Peter’s Blog V2

Xiao P is a black moor goldfish, named after the black pig P-Chan from Ranma 1/2.  Like Ponyo, his name was determined before we even picked the fish.  We had known that we wanted a black one, and Xiao P was the first and only adorable black cartoon character that we could think of.

By original plans, Xiao P was going to be the second fish in the tank, along with the other pre-named fish Ponyo.  However, bothered by the sight of two dead bodies in the store tank of black moors on that day, we looked around to avoid bringing home a potentially sickened Xiao P.  Without that incident, we wouldn’t have discovered Nemo.

I’d hate to hurt our dear pet’s feelings, but Xiao P is the pathetic kid in the family.  Living up to his namesake, he’s as clumsy as a pig – though lacking the intelligence.  With what we presume to be poor eyesight, he struggles to catch food even when directly placed in his face.  His mouth suctions rapidly like a little vacuum cleaner, scanning every square millimeter on the surface as well as on the gravel floor in hope to get some by chance.  On any given day, he puts in three times as much feeding effort as Ponyo and consumes half as much.  Then he gets grumpy and pushes the other fish around.  Uh, that’s right, that piggy character in Ranma 1/2 is pretty short tempered as well.

Mr. Wiggles, the golden dojo loach, is the odd ball of the family.  Not only is he not a goldfish, he’s also got the only name not from a cartoon character.  Mr. Wiggles, well, wiggles about and got the name.  Whether he’s really a Mr. is a different story.

Mr. Wiggles has been getting a disporportional amount of attention, both due to his unique body type and the special care required.  Most people probably don’t know what a loach is, since even the Firefox spell checker doesn’t recognize this word.  Loaches are a freshwater scale-less fish.  Dojo loaches look like eels, or perhaps more like worms with critter whiskers.  Dojo loaches are also known as weather loaches, as they get excited before a change in weather.  The care isn’t exactly intense, but since Mr. Wiggles only feeds from the bottom of the tank, far below where three starving goldfish lurk about, we take particular note to deliver food to him.

Mr. Wiggles is the shy one.  Or was.  During the first two days, he hid out in the mountain cave so much, that I almost considered replacing that mountain with something with no hidden area.  Over time, he did warm up to show us his playful side.  He’s like a crocodile in that he idles for most of the day but could be lightning fast when he’s on the move.    When he occasionally freaks out, he shoots back and forth in the tank like a missile.  I don’t wanna think about the damage that could do once he grows up!

This is Ponyo, a oranda goldfish.  Her name came from the strange yet ridiculously cute sea creature from Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.  We had decided on the name before even going to the pet store to look for a fish.  The idea was it’d be hilarious to name a goldfish after Ponyo, who the naive if not retarded and helplessly uneducated boy in the Miyazaki film thought was a goldfish.  To honor that namesake, we picked a chubby fish with some crazy crown on her head.

Ponyo is really MY fish.  Not because I thought of the name or picked her out at the store, but because she has an awesome appetite and eating ability.  Whereas each of her tank mates has a limit to how much food can be consumed at a time, Ponyo has no trouble swallowing anything she comes across.  She feeds on the water surface, she feeds in mid-tank as the food sinks, and she picks up food from the bottom gravel.  She’s extremely efficient at being the first to reach food and exploring the tank to find food that everyone else misses.  A not unsound concern is her dying from over feeding or another fish dying from starvation.

This is Nemo, a striped ryukin goldfish.  It’s probably safe to assume that everyone knows who Nemo is and can agree that our Nemo’s colors and pattern sort of resemble that of a clown fish.  His presence was almost like an accidental pregnancy as we did not plan to bring home another orange-and-white goldfish nor one of the ryukin breed.  However, his unique pattern drew Hong’s attention and we abandoned the plan to get whatever else we were gonna get, and brought Nemo home as our second fish.

Nemo doesn’t eat like Ponyo, but being more seasoned than half of the tank’s population, he knows when and where to get his food quite well.  Being Hong’s fish, he’s the most elegant that aims for food with high precision and takes time between bites.  Also lady-like, he has the picky habit of not eating from the floor.  Nemo is the smallest goldfish in the tank, making him most prone to harassment from the others.  Maybe that’s why he always has that grumpy face?

We got fish.

As animal lovers who always enjoy zoos and aquariums, owning pets is a constant conversation between us.  However, the cost of responsible care for a dog or a cat is beyond prohibitive for two busy professionals in an apartment.  Besides, our home is full of stuff that can be knocked over, and at least one of us is deadly allergic to anything hairy.

Fish turned out to be an ideal solution with low up-front investment, low attention requirement (though not low maintenance), always confined, and no potential harm unless we got piranhas.   For years, I had the perspective of a fish tank being a lame bucket of water with some swimming creatures inside.  However, after reading the New York Times article last month, I suddenly started to view it as a miniature version of an aquarium (the kind with an admission cost).  Aside from us never gonna have that kind of money to spend, I would love to have super fancy setups as described in the article.  However close to those we could eventually get was still unknown, but I was willing to – and had to – start somewhere.

My idea of a home aquarium was to contain a variety of tropical marine fish, but Hong preferred goldfish.  And then I agreed with her – the tropical fish affordable in smaller tanks, in her words, were all too “2D” or even “1D”, being too flat and lack observable personality.  On the flip side, a fancy goldfish would be “3D” with a round body and a flary tail, and the independence from a schooling nature makes one more unique as a pet.

After some research, we decided to get a tank of goldfish.  We got a lame-o 20-gallon kit, which I quickly came to regret as we didn’t use the included heater, and soon replaced the stock filter with something much more powerful and sophisticated.  We let it run empty for a week:

Then, we got the AquaClear 50 filter, more decorations, and two goldfish:

That was almost going to be our final tank setup… but a week later we couldn’t resist but got one more goldfish and a loach:

And here it is… Hong & Zai’s home aquarium #1!

Early last year, I came across a so-called “research” article claiming that people who play car racing video games tend to get attached, become car enthusiasts, and end up purchasing more expensive sports cars.  At that time, my interest in cars was close to zero.  I hadn’t driven in years, and had no particular desire to drive or own a car.

Then I bought Burnout Paradise for PS3.  It was on sale.

I beat that game.  Then I bought and beat Midnight Club: Los Angeles Complete Edition.  Then I bought Blur, and have 2-3 more racing titles that I hope to get my hands on.  I watched all four Fast and the Furious movies, a franchise that I used to think was stupid.  I re-watched Initial D.  I started being able to name more and more vehicles on the road, and I get more excited seeing “unusual” cars around.  I developed a particular desire for the Lamborghini designs, and I learned to tell apart exotic cars that I can’t afford now from those that I can never afford.

Naturally, I needed to go to some car shows.  In April, I went with David and Adam to the New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center.  It was a manufacturer’s showcase of mostly boring road cars, but the few concept cars, exotic sports cars, and Rolls Royce / Bentley were pretty great:

Then in July, I went with Phil to the other kind of car show, where people brought their proud rides pimped out with all sorts of legal and illegal upgrades.  Some were lame, some were ugly, and some were simply weird.  But there were some serious art works that just blew us away.  Why anyone would spend more money painting a car than the car’s base price was beyond us, but it was awesome to see.

Shortly after the wedding, we flew out to LAX in preparation of a big family event.  Although it wasn’t quite a “honeymoon”, it was a very nice vacation.

California is the state of sunshine in my heart (screw Florida), and it felt great to be hangout out in the dry climate with the warm but not overpoweringly hot sun.  Highlights of the trip included:

Rental Chrysler 300 – I loved this car for the bold looks, but it’s like a house cat’s muscles on a tiger’s body.  The cheap plastic interior also came as a surprise with its luxury exterior and price tag.  In less than five days, we drove this big kitty over 700 miles and gained an understanding of LA’s amazing size… and its notorious traffic.  Most of the freeways that we travelled on were easily wider than the widest interstate on the East Coast, yet they weren’t wide enough to accommodate all the cars in the region.

One among many beaches:

Santa Barbara & Beverly Hills: highest concentration of expensive cars I’ve seen!

San Diego Wild Animal Park: niiiiice zoo!

Aquarium of the Pacific: um, an aquarium.

South Coast Plaza: wheehee… I couldn’t name a ridiculously luxury store that it didn’t have.  It’s like having the entire higher end of Fifth Avenue packed into a corner of this mall.  I mean seriously?  You need two stores within the same building to carry Mont Blanc stuff?

Downtown Disney: this was around the corner from our pit stop, and happened to be a nice detour to kill some time.

In-N-Out: had to try it.

Grandma’s birthday party: so nice to see the entire family together.

A lot of stuff changed within a three-month window: new car, new license (state), new apartment, new marriage, and new job.

After that diamond ring, this maroon colored 2010 Honda Accord LX-P renewed the record as the most expensive thing I’ve purchased with my own money.  The experience returning from a New York City resident to an average American car owner had given me two realizations about myself.

The greatest reflection was how paranoid I had become after all these years.  Just ten years ago I was still clueless and careless about mostly everything – but those that I grew up with had heavy influence on my thinking: Dennis, Tim, and Phil are all fairly over the top in knowing factual details of stuff, analyzing in depth into insignificant things, and bargaining for deals.  Now, feeling super uneasy for any knowledge that I might miss, I spent months reading materials and getting quotes from 10+ dealers spanning 3 states.  It all paid off as I walked into multiple dealerships, apparently knowing more than most of the sales people, and got a solid deal.  At the end of the day, what remains unknown was how the money saved divided by the hours of research I put in compared to my equivalent hourly wage from work.

The other reflection was, somehow during the five years of not owning a car, I had become a city driver.  Prior to that, I absolutely hated urban driving – even not-so-urban places like DC and Pittsburgh made me super nervous.  Somehow I learned, on the back seat of all the late night cabs leaving work, the lead-foot technique at following the traffic flow and the manuvering skills around pedestrians and other random road blocks.  Now I’d prefer to drive in Manhattan over a flat highway any day.

Moving into NYC five years ago was a big pain in the ass.  Moving out of NYC now was also uneasy.  It’s a city that I both hated and loved with all of my heart.  Though one thing is certain… it’s nice moving into a two-bedroom apartment with a loft, a balcony, parking spaces, a swimming pool, and a gym.  Picking up the apartment keys and car keys on the same day, I started furniture shopping and cross-state moving with my brand-new car.  It wasn’t exactly the best idea to take her through the shitty potholes in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Elizabeth with heavy loads of stuff, starting day 1, but some cars are just less lucky.

The move was made easier when I hired two movers from Flushing.  These were non-professionals who helped people move as a side job.  They weren’t the most careful but provided excellent value for my super-cheap furnitures.  Both of them were from Taiwan and had awesome personalities to talk to.  On top of that, one of them looked extremely similar to Jay Chou and used to be a chef at a really big restaurant in Taiwan.

The wedding was another big expense not only for us, but also for our friends and families.  It was also the most exciting and memorable week that I can remember.  Starting at Atlantic City with my three buddies, to the trendy rehearsal dinner to the altar to the dance floor, it was nice being the center of the attention and seeing months of planning come to reality.

During the past two years, I watched pathetic commuters jump in and out of busses along the ghetto state highways between New Brunswick and Princeton, sometimes late into the night, sometimes in the rain or snow.  I had always wondered what kind of poor souls they must be to not drive a car or ride a train, and instead opt to be standing in untrimmed weeds with a half-torn umbrella, by a road where cars zoom by at 50-70 miles per hour, kicking up soda cans and littering cigarrette butts, shiverring while waiting for a bus that stops every 100 feet in the invisible distance.

Well, the answer became crystal clear when I moved into Jersey and realized that the bus was the only feasible transportation to commute into NYC from certain spots within the state.  I bought some tickets and added myself to the group of pathetic souls.  Driving to a park-n-ride, walking to the bus stop, napping on the ride, power walking to the office from Port Authority, and then repeating it all in the reverse direction took 4 hours out of each day.  Wow.  Lucky for me to start this ritual in the lovely late spring when the air was warm and rain was nonexistent… I couldn’t help but to wonder how many commuters per winter decisively jump onto the highway out of depression.  Well, let me not find out.

Because 4-hour commutes and the notorious 16-hour consulting work days were not naturally compatible, I found myself an insurance job in Newark instead.  It’s still an hour drive each way, which is long by the average American standards, but a significant improvement in comparison.  Leaving my dear friends and letting go some of my most prided projects was a painful process, but effectively reducing my work day by 30% and commute by 50% was well worth it.

Lots of changes, in such little time.

The best movie.  Ever.

Quite worth the 5-year wait.

After record-breaking storms visiting all those regions surrounding us, New York finally got a sizable one this winter.

The District of Columbia needs to learn the spirit from the Big Apple: this city never sleeps, not even at 1AM in a freaking storm.  Armies of workers managed the streets with plows, blowers, and shovels of all sizes.  The fact that snow might’ve accumulated faster than they could clean did not discourage them… or maybe they just didn’t have a choice, like me working till 12:30AM with a pair of bad hands.

Cabbies also didn’t sleep, although they sure changed the rules a bit.  The first few that were neither occupied nor off duty asked for my destination before letting me open the door – and simply drove away once hearing Queens.  I didn’t blame them - if snow could accumulate up to 0.5″ around Times Square, it must be devastatingly trecherous outside Manhattan.  Licensed drivers wouldn’t want to risk their own lives… but those unlicensed town cars were a different story.  One of them willingly let me on to his car and offered to take me home – for an outrageous $100 in cash.  He explained that the ride would take at least 90-100 minutes due to the road condition.  At that point, I opened the door and got out.  A second unlicensed town car offered the same ride for $60.  What a bargain!  I didn’t take it.

Hungry for some Halal meat?  Look it’s open!

Back to Queens.  Thought this looked like sand dunes in a desert:

“Winter Wonderland”?

Still snowing 12 hours later:

Ice breaker:

Another army of snow busters.  I don’t know if these are, but a good majority of NYC’s labor workers are illegal immigrants.  We as a country are highly critical of the illegals… but without them, we’d be stuck!

Going back to school always makes me happy.  Even back in the days when driving down I-81 meant having to prepare for finals after Thanksgiving, I could never help but start to hum “country road… take me home…”

Well, this time we picked a really memorable weekend to visit.  The school was shut down on Friday, and so were most of the stores and restaurants in town.  Even the Math Emporium!

Nothing stops Wally World, though.  Where else would thirsty people go to clean out the water shelf?

While Blacksburg is still a rural town, the urbanization and commercialization had been cranked up like crazy.  Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Jos A Bank, and other big brand retailers creeped in.  A third parking garage is being erected in town, not that long after the first one surprised us with its presence.  The Kroger on South Main, holy cow, had doubled in size, added a drive-through pharmacy and a huge groumet section.  It’s now as impressive as Super Walmart and Boeing’s airplane factories.

Saturday’s lunch took place at Owen’s.  It brought a new definition to “home food”.  The same pasta sauce, garlic bread, General Tso, Philly cheesesteak, and smoothies that we had had hundreds of times since freshman year.  Freshens now has a new design to the cup, but that’s it.  Even the texture of the rice remained the same weird tasting that we’ve never had anywhere else.

The best moment of the weekend was when Phil walked into the bookstore and inquired, “TEN YEARS AGO, you guys used to carry this thing on that shelf…”  The cashier responded to the awkward question with professionalism, that if they had any of the older merchandise left, it would’ve been kept in another section of the store.  Right, she was probably still learning the Times Table when we last saw what Phil wanted.  Did we sound like grandpas or what?  Looking at the youthful faces around us and counting the number of businesses that used to be in More Than Coffee’s place, well, definitely didn’t help.  After all, we returned to visit our retired friend, Jason, right?

What did bring us back to youth was the incredible snow storm.  Running in knee-deep accumulation, taking silly videos, and throwing snow at each other helped discounting our maturity.  The white Drillfield, wow.

Here’s Jason, with one of several mini snowmen that we built.

One of two awesome snow forts, which always get built on the DF after a major snow:

Woohoo!  In the face!  (not a nice thing to do to the elderly, though)

And there on Alumni Mall, the cadets (I assume) built a huge snowman and a giant snowball.  It’d take some clever engineering students to make something that size.  Awesome.

Later that day, we found tons and tons of other snow sculpture around town, in front of frat houses and apartment complexes.  It was a calming throught that we all once knew how to put down the busy work to enjoy life and the world surrounding us.  The thought almost made me believe that I was young again… until I got exhausted walking across the Drillfield…

Phil and I decided to take a weekend trip back to VT.  So did a record snow storm.

We managed to escape before the worse part of it hit NOVA, and the highways were kept clean for most of the trip.  However, we did have to go through some pretty bad sections of the storm:

For the very first time since the marquee sign was installed!  No manager’s special today!

Virginia is full of farms but certain things just aren’t that visible when the world is not covered in white.  The black moo moo cows, for example, were everywhere!  Poor cows must be freezing!

Our return trip began a whole day after the snowing stopped.  Great.  Now the roads were perfectly clean and the sky was bright and clear:

We had assumed that the closer to civilization, the better the road condition would be.  After all, the rich NOVA people have all the money and expectation to keep things under control, right?

Wroooong… the closer to DC, for some reason, the worse it became.  The stretch of I-66 around Manassass/Fairfax averaged about 2 accidents per mile.  It was crazy!  We saw an H2 with the hood poped open from a collision, and watched a Camry spinning in circles until it hit another car sideways on the shoulder.  Lots of trucks, pickups, and cars trapped on the shoulder or the median.  Here’s a rather strange situation with black slush flooding onto the road:

I also expected the nation’s capital to be maintained with the same diligent snow shovelers as NYC… wrooong again!  The streets were almost not drivable!  We need more illegal immigrants!