Category Archives: Travel

Weekend at the Neal’s casa

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I had a wonderful weekend!

Brandee, myself and Jack headed up to visit my parents for a few days.  We packed up the car, threw Jack in the back (after Brandee piled a bunch of blankets to make him a nice cushion of course :-) ) and then began the journey.  It takes about 3 hours to get there.  We arrived at about 11:30pm after stopping at In-N-Out Burger for a disgustingly, nasty late night dinner.

Saturday morning we got up early, ate breakfast then I treated my dad to a round of golf.  We were joined by two younger kids and I tell you what, my dad at 89 years old can still out-golf those young wiper-snappers!  He hadn’t played in a long time so he was a bit rusty in the beginning but around the 3rd hole he was back to his regular self hitting the ball straight down the middle of the fairway.  Meanwhile I was constantly playing out of the trees due to my horrendous slice that I can’t seem to get under control.  We ended up playing a total of nine holes which was sufficient for me because it was getting really hot.  On one of the holes my dad had an amazing shot.  It was a short Par 3 hole and there was a man-made water fountain in front of the green.  The water level was really low.  Dad hit a nice shot but it was going to clearly come up short.  So the ball splashed in the water and bounced off the concrete floor of the fountain and ended up landing right in front of the green!  It was just a short chip from there.  I told him that with that kind of luck he should have planned the California Lottery!  We didn’t end up keeping score but it was a lot of fun to get out there with my Pa and do what he enjoys doing.

 
We also got to spend some quality time with my mother watching coverage of the Olympics which was a lot of fun.  We got to share a truly memorable moment when Oscar Pistorius of South Africa ran the 400-meter track and field event.  Oscar was born with a birth defect that caused him to have both his legs amputated below the knee when he was 11-months old.  He was fitted with special prosthetics that allowed him to not only walk normally, but he’s one of the fastest runners in the world!  Although he didn’t end up winning a medal his courage was absolutely inspirational.  His smile was so genuine that it was infectious.  In general in our society, we need more great stories like the one that Oscar provided this past Saturday at the London Olympics.

Another great memory was that my mom feeds the wild deer nightly so they are in a routine of coming up to the house for supper.  This particular evening we were blessed by three rather large deer that came up to dine on tortillas and other leftovers.  Brandee had cooked a delicious selection of steak, baked vegetables and dinner rolls so the deer got a tasty dinner indeed.

Of course upon our return home Bella was a living hell.  She was so mad at us for leaving her alone for almost 40 hours.  She was biting me, attacking my legs and in a general piss-poor mood.  I did manage to live through the cuts and scrapes but I do have some battle wounds.  You’d think that she would have been nice seeing as how we were gone but I guess it’s her way of letting us know that we should never abandon her like that ever again.

Although I’m exhausted from the long drive back and forth it was really great to spend QT with my bestest peeps in the world!  We are thinking about planning a trip to Las Vegas for our next adventure so I can’t wait to make it reality then sharing all the fun details.  Viva Las Vegas!

My first trip to Moscow

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I made my first business trip to Moscow a few weeks ago.  It was a remarkable experience and it’s always very interesting for me to indulge in different countries and cultures.

Traveling internationally has a great way to put things into perspective.  The world is a very big place, but at the core “people are people”.  What people want is to live, work and be in peace.  We all have that in common for the most part.  One of our drivers was kind enough to take a slight detour and drive by infamous Red Square as seen in the photo below:

 

The Russian people aren’t so unlike American or Japanese people as you might imagine, in my opinion.  I have found obvious commonalities in each of these cultures are a ‘hard-working element’.  It’s inspirational to go to a foreign country/city and just witness the people and business go-about their daily routines.  True, living in the United States, I sometimes get jaded and frustrated with American laziness and gluttony but I feel, honestly, if I think about it in comparison to other societies, American business is quiet efficient.

Another commonality between Russian and Japanese society is their consideration for visitors.  I absolutely admire this quality about these two countries which are distinctly different in some ways, yet quite similar in other ways.  The Russian people went out-of-their-way to try and communicate in English at the airport, in the restaurant or in the hotel.  They really did their best to make me feel at home.

If you ever do visit Moscow, however, be prepared for traffic!  Wow – this was something I was surprised about.  Although we had drivers for our travels and didn’t have to rent a car it was crazy just simply being a passenger.  There is massive traffic in Moscow that you should know.  Give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination and know the back roads, if possible.  I would compare the level of traffic congestion to that of Manhattan, New York (US).  However, the drivers in Moscow are aggressive, just like in Manhattan, but they have amazing skill to weave and dodge obstacles and they lack the anger that overcomes American drivers.  In Moscow I did not witness one single driver either honk their horn and/or ‘flip-the-bird’.  It seems as though this traffic mess is just accepted as a condition for living in Moscow.

To compensate for the traffic congestion it seems that law enforcement is quite lenient.  A result of the massive traffic is that people have to park their cars somewhere and, believe me;  they park them wherever they can find space!  You park on the sidewalk, sideways or in other areas because you have to.  Maybe I can go into the Parking Garage business in Moscow?

Finally, again, I appreciate all the hospitality of the Russian people.  Stereotypes and history is something hard to overcome but it seems that the integrated approach of a world economy is truly a reality.  I’m humbled to see it, and to be a part of it.

Великие люди

偉大な人々

Great People,

Kevin

Maui 2011

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The cart ride of death at Houston airport!

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This was one of the funniest experiences I’ve ever had during air travel.  This event happened at the Houston airport on March 24, 2011 and I tell the story below the photo.

The cart-driver guy was like a mad man. Literally, not 20 seconds after I had left the jetway and before I could even check the TV monitors if there had a gate change, he drive right in and aggressive (but nicely) asked “where you going sir?”. Shocked that he had picked me out of the crowd without my even asking for a ride, I said, “uhhh well E15 I guess” which was the gate printed on my ticket. He said in an excited voice “alright, get in, take the backpack off, it’s a long haul, let’s go!!”. The total transaction happened in a flash.

houston cart ride

So as we were making the trip through the airport terminal with the pedal-to-the-metal he’s proudly and boldly announcing his presence throughout the airport: “Excuse the cart ma’am! Excuse the cart sir!”. All along the ride he’s randomly picking out unsuspecting travelers out of the crowd: “where you headed sir?” “Where you headed ma’am?”. Before not too long the cart is at capacity. Every turn was a great adventure regardless if a passenger was within a country-mile or not: “The CART is making a right turn now!” as he gestures with his hands a right-turn.

My gate was the furthest away so we ended up touring the entire Houston airport and he memorized every persons stop the first time we each told him. He was driving like a bat out of hell! It was hilarious and great to witness him enjoy his work so much so next time you are in the Houston airport and here “EXCUSE THE CART!” you better act quick!

Kevin, meet East Coast – East Coast, meet Kevin

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“Whew!!!” is about all the energy I have to say right now. The last month has been extremely busy for me with a full load of business travel. It’s all good and each trip has been rewarding and been extremely productive however I am human, after-all, and it’s grueling to keep a schedule like this.

While some people might think this is glamorous to travel the country; I am simply not one of those people. With the current economic situation I feel it’s more important than ever to engage customers in tangible activities that can help move forward business opportunities. If this requires me to sacrifice a little and travel like a madman then so-be-it. I think it’s harder on my wife and children (cat, dog and fish) than me. I appreciate their understanding and sacrifice as well.

Having made three roundtrips back and forth from the West Coast to various destinations on the East Coast in the last four weeks has allowed me some much needed time to get some of my thoughts organized. I have created a lot of “to do” lists over the last month and I’m currently consolidating these activities and acting upon them. One of them was to add more information to my blog. I will be adding some original materials that I have created in the past which I find interesting. I hope others will too, or at the least solicit some constructive feedback. This will include some articles on ‘Trends Towards Higher Resolution Scanning’ , ‘Increase ECM Automation Processes with Higher Resolution Scanning’, ‘Why a Network Scanner’ and other original content. I assure you that this is not a shameless promotion of my company or products but this is a sincere interest in educating others. I am fortunate to be close to this technology and gather a lot of feedback and I simply want to assist others in cutting through some of the confusion. Personally I gain quite a bit of knowledge from reading other peoples blogs and I would like to give back a little to the online social society as well.  As a brief recap of my travels I would like to provide you a visual map of the zany adventures:

On the road again, and again...and again (Willy Nelson eat your heart out)

Also, with all this travel there is certainly bound to be some ‘incident’ of some sort. Well, sure enough, upon our approach into Philadelphia last Sunday night there were severe thunderstorms in the area. My wife was tracking the flights progress via the internet and snapped this screen print of the planes route. Notice the fun circling we ‘enjoyed’ after a full day of travel until the thunderstorms had subsided and we could finally land.

No this is not a ride at Space Mountain!

Anyhow, I just wanted to provide a brief update and explain the absence of blogs recently. I’ll try and be more consistent. Please feel free to drop me a note with any comments, suggestions or criticisms. I’m always open for a healthy debate.