Oddball Update

Haven’t posted anything here in a while. Today’s entry is going to be completely random. It’ll be all over the place. Mostly because a lot has happened, I’ve had a lot of things in mind to say, and I don’t feel like assembling a particularly structured post — something more off-the-cuff would be preferable. And with that, onward we go.

It’s gotten quite hot in Thailand — say, 95 degrees Fahrenheit. March and April are two of the hottest months here — with April being even worse than March — so the somewhat moderate, pleasant temps of our first two weeks seem to have evaporated! In short, it’s sweltering. Fortunately, we’ll soon have a break from these temps — next week we’re going to Chengdu, China, where it’s around 50 degrees. My boss and his wife have their own place there, and it’s also where our Asia/Pacific office is located. Should be an interesting trip. And, he brought his Xbox360, so I might even get some gaming in.

A couple nights ago, we went with Apple’s family to the annual dinner at the local Hakka Association. The Hakka are a Chinese ethnic group — a subgroup of the Han Chinese — to which Apple’s family traces its heritage, and her father is a member of the association’s board. We got to partake in a traditional Chinese meal that was somewhere around eight courses in size, with stuff like steamed sea bass, roasted leg of pig, fish stomach soup, noodles and more. Everything was excellent. They had some musical acts and gave out door prizes too. It was a huge dinner, with tons of people in attendance. I was definitely the only western guy there, though. Must’ve looked pretty weird!

Continuing on the food topic, tonight Apple and I treated her dad (and the rest of the family) to dinner at a Japanese buffet atop a rather exquisite hotel downtown. It’s her dad’s birthday so we made an occasion of it. The buffet was huge, quite tasty and very classy, not like the cheapo “Come ‘n’ git it!” buffets for $1.99 you always envision back in America. Afterwards we went book shopping — I didn’t bring enough reading material on the trip — but didn’t find much of interest in the English section. I think I’ll probably just order a book over the Internet, but you can’t pay with a credit card so you have to do a wire transfer to the bookstore before they ship your order.

And now for the more random portion of today’s update.

Despite being in Thailand, I worked more hours this week than I usually do at home. The major contributor was putting in four hours today (Saturday), as well as 10 and a half yesterday. Most of this was getting caught up on tasks that had accumulated while I was busy with the launch of our new product website which I designed. Now it’s out there, and I’m quite happy with it. The trick is, will the search engines be happy with it. I’m not sure yet, but I’d say it’s a damn sight more likely than with our old site, which was way too verbose and had a poor keyword density. Not to mention the spider-unfriendly URLs were all based on querystrings, which blows.

Flash: This Trans Am T-shirt at the Pontiac Mall is frickin’ amazing. I must have it.

Tonight I had my first ride in a Tuk Tuk. What is that? Basically it’s a Thai taxi; a little Daihatsu or Suzuki mini-truck with a roof on the back that holds more people than you would think (well, more Thai people, anyway). After our buffet dinner tonight, Apple’s brother took the car home while we went shopping, so we caught a ride in a Tuk Tuk on the way back. Pretty cool, actually. These things are distinctly Thailand, almost like an industrial symbol of the country. They’re also usually loud and gaudy, but for fast and cheap transportation in a pinch, you can’t beat ‘em. Sometimes I wish we had something like that at home, but when I get back and see the mammoth trucks and SUVs again, I’ll change my mind — I don’t want to be flattened by an F-350 Super Duty or anything.

Apple and I continued our tradition of getting new sticker photos taken of us whenever we visit some exotic locale. I’d scan ‘em, but, you know, I don’t have a scanner right now. Instead I’ll put ‘em in the gallery later.

During our trip to Thailand, I’ve kept up to date with the news at home via the various cable news websites and other outlets. There’s always been a vein of annoyance to the American news media, but I swear they’ve cranked it up a notch in the time we’ve been here. I’ve been so disgusted with some of the news in the last couple of weeks that I’ve decided to write a rant about it — in fact, I was planning to pen it tonight, but it’s late and I think I’ll save it for tomorrow instead when I’ll have the day off and can write at a proper desk (I’m on the bed in the back bedroom right now).

What’s pissed me off so much about the news? No, not Anna Nicole, although there’s been admittedly way too much coverage of her passing, in my opinion. It’s two distinct (but mostly unrelated) topics that just keep coming up, inundating us with reams of the same tiresome messaging over and over until you want to barf. On one of these topics in particular, it seems like certain press outlets — when I say “certain,” I mean “MSNBC” — keep beating us over the head with it like a stick, as though they’ve got some kind of damned agenda. But I’ll stop teasing you now, because as I said, I’m not going to write the rant until tomorrow.

After a few nights of really awful (and repeatedly disturbed) sleep last weekend, I had a long bout of really great and refreshing nights — just what I needed to get my patience back. Unfortunately, last night was not so pleasant. Tomorrow we’re supposed to be able to sleep in, and it’s Sunday, so industrial noise should be at a minimum. I’m looking forward to that.

I’m so geeked about getting the entire Deep Space Nine series on DVD for my birthday. This will give me enough Star Trek dinner theater to last the rest of the year! I’m also excited about getting to spend some of my big project money, the over $3,000 that I made in January by working my ass off all during November and December. My new Zoom H4 recorder comes to mind, as does the new digital camera I’ve decided I want. The one I’ve got my eye on is the Canon PowerShot A710 IS. It’s a nice model with fill-flash capability (which should drastically improve my automotive photos) and optical image stabilization for sharper pictures (and videos). It also runs on AA batteries, so I’m going to pick up some nice rechargeables and finally do away with the crummy proprietary batteries of Canon’s smaller, Digital Elph line.

I learned the other night that my brother in law’s fiancee (they’re the ones whose wedding we’re here for) is friends with Bell of the China Dolls. Not a close enough friend that she would actually be at the wedding, but I thought that was pretty damn cool. To my embarrassment, I still can’t tell by looking which of the China Dolls is Bell and which is Hwa Hwa — but I was somewhat reassured about my ineptitude when I learned that Apple’s sister can’t tell which is which, either. Honestly, in all of their album shots they look the same! More importantly, though, I don’t know whose voice is whose. I definitely like the sound of one of the girls’ voices better than the other’s, but I haven’t a clue which one it is.

That’s about it for now. I’ll see if I can get that rant posted tomorrow — assuming I can get my thoughts in order. I always feel like I have to formulate a logical debate and conclusion when ranting about something, otherwise I have no business ranting about it. I may dispense with that somewhat tomorrow; after all, I’m not a political blog, and nobody except my friends and family read this damn site anyway so what does it matter.

See you tomorrow.

Categorized as Randomness