Bali money exchange scam.

I was had in Bali… the "short commission", and the "serial number".   Look for Singapore BC, BC. 

Ants in my computer

Why are there always ants going in and out of my computer… for years, even in a new condo on the 16th floor. They live in there. I want to see who else has this kind of problem.

Number of Millionaires by Country:

Which countries have the most millionaires?
Which countries have the highest percentage of their populations as millionaires?
All of this based upon the US dollar, as I am currently in Indonesia, $100 is worth almost a million rupiah.

1 U.S. dollar = 8 849.55752 Indonesian rupiahs, so $100 is 884,900 Rupiah.

Fall survival probability:

I'm curious about the odds of surviving falls from certain heights and floors. So here's what I found...

Posting from iPhone

In the early morning hours of my birthday, November 22, 2008 I stood in down town macau city. My usual walking routs were blocked off by high temporary fortifications built To contain the F1 race cars that would be zooming through the streets later in the day. The light streaming through and reflecting off of the buildings was so calm it made me stop and look up and around to take it all in. I had coldplay reign of love streaming through my headphones but I could still hear the deep rumbling echoes of the cars testing the track before race time. The sound would bounce from building to building and trail off in a higher pitch as the out of sight cars made their way to the other side of the city one by one. It was too early for there to be a hustle and bustle in the city, but late enough that the old folk were just wrapping up their sidewalk don't care whose watching tai chi. Those are the mornings I love. A new place filled with the air of the ancients. A thousand year old temple with a modern race car zooming by. Though Macau had been my home for nearly a year, I could still find adventure and uniqueness in every new day. Now I'm breathing in the same air in Singapore. What will today's adventure reveal ?

Cambodia.

Done dating.  Besides, when's the last time you saw a beauty queen with a humanitarian? I think it shows the undertones of real society. But my feelings right now are a whole different post.  Since I can't find my girl I'm going to do something else to make me happy.  Build orphanages. My buddies and I are starting in Pursat, Cambodia.  Accessible only by motorbike. Yee haw.

The scooter we loaded up at the market.

Where 40 children live.

Their "fresh" water supply.

Open Road Cambodia

Instead of haggling over prices to travel shoe-string style, I find it much more fun to just pay what they need, and then a little more, and then buy something else for a stranger. I think it's funny to see people haggling over what ends up being $0.25 .  An extra few dollars can bring a lot of smiles.

A van loaded to the brim with tied up chickens. 

This is where we got gas. ha ha.

Taking pictures of Jonny in the sunset light of Pursat.

They were having an ice fight. Check out how they saw it.

The girl in the white spoke to me in broken English. I was surprised.

The landscape took my breath away.

3 stooges.

We randomly came across this sweat shop in the middle of nowhere. The road was blocked by police to let them all out. We came just at the shift change. 1,000's of people.

The open road so far...

Aleppo, Syria.

As the snowflakes were falling I remember, I felt like I was home. The home you can find anywhere if only you open your heart to it. We step away from it often, but then suddenly, like déjà vu something will remind us, a faint smell in the air, a reflection off a wet street, a look in somone's eye. It is a home sometimes real, sometimes one we imagine to be, and possibly one that the powers above have left in us to remind us of something we can only faintly remember.  I had known the feeling before... even on the other side of the world away from all my close friends and family, I was home.

Only one month before I had been frolicking in the sand dunes of Siwa and then, there I was in Syria, 20 miles from the Turkish border in a city that looks like a Prague with Minarets. It was beautiful. It was cold. It was Christmas. It was not what the middle east was supposed to feel like. Outside the city of 4 million people was a desert. On the inside, a warm glow from the windows of shops and Christmas lights... There were Kebabs grilling, street venders hawking and bartering and women wearing Hijabs. They smiled as they walked by and I thought it funny I could see the breath coming out of the Muslim women's mouths.  I had spent so much time in the scorching 110 degree musky heat of Egypt watching donkey carts full of blindfolded chickens go by that I wasn't prepared for this sudden cold mixed with inner peace as I walked past beautifully polished cars on this Syrian street.  In the distance I could hear the familiar call to prayer which started from a loud speaker hanging from a Minaret, whose sound would echo through the streets until it hit each ear at different times. I closed my eyes and breathed in. The pinch of cold in my nose felt so good. I could have been on a ski lift about to race moguls, or riding a horse next to Grandpa elk hunting in the dark at 5am. But there I was in Syria, a place officially at war with Israel, a place where Al Qaida and Hezbollah train. From where I stood I could see a huge medieval crusaders castle. Aleppo had been a stronghold for Christians and soldiers during the crusades.  The fortress appeared impenetrable with motes and drawbridges and if I remember the tour guide correctly it was never taken by force.


Maybe the feeling within me came from the fact that Aleppo is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It has had a continuous population for over 4,000 years. It lies only a few hundred miles from Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.  When walking through the valley of the kings, you realize that these massive monuments were built so long ago... but they were abandoned to be half covered in sand with only millennia of goat herders and adventurers to glimpse upon them.  Aleppo's people were there all along.

I walked past a store that looked particularly warm and inviting, my sweet tooth probably swayed me quite a bit.  I could see the chocolate in the window and knew I had to go in and have a taste.
Egyptian Arabic, and even the standard 'Fosha' are quite different from Syrian. Having a conversation with people was a bit like my current adventure of speaking to people in Mandarin and they answer me back in Cantonese.  A bit funny, some full body acting and mutually intelligible words and you can get the meaning across.
The chocolate store was cozy and it smelled just the way I know my heaven will smell. The name of the store was Patchi. I had never heard of it before, but I have since become very fond of it and watched it grow throughout the world. I've been to Patchi in Dubai and even Hong Kong and Macau. This Aleppo store was though one of the very first.  The ladies inside were so kind and even excited as my friend and I talked to them about their beautiful city.  Who knew complimenting someone's city would end up in so much free chocolate.

This post is not finished.  晚安。

Going public with the blog.

Since I started writing on this some... 4 or so years ago?... I have only let a few of my friends read my blog. Now I'm going public. Yikes!  I had originally made it public, but my Aunt stumbled upon it and showed it to my mother.  I don't particularly have any secrets to withhold from my family. But then I found out my mother just about had a nervous breakdown having read just a few of the entries of the crazy things I experience galloping around the world. I had made it private for her "safety" and piece of mind. Hopefully I've warmed her up enough that if she does ever find this again she'll be able to handle it and maybe smile knowing life makes me happy, the good and the bad, and I learn from each of my experiences, successes and failures, relationships and friendships.

Strange, but sweet dream.

Last night I dreamt that I was on a date with Christy at some church event with lots of tables decorated wedding style. Lori's mom was there and she was so sweet and excited that I was around and that Christy and I were dating. Funny. All the girls I ever loved... married with kids. As they say in Chinese.... "aiyo"!!!

That one sexy picture...

I've seen our picture published at least 5 times. Here is the latest edition. ha ha, makes me laugh.

Here's the link.   http://www.askmen.com/dating/love_tip_200/219_love_tip.html

Quotes of August 2010

Here is the quote of the day.

It is said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

I like that.

Macau Fitness and Chinese numerology.

Macau China.

I'm currently working as a PA and advisor to Norika at Power Nutrition Macau. We will be opening a gym called "Macau Fitness" sometime in December.

The company just bought a new van with automatically opening doors. Now we are waiting to buy the license plates. Numbers in Chinese are extremely important. The government realizes this and prices the plates accordingly. The number 8 represents luck/prosperity, so it is highly coveted. The more number 8's in the plate, the higher the cost. The number 4 represents death. So plates with 4 are cheaper. People literally pay $50,000 to get the license plate that they want. Rolling up in a car that has a license plate of the sort 8888 shows that you really have money, and people know you paid a very high price for it. If you had a license plate that said 4444 people might not even get in your car.

Pavlo says in Ukraine the number 4 is the foundation of life. It has a great meaning and people want it.

www.new-numerology.ru


Chinese men do not want to be associated with green. Green has the connotation of naivety. There is a saying that a man wearing a green hat is a man whose wife/girlfriend is cheating on him.

I should do a complete post on the meanings of numbers and colors in different cultures.

Just sittin' in Singapore....

There I was, sitting on my friend's couch watching the History channel, when up pops THIS! My friend slyly looked over to me and he was like... hey wait a second....  I think I know that guy! :P  I found it on Youtube:  Iwearsin commercial.

W Hotel X-mas part 2.

Worked at W hotel in Hong Kong for xmas with Angela Yip. It was ridiculous, but we made it hella fun and it was sooo worth it ;)

Dog Vs. Cat Diary

DOG DIARY

8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 PM – Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 PM – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 PM – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 PM – Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 PM – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 PM – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 PM – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

CAT DIARY

Day 983 of my captivity.
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.
They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape.

In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a ‘good little hunter’ I am. Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of ‘allergies.’ I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow — but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches.

The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released – and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

Inter racial attraction.

This is an interesting article about inter racial attraction. Published in 2008.

b]Columbia University[/b] -- with research and editing assistance from Harvard University, MIT, and Stanford University -- conducted a study on racial preferences in interracial dating. The study was conducted over a two-year period between 2004 and 2007, involving thousands of participants, and the latest draft of the report was published in "Racial Preferences in Dating" in May 2007. (Notes: The study is still on-going.)

The politically incorrect and bad news for Asians of both sexes is that Asians are rated the least physically attractive race, and that's especially true for Asian men, i.e., women of other races find Asian men the least attractive.

From the study:

"For male partners, our main finding is that Asians generally receive lower ratings than men of other races. In fact, when we run the regressions separately for each race, we find that even Asian women find white, black, and Hispanic men to be more attractive than Asian men."

The final analysis is that women have a stronger preference for dating within their own race than men, but men still have a preference for dating within their own race. The exception is Asian women who, on average, have no preference against dating white men.

The reason you see so many white male/Asian female couples is not because white men prefer Asian women (in fact they prefer black and Hispanic women over Asian women), but because Asian women like white men as much as they like men of their own race. On the other hand, women of other races view Asian men as the least desirable race, so Asian men have fewer opportunities to date interracially themselves.

"African-American women said yes about 30 percent less often to Hispanic men; about 45 percent less often to white men; about 65 percent less often to Asian men."

"White women said yes about 30 percent less often to black or Hispanic men, and about 65 percent less often to Asian men."

"Hispanic women said yes about 20 percent less often to black or white men, and 50 percent less often to Asian men."

"Asian women didn’t discriminate much by race (except for showing a very slight preference for Asian men over black or Hispanic men)."

"For equal success with an African-American woman, a Hispanic man needs to earn an extra $184,000; a white man needs to earn an additional $220,000."

"For equal success with a white woman, an African-American needs to earn an additional $154,000; a Hispanic man needs $77,000; an Asian needs $247,000."

"For equal success with a Hispanic woman, an African-American man needs to earn an additional $30,000; a white man needs to earn an additional $59,000."

"For equal success with an Asian woman, an African-American needs no additional income; a white man needs $24,000 less than average; a Hispanic man needs $28,000 more than average."

Speaking Languages

I just found a guy on the internet who posted a video on youtube of himself speaking 14 languages. I understood 6 of them, and wow, he was bad! ha ha. The others were like Hindi and swahili and vietnamese. I give him props for trying, but it makes me think, maybe I should do a video like that? All 12 ? Fluent? Hmmm. I like to keep it to myself, but I've never tried to do something like that before.

Don't shave to look older.

I had a casting today. It was funny because they wanted a guy between 35-40 years old to shoot a commercial about real Thai food. They told me that I need to look older so that if I get the part not to shave for 2 days before. I was like... is that what old guys do?! Not shave?!

People pass on the right.

It seems to me that most people, about 80% of the time pass people in front of them on the right. Even in countries that I've been to where the vehicle traffic goes the other way.

I hope that the insurgents in Iraq aren't just waiting around, getting strong and waiting until the US leaves to launch a massive attack.