Kirk-isms

A little dusty in the homeland

2007-12-11T17:04:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well, wherever you are. It's certainly been a while.

It's been 20 years in the making. Yes, for the first time in 20 years, the whole fam is in the homeland! The last time we were all here was when my brother graduated from high school.

Some things still haven't changed. Heh.

Anyway, so we left on Friday afternoon (Eastern time) and we got here late on Saturday (Taiwan time). Travel time was 20 hours-ish? But this time I can't complain. My brother had to pre-fly an additional 2 hours from Massachusetts. So he passed the 24 hour travel marker.

This time, instead of taking the 3 or 4 hour bus ride to my parent's house in Taichung, we stayed the night at my cousin's house in Taipei. Which was definitely a nice break. It was good to see my cousin and his wife again - last time I was here was about 2 years ago - Which doesn't seem that long now, but it seems like it as I type.

So where was I? Oh yeah, so we visited with them for a bit, and then it was off to wash the travel filth off and get ready for bed.

Surprisingly enough I was able to fall asleep - I was pretty tired from the travel I guess. I was able to sleep some on the plane, but it wasn't quality sleep.

My brother and I were pretty fortunate - we got a whole row to ourselves for the majority of the trip (DTW to KIX). So we just spread out all of our stuff and were able to relax. On the second leg (his third) from KIX to TPE, the flight was pretty much full so we felt pretty sandwiched in.

Just in case you cared, the moves shown were (with random commentary):

Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause - Didn't bother. I think I was forced to watch it once before, but didn't really want to see it. I think I slept instead.
Simpsons Movie - Now this was laugh out loud funny. I watched the Simpsons when I was younger, but haven't recently. Spider pig, spider pig...
The Ultimate Gift - A surprisingly good, but very very predictable Hollywood movie. It definitely made me think. I never saw the trailer, but I figure you'd be able to derive the whole movie from it.
Bonus movie: Evan Almighty - I enjoyed this one - it was pretty funny. Steve C is great in it. This one was a surprise because there were only supposed to be 3 movies.

Anyway, so back to the story - Sunday morning, my nephew came and picked us up to go to a computer exhibition. It was more like a cattle herding, chaotic push-fest, where sales people are almost yelling at you and pushing flyers in your face.

Oh yeah, there were electronics there too.

I've never seen so many people at a show before. The majority of the time, you were pushing through hordes of people, ignoring sales people that were trying to sell you stuff.

We were a party of 5, and we had to make sure we all stayed together - Getting lost would not have been very fun.

So for lunch we went to the Taipei 101 building for some noodles. Unfortuantely it was in the middle of the lunchtime rush, so it was a zoo there too.

Except there was less pushing and there was food.

I guess I'm just used to my personal space, and saying "excuse me" or apologizing when you bump into people. Apparently you don't do that here.

So I stopped.

I just need to remember to switch back when I get back home.

So after the madness of the crowds, we went to the cemetery to see where my grandparents and one of my uncles are buried. Now that was kind of an experience in itself - because I'd never been to a Taiwanese cemetery before - so I have no idea if this was common or not.

So picture if you will a side of a hill - and in the hill are I guess what you'd call plots or tombs. It's kind of like stadium style seating, if you will. I dunno, without a picture, it's the best way I can describe it. Although it's not super orderly though - There weren't distinct rows and aisles. Just kind of randomly staggered, I guess. So yes, we had to climb through / over some other plots to get to my grandparent's.

And yes, I did say "excuse me".

We said a prayer for them, did a little housecleaning, and then we were on our way. We all had to do some climbing - so it was kind of dangerous at times. But we made it - And I was glad we did.

So later on that evening, my cousin took us to the National Taiwan University - that is where he teaches. We poked around the campus and took some pictures.

In the evening, we set out on the journey to my parent's house in Taichung. It was supposed to be a 3 hour travel, but ended up being 4 because of rush hour and bus schedule timing.

Man, I miss my own car.

The trip was pretty much a blur to me - I pretty much slept the entire time. So not much to report there.

My parent's place is pretty nice - it's got a nice view of the smoggy skyline. :)

Monday we got up and took it easy in the morning. My parents thought we'd be tired so they let us sleep in.

My brother and I were up well before 7. Jet lag rules.

So for lunch we went to this hot pot place - I don't know if you've seen Lost in Translation or not, but it's the thing where you get raw food and you cook it at your table where there's a pan with boiling water. But instead of bringing stuff to the table, you go up and get your greenery (mushrooms, vegetables, etc.) and seasonsings, then you get your meats and whatnot at your table through a conveyer belt system. Think of baggage claim at the airport. Little dishes filled with meat, seafood, and tempura are transported around the areas where people sit. You just grab what you want and cook it. At first we thought you just pulled the food off the plate. But we were kindly told that we were supposed to take the entire dish.

Whoops.

To be continued...

Questions to simmer on

2007-05-25T00:12:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I've recently been mulling over a few things, just for fun - No particular reason, just idle thoughts. Thought I'd share:

Would you rather have the Neuralizer from Men in Black (the red flashy thing) or would you rather have the power to do Jedi Mind Tricks?
If I can be allergic to dogs, can dogs be allergic to me?
Can dogs be allergic to other dogs, or maybe even perhaps itself?

Curious. Very curious.

-Kirk

Good morning, Mr. Sunshine

2007-03-26T07:34:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning.

I look forward to the spring and summer mornings when I wake to the sunlight peering through the windows at me.

-Kirk

It's been a while.

2007-03-24T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening. Anyone still out there? ;)

It's funny how sometimes we'd rather sit through a movie on TV, complete with commercials and editing, instead of getting up to put in the DVD of the movie that we own.

-Kirk

Heart full of unwashed socks

2006-12-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning. And having a happy holiday season.

I've heard You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch quite a few times in my many years on this earth. And honestly I've never really heard and listened to all of the lyrics. I just know the chorus, of course :)

So I was listening to the song last night (it was on the radio) and I heard this line:

Your heart is full of unwashed socks.

For some reason I thought it was the funniest thing ever - It made me try to listen to the song harder. So of course, I had to look up the lyrics...

It's pretty amusing. Check it out (again) when you get the chance.

-Kirk

New House Smell

2006-12-09T23:20:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening. It's been a while...

So they're doing some new construction at work - the people have been buildling out the 3rd floor. I absolutely love the smell of new construction. It's as intoxicating as the new car smell.

That's because new construction smells like progress.

Anyway, I got a good whiff of it on the way down the stairs on Friday. And I wondered why there's no such thing as New House Smell? We've got new car smell don't we?

-Kirk

unwritten cabbie rule

2006-10-14T05:55:00.002-04:00

One last thing...

I came back from Boston last night - lotta fun. I had a good time visiting my brother.

While I was in Cambridge I rode quite a few cabs. About twice a day. And not once did the driver have his or her seatbelt on. Never.

What's up with that? That was just an odd sight to see. Wouldn't that be like a welder who welds without goggles?

(Shrug)

-Kirk

2 words to dread

2006-10-14T05:55:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone,

Hope you are doing well.

At the security checkpoints, I am always a little anxious. Not because I am trying to sneak a water botle on or more than 3 oz. Of liquid. More because I dread hearing the words "male assist."

I would gladly take all the metal that I have on my body, take off my shoes, pull out my laptop,take off my belt, whatever.

Just don't tell me I need a "male assist."

I'm quite good, thank you. :)

-kirk

2 words to dread

2006-10-14T05:55:00.000-04:00

2006-10-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Long time no talk. I'm writing to you from Cambridge, MA! Very exciting. I've been here since Sunday, and all's well. I'm enjoying the conference - And learning some good stuff.

And of course, there's always good food.

So what's been going on as of late?

I was told by a game that my brian age was that of a 70 year old. Lovely. My brother has me hooked on that Brain Age game for the Nintendo DS. Not that I own a DS. I just want to play the game. Ever since the game taunted me with saying that my brain was aged and useless, I've wanted to get a DS of my own so I could "train my brain."

Not only am I crusty...

So let's see, what's been going on?

I finally watched Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. This movie is not going to win any cinematic awards, that's for sure.

But of course, I liked it. Not because of the catchy story line (let's settle it - with a race (snicker)), but of course, the cars and the drifting. The main character with the southern accent was mildly annoying too.

But of course, it's a must see for any ricer car buff.

-Kirk

Poor man's dual zone climate control.

2006-09-27T22:58:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well. Long time no update...

Some good news to report: I'll be going to Massachusetts for a conference the 2nd week of October, and then I'll be on vacation with K in Florida for the 3rd week of October :)

So I'll be out of the office for 2 weeks. Whoopee!

Trying to remember what's been going on as of late...

My brother was here last weekend fora quick visit. I didn't get to see him as much as I'd liked, but I'll be out there next (not this) weekend. So that should be fun. It was good to see him.

I haven't been out to Boston to visit in a long long time. Probably since 1998! I really can't believe it's been that long. Last time I was out there I visited H too (she was on internship).

It's been getting cooler as of late. And I'm loving it. I'm going to avoid turning on the heat for as long as I can. This has got to be one of my favorite times of the year. K, on the other hand, has threatened to turn on the heat at her house.

Please pass the water so I can pour it over the rocks...

I'm serious - Last year, every time I visited, it was like going to a sauna. I was always thirsty.

It was funny to drive around with her too - I'd have the vents on my side totally closed, and my jacket off.

And it was still too hot.

So today we were driving and she was cold - So she had the heat on, and I had the window open.

Perfect.

I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier.

-Kirk

aw or ac?

2006-09-06T23:51:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well. I can't believe it's almost been a month since I've written! Whoaaah.

So much to say, so little time.

Let's see, what's been going on. I guess I should finish my Mackinaw recap, huh.

So that following morning we took the ferry to Mackinac Island. If you were wondering, we took the Shepler's ferry. There's pretty much 3 main ferry lines. All are pretty much the same price, but the nice morning lady at the Super 8 hooked us up and let us use her internet terminal to print out a coupon. The night lady wasn't so nice and was mean.

The ferry ride was nice. We sat on the top of the boat, which was all open. It was nice and windy. A little on the cool side, but I thought it was great. Anytime I can get on the water, I love it.

The island was pretty much what I expected. No motorized vehicles, so lots of bikes, walking, and horse drawn carriages. I liked the idea of no motorized vehicles, but didn't like the artifacts of the horses, if you know what I mean.

Stinky!

After a while I didn't notice it as much, but the stink of horse artifacts stayed in the air like a cloud the entire time I was there.

We met up with K's friends and we poked around the island a little bit more. Checked out the cheesy souvenir shops and then we rented bikes to cruise around the island. Of course, we had to do the cheesy tandem bikes, of course :)

So having never ridden a bike in many many many years, we decided to ride more than 8 miles that day. That's one loop around the island. We did the whole circuit in less than 2 hours. We were riding at a comfortable pace. Not hauling ass, but not a lazy ride either.

It's definitely worth a trip back. Now that I have some experience...

That evening we went to a restaurant in St. Ignace - Again i don't remember the name. It's just down the main drag, and there's a train caboose attached to the restaurant that holds the salad bar. Very fun.

I had this crazy dish that was a big bowl full of steamed seafood in really really tasty broth.

That night we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express - St. Ignace Lake Front.

Yes, we were hotel nomads this trip.

I must say, the hotel's facility was probably the nicest one of the 3 hotels. It seemed to be the newest, and it had the best free breakfast buffet. Just don't be fooled by the lake front. I was not impressed. It seemed like a manufactured beach, and I would not have hung out there. The beach was surrounded by random grass patches, and there were seagulls and other birds all over (and of course, their artifacts too).

The view from the room was nice. Just keep your head and eye level above the beach and you're golden.

The next morning, we took a scenic coastline drive down 119 to Harbor Springs. The original intent was to go down as far as Petoskey, but unfortunately, time did not permit. We got to see a ton of nice properties (quite a few which were on sale) and drive down a single lane road which was quite twisty at times.

Plus I got to use the GPS on my laptop!

I know, I k now - nerdy, but I enjoyed tracking where we were, and actually used the map to reroute where we were going.

In Harbor Springs, we ate at this little diner. Again, I don't remember what it was called. But it was really cute and had quite a bit of character in it.

That evening, we poked around Mackinaw City. Checked out the shops, the outdoorsy mall, and then had dinner. We had a very memorable dinner. Pasties at the Mackinaw Pastie & Cookie Co!

Now I remember that :)

Good stuff. We could see why it was so highly recommended and awarded. Pasties good!

Just one quick note - driving across the bridge was quite cool. It seemed like the bridge went on forever. It seems like you're driving over water for a good 15 minutes. And when you look down through the grates, you see the water below.

Good stuff.

So for our last night, we stayed at the Super 8 Bridgeview. This hotel was pretty nice as well. Pretty inexpensive to stay. And our street level room had a beautiful view of a Nissan Armada full size SUV. Quite lovely.

But across the street, there was a park / public beach where you had a gorgeous view of the bridge. We spent some time looking at the bridge (I took some pics of course) and provided free blood to mosquitos.

The following morning, I did my yearly flight of my kite. It was quite nice to be able to get out and fly my kite. It only gets to stretch its wings once a year, so I always try to make it count. The public park across the street was perfect. I spent some time flying my kite, taking pictures, and just enjoying the sound of the water wash up on the shore.

Good stuff.

That's pretty much it. We drove down from up north after that. The drive home was pretty uneventful. I did notice that traffic got more crappy as I got further south, but thats' to be expected.

I know I want to go back up north. I hadn't been that far north since college when I was out there during summer school. It's cooler going there on vacation though :) Next time we go maybe we'll even stay a night on the island. We'll have to see.

I had a great time, but one thing's for sure, there's no place like home...

There's no place like home...

-Kirk

Mmm.. Fudge!

2006-08-09T23:26:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry about the abrubt cutoff - I think we were in a rush to go get dinner so I couldn't finish my blog entry.

I really need to go to sleep, but I'll write a little bit longer...

So where was I? Oh yeah, the St. Ignace Super 8. The view of the bridge from our balcony was very groovy, especially at night. Worth the extra 10 bucks (pre tax) for the room upgrade. We were on the second floor - The vew that you see on the website is most likely taken from one of the 3rd floor rooms.

The hotel backed up to a golf course so that was nice - green grass, pine trees, etc. Just don't look directly down. Nothin gross - there was brownish grass that looked like it was in need of a good watering.

That evening we spent some time at the pool and then we set out to forage for food (and cruise around the town to see what was around). It was perfect weather for cruising = saw the parts of town along the main strip (I think it was State Street), checked out a park along the lake, looked at a few restaurants, had dessert, and that was pretty much it.

As far as the Super 8 in St. Ignace was concerned, it was decent - I'd recommend it. Just plug your nose when you're walking around the hallways. The smells were differnet mixes of food, cleaning supplies, and uhh, other not so good smells that I won't mention.

The next morning we set off to the island...

(to be continued - gotta go to bed)

Bicycle built for two.

2006-07-30T19:13:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I'm writing to you poolside, utilizing the fine free wireless internet access from our hotel.

It's my first vacation away this year. We decided to meet K's friend (who is visitng from Japan) in Mackinaw. (Mackinaw or Mackinac, does it really matter?) Anyway, so yesterday we made the semi long drive up north. I think we probably drove about 5 hours or so.

This time, instead of taking my car (or K's), we got a rental car from our friends at Hertz. I signed up for a Ford Forkus, but instead we got one of the new Fusions. Apparently, at the location I was picking up, they didn't have Forki, so I ended up getting a Fusion (a free upgrade, the woman at the desk told me).

At first, I wasn't too happy about the upgrade. I was thinking, bugger car, crappier gas mileage, etc. But it turned out to be the nicest rental car I've ever driven. It's pretty loaded - Sunroof, leather, steering wheel radio and climate controls, trip computer, auto temperature control, heated seats (not helpful in the summertime, but still), the whole nine yards.

So then I didn't mind not getting the Forkus too much :)

As a sidebar, here's my review on the Ford Fusion:
It drives pretty nice. The ride is quite comfortable and feels pretty solid at speed. The interior is well appointed, complete with a swanky analog clock that reminds me of the Infinitis that they ripped the idea off of. The stereo has really good sound. I liked being able to control the radio and environment controls from the steering wheel. The trip computer was quite nice. I liked being able to see my average speed, miles to empty, and average fuel economy. Oh yeah, I also like the ricey style taillights too.

And now the things I don't like (heh)
The car's a tad underpowered. It feels like it's struggling on an on ramp, and it lets you know it because it's quite noisy). The steering wheel controls are nice, but it's just a cluster of buttons along the inner spokes of the steering wheel. The button face variations are very subtle - I found myself looking down to read the button every time I needed to control something.

I think that's pretty much it. The car was really comfortable to drive and ride in (I didn't hear any complaints).

Did I like it enough for me to buy one? Probably not.

But it did make me want to get a nice luxury car :)

Oh yeah, so here's the worst part - The driver's side door didn't lock with the remote. You can lock it manually, but if you try enough times, you can get the door to open anyway.

Lovely.

So where was I?

Oh right. So we drove up to the bridge, and crossed it. Got to St. Ignace around 5 ish. We did some touring around town, just checking out the sites to see and whatnot. It's a pretty nice (but rather small) town.

We stayed at the Super 8 - St. Ignace.

(to be continued)

New Tire Smell

2006-07-21T00:24:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I finally broke down and got new tires for the car.

I love that new tire smell.

It's gotta be up there with like new car smell. Now my garage smells like it too :)

On a nerdy car geeky note, I switched it up this time from the Dunlops and went with the Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S this time. So far I like them. Don't know if it's placebo, but I can tell a difference.

-Kirk

When dollar stores go bad

2006-07-19T23:23:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Went to the local dollar store by K's place yesterday. Like I've said before, I love the dollar store. You never really know what you're going to find.

Apparently, sometimes you win, and sometimes you get stinky stuff. Literally.

Parking all day long outside with the windows rolled up in the sun does not make for a good smelling car. Unless you have the infamous bake your arse leather interior, you're pretty much going to be reduced to a mildly stinky car smell once the new car smell goes away.

My car lost it's new car smell about 14 years ago.

Anyway, so the friendly neighborhood dollar store had quite the potpourri (no pun intended) of smelly products for your car. I'd had good luck with smelly spray for the house, so I figured my luck would continue with the car stuff too.

Not so much.

Along with other silly purchases like glow sticks, a nut cracker, and a soap dish, we ended up buying 3 car smelly products.

One was this "oil" based smelly liquid that was wicked into what looks like a very small tampon (to be honest, that's what it looks like) and the scent gets released to the air through magic.. It contained a clip that you could use to clip on to your air vent. I was a little skeptical, but K had purchased a similar product a while ago that worked pretty well. So I put my faith in the dollar store and thought I'd give it a try.

I chose "strawberry."

After leaking all over my hands and not clipping securely to my air vent, I was ready to throw it out. Very disappointed. Not giving up hope, I decided to take it home and put it in the kitchen. I figured it would be safe since it would just sit on the counter, and not be at the mercy of crazy starts, stops, and turns.

The story just goes downhill from there...

So then we bought these two little plastic containers of smelly gel beads. They looked super cool. Like salmon roe, but in fun tropical colors, and named scents like "melon" and "spring breeze." Not only did the gel beads look cool in the plastic container, but from the name, K and I had visions of driving off into the sunset, smelling of melon in my car, and smelling spring breeze in hers. (ok it may be the other way around, I kind of forget).

So ok, back to the story.

We opened up the green smally gel balls with "melon" smell. At first, it was ok, but then things quickly turned sour when it started to smell like old lady bathroom scent when you got too close. But eventually, that's all i could smell.

Not pleasant.

OK OK, so I have to admit, my faith in dollar store smelly stuff for the car had completely been destroyed. But I still had a flicker of hope, figuring that we just got a dud.

hmmm. if only we were so lucky.

So then K opened her container of sky blue "spring breeze" smelly gel balls. Again, it smelled ok for a second. Then it had a familiar smell that I coudn't really place. It took me a second, and then I knew exactly what it smelled like.

Urinal cakes.

Needless to say, we don't have any of these air fresheners in the car. I still have the oil based air freshener in the kitchen. Only bad thing is that you have to stick your nose up to the tampon thingy to actually smell strawberries.

So the moarl of the story, stay away from dollar store car air fresheners. No matter how cool they look.

-Kirk

End of the vacation glow

2006-07-10T23:50:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Just a few notes before going to bed.

Love the week vacation, dread the thoughts the night before going back to work. That's always a buzzkill, that's for sure.

But I had the vacation glow. All the way up until my afternoon meeting. Then, like a car screeching to a halt, the pre vacation crustiness returned.

Begin old and crusty.

For some reason, I've been addicted to diet soda pop. (notice how I threw both in there to be neutral).

I find myself actually craving it. I think it's the hot summer days, or just how I love salty food. But I will actually crave some soda pop just out of the blue. (shrug)

I am a big water fan, will always be. But there's something about a nice sweet carbonated beverage :)

-Kirk

Let's stay together.

2006-07-06T10:03:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning.

I'm on vacation all of this week and it is already half over. How depressing. It's been the first week I've had off since my trip to the homeland in December, and I absolutely love it. I wish vacation could last forever.

Now I just need to plan my next one...

Last week was not so fun. It ended better than it started though.

Just some music video musings:

I like the video for Daniel Powter's Bad Day. It's very cute and clever - Something that I miss in videos today.
What the hell happened to Def Leppard? What's with all these recent songs? Remake of a 90s song? Come on. What happened to the good old days where you poured sugar?
Christina Aguilera's Ain't No Other Man is catchy but the music video seems very familiar - Didn't she do a video like this already? Is this part two?
I've always been a part time Bon Jovi fan (liking some stuff, not others)- But Who Says You Can't Go Home is quite a catchy tune. I like it.
James Blunt has had 2 really good singles so far. His videos are rather unique so I dig them.

-Kirk

Adjustment

2006-06-28T00:31:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

i've been in a total haze as of late. Kind of going through the motions throughout the day, just not being the most productive cog in the machinery of the Man.

Today I went to the grocery store to shop for stuff - It was weird to buy stuff just for me.

-Kirk

Please please please

2006-06-26T07:28:00.000-04:00

Let last night's conversation be a bad dream and none of it really happened.

:(

-Kirk

Dollar power

2006-05-29T04:16:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning. And staying cool.

For some reason, I just woke up and had a blogging idea - so I thought I'd record it before I forgot about it, especially since my blogging ideas have been kind of sparse as of late.

Whenever i see a dollar store, I can't help but go inside. Which is what happened today. I know, it's probably just a side effect of my frugality. But I guess I just get a kick out of what I can buy for a dollar when the same thing is sold for many times more elsewhere.

Some of you may be thinking that the majority of dollar store stuff is crap. And I agree - some of it definitely is. I don't know how many ceramic "dust collector" figurines anyone needs at their place of residence. But see, there's fun stuff too.

Like multipack glow sticks.

But today, I found USB cables! Now by saying this, I know I've taken the nerdiness of my blog to a whole new level - but buying a usb cable for a dollar blows me away. I've been in the market because K needed a printer cable so I've been keeping an eye out for her. I was at the electronics store (the one where the logo looks like a big yellow price tag) and the cheapest cable I could find was $39.99. Yes, the cable was plutonium coated for maximum USB transfer, but come on, do I really need maximum transfer for a printer cable? I even checked online - the best I could find was $10.00 to my door because I couldn't make the $25.00 minimum for free shipping.

So it makes me wonder about cables and their markup. I wouldn't be surprised if the cables were made from the same factory located somehwere in China. One just came off the plain grey cable line, and then the other from the clear high-tech designer jacket line.

-Kirk

Mystery

2006-05-27T13:23:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well on this fine holiday weekend.

This morning I was thumbing through the local paper and there was a story about how law enforcement was "stepping up" efforts to enforce seat belt laws. Which made me wonder:

Are there still that many people out there that don't use seatbelts?

I just don't get it. Are they not convinced that seat belts work? Are these the same people that wouldn't wear helmets when riding a motorcycle?

The other day, I was out with K & Co. at Potbelly's, and there was a dude on his cell phone warning the person on the other end to wear his/her seatbelt because there were seat belt enforcement points along the way.

Nutty.

I know I know. It's a free country, it's your choice. But I have 2 words:

Natural Selection.

-Kirk

American Smidol

2006-05-24T21:32:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

If I hear another American Idol commercial, I think I'm going to puke. I heard that freakin radio commercial a few times going back and forth from work, and then 1 more time while driving to dinner.

Pure torture.

Congrats to the network and all the execs who are making big phat cashish from this thing.

I know, I know, I'm hatin - But can the network people make it sound any more like a bigger deal? Sheesh.

Anyway, enough with the gripes.

So what's been going on these past few weeks...

Just for shits and giggles, I went car shopping last week. I held off test driving anything until K peer pressured me into driving a Subaru WRX.

That car is nice.

I think I had a crazy grin on my face all the way home after that test drive.

We also went to the dealership that is supposed to be all friendly and non-high pressure - only thing is I was completely ignored, and the reason I went into the showroom was locked up with nobody around to open it up for me to peer inside.

Wanks.

We did visit a few other dealerships as well - I must say each was quite different. But I was hit with all yucky car salespeople stereotypes. Oh well.

Anyway, what else...

Why don't the clothing manufacturers standardize where they put their care tags?

Work is still work. I'm becoming quite crusty, sadly.

I need de-crustification. Badly.

-Kirk

Just tell me

2006-05-16T00:20:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Just one other quick thing...

Today I lost my corporate composure for a second. I was in a meeting and some people were talking about some report that wasn't immediately available for review. One guy joked around that the report was secret, and if he told us about it, he'd have to kill us. So I said (out loud)

Just tell me.

(silence) - Then everyone did laugh :)

-Kirk

My hump

2006-05-15T23:45:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Just a quick note before going to bed. Today we were in a meeting and we went off on some random tangent = talking about backpacking and riding alpacas. Which got me thinking. If I ever had to ride a beast of burden, I'd choose to ride a camel with 2 humps.

So I could lean back while I ride.

So gangsta!

-Kirk

Accumulation

2006-05-04T23:05:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening. Haven't written in a while.

Let's see, what's been going on...

We've been having some kick butt weather. A few days ago was the first time I rolled down both windows on my little car and had the radio cranked, disturbing the peace. Last night was the same story. I was especially happy because we normally just skip spring and go directly to summer.

I've recently begun rediscovering my mix CDs in the car again. Back in the day, I used to burn a mix cd every "season" and would play the crap out of it until I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. But once in a while I like to bring out the old collection and have a listen.

I made some good mix CDs :)

Last weekend I was up pretty early and took K's dog out for a walk. It's kind of wild how much longer the day seems (in a good way) when you wake up early on the weekends :)

It's been a long while since I'd been out and about that early in the day. It's pretty neat because everything's still pretty quiet in the neighborhood, and the air feels and smells clean. It's also nice and cool too so it's perfect walking weather.

Today I was all ghetto - went into the car ashtray to come up with 4 quarters to get a car wash. That's pretty sad.

I'm falling sleep so I'm going to sign off now. Talk to you later!

-Kirk

Accumulation of stuff

2006-04-24T00:16:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

It's hard to believe how much stuff I've accumulated over the years...

My parents recently had their house painted so I had to shift some stuff around because they were painting the closets too. Needless to say, I had to shift a lot of stuff. But I must say, it's kinda fun (and scary) to find stuff that you forgot you had.

But then you ask yourself some other questions, like:

Why do I have over 6 scarves?

(I actually have more, but just for discussion's sake)

Am I really going to be that stylish and wear all of them through some sort of rotation? No. I pretty much have my favorites, and I just rotate through those. Kind of lame, huh.

One day I'll have to go through all my old stuff and skinny it down. I do not look forward to that day...

-Kirk

Clear is good... Sometimes

2006-04-14T00:05:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Just a thought or two before bedtime.

I like stuff that's clear. I think it's just cooler. Maybe less stylish than stuff that's say, a designer color, but it's nice to see what's inside and see your money working for ya. For instance, I have this swanky tape dispenser that's clear. I can rest assured that it will go with pretty much any design motif, and will not really get tired of it quickly.

But today I found one thing that I will never buy clear again.

Garbage bags

I like clear stuff as much as the next guy (ok maybe more) - But I don't want my neighbors to know that I eat tv dinners all of the time, or that I'm getting over a cold where my nose was running nonstop.

One other thing. Am I the only one that is totally in love with the Pink RAZRs? I think it's totally hot. I still have yet to see one in real life though.

-Kirk

non magic touch

2006-04-12T22:19:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I'm not sure what the story is. I seem to turn into destructo man whenever I try to be helpful wih K. The other day I was filling up her car with gas and I managed to mess up the gas cap (it won't stay closed). Another time I almost broke the storm door because I tried to open the window all the way.

I gotta stop touching stuff.

The best part is she still digs me :)

-Kirk

Gimmie my 8 minutes!

2006-04-05T22:01:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

This spring forward time change business has really kicked my arse this season. I don't know why. On Monday I was sleepy all day. So sleepy that I was ready to take a nap in the parking lot before I went into the building. It was the same story Tuesday too.

This morning I was totally banging on the snooze button. I used to get up right away, without hitting the snooze, and now, even that extra 7 minutes I get feels so good.

Hopefully I can get adjusted back soon...

-Kirk

ooh! gimmie the complicated one!

2006-04-02T23:01:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Tonight I found myself at Target again, this time looking for some laundry detergent.

I stopped by to look at lamp timers - Last time they didn't have the really cheap analog one that I was looking for last time, so I was hoping the restock fairy had stopped by.

No such luck.

However, there was this crazy digital one that was twice as much as the super cheap one, and it featured over 20 different on and off settings, based on certain days or groups of days.

So yeah, I bought that one.

Of course, it took me a little while to figure out how to set the stupid thing, but now my lights will turn on at certain times on "school nights," and the on the weekends it stays on longer.

Kickass.

(I'll let you know if I programmed it correctly)

-Kirk

Clothes hug

2006-04-02T12:51:00.000-04:00

Although it is fun to put on a t-shirt that's just recently out of the dryer.

It's like your clothes are giving you a hug.

It's the little things...

-Kirk

More time, please

2006-04-02T12:38:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this weekend.

(whine alert)

I've never realized how much time housework takes up! Washing clothes, cleaning dishes, general cleaning up, organizing, etc.

It kind of cuts into the fun time for the day.

(end of whine alert)

I can't imagine how single parents do it.

-Kirk

Finger in the ear

2006-03-28T23:05:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Just a quick note or two before going to bed.

I have been a little sick the past few days. Just a cold I think. Nothing too crazy. Just your standard cough and runny nose, etc. But there's an added bonus this time.

For the past few days, I feel like I've been walking around with a finger stuck in my right ear.

Everything's kind of muted. Which makes for interesting conversation. I hear things totally different than how it's intended to be heard.

Hopefully it's not permanent.

-Kirk

March madness

2006-03-26T18:14:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well on the end of the weekend.

Is it just me, or does it seem more people are talking about March Madness more than usual this year? I don't think I've heard the word "upset" used more in the media than recently.

Let's see, what's been going on...

Today was the first nice day in a long line of cold days. It was nice to just wear a fleece for a change and not have to bring out the winter jacket. I actually took advantage of the nice weather and vacuumed my car out at the car wash. So the floors are once again clean as they were at the beginning of the winter season.

One thing of note, I was disappointed with the suction power of the vacuums - Back in the day (when I was in Ann Arbor) I used to use these car wash vacuums that felt like they could suck up the floor mats if you weren't careful.

Ahh, those were the days...

I can't wait for car spring cleaning to happen :)

-Kirk

Weak and forgetful

2006-03-18T10:37:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this weekend.

K gave up sweets for lent. To show support (and I figured it would be good for me) I said that I'd give them up as well.

Just for fun.

So far she's been pretty good. Me, on the other hand, I completely forgot about my pledge of support and had candy the next day.

And every day ever since.

So ok, I can say I've had reduced sweets.

-Kirk

Attack of the garbage can

2006-03-14T20:39:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Last night I was driving home, I got attacked by a garbage can. Not a plastic household curbside garbage can - It was one of those big steel "hey let's start a bonfire in one of these garbage can" cans.

I was driving home last night and all of a sudden, I saw it in the middle of the road. I swerved to avoid hitting it but apparently I didn't totally avoid it. I clipped it on the driver side door jamb so it scraped the hell out of my car and took the trim piece with it.

Lovely.

So today I gobbed some touch up paint on it (it's actually become touch up paste because it's old) to prevent the car from rusting on the bare patches- I figure It'll buy me some time until I figure out what to do in the summer time when it's a little bit warmer.

It kind of looks like a paint scar now.

A battle wound, if you will.

-Kirk

Can't please everyone

2006-03-12T22:52:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Unfortunately I am not my normal self today. I find myself in an unhappy situation where I feel helpless at times. One where I'm walking a fine line and I'm trying to please 2 masters.

It's just not that fun for me.

-Kirk

Scales are evil

2006-03-08T23:02:00.000-05:00

Next time I'm over there I'm going to steal her batteries.

-Kirk

The L Word

2006-03-08T22:13:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

First of all, just wanted to say thanks to everyone that continues to read my blog even though I've been extremely stingy on the blog entries as of late. It's greatly appreciated.

I feel very loved.

So let's see, what's been going on...

Work has been going on as usual. The amount of drama is par for the course, I guess. I should be used to it all by now, right? On a work-related note, I'm coming up on my 3 year anniversary on the 13th of this month. Can you believe it?

Sometimes it feels like 3 years, sometimes it doesn't.

I must say for the most part, it hasn't felt like 3 years, so that's good. That must mean I'm having fun, right?

Something like that.

My brother was here from last Thursday to Sunday. That was pretty fun. We did our normal nerdy stuff. Video games, car shopping, car tv shows, talked about cars, etc. It was very good to see him. One day I think I'd like to move closer to him (he's an east coaster). We've talked about how cool it would be to live closer together, but I don't know if either of us would actually make the huge change to make it happen.

(sigh) Stupid responsibility and inertia.

On the relationship front, things are going very well. It's not all wine and roses (or whatever that phrase is) but I think our relationship is progressing very well and healthily (made up word warning).

My relationships are never very easy. I'm not sure why

We've started making plans for stuff in the future, so that's a good sign right?

This whole "adult" relationship thing is quite new to me. I know if this were one of those college style relationships, we'd pretty much be together all the time by now.

But alas, we're not in college.

-Kirk

All dressed up

2006-02-26T17:31:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I know, I know, I've been totally delinquent on the blog posts. There's no excuse. As usual I've just been super lazy.

So what's been going on? Hmmm...

My dad came home on Sunday. It was good to see him - I haven't seen him since I was over in the homeland last December.

Work has been going ok. Not as much fun since K left, but we still sneak txt messages and e-mails back and forth, so she still helps my day pass by pretty quickly.

Sometimes I wonder where things are going between us. I'm enjoying her company very much. And the more time I spend with her, but more I want to be with her. Best of all...

She makes me smile.

Oh yeah, and giggle too. I know, I know. Cheese alert. But when we're together, I feel like we're just a bunch of kids.

Like I said, I'm not really sure where this is going. We haven't had "the where are we going / what are we doing talk" yet. But I'm sure it's going to be soon - It's about that time. Until then, I'm just going to enjoy what I have, and what will be will be.

Heh. In theory.

I must say, this has been one of the most healthiest relationships that I've had in my short history of dating. For the most part, we've had very good communication about everything. So far so good. We've shared the stuff that we're scared about, and many of our insecurities. And everything's been ok.

I have even met her mum.

For some reason, it wasn't weird like I thought it would be. so that's good, right? I think it's K. Her presence seems to put me at ease. She seriously relaxes me.

Like I said in my previous post - I'm a little scared as to how much she has an effect on me.

The final thing that she's been waiting for is almost done. It should be anytime now...

My brother comes home for a visit on Thursday. So it'll be super nice to see him again as well.

-Kirk

Withdrawal

2006-02-23T00:05:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

You get used to seeing someone pretty much every single day, and when you don't, it's not so much fun.

It's kind of scary when you finally realize how much influence someone has on you.

-Kirk

Resurfacing

2006-02-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Long time no talk. Hope you're all doing well. This has probably been the longest stretch I remember that I've gone not puting in a blog entry.

Today starts my 4 day weekend. We get Monday off, and I thought I'd take Friday off too because I needed a break from work.

Badly.

Work has been busy, but not terrible. I shouldn't really complain but I will anyway.

So let's see, what's been going on...

Chinese class has been going pretty well. I'm enjoying the conversational parts more than the phonetic pronunciations though. My mom has been using Mandarin words in our conversations to help increase my vocabulary too so that's been good too.

But I am still very far away from being fluent. If you want me to order an egg roll or water for you at a Chinese restaurant, I'm your man. Otherwise, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Last weekend my mom's good friend from Middle School came and visited us from London. For an entire week, she and my mom talked nonstop. From morning until night. On the weekend, I played chauffeur / tour guide and took them around to some of the local attractions.

Last Friday I got to see a whole new side of K - her competitive side. I thought it was great. It's funny how people can change when there's competition involved. The smack talk started early in the morning and went all the way until game time. We played this goofy dice game and I was able to demonstrate my poor skills of adding single and double digit numbers together.

(don't tell anyone - My Asian card may get revoked)

We played two games and then we called it quits. I had beginner's luck so I won both times.

She now owes me a victory dinner.

Later on we watched Wedding Crashers. It was pretty funny, but it seemed long at times. We watched the "uncorked edition" so I don't know what the difference was. Maybe there was extra footage or something. Or extra F bombs thrown in for good measure.

We spent a lot of time on the phone last weekend in the night going to morning (6 a.m.!). And now there's no question that she knows how I feel about her.

None at all.

And yes, I did find out the answer to my question too. Just not officially yet. And I'm quite happy with the answer.

There's a couple of things that she wanted to resolve before leting me know her official answer. And one of them is now done.

Just waiting for the other one now...

But even though I don't have the official answer, I'm very happy with how things are proceeding. :) If we were to ask the Magic 8 ball the question I'd say we get the response:

Outlook good.

-Kirk

A new meaning for post / A glimmer

2006-02-05T16:10:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're having a great weekend.

It feels like it's been quite the week. Although now that I think back, I don't really remember what's been going on.

I've decided that I'm going to be a crappy student no matter what I'm learning. Whether it's school school, guitar class, or Mandarin Chinese class. I'm still cramming to practice or study the night before.

Some things truly never change.

I'm still on my kick of unplugging in the evenings. But my computer/internet time is now consumed by random channel surfing on TV.

And talking on the phone.

So I don't know if that's any better. Whether it's sitting in front of a TV or computer, I still feel like I need to do something else.

Friday I partially slept through Corpse Bride and Must Love Dogs. It was sad - I was just too tired so I was in and out. But at least I saw the part of MLD that I missed while it was being shown on my trans-Pacific flight.

Last night I went to dinner at a Colonel's house. (no, not KFC). I accompanied K to a dinner party (I was her accessory) that was on a military base. It was kind of exciting. I got to see what life was like on a military base. Sadly we were there in the middle of a snowstorm so we didn't spend much time outside, nor did we get a chance to cruise around and check stuff out.

The whole military thing has always been quite a mystery to me. I haven't known anyone that's been in the armed forces, so I've never been able to talk to anyone about it. Although I guess I haven't been interested enough to look and find out for myself either.

(shrug)

We had a great time. It's been a long time since I've been to a true dinner party at someone's house (that wasn't a family friend or a friend of my parents). I thought it was really nice. It's one of those things that has been replaced by going out to dinner at a restaurant. I totally understand how it's more convenient (from a food / house preparation and cleanup perspective) but it's a type of gathering that shouldn't be lost - I think it would be fun to do it once in a while.

I don't know how many dinner parties I'll host in my lifetime, but I will definitely have to try it at least once.

Afterwards we spent quite some time talking. I kinda wanted to bring up my awkward question from last week, but I just couldn't.

For me, it was like there was a big pink elephant in the room.

Actually it was more like I was sitting on the elephant and it was throwing peanuts at me.

But again, the "right time" just didn't happen - I didn't want to have a tremendous buzz kill to a a very enjoyable evening. And I figured she'd give me her response in her own time, right?

When I was getting ready to leave, I had to go clear off the ice and snow that had built up on my car. As I was doing it, she came outside (with no jacket on).

And brought up my question.

We went back inside to talk - She didn't want me to think that she was blowing me off, but she wasn't ready to give me an answer yet either.

I was a little relieved to know that she was still processing her response and was going to get closure either way. I just let her know that I was totally ok with it and told her to take all the time that she needed. After all, I want her to be sure, right?

Until then, life goes on...

-Kirk

Still no answer

2006-01-31T21:45:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Another blog entry because I feel like it tonight.

A few things have been on the mind as of late. Ever since last weekend I took my leap (and never really found out how exactly I landed), it's hard to say (in retrospect) whether or not I feel better off than before. Obviously there's a huge missing piece in the equation, but I fear that I will never get the answer (without prodding).

It's odd when you can feel so comfortable with someone, feel like you can pretty much tell them anything, except how you actually feel about them.

And everything comes to a point where you want them to play a larger part in your life, and you want to play a larger part in theirs.

But something's still missing.

And I told her that I didn't want things to change if the outcome wasn't exactly what I wanted. Am I going to look back at all of this and think that I shouldn't have done or said anything? Just enjoyed what I had?

I still don't think I would have been happy.

-Kirk

The death of the can opener

2006-01-31T21:37:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Today I'm putting the can opener on the endangered kitchen tool list.

Slowly but surely, the can opener is becoming extinct. This tried and true tool is now being replaced by the more convenient pull tab lid where no tools are needed. I fear that the younger generations will never experience the fear of accidentally slicing body parts open, or the desperation of finding a can of something when you're really hungry, but no can opener.

Kids have it so easy nowadays.

-Kirk

Random stuff.

2006-01-29T15:49:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this weekend.

Let's see, what's been going on this past week...

Chinese class has been going ok. I didn't practice my pronunciations all week except for Wednesday night (night before class). So I've already begun to be a bad student.

And it's only the 2nd class.

I'm sure 8 week session will be over before I know it. The 3 hour classes don't ever seem to drag, so it turns out to be pretty enjoyable.

Friday I saw Last Holiday. Hmmm... It was just ok, but not too clever - There were some some good takeaways (i.e., lessons learned) and some funny parts, but the movie dragged at times. Unfortunately, it felt longer than the published 112 minute running time, which is never a good thing.

An interesting thing that I found out on Thursday - Last Hoiday is actualy a remake of a movie (of the same name) from the 1950s. I'd be curious to see that one, I think. From the IMDB link, it looks like the original movie was able to tell the complete story in 88 minutes...

Finally, just to spice things up, we watched Scream. Now this was a pretty good suspenseful horror movie, twisted storyline, with an unexpected (and odd) ending. But a few things. Instead of being scared, I started laughing during some of the "scary" scenes. And, what was the deal with the characters at the end? Why didn't they just die already?

If only I made movies...

-Kirk

Door number 2

2006-01-28T03:38:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

No matter how much clever pre-planning I do, no matter how well I construct sentences in my head to use later, it just never comes out right.

I think a 5th grader could have approached the topic better.

Taking my own advice, I asked the question that's been weighing heavily on my mind as of late.

I really didn't want to - there just never seems to be that "perfect moment." Plus, I'm a total wuss when it comes to asking the real questions that matter in relationships.

But I had to eventually take my own advice. I recently told someone that when you do stuff (especially when it comes to relationships) you have to do the things / make the choices that won't make you say, "I wish I would have done..." when you look back.

I was really enjoying what I had. But typical human nature, I wanted more.

I wanted to see what was behind door number 2.

I never got a response. I'm not sure I ever will. Inside, I'm pretty sure I already know the answer.

Nobody can say I didn't try, right?

-Kirk

Melvis

2006-01-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this weekend.

So there's this guy at work, right? His name is pronounced very closely like one of the upper managers. When you listen to the name spoken, it just has an extra consonant attached at the end of his name.

I was thinking that it probbaly is not very much fun. You'd have to hear everyone specially enunciate your name (or be asked to always repeat it).

It's like if your name happened to be "Melvis."

Saturday started out sucky but turned out to be quite nice. Unfortunately I got a call in the morning and had to do a few hours of work during the day.

Bleh.

I was up pretty late, so I'm kind of dragging arse today.

I saw The Terminal and What Lies Beneath last night. Both were pretty good.

I liked The Terminal - it was cute. I'm a little disappionted that Tom Hanks didn't get the girl (Catherine Zeta Jones) at the end, but hey, sometimes that happens, right? It's more of the experience along the way...

Or something like that.

What Lies Beneath wasn't bad either. It's not my usual genre of movie, so it was a nice change of pace.

-Kirk

You good?

2006-01-21T02:31:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning...

Just a recap from the past few days I guess... It's a tad late so please bear with me.

Thursday was the first day of my Chinese Mandarin class. The class was 3 hours - Luckily, it didn't drag and seem to last forever. I started becoming a clock watcher about 2.5 hours into the class, but for the most part it was very enjoyable. I'm actually learning how to pronounce stuff properly for a change, instead of just trying to imitate other people.

Overall, I think all the pinyin sounds (mandarin phonics translated into english) are going to be hard to master.

Luckily my mom can help me pronounce stuff if I need to.

Anyway, one of my fears did come true - I'm the only asian in the class. Oh well.

What else... I think I've officially turned into an old and crusty guy. I really wanted to leave the TGI Friday's restaurant after being there for about an hour or so.

It was just too damn loud.

Plus I was getting tired of trying to strain and hear the people that I was with. Where did we end up going for dessert where I felt the most comfortable?

The Man's coffee shop.

Nice and quiet, it was just what I needed after a day of noisiness.

-Kirk

"Research"

2006-01-17T22:56:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

So instead of just being an ignorant hater, I've been doing some television research... I wanted to see what the buzz was all about.

Last night I watched about 20 minutes of the Bachelor. I'm not proud of it. But like I said, I didn't want to just be a hater and just blindly diss on it. 20 minutes was all I could take.

But now I'm (slightly) educated and can diss.

So ok - I want to know how much of the dude's lines are scripted, and how much are his own words. Seriously, he's gotta be coached somewhat by the show producers, right? You know, to make sure he sounds like Mr. Suave, to stall enough for the proper suspense, to make sure he says the right things to make the laides swoon, etc.

Again, I'm not just hatin'. I'm just jealous that I don't get to be in his shoes.

Anyway, what else...

I watched a good port of the American Idol premiere today. I like watching the beginning of the season - When the judges are doing the mass eliminations.

Good stuff.

All in all, it make s for good conversation, I guess.

-Kirk

Mandarin isn't just oranges anymore.

2006-01-17T22:29:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I was looking through the continuing education catalog for some interesting stuff to take - Part of my whole doing something different kick.

My first choice was a creative writing course - Unfortunately I think it got cancelled because it doesn't show up in the online catalog anymore (it did a few days ago).

So I was thumbing through the paper copy of the catalog, considered taking an investing course, a yoga course, and something to do with a psychic, until I landed on....

Beginner's Mandarin Chinese.

So yes, for shits and giggles, I'm now officially registered to take an 8 week course in learning how to speak and be conversational in Mandarin. There's going to be some instruction about culture thrown in for good measure. I'm going back to my roots and keeping it real.

I just know I'm going to get funny looks on the first day of class.

My ancestors are smiling down on me right now.

-Kirk

Memoirs of a G

2006-01-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning.

I got the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack after seeing the movie - It's quite good. You can't go wrong with John Williams, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman.

You'd have to see the movie to fully appreciate the soundtrack though.

I really enjoyed the movie as well - some parts were a little umm, odd, but it was a great story and provided interesting insight into the whole geisha thing. (and no, sadly I didn't read the book).

The love story was very sweet as well. And everyone can appreciate a good love story.

Even though it was a little Celine Dion-esque.

-Kirk

Filtered or raw?

2006-01-13T18:34:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

To some extent, we're all actors in our everyday lives. We put on a facade and hope nobody notices what's really underneath.

Sometimes we hide hurt. Sometimes we hide fear. Sometimes we hide our insecurities.

I don't know if Ive fallen for the character or the actress.

-Kirk

Unplugged

2006-01-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

It's been a while since I've written because I'm going through an "unplugged" phase. Recently I've used the internet very lightly during non-work hours. My inbox has a bunch of unopened and unanswered messages.

I think I'm having an in between quarter life and midlife crisis.

Either that or I'm becoming a troll.

Maybe I'm just now experiencing the effects of turning 30. Like I still have much, much more to experience, see and do.

I just have to get off my arse.

Have you ever seen that commercial for the Air Force? I don't recall the exact wording they use, but in it, they ask the question, if someone were to write a book about your life, would anyone read it?

(again, not exact words, but that was my takeaway)

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I don't think my book would be much of a bestseller. And I don't think I'd read it. Don't get me wrong - I've done a fair amount. But my history is a little on the safe and protected side. And now I'm in a rut.

That's 10 feet deep.

I need a rut removal service. Badly.

So, I am going to be motivated this year and try to get out and do "more stuff" this year. And that is my New Year's resolution. There, I've said it. Oh yeah, I'm going to try and do "more stuff" that makes a difference too.

I just have to figure out what exactly "more stuff" means to me. I'll let you know. And you'll have to give me crap if I don't tell you.

Let's see, what else has been going on...

I think I'm going to stop watching music videos in the morning. I knew I had enough when VH1 played the Mariah Carey and the Kelly Clarkson song right after each other.

(sigh). It was good while it lasted.

Last Saturday, mother nature and the event scheduling powers that be were pissed at me and my plans for full disclosure were preempted. An evening that started out very well at the movies turned into a craptastic 2 hour drive (to go one mile) where we got separated, followed by me getting totally lost for another hour. Plus my mobile phone battery died too, so that was that.

Maybe it was a sign.

-Kirk

Music videos in the morning

2006-01-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're having a good evening.

This past Monday (when I was on vacation) I was having trouble sleeping in (heh) so I started watching some TV. And guess what.

VH1 and MTV show music videos in the morning. Imagine that.

I watched a good 2 hours of music videos, just switching back and forth between the channels. It was pretty nice cause I got to catch up on some recent videos. Unfortunately the music videos have the same issue as radio. I heard / watched Kelly Clarkson's Because of you pretty much 2x an hour, and then I heard / watched Mariah Carey sing her air blown video tune (I forget what it's called now).

So now that's my every morning ritual. I think it takes me longer to get ready now.

-Kirk

See you next year, Man's Tree

2006-01-02T11:54:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this gloomy morning / afternoon (it's almost noon).

Today we took dowh the Man's Christmas Tree. If it weren't for the ornaments, angel and garland, the tree disassembly would have taken less than 15 minutes. The hardest part was trying to get everything to fit back into the box :)

-Kirk

P.S. Just for the record "The Man's" isn't refering to the one keeping us down. It's cause the tree was so easy to set up / take down, and it was cheap. :)

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T11:17:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're having a great start to the new year and you're doing well.

Kind of a slow night for me - I was watching tv and then I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was 12:06 a.m. (ish) and the new year had already started.

Oh well.

In my usual annual tradition, I've changed the look of the site to keep things fresh. Hope you like it. This whole customization thing is starting to require more skill (and patience) than I currently have, so I pretty much used a template and just bumped down the text size a little so it looked a little less like the large print edition.

Although now I think the text may be too small...

Anyway, so a few things today...

I can't believe I've been sticking to my blog and writing in it (fairly regularly) since 2002. I wonder if I'll ever go back and read some of the stuff that I wrote. (shrug) Reading a little history and learning from it never hurt, right?

Last night I saw M and her husband J. We cruised the shopping mecca (the toity side) and I got to see how rich people shop. It's quite impressive indeed.

We were in the Bang & Olufsen store checking out the wares and we got split up. I was towards the back looking at a system and M was towards the front. All of a sudden, music starts just blasting at full volume - It was Outkast's I like the way you move. The music was clear and sounded great - The subs were pumpin and you could hear it throughout the store (I'm sure outside of it too).

Immediately M looks over and thinks it's me. :)

I must have some sort of reputation for listening to loud rap music. Heh. But seriously, for once, it totally wasn't me - I was framed! It was the yucky salesguy in the semi-enclosed home theater area trying to make a sale by playing loud rap music for an a little bit past-middle aged Caucasian couple.

See something wrong with this picture?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying middle aged Caucasians don't listen to rap music. I actually hope they do. But I'm just playing the odds. I'm guessing the sales guy got that reaction as well so then he whipped out and played the Norah Jones CD.

That's when I had to go have a listen :)

But again, yucky salesguy had it all wrong. You can't really blast Norah Jones. Her music's just not meant to be played that way. Plus he had some weird sound thing going on so the music didn't sound right (even though he was raving about it the entire time).

Anyway...

I also got to see my first pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes. I didn't try any of them on (heh), nor did I see what all the fuss was all about. (shrug)

But hey, everyone has to have a vice right? Shoes are definitely not one of mine.

The sun finally came out to visit today. I'm very happy.

Best wishes to everyone for a kickass 2006. :)

-Kirk

Ringtones rock!

2005-12-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

I forgot to mention (how could I?) that I've finally broken down and gotten a new moblie phone. I've finally joined the mobile phone trendies and am the proud owner of a Motorola RAZR.

Not only is it one of the best designed phones I've seen, it does one thing that I absolutlely love.

Custom mp3 ringtones.

Awww yeah baby!

Right now my main ringtone is the Motown classic, Ain't No Mountain High Enough - The duet version (but I don't know exactly who is singing. The original version featured Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.)

If you need me call me
no matter where you are
no matter how far...

-Kirk

Happy New Year's Eve

2005-12-31T16:14:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this afternoon.

It's een quite the week. Monday was off for the Christmas holiday, and then I had Friday off since I had to burn off vacation...

Not bad having a 3 day workweek.

Wednesday night I closed down my favorite Italian place. It was pretty cool. All the mood lighting that's usually dim was turned up to full intensity, signaling it was time for us to vacate the premises.

I got to try anchovies for the first time ever. At least I think it was the first time. I doubt I would have forgotten ever trying it before.

It's that... memorable.

All I can say about anchovies is make sure you like the taste of very fishy fish and salt.

Besides having my first anchovies experience, I had one of those times where you didn't want the conversation to end, but it had to because of work the next day.

Stupid responsibility.

It's been a while since I've had that - And it was quite nice.

I just need to work on my short conversation game. I'm just not doing something right.

-Kirk

The fortune that's good. And bad.

2005-12-27T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Tonight we met some family friends for dinner at a Chinese food place. And one of our fortunes said:

You will inherit a large sum of money.

Which is pretty good, right? You can't go wrong with money. But then you you realize it kind of sucks because to get your large sum of money, someone has to die.

Hmmm...

-Kirk

Christmas dreariness

2005-12-25T15:16:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well on this Christmas day.

Well, instead of a white Christmas we got a rainy one with residual snow that's not white, but turning into a grey / charcoal.

And where is the sun?

I need that big ball of fire to feel complete. It's only December and I'm already feeling the winter blues.

It's definitely one of those days where you just want to stay in bed all day long and listen to a Norah Jones CD (I recommend Come Away with Me). Which I am, just not in bed :)

I do feel sleepy though.

I still haven't been sleeping well ever since getting back from vacation. I'm still waking up in the middle of the night / morning to toss and turn for a few hours and try to go back to sleep. Don't know what's up with that.

Maybe I need to stop taking naps after dinner too.

On an entertainment note, I finally watched the whole thing of It's a Wonderful Life. I've only seen parts of it - off and on over the years. I was given the dvd for my birthday (because K found out I'd never seen it).

I realize the movie is a classic and is has been nominated / won many awards in its time, but for some reason, I didn't get the full effect of its worthiness. I wasn't sure what I was expecting honestly. But I know when I feel like a movie feels long, it's never a good sign... I think it's the flow of the movie. Quite a bit of time was taken to build up the characters, but the actual lesson learned seemed to be too brief.

I do have a disclaimer with my review though - I was falling asleep during the last half of the movie so I may have to revisit it at a later date.

But the movie was quite sad! Something that I didn't expect initially.

So yeah, that was last night...

-Kirk

And the music stopped

2005-12-24T01:51:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening. Well I guess it's morning now isn't it?

It's been one of those weeks where time goes by, and you're really not sure what you did or where the time went.

I was on vacation Monday so it was a nice extension to the weekend. Last weekend I threw off my sleep schedule by sleeping in until 3 p.m. on Saturday. It was kind of crazy. I was up for a few hours, and then it was dark.

It was kind of a drag.

Saturday I bought my magic home theater system. I've been waiting to buy this one for a while. It's an Onkyo HT-S780. So far, so good. This sytem packs quite a punch and has more speakers than the average human needs. It's a little overkill for a bedroom system, but I'll be strong and suffer...

So I was up till 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning installing everyhing. The system sounds pretty kickass though. My only gripe so far is the angel hair spaghetti speaker cabling that was kind of lame. It's like stereo boombox wire.

Needless to say, Monday I was pretty tired. I was lucky I didn't have to work.

Over the week I've been shopping and just doing the usual nothing :)

This evening I've managed close down and be kicked out of a Coney Island and a Starbucks. Not too shabby of a night.

-Kirk

Time for bed.

2005-12-19T01:41:00.000-05:00

So I did some shopping on Amazon just now. And I thought the "Where's my stuff" order information actually read "Where's my shit?"

Going to bed now.

-Kirk

Mister Donut - I love you.

2005-12-18T23:35:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well. I can't believe I forgot about Mister Donut in the recap...

Taiwan is a melting pot of different cultures. There's stuff from Japan, the United States, Europe, etc. But this trip my cousin helped me discover the wonders of Mister Donut. Please be warned that the Taiwanese site homepage has a rather loud sound clip so be warned. Behold the Taiwanese Mister Donut site. Here's a link to the quieter Japanese Mister Donut site.

And I've verified that it is indeed #1 in Japan :)

I love these donuts. If you've stopped buying donuts because they're too sweet (think of those evil donuts that have the initials of KK) - Mister Donut is perfect for you. In the store, there's a brochure you can look at when ordering your Mister Donuts. And there's a rating of how sweet it is (relative to the other Mister Donuts). Even the sweetest one is not super sweet according to American sandards.

Here's a look at all of the fine donuts you can buy. My favorite is the Custard French. But it's not just your run of the mill French Cruller. It's dipped in chocolate. And, it's got custard goo inside.

And yes, the goo makes it that much better.

Next I have to show you the Triple Chocola. This version of the Cruller is chocolate, filled with chocolate goo, and dipped in chocolate.

So tasty!

And finally, I had a Pon De Ring. Yes it does look like a teething ring. But I wanted to try it to see if the shape made a difference.

It does. It helps you gauge how much to eat at once.

Oh yeah, I've also had the Chcolate, which is pretty much what it looks like. A chocolate glazed tonut. Kind of like a chcolate donut hole, but bigger.

Mister Donut will be one of the reasons why I go back to Taiwan.

-Kirk

View from the top

2005-12-18T10:46:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

Back to the recap... Where did I leave you last? Ahh, The Taipei 101 building...

So my cousin, her friend, and I went all over the city. Before we did any shopping, I told them that I wanted to try some bubble tea from Taiwan. I've had it in Canada and the United States, but I wanted to see what the more "authentic" versions tasted like.

Apparently the stuff that we have in N. America is edited for our sweeter tastes.

The places we went to had never heard of fruit flavoring put into bubble tea. When I told my cousins about how we have "fusion tea" were it's green tea and some sugary syrupy flavor, they just looked at me funny.

So it's truly just tea. And sometimes milk tea. Don't get me wrong, it's sugared up, just not flavored with nice fruit flavors like green apple, kiwi, or mango.

I'm not saying that there's no fruit infused bubble tea in Taipei - I'm just saying that I wasn't able to find it (I had it twice).

Anyway, back to Taipei 101. So far it's the tallest building in the world. For now.

This particular part of town is very nice. It breaks the stereotype I had of Taipei. Everything was nice and clean, shiny and new. All of the surrounding areas had very posh shopping. There was even a movie theater! Many of these areas are connected by covered, open air walkways leading to the building itself. There were many young people around, but not as many as I'd expected (probably cause it was a weekday). Maybe cause it was a school night or something. But I'd say there were mostly people in their 20s to 40s? All the high fashion reminded me of when I was poking around Tokyo howevermany years ago.

So for dinner we met up at this restaurant on the 4th floor of the Taipei 101 bulding. I can't really tell you the name (because I coudln't read it) but I just know it had 2 characters in the name :)

So dinner was very tasty. But best of all, I got to feel my first earthquake!

I thought a train was rumbling by.

It was kind of funny - Everyone just looked at each other, confirmed it was an earthquake, and just kept on eating.

So that was the excitement for that night.

After dinner we went up to the observatory on top of the building and did the touristy thing - Tons of pictures and enjoyed the view.

the following day my cousin picked me up at 9:00 in the morning to go sightseeing. Our first stop was to take a train up north to an old mining town turned tourist area. Back in the day, it was a booming mining town until everything was gone (mined?) and many people left. Well, the town changed to a tourist attraction because of the mountains and the great views from the top. Tourism also increased after they filmed a movie there.

The vew at the top of the mountain was super nice. We ate lunch at a restaurant near the top. It was a little cold and rainy so we didn't eat outside - it was a bummer too because they had a very neat rooftop restaurant area. Anyway, I was still not feeling well so I had very little to eat.

One thing that was extremely helpful was that the menu was partially in english! I was getting tired of going to restaurants, looking at the menu (all in chinese which I can't read), and my dad asking me what I wanted to eat off the menu.

From the momuntain we could see the coastline as well. I tried to get some good pictures (which I should get around to posting, along with my DC and NYC pics from earlier this year).

Anyway, so we had to get a move on because we had many other places to go...

So we rode a train back to the main Taipei Main train station and switched over to the metro (the new-ish subway). We rode the red line all the way till the end to Danshui. We walked along the riverside and poked around the area.

Which led to the most favorite part of the trip...

Usually when I travel for pleasure I rarealy get homesick. Not like summer camp where you want to go home right away, but I didn't realize how much I did miss home until we stopped at the not very well known Seattle based coffee shop called Starbucks.

So there we were, sitting by the river, on the 2nd floor of the Starbucks on the outside patio. Drinking tea and coffee drinks out of real mugs.

On a cultural note, apparently the Taiwanese don't like using paper cups inside the cafe - It feels cheap and/or low class. So when you drink in, there's only one size - the standard mug size. Anything else you get the paper cup.

Who knew? In retrospect, I should have stolen a mug.

Anyway, so I had some Tazo tea (although not the same flavors at home), hung out, talked, and we watched the sun set. As it got dark, we could see tiny lights across the river off in the distance.

And that was my favorite Taiwan moment.

Being in Starbucks reminded me of home, and of course it's my favorite hangout. I couldn't have asked for more.

So after Starbucks, we headed off and went back to the downtown area (where we were the night before). Apparently, my cousin is a huge fan of Chili's. But sadly, her friends aren't - So she rarely gets to go.

The thought of getting something to eat other than Chinese food (In Taiwan, they just call it food) sounded super good - and my appetite suddenly came back.

Besides, I was really feeling the need for a salad.

The goofy thing was that if you didn't look at the people that were in the restaurant, you'd think you were at a restaurant in the U.S. Seriously - Even the tabletop tiles were similar (if not the same). There were quite a few caucasians in the restaurant too, which I thought was funny.

I'm sure they wanted an escape from "food" too.

Wednesday we returned back to Taichung from Taipei. It was nice to be back at my parent's place. We took the rest of the evening pretty easy. Did some light grocery shopping (for stuff to bring back) and ate at a really kick butt Teppanyaki place. (I also found out that the word "teppan" means the steel cooking surface, and "yaki" means stir-fry). I loved it - the focus was on the food - not the showmanship of the chef. There was no flinging of food, no clanging of cooking utensils. Just some really well seasoned vegetables and fish.

While I was staying at my dad's place, I fell in love with pineapple jelly on toast - so I had to make sure I bought a j ar back to the States.

So now this brings us up to Wednesday night. Thursday (all day) I went with my dad out to the countryside to see one of my aunts. She lives out in farm country where they grow Chinese radishes (or just "radishes") - Anonther not so good smell for me. :) We had to ride a train out, then a bus. Then we had to walk in the last part of the trip (about 15 minutes).

The last time I was there (about 4 years ago), all the roads were just dirt. This time, they were freshly paved. I know paved roads are a good thing, but it really takes away from the "countryside" effect.

Anyway, Friday my dad took me out shopping and sightseeing around Taichung. I've actually never seen too much of it - So it was nice to get out and walk around. Once again, shopping malls are shopping malls. And roadside stands are pretty much the same. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything.

For lunch, my dad took me to a Chinese place, but there was a twist - The menu was "Shanghai style." So that was interesring. We had this crazy pork dish that was really good, but I would have hated to see the nutrition statistics on it.

Saturday morning, we took the 4:20 a.m. bus from Taichung to the airport and I was on the plane by 8:30 a.m.

One thing's for sure, I can't say I was bored on this trip :)

Anyway, so the trip home was 4 hours shorter because of a pretty strong tailwind. I wasn't going to complain :)

On the way home, they showed 3 movies, but I only watched one - That Hillary Duff movie, The Perfect Man. It was cute, but kind of sucky and unrealistic at the same time.

They also showed Sky High and Noel - I had no desire to watch the first one, and I missed the 2nd one because I was listening to music and napping.

The trip home was definitely quicker. It felt really really good to hear those 2 words from the Customs guy: "Welcome Home."

-Kirk

How I got my Christmas groove back.

2005-12-12T00:23:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

One quick thing. Today I bought my very own Christmas tree from none other than Target. It's a baby 6.5 ft tree, prelit with white lights.

3 pieces. Setup took less than 5 minutes. I was lovin it.

-Kirk

Mind the generation gap

2005-12-11T11:14:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I got back yesterday early afternoon - I tried to stay up as long as I could but was starting to feel woozy after 5 p.m. or so.

I slept until 9 this morning.

It's nice to be back, that's for sure.

Anyway, let me go back to the recap...

Where did I leave you last?

So yeah, the hot springs experience...

Just to demo, my dad takes me into the bathroom to show me what hot springs water looks like - It's a good thing too, cause if I had no warning, the sight of the water would have had me running for the hills.

So apparently, hot springs water (in this context) is all natural, coming from source within the mountains that I was never got to see. I'm sure if I had my hiking gear on, I would be able to go to the source, but I wasn't that motivated.

And as a sidenote, I keep on calling it hot springs water because I'm actually not sure what to call it - and from my prior experirence, "spring water" is what eventually comes to me in bottles. On the other hand, pure unmolested hot springs water should never be bottled.

Ever.

Anyway, back to the experience. So my dad turns on the hot water spigot and this cloudy water first comes out, and then it gets progressively darker. If you wanted to make a hasty generalization, you could just say it's "muddy." But it's not mud per se - I'm sure there's a little natural earth in there for good measure, but the hot springs water is chock full of mineral goodness.

Cloudy, brownish-grey goodness.

So like I said, I'm glad my dad prepped me and let me know what was up. When you turn on the water (pretty much anywhere) you expect crystal clear water to come out right?

So let's see, the smell was a quite different as well - My first impression was it smelled like water that had a lot of iron in it.

Are ya grossed out yet?

Honestly, if I wasn't into trying everything at least once, I'd be really hesitant - But I had heard so much about how good hot springs water was for your skin, and how it's really relaxing.

Once you got used to the smell and look of the water, it wasn't too bad. I'm not much of a tub soaker, but I was in there for a good half hour or so.

Before doing the hot springs thing, I had told my dad that I wasn't much of a soaker, so he knocked on the door a few times to make sure I hadn't fallen asleep. :)

The trip up the mountain had been in the evening / nighttime so you couldn't see much outside. But the trip back turned out to be not as fun.

I got bus sick.

Luckily, I did not yack - but I wasn't the same after that. I was super sensitive to smells after that. Any food that was being cooked outside, or any unidentified scents made me feel not very good. Plus, I completely lost my appetite for a few days.

On the funnier side, the bus that we took back from the mountain had a subwoofer. So we were jamming to some sort of Chinese music with a heavy bassline. And we were sitting far enough back where that's all we heard.

Thump thump thump. Rumble rumble rumble.

Plus, did I mention that the majority of the buses were manual transmission? That probably added to the bus sickness factor too.

So after the mountain excursion, we rode another bus back to Taipei. We had this bus driver that hauled ass on the highway. People drive pretty crazy in the city, so I expected it everywhere else - But this guy was driving pretty fast. Passing cars on the left and right, weaving throughout traffic, changing lanes (while cars were still in them), you name it. And best of all, we were in a bus. Again, I thought wwe were going to hit stuff, but we never did.

In Taipei we visited family and I was able to hang out with my cousin and her friend. They took me shopping all around the city. We went to everything from department stores to all of these little roadside stands and shops.

On a whole, the department stores were, well, department stores. Just varied in levels of poshness and store names. Not much different from the ones back home. Now the street vendors and alleyways that had little stores was where all the action was. The stores where everything was displayed and you could haggle over pricing.

After visiting a few of these stores, I just coudln't take it - I had to exit. Let me try to explain. Normally I'm used to shopping where there's nice, orderly displays (think Target or Costco on a weekday) and I get plenty of personal space - nobody's pushing me out of the way to get to stuff, I can leisurely look through stuff.

Shopping at some of these places felt like what Brawl-Mart was the day after Thanksgiving.

OK ok, maybe not that bad. But I had to get that dig in there.

So basically, I bought nothing during my visit in Taiwan. I took spending money and used hardly any of it. (shrug)

So ok, so me, my cousin, and her friend did some shopping around town, and then met up with my parents and other cousins at the Taipei 101 buildling.

(to be continued)

Birds prohibited.

2005-12-08T07:44:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening / morning.

It's been quite the vacation - I've done quite a bit of travelling around the potato on a stick shaped land of Taiwan.

I can't believe my time here is almost over. It's Thursday night here - Just one day left before I head for home on Saturday early morning.

I know it's been a while since I've written - but I'm pretty tired, but I will go as far as I can...

So where did I leave you last?

Saturday morning we left at 5 a.m. to catch the super early train to Kaohsiung where we visited some family and had lunch at a swanky hotel restaurant that had a serious gold fetish. Almost everything was either gold, gold plated, or trimmed in gold.

A little much if you ask me, but hey, what do I know what swanky hotelgoers like?

I'm sure the goldness had something to do with prosperity or something like that. Anyway, this restaurant was on the 10th floor (I think) so the views of the cityscape were pretty nice. The food was pretty good as well.

After lunch we were headed on a journey into the mountains to one of the resort towns where there were hot springs. We took a train to a nearby city, and then rode a bus up the mountain. One thing that Taiwanese bus drivers need to have is major driving skillz. This guy was taking these super tight turns in this huge bus. Oh yeah, for extra bonus driver points, the bus was manual transmission - Which I'm sure was necessary for mountain climbing, but I'm just used to the buses back home where they're automatic.

Anyway, so we're going up the extremely twisty mountain in this bus - Dodging cars, people, and other various road hazards. From my view up top, it looked like we were going to hit stuff all of the time. But we never did.

(This mountain driving would end up being not so fun for me later)

So fast forward to the hot springs experience...

For those of you that aren't familiar with hot springs- I had heard about them (and avoided them) but my dad convinced me to go. Apparently there's different kinds. Like I've heard in Japan where it's just one big ol spa like atmosphere where everyone goes in and soaks in the hot springs water. And there's like minerals and stuff in this water that is supposed to be really great for your skin.

Well one thing was for sure, I wasn't going to do the public thing - No way. So my dad found a place where there's a tub in the bathroom and instead of hot water, it's replaced with this spigot that just outputs hot springs water.

(to be continued because I'm falling asleep)

-Kirk

Love letter from the TSA

2005-12-02T02:42:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well. Depending on what time zone you're in, it's either afternoon (in Taiwan) or early morning (back home).

So let's see, where do I start?

The flight was not as painful as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong - It still felt like a long assed time, but I wasn't totally bored like I thought I'd be.

Just for the record, the website was wrong on the movies (unless I read it wrong). I saw Must Love Dogs (cute and predictable), The Island (sucked the big one - Scarlett, what were you thinking?), Polar Express (so-so, bordering on creepy because the animation was a little too lifelike) and Fantastic 4 (only caught the end so it was ok).

Like usual (when I travel), it still hasn't totally sunk in that I'm here. I get into this airplane, and hours later I'm somewhere else. Usually it's just a different part of the US. This time it's a different part of the world.

Kinda crazy.

The entire flight it felt like all I was doing was sitting and eating. The food was pretty good (I think my lunchtie training with TV dinners has done me well). No real complaints there.

This time the flight stopped in Osaka, Japan - The airport was a little depressing. I coudln't put my finger on what it was - I guess I was expecting a little more? (shrug) It was lit up by those really really birght and intense lights that you commonly see in gymnasiums - so that might have killed it for me.

The flight from Osaka to Taipei was pretty uneventful. I was so tired that I was pretty much asleep for most of the trip.

I was awake for dinner though :)

My dad picked me up at the airport and we made the journey to Taichung by bus - Another 2 hours or so.

So yesterday I'd been travelling for almost 24 hours. A new record for me :)

As I opened my luggage, I was pleasantly surprised with a card from the TSA saying that they had gone through my luggage. Which was nice because usually I didn't think they let you know - you just opened up your luggage and stuff woudln't be where you expected.

The note also said that I should get some new clothes, I'm too old for Superman underwear, and that I should learn how to pack my suitcase better.

Just kidding.

Whoever packed my suitcase did do a pretty good job though :)

The weather's been pretty nice. Before I left I had checked the weather report and it said that it would rain every day. I seemed to have dodged the rain bullet today. Hopefully I'll have good weather the rest of the week.

So on a cultural note, it's election time here. I think the actual election is tomorrow. But the candidates (or representatives) drive around in these huge well decorated car caravans with loudspeakers blaring. It's usually someone talking, / yelling but I've also heard drums, firecrackers, and just other randomness. Also, the president (of Taiwan) is coming to visit tonight, so there's a bunch of cops patroling the streets as well.

Today was a day of rest so we've been taking it easy. My dad took me around town to do some light shopping.

Tomorrow (and the next few days) we'll be doing the Tour of Taiwan to visit some family and sightsee...

-Kirk

18 hours, 45 minutes.

2005-11-30T01:46:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening / morning.

So I looked at my ticket confirmation for the first time today - and it said that I'd be travelling for over 18 hours.

Sheesh.

Poking around on the Northwest site, I was able to find out what movies I'll be watching on my super long journey. Now you can know too!

Not that great of a selection. Hopefully they'll be better in December.

I'm happy to say that I'm finally packed, so that is a good thing.

-Kirk

Mental preparation.

2005-11-29T17:16:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

My vacation has officially started.

Monday I was at work for only half the day (I had an offsite meeting), and I was at the same meeting all day today.

If I hadn't gone in Monday, I would have been away from the office for a whole 2 weeks :)

So I think this may be the longest vacation I've had in the past 3 years.

Worst part is, I leave tomorrow, and I haven't fully packed yet. I've gotten some stuff together, but that's about it. I still have to go buy some stuff tonight, and then I'll be ready to pack then :)

Tomorrow!

So much for preparing early. (shrug)

Now I just have to get myself prepared for the long long time sitting on my arse.

-Kirk

I've decided that work is evil.

2005-11-26T22:32:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Yes, it's true - thanks to JDO for pointing it out. I turned 30 last Thursday.

Why doesn't that text go any smaller?

Today I hung out with Geneman for most of the afternoon / evening. We pretty much wore out our welcome at the Taco Bell, Starbucks and Benihana.

Good times.

On the iPod front, I was gifted a Shuffle from Steve and E. All I need now is the iPod regular and the empire will be complete :)

0 to 2 in 1 week!

Not too shabby.

-Kirk

W sounds like an F

2005-11-25T22:14:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

Next time I travel internationally, I need to make a visit to Poland. I think I would enjoy it there... A lot.

We'll leave it at that.

On the technology front, I have finally joined the hip mp3 player movement - Thanks to my brother, I'm now the proud owner of my own engraved black iPod nano. It's chock full with 776 of my carefully selected and favorite tunes. This thing is crazy small, and the sound quality is excellent. My tunes sound pretty groovy on it. My only complaint is that it is a bitch to keep clean.

The second I took my pristine nano out of the protective "Do not steal music" sleeve, the iPod was like Pigpen.

Except it's always covered in fingerprints, instead of dirt.

To help keep my iPod clean I'm going to have to scrub up like a surgeon and wear rubber gloves before listening to music.

I gotta hand it to the fine people at Apple. The packaging for the nano was pretty neat. I especially appreciated the hermetically sealed accessories (usb cable and earbuds that I have yet to open - I had to use the usb cable). I think a high quality vacuum seal would have made the experience marginally better.

I could imagine the woosh I'd hear when slicing the package open.

Enough to make my ears pop.

So far, the nano is a definite win. I will love it when I make my trip to the homeland on Wednesday.

Yes, it's Wednesday. I can't believe it's coming up so fast.

The weather site says that it's 75 degrees F out there right now. So that should be nice. Although I'm not totally tired of the snow yet.

Soon.

So let's see, what else has been going on ...

K has gotten me hooked on Nip Tuck. She let me borrow her season 1 on DVD and I've been watching it off and on. I didn't think I'd enjoy the show, but it's become almost a guilty pleasure.

Although the plastic surgery scenes make me queasy. Not like I want to yack, but just a not so comfortable feeling.

But the people who edit the show do a good job with mixing together the right amounts of realism and television reality so it's not too bad. I must say, the best part of watching the series on DVD is that there's no commercials, and I don't have to wait until the next week for stuff to happen.

I want to watch all my shows this way.

-Kirk

Chicks rule.

2005-11-23T00:02:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I was watching parts of True Life on MTV - the one about Professional Gamers - I must say, seeing women that are into gaming is pretty hot.

Not that I'm much of a gamer, but still, it's the principle - No longer is the traditional gamer a stereotypical long haired, black concert t-shirt wearing guy in the basement. :)

-Kirk

A watched phone never rings.

2005-11-20T20:23:00.000-05:00

Sucks.

-Kirk

Much ado about nothing.

2005-11-20T16:05:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're having a good weekend.

This weekend I went to go see Harry Potter and his Goblet of Fire. It was a pretty good movie - The special effects were pretty kickass. I think I'll need to see it again to get the fill story. Having not read the books, I felt like I was only getting part of the story.

And uhh, Harry Potter is definitely looking older now - Gone are his youthful looks from the first few movies. J.K. and co. better film the rest of the other movies quickly before it becomes Harry Potter goes to night (wizard) school while he works full-time at his day job.

Heh.

Today I actually mowed the lawn for the first time in over 5 years. My mom was becoming obsessed with getting one last cut in before the winter so I was trying to be the good son.

Condo living is definitely for me.

-Kirk

Mimicking behavior

2005-11-17T23:09:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

You know you're into someone when you catch yourself doing things that they do.

The little things.

-Kirk

Bow down to the copywriter

2005-11-15T23:30:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I'm always so impressed to see someone practice their craft.

Today at work, we needed to have some content written - We gave a jingle jangle to the copywriter at the interactive agency, and he was able to crank out some words for us in a matter of minutes.

And it sounded really good.

Something that would have taken me like an hour to wordsmith, he ripped off after 10 minutes of discussion (and finding out exactly what we wanted).

Skillz with a Z.

-Kirk

Like being in the howevermany acre woods.

2005-11-13T23:53:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're having a good evening.

Today we had one of those crazy windy days. The leaves were being blown about, swirling around on the lawn, windows were whistling, house was creaking, etc. It's what I picture when I hear storybooks talk about blustery days.

I wasn't outside for very long, but it was still nice out. I'm still bracing myself for the crazy cold that will be winter.

Today I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me on the answering machine at the city home...

-Kirk

Oops! I did it again...

2005-11-12T23:45:00.000-05:00

Umm, I may have done something to my VPN client. It no longer works.

I need to stop messing around with my work laptop.

-Kirk

Up all night

2005-11-12T23:10:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

It's been quite the day. Last night I slept about 2.5 hours. The 30 minute nap before 4:30 a.m. and then I had a shortie nap from 7 to 9.

Whoo ha. It's been a while since I've pulled an all nighter like that.

I was pretty ragged during the 4:30 conference call - I'm sure my reaction time was a little slow. Plus my voice sounded all late nighty since I hadn't been talking to anyone.

On the throttle scale, I was definitely not on the rabbit. I was probably one notch above the turtle.

For the record, I was much better at the 9 o'clock. :)

So it's been a while since I've been that sleep deprived. I had a lingering headache all day, and once in a while I'd feel dizzy.

I knew it was bad when I'd start to doze off the minute I sat down.

(normally it takes a little longer)

So anyway, the conversion went well. There were a few sweaty moments here and there, but all in all, life is good.

I went to sleep at 7 p.m. tonight cause I was too dizzy to watch tv.

Now I'm up again.

Hopefully life can return back to normal soon.

-Kirk

Crazy. But that's how it goes...

2005-11-12T02:57:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

It's 3 a.m. After a short 30 minute nap, I'm still up.

It's been a long time in the making, but today it's finally set free - The new website for work...

Ever since New York last week, work has been nonstop - if it's not one thing, then it's another. It's been rather nutty.

I was glad to have Veteran's Day off on Friday. It was nice to take it easy and be lazy. I actually got something done too - I shopped for new glasses. I'm being high maintenance and am asking the place to special order me some frames.

Hopefully they'll be worth the wait.

I realized today that Taiwan is less than 3 weeks away...

-Kirk

Rebirth of Spice.

2005-11-06T12:48:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Friday I got my video fill on VH1's Top 20 video Countdown.

Is it just me, or do the Pussycat Dolls kind of remind you of the Spice Girls? On their video for Stickwitu, it had a definite Spice Girls video feel to it - Like maybe for their song 2 Become 1.

It's like the Pussycat Dolls are the modernized hip hop version of the poppy Spice Girls.

For the PCD video of Don't Cha, all you needed was some stuff breaking and it would have been the SG's video for Say You'll be There.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of both groups. Just one of those things I guess...

-Kirk

NY ramblings

2005-11-05T22:54:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

It's me again. Just a few thoughts about my trip to NY...

New York City is amazing. I went back for the second time this year and it was a totally different experience. I did very little touristy stuff (besides walking around on the last day) and never stepped foot underground (to ride the subway). I didn't shop much either. this time's trip was a little bit more confined to a smaller area. We were all over the place last time.

But like last time, I could feel myself feeling tense just walking around the city. Just seeing people hurriedly walk around made me feel like I should hurry and get to my destination soon as well. It didn't help that we had to get back to catch a plane, so that probably to added to the whole experience as well.

Of course, we were out during the morning rush hour, so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

But as much as I love the city, I don't think I could live there. Although there is some allure about walking to work, and seeing cool events on the way (like the filming of a TV show). Or, knowing that your city serves as a backdrop for quite a few movies. Ahh well, I think I'll be lost in suburbia forever.

Plus I don't think I could ever afford to live in the city.

What else...

It seems like all social functions nowadays need to involve a lot of drinking. Has it always been that way? Is it just me, or does it seem like there's more emphasis on it? College doesn't count - I'm talking about the "real world." Maybe it's just one of those things I've become more sensitive to. (shrug)

Perhaps I should buy stock in alcohol distributors...

Speaking of drinking, the posh NYC scene seems to have an artesian water fetish. At the W, I got to try Norwegian artesian water - Voss. I mostly enjoyed the shampoo bottle-esque packaging - Very different. And at the penthouse bar, I got to try Fiji Natural Artesian Water. Unlike wine, I was able to detect small dfferences in taste, but I coudln't tell you exactly what the difference was. So I'm definitely not a water connoisseur. Yet.

Ahh well. that's all for now...

-Kirk

Ny Recap (business Remix)

2005-11-05T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening and are having a good weekend. I'm glad there's still Sunday left.

So it's felt like I haven't written in a while so I'm not sure where to start.

Last Sunday I actually started writing my presentation. Unfortunately the words did not come to me, so I ended up doing everything but work on my presentation.

Monday (as usual) I was doing work stuff during the day so I didn't get to work on it either.

(anxiety building)

Monday night I worked on the presentation while handing out candy to kids (it was Halloween). I worked utnil 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, taking a break to pack.

Tuesday morning I had my coworkers review the stupid presentation and was busy revising and getting the oh shit screenshots ready (just in case the VPN connection failed on me). My plan was to leave during lunch, but I ended up working through it and leaving at the last minute for home to pick up my luggage and head off to the airport.

The flight was groovy. We got there with no issues. D, my travelling buddy was the best - she travels with a seemingly neverending supply of treats. I didn't really say much on the plane, cause I was busy going over my presentation.

We get into the cab, tell the driver where we need to go, and he asks the mllion dollar question, something to the effect of, "How would you like to go?" I was thoroughly confused.

Apparently there's a billion ways to get to the hotel from La Guardia - you just have to do this delicate balance how much time you want to spend in the cab, with how many tolls you want to pay, what is going on in the city (apparently Prince Charles and his lady friend were in town), and of course the daily traffic patterns.

We had absolutely no idea so we were pretty much at the mercy of the cab driver. He offered the bridge or the tunnel. I went for the bridge (I thought it would be more scenic). He started telling some other stuff, so we just told him to get us there as quickly as possible (and we trusted his judgement). As a precaution, I even took the time to write down his medallion number and his driver's license number. I guess we did ok :)

Geneman was a welcome friendly face to NY, meeting us at our hotel, in full high-powered exec gear. He hung out with us while we checked in, and joined us for dinner.

(begin "as close as I'll ever get to living like a rockstar" lifestyle)

So the 3 of us (D, Geneman, and me) ended up hooking up with our salesguy and a bunch of other people for dinner at Luna Piena. I highly recommend the linguini with baby clams, a.k.a Linguine alle Vongole. The food and company was great, the wine was freeflowing, and the dessert was just too good to pass up.

After dinner we had drinks at the W New York - The toitiest hotel I've ever had drinks in. We were in this very posh and trendy bar area on the 2nd floor. I'm talking nice plush couches, fur/furry pillows (I think it was faux, not sure), very swanky decor, and a lot of wheatgrass.

I don't know what the connection with the wheatgrass was, but it made for some good conversation.

Plus there were these random magazines and books scattered all over the place. Oh yeah, and we played "executive" tic tac toe. There was this nice wooden block that served as a playing surface, and then there were these metal X and O game pieces.

Toity to the extreme.

Unfortunately I had to be a party pooper and get back to my room to practice the good old presentation. Which hadn't been timed, so I have no idea how long I was going to ramble on. Plus I was too tense to be really social.

Bedtime was at 2 a.m.

Poor Geneman probably didn't make it home until then as well - he should be prepared by now for my visits...

Anyway, at 6:30 a.m. I got up to get ready, and run through everything one last time.

Overall the presentation went ok - it wasn't my best performance, but oh well, what could I do, right?

What's done is done.

Fast forward to after the meeting...

So that night, we hooked up with Geneman again and we had a crazy dinner at Bobby Van's Steakhouse. We got this appetizer that was seriously my version of food heaven. The server brought out this huge tray of ice - on it there was lobster, shrimp, oysters, crab meat. And that was just the appetizer!

We defined surf and turf that night.

After we finished the appetizer, I was ready to go. But there was still dinner...

I normally don't eat red meat. Apparently I had to make up for lost time. The porterhouse steak we ordered was huge.

And, for the first time, I got to try what a 100 dollar bottle of wine tasted like.

Like crap.

The whole gourmet wine thing is lost on me. I could try the $2000.00 bottle of wine (it's on the wine list), and not be able to tell the difference between it and the wine from a box.

After dinner, we went to this bar thing on the top floor of a hotel that starts with a "G" (I don't remember exactly what it was called) and chilled up there for a bit. The view from the top was gorgeous. Most of the outdoor area was all closed off (since it was fall) but we were still able to look outside and catch a great view of the NY and NJ skyline.

And for the last stop (for us at least) we went to this dance club down the street. I think it was called "Roots" or something like that. It was selected after visiting 2 or 3 other club/bars that weren't up to our hosts spec.

So we danced to some really really loud pounding music - Unfortunately I wasn't up on the club scene so I hadn't heard any of the music before. Although there was a rather interesting remix of a early Michael Jackson song - I think it was either Rock with You or Don't Stop till you get Enough.

The entire time I'm out, I just keep on thinking to myself how the whole situation is kind of surreal. I'm out having expensive dinners, at the bar, and at a nightclub? In New York City? On a Wednesday night?

So wacky.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end - We ended up cutting out at 1 ish - The rest of the crowd was headed somewhere else...

Now I can say I've actually been to a New York City club. And a bar.

Anyway, the next morning D and I met up at 8 a.m. to make the most of our 2 hours (before going to the airport) and explored the city. We saw a few tourist attractions, and had two celebrity spottings - Carlos Santana and Diane Sawyer. They were filming Good Morninng America in Times Square. Santana actually performed 3 songs so we hung around to listen.

Not a bad way to end the day in NYC...

To top the trip off, I got to fly first class back home :)

-Kirk

Radio edit.

2005-10-30T21:02:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Hope you've had a good weekend and are doing well this evening.

This whole time change thing really throws me off. It was dark outside by 5:30 p.m. today. Bleh. And even though the time was only 7ish, it felt like much later (like 9ish).

A couple of things today...

I never thought I'd say it, but for the first time ever, I like the radio edit of a song instead of the album version. I got a chance to listen to the unedited version of the Gwen Stefani song Hollaback Girl. The song gratuitously uses the word "shit" over and over. I can see it used maybe once or twice in the lyrics, but every time I heard the word I disliked the song even more.

Usually it's the other way around. Maybe that rule just applies to rap songs.

Today I ventured into a smelly bath and body store. Usually I can't stand them for more than 5 minutes (the scent overload gives me a headache). I mean, I don't even like walking by the store. But I wanted to get a gift so I took one for the team.

Anyway, for the life of me I coudln't figure out how the store was laid out. Every single square foot of wall space was filled with product.

I was totally overwhelmed.

Not to mention the center of the store was filled with a bunch of random displays too.

I did my due diligence - I walked around the store once, but I coudln't figure out how stuff was organized. By color? By use? By scent? By body part?

And yes, apparently there is a difference between hand and body lotion. Who knew?

So I broke down and asked for help.

The sales lady could see the beads of sweat building on my forehead and could sense my fear.

All I wanted was apple scented hand lotion. Nice and simple.

Could you believe it? The whole freakin store of wall to wall scents and lotions, nothing was just "apple" scented. There was seasonal apple cut with vanilla or something else - too holiday-ish. We walked around the store, and she showed me like 10 different products (I'm not lying).

I swear, after a few, they all smelled the same.

And the kicker was that she coudln't really tell me what the difference was between one product and the next. They were all "rejuvenating" or "repairing," and "really good."

Come on.

So I finally made my decision, paid for the thing, and got the hell out of the store.

I think I'm traumatized.

I'm really hoping that what I selected was ok - I don't even remember what product or scent I ended up going with.

-Kirk

Too nice to be inside.

2005-10-29T23:55:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

So what's going on...

Today was a gorgeous day outside. I'm talking crisp cool temps, and sunshine. So instead of spending the day inside and just putzing around, I went out to visit Drew out in Ann Arbor.

Campus was beautiful - I'm talking college recruiting brochure nice. The trees were changing colors, there were leaves on the ground, and students were out and about.

And of course there was Mexican food and bubble tea.

As usual, I missed being on campus and being in Ann Arbor.

I know that there's not going to be many days like this left this year. I'm having visions of snow and extreme cold in the next few weeks.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Enjoy your extra hour of sleep tonight :)

-Kirk

I have to do what?

2005-10-27T23:28:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doin well this evening.

So next week is NYC!

I didn't realize that when I had agreed to go in place of B, I was supposed to give a 20 minute presentation too.

Hmmm...

Should be interesting...

-Kirk

Ass on the radio.

2005-10-25T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Tonight was our 6th guitar class. I can't believe it's been 6 weeks already. I can play some cheesy songs, but I've been getting lazy on learning some new riffs. The instructor was pushing private lessons on us once we finish our intro class.

We'll see.

For some reason, the radio station around me edits the word "ass" out of that Black Eyed Peas song, My Humps. I didn't think it was that bad. I'm sure I've heard worse on the radio. Anyway, that song's got a great beat and is funny as hell.

I've also been jamming to that Kanye West song, Gold Digger - Another great tune.

She was supposed to get Tyco witcha money...

What else is on the mind today...

I think the whole Instant Messenger and e-mail communications have caused my conversation skillz to atrophy. Seriously.

I need to work on my conversation skillz.

-Kirk

NY in the fall (business remix)

2005-10-21T20:40:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

This time it's for real. I have the confirmation in my hot little hands.

NYC here I come!

Through a fortunate twist of fate, I'll be there from 11/1 to 11/3 - Although this time it's business, not pleasure.

Of course I'll always mix in a little pleasure...

(The rated PG type of pleasure, for those of you that are thinking dirrrty dirrrty.)

It will never be Stef and Lucy good, but it'll be nice to get out of the office.

Of course I'll be seeing Geneman again, do random laps around the city, and probably look again for some "authentic" goodz.

-Kirk

Sales guy ookiness.

2005-10-20T23:17:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Today I was mildly disturbed walking by the common area by our cube farm - There were these two sales guys talking to one of the internal marketing people.

They were talking quite loudly (non-inside voices) trying to make sales, using salesy words like "vis-a-vis" and similar terms that made me want to yack.

Don't be that guy.

-Kirk

No holding back

2005-10-19T23:55:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

I remember an old Rod Stewart song that I used to listen to in undergrad - One of the lines in the song went:

Ain't it better to lose in love than to never love at all?

Does that still hold true? I'm not sure.

Last time I did that I got my ass beat.

-Kirk

NY in the fall again (but not really)

2005-10-18T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Today I found out I had a chance to go to NY again at the beginning of November (for work). Unfortunately, due to a ticketing issue, the opportunity got yanked.

Bummer.

It would have been cool to go back to NY again, but oh well. Maybe next time.

On a sillier note, I feel bad for Diddy - I wonder how mnay Making the Bands he'll have to do before he gets the girl group he wants... Don't all the seasons just end prematurely because the bands fight or can't crank out a good album?

Speaking of good tunes, I've never been a big fan of Weezer, but I really like that song they play on the radio, Beverly Hills.

-Kirk

Weekend ramblings.

2005-10-16T22:01:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Like usual, this weekend was way too short. Most of Saturday was spent at work. It wasn't painful, but not something I was looking forward to.

Anyway, let me backup for a sec...

So Friday morning started on a bad note - When I woke up, I knew I'd have to work the weekend so I was a little bit "off" from my normal mood.

But there was a bright spot in the day - From having ice cream.

My moment of zen.

And yes, ice cream is much more fun when you eat it with someone :)

Unfortunately, the zen was quickly repoed when we were there until 8:30 Friday night.

Luckily I didn't have to work today.

-Kirk

Weekend repo

2005-10-14T23:55:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

I was at work till 8:30 tonight. And I have to go in tomorrow.

(sigh)

On a happier note, we found out that the neighbor's son works at the local Japanese food joint part-time. And you know what? At the end of the day, he gets to take home some of the stuff that is left over. I dunno if it's free or what, but it sounds like a kickass perk.

And I'm all about the perks. Especially the edible sushi kind.

-Kirk

I won't quit my day job anytime soon.

2005-10-12T00:05:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

Just a few quick notes before going to bed.

I got my 2nd use out of my fishing license Sunday. B took me and one of his buddies out fishin'.

I was the low catcher that day. I clocked in at one, while everyone else got multiples. And no, it wasn't a keeper. I think it was probably the same size fish as last time.

Maybe it was one of the same ones too.

We had a great time. I enjoyed being on the water as usual. Unfortunately I was a little under dressed, so I was a tad cold at times.

Plus, I got the bonus residual after effects of feeling like I was on the boat when I was tired Sunday night.

On the plumbing side, I'm happy to report that my toilet no longer leaks.

At last.

According to one of the home improvement store websites, the repair was to take 1 hour. Which was fine if you were Bob Villa or one of his homies. I followed instructions too much and it sucked.

Hand tighten my ass.

The instructions said to "hand tighten" everything. No tools. Obviously I'm weaker than the average hand tightener cause every time I tried running the water through, it started leaking.

So needless to say, it took a while - To undo and redo the connections a few times.

Using tools.

Anyway, so it's all good. And I even sprung the extra buck or two for the "whisper quiet" fill valve. It works as advertised.

So what else...

Today B and I had guitar class. Before class, we decided to visit the guitar store to see what they had. A sales dude (at least we thought he was a sales dude) let me try out some electric guitars. B didn't really want to try them, but I was brave.

I'd never played an electric guitar for real before.

So I whipped out the 3 guitar riffs that I knew, and I was just goofin around. I tried like 3 or 4 guitars. And then the dude let me try the ultimate...

A custom electric guitar that was 3200 bones.

Sheesh.

The guitar was really nice, had a great sound, but I couldn't see myself dropping 3200 bucks on a guitar. (shrug).

Maybe if I were a rock star.

Right now I'm just Eric Klapton. Like crab with a K.

Anyway, so that was my excitement for the evening.

-Kirk

Toilet talk

2005-10-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Since I got up early today, I was feeling home improvementy and tried to do some stuff around the house.

My toilet's been having issues (the water cutoff isn't working) so I've been running all ghetto with the tank lid open for quite a while. The fix went from just pulling up on the floaty thing, and then has now degraded to an old toothbrush wedged in, holding the floaty thing up.

So it was about that time.

With the help of my good friend the internet, I've successfully removed the faulty parts and am on my way to purchase new parts.

I'm guessing the person who had the responsibility of naming toilet components was definitely a guy with a strange fascination.

Nobody else could come up with things like ballcocks, flappers, and tank balls.

-Kirk

I think I can feel my brain rattling.

2005-10-08T12:05:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

My electric toothbrush from college (maye even high school) has finally been retired. After many years of off and on service, it no longer keeps its charge, and makes a rattling noise when in use.

So yesterday was the first time I used my new Oral-B electric toothbrush. This thing is badass. I can believe that it's actually moving 40,000 times per minute.

I still haven't gotten used to the timer thing (it goes off every 30 seconds) but besides that, it's all good. And my teeth do feel cleaner.

(Placebo effect warning)

Anyway, the fierce thrashing of the brushead makes quite the vibration and noise. While I was brushing, I could feel it going through my teeth.

So this morning, I had to get up for a 9:00 a.m. conference call. To hear that nothing was going to happen today - and to call in at 9 tomorrow.

I was going to be all ghetto, wake up at 8:55, roll over and dial the phone while I was in bed (I had everything ready to do that). But I just coudln't do it (It didn't feel right). I ended up getting up about 15 minutes early and at least brushed my teeth.

Good enough.

All night I was worried about oversleeping and missing the conference call.

This morning I even dreamt that I was back in New York walking around and got lost. I don't remember exactly where I was (downtown somehwere) and I kept on looking at my watch. I ended up missing the conference call (in my dream).

So that woke me up - and I still had plenty of time to sleep.

-Kirk

Bloom.

2005-10-06T00:25:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Did a little window shopping at the mall today to see the nano.

Also went to Target an bought the new Sarah remix CD, Bloom. I've only heard 2 tracks, but so far I'm diggin the remixes.

One thing of note - I don't appreciate all the anti-piracy bullshit that's printed on the back of the CD case. They've even tried to make it all official looking by including a cheese "FBI Anti-Piracy Warning" seal/logo next to the text.

Grr.

-Kirk