Droopy's Diatribe

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2010-04-07T17:11:00.001-04:00

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What it's hard to STFE

2010-04-07T16:40:00.002-04:00

Liz sent me this link earlier today and I thought it tied in nicely with Mike's latest blog posts about dieting and not eating.

Compulsive Eating Resembles Addiction

I like how it says that the rat needed constant stimulation from tasty food to avoid a state of persistent negative reward. Wouldn’t having to always eat untasty food be a state of persistent negative reward? And that must have been some really tasty food if the rat was willing to take an electric shock to get it!

Home again!

2009-09-22T16:57:00.006-04:00

When last we talked I was in the airport in Hong Kong. Since then, I've made it all the way home. Here's a recap of the rest of the trip and the recovery so far.

The hop over the Pacific wasn't too bad. I think I got about 5 or 6 hours sleep from Hong Kong to Vancouver. It wasn't great sleep since my head kept falling down and waking me up. I was doing the dead man on a horse sleep.

The plane landed in Vancouver to refuel and we had to deplane and take all our stuff with us. Canada wanted to inspect the plane as it came into the country and any personal belongings left on the plane was going to get thrown out. Funny thing is that we landed in Vancouver before we took off from Hong Kong. We left Hong Kong at 12:15 AM on 9/20 and landed in Vancouver around 9:15 PM on 9/19.

We waited in Vancouver over an hour before we got back on the plane and headed to JFK. That flight was fine. It was only 5 hours. Better than the 12 over the Pacific. I only slept about an hour on this flight. We landed in JFK around 7 AM on 9/20. Had no trouble clearing customs and re-checking my bag for the flight to RDU. I got a cup of coffee from Starbucks to try and stay awake.

Our next flight was scheduled to leave at noon, but we looked at the board on our way to the gate and noticed there was a flight heading to RDU that left at 8:30. We decided to hoof it to the gate and see if we could get on that flight to get home earlier. This meant I had to sacrifice the ginormous coffee I bought because I couldn't gulp it down in time to get through security. It was a necessary sacrifice!

We were able to hop on the earlier flight to RDU but there was no way our baggage was going to make it. But getting home earlier was well worth not getting my bag. I've got plenty of clothes at the house. I didn't want to sit in the airport for 5 more hours if I didn't have to! I called Liz and told her I was getting an earlier flight that was going to come in around 10 AM instead of 1:45 PM.

The flight to RDU was uneventful. Except I was very anxious to land and finally be home! I got a text from Liz when I landed that Johnny was asleep in the car and I should come out after I landed. We decided to hang around baggage claim just to make sure our bags wouldn't make it. Sure enough, just like the dude at the gate in JFK had said, our bags weren't there. We talked to somebody in the baggage claim area to see if we had to come back that afternoon or if the bags would be pulled and we could claim them later. She said the bags would be pulled and we could come back later or even the next day. By this time Johnny was awake so he and Liz came into the baggage claim area. It was awesome to see them again!

We got back to the house around 11:30 Sunday morning and I had a shower. For the first time in over 2 days. I was grungy. A shower felt awesome! Then we went to Smithfields and I got a BBQ platter. Yeah, pork! You know, I don't eat that much pork, but when you're in a majority Muslim country and you can't hardly find pork, I find that I start to crave it!

Sunday afternoon I took a nap when Johnny did around 1 PM. And I fell dead asleep. Liz came in at 3:00 to wake me up and I did not want to wake up. I felt groggy all afternoon. Liz, Johnny, and I walked down to the park in downtown Fuquay and had a picnic Sunday evening. That was really cool. Instead of all the toys we brought, Johnny ended up playing with the plates we were going to eat on! He had a pretty good time and we feed him some green beans while we were there. We came back to the house and I gave Johnny a bath and a little bottle and put him to bed. I called my parents and talked to them for a while and then it was about 7:30 or 7:45. I crashed and slept hard. Until about 3:00 AM. Then I slept fitfully the rest of the night.

Monday I stayed home from work to recover from the trip. I kept Johnny home with me and we had a good time. I got to see all the new tricks he learned while I was away. He learned to sit up on his own, pull himself up, and has begun to crawl. These developmental spurts are amazing. I took a nap when Johnny took his afternoon nap. That may have been a mistake because I feel asleep hard again. I was pretty groggy the rest of the afternoon.

To keep myself awake I went to play softball last night. I don't know if you can call what I did "playing" softball. I felt like I was in a fog bank out in the field. I missed a ball down the left field line that turned into a homerun for other team. I also misplayed a high fly ball that went off the fence. I should have had enough time to get back and catch the ball, but I couldn't find the fence and turned myself around. Oh well. I did hit the ball OK. Funny how the ying and yang of hitting and fielding work. At least for me anyway. It's rare that I have both a good game in the field and a good game hitting. Usually one is better than the other and they even out.

After the game I ran some errands for Liz and went to the airport to pick up my bag. By the time I got home it was after 10 PM. I was falling asleep driving around so I had to stop and buy a Mountain Dew before I got home. I showered and got ready for bed and didn't get to sleep until almost 11 PM. I slept good until about 4:00 and then I woke up and had trouble going back to sleep.

Today has been interesting at work. I've got a whole lot of work I need to do, but I'm having trouble staying focused. One of the reasons for this blog post! I hit the wall around 3:30 and have been struggling to stay awake ever since. I'm definitely going to bed earlier than 11 PM tonight!

The end of ClubMed and the trip home so far

2009-09-19T10:54:00.002-04:00

I finally got out of meetings around 3:30 PM yesterday. We decided to go over to this trapeze bar they have set up. If you're going to do something like swing on a trapeze and somebody asks you if you've had any alcohol, say no! I had a beer right after we got out of our meetings and before I changed clothes and headed to the trapeze. After everybody figured out you couldn't go based on my response, they all just said they hadn't had anything to drink. Oh well, no trapeze for me. I went to play basketball instead. The courts were right beside the trapeze setup.

After playing basketball for a while I was ready for a dip in the pool. The problem is the pool water is so warm that it hardly cools you off! I hung out in the pool until almost 7:00 PM. I ended up playing with some Australian kids that looked to be between 8 and 12 years old. I would throw a little football up in the air and then they would have a huge scrum trying to fight for the ball. Pretty fun! I also saw what had to be the worst mojito in the world. It had so much mint it looked like a salad in a glass. A salad sitting in a glass of swamp water.

ClubMed went all out decorating the place up last night. The dress code was "White Elegant" (whatever that means!) and they put white covers over all the chairs. The show was pretty good. Lots of dancing. They had a big runway setup by the bar and the chefs got to parade up the runway with everybody cheering for them. That was pretty cool that the club recognized the people who work so hard making all that food. I started falling asleep on a couch by the bar so I called it a night around 11:30. I went back to the room and packed.

This morning I woke up around 6:30 and talked to Liz. Then it was checkout time. To checkout, you just leave your bag outside the door. I had to go to reception and turn in my key. Then I headed to breakfast before our shuttle left at 8:15. Our bags were sitting outside the bus and you just had to point out your bag and they loaded it up. We had no problems at the airport in Kuantan. In fact, the guy at the ticket counter said that he could check our bags all the way to RDU. I let him do it so we'll see how that turns out! I'm betting my bags end up lost somewhere in Southeast Asia!

The flight to KL was uneventful. We had a long layover there so we bought access to a lounge. For $36 USD we got food, drinks (including beer), wi-fi, and a massage. It was worth it for a 6 hour layover! I ended up working on a prototype and whitepaper I have to have complete by Wednesday, the 23rd. By the way, if I don't ever drink another Carlsberg beer, it won't hurt my feelings. I don't know what it tastes like in Denmark, but in Malaysia, it tastes like Busch Light. But, it was free at ClubMed and this lounge, and it was the only beer they had. Even though free beer tastes better, I'm still tired of Carlsberg.

When we got to the gate in KL we found out that we had been upgraded to business class on our flight to Hong Kong! It was awesome! BusinessClass on Cathay Pacific is amazing! The seats are like little lounge chairs set up obliquely so that the chair will lay completely down. Yes, I tested it! The food was very good and I can't tell you what a luxury it was to be able to completely stretch out my legs. Had a nice glass of shiraz with my meal and some Haagen-Dazs ice cream for desert.

Now I'm sitting in the airport in Hong Kong enjoying some free wi-fi and waiting for my next flight, the long hop across the Pacific. If only I could have been upgraded to business class for that flight!

ClubMed, Day 6

2009-09-17T21:52:00.002-04:00

I didn't get out of meetings yesterday afternoon until about 5:30. I grabbed a beer at the bar and then went back to my room and changed into my swimsuit. I hung out in the pool until 7:00 PM. I was a prune by the time I got out!

After supper, I played some pool for a couple of hours. There were 7 of us in the room here that has the pool tables and the poor air conditioning could not keep up. I can't begin to communicate how hot and humid it is over here. I thought I'd experienced humidity, but I haven't seen anything like this.

After playing pool, we went back up to the bar area. The nightly show was over and they had set up some gaming tables. There was roulette, a couple of black jack tables, and a couple of poker tables. There was no money involved. They just gave you a bunch of chips to go have fun with. I played roulette for a while, but sucked it up. After I left the roulette table, my old boss called me over to play poker with him. I ended up beating everybody at the table in the poker game. I got lucky and got some good cards. That and 60 year old drunk Australian ladies are terrible poker players!

Brian had run into a couple from Canada while playing blackjack so we hung out with them for a while. It was cool to talk to somebody from our side of the world. Not many people from the US come over here. Many times when I tell somebody where I'm from they'll say that they've never seen anybody from the US come here. The Canadian couple are on there honeymoon. They're taking a 3 week trip around Southeast Asia! I ended up staying up way too late last night. It was after 1:00 AM by the time I went to bed. We had to wait for the rain to stop to walk from the bar back to our rooms. It started pouring a little before 1:00.

So far today I've been sitting in meetings. This afternoon we're supposed to get out at 3:00 PM and have some free time. I sure hope that happens and we don't have another 2 hour breakout session like yesterday!

ClubMed

2009-09-17T01:34:00.003-04:00

Day 1
Sunday at ClubMed was a completely free day. We didn't have anything planned and meetings didn't start until Monday. We had a late breakfast and then found a pool table! It was more expensive to play here than at Berjaya. 10 RM (~ 3.33 USD) as opposed to 3 RM (less than 1 USD). We played pool for a couple of hours until lunch and then went back to the big buffet to eat more. I'm getting spoiled (and fat) eating a buffet for each meal!

After lunch, we headed down to the beach. There are 2 beaches here. You can't go swimming in the one closest to the resort and the pool. Apparently the currents are very strong at that beach and they won't let you swim. So, you have to take a shuttle or a 10 minute walk to get to the beach where you can actually swim. The water here is very shallow for about 150 feet out and then it gets deep quick. The waves are not good for riding at all. But they do have kayaks and sailboats you can use. We went swimming for a while and then took some kayaks out. There is a buoy that marks the "boundary" you're supposed to stay in with the kayaks and we rowed out to it. It's about half a mile, maybe more, from the shore so it took a while to row out there. After all that work, we deserved a beer at the beach bar.

Sunday night we went to dinner and then there was a show at the pool we watched. Every night here at ClubMed the staff put on a show. It's usually dancing, some sort of comedy skit, an acrobatic act (trapese, ropes, etc.), and more dancing. The shows are pretty good. After the show, I went to bed to get ready for the first day of meetings on Monday.

Day 2
Meetings started at 9 AM Monday. I enjoyed another large breakfast at 8 AM. I've been eating big breakfasts every day since I have a buffet available to me! Our meetings lasted until around 3:30 PM on Monday, but I had to stay late and demo a prototype. I didn't finally get out until after 5 PM. I took a quick dip in the pool and then went to supper. After supper, we went to play basketball. This was around 9:00, but it was still unbelievably hot and humid. The rims here at the court are bent pretty bad so it's hard to make a bank shot at all. We played a game of 3 on 3 to 10 by ones and it took forever. I was pretty much drenched with sweat at the end. The people at the bar enjoying there drinks after the show looked at me like I had 3 heads when I walked up all sweaty and asked for a glass of water!

I slept good Monday night!

Day 3
Tuesday's meetings went from 9 AM to 5:30 PM. Even though we got an hour for lunch and a couple of breaks, it was a long day and I was ready to get out of there by the end! I went swimming in the pool for a while and then went to supper. I found out I could swim the length of the pool (25 meters) under water in one breath! Yes, we had a contest.

It was Arabian day at ClubMed on Tuesday so all the staff was dressed up like they were in Aladdin! We had a few drinks after supper and then went to the belly dancing show. It was pretty good! After the show they had some hookah pipes set up so I smoked out of one of those for the first time. Tuesdsay was an interesting day!

Day 4
Wednesday was a team building day. I found out on Tuesday that I was supposed to organize that! Basically, I couldn't keep my big, fat mouth shut. Somebody suggested a ping pong tournament, but then I took it to an extreme and said we should make it like a decathalon where there were 10 events to compete in. So my boss told me to plan everything. Serves me right, huh?

We were under some time constraints (other people had meetings in the afternoon) so I ran our event from 9 AM to noon. We had a ping pong tournament to start things off. We had 16 participants so I just ran a standard bracket. At the end, Chun Siong who is the director of the Malaysian staff (and the CTO at SchoolDude) won the tournament. He was very good at ping pong. He held the paddle in a weird backhand way that took a while to get used to. I played him in the second round and he beat me 21-11.

Then we moved to the archery range and had an archery contest. I ran into the guy who runs the range (Nic from South Africa) Tuesday at lunch and then after the belly dancing show at the hookah pipes. He hooked me up with a "crazy archery" tournament. We paired up into teams of 2. For the first shot, the shooter stood on one leg and his partner held the other. The shooter shot 3 arrows into a target and then we calculated the number of points they hit. The other person then became the shooter and stood on one leg. For the second shot, you had to sit on the ground and shoot at the target. For the third shot, you had to spread your legs wide and then squat down until you're thighs were parallel to the ground. It was pretty fun!

For the third event, we had a free throw shooting contest. The plan was for everybody to shoot 10 free throws and whoever made the most would win. In case of a tie, all those that tied would shoot 10 more until there was a clear winner. Everybody practiced for a while, but nobody would step to the line to start the contest. I went ahead and stepped up to the line and hit 10 for 10. I'm not the greatest free throw shooter in the world so I will say that the line was only about 10 feet away instead of the normal 15 and the rim was lower than normal because it was bent. My 10 for 10 ended up standing and I won.

After free throws, the CEO wanted to play some "lazy" pickup games. Well, those lazy pickup games turned into full scale wars in the blazing noon day sun. There was a lot of hacking and fouling as people got tired. Horatiu, the team leader from Romania, got black eye when the CEO accidentally hit him with an elbow!

Wednesday afternoon we were free to do anything we wanted. I went back down to the beach and went kayaking. A group of 5 of us rowed out to the buoy again. Around 4 PM, they had a grill on the beach and cooked up some hot dogs and beef and chicken satay. It was tasty!

I came back up to the pool around 5:30 and hung out there for a while. We did some racing and then played "cup" games. We took empty cups and would put them on the bottom of the pool and let them go. The person's cup that came up first would win! It's amazing the games you can come up with.

The show on Wednesday night was right beside the bar. After supper we had a few drinks and watched the show. Then it was karoke time! There were some good and bad singers last night in a lot of different languages. I heard a lot of Japanese karoke last night! That was probably the language that was sung the most.

Day 5
Thursday morning at 9 AM, it was back to meetings. I had to give a presentation Thursday morning. The presentation went well and it was short enough that we got out for lunch a little after 11 AM. I went to play pool for a while before lunch.

After lunch it was more meetings and they're still going on now. I better start paying attention again to the meetings because we're getting ready to move to a breakout session where I'll have to participate. I just wanted to finally get out of some of what's been happening at ClubMed.

9/11 and 9/12

2009-09-12T10:29:00.002-04:00

The dinner cruise on Thursday night was OK. We got rained on for about 30 minutes in the beginning but then things cleared up. By the time we were on the way back into port the sky had cleared up enough that you could see the stars. And there were a lot of them! We had some grilled beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp on the boat. Food was pretty good, but nothing to write home about.

Friday was the last day of classes. We had a keynote in the morning and then a team building exercise until about 2:00. After that, we were free until a social hour at 6:00. I went to the pool and the beach (and I wore sunscreen Liz!) and had a good time. I even took a nice little nap on the beach at one point. The social event at 6:00 included heavy appetizers, cocktails, and beer. It was a good time! We got to hang out with the KL crowd after a little social lubricant and it was like a whole new world. I think we've made some breakthroughs in terms of relationships and communication this week and I hope they carry through after we leave Malaysia.

After the social event we found a place at the resort that had a pool table. How in the world I was there a week and never found the pool table is beyond me. I had a great time playing some pool and drinking some Guinness! Yes, something other than Carlsberg!

Today has been a travel day. Our shuttle was leaving Berjaya at 2 PM to take us to the airport. Before we took the shuttle, we rode a cable car to the top of the mountain at Langkawi. It was 710 meters to the top, so that puts it at roughly 2,200 feet. The view from up there was amazing! We were lucky because it rained right before we went up and the sky was clear by the time we got up there.

The flights were all right today. Everybody made it safe and sound to ClubMed so far, although a couple are still coming in later tonight. The resort is very nice, at least from what I've seen so far. The place is all inclusive and the food is very good so far. I don't think I've ever seen a bigger and more diverse buffet than the restaurant here at ClubMed Cherating.

Off to take a shower so I feel less grungy.

9/9 and 9/10

2009-09-10T01:27:00.002-04:00

My presentation yesterday afternoon went well. It ended up being pretty short. Between 45 minutes and an hour. I changed into my bathing suit that I had in my bag and went straight to the pool after class. I hung out at the pool with Dan for a while and then went down to the beach. The ocean water is warmer than the pool here. I'm not sure how that happens. The ocean is really about the temperature of bath water. I'd guess it's about 88 degrees.

Last night we met in the lobby at 7 and took a bus to another town close by for dinner. We ate at this really good restaurant that I can't pronounce the name of, but it had really good food! We had some really good fish and giant Tiger Prawns. The prawns were grilled and they were awesome! They're so big they have to be butterflied before they are grilled. When they butterfly it they don't bother to take off the head or tail. The whole prawn comes to the table split in half! We also had some chicken satay which is grilled chicken on a stick with some peanut sauce for dipping. It was awesome!

We got back to the hotel around 10:30 or so and I went on to bed around 11:00.

So far today it's been nothing but classes. Today is the last day of classes and we're finally going to get some free time tomorrow after a team building exercise in the morning. I'm really looking forward to some time to lounge by the ocean!

Tonight we're supposed to go have dinner on a yacht. That should be interesting! There are 33 of us here so I can't imagine how big this boat is going to have to be to hold us and feed us.

I gotta run back to class. Later.

9/8 and 9/9

2009-09-09T01:15:00.002-04:00

Tuesday afternoon I got out of my last presentation early (around 4:15) so I went to the beach. I played volleyball with some of guys from the KL team. Man, do I really suck at volleyball. And playing in sand doesn't exactly make it easier!

After that, I met Dan (one of my co-workers) at the pool bar where he had run into an Australian couple named Rob and Jackie. They looked to be about my age or a few years younger and were really nice. They were from Melbourne so it was cool talking to them and learning more about Melbourne and Australia in general.

Around 6:00 I went back to the room and changed to get ready for dinner. We took a bus to a town about 45 minutes away that had a lot of restaurants and shops. We ended up at this really good Chinese restaurant where they had pork! One dish was the foreleg of the pig slow cooked until it was almost pulled pork. They had a sweet chili sauce to go with that and it was almost like eating BBQ back home! I had some good seafood, too. We had a nasty looking fish with teeth in his head that was pretty tasty once you got past the ugly face. There is no such thing as de-boning a fish or chopping his head off over here. They scale and gut it, but bring everything else to the table. We also had these really big Tiger Prawns. They were huge!

After supper I fell asleep on the bus ride back and pretty much collapsed in my room while watching TV.

So far today I've been in classes all day after breakfast. I thought about going to the pool during lunch, but didn't end up doing it. I got sunburned yesterday so I thought better of it. I put my bathing suit and sun screen in my bag so maybe I'll go after class today.

And speaking of that, I have to give my presentation at 3:30 this afternoon. I'm betting it won't take a full hour and a half, unless people ask lots of questions. Hopefully the presentation will go well!

The first 2 days

2009-09-08T01:49:00.003-04:00

I made it safe and sound to Malaysia. One of the hardest parts of the trip was transferring to the international terminal at JFK! The signs in JFK aren't great and I really thought I had done something wrong when I left the secured area. But we (I was traveling with a co-worker) finally found the train we needed to take and go going in the right direction.

When I checked in at RDU they checked my bag to KL, but only gave me a boarding pass for my flight from JFK to Hong Kong. I didn't have a pass for the flight from Hong Kong to KL. So once we finally found the terminal at JFK that housed Cathay Pacific we went up to the ticket counter and they set us up all the way to KL. But then I had to go through security again.

The flight to Hong Kong was fine. We stopped in Vancouver to refuel, but we didn't have to de-plane. Most everybody left the plane so I got a chance to stand up and walk around some. The seats on Cathay Pacific are very comfortable and each seat has a TV with on-demand movies and TV shows. I wanted 4 movies and several TV shows on the way to Hong Kong. We arrived in Hong Kong about an hour early because we had a good tailwind.

I had to go through security yet again when I got to Hong Kong. But we didn't have any trouble finding our gate and they had free wi-fi there. I was able to cruise ESPN to look at college football scores and to send a few emails.

The flight from Hong Kong to KL was uneventful. Once we got to KL we had about an hour and 45 minutes to go through customs and get on our plane to Langkawi. We breezed through immigration and customs (because we didn't have anything to declare) but it was hell trying to get our boarding passes to Langkawi. The airport was packed, I guess because it was noon on a Sunday. We couldn't use the self check-in kiosks so we had to go to the counter. And apparently there isn't anything like a line or queue around here. It was like a big cattle pen where everybody was milling around. We finally got our boarding passes and made it to the gate after going through security yet again.

The flight to Langkawi was short and not very crowded. There was a shuttle waiting for us at the airport to take us to the resort. We finally got to the resort around 3:30 where I had a beer and a shower in that order. I felt like a new man! My 30 hour trip was finally over!

We had supper Sunday night on a restaurant on a pier over the water. The atmosphere was awesome. The food was Thai and kind of spicy. At least the appetizers were spicy. The main course wasn't as bad.

After supper a bunch of us from the American team sat at the pool with a couple of guys on the Romanian team and drank Romanian moonshine. Talk about some stout stuff! One of the Romanian's has an uncle who made the moonshine and he smuggled it into Malaysia in a 1.5 liter water bottle. It was a fun time even though I was pretty tired.

After breakfast on Monday we started our meetings. We had a break in the morning after a group picture where we had some free time. I went to the pool and the ocean. The ocean here is warmer than the pool water which was kind of interesting. The ocean isn't as clear as I thought it would be. The pool has a bar in the water which is interesting. I've never stayed at a place with a pool bar before.

Monday afternoon we had a team building event which was pretty much a ropes course. It's very hot and very humid over here so after 3 hours of standing outside and running through an obstacle course, we were all pretty exhausted.

Monday night we had a traditional 4 course Chinese dinner. It was good and I used chopsticks the whole time and didn't have to resort to the knife and fork the waitress brought me. She asked if I wanted something other than chopsticks and I told her that I might need something as a backup. Apparently I ate fake shark fin soup last night. My favorite thing was this deep fried red snapper. And I mean it was the whole fish, head bones and all, just dropped into a frier. It was tasty though! I collapsed after supper Monday night and went to bed at 9:00.

I woke up this morning around 6:30 and headed over to breakfast after a shower. This resort is so big that they have shuttles running around to carry you from your room to the lobby. You have to dial 4 and call a shuttle when you leave your room. It's been nothing but meetings so far today and tonight we're supposed to go to a nearby town for supper and shopping. We'll see how that goes!

My Malaysian Odyssey

2009-09-03T08:51:00.002-04:00

I'm heading to Malaysia for 2 weeks. I leave tomorrow at 6 PM. I'm really not looking forward to the flights. Check out my flight itinerary getting there.

Flight	Departure Airport	Departure Time	Arrival Airport	Arrival Time
AA5437	RDU	9/4 @ 18:00	JFK	9/4 @ 19:59
CX889	JFK	9/4 @ 22:40	HKG (Hong Kong)	9/6 @ 7:00
CX723	HKG	9/6 @ 8:50	KUL (Kuala Lumpur)	9/6 @ 12:30
MH1446	KUL	9/6 @ 14:00	Langkawi	9/6 @ 14:55

So I lose all day Saturday on the plane. I start traveling tomorrow night at 6 PM and land at my final destination at 2:55 PM Sunday afternoon. Total travel time is 30 hours plus the 12 hour time difference.

Once there I think everything will be pretty cool. The first week we're staying at a place called the Berjaya Langkawi Beach and Spa Resort.

The second week I have to get from Langkawi (an island on the western side of Malaysia) over to Cherating Beach (on the east side of the country). The second week is at Club Med which looks very nice. It's supposed to be all inclusive which works out great for a fat man like me that likes to eat.

Penultimate

2009-08-28T09:48:00.002-04:00

The other day I read an article on MSNBC about Ted Kennedy passing away. In the article there is a quote by his son, Patrick, who apparently represents the state of Delaware in the House of Representatives. This is the quote taken from the article...

"He has authored more pieces of major legislation than any other United States senator," Patrick Kennedy said. "He is the penultimate senator. I don't need to exaggerate when I talk about my father. That's the amazing thing. He breaks all the records himself."

The penultimate senator? Really? He's the next from the last senator? Penultimate does not mean the pinnacle of ultimate!

Now I know that I'm not an English major and I speak Southern (97% Dixie was my score) instead of English, but the use of penultimate there just jumped out at me.

Caning

2009-08-19T20:40:00.002-04:00

Most of you probably already know this, but I've got to go to Malaysia for 2 weeks in September. I fly out on September 4th and return the 20th. I'm going for two different sets of meetings, both of which are at beach resorts which is cool. But getting there and back, plus not seeing Liz and Johnny for 2 weeks, are going to be very tough.

While looking around on the internet today I saw this article about a Muslim woman in Malaysia who is about to be caned for drinking beer. Apparently she was busted at Cherating, which is where I'm going to be my second week there. Hopefully they won't beat a tourist for drinking a beer!

I can't help but wonder what kind of beer this Malaysia woman was drinking. Think she was drinking a Red Stripe?

30 and 31

2009-06-19T16:12:00.002-04:00

I haven't talked about beer here in a while. Hell, I haven't talked about much of anything because I'm a terrible blogger. So I thought I'd take some time to blog late on a Friday afternoon and avoid doing some work.

Last week on my Friday off I bottled the hard cider I brewed. It's number 31. Yep, I've made 155 gallons of beer, mead, and cider at home! Anyway, the cider was made from a kit I got at a brew store and it turned out pretty good. The flat cider I drank last week was pretty tasty at least. Not too sweet and not too dry. We'll see what the carbonated product tastes like next week.

And speaking of flat, Rudd Beer IV (#30) was flat down at the beach on Memorial Day weekend. But it has carbonated up nicely and has turned into a pretty good beer. I don't know who kept all that was left over from the beach, but if you haven't had a bottle lately, you should try it. I don't know if it's the carbonation that has changed the flavor or what. Carbonation really does change the perceived taste of any drink. I've told Casey and Dennis this so many times that they probably want to shoot me, but the bubbles actually activate pain receptors on your tongue. If you don't believe me, stick you tongue in a carbonated beverage for about 10 or 15 seconds and see what happens. I think that "bite" from the pain receptors firing may have offset the bland sweetness of #30 when it was flat.

In conclusion, there is a new brewery we need to tour down in the greater Fuquay-Varina area. Check out Aviator Brewing Company. I've heard good things about them from a few people but haven't taken the time to drive by and drink some of their beer. Maybe we can get a group together to go on their tour one Saturday.

Project Natal

2009-06-16T14:34:00.002-04:00

Wow! Somebody here at work showed me this the other day. All I can say is wow!

The Year 3000

2009-06-04T16:15:00.005-04:00

Conan brings a new take on an old classic with the Year 3000 on The Tonight Show.

That last joke is awesome!

A matter of taste

2009-05-18T13:43:00.002-04:00

I have made the world's most tasteless beer! If you doubt me, try a bottle this weekend. I bottled Rudd Beer IV on Friday and, based on the sample I tasted, I'm not sure it's even beer. It could just be a golden colored water. It makes Coors Light taste like a full flavored pilsner. Hopefully it will be carbonated enough by this weekend. That's my only worry at this point. Well, that and how it tastes!

I think I was so worried about the hop rate after the disaster of Rudd Beer III, otherwise known as Barely Adequate, that I erred on the other side and made the beer too bland. It weighs in at about 4% alcohol so it will do the job even if it is like having sex in a canoe.

Rudd, if you don't like this beer, I can't help you!

Funny sites

2009-05-12T15:55:00.002-04:00

I've found a couple of funny sites over the last couple of weeks that have been making me chuckle.

First, www.fmylife.com. This is a site where people post little blurbs about the bad things that happen to them. I know it's bad to laugh at other people's misfortune, but hey, they put the stuff out there to share. If they didn't want you to laugh at them then they shouldn't have posted!

Second, www.textsfromlastnight.com. On this site people post funny and weird texts they send or receive. Here you'll find gems like...

(831): Hey, what are you up to?
(802): Drinking wine with the guys and watching 7 Pounds.
(802): Looking back I guess I could have changed that to beer and Die Hard.

The Mission

2009-04-30T13:57:00.006-04:00

I like my satellite radio. I hear all kinds of things. I'm not sure if I ever posted this, but about 6 months ago I was listening to an outlaw country station and heard a song called "Fat Girls and Weed" by Renegrade Rail. It was pretty damn funny. But I digress...

Listening to some of the alternative rock stations, I've been hearing a song called "The Mission" by Puscifer. Check out the song...it's kind of catchy

Puscifer is the brain child of Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle. (A different Brother Maynard than the one from Monte Python or the one who lived in 702C Sullivan for a while.) Puscifer is his little side project where he collaborates with different artists. The first Puscifer song I heard was Cuntry Boner. There is a reason you won't hear this on regular radio. The lyrics are definitely NSFW, unless you have headphones!

One thing I found very interesting is the girl singing in "The Mission" is Milla Jovovich. Yes, the same Milla Jovovich from Dazed and Confused and The Fifth Element. I had no idea she was interested in a singing career.

Cheerwine

2009-04-22T15:49:00.003-04:00

I like Cheerwine as much as the next man. Probably a lot more, actually. I like stopping at Wendy's pretty much anywhere west of Asheboro because they have Cheerwine. And after all, it is one of the primary ingredients in the greatest mixed drink of all time, Andrew's Asshole!

I don't know if Cheerwine is trying go national now, but I saw an advertisement for it on Hulu.com the other day. This article from the Salisbury Post says that Cheerwine will also start running ads on MTV, VH-1, and Comedy Central.

I will say that the ad I saw looked like somebody on crack made it. The ad referenced a website called www.itsasoftdrink.com. The website also looks pretty crack-tastic. Saying it's a soft drink and then producing ads and websites that look like a drunk guy made it isn't exactly reinforcing the soft drink angle!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta run get some Passport Scotch and Canadian Mist.

High on Air?

2009-04-21T15:05:00.002-04:00

Man, people in London will do some crazy things to get drunk! But inhaling vaporized alcohol? That seems out there.

It reminds me of a story my father-in-law told me one time. He and 2 friends wanted to drink but didn't have much money. They went to a bar and ordered one shot of whiskey, stuck a fork in the shot, and then sucked the whiskey off the fork. Same principal as a vaporized gin and tonic, I suppose.

Booty is booty

2009-04-09T13:30:00.002-04:00

You can also check out Sir Mix-A-Lot's new Photo Shop

Johnny sent me a smile!

2009-03-26T16:09:00.002-04:00

Johnny just started smiling last week and we've managed to snap a few pictures. Liz sent me an email this afternoon with this picture attached and I couldn't help but smile back at him. I thought I would share.

Coming soon to the DBAP?

2009-03-25T14:59:00.002-04:00

Man, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Between having a kid and being really busy at work, I haven't been able to contribute my normal jackassery to this blog. But at least today I have a little something, something...

As a testament to gluttony, and the fact that minor league baseball teams will do lots of things to get butts in seats, I present a 4,800 calorie burger.

I think I'd rather just stick to dollar hot dog night at the Durham Bulls game. That's much better than watching people drop over dead from heart attacks after eating this monstrosity.

Super Freak

2009-02-05T12:04:00.002-05:00

If only at the end Ricky had said, I'm Rick James, bitch!