Airline mess

So I booked my flight with United Airlines from Burbank to LA on the 12/21... 1 stop at SF which is fine to save an additional 150 bucks. (total $400.. pretty cheap for christmas time) Then I get an email back in early october saying my flight's been cancelled. So I called and changed it to 12/20 (saturday)

But this week we finally started planning on vegas trip. And since some people were going to be there on friday (12/19), I called United to see if I can fly into vegas and how much the change would be. They said an additional $750 dollars! (I can hear the united airlines lady sorta laughing to herself cuz she knew it was ridiculous). So i decided just to drive to vegas from LA.

But this morning, bmao said there are cheap flights to vegas from LA. (like 59 bucks... but after taxes more like 90) So not thinking enough, I booked a flight from Burbank to Vegas.  Not bad right? Well, then I thought to myself... NY---> SF---> LA----> Vegas on 12/20 night... seems dumb. So I checked Virgin for a flight from JFK to vegas on the 12/19 and it was only $159! I called United to cancel my flight to LA... and said "sure, we'll refund you 200 bucks... but there's a $150 change fee... so you get $50 bucks voucher." I asked why the change to cancel a flight was so expensive. They said it's because I got an internet deal so it affects the other ticket price. So I said "then, what if I cancel the roundtrip ticket?" They said I would still get charged $150. SO DUMB. So I just cancelled the flight to LA.

And then I had to cancel my Southwest flight to vegas, and at least that was a non refundable, but  transferrable flight. As long as I use it within a year. I asked "what if I don't use it within the year?" Then the black lady said "Then you lose it". Booked flight on Virgin... JFK--->Vegas. The end.

Moral of the story: Get transferrable tickets or have a clear plan in advance. And don't fly with United.

2k9

So I'm playing my Lakers against the hated Celtics (physical therapy paul). 2 days ago, I beat him by 20 points, and this time it was a much closer game. (6).  And then I was replaying the end of the game, and looked over to my bench. Fricken Josh Powell isn't paying attention to the game. Took a screenshot:

A closer look

Domokun...

I first saw domokun like in... 2003 or 4? Was watching Michelle Kwon skate in Japan on TV, and when she finished her performance, people started throwin domokun dolls on the ice rink. She picked up one and was carrying it during the interview. I was like "I need to have one!" (domokun, not michelle kwan) 

Visiting the NHK station... where Domokun is the mascot.

My latest domos: a cube domo and domo keychain after climbing Mt. Fuji.

Then Domo somehow became the official mascot for Target during Halloween which was bizzare.

 Now this! Domo is high fashion?!...

Domo is all growns up. Maybe time for me to let him go.

Logitech Harmony 550

Man, universal remotes, probably the 2nd best invention ever!!!. (next to the iphone) Instead of taking 10-15 second to switch/figure out one device tfrom the next, all I do is click on one button. All set up on the computer! I know know, it's been out for a while... but I'm stoked. Even works with the xbox360

Shirts

2 new shirts! (15% off) Happy black friday everybody. Grace, can you translate what the kanji says? (or ask yuki/yuka to) Just finished "Ender's Game". Pretty fun read, but I didn't like that fact that Ender kept winning all the time. Didn't face any difficult challenges. Probably won't read the other books in the Ender series. I got the book from the library, and it was all brown and smelly. Hmm.. now I need to find another teen-book to read. Actually, I should finish "Watchmen" before the movie comes out. 

Prethanksgivingparty.

This is what happens when people are tired of working. Wednesday night, long weekend, Party!...  Since I'm "working from home", weekends and weekdays are the same to me. Got a haircut today, but I look exactly the same. Pretty much like flushing money down the toilet. But the haircut/stylist was a cool guy from Japan. Used my broken Japanese to talk about things like: what I do in the city, where I live, what I do for fun, when I moved to the u.s, how often I visit Japan.... Getting a haircut is like going to an interrogation room. 

No one blogs anymore

This blog is like a tree falling in the forrest. No one knows I have this blogger account. Xanga is dead, and everyone (including me) is busy in the facebook world updating profile pics, status, and uploading pictures... Facebook is on a pretty good run right now... wonder when it will die off. My web browsing history:

friendster ---> xanga ----> facebook

ebay ---> craigslist ---> stubhub --->  just buy it new and give old stuff to nephew/niece

aol ---> school account ----> yahoo mail ---> gmail

 

So this is my 5th year since I've moved out of LA to NY. And for all 5 years, I haven't been back for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was never a big holiday in my family. Maybe because 1. I grew up in Japan my early years. 2. Sister and the kids live in Japan,  and they never come back. 3. It's only a couple days, and it's not really worth it to flying back and forth when Christmas is just around the corner.

So I'm trying to stimulate the economy all by myself. Bought a surround sound system, blu-ray dvd player, all the expensive cable that goes with it, and few movies off of amazon: wall•e, nightmare before christmas, and ratatouille. The thing is, 95% of the movies I buy, I usually don't end up watching it more than once. Let's list a movie I've watched more than 5 times that I own:

1. Spirited Away

2. Nightmare before christmas (which my sister took to japan, so I am replacing that copy)

3. When Harry met Sally

4. Gladiator

5. Usual suspects

Speaking of usual suspects, Kevin spacey was one of my favorite actors. Here is a list of actors who i used to like, but now I think are kinda duds:

1. Kevin Spacey 

2. Ed Norton

3. Harrison Ford (maybe because he's old now)

4. All 3 "three amigos"

5. Eddie murphy

Ok, back to thanksgiving. I am thankful for my health, a job that isn't too stressful, good friends and family, Lakers winning lots of games, iphone, fun xbox video games, my apartment, and... 2 bros pizza couple doors down. A slice of pizza for a dollar? What a deal. Especially in time of recession! But can't eat that too much or else your health will deteriorate. Which reminds me, I really need to eat more vegetables and fruit. 

Ok done.