Don’t Burn The Day

Yes, this is in partial reference to Luda and Nate Dogg’s summer of 2001 jam, “Area Codes.” But more importantly, this brings up an upcoming major decision in my life as I am on the verge of repatriating myself. WHAT AREA CODE cell phone number will I end up with??!?

In Sex in the City – the movie (part 1), Carrie gets depressed and throws her phone into the pool, thereby losing her coveted (917) area code…. she is later is “downgraded” to a (646) area code. During this time, I had felt her pain as I too, had to leave my (917) number back in 2008…for China…

Now two years later, I gotta get myself back on the US track.  But I’m getting closer to my decision as I break down the numbers:

Fact: Taxes suck in the U.S.

Fact: Each state has a different tax bracket.

Fact: Your area code can save you money!

Here’s a lil excerpt from a Forbes article:

That gave me a better idea. There are some states, blessedly, that don’t soak their cell phone-using residents. One of those, I happened to know, is Idaho–a state I visit regularly. (The Gem State has a 2.2% tax rate, I would later discover, the fourth lowest in the country.) Well, I triumphantly informed the operator, I am moving to Idaho.

Since it was clear I’d have to lose my coveted New York number to avoid Verizon-levied taxes, I changed to an Idaho number, provided an Idaho address, then promptly turned around and requested paperless billing, which I paid from my Los Angeles address.

Since my fake move, my monthly bill has shown a tiny Idaho tax of about $1.15 per month. At that rate I figure I am saving about $60 per year. If I was a bigger cell phone user, I would have saved far more. (I learned later, if I wanted to be a real cheapskate, I should have “moved” to Nevada, which holds the record for the country’s lowest cell phone taxes at just 1.1%.)

I also felt a bit guilty. I had established that is was practical to dodge high cell phone taxes. But was it legal? And was it ethical?

You can read more about what happens in the above scenario here.

But the basic breakdown for me is this:

NY = 1st Highest Tax Rate (State/Local/Fed = 21.71%)

MA = 42nd Highest Tax Rate (State/Local/Fed = 11.11%)

If ya wanna check out your state, click on this link, skim through the article for the hyperlink to “chart.”

MmmmmHmmmmm….

“Area Codes” by Ludacris and Nate Dogg, from album, Word of Mouth (2001)

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For Childrens’ Day celebrations, the school decided to turn the school into its own little “mini expo” ala carnival with all sorts of song/dance performances and various activities (airplane model flying contest, speed boat racing, solar power car racing, arts and crafts sale, make Haibao out of play-doh, legos, crazy science, etc.)

And as I had done such a marvelous job being Santa in the school’s Christmas Show, I was asked along with Phil to dress up as the Shanghai World Expo mascot, Haibao —- yes, the blue toothpaste / Gumby-looking thing. (The name of the mascot of World Expo 2010 Shanghai China is Hai Bao, which means the treasure of the sea. The name of Hai Bao is easy to remember, echoes with the color of its body and is a typical lucky name in Chinese tradition.)

The things I do for these lil zoo animal’esque rugrats!!…. I was sooo hot inside this costume on top of 90 sumn degree weather….and as you can see, the thing is bigger than me!! But now, putting it on, there’s a lil helmet on top (no, I didn’t buckle myself in)…. but the eyes of the costume were way low…. forcing me to stoop low and tilt my head, in order to see through one eye socket… Let’s just say I woke up the next day with a cramped neck… granted I was only in that thing for about 20-25min.

Here are some flicks:

Some of my solo’s:

I’m on the left…

Doing the Haibo Dance… me on the right…

This would be my favorite…

And more pics in the full reel, enjoy!

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Sooooooooooo it’s NBA Playoffs and Finals season and my boys are in it; which means, I get super dee duperly emotionally invested in these games to the point where it influences my daily mood. For instance, last week in Games 4 and 5 of Celtics vs. Orlando, I remained pretty annoyed and pissy throughout the week for games which I had thought were going to go the Green Team’s way.

Anyhoots, with a guy roommate who happens to be a basketball fanatic, Nate found out that we’re able to watch the games live in Shanghai time right in the comforts of our own apartment via sports channel, CCTV-5!  SUPER AWESOME news as I was able to catch 2 playoff games on tv. Kinda weird having to hear commentators in Mandarin, but after a bit, my ears innately train themselves to tune out the Mandarin and fine tune itself to hear the arena announcers. Here’s a couple shots from the end of the Eastern Conference Finals: (you’ll have to excuse the glare from our balcony)…..

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Just 3 hours on the road outside of Shanghai is an awesomely calming, bamboo forest retreat area of Moganshan. (“shan” means “mountain”)

Fun Factoid! = Famed film, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was filmed in Moganshan.

Over the last couple years, this has become quite the hot spot for mini weekend getaways from the hustle and bustle of the ‘Hai life. While there are a good handful of lodging spots spaced out in the Moganshan area, we opted for a brand new spot called, Prodigy Outdoor, and came out BEYOND satisfied with our experience with them.  From super dee duperly courteous, helpful and smiling staff,… to uber clean and comfortable facilities,… to a great variety of fresh and delicious home-made dishes at every meal,… to beautiful, lush bamboo greenery all around us, to… refreshing calmness all around us, Prodigy gets a thumbs up!!!

We received roundtrip transfer Shanghai-Moganshan (3 hour each way) + lodging + meals… all for a total of roughly $100usd from Friday night to Sunday late afternoon. Plus, we (myself, Wan Hing and Brittany) lucked out in that a 20-person traveling group had a last minute cancel, which allowed for us to have our own room – that was designed to fit 10 people total…. That was an uber score for us!!

Check some flicks:

Outside our balcony…

Hiking…

Various patches of bamboo were marked off by family names/owners:

Our guide dog, “Happy”…

I’m practicing my fighting moves with bamboo stick, just in case some crouching tigers and/or hidden dragons attack..

All of our meals looked a lil’ something like this!

Then, back to the wilderness where we ran into a herd of goats!!

But I fought them off with my guns…. LOL!

And here’s the full reel for your enjoyment!

. . don’t burn the day. .

First is Paihia, Bay of Islands in North Island of NZ:

The highlight was most definitely a life-long dream of swimming with dolphins out in their natural habitat, courtesy of Awesome NZ! (with a name like that, I couldn’t resist!)

and off we were!!

..with our skipper on the look-out for our finned friends!

..spotted a few super close to our boat!!

..and the money shot!!

…done and done!! … a happy dolphin swimmer I am!!

… then off to a stunning outlook via hiking up a lil’ hill filled with sheep poo!

…and it was worth it!!

…and on our way back … I saw a lovely rainbow!!

Look at how tiny our boat was in comparison to a cruiseliner…

Just a short and scenic 20min walk from Paihia is Waitangi – best known for being the location where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on February 6, 1840 between the Maori and British crown. The introduction of the Treaty effectively revoked the Declaration of Independence; making New Zealand a British colony, and the Treaty is generally considered the founding document of New Zealand as a nation. Waitangi Day is the annual celebration of the signing, and is New Zealand’s national holiday.

a present-day Maori family’s home….. check the pride!

A 15minute ferry ride from Paihia is charming, Russell:

… the arrival….

Even the police station looked like a nice place to be found in!!..

I immediately trekked up to an outlook…. this was quite a workout with its steep hills!!!

and again, it was worth it!!

…taking it all in… ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

… then the downward trail…and over to the other side of the island for some beautiful chillax time at Long Beach…. (again, VERY WORTH IT!!)

..and the full reel, enjoy!

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Just a big ol’ city… really….

Though, with a nice look-out at Mission Bay…

and a “cool” (literally) ice bar, called Minus 5 Ice Lounge:

And the full reel, enjoy!

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NZ is not just about naturally beautimous landscapes, but culture too!

We got a lil’ bit of it all up in Rotorua in the North Island: Geysers, Mudpools and an evening with the Maori people– who kept us entertained by teaching us traditional games, performing song and dance …and feeding us an awesome all-you-can-eat hangi dinner meal!

Daytime = Chill time to enjoy the park and natural surrounding beauties.

Evening = Lundy got re-acquainted with his seemingly long-lost ancestry, aka.. he REALLY had a natural connection with the Maori way of life!

Opening ceremony: welcoming the chiefs aka 1 male representative from each tour bus (3 in total).

We were welcomed into the village, where L wasted no  time to volunteer himself to partake in a traditional Maori game…

L (that’s his hand in top left corner) learned a Maori chant: “Hoo! Hoo! Ha! HA!!”

I couldn’t help myself, but to let loose w the Maori warrior…

and did ya’ll know that LENNY KRAVITZ is a Maori????!!!…

The show was super entertaining with traditional story telling, song, dance… Here’s the chief of the tribe as host..(who I thought looked like a turkey)…

Next, feast time and L couldn’t take his eyes off the buffet table..

….and he had good reason to! Look at the spread! It felt like Thanksgiving all over again!

Traditional Hangi meals are cooked on firewood…

And the full reel, enjoy!

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(Yeah, I know.. I’m STILL not done with my NZ posts… )

We eventually made our way up to the west coast of the South Island for some glacier adventure. My partner-in-crime last year, Lisa had visited NZ and boasted of some amazing shots of her glacier hike experience in NZ….so of course, I had to check it out for myself!  Though, Lundy and I weren’t blessed with as nice and sunny weather as Lisa’s in her pics, we made the most of our day there. In fact, upon nearing Glacier Country, it started drizzling quite a bit. L & I, being both extremely tired from our previous adventures and drives, found ourselves both secretly hoping that the hike would be cancelled. Me, being me, opted to call the booking office with 15 minutes to spare to a hike call time of 3pm on Tuesday, February 9th 2010.. to check to see if the hike would be cancelled. But, I was almost laughingly corrected by the woman on the other side of the line, “Honey, it rains 300 days of the year in this part of the island, so the hike is still on.” I hung up the phone, relayed the message to L, and after sulking for a half a second, we rallied up our energy for a pretty nifty experience!

After being given jackets, overpants, socks, boots and spikes, we headed out to battle Mother Nature’s rain spittings and magnificent glaciers!

If ya look closely towards the top of the glacier on the right, you’ll see a trail of folks hiking… we would be following suit shortly there after…

Don’t I look like your local meteorologist, fresh on the icy scene??!

Ice Hammock anyone?? Lundy said, “Yes!”

Lundy and his urge to mess with the emergency aid barrel…

I couldn’t resist an ice angel….

On our way down…. some perrty perrty waterfalls…

We sooooo rewarded ourselves with an awesomely hearty home-cooked meal of garlic toast, pesto fettucine, grilled chorizo and lamb chops! Mmmmmmm….

I was soooooo hungry….and ya’ll know, I ain’t got NO shame in my eating game! LOL!

And now of course, the full reel, enjoy!

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Lake Wanaka:  Where the “leisure” rowing excursion turned into life or death (kinda)… Well, umm ridiculously fierce winds picked up and turned our kayak multiple times while we were deep out into the lake, causing us to battle Mother Nature for our safe return…. and we succeeded with great teamwork and tired arms!

And super awesome deep canyoning … seriously SUCH A WORTHWHILE ADVENTUROUS EXPERIENCE!!

A pretty damn good shot of Lundy jumping under a waterfall with rainbow.. (Yeah, I was jealous…and still am…. trying to get over it…. )

and here’s a video clip of yours truly sliding down a 10meter waterfall… at pretty much a 45 degree angle….

Our new friend and great company on our wet n’ wild deep canyoning experience, Jana, originally from Germany, currently living in Mallorca……

along with our awesome guide, Scott…

And the full reel here for ya’ll to enjoy!…

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An evening of delicious dishes at an ethnic XinJiang restaurant (close by, in my hood).

(A tad late with this post by a couple weeks, but whatevs!)

About Xinjiang:

With borders of Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan,Pakistan and India, Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the PRC. “Xinjiang” literally means “New Frontier”, a name given during the Qing Dynasty, and is home to a number of different ethnic groups and major ethnic group include Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Hui, Kyrgyz and Mongol. (Some of you may recall the recent “drama” btw the Uyghur and Han….. umm yeah.)

So anyway, what called for this gathering of friends, seemingly resembling the UN, was the arrival of Kym’s sister, Alicia (Chi’town & NY reppin!) So without further a’do….here we are under the umbrella of friendship and feastin!….

There’s always the same dude working up the slammin’ lamb and chicken kebob grill just to the right of the restaurant’s entrance. Mind you, this place is always BUSY BUSY BUSY every night of the week; 80% of the time, you’d see belly dancers or someone celebrating some festive occasion up in here! Andddd it’s a great place for large groups! I’ve gone with a good group of 8-10 folks, ordering 10-12 dishes + Xinjiang beer, and the bill would only come out to approx. $8usd per person!

Sisters, Kym & Alicia in Shanghai!

Alan (another ABC who has moved to the ‘Hai last year), handles the important task of ordering…

Is it me or does Kym look like she’s a little too excited to receive her bowl of white rice?

Zia = FOCUSED, mannnnnn!

Damnnnnnn Alicia!!!!

NY to SH Express….

Andddddd Alicia just HAD to take a picture of this random dude who sat at a table next to ours. Thankfully, he spoke English (from SF) and had a great sense of humor to allow for Alicia to snap a photo of him in his Google shirt… in China…The Irony. Get it???!!

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