I'm still on Hong Kong time
And it sorta sucks. I get super sleepy right around lunch time. In fact, today I went home for lunch and sorta passed out after eating for a little bit. Just like I did Wednesday. Except this time I actually put my head upon a PILLOW instead of waking up to find it bent against the hard side of the couch. Which is much better.

Yeah, yesterday was kind of sucky for a variety of reasons. For one, the lack of sleep was starting to kick my butt, and in addition to that, issues at work. Mainly that a machine I use for some rather important things had disappeared. That's right. The monitor, mouse, keyboard, UPS, etc., were all there. The tower was gone. And nobody knew where it went. That's generally not a good thing. It did not help my mood. I found out later that one of the help desk guys took it to use as a backup machine for someone in a different building whose computer had stopped working. He brought it back, and at that point the hard drive started failing. This did not help my mood. I had some words with him and then worked on other stuff, and finally he puts it back after getting it back up to speed (needed to be re-seated, apparently). So I go to get a nice hamburger for lunch (at around 2:30), which I didn't have since I was gone, and I'm driving along, listening to some rather angry music (not completely intentionally). On the BA. And a very large truck is in the middle lane, I'm in the left lane AKA the FAST lane. So I'm scooting along, eager to get my burger, when someone enters the freeway (actually it's an expressway, but pish posh). He DOES put a signal on, moves into the center lane, but doesn't bother pausing, I guess convinced since he changed lanes once, he could change again WITHOUT LOOKING. So he cuts in front of me, squeezing out from behind the big rig, cutting in front of me by less than a foot (I had to brake). This did not help my mood. I lay on the horn and I guess he discovered a car was behind him at this point. It seemed to surprise him. So I wait for him to pull back to the center lane, which he does NOT do, even though I'm still right on his behind (trying to go the speed I WAS going), and of course, he brakes. Eh, I change, pass him, and then go to get my burger. Of course they get the order wrong, but I don't care too much anymore. I was too TIRED to care.

Yeah, that was yesterday. Today's been better. I tried getting to sleep earlier, but popped awake around one to hear some sort of craziness outside, which shouting and squealing tires. But it's slowly getting back to normal. Hopefully I won't have to have lunch naps next week.

Ah, so. My trip. To tell the truth, I have more pictures than I have free hard drive space, which is sad. (Naruto's been filling my gigs lately.) But I'm going to try to get it all on this weekend and put up some good shots for you to check out. It was an awesome trip. Hong Kong is almost like New York, although I've never actually been to New York. But I think they're very similar. Only much less crime, no littering, and somehow better drivers. Even though it's super packed all the time, they still manage to keep the flow going. It might help that not very many people have cars, and they use cabs, buses and double-decker buses (I got to ride one!), as well as the MTR AKA subway. The MTR was my favorite method of traveling. Get anywhere within twenty minutes. Walking, of course, was also done quite frequently. My dogs were barking! Where does that phrase come from, anyway?

And yeah, the main language is Cantonese, which is cool. Mandarin and English are the "official" languages of the city, so a lot of people have a bit of each of those, but really, if you don't speak Cantonese, you're out of luck in a lot of places. Thankfully we had a few people with us who DID speak Cantonese. There was a total of 25 people on our trip, with our group. Only four from Oklahoma, one from Chicago, sixteen from L.A., and four from Hawaii. Sigong had his wife, their daughter, HER husband, and THEIR two kids with them. So a bit of a family outing for them, I think. I got to know a lot of the students from his school in L.A. quite well, which was quite cool. I heard a lot of good stories, too. Made some friends, and I'll probably be heading up to Chicago sometime this year (maybe more than once), and hopefully to L.A. at least once, too. Spend a weekend at each place, get some extra training, all that. Something about meeting the big man in Hong Kong and hearing some of the background stories about Buck got me going. Or, as Sifu said, "lit a fire under my butt". That's right, my training's gotten a bit heftier. I think in a month I'll be severely improved. I just hope my pants still fit after all my new MUSCLES kick in.

Anyway, it's time for the weekend. Maybe spend some time with Sihing this weekend, a little bit of training, a little bit of fun. A lot of our students went up to Kansas City this weekend for a tournament. I'm still kind of tripped out (sorry for the pun), so I'm going to take the weekend to try to recover. Yes, yes. And more details about the trip and maybe some pictures sometime SOON.

For now... random link! Yes, it's been a while. So here you go. Just a simple one this time. Did you know they do kung fu at Harvard? Eh, but if their horse stance is like it seems to be, then with that level of training they're just a bunch of PANSIES.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 4:04 PM | 1 comments