New all-purpose semi trekking shoes

Bought them because I really needed a new pair of sneakers after I left my old one muddy and woozing water in Hawaii.

699 NTD. Made in China. I'd think it's all worth it if they last 2 years.

And now there's light

I made a huge decision and had my eyes Lasiked a week ago. Here's what happened so far.

2/16 The big day
All in all, it's a funny sensation. I was told to stare at this red dot which was actually orange, and I could feel the doctor cutting on the surface of my eyes and flipping open the flap he made with the cuts. The red dot became a big orange rim right after the flipping thing. When the laser started hitting, I could see light blue sparks surrounding the orange rim. The whole procedure probably lasted 30 minutes. When I walked out of the operation room, I could already see much farther, if only all blurry.
After getting home, all hell broke loose. I heard from a friend that she just went directly to bed and woke up to clear, sharp vision. Not such luck for me. The pain was so bad that couldn't fall asleep, even with the help of a painkiller. I was wondering to myself why the nurse told me it's normal to tear up but I didn't seem to be doing much of that. I sat up in the bed, and the tears came streaming down as if from a collapsing dam. So I lied back down. The really bad time lasted about 2 hours, and by 4 hours there were only mild irritations. Hail to the rapid healing powers of eyes.

Bloodshot eyes after the surgery. This is in fact caused by the cuts.



Silly-looking eye shield. Need to wear them during sleep so the fingers don't go to wrong places and do bad things. I feel like an NBA hotshot.

2/18 First post-surgery exam
Doing well. R: +1.2, L: +0.9. Slight inflammation. Couldn't see clearly with my left eye, but the doctor said it was natural since it was worse than -1.0. Would take longer.

2/23 Second post-surgery exam
Inflammation gone. R: +1.2, L: +1.0. Still had trouble seeing clearly with my left eye. Doc told me he overdid a bit on purpose because weak eyes like my left one almost always regress after the surgery. So for the time being I am far-sighted in that eye and that's why I can't seem to focus properly on anything. Sounds good to me.

A week from the surgery. The blood is going away a bit. It feels funny to go to bed seeing everything so clearly. I have to tell myself not to poke into my eyes to remove the nonexistent contacts.

這是鼠的年!! This is the year of the rat!!

It is amazing how machine translators are offering good jokes these days. That's why you get things like 這是鼠的年 when people try to say this year is the year of the rat. Such literal translations always seem right when you convert them back to the source language, which says "this is the year of the rat", but anyone who speaks the target language is always in for a laugh when they see the translation and also when they see how 新年快樂 (happy new year) can be translated to "new year is happy."

Hail to machine translators. That's why I still have a job.

A hell of a way to wake myself up

Had the most horrible dream ever while waking up this morning. It's a sure sign telling you it's time to wake up when you can experience such wrenching emotions in just one dream. So I did. If that's a punishment for sleeping in (and getting an email from your boss wanting to discuss your working hours online but she's already off), I'll try to wake up earlier next time...

Kauai, Hawaii trip – Map

Last but not least, the map highlighting where we've been.

Kauai, Hawaii trip – Local specialties

Wild chickens: These well-fed creatures could be sighted everywhere. Obviously leading a comfortable life.





Spouting Horn




Poipu Beach: the beach and the snorkel gear rental.





Bridges



Tree tunnel




Sunset




Fruit stands




Funny plants: Signature plant, cactus (?!), tree roots and Cook Pine (I don't think they've been trimmed...).







Kekaha Beach: the only sunny spot on the whole island on that particular day.




Spiced-up signs

Kauai, Hawaii trip – Climb your rear end off to get to the top of the world

After the strenuous and slimy trail of Kee Beach, you'd think that no one remotely sane would want to do something similar. But trust me, time does weird things to your mind. And let's face it, the view and fun were definitely worth it. So we took off for Waimea Canyon 3 days after we got out of the muddy goodness. To get there, we had to drive all the way up along a winding mountain road, which obviously was foreign to a lot of Americans. Being Taiwanese, I felt adequately confident that I would fare pretty well.

The entrances of a handful of trails span along the road heading up to Kokee Museum. Apparently a lot of people chose to stay there overnight, but we figured one day was probably quite enough. We chose the Nualolo-Awaawapuhi loop since it was highly recommended by the old lady working at the museum. (Seriously, how bad could it be if a 65-year-old lady could do it?) With the last experience in mind, we bought new hiking boots and brought lots of water/drinks and (ah-ha!) bug spray.

The first mile was torturing. The slope was steep, and the fact that I couldn't seem to get enough air didn't exactly help. The chef tried to morph into my personal cheerleader but still failed to wean me from every-10-min breaks. But here's where the mystery of human bodies kicked in. When you tortured yourself long enough, you simply stopped feeling the pain as much.




We walked on some narrow paths dangerously close to the cliff and arrived at the first outlook hours later. It was something that I've definitely never seen before. Quoting a friend, you'd just feel very close to the sky. And here the rainbows showed up once again (as they did from time to time on this island), and I could barely believe my eyes when one of them was making a trail of raining showers on the sea (or the other way around. Oh who cares, minor scientific details). The whole scene was so breathtaking that I hated the idea of moving on to the returning trail even more. My new boots were not exactly helping either by giving me hell. They were men's boots and therefore about 1 size too big. I don't care what those motivation coaches say, but when you hurt yourself by making each step, it's really hard to forget the pain and to work up the motivation. At that moment, I just wanted to lie there and play dead.







But you've got to do what you've got to do. The only consolation was, you could hate what you've got to do with all your heart. I had no idea what kind of sadistic twisted pervert could have planned such a route, but the return trail was heading all the way uphill. If there were Armageddon, we were hiking it. The only good news appeared to be the absence of mosquitoes—even though I did remember to bring the bug spray this time. Detecting that my battery juice was drying up, the chef volunteered to carry my backpack for me. I felt bad. But that only lasted like 3 minutes. The truth be told, I was running out of energy (no bunny prize for me). After another 3 hours or so, we saw the best view EVER: a car parked at the exit.



A lady from Canada with her son offered to give us a ride back to where we parked our car, and I tried not to behave too desperate when I took the offer for us. The chef later said that she probably wouldn't have made the offer if he were hiking alone. Uh duh! Who'd pick a 200-pound strapping male instead of a fragile helpless petite brunette in this case scenario?! Now you know we shorties can work our charms too.

On the way down, I got carsick. I guess that was a pretty suitable wrap-up for such a devious trekking experience. I would just classify this along with the parasailing flight in Borocay under "Must Do, Not Again."