I have always been good with kids. Somehow I still believe that even though my younger cousins hide from me when I visit their house. In my adult life I have taken opportunities to volunteer with special events. Last year I participated in a long term (a whole school year) group mentoring program. There were 3 male and like 15 female mentor volunteers. Towards the end of the program I was asked to become a one-on-one mentor. When I read the website information it said that I had to have weekly contact with the kid. I though wow there are very few things I do every week, not even the things I find mildly enjoyable like grocery shopping.
This fall I decided to that I was getting bored finding women do date, reading books, playing sports, staying up late, traveling the world etc. So I figured I would give the whole one-on-one mentoring thing a try and do something good for an under privileged kid. At the United Way fair I got info about the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. Later in the week I applied online. Eventually we setup a time to have some come to my home and interview me a month later. In that month I get calls from my references asking what I wanted them to put on the form about me. There are so few males that volunteer, and even less that volunteer for nurturing type activities (like mentoring). I figured as long as I did not eat the children I would be ok. So I told one person to put that I have a chainsaw hang up in my house. This is actually a true statement; there was one hanging in my garage. Every downtown resident needs to have a chainsaw, how else would you be able to go through your townhouse wall and visit your neighbor?
So the day of the interview comes and two women show up at my house. That is a surprise since they said one person was coming and I even got a name. Even though it was a surprise, it made sense it would be a female entering a strange man’s house. They told me they had done a background check on me to make sure that I was not a psycho. Then they handed me a stack of papers to fill out which for the most part duplicated the stuff I filled out online. The forms were asking for my permission to have a background check and reference check. That is when my fascination started, they were asking permission for things they had already done…
They continued to befuddle me the rest of the evening. While sitting inside my house they ask me to "Describe your home environment." I looked at them, then around my house, then at them again. I let about 30 seconds pass and the silence made it clear that they were serious about wanting an answer to the question. So I said “efficient”. They sat there for another 15 seconds waiting and finally figure out that I truly am efficient with my one word answer so she wrote that down. The whole interview went like that.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
1 in 26 chance/potato salad/parking lot greeter
One in 26 chance:
Often people measure the cost of education in the amount of time and money they have to pay to a vocational school or university. Usually it is the young and foolish that choose to get no certification at all. Here is another way to measure the cost of not having some form of certification saying that you have a specialized skill. We have 127 administrative positions that have opened up. There have been about 3400 applications. That means 1 in 26 may get a job from us. If you are that person that does not have certification, a more horrible way to think of it is that you may be one of the over 3200 people will not get jobs. In my department an admin support position opened up, we had 400 applicants for it. When I apply for a job there are usually 8 or less qualified people who apply. When I fly in for the interview it is usually 4 or less left. I used to think 1 in 8 were not great odds. My interview with Big Brothers and Big Sisters for another mentoring program is next week. I plan to work this into the conversation with the mentee someday.
Potato salad:
I had this misconception that potato salad and macaroni salad and those types of “staples” that always show up with meals were good for you. Surely they would have to be because they were complex carbohydrates that every kid is supposed to have. I look at a lot of labels these days to bless them before they go out to the public. It turns out those items often have a lot more fat than ice cream. Ice cream tastes a lot better, please pass another serving of ice cream it’s healthy compared to the other stuff I have been eating.
Parking lot greeter:
For months I have been walking by a parking lot where there would be a guy in the parking lot many of the mornings. We would greet each other in the morning as I passed. I figured he was there to help manage the parking lot during the high traffic time and just kept on walking to work. Recently signs have been posted saying not to hand the parking fees to anyone and to insert the money into the box or else the car would be towed. At the same time, the friendly greeter has no longer been seen.
Often people measure the cost of education in the amount of time and money they have to pay to a vocational school or university. Usually it is the young and foolish that choose to get no certification at all. Here is another way to measure the cost of not having some form of certification saying that you have a specialized skill. We have 127 administrative positions that have opened up. There have been about 3400 applications. That means 1 in 26 may get a job from us. If you are that person that does not have certification, a more horrible way to think of it is that you may be one of the over 3200 people will not get jobs. In my department an admin support position opened up, we had 400 applicants for it. When I apply for a job there are usually 8 or less qualified people who apply. When I fly in for the interview it is usually 4 or less left. I used to think 1 in 8 were not great odds. My interview with Big Brothers and Big Sisters for another mentoring program is next week. I plan to work this into the conversation with the mentee someday.
Potato salad:
I had this misconception that potato salad and macaroni salad and those types of “staples” that always show up with meals were good for you. Surely they would have to be because they were complex carbohydrates that every kid is supposed to have. I look at a lot of labels these days to bless them before they go out to the public. It turns out those items often have a lot more fat than ice cream. Ice cream tastes a lot better, please pass another serving of ice cream it’s healthy compared to the other stuff I have been eating.
Parking lot greeter:
For months I have been walking by a parking lot where there would be a guy in the parking lot many of the mornings. We would greet each other in the morning as I passed. I figured he was there to help manage the parking lot during the high traffic time and just kept on walking to work. Recently signs have been posted saying not to hand the parking fees to anyone and to insert the money into the box or else the car would be towed. At the same time, the friendly greeter has no longer been seen.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Gold Metal/White Eyebrows/WW2
I was playing with a new formulation of ice cream. The factory was so impressed with the product that they sent them into the Kentucky State Fair with some of the normally produced products. The judges could not get enough of the stuff. So we won the gold metal (first place). How cool is that? One of my colleagues did try to give me a guilt trip of saying that it didn’t seem fair because I was out taking candy away from some 4 H kid. That is a bit over simplified; there were plenty of other big players in the competition. It is not my problem if they are not as good, the rules were clearly defined.
I have had white hairs on my head since 7th grade so I have told people that was wisdom. A couple days before my birthday I notice that I have white hairs on my eyebrow. Now that’s sad because that means I won’t be able to pass as a college kid much longer. A pretty young lady offered to teach me how to pluck my eyebrows without making them hurt.
Microsoft is always patching their software because it never comes out right the first 20 times. The latest patch made my Microsoft Word 97 unusable. The suggestion from MS when it crashes is that the program is not longer supported and I should look into upgrading it. Brilliant business strategy, send out a patch that forces consumers to buy your new product.
Over the Labor Day weekend I was in Warrington Virginia and we got to fly in a WW2 recon plane. There was no door on the plane so you just climbed in and hoped that when the plan turned the 70 year old lap belt would hold you in the plane.
I have had white hairs on my head since 7th grade so I have told people that was wisdom. A couple days before my birthday I notice that I have white hairs on my eyebrow. Now that’s sad because that means I won’t be able to pass as a college kid much longer. A pretty young lady offered to teach me how to pluck my eyebrows without making them hurt.
Microsoft is always patching their software because it never comes out right the first 20 times. The latest patch made my Microsoft Word 97 unusable. The suggestion from MS when it crashes is that the program is not longer supported and I should look into upgrading it. Brilliant business strategy, send out a patch that forces consumers to buy your new product.
Over the Labor Day weekend I was in Warrington Virginia and we got to fly in a WW2 recon plane. There was no door on the plane so you just climbed in and hoped that when the plan turned the 70 year old lap belt would hold you in the plane.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Jumping to another box
Being Asian I have the gift of a youthful appearance. Taking care of myself by keeping my weight down, staying out of the sun, and avoiding drugs etc helps me maintain this gift. Even though I have been out of college for 10 years not I still can pass a college kid as long as I do not talk too much. It is summer time, so the dance studio where I swing dance has doubled in population by the college kids on summer break. The students are fun to dance with and also to look at. I have a birthday coming up and realized that in a couple years I will be twice the age of a college freshman. There is a bar where some of the more experienced dancers go. Some people do not understand when I say experienced I am saying older people in a nice way, so I will spell it out O-L-D. I am starting to think that I have more in common with these more experienced people than an 18-year-old right out of high school. As a HR colleague of mine said I have jumped up box (from the 20 something box to the 30-35 etc box).
Did you know that broccoli is quite bitter? I have been eating it for 30 years and never realized that because it is usually in one of my dishes. We were doing a special shelf-life test (eating old product) and had broccoli as one of the items.
Did you know that broccoli is quite bitter? I have been eating it for 30 years and never realized that because it is usually in one of my dishes. We were doing a special shelf-life test (eating old product) and had broccoli as one of the items.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Healing/Humor/Mental Institute/Free Beer/Nagging/Premium Texts
Healing:
For the first two months after the eyeball extraction I continued to have high sensitivity to light and maintained my divine vision at night. It concerned me because someone told me his experience even 8 months after his surgery is that he is still seeing halos. My optometrist was concerned because he thought that I might be regressing. My eyes still showed damage from the surgery. It was however hard to argue that with the results from the eye chart test showing that vision in both eyes were 20/20. In this past month (month 3) I have noticed that I am not as sensitive to light and the halos are better. In the visit to the optometrist the results the consistent with my observations, the damage finally seems to be healing.
Humor:
I walked into the middle of a conversation where an older guy (late 40’s) was saying to another colleague that he had been a member since 1983.
With my usual smirk I asked “A member of AARP?
The room got a good laugh out of that.
He responded “If you keep talking you won’t make it.”
The mental institute:
I have been dating a young lady for 3 months now and after meeting me she has ended up at the mental institution. She gets locked up with psychotics, homicidal and suicidal people. She ended up there the day after our first date. I bet you never knew I powerful an influence on people? Since she is not too dangerous they do let her out though.
She came to my house and I told her I wanted to make sure she treated it like her home. The next time she came by I asked if she remember that I told her that I wanted her to act like it as it were her home. She replied “Yes.”
I said “You clean your home every week right? So you’re welcome to clean here, just to make yourself comfortable.”
She laughed and has yet to clean anything beyond helping to clean up after a meal. Well it was worth a try anyway, and I got her to laugh too.
Free beer!
I went on two canoe trips this past month. On the river were kayaks, canoes and rafts. One of the rafts with about 8 people on it had run out of beer. So they hailed a kayak. Two of the women yelled to a raft “Boobs for beer?” The guys on the canoe accepted and threw 3 beers over to the two women that raise their bikini tops. That is even better than Mardi Gras, we don’t even have to fight the crowds to have people showing off breasts.
Nagging:
I was reading You just Don’t Understand by Deborah Tannen. In it she explains the psychology of nagging. I had never put together that nagging is an attribute that only females are accused of and that she says it is because these females think that people would actually want to do what she want if they could only hear her. She also says that men do not like to be told what to do, especially by women. So it is a vicious cycle where he hears her just fine and does not like to be do it on her terms. She thinks he would love to make her happy if he could only hear her. I think the book was appropriately titled, I just don’t understand why someone would want to repeat herself constantly. Why would you put up with that?
Premium Text Messages:
My phone bill is usually $25 plus another $4 in taxes and outer unfathomable charges. This past month I got a $62 bill and found out that I got 3 “premium text messages” at about $10 a piece. I’m going holy cow that some pretty serious information that comes across at less than 160 characters. The phone company can put a “premium text message” block on your phone. You may want to look into it before getting a $10 text message.
For the first two months after the eyeball extraction I continued to have high sensitivity to light and maintained my divine vision at night. It concerned me because someone told me his experience even 8 months after his surgery is that he is still seeing halos. My optometrist was concerned because he thought that I might be regressing. My eyes still showed damage from the surgery. It was however hard to argue that with the results from the eye chart test showing that vision in both eyes were 20/20. In this past month (month 3) I have noticed that I am not as sensitive to light and the halos are better. In the visit to the optometrist the results the consistent with my observations, the damage finally seems to be healing.
Humor:
I walked into the middle of a conversation where an older guy (late 40’s) was saying to another colleague that he had been a member since 1983.
With my usual smirk I asked “A member of AARP?
The room got a good laugh out of that.
He responded “If you keep talking you won’t make it.”
The mental institute:
I have been dating a young lady for 3 months now and after meeting me she has ended up at the mental institution. She gets locked up with psychotics, homicidal and suicidal people. She ended up there the day after our first date. I bet you never knew I powerful an influence on people? Since she is not too dangerous they do let her out though.
She came to my house and I told her I wanted to make sure she treated it like her home. The next time she came by I asked if she remember that I told her that I wanted her to act like it as it were her home. She replied “Yes.”
I said “You clean your home every week right? So you’re welcome to clean here, just to make yourself comfortable.”
She laughed and has yet to clean anything beyond helping to clean up after a meal. Well it was worth a try anyway, and I got her to laugh too.
Free beer!
I went on two canoe trips this past month. On the river were kayaks, canoes and rafts. One of the rafts with about 8 people on it had run out of beer. So they hailed a kayak. Two of the women yelled to a raft “Boobs for beer?” The guys on the canoe accepted and threw 3 beers over to the two women that raise their bikini tops. That is even better than Mardi Gras, we don’t even have to fight the crowds to have people showing off breasts.
Nagging:
I was reading You just Don’t Understand by Deborah Tannen. In it she explains the psychology of nagging. I had never put together that nagging is an attribute that only females are accused of and that she says it is because these females think that people would actually want to do what she want if they could only hear her. She also says that men do not like to be told what to do, especially by women. So it is a vicious cycle where he hears her just fine and does not like to be do it on her terms. She thinks he would love to make her happy if he could only hear her. I think the book was appropriately titled, I just don’t understand why someone would want to repeat herself constantly. Why would you put up with that?
Premium Text Messages:
My phone bill is usually $25 plus another $4 in taxes and outer unfathomable charges. This past month I got a $62 bill and found out that I got 3 “premium text messages” at about $10 a piece. I’m going holy cow that some pretty serious information that comes across at less than 160 characters. The phone company can put a “premium text message” block on your phone. You may want to look into it before getting a $10 text message.
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Electronic Revolution
I have always lagged behind in adopting technology in my home. It is a strange personality trait since I do embrace tools and gadgets that are useful. I did not own a CD until the mid ‘90’s, then again I did not own a CD player until this millenium so I had a CD that I could not play in very many places for like 7 years. I did not have a cell phone until about 7 years ago when I missed a dates because of miscommunication on a meeting location. Women are a great influence for justifying purchases.
I have been thinking about getting a new computer, HDTV, and car for years now but always come back to the same conclusion my 7 year old computer, 10 year old TV, 11 year old car work just fine for most of the stuff I do. The car is a biggie because I did go through my quarter life crisis. For someone that does not drive very much since I walk to work it become extremely difficult to rationalize such an expensive depreciating toy when I have a vehicle that is good for another 120,000 miles (about 20 more years at my annual driving mileage).
Last week after replacing the battery in the remote of my cheap DVD player the remote still does not work, but the DVD player works. Yes there are universal remotes out there but is it really worth it for a $30 DVD player? I should just get a new DVD player, and if I am going to do that I should get a Blue-Ray one. Since Blue-Ray’s are $300 I should just get a $400 or $600 Playstation 3. If I get a Blue-Ray or PS3 then I should get a HDTV to take advantage of the higher picture quality.
A couple days later I get a call encourage me to purchase a new computer so that I could join in on some high-powered Internet games. That got me started thinking about all the possibilities. I love to design figure out strategies. I started with the computer that of course I would have to get a high powered one because it is my favorite toy. Then I figured I should make it wireless capable so that I could get my Wii, my work computer and my girlfriend’s computer online too. If I put the computer downstairs in the main living room I could make it my Blue-Ray DVD player if I got a wireless keyboard and mouse and wouldn’t need the PS3. When I bought the 40” HDTV I could use that as the computer monitor.
Then I started to figure out how I would going to put all this stuff downstairs and what to do with the old TV and DVD. I saw a nice design for an entertainment center at The Container Store. It was pretty much a wall mounted shelving system, something I would never have considered an “entertainment center”. It was so simple that it was exactly what fit my minimalist personality. The price tag was $1700; I rolled my eyes at that. How expensive could it be to buy 4 metal supports, some anchors, screws and pretty boards? I may try to build that even though I only have one saw, which probably is the wrong type of saw for the job.
$1700 Entertainment center
$55 Router
$1000 Computer
$800 HDTV 40”
$120 Wireless mouse and keyboard
$100 Tray top for remote seating
$3775 Subtotal
$245.38 Tax
$4020.38 Total just to play some high powered video games.
So far I just settled for router and a GPS unit. It is just a matter of time before I get a HDTV; just not today. When I bought the GPS unit was programming the home position and it defaulted in Taiwan. I was wondering why the unit has Taiwan as the home position when the only maps that are loaded are the USA maps. I wonder how it intended to tell me to drive from North America to Taiwan.
I have been thinking about getting a new computer, HDTV, and car for years now but always come back to the same conclusion my 7 year old computer, 10 year old TV, 11 year old car work just fine for most of the stuff I do. The car is a biggie because I did go through my quarter life crisis. For someone that does not drive very much since I walk to work it become extremely difficult to rationalize such an expensive depreciating toy when I have a vehicle that is good for another 120,000 miles (about 20 more years at my annual driving mileage).
Last week after replacing the battery in the remote of my cheap DVD player the remote still does not work, but the DVD player works. Yes there are universal remotes out there but is it really worth it for a $30 DVD player? I should just get a new DVD player, and if I am going to do that I should get a Blue-Ray one. Since Blue-Ray’s are $300 I should just get a $400 or $600 Playstation 3. If I get a Blue-Ray or PS3 then I should get a HDTV to take advantage of the higher picture quality.
A couple days later I get a call encourage me to purchase a new computer so that I could join in on some high-powered Internet games. That got me started thinking about all the possibilities. I love to design figure out strategies. I started with the computer that of course I would have to get a high powered one because it is my favorite toy. Then I figured I should make it wireless capable so that I could get my Wii, my work computer and my girlfriend’s computer online too. If I put the computer downstairs in the main living room I could make it my Blue-Ray DVD player if I got a wireless keyboard and mouse and wouldn’t need the PS3. When I bought the 40” HDTV I could use that as the computer monitor.
Then I started to figure out how I would going to put all this stuff downstairs and what to do with the old TV and DVD. I saw a nice design for an entertainment center at The Container Store. It was pretty much a wall mounted shelving system, something I would never have considered an “entertainment center”. It was so simple that it was exactly what fit my minimalist personality. The price tag was $1700; I rolled my eyes at that. How expensive could it be to buy 4 metal supports, some anchors, screws and pretty boards? I may try to build that even though I only have one saw, which probably is the wrong type of saw for the job.
$1700 Entertainment center
$55 Router
$1000 Computer
$800 HDTV 40”
$120 Wireless mouse and keyboard
$100 Tray top for remote seating
$3775 Subtotal
$245.38 Tax
$4020.38 Total just to play some high powered video games.
So far I just settled for router and a GPS unit. It is just a matter of time before I get a HDTV; just not today. When I bought the GPS unit was programming the home position and it defaulted in Taiwan. I was wondering why the unit has Taiwan as the home position when the only maps that are loaded are the USA maps. I wonder how it intended to tell me to drive from North America to Taiwan.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Thunderclaps of Little Feet
Spring is the season so be cranking out little ones and everyone seems to adore the thought of having the pitter-patter of little feet running around. Living by myself for the past 10 years with only adult visitors in my home has made me forget how very loud children can be. I had 4 kids visit ages 5-9 with the adult chaperones shows up at my house for a pizza dinner in preparation for baseball game. I loaded up my Disney music for the kids and cranked up speakers very loud so that it could be heard throughout the house. When the kids arrive, they easily drowned out the music so that we could not hear it, one occasion a kid said it was the phone ringing and I knew the phone not the phone because none of them were lit up. The kid did not realize that they were just a moment of slightly less noise and she could actually hear the Disney music in that brief moment which she had mistaken for a phone. The kids were quite entertaining for the evening as most novelties are. I just wonder how many days of deafening noise I could get use to.
I was at a professional baseball game and watched as 12 guys came out onto the field to rake the dirt. I looked in awe as wondered why they needed 12 guys when they could have done it with 9 easily just as quickly because 3 of them were just duplicating work. My mind started wandering and wondered what the future of career advancement there for a professional dirt raker. What would you tell a lady in a bar that you did for a living? We brainstormed and for a bit to see how well we could spin it. We settled for Landscape Sculptor, MLB. We thought that was almost good enough to print business cards with MLB credentials.
I was at a professional baseball game and watched as 12 guys came out onto the field to rake the dirt. I looked in awe as wondered why they needed 12 guys when they could have done it with 9 easily just as quickly because 3 of them were just duplicating work. My mind started wandering and wondered what the future of career advancement there for a professional dirt raker. What would you tell a lady in a bar that you did for a living? We brainstormed and for a bit to see how well we could spin it. We settled for Landscape Sculptor, MLB. We thought that was almost good enough to print business cards with MLB credentials.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Divine Vision
Driving into the Optometrist office on Day 5 after the eyeball extraction, I experienced a new sensation. It was early in the morning so still dark enough to have headlights and lamp posts. Around each ball of light was a large glow that was twice the size of the source of light. I told my coworkers that I have divine vision because I can see halos. One of them commented that only I could put such a positive verbal spin on such a misfortune. At the optometrist’s office he attempted to remove the medical contact in my right eye. He had me set my chin and forehead in position. Peering through his equipment he used a q-tip the came at my eyeball. Unconsciously as the q-tip came forward my head moved backwards to avoid being poked in the eye. He told me that my head was moving back as he was coming forward. At that time I noticed that my head was 4 inches from the starting position and did not even realize it. Fortifying my position I managed to hold still the next time. It is interesting because they surgeon’s office keeps asking me if I have dry eyes. How am I to know if they are dry? They are the only eyes I have ever had and do not know if they wet compared to anyone else’s eyeball.
I could see incremental improvement in my vision each day for the first week. It was much easier to tell in my right eye since I was practically blind at day 2 and my left eye started somewhere around 20/60 on that day 2. By Day 7 my vision was 20/20 in my left eye and 20/15 in the right. It is strange that the one that required the contact actually did better. Now I am extremely sensitive to sunlight and see halos at night.
For the first two weeks I was still looking for my glasses to put on before I did things like look at a computer monitor. As I passed into the third week I stopped looking for glasses but then for a few days I was trying to take off my glasses after I stopped looking at the computer monitor.
I could see incremental improvement in my vision each day for the first week. It was much easier to tell in my right eye since I was practically blind at day 2 and my left eye started somewhere around 20/60 on that day 2. By Day 7 my vision was 20/20 in my left eye and 20/15 in the right. It is strange that the one that required the contact actually did better. Now I am extremely sensitive to sunlight and see halos at night.
For the first two weeks I was still looking for my glasses to put on before I did things like look at a computer monitor. As I passed into the third week I stopped looking for glasses but then for a few days I was trying to take off my glasses after I stopped looking at the computer monitor.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Eyeball Extraction
The majority of the people who I talked to before having my eyeball poked and burned claimed that I would be fine the next day, ready to bounce off the walls with my new found sight. Most of them said how much I would absolutely love opening my eyes and being able to see!
The adventure starts with $250 worth of prescriptions eye drops that I start taking two weeks before surgery. I end up absorbing the costs because that is what you do when you have a Health Savings Account. I asked the nurse if I really needed to have those eye drops because she had hinted that they were optional. She asked what my age was. I asked her what that had to do with the answer. She said that after the age of 30 your tear ducts don’t work as well. I said “I get it you’re saying I’m old”. She said “Sorry, but yes I am.” I learn that my tear ducts are connected to my mucus membranes that end up in my mouth. So all the wonderfully bitter antibiotics, steroids, and 3 other interesting eye drops I take throughout this episode would end up in my mouth.
At the surgery center after all the money and CYA documentation have been taken care of they put me in a chair where they drop one numbing drop in each eye and offer me an oral pain killer\relaxer with a shot of carrot juice to wash it down. After a few minutes they give me a second numbing drop in each eye. I am prepped by a pretty assistant and think well at least if I went blind she would be one of the last things I saw.
They lay me down and use a device to keep my eyelids from shutting. My reflexive muscles start firing to close the lids to protect my eyes. I find this mildly uncomfortable but am able to control my muscles from firing after a few seconds. The doctor starts poking at my eye with a tool. After about the fourth poke the assistant asks if I can feel it. I respond with a very definite yes. She then floods my eye with about 8 numbing drops. I lay there wondering why they didn’t do that in the first place. After a few more pokes they place a ring around my eyeball. I still have feeling in my eye at this time. Luckily my eye would finally lose feeling shortly after this because it is quite uncomfortable to have a ring put around your eyeball and have it poked. Just about when I lose sensory in my eye the whole world goes dark. I had been warned that at a certain point in the procedure everything would go dark. This is very valuable information because you can imagine the reaction of some people when her eyes are open but everything goes pitch black while someone is working on her eye. One really understands how serious of a decision he has made to have surgery when his whole world goes dark. As I start regaining light in my eye I can hear the laser going and smell the scorching of my eyeball.
Strangely the second eye was even more uncomfortable for me. My reflexive flinching was much more sever. My reflexes are causing my eye to close against the suppressor tools while my active mind is trying to keep them open. This causes me to shake and I try to alert the doctor that my head is shaking. He misunderstands it as me being fearful and tells me to take deep breaths…I would have rolled my eyes at him except I knew that would have been a very bad thing to do during eye surgery. The way I saw it was that even though my eyes weren’t closing the reflexive muscles were still causing my head to move. Apparently they were not moving my head enough to bother the doctor though and he continues poking at the eyeball. Again after the assistant asks if I can feel it and again I respond with a very definite yes. Again she floods my eyeball with numbing drops. I would have thought she would have figured out the first time that two drops were not enough for me. The numbing drops do help stop the reflexive eyelid flinching.
The doctor puts a heavily weighted medical contact on my right eye because it is supposed to help it heal better. They give me sunglasses to put on as I go out the door to keep anything from flying into my eye.
I go into the surgery center for LASIK to improve my vision. Ironically I leave with worse vision, a medical contact lens in one eye AND glasses.
The second day my left eye is working fairly well (but definitely not 20/20 yet). My right eye (with the contact) cannot see very well at all. My right eye can’t read, see middle or long distances. The doctor decides to leave the medical contact in for another three days. Day three I see improvement in my right eye. Day four more improvement in the right eye, it is good enough that I can read now. Tomorrow is day 5, hopefully they can take the medical contact lens out. My eyes are still very gruesomely bloodshot.
The adventure starts with $250 worth of prescriptions eye drops that I start taking two weeks before surgery. I end up absorbing the costs because that is what you do when you have a Health Savings Account. I asked the nurse if I really needed to have those eye drops because she had hinted that they were optional. She asked what my age was. I asked her what that had to do with the answer. She said that after the age of 30 your tear ducts don’t work as well. I said “I get it you’re saying I’m old”. She said “Sorry, but yes I am.” I learn that my tear ducts are connected to my mucus membranes that end up in my mouth. So all the wonderfully bitter antibiotics, steroids, and 3 other interesting eye drops I take throughout this episode would end up in my mouth.
At the surgery center after all the money and CYA documentation have been taken care of they put me in a chair where they drop one numbing drop in each eye and offer me an oral pain killer\relaxer with a shot of carrot juice to wash it down. After a few minutes they give me a second numbing drop in each eye. I am prepped by a pretty assistant and think well at least if I went blind she would be one of the last things I saw.
They lay me down and use a device to keep my eyelids from shutting. My reflexive muscles start firing to close the lids to protect my eyes. I find this mildly uncomfortable but am able to control my muscles from firing after a few seconds. The doctor starts poking at my eye with a tool. After about the fourth poke the assistant asks if I can feel it. I respond with a very definite yes. She then floods my eye with about 8 numbing drops. I lay there wondering why they didn’t do that in the first place. After a few more pokes they place a ring around my eyeball. I still have feeling in my eye at this time. Luckily my eye would finally lose feeling shortly after this because it is quite uncomfortable to have a ring put around your eyeball and have it poked. Just about when I lose sensory in my eye the whole world goes dark. I had been warned that at a certain point in the procedure everything would go dark. This is very valuable information because you can imagine the reaction of some people when her eyes are open but everything goes pitch black while someone is working on her eye. One really understands how serious of a decision he has made to have surgery when his whole world goes dark. As I start regaining light in my eye I can hear the laser going and smell the scorching of my eyeball.
Strangely the second eye was even more uncomfortable for me. My reflexive flinching was much more sever. My reflexes are causing my eye to close against the suppressor tools while my active mind is trying to keep them open. This causes me to shake and I try to alert the doctor that my head is shaking. He misunderstands it as me being fearful and tells me to take deep breaths…I would have rolled my eyes at him except I knew that would have been a very bad thing to do during eye surgery. The way I saw it was that even though my eyes weren’t closing the reflexive muscles were still causing my head to move. Apparently they were not moving my head enough to bother the doctor though and he continues poking at the eyeball. Again after the assistant asks if I can feel it and again I respond with a very definite yes. Again she floods my eyeball with numbing drops. I would have thought she would have figured out the first time that two drops were not enough for me. The numbing drops do help stop the reflexive eyelid flinching.
The doctor puts a heavily weighted medical contact on my right eye because it is supposed to help it heal better. They give me sunglasses to put on as I go out the door to keep anything from flying into my eye.
I go into the surgery center for LASIK to improve my vision. Ironically I leave with worse vision, a medical contact lens in one eye AND glasses.
The second day my left eye is working fairly well (but definitely not 20/20 yet). My right eye (with the contact) cannot see very well at all. My right eye can’t read, see middle or long distances. The doctor decides to leave the medical contact in for another three days. Day three I see improvement in my right eye. Day four more improvement in the right eye, it is good enough that I can read now. Tomorrow is day 5, hopefully they can take the medical contact lens out. My eyes are still very gruesomely bloodshot.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Vietnam-Introduction
I have decided to take a departure from my previous writing style for this series of entries because this trip was a departure from my standard travels. I set out on a cultural adventure that would help me understand more about where I came from, and who I would have been if life took a different turn. A vacation was the secondary goal and understanding was the primary goal. In telling these stories it would be incredibly cumbersome for me to use ambiguous pronouns. Also because this will also serve as a family history the 5 people that I know read this blog on a regular basis may benefit from the greater detail.
The style will also change in that it will not be a chronological recall of events. This is because my level of understanding continued to evolve, often from first impressions to a different level of awareness. Many things I would not stretch as far as to say that I understand because my initial impression were usually correct, it is more that I see how a significant group of people may reach these behaviors.
So now the disclaimers: Of course being politically correct I could not generalize. Not all people in any group can generalized. To save myself the ambiguity of framing every entry politically correctly I will state that the observations were of as many data points as I deemed available. I know that I will get comments from family and Vietnamese friends. I welcome these comments to continue expanding my understanding.
The style will also change in that it will not be a chronological recall of events. This is because my level of understanding continued to evolve, often from first impressions to a different level of awareness. Many things I would not stretch as far as to say that I understand because my initial impression were usually correct, it is more that I see how a significant group of people may reach these behaviors.
So now the disclaimers: Of course being politically correct I could not generalize. Not all people in any group can generalized. To save myself the ambiguity of framing every entry politically correctly I will state that the observations were of as many data points as I deemed available. I know that I will get comments from family and Vietnamese friends. I welcome these comments to continue expanding my understanding.
Vietnam-Time Table
This will provide a backbone for the timing of when all the events happened:
Day 1 (Sat)- Fly to Saigon
Day 2 (Sun)- Arrive at "Hotel" that cost $200/month
Day 3 (Mon)- Historic walk thru Saigon with Dad.
-Learned where he met mom.
-Saw grandpa's shop
-Grandma's last condo
-Sat on plastic stools at resturant, just like my house!
-Lots of exotic fruits
-Dinner with Ba
Day 4 (Tu)
-Suoi Tein Amusement Park
-Hall of monsters (deformed mutations preserved or stuffed)
-Grandma's last apartment; 12" rat, this could be home
-Cit-go negotations with dad
Day 5 (Wed) Trip to Nang Trang
-Stuck in the back of the bus with the luggage and exhaust
-Met Tham
-Met Amy, Xien (seen) and QUOC (not a mispelling)
Day 6 (Th) Nang Trang
-Beach
-Fish Market
-Met Packer
-Vinpearl Amusement park, rode an electric bull with one hand and didn't fall off.
Day 7 (Fr) Nang Trang - Da Lat
-Mud Bath
-Ghost House
-Went shopping for roses with Than
-Met Mohawk
Day 8 (Sat) - Da Lat
-De Marie Church - bought sweater for Tham
-Botanical Gardens "Yellow Flower Valley"
-Luge down Mountain
-Embroidery shop
-Traditional Dance
-Monk with Chainsaw
-Bar/Club that served watermelon, pineapple, strawberries and no napkins for the drink condensation. 3 year old child was in the club at 10:30 at night.
Day 9 (Sun) Back to Saigon
Day 10 (Mon)
-Downtown Saigon with Dad, family history chapter 2.
-Airport overlook with Packer, Mohawk, Tham and wives.
Day 11 (Tues) Ben Tre
-Motorbikes to Cu Chi Tunnels
-M16 and M60 firing range
-Met Uncle, aunt and cousins
-Uncle's farm house residency
-6 hours on motorbikes
Day 12 (Wed) Ben Tre
-Poverty of rural community
Day 13 (Th) Saigon
-Fine arts Museum
-Dinner with Linda's son
Day 14
-Shop 5 slacks for $23
-Hair cut for $1.15, straigh razor shave on forehead
Day 15
-Presidential Palace
Day 1 (Sat)- Fly to Saigon
Day 2 (Sun)- Arrive at "Hotel" that cost $200/month
Day 3 (Mon)- Historic walk thru Saigon with Dad.
-Learned where he met mom.
-Saw grandpa's shop
-Grandma's last condo
-Sat on plastic stools at resturant, just like my house!
-Lots of exotic fruits
-Dinner with Ba
Day 4 (Tu)
-Suoi Tein Amusement Park
-Hall of monsters (deformed mutations preserved or stuffed)
-Grandma's last apartment; 12" rat, this could be home
-Cit-go negotations with dad
Day 5 (Wed) Trip to Nang Trang
-Stuck in the back of the bus with the luggage and exhaust
-Met Tham
-Met Amy, Xien (seen) and QUOC (not a mispelling)
Day 6 (Th) Nang Trang
-Beach
-Fish Market
-Met Packer
-Vinpearl Amusement park, rode an electric bull with one hand and didn't fall off.
Day 7 (Fr) Nang Trang - Da Lat
-Mud Bath
-Ghost House
-Went shopping for roses with Than
-Met Mohawk
Day 8 (Sat) - Da Lat
-De Marie Church - bought sweater for Tham
-Botanical Gardens "Yellow Flower Valley"
-Luge down Mountain
-Embroidery shop
-Traditional Dance
-Monk with Chainsaw
-Bar/Club that served watermelon, pineapple, strawberries and no napkins for the drink condensation. 3 year old child was in the club at 10:30 at night.
Day 9 (Sun) Back to Saigon
Day 10 (Mon)
-Downtown Saigon with Dad, family history chapter 2.
-Airport overlook with Packer, Mohawk, Tham and wives.
Day 11 (Tues) Ben Tre
-Motorbikes to Cu Chi Tunnels
-M16 and M60 firing range
-Met Uncle, aunt and cousins
-Uncle's farm house residency
-6 hours on motorbikes
Day 12 (Wed) Ben Tre
-Poverty of rural community
Day 13 (Th) Saigon
-Fine arts Museum
-Dinner with Linda's son
Day 14
-Shop 5 slacks for $23
-Hair cut for $1.15, straigh razor shave on forehead
Day 15
-Presidential Palace
Vietnam- Cast of Characters
Linda: Dad's long time girlfriend that still has family in Vietnam. She has a moderate English mastery.
Ba: Elderly lady that my dad says has many similarities with my grandmother. She has no English comprehension and lives in Los Angeles. I do not know her real name and dad says don't bother trying to learn it because I can never use it anyway. I address here as Chao Ba (respectfully hello elderly woman), thus the name Ba. Within a few minutes of meeting her she is showing me pictures of her grand daughters. Later she invites me to visit here in CA. It is not hard to guess her motives since she and I can not communicate. The next day she would tell my father that she thinks I have a kinder aura than my brother. I guess she can tell all this from the way I carry myself because I am sure it is not something I said.
Packer: This is the nickname I gave the Cantonese speaker I met on the 2nd day of the tour. I helped him with a user-generated problem with his camera, thus winning his friendship. From that point on he and his wife actually spoke to me. He speaks Cantonese and his wife moderately speaks English.
Mohawk: I would interact with him and his wife more on the 3rd day of the tour onward. His wife has a moderate mastery of English and he has a weak comprehension of it.
Amy: She is the mother of QUOC and the aunt of Xien. The whole family present speaks Cantonese and she has a mild command of English. At the start of the tour I would start off literally in the back of the bus with the luggage. The seal back there is poor so the exhaust enters the bus from the back corners, one of which I would be sitting at. An hour and a half into the trip I move up to sit next to Amy. When I figure out that they speak Cantonese this is a great relief because going 3 days without understanding anything other than what my Dad chooses to translate for me gets old. She invites me to visit her boutique in Chinatown, LA. After 5 days of speaking Cantonese with the people on the bus I can tell that I have vastly improved and pretty much gotten up to a plateau point. This practice would greatly help me when I got to Ben Tre to see Uncle. I had been worried that because of my lack of use of the language it was deteriorating very rapidly, it appears it had not quite deteriorated as much as I thought.
QUOC: The eldest son of Amy, is an Engineer and if fluent in English. He is about 6 foot tall and laughs about his cousin Xien, saying that she "can't drink". He ends up paying for it the next day. Karma is a wonderful thing when it happens to other people.
Xien (seen): Niece? of Amy? She is a local Vietnamese lady whose primary language is Cantonese and also is fluent in Vietnamese and a number of other languages that I can not translate. She speaks no English. My first interaction with her was after I sat down next to Amy on the bus. Xien offers me a piece of fruit she had just cored. I believe in the saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. You know it is going to be a good relationship when the first thing a pretty girl does is feed you. One of the few occasions I spoke with QUOC in English Xien berates us and says that we are in Vietnam so we are not allowed to speak English. I tell her that my Grandmother says that when we speak English around her that we are yelling at her. Therefore Xien sounds like my grandmother, an old lady. She does not appreciate this comment but her cousin and aunt gets a chuckle out of it. She has an interesting complex about being not pretty she seems to think that she was hit by a bus and truck at the same time. Of course I refute this many times, but she does not know how to take a compliment. She questions why I am not courting an American woman and says that's what she would be doing if she were as good-looking as me. She thinks I am too picky. I would later that I find out there is a rumor floating around the bus that I came to Vietnam to find a wife. I can guess where that rumor started. Xien makes two references to having light colored skin is better. Think about it, all the Asian models and superstars are very pale. This makes sense because the Western world went through the same mentality when we had more agricultural influence. The second time was when I ask why she had put on her jacket in the scorching heat and she said it was to keep the sun off. I tell her that in the US people pay to get a tan, ask your cousin. She doesn't appreciate this comment and demands to know why I must always turn everything around on her. Her cousin and I get a chuckle out of it when the bus opens up and she huffs and states that she is getting on the bus and the people who are not afraid of tanning can stay outside. After lunch one day she playfully says that she is jealous that I can just go upstairs and rest while she has to ride the bus back to her [better] hotel. I offer to let her rest in my room on the pillows. She huffs and exclaims in an exasperated tone “Pillows!” I say that if she wants to sleep in the bed that can be arranged too.
Tham: The tour guide. He command of English is weak. My first significant interaction with her is at the mud baths. While we are in the sun waiting for the mud to dry we are the only ones in the immediate vicinity. She explains to me that my skin will be very soft after this mud treatment. She says that all the girls will want to kiss me. I turn my cheek toward her and to allow her to prove her claim. She gets a real chuckle out of this and the story would be retold a number of times throughout the trip. I can tell when the story is being told in Vietnamese because she would point at me and eventually turn her cheek and everyone would laugh.
Uncle/Cousins/Aunt: Interactions between this group will all be observations except with Uncle since none of them speak Cantonese or English except him. He has a mastery of Cantonese. They live in Ben Tre many of them work in the coconut industry as laborers. Uncle commented that I blew through in about 10 minutes the amount of money he makes in 40 hours of shucking 8000 coconuts. That small fortune I burn through was about $30 USD. There is no trash pickup or disposal in the rural areas so the residents get to figure our what they are going to do about it. Many of them choose to leave it lying around, especially if it cannot be burned.
Ba: Elderly lady that my dad says has many similarities with my grandmother. She has no English comprehension and lives in Los Angeles. I do not know her real name and dad says don't bother trying to learn it because I can never use it anyway. I address here as Chao Ba (respectfully hello elderly woman), thus the name Ba. Within a few minutes of meeting her she is showing me pictures of her grand daughters. Later she invites me to visit here in CA. It is not hard to guess her motives since she and I can not communicate. The next day she would tell my father that she thinks I have a kinder aura than my brother. I guess she can tell all this from the way I carry myself because I am sure it is not something I said.
Packer: This is the nickname I gave the Cantonese speaker I met on the 2nd day of the tour. I helped him with a user-generated problem with his camera, thus winning his friendship. From that point on he and his wife actually spoke to me. He speaks Cantonese and his wife moderately speaks English.
Mohawk: I would interact with him and his wife more on the 3rd day of the tour onward. His wife has a moderate mastery of English and he has a weak comprehension of it.
Amy: She is the mother of QUOC and the aunt of Xien. The whole family present speaks Cantonese and she has a mild command of English. At the start of the tour I would start off literally in the back of the bus with the luggage. The seal back there is poor so the exhaust enters the bus from the back corners, one of which I would be sitting at. An hour and a half into the trip I move up to sit next to Amy. When I figure out that they speak Cantonese this is a great relief because going 3 days without understanding anything other than what my Dad chooses to translate for me gets old. She invites me to visit her boutique in Chinatown, LA. After 5 days of speaking Cantonese with the people on the bus I can tell that I have vastly improved and pretty much gotten up to a plateau point. This practice would greatly help me when I got to Ben Tre to see Uncle. I had been worried that because of my lack of use of the language it was deteriorating very rapidly, it appears it had not quite deteriorated as much as I thought.
QUOC: The eldest son of Amy, is an Engineer and if fluent in English. He is about 6 foot tall and laughs about his cousin Xien, saying that she "can't drink". He ends up paying for it the next day. Karma is a wonderful thing when it happens to other people.
Xien (seen): Niece? of Amy? She is a local Vietnamese lady whose primary language is Cantonese and also is fluent in Vietnamese and a number of other languages that I can not translate. She speaks no English. My first interaction with her was after I sat down next to Amy on the bus. Xien offers me a piece of fruit she had just cored. I believe in the saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. You know it is going to be a good relationship when the first thing a pretty girl does is feed you. One of the few occasions I spoke with QUOC in English Xien berates us and says that we are in Vietnam so we are not allowed to speak English. I tell her that my Grandmother says that when we speak English around her that we are yelling at her. Therefore Xien sounds like my grandmother, an old lady. She does not appreciate this comment but her cousin and aunt gets a chuckle out of it. She has an interesting complex about being not pretty she seems to think that she was hit by a bus and truck at the same time. Of course I refute this many times, but she does not know how to take a compliment. She questions why I am not courting an American woman and says that's what she would be doing if she were as good-looking as me. She thinks I am too picky. I would later that I find out there is a rumor floating around the bus that I came to Vietnam to find a wife. I can guess where that rumor started. Xien makes two references to having light colored skin is better. Think about it, all the Asian models and superstars are very pale. This makes sense because the Western world went through the same mentality when we had more agricultural influence. The second time was when I ask why she had put on her jacket in the scorching heat and she said it was to keep the sun off. I tell her that in the US people pay to get a tan, ask your cousin. She doesn't appreciate this comment and demands to know why I must always turn everything around on her. Her cousin and I get a chuckle out of it when the bus opens up and she huffs and states that she is getting on the bus and the people who are not afraid of tanning can stay outside. After lunch one day she playfully says that she is jealous that I can just go upstairs and rest while she has to ride the bus back to her [better] hotel. I offer to let her rest in my room on the pillows. She huffs and exclaims in an exasperated tone “Pillows!” I say that if she wants to sleep in the bed that can be arranged too.
Tham: The tour guide. He command of English is weak. My first significant interaction with her is at the mud baths. While we are in the sun waiting for the mud to dry we are the only ones in the immediate vicinity. She explains to me that my skin will be very soft after this mud treatment. She says that all the girls will want to kiss me. I turn my cheek toward her and to allow her to prove her claim. She gets a real chuckle out of this and the story would be retold a number of times throughout the trip. I can tell when the story is being told in Vietnamese because she would point at me and eventually turn her cheek and everyone would laugh.
Uncle/Cousins/Aunt: Interactions between this group will all be observations except with Uncle since none of them speak Cantonese or English except him. He has a mastery of Cantonese. They live in Ben Tre many of them work in the coconut industry as laborers. Uncle commented that I blew through in about 10 minutes the amount of money he makes in 40 hours of shucking 8000 coconuts. That small fortune I burn through was about $30 USD. There is no trash pickup or disposal in the rural areas so the residents get to figure our what they are going to do about it. Many of them choose to leave it lying around, especially if it cannot be burned.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Vietnam-Other Observations
We went to a nightclub in the Nha Trang and instead of bringing peanuts for munchies they brought fresh fruits like watermelon, strawberries and pineapple. They also brought salt to dip the fruit it to help wet our appetites for hydration.
In Nha Trang there was a seafood market next to a private beach. The customer selects the items by the kg and they cook it up and deliver it to your at the beach. The vendors are very good at tracking the customers. They spotted us 30 yards in the water. Dad and I of course were not wearing glasses in the water and were topless, yet they still found and recognized us. This was the first time I had ever has scallops in the shell. After we were done we left all the trash in bags by the gazebos for little local boys. The little boys took the bags. The boys separated the recyclable for money and then took the bags to some adults. They sorted through the trash and ate the leftovers. At the same time they looked like they were collecting the shells. I can only guess as resourceful as they were they were going to use the shells to make something that they could sell like tourist trinkets.
Relative to the large population I saw very few beggars. Most of the people try to be industrious and provide a good or service. Some of the efforts were not very logical from my limited perspective. There were quite a few people providing shoe shining. They were obviously not targeting locals because the locals were flip-flops. In my time there I really did not see very many foreigners with dress shoes that would need shining either although the vendors were persistent about offering to shine our running shoes.
I think the massive amount of people in the country has led to many of the people to pushing, shoving and a disregard for lines. By the 4th day in Vietnam, I had been shoved from behind four different times by someone trying to get past me in a line. One large group decided to try to shove past us in a line starting with a lady, that bugged me a bit. Then I got shoved again by her friend, and I turned this time it was her male friend and cronies. Very few things gets the alpha male testerone going more than a smaller male trying to shove him aside for position. With their behavior to get a few inches further on the platform when the transport car wasn’t even there, I recognized that there were going to try to bully their way past me once the car was there. So as the car approached I let the first of them push and shove past us then braced myself for the impact of the rest of them without ever changing my stride. I calmly sat down in the transport and effectively separated their group. One person of their groups could not fit on the transport and had to wait to catch the next transport, how unfortunate.
When I saw the monk wielding the chainsaw it was a bit of a disconnect. Since Buddhist monks are mostly poor it strange to think of them using technology because technology is usually expensive. I almost associate them with Amish, which I know is a very poor way to categorize them in. Seeing the monk with the chainsaw did help reset the association that they have not lost an appreciation for technology during their spiritual journeys. Sorry Lewis he appeared to be behind a private area of temple. While I did consider snapping a picture, I thought it might have been a bit disrespectful to be taking pictures of them in their private areas and I could not ask them if it was ok since I do not speak Vietnamese.
The Cu Chi Tunnels are the underground bunkers that the Viet Cong used to attack Saigon. There was about 150 km of tunnels with everything from kitchen to meeting rooms. They allow tourist to purchase bullets to use on the firing range. The heavy machine guns ammo would cost more than the pistols. All of the weapons were mounted with a little play for aiming but not enough to be dangerous. After firing the M60 light machine gun I realized that they were mounted so that you could not possibly hit the target. They are locked high. It dawned on me that if the foolish tourist could not hit the targets then they never had to replace them. I fired the M16 assault rifle anyway with this understanding just for the experience, but stopped after that because it takes a lot of fun out of it if you can’t ever hit the target.
In Nha Trang there was a seafood market next to a private beach. The customer selects the items by the kg and they cook it up and deliver it to your at the beach. The vendors are very good at tracking the customers. They spotted us 30 yards in the water. Dad and I of course were not wearing glasses in the water and were topless, yet they still found and recognized us. This was the first time I had ever has scallops in the shell. After we were done we left all the trash in bags by the gazebos for little local boys. The little boys took the bags. The boys separated the recyclable for money and then took the bags to some adults. They sorted through the trash and ate the leftovers. At the same time they looked like they were collecting the shells. I can only guess as resourceful as they were they were going to use the shells to make something that they could sell like tourist trinkets.
Relative to the large population I saw very few beggars. Most of the people try to be industrious and provide a good or service. Some of the efforts were not very logical from my limited perspective. There were quite a few people providing shoe shining. They were obviously not targeting locals because the locals were flip-flops. In my time there I really did not see very many foreigners with dress shoes that would need shining either although the vendors were persistent about offering to shine our running shoes.
I think the massive amount of people in the country has led to many of the people to pushing, shoving and a disregard for lines. By the 4th day in Vietnam, I had been shoved from behind four different times by someone trying to get past me in a line. One large group decided to try to shove past us in a line starting with a lady, that bugged me a bit. Then I got shoved again by her friend, and I turned this time it was her male friend and cronies. Very few things gets the alpha male testerone going more than a smaller male trying to shove him aside for position. With their behavior to get a few inches further on the platform when the transport car wasn’t even there, I recognized that there were going to try to bully their way past me once the car was there. So as the car approached I let the first of them push and shove past us then braced myself for the impact of the rest of them without ever changing my stride. I calmly sat down in the transport and effectively separated their group. One person of their groups could not fit on the transport and had to wait to catch the next transport, how unfortunate.
When I saw the monk wielding the chainsaw it was a bit of a disconnect. Since Buddhist monks are mostly poor it strange to think of them using technology because technology is usually expensive. I almost associate them with Amish, which I know is a very poor way to categorize them in. Seeing the monk with the chainsaw did help reset the association that they have not lost an appreciation for technology during their spiritual journeys. Sorry Lewis he appeared to be behind a private area of temple. While I did consider snapping a picture, I thought it might have been a bit disrespectful to be taking pictures of them in their private areas and I could not ask them if it was ok since I do not speak Vietnamese.
The Cu Chi Tunnels are the underground bunkers that the Viet Cong used to attack Saigon. There was about 150 km of tunnels with everything from kitchen to meeting rooms. They allow tourist to purchase bullets to use on the firing range. The heavy machine guns ammo would cost more than the pistols. All of the weapons were mounted with a little play for aiming but not enough to be dangerous. After firing the M60 light machine gun I realized that they were mounted so that you could not possibly hit the target. They are locked high. It dawned on me that if the foolish tourist could not hit the targets then they never had to replace them. I fired the M16 assault rifle anyway with this understanding just for the experience, but stopped after that because it takes a lot of fun out of it if you can’t ever hit the target.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Vietnam-Haircut and Luge Ride
I got a haircut for 20,000 dongs ($1.15 USD). They gave me a straight razor shave with that. What was unexpected was that she started shaving my forehead. I never knew that my forehead needed a shave. She asked me if I wanted to have it waxed. I thought that was a bit overboard and declined. I handed her a 50,000 bill and she gave me back a 20,000 and a 10,000. After consulting with dad about what was a normal tip he said 10,000 was very generous (remember that’s 50% tip). I gave her a 100% tip and made her really happy.
In Da Lat there was a gravity-tracked ride similar to a roller coaster down the mountain. Being completely gravity there were no gears to slow you down. Dad sat in front of the two-person car so I was in the back with control of the break. The car reminded me of the cars that you go down some water slides in, not much more to it than a tray with a brake. We picked a time when there was no one in front of us and took off. I took off under the philosophy of “I don’t need no stinkin breaks!”. So off we go flying down the mountain and swing around the turns at full speed. They have people seated on benches along the way. I hear one of them shout at us, dad hears it too but can’t understand him because we are zipping by. We zip by another one of them that is shouting at us and again dad can’t understand him. We use the context to assume that they are yelling for us to slow down. Those guys on the bench wouldn’t be able to do a thing to stop us at those speeds. At this time it dawns on me that we are in Vietnam and they probably do not idiot proof their rides. So I decide to yank the brake slightly before the next turn. I don’t think I actually yanked it hard enough slow us down, I think I just kept us from accelerating. I did notice that this turn had netting around it, I assume that is for those fools that flew off the track because they were going too fast. The netting looks pretty feeble and I wonder if it would actually have stopped a full speed car. I continue this responsible course of action for the rest of the turns down the mountain, never really slowing down just not picking up more speed before a turn. After the ride dad said he was concerned about how fast we were going.
In Da Lat there was a gravity-tracked ride similar to a roller coaster down the mountain. Being completely gravity there were no gears to slow you down. Dad sat in front of the two-person car so I was in the back with control of the break. The car reminded me of the cars that you go down some water slides in, not much more to it than a tray with a brake. We picked a time when there was no one in front of us and took off. I took off under the philosophy of “I don’t need no stinkin breaks!”. So off we go flying down the mountain and swing around the turns at full speed. They have people seated on benches along the way. I hear one of them shout at us, dad hears it too but can’t understand him because we are zipping by. We zip by another one of them that is shouting at us and again dad can’t understand him. We use the context to assume that they are yelling for us to slow down. Those guys on the bench wouldn’t be able to do a thing to stop us at those speeds. At this time it dawns on me that we are in Vietnam and they probably do not idiot proof their rides. So I decide to yank the brake slightly before the next turn. I don’t think I actually yanked it hard enough slow us down, I think I just kept us from accelerating. I did notice that this turn had netting around it, I assume that is for those fools that flew off the track because they were going too fast. The netting looks pretty feeble and I wonder if it would actually have stopped a full speed car. I continue this responsible course of action for the rest of the turns down the mountain, never really slowing down just not picking up more speed before a turn. After the ride dad said he was concerned about how fast we were going.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Vietnam-Family history
The whole city of Saigon is a market. So I found it humorous when dad would say that someone was going to the market. Every available inch of street property is a shop in front and living quarters behind it. Even in the alleys and back roads there are carts set up selling wares. The only exceptions were religious structures, and the government properties like the parks and museums. The areas that were not streets were a cross between sidewalks, parking lots (for motorbikes), and vendor store front. So the pedestrians were just as likely to be walking in the streets as the “sidewalks”.
It was well into the dark hours of the night when we walk through the closing street market leading to grandma’s first apartment. Debris from the market completely littered the street. As we left the alley there was a 12 inch rat (8” body, 4” tail) that scurried across the path. This could have been home.
In the daylight dad showed me where grandma’s last condo was. In the same day he showed me where grandpa’s stamp store was and the place where he met mom. He answered the question of how they met each other. He showed me where he proved that wood was stronger than his ribs and the hospital that grandma took him to afterwards. This was how he got all the stitches in his abdomen.
Dad shared with me stories about how he and his father bonded working the stamp shop and his errands to the post office. He told me about what he had heard about his only uncle that lived outside of Shanghai, where grandpa was originally from. He also shared what he knew about his only cousin. We also covered mom’s side of the family and why there was some bad blood with parts of that side of the family.
Spending time with dad in Vietnam provided an opportunity to see and hear things that I would never have experienced otherwise.
It was well into the dark hours of the night when we walk through the closing street market leading to grandma’s first apartment. Debris from the market completely littered the street. As we left the alley there was a 12 inch rat (8” body, 4” tail) that scurried across the path. This could have been home.
In the daylight dad showed me where grandma’s last condo was. In the same day he showed me where grandpa’s stamp store was and the place where he met mom. He answered the question of how they met each other. He showed me where he proved that wood was stronger than his ribs and the hospital that grandma took him to afterwards. This was how he got all the stitches in his abdomen.
Dad shared with me stories about how he and his father bonded working the stamp shop and his errands to the post office. He told me about what he had heard about his only uncle that lived outside of Shanghai, where grandpa was originally from. He also shared what he knew about his only cousin. We also covered mom’s side of the family and why there was some bad blood with parts of that side of the family.
Spending time with dad in Vietnam provided an opportunity to see and hear things that I would never have experienced otherwise.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Propaganda and War
In the places I visited in Vietnam the monuments and most prominent displays were of the war with America. There is very little mention of the wars preceding and following the Vietnam War. Meaning little is said about the war with the French (before) and about the war in Cambodia (after) and with the Chinese that followed the Vietnam War. Some of the translations were pretty comical, and clearly not done by fluent English speakers. The translations were much harsher than what one would find in a historical monument in the US. Instead of referring to the Southern Forces in a governmental term the translations often referred to them as the “Americans and their Lackeys” or something else derogatory.
Having a chance to interact with Draftees of the Vietnam War it is not surprising to get the sense that they were not really interested in the political side of the war, meaning they only fought because they had to. Spending time in the countryside brings the understanding that wars are conducted by the rich for the interests of the rich and usually fought by the poor. A rice farmer who is happy to makes enough to have 3 meals a day. His free time is spent socializing with his neighbors and family over a cup of tea. He doesn’t have the money for other options. Why would he care whom he pays his taxes to? Why would any government care what is doing out in his rice patty as long as he was not being disruptive? Yet it is the poor rice farmer who was drafted into the wars. It was the draftee rice farmers that were hit by the 500,000 bombs in the front lines, the victims of environmentally destructive chemicals. What happens when that farmer’s family is slaughtered or mistreated because soldiers are incapable of distinguishing the enemy? This sounds like certain elements of Abu Ghraib doesn’t it?
There are always two sides to every story. Somewhere between the two stories lies that truth. The truth may not be a single absolute point but rather a fuzzy region that resides with elements of both perspectives. As American children in the US educational system during the eighties we were brainwashed to be terrified of the communist specter. We were told that democracy is the best form of government and that almost everything else was evil. Does that kind of remind you of Bush Junior’s “Axis of Evil”? We were told how we were so heavily oppressed by the British so we had this glorious revolution leading us to believe that everyone in the colonies were furious with the tyranny. I got straight A’s in history, so I was pretty good at absorbing the propaganda and repeating it back to the educators what they wanted to hear even being classified as “Gifted and Talented” in that subject. If one has and interest he can find out that the majority of American’s did not actually actively participate in the revolution. The various historical accounts put the Patriot support at less than half of the population. About 20% of the population were Loyalist and actively supported the British. The victors write history.
Communism was the specter that every American kid was taught to fear in the 80’s. In my time traveling through Vietnam and China there really were no immediately visible effects of Communism, of course I wasn’t trying to find any censored websites or have political discussions or anything as aggressively foolish like that. My ex-girlfriend and I went around China without anything that hindered out movement or activities. Like wise in Vietnam. So is it really the end of the world if not every country is a Democracy?
The collapse of every democracy has been decay from within. The majority population feels apathy for the system and when the remaining figure out that they can vote themselves rich. Consider the voter participation rate and the socialistic actions like Social Security. A bunch of 50+ year old legislators vote into effect a policy that says that they pay in for a few years and then collect money for the rest of their lives. A stroke of genius if you were category to benefit, was it an altruistic policy to benefit society?
Having a chance to interact with Draftees of the Vietnam War it is not surprising to get the sense that they were not really interested in the political side of the war, meaning they only fought because they had to. Spending time in the countryside brings the understanding that wars are conducted by the rich for the interests of the rich and usually fought by the poor. A rice farmer who is happy to makes enough to have 3 meals a day. His free time is spent socializing with his neighbors and family over a cup of tea. He doesn’t have the money for other options. Why would he care whom he pays his taxes to? Why would any government care what is doing out in his rice patty as long as he was not being disruptive? Yet it is the poor rice farmer who was drafted into the wars. It was the draftee rice farmers that were hit by the 500,000 bombs in the front lines, the victims of environmentally destructive chemicals. What happens when that farmer’s family is slaughtered or mistreated because soldiers are incapable of distinguishing the enemy? This sounds like certain elements of Abu Ghraib doesn’t it?
There are always two sides to every story. Somewhere between the two stories lies that truth. The truth may not be a single absolute point but rather a fuzzy region that resides with elements of both perspectives. As American children in the US educational system during the eighties we were brainwashed to be terrified of the communist specter. We were told that democracy is the best form of government and that almost everything else was evil. Does that kind of remind you of Bush Junior’s “Axis of Evil”? We were told how we were so heavily oppressed by the British so we had this glorious revolution leading us to believe that everyone in the colonies were furious with the tyranny. I got straight A’s in history, so I was pretty good at absorbing the propaganda and repeating it back to the educators what they wanted to hear even being classified as “Gifted and Talented” in that subject. If one has and interest he can find out that the majority of American’s did not actually actively participate in the revolution. The various historical accounts put the Patriot support at less than half of the population. About 20% of the population were Loyalist and actively supported the British. The victors write history.
Communism was the specter that every American kid was taught to fear in the 80’s. In my time traveling through Vietnam and China there really were no immediately visible effects of Communism, of course I wasn’t trying to find any censored websites or have political discussions or anything as aggressively foolish like that. My ex-girlfriend and I went around China without anything that hindered out movement or activities. Like wise in Vietnam. So is it really the end of the world if not every country is a Democracy?
The collapse of every democracy has been decay from within. The majority population feels apathy for the system and when the remaining figure out that they can vote themselves rich. Consider the voter participation rate and the socialistic actions like Social Security. A bunch of 50+ year old legislators vote into effect a policy that says that they pay in for a few years and then collect money for the rest of their lives. A stroke of genius if you were category to benefit, was it an altruistic policy to benefit society?
Monday, March 2, 2009
Vietnam - Living Conditions
I was pleasantly surprised and not so wonderfully surprised by the living arrangements throughout my stay in Vietnam. My home base consisted of a single room about 12’x10’ including the bathroom. I was very pleasantly surprised that a place costing $200/mo had air conditioning, cable TV, foam bed (no springs), and a refrigerator. The exterior door leading into the complex was a sliding door. The lock on this sliding door would not work from the inside. The bathroom had a sink, toilet and removable showerhead in a 5’x3’ area. The drain hose from the sink deposited onto the floor 2.5’ away from the drain. When the toilet flushed an unexplainable effluent went to a different hose onto the floor and rolled across the floor for 2.5’ before reaching the drain. The effluent was not colored, but was also not a coincidence that it came out only when the toilet was flushed. I tried not to think about why the two events happened at the same time.
At the two hotels we stayed at the night shift slept at the hotel. You could see them sleeping on a mattress or cot either in front or behind the desk. That means a request for a wake up call is useless because the night staff is asleep while customers are sleeping. The first hotel was located inside a 6-story structure, the first story being a large appliance store. You had to walk to the back of the store to get to the stairs leading to the hotel. In the late evenings the store closes and the metal roll-down door prevents anyone from entering. If you are out for a late night you have to open the mail slot and yell\bang hoping that the night staff that is sleeping on the second floor in front of the hotel desk can hear you to open the door.
Uncle’s farmhouse was located in Ben Tre. There is a small, well-maintained road that leads back his home. The road is large enough for two motor scooters to simultaneously travel. The area is lush with foliage, fruit and coconut trees. The area is by the river. There are also lots of ponds of standing water around, perfect for breeding mosquitoes. Being so close to sea level I wonder what happens when the monsoon season comes. The structure is fairly large for the area, about 50’x20’ with one bedroom, a bathroom and a covered kitchen annex. It has three-inch exterior walls and a sheet metal roof. Other than being covered by a grate to prevent intruders the windows are completely open to the exterior environment. The kitchen annex is best described as a covered patio with a large iron stove that burn anything you put into it as fuel. The bathroom had a toilet and a floor drain (no sink). Water is boiled on the stove so that warm water is available in one bucket to mix with the cold water from the other bucket. So each pitcher of water used for the “shower” is a different temperature depending on how good you are at mixing the two solutions. Brushing your teeth works the same way; you just fire away at the floor drain and rinse it afterwards. At night mosquito nets are set up around the sleeping areas.
Cousin’s place was significantly smaller and much poorer construction. The front room’s walls are made of 1”x6” boards with many inches between them exposing the exterior environment. The roof is sheet metal. The entire place is smaller than my one car garage. I have seen barns and sheds in the US of better construction, it is sad to know that hard working members of the family live in such poverty. My guess is the difference is between Uncle’s house and Cousin’s house is having foreign money sponsoring the construction versus all local earnings.
At the two hotels we stayed at the night shift slept at the hotel. You could see them sleeping on a mattress or cot either in front or behind the desk. That means a request for a wake up call is useless because the night staff is asleep while customers are sleeping. The first hotel was located inside a 6-story structure, the first story being a large appliance store. You had to walk to the back of the store to get to the stairs leading to the hotel. In the late evenings the store closes and the metal roll-down door prevents anyone from entering. If you are out for a late night you have to open the mail slot and yell\bang hoping that the night staff that is sleeping on the second floor in front of the hotel desk can hear you to open the door.
Uncle’s farmhouse was located in Ben Tre. There is a small, well-maintained road that leads back his home. The road is large enough for two motor scooters to simultaneously travel. The area is lush with foliage, fruit and coconut trees. The area is by the river. There are also lots of ponds of standing water around, perfect for breeding mosquitoes. Being so close to sea level I wonder what happens when the monsoon season comes. The structure is fairly large for the area, about 50’x20’ with one bedroom, a bathroom and a covered kitchen annex. It has three-inch exterior walls and a sheet metal roof. Other than being covered by a grate to prevent intruders the windows are completely open to the exterior environment. The kitchen annex is best described as a covered patio with a large iron stove that burn anything you put into it as fuel. The bathroom had a toilet and a floor drain (no sink). Water is boiled on the stove so that warm water is available in one bucket to mix with the cold water from the other bucket. So each pitcher of water used for the “shower” is a different temperature depending on how good you are at mixing the two solutions. Brushing your teeth works the same way; you just fire away at the floor drain and rinse it afterwards. At night mosquito nets are set up around the sleeping areas.
Cousin’s place was significantly smaller and much poorer construction. The front room’s walls are made of 1”x6” boards with many inches between them exposing the exterior environment. The roof is sheet metal. The entire place is smaller than my one car garage. I have seen barns and sheds in the US of better construction, it is sad to know that hard working members of the family live in such poverty. My guess is the difference is between Uncle’s house and Cousin’s house is having foreign money sponsoring the construction versus all local earnings.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Vietnam-Silence is golden
The streets are a constant roar of from the motorbikes and other traffic. There is a primitive form of advertisement that occurs in this constant roar. In Nha Trang I heard a car coming from many blocks away. By the time it was two blocks away it was already deafening, clearly above the 90 db required to cause hearing damage. I retreated into the store and covered my ears as it continued to approach. The car was mounted with two huge 5’ bullhorns that it was using to spew out the deafening message. After it passed by the second time I realized why I had not seen anything like it in the US. It is highly ineffective advertisement and they would have been fined for disturbing the peace or something.
In the places speakers are installed such as theme parks they like to use one large speaker and blast the noise instead of separating the delivering into multiple locations of smaller volume.
In the places speakers are installed such as theme parks they like to use one large speaker and blast the noise instead of separating the delivering into multiple locations of smaller volume.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Vietnam-Pollution, Trash
When I arrived at about 11 PM I was taken to a restaurant. There were paper napkins, vegetable, bottle caps, cans and all other sorts of rubbish on the floor. I have seen two or three places like it the US and have turned around and walked out the door. I even dare to say most, of the restaurants in here are like this. In one place I even saw a pet bird about 2 feet from (and above) the food. Birds are infamous Salmonella (food borne infection) carriers.
I would see not only the customers but the shop employees dumping trash on the floor. Servers would pop the cap off a drink straight onto the floor. Cooks would drop finished beverage containers onto the floor.
When one leaves the city you will see trash all over the roadside, from my observations this is the fault of both the travelers and the residents. They even throw it into their water supply.
My initial impression was that the people had to know what was going on and the long term effect, but they simply didn't care. In my quest towards understanding then was more focused to determine if it was a sense of resignation or if it was something else. As I watched overall behaviors I start to think that for many people this is how it has always been, perhaps that they do not even understand that there could be something better if the environment was cleaner.
I would see not only the customers but the shop employees dumping trash on the floor. Servers would pop the cap off a drink straight onto the floor. Cooks would drop finished beverage containers onto the floor.
When one leaves the city you will see trash all over the roadside, from my observations this is the fault of both the travelers and the residents. They even throw it into their water supply.
My initial impression was that the people had to know what was going on and the long term effect, but they simply didn't care. In my quest towards understanding then was more focused to determine if it was a sense of resignation or if it was something else. As I watched overall behaviors I start to think that for many people this is how it has always been, perhaps that they do not even understand that there could be something better if the environment was cleaner.
Vietnam - Pollution, Air
Vietnam - Pollution, Air
One of the first things that will hit you when you come here from the US is the exhaust fumes and other air pollution. While it is very similar to what I have experienced in the other 6 Asian cities I have been to the difference for me was that there was escape in this situation. My initial reaction has been that these are poor countries that can not afford the expenses of pollution control on their vehicles, factories and other habits. I also figured that people may get used to it too. I still think both of those points are still pieces of the puzzle and have expanded beyond that during my time here.
I spend about 6 hours on the back of a motorbike during my trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and then down to Ben Tre. To add to that the driver was also a smoker so I got a bonus dose of pollution. There were many fires burning near the roadside, I believe that these are because there is no trash disposal. At the farmhouse in Ben Tre they had an annex kitchen that used an iron stove that burned any fuel available. That fuel may have been coconut leaves, husks, stems, various vegetation or possibly even trash. The problem was that the design was poor and did not provide enough venues for the smoke and gases so a good portion of it went back into the house. The next day we went around on motor bikes again and finally returned in private car that a cousin arranged for us. Unfortunately the car was not properly sealed so the exhaust was coming in the back of the car for all 3 hours. When I got back to Saigon there was a heavy smoker in the room next door, 3 feet away. We were separated by a sliding door in each room. So the whole room smelled like smoke.
By this time my senses were fried, I could not smell or taste anything except pollution. I think this validates my initial impression that people especially smokers do not even really notice the pollution. These 3 days of severe air pollution exposure would also mark the start of my health failure, which I never recovered from while in the country.
One of the first things that will hit you when you come here from the US is the exhaust fumes and other air pollution. While it is very similar to what I have experienced in the other 6 Asian cities I have been to the difference for me was that there was escape in this situation. My initial reaction has been that these are poor countries that can not afford the expenses of pollution control on their vehicles, factories and other habits. I also figured that people may get used to it too. I still think both of those points are still pieces of the puzzle and have expanded beyond that during my time here.
I spend about 6 hours on the back of a motorbike during my trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and then down to Ben Tre. To add to that the driver was also a smoker so I got a bonus dose of pollution. There were many fires burning near the roadside, I believe that these are because there is no trash disposal. At the farmhouse in Ben Tre they had an annex kitchen that used an iron stove that burned any fuel available. That fuel may have been coconut leaves, husks, stems, various vegetation or possibly even trash. The problem was that the design was poor and did not provide enough venues for the smoke and gases so a good portion of it went back into the house. The next day we went around on motor bikes again and finally returned in private car that a cousin arranged for us. Unfortunately the car was not properly sealed so the exhaust was coming in the back of the car for all 3 hours. When I got back to Saigon there was a heavy smoker in the room next door, 3 feet away. We were separated by a sliding door in each room. So the whole room smelled like smoke.
By this time my senses were fried, I could not smell or taste anything except pollution. I think this validates my initial impression that people especially smokers do not even really notice the pollution. These 3 days of severe air pollution exposure would also mark the start of my health failure, which I never recovered from while in the country.
Vietnam- Traffic
Navigating traffic here can best be described as continuously playing a slow motion game of chicken. There are thousands of motor scooters at any intersection, mixed with cars and trucks. The motor scooters pay very little attention the stop lights, the cars sometimes stop for them and trucks usually obey them. They have crosswalks painted but no one pays attentions to those either so the pedestrians enter the fray at their peril. I wonder why they waste the money on the paint (the labor is really cheap so they probably don't care about that). Put that amalgamation together and you will end up with a real mess when a couple of cars or trucks get caught in the middle between lights.
About 1% of the vehicles drive on the "wrong side of the road" meaning they are driving counter traffic on the same side that the traffic is traveling in the other direction. When one attempts to turn in a vehicle or cross the street on foot it is a matter of slowly continuously moving across the street. The hope is that people will go around you because it is very rare to actually find an opening in the traffic to cross the street. A few people will use the hand like a policeman's stop sign meaning that they have no intention of stopping, please don't run into them.
What saves them is that the traffic only moves at 30 km/h here. That is slow enough for people to stop. On the highways is that the max speed is 50-80 km/h depending on the size of the vehicle. Ironically the larger the vehicle is the faster it is allowed to go. This makes road trips very slow.
About 1% of the vehicles drive on the "wrong side of the road" meaning they are driving counter traffic on the same side that the traffic is traveling in the other direction. When one attempts to turn in a vehicle or cross the street on foot it is a matter of slowly continuously moving across the street. The hope is that people will go around you because it is very rare to actually find an opening in the traffic to cross the street. A few people will use the hand like a policeman's stop sign meaning that they have no intention of stopping, please don't run into them.
What saves them is that the traffic only moves at 30 km/h here. That is slow enough for people to stop. On the highways is that the max speed is 50-80 km/h depending on the size of the vehicle. Ironically the larger the vehicle is the faster it is allowed to go. This makes road trips very slow.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Vietnam-Homecoming
A few minutes into the flight from Saigon I can feel the effects that the air processing systems are having on the air. My sinuses start to dry up and clear out the congestion that the wet polluted air that had inflicted on me. I could breath again! They say that smokers start to repair lung tissue as soon as they stop smoking. It may have been partially psychological but I think that the drier cleaner air really did help. I am usually a healthy creature but that environment completely wrecked my system.
24 hours after leaving tropical Saigon I arrive at the CVG airport to be greeted by flurries, no luggage (which I won't get before tomorrow), and no taxies even after I call for one. We soar home at the wonderfully not congested highway as speeds the awesome highway speeds of the Cincy. I live in the northwest of downtown (technically I don't live downtown). As we roll into the outskirts of downtown there are only a handful of cars and no pedestrians roaming around in the cold. This is a drastic contrast from the extremely noisy 30 km/hr bustle of Saigon.
There have been times when I had thought that a few more people\shops right by my house. I am now very happy that the revitalization of downtown is happening half a mile from my house. I appreciate more than ever that there are relatively few people and noise in my area of town. Sure that revitalization could easily spread over to my area but that will be a few years, by then who know I might have a need to become a surbanite.
I arrive home to a 45 degree house and can see my breath. That is the maximum temperature you should have a refrigerator at, it is also a fairly safe temperature to make sure you pipes don't freeze in the basment. It's good to be home.
24 hours after leaving tropical Saigon I arrive at the CVG airport to be greeted by flurries, no luggage (which I won't get before tomorrow), and no taxies even after I call for one. We soar home at the wonderfully not congested highway as speeds the awesome highway speeds of the Cincy. I live in the northwest of downtown (technically I don't live downtown). As we roll into the outskirts of downtown there are only a handful of cars and no pedestrians roaming around in the cold. This is a drastic contrast from the extremely noisy 30 km/hr bustle of Saigon.
There have been times when I had thought that a few more people\shops right by my house. I am now very happy that the revitalization of downtown is happening half a mile from my house. I appreciate more than ever that there are relatively few people and noise in my area of town. Sure that revitalization could easily spread over to my area but that will be a few years, by then who know I might have a need to become a surbanite.
I arrive home to a 45 degree house and can see my breath. That is the maximum temperature you should have a refrigerator at, it is also a fairly safe temperature to make sure you pipes don't freeze in the basment. It's good to be home.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Disappearing guest
In the freshly fallen snow this morning I saw a set of paw prints leading up to my front door. The last paw print ended about 3 inches from my front door. No other tracks could be seen on my staircase, surrounding bushes, flower pots etc. They did not look like bird prints so I ruled out flight. I wonder where that animal went and how it got away without leaving any prints.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Atlanta Perks
In Atlanta I get upgraded to a full size Dodge Charger, because I am a member of National’s Emerald Club. I quickly learn that it has a lot more power than my little Carolla and takes more effort to keep in the lane because of the size and power difference.
When I travel I try to do things that I can not do at home. I arrived late and started seeking out Vietnamese food, that is something that Cincy really does not have. The GPS was able to find a restaurant but it doesn’t know if it is open or not. Since it is 9PM on Sunday Lunar New Year’s Eve the restaurant was closed. There is a Latino pool hall next door and I end up having an authentic Mexican sandwich for Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner. I arrive at the Factory at 10:30 PM and wander around the parking lot in the dark. Both security shacks are vacant so I end up calling into the factory to get someone to let me in, thank goodness for cell phones and good planning on my part. The boilers are not functioning properly so I setup a mobile office and do computer work while I am waiting. As the it hits midnight, the turn of the new year all the e-mail messages are shifted from the “today” box to the “last week” box. It is strange to be cranking away and everything you have been working on for the past hour happened “last week” because it became Monday. At about 3 AM I give up and decide that the boilers are not going to work anytime soon so I go to the hotel to sleep. At 6 AM I receive a call and let it go into voicemail as I slowly roll toward the other side of the room. The voicemail says that the boilers and they expect me to be at the factory at 6:30. I smirk because it is a 15-minute drive into the factory and I have to get checked out and dress in 15 minutes. When I arrive at the factory I am told that I get to wait for our product to make it to the front of the queue. At about 10 AM we get started. I am glad that they expected me there at 6:30, surely I would have gotten sluggish if I didn’t have that 3.5 hours to get warmed up to help them with the new product. This may be a bit extreme for the people reading from outside the industry. Unfortunately this happens very often, in all of the various organizations I have worked for\with. The one redeeming thing is that my presence there made a difference.
I leave the factory to go to another hotel that is much closer to the airport so that I don’t have to get up as early in the morning. At the front desk they give me a cookie and a box of chocolates because I am a Hilton Honors member. Thing is I didn’t even realize that Doubletree was part of Hilton, but who was I to argue with a warm cookie and chocolates. My room is by the elevator and I get a knock on the door with someone saying it is room service. I tell them through the door that I didn’t order room service and they say that they have a gift for me. In my younger day I would have opened the door, before hearing another traveler’s tale. I heard a story where the guest was stabbed; robbed and bound by an intruder that forced his way in when the door was opened. So I looked through the peephole, which does not give enough visibility to really tell anything other than that it was a black dude that was probably bigger than I was. I asked him to leave it outside the door. As I watched him leave and heard him knock on the next door saying “Room service!” I unbolted my door and stopped. My sense of caution said that it could still be a rouse he could just be pretending to have gone away and awaiting the door to open. So I called the front desk and asked them if they had anyone delivering “gifts” to guests under the call of “room service”. The front desk knows nothing about it and the manager comes up to investigate. The delivery person sounds like he is a few doors down now so I crack the door grab the bag. It turns out to be a tin with Doubletree cookies. The note inside says it is a thank you for being a Hilton Honors member. How about that a box of chocolates, a cookie at check in and a tin of cookies delivered to your room just for being a Hilton Honors member? I think they could have not freaked out the guests by either giving the tin of cookies at the front desk or giving us warning that someone was coming.
I go and sleep for a couple hours awaken by call from California from a person who keeps a bit of an unusual schedule. I look on the internet and find a place to go swing dancing that night and then leave the hotel in search of some Vietnamese food for Lunar New Year’s day. Again after a half-hour of driving I show up to another restaurant that is closed next to another pool hall. So no Asian food for me New Year’s Eve or Day. When I make it out to the Swing dance I realize that I am far too tired to really even be interesting in expending the energy to dance with the ladies.
When I travel I try to do things that I can not do at home. I arrived late and started seeking out Vietnamese food, that is something that Cincy really does not have. The GPS was able to find a restaurant but it doesn’t know if it is open or not. Since it is 9PM on Sunday Lunar New Year’s Eve the restaurant was closed. There is a Latino pool hall next door and I end up having an authentic Mexican sandwich for Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner. I arrive at the Factory at 10:30 PM and wander around the parking lot in the dark. Both security shacks are vacant so I end up calling into the factory to get someone to let me in, thank goodness for cell phones and good planning on my part. The boilers are not functioning properly so I setup a mobile office and do computer work while I am waiting. As the it hits midnight, the turn of the new year all the e-mail messages are shifted from the “today” box to the “last week” box. It is strange to be cranking away and everything you have been working on for the past hour happened “last week” because it became Monday. At about 3 AM I give up and decide that the boilers are not going to work anytime soon so I go to the hotel to sleep. At 6 AM I receive a call and let it go into voicemail as I slowly roll toward the other side of the room. The voicemail says that the boilers and they expect me to be at the factory at 6:30. I smirk because it is a 15-minute drive into the factory and I have to get checked out and dress in 15 minutes. When I arrive at the factory I am told that I get to wait for our product to make it to the front of the queue. At about 10 AM we get started. I am glad that they expected me there at 6:30, surely I would have gotten sluggish if I didn’t have that 3.5 hours to get warmed up to help them with the new product. This may be a bit extreme for the people reading from outside the industry. Unfortunately this happens very often, in all of the various organizations I have worked for\with. The one redeeming thing is that my presence there made a difference.
I leave the factory to go to another hotel that is much closer to the airport so that I don’t have to get up as early in the morning. At the front desk they give me a cookie and a box of chocolates because I am a Hilton Honors member. Thing is I didn’t even realize that Doubletree was part of Hilton, but who was I to argue with a warm cookie and chocolates. My room is by the elevator and I get a knock on the door with someone saying it is room service. I tell them through the door that I didn’t order room service and they say that they have a gift for me. In my younger day I would have opened the door, before hearing another traveler’s tale. I heard a story where the guest was stabbed; robbed and bound by an intruder that forced his way in when the door was opened. So I looked through the peephole, which does not give enough visibility to really tell anything other than that it was a black dude that was probably bigger than I was. I asked him to leave it outside the door. As I watched him leave and heard him knock on the next door saying “Room service!” I unbolted my door and stopped. My sense of caution said that it could still be a rouse he could just be pretending to have gone away and awaiting the door to open. So I called the front desk and asked them if they had anyone delivering “gifts” to guests under the call of “room service”. The front desk knows nothing about it and the manager comes up to investigate. The delivery person sounds like he is a few doors down now so I crack the door grab the bag. It turns out to be a tin with Doubletree cookies. The note inside says it is a thank you for being a Hilton Honors member. How about that a box of chocolates, a cookie at check in and a tin of cookies delivered to your room just for being a Hilton Honors member? I think they could have not freaked out the guests by either giving the tin of cookies at the front desk or giving us warning that someone was coming.
I go and sleep for a couple hours awaken by call from California from a person who keeps a bit of an unusual schedule. I look on the internet and find a place to go swing dancing that night and then leave the hotel in search of some Vietnamese food for Lunar New Year’s day. Again after a half-hour of driving I show up to another restaurant that is closed next to another pool hall. So no Asian food for me New Year’s Eve or Day. When I make it out to the Swing dance I realize that I am far too tired to really even be interesting in expending the energy to dance with the ladies.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Standard of living
A key point of fiscal management is living beneath one’s means. Thus having a cushion for emergencies, investments and savings. I think my ability to do this exceptionally well stemmed from being an immigrant that had two extremely hard working parents. They worked multiple jobs simultaneously and were able to do things for four hungry kids that I would never have been able to do nearly as well. Seeing them work 16 hours a days so that we could eat made helped me understand why I could not have a lot of things that I wanted as a child. I think that cleaning other people’s houses for money at the age of 6 also helped me with this appreciation. As I got slightly older into my mid elementary school years I stopped asking for things because usually the answer was no and I understood why. It was simpler to not desire things I did not need.
My good friend in college called me the king of owning nothing. I left college with 8 boxes that I shipped and a carload of stuff. In retrospect many of those boxes were books from college that I probably did not need. When I left St. Louis I had 2000 # of stuff in my one bedroom apartment. The mover asked if I was a bachelor, I asked if it was that obvious. He said that the average one bedroom apartment has 5000# of stuff. I left my 3 bedroom house in California with 2500# of stuff. Now I have a chainsaw and other interesting lawn tools, saws and other stuff that I have very little use for in a townhouse. Alas, I am amassing more and more junk.
In California my ex-girlfriend had bought me 2 folding chairs with cushions because she thought I was too Spartan (though she did not say so). Apparently the uncushioned folding chairs I had were not good enough.
I know used to I have a very high tolerance for not having comforts or pretty things. These are things that many would consider necessities, the same people may never have lived a Spartan lifestyle though. My life seems to be transitioning to one that requires more…luxuries. As I travel more and more of the world I have seen a lot of hostels with a vast range of lack of amenities. The ones that are heavily lacking bother me much more than they used to.
When I got to Cincinnati I lived in a very bad part of town in a dump for a few weeks. I was forced into this situation because I was waiting on a real estate deal and did not want to pay $2000 a month for temporary housing, this was one of the few places that would allow me to go month to month. I cut and ran before the month was over accepting the loss as sunk costs. The bathroom with the ceiling falling on me while I was in the shower and the banging pipes that woke me up every night were too much for even me to deal with.
This weekend I bought a $40 leather chair and I really like it. A few years ago I would not have done this unless a girlfriend asked me to. A few years ago my butt would not have gotten stiff from sitting on the cushioned folding chair. I started wondering what has brought about these changes. Am I getting soft? Perhaps I am just getting old.
My good friend in college called me the king of owning nothing. I left college with 8 boxes that I shipped and a carload of stuff. In retrospect many of those boxes were books from college that I probably did not need. When I left St. Louis I had 2000 # of stuff in my one bedroom apartment. The mover asked if I was a bachelor, I asked if it was that obvious. He said that the average one bedroom apartment has 5000# of stuff. I left my 3 bedroom house in California with 2500# of stuff. Now I have a chainsaw and other interesting lawn tools, saws and other stuff that I have very little use for in a townhouse. Alas, I am amassing more and more junk.
In California my ex-girlfriend had bought me 2 folding chairs with cushions because she thought I was too Spartan (though she did not say so). Apparently the uncushioned folding chairs I had were not good enough.
I know used to I have a very high tolerance for not having comforts or pretty things. These are things that many would consider necessities, the same people may never have lived a Spartan lifestyle though. My life seems to be transitioning to one that requires more…luxuries. As I travel more and more of the world I have seen a lot of hostels with a vast range of lack of amenities. The ones that are heavily lacking bother me much more than they used to.
When I got to Cincinnati I lived in a very bad part of town in a dump for a few weeks. I was forced into this situation because I was waiting on a real estate deal and did not want to pay $2000 a month for temporary housing, this was one of the few places that would allow me to go month to month. I cut and ran before the month was over accepting the loss as sunk costs. The bathroom with the ceiling falling on me while I was in the shower and the banging pipes that woke me up every night were too much for even me to deal with.
This weekend I bought a $40 leather chair and I really like it. A few years ago I would not have done this unless a girlfriend asked me to. A few years ago my butt would not have gotten stiff from sitting on the cushioned folding chair. I started wondering what has brought about these changes. Am I getting soft? Perhaps I am just getting old.
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