Tim’s Ramblings

Well, it’s about 8:20am on Saturday and my weekend is almost starting. Been up since 6 doing e-mail stuff and then met up with our COO to take him to the correct train station and get him on the correct train to the airport this morning at like 7:15. I now have one more person to take to the train station, our insurance specialist, and then I’m free for the weekend!

Not much planned though. Today I plan on doing some shopping and tomorrow I’m off to my parent’s place. It’s nasty and humid and cloudy and a bit rainy today though so I’m not relishing walking around. Just walking down the street gets you all sweaty. Yuck. But I have a few requests from other people so off I go. Oh, and I want to buy some things for myself too.

The week went fast…I was at work on Monday, I was traveling all day Tuesday, and I landed here Wednesday night…so yeah….the week went FAST.

The big insurance seminar that was the highlight of this trip went very well yesterday. As usual, Y who was with me was more worried than I was. I tended to be a bit more “eh…we’ll do just fiiiiine” but I have to admit, I was a bit more tense if you can call it that than usual. After all, this was the first seminar that we did ourselves (with our partner’s help of course!) and we needed to make it a success or else, not only would it have been a waste of money, but it would also look very badly on our partners.

Japan, unlike the US, has less than 100 (I think closer to 70 including all of the agencies) insurance companies compared to over 2000 in the US. So the market is small but the market is rich. I think we got a good 12 or 13 insurance companies to send representatives yesterday. And, though I can’t name names, these are big companies that even people in the US would have heard about. So needless to say the pressure was on to a certain extent.

Granted, this time I was not doing the presentation myself, I translated for part of it. Y did the first part where we talked about how the technology can help them in various ways to enhance their business. This had to be done by her since it used power point slides with tons of Japanese characters that I couldn’t read…. I did the 90 minute product demo. Fun. In the end, I fell back on what all of my violin teachers have told me. If I’m going to make a mistake, make it like I mean it. And like Eddie Izzard said, when performing in public, it’S 70% how you talk, 20% how you look, and only 10% what you say. :) After all, the product was up on the big screen for everyone to see. I just had to match the upbeat and energetic delivery of our insurance specialist and keep the audience awake, interested, and excited.

The awake part is easy as my voice carries and is naturally pretty loud and I had a microphone to help it along even more. The rest? Well, I think I succeeded. There were times when I had no idea what the hell the term was in Japanese but I just explained it like I knew what I was saying and made sure that in the end, regardless of what I said, I made sure that the point she wanted to make was made.

After 90 minutes, I was utterly drained…. But no rest for us since immediately afterwards was a reception/meet and greet. The food was fantastic with everything from roast duck, roast beef, curry, salt crust baked fish, sandwitches, etc… and there were beer, whiskey, wine, and of course, non-alchoholic stuff too. But I wasn’t really able to eat much since I was running around translating and exchanging business cards, and bowing and thanking people all night long. You get used to it after a while but I will admit….I barely remember who I talked to or who I met. Oh well…that’s why I have the business cards I guess.

I still have to send a few e-mails as follow up but I’ll do that later.

So that’s it. Things went very well I think :) Next week I’m on my own. I already have 2 meetings set up but we got a pretty nasty techinical issue so I’m going to be focused on that I think. Might be a long week but this is more of what I like to do rather than the meet and greets and taking care of people anyway.

Well, I’ve made it. The flight landed without a problem and I went through immigration and customs without any issues at all.

The flight itself was relatively uneventful. Met an interesing person on the flight though. She was traveling to Japan with 2 other women both of which looked considerably older than her. She looked to be about my age or maybe at most a year or two older. We ran into eachother at the gift shop by the gate and then she had diagonally across from me. No biggie. But then when I went to the back of the plane to stretch my legs she was there too so we chatted a bit.

Turns out she’s going to Japan to attend some conference on holistic medicine as that is her lifelong passion and one of her jobs. BUT, to pay the bills she’s a pharmacist during the day. Yes…a pharmacist doing holistics. Even she admitted that it’s a bit odd but then she came right out and said that pharmacists pays well :) The reason why this person stuck in my mind was when she told me that she hasn’t eaten fast food since 1988. I paused for a second and then asked her what did she eat in college as a joke and without skipping a beat she told me she was already out of college by then.

That’s when I first found out that she was 42. Eeeesh. I swear to you, she looked 10 years younger at LEAST. I mean, she was fit but it wasn’t like she was toned or slim. She was healthy. But she looked so much younger than anyone would believe. And living in in Jersey! (^_^) I guess clean living does have its benefits.

Anyway, I managed to get on the 2:43pm train out of Narita and I basically rushed to the hotel where I had about 40 minutes to unpack, take a shower, go to the bathroom, shave, put on a suit, and take off to the office. Luckily I made it with 5 minutes to spare. Woo.

The dinner was in the basement of the Canadian Embassy where, apparently, the City Club of Tokyo exists. It’s a members only exclusive restaurant and many ambassadors and cabinet members “hang out” there to drink and have dinner and such. When I say exclusive I mean…seriously exclusive. All the way to those overstuffed leather chairs in the lounge. Ultra expensive cocktails. Even a live harpist in the dining room for godsakes.

We were led into a room that could have easily fit 20 people (we were a party of 8) and we sat down on huge chairs and our French dinner started. Thankfully I was able to remember which silverware was which :) After all, there were 9 pieces in front of me….

It was an amazing french dinner starting with a slice of roast duck, moving on to a smoked salmon dish, soup, sea food, beef, and finally dessert which looked almost too god to eat.

I have no idea how much the dinner cost per person let alone for 8 people. The wine was amazing too and I managed to pace myself so I won’t get drunk while translating for the president of our partner company and our COO. It was probably the most exclusive dinner I have ever had…ever. And it was delicious to boot!

We got back a little before 10pm and I passed out around 11 or so.

Today I have to get ready to leave by 9:10am and then it’s go time. Gonna be a busy 2 days before the weekend. I’m totally out of whack on where I am what time it is or what I’m doing. I’ll reorient myself today I think.

Anyway, so I made it. All is well. (^_^)

Well…made it to Newark. Sitting in the lounge again. All is looking well. Once again I can see the plane that I am taking from the window and so far no cancellations. I might actually make it this time!

Didn’t particularly enjoy getting up at 4am again this morning and after having my pre-takeoff glass of diet coke on the plane (first class to Newark so that was nice), I passed out and I don’t even remember takeoff. It’s an hour flight to Newark but I pretty much slept through most of it.

Due to my flight cancellations and such, the schedule in Japan got thrown out of whack. But I suppose it couldn’t have been helped and the other coworker there is doing what she can to make things work out. Though as soon as I get to Narita, I gotta rush because there is a formal dinner scheduled for Wednesday night with the president of the company we are partnered with and from the sound of it it is at an exclusive French restaurant where you can’t get in unless you are a member. Yow…. The cab leaves the office at 5:30. If I’m not on it, I can’t go.

Now…to be honest…after a long day of flying, all I really want to do is go out for ramen and pass out. But they are requesting me to be there as both translator and as our company’s rep (but mostly as the translator since our COO - that’s Chief Operations Officer for you non-business types - is there and he’s the reason why we are going out to dinner with the prez and such an exclusive place). A part of me is saying “once in a life time opportunity…go go go!” but another is just going “ungh….”

As it is, it’s going to be tough. I land at 2pm. Assuming I land on time and I fly through immigration and customs, I can typically be out and into the terminal area by 2:20 or 2:30. I need to get my money exchanged and assuming there’s no line, I can be downstairs to buy the ticket to Tokyo on the Narita Express train by 2:40. There’s usually a 2:43 train that I can TRY to get on but most likely it will be the 3:13. Either way, it will take me to Tokyo and it’s an hour so I get to Tokyo around 4:15. From Tokyo, to get to Kawasaki, I can take a number of trains but the fastest will take 20 minutes. That gets me to Kawasaki around 4:35. However, to get to the platform to get to Kawasaki in Tokyo Station is a good 10 minute walk or so or longer and the train doesn’t run as often soooo if I get to Kawasaki by 5 I’m doing good.

I check in and get dressed but it’s a 7 minute walk to the office. Assuming they leave at 5:30 sharp, I basically have 23 minutes to check in, freshen up, and get in a suit. Oh…dear….god….

Well…it’ll be interesting if I can make it. Very very interesting.

In anycase, the next time you hear from me will be from, hopefully, Japan this time and not from some hotel here in Newark!

Well…as I kind of expected (considering the typhoon is about as wide as the entire country of Japan) all flights were cancelled. I just wish they did it earlier so I wouldn’t have been in Newark.

The problem is…all flights are booked for Sunday already as is mostly for Monday. And any openings on Monday were automatically assigned to everyone who was flying business class. Yes. My platinum status meant nothing since I was flying coach. Goddammit.

So they proceeded to tell me that the earliest I can leave is TUESDAY. Eeeeeeeeeesh…. And that’s after the nice lady at the Presidents Club worked the computer for me for almost an hour with an assload of very very angry people snaking out the door behind me (I caught the cancellation fast). So I had her book it for me and then had her look for other airlines too but to no avail. Northwest, ANA, JAL, United, all were booked solid :(

So I was actually having her try to get me back to Cleveland when she told me that they wanted me to come back to Newark tomorrow morning because there is a chance…a slight slight chance…that Continental will add a new flight for all of us that got screwed today tomorrow at the same time.

So, that’s why I’m currently sitting at a quaint little room at the Hampton Inn. The bed is big. It even comes with a lap table thingy though since the internet is wired, it’s not going to do me much good. But there’s a big TV too and AC. I’ll cope :)

Though I realized that was almost 3 and all I have eaten all day was one Soy Joy bar. I was starving! Then I rememberd that I had packed out on a whim a packet of “Smoked Dried Beef Steak Nuggets” that I bought in Laramie, Wyoming :) The ONLY realy why I bought it was because of the not so pleasant picture of chunks of meat with big yellow NUGGETS on the front of it. Just had to get me some nuggest ‘o beef!

Behold….beef nuggets!

And let me tell you. It is taaaaaaaasty!!!! :)

I’ll spare you the shots of the actual nuggets….

Now to see what restaurants delivers and I’m going to take a nap. Been up since 3:50am….I’m sleeeeeeeeeeeepy… Oh yeah…and call the hotel in Japan to make sure my room is still there.

God I hope I get to Japan tomorrow….

So, here I sit at Newark’s Presidents Club Lounge staring at my plane that’s supposed to take me to Tokyo…eventually…maybe.

However, due to the fact that there is a big ass typhoon which is actually wider than the country of Japan itself moving up the east coast of the country and it’s expected to reach Tokyo juuuuust about the same time we reach it? Yeah….it’s currently “delayed” for 4 hours…. Personally I just wish they would just cancel the damn thing. That way I can book a seat on another flight tomorrow, go get a hotel room somewhere in Newark, and just chill. Though in retrospect, since most hotel check-in is at 3 and my flight is currently slated to take off at 3…I guess I’m stuck in this lounge whether I like to or not. Boooo…..

Got up at the butt crack of dawn at a bit before 4am. The cab was a little early but it was ok. Then by pure coincidence I met up with a coworker who works in Sales. She lives and works out from Phoenix but was in Cleveland for business and she was on her way to Richmond I think. So that was nice. Got to have someone to hang out with until we got to Newark. And from the fact that I don’t see her in the lounge, she must have made her flight. It was close….

On my way from the gate I got off of in Newark to the Airtran station to get to my current gate, I passed by a TSA agent and he saw my Black Sabbath shirt and proceeded to tell me his history of which concerts he has seen of Sabbath. He was at least in his 60’s. That’s a cool old guy. I want to be a cool old guy when I become old :) No polka and smooth jazz for me in my old age. :)

Screaming child in the lounge. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…… :(

Speaking of the plane though that I can see from the window in the lounge…it’s very very gaudy… It’s actually one of the 777’s that Peter Max, the pop artist, designed. Pretty neat looking actually. You can go here to see the full plane: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/265280/M/

Meanwhile, this is my view :)

…ok…this post killed about 15 minutes…now…what to do…what to do….what to do…. As I told a friend of mine via e-mail, these airports can make a killing setting up nice movie theaters once you get past security or hell…even strip joints. Lots of travelers. Lots of them carrying lots of cash. Not much to do. I’m telling you…it’ll be a cash cow!!!

…but anyway. Yeah. Wooo…. Maybe I’ll go get myself more depressed by reading about the typhoon on yahoo japan….

So, after I posted the HDR pics, I got a lot of positive comments but I also got many people asking me what it looked like without all the digital effects. So, tonight, despite the late night conference call, I decided to go forward and post a few select “normal” images :) I know…I’m such a nice guy.

Anyway…moving on. These are just a few of the TONS of pics I took. Very little work has been done to them. Just a bit to bring out more color but that’s about it mainly because I still feel that digital shots just look too “flat” when it comes to landscape shots. But other than that, it’s just some cropping to get rid of extra stuff and tighten up the shot a bit. As usual, they are all linked to a bigger image and if you want the full size original (about a 2MB jpeg) just let me know!

I like the natural ones more actually. It doesn’t have the visual “pop!” that the HDR ones have but I think there’s something to be said about nature being left alone as it is :)

First up, a shot that you may recognize from the previous HDR post. A shot of one of the mountains seen from Bear Lake! Click on the link to see the rest :)

Just a bit different huh? But still nice in a more natural way.

Continue Reading »

So, here we go!

These are the High Dynamic Range shots from my most recent vacation. Some you have seen already in my “preview” posts. Yes, these pictures are ehanced. But, not that drastically. Still think it looks pretty damn good though doesn’t it? :)

Each of the pictures are linked to a slightly bigger one. I also have the original sized ones if you want them. Just let me know!

Here’s the first one but click on the link before for the rest! Oh, and these pictures are also availabe up in Tim’s Pics (NOTE: for anyone going to this site from the office of where I work - …don’t…for some reason our network blocking software thinks that my online photoalbum is a web mail site and blocks it…sorry…gotta look at it from home).

A shot from Lilly Lake in the Rockies

Continue Reading »

Yup. Today was the Rockies. And it was AMAZING!!!

Too tired to write and I need to get some sleep since I go home tomorrow (booo….) but here are 2 more picture previews. This time they are shots from Bear Lake in the Rockies. Both using HDR again.

So….pretty….

(^_^)

Just a single preview of some of the pictures to come before I turn in for the night (early start tomorrow). Not all the pictures that will be coming will be in HDR (High Dynamic Range) but many will be. For more info on it, just do a google search. It’s just a digital photography technique that, personally, I think makes the picture more dramatic. At first glance it may seem almost fake…but in reality, I think it’s close to what we see as our eyes are far far more sensitive than a camera’s CCD.

Anyway, here is a shot of one of the giant cliffs at Vedauwoo State Park (pronounced vee-da-voo). The trees in the foreground might help in giving you a perpective on how big they are. Obviously this is in HDR. Pretty cool huh? The pic is linked to a bigger jpg. Be careful though as it’s about 2.2MB in size. But it’s the original size without any scaling.

More to come soon!

(^_^)

So, here I sit at a lovely rustic Bed and Breakfast in Loveland Colorado where, much to my friend K’s chagrin, they installed wireless internet so I figured I’d do a quick update.

The 4th was more eventful than I thought it would be. A friend of mine was just as bored as I was so we got together to hit up a few of the events happening around town (not much going on), a nice lunch, and we ended up going to go see Rattatoulie (sp?) before heading out to Whiskey Island to see the fireworks. She has never really seen fireworks in the US on the 4th so thankfully they did a really nice show off of the west bank of the flats so we got a nice view. Too bad we got stuck in traffic for over an hour getting home…ah well.

The next day was the start of my vacation to Wyoming/Colorado. I woke up early and felt a bit…off… A tickle in my throat and some sniffles. So as a preventative I bought some DayQuil and also remembered to bring a few cough drops. Good thing too since I had a 2 hour drive from Denver into Laramie. Everything went well but I could tell a cold was coming on. Great. Nice timing :(

I feel really bad for K since here I am showing up at her doorstep with a cold…. But I was still determined to have a vacation so loaded up on drugs, we did go up to Mt. Jelm to see the observatory, take some nice pictures, eat some Rocky Mountain Oysters (yum), and yesterday go and see some cool rock formations too. Though there were plenty of downtime in between.

Today we took it easy in the morning, went to a few spots in downtown Laramie, then had a late lunch in Fort Collins and am now at the B&B. I need to get ready for a wedding in a few minutes that’ll be in Denver and then we’ll have a late dinner someplace and come back here. She wanted to avoid the reception and that was fine by me :)

Tomorrow we are off to Rocky Mountain National Park. Apparently there are shuttle buses and such so we’re going to give that a try. Still not sure if I’m going to lug my tripod around but we’ll see. Either way I hope it’s good weather and I hope my cold continues to improve. I feel much better now than I did on Thursday but even though I’m not as stuffed up, my ears have problems popping in the high altitidue and still feel a bit sluggish…. Ah well.

So, soon you will see a major picture update. I’ve gotten some great chances to play around with my new camera and there are some cool looking High Dynamic Range Imaging shots of some of the mountains here. They’ll be coming soon!!! (^_^)