InterStellar News Network

981212
Well, the video shoot is postponed so I met up with the same crew that did dinner last night for lunch up in Burlingame at Nini's Cafe. JT has it listed on his NorCal restaurant picks. So will I. This place is pretty dang awesome. I ordered the teriyaki steak and eggs at the recommendation of the regulars and I can see why. Two thumbs up! Thanks to Aaron for treating us all!

After lunch, the rest of them headed off to church to set up for the Christmas program while I went Christmas shopping ... I know, I flaked on them ... Hey, I gotta do it sometime while I'm up here: it's better than carrying all these gifts for my relatives on the plane when I return in two weeks!

So, seven hours, two malls, and two mochas later, tired and sore, I call it quits. I *DID* get about 90% of it done though! Pretty impressed with myself if I might say so. I honestly didn't think I'd get this far. But I will probably never understand how women can do it for so long and never seem to get tired. What is their secret???

So I head over to church to watch their version of A Christmas Carol. Set in modern day Silicon Valley, no less. Scrooge is the CEO of the biggest software company. Hmm, I like this already. And, wouldn't you know, Aaron is playing on the worship team, Yvonne and JT are part of the stage and sound crew, and Tricia is in the choir!

It was wonderful to catch up with a lot of people afterwards and meet new ones. And, being Asian, going to look for food is standard practice. So, we wind up doing both ... at Denny's of all places.

Shouts tonight to (in no particular order):
Howard: Nice meeting you; maybe we'll run into each other in Old Pasadena.
Jackie: It's always great to see you, especially in the unlikeliest of places.
Audrey: Long time, no see. It was good seeing you tonight. Still up for that round of pool?
Caroline: Awesome job coordinating tonight's activities! And, yes, my mistake; I do have your number.
Alvin: Them black diamonds have your name on it, dude!
Tricia: Thank you for asking! =) And your singing tonight was quite wonderful to behold.
Kinney: Best of luck with NorCal Retreat planning.
Lani: Do you really enjoy continuing education that much?
Eric: Krayon Boy, when's the next matchup? And I didn't know you had it in you to be a choir boy too!
Jen: I'll see if I can fix your PalmPilot. And you can try getting Aaron to give you HIS 2MB upgrade. <G>
Marilyn: My prayers go with you for your shoulder. May you heal soonest.
Yvonne: My prayers go with you that you will find time to slow down and kick that ongoing cold.
Aaron: Floyd, as always, you never cease to amaze me with your musical talent and flair.
JT: Food or drink, brah, you make every time a fun time! Remember, IMAGE IS NOTHING!
The SLO gang: It was great meeting or seeing you all!

981211
I saw Star Trek: Insurrection - opening night was tonight! My take on it? I would pay full price to see it again! I think what Yvonne said afterwards was pretty surprising: "It was better than Titanic!" I was quite taken aback hearing that from her, being that she isn't the all-out Trekkie that some of us are.

Yep, it's pretty funny that Aaron and I came north to watch it. I met up with Aaron, Yvonne, JT, and KC for dinner prior to the movie. Aaron flew in earlier tonight to play in the Christian Layman Church Christmas Program tomorrow and to bring Jake home. I am up for work. Which was ... typical support Friday: nothing goes write on the first try, something is missing, something else somewhere else dies, you get the idea. So, I was pretty happy that I met up with them all afterwards. I think we are supposed to meet up for lunch tomorrow along with a few NorCal webmeisters Aaron and Yvonne know and I've heard about but haven't had the chance to check out their sites. Guess that depends on how well the video shoot I'm in goes in the morning ...

981210
Today was an adventure of the worst kind in the airport. I find out that carry-on bag size restrictions are being rigorously enforced at LAX. They've put these cutouts that are secured to the x-ray machines to make sure that they conform to the maximum size limitations. Now, I knew this from the last few times I traveled. What I DIDN'T know is that each airline has a DIFFERENT standard! Why is this significant? Read on ...

I had booked a flight on Shuttle by United to San Jose and put my carryon on the belt at the x-ray machine. And find out that it's NOT going to fit throught the cutout. Rude awakening. I know that my bag would have fit flying out of Terminal 1 (the Southwest terminal). They had a 24x16x10 inches limit. The agent at the counter said it's actually 24x17x11, off the record. Get this: United's maximum height is a whopping 22x14x9 inches! Excuse me, but most shopping bags wouldn't fit through that mouse hole. Just what kind of luggage were they thinking of!? I know there's only a two inch difference in height but that's two very important inches here. Heck, my computer bag barely fit in there!!! They wouldn't let me carry it through were gonna force me to check it. Big problem there: I was on the last flight and I knew that I wouldn't make the flight if I had to go through check in. Or go without my bag and sleep in the same clothes I was wearing. Uh-huh. No way, bub.

So, guess what, folks? I DIDN'T make the flight. And found out that there were no more flights going to Oakland either and that, if I wanted to fly to SFO, it'd cost me $278!!! Or, if I wanted to go the next day, I could book another flight at full fare. Yeah, right. After all this!? FYI, Southwest's full-fare no restrictions fare to San Jose or Oakland was only $182 by comparison. And they still had two more flights going out. United would make me wait until the next day. The final bombshell came when I told them that my luggage was the "official United Airlines endorsed carryon" (it is, or was ...?). They gave me an indifferent look and responded with a "I'm sorry, but that's the NEW rules" hooey. So, I told the United agent I was gonna take my business elsewhere due to these ridiculous limits and unresponsive service. And flew out on Southwest. At least they were responsive. Even if the boarding procedure sucks ...

981209
Whew! I actually went to bed at a decent hour last night ... 2am. I guess having to go to work early today was a good motivator, like any. But, need to go to sleep early tonight too, as I have to work in the Bay Area for the rest of the week.

I'm trying a new thing here ... rather than sending you all to the main ISN (Journal) page, if you click the ISN date from the Intel (Updates) section, it'll take you directly to the entry instead of the weekly menu. I'll update the previous weeks' pages throughout the coming days but it works starting this week already. This is for you regular visitors ... to show my appreciation at your continued visits to my so called life ...!

Oh, I should mention that I did add a link to Julie's puny.net in the Jumpgates section. Here's a gal who has a pretty cool site who seems to love watching HK movies at much as "M" of the Mareciless Universe does and has some pretty wild NYC stories. Brings back memories of visiting the Big Apple; not exactly the most pleasant ones (NYC's legendary rudeness, for example), but very New York City, and it brought me a few laughs as well. Check it out!

Alan from the land down under asked me if I had ever bungee jumped before. What a question. I haven't, but I WANT TO! Just haven't found anyone else who is willing to yet ... and this is, in my opinion, one of those things that's no fun if you can't talk about it to someone else who truly understands the experience. Like skydiving or aerial combat (ha!) ... which I've done neither of as well. But want to try ...! Any local takers?

Next entry from NorCal ...!

981208
Tonight I got my first Christmas present! Aaron called me up and asked me if I was interested in going to see the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert at the Arrowhead Pond earlier and I said "Really? Sure!!!" Then he says "Good, it's your Christmas present!" Whoa ...! =:o Surprise, surprise.

I am, admittedly, quite a MH fan. I have quite a few of their CDs and have used their compositions for accompaniment music on videos/slide shows I've done for various events in the past. But this is the first time I've seen a MH concert. I saw last year's concert, Christmas Live, on DVD at the Good Guys last year and thought they were great. And, the last two years, I've been involved with a group called Discovery, an awesome group of musicians and vocalists from some of the local churches we attend in SoCal (Aaron plays for Discovery so you know I'm not exaggerating about awesome musicians!), doing concerts at various church locales in SoCal with Discovery's interpretation of Chip Davis/Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas melodies. And, it turns out that other Discovery folks were gonna be there too! So, my expectations were quite high. After all, I'd seen it on video and helped out in doing it in concert ...

MH was, in a word, *AWESOME*. There is nothing quite like seeing the original LIVE. Granted, we had seen a lot of the video clips from the Discovery concerts and we knew how a lot of the songs would go but, it's always a wonderful experience to hear how someone else plays it. Aaron was giving total thumbs ups on several of the numbers. He said afterwards to Tyson, who leads Discovery: "We gotta do some of these *other* songs next year for Discovery!" I was almost moved to tears during the encore when they played Stille Nacht (Silent Night); it was such a simple melody, done very gently, but with such a powerful feeling behind the music. You just couldn't help feeling the Spirit of Christmas ...

Aaron, THANK YOU for an awesome Christmas present!!! Bro, you da man!

981207
I've slept so much this weekend that my messed up sleep schedule is getting so screwed up that's it's approaching normal. So, maybe I'll get to sleep at the 'normal' time. <G>

Maybe it's just as well cuz I'm working in San Diego 'til tomorrow. Tonight I had dinner with Michelle and Helen and, again, we were the last ones out of the restaurant. I think that every place in SD will soon ban us from coming in unless we come in the morning!

Michelle was telling us of a TV show she was watching where one of the characters was suggesting throwing a 70s party and bringing in some 45s. And one of the kids responded with "You'll let us bring guns in!?" ===:o Just about died laughing at that, especially when I thought of how many 45s I own. The kind that you don't ammo in. Okay, I'm feeling my age ...

I brought the San Diego section of the Hitchhikers Guide online since I'm here in SD and just starting thinking of places where I went to kick it over a meal with friends ... it's just a start, so check back later after I put more of what I'm trying to remember ... the brain doesn't exactly function too well at 4am!

981206
The bug got an upper hand today. I'm down again. =( Trapped in bed. Drugged out too ...

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