Ethical Monopolists

I mentioned earlier that we're buying a new house. Coincidence since I've been meaning to post about this ad I've been seeing on TV over the past few days. It's about realtors and how their ethical behavior is a must when buying a home.

Kind of funny since when I first saw the ad, I wasn't sure what I should blurt out first:

1. Yeah right, Realtors aren't ethical! -or-


2. I don't care if my realtor is ethical as long as I get a home I want!

So I've never thought much of realtors mainly because I know they make a killing for what could be considered a small amount of work. Historically, they've charged up to 6% to the seller of the home (3% for the realtor on each side). In the Bay Area where a $500,000 home is considered to be on the very low end of prices, this means $30k to pay out what would could be no more than 40 hours of work.

Okay, I know that realtors are providing a specialized service which involves a lot of paperwork. But to pay so much for for so little seems like a waste. Given the locked nature of the house listing system, this could also be seen as a monopoly with control over everything about the market. in recent years many self-service or minimal service business models like ZipRealty have arisen, but realtors have done many things to prevent them access to the market and to the network.

Among the first thing I noticed is that the terms REALTOR is registered and always in CAPITAL letters. Hmm...wierd, I thought. Then I relized that the network was trying to set itself apart. I also read about ways that the discount brokers like ZipRealty were being cut out of the picture through various means. Everything about those stories told me that when it comes to their livelihood, realtors are far from ethical...they're cut throat.

And on the point about not having to do much work. In the Bay Area, the real estate market has always so hot that it doesn't take very long to sell a home. And a buyer's agent can simply "encourage" their buyers to put offers even if the buyer isn't sure. Many times, it seems like the agent is trying to scare the buyers into buying a place. Why? Well..why not? Either way, the agent is going to make a commission and there's no sense in spending weeks and weeks trying to find the perfect home. It'e like a seedy car salesman who just wants you to drive off the lot in one of his cars no matter what.

So I think this type of downlow un-ethcial business practice is quite common, so seeing the ad made me laugh a bit. Of course, as a seller, I wouldn't give a damn what the realtor does to make sure my house sells for as high a price as possible.

As it happens, we are in the process of buying a new home and selling our current home. So the ads hit at the perfect time. I didn't expect much from our realtor except for them to drive foot traffic into our home during open houses. We had seen them in action in our neighborhood so I figure we were good on that tip.

But I was surprised at how low their commission is: Less than half of what used to be the going rate, and lower than what they had told me last year. So that was definitely nice, especially given how much we'd be able to sell our home for.

As we've gotten deeper in the process, though, we've found that our realtor is so much more helpful than we expected. We've had so many little questions about the property we're buying and they've gotten us answers within hours. And as far as selling our current home, they've coordinated little things that would have been a real pain for us. Overall, we've been really pleased with the process to this point.

We haven't had our first open house yet, but we're hoping that they can bring in a lot of viewers. In the end, as long as we get our asking price and more, we'll be very happy. Afterall, in the end, we just want our money :)

But seriously, even with the pleasant experience so far, I still take these TV ads with a grain of salt. When anyone has to ask me to trust them, I always have an inkling there's a bad history and bad news behind the request for trust. Trust can only be gained through actions. And while I'm trusting our realtor more as the days pass, I don't think I can trust most realtors out there.

Snap! Crackle! Click! - Magnum Photos

All went quiet on the blog front after I was bragging to peeps that I had finally hit a blogging stride. Having two jobs can do that to you. So can buying a house. Did I mention I have two jobs and we're buying a house? Huh.

So anyways, I occassionally take a look at Magnum photo galleries on Slate.com and I thought I'd post about it here.


The series on Slate is pretty interesting. They have daily photos, but they also have photo essays. Since it's a series, there are many photographers who are contributors and really, this stuff on Slate is simple a place for Magnum to show off some of the great photographs taken by Magnum members. What's kind of cool that the daily photos are all on a specific theme. Today's theme is Earth. Monday was the first day of spring. March 15th was the Ides of March. So it's a way to see photos relevent to the day or at least a collection of photos along a specific theme. Good stuff.

There are obviously a ton of places online which you can view photography, flickr leading the charge for Web2.0. But since I frequent Slate and they've featured such great images produced by Magnum, I thought I'd mention it here.

Categories:

• Photography
• Portfolio

Snap! Crackle! Click!

Okay, so I'm going to try something new here dedicate some space to photography that interests me. I've obviously blogged about the photog biz and my interest in it. However, I've been in a funk lately in terms of the creative side of photography. I try to be as creative as possible during event coverage even while I'm capturing the basic stuff. However, I feel like I can't spend enough time just taking photos for the fun and creativity of it.


One way that I get inspired to take more photos for myself is to look at other people's work. Not to find things which I'd like to emulate or copy, but just to get my juices flowing.

So what I'm going to do is post about photos or photographers which I've found on the web and which I want to tell other people about. I'll try to do this weekly, but it may happen more or less often than that. And just to keep things silly, I'm going to title the posts "Snap! Crackle! Click!"

Ok then, so to start things off, let me refer you to someone I just found on Flickr. In fact, this is the first time I've spent any time at Flickr, and I'm ashamed that I haven't spent every waking moment on this site. It's not just a photo sharing site, there have been entire communities built around it. When I finally get around to taking more of my own photos, I'm definitely going to share via that avenue. In the meantime, here's someone I'm quite impressed by:

Sandip Debnath - He's got quite a few photos on there, but just start out with the set that I've linked to. The colors are obviously amazing, but it's really the angles which I'm so thoroughly impressed by. With our business now, I dare say that we're getting pretty skilled at making technically wonderful photos. It's the angles and the vision that make up inspirational photos and that always challenges me. Furthermore, I try to challenge myself on these things. The part that makes me really nervous about photography is getting in peoples' faces if they don't want to be photographed (I don't have that concern when I'm a hired photographer, but in everyday settings, it's still a challenge for me). It's a real talent to take great photos despite this concern. Mr. Debnath has clearly conquered that challenge and I hope to completely conquer that challenge. Props to him for his portfolio.

Categories:

• Photography
• Portfolio

False Emergency

When a State of Emergency is called it's something which alarms people. Obviously, the name is meant to call out something serious. However, the declaration is usually made so that a criterion is met enabling further action.

For example, after a natural disaster, the state of emergency declaration is needed for certain relief funds to be made available or to allow police to take certain actions.

Recently, the Oakland City Council has toyed with the idea of declaring a State of Emergency. When I first heard that I thought, "Man, is it really getting that bad in Oakland that they need to bring the national guard in?"

Alas, the problems in Oakland are being caused by something much more simple: Union Contracts. Now before you get all hippie on me, I'm a supporter of unions...but only to a certain extent. Unions have done wonders for the average worker to enable him or her to live a decent life. Even though I'm not a member of any union, I know that the accomplishments of various unions have enabled me to earn what I earn.

But certain things about union contracts really rile me up. A few years ago there was an MTA transit strike in LA. One of the main sticking points was the pay that drivers received during off-hours between shifts. So if they have a morning shift and an evening shift on the same day, even though they're not working during the afternoon they'll still get paid. I'm sure the contract was a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. Then union had used its bargaining power to get pay for its members when they're not working.

So back to the Oakland story. It turns out that the reason for the State of Emergency would be to allow the assignment of more officers during night hours. Apparently crime rates have risen dramatically this calendar year and the city would like to put more cops on the streets during prime crime hours. Makes sense to me. But the union contract only allows a certain number of cops on duty during certain times. Generally, that makes sense since the union wants to ensure officers aren't on duty all the time and overworked. But apparently, the only way to assign more cops during night hours is to break the contract. And the only way to break the contract without legal troubles is by declaring a State of Emergency.

Makes sense to me.

No Really.

It Does.

Seriously.

What I actually don't get here is why the policy union doesn't simply agree to a short term variation in scheduling. Maybe this is part of the negotiation process that's described here, I'm not sure. But what really gets to me is why these things seems to always come down to each side digging in their heels and not being reasonable. The police union says that adding more cops on the streets at night wouldn't reduce crime rates. I really don't buy that argument. But let's say they're right. Why not just agree to a one month variation in the scheduling. Allow cops to be put on extra night duty for a month and proove it out. If crime rates don't go down, then the union can say "I told you so", if crime rates DO go down (which I presume they would), then the entire city wins.

Instead, we've got no real action plan to address the increasing crime rates in Oakland and I've gotta blog about this nonsense. What we need here in David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, to come in and crack the whip. These stupid arguments always seem to happen with unions covering public servants and it's a complete shame that both sides would rather argue than just come to an agreement, even if it's short term, that will help everyone out.

So should the City of Oakland declare a State of Emergency? Well, if the policy union doesn't budge, then yes. If I were on the city council, I'd give them an ultimatum and declare the emergency by the end of the week. I don't care if it would create bad blood between the police and the city. Everyone's in the position because they want to serve the public and arguing about extra 8 hours shifts isn't helping the public in any way.

Hip Hop (Not)

So my wife is obsessed with a Bollywood actor named Abishek Bachchan. If you're not familiar, he's the son of the legendary Amitabh Bachchan. And if you're not familiar with him, ust think of him as the Indian DeNiro.

So anyways, she was watching a video of Abishek's this evening and I realized (once again) that this hip hop thing has gone too far. Much too far. Can we stop it?

I'm going to try something here by linking to a video. I've seen it done on other blogs, so hopefully it works here. My point here is to allow you to watch this video so I don't need to go into details explaining why hip hop has gone a continent too far. I'll just summarize it as WTF?

The song is called Right Here Right Now (no, it's somehow not a rip off of Moby). And while I'm sure Abishek is a good looking man (my wife certainly thinks so), his gangsta lean and shoulder dipping just leave me speechless. And did I mention he's got a skin tight basketball jersey with his own name on it and the number 69? Speaking of speech...the English lyrics literally make no sense. It's worse than Engrish. And thank god for the scantily clad video ho's. Without them, this wouldn't be a real attempt a hip hop video. Anyways, turn up your speakers and enjoy the video.

Starting Out

So we attended a bridal fair over the weekend. It turned out that besides us, there was only one other wedding photography vendor at the fair and they were just starting out. My partner and I both went to their booth and introduced ourselves and we generally being very supportive of them. Afterall, we were in their position just a year ago.

But there were a few things which were really different about the spot they are in now and the spot we were in this time last year. First off, they didn't have much to show at the fair except an enlargement or two and a laptop slideshow. At our first fair we went to pains to have some physical things to show potential customers. While we have a lot more to show for ourselves now, we weren't exactly empty-handed at that first fair. Somehow, a couple of familes took the risk with us.

The other thing about these guys is they seemed to be selling their technology and their time. I say this mainly based on their booth and their pricing packages. They had their digital camera there to take photos on the spot and show them on a connect laptop. They also had a price sheet which geared their work to the time they would spend and a certain number of prints.

In the year that we've been pursuing photography clients in this community we've realized a few things. First off, the clients who choose us seem to do so because of us, not necessarily because of the deal they were getting. Even the first families who took a chance with us have all commented that they chose us for reasons beyond the pricing and portfolio.

And in that sense, I think we made the right decision to focus our clientele on the image, creativity, and vision we can deliver; not on the number of photos or number of hours. Sure that has meant we really don't earn much on an hourly basis. But it has also meant that several of our clients are committed to us for all of their family photography needs. They know we're not just going to show up and take photos for a few hours and fleece them little charges here and there. They know we're in it to give them back their own memories from a viewpoint they couldn't get anywhere else.

Okay, okay, I know there are a tons of great photographers out there so I won't say that nobody else could give them high quality work. But I will say that we've exceeded the expectations of each ouf our clients. And that makes both my partner and me happy to no ends. These new guys will probably find their way, but as it stands right now, it seems like their just enticing people with a low price, not with what the clientele really wants. If you give them what they want, price becomes less of a concern and creativity really becomes the focus.

We've found out what our clients are really looking for and what they're not looking for. It's only been about a year since the idea of this business crystalized in our heads, but I'm still amazed at how far we've come. At some points, I felt like giving these new guys some advice based on what we've learned in the past year, but I hesitated on saying too much. Not because I was afraid they would take away our business (they're no competition at this point and most likely won't be making us sweat any time soon), but because half of starting a business is learning on your own. I feel proud that my partner and I have accomplished so much by just jumping in head first. Neither of us could have done it alone and I don't think either of us thought we'd end up where we are right now.

True Grooves on the web

The homie Anish has gotten all technological and stuff with his music. A few weeks ago, he got a CD recorder to easily make high-quality digital versions of his vinyl. And now he's gone and put up a blog!

Check it out here:
True Grooves Blog


He already mentioned he's going to be posting musically related items on there. I'm going to suggest posting some juicy tidbits from his sets up there. There are always a more than a few tracks which I can't name. Having the set list (or a least a portion of it) there would be a cool way of discovering more great music.

Firefly

Somehow I manage to watch a lot of TV, but very few shows. TV, for me, is a background type of thing which breaks the silence when I'm working from home or when I can't sleep at night. So the TV's always on, but I rarely follow any specific show. Over the years there have been very few shows which I would actually tune in for. Obviously Seinfeld & The Simpsons are all-time classics. In fact, if there were specific channels dedicated to just those two shows, I would never change the channel except to watch a basketball game.

But alas, there is no Seinfeld-24/7 or Simpsons-24/7 channel so there are a few other shows which I try to catch. 24 is one of those shows on the current roster. Firefly is another. What's that? You've never heard of Firefly?

Well, that's probably because the show was cancelled after half a season on Fox. I recently discovered the show by watching the feature film based on the series called Serenity. The show is this interesting twist between sci-fi and western. I generally don't like sci-fi too much, but I actually watched Serenity because the trailers made it seem like a good action flick. Little did I expect to find good characters and an interesting story. So I went ahead and downloaded the entire series and have been a compulsive watcher since. There are only 15 epidsodes and none of them have cliffhanger type endings, but I can't help but watch episode after episode. Needless to say, it worked well on my sleepless nights.

Is this show something that everyone should be sure to watch? Well, it's nothing earth shattering. But it's got the kind of character development and plotlines that make it much more interesting than your average sci-fi show. It's never about the technology on the ship, it's never about aliens (although the movie focuses on some stuff which is only hinted at in the series). The movie is a bit more formulaic in terms of character development, but it will give you a good idea of what the show is like. Odds are that you'll be interested enough to watch the series. All of this stuff is on DVD now so you can probably rent it. Or, if you know me, give a holler since I've got the series and movie on my laptop.

Ok, I'll look to stop with the reviews at some point...

Stupid Ass Drivers

Okay, so anyone who knows me has heard me rant about all the dumb drivers I must face everyday. But this post isn't about drivers who've gotten in my way or almost hit me, etc. It's about stupid people who have no clue how to act when they see flashing blue lights and hear a wailing siren...

The other day I was on the freeway coming home when a CHP car pulled up in front of me, turned on the lights and started swerving back and forth. If you've never seen this, he's doing a traffic stop. In this case, it turned out there was a big ladder sitting in the middle of the lanes that they needed to be cleared out of the way.

So I was in a good mood that evening (listening to Pharcyde's SoulFlower remix can do that) so I didn't really get annoyed. Even if I was in a rush and had gotten annoyed, I wouldn't have done anything differently. Flashing lights, swerving cop? I'm keeping my distance and pulling over. I don't need to tempt a cop into pulling me over.

Apparently, this wasn't in the plan for some idiot in the fast lane driving a Pathfinder. Even before we came to a stop, I kept looking over at the dude wondering why he was tailgating the cop. What use was it? If the cop's got something to do, let him do it. If he's just fucking around, don't give the cop a reason to fuck with you. Simple as that. So the cop finally comes to a stop, someone pops out of the car and takes the ladder safely out of the lanes. The officer doing this was clearly in a hurry so as not to stop traffic for too long.

But it apparently wasn't fast enough for Pathfinder dude. While the officer is walking in the lanes, Pathfinder goes around the stopped cop car and tries to speed off. Bad idea. Cop immediately stops him and I could see them talking. Pathfinder then pulls over on the shoulder with the cop tailing him. I'm sure ticketing and a good talking-to ensued. Serves the idiot right. The sad thing is he probably thought it was perfectly fine to swerve be a cop walking in the middle of a freeway!

BTW, if you ever see some obstruction on the freeway, you should call 911 from your cell phone. I've double-checked on this and the 911 operators have told me that any time something is in the middle of the freeway, they want people to report it via 911.

And more examples of idiots on the road...I was on the way home last night on surface streets. I hear sirens and start looking around. It's an ambulance coming from behind me. I was in the left most lane so I got over to the shoulder and chilled out while the ambulance was swerving through traffic. Here's what I don't get...when people see an ambulance, why do they think they don't need to get out of the way? These ambulance drivers are obviously doing a good thing and here we got idiots who think they can just speed up or pull over to the LEFT or just stop right in the middle of the damned road. WTF? And then of course there are the people who think the ambulance is a free ride through all the traffic so they tailgate it. Dude, this isn't Die Hard and you're not Bruce Willis being a smart ass getting through rush hour traffic by following sirens.

Anyways, as usual, I find too many idiots on the road. If they're not getting in my way, they're getting in the way of people doing a good thing for us. I'm obviously far from a perfect driver, but I defer to anyone of the road who's out doing their work. It's the least we can do.

Room to Breathe

Wow, it's been almost 2 months since I posted. And I was on such a tear for a bit! This photography business, along with some time commitments at my day-job really pounded me for a bit. Well, I feel like I've got some room to breathe and so hopefully I'll be around here more often.

That's assuming I can think of anything to write about. I'm still sort of in a daze simply because my mind is still recovering. And did I say my body is not cooperating? First it was a wicked cough that kept me up at night, now it's my aching back which has flared into a debilitating sciatica

Did I say I turned 30 last year? I think my body believes I'm 60. At least I walk like I'm 60. Anyways...

Just to get this out of the way and to ensure that you all are forever wasting your entire day, here's a link to an incredibly addictive, yet stupid game called Pya!. I don't know what all the other crap on the page is, but I warn you, once you start to play this game, you'll begin losing sleep over how to conquer the green droplets. I've gotten to level 24 (or something in the low 20s). Tell me when you've lost more than 1 hr of sleep playing this damn thing.

Okay, so onto a more interesting, and much less addictive topic: Music.

You can always rely on my to steer you away from bad stuff and push you until you trip over good stuff, so here's the current wave of goodness: The Pharcyde and Dave Chappelle's Block Party.

Nothing new here, but it's definitely music which should be heard by all. My wife and I caught Block Party last weekend (what with all the free time I have now) and we both had a good time. Luckily, my wife's into this music and even though she doesn't always know the artist names or where she heard a certain song before, she's into this whole sub-genre of music. I call it Real Hip Hop. Obviously, there's a lot of great hip hop out there and I'm no expert to say that something else isn't real hip hop. Actually, the reason I refer to this as real hip hop is not because it somehow is better musically (although I think it is) or that the lyrics are more classy (they're not always better). It's the attitude behind the music that gets to me, makes me smile, and sometimes even sends shivers down my spine. I feel like I've written about this before, but I can't seem to find a specific post. In any case, Block Party spends some time on this matter. Just the fact that Chappelle and friends had this free party in ghetto Brooklyn goes to show the kind of love they have for their community. It also shows the love and respect they have for their craft. Sure the musical line-up for the party was amazing, but the best thing wasn't the music, it was the love that was brought to stage for the art.

If you just happen to like Chappelle Show and the skits, you will probably be disappointed by this documentary. There are definitely some good jokes in there, but the focus of this flick is the party itself and the interaction betwen all of these artists. If you love Mos Def, Talib Kweli or any of the other acts, you will likely see a new side to them and you'll like them even more. If you've never heard of these artists, then you should get to know them as they are what hip-hop is (or should be) about.

And now onto to another form of real hip-hop. The Pharcyde. You've probably heard a famous song of their's called Passin' Me By. The funny thing is that I used to hate this type of music. Not sure why, but I just wasn't into the music when they first came out. I started to like them, but not enough to attend a free outdoor concert of their's which was held on the UCLA campus while I was going there. They are essentially a one-hit wonder, but I'm finding their albums are great all around. So now here I am listening to Bizarre Ride II over and over. The lyrics are definitely not the community changing or activist type of lines that some hip-hoppers are all about. Neither is/was their music on the cutting edge. But as a friend of mine said, they've got an East Coast sensibility to their music, while still having a West Coast laid back style to their rhymes. And that's a perfect way to describe this bunch. They're a local SoCal group that came with a very different type of sound that hasn't been too common on the West Coast. But their albums are perfect for a backyard barbecue on a relaxing, sunny afternoon. They're also perfect on a gloomy Monday morning to get your week started off right. While listening to the album, you can't help but crack a wide grin. There's just so much fun in the songs regardless of simple the lyrics actually are.

If you can imagine, one of their tracks is built off the following chorus:
"Please, Don't Pull Me Over, Mr. Officer, Don't Pull Me Over Mr. Officer, Please."

Repeat 4 times. That's the ENTIRE chorus. Very earth shattering huh? But you know what, I'm making a fool of myself in the car while driving along listening to these songs. Every track from beginning to end has a groove to it that can't be matched by anything on the radio today. It's not about being rich or making a statement. It's just about expressing oneself through music. And that's something which hip-hop is based on.

So go check these guys out too. I guarantee you'll have a fun time with this one.

First Class

I've got a few things to blog about, but let me just blog this: Unfortunately we didn't get upgraded to first class on our most recent trip to Singapore (last year we got business all the way which spoiled us), but this guy did: The New Digital Life

People are leaving comments and blogging about the totally digital nature of things and that's why he got upgraded. While his ability to be online made things easier for him since he could watch HBO and determine exactly when his flight would arrive, I don't believe that's why he got upgraded. Forget about the digital life, it's simply because he was nice.

It's amazing what being kind and appreciative will get you in this world. I actually had a similar experience a few years ago at San Jose airport where our plane had mechanical difficulties and we got delayed. We were stuck in SJC for hours, but we were nice enough to the gate agents. They had given everyone meal vouchers. Since we had been chit chatting with the gate agents for a while, we got them some food, drinks, and ice cream in addition to what we got ourselves. Lo and behold, when we were finally able to leave, those same agents gave us first class.

So I'd love to be able to surf the web wherever I am and use vital information like this person got about his next flight, but I guarantee you that it wasn't the flight info that got him his flight...it was the fact that he was nice enough to buy the gate agent a burger.

Nuff said.

Double Shot

So before my decision to cut out sodas, I was drinking quite a bit while in Singapore. The heat and all the walking around just makes one thirsty. Usually, I love all the local juices there, but on this trip, for some reason I was drinking of a lot of soda.

So when we headed off to Malaysia for a day trip, I found this interesting drink. Now, I'm not a Pepsi lover. In fact, I wasn't even in the mood to drink anything, but this can caught my attention. What kind of Pepsi is this?!

Obviously, the bottom of the can tells you that it's a coffee flavored cola. The main reason this got me interested is because in addition to soda, while in Singapore, I had been drinking a lot of the local hot coffee and teas. The word "tarik" actually means "Pull" in Malay and is used to refer to local tea: Teh Tarik. It actually means "Pulled Tea" since the person who makes it pours it from one jug to another several times and it actually looks like he's pulling the tea from one to the other.

Anyways, I guess Pepsi decided to use this local term with their brand-name. Thus this strange brew of Pepsi and Coffee. How did it taste? Like old cola. Actually, it tasted like this local India cola called Sosyo which has a slightly spicy flavor to. It didn't actually taste bad or anything, but it didn't taste like cola or coffee. Just something wierd.

So the further reason I just had to drink this (besides the name) is that while on the plan over to Singapore I actually read that Coke is going to be releasing a coffee flavored cola in France, called Blak. Anyone who knows me, knows I loves me some strong coffee so I figured the Pepsi Tarik could serve as a substitute for the Coke version.

Anyways, don't waste your time with this stuff. Sometimes, things just shouldn't be mixed. Coffee and Cola may sound nasty, it may good. But for the most part, it tastes blah.

Transit Visa This!

Aah, Singapore, such great shopping to be had in such a compact place. Usually the shopping is reserved for my wife, but on this trip I actually spent a little money on myself. Shoes, shirts, and one really expensive thing.

So what could I have needed so much that I just had to get it while in Singapore? What else but a transit visa, of course! Not for Singapore or Malaysia; American citizens, along with citizens of most countries are given short visit visas on the spot while entering the country. But little did I know, my layover in Beijing would require a Chinese transit visa. How Stupid!

I actually didn't even know about the visa requirement until a very nice Singapore Airlines employees wondered aloud whether I would need a visa. She spent about 15 minutes looking it up but could find nothing specific to Beijing. She could find an exception for Shanghai, but nothing for Beijing. So she recommended I check with the Chinese embassy just to be sure. So I checked both the Chinese & US Embassy websites along with some other travel sites. All of them stated that American citizens need visas. On top of the that, the Chinese Embassy website went to the lengths to specifically state that citizens of every country EXCEPT the USA and UK are not required to have transit visas, but that Americans and Britons are required to obtain visas even when just transitting through the airport, EVEN when not leaving the plane!!!

Alas, I had to get a Visa from the Chinese Embassy in Singapore. But I mentioned how I spent a ton of money on the visa right? Well, in addition to sticking it to Americans and Britons, China shoves that stick further up our asses by requiring Americans to pay waaaay more for all visas than citizens of any other country in the world! There's no special transit visa, just a general visa. And the cost? 140 Singapore dollars! Now, being nice, the Chinese government would have let me stay in the country up to 90 days, but what the hell am I going to do with that? My layover is 7 hours and I just want to get home! So not only do I have to go the damned embassy at the last minute, I have to wait in line (thankfully not very long), come back again to pick up my updated passport. So with the S$140 visa, plus cab fares (since the Embassy isn't easily reachable from our place), I'm out almost US$100!

And here's proof of all this:

A receipt

A cool looking Visa sticker, which is completely useless now since my one entry was used when I transited through the Beijing.

So anyways, I hoped to at least have a chance to take a quick touristy tour of Beijing while stuck there. Afterall, many countries understand the huge influx of cash that tourists can bring into the country even if they're just there for a few hours. Heck, that's one of the reasons Singapore is such a huge airline hub. The country wants every tourist dollar it can get. It's basically free money. But nope, not China. There's nothing like a tour offered. Besides, it was foggy beyond belief while we were there, so a tour would have been useless. We couldn't even see the 747 outside of the gate window, I doubt we could have seen anything of interest on a tour bus.

So we made the best of it and walked around the airport terminal a few times. And here's what I came away with:

Some really real looking, yet fake terra cotta warriors.

Apparently colorful cigarettes are popular in China.

And so are orange flavored cigarettes. Of course, both of these types of cigs look to be foreign, so I'm guessing that some other country besides China likes such cigarettes.

Typos occur often enough, but here's a case where the typo got through after 2 layers of checks while the t-shirt was made and while the ice cream poster wad made. So anyways, here's an ice cream freezer with a very happy chick wearing an Abercrombie and TITCH t-shirt.

And yes, there's even Starbucks in China. Of course, it's been in the news lately since they won a lawsuit against a local coffee brewer. I didn't know about the case at the time, so finding a Starbucks in the airport was sort of surprising, but not really. Anyways, we got some sleep at the gate for a while, but got tired of it all so we hung out in Starbucks for a couple of hours. BTW, the Starbucks was the only place where all of the employees spoke pretty good english.

Oh, I should mention that I don't expect everyone in the world to speak Englsh, just the typical languages they would expect to hear. So in the US, English is a must. In Singapore, at least 2 of the 4 official languages should be a must. In India, Hindi (in the north), Tamil (in the south), and English (in the major cities) is a must.

Anyways, my useless "trip" to China yielded a few photos and one long blog posting. Hope you enjoyed.

Happy New Year!

Let's all welcome 2006 with a nice cheer. Okay, okay, I know I'm a bit late on this. I've been busy getting back to humdrum life after returning from Singapore. I've also been busy rehabilitating my dog.

Seen here in his apparently happier days. Oh don't worry, there's nothing physically wrong with him, he's just depressed. We left him with a friend while we were away and he loved staying there since he had three other dogs to play with all day. On top of that he got lots of treats and juicy meat every day. Alas, Junior has left his vacation and must return to his hum drum life of being a loyal, yet lonely dog. So my wife and I have been slowly getting him back to his normal self.

Ahh yes, the question you're asking yourself (out loud by now, I'm sure): What's my resolution?

Well, the continuing resolution is to start a family.

And remember this photo? I'm swearing off it this year. Well, not just Coke, but soda in general along with fake juices. I don't exactly drink tons of soda, but I figure it's something good to cut out since I usually drink it when water would suffice just fine.

So there you go. My belated New Year's post. Oh and don't worry, I'm still going to inflict the general public with more Singaporean musings. I've yet to go through all of my photos and there are certainly some interesting and humourous photos you'll want to see. I'll try to limit the number of posts, but don't think you can get away without hearing more about Singapore!

Downpour!

I'll be playing a little catch-up with my posts since I haven't had a chance to post in a few days. I've become accustomed to unexpected rain while in Singapore, but the other day was ridiculous!

We were at the Jurong Bird Park here and were getting set to head home when it started to a rain a bit. No worries since we were done with the whole park. As our monorail came to the main station we realized it was raining really hard. Again, not too bad since it always rains like this in Singapore. It rains really really heavy for 10 minutes then it dries up.

Little did we know that this rain would not let up for hours! Now this again isn't a huge problem, but we were in a unique situation of having just two small umbrellas between the 10 of us. We had to get from the monorail station to the bus stand somehow.

We made it to the entrance of the park okay since there were many covered walkways. But then we were stuck at the taxi stand near the entrance. The bus stand is on the main road more than 500 feet of heavy down pour away. So my wife and I shuttled everyone two by two to the bus shelter. The whole time, walking through ankle-deep flows of rain water. Forget about getting a little wet, we were soaked head to toe after five trips each!

After the second or third trip we could get any wetter so we just kept the rest of our party dry while we took the soaking of our lives. We dripped all the way home on the 45 minute train ride home. My shoes took 2 days to dry properly and will never be the same. Fun fun fun!