The Sort of Unexpected San Jose Trip

This year I planned to go to New Orleans and San Jose.  New Orleans is for fun and San Jose is to see a friend.  Plus I planned to order a Kindle to be delivered at his place so I can take it with me home without fuss.  However, that plan was derailed by hurricane Issac hitting New Orleans.  The airport closed on my arrival date therefore my flight was canceled.  Good thing I got the airline app on my phone and I checked it before leaving my house.  I spent the night scrambling to have my hotel cancel and check all my options.

Luckily, the Booking.com agent contact the GM of the hotel that I booked a special non-refundable room with and the GM was nice enough to give me full refund due to special circumstances.  I also asked for refund from the airline too on the next morning.  Then come a week later, after seeing the new Kindle Paperwhite press release, I bought a ticket to San Jose for the first weekend of October.  That reduce my saving considerably since it took Delta almost 5 weeks to give me the refund.

My trip went off without too much hitch.  First, the flight attendant found an unclaimed bag on an empty seat.  Regulation dictates that the plane cannot take off with unclaimed bag.  After 25 minutes of all the staff walking up and down the plane looking for owner to no avail, the owner was finally being awake enough to claim the bag.  Luckily this didn't affect the connecting flight since we fly... with the wind?  So instead of having those 30 min. off plane, we just waste it on the ground instead.  Other than that, I was seated closed to a passenger who asked for diabetic meal.  When the planed landed I noticed that he and his family did not eat the bananas given as snack during the flight.  So I asked for them which I ate during the next flight.

We arrived at San Francisco International Airport without problem.  It was a blur as usual for international flight.  The immigration officer snark at me a little for answering his question of "Why are you here?" with my reason not my purpose.  Quote en quote "I don't want your life history, I just want to know why you are here."  I didn't snark back, for the obvious reason, plus he sniffling a bit which might explain his temper.

I finally cleared the immigration, got my suitcase and went out the exit gate.  My friend was there fiddling with his iPhone.  We greet each other and went to his car in the parking lot.  The weather was rather cool for me and soon I had to bundle up a bit in my jacket.

My first impression once we were on the road was that this is America, with wide open roads and endless landscape.  The freeway we took to drive us back to San Jose was the newer one (I think it was 280) which was landscaped to make the route looks like interstate road with trees blocking the view of the buildings and houses near by to give you the illusion of countryside.

We stopped by a small shopping area of the city.  My friend, Sean, wants to buy coffee.  And to my pleasant surprise, we went inside Peet's Coffee.  Another friend bought me a box of Assam Tea from Peet's a few of years ago and I like it very much.  I eventually bought their "Lemon Rose" and "Masala Chai" tea.

By the end of the first day in US, I was jetlagged pretty bad and crashed soon.  But not before we went to Fry's, an electronic store, to buy 3DS XL at discount price ;).  It roughly just 10% discount, not much, but it's better than nothing.  It pretty much say that the store will pay the sales tax for customer.

General Update

Work has been busy for the last few months.  The office got refurbish and we have to move computers around as well as the inventories.  On top of that, there were computer virus outbreak, server crash, and problems that make this the busiest I have ever been since I join this place...  I can't complain too much though...  At least I am busy...

I planned to go to US again.  I will see New Orleans again and this time will be 5 days then I will fly to San Francisco and see a friend that I haven't seen in a long time.  He is very nice and let me stay at his place.

I hope I will like SF and perhaps San Jose, more than NY...  Who knew, maybe in a few years it will be New Orleans and Las Vegas.  I will finally get to see Zumanity :P

Buying New Phone

After w810i and Nokia 5800, I am about to buy a new phone.  After waiting for a few months, I will buy Samsung Galaxy S II in a few days.

I choose Android phone over iPhone because I like the flexibility of it.  Plus the screen is bigger and the update is, hopefully, not long in the future (from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich).

With long holiday coming up, I will have the time to play around with the phone.  Rooting and maybe flashing it with good ROM.

Recent Activities

I know I have been lagging on posting (for almost a year now?)  I didn't realize that when I bought Kindle that it will also eat up the blog time as well :P

Kindle still works wonders.  Although it started to show some tears and wears due to accidental drop to the ground.  I am glad I got this cover when I bought my Kindle.  I am thinking that I will order the Kindle Touch when I went to US later this year for another Southern Decadence.  This time I will be seeing another friend in SF.  It would be a nice change from underwhelmed New York trip.

I have also been playing The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for quite a while now.  Overall I feels that the experience is tighter than Oblivion.  Maybe because this time I didn't download too many mods and mostly just focusing on playing through different quests.  I haven't progress much on the main quest yet as I am still happily wandered the towns doing various quests.

This time I just abuse the console command to make the game more fun for me :P.  It helps that there were less gay romance novels released for Kindle that I have got time to play Skyrim.

But also because of Skyrim and Kindle, I haven't watch Dexter season 6 yet.  I planned to do that during the Christmas break but then both Skyrim and Kindle took most of the time.  I think I might try to finish Skyrim main quests in a few weeks so I will maybe went back and finish L.A. Noire.

Joining Goodreads.com

After checking the website for many times, I finally succumbed to join GoodReads website.

I guess it appeal to my collecting sense as I added the novels I have read to my read shelf. I will add the widget soon to show what I have read. As I mention I earlier posts. I feels kinda shameful that 95% of the shelf are Romance novels... Especially the Gay Romance novels.

I got about 110s books so far and will slowly increasing as more books that I wants to read get release. Can't hardly wait for mid October when the book I really really wants to read got release.

Cutting Cable

My TV time have been eaten up to almost non-existing after I have got my Kindle. So after wasted my money on the cable TV fee for two months I finally cancel the subscription.

It wasn't too much of a hardship since I still seems to be in the honeymoon period with Kindle which kinda surprises me a bit. Besides I was getting tired of getting screwed by the company for not given me any sort of incentive or promotion. Eventhough we have been their customer right from the beginning. And they only start making concessions, some lame ones at that too, after I call to say I am canceling.

So now I save a fair amount of money from canceling the cable. I download shows I wants to watch from internet now anyway. Eventhough Kindle still take away the time I need to watch those shows. I have a sizable backlogs of shows I still wants to go throughs.

Entering the age of 2TB

The time had finally arrived, my collective harddisks space is getting full almost to the brim. So it is time to break open my wallet and buy another harddisk.

I have been eyeing the 2 Terabyte HDD for quite a while now. And finally bought one today. Since my weekend start tomorrow, I can spend tonight moving files (almost 750GB worth of... stuffs... notti stuffs mostly and TV series). Windows 7 would made moving files a lot smoother than XP. The actual physical change of harddisk is not my favorite thing to do but it needs to be done...

Hopefully things will goes smoothly without a hitch.

New Curtains and Reading Lamp

Last week the photo-developing shop next door left their spotlights on all day and night, all weeks... Unfortunately my room is right next to it and my room got lit more than that I would like when I was trying to sleep. After I went to the shop to complain and got wrods that they were fixing the electrical panel and no one dare to mess with it.

I called my mom and asking for advice, while fantasizing how I would shoot the damn lights if I own a gun. She recommend a more peaceful solution, a new thick curtain to block out the light. As it happens I planned to visit HomePro to look for reading lamp. So that when I read in bed and ready to sleep, I could just switch the lights off without getting out of bed.

When I finally have a break on Monday we meet up at HomePro. The results? New deep red/brown velvelty texture set of curtains that completely block out the light. It claim to also block out heat too. Although when I first hung them up, I felt that the ventilation seems to cut down a bit. But the curtains still blown when heavy wind blew in. So far I am quite happy with the curtain, it really block out most of the light and make the room nice and dark.

Initially I thought about getting a desk lamp to put on the bed. With the idea that I don't have to get up to turn off the light. My mom veto that idea with the reasoning that it could be fire hazard. There was only one model of adjustible floor reading lamp. It looks quite alright, all chrome finish modern looks with dark bulb cover with reflector to reflect down all the lights. I choose the warm tea colour bulb instead of the harsh white. I placed it just behind my bed on the floor.

Overall I love the new setup. Now I could read, or maybe even play a bit of DS game in bed with the reading lamp on and then just turn off everything without getting out of bed :)

Novels Tally and Kindle Battery Impressions

This is the fourth Kindle post in a roll... I guess this is the reflection of how Kindle still eat up my time of late.

After I have got my Kindle I start reading, almost obsessively, until now. I think I can start ween off it a little bit as other activities still waiting for my attentions. So far I have finished 'Demonica' series (5 books), 'The Hollows' series (9 books), 'Cut & Run' series (3 books so far and I am really looking forward to the new one later in the year). I highly recommended the 'Cut & Run' series for those who likes gay romance novel). I also like 'Zero at the Bone', another gay romance novel about FBI witness on a run with a hitman who did not wants to kill a decent man. Another gay romance, 'Warrior's Cross', is also quite nice. It didn't have much actions, both in and out of bed, but I find the story seems to keep simmering and goes to boil from time to time. I guess this one speaks to me since I can identify with the main charater is a loner who lead a quiet life.

After I got Kindle for about 3 weeks, I started to notice that the battery seems to went down to half, 4 days after fully charged. I was mildly alarmed at first, thinking I might got a lemon second handed one. Then I stumble upon a recent article on blogkindle.com that compare Kindle battery life and Nook's. Turns out that when Amazon tout 1 month battery life on Kindle, it means an average of 1 hour of reading per day. Also, they mention a battery test that with one page turn per one minutes, Kindle will last for 56 hours. In my case, I probably read about 6 hours a day or more. I read on my ride to and from work and in my bedroom until about midnight or later. Not to mention how I sometimes sneak some reading time at works :p

With all the clarification and calculation, it's no wonder why my Kindle battery reduced to half in less than a week. I guess I will just have to charge it more often that I intitally thought.

Kindle is Slowly Killing Me

No Jokes, Kindle has been eating away my nap time during transits as well as taking an hour or so from my night time sleep.

It also pulled me away from most of the TV shows that I watch regularly. Now I have several Tonight's Show With Jay Leno, Chelsea Lately, and a few other TV shows waiting in line for me to watch. Luckily it is slightly slow seasons for TV shows, at least for me. I am down to just one TV series, United States of Tara, that will have season finale next week. Leverage and The Closer will start in a few weeks.

By then, I should have consume all the high priorities books in my Kindle. Hopefully...

Kindle Bounded

Kindle seems to occupied my time considerably for the moment... I supposed mostly because I started on a new book series. It turns out that my reading habit seems to be more... powerful than my gaming habit. Perhaps because I have read that Fable III needs other players to unlock some good weapon...

In retrospect, it's not surprising that reading would came up on top. It as my first addiction after all. And Kindle make it a lot easier, since I can now read from my bed and not restricted to read on my computer. I slept way to late this passing weekend. I even taken a day off to recuperate but all that got swallowd by my reading... The hot weather didn't help either. I thin kI nonly slept baout 4-5 hours last night before coming to work this morning...

I will have try to steer myself to sleep at normal hours tonight at least... Otherwise I would be feeling like I should take another day off...

The New Member in My Electronic Devices Family

After much considerations and wantings, I finally succumb and bought a Kindle, a 3G one no less.
The reason is that I like to read. I began to read more novels than before and reading
it on my computer is less than comfortable. I did considered buying the tablet but since I planned to buy new phone anyway, I figured that I could do the things I might use the tablet for, such as web surfing, IMs, music player, and video player, on the new phone. I better get a dedicated e-reader with long lasting battery and not draining the device with reading while traveling. My Nokia 5800 was almost completely drained when I read PDF on it for about 2 hours...

Also the 3G on Kindle is free and internationally connected. Therefore I will be able to get on Google Map with Kindle regardless of the Wifi availability. Which happens while I was in New Orleans.

I loaded up many books from my collections onto my Kindle and even purchase the Arabian Nights one from Amazon store because it was well organized version of the ebook. I also apply the screensaver hack so I can use my own pictures as screensavers. The screen quality is really good at displaying all the different shades of gray from the colour pictures I added. I will be reading a lot for a while, until the release of new interesting DS games :P

Catching Up on The Old Classic

After seeing 'Secrets of The Arabian Nights' shows up on my regular TV show listing, I am curious to watch it. Turns out it was BBC4 production so I know it should be good.

It was quite good. It shows the history of the 1,001 Arabian Nights, how it came to be popular in the West despite being only orally told in the Middle East, how it coloured the perception of the West toward Middle East, how the story is still considered scandalous in the Middle East.

After years of reading and watching the more popular pieces of the story and realizing a few years back that the most popular one 'Aladdin' and 'Sinbad' were the works of the first guy who collected and translated the story into French. Now I am starting to reading it. I choose the seemingly oldest translated version by Sir Richard Burton. I wants to read the most complete version of this since in the show it mention that Lanes version got edited to remove all the sex and drinking out to turn it into children books for the Victorian era.

So far it been very interesting read. Just like the TV show said, the magic in the stories were very different from what I read in the Western novels and maybe Japanese mangas.

But I must say I like it so far. It is very interesting, especially the 'The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad' one ;)

Another cold day in Bangkok, Oh and I saw Sucker Punch

Just as I bought a new 18" fan, the weather taking a tumble back to low 20C again.

As I am typing this, I am wearing my new jacket in my office. I kinda like this weather but as usual it was a pain to shower. The wind make it a small torture to stay off the shower stream to pick up the shower gel bottle, etc. The weather forecast on my phone shows that it will warmed up by Friday. So tonight I will probably wear my full t-shirt to bed again...

I went to see Sucker Punch on Saturday. I was kinda prepared to see how bad it was from a few article about how the critics panned this movie. But I was not prepapred for what the movie was. The beginning looks promising but it went elsewhere, literally, soon after. The main protagonist, Baby Doll, soon went inside her head to cope with the situations and never came back out. The action sequences looks great, although the slow motions started to get tedious after the 10th times it was used. I left the theater with rather perplex feelings like I cannot wrapped my head around the movie quite right. I think that the problem was in the script and the decision to make it double layered fantasy without going back to reality until the end. In retrospect, I think it was kinda like modern day 'Alice in Wonderland'.

For me, the movie failed to draw me in more than the visual level. The story was somewhat disappointed since we do not see how things went in reality. And like many comments that I glanced through on some website, the movie was just visual feats with not much substances. I was glad I didn't spend more to see it in IMAX.

Cold and Hot

It has been a strange few days from about Wednesday to Saturday in that it gets really really cold in Bangkok.

How cold it was? It was 18C. I check the thermometer in my bedroom and it was 18C, in the middle of March. It is supposed to be Summer here and yet somehow we got the chills coming down from China. I even have to wear pants and turtle neck long sleeves t-shirt to bed. It was raining a bit as well.

Again, I was torn between the happiness of confortable sleep under my blanket and the torment of taking a shower in the morning to get to work.

It was getting warmer all day Saturday. I went from shivering under the shower in the morning to taking the shower joyously by the time I got home from work. It is not back to the usual blazing Bangkok Summer heat yet. And according to the weather forecast on my mobile phone, it will stay that way for a while. I must admit that I like the in between temperature. The cool at night so I can sleep comfortably and the not too cold so the warm shower machine heat the water enough for me to shower comfortably.

A New Start on My Blog

I am still have not finish the traveling posts. And I have been increasingly less motivated to do so... I guess I am more occupied with more constant personal gratification activities such as TV, mangas and games.

So I will try to finsih the traveling posts later and perhaps put it up intermittenly. Otherwise, I will be more likely to just abandon this blog altogether and I do not want to do that.

Right now I am highly enjoying the new DS game 'Radiant Historia' It has rich story involving nations at wars, political maneuverings, betrayals, mysteries. and gradual continent disasters. Overall I find the story is much more intriguing than Dragon Quest VI.

Germany Trip, Day Two: Touring Munich

My sleep was restless the previous night. It was somewhat a relieve to finally hear my alarm goes off. After the morning routines I went down to breakfast.

The breakfast was nice, quite a variety but, as I learned later, not change at all each morning. There were scramble egg, 2 types of sausages (I like the white one), cereals, 3 types of yogurts, 4-5 bowl of cut fruits, 6-7 kind of breads, and 3 kind of juices. Overall it was a hearty selections but not very flavourful. I tried to eat as much as I can with in an hour, this times not forget to pick out various of teas to take home.

I left the hotel around 9:00 I went to the main train station to look for the place to buy package tour to see Neuchswanstein. I got the brochure from the hotel lobby the night I check-in. I tried the information counter but they just point out that the train will leave for Fussen city at this and this time. After getting no help, I examine the brochure more closely and found a map to their office. Turns out their office is not far from Marientplatz. So I took the subway and heading to it.

The Marienplatz was not as what I envisioned from the game. But then my memory of it was rather vague now… I wish I played it again before the made the trip.

Anyhow, the rain was drizzling all the time. I am glad I packed my umbrella otherwise I might be sick before the trip ends. I walked around the square a bit and then set off the look for the tour office. It wasn’t hard to find. The staffs look young and hips, a few of them I would certainly wanna… Anyway, when I arrived, the person in charge was not there so I have to wait a while. The office was warm and dry which is a nice break for me from the cold rain. After the guy in charge arrived, I tell him what I want, etc. He explained the tour to me. He said the advantage of buying the tour from them were that they use coach bus which use roughly the same amount of time traveling to the castle without the hassle of using the train which will need another bus to go to the castle anyway. Plus the tour guide will buy the ticket for us in advance with the right timestamps to get in so we don’t have to queue up for tickets.

I opted out from the bicycle tour part of the package, which save me 10 Euro. I don’t know how to ride the bicycle anyway. I paid for the tour and then I pointed to the ‘Free Walk Tour’ brochure and said I will be doing that today and wondered if they will come out with when it’s raining. The guy said these guys will be there regardless of weather. Soon I bid them goodbye and return to Marienplatz, waiting for the gathering time for the Free Walk Tour.

There were a fair amount of people waiting for the tour. Turns out two of them were Thais. The guide, who is Chinese but speaks with perfect American accent, began by regale us with the history of the city. He said the Marienplatz, though looks old, it is actually been rebuilt like that because the original was destroyed during the war. The same goes for many historical buildings in Munich. The city started out as the city where monks brew beer which became popular by the locales and attracts more resident. Then we went to one of the church, inside there was a footprint of the engineer who built it. Then we walk pass another church which has a cannon ball lodge above one of the tall windows. The guide told us that this is not a well known fact even to the locals. The cannon ball was stuck there during the First World War and then fell out during the Second World War. A resident found it on the street near the church, kept it, and return it to the church after war and told the church to put it back up :P I notice many plagues attached around churches so I ask the guide what they are. He said there used to be cemeteries around the church, once the development start to happen around the church, they moved the plagues and put it around the church so relatives can still come to mourn. Later on we walked to a plague, a Jewish memorial of that location dedicated to one of the early event of Jew persecution. The guide said there are hundreds of these small memorial plaques all around Munich, all of which are simple plague with no label or indication to what it is. He added that he prefer this type of memorial more than the large showy type in Berlin. Since this way whoever saw them and got curious will do research about it and it will have more meaning than just listening to the guide.

Then we went through the Viktualienmarkt, a local fresh market. The guide mention that the price of goods here are not cheap. In fact, you will find cheaper stuffs else where in the city.

Germany Trip, Day One: Torturous Day Flight

My mom, again, volunteered to drive me to airport. I am grateful with this, she even bought breakfast for both of us, but we arrived 4 hours before the departure time. I hope the airport link will be fully operate by the time I went to Australia.

I use AirBerlin this time. The flight was delayed by one hour. This, as it turns out, was not a problem for me, much. Because I was due for two hours transit with my connecting flight to Munich. The plane, however, was Airbus A330. I could not dissuade you guys enough to change flight or airline to avoid this plane. In my opinion, it was too small for any flight longer than 5 hours. There were only 4 bathrooms for us poor people (read riding coach) to use. The left and right aisel are connected only at the back of the plane. So there will times when people queued up for bathroom on one side while the other were empty. I have to trod all the way to the back of the plane to get to the other side to use the bathroom...

Also There was no entertainment system at the back of the seat, naturally, but then the charge 3 Euro to buy the headphone... They also seems to use the same kitchen as KLM. Since the food menu and package looks the same.
I must say I miss flying Middle Eastern airlines already...

As I stated in the title, the day flight was torturous. It would have been fine if they turn off the lights and indicate the passengers to close the windows but no... As a results I only slept a little bit. They also did not stocked blindfold for day flight (I asked). There were several, not a few, Several, turbulence during the flight. It was really bad but one time it happen when the flight attendances bring out food, so they have to wheel their cart back and wait it out.
The flight could not end fast enough I tell ya.

The only good thing was that it was not as cold as my flight Prague and back to Amsterdam last year. We eventually landed in Dussendolf. The Thai girl seated with me asked if she could tag along during the transit procedure as this is her first international flight. She was slightly nervous because she has a connecting flight to Paris which could have left already without people from our flight. I assured her that the airline will provide any necessities should she been stranded here. As it turns out, about 15% of the passengers in our flight seems to be going to Paris as well so that flight was waiting. When we finally arrived at the immigration, an AirBerlin staff called out to passengers to Paris to go with him. So she as well as the other French people were rushed through the security by the AirBerlin staff to get to the connecting flight. I myself bolted into the terminal after I pass my security check to find my gate as well. I ran all the way to the gate and finally got in to the plane. This one has got leather seats! But it seems that the plane was poorly cleaned before we boarded.

The flight was not full so after the door closed I move to an empty row for the window seat. They only serve light snack on the plane, meaning we only have the choice between a bag of chips or biscuits. Thankfully it was not a long flight, nor eventful like the first one. Finally arrived in quiet airport in Munich, waiting for my luggage and then I went looking for the subway station.

The rather cute guy at the ticket counter consulted me with options on which ticket I should buy for my 4 days stints in the city. It should have been 3 days but then I arrived on Monday around 21:40 local time. So I ended up paying around 28 Euro for 4 days tickets including the extension to go to and from the airport which is in the outer rim of the system. It's a good thing that I did get the card because a ticket master came into the train about 4 stations later to card check passengers. After 45 minutes, I arrived at Haufbanhof , the city central station, and I began to search for my hotel. After a few asking around I found it. It was a mere 5 minutes walk from the station, perfect location really,
especially after I later found the station entrance about 10 steps away from the building.

I quickly check-in, asked if I wants to pay right away (to which I said tomorrow), and quickly went to my room. I took me a while to figured out the system here. The doorknob was a deadknob that did not turn, I fooled around with the key for quite a while, wondering if I have to schelp back to the lobby for help or not. Until I eventually figured out that I have to turn the key all the way to the right to also turn the bolt and open the door. The room was small. Small as in it has single bed, no fridge, small TV hanging above the foot of the bed small. But it's ok since I was not going to spend much time in it. Then I went into the bathroom for much needed shower, I tore open the soap package, tried the soap and found that it is of poor quality that will make my skin dry out like salted dry fish. But I used it a bit anyway, I packed some lotion as well (in case of dry skin, thank you very much).

I did not slept well that night despite the cold weather. I guess it's part jet-lagged and sleeping in new place. I came around like every 2-3 hours. Until finally my alarm goes off and it's time to get ready to see the city

I am Back From My Germany Trip

I am back from my trip now. Will blog about it over the weekend. Photos will uploaded later... Not sure where now... My Flickr account is full, my picasa account is not full yet but it might be this time.

I am still a bit tired from the trip... I called in sick today to recuperate but I am back to work tomorrow. So later for now.

The eve of my Germany Trip

I am going through list of things in my mind of things to do and what I should buy for my trip that will begins tomorrow.

I have got a couple of cool t-shirts and a cool fake diesel watch (with chain attached). The funny thing is the watch is cheaper than the t-shirt :P I am thinking about buying a couple of snacks to put in my backpack. Thinking back I don't think I was a snack person... Lucky me I suppose...

My mom will take me to the airport again. Hopefully the next times I am on a trip, to Australin in early Dec if things goes as planned, I will be able to use the BTS, MRT, and the Airport Link system. I will time our ride to the airport this times to see how long it will take. The Airport Link system will definitely be faster and cheaper than the other methods.

I am a little nervous.. Since this trip was kind of a rush compare to other trips that I have made before. But I intend to enjoy it nontheless. It's a shame though that I will be seeing Munich less... But then I think it would be enough for now to see the Merianplatz, the same one that I have seen from "Gabriel Knights: The Beast Within" game.

So expect lots of pictures. I will be away for a week with may or may not have a chance of blogging along the way.