My personal glimpse into the first half of the 21st Century for some yet to be known future
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Yesterday's business trip (no trouble with time)
I got my car quickly from Hertz and made it to the convention center about 1 hour before the doors opened. The wait allowed me to explore the nearby Disneyland based Hilton, to make a few phone calls to friends and family, and to just relax in the morning sun at some tables set up outside in the front of the convention entrance.
The convention was huge, with thousands of vendor booths, all trying to get my attention. Some booths have cool gimmicks, aggressive promoters, flashy backdrops, demonstrations, examples, etc. A few had Booth Babes (relatively hot chicks). Many booths where plan, uninteresting or didn’t have a clear message as to the service offered by the vendor. I walked down every aisle, and talked to many vendors that I need now, or may have some interest in later. I was able to get through the whole place within 5 hours. There was like 10 really hot chicks in the whole place, and 8 of them where in working in booths.
I took one of my co-workers to the airport at around 3:30. I then headed off to find a nearby beach with restaurants. I don’t know the L.A./Orange County area well, but I do have a general sense of the area. I found Huntington Beach around 4:45 and settled down at the bar in Dunes. I was aware that I needed to take off by 6pm to give myself time to get to the airport, but I didn’t worry about it. I had a drink and a tasty battered fish taco as I passively watched the sun set over the Pacific horizon. This was exactly what I planned to restfully close my long day. After I finished dinner, I walked down the pier to watch the surfers. On the walk back, I stopped in a little shop to pick up a Huntington t-shirt (cuz that’s just what I do), then headed back to the car. I left the beach parking lot at exactly 6pm. Not bad considering I wasn’t trying to keep my schedule.
After dropping off the car, I made it to my gate at about 6:45. My flight was scheduled for boarding at 7:50, but another flight was heading back to San Jose earlier. I was able to get on the earlier flight.
Allie had planned to pick me up at 9:30. She left her phone off, so I had to get a hold of her through her brother, who called their dad’s cell in order to get through, cuz the house phone was busy. So, I did do a little waiting after the flight, but we left the airport around 9:25. Not too bad. Allie and I spent a little time at her place before I headed home.
Time wasn’t an issue for me yesterday. It’s been a long time since I had that feeling. Normally I watch the clock and see the minutes tick away like seconds. But yesterday moved as a pace that allowed me to get everything I wanted to without the worry or rush. Now, if only every day was like that.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
I'm not so annoyed today
Well, maybe the words will lead to some improvement of the situation. We get rid of oil dependancy (not just foreign oil), we strike a massive blow to terrorist, long term economic decline, and foreign powers seeking advantage over us.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Ok, so these weeks of busyness ...
Chinese New Year's eve was spent with Allie's family with a very well cooked meal by her mom. Today, I'm not sure what I wanna do. It's already 1pm and Allie and I are barely getting out of bed. lol We watched my Snatch DVD just a bit ago. Right now, she's taking a shower. Exciting stuff, but all part of the busy-ness. :)
My new apartment has come together nicely. It just needs a bit of cleaning up now. Everything is in order. I like what I was able to do with the living areas and the bedroom. The only thang left is for the landlord to fix a couple of items with the bathroom. Once that is done, I'll pretty much feel 100% settled in.
I'm hungry.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Future talking points
There are plenty of protestant fundamentalist groups in existence. Each one has convinced itself they are the only true path to fulfilling God’s will. Of course, the question comes up, if God was so interested in saving lives in this manner, why would he give his word to so few at such a later period in time?
Anyways, as I was growing up, I was taught that the bible says all modern supernatural phenomena are the work of the Devil or his demons who are trying their damnedest to pull people away from the word of God. Of course, this belief did nothing but reinforce the notion that Satan was succeeding because so many did not accept our version of God’s Word. I was taught that ghosts were demons pretending to be the deceased, psychic powers came from conjuring demon influence, and other supernatural events were the efforts to turn people away from God or at least distract us from doing his will. So, much of my life, I had both a fear of the supernatural and an unnatural arrogance about having the ability to know what it is and how to eliminate it.
This led me to completely misinterpret what was really going on around me. This led me to not understand my place in this world. I treated events around me too matter of factly (natural, human, and supernatural), almost with arrogance because I so strongly believed myself to be immune to them. Looking back now, I can say I was pretty ignorant, but that my heart was in the right place.
I'm now far more skeptic, but I'm also skeptical of skepticism.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
UFO Grade School
Extraterrestrial (commonly called ET) – This is normally the first thing people think of when they consider the possible origin of UFO’s. From what I’ve see, most people that believe in UFO's pretty much assume they are occupied by intelligent creatures from other planets. In abduction cases, the victim normally associates their experience with beings from other planets doing experiments on us lowly humans.
Also see the articles about what life on other planets may be like |
Ultraterrestrials (can be known as UT, not because they live in Utah) – This is one idea that is much less commonly known or considered. An ultraterrestrial would be an advanced being that is from Earth, but is generally hidden from view. This means that there are beings on our world that are so far advanced beyond humans, they are able to hide their existence from us, only popping out once in awhile in UFO’s for reasons only known to them. Since humans occupy so much of our planet, and have such a firm grip on our 3 dimensional perceptions, it is generally considered very unlikely anyone could be hiding from us right under our own noises. However, as far as evidence goes, there’s not much difference between this concept and that of extraterrestrials.
Fake – Of course, these previous ideas are all based on the idea that UFO’s are real in one way or another. It is not hard to completely discredit most UFO encounters (real, imagined or misinterpreted) as simple overstatements or outright fakes. Certainly, a lot of 20th Century mythologies are being revealed as hoaxes these days. Loc Ness Monster and Bigfoot are the two biggest examples of that. Pretty heavy discussion for grade school, huh?
If this discussion occurred today, it may have been a bit longer, as new possibilities have been considered.
Metaterrestrial – This New Age style notion is similar to that of ultraterrestrial. The belief is that UFO’s are from higher forms of beings or spiritual beings from Earth, but that they exist on some other plane of existence, astral plane or other dimensions. For reasons only known to them, they pop into our plane of existence in the form of UFO’s once in awhile. This is slightly easier to believe than ultraterrestrials because it offers an explanation on how these higher beings can generally hide from us.
My own contribution to this discussion is a bit more bizarre than the other 5 possibilities I just laid out.
Future Evolved Terrestrial Tourist and Scientists (or FETTS for short) – Far in the future, humans will eventually evolve into some higher form of ourselves. The new future human species is starting to send tourists and scientist back in time to both enjoy and study their species’ past (that’s us), much in the same way our modern tourists visit ancient ruins or our modern scientist study prehistoric hominid bones. They fly around in their UFO’s over our cities to take in the sites of a world that must surely be nearly prehistoric to them. Their scientists conduct the occasional abduction to make comparisons between modern DNA and their future DNA to determine our evolutionary course, and to do psychological tests to figure out how they evolved their superior mega-brain and thinking ability from our puny primitive ape brain and mind. Every once in awhile, they get bored and fry a cow or activate a crop circle.
Despite the fact that I’ve come up with this crazy alternate scenario, I don’t really have a strong opinion about the UFO phenomenon. I do think of a lot of encounters are misinterpretations of what really is going on, but this doesn’t account for many instances that are well documented and don’t have any explanations; and I’m not talking about the mythological accounts of Roswell. There are sensible unexplained events that are often abducted by the UFO mythos believers.
So what are UFO’s? Eh, don’t really care. I just think it’s strange that I had this kind of discussion in grade school.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Right to Die
I was first exposed to the debate about euthanasia in discussions about such matters with my mother when I was growing up. Later in a high school class where the topic came up, I believed that suicide itself was wrong, but I believed in the right of an individual choose for themself. One thang I’m not sure I was clear on was whether euthanasia is the same as suicide.
These days, my opinion is still pretty much the same in context, but the reasoning is much clearer. Of course, this makes it harder to know where to stand exactly on the issue. In principle, I believe that the individual has the right to determine their own life. But morally, I know that killing one’s self is wrong. Violence is allowed to defend one’s own life or the lives of loved ones, but it is not allowed to take one’s own life. Whether in mercy or in despair or in cruelty, one should not act in such a way against themself.
However, under rule of law, the right of the individual to any choices about themself is important to keeping the government from intruding in the lives of its citizens. The principle of keeping the government out of our lives is just as important because so many other morally correct doctrines can be threatened with too much control given to the authorities. If the government is given the right to tell an individual they cannot control when they die, the door may be opened to forcing unnatural methods to keeping people alive well beyond what nature intended.
Does the Right to Die only mean euthanasia, or does it include the right to refuse medical care that may or may not prevent the onset of a life threatening condition? That creates a pretty damn big gray area that brings the whole question of Right to Die into a state of confusion.
Then there’s the biggest problem with euthanasia. How can the government protect its citizens from being victimized by impatient relatives that may have motives for pursuing euthanasia upon their “loved one”? Even with the concept of keeping an intrusive government out of our lives in mind, it’s hard to justify allowing the possibility of such a scenario.
So, for me, right now, I think the best course of action is to not allow euthanasia. However, I think allowing the person to control what treatments they receive (or not) should be protected. This means a person (or that person’s immediate family, with the spouse having the second say, then if no spouse, the parents to have the third say) has the right to determine whether or not to be kept alive by machine, drugs or other treatment, but that the person may not choose to take the actual action to kill themself. Removing life support is OK because it is letting nature take its course. Euthanasia is not OK because it is a violent unnatural action that ends a life before its time.
Sponge know not
Ok, just to finish this story (see below), Mia literally labelled her new cleaning sponges with the words "Kitchen" and "Bathroom" with a felt tip pen. Ok, so this is like psycho for two reasons. First, SHE LABELLED HER SPONGES WITH A FELT TIP PEN! Second, the germs are killed off by whatever chemicals being used. Trust me, she's having the cleaning people use some pretty toxic products! ::cough:: As long as these sponges aren't being used more than once, there's not going to be any germ or grime issues between the bathroom and kitchen.
And this "special attention" list she left for the cleaners had more hmphadumpfs than actual words, so she had to rewrite it, but she still mentioned mcp's a couple of times! Don't know what I'm talking about? Then it's a pretty good bet the cleaners won't know either. hehe
Sweet dreams my very clean mia
Ya'no the funny thang? I know someone else is going to read this exchange and think to themself that labelling sponges is a great idea and start doing it too! LOL
Here's Miriam's myspace.com original post:
"Ok so the cleaning people are coming tomorrow..They are really good at cleaning...the best help I think... but seriously anyone that knows me knows that cleaning my house was my hobby...im portugues...thats what us portugue women do...but I digress.... So I am making my "SPECIAL ATTENTION" list for the week.... even though they are good cleaning people they still require some guidance...AGain cleaning my house was my hobby so yeah I am anal...
Anywho so I am making my list and then I remembered... I have new sponges... So since they all look alike I labeled them.. One baths and the other kitchen... Matt is watching this and then gets this worried horrified sorta dismayed look on his face and says" You are phsyco...who ever heard of labeling a sponge.".. Mind you his idea of cleaning a cup is rinsing it and his old bathub is more gray than white....but again I digress...So I ask...if you have good cleaning people with an english issues should you not label your sponges??? I mean who wants the same sponge that cleaned the muck off your toilette to clean the sink on your kitchen??? Gross... I think so
Anywho, just a random thought for the nite..."
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Freedom of Religion|Church and State
Together with the 14th Amendment, the Freedom of Religion is established in the U.S.A. by the Second Amendment of our Constitution
The two camps, both liberal and conservative, tend to only recognize the virtue of half this clause from the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Liberals tend to only accept the first half of the clause. Conservatives tend to only recognize the second half. Yet, Freedom of Religion can only be guaranteed if both halves are equally recognized.
The first half limits government from enforcing religion upon the populous. This means schools cannot institutionalize prayer. They cannot teach religion in any context except where religion itself is objectively studied in terms of history or social science. It means judges, states and any government institutions cannot promote religion, use it in their proceedings or refer to it in its decision making process. It also means that government cannot give preferential treatment to particular religious organizations. That is to say, it’s ok to give all religious organization a tax-exempt status, but it’s not ok to actually give money to particular groups without using some non-religious common criteria.
On the flip side, the other half of the Freedom of Religion clause prevents our governments from stopping someone from practicing their religion. This means that a school cannot tell a student that they cannot pray during school hours. It means that religions that are in the extreme minority may not be transgressed upon for their practices. Now, reason had intervened with the understanding of this clause. If a religion advocates harming others or their property, this is not protected religion activities. What is protected is what the individual does themself with their own property or within their own life, as long as they are not harming others.
An example of both ends of the second half of the Freedom of Religion clause have been tested out in the litigation involving Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses fought for the right to practice their religion within schools. Through the Supreme Court, they have won the right to not salute the flag at school. However, they have also been required to prevent unnecessary harm to their children by being forced to all medical care that involves blood transfusions. As part of their religion, they believe that seeking professional medical care is valuable and important, but have a specific prohibition again the practice of using blood transfusions.
So, the Second Amendment doesn’t allow the government to promote religion, and it does not allow the government from preventing it either. This leads to the contemporary discussion regarding the concept of the separation of church and state. The words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the Second Amendment. Nor do they need to in order to establish such a separation because the words actually used in the Second Amendment establish the even greater and more inclusive principal of Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion inherently establishes a de facto separation of church and state, not as a doctrine itself, but as the only practical way to apply the Freedom of Religion principle with the actual wording of the Second Amendment.
Again, the Second Amendment (together with the 14th Amendment) prevents the U.S.A. governments (local, state and national) from promoting, imposing or prohibiting religion on/of its citizens, which creates a de facto separation of church and state.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
More and less
In Dec, I had to deal with two drunk asses (that couldn't handle their alcohol in one way or another) on separate nights, ruining two perfectly fun evenings out. Not cool. Well, New Years was laid back and enjoyable, even though everyone was sick.
Last night a group of us got together for a birthday dinner for Ronie and Fernando at House of Genji. Allie and I have had pretty good experiences there recently with fun and talented cooks, so we where a bit underwelmed by last night's cook, but overall we all had a fun time.
What else? Well, there's a bunch of other stuff too, but maybe I'll go into details later.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Pat Robertson
Friday, December 30, 2005
House not home
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
News whore Letterman
Lady gets restraining order against Letterman for sending her secret coded messages over the TV that instructed her to do thangs like move east and marry him. Ummm, that is funny. You can't make this stuff up!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Unions still have their place
Already, some of the basic protections for workers are being scaled back, being wrongfully labelled as "archaic". We should be pushing world's developing nations to aspirer to meeting the challenge of copying our system of labor. We should not be rolling back our system to compete with them. As someone who is firmly rooted in white collar middle class, I can say the only thang protecting my career is the rarity of my work skills. As the world market becomes more competitive, that rarity will diminish, as with many American jobs. We need to help other countries realize that having a suitable standard of living is just as important as having one or two successful companies in their country. Henry Ford gave us clear examples of how to run companies that benefit the employees and in turn, benefit the company because employee prosperity is spent buying company products. Anyways, we are on a slippery slope that we should back away from.
Breathe of relief
This was part of the judge's finding in the case where the then Dover Area School Board attempted to cram that ridiculous notion of Intelligent Design into our U.S. classrooms as an alternative to the Theory of Evolution. The judge also had other harsh words for the school board and their actions.
I doubt there will be an appeal to the ruling since the Dover area community kicked all 8 of those guilty school board members out of office earlier this year.
I expect that religious leaders will now push for a repackaged Intelligent Design concept under some different name, and that we will be having this issue come up again within 15 years. What these I.D. proponents don't realize is that the more they try to become scientifically accepted, the more they will eventually have to adopt evolution and natural selection into their own belief systems. This is pretty much the end of the legal road for anyone that wants to dearly hold on to the traditional biblical creation myths and force those myths on everyone else. From this point on, the movement behind I.D. will eventually turn into a scienitific group that will one day turn it's back on it's own origins.
The only other legal battle pursuable by the religious faithful is to pretend that the 1st Amendment of the Constitution doesn't really forbid government tampering in a society's religious beliefs. If they can convince a judge of this nonsense somewhere along the line, they may still be able to openly get religion back into our school system. But then all hell will really break lose because every religious group in existence will claim their right to be present in our schools. I'm guessing that any judge, regardless of their beliefs will want that to be the result of their ruling. Given that, even this battle will be lost once and for all by the religious nuts one day.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Drunks
Friday, December 16, 2005
Hugs and Kisses
I just tried these Kissables. I assume that Hersey came out with this product to compete directly with M&M's. I tried Kissables. They are good. To me, they taste better than M&M's. I'd recommend at least trying them out. The only thang that I don't like about the candy is the odd shape, but I think that's only because I'm so accustomed to M&M's. Other than that, that are pretty good.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
King Kong
I didn't like the King Kong movies. The original is just too archaic to watch. The remake was completely miserable. And what's this about King Kong vs. Godzilla? What's that about? Peter Jackson produced and directed the 2005 King Kong version. He has not only redeemed the King Kong story, he has brought it to the level that the story deserves. King Kong still isn't one of my favorite stories, but it is now one that I now really enjoy and have a new found respect for. I think Peter Jackson understood the story better than its original director, producer and possibly the original writer too.
I highly recommend King Kong!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Not only could I have got laid much earlier, I coulda prolly had a couple of girlfriends by my early 20's. But no. I wasn't ready. The longer one wants to explore these areas, the harder it gets to have the breakout experience that opens your world, such as a first love or even just getting laid. If this blog were to go back to my early 20's, the text would be filled with frustrations that I would prolly now find embarrassing. Maybe it's a good thang my blog beings in 2002. lol I was well on my way to becoming who I am at that point.
In my younger years, I fear I was loved long before I know what love really was. If not love, then at least there was girls who where attracted to me that I just didn't...I just was unable to know it. Insecurities were the main cause. I had nothing to be insecure about, but when one is young, one doesn't know that. I'm no exception, though I guess I hid it pretty well, even from myself. Intelligence allowed me to come up with reasonings that nurtured my insecurities rather than defeat them. It took me a long time to figure out that I wasn't ugly. It took me even longer to figure out that I'm actually fairly attractive. It took me even longer to understand that certain people are more attracted to each other than others types of people and that it doesn't matter what one person likes cuz everyone is different with different tastes. There should be a class that teaches children this in grammar school. lol ...nevermind, there is... ...I was screwed up by my parents like everyone else...hehe. Most of my insecurities do come from my mom and dad, or at least how they raised me. I'm not sure where my early life haze come from, though. I still slip into it once in a while, but I've learned to use it as a tool (hard to explain...saving that topic for another time). It holds no grip over me any more.
Nowadays, I feel as though I'm experiencing life on my own terms. I have great friends and great loves (past and present). Most of all, I look forward to the days ahead of me in this life.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Dec Birthdays
When we finally woke up, we checked out and headed over to this nice mall and did a little shopping before heading off to San Francisco...for more shopping. We finally joined her family for a birthday dinner for her brother at an authentic Chinese restaurant in Pacifica. After that, we headed to my place and prolly fell asleep around midnight last night.
On Friday night before dinner, I found out that I'm going to be a neighbor to Dave's ex-brother at the apt complex I'm moving to. Dave, Miriam, myself, Sven and his g/f all met up for dinner. I got home late that night too. ::yawn:: Am I supposed to be getting more sleep than this?
Friday, December 09, 2005
Here's a heart warming Xmas story for ya
Sounds like the police are the terrorist in this case. The war on terror doesn't seem to be a war, more of an alliance with terror.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
X-Men Movies...
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Changes in store
Monday, November 28, 2005
World of Hypocrites
I get the sense that these people are the same that claim that Christians are being persecuted by this world. ::cough:: This world is under the power of Christianity and has been so for a 1000 years. Who in this world is persecuting Christians on a large scale? Other Christians, perhaps? Ridiculous. It’s as though the word persecution really means that a Christian’s misdeeds aren’t being ignored and other people aren’t helping that Christian to commit their misdeeds. What else could it possibly mean in the context of today’s world?
These issues aren’t limited to Christianity. Islam and Jewish faiths also carry this burden, but the Christians are in control, and it is they who must take the lead to stamp out the hypocrisy. Of course, for the time being, they will not, at least in the U.S.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Hong Kong Photos
I took this black and white photo from the top of a double decker bus. Buses are hella cheap in Hong Kong. It costs no more than US$1.25 to travel anywhere in Hong Kong. The old trolleys are even cheaper. They cost about 11 cents (US) to travel from one area to another, though they don't cover all of Hong Kong like the buses and mass transit rail do. The roads are mostly full with traffic from buses, taxis and commercial trucks. There are relatively few private cars in the main parts of the cities.
Many parts of Hong Kong have a special type of beauty when the sun goes down. Here's a scene of Jordan Street near my hotel. Even though it's pretty late, these businesses are all still open and making their bids to attract attention. This is a heavily touristy area, so many of the businesses are notorious for being rip-offs. I have not first hand experience with this since Allie prevented me to doing any shopping in this area. lol There were a lot of inexpensive goods to be bought just a block away on one of the side streets in various Lady's Markets and shops.
This is a shot of Hong Kong from the deck of a nearly authentic junk which cruises around the Hong Kong harbor on Thursdays and Saturdays. Apparently it's pretty hard to get the free tickets for this hour long cruise. Allie and I lucked out and got the last two tickets for this cruise earlier in the week. Many people try for weeks to get the cruise tickets of their choice. I recommend trying this tourist attraction, if not for anything else than the fact it is free.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Monday, November 21, 2005
Hong Kong Vacation: The Return 11/18/05
11/18/05 is officially the longest day of my life, not because it dragged on, but because it was long by the number of hours. Our flight took off at around 5:30pm and arrived in San Francisco at around 2:40pm. It almost feels like time travel to see a sun set only to have it raise on the same day 14 hours later. Four inflight movies. The new Bad News Bears with Billy Bob Thornton (so-so), an imitation of Bad News Bears with Martin Lawrence but I forget its title (horrible), Batman Returns (great) and one other film I can't even remember right now but I had to watch to keep me awake in my effort to get back on California time ASAP. I was relieved to be back in California after such a long flight. Even with my nerves and sensibility, a flight as long as this does weigh on my spirit.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Allie and I have had a long week. We capped it off with an hour trip on a cruise around the Hong Kong harbor in a converted authentic junk. A junk is a traditional Asian ship with three sails that are supported with several ribs on their masts. I learned this in school, but apparently Allie did not. She thought I was joking about the name of that type of ship the whole week before we took the ride. Ironic that she is from Hong Kong. :) Anyways, the cruise was very relaxing. We both almost fell asleep. It was a nice day for time out on the water trolling along around the harbor.
That evening, Allie and I had dinner with her mom and other relatives on her mom's side of the family. It was more traditional Cantonese food, and it was very good. Her cuzin Conan was very interesting, and only one of two males near our age group that I've meet from her family the whole time I've been in Hong Kong. It almost seems as though most of her cousins are women. Anyways, it's was a lovely dinner.
Afterwards, we did a little shopping, but didn't buy anything. We tried to find a nice formal jacket for me, but it seems that the jackets in Hong Kong are made for people with slender shoulders. It felt good be too big for clothes cuz of my broad shoulders and all, but hey, they didn't have sizes bigger than XL.
We tried to get back in time to get enough sleep for the next day's flight back.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Friday, November 18, 2005
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
One a side note, I should mention that I feel like a giant in my hotel room. It's very small, especially the restroom. I have to sit at an angle to fit on the toilet next to the counter. I have to stand with my feet together when I take a shower because the tub is so narrow. With all these big buildings, one would think they'd provide more room for people to live within.
Oh, and the Bird Flu is closing in on Hong Kong, or so it would seem from the South China Morning Post with headlines like "Mainland's first bird flu death confirmed" and "HK to resume border temperature checks as authorities report three cases" I haven't seen more than a few tiny birds in the city areas of Hong Kong. I don't know if the birds naturally stay away or if all birds where killed off. Maybe I'm wrong on both counts, but it is very weird not to see any birds. Regardless, the Bird Flu still cannot spread from person to person yet, so I don't see what the fuss is about just yet. Plus, my company Cepheid already has a Bird Flu detention method that can give results in under 45 minutes. That means soon anyone that is suspected can get tested and know for sure hella quick so the appropriate action can be taken.
Well, I'm off for morning tea with Allie's family.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong isn't as crowded at I thought it'd be. I mean, there is people everywhere, but it's not so bad. San Francisco is about as crowded. Maybe I haven't see it at its worse yet, but given the fact that we've been everywhere, I'm not thinking I've missed much.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
We arrived back in Hong Kong/Kowloon city area in the evening. We took a night ride on the Peak Tram to the top of The Peak, a mountain top overlooking Hong Kong. The ride was fun. At times the tram rose at about a 45 degree angle up the mountain side. I couldn't find any name for the top of the mountain other than just The Peak. The view of Hong Kong from the The Peak was both beautiful and impressive. Even at this height, we didn't stand much higher than the top of Hong Kong's tallest buildings. There was sumfin romantic about the view.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
We headed down to Tsim Sha Tsui and hit up the buffet restaurant in the International Hotel for breakfast, but Allie insisted we wait and do the lunch buffet there instead because they had a really good lunch buffet. I got a little grouchy about this cuz. I was hungry and we took the Mass Transit and also walked quite a distance to get there. All was right when we finally got to set down and eat though.
Right outside that hotel was the Avenue of the Stars which honors the stars of Hong Kong's budding film industry. We explored the area and got some information about various Hong Kong attractions. It's funny that even though Allie is from Hong Kong, we still ended up at the Tourist Information Center like we were a couple of normal tourist. Allie's Cantonese does help speed thangs along though, no matter where we find ourselves.
We then toured the nearby Space Museum. The exhibit areas where fairly basic with no significant exhibits, but it was nice to get out of the heat and stroll around. Allie enjoyed some of it and I enjoyed adding extra info to better explain some of stuff behind the information presented.
We then visited Causeway Bay to shop at the inexpensive places and in a Lady's Market.
After heading back to the hotel and resting, we ended up in Kwai Lan Fong for a night out. This is a block of streets that are shut down in the night for one big party around a bunch of European style pubs, bars and clubs. A lot of the local Europeans end up here for drinking, dancing and socializing with other White people.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Monday, November 14, 2005
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
On the way back to the hotel, the main route back to the main part of Hong Kong was blocked with a major accident. The delay was reported to be at least two hours, so we got out of the bus and walked for 3/4 hr, mostly downhill, back to the main bus terminal to catch a bus that was heading back to Hong Kong thru the only other route out of the area. Fortunately, Allie had discovered the only bus route that would take us back, though still through thick traffic on narrow mountainous roads and bridges. Traffic everywhere in that area was a mess as people where trying to get out. We where lucky to beat the rush of people to the bus headed out of there. Everyone else was still waiting for the main buses and didn't realized the way was blocked until everyone was started lining up for the only bus heading the other way. Felt a little like survival of the fittest and we got a jump on everyone else. :)
After getting back to the hotel, we had dinner and then visited a nearby Lady's Market. According to Allie, a Lady's Market is any alley or street filled tightly with vendors selling their goods. The walk thru a Lady's Market is usually very cramp and crowed. She added that they are also great places to get a pocket picked. At this Lady's Market I found a great deal on knock-off Polo luggage that was pretty good quality.
Both of us where beat, so we headed back to the hotel and knocked off to sleep quick.
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
I had only brought one carry-on bag. When I arrived in Hong Kong, all I had to do was wait in line for visitors and get my passport stamped. Because I didn't have any luggage, I just walked thru the luggage claim area to the Arrival area, called Arrival Area A or sumfin like that. Well, Alice was waiting for me at Arrival Area B. I had noticed that my Treo phone worked in Taipei when I was waiting around bored at that airport, so I tried my Treo at the Hong Kong airport, and it worked. I called her and we found each other pretty quickly. She was prepared with a mass transit card for me and we hit the Express Train to Kowloon, where my hotel is.
I was annoyed that my shades broke somewhere on my trip, so the first thang we did in Kowloon is stop off at one of the many malls while walking to my hotel. My first purchase in Hong Kong was a rather decent pair of Guess shades.
We checked in to the hotel and then headed to Northpoint to visit her uncle and meet up with her mom. Alice, her mom and I later meet up with her mom's friend and had a late lunch.
Later, some cousins, her uncle, mom and us meet up for a late dinner at a good Chinese style restaurant. Of course, here it's not called "Chinese" lol Anyways, I was so lagged that I almost passed out at dinner, so Alice and I headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
I woke up the next morning on Hong Kong time. :)
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Hong Kong
November 10-17, 2005 with Alice Leung visiting Hong Kong, including Repulse Bay, Kowloon and 寶蓮禪寺. This was an awesome trip! (Original post/backup link)
Other blog posts:
Hong Kong Vacation: The Flight and Arrival 11/10/05 11/11/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Next Day 11/12/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Shopping and the Traffic Jam 11/13/05
Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05
Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05
Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05
Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
How many great loves
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
So, like what?
Monday, November 07, 2005
Weekend
Anyways, we hung out on Saturday too. We ended up in SF with some friends of hers. There was couple of interesting places we hit up that I might return to. I can't remember the names of either, but I could find them again. :)
Today, I hung out for awhile with Jenn. We had a late lunch, hit up a play for go-cart racing and have a fun time hanging out. Right now, I'm catching up on chores I need to get done before my big Hong Kong trip in a few days. I'm excited.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
What a Trip
Although I haven't travelled outside the U.S. in any significant fashion, I'd hafta say this is how I prefer to visit other regions. Many years ago, I visited Mexico with a friend and his family who lived there. It makes the experience more enjoyable and serves as a good way to see thangs as they really are. Mexico is a depressing place, but you can't know how depressing until you travel to a city's outskirts and see poor families living in tin huts made from junk (same as little as 4' high) for as far as you dare to look. It helped me realize that some countries are afraid to take the steps necessary to allow their citizens opportunities. Maybe afraid is the wrong word. Maybe it is intentional, to hold down the masses and keep them under control. I don't know, but either way, it would not take a lot of effort to charge up the Mexican economy if its government would loosen economic controls. The Mexicans that can get ahead are the ones that are able to find work in the U.S., at least along the boarder.
I wonder what I'm going to discover about Hong Kong?
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Recent quote from AP
'I think that the Republican Party fairly recently has been taken over by the Christian conservatives, by the Christian right,' he said in an interview. 'I don't think that this is a permanent condition, but I think this has happened, and that it's divisive for the country.'
He also said the evangelical Christian influence would be bad for the party in the long run."
Ya'think!? This is obvious. It happened when Bush Sr. weakend the Republican Party from 88-92. They lost their way. In the void, the extreme religious right stepped in and started consolidating their power within the Republican Party in the same manner that the Nazi Party took over the Germany government. Then they used their momentum to take over the U.S. Government, and now we have a mess to clean up that will be an embarassment to American generations to come.
Acura troubles again
Anyways, three transmissions. I'm told that even my previous transmission was known to have problems, so the dealership expected to hafta replace it again. Supposedly, this new transmission will not have the same issue and last longer than 30,0000 miles.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Vote No on everything in California Nov 2005
No on Prop 73: It is being billed as a waiting period prop to give doctors time to notify parents of their underage child’s intent to have an abortion. However, it is very sneaky. It is an attempt to define terms like “Unborn Child” in very unscientific and extremist anti-abortion terms, creating the stepping stone necessary to legally taking away a women’s right to choose in the near future. Even if you are anti-abortion, this bill should scare you! It is an attempt to trick a populous to accept concepts to which the populous is opposed. If they can get away with this, they can get away with anything. Every right taken away from one class of citizens is a right taken away from all citizens. This isn’t about the right to abortion. This is about the right to have a say over one’s own body. To take away that right puts us on the same track as countries like China where abortions are enforced by law. Why are abortions enforced? Because the government’s authority exceeds the individual’s authority over their own body! Even though most of us are against government enforced abortions, we need to realize that government prohibition of abortion has the same result: the government having control over our own bodies. With this right taken away, all other rights are pointless. The government, even with the will of the people, does not have the right to tell any of us what to do with my own body. The will of the people does not supersede the will of the individual at the individual level. Allowing the government to take a person’s right over their own body leads to forced operations, and later, forced implants. If you don’t think this is possible, I will remind you that some of our fellow Americans are currently promoting such government intrusions right now; some who are very overt about their intentions, and some who are very quiet and sneaky, like the writers of Prop 73.
Props 74, 75, 76 and 77 are scams dealing with a governor’s power and money usage to oppose the governor. The point of these props is to consolidate power in the office of the governor and limit the ability of citizens to oppose the governor. The problem that its proponents don’t realize is you can’t keep Democrats out of the White House, or the Governor’s House either. The same power they are trying to grab for themselves right now will end up in the hands of a Democratic Governor sooner or later. As an independent voter, it scares me to have that much power in anyone’s hands, regardless of party affiliation. So, the answer here is No. Remember, Hitler was Germany’s legally elected leader. The Nazi Party was the legally elected dominate Political Power. They snaked their way into power by lying about their agendas and openly consolidating power with the populous’ permission.
Props 78 and 79 are competing props purportedly trying to clean up health care in California. Both are nonsense. No system is better than either of these. Prop 78 is supported by pharmaceutical corporations. Hmm, these are the same guys charging Americans like 100 of times as much for medication here than they do in other countries. Do I trust them? Uh, no. Prop 79 is a response to Prop 78, but a very poor one that isn’t very well thought-out.
Prop 80? Yeah, what’s that about? The regulations on our current power system need to provide sustained power for our populous, but Prop 80 looks like a power grab by someone. Even in its own description, it sounds bad. Who wasted their money trying to promote this prop?
Friday, October 07, 2005
Lunchtime
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Leave my jamas alone, you llamas!
So, I wasn’t able to let this go. I've been around Spanish speaking individuals my whole life, and never heard the LL pronounced so strongly as J. I jumped in and asked her to repeat it to make sure I was hearing her right. Again, she pronounced the LL in her name as a J. So, now I’m even more confused. Normally a person knows how to pronounce their own name. After several attempts to get her to say it, I started up with, “Doesn’t the LL make a Y sound?” She agreed, but then said it as a J again, this time only the letter itself. Ok, so now I’m even more confused than before. I asked her to say the common Spanish question “COMO SE LLAMAS?” and it came out of her mouth as “Como say jamas”. I said, “Como say yamas”, and she corrected me, “Como se jamas.”
Needless to say, my main confusion now is how a native Spanish speaker doesn’t know how to say letters in her own language. So, we started into a rather flavorful and light argument about this. It lasted long enough to entertain a few nearby co-workers. She was all, “How are you going to teach a native Spanish speaker my own language. Let me teach you English.” So, I printed a pronunciation chart of Spanish letters with their English equivalents. She was still not convinced. She even mentioned that she spoke Castilian version of Spanish. I wasn’t buying that.
The funny thing is, I know she speaks Spanish as a first language all the time. We live in California, where one can find peoples representative of many Spanish speaking regions. I know she has had to have talked to other Spanish speakers before. But she’s convinced that everyone says the LL as a J. I’m kinda starting to think there are a lot of Latin American’s that say the LL as a J without realizing it, as an accent. I’m not sure that she (or many Latin American people) can even hear the difference between the Y (you) and J (jam) sounds. Very strange. Either way, she still insists on pronouncing as a J. After all, that’s how she’s been saying it all her life. If this is how a lot of people are talking, Latin American television must be impossible for Spaniards to understand.
Ok, so later in the evening, I met up with my friend Dave, who was raised in Spain and has a significant European background. I told him and his Latina girlfriend this story and gave the example of the J sound. He immediate laughed. But his girlfriend said, "Yes, you said it right!" I looked at her oddly. (My co-worker and Dave's girlfriend are from two completely different regions.) Dave looked at his girlfriend funny too and pointed out her error. She wasn't even aware that she was saying the J sound herself. We were both pretty amazed.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Monday, October 03, 2005
President knows how to pick 'em
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Last Night's Party
Last night's birthday party for Kate was fairly tame as house parties go, but it was a lot of fun. This picture shows Jaime's first ever Keg Stand! Just turn your head 90 degrees to see her Keg Stand properly vertical . :) There was also a permanent batting cage in the backyard. The ball hurling machine wasn't working (or at least their drunk asses couldn't get it to work), so some of the guys switched between batting and pitching. Not smart. I watched as one line drive drove right into the ribs of the pitcher. Funny thang, and funnier that he keep pitching afterwards! lol My buddy Nate randomly meet a girl (Keg Stand Jaime, actually!) who he's only talked to through Myspace and emails before. Must be fate. lol Even with all of this going on, Miriam and I still took off by midnight. I was the double-d, though I don't think either of us had any possibility of getting too drunk.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Teaching Bible in Public School
I mention this cuz I just read a news article about this topic. The only contrarian point I can bring up is the fact the most High School kids never remember what they learn in High School besides basic skills they end up using in real life. Knowledge about history, art and pretty much any other pursuit is usually forgotten soon after the final exam (if even committed to memory in the first place). This is a different issue though.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Green Day in SF
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Another quicky today...
Oh, and yes, I am actually doing my laundry, as I threatened to do in the earlier entry. lol
Time and bedsheets
Friday, September 16, 2005
Garbage
Next week, GREEN DAY! ::que insane cheering::