Tonynet Explorer

We saw ducklings and bunnies for sale recently. (For pets, not food, I think.)

Michael (8): "OOH, I really want one! I will call him 'Silent Ninja'!"

Only Michael would name a cute yellow duckling "Silent Ninja". Needless to say, we did not buy one.

Michael (8) has decided to move from Guitar Hero to the real thing. So, two weekends ago, I took him down to Gulou Dajie, a street downtown with a bunch of music shops. We went through all of them and quickly found a nice little, locally made acoustic for 400 RMB (about USD $60) at a place called Xanders. I must say that everyone at the shops was very friendly and attentive -- not at all like my instrument shopping experiences in the US where the cooler-than-thou musicians/clerks are too busy screwing around with their buddies to deal with newbies like me.

This weekend, Michael had his first guitar lesson and walked out playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. His instructor asked him for a song he likes and wants to learn so he can start working on it next week; Michael made the ambitious choice of The Ballroom Blitz. It's quite a step up in difficulty from Twinkle, but I think he's up for it.

Watch out world! If you thought Michael was a devastating and dangerous ladies man before, just wait until he's a rockstar.

We went to an Easter party at our neighborhood's club house yesterday. There was a well-intentioned Easter egg hunt plus other activities and booths. While were were there, the boys and I were interviewed by a reporter from the China Daily. Some of our quotes were included in the article in today's edition. The other family in the story lives down the street and have become good friends recently too. Kind of fun...

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2009-04/13/content_7670887.htm

Celebrating a special Easter

By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-13 09:34

Families in Beijing's Shunyi district put all their eggs in one basket to celebrate Easter together yesterday - but they had to find them first.

The egg hunt organized by Beijing Dragon Bay Villa was accompanied by appearances by the Easter Bunny - both in the forms of a villa staff member clad in a giant pink rabbit suit and live baby bunnies - face painting and egg decorating.

"This is a family time, and children love (it)," says the villa's property manager Zheng Min.

Finding the hidden eggs and candy helped alleviate homesickness for 11-year-old Andrew Chor and his 8-year-old brother, whose family moved from the US to Beijing four months ago.

"We used to do this a lot at home, and at first, I thought we wouldn't be doing it in China," Andrew says, holding up his sack of eggs, candy and toothpaste. He proudly announces he found six eggs, and his brother found five.

The boys' father Tony says he's happy the kids were able to join the fun. "The kids were kind of unsure about moving to China overall, and something like this makes the transition easier," he says.

Scot Julie Hansen, whose family moved to China four months ago, believes joining the party helped keep her family's Easter traditions alive.

Hansen brought sons Patrick, 10, and Thomas, 6, to join the fun. "It helps us meet some of our neighbors and bring some European traditions to China," she says.

Last weekend, we took advantage of the boys' short spring break (two days off school -- shorter than normal this year because of the late start due after the Olympics) to take a quick jaunt down to Sanya, a city on the south coast of Hainan Island. Hainan is on the south coast of China in the South China Sea near Vietnam; it's often referred to as the "Hawaii of China." It's a popular resort destination for Chinese and expats, plus it's apparently a big draw for visitors from Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. More interestingly, it's a huge favorite for Russian tourists. On our drive from the airport, we saw a lot of signs with Russian on them.

Contrary to my normal vacation mode where I want to see a lot things at our destination, this time we just wanted to sit around, soak up the warmth, and relax. To that end, we chose to stay at the Banyan Tree Resort in Sanya. The resort is away from the bustle of the more popular hotel areas, in a quiet section on Luhuitou Bay. We spent a lot of our time in and around the private pool in our two bedroom villa, going to the beach to play in the sand and warm water in the mornings when it was a bit cooler. The boys thought the midnight swims were especially cool.

(This is a Photosynth view of our villa. It's a composite image of a few hundred photos. You may need to install Photosynth first. BTW, Photosynth is a super cool technology by the big brain guys at Microsoft Live Labs. Worth checking out.)

I managed to sneak out to Luhuitou Golf Club for my first round in eighteen months. It turns out that not playing for a while doesn't help your game. Fortunately, I was playing alone save for my caddie, who was polite enough not to laugh, and the course was impeccably maintained with perfect greens (not that I could make a putt to save my life.)

The facilities were undeniably lovely and the service was very good (particularly by Chinese standards). The only real downer (and probably the thing that would encourage us to to try someplace else next time) was the food. It was very inconsistent, ranging from great to fair, and the menu was pretty limited. By the end of our fourth day, we were pretty bored with the selection. (Although I did have a pretty good Hainan Chicken Rice - always good to try a dish in the place of its origin.)

Still, it was great to get away from the dusty grey and brown air and ground of Beijing for warm, humid, clean air and lush tropical environs of Sanya. We all had a very enjoyable and relaxing time.

It's March 1 and spring is in the air (or is that just coal smoke?). One of the surprises for me about Beijing was how cold it really gets, especially since Beijing and San Francisco are roughly at the same latitude. Unlike in SF (or even Seattle), in Beijing, the lakes and rivers freeze over, and Beijingers head out onto the ice.

One popular place to play is Houhai, the lakes behind the Forbidden City. In addition to ice skating, the locals have other ways to enjoy the ice. One popular older form is to sit on ice chairs and propel themselves with sharp poles. According to our driver, they did this originally because many people couldn't afford skates.

A newer toy is the ice bike. I think the back wheel must have studs on it.

Nearby, vendors sold animals (usually ones from the Chinese zodiac) blown from blobs of sugary dough. (The art is called nie1 mian4 捏面 in Chinese, meaning "knead or pinch dough".) These were super cool, but they kind of sagged and melted when brought into the warm house. I've seen some people eat these, but I don't think that's advisable since the dude worked the dough with his hands and then blew into it the blob.

It was definitely a popular place and, like all fun things in Beijing, crowded. (The big tower in behind the lake is the Gulou or Drum Tower.)

We weren't dressed to play that day at Houhai, so I took the boys skating at a rink near our house. Well, Andrew (11) skated and Michael (8) ran around on the ice.

Eventually, Andrew dropped his skates and started ice bowling (with himself as the ball).

I can't remember the last time I skated or even walked on a frozen lake. It's definitely been 25-30 years (crap, I hate the way that sounds). Skating on the bumpy, grooved ice is definitely a different experience than smooth arena ice (go, Zamboni!) but we all had a great time.

While I'm looking forward to spring, I'm sad we didn't enjoy the ice more while we had it. We'll have to play more next winter.

Michael (8) rode a bike by himself today for the first time! This accomplishment was something of a surprise really. Unlike Andrew (11), who has always loved biking and mastered two wheeling at an early age, Michael has demonstrated no interest (negative interest in fact) for quite some time. Yesterday, however, as I was peeking into the new Trek store that opened nearby (I didn't bring my road bike and am thinking I might want one here), Michael suddenly showed interest in a cool new Trek Jet 20. Despite the relatively high price (due to China's import markup), Michelle and I decided to take advantage of this mood swing and bought the bike.

He tried riding yesterday and almost had it, but he couldn't quite get it all working. Then today, while I was getting my bike and Andrew's out for a ride, Michelle and Michael took another swing at things. By the time I came out, Michael was cruising down the street!

He's still working on starting and stopping, but he rode out to the nearby convenience store about five minutes away later this afternoon. Quite a feat! He's very excited and proud of himself. I think we'll be cruising around the 'burbs together before you know it.

(Separately, Andrew completed his longest ride ever today, almost seven miles. It was a good day for biking.)

Andrew (11) and I went ice skating today at the China World mall near our apartment; Michelle and Michael (8) watched (Michael wanted nothing to do with it.)

Andrew has only been ice skating once in his life and that was when he was two, so he struggled a bit, especially at first, falling a lot.

As they watched Andrew falling repeatedly, Michael said to Michelle: "This is better than watching TV!"

Schadenfreude is a bitch.

Up until this move, Michael (8) didn't really speak any Chinese. In his school here, he's started taking Chinese class. It's been fun to hear him start to use a few words here and there.

Today in the car on the way home from school, he lit into Andrew (11) with a set of Chinese insults. He started with some common Chinese insults (like "stupid egg", "silly melon", and such) and then started improvising by combining words he had learned (e.g. "apple head", "butt head", etc.) He then starting improvising sentences with insults (e.g. "You are an apple head.")

I think something like 75% of the Chinese words he knows are insults or can be combined into insults. He's surprisingly fluent for a guy with a week of Chinese class under his belt (although I suspect he is not learning these words in class.) Our driver, normally pretty stoic, almost exploded laughing.

Everyone learns in their own way; I think the "salty seaman" approach is Michael's.

The other day, Michael (8) came in singing a little ditty to the tune of We Are Family:

We are family,
[Looking directly at me, smiling] Even though you're fatter than me,
We are family...

After his last comment, I really think I need to start working out in earnest again.

Overheard from the back of the van the other day:

Michael (8): "I'm not even going to argue with you."

Andrew (11): "Why?"

Michael (8): "Because you're wrong."

I wonder if I can use that line at work...

As we get ready to move, Michelle returned the violin that Michael (8) had rented to start learning how to play this year. While the idea of a Chinese kid playing violin isn't unusual (it's even a bit cliche really), he's the one who suggested it. This was a bit odd since he doesn't really know anyone who plays violin nor do Michelle or I play, but of course, we were supportive.

As it turns out, he wanted to learn to play violin so he could learn to play The Devil Went Down to Georgia. I'm not sure if he was siding with the Devil or Johnny, but there you go. He was a little unhappy when his instructor opted not to start him directly on that song, and he really started to get a little impatient after a few weeks of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I'm sure we can find an instructor in China to pick up his violin lessons, although good rockin' fiddle players might be a bit harder to find.

In any case, somehow, I won't be surprised if a fiddle made of gold shows up in his room someday...

I think Michael (8) is trying to tell me something.

Michael: "Dad, you're strong like a bull..."
Me: [smiling]
Michael: "And heavy like a cow." [smiling]
Me: [not smiling]

Time to redouble my workouts...

Michael (8) lost another tooth last week and was excited about the loot he was expecting to receive from the Tooth Fairy. When I went to tuck him in, I noticed he had tied blankets around the ladder to his bunk bed. He explained that these were traps to see if the Tooth Fairy is real. He figured that the Tooth Fairy could fly and wouldn't be stopped by the blankets, but if it was me, I couldn't get up there to swap the tooth for money. I scoffed and removed the blankets.

Later in the evening, when I went to, um, check on him, I saw he had put rows of books on the floor to trip any faux-Tooth Fairies. Sneaky devil. Good thing the Tooth Fairy is tricky too. I think the Tooth Fairy may need night-vision goggles and powder to detect IR beams next time; it's getting dangerous for the TF these days.

The boys and I went to the South 47 Farm in Woodinville last night to go through their corn maze. Every year, the South 47 makes some cool five acre, mile-long corn maze; this year it was in the shape of a tractor.

On Fridays and Saturdays, they open the maze up at night so you can go through with a flashlight -- way more fun! The boys and I have done this on and off for the past few years. When you're in the maze, there are clues to help you find your way out; if you answer these farming related questions properly (e.g. "what % of land is spent raising feed and bedding for horses in a horse-powered farm?" or "which is faster, a bee or a chicken?") you'll be directed the right way. To make finding the dead ends more fun, they have eight stations hidden in the maze; if you find all eight and punch the card they give you, you can get a small gift at the end. The maze is open until October 31.

This year, some of the corn was blown down by the big windstorm we had a few weeks ago, but it's still very fun. I highly recommend it. If you go during the day, stop by the Root Connection (for great veggies) and Minea Farm (for the best cider in the world), both just north of the South 47.

South 47 Farm
15410 NE 124th St. (corner of NE 124th St. & the Woodinville-Redmond Rd.), Redmond, WA
425-869-9777

Dear readers, I wanted to let everyone know I've accepted a new position as the Group Program Manager for Live Search in Beijing, China.

There are a lot of reasons for this change. Since we were first married, Michelle and I have wanted to live overseas. We both enjoy the broader perspective that working and traveling internationally brings and wanted to really experience that more fully. (Frankly, I think all Americans could benefit from a more worldly view.) I've also been eager to explore my heritage and speak/read Chinese more fluently, as I resolved in my new year's post. I'm also excited to have Andrew (11) and Michael (8) learn more about the world, their heritage, and another language well. I think it will be extra valuable for all of us to have more insight and skills with respect to China for the future.

Professionally, I think Search is a fascinating and important product to unlock the Internet. As good as Live and even Google are today, it's still too hard for most users to get what they're looking for in many cases. It's a critical business for Microsoft to get right; we're obviously way behind here.

I also think that Microsoft needs to master distributed development; there are simply not enough smart engineers who want to live near Redmond to do all of the cool things we want to do. I also think we'd benefit from more local development and more geographic diversity. In particular, I think Microsoft needs to really do a good job in China as that country now has the highest number of internet users and is set to surpass the US in PC users next year.

The combination of our desire, the kids' age, and the great opportunity with Search lead us to consider the move seriously. After our Japan trip this summer, we tacked on a few days to visit China to see houses and schools. I had been to Beijing many times before but had never seen how expats live; Michelle and the boys had never been to Beijing at all. What we saw was acceptable, so we decided to proceed. (In case you're wondering, I couldn't really talk about this stuff earlier and didn't have enough touristy photos of China since we were house hunting, so I didn't post about what we did in China.)

All that said, it's difficult to leave IE. I love the product and the team. I'm incredibly proud of how far we've come since restarting the team five years ago -- from a security nightmare to XPSP2 to IE7 and now the great reviews of IE8 beta 2. The team is more capable and more fun than ever. I definitely feel I'm leaving on a high note and am confident the team will do great things without me.

So, I'll be transitioning to the Live Search team in a few weeks. Then, once our paperwork and visas clear, we'll move to Beijing -- probably around November. This is a three year assignment -- longer if we like it and shorter if we don't, but we do plan to move back. We'll be keeping our house since Michelle and the boys will likely spend summers here, and I'll be back frequently. The kids aren't crazy about the idea yet (what kid wants to move?) but I'm sure they'll have a great time.

I'll blog more about what we're learning about China and how things proceed as we go along. It should be an exciting new experience!

Last week, I took Michael (7) to get a haircut.

Michael: "I want it short on top and long in the back."

Me: "You want a mullet?!"

Michael [enthusiastically]: "Yes!"

Me: "No (f*ing) way" (parenthetical comment not spoken, but clearly indicated by my attitude.)

Michael: "Why not?"

Me: "You'll understand at your wedding when I'm showing photos of you when you were young."

Really, he'll thank me later.

We bid Jonathan, Tetsuo, and Toshiko farewell and headed back to Tokyo today on the Shinkansen. We were met on the platform at Tokyo Station by a bellman from the Four Seasons Tokyo, who took our bags and lead us on the short walk to the hotel. After a quick check-in and some lunch, I took to the boys to the Pokemon Center a few train stops away while the ladies partook in more retail therapy in Ginza.

The Pokemon Center is heaven for Poke-geeks like Andrew (10) and Michael (7). There was a big store full of everything Pokemon related you could imagine, from cards to video games to candy to nori (dried seaweed sheets cut into Pokemon shapes to put on your rice -- Michael bought some of this) to toys to clothes. They had someone teaching kids how to play the Pokemon trading card game, Pokemon videos playing on the overhead TVs, and rows of Pokemon capsule vending machines enticing the kids (the boys got Pokemon Pez dispensers out of one of the machines.

After they sated their shopping, we went next door to another room where you could play Pokemon Battrio, a video game the kids started playing at the Pokemon Center in Odaiba. You could also play Pokemon Battle Revolution, a Wii game where you use your Nintendo DS' to control your Pokemon; this is cool since your opponent can't see what moves you selected because the UI is on your DS screen.

They also offered a special birthday surprise if you had a Nintendo DS, a Japanese version of Pokemon Diamond or Pearl, and proof it was within a day of your birthday. The boys had their DS', their English copies of Diamond and Pearl, and proof it was within a month of their birthday, but that wasn't good enough. Oh well.

Some sick person planned this section of the Pokemon Center; the sun blazed into the room where the kids were playing Battrio, turning it into a solar cooker. In the focal point of the cooker, they had a cold drink machine selling Pokemon branded soda. Naturally, I bought one to keep me and the kids from catching fire.

Michael (7) to Andrew (10): "We're not friends. We're brothers."

Very insightful.

I've had several people ask how our first camping trip went, so I figured I should post about our experience.

I left work early to get ready for our big boys weekend camping trip at Deception Pass. I did some grocery shopping and made a last minute decision to get a cook stove (a Coleman PerfectFlow InstaStart two burner job -- great decision). I picked the boys up from school and started packing the car. I had too much junk, so I had a bit of last second re-packing to do and we were off. We left Bellevue at 4:30pm on a Friday, headed to Deception Pass. The weather was miserable at home, and we were in continuous rush hour traffic pretty much all the way up past Everett, so we didn't get off to a good start.

However, as we got closer to Deception Pass, both the weather and traffic started clearing; by the time we got to the campground 2.5 hours after we left home, the weather was clear and beautiful. We found our site easily (even though the photo on the Parks website wasn't the right one for our site) and got the tent set up; then I went to get the sleeping bags and realized I had forgotten them at home during my mad repacking. My brain raced through the options - go home and get the bags, sleep on the pads wearing all the clothes we brought, bail on the entire thing... The boys looked on nervously as I sat with my head in my hands. I then realized that we weren't that far from civilization; we piled back into the car, drove to Oak Harbor (nine miles away) and bought three new sleeping bags at the Kmart. We were back in business!

We went and played by the water in the lovely sunset, had our fire complete with hot dogs and s'mores. Actually, Michael (7) cooked chunks of sashimi-grade tuna over the fire because he doesn't like hot dogs. We read ghost stories in the tent and listened to the EA-6Bs and P3s from the nearby Naval Air Station Whidbey Island fly their night missions (the aircraft noise was the only real bummer that night). Fortunately, the heavy rain that night drowned out the noise. :)

It was still raining when we woke up; I rigged a tarp over the picnic table and made coffee for myself as the kids slept in. By the time they woke up, the rain cleared up and didn't rain again. After breakfast, we played on the beach, climbed rocks, messed around with the driftwood, tried to find a geocache, and generally mucked about. The guys both managed to flood both pairs of shoes we brought (including rubber boots), so I had shoes drying by the fire.

Michelle landed from her trip to Tokyo, took a nap, and then came up to join us around dinner time. It was getting a bit nippy, so Michelle decided not the stay the night; Michael decided he wanted to go home too, so it was just me and Andrew (10). We had a great breakfast in the morning (pancakes and bacon -- wow, I forgot what a pain it is to cook bacon in a pan. Oven bacon rules!), packed up camp, and came home.

We all had a great time. The boys were already pestering me to go again, so I think it was a success.

As I wrote back in January, I resolved to take the boys camping this year and had booked a camp site. The fateful weekend is now here; we leave tomorrow afternoon for our big adventure at Deception Pass State Park. I think I have everything I need and just need to pack now.

We're all pretty excited, but I admit I'm a little nervous about how it will turn out since this is the first time I've ever really camped. Plus, the weather forecast is a little dicey (70% rain, 50% rain, 20% rain for the three days...). I'm sure we'll make it work.

Anyway, see you on the other side...

I was talking with the boys about the American Declaration of Independence the other day.

Me: "We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal..."
Michael (7) [interrupting]: "What about the super delegates?"

Yeah, I didn't quite know what to say.

I'm a bad father. I try my best to instill the right values for the boys, but sometimes, despite my best efforts, the kids go wrong. I know they're just kids and they are each his own individual person, but I can't help but feel responsible.

The other day, Michael (7) saw me working on a competitive review of Firefox. He noticed their logo and said, "That fox is sooo cute and cuddly. I love it!"

I tried to explain how the fox was really the pawn of a joint communist and Al-Qaeda plot with potential connections to Darth Vader, Voldemort, and people with stinky feet, and that it was trying to undermine truth, justice, and the American way. He didn't care; the fox was cute. (I think I may have lost the argument with the Darth Vader connection.)

I'll keep working with him to reinforce our family values. I hope this is just a fad that he'll grow out of like being a Democrat or vegetarian. :)

At my birthday party last week (eek, 40!), Michael (7) was talking to my friend Kristen.

Kristen: "What are you going to have for dessert?"

Michael: "You."

Kristen [with a practiced hand at batting away advances]: "Well, you know I'm not very sweet."

Michael [with a sly smile]: "Yes, but you're tasty."

Kristen: <silence>

I don't know where he learned that.

Andrew (10) is normally my nice kid, but he made a cruel, but accurate observation the other day.

Andrew [earnestly]: "Dad, you're big but not tall, if you know what I mean."

Time to diet and work out more, I guess...

Andrew (10) has been working on a report on John Jay for quite some time so we talked about it a bit at dinner this evening. I asked Andrew what John Jay did. Andrew proceeded to list off his accomplishments:

• Signed the Declaration of Independence
• President of the Continental Congress
• Active in counter-intelligence during the Revolution
• Secretary of Foreign Affairs (now Secretary of State) under the Articles of Confederation
• Co-author of the Federalist Papers
• First Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
• Governor of New York State

Throughout this, Michael (7) was unimpressed. Then, Andrew said "he went to Spain" (as the ambassador to Spain), Michael lit up and said "woo".

I guess all those other things were less cool than visiting Spain. Michelle then pointed out that she had just been to Spain. Michael was appropriately impressed there too. Not sure where his Spanish thing comes from. Guess we'll need to go to Spain sometime.

(I actually didn't know anything about John Jay before Andrew's report. Impressive dude. He helped free all the slaves in New York before he died too.)

I think it's important as a parent to keep your children connected with their heritage. Food, clearly, has tons of cultural and ritual meaning, so it's an important tradition to pass down.

With this in mind, this weekend, I introduced the kids to Marshmallow Fluff, a staple food in the Midwest (I grew up in Minnesota.) For those of you unfamiliar with this gooey concoction, Wikipedia describes it as a "very sweet, spreadable, marshmallow-like confection".

Andrew (10), who loves marshmallows, hated the Fluff. I think it kind of grossed him out, like many traditional foods do. I'm sure he'll develop a taste for it as he grows up. He'll thank me for it when he's older.

Michael (7) discovered the magical combination of peanut butter and fluff (well, soynut butter in his case since he's allergic to peanuts). While he didn't love the fluffernuter sandwich I sent him to school with, he does love dipping granola bites into the mixture. Kids these days.

It's tough being a responsible parent, but I keep trying. I will probably introduce them to hotdish or Western Dressing next.

As I mentioned last week, we took the boys to see the Seattle Symphony perform a show called "PLAY! A Video Game Symphony". The symphony played songs from various video games.

The concert was enjoyable. There were three large screens suspended over the symphony showing scenes from the games. While the scenes weren't set to the music, it was helpful to see the games with the music and fun to see old school stuff like the original Zelda or Mario games.

They also showed close-ups of the musicians playing; since we were about three rows from the back of the auditorium in the highest balcony, it was especially nice see musicians doing their thing. I wish they did this in all symphony performances.

I admit I was a little surprised by the quality of the scores. While some of the songs like Super Mario Brothers were just fun and nostalgic, the newer scores were often beautiful. Since video games have become as huge financially as movies (bigger now, I think), I guess it makes sense that they can attract a similar caliber of composer for games as movies. They sometimes felt a bit formulaic (for example, almost every fighting game broke into a martial snare drum beat), but I'm this may have been just the samples they chose. As a Microsoft guy, I was pleased how good the medley from HALO was; in particular, the opening bars of the HALO theme are really distinctive.

One interesting note: two of the composers, Jeremy Soule and Martin O'Donnell, were in the audience - not something I've seen before since most classical music composers are, well, dead.

The boys were well-behaved through the concert, although by the end of the three hour performance, Michael (7) was getting sleepy and fidgety (I was too). Andrew (10) really loved it though. All in all, it was a good first symphony experience for them.

In case you're curious, here's the program:

They also played a special additional score by Jeremy Soule, although I missed the title.

Next week, the Seattle Symphony will be performing a show called "PLAY! A Video Game Symphony", described as:

Watch graphics from your all-time favorite blockbuster video games—including Super Mario Bros.,^® HALO^® and The Legend of Zelda^®—on the big screen while Seattle Symphony, Vocalpoint! Seattle and Northwest Boychoir perform the soundtrack.

They have a show next Thursday (1/24) at 7:30pm and a matinee Saturday, 1/26 at 1:00pm. Both shows are at the incredible Benaroya Hall. Unfortunately, it's not cheap; the lowest priced tickets are about $50 each with most of those sold out on Thursday already.

In any case, I thought it would be a fun way to introduce the boys to the symphony, so we're going to one of the shows. I'll let you know how it is.

Welcome to 2008! I'm not really one to make New Year's resolutions, but I have been thinking about things I want to do this year. Mostly, I have a list of things I've wanted to do for a while that I never quite got around to. Over the past few weeks, I took some steps to get going on these. Here are a few things I want to do and the steps I've taken. (Blogging about them will also help create a little public accountability.)

Spend more time with the boys
I think the kids and I do quite a bit together already, but I think these are the prime years I have with them where they're old enough (7 and 10) to really participate and still don't mind hanging out with dad, so I want to double-down on our time together.

The kids have been bugging me to go camping beyond our backyard for some time, so I thought I'd start there. I haven't ever really camped (OK, we went once when I was two), so I've been dragging my feet a bit, but I really want to try it as well. I looked into camp sites last summer, but it was almost impossible to reserve one at that late date, and I didn't want to chance driving somewhere and not having a site. So, this week, I reserved a choice site at Deception Pass State Park (close enough to home that we can bail out if it sucks) in June. I'm pretty excited and will probably book a few more dates just in case we love it.

Incidentally, the Washington State Parks reservation system is pretty good. They show you the individual sites with descriptions and ratings of quality and privacy, have photo(s) of the site, and make it easy to see what dates are available. Good use of our tax dollars.

Work out more
As I've chronicled on this blog, I've been up and down with my working out. I definitely do best when I have scheduled events I'm working toward, so this morning (the first day of sign-ups), I signed up for the RSVP (Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party). It's a ride like the STP (Seattle-to-Portland) that I did two years ago. I tried to sign up last year, but I waited too long, and the ride sold out. I'll do the Chilly Hilly again in preparation too, but I'll probably skip STP. Good to have the goals on the calendar now. I may do another half marathon (probably Kirkland in May instead of Mercer Island in March).

Learn to play an instrument well
I took piano lessons on and off growing up (mostly off) but never really reached a level of reasonable competency. I've always wanted to play well, so I started piano lessons last month, taking the half hour before Andrew's lessons (can't skip my lesson without making him miss his). We also just had a little Yahama grand piano delivered yesterday. It's been fun playing again, and my instructor has me working on theory as well to better understand what's going on. This had added an interesting new dimension.

I thought about starting guitar instead (which I've also always wanted to play), but I'm much closer to competence on piano, so I figured that was wiser. (I also played clarinet for six years, but I don't have much interest in picking that up again. Not too many social opportunities for clarinet...)

Learn to speak another language to adult fluency
I grew up speaking Chinese at home, suffered through eleven years of Saturday morning Chinese school, took a year of Chinese in college. I also took four years of high school German (enough to get by as a tourist). However, I can't really do business or carry on adult conversations in either language. Since I'm closer to fluency in Chinese, I decided to build on that base. Although I'm basically illiterate in Chinese, I figured I'd start with my listening and vocabulary skills. I started listening to Chinese language podcasts. There are a few good ones, but my favorite so far is by a guy named Serge Melnyk (really). More on these later.

I have lots of other things I want to do, but I figured this is a good start. Hopefully, I can stick with these and build some good habits. What are your plans?

As I mentioned previously, I chaperoned Andrew's (10) fifth grade class for a four day, three night field trip to Islandwood, a 255 acre outdoor learning center on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. (Here's a link to the Live Maps view of Islandwood. You can also get a "bird's eye" view of the facility.)

I must admit, the trip was much more enjoyable than I expected. First, the facilities are incredibly nice; it's not like any camp I've ever been to. Islandwood was donated by Paul Brainerd (founder of Aldus Corporation) and has a donor role that's a who's who of the Seattle wealthy (apparently Steve Ballmer hosts the fund raising dinners at his house, for instance.) As a result, they appear to be incredibly well funded. The facility is constructed and operated as a demonstration of eco design principles and is LEED Gold certified. Everywhere you look, there's a sign saying how the toilets are saving water, how the counters were made from recycled yogurt containers, how the wood was recovered from state highway projects, etc. They even weighed all of the compostable and non-compostable food waste after each meal to teach the kids to take only what they need. (By the last meal, we only had three pounds of food waste for 100+ people. This is crazy low; apparently most Americans each waste four pounds of food per day.)

During the day, we broke up into field study groups of eight kids, two instructors (masters students in education), and an adult chaperone (e.g. me). We visited some of the various ecosystems within Islandwood such as the harbor/estuary, pond, and bog. We also did team building activities on their teams course. The instructors did a good job keeping it fun for the kids, using games and hands-on activities. I especially enjoyed the owl/mouse/seed game where they had the kids learn about the balance of nature. The kids were divided into owls, mice, and seeds. The seeds had to go plant themselves, a few seconds later the mice had to pair up with a seed, and then a few seconds later the owls would try to hunt the non-paired mice. There were some rules about what happened if you were caught, etc. and over a few rounds, you could see the mice numbers fall when there were too few seeds, etc. This was especially clear on the chart they created. Neat stuff and the kids had fun.

Another highlight for me and many of the kids was a night hike. We walked through the woods with no flashlights or other illumination. I was surprised how well I could see after a little while. We talked about night vision (rods and cones), listened to the forest (they did a blindfolded "trust walk" which was interesting), listened to some stories, and did the wintergreen Lifesaver trick (they really do spark when you bite them -- cool.)

The meals were good. Most of the food was made from scratch on site (e.g. they baked their own bread) and were very accommodating to the various food restrictions the kids had. The kids ate a lot and many gushed about how good the food was. I think many families don't cook much at home so the food really stood out for them.

We also lucked out and had good weather (read: it didn't rain or snow) the whole time. Given this was only a week after the massive rainstorm that hit the area the week before, I feel very fortunate indeed.

The kids were much better behaved than I expected. The Islandwood staff commented on that as well. The only real bummer was a few kids and a teacher in my dorm got sick (projectile vomiting, etc.) Other than this small outbreak of typhoid (not really typhoid) it was a great trip. I also really enjoyed getting to know Andrew's classmates better; I hear their names all the time, but I don't know many of the kids well. It was a great opportunity for me.

I highly recommend anyone who gets the chance to attend one of the programs at Islandwood.

Conversation from this evening:

Michael (7) [unprompted and with conviction]: "I'll never ever go to Cal [University of California at Berkeley]."

Me [very politically correctly and with a mostly straight face]: "Well, Michael, despite the rivalry with Stanford, Cal is a very good school. I'd be happy if you went to Cal."

Michael [adamantly]: "No way. I'm never ever going to Cal."

That's my boy. I'm so proud. Go Stanford! (Now, he just needs to study really hard, and I just need to save a small fortune...)

Last weekend, I took the boys to Robothon, a robot festival at the Seattle Center run by the Seattle Robotics Society. In addition to battle bots (you could pay $5 to pilot a battle bot!) and other cool exhibits, you could buy a robot kit for $40 and someone would help you build it.

The kit was a "Herbie the Mousebot" from Solarbotics. Herbie has two light sensitive eyes and will chase the brightest light around. His whiskers and tail are touch sensitive; if they hit anything, he'll turn around. The two little motors drive Herbie along pretty damn fast. Herbie also has a taillight, so multiple Herbies can chase each other around. I have another kit (and a newly purchased soldering iron) to build before I can test this out. (I guess technically we have a Horatio, the black mouse, and Harriet, the white mouse.)

I took about two hours to build the thing. I've somehow managed to avoid learning to solder until this point, but I've always wanted to learn, so I figured this was the time. The boys were pretty interested at first; Andrew helped me solder and assemble the kit, but they quickly moved to watch the robot sumo battles that a school group was having the corner (I wanted to see it too.) The moment of truth arrived when I put the nine volt battery it. It worked! The motors ran and the speeds varied with the light. Actually, one of the motors was stuck at first, but it was because the tires were on a little tight. Fortunately, I didn't have to do any real debugging. I noticed some of the other builders had to reflow some solder joints - non-trivial once the kit is together.

We tested Herbie in our dark living room. The robot scurried around the room, bumping into stuff, backing up and jetting off in other directions. We could get it to follow a flashlight beam pretty easily. When we weren't paying attention with the flashlight, Herbie ran into the kitchen since the light was on. Scared the hell out of Michelle. Michael (7) thought that was really great...

More important, I passed the "dad test". These are terrifying moments where you have to prove you're a competent dad to your kids. I know they'll soon realize I'm just another loser, but I'd like to delay that as long as possible.

Anyway, Herbie is really very cool. There are a lot of other cool robot things going on for kids in Seattle including First Lego League and Junior First Lego League that I may need to check out for the boys.

Well, I finally got rid of my little brother Ives two weeks ago. After 35 (almost 36) years, he finally found someone who can put up with him long enough to marry him. All jokes aside, Aimee is a wonderful woman with great family and friends. My brother seems very content now and is lucky to have her. I just hope Aimee knows what she's getting...

Aimee and Ives had the wedding in Evanston, a suburb just north of Chicago and the home of Northwestern University. This was the first time I'd been to Evanston. It's a cute town, right on Lake Michigan. I see now why my Northwestern alumni friends really like it there. We stayed at the Hotel Orrington, which was centrally located, so we could walk everywhere.

The rehearsal and the wedding were very nice. My brother has a habit of getting teary on days ending in y and was a mess at my wedding so long ago. Of course, his wedding was no exception. At the rehearsal dinner, he choked up while handing out gifts, but I do give him and Aimee credit for holding it together during the ceremony itself (although it looked like they came close to losing it.)

As the best man, I gave a short toast (4 min, 30 seconds as timed by my friends - I had a reputation for overly-long toasts. Under five minutes is OK...) I was doing fine through the toast, working without notes and was almost done when out of nowhere, my throat constricted and I couldn't speak. I had a a terrified thought that I might dissolve into a teary mess and wouldn't be able to finish, but I pulled it together and got through it. I honestly hadn't seen or felt the surge of emotion coming. Wild.

After my toast, our fraternity brothers (Ives and I were both Kappa Alpha at Stanford) sang Kappa Alpha Rose to Aimee, a tradition at KA weddings. Aimee was a good sport about it, even though she doesn't have the "wealth of golden hair" described in the song (we did change the "eyes of blue" to "eyes of brown" in the song though.) Despite the fact most of us haven't sung the song for 10+ years, it didn't sound terrible (I sent the words to everyone ahead of time as a refresher.)

The boys looked really good in their black suits. Andrew (10) was the ring bearer, and Michael (7) was an "honor guard" along with another little boy. Michael wanted to carry ninja swords to help protect the ring, but Ives wisely demurred.

The weekend was especially fun for me because I got a chance to see tons of family and friends. We had almost all of our cousins, aunts, and uncles from both sides. It's been a long time since I'd seen most of them, and this was the first time I'd met my cousin Alice's husband and daughter. I also went out with my cousin Gary for beers, which was a new experience since the last time I saw him he was still way underage.

Ives and I have a lot of friends in common since we were both in the same fraternity at Stanford (Kappa Alpha) and both worked at Microsoft, plus one of Ives' friends from high school came out. As a result, I knew almost all of his out-of-town guests and had a great time catching up with them all.

Anyway, I wish Aimee and Ives well. I'm looking forward to having nephews and/or nieces soon...

Last night the boys and I watched The Sandlot: Heading Home, the third of the Sandlot movies about different generations of neighborhood kids learning about baseball and life on their sand lot ball field (this description makes the movies sound like they have way more merit than they really do.)

The basic (and not very subtle) message of the story is to do what you love and to value friendship above all else and things will work out fine. After the movie, I asked the guys what the moral of the story is.

Andrew (10): "I dunno."

Michael (7): "Always wear a cup when playing baseball."

Well, I guess that was an important lesson from the movie too.

The boys and I went to the