Work Emergency

I was working overtime this Saturday trying to get the balance of a seven million forecast out of the door. We only have two more days, Monday and Tuesday, to get the rest of the orders out. The night inspection crew were not really happy to be asked to work overtime. It pretty much rearranged your schedule and sleep patterns. This day was not that problematic, but because of the hot weather we were a little slow. We only have a few jobs available when night shift started, because the rest of the jobs were locked inside the storage room. An outside contractor's work crew was working inside the building cleaning the air ducts from the build up residue from coating the pins.

The shift was almost over and I had my area cleaned up when another inspector came to drop parts for the cetyl alcohol area. I was helping him unload the pans. When he finished I walked him to his electrical golf cart while talking about how slow it was that day. Suddenly I heard a big explosion and a second later I felt hot air rush out of the door. I was facing away from the big door when the explosion occured and I got the heat square on my back. I turned around and saw what looks like sparks flying inside the building. I also saw a few people inside running for the door. I told my friend to run to the opposite building.

I saw the new safety officer, who was supervising the work, ran outside and started to yell to call 911. I ran to the guard shack, but the guard was not there and the door was locked. I ran back to a safe distance. The rest of the people started to go home since they clocked out already. I called my lead lady and she told us to leave and go home. I kept telling her I needed to run inside our office to get my bag and my phone. I later realized that I had my missing phone in my hand, the one I was using to talk to her. My co-workers and I went home while the fire department was hosing down the inside of the building. What a day!

Restaurant: Catalina Coffee Company

This is our favorite coffee shop in the whole of Southbay California. The atmosphere is fantastic and being near the beach is a plus. They serve great fresh ground roasted coffee, soothing teas, delicious baked goods, excellent sandwiches and far out exotic sodas. They have a used mystery book store, a great fireplace, an outdoor patio, internet connected computers, games and serene surrounding. Lady Steel and I would visit and relax while drinking our coffee. I would be reading one book or another, while she would be fixing the content of her bag or catching up on correspondence. This place is very close to me because I have the best chat here with my wife or sister.

Catalina Coffee Company
126 North Catalina Avenue
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-318-2499

The UFO Incident

My wife and I were driving her Aunt and Uncle to San Jose, California to their other niece's house after a few weeks stay with us. We left Los Angeles in the late afternoon to be able to avoid the heat. The trip was uneventful, but we have a colorful and cheerful chat among us to occupy the time. We reached Gilroy very late and a road construction was in progress forcing us to use a different route to San Jose. We were waiting for our turn on the only lane open for both opposing traffic for a few miles. While we were last in the line of cars waiting for our turn on this one lane, I noticed a set of headlight coming towards the rear of our rented van. I thought it would be hilarious and crazy if the headlight was really a UFO flying low to the ground.

I kept looking at my rear view mirror and mentally said that the vehicle seemed to be travelling a little fast. I looked around the van and no one noticed the approaching vehicle. I again looked in my rear view mirror and the head lights was still coming toward us. I started to panic when I was looking at the headlights I could swear it was about to hit the back of the van. I yelped out loud when I saw the lights about to hit and then it split into two separate lights. One light went to the right side of the van and the other to the left side. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the headlights were from two motorcycles. They went on each side of the van to avoid the traffic and leap frog to the front of the line. It took a while for my pounding heart to calm down. We reached our destination without another incident or UFO sighting..

The Spear Incident

When I was growing up in Manila, Philippines, I remembered an incident involving one of my cousin. The house we lived in Madison Street was next to my grandfather's warehouse. The old trucks, tires, treehouse, old oil drums and a lot more junk became fodder for our rich imaginations. We turned the oil drums into horses. Our wild west bar was a board between two standing oil drums. The old empty bottles were our whiskey and the flattened bottle caps were our coins. We played cops and robber, cowboys and indians and even Tarzan.

It was while we were playing Tarzan that an accident happened. It started when we crafted spears from the wood poles and metal welding rods. After watching an episode of Tarzan where the hero exchange spear throws with his enemy, we tried it with our spears. We stood a decent distance apart from each other like Tarzan in the TV show. I threw the first spear and missed him by two feet, purposely missing him like in the Tarzan show. My cousin aimed his shot and threw his own spear toward myself. He threw the spear a little harder than he wanted. Instead of it landing in front of me, it found my left leg.

We were both shocked, I guess, I was more shocked because I have a spear imbedded into my leg. The wound was deep, but it was a clean straight wound. I pulled the spear out of the wound and saw blood spurting from the hole it left. My cousin helped me to our house to get it taken cared by my Mom. When my Mom saw us we explained what happened. She clean the wound and put a bandage on it. She asked if we would be repeating that crazy escapade and we answered a big "no, Mom." Thinking back now, I don't really think I cried when the incident happened. I was so shocked because of the spear in my leg and also imagining how mad my parents would be at me. I was just glad I didn't get punished and grounded.

Down Hill Slalom

When I was growing up in Baguio, Philippines, my friends and I discovered a new sport. The house my family and I were staying was at the bottom of the hill. The street was very steep and paved with cemented gravel, to allow vehicles more traction on the road. The gravel were rough and raised to allow the tires to grip better when climbing up the hill. There was a house construction site were they gave us scrap plywood. We waxed the bottom of the plywood with candles. We went to the top of the hill, sat on the plywood ans slid down the hill. The raised gravel allowed the plywood to slide all the way down hill. We slid down at a high speed, but we were able to avoid major cuts and bruises. We played this game for a few months until we found other games to play. I love it when the wind caress your face as you hurl yourself downhill. It was not smart, but very enjoyable.

Restaurant: Kelly's Coffee & Fudge Factory

This is one of my wife's favorite coffee shop. She liked the way this particular shop make their house mocha. A house mocha or Kelly's Mocha is a mixture of coffee of the day, steamed milk, chocolate and topped with whipped cream. She would also buy a muffin with her coffee. I on the other hand, depending on my mood or state of alertness pick from several drink like Jump Start, iced cappuccino and house mocha sans the whipped cream. This is our first stop before heading to the AMC Rolling Hills 20 movie cinema next door or just hang out catching up on our daily talks.

Kelly's Coffee & Fudge Factory
Torrance #5
2595 Airport Drive
Torrance, CA 90505
(310) 539-7201

Born To Cha Cha

When I was seven years old growing up in Baguio, Philippines, I learned how to dance Cha Cha from one of my relatives. I became very adept at dancing the Cha Cha after practicing every day after school. I started to teach my classmates after they found out I knew how to dance. So for several weeks, we would all go to the grassy knoll in front of the school during recess and practice dancing the Cha Cha. I became very popular with my classmates and my teacher smile at me a lot when we came in after recess.

Country Line Dance Party

In my early 20's before I got married Frank and I would wander a lot in my pick-up truck. After coming back from the Idaho trip were Frank and I learned about country line dancing, my friends and I decided to practice every week at my apartment. Frank or I would show them the steps we learned and everyone would practice for one hour each week. The furniture would be moved and my room mate would invite all of our friends. The music would be pure country, like Dan Seal's Bop and Don Williams' Tulsa Time. The drinks would flow and the guests would dance. We never made it to a dance floor, but we were ready to dance at the drop of the hat.

The Great Street War

When I was a young kid still living in San Juan, Metro Manila, I grew up with a few friends and my abundant cousins. I don't know how it started, but one day we got into a fight with the kids from the next street. The taunting and the jeering were very vicious that war was declared. The designated warzone was the local church parking lot. The opposing street's kids were positioned on one side of the parking lot, while we are positioned on the opposite side. We have collected a huge amount stones and rocks as missile ammunitions. The melee did not last long, but a huge amount of flying missiles were exchange during the short period. I was pedaling the only mobile rock launcher, a beat up bicycle, in the whole conflict, while my cousin launched rocks from behind me. There were slingshots used but because of the distance accuracy was not great. After the missile melee, no kids were hurt, but a few of the ornamental big flower pots were smashed. Realizing what we have done, everyone ran home and after a day or two truce was declared.

Geocache: Getting Ready

Well, I bought a GPS device today. I also signed up on GEOCACHING.COM. I am preparing for my first geocache hunt. I found information on some caches near my house that I would like to try first. As I get better with using my GPS, I will start looking for cache that are far away. I might even start participating in finding and releasing Travel Bugs. I'll repot my activities here and in GEOCACHING.COM.

Spelljammer

I love role playing games. I have been participating as a player and lately as a DM (Dungeon Master) since 1985. As a DM, I have the role of storyteller, referee and judge to help guide the players in the game. My favorite Gaming scenerio are AD&D: Spelljammer and BattleTech (Mechwarrior). I am a member of the Spelljamming Mailing List, an online help group for Spelljammer. Spelljammer Beyond The Moons is the official website for the Spelljammer universe.

Playing House And Cooking Lunch

When I was a young boy on vacation in Bulacan, Philippines, I had many adventures with a group of friends I grew up with at my Grandma's town. One memorable experience was the time two of my friends and I were playing house at my friend's frontyard. We have clay pots and pans full of dirt and leaves on a pretend stove. My friend's Mom saw us and she called her inside the house. We thought that the game was over and about to leave when she came out of the house holding several genuine clay cooking pot. She told us to gather some wood for a fire,since her mother decided we might as well cook our lunch while playing house. She went back in and returned with the ingredients for our lunch. We cooked a pot of rice, and a pot of sinigang na hipon (shrimp sour soup)on the fire. I can imagine only a few times when the food tasted better than that time. Three 10 year old kids cooking their own lunch without adults around us was very eye opening. I am glad that the mother trusted us enough to allow us to live beyond playing house.

SETI@home

I started participating with this group after I heared them mentioned on a radio program. I am curious about the idea of helping find intelligent life on another planet. I joined SETI@home and downloaded a program that would analize files collected by the group. The files were scans of a specific area in space gathered from Aracebo Radio Observatory. My setup allowed the program to run as a screen saver allowing SETI@home to run only when I am not using the computer. I download the files, the program run when the computer is idle and I upload the finished file back to SETI@home. Woohoo! Space is the place!

Restaurant: Spires Coffee Shop

This is our local around the corner restaurant. My wife and I eat here, especially when we are too lazy to drive far from home. My wife and I would sometimes dine here in the middle of the night since they are open 24 hours. My sister and I would also dine here after I worked overtime on Fridays. We would chat and catch up on things we missed during the week. I would always order breakfast since it fills me up and the breakfast taste excellent. Nothing to write home about, but then again we are already near home. =)

Spires Coffee Shop
22327 Wilmington Ave.
Carson, CA 90745

Steel Realms Bulletin Board System

I have been running a BBS for more than ten years. My first BBS ran under Wildcat! BBS software and my current BBS is running under Synchronet BBS software. I started my own BBS after using several local BBS. My BBS is named Steel Realms and at the moment it not specializing in anything. It carry a few of echomail network, including FidoNet, DoveNet and at one time RIME Net. Before the internet became popular and easy to use, BBS was hub of the electronic community. We read and post messages, played text games and exchanged files on the BBS. Since the BBS started to use the internet instead of the phone to connect, we are seeing a new rebirth in the BBS community. I hope to continue and one day open my BBS to the public again.

The Grand Cooking Experiment

After my wife and I got married, I came to the realization that cooking was not one of her strong points. Mind you, she can cook when she puts her head into it and she collected recipes from the different restaurants she was employed. Her Korean fried chicken wings is one of my favorites. The problem starts when she get fixated on one particular recipe. Like that one time where she cooked the same recipe three times in one week and they never seemed to came out the same way. My wife has the habit of tweaking the recipe by adding or deleting an ingredient or two every time she cooked the same dish. One of my Mom's advice came in handy on occasions like this. "However it taste, always asked for a second helping," my Mom said to me. I realized that my wife put the effort in cooking the meal and that I should appreciate her and the food. I am lucky so far that all the meal she experimented with came out fine, if not great. I remedied the situation by volunteering of cooking the meal myself. She loved the meals I cooked and she never complained about my cooking. I wonder sometimes if I got tricked. I wonder?

Neighbor's Fried Chicken

When I was living in San Juan, Manila, Philippines, I and some friend would hang out at the the street corner every weekend. We went there for a great occasion. Our next door neigbor would be deep frying whole chickens in her kitchen with the back door opened wide. The smell was wonderful nothing like I ever smelled before in my entire young life. I always associated fried chicken, whole ones, as the height of luxury and great taste. My friends and I would dream of being invited to eat one of those succulent chickens. The crispy skin, the delicous meat and the enticing aroma would dance in our heads making us sigh. Mind you, we were not starving children, we ate pretty well as a middle class income family, but the luxury of a whole deep fried chicken was a little beyond the budget. I still have flashback of those days when innocence and youth makes eating a fried chicken a holy grail to be achieved. I ate my share of chickens since then, but I can still smell that aroma on it's meandering danced from our neighbor's kitchen to the street corner.

Happy Bithday Dad!

Happy Birthday!
On this occasion,
many wishes,
I hope I don't
end up doing
the dishes.

More music,
more smiles,
more joys,
more years,
more love,
more cheers.

A great husband
to a loving wife.
A firm father
to four crazy kids.
An adoring grandpa
to his grandkids.

All the best!
The best is
yet to be,
the future
is undefined,
we loved you
with all our hearts.

Wanderlust

When I was around ten or eleven, my paternal grandmother would asked me to join her in one of her many escapades. For a woman in her sixties, she loved to travel around the metropolitan city of Manila and surrounding provinces . She would visit each of her children, several churches and large markets in her wandering. She had the wanderlust in her blood and she have logged plenty of miles cris-crossing the island of Luzon. Amazingly, she did all of this travelling with bad eyesights. This was the reason she took me along in her journeys. I am her eyes in a world she can barely see.

Even with her bad eyesights, she would later have eye surgery, she would not listen to people about curtailing her travels. I became her travel companion, an excuse to continue her wandering. There were times that I knew she was doing things from memory. She have memorized the bus schedules, the roads and destinations. We can go from each of her childrens houses, even how remote or how many transfer we have to make on the buses. We have visited her favorite shrines and churches dozens of times. We have a lot of adventures together. I think I received my wanderlust from her, my love of travel, my itchy feet.

Restaurant: Seafood Port

My Dad celebrated his birthday on Sunday, instead of Tuesday, at one of our favorite restaurants. My Mom and Dad invited my wife and I for lunch at Seafood Port Chinese restaurant. My wife was not able to make it since she was working, but she asked me to buy her wonton soup for after work. My Mom ordered the fried whole fish, fried rice, scallops, shrimp chow mein and others. The food was wonderful. Of course, as usual, I came late, but I was still able to eat a lot of food. The whole family was full when we left the restaurant.

Seafood Port Chinese Restaurant
21180 Hawthorne Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90503
310-370-8478