Pabuk

It looks like we’ll get our first Typhoon of the season tonight and tomorrow morning. Of course it is still a bit too early to tell as the path of typhoons is terribly difficult to predict, however the current JTWC and CWB forecasts both predict it’ll cross through central Taiwan early tomorrow morning which means we should have a rainy night at the least.

US Trip

Today Maggie and Emily are going to the US to stay with my Dad in Santa Barbara for two weeks. I’m not going because someone needs to stay and make sure my business is running smoothly. The last two times I left (Singapore and US) a significant amount of money went missing each time. We now have video surveillance systems in place in both stores but I’m still a bit nervous about leaving again until I’m more confident that things are OK. Besides I also have a lot of things on my TODO list that I can get done once things are a bit quieter.

Pictures

I’ve updated Emily’s 2007 Album for 2007-03-24 through 2007-08-05. One thing I’ve been playing with recently is making panoramas by stitching multiple pictures into one large panorama image using Autostitch. Here is one from tonight (well last night by the time this is posted) of the atrium of Core Pacific City Living Mall.

Core Pacific City Living Mall Atrium Panorama
Click For Larger Version

I’ve also finally posted an album from my family’s 1978 Soviet Union Trip for a bit of history. Here’s a sampling:

Sarah walking to the Ob Sea
Click For Larger Version

Harry Potter Movie

Last night Maggie and I finally got around to seeing the new Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix movie. We went to see the IMAX 3D version at the Miramar in Dazhi. As usual the experience of seeing a film in IMAX is pretty incredible. Only the big finale, from when Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna and Neville fly off to the Ministry of Magic to the end of the fight with he who shall not be named was in 3D, but that 3D part itself was pretty cool. They use a polarized light system for the 3D so you have to wear polarized glasses to see it. I highly recommend going to see it in IMAX 3D if you have a chance, even if you’ve already seen the normal film version.

Afterwards we went to the Lailai Soy Milk shop near there for snacks. I remember going there ages and ages ago when that area was no more than a cluster of buildings at a big intersection. Now the whole area is filled with new tall buildings.