Before visiting Pyongyang, you might expect a dismal, dreary place. Below I’ll show some views that met my expectations (click for bigger views, email if you want higher resolution) The city also has many monuments and sites — monuments, stadiums, statues, victory arches, grand libraries, grand boulevards, etc. I’m not sure, but I suspect whoever is leading the planners envisioned creating a Paris of the East. They had a lot[…] Keep reading →

Many times daily in North Korea you see someone crouching doing nothing but passing time. Usually they’re alone, but sometimes in a group. I kept meaning to take pictures, but it feels funny to take a picture of someone doing nothing. I found the two below on the web. As best you can tell they’ve been squatting all day and will be for a while longer. They’ll be in a[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been meaning to write more about my April 2012 North Korea trip. I took tons of video, pictures, and notes there, but have been trapped behind China’s censoring of YouTube and I wanted to start by showing video. Well, you’ll have to wait to see the video, but I’ll start posting some text and pictures. I’m writing this post partly to sink my ships and force myself to write[…] Keep reading →

I mostly post pictures of cultural things like the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and millenia-old terracotta armies, but why not pictures of luxurious resorts I’ve indulged in? Maybe because the former are cultural and the resort in question — Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands — is commercial and makes its money from gambling? Maybe, but swimming in an infinity pool above Singapore also recalls when I swam across the Hudson River. And[…] Keep reading →

I played ultimate in Shanghai for the first time Monday and Saturday since the tournament in August in North Korea (in particular getting the end zone D and catching the goal to win the game), which was the first time in something like five years. Wow, nothing compares to playing ultimate. Even with probably 90 degree temperatures and high humidity, running around, throwing, and catching was awesome. It’s like what[…] Keep reading →

Preface: I started writing this blog about how cutting personal costs (of any resource, including time, money, energy, attention, etc) improves your personal life. Rereading it I realized it overlapped so much with what leaders can do in business, I’ll tag it leadership too. Translating the post into business-speak I’ll leave as an exercise to the reader. You can probably do it on the fly. People who know me in[…] Keep reading →

Today I visited the amazing terracotta army near Xian, China, which they bill as the eighth wonder of the world. I also had some geeky fun you might enjoy reading about after the pictures. I haven’t read the Wikipedia page on it yet, but from what I understood from I understood from our guide, who didn’t speak English so my co-worker had to translate, an emperor about 2,200 years ago[…] Keep reading →

Business brought me to the lovely city of Xian, not that far from Shanghai. My hosts brought me to a central area they covered with LEDs, I guess for tourists. I couldn’t help take pictures to post here. It was borderline garish, but just this side of too much. I don’t know if the pictures capture it. It almost felt like daytime at night. The city lit up a whole[…] Keep reading →

I just visited a street lined with fruit stands serving durians. They sell other fruits — including mangoes, mangosteens, jack fruit, dragon fruits, and others — but only serve the durians at the tables. If you haven’t heard of or eaten durians, here are some pictures. You can see they are unusual — sharp on spiny on the outside, looking like guts on the inside — but the smell makes[…] Keep reading →