Dear Diary | oliviatamccue

Hike of a lifetime: The WAVE

by ccue

It has been a busy few months.

In September, we did the Wave hike that only a rare few have ever experienced. In October, we did our first ever 3-day tennis camp at the beautiful Pebble Beach, California. In November, we had our 3-week “longest” visit to NYC.

The Wave is a once-in-a-lifetime hike (https://thewave.info/) in Arizona.

The Wave makes a dream destination for hikers. It is otherworldly, unique and unforgettable that I can stay there for days, and still be in awe of its natural beauty. Its photo tells a thousand words, but it pales compared to in-person experience.

The Wave in Arizona became widely known after Microsoft featured it as the default desktop wallpaper for Windows 7 on July 22, 2009. Fast forward fifteen years, many recognize the pictures but very few know about the place even fewer have visited the Wave. Why? It may have to do with its being managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rather than the more well known National Park Service (NPS). It may have to do with its accessibility.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the Wave. BLM manages one in every 10 acres of land in the United States, including vast stretches of desert, grasslands, sagebrush steppe, coastal areas, and some forested lands . The National Park Service (NPS) manages US National Parks. The Wave is not part of any national parks. BLM and NPS both oversee public lands in the U.S., but their purposes and management differ. BLM manages vast areas of land (mostly in the western U.S.) for multiple uses, and emphasizes a balance between resource use and protection. BLM often leaves the wilderness alone where you can explore. There is no lodge, often no marked trails, lucky to have a parking lot or restroom. You are more on your own.

NPS, which operates many world-renowned U.S. National Parks, offers recreational enjoyment while prioritizing conservation and strict protection. National Parks are more developed with visitor centers, with more infrastructure, more facilities, more accessibility and designated hiking trails. NPS makes the park enjoyable for generations while preserving them.

BLM operates Coyote Buttes, which includes The Wave, and limits visitation through a permit system. The Wave, being operated by the BLM, stays intact over millions of years. With only a daily maximum of 64 people getting the permit to explore the area, the human footprints are kept to the minimum. The least human footprints help the highest order of preservation. The Wave permit is hard to impossible to get. The permit can be obtained through an advanced lottery system, or a daily try-the-luck walk in. The advanced lottery system is simple. It opens four months before your trip date. You have the whole month to apply with a maximum of three preferred dates. The lottery is now open for April 2025 Permit.

My first recorded lottery was dated March 2020. I did not try every month, as summer could be dangerously hot and winter could be harshly cold in Coyote Buttes. I only drew for the months with more forgiving weather. I did at least six attempts in the past four years. On June 3, 2024, I received this email: “Coyote Buttes North Advanced Lottery (The Wave) Lottery Results Announcement – Congratulations!”. It was an amazing feeling of a long forgotten dream coming true when I least expected it. Many tried for years, even decades, and are still trying. It is the closest we ever get to the Wilderness, seeing the same sceneries as the dinosaurs. There is no way that I will pass up on this. We accepted the lottery results.

A few weeks after accepting the winning lottery, BLM mailed us the permit and some directions for going to the Wave from some trailhead. It was like eleven pictures with detailed descriptions we can use to get from the trailhead to the Wave. It even states that markers placed by visitors may not be on the most direct path to the Wave. If we miss a picture and a turn, who knows when we will discover the miss and then backtrack. In short, we are on our own. We are too old to feel that getting lost, without a functional cell phone to contact outside, is an adventure. The Wave, as beautiful as it is, can be challenging and life threatening. It needs wayfinding skills and decent physical fitness to navigate through the vast wilderness. We are not confident wayfinder in the wilderness. We need to carry at least a gallon of water in a terrain of mostly sandstones. Even with the information provided by BLM, we decided to find a tour guide. The tour agency is very clear that we need to be prepared to walk 7+ miles in the rocky desert terrain, exposed to the elements. (In hindsight, we probably can figure out the navigation with some misses and backtracking, but then we will be focused on the navigation than the landscape)

My group of 4 had three months to get fit. We started our once a week training hike to get fit. From early August to a week before the Wave, we did 6 training hikes at Coyote, Upper High Meadow, and Stephen E Arbors Loop at the popular Rancho San Antonio of South Bay. The 4 hour training hike covers 8.4 miles with 1686 ft elevation. That is not quite the 7+ hours Wave hike. To build more confidence, I also did some stairmasters during the week. We felt ready.

The Wave has an elevation of over 5000 ft. We arrived at page, Arizona a day prior to the Wave hike. It helps acclimatize to the elevation. There is just so much to do at Page, Arizona and its proximity. We did a short beautiful hike at the Beehive Trail, sometimes called the New Wave. We felt ready.

September 21 was the big day. The tour guide Tyler picked us up at 5:15am. We were half awake. It was cold. Tyler is a local. He knows the area really well. He is cautious and prepares his body well with frequent sips of water during the one hour drive there. After all, he must look after us in unexpected circumstances. The first half of the drive is on a smooth freeway. The outside was dark and peaceful. Along the way, there is zero signage to tell Wave’s existence. I think it is intentional to hide it from the public. Without the experience of Tyler, It would be so easy to miss the turn to the unpaved side road to the Wave trailhead. The road becomes unpaved and gets tougher after the turn. We did not see another car until we got to the parking lot. It was too dark to see animals. We did not find any visitor center. Instead, there was a logbook, we registered our group in a log book. That log book is likely the communication protocol for the park range to figure out if everyone leaves the Wave, or gets trapped in the Wave. The pink permit was attached to my backpack all the time.

It was overcast, it was cool. There were tiny showers from time to time. It made the perfect weather for a hike. We did not need to consume much energy to overcome the sun. For the first few hours, we had the wilderness for ourselves. We did not run into another group. It was quiet and peaceful. The tour guide helped us with the better routes and avoided slippery terrains.

Along the path, there was this big rock that was shaped like a hamburger. Some rocks that looked like cauliflowers, and some just looked like human brains. Because of the shower, we found a few tiny water bodies, with some tadpole shrimps. These tadpole shrimp species have existed for hundreds of millions of years and are likely to exist after we are long gone.

The blue sky was missing that morning. The cooler weather was a blessing. We were also rewarded with different colorings of the terrain. The red rocks, the subtle green and blue color of the terrain came out indescribably beautiful under the cloudy sky.

The Wave is under the “black line”

We arrived at the Wave entrance in about three hours. It felt surreal to finally be in the Wave after all these years of lottery, all these weeks of preparation. The photo may disguise the Wave as soft, curly and smooth. In reality, it is formed of incredibly hard sandstones. We enjoyed just staying there to appreciate and had a lunch break. After lunch, Tyler, our tour guide, took us to different “vista” points and an area with the dinosaur footprints.

The sun started to show after lunch. As much as we wanted to enjoy it for more hours, it was time to hike back. We saw a few small groups without a tour guide. They were all busy navigating and we wondered how many backtracking they would experience.

As confident as we felt about the direction and the distinct landmarks on our return trip, we soon realized that we could easily mix up the Teepees and Twin Buttes landmarks with many other look-alikes in the wilderness. The size of the landmark changes too with the distance we are from it. The landscape changes too. The look and feel of the landscape changes too with the weather.

We hiked for almost seven hours for the round trip hike to the Wave. We signed out on the trail-head register before leaving, so concluded the Wave Hike.

The Wave hike is up there as the top three hikes of my life, if not the top. I am going to cherish the beauty and the once-in-a-lifetime hike for the remaining years. I am missing it already.

Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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Finding Her Voice Through Artificial Intelligence

by ccue

Since last year, my day job has been about Artificial Intelligence (AI), more specifically Generative AI. I believe AI is a real deal not just for its utilities but also for its many game changing potential on human needs. I spend time sharing tips and encourage more to use the technology for their benefits. I spend a decent amount of time in an effort to democratize AI.

The most beautiful AI interaction turns out to be in a situation when I least expect it to be.

Soon reaching its 100 years old, International Toastmaster Club has over 200,000 members in more than 14000 clubs in more than 140 countries.Toastmaster is all about communication excellence, and for 100 years and counting, Toastmasters have been expressing themselves better, practicing, and evaluating in a fun club environment, shining all around the world. Once a distinguished Toastmaster club president, I stay as an active Toastmasters, making speeches occasionally.

A few months ago, I could not be more surprised to find a new member with speech disability joining the club. Let’s call her Lady M. Lady M makes unrecognizable squeaks, her hand movements are sporadic, her facial expressions are different, her muscle movements are obviously compromised. That constantly reminds me of the limitation and likely hardship she encounters. Her presence brings that tiny discomfort that no-one really wants to show.

Over time, Lady M has proven to be an enthusiastic member. She is very brave. She wants so much to participate, including the table topics where one gets a short prompt to deliver a one to two minute impromptu speech response. Technology has come to her aid. She can type up her thoughts in group chats instead of speaking. Yet, her chats are hard to comprehend, the sentences are grammatically incomplete, and we cannot make sense of the words. Needless to say, most, in the club, have felt uneasy because of our limitations to interpret meaningfully what she has shared. We have been candid to share that we do not understand. She is not deterred and has kept participating to my utmost admiration.

Something happened in one recent meeting. In that meeting, I hosted the table topics. I called out a few club guests, gave them prompts, for them to deliver an impromptu speech. I was about to conclude, when I got a glimpse, on the zoom window, that lady M was waving vigorously to get attention and to participate. I ended up posting the prompt in group chat for her to post a response. The reply was equally incomprehensible. AI has come to our aid this time. The president came up with the idea to use AI. Rather than reading out the group chat of Lady M word by word, the president copied and pasted to the AI ChatGPT, and asked AI to help us to comprehend. Afterwards he read out the AI-enhanced impromptu response. How well has AI interpreted lady M? Judging by the reaction of lady M, it came across that, AI has read her mind better than any human toastmasters attending at the time. I have not seen lady M happier. That expression of feeling heard and feeling understood made a beautiful face.

Maybe we are bound by our learned grammar, words and languages. AI has gifted us this ability to better understand each other without that boundaries.

A week after, at the Club, lady M was there again. This time, she shared that her father just passed away. In times of life’s most difficult moments, we hope her participation with the help of technology has brought her comfort and courage. We found her voice through Artificial Intelligence.

About Learning ai Dear Diary Misc. Public Speaking / Toastmaster public-speaking

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The different shades in the US melting pot

by ccue

Things often are not as they seem. I am often quite wary about people forming judgement or taking immutable positions based on what is visible on the surface. The US melting pot is one of the many examples where the surface may hide what is underneath.

America is famous for its “melting pot” narrative. The global population largely believes or chooses to believe in the possibilities where everyone is free to express and chase dreams.

Google search shows the population mix in the US that supports the melting pot narrative.

58% as non-Hispanic White (Caucasian),
18% Hispanic or Latino,
12% Black or African,
4% Asian (including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders)

A look at the past tells that the population mix changes over time. It is anybody’s guess how the population mix will become in another few decades or centuries.

The current population mix, in the American melting pot, can be seen as a bold social experiment on how people of different heritages and origins come together. If the wealth, influence and power of the country are indicators, the melting pot experiment in the US has been a success. The poverty experienced in the US is not the same as the poverty experienced in some war-torn countries. (It does not mean that it is better to be poor in the US than other places. Being poor among the rich can cause more suffering. There are just no places in the world where it feels great to be poor.)

Is the overall country population a good proxy of your own social mix?

I have lived in the US for a few decades. I work in large US corporations and diverse teams. Including my “international” connections at work, I take a quick assessment about my social connections and it comes across I have far more connections with people who have similar origin and heritage as me. My social circle and US population mix would look similar to the following charts. If I include other attributes like age, I believe there will be more connections with people of similar ages too.

The current state of the US melting pot gets many believing that people are integrated well into the American way of living. Yet, if we dwell into the individual social circle, the melting pot is more likely made up of social circles that are way more homogeneous. In simple terms, black Americans likely have more connections with other blacks, American Chinese likely have more connections with other American Chinese, American Indians likely have more connections with other American Indians. The intersections across different groups happen, but way less than what the overall population mix implies.

To add to the diversity, there are different shades within the same heritage. Almost anything that talks about heritage is a simplification of the myriad of complexity about how our ancestors end up where we are, and how I end up where I am.

For the sake of discussion, we would take some simplification. Let’s take people with Asian heritage who are living in the US. (You can replace Asian and US with the heritage and place of your choice). There are different shades of their identities and their sense of belongings. Are they American who happen to have Asian heritage (for convenience I call them Asian American)? Or are they Asians who happen to have an American passport? (American Asian). The answer makes a difference in terms of what identities they hold.

In one of the recent talks about Asian Americans, it was mentioned about sentences that the Asians, in America, feel absolutely offended by. Such as, when the Asian American gets praise for speaking good English; such as, when they are asked to go back to Asia; such as when they are asked where are they from. The first generations of Asians in America feel less offended, while their American born children would feel more offended. The spectrum of the reactions is an indicator of what they identify with and where they belong to. When others ask questions that imply that “you do not belong to the place you identify with”, you feel offended. I have friends who moved from Hong Kong to California years for decades. They could settle back to live in Hong Kong. Their identity still ties with Hong Kong where they were born and raised. Often, the first generation immigrants, away from their originating countries, are American Asians where their identities are more tied to their Asian heritage, especially for those who chose to immigrate. Their children tend to think of themselves as Asian Americans with the identity more tied to the melting pot America. The sense of identity, with America, increases with every subsequent generation of Asian Americans.

Why does it matter?

As much as the US seems successful in the melting pot, people are not as integrated, and their social connections often do not reflect the population mix. Social connections include more people similar to each other in their origins, cultures and the list goes on to include age, look, and many more.
The US melting pot concept is a relatively modern concept. With more advancements in technology and transportation, more people will move to other countries in their lifetime. Would there be more melting pots, where people of different heritages live in close proximities with each other?

Even within similar heritage, there are different shades of their identity and belonging to the place they live in.

Things, like the melting pots, often are not as they seem. I am often quite wary about people forming judgement or taking immutable positions based on what is visible on the surface. Before your opinions and positions, I just hope more will look beneath the surface. Technology has made it so much easier to research about things.

Career Management Dear Diary

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Books are loyal friends

by ccue

There are many book lovers in the world. I am one. I am not enthused about book clubs that need us to read the same book at the same time. Why? There are just so many genres to read about, each book reading pattern is as unique as the readers’ fingerprints. Just like friends, if you pay attention and don’t transport your memory of their younger days to their present days, the friends change subtly over time too. Those changes are often reflected by the kinds of books they are reading.

Just like good friends, good books don’t go away. May you find one or two, from the following reviews, that you are interested in reading right away. For all the others, I hope it is not whether you will read them, but when you will read them.

The Worth of Water
By Gary White and Matt Damon

We are in a world with abundance that is so unevenly distributed. We can all relate to what life is like to spend hours every morning to get buckets of murky water to survive.

This is a book that gives concrete paths to solve the water and sanitation problem.

Supporting microloans, a sustainable market-based approach, can help hundreds of millions to tap into existing water infrastructure to give them water, and allow them to use the time to go to school or to earn more income.
Supporting resourceful teams to help utilities improve operations and find more paying customers to keep investing in better infrastructures in urban areas.
Supporting Governments, wealthy nations and NGOs can reach the poorest , most rural regions.

Check out the book or the water.org. It feels immoral to do nothing for the billions who happen to be born somewhere without water and sanitation.

Night Train to Lisbon
By Pascal Mercier

Raimund Gregorious teaches classical languages at a Swiss school. Everyday is the same routine, down to the minute until one day. On his way to school, he saved a beautiful woman, who was about to jump off a bridge. This one day, he questions his life and leads him to an extraordinary book about an extraordinary person, Amadeu De Prado, in Portugal. He boards the last train to Lisbon. His adventure turns into unbelievable discoveries of deep human connections as he retraces the life of Amadeu, his families, his loved ones, and his comrades.

Life is not what we live, but what we imagine living. At times dreamlike, at times unreal, this is a book that stirs your mind to reveal something new to yourself.

In Limbo
By Deb JJ Lee

For those who have immigration experience, over time, they recognize that immigration is a multi-generational journey not an event. It is an experience that sends a person, the families and future generations to an alternate universe where the new universe offers contrasts in family values, morals and cultures.

Beautifully narrated and illustrated, this book shares the journey of a first generation Korean American how she copes with the challenges of family relationship, identity uncertainty, loneliness and friendship.

Many first generation Asian American will resonate with the growing up of the protagonist Deb. It is a good read for both their parents and them to appreciate the multi-generational implications of the migration.

Poor Charlie’s Almanack
By Peter D. Kaufman

Charlie Munger is almost 100. He died a few months ago. His wisdom, humor and fatherly advice have lived on in his speech and his book. He said “acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty”.

His commencement speech to the USC Law Graduates, to advise them on a good life, particularly resonated. His speech is full of gold and offers values for anyone. Here are some of his worldly wisdom.

The safest way to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want. You want to deliver to the world what you want to buy if you were on the other side. It is a golden rule.
Be a learning machine. Develop a multi-disciplinary knowledge in important domains: business, psychology, math and history.
Hard work and strong work ethics are essential. As obvious as it is, we often forget it when things are not going well.

Mr. Munger continues to advise us in this universe even though he has moved on to another universe. Hope you will not miss the advice.

Influence
By Robert B. Cialdini

The abundance of knowledge and information overload overwhelm the smartest of all. This is an era of short cuts to influence decision making. It is a world where relationship building could get you further than the traditional intellectual and emotional intelligence. First published in 1984, the latest edition in 2021 continues to capture the psychology of persuasion.

If you are a compliance professional to influence others or you are someone who doesn’t want to be tricked by these psychological shortcuts, this book makes an important book to read.

For shortcuts to the book, the seven shortcuts include “reciprocation”, “liking”, “social proof”, “authority”, “scarcity”, “commitment and consistency”, “unity”. Or you can ask the large language model, chatGPT, Gemini and the like, to give you a summary to decide where to deep dive into.

You may also be intrigued by the author on the importance of preventing the abuses or misuses of these shortcuts, so as to keep the shortcuts working effectively for the majority.

The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
By Benjamin Franklin

You may be familiar with Mr. Benjamin Franklin as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence. I discovered so much more of his impact on my daily lives after reading his autobiography.

Written by Mr. Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790, this unfinished account of his own life remained relevant if not more relevant with the US state of affairs.

The first set of notes is a letter that started with “Dear Son”, where Mr. Franklin talked about his lifes, his younger days, the lessons learned, the business and the errors he has made. The discourse is candid and particularly touching to share life lessons from father to son.

The second set of notes was written a few years later. It listed out the 12 moral virtues + humility. Mr. Franklin created a “spreadsheet” to practice the virtues and tracked his progress. He had expected to acquire the habit of one virtue each week, and ended up taking a year to cycle through the 13 virtues. His design and rigorous progress tracking on virtues are amazing to read and to practice.

The last set of notes illustrated his printer business and his public services. His setup of public libraries, his establishment around the concepts of firefighting and military has impacted all of us living in the United States. His kite experiment, to demonstrate the connection of lightning and electricity, once again reminded us the importance of multidisciplinary knowledge to better understand the world.

It is a book to read, also a book to read multiple times.

異類矽谷 By 鱸魚

Every single day we are missing the people, the places and the events around us. Being in Silicon Valley for decades, I have the illusion I know about the area, until it becomes obvious that there are so many new discoveries waiting. In his unique lens, the author 鱸魚 shares absolutely delightful anecdotes that transport me to a more beautiful, more diverse, more humane Silicon Valley beyond the technology, the tech start-up, the magnificent seven and the venture capitalists.

His message will stay with me for a long time – Silicon Valley is a colorful puzzle that provides spaces for everyone to participate and there is such a broad spectrum of possibilities for everyone to have a role in it. Such contrasts make up a beautiful landscape.

This is a book for everyone to relate to Silicon Valley, including those who are too busy to notice the stories, and those who live far away.

I am enchanted by the author and his Silicon Valley stories. I subscribe to his blog and can’t wait to read his new book 我失敗的美式生活 (I fail in living the American life).

About Learning Book Review - English Book Review - English, Chinese, Computer, Literature... Chinese Dear Diary Literature... Misc.

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Echoes of wisdom: three commencement speeches

by ccue

My Toastmaster Club President asked if I would like to be a speaker in the upcoming club meeting. It is not any special request. Such a request serves as a trigger about what meaningful speech I would like to share with the fellow club members, many of whom will have many ventures and career years ahead of them. The Club president did not have much of a suggestion of the topics. June is the month of college graduation. I decided to use a speech to echo the wisdom of three commencement speeches. The first of the three speeches was dated in 2007. I read the speech transcript from “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”, a book with so much wisdom. The other two speeches were more freshly delivered in June this year.

My speech transcript re: “Echoes of wisdom: three commencement speeches”.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

How many remember the commencement speeches from your college graduations? Because I don’t remember anything, I could not put into practice the wisdom from the speech of my college graduation. As you have many ventures and years ahead, I have three commencement speeches from three great persons to share with you today.

Charlie Munger at USC Law, 2007
Munger is known for his 60 years of partnership with Warren Buffet, and the unusual successes of the company Berkshire Hathaway. His wisdom and humor have lived on in his speech and his book. He said “acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty”.

The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want. You want to deliver to the world what you want to buy if you were on the other side. It is a golden rule.
Be a learning machine. Develop a multi-disciplinary knowledge in important domains: business, psychology, math and history.
Hard work and strong work ethics are essential. As obvious as it is, we often forget it when things are not going well.

His speech is full of gold and offers values for anyone.

Roger Federer at Dartmouth, 2024
Roger is arguably the most beloved tennis player of all time. He retired in 2022. I was there in London watching him to play the last match at the London O2 arena, and his emotional farewell. He did not finish high school. Yet his tennis accomplishment earned him the honor of a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth.

Effortless is a myth: For many who have watched him play, his play looks easy and effortless. This is misleading. He explains that he had to work very hard to make his game look easy. Next time, when you see some successful people get an easy promotion, think again.
It’s only a point: A tennis match has many points, just like our life has many points. Federer shares that during the point, you see the point as the most most important point in your life that you put 100% in. When the point is over, win or lose, you need to learn and move on, so you have your 100% for the next point.
Life is bigger than the court: Federer has his foundation that helps children in Africa get an education. It’s important to have a purpose in life beyond your career.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia at CalTech, 2024
Jensen famously said the following : “To me, no task is beneath me, because I used to be a dishwasher, I used to clean toilets and I’ve cleaned more toilets than all of you combined”. In his commencement speech, he shared with the graduates a detailed history of Nvidia, and the journey.

Develop an informed and reasoned belief in something unconventional and unexplored.
Find a craft to dedicate the lifetime to perfect. He famously said that he has nothing to do other than being the CEO of Nvidia.
Prioritize. Jensen has a prioritized list, and first thing in the morning, he takes care of the most important priority, leaving him plenty of time to take care of people and other priorities

With technology, many commencement speeches are available on YouTube, waiting for you to discover. Consider checking out a commencement speech. That may turn out to be the best use of the time and you would go to bed wiser than in the morning. As Mr. Munger once said, acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty.

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Are we becoming more worldly with technology and AI?

by ccue

The transcript of a speech I delivered in a couple of Toastmaster clubs on this topic “Are we becoming more worldly with technology and AI?”

I want to explore with you one question, one human-centered question in this era of AI. “Are we becoming more worldly with technology and AI? “

Our great grandparents lived their whole life in their own village. They never left the village. They knew a lot about their village, their families and neighbors, They were close to knowing nothing in places that were not reachable to them. If you ask them what they thought of other villages. LIkely they would say they didn’t know, or they thought all villages were similar.

Fast forward to this generation. Information is at our fingertips. ~~Phone is with us.~~ Travel is part of our life. We know the world has a lot of variances. With AI, we can understand different languages without putting in the effort to learn it.

How many think “we are becoming more worldly with technology and AI”

Now I am going to share three experiences about different perspectives. The differences may be surprising, or even a bit unsettling.

First, with the internet, we can access and digest different channels. How many of you subscribe to a channel that consistently has a different point of views from yours? I did, on this channel of a YouTuber, the channel has good subscribers and has an incredible voice. He is negative, always finds flaws, and mostly only reports bad doings of the government. It is not easy but I want to understand his perspective. Over time, I still disagree with his point of view, but I start to see him as a person, get his perspective, and hear from him the dark side. I sometimes leave a comment. How do you become worldly or know the different perspectives?

Second, you have heard about Surveillance. Who thinks it is a good thing? Who thinks it is bad? I think it depends, and I don’t really mind to be monitored. Most news tends to be a bit negative about surveillance.. So I prompt different LLM “what do people think of surveillance”. While some LLM still share the negative before the positive, most show two sides of the opinion. AI can give us different views. Many friends told me they feel safer, they worry less, there is less crime, less drugs.

Third, the media all have their positions. We don’t want them to think for us. Example, XinJiang, China has been on CNN or BBC quite a bit. I prompt LLM to “tell me the latest news about XinJiang”. What did LLM say about XinJiang? Allegations of forced labor in supply chains, destruction of Mosques and religious suppression. It so happens that this week, seven of my siblings and in-laws are traveling to XinJiang, China. We have a real time connection using WhatsApp, I feel I am in California, I am also virtually visiting XinJiang, very cool. From my siblings, everyday, I am getting lots of pictures from them, eating local food, visiting local museums, talking to locals, and even dancing with the locals etc. They are obviously having a great time. The locals, they talk to, are happy people with their dreams for the future. They run into people doing road trips on their own, not that unsimilar to people doing road trips in America. Are you aware of the different perspectives?

With these perspectives, I ask again “are we becoming more worldly”?

AI gifts us more ways to see the world and the differences. It is one of the greatest gifts from technology and AI. We all can take advantage of the AI-powered world to become more worldly.

My speech is a tiny step so that we can become more worldly. You all can take bigger steps. You can prompt and push AI to give you different perspectives. Your choice from today onward makes all the difference whether we will have a world of acceptance and peace or a world of conflicts and wars.

Leave comments to share your thoughts on the topic too.

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The Budapest Experience

by ccue

Budapest is a hidden gem with abundance of beauty and versatility. Many may not know where Budapest resides on the map. This is another reminder that quality and a well-known name often don’t go hand-in-hand.

Budapest is a 6-hour train ride from Prague. Prague and Budapest both have beautiful settings with a river snaking through the city, and bridges connecting the two sides of the city. Budapest is formed with Buda and Pest on either bank of the Danube River. The Danube River has been immortalized by The Blue Danube Waltz musical piece which casted a romantic spell to the cities on its path.

The principality of Hungary was established around 895 AD. Budapest, capital of Hungary, blends the historical past and the modern presence beautifully. The capital city comes across as underrated. It has the potential to attract more tourists, and play a bigger role on the world stage. Budapest has the making of a world-class city, with its history, vibrant community, central location and growing infrastructures.

Our airbnb was located on the 2nd floor of a building on Budapest’s major thoroughfare, Váci Utca. Its location could not be better. The unit is spacious, with a small kitchen. The building features a distinctive architectural design with residential units, in yellow paint, on the peripherals, enclosing a spacious central open area. It has a dated elevator on one side, and another non-functional creepy elevator on the other side of the complex. Some of the residential units have barred doors. With the number of units in the buildings, we were further intrigued that we did not run into many residents. The whole setting felt like a scene in a spy movie with actions happening in the central open area. We even had a power outage the first morning, due to the construction work of the city, that added another unexpected twist.

Budapest is another walkable city. The Chain bridge, connecting Buda and Pest, took us to the Buda side of the city. The square, made up of the Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion, is touristy for its obvious beauty and the many look-outs of the river Danube and the Parliament over on the Pest side. The Fisherman’s Bastion is a place that beautifies your photos with its castle-shaped monuments , the inner arch windows and the various overlooks. We settled in the cafe, to enjoy the view, before testing our feet to climb up hundreds of spiral steps to the tower of the Church.

You can pack a lot in one day in Budapest, or do little with no goals on another day. Budapest is a city to enjoy at a pace that fits you.

For a change in rhythm, we fit in a lot of things on the second day in the city.

We started the day with breakfast at the beautiful Cafe Gerbeaud. Cafe Gerbeaud has a storied history since its creation in 1858, a meeting in Paris that decided the cafe succession, a change of regimes, and then a return in 1984. The breakfast, pleasing to the eyes and palate, lived up to its history. Their sweets made wonderful edible souvenirs. We ended up getting a few boxes of Cognac Cherry bonbons. The Gderbeaud filled cat’s tongue chocolate would be another great souvenir choice.

The delightful breakfast gave us just the right fuel for our first stop of the day : Szechenyi Bath House. Széchenyi is one of the greatest statesmen in Hungary’s history, within Hungary he is still known to many as “the Greatest Hungarian” for his reforms. The Chain Bridge, an impressive dual-use bridge connecting Buda and Pest, was named after him. His name was particularly familiar, as its three syllables and letters could be disguised as a Chinese name in English. The Széchenyi bath house reminds me of the Turkish bath houses. The Széchenyi bath house has both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, whirlpools, indoor thermal pools and all kinds of spa in a Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance architecture. We dipped in pools and spas that are included in the tickets. I felt lighter, relaxed, with more clarity, on my way out. I ranked this among the top highlights in Budapest and highly recommended spending half a day in the bath house.

We loved supporting the business of Chinese dim sum and cuisines everywhere we visited. After the bath house experience, we had some time before the Parliament Tour. This local Chinese dim sum restaurant Taste of Canton gave us another delightful and above-expectation experience. We were impressed with the dim sum that was hand made by the talented wife of the owner.

Located along the Danube River Bank, the Parliament is visible everywhere. If the outside is magnificent, the interior design is dazzling with an unusual royal ambience, beautiful artwork and lots of gold (40 Kg of gold). Our reservation was a bit late, and thus we ended up following a Spanish tour of the Parliament, and could only grasp simple terms like “Thank you very much for the visit”. The language barrier did nothing to affect the interior magnificence.

A couple of hours before the Danube night cruise, we selected Costes from our list of fine dining restaurants for an early dinner. The restaurant design was pleasing to the eyes, the service was first class, the waitresses were endearing and elegant, the cuisines were charming to the eyes and the palates. It was a real hidden gem, not to mention, that in our odd hour dining, we were the only dining parties as if we had reserved the whole restaurant for ourselves. The Costes downtown restaurant, inside the Prestige hotel Budapest, is better than some established Michelin restaurants we have visited. I recommend it to everyone who visits Budapest, and wish that it would keep up its excellence.

The night cruise was an hour of floating along the Danube River. What a beautiful city as the bridges, the buildings light up in the dark! The most excitement came when the cruise offered a view of the Hungarian Parliament dancing in gold glitter and a reflecting image on Danube. We can totally imagine a cruise that just floats on the Danube with a sight of the Parliament for the whole hour; the tourists would still enjoy it. This Hungarian Parliament in Budapest easily occupies the top position as the most beautiful Parliament in the world, and I cannot think of a distant second. That concluded the busiest day we had in Budapest. We absolutely enjoyed it.

The busiest day was followed by another slower day at our own pace, and an evening Opera at the Hungarian Opera house.

Central Market Hall is a multi-storied farmer market, where you can check out groceries, meat, poultry, seafood, spices and bakeries. The paprika and honey are good choices for affordable and special gifts. There are quite a number of locals shopping here too. We enjoyed our stroll there, making it a nice place to visit for an hour or two, to learn more about the locals.

Outside of the New York Cafe, there was a sign to claim itself as “the most beautiful cafe in the world”. The cafe has over a hundred years of history, with architecture and sophisticated design reminiscent of the Renaissance style with beautiful marble columns and elegant chandeliers. We expected a long line but in the moments we arrived, the line was short. The live music added to its charm. To accommodate the many visitors, we felt there was effort to maximize its occupancy with a high density of tables. The waiters, waitresses and musicians were dutiful but came across as dispassionate. We saw one customer being declined on a request to change the table, and ended up walking out of the cafe. It was a worthy visit and the interior definitely lives up to the most beautiful cafe and the food is good. It was just a small pity that the “software” did not quite match up with the “hardware”.

The Hungarian Opera House takes the beauty of interior decoration to the next level. The best way to appreciate the Opera House is to watch an Opera inside. That was exactly what we did, and we paid about $25 per person to catch the Boris Gundov opera. The ticket, for the high quality opera in a world class Opera House, is almost ten times cheaper in Central Europe as compared to the US. We sighed about how little has been and will be done in the US to democratize arts and culture. While this opera has been performed a handful of times in New York, few in the US are familiar with the history of this Russian Czar Boris Godunov(1552 – 1605) and this famous opera that has been remade a few times. For the night, I had that feeling that the producers creatively injected new elements into the classic opera. In some scenes, there was a laptop, there was a guy wearing modern jeans, there was a mouse in a maze. That left a strange taste. Overall I enjoyed the stage, the opera and above all, the amazing Opera House. If you have more days in Budapest, please don’t miss watching an Opera inside the Opera House. Afterwards, we had dinner at this oldest restaurant in Budapest near our airbnb. It reminded us once again that history and quality did not always have a correlation.

Our last day in Budapest, we visited the Great Synagogue. The admission pricing is surprisingly steeper than the Opera House. I particularly like its history about how the Jews worked hard to integrate into the local Hungarian society, extended flexibility in the architecture of the Synagogue, and creatively raised funding by assigning numbers to pews and selling the seat.

From its beautiful cafes, the not-to-miss Bath House, to the most beautiful Parliament, the elegant Opera house, and the romantic river Danube, Budapest has so much to offer. Despite its myriad attractions, it’s a mystery why this city isn’t as renowned as Paris or London.

This concluded our Central Europe 2024. Check out the full itinerary at Let’s go travel Central Europe.

Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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The Prague Experience

by ccue

Prague and Berlin are only a four-and-a-half hour train ride from each other. The train ride from Berlin also transported us to a different time and space.

Prague feels like a medieval fairyland with beauty that charms you over and over again. It is the most beautiful capital in the world.

Marriott Prague, our choice of stay, is in a great location, minutes walk to Old town, but far enough to be quiet. It is almost like an US embassy in Prague – comfortable, safe and modern and with an abundance of traveling Americans.

The Old town has a town square surrounded by medieval buildings, the pink-colored Palladium shopping mall and a bundle of welcoming eateries. Further down the town square, is the Old town hall tower, with the medieval tower clock at its southern side. It presents a 30-second show of the procession of the twelve apostles set in motion at the top of each hour. With or without the show, the tower clock is a picturesque place to visit and is packed with tourists. The record tourist density does little to erode its charm and rare beauty. There are all kinds of shops but magically, the whole place does not come across as commercial. Among the narrow alleys crisscrossing the main attractions, there are endless discoveries of shops and beautiful buildings. I particularly enjoyed the toy stores, the chimney cake stores, and the Swarovski crystals stores.

The narrow alleys open up to the Charles Bridge. Charles Bridge is the oldest stone bridge in Europe, constructed from 1357 to 1400 AD, connecting the east and west side of Prague. The beauty of the bridge certainly has stood the test of time. On our first evening of arrival, we strolled across the pedestrian-only Charles Bridge around sunset time. The dome-shaped castle, the gothic-style Vitus Cathedral across the bank looked inviting. The glittering lights and the mystical reflections over the river Vltava were dreamy. We came back the next morning to retract the same route. The early morning was tranquil and once again we were transported to a different time and space.

The Baroque library at Klementinum is arguably the most beautiful library. It is among the very few things that I am determined to visit after seeing the pictures of it. Klementinum started as a monastery in the medieval period, then transformed into a Jesuit college before becoming an observatory with a beautiful library. Famous astronomers Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe both spent important years here. The library and the astronomical clock tour needed an advance reservation. The narrow spiral staircase took us to the library floor, and we could only take pictures and view the library from its entrance. I tried imagining sitting there, and studying old books. More stairs awaited to get us to the astronomical clock. At the top of the tower, we were treated with a 360^oview of the most picturesque Prague.

After seeing the Castle and Vitus Cathedral many times from afar, we crossed a bridge over river Vltava to visit in person. There are plenty of vista points along the way.

No-one would mind walking in Prague all day long. When our tiring feet complained, we took Bolt in Prague, the Uber-like app. Three Bolt rides cost us less than $10 in total. The fare for Bolt is a better reflection of the cost of living in Prague for locals than the price we pay for meals and stays.

On a cool evening, we watched the Okamžik circus in a park. The park was lively with local people. We walked past a climbing wall with people having fun climbing up a wall. There was a skatepark with youngsters practicing skateboard tricks. The circus was inside a tent set up in the park. The show was in Czech. The cast put on a great performance to cross the language barrier. We recommend the show to fellow tourists.

Palladium, just a few minutes walk from Marriott, made a perfect shopping venue on another evening. We pleasantly discovered many unfamiliar to us, making it differentiable from US shopping malls. As much as I enjoyed Palladium, I preferred the narrow alleys in the Old town for an endless exploration. It was also in those shops that I found the wooden musical box with music by František Smetana, the father of Czech music and a wooden cage puzzle.

Shopping is not limited to Palladium and the Old town. Farmer markets in Prague, located next to the river Vltava, are open on Saturday. We went there to experience the local street food and the produce, before settling down in a cafe, with a circular door, enjoying coffee while appreciating the river scene.

One morning, my spouse and I decided to walk from Marriott to the Jewish quarter in an alternate route. The route started with very modest neighborhoods and ended at a street with super luxurious stores like Patek Philippe watches and a few jewelry stores. After a few turns, we were back in a square, which was a look-alike of the Old town. We thought that we went to a parallel universe and Prague has two copies of the Old towns. It turned out that Jewish quarter and the Old town are just within minutes of walking. This stupidity and the hilarity will stay with us for a very long time.

Bond cafe was yet another funny experience. The Bond movie “Casino Royale” had a few shots made in Prague. The cafe was close to our hotel, so my daughter and I decided to meet up in the Bond Cafe after some shopping. I was late but my daughter was not anywhere to be found as I entered the Bond Cafe. This time, it was not a parallel universe. There are two bond cafes within a few minutes of walking. The bond cafe is decorated with many Bond movie pictures. We had the best pancakes in the Bond Cafe. We definitely recommend it as a great meeting place, but get the exact address ahead of time.

If you choose to go to just one cafe in Prague, Cafe Imperial makes the top choice. The cafe, dated over a hundred years ago, has an art deco structure with many small tiles painted with different colors and styles. The design reflects its history. Yet it is so meticulously maintained that its beauty and cleanliness never stop impressing us. The cafe serves full meals. I recommend you make an advance reservation, try the beef cheeks main course and the chocolate “bomb” surprises as dessert, with additional rooms for the very beautiful cake desserts on display.

The Prague cafes make perfect places to rest, to have a tea time, to write a blog, to write a story, to write a book.

We went to Ginger and Fred restaurant at the Dancing House, to watch the sunset in this beautiful city. Ginger and Fred restaurant is a fine restaurant. Yet I found the food served at the no-frills, down-to-earth workers’ cafe Česká kuchyně and the chimney cake (Trdelník in Czech) everywhere on the street to be more special and memorable.

Prague is a city you won’t get tired of, you will take pictures of the same medieval scenery repeatedly, and the scenery will still make your heart jump a bit.

If there is a ranked list of the most beautiful capitals, Prague has to be among the top.

Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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The Berlin experience

by ccue

I have a few Berlin associations. During the pandemic years, I read the book “In the Garden of Beasts – Love, terror and an American family in Hitler’s Berlin”. It told what life was like in Berlin in the late 1930s for the family of an American scholar, also an ambassador. Life was glamorous, political and difficult. It made a good book to see the city before World War II and the US/Germany dynamics back then. In my neighborhood, outside of a public library, there is a piece of the Berlin Wall. With the historical significance of the Berlin wall, it is intriguing that people walk past without stopping, I have yet to see anyone stopping to take a picture there, except me once. These two however are not my favorite associations with the city. My favorite impression of Berlin comes from its world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin film festival.

Berlin has a lot of culture. I cannot think of another day with more arts and music, than this first full day in Berlin: Berliner Philharmoniker performance in late morning, Neues Museum and Museum Island after, followed by East Side Gallery/Berlin Wall. My spouse and I reserved two tickets at the Berliner Philharmoniker. The tickets cost us $25 per person, way more affordable in Berlin than San Francisco. The Philharmoniker building tells little about the world-class acoustic and magnificent organs inside the performing venue. The concert hall sells one of the best morning snacks that we recommend for all concert-goers. The ushers are courteous and gracious. We got inside the concert hall with plenty of time to settle down, take some pictures before the performance started. It was a performance of Aurel Dawidiuk and the Karajan Academy. Dawidiuk, the organist, performed beautifully in solo, followed by the duo with woodwind performers, before joined by a mini-orchestra of the academy. Rather than being overcome by jet lag, I was absolutely energized by the music. It has been a long time since I enjoyed a concert so much. The Berlin Philharmoniker certainly lives up to its reputation. I would not hesitate any bit to return for other performances. We just didn’t have that luxury as a tourist.

Museum Islands came next on this cultural day. We walked past the picturesque Berliner Dom (Cathedral) next to the river Spree. It was a weekend of free admission to museums. The Pergamon Museum was unfortunately closed due to safety concerns. The Neues museum is totally worth a visit. We enjoyed the world famous exhibits in the Neues museum: the most beautiful Nefertiti_bust (1345 BC), the feat of engineering Berlin gold hat (900 BC), Berlin green head (396 BC), the mystic wooden cult figurines (5th Century).

Our daughter then joined us to appreciate the murals and the messages at the East Side Gallery/Berlin wall.

Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Europa & Berlin Bikini

Advanced reservation, with in-person proof of id, is required to visit the Glass Dome atop the Reichstag (Imperial Assembly) building. We started the self-guided tours as we walked up the spiral slope inside the large glass dome. The headset is a smart device which seemingly can detect our position and play the audio automatically and appropriately. We took all the time we wanted to appreciate the 360° view of the Berlin cityscape, to learn about the construction of the glass dome, as well as the recent history of the country. Brandenburg gate is just minutes of walk from the Reichstag. With the construction, it became more of a meeting place, though the murals on the walls of the gate would still be worth a brief look.

We picked a German restaurant nearby for a family lunch. It served the woodruff green-color beer and the raspberry pink-color beer alongside the familiar German cuisine of sausage, pork knuckles. Beer is a water substitute for many of our meals in Berlin. Berlin Beer seems to taste better too.

Berlin arguably offers the best Turkish food outside of Turkey, due to its sizable Turkish population. After shopping at Europa and Bikini shopping centers, we enjoyed a Turkish dinner. As much as we like trying the German cuisine of currywurst, the pork cutlets, the pork knuckles, they are just a bit too meaty, so the Mediterranean Turkish meals come across much healthier and make a better choice as everyday food.

Fine dining at Facil 2-star Michelin, Sanssouci Palace

It was my birthday. We took the subway to the Berlin film festival area. Facil, a 2-star Michelin restaurant was our choice of fine dining for a family lunch. The restaurant, located inside the five-star Mandala Hotel, is elegantly decorated but not over-the-board. It is inviting while giving out a relaxed elegance. The service is attentive with considerations to leave us alone to have our own conversations and to enjoy the dish. The dishes are all pleasing to our palates and to our eyes. The price performance is superior over the Michelin restaurants in the Bay Area. The restaurant became my new favorite. If you are in Berlin, check out Facil.

After lunch, a combination of trains and Uber took us to the rather “remote” Sanssouci Palace, at Potsdam. It is not a convenient stop. Sans Souci translates to no-worry in English. And the palace was in some romantic scenes in a recent Korean TV drama hit “Queen of Tears’ ‘ we just watched. It made for a fitting stop for my birthday.

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Berlin is not a picturesque city like some other European capitals. Berlin is versatile in big ways. People, we encountered, are courteous, educated, reserved without attempting to be overly familiar. It reminds us of NYC. Every time we are in NYC, we find new things to do, new places to visit, new cafes to relax in, and new shows to watch. Berlin, like NYC, is a city of endless discovery.

Concerts Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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Let’s go travel Central Europe

by ccue

Like many travelers, I am more often attracted to visiting new countries and new cultures miles away from where I live. It is a guilty pleasure to count the number of countries traveled.

I cannot think of a better birthday treat than traveling with family to charming and beautiful new countries for the first time. In this fortnight, we visited three capitals in Central Europe: Berlin, Germany; Prague, Czech; Budapest, Hungary.

Over the years, I came to enjoy the travel experiences more than checkbox as many attractions as possible. I became aware of my “spotty” and non-photogenic memories. And I no longer have the energy of youth. The children need their space. The four of us had some sub-itineraries that fit in our preferences and travel styles. If you are like me, I find a flexible itinerary works the best to experience what each city is famous for, and find time for at least one fine dining and some shopping.

With this approach, we fixed the travel logistics weeks before. We identified a good list of attractions and made a very small set of cafes and ticket reservations. Our travel itinerary remained open until the day.

There is no direct flight from SFO to Berlin. For the convenience and price-performance, we decided to fly from SFO to LHR (Heathrow airport) in London, transition to the much modest STN (London Stansted airport) via a 90-minute shuttle, and fly from STN to BER (Berlin Brandenburg airport). We allowed plenty of time for airport to airport transition. Just hours before departure from San Francisco, our flight from SFO to LHR was canceled. The notification of cancellation arrived after midnight local time, and it took a few hours of scramble to get a different airline and different flight to get to LHR within an hour of the original arrival time. Drama aside, we arrived at Berlin as planned.

May | Central Europe : Berlin, Prague, Budapest

Day 1, May 3, SFO to LHR, STN to BER (24 hours with 8 hours of layover in London)

Day 2 to 6, Berlin, Germany; stay at Adina Apartment Hackescher Markt
- Day 2, arriving, BBQ kitchen dinner
- Day 3, Berlin Philharmonie performance; Neues Museum and Museum Island; East Side Gallery/Berlin Wall
- Day 4, Reichstag Glass Dome tour;, Brandenburg Gate; Europa & Bikini shopping center, dinner
- Day 5, Facil Michelin 2-star; Sanssouci (no worry) Palace
- Day 6, Berlin Hlf to Prague Hl.n (~4.5 hours)
Day 6 to 10 , Prague, Czech; stay at Marriott Prague
- Day 6, Old town; Charles bridge at dusk
- Day 7, Old town; Charles bridge in early morning; Klementinum library and astronomical clock tour; city library; Prague castle; Circus in the park
- Day 8, National museum; Wenceslas square; Cafe Imperial early dinner; Palladium shopping
- Day 9, Farmers’ market; Old Town Shopping; Bond cafe; Dancing house dinner
- Day 10, Train to Budapest, with stops at Brno (where Gregor Mendel and his peas experiment to discover heredity) and Bratislava, Slovakia

Day 10 to 14, Budapest, Hungary, stay at airbnb on Vaci Utca
- Day 10, arriving from Prague; check in airbnb on Budapest’s major thoroughfare Váci Utca
- Day 11, Anna cafe breakfast; Buda castle; Castle district; Fisherman’s bastion; Matthias Cathedral; Vigvarju restaurant dinner inside Concert Hall
- Day 12, Cafe Gerbeaud breakfast; Szechenyi bath house; Hungarian Parliament tour; Costes dinner; Danube night cruise
- Day 13, Taste of Canton (粤之味) Chinese Dim Sum; Boris Godunov at Opera house and shops
- Day 14, Dohány Street Synagogue tour, BUD to LHR

Day 15, LHR to SFO
- Big English breakfast, Gordon Ramsay plane food, LHR; LHR to SFO.

There is the commonly asked question “which city do I like the most?”. I found these cities are all charming in their own unique ways, each bringing once-in-a-life moments for me and my family to cherish for a very long time. Here I share my experience in each city.