Happy Halloween! I can't believe it, two years in a row and it's snowing here in Colorado on Halloween!

I'm putting together a webpage for our friend Jay, where people can sample some of the songs on his CD before they buy it. I will probably add more information on how to order it, hopefully with a PayPal link, hint, hint . Go ahead and give it a try and let me know if you can listen to the songs. I've used Windows Media format because it's more compact than mp3 and most people have Windows Media Player already. If not, you can download the latest media player for free.

Alive and well here, too. When the kids go back to school, it's hard to find time to get on line. Hope everyone is well. Happy Halloween!!!

Alive and well here, also wanted to let you know Mike Laton reads the posts too, whatever happened to Ann Marie and Homer????

I am here and alive!

I'd like to thank the guy to the left here. He sent me a message a few weeks ago that contained some images and when I tried to open one of them, my computer exploded. Well, not in the literal sense, but in the practical sense anyway. When I powered it up again, it wouldn't boot. So I considered my options and decided to 'upgrade' to Windows XP while I was trying to fix the problem. The upgrade allowed me to boot again, but I had to re-install *all* of my software because my computer looked, for all intents and purposes, like a brand new computer. I still have all my data hidden away in subfolders and I can access it, but not like I used to. It was like starting all over again with a new computer. By the way, this isn't Paul's fault at all. Perhaps its the fault of the scanner that took the image, or even of the program I was using to open the image, or maybe even of my computer just deciding to give up the ghost at that moment.

But I'm back up and running and if you are a graduate of Gate of Heaven school, class of 1973, stay tuned as you might see some familiar images appearing in the weblog soon .

I'm also working on a webpage for Jay so that he can direct people to it who want to sample his new CD by downloading a few tracks from it. It will also contain the contact information for anyone who might want to place an order of it from Jay.

Sorry Lee.... Got caught up in snapping turtles up to my #@$% for awhile, there... I'll be forwarding some jokes to everyone in the near future... Hope everyone is happy and healthy...

Hey, where is everyone? Did you all go away? Please try to post a message so we can see that you're all still around. We'd all love to hear about what you're doing. I know it's sometimes a challenge to post to the blog, you have to compose, post, publish and then, sometimes you'll have to get out and back in and publish again. Your message is still there, but it may not publish on the first try. There's some kind of bug they have on blogger. But that's OK, since you can still get back in and publish it again. And if it doesn't work on the first try, you won't lose anything you've written. If you've forgotten how to post, let me know and I'll get you set up again. It's always great to see someone post who we haven't heard from in a while.

Lee -- I do not have xrays in my possession - but the ones I saw today were fascinating -- very interesting seeing this 5 inch plate and the screws!

To follow on your story about following the hosts in China -- while I was in Hong Kong, one of my 'hosts' told the story of a company that had a high ranking woman who was slightly eccentric -- she loved to eat the bones and also to eat the heads off birds served at meals. Often times she was the 'host' and would test prospective vendors by doing her crunching act -- often times just to gauge how serious they were

Doc,
At the rate you're going, you'll have more hardware and technology than the Six Million Dollar Man! I'd say "keep your head low", but you'd probably whack it on a table at the rate your luck's holding out. Hope your feel better soon, buddy... Nobody deserves to have the kind of pain you're describing...

Hey Rob, please send your x-rays. I like to see x-rays with hardware and yours should be spectacular with the numerous screws and such. I am very sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations with the collar bone, and I think many of us are bearing the unfortunate scars of surgery, myself included.

As for the chicken feet, I saw many chicken feet served in Asia but never had the nerve to eat one myself. I can't think of any part of a chicken less appetizing than its feet.

Here's a little story for you. One of my colleagues was traveling in China and he was told by one of his friends that whenever you're there, just watch your host and do exactly what he does. So a plate of little cooked birds was served and he saw his host pop one in his mouth and start chewing so he did the same. He bit down on it and was unnerved to find lots of little bones crunching. He continued to chew up the little bird and then about a minute later observed his host spitting out a perfectly clean set of bird bones on to a plate. He realized that it was much too late for him to separate the bones from the meat because he had been munching on them for too long so he continued to chew until the bones were small enough to swallow! I've always been amazed at how the people in China can pop something into their mouths and carefully separate that which can be eaten from that which cannot.

I liked your description of the various 'menus' throughout Asia -- I found the food to be great -- only exception was the pickled chicken feet in Hong Kong -- to add to the enjoyment, they were stone cold! I did eat some soup in Malaysia that was very good -- but I did not want to know what was in it!

I have nothing really to report -- as noted in my last post - I broke my collar bone -- and then broke it worse a second time (instinct's reaching for a falling lamp). Ended up having reconstructive surgery and having a stainless steel 'collar' and 7 screws put in my clavicle. I pride myself on having a high pain tolerance -- but this is by far the worst pain I have ever had. By the way, I need to get a 'certificate' form my doctor to go through metal detectors -- that should be great fun if I go back to Asia!

I'm back in the USA and if feels pretty nice to be home. I can only take so many fish heads staring up at me from my plate or floating around in my soup before I long for something more 'American' to eat . I've been to Asia more than a half dozen times and it gets easier each time, although the food there can sometimes be scary. In Japan, you must beware of the 'box' lunch. Whenever you see a fine wooden box being served, you just know there's going to be a lot of raw things in it and some that evoke an automatic gag reflex before you even get them in your mouth. Meals in Japan can be like the "eating challenges" on Survivor. China takes the cake, especially if you venture away from the major cities. On several occasions, we visited restaurants with lots of live animals in cages and fish tanks out front. Peacocks, pidgeons, turtles, huge swimming beetles (I kid you not), snakes, and anything that crawled or wiggled was there. Whenever our host saw us look with fascination at any type of critter, he ordered it for us, much to our chagrin. I was actually looking forward to eating a peacock, thinking, naively, that it would be served like pheasant under glass. It looked more like someone chopped it up with a machete. I've never eaten a tougher, grislier bird than that peacock. The snake was tasty but getting the meat off the rib cage was a challenge. Little pigeons decorated the plate with their blackened heads and beaks still intact. The lobster head was in a little boat in the rotating center of the table, still alive with its eyes moving about. We ate the lobster's tail which had been removed and shredded up, but not cooked, while its head observed us in disbelief. It dipped its antennae in our drinks whenever it was spun with the center of the table.

Singapore, like Hong Kong, is much more westernized and so there was plenty of food to choose from wherever we went. I ate Thai, Malaysian, and Indonesian food and it was all pretty good, although somewhat spicy, but I don't mind that at all.

Taiwan has many shades of mainland China since most of its residents can trace their roots back to China so it was back to the fish heads while I was there.

Overall, it was a productive trip with many problems solved and the first trip to Asia where I was traveling by myself. We generally travel in teams of two or three, but in these cost-cutting days, we travel alone and try to wear as many hats as possible.

Sounds like me after one of my 5 day builds went "kerplooey" 2 process centers from stocking on the day before it's due!

Greetings from Taipei, Taiwan. If everything had gone according to plan, I'd be on a plane home right now, but instead I'm stopping for a few days in Taiwan. I was in Singapore and Malaysia earlier this week working on production startup issues. While I was there, a new emergency erupted and I had to come to Taiwan instead of going home. I feel like Winston Wolf (i.e. Harvey Keitel) in Pulp Fiction. I often have to rely on a combination of charm and in-your-face tactics to get the job done. One of my favorite quotes from that movei movie is: "If I'm curt with you, it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast, and I need you guys to act fast if you want to get out of this. So, pretty please, with sugar on top, fix the *$&!@# problem." OK, I might be exaggerating, but just a little.... :-).