29 May 2007Travel
Quick Turnaround

I made it home safely. The cats didn't seem to destory anything (Mak is purring on my lap as I type this. I've unpacked, showered, now I have 18 minutes before the taxi shows up to take me to Oakland airport. This is insanity.

I slept most of the way from Narita. I actually feel pretty good. We'll see if that changes after another 5 hours to JFK and short puddle jump to Logan. The meeting starts tomorrow morning at 8:30. I'm going to need a good infusion of caffeine if I'm going to be of use to anyone.

28 May 2007Travel
The End is Near

In about 10 minutes I'll board my NWA flight from Tokyo to SFO. 9 hours of pure ambien induced bliss awaits. Then I have a whole 2 hours before I have to get to Oakland airport to fly to Boston. It should give me just enough time to unpack, repack, shower, reacquiant myself with my cats and hit the road.

I spent the day walking around Narita, checking out temples and eating sushi. I'm zonked.

I have 92 seconds left before this thing kicks me. So I'm outta here.

27 May 2007Food
The Art of Satay

I first ate satay at this street side vendor when I was in Bali in 2002. I stayed for 3 weeks just down the street in the Tebesaya section of Ubud and would pass this guy every afternoon, always stopping to pick up some satay and rice. It's the most delicious thing in the world. When I heard I was coming back to Bali, I started salivating at the prospect of returning to visit the orang satay (satay man).

He has an amazing set up. Everything he need is within arm's reach. He sits cross legged on the sidewalk with a massive tub of marinating satay skewers on his left. Directly in front of him, the grill. There is a small bag of charcoal to replenish the brazier. On his right, a bag filled with rice cooked in bamboo baskets and a bag of chili salt. There's a small rubbish bin and a box of small waters. Somewhere he was a wallet to make change. That's it. It's as basic as street, or any food for that matter, gets.

A wicker plate covered in paper with 8 sticks of satay (pork) and a mound of sticky rice will set you back less than 40 cents. Hard to beat. are posted on Flickr.

27 May 2007Photography
Bangkok & Bali Photos...

...are now posted on Flikr in their new feature, called . This is something that users like me have been asking for, for a long time now. Sets of sets. So this set or collection has about 10 sets with several hundred photos from my trip so far. I hope you .

25 May 2007Health
All Jacked Up

My feet are killing me. They have been since the first day in Bangkok where I walked all over the place with sandals that I hadn't worn in a long time. I didn't think there was a problem with them, but clearly I should have. At the end of the day I had two massive blisters on my right foot and some mystery ailment in my left--maybe a strained tendon--I don't know, but it's killing me when I walk. This is a huge problem because I just can't help myself. I need to walk and get out an see.

Then I have a massive patch of redness on my inner left thigh where bed bugs from Thailand(?) feasted on my blood. It's doesn't hurt. It's just irritating.

And finally, no surprise here, I've been savaged by mosquitoes despite nets and repellent and long clothing. I don't know what I did wrong, but clearly nothing worked.

These are the sorts of things that make me, despite myself and my ever present need to get out and explore, just want to stay home. It's tragic.

22 May 2007Travel
Delayed

I'm in the Bangkok airport waiting for Thai Airways steerage class flight to Denpasar (Bali). There's been a delay (for "technical reasons" which is never good) so I have time to catch up and put some photos on . There are going up now, totally unedited. I'll add titles and delete the crap ones when I have a chance.

22 May 2007Photography
Roger, You Tiger Now

I just got an email from some guy named Declan something or other who claims to work for FHM Australia and they want to buy and print a few of my images from Marineworld. How cool is that?

20 May 2007Life in General
Get Me a Lady Lawyer

Before I headed out to the airport this morning, I made a little humanitarian mission. Last week I received a letter that should have gone to my same address on 57th street, but the handwriting wasn't shit hot, so it ended up in my mailbox on 59th street. It was from an inmate at San Quentin State Pen.

As soon as I got it, I was torn about whether or not to open it up. I was just so curious. Wouldn't you be?The letter sat on my coffee table for a couple of days before I picked up. To my surprise (but I shouldn't have been surprised), it wasn't sealed. The inmates probably don't bother since the guards probably read evrything that leaves the prison anyway.

The letter was mostly a plea for this guy's mom to get him a lawyer. He was innocent (of course) and had been transferred to San Quentin, which clearly didn't agree with him. He was adament about his mom retaining a lady lawyer. I wonder why that should be?

20 May 2007Travel
Japan Layover

Just landed in Tokyo for a little layover. It's surreal being here. Japan is just such an odd place. It's hard to describe. I might do a better job if I wasn't so out of it. I couldn't sleep much on the flight, no big surprise there. Might have to drug myself up for the next leg.

I arrive in Bangkok right around midnight, which I'm not thrilled about. I'll probably just take a taxi to the hotel and crash. Then again, I might get there and not feel tired if I can get some winks on the flight. I'm in business class, so I should have an easier go of it than normal, but I'm wouldn't bet on a natural rest.

19 May 2007Travel
Bangkok, Bali, Boston

I'm sititng in the Northwest Airlines WorldLounge at SFO about to embark on another journey. I was invited to speak at a meeting in Bali. Pretty sweet. It's not til the 28th, but I decided to take some well needed PTO. Orignally I was just going to o to Bali, hang out in Ubud among the rice paddies and the mokies and the artisans, but when corporate travel booked my flight, it went through Bangkok, so I'm going to spend a few nights back in Bangkok before heading to Bali.

I haven't been in Southeast Asia since early 2002. I was in Bali and Lombok for 6 weeks in spring 2002 and in Bangkok in transit to Cambodia just after 9/11, so I'm pretty excited. This will be first trip to the east since I've had a digital camera, so I should come home with tons of great pictures.

The flight leaves in about an hour. I'm armed with several movies, some beef jerky and abien so it shouldn't be so. I'm in business class for the leg from here to Bangkok (via Tokyo), so that's nice, but I'll be in steerage on JAL and NWA from Denpasar to Narita and SFO. Then I have a few hours to check in with the cats before going back to the airport for a flight to Boston. More work. A three day meeting. Then it's back for one day of regular work and then a 3 day offsite in the city. No rest for the weary.

I will try to do some posting from the road and get some pics online at Flickr, but I've thought I'd be able to do this before on other trips, Costa Rica most notably, and I haven't been able to one reason or another. I do have my computer with this time, so it might be different.

19 May 2007It Really Sucks When...
Now That You're 50...

Ok, so I'm not 50. Not even close. But I did get an ivitation to join the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) that accused me of being 50. While it's flattering to be invited to join thier club with all the rights and privleges, etc., and as much as I'd like to retire and become a man of leisure, I can think I can wait a few years.

19 May 2007American Idle
Time Flies

Has it really been two months? Wow! I can hardly believe it. It's not like I've doing anything special. Just blowing this site off for one reason or another. Sorry

17 March 2007Skiing
Season Over?

It's currently 60 degrees Farenheit in South Lake Tahoe. I really hope this doesn't mean that the NorCal ski season is all but over, but if this weather continues what little snow we had will melt off in a hurry and it won't get cold enough at night to make more snow, even if the resorts were inclinded to so. I could be up there enjoying the spring conditions, but instead I'm laying around watching the NCAA tourney. Maybe I'll go up tonight after the UCLA game. Anyway, good thing this global warming is just a myth perpetuated by peer-reviewed scientist and left wing loonies, otherwise I might think that was a connection between, say greenhouse gas emissions and absurdly warm temperatures and ski resorts in wintertime.

17 March 2007Money
Fees Reveresed

I finally got around to talking to US Bank about their outrageous fees for foriegn currency exchange and they agreed to reverese the charges for the two most egregious line items--more than 80 dollars for two transactions. Chris, the customer service rep explained to me that they can only reverse two charges per year. Fine, but I'm willing to bet anything that if they do this again, and they will, that if I elevate the call to one supervisor and then the next supervisor I will eventually find someone at US Bank who reverse whatever charge I want under threat of losing me as a customer. And if not, well, there are a few other credit cards on the market who will be happy to have my business.

15 March 2007It Really Sucks When...
I'm a Threat to National Security

It really bothers me how reactive American airport security is. Some guy tries to bomb a plane with his shoes and now we all have to take off our shoes at security. There's some plot to bomb planes with some liquid explosive and little nazi-esque security dwarfs scream at us to put all of our liquids in a 3 ounce container and place them in the zip lock bag (forget the fact that don't make available 3 oz. bottles or even zip lock bags for this purpose). Next thing you know we'll hear of someone who tried to blow up an airport with his boxers and we will all be forced to fly commando. It's crazy.

So when I went through security in Austin, they confiscated my unopened 8 oz bottle of water. When they took it away, the TSA guard asked me if I wanted to drink it outside and I just looked at him like he was nuts and said, what do think, that I'm going to blow up a plane with this bottle of water? What does he respond? "Terrorists are creative." Right. Whatever. Forget that he's accusing me of being terrorist. I suppose they have to be somewhat vigilant, but this is just beyond absurd.

Can you imagine a scenario where a terrorist comes to an airport with explosives in a bottle of water that he's fastidiously sealed ("Terrorists are fastidious") only to have it taken away by the TSA? What would he do. Would he take the flight and be forced to contemplate his mistakes. Fuck!--Next time I'm going to put the liquid explosive in cargo. Would he go ballistic? He wouldn't do anything because it would never happen. Even if it did, he wouldn't be a redheaded jew and it wouldn't happen in Austin.

The joke is on them, because the oh so vigilant TSA screeners in Austin let me get through secutiry with an unsealed pint of (very liquid and extremely suspicious) sherry viniagrette salad dressing that I bought at the Driskoll Hotel in downtown Austin.

14 March 2007Travel
Return form Austin

The return from Austin could have been a major nightmare. It almost was. But alls well that ends well. Here's how it went down. I got in a taxi to head to the airport and it's bucketing down rain. We hit the freeway and it is wall to wall cars. The driver knew the shortcuts to the airport and we detoured around the worst. Otherwise I might have been late for my flight which never took off.

My departure was set for 4:49pm. Stopping in Denver, I was due into SFO at around 10:30pm. It was promising to be a long day in cattle class as it was. Just a few miniutes before departure, it's clear we're going to be late. They hadn't started boarding. It was clear something was wrong. The first announcement said our plane mechanical problems. Not good. The second announcement was even worse.

The woman from United came on and said that our plane was grounded. There was another plane coming in from Denver later that night which we could take. It would be leaving Denver at 7:30, arriving in Austin around 9, heading back to Denver in the 11 o'clock hour and arriving after midnight. Excellent.

Austin has a small airport. There are not many flights coming in and out, but I thought for sure we get a flight to another connecting city, say Dallas and then head to our final destinations from there. That way we wouldn't have to arrive at our layover city after midnight, have to spend the night and then head on to the Bay Area the next morning.

Why I was pondering my fate, there was another announcement from United saying they thought there was an American flight to San Jose leaving at 7:30 which could accomodate United passengers traveling to the Bay Area. Wow. There was a surge to line up at the counter to get flights sorted out. I didn't react as fast as I should have and ended up close to the end of the line, which I waited in for more than 90 minutes to get a seat on the American flight, which I did.

It was really lucky. Not only did I get a seat, but I had an aisle seat on the 2 side of the 2-3 configuration and there was no one sitting next to me. No food on the flight, but I did buy an extra burrito at Chiptole and had some beef jerky. I relaxed, watched the movie Heaven on my Mac and settlled in for the dirext flight.

Now United made no mention of arranging transportion for us people who had paid for a ticket to SFO or Oakland but were going to arrive in San Jose. Yes, the Friendly Skies. Hard to image, I know. I called a friend and got her to come grab me. She was going to have to come to Emeryville to check in on the cats anyway, so it wasn't that much out of her way, but it was really nice and I owe her big time. I still can't believe that airline didn't do anything for us.

Amazingly, my bags arrived on the flight and came onto to the carousel in the first batch of bags. It must have been one of the last ones to get into cargo. So it actually worked out well. Direct flight instead of a layover. 2 seats all to myself. And that bags that arrived. Not bad.

14 March 2007I'm Confused
Douglas Coupland, Babbling Idiot

It's disconcerting when your preconceived notions of a person don't come close to meeting with reality. It fucks with your world view. I'm a huge fan of Douglas Coupland. I have been since I read Generation X back in college. Since then I've several of his books including Shampoo Planet and Microserfs. When I saw that Coupland was speaking in one of the sessions I had to go even though it conflicted with the first keynote of SXSW.

Coupland was there to promote the opening of his first movie, Everything's Gone Green. I expected him to talk some about the movie and the process of screenplay writing, and he did that. But most of what he did was babble in a nonsensical stream of consciousness mess making me wish someone had spiked his tea with acid and that this wasn't the real Douglas Coupland.

His talk was full of pregnant pauses, self-reflexive admonitions to himself, nonsequitors and pointless rambling anecdotes. I honestly felt sorry for the guy. I was desparate to get up and leave, but I was sitting in the first row of the room and I didn't want to embarass his, so I just sufferred in total silence while I wathced Coupland implode on the stage.

02 March 2007Money
Kiva Success

Dear Andrew Hecht,

The business you have loaned to, MAWUPEMO, has made a repayment of $166.00. The total amount repaid up to now is $500.00. The payment was collected and deposited by Microfund Togo. This repayment will be divided amongst all the lenders who helped to fund this business, depending upon the percentage each lender contributed.

The first of Kiva loans has been repaid. Mr. Kouassi Houessou used our loan to buy a freezer and two coolers to expand his ice cream business in Lomé, Togo. His enterprise must be doing really well because he managed to repay his loan in 2 1/2 months and the terms of the loan called for 3-12 months.

This is a seriously feel good moment.

I continue to urge you get involved. It's really simple. Go to Kiva.org. Find a loan you want to help finance. Register. And then pay for the loan with your Paypal account. You'll be glad you did.

02 March 2007Skiing
Back in Tahoe

Snowed all week. Made record time. Took exactly three hours to get from Emeryville to Stateline and only another 10 minutes up to the cabin. This was a marked improvement over the hellish nightmare returning from Tahoe last weekend.

Huge snowbanks are lining the roads 50 miles out from Tahoe. There is so much it's sick. I had to take the day off. Tomorrow is supposed to beautiful. There is nothing on the radar. I'll take lots of pictures.

27 February 2007It Really Sucks When...
My Sysiphean Nightmare

When we woke in the morning on Sunday, the snow was coming down hard and the wind was hurtling gusts over 50 miles an hour against the side of the condo. It was a pretty easy decision not to ski. Only a handful of lifts were open anyway. Even though the snow would have been great, visibility of nothing and the threat of the being blown off the lift was enough to keep us inside, toasty and warm.

We made a huge brunch and debated about the best time to leave, all the while continually checking with Caltrans to make the roads were still open. The last time we called around 11:15, just before we took off, highway 50 was open. It was time to go. We'd at least make it home for the Academy Awards which started in 6 hours, right? Not quite. We didn't hit Emeryville, my town just across the bay from San Francisco until 9:30. Here's the tale of My Sysiphean Nightmare.

The first thing you have to navigate when you leave the covered garage at the condo is a steep, icy, now snow covered driveway. When I came in on Friday night, it was so slick, the Subie couldn't make it on the first try, even in 1st gear. I had to back it up down the street and get some speed to haul up the hill. Coming down, the brakes locked up and started skidding. It was a damn good thing there wasn't a car turning the corner or I would have plowed right into it. I pumped the brakes and got the care under control, but that only kept me out of the snow bank across the way. I should have taken this as a bad omen and gone back inside. But, what can I say? I'm an idiot.

It was smooth sailing down the 207 to the lake and there was the typical traffic on the 50 past the casinos and across the stateline. There's snow everywhere. Californians and toursits don't know to drive in the snow, so I'm on edge. I'll stay on that for roughly the next 8 hours.

Right after you get into California, you can make a left turn on th Pioneer trail which is a shortcut to Meyers, the last Tahoe town before you start heading up into the hills and back to civilization. This is where the problem started.

Once we hit the Pioneer Trail it was bumper to bumper. It normally takes about 15 minutes to navigate it without traffic. After an hour we hadn't hit the T intersection at the 50 and the traffic came to a complete standstill. We called Caltrans. The 50 was closed indefinitely for avalance control. Fuck me. This was going to be a long day.

So, we could either sit and wait, not knowing for how long, or make a U-ey, head back to town and wait it out. We chose the latter. Don't let me forget the whole time it is just dumping snow. The wind wouldn't let down. Huge gusts of wind blew the snow that accumulated on the road and in the trees into these veils of misery. But that's why they invented heated seats.

Back in Tahoe, we went to a bookstore, shopped for skiis, grabbed some snacks (unagi avocado rolls for me) at the market, had a coffee to get cafffiened up. After an hour, we called Caltrans again. The road was back open. Time to jet It was just after 1pm.

Back to Pioneer Trail and the cars are barely moving. The weather has let up a bit and the sun even makes an appearance, but it's just a tease. Cars coming in the are , getting stuck in the massive snowbanks that have built up. We we're going nowhere. I had plenty of time to take . I guess it could have been worse. I could have not had sushi.

It took us almost two hours to make the T at the 50. The culprit? The . I thought it must have been an accident, but I was wrong. I was wrong a lot this day.

The next thing I was wrong about was chain control. I thought for certain that after we hit chain control, the traffic speed would pick up. Not so much. Chain control was right in , just a few hundred meters after the T. The Subaru got waved through, no chains needed, which I why I have it, and it was just a crawl up and over to Placerville.

How bad was it? Normally it takes a little more than an hour to run the 60 or so miles from Meyers to Placerville. We didn't hit the In 'N Out on Forni Road just past downtown Plaverville until 7:07. There were points when we were going 4 miles an hour and saw a sign that read "4 miles to the next passing lane". I nearly cried thinking it was going to take us an hour at that rate to reach a fucking passing lane. It was worse when the traffic just stopped. People got out of their cars to stretch. I got out to remove the ice from my wipers. This is was just a nightmare.

The rest of the way was mostly a soggy mess. Didn't even get ski and missed the Academy Awards. I did have some great sushi followed by a Double Double and a cheesburger at In 'N Out, but that hardly made up for the suffering.

This was about as close to my idea of hell if ever it existed. Here's what it would take to complete the picute:

1) You would never arrive at your destination.
2) You would never go faster than 13 miles per hour.
3) You would be driving stick and constanting switching between 1st and 2nd gear.
4) There were only 3 radio stations that came through. The first was Country & Western. The second was right wing talk radio. The third was evangelical preachers. No commercials.
5) Your windshield wipers would work perfectly except for a two square foot area in front of your face making it impossible to see. It would never stop snowing.
6) The engine made an irritating high pitched whine whenever you hit 13 miles an hour.
7) You are on the edge of falling asleep.
8) No heat. No Defrost.
9) The driver side windows is leaking from the top and water is building up in your left sock.
10) You have a take a leak really badly and you're not wearing your astronaut diapers.
11) Chapped lips. No chapstick.