Lady Sylvanas

This is a song sung by Lady Sylvanas in World of Warcraft. I finished this task, and listened to her sing in person. The song is so sad, but so beautiful.

I don't remember too much about the task. I was a low level blood elf, and accidentally picked up an artifact. The task manager asked me to meet with Sylvanas. She was a high elf and lived in the same area where I picked up the artifact before she was killed and brought back to life as an undead. This artifact was hers. She lost it when she was guarding her country. Now she is the leader of the Forsaken, an undead, with her belongings when she was still alive...

Why I thought of this song all of a sudden? Because this evening I saw another video of hers. This time she did the killing. She slaughtered the whole Scarlet Sanctuary.

Disappointing Product Release

The first thing that I checked this morning when I got up is to see what Apple announced for their new products. Not exactly what I expected.

• No netbook. I understand Apple might not want to let netbooks take away part of the more lucrative NB business, but I have an iMac at home already. If Apple comes up with something lighter and cheaper, I might want to get one. Now the new macbook still starts at 1299USD, and 13" of screen. These 2 specs are really turn-off.
• I watched the video on the website, and also part of the keynote, and just can't help yawning when they elaborate the machining process of the new aluminum case. That is boring detail, and is so aggravating, and it is really not that much lighter than the previous generation, and is not appealing at all.

I may finish the keynote when I have time, but it is really not urgent for some reason. Even the graphics chip upgrade sounds so irrelevant to me. It is ok to say the 3D performance of the integrated graphics chip is 5x better than ever, but showing how well it performs when it runs WoW is more appealing to me.

Photos of Tel Aviv

The good thing about traveling for business is that one could say he has traveled to so many cities and countries. The bad things is that sometimes there is really not that much time to look around.

Although we asked the taxi to pick us up every evening at 6pm. By the time we went back to the hotel, rested for 5 minutes, went out to find a place for dinner (normally this is the hard part), and finished dinner, it would be around 8:30pm. There will be not that much to look around anyway, so we just stayed in the hotel.

But I did go somewhere. I was taken to an Israeli restaurant where English menu is not available. That was a lot of fun. Although some waiters assumed I was Japanese when we left, and I was not so happy about it, but I could laugh about it. I went to Jaffa to walk around and chat with people one evening. From Jaffa, people could get a very beautiful view of Tel Aviv. I loved it very much, but forgot to bring my camera. I did take some photos with Mistress, but they did not turn out very well. One night, I went to a bar/pub, also in Jaffa, when it was open at midnight. Israelis do not start their night life until midnight. That is so amazing to me when I am ready to hit the pillow at 11. By 2 when I left, So many people still were walking in that area. On the other side, it is good that people feel safe to walk at that late of the night. I also walked around the residential area right across the street from the hotel, and took some photos.

Generally, I like it there. Some of the food there is very addicting. After I returned to Taiwan, I asked my boss one day if those food is available in Taipei. Well, some yes, but some, no. So there is another bad thing about traveling. I don't know when I can have that food again.

Photos are here

Right and Wrong

MM said he looks queeny and scary, and I agree with her. This cover does not look anything like the David Cook that I liked so much over the American Idol season. The song is a nice choice for him though. David Cook is back. I am looking forward to his new album release in November.

Jerusalem

This is a lame note of my trip to Jerusalem, as it happend almost a month ago, and that is a long time based on the deteriorating condition of my brain.

Photos are available in my photo album.

It was a very nice day. The company was very nice to arrange this trip to Jerusalem for both of us. The tour guide picked us up at 9am. We went back to the hotel at around 4. If we exclude 45 minutes to drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, we spent around 5.5 hours in Jerusalem. Not long enough, as we did not have time for museum at all, and I believe the archaeology museum in Jerusalem will be such a nice place to visit, considering the whole old city is like a giant museum.

We started with Mount of Olive, where the best view of old city can be obtained. Don't trust the photos. From the photos, all the color is yellow, and nothing special, however, it looks quite splendid in real. Then we went to see the tomb of Virgin Maria, and the first church of Crusaders. Too bad I had a good impression while I was there, but one months later I can remember that much.

One thing that I do remember is that, the tour guide said the relationships among Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic. They share a lot, and the main different is who the last prophecy is, and that is reason why Jerusalem is holy to them all. Of course this may be his side of the story, but it is nice to understand some of it, and be in Jerusalem myself.

Because we are not religious and do not know the Bible at all, otherwise we would have a nice trip to all the churches to know in which church did Jesus say this, in which church did Jesus say that, and on which desert did Jesus spend most of his life.

It is good to have a chance to go there. However, if I have a chance to go again, I'll need to do some homework first. It is nice to explore and know better, than listen to the tour guide only, nodding with my mouth wide open.

Extra Precaution

Attached is photo of my regular computer backpack and a white box that I got from Israeli custom. Now free guess. What is in the white box?

I was told of the tedious security check at the Israeli airport, so I went there early to make sure I had plenty of time. The airport was not busy at all, but not well marked. I knew there would be people checking my luggage all over, however, standing there, I was not sure where to start. I hope they could provide a 123 guide. Step 1, wait in the line here, step 2, open you luggage, step 3, blah blah blah.

I decided to ask for help.

The lady was very nice. Instead of pointing the direction I should go, she took me in person to where I should start. However, either it was still not marked very well or she did not really know the airport well herself, I followed her direction, and found myself cutting in another line. I was quite embarrassed. Fortunately, it was a very short line, so someone could take me very quickly.

This is the best VIP experience I have ever had. 5 people waited on me. One opened up backpack, one checked my luggage, one worked on my computer, and while she could not figure out my computer, she called another coworker, and then they called the third person, obviously their manager, for help. My computer is a Dell Latitude XT. This computer has a hinge attached to the screen, so I could flip the screen 180 degrees, and put it back down, with the screen facing outside, and use it as a tablet PC. Obviously they have a major concern on the hinge structure. I just stood there, seeing the manager talking and pointing at the screen (obviously x-ray photo) and the hinge part of my computer, back and forth. I refrained from the desire to come up and show my expertise as a mechanical engineer, professional and proud, to explain the mechanical structure. They are cute girls, but look so serious and soldiers like. It’s a good idea to keep my mouth shut.

And they did check all the details. Everything in the backpack was put on the table. Some of my clothes were put on the counter. They use some kind of cotton to wipe the outside and inside of the whole thing. Then I was asked to go through the metal door for personal security checkup. This is the time when I remember, never leave my luggage un-attended. I was not very comfortable at this point when even my passport was out of my sight.

When I went back, they asked me to turn on the computer, and run a program. I guess they just want to make sure this is a working computer, not something they will worry about. And then a lady told me that for security purpose, I am not allowed to put both my laptop computer and the adaptor in the carry-on luggage. I normally do that, just in case if for some reason, the luggage is lost or delayed, I still have my computer to conduct business. So this lady took out a big white box, put some packaging material in, and threw my adaptor in. I was then asked to sign my name on the box, nice and big, and this box became my second check-in luggage.

Well, it turns out, though I thought it’s ridiculous to put just one tiny adaptor in this large box, however, when I came back to Taipei and waited at the carousel, this box is still small compared with other luggage, but quite visible.

The whole checkup at the airport is very tedious and messy. However, the coworker I traveled with lost his computer. He was not allowed to carry on his laptop even. His adaptor was put in one such white box, and computer in another. And at the Taipei airport, neither of the boxes showed up. He did not get any receipts for the boxes, so now the airlines cannot do any tracking at all. And, this is not the first laptop lost at the Israeli airport from our office.

Thought of You, All at Once

Nurse friend, SH, sent me this message, and for some time I did not know how to respond. The message says, “Thought of you, all at once”.

I’ve known her since I was 15. We were quite close, in a way, at one point. That was pre-email era, and we exchanged a lot of mails when I was in senior high school, and she was in nurses’ vocational school. The funny thing is that both schools are on the same street, but we had so much fun writing.

We did not meet that much until later when we were both in Taipei. She had finished advanced vocational training, and was working for a hospital in Linkou area, and I was still in college. She came to town once in a while. She bought me dinners sometimes. I was a poor student. A milk shake from McDonald’s was a nice treat for me, but she took me to some nice restaurants where the flat rate for one person could be as high as 300 or 400 NTD.

We were never a couple though, and we did not realize it until later that all my family assumed she was my girlfriend, all her family assumed I was her boyfriend, and her current husband thought we were a lovely couple so he did not dare to pursue her. She, her husband, and I went to the same school, same year. Her husband’s classroom was next to mine. This is a small world.

I postponed calling her until later when I was in Tainan on business. I was waiting for my colleague to get ready to leave and call it a day. She answered the phone, and upon hearing my voice, she started to laugh. She knew I was responding to her text message.

The environment around my parents’ house has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. Many houses were torn out, streets widened, new community built. Her parents’ house was torn down too, but then they got a condo in the community as compensation. Now whenever she goes back to visit her parents, she drives through my parents’ neighborhood, however she does not know exactly where my parents live, and I wonder if she ever visited. She thought of me and sent me that text message.

That’s an old friend, happily married, living in the area she grew up in, 2 kids, the older being a forth grader already. Hard to imagine that time flies this fast. It is hard to get together with her again. After all she has the family to take care of.

She got married early, in June when I was extremely busy getting ready to graduate and thus not able to attend her wedding. We did not meet again for the next 10 years, until about 2 years ago, she came to Taipei for some professional training, and we met for dinner. It was my turn to buy her dinner. After all these years, that was my contribution. She had not aged a bit, like a wizard. When we were 20, she was working and was like an older sister, and now I’ve changed so much that she looks like a little girl, and I just can’t picture her a mother of 2 sons.

We did not talk much. Time has separated us in a way, however, for me, she is always there, and will always be there. I still have a collection of her photos, physical photos, you know, that was pre-digital camera era, and the letters, numbered, in bundles, something I’ll never toss.