Mt Tammany at the Delaware Water Gap

This is the best picture, well, best non human picture I should stress (just in case one of my friends is reading this) that I took on this trip.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. The day started at 6:30 AM. After making sure my other friend is awake, I went about getting ready for the first hike of the summer. Wow, it was the first hike. The drive to the location was not bad at all, about an hour and a half. Beautiful to drive in the morning with little traffic. A lot of people on the road were heading for the mountains as well. Such a day to waste if not to immerse oneself in the great outdoors.

Today's goal was to climb Mt. Tammany via the red trail. The red trail is pretty steep, about say, 30-45 degrees incline and the first leg of it is very rocky. I believe some website said it's about a 30-foot high rock climb. True that. I sure got a workout.

Oh be sure to put on some bug repellant. Even at 10 am in the morning the little gnats were in our face, prehaps looking for leftover breakfast?

Where was I, yes, although it's not a long hike, 1.5 miles up to the peak, the red trail does test your legs and balance. Once you get to the top, which is named the
"Indian Head", you get to see this spectacular view of the Delaware River:



We had our lunch at the top. Enjoyed gabbing with fellow hikers, trading stories, and even had somewhat of a close encounter with 2 black bears.

It was a great day.

The Other Half

Weddings are abound this time of the year. Yesterday, I was invited to witness another ceremony to put the official seal on commitment between 2 people, and it was a lovely event.

I think yesterday was the first time when I looked at a couple that I see the distinct difference of personalities and a voice popped in my head "She's really good for him."

My friend is or I can happily say that he was a corporate drone like me. Where our lives are run by the invisible corporate puppet master, our daily schedule revolves around requirements and deadlines. But no more, not for him at least. From mutual friends and new acquaintances at the dinner table, I learned and saw more evidences of changes in the groom after he met his now bride. Good for you H!!!! He now leaves work like a normal person, plays soccer, shakes his tush on the dance floor and there's that happiness oozing.

So that's it, magic of love. One powerful element in nature, that can so profoundly change us.

Whiplash

That's what you'll get if you've been following the market lately. Uppppp Upppp there it goes!!! Then Bam!!! Down 100+.

Been reading a lot more financial blogs lately. The whole dynamics of price movement, psychology of trading, global events, the market ties it all together. Perfect example of how one thing leads to another, cause and effect.

So like many others, why is the market up on days where we have global terrorism threatening our very lives by blowing up planes? Esp the airline stocks? Who the hell knows.

My guess is that either America is very much in denial or that Americans are saying screw you all, we are going to live our lives the way we want, who knows what tomorrow will bring, so we'll keep buying houses that are way out of our budget, keep driving our SUVs across the 50 states, we've got to eat, our kids have to go to school.. so there! Live in the moment.

Either way, sure makes the market interesting.

It's All Coming Back ..... And Out

Do you ever remember a meal?

Well, I am getting not so subtle reminders of my feeding frenzy over Popeyes chicken bucket from 2 days ago. In fact, I think I had anal leakage of chicken fat. Yes, if you think it's gross reading about it, imagine sitting in the bathroom smelling it, with it leaking out of your body orifice. It is true that if you mostly eat a vegetarian diet, once you eat meat or oily stuff, you'll know the difference. Proof is in the pudding, if you know what I mean.

Nasty.

Other random thoughts.. Stopped by blockbuster during my late night walk and what I saw there mildly surprised me. Have you checked out your local Blockbuster lately? Do you see the increase in the number of Japanese horror flicks!! And what's more surprising is the Japanese anime section.

Soon, someone will catch on to that Asians love to watch soap. I am just wondering which one will it be, Blockbuster or Netflix, to nab the Asian soaps.

Yuck, still tasting the chicken grease coming up my throat.. that teaches me to binge on fried food.

I just found out about AIM Phoneline, the free internet phone service from AIM. So the deal is that you get to pick a local phone number that others can call. The call goes through AIM program and alerts you when someone is calling. Click to answer and viola, you got phone service through your fav headset. So far, pretty happy with the quality.

Crap Magnet

You ever notice how when you are down everything and everyone seems to be pushing on your head making you feel lower and lower, crappier and crappier?

Well at least so it seems. Morning was goooooorgeous. Bit chilly than other days, but goooooorgeous... slight breeze, bright blue skies, fluffy clouds. I am sitting outside eating my cereal and reading the new library book that I brought back from my t-shirt clinging, sweat permeated walk last night, when I read this passage:

When you are complaining you become a living, breathing
"crap magnet".

Great. Now I am a crap magnet. Have been for last 3 years. It's true right? When you complain you need someone to affirm your crappiness. You don't need someone there to tell you to shutup and move on. You want to hear others complain about similar situations, to agree with you that everything that's going wrong is because of the situation, not you. Not ever. So I fit the description of a "victim", according to the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.

Funny thing was when I came back from the lib, my cousin saw the 2 books I brought back and pointed out, "Hmm... The Universe In A Single Atom by Dali Lama and Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, what are you looking for spiritual freedom or financial freedom?" In response, I said, "I am a very spiritual 21st century person, who wants spiritual freedom and also financial freedom!"

Blink

I finally finished the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. To sum it up, this book directs our attention to something we humans pay so little attention to each day yet it's something that affects possibly every thought we have -- our perception.

As humans we are lucky enough to be granted vision and a brain that can correlate and process amazing amount of information in an instant and thus we are armed with a double edge sword. In a blink of an eye, our brains takes in the snap shot offered to us through the sensory organ and there dissects it into millions of different pieces and based on what we see and our gut feelings, past experiences, and culture, we piece it all back and form an opinion about something.

The book offers many examples of how our perception influences our thoughts and behaviors. It hits both ends of the spectrums, recognizing a fake piece of art work even though all current evidences and tests are saying it's a genuine article to the incident where several cops open fired on an innocent man when they thought they saw him pull out a gun, but later to find out the killed man was only trying to pull out his wallet to show proof of ID.

When I finished the last page, the line from Spiderman "With great power, comes great responsibility" popped into my head. Within each one of us we have the capability to take in thousands of factors and formulate an opinion/thought in a split second based on all the input. Malcolm Gladwell has successfully heightened my awareness that yes, what we see does influence our thoughts greatly without us even realizing it. As much as we would all like to say that "no I don't fall in the category of 'judging a book by its cover' , we all do it whether we like it or it.

Ups and Downs

The stock market for one, suits the up and down pattern.

What is it with this market? I got cash waiting on the side trying to find a good spot to get in and everytime I am just about to jump in the market does a 180.

Fed meeting coming up and job reports coming up. Should be very interesting to watch. Definitely more interesting that what I've been working on, which amounts to desire to finish work but mostly end up conked out after 11pm. Perhaps it's part of getting older? Maybe my body knows that I am about to reach the big 3 0. OOOO.... Ahhh.....

Why 30? Why is that labeled a big one? What is so special about turning 30? Gosh, it's depressing just thinking about it..

Anyways.. wanted to post before I fall succumb to the beckoning of my bed. Couple more documents to read then it's time to hit the pillows.

Superman Returns

This movie felt right. Thank you Bryan Singer for bringing back Superman to the big screen. I appreciate when a film takes the time to setup the characters and the storyline, and Superman Returns did just that.

I liked the casting in this film. Definetely a good DVD to be collected and rewatched. This movie has the those edge of the seat scenes, quiet reflections, more emotionally revealing bits to what it's like to be Superman besides saving the world, and of course the super human strength and the heat vision.

While watching the movie, esp the more reflective scenes where Superman flies above the planet and watches it from space. It's quiet. You just see this beautiful blue planet below the floating Superman. I watch him watching earth, the absence of sound, and then we get to hear what Superman hears - everything. Conversations, traffic, clink, clunk, sirens, all the noise in emitted the man can hear. Yet, he chooses to go back down there, to do what he can to help a race that he's so immersed in yet feels so detached from at the same time.

This to me is what makes him Superman.

Will I

"Will I loose my dignity? Will someone care erreerr.. ?
Will I wake tomorrow, from this nightmarerrrr??

Will I loose my dignity? Will someone care errrerrr..?
Will I wake tomorrow, from this nightmarerrrr?? "


This has to be my 2nd fav song from Rent, ranked right after Seasons of Love.
The lyric is especially moving to me right now. "Will I loose my dignity? Will someone care?" I think that's a question we've all asked ourselves one time or the other, and hopefully at least one person comes to mind who will care very much.

If grandma can understand English, I'd think she would identify with this song. Lying there not knowing when you can recover gotta be depressing as hell and you got your own children debating who should take care of you, passing you around like a hotcake, yah.. she would've identified.

69 and 29

Before dirty minds starts to flash images of various sex positions, this entry is not even close to that so move on to the next blog avoid dissapointment.

5 AM, I am watching my dad doing his little pre-walk stretch routine from the window. He rolls his head, neck, and shoulders, then swings his arms about to loosen up the waist. Pop is doing that swinging a little too fast. I'll have to remind him when he gets back.

Then he's off. In his khaki shorts and turquois polo, topped with my white EmigrantDirect.com promotional hat. It's still dark out at this hour, but the man is off doing his morning ritual.

Ohh there' he goes again! He lapped past this window 3 times now. Why am I not out there.. .. okie work is not that important. 1 hour won't make a difference in my work.

Here I go.. I am 29, and I want to go walk in the morning with my dad, 69 years old, walking his way back to full recovery, a step at a time.

Screw work.

Melting Pot

Why America is such an attractive country to be in? Anyone can answer that question after taking a train ride into the city.

While I am squished against the inner wall of the train cabin, trying very hard to avoid further contact of legs from the guy across from me, I looked about, uncomfortably aware how it was probably not the best idea to wear short shorts in cramped spaces. I am flanked on my right by one of the Eastern European women, absorbed and animated in their own conversation. The guy across from me, with his leg occasionally bumping into mine bare ones sports the latest gadgets, iPod/T-Mobile SideKick, sunglasses made popular by George Michael - African American. Standing in the aisle of the packed train, we got a burly African American body builder whose bulging biceps and enormous chest kept me fascinated for a while. Down the line we have some blond teenagers, grey haired white father, tan looking guy, red haired lady, freckled woman, tall, skinny, short, wide, extra tall..

This is America, welcome to the melting pot.

A Very Long Day

Reaccounting the day in reverse...

It's Friday 4AM, I just finished helping a friend/ex-coworker work on VBA Excel macro code for his first project at his new job. That dam thing took me a lot longer than it should've have. Loosing my touch. A sign that I am not meant to be a programmer.

8:40pm - 10pm, came back from a nice night walk. I met a dog along the way. It was looking at me and I was looking at him. I don't think either one of us can see much cuz it was rather dark out. I talked to it, but it didn't answer back. So I just told the doggie to go home. It's so nice to see fireflies these days. Blink.. Blink.. Blink... kinda like walking through an air strip with miniaturized airplanes.

7:30 pm - 8:30 pm, hmm dinner, dinner and smoothes.. fruit ones at that.. nice.

9 am - 7:15 pm, right.. those are the typical work hours plus ones at night. lovely.

8 am - 9 am, whohoo.. i finally got a CT Scan. Well it's about time. Been getting those same symptoms again several days ago. Eye sensitive to bright light, esp the right eye, pressure on the top of the eye, mucus discharge at the back of the throat, headaches, and the bumped spot feels weird as well. In couple of days, the doc will probably call me back to notify me everything looked normal in my head so I must just be crazy or paranoid.

Great.

Oh god.. it's 4 am.. 4 hours of sleep left and I probably won't get even 2.

Fan Error Strikes Again!!!

Fan Error


And the screen goes to black. Not another one!!! So this is the 2nd laptop of mine that fell to the fan error problem. I can't help it if it's hot and my notebook is running huge memory intensive applications.

Calling the tech support dept second time around went much faster. Practice, practice, practice right? I was supprised the tech team didn't question why I am sending in another laptop for repair with the same problem within 2 weeks.

Afraid of getting charged by the dept, I've decided to purchase one of those notebook coolers. Hopefully that'll blow away my problems.. get it blow away.. righhhhhht...

"Positive Feedback Loop"

I find myself really liking this new magazine - Seed. It contains more of science technology infused articles. Today I learned about the surprising affects of global warming on the rain forests.

An excerpt from the article:

"CO2 causes warming which slows growth, which reduces CO2 update, which causes warming." --> "positive feedback loop"

I was quite surprised by the findings. I think majority of us think if we plant more trees now it'll help with the whole global warming issue. But now with this new knowledge, the future doesn't look so green anymore. The concern is that we still do not have the capability to predict when will we finally cross that tipping point. That's when the affects of global warming will be irreversible.

Will 80 degree weather in the winter on the Northeast be considered typical?

Time will tell and it might be soon.

The "Stuff" We Buy

Okay, we as humans are a silly funny race. Case in point, look at some of the things for sale these days.

Exhibit #1: MobiBLU

MP3 Toys for the Hobbits in their infant stages.


Come on now!! Why? I ask why do we need to miniaturize to the point where you would need a magnify glass to find the Play button?


Exhibit #2: Girlfriend Pillow

For those days you can't sleep without her.



I hope for one these things are mainly purchased as gag gifts, but who knows.. there are some really kinky people out there.

*Shudder*

It's Baaaaaaaaaaaack!

@#$!!%#$%#*((&#!~~!!!!!

Is what I said when the eerie feeling of mucus/post nasal drip + headache + eyes sensitivity to light sensation returned.

F@#~ing infections are back. I really don't want to go on Zithromax again, for the fear of building up the resistance of bacterias running around in my body. I must be the perfect host. First it was the intestines, now they've traveled to a new place - up to my head. I ain't no doc.. but I sure hope it's just a simple sinus infection and nothing more.

For all I know, bacteria can be eating my brain. The brain has no feelings, isn't that ironic? For all the amazing things that can be achieved by the human brain, it has no feelings.

Crest White Strips

Finally decided to give Crest White Strips a try. I got the Classic pack, the 14 day treatment. Let's just say those things are nasty. Imagine putting on a wet strip of peroxide soaked thingy onto your teeth and leave that thing there for 30 minutes. Yah, gross. I mean it's not that horrible but not the most pleasant thing I've had in my mouth.

I applied 3 strips so far. Stopped due to the sensitive feeling I am getting from my teeth. You know that feeling you get when you drink something too cold or too hot. I am not sure, but I think my teeth does look a bit whiter. Not much, maybe it's just the lighting.

I'll start back up on the treatment later on, not that my teeth were horrible before! Non smoker here. No tobacco chewing or nothing. Just naturally yellow shaded teeth. Maybe I had too much carrots when I was a babe?

Quiet Moments

I enjoy moments like these. Slight breeze coming through the windows, it's dark out, most creatures are asleep, including the chattery birds and the yelping mini dogs.
Got my muffins with a nice upbeat tune playing. This is nice.


I worked today. Actually worked a lot today. I should be laying in bed now. Soon, soon I'll join you Mr. Bear. He's covered by a nice blankie right now. One of those keepsake things. Mr. Bear will probably be with me until the very raggedly end.

Thought of some rhymes after I stepped out of the shower tonight. Maybe I'll have more after a good night sleep. Haven't wrote a poem in a while.

Good night.

Stuffing & Root

Feeling utterly disgusted with myself right now. Rightly so after consuming, what, a fellow creature from every meat group?

Most of the day was spent on the "grill-a-meat" tradition, widely known as "BBQ". Then came the "stuff your face" phase. Now I am at the "feel utterly disgusted with yourself" stage.

Why do we feel compelled to shove down as much food as we can when it's all laid out infront of us? You know.. you go into a buffet and you count the number of plates you went through, calculating whether you are breaking even with the price of admission.

Sad. Greedy things we are.

Anyways, while whirling the t-shirt above my head mimicking helicopter blades (trying to cool myself down after a shower), I recalled the conversation I had with my mom earlier today. It was a short one, about how neither of us have a real home right now and how without one we feel like we are not rooted. That's a good word, "rooted". So that's the next goal to find a place to grow our roots. Then I went on to explain the whole global warming situation and how we need to pick a place that's not too close to the water or streams so that we won't be flooded and a spot where it's relatively safe from tornados and earthquakes.

That reminds me, there's a good quote in Al Gore's book "An Inconvenient Truth" that rings so true:


"Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood - it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words 'Too late'. There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance in our neglect. .."
- Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


Yah, back to the immediate task at hand - turn in code.

Happy Birthday America

Boom! Boom! Boom! SHHHHhh......

Watching fireworks shooting off towards the sky and exploding into hundreds of bright sparkles of light is one of those timeless things. During the spectacular displays you took some quick trips down memory lane. Whether it be a visit back to the first firework show you've ever seen or reminiscing that person(s) you were with at the last event.

This year's display had some new ones that I haven't seen or heard before. It starts up as others, shooting for the stars, then it explodes into that "fireworks" pattern but.. wait..wait.. there's a surprise at the end of each string of light.. another spot of colorful light illuminates and kinda fizzes through the air before disappearing into the night. The other one explodes and it makes this loud shussshhhh.. sound.

Cool. By the end of the show, I have reverted back to 5 years old, and was calling out "Booom! Boom!! Booom!!" with each firework that exploded up in the air.

What tickled me as well was when one of the performer at the town event wanted everyone to pull out their cellphones and wave them in the air as we all sing along with him to the theme song.

Brilliant.. that man is brilliant. And like he wanted, a lot of us in the crowd whipped out our gadgets and proudly displayed our love for the country through the sea of brightly lit, swaying, LED screens.

Happy Birthday - United States of America.