Whatever happened to all those California Girls?

Before I left Pittsburgh, Eddy gave me a piece of little adage, "California Girls® are hot." He told me this as we depressively reflect upon the toniest part of Pittsburgh, Walnut Street, as another MidWestern Farmer's daughter trotted on by.

So today I am in Union Square, the toniest part of SF.... I have not yet seen these amazing girls that the Beach Boys sang about. In fact, most of the women here are rather plain and anemic looking. The only really good looking women are the 40-ish WASP-y X-Ray's.

I don't know. When I do see these mythical California Blondes, they tend to be small, short, fit, but very very dour, sandblasted faces.

MacFreaks camping on O'Farrell

The iPhone is being shown today and people in SF are going mad.

Apple fanatics waited outside the MacStore to get just a small peek. Some even camped out overnight so they can be the first one in.

The line stretch all the way around the block to O'Farrell.... scarey.

Aggressive Sales Tactics for Spa Treatments

I was at the San Francisco Shopping Centre when I heard a woman's voice call out to me, "Sir, do you know what the Dead Sea is?"

The voice is from a sales clerk at one of those boutique trolleys. Before I had a chance to answer, she grabbed my arms, "Come here."

She asked me to reach out with my palms forward and she dumped two scoops of salty, gelitine mash into my hands. "Rub them together, vigorously."

I did. It was some kind of spa defoliate. "I am from Israel. People come from all over the world to go to the Dead Sea to cure all kinds of skin diseases. This will help you. Just look! You have very dry skin."

I was still taken a back by the whole approach and was utterly dumbfounded, just meekly following along. I looked at the woman talking and noticed that she was slim, dark, short, and what can be considered as attractive. At the moment, though,http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=10391823# I was just internally offended and wanted out. But I still had this gunky salt slush all over my hand.

"Okay," she pushed my hands over a basin and poured water from a cistern over my hands, "now feel. Have you ever felt your hands so smooth?"

I have. But I told her I haven't.

Before I can formulate the thought of pulling away, she massage goo on the back of my forearms. "You cannot use the salt with face. But this is gel and it does the same thing. I won't put it on your face but I will show you on your arm."

It was a very strange moment. I can almost imagine kinky business execs paying thousands of dollars to be in the same position that I was.

"Look at all the dead skin coming out of your arm, eh."

I looked around to see if other people at the mall was looking at this. I feel a little accosted, a little intruded upon. Finally she was done and she swab my arm with cotton pads.

"I want you to see. Compare this arm with your other arm. Isn't it more smooth, more beautiful?"

She started placing jars of her product into my still outstretch hands. Time to go, I told myself. And I acted like I was having a panic attack.

"I had to go back to my hotel," I said, and ran off.

Marshall's

I found a Marshall's in SF! And they do have much better clothes here than the farmwear they have in Pittsburgh. Got 2 pairs of hiphuggers and a bunch of socks.

Whoo!

Tenderloin

A homeless guy on the bus told me that the Tenderloin wasn't something I can't handle. I asked him if it was like Hell's Kitchen in New York, a bad part of town in the eighties but it's all cleaned up now. Homeless guy told me that he was from New York and really, I had nothing to worry about from the Tenderloin.

I was bored after Japantown and decided to take a walk to South of the Market. A bit of a bust. Nothing there. So I kept walking till I hit the Tenderloin -- 6th, Market, Taylor, and Golden Gate -- sometime around dusk.

Shit. It was like a giant refugee camp. There were homeless people everywhere. There were old chinese ladies scrounging garbage dumps for food. Different people with different disabilities -- lame foot, cataract eyes, schizophrenia -- kept coming up to me. I have not seen the level of human desperation since I left Macau. Actually, Macau was never this bad. People came to for change, for cigarettes, for food.

One even asked for the pizza crust that was in my hand. I don't eat pizza crust, so I gave it to him. He was really grateful... for pizza crust. All the homeless people here are really really desperate. One old woman followed me for four blocks asking for change. When I said no, she asked if I wanted a "date."

I saw people huddling together trying to get warm. A few had very clearly passed out. This is not a good place. It wasn't so much as it is dangerous; The panhandlers are persistent, but ultimately fearful of tourists. For a vacation destination like SF, I don't suppose the cops take it too kindly to travelers getting mugged. It doesn't seem like panhandling is a lucrative here, as it is in Toronto. Worse still, I noticed that many of the homeless people on scooters are Vets... America really has serious problems.

Japantown, Kinetesu Mall

This place is pretty empty. But very pretty. Not like Chinatown, all touristy.

My mom would love it here. She always amired good worksmanship.

Chinatown in SF

I did so much walking today around Chinatown. The place doesn't stop, but in terms of activities and geography. I was there 6 hours and I don't think I saw half of it. Kinda puts the Toronto Chinatown to shame, but then again, they are completely different beasts.

Most of the place seems to be a giant tourist trap. All along Grant Ave are souvenir shops that sells more or less the same stuff in shop after shop. Later, I found out that the only real part of Chinatown is Stockton Street.

I woke up seven in the morning. (PST, so that would be ten in the morning back in Toronto.) I tried to get dim sum, but nothing was open. Barely found a HK-style bakery and order a milk tea. Not too bad, but it was a bit thick. Had a pineapple bun.

Then I went two shops down to have my hair cut by a mainlander. Why a mainlander? He was not very talkative. I like that in my barber.

Went back to Union Square and got GAP-ed. Took a shower. Then, it was back to Chinatown again.

I walked like a little mule uphill and up and up and up. Grant Ave just goes. Bought a new laptop bag. Tried to buy a tessen, but the quality is very. Maybe I will find a higher quality fan in Japantown.

Got tired and went to another HK-Style cafe/bakery. I felt I got ripped off. Lousy milk tea and a greasy porkchop should not be $5,

Going to try to walk to Japantown.

Caltrain from Santa Clara

Just like the GO trains, but slower and with no outlets for lpatops. I have not eaten in 13 hours. Gettng hungry.

San Jose International Airport

My sleeping bag is stuck underneigh the airport!
San Jose turns out to have a third-class airport, that is only slightly better than the airport we had in St. John's. Couple of gates and three carousel. We had to walk on the tarmac just to get into the airport.

Just to rewind a little. I managed to catch my originally scheduled flight. By the time I got there, UA 723 was also delayed by 25 minutes -- just enough time for me to convince the customer service rep to get me on the early flight. So yay! No one hour wait.

I slept for the whole trip. My body just needed it.

The whole sinus thing was killing me on the landing. My ear hurt and it is still hurting now. I wonder if there is anyway to get this problem fixed.

I managed to get my duffle bag from the carosel. Then it broke down.

WHOA! it just started moving. Gotta go.

UA6473

Departing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 3:35 PM and estimated to arrive at Denver, Colorado at 4:59 PM.

Somewhere now over the skies of somewhere. Too far up to see the flat ground underneigh. THe clouds above make impossible snowscapes.

My flight got delayed and I won't be making a connector from Denver to San Diego. No worries, the woman at the United counter said, just take the 7:15 flight. I am always wary of promises made by Customer Service Agents. After all, I was one, and I never, ever knew what I was talking about. Sometime, I wonder about the trillion of dollars lost every year because of a system that place major responsiblities on the backs of under-payed, under-motivated, Gen-Y'ers that seem to populated these positions.

CRJ700 - it's one of those mini-jetliners for regional flights. Feels light being inside a really long Greyhound. The flight attendants served pretzels ... I hate pretzels. I got seated at 12D -- the seat by the wings -- where the emergency exit is located. A quintessential Fight Club moment. The door apparently 42 lbs. I don't think I have lifted that much weight in a long time. Now, I am expected to pitch this thing over a wing after the plane crash lands in the jungle? Calm as Hindu cows. I am sure the guy next to me would know what to do.

Pittsburgh 28X

On the slow bus (28X) to the airport. Traffic Jam.
Thank goodness, just another hour to go before leaving this sinkhole.

Pittsburgh

I guess this is what life is all about -- like Pittsburgh, long days of work and then going home, then maybe, just maybe, on the weekend have a drink with your guy friends. If you get lucky, you're really getting lucky.

Thus far, that is what Pittsburgh seems. Boring. Lots and lots of ice cream places. No real nightlife to speak of. Everything closing before sunset. People all seem to marry after high school and a single eligable woman is as hard to find as diamonds in the coal pits.

People seems to be fairly satisfied waiting for their days to end.

Erie, PA

Nothing to eat at Erie either. More vending machines. Erie, though, is more beautiful. Farm country. Still fertile.

American smal towns are kind of gritty. A group ex-cons -- just released -- are going with us .. well except for one. Three cop cruisers pulled in at the last moment and arrested one of them, Oscar in the Green Tweed suit. Found a screwdriver on him, apparently.

Attitudes are different here too. The driver just gave two near-identical speeches about "the four Federal Laws regulating your ride on the Greyhound." He also warned us repeatedly not to knock on the "security barrier" -- the flappy plexiglass shell around his seat that looked like it is stuck in place with superglue. Service employees seem to be continously on edge.

Stopped at McDonald's and grabbed a Big Mac. Mmmmm..... taste so good after not eating for 12 hours.....

Still hungry.

I guess I am having breakfast with eddy.

Buffalo

Bus ride down from Toronto was uneventful -- as far as these rides typically goes. Bunch of Jewish camp kids. A lingere model and a few Russians. A Falun Gong practitioner got pissed at how long the border crossing was.

"We're late," she said to the bus driver.
"Tell the Customs Agents to hurry up," he shrugged.
She said nothing and went back to her excerises.

A long layover in Buffalo to "catch" the bus to Erie, PA -- two hours. Actually my bus to Buffalo arrived early and it became a three-and-a-half hour layover. I walked a three-block perimeter around the coach terminal and all of Buffalo is empty buildings and above ground parking lots. It's like the movie "Twenty-Eight Days Later." Magnificeient buildings everywhere and not a living soul in sight. All empty. Nothing open. It's as if the inhabitants decided collectively to all go to a better place. (NYC?) All I wanted was breakfast. Buffalo is so inadequate.

Met a man smoking. He told me his story. He drove all the way from Toledo to give a brand new car to his son who just graduated from high school. Drove it all the way to Albany and now, he needs to take the bus back to Toledo. The man was proud of his son. But cautious. He told his son to go to college, but to take it easy.
"I don't care if it takes him 6 years to finish junior college," he said, "just don't get burnt out."

Great dad, I suppose. Don't know if I'd every say that to my kids. But then, different background and different values, I suppose.

Hopefully in Erie, there will be breakfast.

Mad Dash to Pittsburgh

On the TTC now rushing home so I can pack, find my passport, and go to
the Greyhound station. I've been so sick the last week that I forgot
when I had to fly to San Francisco.

I thought I still have another day.

The bus ride from Toronto to Pittsburgh is 12 hours, with two, two-hour
layovers in Buffalo and Fort Erie. I must leave T.O. tonight if I want
to spend a full day in Pittsburgh with Eddy. (I'd get there by noon, all
groggy from no sleep.)

Today is also the last day of Pride Week, so the coach bus is gonna to
be packed....

The whole thing is so unpleasant, I wonder why I thought it would be a
good idea just a month ago. I already sort of packed. Now, need to go
quickly and pray no roadblocks come my way.

I got my birthday wish

I made a wish to have a quiet, meaningful birthday. Somebody up there
must be listening. Today for me was idyll peace, sun, and spent much of
the twilight talking with an acquaintance I didn't knew too too well --
and whom I got to know better.

So I got my favorite thing in the whole world:
making new friends.

It's a good thing.

Just finished CHOOSE ME

The last story, "Blue Skies," about a man who "seemed the sort of man
for whom rules were bent, who was forgiven by women he betrayed"
suddenly remind me of an old friend I haven't seen in a long while...

What I bought today

I was a little bored at York Lanes, so I went to the bookstore and milled around for an hour.

Bought three little things ...

1) An art pen (Pilot Parallel Pen)



The nib of this pen is like a normal fountain pen. Ink flows through two a narrow slit to form a line. Unlike normal pens, it is two piece of stainless steel overlapping. The flow is very springy. I got a 2.4 mm, so it draw lines about the same as a normal highlighter.

The really cool thing about this pen is that you can flip the nib sideways and draw a 0.5 mm wide line. I've been playing around with it all day, catching up on my calligraphy.

---

2) A book "Inside the Tornado"


It's another one of the Business Classic that everybody is suppose to have read. I don't know much about it, but I am kinda accumulating a little business books library and it was on sale, only $5.

---

3) A Moleskine City Notebook (San Francisco)



I am a sucker for notebooks and these Moleskine peddlers just seem to push all my buttons. I am suppose to go to SF in a couple of weeks.

I saw the thing sitting in a pile of other Moleskines of other cities... I guess I need a little travel map anyways.... It was expensive, but I can't help but keep rubbing my hand over the smooth covers... utterly pornographic.

The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type - Alex W. White

This is probably the best book on graphic design I've ever read. Usually, Graphic Designers are fairly incommunicative verbally. They will try to show you; ask you whether you "see" it or "feel" the harmony or balance or whatnot of some design. Of course, I don't see it. If I did, I wouldn't have to ask in the first place. Thankfully, this Alex W. White doesn't do that. His prose is clear about every concept Graphic Designers have ever introduced me to and neglected to explain.

Majority of the book is actually devoted to the idea of Active White Space ... or the unprinted portions of a page that is left intentionally blank. The author believes that while content is important, whitespace is equally important to contribute.

The book mixes the theoretical and the practical. There is the usual precepts to have 50-60 characters in a line. But there are also little gems like, "Total lack of controlled white space produces visual noise."

I also liked, "Sequencing information is among a designer's most essential tasks. Book designers, for example, structure their typography into title, chapter and section headings, subheading, text, and captions. Such typographic structure helps the reader scan for generalities and, at least initially, ignore details until they commit themselves to the text."

The big turn-off for me is that the body text is set in a sans serif font. Why does he do that? I don't know. But it is not important.

read this book!

Understanding the grammar of visual design is almost a second form of literacy in our consumer driven society.

Scared of crowds on the subway: Just play Alpha Male

Lifehacker has a little article for subway riders who claustrophobic. I am not sure if it is a joke or meant seriously, but one of the hint is

Be the alpha male - look powerful

All animals(humans included) keep their distance from the powerful alpha males. The vital space is proportional to the importance of the animal. An alpha male will benefit from a larger space, as the weaker ones will tremble in fear and step back.The nice trick here is that you don’t really have to BE a dangerous fellow. In order to maximize your vital space and push the crowd back, all it takes is to look powerful and confident. Not to mention you will probably hook up with some girls along the way - everyone loves a secure and confident guy.How can you do it? I’ll write about this some more in some future articles, but here’s the short version: it’s all in the attitude, language and body language:When you speak, do it a bit louder than usual with larger, confident hand gestures; when you walk try to look big and important; when you seat, keep your feet spread and your arms apart; instead of looking humble, look secure. When it’ll work, you’ll know - people will start perceiving you as a secure, important fellow, an alpha male they need to keep their distance from. Careful though, not to overreact - you don’t want to look obnoxious, loud and aggressive, do you?

Choose Me -- Evelyn Lau

In the middle of reading Choose Me by Evelyn Lau and I thought it was a good time to take a brief respite in the middle and write down how I feel.

First, I gotta say, "I love Evelyn Lau." Must be the whole angsty disgust thing that and broken down depressive -- our bodies are not ourselves -- theme that thread thru everything she writes. I like it. I like it a lot.

Then there is her use of language. It's knitted together very well. Something I always tried to imitate is the way she joins sentences in a paragraph together by the unity of images.

Oh, one more thing I really like. Twisty endings.

She don't use jelly

Tyra Banks apparently has a great tip on dry skin.

I have been reading your messages and a lot of you are concerned that putting Vaseline on your face is not the best thing to do. I have very dry skin, so Vaseline is great for the skin on my face. But if you have oily or acne prone skin, you should probably keep the 'LINE (nickname for Vaseline - pronounced "LEENE") off of your face.

Today, my feet were really ashy, and I put some Vaseline on them before I put my socks on. I just got home. (I went to the movies today to see CRANK. That movie ROCKED. It was sooooo good. It was really violent though and has some sexual stuff that is too strong for the young’uns out there. So I am NOT recommending that people under 18 years old see it! That Jason Stratham - star of the flick - is one sexy dude.) But anyway, I came home from the movies and took my socks off and my feet were ash free. They were glowing!!! Vaseline came to the rescue!!!

Movie of My Life

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