I have very little to discuss right now, but it's been awhile since I've blogged.
Really, that's a good thing. That means I've been busy enough not to sit and write my thoughts down.
Tonight I had red curry beef ramen noodles. As you might guess, it's not a meal I expensed as I'm now "living" in Australia. I think it was two bucks. I'm now on my own and this is no longer a business trip. I've also drank my first two liters of milk since Sunday. What's a liter? There's 3.78L in one gallon.
I've also succumbed eating toast in the morning. The Aussie’s love their toast. Every coffee shop has toast and that awful thing called Vegemite. My variety is whole wheat toast, peanut butter, strawberry jelly (or preserves as they say here), and honey. I usually fold the slice in half and still end up getting honey on my fingers.
Work is fine, although my boss wants me to bring in $250,000 in revenue in August. We’ll see how that goes. I enjoy how I work now. I walk about a mile to and from work to my apartment. Today I took the ferry to Darling Harbour to our official office address. It’s just a shared office, but cool to take the ferry nonetheless.
It’s cold here. I’d guess it’s around 11 degrees Celsius right now. That’s 51 Fahrenheit. Aussie homes don’t heating generally, so I have this plug-in fan that puts out heat. I just turn it on when I’m home and it works fine.
Anyway, that’s about it for right now. The picture rocks at least. ☺
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
GET SOME NUTS!
On my third channel flip tonight I saw a news story on Mr. T. You know, the A-Team? If you read my posts you may recall one discussing Mr. T as a spokesman for Snickers here in Australia. Evidently that qualifies as newsworthy material here in Sydney. On this channel Mr. T was dressed in camouflage and two “bullet belts” across his chest made of Snickers bars. He also had a huge four-finger gold ring with “GET SOME NUTS” labeled on it. Behind him was a tank with Snickers logos all over it.
Snickers. GET SOME NUTS!
Snickers. GET SOME NUTS!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Singapore
Singapore
I thought the flight from Los Angeles to Singapore was nineteen hours, but according to my Outlook calendar it’s only a speedy sixteen and a half hours. I took off at 9:15PM on Friday and landed at 4:45AM on Sunday. I think LAX to SYD is around 14 hours.
Landed, got a taxi, went to the hotel. Easy. Been there, done that. Customs in Singapore was the easiest I’ve gone through. No questions on business or personal. There’s just two lines once you get your stamp – one for declarations, another for Nothing to Declare which goes right out to the terminal. That’s it. Even the customs form is easy. Australia on the other hand would love to put your entire body, luggage, and family from home through an MRI.
Moving on, everyone I need to talk to can speak English. I get to the hotel and it’s still dark out because it’s so early and I’m an extra two hours west of Sydney. The hotel room isn’t ready either. :-| Figures. Mathematically speaking the additional two and a half hours has an exponential effect on the Suckage Factor. If you don’t know what this means, please read a previous post. It’s one of Kurt’s Laws: The Suckage Factor.
So yeah, I get there before anything other than a 24hr McDonald’s is open and I have no room yet. Keep in mind I’m sweaty and dirty and just got off a sixteen and a half hour plane flight sitting next to a fat smelly Asian teenager wearing baggy jeans and a sideways hat. Wait, before you judge that statement… He was fat, smelly, Asian, late teens wearing baggy jeans and a sideways hat. I’m just objective. He had this dumb look to him too and I think his cologne was $15.
I digress.
So there I am, checking into a hotel with no room ready for me yet. Accepted. The clerk was amazed when I told him I was just going to sit in the lounge and wait. I looked at him and asked, “do you have any suggestions for something to do at this hour?” He said he’s try to get the room ready as soon as possible. “Great, thank you”, and I proceeded to sit in the empty lobby lounge.
Around 7:30AM I had a room. Go to room. Wait for bags. Suckage Factor. Bags show up fifteen minutes later and within a minute after that I was just lying on the bed trying to doze for an hour or two. Well, I suppose the coffee I had on the plane had something to do with the fact that I was very tired and very wired. I think I did fall asleep for ten minutes. Shower. Suckage Factor. I think I am going to pack my own shower head on my next trip. In Sydney they had the ultra aerated shower heads – like at the MGM Grand. In Singapore it’s like one of those beach showers only with less pressure.
I got somewhat dressed and finish up some organizing of my photo on iPhoto. Oh, the in-seat power outlet that I was looking forward to… Yeah, it didn’t work on the plane. I really wasn’t upset, just annoyed. I mean, I have over 9,000 photos on this computer and I was almost done anyway. I digress.
Breakfast an hour or so later was okay – nothing special, except I tried the Asian varieties first. I had noodles with a soy based sauce on them, some dumplings. They were pretty good, but nothing really stood out. Then I had an omelet with ham, mushrooms, and cheese.
I’m not going to go through the description of my room. It’s really not necessary as it’s just another hotel room for me now. I did finally go outside though.
I went downstairs and asked the concierge what a nice walk to take pictures would be. He looked at me like I was an idiot. He was right.
So upon exiting the building I realized that I am ill-prepared for this place. I put on my jeans from the plane and a fresh dark blue polo shirt. I forgot that I’m near the equator and the ocean.
It’s got to be around 85 degrees here and 90% humidity and come to think about it – I think it was raining when we landed. I have on jeans, a dark shirt, and a black camera. The dark shirt managed to get even darker as I perspired, and my jeans felt heavier and heavier. I walked along the waterfront where I found a bunch of construction, and then I found the Merlion. One thing I’ll mention on the customs form I filled out was a note in all capitals, bold, and red: WARNING DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW. Whoever created the Merlion didn’t get caught.
I think the Merlion is a national symbol or something here. It’s the head of a lion with a fishtail. This fountain-statue thing spits water into the ocean and evidently is a huge attraction. The walkway and park was packed, and everyone needed to get their picture with this thing. I must be completely uncultured because I wasn’t impressed at all. Sure, it was probably thirty feet tall, and spit water fifteen feet into the ocean, but it’s no Bellagio Fountains scene from Ocean’s Eleven.
I just put that drug form back in my passport (you have to turn it in upon departing the country) I noticed my passport is soaked. Everything is wet here.
I keep walking and come to this line of restaurants and bars along a walkway. It’s really cool except for every owner coming out saying “come eat, free first beer”. I give them credit for being aggressive, but I’m not a good one to try that with. Don’t hassle me when everything I’m wearing is soaked. I might go back down there tonight though – try Singapore Chile Crab. It’s a special on every displayed menu. Along this walkway I finally feel like I’m in a foreign country. It’s stereotypical of what I’d think of an Asian country would be. The only difference is that nobody is really out because they’re all a lot smarter than me wearing my jeans and a dark shirt at noon.
So now I’m back in my hotel room sitting in my boxers and the AC is maxed. I have my jeans and shirt hanging up. I think I’ll stay in until the sun drops some and then venture out to the Raffles Hotel to have my very first Singapore Sling. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Last note. I just opened up my pictures. I shot all of them at ISO 1600. The heat must be getting to me.
Another post in Singapore to be written while on the plane to Sydney.
I thought the flight from Los Angeles to Singapore was nineteen hours, but according to my Outlook calendar it’s only a speedy sixteen and a half hours. I took off at 9:15PM on Friday and landed at 4:45AM on Sunday. I think LAX to SYD is around 14 hours.
Landed, got a taxi, went to the hotel. Easy. Been there, done that. Customs in Singapore was the easiest I’ve gone through. No questions on business or personal. There’s just two lines once you get your stamp – one for declarations, another for Nothing to Declare which goes right out to the terminal. That’s it. Even the customs form is easy. Australia on the other hand would love to put your entire body, luggage, and family from home through an MRI.
Moving on, everyone I need to talk to can speak English. I get to the hotel and it’s still dark out because it’s so early and I’m an extra two hours west of Sydney. The hotel room isn’t ready either. :-| Figures. Mathematically speaking the additional two and a half hours has an exponential effect on the Suckage Factor. If you don’t know what this means, please read a previous post. It’s one of Kurt’s Laws: The Suckage Factor.
So yeah, I get there before anything other than a 24hr McDonald’s is open and I have no room yet. Keep in mind I’m sweaty and dirty and just got off a sixteen and a half hour plane flight sitting next to a fat smelly Asian teenager wearing baggy jeans and a sideways hat. Wait, before you judge that statement… He was fat, smelly, Asian, late teens wearing baggy jeans and a sideways hat. I’m just objective. He had this dumb look to him too and I think his cologne was $15.
I digress.
So there I am, checking into a hotel with no room ready for me yet. Accepted. The clerk was amazed when I told him I was just going to sit in the lounge and wait. I looked at him and asked, “do you have any suggestions for something to do at this hour?” He said he’s try to get the room ready as soon as possible. “Great, thank you”, and I proceeded to sit in the empty lobby lounge.
Around 7:30AM I had a room. Go to room. Wait for bags. Suckage Factor. Bags show up fifteen minutes later and within a minute after that I was just lying on the bed trying to doze for an hour or two. Well, I suppose the coffee I had on the plane had something to do with the fact that I was very tired and very wired. I think I did fall asleep for ten minutes. Shower. Suckage Factor. I think I am going to pack my own shower head on my next trip. In Sydney they had the ultra aerated shower heads – like at the MGM Grand. In Singapore it’s like one of those beach showers only with less pressure.
I got somewhat dressed and finish up some organizing of my photo on iPhoto. Oh, the in-seat power outlet that I was looking forward to… Yeah, it didn’t work on the plane. I really wasn’t upset, just annoyed. I mean, I have over 9,000 photos on this computer and I was almost done anyway. I digress.
Breakfast an hour or so later was okay – nothing special, except I tried the Asian varieties first. I had noodles with a soy based sauce on them, some dumplings. They were pretty good, but nothing really stood out. Then I had an omelet with ham, mushrooms, and cheese.
I’m not going to go through the description of my room. It’s really not necessary as it’s just another hotel room for me now. I did finally go outside though.
I went downstairs and asked the concierge what a nice walk to take pictures would be. He looked at me like I was an idiot. He was right.
So upon exiting the building I realized that I am ill-prepared for this place. I put on my jeans from the plane and a fresh dark blue polo shirt. I forgot that I’m near the equator and the ocean.
It’s got to be around 85 degrees here and 90% humidity and come to think about it – I think it was raining when we landed. I have on jeans, a dark shirt, and a black camera. The dark shirt managed to get even darker as I perspired, and my jeans felt heavier and heavier. I walked along the waterfront where I found a bunch of construction, and then I found the Merlion. One thing I’ll mention on the customs form I filled out was a note in all capitals, bold, and red: WARNING DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW. Whoever created the Merlion didn’t get caught.
I think the Merlion is a national symbol or something here. It’s the head of a lion with a fishtail. This fountain-statue thing spits water into the ocean and evidently is a huge attraction. The walkway and park was packed, and everyone needed to get their picture with this thing. I must be completely uncultured because I wasn’t impressed at all. Sure, it was probably thirty feet tall, and spit water fifteen feet into the ocean, but it’s no Bellagio Fountains scene from Ocean’s Eleven.
I just put that drug form back in my passport (you have to turn it in upon departing the country) I noticed my passport is soaked. Everything is wet here.
I keep walking and come to this line of restaurants and bars along a walkway. It’s really cool except for every owner coming out saying “come eat, free first beer”. I give them credit for being aggressive, but I’m not a good one to try that with. Don’t hassle me when everything I’m wearing is soaked. I might go back down there tonight though – try Singapore Chile Crab. It’s a special on every displayed menu. Along this walkway I finally feel like I’m in a foreign country. It’s stereotypical of what I’d think of an Asian country would be. The only difference is that nobody is really out because they’re all a lot smarter than me wearing my jeans and a dark shirt at noon.
So now I’m back in my hotel room sitting in my boxers and the AC is maxed. I have my jeans and shirt hanging up. I think I’ll stay in until the sun drops some and then venture out to the Raffles Hotel to have my very first Singapore Sling. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Last note. I just opened up my pictures. I shot all of them at ISO 1600. The heat must be getting to me.
Another post in Singapore to be written while on the plane to Sydney.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
This is not me
06222008_The Nazz (8)
Originally uploaded by ZeeDesertRat
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