Monday - 15 May 2000
I'm Back. So, I'm back in sunny, warm Hawai'i from my vacation in cool, overcast, smoggy, Southern California and hot, windy Las Vegas. The general plan is to go day by day through my vacation (don't worry, no vacation pics will be included) while also having something more current. That said, all of this is dependent on getting caught up on my work here first. So, things may be even more sparse then usual (which may not be saying much...).
Monday, Day 1 - 4:00 am. Up this early to catch the 7:15am United Airlines flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Didn't get to sleep until mid-night so 4:00am came awfully fast. Barely able to get up but still, we're excited about starting our vacation to L.A., San Diego, and Las Vegas.
Everything is already packed so we just need to dress and call for a cab. We randomly pick one from the Yellow Pages and wait. Fifteen minutes later, a pearl white "Yakuza Special" stretch limousine pulls up. Oh well, we didn't specify what kind of taxi we wanted. Throw the bags into the taxi and we are on our way to the airport.
5:00 am Arrive at the airport two hours before scheduled take-off. Just like the airlines say we're supposed to. Only, there's no one from the US Department of Agriculture inspection (to keep California free from all manner of insects) nor United Airlines check-in. So we stand in the line of other people waiting to be processed. About fifteen minutes later employees start showing up and we get checked-in.
Now for the long walk to the terminal to wait for the flight (the Wiki Wiki buses apparently don't run this early in the morning). So we sit until about 7:00 am when we start boarding the Boeing 747. At 7:30, the plane pulls away from the terminal and lumbers out to the "reef" runway. Wheels up and we start our five hour flight to Los Angeles.
3:30 p.m. PST The temperature in Los Angeles is a cool 72°F (22.2°C). Fine. I prefer it to be cooler rather than hotter. Get our bags and find the shuttle to Thrifty Car Rentals located on Century Blvd. just outside the airport. Jump on and take the short ride to their lot. Get there and find out that an "Intermediate" car is what I would call a compact (Chrysler Cirrus). We also find out it has a small 4-cylinder engine. So we pay those pirates, ahem, I mean sharp business men to "upgrade" to a real car (Dodge Intrepid). One with at least 6-cylinders.
A quick trip up the 405 freeway (OK, so that's an oxymoron) to Wilshire Blvd. and Selby Ave. and we are at the Doubletree Westwood Hotel. It's not exactly a five-star abode but it is close to where we want to go so it's Good Enough. And they give you chocolate-chip cookies when you check in so they can't be all bad.
5:00 p.m. We're both tired from the getting up so early and then the long plane ride so we order up room service - Chinese Chicken Salad for SWCNBD and teriyaki chicken for myself. Yum. We watch the local TV news shows and are glad "Live" mania has not made it to our shores. It seems that the LA stations believe that if you go "live" to a location, any location, that this somehow will attract more watchers (Live! From Mel's Casino in beautiful downtown Hawaiian Gardens). And then off to bed. Tomorrow is mostly a rest day although we plan to go to Santa Monica pier and then to Century City Shopping Center for some shopping. But that is another day.
Aloha!
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Tuesday - 16 May 2000
Vacation Day 2, 8:00 a.m. Had a good nights' sleep. We go down to the hotel's Café and have pancakes for her and a mushroom and spinach omelet for me. Tasty. But SWCNBD is disappointed that the room service menu lists banana pancakes but the Café does not. Hmmm. We can't figure out why since the room service food is prepared in the Café. Oh well.
10:00 a.m. We arrive at the Santa Monica Pier and get the last parking space available. While walking through the lot we see a car with Kamehameha Schools stickers all over the rear window. We find it amusing to find such a car. I guess Na Hawai'ian are everywhere. Anyway, we spend half-an-hour walking up and down the pier browsing through the vendors along the way. I haven't been here since college when I was on a date with a very beautiful, shapely blond (a minor detail that I somehow fail to remember to mention to SWCNBD). But I digress. After buying some post cards, we depart for the Century City Shopping Center.
11:30 a.m. We decide to try to beat the lunch hour rush and head to the food court. A quick scan of the offerings and we decide on Johnny Rocket Hamburgers. The "Original" for both of us. Mine with fries, hers with onion rings. As they say, "An exceptional hamburger." A couple of hours for shopping and it's back to the hotel to rest and get cleaned-up for dinner.
5:00 p.m. Dinner at Lawry's Prime Rib. Coming here is kind of a strange experience. It's sort of like being transported in time and space to some Teutonic Lair. I half expected Frau Braun to serve the salad. Having said that, the food is very good. The salad is prepared at your table. And the prime rib is also cut at your table (they use these cart thingys which keep the meat warm while they wheel it around the schloss, ahem, I mean the restaurant). The meat is tender and the gravy tasty.
6:30 p.m. We take the long way back to the hotel by going up La Cienaga to Sunset Blvd. The corner of which has Petersen Publishing (I've talked about this before so I won't bore you with a long description. Suffice it to say I worked here one summer). Then back on Sunset to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and thence to our hotel. Some TV watching and then off to bed for tomorrow is the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Linux 2.4 Delayed, Again. Wait a second while I pull on my flame proof suit. OK, I will note only the following. Make of it as you will. The 2.4 Linux kernel is being delayed yet again. The first release date put it at the end of last year. That was then pushed back to April of this year. Then July. Now it's "fall." When MS did this kind of dance the Linuxen, justifiably, clucked their tongues. But now that the tables are turned, not a peep.
Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 17 May 2000
Vacation, Day 3 - 8:00 a.m. SWCNBD will have banana pancakes for breakfast. So we order room service. I have scrambled eggs, corned beef hash, and hash browns. I think that's enough cholesterol to kill a pig. But then, I'm on vacation.
10:00 a.m. Our parking reservation is for 10:30 so we head off to the J. Paul Getty Museum. Entrance to the museum is free. But you have to pay USD $5.00 for parking. And all parking is reserved ahead of time. In our case, one month in advance so we could get the day and time we wanted.
Parking is in an underground structure that is at least six or seven stories deep. Apparently, there are height restrictions in this area so the architects had to design a structure that went down, rather than up. Once parked, we took the elevator to the surface and then hopped on the tram that takes you up to the museum itself.
The collections of the museum, which take the better part of a day if you wish to view all of them, include:
Antiquities
Decorative Arts
Drawings
Manuscripts
Paintings
Photographs
Sculpture
Well worth the time if you are interested in art.
6:30 p.m. Dinner is with my wife's uncle and wife at a private golf course clubhouse that he belongs to. I didn't get the name of the club, but it is in the hills above Burbank. Unfortunately, the smog made it difficult to see across the valley and we could barely make out the Toluca Lake area (where my brother used to live - on Barham Blvd.).
SWCNBD had the "Maui" cut prime rib (will she never tire of this?) and I had the chicken. Both were moist and flavorful. And the sunset was beautiful. After dinner, her uncle took us on a quick tour of Burbank/Universal Studios and then back to their home.
10:00 p.m. Back at the hotel and getting ready to pack-up and move-out for tomorrow's drive to my sister's place in Colton (near Loma Linda University, where I graduated from).
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Thursday - 18 May 2000
Vacation Day 4, 11:00 a.m. Time to check out and get on the road. We're leaving a little early so we can avoid some of the lunch hour traffic in town and also afternoon traffic in Ontario. So we find our on ramp and off we go.
Traffic downtown is a little slow and speeds drop from about 75 mph (121 kph) to around 60 (97 kph). Once clear of the city, speeds go back up again. As an aside, the average speed on a California highway is about 10 to 15 mph faster than at home. This takes some getting used to. I would hate to see what a car looks like after slamming into a concrete wall at that speed. But I digress.
Since my sister will not be home until around 3:30 p.m., and it only takes an hour to go from L.A. to Colton, we plan to stop at the Ontario Mills Outlet Mall and do some shopping.
12:30 p.m. For trivia buffs, from what I understand, the site of the Mall is the former location of the Ontario Motor Speedway. In any case, it's lunch time so we decide to try out Wolfgang Pucks' restaurant located at one entrance to the mall. While his cafe's are not exactly Spago's, this will do. I have the chicken pizza and SWCNBD has a turkey sandwich (if I remember correctly). Both are excellent after which we waddle out to the mall to do some shopping.
3:00 p.m. My sister's family likes Krispy Kreme doughnuts and there happens to be one on one edge of the parking lot so we drive over and pick up some for the kids.
3:30 p.m. We are here. And are very tired due to the shopping. Of course, eating until we were stuffed has nothing whatsoever to do with this. We say our hellos, get settled in and then decide what's for dinner (beef) and when (5:30). So the appointed time rolls around (as we do) and we head out to the Claim Jumpers Restaurant.
Warning. Reading the following may cause hardening of the arteries, dandruff, and the itching and pain of psoriasis. My sister has half a Chopped Chinese Chicken Salad (chopped mixed greens tossed with crispy angel hair pasta, sesame seeds, almonds, scallions, cilantro and double chicken breast with sesame soy-ginger dressing). Each of her two girls have the childrens' mini-hamburgers. SWCNBD has the Grilled Cobb sandwich (chicken breast, avocado, bleu cheese crumbles, double thick applewood smoked bacon, garlic mayo, tomato and crisp chopped greens on herb bread). And I have the 'Frisco burger (grill-toasted San Francisco Parmesan sourdough, pickels, 1000 Island dressing, iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and double thick Swiss cheese). What more can I say?
After dinner my sister takes us to her office at the Loma Linda Academy where she works as a counselor. Then it's back to her house where we watch some TV and then fall asleep. Tomorrow will be another long day on the road as we will be driving down to San Diego.
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Aloha Friday - 19 May 2000
Vacation Day 5, 9:00 a.m. Packed-up and ready to head down to San Diego. It's about a two hour drive, Lord willing and the creek don't rise. So off we go. The route we take, using I-15, is not exactly a scenic one. But it is the most direct route from Colton to San Diego. We try to stay out of the way of people traveling faster than the 75 mph (121 kph) we're doing by staying to the right. Unfortunately, every once in awhile we come up on caravans of 18-wheel trucks. We then have to get around them while still not impeding faster traffic. But for the most part, the drive is uneventful and we arrive in just a little over two hours.
11:15 a.m. We arrive at my wife's cousin's condominium where we will be staying the weekend. We take the bags in and then immediately go back out and head to the San Diego Zoo. I've never been there so we decide to take the bus tour first to get a feel for the place. The Zoo has over 4,000 animals spread out over 125 acres (50 hectares) at its Balboa Park location. More than 3 million people a year visit. It was founded in 1916 by Dr. Harry Hegeforth, a local physician, after animals on exhibit for a fair honoring the opening of the Panama Canal closes, and abandons them.
For a local angle, it is interesting to note that each year, 24,000 papayas from Hawai'i are shipped here for the animals to eat. The Zoo feels that Hawai'ian grown papayas are the best and I have to agree (even if I am a little biased). Once the tour is done, we decide to head for two specific exhibits. The polar bears. And of the course, the pandas.
Polar bears hunt their prey by using their amazing sense of smell. It is said that they can smell a seal on the ice 20 miles (32 km) away. But when born, they weigh just two pounds (900 grams), are hairless and blind. They stay with their mothers for about two years. After which they are ready to go on their own and eat something. Anything.
Giant Panda Bears are also born hairless. But at birth, they weigh only four ounces (113 grams). And they eat bamboo instead of seals. A lot of bamboo. A grown panda eats over 80 pounds (36 kg) of it per day.
Pandas are native to China where they are an endangered species. It is estimated that only a thousand of the bears are left in the world (with three in San Diego and two in Atlanta). The Chinese word for panda is "daxiong mao (dah-sh-WING-MAH-oo) which means 'large cat-bear.'" The Chinese people consider the bears to be national treasures and they (the bears) can be seen in art work going back thousands of years.
My wife is so taken with the pandas that she buys USD $100 worth of t-shirts, caps, tote bags, post cards, and stuffed animals. I am finally able to drag her away from the store and we head back to her cousin's condo.
5:00 p.m. We are at the US football San Diego Chargers' Junior Seau's Sports Restaurant. Junior is American-Samoan and was born in Oceanside, California. Since he has relatives in Hawai'i, and visits often, the Aloha State has sort of adopted him as a native son and lives through his exploits on the football field.
The restaurant itself is similar to the All-Star Cafe in concept and execution. Large TVs showing various sports simultaneously while one very large projection TV (it takes up an entire wall) shows the featured game. It's very noisy and very popular. As far as the food, it's an eclectic mix of American and Asian/Pacific fares. You can order a pizza or teriyaki steak. But you don't go there for the food. You go there to see the game(s), the people, and Junior Seau.
Tomorrow (to be posted on Monday) is Sea World and Sunday is shopping. So its off to sleep for us.
Flame On. Time to put on my flame proof knickers again (they're mine Brian and you can't have them. So there). The UK based Register has an interesting article ( here) on what they think the Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) will look like.
They say it will be a lot like what we have now. But. We will rent it over the 'net. Not own a license to run it on our local hard drive. And it will integrate all of the MS programs into one monolithic core.
Hmmm. If true, this confirms what I've been thinking about MS lately. Namely, they reached their peak (however you want to define that) a couple of years ago and have been in decline since then. Don't get me wrong. They will still make a ton of money. But they are nonetheless in decline. A shallow, slow decline. So slow they may not even realize it themselves. But a decline nonetheless.
On the other hand, Linux is rising even more steeply than I thought possible six months ago. The coming of kernel version 2.4 may be the tsunami that drowns MS. But then again. Maybe not. YMMV.
Case of the Blues. Tom's Hardware Guide takes a look at a kwel new PC mini-tower case made entirely of translucent plastic. Yes, he warns this is prone to static discharge. And no, it doesn't have any EFI shielding whatsoever. Still, it is too cool. See the story here.
Have a good weekend everyone. Aloha! from the Big Kahuna
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.
