Random Ruminations of my Mind

A new begining with a new life.

2009-05-13T21:05:00.001-07:00

At the turn of the year I lived a simple life with neither children nor pets. At work and with friends who had either, all they seemed to discuss was one amusing anecdote after another involving those extensions of their family. Could I possibly be less interested in your dog having an accident on the carpet or perhaps your child getting their first tooth? A funny thing happened on Valentine’s day of this year, my life was enriched by a puppy. Maybe enriched is too limiting of a term, how about driven crazy while sick with worry yet wholeheartedly emotionally connected. This blog which used to be interesting anecdotes of my travels around the world encompassing almost 600,000 miles has shrunk to a dramatically smaller circle of only a few dozen miles. While there is no lack of blogs out there that tell stories of pets and children somehow people seem interested in my stories so perhaps I can regale you with one or two (or vastly more knowing my verbose nature).

So rather than starting at the very beginning (far too normal for the likes of me), perhaps the more recent and we can recount over chai tea early beginnings at a later time. However an introduction is of course in order. I would like to introduce you to Dodger, not as in the Brooklyn and now LA Dodgers but rather the Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. What better name for a rescue dog than one of the most famous aid-de-camp of orphans the industrious and yet amusing Dodger?

On Tuesday morning Dodger woke up as usual at the wonderfully late 5am hour happy to be a puppy and thinking simply of food and maybe a bathroom break. Sadly today was not to be like every other day in the past 4 and half months of his life, today he had to go to the vet for a ‘routine’ surgery. Thus, no food in the morning (something that did not go over well with the lord of the manner) and an early start out of the house en-route to the vet. Upon arriving, instead of the usual turning over of the pup to the surgical tech, they actually had me walk him all the way to the back and put him in the cage personally. Great so the last image my dog is going to have of me is to put him in a cage in a back room smelling of sour stale air, with tufts of fur in every corner occasionally wafting through the air, forever lit with impersonal florescent bulbs and well used and chewed metal mesh cages. Dodger cheerfully goes into the cage knowing that I would never put him anywhere he would not like for why would I ever do that to him, but when the door closed with me on the other side his face turned from confusion to fear in a blink of an eye. That was the image burned into my mind as I walked out.

Any of you who have ever had a dog, or frankly any dog that needed to be ‘fixed’ will know this is a minor procedure and I am making far too much of this experience but it was to be the first time leaving my boy to go fully-under and operated on. By the way, why do we insist on using the term ‘fix’, as if something was wrong with him to begin with. Memories of Orson Wells’ 1984 novel speaking of people having to get permission to procreate and the implications of such come to mind as if that was the natural order of things. But I digress.

10 hours, 600 minutes, 3,600 seconds before I could pick him up. The orderly brings him out and while his tail wags ever so slightly you can see he is still dazed (and maybe a bit hurt by the betrayal?). He gingerly walks to the car where he occasionally whimpers evoking sympathy and concern at every turn. I am not supposed to feed him for a while to ensure he does not throw it right back in my face and yet he has not eaten for 24 hours. I struggle with that once a year and I don’t even go in for surgery. So I cave and start to give him treats, and then a half meal and then the remainder of the meal. A common theme to be seen is the firm belief that my dog is smarter than I. He can observe and read signals that I do not even know I am sending and use them against me. In this case, he knows I will cave every time he whimpers, so he uses it to his full advantage. He got all the TLC he could stand, not mention toys, treats, being carried up and down stairs; everything short of a spa day.

Next time he has to go in for surgery I think I need to prepare myself more than I need to prepare him.

Dinner will be in the castle, sir

2006-11-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

As mentioned previously I am in France for three days for a sit down meeting between three major companies to discuss a joint engineering and marketing plan. The location is a corporate training center for one of those partners. It is located approximately 30 minutes outside of France in a small town few have heard of, thank goodness for GPS in the taxis. Now many companies have corporate training centers which encompass a hotel rooms, meeting rooms and of course team building supplies but there was something different here. We approach a massive solid steel gate in the taxi that has just a small name of the villa (no company logos etc) and a small intercom button. The taxi driver runs up and hits the button explaining who we are for a couple of minutes before the massive 20 foot tall gates begin to electronically open. We drive no more than around one turn in the tree lined street before meeting with huge cement barricades next to a guard house. Now it is my turn to show ID before the cement barriers recede down and we are finally able to drive up. The tree lined street is breathtaking but not as amazing as seeing the sight of a huge castle over the horizon. When I check in at a very modern looking building the receptionist informs me that my meal for the night can be taken in the castle where I will meet my co-workers for the week, I will be staying in Villa 2. Yes indeed they have separate villas, my name tag is actually also a wafer thin RFID tag that not only lets me into all buildings simply by proximity but also lets me into my room also just by proximity.

I quickly throw my belongings into the room and decide to walk around the grounds. It is the start of winter so it is about 50 degrees and quite a bit of rain, but at the moment a brief reprieve from the rain. The grounds have immaculately cared for gravel paths, almost as if the very rocks have been smoothed by hand. I was struck by how absolutely barren the grounds are without any staff ever being seen. The castle we had seen looming in the distance was around the corner and was as spectacular up close as it was from a distance. During dinner I found out it was designed by the same architect who made the Eiffel Tower but was completely rebuilt recently down to the wire frame that runs throughout. What has been preserved is an elaborate tunnel system below all the buildings including the Villas and the castle for all the workers to move around unseen by us on the surface. Even the shipping dock is located underground so as not to disturb the tranquility. I have to hand it to them they seem to have thought of everything.

It is now 3am and I think I need to try to head back to sleep, more on this place soon.

A return to confusion

2006-11-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

It has been quite some time since I wrote and alas it is not due to lack of excitement in life. The roller coaster that we all whimsically call life continues with twists and turns. Amazing how I seem to always get introspective when on a plane at some massive height, must be the low air pressure that makes me light headed. Be that as it may, a few random ruminations to add to a page which has been lonely for new prattle.

It never ceases to amaze me how much of work seeps into our lives and begins to define who we are, or is it the reverse. There is never a dull moment where I work, between the sheer speed that we all work and the unfortunate games that are seemingly continuously played. These games are far from the cowboys and Indians played in the backyards and alleys. The stakes are higher and people play so much smarter. They can lie to your face and buy you lunch all while trying to figure out how to undermine your projects. Frankly it is exhausting watching and trying to figure out how to ensure that one can survive. I think there were recent Dilbert comics illustrating this. How key people will join teams, offer to help, do nothing thereby causing the demise of said project which of course makes key leader look both ineffectual and stupid. What is absolutely ridiculous is if we paid half as much time and energy on our key work there is no end to what I think we could accomplish for our firm. Frankly the more this has been happening the more this just drags me down. Don’t get me wrong, I know the game and unfortunately I think I can see it coming down the road, but man do I hate having to play it. Normally management is designed to minimize this as much as possible, but when they are playing their own, well things just tend to get out of control, which is exactly where we are now. I can’t even count the number of meetings or even days when I am driving home trying to figure out what the hell we are doing. I love the job, but hate the games.

With that said other things in life have caught me blindsided and have captivated me. I went through a bit of a phase a short while ago catching up with former high school and college friends, finding out where they have gone and what they have done with their lives. One such friend has become more than a friend. I have been reluctant to mention anything for fear of jinxing a wonderful thing, but she (yes relatives, although living in San Francisco still into women) ties me in knots whenever her name gets mentioned. If it hasn’t been for her keeping me sane I am not sure how I would have been able to balance all that has been going on in every other aspect of life. So just a quick thank you to her, and frankly how did I get so lucky?

Speaking of life changing events (ok not life changing, no one is even getting close to married – yikes m-word!!), I was thinking more of housing. Although I have had a great ride in San Francisco, and really I do enjoy living there, for a while I have wanted to own my own place. Five years of renting plain white apartments has just about run its course and now is time for a change. Why not look in San Francisco? Three reasons. One, the commute requiring a wake-up alarm every morning at 4:15 is getting a bit old. Two, there is no way I could afford more than a brown box on a street corner, maybe not even a brown box. Three, there is no safe parking in this bloody city! So yes I am thinking of moving a bit farther south, closer to work and back into suburbia. I love having hundreds of restaurants, two Starbucks, Jamba Juice and of course a massive grocery store all within feet of my front door. Not to mention one of the largest parks in the city, a huge shopping district and arguably one of the most amazing cities in the country. Can you see even here I have a hard time convincing myself to get out of the city. As many people have said, once you leave the city one can never go back. Maybe once I start perusing the real estate market it will solidify in my head, and lets face it I am the last in my group of friends from either high school or college who has not bought a place yet. I feel almost left behind (this is an entire subject for another flight).

Alas my flight to France has almost arrived, it is time once again to stow all electronic devices and brace for another day. Thank you for allowing yet another rant on my random ruminations. Do yourself a favor and don’t play the game for a day or two, it will make you feel better.

2006-11-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

It would not be SF without the political parade. Check out all the costumes at http://mdstein.dynalias.com

2006-11-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

A massive part of the street was closed off as part of the crime scene.

2006-11-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

An intimidating sight, this was before they started to run to incidents.

Halloween in the city

2006-11-01T02:03:00.000-08:00

To try and describe tonight would be like trying to explain a three hour thriller. It is mixed with humor, surprise, fear and I am sorry to say sadness.

The day actually started quite early, around 11am with 12 foot fences being erected around one of the main 24 hour grocery stores for the lower part of the city. Apparently last year unruly customers were so bad they destroyed most of the liquor aisle among other areas of the store and thus the decision was made to close the entire store. Thus the police were using the opportunity to turn that parking lot into a holding and staging area. We are starting with good intentions and strong planning.

My night did not begin until around 8 when I decided to head over and start watching the festivities. Sure enough hundreds of police officers were in the parking lot having a final catered meal before the festivities truly got started. Getting into the main area required entrance through a security area that was looking predominately through bags, but a fairly cursory look. No pat downs for most people. Keep in mind the festivities closes a approximately 12 blocks of 6 lane roads. A single emergency lane was cordoned off using police fencing for easy transportation of officers and medical equipment to all areas of the event. I give you this information to try and paint a picture for what is to come.

Saturday before Halloween has a much less extreme version of Halloween day that is limited predominately for local San Francisco residents. It encompasses Castro street and is a great party with virtually everyone there to have a good time. Although small incidents do happen it is a safe fun filled event with people from all walks of life all dressed up and sharing a fun holiday. The day of Halloween is very different. We get literally hundreds of thousands of people from east bay and south bay many of which I am sorry to say do not come for just a good time. But I get ahead of myself. Around 8pm it is just starting to fill up with several families walking the area with small children. Some of the costumes are just amazing, thankfully I brought my camera and will be posting several of these pictures. As the evening progress the crowd thickens noticeably to the point where it gets a bit difficult to maneuver around, but still not terrible.

On a side note, until you have been in massive crowds of hundreds of thousands of people you can not truly understand what crowd behavior is like. It is amazing witnessing the ebbs and flowing of human waves of people. Little holes will open up and then just as quickly close as the vacuum is filled by more people. A fascinating scene in human behavior.

Unfortunately along with revelers in full costumes also comes thousands of gang members or gangster like people. This is the one time of year where they not only can come in full black but they can all wear masks over their faces and get away with it. These guys yell all types of lascivious words to the girls in skimpy outfits and usually take quite a few liberties feeling behinds and groping chests as well. Regardless of if the girls are with other guys, unless those guys are other large gangster looking individuals most are hesitant to really push back since none of these men run alone. I am sorry to say but this is not only common but in many cases expected. Many of the women arriving are at this point wearing nothing more than lingerie from Fredericks of Hollywood, but public nudity doesn’t seem to phase them. In fact there are some women who are baring their cheat (painted of course) all in the name of a costume. Up to now nothing is different than previous years.

A remarkable thing did happen early in the evening with a random girl coming up to me and saying my name. I did not recognize her but she is the daughter of a man who lives in my old apartment complex, in fact his daughter and I used to hang out at the pool for several summers together. Lucky she recognized me for there is no way I would have recognized her. We caught up for a little while and then she ran off with her other friends.

Still early in the evening around 11pm some popping noises were heard close by in the crowd. Most people didn’t think much of them as they sounded honestly like firecrackers in the unbelievable roar of the crowd and techno music. 5 officers stationed nearby took off at a run a few minutes later toward the noise but still nothing terrible unusual. Then a massive crash and all the safety barricades the police had setup came crashing down, not from the public but as literally several hundred police came pouring into the crowd at a full run. Now those of you who may not have had the experience of attending large rallies protected by police in full riot protection outfits, these officers do not run. They stay together, form walls and move slowly and with purpose. When these officers, many of whom are SWAT or ESU (Emergency Services) run best to stay out of the way. Then the waves of humanity start to push away from the affected scene not more than a few hundred feet away. Soon dozens of police bikes and soon fire trucks and ambulances start flying down the street. People are pushed to the sides of the street where they just hang out. In the confusion unfortunately some people decide to start taking advantage of the situation and start to more problems. I choose to wear a priest outfit every year for a couple of reasons, one it is easy to move around in and eaasy to manage but the second is it comes with a frock that goes from head to tail and makes pick pocketing near impossible. The amazing thing I felt no less than a dozen hands checking each area of my pants trying to gain access to pockets while the masses were at its most dense.

Soon word spreads that the event is officially shut down early and for everyone to get out as fast as possible. A feeling of panic is still thick in the crowd and the ones that are suffering the most are the kids from out of town. Many of these middle and high school kids can be heard on their cell phones crying and talking to parents trying to figure out the best way to just get out of there. A few of us locals start to help the kids pointing them to closest public transportation or exits just to get them out of the area. Eventually I work my way to the exit and take shelter at one of the medic bases, identifying myself and talking to a couple of the local medics. It turns out there were 7 shootings, 2 stabbings, 1 person thrown through a plate glass window and that was just in that thirty minute window. Several times a large phalanx of over 50 police bikes took off at full speed lights and sirens blaring to incidents in the perimeter of the event. I hazard to guess what those were all about.

All told, what should have been a fairly quiet fun filled event turned into a nightmare for many people and unfortunately something that will have consequences for events in the future. As for now they are just now turning off the sirens so it is time for me to finally get to bed.

Hope everyone else is safe and had a good Halloween

Overreacting?

2006-10-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

Overreaction

I have to relate a humorous story to everyone. This past weekend I volunteered at one of the best races in my opinion, the Nike’s Women’s Marathon. This is an incredibly emotional race for the runners, many of whom are either survivors or running in memory of a loved one they have lost to Leukemia or Lymphoma. We treated women at the mile 9 marker who were hurting in both knees, or who rolled an ankle and yet continued and shockingly finished the marathon. That takes enormous mental fortitude and I have no shortage of respect for them.

But this story relates to a different aspect, it would be for the volunteers. I volunteer with the Red Cross to provide medical support for major events like this throughout the Bay Area. In the city specifically many residents do not have cars and at 3am when we begin to assemble there is not a ton of mass transit. I was asked by the Red Cross employees if I could pick up a single person initially and bring them with me, considering they were only 3 blocks away. No problem. Two days before the race they ask if I can pick up a second person on the opposite end of town, they know it’s far but they are desperate. Ok, again no problem. Then the day before a third person about halfway between the two. Finally ok. I send an email to all three and let them know approximate times. Now apparently in the flurry of emails something got confused and I picked up three but there was apparently a fourth request that got mixed in. It exasperated the problem when I swapped a phone number and an address of two people. Unfortunately instead of apparently 4 people, only three were picked up. A simply mistake, these things happen. Below is an exact copy of the email I received late, I will leave it to you to decide if he overreacted (keeping in mind we are all volunteers here).

-----Original Message-----

From: Jeff.Webster@SFSailing.com [mailto:Jeff.Webster@att.net]

Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 9:19 AM

To: XXXX

Cc: Matthew Stein

Subject: FW: RE: Nike

This guy said he'd be only a minute or two late, twenty minutes later, I called and he was still in the Haight. First I think that is really rude to not be on time, 2nd if I had known he wasn't man enough to do the job right I would not have accepted his offer.

My phone never rang, sorry to all (like the effected runners and you Emily and Adrienne who put time and effort into careful organizing) because this person is too weak to know how to tell time. This person obviously has a real manhood problem.

Jeff.Webster@SFSailing.com

(415) 922-6969

KC9DPP

Buy (RED)

Anyone want to sail down a river in the rain? Oh we do!

2006-10-05T03:13:00.001-07:00

The weather is absolutely gorgeous upon landing in saigon, where are all the storms the news was talking of? Surely they must have been exagerating. In that case why don't we book a two day trip down the Makong river and get the most out of our trip here. Ignore the fact we haven't slept a full night sleep in several days and I have managed to catch a common cold in the middle of this humid and hot environment. One more adventure, let's go for it!

We book the tour around 3pm and by 6pm when we go out for dinner it is absolutely pouring. Thunder and lightening abound. A hasty decision is made to eat inside the hotel. But the nexy day appears to have seen the last of the bad weather and is sunny and bright. We embark on a four hour car ride with the most politically charged tour guide we have run across yet. We are not sure if we can believe all of his conspiracy theories but apparently he spent four years in a political reeducation camp in his twenties since je decided to go AWOL from the army. Suffice to say he yielded many interesting stories of corruption inside the government, some of which might actually be true.

We just arrive at the boat dock and we see a huge front coming in, sure enough about ten feet from the dock the skies let loose and don't stop the entire day. From motorized boat, to rowboat, mini-bus and even ferry we were on all kinds of fun transportation today.

The highlight of the day? While on a fifteen minute ferry ride I received a marriage proposal from an adorable 22 year old local girl. Not surprisingly westerners are fairly prized catches so even a bloke like me should be able to get a date. Alas I turned her down to get back into our mini-bus and over to the hotel.

Otherwise the day with small excursions to the shore to visit a brick factory, a cocunut candy factory and finally rice cake factory. Truly sanitary conditions (umm sure) and yet ISO 9001 certified, go figure.

At this point it is absolutely storming at the hotel so just chilling to see what we are going to do tomorrow.

Take care

There is a bit of rain over here

2006-10-05T03:13:00.000-07:00

Our trip was going quite well until there came a little bit of rain. Well maybe more than a bit, a typhoon landed upon both the philipines and vietnam killing over 200 in philipines and well over 100 here in vietnam. Thankfully up north in Sapa we were relatively immune to the storm with very little rain hitting us, however with its impending arrival up north there was a large push of people to get into the overnight trains down south. Now if you have never felt like a refugee I highly recommend the experience. Several hundred travelers cram into a small train terminal trying to board the overnight train to Hanoi. Keep in mind the door to the trains is chained shut but this does not stop locals from pushing their way to the front only to encounter an obstacle of a chain and a police officer. This does not stop then from rattling the door and screaming at the police officer, to no avail. Almost two hours we wait in 90 degree heat with people continuing to push from behind until finally they open the doors and it was as if Noah's ark's doors opened. A veritable stampede of people, keep in mind all berths are preassigned. Thankfully our coach conductor is a tough 100 year old cranky officer who is incredibly strict keeping poachers away from our berths and literally locks us in the room to protect our berths. Even more feelings of safety arises when we observe the conductor placing padlocks on all the outside doors right before leaving, let's hope no accidents ever hit this train station.

We are so exhausted at this point we collapse and sleep the entire ride back down south only to be woken up by rattling at the door at the crazy hour of 5:30. Now here is the question what do we do for the remainder of our trip with this typhoon in the middle of the country. Unfortunately we had to cancel our flight to Hua since that airport is completely closed, so alas we had to spend the day shopping. A terrible tragedy that we endured with grace and ponosh.

During shopping we were at a random stall negotiating for some pictures when a very drunk male grabbed my father and started screaming in his face. Three police officers were within 5ft and did absolutely nothing. Finally one of the other shop owners came and moved the drunk away. It certainly caught us off guard. The rest of the day passed without incident with some great shopping and one lovely massage for myself.

Oh yes maybe I should elaborate on this experience. I asked at the front desk for a reasonable place to get a massage. He looks at me with raised eyebrows and asked just for me or with my family. When I answer just for me he gives me a knowing look until I finally get clear just looking for normal massage. I don't think he believes me but directs me to a local place. For the low low fee of $10 (compared to around $60 in states) I get a very interesting 75 minute Vietnamese massage. The most memorable was the butt massage, yes we are talking kneeded, shaken and rotated. It took all my self control not to laugh. All of those who aredying to ask not even a question of anything naught ever arose, but I did feel great afterwards.

The next day a freakishly early flight to saigon and decision time based on weather now that we had to change our itinerary.

A crazy adventure into the wild outdoors

2006-10-01T15:18:00.002-07:00

Although one might feel that the trip to the perfume pagoda was an intrepid traveler's dream (see previous entry) that was nothing compared to what we had in store next.

It began with a nice calm day of traversing through Hanoi to see local sites. Begining with the museum of ethnicities on the outskirts of town. Remarkable that Vietnam is actually comprised of 54 different and distinct etnicities. This museum was dedicated to showing and preserving some of the traditions that are rapidly disintegrating in major cities or as ethnicities slowly get wiped out through inter-marriage etc. One tribe believed that women are the sources of all pain and thus if someone was to get sick the priest would perform a ritual where they would have enlarged phallic symbols tied around their waist (for all women are of course afraid of phallics) and chase the women around the hall. It was quite interesting to actual watch on tvs throughout the museum the actual ceremonys. I wonder how many ceremonies we will never get to see of our native american's since many have long since lost critical mass to continue their deepest traditions.

The back of the museum actually held replicas of some of the different ethnicity's huts and homes so that one could truly experience what they must live like. I thoght this was as close as we would get...I was wrong.

After the museum and a much needed to bit to eat we stopped by the main pagoda in the city. Although not incredibly well maintained it is still the spiritual center of the city and even in a brief amount of time we were there we saw several people from as you as mid twenties to fifties making offerings to budhah with distinct wishes. Still very much an active part of many of their lives.

The rest of the afternoon passed a blur of walking around street vendors, some ice cream in a coffee shop, watching all the schools letting out and the kid streaming out to an army of waiting relatives on their scooters. But precisely at 830pm the care free aspect of day rapidly changed into serious focus.

A chaotic series of events preceded our boardingof our overnight express to Sapa. Our tour companu had some 'miss communications' but with minutes to spare we were safely stowed on our hard sleeper cabin. What does this mean? On any type of transportation paticularly trains there is multiple classes of service, due to popular demand the only bunks we could get for this 10 hour train ride were in the back of the train in a cabin with 6 bunks (3 high). Each bunch contains the thinnest of pads, think sheet rather than pad and a blanket. Even more exciting we apparently took the bunks in the crew quarter for twice throught the evening a cell phone would ring and a couple of staff members would wake up, remove themselves from the bunks and are quickly replaced by two others who promptly fall sleep.

I do not think between the shuddering of the train and curves through the mountains any of us got a ton of sleep, however around 5:30 when the sun rose the sites see through the train were quite impressive. Jumping off the train at 7am, we quickly hopped a mini- bus which took us through the mountains for an hour and a half long drive before arriving at Sapa. Now Sapa is one of the closest cities to China frm Vietnem. It is in the middle of the mountains and still farmed by many of those same ethnic minorities we saw in the museum. The next three days we would be interacting and walking among these groups as we see how they survive in these rugged turreins.

Just keep walking!

2006-10-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

Upon arriving in Sapa we have a nice hot breakfast in our hotel where we will not be staying until two night hence (to be explained later). First this breakfast bears mentioning. They had hot fresh banana pancakes with either pur honey or rich chocolate poured on top. After lots of fried rice and noodles for breakfast, pancakes were heavenly. By the way highly recommend trying pancakes with honey if you ever get the chance. A quick shower was then very much in the plans and then repacking from large suitcases to smaller overnight bags we will carry.

Yes that os right we are about to spend the next two days backpacking through the mountains getting very close to the land. With backpacks and hiking boots ready we set off with our guide on our 17 km hike into the mountains.

Without going through all the hills and streams of our journey I will simply relate the highlights from the 6 hour hike (keep in mind we are on vacation). Along the road we were constantly approached by children and old women in native dress all trying to sell small homemade trinkets, bracelots or bags to these strange and wealthy hikers. The kids all speak very good English asking about where we are from, our families and for me if I was married, in fact everyone is very interested how old everyone is. I did not think much of this from the older kids until we ran across a white worker in the fields drenched in sweat and beating rice stalks to separate the rice. Asking our guide if this tourist was just experiencing local life, we find out he was a tourist three months ago, ended up meeting a local girl whom he married and has worked in the fields ever since. Note to self, I am now married with many kids at home, I am not equiped to work in fields out here.

Interestingly enough their houses or huts in the middle of fields on the side of the mountain usually have some type of generator for basic lighting, and oh yeah satellite tv. Yes you read right they like to know what is going on and thus watch CNN, BBC and don't forget HBO and MTV. This area is full of surprises. A roof made of mud or in some cases just a tarp with satellite television.

Our climb was relatively easy in that there was no real rock climbing but we were all drenched in sweat, red in the face and exhuasted by the time we got to our homestay around 3:30. What this is is an opportunity to sleep with the natives in a native style house. Oh yes, not only do we get to take pictures of the homes on the trek or in the museum we now get to experience it first hand. We join with 2 Korean girls, 1 Japanese girl, 3 Polish trekers and oursleves inside one fairly decent size hut. This hut has two stories, all tourists on the second floor please. Each bed consisted on a pad, two small throw pillows and an incredibly heavy but soft blanket all covered by a mosquito netting. Each 'bed' was right next to each other 5 to a side all surrounding a central opening from the first floor. It was very cozy and remarkably comfortable.

It did not take us more than a few minutes to change from our dusty clothes into swimsuits and jump straight into the river a short way away. Ok maybe jump is not quite accurate, we gingerely waded in considering it was about the temperature of ice water in a restaurant. (yes mom you get credit for going all the way in, crazy as it was to the rest of us).

We soon join the rest of the groups out in the front yard around small card tables relating experiences and past trips in a mixture of languages. Thankfully almost everyone spoke decent english since unlike all others it is the only language my family speaks (darn us arrogant americans) :-). Soon the cold beers appear and is later followed by shots of 'heavy water' otherwise known as a very rough and burning form of sake. Suffice to say a few hours later none of us were feeling any pain from the hike. A highlight was being able to see stars in the night sky without the light pollution from cities.

A reasonable hike back to civilization

2006-10-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

Considering the late hour of our revelry the night before we were up at the break of dawn, could it possibly have anything to do with babies waking up and crying below our floor? While waiting for our tour guides to make us breakfast we entertained ourselves teaching each other local games raning from. Drawn dot game from the Koreans to a crazy card game from the Polish. I would like to admit at this point I lost everytime in the strategic dot game but won a few times at the card game (lucky in cards, unlucky in love?). We were so wrapped up in our card game when breakfast came we continued for another 20 minutes until someone finally won, then we pounced on our pancakes and pears.

Before we know it we are thanking the father of the family and pushing on for another 12 km through the jungle. Yes this time we begin to leave the rice patties and enter into the bamboo forest and other areas with deeper foliage. At one point our guide stops us suddenly (always difficult when in the middle of jumping rocks in a huge mud puddle) and starts clapping loudly. Apparently very large snake in front of us, as my family would say, oh guuuud! We survived happily.

Over waterfalls and through streams, into another locals home to see how they live (a huge paradox between mud hut with indoor fire cooking with stereo and television) and finally to a resting place where we can have lunch. Who do we end up meeting, but our friends from last night. It takes us no more than 5 minutes of greetings before out comes the playing cards and it is on!

More hiking afterwards (you think tiring to read about it, try being a soft American), but finally at long last our road where we are met by a jeep to take us finally to our hotel. Looking back from the top of a ridge we can see the distances we hiked and one can not help but be impressed with the distances we can move when motivated for it never seems as long when you are on the trail. I guess this is why everyone tells you to stand back and look at big picture?

Finally back at hotel now where we each happily collapsed in our beds after a much needed hot shower! Until next time.

It is not the destination, rather the journey

2006-09-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today's mission: perfume pagoda. After challenges with previous day's experiences of simply hiring a taxi driver for the day, we instead decided it would be prudent to actually book a tour for our next adventure. Thus picking a random tour company late last night we book a tour to take us upon our journey or shall we call it an adventure?

We begin our exciting adventure at precisely 7:30 when our van picks us up at our front door. We then spend the next hour picking up the other 12 site seerers from their respective hotels. At which time we learn our plans for the day. 2 hour drive, then a boat ride followed by a light hike. Uh-huh.

The two hour drive is quite pleasant moving rapidly out of the city into the countryside. It is harvest season for rice, thus the fields are alive with locals tending to their crops. Apparently it is quite difficult to open the husks to release the rice and thus they purposfully lay out harvests on the road for vehicles to drive over and well literally do the 'heavy lifting'. Then they lay the grains out also on the roads to dry where dogs and occasional cows will wander through in their inquisitive ways. Then it is bagged up and sent to your table, yum!

We arrive to the small port city where we are greeted by dozens of tiny metal boats, small flat canoes to be honest. They are approximately 3ft wide and maybe 20ft long. Four people get in (2 by 2) and sit on a small stool approximately 4 inches off the ground. We then push off and our motor is a nice old woman who rows rowboat style except facing forward. We sail like this for over an hour a scant few inches from the water. Picture yourself squarring for an hour straight. Of course it is the rainy season and indeed it does rain quite hard in the boat, for those that did not bring panchos or umbrellas kids appear as if by magic in smaller boats offering to sell anything to stay dry. Yet for the length of the boat ride we are moving along some of the most exquisite and pristine scenery. Lush fields boarded on both side by tall green mountains covered in bamboo and other indigenous greens. Breathtaking, even when the very wet butt does fall asleep.

We arrive about an hour later set for our nice leisurely climb. We are set for a 2600 step climb to the actual pagoda, maybe not so leaisurely. We could take a cable car but where is the adventure in that? So hike we do. Over an hour and half through the same pristine jungle climbing very roughly cut steps sometimes nothing more than piles of stones. Of course it is raining causing the stones to be more than a bit slippery. Seeing no other tourists along the road and requiring the boat did certainly remind one of an indiana jones movie.

Finallty at long last and with everyone absolutely out of breath we reach the much talked about pagoda. Many of our fellow travelers attempted the hike in sandals and one woman exclaimed on the hike that her thong was killing her. That caused some eyebrows to be raised until she clarified that she was referring to sandals. Oops, would have been fun to offer assistance to other possible meaning. Regardless we made it to this infamous pagoda in pouring rain and just before we are set to enter they hold us back. Apparently they are shooting a movie and we have to wait until scene ends. Finally after huddling under umbrellas we descend into what turns out to be a huge cave that has some spectacular rock formations and a tiny little holy shrine complete with neon lights (no joke). The movie we had to wait for was actually just a single singer who was mouthing the words while hugging a cold damp wall and attempting to be sexy. Clearly this was a remarkable journey and not necessarily destination.

By unanimous decision the water soaked group chose to return via cable car instead of hikeing. Just 8 minutes later we emerge slightly steamed at the base of the mountain. A lunch in a school cafeteria style rounded out the site.

Continuation of previous entry

2006-09-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

I got cut off from previous entry, sorry.

Lunch finished out our site seeing adventure which was followed by a very very long hour long boat ride, and two and a half hour drive home. But safe and sound we did arrive.

It looks like tomorrow night we will take a 10 hour train ride to the farthest tip of vietnam (closest to china and mongolia). It is doubtful I will have email access so probably no updates until monday. Enjoy your weekend.

Day one in hanoi, day 4 in vietnam

2006-09-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Despite all news reports and word of mouth accounts, hanoi (a two hour flight north of saigon) is just as hot and humid as down south. However emotions still remain optimistic as we route our way through the communist city to the old quarter an area originaly developed by the french in the late 1800s. Imagine streets as narrow as most american alleys al with two 'lanes' of traffic complete with scooters and bikes in all directions. Safe just to close your eyes and take the 10 steps to get from one side to another.

The old quarter is divided into 36 streets each focusing on a primary craft such as shoes, silks, and flowers. Down any one street is wall to wall shops crammed full of that trade. Going down to one area for food they actually set up long stalls down the center of the street leaving approximately 3 ft of clearance on either side. Turns out to be just enough room for a scooter to drive by (new meaning to drive through). Each stall is selling raw materials for todays dinner. These include raw chicken (with and without heads), unnamed meats, all variety of sea foods and of course ubiquitous vegetables. I have a fairly strong stomach however I was not in any mood for lunch after that walk.

Just as we leave food section of marketplace the downpour hits. Everyone runs to the side of the street where awnings protect shop keepers and pedestrians alike. Within seconds kids and old women run down the street looking for tourists who were caught unawares to sell panchos and umbrellas to. Thankfully the stein family was fully briefed and stocked up. Thankfully a short downpour allowing our tour of the city to continue.

A pagoda in the middle of the lake where it is said a sacred sword is sunk only to emerge when the holy turtle brings it to the surface. The pagoda is complete with a replica of that sacred turtle. Later we see the world famous water puppet show where puppets move along a small pool of water in a theater depicting various scenes from religion including that of holy turtle. Just in the middle of one of the most suspenseful moments of the puppet show almost as if planned an audience member's phone with the standard ringtone let's itself be heard. A moment made for a movie.

Dinner consisted of milkshakes, beers and soda, four dishes all for under 8 dollars. Somehow we don't want to think where all the food came from :-).

That is all for this installment, have an early morning tour tomorrow so early night.

Matthew Stein

From one city to another

2006-09-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

Today aboard a painfully old refurbished boeing we left the bustling town of saigon on the way to hanoi.

Yesterday in saigon we took a day trip to explore the tunnels of cu chi. Those who are history buffs will know these tunnels to be those used in virtually every military event in this country most notably of course the american war (what they call the vietnam war). Although originally thousands of miles long very few of them are still habitable however several have been restored to show what they were originally like. The sections we went through were no more than three feet tall and approximately two feet across. One might think of crawling but locals explain that fighters and residents actually ran headlong into the darkness. After just a few hundred feet our backs expressed pangs of protest. It was absolutely spellbinding the intricacy that went into these mazes including traps and intricate masquerading methods. It is more than slightly uncomfortable to watch their short 'informational' videos that depict americans as such monsters. Although I know our behavior ran close to barbaric at times it is still hard to watch given my national pride.

An amusing annecdote came from our tour of the independence palace, original seat of power of south vietnam. This was the home of president diem whom the us supported. Keep in mind he was so loved by his own people that his own military dropped three bombs on his home (pictures to follow later). In fact over 13 changes of government happened all while us supported this regime. Can we say oops. Wait didn't we support sadam hussein in iran/iraq war? Do we see history repeating itself?

The food thus far has been both identifiable (a huge plus) and quite palitable. Although not always as flavorful as american vietnamese food we have high hopes as we leave the very commercial city to the north. Along that thought, vietnamese absolutely love having things in bottle of alcohol. The most abhorant to me is a king cobra with a scorpion in its mouth. It is thought the venom when mixed with the alcohol will make one more vibrant. Ladies, I am NOT putting this to the test.

Very similar to europe of old, absolutely no one in this country is over weight in fact everyone is painfully fit. The customary outfits are basic pants and a flowing shirt that goes down to their ankles yet split completely up to their waists. It is very form fitting and complimentary to their form, virtually always complimented with high heels. Men on the other hand choose the more comfortable route of simple leather sandals, wool or cotton pants and simple cotton button down short sleeve shirts ubiquitous to middle east and other developing countries.

Our flight is landing so more updates to follow.

Matthew Stein

Good morning Vietnam!!

2006-09-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

I am writing this entry from the middle of Ho Chi Minh, formerly known as Saigon. Yes my family has decided to take vacation in Vietnam for the next two weeks. To describe the city would be to try and describe chaos.

Let us begin with the weather. A sauna (wet one) would be an accurate analogy. With over 95% humidity at all times and temperatures well in the 90s, it is challenging to get comfortable especially when air conditioning is hard to come by. Yet somehow we survive in long pants to be polite in holy areas.

The driving is well scary. Imagine tens of thousands of scooters, vespas, and motorcycles absolutely everywhere. Very rare are the cars and those that are on the road are swalled amidst the tide of bikes. Cars identify the need to change lane by holding down their horn and slowly moving into other lanes. Crossing the street, well that is done at your own risk just walk through the street with purpose as the tour books say and everyone will move around you. It is not for the faint of heart but then again the faint of heart would not travel here.

Tomorrow we fly to Hanoi which is to be considered significantly less commercial (capital for communism) but so far my phone works with full capacity so I am a happy man.

More updates to follow.

--
Matthew

My blog at: http://mdstein.blogspot.com

NEW PICTURE WEB SITE!!

2006-09-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

I have done it, I have created my own web server and am now hosting all my own pictures. Check it out at http://mdstein.dynalias.com. More pictures will be coming after I actually catch up on sleep!

It has been a while

2006-08-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

I seem to move in spurts and pauses on this my blog. Maybe when I am most frustrated (in life not sexually) do I feel the need to vent but feel guilty calling friends and just dumping on them for the next two hours, although knowing me maybe closer to three hours. Either way lest you feel that by dropping off this blog it is a bad thing, actually it must indicate that I am fairly content with life recently. That is indeed the case, but still I will let you know about a couple of things going on.

First I have recently moved onto myspace and yes I do feel like one of the last people in the state of CA let alone the world to be on that site. For all of the things people say about it between it is a site for random hookups or other types of abuse, I have reconnected with a number of high school and college friends. It just goes to show how pervasive some of these sites like myspace have become where people on opposite sides of the country coming from different industries and places in life (married with kids all the way to single) are all on this site. I can honestly say it has been a pleasure meeting a couple of my friends, one that conveniently came to CA for a business trip and one that I visited during one of my business trips. Both ended up becoming exceedingly long dinner or simply drinks as we caught up on where we are both in life, the life of our friends and even reminiscing over stories from the good old days. If you ever want something fun to do for an afternoon, jump on the site and look up a high school or college class. You might just be surprised who you will find.

Besides catching up with friends I have actually been doing quite a bit of travel. After South Africa there was a quick trip to Vegas, Rochester, Niagra and now Raleigh, North Carolina. I would have complained about a crazy trip home from Rochester where a pilot decided to oversleep, then once he finally showed up decided his co-pilot had too many flying hours for the month and cancel the flight, only to re-instate it 45 minutes later due to a miss-calculation. I would go into a tirade about that situation and yet maybe there is no need. I have been very lucky in 5 years where my bag was never yet stolen, none of my flights ever canceled (delayed significantly but never canceled), and chalk it up to good luck no plane crashes in recent memory (there are those other incidents from the past we need not bring back to recent memory). So as much as I would like to go on a tirade against the airlines, I am still even with the enhanced security able to leave my house a scant two hours before my flight, park in off campus parking (saving my company just a couple more bucks a day), check my bag at the counter get through security and still have time for a non-fat chai latte at the local coffee shop. Now frankly there is no complaining that needs to happen around that. By the way please do not believe everything you hear or see on tv. All this publicity about incredibly long security lines and crazy security, it has been no more than usual. Just all hype.

Bad ju-ju and an incredibly bad travel day

2006-07-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Where do I even start to describe the hell that was my return trip from South Africa. Maybe to start by saying that everything you will read here is both absolutely the truth and not an exaggeration. I know parts of this might get to be in the incredulous stage but I promise in the words of a famous political comedian, ‘you can’t make this shit up’.

It started out well enough with my ride meeting me right on time and flying through traffic to get me to the airport in Jburg. No problem checking in, in fact my flight that according to my travel service said was sold out had over 100 open seats. Lucky enough I was in a row of 4 with the only two seats being occupied were on either end. So I got to stretch out over two seats, how great is that for an 11 hour flight. Of course our flight was delayed because this no name soccer team ended up being on the plane and of course everyone wanted their autograph. Yes Manchester United was on the plane occupying all of first and business cabins. They could not get people to sit down to actually allow the plane to take off, and yes keep in mind 11 hours is a lot of time to take autographs. I was able to fitfully sleep through part of the flight so absolutely no complaints. Land in London and have literally 60 minutes to make it to my next flight to Chicago due to the delay in taking off. But due to this crap soccer team (who by the way lost their game in South Africa) they made everyone stay on the plane until they all exited the plane and jet way, I ask you is this really necessary? They are just a couple of athletes, people get over it! Anyway on with the story, best parts are yet to come. (Time check: 15 hours since last shower, 28 hours since last touch of a real bed)

So I run through Heathrow airport (passing the soccer team anyway who is being held as a group to talk to the gate agent about their next plane), have to go through a second round of security for all US based flights which had a crazy full line. Fully 30 minutes to get through that line, run for a bus to take to next terminal, and a full run through the terminal to get to the gate to find out they have that flight on a delay. Oye. We finally board the plane and I have a wonderful seat in first class due to an oversold situation and a need to upgrade me. Besides being bathed in sweat from the run, being in first is not bad at all. We taxi to take off, and of course we end up having a mechanical directly before take-off and have to come back to get it fixed. All told an hour and half delay in London. Uneventful flight over the ocean into Chicago except for having some great food and some very friendly flight attendants. Landing in Chicago I now have exactly 65 minutes to get through passport control, claim my luggage, go through immigration, recheck luggage, and get on a plane to SF. Being in first class I fly through passport control being in the front of the line, but now need to wait for my checked luggage (keep in mind I have been traveling for almost 3 straight weeks). I kid you not mine is the LAST bag off the plane and I soon realize why. The bag is wide open having been slit open on both sides with the top flapped over. Clothes are literally hanging out and some even on the carrousel. “You have got to be kidding me!” I stuff what is left (about half is missing) and run through passport control to re-check it. Huge line of people waiting to do the same, ok I am tired and now have literally 15 minutes before my flight leaves. I skip the line and toss it to a ticket agent to just deal with (hey flying 130,000 miles a year and on a full fare business ticket should have some benefits). I run out of there, get into a train to take me to domestic terminals, run through another security line, run underground to a connecting terminal to finally get to my gate and yup, left 10 minutes earlier. I think the proper phrase at this point is Damn! (Time check: 24 hours since last shower, 37 hours since last touch of a real bed)

So I go into the red carpet club to get them to rebook me. Keep in mind it is now 11 am local time. Turns out that United seems to have quite a few full flights in fact given their hourly flights to San Francisco they can not get me confirmed until a 7pm flight. But I was welcome to standby for the hourly flights because my name would be very high on the list. So I spend the next 4 hours walking between gates trying for each hourly flight. The 4:00 flight they actually had a middle seat in the back which I gladly took, got on the plane sat down pulled all my stuff out and got settled, only to have the gate agent come onto the plane and pull me off because they miscounted and now need that seat. Do you realize how embarrassing it is to be pulled off plane (plus having to carry all the things you just took out of your bag). At this point I call over a service director as I have lost all patience. He comes over, I get halfway through the explanation and then just stop. What can he do? What is this going to accomplish? Nothing to change, so mid-sentence I turn around and walk away. Choosing to forget about the next couple of flights I return to the red carpet club to take a shower and try to scratch off some of this wonderful body odor that is offending even me after all this exertion and activities. Not that I have a change of clothes but the shower feels unbelievable. By the way this is probably too much information for many of you, but those who might fall into my situation, FYI: boxers can be flipped inside out, and you are good to go with clean clothes. The little sock booties that they hand out on flights become my new socks, and a quick hair dryer to the shirt and we are good to go. Finally get on my 7pm flight to San Francisco, thank goodness. But the story is not quite done. (Time Check: 3 hours since last shower, 45 hours since last touch of a real bed)

A short 4 and half hour flight over to SFO and I am finally back home, well almost. By the way at this point airline food, even first class food is starting to look very non-appetizing. I land and all I want to do is get my damn bag, get home, get out of these clothes and go to bed. I go down to baggage claim and wait in line for 30 minutes to get my bag which is locked up behind the counter (arrived on an earlier flight significantly earlier). Get to the front of the line and oops they tell me my bag is at their auxiliary baggage office on the other end of the baggage claim, please go over there. Get over there and wait another 20 minutes for that line. Keep in mind at this point as much as I am an eternally cheerful person I am ready to just lose it. I am probably a little curt when I say, “I need 3 things from you, need my bag, I need to file a claim for damage to bad, I need to file claim for lost goods, thank you” She gives me this incredulous look and doesn’t say a word. She brings my bag, which is inside of a plastic bag and just hands it to me. I then ask about steps two and three. She says they are not responsible for zippers breaking or any consequences derived there from. On closer inspection it turns out that the seems along the entire zipper was forced apart. This was clearly not done by accident as this was not a few inches but literally 3 ft of zipper all ripped open and frankly this is a top of the line bag only a few months old. She just looks at me with a straight face and says there is nothing she can do, recommends I buy a new bag, and have a nice night. Takes me a minute to respond and then I ask for a supervisor, turns out she is a supervisor. I just stand there for a minute staring at her incredulously before I am fed up. I am pissed, I am tired, I smell, and damn it I am sick of all this! I slam my clothes back into the plastic bag and declare that this is how an airline treats a customer who flights an average of 130,000 miles on their fucking airline? She immediately interrupts me.

“Are you a 1k status holder? (the highest level of mileage plus).”

“Of course I am.”

“Well wait that changes everything. You of course know there is two airline policies one for the rest of the world and one for our 1k members. I will process your claim right away”

Now frankly I don’t even know how to react. Thankful as a valuable customer that they finally know how to treat me or sad for everyone else in line who is going to get no love because they are not 1k. She process my claim and I finally leave the airport at 11pm, drive home and land at my door at 11:45pm (Time check: 10 hours since last shower although 34 hours in same set of clothes and 52 hours since last in a real bed). You know I thought due to good deeds I would have some good karma built-up? Apparently not, but hey as lots of people have told me, you have a hell of a story to tell.

Guess what? I had no trouble sleeping last night despite time change.

2006-07-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

Lunch served along the road for those who are brave at heart and stell of stomach.

2006-07-22T06:30:00.001-07:00

Maybe a little close to home, but a couple of kids playing at the Apartheid museum shaking hands with one of the tourists.

2006-07-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

"And we emerge from the darkness of the inferno to face the stars of another day" Dante.

2006-07-22T06:28:00.001-07:00

His only job to pose for pictures in front of his candle.

2006-07-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

A very small elevator shooting straight down.

2006-07-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

A remnant of the air shaft from the mine with a slice of the theme park.

2006-07-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

A view of the shanty town from atop the hill. The sheer size is barely represented.

A paradoxical country

2006-07-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Today was my day, a day where I could venture out into the city and see what this city is besides a couple of offices and taxis. With my trusted driver we made our way out first thing in the morning off to one of the 15 most productive gold mines worldwide in history. It was shut down in the 70s and has been turned into a tourist attraction for those that would like to venture just under a kilometer down under the earth’s surface, or for those of you in the US, just over a half a mile straight down. This city that was founded on the desire for easy money has turned a rusted old mine into a capitalization. A theme park, one of the largest in the county, combines with a huge casino has resurrected around the mine. In fact to gain access to the mine for the tour you actually have to pay entrance fee into the theme park. Pictures that are being shown in the blog actually show the disparity between old world and new world. This mine used to hold as many as 30,000 workers at any given time and ran at full capacity at a depth of 10,000 ft, about a third of the height a plane travels at. I am sure these numbers just blow by, but when you get into that steel elevator that lurches straight down for minutes getting progressively hotter and hotter well it starts to become more real.

In my group that traversed into the depths of the mine were 8 US school teachers. Yes your tax dollars at work sent approximately 22 world history middle school and high school teachers to an emersion program for 6 weeks to learn a little more on the subjects they teach. There are some real benefits to some of our social programs, it was just ironic I find out about them on the other side of the world. Following my tour of the mine I took a short walk over to the apartheid museum. To try and describe what you see in the museum would be to try and describe any museum detailing the history of any atrocity ranging from holocausts to genocide. People left the museum emotional and distraught, I guess that is the purpose of these museums.

The paradox emerges when you see in the museum pictures of massive ghettos designed to be simply for colored citizens. They were over crowded, and full of disease and filth. On the way back from Gold Reef City which included the mine, the casino and a huge theme park, we passed through one of the largest shanty towns. Such squalor and filth can only be imagines but when the scope is literally square miles it becomes unimaginable. The sight of such is enough to take your breadth away and question what could possibly be done to repair a system that has gone so far wrong. AIDS that is so rampant (we passed three funerals just going to the mine) and although numbers are not fully understood they estimate up to 35% of the country is afflicted. In a couple of major cities they estimate almost 25% of the population will be dead by the year 2010, the same year the WorldCup will be in South Africa. It does not help when the president states that AIDS is caused by poverty and not by sex. Sure it affects more in the poverty stricken regions but are we not sending the wrong message? My driver was not hopeful to the chances of a country that will see much death in the coming years.

And yet I return to my five star hotel with the high walls, beautiful courtyard with goldfish in ponds surrounding the pool and feel a profound sense of guilt. Maybe helping the economy can help those afflicted, and maybe we are simply fooling ourselves. In a few hours I will be on a plane in a comfortable seat drinking wine and afterwards back to my comfortable life in the states. I have much more respect for my sister than ever who lives to help.

VIPs at the hotel

2006-07-21T01:38:00.000-07:00

Don’t you just love when every employee at the hotel knows your name? Where no matter where you walk someone is asking if they can get you something? Maybe I would like a water, maybe a cappuccino, how about some chocolate? Yes I think this sounds nice but alas it is not my story to tell. My hotel is hosting some super secret secure group on three entire floors, but of course keeping a secret at a hotel is as realistic as keeping a series of layoffs in a major company. So I find out that Manchester United has taken over my hotel. Now for those readers from the US (I think 100% of my 4 readers), Manchester United is one of the leading soccer teams in Europe. They have a fan base around the world and have a very colorful group of athletes. Periodically through breakfast we see individuals walk through the lobby who seem to receive a bit of extra special attention from every employee, not to mention guests asking for autographs. If I knew who they were I might have asked the same, alas a clueless American.

Nearing the end of my stay here in South Africa (to my manager that is south AFRICA not south AMERICA). I have successfully seen the hotel room, customer offices and taxis, not a whole lot of time to see anything else. Today however we take a car ride to Victoria about an hour away from J-burg. Maybe some interesting stories to tell?

Alas no stories to tell, I know my life is not as interesting as I hoped it to be, but maybe some interesting tidbits upon my return.

2006-07-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

Roadside garage and tire shop.

2006-07-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

A shanty town flea market.

2006-07-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

View from my room over the veranda and pool, a serious contrast.

React, over react, over apologize

2006-07-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I pondered the level of diversity in South Africa and how the healing process has continued. Today I have discovered the answer and I was very surprised. Keep in mind that over 12 years ago this country had to shake itself from a series of government that was clearly prejudicial and kept an entire race artificially down. Education, jobs, and housing were all reserve for the elite class. Now those former people are called PDIs or Previously Discriminated Individuals. To rectify the errors of the past ALL companies in South Africa had to have 75% of management at all levels to be staffed by PDIs. Now while in theory this sounds like a great way to equalize the classes and rights and wrongs from the past but consider the fact you now have an entire generation of under trained and under educated individuals that are artificially placed in senior positions. These individuals in many situations are not able to do the positions to the level of excellence required in fact many of them struggle with basic aspects of their job, or so we heard. Many people think this would have been much more effective as a sliding scale where over time they increase requirements but of course that would not appease the emotions at the time and thus to many an overreaction was in order. Thus there is now a huge amount of bitterness when companies that used to be very effective and profitable having taken huge steps backwards as top performers who happen to be white are replaced with outside individuals some of whom have never worked in the industry or in any professional job. Clearly there is bitterness from the PDIs for the past and now extreme bitterness of the whites who are just trying to live their own life.

Also an interesting observation is the huge shanty towns that have been erected inside J-burg as Johannesburg is referred to locally. These shanty towns are approximately 80% immigrants from other African countries here due to the large number of jobs and approximately 20% locals. The interesting thing is that everything in these shanty towns are completely provided by the government including food, healthcare, and all other social services. The government has taken land from farmers (at sub market rates) and built low income housing that can be purchased using interest free loans available to all, but a majority sit empty because once they move into these units they no longer qualify for all the social services. A self perpetuating cycle that is very sad to see especially given the unbelievable size and scale of these areas.

On a slightly more positive observation, my hotel is directly next to a major casino. We went inside for a quick dinner last night and it is amazing how similar this casino is compared to Vegas. The same sky looking ceiling, shops and stores. One could imagine we just walked into the Venetian and not tens of thousands of miles away in South Africa. Another interesting aspect is huge billboards encouraging citizens to help support a better South Africa by actually paying their taxes. We might look at this and laugh for who among us can afford to simply not pay taxes but apparently quite common out here especially since it is very hard to prosecute or even find those that evade. Thus if you get a ticket for speeding, you actually go to jail and see the judge that day to decide sentence or fine. Simply they can’t afford to give a ticket that may or may not be paid as they can not execute as effectively on warrants. This makes you immediately think of crime, which is why every home and business has massive 10 foot fences with brand new looking barbed wire and menacing signs identifying these premises guarded and secured by armed guards. The scary thing is this is not bluster, armed guards at all private establishments. Like the past this country is still a country filled with polar opposites of the haves and the have nots. This is not something that will change overnight and looking at the United States as an example of deep seeded bitterness not something that will change in decades but rather entire generations.

More observations as the trip continues.

Infinite Smallness

2006-07-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

As I was sitting in Frankfurt airport in Germany watching members of virtually every country, race, creed and color I am struck by how unbelievably small this world is. I don’t know about others but personally I feel that so many things that happen in the world see so far away. Middle East, Asia, Africa places I look up on maps and see as a whole world away, is only a flight away. These planes, it is remarkable to think we have not had more worldwide epidemics, we share the same air and the same germs. We are so much more tightly integrated and mixed than sometimes we let ourselves believe.

So with a total of 42 straight hours of travel I landed in beautiful Johannesburg, South Africa. You will all be pleased to know that not a single event happened on my flight down although I must confess the entertainment systems on South African airlines was fantastic. Every seat had its own tv with a hard drive filled with a dozen movies, TV shows, and interactive games. One needed only to select their choice at any time and enjoy personalized entertainment for the entire 10 hour flight. The even took it one step further and added webcams to the tail wing overlooking the entire top of the plane, a nose cam and a downward facing cam that anyone could watch from their seats to see scenery even if the window shades are pulled or they are stuck in the middle sections. Truly redefining a new way of entertaining people while stuck in a silver tube for 10+ straight hours. Maybe I was only a little bitter when I had the distinct joy of sitting next to a 300+ pound individual who squeezed into a middle seat. Unfortunately the arm rest would not rest, in fact it was stuck to his stomach and rose and fell with each breath he took. His legs would physically not fit in the aisle between rows and thus he had to sit spread eagle shoving a foot to each side brutally intruding on the precious foot space of his neighbors. But to top it off this fine gentleman snored through much of the night, only stopping to go to the bathroom at the perfect moment when I had just drifted off to a pleasant sleep. Lest you think I am complaining I am writing this entry from a wonderful Intercontinental hotel in South Africa. How many times in my life am I going to be able to say that? I am lucky and privileged and maybe only a little bit tired.

But I have to confess I do feel slightly ill-at ease. South Africa has a pretty intense history over the past couple of decades with wounds that do not heal easily. So I feel more than slightly uncomfortable when I see nothing but blacks behind the counter and the only white employee being the manager. I find it to be more than a little unsettling when I walk down the slightly narrow hallways of the hotel than any black employee will hug the wall with their face flat against that same wall to allow me to pass. Maybe I am just more sensitive because I do not live here, but coming from the US where race is a major issue although it has become more of an undercurrent than a major conversation topic. I look forward to spending my next few days as I travel around the city giving talks to see what it looks like outside the 5 star hotels and restaurants even though I am sure my hosts will be taking me to protected areas, I wonder how much bad blood still exists.

As for me, I am about to hit dinner and then collapse in much needed sleep. I was thankfully able to shower in Frankfurt airport (a luxury my frequent flyer status provided) but nothing can compare to a clean, quiet, smoke free bed tonight. More on this to follow including pictures.

A quiet time at 30000 ft in a restroom with another

2006-07-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

Alas this is not a sexual escapade although I think that would be slightly more agreeably and tasteful, rather this is yet another medical on yet another plane. Many readers have asked what it is like to have a medical emergency at 34,000 ft in a plane traveling over water for the next 8 hours. I will try to reenact this just as it happened if you are not interested you might just want to skip down to the bottom of this entry (look for the line of stars).

It begins with a typical overnight international flight that will last a total of 8 hours from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt Germany. On these overnight flights I tend to identify myself to the chief purser for reasons that will be revealed later. A quick meal upon boarding the flight, then reclining in a very comfortable business seat, eye mask covers the eyes, ear plugs deeply inserted into both ear canals, and a soft blanket perfectly positioned. Having been up now for close to 21 hours I quickly fall into a deep if not slightly fitful sleep. I am awoken after seemingly minutes asleep where in actuality it was a couple of hours, by a slightly hesitant tapping on my shoulder. I remove my eye shades to see one of the stewardesses apologetically waking me up from a very deep sleep. She simply says that they need me, will I follow her. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I follow her down the darkened plane, pulling my medical ID from my wallet while listening to her briefing. “Passenger was found passed out between the bathrooms, vomited blood prior to discovery.” I arrive at the middle lavatories to find all the flight attendants and several passengers all crowding the narrow hallway of four bathrooms. I quickly start to excuse people and guide my way to the front. I find a relatively senior woman sitting on the toilet in the bathroom that must measure a total of 3 ft wide and 4 ft long. Red poignant smelling vomit sloshes around the floor of the lavatory with each movement of the plane. Each flight attendant asks what they do before I have even reached the patient. Another passenger identifies himself to me as an out of practice EMT. I drop to my knees trying at all costs from coating my pants in that most painful of smelling liquids swirling around my socked feet. People are reaching all around me trying to hand things to the patient, talk to the patient, and clean up the floor. Keeping in mind of course that the entire space is approximately the size of a small closet clearly not optimal working surroundings. Slowly backing everyone up we find that the red in the vomitous liquid is red wine, not blood however patient is in full body shakes and clearly disoriented. A full medical treatment ensues including a full workup, oxygen therapy and a very dicey move to an adjoining restroom which smells only slightly less hellish. Keep in mind the entire time my work space next to the bathroom measures 3 ft by the length of my reach that houses the AED, two full EEMK (extended medical kits), towels and blankets, haz mat bags, water bottles, oxygen bottles, clip board with my notes and of course the not so occasional flight attendant carefully stepping over everything to inquiry as to status. Over the next 60-75 minutes we get the situation in hand and patient returns to normal state. Causes are probably a mixture between travel stress and lack of eating for 2 days. We finally return the patient back to their coach seat to allow for the next 20 minutes of paperwork on all treatment performed and conjectures of cause. Finally almost an hour and a half after that hesitant shake on the shoulder I thankfully drop back into my seat hopeful to go back to sleep. Within 5 minutes I am back in my fitful sleep somehow with a blanket gracefully draped over me and a small flower next to my seat. Never a dull moment and even more stressful when the pilot comes out and asks if we need to make emergency landing, keeping in mind that would delay flight by several hours if not longer. You will be happy to know patient is doing quite well for the remainder of the flight.

****************************************************************

The previous week I have been in Baltimore for a full week conference with some of our most important customers. One of these customers in a previous trip had inquired if I would be interested in being set up with his single daughter. Keep in mind this previous trip had literally been 7 months previously, but he has a fantastic memory and had exchanged emails with me previous to this trip inquiring if I was still interested. Keep in mind this is a very tough position, upset the daughter and run the risk of upsetting the customer. Deny the daughter and run the risk of insulting customer. On the other hand a fun evening out is not something to be lightly turned down. However to soften it slightly I end up bringing a co-worker who would then align with her roommate to turn the mood to a more casual and less stressful environment. The evening when well with the conversation meandering through a variety of topics, one of particular interest in this story is of myspace. Now myspace, for those that are not in the know, is a web community where people can talk to friends and strangers all the while sharing personal information and pictures. We talked about our individual sites and just as quickly moved on to new topics. Well the next day I decide to look up her myspace just for giggles. After mere minutes of searching I indeed find the site and am surprised to find comments between her and her roommate ( I am guessing yelling across family room is so old fashion) concerning our double date. The comment from her roommate said something to the equivalent of, ‘If I do this, you so owe me, we better not have to pay. If it starts going really wrong we need to have a code word, how about Donkey-Punch” Now don’t ask me where donkey punch comes from, however thankfully it did not come in conversation. Well never one to miss an opportunity I immediately text message the date from the previous night with simply Donkey Punch. The response? “Oh fuckkkk!” I translate this to be a proclamation of despair rather than a proposition of physical activities. Both she and her friend apologizes profusely while I try to explain I found it humorous and not to worry about it. All told it was an enjoyable evening and even better humor the following day.

So now I sit in the Red Carpet Club in Frankfurt airport awaiting for the next 8 hours my flight to South Africa. Fighting to stay awake so I can sleep on my next overnight flight and thinking I am going to give up that battle. Until my next exciting chapter of this man’s random travels around the globe I wish everyone good health and safe travels.

2006-07-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

Another view of the harbor, direct accross is a huge aquarium which I hope to visit if I have time. You can walk the entire coast along the bay.

2006-07-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

A bust of a very cheerful famous figure.

2006-07-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

Volleyball tournament taking place right on the inner harbour. A perfect venue just to chill and watch the 'scenery'.

First Class, accept nothing less

2006-07-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

I was quite pleased that for the first time since February of this year United, my trusted and loved airline, felt it was time to upgrade me on my flight across country from SFO to Baltimore. Now I would hate to think I ever get so used to it that I can not appreciate the little things in life, and of course this was no exception. The really fun part was I was able to sponsor an upgrade for one of my co-workers who was on the same flight to go to the same work function. This co-worker had never been in first before, thus it was like watching a schoolchild experience something for the very first time. But the trip really started to be funny when the stewardess was passing out drinks prior to takeoff and called my co-worker ‘mom’. Keep in mind my co-worker is just a couple of years older than me and quite petite. We both stare at the stewardess wondering what type of weird cigarette she had been smoking prior to take-off. Turns out she had a small emblem on her shirt that looked similar to one used for maternity clothes and thus she made an assumption. She then spent the rest of the flight trying to make it up to my co-worker and thus she got extra special care.

Note to men: Never never never ask women when they are due unless you have confirmed from a separate source that said individual is truly pregnant.

Something about getting full ice cream sundaes complete with hot chocolate syrup, whip cream and little tubed cookie really makes a flight that much more rewarding. Suffice to say it was a fun flight. But we are not done yet. Susan, our stewardess who is not the brightest star in the sky, comes to me to tell me about a man in back having an anxiety attack. This by the way, this is why I don’t drink on planes, seems to happen on more and more flights these days. So patient was a nice humorous 90 year old passenger who has feeling lightheaded and slightly dizzy. A little bit of Oxygen, some rest and attention and he was as good as new, well a new 90 year old. Thankfully a short period of treatment and I could go back to the movie which I was very much enjoying (Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen, cutsy but fun).

Baltimore itself it as always a great city. A little hot and humid but a great city to walk around when not stuck inside all day in work type activities. I did get a couple of hours to walk around when I arrived (see pictures linked to this story). More on this city and the rest of my trip when we return….

A trip here and a trip there, soon no time at all

2006-06-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

I have not ignored your pleas for more stories and an end to this hiatus I have taken from this blog. It is not that I don’t love my readers, I really do its just that life has yielded a few new priorities that all request my attention. It has now been almost a year since I have moved to the city and as much as I do love city living on the weekends the commute is a bit of a drag. Thankfully with my travel schedule I am not here enough to really hate the commute but spending a couple of hours a day in the car does get a bit well tiresome. But lets go into a couple of fun stories shall we?

Last week I was in Vegas for my company’s large users show. Over 11,000 attendees were all in one place for this event and I am pleased to say my session sold out at around 170 attendees. But this is not about my session (which rocked) or my presentation skills (out of this world) or the reaction of my audience (they absolutely loved me), but rather some of the night life outside the life of corporate America. What happens when people go to a city where they think anything goes? It started innocently enough, just a drink with a couple of co-workers in a nice bar at the Bellagio. One of my buddies ends up talking to a girl who is standing next to him waiting to be served. Turns out it is her 21^st birthday and she is here in Vegas with her father, but she really wants to go clubbin. My friend of course invites her out with us for we are planning on hitting Tangerine a club in the casino Treasure Island. She is all set to go but someone needs to tell her father. Yes you guessed it, as the only single person, and of course the one that lets face it all parents love, I am the one that is nominated to talk to her father.

Lets recap. I need to go out and tell a father that I am taking his 21 year old daughter out with three strange men out to a different casino her first time in Vegas until the wee hours in the morning and give her copious amounts of alcohol. I am marketing, this shouldn’t be too hard, and indeed I pass with flying colors. Before I know it we are in a cab flying down the strip to TI. In the car Jenna (as she puts it, think Jenna Jameson the famous porn star) informs us that she is going to be in the September issue of playboy, the college edition. Man does that rev everyone’s engine in the cab, including the cabbie himself who looks at me in the front seat with raised eyebrows and a knowing look. Jumping inside the club she somehow makes her way to the top of the stage in under a minute and is soon towering over the crowd doing a dance that hasn’t been seen since the last out-takes of dirty dancing. The crowd loves her, especially the more than occasional flashes she gives to the audience. Before I know it she takes one of our companions off to a back room or bathroom. Coming back she gets a drink and soon takes my other co-worker off. Of course I have been duly warned I can never tell his wife about what goes on here. Later that night after a few more drinks she comes shaking that little bootie on over to me and tells me it’s my turn. Hmmm, you know what, I think I will pass. No hardship for her, she finds Chris Lydell the UFC champion and ends up going home with him. Something tells me this 21 year old has been to a couple of bars before her legal birthday. As for my co-workers, I wonder how surprised they would be if they knew their wives to be cheating on them as they do. Somehow the concept of ‘Loyal and faithful until death do us part’ and ‘What goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas’ seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Welcome to life with a trade show group.

So besides the little Vegas fiasco, life was ok out there. It is amazing how fast that city is growing. Virtually every casino has added a new tower with between five and seven thousand new rooms. This is in addition to the up to 15,000 hotel rooms per casino. How long is this place going to sustain this growth? I so hate that city!

With luck my next update will happen on a more imminent manner.

A fitting tale for a return to blogging

2006-05-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

First an apology to my loyal readers for my absence over the past couple of weeks. Partly work has overtaken my free time due to a promotion with a whole host of new responsibilities and travel, and partly because simply I have been talking more to my readers on the phone. It is amazing how quickly phone time can eat into one’s free time, but in a fabulous way of course.

But now into a little more of my travel and tales of interest. Today, well I guess yesterday at this point, I was all set to embark on a trip to London. A mere 10 hour flight from San Francisco, not the longest but certainly a flight well worth upgrading on. Even with my wonderful status even I do not get upgraded every time and was thus placed in a comfortable seat in the middle of a massive 747-400. Now for those of you who travel frequently or even for those of you who do so infrequently continue to read if you want to know how to be the most popular passenger. They board this massive 300+ passenger plane filled to the gills without a single open seat with five minutes to spare, just when we all thought we would leave even a couple of minutes early the pilot announces that somehow the food crew had boarded not one, not two, but three food carts that were absolutely empty. Somehow that didn’t seem proper so of course they were going to take the time and bring on the correct ones. No problem, another 15 minutes and we will be out of here. Food transition complete, all jetways and vehicles moved away for taxi and can you guess what happened? One of our fellow passengers decided this was the optimal time to get violently sick. We are talking wave after wave of nausea complete with full body convulsions. I go over to lend my assistance (with ample gloves I would point out) and quickly recommend that we remove this passenger prior to takeoff. A shocker, but somehow the entire staff of the plane agrees. This leads to an hour long task of removing passenger with baggage and then disinfecting an entire row of seats. Somehow for the rest of the flight I am everyone’s best friend, as if I somehow averted some major disaster for the entire plane rather than just comfort a man in physical distress. By the way if you are one that likes to drink on a plane this is an incredibly easy way to get rip roaring drunk for free as every steward will offer you any alcoholic drink you desire. Of course one needs to question that for the minute I drink one I am no longer allowed to render assistance, so that makes the entire situation a bit ironic. Either way the flight ended up being quite uneventful save the wonderful care and attention from all the wonderful staff of my United flight.

But wait we are not done yet. I get off the plane and jump into the cab listing my hotel which I was lead to believe is the closest to my corporate offices that I will be working out of for the next three days. I query the taxi driver to ensure this is correct once we start to leave, and he actually states that there is a Hilton closer if I would like, but keep in mind since he is computer dispatched he would need to return to the airport (we are only a mere 5 minutes out) and get re-dispatched. Not a problem. Well to make a long story short, the new hotel is literally connected to the airport and due to traffic a walk that I could have done from the airport terminal ends up being almost $30. Oops. Lets just blame the 10 hour flight shall we?

As for what else has been going on in my life. Besides a trip to Orlando last week, London this week and a whole slew of work that has pretty much been my life. Fear not I am not actually complaining about this it just means that a vast preponderance of my time is spent running around trying to do the work of three. Impossible for a mere mortal, thankfully that does not apply to me. Now I have got to catch up on work so more later, this time I promise.

Mickey wishes and medical needs

2006-05-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

Arriving a day early for work event I spent the day with relatives in the happiest place on Earth. Now while I think that the title might be stretching it just a bit it is certainly quite a bit better than my trips to Vegas. Being Mother’s Day and all everything seemed a little bit more fun for the whole family. Mothers were given carnations upon entering, maybe a little fortitude for having the incredibly stressful job of keeping the children in-line all day in the heat, not to mention the daily job of raising kids. Thankfully lines were not terribly long and thus my aunt, cousin, cousin’s son, and I got to jump on a number of rides amidst the heat and humidity of an early summer Florida day. As always Disney provides an insight into parenting which far exceeds that of any parenting class. You see the parents that let their kids just run wild to the ones that discipline their kids to the nth degree including public spanking and swearing. One wonders how our society has sunk so far at times, and then taking a look it all seems to come together.

The adventure begins to heat up (no pun intended) when we went off site for a little dinner. Our meal comes and we are just about halfway when at the next table over we hear a call for someone to call 911. My aunt quickly says, my nephew he is a medic he can help. Going over to lend a hand, this gentleman has now lost consciousness and his eating companions are quickly losing their calm and panicking. The hostess comes over and tries to take over as a first responder, I let her know my training and she quickly leaves to ensure 911 is on their way. The patient regains consciousness long enough to give me some information before having another episode. Long story short ambulance comes to take him away, ironically he has had this type of episode of passing out before but decided not to go to hospital or doctor which makes this injury due to stupidity. The hostess ends up thanking me and wanting to know if I am local to the Orlando area. When I tell her San Francisco she looks a little disappointed, unfortunately as they say GU (geographically undesirable). One of these days we will all meet the person of our dreams locally right? Either way it certainly led to an interesting conclusion to the day.

At this point I think it is certainly time to get some rest, I am sure much more on this trip to follow.

Crazy drivers

2006-05-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Although slightly tardy some reflections from last week’s trip to Florida. First the benefits of spending way too much time traveling became quite apparent upon checking into my hotel. I was staying at a brand new doubletree located directly on the beach, so new in fact you could still smell the sawdust in the humid Florida air. They had decided to upgrade me due to my diamond status into their presidential suite; clearly I was the best option they had. Now I tend to not get too excited during these upgrades as I have seen gold gilded toilets in my suite in the Belagio, talking toilets in Japan, mirrors on the ceiling in the MGM Grand and stereo systems to rival small theaters in New York. Yet this room had the elegance and simplicity that caused even I to pause. Living room had floor to ceiling mirrors along the entire main wall followed by a full patio traversing the entire length of the suite from living room and bedroom all of course overlooking the beach and ocean. Soft lighting and hot tub in the bathroom of course topped it off. Such luxury, such extravagance, such no one to share it with when traveling by myself. Really need to find someone who wants to stay in luxury hotels in cities around the world, applicants apply within.

But Florida is as always an interesting paradox of a town. On one hand you have the seniors who have not been able to see over their steering wheel since 1976 and insist on driving in the left lane at 54.5 miles per hour, and on the other hand crazy teenagers who insist on weaving through traffic with millimeters to spare while blasting Latin music. Any time I have complained about drivers here in CA, ignore it, at least I can predict their behavior. In CA we know they are going to cut over four lanes and can plan on it, in Florida you see everything from someone stopping in the middle lane as they try to decide if they want to exit (honest to goodness true story). So remarkably enough I have given up complaining of CA drivers and will instead criticize Floridians.

The trip went well and I spoke over steak lunch to 35 industry CIOs. Let me tell you the conversation was riveting and witty. Coming home was certainly a relief after hitting both coasts and of course a bit of partying on my birthday.

Back here in CA I spent my Saturday in a way that no bachelor ever wants to admit, yes that would be cleaning. I spent a good four hours hand scrubbing the apartment that was long overdue for some TLC. Alas four hours later it smells and looks just like before I started with just a bit less dust and grime but still just as much ‘stuff’. What can I say as I guy I am a collector. Sunday was much more fun with a trip to the beach with a friend which would be the first for the year. I must remember to do more of that in the months ahead, who knows how long I will be living just a few minutes from one of the best (yet coldest) beaches in the country.

Oh it is a celebration my friends

2006-05-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

As outlined before this year like all other years in CA I have been on the road for my annual personal celebration, however that does mean it was not a good time. Before we get into the events of the evening lets rewind just a bit.

I was in Las Vegas for work, this means that starting at 7am I am on a show floor actually trying to be productive, to talk to customers and others who might want to know more about our company and our products. Last year on my birthday it was the year of the electronic cards. I must have received no less than two dozen e-cards from friends and family. To be honest they feel a little less personal but they are still a wonderful thing to wake up to. This year was the year of phone calls. Now I brought up what I was doing in Vegas to explain why I was unable to pick up the phone at 9am, 11am, noon, 1pm, 2pm and so on. Throughout the day that little piece of circuitry in my pocket would not take a moment’s rest. Only late in the afternoon did I get the opportunity to listen to all the messages together. More than a few of the messages sang to me. Some, like me, are challenged to maintain even a simple tune to a medley as complex as Happy Birthday, while others use years of vocal and musical training to entertain with a wonderful a cappella rendition. Regardless of the words or the talent I was truly touched. Emails, IMs, Text Messages and voice mails. I really do have some wonderful friends and family and am truly blessed. How many times are we reminded of the saying, if you were to win the lottery or truly be successful in life, would you have someone to tell? I am blessed that I do.

But now to the words you have been eagerly anticipating, what happens in Vegas on a man’s birthday late into the evening and into the morning? Dinner at Nobu was first on the agenda, one of the finest sushi restaurants in the region (and yes we know we are in the middle of the desert). Now those of you who know me are already cringing for you know that I just relish in food that swims. In actuality I don’t eat seafood, but everyone I work with does and enjoys it quite a bit so I have learned to cope. There is always some Tampura or other non-seafood dishes. On the other hand the atmosphere was light and cheerful, the guests were majority light and cheerful, and the drinks…well plentiful. Dinner did not begin until 9:30 and ended close to the 11 hour. Well we could not finish the night, we had just barely begun. Into a quick taxi ride toward Mandalay Bay where the taxi driver had to give an editorial on my skills on picking up women. The reason I can talk so well to business people but not to get a woman to go home with me is I don’t ask the write question. I ask what the right question is, he holds up a finger and says now that is a good question. Great partly drunk and I have a philosophical cab driver. Onto Rum Jungle, a night club that has gone downhill in recent months in terms of clientele but who was hosting a number of co-workers so a perfect locale. $20 cover prompted the question to the lead bouncer, who actually looks like a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, if my birthday entitled me to free admission. Alas if only I had tits, well at least that is how he put it. Lucky for us, one of the people in my party was a female, so he gave her the free pass for my birthday because she has well tits. There is no justice in the world, women no complaining about inequality, you get back at us in your own way.

Once inside the next couple of hours was a mixture of dancing, yes I actually danced…poorly (again for those who know me, not much of a surprise there), drank copious quantities of inebriating liquids, took crazy pictures with colleagues, and even had a deep and meaningful conversation with someone about something (or at least so I was told). By 2am we were kicked out of the abandoned and empty club, most went home but a few brave souls decided to keep the party moving. A trip to the bathroom, not as easy as might be expected in a casino, finding these much sought after rooms can be challenging. Finally to a live band playing on the gambling floor and of course maybe a little more inebriating liquids. Our time was mostly occupied pondering life’s great questions, for example, how did that girl’s mom let her walk around in that outfit? Or maybe the deeper, what happened to you at 27 and was it good for you? Keeping in mind my friends that yes I am 27 now, although everyone who was told my birthday was forced to guess my age. Guesses ranged between 29 and 38, so either I look incredibly old, am incredibly boring or mature, either way 27 starts sounding much better when you are contemplating mid 30s.

Finally when hour struck past three it was time to walk back to my hotel, well a tram and two walkways. I had enough time to pack my room and take a quick 30 minute nap before my wake-up call knocked me out of bed (literally) still maybe a little intoxicated to head over to the airport for an early morning flight. Why on earth would I schedule such a crazy 6am flight the day after my birthday? I have to be in Florida to give a talk at a CIO event and it takes an entire day to make ones way across the country. But no matter my flight from Vegas to Denver was absolutely empty and I was able to pass out along three seats for the entire two hours in the air. I awoke feeling alive and ready to begin the year, well maybe a little parched but that was easily rectified. My Denver to Florida flight had a bit of drama during pushback when a woman refused to turn off her cell phone, decided to verbally harass the flight attendants who she felt were being rude to her and finally actually stalked out of her seat toward the cockpit as we were taxing to the runway. Disclaimer: Do NOT try this at home! Of course the pilot had to make an emergency stop while they had to decide to call the cops or not, while passengers verbally shouted her down until she returned to her seat neither apologetic or humbled. We took off without incident but I fully expected her to be arrested or tackled by a fellow passenger.

I would like to take a second and thank my work colleagues who have every year shown me the greatest of times when I am on the road on my birthday. Granted Vegas is an easy place to host such an event, but they have opened their arms and their tolerances for alcohol. I am truly a lucky guy, now how to repay that favor….?

My ol’ nemesis

2006-04-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

It is summer time once again, time for the rains to pass and of course volunteering with the Red Cross at community events. Well this weekend was an event at Stanford University called Challenge 4 Charity. It is a collection of sporting events surrounded by copious amounts of drinking by 8 leading university’s MBA programs including UCLA, UCI, USC, Berkley, Washington and others. (Editor’s note: These are the same schools that denied me admission a scant few months ago). Each of these schools sent a fair majority of their students in each of their respective MBA programs up for the weekending, up to 200+ from each school. The interesting thing came up when watching these students who are advertised to be the leaders of the future. Many of the team events required team work and planning, not such an easy thing for these chiefs, especially without any Indians to direct. Drama was not unusual in this friendly set of games in fact the pre-eminent thought that went through all of our heads on the volunteer side was the likeness to MTV Real World. Here is a set of students, many of whom have not worked a real job getting ready to hit the job market, well if the right job comes along. Trust me I make this up not, this is from the direct word of mouth of many of our patients. Although I call them kids, many of whom are older than I, but asked about their history a preponderance of them identified world travel between undergraduate and graduate schooling, some even graduating this month and not really having a desire to work.

I look at this attitude and compare it to my company’s very different attitude. At my job it is not unusual to work 12-15 hour days 6 days a week. I would love to say we work hard play hard, but I think it is closer to simply working hard, on the other hand it is the constant pressure that I think gives me the greatest adrenalin rush. I am not sure going back to the relative slow pace of academia would keep me awake. But more of that another time.

This morning I landed in a city that is all too familiar to me. A city where vice wins out over virtue, sins wins out over sincerity, and money wins out over emotion 7 days a week. Yes I speak of my well known city of Las Vegas. Although many identify it as man’s playground maybe due to the amount of time I have spent here I find it to be more of an annoyance than a pleasure. It is ironic that in my last 5 years living in CA, I have spent 4 of my birthdays in this city of sin. While some might find this to be the perfect situation, Vegas becomes much less fun when spent by yourself at a work function. But no matter, my friends have already helped me celebrate last week (see previous entries) and for that was indeed a hoot and a half.

So a quick trip to Vegas until Wednesday when I fly clear across the country to Florida for another quick event I am speaking at. Home by Friday in time to maybe spend some time in my favorite city, well at least the city I call home. More on this city and the trip later. My apologies for the sporadic nature of some of these entries, life at work has been just a bit challenging or at least hectic.

2006-04-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

Now tell me that is not cute!

2006-04-26T08:49:00.001-07:00

There is no seeing the ceiling, notice baloons steadily decreasing in size as the culprits began to hyperventilate

2006-04-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

No entrance allowed here! Maybe no exit once I crawl in.

I have great friends!!

2006-04-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

I have said this before but it bears repeating, hell it bears being shouted from all the rooftops between San Jose and San Francisco. My friends Rule! Today I went to my desk like any other day, for today was to be a tough one. Meetings from before the crack of dawn until late in the day. Lots of running around and a good portion of politics as has been creeping into more and more of my events. I turn the corner and stop in my tracks. There waving slightly in my cube from invisible currents and tides of air, was a canopy comprised of crepe paper and balloons covering my entire cube. A memory of a doorway was all that I could see, before some slight cutting allowed myself a small entrance to crawl through. Stickers with witty sayings like Happy Birthday adorned every possible surface from white board to monitor from mouse to keyboard. Party hats rested on awards, monitor, ornamental stuffed animals and walls. Confetti in the shapes of balloons and gifts literally covered every horizontal surface the eye could see while the view of the ceiling and lights was completely obliterated by a new fake ceiling.

It takes me a second in dumbfounded shock because wait a minute; it’s not my birthday yet. But like the past 5 years since I have been in California I have had to travel on my birthday. Well my friends decided not to take any chances and decided to get me early. I then went the entire day with dozens of people whom I know and even more I didn’t know wishing me Happy Birthday. The first few I explained ironically enough its not my birthday yet, but I decided to simply say thank you as the explanations were getting to be tiring. I later found out that it took them over two hours to complete the transformation, just slightly longer than it took me to look under all my chairs and desk for any booby-traps they might have laid in waiting. The stickers I am afraid may never come off which might cause problems on my screen or white board, but every time I looked at them throughout the entire day I could not help with a huge smile. Later tonight I was taken out by the same pair of friends to a dinner including the requisite embarrassing serenade by the waitresses.

I can honestly say I have the best friends a guy can have!

What a series of events

2006-04-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me how exciting our lives can be when we take moments to reflect on how fast we are moving. Early last week I was in the middle of New Mexico giving a talk to several hundred people, middle of the week working on fiscal year ’07 planning for our company’s marketing plan and at the latter part of the week in the middle of a secret service protection detail on our campus. I can certainly say that I ma most decisively not bored. But lets talk about the excitement from Friday.

The day began at the typical crazy 4am start, arriving at work at the only slightly less crazy 5:30. I began to gather needed supplies and make ready for the task of the day, helping coordinate command and control for the security of our CEO, the Governor of CA, and not the least, The President of the United States. I bring our mobile command post to the back of our main building on campus, directly adjacent to the key building of the day. The only soul around is a single secret service agent reading a book in his car while his bomb sniffing dog gently nuzzles his hand. My counterpart and I begin the drawn out process of setting up all the capabilities in our command vehicle including the raising of a 75 foot mast to gain a network signal, setting up half a dozen IP phones, as well as camera images from our entire campus. Soon San Jose police begin to arrive and look for direction as to where begin their own set-up. Due to a meeting later that day I am dressed like an authority in a nice black suit, somehow that must make me appear to be in charge. I try to tell them that in the great big totem pole of command, I am simply the dirt holding it up, somehow they seemed to agree we all fit that same category. With that I began helping them arrange their dozens of police cars, two horse trailers, dozens more motorcycles and all other necessary supplies. All told they had almost 400 officers assigned to the task of protecting this event.

Interestingly enough once some of the police’s senior leadership saw the capabilities in this cutting edge command vehicle and the fact they could monitor all the operations on the entire campus without relying simply on radio descriptions we were soon inundated with police and fire senior leadership. In fact the chief of police was actually watching over our shoulder, fun until reports come in of a hummer entering into a secure zone plastered with protest signs and with people hanging out the windows. However with the help of some incredibly talented tech people we had it on screen and fully monitored before the first police car pulled up less than 30 seconds later. It was a good moment. There were other brief scares and other activities which I feel would be inappropriate to talk about here, but suffice to say it was not boring.

So although this whole event was hyped up to the nth degree, with major streets all around the campus completely closed off and an entire populace asked to work from home, there was a tangible energy that pervaded the day. They of course think of everything, a fence line hundreds of feet away from the rear of the building is blockaded by a dozen buses to prevent a gunman from hiding in the bushes, and other preparations which even I would not reveal in this forum. But the adrenalin rush was tangible, and one wonders if the aids and entourage ever gets tired of it. Their exit was only a few blocks away to where two gun ships and two transport helicopters were ready to whisk them away to their next stop in Palo Alto. Interestingly enough there was supposed to be anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 protesters for the president’s visit, however due to some smart work by the police a vast majority were unable to get close enough to satisfy their goals so instead they abandoned our location and turned to Palo Alto. Our police leadership gets the call that the police up at Stanford were quickly being overrun by protesters who were performing sit-in protests in every public street. So on command decision almost 400 officers to a caravan consisting of horse trailers, motorcycles, SUVs, and cruisers preceded code 3 up our main highway to back up their fellow officers. That must have been a sight to see with well over 100 vehicles. I jokingly asked the Captain if I could tag along in my personal vehicle to beat the traffic on my way home. Alas no dice.

Later that day I traded my suit for a pair of jeans to meet a friend for some tapas and a quick movie, Thank you for Smoking. I highly recommend the movie if you have the time, but certainly bring someone along that would be willing and able to engage in a bit of discussion afterwards for this movie does more than entertain it brings up questions of freedom of thought and expression. A great cast and a fantastic dialogue, certainly a must rent on DVD if you miss the theater showing. As for me, well for now I think I might just take a bit of a nap to help recover.

2006-04-22T16:34:00.001-07:00

Right by the streetpole in the middle of the picture you can see Marine one, on the left the two gun ships.

2006-04-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

Protesters at the end of the street, kept a goodly distance away.

2006-04-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

A sampling of the officers in their debrief. A great group who did a fantastic job and had fun doing it.

2006-04-22T16:32:00.001-07:00

Just a few motorcycles, and these are the ones not included in the motorcade.

2006-04-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

An adjunct to the command post. Seems to be a mess, but it worked.

I survived, but what a story

2006-04-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Now you know me, I could not just have an uneventful journey back from the confines of the desert to the calm chaos of the city. But more on that later, I had the whole day planned like any other good business trip.

My flight was to leave at precisely 6:10, considering the airport is all of about 8 blocks from the hotel and traffic is not a major factor in the southwest leaving hotel at precisely 5:05 was sufficient. All packed up, car waiting, and we are off to the races in calm relaxation. Arriving at the one room airport I walk in and am greeted by the only person in the airport working behind the ticket counter with the following exchange in conversation:

Agent: “You must be going to Alberquerque.”

Me: “Nope, going to Denver”

Agent: “You just missed your flight, should be taking off right now.”

Me: “That can’t be right, flight doesn’t leave until 6:10”

Agent: “It does everyday, and right now it is 6:15”

Me: “Sorry but no, it is 5:15”

Agent: “You must be staying in town, there is a time change between the airport and the hote”

Me: “Seriously, you are kidding”

Suffice to say she was not kidding. Well not one to be shocked to inaction I quickly grab my trusted cell phone and call my travel office. After an excruciating 10 minute wait time I finally get an agent who tells me they can get me out at 3pm, nothing soon. The agent overhearing one side of the conversation queries me if I want to go to Albuquerque in 15 minutes. So I have another conversation:

Agent: “If you want to go to Albuquerque you have about 10 minutes”

Me to Travel “If I was in Albuquerque, can you get me to San Francisco?”

Travel: “But you are in Farmington”

Me: “Work with me, can you get me out??”

Travel: “Yes I can, a 8:25 flight but….”

Me to Agent: “Here is my credit card, whatever get me on this plane”

Me to Travel: “Book the plane call me when I land in Albuquerque with my ticket”

Travel: “But we how will…”

Agent: “It is going to be a grand total of $97, we need to ask some questions…”

Me to Travel: “Book it I, I trust you, got to go”

Me to Agent: “You are beautiful, make it happen”

Ticket in hand run and get on my little tiny plane to Albuquerque. Ironically enough the exact same pilot and co-pilot from my plane from Phoenix were flying me out the next day to Albuquerque. I felt like telling my fellow passengers that these guys (well guy and girl) are good, I know them. We land and now I have 30 minutes to go to the ticket counter to get my ticket on United, run through security, and get on my plane. Jog over to United ticket counter, they tell me we are too close to take-off and they can only put me on stand-by for next flight unless by some miracle I can run through security in time. Now in all out run for security I slide under rope lines, leap over kids, and circumnavigate the maze of elderly struggling to find their ID. Manage to make it through security in a total time of 3 minutes 24 seconds, a new personal best for me. Moving mach 4 through the terminal I get to the gate 7 minutes before the doors close. Collapsing in my seat I got to tell you…

I RULE!

The stars were in line, the tea leaves splayed in my favor, somehow the comedy of errors worked in my favor. Probably didn’t hurt that in my first flight, there were a number of people who saw my presentation and all wanted to spend the flight talking about it and telling me how exciting my talk was. Personally I think that my competition was just unusually low, but it never hurts to hear some praise. Actually I received a glass or crystal award for best presentation at the event so it can’t be all bad. Anyway I made it home alive with just a couple stories to tell.

Before I sign off, a moment of silence for today at 5:30 san Francisco celebrated its hundred year anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. Many lost their lives, virtually everyone lost property, may it never happen again to the extent we experienced. May we learn from the past.

Bump Jump and Roll

2006-04-17T19:30:00.001-07:00

In case I do not make it home alive tomorrow this might be a final entry, but more on this later.

I have arrived in Farmington New Mexico which for those of you who are not up on your geography is in the middle of no where in New Mexico, about four hours from Albuquerque. A town of about 40,000 was hosting a reasonably sized technology conference of a few hundred people and requested a presentation from me. Now although I have mentioned before that I have upgraded my wardrobe slightly, me in a full suit and tie in the middle of New Mexico was like horns on a bunny. Anyway the presentation went well and I get to fly home tomorrow, but now we return to my sedate sentence from the start. Flying into Farmington is like no experience I have had since I was in a small prop plane hit by lightning and forced to take an emergency landing.

The setting, I am leaving from Phoenix to Farmington in a small prop jet of approximately 8 seats. Approaching the plane all the cockpit windows are covered with safety briefing cards to keep the plane relatively cool in the desert heat. The captain of the plane actually was the one to take our bags and put them in the back, and hands out bottles of water and air sickness bags before we take off (situational irony here). Wonder if she gets triple salary for pilot, stewardess, and grounds crew. So I get into the plane and am greeted by a blast of freezing air, there was a major industrial host coming over the barrier in the back blowing cold air to cool the plane (see picture below entry). But no matter, I have been on small planes before. The hour long flight progresses normally enough, worked on my presentation and listened to some music, slightly after the announcement of preparing to land it all changed. Due to air drafts we begin to ride a roller coaster without rails or safety cables. Going over the most remote of deserts we begin to descend at most unnatural speeds where I learn later they try to minimize the turbulence. We get a view of the airport prior to a late turn and see this impossibly small airport built on a mesa, which for those of you not familiar picture a plateau. Turns out that mesa’s in the desert contain incredibly hot air, yet the valleys surrounding it are filled with updrafts of cold air. This combination can make for some of the harshest turbulence apparently in the country, well that and the coupling with one of the windiest cities in the south west. Suffice to say it was an experience that would prefer not to relive, oh wait I get to do it all tomorrow at 6am.

Nah, I don’t think we will crash but these thoughts do go through your mind when you are so close to the cockpit and the walls are so thin you can hear their animated conversation and the alarms from the controls. For one who is not trained in the sources of those alarms, well my fellow passengers (all men interestingly enough) we were all trading looks. Chalk it up to another life experience and wish me luck tomorrow.

Good night

2006-04-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

Notice the subtle hose pipe in the back blasting cold air into the confined plane.

Old friends, new adventures

2006-04-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

After a fantastic couple of days spent with parents and grandma it was time to return home to a bit or reminiscing and partying. Yes my college roommate and one of my closest friends was in town for work and was going to spend the day with me. Sure we did the usual boring things like tour golden gate park and see some of the city, but the fun began when the sun went down. It all began at dinner with one of my SF friends T, and a couple of her friends as well. All told there were 6 of us at this great grill right off of Castro Street. Now I need to tell you my friend C is a great guy but like me coming from the Midwest we have been a bit sheltered in some of our life experiences. Walking through the Castro district for the first time can be a bit surreal the first time, more so when spending almost your entire life in small towns, but the night had just barely begun. Toward the end of dinner we were trying to decide where to begin our club hopping. Some of the choices mentioned was a gay bar hosting the annual golden dildo award another option was a bondage festival, can you tell one of our friends at the table was a bit on the gay orientation? Quickly begging the indulgences of the group I asked if we could temper it down just a bit for the sake of some of our other guests. So instead we continued our revelry at a gay biker bar, for who can begin a night without a good biker bar? The crowd was colorful and certainly more than a little entertaining. To try and describe this bar would be more than pointless for one needs to experience it for themselves.

A single drink was all that was required to get a full taste of that bar, now it was time to move on to the main attraction, a club that was hosting a fashion show. The show was to consist of men in Armani suits on the men and swimsuits on the woman, can there be a more perfect combination? All was well as we waited for the show to begin but as show time approached the crowd became increasingly more well how shall we say it ghetto. The men that were with the models were incredibly full of themselves, most times wearing such designer outfits complete with leather trench coats, sunglasses and attitudes to match. Mind altering drugs were certainly on the menu, but when a couple of revelers arrived with matching guns under the coats we felt it was best to move to a club with a more friendly audience. Just a couple of blocks away we found just such a locale and proceeded to watch inebriated members of both sexes dance it up and attempt any possible random hookups. Granted the former was valid for us, although the latter not so much. In never ceases to amaze me the level many of us will go to to meet a random one-night stand, men and women alike. People watching locales have no second next to a club at midnight. Finally most of our group wonders off so it is simply C, P (the gay member of the group) and myself. He invites us to one last bar that he frequents before we call it a night.

For those of you who know SF, I believe it was called the powerhouse. Again words can not do it justice, however vintage gay porn adorned the tv screens, while flyers for all manner of events in the city were papered around the walls and tables. I do believe we can chalk this up to new experiences.

Overall a fun evening with friends in some of my cities finest. Although still a soggy city we continue to enjoy it at is finest. Tomorrow I fly off to New Mexico to give a talk at a large technology forum, but I believe more on that later. For now I will nurse my hangover a bit.

Pure and Complete Relaxation

2006-04-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying I have some of the most wonderful friends a guy can ask for. I may not be dating the love of my life or live on a mansion one the side of golden gate park, but my friends are just the best. For a late birthday gift J decided that for the guy who has everything including a stressful job, a day of pampering was in order at the Nob Hill Spa. Yes she bought me a day at a spa, a new and strangely unfamiliar experience for me. For the guys out there like myself I will try to reveal some of the closely guarded secrets inside these exclusive houses of luxury.

The entrance is benign enough, directly next to a posh hotel, with two striking ladies waiting behind a counter with bright smiles on a Saturday morning. We give our last names and after a couple of quick waivers reminding us that Jacuzzis and saunas are hot places we were hand walked into the garden of Eden. There were a couple of alcoves on the way identified as tranquility sitting areas with perfectly arranged Japanese tea sets on a wooden tables surrounded by luxurious brown leather chairs. We then went down a wide circular staircase into the heart of the spa. Locker rooms awaited us with soft carpeting and hushed attendants walking around in slippers and quiet smiles. A quick change into a bathing suit and bathrobe and we slip out to the common pool/Jacuzzi area. Although both calm pools designed to not have a single lip but instead seamlessly blend from patio to water looked inviting we instead circumnavigated out to the patio for the first non-rainy day in many weeks. A couple of glasses of ice cold water with lemon or cucumber helped begin to relax the mind as we gratefully sank into super plus lunge chairs overlooked downtown San Francisco. A couple of hours catching up with a close friend is never a waste of time especially when spending that time soaking up some rays from a long awaited sun.

But then the time comes and without a whisper a woman comes out to the patio and calls our respective names. We are individually led to the massage room. You enter a narrow room filled with soft indirect light no brighter than a darkened movie theater. Soft tones fill your ears, not from any known song but electronically compiled collections designed to be both pleasing and just as quickly forgotten. Candles are lit along a couple of the corners basking the room with faint shadows that dance to the random movement of the music. A sink along one wall and a massage table fills the majority of the space inside. My personal guide to the garden is Liz, who quietly closes the door, welcomes me and bids me to make myself comfortable on the table while she steps outside. It takes me a minute or so before I realize that this a clue to strip off the bathing suit and return to my birthday suit under the soft sheets of the table. Laying face down with music and smells of massage oil filling the air the pull to sleep begins to overcome my body. She returns with a quiet knock and a quick question if there any particular places she should focus on. I mumble a general, ‘everywhere will be great’ and she quietly begins. Now this I can not describe, for the next 50 minutes passed like a blur interruption only by her requesting I turn over to my back. Sleep or a state of deep meditation overcame my senses a number of times. I only remember a couple of particulars like when she wrapped my feet in warm washcloths while massaged the tissue underneath. Or the sweetly organic smelling oil that she rubbed deep into my body. By the end of the 50 minutes I was in pure paradise. Once complete she again stepped outside providing me a little privacy to get up and return my swimsuit. A complete head rush ensued with even lifting the body into a half sitting position. Walking was completely beyond me for a couple of minutes. Finally I shuffled out to find her waiting just on the other side of the door with a glass of ice lemon water to help refresh the body. I was led by another attendant back into the locker room where I quickly moved into the sauna to simmer out any residual toxins still in the body. 20 minutes lying down on the oak benches with a cold cucumber soaked washcloth brought on a comfortable sweat to mix with the oil, followed by a refreshing ice cold shower. Dressing and returning to the fore mentioned tranquility seating area to replenish the body with some fruit and tea completed the day. Never before have I ever felt so invigorated and ready to take on the world. There was absolutely no pain anywhere in the body and mentally awake and alert. This ladies and gentleman is what relaxation feels like. Thank you J for a fabulous birthday gift.

The beautiful part of this gift is that it was unknowingly perfectly timed for this week was one of my most stressful in recent memory. With all types of executive leadership fire drills and more initiatives that one can shake a stick at we were all busting to complete our deliverables and help each other. I don’t think I had more than 20 minutes between the hours of 7am and 6pm any day last week where I was not on the phone in some meeting or talking to some team member in a far flung location like Israel or Amsterdam. Thankfully next week I simply have one day in the office and then home to Baltimore to spend a few days with family for Passover. More on that later, for now need to catch up on some emails as clearly yesterday was not a day for work.

Build them up, knock them down

2006-04-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

There are wonderful people out there whom every time you hear them speak publicly or when they speak directly to you they make you feel like a million bucks. These people do not pander, but yet when they speak to you just in their manner of speaking and even what they say they make the sun come out and create a feeling of optimism that you could take on the world. These people tend to be natural leaders as they draw followers like moths to a flame; some use their powers for good, others for cult followings. But that is not my focus of this entry; rather it is of those people who take every opportunity to knock down those around them.

These individuals also rise in power but they do so by building themselves up on the backs of others. They look for situations they can benefit from and people they can gain from, all others they tend to ignore. What is remarkable is how you can take a beautiful day where everything has been going well and a quick 15 meeting can literally drain any good feelings like a vampire slowly sucking out your life serving blood. It is a shame these people also tend to make leadership positions for they are an absolute pain to work with, alas this was neither the first nor the last time. Just take a breath, and move on.

Otherwise life continues to move at Mach 2, not quite maximum speed but darn close. Unfortunately the rain continues to fall which limits the number of outside activities we can do to help burn off some stress. In fact many areas in this area have received over 250% of our normal rainfall for the month of April and it is only the first week of the month. Suffice to say it is going to be a very green spring, well if we ever get sun.

A great friend of mine is treating me to a day at a spa for my birthday, ironically last birthday but my travel schedule has prevented an earlier scheduling. No I have never been to a Spa besides the occasional gym in Vegas, but am looking forward to it. I have been told it can revolutionize your life and completely cleanse the body and soul. The only concern of course that one might get addicted and begin to crave spa days like woman crave their manicures and pedicures. Well let’s not worry about that yet, lets just enjoy a day of relaxation.

As for other things in the world of Matthew, believe it or not it has been focused so completely around work there is nothing interesting to talk about which is really a shame, hopefully some better stories in the weeks to come.

A Business ADD Society?

2006-04-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

The other day I was at work and received an email request for a briefing on a certain subject, but instead of a verbal briefing this was requested in written form. Not a problem, I will type up a memo and get it out ASAP, but here was the catch they wanted it in PowerPoint format. I am sorry, let me make sure I understand this correctly, you want me to create slides to explain the full implications of a proposed event, the alternate options and the full evaluations of all said options in the form of a bullets on PowerPoint slides? Lets put that aside for a moment, on the plane flying back from my trip in New York I was sitting next to a high priced leader of a major pharmaceutical company who was reading results from some study (seats are very close together). He had printed what appeared to be over 100 slides, each with no more than 5 or 6 bullets on each one.

Have we lost the ability to actually read briefs in paragraph format, have we lost the ability to take the time and actually read versus skimming? Do we have business ADD, or attention deficit disorder? When our great country was founded and important matters of state were being decided, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of words were written to help understand the full implications of a proposal. These were written as essays to newspapers that nearly every citizen read to help form their opinion. Now we have newspapers like the USA Today consisting almost exclusively from pretty pictures and articles no longer than a couple hundred words. I can’t remember the last time I received a submission from a business associate in word format as compared to slides. Have video games and television eliminated our ability to calmly sit down and read through an entire brief to help make decisions? It certainly appears we are moving in that direction.

On lighter notes, we are still receiving no end to rain here in CA, with record number of days in March numbering at 26. We are dripping from every port, water pooling at every intersection. The positive result is that every hill, lawn and tiny piece of dirt on the side of the road is the most brilliant green ever seen in natural vegetation. Truly this is the CA we know and love, at least when it is not a downpour. Which leads to a small gripe, bad drivers. Now bad drivers is nothing new, nor is the lack of utilization of tiny feature only available apparently on low end vehicles, that being a turn signal. Driving home today in an absolute downpour I am ok with vehicles not using their headlights, granted I can’t see you until I am right on your grill, but ok you might have simply forgotten like I have once before. But slamming between lanes without so much as a warning from a blinker, well that is just plain rude. To be honest I am ok with someone cutting me off, as long as they had the decency to let me know that they are cutting me off, a simple signal. Alas, it is not to be for some.

So it is not just an edition of complaints, I actually need to expand on some of the positive highlights this weekend brought about. Due in no small part to 6 moves and a senior age of over 12 years my bike had seen much better days. With brakes, derailer, and gears shot requiring replacement it was cost effective to simply replace the bike. Well a not so short shopping expedition later and I walked away with a very nice average mountain bike. I promptly took advantage of a short pause in the daily downpour to take it for a modest test ride of 12 miles. Man it feels good to be back on the saddle again. Ok maybe not the saddle itself, those cheeks are not used to those seats, but otherwise what a rush! That was followed by a trip to the Monterey Aquarium with two of my closest friends in CA. The fishes were slippery, the sharks filled with teeth, but the company was both entertaining and riveting. I have to say it is an absolute pleasure having friends here that I love spending time with and going places. Next stop, maybe a trip to Disneyland, or maybe we should just stick with the zoo?

Such a vista

2006-03-29T04:47:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have never been on a low altitude approach over the city of New York in the evening on a perfectly clear night have missed out on one of the most breathtaking sights to be witnessed from a plane. Coming over the south tip of Manhattan, otherwise known as lower Manhattan you are overcome by the sight of row after row of unbelievably high skyscrapers all with their lids lit up with the whitest of white lights. Almost like rockets ready to take off to planets soon to be discovered. These buildings were seemingly impossibly close together begging the question if there were even roads separating these colossal structures. There was the usual banter emanating around the plane until someone in front of me in a window seat barely whispered, there it is. Nearly 5 years later flying directly over the site of the world trade centers still brought the entire plane to absolute tomb like silence as all eyes were diverted out of the window and a humbling thought pervaded the minds of all. Even five years later the large gaping hole in the cluttering of buildings still feels wrong like the gap in your mouth when a tooth falls out. You can’t stop rubbing your tongue against it for it just feels awkward and wrong. I don’t think until a new tower is built to replace that we will ever get used to that gap.

Continuing north over this metropolis you pass over the area of Times Square. With unbelievably bright neon lights reflecting off every glass surface it looks like a theme park celebrating mardi gras. Even from our altitude you can sense a vibe an energy from this area, the constant movement that must be going on this very second. Overlooking the entire city there is a glitter of millions of lights in every possible direction and height. It is like the largest refracting diamond ever discovered. In this area designers took more liberties with the lighting designs of their buildings adding reds and blues to the pinnacle of the towers reminding us more of a happier time in December more than the stark truth of white light. And just as quickly we pass into an area utterly devoid of light, it takes just a moment before you realize it is central park. A cornucopia of nature devoid of technology to blemish its image. And it too passes back into the standard chaos of lights, buildings and roads that make up this unbelievable city. What a sight to see, let it never take our breath away.

Stepping out of the airport and into a waiting cab I realize how remarkable one of our traits is in comparison to logic and reason. I think virtually everyone who lives in the United States these days automatically puts on their seat belt upon entering a private vehicle either as a passenger or driver. It is not a matter of thought, more a robotic subconscious action engrained to us over time. And yet somehow when we enter a taxi I have yet to ever seen someone do the same action. Arguably some of the best drivers but more than not some of the most aggressive drivers on the road what can we possibly be thinking to not perform such a basic task. I am as guilty as the next one as I was flung from one side of the cab to the other as this Nascar amateur devoured the road from the airport to mid town. I think next time a simple click will be acceptable, even in the great coolness factor.

More later on this adventure of a trip, but for now it is customer presentation time.

Never an uneventful flight

2006-03-27T18:47:00.000-08:00

With the number of people flying on the increase and with most airlines not increasing capacity yet flights are being increasingly more full. On my standard flight to Denver they were in an oversold situation and even with all my elite status I was not only in couch but in a middle seat. I would like to point out to point out to my avid fans that yes even I have to occasionally sit in the back of the plane, and does so without complaint. Most people on planes are at least a but understanding and sympathetic to the person in the middle seat, none of us like being that person so we tend to be a bit more forgiving. So here I am in the middle seat and this ‘gentleman’ on my left is as thoughtless as they come. Both sleeping and awake his incessant kicking of my leg has left it battered and bruised. While working on his laptop his elbow seemed to find its way into my side on a number of occasions. Now granted we are in a tight confined space so a certain amount of jostling is expected, usually followed by apologetic smile maybe even a verbal remorseful recall of better days with more space on the plane. None of that was present with this ‘gentleman of the skies’. It wasn’t until approximately halfway through the flight when he popped open his sleek silver laptop to begin work did the name of his company appear in vivid detail on the desktop. Comcast. Is it no surprise that a company that treats its customers with disdain and deaf ear have employees who do the same to people they meet? Accident? I think not.

Otherwise an uneventful trip. I am out in the suburb of Saint Louis with the only thing around being a gas station and a store with the not so subtle name Lippo Dissolve. I can only imagine what wonderful things for society this business does. Maybe if I find time tonight I will wonder in for a quick cleaning, maybe come back a changed man? Alas I don’t think I will have enough time tonight.

Just another humorous anecdote on the road of just another lonely business traveler.

2006-03-26T20:25:00.000-08:00

This is called relaxing in the city. Not half bad.

2006-03-26T20:24:00.000-08:00

Just a casual day of watching a family take their kids out for a walk on their matching Segways.

Just another day in the city

2006-03-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

First a tribute to a good friend who solved a problem for me that was plaguing me for weeks. Plaguing is an accurate word, for I could not walk without pain shooting in and around my knee for a number of weeks. It was getting worse with each passing week and I was powerless to stop it. I tried heating pads, ice packs, even a knee brace but everyday when I got up and went to work the pain was worse than the day before. Hoping it was possibly just a sprain I refrained from cardio gym activity which in and of itself was frustrating. Finally in casual conversation I talked to L, a volunteer firefighter, a wealth of medical knowledge and an overall great guy. He mentioned it could be everything from a sprain in the ligaments of the foot (which would affect the knee, go figure) or possibly old shoes. Old shoes? You have got to be kidding. Well apparently I have been wearing the same two pairs of shoes (casual and business) for over 9 months and have created a very particular wear pattern. On further investigation the heel of both sets of shoes is significantly worn down, most pronounced on the right foot which just so happens to be the side with the knee pain. A son of a scientist I had to put the theory to test. I grabbed my newest running shoes and wore them for the day, viola no pain. Taking it a step further I went out and bought a new pair of business shoes, which I wore for another day, and viola no pain. Unbelievable, something as seemingly trivial as a worn down heal can actually lead to pronounced knee pain behind the patella. Live another day, learn another tidbit.

But onto a great day. Today I decided to rediscover city relaxation in the urban recreational areas. In plain speak, I decided to find a park and chill. I walked up to golden gate park, which due to a great friend last week I have discovered is a mere 23 minute walk from my front door. Found a good piece of grass, and promptly relaxed for the better part of four hours chatting with friends on the phone, reading a sumptuous book, and watching the world go by while listening to tunes on my ipod. Can you think of a better way to spend a perfect San Francisco day? I watched an affluent family taking their kids for a walk, well I guess the better term would be ride for as in other parts of the country kids ride the stylish razor scooters, these privileged youths rode matching Segways. There was the pickup game of ultimate Frisbee played between groups of Japanese tourists vying for a place in line to see the Flower Conservatory, oldest arboretum in the United States built in 1908. There were the jocks, the Goth, the domestically challenged (homeless), the hippies, the yuppies, the religious, the tourists, and the dogs all mixed into one park for a glorious day without rain. Have I mentioned I love this city?

But onto a new topic, if you who are reading this happen to have cable television, check out the show The Real Orange County Housewives. A show of 5 women who, if we call them privileged we would be undercutting their status, living in houses worth millions wearing clothes worth what many of us make in a month. They face the same problems normal people do, over controlling husbands, rebellious youths, unrealized dreams, and frankly too many cars to choose from. Ok maybe not all the same problems we face, but close. Watch the show and wonder what would happen if you were in their situation. If you had the means, would you buy your kids a car? Would it be a new or used, or Mercedes or Honda? Before you answer this with derision or scorn in your voice, isn’t it the goal of most parents to be able to afford to give their kids things they dream of, maybe not everything but many things. If your means were higher might that include a car? The line of where providing for ones family and spoiling can be a fuzzy one, interesting to see where each of these families drew that line. Check it out, if you get past the TV glitz and drama, you see an interesting view point on raising privileged youths (keeping in mind one of the wives at 24 is barely out of youth herself).

Tomorrow I fly to St. Louis, and then to NY, back on Wednesday night. Good first half of the week to all.

So this is what a dumping ground feels like

2006-03-24T22:05:00.000-08:00

A hidden pleasure of my new position is anyone and everyone who thinks that the way we are marketing our new message or the manner in which we are going about distributing it to the field, well get to just unload on me. Yes I am available 24x7 by cell phone, desk phone, home phone, text message, email and pager to allow them to tell me everything my team and I are doing incorrectly and should improve. The best part of this hidden pleasure is although I have the responsibility, I do not have the authority so my typical response must be something to the respect of ‘yes sir, we will take care of that’, or ‘yes sir, I will see if we can accomplish that’. As compared to the response I would much prefer to give something closer to ‘I will be happy to give that comment the attention it deserves’. Well not every day can be peaches and cream. Next week I am flying to St Louis for 36 hours, then 12 hours in NY, followed by a night flight home so I can sleep in my own bed by Wednesday night. Got to love those air miles to keep United Airlines in business, one of these days I am really looking forward to taking some special someone with me on some exotic vacation.

But not everything is gloom and doom, one of the not so hidden pleasures of working in an office environment is helping others celebrate their birthday. Yes this is one of those times where it is perfectly acceptable to take colored paper, pieces of latex and even edible concoctions and vandalize someone’s personal space. Granted that is defined as candy, balloons and crepe paper, but the idea still stands. So I got to spend Thursday testing my artistic skills to hopefully make someone smile on a day when everything was fated to go wrong and the stress seemed insurmountable. Best two hours of my life when you see that smile (granted a pretty big gasp preceded the smile).

So life here is just the usual rollercoaster of ups and downs. Get closer to some friends and more distant from others. Receive a selfless gift from a friend whose motives I never quite figured out, and a lecture from one whose I thought I knew. A bit of sympathy for someone who is going through an incredibly rough time with her family, and a celebration for another whose life is finally taking a turn for the better. I think this is what we call life, it may not be easy, its not always fun, but it is one hell of a ride.

2006-03-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

Nothing like Irish dancing in the rain, with a pancho, in puddles, between lighting strikes. If this doesn't make great dancers I don't know what does.

2006-03-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

Long overdue some pictures from a very wet St. Patty's day parade in San Francisco. Is this the friendly skies? Nope just the UPS plane, wouldn't that be fun to watch landing over tha bay.

2006-03-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

Although this picture does not do the site justice, one can hopefully appreciate the clarity and the beauty of such a simple sight.

2006-03-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

The flower conservatory in golden gate park, built in 1890 it is the oldest arburitum in the country and was recently renovated after fire destroyed part of it during earthquakes in the 30s. Some of the plants survived and are over 100 years old.

2006-03-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

A fantastic tranquil waterfall in the Japanese gardens. Fastidiously developed by a Japanese American couple who were rounded up during WWII, cared for by a neighbor and later donated to the city. Thank goodness for forgiveness.

Holding ones breath

2006-03-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

Well I consider us incredibly lucky, this weekend there was not a smidgen or even a hint of rain. Without a single cloud in the sky and weather upwards of 68 degrees it was an absolutely perfect weekend. Saturday was spent with a friend touring Golden Gate park and some of the gardens available to the public, not to mention the Haight-Ashbury district with its eclectic collection of shops and restaurants. Who would have known, it is all located maybe a 20 minute walk, 7 minute bike ride or a 30 minute drive (driving in the city is clearly not the most efficient means of transportation)? Sunday was spent with another friend her kids (and a tag-along) touring through the ever impressive and spacious San Francisco Zoo. Lions tigers and bears, oh cool! The highlight of the zoo was a mix between the sand box at the playground and the merry-go-round, is it possible that kids really appreciate the smaller things in life and we should learn something from them?

But here is the key, through all of this there was just beautiful weather, which is a massive relief considering the fact it has been raining here almost daily for the past couple of months. Here is where the irony kicks in, first thing Monday morning around 8:30, the skies opened up and a torrential rainfall came down and barely let up until evening. It is as if someone up above was holding their breath to provide a wonderful weekend and then as if they could not hold it any longer, just let it all out. It is still raining today.

However all is not gloomy, due to unusual environmental conditions the bay area was treated to one of the most gorgeous rainbows to be seen for miles around. The conditions include a very strong front of moderately heavy rain followed by a patch of cloudless sky where the sun shown through as strong as a hot august day. The effect was a near perfect rainbow that extended fully over an entire arch embracing the city. Every color (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Indigo and Violet if you were curious) was as strong as a pallet in a painter’s shop with a clear space for each one. The colors were brilliant and people at a shopping center I was parked at were standing in the rain looking upwards in awe and amazement. The rain on the face and shoulders were forgotten as we once again appreciated beauty that can not be captured or recreated with money, must just be appreciated in its rare and wonderful natural form.

Then just as quickly as it appeared, the patch of sun was swallowed by the clouds and the rainbow was lost. People quickly went back to their shopping, or scolding their kids, or honking at the car in front of them as if nothing ever happen.

Got to love Green Beer and Beautiful People

2006-03-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

Last night was the day for the Irish, when everyone loves to wear green and speak with horrible lisps while professing their heritage in hopes of receiving a congratulatory kiss, as if where your ancestors fled from is reason enough for an intimate moment. I decided to play this holiday down a bit and no go to the Irish section of town, rather to my community bar where I could relax with the bar karaoke singers and the regular gang. Now for those of you who are possibly new to this blog let me clarify something to help with this story. I am straight, I like women, I love breasts. Although I live a few scant blocks from the Castro, I live in the underrepresented and rarely mapped straight part of the Castro. I have determined that when going out on the town in the evening I very much need a wingman, preferably a straight one. I finally met the owner of my community bar, E, a native Chinese resident who studied in Hawaii and later moved to San Francisco. He is as gay as you can imagine in the city but equally a wonderfully generous kind soul who always has a smile and a hug and a free drink for all of his regulars. Well last night somehow I must have put on the wrong deodorant for I had more drinks purchased for me in one night than in all my years put together, and all by young men looking for the same. I asked my good friend the bounce T, ‘so these guys know I am straight right?’ She responds with a knowing smile with, ‘of course they do, they just like you’. Frankly I have no problem with this, but it was certainly an interesting experience, however the tide seemed to change around 1:30. A fairly attractive female was sitting by herself at the bar a few stools down as her friends had recently left. Somehow we got to chatting right before she went up to sing, fortified by a couple of shots of cactus juice (tequila, really hurts in the morning). She is actually a classically trained singer who is still petrified of singing pop songs in public. Maybe twenty minutes later she is joined by a friend, another female who I am introduced as her lover (figures). They start to talk amongst themselves as if I am not a scant 2 feet away where the originally young lady, J, actually asks her lover if she could bring me home with them. While images of me as the friendly neighborhood cat run through my head the other friend looks at me, foot to toe as if examining the better qualities of vegetables on the street corner and responds with, ‘maybe not tonight’. Then without further ado both stand-up and walk out, J with a small apologetic smile and wave over her shoulder. I laugh as E comes up gives me a big consolatory as I leave to trudge up the hill to my waiting bed. Never a dull moment in the city.

On a separate note, I have many times previously talked about the homeless in the city. Walking down a main street today in my own little world listening to my podcasts on my ipod, I was pushed aside quite strenuously by one as we were waiting for the light. As I turn to look and of course check my wallet, I see he actually has dropped his sleeping bag and black garbage bags and is sprinting into a busy intersection ignoring honking of speeding black SUVs. Thinking simply that he must be one of the many mentally ill on the streets I am jolted as there is an hunched over elderly man with a cane struggling to cross the street as he has now wandered into the busy intersection. The homeless man ignores all vehicles and helps this impeccably dressed elderly man to the corner and then returns back without a backwards glance for his belongs continuing on his way. Sometimes I think we all have something we can learn from the most unlikely of places. In this case a man with arguably no social standing going out to help another for no better reason than it is the decent thing to do. May this be a wake-up call for us all.

So a happy St. Patrick’s day to all, I hope it was filled with fun and excitement, possibly a kiss or a drink with a special friend. Tonight I think will be a recovery night curling up on the couch with some popcorn and a good movie. Surely not every night needs to be an adventure.

Beware the Ides of March

2006-03-15T21:26:00.000-08:00

Yes 2050 years ago today Julius Caesar was killed by his own Senators. E Tu Brute? Of course we know none of that backstabbing in today’s corporate environment. Everyone of course is looking out for the greater good and not being selfish about their own needs. Maybe history really does repeat itself.

Its amazing how we completely get into a force of habit. I met someone from work for an early dinner while we discussed certain items, and then I drove back home. The humorous aspect was when I just pulled to my house and force of habit was trying to figure out what I would eat for dinner. Was not hungry at all, but go home late at night and tired that is the first thing I think about. It took me a couple of minutes before I realized like hey, already had dinner. Amazing force of habit.

I would love to add more here, but frankly it has been an incredibly long day that started at the tender hour of 4am and it is a struggle to keep my eyes even open. More on this topic tomorrow.

Just another day in the city

2006-03-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

I was quite pleased to host my father in the city this weekend, well rather on Saturday where the weather was approvingly exceptional. Walking from the Palace of Fine arts next to the arena around Fisherman’s Warf, along to the Ferry building and finally down Market street I have got to say this again, I absolutely love San Francisco. A mix between quaint small town feel with joggers along the streets, quiet tree lined streets, and yet still the big city feeling in the down town area, not to mention fantastic restaurants at every corner.

Sunday returned to the dreary drizzling day that has been overhanging our fair city for a few weeks now. I ran out to get some food and just happen to run into a large St. Patty’s day celebration. Frankly like most towns our police and fire force is made up of a good portion of our friends from Ireland so attendance was heavy with the forces in class A dress uniforms. Humorously enough the entire parade route was simply three blocks long with it beginning around the corner of the city capital building and ending around the other corner. But bless the Irish, ever present steady rain and occasional downpour did not dampen the spirits of celebration. Beer was bountiful in every hand with more than a few cigars to help clear the air. Young girls soaked to the bone yet marching in step to the grandstand where they quickly performed a fantastic Irish jig, water splashing them from the puddles they slam their feet into. In just seconds of marching away from grandstand they are covered in towels, jackets and blankets by proud parents. A large group of a native dogs for Ireland that looks like something from Hound of the Baskervilles, standing almost 3 feet all and many 6 feet long, completely soaked and bedraggled scare some of the smallest children. A number of floats by the different trade unions bring up the rear, each more proud of their Irish ancestry than the next. A fun way to round out the weekend even if I did come home dripping.

As of now I am flying to Cincinnati, yes I know a hot bed of excitement and entertainment where I will be spending a blissful 18 hours before returning home for almost two weeks, the excitement abounds.

Lunacy in the world around us

2006-03-08T19:54:00.000-08:00

Although I use this blog to predominately disperse tidbits of information about my own life and the world around me this entry will attempt to move that circle out a little more as there have been a number of news stories that I have a strong opinion of and would like to expound on them.

First I believe we have all been touched by tragedy in our lives from a medical perspective, if not ourselves someone we were either friends with or possibly a family member. When a medical event is life threatening past grievances tend to take a backseat to matters of literal life and death. Recently Sheryl Crow, former fiancé of Lance Armstrong founder of the Livestrong campaign fighting cancer, was herself diagnosed with breast cancer. Although undergoing surgery and being chemo treatments most notably absent from her side is her former fiancé. Although we are not privy to the details of that is going on in their lives, one would like to see past grievances put aside to support one that you used to love. At this point my best wishes out to Sheryl for a speedy recovery.

It was recently disclosed that Wal-Mart in an attempt to improve its corporate image is actually utilizing private bloggers to spread their corporate messages. Now although this is absolutely a form a free speech it does beg the question of how far will a corporation go to mask its negative policies rather than fixing them. Lets take a moment and examine some of the policies they claim are misunderstood by the public from the past couple of years. It started with a broad reaching policy or accepted practice of hiring illegal aliens to work in their stores cleaning from sundown to sunup at incredibly low salaries. Although indicted no charges were brought as they were able to show documentation that although incredibly common throughout their stores nation wide it was against written company policy. They rectified that situation just be thrust back into the spotlight when it was revealed a number of months later that as part of company policy they actually lock their cleaning staff employees into the store for the entire night while they clean. There is no key on-site, rather they need to call a manger-on-call to come and unlock doors if there is any kind of emergency. This almost led to tragedy when one of their employees had a heart attack and paramedics were unable to gain entry for an excessive period of time. Most recently of course the CEO of Wal-Mart went on record expounding the benefits of their plan to have an incredibly low percentage of their employees with any type of health insurance or medical coverage, due to fiscal necessities. Of course we ignore companies like Starbucks and Barnes and Noble who give full health insurance for all their employees and yet somehow they remain profitable. I am certainly glad Wal-Mart is employing bloggers to try to change perception rather than change policies, wouldn’t want to jeopardize profits for small matters like the law.

And finally we could not examine news without turning to politics. But this entry is of a more comical nature to someone who might like a bit of history. If I am not mistaken, and I very well might be, I thought Republicans stand for smaller government and fewer central government programs leaving it to state and local bodies to support the people, for after all they are closer to the citizens. What I am failing to grasp is why under Clinton as a democrat who of course wants big government we had a balanced budget and now under Bush as a Republican we are actually the thickness of a dime away from the cap of national debt. Yes we have a cap that our federal government is never to exceed for our nation debt, somewhere on the order of 7.9 trillion if memory serves. We are virtually at that debt amount and what was the solution recommended by the Republican congress? Lets raise the debt limit. Now help me out here if you understand this, how does this promote smaller government?

Ok moving away from news for a moment, I am currently flying to Boston and I have to reflect on one last thing. I am sure as long as movies have been made studios have frequently competed for similar story lines to push very similar movies at adjacent times. Examples can be as simple as Bug’s Life and Antz, Armageddon and Deep Impact. Both pairs were released within months with almost identical story lines. Usually one is a far better success with vastly improved acting, directing, and overall story-line. Well recently is no exception. First was released Aeon Flux, a mildly entertaining flick that kept the audience guessing until the very end. Relatively good acting with impressive special effects would give this movie maybe a B-. This is compared to the recently released (and recently watched in my case) Ultraviolet. I can honestly say one of the worst movies produced by Hollywood with terrible acting which is understandable considering the incredibly poor writing of the script. Special effects were meant to be this movie’s salvation, however to no avail with poor cutovers between CGI and live action and unbelievable action sequences even to one high or some illicit drug. Hollywood is struggling to understand why ticket sales have been struggling, could it possibly be because the quality of movies is decreasing?

That is all for now, hope all are having a good week.

Karma

2006-03-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

Do you believe in Karma? Do you believe that at the end of our life the sum total of our good deeds weigh against the sum total of our well not so nice ones? Or even if we extend that question a little further, is it a running total that is constantly evening itself out at eat step in our life? I would like to believe in it, when life is going so well there must be a fall that is in our path for no comfortable road can last forever. Isn’t that after all why we sometimes feel compelled to do good things for others for we might need it ourselves some day? I don’t know if I believe in Karma, but I will say this, like a child I hope. I hope there is such a thing as karma that bad people get what they deserve, but more importantly good people will get theirs in the end.

Moving on to this nice cold and rainy weekend, I have successfully squandered another day doing work and finishing my taxes (yes Uncle Sam you will be receiving a sizeable check from me, are you happy?). Yesterday I had the pleasure of working the Orchard Supply festival where we treated a whopping total of 2 patients in 9 hours and both were needing no more than a simple band-aid for paper cuts. Thus there was quite a bit of time to wander the booths and enjoy watching people go crazy for free samples. The caulking booth was particularly popular with free 1/8 size tubes of caulking, but wait it gets better. The paper towel section was giving free samples of paper towels, now before you get excited these were not individually packed samples, they literally had a toll and handed out a single sheet to each person. This would be compared to handing out samples of printer paper by buying a ream of paper and handing out a single sheet per customer. The crazy thing, they had a line of no less than 40 people at their booth at all times. Was this paper dipped in gold, was I missing something? It is amazing what some people will do to get free stuff, remarkably it is the people with the most money at times that are the cheapest and the most vicious about getting their free samples.

The remainder of last week went by in a flash. A tv interview, a recording of my own podcast and a couple interesting fate experiences. I frequent the gym at 5:30am everyday I am in town. This is less about looking good and more about trying to wake up and start the day on a fun activity. Anyway there are very few crazy, rephrase dedicated individuals at that time of morning, and frankly we are all regulars that know each other. But Thursday was different, there was a young lady in there none of us had seen. She was friendly (which frankly at 6am is a rare trait in anyone) and pretty (again even more rare after an hour on cardio) and at a tech company (ok all engineers, most rare of all). I like my privacy and solitude during my gym time, so although I appreciated I enjoyed my time and went about my day. Remarkably enough the same day as I am about to record my podcast and am checking in with the admin for the recording studio, who ends up being the admin? You guessed it. Pictures of her boyfriend adorn her cube, but I kind of just enjoyed the randomness and irony of life. Of all days to see someone in the gym, and then of course of all days to be in a different building who just happens to be someone else’s home, go figure.

Temporary Upgrade

2006-03-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

Due to the rampant rise in crime in the 10 feet around my car I brought my car yesterday to a dealership to get fixed. The moment I pulled into the dealership I realized this was not going to be like any other repair experience. Keep in mind that bringing a car into a luxury dealership is something that everyone should try at least once.

Dropping off the car was literally that, you drive into the main driveway and your car is valet under a nice awning to keep any stray raindrops in CA off your nice new suit. You are escorted in to a waiting area complete with plasma screen tv and couches far superior to my living room. There is also a coffee bar adorned with espresso machine, fresh pastries, and soft drinks, as well as a business area with cubes and internet connection far superior to my own cube at work. The waiting area overlooks the repair shop which is cleaner than my apartment ever was with a polished floor and mechanics working with latex gloves and khakis. I was kept waiting for approximately 5-10 minutes, barely enough time to try a delectable pastry before being escorted into an office where they went over the plan for rectifying all that is wrong in my world, well at least with my car. Paperwork is filled out and I am walked to the car loan desk where with a simple swipe of my drivers license I am given a 2006 brand new luxury SUV with all the trimmings. I always thought a loaner was supposed to be a beater so you felt relieved to return to your own, instead I never wanted to return for what belongs to me. I was in and out within a few minutes complete with pastry and a bottle of water for the road.

Alas my car was fully repaired and returned to me, although not quite a 2006 it was still great to have my car back in one piece, now we just need to find out how long it stays that way.

How much is that?

2006-02-28T21:37:00.000-08:00

So I am at the grocery store this evening for a some needed dinner ingredients and as I walk by the deli counter this is the dialogue I overheard.

(customer) “I would like some smoked turkey

(clerk) “How much would you like?”

(customer) “I don’t know.”

(clerk) “How about a half a pound?”

(customer) “No, that is way too much.”

(Clerk) “How about a quarter pound?”

(customer) “Nah, that isn’t enough.”

(clerk) “How about a third of a pound?”

(customer) “How much meat is that?”

At this point I was convinced the clerk was just going to throw the meat at the customer, got to love people when in the service industry.

Today it rained outside, and you wonder why I remark on this, well in CA when it rains everyone works from home. Seriously when it rains everyone just boards themselves up in their houses, it’s like they have never seen rain before. As I find this humorous and ridiculous, frankly I did the same thing.

All work and no play makes…

2006-02-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

Last week was spent in the cold and slightly rainy city of Amsterdam. Neither rain or cold mattered considering the amount of time spent out of the office was numbered in minutes rather over the course of 3 days. This is not a complaint actually it is my largest satisfaction at the moment. To be given a role with a measure of autonomy, leadership, and responsibility also comes with an increased work load, yet rarely has so much additional work been so welcomed. Granted all three not only come with work but also individual personalities and well their own schticks, but I am learning a day at a time how to work with them. A couple of amusing moments did happen while in the crazy city and an entry would not be an entry if it did not provide at least some entertainment value.

Leaving the office late in the evening my boss and I were looking for dinner at the tender hour of 10:30pm. Even in Europe the number of possible locales were limited, so we settled on a reasonable pub, and promptly ordered good ol’ pub burgers and wings. We were promptly joined by a gaggle of British couples who had just flown in and judging by breath and actions had a couple of pints on the plane. They took over our table due to space constraints and promptly spilled their beer straight onto my pants. Note to self, when drinking black pants hide all manner of liquid spills. But no matter a quick apology on their part and no harm, no foul. A couple of the other Brits were sitting on their own and jokingly spilling beer on each other, unfortunately a Dutch native was walking by and was on the receiving end of some beer on the leg. Normally a non-inebriated individual might apologize, offer to buy a drink for the victim, but no telling that to a British national. No apology so of course the Dutch took offense and began yelling. Warning bells approaching, but quickly the Dutch calmed down, turned around walked back to his table picked up a fresh full pint of Amsterdam’s finest and promptly poured it over the head of the Brit. Now all 12 British partygoers are up in arms of the great offense and the non-proportional response, while other Dutch come to the victim’s aid. Lots of shouting by both men and women, before all finally end up leaving. All the while my boss and I are calmly eating our burgers and enjoying the show. Let it not be said that American’s can’t stay independent at times during a European conflict.

Other observations were of a more artistic variety. Europeans clearly have a finer sense of design than many of us stateside. They believe in enhanced privacy which includes full side walls and door for every bathroom, but I was mesmerized when my urinal had a fly in it (yes you read that right urinal not soup). I was even more surprised when I realized all the urinals had a fly in them, well at least a sticker with a picture of a fly. It turns out that that location happens to be the mathematical ideal location to direction a stream of liquid to minimize any splash back or alternate negative altercations. I guess when everyone wears a suit instead of business casual this becomes of higher importance.

So life in the big city continues to progress as I safely arrived back in the states to a monotone, ‘welcome back home, remember to pay your taxes in the next two months’ from the customs passport officer.

Is tipping mandatory?

2006-02-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

An interesting experience happened to a friend and I earlier in the week when we went to a bar for a casual post work drink and catch-up session. We went to small little hole in the wall place first that had this great atmosphere with little love seats and couches sprinkled around the room with a pool table in the back. Great staff, great atmosphere, however limited their drinks to beer and wine. After a couple of drinks we decide to check out the place next door. This bar was a little fancier serving full bar of spirits.

The bar had a total of three people inside including the bartender, but what did we expect for a Tuesday night. We purchased our drinks for a total of $15. Now everyone tips differently, some people give their tips at the end of the night, others at each occasion on ordering a drink. Well in this case we gave exact change and without leaving had not left a tip yet. About 45 minutes later my friend asks the bartender for just a glass of water. He gives her a trashy look and exclaims the nerve of her to ask for a favor when she never left him a tip. Keep in mind neither of us have ever been in this bar before nor ever seen this man before. We had not left and returned, nor had we been overly demanding. The bartender then goes off for the next 10 minutes spouting on how horrible we are not to tip. Frankly I was stunned. First of all when did tipping become mandatory? The etymology of Tips is from the phrase ‘to ensure proper service’. Clearly this is a voluntary act and one that can be given or withheld at will. It is truly bad form to comment on this as the employee even worse to complain about it. But this really makes you realize how comfortable some people are that tips are going to be mandatory.

There is now a person in virtually every bathroom for clubs and many restaurants handing you a paper towel expecting a tip. The doorman at the hotel who does not call for a taxi but simply opens the door of the next waiting taxi is expecting a tip. The bus driver at the parking lot at the airport who neither helps you with your bags nor provides any other service but drive the bus expects a tip. Even the cashier at the fast food restaurants now have a tip jar. I do not mind providing tips to people who go above and beyond, hell I will happily give tips to people who just do a good job helping me out (waitresses, bartenders, taxi drivers, etc). But how far do we have to go to tip everyone we run into? And if we decide the service is not up to par, nor their attitude, isn’t it both our right and our privilege to show our displeasure by not tipping? Something to think about as the doorman opens the automatic door of the hotel and holds out his hand. Oh and before you think I am just being cheap, most of the world does not follow this habit of tipping including most of Europe and they are rarely accused of being cheap, they just pay a decent salary.

FUCK FUCK FUCK!

2006-02-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

Do I have bad Karma? Am I not a good person? Do I not try to help the under privileged and other ass holes who can’t get their head out of their ass to get a decent job?

So if you couldn’t tell I am more than a bit pissed off. My car was broken into yet again, but not at 3am, no this time between the time I got home at 4pm and 6:30pm, in the middle of the day! Yes they broke the same window again and stole everything I had just replaced. I do not live in a bad neighborhood, hell I live about 100ft from one of the largest depositories of cash in the entire city most likely in the entire state, the West Coast US Mint. I don’t get it. What do I do differently? Is nothing safe or sacred anymore.

Frankly, fuck them. I am certainly losing any sympathy for those less fortunate than myself, I work for a living, what the hell do they do!

Oh and by the way Happy Valentine’s day, isn’t it a wonderful day!

Its just another day, or is it?

2006-02-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

A number of people today discussed how Valentine’s day is nothing special, just another day, only made special both those executives at Hallmark and at the diamond exchange. But can any day really just be simply a day?

Today I was driving to work and was so caught up in thoughts from the news that I missed my turn-off from the highway not once but actually twice. Missed it the first time, went another 2 miles down the highway, flipped around and then missed it again. This of course does not bode well for my general driving abilities when lost in thought but it does highlight the power on our minds when we set it to focus on a particular subject. Mother’s and Father’s day is no different than any other, no parades or fireworks, yet for 24 hours all of our senses are forced in a polar direction of remembering either parent. Any holiday, be it large or small is about focus and direction. Valentine’s day is no exception, it is of course an excuse to celebrate and be thankful for what we might have but also a time to take more than a momentary look at our own direction. Are we happy with where we are in love, maybe we want to change and don’t know how, or maybe we just need to take a few more risks. Sure we say it jokingly when we call it Single’s Appreciation Day, but really it is about taking a second and taking stock of what we had, have and hope to achieve.

I heard an interesting statistic that only 10% of all people end up never finding someone to settle down with for any period of time in their life, what statistics fail to mention is how happy they were and how long it lasted. But it does inspire all to take heart, for there is no hurrying emotions and no point in trying. Instead take stock in what you have, the friends you have around you and if you have a free moment as you pass your exit on the highway maybe a family member or two.

On a separate note my friend’s dog bit a postman and they are all worried that he might have to be put down do to hurting another. This of course begs the question if Chaney will have to have the same repercussions for shooting a friend.

Smarter by the second

2006-02-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

So I have finally evolved out of the days of yore and into the new generation to discover what all the hype is about. Have you discovered podcasts? This is a relatively type of broadcasting technique where people can record a series of audio broadcasts that you can subscribe to on itunes. Every time you open the program or plug your ipod to your computer it will automagically download the latest programs. When you weed through the garage bands and people spouting rhetoric you can find some real gems. BBC, NPR, and even the discovery channel have yielded great reporting that I can selectively tune to during workouts or walks around the city. Haven’t you always wanted to get smarter while simply riding a stationary bike or stretching the spine in yoga? Now here is your opportunity. I am even going so far as to listen to Bush’s weekly presidential radio sessions. If you haven’t checked this out and have an ipod I highly recommend it. Fear not there is more than just nerd programming on here, indeed there is comedy, movie gossip and even for some of you erotic literature readings. So happy listening.

This weekend was spent helping a friend move and was having just a leisurely Sunday when I decided maybe it was a good time to back-up my computer. I connect my computer to my massive USB external drive that houses years worth of backups, pictures, music files and all else when I get the fatal I/O error, Drive can not be read. Oh fair lord, don’t do this to me. Hours spent trying to restore access to the drive yielded nothing more than a bit of stress and a loss of an afternoon. Although not the end of the world, nor am I giving up, I am more than a bit frustrated, just goes to show nothing is forever, even digital data.

Now moving out of nerd talk for just a second you know what very special date is rapidly approaching? Yes you heard it here first, singles appreciation day the other name for Valentine’s Day is in just 3days. So get out your chocolate, flowers and e-cards for the ones you love. If you have no one to send to, find a friend or even your mother to send a card to, they rarely hear how much of an impact they make in your life and that you appreciate them. Alas this year I was unable to spend it on the road, unlike the past three years where I have successfully spent the day out of my home state many times a few miles above the ground in my own little warm cocoon. In fact I believe it was two years ago when I actually got a beautiful Valentine’s Day gift from the cute and adorable, Ms. United Airlines. Yes they found out that their 1k was on a cross-country flight and actually put an entire gift basket onboard to present to me somewhere over the middle of the country. Well no such luck this year, I fear Ms. United will have to find another man.

Until later have a great Sunday evening.

Was that in my pocket?

2006-02-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

Now that life has started to return to normal I return to the normal yet still humorous anecdotes of my life. During this interesting period over the past two weeks I was actually awarded a large promotion at work which comes with it a vast amount of responsibility and visibility. Partly due to that and partly simply to not having gone shopping for quite some time, about three weeks ago I purchased three new suits for the first time in 5 years. This suits make me look both dashing and debonair if I do say so myself. Well today I had one of my seven executive presentations for the week for a room full of senior executives. Every presentation they had seen that day was given by a VP or above from my company and then you have little Matthew coming in in his dashing new suit to present and stand toe to toe with the big wigs. I like to think I held up with an air of sophistication and maturity, and just on my exit did I lose it all. I shake hands on the way out and reach into my pocket to grab my business cards and what falls out on the floor right at the customer’s feet? A nice red tag identifying my suit as on sale! A good laugh was had by all, I might speak like a VP but am certainly not paid like one.

Life is continuing to move in the fast lane with more work than I can shake a stick at, but I am genuinely enjoying what I am doing even if it means I have absolutely no downtime on a daily basis. It’s nice to have some level of autonomy and more importantly some authority, although I am certainly hoping for a bit of sleep one of these nights.

Dodged a Bullet

2006-02-06T17:20:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I started to have some symptoms that were more than a bit concerning. Now being a typical male I of course waited a week before I finally scheduled an appointment with a doctor, one kind of hopes it will just go away on its own. Alas it did not. My doctor is of course an optimist (would I pick a doctor who was not) but he was concerned enough to start me on some pretty strong drugs which had the wonderful adverse reaction of severe nausea in the beginning. But that was not the cause of consternation it was the possibly extremely serious condition I might have which could yield a number of outcomes from being sterile to of course the end result of possible loss of life. The next week was in many ways the worst of my life as I struggle with the unknown. Before I get into what the week was like I will get to the punch line, that it was a false positive and the symptoms are completely benign. Sorry to all of you out there, you will have to continue to put up with me for many more years to come!

I think in the beginning what scared me the most was not the possibility of losing my life but of losing my dreams. We all have dreams that we have as kids, everything from people president of the United States to being a fireman. My dreams are a little more simplistic, wanting to be happy, having a family and making a real difference in whatever I end up deciding is my ‘real job’. I think the possibility of not being able to achieve any one of these dreams is what scared me the most. So I will admit that in many ways I just went into my own little cave. Yes I know in times of major personal adjustments you are supposed to reach out to friends and family but frankly I didn’t think I could take their reaction. This is when I need to thank a whole lot of those friends who did reach out to me even when I did everything possible to push them away. Their level of caring and compassion has been truly humbling and I am very lucky to have this level of friends, so again thank you.

This all happened while I was in Savannah Georgia which if you have not been is just a fun little town. It is otherwise known as Hilton Head and located on a small waterway next to one of the largest ports in the south. There is something so peaceful about the south, the way life just move a little slower, and people are a little more relaxed. I spent much of a day when I was down there just walking along the waterway watching the massive cargo ships silently gliding by as I pondered life’s bigger questions. I would certainly not mind going back at some point when I didn’t have dark clouds looming overhead.

So I want to thank everyone who was supportive of me, I know this past week has really tested some of my relationships as I pushed many of you away, but thank you for all your support even if I didn’t respond to you directly.

Now I will go back to writing all the usual blather I do on this site to entertain to the best of my ability.

Shock and Awe

2006-01-30T20:12:00.000-08:00

I have had a bit of a personal shock in my personal life over the past couple of days however nothing is conclusive at this point. I am not sure how much I will be writing here over the next couple of weeks while things are being processed and checked. If I fail to return phone calls or emails please know it is not personal, I am just trying to deal.

I am a BEAST!

2006-01-24T11:41:00.000-08:00

I safely made it back to Florida and I would like to take a second and publicly eat a small piece of humble pie. In a previous entry I was a little disdainful of those who have to sit in a middle seat in coach on a long flight. I do not want it to see that I take travel for granted, rather I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position where I do get to travel to foreign lands or even not so foreign places. I apologize if sometimes my love of creature comforts sometimes boils over to the extent of ego-mania seeing privileges as an expectation. Sometimes I need someone to just kind of whack me over the head before I have leaned too far to the side. Thank you for that.

Back to the lighter side of life. Returning home from Florida was relatively uneventful on Sunday except that I was routed via Denver. Now there is nothing wrong with Denver in fact I actually quite like the area, but they certainly love their football there. Our plane was just taxing to the gate where we encountered a baggage handler jumping up and down on the tarmac in the middle of the taxi-ways with his entire face painted yellow and blue clearly in support of the Denver Broncos (who later were defeated in utter humiliation). Wonderful to see the excitement and enthusiasm in these fans.

I am also celebrating a new personal best for me in my aim for personal growth, this time not career or personality wise but simply physical. I hit a new personal best for me in bench press at a whopping total of 225 unassisted (not bad for a 160 pound lightweight). Nothing puts you in a better mood than hitting a personal record, well except maybe sex, but lets stick with things I can control :-).

2006-01-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

Neon lights at the New York Stock Exchange.

2006-01-23T07:44:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Central Park in NY with a light covering of snow. A mere 17 degrees today.

2006-01-23T07:43:00.001-08:00

A classic view from NY, just a few blocks from my hotel.

2006-01-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

View from my hotel window on the 43rd floor of the Hilton.

Flip and maybe some butterflies?

2006-01-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

You are focused on a business setting where decorum and professionalism rules your actions and words. You spend the entire day conducting yourself in a manner you believe will be appropriate for your company as well as make yourself look good in a professional light. Then when you least expect it someone catches your attention, their demeanor and smile rivet your attention. There is no looking away even at the risk of staring. What was once a witty and eloquent tongue becomes cumbersome and idiotic. Words dribble out of your mouth the way mud comes out of a faucet, neither pretty nor steady, but rather in ugly bursts. Yet that smile stays in place, the eyes locked in daring you to break eye contact. The entire room and all its occupants have faded away into a blurred distance. It takes a few minutes before my mind unclouded itself and I could begin to think straight again at the matters at hand. I doubt I will ever see this individual again for this was truly two spirits passing in the great walk of life, yet wow. Every hair stood on end and every nerve was on fire for about 20 minutes. I wonder if this is how people describe narcotic drugs that make you hyperaware of your surroundings, for that is exactly how this felt. I am still buzzing from the experience.

Now that I have bored you to a stupor of this tiny experience that has created an unbelievable mark in my mind, I will talk of other more interesting matters. I have flown home from NY in time for a major company meeting all day today where my attendance was mandated to actually foster and lead the meeting. Directly at 5pm I flew out of the office to the airport where I had precious minutes to go through the whole airport thing to get a plane to my next destination, Florida. Yes I am flying all the way back to the east coast on a red-eye special in order to present for another four hours, sometimes I think this job will take an ultimate toll on my body. Still buzzing from the fore mentioned experience I was at a loss when I was stuck in not one but two accidents which happened just minutes in front of me. Finally arriving at the airport perspiring with adrenalin I sprint to the ticket counter. Alas United has cut back on their red eye flights to the point that there was no way to make it to Florida on my favorite airline I had to resort to American where I have no status. Check in went amazingly smooth until I could not retract the handle for my suitcase. The next ten minutes was spent trying to retract the handle on this very expensive and still fairly new piece of luggage. Finally giving up sprint to the security line where Southwest vacation travelers are struggling to understand the basic directions from TSA officials (please just take the laptop out of the bag, its not worth it). Finally onto the flight to LA, and next will be a non-stop LOOOOONNNGG flight to Fort Lauderdale in couch, in a middle seat, in the second to last row of the plane. SWEET! I guess I take the good and the bad of my job.

Onto another matter that I have spoken of before. Applications to business school have yielded less than stupendous results. With most of the replies received I have yet to receive the thick envelope that I so wanted and toiled for. Alas maybe this is not the right time for that step. For now I take this a day at a time, taking the good with the bad. I am going to continue to try and keep my chin up with all the wonderful happenings of last week and this while relishing in the wonderful moments between. New York was one of my best trips in recent days with some of the best company I have had to take me around the city. I am truly privileged to have made such a good friend as the one I did in NY and look forward to a long friendship moving forward (never a bad thing to have a free tour guide in NY who is also fun to boot).

My flight is leaving soon, I leave you with one last thought. None of us know where this year is going to take us, what new friendships or even dare I say it relationships are going to come forth. We do not know what hardships await us or what unbelievable good tidings and times we will experience, but I plan on running towards each one at full speed knowing that is exactly what life is all about!

Shiny beautiful wonderful substances

2006-01-18T16:53:00.000-08:00

Have you ever held a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of beautiful yellow gold? You would be shocked by how much it weighs. I was lucky enough to see and touch billions and billions of dollars worth of gold (around 24 billion to be eact)

Through a sales contact I was invited to go down into the bedrock of New York city and go into the deepest vault in the city and see the largest collection of gold in the world at the Federal Reserve bank of NY! How could I pass up an opportunity like this, sometimes I absolutely love my job.

Getting into the building was fairly routine, just needed a contact inside to vouch for me, picture ID, metal detector and x-ray of my possessions. Not quite as intrusive as the airport and the cops were much more cheerful and patient. Only two special elevators go to the sub floors A-E, of course the gold is kept in the lowest floor, E. Located over 80 feet below the street it is built straight into the bedrock of NY. In fact when the vault was built, it was first constructed and then the building constructed around it. The door itself weighs 90 tons and is operated by a manual wheel with no hydraulics or electricity. It is so well designed from the 1920s that even I was able to easily turn the wheel to rotate the vault door. Once the door is sealed and lowered into a cork like hole a few inches down the entire vault is air tight and water right. The door can only be opened when the clocks on the inside (which are manually wound and set each day) release the locks, without those clocks it is impossible to open the door by ANY operator. They say there is enough air in the vault to last a two day weekend if someone is locked in considering the air is also cut off at the end of each day, however it has never been proven or tested. Once inside there are over 100 individual vaults some filled with simply a few dozen bars of gold others so overstocked that to open the door risks gold actually falling out. Each vault is identified simply by a number and not by the country or organization who owns it, and can only be opened by three separate individuals.

Interestingly two countries needed additional storage of gold and thus they had to build a new vault outside the main one. To bring in the 300 TON door they literally had to cut successive holes in the parking garage and lower it floor by floor. One needs to wonder how much security that took each night. The security guards are serious by quite friendly (as are most New Yorkers). They have their own shooting range on the third floor and can shut down the entire building and secure it in 23 seconds, this is not something I witnessed or wished to test. But unbelievably cool and impressive. The truly remarkable thing is that we do not charge any of the outside entities to house and secure their gold, only when they want to transfer it or remove gold.

Outside of the gold visit (which is still one of the highlights) my visit to one of the greatest cities in the world was fantastic. Outstanding food and even better company. I am convinced that New Yorkers get a complete bad rap when it comes to their attitude. I continue to find them some of the friendliest people willing to make up for the overly cramped conditions they find themselves in anyway they can. What I do not miss is the constant dressing and undressing for the unbelievable chilled weather. Every time you go outside the layers of leather, cotton and wool needed to protect against the elements. Thankfully a small price to pay for the privilege of living in a fantastic city.

Returned home today on a nice short 6 hour flight on United’s wonderful PS service (premier service) flight. This is a domestic 757 outfitted with three cabins with unbelievably comfortable seating. They give to all first and business travelers their own personal DVD player with 12 different movies to watch at their leisure in their plush leather seats. Complete with two meals and special soups and moisturizers in the bathroom, this service makes flying in and out of NY one of the most enjoyable flights on United bar none. Unfortunately my stay in the sunny state of CA will be short lived as I will be flying out late tomorrow to Florida on an red-eye before another multi-hour presentation. I most certainly look forward to next week and my lack of travel plans!

What’s in an age

2006-01-16T19:36:00.000-08:00

Why do we put so much value on a little number which many times we are at pains to remember even for ourselves. I have numerous friends that have accused me of being old beyond my years, I even have a friend who thinks I should have grey hair (better than no hair) for I act more like a senior citizen then a youth of the world. Is it something to be ashamed of to be old in heart and young in spirit and age? Sure there are certain things that age makes a distinct difference, when thinking of couples where kids might become a discussion point or when deciding who becomes the beneficiary of a life insurance plan, but save that if we get along with those of a younger or older age should we be apologetic for such? I believe not. Although sometimes I wish I could act younger, act like the lost and clues, thinking only of sex, alcohol and the occasional recreational drug, frankly it is not me. Alas I still struggle when going to clubs in Vegas and other cities from saying to people, ‘Grow up and stop acting like such babies with this drama’. One feels almost condescending when thinking it, yet you know it to be true. So I leave this subject simply with to thy own self be true. You can not apologize for those you like or in some cases those you may not. T.E, you deserve the world, and if one is not right although you are reticent to hurt him, it is better to be honest early than drag it out for years to come. You show your true colors by your own pain, you are truly a good person.

On a lighter note, coming back from a restaurant in NY, I land in a taxi in a slightly inebriated state although well in my wits, state my hotel address. Not as the web lists it and as tourists call it as Avenue of the Americas, rather as 6^th Ave as locals call it. The taxi driver begins to take a roundabout route which I know to be false, I call him on it and in fact even tell him what the appropriate fare is (the opposite of what I paid on the way down) and he even apologized. Now I feel some NY roots growing, simple wasn’t it?

Good night to all

Ahhh a frozen apple

2006-01-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

I have arrived thus in New York for work and maybe a little tourism as well. A local friend took me to a restaurant with some great food but really it was the bathroom that was absolutely fabulous. Imagine a room that you enter through a glass door, the room is darkened since the entire wall that one just walked through is actually one way glass. The back and side walls are all mirrors. So as one sits or stands at the toilet you see right through the door and front wall overlooking the entire restaurant. In fact adjoining tables are actually having its occupants leaning back upon the very wall you are staring out upon, no more than 4 or so feet from the place where you are relieving yourself. Slightly unnerving initially but later the cool factor sets in.

A snow fell last night and now the temperature has dropped to a bone chilling 24 degrees (in the sun) however with a warm hat and heart it is no match for this Wisconsin boy. The city is so alive with energy all the time day and night it is invigorant to see. But now at this moment I need to spend some time working on my presentation, until the next installment, enjoy a day of football and hopefully warmer weather.

Smells and music

2006-01-11T06:23:00.000-08:00

The power of both has the ability to transport us to another world or another time. Half in sleep and half out of sleep on my trusty mp3 player a song wafts slowly through my foggy mind. It sounds familiar, and then like a flood of torrential white capped waters all the memories and emotions come sweeping back. This was a song from a funeral, a very recent funeral, a funeral for one so young and so innocent. I sit in seat 2A on a plane flying 35000 ft somewhere over Kansas and yet my mind is standing along a street holding a candle watching the flickering of the flame as family pictures are flashed on a large overhead screen. It was like yesterday and yet it has been months and months. Sleep has entirely left me and I am now in fully consciousness. God Bless you Ben in heaven right now where I am sure you are winning every video game ever made! We greatly miss you.

On these sobering thoughts I reflect on the events of late. Today was a wash of work as my entire worldwide team has flown in for two days of intense meetings to create our vision and plans for the next 1-2 years. Beginning at 8am and ending late into the evening the discussions are filled with contentious debates and the occasional sardonic humor. Today was filled with distractions as I attempted to have repairs made to my car prior to my departure to the airport. Much to my surprise a random company I called from the yellow pages arrived around noon and in 20 minutes had fully fixed the window. Although it looks like there is some other minor damage to the car I fear I escaped lightly. When the repair guys found out I live in the city he joked that they have a deal, every five break-ins I get a free window replacement. Humorous in a bitter prophetic way. On the drive to the airport I reach for my sunglasses in their ceiling hutch only to find them missing as well. I agree with my mother after talking to her, it is like being violated each time I get into the car and discover another thing missing. A weird feeling to picture someone in my car, sitting in the seat and rooting around through my things. I get only a glimpse of what victims of other crimes must feel after their incidents.

I would also like to reflect on a comment I got from an anonymous reader. I did not say my bad day compared to any other, for it could be so much worse. But in a stand-alone way it still makes for a lousy day as compared to days of past. This is what makes us appreciate the good so much more, for there can be no extreme happiness without unfortunate pain and no joy without sadness.

To leave this entry on a humorous note, on my flight from San Jose to Denver (just a stopover) I was in first class and was surprised by laughter from all around me. The 8 of us in first had a fantastic laugh at the ‘new and improved’ security methods on this particular flight. Due to 9-11 whenever a member of the flight crew needs to the use the facilities or rather anytime the cockpit door is opened a barrier of some type must be placed to prevent a passenger from rushing the cockpit door. Usually this barrier takes the form of a drink cart sideways across the hallway or a factory installed retractable fence. On this particular flight the head flight attendant (purser) placed two rolling board suitcases laid flat across the walkway. Keep in mind this barrier at the most was 1 to 2 feet off the ground. Between laughter we asked what that could possibly accomplish, answer it would cause an evil doer to trip prior to reaching the door. Riiiiggghhhttt. Another wonderful regulation hard at work to protect us. A smile to fly my way into a new day as I cross the midnight somewhere over Oklahoma.