Archive for September, 2009
Atlanta for the evening
I wrapped up my trip to Costa Rica and I’m now in Atlanta for the night. Unfortunately, there’s no way to fly from Costa Rica to Grand Cayman in one day on Delta. The Cayman flight leaves at like 10:20 AM EST which is 8:20 AM Costa Rica time (at this time of year). So, since there’s only one flight to Cayman per day (and some days no flights to Cayman), that rules out going in one day. Normally I would fly American through Miami but this trip was enough to put me into the Delta Medallion club for the rest of this year and all of next year. That means I’ll get first class upgrades, zone 1 boarding, faster check-in line, ability to book exit row seats, etc. Being the lowest level (silver) of Delta’s Medallion program isn’t a huge deal but I wanted to make sure that I got it. So… here I am in an Atlanta airport hotel.
My trip to Costa Rica revolved mainly around two things. First, I am trying to sell my condo in Escazu. I met with a bunch of real estate agents and now hopefully they’ll do what they can to get it moved. I am not in a huge rush or anything but I would like to move it before the end of the year (hopefully). I also put my Toyota 4Runner up for sale while I was there. That had better sell by the end of the year. In general it seems much easier to move a car than to move a condo — but even moreso in Costa Rica.
The second thing the trip revolved around was Poker Terms. As my loyal blog readers might remember, about a year ago I started the Poker Terms website and, with the help of a number of great term writers, I’ve been working on it on and off for the last year to build it into a more comprehensive poker lingo database. There are still many terms missing but it’s been over 1,000 terms for a few months now so it’s one of the most (or maybe THE most) complete poker terms resources online. I met with a new employee of ours who is going to be helping me to take the site to the next level. We’re just getting started on a redesign and there are a number of things we’re working on in the interim to get the site ready for the new layout and new features.
Other than those two things, I didn’t do much else other than go to the gym, watch TV and sleep. The only other thing of note was a trip to the ONLY public bowling alley in Costa Rica. There are a few others but they are private lanes in country clubs. So we drove about 40 minutes to an area called San Pedro and went to a place called Boliche Dent. I’ll admit that I did not have high expectations for a bowling alley in Costa Rica. I expected a total shithole to be honest. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The place was actually pretty nice and there were relatively few problems with the equipment and lanes. About 15 of us went out to bowl and we had two lanes.
Adam Small (from P5s) suggested that we do a winner-take-all bet where we each put in 10,000 colones (about $17 at today’s exchange rates) and the highest score won. We managed to get five people to enter. Myself, Adam, JD (BubbaKGB from P5s), Scott (our Content manager) and Nelson (our Customer Service manager). The first game I jumped out to a big lead around the 5th frame because I had a turkey along with a few spares. I cruised to a 173 and I don’t think anyone was within 30 pins. Ship the 40,000 colones. Then we bowled again and I was way off. I think I had four open frames in the first five frames. By that point, myself, JD and Scott were out of it and Nelson and Adam were neck and neck for the lead. Nelson ended up pulling it out with some clutch shots (rolls? I’m not sure what the term is) and he managed to score 183 for the high score of the night. That reduced my profit to 30,000 colones.
But, during the end of the last game, I knew I was not going to win the winner-take-all so I made a bet with another employee of ours named Jerry. There was a speed gun of some kind on the lane which told you the speed of your last shot. Typically, people were throwing somewhere in between 16 and 23 km/hr according to the scoreboard. I tried a few of throwing as hard as I could and I was getting like 30 or 31 km/hr. After the 8th frame, I bet Jerry 5,000 colones even money that I could top 33.5 km/hr. I was not confident that I would actually do it. During my 9th frame, I think I bowled twice around 31 km/hr. For those shots, I only put my fingers into the ball and not my thumb because I thought it would make it faster. However, after that, I realized I might be able to throw it faster with my thumb so I switched up techniques for the 10th frame. My first shot in the 10th frame was something like 31.5 km/hr which was still pretty far away from where I needed to be to win. So, obviously, for my second shot in the 10th frame I loaded up and gave it everything I could. When I let it go, I was pretty sure I’d thrown another one in the 31s. Maybe 32 at best. But then, amazingly, the scoreboard somehow read 34.95!! Sick. I got a picture of it:
As you can see, I bowled a very elite 81. But, given that my last four frames (two before the bet and two for the bet) were simply attempts at speed, that isn’t QUITE as bad. I’m pretty sure there was something wrong with the speed gun on that shot because I really don’t think it was 34.95. Either way though, I won the bet because there was no way for us to know what the speed actually was with absolute certainty.
So, tonight I’m in Atlanta. I went straight from the airport to Best Buy. Then I went to Moe’s for a burrito and then hit up CVS for a few essentials. After that I went to the airport hotel where I am now. Here are a few interesting conversations that I want to relay. First, at the Best Buy I was looking for a DVI to HDMI converter. I couldn’t find anyone in the computer dept so I stopped at customer service on the way to the register. It went something like this:
Me: Hi, I am looking for a DVI to HDMI plug converter and I can’t find anyone in the computer dept. Do you know if you carry them?
Customer service lady: (blank stare) Ummmmm, a what?
Me: A DVI to HDMI adapter, it’s a plug converter so I can plug my monitor into my laptop.
Customer service lady: I don’t know what that is, can you find someone in the computer dept?
Me: I looked, no one is there… (sidenote: This was 15 minutes before they closed)
Customer service lady: Sorry, I don’t know what to do.
Me: Okay, I give up
Customer service lady: Cool.
It was extremely uninspired service. I don’t know if I could convey the tone of our conversation in my summary but I don’t think she could have possibly cared less. Not only does she work at a Best Buy in customer service while being completely unaware of the meaning of the acronyms DVI and HDMI, she also doesn’t even care to try to help customers who are looking to buy a product. And she works in customer service.
I’ve been pretty unimpressed overall with Best Buy lately. I called up the “Premier Silver” Reward Zone number (admittedly, Premier Silver only means you spent $2500 in the last year but that’s their highest level so…. it should mean something) and made a pretty simple receipt request. They said they would get it to me in three days. Over two weeks later, no response. I’ve called a few times in the meantime and each time they extend the period of time required for my receipt request. It’s gone from a three day project to a 7-10 day project to a 14 day project. I am somewhat doubting I’m ever going to get a copy of that receipt. I need it for my taxes so I’d better get it soon…
Oh, and the other conversation I’d like to relay. When I was checking in to the hotel…
Front Desk person: Okay, here’s your key and breakfast is at 7am.
Me: Are there instructions in the room for how to use the wifi or do I need a code of some kind? (it’s a pet peeve of mine having to go back to the desk just for a wifi code)
Front Desk person: The internet is all wireless here.
Me: (blank stare) So there’s no code to get on?
Front Desk person: Nope, it’s all wireless.
Me: (blank stare) Oooookay, thanks.
At least this woman doesn’t work at Best Buy. I don’t expect her to know anything about technology.
Good night.
Nearing the end of Costa Rica trip
I’ve had a very productive week here in Costa Rica. I got in on Saturday and I spent most of the day on Sunday watching football and bumming around the house. A few weeks back I purchased NFL GamePass for the season and I have to say that it’s really incredible. If you don’t know what it is, it’s an online subscription that gives you access to every NFL game during the season completely on-demand. You can watch any game from any point whenever you want to. And, depending your internet connection, the quality goes up to HD-level resolution. It works very well and I highly recommend it to any NFL fan. The best part is that it works anywhere in the world without the typical restrictions that you find on sites like Hulu.
One other thing I did on Sunday was go to the gym. I’ve been working out a lot lately and I’m seeing a lot of performance gains in my cardio ability. At one point a few years ago, I had trouble completing even a single mile on a treadmill. Lately, I’ve been doing runs of about 3 miles with relatively little difficulty. I usually run at 5.5 to 6.0 MPH but I have done stretches of faster running over shorter distances. So I’ve been to the gym on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday this week and each time I’ve done longer and longer runs. Last night (Wednesday) I did 5.5 miles at 5.5 mph and, while I wouldn’t say it was easy, I was never at a point where I was having trouble continuing. I know for sure I could have done 6.0 or 6.5 miles and probably more if I really wanted to. But I am trying to be careful and increase my distance slowly to lessen the chances of ending up injured. I am giving serious thought to running the half marathon in Cayman on December 6th. They run both a full marathon and a half marathon on a pretty flat course so it’s probably one of the easier half marathons for me to try out. Given my current level of fitness, I am confident that I can jump into one of the Hal Higdon-style training routines with two months to go and end up ready to go on race day. If I did it, I definitely wouldn’t do it with a time in mind. I would just want to finish with as little walking as possible (that is, if any walking). We shall see. If I’m going to do it, I should probably get into the formal training program as soon as possible considering that I’ve never run a half marathon before.
Also, my Aruba trip is actually booked now. I’ll be flying in late on the 3rd and leaving early on the 10th. Let me know if you’re planning on being there.
Headed to Costa Rica
I’ve had a pretty uneventful week. I’ve been hitting the gym really hard and I’ve also been eating really clean. A lot of vegetables and almost no processed food of any kind. I’m feeling really good and I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been in since high school. For the first time in a very long time, I am knocking on the door to be below 200 lbs. Sometime in the next few weeks I should get there. I’d like to get to 180-185 and re-evaluate at that point.
Cayman is the same old story for the most part. I don’t really know that many people so I spend a lot of time basically just keeping myself busy. Whether it’s work, watching TV, watching movies, going to the gym, doing errands, etc I almost never have a lack of things to do. But it would be nice to meet more people here so I’m hoping to do that at some point.
One thing that continues to entertain me about the Cayman Islands is the accent of the local people. I’m not sure exactly where it derives from but it seems like there’s a lot of Jamaican influence. I could be totally wrong about that though because I’m just guessing. Here’s an example of the kind of thing you see on a routine basis:
I don’t know why that’s so funny to me but I’m always laughing at least on the inside when I see stuff like that. So many companies have grammatically incorrect slogans. It’s also pretty shocking when you hear people talking and they sound like Bob Marley. I’m talking about people who look like they’re from New Hampshire. I was in an electronics store the other day and there was a family who seriously looked Norwegian (blonde, etc) and they could have passed for Jamaican on the phone. I don’t know how else to describe it except as surprising when you come across it.
As the title of my blog post suggests, I’m headed back to Costa Rica for the first time since early May. I’ll be there for a week for work purposes and I’m definitely looking forward to the trip. While Costa Rica has its downsides at this time of year (rain, rain and more rain), for all intents and purposes, I haven’t been in the office since February. I was busy moving in March and when I was in Costa Rica in May I was unbelievably sick and I probably spent less than three hours in the office during the entire week I was there. So it’s going to be good to be in the office and functional for a whole week. We have some new employees who I am looking forward to meeting and we have a lot of stuff to get done.
After Costa Rica, I will be back in Cayman for a short period of time before I go to Aruba for the second year in a row. I had a great time last year and I anticipate a great time again this year. I don’t have everything booked yet for Aruba so it isn’t a sure thing but I expect that I’ll end up there. Good luck to everyone playing in the WCOOP Main Event, I’d love to see a well-known online player take it down.
Wow, 10 days fly by
I didn’t realize it had been so long since I updated the blog. I’ll try to be more on top of that even when I’m busy traveling. The last 8 days I’ve been on a trip to the US where I was all over the place. First I was in San Diego for three days for a wedding. Here’s a picture of me with my brother and sister at the reception:
The wedding itself was a Greek Orthodox ceremony (my mom’s brother is technically Jewish but his wife is Greek Orthodox) and the reception was at a pretty nice hotel called Grand Del Mar in San Diego. It was a fun weekend and I’m really glad I made it out there (my attendance was in doubt for a period of time due to difficulty finding a good flight plan).
After the wedding, I flew back to Philly with my family this past Monday. I took care of some errands Tuesday during the day and then hung out with my high school friend Raph (short for Raphael). He is a second year MBA student at Wharton (UPenn’s business school in case you’re not from the US) and he just got back from a summer-long internship in Bangkok, Thailand. He loved the experience and I got to hear all about it over a few drinks. Sounds like a trip that I have to make at some point. I’ve never been anywhere in the Far East so one of these years I’ll get around to it.
Then on Wednesday I went up to New York City to hang out with my friend Eric. He’s a wedding photographer living in NYC and we grew up directly next door to each other. We made the usual rounds. First, we went to various electronics stores (B&H, Best Buy, etc). Then we went to go see a movie right by Madison Square Garden. We saw “Inglorious Basterds” and I think it was great. I wasn’t ever really grossed out even though some people said it was kind of gory. I definitely recommend it. Of course, we stopped off for some late night food. Then the next day we went to get all you can eat sushi for lunch. That’s a typical day when I’m hanging out with Eric.
Eric needed to go home to Philly for an appointment today so yesterday afternoon we drove back to Philly and promptly went to Larry’s to get a cheese steak. After that I dropped him off at his place and I headed home to pack up. I got back to Cayman a few hours ago and now I’m just trying to stay awake for a few more hours before passing out — I had to get up early for my flight and I was having some trouble falling asleep due to a sore throat. I’m working on like three hours of sleep.
Oh, also, I got a new Dell Studio 1555 laptop while I was home (I have a MacBook Pro but I have a lot of trouble working without Windows and the Apples don’t run Windows all that well — my computer was always overheating). It was a bit harrowing because it was only delivered about 12 hours before I had to leave for the airport but it came in time so no worries. Highlights are an Intel T9600 processor, 6gb RAM and a 1920×1080 screen. I really like it so far and I’m really happy with the purchase price of $1400. This should last me a few years.
Car, TV, Travel, etc
My car is fixed. I had the radiator fan overnighted from California and I had the car back by midday Saturday. It’s running great so I’m happy with how things turned out. My next mission is to get more keys for the car. I only have one set and it’s kind of terrifying to think of what it would be like if I lost them. It’s a pretty advanced key and it isn’t the sort of thing you can just get cut at your local locksmith. The dealer needs to program the key for the car to start and, obviously, no one in the Caymans has 2007 Infiniti G35 keys in stock. So, yesterday, I ordered some on eBay and I’m going to pick them up in the US. Then I’ll bring them down here for programming and I’ll have a few backups just in case.
Speaking of traveling to the US, I have a bunch of traveling coming up. First, I’m going to San Diego this weekend for a wedding. It’s going to be great and I’m really looking forward to it. After that I’m flying back home to Philadelphia for next week. I’ll be picking up one of these when I’m there. Can’t wait to try it out when I get back to Cayman. There’s a pretty good chance it will make me really sick but that isn’t a good reason not to try it out. By the way, has anyone out there tried out kite tubing? It looks both very dangerous and very VERY fun. It doesn’t seem like anyone sells them anymore because of lawsuit concerns but I have found them on eBay. Just wondering who out there has experience with them.
In terms of TV, I’ve been watching quite a bit over the last month or two. At the top of my list are True Blood Season 2, Entourage Season 6, Mad Men Season 3, 2 Months 2 Million Season 1 and Hung Season 1. Hung started slowly (ie, the first three to four episodes were boring) but it has picked up and I’m starting to enjoy it. The bottom line is that I’m willing to give any HBO show the benefit of the doubt if I don’t like it at the beginning… mainly because all of their shows are awesome. As always, Entourage is terrific. True Blood has been really interesting the last few episodes and I’m kind of sad there isn’t much left in Season 2. Mad Men is only getting started but I am curious, as always, about what will happen this season. And 2 Months 2 Million is definitely a niche show but, given that I know some of the people on the show and the show is about the industry that I work in, it’s definitely must-see TV for me.
I’ve also enjoyed aspects of The T.O. Show Season 1 but I am not a huge fan. For a true dud, Shaq Vs Season 1 is really retarded. I can barely stand to even watch it so I am done with it — and I’m a huge Shaq fan so it takes a lot for me to say that a project he’s involved in is terrible. The shows that I have on the table to watch are Fringe, Burn Notice, The Cleaner and Spooks. Note that I’ve never seen any of them … they’ve just been recommended to me. I plan on watching some of them on the plane during my upcoming travels so I’ll be sure to post about them when I can actually say whether they’re good or not.
That Africa trip report is still happening. It’s taking me some time to fill it out but it’s probably 85% to 90% complete.