I'm trouble y'all, I disturb my entire town

So I spent most of this weekend, swimming at the 2009 edition of Fort Lauderdale Masters Challenge.

Well, more correctly, I spent most of my weekend at the pool for the Masters Challenge: I swam just 3 events and a relay over the 3 days, so I really didn't swim the whole time I was there. But I was at the pool for a lot of it. Times from the meet:

Friday
1000 free: 10:37.42

Saturday
50 free (relay): 24.63
500 free: 5:03.92

Sunday
1,650 free: 17:19.67 (my 1000 split was 10:30.24...)

Faster than a few weeks ago at the Plantation meet in the 500 and 1000, and slower than last year's Challenge.

And with that, I will leave you to watch the Torchwood Season 1 DVDs I have checked out from the library... (yeah, the Oscars are on, but my lack of receiving t.v. stations puts a damper on me watching them... but I do look forward to digesting things tomorrow).

I got trouble
Yeah trouble now
I'm trouble y'all
I got trouble in my town

Take a chance, you just might grow

Much to the amusement of my sister, a few months ago I planted some redwood seeds (sequoia sempervirens, to be exact) and set them a-growing in my office.

At one point, I had about 8 or 9 sprouts growing, but at various stages, and mostly shortly after my being out of town, some have died off. This was mostly due to a lack of water while away (redwoods need a bunch of water).

At the moment, 4 sprouts remain--3 of which are pictured at left (the 4^th is in the farthest container in the shot--on the upper right side--but in the part of the container not in the picture).

In any case I wanted to share a picture. Hopefully some of these guys will make it to a repotting stage.

Naturally I'm worried if I do it alone
Who really cares 'cause it's your life
You never know, it could be great
...
What you waiting, what you waiting, what you waiting, what you waiting, what you waiting for?

It's just a thought, only a thought

So recently, a few of my friends have "tagged" me with at "25 things about me" note on Facebook (it might be a crossed-over survey from MySpace). Of late I've been rather delinquent on keeping up with my FB stuff, so I've not actually been able to peruse the notes my friends have tagged me to, nor have I been able to write my own in response.

I went to start my list the other day, and thought to include the top-25 songs on my iTunes. But I soon realized there was probably too much encapsulated in my iTunes top-25 for it to be 1 of a list of 25. So instead, it's going here. I will preface (Mom: envision a dash between the "e" and "f" ;-) ) it with a few notes:

• a few songs in the list (still) benefit from their longer history on my computer (e.g. the fact that those 2 KT Tunstall songs).
• #2 should probably be #1, but I've got 3 versions of it (live audio, live video, and the original audio) dividing its total.
• and I'm surprised by some of my 5-star songs that aren't anywhere near being in the top ("One" by U2, "Circle" by Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians).

But enough commentary: time to let the list speak....


The top-25 songs in my iTunes (play # as of 2/7/09):

#1--I Don't Feel Like Dancing Scissor Sisters (111)
You think I could muster up a little soft-shoe gentle sway, but I don't feel like dancin', no sir no dancin' today

#2--Nobody Knows Me [live] Madonna (100)
It's no fun, but the damage is done...

#3--Holiday in My Head Smash Mouth (93)
Do you believe everything that you read, everything that you see on the set?

#4--Restless Alison Krauss & Union Station (88)
There's a restless feeling in my bones, and I know that at times it just won't go away

#5--Time Sarah McLachlan (87)
Time, here, all but means nothing, just shadows that move cross the wall

#6--Red Red Red Fiona Apple (82)
But all I can see is red, red, red, red now... what am I gonna do

#7--Life for Rent Dido (82)
[I didn't know I'd not used this yet!--sweet, I'll use it here :) ]

#8--Black Horse and the Cherry Tree KT Tunstall (80)
With a big black horse & a cherry tree...

#9--Poster Girl Backstreet Boys (78)
I'm falling in love with the right-now poster girl

#10--Land of Canaan Indigo Girls (78)
Well the meaning's changed, for what it's worth, it's just a senseless game...

#11--Standing Still Jewel (77)
Or am I standing still, with the scenery flying by

#12--Minority Green Day (76)
I want to be the minority, I don't need your authority, down with the moral majority

#13--Just One of Those Things Diana Krall (74)
It was just, one of those things; just one of those crazy flings

#14--Suddenly I See KT Tunstall (72)
Suddenly I see, this is what I want to be

#15--Nothing Left to Lose Mat Kearney (71)
Come on and we'll sing... like we were free... push the pedal down, watch the around, fly by us

#16--L.A. Song Beth Hart (70)
Man I'm gonna get outta this town

#17--Left of Center Suzanne Vega (70)
If you want me, you can find me, left of center off of the strip

#18--Bleed Like Me Garbage (69)
Definitely a song here because it's one that's been in my iTunes the longest.... There are other songs by Garbage that I'd prefer to be here. I'm actually perplexed by this one. Not that I don't like the song, but I'm still perplexed.

#19--What You Waiting For? Gwen Stefani (69)
Take a chance, you just might grow

#20--Trouble P!nk (68)
I'm trouble y'all, I disturb my entire town

#21--Si voy a Perdete Gloria Estefan (67)
Si voy a perderte ya

#22--Fotografía Juanes & Nelly Furtado (66)
En la distancia te puedo ver, cuando tus fotos me siento a ver

#23--Imitation of Life REM (66)
C'mon, c'mon, no one can see you try

#24--Foolish Games Jewel (64)
You took your coat off, and stood in the rain; you're always crazy like that

#25--Always on Your Side Sheryl Crow (63)
My yesterdays are all boxed up and neatly put away, but every now and then you come to mind


And tied with #25 at 63 plays are:
-Over My Head (Cable Car) -- The Fray
-Time -- Hootie & the Blowfish
-Is It Any Wonder? -- Keane


But if my life... is for rent
And I don't, learn, to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
'Cause nothing I have... is truly mine

Si voy a perderte ya...

Saturday night was big on me losing things. I lost the 2 remaining school records that I had at UT (in the 1000 and 1650 frees) in Austin, and in Atlanta I lost my status as "defending National Champion" in the 1650...

Of course I've held the latter since 1990 mostly due to a technicality: this is the first time since 1990 that there has been a yards U.S. Nationals (the applicable spring meet has been meters since then).

And as for the former (the school records), I've figured since last March they would probably be bettered this year. They both almost fell last year, and it was only due to a fluke of an illness that they weren't.

So, all-in-all, not terribly surprising... though still kinda sucky. I guess I'll just have to take solace in the fact that this year's winner at Nationals went around 25 seconds faster than what I went way back when... (if that's comforting?). Oh, and all of this happened between sessions of a leadership seminar for CCCAN ("say-say-can" is the Central American and Caribbean swimming confederation...).

Si voy a perderte ya
Que sea por vez final
Si voy a perderte ya
Es para siempre... ¿Entiendes?

I'm falling in love with the right-now poster girl

Well... I'm still partially on Pacific time, even though I returned on Monday. So I'll be brief...

Today on the drive into work, one of the cars in front of me had this bumper sticker on it:







Which made me laugh. After pondering a bit, trying to figure out who of my friends would get the Deliverance reference, I remembered another--funnier--bumper sticker I saw while out in California:








The Voldemort one is apparently based off this comic strip from a few years ago. Course, the sticker still makes me laugh.

That the consequences of your actions really are just a game
That your life is just a chain reaction taking you day by day
She says nothing's forever in this crazy world

Well the meaning's changed, For what it's worth, it's just a senseless game...

So, I'm doing a crossword puzzle last night, and 41 Across was a 3-letter word with the clue "Homeric cry?" Which reminded me of the two odysseys I've been preparing for this week.

One, which is more of just a trip I guess, is this weekend I head to Maine to give a clinic for work. I'm flying into and out of Boston, and driving up the rest of the way (timing just worked out better). So I've been preparing for my departure on early Friday morning. And I've also been adjusting to the fact that my return at mid-day on Sunday will most likely mean I'll miss the Masters meet at our pool this Sunday (the June portion of the June Kraser meet: the June June meet, as opposed to the July June meet on July 8: meet info here).

The second is becoming more and more of an odyssey. In July, I head to Uganda, to give a week long clinic in Kampala. This week, my flight has been arranged and started investigating getting a visa. I've also started investigating getting my shots before I head there (I need documentation of a Yellow Fever vaccination for the visa). So, Monday morning I call the Broward County Immunization Clinic, having tracked down their information last Friday, to schedule an appoint--all travel immunizations are done by appointment. The woman who answers the phone asks if she can put me "briefly on hold"; I say yes.

After being on hold for 10 minutes, I hang up and call back. When I am about to be "briefly put on hold" again, I ask if it will be 10 minutes, I get a reply possibly as this is their busy time. I accept this, and start to ask if there's would be a better time to call back, to which I get 3:30 or later. So I call back, at 4 p.m., to get a full voicemail (read I was not a happy camper).

So yesterday morning (on 5-6-07 in non-USA date formatting), I call back again, and get put on hold again but which I was ok with. After 6 minutes (yeah! less time), I get to make my appointment. Toward the end of the call and setting up the appointment, the woman on the other end asks me which shots I want, to which I answer, well, I'm going to Uganda. To this, she replies with something along the lines of 'Well, why don't you look up online what you need and let us know..." To this, I replay, that previously when I've needed travel shots, the clinic/doctor has told me what shots I needed (which is generally 2-5 more than I want to get or do get) . And then continued to state that, from what I already looked up the shots I need were Hep A/B, Typhoid, Tetnus and Yellow Fever, but that I wasn't sure; that the only thing I was fairly certain on was the Yellow Fever, due to the visa requirement. (I think I may also need an adult Polio booster, as well... fun.)

To which I mentally said "D'oh!"... which is a 3-letter, Homeric cry. ;-)
(and this has just reminded me that I must unearth my shot history to take with me to my appointment...)

My blood is running dry, my skin is
My skin is growing thin (skin is growin' thin) oh yeah
For every time you find yourself
You loose a little bit of me (you loose a little bit)
Honey, from within (you loose a little bit)

You think I could muster up a little soft-shoe gentle sway, But I don't feel like dancin', no sir no dancin' today

Summer has arrived... the Jacaranda trees are in bloom (at left; there's a purple variant as well), the Atlantic Hurricane season has officially begun, and Tropical Strom Barry blew through the area on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Interestingly, I didn't think of Barry as being much; and really wasn't aware of it being more than just rain here. It began raining around 8 p.m. and just kinda got harder as the night wore on. It was windy, as well, but we've been having some good winds here for the past couple weeks.

I did have some power surges on Friday night, my power even having gone off briefly around 1 a.m. (just long enough to cause my alarm clock to need re-setting). And apparently, although I didn't awake for it, there was a strong push through around 3 a.m., as well. I found this out while swimming Saturday morning practice (36x50 @ 1:20, every 3rd one from a dive).

The sky was completely overcast through mid-afternoon yesterday, with rain happening off-and-on while I was helping Laura move to Boca. It even provided a break while we moved things in.

But it wasn't until I was driving around later yesterday, after the sky began to clear up, that I started noticing trees that had blown down (like those at right). Interestingly, it wasn't like every tree was down, but there seemed to be one down at four or five places I went to. They mostly looked like ones that have been planted since Hurricane Wilma so maybe they hadn't had enough time to take root, but it was still strange.



Cities come and cities go just like the old empires
When all you do is change your clothes and call that versatile
You got so many colors, make a blind man so confused
Then why can't I keep up when you're the only thing I lose?

But all I can see is red, red, red, red now... what am I gonna do

Mayday, May Day, mayday... well, actually, May Day was yesterday, not today.

Anyways.... I wish I could spout off about how great my new fridge is, but I can't. It was supposed to be delivered yesterday, but didn't make it. Apparently it arrived damaged to the local distribution warehouse, so they didn't load it on the truck in the morning (which indicates a good thing: that they care about the product they deliver to me). Instead they called me (after I was already at work with my phone off) telling me it was not coming (which I found out as I was driving home to wait for it) and asking me to call to reschedule (the day as a whole by this point wasn't going too spectacularly, despite me find a lucky penny that morning--this just kinda added to things). At least I didn't make it all the way home before getting the message.

This minor fiasco did allow me to not miss the afternoon at work, which was good in that I had fiascoes things to address at the office. Surprisingly, the re-scheduling, itself, wasn't too frustrating. More irksome is that I don't really have any control over the delivery time, which specifically contradicts what the salesman told me over the weekend.

I left my phone on all day Monday, awaiting the scheduling call that never came--I did apparently win some contest, though I'm not quite sure what I won as the machine calling my phone was speaking Spanish and I really only made out "ganador" before hanging up. I turned off my phone around 5:45 p.m., as I was getting ready to swim. When I got out of practice--actually right before I took Monday's pic--I had a message from them, telling me when my delivery time was.

They called back earlier today--right as I was leaving the office (5:10'ish?), and told me when my deliver time was. The irksome part for me isn't that they are forcing the delivery time, it's that they told me I'd be able to pick the time, and I don't. The choice I got today was "pick this delivery time today, or another delivery day; you will not get a different delivery time." That's the part that bothers me.

This did give more days to clean out my fridge, which is good... particularly since Monday night's leftovers were just recently added (dinner on Monday night at the Cheesecake Factory was good :).

But there's solace a bit in submitting
To the fitfully, cryptically true
What's happened, has happened
What's coming is already on its way
With a role for me to play
And I don't understand, I never understand, but I'll trying to understand
There's nothing else I can do

If you want me, you can find me, left of center off of the strip

"Nell," the Constable continued, indicating through his tone of voice that the lesson was concluding, "the difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people--and this is true whether or not they are well-educated--is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations--in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.

-The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, p.283

And if you want me
You can find me
Left of center, wondering about you

You took your coat off, and stood in the rain; you're always crazy like that

Ahhh, 2006 is over; and 2007 is here... and with it a 'net connect at my place, which, strangely enough has not caused me to post more frequently (at least, as of yet).

But I have found a couple more reasons why Amazon.com is cool:

• I got free shipping on the rowing machine coming my way...
• They now sell stand-up, arcade versions of Ms. Pac Man (pictured)

Tempting... but will need to await a later date

Happy New Year--I hope it is off to a good start. Mine's doing alright--work's a bit weird, but otherwise things are good. I'd detail my New Year's night activities, but I really just chilled. I did watch Scoop, which I liked--which is abnormal for me and Woody Allen movies. Anyways, I'm rambling... hasta


You're always the mysterious one
With dark eyes and careless hair,
You were fashionably sensitive
But too cool to care

Come on and we'll sing... like we were free... push the pedal down, watch the around, fly by us

"Takin' on the jellies"

Yesterday morning, that is; while swimming a 5K off Fort Lauderdale Beach. There was some red-flag surf as well (right), due to a strong wind blowing in from off-shore.

Surprisingly, conditions weren't too terrible. Sure, the rough waters were not exactly fun (I definitely kept them in mind throughout the race) and I did get 3-4 jelly fish stings during the race (two on my left forearm, one on my forehead, and one on my right wrist), but I felt good throughout the whole race. I even managed to do some body surfing into the finish, and got the random beat out of my head and replaced with the 3-4 lines I currently know of Mat Kearney's Nothing Left to Lose. I ended up 4^th overall, by the way--also not terrible.

Thankfully, my stings weren't as bad as others--no welts on mine, unlike 2 college swimmers present, one who had a welt line straight across his torso, the other who had a "C" pattern across his chest/stomach and a line continuing across his back. It looked painful--then again, we can't all be as talented as Nemo's Dad (Marlin) to earn Crush's praise.

Come on and we'll try... one last time...
I'm off the floor, one more time to find you
And here we go, there's nothing left to choose
And here we go, there's nothing left to lose

C'mon, c'mon, no one can see you try...

After some initial difficulty this morning, I managed to track down my polling location and vote after work.

Now some people have wondered why more people vote for American Idol than in elections. Well, just for an example, I've watched Idol maybe once in my life, and in that show I knew exactly how and where I was supposed to vote--after just 1 viewing.

For today's election, I had to...

• investigate whether/not I needed my voter registration card to vote (I didn't--just a photo i.d.),
• find where to vote (which I didn't find on the State of Florida's website, nor on the Broward County website, but instead I found the link I needed to the page on the County site by going to the local newspaper's website--reminded me of how the most effective way to search Microsoft's site is to not use their search feature. And topping it off was the fact that the County website's mainpage, which had a news section, didn't even mention the election! There was a banner add about 3 things the County had on the ballot, but no link the the "Supervisor of Elections" plainly available, nor found in a search for "elections").
• once I got to the Supervisor of Elections site, I then managed to find my polling location based on my address, most helpful, as well as a copy of the ballot I was voting on, also helpful.

Course, I couldn't find hours for the polls, but I did manage to get there before they closed and made a semi-educated vote--not voting in some races simply because I knew nothing about who was running, and wary of just voting along party lines.

But all was better cause I got my "I Voted" sticker--so I'm happy. Now, I wanna find out how many of my friends voted today... work wasn't looking very good (only like 50% there).

This sugarcane, this lemonade, this hurricane
I'm not afraid
C'mon, c'mon no one can see you cry
This lightning storm, this tidal wave, this avalanche
I'm not afraid
C'mon, c'mon no one can see me cry

There's a restless feeling in my bones, and I know that at times it just won't go away

Family visits in some ways really suck... mostly in the leaving part (at the moment). My mom's and step-dad's visit ends today, and I'm left in the wake of their departure. Actually, my visit to my dad and sister is California is so crammed into this visit, that I'm now pretty much dealing with being away from all of them.

In a way, this is good: it means I enjoyed their visits. But mostly, it just sucks because now they're gone away again, and I have to get used to them not being around...

Not really such a terrible thing, just not really fun. Particularly when I've not really a clue of when I'll see them again, and my phone's out-of-commission whilst I await for the replacement's arrival.

On the plus side, I watched Thank You for Smoking last night, which was quite humorous--it's a satire about the main spokesman (Aaron Eckhart) for the Tobacco lobby in D.C.

I just can't stand being alone
I'm gonna have to change that someday
There's a restless feeling in my bones
And I know that at times it just won't go away

Suddenly I see, this is what I want to be

Today I am on my way back from California, and I do mean the "day" part of it--I've got to remember those red-eyes from the West Coast, cause this whole leave at 11 a.m. get in at 11 p.m. thing sucks.

My few days with dad and sister went well. It was great to see them again, and who knows when I'll get back out there (probably in another year or three; course I don't know when I'll get back to a visit to San Antonio, either). It also appeared Dad had a good 80th birthday.

I, myself, managed to pack in a few movies while away, catching The Devil Wears Prada on the plane out and back, and seeing The Guardian and Little Children with my sister. The Guardian was cool because 2 former Texas swimmers where extras in the movie spending basically the middle portion of the movie on screen. So getting to seem them on the big screen was nice; one even got to sit next to Ashton Kutcher in class--I'm so jealous.

As for Children, it was interesting, particularly as the movie made me realize the childishness of some of the things I've been doing of late--which in some aspects seemed to be the point of the movie.

Anyways, I'm headed back to Florida, and to an annual organization work review beginning tomorrow. Following that, my mom and step-dad are down for a week's visit, and the craziness of the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. Joyous.


Her face is a map of the world, is a map of the world
You can see she's a beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm

My yesterdays are all boxed up and neatly put away, but every now and then you come to mind

Today marked my 1-year anniversary at work: I started a year ago on October 10--last year it was Columbus Day, rather than the day after, though. All in all, nothing terribly exciting to report... I did get to test out my new parachute at practice. Nice, but not much on the exciting though.

The only other item of note from today was that I stumbled upon another article about James Madison University dropping its men's swimming team, and nine other sports, to come into compliance with Title IX. The most interesting thing about JMU's situation to me is that the school, itself, is way out of gender proportion: it's 61% female and 39% male. This is the parallel the JMU Athletics is aiming to match.

The U.S. population is 51% female, 49% male--according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As this is the case, why isn't Title IX (which is about gender equality in education) working to rectify the school's inequality? And couldn't men's sports teams be used to help address this trend?


Butterflies are free to fly and so they fly away
And I'm left to carry on and wonder why
Even through it all, I'm always on your side

Do you believe everything that you read, everything that you see on the set?

I went and saw The Illusionist today, which was quite good.

Going in, I was a tad worried that it would be too similar to The Prestige, which comes out later this month, but I was glad I went. Having now seen it, I believe Prestige will only be similar in the fact that the main characters are illusionists/magicians.

And this reminds me that Hollywood amazingly seems to have the same 2 movies come out at the same time (this also happened last month with The Black Dahlia and Hollywoodland). And that doesn't even get into things like last year's Capote and this year's Infamous (the latter which I'll probably end up seeing because Sandra Bullock's in it--among others).

Course, in addition to a good cast and story, The Illusionist also benefited by having a Rufus in it--a name which since Dogma makes me smile (the 13th apostle, you know).

And what you want, what you really need are two different things wouldn't you say
The line is thin between fun and sin, and were all clockin' in for the day
(And our only care is what to wear)

Every day is a getaway when all of it goes unsaid
I got a holiday, a paid holiday
I got a holiday in my head

It was just, one of those things; just one of those crazy flings

For reasons of which I'm not quite sure, yesterday afternoon I entered a 10K swim on Saturday morning down off Virginia Key (between South Beach and Key Biscayne just off Miami). I'm not exactly sure why I've signed up for that distance, particularly since there was a much more plausible 5K option, or the mental stop-gap that allowed me to do so, or the fact that I've not ducked out of it yet. In any case, I didn't have any terrible qualms about entering it when I did so, it just seemed like another viable option.

It wasn't until about 30 minutes later that I began to wonder about it. And I figure I'll still be wondering come Saturday morning. Course, given that the race starts at like 7:30 a.m., I may not really be awake yet. Maybe I wasn't really when I signed up?

In any case, I hope to just have fun and be done in about 2.5 hours... we'll see.

At least I've already hit my 100 post to the blog since within its first year. This is actually post 101, which probably should have a Depeche Mode song in the subject, but doesn't. Instead, I went with Just One of Those Things, good Cole Porter tune (which I believe you can hear him sing if you click on the link), to continue the carry on the traditional song trend from last time (although no Sleepless in Seattle/Las Vegas connection this time, unlike Stardust). No, today's choice had more to do with the words "crazy" (the aforemention entrance into a 10,000m swim) and "gossamer" (below--I just like that it's include in the song)...

Anyways, I should jet off, fabulous flight to attend to, et al.

It was just one of those nights
Just one of those fabulous flights
A trip to the moon on gossamer wings
Just one of those things

With a big black horse & a cherry tree...

Tomorrow I head out of town again, this time all the way 'cross the country to Tacoma (basically the other corner). I'll be there through Saturday afternoon (for work) before I catch an overnight flight back, through Vegas, so that the return doesn't eat all of Sunday (I get in at 6:30 a.m., I believe).

But before I jet off tomorrow morning, I've got some packing to do, some files to get off-line, a grand opening to miss (sorry Jarret) and a swim practice to not do (there's rain so they're clouds, therefore the guards have called practice...).

Anyways, if I'm lucky I'll get caught up on Project Runway this week, but am not too sure about that either (and downloading the past episodes is taking a way long time, regretfully).

What else? Not much, I guess... I met the father of my new upstairs neighbor (she was at work while he was scoping out the place for remodeling--he's a contractor). I picked up a new pair of navy blue, Arizona Birks yesterday (rather quickly while at lunch). I got a whole whopping 600 in last night before we got pulled out of the water because of weather. I'm still trying to get caught up at work (2 weeks away from the office can do that, sometimes).

Terrible excitement, I know, but hey, I've got packing to do, so later.


But I said no... no, no... no-no-no
I said no... no, you're not the one for me
No... no, no... no-no-no
I said no... no, you're not the one for me

Or am I standing still, with the scenery flying by...

How was everyone’s weekend? Mine was good, occupied, but good. For most of the weekend I helped out at what may be the biggest age-group meet in the world (there were 1200+ swimmers in the thing); at least when it wasn’t partially rained out (that was only on Sunday mid-day, though, due to a nice tropical wave that blew in from the Bahamas). So I was at the meet every night from Thursday-Sunday, and in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. In between, I squeezed in my first open house.

I’m looking for a place to buy--given the real estate market here, that means I can afford about a square foot of property here for the cost of an estate in South Texas... actually, the cost comparison is closer to: in San Antonio you’d get a 3-4 bedroom/2-3 bath nice house, with a good yard for what a studio condo goes for here. And I’m still not seeing the mass appeal to being here... there’s not even any good Mexican food.

But it’s all good--I guess. At least I’ve got Hoodwinked to watch (which I’m gonna get back to now).


Or am I standing still, beneath the darkenin’ sky
Or am I standing still, with the scenery of fly
Or am I standing still, out of the corner of my eye
Was that you, passing me by?

En la distancia te puedo ver, cuando tus fotos me siento a ver

Greetings from Hong Kong!

Actually, to be more precise, greetings from Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island--which is where my hotel is-->across Victoria Harbor from Kowloon. (And on the Causeway Bay page linked above, my hotel is just a couple blocks from this street, which I was on today.)

Things here go well. I arrived late afternoon on Thursday, and other than a brief trip yesterday afternoon into New Territories to visit the Hong Kong Sports Institute, I've not been off this island since my initial train ride from the airport (which is located on Lantau Island-->confused? map here).

I have even managed to see about 5 McDonald's nearby. (Yes, I've eaten there already--the 2 Chinese meals I have had have been, let's say, interesting; so much that it drew me to more Americanized food, i.e. McDonald's and the Outback Steakhouse that's nearby. Haven't hit the Pizza Hut or KFC; though I'm not sure if I will... things are never exactly the same as they are in the U.S.--the McDonald's has menu items served on rice cakes (I think) instead of a bun, and I'm not exactly sure what's between them--not been that brave as yet.)

In any case, my lack of touristy visiting has primarily been due to my preparing for a presentation, which I'm partially through at the moment (4 more hours tomorrow). After finishing up Sunday with it, I am hoping to become a turista on Monday, prior to my return stateside on Tuesday. We'll see how it all goes...

Actually, most surprising is that I am not having massive jet-lag, particularly since Hong Kong is 12 hours ahead of the East coast (it's midnight here in H.K. and noon in FL). And as it's so late, I will bid you good night...

(And just in case you're wondering, as my Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese are non-existent, I am working with the other language of Hong Kong, English--a hold over from British colonial rule which ended in 1997--after my last visit here in 1993. Because I don't understand either Chineses, I've been having moments of wanting to speak Spanish, maybe in preparation for next week's visit to El Salvador--who knows. Oh, and in case you're curious, the language issue is probably effecting my presentation, in addition to some cultural differences...)


Cada vez que te busco, te vas
Cada vez que te llamo, no estas
Es por eso que debo decir que tu solo en mis fotos estas