Bon Jovi!

Bon Jovi concert... details and photos to follow...

No NYC for me

Lance asked who wanted to go to NYC to run a workshop there. He needed a few instructors. I really wanted to go. I've never been to New York, so an all expenses paid trip there sounded like a lot of fun. Throw in the fact that Dennis would be going, plus it's going to be a workshop, and you have the recipe for a weekend with very little sleep mixed with an overdose of fun times.

Unfortunately, by the time I could talk to Joe about taking Friday off, Lance had already found all the instructors he needed. Oh well... Next time...

Long overdue snowboarding report

So it's come to my ears that certain interested parties (hi mum) have been wondering what the heck happened in Tahoe. Well, you know what they say... what happens in Tahoe stays in Tahoe... ;)

ha ha ha ha

But here's what I can share...

First, the visuals... http://photos.slashview.com/derek/2006_02. There's 240 megabytes worth of visuals, but the videos won't stay up there for too long, so get them while they're hot.

Next, let's see... here's the short version. Maybe someday I will write a longer version, but I'm too lazy right now, plus nothing really spectacular happened. So here's the highlights.

Met a cutie from Mexico and ended up with her MSN id. Funny flirting with a cutie while 2 of your friends are sitting right next to you, watching and listening, but trying really hard to pretend they're wrapped up in their own conversation. Fakers. And damn, she was cute...

Ran up to 4 girls dancing the dance floor. One of them looks at me funny and says "you're weird". I go "I'm weird. Awesome!" and high five her. She high fives me, grins like an idiot, and then her friends close up around her. This confirms public suspicions that I can't dance to save my life. Please regard any dance floor posts by me as pure BS.

Jose fell off the mountain. Like, literally... I was maybe 20 feet from him and I saw him tumble, skid, slide off the trail, and right off the mountain. First thought through my head was "OH @#$%!" followed by "That guy is trouble". I went to help him climb up the snowy slope (very hard to climb up snow without ice picks!) and ended up sliding down too. Fun times.

Walked around the casinos asking "Are you good at thumb wrestling" to random strangers. Found out that people who aren't from the US have no clue what is thumb wrestling.

Car did a 360 on an icy road. With snow chains on. Fortunately, I didn't hit anything and nobody got hurt. Unfortunately, I didn't get that on film. Scary times. But looking back, definitely worth the 2 seconds of pure freakin' terror. No, I wasn't speeding. No, I wasn't drunk. Yes, the road was icy as hell. I think I did a good job of keeping 2 tons of metal on course on an icy road. See? Not even a scratch on the paint!

Jose offers to get me a club soda but cheats at the last minute by adding vodka to my club soda. Asshole.

I bought a new snowboard jacket, gloves and thermals for about 50% off. Awesome! Maybe I'll buy a new board too... Erm... not really... Kinda broke after this trip :(

Martha and Ian are cool peeps. I can't wait for Martha to turn legal so we can drag her out to bars and clubs and make her do stupid things with the rest of us. That would be sweet.

I'm more fit than I was. I actually survived three 6-hour days of flat out snowboarding, and my legs didn't cramp even once. Sure, they were really rubbery by the end of day 3, but I was fine by the time we had lunch on Sunday.

And of course there's that whole allergy nonsense I had to put up with. What a pain.

Oh it snowed and snowed and snowed. It snowed on Wed night when we drove up. Clear skies on Thursday followed by more snow on Thursday night, and most of Friday and Saturday. WOW! AWESOME FRESH POWDER!

Buffet at Harrah's rocks. Great food. Lots of it (buffet, duh). Shitty long lines UNLESS you go on a Thursday night where there's nobody there and the wait is only err... 2 minuters?

Thursday also happens to be dollar drink night at Altitude, Harrah's resident nightclub. Pity I've more or less given up alcohol. Oh well, 7-Up and Club Soda was also a buck each, so that's not so bad. But they played some crappy ass music. Not gonna go there again.

Bought an FM transmitter for my iPod (the Griffin Roadtrip), so now I can pod my music in the integra! YAY! Or any car with an FM tuner (aka EVERY car). Double YAY! It worked incredibly well on the way up. Good sound, easy setup, lovely to use. Then SOMETHING happened on, and for the rest of the trip, it just flat out refused to work with my ipod. It would work with Jose's ipod but apparently it didn't like my ipod. Oh well... I thought I'd just return it when I got home. But woah! Looks like the mere threat of being sent back to the store was more than it could bear, and it started working again once we got back to San Jose. Weird.

Ah yes, can't forget to add this bit... I realize that I'm powered by adrenaline. I live for the thrill. The rush of pitting yourself against something crazy. Whether it's speeding down a 45% incline on a wooden board, going toe to toe against a trained martial artist, or matching wits with the chessmaster sitting across from you. It's all about pushing pushing pushing until I reach the next level...

Favorite quote from this trip:
AH @#$% IT HURTS!
... *silence* ...
Damn, this pain makes me feel ALIVE!
*shitty grin, unseen beneath my ski mask*
- Derek, uttered when I crashed and it felt as though I almost ripped by arm out of the shoulder socket.

All in all, good trip. I've yet to do my laundry so my ski clothes are still stinking up my clothes basket. I'll get to it sooner or later. Probably later cos I've got a full weekend planned. Gonna be playing guest instructor (again) this weekend.

Only slightly rashy

Woohoo! Whatever the doc gave me, it's freakin' strong stuff! Most of the rashes cleared up this morning. That stuff knocked me out good for most of the night and even when I woke up at 11.30 this morning, I was still feeling woozy. But the rashes are 70% cleared. Like I said, good stuff.

On a seperate note, after the doc said that the food particles will take up to a week to get flushed out of my system, I decided to lend my body a hand and go on a mini-detox diet. So far, all I've been eating are boiled cabbage, corn, mushrooms, and fish. And I'm out of mushrooms... Need to go buy. For liquids, I'm drinking orange juice and water.

Deleting long Cingular voicemail

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you...

There's one unheard voicemail on your phone. But the caller got creative and left you a 2 minute long ramble instead of a 10 second "hey, call me back" message. You wait and wait, and it seems like an eternity before you hear "Press 7 to delete this message". Is there a way to delete the message without listening to all of it?

YES THERE IS! Simply press 7 twice (ie 77) anytime during the message, and it will be deleted. Apparently, not even the Cingular customer service folks know about this one cos I've called up to ask them before.

By the way, read this too...

Rashful update

Rashes suck donkey eggs. OD'ed on meds (antihistamines), drank mucho H2O, and slept loads. But I'm still rashed up. Saw a doc, she prescribed some super-duper strength antihistamines for the inflamation, and some corticosteroid cream for the itch. Doc says it will be about a week before my body naturally flushes out whatever crappy stuff I ingested. In the meantime, I get to look like a rag doll for a week. Oh joy!

Milk intolerance and other allergies

I think I'm milk intolerant. I've noticed that I get a mild case of diarrhea after taking products with milk eg ice cream, milk shakes, mocha etc. This is totally lame because I love all that stuff, and I've never had a problem with this until recently. On the positive side, I can still eat cheese (weird). Sigh.

I've also noticed that I get allergic reactions when I am around dogs or cats. I start itching and have a minor hives breakout. Crappy. Especially when you consider that I love dogs and cats, and grew up among a pack of pomeranians, one maltese, and one stray cat. Again, I've never had problems with animal allergies until recently. Double sigh.

You know you're getting older when the last two posts on your blog are health related issues (and not in the good sense)

Rashes

Woke up this morning to find that I'm covered in rashes. The rashes cover my legs, my arms and most of my torso. Icky. Wonder why. But they don't itch, and it doesn't hurt. Weird.

Am I allergic to something? Let me think what I ate in the last 24 hours... Eggs... sausages... bacon... waffles... ice cream... Could be the prawns from the buffet... chicken... chocolates... *shrug* Nothing comes to mind. Haven't eaten anything unusual that I don't eat often. Weird.

I've tried putting anti-inflamation medicine (hydrocortisone) and it hasn't helped. I've taken a shower, applied moisturizer, and that hasn't helped either. Oh well, I'm gonna let this run for a day, and if I'm still all rashed up, I'll go see a doctor.

pre-snowboarding panic attack

Hours before I leave for my much anticipated Tahoe Snowbunny fest (aka 4 days of snowboarding), I realize that I can't find my gloves, and my $200 Spy goggles! ARGH, I'm gonna FREAK! I could pick up a pair of gloves on the slopes. They're gonna be more pricey, but that's not the issue. I want a GOOD pair of gloves. And my goggles... Don't even go there. Freakin' awesome goggles. And now they're missing. ARGH.....

LOST:
One pair of Spy goggles and one pair of snowboarding gloves. Last seen somewhere on the way back from Tahoe. Reward for any information leading to their recovery.

[update 1.45am] erm... yeah... so I found my goggles (they were buried under some sweaters) but I still can't find my gloves. I've decided to give up and just use my old gloves for now, and pick up a new pair on the slopes when I get the chance.

I caved!

I finally caved. Yep. I finally sat my butt down and carved out a semi-decent myspace profile. You can check it out here:
http://www.myspace.com/dereklau

Coldplay concert

Rocking. Awesome. Great music. So-so beer. That pretty much summarizes the concert. As far as concerts went, it was a good concert. It wasn't a GREAT though. I've been to some great shows. For example, Anna Nalick was GREAT. The Black Eyed Peas show was GREAT. This was good. For those of you at home who missed the show, here's a little teaser for ya...


Was it worth the $70 admission ticket? Probably... It would have been a yes if I had a better date, but I can't complain too much :)