The Trip: Day Two, Osaka->Kyoto->Nara->Nagoya

The breakfast was not as grand as the last night's dinner but it still good. My mom found out that the hotel plant a lot of rosemary on of side on the hotel as decoration. I get to rub my hands and glove on it to get the scent and it's quite good :)

After the breakfast we took the subway and the Shinkansen to go to Kyoto to visit the clear water temple. It was not unlike the scene from many many manga I had read. The balcony, the sakura, the 3 streams water for drink for blessings.

Then we took the bus to see Kingkakuji Castle (the Gold Castle, as in real gold from gold leaves, the guide mention that now the gold parts are about 2 inches thicks from all the annual renovation every 4-5 years) Too bad that it was quite windy in that area so there was no clear shot of the castle and it's reflection in the pond in front of it.

Afterward we went to Nara to visit the temple with Giant Buddha. This place is famous for the deer living in the entrance area of the castle. They didn't look as pretty since I think they are sheding to their summer fur after the winter has ended.

For Dinner, we go to a grilled house, much like Daidomon, but a lot of food and also taste quite a lot better!!

Now I am in Nagoya Kanko hotel's business center, transfering the pictured from the digital cam to thumbdrive for my mom. She already took 298 pictured already!! and this is only day two! Now I have to leave since I am getting lightheaded and I also have an early morning again. Plus I haven't prepare my clothes yet!

The Trip: Day One, BKK -> Osaka

The flight was quite grusome, starting with the delay due to the amount of people traveling doing this times... The airplane as Boeing 777 (as I was told later) which was told by the tour guide that it has rather narrowed seat, plus we were seated at the very end of the plane which is quite noisy and often shaky. To top it off it was a night flight which we were suppose to nap while on the plane, since we will began touring once we landed!

Needless to say I didn't get much sleep, tried as I might, with the above reasons. Anyhow we landed on Kansai Inter. Airport in Osaka. The airport itself looks very modern and cool. However, I guess will realize that you hsd landed in Japan when you get a fainted scent of smoke starting in the connecting tube to the terminal.

First stop was Osaka castle. the symbol of Osaka, I tried my first real takoyaki in japan here. Sakura (Cherry Blossom) were blooming everywhere. (I will post some pictured later as right now I am in an business center in a hotel in Naghoya). Not a lot to see since we were going into the castle itself.

Next stop is Universal Studio Japan, I got to see the Terminator 2 3-D which is quite nice even if it looks a little dated. Backdraft, is quite cool indeed as
shows a lot of cool pyro technique, not to mention it heat up the room quite a bit.

Jurassic Park Ride, one of the raft riding that has about 3 stories drop at the end. I am not shame to say that as the result of the panic from the drop once the raft stay horisontal again I hurt my neck, stomach and perinum from the tightening reacting of the drop. Boy was it HURT!! Especially the mid-section. Luckily it wasn't until about 30 sec later that we have to get off the raft which give me a bit of time to recover.

Later we have a chance to do a bit of sightseeing in the city as well as shopping at the 100 Yen store. Walking around I saw quite a few shops that sell mobile phone, 90% of them are clam shell type, quite heavy (due to large screen) and quite heavy. Quite ashame that it won't be working in TH.

Toward the end of the day I was quite exhausted from the lack of sleep and excessive walking. However, the dinner was GREAT. It's a buffet in the hotel we stayed in, Ramada Osaka, the salmon was good and the rip-eye steak is very Good.

I finally get to sleep. But it was quite restless, probably because of the quilt, which is quite thick and fluffy which will be hot if you stay under it after a while. And the pillow was quite strage as half of it seems to be stuff with the foam beads not unlike those in beanbags chair...

Still I did get some sleep and woke up a few times and decided to spend about 5 mins. soaking the tub with mineral bath powder :)

Physically Away...

Ummm.... well... My family is taking a trip to Japan and I will go along too...

Eventhough I would prefer going to Europe or Australia (as I might be able to sneak around for the not so clean fun of my own, plus I could speak the language :P) But it would be nice to do the traveling again after have not been on the plane or out of BKK for like... 7 years... I am not too excited about the trip but I am sure glad to be part of it.

So... I start packing today and realize that I am not sure if my clothes (especially the pants) would be warm enough to withstand the 5-10C that the tour guide said Japan will be... I got a pair of longjohn and I hope that that would be enough...

Still... it would be a lot nicer if I have a big hunky man to keep me warm though :)

The Grumpy Alan Moore

I had browse through the net today and stumble upon a forum with a post regarding the movie 'V For Vendetta' and found this link http://www.mtv.com/shared/movies/interviews/m/moore_alan_060315/ which is an MTV interview with the cartoonist who wrote the original graphic novel. I have read a few tidbits of how Alan Moore was not happy with the way his works (From Hell, Constantine and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) were 'hollywoodfied' by all parties involve with little respect to the original.

After reading the article I must say that the man, despite his caveman like hairstyle, is very intelligence, literated and poetic in his own style. You would not be surprise from this article that he really is the one who wrote all the lines that V spoke in the movie.

It is an interesting read. If you like the movie you should read this article too :)

Laughter with XXXL size

I first saw this comedian on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and this guy is GOOD. He did his stuff in the clean fun way.

I had this file on my computer as well before I found it on youtube.com . I really don't have anything else to blog about at the moment so enjoy the clip :)

Computer Lesson 101 and Now warm up to the LCD

I plan to do this post for quite a while now and after a failed post for some reason by blogspot it took me a few days before feeling like posting again.

The topis for today is Task Manager and Ctrl+Atl+Del.

Ctrl+Atl+Del is one of the earliest hotkey I had learn ever since my first experince with the Monochrome monitor and DOS :)) In the old days Ctrl+Atl+Del are use to do warm boot on computer. Which comes in handy when the machine freeze up, especially in case of Windows 3.1-Me

Now with WinXP it is use to call up Task Manager to look at the programmes and processes running of your computer.

Once Task Manager is called up you will notice that it has four tabs.

Applications: Display your current running application. Mostly use when you need to 'End Task' the not responding application :)

Processes: Display the current running processes. This is the tab that you should play with once you are experince with the computer. It shows all the running processes currently running with the size of memory usage. Also an option for you to kill the processes that you need to shut it down. Very useful in this days of adware & spyware aka Skumware.

The other two tabs are only for monitoring function.

And now with my LCD monitor, I finally figured out that I could reduce the gamma level (light level) by a notch to make all the color seems richer. I hope it will works...

LCD era, and not really liking it yet

I finally bought a Viewsonic LCD monitor today. It was quite a let down in terms of color. I usually use dark color theme on my desktop and since the monitor seems to be brighter than CRT it makes all the color seems fading. But when I play games the colors does not seems to be too shabby.

However, when I looks at the screen I felt my eyes were straining to watch the screen for some reason... I hope it just because of the new position of the monitor and not the monitor itself... I simply can't afford to buy a new one...

The First Video on my Blog: Cork Soaking

I saw this clip from another blog. It is a skit from SNL and my oh my...



To think that this would be the first video I put on my blog and it is This video?? It made me slightly shivered...

Anyway, this would be a a good video to watch to learn how to inappropriately speaking English

British Movies: Boots and V

By chance, I had watch two movies that set in Britian within the span of three days. And here they are :)

Kinky Boots : I first heard about this movie from the TV shows that preview upcoming movie trailer and I guess it's almost obligatory to be interested in the movie that has a drag queen in it and not to mention that he/she is the important part of the movie.

It took me several days to acquire this movie once I learn that it has already been release in UK since last year. The movie, which was based on a true story, is about a man whose family run a shoe making factory where the shoes are the works of craftmen that could last a lifetime. But things change and business isn't what it used to be. So the company have to switch to niche market making sexy boots for drag queens.

A stellar performance from the black actor who plays the drag queen in the movie who also perform on stage in the movie and singing as well.

The movie as the feels of Full Monty and The Calender Girls, which give me a glimse of how things has turn for the worst in UK in some aspect.

But I got to hear a song that I like at the end credit called 'In These Shoes' by Kirsty Maccoll :) Quite a nice song to dance with in my opinion.

V for Vendetta : It got quite a good review at yahoo.com and I can see why. The story is about rebellion against a fascist regime. Starred the ever talented Natalie Portman, whose in this movie seems to serve more as a narrator or a witness to the events than anything else. And Hugo Weaving, whose never got to show his face under the Guy Fawkes mask but his distinct accent and pronunciation delivered the lines with such power and emotion that his facial expression is not required for the audience to sense his character.

It shows London in the year 2020 under a facist regime that seems to reminded me of East German and Soviet where people could disappear without being seen again and government dictates information, news and communications.

It is a Must-See movie which should be shown everywhere, especially where citizen thought they should be silence for whatever reasons.

"The people should not be afraid of their own government" - V from V for Vendetta

Hit or Miss: The Comebacks of ComMarts Show

I went to Pantip again today to check the price of LCD monitors, Again...

So far I has not commit to buy a new LCD monitor yet... Mostly it concern with the price and how I was uncertain about the quality once I use it. Anyhow, when I was walking through the shops, I notice a poster of the ComMarts show.

ComMarts, at the beginning, it was one of the big IT event in Bangkok. At first, it was an exhibition to showcase new IT products. Now it turns into a trade show and sales (although not a big discount) event. I think it used to be once a year and now they seems to held it quaterly. The last times I went to the show was last Nov. and I was looking for LCD monitor back then too. The price was slightly more expensive than at Pantip plaza...

But I will go again this times. Perhaps things might be better for me, afterall they might have extra promotion other than sales.

My kind of Mr. Right

I suppose it is times to describe the kind of man I want (and at times need) to have. Perhaps one might surf by my blog and contact me :)

Personality wise...

I think I would like to have a man with good & decent sense of humour. The type that would smile often, especially when he looks at me, and know how to make me giggle at the right moments as well as the wrong ones :PP

I love affectionate man, the kind that would be physically affectionate with me. Hugging, cuddling, pecking and kissing, and often the sneak groping in public :P

Physical attributes...

I would like a tall and hairy Caucasian man but that's not a must (Hispaniuc would be the only alternative to Caucasians :)). I prefer my man ot be easy on the eye and have great smile, the kind that Dennis Quaid has :).

I would love to have a nice muscle man but that might be too much to ask... Since I am not one myself but I would surely not turn them away if they came knocking on the my door that's for sure ;))





















The pictures are for references :) The guy on the right is my current favorite porn star, Arpad Miklos, who was a chemist by trade (who would thought a scientist would be this FUCKING HOT).

Yogurting

If you asked me like ten years ago to try yogurt I would definately not gonna tried it, at present time however, it's a different story

Somehow one of the marketing scheme did works on me, the product sampling. Recently I had tried a new product from Dutchies a 0% Fat yogurt with Green apple flavour and I like the taste.

I figured eventually that I could eat these while stay up late in my office. And these things suppose to be healthy, right??

When I was younger I would denied any attempt to eat vegetable. Now it's not very different, although I would eat carrot, basil and cabbage, which if I do back then my mom would be very happy indeed.

I wondered if my older self take part in my widen taste in eating though...

The Brief Stint Under The Spotlight

The Time: Junior Highschool
The Event: School Plays

You see... when I was younger, I had done some acting during my junoir highschool time.

Back then I had one best friend whom I spend most of my lunch break with. He is a smart guy, a teacher's pet sort of way if you would say. Among the rebellious talkative youngsters in the class, we seems to be the two that pretty much the well-behave group.

One day during the lunch break, my friend was approached by the English teacher and she wants him to be in a play which will be done in English. Somehow I had been drag along to do a support role as well. At first I must say that I was embarassed about all of it. But after one or two more shows I seems to kinda like it in a way.

By the time I graduated from Jr. Highschool, we had done quite a few shows under her direction (her husband was the music teacher). Now thinking back I vaguely remember it all, but I must say that I was quite fond of the time I had on stage :)

Arrgghhh My Sleep!!!!

Although, Winter is not my favorite season (too darn cold for a nice shower), Summer is not that good for me either...

Ever since I started to work night shift (like 9 years ago), my sleep pattern has been scramble quite a bit. Add that to the fact that I am not very easyto fall asleep to begins with seems to take a slight toll on my overall pattern as a whole. During Winter times, sleep came easier than summer due to the cold breeze with me keeping warms under my blanket and quilt. Summer, however, is another story altogether. I could barely stand the heat even with the fans on I would usually still toss and turn searching for cool spot to lay upon unti l the heat from my body make the spot too warm for comforts and have to move again.

The night before Tuesday was no different, I slept early (around midnight) only to be awake 6 hours later and after mugging around on my computer feeling pretty bored I finally try sleeping again around 9:30. My phone rang around 12:20. It took me about 5 seconds before realizing the ringing noise is from my landline phone. Mister M was on the other side and wanted to meet me later in the afternoon for computer lesson...

Mister M is a friend of Nordic, an elderly British man who stayed in Thailand for more than 15 years. He began to take interest in Internet and I had been approached by Nordic to teach Mister M about Internet and computer.

When Mister M said he wants to meet me later that afternoon I thought something urgent must had happen. After remembering that I would be working on Wednesday night, I concluded that it would be best to meet in the afternoon as he suggested.

As it turns out, nothing urgent has happen... He just want another regular computer lesson (with a slight mix of applied Thai language lesson. This times it is about how to ask for the *special* massage in Thai -*- ).

Light! Camera! Action???

I finally gave in to temptation and break out my steel cage wallet to pay for a cool looking Logitech QuickCam Comminucate STX as well as a slick looking mouse by the brand Acron.

It all happen because I want to check out the price for LCD monitor after my currect CRT monitor had been flicking madly for the last couple of days. While I was at the infamous Pantip Plaza I figured that I should be looking for a new mouse as well since the one I was using seems to have broken wire inside and the curosr won't move until I reapply it's USB cable.

I still unable to decide on which LCD monitor I should buy though... Although my main concern is the rpice but my chat with some shop owners remind me that I should be looking into the warranties as well.

So now I am down to either LG or Samsung... One shop owner said LG will have better warranty but I will ask around and see.

The Approaching "V" Day

It is that day of the year again. The day when every friggin' place are all deck up in red and heart shape stuffs, chocolate and strawberry. To pretty much say to you 'Buy This, it will make your lover Happy!!'

Except for those singletons who do not have the lover which it is more like rub it their face of how single they are...

If the above lines sounds bitter, I meant it to be be cause Darn It I DON'T Want to be SINGLE!!

My Day with Paul

Paul is, of cause, the good doctor of Bedtime Story Blog. We planned to meet today at 11:30 at a bookstore in the newest shopping mall in Bangkok, Siam Paragon. However, my strange behvaior kick in and I awake at 4:00am instead and would not fall asleep. So by 8:10am I call Paul at his hotel to tell him of my woe and planned to meet earlier than that.

We finally meet, he is a fast talker, fast walker and the most shopaholic guy I ever met. We met at 10:00 and by 15:00 we had walked through four shopping mall, walk through numerous home decor shops and he bought a several items while urging me to do the same. I told him that I only have my own room not house and he still could not help but point out how I am not a shopper as he is.

He seems to share an equal amount of interest in both concept decor shop as well as antique shop. Not to mention he really is a movie buff. We stopped at one of the DVD shop in MBK and he kept pointing out to this movie and that movie with commentary of this one is good, bad romantic, and how I should see them :P

By that time, 14:35, I had lost the energy to tell him that I am more of a gamer and not movie buff :PP I have a few favorite that I deem a must have and then I would bought them. With this he is surely have a broader taste in movie than I am.

Right now I am EXHAUSTED, with only about 3 and a half hours of sleep plus 5 hours of continuos fast walk equal me being really tired :p I will hit the shower right after this and laydown on my bed a bit, Phewww....

Yahoo! Web Messenger

After a bit of searching I found out that Yahoo! now have Web Messenger service as well. You can check it out here http://messenger.yahoo.com/webmsgr/fmsgr.php

Compare to the MSN counterpart, I must say that it was not as good, as it could not connect when I use it from my office...

The YWM use Java application to do the job, so it would work on many OS and Web Browser. But it seems to use the same port as the software version that it did not work in my office while MSN Web Messenger does.

Quite a shame really...

Self Comfort

I have read Scotty's blog as well as discuss with Mr. American regarding the hardship of being gay in 20-40 years ago. And it made me realize how lucky I am that I am able to be comfortable in my skin (for the most part) and not having to go through what these guys as well as many other had gone through.

I think I began to almost always be interested in male body which might just caused by my father... I remembered being little and watch a couple of movies with him (on seperate occasion) I seems to remembered that my mom was sleeping at that time and he was on the bed watching the video in the dark. Mind you it wasn't porn :pp

One of the two that I remember rather vividly is a sci-fi movie, about some astronaut who found either an astrorid or some satellite filled with people in crystal looking thing. They brought back 3 people, two male and one female and they taken those bodies out for testing. It turns out that they were some sort of vampire like being that suck life energy out of people and turn those people into dry body that would do the same to others. Now the thing I remembered that I find it rather odd then is the nudities. That vampire woman was naked (although the shots were from the waist up :P) And I think, alright so this is woman's body look like.

The second movie seems to be one of those cannibal movie, I am not sure if it suppose to be documentary or not. I think it was about an American family whose small plane crashed in Africa and the young college girl survivor has been captured and been forced into become one of the cannibal tribe (the same one that had either kill her parents or just shrunk their heads for ornament as well.) I remembered one part where she had been applied some kind of oil all over and been push into the middle of the village with narration explaining that she knew she has been placed as a prize for the strongest men of the tribe. I also remembered another part where she became pregnant and have to be away from the main village as the tradition of this tribe. And how her husband take off his loincloth (first male frontal nudity :p) to jump into the lake to get something. The American girl was blonde and bare chested I think all the time that she was with the tribe.

What I am trying to explain is that maybe somehow seeing naked women at such a young age, albeit boobies only :P, had made me lost interested in girls. As in there is no mystery to what would they look like naked as compared to the naked men which is still quite a mystery to me then.

I began to notice the gay magazine with the half naked men on the cover in my junior highschool years but never actually buy them until I found the secondhanded sidewalk stall in my highschool years.

The realization that I am attracted to men does not seems to bother me that all. Although, during my jr. highschool year commented that I might end up being gay since I am such a goodie two-shoes :PPP

Nevertheless, I never felt the urge or felt pressured into leading the straight life nor I ever attracted or wanted to do a woman :pp

So right now, apart from the worldly matters of money, felt like my job is going nowhere, the urge to travel to places where I can meet hunky GWMs, etc. I am totally OK with myself, apart from the usual urge to wants the muscular body and clearer skin and be better looking :pp I guess I am a well adjusted gay man. And I felt lucky that at least this thing fall into place.

New Monitor

My office has replace the monitors in my section with 17" LCD monitor. A cause for celebration? Only until I turn on the machine and see how crappy the monitor is.

At first I thought it was because of the light from the ceiling but it was really the monitor, the bottom half of the screen looks brighter than the upper half. The color looks too faded against the seemingly too bright light.

All in all I would warn anybody against choosing HP 1740 17" LCD Monitor for your own use (perhaps recommend it to people you don't like.) You would better off buying LG or Samsung or Sony (if you can afford it).

I hope this is not a permanent screen... Afterall the eye sight of people who use this machine is vital. Right now I would prefer having the old CRT monitor back. At least it project the color just find without making me uncomfortable.