Security Please Not Right Now

Alvin has mentioned before in the blog how he is listening to a podcast called "Security Now." It explains the latest news on security breaches in the computer, computer programs, and over the internet. So each episode is about an hour and a half and starts with a teaser on what the show will be about, followed by latest security breaches, and then a thorough list of patches that Windows, Mac, Adobe, Firefox, Opera, IE, and any other program has just put out.

The problem is that I don't get it. This program is not for the regular non-engineer person. They do not tone down the language so an average person can use it. The audience they are catering to is people who work in IT in big companies as well as programmers who love computers. I do not fall under either.

The first podcast I listened to was on cross site request forgery. The hosts emphasized how important it is, so I tried to listen. I ended up falling asleep in the middle. After I woke up, I asked Alvin to explain. Zzzz.

The next podcast I listened to was on sock stress. They introduced the problem and emphasized how this was huge and really could bring down computer systems. I was hooked, so I listened to the whole thing. I didn't get it. At least I found out it had nothing to do things on my feet.

Alvin actually prefers if I don't listen to it because I ask him too many questions in the middle. He says that I say too much, "I don't get it, why doesn't he tell us what is wrong?" Then Alvin has to stop the podcast and then explain. He gets frustrated. So he actually can't wait until I fell asleep in the car so he could listen. Man.

Anyway, I try. I think I can do about 15 minutes a day of Security Now before I start falling asleep. It works better than counting sheep.

Photographing Objects in Motion

Here's a shot of Bethany doing the half-marathon this last weekend. Look at how she keeps up with all the Elite men runners:



Ok, I'm just kidding. Actually, I didn't get to go to this last Sunday's Pasadena race to take pictures. It was way too early in the morning to have to leave, and I instead decided to stay home to get experience changing diapers (for twins!).

These pictures are actually 2 shots I took during the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon in San Jose this last October. (Above is F1 Elite runner Yuri Kano, 29 years old from Japan. She finished the half-marathon in 1:10:03) This was before we had our flickr account and this blog, but I've been wanting to post these pictures for awhile. This is a technique that I learned back in my photo class in high school. When your foreground object is in motion, use a slow shutter speed and try to follow it with your lens. The foreground object will stay relatively in focus throughout the motion, but the background will blur... thereby communicating the effect of motion.

A look at the shot below also teaches me something about running. It looks like it is primarily leg movement (duh.). What I mean is, their torsos are not moving up and down or anything like that. Their torsos are fixed, which is why they're not blurry. Really it is just their legs that are the objects in motion, and they're moving fast too.



Ok, and as a study in contrast, here is a picture of SLee and Bethany running in the half-marathon. You will notice that this pictures is... umm... not blurry at all.

Go Mama Lee

Last October, after I finished my 1/2 Marathon in San Jose, Mama Lee said to me that she thinks she could walk a 1/2 Marathon. So I looked at the calendar, and found a 1/2 Marathon during the time I am in LA.

The Pasadena 1/2 Marathon that takes place on March 22nd, 2009. I thought it would be cool weather and not take that long from her house. So we both signed up to walk the 1/2 marathon. She has been faithfully training ever since we decided to sign up.

The race started at 6:30am, so we left the house at 5am. Yet, we were only a mile from the race, and we hit really bad traffic. Therefore, we got to the race 30 minutes late. We started the race at 7am. That is ok, except that for a while we were the last ones in the race. I wanted to stay with Mama Lee to keep her company. Both of us have a little of a competitive spirit, and a little shame at being last. Some of the volunteers told us we were last and had everyone cheer for us. "Oh no you didn't!" So every time we saw people ahead, we started running just to beat them. I feel bad that I made Mama Lee run so much for us doing this "walk."

She was doing very well considering it was raining from mile 2-3 and mile 8-10. During mile 2-3, there was a regular flow of rain that was slightly more than a sprinkle. Still we got soaked. At mile 8-10, it was partially pouring. I was developing problems that I usually don't suffer from. My sweatpants was getting really heavy that it was dragging on the ground.

I stayed with Mama Lee up until right before mile 10. Then she told me to go ahead and that she would catch up with me. So at mile 11, I started running until the finish line. Then I waited for Mama Lee. As I was waiting for Mama Lee, I stood next to the announcer at the finish line. He has a computer that tells the runner's name and age. So he will say, "here come Suzuki, who is 68, finishing the 1/2 marathon." It was really inspiring. There was 81 year old woman walking the 1/2. So when Mama Lee came, he said, "Here is Rosalia Lee from Palos Verdes coming in for the 1/2 marathon. She is _ _ (her age). Raise your hands Rosalia!" So Mama Lee raised her hands as she crossed the finish line. She told me later that he shared so much information in front of everyone. haha.

And the best is that we weren't last! Mama Lee came in 45 minutes faster than she expected (plus we started 30 minutes later than everyone). Funny thing is that although last time I did a run/walk and this time I did a walk/run, I was only 40 minutes slower than last time. Last time I thought it was torture to finish, this time it was fun and I wasn't even tired. Not bad. (Plus my knees didn't even hurt like last time).

Long Drives

If you had asked me 2 years ago, I would have told you that I hate long drives and road trips, particularly if I have to drive. This is because I have a notorious habit of not being able to drive more than 45 minutes without getting tired and drowsy at the wheel. Like... Saturday evenings, after 3 hours of intense volleyball. Or Sunday afternoons, after Pho. Even getting from Plano to downtown is tough.

But, Bethany has been gracious enough to see this as a weakness of mine, and she's always willing to take over the driving for me if I need her to. This helps her to feel safer, and it saves me from the pressure of that horrible feeling of having to drive but knowing you're dead tired and that your tiredness is really putting your life and the lives of your passengers in danger.

So... road trip. 6-8 hours of driving for each leg of a 3-leg trip. Two years ago, I would have said no way. But, I think my confidence was up a little bit after being able to do some long chunks of driving this last summer when we road-tripped to Detroit with friends.

And I'm happy to say, I did pretty well. I'm actually pretty proud of myself, and I think Bethany is proud of me too. For each day of about 7 hours of driving, I'm able to pull off the first 5 hours without getting tired. This is huge! For those of you who have ever been a passenger in my car when I'm tired, you know that this is no small thing (xacto, mravery, ecl, and others).

We start our drives early in the morning, before the sun is up and blinding. I have a 16-oz Nissan Stainless filled with hot coffee which will stay hot for hours. And (if Bethany is napping) I listen to podcasts of Security Now, which is a totally geeky but totally intelligent and informative weekly show on the latest Internet Security news. Yes, it keeps me awake to hear experts talk about forged SSL certificates or dns cache poisoning. Riveting.

And then, there are external motivations to keep on truckin'. Motivations like hunting for the first Sonic after 2pm so that I can get a strawberry limeade for half-off. Or motivations like getting to the Hyatt Tamaya as early as possible so we can enjoy it as much as possible.

Or, like this morning, as we crossed into CA, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before I could get to this:


All of a sudden, road trips don't seem so bad.

Home Sweet Arizona

Alvin and I arrived in Phoenix yesterday afternoon. I immediately started getting a sentimental feelings as we entered Prescott. I enjoyed the feeling of recognizing places where I had childhood memories. I liked the feeling of familiarity as I drove on Thunderbird to my place. I like knowing that I didn't need to print out a map from Albuquerque to Phoenix because I could find my way home.

I lived in Phoenix for 18 years, but have not lived in the city for 11 years. I average coming back to Phoenix about once a year. One thing I noticed about living in a place for so long, but now only coming back every once in a while to visit now, is that I can notice when change happens. In Dallas, I don't notice change because it just slowly happens.

One thing I like best about Phoenix is that it is March, and no one wears a jacket. As Alvin and I travel west, we slowly shed the petticoat and the sweatshirt. Dallasites may think, well sometimes in March we wear short sleeves. Yet, in Phoenix, once you put away the jacket, you don't have to take it out. That is not true of Dallas bipolar winter weather.

When I was in NM, all of a sudden I started to feel like I was home. I realized it was because of the burning sensation on my neck from the sun. Oh, home sweet home. Phoenix is the reason I am obsessed with sunblock.

You may have noticed how I have been calling AZ home. My parents live in the same house ever since I was born. I have lived in AZ longer than any other house. When I dream, I often have dreams taking place in my AZ home. I have never had dreams of my Dallas place.

Therefore, as I sit here in Phoenix (at a Starbucks since that is like Alvin's home), I think about how much things will change in AZ after a couple years of living overseas.

Oh Phoenix, full of cacti, full of sun, I will miss you dearly.

Day of Relaxation

The past few weeks have been crazy packing up for LA. Our car was packed to the brim with pretty much everything we now own. But the funny part is that while we are traveling, we know we have almost everything in the car. We found out the hotel had a tennis court so we took out our rackets. The hotel had a pool and so we found our swimsuits. I got to my parent's home and we wanted to play billiards on my parent's table. So we grabbed our pool stick from the trunk.

Yesterday, we had a full day of relaxation at the hotel. We knew we needed to destress from all the packing and a full day of driving. So I looked into the hotel booklet to find all the fun and free stuff we can do at the hotel. The criteria of it having to be free ruled out hot air ballooning, horseback riding, yoga, spa, and golf. But there was still plenty of other activities to do.

So the schedule started out with going to the gym. Then I took a walk on the nature trail attached to the hotel. It had a good view of the river and the Sandia mountains. We then had lunch (not free). After lunch, we went to the pool to try out the water slide. Fun, but not spectacular. After pool time, we went biking. We biked to the horses' stables where we the horse trainers pointed us to a day old foal. The mother was a white horse and the baby, which was still on the ground, was black. The mama horse kept giving us the eye like, "you better not get any closer to my baby."

After the biking, we played tennis. We also played the day before. Both Alvin and I used to play in high school, but we were so rusty. Instead of focusing on the score of the game, we had a competition to see who hit the ball out of the court the most. Alvin won the first day, and I won the second day. Yet all this playing has renewed our interest in tennis. I think we decided to bring our rackets overseas.

We then had dinner and then played a backgammon game in the lobby of the hotel. I lost. But I drowned out my sorrows by bringing out the Playstation and beating Alvin a couple times on Puzzle Fighter.

Overall, it really hit the spot. All the exercise really destressed me. And the best part was that the activities (except for the meals), were free and provided by the hotel (except for Puzzle Fighter).

Hyatt Tamaya Resort - Santa Ana Pueblo, NM

After a long drive - straight through Amarillo, only stopping for gas - we arrived Monday afternoon to the Hyatt Tamaya Resort just north of Albuquerque, NM. We've been wanting to come back here ever since we first swung through here almost 5 years ago. At that time, we were driving from LA to Dallas, and arrived here at this resort (which I pricelined for a GREAT DEAL) late at night when it was pitch black. The next day, we awoke and saw just how beautiful this place was. But... we had to keep moving east, and hardly had any time to enjoy the place.

So, we decided we would try to priceline and get back to this place on our westward trip. And it worked out!

FUNNY STORY: On the morning that I pricelined and got this hotel a few weeks ago, I was sitting at a SBUX. About an hour later, a lady came up to me and asked me if I could help her setup a wifi account. While I was helping her, she mentioned to me that she and her 2 colleagues worked for HYATT and were just in town in Dallas visiting with clients. "What a coincidence," I said, "I just booked a reservation at the Hyatt Tamaya in NM." As it turned out, that was exactly the Hyatt location where one of this lady's colleagues worked! She came over, and we chatted about the hotel for a few minutes. Then she gave me a wonderful gift bag with spa lotions and soaps from the resort. And she told me to swing by and say hi when we arrived at the hotel.

When we arrived on Monday afternoon, Bethany was THRILLED when, a few minutes after we settled into our room, she was greeted by room service with a little amenity gift and a "Welcome back to the Hyatt Tamaya!" card and note from this nice lady that I had met a few weeks ago. Here is what she had sent to our room:



Along with the water, apples, dried apricots, and walnuts... notice the CHEESE. This made Bethany's day. Needless to say, we love this hotel. And, having gone through Priceline, it was a great deal. (I splurge a little bit when it comes to hotels. But hey... what I save on stylish wardrobe, I can spend on a nicer hotel stay).

The resort has a large campus with golf course, stables, tennis courts, lots of walking/biking trails, 3 swimming pools, a nice southwestern feel to its decor, and probably the NICEST HOTEL STAFF that we've ever found. Ok, maybe it's because it's a slow time of the year and there aren't too many guests staying here now, but every time we pass by the front desk, we're greeted with, "Mr. Lee, how has your day been going so far?" and "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, how did you enjoy the tennis game this afternoon?" It's like everybody who works here knows who we are, and they're so nice to us.

Today was a packed day. We didn't leave the hotel grounds at all, but we got to spend pretty much the whole day together. I'll let Bethany post about all the fun (and free) things that we did today. But in the meantime, here are some pictures from our stay so far...