My Florida trip pic series (Sarasota & St. Petersburg)

Towles Court Art Colony, Sarasota, FL
full of galleries, I quite like this place since I enjoy visual pleasure (colors, patterns and etc.) lots of art work is quite unique as well, like the bamboo, I was wondering is it painted or real? lol
Aug 14, 2009

American #1 Beach, St. Petersburg, FL
a very remote beach inside of a big park, I dunno if it's because I went there during weekday, there were not many people there, and there is no commercial shop around, very peaceful..
Aug 14, 2009

My Florida trip pic series (Florida Keys & Everglades National Park)

Florida Keys, FL
The best part for me was the view I saw during driving, but since I was the only person in the car... hmm... make sure to bring enough drivers when you go.
The next day I got up at 6:00am, was hoping to see sunrise, however, it's not California, there are clouds..
Aug 11&12, 2009

Everglades National Park, FL
Never go to Everglades in summer. No alligators, only mosquitoes..
Aug 13, 2009

Interesting projects and information

OpenNet Initiative
Internet Filtering Map
Infowar Monitor
Psiphon

Cyberwarfare
Ghostnet

In the report about China's Internet Censorship,
they mentioned:
"human flesh search engines" (人肉搜索)
"Fifty Cent Party" (五毛党)

My Florida trip pic series (Biscayne National Park & Black Point Park)

Biscayne National Park, FL
I went to snorkelling and met a nice girl names Anna.
Aug 11, 2009

Black Point Park, FL
a very pretty trail full of mosquitoes..
Aug 11, 2009

My Florida trip pic series (Miami Beach)

Miami Beach, FL
Espanola Way, where most historic architectures are
Aug 11, 2009

My Florida trip pic series (Cocoa Beach & Palm Beach)

Cocoa Beach, FL
I especially like its pier, very unique ;) famous for surfing
Aug 10, 2009

Palm Beach, FL
A wealthy community, cutest sea grass & weirdest rocks I've ever seen though..
Aug 10, 2009

My Florida trip pic series (Tybee Island, Savanah & St. Augustine)

St. Augustine, FL & St. Augustine Beach, FL
historic town, beautiful architectures
Aug 9, 2009

The smoke circle is from a cannon at the fort...

Book recommendation

I STRONGLY recommend this person: Jiddu Krishnamurti.

By reading his books, I feel I can know myself better, know more about what I really I want, what will make me happy, thus I can be more TRUE to myself.

What he points out in our lives may sounds harsh to you. It feels like he is peeling your clothes and pointing out your flaws everywhere. There are usually 2 kinds of people: 1) the first kind immediately put their clothes back on, and say: "no, I don't have those flaws" (I hope they are just fooling others but not themselves); 2) the second kind admit those flaws and try to amend them, he/she even doesn't care to be naked.

Here is one reason for me to control my addiction to meat

From TIME

Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won't bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He's fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he'll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That's the state of your bacon — circa 2009.

Horror stories about the food industry have long been with us — ever since 1906, when Upton Sinclair's landmark novel The Jungle told some ugly truths about how America produces its meat. In the century that followed, things got much better, and in some ways much worse. The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can't even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming — our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.

Never missed LA so much..

I finally ended my homeless trip.. lol
Everything was not planned.. It was adventurous, exciting, but it's also exhausting, I drove 3500+ miles in less than 2 weeks..
But I did learn a lot by myself, met interesting friends along the way. So I think this is quite a nice experience. =)

You never know how much you can do if you don't push yourself.

Going camping with someone met in the supermarket

So I'm going camping at Great Smoky Mountains National Park tomorrow.
And the person I'm going with is a black boy I met at Publix (a big chain supermarket in Florida and Georgia) on the first night I arrived at Atlanta.

I was picking yoghurt that time and he was working there. He asked me where I'm from and I told him I'm originally from China and living in LA right now. Then we began to chat, he said he is learning acting and wants to go to LA for acting sometime. He seems really passionate about it and I told him it's really important to do something you are passionate about. He doesn't have southern accent since he is learning 5 different ways to speak English. At the end, we exchanged phone numbers and I told him I'm going to stay at Atlanta till Thursday.

I planned to go to Great Smoky Mountains National Park today noon when chatting with an old couples at a southern food restaurant called Carver's Grocery. After hearing about my trip, they were really nice to me and telling me about all the unique places around Atlanta. They strongly recommended Great Smoky Mountains which has been on my to-go list for a long time.

In the afternoon, Willis (the black boy) called, without any plan before, I suddenly invited him to come with me. I think he is a nice person and it's always fun to make different kinds of friends. He considered for a while, then accepted my invitation.

After that, I got a little worried. I barely know him, what if anything bad happens? Then I realized what kind of situation I encountered now. People always fear what they don't know about. You have a circle of trust, you first trust your family, then your friends, then your race, then all the human (when encounter animals). So to deal with things you don't know, you either choose to keep away from them, or build a wall between you and them, or even eliminate them. However, you can also try to approach them, and to know them, this is risky though, but that's what I'm going to do (one bad experience is certainly not enough to terrify me).

I hope I'll make a good friend and I hope people can be less greedy & defensive.

In case I forgot..

Day 1
Jacksonville -> Cocoa Beach -> West Palm Beach -> Miami Beach

Day 2
Miami Beach, Biscayne National Park

Day 3
Miami, Florida Keys

Day 4
Everglades National Park

Day 5
Fort Myers -> Sarasota -> St. Petersburg -> Tampa -> Orlando

Day 6
Orlando -> Gainesville

Day 7
Gainesville -> Okefenokee National Widelife Refuge -> Macon -> Atlanta

Day 8
Atlanta

Day 9 (tomorrow)
Atlanta -> Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I'm going to

camp @ Great Smoky Mountain National Park tomorrow night, haha~

Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa

I started from Fort Myers today. It's somewhat weird, on this trip, I always arrived at Fort XXX (Fort Lauderdale as well) during night, and I don't have time for them the next day.

The first stop was Sarasota. In my dear travel book, it was said there are a lot country-style islands there, and you will feel Caribbean culture there. I was attempted, so I dropped by. I didn't took Highway 75, instead, I took Highway 41. Highway 41 is called Tamiami trail (Tamiami = Tampa -> Miami). Because I was afraid that I'm going to get bored by boring highway view and become sleepy and get killed, so I was always trying to find a nice view road to drive (or probably not nice view, but more stuff to look at, and the whole point of my trip is to see things, what's going on here and there, so enjoying the process is much more important than getting to the destination).

I went to Towles Court Art Colony as suggested in the book. It's a very artistic area, full of galleries, intresting houses and plants, with lizards all over the lawn. Didn't get much time to see the town, since I need to arrive at Orlando at night. =( However, I took a detour to see the small islands near Sarasota. It was a nice drive, I'm always so fond of trees and water, and this kind of drive is full of them. Sea is just beside you, and big trees (lots of different kinds) are all over the road sides.

The next one is St. Petersburg (btw, the view on the big bridge from Bradenton to St. Petersburg is spectacular! Driving above the sea, this is so cool.. lol). I went to the so-called "American #1 Beach" at Fort DeSoto Park. It seems that it was rated #1 in 2005. Anyway, in my point of view, yes, it can really be rated #1 among the beaches I've been... It's remote, and in a big park, not too many people, no business shops around, birds' nests are around the beach, trees all over, white&fine sand, really pretty and peaceful...

All right, then I got hungry, and headed to Ybor@Tampa for food. Ybor is small city in Tampa and full of Cuban ppl. It starts with a cigar factory composed of Cuban workers in 19th century. So this means Ybor is a nice place for hunting Cuban food. =) The restaurant I went to is called La Teresita. It's very down to earth and indeed full of Cuban ppl. They don't talk in English, or their English is hard to understand, but it's very interesting being there. I wanted to talk with them, but it seems hard. =( The food was quite good, I ordered shredded steak and moro rice, and they gave me bread as well. I quite like Cuban bread, it's crispy, and they spread sth like butter on it, and melt the butter(?) into the bread, hmm, so yummy...

Everglades National Park

Today was a nightmare for me...

So I didn't drive back to Miami yesterday night, instead, I found a place on Marathon Key (one of Florida Keys) and slept in my car. I was hoping to see the sunrise on this small island, must be cool! However... the sun was totally covered by clouds...

The trip in Everglades is even worse. Saw few wild lives, but got bite by tons of mosquito... I've already heard of how terrible the mosquito could be, so I brought bug spray, and wore thick jeans and shoes. I boldly walked into a small jungle, and suddenly tons of mosquito gathered on my thigh. I didn't spray a lot on my thigh because I thought they can not get through the thick jeans. I was totally wrong, and I was like a scared soldier running away from the war. Even it's just a few minutes, I get bite at more than 30 places... ToT

The weather was hot, too, seriously hot, even breathing is hard. No alligator shows up, they were all hiding under the water. The only wild lives I saw are 1 snake, 1 turtle, a lot of dragonflies and mosquito. But things were not that bad, on the way back, I met two boys, Adam and Kyle. Adam lives at Fort Lauderdale, and Kyle is from Boston, clearly, they are more experienced at finding alligators. Thanks to them, on the way back, I saw 3 alligators. =)

Miami & Florida Keys

I was planning to go to Everglades today. But since tonight I may sleep outdoor, it's better not to get itchy all over my body. So I decided to take a look of Miami and go to Florida Keys afterwards.

The food I'm supposed not to miss at Miami is Cuban food, based on my lonely planet traveling book and yelp and google map, I decide to go to a restaurant called Versailles at little Havana for breakfast. People there are all talking in Spanish (not sure, some language I cannot recognize). Most customers are old people (why? young ppl don't get up early?). The restaurant is nice, waitor is quite friendly (very patient about suggesting food for me), price is not high (a full breakfast for just 5 bucks) and atmosphere is good, too. Unfortunately I may not have time for lunch and dinner. =(

I took off to Florida Keys around 1pm (I didn't like Miami, like I didn't like Miami Beach, it's sort of like LA, I don't like big cities). The view along the drive was fantastic! especially from Islamorada to Key West. The sea in Florida seems much more beautiful than the one in California. It got beautiful blue&green color mixed together, with white&fine sand. There are tons of keys (low islands) which make the sea view more diverse. Watching the view to my eyes is like eating Todai to my mouth.

Miami Beach & Biscayne National Park

I slept at 4am yesterday(or today), and woke up 8am this morning. Am I too excited for my trip? lol
After doing some research about the trip, I called Biscayne National Park about the snorkeling trip. Fortunately, they are providing it today at 1:30pm. It takes 1 hour to get there, and they asked me to get there 1 hour early to listen to the instruction. So I need to take off at 11:30am at least. It's 9:30am now, so I decided to take a walk in Miami Beach.

Miami Beach is okay, like Santa Monica, a beach near busy district. Even early in the morning, it's already full of people. I didn't took a long walk there, instead, I went to Espanola Way, which is supposed to be a street of historic architectures. I didn't like Miami Beach, but this little street is a nice walk.

Then I headed to Biscayne National Park. The traffic on US Hwy 1 is awful, I was worried that I cannot make my snorkeling trip. Suddenly I remembered dear pigguo's advise, taking the Florida Turnpike. It was much better, and luckily I got there on time.

Traveling in Florida, the first advise is probably that make sure to bring spray to keep mosquito away from you. Putting on bikini in the restroom is a nightmare, I got bited all over my body... Anyway, when we finally get onto the sea, mosquito are gone. It was a 1-hour drive from the visitor center to the coral reef. On the boat, I met a Korean girl names Anna, who were really nice to me. She lives at Fort Lauderdale (so-called Venice of America), and her friend in Pennysivia is visiting her, so they got on this trip together. I guess one of the advantages of traveling alone is that you can meet different ppl along your trip. Although at first I get a little scared of traveling all alone by myself, but now I begin to appreciate the nice parts of it.

The color of the sea is different, some part is blue, some part is more greenish. I asked the staff, and he told me it's because of the sea grass, the area with sea grass is darker, bluish, because the sand is covered. We finally got there, and I cannot wait to jump into the sea. It was fantastic. First time seeing sea creatures so vividly and so naturally, not in museum (they are all dead), not in aquarium (they are all in prison).

Florida east coast drive

Today's trip:
Jacksonville -> Cocoa Beach -> West Palm Beach -> Miami Beach

Don't have much time for blogging, so summarize..

1. At Cape Canaveral, when eating lunch at a bar, heard from a girl named Patty that her sister's husband is going to Iraqi to drive tanks (he was driving trucks for post office). I asked her that isn't the man afraid of war? She said the salary is $90,000 (tax free) with two 21-day vacation per year, and a lot of ppl apply for the jobs, but she doesn't know what's the ratio of ppl can get in.

2. Cocoa Beach Pier is really cute, pic later.

3. The inequality of West Palm Beach is quite big, just like LA. View in the inland area is not pretty, however, if you get to Palm Beach (the little island), there is huge difference, just like USC vs. Beverly Hills. I went to the Flagler Museum, but it's closed on Monday.. lol. The wealthy Worthy Ave. is full of expensive shops, but I did enjoy the architecture and the view. pic later, really pretty.

4. Driving along A1A from Palm Beach to Miami Beach is really nice (slow though, expect lower than 35m/h). Well, basically, the view is composed of wealthy houses, big&green(not yellow!) palm trees, and water. Some house is along the beach, some is along the bay, anyway, this is the kind of house I really like... Highly recommend, especially the start part from Palm Beach.

Florida cities

data from here

Jacksonville
Population in July 2008: 807,815. Population change since 2000: +9.8%
Median resident age: 33.8 years / Florida median age: 38.7 years
large, young city

Estimated median household income in 2007: $48,699 (it was $40,316 in 2000)
Jacksonville: $48,699 / Florida: $47,804
Estimated per capita income in 2007: $25,530
Jacksonville: $25,530 / Florida: $26,696
Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $180,900 (it was $84,100 in 2000)
Jacksonville: $180,900 / Florida: $230,400
income average, housing cheap

Races in Jacksonville:
* White Non-Hispanic (62.2%)
* Black (29.0%)
* Hispanic (4.2%)
* Two or more races (2.0%)
* Filipino (1.4%)
* Other race (1.3%)
* American Indian (0.8%)

2008 cost of living index in Jacksonville: 84.0 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)
Ancestries: German (9.6%), United States (9.3%), Irish (9.0%), English (8.5%), Italian (3.5%), French (2.2%).
Population density: 1066 people per square mile (low).

St. Augustine
Population in July 2008: 12,404. Population change since 2000: +7.0%
Median resident age: 41.5 years / Florida median age: 38.7 years
small, old city

Estimated median household income in 2007: $40,482 (it was $32,358 in 2000)
St. Augustine: $40,482 / Florida: $47,804
Estimated per capita income in 2007: $26,882
St. Augustine: $26,882 / Florida: $26,696
Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $264,522 (it was $111,800 in 2000)
St. Augustine: $264,522 / Florida: $230,400

Races in St. Augustine:
* White Non-Hispanic (79.3%)
* Black (15.1%)
* Hispanic (3.1%)
* Two or more races (1.6%)
* American Indian (1.1%)
* Other race (0.9%)

2008 cost of living index in St. Augustine: 95.7 (near average, U.S. average is 100)
Ancestries: German (14.5%), Irish (13.9%), English (13.6%), United States (6.5%), Italian (5.9%), French (4.3%).
Population density: 1482 people per square mile (low).

West Palm Beach
Population in July 2008: 98,779. Population change since 2000: +20.3%
Median resident age: 36.7 years / Florida median age: 38.7 years

Estimated median household income in 2007: $44,594 (it was $36,774 in 2000)
West Palm Beach: $44,594 / Florida: $47,804
Estimated per capita income in 2007: $30,459
West Palm Beach: $30,459 / Florida: $26,696
Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $298,800 (it was $91,500 in 2000)
West Palm Beach: $298,800 / Florida: $230,400
housing expensive

Races in West Palm Beach:
* White Non-Hispanic (46.0%)
* Black (32.2%)
* Hispanic (18.2%)
* Other race (4.3%)
* Two or more races (3.4%)
* American Indian (0.8%)

2008 cost of living index in West Palm Beach: 96.7 (near average, U.S. average is 100)
Ancestries: West Indian (7.7%), German (7.4%), Irish (7.0%), English (6.1%), United States (5.2%), Italian (4.9%).
Population density: 1791 people per square mile (low).

Fort Lauderdale
Population in July 2007: 164,282.
Median resident age: 39.3 years / Florida median age: 38.7 years

Estimated median household income in 2007: $52,264 (it was $37,887 in 2000)
Fort Lauderdale: $52,264 / Florida: $47,804
Estimated per capita income in 2007: $35,432
Fort Lauderdale: $35,432 / Florida: $26,696
Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $370,300 (it was $132,600 in 2000)
Fort Lauderdale: $370,300 / Florida: $230,400
wealthy city

Races in Fort Lauderdale:
* White Non-Hispanic (57.5%)
* Black (28.9%)
* Hispanic (9.5%)
* Two or more races (3.8%)
* Other race (1.8%)
* American Indian (0.5%)

2008 cost of living index in Fort Lauderdale: 122.3 (high, U.S. average is 100)
Ancestries: German (10.4%), Irish (10.3%), West Indian (9.8%), English (8.2%), Italian (7.6%), United States (5.8%).
Population density: 5178 people per square mile (average).


Miami
Population in July 2008: 413,201. Population change since 2000: +14.0%
Median resident age: 37.7 years / Florida median age: 38.7 years

Estimated median household income in 2007: $29,075 (it was $23,483 in 2000)
Miami: $29,075 / Florida: $47,804
Estimated per capita income in 2007: $19,948
Miami: $19,948 / Florida: $26,696
Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $330,800 (it was $116,400 in 2000)
Miami: $330,800 / Florida: $230,400
low income, high rent

Races in Miami:
* Hispanic (65.8%)
* Black (22.3%)
* White Non-Hispanic (11.8%)
* Other race (5.4%)
* Two or more races (4.7%)
* American Indian (0.5%)

2008 cost of living index in Miami: 141.7 (very high, U.S. average is 100)
Ancestries: West Indian (6.3%), United States (3.1%), Italian (1.4%), German (1.2%), English (1.1%), Irish (1.0%).
Population density: 11583 people per square mile (high).
Crime Index: 682.3 (US Average 320.9).

I should learn more from homeless ppl

about how to survive in the wild -________-

Philosophers play soccer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur5fGSBsfq8

hahahaha...

Unemployed

I'm one of them now.. lol