My Perfect Future
Posted on July 10, 2010 by Brian under Life, Travel.
In my limited, yet varied travels, I have noticed that there is a wide variety of technological differences in the world. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, there is not some form of uniformity across the board.
For example, I first started to notice the technological differences when I went to Jamaica. They had English TV but it was limited and not very good. I know what you are thinking, if you are in Jamaica, you better not be watching TV and I totally agree. However, think of those people that travel there for business that are not there for the sites. Those poor bastards have to come back from a long day of negotiations or selling and have limited or no means of relaxing. You have to agree, that TV is one of many form of relaxation. I also took note of the internet speeds. It slays me that we still have places in the world that have no broadband internet access.
Now before you all start tearing me apart, I am not counting those countries that are underdeveloped or under privileged. I understand that there are places in this world that still don’t have electricity.
I continued to take note when I first went to Germany. There they have government run television that is rolled into your taxes. Of those channels, only 1 is in English, the rest are all in German or Dubbed in German. I was told that it used to not be that way. At one point most re-televised American programs were just subtitled. However, in recent years, there are more and more shows that are dubbed. You would think that Germany and Other European countries would jump on the Uniformity band wagon because it would give them a leg up on the tourist industry. Just think of the brochures, advertising to the tourist “American TV, Never miss any of your favorite shows”.
The same goes for the internet. They have it here in Germany, but its very spotty, underpowered and unreliable. You pay 4 to 20 Euros a day depending on where you are in the country to get this kind of service. It’s so poor that you can not run applications like Skype or Google Talk. If you do get it to work its not very good and you drop connection often.
And forget about streaming. Besides the poor internet access, there is the licensing agreement. It amazes me that the networks are not trying to push there products across the seas. I mean BBC has made it to America but CBS, FOX, NBC and any number of other stations, including HBO, MAX, SHO and the other cable movie channels are nowhere here. It’s a prime market; most of these people (especially the younger ones) eat up anything American. They have music stations that play nothing but American music but no Television or streaming sites.
In my perfect future, it would not matter where you went, you would have the same options available to you. The same services that you get in New York are available in the Netherlands. If you jump to Japan, you have the same feature as Johannesburg.
I just feel that the companies are missing out on a global industry and they could be making not only more money, but improving the life of so many by exposing them to American standards that should be available to everyone.
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Some Pictures from Last Weekend
Posted on July 10, 2010 by Ching under Travel.
JC Nichols Fountain
Brian and I were amused by this sign. We understood the necessity for the first two warnings. But the third one? Seriously? Boating has really been such a problem at the JC Nichols Fountain that they felt the need to include it in the warning? Really?
They must have really eccentric people in the area to want to go boating in the fountain. Hmm… I always knew there was something off about Kansas City folks. =P
We took a ton of pictures. Mostly of food.
The sculptures and plants are a constant fixture at the Plaza. They always have great looking plants. I had to take a picture of this hibiscus because the flowers were enormous. It reminds me of Chi-Chi on steroids.
Its leaves are like five times the size of Chi-Chi’s leaves. Brian thinks that if we were to plant Chi-Chi in the ground or in a larger pot, she would grow to be the size of this hibiscus plant also. I think they might be two different varieties, though. I just can’t imagine Chi-Chi ever getting this big.
I took a picture of this corner because Brian and I ate here on our very first trip to Kansas City, over ten years ago (before we were married). The restaurant occupying the space at the time was Canyon Cafe. I think it’s changed a few times since then. Now 810 Zone is there.
Click here for more pictures from last weekend and here for pictures from a Kansas City trip we took six years ago.
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Attendorn Germany, Day 1
Posted on July 7, 2010 by Brian under Life, Travel.
Today is the first day of my trip to Attendorn Germany. This is my second time coming over here so I am a little more familiar with the surroundings. Plus, I have two of my coworkers with me this time, Chad Molen and Jordon Rose.
I am not a big fan of coming to Germany, the TV sucks, hardly anyone speaks English in this little town (the larger cities have more English speaking people) the food is not all that great (except the Turkish place, it’s always great), the hotels are not that good (it’s 80 degrees and the hotel we are in has no AC) and it’s difficult to get anywhere. Chad likes it here and this is Jordon’s first time so he is stoked no matter what.
There is not much to say about the flight, it was long and boring and because I didn’t have Ching to lay my head on, I could not sleep on the flight. I don’t think the burly Coast Guard guy sitting next to me would have liked me snuggling up to him on the flight. It could have gotten awkward. I just got up from a lengthy 5 hour nap. I think I’m going to regret that later.
We got off the plane and headed out to where we were supposed to meet the driver that Viega got for us. After an hour we decided to call Katrin (the lady here in Germany that made all of our arrangements) and find out what happened. We learned a few minutes later that the driver got into a car crash on the way over here, not sure how that happened or if the guy is OK but they said they were going to send another driver to pick us up. After about an hour we wandered outside to see our driver looking for us. We made our way over to his car and off we went.
Now things get interesting. We started our drive out of Frankfurt pretty normal. Then, about 30 to 45 minutes into the 2 hour drive, Jordon fell asleep and Chad and I talked about various things. I had been watching out the front window and I noticed that the driver kept swerving very close to the center line and a few times came very close to other cars as he passed. Remember this is on the Autobahn, so we are doing speeds close to if not more than 100 mph. I decide that I am going to watch our driver in the rear view mirror for a few minutes. At the angle the mirror is at and my position in the car, I can see his eyes perfectly. I start to notice that the guy has the cruise control on and he is falling asleep at the wheel. I immediately point this out to Chad and he said that he had noticed it as well. For the remainder of the drive we tried desperately to make as much noise as possible to keep this guy awake. At one point, we actually thought we were all going to die. We came so close to a semi truck that even Chad turned a little white at that point. Jordon was asleep and woke up to Chad and I screaming and wanted to know what was going on. Our driver spoke no English nor understood what we were saying so we told Jordon the brief horror story. He chuckled and I think tried to suppress his concern. A crash on the Autobahn is a serious thing and I kept telling Chad, “I do not want to die in a foreign country.” He chuckled and said, “I don’t want to die period.” It was then that we decided that we were going to talk to Katrin and ensure that we do not get that driver for the return trip. Hopefully, we won’t get the one that wrecked either. Maybe we can get one of our Viega friends to take us next Friday.
Anyway, thank goodness we made it to the hotel safe and sound and we got checked in. We put our luggage up and I had previously convinced the guys that we should go to the Turkish place and get grub. I got my douner and they got the same with Fries. After that I came back to my room and got my internet access set up (I insisted on having a room with wireless access, it’s a must for communication) and checked my email, Facebook and Twitter. Then I set out to take a short nap that turned into 5 hours.
That pretty much sums it all up. I am in my room now, blogging, which I rarely do. And waiting for the guys to wake up so we can get dinner, I think we are going to go to the Pub on the corner, they server burgers and there is a Big Screen for Jordon to watch soccer on. I guess Germany is playing tonight so we have to show our support for our company’s home team. I doubt I will stay for the whole game. I think my plans involve coming back to the room and going to bed. I have a long day ahead of me and a lot to learn, so I want to be on my game tomorrow, not thinking of sleeping.
I will write more tomorrow but I doubt it will be this lengthy or exciting. I miss my wife and family terribly.
Love you all, see you soon.
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At Least We Have Windows
Posted on July 5, 2010 by Ching under Travel.
I called the hotel right after our movie the other day, only to find out that all the “view” rooms were already taken. Booo! I guess I should be grateful. At least we have windows.
This is our “non-view” from our window.
And at least I got a king bed, just as I requested.
We’d stayed at a few different places in previous trips to Kansas City, but we’d never stayed at Courtyard Marriott before. I think ten years ago, when we used to go to the Country Club Plaza (we don’t go to the Plaza so much anymore because we’re usually at the North Kansas City Harrah’s when we’re in KC) a lot, there wasn’t a Courtyard Marriott in the area.
At first I thought we’d be staying at a new hotel. I had visions of the Courtyard Marriott at Fishermans Wharf where we stayed while we were in San Francisco in February. That place was fantastic. I really liked the modern decor.
Well, our hotel is the exact opposite of that. Brian and I guessed that this was probably a different hotel or maybe even an apartment building before Marriott took over. The hotel itself was nice, but the decor looked dated and ancient.
I’m sure Marriott redid the entire place when they took over, but they probably had to stay consistent with the building’s architecture in choosing furniture and decorations as well as carpet and wall colors.
Our room was surprisingly roomy for an oldish hotel. It’s definitely much bigger than other rooms we’d stayed at in other hotels at Country Club Plaza. The best thing that I liked about our hotel is the location. We were within a couple of minutes walk from PF Chang’s and The Cheesecake Factory.
The bathroom, which looks like it had been redone as well, was pretty spacious also. It wasn’t fancy, but it was sufficient.
Besides the great location, the in-room fridge and microwave were a nice bonus (most hotels have a mini fridge, but usually no microwave). Great for storing and reheating those leftovers, because most restaurants always give you so much food. Although, we didn’t really get to use the microwave because Brian didn’t want to take his leftovers at all the places we ate. We did use the fridge to store our leftover chocolate tower from The Cheesecake Factory, though. We ate it as an afternoon snack the next day.
I think our “ancient” hotel is a historic building because there were these tiny doors in between the regular room doors. I’m a curious person by nature so I tried to open the one that had our room number on it, but it was locked. I believe the doors don’t serve any function other than to preserve the historic feel of the hotel.
This wall plaque explains the purpose of the little doors, which were actually “Milk Closets” circa 1900s.
Brian, the observant guy that he is, noticed something else that was funny about our hotel room. He saw this strange warning sign right next to the fire sprinkler head.
Here’s what it says up close:
Brian and I were amused at the thought of someone actually doing that. I mean, someone had to have done it for there to be a warning sign. Think of the hot coffee warnings on coffee cups. Prior to people actually burning themselves with hot coffee, there weren’t really warning labels. Usually, people think of putting the warning after the fact.
I was like, “Why would you even do that? Why not use the closet that’s provided?” Brian replied, “Maybe someone had a long dress that wouldn’t fit in the closet?”
“Can you imagine someone’s wedding gown hanging on that and then the bride returning to the room to find her dress soaking wet? They probably would’ve been furious.” Brian, who has little faith in people, added “I’m sure they probably blamed the hotel too.”
LOL. That’s the story we concocted in our heads for the reason why a warning sign next to the sprinkler head was necessary. We like to make up stories for things. Who knows what really happened. Maybe the hotel is just being proactive and they’re foolproof-ing the hotel rooms, because most hotel guests are too stupid to figure out that you shouldn’t do that.
Anyway, you know what the problem is with things that are foolproof right? A better fool will always come along. =P
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Friends, Old and New
Posted on July 4, 2010 by Ching under Things to Do.
New Friends, Carol and Don
Brian’s coworker/friend Sergio
Jen and Armando and Armando’s brother Dennis
April and baby Gavin
Old Friends, Becca and Jay
Cory
Jay actually wanted us to bring our ladder golf to play on Thursday night. I’m glad we vetoed it and said no. We would have lugged it to our spot and not been able to play it. There were so many people at Bradley Fair that night. We were packed like sardines!
I had looked into getting a room at the Hilton Garden Inn so that we could avail of the hotel parking and the special section for hotel guests, which was far less crowded. However, at the cost of $150 for the night, it might not be worth it.
Brian and I think we’ll just have to drive by before work and stake out our spot with tent stakes and twine next year. That would be the cheap, smart way to go about it.
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