Pan Admun Republic of Western Blog

Finally, went to the famous Whistler/Blackcomb for some snowboarding. I spent most of the time on some blue/green runs in the mid-hill on the Blackcomb side, (see map) This hill is pretty cool, runs are not too narrow as many hills I've been to. The weather was a bit cold and cloudy, so no "heaven" like you see on promotional materials. Hahaha.

The only regret is I missed the famous 7th Heaven and The Bowl... ok next time go ONLY by myself.

I just can't believed how bad it is to drive in San Francisco..... Today I spent hours driving in town to find 2 snowboarding shops (I'm looking for a washer for my binding).

I first missed the on-ramp to I-280 north (according to map) because the sign said Califonia 1, then I turned around and found that there was no on-ramp to the freeway from the opposite direction! So, I ended up driving local streets to the first shop. I drove through streets after streets, turns after turns and go wrong direction a few times before I found it. The same happened when I search for the 2nd shop, I have to turn around a few times to make the right turns to find the road the shop is located.....

It's just not right. I'm not too bad w/ map and driving to places. I surived driving Toronto/Montreal downtown, and paced around Paris/Tokyo (ok, walking is easier than driving). But nothing is like San Francisco. The road is just too mess up to drive around. There is no such thing called "city planning" there. I guess the city is just too old. All the hills and slopes doesn't help at all.

I arrived San Francisco last Friday for my annual parents visiting trip. I had the chance to go up to Northstar at Lake Tahoe on Satuday for a snowboarding.

The hill is pretty nice. Blue runs are fun and not jam with people. It also have a LOT of black runs. Overall a fun experience.

The weather is so warm in the morning, that I was sweating in just a long-tee and a jacket. I can't believed how warm it is up at 6300+ feets! However, It rained during lunch time and start getting cold there after.

It seem to me that snowboarding is not a easily accessible sports in SF because the hills are 2 hours+ from the city. Damn! How can I go snowboarding every week if I move here....

I guess kids grow up in a different world these days. There seem to be violence everywhere; video games, TV/movies, and schools. I still remembered in the old days, I used to have a toy gun and we like to use it to kill cockroaches or dirty mice move into our flat. We never thought of using it on people (ok, some might but not us) except when playing "wargame". (This is kind of like paintball, but w/ 6mm small plastic pullets. We wear protective masks and all.) Nowadays, people think games, TV, movies with ultra-realistic violence's are to blame for all the violence involved kids. But is it that simple?

In the good old days, concerned parents were complaining about toy guns and GI Joe. They believed these toys encourage violence in kids. But these items seem certainly like Mickey Mouse when compared to Doom/Quake/GTA we got today. The theory is that kids learn and act out what they see in games and movies. Is games/movie/TV to blame solely?

When I heard child mimics killing/violence in game, my questions were: Why these kids were given/getting these games without their parents noticing? Did the parents explain to the kid it is just a game and don't be stupid and serious blah, blah, and blah? These games were not the only reason bad things happened. In our society, parent-child relationship is getting weaker and weaker because many parents are busy working, they are not able to spend time to communicate and understand their kids. Let's face it, kids do need guidelines how to behave, need supervision from time to time. Kids let alone by themselves learn from their environment and behave however they like, with no bounce check on right or wrong.

As a society, we did not set a good model for our youth. We ARE violence in nature: rough hockey play, road rage, wars and killing, the big brother, SUV that bully smaller size cars, the post 9/11 all-out war against "terrorists". What kind of model we're showing to our kid?

Culture/environment different also play a part in the problem. Japan, another industrialized country, seem to have much lower youth violence crime rate. Even the problem there has surged in recent years, but the problem is nowhere near what we have in North America. Many believed the recent surge of youth violence in Japan has something to do with the education system and the attitude toward life change in the younger generation.

Yes, I don't have an answer, or even a clue. Maybe I just leave it to the sociologist.

Some links: Here and here