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| | Interesting note. Found out the other day what my time is billed at for work on customer problems. $225 per hour. Yup. Friggin crazy. That s both here and onsite.
So the other week a client was paying for my flight, food and accomodations in San Fran plus 8 hours a day at $225 per! Friggin crazy. I just got an inflated sense of self worth.
Also when I think back, I had a couple of greasy lunches during my San Fran time and consequently made several extended trips to the bathroom while there. Over the course of the week, they probably paid $100 just for Jeremy Poop Time. Now, I d like to think that I m pretty good at the whole bowel movement thing, but not $100 good.
-bampf | | | Hm. Much to talk about. Much to report.
Been busy. Good weekend though. Got to do some hanging out at the Guild. Played some Battlefield Vietnam (it s no Quake, and certainly far inferior to Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, it s most redeeming quality being that you can play an AK-47 weilding gook and blast the hell outta capitalist pig-dog GIs!). Those silly bastards at the Guild have really lost their way in my absence playing these imitator games (Halo is just plain sad), once I return I ll enforce a return to the purity of Quake III.
Got to play Warhammer for the first time in forever. I was soundly defeated by Evan s elves, even though my one unit of Knights (chosen by the god Khorne, himself, to be his personal champions) nearly carried the day on their own. Looking forward to playing more in the near future.
Saturday was about the Philly Soul and Arena football. Very cool. The speed of that game is ridiculous. After close scrutiny and analysys by Chad and I, I think we collectively surmised that though it was exciting and pretty cool, it ain t football. More like sandlot football played by really fast (and big) guys. There were too many rules governing formations and defenses. To the casual observer that s not a problem, but Chad and I both found it extremely disconcerting as the rules prevented using sound football mechanics and schemes. Anyway, after several last second score changes the Soul kicked a desperation field goal nearly the length of the field to secure an upset win as time expired. Pretty incredible finish.
This weekend was also draft weekend! God I love football. I am extremely pleased with the Steelers. We now have a QB for the future. The sooner we re rid of Tommy Maddox the happier I ll be. I m all for Charlie Batch starting and tutoring Roethlisberger till about midseason, and then let him play! That would rock. We addressed serious needs with our 2nd and 3rd picks. And in an interesting note, we drafted Matt Kranchick in the 6th round. I am connected with Kranchick in near countless ways... first, he lived on the same road that I did in Carlisle (Crossroads School Rd). My HS girlfriend baby-sat for him and his sister. I played rugby with his father, Jack, for several years with Old Gaelic (helluva rugger at that). He went to Trinity HS and I coached against him when I coached with Camp Hill. I watched him play basketball several times, as another ex-girlfriend had a cousin who was teammates with him at Trinity. Talk about a strange serious of unrelated connections. Anyway, he wasn t even a starter for PSU and the Steelers drafted him. Not sure what that s about. I just know he wasn t that good in HS.
Speaking of football news, I will mention Pat Tillman. For the most part I m really apathetic about our GIs dying overseas. I figure that s their job. Most are only there because they couldn t bother to stay awake in HS and found that D students didn t have much in the way of career options so fuck em. But Pat Tillman... wow. Here s a guy making millions. Even if he never played another game of football he was set for life. He turned down a huge contract to go and do his duty. People just don t do that stuff any more. The media and the military PR monkeys have really stripped the word 'hero' of any meaning or significance over the past few years (Jessica Lynch comes to mind)... Pat Tillman just redefined it.
So anyway. I still need to catch up on posts. Still need to talk about the Punisher. Soon, my pretties, soon.
-bampf | | 4/22/2004 8:51:17 AM A special Earth Day Message from Hyboria | Comments (6) |
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"Ha. Time enough for the Earth in the grave."
That s all I gots to say about that nonsense.
-b | | | No promised update. Just a quick note. We were watching 13th Warrior last night (I m sure I m reaching triple digit viewings of that film) and we stopped to note one of the greatest lines:
"Hurry to meet death before your place is taken."
Damn that s good. I may need to create a list of all time favorite movie lines... not to be confused with my Most Used Movie Quotes list and my Favorite Roles list based largely on quotability of characters.
-b
| | | It s quiet around here, I know. Been busy and or lazy. Take yer pick. Net result is the same.
I ll try to write something substantive today or tommorrow. Need to give my Punisher review amongst other things.
-b | | | Lovely, lovely. Kristyn s deathly sick. I m starting to get sick. And taxes are due.
Damn procrastination. Did most of em last night. On the up side, filing jointly while Kristyn is in school and while we have a mortgage means we re getting a big fat return! I was assuming we d get quite a bit back, but my estimations were way low. Nice.
Gotta do local yet as well as my brother s. Somehow I became the family accountant a few years back. Stupid math skills.
Anyway, looking forward to this weekend... although there just aren t enough days in it. Dan and Karri are moving stuff, we re moving stuff. Gotta hang out with Kent. And both Punisher and Kill Bill Vol 2 come out this weekend! That just ain t fair.
Punisher is one of my all-time favorite comic book characters. My first ever screen name (back around '92-93 when no one outside of college campuses knew what www meant) was The PunisheR. He was the first gritty and dark comic I remember reading. Awesome character until Marvel experienced a prolonged bout of serious retardation and turned Frank Castle in succession: mutilated, black, dead, and some kind of angelic warrior spirit thing returned from the dead. Yeah, like I said. Retarded. Of course it bears mentioning that even during those retarded stages of The Punisher evolution he could still outright kill Spiderman in a straight up fight!
Anyway, I m pretty excited about the movie. Looks like they re gonna stay pretty close to the comic (unlike the Dolph Lungren version... I m pulling for no naked motorcycle ridin sewer scenes this time around). Can t wait.
Too bad my Punisher skull T-shirt got mutilated for Goth night. Don t worry, I have a back-up... one with Punisher and Wolverine on it. Not ideal, but it ll do.
-bampf | | | So I have made my triumphant return. Alas there were no palm leaves laid before my path upon returning to Philly-- I guess I should have arrived last Sunday to realistically expect that-- oh well. The return flight kinda sucked. Five hours of failed attempts to fall asleep as we flew through the night. Landed in Philly at 8 AM Saturday having begun my trip home at 7:00 PM Pacific on Friday. Ug.
Anyway. San Fran was pretty neat. By my rough estimation I walked about 100 city blocks (50 on Wednesday alone). Had a rental car parked in the hotel garage all week, but just didn t feel like dealing with parking. The walking was a good experience. Really allowed me to take in the city. Very cool city to walk around. The rolling hills really are fantastic. At one point I saw a regular residence (not a huge office building or anything) with two more floors above ground on its northern exposure than its southern. Crazy. It was also cool that you could hear the constant churn of the cables just beneath the street, dutifully zipping along for use by the cable cars.
I will mention that the proliferation of Starbucks has reached epidemic proportions in San Fran. The building I was working in had three on its block alone! Three!! WTF? Of course there were a ton of other coffee shops and small cafes. I m sure that city is powered nearly exclusively on caffeine. How s that for a renewable energy source? As I mentioned before the sushi places were out of control. Way too many. I even passed an establishment called 'Bob's Sushi'. When Bobs are opening sushi joints you know the city has a very tangible raw fish problem. It s time for them to seek some help.
As for the stereotypical San Fran, it was very artsy. I walked through North Beach (surprisingly devoid of any beach... there s a misnomer) where every block had multiple art galleries and studios. Although I didn t see a ton of openly gay people. More androgeny than back east but not glaringly so. On the other hand, the statistics dictates that somewhere in the city exists a straight waiter, I just know in my week there I never saw one. So, despite the urgings of The Humungus One (and Mucka Ferguson) there was no man-lovin. I ll save that for when we return to central PA or at the next Argent Lupe function, where it is assured at least that there will be no cuddling afterward.
I did most of my wandering on Wednesday, where I walked along the Embarcadero to the Fisherman s Wharf. A tourist trap to be sure but I did get to see the aforementioned sea lions. Very cool. Scores of em sunning on floating pontoons barking at each other. Got to see Alcatraz from afar and had an excellent seafood dinner.
I also stopped to watch a street performer do a little fire breathing and broken glass walking act. He wasn t particularly skilled at either but had an excellent patter. He bore a striking resemblance to Evan. Same red hair, same Auscwitz-victim physique. Apparently my giant head or lack of neck or something attracts performers as I was volunteered to assist in the act (it s happened to me often). He had me actually stand on him while he layed on a pile of broken glass... supporting my girth alone was pretty impressive for a guy with Evan s build, glass notwithstanding. I may have to do a comparison by standing on Evan this weekend or next. Yeah.
Anyway, afterward I walked back to the hotel at night through North Beach and China Town. It was difficult to find a section that didn t seem inherently safe.
Thursday I walked to Japan Town. Pretty impressive. It was four or five blocks of nothing but Japanese stuff. Including a couple shrines/temples. It would have been a mecca for Kristyn. Most of the stores had closed by time I got there so I had to settle for a corner market to buy Kristyn some authetic Japanese imports to remind her of her erstwhile home.
Friday was my last day and I was held up at the client site longer than expected. So I had to leave hurriedly to hit the bridges. I drove half way across the Bay Bridge, stopping at Treasure Island to enjoy the vista. The Wall of Fog was approaching, shrouding the Golden Gate... very cool. Returned back over the Bay Bridge and drove through the city to the Golden Gate. Very cool also. The fog limited the view, but it was neat that the suspension cables on the bridge disappeared into the hazy nothingness as you drove beneath them. On the Sausalito side of the bridge the fog rushed over the hills in waves of heavy mist. Really beautiful. It also seemed to me that the mist smelled distinctly of pickles... I dunno. Call me crazy but that s what I smelled.
In Sausalito I turned around and returned back across the Golden Gate and headed to the airport for my flight. I had a two hour plus layover in Vegas where I seriously considered catching a cab to the Strip for dinner, but eventually decided against it. Instead I ate at the airport Burger King and worked on my Conan campaign on the company s laptop.
So. Overall I enjoyed San Fran. Definitately a cool city. Very picturesque. It seemed no where near as crowded as Philly. I figure it s lack of countless suburbs makes a big difference (being completely water locked really shackles urban sprawl). Definitely wouldn t mind going back to visit with Kristyn. Really sucked not having her there to share the experiences with. I really love traveling on some one else s dime, but I am glad to be back home.
-bampf | | | Last day here in San Fran. I m posting from the client site which is particularly devilish when you consider they re probably being billed like $50 an hour for me being here (on top of paying my expenses).
Been a good week. Lots of sight-seeing. Lots of walking. Consumed much tasty victuals. Wish Kristyn was here to share it all with, but alas.
Anyway. I ll be heading home tonight on a red eye... getting me home around 8:00 am Saturday. Joy. Then we immediately drive to Ship... I m just a regular travelin man. But I m anxious to get home. I miss mah baby!
I ll post more extensively later to give a more detailed description of my time and my review of San Fran.
-bampf | | | Historic! A bampfblog(tm) entry originating from the left coast. Yup I m in San Fran.
So far it s been cool. Monday was a bit arduous. Long flight. Read the whole way. Then a layover in Phoenix, and another 1.5 hour flight to San Fran. Got to the hotel a little before 1 AM... that s 4 AM our time!
I will point out that seeing Phoenix was impressive. There was a bit of city anomisity a few months back when Phoenix surpassed Philly in population (bumping Philly to sixth in the US I think) as editorials exchanged barbs. A big gripe was that Phoenix covers a huge area of land (like a fifth of what constitutues Philadelphia). It was evident flying over it at night. The city stretched for as far as the eye could see! It was pretty amazing. The downtown/skyline was pretty paltry, but the immensity of this oasis in the middle of the desert was awe-inspiring. It also embodies the perfect grid layout of planned western cities, with their damn right angles and well managed highway systems. Bastards.
Anyway. San Fran has been good. I expected it to be warmer. Highs have been in the low 60s with cold bay breezes. Not that I mind, but I was preparing myself for the fabled west coast warm climes. Took a breif walk... city seems cool enough. The rolling hills are neat, but otherwise is just another city. Slightly different feel from Philly, but still a city. Definitely more fruity.
Kristyn would like it. The asain influence is pretty strong. Makes sense considering they re roughly an America closer to asia than we are (yes an America can be a unit of length). In the ten blocks or so I walked I passed at least a dozen sushi places. I had dinner at an Irish pub and ordered Beef and Guiness barley soup and curried chicken with banana chutney... how s that for Irish-asian fusion? For lunch my boss and I accidentally stumbled into one of the trendier restaurants in the downtown area. Ended up spending over $80 for the two of us... for lunch! Crazy. Glad the company s footing the bill.
As for the work part, we kicked some arse today. Solved a couple of big client problems. We ll see how much more work I have to do the rest of the week. Hopefully I won t hit any serious snags.
Plan is to do some exploring tommorrow. Probably hit the Fisherman s wharf and I plan to maybe drive the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges (and then turn around and come back).
Oh, yeah. All the San Fran excitement meant I didn t have a chance to talk about the weekend. Excellent bashin weekend. Saturday was our SCA event. Very cool. Nice and small and intimate. Had a tourney with mostly house members and a few new faces. I did well. Guess I finished third behind Angus and Barktooth-- I lost to both very narrowly. Good fighting though all day. Good food. Good stuff.
Saturday night was HellBoy with Kent and Schaef. I was pleased. Not a great movie, but enjoyable. Ron Perlman was a perfect cast.
Sunday was BloodBowl!! My Punchin Pugilists made their official debut in glorious fashion! I won the tourney, being the only player to finish 3-0. Got to play some excellent close games against a couple of good opponents I never got to face in the last league. Jkarr and Tipping weren t there to challenge me, otherwise my victory would have been even more impressive. I felt a little awkward for winning a tourney I was running, but oh well...
Enough rambling for now. Post is gettin enormous. I may not post again the rest of the week as the internet access is $9 a night here at the hotel and I start to feel guilty about lots of excessive spending billed to the company.
Later all.
-bampf | | | Seems like all I get done doing is being bound for somewhere. Anyway, looks like San Fran is a near sure thing. Will be traveling Monday, so that s a releif, no worries about leaving the BloodBowl tourney early.
People are making suggestions already for what to see and do. My boss lived in the area for a while and is giving tips as well. Of course, know me, I ll probably be just as content to spend quite time in the hotel room catching up on reading. Or maybe painting. I have a couple more BloodBowl teams crying for some paint.
Figure I could order Rice-a-roni from room service. That would suffice, assuming I see the Pacific at some point.
-b |
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