Week 41: Found no Sprouts in Brussels

Back to it, I don't want to get too far behind in my blog, and have been lucky enough to make multiple trips in the last month.  I.e. it's been a very expensive month.

Brussels:

Something like that

I was lucky enough to boondoggle my way to a trip to Belgium, specifically Antwerp, Bruge, and Brussels.  It qualifies as my first trip to Europe as well!  What a great place to be, with a completely different feeling, attitude, look, smell, and experience.

So the flight:  Surprisingly quiet, and without too much action.  The flight left around midnight, I had a business flight, so I was able to experience the Saudi Arabia business lounge.  Eek.  The sandwiches all had mayo, and looked as old as the guy working the counter.  (Not a good thing).  Both had the same specks of grey and white, and seemed just as bristley.

Now add a beard, and this is what I thought the sandwich looked like.
Just as cottony soft too

Flight arrives first to Franfurt, and then to Brussels.  Business class is as awesome as expected, and drinks were available once we were in the air.  I actually tried to reduce the amount of drinking on the plane, as the hangovers are pretty bad, since you're at altitude, and the air is fairly dry.  The problem was, that I watched "Total Recall."  Should have drank more to enjoy that one.  Just not good.  Not good.  Woman with three boobs, not as awesome, as when I was a kid.  On a completely separate note, for some reason, airline food gives me the worst gas in the world.  I feel like I'm going to explode every couple of hours.  Must be the high amount of processing.  (Says the guys who eats ramen at least 3 times a week).  Anyways, that's probably the most stressfull part of flying for me.  You sit there waiting for the bathroom to be open, and you're holding it in, fearing the worst.  I mean, what do you do if you accidentally soil yourself on a plane?  I don't think they let you get into the luggage hold, and get a new pair of underwear.  Anyways, yeah.  None of that kind of accident, so don't worry.

Before

After 

I get to the Frankfurt airport around 7:00 AM, with an hour layover.  What to do?  Check email, and have a beer!  I guess not too many other people agreed with the second part.  No line to the beer tap at all.  I made sure to check and double check my flight time, so I don't pull another "Huy" and miss my flight.  A quick 1 hour flight, and I'm in Brussels.

I arrive at the Brussels airport, and quickly find that English is the 4th language that people speak here, which is amazing in my opinion.  First is Dutch, German, French, and then English.  There are different places in which a language is more prevalent, but people will entertain your ignorant American self, and speak to you in English.  Except the French.  Meh, 1 out of 4 isn't bad.  I'm lucky enough to book a hotel right at the airport, so that there isn't any issue with trying to find how to get anywhere.  As a bonus, I check my email, and find that the guys in Brussels recommend that I arrive the following day, rather than the day I arrive.  This is great, as I fear there would be no time to do any siteseeing.  Well, off I go.  I ask the concierge where to go, in order to get to the Grand Place, (I base all my siteseeing from what Tripadvisor tells me, they have been pretty good so far).  Easy, just take the train, which is conveniently located right outside the hotel.  I hop on the train, and, everythings written in German and Dutch.  Crap.  Well, what's the worst that could happen?  I could end up in a different country, or whatever.  Wait, "Grand Place" in Dutch, and German is "Grand Place."  Nice.  Prices in Europe are a bit higher than in the US, or in Saudi especially, so the concept of a 8 Euro ticket from the airport to the city seemed a bit high.  What is definitely different is the fact that no one checks your ticket.  It's on a random basis that they check everyone for tickets.  If you don't have one, you get a fat fine, and a ticket.  It's fair.  But I didn't get checked anytime I went on the train, so it was OK.  So I get off the train, it's a bit gloomy, rainy, but man, it's gorgeous!

Welcome to Brussels!

Walked around, and realized that Brussels is not straight roads, and simple directions.  There are many many many different curvy roads, that were built around other curves, and dead ends.  Very difficult to navigate as a tourist.  I could tell that I was not alone, as there were many others walking around looking as silly as me, with a giant map out, and trying to figure out where to go.  Even the locals that I met, all had GPS, and really, chose not to, or had difficulty in getting to places without the navigation.  Walked around in the rain, ended up near the Justice Center, and then realized that the Grand Place isn't anywhere near there.  Started walking back, and it started to rain pretty hard.  Good time for a break, and a famous Belgium beer.  No data on phone, so I had to follow my gut feeling.  Hmm, I should follow tripadvisor more often.  Food wasn't terrible, I heard when the microwave went off, for the Spaghetti that I ordered.  The selection of beer was pretty nice.  My favorite part was finding this guy:

"You don't have the guts to shoot..."
D'oh!

Oh, and this is definitely one of my favorite beers now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westmalle_Brewery
Yeah.  Commercialized monks.  

Lucky me, 3 beers later, the shop owner told me that the Grand Place was only a few blocks away, and all I had to do was go straight.  I think I could handle that.  And I did. And I was glad:

The grand place, is a big square surround by different buildings.  The one behind me being the town hall.  On other sides are just crazy extravagant buildings.  I didn't notice at the time, but there is a mix of three types of archietecture here, Gothic, Broque, and Louis XIV, according to wikipedia.  I'm guessing the Louis XIV buildings are the ones completely enamored in gold.  Gothic have the gargoyles, and the Broque ones are the buildings with the intricate statures of saints all over them.

Louis XIV - Like a Boss

From there, checked out quite a few churches, made a friend from Scopje, and she was nice enough to take some photos of me in the background of the awesomeness. I ended up going to the seafood district, where there were restaurant after restaurant, with Arabic folks trying to lure you in for food, and drinks.  Not the best food, but I was able to get Belgian Fries, and Mussels.  Yum.  I then stumbled back to the room, ready for work, and very content.

Next day, had to actually do some work, taxi's in the country are quite expensive.  I think I ended up paying about $50 one way each way to go from my hotel to the work site in Overijse.  Work was pretty normal, a lot of pretty cool things if you're into logistics and material handling.  If not, then I won't bother with the details.  The cool thing was one of the guys that I worked with that day, had a "crazy idea" to go visit Bruge. I hadn't heard of it before, but he talked it up, as if it were the best thing since sliced bread.  You can't ever go wrong, by hanging out in a new place with someone who's extremely excited to go.  And he had a car to get there.  I'm glad I went.

Just lovely

The trip itself was a pretty far drive, about an hour to get out there from where we were, and about 2 hours back to Brussels, so I was pretty tired, especially after the food, and beer that we had.  (Of course!)  Ok, so back to the city.  Bruge is yet another Unesco world heritage site, which i guess means it's old, and it should be preserved.  It's true.  It's like a small compact version of a 13th century medieval architecture.  Lots of canals around, the square is like the grand place, only with a different size, and scale.  Everything seemed packed in really tight.  The rental car we were in, was pretty tiny, but it was pretty scary driving to find a parking spot, most lanes were one way, and all cobblestone.  The main attraction was the old belfry in the background.

Food was really good, I was lucky to try a traditional dish from Flanders, called "Waterzooi."  This was made with mostly fish, and shrimp, with some mussels for good taste.  For some reason, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Dunno why that is.  It kinda looks like this.  For a hardy stew, it was very light tasting.  The weather was just a bit drizzly, and very dark, so it was difficult to see the really old stuff, but I think we hit all the main points.  The architecture matches the Flemmish design of 90 degree angles for roofing, as seen above.

Almost looks like this in the dark

The final days were spent hanging out with a colleague I had worked with back in Houston.  He's a big food person, and enjoys his beers as much as I do.  It was a good 2 evenings.  The premise was set when we met at the subway, and the question was "So do you want to eat something good, or drink a good beer."  Without a blink, a good beer of course.  "Excellent."   We went to the bar right next to the famous statue of the peeing boy.  The name of the bar was Poechenellekelder, which means puppet cellar.  Yup, creepy puppets everywhere.  Kinda dark.  Beers were very strong, and surprising light on the hops, and stronger on fruit flavors.  We had cheese and crackers, and many a beer.  The Delirium beer was probably one of the favorites on the list, and it was awesome because, after the beer, we went to the bar in which it's made. The Delirium bar was located next to the statue of the peeing girl.  Apparently, those are the famous places to visit.  Big crowds around these tiny statues, maybe a foot tall or so.  

The final day in Brussels was definitely one for the books.  We decided to go all out, and try the best that Belgium had to offer.  

On the way there, we had just enough time to visit Ghent, yet another gorgeous city, although it had many similarities to Bruge.  It was a bigger version, a little more spread out, easier to walk around.  The shops were more modern and larger, and plenty of canals.  

Ghent Canal

Oh, and it had a real life castle.  A FREAKING CASTLE!  Sorry.  My first castle.  I thought it was awesome.  

We're standing where the moat would be

How cool is that.  Well, it's almost as cool as where we went after that.  Culinary wise of course.  The top restaurant that was within driving distance was "Hof Van Cleave."  

http://www.hofvancleve.com/

The drive up to the restaurant was a different one.  You exit off of the main street, go into a small tiny town, and then take a turn off on a small dirt road, and you end up in front of a small little ranch style home.  It kinda reminded me of Texas Chainsaw Massacre actually.  We were pretty spooked.  So we parked where all the other cars were.  We found out afterwards that this is where the staff parks.  Explains the spookiness.  

Valet parking on the other side

Hoff Van Cleave, a restaurant created by chef Peter Goossens.  It's a 3 Michelin Star restaurant.  Enuff said.  Haha, not really.  Restaurants of this caliber just know what they're doing.  And when it came to price point between here and Dubai, if you're paying that much money, those 2 other stars just take it to a higher plane.  So here's what I noticed:

Ambiance:  Very similar in both, controlled lighting, plate usage, silverware.  Heck, the waiter gave us a story of how each of the steak knives were made.  Cheesy?  Yes!  But I chose the natural teakwood knife, and my partner in food got the naturally found ivory (sounds good).  The knives were carbon steel, not stainless, and were all handwashed, and buffed after each meal to maintain edge, without rusting.  

Not pictured - The knife I was talking about

Staff knowledge:  Of course, the menu was known, but each dish at Hoff had a story and the wine paring was two fold, some which were good with the food, and some that serve as a good intermission, or possible transition to the next meal.  

Pacing of the food was much more timely at Hoff.  The second you were done, the staff noticed, and made sure to clear your plate, when there was a pause in conversation.  

Presentation:  Top notch in both regards.  Everything on the plate was deliberate.  Hoff was more fluid in terms of ability to eat.  It was quite simple to understand "how" the chef wanted you to eat his creation.  Al Mahara took a little more effort, portions were a bit too small or too large to enjoy all the flavors on the plate.  

Taste:  What can you say, this is top quality.  The one thing I love is the intricate balance between temperatures within the same meal, the blend of all flavors on the tongue, sweet, sour, spice, bitter, and savory, all in a single bite.  What Hoff did very well, was trick you between what you saw, and what you tasted.  Nothing was what it was made to be on the plate.  

That's not cuttlefish, or squid

I'm just being nit-picky of course.  But I did just eat at the 42 best restaurant IN THE WORLD.  (Down from 17 the year before)  Pretty difficult to top that.  Well, I can think of 41 different ways, but I'll have to plan those.  

Whew!

Week 39: World Class

Man, it's been 12 weeks since the last time I blogged.  I can say I'm a little bit wiser, and a little more traveled.  Gotten into the groove of my work, and been able to learn new roles, and responsibilities.  Not a bad way to spend 3 months.  Well, depends on who you talk to I suppose.  I met up with a vendor, and he said it was like visiting Guantanamo.  Hmm, that might be a bit much, concrete barriers, sure.  Armed guards at approximately 20% of the people that work there.  Yeah.  AK-47's, and 50 cal machine gun turrets?  Sure.  Highly trained and skilled elite interrogators that can do and will do anything to get information?  Take out the highly, put an asterisk on skilled, change elite to elitist, interrogators to prepubescents, and information with cigarettes and blonde women.  That was a lot.  I'll just change it.
Trained, skilled*, elitist prepubescents that will do anything for cigarettes and blonde women.

Sometime like that I think

Enough with the sarcasm  you can see that on comedy central.  I'm here to talk about what FUN things I did in the last 3 months.  And well, there were at least 2 good weeks in there, that I'll talk about.

THAILAND

Man, what can you say about a place like this.  I can see why people LOVE Thailand.  I've never been welcomed anywhere as much as I have here.  Right off of the plan, people are friendly, go out of their way to help you, and overall smile, laugh, and party all day and all night.  What's more to a vacation than that?

The trip itself was short, a brief 3 day bender, with some very blurry spots in the middle.  What I do remember is:  Pretty women everywhere, i actually don't remember seeing too many men.  Smell of the food is almost debilitating.  I couldn't go more than 5-10 minutes without having to drop 30 baht ($1) for some fresh squid charcoal grilled, with a super spicy sweet sauce, followed by a Singha Beer, some grasshoppers in teriyaki sauce, and some grubs, well just to tell your friends that you ain't scared!  They're really bitter, and the ones I had were cold and mushy.  Like eating mashed potatoes with a chewy skin on the outside, only to get a little bit of that bic-pen ink taste (maybe you don't know what that tastes like).  Not good.  Grasshoppers, nothing new, just a little bigger.  Make sure to floss.  No one likes a leg in the mouth.  

Well, maybe I do.  

Flight was a bit long, came in from Dammam to Doha, had an hour so we had a good night cap, thanks to my friend who has I think a million points from Qatar Airlines now.  He got upgrades multiple times, the lucky jerk.  I'm not quite there yet.  One of my favorite sayings now, in Saudi, is "Why like this?"  It summarizes my daily frustration.  Poor English, and a utter confusion regarding why things are the way they are. The answer is "Because, like this."  Alhamdulilah.  (Praise be to God)  You also say the same thing if someone sneezes.  Well, not the "Why like This?" but the second part.  Anyways, back to the point, we were standing there waiting to get into lounge, and look left to see what's inside, when we get cut off by a Antonio Bandaras knockoff, with a snippy attitude, and a stupid accent.  (Not Bad-ass Bandaras like at all). So I look back at my friend and say "Why like this?"  Apparently his pony tail wasn't so tight that he couldn't hear me.  So he turns around, and says "because you weren't moving."  Oh, ok.  I guess the 5 second rule doesn't exist on plant hair product.

Pretty much, bro

Anyways, we got there a minute later, after an awkward staredown, and proceeded to the bar.  We walk in, and Antonio, and his girlfriend are sitting there across from each other completely enveloped in their phones, and didn't acknowledge each other the entire time I was trying to shoot lasers at them with my laser vision.  I am starting to realize how annoying that is.  Cell phones and reception isn't very good in KSA, and with that, people spend more time talking, and eating, and conversating.  It's a good thing.  I've gotten much better and maintaining a conversation with people, and that's a skill that is great, as long as you got a good story to tell.  Well, I guess I gotta work on that.  Stop staring at your cell phones.  There is nothing that exciting on Facebook, that can't wait until you at least ask your friend how's it going, how was the flight, how I snuck a fart out during landing, etc...  Long story short, I was excited, and no amount of cutting in line would put me in a bad mood.  I hope that guys skinny jeans give him a low sperm count, and trips him up as a Walrus decides to have his way with him.  Too far maybe.  Eff rude people.

Yes, it is exactly what you think it is.  Rude people deserve this.  

We reach Thailand, it was warm, but not too hot, maybe 30C, and after walking around in circles to find a visa entry form, we arrive in Thailand.  We Taxi into the city, and it's actually kinda boring at the airport, regular highways, billboards, nothing that exciting.  And then you get into the city, and it transforms.  People walking EVERYWHERE, people on motorcycles weaving through traffic, Tuk-Tuk's parked on the side trying to get us tourists to get around, bright colors everywhere, the smell of hot soup, fresh salad, and grilled meat permeate the air.  It's like nothing I've ever seen.

Most folks from Thailand are Buddhists (95% according to wikipedia) and there are temples, and shrines everywhere.  People put food up as offerings, and it's polite to make the gesture, everytime you walk by one.  

No matter where you are:

I'm lovin it!

So what is there to say?  We tried to live the hangover 2 experience.  Drank cheap drinks.  Chang's soda water is for whatever reason miles and miles above any other type of soda water, and when mixed with Johney Walker Black, is an elixer for the soul.  It doesn't even make you hung over.  (Maybe)  Can't remember, because we went right back to eating and drinking when we woke up.  We did a tour of China town, and realized that everything in Chinatown is apparently for virility.  Or so they say.  I wouldn't know, I don't really have a problem with that.  I'm not even 30 yet.  OK, TMI.  But, it's not a reason not to have some ginger tea, and egg drop soup!  Bird spit never tasted so good.  I think our waitress was offended, when I ended the meal, by cracking a beer.  Haha, good times.

I bought a wooden motorcycle for 10 bucks too.  It's neat!

   We drank, we partied, we conquered  and for the most part could point out the ladyboys.  I was 4/5, but guessed that a lady was a dude, when she wasn't (eek, sorry).  My compadre was on the other end, thinking it was a woman, when it was a dude.  That means that after all those beers, I get slapped by a woman, and my friend wakes up a very very sad person.  HAHA, Hangover 2.

No tattoos, we met up with a friend who had his own place in Thailand, so we got to meet some locals, one of his friends owns an afterhours patio, with Hookah, more drinks, and awesome Tom Yum soup.  It's for what ails ya, especially when you see the sun coming out.

This is my confident face

We didn't do as many touristy things as we wanted to, just like most of my trips, the first times are full of good intentions, but too much partying.  As a foodie, this place is hands down Shangri La for me.  Spicy, sweet, a hint of coconut, and warm smiles, and plenty of laughter.  I guess I'll just have to go back, and do the touristy stuff the second time.

Summary of the trip in a single picture

Oh, and I couldn't help this one:

*Giggles*

Week 27. Go Shorty, it's ur Birfday

Back to it I suppose.  Nothing extraordinarily exciting these last few weeks, but if I don't write it down, I'll forget.  I'm 28 now.  Wooh!  It's a happy number.  No seriously it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_number

I have the same birthday as Hulk Hogan, Melky Cabrera, Joe Rogan, and some other people.  I'm not that interested in how they celebrated their birthday.  Well, maybe Hulk's.  I know I had a great time for my birthday!

SO DID I!  

The previous week was quite nice.  I decided to head out to Bahrain, and go to a resort.  Funny thing, it had everything that I have over here.  Nice big comfortable bed, private beach, and an amazing swimming pool, and a masseuse.    But key difference.  There are women over there.  You can get a massage from a woman.  You can hang out with your girl over there.  It makes all the difference.  We only were there for a day, it's Ramadan, so there was really no one there.  It was almost eerie.

So no one goes on vacation for Ramadan.  Why would you?  It'd be a waste if you were actually celebrating it.  Hey, lets go and swim?  Well, I would, but then we'd be even more exhausted, since we haven't eaten all day.  Let's go sit by the pool.  Nope, too hot, and we'd dehydrate.  Well, let's go eat some nice dinner.  OK, it's all going to be arabic food, since its Iftar.  Hmm, let's deal with it at home, and then go on vacation later.  What does that mean for us?  Well, it means that we have an entire resort hotel to ourselves.  AWESOME!  Well, it was.  Then it was kinda creepy.  It's like some weird movie where everything is normal, but everyone just disappeared.  What movie is that like?  One of my favorites.  The Langoliers.

Be a good boy, or the Langoliers will get you!

Only, there are a few people there to cook, and what not.  We maybe saw a total of 20 people the entire time we were there.  Including staff.  It meant that we were able to get late checkout for free, and we didn't have to wait for anything really.  I'd like to think that it was because I'm special.  Oh, if you don't believe me, here's proof.

Only a few people that my name actually starts with "M".  Or that when I do an online reservation, I always put Mr. under the first name.  

 The name of the hotel was the  "Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa."  Quite a mouthful.  The expedition started at 7:30, which is nice, since I got a chance to sleep in for a bit.  The drive up is normally about 1 hour, and 1 to 2 hours So, Sofitel is about 20 minutes south of where the normal drop off point was.  We got dropped off at the mall, and I was unsure as to whether there would be food available.  

All the restaurants in the middle east are closed during Ramadan, you can eat, but normally it'll be in one of the higher upscale hotels, and hidden from view.  You aren't allowed to eat or drink in public, it's kinda insulting, and it's fair.  If I could eat or drink, and saw someone chugging away, I'd be pissed.  Especially since the other big things that people do over there can't be done till after sunset as well.  No sex, and no smoking.  The bars, and alcohol, are extra prohibited.  Once again, the 5 stars will allow you to do what you want in your own room, but you just have to be aware.  No big deal, just takes some planning ahead.  We were there a couple weeks before, and we just made sure to go to the store and buy big.  That was a nice, yet very quiet weekend.  We bought enough food for 6 people.  There were 4 people in the hotel.  There was quite a bit of focus on breakfast, not too much for lunch, and we were going out for dinner.  There was some leftover pico de gallo, which made an awesome omelette.  Of course, I had to add some chorizo, well, because I could.  Everything tastes better with chorizo.  There wasn't as much to do, we watched quite a bit of television, if you haven't seen the movie "Iron Sky," I'd strongly suggest it.  It's one of the most ridiculous movies that I just love to watch.  Insert all the hilarious things you could think about.  Nazi's, the moon, space ships, stereotypes, Sarah Palin, and Charlie Chaplin.  And it just gets more and more crazy.  

This deserves a cult following.  

But back to the birthday weekend, I bought some snacks for the hotel in case there wasn't food.  Of course this was quite the nice hotel, so we were able to eat, so the snacks were left for me to bring back over to Saudi, not to be eaten at the hotel.  The restaurant, was good, I'm a sucker for fancy hamburgers, and they did have wagyu beef.  If you get a burger, then you just get high marbled beef trimmings.  Good enough for me, it ends up being rich and delicious.  Pretch had a steak, with foie gras on it.  Super fatty goose liver. 

Guess which one is the foie gras?

On paper, it's an interesting contrast of methods of treating animals.  When I think of Kobe beef, I think of this happy cow, eating beer, and getting massaged.  When I think of foie gras, I think of a sad goose, getting force fed.  So sad goose liver onto top of drunk cow meat.  A quick googling shows that the beef is treated just like any other beef.  Small cages, and massage so that they can get fatter, and not collapse on their own weight.  So not great, but I think one of the comments said it best, if I really was worried about where half of my food came from, I'd probably just stop eating.   Especially if I think of this guy massaging my food.

Hanz is a professional cow massager.  He REALLY gets into character

The pool was spacious, and temperature controlled.  I've never really swam in the ocean before.  It was exactly like I thought.  Really really salty.  Made swimming easier, since I was more buoyant, but the water was much more warm than I thought it would be.  It was pretty much as hot as it was outside.  It really burns if it gets in your eyes too.  I wouldn't recommend it.  Well, if you're a big baby like me.

I'll just have to stick with the fresh water pool.  Darn!

The highlight of the trip I think was going to spa and massage place.  I've never gone for a massage before, and I don't think I'll do it until I do something physical enough that requires muscles to be massaged.  But in this case, it was nice, and really got the mental stresses away.

So we start off by getting there a couple of hours early, so that we can try out the other accomodations at the spa.  Accomodations?  What else can there be?  Well, there's a salt water pool, and another indoor pool.  Sounds great.  After the previous experience, I wasn't quite looking forward to it, to be honest, but hey, let's give it a try.  The salt water pool, when it's cooled, cleaned (not slimy) and with on demand jacuzzi jets is really a treat.  With very little wave movement, I just laid back, and floated around the pool.  Buoyancy again.   Salt water still burns in the eyes, but at least it's cooling and refreshing as it burns.

I received what they called an "indian massage" which was a normal massage, in which they used warmed sesame oil.  It was only a water bottle's worth, but it felt like a gallon's worth.  It was nice, I wasn't expecting it in the hair.  The warm oil was very nice, although it felt like I was being made into something for a stir fry. My masseuse was a short tiny Chinese lady who looked small, and petite, until she had to go to work.  She had some wicked strong fingers.  I knew that I picked the right massage when I get in, and she says "You might want to put on the temporary underwear, it's going to get a little messy."  It's not what YOU think, you dirty minded people, the oil just gets everywhere, and well, I don't think Pretch would have appreciated it.

Like this.  Only with a lady.  And I'm laying down.  And sans the headband.    

Well, afterwards, we hit the steam room.  (Separate steam rooms).  And I proceed to know what dumplings feel like.  I'm completely coated in sesame oil, and go steam for 10 minutes.  I'm delicious.  Probably a little raw in the middle.  And a bit fatty.  I prefer to use the word marbled.  Well, after the steam room (by myself of course, which probably is a good thing),  I hit the showers, and shampoo like 4 times, and I still smell like lightly toasted sesame seeds.  Not bad.  Pretch smells like a Panda Express.  Haha!  That's what you get for having flowing long hair.

It was a nice weekend, and a very different one.  Not a drop of alcohol, which I don't think has happened, well since I've turned 21.  I had a great time, and am ready to start a new week of work.  Well, hopefully.

Oh, just so I don't forget.  I did go eat at Iftar at Bushido, we drove back into town to meet up with a friend for dinner.  It wasn't Asian, it was Arabic, it was tasty, and I had lamb brain (way too gamy) and lamb tongue (also way too gamy, but better texture.  They probably could have trimmed the tastebuds a little better, it's a weird texture tastebuds to tastebuds.  Like making out with something you're about to eat.)

It didn't look this good.  "BRAINS!!!!"

Week 25: Back into the groove

So, I should probably talk about my vacation.  It was awesome of course.  It's a photographer's dream.  You can't take a bad picture, no matter how much skill you may actually have.  I had a unique opportunity to see both sides of Anchorage.  I was able to see the "local" side of Anchorage, and the touristy side of Alaska.  I never understood why people are so adverse to going to the touristy sides of places.  They're really fun once.  Maybe they're kinda lame after you've been there once, but I wouldn't avoid them the first time.  They're touristy for a reason.  The only thing you have to make sure of, it to not focus on the pictures, the junk, the stuff, but to actually make yourself take time and enjoy and absorb where you're at.  I found myself doing that, and stopped, and make sure to turn off the camera for at least 1/2 the time.  It was totally worth it.  For the local venue:  I met a friend of a friend, a big foodie, and was able to drink coffee made by purist coffee people, who were selective about pouring technique, temperature, water to grounds ratio, filter paper, type, pH, etc, etc.  I'm not a big coffee person, but it did taste quite nice.  Lots of pizza.  Moose's tooth is probably the most popular place there, and we ended up going there about 3 times.  Once for lunch, once for a concert, and once with a second group of friends.  It's good, it's wood fired, and with lots of toppings.  There's a reason why it's so highly ranked on trip advisor.

As for Anchorage itself, there's a huge bike path that gives you a great view of the coast, and you might even see Mt. McKinnley (Denali if you're a local, not an "outsider").  The neat thing I found, is that if you start off in the middle of downtown, the bike path includes a scale version of the solar system, so you can bike from the Sun to Pluto.  It's about 15 miles I believe.  A bit hilly, but nice.

I was expecting Pluto to be vandalized, since it's not really a planet.  It wasn't.  

We saw a Caribou on the ride, and you bike right underneath the flight path into the airport, so you see some awesome things.  I almost lost a lung, caught a cold, drank ALOT of beer, (there's not much else to do in Alaska, but brew).  Saw the sun go around the sky rather than from one side and duck under (which makes sleeping weird).  People in Alaska do remind me a lot of Saudi.  There's a great deal of people who are "ex-pats," everyone's friendly.  People are very close to each other, and everyone knows each other, well, because during the cold months, there's nothing to do but either stay home, and get dimensia, or visit your neighbors.  And many people do that.  I"m not saying which one either :-).  We got to go camping.  And even in the summer, it's very cold in Alaska.  And a little rainy, I'd bring a jacket for sure.  The camping was a great way to spend the 4rth of July.

Straight Hood(ies) while camping

We went to the zoo,

This is not stereotypical at all

This is.  

ate a lot of Asian food, surprisingly, obviously a bit of sea food, drank more beer,

The statement of Midnight Sun is true!

and went to a marathon.  It's pretty nuts actually:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Marathon_Race

It's a 5k.  UP A MOUNTAIN.  Elevation of the mountain is 3022 ft about sea level.  Seward, where the race is held, is by the ocean.  Which means it's at sea level.  Which for anyone who's asking is 0 feet about sea level.  It's an impressive sight, and mad props to those who can do it.  I was tired watching them climb up.

Those are people!

My sister went with me to the touristy stuff, and it was quite nice.  We planned the day after she left, which apparently is a bad idea.  Things tend to be sold out according to the tour guides we called.  So, we just looked up where they were going, and booked our own tickets.  Take that!  It was probably a little more expensive, but we got to see glaciers, moose, bears, Mount McKinnley, took a train,

and checked out the national park.  It was awesome, and I would love to go back and camp there.  No fishing this time, which was kinda lame, but apparently the fish weren't great this time, mushy fish syndrome.

http://www.adn.com/2012/06/28/2523972/mushy-halibut-syndrome-reported.html

My friend back in DC happened to be there at the same time my sister and I were visiting, so it was nice to see him again.  A few fraternity brothers live out there, so it was very nice to see them.  We climbed up a peak, which was cold and windy, but totally worth it.  Should have brought hiking shoes.  And then on to San Francisco!

It's the wind that's making look bloated.  It ignored my sis though.  

San Francisco is a very nice town, very hilly, one of those places that is just different than anywhere else.  The archeitecture is old, and cramped, with a hint of sophistication, and pride in the city.  The cable car system is a marvel to see, and to understand that not much has changed is crazy.  China town is just like you'd expect out of a stereotypical Chinese area.  Pagodas, and tiny tiny shops, with smells that challenge all your senses.  Maybe not the way you'd like though haha.  A great deal of historical things to see, I got to see a baseball game, it's been a very long time, and it was nice to see people excited to see their team play for once.  Poor Astros, poor Rockies.

 I met up with Danny, one of my buddies who lives about 1.5 hours north of San Francisco, so I got to drive the Golden Gate Bridge!  I chose not to take too many pictures while driving.  Not too safe I bet.  He lives in wine country, which is a very tiny town.  It's interesting to see a town that small.  Beautiful in its own little way, but limited in others.  No Walmart!  That small.  I've never been a big wino, but can appreciate a tasty wine, and it's always amazing to see how well groomed those areas are.

I don't remember how well groomed they are, but...

Walked around the redwoods, which are just like the books and the TV shows state.  Freaking HUGE!

Insert joke about two guys and big wood here.  

I got to spend a lot of good time with some very good people, and soon to be very good parents.  The smug hippy episodes of South Park do however ring true for both where he was, and in San Francisco. I was pretty happy with one of their offers.  We don't clean your room, and you get a 5 dollar Starbucks card.  Done!  I went to the museum of modern art.  Still don't get it.  Alien S&M on glass.  Weird.  Video of a dog being washed, confusing.  An entire canvas that is one solid color, but used to have something underneath.  Lame.  Models rolling around in blue paint and then on a canvas.  Nice.  I wouldn't have even know, had it not been for listening in on a art guide for a class.

I got to eat at a grilled cheese restaurant which brought me back to the day of making candied bacon at work.  Overall San Francisco was gorgeous, and I'd definitely go back.  Probably would bring a friend with me though.  It's a bit different going solo.  There was a speakeasy that was mentioned in one of the books.  The layout was great, and it had one of the best drinks I'd ever had.  However, it lost the appeal, when the door was open due to heat.  You don't need a password to get in, if the door's open apparently.  One of the best drinks I've ever had though.  Overall, I'm glad I went to San Francisco, but feel like I've only scratched its surface.  I feel like I will need to go back.

San Fran, I hardly touched thee.  

Anchorage, I feel like I've seen what it has to offer.  Alaska, heck no, I don't think I've even scratched, but now that I know the layout, I can plan much better.  Since I have all this technology at my disposal, I can make logical decisions rather than gut feelings about going to Alaska.  I can't wait till my next trip, and with work actually getting busy now, I bet the trip comes up quicker than I would have expected.

Snow Angels in July

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So at some point, I guess I need to make a decision as to whether this blog is more focused on my thoughts, feelings, and perspectives, or a report of things that I do.  Being a male engineer, you would think that the decision would be made.  The blogs would be updated each week, and would be very brief.  There would be no opinions, and if there were opinions, they would be backed up by facts.  It would be a honing stone to help me get better at communication, and allow be to backtrack what I did a few weeks, months, years, etc...

The thing is probably lazy.  And like most people my age, with the attention span problem, it's always a hurry up and wait type of scenario.  I've mentioned before that you're either super busy, or not.  And I write my blog when I'm not.  But am I truly busy?  Probably not.  I could make this a priority, rather than watching "Breaking Bad," or watching my emotional food porn shows, aka Hell's Kitchen, and Masterchef.

Something like that

It reminded me of one of my favorite topics, economics, opportunity costs, substitutions, and whether people truly act as logically as we would hope.  Do people do good deeds truly to be good, or is the opportunity cost, aka feeling bad instead higher than than the cost of the deed?  I believe people work quite differently when they don't have time, or choose not to think about their decisions.  Many people make decisions based on their gut.  As our guts get bigger and bigger, our decisions do not get better and better.  Gut decisions lead to drugs, pregnancy, drink and drive, cheat, lie, steal, and I think most of the time, they don't sit down, write a plus/delta column, assign points, and do it.

For almost anything I can think of, the amount of fun decreases over time, for a given activity.  Think about it, eating bacon is awesome.  If I was locked in a fun room, and given nothing else but 2 strips of crunchy awesome smokey bacon, and said I had 24 hours to eat it, I could eat it in two different ways.  I could eat it all, and maximize my hunger in one fell swoop, and eat it in 5 minutes.  It would be a glorious 5 minutes.  I could also nibble it every hour for 24 hours.  It would probably get cold, greasy, and I would think to myself, man why did I agree to this, when I could have just flown to Bahrain, and eating as much bacon as I wanted, for as long as I wanted, rather than being in the isolation bacon chamber.

If you had left Tony Stark in the Isolation Bacon Chamber

The amount of fun I will have with this bacon, I would argue is fixed, but there is a diminshing return to the fun over time.  There is no compound interest, or incentive for me to wait.  Here's a few more examples:  Sex.  There's a reason why people are "players."  If all you're trying to do is score, get laid, or prove to your "bros" that you can get anyone to find you charming, then you're going to do whatever it is that you do, as quickly as you can.  On the other side, if you're looking for meeting the person of your dreams, you're trying to find someone that understands you, and connects with you.  If you could be guaranteed that person "A" will connect with you, and person "B" will connect with you, but it'll take 5 years before you two click, well, I think most people would pick "A."

Diminishing returns of bacon is only one part of the thought process.  The other opportunity cost is the possibility of NO BACON.  NOOOOO!  

Loss of Kevin Bacon would also kinda be sad.  

There are many things in which if you don't act now, you'll lose it forever.  I think there's an entire channel dedicated to people who think that this is true.  Oh, home shopping network.  I'll never see that crappy piece of jewelry again, at such an absurd price EVER AGAIN.  I like South Park's take on it.  "Kill yourself," your manipulation of people is poor at best, and your prey on people that are easy to predict and want immediate rewards.  You don't see that type of stuff on the internet, why?  Well, because I can call your bluff, on such a crazy amazing deal, by googling, and seeing what other websites are charging for the same thing.  In probably 10-15 seconds.  Sometimes you're right, and I'll buy, but most of the time, I see that it's a ploy to pull on my emotions, and the fear of no bacon.

This isn't true for everything however.  Somethings take longer time to research than others.  The longer it takes to research, the bigger the incentive to act now, rather than later.  If I had real time data available to me regarding where all the speed traps are, and what cops could possibly end up on the highway, I think I would driver much faster, and more like an ass.  I think many people would do the same.  So what do we see happen?  People slow down, and then once they're out of sight, they speed up, once to "make up for time," and 2, because they KNOW the possibility of a second speed trap is minimal.  Put two speed traps about 2 miles apart, and see what happens.  I bet it'll be quite a few number of tickets.  You have to make sure that people "know" that they didn't get caught on the first trap though.  Otherwise, they'll think that if I slow down for the next mile, the cop will forget about me, or something.  I always thought that's funny.  Those are the people driving super slow, who swerve over to the far lane, and continually look behind them.

So here we are.  We're in a society where we have more information available to us, and more quickly than ever.  However, if we don't have that information in front of us in a timely manner, we'll do whatever we think will get us the most fun, in the shortest amount of time.  We blame it on chemical imbalances, and give it names like ADD, ADHD.  It's a product of us trying to maximize out fun, and technology's battle between providing more information versus the same information more efficiently.  That's what google goggles are for.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/08/02/sight_a_short_film_on_augmented_reality_contacts_by_daniel_lazo_and_eran_may_raz_video_.html

I forget my original point.  I think I was trying to justify why I don't update my blog enough, or something like that.

This is how I feel when I start writing my blog

I had a really good discussion with a co-worker the other day regarding the gold standard, and the question of whether Keynesian economics, and government backed monetary policy is truly the right way to go.  In a nutshell, is the concept of credit and leverage, when it comes to banks the right way to go.  Should banks be allowed to loan out money that should technically be available to people within a short amount of time?  CD's, and long term investments, where you're basically signing an agreement that you will not ask for this money immediately, or take a severe penalty, make sense to be lent out.  The banks believes that the return they can get from lending your money.  And then they use that money to lend more and more out.  That's called leverage.  It's all good when it's good.  But what happens when everyone wants their money back?  It's been lent out so many times, that no one can pay everyone else back quickly enough.  That's why FDIC is for.  But wait, where are they getting their money from?  Uh... printing it?  Uh oh.  That's how inflation happens.  They could also put out bonds for high high interest rates.  Wait, that won't work, people need liquid cash.  So the thought is that government stayed out of monetary policy, and only held enough cash based on a physical asset, such as gold, then businesses would level out, and make more sound capital investments, inflation would not occur, as the monetary supply is fixed.  Costs of goods and services are strictly based on supply and demand.  There would be no boom/bust cycle.  People can't over leverage.

It's a nice thought.  The Keynesian argument allows for much faster expansion in a short amount of time.  There's an incentive to push the multiplier effect i.e. companies borrowing money for expanding, which brings in more jobs, which hires more people, who in turn buy more goods, which fuel the companies, etc... Politically, that's a much easier thing to sell.  You just hope that if the bubble bursts, you're not the one there. Government role, then is to cushion the fall, and as we see, there's only so much cushioning monetary policy can do.  Also, we would still need a central bank that would divey up the worlds' gold supply properly.  Otherwise, the country with the most gold wins.   Countries with it, obviously wouldn't sell it, and the ones with all the gold mines win.   Good luck with that one.  I feel like it's one of the things where if people were truly all the same, and willing to work with each other it would work.  But if it doesn't, then the world ends.  Like socialism.  It's all well and good that you worked really really hard.  But if you suck at it, I'm still not going to pay you for a crappy product.

Something like that.