Truly worth the wait!

It's about time.

As I wrote elsewhere yesterday, I'm almost glad this turned out the way it did. On the one hand, I hate that so much money was wasted on the court battle when the outcome has been known for months, and I hate that we had to go through the motions on all this when everybody knew it was really just about keeping that seat vacant for as long as possible, and I hate that Sen. Klobuchar's office has been stuck with twice its normal workload since January.

But for all that, let's remember why Norm Coleman won that senate seat in 2002 in the first place. It was because the right wing s**t machine got away with some spectacularly cynical lies about what did and didn't happen at Paul Wellstone's funeral. I consider the whole episode second only to the Florida 2000 debacle. Yes, somebody in the crowd said something not very nice, but it was not the hate-fest it was made out to be at all. But the truth didn't get out until the damage had been done, as usual. As for those who do know the truth and still think the liberals were out of line, it's only fair to ask yourself, what if the shoe were on the other foot? Say it was Tom Coburn or Trent Lott who had died in that plane crash, and Wellstone had come to the wake...do you really believe every single person in the crowd would treat him with respect?

The pathetic thing is, I've met quite a few wingnuts who really and truly believe they would.

And as I noted in my post-election roundup last November, it was none other than Al Franken who set the record straight in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. (Anyone who hasn't read that one yet, do it. Soon. Buy a new copy if you can find one; he could really use the cash right now!) So, although it's a shame he nearly lost the race to Coleman and that he - and we - had to wait so long for this day, I love the fact that he not only won, but that Coleman humiliated himself for months afterward trying to fight the results. It's an all too fitting end to a Senate career that began for the worst possible reason in the first place. (Okay, Saxby Chambliss gives him a run for his money on that front, but he's from a state famous for sending scum to Washington. Of course, having said that, I now have to acknowledge the inimitable Rep. Michele "Smalley-Hoot" Bachmann of...Minnesota. I'll quit now while I'm behind.) And then there's the delicious response from Fox News, which has started already.

Finally, a thought on whether or not we on the left ought to still be angry at Franken for almost blowing the race in the first place. Back in November when it looked like he'd lost, I recall a lot of grousing on the blogs that Betty McCollum or Tim Walz could have easily beaten Coleman. Overlooking the fact that we really can't know that for sure (and that Walz barely counts as a Democrat on a lot of issues and we'd have been lucky to hang onto his House seat), it occurs to me that even if that is right, it's partly because they're much more conventional politicians. Which means we couldn't expect nearly as much of them in the Senate. And yes, of course that means our expectations of Franken are now somewhat inflated after all that everybody had to go through to get him there. But why shouldn't they be? Besides that, Franken really is something of a pioneer when it comes to fighting back against the right wing s**t machine. He was doing it back when Bill Clinton was still kissing Newt Gingrich's ring, and the mainstream media was referring to Rush Limbaugh as a "conservative commentator" and other nice sounding titles that gave him a lot more credit than he deserved. I think we can count on him. Mazel tov, Senator!

Timing is everything

If you have to get sick in the midst of the swine flu pandemic, there's one silver lining. When I went to the clinic and said I'd had coldlike symptoms for about a week and they hadn't gone away, I was allowed to see a doctor much more quickly than I usually would! It wasn't swine flu, so there is that. It was a throat infection, and a day's worth of antibiotics later, I'm feeling somewhat better. It seems fitting that this happened during the middle of a move (which I had been greatly looking forward to, but still a move. They're stressful. More on that later.). Between the hassle of moving and the matter of my health, this week started out with it being a pretty safe bet that I would be a lot better off at the end of the week. It looks that way. I guess I'm also lucky that this came during a lull in business travel. The only thing worse than being sick is being sick and having to spend time in airports and on planes and in other people's offices.

Tonight will be my first night in the new flat, and I might even be able to breathe normally enough to sleep through it. I'll have some thoughts on the move shortly. Lots to tell there!

Wacko Jacko

Well, I didn't expect that to be the next way he got his name in the news.

Like a lot of people my age, Thriller was (I think) the first album I ever bought, though I am probably one of the few who got it on vinyl rather than casette (remember, it came out the year before the CD was introduced). Since then, like most people my age, I have gone from loving it to hating it and back to conceding that it is a gem of a pop album even if everything else about its creator was repulsive. At least whatever demons inspired him to such a bizarre lifestyle will not be doing so any longer. RIP.

Overheard in a bookstore

From a few students who apparently aren't poli-sci majors. One of them saw a Francis Fukuyama book and misread the author's name before realizing that's what it was..."Oh, I thought it said 'France Is F**k-a-yama'."

While basically meaningless, I do find that a refreshing response to the guy who predicted the end of civilization.

Dr. Tiller

Back in DC, I volunteered as an escort at Planned Parenthood on weekends for a couple of years before I went to Taiwan. I have avoided discussing that on here because I know some of my friends disagree quite strongly with me on that particular issue. But not now.

When I heard the news this morning, it was entirely too easy to believe. Some - not all, but some - of those folks are just gonzo. Take it from someone who has stood three feet away and listened to them chant and pray and compare me to Hitler, what happened in Wichita was sad, but it just wasn't that big of a surprise.

I have to admit that I do have some positive memories of those confrontations. When the weather was nasty, some of us on both sides had a sense of humor about the whole thing..."God must be on one of our sides, to make the weather this nasty for the other side," that sort of thing. Some of us on both sides also recognized that we were more or less cut from the same cloth, just opposite sides of it. It really does take commitment to turn up anyplace you don't really need to be at 7:00 on Saturday morning.

But still. The ones who said things like "Here come the SS!" when we went to shield patients from them, and then told us in the next breath about the love of Christ; the ones who told crying patients that "you should be crying because you're about to kill your baby," the ones who greeted young families entering the clinic by telling the kids "They're gonna kill your little brother!"; the ones who accosted black patients with their bizarre (not entirely off-base, but still bizarre) theories about Margaret Sanger and her racism...as Jerry Falwell said about people like me after 9/11, "I point the finger in their face and say, You helped this happen."

Random observations from a business trip to Kuala Lumpur

1. It's a shame when your boss invites you to indulge in room service on the company dime, but the hotel doesn't have room service for breakfast, only for dinner. (Who wants to eat dinner in bed? It just isn't the same.)

2. The BMW 760 is just as beautiful inside as out. Getting a lift in one owned by a client is quite an incentive to get out and sell more software, I must say.

3. Whatever images CCR's "Lodi" calls to mind, you probably never envision it sung by a Filipina in a red floor-length evening gown with a synthesizer for accompaniment. At least I never did, until now. But it was surprisingly enjoyable.

4. KL traffic really sucks.

5. Getting a ride to the airport in a KL taxi whose driver offered you a cheaper price than the train on the condition that he could get you there faster is a bigger thrill than any amusement park ride. But wear your seatbelt!

6. Singapore looks just a little bit cleaner and well kept every time I get back from anyplace else in the region.

Tuesday? Must be Indonesia

It hadn't really been bothering me until fairly recently, but my first anniversary in Singapore just went by in April with me having not left the Garden City since the day I got off the plane from Paris last year. That's a rather long time to stay put! But for the first several months here, I had plenty of time for a vacation but no money, and since I got promoted in October I've had the opposite problem. Like I said, though, it hasn't bugged me much. For one thing, I knew the job would involve lots of business travel soon enough.

It's started!

For good measure, I also managed a weekend getaway just before it started. The True Love is in Kuala Lumpur for two weeks on a teaching job, so I flew up after work last Friday to join her for the weekend. Some of my longtime readers will recall that my reaction to KL last time I was there was a bit underwhelmed. I liked it, but not nearly as much as I liked Singapore. That's still the case, but I figure that makes it the perfect destination for a quick getaway.

Of course, my perspective was a bit different this time around, now that I actually live in Singapore. The first thing I noticed when the plane landed? (Well, the very first thing was relief that I'd finally gotten there, as the plane was delayed by two hours. Airasia.com is great for the most part, but very cheap plane tickets don't always come without a non-monetary price!) But after that, the first thing I noticed was all the older cars. By "older" I don't mean "old". I mean "more than five years old and looking like it". Hardly anybody in Singapore ever keeps a car for more than ten years because of very high taxes levied on anyone who does, and Singapore is a much more affluent country than Malaysia. So I knew I wasn't in Singapore anymore when I saw all the not-old-but-older cars. The traffic in downtown KL was a pretty clear sign of that too.

But it was a most enjoyable weekend. I finally made it up to the observation deck of the Petronas Towers (the tickets were gone for the day last time I was there), which is worth the trip. You're only allowed up there for five minutes or so, but there's only so much to see and the tickets are free. The only real drawback is waiting in line for them. While we were in line, I overheard a group of friends behind us speaking French and was somewhat panicked to realize just a year after leaving Paris, I could barely understand a word they were saying. Imagine my relief when (sorry, Pat) I found out they were from Quebec. We got a couple of pictures on the observation deck, although I hated the way I looked in one of them. I really do need to practice my Photo Smile.

Then were off to do our share of window-shopping and fine dining at the slightly-different subset of Western outlets than that found in Singapore. One big advantage KL has over Singapore is that it's a lot cheaper. We also made it to lunch at the local Hard Rock Cafe - one of the less impressive ones I've seen, but at least I can say I've been there. (Amsterdam and Denver are still my favorites, and Paris gets an honorable mention because they have the guitar Jimi Hendrix played on The Tonight Show.) Finally, we visited a street market. I distinctly recall doing just that back in 2004 - it might have even been the same market - and finding the experience underwhelming because it was exactly like the night markets in Taiwan. Since there is nothing quite like that in Singapore, it was quite a bit more of a novelty this time, a welcome walk down memory lane. I also netted a badly-needed new laptop bag.

Wanting to maximize my time with Gyle and away from work, I had bought my return ticket for late afternoon on Sunday. Oops. Luckily the plane was on time this time around. Unluckily, that meant I got back to Singapore at about 8:00. That wouldn't be too bad normally, but I had some practicing to do for the first business trip, which was taking place Monday. So I went to the office at nearly 9:00 on Sunday night and made sure all the bells and whistles were working, only they weren't. Two phone calls and a lengthy wait later (it's a very good thing I like my job as well as I do), I had just enough time to go home and re-pack for Jakarta before bed.

The plane to Jakarta didn't take off until past noon, so at least I was able to make my trip back to the airport fairly liesurely. I got there in plenty of time. The boss, just as characteristically, got there at the last minute and then wanted to go over the website one last time in the terminal. Hey, I wasn't going anywhere just yet anyhow! As workplace drama would have it, we noticed one big error and had to use my personal e-mail account to get in touch with the office to have it fixed because the official e-mail didn't work in the airport for some reason. Then we were off.

Don't worry, the business half of the trip was great. Naturally, that was something of an afterthought to me as we landed in Jakarta, since I'd never been there before. One thing any Westerner who spends time in Singapore is likely to notice is that the locals are terrified of traveling in their neighboring countries. They don't quite say that, of course, but it's easy enough to see that they are from the advice they'll give you. Our marketing consultant warned us repeatedly about how to get through immigration without having to pay bribes by lying about certain things, and if you do get escorted into the back room, just pay the bribe to get out of harm's way, blah blah blah. As it turned out, I was almost glad he'd told us so many horror stories, because the reality was pretty bad (half an hour in line to get my visa!) but not that bad.

Indonesia's visas are among the more attractive ones I've had grace my passport. Pale green and white, and almost worth the wait. As for bribes and bullying guards, I ran into no such thing. More helpfully, we had been told to take only Bluebird or Silverbird taxis as they're the only trustworthy transportation services for foreigners. That, of course, is a pretty valuable resource in a place like Jakarta. Once again on the ride to the hotel, I was reminded how lucky Americans (and Singaporeans) are, as there was poverty everywhere. Nothing I hadn't seen before, but it had been a while since I had seen it. Needless to say, it was a fairly depressing sight and, even had there been time for any tourist activities (which there wasn't), would have taken away any desire to that end by the time we got to the hotel.

On a brighter note, the Hotel Ciputra is quite nice - I highly recommend it - and the local Bintang Beer they served in the lounge went well with our first, informal business meeting with a local friend of the boss'. (If you're thinking it was irresponsible for me to drink in front of the boss, guess who ordered the drinks in the first place?) That success had us both in a good mood when we went to the mall next door - complete with security checkpoints at the doors - for dinner. As it was still fairly early at that point, I might have gone out for a bit of sightseeing in a city I was more familiar with. But not here.

The big meeting was the following afternoon, which meant I had all morning to practice, and practice I did. For an hour or so. The rest of the morning was spent sipping sparkling water and waiting for the boss to turn up. We finally got down to business after lunch. The hardest thing about the meeting was finding the office where it was to be held, which was in a strip-mall where tourists don't usually go. Our first official off-site presentation went great, but there's not a lot I can repeat here (nothing too secretive - it just wasn't that interesting!). It was a big enough success that I will probably be going back there next month to finalize a deal. At least this time I'll know where to find the office. Maybe I'll get to the Hard Rock Cafe then too.

We'd had some concerns about getting back to the airport in time during rush hour, but they were unfounded. (Traffic was awful, but it wasn't very far to go.) Getting out of the country proved a lot easier than getting in, something I hadn't been expecting for some reason. So the first business trip was a pretty good one. I finally got what I signed up for.