Back in 2002, I wandered through San Francisco on my famed California Hype Deflation Tour. That trip was really a reaction to Jingmei’s leaving and more a soul cleansing than a true adventure. This time I went for work, fun in its own right, but made sweeter with someone else’s per diem money.
This time I also stayed right downtown at the Cartwright Hotel, just off Union Square, which meant my morning runs, up Telegraph and Knob hill were real thigh burning fun. DC might have the Exorcist Stairs, but that ain’t nuttin compared to the 300+ stairs leading up to Telegraph Hill alone!
Read MoreI’m in awe of the Niketown on Union Square. It’s so big, flashy, and new. It also has some rather striking male mannequins. Mannequins I’m not sure if I should applaud or decry.
First, I noticed they had white mannequins in the men’s soccer section and black mannequins in the men’s basketball section. Thinking this a little too stereotyping, I mentioned it to a Niketown staffer. She told me to take a closer look. So check out the photo to the left very carefully. Click on it for the larger Flickr version even.
Read MoreI am wandering San Francisco on a Jim’s Restaurant Sunday and in need of transportation to the Express for Men in the Stonestown Mall. How can I get there from downtown San Francisco? The MUNI of course!
Ah, but wait, to get on the MUNI you have to buy a single use ticket – $150 – in exact change. Okay, no problem, I’ll just make change… where? The MUNI transit officer tells me to use the BART ticket kiosk to make change. One useless BART ticket later I realize there is a little button on the side that gives change for MUNI.
Read MoreIt’s Monday night, and while you might think it’s a sleepy night, in Washington DC that can mean only one thing: Wonderland’s Monday Night Trivia Fight.
Like a live game of Trivial Pursuit, where teams compete for free drinks instead of pie pieces, Monday Night Trivia Fight is all about knowing fun, interesting, and usually very obscure facts that the host dug up before the game.
Read MoreTo the untrained American ear, one used to the Southern “Wayne”, my name, the Balinese “Wayan” sounds just different enough that the listener wonders if they misheard me. If my name was “Wayne” and I’m mispronouncing it, or as a quickly-ex friend once told another “His name is ‘Wayne’, but he puts on airs.”
On the Indonesian island of Bali, where there are a few more Wayan’s, Wayan is pronounced “why-YAN”, with the stress on the second syllable. Since stressing the second syllable is impossible for Americans, I’ve always told people my name sounds like “WAY-in” just to make it easy for them.
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