Sunday, January 30th 2005

Hey, I'm home. It's been 24 hours now, and it's nice to be in comfy pyjamas. Dinner last night, church this morning, and visited my parents this afternoon. It's all good. Too bad I have work tomorrow. Shouldn't I get a day off for travelling on a Saturday?

Did you know that leprosy is still around? All those years of reading the Bible, and leprosy was always horrible afflicting the poor. Yet we never heard about it anymore in modern times (though I think I saw lepers in that City of Joy movie with Patrick Swayze). Turns out, leprosy is still around in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, yet easily curable these days. It's caused by the bacterium, Mycrobacterium leprae, and develops very slowly, with an incubation period which can last 10 or even 20 years. It stops being contagious within two days of starting a course of antibiotics. Antibiotics!

Apart from leprosy, I've been reading normal stuff online.

• There's nothing like people being paid minimum wage behind the counter to cause paranoia: a teenage McDonald's worker was charged with assault after allegedly hiding bits of glass in a hamburger served to a police officer.
• Amid 44 deaths and 9 suicide bombers, it looks like the Iraqi national elections have been successfully completed.
• Remember I mentioned crazy Leroy Wells on American Idol last week? Turns out, he's in jail. I guess he really was crazy.
• Anyone care about Keri Russell? Yes? She's still alive.
• Last week in Hong Kong, news had started to break about this invasion of red ants on the islands. People were freaked out about it. Guess news has made it out.
• The movie In Good Company is out. My friend Paul just saw it, and he highly recommended it.

I should find solace in other blogging individuals being under scrutiny. Here are the recent highlights. Maybe I should play nice?

• Mark Jen, a Google.com employee got in a bit o' trouble over his Ninetyninezeros blog, which mentioned a bit too much insider info/opinions about life @ Google.com. At least he's still employed. Here's some more info on the deleted bloggings that saved his paycheck.
• An employee of U.K. book chain Waterstone's has been fired for material he included in his blog.
• The infamous Ellen Simonetti, a Delta flight attendant who was fired, mainly because she posed in seductive poses in her uniform. I have some risque photos online, but I don't have an auditor uniform. Well, yes I do, but it's a suit.
• Michael Hanscom, the first one I ever heard of being fired, from his job at Microsoft.
• Jessica Cutler, another infamous Washington, DC staffer, who ran the Washingtonienne blog.
• Hmm, apparently, there are more than a few.... the Papal Bull has started a list of bloggers who've been fired. I hope I never end up on this list.

Um, as I need to get some sleep, at it's after midnight, and I have work tomorrow..... "I love my employer, my department, and my job. Also, not only am I an employee, my entire family is a happy policyholder of 'The Company You Keep'."

Good night.

Saturday, January 29th 2005

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Time? Take your pick... 4:15pm in Hong Kong, 12:16am in San Fran, and 3:18am in New Jersey, listening to Jamie O'Neal

Oh, I'm a finally on my way home. It's been a good two weeks, albeit expensive. I've finally been to the Pacific Rim, and seen Hong Kong. I missed home, but it was a good experience to work out here. I had my multiple closing meetings yesterday with upper management. Hmm, it's a completely different experience describing the risks/impact of I.T. stuff to an I.T. person, versus to those people at the upper levels. I think the term "in layman's terms" must have started when an computer geek once tried to explain something really technologically intricate to some CEO named Mr. Layman of "What-The-Hell-Are-You-Talking-About-Mr Information Technology Auditor Guy?, Inc".

Still, I worked through it, and got them to understand why I was on-site for 2 weeks. When speaking to upper management (or really anyone), one should always think of the audience. Upper management doesn't want to know all the fine details. They want to know the summary, and what it means to them. I'm looking forward to more experiences like that, because that was a first, and doing that often will only make me better. Wayne said I did a fine job too, so I might be over-critical of myself.

Friday wasn't too bad a day -- just lots of wrap-up. I had lunch with the Head of I.T., and of course, he took me out for Dim Sum. I now have had 3 days of dim sum in a row, and I don't even particularly like it. He knows I got sick, so I think he was just trying to "take me out" (i.e. sabotage the audit) before the closing meetings later that day. Sorry, buddy, but I didn't get sick. We Ipes are a hardy lot.

Fri Dinner @ Jumbo

[Warning: large]

Friday night, we went to Jumbo. Best way to describe it is this friggin' huge floating restaurant. 3 floors of Chinese cuisine. It wasn't bad, but maybe I've just had so much Chinese cuisine in the past 2 weeks. Looking back, we had Indian food only a limited number of times during the India audit. Most of the time, we had Italian, Thai, Chinese, Dominos, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, etc. In Hong Kong, I guess Chinese cuisine is fairly prevalent. Still, at least I got exposed to many facets of it. I've learned the difference between Hunan, Peking, Szechuwan, Shanghai, Chiu Chow, and Cantonese styles. I'm also much better at eating with chop sticks -- who knew you could eat rice and soup with chop sticks? Now I can.

Afterwards, Jorge wanted just "one drink" with his going-out buddy (me). Jorge, Juan, and I went to Lan Kwai Fong, with Wayne & his wife (for a while). Later it was just Jorge, Juan, and I. We hit Insomnia again, where this awesome Filipino band named "Parental Guidance" rocked the place. I've never really appreciated live bands until I heard the one from last week and this group last night. Wow. New respect for live performances.

The "one drink" rule turned into "one bar, one drink", and I got home at 3:30am. Watched some Cartoon Network, and was sleeping by 4:30am. I had hoped to get up by 7am, refund my Octopus card, pack lazily, and leave for the airport by 9:15am. Instead, I snoozed after the wakeup call, and woke up at 8:45am. Hmmm, 30 minutes to get ready AND pack my suitcase.

After two weeks, I'm on my way home

Luckily, I have lots of experience getting ready and packing my suitcase quickly for a morning flight after oversleeping (Thank you, previous life as a consultant). I was at the hotel front desk checking out by 9:30am. Pretty good, I think. What helped was that I had all my clothes recently laundered and folded nicely for me.

Anyway, I can't sleep, so I thought I'd work on pictures and stuff. I have a 2-3 hour layover in San Francisco, then it's straight on to Newark and the cold weather. Last time I checked the weather, it said 5 degrees. Now that I think about it, somebody turn this plane around.

Still over the Pacific, closer to California, Diana Krall jamming in my ears

Okay, since I'm trapped on a plane, here's my list of my favorite comedic movies, in no particular order. I haven't seen Blazing Saddles or Caddyshack yet, but they're on the "To Do" list.

• Coming to America - Personally, I think it's the funniest movie ever made. It's funny from beginning to end.
• Ghostbusters - Loved the interaction between Bill Murray (amazing, and he improvised much of it), Harold Ramis, and Dan Ackroyd. Did you know that Ramis and Murray aren't speaking, because Bill Murray is mad at him, and Ramis doesn't know why? I just read this in an interview with Bill Murray. That's a downer.
• Young Frankenstein - Mel Brooks is a genious, but his earlier stuff is better than the later stuff. I still need to see Blazing Saddles though.
• Airplane - okay, if you haven't seen it, shame on you. However, Airplane 2 was a sad rehash of the 1st movie.
• The Kentucky Fried Movie - a little uneven at times, but one of the Zucker Brothers' early works. Still, they did such a good job lobbing so many jokes at you, hoping that some of them would stick. I think it's great.
• Monty Python and The Holy Grail - Just a classic. The ending is still a bit odd, though.
• Three Amigos - Off all the great quotes, this is my favorite exchange. Mind you, these are Mexica bandidos in the desert:

Jefe: "We have stuffed many pinatas for your birthday celebration!"
El Guapo: "How many pinatas?"
Jefe: "Many pinatas, many!"
El Guapo: "Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?"
Jefe: "Yes, El Guapo. You have a plethora."
El Guapo: "Jefe, what is a plethora?"

Thursday, January 27th 2005

I keep getting confused regarding what day is it. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? I think today is Thursday. Every time I call Num in the morning, it's still the previous evening. So confusing.

I'm sick. Really sick. Violently vomiting my lunch sick. Yesterday, I had good dim sum. We had it today too, but I guess by having dim sum two days in a row was pushing it. I just want to go home, get under the covers, and sleep.

Tomorrow is my last day. I've accomplished a lot, and hoping that I'm feeling better, and can keep my meals down, it shouldn't be too stressful. Just some odds and ends to wrap up. The client wants to take me to lunch, so as long as it isn't dim sum, I'll be fine. Not sure what the plans are for tomorrow night. I've heard karaoke. Jorge also wants to go out for 1-2 drinks. Why do I feel like the "1-2 drinks" will result in me jumping into a cab outside of a bar at 9am to catch my flight?

That sound you hear is that of my wife's eyeballs as they roll and roll and roll into the back of her head.

Num sent me an article on kids, learning to speak, etc. Sigh. So much to be involved with. I'm growing new respect for my parents. Parenting is hard. So much to worry about.

Some interesting stuff going on in the tech world.

• HP filed for a patent on cameras where you can select whether you show up in the camera. If the camera has the feature, you can make yourself blurry if you don't want to be in the photo. It's cool that you can do that, but do you really want to take pictures of someone who doesn't want to be in your picture?
• I've been hearing about viruses that attack cars. Well, Bluetooth doesn't help the matter. Soon, you'll have to install security patches for your car.
• Do you have an illegal copy of Windows at home? Better watch out. Microsoft is going to lock you out pretty soon.

Speaking of illegal copies, we were talking in the taxi ride home, wondering why everything in China is fake. There are so many knock-offs here, it's uncanny. You think it's just clothes and DVDs? Someone's dad had read about arrests for people selling fake baby formula, fake soy sauce, fake oyster sauce. Fake baby formula? Yeah, they found out after kids died from it. That's scary.

Wednesday, January 26th 2005

4:18am

I'm awake. Fell asleep around 8pm, I think, so I never hit the gym. Apparently, I skipped dinner too. All of a sudden, it was 3am. I've sent some work email, got warned (again) by coworkers/friends about putting a timestamp on blog postings, watched a TLC show called "Rides" about the Ford Cobra redesign (although I don't know if it ever came out. Shows are so behind-the-times here in Asia). If I can stay awake until 6am, I'll go work out before work.

I think I need to vent a little. You know, I like blogging. I like sharing pictures, thoughts about my day, etc. Kinda therapeutic. It also keeps me in contact with friends and family. Then I hear "rumors" that management is reading my website, in order to monitor my activities. These are, of course, "just rumors", and I'm sure management has no interest in reading anything about my meals, weekends, or what I saw on TV.

Because this would all be a lot less fun, if I found out that people were reading all this, all in order to secretly monitor me, and not because they wanted to know how I was doing.

I put a timestamp, because I have laptop, and I'm more mobile with it, and I'm away from home. It's not like I have to wait until I go home to jot a few thoughts down. I don't do anything official until the evenings. If anyone were really concerned about my work, please refer to my regular status reports.

Why does everything have to be so complicated? I guess times are changing, and we should all be on guard for the whole "Big Brother" aspect of life. Sigh. Two years ago, I thought it would be nice to share pictures.

Maybe I need to rethink certain things. All of this really irritates me in a bad way.

 The Evening

When we ousted Saddam Hussein out of Iraq, I was glad. All these years, we've heard tales about how brutal his regime was. Dissidents tortured in jailed, electro-shock, hand-cuffed, forced to hang for days, etc. I figured, "Now he's gone. Iraq will be out from under this thumb, and do things better.

 And now what do we learn? The activist group Human Rights Watch claims that the "new" Iraqi Security Forces are [drum-roll, please] are abusing detainees. Arrests without warrants, secret detentions, torture, electroshock. Umm, what's the improvement again? Don't these people know better? Is this the only way of life they know?

Since I'm bathing in Chinese culture, and the Chinese New Year is coming up in February, I thought I'd look up the Chinese Zodiac signs for my family:

• I'm year of the Dragon. I'm supposedly "Full of vitality and enthusiasm, the Dragon is a popular individual even with the reputation of being foolhardy and a 'big mouth' at times. You are intelligent, gifted, and a perfectionist but these qualities make you unduly demanding on others."
• Num is born in the year of the Snake.
• Julie is year of the Monkey. What's funny is that our Mom has been calling Julie a monkey for years.
• And funny enough, Junior & Missy are both year of the Rooster. Both of our kids? That's just a weird coincidence.

Looks like I'll have to change Joel Trivia item #476. Today, we went out to lunch with some of the folks here.... for Dim Sum. I went along, just to be a team player. I explained to one of the folks that I'm not afraid of it. I've had bad Dim Sum "in the States". She assured me that this restaurant would change my mind. Needless to say, I was still skeptical. Rest assured, I went in with an open mind (and with babying from Mary & Olivia), and I had some good food. I guess the key is to go to a really good Dim Sum restaurant.... in Asia.

Num has informed me that we start the pediatrician search next week. She asked me if I want to be involved. Weird question? Well, I haven't been the best about being involved with the baby. Probably because she's carrying it, and the birth has been so far off. Hey, nobody's perfect. At least she's covering for both of us (hmmm, I don't think she really had a choice, so it probably wasn't fair). Anyway, we're closer to the due date, and I'm all revved up. We also have a slew of classes in February. Baby shower is sometime in mid-February too. I don't necessarily have to attend, but I do have to show up at the end to help transport all the gifts. What a job I have.

Speaking of child-rearing responsibilities, Leena sent me a rather perturbing article from Parenting magazine, called Fatherly Duties by Pete Nelson. Thanks for scanning & sending it to me. Uh, I didn't consider all the questions to answer, and advice to give. I was just focusing on the short-term: changing diapers, burping, etc. What the hell am I going to do when he starts talking, and asking for advice? Who am I to give anyone advice? No good can come of this. Anyway, here is page 1 and page 2 of the article, and what I can look forward to in the years to come.

11:59pm

Whoa. After Jorge, Juan, and I hit the gym, we went to dinner at this "Irish pub" in the mall downstairs. I spoke to my parents for the 1st time in 2 weeks, and now I'm watching American Idol. What is wrong with this Leroy Wells character? Is he for real? Is it possible? He didn't even sing. I guess anything is possible in this world. Hmm, also Gene Simmons (as guest judge) is a creepy hard-ass. I didn't watch the whole show, but did he even like anybody?

Two more days, then I go home. Part of me is going to miss being on the road (gotta love eating out all the time), but I'll be glad to be home with my wife. Although it's fun to be in another city, eating out all the time, seeing new places on the weekends, it's awfully lonely when you're finally back in your hotel room. Hmmm, maybe that's subconsciously why I needed to be out all night. I really don't feel like being the hotel room that much anymore. It didn't bother me before, but this trip.... hmm, that's weird.

Tuesday, January 25th 2005

I just discovered that our office elevators can comfortably-yet-snugly fit 13 average-sized Chinese women, two average-sized Chinese men, and one Indian. I know, because I counted.... twice.

Mike, for your information, I didn't have to use any fingers or toes.

Monday, January 24th 2005

My hotel room: 8:01am

Went to sleep nice and early last night, I think around 9pm. Anyway, pictures from Friday night and Saturday are up. Sunday's trip to the Big Buddha will be ready tonight or tomorrow.

Whoa, Johnny Carson died. There goes a walking legend.

7:00 pm

What's in the news?

• New findings change thinking on human sacrifice practices for the Aztec & Maya cultures. Yech.
• A Las Vegas law prohibiting strippers from fondling customers during lap dances is unconstitutionally vague, a judge ruled. So, she threw it out. I'll just stop there, and let the men in the audience think about that for a while.
• Computer hackers have taken to stealing data the easy way -- by eavesdropping on phone and e-mail conversations to find the keys to seemingly impregnable networks, security experts say.
• A suicide driver detonated a car bomb at a guard post outside the Iraqi prime minister's party headquarters in Baghdad on Monday, injuring at least 10 people a day after the country's most feared terror leader promised an all-out war on democracy.

Excuse me, but when the hell are we going to put a bullet this al-Zarqawi's fucking head? I'm damn sick of reading about his "young lions" who are fighting the infidels. Love this quote today from an audiotape condemning the Iraqi elections.

We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology. Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it.

I'm glad that the Iraqi national elections are finally coming up this weekend, but don't you think that once the names of the elected officials are announced, they'll all become targets? This feels like a no-win scenario, but we sure can't leave Iraq for assholes like al-Zarqawi and his Al-Qaeda brethren.

11:26pm

Olivia's Love Wafers

There are a lot of things I could talk about today, like the guy who came in and gave coconut-flavored cream wafers to Olivia, and I say that he loves Olivia. And how we all made fun of her because of it. And I read outloud an imaginary love note written on the back of the cookie bag. But I'd never share any of that here.

I will talk about the elevator ride back to our hotel rooms this evening. This British couple got on the elevator with their young son & daughter, plus baby in a stroller. The little girl goes, "There are a lot of brown people on the elevator." Oh, it gets better. Parents don't say anything, so the girl goes... "We're the only white people in here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7."

At this point, the mother looked very embarrassed, but still didn't say a word. Of course, Juan felt it necessary to raise his hand and immediately correct her. "Uh, Puerto Rican."

I have absolutely no interest in watching The Apprentice 3 this season. Didn't the 2nd one end last month or something? Why is the next one on so soon?

The cast of The Apprentice 3

The rest of the pictures are up now. I've also broken up the Delhi and Hong Kong trips into two-pagers. Pictures starting from this Friday night are on the 2nd page now. Hope this improves the load times for everyone.

Sunday, January 23rd 2005

Well, hello! Missed me? Past few days have been busy, and I've been out late for the past few days. Thursday night was our late day in the office. We had individual dinners in the office (Jorge & I found the nearest KFC, so we brought that back for ourselves). We all left the office a bit after 10:30pm.

Recap of My Friday

Dinner @ Cafe Deco up on The Peak

Friday was a regular work day, but five of us (Racquel, Jorge, Juan, Olivia, and myself) had reservations @ Cafe Deco up at The Peak, which is up in the mountains outside my hotel room window. Anyway, we took a taxi ride up, had a great dinner (hmm, Angus steak), and took the tram down (whoa, scary.) At the last minute, Jorge, Juan, and I decided to go out for just a drink or two, just to help wind down after a busy week.

The view is great

However, guess who shows up in the same bar we were? Gandalf the party wizard -- Adrian. He was hanging out with the regional Asia Pac director for a major U.S. airline. The five of us then bar-hopped, met some fun girls @ Mi Amis (most of the time, they were trying to catch Adrian's eye, and virtually ignored us). Still, decent night overall. Jorge, Adrian, and I stayed until closing at 5:30am. We did get an offer from the girls to go to this Dusk 'Til Dawn bar, but I didn't want to bother watching more women throw themselves at Adrian. You can only stand so much of that, especially at 6am.

Recap of My Saturday

On the way to Kowloon

Avenue of Stars

After three hours of sleep, I was pretty dead, but I still met Racquel, Juan, and Olivia in the hotel lobby @ 11am Saturday morning. We had established plans to take the subway across the harbor to Kowloon, to see the Avenue of Stars boardwalk along the shore. It's like the Hong Kong version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Pretty neat, if you appreciate Hong Kong movies like I do. Afterwards, we accompanied the ladies to "The Teddy Bear Kingdom" while they browsed, but Juan & I stood our ground firmly outside the store. With women, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Shopping @ Stanley Market

After lunch, we took the bus over the mountains to visit Stanley Market, a huge flea market for all sorts of things. I got some Chinese chops (stamps), and other assorted gifts.

Saturday evening, Juan, Jorge, Olivia, Mary, and I went to 1/5th, Mi Amis (same place Friday night), and finished up at Venue. As Jorge and I had agreed to stay out for only 2-3 drinks...... Two-to-three drinks morphed into a big hairy beast, especially when the music was good. The group started going home after 2:30am, everyone taking turns. Jorge lasted until about 4-something, but Olivia and I stayed until 5:30am. The music got weird, so we decided to call it a night.

Now, I bet people who know "sweet, kind, never-tastes-a-drop-of alcohol, goes-to-bed-early" Olivia would be shocked that she was dancing and having a good time until 5:30am in Hong Kong on a Saturday night, but I am very proud of her. Very proud of her. She was having a good time with everyone, and she went the distance, even when others were wilting. I respect that.

Recap of Sunday

The Big Buddha

We got back to the hotel by 5:45am Saturday night / Sunday morning, and I (again) asked the front desk for a wake-up call.... 1 & 1/2 hours from now. A group of us were meeting at 8am this morning to travel to Lantau Island to see the Po Lin Monastery and the "Big Buddha" -- a 300-foot statue of the Buddha. Somehow, I got up this morning, and was on-time. The Buddha was cool, and I enjoy the scenic catamaran/bus/subway rides to/from everywhere.

The rest of this afternoon, I've been relaxing in the room, using the high-speed Internet and listening to music, trying to catch up online with what's been going on in the world. I'm trying out Jorge's newest Sony MDR-EX71SL in-the-ear headphones. I'm trying to figure out if $50 headphones are worth it. They have some minor noice-cancelling abilities too.

I had planned to work out tonight, but you know what? I'm friggin' tired. I think I'll just order room service, while I sort and edit the 145 pictures I've accumulated since Thursday morning. This.... could take a few days. I have promised myself that I'll sleep at a decent hour tonight, as every so often, I need to recharge the old batteries.

Enough of the Recaps

MSN Health & Fitness listed the ten worst snack foods. What's sad? I like all ten. I'm even drinking a soda right now, and was looking forward to having McDonald's french fries tonight. Argh. Would somebody please pass me the parsley?

The new Fantastic Four trailer is now online. It had previously only been available onscreen attached to Electra.

This week, Num received an email from "PayPal" about her account. Sure, you've heard of phishing scams like this, but they're usually easy to notice. Well, even to my eye, it was super-realistic. However, while the link to the PayPal site said "www.paypal.com", moving your mouse cursor over the supplied link came up with "www.1-888-p4ypal.com" at the bottom of the browser window.

So, always make sure the link itself (not just the hyperlink text) really goes to the site. Even better, just go to the site directly, not from the email. Of course, with the newer, more sophisticated scams mentioned in this CNN article, it's just going to get harder as phishing scams get more sophisticated.

Man, I'm tired, and it's only 7:18pm. Anyway, I've added five new Links -- eh, I'm not listing them. Just look for new stuff at the ends of each category. I think I'll go get some McDonald's, then start knocking out some of the pictures.

Thursday, January 20th 2005

Hotel room: 6:30am, watching a Discovery Channel show on the B-2 Stealth Bomber

Oh yeah, I'm up. I was hoping to work on pictures last night, but I fell asleep spooning with my laptop. I woke up later, put it all away, and asked for a 6:30am wake-up call. I still woke up at 6am for no good reason.

I'm watching a Discovery Channel show on the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Whoa, the B-2 is inherently unstable airplane, so it has 168 onboard computers making slight adjustments to keep it stable. No wonder it costs nearly a $1 billion a piece. 33% of me (the little boy) thinks that's so cool. The practical 33% of me thinks that's a waste of money that should be spent on something else. The 33% of me that is realistic thinks we'll probably need the bomber against North Korea in a few years.

On the menu: Hibachi!

I think yesterday counts as a good day.

• I spoke to Num in the morning for a good 30 minutes. Good to hear from her.
• I was the 2nd person downstairs in the morning (never looks good to be late).
• My sore throat and headaches are lightening up.
• I didn't have any meetings yesterday -- I could just read in peace.
• We went out to lunch for Japanese Hibachi. It was damn good. Damn good!
• Everyone was in a good mood yesterday. I think I even saw smiles.
• We got out at 7pm, and had 90 minutes to get back to the hotel, and work out in the gym before dinner in the mall downstairs.
• We pushed dinner back, as we all eventually ended up in Racquel's room watching as much of the American Idol premiere as possible. I never intently watched, but this was too good.
• We went downstairs for Thai dinner. It was close by, and we were done a little after 10pm. The whole evening was free.
• I got some good quality rest last night.

I think that makes it a good day. What do you think?

Today, we supposed to be in the office tonight until at least 10:30pm. Oye ve.

Alright, just finished editing 21 new pictures for the Trip page from Tuesday (Lan Kwai Fong) and Wednesday (out to lunch). Now I just have to add them to the page. Enjoy.

Wednesday, January 19th 2005

The streets of Lan Kwai Fong

Dinner

Last night was fun. Jorge, Juan, and myself met up with Adrian, and we took a cab to the Lan Kwai Fong district. It's a cool few blocks here on Hong Kong island with bars and restaurants. It all seems kinda old, on narrow sloping streets. Jorge thought it was very reminiscent of San Francisco.

From 8pm to 9:30pm, the four of us went bar-hopping. At 9:30pm, most of the rest of the team met us at Insomnia, and we went to dinner at this Nepalese restaurant. Very similar to Indian cuisine, but spicier. Is that possible?

Great music @ Insomnia

Jorge, Adrian, & me

Afterwards, Adrian, Jorge, and I hit a couple more places, and finished the night back @ Insomnia. Good choice, as they had this great band that played lots of songs from Green Day, Cranberries, The Go-Go's, everything. They were really, really good. Adrian left around 1:30-something, and Jorge & I got home by 2:30am.

I like Hong Kong. :)

Ever see that Friends episode where Ross'/Chandler's high school friend Gandalf ("the party wizard") is coming to town. That episode has this classic quote, back when Joey was funny:

[when Joey asks why Chandler's friend is called Gandalf]
Chandler: "Didn't you read Lord of the Rings in High School?"
Joey: "No. I had sex in high school."

Num thinks Adrian is like Gandalf. I think she's right. As soon as you party with him, you just end up in weird places.

I didn't think I was suffering from jet lag, but I think I am. However, I think it's the best parts. I'm not tired in the afternoon or evening, but I'm waking up around 7am every morning (30 minutes before the wake-up call). Too bad I can't wake up this early when I'm home back in the States.

For me, today was spent primarily reading documentation. I'm going off-site to check another location on Friday. Field trip! We don't have anything planned this weekend, so I guess we'll decide as we go along. What I know for sure is that we're going out to the bars Friday & Saturday. That light you see at the end of the tunnel? That's the weekend, not too far away.

Tuesday, January 18th 2005

You know what's funny about country music? That you can have a song title like Toby Keith's "She Ran Away with a Rodeo Clown", and that's a perfectly acceptable title. Does this stuff really happen, or are country artists just pulling our collective legs?

In the news...

• Forbes just came out with their top topless beaches. So Miami's South Beach and Black's Beach in San Diego are the only two official topless beaches in the U.S.? I didn't even know we had "official" ones.
• The new Airbus 380 will have lounges, billiard rooms, showers, etc. Wow, nice.
• Comcast is again raising its broadband Internet speeds: download speeds of up to 4mbps and 384kbps for uploads. Awesome. I'm so glad I went with Comcast instead of Verizon DSL. They recently rolled out the ability to send 45-second video clips in emails late last year (I just need a webcam). I had no idea though that they were going to roll out their own video instant messaging service in mid-2005. They'll also be rolling out VOIP Internet voice calls too. Does this mean my cable bill is going to get higher?
• Tivo is still struggling to become more than a niche player. I love Tivo, and I think it's great. More people should just take the plunge. I doubt you would be disappointed.

Monday, January 17th 2005

Hotel room: 11:29pm, and tired

The day started off well, because I called home and spoke to my wife. It's always nice to hear her voice, but not when she's mad at me. Today, she likes me. That's good. That means she hasn't looked in the closet.

The first day of the audit went well, and not stressful at all. I'm sure tomorrow will be one of those busy days.

In the evenings, while others went out shopping, I elected to stay in the hotel and rest. I don't have jet lag, but my throat is starting to feel sore. Argh, and it's only Day 1. I purchased the high speed internet (as dial-up especially stinks here at 26 Kb/sec.... I had onlybeen to Yahoo successfully, and that's it. Dial-up stinks.) So far, that $17 feels wonderful, and very much worth it. I also ordered a Philadelphia steak sandwich, and had it here waiting for me when I got back from the gym. Finally, now with real Internet access, I can check to see if all the updates I've sent since Sunday look alright. See the newest pics (a grocery store, how exciting), and I've gotten the main trip page set up now too.

Mariska Hargitay wins Best Actress

I discovered it late, but the Star World channel was running the Golden Globe awards from last night. I didn't care for most of it, but I was hoping to see Mariska Hargitay win Best Actress, Drama Series. She should have won the Emmy last year too.

Oooh! My coworker Olivia just called, and they're running it all over again. Now I'm just going to camp out in front of the tv and wait for her. I feel like a Star Wars fan waiting for ticket #00001 to the next Star Wars movie. As William Shatner just won, according to E!, I've got 30 minutes until she comes on.

Anyway, let's stop sounding like a stalker. I think Hong Kong is pretty nice, but I wasn't expecting the prices to be so high. Dare I say it? It's like Manhattan. Even electronics cost the same, however, the stuff is newer. I was checking out digital cameras, and they have 7.2-megapixel cameras here for $440 USD. 7.2-megapixels? That's like 2 versions ahead! Should I? Should I not? We have to decide. We're browsing for a camcorder (to record Junior's first vomit), but the digital camera is kinda flaky these days.

Now this is just a bizarre murder story. In Alabama, a woman angry with her 12-year-old daughter for having sex forced the girl to drink bleach and sat on her until the child died. I thought my Mom was nuts, but this beats my Mom's neurotic tendencies hands-down.

Okay, I gotta go to bed, Internet or not. I will leave you all with this story. I saw the grossest thing in a long time yesterday on TV here. It was some cooking show about making Chinese pastries or something. This female host was talking, and a chef was doing all this crazy stuff with larger-than-life pastry dough. Anyway, the owner comes onscreen and starts talking, and I notice a bump of some type on his right-hand side jaw, near the chin.

I'm thinking, hey, it's a mole or something. But wait, what's moving down on his shoulder? Is it the TV reception? No, something is definitely moving when he moves his head. It's..... yeah, that's right, multiple long black strands of hair growing out of his mole, and they stretched down to his shoulders.

Can you imagine trying to have a face-to-face conversation with this guy? Olivia said in Chinese culture, having hair growing out of a mole is good luck. I respect their cultural beliefs, but that was nasty. Oh, don't get me wrong: Olivia thought it was pretty gross. Then she pretended to be him, grooming his mole hair with a hairbrush.

Man, that's gross.

Sunday, January 16th 2005

Hotel room: 2:23pm, watching the Dakar Road Rally

Last night was something else. We arrived on time in the airport, no hiccups, and got to the hotel (extremely nice, btw) by 7pm. I called home, and then 5 of us went down to the mall below to get some supplies. I took an almost empty saline solution bottle (idiot!), so I got a replacement. I think items here are only $1 cheaper; not really a shopper's bargain paradise. Anyway, we went to the Zen chinese restaurant in the mall for dinner.

Afterwards, we toured the Shangri-La hotel next door (whoa, you can smell the money), and then we retired back to our rooms by 11pm. I was pretty tired, as we all were. I watched some tv, and was just about to go take my contacts out by 11:40pm, when the phone rang. One of my coworkers? Nope, it was my recently-transferred-to-Hong Kong-friendAdrian. He was downstairs in the hotel lobby, and declared that we're going out. Either he's coming up, or I'm coming down.

What could I say? I dressed up really quick, met him in the lobby, and we went out. 7 or 8 clubs/ bars later, I'd met a multitude of Brits, lots of hookers patrolling the clubs (they are shameless here), and Adrian threw me into a cab around 6:30am this morning. I would have thought drinks were cheaper than Manhattan, but even beers were $7 USD. Go figure.

Jorge in Hong Kong

I slept about 3 hours, then woke up mysteriously. At 11am, my coworker Jorge and I went walking around Hong Kong after lunch @ a McDonald's in the mall downstairs. I'm back in the room, resting. We might go back out in an hour or so.

I'm not looking forward to going to the office tomorrow morning. Do I actually have to do work out here?

Hotel room: 6:35pm, watching BBC

Exploring Hong Kong

Just got back from the outside world. I was going to sit the rest of the afternoon in the hotel room and rest, but hey, I'm in Hong Kong. It's best to make use of the time you've got. Jorge and I went out to walk about and explore. Jorge is good like that: up for anything.

I've got the first batch of pics done, working on picture captions now. I've still got the 2nd batch to resize, etc. Keep your pantyhose on.

Hotel room: 6:49pm, watching.... ping pong?

Maybe it's me, but I think watching a television broadcast of chinese women seriously playing Table Tennis (Ping Pong) in a competition is friggin' bizarre. It's not funny. It's beyond surprising. Ping Pong? The announcer is speaking in Mandarin, but I can tell she realizes the tension in this doubles match (yes, they're playing doubles) is palpable. Not surprisingly, there are about 7 people in the stands.

I like how, before the server actually serves the Ping Pong ball, she just stares at it in her hand, being one with the Ping Pong ball.

Ping Pong. Talk about bizarre.

Friday, January 14th 2005

iPod Shuffle

Mac Mini

I'm actually surprised that I even made my flight this morning. Thursday was hectic -- probably not at hectic as the day I left for New Delhi, as I ran around then from morning to evening, got home 15 minutes before the car service came to get me. This time around, I was just trying to get things ready before the trip, then a birthday dinner for Reba Thursday night, and then get home to pack. I went to bed around 1:44am, then got up at 5am to finish packing.

Okay, not so much "I got up at 5am" as "My wife violently shoved me out @ 5am." At 6:52am, the car service was coming in 8 minutes, and I still hadn't showered or anything. However, I was ready by 7:10am. Not bad.

The flight to Chicago was fine, even though we didn't take off for 30 minutes. Anyway, I met up with the rest of the audit team @ O'Hare airport, and now I'm stuck on this United plane for 14 hours. I'm only 6 hours into it, so I've got a while to go. I've whipped out the iPod, and it's helping. I watched Shark Tale, which was okay. I think the Lufthansa Business Class was better.

So I'm sure you've heard about the new products from Apple: the iPod shuffle, the Mac Mini, etc. You must think I'm running out to get them now. The smug answer is no. I'm saving money. Also, I don't need them. Sorry, Steve Jobs. I need a more powerful computer than that.

While the ink is still drying on the Oracle-Peoplesoft merger, they've already announced layoffs of roughly 6,000 employees. As someone who's already been laid off in their life, I'll just say it isn't fun.

I can't wait to get off this plane. I've already had to walk around, as I started hurting all over. 14 hours on a plane? No fun.

Thursday, January 13th 2005

I'm leaving tomorrow! And I'm still packing! Look for updates starting this Saturday-Sunday, as I get into Hong Kong Saturday at 6pm.

Monday, January 10th 2005

I could talk about today's prep meeting for Hong Kong, or my parents coming over this evening to visit, or speaking to my friend Anil on the phone, or wishing my friend Paul a happy birthday today, or watching Cops and Farscape tonight, or fixing up last night's blog entry (Verizon piece is less confusing, and I added the IP phone from VTech.) Instead, I will tell you the highlight of my day:

For lunch, I went down to the cafeteria, and had a nice BBQ steak burger with onion rings on the side, and a bottle of Diet Pepsi Vanilla. It was scrumptious. I think that's the first time I've ever used the word "scrumptious" in a sentence. How gay of me.

Sunday, January 9th 2005

Farscape

I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I watched a lot of TV in the past few days. For one, I'm loving this Farscape show. It's a cancelled Sci-Fi show (cancelled because it cost something like more than a $1 million an episode). It was produced by the Jim Henson Company (yes, of Muppets fame). I never watched when it ran from 1998-2002 because I missed the 1st season and I wouldn't be able to catch up, etc. Sci-Fi Channel just did an 8am-5pm marathon from the 1st season, and I'm halfway through it. My impression so far? This is a really smart sci-fi show. Intelligent, interesting to watch, and I'm just starting to watch it, after it was cancelled two years ago. I'm going to rent or borrow the DVDs, and try to catch up. I think it's everything good sci-fi is all about.

Verizon VCAST 3G network

Kodak EasyShare One

VTech's 5.8GHZ ip8100 cordless broadband phone

What else have I been watching? Oooh, my favorite reality show of all time -- Cops. I used to watch this show every so often Saturday nights, when I was growing up. Apart from all the reality shows that are so obviously dramatized, I feel that Cops is a true reality show, from the point of view of regular police officer. Well, I always thought it was fascinating. If had to completely rethink my career, I would have gone into law enforcement. I think it's just highly rewarding.

We watched Kiss the Girls on Saturday night. It was okay.

Today, we missed church. I blame my wife. She'd blame me for oversleeping, but who are you going to believe? In the afternoon, we drove down to South Brunswick to check out an open house for a 2-bdrm townhouse. It was a little too small. I think we're going to either need a 3-bdrm, or a 2-bdrm with a basement.

There were two big Las Vegas events going on last week -- 2005 International CES (Consumer Electronic Show) and the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo 2005 [I wouldn't click on this link from work, if I were you.] Seriously, if I had a choice, I wouldn't know which show to go to. Anyway, C|Net editors reviewed the entire CES show, and had found some favorites @ the CES show. What seems cool to me?

• Verizon's new VCast service, which allows Verizon customers to receive high-quality video, 3-D games, and music on their equipped cell phones. Verizon is rolling out their new 3G network (3G is 3rd Generation cellular technology, for you sad people not keeping up with the nerds) starting February 1st in 30 cities. Here's more on it, as reported by USA Today.
• Kodak EasyShare One -- a 4-megapixel camera with optional 802.11b wireless, so you can email your photos straight from the camera. I just like the big drain-your-camera-batteries-really-fast LCD.
• Plantronics L510 -- a Bluetooth headset for non-Bluetooth cell and landline phones. Neat! BTW, 4 months later, and I still love my Bluetooth wireless headset. All you haters can go back to using tin cans on a string.
• Corinex Internet Video Phone -- I wouldn't buy this one, but can you see the future getting closer? Video conversations, as opposed to the regular phone?
• VTech's new ip8100 cordless broadband phone. It doesn't require a separate router and works with either a broadband cable or DSL modem. It is expandible up to four headsets. Cool.

I'm leaving on Friday morning, so I have last minute tasks to do this week. Fun, fun, fun.

Thursday, January 6th 2005

Hey, tomorrow is Friday! Alright!

So my coworker (and fellow Star Wars fanatic) Mike alerted me that this month's Vanity Fair issue will have a huge feature on the final Star Wars prequel. To celebrate, there will be a four-panel cover featuring actors from all six Star Wars movie. Also, it'll have additional photos, secrets, an interview with George Lucas, etc. Neat!

Vanity Fair issue

CBS reality show "The Will"

Heard about this new reality show on CBS called The Will? Friends, family, and colleagues will backstab and compete each other to become the sole inheritor of this fellow's ranch in Kansas. Why does everyone on this show look like rats and hoochies? Because they probably are.

Have complaints about where you live? Complaints, in general? I would have thought it was all covered under the First Amendment, promoting freedom of speech. If you lived in a ratty place, and complained about it online, shouldn't that be your opinion? Shouldn't that be protected? Some people who live in a NJ apartment complex have complaints, and they made their opinions known on ApartmentRatings.com. The N.J. landlords of that apartment complex are now suing that website to find out the identities of the anonymous ranters, so that they can then sue them for "fraudulent and scurrilous" comments.

I forgot to mention it, but yesterday I was getting ready for work, and the power went out. Probably because of all the bad weather. Turns out, the entire block had a blackout. Now, I was in the shower at the time, so it was disconcerting, but doable. What was tougher? Shaving in the dark. That's tough.

Wednesday, January 5th 2005

I hate running to the train. Oh, I had no problems this morning (okay, I hustled a little), but on the way home tonight, I got to the train @ Penn Station at exactly 5:45pm, but the doors were already closed. That hurt. What hurt more? The train didn't leave for another 5 minutes, so I waited on the platform as people already seated on the train tried to avoid staring at me, knowing that I was hoping that the conductors would open the door for me. Alas, we all knew that there was a slim-to-none chance that they would do that. And they didn't. I had to wait for the next train. Luckily, I had a recent issue of Time magazine to keep me company.

Eighties' games come alive!

My coworker Regina told me about this cool toy she has at home -- the Namco II Original Arcade Games Video Arcade System. It's selling for $19.99 @ Target. Four classic games (Ms. Pac Man, Pole Position, Galaga, etc.) all in this joystick. You just plug the joystick into your AV jacks on your TV, and away you go. How neat is that? Don't hold your breath waiting for it.... Target.com reports that it'll be available again in 4-8 weeks. Go look for it somewhere else.

Ashlee Simpson @ the Orange Bowl

Poor Ashlee Simpson can't catch a break. She performed at the recent Orange Bowl in Miami during halftime. Get this.... she got booed. Booed? Ouch. I thought it might have just been unruly football fans. However, I just watched a video clip of her performance on Real, and okay, she was pretty bad. Still, between SNL and the Orange Bowl, that girl is going to be in a lot of therapy, and doing a lot of drugs.

You ever just wanted to skip out in the middle of work, head to Barnes & Noble, and read the rest of the day until 5pm? I text-msg'd a lot of people today, asking if that would have been unprofessional of me. Here are the responses from my very unofficial poll this afternoon.

• 33% said "Yes."
• 33# said "Nah." [but with a nudge-nudge, wink-wink mentality] That sounds like a "yes".
• 33% said "Yes, but if you won't get caught, do it anyway."

Bugatti Veyron 16.4

Instead of totally skipping out, I walked outside a little after 4pm to run an errand. Sometimes writing audit reports is not the most interesting aspect of my day. Speaking of which, on the way back to the office, I heard lots of sirens, and saw numerous fire trucks and police cars zooming by. As I had to get back to work, I didn't investigate, but it looked close by my office. It was still going on when I left at 5:30pm on 27th St. between 5th Ave and Broadway. Lots of cops milling around, taking down statements. When I looked up WNBC.com for news of it, turns out that it was a shooting. Hmm, that whole area of Broadway and 27th, 28th streets is just full of shady people selling obvious knock-offs.

Ever heard of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4? Neither did I, but apparently Bugatti is a subsidiary of Volkswagon. Okay, no one cares about that. What you should care about is the new Veyron 16.4. It's new, and it should be coming out in 2005. Price? $1.1 million. I read about it on MSNBC, but Forbes has an article with more details.

This evening, we picked up two movie rentals from Blockbuster -- Anchorman (I saw it on the plane, but Num wants to see it) and Kiss the Girls with Ashley Judd & Morgan Freeman. We'll be watching movies this weekend!

There's snow tonight in NY/NJ, and into tomorrow's commute. I'll be work tomorrow morning, but I'm sure it'll be a messy day.

Tuesday, January 4th 2005

Just one of those days in the office that never seem to end. Running to the train, tracking down November trip expenses that I forgot to put on my last expense report, forwarding my hotel bill to Hilton so that I can get my points credited to my account, a slowly-ticking clock, annual review discussion, yada yada. 5:30pm never came sooner.

In good news, I think a Snickers candy bar is one of my newest joys in life.

When I got home tonight, I worked on some IIA NY chapter website updates, and watched a whole mess o' Tivo'd shows -- Cops, multiple Star Trek episodes, Simpsons, etc. All the stuff my wife can't stand. Speaking of which, I've queued up a whole set of new shows to get into, as we're getting fairly caught up past episodes of The Practice and L&O: Special Victim's Unit. I've set up Season Passes for Farscape and the new Battlestar Galactica, just to name a few.

Time Magazine just listed their 50 Coolest Websites. My new favorites? Gadget sites Engadget.com and Gizmodo.com. I think I'm more partial to Engadget.com, as the site looks a bit more comprehensive for all things gadgety.

About Schmidt

The Incredibles

Monday, January 3rd 2005

Sorry to hear about the knee, Rick. Feel better soon.

You too, Jim. Feel free to kick some ass.

New Year's was quiet, relaxing and nice. I did take Thursday off, so that left me with a 4-day weekend. Of course, I was running around like a nut Thursday and Friday, including taking my mother-in-law to the airport, hitting autobody shops, etc. It was more relaxing by Friday night.

My sister Julie came over on Thursday night, and we finished watching Return of the King. Then we watched Garden State, then some of Return of the Jedi. Aaah, only Julie truly appreciates a loud movie.

For Friday night, Num & I rented School of Rock and About Schmidt. Garden State and About Schmidt were really the same kind of "coming of age, finding yourself" story, except one was when you're young, and Schmidt about when you're older. Oddly enough, I liked About Schmidt better. To me, Garden State was just another story about young people (uh, how old am I again?) who don't know what they want in their lives. About Schmidt was more about life's regrets, finding a mature meaning or purpose in life. A little slow in the middle, but I still liked it. Garden State was decent, but didn't really connect with me.

School of Rock was just cliched, corny, and barely worth the price of rental.

We did see The Incredibles on New Year's afternoon. Awesome movie, and I'd like to pick it up when it's out on DVD later this year. At my parents' house on Sunday, I watched part of The Punisher movie that came out early last year. So far, it doesn't seem as bad as the critics said about it, so I may rent it out myself someday.

Been using the Firefox browser for a week or so now. I like the tabbed browser windows feature. Nifty, I say.

Tivo just rolled out their TivoToGo service, where you can now transfer your Tivo'd shows, movies, and saved Ronco infomercials to your PC desktop or laptop. You could then watch them on the road, in a different part of the house, or at a friend's house. Before you think that I have stars swimming in my head over the news, settle down. I think it's cool, but I don't have a personal laptop to watch this stuff on the road. Nor am I on the road that much. However, I'll try it out anyway. I think it's cool.

What's up with the weather? It's cold, then it's warm. I could have worn shorts New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I was sweating today on the train with my suit and overcoat. Can I have just one cold day to enjoy those still-brand-new gloves I bought 3 weeks ago?

Speaking of the train.... on the ride home today, this woman started breastfeeding her very large son. I was standing there, I glanced over, and there is just this large white breast out in plain sight. No towel, no turning sideways to block the view. Just this large tit for everyone to see. What the hell was that about? The bigger question is, why didn't anyone say anything? Embarassment? Understanding? I'm a red-blooded American guy, but that was just weird.

Conrad Hong Kong

I can't believe I'll be in Hong Kong at the end of next week. I'll try to hook up with my friend Adrian, who moved there in September. I plan to do some good-old quality sightseeing on the weekends, and I hope he has time to show me around. As opposed to my New Delhi trip, I won't be taking pictures of other people I meet or work with. I thought it was just me, but people seem to be getting wary of having their picture posted on the Internet. So, I hope you all like staring at my ugly mug, as that is likely what you'll be seeing. Oooh, I'll take the occasional picture of a friend or two. Even I don't like looking at myself. God help my wife, though. She's stuck with me. I'll be staying at the Conrad Hong Kong, which looks pretty snazzy to me.

When I get back, we'll be one month (and change) away from the arrival of little Ipe.

Heaven help us.