One topic that fascinated me throughout this vacation was the transportation within Disney’s administrative district. Forget the lack of rapid public transit between the airport and Disney World – which is a horror in and of itself considering how a majority of the airport’s passengers fly there for Disney – but once on Disney grounds,
Disney World 2025 (3/4) – Financing A Disney Vacation
Peter Pan loses his ability to fly when he spends more time planning to pay for a Disney vacation than looking forward to the theme park attractions. Disney Gift Cards The standard “hack” for paying anything Disney is to first acquire the brand’s gift cards on the cheap. Because they can be used on not
Disney World 2025 (2/4) – Walt Disney World Parks
We knew from the start that this Disney World trip would be different from when Hong and I visited back in 2006 and 2007. We had a large group with varying ages and preferences, so coordination and compromises were part of the expectation. Some of our children were quite young and didn’t meet the minimum
Disney World 2025 (1/4) – A Family Reunion in Orlando
For spring break, we had a family reunion in Orlando, Florida. Hong’s parents made it a road trip from New Jersey, and Vic’s family flew down from New York. The objective was to take the children (Xuan 12, Ting 10, Alex 5, Livia 3) to Disney World, with a side of plenty of pool time.
Scammed!!! How I (Partially) Fell for a Fake Identity Theft Fraud
It is with great embarrassment that I admit to having (almost?) fallen victim to a scam over the phone. Although my losses were limited at the end of the day, it was quite traumatic to realize that my senses were not as sharp as I had assumed. Wasting nearly two hours on a prime Saturday
Project Fireplace – A Cozy Cardboard Creation
After two years of forging weapons, I took my cardboard blacksmithing skills to make something cozier: a mini desktop fireplace. Inspiration Hong loves fire. Fireplaces and fire pits have always caught her eyes. She holds hotels and malls to high regard when they have particularly nice fire features, and often talks about wishing to have
Project Tiger Blade – 虎斷 Hu Duan
My first project of 2025 came from a relatively niche source material. The Inspiration When Phil and I visited Hong Kong in October, we had a blast roaming through Sino Centre in Mong Kok. While he shopped all over the place for Pokemon cards, I mainly lingered around the two used manhua book stores. It
2024 Year In Review
It felt like I had just written the 2023 year-end review, and bang! 2025 is almost upon us. Time flies when you’re having… fun? Travel The big international trips this year mostly fell under the “revisiting places to spend time with loved ones” umbrella. For spring break, we went back to Taiwan. In addition to
Project Concentric Circles – the Ultimate God of War Shield
Earlier this year, we replaced our two failing toilets with the fancy Japanese kind. The bathroom upgrade was life changing, and I was impressed by something else: the boxes that the toilets arrived in were made of double-layered corrugated cardboard! The discovery was like when a fictional wuxia blacksmith finds a special ore from outer
HK & Macau 2024 (9/9) – Play
I had never been a gambler. Phil, too, had changed quite a bit since the days when he’d drop $20 into a coin pushing machine at a random gas station. So when we sat down at a slot machine in Macau, it was mostly ceremonial. He pressed the buttons a few times, and was ready