Below are the 18 most recent journal entries recorded in legoladd's LiveJournal:

Wednesday, April 13th, 2005
9:43 pm	A letter to my State Representatives Let's be honest. You don't want to be seen supporting homosexuals. I'm pretty sure that most religious people share that view. The fact is, most people in this country would rather not have to deal with this issue of homosexuals and marriage. So what can we do? How can we honor our constitution and provide equal protection under the law, without appearing to support something that so controversial? I have at least part of the answer for you. The first thing we have to do is separate church marriage from legal marriage. After all, they are not the same thing and they never will be the same. The definition of marriage is at the core of every argument made by both the opponents and the proponents of gay marriage. The only way to resolve this conflict is for each side to accept the validity of the other side's definition of marriage. The opponents of gay marriage are supporting a definition of marriage that is drawn from a life in the Church. This is the very foundation of religious marriage and no one, especially not homosexuals, wants to change that in any way. But if homosexuals don't want to change Church marriage, what do they want? Homosexuals want to bring fairness and equality to the legal marriage that is offered by the states. This legal marriage is very different from Church marriage. It includes all kinds of legal and financial benefits and responsibilities that are not part of a Church marriage. What's more, the states offer legal marriage to people who have no connection to a Church. In fact, the only reason it is called marriage at all is because the states have a long history of defining marriage in new ways. There was a time when states didn't offer marriage licenses. When states started offering marriage licenses, they restricted it in many ways including a restriction on multi-racial couples. The good news is that the states have removed restrictions and added new benefits as our society has changed and they've done this without affecting the definition of Church marriage. I believe that legal marriage is now ready for another change. My partner and I have been together for over 11 years - longer than the heterosexual marriages of three of my siblings and many of my friends. I'm not bragging. I just want you to know how seriously we take our commitment to each other. We share our lives, our pain, our joy, our bills, our debts, our house, our bank, and our food. In every way you can think of, our life together is like our parents' marriages. The big difference is that our relationship is not legally equal to our parents' marriages. Without a legal marriage, we get no automatic financial or legal benefits. Worse yet, we can't afford to pay a lawyer to write all the documents it would take to give us these legal and financial rights. We checked with several attorneys and found that it would take thousands of dollars to get all the same rights that our parents got with their $10 marriage license. I urge you to consider this as you listen to testimony on DOMA and the FMA. I pay taxes. I contribute to my community of Summerhill. I volunteer and I vote. I am a responsible citizen of this state. But I still don't have the same rights as a heterosexual person in this state. What will you do to help change that? Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: The Cure, Ryuichi Sakamoto (Comment on this)
11:06 am	Gay Marriage rears it's ugly head...AGAIN! Well, our fearless leaders are busily giving in to the fear-mongers again. The Federal Marriage Amendment and DOMA are being reviewed and testimony is being given. It's stunning to me to see the lack of interest in this topic amongst my friends and family. The religious right and republicans have done an excellent job of instilling apathy and/or fear in the hearts of otherwise reasonable people. You want facts? You want to understand what gay people really want? Let me clear it up for you. THIS IS NOT ABOUT MARRIAGE. This is about the legal and financial rights and privileges that are automatically given to people who get a marriage license. If gay people could pay for a simple license that gave them all the same rights and privileges as a "marriage" license, we wouldn't have a leg to stand on. There are literally hundreds (over 1100) of things that come with that stupid little marriage license. If I wanted to set up the same legal and financial arrangement with Victor (my partner of 11 years), I'd have to hire an attorney and pay him/her over $2,500 to draw up all the paper work. Add to that all the fees associated with filing those papers and we're looking at nearly $3,000. Even if I did all that, I'd still pay more taxes, higher insurance premiums, and I'd get no Social Security benefits. Why is it okay for the State to treat me differently than it treats you? What happened to equal protection under the law? If you consider yourself my friend, go to the HRC Web Site and see how you can make a difference by writing to your representatives. If you want to know more about the ways state and federal law discriminate against me, check out this link about Marriage Benefits. I'll post my letter to congress later. Current Mood: blah Current Music: Polyphonic Spree (Comment on this)
11:00 am	Finally!!!!! An update! Sorry it's been so long. I've been focused on our China Pictures. I'm no web designer. A fact that will be immediately apparent when you go to this link: David and Victor's BIG CHINA ADVENTURE There's way too many pictures on this site, but you can use the thumbnail strip at the bottom to skip around and look at the ones that interest you. Enjoy! Current Mood: quixotic Current Music: Aterciopelados; Cole Porter; M.I.A. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 11th, 2005
9:54 am	Added a new China entry Added an entry for February 14th. Now I'm on Directory 11 of my pictures. I also figured out how to add link to my entries! Wow, I am so technical (heavy on the sarcasm). Current Mood: bored Current Music: Chopin and Scarlatti (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
11:04 am	Added an entry below for February 13th I'm adding new entries but I'm backdating them so they can be read in order. Today I added the entry for February 13th. Current Mood: awake Current Music: Mayday and Comic Boyz (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 6th, 2005
11:24 pm	Pictures are coming Hi folks, Well, it's been a very busy week back at work and home. Nothing at work blew up while I was away. I'm very grateful to the folks who filled in for me. I've been recovering from jet lag all week. I've fallen asleep in my chair during dinner every day this week. This weekend we got some much-needed sleep. We also went to a friend's house to watch the LOTR trilogy - I made it throught he first 2 before heading for home. Victor sat upstairs and gabbed with the girls all day. There was a house fire about 10 lots away while we were there. That's always a little freaky. Makes you paranoid about leaving your home. Today I cleaned up the dogs' area and washed all the dog covers and stuff. Victor cleaned out the dog run and washed the dogs. I also opened the house up and got a day full of fresh - if a bit chilly - air into the house. Damn that was good. I spent the rest of the day culling China pictures, calling my dad, and catching up on Smallville and MI-5. I've gone through 6 directories of pictures now. I still have 24 to go. I think I can get back to finishing up my journal entries now too. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Mayday and Modest Mouse (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 24th, 2005
7:02 pm	Home again, home again We're waiting on the airport shuttle now. We had one last 'free' executive breakfast and have packed everything up. OMFG we SO overpacked. The load status looked pretty bad. We may not get on this flight at all. This is my last entry until we get home. See you all soon. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: none (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2005
7:57 pm	lots of stories to tell Well, we're down to our last few days in China. I'm still writing and I have a lot more stories to tell. Unfortunately, the lack of reliable net access during the first week and my inability to find a keyboard to use with my iPAQ have really put a crimp in my writing style. So I've switched tactics. Instead of trying to write full stories one letter at a time, I've taken to jotting down lots of notes to remind me of all the stories I want to tell. First meal was in hilton rest. cold beef tenderloin Sunday Bfast in room Good coffee and pastries Jet lag and exhaustion Sofitel check-in Lunch attempt Lunch success A little shopping Dinner in room Monday Bfast in lobby 2nd bfast in café Lunch at 3 on the Bund Shopping at Cybermart! Dinner in hotel restaurant Tuesday Hongqiao airport and breakfast. Lunch on Plane Private car? Riding into Chongqing Disparity of progress Dinner at Manhattan Wednesday Bfast in room Muesli and mucous ride to Dazu Haunting face of child Dazu carvings Lunch with Chinese Pix with Chinese Souvenirs Dinner at Yunnan Mushroom hot pot soup Noodles Chicken neck in peppers Differences between American and Chinese malls Thursday Bfast in room Pack and store Shopping and bank of china STILL NO INTERNET!!!! Lunch at hilton Spring rolls - OMFG Singapore noodles Davy and the drugstore Creamy orange drink Cable car across Yangtze Taxis to the docks Porters Which boat? FRIDAY Woke with cabin noise Quick buffet breakfast with rubes and expats GPS lock and cabin changes Lecture on The Mighty Yangtze Death in the family departure Peter And Elsa Expats The rubes The Aussies The teachers Shibaozai disappointment What IS that horrid smell? Saturday First gorge Worn out Crappy food Second boat for tour of lesser 3 gorges monkeys, goats, and hanging coffins Returned with fever Saw the doc Slept til sunday Sunday Feeling better 3 gorges dam Winnie and Betty the tour guides "but don't worry" or "the fate of the mighty sturgeon" Waiting for the final lock Suitcases vs. Stairs Hacking my way thru the Yichang museum Buying pieces of China The tiny airport of doom The puddle-jumper of death Back to civilization Leonardo ... Always had a crush on dicaprio, now I have a crush on a restaurant named for the same genious. Monday relax and enjoy the bliss that is an executive room in a 5 star Hilton in Asia [$500/night in the US, $175/night here] Cybermart Part Deux: Hunting for a keyboard. more chocolates? more Sleep? HOUSTON: WE HAVE WI-FI! Victor vs. the dessert buffet Victor vs. the urge to sleep Tuesday SIGHTSEEING! The Bund Calls home Tunnels, trinkets, sex, fish, and the wonders of FANTASTIC sound. The stupendous, amazing, super excellent, [insert meaningless superlatives here] Oriental Pearl Tower BUFFET. The Grand Hyatt Urinal - over the top gets a new meaning. Exhaustion cannot compete with the marvelous food at Laguna. Victor vs. the urge to sleep: Return of Dr. Somnambula Postcards from the edge of exhaustion. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: none -- who has time? (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 16th, 2005
4:52 pm	No Wireless to be found This sux. I have been writing all these entries and looking for a chance to upload them from my iPAQ. Unfortunately there just ain't that much wireless access in China. We should be able to blog again once we return to Shanghai. Right now we are in Chongqing. We just returned from the Dazu temple and stone carvings. I'll keep writing and post everything when I get back to Shanghai. Until then, hang tight. All is well in Chongqing. Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: I have no idea, but it sounds nice (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 14th, 2005
9:53 am	Dazed and Bemused 5:30 AM is not an appropriate time for one’s body to wake one up. That's when I awoke in dismay, sniffling, coughing, and generally feeling like crap. Oh well, nothing that some good over-the-counter American-style drugs can’t handle. “What are American-style drugs?” I hear you ask. Well, like most things we do, it’s not about balance or harmony or coaxing your body to do what it does naturally. Leave that crap to the monks. No. Our drugs run into the body with all the grace of a bull in a china store and wipe out any symptom that might keep us from a.) getting our meaningless jobs done or b.) venturing out into the world where we can share our germs with the unsuspecting locals. Okay, I’m sorry. I got off on a little tangent there. But in the wee hours, those were the thoughts going through my sleep and congestion-addled brain. Anywho…we woke and got cleaned up enough to venture downstairs and have some crappy coffee and stale pastries. Weird, really. I fully expected this European-owned Sofitel hotel to have much better coffee and pastries than the Hilton. Go figure. By ten I was feeling human enough to venture out and since we had no wireless in the room we decided to go find a wireless internet café. We gathered our camera and stuff and headed out to explore the length of Nanjing Road. What a great place. I kept thinking of that old song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks…”Portabello Road! Portabello Road. You can get anything you want on…er - Alice’s Restaurant?” Wait a sec. Holy crap. I never thought about the fact that those two songs could be a great mash-up. Wicked! So after a little wandering we found a café in the 3rd floor of this building. It’s weird how all our stores and stuff in the U.S. are so separated. I’m talking about how when you go to a mall, you know you’re in a mall because it has an identity of its own. Even strip malls are usually named and there’s signage out front. One of the little things that caught my imagination in China is the way an entire 5-story building can be given over to retail space of many kinds but the building usually just looks like an office building. I’m sure the signs in Chinese identify it as a collection of stores, But a non-Chinese speaker would need to look in the windows and/or wander inside to figure out that the whole building is like a compact strip mall with lots of independently owned shops and restaurants. Not sure why I thought this was cool, but I did. So on the 3rd floor of this one building we found a little internet café where we got some good snacky caky things and some mochas. Much better than the hotel. Unfortunately there was no English interface to the wi-fi provider and nobody in the restaurant seemed to have a clue. So back out into the street we went to explore Nanjing Road. There was this cool little train that ran back and forth along the length of Nanjing. You’d hear it’s little piezoelectric beep as it wound its way through the crowds. We didn’t ride it, but we very nearly got hit by it on several occasions. We stopped in a little music and DVD store and I picked up a couple of things. A cd by the Comic Boyz because I think everyone must own a CD by at least one cheesy Chinese Boy Band (the latest news is that Comic Boyz have broken up and released a farewell album - their 5th release). I also picked up a CD by a band I saw on Chinese MTV called Mayday. You should understand that I hate most Chinese pop music. The industry there is still very old-world with most bands following and even surpassing the classic American bubblegum teeny-bop formula. Nearly every CD you can buy is by a boy or girl band singing this schmaltzy saccharine sweet crapola that all sounds the same. The good news is that a few bands, including Mayday, appear to be stepping out of the shadows of their producers and making some halfway decent music. It’s still very early and they still have plenty of crap songs on their albums, but at least now there are 3 or 4 tracks that are moderately listenable. Right now in Japan you can find the same genres of bands as you find here in the US. Jazz, metal, folk, punk, acid, speed, trance, house, hip-hop (very funny in Japanese, but still not funnier than Vanilla Ice frontin’), and everything else. I think in the next ten years we will see an explosion of bands coming out of China that are going to make Shonen Knife and others look like amateurs. For now, though, Mayday is the only band I’ve seen that seems willing to go against the norm and I gotta say I liked the album I bought (well, tracks 1, 7, 9, 10, and 13). We also found a Chinese Wizard of Oz for Dean and a cool collector’s edition DVD of a Chinese animated classic called Uproar in Heaven. If you’re not familiar with the Monkey King, it’s a fantastic story that is related in both children’s books and serious literature. It uses a monkey and a set of stories to illustrate the principles of Buddhism and can be a lot of fun to read. I never knew this movie version existed, but it does. I can’t wait to watch it, though I’m a little worried because I previewed it a little on my PC and it looked Black and White. Oh well, I’ll figure it out. We also ventured into a few touristy shops and got harangued by a pearl salesman. If you’re ever in a place where people sell pearls, you should educate yourself on how to buy them. I won’t go into it here, but here’s a fact sheet I found. We didn’t know these things yet, so we didn’t buy anything. We continued down Nanjing road until we got to the Bund and then we headed over to another innocuous-looking building where our concierge told us we would find a great restaurant. Like the other buildings, it looked like an old office building from the outside. In fact it’s a very chic place called 3 On The Bund. Once inside, we found a bunch of boutique shops including an Armani store. Up on the 3rd floor was this great little Euro-chic restaurant called Restaurant Jean George full of pretense and very good food. By this time I was convinced that typing stories on my PDA was too difficult so I talked Victor into going shopping for a PDA keyboard. We got directions from a Nordic waiter who spoke good English and caught a cab to this large building labeled Cyber-Mart. Inside we found the largest collection of cell pone and MP3 player vendors I’ve even seen outside of a convention hall. It was truly amazing to see that many vendors selling the exact same thing for nearly the same prices in the same place. I don’t understand how they stay in business. It might be that they don’t have to pay much in the way of bills. The place was not heated. After an hour of wandering and talking to folks, I did manage to find some IR keyboards, but I didn’t want to pay $50. I would later regret that decision. By this time I was wiped out again. We grabbed another cab and headed back to the hotel. We both crashed this time and didn’t wake up until about 7. We grudgingly got dressed and went down to one of the hotel restaurants. It was a dim little place with only a couple of patrons. The food was okay, but not excellent. My verdict: If you’re in China, stay away from the French hotels. The next day we had an early flight to Chongqing, so after dinner we went back to the room, packed our things, and passed out. Current Mood: sick Current Music: none (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 13th, 2005
6:52 pm	First full day in Shanghai We woke to gray skies and drizzle, and I felt like I'd been rode hard and put up wet. Victor and I have switched roles. He's all perky and chomping at the bit to get out and explore Shanghai. By comparison, someone seems to have snuck into the room and stuffed my head with sludge while ternderizing the back of my throat with a roto-tiller. I grumbled enough about being sick that Victor finally acquiesced and went down to the lobby to fetch coffee and pastries. International Travel Tip #1: Forget what the other people say about experiencing local culture by staying with the locals. If this is your first time in a very foreign place (not talking about Europe or Canada here), make your home base as familiar as possible. Having that to come home to or wake up to can set the tone for the rest of your day and give you the strength to adjust to your new environment. Real coffee and French pastries (not to mention a nice sinus med) certainly upped my spirits and gave me the strength to get on with the day. We packed and got ourselves over to the hotel we had booked for the next 2 nights, the Sofitel Hyland situated smack dab in the heart of Nanjing Road. To understand Nanjing Road, think of the busiest most crowded downtown shopping street you've ever seen. Now double that, close it to everything but a tourist train, and you get an idea of what Nanjing Road is all about. The Sofitel is nice enough and in a great location. This was the first place that we noticed that Chinese people are colder than we are. By that I mean that most of the places we go are kept warmer than we'd like. Hotels, restaurants, stores, you name it. And it spite of the heat, most people are still bundled up as though it were below freezing. So, if you find yourself feeling cold a lot here in Atlanta, you may feel cold in China, but most folks will find the temperature to be reasonable. We got settled in our new room and then wandered down to the lobby, ready for our first taste of real Chinese food (later would realize that the food in the hotels is actually both authentic and good, unlike the food in most American hotels). We asked the concierge where we could find a good noodle house and he pointed us to a place just down the street. We pushed out into the throng on Nanjing Road and made our way to a little place, the name of which has completely disappeared from my mind. Along the way I got my first reality check - in large crowds of Chinese people, Victor, with his short black hair, is virtually invisible. Standing out in front of what we hoped was the right place, we spent the better part of 20 minutes just trying to figure out how the place worked. There were 2 windows serving food to people on the street - skewers of meat from one window and noodle soup from the other. There was also a doorway that led to a small crowded dining room with about 10 tables and a small cashier’s desk in one corner. The food from the windows smelled fantastic but we wanted to sit down so we stepped inside the dining room. Now I’m not stupid and I’ve studied processes and procedures for so long that I can usually pick up a pattern of behavior in very a short amount of time. This place challenged me. The place was well-lit and clean, but busier than an after-hours diner after the nightclubs close. After ten minutes and no help from the staff, we finally figured out that tables were first-come, first-served and that there was an English menu. We still didn’t know if we placed our order at the counter and then grabbed a table or vice-versa. One quick look at the stress on Victor’s face told me that this would forever remain a mystery to us. If you don’t know, Victor is prone to panic attacks when placed in high-stress environments. The warning signs are pretty plain so I got him out of there quick. I was pretty pissed because I thought he and I were on the same wavelength about how we were going to handle unfamiliar surroundings. Turns out I was wrong. It’s difficult to explain this, but essentially Victor and I have different tolerances for unfamiliar surroundings. My level tolerance is entirely dependent upon the perceived reward for being there. Victor’s is not so easily discerned. His can be affected by anything from the color of the walls to the body odor of the next person in line. You just never know. So you cope. Sometimes this makes me angry, but we usually just move on. So out into the alley we went for a walk around the block. We saw an air conditioner - apparently from a Michael Jackson subsidiary. We saw other things as well. Then we found a cool little restaurant that was less crowded and more easily figured out. Or so we thought. We stepped inside and it was obvious that girl at the door didn’t speak English. As we learned pretty quickly, this matters a lot less than you might think. When dealing with food, lodging, and transportation, fingers, smiles, and “thank you” in the local language are pretty much all you need. Of course, there can be small problems. Like when the girl ushered us away from the door to wait near a table in the hall. I was tired so I set my backpack on the table and sat down on a stool. Another girl quickly nabbed the first girl and the next thing we knew they were setting the table and bringing us menus. This was followed by a manager/owner who seemed surprised to find us sitting there and fussed at the girls. Then there was some clumsy ordering of drinks and food and finally a meal. We ordered too much and ate too little, but the food was great. My only complaint: I am constantly dismayed at the popularity of Budweiser in other countries. C’est la vie! We ate as much as we could and then headed back to the hotel. I was wiped out and feeling like crap but we still wandered around a little bit and poked our heads into a few shops. We finally went back to the room and I hit the sack and napped until dinner time. Too sick and tired to venture out again, I convinced Victor to eat in the room. We ordered some soup and fried rice that really hit the spot. Then we watched some TV and I went back to bed while Victor went down and took advantage of the hotel spa. All in all, a great first day. More to come! Current Mood: sick Current Music: none (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 12th, 2005
7:35 pm	First Night We arrived in Shanghai a day early so we had to do a little hotel shuffling. The Hilton seems like a nice hotel. Comfy beds, great staff. We took our dinner in one of the hotel restaurants. We ordered beer and then let the waitress order the food. Chinese meals are all about balance. You must have a meat dish, a vegetable dish, something cold, something hot, and so on. Soup finishes off the meal and fried rice is an afterthought used as filler at the end of a meal. It's rare to get that far. We had slices of cold beef tenderloin in a peppercorn sauce, [insert jet lag memory lapse here], and an excellent soup. After dinner we asked the concierge to help us get a Chinese SIM card for my cell phone. We took a walk outside around the hotel. We got some pix, spoke with an Australian ex-pat who was buying some roasted lamb kabobs from a street vendor, and bought some milk from a small quickie mart. By the time we got back our SIM card was there. We took it all up to the room where the jet lag finally did me in. I've never truly understood jet lag. I always thought of it as shifting your body's natural clock. That's certainly part of the picture, but in simple terms, jet lag is pure unadulturated exhaustion. In my case that exhaustion was particularly bad because I had really been pushing myself before we left for this trip. Now, with a sore throat, stuffy head, and a crippled frontal lobe I was starting to have some regrets. We stayed up and watched as the entire city lit up with little independent fireworks displays. Nearly every shop owner was out on the street with family and friends setting off wave after wave of fireworks. The Aussie ex-pat had told us about it, but we were still surprised by how long it lasted. For nearly an hour we watched as the sky was lit up again and again. Coupled with the repeated lighting of long [6'] strands of firecrackers on every street corner [not too mention the ocassional apartment balcony], it made for an impressive first night in Shanghai. As the fireworks died away, we crashed and burned. In the morning we would find the enormous piles of spent red paper shells and wonder whether the people who made them didn't take some measure of pride in the size of their pile compared to their neighbors'. Current Mood: getting sick Current Music: more random A-Pop (Comment on this)
3:00 pm	Shanghai Arrival We cut a path across Japan in the final hours of the flight. We couldn't see much until we descended for the approach to Shanghai. Then we caught glimpses of the west coast of Japan and I reminded of this cool National Geographic map of nighttime on Earth. In that map, there is this weird pattern of light between the coasts of China and Japan. The light comes from the bright lights used by night fishing boats to draw squid to the surface and into the nets. As quickly as Japan had come into view, it disappeared behind us and we slowly descended into range of Pudong Airport. You know that your 747 is landing in a foreign country by number of languages used to give flight instructions. You know that your 747 is landing in a communist country when it pulls in low over 'wealthy' coastal property and proceeds to cut a low-altitude path over every residential area between the coast and the airport. We're talking a thousand feet maximum here. Apparently the Cultural Revolution didn't leave much room for neighborhood activism or zoning regulations. Shanghai airport itself is a testament to both the power of a free-market economy and the strength of the Chinese Confucianist belief system - and little or nothing to do with communism. [For a primer on the differences between Confucianism and Communism, I recommend you either go read a book or watch about a month's worth of CCTV9 on satellite TV.] The airport is all concrete glass and steel with grand curving lines that suggest the curve of the roofing tiles used in traditional Chinese architecture. The terminals are huge and all tied together with a single slanted wall that juts up and out as if to say, "This way to the sky." On our arrival we followed the crowd [and the copious] bilingual signs through a series of perfunctory checkpoints. One to collect the health form you fill out on the plane. Another to collect the customs form [also provided on the plane]. And then one where an official apparently confirms that your face matches the picture in your passport [you never know when someone might switch identities on the plane]. From the third checkpoint we go to baggage claim and then to the customs inspection station. Let me tell you a secret. If you want to smuggle something into China, do it over Chinese New Year. The customs station was completely un-staffed. Victor and I followed folks out of baggage claim, past the customs stations, and out into the public terminal before we realized that there would be no inspection. We actually paused a few minutes...guessing that someone would realize that we had somehow circumvented their security and come to collect us for a trip to Customs Jail. Nothing doing. We found the little kiosk for the Hilton, ordered a cab, got some yuan [Chinese money], and started our journey into the heart of Shanghai. A note about driving in Shanghai: Americans have about as much a chance of survival at the wheel as I have of beating Jeff Gordon with my Honda Civic hybrid. Trust me folks. Leave your desire to prove yourself at home trust your life to the professionals. These guys make the entire Earnhardt family look like a bunch of chicken-shit safety patrols. They know their cars' dimensions to the millimeter and will weave a path at breakneck speed between metal and flesh in the Bladerunner landscape that is downtown Shanghai. With cab rides coming in at about $2-$5 US, The only thing that could make me want to drive in Shanghai would be the chance to drive the modern automobile achievement known as the VW Santana 2000. Yes, that's a real car name and apparently recommended by 4 out of 5 taxi drivers who drive in Shanghai. There's this long straight highway that runs from the Pudong airport all the way into Shanghai. It's not pretty or scenic in any way, but it is instructive. I mean that literally. If the Chinese have anything in common with the Japanese it is a fondness for over-sized signage. Whereas Americans seem to be winning the war against big ugly billboards and garish neon, modern China is taking these corporate missives to a whole new level. The entire freeway is lined with the largest billboards I've ever seen and they are placed without gaps as if to say, "Move along. Nothing to see here." More later. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Anonymous Ubiquitous A-Pop (Comment on this)
Friday, February 11th, 2005
8:00 am	Flying to China Flying to China is tedious, even with a non-stop flight. It's 13 hours of dull roar and stale air. On the other hand, a First Class seat with Business Class service go a very long way toward alleviating these discomforts. Thanks to our buddy Duke, we got Business Class seats [same as the First Class seats without a personal video player] with all the perks. Champagne before takeoff, first in line for a choice between fillet mignon, chicken, or something else. Something about the words 'filet mignon' make caused the rest of the menu to be forgotten. Getting seats on our first attempt forced our hand a bit. We had to do a quick scramble of phone calls to snag a reservation for Saturday Night in Shanghai. Fortunately the Hilton had a room and we completed our reservation as they closed the doors of our 747. Something I learned ... [wait a second -- as I'm writing this we are 4 days into our trip and waiting for our flight to Chongqing. I just looked up at the lounge TV and was stunned to see that Victor was using his mutant power in China! "What's his mutant power?" I hear you ask. Victor can, at any time and, apparently, in any country, find an episode of either 'World's Scariest Police Chases' or 'Planet's Funniest Animals'. This causes no end of pained groans in our house when we sit down to dinner. The Animal show is on the Chinese TV screen as I write this and Victor is wearing a triumphant little grin and chuckling at all the videos. Help Me.] Now where was I. Oh yeah. You may have heard a little news blurb about the Semester At Sea ship having to turn back to the US due to rough seas and storms. Turns out the entire student body was struggling to get to China at the same time we were. About 70 of them were on our flight. The amusing part was watching each of them board the 747 through the Business Class doors. Each one would light up at the sight of these enormous leather seats only to let out a little cry of disappointment as they were led aft to the torture chamber that is International Economy Class. We flew north along the US coast from SFO. Out over the ocean north and west - but never too far from the coast. The flight path is actually an arc that traces the coastline from California to Alaska, past the Bering Strait and the Russian Sea of Okhotsk. After seven hours we could see the coast of Japan creep onto our in-seat video displays [just press the little 'map' button to feel superior to the Semester at Sea squabs in economy]. Still five hours to go and I haven't truly slept. I'm feeling fine, but I have no clue just how much this trip is going to kick my ass. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Go Speed Racer Go! (Comment on this)
6:00 am	San Fran layover 12:56 am E.T. Delta Flight 362 OMFG!!! We are finally on our way. This has to be the longest fraking flight that I have been on since my parents used to drag us from Air Force Base to AFB when I was a very little boy. 5 hours and counting and this is just the headwind-crippled flight to San Francisco! [time lapse] It's now 10:28 am E.T. And we are sitting at the gate for our Shanghai flight. The Clarion airport hotel was old and run down but it was clean, well-staffed, and had a very talented short-order cook in the breakfast kitchen. We both had big breakfasts. [begin rant transmission] I want to rant a bit here. Usually hotel breakfast foods are poorly prepared and only marginally edible. The cook in the Clarion kitchen, however, obviously knows what the hell he's doing. The bacon was crisp without being too chewy or burned. The eggs were fluffy and actually tasted like eggs instead of that nasty egg juice served by a lot of cost-conscious hotels. The little silver dollar pancakes tasted like cake,were ggolden brown, and had just the rght texture for holding onto butter and syrup. Lastly, the hash browns were golden brown on the top and bottom, soft and crispy at the same time, and free of the usual grease coating that affects most hash browns. So why am I going on so much about a simple breakfast? It's precisely because these foods are so simple that the art of preparing them well has all but disappeared. To find something so unexpectedly tasty in such an unlikely place was a real treat and worthy off a little ranting and raving. [end rant trans] 3 hours till boarding. We slept poorly but are none the worse for wear. The check-in was painless. My mocha is strong and hot and there's a t-mobile hotspot here. Life is good. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Pat Methany "Falcon and the Snowman" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 5th, 2005
6:37 pm	My first iPAQ post Hoorah!!!!! Here's my first post from my iPAQ. Just wanted to test my ability to do this. I'll do another post later. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Sirius college radio (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 3rd, 2005
11:23 pm	Light gadgets Okay, so one of my goals for this trip to China was to pack light. Problem is, my other goals included taking a lot of high-resolution pictures, being able to store and review my pictures, having games, movies and music on the plane, never getting lost, purifying water when necessary, having all my documents with me, and being able to access the without using a public terminal. After a lot of research, this became my shopping list. 1. HP iPAQ 5555 2. Lingo Pacifica 10 Language Translator TR-2203 3. Delorme Blue Logger (Bluetooth GPS receiver) 4. Canon Digital Rebel 300D SLR camera 5. LOOK PSD USB On-The-Go (OTG) hard drive 6. PCMCIA/CF adapter for iPAQ 7. Lowepro CompuTrekker AW Backpack (LOCTAWB) 8. Maha Batteries and charger 9. Mini tripod 10. Extra Camera Battery 11. Extended iPAQ Battery 12. Boxwave miniSync - VersaCharger with Airplane Option (a Sync/Charger kit) 13. New luggage 14. PUR .3 micron Hand Pump Water Filter 15. MSR Miox Water Purifier 16. eHolster e-Zio™ Harness w/Cell/PDA pouches (EZPB) This may sound like a lot of stuff, but I can fit it all in Lowepro backpack with enough room left over to throw in the digital video camera, charger, and tapes. I haven't weighed it yet. We'll do that this weekend when we do our test pack. (Yes, I am so anal I am insisting that we pack what we want this weekend and weigh it.) Anyway, about these gadgets. The iPAQ is sweet. It have built-in 802.11_, bluetooth, and IR. I can load it up with multiple GPS packages and grab GPS coordinates from the Delorme Blue Logger which never has to leave the backpack. With a 1GB SD card in it, the iPAQ is also useful for games, books, music, and even limited video. It's smaller than my hand and weighs about 6 ounces. I got a 1GB card for the Canon. That should get me through each day. At the end of the day I can remove the CF card, pop it into a tiny USB 2.0 CF reader, and plug the CF reader into my LOOK PSD. The LOOK PSD is a small enclosure that houses a laptop hard drive and includes a single-button control panel. When connected to a card reader or directly to a camera that support USB OTG, you can press the button and the LOOK PSD simply copies everything off the card at the other end of the USB cable. When I finally get back to a PC, I can copy everything off of the LOOK PSD. This thing is so tiny, I can't believe it. If I want to review the pictures I took before I copy them to the LOOK PSD, I simply plug the PCMCIA/CF adaptor into my iPAQ, insert the CF card, and view them on the iPAQ screen. Given a web hotspot, I can also use the iPAQ to edit and post images. Not sure I'll find the time to do that, but who knows. I looked at a lot batteries to see how far the technology had come. It's quite different since I last looked. Maha seems to be the best maker. You can find their Powerex rechargeables on Ebay. I bought mine from Thomas Distributing (http://www.thomas-distributing.com). To power and sync my iPAQ I wanted a flexible charger that would let me charge in an outlet, an airplane, and a car. What I found was a company called Boxwave. They make a kick-ass little retractable USB sync cable that can trickle charge my iPAQ. Also in the package are 2 power adapters. To power the iPAQ from a wall outlet or in the car, you attach the sync cable to the first adapter which is the shape and size of a standard auto power plug. It has no cables. One end fits in your car outlet, the other end has a flip-out male AC plug. Just plug it in and attach the retractable sync cable. The second adapter is a small 1-foot cable with a female car adapter on one end and an airplane power plug on the other. When you want to power the iPAQ on the plane, you just attach this piece the to other two pieces and you're there. SWEET! I also splurged on a total geek toy. I found this company called eHolster (www.eholster.com) in Norcross. They make good-quality holsters for cell phones, PDAs, etc. They have lots of types and sizes, but best of all I get to live in fear that some cop will throw me to the ground because he thinks I'm packing. How cool is that!?! Then there are the water purification tools. Outside the US water can get pretty dicey. China in particular is not a place where you'd want to take chances. Not unlike Mexico, you must NEVER drink the tap water. You should not eat fruit that you didn't peel yourself. You shouldn't use the community chopsticks without cleaning them. blah blah blah Anyway, to handle the water issue, we could just buy bottled water, but I read a lot of things about how bad it tastes. So I researched the latest tech in water cleansing and found that there are some very cool things out there. Aside from a fairly standard hiker's water filter, I found the cool device by MSR. It doesn't purify the water directly. It won't remove particulates like a filter either. Instead, you use it to create a special cocktail that can kill all harmful bacteria, cysts, and viruses within 4 hours. It's about the size of a small Maglite. You just put a little salt in the cap, add some water, shake it a little, then remove the cap and press the magic button. The MIOX send an electric current though the brine creating an oxidized solution that, when dumped into a gallon or so of polluted water, will make it safe enough to drink. A filter then removes the particulates to make it taste better. Total weight of purifier and filter is less than 1 pound. After looking around at all kinds of choices, we bought American Tourister luggage. Nothing special. Just a 5-piece set of luggage for about $120. I recommend shopping around as we saw prices as high as $300 for the exact same luggage. So that's it for the gadgets. Current Mood: rushed Current Music: 88.5 and Sirius Deep Cuts today (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 30th, 2005
9:28 pm	China Bound So I'm finally going to knuckle under and start this thing. I've had a lot to write about, but I've been so busy living it I haven't had time to share. So tonight I'm making time. Why? Because we're going to China and I thought I'd share the journey. Who's we? My partner Victor and I. We got this chance because our good friend Duke had some spare companion tickets. This will let us get there for a lot less money than normal. (Normal = $1300 coach or $2900 business). And just to make things interesting, our flight from San Francisco to Shanghai is standby. So this whole thing could be a big blowout. We've spent the last 2 months planning, plotting, shopping, and planning some more. We've bought all manner of gadgets, researched multiple cities worth of lodging and shopping, and made friends in multiple cities. I'll spend the next couple of weeks bringing you up to date on all the stuff we've done to prepare. Later, when we finally leave, I'll be logging reports from the road. BSmith: I know you hate my long entries. If you stop reading now, you can just be pleasantly surprised with each blog entry. Here are some of the things I'll write about in upcoming entries: Tools for the Road A catalog of gadgets we purchased and why we bought what we did. Everything from PDAs and GPS devices to a fantastic little USB drive that copies pix off your digital camera or flash card without a PC. Clothes Yes. I bought clothes. For those of you who don't know me, you have no idea how monumental an occasion this was. Culture Shock I'm endeavoring not to be the stereotypical ugly American while I'm there. I've no doubt that I'll make mistakes, but at least I'll know when I make them. I'll share what we've learned and what we're doing to be better guests while we're there. Staying Healthy What's it take to stay healthy in China? Well I can't say I'm sure, but I'll let you know what we did to prepare. Staying Legal Getting a Visa to travel to China would seem like an easy task, especially if you've been to any other developed country. But after 9/11/2001, the rules changed. Now there's a trick or two to learn. I'll run it down for you. China Shopping So many things to buy and so little time. I'll try to list the things that we think are cool. China Itinerary With only 2 weeks in country, you'd think our plans would be set, but not so. We will be in the cities of Shanghai, Yichang, and Chongqing (pronounced CHONG-CHING until the zealots and merchants butchered it into Chungking). The primary purpose of this trip is to tour the 3 Gorges Dam and the Yangtze river before the dam fills and covers all the towns, temples, and homes along the existing banks. Many things have already disappeared and many people (in the hundreds of thousands) have already been relocated. But much is still visible and visitable. We will take the 3-day downstream trip by river boat from Chongqing to Yichang. I'll provide all the details in future entries. Spring Festival Aside from the Yangtze river, one of other big things we'll do while we're there is celebrate Spring Festival. Folks usually call this Chinese New Year in the US and most of us know little or nothing about it beyond the images of firecrackers and dragons on parade in Chinatown. The fact is there's a rich history here with lots of cool stories and traditions. I'll share this as well over the coming weeks. There's so much more than this. There's the Chinese TV channel we've been watching and the travel books we've looked at (the good and the bad). There's the business opportunities we've seen. There's even a burgeoning gay community in many of the larger Chinese cities. Stay tuned, kids. Lego's gonna try and stick with this blog thing for a change. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: Smiths, Sisters of Mercy, Sinatra (1 Comment |Comment on this)