clearcubic.com v.3

After a couple month of on and off update for clearcubic.com v.3 on development, it's finally reached a state where I think it's good enough to go live.

This update gives the site some new colors. Optimized the site for monitor and tablet viewing (mobile phone viewing is still not that great but I will work on that when I have time). To see a comparison among the different views on the different devices, use this link "clearcubic.com front-end v.2 vs. v.3"

Now that this update is live, I'll finally be updating the photos again soon. Joy has been complaining.

Steve Jobs passed away

Steve Jobs, Apple's cofounder, passed away at the age of 56 today.

I got my first PC when I was 13 or 14 years old. It was a DOS only machine. Then Microsoft Windows came out and I have been on that operating system ever since.

In 2003, I decided to purchase my first Mac, a 12" Powerbook. I purchased it mainly because in my opinion there were no other portable computers out there that looked better than the Mac's design and because OS X seemed to fit my needs for having a good graphical user interface and is an Unix-based operating system. Although much slower now, this computer is still in use today for web browsing and watching youtube by my mom.

After I bought my first Mac, I started to follow the company because I was always curious to know what Apple would do for its next notebooks. Overtime, as I have learned more about Steve Jobs, the more respect that I have for him. I truly believe that Apple is what it is today because of his leadership and now that he's gone, I'm wondering if I'll be able to see another person that will do what Jobs did for the technology, music and mobile industry. I certainly hope so.

Just a little update on what's going on

I'm pretty behind in terms of getting the photos up to date...at least 6 albums behind. Main reason being that I have been spending time working on a version of this web site that works well on mobile devices like the iPad and iPhones. I have an iPad and it pains me to see this site not working well on it.

I do not have an album update this time but I wanted to have some updates on Cadi and Cody. Cadi celebrated her 2 year birthday a couple months ago and Cody celebrated his 1 year birthday just a couple days ago. Cadi is now speaking Chinese sentences and she's able to combine different words that she knows to form a sentence. She's a bit more willing to listen to what we tell her to do now although still doing things she shouldn't do occasionally, like throwing soaps into the toilet. Still, this is good because it's Cody turn expressing his curiosity in the house and it would be extremely difficult if we have to watch those two carefully at all times.

Cody has learned to crawl a while ago but now that he knows how to walk, he prefers that. We are supposed to reduce his formula intake to around 500 ml a day but since he doesn't suck on pacifiers and needs the bottle nipples (non-empty bottles to add) to fall asleep, we don't know how we're going to reduce the intake. Use water instead of formula maybe? Cody also has more face expression now. Not as many as his sister but at least it's not the similar look that he always had when he was younger. :)

No albums but here are 4 photos of Cadi and Cody.





Didn't want Cody to feel left out because of the girls were wearing these skirts made by Joy for Cadi's mini birthday party. So, I put one on Cody too.

Passport to Taiwan Festival 2011

Posting an end of May album in the beginning of August, yap, I know I'm fast.

So, we heard about this "Passport to Taiwan Festival" event at Union Square, since we've never been to one and it's supposed to have vendors selling traditional Taiwanese food, we decided to take the children to go check it out. We arrived there before the food vendors began selling, so the crowd at that time was not too bad. When the selling started however, in a very short amount of time (around 30 minutes), the place became packed.

Maybe it's because we go back to Taiwan every once in a while, we didn't find the Taiwanese food there that special. I was certainly disappointed in the lack of varieties to really represent Taiwan. Besides food, there were performances and many other booths that presented things, in someway, relate to Taiwan. While I didn't find the event to be a great one, it was still nice to see that many Taiwanese gathered in one place and hear some really traditional Taiwanese being spoken. :)


We were there for mostly the food but this is the ONLY photo that remotely relates to it. Why? Because there were simply too many people gathered around the food vendors and it was extremely difficult for me to get close to them especially with a stroller (Joy did all the food buying). What you see in this photo are not even real cakes. They are towels made to look like cakes, quite nice. I think these "cakes" can make some interesting wedding favors.


Cadi drinking winter melon tea. It may not sound good, but I love it. Cadi too but children will drink anything sweet. :)




Love what Vivian is doing here to Cody and love Cody looking at Vivian curiously, thinking "What a weird aunty".


There are certain shots that I just can't say why I sort of like them. This is an example. I just don't know why. :)


Looking at this, I guess it can be classified as "food related" as well. "Union Square Cafe" is supposedly a pretty nice (and not cheap) restaurant located around, well, Union Square. Because of it's price, we've never entered it and so can't confirm how good it's food is.




Wanted Cadi to stand still. She didn't want to cooperate.

小小's 1 year old birthday party

This is the first birthday party that Cadi and Cody attended.  Since I didn't want to bring my big camera, I used Joy's Canon S95 digital point and shoot.  This little camera has gotten good reviews but since I have been using a DSLR for so long, I just didn't feel very comfortable using it.  My gripe with digital point and shoot cameras has always been that they are slow to shoot, the Canon S95 is of no exception.   But really, it isn't fair to compare a digital P&S to a DSLR.  Besides, having never really used any other digital P&S and having just started using this camera, I'm not in a position to judge this camera...yet.  :)


This is the birthday girl, nicknamed 小小 (Little Little).  I don't remember the real reason for her nickname but she really is very small compared to other children of her age so this nickname suits her perfectly.  :)  As you can see from the decors on the wall, 小小 turned 1.


We did not have an elaborate birthday party for Cadi when she turned 1.  So I took this photo.  When Cadi asks in the future, I can say "Yes, mommy and daddy gave you a very nice birthday party when you reached the age one.  See this photo for proof."  =D


All these kids are sort of close in age.  Cadi is the oldest.  Second oldest is the girl on the left side of the table.  Third is "Little Little".  Fourth is the boy, Thomas, on the right side and Cody is the youngest here.  Even though Thomas is the second youngest, he is bigger than all but Cadi.  He's a 100 percentile baby.  Finishes drinking his formula in one shot.  I wish Cody can do that.

2011 Planting Fields Arboretum Park

Decided to go to the Planting Fields Arboretum State Park again this year on the Easter weekend because it really is quite a nice place that's close to our home. What's different this year is that there's Cody and that Cadi can walk by herself now. Since Cadi didn't want us to carry her while we were in the park, that meant she walked on her own for a large portion of the time. Later that night, while sleeping, Cadi woke up crying. When Joy asked Cadi why is she crying, she pointer her hand to her legs. Guess what? She walked so much during the day that her legs were hurting. You know, it's like how your muscle feels sore when you don't regularly exercise and decided to do too much of it in one day. This was her first long walk by herself after all.

Our first stop in the park, the greenhouse. I would have liked to stay in the greenhouse longer but the weather was pretty warm that day and being inside the greenhouse made it even worse so we didn't. And Cody sweated like his dad did, which is quite a bit.


Slipper orchid.


Don't remember what this was. Think it was a type of cactus (top view).


Cadi likes to help out people carrying out various types of tasks. This was one of them.


Unlike last year, the cherry trees were blossoming this time we went. Had to take photos before this beautiful tree.






Not sure what Cadi thinks she is doing. Using umbrella to rake leaves?






Got a whole series of photos taken on the open ground that I liked very much.  Had a hard time deciding what not to post as they all were somewhat similar and yet different per Cadi's expression in each.  Love, love, love the two dual-toned photos of Cadi.

The Riverside Church of New York

View from the New Jersey side.