SEO Travel Blog

Razorfunfish

2009-04-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

Check out the new Razorfunfish blog over on Tumblr

Home Stretch

2008-11-08T04:20:00.000-08:00

Ray and I just parted ways in Atlanta around 6:30 AM as we make our ways to our terminals for the final stretch of the trip home which has so far been in the realm of 28-32 hours. The time change and let lag has taken over and waiting another 3 hours in an airport for a flight now seems like a walk in the park. I could be delirious though as I'm waiting in a gate that is not for my flight while randomly staring at people since all they have to read is USA Today which offers 2% the entertainment value of the NY Post.

Ray has summed up the trip pretty accurately although I was graced by the airline gods and received a 1st class upgrade from Taipei to San Fran. I'm not sure if Ray was more pissed at my good fortune or that he now had to sit next some dudes with sweet Cajun accents for 12 hours. Ray has also learned I'm the worlds worst sight seeing companion. I forgot my camera 75% of the time and make sarcastic comments on the regular. We had a blast overall and even managed to break a few rules such as drinking coffee on the subway for which we received a few evil glances.

Overall 1st class is the way to go for long overseas flights, then again when you have nobody to talk to the nostalgia looses it's luster pretty fast. The Dynasty club's provided by China air for high rollin' travelers such as ourselves made the layovers a bit easier although they do not remotely accommodate anyone from the Western hemisphere.

I did have the opportunity to enjoy some Taiwanese beer called of all things, Taiwan Beer. The 1st class flight from San Fran to Atlanta was overbooked and seemed more like economy plus. The hot towels were borderline dangerous, the food we passed on and they let Ray board the plane despite giving the attendant a ticket for someone else or a different flight.

While I tried to sleep and get back on east coast time Ray was overly enjoyed at the vast selection of TV and movies available at his disposal. I'm pretty sure he could have flown for another 12 hours based on all the programs he'd wanted to watch but we both settled for Indiana Jones which he hated. Sorry Ray.

Lost in Hong Kong

2008-11-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

Referring to Ray's "Copy, Copy, Copy" post it's all true. I was totally lost in Hong Kong for a good 2 hours. Hong Kong is just like any other city, easy to navigate on foot and retrace your steps in the event you get a little off the beaten path right?

Hell no!

So I ventured out in search of trinkets for the SEO team and family along with some new threads to round out my fall wardrobe. I somehow convinced myself that the winding corridor of alleys and off the beaten path stores would contain what I was looking for, and I was sadly mistaken.

Given the lack of street signs, ability to cross at 8 out of 10 intersections and not remembering the address or neighborhood which the hotel was in were all contributor's to my adventure. I did manage to get some sweet pictures of signs telling me things that I cannot do along with receiving various propositions from hookers.

And as you can see I made it back in one piece, just a little more jaded than I was before.

Also in reference to the lunch meeting where Ray ate the cow stomach, during the lunch meeting in the airport I was teased by the sight of a Popeye's Chicken and Biscuit restaurant.

If you've had the luxury of enjoying a Popeye's Po' Boy sandwich you know exactly how tempting it can be so on the way home I made a point to try it out in Hong Kong, knowing damn well I would be setting myself up for disappointment.

A Sighting?????

2008-11-07T06:10:00.001-08:00

I didn't think it could get any more obscure than seeing Gene Simmons in the Portland airport but it did. As Sean and I are making our way to our gate in Taipei we see this big white guy in a leather jacket walking towards us. I notice because there are very few white guys here. An airport attendant asks him if he is transferring and he says, Yeah- to Bangkok and I recognize him immediately.

It was Michael Madsen. No not an A-List celebrity but this guy has been in a hell of a lot of things and is probably most known for his role in Reservoir Dogs. Regardless, Sean and I were happy to see a celebrity.

Random Rules

2008-11-07T01:52:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure if the novelty of Hong Kong wore off the second time or if I wasn't as observant this trip but I didn't find as many amusing things this trip as I did last. I think Sean put it best when he said that Hong Kong is the land of NO. Every possible thing you can imagine has a sign on it telling you what to do or what you can't do. I'm thinking the sign maker is the richest man in Hong Kong.

Subway Rules

This sign was in the subway stating what you cannot bring on the subway. Pets? ok, Poisons? probably a good idea, I have no idea what the top right one is, but Balloons?? I honestly could go weeks without seeing a balloon yet in Hong Kong, people have brought them on the subway enough to warrant a sign.

Pool Rules

These were the rules of the Sheraton Pool. A few of my favorites.

All persons are required to shower with soap before entering the pool/jacuzzi. Who's job is it to check?
Do not use soap in the pool or jacuzzi. Really? Did this happen enough that they had to add it to the rules?
Spitting or blowing of the nose is prohibited. I actually like this one but it's ridiculous that you have to tell people this.
Appropriate swimwear must be worn, no cutoff jeans or long pants allowed. Ok what jack ass goes swimming in long pants? Apparently enough to warrant an addition to the rules.

The people running Hong Kong have to be the most anal people in the world. Either that or they are related to the sign makers and are funneling government money to them.

Last Day in Hong Kong

2008-11-07T01:11:00.000-08:00

That Temple is Sik

Today is the last day in Hong Kong for Sean and I. We had time to kill and hours left on our 24 hour subway pass so we decided to go to Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. The extra Sik is because the place was off the hook. Ok bad joke. It's actually a popular temple in Hong Kong where Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are practiced.

Temple Entrance

Lanterns where people were lighting incense sticks.

No idea what this was but people were standing in front of it waving incense so I'm guessing it was important.

There was one rule that had to be observed at the Temple. Don't climb the artificial rock. Regular rock climbing seemed to be cool with them.

Overall the temple was cool but Sean and I were the only non-Asians and felt like we were trespassing on sacred ground.

Nan Lian Garden

Next we moved on toNan Lian Garden which was this scenic public garden with a lot of rules. 12 to be specific. Here are some of my favorites.

No Tripods. I can't imagine what provoked them to outlaw tripods in the park but it must have been some incident for them to take such a drastic measure.

Ok, no littering is a given anywhere but I found it funny that they chose an apple core as a symbol of litter. The can I get but the apple core seems out of place.

Ok I have no idea what paddling means but they chose a picture of a kid parting the water like moses which adds zero context to the term paddling.

This one cracks me up because like the tripod, there had to be previous incidents that lead to this rule. "Charlie, we have a problem. People are bringing their stray fish and turtles to the park and letting them go". Ok, I'll call the sign maker.

Other than the stringent rules, the park was absolutely gorgeous. Here are a few pics.

Cool Pagoda

Oh yeah, there was a nunnery in the park.

Inside the nunnery. Wasn't really supposed to be taking pics but I snuck one.

The park was worth the trip, but here is where Hong Kong fools you. The park is 2 years old. Like everything in Hong Kong, it is new and build for tourists. I have yet to find history here.

Sean and I are lounging in the Dynasty Lounge which is China Airlines first class club. It is eerily quiet in here and Sean and I are the only two white dudes. 2 more hours till our first of 4 flights.

Copy, Copy, Copy

2008-11-06T12:42:00.001-08:00

So Thursday Sean and I do some work in the morning and head out around noon to do some sight seeing. We decide to go to The Peak since it is just an awesome site. We take the subway which I have to say is super easy. Good job Hong Kong. While I got us to the correct stop, I inadvertently take us out the wrong exit from the train station. We follow the signs and begin this crazy hike up a steep street.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but this street seemed to climb for ever.

So we finally make it to the point and it is as awesome the second time as it is the first. Not as clear a day as last time I was there but still cool.

The Peak Observation deck

2IFC building which was featured in Dark Knight. It's the building he is standing on.

After The Peak we proceed to the Ladies Market to do some shopping at the suggestion of our client. I am hoping it is like Stanley Market and will present the opportunity to haggle. And no, it wasn't a market just for ladies.

After walking through about 5 blocks of tents we were very disappointed to find that every block seemed to be the exact stuff. In addition, every tent was selling copy watches. Every tent had people grabbing you saying "copy wathces? you want copy watches? copy, copy, copy!. As if that wasn't annoying enough, we walk by one woman who I'm pretty sure says to me "Hey Pussy, you want copy watch?" I ask Sean if I heard her correctly and he thinks I did. I hate the Ladies Market.

After that, Sean and I head back to the hotel since we are exhausted. I do some work and take a nap and Sean apparently went out for a walk and got lost for 2 hours. He'll have to explain how that happened.

Meeting with Cathay

2008-11-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

Ray is wrongly accused and punished

So Sean and I get up on Wednesday to go to Cathay, and our biggest concern is that the taxi driver takes us to Cathay's headquarters and not to the Cathay terminal at the airport. So the cab driver knows exactly where we have to go and we arrive at 9:15 for a 9:30 meeting. Perfect timing. As we are checking in, one of my contacts comes up and asks if either of us are Ray. Not a hard deduction since we are the only Americans in the lobby. She then informs us that we are late and the meeting was at 9:00. I begin to feel like an ass because not only have I made the mistake and feel embarrassed but Sean is guilty by association.

We arrive to the meeting with roughly 20-25 people waiting to hear our presentation. I jump right in and am flying through my slides which is making me nervous because I need to make it last the entire morning and I've already made it through 10 slides in like 10 minutes. Thankfully an Australian dude with sweet glasses begins to break the ice and ask questions. His inquiries open the door for others to ask questions and stretch the first half of our presentation to almost noon which is great.

With the embarrassment of being late still in my head I didn't think the day could get worse. Then we went to lunch. We take a shuttle bus over to the air port to have lunch at a Dim Sum restaurant. The Cathay team orders a bunch of stuff for the table to share, very similar to Tapas. So as stuff arrives they are polite and wait for Sean and I eat first. They are also very persistent with filling our tea cups which never seemed to reach half full. I'm not kidding, two of the guys with us were literally jumping across the table to fill our cups every time we took a sip.

So as I was saying, the food arrived and they wait for us to begin. I ask the logical question of, "what are each of these dishes?" to which they responded; "eat first and we will tell you later".

So being a good account director, and not wanting to come off as an ignorant American I begin to try everything on the table and fumble with my chopsticks. I am proud to say I refused utensils. So there is one dish on the table that just looks nasty. Very similar to the following pic:

So my first assumption is that it was cooked in curry. I like curry so I am thinking that it will mask the taste but I still don't know what the hell it is. It has these sort of pockets and reminds me of Sponge Bob Square Pants so I think to myself, it's probably some sea urchin that I am unfamiliar with. So I take as little as I possibly can and begin to eat it. While it is loaded with curry, it is the most vile texture I have ever tasted and I do a quick mix of chewing and swallowing to get this down. I quickly take a huge gulp of tea to get rid of the taste and feeling. The tea is scalding hot since these dudes are not letting my cup cool off. Regardless, It was a blessing in disguise because I burned my taste buds and didn't taste much after that.

While there was a part of me that didn't want to know what the hell I ate, I am just to curious and had to ask. I don't know what my face looked like when they said Cow Stomach, but I'm sure it wasn't good. Now looking back I realize that I am the only person at the table that actually ate it. They must have been punishing me for being late.

So as we get back to Cathay I am still bothered by the cow stomach and the fact that we were late. Sean and I have some time before the second half of our meeting begins so I go back to my email to check the meeting times. What I am happy to find is that I was correct. Proof below:

So now I am left with the dilemma of vindicating myself or letting it go. Since my laptop is hooked up to the projector I leave the email up on the screen for a few minutes as people filter in but decide to pull it down since it has passed and they didn't seem too concerned.

Flight to Hong Kong

2008-11-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

So my flight to Hong Kong was no where near as nice as last time. Sean and I are unfortunately booked on 4 flights to get here. My trip takes me from Philly> Salt Lake City > San Francisco>Taipei>Hong Kong. The first two legs of the trip are on Delta and are fine. Sean and I meet up in San Francisco since he flew out of Albany. The next two legs are on China Air. Additionally, Sean and I aren't sitting together so I have nobody to talk to which sucks, but I guess is no different than last time when I sat next to William the entire trip. ZING! Actually William slept the entire trip but I couldn't help myself.

So I typically judge an airline by whether or not they still have ashtrays in the armrest. Not only did they have ashtrays but they were big ashtrays. The plane is very dated and doesn't have the sleep pods like North West. By the time I got on the flight to Taipei I was exhausted and slept for about 4 hours. When I awoke I figured I'd watch some in-flight entertainment. To my dissaoppointment, all the good movies are being played on return flights. In addition, I had no control over what I watched. They had 8 channels that just played movies in a loop. I watched Wanted with Angelina Jolie. Sucked. I then watched Death Defying Acts which starred Catherine Zeta Jones and Guy Pearce and was about Harry Houdini. Sucked. I am looking forward to Dark Knight and Tropic Thunder for the ride home.

After the movies I decided to play some video games. The inflight games were Super Nintendo Games from 1993. Agian, giving indication as to how old this plane is. Now for nastaligic sake you may think this is cool, but they had the worst choices of games. Other than Super Mario and Street fighter they sucked. Give me some Tecmo Bowl or RBI baseball please.

Looking at the big picture, the plane got us there safely and with very little turbulance so score one for China Air.

Irony?

2008-11-02T23:36:00.001-08:00

So while I was waiting to board my first flight for my HK trip I was standing next to a mother, daughter and the daughters son. So the mother was concerned because a guy they were sitting with had left his bags and didn't return. So she is conveying her concern to her daughter who replies with "I don't care, it doesn't effect me and my life". I understand that she doesn't want to cause an airport evacuation and I'm sure it was probably nothing, but the irony of the whole situation was that her son is standing there wearing a Ground Zero 9/11 baseball hat.

Trip to Pittsburgh

2008-08-26T04:13:00.000-07:00

William and I came to Pittsburgh to present Social Media opportunities for PNC Bank. So, far nothing much to report on. Unfortunately, we are not here to site see so we won't be able to enjoy what the city has to offer.

We got in pretty late, got stuck in traffic, didn't eat until late, food was not good and stayed up late making last minute changes. Today, waking up early to get ready and present for two hours from there we'll eat lunch and off we go back to Philly. See told you not much to report on.

Although, ironically I ran into a few alpaca instances. Now, I believe alpacas are following me. See for yourself.

LOL! Who wears an alpaca t-shirt? Especially if your a guy. It seemed this guy had this t-shirt for a few years. I think I could be a good paparazzi. My flash went off and everyone was staring at me.

Then I was looking for something to watch while I was waiting for room service and what do I see on TV an alpaca commercial. It was offering people the opportunity to start an alpaca business. No, don't even think that I will call this number or go onto their site.

Mmmm, carpet!

2008-08-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

Ray and I agree that the San Jose suburbs look like New Jersey, but cleaner and with palm trees. There are tons of chain restaurants and strip malls here.

Some other observations:

This place is called MMM Carpet. "Mmm, carpet!" Sounds filthy.

We also saw a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Man. This is not it, because I couldn't get my camera out in time. But this is a reasonable facsimile.

We also saw a giant metal Tyrannosaurus Rex on the side of the road.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

2008-08-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well, Ray and I have accomplished our number one goal in our trip to San Jose. Because, you know, the client meeting is secondary.

When we pulled up to In-N-Out, we both heard angels singing. No joke. I housed my double double, animal style fries and vanilla shake and it was heavenly. Oh. yeah, you bet your ass we both took photos of the food on our trays.

This is my double double with animal style fries and vanilla shake.

Ray's double double with fries and a Coke.

Now I'm at the Fairmont, groggy from the long day of travel (woke up at 4am) and all the junk food in my tummy. The view from my window is amazing (you'll have to take my word for it). I bet Ray's is even nicer, he's 8 floors up from me. We're having an early dinner with the folks from TiVo (just what I need, more food) and then we've got a long meeting with them tomorrow morning.

Here is Ray eating his Double Double:

And here is the view from my hotel room. Purdy, huh?

First Class Again

2008-08-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

I just checked in online and found out I was upgraded to first class again for my flight to Seattle. This is my 4th first class upgrade in a row. I am beginning to take back all the negative things I have said about US Airways in the past as they are doing a great job of making up for all of their past mistakes with these upgrades.

Bellevue Bound

2008-06-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

I am in the Philadelphia airport bright and early on this Sunday morning. I want to follow up on Sean's earlier post about the conditions here, no air conditioning again today and I must be sitting in the same gate with the same ripped up seats as Sean was (see his pictures from previous post).

Thats it nothing interesting to talk about on this trip yet.

Stranded

2008-06-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

It's official, Whippy and I are stranded in Ohio. With little sleep, no breakfast and last minute presentation updates we ventured out to find a place to print our presentation materials. Where else did we go but FedEx Kinko's, (sorry Jenny, we were not mentally capable of utilizing the online print section of the site).

We spent the majority of the morning at FedEx Kinko's watching the presentations get printed, admiring an actual Dairy Queen shop in the adjacent parking lot and reading the humorous b-day cards for sale in the shop. William had been calling giving status updates on his whereabouts after being stranded in Chicago and the presumed whereabouts of his luggage. I've had many surprises in the hours before a presentation but none like this morning.

Sean: "Hello?"
William: "My luggage is lost, if it's not here by 10:00 we need to go shopping."

Everything worked out well including a trip to Starbucks where Whippy was insulted by an overachieving barista for simply asking for a straw. I also realized you get the "stink eye" from such barista's when you order a small iced coffee without using the proper terminology.

The Garmin got us lost on the way to meet the NYC team but everything worked out for the best and the business aspect of the trip was a huge success. Now for getting home, that's another story. It seems some storms on the east coast grounded all flights to Philly and NYC. After being taunted by US Air for 5 hours I threw in the towel when the plane returned to the gate. If a pilot ever "promises" you something, don't believe it. I think I also annoyed the nice girl sitting next to me as William and me passed issues of Complex Magazine and cell phones across her for an hour or so.

After a scramble to reschedule flights for Wednesday, William braved it out at the airport while Whippy booked us a hotel that could double for the Overlook Hotel that was used in the Shining. The following pic sums it up.

Ohhh, Hi Oh

2008-06-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is my first illustrious post to the SEO travel blog and we're off to Columbus, Ohio. My journey started off in Albany, NY (yes my hometown) and also known as "An All American City". I recently only found out we received that award years ago and the city likes to keep re purposing it in an event to curb the fact that it's a lovely city nestled between two terribly bad neighborhoods and reeling from some scandal involving a powerful politician. Either way, I'm departing from Albany International. Not sure about you but "International" kinda leads me to believe you could leave the country from here. Well all that Albany International can do for you is bring you to an airport that will fly you out of the continental US. It does have flights to Canada but I don't consider that international, they are more like a good neighbor with lots of trees.

So I flew from Albany to Philly (ironic yes) and it seems as if the Philly airport is doing it's part to save electricity by not turning on the AC. The entire experience was horrible, I mean if your not going to run AC when it's 100 degrees out at least funnel that cash to get some new seats while I wait for my flight that is already 45 minutes late to board.

Before I landed in Columbus, William asked me to rent a car for the trip as we were both unaware of how difficult it would be to get around in a cab. I made it to the rental car area and jumped in the shortest line (not the best decision) and anticipated leaving the airport in some swanky ride for the next 24 hours. Well, swanky in Ohio means a late model Chevy Impala (sorry William, no BMW's here.. i tried). I was also asked if I required a GPS system for my travels to which I responded, "hell no, just tell me how to get to the Sheraton".

Well it turns out this is how I fell into the scam. Nobody knows where your going so you are forced to rent a Garmin. Also note that nobody knows how to work the Garmin either. I was literally asked if I have used one of these devices, to which I responded, "no". Their answer, "we don't know how to work it either".

Yes I took this pic with a Treo doing 80 while lost in Columbus, I like to live on the edge.

After an hour (stupid Garmin), I found the Sheraton Suites. For the past 2 years I always ask William where he's staying and it's always the same answer, "the Sheraton". I'm not sure if it's brand loyalty but this Sheraton beats the hell out of the one in NYC. My room is about 200% bigger, has 2 TV's, a couch and other things I will never use but just like to have. (I'll post some pic's tomorrow)

After I got all checked in I decided to see what Columbus was all about. I stay away from the hotel bar and sightseeing activities cause all you'll find is tourists. So what did I do? Well I took my classy ride out and cruised Columbus for the mecca of all culture, the local Gas-n-Sip. In this case it turned out to be a Speedway gas station.

The local Speedway was full of amusement, and to my delight they had an actual Beer Cave! How sweet is that, a cave full of beer chilled to a perfect 34 degrees!

While I marveled at the brilliance of the beer cave I noticed something was wrong, Columbus was having AC problems also and the beer cave was not cooling properly. The pic is hard to see but it says, "Beer cave not cooling properly. Sorry"

After a quick chat with the clerk I also learned I could score some fireworks down the street and that the local kids have been trying to rip off the 1$ an night DVD rental kiosk outside.

After those shenanigans I met with Whippy and we worked for a while on our presentation and learned that William was stranded in Chicago... again.

Dinner and the Skyline

2008-06-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

Here is my dinner from this evening.

Here is the skyline.

Weekend in Seattle

2008-06-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Instead of flying back and spending a day and 1/2 in Philadelphia before flying back to Seattle, I decided to stay for the weekend and do a little site seeing.

Saturday started late as I took the opportunity to sleep in and sleep off a few Manhattans from the evening before. I can drink quite of few of these in a short time when I am at the bar by myself, which I will have to keep in mind for the future.

Once I got up and I started the paperwork for Dan Coe's last day at AA|RF after reading his latest blog post. Please wish him well in his new endeavors and bring a camera to his going away box packing.

Next it was time to find some breakfast so I headed over to Pikes Place to check out the local bakeries and see if I could see some fish being tossed around. I found some good pastries for breakfast, but no flying fish. I would post some pictures, but I didn't bring my camera on this excursion. From Pikes Place I took a scenic walking tour around the city going from Starbucks to Starbucks, I had to keep walking as I was pretty hyped up on caffeine after the 3rd Starbucks.

For the afternoon, I found a local municipal golf course to try out, Jackson Park Golf Course. It was quite overcast when I started the round and I was expecting to get wet from the rain at some point in the round, but the weather held out and it was an enjoyable round. I shot a 43 on the front nine, but forgot how to play golf on the back nine and shot a 57 - yes that is a 14 shot difference and about 8 golf balls donated to the course on the back nine. Again, sorry no pictures, but then who wants to see pictures of a golf course anyway.

For some reason I find a round of golf to be quite tiring and decided to stay in for the evening and order room service. I was quite surprised that the California Cobb with Citrus Roasted Chicken was as good in taste and presentation as I expected. So now the Westin has two of my favorite room service meals, the cheeseburger at the Ft. Lauderdale Westin and the California Cobb here in Seattle.

Sunday I was up nice and early, sans hangover, and took a quick run down by the waterfront. Went to a local bakery for breakfast and then back to the room for some work. As I was working and looking out the window in my hotel (picture below) I decided I would face my fear of heights and go visit the Space Needle.

I took the monorail to the Space Needle and with great apprehension went up the elevator which is glass so that you can see everything on the trip up which lasts 41 seconds. 41 long seconds if you have a fear of heights.

Below are the pictures of what I was able to see from up there, which after the Hong Kong observation deck up in the mountains was a little less spectacular.

The rest of today is for preparing the deck for the Victoria's Secret pitch and other miscellaneous work. I will update later with any interesting, or maybe even not so interesting, food pictures from dinner.

My Rebuttal and Conclusion.

2008-06-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

First things first...I didn't wear that sweater again during the trip...no there wasn't a goat involved in Vegas... and i wasn't groping Lisa in that picture while I was trying to do revenue recognition (she was dancing and I was trying to swat her away). Also, the pics Jenny took were of me not of Brad Pitt...I know, I know, I've been mistaken for him more than once but it's something I have learned to deal with...The resemblance is uncanny.

So we know that Jenny and William are still out there missing Lisa and my company, but I'm sure they'll survive...at least I hope so. Here's my version on how things went down since I last wrote...

Wednesday was a whirlwind (to be modest). We've been taking advantage of the free continental breakfast at the hotel which consisted of scrambled eggs (yum), bacon (yum yum), english muffins (pretty yum), fruit (not bad), and muffins (blueberry muffins rocked). Sorry, no pics to show here...but just wait...this is going to be a long post...

Work-wise, Wednesday's SMX sessions were probably better than the first, but unfortunately some things came up so I wasn't able to concentrate on them as much as I'd like to. I'm pretty sure all of the presentations will eventually become available which is good since I had one ear on the sessions and two eyes on my laptop.

Here are a few pics from the first night's dinner at the Icon Grill. William dined there before and the theme of the restaurant was comfort food, which in short, means that it's delicious but you're going to feel like crap afterwards. Not very comforting...just look at William's face for proof.

During a conference break, Jenny, Lisa, and I headed over to Pike Place Market which was just a few blocks away from the SMX conference. They were kind enough to show me around since it was my first time in Seattle and it was definitely worth the trip. Jenny covered some of these in her last post, but here are a few additions from my standpoint. The photo's probably don't do it justice, but there was lots to see in marketplace.

Flowers...check. fish...check. hippies...you name it, they had it. That lady in the orange shirt? Total hippie (she reeked of pot).

Is that Jenny Du above? Anyway...In the convention center, we stumbled across an interesting advertisement for the City of Seattle. According to Ron Burgundy (Anchor Man reference), I used to think that "San Francisco" meant "Whale's Vagina" in German...HOWEVER!...according to this picture set we were obviously wrong (sorry mom)...

Here's a Seattle advertisement that was in the conference center SMX was held. Unfortunately I don't think the agency that created it has ever heard of photoshop.

Well...at least Lisa and I thought it was funny...

Anyway, because uploading and positioning photos on blogger is a pain in the ass, here are the final few from the last group dinner at the Metropolitan Grill. Amazing steakhouse and as Jenny mentioned, we had a great time and succeeded in embarrassing ourselves (pics of me in Jenny's post below). A sincere thanks to William for taking us out.

Well, I think that just about sums it up. I've posted even more uncensored X-Rated Seattle photos on my Flickr account (including uber-exciting pics of us doing revenue recognition and more eating and drinking) so feel free to check them out.

Sorry for the crappy formatting, but blogger sucks. Please don't fire me.

Wednesday in Seattle

2008-06-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was day 2 of the SMX conference. We attended a few sessions in the morning then had a long break for lunch. Over lunch, Dan, Lisa, and I took a walk over to Pike Place Market so we could get a little sightseeing in. On the way, we passed the original Starbucks. The market was full of fresh fruit, flowers, and fish. It was very clear which half of the market sold fish and which half sold flowers based on the smell.

Pike Place Market:

At the fish section of the market, Lisa ran into her Seattle boyfriend (she's got bros in different area codes). When we were out here in January, we met him and he made Lisa shovel ice onto fish. They played off their relationship this time, but I know deep inside they were both reminiscing.

After lunch, we went back to the conference for a few more sessions. And after that, we headed to the Seattle office for a very long night of revenue recognition. Even in the office, it took forever to open our spreadsheets and we were there until about 9pm working on it. Lisa, however found a way to liven things up. These pictures need no explanation:

Turn on some latin music and Lisa can't help but dance!

After we finally finished revenue, we went across the street to a steakhouse for dinner. Our waitress, Joan, was kind enough to take a photo of us. Lisa seemed to really hit it off with Joan and they talked a bit.

The food at the restaurant was delicious and we ordered some desserts as well. The desserts were HUGE and the slice of carrot cake which Lisa strongly implied William should order was gigantic. Of course we could not end the night without some more dancing. This time Lisa had a companion (perhaps even more than 1).

After dinner, we went back to the hotel. As we got out of the cab, Matt Cutts was walking into the hotel. Lisa struck up a conversation with him and they chatted a bit. I found it amusing that give the opportunity to chat with Matt Cutts and ask him questions, the only thing Lisa asked was if he had any cats.

Overall the conference went well and we found some time to have fun. I'm sure William & I will miss Dan & Lisa at dinner tonight. Lisa brought the dancing and Dan was an easy target to pick on! But I think we all had a great time!

Seattle Tuesday Recap

2008-06-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Dan covered everything that happened getting to Seattle, so I will just post the before and after pictures he mentioned. The concept of before & after flight photos was invented by Lisa after she witnessed me enter a plane looking normal, but get off it looking distraught, miserable, and "like hell." Luckily, although this flight was long, it did not cause such awful side effect and the before and afters aren't bad.

Dan & William Before Flight:

Dan & William After Flight:

They look pretty much the same. Although Dan looks a little hungry because they fed us NOTHING on the plane (not even pretzels). And William looks full after his chicken dinner and TWO bags of pretzels.

Dan already talked about the conference, so I'll go over our night. After the conference, we went out to dinner at a restaurant downtown. I really enjoyed the food (potato wrapped halibut), and I think everyone enjoyed their drinks. We had some lively conversation and had a delicious ice cream sundae for dessert. After dinner, we ran across the street in the rain (don't worry Dana, I didn't rust- but thank you for your concern) and jumped in the cab. The cab driver seemed very amused by our "lively" conversation (which involved Dan, a goat, and his trip to Vegas).

After dinner, we went to the "SMX After Dark" party. It was okay, and we left shortly afterwards. We stopped at the hotel bar where we continued to harass Dan about his goat story (sorry, Dan) but did not stay very long. Can't wait to see what today brings!

Greetings from Seattle

2008-06-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

6:30PM PST - Because I know there are many of you folks out there who have continuously hitting refresh on their browser looking for a Seattle update, well here's the first official post from the Marriott Waterfront. So far, just about everything that I've read and heard about Seattle has turned out to be true, but let's first talk about last night's flight out here....

It sucked.

Here's a pic of Lisa and Jenny - pre-flight and happy. I'm pretty sure Jenny has one of me and William pre-flight too....CRAP. I think they have post-flight photos too...CRAP AGAIN. Needless-to-say, I'm not a big fan of having my picture taken.

While Lisa, Jenny, and I were forced to sit in "2nd Class", Mr. Flaiz (everyone please call him that from now on) was lucky enough to get a bump to first class before the flight. He's definitely a pimp. All-in-all, the flight itself wasn't too bad, it was just long (which I guess I should have expected when crossing the country). The additional hour sitting on the runway didn't help much either. Oh! And how can I forget to mention the biggest letdown. No food! Well, at least not for those that had to sit with the peasants. We did get to eat when we got here though, had a few drinks, and then went to our rooms to sleep.

Flashing forward to today, the beds here in the Marriott rock...or at least I think so (pic of my room and balcony view below). It's cold and rainy of course, and I didn't pack enough warm clothes. We did catch a tiny glimpse of blue sky this afternoon, but since then, the skies have opened up.

It was day one of SMX Advanced and all of the speaking sessions are now over. All in all, things were OK. I think Jenny, Lisa, William, and I all agree that of all the content presented, we probably only walked away with a few noteworthy things, none of which I'll bore you with at this time. I'm sure we'll be presenting our learnings at a department meeting in the near future. I did get to see Google Superstar Matt Cutts up close though and I love the fact that everyone drools over this guy and they hang on to his every word. Me? I think he's a dork...but yeah, I guess some of the stuff he says is valuable.

So anyways, we're all back in our rooms and getting ready to grab some dinner and some drinks. Later on, SMX is having a networking party so we'll probably just head there for a bit. Just to prove that I'm really out here, here's a stupid pic of me wearing that stupid gray striped sweater that I always wear (and am wearing again tonight). Proof of the blue sky can also be seen.

Jenny's more photogenic and hopefully and she'll be chiming in later as well.

Cheers.

Back From Fargo

2008-05-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Ray and I are back from Fargo, North Dakota. Fargo lived up to all of my expectations...a pretty desolate town. We flew in Monday night and the first thing we drove past were the campuses of North Dakota University. We passed the Dairy Research campus, the Sheep Research campus, and the Horse Research campus. After checking into the hotel, we walked around town to see if we could get something to eat. It was after 11pm at this point, and the only places open were bars. Turns out, Monday night is a big drinking night in Fargo. Coincidentally, Tuesday through Sunday nights are also big drinking nights in Fargo. I was amused that the streets were desolate, yet were set up as if it was a big city. They had numbered streets going in one direction, and numbered avenues going in the other direction. Most streets were also one way, I'm still not sure why they would need that.

The hotel we stayed at was actually pretty nice. They had Sleep Number Beds which I was excited to try out, but was disappointed with. It took me 2 days to figure out that the left and right side of the controllers were switched and I kept trying to use the wrong one. When I finally figured it out, I was very conflicted over which number to choose. I think I finally settled on a 25. It is basically an air mattress inside of a regular mattress. The first time I tried to use it, I thought someone was breaking into my room because it makes a weird sound when increasing the numbers.

The next morning, we met with the San Francisco team for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. After breakfast, we drove to the Microsoft building to meet with the client. The meetings went well and we did a short SEO kick-off and then sat in on stake holder interviews which were interesting. The Microsoft office was really nice and had a cool cafeteria. They had bench seats like in a diner and tons of free soda, both in cans and in the machines they have at fast food places.

After the meetings, everyone went back to the hotel for a few minutes before heading out to dinner. Ray and I were the first ones to arrive at the restaurant and when we walked in, the hostess asked us if we were with the Microsoft party. We said yes and were seated. We were surprised to see that the table was set up for twice as many people as we thought were coming. Ray joked that it would be funny if there was another Microsoft dinner there and we were sitting at the wrong table. Members of our team started to funnel in and other people from other Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics groups sat down. We began talking to them about Dynamics and what everyone was working on. Soon everyone started to realize that we weren't working on the same things. Then it finally hit everyone that we were indeed at the wrong table.

After moving to a separate table, we had a nice dinner. I had walleye fish, which I've never tried before, but was good. Its a popular dish in Fargo. I was happy eating fish since there were not too many meat-less options for me. I expected that though, considering buffalo/bison is another popular dish there.

After dinner, we went out for drinks with 2 members of the San Fran team. We went to the bar at the hotel they were staying at which was the trendy spot in town. The place was actually pretty cool and I had a nice time there.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel again and then went to 2 different Microsoft offices for meetings. The offices looked pretty new and were really nice. I was surprised that the offices in Fargo are nicer than some of the Microsoft buildings in Redmond. A few interesting things we found out while there is that for $180,000 you can buy a 3,000 sq foot home in Fargo. And in talking with the San Fran team, we found out that beer pong is only popular on the east coast. Ray was happy to explain the rules to them.

After the meetings, we went straight to the airport. My bags of course got searched by security because I always forget to put something in the little liquid baggy. As my bags were searched, Ray was very hopeful that they would pull something embarrassing out of my bag, like a teddy bear, and was disappointed when I only had normal stuff in there.

I sat next to Ray as we flew back to Chicago. I wanted to play some pranks, like asking him to get up half way through the flight because I needed to stretch and do lunges, but the thought of it was too funny and I couldn't go through with it. We had an hour layover in Chicago before flying back to Philly. I brainstormed some possible pranks, but didn't go through with any. Next time I'll know to be more prepared for traveling pranks.

LA Sight Seeing

2008-05-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well there isn't much to see in Santa Monica other than the pier and 4th St. Promenade both of which I saw with a 3 hour walk.

During my walk I quickly remembered I don't like California weather. The weather is at that in between stage where it's too chilly to wear shorts or short sleeves yet once you start walking your hot as all get out. Ok, that ends my negativity so I will move on to some observations.

Bee Warnings
While walking to the Santa Monica Pier I passed a bowling alley where the side walk was roped off with the following sign.

Never in my life have a seen a beware of the bees sign by I'm glad for the heads up. Thank you Santa Monica Bowl for the warning.

Homeless
The parks and beaches have quite a few homeless people sleeping under palm trees. I know this sounds negative but not once did I get hassled for change, and never have I seen such nice tans.

Cross Walk Signals
I always joke that the cross walk buttons in Philly are installed with double back tape and have no electronic wiring in side. I refer to them as Fisher-Price buttons. You can push them but they don't do a damn thing much like the buttons on a child's toy. Well while standing at a red light I noticed that the light changed without giving me the walk signal. The signal changed twice before someone came along and hit the button which immediately changed the signal. Not only do these things actually work but they have voice over that states the intersection name, that its safe to cross and does a countdown of remaining seconds.

Astroturf
While walking down the street I observed this one section had Astroturf between the sidewalk and curb. What was even odder was that there were burnt spots. I must have looked crazy stooping down to feel this grass. The Astroturf was placed in dirt and must have had tears where they replaced the holes with regular grass that burned out.

Traffic
Ok it's awful here, it took my cab 45 minutes to drive 4 miles and if I had to drive in it I would be bananas but looking at other drivers I noticed that nobody was frustrated. In addition, when I crossed at intersections, cars stopped and none of the cars behind the stopped car honked. In Philly, I routinely dodge cars who cant wait till I cross the street. Finally, people don't push through intersections when there is a traffic jam. In Philly, people will push through when the light turns yellow and get stuck in an intersection. Then when they block the intersection they play that game where they look straight ahead and pretend they don't see the cars trying to get through the intersection. Someone needs to come up with name for that move.

Iron Man
I had some time to kill this afternoon since I checked out of my hotel room and my flight wasn't until 10pm so I went and saw Iron Man. I never saw a movie by myself and never thought I would but it was worth it. Good movie, and you need to stay to the very end of the credits to get a sneak peek as to where the series is going. Additionally he flies over the Santa Monica Pier which I had visited the day before so I will point it out with a cocky attitude when I watch the movie with others.

No Celebrities
I'm disappointed to say i didn't see any celebrities but some guy stopped me and swore he knew me. Maybe my Hong Kong celebrity status has finally reached the shores of the west coast. It wont be long before it catches up with me on the east coast.

Going to California

2008-05-07T05:57:00.000-07:00

Headed to L.A. today to give some SEO training to the Hong Kong Tourism Board's L.A. office. Like most trips I typically set some sort of goal and this one is no different. I know it's cheesy but my goal is to see some sort of celebrity. Even better if I can catch one doing something inappropriate and sell the pic to TMZ. I'm waiting to board my plane and cant get this damn song out of my head.

Feelin' Minnesota

2008-04-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am in the NWA Club Lounge at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, sipping a free Bloody Mary. Gigi from NWA gave us passes to the lounge, and I must say, it's pretty sweet.

The trip went pretty well, with a few exceptions.

Exception #1: When I got to the gate, it was mobbed. Turns out that the flight that was leaving before mine was delayed for 4 hours. Everyone was pissy and bitter, as I'd be. Well, Chickie and Pete's bar was right across from the gate. I watched a lone middle aged woman with HUGE hair stumble out of the bar and to the gate. As she walked past me, she fell on her face (no, I did not trip her). A man who is a much nicer person than I am helped her up and asked her if she was okay. She slurred some unintelligible nonsense and then leaned over and puked a little bit, right on the carpet. Gross.

Luckily, just about then, they made an announcement that my flight was changing gates, so I had the opportunity to leave that scene behind.

My flight took off with no problems and by the time I'd landed and got to baggage claim, my bag was already there. I hopped onto the free shuttle and got to my hotel, the Radisson Bloomington by the Mall of America, by 8:15 - just in time to dump my stuff in my room and hit up the mall.

The mall was about 2 minutes from the hotel, so I got there by 8:30. I only had an hour before it closed but I did a little bit of shopping - I bought a pair of shoes for my friend's wedding at Nordstrom. Then I went to Ruby Tuesday's (ugh) and sat at the bar to have dinner.

And then I got back to my room.

First of all: there was a little nook with two sets of bunk beds in my room, in addition to the queen bed. Very strange. A family with four kids could stay in that room for $150 a night.

Secondly: there was a sliding glass door and a balcony that looked out into an indoor water park. I kid you not. It was cool for about a second but then I realized that it was a lovely night and I had no opportunity for fresh air, because my door opened to a chlorine-smelling enclosure.

Anyway, I did some work, watched a little TV, and went to bed.

This morning, I got ready, then did some more work, and ordered room service for breakfast. At noon, I went down to the lobby and met up with Joel. It was really dark in my room without any sunlight coming in the window. Stupid water park.

The hotel called a car for us to get to NWA, and the driver got lost. It was NOT fun. I told him "We're going to Northwest Airlines, 2700 Lone Oak Parkway..." and he said "Oh, I know where it is." Then he took us to the airport. And then gave us a lot of attitude when we told him he was wrong. Then he got lost on the way to the office, and we ended up being a few minutes late to our meeting. I called Gigi and she was cool about it (she said it happened to everybody) but we got to the offices soon enough.

Our meeting went well. It was nice to finally meet them face to face; I've been working on the account for over 2 years now. They were very impressed with Joel's Omniture dashboards and we all left happy.

After the meeting, Joel headed to the airport but I had hours to kill, so I went back to the mall, but didn't buy anything. It was too overwhelming, plus it was starting to get busy and I hate crowds. Then I went back to the hotel to get my stuff and came to the airport.

My flight boards in about 20 minutes so I'll have to leave this cushy lounge soon.

All in all, not bad. People out here (except for our driver) are very, very friendly.

Bienvenido a Miami

2008-04-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't get to go anywhere as exciting as Hong Kong so I apologize in advance for this blog being boring as hell. But since my flight back to Philly is delayed, I have some extra time on my hands, so I am going to blog anyway.

Honestly this wasn't the smoothest trip. Nothing horrible happened, but there were a lot of minor inconveniences.

First, the aircard I got from IT didn't work. No biggie, though, I just bought wireless at PHL.

We boarded the plane on time, but took off about 45 minutes late. Why? Well, first, they had a problem with a microphone, so they got a replacement, and then the replacement didn't work. Then, after that was all taken care of, the jetway got stuck onto the plane. They literally couldn't get it off. Last summer, when I flew down here with Rich, we flew US Airways as well, and that time, we took off late because the air conditioning pack (whatever that is) wasn't working. I think that US Airways has a list somewhere of ridiculous excuses that they use when the pilot is late or something. Weird stuff that nobody would even question because it's just so damned weird.

We made up the time in the air and got to Miami only about 15 minutes late. Then I went to baggage claim, where I proceeded, as usual, to start to freak out when my bag wasn't the very first one out. As Ray can attest to, I am very impatient, so when I don't see my bag right away, I get frustrated, but more importantly, I start to worry that it got lost. It's totally neurotic, I know, but I can't help it. Anyway, my bag finally made it out (after almost everyone was gone) and I went to catch the free shuttle to my hotel.

While I was waiting for the shuttle, a little old lady started talking to me. She was freaking out because she called the Days Inn for a shuttle and they weren't there yet. She was totally panicking and said that could barely see, so I had to read all the shuttle signs for her. It was like:

"Is that it?"
"No, that's Avis."
"Is THAT it?"
"No, that's the Holiday Inn."
"Is THAT it?"
"No, that's the employee shuttle."
Etc.

Finally, I asked her how long she'd been waiting and she said 15 minutes. I was like, "Uh, maybe you should wait before you start to panic, then." Then my shuttle came and I left her there. I hope her shuttle eventually came. Poor scared little old lady.

The hotel was nice, especially my room. I took pictures and then realized that nobody would be interested in seeing them. It wasn't THAT nice. I did some work (which took forever because the wireless connection at the hotel kept crapping out and because I was having VPN issues) and ordered room service, then went to watch my Buffy DVD special features disc, but the DVD player on my laptop wasn't working. Instead, I watched some "Sex and the City" (which I never get to do at home because of the boy) and then went to sleep.

This morning, all of the elevators weren't working. Walking down ten flights of stairs ain't no big thing, but walking UP ten flights of stairs, well, it sucks.

Then, I found out from Chad, the account director on Carnival, that our meeting was changed from 3-4 to 4-5, but nobody had told me or Josh. Meanwhile, Josh had shown up at the hotel and was waiting for me in the lobby.

So we sat around in the lobby for like HOURS, and ate lunch in the hotel restaurant. My hotel was called the Sheraton Miami Mart, because it was connected to the Miami Mart, which is basically a small mall full of really tacky shops selling tourist crap, slutty looking bathing suits, ugly handbags, etc. I went into an accessory store where all the merch was 2 for $7,50 and couldn't find a single thing that I'd even want to spend that piddling amount of money on. But, William, please note: there was a Starbucks attached to the hotel.

Steve, the senior account manager on Carnival, picked us up and we had our meeting. It went well - probably the only thing that was 100% smooth on this trip. Which is good, since that's what we came for, after all. They seemed receptive and enthusiastic to what we'd planned for 2008.

Then, Chad drove us to the airport, where I found out my flight to Philly is at least an hour delayed. Sigh. I'm also kind of panicking because I didn't realize that the parking deck at PHL was run by PPA, and I have two unpaid parking tickets (they are not just unpaid, I am appealing them both, but I haven't heard back from them and so I remain not paying them. Non-violent resistance). Anyway, I am so scared that there will be a boot on my car when I get there. I backed into my spot so that my plate wouldn't be totally visible when the PPA drives by, but I'm sure they are hip to that stealthy tactic.

Cross your fingers for me.

Hong Kong Observations

2008-04-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

Trip is Over
Well, I'm back at work but not entirely back on U.S. time. Our journey is complete and I am disappointed that I will not be able to blog since the excitement in my life has subsided for now. I figured I'd take one last opportunity to post to our travel blog with my closing thoughts on our trip to Hong Kong.

Mac Tonight Still Employed
Its refreshing to know that Mac from the Mac Tonight is still gainfully employed. He is here in Hong Kong promoting McDonald's 24 hour service. I was unable to snap a pic of the advertisement with Mac that I saw on the side of a bus because buses in HK drive about 80 mph down little streets. If you forgot Mac, here is what he looks like.

Facial Hair
This was Williams observation but I find it very interesting. No men in HK have facial hair. Not sure why but I spent most of the day Friday looking for a guy with facial hair. This new obsession most likely distracted me from finding funny signs but it was to interesting to ignore. William was the only guy I noticed in HK with facial hair. On Saturday I finally saw a guy with facial hair whom I wish I took a picture of. He kinda looked like the guy in Kill Bill that trained Uma Thurmond. I think he might have been homeless. So, in translation, only homeless guys have facial hair.

Baseball Hats
Guys don't seem to where baseball hats here. Maybe it's illegial and that is why the cop in the airport told William to take his off. I did see some teenage girls wearing the trailer trash mesh hats when we were in the mall yesterday so baseball hats don't seem to be banned all together.

Litter
While the city seems to have a constant smoggy haze hanging over it and many of the buildings are pretty dirty and shack-like, HK is surprisingly litter free.

Chop Sticks
While I'm sure the fish heavy diet of the Chinese plays a part in why they are so thin, I think more of it has to do with Chopsticks.

Hong Kong Rich
With the exchange rate being about $7.80 to $1 American, one could get the impression he was rich. William and I referred to this as "Hong Kong Rich". We were very disappointed to learn that they just raised the prices of products so pricing was equivalent.

Crossing Signals
Every intersection in Hong Kong has a crossing signal that has a clanking sound that rings when it is safe to cross. This clanking sound gets faster as the signal gets closer to changing to red. It really adds suspense to the situation. For me, the sound translated into a little old Chinese man saying hurry, hurry, hurry over and over again.

Disappointments
There were a few things about the trip that were disappointing.

Toilet Technology
Watching the Simpson's travel to Tokyo led me to believe that Asia was far advanced when it came to toilet technology. Sadly, my toilet did not make any sight seeing suggestions and while it didn't say so, I don't think it was happy to receive my waste.

Avenue of the Stars Omissions
The following stars were omitted on the Hong Kong Avenue of the Stars.

Hong Kong Phewy
Long Duck Dong - AKA - Gedde Watanabe
China the Wrestler - While not Chinese, she should be acknowledged for her representation of the country.

Chinese Game Shows
Again, this is probably more of a Japanese thing, but I was excited to watch game shows hoping that they would be funny like the Japanese shows I have seen. Unfortunately the Chinese do not share the game show genius gene that the Japanese possess. I was only able to find one game show that seemed to be a low budget Price is Right rip-off.

Historical Sightseeing
I was disappointed to learn that most of the sightseeing in Hong Kong was either man made sights or shopping locations. Hong Kong doesn't seem to have a well preserved history, or if they do, they don't promote it well.

Overall it was a really good trip. I don't think I would ever would have ventured to the east if it wasn't for my job. It looks like we will be going back soon so we will be able to add to this blog in the future.

Last Day in Hong Kong

2008-03-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

As William said in his post, our plan today was to go to The Peak, Stanley Market, the Rugby Store, and Causeway Bay. We landed up going 2 for 4 which is pretty good day in baseball.

Like most days this week my day started with a trip go McDonald's. I was thinking this morning that the manager is going to be very happy with the revenue this week with William, Asif and I being there so much. The joke is on them since they will have to explain the sudden drop in sales next week when we are gone. After eating we all regrouped to head out for our day of sight seeing. Our first sight was Starbucks since nobody had their coffee as of yet. We then took the subway to Central Station to make our way to The Peak.

To get to The Peak we had to take the tram goes up the side of the mountain. Once we found the tram to The Peak we learned we were in for the extra special treat of the Bunny Easter Fun Fun Fun exhibit once we got to the top.

Riding the tram was like going up the first drop on a roller coaster. I didn't have my protractor with me but I am venturing a guess that our angle up the mountain was anywhere between 45 and 75 degrees. This didn't sit well with William who looked at the floor most of the trip up and down the mountain.

The angle of the tram window and the scenery out the window should give perspective of the angle we had to take to get to the top.

Once we got to the top we had to go up another five floors to the observation deck which was amazing. We were so high up that clouds were literally hitting the mountain which made it a little hazy at times. Like the light show last night, I don't think any picture can do this scene justice but here are a few shots just to give you an idea.

After the Peak we made our way to Stanley Market, which William and I swore we could walk to since it looked close on the map in the subway station. Fortunately we decided to take a cab which got us there in about 3o minutes through narrow windy roads out of the city.

Stanley Market was really cool. It was like a giant flea market where we could get our haggle on.

The market was in this cool little town on the water. The town like most of Hong Kong gave you no indication that you were in an Asian country. Other than the millions of Chinese people and signs everywhere.

Overall it was a really good day. There were some disappointments though. We weren't able to find the Rugby store and we never made it to Causeway Bay. In addition, I wasn't able to fine any amusing signs today other than the Bunny Easter Fun Fun Fun exhibit, which by the way consisted of a few rabbits in a cage. I did however observe this scene.

While yes there is a picturesque Chinese fisherman docking his boat for the day but what is amusing is the fact that the dock consists of a mattress covered in plastic and netting. As William said, this gives a whole new meaning to the term "water bed". In addition, you have to love the ingenious use of surf boards and shipping pallets used here to make some sort of fishing vessel.

After a long day we make our way back to the hotel to rest up for our long journey back to the U.S. in the morning.

A New Day

2008-03-28T16:24:00.001-07:00

It is Saturday morning and early. Today will be a busy day of sightseeing, agenda below, and shopping. The sun is up and there is a thick haze over the city right now. Starbucks isn't open yet, but the fish market is up and running.

Take the cable car to the peak.
A trip to Stanley Market.
Central Station to visit the rugby store.
Causeway Bay section for shopping.

A full day to say the least.

All is quiet on the Hong Kong front

2008-03-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

As much fun as this trip has been, I am bored out of my mind right now, it is 5:30 and I have nothing to do but play poker online.

Skyline and Light Show

2008-03-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

The Hong Kong Tourism Council or Tourism Board, not sure which, sponsors a nightly light show that can be viewed from the Avenue of the Stars observation deck. Below are some still pictures of the skyline at night and some videos of the light show, it was pretty cool.

The pictures don't really do it justice, as the skyline, even with the fog and haze, was amazing to see in person.

Here are some videos of the light show.

The harbor before the show begins.

Ray's big head.

Dinner with e-crusade

2008-03-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Last night Venus Lee and Grace Ho from the e-crusade management team took us out for an authentic Cantonese meal. In what seems to be traditional Hong Kong style we shared a bunch of dishes. I am proud to say I tried most of them and in addition I used chop sticks for the entire meal. For desert I was going to have Creme Brule but the e-crusade team wouldn't let me since it wasn't Chinese. The only choices were mango soup or ice cream with a birds nest on top. So apparently a birds nest is made from the spit of swallows. As that was explained to me I couldn't help but smirk. Fortunately Grace and Venus interpreted my smirk as just being amused by the fact that they make food from bird spit.

The restaurant was on the ninth floor of a shopping mall called Times Square.

This place reminded my a little of Liberty Place if they had stores on 9 floors. William and I have been hitting every sneaker store to try and find adidas sneakers that we cannot find in the US. We aren't having much luck.

Funny Name of the Day

2008-03-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

In keeping up with my goal of finding as many funny names as possible I present today's funny name.

I can't even imagine what their mascot is. While most people refer to Middle School in this manner, this school decided to just go with the name. Maybe it's some sort of reputation management trick.

The View

2008-03-27T08:00:00.001-07:00

View from my room on a sunny day.

And the view at night, sorry it is not to clear it is hazy right now.

e-Crusade Office

2008-03-27T03:43:00.000-07:00

Today we had the pleasure of starting the day off right with a trip to Starbucks before heading to the e-Crusade office and then as an added benefit there was another Starbucks right before we headed into the office. Two cups of Starbucks coffee prior to having to do any work, I was a happy camper.

We went to the e-Crusade office to train their staff on the mysteries and secrets of SEO. Ray and Asif again got the opportunity to do their spiels about content and technical SEO. Unfortunately, the audience was significantly less than expected. As Ray pointed out on the way back to the hotel this evening, for wanting to make a commitment to developing their own practice, they didn't get a lot of people to the training, quite disappointing.

Here is a quick tour of the e-Crusade office in Hong Kong. They also have offices in Shanghai and Beijing.

The award case, they have won quite a few awards.

The account service and strategy department.

The creative department.

They are ready for the rain.

Some more awards.

Our hosts are treating us to a Cantonese dinner tonight. Hopefully Ray will have pictures of the food for you to see later.

Hong Kong is different than the U.S. and I find that hilarious.

2008-03-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

If you know anything about me it's that I enjoy criticizing anything that is different that what I think is normal. So while most tourists are looking at tourist attractions and historical landmarks, I am on the look out for cultural differences that I find amusing. While I will be 36 this year, I still have the maturity of at 13 year old when it comes to cultural differences. So I'd like to take this post to point out some of the things I have observed so far. My goal has been to find at least one thing a day but I am getting sensory overload with immaturity.

Seasoning

Before we even arrived in Hong Kong William and i were faced with a decision on the plane that I for one had never encountered. Apparently when you are part of the upper crust of society you get choices all the way down to how you season your food.

Two kinds of pepper? Rock or Sea salt? This decision was much too overwhelming for me so I proceeded to eat my food unseasoned. William on the other hand was brave and made a decision I believe to go with White Pepper.

Bling

This little number caught my eye as we were walking around town. I cannot possibly imagine the person that would wear this. Maybe some wealthy pig farmer, or Mrs Piggy?

If your having trouble making out the image, it's a mother pig with 8 piglets feeding off of her. Some Chinese women found it amusing that I took a picture of this so I can only assume that they find it as ridiculous as I did.

Construction Methods
If you have sat near me over the past year or so you may have learned that I love construction and observing construction methods. The construction of the Comcast building has been a complete distraction and I will routinly stop working if the crain is hositing something up the side of the building.

While here there is one thing that I find completely bizarre and the more I see it the more I am beside myself.

Like New York, Hong Kong is a vertical city with may tall buildings. Many of the buildings are deteriorating due to age so there are quite a few buildings with scaffolding around them. The thing that is amazing is the scaffolding is made entirely of bamboo. Bamboo while strong, is flexible and is rarely straight. What is even more appalling is that the bamboo is held together by a handful of those plastic strings that are typically around a bundle of newspapers or the printer paper boxes in our office.

This is one example of scaffolding. This building is about 10 stories high, but there some buildings that are twice this size with the same scaffolding method.

This scaffolding is on the building next to our hotel. This picture was taken from the 27th floor just to give you perspective. I can't imagine the size of the balls on the guys that have to climb up on scaffolding in Hong Kong but I imagine the sheer weight of them makes the bamboo bounce like a diving board.

The Escalator
When I type the escalator in bold face like I did above it makes it sound like a thrill ride. That is exactly what it felt like when we took the escalator down to the subway on Tuesday afternoon. This quite frankly was the tallest, longest escalator I had ever been on.

This escalator was easily 3-4 stories tall. William admitted that he was a little nervous on this escalator since he doesn't like heights but I'm proud to say he was brave and didn't ask to hold my hand.

Funny Signs
One reason I was really excited to come to Hong Kong was to observe signs and funny names and so far I've found quite a few.

William gets credit for spotting this on in the Subway station.

No commentary really necessary here. You will be disappointed to know that this is a bakery. I didn't think to check the shape of the pastries.

This burger joint was on the Avenue of the Stars.

I imagine you want to stay away from Stale Burger.

This was another sign I found while walking along the Avenue of the Stars. While some of these restrictions make sense, I cant imagine how this sign has progressed over time since it seems to have quite a few restrictions.

The one I find hilarious on this list is the kite restriction. I'm just trying to imagine the meeting that was held when planning this sign as well as the people being chased away for kite flying. While in our society we tell people to Go Fly a Kite as another way of telling them to piss off, in Hong Kong flying a kite really pisses people off. It really is the opposite side of the world here. This image is a little hard to read so here is what you can't do at the Avenue of the Stars:

No bikes - makes sense
No dogs - makes sense
No playing of remote controlled model car - Apparently one is not allowed. I wonder if you have two.
No hawking - makes sense. I didn't realize that the international symbol for hawking is a guy carrying two buckets on a pole. I'm learning everyday.
No graffiti - Sorry Rocco, but your art isn't acceptable here either. Apparently the spray paint cans are different here in Hong Kong. While in the US, spray paint comes out in a steady stream, in Hong Kong it exits the can in a wispy gas like fashion. Must make it hard to write your name.
No kite flying - already commented
No Skateboarding - whats funny here is that the picture has a Rollerblade on top of a skateboard. Apparently the kids in Hong Kong ride a little different. I'm wondering if Sean can shed some light onto the HK skating style.
No lying on benches - this makes sense but the pic looks more like the person is posing for a picture.
No damage of plants - also makes sense but if I didn't read either language I might think I wasn't allowed to give people flowers.
No fishing - this was the one rule I saw being broken on the Avenue of the Stars. Since I am not a citizen of China I didn't feel like it had the authority to make a citizens arrest but I did give them a dirty look.

This Ones for Paul
I'm really not sure of the premise for this place but I can envision at least wo funny scenarios.

One is that Jawas have figured out a way to travel to Hong Kong through time and distant galaxies to either form a club or go clubbing. The thought of Jawas dancing to techno music is really pretty hilarious to me. The second scenario is that this is a club for rabid Star Wars fans who really really like Jawas. While this scenario is a little scary, its still hilarious to me. Either way, I know this picture is intriguing to Paul.

Day 2 Thoughts
Overall we have had a good time so far. As William said, we had a really good meeting with the client today. They took us to a nice Chinese restaurant where I am proud to say I sampled almost everything on the table. I really didn't have much choice since our main contact at Hong Kong tourism board was putting food on my plate and asking me if I want to try it in the same motion. William was brave and tried to use chop sticks but that lasted about 5 seconds when he dropped his first attempt at picking up food. I didn't even try since I didn't practice prior to our trip.

Jet lag really hit me hard today and I slept from 6pm - 10pm and probably would still be sleeping if Asif hadn't woken me up for dinner. McDonalds has become the American Embassy for us in Hong Kong. While I love McDonalds, 3 meals in 2 days can't be good for my body. I think I'll joint William at the bakery tomorrow and pick up some fresh fruit. We haven't seen William since our meeting so I can only assume that the jet lag caught up with him too.

Working

2008-03-26T03:18:00.000-07:00

It all started with a rainy Wednesday morning in Hong Kong. The time was early, the sleep very little, the body is still adjusting to the time change. It was a mere drizzle, but the skies looked omnious and you could just tell there was going to be more rain this morning. Like I said, it was early and I was on my own. I still made my way to what is becoming our breakfast hot spot, McDonalds, although on the way back I noticed a little bakery on the way and made a mental note to give it a try on Thursday morning for breakfast.

Back in my room I enjoyed my sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and this morning found the coffee to be tolerable, god I wish there was a Starbucks near our hotel. Time to go get Ray and Asif to start our adventure to find the offices of the Hong Kong Tourism Board for our day of SEO training. Guess where they want to go and get breakfast for themselves?

As we head outside the rain is coming down even harder and we find an umbrella vendor. Ray wants to haggle the price, but it is raining out and we are getting wet, I don't think we have a strong position to negotiate, so we each pay our $19.80 HKD for an umbrella and our on our way.
Another sausage, egg and cheese biscuit for me and this time the coffee actually taste kind of good, I think I am just giving in at this point with coffee.

Our trusted tour guide Asif has already mapped out our walk to the office, so after our fast food breakfast we are on our way. Walking past the bakery again I wish I would have stopped there instead of a second MickyDees breakfast. We continue on our journey in what is now a down pour. Asif is a good guide and has us headed in the right direction through the many street vendors and morning foot traffic. Wait, what is that I sense? Could it be? Yes it is, a Starbucks. The day is starting to look a little brighter. I get my large (venti) coffee and feel better about the day already.

We make it to the HKTB office building and are immediately identified by Julie Lam (our e-Crusade contact for the account) as the guys from AA|RF, not that is was that difficult to spot us in a sea of Chinese business men and women entering the building.

We get up stairs and meet our HKTB client and find out about 20 people will be attending the training. Ray gets a little nervous, not much, but this was more than we were expecting. The room isn't that big and is already quite warm, I hope somebody finds the air conditioning before this gets started. Some technical issues are encountered with the presentation, but they are quickly overcome.

9:30 and the room begins to fill up, introductions are made, business cards exchanged, small talk ensues. Angela (our HKTB client) brings the room to order and we are set to begin. Ray spends the next 4 hours talking SEO, specifically search engine market share, keyword research, linking and Web 2.0 tactics. The audience is engaged the entire time and ask some good questions, but I am more interested in the view out the window as I noticed the rain has stopped and the sun is beginning to come out. Is this because I was able to find a Starbucks and enjoy a decent cup of coffee? I think there was some sort of connection.

Time for lunch. The client wants to take us out for Chinese, imagine that, we came all the way to Hong Kong and on our 2nd day hear we are finally going to get some Chinese food. The lunch is good, the food delicious, and the conversation lively.

Back to the office for some more training, this time Asif is going to walk us through the technical aspects of SEO. There are considerably less people in the room for this session. We talk redirects, more redirects, Flash/AJAX and URL structures, Asif has the audience on the edge of their seats. I think more so they can dash out of the room at the first opportunity, than because they are wanting to listen to more explanations about why their current site is not good from a technical perspective for SEO. The audience does have some good questions to follow up to Asif's presentation though, so I believe they did find value in his words of wisdom on the Do's and Don'ts of technical SEO.

Our hosts thank us for a fine day of training, claim they learned a lot, appreciate that we travelled so far and long to meet with them and send us on our way asking that we spend as much as we can while we are in Hong Kong. They are the tourism board and this is their key metric for success, so we are not surprised by this request.

Now the sun is shining, the skies are clear, there is a smile on our faces for a job well done and we start our walk back to the hotel. It is an uneventful journey back to the hotel, so I won't bother you with the details except for the street vendors selling the last of their fresh fish which are looking at us as we walk on by.

All and all a good day for the team. A job well done by Ray and Asif. Sorry to ramble on for so long, but I am finding this blogging thing to be kind of fun.

Why is this man smiling?

2008-03-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

I am about to open myself up to quite a bit of ridicule and obscene comments, but I can make fun of myself and it would disappoint Ray if I didn't share this picture he took while I was getting measured for a suit.

As close as he got, I didn't have to tell him to leave plenty of room down there.

Seeking out the sites

2008-03-25T05:35:00.000-07:00

Since Asif arrived a day before us he had a chance to explore the city a bit and became our tour guide for the afternoon. He decided to take us out of the "fish market" (the section of town our hotel is in) and to the more central part of Hong Kong where he spent most of Monday.

On the map we went from the Fortress Hill stop to Admirality, switched to the red line and got off at Tsim Sha Tsui.

From there we headed toward the water and decided to check out the Avenue of the Stars. This is kind of like our Walk of Fame in Hollywood, but much shorter and filled with a lot of people you and I have never heard of. On the way there we ended up on this observation deck that looked out over the harbor to the other side of Hong Kong. It was very hazy as you can see below, so the pictures are not that great.

Looking out across the harbor

Again looking across the harbor

A panoramic view around the observation deck

After the observation deck we moved on to the Avenue of the Stars.

Some of the stars you may recognize.

And who knew that we had our very own celebrity right in SEO? Little did we realize that our very own Raymond Rosti was big in China.

Ray gets recognized by his fans

Ray dealing with another autograph seeker

When we return make sure you get Ray to give you his autograph, it may be worth something in the States someday.

Asif Joins Us

2008-03-25T04:58:00.000-07:00

At about 1pm our time today there was a knock at my hotel room door and guess who it was, not that the title of the post doesn't give this away, but our friend from Pakistan Asif. Asif transferred from the hotel he was staying at the Metropark Hotel in Kowloon to our hotel the Newtown Inn in North Point. For those interested in seeing where this is on the subway map for Hong Kong, click here, look in the lower right hand corner.

In case you forgot what he looks like here is a picture.

Now the adventures can begin.

Starbucks

2008-03-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

If you have been reading any of this blog up until now you will know the importance that Starbucks plays in my daily life. I was becoming a bit distraught after our morning walk around the area of our hotel did not turn up a single one. My luck did change in the early afternoon when we went to the more tourist focused section of Hong Kong and we found our first Starbucks.

Ray and Asif walking into Starbucks

It wasn't too long after we found this first one that we spotted a second one.

Starbucks along the Avenue of the Stars

And then we found a third and fouth and fifth, before long I became at ease with Hong Kong and discovered that the Starbucks was almost as pervasive as 7-11.

Next time I travel I will be sure to use the handy store locater at www.starbucks.com.

We Made It

2008-03-24T20:02:00.001-07:00

Well, we made it to Hong Kong without international incident and had a rather easy time of going through immigration and finding our luggage immediately, no hicccups, yaaawwn. We got to our hotel about midnight after a $400 cab ride, those are Hong Kong $ (exchange rate is about 7.7HKD=1USD), from the airport. It looks like we are right in the center of nothing as far as I can tell.

The rooms are nice, although not that big and the bed is like a foot off the floor.

It is Tuesday morning and we went in the search of breakfast. Walking right out of our hotel front door this is the first thing we see on our travels, looking left then looking right.

We head to the right, exciting choice I know, not sure what we are looking for as long as it appears to be edible and breakfast like in nature. Ideally, and many of you may already know this, but I would hope their is a Starbucks near the hotel.

About half way down the block this is the first sight of food we find after the clothing vendors:

Not what we were looking for to start the day. I really didn't want my first meal here to look back at me. So we kept walking and lo and behold we found the international sign for good food, the golden arches. Now, I know what many of you are thinking, you are in Hong Kong and went to McDonald's for breakfast? We walked around for a while looking for some baked goods or authentic Chinese breakfast food, but just didn't find it, so we settled.

After our breakfast we continued to explore the neighborhood. To be honest we didn't see too much, much of what we saw just reminded me of walking through Chinatown in any major city in the US.

This is looking down one of the main streets near the hotel, not that exciting.

Even in the early morning the fish market was rather busy, and not just one of them, all of them seemed to have people in front of them buying fresh fish.

Something Ray and I both found a bit odd is that there is a 7-11 about every half block around our hotel. This is the only KFC we saw, which means we won't starve between that and the nearby McDonald's.

Next up for today now that we have had breakfast is trying to find Asif. We know he is in town and staying in Metropark, but have no clue where that is in relation to where we are, North Point. Also, we don't have his cell phone number, so hopefully he wakes up soon and gets on IM so that we can coordinate a meeting. We also need to find out where we are supposed to be meeting up with the e-Crusade and HKTB folks on Wednesday morning. We didn't see a single cab near the hotel so we are going to try and figure out the subway system this afternoon.

Our Flight to Tokyo

2008-03-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

After being on a plane for about 20 hours we have finally arrived in Hong Kong. The flights were very nice and on time. First Class has it's advantages and I'm not sure how easily I will be able to transition back to peasant life.

We got a menu once we sat down for our flight to Tokyo.

For starters we had Smoked Salmon and some goat cheese with wine.

For Dinner I went with the Beef and William went with the Salmon.

Beef Tenderloin

Salmon

Unfortunately I didnt take pics of the seats, but there was so much space that I didnt feel like I was buckled in correctly. The chairs fully reclined and we had a pretty good choice of movies. I watched Juno and No Country for Old Men. Here are my quick reviews:

Juno - very good, not enough Michael Cera.

No Country For Old Men - I dont get it. It seemed to go on forever then ended suddenly. Plus I was almost all the way through the movie before I realized it was set in 1980. I guess that explains the bad clothes.

William slept the whole time while I took some occasional naps. For breakfast they served an omelette with sausage that looked like turds. The watermelon in the fruit dish tasted like they sprayed it with artificial watermelon flavor. It tasted like a jolly rancher. The cinnamon bun however was quite good.

Breakfast

There were also a few snacks in between meals which I didn't wake William for. Overall, for a 13 hour flight it wasn't too bad.

Tokyo to Hong Kong - We are now in the future

2008-03-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

After 13 hours I cant imagine getting on another plane but I'm trying to convince myself that 5 hours would be a walk in the park after the flight we just came off of.

The airport looks like every airport except for two things. First, the girls working at the airport all wear these red jackets and hats and walk in a straight line when going places. The looked like a brownie troop. Second, there wasn't a Starbucks which was upsetting to William. I could have gone for a coffee too.

As for the flight, I slept most of this flight as did William, who seemed to sleep at least 13 of the 20 hours it took to get here. This flight seemed to go pretty quick without much to note.

We did get a meal which was chicken with a rectangle of potatoes. Not sure where they get rectangle potatoes but it was pretty good.

Chicken dinner with rectangular potatoes

One other note on the flight. The girl sitting across from us had these boots that looked like ice skates.

Hard to see but the heel was narrow like an ice skate. I realize it was a little creepy of me to snap this pic but I figured the ladies of SEO would appreciate it.

We arrived in Hong Kong at around 11 pm Monday night (11 am Monday US Time) So we are now in the future. So far the future isn't what I expected. I really cant tell you much since any false move could disrupt the natural order of life.

We made it off the plane and picked up our bags without a hitch. William did get yelled at for wearing his hat in the airport. Not sure why. In addition there was a Starbucks just as we got off the plane so it was a happy ending for William. (not that happy ending)

Phewww!

2008-03-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

As Ray stated we are done with leg one of our trip and are waiting in Detroit. I do want to put your mind at ease though and let you know there is a Starbucks here in our terminal, so all is well.

And although Ray doesn't count it as a visit, if it weren't for being in the airport of most cities I would not have seen a lot of the US. So I encourage you to vote for airport visits to count toward city visits.

We're off

2008-03-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Leg one of the Hong Kong trip has kicked off without a hitch. William and I are sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for flight number two to Tokyo.

This is my first time in Detroit but I cannot count it since I am not leaving the airport. William on the other hand allows himself to say he has been in a city if he lands in that airport. According to my own personal rules, I can only say I have been in the Detroit Airport.

Am I right or wrong?

The terminal we are sitting in has a monorail just like the ones they have in Shelbyville, Ogdonville and North Haverbrook.

2 hours till leg two of the trip, which consists of a 13 hour flight to Tokyo. For now I will be sitting here with my eyes peeled for celebrities and weird occurrences.