enjoyed visiting ruins, like Mayan ruins or some of the remains by Austrian countryside. However, these kiln ruins were quite special, as they almost blending in with nature - doesn't have that touristy polished feel to it.
Came back out along the tracks, and crossed the bridge over Credit River. Many tiny islands of ice interspersed the river, making for an amazing sight. I wish NorthernPenguin had his "good" camera and tripod. Would have loved to see what he could have done with an HDR shot.
Moved along into Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. Saw some spectacular trails and scenery, capped off by views of the Cataract Falls. The icicles on the far side of the valley was amazing.
At this point our party of eight hikers had split into two groups of four. I was in the first group. The next section of the trails consisted of some intense uphill climbs, though nothing compared to McGregor [:P]. We were probably about 13km into the hike. The distance was starting to take its toll on my left leg. We crossed along the top of some very spectacular ridges. Reminded me of the days of Ridge Running, though I was in no shape to do any running at this point.
We continued on for another couple kilometers and finally met up again with HikerT, who had left us earlier. She had her car parked about halfway into the hike, as a bail out vehicle. We chatted for a bit and continued down the road. After a few hundred meters, we were stopped by another car, with the familiar license plate NAWTY. "Where are you guys going?" "Err. We're hiking on the Bruce Trail?" "This is not the Bruce Trail." "WHAT?" We had missed the proper trail entrance by HikerT's car. Good thing Nawty arrived just in time!
The terrain changed quite a bit now. Smaller vegetation and open fields became more dominant in this section of the hike. The snow was also getting much deeper, probably averaging about 2-3 inches. Compounded with our increasingly tired legs, our pace slowed down quite dramatically. At first, we were a bit concerned that the second half of the hike had large sections of road. On any other day, we would have definitely preferred the trails over roads. However, today the roads were cleared of snow and were definitely a welcomed relief for our aches and pains.
At one point, the trail map told us we were suppose to following the Escarpment Side Road. However, the blazers led us into a forest off the road. What is this? A new reroute of the trail? Being Bruce Trail purists, my fellow hikers and I did not even complain about the new challenge. The trail went through a pine forest followed by a road section for a kilometer north. At this point, the sun was starting to set, so I decided to put TochiCam away. The blazers led to east across the edge of this farm field. I took one step onto the field and plunged. The snow drifts were up past my knees. I let out a true "Oh My God". A combination of "JEEZ!" and "You've Got to be Kidding Me!" Things weren't getting any easier. The eastward portion lasted for 600m before turning back south. At this point, I said, "If this leads us a kilometer back to the Escarpment Side Road, I'm going to be pissed". Indeed, that was the case. This southward portion was very hard to walk on. The terrain was uneven and my legs shock absorbers (a.k.a. knees) were both shot already. Getting increasingly painful.
Despite the aches, we pressed forward with each of us taking turns leading. The leader would effectively clear a trail making it easier for the fellow hikers behind him. After coming through the next section of hills and valleys, I had commented that "It's so tough seeing those hills and valleys up ahead of you, and knowing how much they are going to hurt." To which Fababoo replied, "I know, but that DETOUR through the farm was so uncalled for!!" No one could disagree.
We followed the road a bit more. Some quick stops for caches. First time I was ever caught searching for a cache. Fababoo and I were scouring around a tree off the road when this van pulled up beside us. "What are you doing? Do you guys need any help?" "We're okay! We're just searching for something we lost on the side of the road!"
After a couple kilometers of roads, we finally hit the final 2.5 km section of trails. At this point, I had no idea the hardest hike of my life was up ahead. The entire section was an uphill battle all the way. My thighs and knees were already screaming in pain and refusing to bend. As the distance slowly dropped, the steps were becoming harder and harder. At one point, I had 700m to go. Normally, I could easily run 700m, but I was just concentrating on one step at a time now. Head down. Left foot forward. Right foot forward. It was quite a relief as we came over the last hilltop and spotted our cars parked on the road below. In Rover3's words, "A special hats off to Fababoo and Tochi for finishing in good spirits as they seemed to really be in great pain for a good part of the way."
We were the first group to finish. Gave a call to the second group and found out they had just entered the last 2.5 km of the hike. We sat in rover3's car to warm up. I had discovered a present that TOMTEC and Telly left for me. TochiMobile now sported a new rear tire cover! I had no idea what that was doing there or what I'd do with it. When I first saw it, I thought someone had stolen my spare tire!
An hour later, we saw two lights slowly come down the road. It was the multicolour1 duo, who we had been separated from in the first couple kilometers of the hike! They were always on the back of our minds and we were glad to see them make it safely, albeit walking on the roads instead of the trails. Another half hour later, the second group arrived. We stayed for a group photo, chatted before parting.
To sum up. My GPSr clocked the overall hike at just 41km. 11 started, 10 finished. Total time spent hiking: 11 hours 36 minutes. Half way towards my BT Caledon Hills badge.
Fababoo summed up the hike the best: "Congratulations to all that made the attempt and to all that made it to the end. You've accomplished something that not many would even dare trying." A definite challenge for both the mind and body. So easy to give up; so great to have persevered.
ETA:
Miscellaneous Charts of interest.
GPSr Track Record:
Elevation Chart:
Back in June, I posted about this geocaching hobby I had picked up. Since then, I've been continuing the sport on and off. I slowed down during the summer months, but with the beautiful fall weather, I've been out in full force after work and on weekend mornings hunting down these caches. This past Saturday was a major milestone for me, as I managed to make my 100th find.
Some of the highlights from these past few months, in no particular order:
- A.P.E. Night Cache - APE cache in Washington @ 2am.
- Groundspeak HQ Visit - Giant Google Earth TV, Treasure chest, lackey geocoin.
- Stehekin - River Trail - Most remote cache.
- Bavarian Village - First Webcam with TheDragonFruitS support.
- ToGPSr - Thanks to MrMonk and Kungfucius for the discount and courier service. Makes life so much easier.
- German Mills - My first attempt at caching was this set of caches in a park close to home - took me 4 months to clear the caches in there.
- 5km - Cleared all caches within 5km of home.
- Bouncy Bunny Calls - Telephone in forest!
- Puzzles, Puzzles, Puzzles - Solved many individually, and Team MM, BO, TH (+ kung) solved a bunch together.
- DHARMA caches - Provided satellite coverage to field agent MrMonk
- 7-7-7 Pub Night + Determination - How much do you want it?
Of course, the best part of geocaching is still all the cool places around town that I would not have visited otherwise - got to learn about its history, its architecture, its people and most importantly, its parks.
I had reached 99 cache finds the previous weekend. Given the bad weather last week and with the sun setting at 5pm, I decided to save my 100th find for this weekend and mark it with a special cache. Coincidentally, Saturday was a big geocaching day in Ontario, with two high-profile events planned close together - World Wide Flash Mob and BFL II:Boot Camp. I decided to attempt my 100th find early in the morning, then travel an hour west of Toronto to attend these two events for the rest of the day. Made preparations the previous night and packed lunch, water, hiking gear, TochiCam and tripod.
My 100th cache is a special milestone, so I wanted a challenge. I settled on Birds Eye View. The cache is about 20-25 ft up in a tree. One has to scale the tree to sign the log.
I got up at 6 am, ate breakfast and headed out at 7am. This particular tree lies in the middle of a forested area with really nice mountain biking trails. I've been on these trails before, so I know the general layout. Riding a bike with all the gear on the hilly terrain would be difficult, so I decided to hike the 700m to ground zero.
I was a little worried about this cache, since tree climbing isn't my thing. I cannot even remember the last time I climbed a tree. The tree didn't look too tough, the hardest part being that the first branch is about 8 to 10 ft off the ground. Someone had previous set up a little teepee of tree trunks, so you would be able to jump and cling onto the first branch. From then, it's a big heave to get yourself onto that branch. The rest of the climb is pretty straight forward, with sturdy branches every 2-3 feet or so until the cache. Got up, signed the log, and came back down slowly and carefully. The jump down from the first branch is quite unnerving for the unskilled like me. Check this out if you want to know what could have happened: Swifteroo's log.
That was it. Mission accomplished. The sun just peaked above the tree line in the hills. The sight was very pretty. Took a few celebratory photos with Signal. Headed back to TochiMobile. Kudos to KL for waking up early to make sure I didn't break my foot, ankle, back, face, etc.
With 100 caches under my belt, I started heading out west. Stopped in Maple for a couple simple finds. Got into Georgetown at 11:45am for the first event.
Worldwide Flash Mob is a 15 minute event planned for 12:00pm EST. The gist of the activity is everyone gathers at noon, socialize for 15 minutes, then disperses. A true "flash mob". The interesting thing is that the same event is being held at about 80 other locations around the world concurrently. MrMonk attended the one under the Space Needle. About 100 people gathered at this location to sign the log, eat girl scout cookies and take a group photo. The highlight of the event was that I picked up my very own GC10000 Version B Geocoin from res2100. I just love the front design of the coin.
Afterwards, met up with Homer to attempt The Light at the End of the Tunnel. Along the way, we found this letterbox cache, inside was a card giving the coordinates to Bouncy Bunny's Secret Stash. For those of you who don't know, Bouncy Bunny is a series of caches in Ontario, all revolving around a rabbit and her adventures. These are all pretty tough puzzle caches, and have become quite famous in the area.
It's funny if you read the cache description:
This is another unique Bouncy Bunny cache.
Cache is not at the posted coordinates but within 4km.
There is no reason to even go to the posted coordinates as there is nothing there.
It's up to you to figure out what you need in order to find and log this cache.
You'll know where the cache is when you have the coordinates in hand.
All instructions must be followed.
Luck and timing are the key.
Now stop sitting in front of the computer and go out and find some caches.HINT: Did I ever say you had to solve a puzzle to find this cache?
To actually get the coordinates, you had to find these cards in other caches in the area, take the card, sign it, and drop it off at the final coordinates provided. I could have totally imagined myself scratching my head at the puzzle, without realizing it's unsolvable.
Back to the Light at the End of the Tunnel, it's actually a mini cave in the rock outcrop just off the Bruce Trail. How res2100 found this cave I'll never know. The entrance of the cave is down a 1m depression into the rocks. There are two rocks sticking out near the waist. I could barely squeeze through, given my small Asian build. My partner was a bigger man, and somehow managed to squeeze in too. On the way out, he couldn't get past the waist-high rocks. Ended up crawling out on his belly. His log entry reads: "AS for my exit, I had visions of Winnie the Pooh eating too much honey and getting stuck in Rabbit's entrance. Eventually tried a less glamorous exit and made it out."
Merged up with the Central Ontario Geocachers (COG) mob there, as Homer and I got to BB's Secret Stash final location. A small peanut butter jar in a tree stump. Headed off to do a multi-cache (a multi-location cache, where one location gives u clues to the next location or the final). This particular one, we had to look for metal tags in cedar trees. Everyone was looking for silver metal tags tacked onto tree trunks until I spotted some black wire with a small tag hanging right in front of me. My first COG find. All in all, we had to find three tags and I found two of them. :)
Our mob continued on to do many caches in the area before the second event of the day at 7pm - BFL Boot Camp II: Extra Classes. Since there were twelve of us + 2 dogs in the mob, we decided that whoever finds the cache is required to log all our names. At one location, I found the 35mm film canister and was forced to learn all the secret aliases of everyone in the mob. >_<
At 7pm, our mob convoy descended upon the restaurant of the BFL Boot Camp II. The first "BFL" event from last year was called "Back to Night Caching". Everyone referred to that event as BFL for the "big flashlights" required, so this year, they officially renamed the event to BFL II. In short, this event is a dinner / pub gathering, followed by a series of specially designed night time caches.
Dinner was really great. People were showing off their big flashlights, some of which were pretty impressive. I never knew people actually mod their flashlights to improve their power. Hardcore.
After the dinner, the night caches packages were handed out. There were ten caches in total, with all the teams starting off at a different cache. You were required to find 5 of the 9 initial caches to determine the location of the final cache.
Soon afterwards, the COG mob loaded into two mini-vans and made our way to the first location. I was part of the second minivan. We did not get the GPS coordinates of our first cache, so we radio'd the lead car. "Hey guys, give us the coordinates of the first cache!" The reply came back as: "Is this a secure channel?" ARGH. They were worried people might "spy" on us. After that, we tried to scan the other channels to see if we could catch any other group's conversations... so wrong... so wrong.
This was the first time I've done a true night cache. Night cache typically involves reflector plates or fire tacks, which are barely visible during the day. However, these reflectors really stand out at night when you shine light on them (think bicycle light).
Our first night cache was titled Nevermore. We got to our given coordinates and followed a trail of tacks until we came upon a tree with a mirror hanging inside. We used the mirror to look up into the trunk and found the numbers we needed. Moved onto the second location and spotted a stationary "Nevermore" raven at the top of the tree. At first, we thought we needed to climb up to the raven. However, shining our BFL at the raven, we saw that we could make out the coordinates etched onto it. With the required data in hand, we made our way to the final location, which was an ammunition canister hidden under some roots. My first ever FIRST TO FIND to a cache - even though it was a group find. :)
As we headed back to parking, we ran into another group of cachers. We saw their headlamps first and noticed that they were moving rather quickly. We thought they were on bikes. As they got closer, we saw that they were in a light jog/speed walking. I knew immediately which group this was.... Tequila. The hardcore group who wanted the FTF on the final. Tequila had his fireman Search and Rescue suit on too, so he was like a light beacon as the light from our headlamps reflected off him.
Moving along to our next cache, which we determined was 3km away. We spent probably 30-40 minutes searching for reflectors at the location, but couldn't find any. Decided to call mission control to get confirmation on our coordinates. We found out we had done the math wrong for our coordinates, and was searching in the wrong neck of the woods! After the correction, we finally moved onto the second cache.
This second cache is called Teamwork. Two birdhouses were set up in trees about 20m apart. Each birdhouse had a fishing line attached to the base. As you pulled down on it, the birdhouse would open up. The other team shining their lights to the birdhouse would be able to make out a certain colour code from inside the birdhouse. This is the "teamwork" aspect. What a cool concept.
Now, Murphy's law was in full force for this cache. I was responsible for pulling on the fishing wire at one of the birdhouses. I was pulling very gently on the line and the birdhouse slowly opened up. "A little more! A little more!" So I continued pulling, then all of a sudden, SNAP!!!! The fishing line broke!!! Poor Telly had to climb the tree to retrieve the fishing line and fix the cache.
After we determined the colour codes, we used them to calculate the location of the final. We were led to this rocky section of the forest. We searched for 10 minutes and couldn't come up with the cache. We revisited our math and came up with an alternate set of coordinates. It was 200m away and we decided to check there too. We came to this slightly swampy area and immediately knew the cache wasn't hidden here. As we went back to the first site, we ran into another group of cachers who were just going to the birdhouses! We hurried back to the rocks. After another 5 minutes of searching, I dug my hand into a pile of leaves and felt something flat and solid. Lo and behold, as I removed the leaves, there was the ammo can! The freaking cache was hidden under a foot of leaves. Tequila's group was the previous finders... damn them for hiding it so well. Our entire group was quite relieved with the find. We immediately extinguished our headlamps, to prevent the next group of cachers from spotting us. We used only a red light, so I could sign the log. :)
Our third cache was Interstellar Navigation. The organizers set up tiny reflectors in various constellations patterns. From the cache description, you had to find a certain set of constellations in order, to get to the final location. The first constellation was Lepus, in honour of Bouncy Bunny. These reflectors were so cool - little white stars formations twinkling in the trees. After following the star path, we arrived at the ground zero site. The description said the cache was sucked into a "black hole". We had quite a bit of trouble finding the actual cache. HF Reign was actually using the Phone a Friend option when Team Woods made the find.
We easily found the fourth cache in our BFL series, which was at a tree decorated with red reflectors. Aside from being only mere meters away from base camp, it stood out like a Christmas tree. The cache was called "Lamer than the Last One", just because it was so obvious and lame!
The fifth cache was found early on by the other half of my group, while the rest of us were searching for the constellations. With secret codes from all 5 caches, we were able to decode the location of the BFL II Final cache. By now, it was 2 AM. Good thing the final cache was straightforward. The large ammo box was secured at the top of a tree by this elaborate pulley system. You had to find the other end of the rope and release it to lower the cache. At 2:12AM, we were the 6th group to log the final cache. Wow. Finally. Done.
We made a stop at Tim Horton's at 3AM for some late night drinks and food. I drove back home at 4AM. All in all, 35 caches in the past 24 hours. Love the outdoors. Love the caching. Love the people. An awesome night.
A couple weeks ago, we had a night of really dense fog in Toronto. I was persuaded to attempt a STF at 10:30pm, so I headed out into the field. After seeing the fog, I couldn't resist setting up my camera and tripod (part of the standard gear in the field nowadays) to snap a few photos (ended up being a lot).
A short while later, I noticed a challenge on the Nikon Cafe forums titled "Slow Shutter Speed". Since all my pictures were taken in the dark, I had to use slow shutter speeds to get the proper exposure anyway. For the heck of it, I decided to submit my favourite photo - entitled Illuminati.
There weren't too many submissions to the challenge, but a few of them were really great photos. As the votes starting rolling in, lo and behold, my photo was getting votes. I would have been happy with just one vote. The results were released today, and Illuminati came in third!!! :):):)
Last week, I had the rare honour of being invited to a dinner celebration for a colleague who serviced our company for 25 years. I've worked closely with this colleague, and he is like a mentor to me. The company has already showered him with various corporate awards and a very nice bonus. This dinner was just icing on the cake - an opportunity for him to thank his closest friends from these past years.
Venue was Diamond Banquet Hall at First Markham Place. A very popular place for weddings, though I haven't been there myself. The food was a traditional 10-12 course Chinese banquet - cold platters, mix of seafood, steamed fish, chicken, rice, noodles, and dessert. Food was quite delicious overall, though I was expecting something a little bit better.
It was a little awkward being the youngest in the group, especially since I have not even lived for a quarter century. The rest of the table was mainly comprised of folks with gray hair already (or hair at all). Hearing them talk about stories of their past experiences is quite interesting. Obviously, many of them have lived through quite a transition in the company and industry. Things were totally different back when they started. Also interesting is the insight they bring forth in current affairs. I was impressed by how well informed everyone was about the affairs that plague the world today. For example, some of them have lived with the dollar being so high back in the early 70's. They had some strong opinions about whether the strong dollar is a good thing or not.
The thing that really hit home was the praise that everyone had for this colleague. So dependable, so responsible, so visionary. He would also be the one who comes to save the day. I want to emphasize, ALL of the praise was totally well-deserved. I would even venture to say that the praise were an understatement to how important this colleague's work and contributions were to the company. Of course, we were careful to also congratulate his wife, since behind every man is a great woman. :-)
Which got me thinking.... if 25 years down the road, I was to have such a celebration with colleagues I've worked with in the past, would I be able to get such recognition and praise?
To finish off, the colleague sent out the group photos from the dinner with the following statement. "It's a very memorable night to share good food and good memory with colleagues. Attached are the photos and one day we can show them to our grand children the wonderful colleagues we worked with." I'm definitely looking forward to that day! XD
Just a fun little post to spice things up. Tonight, after I got home, I checked my answering machine and found the following message waiting for me.
When I started playing it, I was wondering why a baby was leaving me a message. Obviously, this person called the wrong number. As I heard more of the message, I thought I can recognized parts of the recording. The beginning something like 爸! 爸! 爸! 我係你啊哥! (Obviously, this makes no sense) I cannot decipher what language this message is in. Any ideas on who I need to call back?
One of the most harrowing experiences in my life unfolded this morning. One of my coworkers was presenting at a conference. Two-thirds of the way through the presentation, he fielded some questions.
As he resumed the talk, all of a sudden, he hunched over the podium, his speech and movement became really really slow. It felt like when your computer lags so much that it takes seconds to respond to individual keystrokes or mouse cursor movements, only this was happening to a person, which was totally unsettling. After another few seconds, I knew something was seriously wrong. I was worried he might collapse, so I rushed up to the stage with another colleague. The room was eerily silent. We tried to get my coworker to sit down and take a break. He was in a slow zombie-like state; he kept on iterating that he was okay and could finish the presentation. His arms and hands were like ice, but he was sweating profusely. I asked the conference organizer that we needed to get a medic or EMS here. It's not pleasant at all to say that when you really mean it. The organizer broke the session and got some water for my coworker. We pulled a chair onto the stage for him to rest. After a little while, he started recovering. His speech was more coherent, but you can tell he was very shaken up. He couldn't remember anything from the last couple minutes on the stage. It was relieving to see that he was feeling better.
After that episode, the show must go on. I ended up giving the rest of the presentation. Got a few minutes to skim through the remaining slides beforehand. Definitely the biggest impromptu presentation to a large audience of my life. Given the circumstances, I surprisingly did not feel nervous. I covered everything that needed to be covered. Took a few questions from the audience to cap it off.
Fortunately, everything turned out okay. I am still a bit unnerved by the whole ordeal. At least it's over and we'll be laughing about it soon enough.
Inter-team paintball battle at Wasaga Beach on Friday afternoon. The numerous scrimmages over the year have boiled down to this... one... final... showdown. A shootout till the last man standing. Whose standard will remain flying at day's end?
The last time I went paintballing was back in Cornell. That time, I had a really bad experience where someone snuck up on me while I was sniping in the prone position; I had no claymores.
This time, we were at one of Canada's largest outdoor paintball centers, so I was really looking forward to checking out their facilities. Our special forces infantry unit totaled seven members. Intel briefed us that the hostile team numbered six. We were the only teams doing battle at the center today, so we were able to relax some of the gas mask rules and could pick any field we wanted.
The first map was fittingly named Junkyard. Each team had a school bus. The objective was to cross the junkyard, reach the enemy school bus to neutralize and cap it. We decided to have one person guard the bus, while the remaining six split up into three teams to attack left, right and middle. KS and I took the right. Five minutes into the battle, I came into the following scenario.
Essentially, I was exchanging fire with hostile 1, while my partner was exchanging fire with Hostile 2. After a few minutes of attrition, I signaled to my partner I was going to sneak up onto hostile 1, who was behind a waist high wall. My partner provided some cover fire while I made my move. I got to my target position, reached up and over. I yelled "Mercy!", since he was only a foot away. Hostile 1 was so shocked to see me, he turned around to duck. Out of instinct, I pegged him 3 shots on the arse. (Some funny conversations ensued after the battle). Unfortunately, hostile 2 had noticed my movement. As I got back down behind the wall, he nailed me with a shot right in the chest. I was a bit stunned. I NEED A MEDIC!!!!!! MEDIC!!!!! Good thing we were each given a camouflage jacket to wear, which took the blunt of the blow. I slowly crawled my way off the field. In hindsight, I should have never made such a risky move up the middle. However, the coolness factor of pulling it off was too enticing that I had to try. Eventually, my team managed to get to enemy school bus and take the match. During the match, CK exclaimed after getting hit in the forehead (on the helmet), "Did I get any in my hair?!?!?!" He was sooo serious too. The rest of us just dropped down laughing.
Second map was (Dragon) Valley. Each team controlled a bunker with the valley in between. Goal was capture enemy flag. I was in charge of guarding the bunker and our flag. My team was so good that I did not get to shoot at anyone the entire game. In five minutes, we were able to take out all the enemy forces. I just took target practice on some trees to pass time.
Third map was pretty interesting. Scenario is that a friendly chopper was shot down in hostile territory. Our team was deployed to rescue our chopper pilot, who landed close to an enemy bunker!! We had to rescue our chopper pilot (i.e. walk up and touch him), and deliver him safely to a rendezvous point, without getting him killed.
We were scratching our heads for a bit as we planned our rescue mission. If we get into a fire fight with the enemy around the chopper, it would be really difficult to extract our pilot. The cockpit was essentially a shell with wide loading bays, which exposed it to open fire. We ended up deciding that the enemy bunker (top left) was about the same distance to the chopper as our drop zone (bottom left). We would send two guys sprinting to the chopper to perform the extraction, while the rest of the team will set up a perimeter on the rendezvous side to provide cover after extraction. Needless to say, the enemy was not expecting such quick action, and by the time we got engaged, our pilot was safely behind our line of defense. It was still a bit dangerous having our pilot dodge between the houses, but mission was a success.
Fourth map involved a Wild Wild West setting. Two lines of houses with a center avenue through, which led up to a Church. One team started at water tower on the top right. Yes, you can snipe from the top of water tower. Other team started on the bottom left in a mini house. This field was smaller than all the previous ones, which fitted better with our numbers. Ended up playing this one a few times. Now, with houses on both sides, it would be really reckless if you traveled up the main street, taking potential fire from both sides. So the battles on this field were mainly fought behind the houses, away from the street. In one of the rounds, we had the following scenario. Three enemy forces were spotted - one in the water tower and two in the top house. My team of three was stuck behind the bottom house. We couldn't move up given the heavy fire. So, we made a quick plan. My two teammates would draw their fire, while I sneak up the main street to the top house, and flank them through the windows. The four F's in action. The plan worked perfectly!! When the two guys in the house were engaging my comrades, I popped up through the window and pegged them both with a few shots. It felt awesome hearing "Who the F*k got us?!?!". Then came the part with the water tower. There wasn't anything we could do to take out the guy at the top. Only one way up the tower and that would be suicide. We couldn't get a good shot at the guy from below. What I won't do for a GRENADE right now. The three of us had no idea how to get the guy down. All of a sudden, we hear "I'm dead! I'm dead!" from the tower. We were like... wtf. He yells down, "I'm out of ammo!!!" lol.
Speaking of ammo, paintball ammo is so expensive. $140 for 2000 "bullets". We each spent $30 just on ammo. Some people tend to have poor accuracy and waste more ammo than others. sigh.
Fifth map we played on was a Warlords map, where one team had to defend a two story mansion, while the other team attacked. Objective for attacking team is to knock over a big blue barrel in front of the house (it was out in the open). We were the attackers this time. Man, trying to take a fortified enemy position is tough. We managed to get 5 of us up to the closest set of barricades before the barrel. The enemy knew where we were, and we knew where they were. We picked one guy to attempt the barrel run, while the other four provided cover fire. As we popped up over the barricades, three of us were gunned down almost immediately, including our runner, who didn't even make it halfway to the barrel. One of our remaining guys decided to dash for the barrel, managed to draw some intense fire but was able to knock down the barrel all in one go. We did not know if he got hit before the barrel or after. But the story is, these brave barrel tippers were subjected to open fire from 5 enemy troops. Paintball on naked flesh does not look or feel good at all. You get a ring-like bullet wound just the size of one paintball. The wounds were bleeding too. >_<
Sixth map was called Ridge Runner. Two hills were separated by a valley. Each team had a bunker on the back side of the hills. Object is Capture the Flag. My team had no idea where the enemy bunker was. All we were told is to go over the hill and head north. We were also down a man now, since two of my teammates had to leave early. 5 vs 6. We decided to split into 2 and 3, and go on the offense. We climbed over our hill, and couldn't see anyone in the valley or opposite hill. We raced down to the bottom of the valley and climbed halfway up before the enemy came over the top of their hill. The situation was rather bad. I was in the team of three, and we were fixed by heavy fire coming up from the top. Since the situation was so dire, I decided to retreat back down to the valley, run east for twenty feet before cutting back uphill. There were some big trees there for cover, so hopefully, the enemy won't be able to spot me. As it turns out, the enemy was so pre-occupied with fixing my two partners, that I managed to sneak up behind them to within 10 feet. Two easy kills for me. Our team of three continued up the hill, and saw that there were two guys guarding the back of the bunker. Since we had the optimal vantage position from the top, we sneaked along the ridge till we got behind the bunker. From that point, it was just simple, aim and spray! I ended up with 4 kills, and our team didn't take a single death! Pure Ownage.
Last map was tank warfare. Essentially, you had to race to the center of the map to get a stick of dynamite , which you then had to toss into the enemy tanks to "destroy them". Each side gets two tanks (actually an APC and a tank). It ended up being trench warfare and we just forgot about the stupid dynamite and made it a free-for-all, to waste our remaining ammo. One great moment was when PT and I were advancing up the field, this enemy jumped out of his tank. PT and I both nailed him in the head, one on the goggles, one through the mouth guard. He had chunks of paintball in his mouth! Lol, he told us it did not taste good.
Overall, a very fun afternoon off. Aside from the shot in the chest, I escaped with just a few shots in the tights and arms. Nothing serious. Bunny hopping doesn't work too well, but flanking definitely does. The lack of mini maps and communication between teammates make it uber simple to sneak up on people. Finished up with some dinner at Moose Winooski's and some drinks afterwards in Barrie.
I don't know why it took me this long to realize, but Tochi in Cantonese sounds very similar to 肚臍 (Bellybutton / navel). Maybe that's why Tochi had a nice ring when I picked it.
Edit: Blah, my original statements were confusing quite a few people. Revised them slightly.
Another backdated post. Apologies for being quite long winded again. I don't know why I end up writing so much for these trip recaps. I also have no idea when Part II will be coming....
"Who cares about Taiwan" -Toyo
After the brief visit to Taiwan, my next stop was ShanDong province - 山東省. My first choice was actually 雲南's LiJiang 麗江. Unfortunately, the tours to 麗江 did not work out with my schedule, so I settled for 山東 and Mt. Tai, 泰山. As the saying goes "五嶽歸來不看山，黄山歸來不看嶽" - I might as well see 泰山 before 黄山. :-)
Following Rich's examples, I will spice up the post with some pictures from the trip. Unfortunately, the weather in ShanDong was mostly cloudy and foggy, which ruined the majority of my pictures. The net effect was that colours came out less vivid and the contrast just was not there.
青島 (QingDao/TsingTao)
"紅瓦綠樹，碧海藍天"
青島 (QingDao) is one of three host cities for the 2008 Olympic Games - other two being Beijing and Hong Kong. All the sailing competitions will take place on her beautiful shores. QingDao is one of the most beautiful and relaxing city I have visited in China.
When you land in QingDao's International Airport one of the first things you'll notice is all the Korean signs. Not surprising given the close proximity to South Korea (1 hr flight). Apparently, Koreans have invested a lot of money into QingDao and visit the big golf course in the city a lot.
青島 is a city on a peninsula in the eastern coast of 山東省. 100 years ago, QingDao was a fishing village. During the opium war, QingDao area was given to the Germans on a 99 year lease, much like Macau and Hong Kong. The Germans started to develop this city similar to how the British developed Hong Kong, envisioning it to become an international hub for trade and commerce. However, after their weak showing in WWI, the Germans lost control of QingDao. The Japanese, Americans and Spanish all occupied the city for periods after WWI, adding their flavours and culture to the city. This mixed Western heritage is what makes QingDao so unique.
Unlike any other Chinese city, 青島 feels like an European town. You would be hard-pressed to find any historical Chinese architecture in the city, but you can find several fancy catholic churches (i.e. 青島聖保羅堂). The streets are wide, the city is very clean and the crime rate is uber low. One of few cities in China where I won't be afraid to walk out at night. Their mild seasonal weather is awesome - max ~30C in summer, 10C in winter, with nice ocean breeze and no typhoons.
Very apparent is the fact that the government is really taking a lot of care in developing 青島. For example, the coastal beaches are adorned with amazing sculptures. The night market district is officially zoned for pedestrian shopping purposes. Beautiful murals are painted on the facades of the residential buildings around the night market district. Multi-colour lights line the main shopping area and all the side streets. The street vendor stalls, while crammed with people, are very orderly. Moreover, there aren't any smelly, stale water or garbage on the ground! You'd be hard-pressed to find such a night market anywhere else. I'm not sure how much of this development is related to Olympic preparation.
I should mention that I visited my very first Walmart in China at the night market here. Everyone kept saying there was a "沃爾瑪" here, and were getting really excited!! Their excitement perked my interest too. I had no idea 沃爾瑪 was just Walmart! (沃爾瑪 in Cantonese is 'yuk yi ma', so sounds totally different). The 青島 Walmart supercenter wasn't too special. The grocery section had large pails of rice, yellow beans, red beans and other Chinese goodies. Other sections were like a typical North American Walmart. However, there was a huge books and manga section in the store. There were not any sofas/couches like what you'd find in a Chapters or Borders, so a LOT of people were literally sprawled on the ground reading. Quite a sight.
Enough of Walmart and back to the city itself. Famed activist and philosopher 康友為 described 青島 as "紅瓦綠樹，碧海藍天" (He didn't say exactly this, but something similar). Since then, this phrase (red tiles, green trees, jade seas and blue skies) has been associated with the city. Quite a fitting description of the historic center of the city. As mentioned before, 青島 feels like an European town and the main reason is the buildings in this part of the city. For example, in an area called 八大関 (Eight Passes), filled with double stories homes showcasing different architectures, ranging from German, Swiss and Russian-style. The neighbourhoods are very quiet and peaceful - houses with open front lawns, tall trees shading the roads, very little traffic and pollution. The look-and-feel really resembles some of the high class residential areas in other great Western cities! We saw a few wedding couples in the area taking their photos.
Had a chance to visit some of the more famous houses in this area. The first stop was the 康友為故居. As one of the most forward thinkers of his times, 康友為 tried to introduce western like modernization reforms into China during a period of imperial instability. He had the young (powerless) Emperor's support. Unfortunately, the day before the coup, the Empress 慈禧太后 found out about the revolt and 康友為 and his fellow conspirators were captured or forced into hiding. After moving around in 40 different countries, 康友為 finally settled in 青島. This particular building is a German/Swiss styled villa, which after 康友為's passing, was occupied by the homeless. The government, in an attempt to find historical places for 青島, just decided to make this building such a site, just for the heck of it. The rooms were big and spacious, and there were a lot of artifacts from 康友為's descendents on exhibit. The one piece I was most impressed with was this sofa set, which was a gift from the young Emperor. Looks like a plain wooden sofa, until you closely inspect the engravings and decorations adoring the pieces. Quite impressive. Moving on...
Arguably one of the nicest buildings in the entire city is the former German Commissioner's residence (not really correct translation) (青島前德國總統府 ). The building is like a mini castle without the towers. Since Chairman Mao stayed in this building before, during the rebellion, most of the building was spared from pillaging. The little damage that was done, however, were quite interesting. In the ballroom, there were these human faces sticking out of the wall. The Chinese rebels had a distaste for the German's long noses and decided to axe off a chunk to make the faces look more normal. On the 2nd floor, there was a small light ball with an assortment of colour crystals. On cursory glance, these rocks must be fake (not really polished or clear). Apparently, this little ball is made of real rubies and gems! Someone chopped off one of the rocks and took it home... smart thief. The rest of the residence is really nice. As you walk in, you enter this giant foyer that extends several stories. There are two guest seats in the far side of the room. From the second floor, there are hidden trap windows that lets the owners peer down onto those seats. Sneaky! It was quite impressive how they kept track of all the things that Chairman Mao touched or used. This was the table, desk, seat, bed, bubble gum, etc that Chariman Mao used. Maybe not bubble gum. Overall a very cool and rare building to visit in China.
Another point of attraction is little QingDao (小青島). 小青島 is a small island just off from the city coast. The island had bore the name 青島 until the city stole that name and bestowed it the title of Little 青島. In the middle of the island is a park with an artistic statue of an exposed female angel. All the tour mates (old guys) were all oogling, and the sick jokes started flowing out. The island is also right beside a naval museum, which has the only PLA submarine on public display. Speaking about the seas, there's a famous 青島 icon of a rock that resembles an Old man in a thinking posture. I kept on thinking that was the Old Man and the Sea. One of the best photography spots (like Kerry's Park in Seattle) is Fisherman's hill, which overlooks beach #1 in QingDao. You can get a panoramic shot of the beach and all the little European houses in the neighbourhood. I took a panoramic, but haven't had a chance to put it together yet. Also, on the hill, there were a lot of people selling fresh strawberries. Very tasty.
Likely the most well known symbol of 青島 during the Olympic games will be the ball structure at 五四廣場, as the shoreline along the plaza is the official site of the sailing events. Visited during the day, and there were people flying kites. Watching and hearing them zoom by was pretty cool. Aside from the kites, there were a few beggars at the plaza. They weren't like the type that invaded South Park. These were people who were missing fingers and arms, have ugly wounds, etc. I bet half of these wounds must be self-inflicted. Anyway, my group just kind of ignored them, but one of them came up and grabbed my arm while I was taking a picture. "Do you have any change?" WTF. WTF. WTF. You can ask nicely and I'd just ignore you, but why TOUCH me?!?! Later on, one kind hearted guy pulled a Kyle and gave a beggar ONE RMB. All of a sudden, a dozen beggars came out of nowhere and swamped us. We scrambled back onto the bus to escape the mob. I went back myself that night to catch some night shots of the plaza. The mob was gone.
Finally, the last 青島 icon I'll describe is the long dock/bridge 桟橋. Historically, the bridge was a pier with a small inn at the end for sailors. We did not actually go on the bridge as a group, since it was filled with pick pockets and beggars. We've had enough of them. We instead went to a Kodak photo spot to take pictures from afar. For those of you who did not recognize the bridge, this is the same bridge as the logo of 青島 most famous product....
A visit to 青島 just is not complete without a visit to the BEER FACTORY! 青島 produces one of the most well-known Chinese beer - the 青島啤酒. Actually, 青島啤酒 makes over 60 beers under different labels. I'm not that much of a beer fan, but I've also liked 青島 beer for their light, refreshing taste. Anyway, as part of the tour, you are entitled to unlimited beer (the real kind, made with spring water from 嶗山)! My table was essentially comprised of non-drinkers, so everyone took a sip and I ended up finishing 3/4 of a pitcher myself; "so it won't go to waste". My face was red for the rest of the tour. Ironically, the best part of the tour was not the unlimited beer, but the PEANUTS. Only produced and sold at this factory, these roasted peanuts uses a secret recipe of herbs to produce the perfect companion to 青島啤酒. I fell head over heels eating these peanuts. Everyone ended up buying boxes of these peanuts to go. I picked up two boxes. Seriously, these were some of the best peanuts I've ever had. Something NOT to be missed.
to be continued....
I had agreed to write up my following experience a while back, but never finished. Finally got around to it this morning in a concerted effort to clear some blogging backlog.
Recently, I have been involved in a couple of situations where I had to pitch an idea in front of a panel of experts, survive their grilling questions and hope for a passing outcome. Not-so-small investments and recognition are involved, so these sessions are more high stakes than your everyday idea-pitches to your advisors, leads or management. Several people have told me these sessions are nicknamed "Mini PhD Defenses". I've never sat through a real PhD Thesis defense, so I really cannot comment on the comparison.
The first one is always nerve racking. How do you prepare for your defense? What kind of questions are they going to ask? In the end, what more can you do to prepare? You have to know the material you are preparing pretty well. Preparing an elevator pitch to showcase your idea really helps fine-tune the relevant points. In front of the panel, you really don't have time to go over the nitty-gritty details until cross-examination, so you want convey the key ideas across first and let the questions drive your technical detail discussions. I found I was spending more time researching other similar ideas in the field, so that I could answer the true money questions: What makes your innovation unique and different? What makes it relevant to others? What contributions to knowledge, profits, customer satisfaction, etc. are you bringing? Why should we invest? These are all asking the same thing in the end. If you cannot effectively answer these questions, go back and do some more homework. Also, try to expand your scope by thinking of ways to extend your ideas. This can come as other applications of your techniques or future work to be done.
When facing the panel itself, it can be a little intimidating. The panel is typically comprised of renown experts in their field. Typically, the sessions starts with general questions to allow you to sell your ideas. That elevator pitch I mentioned before is useful now. I typically follow the layout of an academic paper. Brief introduction, quick discussion of existing works and what makes the idea unique, description of the core idea, followed most importantly, by results. You have to make a good impression by the end of this section. I've sat in a few sessions where people did a poor job conveying their ideas. It's hard to get people excited if they don't understand or are bored.
The next section is the onslaught. The most feared moment of the entire session. I was a bit nervous the first time. To an external viewer, questions from the panel are often quite sharp. These guys did not get to where they are now without being able to ask the right questions or the questions most people don't think about. In my experiences, I have found the questions generally fall into two categories. One set is good hard questions about your ideas. These are the nicest sort of questions, the ones you know how to answer. Use them to continue to dig deeper into your ideas, always reinforcing its results and relevance. The second set are questions that are out of the blue. Most are totally irrelevant to your idea. For this type of questions, thank the panel member for their question, tell them it is irrelevant to this idea and explain WHY (really important!). Remember to reiterate why your ideas are relevant in your scope/niche. There is nothing wrong with telling them that their question is great, but inconsequential to the discussion. Now, there are also the questions that are relevant, but you've never thought about before! The big "OMG, why didn't I think of this?" ones. So far, I've gotten only one such question and I handled it by saying that we had considered that idea, and will expand on it as future work. Given the time and resource constraints, we thought it was more appropriate to focus our idea to the smaller scope. That, by no means, imply that our idea cannot be extended to your new perspective. Furthermore, we can also extend our ideas in other areas, such as blah blah blah... (prepared beforehand).
If there is one thing I took away from these experiences it is that there is no one else in the world who is more knowledgeable about your idea than you. These so-called panel experts might understand the field better, but when it comes down to the specific concentration you are addressing, treat them as eager students wanting to learn from you. If you can sense this from the panel, you are well on your way to success, since they are intrigued and easily sold onto your idea.
The last section is the council vote. Based on the discussions, you should have a pretty good idea of how many people you convinced. The rest is just formalities. It is cool to hear the 'yes' votes come in from around the table. Like the LOTR council meeting in Rivendell. Time to pump the fist. :)
Anyway, I kind of glossed over a lot of the details, but hopefully some of my experiences can be useful to others.
Last year's Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place was spectacular. I could not stop recommending it to everyone. Some photos from last year are here.
This year, the crew from China was back again for the second Roger's Chinese Lantern Festival. The theme this year was the Qin dynasty and the 2008 Olympics.
I had really high expectations for this year's show. Took tochicam and tripod and headed down to Ontario Place. Thanks to the OCT, we got discounts to the festival.
The pictures speak for themselves, so I'll save the commentary for the end. Btw, these photos are DouDou's present! What a great uncle, eh? XD I'm still waiting... haha.
More photos can be found on flickr.
In truth, I was quite disappointed with this year's show. The scale seemed to be a lot smaller than last year's. The designs were not as sophisticated - i.e. last year's pottery dragon was truly amazing. Inevitably, people would compare with last year. Listening to other people's reactions, it was pretty much along the following lines... "Last year, the twelve zodiacs stood here and it was so much better." Also, the Qin dynasty stuff wasn't impressive at all.
I will admit, there were some lanterns that I particularly liked. The pandas, the silver dragon, the pandas again. But overall, something was lacking from the show. Still worth going if you missed the one last year.
One last thing. The stupid DVP northbound was closed tonight for maintenance. I've never driven on the city local arteries uptown before, so I decided to take the 427 up to 401. I had such a hard time finding the entrance to Gardiner westbound from Ontario Place. 427 was also a lot further west than I thought. I hate road closures.
As a change to our weekly regiment of cycling, AB and I decided to participate in the annual Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research this weekend. A brief recap for those who are not familiar with Terry Fox's tale:
Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977.
While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope.
After 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Canada's Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario.
It was a journey that Canadians never forgot.
However, on September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22.
(Terry Fox Foundation Website)
Millions around the world have continued the Marathon of Hope. The Terry Fox Run is now the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. People can elect to participate in a 5km (~ 3.1 miles) or 10km (~6.2 miles) run.
This is the forth or fifth time I have participated in the Terry Fox Run, though it would be my first time in 8 years. I remember last time I was able to jog for 5-6km, before I started walking. My goal this year would be to keep jogging for the entire run. Several people had asked how long it would take to run the entire 10km. Walking speed is like 3-4km/hr, so I guessed 1-1.5 hrs depending on the person.
Arrived at 8:30am for registration. They offered people bibs with "I am participating in the Terry Fox Run in honour of _____". Naturally, I attached one for D, which makes today's run even more special. The map of the run is here.
The horn blasted at around 9:15am and about 200-300 people took off. AB and I started off at the back of the pack and set a decent pace. We filtered through most of the people, till there were about 10 people left in front of us. As we passed the 1km mark, AB couldn't take it much more, and decided to walk. I continued on. After 2km, I saw that I was just over 11 minutes into the run. A quick mental calculation said that I had a chance to finish in less than an hour, if I could keep the pace up. This became my new goal.
From that point on, I settled into a nice pace behind this fellow jogger, Brad (I learned after the race). He was sweating profusely, but still manage to maintain a good speed. First water station at 2.5km marker. I just love grabbing water on the fly, dunking it down onto the dry throat. The next couple kilometers of the race were essentially just concentration and maintaining the pace. I was surprised that by the 5km mark, I was still feeling really awesome. A little tired but not too out of breath or sore. I passed the 5km within 26 minutes. The 1 hour goal is still achievable, though I knew that at 6km was a high incline grade and the last 2 km's were steady uphill climbs too.
As I got to the 6km hill, I had almost 30 minutes left for only 4 more kilometers! This was enough motivation for me to grind up that steep hill. I actually picked up speed on the uphill portion, though by the time I got up to the top, I was a bit out of breath. At 8km mark, I decided to make my move. I gathered some reserve energy and made a push to overtake Brad. For the rest of the race, he was biting my dust. At 9km, only 1 more kilometer to go and I had 14 minutes to finish!!! I started having some cramping in my right abdominal muscles. The last portion was essentially an uphill stretch and we were mixed in with everyone returning from the 5km run. Aside from having to dodge kids, dogs, baby carriages (I don't know why they don't move out of the way), this cramp was really taking its toil on me. The thought of walking this last stretch popped into my mind a few times, but I was so close to achieving my original goal and the fact that Brad was essentially right behind me, forced me to battle through the pain.
Ended up finishing the race in 52:43!! No one passed me today and I passed a few people, so I'm pretty sure I finished in top 10. Here is a breakdown of my run and the approximate timings:
1km - 5 minutes
2km - 11 minutes (+6 min)
3km - 16 minutes (+5 min)
4km - 21 minutes (+5 min)
5km - 26 minutes (+5 min)
6km - 31 minutes (+5 min)
7km - 36 minutes (+5 min)
8km - 41 minutes (+5 min)
9km - 46 minutes (+5 min)
10km - 52:43:51 minutes (+ 7 minutes)
52 minutes 43 seconds! This was definitely a personal best for me - totally beyond my expectations. I could not have given much more. Wow. My body was aching all over from the lactic acid buildup, but it totally paled in comparison with the immense feeling of self-fulfillment. Downed three bottles of water afterwards and met up with Brad. I thanked him for setting the pace for most of the race, and he, in turn, thanked me for keeping it up in the last 2km. He would have probably walked had I not overtaken him.
To break it down, 10 km in 52:43 is equivalent to an average speed of 11.37km/hr - 7.06mph - 3.16m/s - 10.36 ft/s! The world record for 10km is 27:02 (totally insane), so I was going just under twice as slow. I fear I set myself up for quite a challenge in next year's run, but I'm quite happy with the accomplishment. I think D would have been proud too. :)
P.S. The site raised over $20,000. If anyone want to donate some $, you can make an online donation at the Terry Fox Run web site.
Today was the start of the 2007-2008 badminton season. Went to the usual gym after work. It was nice to see all the familiar faces again - some of whom I have not seen in over 2 years (D&D duo). Some new faces as well! I was expecting the session to be packed today, but seems like half the people forgot about badminton today.
Played a couple mixed doubles matches. Everyone was kind of rusty. My service game was still on vacation. So were my drop and slice shots. Smashes were slowly coming back. The only thing I could rely on consistently were my clears. I was moving around the court fairly well and reaction timing was decent - managed to block most of the smashes and drives. Ended up finishing 1-2.
Near the end, AR challenged me to a singles match. I've played AR in numerous singles matches over the years, with him winning the majority of the games. However, during the tournament last year, when it really mattered, I managed to pull off the upset victory. AR has been trying to redeem himself every since.
Not being one who will back down from a challenge, I dutifully accepted. Game up to 15. I was totally in the zone for this match. I controlled most of the game with effective clears, forcing him to run side to side. When he was totally out of position, I'd send him a nice drop shot. Simple, efficient and effective. I just knew where the bird was going to be and was in perfect position to return most shots. In the end, I came up on top 15-3! UM!!!! AR mentioned that I didn't get rusty over the summer break. lol.
After badminton, there was light rain outside. Tochi Mobile needed to get some fuel. Went to the gas station, got out and started pumping. It was then that StormOfWrath, which had struck Grapes's pants earlier in the day, hit the gas station. Sheets of torrential downpour swept sideways. In 5 seconds, I was totally soaked! It felt like I was coming out of a shower! WTF. I never realized that it takes FOREVER to fill up a tank of gas! I had to brace myself behind Tochi Mobile the entire time.
I jumped into the car afterwards, soaking wet. For the first time in months, I turned on the HEAT, setting it to full-blast. At least I now know that my heating system still works! Decided not to risk driving on local streets, so took 407 ETR home. Tochi Mobile weathered the storm quite well and I was home 10 minutes later.
In other car related news, earlier this week I took Tochi Mobile for its routine oil change. The mechanic told me that both my right tires (front and rear) ate a nail. I had noticed my right tires seemed to be deflated a bit a few days ago. I had pumped them only a month ago. I didn't really think too much about it at the time, but I should have suspected better. They were apparently leaking very slowly. The shop charged me $20 per tire to fix. $3 for the gooey patch thing, $17 for labour. Super expensive, but at least I did not have to get new tires.
The following came up on my Google Reader feed today. "Photographing Fruit and Vegies - New Assignment". On first glance, I expected this to be a real Fruits and Veggies post. So I was a bit shocked to find that this was really an assignment from a photography blog that I subscribe to.
Anyway, we MUST go out and defend our honour! Veggies, get your cameras out and start snapping. Our Photoshop Hero, please get ready to fix up our photos. The alternative would be to submit the concert photos.
The submissions thread is here. The cauliflower and pomegranate ones are the best so far. We can do better.