Happy Birthday, Lili!

The girl who always smiles. May God bless you even more this year as each day goes by. Now that you moved to Walnut, perhaps you can go to my church, hahaha...

Yum~~~~ Korean BBQ. :p

Before and After

This is before... sighs...
And after... finally

Wow... I slept througout most of the day today... it's now almost 7pm. Thank God for the extra hour I'll get tonight.

I think I will pick up my guitar and sing some songs right now... Apparently there's a lot of things on my mind but I can't sort it out very clearly. Oftentimes, the songs that I picked to sing in situations like these end up to be revealing because they reflect my mood more accurately.

Here's a song that came to mind:

星晴
作詞：周杰倫　作曲：周杰倫　編曲：洪敬堯

乘著風　遊盪在藍天邊　一片雲掉落在我面前
捏成你的形狀　隨風跟著我　一口一口吃掉憂愁

載著你　彷彿載著陽光　不管到哪裡都是晴天
蝴蝶自在飛　花也佈滿天　一朵一朵因你而香

試圖讓夕陽飛翔　帶領你我環繞大自然
迎著風　開始共度每一天

手牽手　一步兩步三步四步　望著天
看星星　一顆兩顆三顆四顆　連成線
背對背默默許下心願
看遠方的星是否聽得見

手牽手　一步兩步三步四步　望著天
看星星　一顆兩顆三顆四顆　連成線
背對背默默許下心願
看遠方的星如果聽得見　它一定實現

Translation (by me):

Star-E-Motion (kimochi)
Words and Music by: Jay Chou

Riding the wind around the edge of the blue sky, a piece of cloud fell before me.
Molded to the shapes of you, following me with the wind, bite by bite the worries are consumed.

Taking you to ride with me is like riding with the sunshine. Everywhere becomes a sunny day with you beside me. Butterflies flew freely, flowers filled the sky, and became fragrant only because of you.

Attempting for the dawn to take flight so it can take you and me on a tour around the vastness of nature. Facing the breeze, we began our journey to explore each day together.

Hand in hand, taking steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 while staring into the sky. Watching the stars 1, 2, 3, and 4 in a string. With our backs knitted together, we wished silently toward the stars...

and wonder if the distant stars heard us (and if the distant stars heard us, the wish will surely come true).

Good Bye, Chicago...

As the sun sets, so will I say good bye to this fun filled few days at the windy city. Good bye, we'll see you all next year in Houston.

Harley Winner

Ya, that's him...

And then some pics of "friendly" competitors who shaked hands at the show because we were a fun bunch sharing the same aisle.

A colorful day

Today was busier than yesterday at the convention, however, it was a very fun day for me. Mostly because I was using the afternoon slower hours to get to know my neighbors and find out more about what they do. Being this is our first year at ISA, we don't really have any idea as to how to approach this market and present outselves well. So it was helpful to learn so many new things by just simply listening to veterans in the industry.

We also managed to entertain ourselves with ball juggling... I guess the original intention was to attract crowds. Well, I found that I really suck at it. But my neighbor was doing good. So the afternoon hours slipped away with tons of laughters.

Above are some pics I took today. The ball juggling were recorded as video files and are too big to post here. Maybe I'll get to share them with some of you at other opportunities. The night view was taken on the 38th floor of the hotel. The day pic shows two buildings whose first third section are parking structures.

I had steak and shrimp and a restaurant outside of the hotel. Good price for the food, unlike last night.

And... back to Club Quarters. Good night, everyone.

The Wrigley Building

The NBC Building

How do people become like this...?

Do you ever get the feeling that people are intentionally taking advantage of the situation?

I have the exact feeling tonight... at the dinner table... feeling that my colleagues is trying to get a free expensive dinner because it's a company paid dinner. Sighs... I don't know when I began to see things this way. Some would argue that "why are you worried about the money that's not out of your pocket?" But I just feel bad... We didn't really have to go to an upscale restaurant like this one tonight, we didn't have customers to impress, and we could just settle for the simple...

Anyways, this colleague has been like this for as long as he's been working. Now he's close to broke, and his job function is almost completely replaceable. And he's 60+ years old... he drove 3 hours in traffic this morning to get to the convention center so that he can do his "job." I guess that should count for something...

I hope I don't become like this... sighs...

This is the restaurant that my colleague, who's based in Chicago, took us. Shaw's Crab House.
The food was ok, the price is not justified. $140 for 3 people. I wasn't even full.

And Chicago loves their White Sox... Just as LA used to loved the Lakers.

This is Lake Michigan. The Lake that's the size of a state.

This is the dusk pic.

This is downtown Chicago as taken inside McCormick Place Convention Center.

Good night in Chicago, IL

Chicago's special deep dish stuffed pizza

It doesn't look like much... but I had to wait 30 minutes for this to be cooked right and it was worth the wait.

More pics.. the mini side of Club Quarters

This is the from the window of my room on the 17th floor.

The Club Quarters

Here are some pics of the hotel and the room. The room is by far the smallest hotel room I've ever lived. However, everything is done so nicely that I was very comfortable.

Arrived at Chicago Midway!

Wow, this place is so much colder than LA. With the recent weather changes... I must say that I like colder weather better than hotter ones. My boss and I took the CTA orange line to downtown from Midway airport and we "walked" to our hotel: The Club Quarters.

This city looks and feels so much like Taipei... lots of cars, taxi drivers who think they own the road, lots of pedestrians... tall buildings, metro trains... etc.

The wind made it very very cold as it added the chill factor. But I must say that this is the cold I can tolerate. Not sure about that if it snows here... hahaha.

Getting ready for the Windy City

I'm now packing for the Windy City of Chicago tomorrow for the ISA 2005 show. I will be gone for 4 days.

Please remember me in your prayers.

BBQ at George's in Arcadia

Even though I didn't meet as many old friends as I did, I was still glad that I was able to catch up with some of you. Btw, the pic shows Ken Chen. I haven't talk to him in length for a few years already... wow, time has slipped.

Afternoon fun with friends at Jenny's

I think most of us got lost on our way to Jenny's house in Ladera Ranch... hahaha.

Happy early birthday, Jenny!

I think she will be taking a break from Jay Chou songs for a while... :p

Rock Climbing

I went to do rock climbing for the first time in my life. It's so much fun! My fingers didn't last very long... they were hurting after a little over an hour. I also learned how to use the belay. This is definitely good exercise.

Tired...

Furaibo Chicken Wings

Hmmm, well deserved the praise. YUM~~~

The Night View of the City

Today I'm feeling kind of weird... kind of lazy, kind of wanting to relax, and kind of blue. It's interesting, I haven't felt this way for a while.

Good luck, Yoyo!

Good luck, Yoyo! Even though you will only be here for one day before you take flight to pursue your dream in Houston, It was great to talk with you in length again during our brief reunion. I will remember you in my prayers to ask God to bless each step you take. Don't give up on your dream!

Have fun in Houston with your hunny.

Esther and Eric

The double E couple (EE), ET and EC went to my apartment in preparation for a gym workout but were detoured with various other important activities.

The pictures should be revealing...

He Will Come and Save You

Say to those who are fearful hearted

Do not be afraid

The Lord your God is strong

And with His mighty arms

When you call on His name

He will come and save

CHORUS:

He will come and save you

He will come and save you

Say to the weary one

Your God will surely come,

He will come and save you

He will come and save you

He will come and save you

Lift up your eyes to Him

You will arise again

He will come and save you

Verse 2:

Say to those who are broken hearted

Do not lose your faith

The Lord your God is strong

With His loving arms

When you call on His name

He will come and save

BRIDGE:

He is our refuge in the day of trouble

He is our shelter in the time of storm

He is our tower in the day of sorrow

Our fortress in the time of war

Power Outtage

As you can probably see... I kind of went berserk on the photo taking. This is what happens when I get new toys. Always crazy about it for a while... hehehe. Actually, I think this is true for 99.9% of the people.

There was a brief power outtage at work today shortly after lunch. We all thought that we were going to call it a day until the power went back on. After that, it was kind of quiet... until we figured out that the outtage took out our phone system (no wonder)... hahaha

The Night View