Saturday, February 1, 2003, 05:33 a.m.

Go east young man....

Well i finally booked a flight to Tokyo, Japan today. I'm pretty excited, especially since this will be the first time i'll have left North American since i was in high school. I think it'll be a fun trip and i'm looking forward to just about anything that gets thrown my way. What i am *not* looking forward to is the godawful long transpacific flight. I remember when i was 14 and flying to korea, it was just painfully long and luckily i did fall asleep a lot of the flight, but half the time i was bored out of my mind too. It's too bad there's nowhere to plug a laptop unit back in the coach section. I just realized that i'm a lot taller than i was at age 14. Those seats are going to be tight...

I'm starting to think about what i'm actually going to pack with me for the flight. My laptop for sure, maybe a portable mp3 player if i get one, a couple books (the complete LoTR trilogy and one political science book), DVD movies, and my backup plan: drugs to knock me out into blissful sedative slumber. Nothing like a nice 8 hour nap to knock away some of the boredom...

I wonder how much japanese i can brush up by then...

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Friday, January 31, 2003, 09:56 p.m.

I don't want to lose my mind

That really sums up how i'm feeling, and frankly i don't think i need to elaborate any further. I will back this up with a little story that happened at work today. There was a nice 70 year old guy who came to the hospital to start a new heart medication and by the time evening came, he had no idea where he was, thought he was being held against his will, and started roaming up and down the halls looking for his wife and kids who were not there. He didn't believe who we were and thought we were out to get him. It didn't help that had Alzhiemer's either. After letting him speak to his wife and son who lived almost and hour and a half away, he still didn't trust us and tried to walk out and go home in the cold. Eventually we had to restrain him which was something i really didn't want to do. Poor guy was probably a very nice guy, maybe he wasn't, but that didn't matter. I felt bad and felt fear of old age and dementia. A broken body is not picnic, but a broken mind...some say theres a certain bliss in that, but when you look like a raving madman trying to get the police to come rescue you...that doesn't look very fun.

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Sunday, January 26, 2003, 10:31 p.m.

Ya'll come back now, y'hear?

Oddly, nobody really sounded like that when i went to Hotlanta, GA this weekend. Oddly it wasn't very warm either. I decided to visit my old college friend Mike a couple days before i actually left for the south. This winter freeze has been pretty awful so far. Its been so cold that i've started to leave the house *more* often so i wouldnt have to constantly use my own heat (my last heating bill was insanely high). I originally had plans to fly back to the bay area but plans kind of fell through and i never ended up purchasing my air fare so i decided to go somewhere a little more local, preferably a little warmer. Well i haven't been to Atlanta before, Mike just bought a new house 6 months ago so i thought it would be a nice excuse to go. The drive back and forth was about 8-9 hours both ways but i figured out how to set up my laptop in my car as a wireless internet station. Plus i was playing movies and listening to music during the whole trip, never falling asleep once. I thought i was going to visit some balmy warm paradise but it was actually pretty cold down there, with highs in the 40s, but this still beat the single digit plus and minus temps i was enduring at home. I had fun hanging out with Mike, meeting his friends including someone who i suspect is his gf, but it was pretty hard to tell watching them, and i never flat out asked. One weird thing i noticed was that lack of a southern accent wherever i went. I mean, an hour east or west of the city and you hit old South plantation country, but everyone in the city sounded very....midwest. As Mike explained it 'most people who live here....aren't from around here'. That probably explains all the Michigan liscense plates and korean run bowling alleys i saw as well.

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Wednesday, January 22, 2003, 12:44 a.m.

Back to the gym

It should be noted that today is a special day because, for the first time in months, i went and braved the freezing cold and hit the gym once again. While its been in the back of mind for a while, i've been too lazy to go since the winter temps set in. After playing a mere 30 min of DDR with a friend a coupe weeks ago and nearly dying of exhaustion, i knew my body was in pretty crappy shape. Oh well, i guess i will be wearing tighty-whiteys once more. I cannot work out in boxer shorts, its just a thing i have...

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Tuesday, January 21, 2003, 01:06 a.m.

'Hey...watch this!'

....is usually a redneck's famous last words.

I don't know why that joke is so funny, but its a personal favorite of mine in the redneck collection. It came to mind several times when i was with my buddy who invited me to the Indiana State Fair gun n knife show. I don't really have much an interest in firearms and will probably never own one in my life, but i don't bother my friends who own them either. If they don't shoot themselves, or some loved one with it, more power to them. My friend Dale did teach me how to load and flip the safety switch on an automatic handgun (remember kids, when the switch is flipped and you see the red dot, it can go off and hurt somebody!). Anyways, going to see a bunch of cleetuses in their overalls pouring over hunting rifles and semi-automatic assault weapons wasnt really my idea of a way to spend a weekend day, but he did sell me on this point; 'it'll be a really interesting slice of humanity that you'll see'. This got my curiosity going and i decided it was something i shouldn't pass up. When i got to the show, it wasnt as scary as i thought. Sure nearly everyone was white, and a little redneckish, but i guess the real yokels came on Saturday, because the Sunday crowd was fairly tame. We browsed gun dealer tables for the next couple hours until my feet ached, but i didn't complain much just to humor Dale, who had fun being my guide in NRA-land. What did dawn on me was just how you can buy just about any kind of firearm, including converted M16 rifles and AK47s, even to military sniper rifles (for duck hunting of course), without too much trouble at all. While i'm not an opponent to the right to bear arms, nobody needs a handgun that can blow a hole in someone the size of a bowling ball... I'm sure there were a good number of klan members and like floating around. Aside from me, i only remember seeing maybe 5 or 6 people out of several hundred on the showroom floor who looked remotely non-caucasian. Oh i learned one more thing, guns are expensive! $500 for a quality Baretta 9 mm...forget it.

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Friday, January 17, 2003, 12:42 a.m.

Bush's Game

This was a very interesting and well written article done by sci-fi author Orson Scott Card, explaining his take on the US approach to North Korea and Iraq. I have little to add to this.

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Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 01:49 p.m.

Medi...whatever

I've never been one to be really current-events or politically concious, yet i'm getting older, and a grown-up so-to-speak (although speak to many who know me, try to dodge the spit that comes flying out when they laugh), i've been making more of an effort to pay attention to the world around me. That includes grabbing the occasional medical journal or two that sits on my ever increasing pile. Give it another year and it can probably reach low flying satellites in orbit. I've even borrowed a couple books from a friend of mine dealing with US foriegn policy, global economics, in order to arm myself with a little something to throw out at stuffy dinner parties. No really, this isnt so much as an effort to make myself seem smarter, but i am a citizen of a world superpower. I shouldn't live like someone on Castaway. So anyways, i was reading about the impending cuts on Medicare, which is what we the taxpayers shell out to provide health care to our elderly. The big concern is that it is about to go the way of social security, meaning there isn't going to be any money left for our seniors and more importantly, when we get old. Oh well, if this isnt a sign to die young, i dont know what is. Either that or live in a hermetically-sealed germ-free bubble. In just another shining example of 'wtf is the government doing?', waaaaay back in 1979 the Supreme Court passed an act stating that our nations prisoners are ENTITLED to full health care at the cost of our nations taxpayers. Ok so lets break it down, we have honest hardworking people who probably never broke a law worse than jaywalking, bust their humps and then worry about losing insurance and end up bedridden in their 60s from 3 different chronic illnesses, drowning in an insurance billing nightmare. Yet the guy who is doing life for 1st degree murder will always have a doc at his disposal. Now i'm not saying these inmates are receiving Mayo clinic level care, nor am i saying they are not entitled to anything at all(this isn't the PRC), but there is still something really wrong with that picture. I think i'm still gonna stay with my plan of driving over a cliff facing the lovely Pacific blue when i hit 65...

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Monday, January 13, 2003, 10:38 p.m.

Wheres the beef?

I found another reason i need to move out of here. I drive half an hour (which by Indianapolis standards is kind of a haul) to the only korean market in town. I wanted to make some kalbi jjim, which is one of my favorite beef rib dishes, but it usually takes a very specific thick cut of beef ribs that i cant find at most american groceries. Well they didn't have any, and after stopping by a couple other stores in a futile search i just gave up. My mom has a choice of 3 local markets she can shop at. Maybe i should move back to detroit.....or maybe i shouldn't.

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Friday, January 10, 2003, 05:17 a.m.

A Tale of Two Cities...

...aka 'Did you say New waak or New Yawk?'
I don't know why i've been writing these entries lately while i'm totally sleep deprived. Maybe its to keep things less guarded, more honest. I don't know if that's such a good thing.

I'm sitting at the terminal in Newark Intl Airport waiting to board my plane coming onto my 24th hour since i woke up this morning for an allergy/immunology interview. I fly into NJ the day before yesterday and after a quick drive to the airport, plus or minus a few wrong turns into the city pretty much confirmed my suspicions that Newark really is a dump of a town. It reminds me of Baltimore with a less charming waterfront. Another thing that struck me about being back on the east coast was how god-awful short the days are, with the sun disappearing a little after 4. That killed any desire to leave my hotel, which i later found out, was conveniently placed next to a correctional facility; something i didn't notice until i made a wrong turn past the sign that said RESTRICTED AREA, and saw the rows of men in gray jumpsuits down the road.

The holiday inn i stayed at was nice, really nice, with free high speed internet to boot. I really don't know how i'll be able to travel without my laptop anymore. Despite the nice room, big bed, room service and high speed access to internet porn, i didn't sleep very well at all. Looking back, i don't if i was nervous or my body just didn't like the idea of sleeping early and waking early. By the time the clock hit 6:30 am i decided to get out of bed and stop trying to kid myself that i was actually getting rest. After a pretty uneventful drive thru more charming neighborhoods in downtown Newark, i spent a pretty long and eventful day getting interviewed by doctor after doctor, answering the same questions over and over. I mixed up my answers a little just to keep things interesting. Since this was the only interview i had scheduled, i figured my chances at getting the position was pretty weak at best. I just said what was on my mind without getting rude, and asked some of the interviewers point blank 'so what do i need to do or say for you to actually remember me when you pick your person?'. It actually made a couple of them laugh and one told me 'thats a good question, i wish i knew the magic words too.' If i had to say how the day went, i would say 'fine, i think i impressed someone and was graceful under pressure' but then i would add 'i still have a pretty weak chance to getting the spot but i had that feeling from the minute i stepped in the door.' Did i lack confidence, maybe, but did i show that? I don't think so. It was more a matter of 'hey i know i'm a great candidate and i'll almost go as far as to say that, and if you still pass me up, your loss.' I dont know whats going to happen, we'll see.

Later on that night i had plans to meet up with caroline and may (named upon special request) for dinner up in NYC. I've known and talked to both of them for the last two years but this was the first time we've gotten to meet face to face. I had a great time with both of them and only wished that i could have spent a couple more days in town, if i only hadn't been broke and laid up with other plans for the weekend. Caroline took me around downtown and let me play photo tourist-geek. Times Square maybe be cliched and overloaded with sight-seers but it still makes for some incredible night portraits. I think only Tokyo has more flashing and neon lights.

On the slim chance i do get this job in Jersey, i still have a hard time picturing myself as an east coast boy, but we'll see.

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