Category: USA

Maui: Sun Yat-Sen park (father of Taiwan)

Apparently Sun Yat-Sen went to school in Hawaii, and his relatives lived in upcountry Maui (near Kula). He even planned some of the Chinese revolution from here.
There is a park with a new statue of him, with a great view of the ocean.

Misc interesting notes from Dec United Hemispheres magazine

Interesting notes from the Dec issue of United’s Hemispheres inflight magazine (appeared early on Nov 30):

  • Samoa is going to move the date line from its western border (moved there in 1892 to facilitate trade with the US) to its eastern border (to facilitate trade with Asia) on Dec 29, essentially skipping an entire day!
    Side note: last year they adopted daylight saving time, which is odd in a tropical location
    Side note: in 2009 they switched from right-handed to left-handed drive roads.
  • There’s a private collector’s museum in Anniston, Alabama that includes items like Hitler’s tea set, a diamond-encrusted scimitar from Persia (owned by Catherine the Great), family photos from Benito Mussolini and the bust of Alexander the Great that Napoleon carried around with him
  • Re LeBron James: “Given all of LeBron’s flaws – ego, hubris, a receding hairline… his talents… would abandon him in some of the most important moments of his basketball life offered glorious schadenfreude.” (sorry, that’s just a great German word)
  • Describing a kangaroo: “Take a T.rex, shrink it to about 6 feet, cover it in fur and give it a deer’s head…”
  • China’s Hainan island is aiming to be the “Hawaii of the East.”
  • In the capital city of Hainan is the 2nd largest golf resort in the world (Mission Hills Haikou) with TWELVE golf course (and 150 hot spring mineral baths inspired by different countries’ bathing rituals). Say what?

New resto in downtown Las Vegas – Heart Attack Grill

No, I did not eat here (esp. not after my vegan veggie burger at lunch)

The (buxom) waitresses are dressed in nurses outfits, and the patrons put on hospital gowns over their clothing.

Say no more!

Hollywood FL: some photos and thoughts

I liked the broadwalk (not boardwalk) area in Hollywood FL, more so than the one in Fort Lauderdale:

  • It’s wide, with a marked “wheels” lane (bicycles, rollerbladers, baby carriages etc. – just not skateboards)
  • Clean; lots of garbage cans (inside large clay pots) on the broadwalk and beach
  • Happy hour on the boardwalk with a view on the sand and water (with breezes)
  • Varying landscape; besides the broadwalk, the walking/cycling trail continues through parks, behind some houses (historical and otherwise), with frequent parking and beach access
  • Unfortunately, a fair number of empty storefronts

And yes, it was hot and humid even at the end of September!

San Francisco: a “rebuttal” to some of my Taiwan comments

It turns out San Francisco has some of the things I found “advanced” in Taipei:

  • Some dedicated motorcycle parking
  • Intelligent transit video screens with arrival times (also, many bus stops have an LED screen that shows the next bus arrival time)
  • Multi-lingual announcements on some transit systems (English, Mandarin and Spanish)

San Francisco: Otis Clay performing at Ameoba Records

This was a free 1 hour concert in Haight-Ashbury area of SF (next to Golden Gate park) on Sunday.
Effectively I was in the “front row” – fun to watch his facial expressions.
The movement of the 6 piece band (+ 2 backup singers) reminded my of the Blues Brothers.

Blues legend Otis Clay in free performance at Ameoba Records

Felt up by the TSA at FLL – sort of

So I finally had to officially refuse (“opt out” is the official term) the full-body scanner and get the TSA full pat-down (usually I can pick a line where there is no such scanner, or they are picking random people instead of everyone). My pat-down wasn’t as intimate as reports suggested (though it did take more time than the scanner would have). YMMV (your mileage may vary).
Still, better than the unknown health risk of the scanner, IMHO.