Day 35: a normal Saturday in San Diego

I went in Lakeside, East of San Diego to purchase tickets for the rodeo tomorrow. It will be very fun to see a typical US show!!!

After that, I went in a Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart looks like a Carrefour supermarket in Belgium. The prices are on the lower side. Wal-Mart is known for underpaying its employees, and women are paid less than men. It made a scandal a few years ago... It's an interesting "social experience" to visit a Wal-Mart. I saw this morbidly obese guy in his little electric cart: he was so fat his belly was litterally hanging in front of him...

I finally catched a glimpse of Su Lin at the zoo at the end of the afternoon.

And this evening, I went to see another movie, "the soloist" with J. Foxx and R. Downey Jr. Not so good. It's the story of a homeless man (J. Foxx) with an incredible talent for music. A journalist (R. Downey Jr.) tries to help him, however, his mental disorders are too important and prevent him from playing in front of large crowds.

Day 34: spider hunting

I woke up this morning and immediately tried to locate the nasty spider that was on my ceiling yesterday. I must have been a hunter in a previous life. Or maybe I just suffer from arachnophobia... (like Garfield, the fat orange cat). Anyway, at first I didn't see anymore. So I was happy. Then I thought: if don't see it, that means it's somewhere else. So I double checked the ceiling once again (with my glasses, that helps when you have the eyesight of a mole), and I found it, hanging just above the bathroom door. Damned, damned, damned!

I had to find a way to eliminate this ugly beast. The vacuum cleaner was my first option: however it was too short and its succion power was very limited. So I decided to throw my slipper at the ceiling (I'm staying on the top floor, so I don't think anyone heard something): after a dozen attemps, I was able to touch it. Bingo! It fell on the carpet and I crushed it with my other slipper. Yeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssss!

After this heroic act, I went to walk in Downtown San Diego, in the Gaslamp Quarter.

I mostly did errands the whole day.

Tonight, I've been to the movie theater AMC in Fashion Valley to see this new movie "Fighting". I've seen the trailer a lot of time on TV. The film is shot in New-York City. It's very cool to see the movie if you like NYC, but it gets violent sometimes: it's the story of a tough guy, who fights in the undergroud street fighting circuit. The main actors are Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard and Zulay Henao.

Day 33: Patches

Let me introduce Patches, the new cat of Frank. Frank was my neighbor when I was living in San Diego. His appartment was located on the same floor as my studio. He now lives in El Cajon. I had dinner with him tonight in Alpine, a nice little town located East of San Diego. It was nice seeing him again. Frank used to work in Belgium, and his mother is French so he speaks perfectly French.

This morning I found a spider on my carpet. I don't like them, in fact I'm always scared when I see one... So I used my slipper to destroy it.

When I returned from my dinner, I found another big spider on my wall, close to the ceiling. I can't catch it because it's too high. Damn! I will have to sleep, knowing that a spider is on my wall... Brrrrrr :( :(

Day 32: the "iBrain" presentation (updated)

I did some errands today. Nothing very special to mention.
I visited one of my favorite shop in Old Town (Urban Wave Company, www.urbanwavecompany.com): they sell little purses made with used American license plates (Little Earth is the company manufacturing these purses).Most of you certainly have noticed that I don’t use a “classic” handbag, like the real “ladies” are supposed to carry. Instead, I use this small metallic cylinder made with a Texas license plate. It’s called a “Cyclone Purse”. Very cool. I like original things, so today I bought a Mississippi purse. The license plate is light green with a flower, very nice. I’ll show when I come back. I also met Ronald, the Swiss guy who owns the shop. He immediately recognized me (Ah, here’s my Belgian friend!).

At the end of the day, I met a Portuguese friend from Belgium (we used to work on our PhD’s in the same lab in Brussels). He now works at UCSD as a postdoctoral researcher. At 7 PM, we went to a bookstore in Del Mar, some 20 miles North of San Diego to listen to Dr. Gary Small, a neuroscientist from UCLA. Dr. Small was presenting his last book “iBrain”, about the influence of modern technologies on the evolution of the human brain. His presentation was nice (the lady sitting behind me was laughing very loudly during the presentation) and I bought his book, which he signed after his presentation. And I almost got a wiener dog with the book. Indeed, there dog was standing on top of the counter next to the cashier, and when I was searching for my money, he tried to climb on my shoulders and lick my face. I think the dog liked me very much!!!

After the presentation, we went to a nice Thai restaurant next to the bookstore. It was a good evening! I ate red curry with shrimps, and had mango with sticky rice as dessert.

Before returning to my studio, I stopped in Coronado and had a look at the San Diego Bay by night. It was calm and the view of the San Diego skyline was fantastic. The weather was quite cloudy tonight, as you can see in the pictures.

Day 31: the Miss USA controversy (updated)

Hi folks,

It has been a week since my last post. Don’t worry, I’m OK, I just did a lot of things and didn’t have an internet connection all the time. I’m now in San Diego. I’m currently typing my adventures of last week, and I will post them very soon.

Today, I went to Pacific Beach, a few miles North of San Diego. It’s a cool place to be if you like bars, beers, and clubs. It’s definitely a place for young people. It reminds me Venice Beach in L.A., but without the hippies. I’ve read in the newspaper that the San Diego Police patrols this area quite intensely at night for the moment. It’s indeed Spring Break, and lots of students gather there to drink (and get drunk…)… I didn’t see anything suspicious today, but I was there in the afternoon. I did see some homeless people. Hereafter, a picture of Pacific Beach.

I visited a new Ice Cream shop and tasted their products. They sell soft frozen yogurt, with different tastes (chocolate, cookie, mango, coconut, blueberry, banana, pistachios…). You simply grab a cup and serve yourself. You can add toppings (fresh fruits, nuts, even gummy bears…) and you pay your ice cream by the ounce (30 cents for 1 ounce, which is approximately 1 cent for 1 gram). The place was very cool so I took a picture after eating my ice cream. Bad idea… It was not permitted, even though no placards were posted… So the cashier yelled at me and I left promptly. Had she done that before I picked my ice cream, I wouldn’t have bought anything from them!!!

Now let’s talk about something quite funny. Remember, the Miss USA contest took place in Las Vegas on Sunday April 19th. Miss North Carolina (a blonde woman, of course, ultra thin with silicone boobs (you could actually see the silicone pouch contours…)) won the contest, and the runner-up was Miss California (blonde, perfect teeth (with veneers???), ultra thin with silicone boobs (yep, again…), false eyelashes and one ton of make-up on her face, so she looked really fake).

At the end of the contest, the judges ask a “delicate” question to each Miss (the remaining 5 finalists), so they can see if they actually have (a little chunk of) brain. Apparently, Miss California missed this essential organ. One of the judges was Perez Hilton, a gay celebrity blogger in the US. His question was: “Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?”.
Here’s Miss California’s answer : “(...) in my country and in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there. But that's how I was raised and that's how I think that it should be between a man and a woman.”

Ouch, that’s not clever to reply this, especially when the judge who asks you that question is gay… Maybe she would have received a round of applause had she made this statement at Church on Sunday… She could have said something more clever and diplomatic that doesn’t divide, but rather unites the people in the audience (after all, that what's Miss USA is supposed to do).

Anyway, the reason why I write about this, is that Miss California complained after the contest that she lost the crown because of she stated her opinion too clearly. She accused Perez Hilton for that matter in front of journalists. However, it was again very dumb to say that because the Miss USA jury is made of 12 judges. So the vote of Perez Hilton represented only about 8% of the total votes… Her answer has apparently shocked other jury members. Anyway, Miss California concluded her interview by saying that she was proud of having said what she tought and that she’ll gladly invite Perez for a prayer session… Dumb and stubborn until the end.

The hot topic in the media today was thus Miss California!!! Yes, that’s world news… I have seen dozens of reports on TV about this topic (on CNN, HNL, MSNBC, FOX...). Some media (conservatives) were clearly supporting Miss California. The funny thing is that in this situation, journalists invite people that have opposite views on the subject, and let them debate live. Waouw, that was fun to watch: I even saw a “Christian radio host Vs. Perez Hilton” debate on TV!!!

Anyway, I’ll let you judge this case by yourselves. All I can say is that the Miss who won was able to give a balanced, diplomatic and tolerant reply to some delicate questions. At least she showed she had a brain, and she wasn’t as fake as Miss California.
Maybe we should ask this kind of delicate question during our Miss Belgium pageant?

So we can all have a good laugh… (^_^)

Day 30: Point Loma (updated)

I visited Little Italy. There you can find the Nelson Camera store. I had a look at the Nikon lenses. Their price is going up for the moment (about 10% more expensive than last year...). There was a guy trying to buy a lens for its Canon reflex. He couldn't decide what he wanted. First he tried a 12-24 mm then a 90-210 mm... Then he wanted to see some cheaper lenses... I left before he made his choice. Anyway, I admire the patience of the salesman!!!

For those interested in photography: I use a Nikon D70s, with a standard 18-70 mm lens, and a 80-200 mm telelens in some situations (animal photography). I think the 18-70 mm lens is the most verstatile lens as I use it 98% of the time.

Hereafter some pictures of Little Italy (I used to live there a few weeks in October 2005 when I arrived in San Diego). It's quite close to the airport so you can see (and hear) the planes landing.

Then I went to Point Loma, where you can have a nice view of San Diego. It's a small peninsula, pointing in the Pacific Ocean. There you can see the Cabrillo Monument. J.R. Cabrillo was a Portuguese explorator, known as the European who dicovered San Diego.

Between San Diego and point Loma lies the Coronado Peninsula, with its military base. It was hot and very windy.

The old lighthouse is still there (it's the small white building you see on the picture).

You also get a nice view of the Coronado Bridge and the Hotel Del Coronado.

After that, I went to "Rock Bottom", a brewery in La Jolla. You can drink beers (however I don't drink alcohol) and eat typical American food. I tried the BBQ ribs. I only took what they call a half stack, which was already pretty large for me.

Then I visited the UCSD campus: a lot has changed since 2006. There are now many new buildings. It's going to be commencement day very soon, so you can see students queueing to borrow a cap, gown and tassel for the big day!

And finally, last but not least, I did my laundry... I went to the laundry facility at the intersection of Broadway and 25th, 1 block from my studio. There is a huge coin laudry facility (2.5 USD per machine). Nothing changed since I left in 2006. It's always packed with Mexicans: they have loads and loads of laundry: some people pack up to 5 large machines at a time! I'm impressed. I only had my underwear and a few T-shirts and shorts (hum, well, I'm on holidays...). I'm amazed because they put absolutely everything in those machines: clothes, towels, carpets, slippers... They tend to overstuff the machines and put a lot of soap. I always wonder if their clothes end up clean after that... Indeed, I noticed these washing machines did only use a small amount of water. So I think the efficiency is higher if you don't pile all your clothes at once in one machine... Anyway, someone had forgotten its softener bottle, so I used it a little bit. Cool!!!

Day 29: Mount Soledad (updated)

Nothing extraordinary to mention for Sunday 19th April. I went to Mount Soledad in La Jolla. From there you get a 360 degrees panoramic view of San Diego: herefater you can see

- the San Diego skyline with Interstate 5 on the left of the picture,

- Mission Bay,

- La Jolla with the Mormom temple and the Interstate 5,

- Torrey Pines and the Pacific Ocean.

The weather was super clear so you had a good view of everything.

After that I went to Seaport Village. It was not a good idea: it was overcrowded because there was some kind of "Art festival". There were many street artists (acrobats, magicians, singers...) performing there for the week-end.

I ate lunch in Coronado and at the end of the afternoon, I went to the Zoo (I'm a Member of the Zoological society of San Diego so I have a pass valid for one year) and tried to spot the pandas Su Lin and Zhen Zhen. Both pandas are the offsprings of Bai Yun (the mother) and Gao Gao (the father). Su Lin was born in August 2005, so I have been able to see her growing up during one year when I was working in San Diego. It was a funny panda, who liked to play with her keepers. Very fun to watch and to photograph. Her little sister Zhen Zhen was born two years later. This time, it was mating season, so only the parents were on display... After the pandas, I walked through the Cat Canyon before exiting the zoo: there were some panthers and pumas. Nice kitties, as long as their remain in their cages!!!

Hereafter a picture of the B-39 Foxtrot submarine (maritime museum) with the sunset in the background, and a picture of the sunset on the San Diego Bay.