After visiting SFMOMA, Norman brought me to a Thai restaurant called Osha on 2nd Street for lunch. The food was great, but we were so hungry we overate, so much so that neither of us ate dinner at all [photo]. The next day, Sophie, Mike and I went to Chef Woo in west San Jose …
Category Archives: Life
Visiting the art museums of the Bay Area
A couple of weeks ago I went with Norman to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It was the first time I’ve been to SFMOMA. I particularly enjoyed the exhibits on Architectural Abstractions, the 1906 Earthquake, and the self portraits of Chuck Close. Next up, I plan to see After the Ruins, 1906 and …
The migration is done
I’ve finished putting in all of my old blog entries from TrailBlazing into this one. I haven’t posted any photos yet, so all those links are still broken, but everything else is in. As I was categorizing my entries for the first time, I realized how many different topics I’ve blogged about. The blog’s living …
Software for dealing with vacation photos
It’s been more than a month since I came back from Taiwan, and I’m still organizing our photos from our trip to Asia. In Taiwan, Matt and I had CDs burned with my photos and some of his. And then a couple of weeks ago, Michael gave me a DVD with photos from him and …
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Visiting San Francisco
It’s odd that, now that I’m living in the South Bay, I seem to be going to San Francisco more often than I was in Berkeley. In fact, I’ve gone up once a week for the past 4 weeks: to visit Francis, Simona, Rich, and Agata [photo]; Ame and Chris’s wedding reception; a Super Bowl …
Asia trip reactions: Food
Not surprisingly, we got some great food touring Asia. A few meals stand out in my mind. In Tokyo, we ate at a teppanyaki restaurant, complete with our own chef [photos]. The beef, with a lot of marbling, was tender and flavorful, but also quite greasy — you can’t eat as much of that beef …
Asia trip reactions: Language
Even though the Japanese are polite and want to help you, it can be hard to communicate with them because their English is quite bad. Now, I don’t expect the entire country to be fluent in a foreign language. But, for example, Yodobashi Camera is a gigantic Japanese electronics store that makes Fry’s Electronics look …
Asia trip reactions: Discipline and Politeness
You’ve probably heard that the Japanese are very disciplined. It’s true. Matt and I saw this while in the front car of a Tokyo subway train, where we could see into the driver’s cab. He sat up straight, in his uniform and gloves, and was constantly on alert. He regularly pointed at either his instrument …
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Smart cards for transit
Both Hong Kong and Taipei have RFID smart cards available for paying fares on subways and buses. Taipei even knocks 20% off of each subway ride. You don’t need to take the card out, just hover your wallet over the reader. It’s amazingly convenient. The Bay Area desperately needs something like this, especially since we …
So much for blogging during my trip
It wasn’t easy finding fast, cheap Internet access throughout my trip, and when I did, I mostly checked up on e-mail. I always take a long time to write (look how long it took me to write my dissertation!) and I decided my time overseas was better spent doing stuff. But now I’m back, and …