Susan Boyle

You have to watch this on YouTube. I can't embed it here since it's been blocked. Many of you have probably seen it already - it's all over the internet - but if you haven't, click on this link below and spend a few minutes watching this, you won't regret it. I'm certainly not the first person to blog or tweet about this (just tweeted this and it's one of the top trending keywords on Twitter, of course). Susan Boyle, a homely looking unemployed 47 year old takes the stage at Britains Got Talent 2009. Everyone rolls their eyes and chuckles to themselves. And then...

Susan Boyle clip on YouTube

Wow. I was blown away by this. And moved. (It doesn't hurt that Les Miserables is one my favorite musicals!) Nothing I'm saying here is original - seems like the masses have weighed in. Here she is - this person that is utterly unremarkable. I know that sounds mean, but you know it's true. I don't have all the facts, but from Eugene Cho's blog, which is far more developed than my thoughts here, it sounds like she's had a relatively uphill life. Then you have all these smug self-important people - Simon Cowell, and his cohorts, the audience, and certainly everyone watching on TV or on the internet - sitting in front of her, ready to just tear into her. She just didn't belong...and then the music plays. People continue to smirk. She opens her mouth to sing and...BAM. W-O-W. Maybe it's the proverbial underdog story. Maybe it's that the world all around us seems to be going to the crapper in a hurry. It's all of these things and more. And then this humble, utterly unremarkable woman - insignificant in the haughty world's eyes - comes out of nowhere and just floors us...and in the process, lifts my spirits. Thank you, Susan. I needed that right about now.

UPDATED: her behavior post-performance has put a real damper on this...

Recent picures of Lina around the apt

Playdates

Liz and Lina have been going on playdates more, and having folks over. Lina just LOVES other kids and babies. She loves to have other children around. She'll start pointing, laughing and sometimes yelling. Frenetic energy.

Here are some recent pics of a playdate at our place with Janet (and "Aju") and Charice (and Max and Maddy). I posted about them a while back...Janet and Charice's husbands, Taos and Ko, respectively, were both classmates of mine at Wharton. Liz met Janet and Charice in Philly and they bonded as LA transplants who were dragged to Philly. Now they are all back in LA with their kids. Ours is the youngest. Liz and Lina also just hung out with Janet (and Agnes) and Grace (and Christian). (Grace is also a prolific updater of her blog!) Charice and Ko just had another one recently!

Books

Liz and I were both book nerds growing up. Trying to instill some of that into Lina. She's starting to really get into books. As some of you know, Eric Carle is a famous illustrator and children's book writer. This year is the 40th anniversary of his seminal work "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." His illustrations have a very distinct style, and even Google chose to redesign the home page on the actual 40th day anniversary, in his style. Anyway, Liz recently bought Lina the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" Lina loves it! This morning, without gesturing, I asked Lina: "do you want to read a book? How about 'Brown Bear?'" She crawled right up to her book shelf, picked up Brown Bear and exclaimed "brunh brunh." Haha. I was proud...

Here she is sitting by her bookcase.

Bad blogger

I'm a bad blogger. Ever since I read this post from my boy Tim Kau in NY I've been feeling really antsy about my inability to blog consistently. And even @Hosive talks about the modern-day pressure of needing to consistently express oneself on social networks - through tweets, FB updates, Flickr uploads, FB picture uploads, imeem playlists, etc., etc. I do feel this persistent low grade stress, or annoyance, in the back of mind, for not being up to date on posts, tweets, updates, and pictures. My little sister-in-law Leener, for example, is an avid blogger and is so on top of her pictures, both on her blog and on FB. Most of my tagged photos on FB are from her.

I started this blog with grand ambitions. I wanted to comment on not just our life in LA - which has been dominated this year by the new entrant into the family - but also talk about the industry I'm in (music, digital media, etc.) and maybe even talk about travel, etc. I wanted to talk about interesting ideas that I'm ruminating over. And I wanted to write about meaningful things related to family, life, politics, faith, etc. All of the things I find on my friends' blogs...

But, at the end of the day, it's just hard to find any energy left to write anything. It's been a tiring year! And to be quite honest, I just don't seem to have any interesting ideas or topics to explore these days. And if I do, I quickly forget them due to general exhaustion. Well, things are getting a lot better. Lina is on a pretty consistent sleep schedule, and so our lives are a little more predictable. So, hopefully I'll be able to write more consistently on this blog again. But I'm not going to overreach. I'm gonna keep it simple. Step 1: I'm gonna post some recent pics of daddy's girl now...

Chores Part 2

Here's Lina doing more chores...sending some faxes for me, and loading the dishwasher...

Chores

We're starting early with instilling a good work ethic in Lina. Here she is taking out the trash - her own diapers...

Hawaii - the first pics

So we made it back from our first plane trip and vacation with Lina. We had a really great time. It wasn't the most relaxing holiday we've ever had, but it was fun! Here some initial pics...

Me and Lina at Lanikai Beach on the east shore of Oahu. Breathtaking...
Ko Olina lagoons, below, on the west shore of the island. We caught the sunset, which was really nice.

Pre-Trip

We're going to take this little critter on her first plane trip. It's just past midnight, and our flight is at 8:45am. I think we are close to being done packing. We're a bit nervous about taking her on the first flight. A cousin of mine is getting married in Oahu, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity and excuse to go on our first trip as a family. If we survive the five and a half hour plane ride, I'll blog about the adventure!

2008 in Review

The Year in Review - Facebook updates

You're wondering: who has the time to go and cut and paste all of these one by one? I guess I do. I have this tendency to want to review each year as it draws to a close. Usually I read my journals from the year, and talk to Liz about the year. This year, Liz suggested that I take a look back at all of my status updates on Facebook. So, I actually went through the laborious process pulling out each of these updates from the year. There are about 120 one of them! 2008 was a year to remember. The great and terrible year. I'll have more to say, and some photos to post. But first...my year of Facebook status updates:

Jan 2: Leonard is looking at short-term flats in Le Marais. 11:50pm

Jan 5: Leonard is working. 11:53am

Jan 6: Leonard is taking it easy with the wife on the Westside (not Upper) and psyching myself up for CES. 12:29pm

Jan 6: Leonard is sitting at LAX Terminal 1 waiting for flight to Vegas. 8:11pm

Jan 7: Leonard is in the taxi line at the Venetian. 9:49pm

Jan 8: Leonard is hoping to kick this cough soon. 12:38pm

Jan 8: Leonard is so glad that doctor friends can call in prescription drugs for him. 5:23pm

Jan 10: Leonard is in rainy NorCal and wondering why the weather has sucked since moving to the West Coast. 10:22am

Jan 10: Leonard is hoping Michael Nash doesn't hurt anyone at SFO if our flight is delayed another hour. 3:34pm

Jan 10: Leonard is relieved to be back. 10:53pm

Jan 21: Leonard is having brunch with the wife at Toast on 3rd street. 1:38pm

Jan 21: Leonard is planning the details of their last vacation...ever. 9:47pm

Jan 24: Leonard is pissed that United cancelled not one but two flights on him. 8:53am

Jan 24: Leonard is onboard at LAX headed to Nice via Frankfurt and CDG. 4:56pm

Jan 25: Leonard is stuck for a couple of hours in Frankfurt, with only a doppio and an FT for company. 5:20am

Jan 25: Leonard is wearing the same thing today b/c Air France/United lost his luggage - a perfect way to cap off a perfect travel day! 11:50pm

Jan 26: Leonard is buying boxers in Cannes because the airline hasn't delivered the lost luggage. 9:07am

Jan 27: Leonard is having lunch outdoors on the Mediterranean sea. 4:04am

Jan 28: Leonard is not feeling great after staying up all night. 10:26pm

Feb 1: Leonard is making reservations at Kong and Laduree in broken French. haha... 2:51am

Feb 1: Leonard is getting crushed by the euro. 2:19pm

Feb 2: Leonard is standing in line in St Germaine for some macroons. 6:44am

Feb 6: Leonard is finally at CDG, after 90 minutes of public transport - involuntarily standing in solidarity with Parisian taxi drivers on strike. 12:54am

Feb 6: Leonard is back Stateside. 1:20pm

Feb 7: Leonard is using his 646 number cuz he lost his 917 phone - sorry for those who called. 3:57pm

Feb 9: Leonard is back in the warm weather. 9:16pm

Feb 12: Leonard is at LAX again, and wondering if ordering this Sausage McMuffin is a bad idea. 6:46am

Feb 12: Leonard is anxious to get off the plane and away from the talkative stranger on 9A. 4:11pm

Feb 13: Leonard is eating In-n-Out in the car, on the 405 North, and doing a conference call. Not a great idea. 11:22am

Feb 16: Leonard is reading the paper by the pool and working on the master to-do list. 10:44am

Feb 21: Leonard is sitting in sister in law's living room with a bunch of folks, timing contractions, and wondering if his nephew will be born on Uncle Leonard's birthday! 11:16pm

Feb 25: Leonard is trying to build a multivariable decision model for selecting the right car - should have paid attention in Monte Carlo simulation class. 12:41am

Feb 25: Leonard was asked earlier in the day: "Are you the new intern?" Nice. Maybe I'll wear glasses and a tie tomorrow.

Feb 26: Leonard is doing the maternity tour at Cedars Sinai - short of breath and light-headed all of a sudden! 5:18pm

Mar 3: Leonard is rescheduling the entire week. 10:49am

Mar 3: Leonard is at Cedars again. 6:27pm

Mar 3: Leonard is at Cedars again, about to go meet the new nephew for the first time - Noah F. Lee, 7 pounds exactly. 6:29pm

Mar 6:

Leonard is wondering why the directed him to the long security line upstairs at Terminal 1 LAX instead of letting him go through the empty line downstairs. 6:17am

Leonard is taking a train down the peninsula looking for his rental car. 4:12pm

Leonard is polishing up a bottle of Ridge Valley with old friends Andrew and Charles, and waxing nostalgic about the city. 11:32pm

Mar 9: Leonard is at Target, amazed that there are so many little things he didn't realize he needed until seeing them. 4:05pm

Mar 10: Leonard is moving into the new crib on Olympic and Bentley. 2:17pm

Mar 11: Leonard is cleared but running out of those precious 500 mile credits and comps. 8:36am

Mar 18: Leonard is already logged on to CBS March Madness on-demand and watching Tyus Edney vs. Missouri 1995 over and over... 7:59pm

Mar 29: Leonard wonders if San Antonio could be considered a critical business trip. 9:58pm

Apr 11: Leonard is having a "GSD" day - getting shtuff done. 12:40pm

Apr 12: Leonard is labeling, filing, and shredding, and getting a lot of satisfaction out of it. 7:01pm

Apr 13: Leonard thinks Britax should hire a couple of product designers to re-write the user manual, b/c I have no idea how to use this thing. 10:55am

Apr 16: Leonard is making a list but feeling paralyzed. 12:28pm

Apr 28: Leonard is picking up some shaved ice at volcano tea on sawtelle. 10:30pm

May 3: Leonard is waiting in room 5 at Cedars, with a view of the Hills. 7:54am

May 4: Leonard is sleepless at Cedars, chillin' in wonderment with Liz and Angelina "Lina" Ruth Chen, born 5/3 at 11:03am (PST) - 7lbs. and 21 in. 12:58pm

May 12: Leonard is changing, burping, changing, burping, etc. 7:29pm

May 12: Leonard watching Anderson Cooper and wondering why there is so much suffering in the world.via Twitter - 10:40pm

May 22: Leonard is doubtful that summer hours means anything to his dept. 1:23pm

May 23: Leonard is on a day trip to Berkeley for sister's grad...sitting on southwest now, the greyhound in the sky. 6:41am

May 23: Leonard is at a commencement cocktail thing at berkeley, shocked at how fast the kid sister grew up. 11:54am

May 27:

Leonard is wondering if the pediatrician would ok a night cap to take the edge off for the baby. 12:52am

Leonard is thanking the barista for the free fourth shot of the quadruple soy latte and hopes this helps him get through the morning. 7:43am

May 29: Leonard is eating a lu(3) dan(4) and thinking of Shilin night market in Taipei. 12:00am

Jun 4: Leonard is watching a documentary of the "Showtime" era Lakers - the refrigerator door is closed! 10:13pm

Jun 5: Leonard feels like it was just yesterday when he was watching Magic & Co. at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. 2:37pm

Jun 6: Leonard $138 a barrel... shoot me! 12:50pm

Jun 9: Leonard is finalizing his term life insurance application - both comforting and quite disturbing. 4:52pm

Jun 11: Leonard is exhausted and so not in the mood to talk to the extremely talkative driver. 10:17pm

Jun 17: Leonard is thinking about shutting down the TV - it's just too painful. 8:03pm

Jun 28: Leonard is picking up world-class dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. 6:47pm - Comment

Jun 29: Leonard is happy for Espana. 1:41pm

Jul 7: Leonard was just asked if he was an intern again. Thinking of wearing a suit to the office (where everyone wears jeans) from now on... 12:16pm

Jul 8: Leonard is shocked that somebody actually bothered to call from Cannes about the mobile phone he lost six months ago; must have dialed everyone on my presets. 9:52am

Jul 10: Leonard is is sitting across from Ken Watanabe abd thinks the (second to the) last samurai looks a lot bigger onscreen. thinking abt challenging him to a sword fight. 1:17pm

Jul 17:

Leonard is bleary-eyed abd trying to convince himself and his wife that some day they will miss the moments. thanks elliott, for the advice... 4:41am

Leonard is bleary eyed but trying to telling himself and his wife that someday they will look back fondly at these moments. thanks, elliott, for the perspective! 4:44am

Leonard is stuck in line at sbux behind the guy who ordered 8 diff custom beverages - what bet did he lose? 8:27am

Jul 25: Leonard is working. 1:53am

Jul 26: Leonard finally enjoying some downtime after putting the kid down - surfing the net and watching TV...now considered paradise...via Twitter - 1:46am

Jul 28:

Leonard is disturbed by the fact that 30 days of gmail have been wiped out of his inbox...this couldn't just be a case of pocket-typing could it? 12:36am

Leonard is thankful and relieved that bro/sis-in-law are here taking care of baby while we take care of stuff, and entertained by their sheer panic. 8:19pm

Jul 29: Leonard is getting blasted with emails, IM's and facebook messages asking about the earthquake. 1:02pm

Aug 3: Leonard wishes he pushed back more on his stylist and feels like he should be wearing rayon and singing duran duran with his new '80's-style do. 11:55am

Aug 4: Leonard is wondering how long must we sing this song. 9:37pm –

Aug 5: Leonard (to the guy blackberry-ing in the bathroom stall): you gotta draw the line somewhere! 4:15pm

Aug 8: Leonard is closing out a very productive week - 1 parking ticket, 1 speeding ticket, 1 extra VOD charge b/c they couldn't watch the movie within 24 hrs...what a week. 5:17pm

Aug 9: Leonard is at Half and Half tea house in San Gabriel, which has the most authentic Taiwanese boba in LA. 5:41pm

Aug 10: Leonard finally watched the Opening Ceremony - 3 days later - on DVR...and wow... 1:38pm

Aug 22: Leonard is wondering why the NYtimes got the news on the selection before he got his promised text message. 11:40pm

Sep 7: Leonard is looking forward to this full capacity redeye. 10:15pm

Sep 11: Leonard is sleep-training. 11:27pm

Sep 13: Leonard almost caved on night #2 of sleep training...almost...goodness. 12:05am

Sep 26: Leonard is wondering if the average Taiwanese is also taller than the average North Korean, and by how many inches? 7:53pm

Sep 28: Leonard is roaming around the UES in a tux...fancy Chinese delivery guy or friend of bride and groom? 9:53am

Sep 30: Leonard is glad to be back at home with the girls. 11:33pm

Oct 5: Leonard is trying to calculate the absolute maximum amount of Motrin he can have in 24 hours, and how best to disburse it, without OD-ing. 10:02pm

Oct 15: Leonard is pissed that the greedy insurance co. called my mobile to ask how much longer I'll be hospitalized...at least wait til after the IV and oxygen tubes are... 9:20am

Oct 16: Leonard is thankful for a nice break from the drudgery of the hospital - a couple of hearty laughs while watching the al smith charity dinner. 6:26pm

Oct 17: Leonard is thinking 17 straight days of fever probably ain't good for the brain. 10:33am

Oct 18: Leonard is must be picking up the med lingo - a doctor just asked me if I was a doctor. or I've been here way too long... 10:44am

Oct 19: Leonard is becoming a fixture here, just had my daily half hour conversation with the hospital menu supervisor about her graduating son's career path - MD, MBA, or... 11:40am

Oct 21: Leonard is dying to get the hell home...anyone in WeHo or Bev Hills got a helicopter for a quick getaway? I'll rip the IV's out like 007... 7:47pm

Oct 29:

Leonard is happy for their old home of 2 years - good ole' philly, which according to will smith, is jiggy. 7:35pm

Leonard is happy for his old stomping grounds of 2 years - good ole' Philly, which according to Will Smith, is jiggy like LA. 7:36pm

Oct 30: Leonard is wondering if it's a bad omen when my insurance company - United Healthcare - calls me to talk about getting a living will done? Yikes. 10:19am

Oct 31: Leonard is happy to have Mike and Oli over tonight. 11:09pm

Nov 4: Leonard - wow, my six month old daughter is going to grow up thinking she can do anything... 11:15pm

Nov 7: Leonard is sacrificing baby's sleep schedule for korean bbq. hopefully won't pay for it later... 8:21pm

Nov 10: Leonard California drivers (San Mateo county jurisdiction) - any suggestions for the FASTEST possible online traffic school course? 9:50pm

Nov 21: Leonard is looking forward to dinner with the wife, while the sis-in-law babysits! only the third quiet meal just the two of us in the last 6 months! thanks Em! 12:52pm

Dec 1:

Leonard is with my peers at the LA Superior Court for jury duty. 8:04am

Leonard is filling the last seat in the box. 2:59pm

Dec 5: Leonard is bruised, sore, and scratched up after slipping down some stairs while holding lina - thankfully baby is ok; and what's up with my luck this year. 1:18am

Dec 7: Leonard is finally caving on his policy of not requesting to add friends on fb, and is finally requesting to add Liz (the wife) as a friend (she has the same policy). 11:36pm

Dec 8: Leonard is at Ralph's supermarket, missing Fairway's on the UWS. 8:35pm

Dec 21: Leonard is at nieces/nephew's holiday piano recital...they are great, but brings back tortuous childhood memories... 6:47pm

Dec 22: Leonard accidently hit the "take a break" link on Gmail and is locked out. Anybody know how to unlock this function? 4:20pm

Dec 23: Leonard is waiting to get in for some korean bbq at Tahoe Galbi. 7:50pm

Dec 24: Leonard can't believe it's been one year exactly since we left NYC. Where did the year go? 10:36am

Oh Lina

Every day she seems to learn something new. She's now a bit over seven months. In the last few weeks, she's been learning to crawl. At first, she started out by just "creeping" around the floor, and flailing about to travel across the room in whatever manner she can. Now it's a little more coordinated, and she's becoming super fast. This opens up a whole new set of things for us to worry about! And it's tiring keeping up with her. I can't even imagine what it will be like when she starts to run around. She's also sitting pretty well by herself now. And just today, she started going from crawling position to sitting position rather smoothly.

She has also started sitting on her high chair several weeks ago. Now she can sit with us at the table while we eat, which is a huge improvement. Thanks to my friends Dan and Claudia for such a generous and cool gift! This ain't no regular high chair, it is a feature-packed TRIP TRAPP high chair from STOKKE, made of cultivated beechwood. Oh yeah, and as you can see, she's starting to eat solids! She is really getting a lot more interactive. It's been really fun.

Different events

Since getting out of the hospital, we've tried to restore some normalcy in our lives. It has been nice to get out again and also to partake in the fun events in life. Here's a picture of me and Lina at Liz's cousin Charles (and Angela's) wedding in San Juan Capistrano. It was kind of cold, and outdoors, so we had her bundled up.


Liz's birthday. Only the third time we've had a meal together by ourselves outside of our home since Lina arrived. Had some prime rib at Lawry's. It was fun, but we ate our food super-fast as that it is the only we know how to eat now. Thanks again to Emily and Jonathan and the kids for babysitting!

At Shabu Hachi, one of our favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. Great shabu shabu here, and reminds us of Shabu Tatsu in the East Village - one of our absolute favorite spots in NY. Always a special treat to enjoy dinner with good friends on a cold winter's night. Not quite the same effect here!

Speaking of friends in NY, our good friend Brandon came to visit. Brandon has a cool job - he travels around the country selling whiskey. Here's Brandon chilling with Lina!

October at Cedars

So, finally, here is the rundown of what happened to me in October. The ironic thing is, I remember flying back from NY at the end of September thinking, "that was a busy month - two trips to NY, and many other things going on - I'm looking forward to October..."

I'll try to keep the description brief. I had a cytomegalovirus ("CMV") infection that basically wreaked havoc throughout my body. To be more specific, my physician called it CMV colitis. To provide a bit of context, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness called Crohn's Disease in 2002. As such, I take immunosuppressant drugs on a daily basis to treat this condition. At some point, my immune system must have dropped below an acceptable level, causing me to be vulnerable to a CMV infection. In actuality, CMV is a relatively common in the population (55-80% of adults have it), but it doesn't pose a problem for most people with a healthy immune system. For me, the CMV infection started in my GI and spread to many of my organs - my lungs, kidneys, liver, etc. My blood counts were all off (e.g., low white blood cells, or "neutropenic," and low red blood cells), resulting in a blood transfusion at the hospital.

At first I just thought I had a bad flu. I had ten days of fevers, chills, and bad GI symptoms before I was finally admitted to Cedars-Sinai hospital. It took an army of specialists and a few days for them to definitively diagnose it. I was really sick for the first 4-5 days, but started feeling a bit better after the treatment started kicking in (ganciclovir via IV). I was released after 12 days, but continued IV treatment at home for two weeks.

The good news is, I am expected to recover 100%. I would say that I'm close to that now, although I've been given strict orders by my team of doctors to try to take it easy and I'm still banned from air travel.

I have a lot of thoughts from being at the hospital, but I'm not sure if I ever get to that. It's funny how memory fades with time. Here are some pics for your enjoyment though...


Not looking too good here.
Hospital food. I didn't eat anything for almost the first week. But after that, this was what I was enjoying every day.PICC line that I had after being discharged...

Happy 6 months!

It's been exactly half a year since Angelina was born! Hard to believe. I'm amazed that all three of us made it to six months! Our friends Mike and Oli from NYC came to visit and stay over this past weekend. Lina loved playing with them! Here are some fun pics that Mike took a few days ago. We're very excited for Mike and Oli's pea in the pod, due in a NY hospital next spring.

Just what the heck happened to you?

Good question. Lots of you heard that I was hospitalized this past month. I was - I was in the hospital for 12 long days/nights. I've been meaning to describe exactly what happened, which I'll get to some time this week. While I was lying there in my misery for those long days/nights I came up with a ton of blog ideas, but it's all starting to fade! I'll try to remember some of my thoughts from my time at Cedars and talk about them soon. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers - we couldn't have gone through this without all of your love and support.

Feasting at the Table of Taipei - NYTimes

Some of you know that Liz and I lived in Taipei from 2002 to 2003. This was before Philadelphia and NYC. It seems like a long time ago now, but it remains in my mind a really wonderful time. It doesn't take much to trigger nostalgia in me, so this article from yesterday's Times sent the nostalgia meter through the roof: Feasting at the Table of Taipei.

This opening paragraph is a great teaser...

LIKE any great restaurant, Old Wang Beef Noodle Soup King has no sign. It sits on Taoyuan Street, not far from Taiwan’s presidential palace, and there are pretty much only two ways you’d know to go there instead of the similar noodle shops that surround it. Either you spy the line, which is long but fast-moving, and figure all those families, businessmen on lunch break and fashionable college kids are onto something. Or you catch the scent of broth — soy, anise, chilies, beef — which draws you inexorably into the dining room, where your intrepidity is rewarded with chewy wheat noodles, a rich and clean-tasting soup and hunks of meat that shred juicily at the slightest pressure from your tongue. There may be no better beef noodle soup in all of Taipei.

And another paragraph to convince you to read the whole thing...

Which is a pity if you like to eat, for food is one arena where Taipei — the world’s most underrated capital city, according to Monocle magazine — blows Beijing away. Its food incorporates more influences, spans street food to haute cuisine with greater aplomb and is out and out more delicious than that of its mainland counterpart. Not to mention that its people are perhaps the most comestible-crazed Asians outside of Singapore — no excursion is complete without, say, a bag of stewed duck tongues at journey’s end.

I'm obviously biased because I happen to be Taiwanese, but I do agree that Taipei is one of the most underrated cities in the world. I miss Taipei. Here are some pictures for fun...

Our tiny little apartment near Shi Da (Taipei Normal University). Don't look too closely, I'm wearing boxers only. I was probably sitting there working on my business school applications.


Shilin Night market with our friends Tony and Sanli Yang who were visiting us from Beijing/Shanghai at the time. They are now in the Bay Area, expecting their first kid. We look so young and carefree in these pictures, ha!
The world-famous Din Tai Fung...what can I say? The most amazing Shanghai soup dumplings. The article mentions this place. There's an outpost in Arcadia, CA, which is really good. But just not quite the same.

This picture below is actually from 2006, not 2002-2003. Taipei has tons of these really hip cafe's. Cafe Melange is one of our new favorites.
Fried dumplings, or "guo-tieh." This place, called Overseas Chinese Dragon - or something like that (haha, Taiwan can still be a bit tacky), is one on of the best places for guo-tieh even though it's a chain. I'm salivating thinking about it...

If you've read this far, thanks for indulging me on my trip down memory lane.