HK-Day 2-Sunday

Posted by JohnP 02/03/2008 at 18:47

Ok, my first full day in HK. I’ll describe a few photos that were taken through the day.
Out the window just before the sun came up. Across the bay is Kowloon. The lights in the foreground are in Victoria Park where a flower festival is scheduled every evening this week.

I take a 5 hour walk around the Causeway Bay, Tin Hau, Wan Chai and Aberdeen districts today. This helps me fight my jet lag, get a little exercise and get the feel for the area around the hotel.

Looking back now, it appears that I took too many building photos. Some of them are of men working on bamboo truss systems. Sadly, you don’t get the scale of their work. The photo don’t include the 1st 4 floors.

I was also amazed by the trees growing where there is no dirt, right on/into the concrete.

Little walk rest stops are all over HK.

I head into Victoria Park for the morning version of the flower festival where I see lots of new and unusual plants. I plan to come back in the evening with Jim to learn what these are. There were other folks running, walking, exercising on strange devices (think wax-on, wax-off wheels placed at chest level) and a few groups of 5 or so practicing Tai Chi. The Great Crane movement has to be seen to be appreciated.

Wandering around HK on a Sunday you see the city come alive. As noon came around, more and more and more people are out shopping, meeting together, and sharing their views in official demonstration areas. It appeared that every Muslim girl on the island got together. I didn’t take many pictures of people since I didn’t know local customs. There was a point where I was surrounded by about 200 Filipino girls all about half my height who appeared to be buying panties from a corner vendor. Sorry guys, I should have snapped a picture.

McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut exist, but I haven’t been into any of them.

I walked about 5 miles today. Up and down overpasses, underpasses, crossing streets with 50 MPH double decker buses flying by and thousands and thousands of people going about their Sunday business. Outside the International Center mall, I was approached by a Buddhist Monk offering peace for a donation. HK$5 later (about US$0.90) and it was clear he was disappointed with me. I claimed to not understand and that I couldn’t understand what he wanted from me. Should have snapped a picture of him in his golden robes. I’ve learned it is common for non-monks to pretend they are to get “donations.” The monk hinted that I should give him HK$500 – US$65, not likely.

There are also a few MPG movies capturing the sites and sounds of HK. Road work doesn’t stop on Sunday. Having not lived in a city, I’m shocked when a tiny bird hops right up to me. Well, I decide to waste some video time on the bird, not that the species is interesting or anything, just the behavior. You are warned – I suck as a videographer.

Some HK money, Octopus MTR card, and bottled water are your best friends.

Jim arrives around 9pm and we’re both beat. Good night.

HK-Day 1-Saturday

Posted by JohnP 02/02/2008 at 12:50

Arrived around 8pm, sans Jim, after a 24+ hour travel day from Atlanta. ATL → SFO → HKG → Airport Express Train → MTR Subway → Hotel

The first photo is of me in the hotel room before taking a shower. The next group are of the views out the 13th floor window onto Causeway Bay, HK.
There were condensation and reflection problems. A few photos had to be deleted due to my reflection.

I was beat. Shower and to bed with me.
[[Hong Kong 2008]]

Hong Kong 2008

Posted by JD 02/01/2008 at 16:09

Ok, the trip to Hong Kong, China is on. I’ll add data here and for the friends and family, check my photo gallery for daily photo updates.

Update – due to an unfriendly stalker, I’ve removed my photo gallery from the internet. Sorry. There are hundreds of amazing photos that I simply do not feel comfortable sharing with the world anymore. It is too bad that all the nice family and friends who are interested don’t get to see my photos.

Total travel time is listed as 22 hours from Atlanta to HK. Basically, we leave at 730am and arrive at 7pm the next day.

Use this to perform a search of HK related articles.

Google Map of Hong Kong

HK-Day 1-Friday

Posted by JohnP 02/01/2008 at 13:26

Ok, going overseas requires a little more planning that heading anywhere in N. America.
The photos show my 2 bags and the items that I plan to take. Camera, N800, power converters, and chargers – lots of chargers – Cantonese and a Foder’s guide for Hong Kong – HK. Shoes for walking, passport, immunization records (not really needed),

Friday morning at 4:15am:
Jim!!! WAKE UP!!!

Ok, that didn’t work, so I left him happily sleeping inside his apartment and got on the plane alone. By the time I get to SFO, numerous voice mails have been left and Jim is trying to get on the next flight. 24 hours later he’s in the air … SFO->KHG.

AND I left my new Nokia N800 in my car … parked in airport parking. No blog updates until after Jim arrives. Also, I almost had ZERO information on HK because everything was left on the N800. I had 1 piece of paper with all the phone numbers (family, banking, credit card, AND the name of the hotel). Without that paper, I would be paying for another hotel. [[Metropark Causeway Bay]] is the keyword.

During the flight to SFO, the realization that I could be alone hits. I don’t speak Cantonese. I’ve heard that Engrish is still the official language. We’ll see since I doubt I’ll learn enough, if any, before arrival. Thanks for the Pimsleur – too bad I was so tired during the flight that none of it made any sense.

Met a Doctor and a Technical Analysis Stock Trader, both native Chinese, now living in Maryland and Dallas, on the flight. Good conversation about world events helped pass the 14+ hour flight time for that leg. 747s are a wonderful plane. I’ve never been on 1 before. L-1011, MD-11 and DC-10 suck compared to the Boeing 747. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t luxury, but I could completely stretch my legs out even 3 rows from the back of the plane.

Sorry that I didn’t snap any photos of the airports or 23+ hours of travel. Not even a snap of my tuna salad sandwich in SFO.

Left my house in ATL at 5:30am Friday. Arrived at the hotel Saturday evening around 8pm. I could smell myself. The train and subway systems in Hong Kong are unbelievable and the smoothest that I recall – even smoother than Tokyo.

Please pardon the lack of grammar and spell checking in all these posts.
We’ve had web site blog problems, local computer network problems due to the hotel networking, and we’ve simply been very tired after all the standing and walking all day while in HK.

[[Hong Kong 2008]]

HK-Pre-Trip

Posted by JohnP 02/01/2008 at 09:21

Ok, since JimH was going with me and he’s lived here, I didn’t really do any pre-trip planning beyond normal travel purchases of a camera, new 21" carryon roller, Foder’s Hong Kong’s 25 Best, and a Cantonese phrase book.
The checklists of things to bring were made, everything layed out to be packed, clothes packed twice, some items removed, repacked, removed, repack…

Need to leave the house by 4:30a to pick Jim up and head to the airport.

Ok, going overseas requires a little more planning that heading anywhere in N. America.
The photos show my 2 bags and the items that I plan to take. Camera, N800, power converters, and chargers – lots of chargers – Cantonese and a Foder’s guide for Hong Kong – HK. Shoes for walking, passport, immunization records (not really needed),

Friday morning at 4:15am:
Jim!!! WAKE UP!!!

Ok, that didn’t work, so I left him happily sleeping inside his appartment and got on the plane alone. By the time I get to SFO, numerous voicemails have been left and Jim is trying to get on the next flight. 24 hours later he’s in the air … SFO->KHG.

AND I left my new Nokia N800 in my car … parked in airport parking. No blog updates until after Jim arrives. Also, I almost had ZERO information on HK because everything was left on the N800. I had 1 peice of paper with all the phone numbers (family, banking, credit card, AND the name of the hotel). Without that paper, I would be paying for another hotel. Metropark Causeway Bay is the keyword.

During the flight to SFO, the realization that I could be alone hits. I don’t speak Cantonese. I’ve heard that Engrish is still the official language. We’ll see since I doubt I’ll learn enough, if any, before arrival. Thanks for the Pimsleur – too bad I was so tired during the flight that none of it made any sense.

Met a Doctor and a Technical Anaylsis Stock Trader, both native Chinese, now living in Maryland and Dallas, on the flight. Good conversation about world events helped pass the 14+ hour flight time for that leg.
747s are a wonderful plane. I’ve never been on 1 before. L-1011, MC-11 and DC-10 suck compared to the Boeing 747. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t luxury, but I could completely stretch my legs out even 3 rows from the back of the plane.

Sorry that I didn’t snap any photos of the airports or 23+ hours of travel. Not even a snap of my tuna salad sandwich in SFO.

Left my house in ATL at 5:30am Friday. Arrived at the hotel Saturday evening around 8pm. I could smell myself. The train and subway systems in Hong Kong are unbelievable and the smoothest that I recall – even smoother than Tokyo.

Please pardon the lack of grammar and spell checking in all these posts. We’ve had web site blog problems, local computer network problems due to the hotel networking, and we’ve simply been very tired after all the standing and walking all day while in HK.

Sage RSS Reader

Posted by JohnP 01/29/2008 at 20:43

WOW!

I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve not looked at RSS readers seriously until now. My N800 came with a reader and it made my surfing so much more efficient for my tastes that I had to find a full solution. Sage for Firefox does this.
Heck, my old TiddlyWiki site supported RSS feeds, but sadly, this SoloWiki version does not. Time for a site management change?

What are in my RSS feeds?

  • Woot!
  • Bensbargains
  • Slickdeals
  • Slashdot
  • Freshmeat
  • Google News
  • BBC News
  • Local Weather Underground
  • Costa Rica Weather Underground
  • Raleigh, NC Weather Underground

Nokia N800 Review

Posted by JohnP 01/29/2008 at 09:43

The Good:

  • WiFi (802.11g) w/ WPA support
  • Nice web browser and RSS reader I’m addicted
  • Form factor, the size is nearly perfect.
  • Screen resolution – double what the Apple iTouch has
  • CLAW IMAPS/SMTPS email (SSL/TLS encryption)
  • Standby battery time over a week with minimal use
  • Swappable Disk memory – SD, MiniSD, MicroSD supported (really just SD)
  • Maemo-Mapper Rocks even without a GPS connected if you plan ahead a little; I’ll never need a paper map again
  • MP3 and Video playback via mplayer; there are other solutions too.
  • Linux computer for all that means
  • PBReader for ebooks
  • PDF Reader
  • OM-Weather on the desktop
  • Maemo-Recorder for sound recordings on the go
  • Skype and Gizmo included. 3 months of free SkypeOut. Skype works as well for this thing as it does on PCs. Sound quality is comparable.
    --
    The Bad:
  • Text entry sucks without an add-on or remote keyboard
  • No PIM – I hear GPE or a PalmOS emulator cover this nicely.
  • Package Manager Hell – dependencies get out of whack quickly
  • MP3 playback battery life
  • Nokia Charger – NOT USB.
  • No screen protective case
  • No RJ45 Ethernet – must use WiFi or blue tooth.
  • Scroll wheel would be nice, but using your finger on the screen works well too.

Text entry is the main problem with this device. There are 5 ways to enter text.
a) finger touch keyboard that you have to toggle between numbers, letters and symbols – not an ALT key.
b) stylist touch keyboard that also requires toggling
c) handwriting recognition
d) remote in from another computer or
e) blue tooth keyboard

Yes, this system is a nearly complete Linux computer with most of the great things that means except full X/Windows. I’ve been using Linux since 1993 and found the lack of quick, accurate text entry troublesome. UNIX systems need typing. A portable USB keyboard would really help. That isn’t supported at this point, but because it is Linux, someone is working on it.

A little background … I bought the N800 after researching options for months. I looked at the iTouch, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and tiny PCs. I needed a laptop replacement with WiFi to keep me connected as I travel the world for leisure. Long battery life, lite web browsing, and IMAPS email were at the top list after wifi. VoIP/Skype is a bonus. The Nokia does that and more. The web browser isn’t the normal "portable" limited version. It shows most websites correctly. I have more viewing problems using my desktop browsers when locked down. I haven’t found the settings to control cookies or javascript in the browser, nor have I found a TOR client yet. For my purpose, it has been a reasonable choice and certainly was the most cost effective solution.
After seeing the Asus Eee form factor, I may recommend that PC instead. You get a full PC in a fairly small package, Linux/WinXP and no specialized software to relearn. Things that you are used to will simply work. By the time I have my N800, blue tooth keyboard, and charger, I have almost as much stuff as the Asus Eee brings self contained. AND the N800 IMAP doesn’t quite work the way I like yet. Also, the Eee price is almost the same as I spent for all the N800 + accessories + SD memory.
For day trips, the N800 is clearly the better form factor for mapping and longer battery life.

Memory expansion/swapping it key. There’s 2 SD slots available. 1 internal near the battery, the other swappable from outside.

Getting IMAPS working took a little hacking and a few days. Seems the built-in email program didn’t support entry of my complete password. A few special characters were stripped. I had the same problem with WPA key. Also, the IMAP password is stored in a plain text file. Unacceptable. I switched to CLAW email and was able to connect, but still don’t have other subscribed IMAP folders working. The good news is my password is encrypted in some manner.
There’s no PIM included. The included contact manager is worthless – like Motorola’s phone contacts. It seems to have been written by a college kid over a weekend. VCARD? What is that? LDIF import/export is what we all need. This is Linux.
There’s a whole list of applications available for it. You add "repositories" and can select what you want to load. I’ll bet some packages will conflict with others and I’ll be in package manager hell in no time. I’ve already run in to "incompatible package" errors trying to load some applications – like GPE the most talked about PIM for the N800. This is common in the Linux world since any developer can create a completely custom development system that will almost never match your system. You can also load .DEB files provided they don’t conflict.

Free applications are the rule here, not the exception. You’ve entered the Linux hacker world which is a good thing. Updates will be nearly constant which may or may not be good.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by some of the other capabilities. Maemo-Mapper is fantastic has a map replacement, but you’ll need much more disk memory than the 128M included. I ordered 8G and 2G upgrades since I planned to replace my 60G Zen media player. After a few hours of listening to music, the battery was nearly spent. I’m used to 11 hours of playback time. Standby time is what this device is designed for, not MP3 playback. The amount of battery on standby is impressive, but not endless. After just a few days, the device needs to be recharged. I did use the mapper for 45 minutes while driving. It has already replaced my Atlanta area key map. I’m in another test now. Turning the device off between use with morning and evening use for email and news web browsing. After 3 days the battery charge doesn’t appear to have dropped. Nice. This will help as I track through South America later this year.

Speaking of charging. Leave it to Nokia to require a specialized charger – NOT USB. That simply sucks. Now I get to carry a USB charger, Nokia charger and Sony charger AND a wifi router around the world. Perfect.

A belt clip would be nice too. As a nerd, I really miss my status symbol on my belt.

N800 Software

Posted by JohnP 01/25/2008 at 10:09

List of applications that I’ve found to be useful on my Nokia N800:

  1. GPS – Maemo Mapper
  2. voice memos – Maemo Recorder
  3. Outliner – NoteCase with encryption
  4. MP3 Player – Media player / mplayer
  5. IMAP email – both built-in and Claws
  6. Skype
  7. File Manager
  8. ssh / scp / sftp / rsync
  9. PDF Reader
  10. Camera
  11. Calculator – Free42
  12. zip/unzip/gzip/b2zip

I still need:

  1. cross platform (winxp, linux, N800) password manager
  2. XLS File Reader – I like to track lots of things in XLS.

I had to write a few little scripts to push and pull files to/from my N800. I’ve said it before – rsync rocks! I grab user, /media/mmc1, /media/mmc2

How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off

Posted by JohnP 01/23/2008 at 16:45

As most of you know, I became very overweight since 2000 by over 100 lbs. As I’m losing weight, I figured that other people may be interested in what I’ve found that works for me. This isn’t a lose 50 lbs in 2 weeks plan, rather, it is a lose 3 lbs / week plan. My plan works best for logical thinkers, not emotional thinkers. If you are a scientist or engineer, it is really easy.

The Science There is no magic bullet. Caloric input (eating) must be less than caloric output (sitting, walking, running, sleeping, and exercise). You have to eat less energy than the energy that you use in any 24 hour period. Simple.
What you need to do

  • Set goals – 50 push ups, 180 lbs, 5 mile run, 200 sit ups, Walk up 20 flights of stairs, etc.
  • Diet – eat 500 calories less than your body needs to maintain your current weight. If you aren’t active, that number is probably below 1700 calories a day. Calculator
  • Exercise – you’ll feel better, gain stamina, prevent muscle loss while dieting, gain strength and most importantly, look better. Oh, someone says that muscle burns more calories than fat.
  • No gym membership needed. No fancy equipment, just normal tennis shoes, a few dumb bells and your body weight for push ups, dips, squats, and pull ups. Expensive equipment is just another delay. Gym memberships are a complete waste of money unless you’ve already proven that you’d use it 5+ times a week. DON’T SIGN A CONTRACT, period.
  • Write down everything you eat. EVERYTHING except water, that is. Keep your food diary forever. Plan your food before you start eating. Plan the calories. Some calories for common foods
  • Drink water. Lots of water. Filtered or not. Bottled or not. I drink tap water myself. Well over 32 oz is needed daily. 64 oz may be too much.
  • Weigh in daily AND write your weight down – this allows you to adjust for any problems or eating mistakes quicker than weekly. I post mine on the fridge. Review where you’ve been every day. Every success, 1 day at a time, means something.
  • Measure and track what you do – this helps you predict when you’ll hit your goal weight. That’s good for getting to your goals. I’m tracking weight, predicted weight, push ups, cardio exercise time, waist, chest, belly, neck and estimated % body fat using the US Navy estimation method.
  • Graph what you measure! I have a graph that shows my actual weight and predicted weight if I keep losing 3 & 4 lbs/week. When I fall behind, that gives me purpose for my next workout and feedback on my daily eating so I can adjust or see where I went wrong.
  • Avoid Starvation mode – don’t eat too few calories. It helps 1 day, but not much more.
  • Count calories – ok, estimate them. It takes about 2 weeks to get good at estimates. Don’t be fooled. It is easy to guess wrong. For 1 meal a week, that’s probably not an issue. More than that – who knows? We all want to be successful with our goals, right? I try to eat about 1700 calories a day.
  • Ski machine, free weights, walking, outdoor activities
  • No caffeine, no soda, avoid processed foods. Portion control.
  • Eat breakfast (400+ cal) and lunch (~700 cal) for most of your daily calories – healthy snacks (~100 cal ea) too
  • Don’t eat too much fruit – never more than 2 pieces a day. That’s usually 4 servings.
  • Avoid bread – I guess you can find whole grain bread and be fine. I choose to only have bread with my HEAVY lunch, once a week.
  • Eat a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. I’ve usually not hungry when I’m eating it, but that’s the point!
  • Fill in remaining daily calories for dinner – usually ~200 cal, so veggies and fruit or oatmeal work. DO NOT HAVE A BIG MEAL LATE In THE DAY. PERIOD
  • Don’t go to sleep on a full stomach – ever.
  • Don’t eat after 7pm. If I missed dinner, too bad.
  • Nuts – there’s something about them is filling. Limit the serving to 1 handful per day and know that it is usually 200 calories, so plan accordingly.
  • Have some kind of dairy every day for calcium. Yogurt, skim milk, and yes, cheese.
  • Don’t eat too much protein, but have meat/egg protein with breakfast AND lunch. Dinner doesn’t need protein since it will be a heavy meal if you do.
  • Don’t skip meals or snacks unless it is a "cheat day".
  • Fish is good. White, salmon, cod, crayfish, lobster, crab – yummy. No butter, obviously.
  • Avoid processed foods. If it comes in a box, don’t eat it. Fresh is best.
  • Whole bran foods are good, but don’t believe the package. Read the ingredients and check the calories per serving and determine what YOUR serving size and calories will be.
  • Avoid white rice. The missing husks are the problem. Brown rice is just normal rice without the husks removed.
  • Avoid salt.
  • Don’t avoid fat like you think. You need fat calories too.
  • Avoid packaged foods, except for emergencies. A frozen meal has all the calories listed which makes it easy, but that shouldn’t be your main plain. Fresh food is best and ties you emotionally to what you eat. Soon, you won’t want to put anything processed into your body.
  • Bring water and healthy snacks with you. Fruit and single portion nuts in a bag are best for this. I refill a water bottle and leave it in my car. Since I live in the suburbs, walking places isn’t an option.
  • Take a multi-vitamin daily – you have cut your calories, so you need to be careful that you don’t cause malnutrition.
  • Take an Omega-3 pill daily
    Ok, so you have a list of what not to eat.
    What do I eat? Some of my favorites:
  • Fruit: Banana, Apple, Orange, Tomato, Strawberry, Blackberry, Raspberry, pretty much any ‘berry’ fresh or frozen,
  • Nuts: Walnuts, Almonds, Cashews, Peanuts
  • Vegetables: Cauliflower, Broccoli, Corn, Onion, Romain Lettuce, Mushrooms, shredded carrots (not too many), potato, Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans, Snow Peas, Fresh sweet peas (never frozen), lots of fresh beans (15 bean soup anyone?)
  • Meat/Fish: salmon, tuna, cod, trout, snapper, crab, shrimp, crayfish, chicken, occasionally beef. Yummy.

Exercise

  • Nordic Track Cross Country Skier
  • Power 90 exercise tapes
  • Comcast On-Demand Exercise Shows
  • Walking
  • Yard Work / Brush Clearing
  • Park a little further than you normally do
  • Take stairs or get off the elevator a few floors early. I used to work on 37th floor, so walking up/down all those flights is a 30+ minute commitment. I’ve never walked up them. I have walked down them – 4 times – during complete building evacuations. 1 was for real – fire on the 46th floor. My legs were very shaky at the bottom.

Final Thoughts
Everyone cheats. Don’t worry about it too much if it happens once a week. I plan on cheating at least 2 meals each week. That doesn’t mean I eat more calories that day. I just have to build them into the total or eat extremely light meals/snacks on that day. I’ve lost 30 pounds in under 2 months doing what this page says and I’m not exercising like crazy either.

What more do you need? Take some pictures of before and again every 10 pounds that you lose.

Typical Food Day | Cheat Food Day | Healthy Lifestyle Motivation Techniques |
Outside link – I didn’t read this until I was writing this page.

Healthy Lifestyle Motivation Techniques

Posted by JohnP 01/23/2008 at 08:44

This is part of the How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off article.

Ok, so you’ve decided to get healthy, lose some weight, and be more active? Good. How do I stay motivated?

  1. Decide and Do { as Yoda says, "do or do not, there is no try" ; as Nike says, "Just do it." }
  2. Watch your tabular data and graphs. I get motivated to continue when I see my history of weight loss captured over months. This is my greatest motivation.
  3. Hang out with healthier people
  4. Join an activity or team; you aren’t thinking about food when you’re doing something else
  5. Watch TV shows like the BBC You are What you Eat show. This show has changed the way I look at food. It just clicked for me. Maybe it will click for you. Find what does and use it.
  6. Watch Exercise TV
  7. Watch Food Preparation shows – quick recipes that taste good. I’m working on crockpot recipes myself.