So Anyways

Home Again

We made it home on Saturday evening after what can only be described as a wonderful vacation that was too long in coming and too short for my tastes. I don't know exactly what it is, but there's something about a week on a tropical island in the middle of the South Pacific that is good for the soul.

While I don't exactly feel enthusiastic about re-joining the "real world" tomorrow (even with easing into it later today by starting to work through my accumulated work-related e-mails), my anxiety and stress levels are probably at an all-time low, so I'm hoping that will translate into a bit more bearable routine. Now, if only I could bottle this "c'est la vie" attitude and use just a little throughout the year when I really need it, I'd have it made.

Ed is planning to post a travelogue-type journal of our adventures, along with lots o' pretty pictures, on Whine & Cheese, so I'll limit my trip report to just a few highlights:

• After arriving at the Papeete international airport on the island of Tahiti, we are transferred by bus over to the "domestic" terminal to catch our inter-island transfer to our first destination - the island of Moorea. Imagine the surprise to a couple of Americans to find an airport "terminal" that is nothing more than an open-air hut (with a bar), no metal detectors, no one searching through luggage, no lines for security, and no crying babies. Standing there, awaiting our puddle-jumper flight to Moorea, enjoying a nice cold beer, feeling the warm tropical breeze, and smelling that faint but undeniable "island scent" of salt water with a hint of fragrancy from all of the tropical flowers, I could just feel all of the pent up stress flowing out of my body. That's a feeling I'll remember for a long, long time.
• After a first day that had both of our heads spinning with culture shock (and some sticker shock at just how much the trip was going to cost us for food and drink), sitting out on the deck of our beach bungalow that first evening and feeling the cool tropical breeze - a time when the remnants of stress from the pre-vacation days seemed to finally disappear for good.
• Being immersed in a multi-cultural environment, well outside of our normal American comfort zone - while there were plenty of Americans there, there were also lots of Europeans and Asians as well. Nearly everyone in the tourist industry speaks at least some English, so we had very little trouble communicating, but we also got quite used to hearing French and Tahitian phrases being uttered all around us. Generally, we'd be greeted first with "bon jour" and then "ia'orana" (Tahitian for "good day"), and finally, when it was obvious we were clueless mono-lingual Americans, we'd hear "good morning!". It really made me wish that I had taken the time sometime in my life to learn French, at least well enough to be able to carry on a simple, brief conversation in their language instead of expecting them to speak my language.
• Feeding the sharks and sting rays - we took an all-day excursion on our second day, with a group of about 20 other tourists, to feed sharks and sting rays in their "natural" environment. On the boat tour around the island, with our guide "Siki," a very colorful guy and a good example of what one would expect a native Tahitian to be, we got to see some of the most spectacular scenery probably anywhere on the planet. Seeing and feeding the sharks and rays was cool as well, but I got the feeling that while it was definitely in the animals' natural environment, the whole experience was a little less than natural since the sharks and rays know they're gonna be fed by masses of tourists if they show up at the same time and location everyday. As part of the tour, we enjoyed a barbecue picnic on a remote beach with some of the best food of the trip - grilled mahi mahi, fresh fruits, and a raw-fish concoction made of marlin marinated in citrus juices and coconut milk. It sounds disgusting, but it was great!
• Gael, the official videographer on the excursion - one of the sexiest men alive. Tall, blonde with long hair, French-speaking, with a gorgeously tan and lean body. It was worth the cost of the excursion just to get to oogle him for an entire day.
• Sitting out on the deck of our bungalow on Moorea after the sunset, listening to our iPod vacation mix on our portable speakers while sipping our new-found favorite drink - it's called "Tahiti Drink" and is a mixture of pineapple juice, orange juice, passionfruit juice, and is 10% alcohol. It comes in a 1-liter carton (like a milk carton), and the best part - it's cheap. Exotic drinks cost $12-$15 each at the hotel bar, but this stuff cost less than that for an entire evening's worth of mellow buzz.
• Experiencing daily life on the islands - especially on Bora Bora, we got to spend a lot of time just exploring the island and seeing the residents go about their daily lives. Amazingly enough, they manage to do so without a Home Depot or a Target or a McDonald's within thousands of miles.
• Eating lunch at one of the most charming little roadside "snack" restaurants you can imagine - the front porch of an island couple's home with a gorgeous view of the beach and ocean. They had lots of good-looking things on the menu, but Ben, the owner, politely encouraged us to just order pizza because he was too tired to make anything else. We obliged and had a very nice dinner and were thoroughly entertained by Ben and his wife, Robin and their 3 dogs.
• The hot, nearly naked, Polynesian boy dancer - on our first night on Bora Bora, we took in the hotel's buffet and Polynesian dance show. While the dance show was nothing spectacular in my opinion (besides the part where Ed was called out to the "stage" and taught to swivel his hips by one of the dancers), the highlight was an incredibly hot, lean, long-haired Polynesian guy who looked really good in nothing but a piece of cloth over his privates.
• Sitting on the deck of our bungalow on Bora Bora watching the most incredible display of stars I've ever seen - it was an exceptionally clear and moonless night, and the result was a night-time sky with more stars than I could ever imagine. With the Milky Way in the background, the sky almost seemed three dimensional - some stars seemingly close enough to touch and others just small faint specks.
• Looking out our bedroom window later that same night and seeing a huge, orange moon rising above another island near the horizon. We watched that, mesmerized, for a long time till we fell asleep.

I could go on and on with highlights, but this is so long I probably lost you by the second one. Needless to say, the islands worked their mythical magic on me and I'm already trying to figure out how we can swing another "trip of a lifetime" like this one.

Ah well...it's good to be home anyway.

Gone Fishin'

I'm gone fishin' - OK, not actually fishing, even though I actually used to love fishing but decided a few years ago that the thrill of catching an animal and watching it flail around in pain and horror while it gasped and died a slow death was not something I really felt good about - but I'm gone on vacation and I'm sure fish will be a big part of my life for the next few days. I'm hoping and expecting that we'll get to see lots of cool sea creatures swimming around the lagoon and I'm sure we'll probably even eat some of the damn things.

I've been a really really bad blog boy lately, and I'm gonna be really bad for a few more days during the vacation, but I'll be back and blogging again soon.

Woo Hoo! I can hear the cheers reverberating around blog land now!

Hell(o)

Just a quick post today to say hello. From hell. I'm caught in a week that I've known for some time was going to be the week from hell, so I've not got a lot (any) time to blog, but I thought I'd take a quick minute to dust the cobwebs off of So Anyways.

This week, I'm hosting a group of co-workers from around the world for a conference here at the mothership/company headquarters. In some ways, it's fun to do this because most of the people attending are people I've known for 10 years or more, and whom I've come to respect and like as friends, despite the fact that we live in opposite corners of the globe and I only see them on rare occasions like this one.

The preparations for the big group gathering are challenging and tiring, especially given that when my boss asked me to do this, he did so in practically the same breath in which he was handing me an increased day-to-day workload. So, I've been a bit frazzled and will be glad when the week is over!

Even with the challenges, I always think to myself how I should savor the fact that I work in such a global business. It's really pretty cool to see and work with people from Europe and Asia and other parts of the world. Even if we don't spend a lot of time talking about how America's leading the global "war on Terra" and how we're bringing Democracy and Freedom to them all, it's a good chance to gage their feelings anyway.

For the past couple of years, their reactions have been not quite as supportive as our president would have us believe. I'm thinking of opening the meeting tomorrow with a statement that "I didn't vote for him, so don't blame me!," but I guess that wouldn't be appropriate.

Anyway, now that the cobwebs are dusted off, time to return to the preparations for Todd's Global Summit 2005. Friday the 13th can't get here soon enough!

Jiff or Skippy?

We got in a discussion in the office today (we being a group of geeky engineers on a Friday afternoon in a meeting but with absolutely no interest in doing anything worthwhile) regarding the proper pronunciation of "gif" (as in the extension for graphics files).

One of the girls in the meeting kept pronouncing it with a soft "g", as in "jif". Another guy in the same meeting sent me a text message saying, "I say we move to Skippy and leave the Jiff behind." He obviously agreed with me that it should be pronounced with a hard "g" as in "gift."

I told him later that I've heard the "jif" pronunciation before, but only from stupid people. Intelligent people know it's pronounced like "gift." Just like "gigahertz" - people who say "jigahertz" are just plain dumb and obviously don't know what they're talking about.

Then the inevitable happens. The original co-worker who started the whole discussion finds this web site that supposedly settles the issue and proclaims her pronunciation to be correct.

I guess I was the stupid one. I don't care though. Anyone who says "jigahertz" is still dumb.

The Candidate Who Just Won't Die

Back in the day, when it looked as if there actually was hope that W's presidency would be limited to the 4 year term he did(n't) win, I decided that I wanted to do whatever I could to help make that dream a reality. Because I'm not the kind of guy who'll go out and campaign door to door or who'll make campaign phone calls, the only thing I could come up with that I thought might make a difference was to make financial contributions to the Kerry campaign.

I probably gave way too much money over the course of the campaign, but I did so hoping that it would make a difference. Obviously, that was a complete waste of money since a loss by even a slim margin is still a loss, and because W. is still the president.

One of the by-products of those contributions, however, is that I'm stuck on the johnkerry.com mailing list, and I get e-mails from him (more like from some johnkerry.com employee whose salary is being paid by all that money I sent to the campaign) several times a week. The latest one is begging for money to help pay for an ad in the USA Today next week trying to rouse public outrage over the Republican threat to use the "nuclear option" against the judicial nomination filibuster threatened by Democrats.

While I'm as outraged as most Democrats that the Republicans would do such a thing, I'm having a very hard time being motivated to contribute money to pay for newspaper ads against the idea. I mean, if the Republicans go through with their threat, then it's almost like the country is getting what it asked for. What good is a few dollars toward a newspaper ad going to do when you're trying to change the course of a juggernaut? With a Republican congress and a Republican administration, and a rabid conservative evangelical base, it just doesn't seem likely that a newspaper ad is going to change the outcome.

I suppose I'm glad that John Kerry is still out there speaking out and trying to hold the line against the Republicans, but he's not been very successful at motivating me. I know having all those "inactive" conservative judges confirmed would be a bad thing for the country. But maybe we just deserve it. After all, we got what we voted for.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

I have no idea why really, but Cinco de Mayo (the fifth of May) is a big deal in Phoenix. (And as Ed keeps pointing out, it's 05-05-05 as well!). I have no idea why it's such a big thing - it's the anniversary of some relatively obscure, but victorious battle by the Mexican army against the French back in 1862 - but I think I can guess.

Phoenix has a lot of Mexican restaurants. People like to have an excuse for drinking and partying, and the restaurants are only more than happy to give the people what they want.

I admit I'm as bad as anyone. I love mexican food. And I love a nice cold cerveza. So, I love Cinco de Mayo.

The only problem is, everyone in town tends to go out to their favorite Mexican place for lunch or dinner on this day every year, so unless you enjoy crowds and long waits for dinner, it can be more of a hassle than it's worth.

As much as I really would love to celebrate the Mexican victory in an 1862 battle, I'll probably skip the festivities tonight. Instead, a Chalupa Supreme and Diet Pepsi from Taco Bell will probably have to suffice.

Whether you celebrate the day or not, have a muy bueno cinco de Mayo!

I'm 19 Minutes Late

First off, thanks to everyone who left comments on my last post! It's definitely good to know that I'm not always just typing into thin air and that people do sometimes actually read what I write!

This morning I was working my way through a fairly typical stressy morning with several big-ticket type things high on my list of priorities for the day and a couple of meetings to attend. I sat in both meetings trying to avoid actually physically rolling my eyes at every inane comment that I heard come out of someone's mouth, wishing that I could just escape the meeting and the huge waste of time so I could go work on the really important things I knew were waiting for me. I think I managed to avoid any actual physical eye rolling, although mentally, my eyes were practically spinning.

After the last meeting, I raced  back to my desk so I could start working on the day's big problems and what do I see on my computer screen as soon as I sit down? A "Reminder" notice, generated by our online calendar system, telling me that I was, as of that very moment, precisely 19 minutes overdue in filling out some survey that someone in a "support" department requested that I fill out. The survey was "due" at 10am, and by 10:19am, I still hadn't done it. That should be reason enough to fire me, I realize. But it does seem a little uptight for my tastes.

I know that the intention was good. Some other group that performed a service for me is just trying to gather feedback about how well they did their job. So they created this dumb little survey online that they asked me to fill out. I got the e-mail asking me to complete the survey yesterday, and I should have done it right away. But, as is practically always the case, I was struggling to get everything done that needed doing before the end of the day, and I blew off the survey.

I don't really mind the fact that someone valued my feedback. And I really don't mind that they wanted to remind me to do it. But, it caused my blood pressure to spike to get an automatically generated "notice" with such precision about just how late I was. I suppose whomever was responsible for that would prefer that I complete the survey on time and be 19 minutes late in answering my customer's questions.

It seems sometimes that we've got our priorities all screwed up around here.

He's Alive!

I've been a very bad boy for the past couple of weeks. I mentioned in a previous post that I was having problems with inspiration, but I didn't realize at the time just how deep that inspiration deficit was going to be. It seems that if I force myself to blog on a consistent basis, I do OK, but once I let myself slip just a little, I'm done for. It's kind of like the gym - force yourself to go regularly, and it's not that bad. Let yourself slide a couple of times, though, and it's hell getting back. I'm in that "it's hell getting back" phase now with blogging and the gym. But, I'll persevere. If you're still checking in here, thanks! Your patience is much appreciated!

In an effort to break back into the routine, I thought I'd throw out a few miscellaneous things that have been on my mind, but which I haven't spent the energy to think about in great detail:

• It sucks that Constantine is gone from American Idol. With him gone, my interest in the show is at an all-time low. Who's going to stare me down with eyes that could start a fire in my loins now?
  
  If Bo leaves, I may never watch again. The last thing we need is another cookie-cutter pop star. The two "rockers" were at least a breath of fresh air, despite the weird behavior they seem to elicit from Ms. Abdul.



• Scott Savol seems like kind of an OK guy, but the boy just can't sing. It was probably reasonable that he made the top 12, because he did sing some songs pretty well during the auditions. His voice and performance ability hasn't stood up to the demands of the competition since, though. It's a shame that he managed to beat out some more talented and just plain interesting folks like Anwar, Jessica, and Constantine.



• Just 4 hours left in Jack Bauer's 24-hour day from hell. I'm thinking this season, while still better than about 98% of everything on TV, this show is not quite up to the standards it set for itself in previous seasons. Little things are bugging me - like where the hell did the Secretary of Defense go? Shouldn't he be pretty involved still, considering that Air Force One was shot down, the president is teetering on the brink of death, the vice president is a doofus, and a frickin' nuclear bomb is about to be exploded by terrorists? He hasn't been seen or heard from in the last 4 or 5 hours, at least. If he's going to disappear, I wish he'd take his annoying daughter with.

• Laura Bush was pretty funny at the White House correspondents' dinner. Once. If I see or hear her routine again, though, I can't predict what will happen. It could be ugly and will probably involve my punching a hole through a wall.

OK, enough drivel for one post. Hopefully that will be enough to get my bloggin' groove on again...