回来大半个月了，过年、嘟嘟一周岁、再加上各种聚会，很多人问“回来感觉怎么样", 其实离开的时间并不长，在上海，就是如鱼得水。

- 每天陪着嘟嘟玩，欺负嘟嘟和被他欺负

- 重新能吃到中式早餐

- 出门不用GPS, 基本地铁加出租能到所有地方

- 吃饭点菜能够准确点出想吃的那一道，80%原来常去的餐厅还在。

- 家人、同事、同学、朋友，到现在还没有把约好的聚完

当然也有些不尽如人意的地方

- 回来还没有开过车。X-trail对我太大，上海马路对我太小

- 衣服价格很离谱，特别是本土、香港、日韩概念

- 吃饭很便宜，但是咖啡好贵。

- 路上很吵，喇叭声、铃声、商场劣质音响、还有路人的嬉笑怒骂声

最开心的还是能和嘟嘟天天在一起

- 嘟嘟很活泼，喜欢对陌生人笑，喜欢跟着音乐跳舞（招手+摇头+扭屁股），常常没事自己乐。

- 嘟嘟也很凶，欺负公园小朋友，一不顺心就发犟脾气。曾经试图把沙发搬起来、把烟缸咬碎、把门撞破。

- 嘟嘟表演欲很强，喜欢表演，也喜欢别人夸他，喜欢大家围着他转。如果他表演完（比如演大力神把玩具房子从小床上搬出来) 你没有反应，他就会冲着你叫。等你注意到他了，然后再表演一遍，要你拍手。

- 嘟嘟爱吃，属猪，是杂食动物。什么都喜欢吃。最喜欢大人吃饭的时候，蹭一点。

-嘟嘟不爱睡，现在应该每天13小时左右，但是嘟嘟只有10个小时。可能和妈妈一样，世界多美好，舍不得睡。

- 嘟嘟太皮，一刻不停，不是手就是脚动，要么一起动，除了睡觉。所以嘟嘟不胖，但威力已经破坏了若干手机、遥控器、电话、闹钟、手表，等等。

- 嘟嘟第一眼看像女孩子，可惜第二眼就是十足的捣蛋鬼。嘟嘟头发很软，有点卷，打算给他留长发，哈哈。

贴一些照片

• 大年初一嘟嘟有红包拿，新衣服早上穿还像小白兔，到了下午就脏成大灰狼了。

• 以前部门的一次聚会，曾经的"I love this team!"

• 嘟嘟一周岁啦．去年的２／２０，我成功卸货．今年，这小子也已经长到２０多斤了．提拉米苏，嘟嘟喜欢，嘟嘟妈妈也喜欢，嘟嘟妈妈的妈妈最喜欢．

• 我们家今年加上我表弟的儿子和我表姐的女儿，有三只小猪。嘟嘟算是猪头，不过只有欺负人的时候有大哥的样子。三只小猪合影。

• 嘟嘟在公园，也很识货.

• 睡着时是天使，醒来时是..., 不说了。

嘟嘟时刻准备着，因为嘟爸就要回来了！

After traveling to more than ten cities across east coast and west coast in the past six months, I found myself still love to live in Southern California, especially Orange County most. Despite the high housing cost, OC holds great job opportunities, diversified culture, safe community, unmatched weather and easy access to beach as well as other living facilities. I once even decided that if I could not enroll to my top choice school, two year MBA in UC Irvine would also be an acceptable choice considering its location. Sometime I even question myself that if I want to stay in SoCal, why not just simply choose a strong alum network in SoCal, such as Marshall, Anderson, or even UC Irvine, UCSD? Why still bother to approach other schools? But who knows I will not change after another half year, or two years?

Today, I read another article about the charisma of SoCal.

SoCal: brimming with VC opportunities

Editor’s note: This is an op-ed piece by Sumant Mandal who is managing director at Clearstone Venture Partners in Santa Monica, Calif.

There’s no doubt that California is regarded as the “mecca” of venture capital in the world with VC activity just in the first quarter alone representing 44 percent of the nation’s deal flow and 48 percent of capital invested, according to VC analyst group VentureOne. Silicon Valley has been synonymous with venture capital for as long as I can remember and for good reason. The valley has a balanced ecosystem of entrepreneurs, university research, angels and VCs. Combine that with good weather and the lure of past successes, and it’s no wonder talented technologists make a beeline for it.

But, there’s a shift happening that’s been quietly gaining momentum. Did you know that Southern California accounts for two-thirds of the state’s GDP, making it the 15th largest economy in the world? (As a whole California is the sixth largest.) This past year, the region saw the second highest level of capital investment in the U.S. (beat only by Silicon Valley) with 1.10 billion invested over 66 deals, the first time investments have topped $1 billion in a single quarter since 2000, reports VentureOne.

We’ve been headquartered in Southern California (first as Idealab) for nine years. Half of our portfolio companies are in the south while the other half are in Silicon Valley near our Sandhill office. Having cultural insight into both regions during this time, we’ve witnessed an emergence of a brand new SoCal community: increased VC capital, work force, technology development and a new and noteworthy breed of start-up. We’ve invested, incubated, and supported stellar portfolio companies in both regions and I can say with certainty that, dollar for dollar, venture returns down here will match up north with ease.

We view SoCal as five distinct markets:

1. The Santa Barbara corridor has long been the bastion of deep computer science initiated by research out of UCSB.

2. The Westlake Village area has developed a reputation for service-oriented companies and innovative software companies. There’s a great pool of talent in that area and our own United Online/netzero has been hailed a flagship success story.

3. Orange County resembles the Silicon Valley of 20 years ago, with people spinning out of large semi companies and building products for the enterprise and the carrier buying ecosystem.

4. San Diego thrives on biotech and the wireless ecosystems.

5. Los Angeles itself has distinct areas of expertise, with Pasadena’s (also where Idealab was located) deep history of technology stemming from Caltech and successful companies including Overture. Over on the Westside of things near Hollywood and, more importantly, Santa Monica, there’s a thriving ecosystem of media-oriented web companies staffed by young, talented, no-holds-barred staffers. It didn’t take long for NorCal companies such as Google and Yahoo to open offices where they could hire people who understood how to package and monetize content. Companies like The Rubicon project, Mahalo, ThisNext, DemandMedia, EVO and others are spreading their wings and creating the next generation of success in the space.

There are many reasons why the Southern California market is more interesting than it’s ever been. Changes we’ve sensed and tried to harness for a long time are now coming to fruition, especially over the past two years. Here are some specific convergent trends that are causing this industry shift.

Massive interest in media being consumed online – LA is it. For a long time people (including us) complained that, in general, the media industry was filled with “deal makers” and lacked the backbone of those who understood the process of company building for equity value. Entertainment is a hits-driven business, and that lends itself to the structure that exists in Hollywood. However, it seems a switch went off about 24 months ago. Companies like YouTube, Bittorrent, Veoh and many dozen others have been created to deliver value to holders of equity. And though not all those companies were created in Southern California, they play really well into what talent in this part of the world does well – creating, packaging, delivering and monetizing content.

Stellar successes - The last 24 months have shown that large, industry-changing venture-backed companies can be created in SoCal. We’ve had Overture, MP3.com, United Online, Internet Brands (Carsdirect) go public in our own portfolio here over the last few years, but if we look around we also see companies like MySpace/Intermix becoming the trendsetter in social networking right out of our backyard and Neopets creating a very successful online business. Shopzilla, Oversee.net and Lowermybills.com have created an ecosystem of success that new startups are focused on emulating.

Repeat entrepreneurs – A flood of people who’ve been through the story before are doing it again. Some join up with prior co-workers from former start-ups, some relocate to start something new, others are seeding and advising. There’s a sudden abundance of accessible wisdom infusing the community. It’s as if someone or something opened the spigot.

Networking – This is one of the most significant changes to the Southern California region. There’s always been an effort to harness the common wisdom and share knowledge through the Southern California venture association that Jim Armstrong (MD at Clearstone) helped start. But now there isn’t a week in which we don’t hear about an opportunity to bring together business leaders looking to start something new at the nexus of media and technology.

Bottom line is that SoCal is happening. There’s a lot to be excited about. As an economy that’s driven by business (as opposed to technology,), the area is getting more and more relevant to broader global business. The companies have a new aggressive feel to them. It feels like there’s, literally, a world of opportunity. I know for a fact that most of my partners who previously would have jumped onto that 6.15 a.m. Southwest flight to invest in a NorCal company now think twice. I know I do.

一个人，开车一定要小心，特别是长途和在不熟悉的城市

一个人，吃饭一定要要有规律，甜食少吃，再诱人也不要过劳自己的胃

一个人，早上善存、睡前牛奶，坚持12点前入睡、至少两天跑步20分钟

一个人，一定要每天报平安，电话、邮件、留言，牢记--每天

一个人，其实永远已不是一个人...

今天终于拿到了5号的机票，大年夜晚上到上海。终于不用一个人过年了，因为Hansen小年夜开始要去三藩培训，本来自己一个人要在Irvine开始农历2008，最后还是决定回上海。如果还有学校给我面试，就约上海的alum或hub, 也蛮好。

打包永远是一个痛苦的过程，扔了很多东西，还有很多明天继续。

回家前把电脑重装，终于explorer不用每几分钟重起了。以前新年穿新衣，现在到了这个年纪能重新的很少，至少让laptop干净过年吧。

上周末和hansen去家里附近的一条沿河trek跑步，本来雄心壮志打算从Ralphs跑到UC Irvine, 结果十分之一的时候就开始往回跑(走？) 看来在健身房锻炼的体力还经不起考验。hansen说再也不原意和我去外面跑了，赫赫，无所谓，下次有本事他跑我骑车。看我跑步还带着照相机，可见没什么诚意运动的。

昨天去long beach和一个长青藤的校友面试，过程还蛮愉快，大家就是聊一聊. Peet's Cafe 的no-sugar Mocca很好喝。 long beach community不错，阳光、棕榈树、小house. 这次回上海买的是单程票，因为不知道回来的具体日期，也不知道是到LAX还是到东岸。不庸人自扰了，人生本来就是一张单程票。在车里等GPS计算的时候随便拍了两张。南加现在就像夏天，忽而太阳雨忽而晴空万里。哦，还有，我会穿８厘米的高跟鞋开车了。

因为不知道还有没有机会以后回来Irvine住，这两天把附近喜欢吃的回上海估计吃不到的遍历了一下: Pad Thai, Pho, 蚵仔煎，明天计划Taco或者越南三明治。

刚才报名了６月份的CFA I. 05年COPC, 06年PMP, 07年GMAT+iBT, 08就用CFA吧。尽管以后去IB的兴趣很少，就当pre-course，最担心脑子不用变笨，担心和hansen无理取闹争论占下风了，那可要不得。赶紧念书。

可能刻薄了一些，今天碰到一个很胖的笨女生，害我们白耽误了１个小时。觉得女生最要不得: 变胖、变邋遢、变笨。

现在疯狂下载电影，准备飞机上看，东航全程都有电源插座，太好了。