My Travels - Paris (2006)

Paris. The City of Lights. The City of Love.

Notre Dame by the Seine:

Place Vendome:
The Louvre:

Champs-Elysees at night:

The Tour Eiffel at twilight:

Paris. Exactly as advertised!

(For more photos, check my Photo Blog)

As for the Un-advertised...

Yeah...they eat French bread. They really do.

People line up for the main Louis Vuitton store at the Champs-Elysees. Just like for museums. Damn keyboards! They're AZERTY, not QWERTY. Apparently, after 9/11 American protests of everything French, all new keyboards were changed in France. Messes the brain.

But there are "French" fries! In numerous Pomme de Pain sandwich bistros around the city, you can order "French" fries. In Leon de Bruxxells restaurants, there are "French" fries. Unlimited, with a bucket of mussells. Available with Heinz.

Place Vendome--wide square plaza lined with the Ritz and expensive shops---biggest plaza I've seen without pigeons.

There is no Bastille prison to see. Nope. Move on.

There can't be any new construction more than 4 stories high around the Eiffel tower as it needs to stay prominent in the Paris skyline. It is the skyline!

From the Orsay Museum...I present to you...Cosmo Kramer, Sr.

Also learned that Polo was in vogue in the 18th century:

From the Louvre...the Venus de Milo is taller than me. Contrary to what I thought.

The Mona Lisa is smaller than you think.

There is a Da Vinci Code tour at the Louvre. From the tour guides' experiences, American tourists give us a bad name. THE BOOK ISN'T REAL! Please...if you go, don't ever ask "Is this where the curator died?" or "How do you secure Mary Magdalene's sarcophagus now that everyone knows where it is?" Sounds smart. But...really.(Disclaimer: I don't like Dan Brown and his writing style. Brain drain).

And one more from the museum...the Eqyptians apparently inspired The Jetsons:

All the 'hoods I've gone to, I didn't see a gas station. Champs-Elysees. Notre-Dame. Tour Eiffel. Champ de Mars. Trocadero. Ecole Militaire. Les Invalides. Arc de Triomphe. Opera Garnier. Louvre. Musee d'Orsay. Quay d'Orsay. Madeliene. Place Vendome. St. Honore. Place de la Concorde. Tuileries Garden. Pompidou Center. St. Germain, Latin Quarter. Moulin Rouge. Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.

The French love crepes.

Know who else loves crepes? Tom-Kat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, for the un-initiated). Check them out kissing and lining for the French taco:

In Paris, NBA star Tony Parker is huge.

You know who else is huge? Steven Segal. Hmm...

Fantasy Sports (Enhanced)

Ask a twelve-year old: what are the four seasons of the year?
It would be: Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey.

Playing fantasy sports adds a more intimate level of involvement all season long. I find it an escape when my crappy San Francisco 49ers or Golden State Warriors stink it up for months at a time (Thank God for an always-competitive San Francisco Giants). Fantasy sports provides you a custom team you pit against someone else's, and in the process involves you with everything that happens elsewhere, not just with your crappy, old hometeams.

And then I found this: WhatifSports.com.

Oh what fun!

PC World's Top 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

Check out if your brick phone made it:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125772,00.asp#

Mission Impossible III

What I hate most: How much mileage can you get out of the mask trick and voice mod? Maybe in parts one and two, it's forgivable, But, c'mon...it's tiring.
But perhaps as a consolation, we get shown how the mask is created and the voice replicated. Making it somewhat believable. Somewhat.

What I liked:
(1) The progression of enemy intelligence and how our heroes adapted to it. We've seen the MI team infiltrate a building, coming from the air, via chopper, via something that will get them on the roof...but this time the roof is guarded by armed men---like finally, the baddies have learned their lesson that the roof needs to be secure. How do you get to the roof and thru? Well...very good writing here. The whole sequence focused more on planning and ingenuity. How Hunt developed the plan and proceeded to swing and sling himself from a neighboring tower to the target. Never had to use an easy-to-spot chopper, which the team couldn't get anyway in such a short notice on foreign land. And then intentionally never showing what happens in the building, thus preserving our appreciation of the brilliant plan, even for a moment longer, until Hunt dives out from up high with the objective in hand and into the next action segment.
(2) And Maggie Q.

Badminton is Back!

Spring! And I'm staying indoors. Playing badminton. It's back. If the San Francisco Chronicle says it's back, I guess it went away and came back.

Overheard:
Someone: I haven't played since high school.
Another one: Me, too.
Me: I haven't played since 2nd grade.

Someone: Hey, its our turn in this court.
Someone else: I don't think so. Check the queue.

Another one: Hey, its our turn in this court.
And another: I don't think so. Check the clipboard.

And another: Look, I don't want to fight. I just got here and you're kicking me out already?

And an observant one: This queue-ing system sucks.

One more: Hey! You're not Chinese!

Ya!

Look for Smash City in Milpitas, Golden Gate Badminton Club in Menlo Park and United Badminton Club in Fremont.

David Blaine

If only his stunts were interesting.
News flash! Lame-o!