dayseyes's Xanga

Travel by Plane - A Cautionary Tale

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:52:34 GMT

It was an early early Tuesday morning on what should have been an exciting business trip to Chicago (a first with my new company). But that's where this tale of unbelievable tale of unfortunate events begins. My flight on Southwest from Oakland to Chicago was scheduled to take off at 7am PST; I woke up at 5:55am PST.....I think you can all guess now where this is going.

In the matter of 2-3 minutes, David and I hauled ass to get dressed, load the car and drive to the airport. Just as a refresher, I live in Richmond while the Oakland airport is in Alameda, a distance of 20 miles. We drove fast and furious......well, as fast as you can move in the beginnings of the Bay Area's early morning commute. As David is driving, I am assembling the last of my morning ensemble when I realizes that I left my glasses behind. The good news though is that I have 2 sets of my disposable contact lens in my suitcase and a pair of prescription sun glasses.....but who wears sunglasses before the sun is even up and in doors no less.

We get the airport by 7:30am PST and I am dropped off at the curb. I look ahead and SCORE---there is no line at the check-in counter. I get my pseudo boarding pass and check-in my suitcase, which was then promptly tagged as "LATE". What does that mean, I asked? "It means it may not make it on this flight, so we'll put it on the next flight which is only 30 minutes behind your flight" says the attendant. Sounds good to me, I thought. Then the attendant adds that I need to get through security ASAP. I turn to my left and there is the bloody line.

As make my way patiently through the line, I call my boss to let her know that I am here. She says to hurry, but that also the plane only just arrived. At this point, its about 7:42am PST. I stood in line some more, then as I reach the piles of buckets, I get another cell phone call and am told to hurry. Once again, I acted fast to drop everything into my row of three buckets --- carry on bags, laptop, shoes and jacket. I rush through the security screen only to hear it beep....damn. I walk back and dump my watch and sunglasses into the mini bucket then run back through the screen and grabbed all my belongings and pack it up. At this point, I make the mad dash to the terminal.

It is 7:55am PST and I am fading fast (Did I ever mention that I am not built to run?) so I begin to speed walk my way over. I get to the gate and am stopped by the attendant and sent to customer service for a real boarding pass. If you may recall, I had only received a pseudo ticket earlier. So there I go, mad dash to the customer service counter. The rep gives me my ticket and calls out to the terminal door "Wait! One more!"

By 8:00am PST, I have made it through the boarding gateway and find my boss who has saved me a seat. Good god, I made it. I am sweating bullets and panting like a crazy woman. The worst has now passed, or so I thought. Little did I know, I left a rather valuable item on the security clearance conveyer belt. What could it be you ask? My laptop.

But rest assured there is a happy end and some good FYI information for you at the moral of this tale. Should you ever leave something at the security check and not realize it until you have boarded your plane and landed at your final destination, you can rest assured that they will take your item to lost and found. But here are the steps for you:

1) Go to the customer service center at baggage claim and ask them for the number of the airport where you lost said item.

2) Call the airport and ask them to direct you to lost and found.

3) ID your item and let them know that you will send someone to pick it up/Or will pick it up when you return.

3 fairly easy steps for recovering your belongs, be it a laptop, shoes, bags or jacket.

Photos from the Caribbeans

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:28:30 GMT

Karen Neuburger Sale Events for Friends & Family

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:12:50 GMT

In other news, I have started on a new career path with KN Karen Neuburger, a lifestyle brand known for the pajamas and comfort lifestyle products. To kick things off, you are all welcomed to a "friends and family event" happening online from Nov 19-26. See link below for coupon code:

http://view.onestopinternet.com/view_email.aspx?j=fe8a1675726d077873&m=fefb12707d6006&ls=fdf715737667047e7d137770

Flickr...YOU SUCK!!!!

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:07:49 GMT

After spending about two days trying to login and/or reset my password for flickr, I am moving on to Picasa. That account is absolutely obsolete and I will be waiting for it to completely expire.

Here's the extended story:
I forgot the password to my flickr account, which normally should not be a big deal. Just fill in some personal information and answer some questions and the reset option should just happen quick and easy. That's where my story goes sour. Apparently, I have two yahoo accounts and apparently the account tied to my flickr account was formally associated with ATT/SBC Global. This meant that instead of resetting my password as I had expected, I was instead directed to call the SBC customer service line. Here's the problem....I am not an SBC customer, not anymore at least. The only time I had an SBC account was when I subscribed to AT&T's dsl service, which is still being used by my old roommates. I called SBC customer service (twice) and the service people didn't know what I was talking about and would either tell me that they couldn't help me or try to direct me to yahoo or direct me to the yahoo password reset page. I then tried to contact help@flickr.com....surely they new how to help me. Nope, no good here either. They also directed me to the Yahoo password reset page.

I hereby renounce everything bought by Yahoo! because you have been a pain in the rear. If you should buy more product or if I should find out that you own some product that I am using, I will renounce you again and again.

Mission to Boston

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:52:44 GMT

Brian: When are you shipping out?
Me: Tomorrow morning, I deploy.
Brian: haha, okay....armed with a standard issue DS Lite?

So tomorrow, I'll be heading on my first real "Business Trip" to Boston where I will be training America's senior citizens on the way of the Wii and the DS Lite....yes, you read correctly...for three days, I'll be playing WiiSports and Brain Age 2. Should be fun. Wish me luck, I'll be back on Sunday.

BTW, I got a haircut....before and after pictures coming soon.

Comebacks....

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:15:27 GMT

It seems like everyone is making / trying to make a comeback....from brittney spears and from what I have been refreshing on via wikipedia, so is Utada.

And so I too will make a comeback on xanga.....or so I hope. Maybe if I try a little harder, I'll be able to blog a little more frequently ;p.

"CHINESE-AMERICAN MARRIAGE RELIEF CENTER"

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:47:36 GMT

....so i was digging through craigslist the other day under the search term "chinese" as in chinese classes and i stumbled upon this rather disturbing group in need of volunteers.......

========================================
CHINESE-AMERICAN MARRIAGE RELIEF CENTER is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded to devote
a solution for the troubled Chinese women and their children and escape the unacceptable social-economic environment.

Additionally, the Center will assist American men to facilitate their marriage with their Chinese bride and settle in the United States.

The Center’s Two-Fold Mission is to:

I
Educate Chinese women that the center exists and its main purpose is to assist with their marriage to American men and relocate to America. Provide an alternative to Chinese women with or without children to relocate to America and live a normal, prosperous life. Educate Chinese women that an option does exist greatly improve their lives and their children’s life.

II
Provide the support available to American men and encourage them to marry Chinese women and settle in the United States. Inform American men and their Chinese fiancés that the Marriage Relief Center is available to facilitate and expedite marriage documents, visas and passports. Disseminate the existence of this center worldwide-namely to american public and expose the indecent social-economic problems facing chinese women children

=====================================================

Two things come to mind after reading about this "organization" --- the American Dream and the White Man's Burden. While the mission statement doesn't directly indicate marrying chinese women to white american men, it does almost seem implied that Chinese women need to be rescused from those "monsterous" Chinese men in China. Last time I checked, immigrating to the U.S. doesn't necessarily mean that life is but a dream......nor is marrying a stranger that you probably can't even communicate. Cause really...what is a "normal, prosperous"? Is that only possible in the U.S. and non exisitent in China? If so, there must be a lot of lot of miserable people in China.....

Could this non-profit perhaps be a mail order bride service in disguse?

I'm going to Hollywood!!!

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:16:53 GMT

Me: I'm going to Hollywood!!!
CoWorker: Huh? You're on American Idol?

Me: Actually, I am working on a new account. They are located in Hollywood and I am flying down with my boss to meet them.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 05:10:14 GMT

[vegas 2005]

so i have just returned from las vegas and i am here to sum up my experience in one verb.

"walking"

to elaborate, david and i walked non-stop practically from 9am to about 8pm. from mandalay bay - luxor - excalibar - new york new york - monte carlo - bellagio - ceasars palace - venetian - treasure island - mirage - ceasars palace - bellagio - paris - bellagio.

there is a brookstones inside the venetian's mall where you can get a much needed free foot massage. other than that, the bellagio buffet was delicious and the paris buffet isn't bad either. save money, buy your crepes there too.

we also did some of gambling. i'll leave that topic at that.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Sat, 21 Jan 2006 08:02:55 GMT

[Update]

i guess it is time for a new update.

so it has been 7+ months since i came home from taiwan. i'm finishing my last semester at cal while working at two internships. one is with the bay area world trade center and ther other is with thirteen minutes magazine.

as a note, my graduation will be on may 18th and may 21st. so if you feel like listening to a long long speech and a grad reception crashing, mark your calenders in advance ;p

the former is not as WOW as it may sound cause it is actually a very small office in oakland. don't let the wtc brand let you think that is as grand as the nyc one was. wtc is actually a world wide trade organization with locations everywhere. so far i have been calling all the consulates in the bay area....and there are a lot of them...almost 100. but actually, many of them aren't even from the country that they represent (if they are honorary consulates where they are regular citizens with a title tied to a lot of pomp and circumstance. another nice thing about this job is that when i am done, i'll know the in's and outs of exporting and importing, which is basically the heart of international trade. so contary to the many college students majoring in international trade thinking its about travel and foreign countries, it is not as glamorous as it sound ;p

www.bawtc.com

the latter is a start-up fashion and entertainment magazine much like vogue, only this is targeting asian americans. i am working on their launch party as my first project. this will definately be an event to attend. there's going to be one simultaneously in LA and NYC, so where ever you are closest go and support, and buy a subscription. it is a high quality paper magazine....it feels like a brochure for luxury car. details to come.