Jetlag

I'm back from Thailand/Taiwan. It's 4:57am, I can't fall asleep, and there's nothing on TV other than advertising for Girls Gone Wild on 4 different cable channels. I didn't get to post anything with the Treo even though I had a good data connection throughout the entire trip. The keyboard is too small for serious typing. However, I think I got about 200+ undeliverable notices when my email server tried to send my vacation notice to spoofed spam email accounts.

Here are some pics from the trip:


McDonald's on Silom Road in Bangkok (all the Burger Kings seem to be in airport terminals)


Movie posters in "downtown" Udon Thani, Thailand (if you're wondering about the road signs, they drive on the left side of the road in Thailand)


House on Koh Yaow island


The famous jade bok choi from National Palace Museum in Taipei

Thailand Hotels

I just bought the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand since we have a lot of free time on our Xealot trip and I've decided not to bring a computer. This edition was updated in September 2005 so it should have recent information. Since I can't sleep well on the plane, I've got about 18 hours to read up on Thailand.

I've also been checking out the hotels we're going to be staying at and they all look pretty nice... and cheap. I think the hotel in Udon Thani is only US$25.

Bangkok: Pathumwan Princess Hotel



Udon Thani: Charoensri Grand Royal Hotel



Phuket: Club Andaman Beach Resort



I hope the actual facilities live up to the pictures and words on the Internet.

Testing the Treo, Part 2

This is a test from my work email account to Blogger.

Hmm, how am I going to charge my mp3 player if I don't bring a computer? The
13.5-hour flight from LAX-BKK will wipe out the 10-hour battery charge. Speaking
of which, my cube mp3 player is busted again. I'll have to upload the
firmware again.

==========

Arg, the line breaks are obviously not working. Yahoo! Mail puts them in too early and Goodlink Mail puts them in too late. Did I mention it was hard to type on the Treo's little keyboard? Also, I just noticed that Yahoo! Mail ignored my apostrophes... I'm sure I typed "I'm" instead of "Im".

I think I will go with the low-tech solution of bringing a notebook (paper) and take notes each night and update the blog when I get back.

Testing the Treo

Im debating whether I should bring a laptop to
Thailand or not. I can download pictures off the
camera and update the blog but then I would have to
leave it at the hotel desk all day Saturday.

I can also update the blog with the Treo. Im trying
out the Yahoo! account to see if it works.

==========

Hmm, it did work but Yahoo! Mail adds an irritating signature at the end of the message. I can't seem to get my Adelphia email acount to work with VersaMail on the Treo. I guess I'll have to use my sync'ed work email account to update the blog. Typing on the little Treo keyboard is a pain though...

NewSong Day

Today was an all NewSong day. I was supposed to help out with sound production this morning at 6:30am. When I woke up, it was sunny and about 8am. It turned out I forgot to turn the sound back on on the Treo; I use the Treo as my alarm clock. I jumped up out of bed, brushed my teeth, and was at NewSong NOC in about 15 minutes. Good thing I wasn't the lead audio technician this morning.



After the service, Dave took a bunch of us out to an Italian buffet lunch and then we all drove to Irvine to help unload the truck. It's pretty quick with a couple of people helping but takes forever if you're by yourself, especially unloading the dual 18" subwoofer cabs. I also signed up for Connections class, needed for membership, at 5pm so a couple of people came to my house to hang out. The meeting was at a couple's new house in Buena Park; it's so new that both Yahoo! and Google maps didn't have their address yet. We had more Italian food and found out about NewSong's history and vision/direction. I signed up to be a member but now I have to answer a long list of questions about my faith and spiritual beliefs.

I got to talk to the site pastor, Brian Kim, for a bit tonight and he wants to meet me for lunch later to talk about financial budgeting and reporting. Interestingly, that's really the first time any pastor has asked me about the topic (even when I was a deacon at CCCSB), though it's what I do at work most of the time. I think churches are overly-concerned when talking about money. Of course the church is not a business out there trying to turn a profit. However, tools we learned in business school and use at work can be applied to long-term financial forecasting and spotting trends. Anyway, I'll need to brush up on budgeting and planning for non-profit organizations.

Just Like Heaven

"Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream" she said
"The one that makes me laugh" she said
And threw her arms around my neck
"Show me how you do it
And I promise you I promise that
I'll run away with you
I'll run away with you"

Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
And dreamed of all the different ways I had
To make her glow
"Why are you so far away?" she said
"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you
That I'm in love with you"

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Just like heaven

Brea Mall

I went to the mall after work today because I couldn't think of anywhere else to eat. First I went to the pharmacy to pick up my Cipro prescription for Thailand. My doctor wrote that for me in case I get traveller's diarrhea.

I wandered around the mall for several minutes and ended up at the food court. I always end up eating at the teryaki place; today the food wasn't too good, the rice was too wet and the sauce was too salty. It's always kind of depressing having to eat by yourself, especially at 8pm in a mall food court. I usually end up eating at my desk if I can't find someone at work to eat lunch with. Occasionally I go to China Buffet in Fullerton by myself for lunch; I usually bring a magazine to read while I eat and no one notices me.

After dinner at the mall, I went to both Macy's and Robinsons-May to look for some pots. I've been looking for some saucepan/pots to replace the ones we got for our wedding. I really want to get some All-Clad pots but they're really really expensive. At Robinsons-May, they had some Calphalon stuff on sale. I stood there for awhile debating on whether I wanted a 5 quart chili pot. I'm really picky about pots and knives. It took me about 3 months to pick out and buy (waiting for sale) my 8" Henckel chef's knife; it looks like a murder weapon but cuts real well. Finally I went home without buying anything. I had wanted to cook some porridge but I had no pot but since I ate at the mall, I postponed the purchase.

Wow, that was a pretty boring evening.

UCLA Wins!

UCLA beats Washington 21-17. They were losing the entire game until the last minute of the game. There was pretty much no offense until the last drive of the game. UCLA is now 4-0 on the season; they were ranked #20 before this game but I'm not sure this game will improve their ranking.

The game was at the Rose Bowl and it's now 10:53pm. I hate to be living near the Rose Bowl with 65,000 people trying to leave through residential streets.