Backflip

Sunday, August 1st. Woke up early to catch the train up to Denali where my cousin Alex is going to pick me up. Train left Anchorage at 8:15 and will arrive in Denali at 3:45. Once in Denali, I hang out with Alex and Amy the rest of the day. Excerpts from my Blackberry journal are below. Random Alaska facts come from either the tour guides on the train or Michener’s book Alaska which I started reading during the trip. It’s very good.

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Dreams – had some pretty interesting dreams last night. One in which I missed the train because I was playing the lead role in a musical I hardly knew and was just ad libbing. Crazy stuff.

Also Eddie arrived and left about 3 times during the night. Not sure what the hork was going on. It wasn’t an issue, I just went back to sleep but it was strange.

My calves are super sore from running yesterday in my 5 fingers. Haha, did it to wear myself out and got more than I bargained. I’m sure they will loosen up as the day progresses.

Headin’ to the train in a bit. That should be pretty sweet.

On the Train from Anchorage to Denali and due to a plane crash at the air force base which the train passes though we had to take a bus ride to the train. And as it turns out we are going to be riding the train backwards. Since the train can’t pass through the base to get to the main depot to turn around. Should be interesting.

I’m sitting next to Emily who is a law student from St. Louis who has an internship in Anchorage for the summer. Her and her parents are traveling to Denali to see the sites.

One of the leading causes of death for Eagles in Alaska is drowning. This is due to the fact that once eagles grab a fish with their talons they cannot let go. Sometimes the salmon is heavy enough and strong enough that it can pull the eagle underwater and drown it.

Which journey sounds more difficult?

• 100 men set out to cross Alaska. They cross 5,000 miles over rough terrain over the course of 3 years and 3 winters. 50 of the men perished.
• 50 men set out across Russia. They crossed 7,000 miles over rough terrain over the course of 3 years and 3 winters. There were no casualties

Interesting how we determine the difficulty of something by the percent of failure.

Met Alex at the train station and he met me with a hug. It was great to see him. We caught up on each others lives a bit as we waited for my luggage and then jumped in his jeep with his dog scout to head to the McKinley Chalet where Amy works.

Seeing Amy was great. She got super excited and I was able to introduce her to Alex. The plans for the evening involved going over to Alex’s and helping his neighbors package the 100 Salmon they caught and then having a fish fry. Amy was gonna get off early so Alex and I headed out to get drinks while she finished her shift.

Hanging out with Alex is sweet. I haven’t seen him in about 5 years and didn’t know him too well as he was growing up. But we found plenty to discuss and it was good to hear how he was doing.

Amy caught up with us and we headed up past Healy to Alex’s place. Checked out his sweet house, his green house and then headed over to his neighbors, Jared and Bridgets. There we joined in a fish packaging operation with lots of Alex’s friends that I can’t recall all their names. But it was a good time. 4 people had caught and cleaned over 100 Salmon and we were packaging them up to be stored in the freezer. We were also smoking some and baking some to be eaten. It was delicious.

While at Jared and Bridget’s we checked out their dog kennel operation which was pretty sweet. Tons of dogs (perhaps 15 or so) were all chilling together and it was something to experience.

It was interesting meeting so many peeps. All of whom were not native to Alaska. Still have yet to meet a native. But people come here from other states with a high majority seeming to originate from the west. Not sure why that is the trend.

Alex let Amy and I borrow his car and we gave Stephanie a lift back to her cabin since it was on the way.

Once back at McKinley Chalet we met up with Becca and Brian to form a funeral procession for their friend Thanksgiving. He (or she) was a small bunny they found while camping. It had a broken leg and they were going to try to nurse it back to health. But it perished after a few nights. Becca made a funeral boat so we marched to the river where there was a group of their friends celebrating a birthday. We momentarily interrupted the birthday bash and after some debate decided to put Thanksgiving on the roaring bonfire instead of the burning ship. The bunny returned to the earth from where it came.

And we returned to the chalet and ended up watching an old James Bond movie. Went to bed around 2ish.

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I left for Alaska at 11:30 am on Saturday, July 31st. My parents picked me up at the house and we headed on over to Dayton International. I was flying Delta from Dayton to Minneapolis and then Minneapolis to Anchorage. In Anchorage I spent the night in a hostel called Alaska Backpackers Inn which was excellent. The plan was to travel up to Denali by train on Sunday and meet my cousin Alex and friend Amy. Below are notes taken on my Blackberry throughout the trip:

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Trip so far is great. Plane ride was a bit long but sat next to Arron from Day to Minn. He’s a defense contractor for the airforce and goes to AFG to work for extra moolah. Talked about daily rocket attacks against his base. The Base over there is the size of Troy. Crazy! He was going to his friends wedding in Troy. Paul Atkins. Drives a red and white charger type car and lives on Heather road. I don’t know him but apparently he went to Troy High School and is my age. Interesting stuff.

Thing I wouldn’t see in Troy – 3 High School age girls standing outside a coffee shop in Anchorage. Dually truck with full tailer with army-type jeep vehicle on the trailer and room to spare pulls up. The girls excitedly jump in and drive off.

Ate dinner at the Downtown Deli. Had Halibut Fish and chips, coleslaw and tarter sauce. It was all delicious. Interestingly, I have never liked coleslaw but decided to try it out and found it quite agreeable.

Gonna try to stay up till 9. Timezone is 4 hours behind so 9 is about 1am eastern time. Gotta catch a train at 8:15 tomorrow so I’ll be up early.

MOUNTAINS! So cool.

Roomate is named Eddie. He’s a dock worker up north and in town for his daughters birthday. Cool guy, talked about seeing a bear at work and how he’s never been to Denali. He also really wants to visit Cleveland and Akrin to see where they make the Goodyear blimps. Didn’t realize that was an attraction.

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One interesting experience is eating dinner alone in public. I didn’t have any problems but it was a bit strange. I’d recommend trying it out just because it’s so different. It’s as if all the things society expects one to do while eating are gone and it’s interesting discovering ways of staying occupied throughout the meal. I solved this by people watching, luckily I was by a window and has a whole street full of people to watch.

My first night in Alaska went great. Adjusting the the almost eternal daylight wasn’t a big issue. I usually don’t have an issue falling asleep and this trip was no exception. I did wake up a few times when Eddie came in and out of the room. I can’t quite remember what times but it was very strange, seemed like it was around 11, around 1 and then at 4. When I woke up in the morning he was gone but his stuff was still in the room. No idea what was going on with that and I never saw him again so it’s going to be a mystery. It didn’t bother me since I just rolled over and went back to sleep each time I awoke.

This past weekend I had the very enjoyable experience of watching Wicked the musical at the Schuster Center in Dayton. If you recall a post in December I was pretty underwhelmed by the the Broadway performance of a Broadway Holiday. And while I took Josh’s words to heart and decided to like Wicked no matter what I was still a bit worried it would not live up to my expectations.

However, the play met my expectations quite early in the night and then proceeded to blow up my expectation meter and go into the stratosphere. It was amazin’!

Before I get into why I greatly enjoyed the musical let me start off by telling you of my weekend and the events leading up to the big night. Friday was pretty typical at work and once I got home my roomate Dan helped me replace a headlight on my Mazda (driver side bulb burned out). I thought this was going to be a 5 min. project but it turned out to be more complicated than I had expected and turned into about 45 min. worth of tinkering. Thankfully Dan is very knowledgeable about cars so we were able to replace it and it’s working great.

That night I met some peeps at Sakai to eat some delicious sushi and they all wandered over to the house to play some Street Fighter IV and Castle Crashers on the XBox 360 (play and watch would be a more correct description). It was a great night. However I got a little carried away and didn’t end up going to sleep till around 2 a.m. Which is pretty late. I was also volunteering at Carillon Park on Sat. morning as an interpreter (tour guide) and I had to be there at 9 so this wasn’t the wisest of all decisions. Just to clarify, this was not a LARPing event as SOME people like to think.

This was realized pretty early on Saturday morning when I was 1/2 way to the Park (it’s located near downtown Dayton) and I realized I had forgotten my ticket to Wicked. Since I was planning on volunteering till 5, grabbing dinner at 6 and catching the show at 8 this was very problematic since I would have no time to run back up to Troy to get my ticket. So I turned around to pick up my ticket causing me to be late to the park. Thankfully the volunteer coordinators are not strict and since the park doesn’t officially open till 9:30 I still made it at a decent time.

Interpreting was great, the park has a ton of cool artifacts and buildings and it’s great taking groups through and talking about the history and people who put Dayton on the map. Most famous are the Wright Brothers and we actually have the original (not a replica) Wright Flyer III which was the first plane to be perfected by the Brothers. It’s pretty neat stuff.

After leaving the park I headed to Thai 9 to meet some friends from work for a delicious Thai meal. At this point I was a little worried my decision to stay up so late the night before would have a negative effect on the upcoming show. I had a mild headache and was feeling quite sleepy. However, after a tasty meal and a few Coke’s I was ready to go. We headed off to Wicked grabbing our seats mere moments before the awesomeness that is the show began.

Just being in the theatre caused great excitement and once the musical started I was completely hooked and greatly enjoyed the next 3 hours. The actors pulled the audience into their story and were amazing in their acting, singing and presentation. The special effects were way cool and flowed flawlessly. I won’t go into the story so as to not spoil it for anyone planning on seeing it but it was very witty, funny, epic and education all while being extremely enjoyable. I can’t quite describe how I felt, but I didn’t want the show to end and was actually ready to just campout in the theatre until the next show so I could watch it again. Unfortunately common sense prevailed on Saturday night and I ended up goin home and goin to bed.

I would highly recommend this musical to anyone so inclined to such things. It’s quite a show and one that won’t leave you disappointed.

Having seen a show that flows and fits I’m excited for Phantom of the Opera which hits sometime in the next few months. I think musicals are a form of storytelling that impacts me the most and it’s great to be caught up in the music and story. I know Wicked will be staying on my playlists for quite a while.

WARNING: Super, x-tra long post ahead. Continue at your own risk!

What an awesome weekend.

It all started on Thursday after work when I stopped over at Glenn’s house to hang out for a bit and then head down to Cincy to meet Greg and Nate. The plan was to go to Kings Island on Friday and hopefully avoid the crowds since it was a work day.

Let’s start back at Glenn’s. Right before we left I was super surprised to hear Glenn ask, “Should I bring Settlers?” He was speaking of Settlers of Catan which is this x-cellent board game that I was introduced to a few weekends ago by Josiah. The real excitement was that I had ordered the game in hopes of taking it to Cincy but it hadn’t arrived in the mail yet. The big rush was due to the fact that Nate refused to play the game due to circumstances at work and it would be a good prank to bring the game (especially since he knew I wasn’t getting my copy in time). Glenn knew nothing of all this so it was pretty horkin’ amazing he mentioned bringing it. Armed with Settlers and some other gear we headed down to Cincy.

After some good conversation and music we arrived in Cincy and hung out with Greg and Nate. Eating at B-Dubs and playing some Rock Band made the night very enjoyable. But the real fun started when we broke out Settlers and had a go. I know inside jokes are only fun if you know the joke but I have to make a record of the events for future reference. Apologies for not explaining, this post is already super long and it’s still only Thursday night. New lingo for Settlers – shale (instead of ore), forest (not lumber), brick (supposed to be clay), wheat (instead of grain), sheep (for wool) (we actually didn’t get any of them correct, whoops), Soldier Boi, Indiana Jones Theme Song (this became a re-occuring song for the whole weekend), House (for settlement), and Hotel (not city). Heh heh. Good times.

We awoke pretty early and headed to McD’s then to Kings Island to ride the new coaster named Diamondback. It was pretty sweet. Super smooth and fun. The wait wasn’t bad at all either (just 45 min.). Another sweet ride is the Firehawk which has riders lying on their backs or stomachs and moving parallel to the ground. Completely different than any other coaster and very enjoyable. Other happenings at KI included us stopping some line cutters and getting into an argument, an interesting discussion about being prudent, the Indiana Jones Theme Song, the line – “She was with another man” – from a song by some guy with a crazy voice, picking up a balloon with my 5-finger shoes while on a ride only to get it taken away by a nice KI worker named Emily, accidentally popping the same balloon in line and people freaking out, bing! bing! bing! (watch the commercials for the Palm Pre and you’ll know where this comes from), some comments on my 5-finger shoes, a sweet ride called the Crypt, stealing a table from a kid (me, not one of my prouder moments), giving it back to him (thanks Glenn) only to have a different group of people take it (ah well), perfect weather (cloudy and cool), beating Greg and Nate on the Racers and talking smack to ‘em the n-tire time on the ride, and conquering the park by 4:30. All in all it was a great time.

After grabbing dinner at BD’s Mongolian grill Nate headed back to C-bus (boo!) and Greg, Glenn and I headed back to Greg’s and then into downtown Cincy to look for a hotel. Using technology (laptop computer getting free wifi + a GPS) we ended up in a decent hotel (even for Kentucky, haha!). We played some Settlers and then headed out to meet some of Glenn’s friends at Bar Louie. We hung out there most of the night and had a good time. Parted ways with Glenn’s friends and Greg and headed back to the hotel for some more Settlers (1v1) and some pizza (yum!).

Saturday morning we got up early and headed over to Lis and Brian’s house to help them move. A tree fell on their house on the 4th of July and they were finally able to get in to move all their belongings. This also meant that nothing was packed. So we moved from 9:45ish to 4:30ish. It was tough work but there was lots of help (thanks Glenn, Dan and Allison!). And it was a pretty fun move. Dan and Glenn are x-cellent at keeping things light and funny. This helped time pass uber quickly and we got Lis and Brian all moved into their super nice house (quite an upgrade in my opinion) safely. I was pretty toasted after the move and after an enlightening car ride back to Dayton to drop Glenn off I headed home and vegged out the rest of the night.

I did start reading a book titled “Scratch Beginnings” by Adam Shepard. It’s a story about a middle class guy who sells everything and tries to make a living with just the clothes on his back and $25 in a completely foreign city. His goal is to get out of poverty and to show that the American Dream is still alive. He’s sick of hearing crap from Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) about how the American Dream is dead. So he sets out to prove it’s still alive. It’s a very intriguing story and I ended up finishing it on Sunday. More on that later.

Saturday night also heralded the arrival of my friend Josiah. We hung out for a bit, watched some TLJC movie previews  with Jordan (which are x-cellent) and then called it a night.

Sunday was church (“Faith comes first – everything else follows”), the rootbeer stand with my parents, and bowling with peeps from Sogeti. I bowled a 160 and felt pretty good about it but didn’t come close to Glenn or Todd who both bowled a 212. Sogeti bowling team anyone?

The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry, going to the grocery, grilling (no burnage!) and reading. I finished Scratch Beginnings and had a great conversation with Jordan R. about poverty and class differences. Some startling revelations from the book and convo are included below:

Speaking about why people aren’t happy, “So many of us don’t have five-year plans on how we are going to better our lot over time rather than search for quick fixes. A five-year plan is invaluable. It gives us a sense of purpose in our present lives, the peace of mind every day that what we are doing has a purpose, a means to an end.”

“Unfortunately, few of us take ownership of our lives. We live in an “It ain’t my fault” society. Nothing is our fault. Ever. We’re fat because of genetics, we suck at math because we had a bad teacher… it has nothing to do with the fact that we aren’t eating right or exercising, or that we aren’t doing our homework… It’s everybody else’s fault. It ain’t ours.”

“3 types of people in life:
1. Those who make things happen
2. Those who watch things happen
3. Those who sit back, scratch their heads and think, “What the in the hork just happened?”

There are actual differences in speach patterns in different classes. Lower classes tend to speak in circular patterns, never getting the their point. Middle class people are usually direct and don’t waste time.

Pretty interesting eh? It is a great book and a quick read. The whole poverty topic is very strange to me and I look forward to finding out more about it.

As a good end to a great weekend my Monday has gone super well. To start things off I began billing at AO Smith in Tipp City today. I’m doing some Project Management and Business Analyst work for their Matrix One system. Billing rox (I’m a productive member of society once more!) but what really made my day happened in the lobby at 8 a.m. I was signing in when a lady who must have been behind me while walking in stops and stares at me.

“You must be a Lindeman.”

Shocked, I look up and don’t recognize who was speaking. Then she introduces herself, she’s the daughter of a guy that goes to my church. I have seen her a few times at picnics and such but had never talked to her. She was happy to see me and I her. It was a great start to a great day.

As a side note. That was the second time I had been pegged as a Lindeman in just about as many weeks. So strange and so flattering – or should it be embarrassing? Haha, who knows?

Memorial Day weekend. A time to remember those who’ve served our country and to pay them respect.

It’s also a 3 day weekend which is great for going on trips, hanging out and gettin’ a lot o’ stuff done. Which is precisely what I did. I headed up to Lake Loramie with the guys for a 2 day stay at Steve’s Cottage. It was great to get away and relax. There were boat rides, swimming, kayaking, movies, food, Dairy King, Bud’s Pizza and most importantly quality time spent with my brothers in arms. While most of the trip was not very ’spiritual’ (I didn’t go in search of my power animal) there were those great moments when topics would shift, bonds were created and life was shared. They are little boosts that keep me goin.

A big thanks for Steve for opening up his cottage and to all the wives that let their husbands go (a rare occurrence to be sure).

It was interesting that there were 10 married men and only 4 of us left still free (heh heh). This also made me think about my 6th grade class (small Christian School, we were pretty close) and how most of them are married as well. I can’t speak for any of those marriages but it’s quite obvious there a pressure in our society to get married as quickly as possible. Marriage is fine and I’m sure I’ll be married someday but I want to get married because it’s what I want, not because everyone around me thinks it’s what I should do. I’m no sociology major but it seems to me that people would be a lot better off not marrying so quickly/casually. These marriages seem to lead to divorces which are especially difficult if kids are involved. From my view if people just chilled out and made sure marriage is what they want then more of them would hold strong.

Anyway, the Lake was x-cellent as was the food and company.

You may be wondering why the title of this post is completion. Well wonder no more. On Sunday I finally got my Priest (in World of Warcraft) to the highest level, level 80. Some people say the game actually starts one you reach the level cap. This maybe true. However it’s also a good place to end. I haven’t quite decided yet what I’m gonna do but it sure is temping to drop WoW and it’s 3 year stranglehold on me to pick up some other games I’ve been missing out on.

I also finished Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It was a very interesting book. She presents some really refreshing ideas. The one major theme that I enjoyed could be termed proactive. The hero’s in the book are the people who know what they want and take steps to achieve their desires. This seems like a no-brainer, but it was flushed out quite a bit in the book and it made a lot of sense to me. The villains in the book are constantly talking about generalities, vague truths and overall ideas without having any action or direction behind them. This makes for wishy-washy people who aren’t going anywhere but don’t seem to care as long as they can make themselves think they are moving.

The book is discussing extremes but it was pretty refreshing to see how naked honesty could be put into practice and that valuing my time and energy isn’t evil or wrong. It spoke to the philosophy in life that if you want something then go out and get it. Which struck a note of truth for me. I get annoyed with people who talk about how they wished they were here or wish they could go there or how they hate where they are right now and want a change, then they never do anything about it.

One very apparent example is weather. People in Ohio (and I’m sure everywhere else) complain about the weather all the time. It’s too cold, too hot, too snowy, too blah blah blah. Well if you don’t like the weather so much, then get out of the state and let those who do enjoy it live in peace. Yes, there are complications. Yes, there are circumstances. But if they really hate the weather that much then they would make it possible to get out. Instead they just like to complain about it without taking any actions to resolve the situation.

I like to rant and rave about this type of behavior mostly because I see myself doing the same thing and I don’t like it. It can be difficult to match actions and talk. But I want to build that honesty and trust. The book gave some neat situations and examples of fictional characters standing up for the truth and it was neat to experience. If you have time to read 1000+ pages I’d recommend the book.

Speaking of long, this post turned out a log lengthier then planned. On Monday I had a cookout at the church with the fam and got to hang out with all the kiddies. There was me and about 8 or 9 of ‘em playing cornhole, on one set o’ boards, at the same time. It was pretty sweet.

’twas a great weekend. Lots of food for thought and food for the belly to boot. I’m also lookin’ forward to a short week and hopefully gettin’ sold to a new client. Keep your fingers crossed.

This weekend officially kicked off my summer. I had been feeling quite lazy and unmotivated to get back on my bicycle or to do anything which required physical exertion. I guess you could say I was still hibernating. But this weekend I finally awoke.

Saturday was a nice Hike at Brukner with Jordan and Hind (a friend from work:Teradata). Highlights of the trip included watching the Bobcat in his cage (cats are so cool), unsuccessfully hiding from Jordan while he stopped to take some pictures, making the perilous crossing of the boardwalk which sank into the water and was prone to moving (reminded me of Mario), and overall having a great time. I took some pix but don’t have them with me currently so they are gonna have to wait.

After the hike we headed out to the church to help prepare for the Mexican Dinner. Not as if we needed an excuse to have a huge horkin’ dinner but Cinco De Mayo is just around the corner so it’s somewhat appropriate. The dinner was a smashing success. I was in charge of heating the nacho cheese and making sure it tasted excellent. As a result I had to test it about every 10 seconds which was awesome. That stuff is soooooo good.

Funny occurrences during the meal – my friend Hind (she is a native of Morocco, living with her husband in Rhode Island) was helping (she diced about 30 tomatoes which was sweet) and my church is a pretty tight knit group of people so people were introducing themselves to her since they knew she was a visitor. Well on 2 seperate occasions people asked who she was visiting with and when she said “Luke” they were quite shocked. Now I can’t really tell if the shock was from me inviting a female to hang out or if they were shocked I actually had friends. But it came as a surprise to myself. I’m still mulling it over. I can’t even argue that Hind is the first visitor I’ve brought to a church event, it would have been nice since it would have fit in with the title, but it’s not true.

The rest of the night went very well, the dinner was great, breaking of the pinatas was fun (watching little kids is very enjoyable, which I’m guessing is because they aren’t mine), and hanging out over at Matt and Bob’s with the guys was pretty interesting. We were watching the Bulls v Celtics game, I wasn’t too interested so I took my laptop over and was playing some WoW. It was a decent mix of hanging out + playing.

Sunday is when the firsts began. After church I had my first tennis match of the year against Matt. I joined a tennis league that plays once a week and it just happened that Matt was my first opponent. We were both pretty rusty but it turned out I was less rusty and I ended up winning 6-2, 6-2. Anyone watching would have found the game quite boring since it pretty much came down to who made the least amount of mistakes. I think we play again later in the year so that match should be more exciting.

After tennis I ran around in WoW a bit with my sister and hit level 79. For those of you who don’t know, level 80 is the highest level in the game. So once a character reaches that level the “game begins” or some nonsense. I’m kinda dreading it since it means you have to put in about twice amount of time as before to get anything decent. But Lis, Brian (Lis’ hubby) and their friends Tom and Rachel are all lvl 80 so I guess we could start running around with each other again which can be fun.

Then came another first, I went with Matt and Bob on a 16 (or was it 17?) mile bike ride. It was pretty enjoyable. The weather was great and we rode south to Tipp City on the recently completed bike path that connects the two cities. I hear it’s possible to get all the way down to Dayton from Troy but haven’t found the right path yet. That’ll be a nice challenge for the summer. The path is mostly in the woods along the river so it’s secluded and the scenery is great. I got to test out my new bike seat which was neat. I think I’m gonna like it (as much as one can like a bike seat).

After the ride I hung out at Matt and Bob’s and we resurrected some great stories from our college days at Miami where we all hung out. There were some great laughs, some ice cream and some beer. Root beer.

All in all it was an amazing weekend. The best part was that it seemed to last forever and it had a good mix of hanging out with people as well as computer playing time (which is essential).

Now I just gotta sort out what is so crazy about me bringing a female friend to an event. Perhaps I have a skewed perception of myself. This will take some looking into.

<This post was back dated to fit in line with actual events>

I heard back from Continental Airlines from my e-mail concerning their food (see Hong Kong Day 7). This was their reply:

This was my e-mail to them:

“Message: To whom it may concern,

I am writing to inquire about the food menus provided on the airplane. On the menu when I was flying were items such as “Iceberg lettuce and radicchio with carrot julienne, cucumber and baby shrimp.” I’m not sure what radicchio or julienne are and it made me skeptical of the food.

I opted not to eat which was fine by me. However I think it would make more sense to provide standard food options that passengers can understand. These standard options would be appealing to a broader audience since they would be known foods and while they might be more plain I think the goal is to feed the most people which would be met.

Another issue around the food was the smell in the cabin for the passengers who (like me) decided not to eat. I imagine it is very difficult to control food smells on an airplane but if foods were more standard than I think the smell would not be such a big deal.

Your airline is doing a great job. And the food issue was not a deal breaker by any means (I know most airline food is quite questionable). But I wanted to write and let you know that having “regular” food while in the air would be very enjoyable.

Thanks for your time,

Luke Lindeman”

This was the reply: 

“Dear Mr. Lindeman:

Thank you for contacting Continental Airlines.

I regret that you were not satisfied with the meal served in our First Class cabin. Our world-class chefs are dedicated to providing exceptional service and outstanding meals.

Your feedback will be shared with our Food Services Division for internal review and consideration.

I am not sure if you have looked up the items that kept you from eating your meal, but the radicchio is the red leafed lettuce (actually chicory) and julienne is just referring to the carrots being sliced thinly.

I have included your entire correspondence, including the food odors in a file that has been included with our Customer Care report which is reviewed by members of our senior management team.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with Continental. I hope we are able to welcome you onboard one of our flights in the near future.

Regards,

Denise Epstein”

I do wish I was sitting in First Class. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case.

Besides that inaccuracy he pretty much told me their food is fine. Which is reasonable. I was kinda hoping to get something out of the deal, but I guess a reply is something. I really didn’t have too much of an issue with the food going over to Hong Kong so I think the experience on the way home had many more factors than the food involved. The food was just an easy place to take out my travel frustrations. In all reality, since that was my biggest gripe I’d have to say the trip was a smashing success.

Now I know in the future to bring my own provisions aboard any planes I travel, knowing I can’t rely on their food to get me through anymore. Seems like a good lesson learned.

I finally got Lightbox2 which is a picture application, working on my blog (yeah, it turned out to be really easy). I don’t know why it took me so long. The pictures for Hong Kong Day 4, Day 3 and Day 2 have been posted and I will be working getting the rest of the trip online.

Thanks for your patience!

This past weekend I headed over to Miami University to see my friend Amy play in the Miami Steel Drum Band Concert. It was pretty sweet, the sound made by steel drums is so unique that it is always a joy to hear. The concert was great but the best part of the night was hanging out at Amy’s place afterwards with Beth, Michael, Vicky, Jordan, Ben, Amy, Esther and Amy’s friend who is also named Amy (things really get confusing when Amy’s roomate who is named Amy is around). We had some ice cream and chatted about life. It was very chill and fun.

Saturday was off to Etzio’s (sp?) Bike Shop in Tipp City to pick up some bike parts. Got a new chain for the fixie and a new seat. Jordan helped put the chain on the bike but we needed a few more parts so it wasn’t quite operational yet. I’ll be working on gettin’ it up and running this week.

Saturday night was a party at Matt and Bob’s place. Rachel’s birthday was Friday so we all hung out and had some ice cream (yeah, I ate a lot of it this past weekend) and got into quite a number of debates. Some were enjoyable, others not so much. But it was a good time overall.

Sunday was pretty relaxed. I’m house sitting my parents house while they are on a little vacation during my Mom’s spring break. I heard there was supposed to be a tornado or something last night but the weather never really turned sour.

This upcoming week is pretty standard. Not too much goin on besides tryin’ to find another engagement since my contract at Teradata is coming to an end. It’ll be interesting to see where i end up next.

<excerpts from the journal>

<writing on the plane>

Trip home so far has been good. Did some readin’, watched some movies (Robots, Madagascar, Sleepy Hollow, Max Payne, House) and got a little bit o’ sleep.

It’s about a 15 hour flight back and I’m startin’ to get a bit sick of the plane. My one major beef with the Continental and the airline industry is their horking food. We’re crammed on a loud airplane with tons of other people for an extended period of time. This is not an ideal way to travel but it certainly is the quickest. Usually the staff makes the experience as enjoyable as possible and they do a great job. Except when it comes to food.

If it was me planning the menu I’d stick with something as general as possible in hopes that it would be enjoyed by the majority of fliers. Most people like salad, some fruit and then some neutral main dish like a hamburger, chicken, spaghetti or something. Seems like most people enjoy these foods.

Instead they decide to serve these items:

• Iceberg Lettuce and radicchio (?) with a carrot julienne (?), cucumber and baby shrimp.
• Seared salmon with black sesame sauce, sauteed vegetables and steamed rice
• Omelette with lyonnaise (?) potatoes, Spanish tomato mix and pork sausage

<excerpts from the journal>

Last day in Hong Kong.

There was much debating over what we should do on our last day in HK. On the table were a 2 hour hike to Lion’s rock to see the HK cityscape or a trip to Lamma Island to see the South China Sea. We woke up to find it very hazy and wet so we decided to head to Lamma Island.

Meeting Whitney and Liana at the TST MTG stop we headed to Hong Kong Station to catch the 30 min. ferry ride to the island. Both were uneventful , it was so foggy/hazy out that we couldn’t make out too much in the distance. We were able to see some tall skyscrapers with some large gaps in the middle, not sure what those were about. It seemed the gaps were build into the buildings but for a purpose but I can’t imagine what it might be. We arrived safely on Lamma Island (even Liana who does not enjoy boats) and set off on our hike.

We landed at Sok Kwu Wan and decided to do a 2 hour loop. We were then gonna do a 1 hour and 30 min treck across the island to Yung Shue Wan.

The 2 hour loop was pretty nice. We had some excellent views and some cool areas to explore. It was a big difference than hiking here in the U.S. because the whole trail was concrete and was lined with streetlights even though it was out in the forest. Guess they had some time on their hands. Not only are the walkways paved but the gutters (for drainage) and the entire side of the hillsides were covered in concrete. I guess this was to minimize erosion and rock slides. This was the same all over Hong Kong and I never got used to the sight. It is somewhat practical but it isn’t very easy on the eyes.

As we were getting close to finishing the lop and arriving back at Sok Kwu Wan it started to rain (too much rain overpowered us – ATB). Jordan, Whitney and I had rain coats and Liana had an umbrella but none of us escaped the wetness. Since it wasn’t raining too hard (yet) we decided to press on to the next village (taking the hour and a half path). This was mostly based on the fact that the ferry from Yung Shue Wan left a lot more frequently than in Sok Kwu Wan where we were so we had a better chance of getting back to the mainland quicker if we made the hike.

So we headed out without too much fanfare. We took some quick shots of the village and lookouts along the way which were really neat.

We were at one such stop when <BOOM> the rain really started coming down. It was off and on in intensity. We were prepared but it turned out to be too much rain. So I guess that means we weren’t prepared. Hork!

Quickening our pace we tried to beat the down poor but around the next turn we came upon a group in dire need of help. A woman had collapsed on the side of the trail and didn’t look good. She was still breathing but she couldn’t walk very well. Her husband/friend/brother was asking us to help carry her back to Sok Kwu Wan, the village we had left a bit ago. As another person in their group called for help we attempted picking her up to move her along the path but she was having none of that. So we gave her some water after which she began to throw-up quite forcefully. Throwing up is usually a good thing and we heard an ambulance was on its way. We stood for a bit but realized there wasn’t much else we could do since an ambulance was on the way so we pressed on through the rain. While leaving we saw a 4 wheeled vehicle coming along the concrete path to pick her up which was good.

Fighting through the rain we quickly became drenched. Turns out my water “resistant” jacket had a wetness threshold of repellency and once it was reached I was horked. Soaking wet we trudged along the path, catching quick glances at the scenery as we flew past.

Getting near Yung Shue Wan we came upon the sick girl and her friends who had passed us earlier in the 4-wheeler. They were near a police station looking for an ambulance. She did not look good (I guess throwing up didn’t help much in this case). We passed them and saw the ambulance further down the path so we pointed them in the right direction and she was given over to the care of the professionals. They brought an ambulance and about 4 fire truck vans. That woman was in good hands, and plenty of them.

Hiking on we finally made it to Yung Shue Wan in time to get right on the ferry (woo!). Out of the rain at last we took stock of the situation. No casualties in our group. We were very soaked but in good spirits. The temperature wasn’t too cold so being soaking wet wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. Being used to the outdoors and uncomfortable situations I was actually doing quite well. Whitney and Liana are not quite as used to said circumstances but they were holding up like champions.

On getting back to Hong Kong island we hit up some McDonald’s (yeah, I know, not Chinese, give us a break). It was pretty tasty. And a funny/awkward situation occurred. It had taken us about 40 min. to ride the ferry back and get to McD’s but we were still dripping wet (that’s how wet we were). We were dripping so much that a McD’s employee put up a “Caution, Wet Floor” sign behind Jordan while he was standing in line. We also kinda soaked our seats and area under our table. Ock! I bet we gave them a bad impression of Americans, but we did try to eat as quickly as possible and make a hasty departure.

We parted ways to change clothes and planned on meeting back up to check out Victoria Peak. The Peak is the largest Mountain on Hong Kong Island. It rises up behind the main business sector of the city and gives an amazing view of Victoria Harbor and the Hong Kong cityscape.

On arriving back at our hostel I discovered that not only were my clothes soaked but my money + passport were in dire straits as well (hork!). I was keeping mine in a money pouch that was attached to my leg (under my pants) and I thought it was weathering the storm. Turns out it got quite weathered. Soaked all the way through it has shriveled and has begun to separate from it’s backing. Considering we leave tomorrow this is cause for some concern. At the moment it has dried but it’s becoming quite warped. I’m gonna try to smash it tonight and hope customs won’t have a problem with it.

Setting everything out to dry we headed back into the streets of Hong Kong to meet the girls and travel up the tram to Victoria Peak. The tram ride was quite exciting. It turned the outside world into a Dr. Seuss land where all the buildings looked as if they were standing at impossible angles. We were traveling up the side of the hill at a pretty steep angle so the buildings looked as though they were going to topple down as we passed them buy since our perceived x-axis was so strange. I didn’t get any pics so you’ll have to take my word that it was crazy awesome.

On arriving at the peek we were bummed to discover the fog was so thick the city below was all but invisible. Knowing it would probably be the case we excepted the situation and decided to hang out for a bit and then head back down to get some more food. On the way we stopped at some more shops and I stocked up on last minute souvenirs and gifts.

In a strange coincidence, the dagger that I had tried to barter for at the Stanley Market was being sold for a lower price at the Peak. So I snatched it up. Now I have 2 daggers. I know there is no practical use for them and I know that I’m not secretly some amazing assassin killer person (see Wanted). But I see the daggers and have an unexplainable, overwhelming desire to own them. I guess this must be how some women feel about clothing (or about anything expensive, haha!). Lucky for me there aren’t many places in the U.S. that sell such items. I got my first dagger for about $6 and my second for about $18 so I’m not exactly breaking the bank. Interesting enough, clothing items and electronics are priced the same in Hong Kong as in the U.S. Apparently daggers are not.

After collecting a few last minute items we headed to Dan Ryan’s for a nice last dinner. We gave up on Chinese food at this point. The dinner was great. Interesting enough the menu warned patrons that food is served in “American Portions”. Guess that’s an issue. Isn’t it great to be known as a nation of big eaters? Heh heh.

After dinner we regretfully said our goodbyes and headin’ back to our dwellings. Tonight is my last night in Hong Kong. It’s a great city and I will be sad to leave. But it’s about time to be gettin’ back home. As Dorthy is so fond of saying, there is no place like it.

I had such an enjoyable time hanging out with Whitney, Jordan and Liana. We had some great laughs, saw amazing sights, ate great food, had some struggles (rain) and when it was all said and done, an excellent trip! I now have some amazing memories and experiences that I will cherish and for those I am very thankful. A big thanks to Whitney and Liana for showing us around their part of the world and for putting up with us all week. Let’s do it again, I hear BG has some cool places to explore (I keep hearing about this cookie place, gonna have to check that out for sure).