Yosemite

So I went to Yosemite for the first time in a very long time earlier this year. It was quite gorgeous, with snow still pretty thick in some parts. This was back in April of this year. Waterfalls were plentiful, unlike the last time I visited as a kid... when California was in severe drought and there were no waterfalls! Here are some pictures.

This is me by the river. I have no idea what river that is but it was a pretty site!

See what I mean about the snow? It was quite beautiful when the sun was shining with the snow still on the ground.

That's me and my parents by the O'Shaughnessy Dam.

This tree was just so weird, I had to take a picture...

And a picture that captures the El Capitan, the Half Dome, and the Bridalveil Waterfall.

A deer!!!
So we went to see some really tall trees at Mariposa Grove. Unfortunately, it was way too cold (and too snowed in) for us to hike the trail but I took some pictures of the tall trees. I look like an ant in front of this tree.
The path for Mariposa Grove...
A random picture I decided to take while walking through Yosemite. It was a gorgeous day, and trees seemed taller than ever.
And finally, theYosemite waterfalls. The big one and the little one.

WebOS Not So Unpopular as HP Thought

So it turns out today, HP's Touchpad, which runs on Palm's WebOS, went on fire sale price of $99 for 16 gb and $149 for 32 gb. What happened? HP website and every major retailers are posting that they are out of stock of HP's Touchpad. It turns out that there was a demand for the "dead" Palm's WebOS operating system. Although Apple's iPad is ruling the tablet world right now, this apparently shows that there is demand for other tablets if they are priced right. It's an amazing testament that the demand for a discontinued product was so high that Touchpad sold out in less than 24 hours pretty much everywhere you go. But maybe the demand would still be there if the Touchpad was placed at $200-300 range initially, and HP kept making them. It seems that people who either (1) want alternative to Apple's iPad or (2) can't afford to pay $500 for a tablet would be willing to buy an alternative.

It's a shame that HP couldn't see that before deciding to kill Touchpad altogether. Maybe today's result may lead to change in HP's thinking... or, more likely, it may lead to change in the rest of the tablet makers if they want to gain an edge over Apple's iPad.

Choi Sung Bong -- Korea's Got Talent Story

I received an email with forward of a Youtube link of the performance of Choi Sung Bong. He performed to get in "Korea's Got Talent" show -- and it's the story of Cinderella. He grew up homeless and found comfort in music. The Youtube video went viral, and quite a few (maybe a little more than few) saw his audition performance.

If you didn't see it, then here's the Youtube video of his audition performance.

It appears that he also made it through the semi-final. This is an article on his story and some excerpt of his interview.

And this is his semi-final performance.

And this is another video with English subtitle. In case you wanted to understand what they were saying...

Growing Up...

So I took a little hiatus from blogging, what with some personal stuff I had to go through. The hiatus gave me time to reflect, which might be what the federal government and S&P might also want to do.

Throughout the debt ceiling debate between Congress, the White House, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Tea-Party, and whoever else, there was only really one strong consensus from the American public. Stop with the political rhetoric and posturing and do the job. The bitter battle of words didn't interest the public. Knowing that the government will do the job did.

However bitter and long it took, at least the government actually passed something in time. (Well, then Congress immediately took off for a 6 week vacation, promising to work on jobs, and leaving FAA workers high and dry, which can be another post in itself)

In the meantime, S&P apparently was also disgusted by the government's failure to act in unity. So much so that S&P took it upon themselves to ignore the $2 trillion math error and that the U.S.A.'s debt ratio to GDP is on par with other AAA graded sovereign nations and downgraded the United States of America's credit rating has to be downgraded. Maybe it's not actually disgust but more political posturing on S&P's part as well. And maybe it's a bit more than all that according to this article but that's how I end up summing it.

I can't help but think that all of this reminds me of kids in the playground. You know, the screaming match of "it's mine, it's mine, I'm right, you're wrong" "ha ha I fooled you"... except by folks whose actions reach beyond a kid's playground.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream once -- and that dream came true. And I too now have a dream. I have a dream that one day, politicians and people who make major economic decisions will act for the good of the American people and not their parties or lobbyists. I have a dream that one day actions of such people will move Americans to sing praises for the unselfish work they did for the American public instead of taking vows to elect them all out. I hope I get to see that dream realized.