Australia is a very new country, you can tell by the way the sky and the clouds haven’t yet learned how to behave properly.  Someone accidently burnt their shirt while ironing it just now and we all had to go outside, while waiting on the beach for the firefighters to show up and give us the ok to go back to the hotel I looked over the ocean.  A half full moon shone way too brightly the surf and in the background you could see the storm walking away angry at having to leave Sydney.  Every 20-30 seconds the storm would turn back and show off its greatness with a quick lightning bolt and the entire sky would lighten up as an arc of electricity bounced across the horizon.  In the rest of the civilized world storms just walk away without all this fuss but they must still be new at this.

I feel a bit like a ping pong ball as I just bounced from Brisbane to Sydney on Tuesday only to bounce back to Brisbane tomorrow for a few nights before coming back to Sydney again on Sunday.  Then sometime next week I might be flying to Darwin.  Where I am going or where I am staying ?  I have no idea.  Sometimes it’s 6-7pm and I still have no idea where I am sleeping or where I am flying off to next.  It’s the price one pays for this job and for now I am fine with the price.

This afternoon after we finished all of our meetings and were headed back to my hotel the local guy asked if I liked snorkeling when I said I had my equipment in my luggage he stopped by a small beach on the way to the hotel.  There were a few whistles from two grandmas who commented behind me as I changed into my board shorts but hey it’s australia right ?  it’s unbelievable that you can go snorkeling right off the beach, I saw a ray, a few large fish and a group of fish mating or eating something, there were hundreds  of them packed so tightly at first I thought it was just a bunch of sea weed.  I can see why people move here.

I wonder where I’ll be next week.

I woke up around 5 am not because of any jet lag but because work usually starts at 7 am. But today is Sunday and I didn’t have any work so after spending an hour in bed watching the ray of light shining through the curtains I decided I should get some exercise and went for a run in the park by my hotel, a light rain had just fallen and the blanket of humidity had not yet engulfed the city. The park seemed a bit unreal, the colors too vivid like a digitally enhanced picture where the hue was pushed all the way to the top. On my second lap around the park (it takes only 15 minutes to lap the park) I noticed a small side entrance and decided to investigate (also I am lazy and was tired ). I walked into a tropical forest where butterflies with colors that were too bright fluttered from side to side. I looked down and noticed a foot long lizard watching me as I went by his tail hanging in the stream. I think he was fishing, he certainly had a large family of cousins as I met 9 more lizards in my brief walk. But he was the only one who was fishing, I dunno maybe they have a quota and can’t overfish the stream.

At 10:10 I went out to look for a bus that would take me to the koala rehab center, it’s a sad thing when koalas become addicted to cocaine or gambling and have to go into rehab. I am glad the city of Brisbane has had the foresight to help these guys out. I got a bit lost and when I finally found the right stop the bus was already loading, I was the last person to get on the bus at exactly 10:30, the next bus would have been at 11:30.

At the Koala rehab center ( I still can’t believe it happened ) I got to HUG A KOALA BEAR!!!! ok I tried to stay calm but really I got to HUG A KOALA BEAR, do you guys know how cool that is ? Let me just say FUCK the San Diego zoo and their policy of not letting you hug the koala bears. They fucking blow, I will never go to that sham of a zoo, it’s just a scam to collect your money. You know what else I did besides hugging a KOALA BEAR ?? I fed kangaroos, yes! I know, I couldn’t believe it either. Kangaroos all over the place, kangaroos too lazy to come to you so you have to go to them to feed them!!!! My head might just explode from how great that is. There were wombats too, wombats, I just love typing that I GOT TO SEE A REAL WOMBAT right by my foot. friggenamazing I tell ya. ok I am a bit calmer now.

After I had hugged as many koala bears I as I could (1 only ) I walked out of the zoo and saw a sign for the ferry back to the city, the ferry leaves only once per day at 1:30, guess when I walked out of the zoo ? I was the last person on the ferry before it cast off. Sitting in the back of the ferry I was with 5 germans, 2 guys and 3 girls. The guys it turned out were gay and the girls apparently travel all around the world getting naked and making out for viewing pleasure of the public. I love Germans, hot naked german girls rock even more. Ok I lied about that last part they didn’t get naked or make out, but I am sure they were discussing going topless. Isn’t that what hot german girls do all the time ?

So now I am off to see what other great thing will happen on this amazing day. I should play the lottery.

P.S.  Ok you got to feed the Kangaroos before me but it still would have been fun if you were over here.

I don’t think a day has gone by this week without a glass of beer or wine. I shudder to think how much alcohol has passed through my buddy in the last 2 months. Coming back to work has been more enjoyable than I expected. The travel has actually been fun although a bit much at times. For the past 2 months these are the flights I’ve taken.

Taipei (Taiwan) – San Francisco (US)
San Francisco (US) – Taipei (Taiwan)
Taipei (Taiwan ) – Koror ( Palau )
Koror (Palau) – Los Angeles (US)

move from LA to San Francisco a long ass U Haul drive.

San Francisco (US) – Cabos San Lucas (Mexico)
Cabos San Lucas (Mexico ) – Los Angeles (US)
Los Angeles (US) – Oakland (US)
San Francisco (US) – Toronto (Canada)
Toronto (Canada) – San Francisco (US)
San Francisco (US) – Toronto (Canada)
Toronto (Canada) – San Francisco (US

I think I got 4 days at home at this point then..
San Francisco ( US ) – Taipei (Taiwan)
36 hrs only
Taipei ( Taiwan ) – Brisbane ( Australia )

On Tuesday I fly to Sydney and then in a few weeks it’s back to the US.
I miss my bed, I can’t wait to actually sleep in my own apt again, even if it’s only for 2 weeks.

On the positive side I really love some of the places I’ve gotten to see, the Gold Coast, in Brisbane was gorgeous. Toronto was incredibly diverse and no one needs to go to to Cabos.
I am now going to turn under the covers and pass out. Have a great weekend guys.

Bob swam through the water with ease keeping an eye for any predator that might be out for a stroll. The water flowed over his feathers and he felt free, he pushed his flippers harder into the cold clean waters and headed for an ice berg, you never knew what you would see on the other side of an ice berg and he could go for a snack. As he approached he made out a cloud of sardines swimming peacefully between the chunks of ice. Bob knew he only had a few moments before they spotted him so enjoyed the moment him speeding down like well like a penguin underwater and the sardines completely unaware.

As it turned out a trick of the light camouflaged bob until the last moment, the sardines never had a chance. Bob gulped down his last mouth full and wondered how the life of a sardine must be. You grew up running your whole life, fleeing from one predator to the next, it was then that Bob saw the killer whale.

Cast

Me played by me

Company travel agent played by CTG

CTG: why did you book your ticket through Orbtiz and not our travel agency ?

Me: well they were about 1k cheaper and got me there more quickly.

CTG: have you looked at our company policy ?

Me: ahh ok I see it’s mandatory to book through them, I’ll do that from now on.

CTG: Yes please do, they could have saved us money.

Me: ???????

To recap, travel agency $3900, Orbitz $2800.  I point this out to the travel agency they say ok let’s go for $3100, I look on Orbitz and they say how about $2600.  I book ticket, CTG says I cost company money.

Maybe it’s the new math I don’t get.

So umm yeah, I had some free time on my hand between having to re-read a course I already took, finding a good book to teach Spanish (I already downloaded the podcasts) and buying a kick ass laptop mouse.

So I thought I’d do some blogging for you guys, except I didn’t have a subject to blog about.  Did everyone watch the superbowl ?  Was everyone as amazed by the amount of gay programming as I was ?  the pre-game show was full of men in tights doing splits, the half time show was Prince who except againg hipster single girls no one really likes.  I partied like it was 1999 back in 99 and I think we have all had enough purple rain to last us a life time.  No need to mention the snickers commercial.  There was already enough ambiguity around asking your buddy for a snicker bar but now it’s just out of the question.  I am sure someone will die in the next 10 years or so while their buddy has a snicker bar in his pants.  And I blame the superbowl for that.

Moving on, does anyone know why Thunderbird keeps lying to me and telling me I have new mail when i know I don’t ?  it’s like a tease or something.  That’s a bad sentence btw.  “like a tease or something” what does that even mean.  I am embarrassed to have typed it.  Maybe Thunderbird is unhappy I am using filters.
That’s it for now people.  Move along now, nothing to see here.

I have been meaning to link to Pars Arts for a while and just got around to it now.  It’s a great website full of funny/smart articles.  They have been nice enough to post an article by me and a chat between me and Sepideh.  Go there and check it out.

The other page I have been meaning to link to is the China Matters blog which has some very interesting articles even though some of them are a bit long they make for excellent reading.

So after spending a week in Canada mostly at work or in a hotel I feel very comfortable making broad generalizations about the whole country. Canada can be a fun place when it’s not cold, many people underestimate the cold and you really shouldn’t do that cause at -20 life just isn’t normal.

In Canada the main activities seem to be play hockey, drink, smoke weed and pick up hot Canadian girls in no particular order. Playing hockey is an activity reserved for the rich but the rest is open to the general public.

Toronto is ridiculously diverse. I heard that 65% of the population is from overseas and driving through town on my way to the airport I think that’s pretty true. The diversity there really puts the San Francisco bay area to shame.

Now outside of hockey which doesn’t exist here in the bay area let’s compare the rest of the stuff.

Drinking, Canada definitely beats the US in that area. Honey brown, I have no idea which brands I drank but they were all good, so very very good and tasty. Forget Bud, Coors, Corona, just head north and pack up on the beer. Next time I might bring back a case.

Weed, although I don’t smoke and I believe that all one needs to get high is life itself Canadian weed is of a clearly superior quality. Why that is I don’t know, but I would guess again it’s like the beer. There is nothing else to do up there so people have spent all of their time perfecting their beer and weed.

Canadian girls, I am not sure if they are hotter than American girls but they definitely seem skinnier. I attribute this to food coming in smaller portions up there, nailing lots of hockey players and burning more calories in the cold. Again what I glanced on my way from-to the airport supports my theory.
In a way Canada is a Mac while the US is a PC. You can go on and on about how much you like the Mac but at the end of the day most people would say where’s the right click and move to LA.