Three Days in San Diego

San Diego, California. My first real experience in California. Before this, I'd often joked that California was simply another country, and instead claimed Canada as a state instead. I was certainly wrong about that.



We cut our trip to Warren short so Grace could visit WD-40's home office. Grace & I spent 3 days in beautiful, mild weather, fine restaurants & of course, the beach. Thanks to David at WD-40, who played host during our stay, we managed to see some of the best parts of San Diego in a rather short time. These parts include Del Mar, Jakes Restaurant & an overall view of the city & its suburbs.

The beaches were fantastic, and the sunset was beautiful that first evening. We had dinner at Jake's Bar in Del Mar, during the Horse Races. The restaurant itself was packed, and while I love seafood, I had to pass this time, as I'm not that skilled at eating shelled sea creatures without making a mess.

The 2nd Evening, after Grace finished her meetings with HR & Logistics, we ventured out on our own and walked over to The Bondi. The restaurant, owned by various people in WD-40, features Australian cuisine and beer, including James Boag's Premium on tap. Nicely decorated with good music, this venue is worth the stop.

Our stay was unfortunately short, as the third day took us to San Francisco, then back to Shanghai. Apparently we just missed Comic Con as well as a small earthquake during the trip. All the more reason to go back!

For those in Shanghai, James Boag's is available from Just Beer & various bars. Enjoy! I certainly do!

Facebook & MySpace Peeps

Before life on facebook, I was surrounded by pedophiles on MySpace. Now that I've moved over to facebook, I suddenly find that I really DO have friends! I mean just look!

From Shanghai, Chi...

I mean, really! Before Facebook, I didn't have ANY friends! I'd sit at home, stare at a wall for hours, then occasionally eat, sleep & various other things that I'll spare you the gory details. Now that I have Facebook, just look at all the friends that facebook tells me I have! I NEVER would've known this before!

I never understood MySpace, with all it's glittery links, chicks with webcams & every other hack on the net trying to profit off it or posting some of the worst music I've ever heard. And I doubt I'll ever understand Facebook, with it's numerous "Poke Him/Her" links and high school kids contacting ME, just because I want to the same school 18 years ago. The race for friend-count begins. Eventually, it'll become the same thing. When MySpace finally falls, where do people think all the paedophiles will turn to?

I can just see Chester the Molester scouring Facebook clicking "Poke Her" after "Poke Her" waiting for the responses he can get. On the upside though, I can also see Chris Hanson following right behind, ready to catch a predator.

From Shanghai, Chi...

Ten Days in Warren & Niagara Falls

The Mrs. and I returned from a two week vacation in both my hometown of Warren, PA and her company office in San Diego. As always, it was good to get back, and as always, I gained about 10lbs. But in my defence, those chocolate ice-cream cakes are FANTASTIC!!!

We spend the first 10 days in Warren, where I showed Grace around town. Some of the pics are on her blog. We hit up the usual spots... Kinzua Dam, Washington Park, a few malls here & there, Freddies' Bar & Grill.... While it's all old hack to me, having grown up there, Warren does seem to impress those who aren't from there, and it's especially impressive when you can see a BLUE sky, as opposed to Shanghai's grey-ish sky, and stars at night, as opposed to Shanghai's off-colored moon & 2 random planets.

As usual, I got on www.hellificare.com, another hometown website, and as usual, announced that there was STILL NO sign of Yetis, Bigfoots (bigfeet?) or alien dentists in white trenchcoats ANYWHERE in the Kinzua vicinity, despite some of the more vehement posts on that site about their existance.



A trip to Erie PA brought us to the Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant. Back in College, my ex, Angela & I went there to try the Suicide wings, one step below the "Atomic Wings", the ones you have to sign a waiver for before eating. Talk about HOT!!! This time around, we went a step lower & got the "Hot" wings instead. Perhaps it's living over here too long that gave me a much better tolerance for anything spicy, according to the missus, but neither one of us thought they were even REMOTELY hot. We'll have to try the Suicides again, next time we're back.



Another day took us to Niagara Falls, where Grace got some fantastic shots of the falls. We did attempt to go over to Canada while we were there, but were quickly turned back at the Canadian Customs office. Visa office in Buffalo? Who'd have thought! It's okay though, as we figured as much. The Colt .45 was NOT in Niagara Falls, by the way.

China Blog Voting! YAY!

While I'm on this posting kick today, I'll add one more quickie to the blogosphere. Head on over to Chinalyst and check out the voting for blogs. You won't find Colourwolf there, but there's a few blogs there that could use a Plus Sign clicked; namely, Yellow Wings, My Laowai & Sinocidal (who's already far ahead of the pack!)

"Why no ColourWolf?" you may ask. It's quite simple. I'd rather be playing Civilization 4.


Sid Meier! My hero!

Mac Tonight? No Thanks.

Remember THIS guy?

McDonalds Ad Campaign from 1986 featuring this moon man, "Mac Tonight".

Back in 1986, "Mac Tonight" was the poster "boy" for McDonalds. This campaign lasted maybe a year or so. But here in China, he's been resurrected from the ad campaign graveyard. Last night, while Mrs. Colourwolf was working, the tv was on and a new chinese Mac Tonight commercial was played 4 times within 15 minutes.



This one is the original from '86, and the Chinese one is based on this commercial. Note to advertisers: (and this is something people in the US figured out a LONG time ago) Even if you have the catchiest ad campaign around, repeating it OVER and OVER in such a short time may actually elicit adversity toward the ad! This is the same reason I hate Nao Bai Jin & their dancing grandparents ad. That and they advertise drugs to children. In other words, I'm ALREADY sick of this fucking commercial!

Did they resurrect this in the US too? Has McDonald's run out of ideas? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

3 more days!