tintedpane.com

“We ride together. We die together. Bad boys for life.”

Lots of gun fights and blowing things up. This time the boys just happen to make bigger messes of themselves. Mike Lawry drives a 575 Maranello and sports a posh mansion instead of an apartment. Martin Lawrence’s character has a cheap above ground pool that bursts everytime the dog walks buy, washing it’s occupants into the nearby bay.

If you liked the first one, you’ll like the second one. At first I thought the sound was just bad in the theatre we saw it in, but after a few scenes, it became clear that the sound was poorly mixed — the intensity of certain explosions and other loud noises just didn’t mesh with the rest of the movie. I give it a 4/10 for sound. (I don’t think I’ll be rating movies on a scale anytime soon as I think much depends on the mood and level of anticipation from the viewer when he/she sits down to watch it.)

The movie did seem drawn out though, as it was nearly 2 1/2 hours long.

I actually worked this weekend. But I’ll get to that in another post. The city of Chicago, well, just downtown and O’Hare International Airport was the location. Downtown is very similar to San Francisco and NYC. Plenty of efficient and inexpensive public transportation. The W Hotel where we stayed at was very contemporary. We actually stayed in both a single and double bedroom over the course of 3 days. The single was kinda cramped, but the double on the last two nights was plenty roomy and comfy. I guess I liked the bathrobe that they had. LOL.

One thing about the tap water in Chicago — it sucks! Way too much chlorine.

But back to the city. We really didn’t get to see much of it as we were working at the trade show, but from the shuttle and train rides, the place looked very nice, with lots of tourist attractions and well architected greenery. The McCormick Convention Center was spectacular. Definitely on par with the Moscone in S.F., perhaps even more grand.

(Associated pics to come soon.)

So this weekend, Monday, and Tuesday, I was in Chicago working as a translator for an exhibitor from China. Mr. Sun Jinfu of HangZhou XingYi Metal Products. In this case it was sheet metal products — tool boxes, lockers, cabinets, 19″ computer rack enclosures. Lots of good business. And by Hardware, I mean the show was about Tim Allen type stuff — power tools, hand tools, and everything related to that. There was also lots of stuff pertaining to lawn and gardening (though that was rather boring to me). Brands like Channel Lock, Great Neck, SK, Campbell Hausfield, etc.

Translating was not too hard, though my vocab was lacking at times. Fortunately, I usually got the gist across.

I noticed a surprising trend — the Chinese exhibitors were basically making copies of American/European goods and churning them out at a significantly cheaper price, basically turning those things into commodity items with very low profit margins. Everything is going overseas. Basically, anything that can be manufactured here that is not overwhelmingly complex or needs a lot of capital to startup — e.g. airplanes, cars, will eventually be taken by them because of their cheap labor. And according to my old man, this’ll be happening for a very long time because the Chinese population is just that big that it can sustain such low wages and a lower standard of living.

So basically, I’m a bit anxious about this situation. Recently on C-Span, a senator from Idaho(?) was talking about the trade deficit and our poor skills at negotiating trade agreements. He made a very striking point that a country without a strong manufacturing base cannot be a world power. And unfortunately, it seems that the U.S. is slowly losing a significant portion of it’s manufacturing to foreign countries, especially China, because they are able to sustain lower pricing as mentioned before.

So now, what to do, both for myself and the future economy of the U.S.? I’m still deciding. When it comes down to it, I’m an American at heart, so I would hate to see us lose status as a world leader. Now, for me and getting a job, I think it’d be best if I find an industry that is unique to the U.S., that cannot be taken away or have cheaper imitations produced elsewhere. It’s a difficult time right now, it certainly is.

To end on a less serious note, I got a free tool box from my boss: 3 drawers, 20″ width.

(Pics to come soon.)

So last night, we took the 7:30pm flight back. We ended up landing in DFW at 12:30am. We thought we were ending up ahead because our original flight was scheduled for departure at 8:30pm. Let me first warn you: this is me griping about how much AA sucks. Ahem, first off, the flight attendants were late in arriving because their inbound flight to Chicago was delayed. Then, due to thunderstorms around DFW, we had to circle around because the airport was shut down. We didn’t have sufficient fuel supplies so we were routed to Tulsa, OK to refuel. Once we got to Tulsa, we were on the ground for about an hour while they did their pre-flight checks and cross checks again. Finally, after a total of 5 hours, we arrived in Dallas. No apologies, nothing.

My father pointed out several reasons why AA sucks ass:

1. Infield parking at DFW is a joke. With two terminals for AA flights, how the hell can you know that you’ll arrive back in the terminal you parked in. So we always use the remote parking.
2. AA has lousy service. We got one round of drinks when we took off the first time and nothing else, even during the duration when we were delayed and grounded. Updates on flight status were few and far between while on-board and while waiting in the terminals.
3. AA monopolizes pricing to and from Dallas so we get shafted because they are so big. He pointed out that AA is a good marketing company but a shitty services company.

In contrast, United is/was a great service company but a lousy marketing company. He reminisced about having delays with United and how they made their best effort to keep the passengers comfortable and informed. Too bad they are now bankrupt.

Interesting plot, but like Memento, after you see it once, you’ve seen it a million times. Bernice mentioned Collin Ferrell’s eye brows — they are really bushy and odd looking. I think the sets were well designed; however, the computer mock-ups were pretty fake. I guess ICE9’s power grid network is too. Ok, ok, it’s just a movie. ;-p

A week goes by fast in the blogging world.

I’ve finally finished cleaning my room. It’s actually decently uncluttered right now. I hope it lasts.

I wonder if my college friendships will continue the way they’ve were when I was still located on campus. Reality points to no, but I hope that through mediums like this we can still catch up occasionally and get a glimpse of what’s going on in our respective lives.

So to give a glimpse, I’ve been simultaneously looking for part-time jobs, full-time jobs, and grad schools. And so far, all I’ve done is fill out an application for Barnes and Noble. Yup, I’m still the same lazy punk. However, I did finally start working out again after my three month hiatus. Maybe dunking won’t be such an impossible goal now.
Now to my senior friends, I hope you enjoy your time this last year. Take a page out of my book: get out and play! There’s always work to do; just make sure you don’t fail any classes and that’ll be just fine. Be sure to go to every formal, if not because there’s a hidden gem you just discovered, then to make fun of those who’ve discovered theirs. Poke plenty of harmless jokes at people, especially those that don’t have any comebacks. And do be sure to have lots of inside jokes, cause it’ll keep those damn foreigners away. J/K. Scratch that last one. Ok, I feel like that was Senior Appreciation all over again…I’m such a cheesehead.

Off to bed to dream about my lovely….