av8rmike

Once again I fail at keeping journals and such updated. I'm surprised I haven't been taken off everyone's Friends/Reading list by now, but in case anyone was concerned, I'm still alive. Some updates:

Two weeks ago a giant moving truck showed up and dropped off a zillion boxes with all of Jamie's stuff. We're still sorting through all of that.

Last Tuesday we flew out to Madison, picked up some beer and coffee, then spent the next two days driving back here. It was a pretty uneventful trip, although we did get to see a massive wind farm near Lafayette, IN. Speaking of which, it felt like a tour of Midwest college towns in a way: Madison, WI (UW), Lafayette, IN (Purdue), Columbus, OH (THE OH State), and Morgantown, WV (WVU). The last one featured lunch at Sandwich U, a business that definitely knows its clientele and eating habits. Just check out that menu; I dare you not to gag.

I'm also feeling like quite the accomplished home-owner. So far I've changed a deadbolt lock, a shower head, the furnace filter and thermostat; mowed my 6'-square patch of grass, fretted over a wasp's nest, and cursed out the previous owners more times than I can count.

So, I'm going back to Madison in October, then Jamie's coming back here two weeks later.

Either there hasn't been much going on, or I just forget to write down the random things I think about posting. Anyway, I never said much about what went on over the weekend in New York. My brother already posted a pretty good summary, so read it, if you dare... I'll get around to posting the pictures one of these weeks.

The vital stats

Shows watched: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a new and very cute musical. For the life of me, I can't figure out why it had to be a musical at all.

Restaurants visited:
Ellen's Stardust Diner in Times Square, the 50s place with the singing waiters.
Chelsea Market, home of the Food Network. It was certainly very nice, but it lacks the "open-market" feeling of a place like Lexington Market.
Mahmoun's Falafel in Greenwich Village.
Magnolia Bakery, also in the Village.
Penang, for Malaysian/Thai, which doesn't seem to have its own web site, but seems to be a popular name for restaurants.
Delta Grill, a Louisiana/Cajun, which my brother decided was good, but still not as good as the real thing in New Orleans. OK, just the beignets.
Phil's friend James' baked ziti Sunday night was good, too, but doesn't count since he's not a restaurant. The Sopranos is a hard show to jump into the middle of.

Celebrities spotted:
Timothy Daly and Željko Ivanek, both of whom are in the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial". It also stars some guy named David Schwimmer, but we didn't catch him walking into the theater.
Edward Hibbert (Gil, the British guy from "Frasier"), whom we saw just after leaving a Starbuck's on 9th Ave. We also chose not to shake him down for anything.

Oh yeah, we also went to Zabar's and the English/Scottish import store that has the cat that got stuck in the wall. I can't remember the name, butMyers of Keswick, it's the place in the Village that sells Scottish eggs and Spotted Dick.

Halle-freakin'-lujah. The plane ride back was one of the more miserable experiences of my life, due to no leg room and the in-flight TV system not working correctly.

One other note before I head out for some food not consisting of rice or cabbage: "Karaoke" in Korea can have two vastly different meanings, depending on the kind of place your esteemed host wants to take you, and how much money you're willing to drop.

Yes, we eventually had to get back to the business at hand, i.e. more meetings. Although, today involved driving about an hour to the factory of one of our suppliers to get a presentation on their capabilities and the parts they've already produced for the project. I took about a dozen pictures, but I doubt I can post them here, and they're pretty much only of interest to the people back at the office anyway. For lunch, before the factory trip, our hosts took us to the same business district we were in yesterday, right to the Outback Steakhouse. I guess they wanted to make us feel at home, even though I haven't been to an Outback in several years. I didn't have steak, but the food seemed pretty similar to what one would have back in the States.

Luckily, we finished the meetings early and were back at the hotel by 6:00 (compared with 8-9:00 other working days). For dinner my co-worker and I decided to head to the same area as this afternoon, and maybe a little more shopping. I wanted to try and find the Batman Bar to see if it was actually open, but despite asking a few younger guys, no one seemed to know where it was. At least I have some photographic evidence. My co-worker really didn't want any more Asian food, and since our only options were either the myriad tiny Asian restaurants or the few Western staples like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, or the Outback, we opted for the Pizza Hut.

Finally, you guessed it, more pictures. First, the Korean version of the Dollar Store:
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I know, I keep taking pictures of these buildings with all the lighted signs. It's because, in this city, they're everywhere, especially in the more commercial areas. Those signs that say "PC" are, as I'd guessed, Internet cafes. They are also everywhere.
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Here is the inside of one of them, which seemed to be pretty nice. There were some young women, but mostly younger guys, playing WoW, or CounterStrike, or Half-Life 2 (I think) and whatever else the kids are playing now. Maybe broadband is too expensive to install in people's homes, or the kids are just trying to avoid going home to their families, but these places must be really succesfull.
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Finally, one clinic where I definitely would not want to be a patient:
( You know you want to clicky! )

Well, no more or less "real" than the Korea we saw on the train trip yesterday. Anyway, we had another meeting today; The Koreans, like most Asians, it seems, never stop working. Even though we were meeting with one of the sub-contractors on Tuesday, they wanted to have a pre-meeting with us for part of today.
Four hours later, we seemed to have ripped through the entire agenda for both days, without actually answering any questions. Mostly, because we didn't have the answers; we'd have to write back to the office and hope to get a response in time. Our hosts, who were three young-ish engineers from this company agreed to take us to lunch at Haeundae Beach*, which is a popular tourist area. We didn't go to the actual beach, because it was in the upper 50s and very cloudy, instead we drove to an area in the hills overlooking the bay. It reminded me of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, if that provides any context. On a clear day, they told us, you could see all the way to Japan.
We ate another traditional Korean lunch, this one featuring a small hibachi built into the table, where they kept putting more meat. The table was absolutely filled with small dishes of appetizers. Afterwards, since my co-worker mentioned wanting to buy something for his wife, they decided to take us back downtown to Lotte's large department store, which is like a Macy's in New York City, but more crowded. We didn't really like the place, but just a block away, in the back alleys, was an inner-city market like something out of Blade Runner. That, so far, was the coolest thing I saw so far, just because it felt so authentic. We also visited a health club owned by a former co-worker of our hosts who had left their company only recently.
Since this entry is getting long and I still have to post pictures, I'll just say that no matter where you live, there is no way the traffic is worse there than it is here. That drive from downtown to the beach easily took an hour and a half, and was probably 20 miles or so. This department store parking lot was absolutely full, and they were practically stacking cars to get them in the garage.

Anyway, the pictures. To get to this part of Busan, you have to cross this huge bridge. These tall buildings we saw yesterday are everywhere, but are not corporate housing, they're only constructed by the various companies. I didn't get a chance to ask about the ferris wheel.
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Just a small part of the Blade Runner market:
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A slice of Western influence, in the same area. I've also seen Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds (of course), but not nearly as many as in the U.S. I have seen at least three Outbacks, however.
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*- the location is probably wrong, but Google Maps doesn't seem to have that in the database. =(

As far as work goes, today was pretty easy. We didn't have to be at the client's office until 1:00, so my co-worker and I went to breakfast, walked down the street a little bit, and came back. I don't know what he did after that, but I walked around a bit more and took some photos before getting ready. Then it was off to the brand-spankin' new office building, a different off-site office of the project manager, then back. We tried to help with what we were asked, but much of the time was spent listening to them all talk to each other in Korean. That ended at around 5:30, and we came back with questions to send back to people at the office. I'm going to check out the dinner buffet soon, but I'll probably end up right back here in a few hours. In the meantime, a few photos.

The view out my hotel window, of the city in one direction and the harbor in another:
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The view inside my room's mini-fridge. I am not going to drink the can labelled "Pocari Sweat", mostly because I have no idea what kind of animal that is.
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EDIT: Thanks to delphica, now I know what Pocari Sweat is. Now, the stuff in the black bottle (on the left) is scary. It's labeled "ADH Project" and has a yellow strip sealing it. On the strip is the only other English words on the bottle: "Hangover, Recovery from Fatigue Condition", "Pacificating Action of Alcohol", "Dissolution of Alcohol", "For Hotel", "Dissolution of Ammonia Gas", and "Shampinion Extract Added".

I have to drive to a co-worker's house in an hour or so, then it's a cab to Dulles airport, a 13-hour flight to Seoul/Incheon, then another short flight to Busan. Where it will be tomorrow night. The company laptops finally showed up yesterday, but I don't get one of the nice ones. I get the boat anchor. I couldn't even think of any software I'd want to install on it, nor did I really have time last night anyway, with the having to go to rehearsal, too. Fortunately, I'll have some form of Internet access at the hotel. I'll have to, since we'll need to send e-mails back to the office, and we need a Web interface to fill out our time sheets.

So, stay tuned. I'll try to get an update when I can, in between all the meetings and whatever else.

Damn hamsters.  Every other time I try to access the board I get the "database down for maintenance" error.  I'm wish they'd just take it down until they're done making repairs, but how else would they beta test?  Anyways....

I had a pretty good time this weekend in New York.  I first want to thank gingy and weirddave for letting me ride with them.  hamadryad was our other travelling companion, and she's a riot as always.  Stacey, I'll have to forward to you the new song lyrics with "Jew" in them.  Before we all left we hung with anamorphic and got the director's commentary while watching his movie, Stark Raving Mad.  It's cool, kinda reminded me of Ocean's 11, but better than both versions.  You all must see it.

We got kind of a late start, but we didn't seem to miss much of the gathering at Blondie's.  Everyone there was so nice!  geobabe1 gave me a big hug when I first met her, like we were old friends, which I thought was really sweet.  Not that I was expecting anything otherwise, but it was still sweet.  We had to get oxymoronnyc to explain to us the subway rates and parking laws before we left for the hotel, since we were that confused.

Saturday I elected to go with delphica on the Queens tour, and even managed to convince my brother to go with us.  I think he was worried the "Internet people" would have no legs, but according to his blog, he had a good time.  The Greek food was good, although I'm not much of a connoisseur.  Getting to see the MOMA was neat, and I want to thank Barbarian's wife Annick and SmackFu for getting most of us in for free.  Others in attendance were: Jane D'oh, Acrylic_Vessel (who has awesome tattoos BTW), and Banger, in case anyone was curious.  Special thanks to delphica for organizing the trip, and for her commentary, which helped expand my limited art knowledge.

That night was dinner at America restaurant and then drinks at No Idea.  I'd agree that the food wasn't stellar, it's the size and variety of the place that makes it acceptable for a group our size.  I didn't have as lousy experience as  opalcat did, but I sure felt stiffed after $25.  At the bar afterwards, I started to let my shyness get the better of me and didn't talk to a lot of people.  Though I think blumunk was caught off-guard that I recognized him so quickly  =).  I enjoyed meeting: scottevil and want to hear more about the musical he's writing; persephone767 and eutychus make a very cute couple; montrealais for his constant stream of Margaret Cho jokes; and stuyguy for his encyclopedic knowledge of New York history.  And of course, everyone else I've forgotten. ;)  It's a shame I wasn't in town long enough to see cosmopolitenne and wish her a happy birthday, but I'll get another chance in a few weeks.

Some weirdness:  When I was checking out of the hotel and talking with geobabe1 and her husband UncleBill, Gorgon Heap, and Acrylic_Vessel, I reached into my suitcase to put away the receipt and pulled out my Gerber Multi-plier.  The same one that I was sure I'd lost Thanksgiving 2002.  The one that I know was not in my suitcase the dozens of times I'd checked in the last year.  The only possible explanation?  Four-dimensional wormholes do exist, and they are stealing from us.