Saturday, December 19, 2009

Tito Motz - Your neighborhood handyman!

My cousin is a great handyman! Give him a call. He does great work. He worked on my rental years ago, and I would definitely hire him again.
Raul Ramon S. Gonzales
Tel: 650-757-6883
Cell: 650-430-8697
Email: motz_ph@yahoo.com EMAIL HIM!


Friday, November 20, 2009

movember

i'm not the only one with a strange mustache.

as you may know i'm trying my best to look like magnum p.i. by growing a "movember" to raise awarene$$ for prostate cancer. interestingly enuf, here in buenos aires, this dude here with the bald spot was trimming the movember on a manequin.

damn manequin's 'mostache looks much better than mine.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

buenos (aires)

arrived in buenos aires today.

first impression: es muy humido!

for those who don´t speak spanish, that translates to: gosh i need a drank!  (not really, cuz i just had 2 amazing glasses of wine.  the ¨glasses¨ were probably an entire bottle.  i´m not complaining, i´m just saying....)  i´m here in buenos aires argentina for a couple of days then it´s off to iguazu falls.  pretty excited to see water fall from VERY high to VERY low.  don´t know why that is as i see that happen in the shower as well.

other impressions: guys kiss each other on the cheeks as a way to say hola.  the dude at the airport who brought our luggage to our taxi kissed the taxi drive (male) on the cheek when they met.  both sides.  the taxi driver returned the favor.  maybe they´re father-son.  most likely not.  so that makes me feel like i´m more in a european city than santiago, chile, which seemed more american. 

dinner around the hotel started at nine pm.  (btw i´m 5hr ahead of u in california.  that´s right.  i´m in the future.)  as of 11:30, it still seems like there´s a fair amount of people out at night.  wish vacaville was the same way. 

i´m about 218ft below sea level according to wiki.  weird.  a couple of days ago, i was 13,000ft above sea level and wishing mommy was there to make the pain go away. 

strange.  everyone here speaks mexican.  just like vacaville.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Battle of the Century


pound for pound the best! or should i say "book for book the best"?

the battle had be brewing for years, with each contender claiming to have the upper hand.  neither opponent wanted to lose, that's for sure.  there was too much at stake, but as the weekend drew to a close, the victor emerged.  the victory was decisive, if not one-sided.  the vanquished was clearly overmatched.  they exchanged shot for shot early, but in the end youth prevailed.  yes, that's right. i beat my dad in tennis.  oh yea, manny pacquiao won too.

we played tennis on clay.  slid around and got my shoes dusted with red dirt.  the ball - in part due to altitude and in part due to the surface - bounced up really high.  threw our timing way off, but it was still pretty fun.

PERUsals

some parting thoughts on peru:
  • tons of jehova's witnesses were on vacation in peru at the same time i was.  in fact, i'm seeing a lot of them here in santiago as well.  i can tell cuz they all have this distinct name tag styles.  first they come to my door on sundays, now they're following me on vacation.  i may just have to convert.
  • i've been mistaken for japanese (which is not new for me whilst traveling).  what is new is that this dutch dude thought i looked like his cousin (who is dutch and white).  i look so much like his cousin that he started talking to me in dutch.
  • the skyline of peru is riddled with re-bar sticking straight up into the sky.  the reason is taxes.  once ur building is finished, you begin to pay taxes.  so peruvians - not surprisingly - stop just short of finishing their buildings as to avoid paying property taxes.  the result is that the cities look war-torn or 3rd-worldish.
  • stop signs, traffic lights, and traffic lanes are all ignored.  ALL ignored.  it's one of those seemingly lawless places in the world (from a traffic perspective).  strangely enuf, there don't seem to be many traffic accidents.  are we wasting our time sitting at stoplights?  are they really keeping us safer?
  • peruvians don't stand in line.  they push and shove until they get up to the front of the line or can't progress any further.  drives us americans ape sh*t, but peruvians don't seem to mind.
  • pisco sour is their national alcoholic drink.  made with a sour grape liquor, some lemon juice, sugar, an eggwhite - ick!!! - for froth and some bitters to add some color and, well, bitterness, the drink is quenching but too sweet for my tastes.
  • the native andean language is pretty close to japanese. go figure.
  • appears that the tallest guys are 5'5" to 5'6".  and the women are about 2-3 inches shorter.  i'm a giant at 5'10".  (5'8" if you want the truth)

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Fighting Snails


santiago, chile:  after a marathon sleep of 12hours, first great sleep of the trip since the beginning of the trip (other marathons were interrupted by drinks of water and trips to the bathroom) i ate a great continental breakfast.  then it was off north for both wine country and the beach.

santiago is about 1hr from the mountains (pronounced as "moon-tines" by the locals) and 1hr from the beaches (pronounced as "bitches" by the locals.  just kidding, they say "bitch"). such a great city to live in.  you can see the moon-tines (los andeas) from the city.  right now, they're topped with snow.  screw u al gore!

wine country was beautiful, as expected.  full of grapes vines and sunshine, as expected.  there were four wines we tasted, paired with four cheeses (not expected!).  yum.  sauvignon blanc paired with goat cheese.  merlot paired with parmesan.  and, not to be outdone, a blend of french style/american style wine paired with sheep cheese.  i polished off my wine and dad's wine, as expected.

lunch was along the coast.  it was a seafood extrodinaire, which means i had snails.  i like french escargot, where the snail is lost in a butter, white wine, parsley cluster f*ck - i mean symphony.  chilean sea snail is a bit like shoe leather - but tougher and not as tasty.  i swear that whenever i bit down on the snail, it laughed and said "is that all you got?"  (the snail was dead, but tough, in case that was vague.)

now, whenever i've seen shows like "fear factor" or "the amazing race" where contestants have to eat crazy food, i always thought to myself "chew chew. swallow. move on!"  but, when it was my turn, u could say, i ate at a snail's pace.  (yep, i went there.) not my favorite.  it was more like "chew chew. whimper. chew.  gather  thoughts. chew.  find a happy place. chew.  maybe no one will notice if i hide this in the balls of butter. chew. drink and swalllow. move on!"

the rest of the lunch was yumscrumliciousastygasmic.  salmon ceviche.  clams.  mussels.  octopus. squid.  brazilian bbq (roasted argentine beef.  roasted chicken.).  crab ravioli.  shrimp salad.  vino.  chilean pisco sour (not as sweet as the pervuian pisco sour.  further, i believe that the chilean version doesn't have egg white or bitters in it).

the beach was ok.  none of us were prepared to take a dip tho we did touch the water.  the water is from the arctic, so it's freezing.  great cliff views tho.

later that evening we hunted for a place to watch the pacquiao fight.

Santiago Creek


who doesn't love tree-lined streets?  (i guess the answer is: people who clean up the leaves.)

i love cities with clean, tree-lined streets, cafes, sunshine, good restaurants that are open late, bars around each corner, people jogging around town keeping fit.  yep, walnut creek is great.  if you're not familiar with walnut creek, it's a suburb of danville, where i went to high school.  so if u take the english spoken around "the creek" and replace it with spanish, add a couple of old churches and a town square and viola!  you get santiago chile.  i flew about 1000miles from home and ended up in walnut creek, about 35mi from home.  go figure.

i've been in santiago chile for a couple of days now.  i arrived two days ago, dead tired, but managed to get some sight-seeing done.  on my first day, i did the usual.  ya know, the regular stuff, which includes - but is not limited to - going to the tops of stuff and looking down AND standing in front of things and getting my picture taken (thanks Onion.com).

from the opening paragraph, you should discern that santiago is a modern city.  so "modern" is a loaded word that means "american" as opposed to "european."  so what's that mean?  european to me means really old, detailed, intricate workmanship on each building, with a common theme, look and feel, to the entire city (that's what it means to me).  think paris, montreal, or florence.  "american" is modern, clean lines, simpler, more functional ... walnut creek.

nonetheless, the city is beautiful.  the weather is like being in vacaville during the tolerable months, i mean "month."  jk.  ye, it's not very chilly in chile.  other thoughts: we're at 1700ft above sea level or thereabouts in santiago.  no annoying humidity.  sun sets at 8:30pm.  santiago is currently 4 time zones ahead of pacific standard time. (add 4 to your time to get my time here).

santiago is on the verge of summer!  it skipped the spring rains this year.  thank god for global warming, otherwise i'd be walking around w/ an umbrella.  i'm going to make multiple trips to the grocery store in an SUV when i get home - get eggs then come home, get milk then come home, get bread then come home - just to make sure the weather keeps up for the people of santiago.  it's the least i can do for such great weather.

on the first day, for lunch, we had argentine beef for 20$ USD (or should i say FRNs) for two 8oz filet mignons - for one person.  that's right. i ate 2 pieces of filet for 20USD.  soooooo good.  beef in argentina is grass fed, so there was a distinct taste difference to american beef.  i would describe the beef as tasting somewhere between american beef and lamb.  similar gaminess to lamb but redder in color like beef.  so probably more like sheep - but not as good in bed (so i hear).

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Pa pa pa poker face

sweet!  i just had a 50% return on investment.  dad and i played poker at the casino at the marriot hotel.  my initial investment was 80$. so i walked away with 120$.   :)  (sounds better when you say "50% return")

poker is so odd.  there i was staring my opponent down, i had a 25$ chip on the table and he was contemplating calling my Q6d bluff.  i completely missed the flop.  fold. fold fold, i was thinking.  my heart was beating in my throat - which reminded me of when i was in cuzco and i had altitude sickness.  oh the pain.  then i realized.  it's not 25$.  it's 25soles.  or 4$ and change.  eff it.  i don't care if he calls.  frick, i prolly lost (or gained) that much in the stock market today and i don't even know!

but somehow, for some reason, emotion trumps reason.  i care.  i don't care that it's 4$ or 25soles.  it's ego.  it's IQ points.  if he wins, he's either luckier than me or smarter than me.  or worse, he's both.  if he wins, everyone at the table, including dad, thinks he's better than me - at least for the moment.

he folds.

i try not to crack a smile.  i act as if i knew it all a long and methodically collect my chips.  "thanks a-hole!  better luck next time!" that's what the upturned corners of my mouth tell him.

The Silver Maiden

how do you solve a problem like maria, how do you catch a cloud and pin it down? ....how do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

so i started buying silver coins last year.  nothing fancy, just good silver bullion.  pretty good holder of wealth, that shiny metal is.  ask my nephew.

people were so fascinated with the idea and feel of a silver dollar that i began carrying around a silver dollar in my wallet.  constitutional money as a friend described it.

fastforward to today, i'm now part of elite group of superheroes who carry around a silver coin in their wallets.  our motto: wherever there is sobriety, we drown it.  (any member w/o his/her silver dollar buys a round of drinks.)  so i carry a silver coin in my wallet.

last july, when i was in canada, i bought a gold coin there as a souvenir.  after buying it, i thought that i should buy a gold coin whenever i went outside the states.  well, in peru, i thought about buying peruvian gold, but i didn't look very hard (canada mints the 1oz gold "maple leaf" and i wasn't sure that peru minted anything in gold, besides, i wasn't sure i wanted to buy another souvenir gold coin so soon).  so when i saw merchants selling silver coins along with their other merchandise, i thought that a silver coin would be a great substitute to gold.

on my last day at cusco, just outside of my hotel, i was waiting for my ride to the airport when a diminutive peruvian woman, dark skin, shaped like a diamond (rhombus for u nerds) - small on top, small on bottom and wide in the middle, equal on all sides - walked up to me and asked me if i wanted to buy some coins.  she showed me some uncirculated coins, but none of them were silver.  in her hand tho, was a roll of silver coins that she was also selling.  50 Soles per coin.  (2.87 soles to the dollar).  i tried to haggle her down, but she wouldn't budge.  i pulled out my silver coin and tapped my coin against one of hers to see if they made the same sound.  they did.  i offer her a trade.  my silver for your silver, but she won't take it unless i throw in 10soles and even with that offer, she says "well, i'm really trying to sell these coins."

now, i don't know the first thing about peruvian silver coins.  one usually likes to know how much silver one is buying before a purchase is made.  but i'm on vacation, so eff it.  i'm low on the local currency (soles) and that's all she'll take.  i tell her that i want to buy some, but i don't have cash.  meanwhile some other tourist starts asking her all these questions about the same coins we were discussing.  the other tourist spoke spanish, so she started talking with him, trying to close a sale.  i respect that.

i went off to go kill a hour.  i ended up getting cash out for my cab ride, and hopeully, to buy some silver coins.  oh, i also bought some sweet bracelets.  i shopped around for the same silver coins, but i didn't want to give my soles to a store, i wanted to give it to a street vendor, especially that old lady.

i go back to where i met her, outside my hotel, and i ran into a girl i met the other day touring around cusco.  she was waiting for her ride to the airport as well.  we kicked it outside of my hotel (her hotel was just around the corner and her pick up time was 1/2 hour after mine.).  i told her about the coins and the old lady.  she kept an eye out as we chatted as did i.  she also asked the local merchant if he knew who or where she was.  he was like "oh, that old bag? she's always around here, but never when you need her!"  always the case.

so about 1/2 after playin 'donde esta waldo' i get a tap on my right elbow, i turn around and i see the old lady!  out of nowhere, she found me!  through my friend/translator, i told the old lady that i was happy to buy 2 coins from her, and that i had been looking for her for the past 20minutes!  she was REALLY happy to hear that.  she was so embarrassed about the attention - you could tell by the way she laughed, slumped against the wall and covered her face as she laughed - cuz as soon as i saw her, i turned to my friend and said "this is the woman i was talking about!"  my friend - irina - ran into the store to tell the clerk that the coin lady appeared - out of nowhere!  that REALLY embarrassed the old lady.

long story short, the old lady sold me the two silver coins, and i thought we were done.  then she asked me if i still wanted to trade my silver coin for hers - w/o me adding 10soles.  i said SURE!.  to top it off, she gave me another silver coin.  she said that the coin i gave her was good luck and said the same about the coin she gave me.  that maria, what a character.

Huh? Say What? Como?

is the bathroom worried? can i have six books of carne asada?

what do you get when you mix 5 years of spanish in high school with 10 years of neglecting the spanish you learned? answer: you get spanish that translates into the english above.

how can that be?

the difference between "pounds" and "books" in spanish is one letter. pounds = libras. books = libros. you can imagine the confused look the dude at the carniceria had when i asked for six books (librOs) of carne asada instead of six pounds (librAs) of carne asada.

similarly, the difference between worried and occupied is preocupado vs ocupado. so when i wanted to know if the bathroom was busy, i really asked if it was worried. i luckily, i recovered and saved a little face: is the bathroom worried? it should be, because I JUST HAD MEXICAN FOOD!!!

neither of these incidents happend in peru. so what's that got to do with peru?

well, last night, at the pervian version of mcdonald's, called "bembo's" (loved it. the food alone is worth the eight-hour flight from LA), i ordered a hamburger and a carne asada taco. the burger was great. the taco, on the other hand looked like this:

Machu Pichu

i love the way the people here pronouce ´machu pichu.´ it´s like ¨machu peeeeeeeeechu.¨ cracks me up everytime. i wonder if they crack up everytime they hear me say machu pichu.

the ruins in machu peeeechu are probably the most interesting ruins i´ve seen. it´s so frickin amazing some might say it´s a-mazing, but i protest. i wouldn´t say it´s merely a-mazing, it´s THE-mazing. that´s right. prolly the most interesting in the world (that i´ve seen).

what makes it so cool is the surrounding areas and the astrological aspect. but first, the area. on any side of the ruins are verticle cliffs. this creates for dramatic views. also, it seems like ur in the middle of a volcanic crater cuz past the cliffs are taller mountains. so you look down for great views and you look up for great views. spectacular. it´s like a miniature golf hole. on the astrological side, the incas had so many architectural features that would tell them when the equinoxes and solstices were. some rocks would cast long shadows at dawn on the summer solstice. some windows would let light in at dawn and the light would be reflected in a pool of water. sweet. i use a casio watch and i swear i can´t tell the time on it. its digital too.

i wish that i could have booked my trip a little differently. i would have spent more time in machu peeeeeechu and less time in cusco (which could be spelled like cusqo, and used to be caled cosco). there´s this other place to climb to that i didn´t get to go called wina pichu. i don´t know how to spell it. but it´s way cool looking and it sits above machu pichu.

i bought some sweet bracelets. there was this rasta lookin dude weaving all this crazy crap so i bought like five of them. they´re pretty sweet. i don´t think they look like that in the states. i keep buying crap. i´m comin home with crap. fun crap but still crap.

ate some alpĂ ca the other day. tasted like beef, just cuter.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Cusco

I´m addicted to cocain.

well actually, coca tea. i´ve had a real bad time with the altitude up here. i´m at 11,000ft. air is pretty thin. yesterday 10-nov-09, i had to call it quits before i saw the last two things on my itenerary. my head was pounding so bad. i was really missing sea level. coca tea is supposed to help with the altitude, so i drink it regularly. when i´m drinking coca tea, the pain decreases. without the tea, the pain is almost unbareable. however, i´ve created a multivariate problem. i can´t tell whether it´s the altitude, the tea itself, tea withdrawal, or the 3 beers i had on my first night here that were making me feel so bad for the next two days. oh, i also started chewing on coca leaves. the pain was so bad, i considered cancelling my tour for today and save myself for machu pichu.

luckily, i didn´t.

one of the couples on today´s tour (who happen to be grape growers in napa) gave me a diomox (sp?) pill for altitude illness. a half hour after taking the pill, most of my symptoms were gone! the rest of the day, i felt like a million bucks!

today, we went around the sacred valley. sacred to the incas cuz this weird corn with HUGE kernals only grows there. the kernals are like the size of a thimble.

fast forward to tonight. i sat with a dutch couple for dinner. we were at a bembos (peruvian macdonalds) and this peruvian family sat down next to us. this 13yo girl starts speaking to us in her broken english at the urging of her father. she´s learning english and her father thought it would be good for her to speak to us. long story short, the father is a sportscaster for futbol (soccer to us yankees). he offered us free tickets to watch the game on sunday! i´m supposed to be in santiago, chile that day. i´m going to try to find a flight from santiago to cusco and back for sunday. oh, the game is Lima vs Cusco. can you imagine? that´s THE game for cusco (maybe even for Lima). can you imagine going to a soccer game in s.america? craziness!

itenerary
11-nov: machu pichu, sleep in cusco
12-nov: leave cusco, sleep in lima
13-nov: leave lima, sleep in santiago
14-nov: santiago
15-nov: santiago (and then cusco?)

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Day 1 - Peru

Hey No One -

What a long day I had. After hanging with friends in Vacaville and staying up until 1pm on a school night, I had to leave home at 4am to catch a flight to LA to then fly to Lima Peru. Good times with the friends. Although I suffered on my 8 uncomfortable hours on the plane slightly hungover, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I set my alarm for 4am and luckily for me I accidentally fell asleep next to my phone. Had I slept in my bed an left my phone in the other room, I would be blogging about how I missed my flight. Lesson learned (I hope).

We arrived in Peru at around midnight. I was utterly exhausted. Midnight local time is 9pm Pacific. So if you're counting, that's 4am to 9pm after sleeping at 1am. Yep. Exhausted. The plane ride was so horrible. Nothing wrong with the service or turbulence, it's just that 8-hr in a plane SUX!!!

LIMA First impressions:

Dad and I walked around the Lima this morning. There are a lot of security guards everywhere - private security guards, not govt employees. The people look like Incas. Slanted eyes, reddish brown skin, straight long noses and jet black hair. Strangely enuf there are also really pale people with jet black hair. They're probably of Spanish descent. Last night when we arrived, we went to a fast food joint called Bembo's. Tho the service was slow, the burgers were made with Argentine beef. Tasty! So the taste was like a more flavorful beef. Don't know if it was spices or just the beef. I'll have to have a steak and find out.

Travelling w/ my dad is great. Growing up I spoke English, Tagalog and Kapampangan. Dad and I are speaking English and Kapampangan - which I love cuz I don't speak much Kapampangan anymore. Here are my lessons for the day:
Ela mikasundu. (That was in reference to the Peruvians and Chileans. Didn't know that it was just 2 words!.) I'm usually close with my K-pow, but rarely perfect.

This afternoon we going on a tour of some ruin, but I'm really excited to see the coast. Strange that I'm excited to see the Pacific Ocean - an ocean I've taken for granted my entire life.

So glad I have my power chord for my netbook. I thought I left it at home.

Tested out the Digi-cam today to, so if I get motivated enuf, I'll post some pictures.

-Edwin

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Thursday, June 11, 2009

HR1207 - Chart




I love charts. I'm going to try to see how many different ways I can show this important data.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Does Rep. George Miller Really Support HR1207?

It's 5/1/09... George Miller is still NOT a co-sponsor!