only got a few minutes before i gotta jet
literally
i'm at the hong kong airport right now using their free wifi sitting by my boarding gate awaiting my flight home
yes, my trip got postponed until today but i'm finally going home!
it's been a very long and stressful two weeks
i've missed karen and olivia tremendously
can't wait to get home!
they are calling for us to board
bye bye
Sunday, December 30, 2007
hello from hong kong
Monday, December 24, 2007
merry christmas from yu to you
well, the trip has been postponed again
i'm now going home this coming friday the 28th.......... for now
my christmas is ruined, but i hope you guys have a good one
so, on behalf of olivia, karen and myself... the yu family, we wish you a merry christmas!!!
make sure to click on the pic
have a great and safe holidays everyone
cheers!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
still stuck in china
so thursday has come and gone and i'm still here in china
the trip has been postponed until monday the 24th but it doesn't look promising
it looks like i'll have to stay a few extra days
first christmas with olivia and i can't be home
fuck!
even tho' we don't really celebrate christmas, it's just the feel of it, know what i mean?
plus a couple days ago, a friend of mine from canada was transferring through taiwan to go to the philippines and we were gonna meet up and hang out for the day but i couldn't because i was out here
i've been back to taiwan for over 8 years now and finally had a friend from canada visit me but i can't be there!!!???
FUCK!
for those that want to work in the manufacturing business, here's an advice
work as the customer, not the supplier
difference?
ass kicker and ass kicked
we getting our asses kicked out here
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
hello from behind the great firewall of china
hello
taking a short break from meetings now, so thought i'd drop a note
i'm on a business trip here in kunshan now, which is about 2 hours drive west of shanghai
got in last night and scheduled to go back on thursday
might get postponed depending on the progress of things here but i hope not
i can't wait to go home to see wifey and olivia
really miss them
it's really cold here and there's no heat in the factory i'm working at, so it's pretty uncomfortable working conditions
at least they've got me set-up at a pretty nice hotel
yes, the hotel is heated
i've got internet connection here in the factory and back at the hotel but it's limited
the great firewall of china
a lot of websites i can't view including blogspot.com so i can't view what i'm writing now on my blog, but blogger.com works... go figure
oops, gotta go gotta go
be back shortly
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
thoughts on being a father
it's been over two weeks now since olivia was born and both karen and i are so tired, stressed and exhausted
those of you that have travelled and have experienced jetlag
it's just like having really severe jetlag..... permanently
altho' still feeling the joy, excitement and amazement of being a father, reality has set in
raising and caring for a child is no easy task
priorities and responsibilities have been reordered
suddenly my shoulders feel a lot heavier
do not get me wrong
i still feel like i'm the luckiest guy in the world and i'm very thankful for everything
having a child and every single moment with her is very rewarding
do not get me wrong
i'm just tired, that's all
my whole outlook and perspective for my parens has completely changed
i have now a new found appreciation, admiration and respect for my parents
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
the birth day
here's how it all went down...
sunday 11/25, 8:00 am
i was still deep in my sleep when suddenly i heard karen scream "hurry! wake up! it's time to go!"
"huh?" i responded still with body and mind in sleep mode
"it's time to go. I AM HAVING A BABY!" she yelled
ok, now i'm fully awake!
karen was not having contractions (that she could feel) nor did her water break, but it turns out she was bleeding
we quickly got prepared, got our stuff together, called a taxi and were on our way
8:50 am
we arrive at our hospital and get up to the maternity ward
as soon as we go in, the nurses tell us to wait because someone is about to give birth
the delivery room is adjacent to the maternity ward so we could clearly hear this woman screaming in pain from the top of her lungs
that's not good
we thought we were really nervous... no, now we are REALLY NERVOUS
a few minutes later the screaming stops and the cry of a baby takes over
congratulations, it's a boy
the nurses come out shortly after and before they could get us settled in, a second mother is ready to give birth in the delivery room
we thought the first mom was bad, this second mom was even worse and louder!
seriously, put some fucking soundproof walls around that delivery room
again, her screams didn't last for long and were taken over by the cry of a baby
congratulations, it's a boy
again, the nurses come out shortly after and finally are able to tend to karen since it's now only her and another mom waiting who still has quite a while to go before delivery
they do a check and karen is having contractions (altho' she can't feel them) and is dilated 2 cm
for birth to occur, one must be dilated 10 cm so we still have a long way to go but we are still asked to check-in and stay at the hospital
it's now a waiting game
i got outside and buy some coffee from the coffee shop across the street
got the biggest cup they had
it's gonna be a long day
karen getting checked and waiting
12:00 pm
ate some lunch and watched a movie on hbo
are we really about to have a baby?
we are actually really relaxed at this point and feels like we are on vacation at a hotel or something
2:00 pm
karen is checked again and she's dilated 3 cm now
too slow they said, so recommend that karen get up and walk around the hospital to speed up the labour
especially climb the stairs they said and climb the stairs we did
throughout the whole day, we easily climbed the stairs from bottom to top at least 20 times
times that by 6 floors and that's a whole lot of climbing
who would've thought i'd get some exercise out this?
3:15 pm
we come back to the ward from one of our climbs and there's a mother in the delivery room ready to give birth
ok, i think we have a winner here folks
this mom was just scary
besides the really really loud screaming, she kept yelling "i'm in so much pain!" over and over and over and over
we lose our relaxed mode instantly and go right back to "really fucking nervous" mode
after about 30 minutes, the screaming and yelling stopped but this time it was not followed by the cry of a baby
it turns out this mom spent all her energy on screaming and yelling instead of pushing that she lost all her strength and nearly passed out, so the doc had to proceed with an emergency c-section
shortly after, the silence is interrupted by the sound of a crying baby
congratulations, it's a boy
6:00 pm
ate some food for dinner and karen got another check up
dilation, 4 cm
way too slow
they said at this rate, it would take karen 2 days to give birth so they gave her a small dose of pitocin (oxytocin) to help speed up labour
on we go with our walkabouts and stair climbing
pausing for a rest during one of our walkabouts
9:30 pm
karen's parents came by for a short visit and she is starting to feel a little bit of pain now
another check-up and she's dilated 6 cm
the nurses were amazed!
they said karen is the one of the first moms they've seen who can actually still walk, talk and even laugh and joke around at 6 cm dilation
most moms are already cringing and screaming in pain at this point
kudos to karen and to olivia too for being such an angel
10:30 pm
karen can really feel the contractions now and the pains are increasing in strength
i went and got some food for karen to eat so she has some energy later during delivery
probably not such a good idea as she nearly choked during one of the contractions!
11:30 pm
i time the contractions at a little over a minute apart and karen is really feeling the pain now, but she's able to get up and walk around
she's baring the pain a lot better than i thought, espeically since it wasn't a pretty sight when i took her to a foot massage before
the doc comes by and checks the dilation at 8 cm
he calls the nurses
it's time to go into the delivery room
approximately 12:00 am - midnight
karen is now fully dilated at 10 cm and her water brakes
doc said it should take another hour or so, so he tells the nurses he'll be in the lounge waiting
"another hour or so?!?!" said karen
she said she could not take the pain for another hour or so, so she just started pushing really hard
a few minutes later, the nurses said they could see the baby's head and called the doc back in right away
after only a few more pushes, at 12:35 am olivia was born
again, the nurses and the doc were amazed at how well karen did
not only did she not scream and yell, she delivered in record time
the doc said it was a "perfect labour and delivery"
that's my girl!!!
Saturday, December 08, 2007
do you know these famous people in history?
just got another cool picture on the email
it's actually a drawing and it's one of the coolest drawings i've ever seen
it's a collection of some of the most prominent and famous people in history
how many do you know?
click on image to view large and numbered version
here's the list...
1. bill gates???
2. audrey hepburn
3. charlie chaplin
4. aristotle / socrates???
5. pele
6. henry ford
7. ?????
8. hitler
9. beethoven
10. lei feng
11. vladimir lenin
12. guan yu (guan gong)
13. mussolini
14. dr. ?????
15. ?????
16. saddam hussein
17. alexander the great???
18. bill clinton
19. charles de gaulle
20. george custer
21. ?????
22. mike tyson
23. christopher columbus???
24. sun yat sen
25. ?????
26. vladimir putin
27. margaret thatcher / queen elizabeth???
28. deng xiaoping
29. bruce lee
30. vincent van gogh???
31. ?????
32. chiang kai shek
33. ?????
34. winston churchill
35. ?????
36. ?????
37. queen mary / victoria / elizabeth ii???
38. shirley temple
39. ?????
40. robert oppenheimer
41. elvis
42. ?????
43. stalin
44. william shakespeare
45. leonardo da vinci???
46. albert einstein
47. mozart
48. karl marx
49. friedrich nietzsche
50. steven spielberg???
51. genghis khan
52. pablo picasso
53. ?????
54. napoleon
55. ?????
56. abraham licoln
57. mao
58. zhou enlai
59. che guevara
60. ?????
61. moses???
62. fidel castro
63. confucius
64. laozi
65. marlon brando / the godfather don corleone
66. marilyn monroe
67. ?????
68. gandhi
69. julius caesar
70. ?????
71. dwight eisenhower???
72. claude monet???
73. salvador dali???
74. vincent van gogh???
75. luciano pavarotti
76. ?????
77. george w. bush
78. empress dowager cixi
79. michael jordan
80. marcel duchamp
81. osama bin laden
82. liu xiang
83. prince charles
84. ariel sharon
85. kofi annan / nelson mandela???
86. ?????
87. ?????
88. ?????
89. gorbachev
90. mother theresa
91. qin shi huang
92. michaelangelo???
93. ?????
94. ?????
95. ?????
96. otto von bismarck
97. dante alighieri
98. ?????
99. ?????
100. yue fei
101. ?????
102. roosevelt
103. yasser arafat
do you know the names for the question marks or can verify the names with question marks or see a mistake???
have fun
Thursday, December 06, 2007
smiling olivia
"hehehe...
hahaha...
alright, i give up...
i'm tired so i'm done playing with y'all...
i'm going to sleep...
...zzz...zzz...zzz...
psyche! just kidding! hehe! fooled y'all... i'm still awake. now, change my diapers!"
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
congratulations to charlene & johnathan
congratulations to my friend charlene and her new husband johnathan
it was a very beautiful and lavish wedding
made me wanna get married all over again!
more pictures of the wedding can be seen here: http://www.fotop.net/tinayann/20071114a
photos courtesy of tina yann
tina is an excellent photographer who also took photos at our wedding
need a photographer for a wedding or other events???
please consider tina
i highly recommend her
Saturday, December 01, 2007
a smile from mother nature
just got this on my email and thought it was pretty cool so i'm sharing it with everyone
smile!
have a nice day
cheers
a nod of approval from trippin tv
i discover trippin tv a few weeks ago
a new english social website based in taiwan with lots of features
one of these features that caught my attention was the blogwatch: blog reviews
they had reviewed several blogs and were pretty harsh on most
funny at times but harsh
it's all in good fun and altho' i know their reviews are pretty irrelevant as one blogs as he/she wishes to blog, i still wondered when it would my turn
i was looking forward to reading their dissection of my blog and the shots they'd take
well, the wait is over
i've been reviewed...
How many Asian people have you met in Taiwan who have stellar English and have turned out to be born in Taiwan, but spent their formative years growing up in a western country and now... low and behold they've come back to roost in Taiwan again. The answer is "Kabillions". These "Bananas" (yellow on the outside and white on the inside) are a breed slightly apart from the full-on ABC and totally different than the Taiwan local who has lived in Miaoli all his life. Some might argue they are the best of both worlds.. some might claim they are a just a bi polar, confused bunch of individuals. I call this group of people "Rexpats" (returning as expat... duh!).
Andres is a Rexpat and his blog... "andres in taiwan " is pretty damn good.
Before I launch full force into this review I need to remind our readers that while TrippinTV is a cool and hip online social network we are not necessarily only for young 20 somethings who think that partying at Mint every weekend and putting up half naked pictures of yourself drunk on your MySpace profile is the be all end all of the Internet. Its only one fun part of the Internet... and please if you are one of those people.. don't stop posting those pics! ;)
andres in taiwan immediately strikes me as a great blog for one obvious trait... BALANCE... he's got a great balance of pics and text... a great balance of personal life and mildly interesting Taiwan stuff.. and it looks like he's got a decent balance of online and off line social life... as the best bloggers always do. Andre's does a good job of showing his family life and new born child in an interesting and familial way.
So here's the basic good and bad lists.
The good:
1. Andres is a prolific photographer. His pictures are decent and a very good size on his blog... ie you don't need to click any thumbnail images to have a clue what his pics are of.
2. He keeps his text short and sweet. No lengthy (BORING) diatribes here.
3. His site has a very clean and basic interface that appeals to many.
4. He blogs with a good degree of regularity (about once every couple of days).
The bad?.. mostly personal minor quibbles of my own...
1. he's got his own grammatical/punctuation style (but thats only bad if you are a grammar natzi which i'm not)
2. Not enough VIDEO... but again thats just our thing here.
3. He's got a Xacti and I'm jealous. I've been dieing to play with one... although I really want an RCA Small Wonder
4. I'm not sure about his dreintaiwan.blogspot.com/ url.. dre is probably his nickname..? it makes me think of Dr Dre and I'm personally generally allergic to rap.
5. andre in taiwan ... no capitals. ... why oh why? (OK .. I'm a part-time grammar Natzi as long as it isn't mine!)
All in all I'd say and andre in taiwan is a really pleasant diversion style blog that you might go and read if you want at little peak into the balanced life of a taiwan Rexpat.
well, that went well
i'm a bit disappointed they didn't rip it apart some more but at the same time i'm glad they liked
hey, at least someone out there approves
still, a site with the name "trippin" has beef about grammar and spelling?
it's like an obese person calling someone fat
what a trip
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