Walk: Clean-Air Car Show

It was on July 19 (Saturday), so this is a bit late. Okay, wayyyy late, but for a good reason.

It was a week ago when I came across South Pasadena Mission West Association website, which contained information about the community event back in April. Well... I missed that totally, but I didn't mind. The site show pictures of the April event and the local businesses in Mission West area. After few minutes looking the site, the photos of unique and classic buildings inspired my next walking destination.

The forward trip was over an hour, but the quiet and serene streets in South Pasadena made the trip quite enjoyable. The city had the feeling of San Marino, but with smaller houses and more cars. Three quarter of the way through, a small park appeared. I took few minutes to circle the park. A lot of young children playing with their parents watching near by, but beside that, nothing much.

As I finally reached Mission West, I found the sidewalk to be under construction. Most of the stores on the side still open, but the sidewalk was dusty and sandy. A block down further, the newly constructed city hall with a newly paved sidewalk. By now, my impression of Mission West began to wane. Up to that point, the area has not impress me. The buildings were new and clean, but neither creative nor outstanding. As I headed back, a green and white fryer caught my eye.

The City of South Pasadena proudly presents
Clean-Air Car show & Film Festival

Hmm...

Since it was only couple block away, I decided to join the festivity. I arrived at around 2:30 PM, and some of the booths were already packing up. True to the name, there were plenty of "future" and "green" cars from several brands in the area. There were hybrid, compressed natural gas, electric, hydrogen fuel cell, etc. However, overall, the car didn't look very impressive. There were no information about the gas mileage, and most of the cars were not in the market yet.

In the end, the only thing that truly impressed me was the animal shelter foundation. They brought a bunch of dogs and cats in their trailer, and each volunteer was taking care of a dog. While walking around the festival, the volunteers was walking their dogs, looking for potential adopters. After playing around with one of them for about ten minutes, I thought about adopting one from a shelter one day. But that time has yet to come, and with that I left the place.

Walk: No Camera, No Picture

Making Honey Green Tea is like an art...
Too much honey, and it becomes too sweet.
Too much tea, and it becomes too bitter.
Too cool, and there is no flavor.
Not enough ice, and there is dissatisfaction.
And just like any art, it displays the inner character.

Well, my camera is out to Canon service center right now, so there are no pictures this week. It was last weekend when I noticed that dusts [somehow] got into the inside of LCD screen. I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't budge, so about half of the screen is covered with these "sticky" dusts. I called Canon, and they told me to send it to them. Hopefully, they will fix it within a week or two (and charge nothing, since it's still under the warranty).

So, without a camera, I went out for another long walk. The journey started with a festival on San Gabriel Mission(an ooooold church). The festival was set along the Mission Street, which filled with apartments, small businesses, and the church itself. There were plenty of organizations, associations, and food tents. However, the zero cloud plus 90 degrees temperature, made it quite hard for many people to come out in the afternoon. Even an ice cream man left his popsicle cart on the side of the street!!

However, the most interesting sight was a eight year old kid selling a lemonade drink in front of his apartment. Unfortunately, his apartment is a block away from the festival, so his business wasn't doing too well, even at a deep discounted price of 25 cents per cup. As I was walking by, I got caught in it...

"Would you like to buy a lemonade?"

"Errr... no," I tried to walk away.

"... please?" in a soft whimpering tone.

I gave in and paid 50 cents for a 6 ounce cup of lemonade (25 cents drink + 25 cents tip). To my surprise, he also tried to sell me fortunate telling. Apparently, his mother, who sit inside the house (watching TV?), is a fortune teller. Obviously, that didn't go far.

I headed up north to San Marino, and got a cup of Honey Green Tea from the usual store. A bit bitter, heavy on the tea... as always. I wanted to say something about the taste, but there were several people in the store. It wouldn't be right to say it in front of so many people. In the end, I left, and continued along Huntington Blvd. Here I found out [yet] another Noodle World restaurant. I have seen the other two stores already (Pasadena and San Gabriel). The sight of it only make me wonder how much money they really make each day.

Headed west to Alhambra, and back to Main Street, it really felt like hell to be walking for three hours. Fortunately, I bought a bottle of water with me, but it didn't last too long. I had to refill it few times in the mall and hospital before getting back home two hours after hitting the Main Street. However, that was not before visiting couple game stores, and tried out the Wii system. No, I didn't go wild and swing that nunchuck around. Although, I should try it on one of these days.

Walk: Chinese Festival 2008

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a fact,
It's a thing we can't deny
...

Yes, it is one week after the 2008 Chinese New Year (February 7), so why was there a Chinese New Year festival now? The simple answer is because Chinese people have something else to do on the weekend of Chinese New Year. Some Chinese people visit their family members, and some have a family gathering just like Thanksgiving weekend. Then there are some who go to Las Vegas to try their luck. You can go see it for yourself, if you don't believe it.

This weekend, once again, I did not bring any camera to a local trip. In my personal experience, photography is great for capturing the moment; however, being a photographer takes away the indulgent feeling from the personal experience. Anyways, this festival had plenty of tents selling ethnic foods, fruit drinks, and unnecessary products. In the crowded street, one prominent sector of economy seemed to be missing from the picture. Big name bank. I did not see any booth for the CitiBank, Washington Mutual, or Bank of America. The only well known banks there were HSBC and Wells Fargo. The Chinese banks made their appearance as usual. By the way, I did see JCPenny booth, which is strange.

Several hours later, and several bags of free gifts in my hands, I came to the corner where a parade was going by. Watching it, I came to realized that in the last 16 years, I never been to a Chinese festival in location before, even though it is less than fifteen minutes drive. In fact, I remember only two occasions, where I was in a Chinese New Year festival.

Sad, isn't it? To not take time to live a life.
Sad, isn't it? To not seize the given opportunity.
Sad, isn't it? To not respond back to a genuine message.

But it is not that bad, because I came to realize and there is still time. I could have been to the Belgium Beer festival today, but today wasn't that bad.