..: schmeeve / a blog :..

The Retarded Beluga is in Town

AIRBUS brought the world's ugliest (and largest) plane to SFO today.

More here. Kudos to 'Telstar Logistics' for finding impossible angles that almost make this thing look majestic.

I work on Airport Blvd and there was a whole mess of gawkers lining the shore by the east peninsula shore to see this ungainly beast land at SFO for the first time. Singapore's to be the first carrier to start flying these beauts next year. What sounds more fun than being enclosed in a metal tube with 580 other people for 15 hours?

AIRBUS needs to sell 450 to break even; orders currently stand at 165. Freight buys and intra-Asian traffic are obvious targets, but no US airline (the largest market) has been swooned by the superjumbo. US carriers are looking at the Boeing 787, with it's faster cruise speed and more spacious/luxo interior. Think less passengers, more frequent flights. It's also not ugly, despite the 70s-esque blue gradient paint job. Order commitments for the 787 stand at 396.

Technorati Tags: A380, AIRBUS, Boeing, sfo, travel

Little Things

In a Kimpton hotel in the Boston area. A friend who works for the boutique chain in SF (where Kimpton's based) wasn't able to get me a cheaper rate or an upgraded room, but he knew how to make it all better:

Thanks Mason!

Up next: will I care about the rate post-Shiraz?

Also, had a most-excellent dinner at The Helmand tonight, an Afghani restaurant owned by none-other than the brother of Hamid Karzi, current PM of Afghanistan and former Unocal consultant (ahem). Turns out there's a San Francisco location as well at 430 Broadway. Who knew. The two of us shared a variety of 3 sumptuous (really) entrees and a bottle of wine for $84. Very pleased.

You Wishing You Were Me

...at Boston's Logan, 6am, sitting next to this guy snoring on volume 11 and periodically couch humping. Sexy time.

Glacier: Some Pics Up

Technorati Tags: glacier national park, glacier-waterton

Glacier

Finally home from Glacier-Waterton, was a blast despite Going-to-the-Sun only being open about 13 miles on each side. There were deer, elk, moose, grouse, ground squirrels, more deer, more ground squirrels, and bears, oh my! One day it snows, the next I'm in shorts. I learned US Customs closes at 6pm within the park, causing me to divert and see all those beautiful Canadian cattle in Alberta. And I learned that climbing 1000 feet per mile is a serious ass-kicker.

Pictures coming up...

Technorati Tags: glacier, glacier-waterton, glacier national park

N Baby Mascot == Good Candy

My package of Conguitos came with a free plastic Sambo!

According to their web site:

Conguitos, roasted peanuts covered in chocolate, have been on the market for over 40 years. Their mascot, the Conguito, is a familiar and endearing character. Due to evolution and the changing times, our mascot has also evolved and slightly changed in order to adapt to the present day. When the "Conguito" was born in the sixties the mascot was perceived as a tiny character covered in chocolate and it has slowly evolved and been updated.

Um, okay. We're not making fun of black people, honest! It's a tiny character covered in chocolate. Or tar. Wait, chocolate.

This all makes much more sense after listening to their kickin' theme song. Okay, well, perhaps not.

cc: Revs. Jackson and Sharpton

So Long Spain

...aside from the biblical rains the last day and my cafe con gamba (yes, somehow a whole prawn ended up in my coffee at a tapas bar), you have a mighty fine country there. (What I saw at least...)

Oh, and thanks for all the signs and menus in English.

...oh, and to the family yesterday on UA 901 who made me give up my nice window seat so your precious little family could all sit together, that was a serious dick move. You knew I'd be seen as some horrible child-hating bastard if I didn't give up my seat, and you took advantage of it. If you want to sit together, book in advance and pick out your seats like I did, you assholes. The aisle seat I got in exchange had two old people on the inside who needed frequent restroom breaks -- and all your shit was in the bin above my head which you accessed no less than 17 times. (I counted.) Just because you spawned does not give you license to run me over with your stroller, ruin my movie and dinner and especially steal my plane seat for a 12hr flight.

Spain

Come February or March, I think I'm going to take two weeks in southern Spain, probably not far from Barcelona. Anyone else interested? Airfare seems about $100 more than it cost me to come out to South Carolina. Nutty.

Probably somewhere around here or as close to Barcelona as I can get. My mother needs me to use up one of her condo exchanges, and who am I to turn up free lodging?

[UPDATE: Map was bugging me, so I removed it.. was the wrong location anyway. I've opted for a secret bunker instead.

No Dumping, Psychos, or Drunkards

Also: "Don't connive at the driver's violation of the passenger transport or traffic management regulations."

My Ears!

They burn! They burn!

The honking in Shanghai, even 32 floors up with the windows closed, is absolutely maddening. I can only fathom it means "hello," "good day," "your hat is lovely" or something here, cuz it certainly serves no constructive purpose. Stop lights, crosswalks, painted lines in the road -- they all mean nothing. Crossing the road, riding in a cab, or even walking on the sidewalk is done at your own peril.

Twice I've abandoned cabs as my urge to, um, not die, overtook. Apparently those cabs were meant for blind people.

The drivers who constantly spit out the window are also a nice touch. (Even though the info placard inside the cab mentions drivers are forbidden from doing so, as well as being required to use A/C should you request -- they don't.)

I think I may go ride the MagLev train tomorrow to the airport. Not because I need to go the airport, and not even because it picks one up at a convenient point, but because moving at such a rapid clip is just unfound novelty here in Shanghai.

Unrelated: I found underwear with a ruler in it in Hong Kong. That's right -- it's "measure yourself" underwear. Other found undies include the sack scruncher, scrotal "blinds," and the lacy staff sheath. Oh, to have so many upsetting gifts.

I also picked up a novelty penis. Throw it down and it explodes in a big rubber ball on the table, only to re-form all T2-like. What could possibly be more fun for $1?

Only one more full day, then 24 hours of travel to get home. But 3 weeks later or so, I think it's back to Hong Kong.

The Fish Listener

There's a gold fish in my room. (Sign of good luck here, but I kinda feel sorry for the lil' guy.)

One Doughnut Pillow, Please

Finally headed home on the 27th, through Narita rather than Shanghai -> Hong Kong -> Taipei -> SFO. Was not looking forward to that.

Picture Match Game: Beijing Food Market Edition

It's a game you can play at home!

Match the edible treat with the picture:

a. Scorpion
b. Shark
c. Centipede
d. Sea Urchin
e. Sheep Testicle
f. Grubs
g. Snake
h. Lizard

click for larger view
1	2	3
4	5	6

Who's Watching?

The Red Army

The Most Peaceful Place in China...

Tiananmen Square. At least that's what several locals told me. Aside from the constant incoming sorties of people peddling books, kites, watches, and Mao quote books, several people approached us with similar MOs -- something I'd be warned about and have seen elsewhere in the world.

The template story basically goes like this:

We're locals, we're like really friendly, won't you come somewhere with this? Once you go somewhere, you and your money usually part ways. From what I understand, you're not at any real risk of being hurt, as long as you hand over your cash and whatever else you might have.

We got two:

1) We want to practice English with you. We're 3 students who have an art exhibit inside a hall at Tiananmen. We have special passes, even though it's closed right now, won't you come look at our art exhibit?

2) We're locals, we like American culture including McD's and KFC. We also like beer. Won't you come have a beer with us? (They also called me Budda, since I was sitting on the wall with my legs crossed much like Budda. I hope that's the only reason why...)

The sad part is they look to be nice, normal people, and they might even have been... but considering I was sans a local this time, we just couldn't take chances. 3 white guys walking around seem to look like giant dollar signs around here.

The weather here has been disgusting. I can't figure out if the haze is weather or pollution, but my bet is on the latter, since about every single place in Beijing is a construction site.

Today we went to the Great Wall.

Tomorrow it's back to Hong Kong.

Pictures coming up.

Mmmmmmm... Bowels

I always find this amusing. Cuz I'm 13 and like fart jokes, I guess.

Today's menu: Boiled Jew's Ear and Marinated Bowels! #504 and #508 below.

Apparently "Jew's Ear" is fungus, and well, bowels are bowels. It's beef intestine.

Office Buddy II

This one I'm not so fond of:

Office Buddy

The Lizard Menace continues to plague Shanghai office buildings:

The Hotel Domestic Floor

Made it to Shanghai. There were "Typhoon 3" and "Red Rain" alerts today in Hong Kong, which means nothing to me, but given that it was raining buckets -- sideways -- as I walked to work this morning, I knew there'd be trouble.

Once getting to the airport, boarding was delayed 45, and when finally on the plane we were promptly told it'd be at least 2 hours and to get comfortable. They threw up X-Men 2, and started passing out sandwiches. Also, due to language barriers and a variety of re-bookings, I was in economy, which is just a pure joy when headed to the Chinese mainland. Watching Helen Thomas in a 3-way would be more comfortable.

Of course, once the flight was cleared, the movie was stopped never to be brought back. Was Charles Xavier's death avenged? What became of Magneto's mutant army?

Anyway...

Once we got to the hotel, I had checked in, and was in the elevator with my boat anchor of a suitcase and a maddening desire to wash off that sticky sweaty layer of human filth that coats one like Turtle Wax when traveling. The elevator door closes, then re-opens, and the front desk guy runs in shouting "room 3008! there problem!" So after waiting around for 10 minutes, I'm taken to the 21st floor. The Chinese National floor. The hallways are filled with smoke, half the doors are wide open, and inside many of the rooms men are gambling and sucking down every last cigarette within a 20 mile radius. There's frequent shouting in the halls.

It's about 94 degrees. At 11pm. There's air condition controls in the room. They do absolutely nothing, but at least they look promising.

On Saturday, I'm off to Beijing for two days. Going to the Wall comma Great as well as various squares and other places which inevitable begin with "The People's..."

Monday morning, it's back to Hong Kong.

The following Monday, it's back to Shanghai.

I used to live in San Francisco. I think.

And yes, David, pictures are coming.

Chinese Pollution + Hot Wet Air ==

one very sick schmeeve.

Air Travel 5 Years after 9/11: Protecting you from Scary Pointy Things and Mascara

A couple of articles over at Salon by Patrick Smith (I really like this dude) outline the rampant fucktardery Americans face on a daily basis when flying: (Yes, other countries are far more rational)

First, this:

If you're one of the 21 bomb plot suspects still sitting in British prison right now, it's mission accomplished. No sooner were we told that a London-based conspiracy had come within days of blowing up several jetliners -- an allegation now subject to doubt -- when we were hit with a gantlet of preposterous security restrictions and a flurry of overreaction:

On Aug. 16, a United Airlines flight en route between London and Washington made an impromptu stop in Boston because a passenger threw an uncontrollable fit. Before being restrained with plastic handcuffs, the 59-year-old woman urinated on the cabin floor, which apparently was reason enough to summon a pair of F-15 fighters to intercept the 767. (She was not the first airline passenger to so relieve herself in an episode of what we used to call "air rage" -- a term that has become almost quaint in the current, overcharged atmosphere.) The aircraft was evacuated on the runway, and passengers were delayed several hours while canine units inspected hundreds of checked bags.

On Aug. 19, a Delta Air Lines jet made an emergency landing in San Antonio, Texas, because -- brace yourselves -- a passenger spent an unusual amount of time in the lavatory. According to flight attendants, the bathroom's ceiling panels had been moved and the smoke detector tampered with. The man, a resident of San Antonio, was detained and questioned -- including a physical search of his home -- before the FBI pronounced him "not suspicious at all." (The decrepit state of lavatories on most U.S. aircraft makes the crew's reaction even more overblown, but that's a topic for another time.)

More toilet trouble that same day, when an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Miami made an emergency stop in Tampa, Fla., after the cabin crew discovered two lavatories with locked doors -- and apparently nobody inside them. Police and TSA officials unlocked the doors and found the bathrooms ... empty.

And reflecting on the 5 years since 9/11:

Conventional wisdom says the terrorists exploited a weakness in airport security by smuggling aboard box cutters. This is bollocks. What they exploited was a weakness in our mind-set -- a set of presumptions based on a decades-long track record of hijackings. In the past, a takeover meant hostage negotiations and standoffs; crews were trained in the concept of "passive resistance." All of that changed forever when American Airlines Flight 11 collided with the north tower of the World Trade Center. What weapons the 19 men had in hand mattered little; the success of the attacks relied fundamentally on the element of surprise. And in this respect, their scheme was all but guaranteed not to fail.

In 2006, for several reasons -- from hardened cockpit doors to, especially, the awareness of passengers -- just the opposite is true. "Any hijacker will face a planeload of angry and frightened passengers," says Ross Johnson, a former Canadian intelligence officer and aviation security consultant. "And he will be badly injured or killed by the mob. That introduces significant doubt into his plan." Say what you want of terrorists, but they cannot afford to waste time and resources on schemes with a high probability of failure.

We, by comparison, are more than happy to waste billions of taxpayer dollars and untold hours of labor in a delusional attempt to thwart an attack that, in some sense, has already happened. No matter that a deadly sharp object can be fashioned from almost anything found on a plane -- from a wine bottle to a piece of plastic moulding -- we are nonetheless asked to queue for absurd lengths of time, subject to embarrassing pat-downs and confiscation of our belongings, lest anybody make it onto an aircraft with a pair of pointy scissors or a screwdriver.

[...]

As a traveler, it's frustrating to see firsthand the ways in which other countries have streamlined their security protocols. I have traveled extensively since Sept. 11, to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and based on anecdotal observation America's protocols feel the most jury-rigged and chaotic.

Alas, a frightened American populace seems to demand not actual security, but security spectacle. We equate nuisance with safety: If it is inconvenient and highly labor intensive, our thinking goes, it must be helpful. And although a reasonable percentage of passengers, along with most security experts, would concur such theater serves no useful purpose, there has been surprisingly little outrage, little protest -- not from passengers, not from the airlines, not from the media. In that regard, we've gotten exactly the system we deserve.

We truly entrust our lives to idiots.

No Snakes, but Internets

At 34k feet somewhere over the Pacific. This flight has Boeing's Connexion, which isn't half bad. Works wirelessly, ain't real speedy, but certainly acceptable. My co-worker is next to me, and I just jacked him in with CAT-5, sharing the $26 fee. 'Bout a buck an hour for the flight.

Of course, since it works, Boeing promptly decided to kill it citing costs and plans to shut it down by the end of the year. There's few other options, and none that work over water that I know of... shame, really. Time's a flyin'. (Bad pun...)

Anyway, off to play some WoW. :-)

( Also, it seems with the evil that is all things liquid, you're still allowed up to 4 oz. of "personal lubricant." 4 oz? I must choose wisely... )

Asia

Flying to Hong Kong tomorrow, via Seoul, so the whole adventure will take about 20 hours.

Taking the 30D and a few of the better lenses, planning on trying to find some peace on the weekends and snap off a few. I'll see if I can't find some Chinese people to take pictures of... AHEM.

It's hot, humid, and lacks good bath products. Or at least a belief thereof.

Will probably hit Shanghai, too, before I head home. (I make it sound like I'm on vacation... I'm most definitely not.) I'd love to make it home before Folsom, but don't know if that's going to happen.

Perspective: Last time in Shanghai I got vid of people dancing on the street to Polak Music outside of a McDonald's.

That or Folsom?

Wish me $DEITY_Speed.

8000 Miles

That's how much I've driven in 2 years, as I found out yesterday when I took my car in for regular maintenance... yet it still costs me a fortune in insurance.

And speaking of 8000 miles, well, a little less, I'm off to Asia again for a month come next Saturday. *sigh*

Airport Romper Room

I was going to go on a rambling screed against the idiotic "no liquids" crap I had to endure Thursday going through LAX, but Patrick Smith nails it. (Sidenote: the media had blown it out of proportion -- I did curb to gate in under 20.)

I'm sure all those airline lobbyist can come up with something that can avoid the "supporting the terrorist" rhetoric while actually making things safer. You know, like putting the fry cook for MickyD's through security when he comes to work and using getting better intelligence. C'mon -- it's not the TSA that busted this one wide open. The front line of airport safety can not be the concourse.

Oh, and the English got the bad guys using surveillance that was granted through legal warrants. The totalitarian buttboys are pimping it as imminent danger numero uno, ergo we must allow BushCo to go hog wild. Wankers.

Crikey!

Lori's mom snapped this in Sequoia Natl Park. I haven't the foggiest as to what it is, but it gives me the heebs and I'm quite sure it made an appearance in the Wrath of Khan...

Few More...

Per request, a few more pics up...

[ Hmmm... I need to figure out a way to get some of those Google ads in those iWeb photo galleries. Granted, only $30 so far, but maybe I can pay for 11 months of hosting out of the year instead of 12... that's 8% savings! Yeah, screw you too.

UPDATE: Well, that was easy. Now I need to ask Google why this gallery has been tagged for PS3 ads. "Yellowstone 3" == "PlayStation 3"??? okay then... ]

So Gay

More pictures of Yellowstone -- flowers, elk, coyote, pronghorn, raven, bison, waterfalls and even a super gay rainbow!

#1 Threat

Sexy Beast

Das Photos

I've managed to sneak off a few shots when not battling Germans for the best locations.

Knock yourself out. I'd put more up, were it not that I'm on dialup and I don't like you that much anyway.

Tomorrow off to Jackson and the Tetons for two days.

Greetings from Yellowstone

Airport Fun

So I'm going through Salt Lake City today and this Wal-mart target demo fam parks it right in the middle of the path, nearly forcing me into their horde of supersized spawn and airport-appropriate rubber flipflops.

"Jesus!" I muttered under my breath, as I turned to circumvent..

Mom does a 180, gets all bug-eyed and snaps, "IS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!"

Not quite the apology I was looking for, but twas fairly witty...

Anyway, my moms and I are parked about 20-odd miles outside of Yeller-stone. Nothing but rain on the drive out here, but at least we're living large in the Caddy DTS. So eco-friendly.

Nothing says fun like... WYOMING!?

Off to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole for a week.

My itinerary thus far:

• Use new Canon 30D, take many many pictures -- since so few of the area exist..
• Hike (like, duh)
• Indulge my disaster fetishism. 'Resurgent caldera' sounds hawt, huh? 'Supervolcano?' Pfft! Too tarty.
• Avoid being taken as a mate by a moose... there's been some hanging around SF, I'm told it's me
• Fashion meself a coon-skin hat... Or perhaps a pashmina
• Be more like local Harrison Ford: get loaded, fly private plane, crash
• Answer: can Old Faithful be used as a bidet?

Home Sweet Home

...and it's a BEUT-TEE-FUL day in San Francisco.

Guess what I'm gonna do?

Watch TV and sleep. That's right. And I'm damn excited about it.

Flight was OK, aside from the World's Worst Indian -- verified by the Indian woman traveling with me on my flight. He couldn't figure out his chair controls, and was crawling around on all fours after all the lights were turned out for at least 20 minutes. That was followed by a loud argument for with his wife, and then a skirmish involving his attempt to steal my blanket.

This after my hotel in Seoul was packed with rude Indian biz guys -- again verified by my Indian colleague. (Just trying to avoid any unpleasant labels.)

When I got on the plane, we both agreed we were sick of the Asian lack of respect for personal space but knew we'd get it the second we landed in SF. Sure enough, the first two people to raise my hackles -- one ran into me with his luggage cart with no apology, another jammed up the auto-turnstyle by jamming his luggage at the last moment -- were Asian. Granted, this is San Francisco.

Perhaps I should try Kansas for some wingnut fundie white people as a relaxer.

Tomorrow: why Amazon can suck my sack and nature's least respected friend to humanity: the squirrel.

Perhaps I'm making that last part up. But Amazon can suck it. Big time.

Homeward Bound

Away for a month, I'm more than ready to come home. Hotel laundry services don't leave my clothes Downey fresh, and my wallet is overflowing with 4 types of currency. I have a pile of receipts which I dread making sense of for my expense report. (And those whacky Chinese don't even give you receipts, only official government notes in the amount of the sale.)

The other day I had to head out to a town called Jeonju, about 2.5 hours outside of Seoul, where we had recently acquired a small company. The driver was at the hotel 7am sharp and whisked us confidently off to our destination... except that he took us to Cheongju, a town in a different providence and about 2 hours in the wrong direction. He showed me the destination on his dispatch sheet, but since it was written in Korean, it could of been a recipe for Kimchi for all I know. After raising someone on the phone that spoke both English and Korean, we were finally headed in the right direction. There's several other cities that all sound phonetically similar to me in the area, but these people seem to keep it all straight. At least I got to see some of Korea by car -- quite pleasant with it's lush green hills with creepy fog hugging the tops.

I had a "Jeonju lunch" which culminated in a local favorite rice dish. Mr. SomethingOrAnother excitedly explained that I could make it at home by taking the rice left in the rice cooker and mixing it with water.

"So... I see. It's burnt rice water?" I confirmed.

Yum. Indeed. It sports a lovely rusted-orange hue with chewey chunks of rice cooker scrapings. Note to self: before putting rice cooker in sink to soak, consider as gift to Jeonju.

In about 8 hours I'll be over the Pacific hopefully fast asleep in Asiana's sub-standard business class. And nothing could make me happier...

A view from my hotel room in Seoul:

Random Shanghai

In Seoul and finally headed home tomorrow evening.

Much too busy to post much, so here's a mixed bag from Shanghai:

I Think I got Married

...what's with the Chinese language Google ads? Me thinks something no workie right.

White Boy Parties in Shanghai...

...with Indians.

I'm off in an hour to do exactly that. Should be interesting.

And for Dessert: Cood with Shepherd's Purse

Don't Cry for Me

Nothing in Common

[ of vital importance to the funny: The hat reads "Cockteaser" ]

Taikoo Girls

Met these lovely business professionals on my way out of work Friday evening. Obviously off to a charity dinner or church function.

This ultra-modern office tower was a former sugar refinery. Check it out then [2] and now.

Mong Kok

Over in Kowloon (not familiar with the geography of HK, look here) there's a huge market area called Mong Kok. To westerners, it's completely non-sensical: entire streets with 50 stores all selling exactly the same items. One street is chock full o' mobile phones, cameras, and other gadgetry; others clothing and semi-automatic rifles. Fun town!

Volume seems to be the key:

The smell wafting from this food vendor was, best I could guess, a moving tribute to the collective ass of 8M Hong Kong residents:

PSA

People of Hong Kong,

Do not attempt to bleach your hair.

Do you really want to be the Chinese version of this?

I thought not.

Love,
schmeeve

Lan Kwai Fong

[ right now I'm missing Dredg... dammit ]

Dinner last night in Lan Kwai Fong which was described to me as "where lots of ex-pats hang out."

"Ohhh!! White people!" I chortled.

Along with it's neighbor SoHo, it can pass for any bar-lined American street where frat boys long to share their chlamydia with some girl who thought it was a good idea to go out on dollar Pabst night.

Some random others (think these were around Stanley...)

Hong Kong Sanity

Sick? A Chubber?

Mmmmm... Chewey

Chow last night with 17 co-workers, my only requirements were no chicken feet or drunken chicken (of which the major point seems to be gnawing the bones for delicious marrow.)

Of much interest is what the white boy would eat. No one would eat until I'd sampled whatever was placed in front of me, which greatly fucked with my OCD: I usually must pick through and identify all the bits before throwing anything down my gullet.

The only oddities included shark fin soup, which wasn't bad -- but somewhere between motor oil and wallpaper paste on the consistency scale. Next up: jellyfish, which didn't have much taste per se. If you want the experience and the store's fresh outta jellyfish, just do a rough chop on your sack (yeah, that one) and saute lightly in sesame oil.

The whole dinner consisted of about 10 courses, and was really quite delicious. I must say there's some spectacular cuisine to be had here, including the "beef doughnuts" I had last Saturday night.

Tonight had Indian, as my colleague has some whacky dietary restrictions/superstition on Friday which I don't pretend to understand. (Hell, Indians get superstitious about breathing.) We ended up in Wan Chai, where I learned that street numbers mean basically nothing. (In Japan, they're numbered in the order in which they were built. Same here? F if I know.) The dal and dosa were delicious though!

Saturday tomorrow, which means a half day of work, since these people are masochist... I mean, SOOOO hard working. I can tell by the many MickeyD's and KFC's that given another decade Hong Kong will enjoy the same obese lethargy that makes America USA USA USA #1! Saturday will take it's proper place: hang-over recovery day.

Oh, I found a relatively uncrowded supermarket today and picked up a few things. Smooth sailing until I wanted oatmeal -- my choices included "drinkable" oatmeal or two flavors: chicken & mushroom or anchovy. I passed.

Crikey!

This apartment came complete with teddy bear sheets and sand-paper towels, so of course the first thing I did was scurry out and acquire new -- a hair-raising experience as shopping anywhere here is akin to a European soccer riot.

The place was cleaned today, the lil' darling even sweet enough to pick up my dirty socks from the floor (charmed, I'm sure) and fold them into neat piles arranged by hue. (Or is it crustiness?)

Anyway, they absconded with my $250 worth of new sheets and towels! I'm back to the sand-paper, my bed now sporting a bi-polar nautical/sunflower theme.

Tomorrow: I brave the supermarket! Edge of yer seat, ain'tcha?

Oh, Kylie!

Sleeping on a Cliff

My apartment here is on the 31st floor on the eastern side. I'm told that, for Hong Kong, it ain't half bad: small, functional, cleaner than most restaurants.

The combo washer/dryer has all manner of settings foreign to me, and for being a computer engineer, it took me a remarkably long time to locate the soap cup. I've always thought that combining a washer/dryer into one unit was smart, but in execution it takes about 5 hours to complete one cycle and the maximum load is about 2 shirts and 1 sock (not both).

The bed is elevated and butts up against the bedroom window. I've mostly overcome my fear of rolling over in bed, having the window promptly pop out, and waking up somewhere around the 21st floor and about 7 seconds before I become a strange stain on the sidewalk.

Pictures:

click for larger view
bedroom view	window of death	living room
balcony view	kitchen/laundry?!

Obligatory Touristy Snaps

From the Sky Lounge in the Sheraton Kowloon:

From the ferry back to Wan Chai:

And from Victoria Peak:

Today went Canon 30D shopping in Mong Kok, without the assistance of a local. Utter chaos. During the week going to drag someone 'in the know' down there. Prices I was getting today were at least $280 less than the US, but I think if I go into some of the places off street level I can go a bit cheaper. I may pick up several unlocked phones to hock on eBay as well -- there's all manner of 750, 810, 900, SLVR, RAZR's and the like to be found.

Move out of the hotel and into our 'company' apartment tomorrow. There's a clothes washer underneath the burners in the kitchen. No dryer. Kwazy.

No Naked Smoking

Reprimands

Fay Gwai Lo

...or 'fat white devil' in Cantonese. You learn so much here!

Origins of 'Stinking Drunk'

'Space Steve from the Future'

...as a co-worker put it earlier. It's 3pm Thursday in Hong Kong right now, 12:06am in SF.

13 hour flight from SFO to ICN, then 3:30 to HKG... I'm, uh, really gross. Sadly, the promise of an in-flight fashion show did not materialize, but it's what'd you expect from an Asian airline: cloned, meek and perfect female flight attendants, not one detail over-looked or missed.

My hotel is a-skank-ey...

More later... shower time!

Fashion Shows

So I was on the Asiana website trying to find cabin interior photos, considering I'll be spending over 24 hours in it over the next month, and all I could find was this goofy video which promises me "In Flight Fashion Shows." That's right... a fashion show!

Uh... cool. I guess.

Hong Kong Ho!

Off to Hong Kong on Tuesday for 4-6 weeks. (15hrs in flight, xfer in Seoul! Joooooooooyyyyyyyy...)

Trying to make a list of things I need to do to be gone that long: hold mail, have someone water plants, but not sure about others: should I shut off the cable? turn off the fridge? let someone run it as a B&B?

Also, trying to dig up as much info on what to do there and in Shanghai while I'm visiting. I'll have plenty of time in HK, and a couple of days in Shanghai to do sightseeing. So far, my goals include not being arrested by government watchers and not a whole lot else. I'm going to try to find a Canon 30D a bit cheaper there, too, so I can photoblog and capture some choice Engrish. (But that's really for my Yellowstone/Jackson Hole trip in June.)

Any suggestions you world travelers out there?