The Adventures of Leon Fu

What Is Real Security?

2010-03-02T22:35:00.003-06:00

Since the start of the economic downturn, I have been feeling a sense of anxiety and insecurity among my friends and acquaintances. Unemployment is currently around 10% and the real number is probably closer to 20%. People view their livelihood in terms of their jobs, career, and money. We have evolved into a society where our survival is dependent on very few members of society. These are the people that provide items are services that are essential to life such as water and food.

How many of us do anything or are capable of doing activities that are essential to human life? I know I don't. I sit in front of a computer and write SQL code for someone. Numbers are added electronically in some computer. I goto a store and pick up the T-bone steak that I am eating now and numbers are then deducted from the same computer. I'm fine as long as the numbers are big enough in my account and there are T-bone steaks at the store. It's an amazing if you think about it. Society has almost magically turned my SQL code into a delicious T-bone steak. But does my SQL code have anything to do with the production of steaks? It is not even remotely related! At the most basic level, there isn't anything I am doing or producing that people truly need. This is true for the vast majority of things people are doing everyday. Most of us spend our days worrying about frivolous things in life.

What if this system breaks down? This system can break down for any number of reasons. It has broken down in the past and it will break down again in the future. Perhaps people no longer want my SQL code. Or it could break down for reasons that are beyond our control such as war, economic or political crisis, or natural disasters. You hear about how the system can break down in the news everyday. Study history and you can see what happens when the civilized world breaks down. It is not pretty and it happens with alarming regularity. You do not have to go very far back in history to see the devastation that results. Some examples are Katrina, 2005, LA riots 1992, Balkan Wars in '91, and most of what happened in World War 2. It may happen again in the near future if the global financial system collapses as many intelligent people are predicting. The truth is, most of us no longer have the skills to sustain our life or the life of our loved ones for even a short period of time. The human population is too large that the Earth does not have enough resources to sustain us all of us without modern technology.

What is it that people truly need to have security? Most of us think in terms of jobs and money, but that is because we live in a world that is so far separated from what is really important for our survival. What is essential to support human life and do most of us have enough of these skills to survive? That is what real security is. Most of us are just at the mercy of the society and environment we live in.

Stop and think a minute of what is really important in life. Everything else is bullshit if you really think about it. If you have the ability to produce these things, then everything that is happening around you is irrelevant. You are self sufficient and the most secure position you can be in in life is the ability to rely on yourself for all your needs.

Clean water. Without a source of clean water, we are dead in 3 days. We take water for granted, but when things break down our source of water is often the most vulnerable. Do you know how to locate and treat water? This usually requires either chemicals or energy for boiling.
Food. Acquiring food means being able to hunt, fish, farm, or ranch. Personally, I don't know how to do any of these.
Shelter. Are you able to build a shelter? I have trouble pitching a tent.
Energy is needed for transportation. More importantly, we need energy to cook food and treat water. For most of us, the only kind of energy we can produce ourselves is to gather and burn wood.
Protection/Security. In normal times, we depend on law enforcement and our military to provide security and protection. When the system breaks down, we will be responsible for protecting ourselves.

Having these abilities is the only way to truly have security in life. Perhaps if we learned some of these skills we would not have the anxiety about what is happening with our jobs, and finances. We would know that no matter what happens out there, we will be able to make it.

Unfortunately for myself, I don't know how to do ANY of these things. I just write computer programs, hope the system doesn't break down, and people still want my programs....

Intelligence chief: U.S. can kill Americans abroad

2010-02-06T01:50:00.002-06:00

I don't know why this story isn't front page news. Read it and think about the implications of what it means:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/04/killing.americans/

Our intelligence chief is saying in a public hearing, in front of Congress, that the US Government is using the MILITARY (special forces) to KILL American citizens "abroad if they present a direct threat to U.S. security." He is not talking about soldiers killing American terrorists in a battle or firefight. He is talking about doing COVERT operations to seek out and ASSASSINATE American citizens ("terrorists") they deem a threat to our security.

ARE THEY CRAZY??!! ARE WE THAT FAR GONE??!! HAS OUR ENTIRE GOVERNMENT BEEN TAKEN OVER BY RADICALS AND EXTREMISTS??!!

I guess if you are an American, living in say, Yemen, you no longer have rights. If they think you're a terrorist, you can be targeted and killed. I know we are justifying this based on our war against terrorism and keeping Americans safe, but consider this quote:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin - 1775

Let's look at some of the quotes:

"We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community," Blair told lawmakers at the hearing. "If that direct action -- we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that."

Permission from who??!! Who in the government has the authority to give such "permission"? Whoever this person is, has the authority to first label someone as a "terrorist" and then has the power to authorize KILLING them in the name of national security!

"We are not careless about endangering American lives as we try to carry out the policies to protect most of the country."

In other words he means trust them, give them the power to kill Americans they think are dangerous to our safety because they are not "careless". Do I even need to explain how dangerous this is? Hasn't everyone reading this stayed awake through enough high school history to know that this is a very, very bad idea?

Topping the list of such Americans may be Anwar al-Awlaki, currently living in Yemen. Privately, many administration officials said he is one of the next American citizens abroad with whom the U.S. intelligence community wants to deal.

So this guy is a fugitive and allegedly an al Qaeda operative. The fact that he is now outside our jurisdiction in Yemen means US Government now has the authority assassinate him covertly?! As an American citizen, he does not deserves a fair trial in front of judge, jury, due process, with an opportunity to defend himself in a court of law? Did he lose his rights when he moved to Yemen and the government labeled him a terrorist?

Is this really what we have become? I need to start looking for another country to emigrate to because there will not be a happy ending to all this if history is any guide...

Glenn Beck on Fox News...

2010-02-04T01:08:00.004-06:00

This week, I stumbled upon Glenn Beck on Fox News. I didn't actually watch Glenn Beck until now, but I have heard mainly negative things about him. He gets attacked mainly from the political left, but even from people who are not political. I was expecting that is some right wing, Republican, religious extremist. But he is nothing like that, at least not his show.

I really am starting to wonder. Do people that attack Glenn Beck actually watch his show on Fox? After watching a week's worth of episodes, I have to say that this is one of the best political commentary I have seen on TV anywhere. Look at this 5 minute clip. It is one of my favorite because it highlights the ideological difference between the founders of the Constitution and the Progressives.

Is there anything extreme, evil, or Satanic about him or his guests? His show is against Progressivism and why it is evil and against the principles of the founders of the United States. It's not about Democrats or Republicans. His show is about the supreme law of the United States, the Constitution. I don't see how anyone can think Beck an extremist unless they think our Constitution and the Founders were extremist.

Now perhaps you believe our Constitution is fundamentally flawed. But I don't see anyone else on TV who understand it and what the founding father's intended it to be better than Glen Beck.

LASIK Eye Surgery after 2.5 months...

2010-01-29T23:13:00.002-06:00

It has been 2.5 months since I had LASIK eye surgery, so I decided to give an update as to how my vision has changed since the surgery. I would say laser eye surgery has to be one of the biggest miracles of modern medicine. Imagine (those of us with bad vision don't need to imagine) being practically blind without glasses or contacts for most of your life. Then you walk into an eye doctor's office and less than 30 minutes later you can see 20/20 or better! Laser vision correction is one of those technologies that can improve the quality of life for millions (billions?) of people in the world.

I can say that my vision continues to improve with time since my surgery. During the day, my vision is spectacular. It is BETTER than what I could see with contacts or glasses. My vision at night has also improved dramatically in the past month. For several weeks, I was seeing large halos at night and that could make it difficult to see sometimes. The halos have gotten dramatically smaller. They are still there, but they are about one quarter to one half the size of what they were a month ago. If you have any problems with your vision, at night is definitely the time you will notice it most.

One thing I noticed after my surgery is that how good your vision is has much more to do than just which line on the eye chart you can read at the doctor's office. That simply measures how MUCH you can see, but it doesn't tell you how WELL you can see. For example, you may have visual aberrations at night in the weeks after your surgery. I saw huge halos. Others have reported star burst patterns or other aberrations. You may be able to read evenly lit, distant street signs, but may have trouble seeing anything in certain situations when these aberrations get in the way.

Besides the halos, here are some other things that I have noticed that may not be as good as before I had my surgery.

My eyes seem to take longer to adjust to changes in lighting. If I move from a very dark location to a very bright one, my eyes seem to take longer to adjust before I can see again. For example, if I come out of a movie theater in the middle of the day, it seems to be blinding for a longer time than before. Or if I go from a bright room to one that is dark, it seems to take me longer before I can see anything in the dark room.
I don't seem to see as clearly at night or low light situation. There are times at night where I can't really see anything when I use to be able to. This might be related to my eyes not being able to adjust to light levels as rapidly as before the surgery. The light levels can change rapidly at night, so there are times I can't see anything when it gets dark quickly such as moving from a brightly lit street to one that is unlit. This can be an issue when I ride a bicycle at night and don't have a headlight bright enough to illuminate the road.
I don't seem to be able to focus as rapidly as before the surgery. I spend long hours in front of the computer. Sometimes, after staring at the computer screen for hours, I have trouble seeing distant objects in one of my eyes and my vision gets unbalanced. It can be disorienting.
Related to the focusing issues is that sometimes one of my eyes just goes blurry. The solution seems to be to use some artificial tears, close my eyes for a minute or so, and blink a few times. Once again, this seems to happen at night or after long hours in front of the computer.
There is better clarity in my right eye than my left. I can't see any more, but the clarity is slightly better in the right eye compared with the left.
I have some issues with dry eyes. It's not bad or uncomfortable, but it is noticeable. I do need to use artificial tears up to 3 times a day. The times it is most notice is when I wake up in the morning and late at night.
I seem to have more eye strain in front of the computer or reading for long periods of time. I do need to take breaks more frequently than before.

So yes, I am seeing just as well or better after laser eye surgery, but not in all situations especially at night or after long hours in front of a computer. With these caveats in mind, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks for me. I no longer have to worry about contacts and solution everyday. I don't have to worry about falling asleep in my contacts or finding a sink to wash my hands to remove them. This is a big deal when traveling since there may not always be facilities around. I am seeing better than 20/20 in most situations. I wouldn't say LASIK is perfect and hopefully I won't have any long term issues. But so far, I am impressed!

Political Armchair Quarterbacking...

2010-01-21T14:12:00.004-06:00

I have always been worried that despite Obama campaigning on change, he would simply continue the policies of Bush. Why was Bush so hated by everyone? The problem with Bush is that he was fiscally liberal and socially conservative. If you want to know how to be hated by virtually everyone, what Bush did is the way to do it. Liberals hate him because of his social views. Conservatives hate him because he spends too much money. Independents really hate him because they tend to be the exact opposite of Bush. Most independents are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. The fact that John Kerry lost to him in 2004 shows how terrible a campaign he ran.

Obama's problem is that he's fiscally and socially liberal and hasn't worked with the opposition party, instead relying on party loyalty to force his agenda through. The conservatives despise him and the independents are abandoning him as well. That is most of the country.

He paid for it this week with the loss of the super majority in the Senate with the loss in Massachusetts. Looking at the election results last Tuesday, you would think that Massachusetts is a red state. This is the most Democratic, liberal, state in the country. It is suppose to be the state where any candidate with a pulse and a D next to him/her should win. This will make the rest of his agenda far more difficult since he will now be forced to engage the Republicans that he may have alienated in the past year.

Obama must move towards the center or he will plummet faster than Bush did. Let's look at the health care bill, which has become a political disaster for Obama and the Democrats:

http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

It is nearly 2,000 pages long! Does anyone besides the people who wrote it really understand what is in this bill? As busy as the politicians are, did they even get a chance to read and understand even just a fraction of what is in this monster before voting on it? Obama is trying to slay the health care beast in one massive bill. That is a terrible strategic error on his part. It is a political battle no one can win. Why didn't he go for a series of small, non controversial bills that the public can support and the Republicans dare not vote against? Out of 2,000 pages, he can't find 100 or 200 pages worth of legislation with bipartisan support? Didn't he campaign on working together and finding common ground for CHANGE? Finding common ground in a 2,000 page bill is virtually impossible. Everyone is going to hate it in some way.

Obama is now trying to get a scaled down version of his bill passed, but this is what he should have been doing from the beginning. However, he has wasted so much of his political capital and created so much animosity with independent voters and Republicans that he may get nothing for all the work he's put in on this for the last year.

Obama will pay for this politically, but it is we the people that suffer. 46 million people have no health coverage and many are under insured. Half of all bankruptcies are due to medical costs. Cost are escalating and much of the increased cost have nothing to do with health care. Health care is an issue that can bankrupt the country if it is not brought under control...

Leon's Guide To Backpacking In Europe...

2010-01-12T12:50:00.002-06:00

For those of you thinking of backpacking through Europe, go ahead and do it! You will see things, meet people, and experience cultures that you will not find in America. It does not matter where you go. There is so much to see in Europe that it does not matter where you go. There are interesting places to go, history to learn, people to meet, and food in every direction. Just pick a place that interests you and is within your budget. Backpacking is incredibly popular in Europe with the under 30 crowd. Young people there do not just travel for 1 week like the typical American vacation. They travel for many weeks to months to several different countries and cities. It's not that these people have a lot of money either. Many were living on less than 30 Euros a day.

What To Bring

Backpacking is just that. Instead of luggage, you have a large camping style backpack to carry everything you need. Try to travel as light as possible. Only carry what you absolutely need and will use. The less weight you have to carry, the more you will enjoy your trip. My total weight was 45 lb., which is quite a bit heavier than what many backpackers travel with. The major items in terms of weight were my Xootr (10 lb.), laptop computer (10 lb.), and camera equipment (10 lb.). I only carried 15 lb. of personal items such as clothes, shoes, hygiene products, etc. When you have to carry everything you need, you learn how to get by with very little. Traveling in the warm months is much easier since you will need to pack and wear less clothes. Some items that you might find useful.

Passport. You absolutely need to have a passport. You will need this at many border crossings as well as identification at hotels and hostels. Keep it safe and always have it on you. Don't lose it!! A US passport will allow you to go just about anywhere in Europe without a visa. Belarus and Russia are the exceptions.
ATM Card. This is the cheapest way to get money. The best exchange rates are at the ATM machines. Use the machines rather than the currency exchange counters wherever possible. Try to use an account with a bank that refunds your ATM fees. I use United Heritage, which is a local credit union in Austin.
A medium jacket. If you are visiting northern countries, it can still get cold enough for a jacket even in the summer. Being from Texas, I found myself needing a heavier jacket than what I brought with me when I was in Iceland in July.
Laptop Computer. The Internet is an indispensable source when traveling. You can find out where the accommodations are, events that are going on, book travel reservations, etc. I carried a heavy Macbook. Next time, I may try to take something smaller and lighter, but I used my computer a lot, so perhaps the extra weight was worth it.
Xootr. A kick scooter greatly expands the area you can explore compared to being on foot. Unlike bicycles, these are small enough to bring onto an airplane as carry on baggage. It's also small enough to carry into most places rather than having to lock it outside. I can cruise at 12-15 mph on smooth pavement. It's not that useful in cities with cobblestone roads (i.e. Prague), but in most cities, you can cover 3 to 4 times more area on a kick scooter compared with walking. This was my primary mode of transportation within a city. If you have decent fitness, you can easily cover 30 miles or more in a day. This makes it worth carrying the 10 lb. as I was able to see and do a lot more than I would have without it. It also saved my feet from painful blisters, which happens to me all the time while I travel because of walking so much.

There are 2 ways to do your trip. The first is to plan out where you want to go, where you are going to stay, and what you can do. The other is to just decide as you go. If you have limited amounts of time or money, it is better to plan ahead so you don't run out of time or money. For my trip, I decided as I went depending on what I saw, who I met, how much it cost, and the local events that were going on.

Transportation

To find a good deal to get to Europe, I use Travelzoo.com. They publish various sales that the airlines have.

Once you are in Europe, the first thing you need to worry about is where you want to go and how you are going to get there. My main mode of transportation within Europe was by trains. I took the bus twice; once into Maribor, the other into Sarajevo. Airline flights can be just as cheap or cheaper than trains, but they usually require you to book in advance for these low rates. For traveling on short notice, trains are cheaper than flying and more comfortable than a bus. The trains in western Europe (i.e. France, Germany) are generally clean, comfortable, fast, and reliable. The trains in Eastern Europe are much more unpredictable. Take this into account when you need to change trains. You can buy train tickets either at the train station or online. The DB Bahn website is invaluable. I found myself visiting that website consistently for train schedules even outside of Germany. Depending on how and where you travel, it may or may not be worth to buy an EU Rail pass. I did buy one, but for where I traveled, it would have been cheaper to just buy the individual tickets.

My favorite trains were the German ICE trains. They are fast, clean, modern, and reliable. They reach speeds up to 300 km/hr which is the fastest I have ever traveled on the ground. The worst trains were in Poland. These communist era trains were dirty, smelly, unreliable. The international trains and trains between major cities were acceptable. But stay away from the regional trains in Poland if possible.

Mass transportation is much more developed in Europe than in the US. For the entire two months, I did not ever need to rent a car. Most cities have a well developed mass transportation system of buses, subways, or trolleys. But remember that most of these mass transit systems stop operating at midnight. You may need to take a taxi if you stay out late at night.

Accommodations

After you have decided where to go and how you will get there, the next step is to find a place to stay. My recommendation is that you book a place to stay BEFORE you arrive. Getting your bearings in a new city is already stressful enough. I find that it is a bit too stressful if I don't know where I am and I don't know where I need to be. Book at least one night at your new destination. This will give you time to orient yourself to the new city. This will also give you someone to call if you get lost and can't find anyone to help you with directions. Before you leave, find out where your train or bus will drop you in the city. Then find out how to get from the station to your accommodations. This is the most stressful part of the trip. Once I get to the place where I am going to spend the night, I am "safe". From then, I am free to plan the rest of my stay since I have a home base to operate out of.

Life revolves around hostels for backpackers. They are how backpackers can travel for months at a time in Europe. Hostels are dormitories where you share a room and bathroom with multiple people. Staying at a hotel every night would make trips far too expensive for most backpackers. I recommend staying in hostels for most of your nights and only staying in hotels when you need some privacy or just want to pamper yourself. It is a big part of the European travel experience.

Hostels are set up to allow you to meet fellow travelers unlike hotels which are designed for privacy. It allows you to chance to make friends with people from all over the world and perhaps even meet that special someone. ;) The hostel experience is something that you don't really find in America. My favorite website for booking hostels was Hostels.com. Their list of hostels is very comprehensive and I booked the vast majority of my stays there. Most of the hostels were reasonably clean and many included breakfast with their stays. It seems to be a very competitive business and the subpar ones aren't around very long or get poor reviews. Since you are sharing a room with strangers, most hostels provide lockers where you can secure your belongings. I've never had anything stolen while staying in a hostels, but do take common sense precautions.

What To Do

Once you know where you are going to spend the night, the fun begins! Talk to the staff about where to eat, what to do, where to go, etc. They will be more than happy to guide you and provide you with maps and literature. The people working in hostels and hotels know their city very well. This is far better than carrying around a thick guide book. Talk to your roommates about where they have been and what they plan on doing. All of the people staying at hostels are there as tourists. It's far more enjoyable to find out about the city by talking to the locals and other travelers than reading a guide book. In many cities there are "free" walking tours that start off in hostels. They are free in the sense that you are only expected to tip the tour guide what you feel he or she is worth. They are a great way to find out the best things to do and to meet new friends as well.

That is all there is to it. Transportation and accommodations are your main worries. Once those are out of the way, it's pretty easy no matter where you go.

Stay Safe

Europe is generally a safe place to travel. I'm sure that there are places you should not go to, but you seem to have to go out of your way to find them. I never felt unsafe in any of the 17 cities I visited. The main thing to watch for are pick picketers and money exchange scams. I have heard of stories of people being robbed in trains while they slept, but the only time I felt a bit uncomfortable was the trains in Poland while I was heading into Krakow. It seems safer to travel in Europe than it America. Nearly every American city have a bad neighborhood which the locals will tell you to avoid.

Most European cities don't seem to have this. It is safe enough that you will see young girls traveling alone by themselves. But as always, stay alert, be aware of your surroundings, and take common sense precautions.

Communications

A nice thing to have is an unlocked quad band GSM wireless phone. Prepaid SIM cards are widely available in every city. If you get lost or have an emergency, it is good to be able to call for help. In Vienna, I got terribly lost, and having a mobile phone to call the hostel I was staying at me saved me a lot of grief. Incoming calls are free. You only pay for outgoing calls.

McDonalds is a good place to get Internet access for free. Hostels may either charge you for Internet access or give you access for free.

Many people speak English in Europe and you will not have trouble communicating in any of the big cities. The further east you go the fewer people there are that speak English, but I was able to get around just fine. All of the staff in hotels and hostels, and most restaurants and retail stores speak English. Just ask if they speak English and most of the time they will say "a little". :)

Cost

With the US Dollar so low against the Euro (Between $1.40 to $1.50 to €1), Europe is noticeably more expensive than the US for many things. Your main cost is accommodations, food, and transportation. Some common costs that I paid while I was there:

Hostels: Between €15 to €30 per night.
Restaurant Meals: €10-€20. Tipping is accepted but not mandatory. If you want to tip, 10% is usually fine. The wait staff get a salary unlike in America.
Turkish Kebab: €3.50-€4.0
McDonalds Big Mac: €3.50 - €5.0
Rail Tickets: €30-€90.0
Museum entrance ticket: €10
Prepaid wireless SIM card: €10

Western Europe is much more expensive than eastern part. Paris was the most expensive city I was in. But Eastern Europe isn't dirt cheap as it once was. Prices have gone up considerably since the fall of communism.

That's all there is to it! Europe is definitely a different place than America, but it's not hard to do for anyone that is a little adventurous. :)

Electric Cars:Why they make sense...

2010-01-05T15:38:00.003-06:00

With the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf being less than a year away and other vehicles scheduled in 2011, electric vehicles may finally make a difference in how much oil we need to consume. Electric vehicles are actually nothing new. In fact, the first automobiles were created in 1800's were electric before gas powered cars. Moving to electric powered vehicles offers several advantages.

They are far cheaper to operate. A Chevy Volt needs 8 kilowatt hours to go 40 miles before its on board gas generator kicks in. 8 kilowatt hours costs about 50 to 80 cents in Austin. Compared to a 25 mpg sedan will need 1.6 gallons of gasoline. At $2.50/gallon that's $4 of gasoline to go the same 40 miles. The reason for this is electric motors are 4 times more efficient than gas engines. In an internal combustion engine, about 80% of the energy is wasted as heat. It is not uncommon for electric motors to operate at efficiencies above 90%. In other words, most of the energy you put into a gas engine is wasted as heat, while electric motors turn almost all of the energy into forward motion.
Gasoline only comes from crude oil. Electricity is generated from a variety of sources including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, and even exotic method like capturing the ocean currents. Basically any method that can be used to turn a turbine can be used to generate electricity.
Electric vehicles don't pollute. While it is true that 60% of the electricity produced in the United States is from coal which do pollute, generating power at a central power plant is far more efficient than millions of individual vehicles burning fuel. Also, the pollution emitted by power plants is often located away from urban centers, so the pollution that does get emitted does less harm to people. As more electricity is generated from clean sources (i.e. wind, solar, hydro) or cleaner fossil fuels (i.e. natural gas instead of coal) we have chance to significantly reduce air pollution and that will improve the health of all of us.
Electric motors have far higher performance compared to similarly sized gasoline engines. It is not even close. If we used a similar sized electric motor as gas engines today, it would generate enough torque to shred the tires off most vehicles. Electric motors generate so much torque that they do not need complex transmissions. A simple single speed transmission would be enough. Today's cars have complex 5, 6, and even 7 speed transmissions to keep the gas engine in a narrow operating speed. In contrast, a Tesla Roadster does 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds. There is no shifting. It has a single speed transmission. In addition, electric motors are nearly silent offering a quiet, smooth ride. There is no exhaust system to control noise because the motor generates no noise or exhaust further simplifying the drivetrain.
The maintenance on an all electric vehicle is far less because of its simplicity.
Nearly one half of our trade deficit is due to oil imports. Most of this oil comes from politically unstable parts of the world or nations that are not friendly to the United States. Cutting our oil usage would go a long way to improving our fiscal budget and political situations. Compared to oil, electricity is generated almost entirely from local energy sources, whether it is coal, natural gas, hydro, wind, nuclear, etc.

So given all these advantages, why is it that electric vehicles are only now just starting to come to the market? The answer is the battery. Current battery technology is the Achilles Heel of electric vehicles. The three major drawbacks of batteries are:

Weight. A gallon of gasoline weighs about 6 lbs. A battery that stores the same amount of energy contained in a gallon of gasoline would weigh ~600 lb. and would be incredibly expensive. Fortunately electric motors don't need to carry as much onboard energy as a gas engine because of its efficiency. But this still severely limits an electric vehicles range and speed. Putting a large enough battery to match the range of a gas powered vehicle would simply make it too heavy and expensive. This is why electric vehicles are thought to be slow. Putting a large, high performance motor in an electric vehicle would simply shorten the range to an unacceptable level.
Refueling. Once the battery is depleted it takes several hours to recharge the battery. Meanwhile, a 5 minute stop at a gas station means the gas powered vehicle can go another 300-400 miles. You are always worried about being stranded in an electric vehicle. It is also difficult to find an electrical outlet nearby most public parking spaces. This makes it unsuitable for long distance trips especially in remote areas.
Cost. Storing energy in batteries is still very expensive compared with stored energy as fossil fuels. Electric vehicles are far more expensive than equivalent gas powered ones. But the operating costs are far lower. As the technology and economies of scale improves, we will see electric vehicles close the gap to their gas counterparts.

The Chevy Volt attempts to solve this problem by having a small battery to keep the weight and cost at an acceptable level, but large enough for most day to day use. The gasoline engine never powers the car directly. It acts as a generator for the electric motors once the batteries are exhausted. This means you have a car that is fully electric most of the time, but you don't need to worry about being stranded once your batteries are dead as long as you have gas in the tank just as in a regular car. If you exceed the 40 mile electric range, you have fuel economy similar to a gas hybrid vehicle. If done correctly, this and other electric vehicle that are coming have the potential to drastically reduce our gasoline consumption.

Switching over Leonfu.com to Blog only....

2009-12-28T14:09:00.000-06:00

Got rid of the outdated Frontpage system I was using. Now its just blogger!

Kebabalicious: A Taste of Europe in Austin...

2009-12-27T13:36:00.000-06:00

Trying out the local food was one of my favorite things to do while I was in Europe. I did spend a lot of time in McDonald's; in fact I ate more McDonald's Big Macs in Europe than I do at home. They are everywhere in the most convenient locations, cheap, fast, they have free Internet access, and often times they were the only places that were open.

But looking for and eating the local food was one of my favorite things to do when I wasn't stressed, rushed, or on the move. Two of my favorite foods were the Döner Kebab while I was in central Europe (mainly Germany) and Burek while I was traveling through the Balkans. These are perfect traveling food. They are cheap (around 3.60 Euro in Germany), widely available foods, high calorie foods that will keep you going for hours. The establishments that serve them usually stay open well after other restaurants close.

I have not be able to find Burek anywhere in Austin or in America for that matter. But there is only one place in Austin where you can get an authentic Turkish Döner Kebab. It originates in Turkey and is a flour wrapped in chicken or lamb, with vegetables, and a particular kind of sauce that gives it its unique flavor. It is similar to a Greek Gyro. What is unusual about it is that the meat is mounted on a heated rotating stand to keep it warm. It is shaved off in thin slices using an electric razor.

Kebabalicious replicates the flavor and style very closely to what I was eating in Germany. They are a small food stand located on 7th and Trinity in a parking lot. Unfortunately they only open from Wednesday thru Saturday late nights (after 9 pm or 10 pm) and only if the weather is reasonably decent. I would suggest you get there well before 2 am as the lines get very long when the bars close. I highly recommend it as a great place to get a late night place to grab a bite to eat. It's too bad that they don't open longer hours and only serve the downtown bar scene.

Motobecane 2009 Fantom Comp Review

2009-11-28T17:01:00.009-06:00

After losing my hybrid bike, I needed another bike to tow my pedicab around. I decided on a mountain bike this time since they are the only bikes that come with low enough gearing for towing around a pedicab and since I never had a mountain bike before.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I took a chance and ordered from BikesDirect.com. If you do a Google search on Bikes Direct, you will see that there has been a lot said about them. A lot of it is negative, but some positive too. What I can say is that I'm fairly pleased with what I got. The bike was as advertised and they shipped the next day. I got my bike 2 days after ordering it. It comes via UPS Ground and was well packed. Most of the bike was assembled, but I did need to go to a bike shop because it came with hydraulic disc brakes not installed, which I know nothing about. Basically, I had to unpack everything, put the front wheel in, install the pedals, attach the handlebars to the stem, and install the seat post, and I was ready to ride.

Since this is my first mountain bike, I really can't say how it compares with other mountain bikes. Compared with the road or hybrid bikes I usually ride, it is a lot heavier (30 lbs) and slower. I would only ride this on real dirt trails like the greenbelt in Austin. Even the hike and bike trail is overkill for this bike. But it was fun riding up steep, rocky, trails on this thing with the 22x32 gearing and big, fat 26" wheels. That gear will be handy for as even the 22x28 gearing I had on my hybrid was often not low enough when weighed down with 3 guys in my pedicab.

What I can say is that BikesDirect is legit. I got my bike as advertised in 2 days and it was assembled and packed fairly well. You might need to take it to a bike shop to have them finish the assembly and they may not be happy about it (the shop I took it to wasn't), but you will get a great deal especially if you need a new bike fast like I did and don't have time to shop around looking for something on sale at a bike shop.

LASIK Eye Surgery...1 week update...

2009-11-21T23:15:00.004-06:00

It has been a little over a week since I had my LASIK surgery. So far, I seem to be recovering pretty well. The doctor said I can stop using the medicated eye drops and just use the artificial tears. I don't seem to be having a problem with dry eyes, but then again, I've been using the drops religiously as directed. I should still be careful not to rub my eyes and no swimming for a month. I don't know how to swim anyway.

I guess the first thing everyone would want to know is how well am I seeing. The short answer is I can easily read the 20/20 line on the eye chart using both eyes! In fact, I can almost read 20/10 using both eyes. These Lasers are really an amazing technology when you think about it.

I can read the 20/20 line using just my right eye. I am not quite able to read the 20/20 line using just my left eye (it's blurry). I can see the eye charts better using both eyes than I do when using just one eye. My left eye seems to be under corrected by a quarter to half a degree when compared with my right eye. Perhaps it's still healing and will improve?

During the day, I can say I am seeing better than I was with contacts or glasses even though my left eye isn't quite at 20/20 (at least not yet). I've always felt my prescription was a little off with both my glasses and contacts no matter which eye doctor I went to. Every eye doctor I've gone to gave me a different prescription and it was one of the concerns I had before doing the surgery. If every eye doctor and optometrist was getting different numbers, how would they know which numbers to plug into the computer? I am seeing better during the day than I've ever seen before with contacts or glasses. Although my left eye seems to be off slightly, the correction I got with LASIK seems to be closer to the right one than I got with glasses or contacts! Pretty amazing stuff.

At night, the results are not as spectacular as during the day. The main issue is that there is a halo around every light source. The brighter and closer I am to the light, the larger the halo around the light is. This normally isn't a problem unless you are looking at a lot of light sources like a bunch of car headlights. Another situation is if you are looking down a street with a lot of bright street lamps. There is a halo around each light and it creates glare and can make it difficult to see.

I've spoken to other people who've had LASIK and some of them still see halos even years after their surgery. Supposedly, the custom wavefront technology is suppose to solve this problem, but as of now, that is the only major problem with my vision. They told me this should improve with time as my eyes are still healing.

My eyes are still bloodshot (especially my left eye), but that seems to be healing slowly by the day. This is caused by the pressure they apply to your eye when they cut the flap. This can break some blood vessels, and I got a really bad case of red eye like this:

It looks ugly and nasty and it was a lot worse in the days right after I had surgery, but it does not affect my vision at all.

LASIK is really a life changing procedure if you had really bad vision like I did. Being able to see without glasses or contacts has really improved the quality of life. I have worn contacts for over 20 years and they have always been a pain. Before disposables, cleaning the lenses was always a chore. I could only wear them for about 14 hours before my eyes dried out and sometimes they would come out of my eye and I would lose them. Disposable contacts were a big leap forward as it did away with the cleaning solutions. But I still had problems when I fell asleep in them (accidentally) and my eyes would easily get irritated. I had many problems when backpacking in Europe for 2 months last summer. Sometimes, I would be on a train, bus, or plane for 10-15 hour with no place to wash my hands to take out my contacts. Halfway through my trip, I broke my glasses so there was no way for me to see unless I had my contacts in. I love traveling and this makes life easier since it's one less major thing I need to worry about when trekking around the globe.

I will post more updates in the next few weeks on the halo situation...

LASIK Eye Surgery at LASIK Plus...

2009-11-14T22:00:00.001-06:00

After waiting a LONG time (10+ years), I finally decided to have laser vision correction on November 13th 2009 (Friday the 13th!). Like many people, I was really nervous about having surgery done on my eyes. The technology always seemed to be getting better and my vision always seemed to be getting worse. There were always horror stories and the side effects, long term effects added to the uncertainty. In the last few months, I have met many people who had the procedure done and nearly all of them were extremely happy with the results. It seems that the technology has been perfected in the last few years. The most difficult parts of the procedure is now almost entirely automated by computers and the procedure has become routine and highly standardized.

I decided to have my surgery done at LASIK Plus on 183 and 360, near the Arboretum in Austin. My surgeon was Dr. Whiteside. The center is very pleasant, much like any other doctor's office. The difference is that the operating room has a glass wall, so you can watch patients get their eyes operated on from a waiting area. Watching Dr. Whiteside and his staff work made me much more comfortable in choosing to have my eyes done at LASIK Plus because I could watch how he and his staff work and see the reaction of his patients. They do surgeries every Friday and Saturday. If you are considering getting LASIK, I suggest you stop by and watch how it is done even if you decide to go with another surgeon. It's very educational. I don't know any other LASIK center that is set up to let you watch procedure done on other patients. They don't allow photos or videos (otherwise I would have posted them), but they do allow anyone to come and watch how they operate. I watched Dr. Whiteside operate on 3 different patients and seeing how methodical he and his staff were gave me confidence to have my eyes done here. The price of the procedure was $3,650 and they offering interest free financing for 2 years.

It has been 48 hours since I had my surgery and so far I am very happy! I can finally see without contacts and glasses for the first time over 20 years. I'll post updates as my eyes heal. My eyes are still bloodshot and I see large halos at night (but I was seeing some halos even with glasses or contacts), but according to the doctor, those should go away within a few weeks to a month.

I'll go over the experience so far. They do free evaluations. These are basically a complete eye exam to find out your prescription and if you are a candidate for LASIK. Basically, your cornea has to be thick enough and your eyes free of other diseases. They measure your prescription using a high tech eye scanning machine and also the traditional way. Then you go through several machines that take various measurements of your eye. At the end of the exams, the doctor will tell you if you are a candidate or not for the procedure.

If you decide to get the procedure done, you must stop wearing soft contacts for at least one week, longer if you wear hard contacts. I wore glasses for 3 weeks before having the surgery. Two days before the surgery, they want you to start using these expensive ($60) eye drops (Vigamox). They brought me in again 3 days before the surgery to retake some measurements.

On the day of the surgery, you do a bunch of paper work, they talk to you about what is going to happen, and answer any questions you might have. The main thing they want you to do is relax! The first step is you go on a machine called the Intralase. This is the machine that will cut a flap in both of your cornea. Dr. Whiteside lines you up on a VISX machine, and puts these suction cups into your eyes. From there, he moves you to the Intralase. What this machine does is mate to the suction cup mount in your eye, then you feel pressure. A computer controlled laser then cuts a flap in your cornea. The process is repeated for both eyes.

The next step is the doctor peels back the layer of cornea that the Intralase machine cut. You don't feel any pain at all, but what you see is your vision getting very blurry after the flap is removed. The VISX machine starts to work and you hear a series of very rapid clicking sounds as the laser is not a continuous laser, but a series of rapid pulses for 20-30 seconds that is also controlled by a computer. What I saw was a blurry vision and as the laser fired into my eye everything seemed to go dark starting with the outer edges of vision. There was this orange light and a flashing red dot the doctor wanted me to focus on. I also smelled burning flesh while this was going on. Was that sections of my eye being vaporized? The doctor told me it wasn't, but it sure smelled like it!

The whole procedure lasted about half an hour. When I opened my eyes, everything was extremely hazy. It was like looking through foggy glasses. I could tell my vision was a whole lot sharper, but everything looked hazy or foggy. They gave me a bottle of steroid drops and a couple boxes of artificial tears. I had to continue the Vigamox drops and these steroid drops for 4 times a day for a whole week. They also wanted me to use the artificial tears every hour. You need someone to drive you home after the procedure and they want you to take a nap when you get home. I was told not to rub my eyes, wear goggles when I sleep (to prevent accidentally rubbing my eyes), don't get soap or water into my eyes, and no swimming for a month.

I took a 2 hour nap and then I woke up because my eyes were burning pretty badly as the topical anesthetic wore off. For a couple hours it was quite uncomfortable, but the pain subsided eventually. My vision was quite hazy and did not start to clear up until the evening. I was also very sensitive to bright light. I needed to wear sunglasses during the day and even watching TV, I had to turn the brightness down. At night, I was seeing some very large halos. All the lights at night look like this:

It's a little bit better tonight, but the doctor told me it would be a few weeks or months before those started to go away. My eyes are also bloodshot as they may break some blood vessels when they create suction for the Intralase, but that should heal in a couple weeks.

Overall, I'm thrilled that I can see without glasses or contacts! Waking up and being able to see right away is a new experience! I know the bloodshot eyes will heal and hopefully the halos will go away or subside. They told me it should gradually disappear (a few weeks to a couple months) as the swelling in my eyes go down.

European Vs. American Mentality As Seen In Architecture

2009-09-14T21:00:00.005-05:00

One of my favorite things about traveling to different places is looking at the architecture. I love buildings. A large percentage of my pictures is of buildings in the various places I travel to. After roaming around Europe for two months, I can conclude that the architecture in Europe is very different than America. I think you can tell a lot about a society and their mentality by the type of buildings that they build.

Let's look at the Austin skyline for example:

Notice the number of large buildings we have. This picture is a little dated as there have been several new buildings that have been constructed since I took that photo. Here are the tallest buildings in Austin:

The Austonian - 628 ft (208 m) 56 floors
360 Condo Tower - 563 ft (172 m) 44 floors
Frost Bank Tower - 515 ft (157 m) 33 floors

You can see a list of the tallest buildings in Austin here. We have 7 buildings over 100 m and there are 6 more under construction at the moment. I rarely saw such tall buildings while traveling in Europe. Keep in mind that Austin is not even one of the largest cities in America. It's only the 15th biggest city with a population of 758 thousand people with a metro area of 1.6 million people. Take a look at all the major US cities and you'll see that all of them have impressive skylines.

Let's take a look at a typical European city that's comparable in size to Austin. One of my favorite mid size European city happens to be Dresden, Germany.

Unlike American cities, European cities don't look impressive at all from a distance. There are not a large number of tall, large buildings that dominate the skyline. Instead, European cities are much more artistic. Take a look at these buildings in Dresden:

Notice how artistic they are with the colors and sculptures. In general, European cities emphasize the city's art and culture. Even large, wealthy, European cities such as Munich or Paris are built in this manner. There are very few buildings that will grab your attention from a distance. European cities are meant to be enjoyed up close and in person. You can't appreciate buildings like this from 5 or 10 miles away.

Meanwhile, American cities build buildings to emphasis the city's economic strength, prosperity, and status. The Austonian represents this:

There is no economic reason to build buildings such as The Austonian in Austin. It is purely a status symbol for the residents of the building and the city. The whole mentality of Americans can be seen in the architecture of the buildings that we build. It's to show strength, prosperity, and wealth. It represents what is known around the world as The American Dream. Most Americans I know (myself included) have big dreams of wanting to become "the next big thing" in their field. You can see this mentality at work at the buildings we build in all of our cities. We have a very ambitious, competitive nature and mentality. Heck, I want to live in the Austonian. :)

Contrast this with Europe where the cities are built to emphasize their art, culture, and history. Europeans have a very different mentality than Americans. The mentality there emphasizes people's welfare, happiness, and quality of life vs. material wealth and economic status. Hence you see this in their politics as well. Most European countries have a more socialist policy, stronger labor laws, more welfare benefits, and much more vacation time. It's why you see Europeans traveling so much. They have enough vacation time to do it.

Which is the better model? I think both have their advantages and disadvantage. American mentality is definitely more individualistic, independent, and competitive, while Europeans seem to have a more social, cooperative mentality.

My European Adventure

2009-09-04T09:00:00.004-05:00

I spent the past 2 months (actually 7 weeks) in Europe. It has been an quite an experience! I have always had a desire to explore the world around since I was a small child, but what inspired me to go on this trip was my trip to Australia last May. There were so many Europeans (especially Germans and British) traveling Australia for months at a time. I had never traveled for more than 3 weeks at a time, so I wanted to go on a multi month trip to see what it would be like. My original plan was to go around the world. I would fly to Europe, then end my European tour in Amsterdam, fly to Asia, and then go home from Asia. That turned out to be a little too ambitious as I am tired from living on the road and a bit home sick as well. Asia will have to be a separate trip.

My plan was to focus on north eastern Europe. I figure western Europe may be too similar to the United States and since I was traveling in the summer, I should do the northern countries while the weather was good there. I could goto southern countries (such as Italy) during the winter on a separate trip. It didn't quite work out that way as I missed the Scandinavian countries (save Iceland) and the Baltic's and ended going into the Balkans (long story), but it was still a great experience.

The first thing I noticed was how far American culture extends around the world. Even in far eastern Europe, you see American icons everywhere. McDonalds, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC, are almost everywhere. These American brands seem even more popular in some European cities than in America. For example, McDonalds is much more popular in Paris than in the states. There were lines at the register at every one I went to. I went there quite often as 1) they are almost everywhere in the most convenient locations, 2) they tend to stay open for longer hours, and 3) there have free WiFi in most locations. In Venice it can costs €5 for an hour of Internet access.

Hollywood movies are everywhere and so is American pop music. They play much of the same top 20 songs in clubs as they do in the states. The influence of America is much more obvious than say, the Soviet Union in the former communist countries.

As I traveled, I started to realize just how American I am. For the most part, America is a very self segregated society. Perhaps there is still discrimination, but it has evolved to the point where it is not immediately obvious as say in the 1950's. People tend to cluster along the lines of race, ethnicity, or religion. They form ethnic or religious communities and we see ourselves as hyphenated Americans (i.e. Asian-American, African-American, Italian-American, Irish-American, etc). You see this in schools, communities, even bars and clubs. Our diversity is both our greatest strength and weakness. Within America, I would say people see me first and foremost as an Asian.

Here in Europe though, I felt that I was first an foremost an American, who happens to be Asian, which was a bit unusual (most thought I was either from China or Japan), but immediately obvious upon speaking to me. At our core, we are a nation built around an ideology and philosophy rather than a race, ethnicity, or religion. I found the easiest people for me to associate with were other Americans (of course), Canadians, Australians, New Zealand, and British. It was not just a common native language, but also mannerisms, attitudes, their view of the world, and social customs.

I found that Europeans in general are a bit more reserved than Americans. They are much less likely to approach and chat up a random stranger. At times, I felt that it would probably be more difficult for me to integrate into a mainstream European community than say Australia or Canada.

However, people from the Balkans (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia) were a lot different in temperament than the rest of Europe. It is very different there even for many Europeans. There they were extremely outgoing (the men were a bit crazy) and sometimes a bit aggressive. I was approached many times (since I am obviously not from there) on my trip to Belgrade by people asking me where I was from and what I was doing in this part of the world. But they are a fun people and they love to laugh and have a good time.

What Europeans Think Of Americans

As the result of George Bush, there has been a lot of anti American sentiment in Europe. I can say that George Bush is universally hated in Europe (and probably in America as well). However, Obama seems to be universally loved here. The sentiment seems to have improved with his election. Nevertheless, despite all the good America has done for Europe (defeating the Nazis and Communists), there seems to be great dissatisfaction with our foreign policy. People in Europe seem to have strong dislike of America being the "world police". The people in the Balkans seem to have the strongest opinions of American foreign policy as the Yugoslav wars are still fresh in many people minds. Just about everyone here seems to have a strong opinion about America and unfortunately it's mostly a negative one in the places I've traveled to. Regardless of one's opinion, it is undeniable that America has greatly influenced what has happened in Europe and the rest of the world.

Staying In Hostels

This was the first time I've traveled so extensively in hostels. For the most part, it was a great experience and totally different than staying in hotels and motels. I met so many new friends and interesting people staying in hostels. It was a big part of the experience. Unlike hotels, most of the hostels are set up so that you can meet people. Sleeping in the same room with strangers can take some getting use to, but for the most part, I didn't have too many problems. However, I did need to get a hotel room every few days because sometimes it's nice to have the privacy, security, and convenience of your own room.

I really want to come to Europe again. There is an enormous amount of history and culture here no matter which direction you go. It's a great learning experience to meet people, cultures, customs, and food from everywhere in the world. Just the new friends you will make traveling make it worthwhile. :)

Amsterdam: Drugs, Hookers, and Just About Everything Else

2009-09-03T15:20:00.001-05:00

Amsterdam is a much different place than the rest of Europe. It must be one of the most liberal, tolerant cities in the entire world. Drugs, prostitution and just about anything you want to do (as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else) seems to be tolerated here. The city is a melting pot much like New York is. There are people from all over the world because the Dutch must be one of the most tolerant societies in the world.

I spent more time than I care to admit in the Red Light District. You can spend hours here just watching the prostitutes in the windows and the men interacting with them. I found it fascinating just to people watch because of the honesty and openness of it all. Many men would sit there and gawk at the women, but were too scared (myself included) to actually go and try out one of the girls. One British lad I walked around with was virtually foaming at the mouth and wanted to do one of the girls but was paralyzed with fear of actually going to one. You won't find this anywhere else in the world. It was a quite surreal experience...

Dresden, Germany...

2009-08-27T15:09:00.008-05:00

This is one of my favorite cities in Europe. Dresden was completely destroyed during the war, so this is a new city. However, they rebuilt it in the old style, so it's a "new" old city. The city is beautiful, clean, and not as overrun with tourists like in Berlin, Munich, or Paris. The city is cleaner than Berlin and perhaps even Munich. It was certainly a relief after being in the Balkans and Budapest because everywhere I went, it was clean (bathrooms, buses, trams, etc).

I don't remember seeing any beggars here either. The public trams are clean, new, and always seem to run on schedule. Right when you walk into the central station it is new, clean, brightly lit. It looks almost clinical. I came into the city from Budapest, so immediately after stepping off the train, I knew I was back in the first world. I felt a sense of relief as being in the Balkans, I was always a little bit uneasy because I was never quite sure what to expect. Germany is a country where everything pretty much works predictably and there is a process and structure to everything. Compared that to many places in Eastern Europe where anything goes. It is the last first world country before going into the relatively undeveloped parts of eastern Europe.

Put Dresden on your list if you want to go somewhere in Germany that is nice and not where a typical tourist go. Most of the tourists there seem to be German tourists.

Vienna (Wein), Maribor, Ljubljana, Venice, Munich, Zagreb, Belgrade...

2009-08-18T08:22:00.006-05:00

I haven't made a blog entry since Prague. I got a bit distracted by various things and people. I'll try to make a quick summary of each city since then:

Vienna - The city looks like Paris light. Lots of great museums like Berlin. Vienna and Berlin were two of my favorite cities so far.

Maribor - Sleepy little city in Slovenia. I stayed with a Slovenian family and they were super nice to me. Thanks Grega! Save up your money so you can come visit me in Austin!

Ljubljana - Another relatively calm European city. It's pretty clean and quaint. There's a castle on a hill top that is worth going to.

Venice - The world's only pedestrian city. It must also be the world's biggest tourist trap. It's very crowded, some places are derelict. The city is a maze and I spent much of my time getting lost in the various alley ways. The city is safe, but walking through a dark alley reminds me of bad movies.

Munich - Beer, beer, and more beer. People here drink massive amounts of beer. It's the richest city in Germany. Munich has always been a wealthy city. Bavaria has thought of becoming independent many times.

Zagreb - Only stayed here for 5 hours, so don't know much about it.

Belgrade - One of the most dirty, ugly, and smelly cities I have visited in Europe. But I like it! The food is rich and they serve large portions. Some of the women are stunningly beautiful. There's also great night life and parties going on every night. It's also one of the more affordable places in Europe.

Krakow, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic...

2009-07-30T13:21:00.002-05:00

My trip from Berlin to Krakow, Poland was not so pleasant. Poland was a former communist state and therefore was a very poor country. The country has made tremendous progress in the past 20 years, but progress and development is concentrated in the major cities. The country side is still very poor and undeveloped. This includes the rail system, which I heard was one of the worst in Europe.

The Polish train leaving Berlin was actually not bad at all. It was reasonably clean as far as trains goes. The restaurant car serves decent Polish food and the first class seats I was in were clean and comfortable. I should have taken this train all the way to Warsaw because the next trains were not so pleasant. I had 2 transfers, and the first transfer was at Poznan to Wroclaw. This was an awful train! It was old, dirty, smelly, and filthy as can be. As soon as I stepped in, there was the stench of human sewage. I heard things were much worse under the communists, but this was pretty darn bad. The train was also late and I nearly missed my connection. Gosh, it would have really sucked to be stuck at those train stations!

From Wroclaw to Krakow was a little better, but still, not a comfortable ride. I heard the Polish train company saves all their good trains for the international routes and the major routes like from Warsaw to Krakow. I spoke with some travelers in Krakow that came in from Warsaw and they said the train was excellent and fast.

As soon as I stepped off the train I did not feel well. At first I thought it was just from not being able to sleep, but I got progressively more ill over the next day. I must of had food poisoning or perhaps I caught the flu. I was not able to do much for the next 3 days. I had diarrhea, fever, headaches, muscle cramps, and an upset stomach. I decided to stay in Krakow until I felt better.

I stayed on the Garden House Hostel right off the main square. This was a decent hostel and Krakow was a decent place to hang out until I felt better. It is a beautiful, clean city, not expensive (although Poland is not the bargain it was several years ago I heard), and with many excellent restaurants, cafes, and shops. It is a bit touristy with people coming in from all over the world.

The main attraction here is the Auschwitz concentration camps, but I decided not to do this. It was 40 km away from the city and there was a lot of walking. I had very low energy levels due to being ill the past 3 days and not being able to eat very much.

My next stop was in Prague, the Czech Republic. Many people think of this as Czech a Slovakia, but it is now 2 separate countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia. They split in 1992, I believe. Prague is a beautiful city. Check out my pictures. The cobble stone roads are really annoying, since my Xootr doesn't work on them. But one thing I noticed in Poland and in Czech Republic is that people here aren't always so friendly. I guess after being from the southern United States I've gotten use to how open and friendly people are in America (and in Australia for that matter). Often, when asking a stranger at a bus stop for directions, a good place to eat, or a good nightclub, people would often just ignore you as if you were not there. I'm sure the language barrier is one issue, but I don't think that's all it is. It's seems to be part of the culture from speaking to some of the Europeans I've met.

What is very popular in Prague are the hot dog stands. There are a variety of sausages all for under 60 crowns ( a little less than 18 crowns to 1 USD). If you come to Prague, do try out the hot dogs. They are much tastier than the hot dogs we get in the States, I think.

I'm in Vienna, Austria now and I like the city a bit more. It's sort of like Paris, but not as big, hectic, or touristy. They have excellent bicycle and walking paths which makes getting around the city quite a bit easier.

Berlin: Where Communism Meets Capitalism

2009-07-17T04:48:00.004-05:00

Berlin has become a completely different city in the 20 years since the wall fell. Like in Paris, there is so much history here as the city has been repeatedly created and destroyed in various wars throughout history. More recently, this is the city where Communism was born and also where it died. When the wall fell, East and West Germany were reunited shortly thereafter and the USSR collapsed as well. The city has a very dark past, but most of it has been rebuilt. However, if you look carefully, you can still see the scars of World War 2 on the buildings in the form of bullet holes. The fighting here was fierce between the US, Soviets, and Nazis. In the recent past, you will find it use to be very dark, scary place. Hitler, the wall, oppression, and people living in fear and poverty. It's completely different today. Berlin is now a thriving capital city of Germany with shops, restaurants, tourists, and plenty of international businesses.

I stayed on a Baxpax hostel and hotel right in the heart of downtown Berlin. This is a decent hotel/hostel with a friendly and helpful English speaking staff. It's 15 Euros on the weeknights and 21 Euros on weekends for the 30 person sleeping dorms. If you are not use to it, it can be intimidating sleeping with so many people. Personally, I was worried there would be a loud snoring, but surprisingly, nobody snored! I also stayed in their hotel room at 60 Euros for the night. It was small (but much larger than the hotel I stayed in Paris), but clean, comfortable, and cozy. One thing this place doesn't have is air conditioning. But I guess the summers here don't get hot enough to require it. They have breakfast for 5.50 Euros and you can get sausage and eggs for 2 euros more.

Leaving the hostel every day is a "free" 3 hour guided walking tour of the city. The tour guide just asks you to tip him whatever you feel the tour is worth. It is an excellent tour put on by "New Berlin" and I highly recommend it. He hits all the major sites and tells captivating stories about the history behind each site. This tour is a great introduction to the city, but like Paris, you can start in the center and just go in any direction you please. There will be something interesting to see. There are plenty of statues, sculptures, museums, shops, and historical landmarks in any direction. Pick up one of the free maps and start exploring. I used my Xootr, but you can also walk or rent a bicycle for around 8 euros, or take one of the many guided tours for between 12 and 20 euros.

I like Berlin! Like Paris, it's a progressive, cosmopolitan city with people from all over the world. Maybe it's not quite as diverse as Paris or does it have quite as much history and culture, but it's much cleaner, newer, less crowded, less expensive, fewer beggars, and no homeless people living on the streets (at least I saw none). Berlin does have lots of graphhiti (why do people have the urge to spray paint walls?) and the tour guide said the city is famous for its graphiti.

One thing I noticed about Europe is so many people use bicycles, walking, and public transportation to get where they need to go. All kinds of people ride their bicycles to get to where they are going. I see old people, young people, men and women in business suits, kids, etc. using their bicycles to get where they want to go. It's much less so than in the US where most people are riding their bicycles for exercise. The streets are also far more bicycle friendly. There are extra wide sidewalks, bicycle lanes and traffic signals, and plenty of bike racks to lock your bike to when you get to your destination. This was true in Reykjavik, Paris, and now Berlin.

I will spend my weekend in Berlin and leave for Krakow, Poland on Monday, July 20th.

Paris, France: 3 days/2 nights...

2009-07-14T06:39:00.004-05:00

Paris is a sprawling city with plenty of sights to see. The amount of history and culture here is pretty amazing. Everything is pretty expensive here, so I'm only going to spend 2 nights here to avoid spending a ridiculous amount of money. It's a city worth visiting, but I would not live here.

There is so much to see in Paris! You could spend weeks here if you have the budget. There's the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, the Arch, the massive Louvre Art Museum, countless churches, cathedrals, sculptures, statues, and other interesting landmarks and architecture. Just cruise around on a bicycle or scooter in any direction and you will find interesting things to see no matter which direction you go. Cycling or scootering is best way to explore the city. There are electric assisted bicycles for rent throughout the city. There are plenty of bike lanes and most are smooth, but many are cobble stones which makes it hard to for my Xootr's polyurethane wheels.

For urban environments like Paris, a kick scooter like my Xootr is far superior than a bicycle. It's just as fast in most urban situations (12-15 mph on flat terrain), easier to navigate thru thick crowds. It's lighter in weight, smaller in size, and more stable at slower speeds (<>

It's very easy to get lost, however. Paris is a city full of traffic circles. Every time you encounter one of these traffic circles, there are at least 5 different streets for you to choose from. Pick the wrong one and you are going to get lost very quickly. Fortunately, subway stations are almost everywhere and there's a map to help get you oriented. Subways are fast and efficient. They run until 1 am and there's always less than a 3 minute wait for the next train. However, the trains and stations are dirty, smelly and not pleasant to ride in. I'd rather ride the bus if I had more time to figure out the routes. But as a new visitor, I'd recommend the subways as they are the easiest way to get around the city without getting lost.

If you are spending a few days here, I suggest you get a metro pass. For about 15 Euros a day, you get unlimited rides on the subways and busses. The subways (metro as they call it) are easy to figure out. I used it to get from the airport to the hotel without too much difficulty. Taxis are also reasonable if you need to get around after the subways close at 1 am. Many people here don't speak English, but you will usually find someone that speaks English after asking 2 or 3 people. You will also encounter beggars and street venders harassing you to give them money or buy their wares. They can be very aggressive and may hound you until you give them something.

I am glad I stayed in the Boulogne district in the south west corner of the city. It's relatively quiet area of the city. Central Paris is packed with people with massive crowds on the streets, stores, and restaurants. Prices for food and hotels are also higher. The lines for everything can be long. I stayed at Hotel b at 70 Euros per night. I can recommend this hotel. It's a very small room with an even smaller elevator, but the room was clean and a nice breakfast is included in the price. The all you can eat breakfast includes ham, cheese, croissants, fresh breads, cereal, juice, apple sauce.

At 8 pm tonight, I will be taking an 11 hour overnight train to Berlin. I got a sleeper cabin, so it'll be interesting to see how sleeping on a train will be. It's gotta be better than on airplane!

Last Day In Iceland...

2009-07-11T14:59:00.003-05:00

My flight out of Iceland is in less than 11 hours. It's been fun, but I think I am ready to go. Reykjavik is a very small city. In fact, the entire country (300K) has just half the number of people of Austin. However, the city has quite a diverse population given how small and geographically isolated it is. The vast majority of tourists are Europeans, but I also saw quite a few Americans, Asians, and Blacks as well.

Food is very expensive here. A good meal is US$20-$35 per person. A bacon cheeseburger is around US$7 or US$8 at the current exchange rate. A footlong sub is $8 or $9. Even at the supermarket it is quite pricey. A dozen eggs is around $4 or $5. The most popular food here is the hotdog at 260 Krona. There is an endless line of people getting hot dogs all day long. If there is one reason I want to leave it's because I'm tired of eating hotdogs, hamburgers, sandwiches, or paying $35 for a decent meal. Given that food is so expensive here, you might be surprised to see that there are quite a number of obese people here. Despite what you hear from the media, obesity has very little to do with how much someone eats or how much exercise someone does. It's more to do with what they eat as a result of how much money they make. Fresh meats and vegetables are very expensive in Iceland. People eat pastas, potatoes, processed foods, sugars, and other insulin raising foods. Hence you see quite a number of fat people.
I stayed 4 nights at the Domus Guesthouse Hostel. It cost 3,500 Krona per night (US $31) for a shared room. Its reasonably clean with good facilities, and a friendly staff. I recommend it if you are looking for a budget place to stay.
The water here is very good. Iceland has virtually unlimited amounts of fresh water and geothermal energy. The only reason to buy bottled water is for the bottle. The water is very good straight out of the tap. All of the homes are heated with geothermal hot water. They drill for hot water pretty much the same way as drilling for oil. They use the hot water to generate electricity, heat homes, and create heated swimming pools like the Blue Lagoon.
Despite gasoline costing US$5.60 per gallon, there are plenty of SUV, trucks, and 4x4's. Icelandic people love camping and off roading. The countryside is very beautiful and green. There are waterfalls, geysers, mountains, and glaciers that are just outside of Reykjavik. The terrain is very rugged. You will find sheep and horses in the country.
The tour guide said Icelandic people are a mix of Norwegian and Irish decent. Most of the men came from Norway and the women from Ireland. People here don't seem to be as warm as in Texas or Australia. Perhaps its the culture or the language. Most of the native Icelandic women here are very pretty if they are not overweight from eating all the hot dogs, pastas, pizza, and fries.
It never gets dark in July. It's basically daytime all day long. The sun never really goes below the horizon and it is very easy to lose track of time. The darkest it gets is around what would be our sunset, then it starts getting bright again. It's pretty strange experience and definitely not a place to be if you don't like long stretches of daylight or night. It doesn't get very hot in the summer. 50 or 60 F is the high for the day and 50-55 at night.
For a bankrupt country, they seem to be very well off. There are no homeless people, no beggars, no food shortages, no riots, and crime is almost non existent. The tour guide said that they have 1 murder every other year. The country has never been at war and they don't even have a military. It's one of the most conflict free areas of the world. They just have drunk people breaking glass bottles and men urinating on the streets.

Next stop is Paris...

First 24 hours in Iceland...

2009-07-09T01:25:00.006-05:00

After spending most of yesterday getting my bearings, I'm getting a chance to write this post. I landed in Iceland yesterday and so far things have gone as smoothly as can be expected. The first few hours after arriving to a new place is always very stressful until I get my bearings. It's scrambling for lodging, food, exchanging money, establishing communications (cell phone, internet), and trying not to get lost. Of course, I forgot some items. I need a heavier jacket as I am not use to this 50 degree weather after spending the past several weeks in 100+ degree Texas heat. I also need to get a sleeping bag, and a bath towel.

The international airport is about 50 km outside of Reykjavik. The ride is was pretty barren. There were only a few very small tow, but mostly a desolate landscape.

Reykjavik is a really small town. I mean it's REALLY small. It feels like the size of Round Rock or Cedar Park, or some sleepy suburb in New Jersey. I arrived around 9 am and there were just a few people walking around on the streets. When I asked the tourist information guide about where all the people were, she said that it was only 9:30 and they were either sleeping (?) or at work. The entire country is really small. There are only 300K people and well over half of them live in Reykjavik. There seem to be almost as many tourists on the street as people who live here. They seem to be mostly Europeans, but I did see some Asians and Americans as well.

Reykjavik definitely has a unique look to it. They seem to use pastel colors here for the buildings. There are no modern skyscrapers and there doesn't seem to be any buildings that are over 4 stories tall.

I spent the last day using my Xootr to scoot (xoot?) around. It's been a great way to get around, but we'll see how well it works in the rest of Europe, especially in countries that have more cobblestones. I went to their largest shopping mall, which looks like any other Simon shopping mall in the US. I had to go there to get a US to Europe adapter plug. The restaurants seem to serve a lot of hot dogs, pizza, pastas, and fast food. There are also several American and Mexican restaurants. Since Iceland is known for its fishing, I had to try some seafood here. Restaurant Reykjavik has a great (albeit expensive) all you can eat seafood buffet.

I will be here until Sunday morning, when I will head to Paris. For the next few days I plan to hit the many local museums, look for the local hot springs, and check out the night life (if any). Today, I need to buy a heavier jacket, a sleeping bag, and a towel.

Next Generation LED Flashlights: TerraLUX Lightstar 220

2009-06-23T15:03:00.004-05:00

Since I've been riding around on my electric scooter and driving a pedicab downtown at night, I've taken an interest in bicycle lights and flashlights. Getting a small, light weight, bicycle light that is bright enough to been seen at night was relatively easy. But getting a light bright enough to see out night was always tough. The bicycle lights have been heavy (battery the size of a water bottle), expensive, and/or had short run times.

But I have discovered that the new generation of LED flashlights are far superior to the old flashlights we are use to. They are small, lightweight, relatively inexpensive (less than $50), and throw off a beam that is orders of a magnitude brighter than your typical household flashlight or even something like a Mag flashlight, which I thought were never that impressive to begin with. Most of the new LED flashlights are built around a CREE lamp. Most of them are regulated which means the maintain consistence brightness with varying battery voltages. They are sold under brand names you probably never heard of like Fenix, TerraLUX, ITP, EagleTac, and others. They are built with anodized aluminum instead of the cheap plastics that most flashlights and bicycle lights (i.e. Cateye) are made out of.

They are powered either by lithium cells or the more common AA/AAA batteries. The ones powered by lithium seem to offer better performance. Either they are smaller or lighter or they are bright and/or last longer in a given size. However, AA/AAA cells are much easier to find (in virtually every store) when the batteries do die.

The flashlight I have here is a TerraLUX Lightstar 220. It has a claimed brightness of 220 lumens. It is the brightest flashlight I have ever owned. It is powered by just 2 AA batteries and will last about 2 hours at the high setting on a set of AA Energizer 2500 NiMH rechargeable batteries. It claims to have a 6 hour run time on the low setting. It's pretty easy to carry an extra set of AA batteries in your pocket or find a set if the run times aren't long enough.

It's bright enough for cycling at night with a flashlight handlebar mount and will easily light up 50 yards in front of you. If you want more light, it would not be hard to mount two of these on a bicycle handlebar because they are small enough. It seems to be sturdy built out of anodized aluminum. There are 2 settings high and low. The low setting seems to be about half as bright and is useful since the high setting may be too bright for close up work.

It comes with a wrist strap and pouch. I got a $2 flashlight handlebar mount from MeritLine.com that seems to work well enough. Assuming this flashlight proves to be durable enough, I recommend it as a cycling headlight (any taillight usually works fine) or as a general purpose flashlight. If you've never seen one of these, you'll be amazed to how small and bright they are. The lithium powered versions are probably smaller, lighter, brighter, and/or last longer, but I like using AA cells as I know I can get them anywhere.

Australia Interesting Facts...

2009-06-16T14:34:00.003-05:00

It's been about a month since I got back from Australia. It's a great little (in terms of population) country. Great weather, affordable (a little less than the US at the current exchange rates), with a diverse population. I would consider moving there and definitely plan to visit again as long as airfares are as cheap as they are. The culture seems to be close to British and European with an Asian influence in the big cities (i.e. Sydney). I saw a lot of Europeans and Asians and very few Hispanics (didn't see any in fact) and Blacks (very few).

The mass transportation system seems better developed than the US. I spent 10 days there and never needed a car. I only took a taxi twice. I got everywhere I wanted to go on planes, trains, buses, ferry, and foot. Of course, I stayed near the cities. If you want to go explore the Outback, then you would definitely need a car. Gas (or petrol as the Aussies call it) was about AU$1.10 per liter. That's over AU$4 per gallon or US$3.32 per gallon. It's probably more now since gas has gone up since I've been there.

I liked Brisbane more than Sydney. It's cleaner, not as crowded, and a lot prettier. Gold Coast is also a great place to hang out as it is the vacation hot spot for Australia with lots of high rises, beaches, restaurants, souvenir shops, and other attractions. You will definitely want to check out Surfer's Paradise while you are there.

Traveling in Australia is easy. If you are comfortable traveling in the US, you shouldn't have any problems in Australia. It's not hard to buy a plane ticket and figure everything out when you get here. There are plenty of places to exchange money, eat, find accommodations, and buy whatever you may need.

Talking to some of the locals, it seems Australians get paid better than Americans. The minimum wage is AU$14.31 per hour, but it seems that many low level workers make more than this. That is much higher than the US$6.55 per hour here. Also, it seems non skilled workers get paid substantially more there than in the US. When you factor in that the country has universal health care while most of our non skilled workers are uninsured and have no health care coverage, they earn substantially more than Americans.

I'm not sure how they do it. Things don't seem to be anymore expensive than what they are here. The only thing I can think of is that their government does not have the massive debt that we do and they aren't spending hundreds of billions fighting wars like we are. Or perhaps its because there is far less corruption and special interest groups in Australia compared with the USA. There are only 22 million people there, which is fewer people than there are in Texas.

Brisbane to Surfers Paradise: Quick Note

2009-05-14T06:58:00.002-05:00

Brisbane is a beautiful city. The heart of the city is definitely the river that winds through it. This city has a beautiful combination of high rises mixed with parks and gardens surrounded by foothills. Its much cleaner than Sydney (which reminds me of New York City) and definitely seems like a much more livable city.

I flew into Brisbane airport and hopped on a train (AU$14) that took me to central station. From here, there are plenty of hostels and hotels you can goto.

I would hop on the city tour bus. For AU$25 you can ride a city bus that takes you to all the major attractions and allows you to ride on City Cat, which is the city's ferry service. Taking a ride on the city ferry service is a great way to see the city skyline. The bus takes you up this mountain that overlooks the city. You can hop on and off the bus and there is another bus every 45 minutes. It's a great way to do a narrated tour of the city.

The main part of downtown must be the Queen Street Mall. There are plenty of shops, restaurants, information booths, and its great to hang out here just to people watch. In particular, there is this discount souvenir shop that sells a variety of Australian items. It is on the corner of Queen and Albert. I purchased several boomerangs, leather wallets (between AU$7-$10), and this kangaroo leather cowboy hat that you will see me wearing now.

I spent a couple days here, and then took the Gold Coast train and transferred to a bus that took me to Surfer's Paradise where I am now.