how many times have you said that after a night of drinking. for us it wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that good either. we meet up with some friends for dinner + drinks at a small little place called The Flying Fig located at 2523 Market Ave Cleveland, OH 44113. it’s a small little place which has very yummy food and drinks. we were all in costume as we were going to go to a Halloween party after - needless to say we were the only ones in costume in that restaurant which made it fun. those that were there were Vineesha (gypsy), Sema (vampira), Reza (vampire), Milen (scary spice), Tina (80’s girl), Sherry? (didn’t have costume) and myself (stereotype).

i basically went as a chinese person. we kinda found out about the party late so by the time we started trying to find a costume - there was non to be found. i went to a chinese store which had kung-fu uniforms, so i purchased that and a chinese hat with fake hair. i felt bad as i was getting it cause the lady asked if i was going to take kung fu class… i told her no… it was for Halloween. i tried to rationalize the costume by telling myself that i was dressed as a stereotype, but i still felt a little bad.

after dinner - which was great, we went to the Bier Market located at 1948 W 25th Street Cleveland, OH 44113, right next door to The Flying Fig. the place was packed - but we were able to get in. the place was a mad house filled with people. amongst some of the costumes i saw which i thought were pretty neat. Waldo of Where’s Waldo, a big pink pig, and a guy in a box of beer.

i did have two random gal try to chat me up. it was the worst chat up ever.

girl one : what are you supposed to be?
me : a stereotype.
girl one : *laughs* of what?
me : *blank stare + walk away*

girl two : do you make sushi?
me : that’s japanese.
girl two : right - do you make sushi?
me : *blank stare + walk away*

that was pretty much our Hallween night, i’ll post pics of it later. on a shittier note. i spoke with Reza whom i was hoping to work on one of my projects / products but found that the idea has been done to death.

here was the basic idea. car dealers post cars for sale on 5 major sites. 90+% of all leads come from these 5 sites. the idea was to make the process of entering in the data to these sites into one single process. car dealer enters in car info once and that info gets broadcasted to all 5 sites + the dealers own website. figured it was a winner. it would save time which would pay for the cost itself as the dealer doesn’t have to pay his/her secretary to enter in the same data 5 times. even did the research to see if it was technically doable and how much time / cost it would take. Reza (whose a car dealer) was to do research to see if this was something dealers would be interested in. we spoke yesterday and he told me that there are tons of companies already doing this. he was just unaware of it. well, there goes that idea.

a lot has happened since my last post and i’m finally motivated to start blogging on a more regular basis. what you ask is bringing upon this motivation to get off my ass? well simply put i’ve finally come to a realization of what i want to do. what i want to do is - nothing.

that’s right, nothing. i want to do nothing - and i’m gonna work my ass off to get there! doesn’t make too much sense? here’s the breakdown. after starting my own design firm some two years ago (yeah i know… i’m technically not unemployed as i’m ’self-employed’ but whatever!) and i’ve been very fortunate enough to be getting a consistant stream of work. i’ve done zero marketing but i’ve been getting work via word of mouth. because of this i’ve tried to make sure i take on no more then two projects at any given time and try to make sure i give enough attention to each project. thus far it’s working out great.

as i started finish off my major projects from 2008 and thinking ahead to 2009 i was wondering what i would do. i wasn’t worried by any means but i didn’t have any large projects lined up. this was when i started to really think about what i wanted to do and how to achieve it.

the fact that i’m in the service industry after i complete the service (design) the client that hired me no longer needs me (for that project). i’m kind of tied to the needs of my clients. i didn’t like that. in addition to this each new project would require that i do work for that project - which would not allow me to do nothing. so how then can i make money without doing anything?

simple answer - make a product. i’ve designed prducts for many clients, i get paid a set fee and then the product becomes theirs. why can’t i - why shouldn’t i design a product for myself? i’m not looking to make millions here - just enough each month to cover expenses without working. how hard could this be?

so i’ve come up with a few ideas and have started to design them out. the first step was to come up with the idea. the second was to realize that i couldn’t do this alone. i’m a designer. i can design the hell out of anything - but to actually make it… hmm… yeah… no.

so we’ll see how this pans out. i’m not gonna say what these ideas are just yet. i’m gonna work on them and hopefully launch these projects - after which i’ll write more details about the project / products. til then - happy halloween!

so another quite day of getting ready. actaully more like recovering. i was sooo hammered from the night before that i was hurting this day.

i recovered and did all my laundry and repacking for cleveland - that’s right heading out to cleveland and columbia (missouri) to check out places in cleveland and to attend the festivities for vineesha’s graduation week.

kabir called and asked if i wanted to stop by for dinner - which was a god send as i was hungry but my stomach wasn’t feeling so hot. luckily dinner was a very delicious vegetarian indian meal which hit the spot. after that i stopped by pawan’s place to pick up the gps system we used on our road trip last september which connects to your laptop.

this would come in extremely handy on our road trip.

our final day in korea - and then our flight back to seattle. we arrived back in seattle around 1 pm and i was dead tired. i can never sleep during flights and it was an 11 hr flight. my parents went in one shuttle and i went in another, first thing i did of course was call my girlfriend.

then i got back and let my friends know i was back. put my clothes in the wash (as i’d be heading out for columbia to visit my girlfriend in another day or two) and slept.

after a nap i went out…. DRINKING! yeah!

so our final night in korea. my parents returned from their trip and i had another quite day of walking around the neighborhood. getting ready and packing and having a final drink with my bro and my dad. it was a quite evening - but a good one.

another quite day. i decided to go exploring around the neighborhood and i stopped by a dunken donuts to find square donuts! sweeeet~

as sweet as that is this kinda sums up the new korea. all the stores are not chains (like dunken donuts) and everything’s square - from the apartments to the malls to all the things sold in it. everythings the same. i miss the small family owned stores with random trickets which only that store has. oh well - just a few more days before i head back to the states.

so another quite day - basically after all that constant traveling i was done with traveling for a bit. my parents wanted to and did go another trip to some remote place in korea and then to Busan (S. Korea) but i asked that i not attend. i wanted this ‘vacation’ to be a vacation. i just wanted to relax and do nothing and by the pace that we were going i felt the need to have a vacation for this vacation.

so this day was another day of rest. staying in. chatting with my girlfriend, playing with Sang Jun (my nephew) and just having a relaxing time.

a day of rest - that’s the best way to describe this day. i basically slept all day, woke up around 2 pm had lunch and then chatted via webcam with my girlfriend. we talked for something like 5 hours. the time just flew by. we basically talked about nothing and everything. just getting caught up on the events of the last week.

then i had dinner and was back to bed. nothing too exciting - just a day of rest.

the last day of our 7 day trip around asia. this was it… i was done - i just wanted to get back. i was exhausted. a few more random bullshit stops to make and it’ll finally be over. and as always the day started with breakfast at the hotel - for some amazingly crappy buffet - and of course the hotel was out in nowhere with no restaurants around that’s open that early (around 7:30 am). i hate the fact that all these places serve nothing but crappy food. can’t they hire better chefs?

anyways - it’s off to see hong kong, what wonderful place is the guide gonna take us to? why a temple. it was mindly interesting in that we saw tons of hong kongise people praying for luck, wealth and longivity. apparently the three colors (red, gold, green) stands for those things - thus if you see a lot of the temples you see those three colors. good to know. after all that what lovely place is the guide gonna take us to?

why the fucking jewerly store that’s owned by some korean person. yeah - exactly what i wanted to see at hong kong. i make the quick tour and get pissed so i leave. sadly the wearhouse like structure the store is located doesn’t have anything else around it. crap. i go across the street and check out the 7-11 (yes i know… how exciting) and then get back on the tour bus and wait. everyone finally returns - now what lovely place are we gonna go?

why the fucking tea store that’s owned by some korean person. yeah - exactly what i wanted to see at hong kong. the guide gives us til noon - i say fuck him and the fucking tour and start to walk as i see some form of live up the street. there i see what i wanted to see - the locals living their daily lives. the streets lined with little stores going about it’s daily routine. ahhhh…. and what do i find? why it’s a street dim sum place! how sweet! this is what i wanted. the real taste of hong kong. i order some shu-mai and some buns all of which comes to $2 bucks! i take the items back on the bus - it tastes awesome! i wait a bit and decide to go back for more - so that my parents can have some as well. i go back, get more and then come back to see the guide waiting for me. it’s only 11:40 am and he gives me that look of - your late. i give him the look of fuck you.

i get back on the bus, make my delivery to my parents and then we’re off - to the airport? no - back to the fucking jewerly store where one of the peeps purchased a ring and it was being sized as we were ‘touring’ the tea store. thus we had to stop back to pick it up. fuck - you mean you’re gonna waste what little time i have at hong kong to pick up a ring… rather then exploring the streets. bastards!

after the pick up we are off to the airports. that was our bloodie tour of hong kong. what a fucking waste. the whole trip - i’m so pissed off about. the only high lights out of the whole trip.

Singapore :
the dinner i bought myself at the restaurant next to the hotel

Thailand :
the beach - provided by the tour
the thai new years water fight and the kids who got me drenched

Hong Kong :
the street dim sum i bought myself during a tourist trap

that’s it. the seven day trip - those are the only high light i can recommend. in other words, if you feel like traveling to any of these places (or anywhere else in fact) do not hire a tour guide. do it yourself - you’ll have a better time and you’ll get to experience those countries not just sight see from the bus.

our last day in thailand - it really wasn’t a last day as all we did was have breakfast at the hotel again (crappy buffet food) and then was off to the airport and on to our flight to hong kong.

we arrived at hong kong with a bit of a misunderstanding. basically the guide didn’t instruct the people what to do after they get off the plane. there was three things you had to do.

1. get off the plane and go through immigrations
2. get your luggage
3. get out of the secure area - once you leave this area you can’t go back in

but there was confusion as to what you were supposed to do. basically out of the 17 people 4 people thought we were to meet at the baggage pickup and waited for others to show. now the guide left the secure area… and of course after that he couldn’t go back in. all we could do was wait outside for the four to figure it out and come outside of the secured area.

whatever - moving on. they finally show and it’s off to start the tour of hong kong. if i’ve learned anything from this whole experience. never ever sign up for a bloodie tour of anything. just do the research yourself and travel.

so what lovely places did our hong kong guide take us? nothing too exciting - to a beach and then to a bloodie amusment / aquarium. yeah… what fun… joy…. then we went to dinner at an authentic hong kong restaurant… only to get the super cheesy cheap ass food you can imagine. it was pre-ordered so you couldn’t really get anything good. (grrrr!) the way the guide put it… this is food which will appeal to your taste buds. which is another way of saying - this is cheap crap!

after that we did a drive up the hill (hong kong has many hills) to view the city at night. this was nice - kinda. after that we took the train down the hill - at one point the hill has a decline of 29 degrees. pretty steep. with that done we went to the hotel - i was dead exhausted at this point and was glad it was done. by the time i got into my room and got settled it was around midnight. time for bed… tomorrow it would be back to korea and internet access (via my brother’s computer - sadly no wifi).