Friday, November 30, 2007

Probably never will


So you get through Airport Security having de-shoed, placed your laptop in a separate crate, put every remotely liquid related item in a tiny plastic bag and on occasion frisked by a TSA agent. Then they pull out some item like deodorant and tell you its a whole ounce to heavy and ask in a polite and calm tone "would you like to go back and check it with your luggage, and come back through?". Are they joking? Seriously they can't seriously be asking that question. It took a significant amount of time and emotional energy to just get through that line, and they think you might consider going through again and waiting behind another person who doesn't understand which metallic objects will set off the alarm?


I've never seen anyone actually go back and check the item the TSA agent said couldn't go through, probably never will.
P.S In Bon Voyage Charlie Brown, all they took off to go through airport security was their watches, what a time.

So Old Navy


I guess the main downside to buying clothes at Navy is somewhat awkward feeling you experience as you go to a crowded area and you can sense its obvious to everyone around that you actually shop at Old Navy...

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Most frequented sites

Due to their utility along with the ease and beneficial nature of repeat use these are most most used/favorite sites: Gmail, facebook, youtube, Blogger, google.com/news.

These fairly common for a lot of people which are around the same age group which I currently reside. Only I don't have a MySpace page (actually I do, I just never really used it), and I don't use hotmail.

Also I really like what YouTube has done a lot-- I think my appreciation for what they have accomplished with that format is exceptionally high.

New Cell Phones

Its can be a bit of a hassle learning all the new buttons of a new phone and even more so if you switch phone companies. It takes extra time to do anything.

But atleast it saves time as you don't have to scroll past as many people (who you don't really call anyway) in your phone directory, simply because you haven't bothered to add them yet.

Monday, November 19, 2007

N-O-S-T-A-L-G-I-A


2 years before I was born Bon Voyage Charlie Brown came out. I remember watching this all the time when I was 6-9 years old. Watching brought me back to those times when I watched it and feeling a curiosity for going to Europe and having adventures like Charlie Brown and his whole peanuts gang did.


It would be amazing to have a dog half as witty and smart-alecy as Snoopie. Here is how slick that dog is: A) Snoopie rides first class on the flight to London while the rest ride in coach B) He has a membership card to Wimbeldon (which he gets kicked out of!) C) He drives the rented car with everyone inside D) He goes to and hangs out at the Pub late at night when he is supposed to be on guard dog duty. He is not limited in his experiences by his status as a dog, go figure.


I didn't understand it when I was a kid but this cartoon has a sweet love story. Charlie gets a letter from a girl named Violet asking him to stay at her Chateau in France. Charlie Brown's Grandfather met Violet's Grandmother when he was stationed there in World War I. They had a crush on each other and wrote letters for a while until they stopped writing got married and had families. But she never forgot the charming American. Sigh... Wish I was charming like that.


The movie has some funny parts. I tried finding this movie before and it was very rare. Luckily my cubical neighbor at work brought it in after I mentioned it a few weeks ago.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Ferret Surprise


Sleeping on a couch at my friends condo on Lake Michigan was great until I woke up around 3:30. They had told me just before I went to bad that they had two ferrets who slept under the chair in the room, but that I would be fine if I zipped up my bag because they like to crawl into things. So I zipped up my bag and fell asleep for a few hours.


I don't what it is that makes me a little nervous about Ferrets, maybe how they wander around and stick there bodies nose first into anything object they are able to, or I was scared they might nibble on me as I slept? But When I awoke I could here them wandering around the room energetically. I thought if I held still they would ignore me. After I shuffled my feet and arms several times to stop them climbing up the couch I got up. With intense curiosity kept crawling towards me and since I've never even held a Ferret I wasn't really comfortable doing so now. I turned on a light and they followed around the apartment through the kitchen and dining room area. One was albino and the other brown with a stripe and together made a tag team cornering me as I backed away from them around the apartment. The more I moved away the more interested they seemed to become. The albino ferret had red eyes so I don't think he had good vision since he would pause a little as he came close and wouldn't stop until I brushed a pillow at him.


Finally as the sunrose I came up with a plan. There was no cage, but I figured I could lure them in the bathroom and they would be fine for a couple of hours as I caught up on lost sleep. I used a stick and lured them in seperately. It took awhile but after about 10 minutes both were inside the bathroom and made little noise.


Chicago's Millenial park is pretty cool and the city skyline deserves some eyetime.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

How British


I am minus $300, minus one blackberry and plus one trip to London than I was 6 days ago. The weather in London is similar to my native Seattle only a little warmer and less drizzly.


I was really impressed with how nice and informative most Londoners were to me as a tourist--( I mean they get millions of us a year, so you wouldn't be surprised if they got a bit jaded). They seemed enthusiastic in answering even no brainer questions like which "This (the house of parliment isn't Big Ben is it?...oh just around the corner...(duh)"


Leicester square has a cool vibe and nightlife scene. The china town of London is quite a bit cleaner and brighter than China town/NY.


Its always best in my opinion to learn and visit places with someone who lives locally-- So when I saw the Thames river for the first time it really was impressed firmly in my mind how filthy that river can be as my friend Nick (who I stayed with) took a big spit right into the river!!


The first 6 months of this year I was in NY doing an internship at the U.N. While there I came up with this concept (in March 2007 blog entries) that people move around city to city or country to country and usually stay in neighborhoods they lived in previously (ie similar levels of education, economics, culture etc.). And I we saw another case in point as Nick and I left the library of the London School of Economics we bumped into 2 people who also interned at the U.N during the same period earlier this year!! At first everyone was surprised, but aftwerwards not so much since really people with similar interests, goals and connections who bumped into each other once have a fair chance of bumping into each other again before too long.


Hyde Park is really nice the autumn leaves were coming out really well. I met a nice girl from Canada who went to school in London and works in Hong Kong who gave me directions how to get to Victoria Station. And it was funny that almost everyone else I met had no idea which buses or tubes (subways) went to Victoria station or anywhere else! It's like "I don't know how to get anywhere in this city, I just live here", but they were nice about there ignorance.


I firmly believe that London (and probably most of Europoe) has the best drinkable yogurts. I bought 4 or 5 of them in one night, thats how good the blackcherry flavor was!


I also lost my blackberry so I have no cool digital photos to download here., just plain stuff off the internet..