Water under the bridge and crumbling cookies

Sweet title.

Shitty Haikus

Today is Sunday
And tomorrow is Monday
Damn, I want a job

It is so lonely
In bed, but can’t fall asleep
To-do list, miles deep

All that I do, fails
This feeling never subsides
All that I touch, dies

Earth hurling through space
The rapid approach of dawn
5am, can’t sleep

If only I could,
git clone, branch, and merge myself.
Immortality



Prose:
Black friday shopping
rampant consumerism
just to save 30 bucks
at the cost of 4 hours of shopping
but some are not as fortunate to value their own time as much
and a deal is a deal
gifts need to be given and traditions need to be upheld
Even if living from paycheck to paycheck

Buying things that we don't need
Because they were on sale
To fuel that dopamine kick
At the destruction of the earth
Fucking capitalistic consumerism...


4 bucks for a cup of coffee
It's a bit expensive
Do I really want that
Swipe credit card plastic
Thank you, here you go and have a good day
I haven't touched cash in weeks
Is this real
4 bucks for a fucking coffee?

Windows 10 has Linux Bash Shell!!

doooodd, Windows 10 now has a linux bash shell! (As of the Windows 10 Redstone upgrade on August 2, 2016)

The war is over! I'm gonna try to never buy an Apple product ever again!
(So far I've only bought 1 Apple product in my life (a macbook) still no iPhone/iPad/iPod/iPOS yet, thank goodness.)

Apple decided to go fuck itself  by making expensive as hell laptops that have no ports and dumbass features like a 1 pixel wide touchscreen bar that costs $1800. (And the entry level $1500 Macbook pro doesn't even have this dumbass narrow touchscreen.)

I've been wanting a convertible tablet/pc for several years now and Mac isn't even close to making one, while on the PC side, there are several Thinkpad Yoga's/MS Surfaces/etc to choose from (ok fine, some of them don't have ports either).

For several years, I've been wanting ONE device that can do the following (in order of priority):
1. A laptop I can program on
2. A tablet for reading or video watching (e.g. while on a train)
3. A stylus that lets me take handwritten notes with so I can ditch pen/paper notebooks (and also so I don't have to flip through hundreds of pages of notes to find that one note)

Some other weirder requirements:
4. Thin bezel (the dumbass macbook still has a huge 1" ring of nothing-ness surrounding the screen, wasting room)
5. Can potentially play computer games

I caved and bought a macbook last year because it has a Bash shell terminal. But now with Bash shell on Windows 10, requirement 1 is fulfilled on PC! So screw you Apple!

At one point, I was wondering what Microsoft still had going for it what with the advent of Google Docs taking away Microsoft Office market share, Macbooks being more popular than PCs, and most developers preferring open source instead of Windows .NET framework (because Microsoft isn't considered "cool"). But I guess Microsoft never stopped innovating. They kept experimenting and now, doing things such as going into the hardware space with the Surface line, and now, they're cooler than Macs. They're not gonna turn into Yahoo. I can't wait till I need to replace my current macbook pro in a year or so so I can AVOID getting the new macbook pro. (Please don't dissapoint me Microsoft)

Random things I learned today about cancer and personal cancer treatment

Pros about the field:
1) growing at 17%
2) large social impact 3) family social impact (better know what the do about cancer) Cons about the field: 1) Field is saturated, high competition 2) it is a pit, you learn very specific things to cancer research 3) if you do bioinformatics and bio computation, it's even more of a pit with skills that can't transfer out Example of successful personalized and targeted cancer treatment (personalized medicine = sequence the person's DNA, and find a drug for that specific person's DNA and cancer type, as opposed to just using chemotherapy): 1) philadephia chromosome found in lukemia patients. Gleevec, drug that targets that chromose mades death rate go from 95% to 5% 2) but as soon as patient stops taking gleevec, cancer comes back 3) because there are cancer cells and cancer stem cells, each can regenerate the other, so both would have to be wipped out at the same time, but cancers can survive different attacks 4) similar thing was done for skin cancer, but drug only worked for 6 months, then cancer came back even worse than before 5) that was because targeting 1 thing about the cancer almost never works, because the cancer mutates and avoids that. 6) you need to target like 50 things about that cancer, but then that basically becomes chemotherapy 7) chemotherapy targets/kills everything, including the good stuff. Chemo takes person as close to death as possible, without killing them. 8) crispr can only cut in 1 place. 9) genetic engineering is not allowed. crispr can maybe just cut the cancer dna out of sperm, and then allow that to have healthy baby End stage cancer treatment: 1) End stage curing cancer doesn't work. Stage 3b=inoperable, stage 4 = metasized to all other organs, can't cut 2) cancer prevention works, but not treatment? 3) end stage cancer will almost never succeed, can only work in delaying 4) but, everything is just about delaying death. when most people die of old age, they probably have a cancer within them, but they just are not showing clinical symptoms yet Why prevention works and what is end-stage cancer: 1) As cancer develops, it's dna does a sort of micro-evolution, making it more and more resistant to drugs. Early on, cancer cell will detect that it's bad and try to kill itself, later on, cancer dna has developed ability to prevent killing itself. 2) Prevention = detecting cancer early on enough such that drug treatments still work. 3) Biopsy would basically be needed for such early detection, from people who feel no illness symptoms. Or, can also find patients based on familial traits. 4) prevention treatment would also involve drugs.

Types of of Rotors and Brake Pads

• Rotors - Main job is to disperse heat. Material doesn't seem to matter as much as design
• Blanks
• http://www.autoanything.com/brakes/brake-rotors-comparison.aspx
• Cross-drilled
• Drill holes increase liklihood of cracking
• Pretty much useless now, only good for looks
• Slotted
• Slotted and cross-drilled
• Drilled part is still mainly for looks
• Directional or uni-directional vanes
• Even if it's a blank rotor, the vanes can be directional (so watch out whether it's on the left or right wheel)
• https://www.zeckhausen.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=6446_6515
• Pads - Stops the car, materials actually seems to matter
• Semi-metallic
• Ceramic
• More expensive
• Less dust
• Less initial bite

After spending 10+ hours reading up on different brakes for my car, I decided to go with cheap Pep Boys ProStop Rotors, Akebono ceramic front pads and ProStop ceramic rear pads.
I currently have Brembos and Stoptechs- all brembos on the front, stoptech pads in the back. (But StopTechs are dusty as hell.) I used to think I'd never take my car to Pep Boys, but I've changed.


I don't launch the car, track, or auto-cross it. I don't need to be buying racing parts my whole life. I just need working brakes on a daily driver. I've gone 60,000miles on my current brakes. In hindsight, I did not need to buy this fast of a car, though I only have good feelings towards it. I'll drive slowly and safely. ProStop rotors claims to follow OE for iron thickness, vane pattern, vane count, etc. I hope the ProStops work.

Some reading:

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=977761
"Ur going to get haters for sure. I cant tell the difference in day to day driving and i used to have brembo slotted rotors and hawk ceramic pads. If you track the car then i would consider another option just to be safe. Check the diy section"


Long explaination of braking systems:
http://www.carbibles.com/brake_bible.html

Some dude took Pep Boys ProStop pads to the track:
http://automotivethinker.com/brakes-2/ashes-to-ashes-brake-dust-to-brake-dust/

Grandparents, forever

I spent time with my grandparents yesterday. Just eating meals and sitting in our backyard (which is a really awesome backyard.)

My grandparents keep talking about the past and a lot of it is gossip, like about who owed them money from 20 years ago. A lot of it is also stories about me that I've heard time and time again. I keep wanting to tell them to stop gossipping about the past, that it's not emotionally healthy, and to look towards the future and have hope in it. But I realize that might not work for old people. What keeps me going is hope in the future, but I don't know how old people can have this...This aritcle explains about how young people look forward to change, while old people look for reminders of the past: http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/what-makes-older-people-happy/?_r=0

Another frustration is departing. My grandpa is starting to say again "after this upcoming vacation together and you move, who knows when I can see you again". He is hinting at death, and it hurts, and there is nothing I can do about it, except spend as much time with him as possible. 

There are moments when he pesters me so much about eating food or clothes to wear that I think to myself, "I can't wait to get away". But there are many more moments when I am sitting with my grandparents, and they are laughing and smiling, or I am just watching them go about their day and I can't help notice their frailness, and I can't help but think how much I'll miss them when they're not around.

Yesterday afternoon, my grandparents went back in after sitting in the backyard together. I remained outside to jump rope a bit before joining them for dinner. As I was jump roping in the southern california sunset, I was thinking about all this and I imagined what it would be like when they're not around. And how painful that would be. And why is life so finite, and death so distinct, and irreversible, and impassable. It's so frustrating.

It makes me wonder if I should just continue to be around them as much as possible whenever I'm not working, and maybe not even move away. But that won't make me most happy, and that's not what they'd really want. Since I'm currently not working, I get to be around them quite a bit, but even despite how sweet these moments are, it's not sustainable. I don't get as much work done, and I'm not as focused because they'll call me downstairs to eat or to talk. They keep mentioning how much they'll miss me when I move away, but if I stay, that's not reality, and that's not how children grow up. Children leave parents. That's life. Staying would hinder my growth, and that's ultimately not what they'd want.

I sometimes fear that every moment I spend with my grandparents will be the last of its kind. I want to stay around my grandparents whenever they talk about how much they're going to miss me. But I wouldn't be living to my fullest if I stayed around. It's what's gotta be done.

Emily Dickinson describes it well:

My life closed twice before its close— 

It yet remains to see 

If Immortality unveil 

A third event to me 

So huge, so hopeless to conceive 

As these that twice befell. 

Parting is all we know of heaven, 

And all we need of hell.

(On a side note, It also occurred to me that if I was a Christian, I can try to prevent this so that I can see my grandparents again in the future. That is, if i was a Christian and I evangelize to my grandparents and get them to also become Christians. But that doesn't appeal to me. Because that would mean I would have to sit there and tell them that they've sinned and they're actually "evil" and "sinners", and that they need to repent and seek Jesus. They are in their own minds good people. In the minds of most humans, they are also good people. I think my grandparents are quite proud, and that can be seen through their boasting about how frugal they are, and how difficult their past was, and how they're always grabbing for the crappiest remaining dish/food/vegetable on the table and mentioning it. Those behaviors of theirs do indeed annoy me.

Pride is a very toxic substance, I struggled with pride before when I used to call myself Christian, and I still struggle with it and face its toxic consequences even now, as a non-Christian. I remember Christian sermons that mentioned how there is a pervading pride and wickedness in man (and there is surely in myself too). But those sort of sermons now piss me off. God created us and allowed us to be "sinners", and I don't want to convince my grandparents that it is somehow their fault and that they need to repent. It's not their fault.)

What I Learned about Discipline that Changed My Life

The most life changing thing I learned this year is that discipline is a habit, a muscle that needs to be trained.

Like all life lessons, I didn't magically hear this and understand it. But I learned it through numerous failures and broken promises to myself. I internalized it and think about it multiple times a day in order to motivate myself to act upon it to try to be productive instead of waste precious time.

What I did before that didn't work
Trying to focus for hours at a time and telling myself to not leave the office until I finished task x.
This previously resulted in:

• Unable to focus for that long
• Unable to deliver according to my deadlines at work
• Unproductive at work, felt guilty for only working 3 of those hours a day, despite forcing myself to sit there for 8 hours, then would force myself to sit there for another 3 hours in hopes that my focus would come around and I'd be able to complete the task. That rarely happened, and I would go home with the task unfinished and late
• I thought I needed to quit and try to be productive on my own on projects that I was passionate about. I was still unproductive and only maybe productive 2hrs out of 17 hours awake

My mindset before
I thought:

• I had a mental block that prevented me from not procrastinating
• My job was the problem, and that was what was causing me to miss deadlines.
• I hadn't found my passion yet and that was why I couldn't zone in on my work
• My personality meant that I wasn't meant for certain types of work, even though I liked specific aspects of it.
• Maybe I had the lazy gene

The Ah-ha
And I realized that despite being passionate about these projects, I was still unproductive. The problem wasn't the work, the problem was my lack of discipline.

My friend Jake called me to discuss how I was doing.
He mentioned that there were three types of people in life:
1) People who don't have a strong goal/vision/aspiration
2) People who have goals, but don't do anything about
3) People who have goals, and will do whatever it takes to accomplish it

I saw that I was the 2nd type. I asked jake how do i get from a wisher to a do-er (someone who'll do whatever it takes to make his wish come true).
He said he's not sure, and he mentioned a particular Jim Rohn video that he has been telling me to watch for over two years. For over two years, I said I'd watch it but I never did. Jake mentioned even if he tells 100 people to watch it, maybe only 10% will watch it, 90% won't, and he wasn't sure what set the 10% apart from the 90%, because it was such a simple small act.
The jump from unsuccessful to successful is chasmic, but watching that video vs not watching that video isn't. But it's as if just from watching it, I could be on my way to putting myself in the 10% of successful people group.

He was suggesting for me to watch that video again, and it starts with small intangible steps like reading self help books and wanting to change.

I became defensive, and mentioned maybe it's in my genes to be lazy.

Jake asked what I was thinking about in my recent blog post about me stereotyping and being racist.

I said there were studies that showed there was a lazy gene or violence gene, and maybe certain people have more of those genes.
He said so-what if that's true. Do I have any proof of this.
I didn't. But I was trying to defend my laziness and lack of productivity by saying maybe it's impossible for me to become productive.

He said it was hard for him to become productive too, but it was a personal choice, a habit that needed to be worked out. This was in line with a book I had read recently but wasn't putting into action: The Slight Edge. The book talked about daily habits and disciplines and how that snowballs into huge success or huge failure over time.

At this point Jake had to get onto a bus and said he'd call me back. During that moment of waiting I recognized that:

• I was using fate/genes/depression as an excuse to make myself feel better about why I didn't work hard today
• My subconsciousness would also use that as an excuse so that I wouldn't have to work hard tomorrow
• But this thinking process that makes me feel better about my failures today by blaming fate and not taking responsibility will actually continue to set me up for failures tomorrow
• It's not boolean. It's never just on or off
• It's a distribution. and because it's a distribution, you can get yourself to one side of the curve

Even the article said that for those who have the laziness or violence gene, the environment matters a lot, in fact, the environment "turns on" the gene.

Jake called back and asked what good does knowing your genetic disadvantages do for you?

I said knowing your genetic predisposition lets you know what your advantages and disadvantages might be, so that you can maximize your talents and make use of your strategic advantages.

My whole life, I've been trying to find with certainty my "strategic advantage" and what I was uniquely good at. But at that moment I also realized: forget strategic advantages.

Don't let trying to find that paralyze you. Just try hard. Try very hard. You don't know if you're genetically predispositioned to fail at that yet.

You worry about going down the wrong path, a path that's not your genetic/strategic advantage, but if it's true that you're going down a wrong path, then you should try to get down that wrong path as quickly as possible. Genetics matters less than we think it does.

What I Learned from talking to Jake
Decide what I want to do
Decide if it's do-able
Then do it.
NBA star. (No, I genetically don't have the height)
Entrepreneur. (Not sure if I'm genetically too lazy, but it doesn't matter, I'm still going to try. It's not time for me to throw in the towel yet.)
You can still try in the NBA example too.

So, do I give in to my "fate"? Or do I try to change my fate?
Do I claim that my fate is laziness and give up? Or do I change it.
It's ok. It's not too late. There is still time to change, starting now.

If I give up and live mediocrity, I will regret it.

I realized what I kept explaining as an inability to focus or be disciplined - what I explained as a result of not being interested in work because the work was uninteresting to me, was maybe simply a lack of discipline on my part. Bad habits.

What I do now

Trying to focus for 25 minutes at a time, with 10 minute breaks, resulting in 6 hours of productivity a day.
This will gradually increase to 45 minutes at a time, resulting in 10 hours of productivity a day.
Stop googling the shit out of irrelevant facts and ADHD issues

Why mindset matters
I didn't even really talk about discipline forming habits here, but more about mindset.
Mindset results in thoughts, thoughts result in actions, actions result in habits, and habits result in character.
Before, I was trying to be productive without the belief that it was a habit that could be improved.
My belief was that i was unproductive because the work sucked.
Now my belief is that I was unproductive because it was a bad habit. And habits can be changed.

How this came about:
I could not have learned this if I continued to stay at my old job. I needed to quit and try to be productive on my own on projects I was passionate about. And I realized that despite being passionate about these projects, I was still unproductive. The problem wasn't the work, the problem was my lack of discipline.

Alaska Cruise Glacier Differences

College Fjord - near Prince William Sound, can be done from Anchorage

Glacier Bay - Classic must see, but similar to College Fjord

Hubbard Glacier - huge ass glacier, bigger than glacier bay, but can't get as close
Tracy Arm Fjord, aka Sawyer - Fjord, near Juneau

Glacier Bay and College Fjords are similar

Pro tip:
Norwegian does Glacier Bay and Hubbard on the northbound itinerary only, and Princess only do both on the southbound itineraries.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g28923-i349-k8923134-Inside_Passage_vs_Glacier_Bay-Alaska.html

I am racist

Well, partly, because I partially fit the definition of racist: a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

I don't believe one race is superior to another in all areas of life, but only some areas. Black people are better at sports. Asians are better at math.

Just as maybe there is a gene for homosexuality, maybe there's a gene for laziness: Being lazy could be genetic say scientists
Laziness then probably leads to less education, more poverty, and therefore, more crime. Heck, maybe there's a gene for violent crime: Two genes linked with violent crime - BBC News

Maybe, just maybe, it’s in black and latino genes to be more predispositioned towards laziness or crime, whereas it’s in the asians genes to be more predispositioned to be passive, silent, short, have smaller pensises, and unable to get pussy, but also work hard, and not commit violent crimes. What's worse? Being un-fuckable, or being lazy? (Fuck, as of writing this, I think I'm both.)

Yes, I'm saying AllLivesMatter in light of BlackLivesMatter because black people do commit more crimes and a police officer is more likely to die when the suspect is black as opposed of any other race: FactCheck: do black Americans commit more crime?
Yes, I'm complaining and whining about being asian and short and single all my life,
Yes, I know I need to stop whining about it,
No, I'm not going into the streets to protest about why women won't date me,
True, my pain is nothing compared to that of a bullet wound or losing a loved one,
But yes, it is pain nonetheless,
No, I'm not giving up and going into a forest to cut off my penis and commit seppuku just because I can't get laid: Don't Kill Yourself Because You Can't Get A Girlfriend

I'm going to work my ass off to become a better me, and fight whatever predisposition my genes gave me that I don't like. I'm going to work twice as hard to be successful.

And black people need to do the same to get out of poverty. And sometimes that hard work does come in the form of protesting to change the system. Because yes, the system is fucked up. The entire system. It seems like white people got the best genes and they were able to imperialize and conquer and enslave the entire world (and they're still doing it), but they've kinda stopped, so there's hope. But they also have it bad because they're prone to sunburn and skin cancer. And all that just means we have to work harder.

In the end, we all have to work to better ourselves.
Unless you have the lazy gene. Then you just have to work extra hard.

Life is fucking unfair. For everyone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/arts/genetics-and-crime-at-institute-of-justice-conference.html?_r=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd7wAithl7I

What I learned today from googling about Sunnis vs Shiites

• Sunnis
• After Prophet Muhammad died, Sunnis wanted to vote for successor
• Place their hands on their stomachs when they pray
• Account for 85% of the world's muslims
• "Centralized" in Saudi Arabia

• Shiites (Shia = Noun, Shiite = Adjective)
• After Prophet Muhammad died, Shiites wanted to follow bloodline
• Place their hands at their sides when they pray
• Account for 15% of the world's muslims
• "Centralized" in Iran

• There are Sunni vs Shiite mosques, but it is hard to tell visually
• ISIS is Sunni
• Saudi Arabia has a form of Sunni called Wahhabism that is very radical

• Some good links:
• Different between: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/what-are-differences-between-sunni-shiite-muslims-n489951
• About Saudia Arabia: http://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9821466/saudi-problem-isis
• http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-islam.html

Thoughts and Notes about Kyrgyzstan

I like this country, especially the capital, Bishkek.

General feelings:
-The statues are really cool. Badass warriors on horses. Not the lovey-dovey junk that's littered all over Paris. Similar to some areas of prague. (applies more-so to bishkek than to osh, since Osh doesn't have much of anything)

-Children play on the streets and in playgrounds, even if only on dirt or cement fields. They play, they yell, they laugh, and I hear them from my 4th story soviet style apartment hostel. BMX bikers and skate boarders do tricks and jump off the staircases of national monuments and opera houses. Seeing these things gives me hope. Freedom of expression exists.

-The women are the most beautiful I've seen in the world
There are very few overweight women. They all look fit and in shape. They range from appearing as completely caucasian (like blond hair, blue eyes, German), to completely eastern asian (like chinese/japanese/korean), and everything in between (but more asian looking ones than caucasian looking ones). Despite 90% of the population being muslim, people are dressed in a very western fashion. Women here reveal as much skins as women in the US.
I'm sure the guys are beautiful too, but I haven't been paying too much attention to them. A lot of them are like taller, manlier, buffer versions of east asians. They do pullups and dips on the old USSR styled children playgrounds that have a lot of monkey bars with worn out paint.

Civility:
-There aren't hawkers everywhere asking you if you need a taxi ride. There are taxis, but they don't all rush up to you 5 people at once, asking you where you want to go next (Maybe only when you get off the airport, but not all over the city like the Siem Reap or Phnom Penh)
-There's very little littering on the ground. Unlike western china (Where everyone, from the buddhist monks to the taxi drivers, will litter. The monk was sitting on the ground and reading scripture and praying under a statue while it was raining, and I ducked under the statue near him in order to shelter from the rain. We smiled at each other and nodded. After a while, he finished reading, pulled out what looked like a twizzler sort of candy bar, ate it, and threw the wrapper on the ground, on the grass, and walked on. As for taxi drivers, they just roll down the window and throw out trash. But here in Kyrgyzstan, I have not seen such behavior.)
-Cars actually stop for you when you cross the street, almost like the United States. Nowhere in China does this occur
-The internet is good enough for stream youtube at 720p, and google and facebook are not blocked like it is in China.

Safety
-Perhaps it's because of Ramadan that things are open late (since many restaurants are closed during the day since many people are fasting), but at night, there are people on the streets and stores and shops are open, even at midnight. I read from online numerous warnings about how it's unsafe for tourists and foreigners to go out at night, due to pickpockets. But I felt it was alright... China has a weird unspoken curfew system, where it gets very dark and deserted late at night, even in cities like shanghai.

Authorities and corruption
-Though I haven't experienced this yet, the cops are crooked, similar to many other countries. I sort of experienced this in Cambodia, where I was overcharged an extra $5 for a visa from the immigration officer. And I kept arguing with him about why. It's funny, because in any developed nation, I would not be arguing with an officer.

Economy
-Kyrgyzstan place is poor and GDP is low. A taxi from Osh to Bishkek, a 12 hour ride, only costs around 1000SOM per person. (Around $15). This is ridiculous, because the gas costs about 2500SOM to 3000SOM (about $45 USD). So the taxi driver only made $15 to $20 that day for 12 hours of driving. And that's not even considering the cost of maintenance or cost of the car.
When I look at the GDP per capita though, it almost makes sense. Kyrgyzstan has a GDP per capita of $1200. That is really low. (The US's is around $50,000). So if this driver in Kyrgyzstan makes $15 per day and works 300 days per year... that's about it that's like $4500, then minus the cost of maintenance and the car... he might even be making more that the national average of $1200.
-A low GDP also means things are quite affordable for foreigners. A burger is usually $1 (65 SOM). Veal was $8.

Transportation
The cars are also from all over the world, like as if this country has no emission policy of its own, and it just imports cars from anywhere that is cheap. Because there are cars with steering wheels on the right side, even though the country drives on the right side of the road. I wonder if that is a sign of how poor this place is. That they'll take cars from any country, regardless of whether they're left or right handed steering wheel. This scares me in terms of safety and visibility while driving. But people seem to be able to live with it.
Public transportation seems to be lacking. There are no subways and not many real "buses". There are marshrutkas (shared taxi minivans that travel specific routes and have bus stops).
Bus taxis are cheap. 1km seems to negotiable for 40 to 50 SOM (e.g. around $0.75). So it'd be about $1 per mile.


The city of Osh
-Not much to do. There are like 5 touristy things to do: 1 mountain, 2 museums, and a yurt. Can all be done in 6 hours.

The city of Bishkek
-Lots of cool squares, parks, monuments, and museums. Can be seen in 10 or 12 hours.

Almaty, Kazakhstan vs Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia, from XiNing, China

I'm in XiNing, which is almost smack dab in the middle of China. There are bullet trains that can get to Shanghai in 10 hours, or Urumqi in 10 hours. Urumqi is supposedly the farthest major city from any ocean in the world.

I'm debating whether to go northwest to Urumqi, and then ultimately Almaty, Kazakhstan, or go north east, towards inner Mongolia (within China), and eventually cross the border into Mongolia, then Ulaan Bataar.

Well, I googled Almaty vs Ulaan Bataar, and it turns out that Almaty has a much less expensive cost of living, has much cheaper flights back to Shanghai (where I already have a return flight back to the US), and Kazakhstan overall is a much more populous country with a higher GDP per capita (approximately $12,000 vs $4,000 USD).

https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=country:KAZ:RUS:MNG&hl=en&dl=en


So... I'll go north west.

Angkor Wat tell me your secrets

I got up at 4:30am to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat today.
Angkor Wat is the most famous and well preserved temple in the Angkor temple system in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Other temples include Angkor Thom:

Or the Tomb Raider temple:

Despite this, I've been getting tired and bored of traveling. I'm on week 6.
I think it comes from not having a goal for my travels and not knowing what I'll be doing when I get back to reality and back to home in the United States.

I'm tired of traveling because I don't have a goal of what I'm traveling for. (I'm not on a 2 week trip meant for un-winding from work. No, I left my job and I don't have a solid plan for life and I can travel for months or even years until my savings runs out.) If my travels had a deadline of when to stop, it might allow me to enjoy the limited amount of time even more.

I find that I don't do well without overarching goals and deadlines, and I need one for traveling... It also has to do with me not having a job and not really knowing what I'll be doing when I get back. I think that just makes life overall a bit hopeless. Because when I'm traveling, I'm not really working towards those things related to career development and online classes, where-as if I was at home all day, I probably would. So maybe that's why traveling made the hopelessness even more pronounced. This is one aspect that I didn't think of before...

I think working on side projects while traveling will help. But I would like to have a solid and more detailed goal for traveling too, in addition to "have fun, learn about other country's history and culture"

Angkor Wat, tell me your secrets. What can I learn from you? What can I learn from being here.

SpaceX makes history. What I am doing with my life?

I'm speechless. In awe. Humbled.
SpaceX did it.
Today, SpaceX landed their first stage.
I used to work 3 miles from their headquarters, making satellites that SpaceX would launch. Now I'm thousands of miles away vacationing in Thailand.

I can't help but think... what am I doing with my life? Will I ever get back to meet and surpass the impact I was making before? I hope and believe that I will.

CNN's article started with a funny, appropriate quote: "If at first you don't succeed, try until you make history."

Or that other quote: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better" And then... success

Bali on a Dirt Bike

Out of my 12 days in Bali, 9 days were spent surfing, 1 spent visiting a cool startup incubator space called Livit (I emailed them asking for a tour and they agreed!), and 2 days were spent on a dirt bike. This post is about the dirt bike days.

Day 1 on dirt bike:
Renting and riding scooters on previous days led to googling for motorcycle or dirt bike rentals, which then led to looking for guided dirt bike tours. There are several companies that do this, but the one I settled upon was Bali Dirt Bike Adventures, rated 5 stars on Trip Advisor.

I picked them because after browsing several companies, they offered the best price for the amount of hours of riding. They had several packages, and the one I picked was the rainforest one, which the owner said was easier than the volcano one, and also had more seat time on the bike.

I was picked up at 8:30am and we didn't arrive at the dirt bike area until about 10:30, and we're basically in the boonies by then (but then most of the island is boonies.)

The first thing I see is this:

I thought, sweet... it looks like a really decent bike, I wonder if I'm gonna be riding that.
I was given all the gear to wear including socks, and I left all my belongings with the people there.
It turned out I was the only customer today. I had two guides, one was a funky man in his 30s or 40s maybe and another was a 11year old kid (but man, they both kicked ass on dirt bikes and picked my butt out of a ditch countless times.)

After I was suited up, I was told to get on my bike, and they pointed at the one I was originally eyeing (sweet!!!)

The guides get on their bikes and motion for me to get on mine. They start their engines and motion for me to follow.
"Wait wait wait", I yelled. "Ummm, give me a quick refresher, this right one's the brake right?" (I actually hadn't ridden a motorcycke since the motorcycle riding class I took 4 years ago. That class had about 8 hours total of riding time, and that was all the motorcycle riding experience I had in my life.)
The guides get off their bikes and walk over to my bike. "Front brake, back brake, clutch, shift, engine cut off", he points and says.
"Cool got it, what about that one."
"No touch. ok?" he smiles, pats my back. "Ok, let's go!" And off we went. We first went through some flat ground where the guide did some tight turns, just to make sure I was able to ride. Then we hit the trails.

After a while, we got to a ride terrace, and I was so happy to see it because it was something I had read about it.

We then went up some seriously muddy hills, and that's where I had the most trouble and dropped the bike a lot. Two guides were indeed needed. One guide to ride in front, one in the back to look out after you. And both guides were needed to pick the bike up after I rode it into the ditch and dropped it.

After the rice paddies and going up the muddy hills, we hit up a waterfall to cool off.
We then grab lunch. Food was Nasi Goreng at a local warung (warung=small mom/pop shop)

Next we hit easier trails (no mud) to get to the beach. And at this point, I'm smiling the whole time. It was so beautiful. Breaking waves and roaring ocean to my right, and a beast of a machine under my control, rumbling and pushing me forward.

There were a few times when the terrain just became ridiculous. Like one section where we rode up some stairs (!) onto a beach boardwalk in order to avoid the tide and wait it out a bit. Once the tide went down, we rode back down the stairs and through the knee deep sea water. There's water all around me, the bike is making wakes, pushing through the water like a boat, and I thought the engine was going to drown, choke, and die, but I kept revving, and it kept pushing, and it stayed alive and carried me through. Mad respect for dirt bikes!

We left the beach and made it back to drop off the bikes at around 5:15pm after about 6 solid hours of riding. I was definitely satisfied. The total price came out to be about $135USD + tip (their website says $120 for single person, $100/each for two or more. I also had to pay $10 extra because my hotel was further away, and $5 guide fee, which wasn't mentioned)

Day 2 on Dirt Bike:

After having so much fun on a dirt bike, I decide to rent one of my own from
http://balibikerental.com/. Again, there were several companies that offered this, but this company seemed the best all around, and crucially, their rentals came with a gps/phone holder (this was immensely valuable).

This was my last full day in Bali and there were many things I hadn't seen nor done yet. The two that topped the list was the volcano on the island and snorkeling. So I wanted to tackle both. The volcano required a 1 or 2hr hike that I wasn't going to do, but I at least wanted to get close to it while still on paved road. And then north of the volcano, on the north shore of the island, there was a diving spot called Tulamben with a ship wreck I wanted to check out.

I ride for about an hour, get distracted by some rice terraces

ride for another 30 minutes, and finally see the volcano in the distance.

There's the volcano to the left, a lake to the right, and a road through the middle that reaches the ocean on the other side. I was gonna take that road.

As soon as I start down towards the basin of the crater, inclement weather hits. I mean rain. Massive. Freaking. Rain. And I get completely soaked, as does the ground.

As the rain drops fell into the mud puddles though, they produced some very beautiful droplets (I failed to get a pic of those).

I get through the basin, and start going uphill again on the other side of the basin. It gets really hilly going back up and really wet, and I drop the bike once while going slow. I was unscathed and so was the bike. Along the way I also see all these locals carrying baskets on their heads, waking on this steep foggy terrain. It was really beautiful.

Anyway, about 1 hr later, I finally make it out of that crater lake area and get to the dive spot. People said there's a shipwreck about 30 meters out, but I couldn't see shit.

But I parked the bike, rented snorkels and proceeded to find the shipwreck. I swim aimlessly alone, don't see any shipwreck, nor any other swimmers, and am about to give up and go back to shore, when a guy on a freakin stand up paddle board paddles by (of all things, a SUP, in the middle of the ocean.) He points me in the direction to continue, and I do. And I'm still swimming along looking down, when suddenly, it comes into view. Below me, a huge bow structure. It was huge, amazing, and eerie. (Sorry, no pics).

After snorkeling, it was about dark, and I needed to get back to my hostel in Ubud, but I didn't want to ride through the volcano area again so I decided to go around.

Long story short, my phone's GPS malfunctions (because I had tried to take it snorkeling in a plastic pouch and seawater got in), I get lost, I ask for directions in english and get responses in Indonesian, I have to refuel several times, I get dinner, I ride through twisty mountainous areas in the dark (something I didn't intend to do), I try to follow some scooters carrying passengers also riding through the mountain, but I can't keep up with them and they leave me in the dust (even though I'm on a faster bike), but eventually, I make it back alive and exhausted.

Day 3

Alright, last day in Bali, I wake up at 7, my flight's at 10:30, and I need to return the bike. Fortunately, the bike rental company said they can meet me at the airport to pick up the bike. I pack up my stuff and am running a bit late, as usual. Today I need to ride with a 10kg pack:

(Good thing I didn't listen to my mom who told me to get a roller luggage case with wheels. pffftttt. ALWAYS be able to have 2 free hands.)

I'm a little rushed because I was flying from Bali to Bangkok via Tiger Air (a Singaporean airline), and Singaporean airlines don't mess around. I know this first hand because the last time I flew on a Singaporean airline, it was midnight, there were no lines and no one else at the airport, and I arrived 50 minutes before my flight instead of 60 minutes that they demanded, and they wouldn't let me check in and I was forced to miss the flight.

But today, just as I make it to the airport, I see police checking for license and registration. I didn't have an international driver license, and I've heard many stories about how they fine people without an international license, but I super lucked out, because he looked at my California driver's license, we made small talk, I smiled, he smiled, and he let me go! I return the bike and make my flight. Woohoo!!!

Tips for Bali

Tips:

• Sunscreen will break the bank.
• It's 150,000 IDR (about $12 USD) per 100mg (~3 oz)
• Bring that stuff over in checked baggage if you have to. It'll save you money.
• You can live off $20/day ($10/night at a hostel that will give you free water, shower, and wif + $3/meal that will get you pretty full)
• But most places don't give you free water
• But you'll more likely spend at least $50 to $80/day even while on a budget because you have to:
• rent a surfboard everyday ($10/day)
• rent a scooter everyday ($5-ish/day)
• buy alcohol (infinite/day)
• buy sunscreen and this thing called Zinc, which is some sort of rub that you put on your skin to physically block the sun. You apply this after you apply sunscreen.
• Sunscreen, Zinc, Aloe Vera, are all 150,000 IDR per about 3 ounces.
• You can't fully explore and enjoy bali without a scooter
• Refrigeration rules don't seem to apply
• The $3 meals can be had at Warungs, where they cooked the food in batches and have them displayed in a non-refrigerated glass cabinet for the rest of the day
• You point at the things you want
• The food is usually not warm, so it's hard to guess how many hours they have been sitting there
• But if you're optimistic, you won't get diarrhea! (or else these shops won't exist)
• The picturesque waters and surf are in the south (that piece of land south of the airport)
• This piece of land is broken into 2 parts: Bukit peninsula (west part), and Nusa Dua (east part)
• In the Bukit Peninsula, you have Uluwatu, Padang padang, etc. Those are the waves on magazine covers. The water is clear and you can see the coral underneath you
• Nusa Dua includes beaches such as Pandawa
• North of the airport beaches such Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, and Cangu waters are all greenish and not clear, and most of the breaks are beach breaks, so direction of waves are hard to predict
• Avoid Kuta
• Kuta's main attraction is a sleazy street filled with bars and clubs and go-go dancers wearing heavy makeup
• Every few meters, you will get approached and peddled by locals offering you:
• taxi? (you say no)
• scooter? (you continue walking on, saying no, shaking your head)
• mushrooms? (he follows you and continue asking)
• massage? (you've stopped responding by now and continue to walk)
• girls? (he continues to ask)
• I'm not trying to blame the locals or peddlers. This is just a reality. The discrepancy between how wealthy the tourists are vs how impoverished the locals are is crazy
• I was haggling with one surf board rental shop, and it got to the point where I didn't want to rent from them because I wanted to see what my other options were first, but as I was walking away, he said, "but I'm hungry! We hungry. We need money. We need food.". He was slightly overweight, so I don't think he himself was starving. But I got the idea. He and his family needed money. But I just wanted to walk down the beach and see some other surfboard rental places, and I apologized as politely as I could, but as I continued walking away, he began cursing at me, and yelling "fuck you". This saddened me greatly.

South East Asia Traveling - Things I'm Realizing and Learning about Myself

I left a great job in order to go travel and "find myself". I've learned that traveling with the goal of figuring out what to do in the future is a stupid goal. Traveling is play. I didn't gain a clearer understanding for what I want to do for the future but I did realize some of the following:

• I am lucky beyond belief
• To be a US Citizen
• To have gone to college
• To have studied engineering and have an engineer's mindset
  I have met college graduates in Vietnam who turned into hotel receptionists because it makes better money. And they make $250/month and get 2 days off in the whole month (not week, month). And Vietnam is not the poorest nation in South East Asia. I have seen so many workers who look miserable at their job. So many workers who are physically and mentally tired of what they have to do. For example:
• Construction workers working in 102F, with no shirt no shoes, carrying bricks by hand
• Tour guides who have to put on a smile. There was one tour guide at Angkor Wat, accompanying our group watching a 6:21am sunrise. He has to get up at 4:30am every morning. Someone actually asked him, "this is nothing to you right, you see this every day", he said "my gosh, I have seen it over a thousand times."
• An female entertainer who look tired, baggy eyes, quite old, and walking with a bit of a limp, but still had to wear high heels and look pretty
• Surf instructor who has to go out 6 days a week to teach surfing in paradise Bali. Once again 102F everyday where being in the sun becomes an almost unbearable annoyance and being in the water makes you so thirsty and the ocean water isn't even refreshing because it's also 80F and you're actually sweating.
• Yet they have little choice. They have to do it. This is the best living they know of that they can make
• Traveling can get lonely
  People come and go in your life. You can make an amazing connection with someone for 2 hours talking about life and your deepest struggles and joys, but in the morning, that person would be off to the next city, but you only got here. And in fact, you realize that morning that the whole group that you hung out with the night before checked out of the hostel, and you're kinda alone. But that's ok.
• It's ok to have down time 
  You don't have to pack every minute with seeing something. It's ok to just be in your hostel or hotel room, by yourself, listening to music, blogging, reading, just as you would at home. I used to have a sense that every minute money is burning by because I'm not earning money and the flight, hotel room, food etc, all costs money, so I have to be doing something vacation related. That feeling is fine for a 2 week vacation (I used to have super packed 1 or 2 week vacations, see things in the day, party at night, no sleep). But I'm out here for several months. I will take it easy.
• Things aren't the way they seem
• The grass is always green on the other side
  The picturesque beach on the magazine cover looks so beautiful. When you get there, you realize it visually beautiful but physically feels like hell because it's 37 degrees hot with 80% humidity, and the water doesn't cool you off because it's 34 degrees.
• Partying is the same all over the world
  Alcohol, loud music, dancing, revealing skin, girls, and guys trying to get with the girls
• No FOMO
  Too many times I've experienced "this event sounds like it's gonna be awesome, I have to get there! It's gonna be so much fun!!!"No, I don't have to be there. It was just like the event I went to yesterday, or the week before that
• If it's too good to be true, it really is
  That $6/night room that said included AC online actually didn't include AC
• Don't trust a girl when she is too eager, approaches you first, or asks you out first, and you've known her less than a few hours (unless she is really is just there to party, but even then watch out)
• Local girls at bars who are nice to you are often prostitutes
• I don't deserve to travel for so long
  A few months into my traveling, it gnawed at me that I was traveling without meaning. I didn't know what I was traveling for. I also felt like I didn't deserve to travel for so long. I didn't just finish finals, graduate from school, or successfully launch a rocket. I wasn't celebrating. I hadn't worked hard to deserve this respite, and I wasn't working hard nor pursuing my ultimate dreams (although I sometimes contemplate it, my ultimate dream/goal in life is not to travel, because I think that would be silly/ridiculous/selfish/not-beneficial-to-mankind)
• I already overpacked
  The ideal pack would have been 30 liters (e.g. a Northface Recon day pack) to fit a laptop, 2 pairs of shirt/underwear/boardshorts, and 1 pair of pants in case you want to do something fancy. Forget the DSLR and use your $800 smartphone. I packed too much, and since I didn't want to carry dirty/smelly clothes, I frequently wash clothes in the shower. Most hostels have a clothes drying rack. If you have good boardshorts, you don't need underwear.
• The  discrepancy between rich and poor saddens me
  The locals are so poor. I was haggling with one surfboard renter and it got to the point where I didn't want to rent from them because I wanted to see what my other options were first, but as I was walking away, he said, "But I hungry! We hungry. We need money. For food. You first customer, good luck for day, rent please." He was slightly overweight, so I don't think he himself was starving. But I got the idea. He and his family needed money. But I didn't want to get ripped off, and I just wanted to walk down the beach and see some other surfboard rental places and surf spots, and I apologized as politely as I could, but as I continued walking away, he began cursing at me and yelling "Fuck. Fuck you. Fuck you!!" This saddened me greatly.
• I'm not rich enough to live lavishly
  It bothers me too much when I spend a lot of money. I usually stayed at places there were $10/night. For 3 nights, I stayed at a $55/night place. The place was jaw droppingly beautiful. You can see the stars at night with an ocean view. But it bothered me that money was burning by. The place had a very smart system where you don't pay for items individually, but you just have a tab that you pay when you check out (But the place didn't even give free drinking water)
• Being white makes you a god, but also makes you stick out
  Not politically correct, but quite true in South East Asia. I'm not white, but if you are, you will probably be a foot taller than everyone in South East Asia, and looked upon as gods or aliens, especially in less developed nations like Indonesia. I was walking through Jakarta (capital of Indonesia, population 9.6 million) with a few other caucasian travelers, and we kept getting swarmed by locals wanting to take pictures of us. And by us, I mean my traveler buddies. As in, the locals grabbed my white traveler buddies and took them aside to a take a picture with them and gave me the camera and asked me to take the picture, because I'm not white, I look somewhat like the locals, and therefore I'm not special. But this also helped me evade getting pulled over while on a motorcycle because I blended in more. (While white tourists in Bali frequently got pulled over and charged for not having an Indonesian license)
• I am racist
  In Southeast Asia, many resorts and hostels have white/caucasian owners, 1 or 2 caucasian staff as managers, and locals (asians) making up the rest of the staff. Everyone is happy and smiling on the outside. Everyone is probably smiling on the inside too because in fact, the locals working at these kind of resorts are sometimes paid much more than what they can make in other jobs because the owners are generous and kind to workers, and all of that is great, but it's just kind of sad to see that the non-locals of the country have bought land, created resorts to attract other non-locals, and the locals are the ones doing the heavy lifting. Being asian american, it made me think of this: http://www.npr.org/2015/05/17/407478606/often-employees-rarely-ceos-challenges-asian-americans-face-in-tech
  I saw an argument break out between the white owner of a resort and an asian surf instructor. That surf instructor was usually always very confident, joking, and outgoing, but in that argument, he was not. It was sad to see this side of him. I almost wanted to tell him "hey, I'm just like you, a minority in the white man's world".
  It's not that I dislike one race over another, it's more that maybe I'm jealous, and I sometimes wish that I wasn't who I was. That the color of my skin was white instead of yellow. It's very defeatist and victimizing to feel this way, and I usually don't
• The road less taken is not always the best
  There is a reason the road more taken is more taken. Throughout the past few years I've been changing my life from being risk averse to more risk tolerant, with the thought that since I eventually want to become an entrepreneur, I should become more comfortable with risks of all kinds - from illegal u-turns when no-one-is-looking to motorcycle riding without the proper motorcycle license in a 3rd world country that doesn't have good hospitals and is known for crazy traffic. But that kind of risk taking has high costs, low reward, and does not translate to entrepreneurship, which requires smart, calculated risk taking. For a large chunk of my life now, I've pursued "interesting" instead of the "normal" almost as if because I want a good story to tell, but what's interesting may not always be what's necessary, nor right, nor best, especially in areas that might not be worth it. I don't need to jump off that 15 meter cliff anymore to prove to myself that I am a risk taker. I've jumped off the 10 meter one and it was enough. I'm going to save my risks for when the rewards are higher
• I don't like anthropology or ethnology museums, but I do like war museums
  I don't want to learn about the daily basket-weaving life of 40 different tribes that now make up 5 percent of the population and how their baskets were different from each other. I need more action. I'd rather learn about how the US prevented a general election in Vietnam that pissed off north Vietnam and caused it to invade South Vietnam to start the Vietnam war, and how the US prolonged it to last 20 years at the cost of the lives of 58,000 American troops, but about 2 million asians, only for the US to quit, give up, leave, and lose the war, even though it never lost a major battle
• I'd rather experience and participate than watch
• This was the case for watching TV back home - I didn't follow sports because I was too lazy and too self-focused that I'd rather make meeble attempts to experience and play the sport myself than watch someone else
• I realize that the same goes for watching temples and historical ruins - I get more satisfaction from surfing, riding a motorcycle, bicycling, or rock climbing. And all the better if there was an amazing view associated with it. But if all there was was an amazing view or temple or ruin and I didn't do anything to reach it, then I'm not as satisfied, and the view does not wow me as much, and since I have seen so much of it now, it does not wow me anymore
• Traveling expedites some aspects of life, and joy, and pain
• The spring fling that taught me to be more careful that included all the stages from starry eyes, to intimacy, to arguments, to breakup, to tears, that occurred over two weeks that would normally have taken 6 months
• The becoming proficient at riding a proper 650cc motorcycle that I thought I would eventually get around to back in the US over a decade or so
• The getting better at surfing because I surfed 10 days in a row but back home I was only surfing once or twice a week

South East Asia Vacation Planning

Vacation planning for 3 months in Asia

Goals for vacation:

1. Surf: Get barreled, learn how to do turns and cutbacks
2. Visit the following countries/places: 
• Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Mongolia
• Areas of China I've never seen before: Yunan, Tibet, Chongqing, Urumuqi
• Basically start south in Indonesia and trek northward, eventually ending up in Tibet, then maybe even Mongolia
3. Stop by Shanghai on the way in and on the way out of Asia to see grandparents
4. Keep total expenditures under $10k, including flight, immunization, everything
5. Continue to work towards my other new year's resolutions

The rest of this post is broken into 3 sections: Pre-travel, Gear, Itinerary.

Gear
I must have regrettably spent over 40 hours on researching and buying the following gear. Analysis lead to paralysis. I had some ridiculous requirements for each gear (that good ol' product development and system engineering mindset). But in the end, I'm very happy with what I've picked. I cared heavily about weight, especially because some airlines like Air Asia only allowed for 7kg carry ons. Every ounce mattered.

Waterproof cellphone case requirements:
I plan on surfing, but a lot of surf spots are not near hostels. So I plan on carrying a phone and cash with me for directions and surfboard rentals and then just surf with the phone on me in case the place didn't have lockers.

• Find a pouch/case to allow me to surf with the phone in my board short pockets
• I thought about using an armband attachment, but was concerned about this because the armband can get ripped off by a strong wipe out. So my goal remained to keep the phone in the pocket.
• Roll top pouch instead of plastic top pouch. The plastic seal can break or get crushed or cracked if hit the board.

I ended up getting the Crenova BP-02 that has a roll over velcro enclosure system.
The MOKO IPX8 certified case was runner up, but I was concerned about the plastic top part breaking in case it got crushed between my hip and the surfboard.
I was also consider ALOKSAK (glorified zip lock bags), but I thought nah forget it, yo, holmes to Bel Air.

Update:
The Crenova phone case arrived and I didn't like how it just had snap on buttons on the top (3 ziplocks that roll over each other and then a flap with 2 snap on buttons to close the roll).
Being a paranoid person without a day job, I spent 3 more hours looking at waterproof phone pouches and then bought the DiCAPac, which uses velcro (a single ziplock that rolls and gets held in place with two velcro sections.)
The DiCAPac also came in different colors, and that embarked a google-fest of what was the most visible color underwater for fear that I would drop the phone and it sinks to the bottom. I came upon a few interesting articles explaining how water basically absorbs light in the ROYGBIV order. So a few feet underwater, red will appear as black, then a few more feet, orange will appear as black, etc. The exception being if the color was fluorescent (gives off light, aka glow in the dark).
Articles about color visibility underwater:
http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/underwater-photography-lighting-fundamentals
http://www.deep-six.com/page77.htm -If a diver is bleeding at 60', where there is no red light, the diver bleeds a greenish-black blood
But then this wikipedica article quoted a study that said the most visible non-flourescent color was usually yellow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_vision
In hindsight, the phone case I bought floats. I didn't need to do all that research about visible colors underwater. Damn.

Portable charger requirements:
I had a devastatingly hard time deciding how big of a charger to get. At first I thought I'd try to match one that is the weight of the Kindle Paperwhite since I had decided to forego taking a Kindle (7.6oz), but I realize that's actually too heavy for day-to-day pocket carry. My phone is 5.71oz and I decided I didn't want anything heavier than my phone in the other pocket.

• USB port on top
• 2A output at least
• 2A input at least for faster recharging (I saw one company has a 4A input, but the battery was huge)
• Preferably includes a built-in usb cable
• Curved edges and pockets (so they don't poke holes in my pockets when I do a backflip) 
• No bigger or that my phone. To keep things in perspective, my 5.5" phone:
• Dimensions 152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9 mm (6.02 x 2.99 x 0.35 in)
• Weight 162 g (5.71 oz)

I had a hard time deciding between:
EasyAcc 6000mAh (which was featured on Wirecutter) and Anker PowerCore 10000 Portable Charger, The Smallest and Lightest 10000mAh External Battery. I bought one, then canceled it, then bought the other, then bought the first one again. So I bought both. FML.

Packable daypack requirements:I wanted something smaller than my 44L backpack to use for a second pack

• Packable
• Max 16oz weight, preferably half of that
• Chest sternum strap
• Side mesh pockets with tightener, or at least carabiner attachment to attach Nalgene bottle to carabiner
• Laptop sleeve inside

I had a difficult time deciding between L.L. Bean Stowaway Daypack and Gonex Lightweight Packable Backpack Hiking Daypack Upgraded Version 30L.
I ended up with the Gonex because it was a few ounces lighter. I got it, and found out the side mesh pocket couldn't fit a Nalgene bottle. Damn.


Waterproof dry bag requirements:
I'll be trekking during rainy seasons, so I wanted a dry bag to keep my laptop dry, but I also wanted to be able to use it as a daypack (I know, scope creep and redundant requirements with the packable daypack, no bueno).

• Two removable straps (so I can stuff into my backup, can carry as duffel, or use a backpack)
• Zip pocket for easy access to stuff
• Packable
• Side mesh pocket to hold water bottle
• Less than 1.5lbs
• Compression valve, or eVent or eVac material so that you can compress the air out of the bag but still ensures water-proofness (it turns out this is what separates the average bags from the bugie/expensive/elite bags)

It was impossible to find something that met all of the above. I ended up getting Mava sports 15L. No compression feature, but that's ok. We'll see how well it holds up.

Board shorts with zipper pockets
I didn't have any boardshorts with zipper pockets big enough to hold my phone. They only had velcro pockets. Luckily, I was trying to use up a North Face gift card from a gift my old college roommates gave me (thanks guys!), so I hit up TNF store and ended up getting the Washoe shorts. These were the most expensive shorts I have bought in my life. I didn't go to TNF store with the intention of using the gift card on shorts, but that's just what happened.

Pre-Travel Financials, Insurance, Etc.
Debit card for no foreign ATM fees to get cash:

I opened a Charles Schwab account. After comparing ING (now Capital One), Ally, Simple bank, and other no foreign ATM fee debit cards I could think of, Charles Schwab seemed to be the best. I don't want to walk around with thousands of bahts or millions of rupiah on me. (USD to IDR is 1 to 13070?!)

Cellphone:
A co-worker told me about T-Mobile's Simple Plan that has unlimited text and data in 140+ countries ($65/mo+tax for 6GB LTE data). I googled around and it was indeed the best thing I could find. Out of the places I was going, it covered China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia (no Mongolia nor Vietnam), but good enough. I'd like to avoid having to get local SIM cards at every country.

Car:
I will miss the rumble of her boxer engine.
I'll be trading it for the roars of crashing waves on a foreign ocean.
From what I read on some blogs about storing a car:

• Overinflate the tires
• Use tire blocks instead of the hand brake
• Moisture absorbing crystals in the cabin to prevent mold/mildew growth (home depot)
• Fill the tank full to prevent condensation
• Add fuel stabilizer to the tank

Immunization:
I got vaccinated for:

• Tdp: Tenatus booster
• Hep-A: requires 2 shots, 6 months apart. 1 shot provides 6 to 8 months of immunity, and the second shot provides 20+ years
• Typhoid fever - Can be taken as 1 shot that provides 2 years of immunity, or 4 separate pill to be taken every other day
• Malaria: After googling around, I decided not to get malaria pills.

• China:
• Present year round in rural parts of Yunnan Province, primarily in the counties along the China-Burma (Myanmar) border. Limited transmission in rural areas of Anhui, Hubei, Guangxi, and Motuo county in Tibet.
• Some major river cruises may go through malaria endemic areas in Anhui and Hubei Provinces.
• Bali, Indonesia:
• None in the cities of Jakarta,  and Ubud, or resort areas of Bali and Java, and Gili Islands, and the Thousand Islands (Pulau Seribu).
• http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/country_table/i.html
• Thailand:
• Rare to few cases in other parts of Thailand including the cities of Bangkok, Chang Mai, Chang Rai, Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, and Phuket.  None in the islands of Krabi Province (Koh Phi Phi, Koh Yao Noi, Koh Yao Yai, and Ko Lanta) and  Pattaya City.
• http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/country_table/t.html
• Cambodia
• Present throughout the country including Siem Reap city. None in the city of Phnom Penh and the temple complex at Angkor Wat.
• http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/country_table/c.html
• Vietnam
• Rural areas only. Rare cases in the Mekong Delta.  None in in Da Nang, Haiphong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Nha Trang, Qui Nhon, and the Red River Delta.
• http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/country_table/v.html
• Mongolia:
• None
• Dengue fever
• No vaccines exist.
• Sweet! So I don't have to worry about it! (JK, bathe thyself in mosquito repellent)

Travel insurance requirements:

• Allow for surfing
• Allow for riding a motorcycle
• Have emergency evacuation
• Cover Theft and loss of personal belongings
• Prefer to cover:
• Diving
• Renting a car

After many hours of reading and forgetting what I read about different insurance policies, I went with: TBD (still trying to decide on this)

Itinerary
Achieving the goal of surfing required more thought because I need to take into account rainy seasons and wave size. (And even freaking El Nino)

Best surfing places in SE Asia that I'd want to visit:

1. Bali, Indonesia

2. Phuket, Thailand

3. Vung Tau, Vietnam (near Ho Chi Minh)

3. Da Nang, Vietnam (probably not, because it's a bit too far from Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi)

Things I'm concerned about: internet availability, rainy season and wave size, El Nino's affect, religion, year round temp, water availability, food/meal cost, hostel cost, surf cost, ocean bottom type.

I decided on doing the following:
Shanghai - 2 weeks
Kuala Lumpur - 1 day, 15 hour layover (because I've already been there for 1 day layover previous)
Jakarta - 2 days
Bali - 10 days
Chiang Mai - 8 days (For a frisbee tournament, and then this water fight national holiday festival)
Rest of Thailand - 10 days ish
Cambodia - 1 week
Vietnam  -  2 weeks
China - 2 weeks (Tibet and the western part)
Then back to Shanghai (for another frisbee tournament)

So I'm basically going all the way south to Bali, my southernmost destination, and the trekking up.

Some things I'm noticing: I don't need to stay very long at any place and I get bored quickly

Searching for Places to Stay
The way I book hostels is to look on Trip Advisor for the map view of top things to do, and then book hostel locations near those things.
Like this: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g293917-Activities-Chiang_Mai.html#MAPVIEW

Then I will do more googling for specifics, such as the fact that in Chiang Mai, the food stalls aren't everywhere, but mainly near the North and South gates, which I learned from this guy's blog:
https://levels.io/moving-to-chiang-mai/
This Levels guy is basically my role model of a traveler/hacker.

And sometimes, I'll get lucky and realize I'll be in Chiang Mai for their biggest holiday, and I'll do more specific googling and find more details, such as the following:
http://songkranday.com/songkran-chiang-mai-2016-water-festival-in-chiang-mai-2016/

I found this planning and preparation part to be agonizing because:
1) I'm a little paranoid
2) I can be very detail oriented
3) I hate shopping around because it sucks all my energy. Feels like I just did 200 SWOT analysis on travel gear

I don't need a Kindle, just a portable charger

Why I thought I needed a Kindle:

• I will be traveling to places without internet access
• I want to inhale books
• I want to travel as light as possible
• Kindles are so COOL

Amazon's Kindle claims 6 weeks of battery on one charge based on an average of HALF AN HOUR OF READING A DAY at a brightness of 10. That's 21 hours on screen on time (SOT).

My current One Plus One phone (OPO), gives about 6 hours of on screen time on a single charge. (3100 mAh battery size).

Instead of shelling out $190 for a Kindle Paperwhite 3G, I'll buy a portable battery charger for $30 (e.g. a beefy 16800 mAh one). This about quintuples my 3100 mAh cell phone battery and bumps it up to 30 hours of screen on time. And I needed to get a portable charger anyways.

And all that stuff about e-ink and better for sleeping after reading? Whatever, I'll be sleeping in cots on farms.

Ultimately, this thought won out the above thoughts:

• I want to be as minimalistic as possible

I had a hard time deciding how big of a charger to get. This post how I eventually decided on the charger to get.


Portable chargers I was thinking of:

ZILU 16800mAh Portable Charger

http://amzn.com/B00K64WR9C

HyperGear 16000mAh

http://amzn.com/B0188WLTI8