Another weblog that's linked to danchan is Brain Dump, by Min Jung Kim. I checked out her daily addictions and found Cyn's site at jaycine.com (I like Gustav Klimt too!). Which takes us full circle to Cyn's shrine to Cliff and other Asian men at Golden Candy. Small world.

Now, I've got to make some kind of distinction between the weblog name and the person behind it because I don't feel like calling Min Jung "Brain Dump".

Looks like Nikolai of Fairvue is trying out we::blog to host inline comments on his site. Fairvue is the home of the 2001 Bloggies!

Also, I found a link to danchan from Cyklotron, home page of George Donnelly, who seems to have a lot in common with greggman. Well, they both live in Japan right now... and both sites have tons of content separated into topics for easy browsing.

I'm used to calling people by their web site names, like Gregg is greggman and Lewis is schlaulau, since their web site names are their nicknames. Instead of "Nikolai of Fairvue", can I just say "Fairvue" from now on? You think I can call George "Cyklotron"? Cool.

I signed my lease yesterday and got my keys. I move in after February 1. Here's a picture of the space.

Shannon and Andy, Mandy and Billy, Taheed and Ytossie, Valerie and Kaya: this is the story of four couples stranded on a deserted island (or Belize, whichever is more convenient) surrounded by 13 single babealicious chicks and 13 single hunkariffic dudes.

Joe is painting a Superflat take on a Magritte Lie while I write poetry in a style that's a mix between Coleridge and Cypress Hill when the television (I thought I had unplugged that useless contraption) turns on spontaneously and there is Mark Walberg (not Marky Mark) introducing us to "Temptation Island", FOX's cheesy answer to Survivor.

"What the hell is this crap?" we both ask, of no one in particular. But we watch it a bit.

And we get sucked in. Girls in swimsuits tend to get our attention.

What is the goal of this game? Is it a game? Does anyone win a million dollars for this? Who cares? I just want to know: Is Mandy gonna cheat on Billy?

Because she looks like she's having way too much fun with her "date", Johnny. I mean, what's that guy smearing on his nipple?

And when Billy gets to watch Mandy having way too much fun, recorded on videotape, and Billy hears her say, "Billy's gonna kill me!" What exactly does that imply?

Ouch. It kills Billy. Then Andy, Taheed and Kaya, like some male sewing circle, get together to talk about what happened. Who's fault is it? Johnny's?

Immediately, Joe says aloud, "It's not his fault!"

And I follow up loudly, "He's just doing his job!"

On the television, Andy and Kaya:

"It's not his fault!"

"He's just doing his job!"

Joe and I look at each other. Whoa. You go anywhere in the world, it doesn't matter, because all guys think alike. We're feeling just like these guys, they're one of us and we're in their group. It's a good feeling and Joe and I high-five each other.

On the television, Andy, Kaya and Taheed are high-fiving each other.

Double Whoa. Yup, all guys are the same. We share this common bond and it is not at all silly when Joe and I, in Los Angeles, get right up to the television and mock-high-five the images of Andy and Kaya and Taheed, three lonely caricatures filmed on location in Belize.

We understand.

Two quick stories about our new President.

Type in "dumb motherfucker" into the Google search engine right now and you'll get The George W. Bush for President On-Line Store. via Wired article and Salon's Technology Inbox.

Cheap shots! All the idiots who threatened to leave the country if George W. Bush became President are retracting their statements. Duh.

Back in college I lived in Oakland waaaay down near the Greyhound Station. Walking distance to the station, in fact. So one time I took the bus to Los Angeles. That was my first experience of downtown L.A. - arriving at the Greyhound Station - and at the time I thought to myself, "Jeez. What kind of a place is this?" Oaktown was not nearly this far gone.

Fast forward a couple years to the first E3, a yearly videogame convention, held in downtown L.A. Crystal Dynamics sent down the whole company and we all stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown L.A. "Don't go too far. Stay within a block!" we were told when we left the hotel to scavenge for food. After all, downtown L.A. was "dangerous".

Well, times change or maybe attitudes do, and walking around downtown L.A. today is fairly pleasant. It's got the tall buildings and the wide streets of New York, without the smell of piss, the mess on the sidewalks and the people. It's 12:30PM on a weekday and it's not busy.

One block east of Pershing Square and it's the Historic Core District of Los Angeles and the buildings are made of brick and mortar, facades and detailing everywhere. This is where I've found the Spring Towers, live/work lofts created from the gutted shell of an old abandoned E shaped office building. (Evan was right when I described it as M shaped. "Or is a W, or a 3, or an E?") Each "leg" of the E is a loft, so there are only three big units per floor.

Finally, a developer gets it right.

San Francisco went through a SOMA (South of Market) renaissance about five years ago when every developer started developing "lofts" which were actually condos, brand new buildings with lots of teeny apartments. Wrong. But that didn't stop property prices from shooting to the moon during the Internet boom.

Look around downtown L.A. at all the great abandoned buildings in the Historic Core... This is the beginning of something good.

Caveat: unless it becomes something bad.

11:30AM PST - Evan tells me Naughty Dog, the company I used to work for, announced today that they have been sold to Sony. Naughty Dog developed the Crash Bandicoot series for the Playstation. I was the lead programmer on Crash Team Racing, which was the last game in the series developed there. Those of you who haven't played Crash Team Racing (or CTR as it is affectionately called) don't know what you're missing! It's the greatest kart racing game in the history of videogaming! Buy it now! Buy! Buy!

So did I get the scoop? Has Daily Radar posted the news yet?

11:45AM PST - Looks like Daily Radar beat me to the punch by an hour...

I'm back in Los Angeles after two weeks of trekking through the jungles of East Malaysia. Well, no, that sounds pretty hardcore. It was more like two weeks of traveling from National Park to National Park, staying in hostels, and exploring the walking trails that could be done in a day.

Two things about being back: HOT showers! And water pressure!

It's good to be home.

I just flew back into Kota Kinabalu from Sandakan, which used to be called "Little Hong Kong". Most of the Chinese families in Sandakan are originally from Canton in the south of China so everyone there speaks Cantonese.

Just two full days left in East Malaysia so I decide to treat myself to my own room in the hostel!

"Do you want air-con?"

Get the hell outta here... It's been dorm rooms with a fan this whole trip. It costs US$11 for my own room with air-conditioning. Of course, I want air-con.

I guess it doesn't matter that Kota Kinabalu (unlike Kuching) has intersections and crosswalks. People still cross the street as soon as they reach it, weaving through the cars that have a green light.

At just under 4100 meters, Mt. Kinabalu is the highest trekkable mountain in South East Asia. It rises 2500 meters in altitude on a path that is 8700 meters long!

After spending one night at the Park Headquarters (1600 meters) I set off with two other travelers and a guide at 8:00AM up the trail towards Laban Rata at 3300 meters. It takes just over five hours of uphill climbing (2500 stairs in addition to the incline!) punctuated with seven rest stops for water refills and trips to the tandas (toilet) before we make it there.

Laban Rata is where we stay for the night before waking up at 2:30AM and making the ascent to the summit to catch the sunrise. But all I care about when I first get there is FOOD. More than being tired, I'm starving. And as I wolf down two plates of whatever, I realize that the porters (men and women, young and old) that we saw coming down the mountain as we were climbing up, hand-carried all the food and supplies. They make this trip every single day with 40 kilogram packs so that I can have Pataya Fried Rice and fresh fruit! Damn.

Just flew into hot, rainy, muggy Kota Kinabalu after spending the last two days at Niah National Park which lies between Bintulu and Miri in Sarawak. The park is home to a large population of swiftlets and bats which live in an extensive cave network. The swiftlets' nests are harvested to make Bird's Nest Soup, a Chinese delicacy.

After seeing the risks involved in harvesting the nests -- bamboo scaffolding five stories high -- I understand why the stuff is so damn expensive... The harvesters make RM1000/kg, about US$275/kg. At retail, the nests go for US$1000/kg for the top quality stuff.

What a strange feeling to escape being in a foreign land. All I have to do is enter an Internet cafe and I feel reconnected, totally at home again.

I set the plate of noodles and beef curry on the canteen table and look up to a mother macaque monkey and her baby who is clinging to her belly. She sits on the canteen railing and eyes me intently.

How friggin' cute!

Instinctively, out comes the camera. She drops from the railing as soon as she sees it. Then, almost coaxing, she pops her head into view like a curious Killroy.

I take one step towards her with the camera ready...

***

Then, Spidey-sense tingling, I have a quick flashback of the raptors in Jurassic Park -- one raptor ambushes the hunter while another acts as a decoy.

***

Motherf-- I whip around to see a male macaque eyeing my plate of food, two hops away from a free lunch. The element of surprise is lost so he relies on his speed. And he is fast -- one quick jump, he lands lightly and he's halfway there...

But he's no match for me! I've already moved to block his intended trajectory to my food. And he jumps off to the side instead, looks over his shoulder at me with a scowl. Or maybe I imagined the scowl. Then he's retreated off the patio, no doubt to collude with the Mama macaque on a new plan of attack.

Meanwhile, a bearded pig roots through the mud in front of the canteen, oblivious to the drama that just unfolded.

Getting to Bako from Kuching takes an hour bus ride followed by a half hour longboat cruise to an isolated ten square mile peninsula that is covered in verdant, damp rainforest. Bako is home to macaques, monitor lizards, bearded pigs, and 150 of the approximately 1000 endangered proboscis monkeys in Sarawak.

The male proboscis monkey has a HUGE NOSE. We all know what they say about the size of a male's nose -- and I guess so do the female proboscis monkeys, who judge their potential mates by their noses...

Look at this devotion! Despite being on vacation in Sarawak, I'm adding news updates! Actually, I had some time to kill before my Internet cafe hour was up.

Top stories of the day:

The year's biggest tech flops - fun roundup, recommended reading

Tunnel to link Russia with Alaska - drive from Tierra Del Fuego to Johannesburg!

The 10 most disturbing trends in Hollywood - big rant

Sidenote: Using web-based file management is turning out to be faster and more efficient than ftping these news items! Yes, these daily news items are still created using technology from the Stone Age, before the invention of we::blog.

There are no crosswalks in Kuching.

So good luck trying to cross the street considering most roads are one way, intersections are circular roundabouts and therefore, cars don't ever stop.

While I wait for a "safe" (L.A. standards) opening to cross the road, everyone is jumping out into the street and timing it so that they weave through the cars!

We're talking Frogger margins of error here.

The rain. I'm pretty much used to the constant drizzle where you never quite get soaked -- you dry off as fast as you get wet. And if it ever really starts to pour, I just wait a couple minutes under cover and it passes.

I don't mind being hot and sweaty but I hate being stinky. And right now, I really stink.

The highlight of the day? Uh, the famous Kuching Cat Statue?

Why the cat? Well, most people I ask don't want their pictures taken. Pointing to the camera and then to the person usually elicits the wave off. So I figured instead of pointing with my index finger (did I read somewhere not to do that?), I'd point with my thumb like I see other people do. Still no! I learned "Boleh saya ambil gambar?" (Can I take a picture?) from some locals and it worked once so I'll see how that goes...

One thing about these Internet cafes: the connection is down half the time... and I'm paying big bucks to be online! US$1.50/hour.

I'm eating really good Nasi Goreng in a hawker stall and everyone is staring at the television, transfixed. MTV is on the tube. Boy and girl bands galore.

After Cathay Pacific cancelled my flight to Singapore without telling me (I found out when confirming the flight), I was risking getting stranded in Singapore. The woman from Cathay explained to me: "Well, we've booked you on a later flight to Singapore, but unfortunately, your Malaysian Airlines connecting flight to Kuching leaves before your Cathay flight even leaves Hong Kong!"

Great.

And after getting the run-around from Cathay to Expedia and back again I asked to speak to a supervisor. Bingo. "It is our responsibility since we cancelled your flight to get you to Kuching." So I took an earlier flight to Singapore and stayed overnight.

Now, the official language of Singapore is English and Mandarin and yet the taxi driver (paid for by Cathay) didn't speak English. "Shuo guoyu, ma?" he asked me. Uh... "Yi dian yi dian. Lei sic gong dong wah?" I wanted to know if he could speak Cantonese. "Sic!" In fact, he speaks Hokkien and Malay also. He tells me Le Meridien Changi is a terrible, terrible hotel for taxis since it's out of the way and there are no fares on the way back.

Up at 6:00AM. Fly to Kuching.

Right out of Kuching Airport and I am sweating bullets. Reminds me of the good ol' days when I lived in Singapore. I like it. But the ATM doesn't take my crazy seven-digit pin and I've long since forgotten my four-digit pin for my other card... I didn't follow my own damn backpacking checklist and prepare properly!

Then on the ride into town, it starts raining. And I regret not bringing a rain jacket for the 16 days of rain that Sarawak and Sabah get in January.

B&B Inn is exactly what I expect from a hostel. No amenities, just a cot in a room, bare walls, concrete floor. Strangely, no other travelers around. Maybe they're all out exploring the town?

Anyway, up a winding road past the local high school, the first thing I see as I walk through the shopping center is a place called Cyber City. Internet!

And here I am.