More Comparisons

Getting back to SF vs. Sea comparisons

Attended NAAAP http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2655752138&ref=ts social mixer last month and helped out to clean up Chinatown in downtown Seattle. Turns out every month they have a mixer and they have a Chinatown cleanup sort of thing (I think). This was the second time in as many months I volunteered to clean Chinatown's streets. The people here are so much nicer and down to earth compared to San Franciscans it's not even funny. The difference is very VERY palpable.

So the last social mixer was in Bellevue at a Korean restaurant called 2AM. If you name a restaurant the worst thing you can do is give it a generic name like 2am because you just killed any chance of finding your restaurant easily on the web. Do a search on Google for "2am restaurant" and you'll get a listing of restaurants open until 2am in San Jose as your first search option.

Anyways, judging purely from body language and blatant stares from attractive females, I'd say the girls here are just as hungry for attention as the guys. I've never been looked over by so many females in my entire life in one night. I didn't meet any single girls on this night, but I still found the experience very enriching and enjoyable and I was the very last person to leave.

I'm actually truly looking forward to the next social mixer in May. I've actually built up a little bit of confidence living here in Seattle area. Yesterday I went hiking to Serene Lake: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/lake-serene

It's a very steep but rewarding hike. I went with a group that I met on Meetup.com. The leader was Jewel, a woman with two kids and a dog. Unfortunately our group was so fragmented I wound up hiking with Jewel and her kids (and dog) pretty much by ourselves the entire time. Everyone else went in front of us. We were the last ones down by a good 40 minutes.

I did get some nice shots of the Lake. It was all iced over so it wasn't the beautiful blue emerald color it should have been, but you could see little places here and there where the water was in fact blue in color where the ice melted away. There were little avalanches happening all during our hike. They sounded like gun fire or firecrackers in a row. "Pop", "pop", "pop", they would go. Little bits of rock and ice tumbling down the tall, almost sheer cliff. The place was very tranquil and peaceful. There was still quite a bit of snow at the top.

I wish I had brought my spikes (metal shoe clipons) so I could navigate over the ice without fear of slipping. I had purchased these spikes because it seems there is a lot of snow up in the hills of Seattle's backcountry. They are almost a necessity if you hike in April in the higher elevations. I'm actually starting to get comfortable hiking in the snow after brutal Mailbox peak. I'll never forget that hike, so steep and so icy, and crazy.

I'll try to get our leader to goto Ape Cave next time. It's a 3 mile long lava tube that takes 2 1/2 hours to get to. It's near Mt St Helens. It's a tourist attraction so it's not too dangerous but you do have to watch your step. Basically Ape Cave is a lava tube that formed a long long time ago during an eruption. Somehow the cave maintained it's shape and people like to explore it's long, dark, creepy innards.

Love the outdoors

I'm back! And I'm getting my full dental hygiene license, yay! Been a while. Been recovering from my late Jan ordeal, that is, my last licensure examination. I have been recovering. Until you take one of these exams you have no idea how stressful they are.

Hiked Lil Si and Mailbox few weeks ago and it was beautiful. The Seattle area has some of the best hiking anywhere. Too bad it rains so much, or I'd get out more often. It's simply not safe to hike in cold and raining conditions sometimes. Besides, there's no view to enjoy when you get to the top.

The number of outdoor outfitters here is insane. Thermarest, REI, Outdoor Research, etc. all have headquarters here. Some of the biggest names in the hiking clothing industry are in the Pacific Northwest like Arcteryx (Vancouver), and I guess you could include Nike (Oregon) although they're not really hiking per se. If you want a technical jacket or waterproof pants, Seattle area is THE place to be.

I did pickup waterproof jacket by Outdoor Research at REI (the Revel). It's ok, does keep water out, but it feels clammy against my skin when my skin gets a little sweaty. Not good for warmer weather, but then again, why would I need to wear a jacket when it's warm? I was hoping to use this jacket as an weather jacket but looks like it will be a little more limited to cold weather. I'm still happy with it.

Mom and Dad came over couple weeks ago and I made egg rolls and sushi for them. It was nice. They got to see everyone up here so it was good. Next trip back to Bay Area probably Sept.

Vancouver

Went to Vancouver to see the Olympics. It was awesome. I didn't have $500 to see any events but I soaked in the vibe and an awesome vibe it was. There were tens of thousands in the streets. It gave me an idea of what they have over there which is a lot. Lots of Chinese people. Reminds me so much of SF. All the people here from Hong Kong, they all speak Cantonese. Great place to find a girl I thought. Or at least to have some fun. I'd like to get a Nexus card so I won't have to go through the border patrol.

Spent last weekend in SF. It was busy hectic. Every day meeting with friends, hardly spent any time with the parents. I was out every day pretty much. I didn't realize I had so many friends in SF. Wow. I gotta setup my next flight back cause I had so much fun.

My next door neighbors got back from Jamaica and they had the time of their lives. They got married there and stayed at Sandals which is all inclusive resort. I've never stayed at one of these before. Maybe I'll try it. They said it was good for singles. I know these places are expensive. I don't think it's worth it which is the reason I never stay there. I also don't have the money. They kept telling me I had to go there.

Gotta make sushi appetizer today for my Aunty's birthday. It's her 60th so I should put some efforts into it. Looks like another busy weekend for me.

Passed test

I passed my last WREB exam couple weeks ago. Now I'm burned out and need some rest and relaxation. Coming home in a couple weeks for SF's Chinese New Year Parade on Feb 27. Should be fun. Weather is dreary here as usual. Temps in the low 50's which is really warm for Feb. Jan supposedly set record warm temps being the warmest ever or something.

Work is going ok. Went to cousin Kenny's for Superbowl Sunday. I was nice (nay dumb) enough to buy pizza for everyone. Garlic Jim's is pretty good, but pricey. I really didn't care much for the game, though I did have the winner picked (Saints). There were way too many people rooting for the Colts and there was no way the Colts were going to run the Saints off the field. For one, the Colts never really blew anyone out during the regular season. In fact, Manning orchestrated what was it? At least 3 if not more come from behind wins in the 4th Quarter which means they were often down.

Also, factor in the fact that Dwight Freeney, their premier pass rusher wasn't 100% and that was a factor in the game. That's their whole M.O., give pass happy Manning the ball and sack the other team's QB. Well, if you can't sack the other QB then Manning can't get the ball. Brees's passing attack wasn't even that scary. All his completions were short to medium duration. He never completed any deep passes so there was no reason for the defense to be scared of the deep threat. All they had to do was stack everyone in the box to cut off the short passes. But unfortunately Indy allowed the most pass completions of 10 yards during the regular season which tells me that they will allow tons of short passes, but when it comes to the red zone or big time situations they generally don't allow the other team to score.

I think the Colts were probably a better team than the Saints overall, but not by much. And to think there would be a blowout I think is dumb. The Saints were damn good through the season. Their win over Arizona was underrated. Kurt Warner is a monster. To get through them and Minnesota speaks volumes.

Being in LA

In LA this Sat for anes exam for western regional boards. I'm so tired from running around all day sterilizing instruments and finalizing arrangements, getting questions answered, etc.

I learned that Ralph's is a great place for shopping in Los Angeles. Its very similar to QFC and Fred Meyer in Seattle area. The Bay Area is really deprived that it does not have one of these great markets in their area. Really the markets in the Bay Area aren't that great. They dont have that warm fuzzy feeling to them, but then again, SF doesn't really give a warm fuzzy feeling.

If I had a business in LA regardless of what .that business was, be it a paint studio, grocery store, auto shop, beauty salon, whatever, I would put it on a street corner and leave it open 24 hrs per day. There are so many people living in LA and there is so much money in this region it's not even funny. The cars are zooming down the street non-stop. Doesn't matter what time of day. If the sun is out the streets are packed. If it's 3am in the morning, they are only less packed.

The weather is incredible. I dont know what the official weather was. I just know that I sat outside at 10 in the morning with my shirt off in the pool area and I was comfortable. It felt like 72. During mid-day it felt like 76. Definitely t-shirt and shorts weather. Makes me dread the gloom in Seattle and want to stay over here.

Unfortunately CA life is not all it's cracked up to be anymore. I went to a shopping center with a Ross/Marshalls sitting literally right next to each other. Went into Ross and it was bare. I couldnt believe it. Marshalls was much better, at least they had merchandise to sell, but it didn't look all that appealing to me.

Went to Ralph's and waited in line for some green bean casserole for 30 minutes. There were only 3 people in front of me, but one lady was monopolizing all the time and the other one was late to help out. I have had lots of experiences like this in LA during my short stay here.

LA is a great place to live. It's so great that everybody wants to be here, and everybody is here. Every business you go into is busy. I won't bother to go into Macy's because I already know that they won't have my size. It's too crazy, too competitive over here. It's the same with the Bay Area.

LA has great weather, and nice people, nicer than SF. It has a Vegas-like feel to it, without all the casinos and smokers. I don't understand why businesses like Ross don't understand that people in LA have different business cycles. They sell stuff way faster than in other parts of the country and they need to order stuff at least twice as fast as other stores.

One thing I don't like is the wild west feel to driving on the streets. It's much more comforting driving around in Seattle where people drive at slightly slower speeds and aren't quite as aggressive.

Ok thats enough ranting for one night.

This was supposed to be posted on Oct 20

Today is my birthday, happy bday to me! Not doing much, just staying home, I have to work tomorrow. =P

The thing that astounds me about living in Federal Way is that it's a small city compared with Seattle. Yet every single business/restaurant chain you could possibly think of is here! Well, except Hooters, but that's not far off. There is not 1 but 2 Walmarts and they are only about 1 mile from each other, ridiculous! I guess all those people living in apartments make for lots of business.

I get only 7 or 8 TV stations here from my rabbit ear antenna. Those HD stations don't broadcast nearly as well as the old broadcast spectrum. One of the stations I get is the weather channel. I don't remember seeing a weather channel in the SF Bay Area. I think it's because the weather isn't that big a deal in SF. The weather is basically the same all year round, cold, windy, foggy, sometimes warm, etc. Here we get the whole gamut from rain, to snow, all the way to 90 degree heat.

People seem to pay a little more attention here. If it's raining lots of people will postpone doing things. In SF you don't worry about it because it doesn't rain. It's been cloudy and raining the past 4 days. The threat of flooding is very real here. The Green River Valley, which is not far from me, flooded last year. When it gets too wet the army corp of engineers releases water from the dam. When that happens you can get floods.

There's lots more water here than in SF. There are little lakes everywhere. Some of them are recreation areas, many are private lakes off limit to those who don't live around the lake.

People here are much more conscientious of hitting other people's parked cars which can be extremely annoying. I was getting out of my car today and I had to open my car door close to the car next to me. I didn't hit her car, but the owner of the car was walking by and she literally stopped and looked right down at me as if I had dented her car door. As I walked by her she walked straight down and scrutinized her door as if I had hit it. Stupid woman. When you hit someone else's door you can tell, it's really obvious. Even if I did hit her car, if it's that subtle it never results in any damage anyways, car doors aren't that fragile. Most have little side bumpers anyways, it's not like those doors are made of eggshells. Very annoying. Oh well, I guess it's a good thing that people are so conscious of it. People in SF didn't car about my car and they trashed the sides pretty good, many of them were VERY blatant without any care or respect for me or my car at all.

My cousin told me of a story how he hit the lady's car in front of him while he was parallel parking. She tried to sue him for hit and run after he touched her license plate while he was parking. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I parallel park. People here have a different mentality than in SF. You have to baby them a bit more here which is actually a good thing because I'd rather be conscientious. That's always a good thing.

Weather

It's getting real cold. The fall is here and unlike the SF Bay Area the leaves on the trees turn yellow and red. It's beautiful. 1st time in my life I seen a real fall. The leaves on the trees all fell off one day. Within 3 day period about 80% of the leaves fell off the big tree in the back of my apartment. It fell in a big whump! There were so many leaves on the grass you couldn't see the grass underneath. It looked like someone dumped a pile of leaves in the back.

Tomorrow my work is celebrating Halloween. They are having costume contest, but I won't be dressing up. Too cheap for costume. I'll just go over maybe and give some energy and say hello.

Went to Tiger Mountain today for small hike. Only went about 2 miles, nothing much. I went for 6 miles the previous week. Supposed to rain today, not a drop fell. For some reason the rash on my hand felt much better on the top of Tiger Mountain. Can't wait to get to the top on Sat (tomorrow is supposed to rain) and spend a couple hours there. Should be interesting, hope I can make it up. I felt tired today.

My flight to Bangkok got cancelled. Can't believe it. I had a free flight, some 80,000 frequent flyer miles. Enough for a free international flight and they tell me that the flight changed and to call United back to rearrange a new flight. Of course when I called back there were no more flights (it was actually on China Airlines- a Star Allliance member). I think they wanted to give my seat to a paying customer. Looks like my trip back to San Fran in December may have gotten dashed.

I like to always think these things happen for the better. Now I can make a new trip to a different place since they extended the expiration date from this Dec to Dec of 2010. That was nice. Part of me didn't want to go back to Bangkok anyways. Same ole thing.

Looks like I'm going to Southern California for my Dec anesthesia exam. I'm studying this time around, unlike last time. Hopefully I can pass.

Next week clocks turn back. Can't believe it's so soon. It's going to be dark so soon, but mornings will be nice and bright. :)