Bill Gates embraces Twitter!

I thought this was only a rumor but it has been verified. Bill Gates has a twitter account. It's a shame Twitter isn't a publicly traded company or I would have purchased a boat load of their stock.

Click here for to see his tweets.

Kunming and Lijiang, Yunnan, China

I spent the last two weeks of December in China. Lacey and I went on a 5 day tour of Kunming and Lijiang in Yunnan Province.

Day 1: Kunming
Aside from the delicious food, there wasn't much to do in Kunming. The hot spots are over 2 hours away and we had no transportation.
Back to the food. We went to a nearby noodle shop for lunch. Rice noodles are very popular in the region and you can get it with different fixings.












Note the color of my soup. Lunch cost roughly 19 yuan.

After the delicious lunch, we strolled around Daguan Park. I'm glad I brought a jacket. I can get by with just wearing a long sleeve shirt but I needed a jacket in the shade. There's a number of interesting sculptures around the park.




By the ponds and stream we purchased a loaf of bread for 1 yuan to feed the birds.

After a tiring day, we decided to get a massage before dinner. This was the first time I had a Thai massage. We felt so drained of energy afterward that we slept for over an hour at the massage parlor. By the time we left, 9 pm, all the shops were closing. We skipped dinner and went back to the hotel.

Day 2: Lijiang
Our tour guide took us to this older district to stroll and and shop. There's not much of these districts left. An earthquake 20 years ago destroyed many of the buildings and most of what we saw in town are new construction but with a historic decor.



Lacey found us this quaint 4 star hotel at the southern part of the city, Wang Fu Hotel of Lijian. It's not the best in the area but there's plenty of shops to browse in the neighborhood.



None of the places we visited or dined at had heating. It gets very cold at night and the hot dish you ordered will chill in mere minutes.

Day 3: Lijiang

Today was the best part of the trip. I love national parks and we went to see a glacier. Lacey and I took a cable car to the top of the mountain.
After a few flights of stairs, we reached the top of the viewing platform that sits 4680 meters above sea level. Lacey had a difficult time acclimating to the high elevation. I got her a oxygen canister for 40 yuan.
There are some beautiful sights to visit at the foot of the mountain as well.
We didn't eat lunch that day so we had an early dinner instead. I was too hungry by then and forgot to take pictures of the food.

After dinner, we went to Black Dragon Pool, a park, to walk around.
In the evening, we went to see a local performance about some of their minority groups. It's nothing to write home about and I won't recommend it.

Day 4: Lijiang
On our 2 hour ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge Harbour, we stopped by some place with a beautiful view of the mountains. They had pet primates to for us to feed.

I have no idea why they consider this place a tourist destination. You walk 15 minutes along the rapids to see more rapids. It felt colder here than on top of the snow top mountain. To make matters worse, I dropped my camera twice and it bent the lens casing. I can still use the camera but I need to manually adjust it during power-on.
Lunch was interesting. We went to a nearby restaurant and we were the only patrons. Since we were the only patron and wanted to eat chicken, we had to order a whole chicken. Half of it went to soup. The other half went to some dish. This was my first time seeing how they kill, clean, and prep a chicken.
On the way back to the city, we stopped by this lake where we can ride the local horses. Unfortunately, I didn't bring enough cash and we had to be careful with our expense. So Lacey rode the horse and I took pictures. She thinks the guide was trying to scare her out of her wits. This park is operated by the Naxi people.

Day 5: Lijiang
On our last day, we walked around the areas around the hotel some more before heading to the airport.


Overall, I had a great time. I didn't get a chance to visit Shangri-la so I have a reason to come back to this region. Next time, I'll be sure to bring a lot more cash. My biggest expenses were the admission tickets, tour guide, and massages.

The Great Hype of Modern Warfare 2

I had some time over the past week to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The first Modern Warfare has excellent gameplay and online experience and many people had high hopes for the sequel. Unfortunately, Modern Warefare 2 offers neither.

The single player story mode felt short and took me me roughly 6-8 hours to complete. The missions are not intense and I can "run" through most of them without engaging the enemy. I can just run forward, find cover, and your wingman will move up and lay waste to anyone before you. One of the memorable moments in the first Modern Warfare was the sniper mission. It made my heart race while I tried to avoid detection and make my way to the extraction point. The sequel has 2 sniper missions and neither invoked the same emotions.

The online experience isn't at par with the first Modern Warfare but it's decent. Infinity Ward increased assault rifle damage and this translates to you dieing by a few shots. It's comparable to Hardcore Deathmatch in the first Modern Warfare. Unfortunately, this promotes camping.

What happened to night vision? Is it something I need to unlock? Was it replaced by the new heartbeat sensor?

Infinity Ward removed the ability to use party chat for certain online game modes. This makes no sense. You either remove it completely or leave it alone.

I can understand why Infinity Ward did not release a playable demo before launch day. If they did, the game wouldn't sell as well.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Last Friday, I got to play the New Super Mario Bros. Wii at a friend's home. I'm sure single player is fun but I rather enjoyed the four player mode. You and your friends will constantly, and I do mean constantly, bump into each other and lives will be lost as a result. Others may find this frustrating but I like challenge and I found their interference hilarious.

Let's face it, the Goomba and Koopa Troopa provide no challenge and I hardly die by their hands because their patterns are too predictable. But with Nintendo's new bump and grind physics, they post a threat.

Thankfully, each player has their own life pool and you have unlimited continues.

I'm not sure if I'll pick up the game when it comes out since it doesn't have online play like Mario Kart and I will only play it if someone else hops on.

Remote Start for the Car

I have been researching what remote start kit to get for my car and my sights are set on the Viper SmartStart.
I don't know if it can only be controlled by the iPhone or perhaps it comes with a traditional remote. At least with the iPhone, I will be able to start the car from my office an not worry about the darn concrete walls.

Dear Santa

I know what I want for Christmas. Below is an amazing video of Samsung's OLED prototype. Hopefully by the time I own a home I can use this as my wallpaper.

Garage Door, The 2nd Act

The garage door opener stopped working again last Thursday. It can raise the door but can't lower it. My father happened to come across an inexpensive garage door opener at Sears for $119 and purchased it. We spent 3 to 4 hours yesterday installing it.

Before we installed the new opener, I noticed the support beam it will rest on was cracked. Rather than removing and replacing, we just nailed a new one next to it.

This door opener isn't fancy but it gets the job done. It doesn't have an external keypad nor does it use a rotating code. We didn't much care since the garage is detached from the main home.
While I had the tools in front of me, I secured the safety cable that runs through the spring to the frame with a bolt.
Now, I feel a lot more comfortable parking my car in the garage.