12 Things I learned on vacation

Since Deanne is doing a day by day account of our recent trip, I thought I'd keep my commentaries a little more soundbite-ish. So, without further ado, I present:12 Things I Learned on Vacation - by Alex Hunter 1. In both Spain and Morocco, traffic lights are merely a suggestion to stop, not a rule. 2. The Lonely Planet books, while a valuable resource, should not be taken as gospel. 3. The literal translation for "You're welcome" in Spanish (at least when said to Americans) is "whatever, douchebag". 4. Just because you buy a ticket on one ferry line doesn't mean you'll be travelling on that ferry line. 5. When God was handing out beautiful women to the European countries, Spain was first in line. 6. When God was handing out attitude problems to European countries, Spain was first in line. 7. No matter how far you travel, you'll always meet people from Pleasanton. 8. Unlike larger airplanes, the emergency exit row is NOT recommended on an A320. (Despite what the check-in agent says. Asshole.) 9. There really are sterotypical retired Jewish ladies from New York who go to Florida every year on their vacation.......I met one. 10. The only thing more amusing than a group of retired travelling Americans is a group of retired travelling Canadians. 11. Al-Jazeera isn't nearly as exciting as the American media makes it out to be. 12. Seeing "Full House" dubbed in German is a genuinely disturbing experience. "Joey, h

Around the world in 66 hours

globalflyer.jpgThe Virgin Global Flyer is well on its way as of this morning. If you haven't heard about this endeavor, Steve Fossett, a Burt Rutan plane and Richard Branson's wallet are attempting to complete the first non-stop solo round the world flight.Fossett is known for his adventuring, having already broken several aviation records including the first solo balloon trip around the world. Burt Rutan is obviously famous for his pioneering aircraft design. And Richard Branson is famous for, well, being Richard Branson. Anyway, the unusual looking Virgin Global Flyer left Salina, Kansas yesterday and as of this writing, is at 45,000ft over Algeria. The flight is scheduled to take 66 hours at a crusing speed of about 300 knots. So Steve Fossett essentially has to stay awake for almost three days. He's going to subsist on Diet Milkshakes. You can follow the progress of the GlobalFlyer at http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/MissionControl/Tracking/ - they've got some neat interactive tools and live video. This could well be one of the last classic aviation records to be broken.

I should probably start today

Inspired by Tricia and Heidi's posts, I thought it was about time for me to publish my list of things I intend to do before I'm 30. Less than 5 years to go, so I better start cracking. There's some things I've left off the list for various reasons, but feel free to guess what they are in the comments.

  • visit all seven continents       - Africa: DONE (South Africa, and Morocco next month)       - Antarctica: Not yet       - Asia: DONE (Hong Kong, etc)       - Europe: DONE (England, etc)       - North America: DONE (duh)       - Oceania: DONE (New Zealand, though I won't properly count Oceania until I've been to Australia)       - South America: Not yet

  • have visited a total of 50 countries in my life       - only about 20 so far, I've got a long way to go

  • have a book published       - I'm working on that one at the moment

  • own at least three pieces of property       - Might be able to achieve this by the end of the year

  • have my pilot's license, instrument rating and mult-engine ratings       - This one is a priority, I want to get the first two done this year.

  • own a plane       - Considering some Cessna's are cheaper than a Honda Civic, this might not be too far fetched.

  • live overseas again       - DONE

  • run my own business       - I'm working on that one at the moment

  • hang glide       - There's a place in Gilroy that I want to check out

  • take the trans siberian railway (i've been putting that off for way too long)       - This one might take a while

  • be written about in Wired       - This one might be quite hard

  • drive across America       - All I need to do this is time

  • learn either Japanese, Cantonese or Mandarin       - These are the languages of the 21st century

  • teach a class       - DONE!

  • go to the World Cup       - Germany 2006, gotta happen

  • run a marathon       - Once I complete this, I know I'll be as fit as I can be

  • own a convertible that was made before 1970       - Owning this will force me to learn more about cars

  • be able to fix said convertible       - See above

  • watch a Shuttle launch       - I think this will become more and more rare

  • learn to play the guitar or piano       - I've wanted to do this for a long time

  • climb one of the top 10 tallest mountains in the world       - I need to get fit first

  • break the speed of sound       - intentionally

  • fly in a private jet       - considering all the people I know in aviation, this can't be that hard

    • "I don't think you'll be making it to Marrakesh"

    Animation3.gif We've finally solidified our travel plans. Sort of. We know what countries we're going to. That's pretty good for us. Unlike most people (and very out of character for me) Deanne and I don't mind having a loose schedule when it comes to travelling. As long as I know flight details, the rest can be as flexible and unstructured as it wants to be. Obviously we do our research beforehand and compile a list of places, things, etc that we want to see and do, but we don't really mind WHEN we do it. I think if you have a rigorous timetable set up, where every day and hour is planned for, you defeat the purpose of a vacation. My father has a policy of absolutely not wearing his watch when he's on vacation, "I eat when I'm hungry and sleep when I'm tired," he says.So where are we going? Well our long terms plans for Hong Kong were scuppered by outrageous hotel costs in Hong Kong (almost US$200 a night) so we had to look elsewhere. The only stipulation we had was that we couldn't go somewhere either of us had been before. Initially we thought the Carribean might be a good spot, but Deanne's not one for lounging around on the beach as much as I am. So we nixed that idea. We looked at Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, and Turkey but couldn't settle on any of them. Just as we were beginning to get frustrated, Deanne suggested Spain. Neither of us had been there, the weather should be good, sounded like a plan. Initially, we were only going to head to Spain but we happened to be watching Michael Palin's excellent series "Sahara" when we saw him take the ferry from Spain to Morocco. How cool, taking a ferry between continents. The seed had been planted. Our plans quickly changed in favor of more time in Morocco, less time in Spain. We leave San Francisco on March 16th and arrive in London the next day where we jump on another plane to Malaga in southern Spain. We spend the night in Malaga and then go wherever the wind takes us. We have a tentative plan to head north to Seville (Sevilla) and then to Gibraltar. To get into Gibraltar you have to walk across the main runway of the airport. Then from Gibraltar, it's onto Tangier and Morocco. We haven't decided where in Morocco to go but I'm told that Marrakesh must not be missed. I'm really looking forward to it as, to my great shame, it will be the first new country I've been to in almost eight years. Ugh, and I call myself a world traveller. I'm hoping 2005 will be a year of travel. We're already thinking about where to go in Aug/Sept, our next travel window. It looks like it will either be Japan or Australia. But that's another post altogether... Anyway, I'm told that Morocco is surprisingly wired so expect one or two blog posts while we're there. Of course I'll be taking more than enough photos as well.

    Who knew Spring Cleaning would be so rewarding?

    mikef4.jpgIt would appear that spring cleaning has benefits other than filling the garage with even more useless crap. While Deanne was at work this weekend, I was tasked with cleaning out the office closet, which has gathered random bits of electronic equipment ever since we moved into the house in 2002. After a few hours of or zip-tying cables, sorting random PC peripherals, and cleaning up cat piss, I was beginning to feel quite pleased with my progress. I deserved a break. I decided to go through the stack of CDs that I had uncovered in one of the darkest corners of the closet. Using my PC and laptop I began examining the contents of each CD. Most of it was useless crap; random drivers, audio CDs, and coasters. But then I stumbled across the mother lode. The missing photos from the legendary 2000 road trip that Mike, Deanne, Quinn and I took. I had been looking for these photos for four years. I had initially thought they had been destroyed when my hard drive failed back in 2001. But no, here they were on a CD-R. But alas, my joy was short lived as I tried to access the files. They had been corrupted. So close, yet so far. But I was determined not to be beaten. I scoured the internet for data recovery tools, and three hours later I was browsing through the 210 photos from our roadtrip. Take that, data corruption! Also on the CD were photos from our time in San Ramon, a trip to Monterey Deanne and I had taken, more photos from my College football days, and some photos I had taken at SFO. Quite a trip down memory lane. I immediately uploaded most of them to my website, so I wouldn't lose them again. The gallery now has over 2700 photos and I haven't even uploaded some photos I found from my buddy Jack's birthday party back in Canterbury. I'm also looking for the best solution to digitize a bunch of hard copy photos I have. If anyone has any solutions for scanning about 300 photos quickly and cheaply, let me know. So anyway, enjoy the photos, a quick glimpse into my past! P.s. The two photos at the top of the post are (l) Mike at Mojave in 2000 and (r) Mike at Mojave in 2005.

    SoCal Sojourn

    As you may have noticed from some of my previous posts, when I have some time off, I'm usually pretty good about cramming as much as possible into the time I have available. The last few days were no exception.The original itinerary called for me to travel down to LA, meet my Dad, go to Mojave and then on to Bakersfield for a Moody Blues concert. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond his control, my Dad was unable to make the trip out to the West Coast. So, some swift schedule changes were required. I called Mike and asked him if he would be interested in a front row ticket to the Moody Blues concert. He gladly accepted after I explained the situation to him. I tossed in a trip to Mojave and he was sold. drive.jpgBut of course, it wasn't that simple. See Mike had been told by his employers that he needed to go to London soon...they just didn't know when. Almost the same hour that I mentioned the concert, they told him it looked like he would be leaving on Tuesday.....the day of the concert. Oh Murphy, your law is deserving of its reputation. But at the last minute, a reprieve! Mike's trip was delayed until further notice (more on that later.) So with that part of the trip solidifed, I prepared for my journey south. I left on Sunday, around noon, and pointed my golden stallion south. Five uneventful and dull hours later, I was in Buena Park at the Radisson, my home for the next two nights. The hotel was right next to Knott's Berry Farm, and I could hear the rollercoasters. Coincidentally, it was right down the street from Medieval Times, where Deanne, Mike, Quinn and I had spent an evening almost 5 years ago on our roadtrip. I had a great steak dinner at the hotel restaurant and hit the hay. I spent Monday morning visiting with Tricia and then went on to my favorite destination in LA: the In 'n' Out Burger at LAX. plane.jpg I'm sure many of you have seen the photos I've taken there before, but everytime I'm anywhere near LA, I make it a point to visit. I find it very relaxing, and believe me, I need to relax after battling the 405 to get there and then back to my hotel. While I was there I was emailing back and forth with Mike to establish a meeting point for tomorrow. I mentioned that I was at the end of the runway, and he replied with "Dick." I think he was jealous. Tricia stopped by that evening and we had a drink in the hotel bar. The next morning I woke early, checked out, and hit the road. I had to meet Mike at the I5-Hwy58 junction at noon, and I had no idea what traffic would be like. Well it sucked. Forunately, I gave myself way more time than I actually needed (as always) and my trip over the Grapevine was uneventful. We met at the Starbucks, with Mike arriving exactly at noon. We made a quick stop at Starbucks before beginning the next leg of the journey. Destination: Mojave Our route took us through the lovely and picturesque town of Bakersfield. If your sarcasm detector is off, let me calibrate it for you: Bakersfield is a f**king shithole. More on that later. We drove along 58 which parallels several major rail junctions. Mike, of course, was in his element, giving me detailed explanations of how they configure the engines and cars for maximum efficiency. It was cool mainly to the fact that around each corner we were given a practical demonstration of what he was talking about. We arrived in Mojave around an hour later and made our way straight to the Voyager Restaurant. As I've mentioned before, the restaurant overlooks the flightline at Mojave and each table has an ATC radio reciever.mojave.jpg I think it was at this point Mike fell under Mojave's spell and he said "Dude, if I had a plane, I'd be flying down here every weekend for lunch." So would I, Mike, so would I. We had a quick lunch before heading out to the ramp to take a look at a Southwest 737 that was slowly being dismantled. We decided it would be neat to take the tour that the airport operates so we headed to the administration office where we were told that we would have to wait forty minutes. So we began walking around the field to kill time. We stumbled across what we think was a DC-10 engine up on a FedEx palette. Strange. We drove around a bit before heading back to the office. The tour is done by fuelers and we were greeted by an 18 year veteran of the Mojave Airport. The three of us piled into a van and headed out to the field. We weren't entirely sure if we would be allowed to take photos or not, but it soon became clear that it would be ok. We went out along the ramp and right into the storage areas. Incredible. It was fascinating to be so close to all these aircraft that I have only previously seen from afar. We also had the chance to go by the far storage area which I have never been anywhere near. Corrosion Corner, as it's known, contains aircraft that have been in storage for more than 30 years. The tour lasted about 30 minuted and was absolutely rivetting. We took over 100 photos between us. After buying some schwag, we headed over to the northwest side of the field where you can get close to some of the other stored a/c. We messed around on the traintracks for a bit, with Mike taking some neat shots down by placing the camera on the rail. After gassing up, we hit the road, back towards Bakersfield. Moody Blues We made the hour long drive back to Bakersfield, during which Mike took one of his patented power naps. Now as I mentioned before, Bakersfield is the biggest dump. The concert was due to be held at the Fox Theater in downtown Bakersfield. The city itself seems to be stuck in 1972; it's dingy and unpleasant. We managed to find a parking spot and went off in search of dinner. moodyblues.jpgHA! Yeah, right, try finding anywhere to eat in downtown Bakersfield that's not a shitty bar. We eventually found a disgusting little chinese restaurant that we agreed upon with great reluctance. Once we sat down, Mike suddenly realized they might not take credit cards. We asked the owner, and they didn't! Oh hallelujah, our get out of jail free card. We bolted "in search of an ATM" and agreed never to set foot inside that mysteriously sticky restaurant again. In our search for an ATM we happened to spot a restaurant called Gumbeaux's - we took a look at the specials board outside and it looked promising. But with our previous experience, we were cautious. We poked our head inside and were greeted by the music of the Moody Blues and a chick with blue hair, neither of which I've ever seen in a restaurant. We enjoyed a nice dinner at this New Orleans style restaurant, and the blue haired waitress explained that whenever there's a concert in town, they always play a CD or DVD of the featured band. Nice touch. As the night went on, the place begin to fill with middle-aged concertgoers. It became clear we were all in Bakersfield for one reason...and it wasn't for the scenery. Mike and I went back to the car briefly to check in with wives and drop off cameras, cellphones, PDAs and the like. We got in line outside the theater about 10 minutes before the doors opened. The theater itself was gorgeous. There's been a massive restoration program in place for the last several years and it certainly shows. The interior of the theater was spacious and impressive. One might even say "grand." As we took our seats, my first impression was "Holy Crap we're close to the stage."moodiesonstage.jpg Front row seats will do that to you. We settled in and waited for the show to begin. Now we assumed that photography and the like would not be allowed and would result in ejection from the concert. But there seemed to be an awful lot of people with cameras sitting around us. Actually, the people sitting around us put my Moody Blues fandom to shame. These people were HARDCORE. Most of them were going to every single show on the tour. One lady even offered us $50 each to switch seats with us so she could have the aisle. I said she had to add an extra zero before I would move anywhere. The band came out a little after 8pm and the first half was fantastic. It was weird to be so close. Yes, weird. You see all the little nuances and subtleties that you don't notice in normal seats. Like how John Lodge sweats profusely and is getting fat. Or how Justin Hayward completely spaces out (or concentrates intensely) when he's not singing. He also makes faces when he sings, but I noticed that from some of the DVDs I've seen. Their new flautist continues to be a dynamic presence, she really kicks the show up a notch. A kilt-wearing fan was handing out blue glowsticks to everyone for "The Other Side of Life" which always goes down well. It's been said recently that the first half of Moody Blues concerts can sometimes be a little flat. This concert was no exception. The songs were great and the performances were great, but the bandmembers didn't seem to really get into it. I was prepared for that though, so it didn't really faze me. At the interval Mike and I were determined to join all the people who were blatantly taking photos. I ran to my car and got Mike's camera, PDA and cellphone. He calibrated all three during the intermission and when the band came back on for the second set, we were ready to go. The second half was fantastic, much more energetic, much more lively and the guys were clearly enjoying it. You can't beat hearing "Story in Your Eyes" or "Higher and Higher" live - the latter is even better as Graeme Edge goes completely berserk during the chorus. As the concert drew to a close, the legions of hardcore fans surged towards the stage for "Question." It was really neat to hear the entire place singing along. They came back on for the encore which, without fail, is "Ride My Seesaw." We gathered up our schwag and headed for the door with the sea of inebriated middle-aged fans. Mike had managed to capture some fantastic photos AND video clips on his array of devices. Back in the car, we made the short trip back to the I5-Hwy58 junction where Mike had left his truck. Of course the Starbucks was closed, so it was gas station coffee that was to be our company on our respective rides home. We said our farewells and Mike headed North, I headed South, to my hotel room at LAX. Two and a half exhausting hours later I arrived at LAX. Caltrans had decided to shut the ENTIRE freeway down at Santa Clarita, so we all had to get off the freeway and take a detour through downtown Santa Clarita. lax.jpg I arrived at my hotel absolutely exhausted and asked for a room overlooking the airport. I went up to my room, opened the curtains, went "whatever" and then fell asleep. My room DID look over the airport, but the windows were so filthy that it wasn't really worth it. I had breakfast the next morning at the hotel restaurant, which was swarming with flight deck and cabin crew from various airlines. Of course I couldn't possibly be this close to LAX and not spend an hour or two at the In 'n' Out which was less than a mile down the streeet. So I checked out of my room, piled into my car and made my last call at the end of the runway. After an hour or two I decided to hit the road for my the final jaunt over the grapevine on this trip. After five dull, uninteresting hours, I arrived home, very glad to see Deanne and the cats. I like Southern California a lot....but next time, I'm going to fly. Oh and Mike's trip to England? The day after he got back, he received a call from a co-worker at about 11pm at night saying they were leaving for England the following day. He's there right now. Photos can be found here

    Good Eatin'

    With our ongoing movie mission well underway I thought it might be a good idea to start compiling another list. This new list is collection of Bay Area restaurants that I want to try. Deanne and I have not fully taken advantage of the fantastic and diverse eateries that the Bay Area has to offer. We obviously have our favorites (Sansar) and there are a couple in the city that we enjoy going to, but I thought it was time to broaden our horizons and try some new places.To be honest, I'm surprised that we haven't already. We both love trying new food and there's almost nothing we won't eat at least once. I guess it's a question of time; trekking out to the city, especially on a weekday evening, can wear on the patience quite quickly. So I figure with the compilation of this list, it will give us some motivation to explore San Francisco (and the greater Bay Area)'s culinary delights. So without further ado, here's the list of restaurants I want to try: (note: all of these places come with a personal recommendation from various peeps, even more reason to try them out.) LaFondue - recommended by Dan Sandler as his default "special occassion spot." As the name suggests, it's a fondue restaurant. Aqua - generally considered one of the best restaurants in San Francisco, as the name suggests it's primarily a seafood restaurant. French Laundry - one of the most famous restaurants in the Bay Area (it's actually in Yountville), it's classified as "New American-French" food and it's reputation is second to none. Betlenut - this place was named as one of the top new restaurants in SF when it opened in 1995, it's contemporary southeast Asian food. I think this one is top of my list. Blowfish - a sushi restaurant with a twist. When you come in, there's Japanese techno music playing and anime playing on a large screen behind the sushi chefs. Sweet. Andalu - I haven't had tapas since I was in Hong Kong and when I heard about this place it suddenly made me crave the delicious Spanish dishes. King of Thai Noodle House - apparently when Thai people come to San Francisco, this is the place they go to get real Thai homecooking. Can't beat that endorsement. Stacks - the legendary Bay Area breakfast eatery uses some fairly hi-tech ordering tools; wireless PDAs transmit your order to the kitchen. Gotta check that out. Buck's - this place is famous for the venture capital negotiations that go on at it's humble tables. The owner has had to sign an incredible amount of NDAs. Jupiter - apparently this Berkeley brewhouse is a fun place to hang out, and their pizza is incredible too. Cityscape - I just want to go here for the view. It's on top of the Hilton San Francisco and the walls are 14ft windows in almost every direction, offering an incredible view of the city. That's it for now. Should keep us busy for the next few months. If you know of any great, preferrably unusual restaurants in the Bay Area, leave me a comment and tell me about it.

    Mr. and Mrs. Moviefone

    Deanne and I have have embarked on a movie crusade of sorts. We've gone through the IMDB Top 250 Movies (as voted by IMDB users), and crossed off all the ones we've seen. I'd say altogether we've seen about a third of them.So last month we started renting Top 250 movies that neither of us had seen before. No point in only one of us crossing it off our list, we'll do those ones after we've watched all the movies that neither of us have seen. So far we've watched some really fantastic movies, many of which we probably wouldn't have chosen to watch had it not been for this little project. In the last few weeks we've watched: - Dr. Strangelove (Brilliant, Peter Sellers is fantastic.) - Fargo (Really enjoyable, easy to see why Frances McDormand won an oscar for it.) - Fight Club (Good story, typical David Fincher movie) - Princess Mononoke (Stunning, easy to see why this was the highest grossing movie of all time in Japan for a very long time.) - Garden State (Funny, well written and well acted.) We have Requiem for a Dream and Twelve Monkeys lined up for the next two days. I'm looking forward to discovering more movies that I might not have watched otherwise. About 20% of the list is made up of foreign films, a genre I have sorely neglected recently. It's hard to keep up with all the great movies that come out, I think this is a good way of at least trying.

    English: the bastard child of world languages

    Here's another linguistic anomaly:Ambient and Ambiance. We had a discussion at the Mindles the other day about this one. I happened to say that candle light created a certain ambiance - I pronounced it ambience.gif (AM-be-ence). I was savaged for pronouncing it incorrectly, with my wife saying "What, have you become American now?!" I was informed that the correct pronunciation was ambience2.gif (AHM-be-ahnce). I was aware of this but I defended my pronunciation by saying that the word is derived from "ambient", which is pronounced ambient.gif (am-BE-ent) and therefore ambience.gif (AM-be-ence) should be a correct pronunciation. It was suggested that "ambient" could be pronounced ambience3.gif (ahm-be-AHNT). I hadn't heard it pronounced this way before. Of course, I then countered myself by saying well they both derive from the French "ambiant", so why shouldn't they both be pronounced with that "ah" sound, instead of the flat "a"? Well being the linguistic dork that I am, I had to research it. The results are actually rather interesting. Ambiance: There are two correct pronunciations for this word. ambience.gif (AM-be-ence) and ambience2.gif (AHM-be-ahnce) are both accepted pronunciations according to Collins and the American Heritage Dictionary. Here's why. There are two acceptable spellings! It can either be Ambience or Ambiance - who knew?! Ambient: There is only one correct pronunciation of this word - ambient.gif (am-BE-ent), again according to both Collins and the American Heritage Dictionary. But why? Because they have two different roots. I assumed that both words came from the French "ambiant" which means "surrounding" - I was wrong. Only "ambiance" comes from the French "ambiant", hence it's French pronunciation. "Ambient" comes from the LATIN "ambient" which is the present participle of "ambre" which means "to surround, as well as "ambi" which means "to go." Of course they both ORIGINALLY came from the Latin, so you might think that "ambient" is just the adjective of "ambience". That is how it was formed in the nineteenth century, but the two words have diverged enough that their associations and pronunciations are different. So with a little research, I managed to confuse myself even more, by dismissing my previously held notion that if two words have the same root, they must be pronounced the same. Not so. Wait........they DON'T have the same root, that's what I just spent the last hour researching. As Mike so aptly pointed out, "Language doesn't make any sense."

    Instant Karma

    I heard about this story on the radio this morning. A woman and her husband have dedicated their lives to caring for abandoned babies. She pioneered the California safe-haven law that allows mothers to give up their babies without fear of prosecution. 46 states now have similar laws. She even set up a cemetery to give abandoned babies a proper burial should they die after beging abandoned. And all of this on a modest teacher's salary.Well last month, things changed. Her and her husband won the lottery. $27million. They get $9million after taxes and they plan to set up a scholarship for each of the babies that are buried in the cemetery. Two scholarships per baby at $100,000 per year. They're giving away almost all of their winnings. This just blew my mind. I used to think that the old adage "nice guys finish last" was becoming truer and truer, but this gives me hope that good things do in fact happen to good people. I know we all say that if we won big on the lottery we'd give a lot to charity. I have one thing to say to that. Bullshit. You wouldn't give a dime. It's very easy to say that when you piss away $5 on the lottery each week without seeing a dime, but would you say the same thing when you have an oversized check for $27 million staring you in the face? Hell no. No. No. No. If you say you would, you're lying. These people are unique. They are the exception to the rule, and it couldn't have come at a more appropriate time of year. As we're being bombarded with commercialism at its lowest, it takes something like this to slap us up side the head and remind us that it's not always about the bling-bling. Take a moment to consider that.

    Landon is Officially Gone

    http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20041123&content_id=19573&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
    "Landon Donovan has played his last Major League Soccer game, at least for a few years. The San Jose Earthquakes star and U.S. national team captain said Tuesday he will be going to Germany to join Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen when the co-sharing deal between MLS and the German club expires on January 1, 2005. Leverkusen exercised its option to recall Donovan this summer, and now Donovan has decided to return to Leverkusen, fulfilling his obligation to the club that originally signed him as a 16-year-old in 1999." Not unexpected, but still difficult to take. It's good for him, it's good for the MLS and it's good for the National Team. The Earthquakes get an allocation but it's unlikely whoever we pick up will have the same impact that he did.

    Christmas Wishlist

    It's that time of year again, and people are already starting to ask me what I want for Christmas. I think I frustrated people the first few Christmases I was back in the US, because I didn't tell people what I wanted and I didn't maintain a wishlist. So after much haranguing and cajoling, I put together a list last year.So I repeat the tradition this year and I present to you, my 2004 Christmas Wishlist Now that you have my list, I demand to see yours. Anyone and everyone, if you have an online wishlist, post the link in the comments!

    Add another two to the pile

    Two more of my photos were accepted to Airliners.net, thus dashing my original theory that Jesus himself had to be flying the plane for them to accept the photo.So I'm up to 4 photos now. I think I've submitted 30. That still keeps me above their average acceptance rate. Anway, here are the ones that were accepted. Funnily enough, after they'd accepted the photo they tried to add the photo three times but it kept rejecting it. Damn database software thinks it's better than me.