Inside mintrix.net

1725 blog entries ago...

2010-02-02T14:48:00.001-08:00

Many years ago, I started this blog with Blogger.com. Today, I found out that blogger will no longer support the FTP blogging support.

So what does that mean? Well, that will mean that my current blogging format will change before March 26th. I knew this was too good to last forever. I was really lazy and was going to sit on blogger.com until I really have to. Now I am forced to move to a different blogging format.

In the next few weeks I will see what I can do in my server to host my own blogging engine. It will most likely be wordpress.

so stay tuned!!!

Traveling without a car today

2010-01-28T11:25:00.001-08:00

I like public transportation. I like trains, ferries, and buses. I never really thought about why I like them, but I just like them. Today is a special day, I am going to Bremerton for work. My coworker will pick me up at the ferry terminal on the otherside. So, I am taking the public transportation the entire way.

Few things I notice, and maybe these are the reasons why I like public transportation.

1) The city looks so much different when you are on the bus.

2) When I am traveling without my car, I just feel so light and free. I mean I don't have to worry about parking, break-in's, and everything else associated with a car. Granted, I don't get the excitement of driving, but it is good to change it up a bit.

3) no traffics to deal with. That is relaxing :)

Something light for lunch

2010-01-24T14:05:00.001-08:00

I made these brown rice sushi ;)

Still back filling my blog post

2010-01-20T00:38:00.000-08:00

I know it is very unusual, but I am still back filling my French Vacation posts... the notes are there, but I just need to fill it all in with pictures and other goodie goodies. Hopefully, I will get a chance to do more tomorrow. As soon as all the posts are done, I will post all the pictures of the trip up.

Today I learned to tie my shoes...

2010-01-19T09:53:00.001-08:00

Yes I do know how to tie my shoe laces... so I thought...
I've been doing it the same way since I was in preschool... two bunny ears and so on...
I have received many comments through out the years that I tie my shoe laces like a kid. I don't mind those comments but what I do mind is that my laces always comes loose.

I think today I figured out why.

http://lifehacker.com/5451765/ditch-the-granny-knot-to-tie-your-shoes-more-effeciently

After looking at the above article, I tried to change my second knot in revers I think that is why it is always coming loose. so... yeah... we will see...

So I still tie with bunny ears.. but the second knot is now in reverse to be tigher...

I hope it works...

Doh... read it too fast...

2010-01-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

So... because of my long trip to europe, I decided to start reading the manga Full Metal Alchemist. Well, first I read past the point where the anime is currently. I then started to read all the available menga volumes of FMA from the Seattle Public Library. After I finished with that, I still can't get enought and I started to read the most recent chapters online. So last night I reached chapter 103 and oh no there is no more.

Ahhh.... it is so good I need to know what's going on.

Back Fill my European blog posting

2010-01-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

Well.. for the next few days.. I am going to try to back fill my blog post with events from my France trip. After the blog is complete I will post the pictures on my blog and on Facebook. Stay tuned!!!

New week New hotel and Luggage!!! Finally

2009-12-28T14:27:00.001-08:00

So today started off pretty late, I guess I am pretty tired from all the long nights from previous days, but it is the beginning of a new week and the beginning of my last week in France. Today started with my panic attempts to access the internet to finish my work timesheet. With all this traveling, I forgot that I still need to fill out a vacation time card for work. So, I ended up at the local McDonald trying to use their free internet to VPN back to our office to complete my time card. Yes for some reason our internet did not work in our hotel. :(

Amazingly, right after finishing my time card, we discovered that there is an Air France Office nearby. We've been here for a few days and there is an Air France office just right next to where we were staying, AMAZING!! Since we have not gotten our luggage yet, we decided to go and see if they can help us. After around 20 minutes of waiting and talking to the reps, we got our new hotel address updated in their system, and found out that they have found one of our luggage and maybe delivering it today. Woo hoo!! With that wonderful news, we help our friends drag their luggages across Paris to our new hotel.

Our new hotel is a bit nicer, it even have an RFID key for opening room doors. How cool huh? However, the location of the new hotel is a bit farther than the previous location, but it is still very close to the metro.

Once we all checked in, we decided to go for another city bicycle ride around Paris. Oh, I just love riding bikes around Paris!!! This time, we rode to the Picasa museum and the Victor Hugo's House. Unfortunately the Picasa Museum is closed until 2012 and all other museums are closed for Monday!!!

We parked our bikes and stopped for lunch at the Cafe Hugo. Yumm Yumm... Beef and Carrots!!

Victor Hugo's House.

After a short break we decide to get another bike and ride to Pompidou center. However, I ended up getting a bad bike and unable to return it properly so I was not able to check out another bike. My friends ended up pushing their bikes along the side walk all the way to the pumpadu center. :( sorry guys...

More stairs!!! This is one of my favorite stairs shots.

After a short visit around the Pompidou center, I got a new bike (paid another 3 euros) and rode to the islands to have some ice cream with my friends at the Berthillon ice cream shop. Yummy!!! They have, supposedly, the best ice cream in Paris. So on a cold winter day, we were having ice cream.

Xavier making Hot Chocolate!!

The shops on this street have some really interesting things.

A night view of Notre Dame de Paris, as we walked toward the near by Metro Station.

For dinner, we went to a small wine shop near Bercy. So, tonight I learned that you can not call red wines smooth, you have to describe the wine as fruity or not so fruity... so many things to learn about drinking wine.

Sausages and beans.

Duck breast salad.

After our wonderful dinner, Xavier took us to a night stroll near the France National Library.

and more "stairs" pictures ;)

After we finally returned to our new hotel, half of our luggage was waiting for us!!! YEAH!!!! However, the other 1/2, my half is still missing!!!... so far I have travelled in the same clothe for 7 days. Oh don't worry, I do wash them nightly ;).

Tomorrow: Versailles

Paris Day 3

2009-12-27T23:24:00.000-08:00

It is Sunday today, not much going on, so I will just start with some of today's highlights.

First, Bastille market!!! It's amazingly cool, it is like the French Market in New Orleans or the Taiwanese open air market in Taiwan. It's pretty awesome with all the fresh food and goods. It really makes me want to buy some food and cook. Unfortunately we do not have a kitchen :(.

Look!!! it's actually a fish bowl with gold fish on his head!!!

Our breakfast break... We bought some bread and beef and carrots. YUM YUM!!!

Churros ... freshly made... much better than Costco churros!!! ;)

Lunch ... French McDee's. uh.. they are actually not very good.

After lunch, took the metro to met up with our friends Xavier (aka French guy) and Huey. From there we took the RER (the regional rail) to a French outdoor outlet. Since my luggage hasn't arrived yet, I decided to get a new shirt while I am here. I bought a nice purpose dress shirt with french cuffs and chinese knot cufflinks!!!

Afterward, since we were so close to Disney Land Paris, we decide to visit the Disney Village. From the short visit there, I get the feeling, Disney Land is more like American Land, everything there is about the American and Disney culture.

Bam!!!

After our short visit at the Disney village, we decided to head back to Paris for dinner. When we returned to our hotel, we walked out to the beautiful street of Paris and found Leon's. It is a restaurant that serves mussels. What we did not know is, Sunday night is all you can eat mussel night!!!... Yep after 3 rounds of mussels, I was super super full... so good ... so yummy!!!

Finally, still nothing about the where about of my luggage and tomorrow is a new week and we are moving to a new hotel.

Lost in Paris!!! ... Day 2 :)

2009-12-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Today was a beautiful looking day, we are so fortunate to have such a beautiful weather day in Paris during the winter season. So the first thing that we did today was to walk to another not very well known, but beautiful view point.

Printemps is a famous department store in Paris. It has a fabulous view point of Paris from the roof. Take a look... oh it is so beautiful and so wonderful and it is free. The location is also super close to our hotel as well.

Oh look more "stairs"...

I also rented a bike today... woo hoo It is great to be able to ride around Paris on a bicycle. I think it is one of the best way to see Paris to ride around in one of the city's bikes. The cost is around 1 - 2 euros depending on the time.

Some of the places that we saw on our bike ride.

We also rode by the US embassy, however we were quickly asked to move and don't stand around the front of the embassy... interesting...

The ride was great... the city seems pretty dangerous for bike but it was actually not as bad as riding a bike in Seattle. And these bike are not too bad either, it has 3 gears and very easy to ride.

After the bike around downtown Paris, we met up with our friends in Sacr?-C?ur Basilica. The Metros in Paris are just so easy fast and convenient.

more "stairs"... this is actually pretty famous... "the stairs of Rue Foyatier"

Mur je t'amie aka I Love You Wall.

and Mulin Rouge

Afterward, I had a BIG glass of beer near that Mulin Rouge...

Later that night we had dinner at a creole place and I found out that Creole boudin is not like the cajun boudin.

and that ends another wonderful day in Paris.... Tomorrow is Sunday... and Sunday Market Here we come!!! :)

Oh... and my luggage is still missing.

Christmas Day in Paris!!!

2009-12-25T23:27:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009 from Paris with Love ;)

Well, today is Christmas day, I can not believe I just spend a long eventful day in Paris on Christmas day. So where to start, well , lets see this morning we realized that everything closed today so we had breakfast in hotel... holy crap 12 Euros for baguettes and OJ???... uh... baguettes!! ha ha ha.

So after breakfast today, we followed my original plan and went to Notre Dame Paris for a Christmas day Mass. The mass was awesome, it was all in French, however, mass is a mass they are all the same no matter what language they are in. One thing that did bother me was that tourist that were just going in and out in middle of the service, taking pictures. I just thought it was very rude and impolite. After the the mass we took some pictures around the church and walk our way toward the Arab center.

Monde de la Arabe was pretty cool. They had a very interesting window shade design to let in light. The most awesome thing is that they have one of the best views of the Notre Dame.

Great view of a Notre Dame from the Arab Center.

After the visit there, tried to find some ice cream, however, they were closed so we took the metro toward the tower to meet our friends.

We were in line for an hour or so and then we walked up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. The 2nd level doesn't sound too bad huh? Well, except in France, 2nd level equals 3rd level, because they start with level zero. What? starts counting with zero? What is this a computer science class? ha ha ha ... but all jokes aside, the walk was not too bad, and I get alot of chances to take pictures for my side project... "stairs!!".

After a cold evening on the tower, we took the metro to China Town for some French Chinese Dinner. Xavier said there was a very good Pho place, however, when we got to China Town and walked half a mile, the place was not there any more ... ha ha ha ... that's ok. We walked back and found a chinese place that had everything. The place felt alot like few restaurant in Seattle's ID, with one exception, everyone in the restaurant spoke French. In the end, after dinner, I was just excited to get back in my hotel and get some sleep and get ready for another exciting day in Paris tomorrow.

Oh status update... still no news on my luggage...

Christmas Eve in Paris

2009-12-24T23:45:00.000-08:00

Today is Christmas Eve, We had to get up super early to check out of our hotel in Tours and then catch our train to Paris. We still don't have our luggage so traveling is simple and light. Just my backpack and what I am wearing since I arrived in Europe.

Our return trip, we did not book TGV, instead it was just a regular train, however, it was not too bad at all. The train ride was around 2 hours from Tours to Paris. It was interesting to see the number of people traveling by train in France. Oh and did I mention that I love riding in trains!!! Because we are trying to get to Paris a bit earlier to have lunch with our friends arriving from Seattle, we decided to jump on an earlier train to Paris. We got to Paris around 11:50 am. From there, we jumped on a metro train to Opera station in Paris and checked in to our hotel. Our hotel location is just simply awesome!!! it is pretty much walking distance to every major location in Paris and it is only seconds away from 2 or 3 different metro rail stations. Only one thing about this hotel that kind of bothered me. It is the size of things. The stair way was tiny, and the elevator was even smaller. The elevator can barely fit two adults. It is pretty scary. The actual hotel room was ok, but the bathroom was just small. Everything almost overlapped each other. The only time I experienced this size of a hotel room in the States was in Maui's Best Western near Kihei.

After checking into the new Paris hotel, it is time to find food.

As we were walking back from lunch and were lost trying to find the Opera, we ran into our buddies Xavier, Huey, Peter, and Will on the street of Paris. Amazing!!! it was great to see them and we showed them back to the hotel and checked in.

Xavier gave aus a quick walk around of Paris before we got some RER tickets and headed over to Xavier's home for Christmas eve dinner.

Xavier's family was just super nice. We had so many awesome pate, foie gras, and oysters. Oh and that was just the appetizer. We then had a wonderful hotpot dinner afterward. We were so full and tired by the end of the night that there was no way I was able to fulfill my original plan of going to a midnight mass at the Notre Dame de Paris.

On the way back home, we stopped by the Lafayette Gallery, which was one the way from the metro station to our hotel, to take few pictures of their window display.

So tomorrow morning Christmas day mass at Notre Dame!!!!

The day of Chateau ...

2009-12-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

Today was an super early day, since we got the tickets from train ride to Amboise yesterday, we had to get up super early to walk to the Tours train station to ride over to Amboise. We really know nothing about Amboise or what is it all about, but since we are out in Tours so we should go to some of the near by places to check out the local castles. So our first stop was Amboise.

Small town Amboise

Amboise was nice and peaceful, when we arrived at the train station, we did not even know which direction to go. Without data plan for the iPhone, google map was useless, so using the old compass (iphone compass) and old school map and following street sign is what we did. We did get a local map from a small hotel. People in rural France are really friendly.

After a visit at the Chateau Amboise and discovering the burial place of Di Vinci. (a total shock to me) We found a local orange store and got some credits added in the the SIM card that we bought. Once again, it is amazing how helpful the French are. Afterward we went for a brief lunch and on to Chenonceau.

So for use to get to Chenonceau, we had to get a taxis. It was very interesting experience for me to call a taxis number and tell them where I am and tell them that I needed a pick up, doing this with the taxis driver knowing only very very little english. But I got a cab and he came and picked us up and we were on our way to Chenonceau. The ride from ride from Amboise to Chenonceau was great, we told the back roads and get to see a bit of the country side of France.

Chateau Chenonceau

Chateau Chenonceau was awesome, the castle was built across the Cher River. The self guided tour was awesome. The guided tours was on an actual Apple video iPod. The 60 minute audio tour gave an awesome historic tour about this beautiful Chateau.

After Chenonceau, we caught a train, which is right in front of the entrance to Chenonceau back to Tours.

When we got to tours, we walked toward dinner and half way, I stop at an Orange store and got the data plan activated .... woo hoo... finally... after so many days without wireless data I am finally reconnected again.

With the help of the iPhone and data plan we finally found the restaurant we are looking for... however, it was closed. After few other restaurants we finally found one that will open around 8pm. We waited for about 15 minutes outside of the restaurant reading the menu and trying to decide what we want to eat and went in around 8.

As you can see it is another wonderful meal!!!!

Tomorrow Paris!!!!

Around Tours

2009-12-22T23:40:00.000-08:00

around town during the day....

during the night...

Today is my first day in Tours. It is amazing to finally be in a place full of people which I do not speak their language. Travel around is so different, but so amazing. So after a full day of traveling around, I think we've walked around the town around 3-4 times... :) but it was pretty good. So today besides the site seeing and lots of pictures, we've accomplished few very key things that I am very proud of :)

1) A new Orange SIM card. This was one of the first item that i've purchased in France. Yes my Iphone is still broken, but Vicky's is not... so we purchased a new sim card and now we have a French number but... internet and data plan is still not working.

2) Since my bags were still lost, I had to get a new power adapter. Yep... visiting the French hardware store was interesting :)

3) Buying French fruits.. what I have noticed is that French fruits so far are not as good quality and sweet as american fruits. They are a little be less healthy looking fruits. Definitely not as good as the fruits from Taiwan. BTW I love the fresh markets in France... so many food... so many different type of stuff... I even saw them cutting up a rabbit... ummm... looks delicious. :)

4) Buying tickets for Chateau viewing tomorrow. Yep got two rail tickets to Amboise and Chateau Chenonceau. How exciting!!! More to come tomorrow.

5) Ordered food in a French restaurant. So after a full day of walking around town we found this little French restaurant, it was amazing. Wonderful food. Oh and their escargot was great!!

Some status updates.

1) Bags are still lost... KLM have no updates and I've called AmEx for help... we will see what they can do for me.
2) My iphone is finally back to life.. but unfortunately I had to reload everything.
3) no time to really work on the photos ... maybe in a few days.

Once again... it is late and got an early start tomorrow... :)

Journey to Tours, France

2009-12-21T23:30:00.000-08:00

It has been an amazing adventure so far... with with lots of luck and good fortune, we are finally in Tours. Tours is very very quiet and wet right now, but it seems like a very peaceful town. So what happened?

Well, shortly after my last post, Vicky came back with good news of locating us 2 tickets to Paris. That's the benefit of being a Gold Status member of an airline. So our flight was around 3:30 pm. Of course, the flight was once again delayed, this time it was because of another flight that caused us to have missing crew members. When we finally arrived in Paris around 6:30pm, we weren't able to locate our luggages. Yes... after yesterday's huge mess, our bags are lost. we went to the lost luggage declared our missing luggage and got a tracking number. What I've noticed is that when the French say they know a little English.. well.. they actually know alot more than I know French. After I've given up looking for our bags, we tried to get our train ticket to Tours. Our original tickets have expired already, so new tickets had to be purchased. Since the TGV was also delayed... more waiting. Our ride to Tours was a 3 segment ride. From Paris to Messy and from Messy to St. Perrier and from St Perrier to Tours (via regular train). We were very very fortunate to run in to a French student coming home from Edinburg. His name is Fransua (I think that is how you spell it). He was also going home to Tours. We were so lucky to have met him, because both of our connections were a little bit strange. 1st connect to St. Perrier, two arriving TGV trains arrived connected together, our train was the second train in the back. I would have missed that train and waited for the next train if it was not for our new friend. Second, during our transfer to the regular train in St Perrier, it was our friend that help us realized that we were boarding now and we barely made it on board.

After a final short train ride from St. Perrier to Tours, we are finally here. Tours was very very quiet. Yep it is a smaller town, where when I ask "if you speak English in Paris", most people do... But so far the three people that we've met do not speak any english. So finding the Hotel at night was an adventure. The hotel was kind enough to leave us the passcode and our room key. So we checked in with out any problem.

The room is small.. but reasonable. Well.. it is late... time for another wonderful adventure tomorrow :)

Day 2 Trapped in Amsterdam

2009-12-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

Our flight was delayed yesterday because of the big snow storm in Europe. We wasted alot of time in air and then landed in London for refilling and then more time in air. when we finally landed in Amsterdam everything was cancelled. So after 6 hours of waiting in line yesterday in Amsterdam airport for our cancelled flight, we finally got a hotel room at the Ibis hotel near the airport. The hotel was comped by KML and we had dinner and breakfast this morning

So this morning we are back in a 4 hour minimum line for getting a flight to Paris. I don't know if we will get to Paris tonight. My thought is trying to get them to get us a ticket to paris on the 24th. and just spend our vacation here in Amsterdam. It is already 10:40 and I don't think we will be getting to speak to anyone before 12 pm today.

We already missed one day of hotel in Tours, missed our TGV train to Tours from Paris, and we will probably miss our return train if we decide to stay here. My iphone is broken so no Iphone.

so yeah... so far this trip really sucks so far... maybe it will turn around soon.

On my way to "Min"neapolis:)

2009-12-19T12:32:00.001-08:00

I love riding trains :)

ISU Alumni

2009-12-18T23:07:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo, after exciting graduation, I am now a Master of Science in Information Assurance. Yeah!!!

Few comments about my masters graduation. I am very excited and nervous about my graduation it was interesting. During the pre-graduation reception, the engineering college offer us a one minute speech time.... yes and my most memorable experience in Iowa State is being signaled off the stage for talking over my one minute time ... it was actually very funny :)

The graduation was good, however, after seeing all the cool gowns of the PhD students, it really makes me want to get a PhD just for that :) Oh maybe in another 10 years.

Speaking of 10 years, I graduated from Auburn in 1999 for my Bachelors. In 10 years, I finally got my Masters. Thanks for everyone that supported me, especially my parents for encouraging me to get a Masters degree. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Also can you believe it ... I actually accidentally meet couple of my classmate during graduation. yes... my classmates were all online classmates. I also met another guy, who also took exactly 10 years to get his Masters. Both of his graduation was on the same day Dec. 18 1999 and 2009. Cool huh?

In Ames, IA

2009-12-18T13:41:00.001-08:00

Burr...

Wow Mall of America

2009-12-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

Wow an amusement park inside a mall!!! Cool!!

MSP

2009-12-17T13:33:00.001-08:00

Just landed in MSP... Cold and white stuff everywhere... Burr...

All Aboard... :)

2009-12-17T06:39:00.001-08:00

Super early start!!! 3 hour flight to MSP. Just barely fit everything on the flight... So many people ... So much stuff!!
Packed flight!!!

Trip begins tomorrow...

2009-12-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

Packing and getting ready for my big adventure. This afternoon I was getting really nervous for some reason. I guess it has been a while since I took such a long trip... I am always worry that I forgot something while I am traveling. I try to back light and still try to have everything. It is difficult. So... for my graduation, I have decided not to take the camcorder... and just my camera. :)

I am very excited and nervous all at the same time. So tomorrow morning bright and early I will be flying to MSP.

So let the excitement begin.

Doctor Who treated Tiger Woods???

2009-12-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

Really? is the Doctor in trouble??

Euros

2009-12-15T10:58:00.001-08:00

So I got my first Euros today. I have to say... I have never seen stick figures on money, i mean real money before. But they got them on Euros.

That is some funny money.. How come such funny money get such a high value???

Getting nervous and excited!!!