I’ve taken my sweet-ass time writing this blog for several reasons. Mostly because there’s a lot to talk about and it’s going to be dauntingly long to write (hopefully not so daunting for you to read), but also because I’m not sure how much I want to touch on politics (or religion or drugs or any of the other polarizing subjects that people scream at each other about today) in a blog about my traveling adventures. This TSA situation obviously falls in the traveling category, so it can stay here, but I think I’ll probably start another blog for the miscellaneous rants and raves I have on a daily basis – taxes, elections, political correctness, and hey, why not drugs and religion?! I’ll let you know if/when I start up The Redneck’s Guide to Uncommon Sense – or whatever the hell I choose to call it.
On to the touching of junk….
I am a freedom-loving guy and have been as far back as I can remember. I have a scrapbook that goes from 1st grade to 12th which I updated religiously until I got too cool for it in high school. Each year the book asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and I wrote, “Soldier.” (I ended up in the Marines, but that’s a different story.) I love freedom so much that it’s the first thing I had tattooed on my body and it’s still the only word tattooed on my body. However, experience has taught me that for a society to work and not become a chaotic mess - a splattered bug-carcass on the windshield of history – sometimes freedom has to be curtailed. I think flying is one of those instances and I think the TSA’s enhanced pat-downs/naked-pic screening combo is the best solution to RIGHT NOW to an increasingly complex problem. Our ultimate freedom as Americans is the freedom to move about the country and no one is stopping you from doing that. If you object to the current security methods at the airport, drive to where you want to go. If there isn’t time for you to drive from New Mexico to Miami during your vacation, find someplace close enough for you to drive to in your limited vacation time – no matter where you are in this country, there’s someplace interesting within driving distance to take your family to. If not, build one. If you still want to fly someplace, buy your own plane and learn to fly it. If your company requires you to be someplace far away in an amount of time that can only be accomplished by flying there, work that out with your boss or find a different job. You have the freedom in this country to do all these things and more. This is what freedom is, it’s not the ability to do anything you want anytime you want following only the rules you think are right for you – that’s Chaos.
The Israeli Method
People say, why don’t we do things the way the Israelis do – they never have any problems. I think that in a perfect world (one with many more competent people and a lot fewer lawyers) we could run mass-transit security the way the Israelis do – superbly trained security officers look everyone in the eye and ask a few well-crafted questions and, based on the responses, the prospective passenger is passed on or singled out for further scrutiny. Does that sound like the country we live in? Over the years and particularly lately, I’ve heard TSA agents described as “mouth-breathing, brain-dead idiots”, “people who couldn’t get hired to pick up trash on the side of the road”, “incompetent thugs”, etc. I could go on, but I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of the same things. Disregarding whether or not any of that stuff is true, just look at the anecdotal evidence since the new procedures were instituted – kids being stripped almost naked for pat-downs, hot chicks being singled out for “special treatment” good or bad, a flight attendant having to show her prosthetic breast. These are the people that you want asking you questions to decide if you’re a threat or not?
Israel is a tiny country surrounded on all sides by people who want to see them dead. Everyone who lives there is constantly reminded of this. Every Israeli citizen is required to serve time in their military, one of the most professional and well-trained militaries in the world. All this together creates a very competent, pragmatic, and realistic society. Does THIS sound like the country we live in? No. We’re soft and fat and have been pampered for too long. In Israel security is strict and omnipresent. The people are used to it and understand its necessity. No one is going to bring a lawsuit over profiling or being singled out for special scrutiny. Can you imagine how the lawyers in this country would grow even fatter off the lawsuits an Israeli-style security system in this country would generate? It would be a whole industry unto itself!
I’d like to see a day when competent, well-trained security personnel work the security area and patrol the entire airport looking for and singling out threats, but the TSA wasn’t created with that kind of mandate. The primary focus of the people creating the TSA was on how to add them to the government bureaucracy and unionize them (to create more constituents for the Democrats) and to get them out there in the airports quickly to make it look like the government was responding forcefully (for the political expediency of the Republican administration that was in charge at the time.) It wasn’t created primarily with an eye to competence and superior training.
The Scanners Don’t Work
One of the arguments I hear is that the scanners and pat downs don’t really work so we shouldn’t bother with them. Also that Michael Chertoff, who was a Director of Homeland Security under Bush, was a big proponent of the naked scanners and now works for one of the scanner manufacturers so obviously it was corruption that got the scanners purchased and installed.
Putting aside how it looks (because we all know that perception is 10 times more important than reality in today’s world), Chertoff always struck me as a solid guy. I can see how he could go from believing the scanners are the best way to go for our country to working for one of said companies after he’s out of public office. Just because he works for the company doesn’t mean the scanners don’t work.
Now put aside the Chertoff issue. Have you seen example pictures from these things? The ones I’ve seen vary wildly from pretty good detail to black and white ink-blot-looking things. I have a feeling that it primarily depends on which technology, manufacturer, and computer settings you use as to what output you get. Regardless, it’s not a Hustler pictorial you’re looking at. People have to be trained to even know what they’re looking at and looking FOR in regards to prohibited items, but they should most definitely be able to see whether somebody’s packing an underwear bomb or an over-large sausage in their shorts.
The real test is going to be if the terrorists start resorting to the anal bomb scenario. I’m amazed it hasn’t happened already, but maybe that’s because of the Islamic aversion to homosexuality. You and I know that ramming a plastic pipe bomb up your rectum might make you extremely uncomfortable but probably doesn’t make you enjoy the company of other men, but maybe the jihadist fanatics haven’t figured that out yet. Anyway, if that form of attack starts occurring, watch profiling suddenly become socially and politically acceptable overnight.
TSA Bashing
Full disclosure, my father is a retired Navy guy who works for the TSA, so that does tend to input a little bias in the way I see those people, though it has nothing to do with how I view this issue overall. He and I get along well and chat from time to time (though not about this subject yet) and I think he’s a great guy – very intelligent and competent with tons of integrity. Obviously not all TSA agents are this way, but when I hear people bashing the TSA as a whole I tend to get really annoyed.
Take it from someone who flies nearly every week of the year, there are MANY more mouth-breathing, hygienically-challenged, fat, disgusting, simpletons standing in the security line than there are working the machines. I hear TSA agents described as molesters, abusers of authority, people so pumped up on their own power that they don’t act rationally – and SOME of them definitely are. But it’s a very small percentage. Most of them are very professional or friendly or both. They may not be as well trained as I’d like or as competent as their position demands, but they have a job to do and they are convinced of its necessity. Most of them don’t want to see most of those people in line naked and definitely don’t want to touch them. It’s like when you drop your cell phone in the toilet. Do you ignore it? No. You’d like to, but instead you try to find something to get it out with (metaphor for the Scanners in case you didn’t catch it) but if that doesn’t work you fight down your revulsion and go in for it with your hand. It’s disgusting and you’ll want to take a shower after, but it’s something that had to be done.
In Summary: Common Sense and the Real World
The American people are capable of adapting to a new reality if they are shown the necessity, but the US is a victim of its own success. If the underwear bomber had been successful in blowing up a plane over Detroit last year or the car bomber in Times Square had been successful or any number of other plots hadn’t failed, we’d be living in a very different country right now. Instead, the American people have a habit of pissing and moaning whenever some new security regulation is instated. Get some perspective people!
I’m worried that the Don’t Touch My Junk guy gave the media and politicians the sound bite they needed to keep this issue in the news much longer than it should be and, in doing so, forced the TSA to back off and not provide us with the meager security that’s within their power. I’ve flown about a dozen times since the new policy started up and I’ve only had to go through the body scanner once (today) and haven’t been the recipient of any blue-gloved hands roaming up and down my genitalia. In fact, I’ve seen the naked scanners roped off and not being used at all in a few airports.
It really boils down to a common sense (an over-used term but in this instance there is no better) example: you have two planes that are going to the same place at the same time; everything is the same except that one plane is full of people who have had the enhanced screening procedures and the other is full of people who haven’t. Which one would you want to be on at 30,000 feet?
In a perfect world there are many different and more effective things that we could be doing to combat the terrorist threat that truly does exist, but in the real world –the one in which we actually live – this is the best we can expect at the moment. So, go ahead and touch my junk and let me get where I’m going in one piece with some peace of mind.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Montana: Mega-meadows, Mediocre Food, and Meth
Running around Montana this week and next. My first trip to Montana was earlier this year, but it was winter time and I was paying much more attention to not dying in a fiery mutilating death on the slick roads than to the scenery around me. This time the weather is fantastic and the roads are nearly empty, so all the swerving across the center line while I scenery-gawk at 80 mph is only minimally dangerous and only to me.
This week I flew into Billings and spent time in Roundup, Winnet, Jordan, Miles City, and Custer. If you’re so inclined, you can take a look at the map and see that I cut a fairly large half-moon swath out of the center of this state. I loved the wide open spaces – they look like country meadows that go on for miles and miles and miles – and the occasional arroyos and cut-valleys thrown into the mix, but I have to admit to being mildly disappointed. Having been blown away by my trips to Wyoming the last couple years, I expected Montana to do an even better job of taking my breath away. Looking at the map, I’m thinking the western part of the state has that potential, but the area I was in this week was only mildly awe-inspiring.
Once you land here and start driving around, prepare yourself for a massacre. The bugs and birds (not to mention elk, pronghorns, and deer) are plentiful and not as fast as they think. I was tempted to snap a couple pics of my rental car before I turned it in, but decided it was just a little too gory for public consumption.
Speaking of consumption, I set out to try some off-the-beaten- path menu items while in the area, but could only find buffalo and elk in regular supply. They were ok, but nothing to bring me running back for more. The sushi was acceptable, but it took 45 minutes to get 3 rolls – next time I’m taking a book. I hit a couple of interesting restaurants this week and I’ll post some reviews on Yelp when I get the time to write them up. Nothing above 3 stars so far. Next week I think I’m going to try some of the casinos/lounges and roadside cafes scattered all over the place. There’s a greater risk of food-born illness, but the reward of finding a lip-smakin’, finger-lickin’ jewel of a meal are worth it.
This state is littered with casinos! I’m not a gambler (unless you include women and food in that category) so I haven’t been into one of these places yet, but Billings alone probably has 30-50 of’em and every town I passed through – no matter how small – has at least a couple. After spending a few days in Vegas recently these places all seem so quaint.
I’m wondering if gambling and meth go hand in hand – maybe my friend Rob can tell me since he seems to be addicted to both casinos and Breaking Bad. Every town I passed through, even if it only contained a handful of buildings, had at least one mural depicting the dangers of meth addiction. The larger towns have these murals and signs every other block it seems! I didn’t notice many people who looked like meth addicts, but to be honest I was feeling more anti-social than usual this week and kept my interactions with the locals to the bare minimum required for survival. (There WAS a cute little waitress named Olivia at Walker’s Grill in Billings I could stand to get to know better, but the food was not to my liking so I probably won’t go back.)
All in all an interesting week in a new place, but not enough to stand out in my memory banks for long. Next week I begin by flying into Billings and driving the 200-plus miles to Jordan where I’ll spend a couple days staying at the Fellman’s Motel. For those who don’t know, I’m a Marriott/Holiday Inn chain guy. I’m a whore for points any way I can get’em and they’ve paid my way to European vacations more than once. But when I heard that this motel (which has been owned by the same family from the get-go) started out as a hunting lodge in the early 1900’s, converted to indoor plumbing in the 60’s, and upgraded to air-conditioning a little over 10 years ago, I knew I needed to stay there at least a night or two. I’m happy to plunk down a few company dollars to keep a tradition going! Of course the recently installed high-speed internet and refrigerators didn’t hurt in swaying my decision. Sure will miss those points though….
That’s it for this post. See some of ya tonight and most of ya at Evan/Katrina’s birthday/fight party tomorrow!!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Back in Gotham - Part 2
I'm back home and have finally gotten some rest in the big comfy bed. Time to tie up a couple loose ends on my recent travels....
A little about the TKTS booth in Times Square.... The booth is only open for a few hours - check out pertinent info here - so the lines get long early. If you really have your heart set on specific tickets, you'll need to get there a couple hours before they open. Regardless of how early you go, though, be prepared with a list of choices since your first choice may be sold out or may not have seats as good as you want available. The tickets are usually about half off and aren't weighed down by all those fees Ticketmaster likes to tack on. There are two lines - one on either side of the booth - and if you get there early the sun isn't shining on either one. If you get there late or are going to be there for a while you'll want to get in the left-side line (as you're facing the front of the booth) because the sun takes longer to clear the buildings on that side and start melting you. Once the booth opens, the line starts moving pretty quickly actually - I got there an hour before open and had my tickets a half hour after. At some point when you're standing in line the rumor will start getting passed back that they only take cash. This is BS, but it happens each time I've gotten in line and it'll make you start sweating about whether or not you've got enough cash on you. They take all major credit cards. Also, there's a separate (much smaller) line if you're wanting to see a play instead of a musical.
I got in line thinking American Idiot would be my first choice and Million Dollar Quartet would be my backup. Well, AI is doing so well they didn't have any tickets on the board even at the start and after looking at all the billboards in Times Square for an hour, I decided Rock of Ages would probably be the best show for me to take Dakota to. I was able to score some really good seats to ROA and it turned out I was right, but I'll get to that in just a bit.
Tickets in hand, I collected Dakota from the movie theater and headed down to Chinatown. Now, I've taken Dakota to NYC several times, but always with other people. And usually those other people are newbies, so we have to do some of the touristy stuff - Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, etc. This time it was just going to be me and him, so I asked if he had anything in particular in mind that he'd like to do. He immediately said, "NOT the Empire State Building!" So, I started thinking about places I'd never taken him that could be interesting. Considering his love of Asian culture (mostly because of all the anime that he's been watching for years, I think) and my recent trip to Hong Kong, I decided a trip to Chinatown would be interesting for both of us.
Several subway lines stop at Canal Street, but I decided on the 4-5-6 line. When you pop up at the Canal stop on that line, you're right at the beginning of Chinatown. Just start walking East on Canal and you're surrounded by all the shopping stalls, fish markets, and Asian restaurants you can handle. Dakota bought himself a Dragon fruit right off from a street vendor. I'd never seen one of those things before, but they have got to be one of the coolest-looking fruits out there. We did a bit of browsing and wandering and settled on a little authentic-looking place called the Hon Cafe for lunch. The front part of the restaurant is a bakery and there wasn't one item that didn't look excellent! If we weren't stopping for lunch I would've picked up a bagful of pastries and rolls. As it was, Dakota bought a couple Bolo's on the way out and they tasted every bit as good as they looked. I ended up trying the Eel Fried Rice that I'd skipped in Hong Kong (it was very good) and Dakota ordered up some Hong Kong style beef and noodles which he made his own by pouring in some broth.
After lunch we did a little more wandering around Chinatown, then hopped the subway back to Broadway to catch our show. During the subway excursions Dakota really impressed me. On the way down he was approached by one of the many grifters you run into around town. He listened attentively to the guy's spiel (about losing his job and his divorce and about needing money to fight for his kids in court and could Dakota spare him a dime or a nickel even) then politely declined. The guy thanked him for listening and moved on. This is the safest way to handle those situations. You can rudely cut him off and tell him to move on, but you can never really predict their reaction to that kind of treatment. Best to listen, politely decline and wish them good luck. I've also found that "God Bless" is a good phrase for motivating them on their way - even grifters are afraid of being preached to. The second thing Dakota did to impress me was on the way back. We were sitting on the L train towards 8th Ave when a woman popped her head in and asked if this was the train to Brooklyn. Without skipping a beat he said, "No, that's the one on the other side." Normally when I'm dragging people around the subways of the world (be it NYC, London, Paris, etc) they really have no idea where they are. But Dakota, who hadn't been to NYC in about 2 years, knew exactly where he was at after hopping 3 different lines on the way back from Chinatown. The boy pays attention! I have a feeling he'll do quite well on his own in the city one day.
We made it to the theater for Rock of Ages just in time and watched a hell of a show. The acting is not the greatest, the dancing is sometimes laughable (and I suspect intentionally so), the story is predictable, but you can't beat the soundtrack and I have never had more fun or laughed so hard at a musical. For a couple hours of just flat-out fun you can't do better than Rock Of Ages. I liked it so much that I bought a block of 10 tickets for one of the Chicago showings coming up in September. According to the description on Broadway in Chicago, it should be the same cast as the Broadway show doing the tour. I sure hope so because I'm pretty sure I fell in lust with a couple of the dancers/ensemble players from the show.
After the show, we went for a nice long walk over to 5th Ave and north to Central Park to do a little shopping. We made the obligatory stop at FAO Schwarz, but it closed at 6pm before we got there (what's up with that??), so in all the years I've been going to NYC I STILL have not made it into that store...lol!
We caught the subway back to the hotel to rest up a little before dinner, but after an hour of chilling in the room we mutually agreed that sleep would be a much more satisfactory use of our time. Did I mention we started off the day worn out? By the time dinner rolled around, no piece of charred cow's flesh or dainty piece of raw fish sounded anywhere near good enough to pull me from the cozy embrace of my blankets.
We made it to La Guardia the next morning without incident (though I'm thinking our cab driver was either senile or drunk or both) and on the plane only a few minutes late. Then we sat on the tarmac for over an hour, including a trip back to the terminal so the ground crew could close a hatch on the plane that they'd mistakenly left open. I effing hate all airlines but Southwest! And I effing HATE La Guardia! But NYC was, as always, interesting and remains on my list of favorite places to visit.
A little about the TKTS booth in Times Square.... The booth is only open for a few hours - check out pertinent info here - so the lines get long early. If you really have your heart set on specific tickets, you'll need to get there a couple hours before they open. Regardless of how early you go, though, be prepared with a list of choices since your first choice may be sold out or may not have seats as good as you want available. The tickets are usually about half off and aren't weighed down by all those fees Ticketmaster likes to tack on. There are two lines - one on either side of the booth - and if you get there early the sun isn't shining on either one. If you get there late or are going to be there for a while you'll want to get in the left-side line (as you're facing the front of the booth) because the sun takes longer to clear the buildings on that side and start melting you. Once the booth opens, the line starts moving pretty quickly actually - I got there an hour before open and had my tickets a half hour after. At some point when you're standing in line the rumor will start getting passed back that they only take cash. This is BS, but it happens each time I've gotten in line and it'll make you start sweating about whether or not you've got enough cash on you. They take all major credit cards. Also, there's a separate (much smaller) line if you're wanting to see a play instead of a musical.
I got in line thinking American Idiot would be my first choice and Million Dollar Quartet would be my backup. Well, AI is doing so well they didn't have any tickets on the board even at the start and after looking at all the billboards in Times Square for an hour, I decided Rock of Ages would probably be the best show for me to take Dakota to. I was able to score some really good seats to ROA and it turned out I was right, but I'll get to that in just a bit.
Tickets in hand, I collected Dakota from the movie theater and headed down to Chinatown. Now, I've taken Dakota to NYC several times, but always with other people. And usually those other people are newbies, so we have to do some of the touristy stuff - Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, etc. This time it was just going to be me and him, so I asked if he had anything in particular in mind that he'd like to do. He immediately said, "NOT the Empire State Building!" So, I started thinking about places I'd never taken him that could be interesting. Considering his love of Asian culture (mostly because of all the anime that he's been watching for years, I think) and my recent trip to Hong Kong, I decided a trip to Chinatown would be interesting for both of us.
Several subway lines stop at Canal Street, but I decided on the 4-5-6 line. When you pop up at the Canal stop on that line, you're right at the beginning of Chinatown. Just start walking East on Canal and you're surrounded by all the shopping stalls, fish markets, and Asian restaurants you can handle. Dakota bought himself a Dragon fruit right off from a street vendor. I'd never seen one of those things before, but they have got to be one of the coolest-looking fruits out there. We did a bit of browsing and wandering and settled on a little authentic-looking place called the Hon Cafe for lunch. The front part of the restaurant is a bakery and there wasn't one item that didn't look excellent! If we weren't stopping for lunch I would've picked up a bagful of pastries and rolls. As it was, Dakota bought a couple Bolo's on the way out and they tasted every bit as good as they looked. I ended up trying the Eel Fried Rice that I'd skipped in Hong Kong (it was very good) and Dakota ordered up some Hong Kong style beef and noodles which he made his own by pouring in some broth.
After lunch we did a little more wandering around Chinatown, then hopped the subway back to Broadway to catch our show. During the subway excursions Dakota really impressed me. On the way down he was approached by one of the many grifters you run into around town. He listened attentively to the guy's spiel (about losing his job and his divorce and about needing money to fight for his kids in court and could Dakota spare him a dime or a nickel even) then politely declined. The guy thanked him for listening and moved on. This is the safest way to handle those situations. You can rudely cut him off and tell him to move on, but you can never really predict their reaction to that kind of treatment. Best to listen, politely decline and wish them good luck. I've also found that "God Bless" is a good phrase for motivating them on their way - even grifters are afraid of being preached to. The second thing Dakota did to impress me was on the way back. We were sitting on the L train towards 8th Ave when a woman popped her head in and asked if this was the train to Brooklyn. Without skipping a beat he said, "No, that's the one on the other side." Normally when I'm dragging people around the subways of the world (be it NYC, London, Paris, etc) they really have no idea where they are. But Dakota, who hadn't been to NYC in about 2 years, knew exactly where he was at after hopping 3 different lines on the way back from Chinatown. The boy pays attention! I have a feeling he'll do quite well on his own in the city one day.
We made it to the theater for Rock of Ages just in time and watched a hell of a show. The acting is not the greatest, the dancing is sometimes laughable (and I suspect intentionally so), the story is predictable, but you can't beat the soundtrack and I have never had more fun or laughed so hard at a musical. For a couple hours of just flat-out fun you can't do better than Rock Of Ages. I liked it so much that I bought a block of 10 tickets for one of the Chicago showings coming up in September. According to the description on Broadway in Chicago, it should be the same cast as the Broadway show doing the tour. I sure hope so because I'm pretty sure I fell in lust with a couple of the dancers/ensemble players from the show.
After the show, we went for a nice long walk over to 5th Ave and north to Central Park to do a little shopping. We made the obligatory stop at FAO Schwarz, but it closed at 6pm before we got there (what's up with that??), so in all the years I've been going to NYC I STILL have not made it into that store...lol!
We caught the subway back to the hotel to rest up a little before dinner, but after an hour of chilling in the room we mutually agreed that sleep would be a much more satisfactory use of our time. Did I mention we started off the day worn out? By the time dinner rolled around, no piece of charred cow's flesh or dainty piece of raw fish sounded anywhere near good enough to pull me from the cozy embrace of my blankets.
We made it to La Guardia the next morning without incident (though I'm thinking our cab driver was either senile or drunk or both) and on the plane only a few minutes late. Then we sat on the tarmac for over an hour, including a trip back to the terminal so the ground crew could close a hatch on the plane that they'd mistakenly left open. I effing hate all airlines but Southwest! And I effing HATE La Guardia! But NYC was, as always, interesting and remains on my list of favorite places to visit.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Back in Gotham
Couple notes before I get started.... I changed the background to make the Blog easier on the eyes. It's boring, but you're coming here to read what I have to say, right? Second, I've got one more blog to do regarding Hong Kong. It's going to be mostly about the food, so most people won't wanna read it anyway unless they have a fairly strong stomach - yes, I'm going to describe in detail the proper way to eat a chicken's foot. I want to give the blog it's due (items like that are what this Blog is mainly about), but I've been too damn busy or too damn tired to type much of anything the last few days.
The last few days....
So, after 3 hours of sleep I headed for the airport in HK and hopped a 15 hour flight to Detroit (on which I probably slept 3 or 4 restless hours), then a 45 minute flight to Indy. I got home, took about a 90 minute nap, then went out for some tasty beverages with friends (God, I missed you guys!). Made it home sometime after midnight and crashed out for about 4 hours before getting up and heading to the airport again. This was my son's 3rd flight ever and we were on a small CanadaAir Regional Jet and it was one bumpy ride. He wasn't feeling 100% to begin with, but I think his first experience of real turbulence really pushed him over the edge into being miserable. We landed at La Guardia a half hour early, but - as happens so often at one of my least favorite airports - we ended up being stuck on the plane for an hour before they could find room to let us off. Dakota was about to go nuts wanting to get outta that metal tube. Really surprised me with his vehemence.
Digressing a moment.... I fly all the time and have spent far too much time in many many airports. La Guardia is one of the worst! Why is that? There are busier airports - O'hare in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta There are other old, run-down airports - Midway in Chicago, Indianapolis before they opened the new one. They ALL run so much better than La Guardia. There are new airports going up all over the world (Hong Kong's was gorgeous) why can't they build a new state-of-the-art airport for NYC? As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a very proud American despite some of our more glaring flaws, but every time I fly in and out of La Guardia I am ashamed to think that this is the first thing most people visiting from other countries see when they get to one of the greatest cities on earth. It's truly pathetic.
Ok, back to the weekend.... Even with being held prisoner on the plane and fighting heavy traffic on the "Hutch" (as the Hutchinson River Pkwy is commonly referred to) we still made it to the party in CT only about a half hour later than expected. The party was fun! Don throws a great bash (always a well-stocked bar) and Jeralyn loved the Lion King tickets I got her.
Dakota and I got checked into the hotel (the Staybridge Times Square) around midnight and he crashed out almost immediately. I went for a walk. The hotel itself is excellent, but I quickly figured out why the rates are so reasonable. This street - West 40th - has more than its fair share of adult-oriented establishments (the words "peep show" are a regular occurrence).
Next morning I was up bright and early. (Exhausted as I've been, I've still only been able to sleep for a few short hours at a time for a few weeks now. Take this morning for example - I've been up for over an hour and it's only 5:20am as I write this. It's very frustrating.) Dakota, however, was having none of it. The boy sleeps like a zombie filled up on brains. I wanted to take him to some cool restaurant for breakfast - maybe Balthazar's - but I settled for grabbing us some Micky D's and bringing it back to the room. I always forget how rude service people in NYC can be, but I got reminded right off. The girl who took my order looked at me like I was wasting her time and spoke with such barely concealed contempt for everyone around her that I just wanted to reach back and slam her face into the counter a couple times. But I refrained and the weekend moved on.
I figured I'd spend a couple hours in the TKTS line trying to score some good seats to a show, so I dropped Dakota off at one of the movie theaters near Times Square. Turns out they have "AM Matinees" which only cost $6 - what a deal!! Any movie showing before noon is $6 at the AMC 25 on 42nd Street near 7th Ave. There's a little travel tip for ya. Being in that theater brought back memories of the last time I was there... I'd brought my girlfriend at the time to NYC to watch the ball drop in Times Square for New Years 2004. We decided to kill some time (and stay warm) by watching "Big Fish" which had just come out that week. That was a gooood New Years. *sigh*
Time to get ready to do the La Guardia torture test again. Still gotta tell ya about China Town and Rock of Ages. This blog will be continued....
The last few days....
So, after 3 hours of sleep I headed for the airport in HK and hopped a 15 hour flight to Detroit (on which I probably slept 3 or 4 restless hours), then a 45 minute flight to Indy. I got home, took about a 90 minute nap, then went out for some tasty beverages with friends (God, I missed you guys!). Made it home sometime after midnight and crashed out for about 4 hours before getting up and heading to the airport again. This was my son's 3rd flight ever and we were on a small CanadaAir Regional Jet and it was one bumpy ride. He wasn't feeling 100% to begin with, but I think his first experience of real turbulence really pushed him over the edge into being miserable. We landed at La Guardia a half hour early, but - as happens so often at one of my least favorite airports - we ended up being stuck on the plane for an hour before they could find room to let us off. Dakota was about to go nuts wanting to get outta that metal tube. Really surprised me with his vehemence.
Digressing a moment.... I fly all the time and have spent far too much time in many many airports. La Guardia is one of the worst! Why is that? There are busier airports - O'hare in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta There are other old, run-down airports - Midway in Chicago, Indianapolis before they opened the new one. They ALL run so much better than La Guardia. There are new airports going up all over the world (Hong Kong's was gorgeous) why can't they build a new state-of-the-art airport for NYC? As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a very proud American despite some of our more glaring flaws, but every time I fly in and out of La Guardia I am ashamed to think that this is the first thing most people visiting from other countries see when they get to one of the greatest cities on earth. It's truly pathetic.
Ok, back to the weekend.... Even with being held prisoner on the plane and fighting heavy traffic on the "Hutch" (as the Hutchinson River Pkwy is commonly referred to) we still made it to the party in CT only about a half hour later than expected. The party was fun! Don throws a great bash (always a well-stocked bar) and Jeralyn loved the Lion King tickets I got her.
Dakota and I got checked into the hotel (the Staybridge Times Square) around midnight and he crashed out almost immediately. I went for a walk. The hotel itself is excellent, but I quickly figured out why the rates are so reasonable. This street - West 40th - has more than its fair share of adult-oriented establishments (the words "peep show" are a regular occurrence).
Next morning I was up bright and early. (Exhausted as I've been, I've still only been able to sleep for a few short hours at a time for a few weeks now. Take this morning for example - I've been up for over an hour and it's only 5:20am as I write this. It's very frustrating.) Dakota, however, was having none of it. The boy sleeps like a zombie filled up on brains. I wanted to take him to some cool restaurant for breakfast - maybe Balthazar's - but I settled for grabbing us some Micky D's and bringing it back to the room. I always forget how rude service people in NYC can be, but I got reminded right off. The girl who took my order looked at me like I was wasting her time and spoke with such barely concealed contempt for everyone around her that I just wanted to reach back and slam her face into the counter a couple times. But I refrained and the weekend moved on.
I figured I'd spend a couple hours in the TKTS line trying to score some good seats to a show, so I dropped Dakota off at one of the movie theaters near Times Square. Turns out they have "AM Matinees" which only cost $6 - what a deal!! Any movie showing before noon is $6 at the AMC 25 on 42nd Street near 7th Ave. There's a little travel tip for ya. Being in that theater brought back memories of the last time I was there... I'd brought my girlfriend at the time to NYC to watch the ball drop in Times Square for New Years 2004. We decided to kill some time (and stay warm) by watching "Big Fish" which had just come out that week. That was a gooood New Years. *sigh*
Time to get ready to do the La Guardia torture test again. Still gotta tell ya about China Town and Rock of Ages. This blog will be continued....
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Hong Kong - The Final Night
I've still got a lotta tidbits to pass along for the Redneck's Travel Guide regarding Hong Kong, but I'm gonna get back to that later. Right now I wanna chat about today - the most interesting day I've had here - while it's still fresh.
I decided to go check out the # 1 touristy spot that I've heard about here - The Peak.
You can get all the way up there by taxi if you want, but that wouldn't be very touristy, so I took the Tram (which is almost as famous as The Peak actually). It takes you all the way up to the pretty new glass building they've got sitting on top of a mountain and sometimes the ride up is very steep. We passed several buildings on the way up, including houses and apartments with the windows open. I always wonder who wants a place where thousands of people can stare into their abode every day. I bet they're the same people who video their sweaty sex sessions.
Anyway, the Peak building is pretty much a smallish glass mall that overlooks the city and bay of Hong Kong. It's a cool place to pick up trinkets ( you're welcome Jodi & Jeri Jo & Kim & Val & etc etc). The view is pretty spectacular. Just a sec, let me post up a pic....
There ya go. I'll be posting several more (and a video or two) on FB.
While at the Peak I saw the only two black people I've seen the whole time I've been here. I think they were from Tennessee or something. I realized that if I stand out like a sore thumb in this place, they must stand out like a sore thumb that sings and does a little spur-of-the-moment ballet.
After the Peak I headed back to the hotel for a little afternoon siesta before heading to dinner with the customer. Ordinarily I would've declined a dinner invite from a customer (because I'm self-centered and would much rather do my own thing than deal with a crowd of people I barely know), but a big part of this project is rebuilding soured customer relations, so I figured what better way to do that than with a tale or three of drunken debauchery? It seems to have worked - the head of Asian operations is going to tell his Australian counterpart to request me for a project kicking off there next year.
We met at a restaurant in Mong Kok, Kowloon, the name of which roughly translates into The Fat Little Lamb. Before my history lesson I would've called the place a Shabu Shabu restaurant, but apparently that is Japanese and involves a cookpot with nearly clear liquid. The Chinese version (which I can't pronounce, but translates to Hot Pot) involves a large pot separated into compartments. Each compartment has a different kind of broth. Ours was separated into a lightly seasoned herb mixture on one side and a spicy concoction of chili peppers and other lip-burning ingredients on the other. I'm no big fan of super-spicy stuff, but I held my own and wiped away no tears while eating from the spicy pot. As anyone who's familiar with Shabu Shabu knows, they bring out a huge selection of raw meats, fish and vegetables. We had lamb, beef, eel, pork, oysters (good golly big'uns too!) and my personal favorite, a fish who's name I can't pronounce or begin to spell, but which is locally grown and considered a local specialty. Apparently they grow the fish in smallish ponds in which the water is kept running constantly forcing the fish to swim all day every day from birth until they're harvested. This makes for a very muscular fish who's meat is more the consistency of thinly sliced pork than a regular flaky texture. I loved it!
I also spent the whole 4-hour meal getting acquainted with a Chinese beer called Tsing Tao. It was surprisingly good, though I'll have to look into the alcohol content. Either it's pretty weak or I was focusing so hard on not making an ass of myself that I fought off most of the buzz. After probably 8 or 10 beers I was only slightly buzzing and my stories hadn't gotten anywhere near out of control.
I found out a couple interesting things tonight. First, the Japanese Kampai (camp-eye) and the Chinese Gan bei (gan-bay) sound similar and both mean the same thing - "dry your glass"...which we did over and over and over tonight. Second, oysters are even more disgusting half-cooked than completely raw. And third, Asians apparently think I look like Kiefer Sutherland - a couple actually took pictures with me to go back and show their wives...lol!!
Alrighty, I've got 2 and a half hours before I'm supposed to get up and start my trek tot he airport. My flight is at 9am on Friday and it lands in Detroit at noon after 15 hours in the air. How's that for time travel?
Gan Bei!!
I decided to go check out the # 1 touristy spot that I've heard about here - The Peak.
You can get all the way up there by taxi if you want, but that wouldn't be very touristy, so I took the Tram (which is almost as famous as The Peak actually). It takes you all the way up to the pretty new glass building they've got sitting on top of a mountain and sometimes the ride up is very steep. We passed several buildings on the way up, including houses and apartments with the windows open. I always wonder who wants a place where thousands of people can stare into their abode every day. I bet they're the same people who video their sweaty sex sessions.
Anyway, the Peak building is pretty much a smallish glass mall that overlooks the city and bay of Hong Kong. It's a cool place to pick up trinkets ( you're welcome Jodi & Jeri Jo & Kim & Val & etc etc). The view is pretty spectacular. Just a sec, let me post up a pic....
There ya go. I'll be posting several more (and a video or two) on FB.
While at the Peak I saw the only two black people I've seen the whole time I've been here. I think they were from Tennessee or something. I realized that if I stand out like a sore thumb in this place, they must stand out like a sore thumb that sings and does a little spur-of-the-moment ballet.
After the Peak I headed back to the hotel for a little afternoon siesta before heading to dinner with the customer. Ordinarily I would've declined a dinner invite from a customer (because I'm self-centered and would much rather do my own thing than deal with a crowd of people I barely know), but a big part of this project is rebuilding soured customer relations, so I figured what better way to do that than with a tale or three of drunken debauchery? It seems to have worked - the head of Asian operations is going to tell his Australian counterpart to request me for a project kicking off there next year.
We met at a restaurant in Mong Kok, Kowloon, the name of which roughly translates into The Fat Little Lamb. Before my history lesson I would've called the place a Shabu Shabu restaurant, but apparently that is Japanese and involves a cookpot with nearly clear liquid. The Chinese version (which I can't pronounce, but translates to Hot Pot) involves a large pot separated into compartments. Each compartment has a different kind of broth. Ours was separated into a lightly seasoned herb mixture on one side and a spicy concoction of chili peppers and other lip-burning ingredients on the other. I'm no big fan of super-spicy stuff, but I held my own and wiped away no tears while eating from the spicy pot. As anyone who's familiar with Shabu Shabu knows, they bring out a huge selection of raw meats, fish and vegetables. We had lamb, beef, eel, pork, oysters (good golly big'uns too!) and my personal favorite, a fish who's name I can't pronounce or begin to spell, but which is locally grown and considered a local specialty. Apparently they grow the fish in smallish ponds in which the water is kept running constantly forcing the fish to swim all day every day from birth until they're harvested. This makes for a very muscular fish who's meat is more the consistency of thinly sliced pork than a regular flaky texture. I loved it!
I also spent the whole 4-hour meal getting acquainted with a Chinese beer called Tsing Tao. It was surprisingly good, though I'll have to look into the alcohol content. Either it's pretty weak or I was focusing so hard on not making an ass of myself that I fought off most of the buzz. After probably 8 or 10 beers I was only slightly buzzing and my stories hadn't gotten anywhere near out of control.
I found out a couple interesting things tonight. First, the Japanese Kampai (camp-eye) and the Chinese Gan bei (gan-bay) sound similar and both mean the same thing - "dry your glass"...which we did over and over and over tonight. Second, oysters are even more disgusting half-cooked than completely raw. And third, Asians apparently think I look like Kiefer Sutherland - a couple actually took pictures with me to go back and show their wives...lol!!
Alrighty, I've got 2 and a half hours before I'm supposed to get up and start my trek tot he airport. My flight is at 9am on Friday and it lands in Detroit at noon after 15 hours in the air. How's that for time travel?
Gan Bei!!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Hong Kong Part 2 - Settling In
Let's see, where was I....
So, one thing to remember about HK is you'll be using lots of cash. Usually when I get to a new country one of the first things I do is stop off at the ATM to get some local currency - it's usually a better exchange rate than using the airport money exchangers. Here I noticed that there were lines for all the ATM's, so I just skipped it. Well, because so much is based on cash, there are always lines for the ATM's here! Don't expect just to pop over to the ATM and grab some quick cash, you'll be standing in line for at least 5 - 10 minutes.
Since I've been here I noticed a bizarre emotional quirk I have regarding currency - if I'm dealing in something like Pounds Sterling, Euros, or Yen it's easy to do the math in my head and move on. But here they call their currency "Dollars" and every time a taxi driver tells me it'll be "$80" for a 20 minute cab right my heart does a little leap...until I realize that's only about $11 in US currency. The new suitcase I picked up today was only about $75 USD, a great deal, but I had a tough time making myself buy it with the $490 HKD price tag on it. Stupid emotional quirks....
I'll spare you the details, but due to a point promotion Intercontinental is doing right now I chose to stay at the Crowne Plaza Causeway Bay my first night, then move to Holiday Inn Express the next day. (You'll find that I'm a point whore and it has served me well over the years.) While the Crowne Plaza was a beautiful, new hotel with tons of room and amenities, it was just too damn stuffy for me. I know some people just love having a door man who opens the door for you, calls a cab, takes your luggage out of your hand, etc. I can't stand it. What I want from a hotel is a clean, quiet place to sleep and a staff who's responsive to questions but otherwise leaves me alone. The Holiday Inn Express is nearly perfect. There are restaurants in the building if I'm feeling too lazy to go get food; free breakfast; free high-speed internet in the rooms; clean and quiet. If they could only get hot water to my shower this would be my standard destination in HK. Oh well, all the testicle-shrinking showers I take here will make me appreciate what I have in the States that much more. And the view from my room is phenomenal! Let me see if I can embed a pic....
That worked quite nicely! I think I'm gonna like this Blogger thing.
Ok, that's enough for now. It's 4:16am here and I need to try to grab a couple more hours before I hit the gym and get my day started.
Cheers!
So, one thing to remember about HK is you'll be using lots of cash. Usually when I get to a new country one of the first things I do is stop off at the ATM to get some local currency - it's usually a better exchange rate than using the airport money exchangers. Here I noticed that there were lines for all the ATM's, so I just skipped it. Well, because so much is based on cash, there are always lines for the ATM's here! Don't expect just to pop over to the ATM and grab some quick cash, you'll be standing in line for at least 5 - 10 minutes.
Since I've been here I noticed a bizarre emotional quirk I have regarding currency - if I'm dealing in something like Pounds Sterling, Euros, or Yen it's easy to do the math in my head and move on. But here they call their currency "Dollars" and every time a taxi driver tells me it'll be "$80" for a 20 minute cab right my heart does a little leap...until I realize that's only about $11 in US currency. The new suitcase I picked up today was only about $75 USD, a great deal, but I had a tough time making myself buy it with the $490 HKD price tag on it. Stupid emotional quirks....
I'll spare you the details, but due to a point promotion Intercontinental is doing right now I chose to stay at the Crowne Plaza Causeway Bay my first night, then move to Holiday Inn Express the next day. (You'll find that I'm a point whore and it has served me well over the years.) While the Crowne Plaza was a beautiful, new hotel with tons of room and amenities, it was just too damn stuffy for me. I know some people just love having a door man who opens the door for you, calls a cab, takes your luggage out of your hand, etc. I can't stand it. What I want from a hotel is a clean, quiet place to sleep and a staff who's responsive to questions but otherwise leaves me alone. The Holiday Inn Express is nearly perfect. There are restaurants in the building if I'm feeling too lazy to go get food; free breakfast; free high-speed internet in the rooms; clean and quiet. If they could only get hot water to my shower this would be my standard destination in HK. Oh well, all the testicle-shrinking showers I take here will make me appreciate what I have in the States that much more. And the view from my room is phenomenal! Let me see if I can embed a pic....
That worked quite nicely! I think I'm gonna like this Blogger thing.
Ok, that's enough for now. It's 4:16am here and I need to try to grab a couple more hours before I hit the gym and get my day started.
Cheers!
Hong Kong
I got to Hong Kong several days ago, so there's a lot I've got to catch you up on.
I hopped on a plane on June 28th in Vegas (after a bittersweet weekend that didn't really help my enforced loneliness during the 15 hour flight over) and stepped off on June 30th considerably rumpled in spirit. My mood was not improved when I got my checked suitcase and one of the wheels was broken off. I hate checking bags. I do it once or twice a year and something bad always happens. In this case, the trusty hard-side I bought in London last summer to cart back all the crap I bought met its ignoble end on the other side of the world. I just bought its replacement today. I was happily able to peel off all the stickers I've covered the thing with over the past year, though (strangely) I felt like I was cheating in some way. The old bag earned those stickers, the new one didn't. Oh well. The old guy will hopefully end up in a good home after I leave it here in the hotel room Friday.
Anyway, about Hong Kong.... Not sure why, but I had this picture in my head of one huge cityscape when i thought of HK. It's kind of like when I thought of Norway before I went there I pictured Eskimos in igloos. Turns out they're actually 6-plus-foot tall viking descendants. HK actually is a handful of mountainous islands with thousands of huge high-rises crammed into the habitable areas of the islands. I cannot get over the high-rises. The millions of people piled on top of each other is mind-boggling!
Lugging my wounded - and very heavy - suitcase, I decided to give the subway system here a try. They use the Octopus card here to get around their MTR network. (London uses the Oyster card - who comes up with these names?) A taxi would've been a better alternative, but I have an aversion to taxis. The subway just seems more logical and predicable. As it turns out, I've gotten quite used to riding in taxis around here. This place probably has more cabs than New York City and they're cheap.
Which brings me to another interesting item - bring lots of cash!! Just about everything here - including the mass transit system and the taxi's - does not take credit cards. I'd say maybe 10-20% of the restaurants and shops take a credit card.
Alrighty, I know I'm just getting started, but my body's timer is telling me it's time for sleep, so I'll continue this later. Thanks for reading up on me!
I hopped on a plane on June 28th in Vegas (after a bittersweet weekend that didn't really help my enforced loneliness during the 15 hour flight over) and stepped off on June 30th considerably rumpled in spirit. My mood was not improved when I got my checked suitcase and one of the wheels was broken off. I hate checking bags. I do it once or twice a year and something bad always happens. In this case, the trusty hard-side I bought in London last summer to cart back all the crap I bought met its ignoble end on the other side of the world. I just bought its replacement today. I was happily able to peel off all the stickers I've covered the thing with over the past year, though (strangely) I felt like I was cheating in some way. The old bag earned those stickers, the new one didn't. Oh well. The old guy will hopefully end up in a good home after I leave it here in the hotel room Friday.
Anyway, about Hong Kong.... Not sure why, but I had this picture in my head of one huge cityscape when i thought of HK. It's kind of like when I thought of Norway before I went there I pictured Eskimos in igloos. Turns out they're actually 6-plus-foot tall viking descendants. HK actually is a handful of mountainous islands with thousands of huge high-rises crammed into the habitable areas of the islands. I cannot get over the high-rises. The millions of people piled on top of each other is mind-boggling!
Lugging my wounded - and very heavy - suitcase, I decided to give the subway system here a try. They use the Octopus card here to get around their MTR network. (London uses the Oyster card - who comes up with these names?) A taxi would've been a better alternative, but I have an aversion to taxis. The subway just seems more logical and predicable. As it turns out, I've gotten quite used to riding in taxis around here. This place probably has more cabs than New York City and they're cheap.
Which brings me to another interesting item - bring lots of cash!! Just about everything here - including the mass transit system and the taxi's - does not take credit cards. I'd say maybe 10-20% of the restaurants and shops take a credit card.
Alrighty, I know I'm just getting started, but my body's timer is telling me it's time for sleep, so I'll continue this later. Thanks for reading up on me!
Introduction
Well let's see how this goes, shall we?
I've started blogs a few times in the past - most recently on Myspace - but I eventually grow a life and don't have time to bother with it anymore. Or I go long stretches with nothing much of import to say and I start to bore even myself.
The last several days, however, I've been in Hong Kong and I've had tons of stuff I wanted to tell people. Unfortunately, my main source of communication with the outside world - Facebook - just doesn't give me the space I need to blather on and on. I come up with what I think of as terribly witty status updates and the damn thing tells me I've used too many characters! Then I have to go back and try to figure out which nuggets of hilarity aren't quite as worthy of passing along as others. It's a painful process.
Thus, the Blog.
A little about me. I grew up dirt poor in the woods in Mississippi with a voracious wanderlust gnawing at my insides. I've since sated it a bit with a couple trips around the world, but I still suffer from a gluttonous appetite travel and exploration. I love to drink (mostly rum, but if it has alcohol in it I'll give it a try), I love to dance (my friends say I'm never happier than when I'm Zombie Stompin' around a roomy dance floor somewhere), I use foul language and tell filthy jokes (this blog will not be g-rated by any stretch, though I don't usually stray into XXX territory publicly), I've spent time in the Marines, I hold mostly libertarian political views and one of my biggest pet peeves is political correctness, I'm not personally religious though I'm not entirely anti-religion, I have been naked in awkward places, I try very hard to be a good friend but that is counterbalanced by how deeply self-centered I am.
Thus, the Blog.
There's a lot more I could say about myself (did I mention I was self-centered?) but we'll get into that stuff as we go.
Shall we?
I've started blogs a few times in the past - most recently on Myspace - but I eventually grow a life and don't have time to bother with it anymore. Or I go long stretches with nothing much of import to say and I start to bore even myself.
The last several days, however, I've been in Hong Kong and I've had tons of stuff I wanted to tell people. Unfortunately, my main source of communication with the outside world - Facebook - just doesn't give me the space I need to blather on and on. I come up with what I think of as terribly witty status updates and the damn thing tells me I've used too many characters! Then I have to go back and try to figure out which nuggets of hilarity aren't quite as worthy of passing along as others. It's a painful process.
Thus, the Blog.
A little about me. I grew up dirt poor in the woods in Mississippi with a voracious wanderlust gnawing at my insides. I've since sated it a bit with a couple trips around the world, but I still suffer from a gluttonous appetite travel and exploration. I love to drink (mostly rum, but if it has alcohol in it I'll give it a try), I love to dance (my friends say I'm never happier than when I'm Zombie Stompin' around a roomy dance floor somewhere), I use foul language and tell filthy jokes (this blog will not be g-rated by any stretch, though I don't usually stray into XXX territory publicly), I've spent time in the Marines, I hold mostly libertarian political views and one of my biggest pet peeves is political correctness, I'm not personally religious though I'm not entirely anti-religion, I have been naked in awkward places, I try very hard to be a good friend but that is counterbalanced by how deeply self-centered I am.
Thus, the Blog.
There's a lot more I could say about myself (did I mention I was self-centered?) but we'll get into that stuff as we go.
Shall we?
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