Here and There Blog

It was time for some last minute playing with the new camera. I learned that when the picture of the movie reel is pressed, the camera does take video. I also learned how to zoom, delete, and download. Too bad it doesn't make me a good photographer. Now I just have to learn how to shrink the file size.

I leave for the Middle East in three days and I'm slowly running out of time to finish up all activites before I go! There are 3 papers to write again for school, a suitcase to pack and Serenity opens tomorrow! I know I'll get this all done but I'm just hoping I'm not finishing up Sunday morning 3 hours before I leave! SDG&E has determined that there is no gas leak in my condo so the hot water is back in action. That's one thing that turned out okay. I'm a little bit more excited about the trip today. I checked out my hotels and they're all decent. In Cairo I get to stay in a place that overlooks the Nile River!

Today's graphic is courtesy of LJ and it seems to sum up my life. There is always something going on that keeps my from being neat and tidy. Today it's the possible gas leak that has my routine messed up. Monday night I thought I could smell gas and hoped there wasn't a leak. Tuesday morning after I ran the hot water, I knew something was wrong. I had to leave early for an out of town trip so I called SDG&E from the road. By law, if you report a possible leak, they have to investigate. I came home today to find my gas has been turned off, so that indicates a problem. I am now waiting for a tech and hoping that I get hot water back this week.

It's not exciting and it's not pretty but it's a success. I'm using hotel downtime as a means to setting up my new camera and figure out the basics.

Here's the Middle East trip: 10/02 - Leave San Diego for Dubai. Arrive 10/3, fly via Heathrow. 10/04 thru 10/07 - Dubai. 10/08 - Leave Dubai and fly to Kuwait. 10/10 - Leave Kuwait and fly to Jordan. 10/13 - Leave Jordan and fly to Lebanon. 10/15 - Leave Lebanon and fly to Cairo. 10/18 - Good-bye Cairo and return to San Diego!

In memory of Kelly Turner.

Saturday afternoon, Karl Strauss. Wine Girl, Ms. Kitty, Myself. Guess who had what drink?

Friday night and another week is over! I'm still sitting at my computer because now I have two papers to write by Sunday evening. There were three, so I've made progress. The news of the week is that the winning bid for Crazy Cody's bus trip was over 6 grand. I'll have to get the link so we can follow along with that misadventure. If I get to see a movie this weekend, it will be Corpse Bride. I rarely miss a Tim Burton film and this one looks fun. It's time to get back to work. I hope everyone's Friday is more eventful than mine.

I finally had Chinese food again! I was so obsessed with the cookie that I could not take the chance of messing up the fortune. Well last nights dinner was great and the cookie is pushing me again. Luckily, this is years in the future and not anything that I have to think about today!

Chuck E Cheese is one restaurant where it's just not safe for non-parents to eat at. There's the whole sanity issue of small children running amok, bad food, and a sense of being out of the natural element of life. I went there once for a kid's birthday party and happily escaped until last Friday night. It was one of those choices; get to see friends who live overseas or not? I decided to go but that this would be no all-nighter at Chuck E's for me. It was everything that it could be. Hundreds of small children following Chuck E. Bad food. The most patient food servers I have ever seen in my life. They must pay these people big bucks to work there! Miller Lite was the key to sanity!

If all goes to plan, this will be the Middle East blog starting on Oct. 4th. I'm set to depart San Diego on 10/02 and head to Dubai. It's a two week trip to give me an overview of the M.E. operations. This trip will also include Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. And I thought I wasn't getting any sleep just doing normal work!

There are days when words just escape me. This is one of those days. My travel schedule changes faster than even I can keep up with. First I was going to Los Cabos for a day. Then I wassn't. Then I was going to Monterrey, MX for a few days in October. Now I might get shipped off to the Middle East for work. But none of the airfares are inline with the budget so that might all fall apart too. It's 6:30 pm. I started work early this morning and I was busy all day but I don't feel like I accomplished a thing. All I did was reconfirm that various projects were not going to plan. Ugh. I looked at the agenda for my next school class and it's a total waste. The instructor is too enthusiastic about critical thinking skills and team papers. Another 5 weeks wasted with that class. I love how education is just so valuable these days. Not! It's time for Access Hollywood and some no-brainer TV!

This eBay auction arrives to us from Ameoba. He's not a hippie or a Deadhead and neither am I. I've never had the desire to "Get on the Bus" or even take a road trip. But, there is a time in your life when you have to reconsider, if only for .0000001 second. If I were insane, I would be on this bus. Enjoy! http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Ultimate-Hippie-Vacation_W0QQitemZ5614695213QQcategoryZ1469QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Today's blog comes courtesy of Troyce. The history of fortune cookies may date back to the 13th and 14th centuries when China was occupied by the Mongols. The traditional lotus nut paste Moon Cakes were used in which to hide secret messages regarding the date of a popular uprising against the invaders. The moon cakes were distributed by the patriotic revolutionary Chu Yuan Chang (disguised as a Taoist priest) who was safe in the knowledge that the Mongols had no taste for lotus nut paste. The uprising was successful and so the basis of the Ming Dynasty was formed. The transition from Moon Cakes to modern-day Fortune Cookies was born out of necessity in the hard days of the American gold rush and the railway boom. When the Chinese 69'ers were building the great American railways through the Sierra Nevada to California they put happy messages inside biscuits to exchange at the Harvest Moon Festival instead of cakes, and so Fortune Cookies began. A cottage industry emerged as the ...

Since some of you have asked about Kelly and now I have to share sad news. Earlier in the week we were hopeful that he was on the road to recovery. Over the last couple of days though, he took a turn for the worse. The Doctors informed his family yesterday that Kelly will never recover from his trauma. Kelly has left explicit instructions on what to do if he were ever in a persistent vegetative state. The Doctors have made it clear he has no brain activity. Per Kelly's wishes they will turn off the machines that are keeping his body going on Sunday. This whole event has been unexpected and we are about to lose one of the bright spots on Earth. I believe that no one should exist in a vegetative state. My parents had this directive in their will and I have it in mine. We never know what will happen to us. If you have strong beliefs as to what you would want for yourself if you were in this situation, put it in writing and share it with your friends and family. If there is ever ...

And as long as I'm doing window photos, here's the view of rainy St. Louis from the 36th floor of the office!

This is the view from my hotel window. Yes, it's the $149 per night view from the St. Louis Hilton. At first, I thought it was a prison but it's a parking garage. The room is always dark and no sun gets through, which is great when I'm sleeping but not so fun after work. It's been another week of work to hotel but at least the weather is turning cool and it's not so bad. The Cardinals won another game and the city seems to be happy. I can close the curtains and ignore the bricks and all is well.

I'm checking in from St. Louis this week. I've got my work schedule so packed again, I still don't know if I'll get my picture of that Arch! It's supposed to rain this week so today may be my one chance. Kelly is smiling and recognizing people now but only for a few moments because then he gets sedated again so his body can recover. This is all good news and we're hoping for the best.

Some horror movies look more fun than others, so I gave The Exorcism of Emily Rose a try. It’s based on an actual court case where the local priest was on trial for negligent homicide. How much of the facts of the trial and the case made it to the movie is unknown but the story is compelling to watch. The movie revolves around the trial and the exorcism and possession of Emily are shown through a series of flashbacks. What I thought was going to be a straight horror movie, was instead a courtroom drama. Laura Linney plays defense attorney Erin Bruner, who came up with the strategy to not dispute science but to present the side of possession and the validity of exorcism as a religious belief. Tom Wilkenson plays Father Thomas Moore and the movie revolves around the attorney/client relationship and Father Moore's desire to tell Emily's story. There are few suspenseful moments in the movie. As Emily’s possession or medical disorder increases, the images are more disturbing and in...

This was one of those days where San Diego is the best place on earth! We had a picnic at San Diego Bay and enjoyed all the fun of sun, sand, food, and even kite flying!

This has been the sort of day where you just need a beer. Since I only have beer in the house when people are coming over, I was reduced to having a leftover Romulan Ale that no one would drink! It's really not that bad, it's just blue. Today was all about school and work and I think the sun came out but I'm not really sure. Today's Kelly update is courtesy of Brian: Hi folks,It's been great hearing from everybody in Kelly's life thanks for all the support.We're celebrating little victories every day. Friday Kelly was opening his eyes for 30 seconds at a time and trying to answer questions from Tom by blinking. It looks like he has to really fight to stay awake because his brain says sleep. His body has massive amounts of healing to do.The doctors can tell from the grimace on his face that he is in pain (believe it or not this is a good sign) so they are giving him small amount of morphine. This makes him comfortable but it knocks him out cold. H...

Thanks for the shout outs to Kelly! There's good news and maybe bad news. The good news is that he's recovered from the heart attack and the fever. He is conscious. The doctors now have to wait and observe his behavior over the next few days to find out if there was any brain damage from the high fever and infection. Hopefully, this will all work out for him.

In a strange twist of the world, my friend Kelly is in the hospital right now recovering from a heart attack and fighting off an intense infection. So as you read this, please send out a mental note of "Get Well Kelly!" We're all hoping for the best and that he makes a full recovery.

I'm going to give word verification a try. It's better than no comments at all. Most of the spam hits on Saturday nights, so I'm willing to try this out. If spam does hit, please don't click on the links, it just encourages more spam. I'll try and delete spam out as it happens.

One of these days I’ll get it in my head that I just don’t enjoy character studies. Everytime I go see a movie that is categorized as such, it turns out to be an endurance test for me, no matter how well the critics have praised the movie. Broken Flowers is exactly the sort of movie that critics love and finds me bored and ready to bolt for the exit at any given moment. The strength of Broken Flowers is in Bill Murray’s performance. This is a one-man show starring Murray as a self-made man who suddenly finds out that he may or may not be a father. Through the sheer will of the next door neighbor, Murray finds himself on a road trip to find his ex-lovers from twenty years ago and hopefully confirm if he is indeed a father. As in the style of character studies, each meeting takes a different extreme twist and then we watch to see how Murray handles the situation. Jessica Lange and Sharon Stone play two of the past girlfriends and their performances fit the part. The use of the color pi...

Spam! The enemy of all things online! Due to the barrage of spam that I've been receiving, the comments have been turned off while I evaluate spam blocking options.

The Constant Gardener is the movie of the moment. While highly praised by the critics, I think it’s a bit over-rated. Unfortunately, in a summer where most of the movies have been over-hyped disappointments, The Constant Gardener is an okay movie that just happens to look better than the competition. The first 2/3 of the movie does involve the audience and the story focuses on three characters, Justin and Tessa Qualye, and their friend Arnold Bluhm. Most of the movie is set in Kenya and the circumstances of these three people are revealed through flashback sequences that are inter-cut with present time. This is a movie where you do have to pay attention and think. We start with the murder of Tessa, and then watch how her husband uncovers the reason for Tessa’s death and finds out about her secret research to stop the evil pharmaceutical company. There are few acceptable villains these days but with the top of mind focus on Africa and the lack of affordable medication, the drug conglo...

All Hail the Firkin! We decided to try the Firkin event at Karl Strauss downtown. Since the beer is random, we had no idea what to expect from the keg. Last time, we lucked out with the Strauss Stout but tonight was the Pin Tale Pail Ale. Now we're beer groupies and none of us had ever heard of the Pin Tale before so this was not a good sign. I have to say that is was one of the worst beers I have ever tried and it was free! They couldn't give the stuff away last night. Of the 6 of us, only 2 would even drink beyond the first sip. Here's Mondo, who we all know hates beer, but is still searching for the beer that calls her name. (We've recently learned that beer is Stella Artois) but it's not here! One sip and this beer went to Homer. And what took the beer's place? This green coconut drink! One of us had a tougher week than everyone else! Look at how quickly LJ's beer is disappearing!

Me and my beer!

Stargazer Pale Ale. Karl Strauss, Downtown.

Here's the final result of the roofwork. My roof. From here it looks okay. The vent flash work.