Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Thursday, January 1, 2009

How NOT to Ski

1. Always choose the right ski lift - if you're a n00b like me, you'll pick the wrong ski lift and go on the advance one after you only slightly warmed up and only skiied (?) once before.

2. Always wear gloves - This rule pertains to the artificial snow mostly. If you are going to ski, wear gloves. They help keep you warm, AND have the other effect of acting as body armor against the ice that will scratch you.

3. Do NOT try to race 6 year old, especially if they're on the advanced slope - I made the mistake of trying to race a 6 year old down the slope and got burned. It didn't result in any bad injuries except for a broken pride.


4. If you're going to go skiing with someone, decide on who goes first - if your friend does the V and goes straight while you weave in a S shape, definitely let your friend go first. Or else he or she and you will make a nice, awkward statue.

5. Obey the person in charge of the ski lift - I made the mistake of 1. Not really paying attention 2. Being slightly awkward with the equipment resulting in me losing my ski as I sat on the lift... good thing Michael was behind me...



-runiteking1

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Monday, July 21, 2008

The Story of the Seagulls

We (MAO people) were about to board the Alcatraz ship (which I must say, was like a freezer) and I saw this crayon-looking piers.

Using my special imagination, I thought up a story to explain why seagulls are white.

So a long time ago, the great God created the world, but while creating the world, he also created crayons too. Not just any kind of crayons, GIANT crayons...

Using these giant crayons, the first peoples of the world managed to chip off some for their appreciation of art, and thus cave-art was born. But there was a problem... the people of the coast cannot draw their beloved seagulls.

You see, seagulls, along with the clouds, were quite an ugly shade of brown back in the days and there were no brown crayons to draw them with. Even if the people had brown crayons, you can barely see them on brown cave walls.

Then, one man had a light bulb turn on.

Why not just color the seagulls?

So the people of the seas got together and started brain storming. Ideas after ideas were tossed away into a giant pit of sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter (which is very important later on). Finally, the greatest idea was conceived, the idea to build enticing poles (made out of crayons of course) for the birds to rest on. That way, the birds can gradually change their color with minimal cost.

And thus, the great construction begun.... workers toiled for months on end, with only the simplest of the simple machines to assist them. At last, after five years of grueling work, the giant poles were completed all over the world. As the workers stared at their great creation, the seagulls one-by-one turned whiter and whiter.

But the giant pit of stupid ideas and sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter still needs to be taken care off. At that time, fire was known as an agent of papyrus destruction and thus was thrown into the pit. The people discovered gunpowder unwillingly...

The pit started hacking away at first, only small coughs but released a giant cough worthy of a place in the universe. Nearby stood crayon mountains and the giant cough threw up the mountains into the sky. The force was sooo great that the mountain was smashed and its parts spread across the four winds. The shrapnel shook away the brown tint of the clouds and covered on it with their pure white colors.

The brown colors then fell all the way to the ground and splattered onto the trees, that's why tress are brown. Though the clouds got rid of the browness, they still have a keen attraction to the brown color of the trees, that's why low clouds usually have a darker tint than higher clouds.

This is how the clouds were covered with white and how seagulls were covered with white and how tress were covered with brown.

-runiteking1

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Friday, July 4, 2008

Whoop! Fireworks!

Happy 4th of July...

-runiteking1

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Monday, June 9, 2008

Volunteer

For this week, I'm volunteering at a museum's summer camp program, thus my lack of posts today. The problem is, the kids there are... weird.

Some background first. The camp is called "Galactic Blastoff" (I think) and it's composed of only 4th and 5th graders. That's where the problem lies, it's composed of 4th and 5th graders. Most of the little kids can't behave quite well and to illustrate that, here's some examples:

The teacher or counselor was showing pictures of him skydiving and one of the kids yelled out "You looked really fat..."

The table which I was suppose to be helping (which is the Devil's table) contained a kid who wrote the B-word on the table repeatedly.

One little person keeps on mistaking me for being Japanese instead of Chinese and never even asked me. He constantly yelled out, "Hey Japanese boy!"

So rude...

If only these kids can be mature and understand how lucky they are to be able to eat a full lunch, 2 snacks and have clean water to drink.

Grr....

p.s. Anybody want to give me suggestions for controlling the little kids?

-runiteking1

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Friday, June 6, 2008

Chinese Restaurant

So right now, I'm out of town on vacation and for dinner, I ate at a Chinese restaurant (whose name shall not be identified). Here's some of the stuff I noticed.

1. Oyster. I love raw oyster, and thus I eat them by the hundreds. So when I arrived at the buffet, I found out that they had oysters and immediately started feasting. Our table of two families almost completely devoured the oysters in a matter of minutes.

The next thing we know, they were not refilling the raw oyster bar (is that what you call it?). This sorts of reminds me of this comic I saw this morning. (Zits: 6/6/08)

(Words: I could've sworn the blinds were open and the lights were on a minute ago...)



2. Zodiacs. I'm Chinese and I'm proud of it, but I never figured out the zodiac thing about how a monkey should avoid a rat or something like that. Today, I finally did it! After staring at the sheet for more than I should have, I figured that every zodiac four years from yours are "good" and the zodiac six years from you is "bad."

I'm so proud of myself. :)



3. Buffets in general. Since I'm Chinese, I can distinguish between good and bad Chinese food. So far, every buffet I ever been to have the exact same taste. I think a lot of people can relate this with me as most buffet have the usual "Authentic Chinese Taste." Complete B.S.



p.s. After we finished our dinner, I saw one of the most amazing sunsets... too bad I didn't have a camera with me. Here's a pretty good reproduction from Flickr

-runiteking1

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Asian Sensation

So being the Asian that I am, I see things differently. I'm very proud of my Chinese heritage but yet I still find flaws in my culture...

1. So, how many grammtical mistakes can you point out? That's why you always use an American to write English.


DSC00043


2. Now another example... "Revolving Doors of Vengeance"? That doesn't sound so... "vengeancey"

DSC00045


3. Now my mom brought home a game from China called "Balancing Game." See, there's a mouse holding a plate on a string and the purpose is to balance cheese on the plate. You and a partner take turns throwing a die and see who tips the plate first. The first one to tip losses. Take a look at the video if what I just said does not make sense.

Picture:
DSC00046

Video (edit - I have no idea what's wrong with the Youtube video's quality, sry!):


4. Speaking of games, isn't the little boy and girl one of the cutest little things you ever seen?

DSC00047

-runiteking1

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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Guantanamo Bay: Tourist Destination

We all know that the economy here in the US isn't going so well. So what can we do? Well for one, we can take money from other countries by invading them.

No, not good.

Lets try a more peaceful way shall we? How about letting them enjoy the great tourist destinations of America? Better yet, lets let the tourist enjoy our wonderful and successful foreign policies! That is why the American government is promoting a new vacation destination at the infamous Guantanamo Bay.

Though it is such a blemish on the US reputation, it is also a GREAT place to spend your summer with your kids. For one, you could say:

"Kids, that's why you don't buy 200 bags of fertilizer form Home Depot two days before the president comes to your hometown."
Or maybe:

"If you don't want your head to be forcibly doused in water by trained interrogators, stop eating my Cheetos!"
Also, who could forget the wonderful beaches that surrounds the detention center, or maybe the wonderful fishing environment. Still, who could forget the gift shops that offers such wonderful gifts as a child sized t-shirt that reads "Future Behavior Modification Instructor" (The child t-shirt on the right).

Gitmo_souvenirs

Meanwhile, here are some other pictures of the wonderful souvenirs available there:
GitmoGiftsMOS_468x446

Well maybe the terrible past reputation of Gitmo may be hindering your willingness to visit them, don't worry. Here are some nice slogans for the promotion (Source: NPR):
Position stressful? Try our stress positions.

A great vacation you're going to be forced to talk about.

Finding life a trial? At Gitmo, we don't allow them!
Oh yes! The joys of waterboarding.

Links:

edit - spelled Guantanamo bay wrong :)

-runiteking1


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Monday, April 7, 2008

Cool Experiment

Spring Break ended :( So now I'm back on normal schedule, meaning I'm starting to blog again.

So over the break, I went camping with my family and some friends (more on that on a later post). We bought two of those big candles that repel insects because of the possible mosquito problems. They worked quite well till it rained and the electricity went out. Due to the fact we don't like the dark (little brother), we put the candles under an umbrella.

Later, I went to take a shower, brush my teeth etc. and when I got back, I heard this strange cackling sound. It's almost as if something is frying in a pan. I looked around for possible source of this outer-worldly noise.

It happened to be the candle.

The fire in the candle was not a fire, but rather a conflagration engulfing the now flimsy looking metal container. When I looked in, there were little black stuff floating on the melted wax. I quickly recognized that as the paper we had to put in to light up the candle in the rain. Still, the source of the noise could not be found as the other candle had paper in it too, but the other one acted like a candle should, quiet and peaceful.

Under closer scrutiny, I saw this little frog-like black blob bobbing up and down.

For now, my opinion on what happened in the candle was that a frog accidentally jumped in and stayed too long.

-runiteking1

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Vacation Story Part 4: The Deserted Island

So we went to Key West WAY south in Florida and the island is quite bustling with life, especially the (insert name here) street by the beach where there's all this street performers (most of them are quite funny). But for the morning we winded up seating on a boat for some 2 hours, doing nothing to visit what? a half deserted island with a little building inside it (okay, fine, it was a huge fort).

It's called Dry Tortugus and if you translate that to English, it means dry turtle. It's a pretty sizable fort on a small island in the middle of nowhere, literally. On a map, it's no where to be found (hint: zoom out from the map...)

View Larger Map

For the entire boat ride, I did nothing as there was nothing to do (partly my fault) and the island was somewhat better. Instead of following the tour guide, our family decided to wander by ourselves. As I walk around the fort, I can't help but think about the wonderful raw oysters I ate the other day (yeah, it's that boring).

I mean, there's some really, really nice views on the island but seclusion is not for me.

This concludes (finally!) the vacation story series, please post comments on this or other posts!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Vacation Story Part 3: Things Gone Wrong

This vacation was probably the weirdest ever. Everything that could happen did. Case in point:


1. Almost crashing - while driving down to Key West on US-1, we read a sign that said "There are *blank* (20 when we went there) deaths on US1 already in 2007, drive carefully." So we drove on for an hour or so. I was just staring out the window as there was major construction going on when suddenly, the car swerved hard right towards one of the cones, then swerved back. When I turned to my dad (the driver), he looked shocked with his eyes wide open... he almost fell asleep driving the car.

2. Blackout - We just reached our Holiday Inn on Key West when at night, BOOM, the power went out. It didn't affect any part of the fun but it's always bad luck to be in a blackout. So for the rest of the night, we had to rely on iPod, cellphone and a laptop's backlight to illuminate the room. Now I know the magic of electricity.

3. Battery Lost - We drove our CRV on the vacation as it is a lot bigger than the Accord but the battery on the CRV was pretty low in capacity. When we stopped at a Winn-Dixie to get some food. I stayed on the car with my little brother playing his Transformer toy (it's really cool) with the headlights on. Turned out, the battery can't stand that long and we had to get it jumped.

4. Extra - Found Someone's Wallet - On the way to South Beach, my dad saw a wallet and picked it up. We got nosy and found out that this guy was from NY and is studying in University of Miami. He also was in the the military (I think). This isn't bad luck, but it is to someone else.


Thursday, January 3, 2008

Frustration over MPEG2 and Mac

I have a Sony DCR-SR40, one of those new Sony 30-Gig hard drive camcorder (it's pretty good), and getting the recorded videos on the Mac for free is a hassle! First I looked at all the Apple forums and apparently, they're all rich. They all have the upgraded version of QT so they can convert MPEG2 to iMovie compatible files. 


Then I tried wrestling the beast of a program called MediaCoder and I failed terribly. Somehow everything messed up, I did a complete reinstall and still failed (should've read some documents). After reading about MPEG-Streamslip, I downloaded it and found out you need the Pro version of QT so that's out. 

At last I found out I can use VLC to stream MPEG2 Videos to a new H.264 (MP4) file that iMovie recognize. Video formats are so annoying.

If you have a better idea, please comment!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Vacation Story: Part Two - The Busch

After the GPS incident, we went to Tampa's Busch Garden. On the way there, I wondered if French people, British people or Middle East people avoid the park because it somewhat resembles the "B" word. Then I wondered where did the name come from (I never bothered to find out the last few times I visited), that questioned was solved by the first thing I saw in the park: A bottle of beer.

Now I'm thinking, parents pay money to let their kids ride on rides sponsored by a beer company. Probably the rollar coasters go at an exact speed, producing a frequency that triggers alcohol addiction when grown up. Or maybe the photos you buy contains a smell that makes you desire hops. Hmm...makes you think doesn't it?

Saturday, December 29, 2007

My Vacation in a few hundred words...Part 1: The GPS story

Our vacation started by a trip to Tampa to visit my dad's long lost friends. Apparently, they never saw each other for more than 20 years! So basically for the first whole day, I just sat there and smiled...except that our GPS and a hotel person sort of, uh, misled us.

The GPS story or the Story of the Lost:

For Black Friday this year, we went and bought a Mio GPS for the price of 150 bucks. It was a pretty good deal as it included a 4.3'' wide screen and MP3 player. On the next day, we went to Jacksonville and it worked it's magic pretty well, that's where it all went down hill...

Our hotel on the first day is a La Quinta on US 19 NORTH (this is very important) in Clearwater. So we followed the GPS:

Turn right in a hundred yards. Keep right. Arrive at destination...
and when we got to the place the GPS guided us, there was no La Quinta Inn. We thought we got to the middle of US 19 so we started driving north as the street names all said US19 South. We then called the hotel and the hotel receptionist told us to keep driving (but never which direction), so we kept driving. An hour later, we reached Tarpon Springs, a small city north of Clearwater, we got worried and called the hotel again. Now they said we drove too far...but we never saw a La Quinta. We finally got to the hotel by following our friends car.

From hindsight, I found out that we there are TWO US19 North... when we got to US19, we were on the South sandwiched between them so we thought traveling north was right. Turned out going south may lead you north.

Monday, July 30, 2007

My Vacation

Last, last week, I went to North Carolina and rafted with the Carolina Outfitters company. Pretty good service, thought our mountain house that we rented isn't in a mighty good shape (on the upper floor bathroom, there's a leak...). More about it throughout the week.