Back From Fargo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.