Dragon Boat Festival

Yesterday, the family celebrated Dragon Boat Festival for the second time here in Austin. What is Dragon Boat Festival? Here's a brief summary:

"The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC - 278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing."

We didn't go to any dragon boat races, but we did buy several "zongzi", which is basically rice, pork, and mushrooms wrapped in bamboo leaves. We bought some last year from the Chinese supermarket in Chinatown, but they were awful. Somebody simply mixed rice and peanut butter together and called it a "zongzi." So this year Christy went to a Taiwan restaurant called "Wok On Fire" (also in Austin's Chinatown) and bought six. The restaurant charged $3 for each "zongzi."

"Very expensive." Christy told me. "In Taiwan, you can buy three for what they are charging for one."

She's right, but she has to realize that she's not in Taiwan anymore, and if you want a taste of your homeland food, you're going to pay more. I paid a small fortune on one Thanksgiving just trying to get turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. And I frequently had to overpay for American soda as well. While horrible soda like "Heysong Saspirilla" was a mere 12 NT per can, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper were always anywhere from 35 to 50 NT a can.

At least the "zongzi" was actually pretty good this year.

(Picture: Kyle, examining his zogzi (rice cake) )

The Formosa Art Tea House

The best tea house in Taiwan (in my opinion) is a place called "Chun Shui Tang" (春水堂 in Chinese, the website is http://www.icetea.com.tw/). Every tea that I've tried at this restaurant has been good, and I particularly like their green tea and their "jen ju nai cha" (bubble tea).

I was a bit surprised when Christy informed me that there was a "Taiwan-style" tea house right here in the Austin area, just a 15 minute drive north in a city called Pflugerville. She told me that the owners were Taiwanese, and they even had their own website (doesn't everyone these days?). I scanned their website, http://www.drinkarttea.com/, and I thought the place looked kinda cool, like the tea houses I used to go to in Taiwan.

So, this past weekend, we decided to check the place out. My first impression was that it seemed out of place in the suburban city of Pflugerville. It was located in one the many small strip malls you see everywhere, next to a haircut shop and a Mexican restaurant. When we walked in, we were the only customers (this was a Saturday afternoon). If they had set up their tea house in Austin's Chinatown, the place probably would have been packed.

The place itself was pretty nice, and had the look of a real Taiwan tea house. We all decided to order the "jen ju nai cha" (bubble tea). Since I've been back to America, I haven't really liked any of the bubble tea that I've tried here. Either it's too sweet or it's watered down or it just simply tastes bad. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to report, the bubble tea at the Formosa Art Tea House sucked. Just plain sucked. It was given to us in a plastic cup like you would get from a take-out tea store. The taste wasn't very good either. I've had better bubble tea at a shopping mall.

To be fair, the Formosa Art Tea House does offer many different kinds of teas, not just bubble tea. They have green tea, "kung fu" tea, and at least a dozen more kinds of teas. Maybe their other tea is good, who knows. So I may give them one more chance with a different tea. My wife seemed to enjoy talking in Chinese to the manager there. I don't really have any idea what they were talking about, except that they both seemed to be complaining about things in America compared to Taiwan. That doesn't surprise me. Whenever I would get together with David in Taiwan, we would always complain about Taiwan.

The manager told us that he worked at Dell Computer during the week, and that was his "real" job. The tea house was just secondary income. Let's hope that Dell doesn't fire him.

(Pictures: 1 & 2. Outside the tea house. 3. Inside the tea house. 4 & 5. Kyle drinking the "jen ju nai cha.)

Texas and Guns

Texans sure love their guns.

A law passed recently here in Texas that will allow students to carry concealed weapons on school campuses across the state. If you find this hard to believe (as I do), here's an article about it:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-collegeguns_20tex.ART.State.Edition1.4999a31.html

Where does this end? Guns in church? Guns in movie theaters? Guns in hospitals? Guns in elementary schools? I mean, why not just allow guns EVERYWHERE?

The advocates of this law like to point out the massacre at Virgina Tech, and they say that if some of the students had carried guns, the shooter wouldn't have killed so many people. Okay...maybe that's true...BUT....these types of massacres are extremely rare. What's more likely to happen is that you'll see more random shootings. Some student will get pissed off at their teacher, BANG! A guy gets pissed off that his girlfriend dumped him...BANG! That kid who sits next to me just said I was stupid....KILL HIM!

Statistics have shown that people who have guns are more likely to shoot a loved one or family member, than shoot someone that actually means them harm.

I can't imagine the people who crafted the Constitution ever thought it would come to this. As it was originally intended, the Second Amendment was created so Americans could defend themselves from a possible British invasion, which was certainly possible back in the late 1700's. Now we've got kids carrying guns into their college classrooms. Thomas Jefferson can be proud.

Cambridge Who's Who Scam

Like most of you out there, you've probably received hundreds, if not thousands, of scam emails. These days, though, I don't get as many as I used to. Now I just get ad after ad promoting some kind of male enhancement. Right now, for example, checking my spam box, I see an email titled "The Great Sex Secrets of Giving Women Multiple Orgasms - Make Her Scream With Pleasure". This is typical of the spam I get today. I'm not sure why. I'm only 38, and haven't reached that stage yet where I need help in this area.

Before all the sex spam, I used to receive a lot of email from people (usually in Africa) who would tell me that someone with my last name has died recently, and I can inherit a lot of money if I'm willing to give out a bunch of personal information (and probably bank account numbers as well.) These are often referred to as the Nigerian scams. I've also been told I've won the Yahoo! Lottery countless times.

I feel sorry for anyone who has fallen for these scams. They're so obviously a scam that it's funny.

The other day, however, I received something in the mail. It was an actual letter from the Cambridge Who's Who listing, which read:

"Dear Ken,

You were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent Austin, TX in the 2009/2010 on line Cambridge Who's Who Registry Among Executive and Professionals.

We are pleased to inform you that on March 29, 2009 your candidacy was approved. Your prompt response is needed to ensure your correct professional information. For accuracy purposes, please be sure to visit your personal website to verify your biographical information. http://www.kenberglund.mycwwapp.com/

If you do not have Internet access, please fill out the form and return the enclosed reply card by June 27, 2009. We've provided the postage for your convenience.

The office of the Managing Director appoints individuals based upon a candidates current position and usually with information obtained from researched executive and professional listings. The Director thinks that you may make an interesting biographical subject, as individual achievement is what Cambridge Who's Who is all about.

Upon final confirmation, you will be listed among thousands of accomplished individuals in the Cambridge Who's Who Registry. Remember, there is no cost to be included. On behalf of the Managing Director, we look forward to your appearance in this year's edition.

Best wishes for continued success."

I have to admit, I was fooled for a few minutes. But only for a few minutes. It was a brief ego boost. I thought to myself "Wow. They want me to represent Austin. Be one of Austin's elite." But then, after thinking about it, it didn't make sense. I've only lived in Austin for about a year, and I've been working here for even less. I have few friends here, and my job is nothing to brag about. Why the hell would they want to include me in their registry? I'm nobody.

So I began to google "Cambridge Who's Who" and found link after link that declared them a scam. Once you send in your card, or fill out the online information, someone will contact you and try to sell you a membership to their website. Membership ranges anywhere from $100 to $1000. The letter claims there is no cost, but apparently that's not true. And what is the value of being listed on this website? Supposedly, it promotes social networking. Uh huh, okay, whatever.

My advice to anyone else who might see this letter: toss it.

Austin On Top Again

So, here it is again, Forbes Magazine ranked Austin #1 for the Best Bargain City.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/13/bargain-cities-america-lifestyle-real-estate-bargain-cities.html

Here's a quote from the article:

"They have the triple-whammy of being a university town, a state capital and a technology center," says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale.com, a salary data aggregator based in Seattle. "It makes for a very robust economy and a great place for people to work."

Four other Texas cities make the list of America's Best Bargain Cities, but none come close to Austin, whose 5.5% unemployment is the best in the country and about half the national average.

Is Austin really a bargain? Yeah, I guess it is. Over the past year, Christy and I have actually been able to save money here. With two kids, I would have thought this unimaginable. Rent, gas, food, and entertainment are all cheaper here, so it is much easier to get by with less.

Finding a job here doesn't seem to be that difficult either. I know two colleagues of mine who recently got fired at the hospital, and they were able to find another job within a couple of weeks. I think as long as you're not looking for some high paying tech or engineering job, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a job here.

Of course, long-time Austin residents are worried about an influx of people moving here because of these types of articles. They want to "keep Austin weird" and they have this idea that all these people moving in will cause the "weirdness" to disappear from the city. They shouldn't worry so much. And as far as my family living here, I think their "weirdness" reputation is still intact.

Video - Queen Mary

Here's my last entry regarding my recent trip back to California. It's just a little video I shot on board the Queen Mary, inside our room.

California Trip (Part 6) - The Queen Mary

Our last two nights in California were spent on board the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I had been to the Queen Mary several times before, but never stayed overnight on the ship. It always used to be too expensive, but now, because of the recession, and the declining tourists, it was more affordable, around $90 per night.

For most of the time there, it seemed like we had the entire ship to ourselves. I think I counted maybe 10 other cars in the parking lot. It didn't surprise me when I heard, later on, that the Queen Mary was about to be under new management, and plans were underway to turn the ship into a floating casino. I guess that's the only way to make it profitable again.

I think it would help the Queen Mary considerably if they rethought some of their prices in other areas as well as the hotel. The parking, for example, costs $15 per day for hotel guests. They don't include it in their room package. There are no discounts for any of the guided tours, and the tour I was the most interested in "The Paranormal Shipwalk Tour" was $50 per person.

The family seemed to enjoy staying on the ship, but Christy told me that she got a very "creepy" vibe from it. They say that parts of the ship are supposed to be haunted, so feel free to check out the pictures I took and see if you spot any ghosts.

(Pictures: 1. Christy and the kids in front of the ship. 2. The Queen Mary. 3. Sara and Kyle bouncing on the bed in the room. 4. The interior of the ship. 5. Sara next to the bathtub, which allows you to choose between salt water and sea water. 6. The front of the boat.)

California Trip (Part 5) - Long Beach

Long Beach is a nice city, and I lived there for almost 10 years. It has a lot of picturesque streets, nice restaurants, museums, generally friendly people, and not nearly as much traffic as the more popular "beach cities." It has almost everything you could want from a beach city, except for the actual beach itself. Long Beach has a brick wall out in the ocean, which they call a "breaker", that keeps the ocean calm and motionless. There are no waves at all, and it's because of this the beaches of Long Beach have not become popular. That never bothered me in the past, because I rarely go swimming in the ocean anyway. What I always liked about Long Beach was the price. It was always cheaper to live there than any of the other beach cities. Whereas Santa Monica and Venice Beach were charging over a thousand a month for rent, you could get by with paying maybe seven or eight hundred in Long Beach.

Now...all that has changed.

The rents in Long Beach have skyrocketed. An apartment that I once paid $675 a month for is now $1400. And this seems to be the norm there throughout the entire city. This is a big mistake. This past weekend when I was out there visiting, I drove around many, many streets of Long Beach, and I literally saw hundreds of "FOR RENT" signs. People are leaving in droves. Why? Because it's too damn expensive. Long Beach is trying to become another Santa Monica, even building a new pier and a ferris wheel, and expanding the shops near the Aquarium and Queen Mary. The only problem is that people are not coming. The place is turning into a ghost town. Perhaps if they removed the "breaker", as many residents have suggested, and cleaned up the beach, then people would come. But right now Long Beach doesn't really offer a lot to entice tourists, with the exception being the Queen Mary and the Aquarium.

Once the economy improves, and if rent prices come down in Long Beach, I'd be happy to live there again. It's the lack of tourists and big crowds that attracted me to the city to begin with. But for now, I'm content with Austin, the #1 Best Bargain City to Live In (says Forbes Magazine.)

(Pictures: 1. The Long Beach skyline. 2. One of my old apartment buildings in LB. 3. Sara at El Dorado Park. 4 & 5. Two streets of Long Beach. 6. The "Potholder" Cafe.)

California Trip (Part 4) - Downey

For most tourists visiting Los Angeles, Downey isn't the sort of city you'd want to stop and visit, unless you were staying in L.A. for several months and you've run out of stuff to do. The only "tourist attraction" in Downey is "The World's Oldest Operating McDonalds." That's it. Ok, it's also the city where the Carpenters and James Hetfield (of Metallica) were born, but they've long since moved away (or died.)

Having grown up in Downey, though, I still visit the city regularly just to see what's new and what's changed. I took the family to see the old house I grew up in. The new owners have painted it and added a strange brick wall around the side yard. I have to admit, it's hard to look at your childhood home with new owners living there. It's kind of sad. I had always hoped my mom could live there until the day she died. But unfortunately that's not the way things turned out.

Downey has changed quite a bit since I was a kid. It's now become a primarily Hispanic, working class city. A lot of the old restaurants I used to go to are gone. "Salvatores," an Italian restaurant that was there since I was a kid, went out of business, as did the 70's style "Foxy's" restaurant. No great loss as far as Foxy's is concerned, but I did enjoy Salvatores. The grocery store "Beach's" (the place where I got my first job) is still there, but when I went inside, it was pretty empty. I don't expect it to last much longer either.

As for Downey's one big attraction, the old "McDonalds", the city doesn't seem to be taking good care of it. The museum next to the restaurant is filthy, and the bathrooms were totally disgusting. If this is your biggest tourist spot, at least try to keep it clean.

The one thing that Downey does have going for it, though, is its location. It's only a 13 mile drive to downtown Los Angeles. This is why my mom's old house sold for nearly half a million dollars. Location, location, location. But would I buy a house there? No way.

(Pictures: 1 & 2. The Oldest Operating McDonalds in the World. 3. The house I grew up in, now painted blue. 4. The street I grew up on, Puritan St. 5. Beach's Market, my first job. 6. One of the better restaurants in Downey, the South Pacific Thai Restaurant.)

California Trip (Part 3) - Santa Monica

Of all of the beaches in Southern California, the one in Santa Monica is probably the best. It's definitely the most famous. The pier there is historical, and it's been featured in a lot of movies. Santa Monica is the city that Long Beach is trying to be, but failing miserably (more on that later.)

In the past, our family has always traveled to California during Christmas, so it's always been cold. This time was sunny and warm, so it was the kids first real experience at the beach. They really enjoyed it, but they seemed to like the sand more than the water.

On the day we were there, there was some sort of art exhibit displayed on the beach. Over 4,000 crosses were put into the sand to represent the soldiers who have died in Iraq. (see picture above) They were also displaying photographs of dead and wounded Iraqi civilians, some of them extremely gory. I understand and appreciate what the artists are trying to do, but since this is a beach filled with small children, I'm not sure this is appropriate.

(Pictures: 1. The famous Santa Monica sign. 2. Sara in the sand. 3. The art exhibit on the beach. 4. The pier. 5. Christy and Kyle walking in the sand. 6. Santa Monica)

California Trip (Part 1) - Disneyland

We just got back from our five day trip to California. One of the first places we went was (naturally) Disneyland. It was Sara's third time there, and Kyle's first. Sara loved it, as always. Kyle just gets excited at everything. I think we could have taken him to the post office, and he would have been equally as excited.

Sara is now 40 inches tall, which allowed her to go on more rides than the previous years. However, we now had to pay for her to get into the park (unlike Kyle).

Admission to Disneyland is currently $69 for adults, and $59 for kids. So for the three of us to go, it cost us nearly $200. Once Kyle is a couple of years older, then he will be $59 as well. Food is also ridiculously overpriced there as well, and it's not very good.

So...there's a reason we only go to Disneyland once a year.

(Pictures: 1.) Christy, Sara & Kyle at the front gates. 2.) Mickey Mouse's house. 3.) Sara and Kyle meet Mickey. 4.) Sara & Kyle meet Pluto. 5.) The Materhorn (which Sara was finally able to ride.) 6.) Sara in New Orleans Square.

Movies With the Wife

My wife Christy and I recently decided that we would try to make Saturday night our "movie night." Once the kids had gone to sleep, we would watch either a movie we had rented from the local Blockbuster, or we'd watch something that I already own that she hadn't seen before.

Watching a movie together without the kids interrupting it every few seconds had been a challenge. When we were first living in a one bedroom apartment, the kids slept in the living room, so we really had no opportunities to watch "grown up" movies. If we wanted to watch a movie, it had to be a Disney movie or some other cartoon. We now, finally, have some freedom.

The challenge I face now is trying to find movies that have Mandarin Chinese subtitles. Christy can watch movies without the subtitles, but she often has no idea what's going on. Imagine someone whose primary language isn't English, trying to watch a Woody Allen movie without subtitles. You're just better off not watching it at all.

We have a blu-ray player in our house, and many blu-ray discs now feature Chinese subtitles, but not every one. And sometimes the movie is mis-labeled. The disc will say it has Chinese subtitles, but it will actually be either Cantonese, or "simplified" Chinese, which Christy hates.

It's really hit and miss to find something with Chinese subtitles. "Batman Returns", for example, has Chinese subtitles, but the sequel "The Dark Knight" does not. Why? It's bizarre. I wrote an email to Warner Brothers and I told them that they need to include the subtitles on more of their movies. Of course, they didn't reply back. On a "Region 1" blu-ray disc, Taiwan is listed as one of the territories, so why not include Chinese subtitles on every disc?

Sometimes, even when we DO have the subtitles, Christy still doesn't share my taste in movies. I tried to get her to watch "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" and she couldn't make it through either one. And she hated "A Clockwork Orange", even though she only watched about 40 minutes. Then last night we watched the James Bond classic "Goldfinger", and she didn't like that either.

"Oh, this is so bad. The acting is bad. The story is stupid. And he just treats women like they are his toys." Christy said. "I like the new James Bond movies better."

To some extent, I agreed with her. "Goldfinger" has some surprisingly banal dialogue. The villain, Goldfinger, keeps James Bond alive for FAR too long, just so he can kill him in the most dramatic way possible. What is the benefit of blowing up James Bond in Fort Knox when he could have been offed much sooner? And Goldfinger just lets Bond walk around his compound leisurely, drinking martinis and having sex with his pilot. What the hell? Then the pilot, Pussy Galore, suddenly has a change of heart at the end and decides to join Bond to defeat Goldfinger. Why? Because they had sex together? Give me a break.

We printed a list of Yahoo's "100 Movies to See Before You Die", and "Goldfinger" was on that list. Personally, after just watching it, I prefer the new "Casino Royale" with Daniel Craig. "Quantum of Solace", the newest one, is not quite so good. Our next movie together will most likely be "Blade Runner", another movie listed in the top 100. I have a feeling Christy won't make it through that either.

A Year in Austin

This month marks the one-year anniversary that our family arrived in Austin.

Austin was never one of our top choices of a place to live once we arrived in America. I knew very little about this city, other than it being the capital of Texas, and I've never been fond of Texas. I had always dismissed Texas as a state full of too many gun-totin', cowboy-hat wearin' rednecks. Those people do exist here, but not in Austin. Thankfully, Austin is different.

As luck would have it, we live in the most liberal, open minded city of Texas. The wide cross-section of people who live in Austin is probably its best feature. It's just too bad there aren't more interesting things to do here. Weekends are a challenge to find something that our family can do for fun. We often have to drive far outside the city just for some excitement. Also, it seems like most major concert tours seem to bypass Austin completely. Yes, we did have Bruce Springsteen here last month, but what about The Eagles, AC/DC, Coldplay, Green Day, Metallica, Elton John & Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, ZZ Top, and many others? All of these bands are playing (or played) either in Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio, but NOT Austin. Austin is the "music capital of the world", so what's going on? To give the city some credit though, they DO have "Austin City Limits" (ACL), which will feature Pearl Jam, in early October.

Like I had mentioned before, I grew up in Southern California, so it's tough to compare Austin to L.A. I do miss the beaches and the palm trees. I miss the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, The Getty Center, the Griffith Park Observatory, the shops and restaurants on 2nd street in Long Beach, and so much more. Maybe if I had grown up in Emporia, Kansas, I would think Austin was the greatest city ever, but that's not the case.

The only major city we have yet to see here in Texas is Houston. I expect there is probably a lot to see and do there, since it's the biggest city in Texas. However, I have heard only negative comments about Houston from people who live here in Austin. They seem to think it's an overcrowded city that has no charm whatsoever. We'll find out pretty soon. My wife Christy just discovered that one of her old friends from Taiwan lives in Houston, so we'll be going out for a visit within the next month or so.

A lot has happened in the last year. Our family went from living in a studio sized room at the "Extended Stay America" hotel, with no jobs and an uncertain future, to a pretty decent, two bedroom apartment. Christy and I both still have jobs, but the future is still uncertain. It's just not quite as bad as it was. In this economy, though, our luck can change very quick.

As long as we're still making (and saving) money, we'll stay in Austin for a while. It's inexpensive here, and there are far worse places we could be living (Detroit, anyone?)

(Picture: Austin at night)