I walked into a coffee place today, a popular chain, and asked for a regular decaf coffee. The guy taking my order nodded and said, “One decaf Latte”.
“Actually, could I just get a regular decaf coffee?” I repeated.
“Right, one decaf Latte”, he repeated.
“Ummm, how about a regular decaf coffee, not a Latte?” I asked in the most polite and patient voice I could muster.
Puzzled look from the obviously befuddled guy behind the counter, who exchanged knowing glances with his co-workers. Finally, he said slowly but kindly (as if addressing Forrest Gump): “We don’t serve decaf coffee.”
“I see. Do you have anything decaf besides Latte?” I asked.
“We have decaf Americano.” he quipped immediately.
“Ok, forget the decaf coffee and give me a decaf Americano.”
Content now, he took my order, and I got my decaf coffee Americano. An awful lot of trouble to get a frickin’ decaf coffee.
This is an editorial article titled Unnatural Selection I contributed to 
While I was in Western Australia, I had some of the best Chinese food I’ve had in years. Ok, perhaps the fact that there’s awesome Asian food in Perth is no big secret, but it was a revelation for me. It was, after all, my first visit to the area.
Here’s a recent feature I wrote about North Sulawesi for 
Wisdom is an illusory concept. More often than not, we’re not aware of the wisdom we lack until we reflect on situations in hindsight. As such, the quantum of wisdom we possess often falls short of the level we actually require. It seems the fate of humanity to profit from experience mostly in retrospect, and to acquire wisdom as a consequence of folly. As Leonardo da Vinci put it, “Wisdom is the daughter of experience.”
I’ve been wanting to visit the Solomon Islands for a long time. My good friend 
Amazon.com is one of the most successful internet companies in existence, and is supposedly quite a progressive company. It’s amazing to find that Amazon is facilitating the 
The Lembeh Strait is probably the most famous critter/ muck diving spot in the world. I’ve been to many other places with great muck diving, but Lembeh produces some of the most consistent results in some of the most comfortable diving conditions.
