On Thursday, March 17, 2011, Di Yin and I decided to take the day off work to head down to Carmel. I've been there three times before (1, 2, 3). I wanted to get away and relax and read in a different setting.
We chose to go to Carmel this day because the forecast predicted better weather (highs 58 or 60 and sunny) than any other day during the coming week. The weather was great--even better than we planned for/expected! It was beautifully clear and warmer than expected. I sat comfortably in the sun on the beach without a jacket. Also, I got to watch the large, crashing waves. (There was a high-surf advisory.)
I enjoyed the drive to Carmel. After San Jose, 101 passes many green hills. We accidentally took 152 to the coast rather than 156 as would've been faster. Thus, the trip took longer than I'd hoped, especially the last leg as we came out of the mountains. Nevertheless, the long route was alright: 152 travels through an attractive, lichen-covered forest. Also, once we hit the coast, we got to see what artichoke plants look like. (I had forgotten.)
We did an expected assortment of activities in Carmel: sat on the beach, ate lunch in a restaurant, walked a bit around town, and sat in a cafe, whereupon I returned to the beach to read more and Di Yin remained in the cafe. Later reunited, we sat on a library bench for a bit, then walked along the beach and then through residential neighborhoods (commenting on houses along the way), at which point it was getting to be late afternoon and the right time to head home.
I took a few pictures on this trip.
Carmel
Musee Mecanique, and chocolate
On a rainy Tuesday, March 15, 2011, I left work in early afternoon, grabbed Di Yin, and headed to the city to visit the Musee Mecanique.
I took pictures on this outing.
On the way to the museum, while driving down Embarcadero in the city we spotted a chocolatier, Tcho, in one of the old buildings on the waterfront. What an unusual place for a chocolate factory! We decided to stop. We explored it briefly--the factory space was roped off so there wasn't much to see beside the small shop--sampled a few flavors, bought bite-sized nuggets of a few flavors we didn't get to sample, and continued onward.
After driving a bit more, we parked and navigated the tourist shops and restaurants along Fisherman's Wharf until we found the museum.
The museum houses a wide variety of mechanical devices ranging from simple shows (e.g., put money in to cause a model of a man to dance for you) to more complex interactive devices (e.g., use a lever to control the direction and strength with which a model golfer hits a ball, trying to get it in the golf hole) to modern arcade machines. It's a neat place, like a really-old-fashioned arcade. Soon after entering, I realized there were many games I wanted to play and machines I wanted to activate. I stuck a twenty in the change machine.
Although chock full of antiques, it's hard to call this a museum. Few machines have informational signs about them. There is a number of large (poster-sized) information signs scattered through the building, but these aren't connected to the actual objects in the museum. Rather, they're mostly about the history of amusement (as in the history of amusement parks, world's fairs, etc.). In fact, the vast majority of the signs never mention mechanical machines like these. It's almost like the big signs and the physical artifacts aren't connected! Some of these signs had a local bent, describing large recreational facilities on the west side of San Francisco. These are now all defunct, but learning about their rise, their heyday, and their fall was interesting.
Regardless, the focus of the museum is clearly on the machines themselves. For details, refer to the pictures--I took a lot in order to capture the breadth of the collection.
Interesting Articles: Q4 2010
Investing:
* I spotted a Vanguard Blog post, Emerging markets: Innocents abroad?, that points out that something I always assumed was true is actually a fallacy: that emerging markets' higher rates of growth naturally mean their stock markets provide higher rates of return. The Vanguard Research article, Investing in emerging markets: Evaluating the allure of rapid economic growth (PDF), has the argument that there need not be a relationship between these two things. Indeed, it has evidence that there is no correlation between them!
Medicine:
* Sugar Pills Help, Even When Patients are Aware of Them (ABC News). The placebo effect is even more powerful than previously thought.
Media and Social Change:
* The Future of Gaming (WNYC's On The Media via NPR). Beginning at 4:35 in this segment, two enthusiastic speakers present their views on how video games can change people and change the world for the better. It's a powerful vision. I hope it comes to pass.
Cultural History:
* Fallon and Timberlake give rap history lesson (NBC Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) (copy on youtube). Okay, this isn't an article and not really intellectual in any way (unless you want a pastiche/history of hip-hop music), but it cracked me up and I wanted to save the link for posterity.
Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve
On Friday, March 3, 2011, Di Yin and I went on a short hike in Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve. I didn't take pictures, but Di Yin took a goodly number.
It was a nice hike, cool (60s) and clear. We hiked through plains, forests, and by gullies. Occasionally we got glimpses of the nearby Steven's Creek Reservoir and the more distant bay. The two most notable aspects of the hike were the sporadic views of the exposed mountainside of a nearby quarry--Di Yin called this a dystopian vista--and the peacocks and roosters by Picchetti Ranch itself. (Picchetti Ranch is a small, historic winery in the preserve; it has various animals running around its historic buildings.)
New York City: January 2011
From Friday, January 14, 2011, through Saturday, January 22, 2011, I went to New York for reasons that shall remain undocumented. I visited Di Yin and her parents, staying at their apartment in Forest Hills, Queens.
During the visit, I always ate at their house, eating Di Yin's mom's home cooking, which was definitely good stuff but she always cooked too much. Eating with Di Yin's dad is funny--no matter how long we sit at the table, he often forgets to eat.
Before my flight to New York City, I had time to wander around the part of SFO's Museum in Terminal 3. The main exhibit in this terminal was Second Chances: Folk Art Made from Recycled Remnants. It was neat: wire sculptures, dresses made from Tootsie Roll or Mary Jane candy wrappers, a chair made by weaving together aluminum from cans, and duck decoys made from painted milk cartons and cardboard.
My flight to New York was one of the easiest flights I ever took. I barely felt the landing. I grabbed a taxi to the apartment. The taxi had a GPS in it so I could watch where the driver went and make sure he took a reasonable route. I wonder if these are standard in taxis nowadays. (I generally don't ride taxis.)
Di Yin and I flew home to California in first class, perhaps the second time in my life that I've ever been in first class (and the first time that I paid for it). I was looking forward to the 180-degree recline seats, but the airline swapped the plane out at the last minute and I ended up with normal business class seats: spacious but not much of a recline. Ah, well. :(
At least we got good food. In fact, the airline even gave us a printed menu. My meal included: mixed nuts, shrimp accompanied by soba noodles, a salad (choice of dressing), bread (choice of type of roll), an entree (four choices; I selected the cheese ravioli in tomato cream sauce; the entree turned out to be lighter than I expected), and an ice cream sunday (choice of topping). The last was enormous and too much to finish.
San Jose Museum of Art
After brunch on Saturday, January 8, 2011, I drove down to San Jose to see the San Jose Museum of Art. I figured if I explore museums in other cities, I should explore them when I'm in the bay area as well.
I took some pictures on this excursion.
I first visited the special exhibit on Leo Villareal. He builds luminous animated light sculptures. Some look like softly changing abstract paintings, others like the vision test for blind spots, and still others evolve like Conway's Game of Life. Some of his pieces are mesmerizing.
The museum also had a regular exhibit on photography and an exhibit of photographs connecting the viewer with people/things one doesn't ordinarily see. There was also an exhibit of modern art exploring life and breathing. I enjoyed more, however, the exhibit on art with a retro look. It included things from pedal-powered juicers to a video of a man in Turkey using bagpipes to inflate a flat tire. For this exhibit's highlights, see the text in the pictures.
Also, there was a tiny, neat exhibit in the museum's cafe about stroboscopes, high-speed cameras that can capture events such as bullets through apples.
Overall, I found the museum disappointingly small for such a large city. It effectively has only five large galleries. I spent a bit over an hour in it. I saw some neat stuff though (and quite of a bit of non-neat stuff).
Because my visit was faster than I expected, I trotted over to The Tech Museum, kitty-corner across a park. I wandered around the outside, looked at the brochures for its advertised exhibits, examined a map, and browsed the gift shop, but decided not to pay the entry fee to see the displays. I headed home.
Maine late-December 2010
After leaving Chicago on Tuesday, December 28, 2010, I stayed with my parents in Maine until January 2011, when I could move into my new apartment in California. I flew to California on Sunday, January 2, 2011.
Nothing much happened during my time in Maine. I didn't take any pictures. I mostly spent the days at the mall taking advantage of post-Christmas sales to restock my wardrobe. The most exciting part of this visit was Sunday, the day I attempted to return to the bay area.
Sunday
The flight I booked was supposed to take me from Boston to Chicago (with a brief stop there but no transfer) to Los Angeles to San Jose. But not everything went as planned. My Boston flight left late because someone who checked a bag didn't get on the plane. It took the baggage clerks half an hour to remove the baggage, find and remove the person's item, and reload the baggage. Then, because we landed late in Chicago, Southwest re-arranged the plane assignments so I had to transfer for my continuation flight to Los Angeles, which was now ninety minutes delayed. After I boarded that flight, it was then further delayed by another thirty minutes while we waited for baggage to load. The baggage carriers must have been short-handed in Chicago; there was only one loading baggage onto our flight instead of the usual two. Meantime, the captain entertained us by running a name-that-song contest over the announcement system. :) He'd play stuff from his ipod and the first person to identify the band would either get a fresh McDonald's cookie or a free alcoholic drink.
Eventually, we landed in Los Angeles under heavy rain. Obviously I missed the flight I was supposed to be on (which was scheduled to leave more than an hour earlier). I got myself rebooked on the next flight to San Jose, a flight on which I had to sit next to a sick baby. Luckily, after coughing a while, the baby slept most of the flight.
Finally in San Jose, I picked up my baggage and took a shuttle to my new apartment to meet my new landlords. They and the apartment are nice. The apartment in particular surpasses the expectations I formed from looking at the pictures.
This trip may sound like a horrible day, but things could've gone much worse: I might've not been able to check my bags originally (the self-help check-in line at Boston was so long that I thought there was a chance I'd miss the bag cut-off time; obviously I didn't), my bags might've been misplaced during the complicated journey, or I could've been stranded in Los Angeles. (When I talked to a gate agent in Chicago after I realized I'd be missing my flight from L.A. to San Jose, she said all the later flights to San Jose were fully booked. Being stranded in L.A. was a distinct possibility in my mind.)
Earlier Week
After eating relatively large, heavy meals in restaurants with my grandma, upon our return to Maine my parents and I wanted lighter meals. Hence we mostly ate at home.
On Wednesday for lunch I had leftover red chili chicken rice. For dinner we ate scallops (that tasted metallic) in a butter sauce with onions, tomatoes, and garlic, and served over pasta.
On Thursday, I made myself a turkey and avocado sandwich for lunch. For dinner we ate pork chops with an apple-onion gravy, roasted brussels sprouts, roasted mushrooms, and leftover pumpkin pie (which apparently freezes well!).
On Friday, New Year's Eve, I had a turkey and bacon sandwich for lunch. Our large dinner spread included brisket, kugel, potato pancakes, peas, carrots, and, for dessert, brownies.
Saturday lunch was leftovers from previous meals. Dinner was a roasted chicken from Market Basket, plus an Ethiopian cabbage, potatoes, and carrots dish that I made. As for dessert, my mom had made three different types of brownies. We had a brownie tasting! :)
Chicago December 2010
I meant to spend Sunday, December 19, 2010, through Sunday, December 26, in Chicago with my parents, my grandma, and (for some of the time) my aunt S. We were there to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday (!) and Christmas. Thus, we spent most days hanging around the condo, not doing much other than being in each others' presence. At times I tried to work remotely using my cell phone as a modem--this worked surprisingly well.
I stayed in Chicago two extra days, through Tuesday, December 28. A blizzard on the east coast on the 26th caused our flight to the east coast (to Boston) to be cancelled.
The weather in Chicago was gentle during our entire stay: various minor snowstorms, mild cold (30s).
We generally ate either in the condo or at whatever restaurants my grandma was willing to tolerate. Here's the list:
19th dinner: Macaroni Grill (also with grandma's nephews and nieces) (I had the pasta milano, which was so garlicky I could barely eat it)
20th dinner: Outback Steakhouse
21nd lunch: Cheesecake Factory (the usual eggplant mozzarella sandwich and kobe beef burger)
22nd lunch: Pita Inn (without grandma) (the usual lamb pita)
23rd lunch: Portillo's (I had a grilled vegetable sandwich)
23rd dinner: Thai takeout and Chinese takeout (forgot the names of the restaurants, and what we ate isn't important)
24th: didn't leave the condo
25th (Christmas dinner): Johnny's (I had ribs)
26th dinner: India House (vegetables!: spinach and mustard greens, cabbage and spices, tandoori roti)
27th lunch: a Chicago-style pizza place (I forget the name). It was okay. Even my parents admit that it wasn't as good as it should be. They've ordered from this place before and thought it was good before.
28th lunch: Kentucky Fried Chicken
Flying east on Tuesday, December 28, was easier than I expected. Grandma drove us to the train station. We took a train to the dedicated airport bus to the airport tram to our terminal. Our flight's airplane was changed at the last minute to a 777 that just arrived from Shanghai! That meant there were many more seats than originally allocated, and we got upgraded to premium economy. :) I bet you I know why they used a larger plane: due to the numerous cancelled flights to the east coast, 150 people flew stand-by on the flight!
Once in Boston, baggage claim took a while so we missed the bus we wanted to take and had to wait for the next one an hour later. That bus--a pleasant ride on C&J--dropped us off at the bus station in Maine around midnight. We were anxious about cleaning off the car from the large east coast snowstorm, but I guess it didn't hit Maine much--there was nothing to clean! :) We were relieved.
Incidentally, in the Chicago airport, I discovered I like the smoothies I make better than Jamba Juice's--Jamba Juice's smoothies taste too sweet for me nowadays.
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