Crios de Susana Balbo 2004

From Mendoza, Agentina.
50% Syrah and 50% Bonarda
I am not familiar with Bonarda at all. That is why I decided to give it a try. Young, sort of heavy and high acid. May be contributed by Syrah. From thr label, it seems this is the cheaper class of its own family. Well, when writing this, I learn this wine marker has its own style and seems quite interesting and impressive. to avoid hindersight, I better stop andl post her linkage here. this is my problem for wine trial now - did not do reseach beforehand. But comma, when you are travelling, want to drink some wine, stop at a shop you have never been and they happen to sell some nice looking wines, what you do!? thinking to put a wine dictionary on my MDA. http://www.dominiodelplata.com.ar/vinos.php

Toyota Matrix

Ok. This is much less fancy than the movie 'The Matrix'. My neighbor actually is driving it. so time to time I was thinking how it is. sort of odd looking small car in US.I was wondering why initially someone will name a car 'matrix' and what the name try to convey.
that made me recalled a story. a motorcycle called 'Freeway'. at that time. japanese motor industry was booming and some of their engineer had weird english. so I was assuming it must be named by a engineer. a motorbike named freeway but definitely cannot survive on freeway!?
so, the matrix does not drive like a matrix. it seems actually a good news.
small but not too crowded car. the engine, urr, is helpless. I think anyone could easily kill it.
the sitting is a little bit high. I tried to adjust it but still kind of awkward. nothing big I really can complain about. it is just a transportation tool. seems pretty reliable. as for comfortness, please look for something else.

2006

Today is my last day working in office. hew......
This 2006 is a little bit rougher than I expected. Not sure because the things are not going smoother as before, or just because I am getting old.
Noticed my daughter needs more attention (or I want to give more attention). Current job needs more efforts than I thought since not all things are on track and travel was more intensed than I thought. School is rough, lower than expectated quality, poor administration support and tough logistic arrangement. All these build up certain stress here and there.
I can try to establish a list of accomplishments for this year. However, I kind of feel it might be a list shorter than I expected. Even some of them are crucial for future, I still believe this will disappoint me by the end. So, I better not doing it.
Made me blue.

Toyota Camry

I have to say this first. I love hertz, especially its NeverLost system. With 10 bucks extra, damn, it reduced the stress of travelling significantly. I loved this system back to 99,the first time I used it. At that time, system was still slow on response and the POI was not that geat. Last time was my LOS trip with my wife. I aleady saw a significant improvement. This time, I was driving like no brainer and got destination without any problem. I should look for a way to invest in this area.
Anyway, back to Camry. My wife keep saying that this will be the car she want next time when replacing currnt Honda Accord V6. My answer? Nope. smooth steering and nice driving. Decent dashboard and good finishing. a little bit high for driving view and sort of cramped. the problem is really the kickdown, accerating from 50 to 70 will make RPM jumped significantly. Not having too much time to dig in, either a transmission or a low horse power is causing this issue. I won't say according is smoother on acceration, bit it has its character. Camry, na... it is the best sedan. The best driving machine if you want to plain driving and don't look for any characterisitics.
By the way, visited Madison, NJ. An impressive small-town-atmosphere place in New York suburbs. However, I heard the living cost is unbearable tought.

Marlborough Pinot Noir 2004

From Brancott New Zealand.
Light and sort of fruity. was not impressed initially. But was surprised later on after the wine has waken up. I guess the timing of drinking it will be tricky.

Domestic Economy

Couple days back, I had a discussion with my colleagues about the domestic and international economy. The topic is starting from one point, whether the english speaking is the mandatory skill for software industry in China.

My young colleague believes it is yes. Because he believe software is highly intelligent property oriented and being able to communicate and interpretate the IP from english speaking market is crucial. And he also think that companies need to operate in a global scale, and have to conduct business in English.

My position is different. Understanding IP from english speaking is easy stuff. To read patent or tech spec doc does not really need english proficiency. The key is the market. If china market growes tremedously, then it will form a domestic market which is self-sustainable to have chinese speaking and operating only market and will have some companies which only operate in domestic market with domestic language.

This is actually a very interesting topic by looking into Japan and Germany. Germany is on my colleague track, running software business in english and achieving global economies of scale. SAP is the best example. However, domestic market and domestic operating companies are basically non-existing. Japan is sort of reversed. Some of japanese software firms like Fujitsu is running at global scale. But even just look into Fujitsu, some of its subsidinary is running like a traditonal japanese companies, operate only in japan market and do everything in their own language.

Then at this moment, we also need to bring in India in this discussion also. India is also interesting. No domestics market and completely relys on foreign (english mainly) market.

So, of course we can use Dunning's OLI or Porter's five force and diamond model for this. But from market perspective, does india going to be competitive for chinese speaking software industry? the answer is no. So, in the case if china's software market is formed (means chinese language based application), then there is no doubt this market could be domestic by chinese company, or the foreign company with signficant IP which can utilize economies of scale.

This is proven in Japan. In japan, there are quite some domestic companies only operate in their market. They are japanese oriented and know the market better. So, if they are in possession of enough IP, then there is no foreign company can beat them up.
SAP and Oracle are the cases which foreign company have to use more IP (like the world class process this kind of BS) and economies of scale to win Japanese market.

So, for Chinese market and software firm, the future is interesting and tie to each other. If china's software market grows and sustains, then chinese software firms will have their niche market and they even don't need to go outside (means no need to penetrate english speaking market) until they reach certain growth threshold. Recently China government's Linux case is symbolic to establish a unique market.

But if the market is not self-sustaining. Then chinese firms will end up directly compete with global companies on IP and economies of scale, and with India with cost and effiency. Then the future is more blurr.

This is sort of tie back to the domestic demand factor in Porter's dimond model. The sustainability of domestic demand by far is still the most signficant factor in the influence of a industry from country/nation perspective in my personal view. The growth of india software industry and the fail of US auto industry are two intersting and special cases. But we can talk that future later.

My MDA

Ok. This is my MDA, T-Mobile MDA. It is called Wizard in Europe and made by Taiwan's HTC. It is a nice piece of gadget. small, compact and have most features I want. Windows mobile, GPRS/EDGE, bluetooth, and Wifi.
It is also the main instrument I used for this mobile blog. Key in some text, take a photo, then I directly post it here, extremely streamlined.
I used to use it to browse internet when in restroom or anyplace I need to kill time. But with mobile blog, it is excellent since I can easily key in my thought and idea, fetch to blog without any delay.

Today, I rejected an offer. It is a really nice deal but I have to reject it. Overall, I am still pretty happy. This is the first time I conducted and negotiated through the whole processes with extremely high professional manner. The outcome is excellent and become such a achievement. Of course, letting an opportunty slide away from fingers always has some wonders. But I need to head up and look forward.

Chevolet Cobalt

This is the car I got this week. Chevrolet Cobalt. not the first time driving it thought.
the MSRP is only around 12K!? I saw some reviews on internet saying it is not competitive with rivals like civic and corolla. mmm since I did not really pay for it, my sense of money-to-value does not exist.
Overall, I think it is a decent car. The handling is not bad. The engine is not that powerful as most reviews mentioned. but I think it is an expectation thing. Who really want to drive a 3.0L 200HP Corolla? the dashborad is problematic. I have to spent time to get use to it and some buttoms are made extremely small. With the obesity problem in US, I cannot believe these US car designer can keep their jobs.

The last thing was the safety features. it got heavily critisized in reviews. As from my view, I don't know since it is better not trying to valid it :D

Not fair!

Ok. Black Friday is end and the craziness is gone. I stood in front of BB for couple hours and got most stuffs I want, except a NB which we knew it is mission impossible.
The thing is, my wife went to CC and got totally different experience. In front of BB, my last 100m was actually a spring and rushing. I really feel sorry for some old folks and cannot believe BB just let it went like that. It was completely unorganized and out of control.
My wife at CC got a well organized line, moved into the store smoothly withou any rush and interruptor.

What pissed me most was, one local restaurant handed out free coupons of a free breakfast after shopping to the people waiting in line there. Another one even just fetched a box of hot sandwiches to distribute. My wife keep saying she was so moved for these "kind community service" and make her feel cozy living in this community.

Damn, I was three blocks always with nothing and was freezing. The guys front of me kept drinking and smokingand then everyone went completely out-of-control greedy (but I heard the Walmart next block was even worse). I don't know whether these mean I was in the wrong community, or people think the people waiting front of BB are worse off (more greedy?) and not belonging here, or just ignore us (since we probably out-number CC)?

This is just don't seem fair! but okok. it was me to decide to go BB and looked stupid now. My wife and I did have a fun and exhausting BF. but next time go BB to lineup? I will give it a third thought (not only second).

The beginning of black friday 2006

this is the line front of CompUSA. the photo was shot front of OfficeMax in order to show the length of line... hohoho.... black friday 2006 start soon

100% failure rate

We renewed our T-mobile contract at the beginning of this year. Thanx to my wife she nailed a bargain. We got two cool moto razor for free.
however, after couple weeks, there are white spots on my LCD. I thought it was scratches but getting worse and worse. Eventually we reported to T-mo and found out that is a common defect. So I got mine replaced.
Last week, my wife razor suddenly went blind. Means nothing is on screen anymore. So we call T-mo again. Ban! another defect and got a replacement. It is in the photo and the box is the return (with broken in).
T-mo has such efficient return procees lead me to wonder is a market differentiator or survival factor. I was also thinking whether it is because we got a bargain so T-mo sent us thses 'guarantee fail moto razor'. Or Moto designed these cool looking phone with crapy components? Guarantee 100% failure rate!?

Admin staffs

In my previous post, I talked about how low quality of the staffs in my MBA program. Past couple days, I was ewally bothered by something they 'effectively' created.
At the beginning of this week, I suddenly receive a email to info me that the exam center I requested (which is U of Mxxxxx in US) does not have the space to accommodate my exam, and then ask me whether I am willing to change my whole travel arrangement.
ARE YOU NUTS? that was my response and think these smart Britains may not understand these dumb texan english. So I went on to explain how difficult and crazy it will be to make travel arrangement in less than two weeks and in such holiday season. I am assuming they know there is a thanksgiving in US and is a important holiday.
ok, so they KINDLY promise to me to work this out and explain to me that U of Mxxxxx has their final schedule...
Oh comma, either they think we MBA students are as dumb as potatoes or we are already recognized to be dumb enough to pick this program.
The exam location list was published in the beginning of Sept and we submitted our selection in mid of Sept. And the schedule of Mxxxxx (especially the schedule of final) should be well-known at the same time (have u be an college student?). For me, it is estimated to be a 5 mins task to pull out the schedule, take a look and make a phone call to confirm.... well, may be 30 mins.
So, our lovely admin staff just did this until 3 weeks prior exam!?
Our classmates have an assumption that the admin staffs in university, college or research institute are less competent than industries. They probably just want to have a easy job (way too easy) or just not competent enough to handle more complicate tasks. Therwise, they should be able to progress much better than stay in a slow pace environment. However, I feel they are generally nicer and I am not sure how to approve/disapprove this. But after an event like this, I am more lean to believe the hypothesis. Now I need to come up a 2x2 matrix to model this. that's all MBA students is doing.

Urrrr

Don't know what happen. I just cannot sent photo to mobile blog. This happened since couple days back and it seems mobile blog interpretate MMS as a crappy html doc so things are pretty mess up.
I am forced to clean up the text and then manually upload the photos.... Urrr... quite inconvenient and hope to work this out soon.

Shopping Season

Ok. Black Friday is approaching. to avoid a freak out BF, we decided to take an earlier action.
We bought this compaq laptop (c302) for about $350.
After a more comprehensive reseach, we found the laptop at same spec probably could be available at CC for around $300. however, it probably requires to line up by 3AM on BF and won't guarantee you get one. So we quickly dropped the ball. Yap, no matter what, it is still good enough comparing to MSRP.
It turned out to be a nice one. Performance is good and I overhaul the windows to get ride of all these HP preinstalled crap. Except some cumbersome problem with compaq's driver (highly expected), it went quite smoothly.
The last problem is the SATA. somehow the WinXP keep getting blue screen whether I enabled the SATA option... but don't see this hampering performance much so far.
My wife is thinking to get another one. And we still have portable DVD, GPS etc. on the shopping list. woopy, shopping season is here.

To-do list

I opened the To-do list on my PDA. did not do that too often until I got this handy MDA.
it is sort of scary. I have my MBA material just front of me, worrying about whether I can finish them on time prior exam. then I see these things on the list:
- 6 signa certification
- PMP
- CFA
gosh... I am definitely just moving bricks to hit my own feets
ok... maybe oneday I need to be deterministic enough to clean up the list.

wait.. but within the list, there are things I want to buy and want to eat....

I guess that is the life.... it is a trade-off. for certain enjoyments, then certain sufferings are required.

Toyota RAV4

This is the car I got this week. Toyota RAV4.

Overall, it is decent car. easy to drive. the manuvering is ok. But I don't like the interior. it seems trying to achieve certain style - rounding vent and round dashboard. I guess is sporty... However, it is just half way there. Last time I got Nissan Murano.... wooo .. it is really a different class.
another thing is the power. transmission is ok but seems the engine does not have enough power (am I driving crazy?). but with 3 colleagues on my car, the rpm will jump unexpectly

MBA - International & Service oriented

Sometimes, I think I must hit something two years ago to decide to take a MBA program in Europe. Ya, more precisely, in UK.
However thought about this less and less. couple days ago, a friend ask me how to feel so far for taking a program this far away and not well-known in US. I found I can easily describe how.
maybe sort of stereotypes, but I do enjoy the difference between US and Europe school - business school. US is good in marketing, operation and strategy. Europe is better in OB , Fin and particularly international biz. One key factor is the homogenuousness of this huge US market.
Some Europeans were joking about that US does not have good international perspective. I think that is true driven by this factors. But first point is, I think european is not better too much. the admin stuff sin my school ( comma, not wildchick comm college, top 5 univ in UK) thought Japan is part of China! second point is, from biz perspective, US don't need international biz as badly as europe. so no wonder some of them don't care.
so I enjoy the broader perspective in europe biz school. more international minded.
another enjoying thing is service oriented content. yap, manufacturing in UK is gone.. just purely gone. don't see any reason how and why someone want to do manu in UK and be competitive. a prof in strategy said ' ha! UK is screwed. it is in 'wealth driven' development (per porter) and won't be competitive againt asian countries ' I think a lot of my britain classmates stunned. but I think the statement is right.

so these two things are the two factors I enjoy most,which are quite the differentiators.

Urrr... as for the facilities and efficiency of school, europe has no way to close the gap with US. so, I think that will be the matter to manage the expectation for THESE EUROPEANS...

Escapism !?

Recently, I noticed I am more interested about the US internal political and social issues then other things I used to care with.

I think no matter what, people tend to be more care about the event, politic and social issue in or from their homeland. Like my Taiwanese friends always talk about election and politics in that island. My chinese friends talks about the life of mid class and how to make more money. My Japanese friend talk about how much Matsusaka will be sold, and my british friend keep making joke on Tony. I think that is also a safer way to make a conversation. It makes sense, you are not going to greet with your US friend by saying "hey! how is your Iraq war going?"

But why I am doing this? think about something I am not originated from? I was wondering that is it because of escapism. I even not sure whether "escapism" is a word or not. But I used it a lot to describe some of the motivation when go watch a movie.

So, maybe I am just tired to talk about something from my homeland which is barely changed, and probably never change.

Miyajima

Here are some photo from Miyajima. It is really a pretty place. It got damaged badly by typhoon in 2005 but heard recovered

Hiroshima

Back to 2004, I visited Hiroshima with my lovely wife. The purpose was to go miyajima (宫島). Miyajima is a very very scenery place, worthy to visit for a life time. I will post some pictures later
However, Hiroshima is different. After went to the A bomb museum, it turned a afternoon to be a depressed afternoon. My wife even cannot finish the whole exhibition.
disregarding who is right or wrong in a event of war. The pain and the suffer of ordinary people are significant. I served in military for a while. I was not sure what was the purpose of serving in military if the military activities do not aim to improve people's welfare. Sometime it is scarying to really try to sort out the reason to initiate a war. Do you believe that from certain perspective, Japan had to initiate pearl habor things for a good reason? I think most people don't. Anyway, I remember I saw a tv program in which a congressman questioned a general: 'if you cannot justify why our sons or daughters had suffered a for good reason for the country, then how we can convince other parents to sent their sons and daughters to fight, to die for that reason?'
Well, US is not drafting. so the reason to sent someone to battlefield for whatever reasons get complicated. However, I think the conclusion from Hiroshima still stands - ordinary people suffer most, no matter the person initiated achieved his object or not.

War crime

what is the definition of war crime?
the person who initiated a war with wrong reason, or a personal who initiated a war then failed, casued huge casualties?

MS Exchange with Mobile

woopy! the first time enable the sync from windows mobile to exchange server. Ban! everything could be sync like calendar and tasks! cool! don't need to live with t-mobile's mail altert and pop3 access anymore

Strong Army

Recently I was watching the commercial of US Army - 'us is strong because of strong army. and strong army is because of strong soilder'
I think I got two big questions in my mind. first at this ironic timing, which GOP got defeated badly by democratic because of Iraq. should people think about the meaning of 'strong US'? on convention power us is much more strong than before, compare to vietnam war. but is US really stronger? that is a excellent question.. but at least onething for sure. no one including us's past alliances would to see the strongness of US. they actually would prefer to find something to balance or even eliminate the influence of US. the powerless of us in handling iran and north korea are already a sign. and a bad sign. us is strong but losing friends
second, until when this 'strong army concept' will be gone. army could be used in only two scenarios - invasion and defencing turf. the power of invasion does not ensure the success. Iraq is already a sample. defencing the homeland? that is the last resort of defence. it seems strong army is the last priority. it would be preferred to have strong air force, navy and marine, even space force, before strong army.

I am feeling smarter enough people should avoid army. Let robot do the army job.

my cube

Yap! this is my cube. more than half of my time I am not in this cube but at least it is my cube. I need to put up my name tag soon

test from meeting

I think the main benefit of mobile blog is I can compose something in a meeting

2004 Carbernet Sauvignon from Lindeman Bin 43

Got it on my first week of Atlanta trip. As a celebration of my new job!?

They are packaged in small package. Typically, I don't have good impression
for these small bottle wine. But actually it is very nice Carbernet. Very smooth
but with dense taste.

2004 Carbernet Sauvignon from Casa Mayor

My mom grabbed this from Northwest flight crossing pacific ocean.
I believe I had it before.
It is kind of acid, for a Carbernet. The taste is
just bearable.

2003 Shiraz Carbernet from Jacob's Creek

First time tried the mixed. I picked the Shiraz with the Carbernet, just
because I had better impression for these two varieties.

It went ok. No surprise and not went below expectation. I guess probably
because it is just a cheap one from Costco :p

Porto from Warre's warrior ?Here you are, Darling?

My wife always said "I prefer a sweater wine" after trying even pink
Zinfandel. Ok, fine, got a Porto for you.
Precisely, Porto is not in wine
category, isn't it?
Anyway, now my wife is mixing Porto with Carbernet
because it is way?. haha :D

It is strong and heavy. Wondering when should I drink this. Probably after
Brazil grill!?

2004 Pinot Noir from Cavit ?mmm

First time try Pinot Noir.
Well?Maybe I can blame the small package, or
it is not a expensive one.
I want to try something new, so we pick a cheap
and small package Pinot Noir.
It was ok?but be frank, I don't remember how
it tasted now :D So, I guessed it is not very impressive either.

Sometimes, I am wondering what I am doing here. I used to drink something and
then try to remember it after couple weeks, or even months? then it ends up
with less fresh memeory.

The Black Dog from Château Morrisette

http://www.chateaumorrisette.com/blackdog.shtml

Tried another Virginia wine. The vinyard is actaully pretty close, within
couple hours driving distance. The label is weird, did not have the detail level I like. So, before trying it, it is all guessing game (well, with detail label, still guessing :p)
Maybe is the way they sale :D
It is kind of plain, but not the way of Merlot. It is acid but lighter than normal Shiraz. It has some favors, but lighter than Carbernet.. I guessed it must mixed some of them.
Now I think I am partially right. from its website. It is mixed from
Cabernet, Merlot and Chambourcin (never had this before) !!

Ps: From the price, we know it is not aiming at high end already :p
end already