I am a runner and an inapt pupil of poetry. The runner, not this mid-aged over-weight one, is so vivid that I can almost hear his pant and feel his body heat.

“So you went to CalTech?” Asked the bartender, glancing the emblem on my baseball hat.

“Oh, no. I am not that smart,” I replied. “My kid did.”

“I heard they are, like, #2 or #3 in the world in something.”

“NUMBER ONE,” with a wry smile.

“Oh right. MIT is the #2 or #3.”

Yeah, he earned the fat tips.

回北京前说要如此这般，飞机六点下地七点多进酒店，外面是刺骨的负5度，两人相望，“你要吃什么？”好像没家可以够值得出门的。商量已毕，全身重冬装备，两人硒硒嗦嗦，走了15分钟，进了亮马河边的印度小厨。点了烧鸡，Masala羊，印度豆腐，当然一堆的Nan及Parota，吃得不亦乐夫。精神和吃饭前完全不同了。

第二早上睡到日头，行步走到Kempinski的面包房，咖啡，面包，汤，甜点，当然是早午饭一起就打发了。下午办完事回到酒店后两人都累了，也没有太多与北京冬天奋战的心情。就下楼到酒店的西餐厅，打五折，不贵。做的挺好，服务也行。是个补充精神的一顿。

一夜无事，起来后中午有个茶宴，朋友问起，“回北京后吃了什么了？”我们厄然以对，头三餐居然没一顿中国菜。于是乎晚上大伙齐集日檀边的宏源涮肉，满桌的菌菜牛羊，一打烧饼，大大过瘾一番。回家一秤，重了4斤。

又个老北京朋友来电要请客，指定我选餐厅。想想说“川办”，居然北京还有我说得出的餐厅他们没吃过的？带了个孩子来，把菜单的都点完了。孩子一面吃一面叫好，一群人吃到撑，还带走了一大口袋。我们又聊到五点才散，回到酒店倒下就睡，八点才起来去鹿港小镇随便吃，加了个冰山。

过了两天，她说,“我们总要吃次鼎泰丰吧。”两人一车到东直门店，当然点了特色小笼，还有素饺，蟹粉小笼，蛋炒饭，芝麻包。这餐厅不是要不要来吃的问题，而是要吃几次的问题。

离京前的最后一餐，定了苏浙汇。目的是鲥鱼，其他菜也美味可口，干拌面尤其爽口。

上了飞机，她说，“你居然没吃烤鸭。” 奇怪，想都没想呢。

Here in China, company’s cafeteria serve three meals a day at very reasonable prices. Since other options are not really more attractive, it becomes a popular dinner solution. Employees usually leave work around 8pm after the meal. On this day, I strolled among them toward my hotel, a casual ten-minute walk, enjoying the winding down at the end of the day. It was already dark and I noticed a line of battery-powered lights along the sidewalk several paces ahead. I expected vendors pedaling toys, gadgets, cheap jewelries, DVDs, or whatever.

As I got close, I found it slightly unusual. The ones behind the table, tending the walkers-by, were young and dressed in suits. Those tables displayed pamphlets and forms, not cheap merchandises. There were people sitting on foot stools filling up forms. The business appeared to be good and my curiosity was aroused.

They were banks. On those cheap propped up tables were laptops powered by a far-away portable generator, which also powered the lights. A USB dongle provided the 3G broad-band connection to the Internet. Clients would sign up credit cards, mutual fund accounts, or other financial services right on the street.

Several paces down the road, there were another cluster of short-tables and stools. The same customers who just applied for a new credit card were probably here getting a bowl of spicy hot-pot (麻辣烫) on-the-go. The tables were about knee-high so the stools were for semi-squatting posture. The lighting was barely sufficient to make out the foods. The patrons were oblivious to the brisk pedestrians and car traffic not more than 5 feet away.

I imagined myself sitting down on one of those tables and shouted out, “One beer, a skewer of fish balls, beef noodles, and two Visa credit card application forms here.” I was amused by the thought, but kept on walking.

Yes. That was a jolt, I stood up quickly, walked to the office door, and waited.

Earthquake Center: A light earthquake occurred at 10:09:35 AM (PST) on Thursday, January 7, 2010.
The magnitude 4.1 event occurred 11 km (7 miles) ENE (58 degrees) of Milpitas, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 11 km ( 7 miles).

An office neighbor exchanged a glance with me. Yep, we understood what’s going on and were both waiting. About 10 seconds passed and we went back to our seats without a word. Loma Prieta was October of 1989 and the memory was fresh as yesterday. That day, I fought four hours of impossible traffic to get home. My very pregnant wife, her mother, and a young daughter, were sitting in the front yard, with candle lights, chatting and waiting for me. I was so happy to see them and joined their snack party immediately. There were some broken dishes. Electricity came back late that night. TV tumbled but still worked.

Life in California.

This entry is about new year’s resolutions, particularly the one I made for 2008. Like many of you, I resolved to exercise more. Specifically, I set the goal to work out three times a week. Also like many of you, I failed.

I started exercising seriously in 2000. Family made a plan to visit Washington, D.C. and that worried me. Everyday I came home exhausted; I would take a nap before supper. Could I walk 4 to 6 hours a day for several days? To test, I tried to run and couldn’t even finish a lap. That scared me. So I started running and gradually increased the distance. By the time we took the trip, several months later, I could finish a mile (four laps).

A couple of years later, family planned for Grand Canyon. A friend recommended the mule ride and I wanted to do it. But there is a 190 pounds weight limit, fully dressed. I was, eh, over the limit. Motivated, I notched up my running and watched my diet. On the day of the weigh-in — finishing three miles by then — I triumphantly passed. (I think I was really 191, but they just waved me through.) The memory of the ride would last a lifetime, so would the effect of the weight lost and exercising. I like the “lightness” feeling and the extra energy. So, instead of exercising for a project (D.C. trip, Grand Canyon, etc.), I adopted it into my lifestyle. As a nerd, I also started record those activities into a spreadsheet. (If you read this Scott, high-five.) A “work-out” is a cadio-vascular aerobic activity that produces sufficent perspiration and lasts at least 15 minutes.

In social setting, my standard answer to the question “so, how many times you work out each week?” has always been, “about 3 times.” The spreadsheet would prove that a lie. In 2008, I made a resolution to make it real and had an iron-clad plan. I would work out every other day. The arithmetic was solid. It cannot fail.

Wrong! I was weak-minded. There were raining days, sick days, busy days, traveling days, hot days, cold days, vacation days, and plain old lazy days. That “every other day” regiment ended 2008 with 123 work-outs, or a pathetic 2.37 times a week on average.

When 2008 ended, I renewed my resolution for 2009. I would work out everyday. Yes. I would head for the gym, or hit the pavement, if there is an hour of break in a day. I don’t reschedule meetings, I don’t skip social activities, I make time for family and friends, I don’t run in the dark, I don’t force it if I am sick. With this new strategy, I have managed 156 times, just enough to claim three times a week. Whew!

The conclusion? Weak-minded people need to aim higher.

初看深圳，感觉和北京上海没什么不同，一样的大街，靓丽的大楼，购物中心有国际级的奢华品牌。说起来，和东京，纽约，旧金山，洛杉矶也没什么不同。高挡公寓冲天而立，遥望城景海水。旧住家区，像旧金山的中国城：矮楼，小店，邻居。但深圳气候温暖，多了许多青青大树。深圳君悦（Grand Hyatt） 今年底开张，肯定了它的商业重要性。 深圳的“关外”，是指经济特区的分界点。香港回归后，这“关”只是虚设的个历史结构罢了。但关外比较不繁华，治安也差些。龙岗区的坂田村，几年前是农地。今天已是个新兴的边缘城市。看来是个炒楼的战略地点。

遥望香港，真是此一时彼一时，回归前和今天，天壤之别。深圳边现在一样繁华，只是空间多了太太多。朋友住在海边的高楼，能收到香港的手机和电视讯号。有通行证的深圳人，十五分钟能到中环购物，人民币一样好使。香港居民也几乎可以自由来去。想想为什么要忍受五倍以上的房价挤在香港呢？

深圳市基本上都是外地人，文化上不能说是广东。看看餐馆，比比都是川湘菜，粤菜还少些。特别找了几家粤菜馆子，口味也一般。可能香港的粤菜还正宗地道。不是说深圳的餐馆不好，其实档次颇高的，环境，口味，服务都不输上海北京。只是没有传统本地菜。

大概因为不是个观光城，没有看到北京的秀水街，上海的襄阳市场这种外销卖点。倒是高挡超市不少。也有好几个高挡消费区，看电影，购物，吃饭，喝茶聊天，区内走走就到。问了几个深圳人休闲做什么，都答不出来。想来没有什么休闲的观念。工余就是休息罢了。这是个今天在忙着赚钱的城市，慢慢他也会走出自己的文化出来的。

For years, I struggled to sleep on long flights to and from China. With many experiments, I nailed down the ambient noise to be the key culprit. That led to an iPod investment and the quest for a good pair of earphones. (Those white iPod ear-buds were useless.)

High quality earphones come in two categories: noise cancellation or noise isolation. The nose cancellation ones first cover the entire ears, then their fancy electronics produce sounds that are the opposite of the ambient noises. To the wearer, the experience is near miraculous. The best known brand is Bose. The $300 or so price tag did not stop me, but their bulk did. I couldn’t possibly sleep with them on my head, let alone allocate precious hand-carry space to store them.

Eventually, I chose Shure E2C and loved them. They are the noise isolation kind, designed to block noises from entering your ear channels. They are light-weight, small to carry, and offer excellent sound quality. I was happy to pay $250 or so for a pair. When I needed to replace them, I found that Shure renamed their models. While I was hesitating and researching, a professional musical instruments store recommended M-Audio IE30. They are comparable to Shure, only the cable is a bit stiff. I flew in them for a year and have been quite happy with them. Until I upgraded my iPod to Touch.

IPod Touch is full solid-state and suitable for exercising. For that, these high-end earphones are not good: they are too expensive for outdoor sport uses and tend to fall off my ears. I bought a pair of Philips SHS3201 hooks. They worked and I wiped them after jogging, until a friend’s pet cat nibbed on them. Sigh, those wimpy cables were no match to cat gnaw.

Interestingly, Sony MDR-J10 sport earphones project sound front-ward, instead of into the ears. They could have good reasons for this design, but it did not work for me. The sound fades in and out when I jog and the ambient noises further degraded the experience. I found I would rather run without any music than keep on fidgeting with the earphones.

By this time, I have become a reasonable expert in earphones. Here is the summary:

Yes, Philips is the best value by this reviewer.

The trip to ShenZhen can be non-intuitive and a bit unnatural even for seasoned travelers. The spirit is to treat the ferry as an international connection that you will purchase the ticket after you have arrived Hong Kong airport. You don’t cross Hong Kong custom at all and need to have faith on the efficiency of Hong Kong workers that will magically handle your luggage with very short notices.

1. Whichever airline, you first manage to arrive at Hong Kong International Airport. The arrival time should be before 8pm. I took the UA flight from SFO, Cathay Pacific seems popular.
2. As you get off the airplane, search for the sign “Ferries to Mainland/Macau,” do not claim your luggage, do not enter Hong Kong.
   
3. The sign should guide you to the E1 transfer area eventually. Proceed to the ferry ticket counter, with your passport and luggage claim ticket, and buy the ferry ticket to ShenZhen’s SheKou (蛇口) pier. Try to give yourself about an hour before the ferry departure time. The ferry runs about once per hour and the last one is at 9pm. The clerk will take your luggage claim tickets, scan them, and give you back the new claim tickets, with the ferry ticket. The fare is HKD220 per person.
   
4. With the ferry ticket and your passport in hand, go to the E1 transfer security check and “depart” Hong Kong. After passing the security and climbed the escalator, you should see an elevator on your right. Take the elevator to the L4 level.
   
5. At L4 level, find gate 511. About 25 minutes before the ferry departure time, they will board you onto a shuttle bus. It takes about 5 minutes to the pier.
6. The ride is about 30 minutes and you arrive the SheKou pier, on the ShenZhen side. Get off the ferry and wait for them to unload all the luggage. There is no carousel, just plain old concrete on the pier. Show your claim tickets and proceed to the China custom. Remember to fill out the entry form.
7. You exit the ferry terminal just like an airport. Your ride should be there. Otherwise, there are plenty of taxies. Welcome to ShenZhen, China.

The return pretty much run the tape in reverse, except for several points to pay a bit attention to. At the Ferry Terminal, some airlines take your luggage directly. You will see them at the end of the journey. For others, like United, the ferry handles only their segment. You will need to claim you luggage at the other end and re-check in at the counter. Either way, you present the ticket and passport to the China border control, go upstair to pass security and get your passport stamped, lastly, arrive at the pier to borad the 30-minute ride.

Arriving Hong Kong, those lucky ones go direclty to the security gates. The rest of us waited for our luggage (you can see the crane taking the luggage pods off the boat one by one). Drag you luggage pretty much go directly to the other side of the room to the airline counters. Check in, get your boarding pass, proceed to security.

When exit the security, stop by to receive your Hong Kong Airport tax refund. Since we never entered Hong Kong, the services were refunded to us. HK$120 in the pocket. I had the implus to donate them to a local cause, but none were around.

Instead of bus, I took the train of two stops. My destination was the second one: terminals 1 to 80. By the time I arrived the gate, nearly 3 hours have passed since I bought the ferry ticket. This means I would book the ferry that is at least 3.5 hours before the flight’s departure time.

I came to silicon valley in the mid-80s. The valley was buzzing with energy. It took me two weeks to find a job, an entry level software programmer at a start-up company. The bosses talked about the big dream IPO all the time. I kept busy pretending knowing what I was doing. I rented an apartment close to work and came over to the office to figure out the complex code when there was nobody in the office. It was almost our daily routine: finish dinner, walk to the office, study the code, with wife on my side reading her magazines. I got three raises in a year. Later I learned that I was pretty under-paid to begin with and the bosses didn’t want me to even think of changing job. That was the good time.

I went to Beijing in 2005. That place reminded me of silicon valley in the 80s. Everyone has a big dream. Everything is within reach. Work hard, be smart, and reward will come. Do you see that wonderful, sinfully luxurious penthouse? That’s so-and-so’s house and he was just like you and me several years ago. Let’s push this project through and reap our rewards. Yeah!

That’s right. Just because everyone becomes millionaires does not make you one. You need a strategy. This is where Frank’s 2-by-2 matrix becomes interesting.

You can work for an MNC (Multi-National Corporation) or a Chinese company. This company can address China market or international market. So we have 4 permutation. Out of these four, the MNC addressing international market is no interesting, since that’s where everyone is battling. We have three other options: 1) working for an MNC for the China market, 2) a Chinese company for the China market, or 3) a Chinese company for the international market. The question is, which one has the highest expected return for the investment you are about to make: several years of your gainfully employable life.

Which market is growing faster? Which company will have a better competitive advantage in that (or both) market?

Yep, my employment at Juniper ended on October 30th, 2009. It lasted 474 days.