Markus’ Blog

Finally, the day has arrived. We are departing for our two week vacation in Hong Kong. I hope the flight goes smoothly and Cathay Pacific is as awesome as they were last year when we flew to New York.

It’s going to be one tough flight for me anyhow. Not only will it be the longest I have ever been on a plane: over 13 hours. To top it off, I can’t sleep (very well) on planes. — We’ll see about the “very well” part. I hope it’s a “not very well” and not a “not at all”.

But being there and spending time there should be worth it. I am sure it’ll be a great experience. This will be, after all, my first time to any Asian country. I am very excited and very much looking forward to it.

Since we are bringing our laptop, there should be fairly regular updates (with pictures even!) while we are gone.

As indicated in a previous post I was scheduled to receive a new Canon Powershot G9. Well, about two weeks ago was the big day. After ordering a display model from a camera store in Toronto, my new G9 arrived.

I took it with me on my trip to San Jose to try it out a bit. The pictures are not too exciting, as I didn’t do very much other than go to the office and go out to eat.

I like it a lot. Not surprising, it’s got many feature enhancements over my good old G1, which I bought in 2001. It’s also a lot lighter.

I am in San Jose, for the seventh time overall (since February 2006).

It’s been a really good trip so far. US immigration (at Vancouver Airport) was a breeze. I got to the airport at about 5:45am. By the time I went through immigration it was probably 6:00am. There was no lineup whatsoever, and the immigration officer was actually really nice (yes, it does happen). Only two quick questions as to what I was going to do while in San Jose and where/with whom, and that was it.

Airport security decided to select me as their “random search” target, though. (Looks like they have to report x number of detailed searches per day to their superiors.) That cost about 5 minutes and wasn’t really that bad at all. They did use their portable metal detector on me, padded me down and swabbed my bag with a little cloth that they then put into an analyzer. When they were done, they filled out their report form (“we did our duty and conducted a random inspection”) and I was on my way.

The weather down here is lovely. It’s about 18°C out and sunny. Very few clouds. Looks just like it did in July (which also means everything is still brown and dry) — except that it is actually nice and bearable outside. You don’t immediately long for an air conditioned room once you step outside. It also seems less misty/humid. In the summer, I noticed that in the evening (as soon as the sun set) a fairly low layer of clouds would form and it would stick around till 10am the next day when it would burn off. Not so much now. It’s much clearer. They are predicting rain for tomorrow, though. Showers actually. But big deal. A true Vancouverite won’t be taking offense at that.

Work-wise it’s been good, too. Talked to many people over the last two days, and I think quite some progress was made. So, that’s good. That’s, in fact, exactly how it’s supposed to be. Also, it’s nice meeting the guys in person and just chat and catch up on things — we can’t just talk about work. Meeting your co-workers in person becomes kind of special, if you only get to see them every three to four months. Besides, there’s always a good lunch in there for everybody. This time it was dim sum, which was really yummy. — Maybe that’s the true reason I always get such a warm welcome: they all know that they’ll be well fed.

Let’s hope that tomorrow, the last day here, will be just as good and productive.

A blog entry about golfing filed under the “work” category? What the hell? — Yep, seriously. Work.

We had our annual “social” outing from work today. Last year we went to play volley ball. This year it was golf — at the Eagle Quest golf course in Coquitlam. What a perfect day it was, maybe a little on the warm side. (We were very lucky weather wise last year, too.) It was my first time ever trying golf. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t go to badly.

Of course I had quite a few crappy shots (especially the long ones), but it could have been much, much worse. lol

We ended the afternoon with burger and beer. Nice. We should have more afternoons like this.

I am a little late updating. I have been back from San Jose since Friday night. The trip was pretty eventless as far as flights and immigration are concerned. I wasn’t given a hard time crossing the border into the US, the flights were on time (both ways) and the rental car (a bright red Mazda 3 sedan) was good as well.

The exceptional event happened during the day on Friday. I got to attend the qualifying for the San Jose Grand Prix that took place the Sunday after. This was not planned when I booked the trip. It only turned out after the fact that it would be “Grand Prix weekend”.

A couple of pictures of the event are now up as well.

The quietness over the last ten or so days says it all: not much has been happening.

Tomorrow morning it’s time again for me to fly down to San Jose. It’s the usual quarterly visit to see my manager and team mates. I am not expecting anything spectacular to happen.

We’ll see how the immigration procedure goes tomorrow, given that I just returned from the states less than two weeks ago. It should be fine, though. The last trip was for vacation — and they like people coming for vacation and spending their money in the States.

In part, it’s been a good trip so far. Very busy, though, but I guess that’s what business travel is all about. I talked to many people, gathered lots of information and found out that I’ll be busy as hell for weeks to come — even after getting back.

All the information needs to be put into proper documents, some designs need to be clarified, more information needs to be gathered, and once that’s done, the designs needs to be implemented. Exciting stuff, but also quite a bit of work.

The downside is that my boss’s boss keeps suggesting how me and my Vancouver based team mate should be coming down to San Jose more often (roughly every other month instead of every 3-4 months). It’s starting already. The last time I was down here was less than two months ago.

The trip today had its good sides and its not so good ones. The not so good ones included a delayed flight — surprise, surprise. And Alaska Airlines’ hunger for data.

Fortunately we left “only” 40 minutes late (8:05 instead of 7:25) and we were able to make up about 15 minutes, so we were delayed by 25 minutes in the end. Not great, considering that the plane was just sitting in Vancouver the whole time that we were delayed (boarding didn’t start till 7:25/7:30 for whatever reason), but not too bad either. I consider everything under an hour not too bad. It could have been 3+ hours like last time.

I’ve decided I don’t like Alaska Airlines, though. For the first time ever, at checkin time they thoughly pre-screened me. They looked at my passport and not just for ID purposes. They entered passport information into their computer system, checked my customs form and entered my hotel address as well. This has never happened to me before. Unless this is due to new security regulations that were implemented within the last month, Alaska Airlines are data junkies. I don’t like that so much. They are an airline, not a government. What do they need my passport number for? At Vancouver Airport it’s not like they are running the risk of having to fly me back if I am denied entry to the US. I have to go through US immigration before even leaving Canada. So that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

However, clearing immigration itself was a good experience). There was no doubting my words, no second guessing, no asking the same questions two, three times or any of the other unpleasant things I have experienced before. It is possible, it seems.

Hertz was nice to me, as well. They gave me another Hyundai Sonata, which I quite like. No Chevrolet Cobalt crap this time.

I’m almost off for the day. Getting tired. I got up at 4:45am this morning. Yeppers. That bites. I’ll guess I’ll have dinner somewhere in downtown San Jose tonight. We’ll see what I can find.

My last trip to San Jose was only just over a month ago, so I was estimating the next trip would be some time in July or so, maybe August. — I was wrong.

My manager asked me Wednesday if I could come down for a day or two this week, but that didn’t quite work out due to the short notice. However, next week it’s going to happen. It’ll be Wednesday through Friday again, but I’ll be flying on Alaska Airlines this time, not United / Air Canada. We’ll see how that goes.

The other difference is that this time I’ll be going by myself again. The last two trips were with my co-worker.

I am hoping that the flights will be better than our last experience coming home. I’d much rather have it smooth and eventless like the last flight down.

I am in San Jose already. It was easy and eventless. There were no hassles with US immigration, just “come on in”, the plane was on time and the view of San Francisco and the bay as we were approaching was fabulous. We had to wait our turn to land, so we did a full circle around the city. Very nice.

We departed 8:13am and we were circling over San Francisco by 9:45am. At 10:18am, the planned arrival time, we were off the plane already walking towards the baggage claim area.

The drive down from SFO Airport was easy and fast as well. Got to the office at about 11:30am. Our manager was very surprised to see us that early.

The only thing that sucks so far is the rental car I got. Although basically brand new (it had like 850 miles on its odometer — and no, I didn’t read tripometer by accident), it SUCKS SWEATY GOAT BALLS. Yes, it does. It’s a Chevrolet Cobalt LS and the only good thing about it is its nice red color. No power mirrors, no central door locks, no power windows, no telescopic steering wheel. Yeah, that’s what I found so far. Of course, this is the car we are going to have to keep over the weekend for our Napa trip as well.

This was the first time I got a North American rental car for one of my business trips and it sure lives up to its infamous reputation (before I had a Hyundai Sonata, a Mazda 3 Sport and a Mazda 3 Sedan, all of which were very nice).

Now, no more ranting about the car off to finding something yummy to eat. I’m HUUUUUNGRYYYY!!!!