AI: season 7 and making a stop and one stop

As my life feels uneventful as of late, hence my later blog entries...heh. Well the last two or so days i've felt quite pooped for some reason. American Idol started showing on Star TV. Now it's season 7. I think most of the talent has been wrung out of the first few seasons. The talent is less, but the talentless are as strong as ever. Most of the really good singers seem to be those who are coming of age. At least a steady supply comes of age every year. So I suppose American Idol can fill in the ranks for a decent season. At some point I did think that the contestants would eventually get poorer until people couldn't take it anymore, but I guess I was wrong.

Besides that, I've recently gone to one stop and ordered a laser printer cartridge from one of the stores. One stop looks really dead. This used to be quite the happening complex, but now few crawl the deserted stores looking to do shopping. Even the rock of the shopping center, aka the computer shops which have been there for ages have started to relocate elsewhere. Some have gone to the lower floor for better visibility and some have just closed up shop. Will someone go and do something with the shopping complex or will it become another komtar? Probably the latter eventually, but at least it's still better than komtar.

Just chilling...well not really

After sat night partying, Sunday is always a chill day. Not really. I hit the gym yet again. Currently, I am in the habit of hitting the gym when I have free time, which I have a lot of at the moment.

Well Mois was quite a happening place on Saturday night. I don't remember seeing the place so packed before. A lot has changed in the last three weeks. QE 2 seems to have lost it's spark for the most part. The Penang crowd is really fickle and seemed to have moved to Mois. Mois also has a VIP section which they should have opened up sooner. It's quite cool to be in the vip section. They decored the section with beds and couches. Very nice. I have always thought the posh bedroom curtain decor is quite the trend now a days as Babylon has it across the street.

So with the VIP section, Mois now has something other clubs don't have in Penang. While common in clubs in other countries, it isn't so in Malaysia. Mois catches on quickly.

Back to Penang

I just arrived back in Penang a few days ago. The flight back seemed shorter than towards the US. I don't know why, but this time around it seemed more bearable. Flying back, the stop in Germany was quicker and the flight time maybe an hour less. The time to Singapore probably was slightly quicker as well.

For those who don't know, Singapore airlines is well known for their top notch service. Well, part of it is probably because they hire younger flight attendants compared to some of their western counterparts. As superficial as it may seem, I do believe it's the way of the world. And as customers compare services, they'll remember the environment of Singapore airlines to be much more pleasing compared to others.

I was thinking at the same time, that the way Singaporean airlines have their flight attendants done up is quite interesting. The make up and hair make them look quite nice like they are going to a ball and their uniforms emphasize all the right places, while covering up the attendant from head to toe. I had a couple of conflicting thoughts going on, these women were quite hot looking yet I generally don't perceive Singapore women to be any prettier than any of the other asian races. And did flying on Singapore airlines change my mind? nope. Make up, hair, and clothes can really make a difference thats for sure.

I started to hit the gym and picked up from where I left off three weeks ago. I think I'm just going to add cardio as a part of my workout from now on. Sure it'll take longer, but I don't think I'll be feeling a lot more tired. Thank goodness for low impact elliptical machines. If I had the money and the space, I'd consider getting one of these for myself.

Field's Museum and the CBOT

Over the last few days I did a little shopping and sightseeing. I visited the CBOT and Field's museum. The Field's Museum displays some one of a kind exhibits including the biggest Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered.

Not only this, they also had other large dinosaur skeletons such as triceratops and stegosaurus. While the dinosaur were impressive, I thought they should be much larger for some reason. I guess I've been brainwashed by the years of television dinosaurs. Those buggers looked huge in the movies.

Visiting the CBOT, where money is made much like a stock exchange wasn't as good as I thought. The building is quite picturesque given the interesting art deco building design. But they closed the observation area, so visitors were unable to see the exchange in action. It's just interesting to me to see all the pit traders in action live.

Scurrying about Chicago

Well seeing how I'm spending time running about on my own with my bro at work, I decided to go see some of what Chicago has to offer, namely Lincoln Park Zoo. I jumped on a bus to travel from downtown Michigan Avenue towards Lincoln Park. Today was an especially cold day, I call it...nut freezing temperature.

The bus system really has its own interest at heart. During the bus ride, the company advertised that they would be reducing routes and raising fares because of budget cuts. Contact your legislator if you want it changed. Well, that will certainly get your attention. It's a sure fire way to reach your target audience. That will really push you to get off your butt and do something. I saw another commercial on tv saying "if you lost money in the stock market from stock advice or mutual fund, call this number you may be entitled to settlement." Commercials like that don't happen in Malaysia, commercials that encourage people to act up and inform them what they can do about it.

So, finallly I got off at the Lincoln Park Zoo. As I walked through the zoo, I thought man... I heard that this was one of the most expensive place to live in Chicago and now I know why. Basically, the zoo is in this huge recreational park and it's free. Where else in the world can you go out and say hmmm...lets go for a walk in a park and go see the siberian tiger or the polar bear? To boot, it's five minutes away from down town Chicago, US' third largest city. Comparatively, the famous Central Park in NYC is not exactly appealing as there is just this huge park where you could get mugged (home alone 2). I guess I should give Central Park a chance as I've not yet seen it, but barring any huge surprises, Lincoln Park is probably the coolest park in the US and world.