A longest trip

So, the plane is planning on being in australia till end of april, then in maintenance for 2 weeks, then go to sarawak for second half of may and all of june. Someone doesn't like working in asia, so the manager was suggesting one of us could try doing the whole malaysia time. I suggested maybe I could go at at the regular time (mid april) and finish australia, then do my own thing during maintenance, then go to malaysia for the whole time. Then try to take a bit more time home after it. Now that I look at it, that would be about 12 weeks away from here. So not sure how I feel about it. And I don't know if I would definitely get a longer time off afterwards, because of the staffing situation being minimal, a long time-off for one person means a long time-on for someone else (or short time-offs for multiple people) which might not be too fair. And maybe I would get burnt-out and miserable working for such a long time, but I guess I won't know that till it comes. Depends what this malaysia location is like. I think in KK a year ago I could have stayed there many more weeks, whereas KL a few months ago I wouldn't want much more time. Anyways now that I've said it, the manager has formulated a sortof plan regarding that. I've been looking at a calendar trying to figure out what would be best. I guess if this goes ahead as planned, it would work out best as far as dragonboat goes. That's the main thing I'm thinking about. It's times like this (meaning summer-times) that I really don't like having a field job. Wish I could be in town all of June-July-Aug-Sept then go back to field work. Oh well. Even the rest of the time there's a bunch of things I miss out on, but some benefits I get, it's all a balance that leans to the positive side more often than the negative, for now.

TCM 4th appointment

This time, the acupuncture seemed to hurt a bit more than usual. I think it was cause I was saying overall so far I didn't feel much different, and so he's like "oh yeah?! you feel this?! yeah that's right sucka!" Ok not quite. But anyways I guess we are trying strategy B for a while.

Zoo

Made a short visit to the zoo today. Was much colder and windier than expected so I didn't want to stay long. Also, super crowded! I wondered what was going on, does everyone have some kind of spring break or is there some other event or what. Eventually as I was ready to leave, I finally realized it's a Saturday!

TCM update

For several days after the last appointment, I did seem to have more energy. I attribute it to the herb pills. Couldn't stick to strictly to the "diet" while away and eating in restaurants every meal, but it wasn't too far off. Had another appointment once I got back, this time some of the needles hurt. Got some new nas-tea, I think it actually tastes worse than the last one, but smells better thanks to cinnamon.

Overall, not sure that I've gained much from the treatments and changes, but it has only been a few weeks.

Humanzee

Every once in a while it seems too bad that morality gets in the way of curiosity. I was just reading a little regarding the potential of chimpanzees and humans to interbreed. Sure I like Chimps, Bonobos and Gorillas, and even consider them superior to humans in a general sense, but I wouldn't want to mate with one. But still, I'd be curious to see the results. Apparently Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov tried to make it happen in the 1920s, he artificially inseminated three female chimpanzees with human sperm. Unfortunately none of them got pregnant. He was going to try chimp sperm with human females, but then logistics of having mature chimps available, as well as political pressure, put those plans on ice. Nowadays, I can't imagine even suggesting it without thousands of Mrs. Lovejoys screaming "won't somebody please think of the children" while men in suits and sunglasses calmly ransack your lab. Anyways, if you're female, fertile, and are willing to move far away and act illegally in the name of knowledge, let me know and we'll see if we can make some magic happen.

Green lights on the calgary tower

What's up with that?!

In San Fran Airport

Hey, that guy looks kindof like Sandi's dad. And the woman with him looks kindof like Sandi's mom. And they're looking at me like they recognize me...

So I was on the same flight back home as Sandi's parents, same place same day and even same time/flight despite being two other calgary bound flights within a couple hours. What a crazy coincidence that is! And they got to send an enigmatic sms to sandi "expect an extra passenger" and let her wonder until we arrived. :)

Ninja

Last night at midnight I saw a ninja in my hotel doing ninja things. It was awesome.

End of an era

Tonight's flights might mean the completion of the NextMap USA aquisition! That's a few years of work! Pretty exciting actually. Wonder if we'll have a celebratory dinner. (The NextMap Europe crew did when that project finished some months ago) It also means I probably won't be doing any more work in the US, which is partly good, partly bad. Generally overseas is cooler, but there have been some pretty nice places in the US too.

If it's not all done with tonight's flights, it'll still be very very soon.

Steak

Since I was late and coming from the hangar, I called the other guys to find out which restaurant they were going to. I should have just shown up without calling, confused them as to how I knew where they'd be. But it's kindof obvious. A steakhouse. It's always a steakhouse for them. In Charlotte, it was a steakhouse. In Ontario last time, it was a steakhouse. During the few hours in Vegas, it was a steakhouse. I even remember the first time I met this guy, in Pueblo, it was a steakhouse. I honestly don't think I've ever seen him eat something other than steak. Not trying to say it's such a bad thing, it's just comical. I can hear his voice "Well I could go for a steak."

Update: went out with them one last time after this post, ended up at the exact same place.

Ballroom

Hotels have nice large ballrooms, with formal dinners and such going on. I'd like to go to something like that again. Like the Christmas dance and Primavera, or some kind of graduation dinner. Oh well, can't quite be the same.

Emirates

Wandered around SFO a lot during the long transfer. In the international terminal (which is quite nice) I saw some red hats and white scarfs and immediately my heart jumped a bit. It was a group of emirates flight attendants. Not sure why it would have much affect on me, compared to any others. Did take a look to see if I recognized anyone, though the chances would be so slim. With the makeup and years gone by, it would be hard to tell anyway. Interestingly I was only looking for Nantawan, I guess I'm pretty sure that Hyunjin would no longer be hanging around. I wonder what she's up to these days.

Exit row drinks

I noticed the guys in the emergency exit row were having alcoholic drinks on my flight. Somehow I don't really like that idea. I think there should be a rule against serving alcohol to people sitting in that row. Or maybe I'm just saying that because I want to sit in that row and a rule like that wouldn't affect me.

Acupuncture #2

Quick note on the second appointment. This time just lay on back, got some in shoulders and chest, few in head and one in each leg. But he left for like 45 minutes, didn't realize he'd be gone so long and was starting to get uncomfortable. Then he came back and beat the crap out of the inside of my forearms and elbows with a little hammer thing, and that was done. This time I got some herb-pills since I won't be able to brew any nas-tea while I'm away. They're easier, taste better, and cheaper, but not as theoretically effective. Felt pretty normal the rest of that day, maybe my energy is up a bit, it's hard to tell.

SUVs lose again

Our parking lot sucks, I admit it, already there have been a couple times I've gone out to help push people's cars. But yesterday who was it who was sitting there struggling helplessly despite already having someone pushing... an SUV! So much for the typical argument of being better off in the winter. Already not gaining anything for stopping or for manoeuvring (which some would argue are the more important aspects of winter driving), apparently the ability to accelerate faster is not all it's cracked up to be. Also, pushing an SUV is more difficult than pushing a car, big surprise. Boo SUV! If you want improved performance in all aspects of winter driving, get yourself some winter tires.
Perhaps the most amusing part was that it was apparently a 4 wheel drive vehicle but in 2 wheel drive mode to save fuel, and apparently you can't switch unless your moving. So, if you're stuck and need to change, you're not moving so you can't change.

TWG

In cheesecake cafe the other day, saw a young group waiting for a table, there were a few asian girls, a couple asian guys, and a white guy. I so badly wanted to go up to him saying "Alright! Token White Guy!" and offer him a high five. Don't know why I didn't do it. The thought kept me amused for a long time.

TCM update

Actually, for the rest of the day, I seemed to be lower energy than normal and generally a bit more blah. A bit concerning since he'd been talking like the treatment and "Nas-tea" (as I've dubbed it) were to elevate chi. Maybe it's like, removing a toxic blockage causes toxins to actually flow and feel bad for a time till they're flushed out? I remember reading that sort of thing regarding fasting. Who knows. We'll see how things go.

TCM

So I had my consultation... was interesting I guess. Some things that I expected to be unimportant were apparently important, and vice versa. "ohhh, that's not normal..." For finding pain in pressure points, could argue that you'll always find something if you press hard enough, but what impressed me was how sensitive some were, and how assymetrical it sometimes was. The tongue inspection appeared to be the most informative part of the exam. Sometimes he almost sounded like a salesman. I was going to give some kind of example, but can't really explain it, but maybe you know what I mean. And I'm like "Oh yeah, speed holes!" Anyways, I'm exaggerating a bit, and it could be all completely valid.

Anyways, the "diet obstacles" came up, as expected. I wasn't expecting it to be too bad... Like shellfish, I don't eat anything but shrimp anyways and got rid of most of that a few years back anyways. Diary was expected, and while it would be tough, I think it's mostly doable. But then the bombs started dropping. Bananas. Apparently I should stay clear of bananas. Mangoes and pineapple! That really sucks. And then the worst... "I'm afraid to ask... but what about eggs?" "Ohhhhhh.... Nooooo......" That's like a staple for me. Might as well tell me to stop eating rice, or chicken. It'll be tough. But I guess if this a real chance to physically, mentally, and emotionally improve my condition, I should give it as best an effort as possible. Just feel pretty down about it for now. And having just gone shopping two days earlier, half the food I have here is now considered off-limits, or at least to be minimized.

Another interesting thing was how quickly he wanted to get things started. He actually asked if I didn't have anything to do, if I could stick around and have back to back appointments. I declined, but had one the next morning and having one after the weekend. I guess that's good in a way. One thing that I'm a bit nervous about is cost as well. I'll have used up almost half a years worth of coverage in a week. But if it's effective, it'll be worth it. I can try swing a bit of extra coverage if some can be considered "naturopathy" while some is "acupuncture," I feel that's honestly valid based on what we've done so far, but I doubt it'll work.

One last interesting thing to mention. Apparently from a TCM point of view, jogging is vastly superior to other cardio like elliptical or bike. Something about the impacts promoting circulation of yang upwards and yin back down. ok.

Anyways, first treatment, wasn't bad, seemed quite brief actually. Lay down, poke poke poke, wait 15 min, unpoke, turn over, poke poke, tape beads to ears, wait 15 min, unpoke, bye. Poking mostly didn't hurt, did a bit on some places (esp scalp) on initial insertion. Felt uncomfortable if I let myself think about there being needles sticking out of me so tried to keep my mind elsewhere. Overall for the day, don't notice anything, if you told me I had only dreamed the whole thing, it would be plausible. Drank some herb tea (ie boiled bark and roots and other funky stuff), tasted fairly bad but not terrible. Don't think it made my apartment smell too bad, but I sortof like funky asian smells so others might disagree.

Tripod

Ok, the tripod room was a silly idea for a while, but now it's just some junk sitting there. I have an old antenna and receiver for a gps differential service that went out of service several years ago, I'm thinking it might be fun to set up the tripod somewhere outside of town and see how long it lasts there.

EV

Somehow last night the thought popped into my head and I got quite interested and excited about the idea of performing an electric conversion. Get an old car of some kind, get a conversion kit, talk to some mechanic friends and relatives, and do that as a project sometime then drive around in an electric vehicle! Sounded like something that would be interesting, and while the cost of doing it wouldn't really offset the savings, it would still be cool. Was reading some things about it, but then suddenly a new terrible thought entered my head. Look out the window and you'll realize the problem. Cold. Coldness reduces the effectiveness of batteries in a general sense, so you'd be going much slower and shorter distances. Coldness (or at least going back and forth between cold and warm) also reduces the overall lifespan of batteries so you'd have to replace them more often. Thirdly, to heat the passenger area you'd have to draw a lot of current, using up your battery power even more quickly. Guess it's not so feasible here. (though I do remember there's an electric saturn living in scarboro, wonder how that guy does?)

In a general sense I've considered the first part of that plan though... getting a mid 90s tercel or something for cheap. I still really like my car, but most of the time I'm away and not using it, so what's the point of having a nice car that's not getting much use. Also, even when I was here full time, I put less than half the "average" milage on it, so it's still a very low milage vehicle, but as a car gets older I think the value of that becomes less and less. Also being a sportier car, as society trends towards more and more power is base models, older sportier cars are less impressive. Lastly, a smaller engine gives better fuel economy. But, overall I get a bit attached to things like cars, and it can be a hassle buying and selling, so I might just stick with what I got.

Flooding

For anyone who saw news and was concerned, no my place was not affected. Though I went and got a shovel and spent quite a while chipping away at ice in the parking lot in order to make channels to the drain to clean up the lakes forming there.