2014 - A Year in Reflection

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2014 is a year in reflection for me. A busy year, with numerous trips to different places (both business and leisure with family) - Paris, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and the rest of Slovakia, Budapest, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Sofia, Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo, Bucharest, Brasov, Sighisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Chicago, Montreal, and a few times to Toronto.

Besides, I had some car maintenance work (car repairs in my garage) and two home renovation projects to finish before the first snow arrived, i.e. putting finishing touches to the patio that I started last year, and building a small garden shed (along the way, my nearly-finished shed was lifted up in a severe late-autumn windstorm, and so, I had additional fixing to be done too, bummer). But, they are all now completed :)

Anyway, my most recent trip was to Chicago in late October, which I have here some pictures for you to enjoy.

Wrigley Building viewed from the Chicago River:

The Bean in Downtown Chicago.

Dining at Portillo's, Chicago.

North end of Monroe Harbor, Chicago.

Lastly, I wish you all the very best of New Year 2015!

Trans-Canada Trail on Bicycle

This sunny afternoon, I took my Diamondback Sorrento mountain bike to test on the Trans-Canada Trail, a dirt road of mostly gravels and sand on its surface. The connecting paths leading to the trail were almost all paved NCC bike paths though, and only a small portion of street paths.

With mostly light breeze, I achieved the following one-way performance data:

Trip distance: 14.53 km
Moving time: 45 minutes
Moving avg speed: 19.2 km/h
Max speed: 31.3 km/h

Since there were no steep downhill slopes, my max speed was about 6 km/h slower than yesterday's. But the dirt road trail was probably a stretch of a 20-minute ride at a slower pace. Still a slow-poke on bike, no doubt :)

So long for now...

Biking in the Summer

Since the beginning of this month, I have been doing some biking at least once a week to work on my blue Diamondback Sorrento. It is actually an 18-inch frame, 21-speed, mountain bike with 26-inch wheels. I had bought it used recently.


Just yesterday, I decided to carry a hiking GPS, which I attached to my backpack to gauge my biking performance (I carried a backpack since I didn't have an on-bike side pouches installed like most bike commuters do).

So, with the usual light headwind, here are my slow-poke performance data for a one-way trip on a mixed street and trail pathway ;)

Trip distance: 16.56 km
Moving time: 50 min
Moving avg speed: 20.1 km/h
Max speed: 37.1 km/h

Surprisingly, I had probably achieved the 37 km/h max speed running down a short stretch of the steep hilly slope somewhere along the pathway (some places have posted speed limit signs of 20 km/h though). Nevertheless, there are still several bikers on their speed and road bikes passing me with ease.

Will see if I will improve on my slow-poke performance by summer's end.

Financial Doomsday is approaching!

Get rid of all your debts asap! A financial Doomsday is approaching! Invest all your liquid assets securely into interest based assets! Why? Inflation is on the rise very rapidly, and so are interest rates. Food prices are on the rise sharply, and gas prices are ever increasing too. Rates will probably rise up to 10% or more in less than 5 years. Also, depending on global conditions, it could come as early as within 3 years, because global economies these days are tied very closely together.

Economic conditions are similar to the inflation and high interest rates from 35 to 40 years ago, when rates were 12% in Canada! Commodities like precious metals and rare earth metals will be good investment too, i.e. buy low now, sell high later (although most of these commodities are already at high prices now). Buy low on your shares now, and sell high later... Indeed, I am sounding like a stockbroker on Wall Street!

Reflections: Ottawa-Winnipeg Summer Road Trip 2010

It's been merely a day since I arrived back in Ottawa late last night (Saturday, Aug. 28). I was too exhausted, and got up late from bed, around lunch time today (Sunday, Aug. 29). I had been busy unloading and unpacking. The front-end of my truck, including the front part of my Thule roof box, was completely smeared with specks of dead bugs, so well-covered that I had never seen before. I had to drive to a nearby car-wash to clean them up. Overall, the road trip was a wonderful experience and quite refreshing, albeit a tiring one, nevertheless. I had visited one of Canada's largely undiscovered vacation paradise.

While in Winnipeg for four days, I mostly visited old friends that I still have contact with. I also took my truck for an oil change at a Midas garage. Additionally, I paid a visit to my former Alma Mater, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba, which had changed somewhat over the last ten years, due to old buildings being torn down and replaced with new ones. I managed to meet with a few people there whom I knew from the past, including my former thesis advisor. A new CFL-class football stadium was also being built for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on a former campus football/soccer field. This was a very large open field formerly occupied by snow bunnies in the winter, when I used to walk through it daily from my home to my office on campus. I also visited the Assiniboine Park in the Tuxedo area (especially, the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, the English Garden, and the Formal Gardens, which I had not visited in the past) and The Forks.

At the moment, however, I'm still awaiting help from my friends here to uninstall my large Thule roof box (7 ft long, and weighing 47 lbs) off the roof of my truck, but no one seems to be available today... :(
Therefore, I am unable to park my truck in the garage for yet another day (had to just leave it outside). Actually, I was unable to talk to anyone of my friends on the phone today... only to leave voice messages. Anyway, I will be sorting out pictures from my camera that I took on this trip, and posting them here soon. Stay tuned.

Returning to Ottawa - Day 4

Day 4 was also interesting, because I visited a friend in Sudbury for a couple of hours (chatted, snacked, and played ping-pong), after checking out of my hotel at 11:00. Compliments of my friend, I was presented a home-made jar of plum jam, and a green Thai hot pepper freshly off his backyard garden. Also, visited the well-known (at least in Sudbury) "Dynamic Earth" museum in the afternoon at 13:45 for a couple of hours, for a tour of an underground copper-nickel mine (about 65 meters below ground level, I believe). It was a $20 admission fee plus tax. The underground mine was cold and damp, with occasional dripping water here and there. Then, it was a straight drive home to Ottawa at 16:40, arriving in Ottawa at 23:35, with a 40-minute stop over for dinner in a tiny town on just west of Mattawa on Highway 17. Soon after driving off from Sudbury, saw a couple of white-tailed deer dashing across the highway about two cars ahead of me. More to be added... stay tuned.

Returning to Ottawa - Day 3

Day 3, decided to head back into the mountain highway north of Sault Ste Marie to take some pictures during the day, including an educational and relaxing stop at Batchawana Bay (has a very small collection of Native archeological artifacts dating back to 3500 years ago, spoke with the collector in-person about the collection, and a beautiful soft sandy beach), then headed back to Sault Ste Marie for dinner. Afterwards, started driving off at 20:00 towards Sudbury to stay for the night. Unfortunately, had a detour off Highway 17 because of a highway accident which blocked off the highway, just east of Webbwood. The detour was through a dirt road (bumpy) into the next town of McKerrow where the I was able to get back onto the highway. Arrived at Sudbury at 23:30. More to be added... stay tuned.