Swiftcurrent Reflections

What does one do when they are in Korea for Buddha’s brithday? First, you must get up and get some coffee at your favorite coffee chain

Next, you head over to the temple. Make sure you take off your shoes, and remember where you put them

Then listen to some music while you get your prayer on

After you are on the level with Buddha, you might as well check out the traditional lantern exhibition, as it is right there at the temple

More photos and videos here.

This is year 9. Meg and I fly over to Boise for my 9th Race to Robie Creek. Training has been okay, but I was sick on Monday, so that certainly didn’t help. We’ll see how that effects my time. Plus, I’m not getting any younger….

It will be good to see Michael and his family. This year will be a bit different with the absence of Mark. He’s usually the get-sick-right-before-Robie guy, so I guess I had to take up that mantel…

At the Blue Pool and the McKenzie River Trail

For my last weekend of freedom, Kevin and I went and rode the McKenzie River Trail, then camped near Deer Creek hot springs. Great fun!

Returning home, however, was not so fun: broken water main…

- Pictures
- Route

Kevin, Meg, Yvette, and Eric on the way into the Goat Rock Wilderness

Our friend Eric has gone backpacking in the Goat Rock Wilderness for the past 15 years. This year we were around when the invite went out and were able to join. I know it’s been awhile since the last time I strapped a pack on. It was great to get out there again.

Looking back on the way to Goat Rock Lake

The area was beautiful. Due North of Mt. Adams, it had great views of both Adams and St. Helens. With the high snow pack the area got last winter, we still had to cross some snow banks to get up to the camp site. A bonus, however, was water flowing right by the campsite, which was both beautiful and convenient for cooking. Our day trip the next day up to Goat Rock Lake, a high alpine lake, was on snow about 50% of the time, a lot of that on traverses. Need to get out there more…

More of my photos here.
Meg’s photos here.
Kevin’s photos here.
Eric’s photos here.

Laying low at the campsite

I’m back in the international travel game. Some things have changed. For one, there is someone waiting for me back at home, which is both nice to know, and makes it more difficult to be away. As I didn’t travel much last year, I lost my privileges on United. Need to get those back.

I’m here as my company has a presence (that’s what it’s called to have a both at a show. A presence.) at Computex. Where CES in Las Vegas is a show about stuff consumers can buy (DVD players, Computers, Stereos, etc.), Computex is a trade show about the stuff that goes inside of all of those things.

So what do I do? Work the booth. That involves a lot of standing. potential customers that might want to use are part come in, and we try to persuade them that yes, they do need our parts. When we get a break from booth duty, it off to roam the floor looking for what our competitors are up to and getting a feel for the market.

On a more enjoyable note, I also got to see my old friend Jim. He’s still with Pixelworks and living in Taipei. It’s been awhile, so it was great to catch up with him.

Update: I went over to Jim’s house on Sunday night. Annie made some great dumplings for dinner and I got to play with the adorable MiMi. Pictures added to the gallery.

Me, part of the herd

This is the seventh time I have put myself through the pain of Robie Creek. I did a new heart rate based training this year and ran considerably more for training than any other year. How did I do? Not so well. Several minutes behind what I wanted. I’m just happy I don’t have to run anymore.

It was fun to go to Boise with Meg and hang with Mark, Michael, and Jennifer. The weather was very un-Boise like on Sunday so the normal mountain bike ride was called off, but we managed to stay out of the outlet malls…

Meg’s Photos. She took a lot more than I did.
My Photos.
My GPS data from the run

Little dew drops

So, this post is a little stale. Meg and I headed out to the coast for a relaxing weekend at a B&B near the coast called Sand Lake Country Inn. We kept the weekend low key. A short hike to Munson Falls was our physical activity. For mental stimulus, we stopped by the Evergreen Aviation Museum. While there, we even got to talk to a B-17 ball turret vet who lived to tell the tale. Very cool!

My Photos.
Meg’s Photos.