Califexas

Portland was cool, but there’s something about Texas that strikes a chord within me. I spent most of today driving all around the Dallas/Irving/Fort Worth area. I listened to 99.5 – The Wolf. Soaking in country music and imagining what it would be like to live in Texas. As I was driving, I started to daydream moving my family to Texas.  Passing billboards advertising new houses starting at the $160′s didn’t help.  hahaha.

I blame it on my Missouri roots. I was born in the Show Me State and the Chinese country boy has been locked inside of me for a while. It kind of made its first appearance in my Ohio assignment, but slowly faded. But after a week of country music in Portland and Dallas, I think I’m going to go buy some albums. I heard some good tunes by the Band Perry, Eric Church, Lady Antebellum and one of my new favorites Jana Kramer. Do people still buy albums?

The wifey tried to buy me a cowboy hat and some cowboy boots, but they didn’t make hats that were big enough and the boots were too narrow for my wide duck feet. So sad. Anyone want to go country line dancing with Judith and I? Anyone want to move to Texas with the Wu’s? Maybe I should start a church. Newsong Austin (there’s already a Newsong Dallas).

Ok, enough rambling. On to the pictures which is probably the only reason you’re even reading this post. Until next time Texas. Love you long time.

First meal in Texas?  Texas BBQ of course!  I balanced out this carnage with a salad that night.

This is where you go if there’s a tornado.  I think you put your head in the toilet for extra protection.

As if the 7 pillows weren’t enough, they gave me 2 extra.  I ended up using zero.

Texas has geocaches too.  I dropped off a travel bug from Nevada in this ammo box.

Had a beer with cousin Eric the Rockets fan.  Sorry buddy.  Linsanity has to play OKC 1st round

Ummmm…Acura Insurance & Income Tax?!?!?

Here’s the deal I’m the best there is.  Plain and simple.  I wake up in the morning and I piss excellence.

Cousin Derek a.k.a. China Ironman claims Whataburger is better than In-n-Out

A1 Thick and Hearty…got to admit it is pretty solid for a fast food burger…

Listenin’ to my girl Jana Kramer on the Texas highway.  Felt like a dog with his head outside the window.  =)

Caught up with my old friends Kevin and Kara.  Good times.

Riding in their Mini, I couldn’t help but notice the resemblance to a famous mouse…

Finished off the night with some local stout beer.  9.1% alcohol.  yikes!

Tomorrow, as L.L. would say, “Goin’ back to Cali.”

(-_-)

CALIFOREGON

I think this is my first time to beaver land.  Sadly I did not see any beavers. The weather was supposed to be rainy, but it’s been pretty nice.  A few scattered showers, but mostly lots of green and sunshine.  I heard there is no sales tax here.  I should have bought something.  Anything.  No sales tax is pretty awesome.  Especially if you’re buying something big like a Honda.  Tomorrow, I have to get up at 4am so I’m going to cut this post short and just post some images from my short time in Portland.

Honda’s version of the Bellagio fountain show.

It’s like home away from home.

A glimpse of our technical training center.  Kid in a candy shop.

Sadly there was a water leak over the weekend.  FAIL

Portland shipping yard.  For some reason, I thought of the Lui’s and the Wu’s.  =)

People drive uber slow up here.  50 on the freeway? Come on now…

One of our admins is preggers and was craving chocolate so we picked some up for her from the Candy Basket.

Like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup but with sea salt?!?  HEAVENLY

Justin Timberlake: Bring it on down to Burgerville!

In Portland, it isn’t food trucks, it’s food carts.  Here’s the cart I visited…

The Gabby (Tillamook Cheddar,Swiss, Mozzarella, and Colby Jack Cheese) + bacon
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I ate my lunch on a psychedelic school bus

In Portland, it’s illegal to fill your own gas.  Costco full service baby.

Texas bound tomorrow.  Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Hawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

(-_-)

CALIJERSEY 2

I had to check out of my hotel Wednesday morning.  I called the front desk to ask them an odd request.  I ironed all my shirts and slacks on Sunday night for the week.  My request was to borrow the hangers so I wouldn’t have to iron my stuff again on Thursday when I checked back in.  The lady said she had to check with her supervisor.  Then she tells me I can’t use the hangers.  Click.  Hangs up the phone on me.  Seriously?  6 months in a Marriott hotel…Platinum status…hundreds of thousands of hotel points and you hang up on me?  It’s not like I have Cindy Kam with me to iron my clothes.  =(

Wrote a complaint letter to Marriott HQ.  Cancelled my last 2 nights at the Marriott and reserved the Hyatt Place down the road.  Waiting to see what they do to make this right.  A night at a JW Marriott should do it.  If not, it’s time to start building Hyatt and Starwood points when I travel.  Took a few pictures over the past couple of days…check ‘em out:

It is against the law in NJ to fill your own gas.  Full service for $3.39 per gallon!

CALIJERSEY 1

The first post of 2013!  Why is it that when I travel on business that I feel so compelled to blog?  Maybe it’s because it’s lonely to travel alone.  Sure it’s cool to hang with co-workers and meet other Honda nuts on the east coast, but when I’m back in the room there is no one to talk to.  How do you singles do it?  You all must be excellent bloggers.

So the only other time I remember being to New Jersey was with my homies Lincoln and Benny.  But back then, we were only passing through trying to get to New York.  Nothing about what I’ve seen so far has stood out.  I’m in Mt. Laurel which is considered south jersey.  I would’ve loved to sit down outside the deli where the Soprano’s crew hung around, but that’s north Jersey and I don’t feel like driving a few hours just for a photo op.

Actually, I take it back.  Something has stood out to me.  The drivers here are pretty dang aggressive.  Now back in my heyday, I was about as crazy as you could get behind the wheel.  Street racing, numerous illegal infractions including cutting through an open park as a short cut to beat my aforementioned homie Lincoln to a destination.  I’m surprised I never got my license taken away when I was in high school.

That being said, driving a Honda Natural Gas car for several years has eased my driving aggression.  Driving that car was like travelling to Tibet and meditating with some monks.  It didn’t have the power to pass anything.  I would get cut off and be ok with it.  I would even pray a blessing on the other driver.

Anyway, back to Jersey.  So I am new to this place and trying to get my bearings.  I’m driving slow.  I have my signal on.  I’m not sure which way I’m going or where I’m going for that matter.  This Prius speeds past me, honks and flips me the bird.

(Not the actual person)

Wow.  I can say I’ve never been cut off by a Prius until now.  Such anger.  I told my Jersey Honda cohorts about the incident and after laughing in my face, they proceeded to school me on Jersey driving.  Apparently there are some rules.

1. Using your turn signal is a sign of weakness.  As soon as you signal your intent, they will speed up to make sure you don’t get in front of them.

2. Looking over to the other driver is a sign of weakness.

3. Do not yield.

4. Traffic laws are optional.

Ok…lesson learned.  Next time I see you Toyota Prius…it’s on like Donkey Kong.

(-_-)

¡Hola! Yo quiero una taza de Starbucks por favor.

This morning I was craving some authentic Mexican coffee so I wound up at Starbucks

So redminister is in Mexico City ahora.  According to mi madre, it’s my second time here.  But I was too small, so no me acuerdo nada.  Honestly, it feels like home and the people here are very friendly.  Me gusta mucho.

I took three years of Español in high school.  I think I got an A in every class, but didn’t get many opportunities to use it.  This past month and a half, I’ve been listening to Spanish language lessons (Pimsleur) on my commute to work.  Since I spend a good dos horas en la Honda o Acura, Lunes a Viernes, using the language is on my mind.

This morning, I had my chance to use mi Español.  This is kind of how the interaction went…

Alejandro: ¡Buenos Dias señor!
Barista: Good morning sir, how can I help you?
Alejandro: Dos pan de queso y un alto cafe Americano por favor
Barista: Two cheese breads and a tall cup of Americano?
Alejandro: Si señor.
Barista: Do you want space for milk?
Alejandro: No leche por favor.
Barista: Can I get your name?
Alejandro: Alejandro
Barista: What?
Alejandro: Alejandro
Barista: Oh, Alex
Alejandro: Si, Alejandro

So even though this barista was dead set on helping El Chino in Ingles, I’m proud of myself for not using any Ingles in my transaction.  I’m planning to go again tomorrow to practice some more.  Ok…enough blogging.  Time for una siesta.

Hasta Pasta,

Ale-Ale-Alejandro

(-_-)

Google+

the first time i heard of orkut was when i found this comic…

I remember when gmail was in beta and I was trying to get an invite to get an account.  When I finally got the invitation, I was pretty stoked.  In no time, it was good enough for me to stop using my hotmail and yahoo e-mail accounts.  When I first heard of G+ I was pretty excited.  I also greatly anticipated getting an invitation to join.  When I finally got one, I started creating circles.  A great idea.  A way to lump friends into subsets.  So for the first few weeks, that’s pretty much all G+ was.  Adding friends into my circles and friends adding me to their circles.  But I did not see the transition of these friends from facebook to G+.  I posted a few times and honestly was not sure if anyone in my circles was even reading my posts.  It reminded me of blogging for a small audience.  Part of blogging for me is to have some sort of holding place for my thoughts and random rambling.  I write mostly for myself and for my kids to see how their dad saw things when I’m gone.  I mean, I would pay a good sum of money if my dad had a journal or something where he put his random thoughts so I could see what made him tick and the types of things he was interested in.  But if you feel like no one is reading or listening, that’s kind of the point of social media right?

So yeah…I can count the number of my friends from my circles who post on G+ with one hand: Vincent Mo, Tracy Mo, Ed Chu, Sam Han.  I don’t post too much in the form of words, but about a month ago, I started posting a picture a day.  I got the idea from a coworker from Honda (Karina).  It has been fun and I think it will be cool to look at all the pictures in addition to this blog and whatever nonsense I post on facebook.  One thing I love about G+ is the way the photos look when you’re scrolling through your stream or your profile.  Way better than facebook.  33 photos is all I have so far.  You can check them out now by clicking the link below:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/117479805336106224170/posts

Or you can check back here in a year and look at 365 G+ photos.  It’ll be like LIFE magazine: Alex Wu edition

I hope G+ picks up some steam in the future.  I don’t know if there will be a mass exodus from FB -> G+ like Myspace -> FB, but I hope that at the end of the year, there are at least 8 people in my circles who use G+.  Maybe if I picking up one of those new Nexus tablets will help me make the transition…

(-_-)

I hate reading?

So this past Sunday, in front of my church, I admitted that I hadn’t read a single assigned book from my school days.  I also mentioned that I hated reading.  Those were all true statements.  But as I get older, I am realizing that not all books are evil.  I also realize that when a book is assigned it’s different than reading a book that you actually have some interest in reading.  Within the last few years, I’ve read the 4 books in the Twilight series and the supplemental book: ‘The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner”.  I had to understand my wife’s obsession.  I also read the Hunger Games trilogy.  I think the number of pages in these 8 books is more pages than I have read in my entire life (excluding the Bible of course).

What other books have I read recently?  Monkey and the Fish, Xealots, Hole in our Gospel, Every Man’s Battle.  I am tempted to start Game of Thrones, but I have other books that I’m currently reading that I want to get through first.  My problem now is that I have started too many books at the same time and I don’t know which one to commit to reading first.  So what I have been doing is reading them all a little at a time.  It’s not working out so great and my head hurts thinking about it.  =(

So these are the books I have started.  All are good enough for me to see myself committing to one of them.  Maybe you can help me out a little?  Which one would you read first if you had to pick one?

Thanks in advance for your help!

(-_-)

p.s. SPOILER ALERT…book four of the Twilight series (Breaking Dawn) sucks rotten eggs.  The ending made me want to bludgeon Stephenie Meyer with her own book.  I wonder what liberties they will take in the movie to make it more palatable…