Prices you're willing to pay for things living abroad

Realizing that I have not written in such a long time has motivated me to make another blog entry.  Hopefully I'm not blogging in a vacuum and someone out there is reading this!

Recently, I've been thinking about living overseas, and the kinds of crazy things that you tend to pay for just because you can't get them normally.

Living abroad for over two years, I've found that most of the things that I've wanted (maybe 90% of them) are available at some point, somewhere, either at a Brick and Mortar, or at an online seller.

The other 10%, I just bring with me when I go back home, and carry two suitcases.  The funny thing is, many of the things that I purchase are made overseas where I live, just not available here.

Socks, Towels, Windshield Wipers for the car, Bed sheets, shower curtains, are some of the things that I bring back with me!

Living in a smaller city doesn't help, but figuring out how to use the online auction/buying sure as heck does.

So lets look at the things that I DON'T buy local brands for and pay a lot more for....

The things in italics are actually imported Everything else is available locally but is still considered a foreign brand.

Toilet Paper (Kleenex Brand) - Korea
Tide Detergent
Shaving Cream
Cereal - Korea
Dog Food - Korea
Kraft Mac and Cheese - USA
Juices - USA/etc
Peanut Butter - USA

You really don't realize how much you love and miss that comfort of that Kraft Dinner Mac and Cheese till you click "Buy it now" online and pay 7 dollars American for that box of pasta and powdered cheese product....

What are some of the things that you can't find where you live, and do you still have to go get them from 'back home'?

More Child care funnies

In honor of my Friends J and L who have a new bundle of Joy, I give to you the baby care pics I never posted....These are tips for J, who is a first time dad...

NW Houston Engrish

So I met my good friend C for lunch today. We used to work together and enjoy the same type of food, particularly Asian stuff.

So I called her today and she wanted to go to this new Vietnamese place. "All they serve is noodles" she tells me.

Boy she wasnt kidding. Nothing but soup and noodles. No rice, no egg rolls. Soup. Thats all.

I had to laugh when we got there. More Engrish.



Not "Noodles", just one. "Pho Danh, house of noodle"

The soup was indeed good. Place was nice and clean inside. Lets hope they make enough money to be able to afford that "S".

I made it to Failblog!

A lot of you guys know I follow Failblog.

I caught one the other day when I was getting some books for my niece, and its on the voting page now!!

I'm on the voting page! Please vote for me!



more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos

Failblog

Many of you know I follow Failblog. A website full of funny 'fail' pictures.

This was posted the other day. Totally hilarious!

Irony....

So, my friend, we'll call him "Dieter" called me on Saturday, and was pretty excited about something, and he had to tell someone. So as he was rattling on while I was laughing my arse off about what he was telling me.

Lets back up a little bit....

Without going into too much detail, Dieters wife left him suddenly with no explanation. Later it was discovered Dieters wife ran off with a guy she met online. Funny huh? Anyway, Dieter was out of work for a while, because the Sprocket industry was in low demand, and things were tough. But he found a job at a Sprocket place and was getting it back together. I must add, that the whole time Dieter was out of work, the wife never did anything to help, (i.e. get a job, temp work, Prostitute herself etc) thereby forcing Dieter to support his family on Credit cards and drive his finances into the ground. Well apparently, the whole time this was happening, Dieter's ex was talking to a guy in gondwanaland, lets call him Joe the tool, who is also in the Sprocket business, and was a good looking fella, relatively fit, and financially sound.

So Dieter found himself on his own, working to put his life back together, to which he has been pretty successful doing so, I must add.

So now you know the background there, Dieters call Saturday was to tell me, that he got a call the other day from a friend, who told him that not only has Joe been out of work since late summer last year, Joe has also gained all the weight back that he lost in order to woo Dieter's ex away and off to gondwandaland. So now she has a fat loser with no job.

This is ownage at its finest folks.

Engrish, Live from Chinatown Houston

I took my mom and stepdad out for a Chinese Sunday brunch. I had to go buy some Ramen (the REAL stuff) from Chinatown. We went to Classic Kitchen, which is a restaurant that serves Taiwanese Comfort Food. This place is run by the Soup Nazis Asian relatives. Cash only, and the waitstaff is rude, but what Chinese restaurant is known for good customer Service?

We ate and left, and when I was walking out, I had to snap a pic, Engrish is abundant here guys!



Happy New Year, Friends! Hope you have a great and very prosperous 2009!

Is that Really your name?

So I was cashing out at the grocery store the other day and this Girls name caught my eye.

I snickered and texted my friend, "Dude, this girls name is Diselina!" (pronounced, "Diesel-ina").

Of course, K texts back, "Pics or it didn't happen" of course this was as I was loading the groceries in the car.

So of course I went back and took a picture. She didn't want me to snap her face, so I just got her name tag.....


Yup. I have too much time on my hands....

Engrish....part II

So I against my promise of not going out of the house on black Friday, one of my friends asked me to meet him for lunch. I had to go to Costco anyway, so I decided to meet him at a Chinese buffet off I-10.

We had a good time and then the fortune cookies came out. We BOTH got the same fortune....his first comment was "They could have used correct grammar."




Engrish is all around us now....

Engrish

Engrish. The attempt for people that don't speak or write the English language well to speak/write something that others find funny......

I was having lunch with C yesterday at our Favorite Thai place. C is half Filipino, and we used to work together. Anyway, we both appreciate good food, so we meet up for lunch and then laugh about our Asian heritage and catch up. So we're looking over the menu, and C points out something, I look and chuckle, and she asks "Where's it going?" which sent me into a roar, loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to glance over.....Thanks for the good laugh Cyn!



I ordered the Pad Thai, and asked her to make it spicy. It came out, not spicy enough, so I asked for some chili sauce. I should have kept my mouth shut. This was one of the few times I haven't been able to finish a meal because it was so hot. I was sweating profusely, and when I returned to the office, I could feel the spicyness eroding my stomach!

Free Parking?

Well, Network Geek finally has his entire driveway back!

A little history....

In 2005, I bought NG's old car, which had been sitting idle for a while, with the intention of fixing and selling. Fast forward to November 2008, NG is having a get together at his house on turkey day, and I owe him a Entertainment center that I promised him from March of this year. I decided to stop procrastinating and bring him the stand, and when I went over there, I saw the car, sitting with layers of grime and dust, lookin kinda sad. Thats when I finally decided, well, 3 years of free parking and no efforts to get that thing running, NG's trying to get his house cleaned up for Turkey day, so I'll help the effort by removing 2 tons of steel off his property.....
So off she goes to the world of Craigslist. And what do you know, within 1 hour of posting, a guy from 2 hours north of here is coming to get her! To top that off, the new buyer found a set of wrenches that I had bought and left in the car back in 2005. I always wondered where those things went off to! ;)

He arrived an hour before he said he'd be there, loaded the car and paid up, and left! Thanks again NG for the free parking for the last 3 years!

I've actually been paring my fleet down little by little, so much to the point that I'm getting a little nervous about how many vehicles I'm down to! I'm sure this will be a temporary situation of course!

Houstons (and possibly the Worlds) Nastiest Apartment!

This is from a Forum that I check out now and then....Man I thought we were messy in college....

This has nothing to do with the Hurricane. We had a resident who had an outstanding balance for over a month and no one could get ahold of her. The Bookkeeper went inside after so many tries to leave a note and this is what we found.

The pictures do NO justice. There is suppose to be 2 cats living here but we cant find them (we think they’re dead somewhere inside the apartment-we contacted the SPCA). The place REEKS to say the least, i gagged non stop.

Why I dont shop at Wal Mart

Howdy All,
Been a while since I posted, been meaning to log in and make a post, just been busy, hurricane and all!

Well, most of you know that I dont like Wal Mart, for many reasons, Most of the stuff there is made in China, the employees just need a pulse to work there, and they squeeze out the local small businessman/woman.

Well, last night I needed some supplies, I was tired, and Super WalMart is closer than the HEB that I usually go to, so I made a quick run to get groceries and some cleaning supplies.

I go to the check out line, where the employee doesn't know ANY of the produce codes, and rings my lettuce up as cabbage, then my Celery as green onions.

When I make large purchases, I pay by check, so I can keep track of it easier than just swiping my Debit card. Back in 2005, when I became very aware of ID theft and cleaning my credit, I started printing my checks with my Initials and Last name, address, and nothing else. No License number, phone number etc, to make it harder for someone to steal my checks and go on a spree.

When she gives me my total, I hand her my check and license. At Wal Mart, when you write a check, they scan it, take your Routing number and account number and do an EFT as your payment and you get your check back. She looks at the check, looks at my license, then at me. "Your name does not match your license." I raise an eyebrow....huh?

"Your drivers license says XXX XXX, but the name on your check is Wells Fargo."

At this point, I'm looking around for Candid Camera's Peter Funt to come out and say "SURPRISE!" but nope. I point out to her my name is on the top of the check.

"Your name is XXX XXX, but your check only says "X. X. XXX".

By this time, the woman behind me is looking at me and looking at the cashier like shes crazy.

I calmly explain, "Those are my initials." She keeps studying the check.

"Your address is 17,600 Katy Freeway, Suite 100?"

Now, at This time I'm losing my cool.

"No, thats the Banks address." My address is below my name up here, and I show her my address, as well as the one on my drivers license. "See? They match."

At this point, she looks at me, like shes getting agitated.

Have you never seen a freakin check before lady? She finally scans my check, it goes through fine and she gives me my reciept.

Once again boys and girls, this is my annual trip to Wal-mart, until I get crazy and decide to go again.

Transporter 3

So my buddy Enrique got me hooked on the Transporter movies, you know the ones with Jason Statham.

After Transporter 2, I figured there wouldn't be a 3rd....but there is!

These movies are great action, but totally unbelievable in the stuff that happens in them, but hey, we all need some excitement and mental escape right?

Looks like this will be released around Christmas!

Check out the trailer....

Another LOL Cat

Okay so this one is probably not as good as the Firefox one, but if you guys ever saw office space, you'd appreciate this one!




moar funny pictures

Old Car Commercials on Youtube

I love youtube.

They have all these old car commercials that I used to remember. You know the ones, they were more artsy and focused on the car more. Newer car commercials seem to be 'special interest' stories.


HEres a good example of a mid 80's Oldsmobile Commercial...




I liked how these used to be!

Anyway, Sorry for not posting recently, work's been busy!

Stalled Server Room

I know this is more for my buddy the network geek, but I had to share this one.

This came from the Daily WTF.

A few months back, Jen Frickell's company was given some bad news. When their lease ended, they'd have to move out of their second-floor suite. The good news, however, was that a suite would be available on the first floor. All they'd need to do was pack up and move downstairs.

It was a fairly reasonable request, so the company's executives signed a new lease and prepared to move. There was, however, just one, small hitch. The nice little server room they built in the back of their office - equipped with air conditioning units, ventilation, dedicated power, backup power, and so on - could not be relocated. Not only would it cost too much, but there was simply no room for it. The server room would just have to remain upstairs.

Obviously, the new second-floor tenant wouldn't want their neighbors walking through their office to access a server room, so building management and the company's executives came up with an alternative: wall off the server room door and build a new one. It seemed simple enough, but there was, however, just one small hitch. The only available wall to install a door was adjacent to the women's restroom. Inside the handicapped stall.

And since you're reading about it here, you know that didn't stop them. Here is the email from building management:

From: ---- --------
Sent: Monday, May 5, 2008 4:37 PM
To: Everyone
Subject: Server Room Access

Hi all.

As you all are aware, we have new tenants that have moved into
the 2nd floor suites.  The access to the server room is now via
the women’s bathroom.

There will be a sign on the woman’s door that can be changed
from OPEN to CLOSED and vice versa.

Should you need to enter the server room, please change the sign
to CLOSED.  Once you are done, please change it back to OPEN.

Once you enter the bathroom, you will be able to access the
server room via the handicapped stall. Please close the stall
door prior to entry, just in case someone doesn’t see that the
bathroom is closed.

I know this isn’t ideal, but if we adhere to this protocol, I
don’t think anyone will be disrupted.

Thanks!  Let me know if you have any questions.

---- --------
Building Management

LOL Cats Part II

So I'm Famous....

The LOLCat Caption you saw below actually made the front page of I Can Has cheezburger.


http://icanhascheezburger.com/

So I made a LOLCat

For those of you that don't know what a LOL Cat is, go to www.icanhascheezburger.com

Its basically captioning whats going on. I know. I must be bored at work.

Just click on the picture and it will take you to the page, click the hamburgers and vote for me please!

Thanks!

Oh How I love dilbert....

Heres one of my favorites from 2001....


And a recent one....