I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences and I wished I could list them all but I can’t. It’s good in the new friends, the old friends, and the new life experiences.

Sometimes I look back and wonder, did this all happen in July 2010? And it all happened too quickly.

I don’t remember where I read something similar before but I am familiar with the thought. Or is it, more work than you’re willing to put in. Or in energy form, if an object is in motion, it will take very little energy to keep it moving. But if an object is stationary, it’ll take quite a lot of energy to get the object in motion. Is it worth it?

No matter what you do, or think, people are who they are. It’s going to be hard to figure out what works and what does not. It’s hard to figure out if people are going to be honest about what they tell you.

I’m at a point where I know I shouldn’t judge people right away but I haven’t been proven wrong yet. First impressions do leave a lasting impression. I know I don’t come off strong right away but that’s just who I am.

One realization that I’ve gotten lately is that I’m in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

My trip started March 18 with an evening flight to London. Technically, the plane left at 1am on March 19. I had visited Li Yun over there as she was finishing her MBA class in London. We went to some great places to eat. Having only been there a few months, she’s found many good places and I must say that I was impressed by the quality and variety of food found in London.

What did I see: Tower Bridge, London Eye, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Victoria, Trafaglar Square, Chinatown, Piccadilly, Oxford Square, the outer walls of London Tower, London Bridge, St Paul Cathedral, Tate Modern, National Portrait Museum, Nothing Hill, Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath. The last 3 was a day trip outside London.

After spending 5 days in London, I took the SCNF to Paris. It went under the channel. A lot of people has asked me what it was like. It just felt like being in a really long tunnel. It was dark and you can’t tell a difference. The train was moving fast enough that it didn’t make a difference if we were above ground or underground.

I spent the next 2.5 days in Paris, where I saw the important sights: Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, Grand Palais, Les Invades, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and Louvre Museum. The Louvre was totally amazing. I was planning on spending 2-3 hours there since it’s just another museum. I ended up spending 6+ hours there. The rooms were like a maze. It’s quite frustrating at times to get lost but you end up discovering something new. That’s how I got to seeing the Mona Lisa, by accident. I also realized that there are a lot of good Italian art that I didn’t think I’d appreciate before… I didn’t have anything amazing enough to talk about – I did have crepes, pastries, etc. One thing that I really enjoyed in Paris was the espresso. Definitely something else.

After Paris, I headed to Switzerland to visit Rose. I took the TGV – what an amazing experience. The train I was on reached 574 km/h in 2009. You barely feel it but you see the landscapes pass you by. 3.5 hours later, I was in Basel. I stopped in Basel because Rose had told me about a watch and jewelry show there. When I got there, I was amazed. 6 convention halls full of watches and jewelry. Admission was a steep FR60. It was totally worth it. The exhibits were something else. I have never seen exhibitions like this before – amazing storefronts, lobby at each booth and an exclusive lounge area. This was not one big store. This was at every store! No price tags on the watches – a sign that I can’t afford it. The next obvious sign was no one made eye contact with me – another sign that I don’t make enough money.

After being awed and amazed, I took the next train to Solothurn where I met up with Rose. I haven’t seen her in about 3 years. We had pizza at the best pizza place outside Italy (according to Rose’ friend). It was a thin crust pizza about 20″ in diameter. I finished mine.

The next 4 days, Rose took me to Zurich, Bern and every little town along the way. It was rainy in Zurich on Friday. Until the golden hour where the sun came out and lighted up the church. Amazing view. On Sat, we went searching for the Alps. Stopped by Bern (capital) and walked around a little more. Then we headed south east, hoping to take the gondola up onto the alps for a better view. Little did we know, they had just closed a week earlier. Oh wells.

On Sunday, we went looking for castles and castle ruins. Castles in Switzerland can also be a chateau, or a really big house. Nevertheless, the stones used for the walls were amazing. Just what I had imagined. It was a windy and rainy day so it got quite cold that day. Luckily we were in a car most of the time so it didn’t matter.

I left Solothurn Monday AM. Now I headed towards Geneva (or Geneve). I stopped at most of the towns along the way. There were castles at every stop and they were quite impressive. I got to see the alps with Lake Geneve in the foreground. I also picked up a new pastry at each town that I stopped. I didn’t eat lunch because of that.

After the sugar rush stopped, I finally headed to Geneve. Got to my hotel, unloaded and got ready for another adventure. When you’re a tourist in Geneve, they give you a transport pass that lasts your entire stay. Unfortunately, I just don’t know how to use the bus system to make it worth my time. I walked around. Saw the famous Jet A’ Deau. Saw the church and took some photos. This became my day trip. I also took some night shots of Geneve. I had thought about stopping in for dessert but couldn’t make up my mind on which one. So I settled for a road-side piece of pie. It was not good.

In the AM, I got up and watched a little sunrise. It was beautiful with the mountains in the foreground. Had breakfast that cost me $20. I thought it said it was included, otherwise I would have opted for a real breakfast. Headed out to the airport, had another espresso before my flight to Amsterdam. I had an hour layover. Little did I know, I had to pass through a passport gate, which included a slow moving line. Everything is extra slow when you’re rushing. I ended up running to my gate as the status got to be “Closing”. Surprisingly, I was selected for “random” screening. Yay me. Sweaty and still panting, I had to answer questions. Fortunately, they still let me onto the plane.

As we flew out of Amsterdam, I thought to myself, wow, I finally did it… I saw Europe. I spent 12 days in a land that’s full of history and culture. Okay fine, I spent 2 days traveling and 10 days seeing what this continent has to offer. It’s definitely one of the most defining time in my life and I will have to come back someday, when I have some money to burn again.

P/S: Europe is really expensive. Switzerland is definitely caught me offguard.

2009 started cold. Well, that’s a given since I’m living in MN. New Years Eve was spent with Kayla, Kris, Lauren and a few others. I flew to Malaysia in January for Chinese New Year. I stopped by in South Korea first. Spent the evening exploring what’s to eat in Seoul with Rachel. She had flew there to visit her cousin. I had a 23.5 hours layover. I remembered it was cold. Just like in MN. Got to KL the next day, tired as heck. My mom and brother picked me up from the airport.

I spent most of CNY with the family. Didn’t do much other than be home, have breakfast with dad and went shopping with mom. Got into some arguments with my bro, as usual. But we’re family, so things are easily forgotten. Visited my cousins and uncle in Penang. The drive to my uncle’s place usually takes 5-6 hours with dad in the car. This time, it only took 3 hours 45 mins.

Got back to MN and realized that Jessica was laid off, my projects were put on hold and it pretty much felt like the reality of recession was sinking in. I spent most of the year working on cleaning up project work that was never done right, putting in place policies and procedures that should have been written years ago. I also spent the year fixing up the network and building the reputation as being the one that will keep to their words. The cybersecurity folks were on my case early part of the year but have backed off since then. I had a pretty good year… People started to get me and understand that I’m not just trying to scare them about the risks that I found. Successfully deployed virtualization for manufacturing. Got about 60+ servers consolidated to 8 physical servers – it’s a sweet thing.

2009 was definitely not a good concert-going year. I went to a handful of shows but they were definitely all memorable. I loved Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kid Rock, Silversun Pickups, The Bravery, Metric and Muse. Metric is definitely my favorite 2009 band and I love Emily Haines. She’s definitely got that something special – smart, artistic and pretty.

2009 was not a good year for dating. It was another year of disappointments – the baker, the teacher, the student and the artist. The engineer was definitely the most promising and surprising among the women that I got to know this year… Too bad, she didn’t feel the same way. This is when I came up with the realization that the women always makes the decision, long before we do. We just think we do but we don’t.

This was also a year that I biked a lot. If you summed up the years 2001-2008, you’d find that I only biked a total of 600+ miles with most of it being recorded in 2008. But in 2009, I did an ironman ride, where I rode 100 miles in the cold and windy rain. This is where I found myself knowing that I have what it takes to finish what I started. I did the 300 miles AIDS ride, rode 2 triathlons and rode back from work several times. All in all, I finished the year with about 1900 miles.

I just don’t get why the video card driver can’t have a little more intelligence in it – don’t display the resolutions that will not support both audio and video. And don’t let you see a HDMI sound option unless you’ve got the video card installed… Otherwise, there’s a lot of endless loops you’ll be sending people chasing after.

I also find myself with more bills and more things that I don’t really need. I would go into times where I want something for a while and then not. It goes for many things in my life.

I get confused sometimes on what I really want and sometimes the lines are blur on where I want to get to. Then there are days that I know I should do something but I’m hesitant. I can be confident and sure on some days but there are times when I need to hide back in my hole.

Although it feels complicated, there are many times when I find myself missing out on the drama of life. There are things that I just don’t see or hear until someone else tells me about it. Then I wonder, if I was there and how I managed to miss all that?

But seriously, how did life get so complicated? Does anyone really know?

Here’s a video clip. I have still hands.

The point is… Once we get what we are looking for, we move on, to something that we want. The want becomes a need. The need is sometimes in the form of invention or it can be as simple as friendship. As we evolve, our needs evolve as well. Our needs get bigger and bigger. It’s not supposed to stop. We will continue to want something new, something better.

This I think has been one of man/woman’s greatest achievements – being able to fulfill a need and finding something new to desire. This is when I’ve started to think about our basic existence. Are we here to fill a need and move on? Well, if we have had our basic needs fulfilled, what do we have to live for? For one, once our basic needs are met, we should work on helping others meet theirs. We should live to change for the better. Not for the sake of changing but for making this world we live in a better place.

I’ve been seeing signs that people are learning to care. Sustainability is an important word that we should learn to know. Our basic needs can be fulfilled but if we keep going and going without thinking about how to sustain our way of life, pretty soon, this way of life will come to an end. We won’t have the clean water or fresh air to breathe anymore. Then, we get back to square one – figuring out how to meet our basic needs once again.

So, if in this lifetime, I get to participate in making this world a better place, I will. I heard a quote that really moved me. It was about this company that sells to Walmart. Walmart has had a bad reputation for how it treats its employees. This is not about that. This was about a company selling organic products to Walmart. So, if Walmart does not sell spinach that was sprayed with chemicals, then the demand for that particular chemical goes away. Then, if you think about the other environmental impact that has: the chemical does not run off into our lakes, where we get our drinking water from. The fishes in the lake would survive. We would then have some other basic need untainted – fish. For a long time, people eating fish worry about getting mercury poisoning.

Do you see how this is all related? Well, our actions today have consequences on our lives tomorrow. What we choose to do today impacts how our world is tomorrow. If we don’t stop and look at our way of life, we may not have one tomorrow. We need to create a sustainable future. If we don’t, we will someday, run out of our basic needs.