I have finally identified the critter shown below, which I initially couldn't. It is nudibranch, not a sea worm. It has a scientific name of Pteraeolidia ianthina but also referred to as "the Blue Dragon by divers in Eastern Australia." For more details read here.

9/10/2006 10:36:22 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Scuba Diving

What do you get when you combine traditional tango and with the contemporary electronic sound and house beats? The answer my friend is the music of the Paris-based Gotan Project. Even the group's name reflects their deep Tango roots. The word "Gotan" is rearranged from the word "Tango" - actually according to Wikipedia, the name is the result of an popular Argentinean wordplay involving the reversal of syllables.

I really like Gotan Project's concept of fusing the more traditional Latin music and sometimes jazz with electronica. I am captivated by their elegant use of the accordion and vocals in many of their hits. Despite its immediate appeal to chic listeners, the music of Gotan Project is much broader than you think. World music lovers will certainly be attracted to the group's authentic tango tones. Even if you are not a fan of tango, Gotan Project's music will still appease. Most of their hits are soothing enough to be used as excellent background music. Of course, you will look hip by playing their music.

Ever since I was exposed to Gotan Project music from a chill out music compilation CD, I had been looking to acquire more of the trio's music. I was absolutely elated on Monday to find that all three of their albums are available for download from eMusic. I paid $10 for the three albums and still have enough credits to download other music. The songs are in MP3 VBR format (near CD quality) and can be played with impunity on any digital media devices. You can purchase the music from Gotan Project here. Since I am now a big fan of Gotan Project, I still plan to buy their CDs as they all come with bonus materials (like extra tracks or CDs).

I highly recommend all three Gotan Project's album. Both the debut album, La Revancha del Tango and their latest release, Lunatico are the best while Inspiracion-Espiracion Remix is the weaker of the three. Happy chilling.

9/6/2006 1:20:37 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

Music

I first heard from Siobhan, then from Brian. Even Matti wrote about his dissatisfaction on his blog. Finally, plenty of other people had warned me about the dodgy service that is Fung Wah.

Yet I braved the Fung Wah bus and have been using it as my primary mode of traveling between Boston and New York City. But what happened three hours ago made me rethink about what my good friends have been saying all along: stay away from Fung Wah. CBS 4 Boston reported a Fung Wah bus rollover in Aurburn, Massachusetts earlier this afternoon. The following line from the news report gives me no confidence in the bus company: "another Fung Wah bus picked them up and take them to their destination, but it turns out that driver could not legally drive them. Now, a Peter Pan bus is on the way."

9/5/2006 7:44:23 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

News

I just can't wait. I was going to write about my trips to Amsterdam and Beijing before anything else; but I was just too excited about my recent dive trip to Manado, Indonesia; especially the underwater photos that I took there. I spent the first day back in the States not resting but busily "cleaning" and "cropping" the photos with Adobe Photoshop, organizing the photos (including tagging and file naming), and finally uploading them to Flickr for sharing the photos with the rest of the world.

The entire collection of my underwater photos can be found on my brand new account.

Below is a sample (the top 20) of the photos that I took from my dive trip to Manado, Indonesia:

Anemone Crab (3 cm)	Anemone Hermit Crab (10 cm) Notice the sea anemone on the hermit crab's shell. The crab is chewing on something.
Blue Spot Sea Hare (18 cm) One of the most bizarre creature I have seen in Lembeh Strait. It's a sea slug, and it is shaggy and big.	Clark's Anemonefish (6 cm) One of my favorite fishes to photograph underwater. This one was quite startled by my presence but it settled down when I took the picture.
Cleaner Shrimp (2.5 cm) Cleaner shrimp provides cleaning service to fishes by eating parasitic creatures on the host skin. This one, however, was found sleeping in a burrow during a night dive.	Coral (Heliogungia Actiniformis) Close up shot of a coral.
Flower Soft Coral (Xeniidae) This is one of the most beautiful corals I have ever seen. Each of the feather-like feeding tentacles displays a beautiful fluidic movement.	Juvenile Clark's Anemonefish and Anemone Shrimp (3 cm) Close up shot of a juvenile Clark's anemonefish and an anemone shrimp.
Mantis Shrimp (25 cm) I was lucky to find this elusive mantis shrimp hiding in a hole. Treat this creature with great respect. Also known as smashers, they have powerful claws that they use to attack and kill prey by spearing, stunning, or dismemberment.	Nudibranch (Chromodoris Elizabethina) (4 cm) The highly ornate nudibranch conspicuously warns predators that it is toxic.
Ornate Ghost Pipefish (7 cm)	Pink Anemonefish (8 cm) Another Nemo moment.
Ribbon Eel (40 cm) Adult females have blue/yellow colored body. Males and juveniles have black body.	Snake Fish and Transparent Cleaner Shrimp Another bizarre fish with only the head protruding out from the sand. Notice the two transparent shrimps (look very carefully, click on the picture for the magnified version if you can't see them).
Soft Coral (Sinularia) (Close up)	Tube Sea Anemone (Close up)
Tubeworm (2 cm) (Extreme Close up) A tubeworn with its feather-like feeding tentacles. It is found next to a sea urchin.	Two Undulated Moray Eels Morays are usually solitary creatures. I was lucky to find a pair of morays.
Unidentified Creature I cannot identify this creature despite consulting several marine field guides. From a far, it certainly looks like a sea worm but upon closer inspection, it looks more like a nudibranch. Is it a sea worm or nudibranch?	Frogfish This is a bottom-dwelling fish.

See more of the underwater pictures at !!!

9/5/2006 12:32:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

Scuba Diving

In the last 3 weeks, it seems that I have virtually disappeared from the face of the earth. I had no internet connection in the last 2 weeks - so in a sense, I have virtually disappeared. Nevertheless, the deprivation of the Internet was very liberating.

Physically, my presence was literally out of the country. Since my last blog post, I have traveled to Europe and then to Asia. After being stranded in New York on the first 2 days of my vacation, I spent the next 4 days in Amsterdam. I was in Beijing, China on the second week before ending up in Manado, Indonesia for some spectacular scuba diving on the last week. I spent a few nights in between the two side trips in Singapore visiting my family.

My connection time to the Internet is short right now, I will blog more about this trip as well as posting some pictures of bizarre but dazzling marine creatures taken from my diving trip in Manado.

9/4/2006 7:45:40 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Travels

Here is part 1 of the story. Also, I made significant edits on my original post as it was written right after a night of drinking in Amsterdam - it should flow much better now.

I met Dirk for breakfast in the hotel restaurant where I had the worst omelet and French toast. Even though our flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to depart at 21:30, we were told that we have to check out from the hotel by 12 noon. To add insult to injury, Delta Airlines' didn't provide stranded passengers with vouchers for transportation back to the airport. In other words, we are responsible for transportation to NY JFK Airport and being placed 60 miles away from the airport by the night before, the taxi fare won't come cheap. Delta Airlines incompetence never ceases to amaze me.

Because Dirk and I shared the same flight to Frankfurt, we decided that we should hang out and do something fun to pass time till departure. Instead of hiring a cab like most other stranded passengers, we rented a car. Since I didn't retrieve my luggage the night before, I was concerned that it may be lost. Dirk has to be the calmest and most optimistic German I have ever met. He kept telling me that it is "Lucky Saturday" and our fortunes would turn around; I should be able to find my luggage. So the first order of business that day was for us to drive our spiffy rented Pontiac Grand Prix to JFK to retrieve my luggage - only this time I would ask Singapore Airlines not Delta Airlines for assistance.

The Singapore Airlines staff was friendly, he said that he will check and call me back when he retrieves it. He said that if he doesn't get me on the phone, he will leave my luggage with the counter staff when I check in later. He is friendly, thoughtful, professional, and customer-oriented - the hallmarks of Singapore Airlines. I could have just easily flown from Boston to Frankfurt with other airlines; but instead I braved the hassle of traveling to New York to catch a flight from New York to Frankfurt by Singapore Airlines says a lot about my satisfaction with the company.

Since it was a gorgeous day, we spent the rest of the afternoon in Manhattan. Our drive back to NY JFK Airport was a breeze - there weren't any traffic at all. When I arrived at the flight check-in counter, my luggage was as they said right where it was. We checked in an hour and half before departure. We got into the plane at 21:00 and were in the air by 20:00. There were no chaos and everything was on time with Singapore Airlines.

After about 7 hours of flight time, I finally arrived in Frankfurt and went through immigration and custom without a hitch. But there is still one more problem: the flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam has not been resolved yet. Dirk, a native of Frankfurt, was kind enough to stay with me in the airport to help me sort out the mess with KLM. After my inquiry at the KLM counter, I was confirmed the next flight out to Amsterdam but it came with a penalty of 115 Euros for changing flight. Bravo! my traveling nightmare was finally over. I said to Dirk then: "You know we never really celebrated our successful arrival in Frankfurt with a toast." We then immediately proceeded to the nearest beer garden for some good German beer. Dirk, you are right - it was "Lucky Saturday."

8/15/2006 6:25:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Travels

Preposterous incompetence, that is how I describe Delta Airlines'. Here is a chronicle of my worst flying nightmare:

16:00 - Arrived at Boston Logan Airport two hours prior to departure. Completed check-in and security screening in Boston Logan Airport in 18 minutes. I thought I was on for a good start for my vacation. Boy, was I wrong.

18:00 - My flight was due to depart at 18:00 and arrive at NY JFK at 19:25 so that I can catch a 21:30 flight to Frankfurt. At 18:00, there still there was no plane on sight. Delta staff was unhelpful in explaining why the plane was late. We were repeatedly told that the plane will arrive any minute from now.

19:30 - This is the time I should be arriving at NY JFK, not the time when I boarded the plane. The plane did not arrive at the gate until 19:30. In fact, the 19:00 flight to NY JFK left earlier than the 18:00 flight - unbelievable.

21:00 - I finally arrived at NY JFK at 21:00. Because my flight to Frankfurt is operated by a different carrier, I have to run to the Singapore Airlines check-in counter in Terminal 4.

21:05 - Arrived at the Singapore Airline check-in counter, but the staff were all gone. As you can see, many international airlines in NY JFK do not have permanent check-in stations as they only have a few flights per week. These companies were assigned with temporary stations 4 hours before flight departures to perform passenger check-ins.

21:10 - Without a boarding pass, my only chance is to talk an airline staff at the departure gate. But I first have to go through security screening, which requires a boarding pass. At the security screening station, I met Dirk, a German traveler who was in the exact same predicament as I am. We explained to a security staff who finally agreed to pass the message onto a Singapore Airline staff. But by then it was already too late. We looked out of the window and watch the flight which we are supposed to be on took off - a very sad and disappointing moment.

21:45 - Dirk and I met one of the Singapore Airline staff, the first competent person whom we met that night. She rebooked us for the next flight (the following day) to Frankfurt.

21:50 - Now it's our time to get even with Delta Airlines. Finding a Delta Airline counter was onerous because of the navigating around in termnal 3 was difficult with many doors locked and sections sealed.

22:40 - Yeah, it took us this long to find a Delta staff who could help us with our problem. Dirk and I were going to demand Delta for free accommodation and other compensations for the trouble they have caused us. To our surprise, we weren't the only passengers whom Delta has left stranded at NY JFK. There were about 50 (at least) passengers waiting around that section to sort out their logistical mess with Delta. They were fuming with frustrations and worry. I empathized with them. While there were some yelling and shouting, the situation was pretty civil.

23:10 - After 30 minutes of waiting in the line, we finally spoke to a staff. Despite our rage at the airline, Dirk and I decided to play it nice while talking to the staff so that we can at least get our issue resolved and have Delta to put us at some hotel for the night.

23:13 - I got free vouchers for hotel accommodation and food. The problem is that the hotel is located in Ronkonkoma - in the middle of Long Island, about 60 miles from NY JFK. We were told to wait outside the terminal for a bus that Delta had charted to transport stranded passengers to the hotel. We couldn't believe our eyes, there were literally hundreds (yes, read my words hundreds) of ticked off stranded passengers waiting outside the terminal for the chartered bus to take them to the hotel. Some passengers had been waiting for more than 4 hours for he bus. From talking to my fellow stranded passengers, I found that they either have their flight abruptly canceled or delayed, hence missing their next flight. Yep, there were plenty of delayed flights that night. One of the airport staff told me that it has been like this the whole summer. He said that this is the busiest traveling season since 9/11. One may argue that with the elevated terror alert and high traveling season delays are inevitable. Even this assertion is true, why do I observe that Delta Airlines is the only carrier at NY JFK having logistical problems? I am convinced that it is not demand or security threats, but rather poor operational management at Delta as the root cause of all woes at the airport.

23:45 - The bus finally showed up but it only has a capacity for about 50 people. Perhaps people were so ticked off or simply dead tired but no one were in a hurry to get onto the bus. I told Dirk that we should rush into the bus right now while there is still room, and we did.

23:55 - The bus finally left NY JFK. I started talking to Alex, an attractive lady who was sitting right next to me. We shared our horror stories but hers was definitely more distributing. She was on a layover in NY JFK while traveling from Boston to Richmond, VA (yeah, it turned out that we were on the same flight from Boston to NY). While waiting on the plane, she was suddenly told by the crew to get off from the plane. So she and other passengers complied. Once they were in ther terminal, they witnessed the plane flew off without them. Upon further inquiry, she was told by the staff on the ground that their flight to Richmond has been canceled and that they should go find a ticketing rep to reschedule them for the next flight. This story is distributing in many ways. Fundamentally, it violates the terms and conditions of a transportation service. Here is an analogy to the story: Imagine taking a taxi to a destination and halfway through the journey, you are suddenly kicked out by the taxi driver in a middle of nowhere. Such practice is totally unacceptable!!!

0:30 - We have been traveling for the last 30 minutes and we are now in the middle of nowhere.

1:00 - Can you believe this? We are still on the road. The driver was lost!!! He stopped twice to asked for directions.

1:05 - We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn in Ronkokoma but we were told by the hotel manager that he can only accept two passengers from the bus as the hotel was filled to capacity with stranded passengers. Thankfully, they have arranged to place us in another hotel two blocks down the road.

1:10 - We arrived at Hilton Garden Inn. I was assigned with a room with two king size beds. I asked the hotel manager how much the room would normally cost and he said: $99 + tax. Wow!!! This is what I don't understand. I paid $70 for a single trip ticket from Boston to NY JFK and Delta has to spend:

Cost of flight operations (very rough assumption, let's say 50% of the ticket price) = $35
Cost of hotel (assuming that Delta don't get any bulk discount rate) = $99
Cost of meals (what an insult, we were offered only $7 for dinner and $7 for breakfast) = $14
Cost of chartered bus service = $25
Total cost for Delta = $173

In other words, based on my very conservative estimation, for every $100 that they earn, they lose about $247!!! And with hundreds of ticked off passengers stranded in NY JFK each day (during this summer according to the airport staff), that translates to a huge operational loss. Personally, I incurred a big loss because of Delta's preposterous incompetence. I had to pay $115 euros to rebook my flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam; not to mention the loss of my precious time, and the stress, grief, and anger that they have caused. And I am not alone. Seriously, why would these stranded passengers be flying Delta airlines ever again? Overall, Delta Airlines' incompetence translate to a much bigger opportunity cost for them. How can they continue to sustain their business with flight delays, unannounced cancellations, and incompetent staff? I feel bad for the employees at Delta too. They were severely understaffed and their morale completely shattered because of the company's financial dire straits. How can they be motivated, quality-oriented service providers? More importantly, how can the company continue to operate under such strains. After some digging on the Internet, it has become clear to me the circumstances surrounding my snafu last weekend. Earlier this year, Delta made the announcement of offering both domestic and international flights at NY JFK. There many similarities between Delta's expansion to JFK and the People Express case that I wrote a month ago. I think that Delta's expansion to JFK is a grave mistake. From my observation, Delta seemed ill-equiped and resource constrained to manage this new move successfully.

The moral of this story is simple:

DON'T FLY DELTA AIRLINES!!!

8/14/2006 1:22:37 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

Travels

I get to hear more and more of the term Long Tail these days. Chris Anderson first coined the term in this article in Wired magazine. Recently, Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Jounal wrote this article to criticize Anderson's thesis on the Long Tail. Even Harvard Business School Working Knowledge recently started a forum where you will find some interesting contributions from readers on this subject.

8/8/2006 12:31:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Business

Some classmates of mine from the SDM program suggested earlier this year that we should all play soccer this summer. So when summer came around, I took the liberty of organizing a soccer match against our sister program, LFM. After weeks of deferment due to conflicting schedule and rainy weather, we finally played last Friday.

We put up a good fight, especially with Nick's and Ankur's drive to their defense line. But we fell short in scoring a goal. The LFM team not only had good defenders but their mid-fielders and strikers were able to pull back quickly to reinforce their defense, making it hard for us to penetrate their defense. Ultimately, the LFM being younger, faster, and more skillful beat us 7-0. We were all exhausted after two 45-minute rounds of game play. Nonetheless, it was fun and a great way to network with the LFM.

Big thanks to those who showed up in the game. Especially to the LFM/SDM staff who sponsored the field and refreshments. Last but not least, special thanks go out to the LFM who volunteered to help me in cleaning up the field and carrying the coolers and drinks back to my car when my SDM classmates have all but deserted me at the end of the game.

8/8/2006 12:21:43 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

School

I was reading BusinessWeek last saturday and this phrase caught my attention: "Say what you mean and do what you say." Unfortunately, not many people live by this creed. That article points out two types of trust-killers. First, there are those who aren't candid with one another. These people often use baloney to sugar coat their talk while making things look more obscure and themselves less accountable. Second, there are the people more often than not say one thing and do another (or worse the opposite).

I recently encountered both types of people. I hate to dwell on negativity on this blog; but my recent experience with these people have less than desirable. First, I have still yet to receive the money (quite substantial may I add) that I lent to an individual despite all the empty promises that he had made. Then, there are those who say that they will make it to events that require their presence; but ended up as no-shows when the day came. If one can't make it to an event, just indicate no or maybe (I always treat maybe as not a yes, so I'll understand if you say maybe). Even if you don't plan on showing up at the event, just send me an email telling me that you can't make it. When I say something, I will almost always back it up with action. That's why I don't like to commit to something unless I know I can do it. So it really breaks my heart to see this happening.

8/7/2006 11:29:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Rants

Finally, I am starting to make some progress on my thesis, which explains the lack of effort on my blog lately. I have finally devised a more plausible hypothesis for my thesis as I found the original one obscure, which resulted in the scope of the thesis too lofty. Another benefit of the revised hypothesis is that data supporting the thesis is easier to obtain. I hope that my new hypothesis will finally give me the momentum that I need to write a good thesis and get it done on time.

From now on, I really need to focus on my thesis and other pertinent school-related work in order to complete my degree program by the end of the year. As far as blogging is concerned, I am going to try writing blog posts that are terse from now on.

8/2/2006 12:32:08 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

Personal

Interesting, I have just learned that French has no real words for seventy, eighty, and ninety.

Seventy in French is: Soixante-dix; literally, sixty ten (or 60 + 10)
Eighty in French is: Quatre-vingts; literally four twenty (or 4 * 20)
Ninety in French is: Quatre-vingt-dix; literally four twenty ten (or 4 * 20 + 10)

What ever happened to the metric system?

7/27/2006 8:32:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [11]

Personal