My vacation to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico pictures are up. My wife and I flew to Cancun, then drove south to Playa Del Carmen (across the water from the island of Cozumel). Then also went to the ruins at Tulum, and snokeled off Cozumel. The pics are up HERE. Descriptions for the pics will follow shortly.

New York Magazine has an interesting map and tidbits of crime in NYC, which is now being touted as being one of the safest cities in the country. Granted that there will always be crime, there’s some really bizarre stuff listed. Take a look for yourself HERE

Here’s one just a block away from my apartment:

9th Street and 5th Ave — “December 9, 2007: At 4 p.m., a 24-year old man pushed a woman headfirst into scaffolding and took her purse before being tackled and captured by two bystanders.”

BTW- those waiting for my Thailand stories and pictures bear with me. I have 20 gigs of photos for a grand total of 4,000+ photos taken, and it’s taking a long time to go through them (even just to pick a few highlights). With the long weekend, I should have something up by MLK day.

Even though I had been using computers since the Wang Workstation, IBM PC AT/XT, on phosphorescent monochrome monitors, the one computer that really platformed my skills was the Commodore64 (although I had the more powerful 128 which could run CP/M like Wang). It was way ahead of it’s time with its graphics and sound capabilities, and the OG’s of computing still make demos with retro C64 sound as a throwback, which i still enjoy. Anyways, Youtube has a great 90 minute special on it, courtesy of the computer museum. You can view the clip HERE.

There’s a huge buzz on the internet about this guy name Paul Potts from Whales who’s in “Britian’s Got Talent” show with, yes Simon as one of the judges. Paul is a cell phone salesman who has just an amazing talent for singing opera. I got goosebumps listening to him sing. Check out how Simon reacts like “holy cow,” 2 old ladies in the audience start crying, and the female judge has goosebumps and is also in tears. As a singer (an have sang opera in the past myself), this guy is definitely pro quality. His intonation and tone is spot on, with great control (he only lost it momentarily very briefly on the high note, but that’s ok as you could tell he was nervous). But this guy will go VERY far from this point on. The world see’s his talent, and Paul, I wish you the best of luck!

See the video of him singing “Nessun Dorma” in higher quality video/audio here:
VIDEO

EDIT: Someone has emailed me a link (the subject of which said “Paul Potts is a liar”) which is pretty sobering in that Paul Potts has sang opera professionally for the Bath Opera, in the UK. His biography is even listed with a picture in the past performance of Aida (LINK). He never really mentioned it, just said he’s a cell phone salesman now… Although I think that Simon and the other producers spun it this way to generate more buzz (which it did). But still, if he doesn’t do this professionally and on the side, the more power to him. If he does this professionally and lied about being a cell phone salesman. Shame on you…

His Biography was listed as follows from that LINK above:

Paul Potts Radames

A student of Ian Comboy, Paul has appeared on national and local television and radio. He has spent two summers touring Northern Italy training with one of the major opera schools, and has taken part in masterclasses with Vilma Vernocchi, Katia Ricciarelli and Luciano Pavarotti. He has also performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. With Bath Opera he has sung the roles of Don Basilio (Marriage of Figaro), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and the title role in Verdi’s Don Carlos. Future plans include the role of Chevalier des Grieux (Manon Lescaut) for Southgate Opera, London, and another concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the summer. Oh yes! He also plans to get married in May this year!!!

Double EDIT: got another email with THIS ARTICLE from UK’s Guardian newspaper that tells the story straight. Basically, he performed as an amateur on the side, then had to stop to to surgery, but always wanted to sing. Still bending the truth a bit, but the more power to him. Good luck Paul, and I hope you win this one! (read more to read the cache)
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It’s usually around this time of year where I celebrate my birthday and subsequently go broke. I guess it’s one of those things when you’re entire family (except for my sister) are all Aries, and I’m the first one… Well, then you got my birthday on March 23, then my mother, then my father, TAX day (April 15th), then my wife, ending with my sister on May 31st, and now my Wedding Anniversary on June 3rd.

Caroline took me out on my birthday to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. Caroline chose to eat an herbed gouper, while I chose his signature herb-rubbed steak. Very good!

For Caroline’s birthday, we went with Godly and Rujin to Wined Up. This is a very impressive wine bar near Union Square/Flatiron area, where the entire wall is lined up from floor to ceiling with wine. We all started out with the cheese fondue and a flight of wines (3 each) each. It was a fun experience, esp. those who want a sampling of wine without cracking open full bottles.

For my mom, I went to Coach and bought her a purse. While my dad, I had promised to get golf shoes, without realizing how difficult of a feat that was. He has a very hard to get size, 7 1/2 EEE. Almost every place I asked said only Footjoy can make those, and they’re custom order. After nearly a month of digging around I finally found a pair of modern Oakley (which is pretty hot in my opinion) golf shoes in that size from Zappos.com. The best part was that if they didn’t fit, they pay for return by mail and will exchange them as well! My father took them golfing on a day after it rained and noted that since they are waterproof, it kept his feet nice and dry!

What’s interesting is that this year we had to file jointly in order to get the deductions for education and loans, but in the end for the first time, we didn’t get money back. We had to pay more tax.

My 1 year anniversary is coming up in June 3rd. We plan on going to the restaurant that we had our rehearsal dinner at, Rialto. They had good food and really good sangria! I highly recommend their Seared tuna (sushi grade) and their wasabi mashed potatoes. Some people suggested going to the place where I proposed, at Apple Bombar, but we’ve been going there lately a lot for their $5 drink specials. LOL. Caroline for my anniversary helped pay for some of my camera upgrade. I sold my Digital Rebel 300D, and used that money to upgrade to the Canon 30D. I plan on buying her something special, but that’s a secret!

Wow - 8 inches of snow on Valentines day! Whew! Luckily our reservations were at Mercer Kitchen, only a few blocks away. This swanky place had some awesome food. Black truffle mini pizza and the shank of lamb were awesome. Desserts were so many to choose from, but any of them should be good. The layout is interesting though. It’s under the sidewalk (look for those glass circle things in metal) with exposed brick walls and candles everywhere. Oysters were ok. I’ve had better at Acquagrill (get the Malpeque if you go there) Anyhow, as for Mercer Kitchen, I highly recommend!

For Christmas this year, Caroline and I decided to go to the Bahamas. Pics can be seen HERE. I had accured so many Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points that I could get 5 nights in an upgraded ocean front room on Grand Bamaha Island. The Sheraton at Port Lucaya, just outside of Freeport, Grand Bahama, was where we stayed and paid with my SPG points. This place is great! Short ride to paradise and absolutely clear (and shallow) water. Christopher Columbus discovered this island, and called it “el gran baja mar” which means “the great shallow sea.” That became Grand Bahama. This shoe shaped island is nice, the sand is soft yet firm when wet (you don’t sink like traditional sandy beaches), and the water is clear and shallow that if you jetski out far, you still see the bottom.

This place takes American dollars, has no tax, and everything is duty free. This means that booze is cheaper that soda (as soda is imported). Drinking from the tap here is ok, although has a metallic taste, as the drinking water is desalinated from the ocean through distillation (the metal you taste is from the distiller). But when there’s signs all over the place for shots for $1 who cares? I never had so many pina coladas and other tropical drinks in my life. It’s sooo cheap!

One of the awesome highlights was Unexso Dolphin Experience. We opted to swim with Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins in Unexso’s private lagoon. I highly recommend this experience! (those who go to Hawaii to do this at the Hyatt are getting ripped off as they’re high priced and they’re actually Atlantic, not Pacific, bottle-nosed dolphins that were imported!).

As for food it’s varied, but our favorite was the fresh conch salad. You can see the pics in my gallery that I posted earlier.

There’s not much to do on the island itself. Shop, eat, relax, drink, swim, jetski, snorkel, and parasail. It’s a great vacation to do nothing and relax. I highly recommend! Trip was cheap as I paid only for food, activities, and airfare. Although if you stay there and pay for the hotel, the rates weren’t too bad either. 4-5 days is probably enough to enjoy this place well.

Like the last blog post stated, 2006 brings lots of good fortune. 2006 is a great year for me. Came into the year engaged, got into a great MBA program, was put in charge of a high-visibility project at work, got married… Well, another big changed has happened today. After 5 great years at Johnson & Johnson, I had a successful career. However, now being married, I simply can’t do the reverse commute of 50+ miles each way (100+ miles a day) with 3 hours a day spent commuting up forever. I gave my 2 weeks notice today, and will be joining a prestigious management consulting firm in midtown (I will not name it so as not to get bombarded by random requests to push a resume). Those who know me personally know where I am. I will miss my J&J friends who are like family there. I will remember you always. I now have a nice easy commute that I won’t stress about, and my insurance rates have plummeted as I drive less than 100 miles a month. LOL

According to the Lunar Calendar, 2006 is the best time for marriage as this year has 2 springs which brings good fortune. The result has led to a mad frenzy in China to get married, resulting in shortages from wedding planners to flowers. Well I guess I’m quite lucky. Thanks to Jessica for sending me this article! (press MORE to read the article)
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Our honeymoon to Hawaii was awesome. Pictures of our trip can be seen HERE. Make sure you click on the Display Mode and change it to “detailed” so that you can see the descriptions. It takes you through the whole trip. Basic itinerary was 7 days in Maui and 5 days in the Big Island. I highly suggest going to the Big Island over Maui if you like adventure style trips. I definitely enjoyed this one, especially in the Jeep for off-roading.

Maui:
- Boat ride to Molokini and go Snorkeling: this is known as the #1 dive snokel site on the planet (#2 is Fiji)
- Parasailing at 800′: awesome and high up - pricey though for a relatively short time in the air
- Old Lahaina Luau: Even though we were at the Grand Hyatt which has their own, this one is better known as it is the “classic” of all Luau’s. Highly recommended. If you plan on taking pictures, make sure you have a fast lens of at least a f/2.8 aperture!
- Drive to Hana: nice twisties and turns on the most scenic roads (although at times insane) around the island. Went all the way to the Seven Sacred pools and back. A large portion of my scenic amazing shots from Hawaii are from this trip. Highly recommend renting a sports car convertible
- Mama’s Fish House: fish are caught fresh daily by staff and this place is known for their most amazing food.
- Mount Haleakela: 10,000 feet above the world, looking into the crater of a dormant Volcano. We chose to go on a chartered luxury van ride as I was tired of driving the Road to Hana
- Sensai: This sushi place is in what’s left of a town that’s basically abandoned after the hotels closed up. It’s fairly remote, and the sushi was only okay. I’ve had better in NY and Seattle.

(Note about Maui, wear lots of sunscreen and re-apply frequently. Both of us got burned despite using it, but luckily they had aloe with lidocaine to numb the burn) Lahaina translates to “Merciless Sun” for this reason!

Big Island:
- Flumin Da Ditch in Hawi: kayak down the old irrigation flumes that go through mountain tunnels, rain forest, and pass by waterfalls. Highly recommended.
- 15 Mile Waterfall ATV Adventure in Hawi: Traverse through brisk mountain streams; enter a rainforest filled with native Hawaiian trees and canopies of ferns and flowers before discovering a private secluded waterfall. Your guide will paint a historical picture of the rich culture in the area. A visual rush of panoramic collages makes this a driving experience to remember
- Drove around the entire island except to Hilo as we ran out of time
- Drove to Mauna Loa and Volcanoes National Park
- Drove to South Point, off-roaded a long ways to the Green Sand beach (green becuase of olivine). Note it is a 60 foot climb down a cliff, so wear sneakers
- Drove to Punalulu black sand beach. This place is the windiest place in Hawaii, but its cool to see the sea turtles chilling on the beach. Note you have to stand a good distance away from them by law as they are endangered. Bring a telephoto lens if you plan on taking photos.

For all the shots, most of these places are secluded. I planned ahead and brought my tripod with a remote trigger. If you have any questions and want ideas or tips for a trip to Hawaii, let me know. I wouldn’t go back to Maui as it got boring once you do the road to Hana, but Big Island I do plan on going back as theres so much more I want to see like checking out Waipio Valley (remember the opening scene in Jurassic park with the helicopter vista? This is the place) and taking the helicopter over the volcano.