Data Visualized

Today I was just browsing Mashable.com like I usually do every morning, 

and I found a few really cool sets of data that was visualized into a video or a color map.

[ New York Transit (MTA): One day of activity ]

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO

This map with dots of various subway and buses show the flow of transportation from 4am - 4am in the New York City area (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, Staten Island, and New Jersey). You can see the traffic flow direction changing from in-bound to out-bound during working hours. 

[ Global Android Activations, Oct 2008 - Jan 2011]

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO

This map is really cool. It shows by bar height and color of the number of android activations throughout the world. It first shows the world map, the US, Europe, and East Asia region. It also indicates when certain products are released (which cause a boom of android activations) like the Motorola Droid and the Samsung Galaxy S.

[ Gay Rights in the US, by State ]

CLICK HERE TO SEE INTERACTIVE CHART

If you put your mouse over a certain state, it will give you details on the different types of gay rights within the state you chose. Here's an example of Washington State below:

I'm proud to say that all the states I've lived in (IA, WA, NY) are pretty liberal on all of the types of Gay Rights. And the Northeast is all nice and colorful! Hopefully the whole wheel can be colorful soon. After all, isn't freedom and respecting everyone what America was built upon on?

[ Rich Blocks, Poor Blocks ]

CLICK HERE TO SEE INTERACTIVE MAP

Now to a more sensitive data set, income level.

But as you can see, red is the lower income and green is the higher income

It gives you an easy read at a glance on income level based on area.

You can search every state, city, and town in the US.

I wish they can make this for the whole world!! Then compared to the rest of the world, the US is probably really really green. 

If you click on individual areas, you can also see the details of exact income. 

For example, you can see how much K-Town people earn up above.

Another function is that you can see the rent levels. 

Yea, just looking at this map of New York City rent levels, my eyes hurt.

The most expensive zip code on the Upper East Side?

Median monthly rent is $1,671.

That probably gets you what... a small studio? Probably not even.

I'm really skeptical about this number.

Blog 15: Mid Autumn BBQ

I've been so busy lately trying to settle down in Hong Kong. 

Didn't even notice that I haven't blogged for almost a week!

Last Thursday September 19th was Mid Autumn Festival!

For some reason, BBQ is a tradition in Taiwan on this day.

Besides that, we eat moon cakes and watch the moon at night.

We also eat Pomelo fruits and decorate them 

(basically draw on them with permanent markers)

or cut it open and put it on cat's and little kid's heads

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Sogo Department store was also celebrating it's birthday!

So there was a huge sale.

You get 10% back on everything you buy in cash coupon form.

My mom needed some stuff for the new house she just bought

So it was perfect! 

The only thing was that the coupon redeem is on 13F

And the stuff she needed was on 11F & 10F

So we kept running up and down these floors

Exchanging coupons as we bought stuff to get the max discount

And then each floor had their own discount coupon redeem as well

(like spend xxxx amount on this floor, and you get xxx back)

This was the Japanese food feast on the 13F

Things were displayed in Japanese.

Taiwan is still heavily influenced by Japan.

You can see Matsusei supermarket in the background.

I always wondered, if Japan didn't lose WW2 

(not in a good or bad way, just if...)

Everyone in Taiwan would be Japanese!

Infrastructure, education, economy, people's mannerisms would be better

Not that Taiwan is bad or anything

But we would be even more like Japan! 

And live a better life.

Everyone would be Quadrilingual 

(Japanese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English)

They were selling Taiyaki on the 13F !!!!

Made on the spot, really fresh

Taiyaki

たい焼き

This was 10F I think? 

Still very heavily Japanese influenced

Fake cookies making me hungry

Digital rice cookers, multi functional cookers

ranging from $200 USD - $700 USD

One was a rice/bread/pressure cooker

I saw this crazy coffee machine

Looks like it belongs to a chemist.

Priced at $270 USD

Wonder how many cups of Starbucks coffee you have to drink...

And I found this really pretty purple chair on the 10F

Unfortunately they only sell bedding, they don't sell the chair

One Japanese custom is to have Elevator ladies

They handle pressing the floor buttons

making sure no one gets caught in between doors

and announces each floor when the elevator stops

and greets customers.

This keeps elevators running much more smoothly and orderly.

For lunch, we had dim sum!!

After lunch, we finished up shopping

Kinokuniya bookstore!

There's also branches in Seattle, LA, and New York.

Colorful Ukelele 

And I found Liz Lisa!!!!

My favorite Japanese clothing brand.

It's sooooooo girly and cute.

Full of floral patterns and fluffy elements.

I didn't end up buying this dress since I didn't like the neckline

I felt like I was being choked.

And that plus Asian sweaty weather is not fun.

But the fabric and design is amazing!

It's original price though... kind of Pricy

(Around $140 USD I think?)

This jacket on the other hand I HAD to buy.

It was 50% off.

Liz Lisa jackets are usually priced at $200 USD

So that means I get it at $100 USD

Plus this thickness is perfect for winter in Asia.

So I quickly LINEd my mom

She was on the 13F, I was on the 3F hahaha

Who LINEs with their mom anyways.

No one's so trendy like my mom

And this is just my outfit.

It's the aqua dress I talked about before.

Mom also bought a ton of skin care stuff for me.

I have really bad dark circles (because of allergy)

and also puffy face since I got back go Asia

So these might help!

And time to head back home!

Because Asia is so crowded, we need double deck parking spaces.

It moves the cars around like puzzle pieces! 

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Getting ready for BBQ! 

Getting the grill hot!

Grill everything!!! 

Steak, pork chop, fish balls, sausages, bamboo, clams...

SQUID!!!! 

And some Kirin Beer

"Happy Mid Autumn Festival" says Hamster

"Okey, back to bed now.

Shoo, go away, don't bother me."

Blog 14: Dessert and Skin Care Rampage

This week I went on a Dessert Rampage for some reason

The first place I went to is called Belle Journée

The name of the place means "beautiful day" in French

It's a nice name, but I just can't help but laugh at what it means when they decided to abbreviate the two words and use it as their logo. Bear with me, Americans hahaha

gahhhh so hard to not laugh

They have a variety of coffee and tea drinks and also snacks

Other items that are baked specials for the day can be found on the 1st floor.

I ended up getting a Rose tea

And there are cute little free sugar and creams 

The first Soufflé of my life!!

It was so fluffy

The store also had really cute dessert paintings on their wall

I think this place was originally someone's house

and the bakery remodeled it.

But it still has that cozy home feeling!

The atmosphere is amazing

Some homemade jams and other goodies 

And a picture with my dear friend from High School :)

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The second place is called "Sweet Emily"

I absolutely love their logo, design, colors, and their branding.

And you just feel like a royal princess sitting inside the store!

A macaroon Eiffel tower

There are tons of cupcakes, cakes, macaroons, and pies to choose from

They also serve a lot of different kinds of coffee, fruit teas, and milk tea.

This is combo platter was amazing. It's 7 mini versions of their desserts

It's best if you want to try every type of dessert they make.

It was only $200 NT ($6.75 USD)

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I also went on a skin care rampage... opps

My skin has been reacting to Asian weather like crazy.

I think it isn't used to how moist and hot it is here

so I started to break out like crazy.

Chinese medicine has fortunately helped it a lot already

I only took 1 day worth of medicine and the pimples are almost all gone.

But I still wanted to prevent the pimples from coming back

So I got a ton of skin care products, as well as vitamins. 

I'll explain them below

Top row is a ton of vitamins from DHC. 

1. Starting from the left is Iron, since I've been losing more hair than usual lately. Taking more Iron will help strengthen my hair. 

2. Vitamin B will also strengthen my hair and reduce pimples (B6 & B12 are the main ingredients that will help). 

3. Pearl Barley will help my skin regenerate and have a more even tone as well as lighten my complexion. 

4. Perilla frutescens leaf extract is for reducing allergy, which might help my darker than normal under eye circles. 

Bottom row is drug-store brand skin care products

1. L'Oréal Paris: White Perfect Laser, Treatment Water. This will lighten your skin tone by 1-2 shades within weeks. Other bloggers have taken pictures. One of them even said she had to change her foundation to a lighter shade.

2. Neutrogena: Skin Clearing Toner. This is a toner for acne prone skin.

3. Neutrogena: Pore Refining Toner. This will reduce the size of pores and refine skin.

4. Garnier: Acno Clear Pimple relief cooling roll-on. This is a spot acne treatment product.

5. Garnier: Pure Active Multi-Action Scrub. This is a gentle daily scrub for acne prone skin.

6. L'Oréal Paris: White Perfect Transparent Rosy Whitening Night Cream

One thing about Asians, and I mean real Asian-asians, born and raised in Asia. (I debated for a long time on whether I should say we, or they, since I'm neither Asian or American born Asian) Whatever, I'll just use we, since I can relate. We love to keep our skin white, as white as possible. We use UV repellent day-time umbrellas in the sun. We wear long sleeves in the summer when walking in the sun to prevent from getting tanned. Even getting a little tanned is like a deadly disease, no one wants it. That's why there are a million skin-whitening products here. Skin whitening is probably the top category for skin care products here.

Below is an ad for a beauty store from Hong Kong

There's a page dedicated just for Skin-Whintening (美白) products

You get the idea.

And don't try to preach to me that Asians should love themselves, and be fine with their dark skin and mono-lid eyes. People always want what they don't have. Asians like lighter skin, and Americans like to tan. 

Humans are funny beings!