Greg and Rosanne

Greg and Rosanne are 2 of the very few friends I had years ago back in Reno.  In fact, they were my realtors and helped me purchase my lovely little home in Reno... 

They moved to Reno from the Bay area.  While in California, Greg was a police officer and Rosanne was an IT professional.  One day, they decided to make a change to their lives, so they just dropped everything in CA and moved to Reno to pursue a whole new career in the real estate business. 

After 6 months losing touch with them this year, I called Rosanne last weekend asking her about Hawaii (Rudi and I are going there over Thanksgiving for 10 days).  As I remembered, when I was in Reno, they went to Hawaii quite often.  During our call, Rosanne told me that she and Greg had both retired.  Sold their mansion in Reno and bought an RV instead...  They got rid of most of their STUFF and have been traveling around the country in their RV for the past 6 months -- they are having a great time!!

I am always amazed by people who can just get up, drop everything and move on to the next stage of their lives...  It is not just about how much $$ you must have to live an exotic retirement life, it is about whether you have the guts to move on, to live a life you really, truly desire!  It is about whether you understand what's more important in life.  I envy those people and their bold decisions.  Hope some day I can be like that -- highly unlikely, but I still admire that kind of mentality -- be free, venture out, experience and explore the world in a bold way!!!

Here is their blog.  Enjoy!

www.WagsWildAdventure.com

The World of WeChat (微信)

I feel the need to make a record on my history book about a significant event in my life -- I have finally entered the World of WeChat.  After 48 hours of testing the water, I have confirmed that yes, it is indeed a world of chaos -- it sucks your brain and consumes your life like you would not believe...

The truth is, many of my good friends kindly recommended WeChat to me a LONG time ago.  I declined only because I knew it would undoubtedly interfere with my Zen world.  But after my trip to Mongolia, it occurred to me that this would be an effective way for me to be in touch with my friends in China.  So, before opening the WeChat account, I decided to only add 2 of my friends from China.

Well, as we all know, life rarely happens according to plans...  What I learned over the past 48 hours was -- if you get into a group that you don't want to be in, suck it up -- you're on your own!  For the Elite groups you wish to be in, you're likely not qualified to be in...  So, either way, it's a lose-lose situation for you.  Yeah, life sucks, isn't it???

So, for those long-term 微信 lovers, this is for you:

国庆大典上，走来第57个民族。主 持人这样解说：现在走过来的是微信方阵。他们身穿睡衣，肩扛枕头，左手手机，右手充电宝，身后背着一锅心灵鸡汤，胸前挂着佛经和养生秘方，个个转发着正能 量，自吟着立志经典和闷骚段子，目光呆滞，神情麻木，个别的还在跳大神。主席：“同志们辛苦了！” 微信方阵响亮回答：“主席，天安门 wifi 密码是多少？”

Sunrise at 巴丹吉林

You need to read the story to understand these 3 images -- thank god it's not in Chinese this time!!


Not to say that Picture 3 here is going to be an awarding winning image, but there is definitely a story to be told.  This goes back to what I have been telling you all along: the real value of pursuing photography is not about producing a few static images.  Rather, it is about experiencing life in a much deeper and more conscious way. 

(Refer to Day 5 from my essay below:  10/20/2013)
 
So, we planned to photograph sunrise at 巴丹吉林 desert early in the morning on 10/20/13.  The night before, we agreed to meet at the hotel lobby at 6:15 AM the next morning to be fully prepared for the sunrise at 7:21 AM.  By the way, we stayed at this exotic hotel in the middle of nowhere deep inside the desert -- it soooooo totally didn't fit in with the wilderness...

The night was extremely quiet, as we were one of the only 2 groups in the entire hotel.  I packed my camera gears and set my alarm clock for 5:55 AM.  Guess what, when I woke up the next morning, in the total darkness, I saw 6:36 AM on my lovely iPhone!  No idea what happened to 5:55 AM, but I grabbed my camera bag and ran downstairs...  It was so dark and quiet in the hotel lobby that I actually got scared.  But I didn't have time to think, ran out to the parking lot hoping to see my friends.  I saw no body, but noticed our car was still there -- thank goodness!!  I felt 100 times better and immediately ran upstairs to find my friends....  Believe it or not, this lavish hotel didn't even have an elevator, so I had to go through stairs up and down in the total darkness -- don't ask me why they didn't have lights either...

Rushed into my friends' room and realized that they were in no hurry at all.  They told me that we should NOT go for the sunrise because there were thick clouds.  Do you think I would take "No" for an answer?

We left the hotel and headed out to the desert.  Ran around in the dark trying to find the best spot (literally had to use headlights from the car to see where we were going -- pretty crazy and frantic out there).  Finally, we found the spot, but sunrise was nowhere to be found!

You can finish the rest of the story.  The disappointment was so overwhelming that I had to calm myself down by practicing meditation in the open desert (see Picture 1).  The sunrise was supposed to be at 7:21 AM, but even at 8, there was no sunrise.  When we all went down to our car, the sun finally came out.  Just imagine the chaos at that point....

Picture 2:  the little insignificant blue dot was me taking The Shot -- after being tortured mentally and physically for about 2 hours...

Picture 3:  The Shot taken at 8:33 AM on 10/20/2013.