boon's log 4005.01: Kite Fest

We went for the 7th annual kite festival organized by KYMX Mix96 up in Elk Grove Park last weekend. We were kind of late in getting there... blame it on the lazy bones. We made it just about 3 hours before curtain call. And there were still quite some people there. Pretty much like a family day out with picnic and all. We got a bucnh of goodies - IL even won a electric toothbrush when she hit the bull's-eye in one of the booths. And the weather was nice as well. Too bad we missed the professional synchronized kite show which I think happened earlier in the day...
here are some pictures...


One of the marching bands


Kites and balloons...


Live band throughout the day


The station that made it all happen.


Magic and puppet shows for the kids


Some folks trying out on the kites they've made during the fest


Err... kid staring at kites?


More balloons...

boon out...

boon's log 3905.02: Guess what I saw at the gas station?

Oops!

For the record, this was already there when I arrived at the gas pump.

Well, this is definitely something that you do not want to leave behind at the gas station these days with the gas prices soaring like the eagles - well, actually, gas prices has dropped slightly these few days, with OPEC steppping up on the oil production - challenging the governments that it is not the oil production that is driving the high oil prices but the ability to process the oil (coupled with a few other factors such as political stability and weather conditions). Read more here.

by the way, there is an e-mail in circulation now, saying that September 22nd is "Say no to Petrol" Day or what they declared as "Stick It Up Their Behind" Day. Interesting. Someone, somewhere, somehow managed to find the time and resources to calculate how much the entire petrol industry will be impacted if the entire world did not purchase a single drop of petrol on that day (I guess, it's from 12AM to 12AM the next day) - a whopping 4.6 billion dollars. So, spare some petrol for the 22nd or do what majority of Chinese do in China - go get a bicycle... :P

boon out...

boon's log 3905.01: Asiatic Lily...

Asiatic Lily...

used up pretty much of the weekend to recuperate from the tiring trip earlier this week. Yeah, just sleeping it off - somehow it will never be enough. Ate heartily - My colleagues and us went to this Asian Seafood buffet down in Roseville and we were stuffed. We almost felt dizzy from the over-feeding of shrimps and oysters.

Managed to catch The Exorcism of Emily Rose at the local cinema - a good share of courtroom drama and the supernatural, hinging more on the former rather than the latter. Interesting movie - but as usual, the preview made it look nicer than it really is. But I guess it was okay, plus the fact that it was based on a true story made it a little more scary. It's an interesting insights into how medicine can get in the way of exorcism... Not much of a horror movie, really - it does not really have the kick that you get from movies like The Exorcist or The Ring.


boon out...

boon's log 3805.04: Cutting it close...

Just got back from Arizona. The flight itself was rather uneventful, except that I almost missed my flight back due to a detour that (I'm kinda glad) I made to HRC Phoenix. They were having some sales going on and I got ourselves some goodies.

Anyway, it was 35 minutes before my flight and I'd only reached the car rental carpark and was returning my car - and I really thought that I was surely going to miss my flight. When I got on the shuttle from the rental car carpark to the terminal, I discovered that there were 3-4 other people in the same shuttle that are on the same flight as I was and all of us were looking at our watches and asking the shuttle driver to speed up. At that moment, it kinda reminded me about an episode from the Amazing Race.

The moment the bus stopped at our terminal and opened the door, we dashed out of the shuttle and started running to the check-in counter.

**about 20minutes left... (the door closes 10minutes before the flight)

The ground crew at the counter went, "Cutting it close, sir. I suggest you do not walk..."

Boarding pass checked and we (again) dashed for the immigration and oh my goodness, I tell you... the things you'd have to do...

- remove laptop and cameras from your bag(s) and put them in a separate bin.
- coins, wallets, keys, cellphones, pagers in a separate bin
- jackets in a separate bin
- shoes in a separate bin
- then there is your bag (depending on how many you have...)

so, one person would have to take care of those items 4-5 bins/buckets and make sure that they go through the x-ray machine before he or she goes through the metal detector...

... then re-collect your stuffs and stuff them back to where they were before the x-ray machine!

**15 minutes to departure

running like a mad man. I've always wondered if the security guys would just stop you and give you a hard time for running in the terminal. (Thank God for travelators). anyways.

Made it to the gate with 2 minutes to spare! and sweating like a pig... boarded the plane and then at that moment, in the plane, the typical/usual thought hit me -

"did I take everything from the x-ray machine?"

Gosh, that is the worst... furthermore the guy behind me had the same model of laptop that I have -

"did we, by any chance, swap notebooks and did not know about it?"

I then double-checked my stuffs (and yes, my laptop too - and made a mental note to put a big sticker on the top of the laptop so that others would not mistakenly swap theirs with mine). Then my mind kind of wandered off to thinking what if the guy behind me at the x-ray machine really did swap PCs with me? How would I contact him and exchange our laptops? Is there anyway IBM is able to detect the user by the serial number - where he attempts to boot-up the PC and contact him. DUH! (Maybe Earth Google can help) Anyways, scary thought, ain't it?

The plane started to taxi out and I decided to brush it off and attempted to finish off the Hunt for Red October...

boon out...

boon's log 3805.02: In-flight entertainment

I was on my way down to Arizona and I booked myself on America West. I expected the flight to be quite un-eventful, as there is nothing much you can expect from a 2-hr domestic flight - until the flight attendant started speaking... as usual, you cannot make out half of what they are saying over the PA system... Anyway, she made sure we caught a few of them...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Please pay attention to Melissa. She is going to show you the flight safety procedures. She has spent a lot of time in school learning how to do this, and she is very good at it, top of her class, so please pay attention...

*while Melissa was working on the safety belt*

... (in a sexy voice) Ooo look at her go. Go Melissa, you show them!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"This is a Non Smoking flight. Do not try to smoke in the toilets because the air ventilation in the toilets is linked in the entire plane and all of us in the cabin will be able to smell it and know that you are smoking. However, when we have reached our final altitude, for customers who need to have a smoke, we do have our in-flight smoking section open for them - they are located at the tip-end of both the aircraft's wings. Please approach Melissa or myself if you need help getting there..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"In a moment, we will be serving some complimentary snacks... ... Melissa and I will be pushing the snack carts through the main aisle. If do not wish to lose any legs, arms, toes or any other extremities, we do strongly suggest that you stay in your seats behind the yellow lines, unless it is really necessary for you to move around..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just landed at Phoenix Int'l Airport... ... ... On the contrary to popular believe, the seat pocket in front of you is not a rubbish bin. As we are taxing to the terminals, Melissa and I will be coming through the main aisle again to collect any unwanted items that you may have, such as plastic bags, laptop computers, crying kids (we had one on the plane), mother-in-laws, husbands, wives and teenage kids, etc..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was quite entertaining having these unorthodox in-flight announcements... the last time I had another entertaining flight was on a United Air, the male flight attendant entertained the entire cabin by singing a few opera pieces. He was a great tenor. So great that he received a few encores after that...

boon out...

boon's log 3705.07: A nation in remembrance... (delayed)

September 11, 2005. Last Sunday was the first time the nation remembered the dreadful day when the USofA was attacked by terrorists 4 years ago. Being here really makes the difference - solemnity, practically, swept across town. I guess, much of the contribution to it is also the wake of the hurricane.

Katrina has been at the edge of everyone's lips, so to speak. I have one colleague here whose family is actually lives in New Orleans and is affected by the hurricane. It's devastating. It puts you in a position where you think to yourself, what do you (or can you say) to these people to make them feel better? Helplessness falls on your lap. The first thing that comes to mind is in our donations - then again, remember the Tsunami - where fund management was an issue and was questioned? Irregardless, it's really sad.

On top of that, there has been accusations that the Bush Administration is not doing it's best to help the hurricane victims - citing discrimination as a factor. On Sunday, Lakeside's pastor said something which I think can prove to be quite true. During the 9/11 incident, there was an external enemy that the nation was facing and therefore the nation could unite themselves and look outwards and together with the nation's leaders to fight against the enemy that is causing the hurt and pain to the entire nation. However, in the case of Katrina, there is none - no external forces (leave alone the natural ones, of course), thus the nation is now looking inwards and this could have been the very fact that stirred up the unnecessary "side effects" of the hurricane. Well, I thought that made some sense. But I guess the former part may have it's truth in it, judging from the history we've read from Mr. Michael Moore... Anyway, to each his own. This is mine.

One other thing that came out of this catastrophe is, it may surprise you (it may not) is that people are more opened up to the idea of God. Television and radio stations are more leaning towards airing God-influenced programs and interviews, which is good. Like the other night, Alvin Slaughter and a couple of other gospel singers coming up on National TV singing Gospel music to raise money for the Red Cross for the hurricane victims. I believe the program was aired on several channels also. I believe that is truly what we need - amidst of all the 500-over million US dollars donated to the Katrina victims, we need a nation (or a world) of prayer...

boon out...

boon's log 3705.06: Quiet weekend...

IL was called to Santa Clara on Friday for an emergency at work - supposed to have stayed until Sunday, but was cut short as the problem was (miraculously) solved by last night. She and her colleagues decided to carry on with their original plan for the weekend - teambuilding in Reno. So, home-alone weekend for me. So far, nothing much, down with a cold and have been at home, catching up with some reading and watching the tele, pretty much. She managed to grab some lunch for me on their way home...


heavenly lunch... trust me, 'twas heavenly (!!!)


Anyway, here are some images from our previous trip down to SF...>


Bay Bridge


Golden Gate Bridge - yup! check out the fog on that one...


Palace of Fine Arts


Palace of Fine Arts

Basically, it was a foggy and cloudy weekend and most of the pictures did not really turn out well. We also did not get to the Rock because the tickets were sold out for the entire weekend until Monday - Labor Day weekend. That kinda made the entire town pretty crowded. We were down in Lombard - but due to the jam, we could not even get down to take a photo.


Alcatraz

We then headed off to Chinatown for some shopping. When we were there, we noticed some commotion along one of the streets and with police and people with radios closing the streets to cars and pedestrians. They actually closed the streets for a movie shoot. And... apparently, Will Smith was there for the shooting - a movie that is expected to come out next summer (or something like that). I think it is called Pursuit of Happiness... or something like that.


"Lights... Camera... Action!" (notice the old cars and taxis, guess it is going to be a "old" movie)



SF Chinatown

boon out...

boon's log 3705.03: Fall

Fall

Fall is finally settling in. Temperatures are taking a steep dip these few days - like today, it was around 68-ish when I stepped out of my apartment this morning. It immediately sent shivers to them bones, as I was just covered with my usual jeans and round-tee. It was quite hot though during the weekends, hiking up to 105 degrees. So you can imagine, the vast differences. But it's nice to be able to have nice weather during the weekend so that we are able to drive around and do stuffs.

IL and I were down in SF during the long weekend that just past (Labour Day weekend). Will update more on that with pictures later. Just a short update today. I just got my notebook back - it kinda died on me during the weekend and it had to be rebuilt, so many of the stuffs are yet to be installed and linked properly. One of the many frustrations began when I wanted to download images from our camera and I discovered that I've left my Canon Camera Installation CD in Penang (which included the Photoshop S/W). So I had to download the trial copy from the Adobe website and work wit it until I get a hold of my CD later...

boon out...