Philippines and Hong Kong

just returned from asia...2 weeks plus in Philippines plus a few days exploring (yawn) Hong Kong

this is a place we loved...Ilocos Norte region of Philippines and this is Saud beach in a P..a well planned area with few resorts and lots of good people with a great vibe...had lunch with ex mayor..Pagudpud





I only did one real media related thing in Hong Kong


besides take this picture with timer from our hotel room at the Conrad International Hotel
















we ordered food via the internet and fresh direct so that after 3 weeks in Asia we would have something to eat today while recovering from Jet Lag...the internet allowed us an easier transition..why weren;t there more successful companies popping up over the past few years? will the stimulus plan provide more growth and buid business while trying desperately to catch up with crumbling infrastructure?
In Hong Kong, they are anticipating a need for another bridge to the airport so they are building it..their subway is easy and clean..unlike the poor excuse we have for the NYC subway...a prime example of a wonderful system which truly needs repair and rebuilding...

anyway the food ordering online was cool...and really represented a transition,,I also paid mortgage and lots of other stuff online; but it was the IMMEDIACY of the food order and the timing between one time zone and another 13 removed ..that fusion of communication and delevery worked.

nyc parking facility snow maintenance

lic

today

we are off to the philippines on sat for 3 weeks

warm weather ahead

ahoy 2009

Kimono Girl Returns to LoftMedia Central

This is my home office and lostmedia studio queens LIC circa Dec 2008
We have three of my fictional charaters here: Kimono Girl, Juan from San Antone (Alamo) and Super JO wild coffee can from Japan...there's also a sale cup and a japanese ceremonial brrom facing higashi EAST so now Kimono girl feels more at ease than she facing west in another room..she loves the rising sun, neh?

my media circa 1970

Lancaster PA
F and M College
Spring 71




















1971 taken in Loudonville NY on a break from F and M and Lancaster PA canon TL camera





blue princess phone






my room and clock radio now on display in queens loft



so what was analog is now digital....this progression in technology has been profitable and useful vs. the american auto makers looking for bailout now...seriously; if it weren't for the web, microsoft, apple and some great silicon valley companies, the USA would be and still is a real mess...we have no manufacturing base to speak off...hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs weekly...

anyway it is so cool that I can take these old photos, scan them and save them in different formats...

family reunions in a digital world

email helped bring about a cousin's reunion for me at a wedding reception in upstate new york
on this lake

crooked lake
averill park, ny







with this lovely group of people

















and others I hadn't seen in 30 or forty years; now I have a list of email addresses

and photos

mila and i had a great trip to albany as well...see below for a few pix










washington park, albany













and what's a trip to albany without a visit to the state capitol on a holiday?





















looking towards the hudson, state street and d and h building in background

economic meltdown and the Grateful Dead

if one goes to
http://www.archive.org/details/gd71-04-10.sbd.willy.8674.sbeok.shnf
you'll hear a grateful dead concert I attended at my college--Franklin and Marshall, in April of 1971. Having been to nyc the night before to see the latest Kurosawa film in the village, we stayed in the deserted dorm of a catholic prep school--the kids were on break. The next morning we headed to Lancaster, PA. Back to the dorm. Picked up my friend's brother and then collectively I imagine, 2000 people (at the most) filled the gym for New Riders of The Purple Sage and the Dead.

lots is probably worth retelling about that night but would be boring to the public I am sure...

what intrigues me is coming full circle from analog to digital..the analog recordings of my youth can now be digitized, uploaded, downloaded, etc....

hmmmm

listening to it now again...it is heralded as a great Jerry Garcia night...for guitar play...lyrics are a little muddled...

i am writing this in the shadow of wall street...many changes occurring

Preparations for a flight

I am going to Santa Barbara tomorrow, to relax at my friend's house by the beach.

And while packing just now--I realized that I wasn't quite in synch with all the new security requirements vis a vis liquids...do I have the right plastic bags? Are the containers under the 3 oz limit or whatever it is???

And I do get to check a bag--at no cost. Is that because I am using a free ticket on Delta vs some other airline? (a dwindling cache of what was once millions of miles, now a few hundred thousand precious miles left...) but that's another story and calculation--I really had the best of the freq traveller program years and accrused benefits--which gave me and mine lots of cool free trips...

I helped Alida out at curbside check-in at United early yesterday morning. She was charged 15 the first bag; 25 for the second for a total of 40 bucks, making a fee ticket slightly less than a free ticket and addding to the cost of all other tickets...

pack light, carry light, arrive early, tip and use curbside baggage guys, read...nap...music..once we're in the air there can be some peaceful and calm moments...

so now i will examine my plastic bags and begin to calculate weight...

I have already checked in online and let them know I'll be checking 1 bag (free)
so there's a lot about this new tech I like, and which probably should have been implemented earlier--but I don;t know enough about that technology/business equation to offer up an opinion
But clearly one can move through the airline part of an airport more efficiently than before; it's the security which is still labor intensive, which slows everything down and makes it a bit of a daunting process.



at some other point i will write about many travel experiences