Today I say goodbye to a trusted companion: my Lenovo T61

I’ve upgraded my old laptop to a newer Lenovo T510. 

The biggest change will be leaving the familiar operating system of Windows XP Professional and moving to Windows 7, then transitioning to all of the Microsoft 2007 Office products and Microsoft Outlook 2007.  I wish there was no learning curve moving from XP to 7 or Office 2003 to 2007.  This is certainly not the case.  I held off long enough.  I think I was the last hold out in the organization.  Wish me luck.  Change is good.

Change is good?

Change is good…

Short post and a reminder…

Always celebrate victory — regardless of how small !!!

Somehow, I had been slightly disappointed about something i was misinformed about last week. Today, the disappointment is now joy. Cheers!

Safe and sound in San Francisco!!! =D

Safe and sound in San Francisco!!! =D

Dateline March 31Thursday 11:09am    It’s the second to last day in Manila. I thought about the passage of time this morning in the early stages of waking and consciousness. On this trip it was incredibly relaxing, culturally eye-opening, and a great connection with my wife’s extended family. The other thing I noticed, which is the most remarkable, was that time seemed to move at a slower pace. Three weeks is just the right amount of time to disconnect from the frantic and hectic pace in the real world aka work. Time moves actually too fast at work. I feel like work is the biggest time vampire in life. Maybe this wouldn’t be the case if I felt more fullfilled and passionate about what I do. It’s nice that I felt this once upon a time at work. Too bad that feeling is currently absent.  You wake up one day and realize you wasted a lot of your life working only for money and not for fullfillment. This race should not be run and I’ve somehow fallen into this trap. I wonder if there is an easy solution to this common problem…

… truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. — Moby-Dick, Ch. 11 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick Today was an awesome adventure in attempting to find my Moby thanks to Binks Lani and Jon! We were in sleepy seaside town of Donsol, boating for almost 4 hours in search of the Migrating Butanding (aka Whale-Sharks)! Sadly no Whale-Sharks were spotted for us to interact with. At least this leaves me a good reason to come back to the region of Bicol Philippines to find my Moby. Today we celebrated at the Embarcadero of Legaspi with traditional Filipino Heart Attack food: Pork Sisig, Bangus Sisig, Pork Adobong Strings, Adobong Puso Rice, Deep Fried Pork Tadyang, Tuna Sashimi, Inihaw Tuna Belly, and a couple of buckets of San Mig Light Beer. Yum! Sayonara Diet!!! A great birthday celebration with two of my favorite relatives from Binky’s Family! Yesterday, when we were almost turned away from the airport of Legaspi City because the runway was closed due to bad weather, we attempted to learn how to wakeboard at Camsur Wakeboarding Complex CWC, which was an hour and a half away from the Hotel Venezia in Legaspi City. The rains were persistent, the winds were strong, and the waters were too cold! Strange and unexpected conditions for a Philippine Summer. Another reason to come back… Tomorrow, we head to some ruins and visit the active volcano Mount Mayon. All in all, a fantastic and memorable way to celebrate my birthday! Dateline: March 28, 2011 11:30pm Hotel Venezia – Legaspi City, Philippines . . .

dateline 3/27/2011 – 831am – legaspi city, bicol, philippines Hello Bicol! It’s a cool and rainy day in Legaspi City. Off to Cam Sur for some wakeboarding and tomorrow’s the big day to swim with the Whale-Sharks aka Butanding of Donsol! Awesome!!!

Back from balmy Bangkok! Up late til 2am. Woke at 10amish. Ran Dadmariñas Village from 1045-1145 and did my calisthenics at Mahogany Park. It’s freaking HOT! Got an update on LV from Joel. No time to swim as it’s being cleaned. Now feasting with Jon & Lani… Dateline: March 25, 2011 1239pm

Dateline: March 23, 2011 10:43 am Bangkok Thailand

I’m enamored with the City of Bangkok. It’s a great city. It’s raining today. However, it’s a welcome change to stay inside. Our little room at the Bangkok Loft Inn is quite comfortable. The bed is clean and comfy. The AC is cold. There is a nice view of the cloudy and gray sky of Bangkok. One can hear the pitter-patter of the rain against the metal roof of the hotel. I would definitely stay at the Bangkok Loft Inn again! The last ten days have been overwhelming and overstimulating in both Bangkok and Manila.  But I think it’s like that where ever we travel or where ever we go.

Here’s a link to some of the interesting Thai links I came across in my downtime (in addition to wasting just a little time on FB):

- The Hotel: http://www.bangkokloftinn.com/
- 100 Thailand sites: http://www.click2thailand.com/   which led to:

- Thai Street Food: http://www.thaistreetfood.com/

- Life of a Thai Teenager: http://www.thailandlife.com/
- Thai Prison Life: http://www.thaiprisonlife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=74&Itemid=99

- My Favorite Traveling Couple: http://lucasandjenn.com/category/thailand/

While a separate post would be best, I’ll just keep adding to this entry for now. One of my favorite dish names was found on the ThaiStreetFood site. It’s called “pat gra-prao moo sap kai daao’” or Minced Pork Stirfried with Basil and Fried Egg.

I would eat this every day if I could. It’s amazing what you can find in Bangkok for only 20 baht and on Th Khao San Road!

On a separate note, oh Xanga how you frustrate me! i lost the post i was writing on Lynette’s iPad just before I was about to post. Back to the old school Lenovo NetBook…

Dateline: 03/20/2011 9:36 PM

I’m here in Bangkok, Thailand! Finally! My birthday dream of visiting Thailand has come true thanks to my wonderful wife! Today’s excursion was amazing!

I really like this city for it’s pro-tourist attitude and incredible infrastructure! This is so much better than Manila, Bangalore, and Singapore. These are the only asian cities I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time in to compare. There’s much to see, lots of culture and shopping and temples and the people are friendly and the food is amazing!!! I’m impressed with the food. Flavor is great. Quality is great on the street. Prices are super cheap! I can imagine coming back really soon!

Today we visited the JJ Weekend Market aka Chatuchak. This is a great place to find inexpensive souvenirs and other Thai goods. Prices are reasonable and you can haggle. Riding the Skytrain to and fro Chatuchak was incredibly easy. It costs about 120 baht or $4 USD for an all day pass on the train system. We changed trains at the Siam Interchange which is conveniently at the Siam Paragon Shopping Center. This area is similar to the San Francisco Westgate Shopping Center and was a welcome air-conditioned change from the hot and muggy Chatuchak outdoor shopping experience.

I forget to mention the food at Chatuchak, we tried lots of Street food there with no ill effects! lynette and I tried some deep fried breaded pork and lechon styled pork at one of the vendors after wandering around. Delicious for only 30 baht ($1 USD)!!! After shopping we we hungry at 1130 and decided to eat at one of the food booths just outside of the Chatichak Park and outside of Gate 2 of the shopping center. Binks had a Thai Papaya Salad (30 baht) which was super extra spicy but I could not eat it beCause it had baby shrimp in it. We also tried a Pork Tom Yum soup and a Crispy Pork with Chinese Kale over Rice dish which were only 50 baht each ($1.75). Excellent flavor, value and quality! We were afraid of getting sick by eating street food buy so far we are safe! That stuff was great! We also tried some Hong Kong Egg Puffs (30 baht) but weren’t too impressed. At least they provided a small distraction while Lynette shopped at a Thai decorative lighting store! What was impressive was the Chinese Sweet Waffles we got at the Mo Chit Train Station! Excellent flavor quality and temperature for only 15 baht! I definitly want to go back just for the Waffle Snacks!

We dropped off our shopping loot at the hotel and
asked if there was a good Thai Massage nearby. We lucked out and found a local joint that gav us a great massage for 1.5 hours for only 150 baht! What a deal! We’ll definitely be back tomorrow!

After this we were hungry and decided to get a taxi to Th Khao San Road to check out the backpacker’s haven. It’s a cool spot. I really wished our son Austin was with us to experience this area and this trip! It’s like Playa del Carmen, Mexico or Amsterdam with much better food! We tried Mango Sticky Rice (25 baht), a spicy Pork and Basil with Egg over Rice dish and a Pad Thai with Roasted Pork at Khao San all excellent for only 50 baht each!

I’m in love with Bangkok exclusively for the FOOD!

Time to rest for our excursions to the different Temples tomorrow! Not to mention the Thai Massage and all the other great food!!!

Chao Praya! =D