The green light has been given from the steering committee for our project’s ‘go-live’. (The last of the dragons have been slayed). So now the wheels are set in motion to move everything up from the Quality System into the Production System. That means all of our project’s extracted and converted data sets, additional system configuration table settings, program codes and user log-ins will be added into the live system. Our project will add three more nuclear power stations to the three already in the system, for a total of 6 stations altogether.
Monday/ happy 喜 and double-happy 囍
There’s happiness 喜 (xǐ), and then there is double happiness 囍(also xǐ) !
The ‘double happiness’ term is really used in writing and especially used in connotation with marriage, as shown on this candy gift that each of us got from a colleague that is getting married soon. The heart-shaped modification of the bottoms of the happiness characters is artistic interpretation, of course. And I cannot quite find out for sure how old the use of the heart ♥ symbol is. Its uses started in Europe.
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Japan One Year After 3.11
Sunday on Japan’s NHK World TV was dedicated to extensive coverage of the first anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 last year. It made for a somber day to watch some of it. Isn’t the first anniversary is the most celebrated for happy events, and the most traumatic for disasters? (Yes). As for the nuclear industry there, the situation of running only 2 nuclear reactors out of 54 is unsustainable. It is costing utility companies billions of dollars to import gas, oil or coal to burn to make up the lost electricity, and they have not yet been allowed by the government to raise rates for consumers.
Here is the link for the interactive Fukushima radiation map (last picture). http://jciv.iidj.net/map/fukushima/, a compilation of readings done on 6 and 7 July 2011. I couldn’t immediately find a more recent update on-line.
Saturday/ red or green Wanglaoji
Saturday was cold and rainy, so I felt better about having to knuckle down and work .. and drink my beverages that I got from the grocery store across the street. The sweetened Wanglaoji herbal tea (red can) rivals Coca- Cola in popularity in mainland China. I think the green Wanglaoji version is a new flavor since I had not seen it before. It’s certainly new to me : you go whoa! what are those flavors in there? Well – it’s lotus seed and mungo bean, buster ! And of course I had to look both up on Wikipedia to see that they look like.
Friday/ who let the dragons out?
We’re in the final testing phase of our SAP project, and some ‘dragons’ have emerged that have to be slayed. One can even find – as we are – that standard SAP transactions are not working as expected. It all depends on the volume and combination of data that had been converted and the system settings and resources that have been put into place. So it pays to be paranoid when testing software*.
Test it again even if it was tested before (in a previous phase of the project), even if it’s out-of-the-box functionality from a top-notch vendor and even if you ‘think’ it will work. Of course, no project has infinite resources, so you have to apply what time and personnel you do have, as best you can !
*I am thinking of the Andy Groves quote ‘only the paranoid survive’. Grove was CEO of Intel from 1987 to 1998 and a pioneering figure in transforming the company into a giant. He insisted that people (working together) be demanding on one another, and is said to have been an idol of the late Steve Jobs from Apple.
Thursday/ baijiu boxes
I like to check out the baijiu* packaging in the grocery stores here. Some are downright spectacular. And at 50% alcohol I am sure one soon starts to experience the fantasy worlds depicted on the boxes that the liquor is presented in.
*clear white liquor drink typically distilled from rice (southern China) or sorghum (northern China)
Wednesday/ oranges and little yellow mangoes
There is a wonderful fruit market here at the local shopping center at work. The oranges on the left are sweet and seedless. The little yellow fruit on the right are mangoes, but I’m not sure of the cultivar name. There are hundreds, says Wikipedia. The little ones have the same tough skin, and taste the same as the bigger, rounder ones that have a red ‘blush’ .. that wild tropical mango taste. I have never quite grown fond of the way mangoes taste, though. Maybe I just have not eaten enough of them to appreciate them!
‘Super Tuesday’ in the USA
Tuesday is long gone in here in China (it’s 1.00pm Wednesday) – and almost gone in the USA. But the politicos at politico.com are posting up-to-the-minute tallies of the precincts in the outcome of the Republican primaries in the ten states of ‘Super Tuesday’. Wikipedia says the phrase Super Tuesday goes back at least to 1976 in US presidential primary elections. Right now the state of Ohio is most closely watched, where it’s a neck-and-neck race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. 
Monday/ tracking cyclone Irina
Cycle Irina is churning off the South African coast and likely to remain over open water between Maputo and Richards Bay for the next 24 hours, says a weather report. So it makes for very rough seas and a marine storm surge on the coast. Currently : Wind: 55 MPH — Location: -29.4S 34.5E — Movement: S
Check out the Google Earth tracking map with this link to www.wunderground.com. 
Sunday/ a flat fish for dinner
My colleague and I ordered fish for dinner at a restaurant here. A good bet is always one of the flat white fishes. They are quick to cook – you pick one from the fish tanks outside! And the bones stay in one piece. We are not sure if it’s a kind of flounder, or maybe a sole. The fish is very white inside when cooked, and it is served up with a sesame oil-soy sauce and a garnish of spring onion. Very tasty.
Saturday/ Tokyo to bid for 2020 Games
Tokyo is making a bid for the 2020 Olympics, and there was a section about it on NHK TV. They hosted in 1964 and will be able to use some of the facilities after upgrading it – such as increasing the capacity of the 54,000-seat National Stadium to 80,000 seats.
Which other cities are putting in a bid? Here are all of them. Baku and Doha are certainly not as well known as the other three! Rome withdrew its bid after the government dropped its support, citing the financial difficulties of Italy and that the money is needed elsewhere.
Friday/ Kleine Zalze pinotage with dinner
Three of us went to the Dameisha Sheraton for dinner, but this time in the Italian restaurant instead of in the lobby downstairs. And what wine did we have? A pinotage from the doorstep of my South African homestead Stellenbosch where I was a student, and lived for some time later on. Pinotage is probably South Africa’s signature red grape, around since 1925. Even so, some South African winemakers will not have it in their vineyards. Says Wikipedia : ‘A common complaint is the tendency to develop isoamyl acetate during winemaking which leads to a sweet pungency that often smells like paint’. Ouch.
Thursday/ the horn means there’s fog
This morning the air was foggy and the streets were soggy. I knew about the fog Thursday morning even before I rolled out of bed. A fog horn that must be close by on the coast sounded a few times in the night. Fog horns emit sounds at around 50 Hz, and humans can hear sounds between 20 Hz and at most 20 kHz. (Check out the cool animated picture of a sound wave that I found on line). And my research also found that blue whales can hear sounds as low as 5 Hz, while on the opposite end there is the Jamaican fruit bat, that can pick up ultrasound squeaks pitched at 130 kHz. Whoah Mr Bat! What fine ears you have!
Wednesday/ stop-over at Incheon airport
(It’s actually early Thursday in the hotel in Dameisha). The pictures are all from the flight to Incheon airport in Seoul, and at the airport itself. Good news from North Korea is the announcement that the NK government has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile tests, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities.
Tuesday/ at Sea-Tac airport
I made it through security and now I’m waiting for my flight to Seoul. It looks like our flying machine is an Airbus A330-300. It’s 11 hrs to Incheon airport and then 4 hrs to Hong Kong for a late Wednesday night arrival. So the rest of my Tuesday is about to disappear in thin air and I will have to catch the outcome of the Michigan Republican primary election on the other side!
Monday/ packing up
I’m packing my bags for one more trip on Asiana Airlines to Hong Kong via South Korea’s Incheon airport (outside Seoul). Incheon airport was constructed over water about 1-3 meters (3 to 10 feet) deep. These types of airports are inevitably subject to some subsistence. Incheon’s is expected to be about 2.5 cm (1 inch) over the next 20 years. Hong Kong’s airport appears to be the best-engineered marine platform in the world and had hardly budged since 1998. Then there is Japan’s Kansai airport built over the sea 5 km off Osaka at a depth of 17-18 meters (56 to 59 feet). The world’s longest 2-tiered bridge connects it to the city nearby. It sinks 2 to 4 cm 
in any given year, so in 20 years’ time, it may sink 40 to 80 cm (16 to 33 inches). Yikes! .. however, the soil engineers from Osaka University are confident it will not sink completely into the ocean.
Sunday/ The Artist has it
So what’s (really) old in film is new again with the 2011 silent French romantic comedy drama film The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, that took the Best Film award at this year’s Oscars. (The film already has a Golden Globe award and a French César Award). I read on-line that 80% of silent movies were destroyed when modern sound film (the ‘talkies’) started to take over in 1929.
Saturday/ 2012 Lunar New Year ‘forever’ stamps
I got some 2012 Lunar New Year stamps for my collection. The US Postal Service issued them as ‘forever’ stamps. Forever means there is no explicit price on (so the price can go up forever?). First Class postage might soon go from 45c to 50c .. so in theory, investors can make 11% overnight by buying a ton of stamps at 45c before the price goes up. (A little difficult to quickly dispose of the little paper investments).
On Thursday the USPS announced that it plans to shut 223 of its 461 mail-processing plants by February 2013. Maybe I should have mailed that property tax check after all ! The agency has gotten rid of about 140,000 jobs in the last five years, mainly through attrition, but still had about 650,000 workers at the end of 2011.
Friday/ King County property taxes
I braved the steady rain yesterday to go downtown and pay my property taxes. (I’m not putting a check for several thousand dollars in the mail!). The offices on 500 Fourth Ave have a diamond pattern on the exterior. And where does my money go? Only 17 cents on the dollar go to the county, and 50 cents to schools. Where in the country would property taxes be the highest? Westchester county in New York State. On this side of the country on the west coast it is Marin County in the San Francisco Bay area. The artwork is from a construction site close by. That must be an Ursus arctos horribilis (grizzly bear) with the American buffaloes (bison), but the curly clouds and background images are definitely Asian.
Thursday/ some ‘panda burger’ for you?
The Singha beer is from the Jamjuree restaurant where my friends and I had some wonderful Thai food Thu night. The the ‘panda burgers’ are from Wednesday night’s Jay Leno Show. The prankster offered the product to people on the street (supposedly from a small area in China where it was legal to hunt them!). The first two passers-by just said ‘Sure! I’ll take a bite‘ and ‘Pretty good!’ . Finally a young woman said ‘Are these really panda burgers?’. But she was a sport and tasted the burger as well. Aww. Leave the panda bears alone. See how cute they are on the card from the World Wildlife Fund?
