King Kong’s got nothing on me

:O Well maybe not nothing ;;) But I have hung my toes over the edge of a cliff taller than the Empire State Building.

The perfect day!

Today I was driving north of Cicni on I71. It was the perfect fall day. The sun was out. The tempeture was cool enough to give you that feeling of fall but was warm enough to be completely relaxing. The trees were in full color. As I was driving I came to the top of a small ridge. In front of me was a deep valley with a bridge over it. The whole valley was completely covered with trees. It seemed every tree was some bright fall color. The sun was behind me so all the trees seemed to be so bright they almost look to be on fire. It was one of those moments you hope you can remember. Regards, Doug

Predicting the Future

My friend Pat sent this to me. I love this. I here experts on the TV and radio’s all the time stating things as if they were facts.

This Old House (How Odd)

Buying is cheaper than building ??? :-/

New toy more than I expected

I bought a new toy. It is a talking translation dictionary, but there is more that what meets the eye.

Slattery gets Shanghai’ed

Slattery gets Shanghai’ed at the Shanghai airport by a “taxi”. Film at 11:00.
now for the rest of the story

I was at the airport, just picked up my luggage. I guy asked if I needed a taxi. I said yes but not yet. Then I headed off to the ATM. The ATM didn’t work for me and my card so I started looking around for another ATM. THe same guy sees me looking for something so he asked what I want. I said I needed to find an ATM that works for me. He leads me to a elevator and then to a bank I would have never of found on my own. I find out the exchange rate then get about $150 worth. “I didn’t want to get too much while someone I didn’t know was watching. So then he leads me to the street and calls a taxi. It looks a lot like taxis I’ve been in before so I get in.
As we pull away and get onto the main road I noticed all the other taxi’s look like the yellow cabs from back home. Now I figure I’m in trouble.
So I ask how long will it take to get there. They say about 1 hour. So I wait for a bit, until they start talking to me. I wanted them to start things off. That way I seemed relaxed. So now I have to set up the sting.
Step 1) make them feel safe. I ask them how much with this cost. They tell me in RMBs. It was about $100 US. I know how much it is but I want to ask. The dumber I look the safer they will feel. 2 min later I ask again, “How much is that in US again?” About 5 min later I ask again. After answering They talk a bit in Chinese. I guess they are saying something like: “boy this guy is an idiot” Step 1: check.
Step 2) something to lose. I need them to get real excited about how much money they can make from me. I start asking things like “what is that?” and “What’s that over there?”. Giving them a change to impress me with their knowledge of Shanghai. After 3 good answers I asked if they do tours too. They said yes why? I told them that I have 1 week of work but then I have 1 week of vacation and I’ll need someone to take me around for a day or 2. “Do you rent out for a whole day?” They said yes. Then I asked how many days would it take to see everything? They said 4 days. I asked if we could do it all in 3 days (I didn’t want to be too easy a mark) I let them talk me into 4 days. If they were charging me $100 for 1 hour I’m sure they were thinking they could take the rest of the month off after there are done with me. Step 2: check.
step 3) the hook. I say that sounds good. I ask for a receipt. Oh ya and can you give me your name and number so that I can call you when I’m ready. He gave me his name, His home number and his cel number. The drivers name and number too. Now he can’t run away with my luggage. Step 3: check.
Step 4) The switch. As we get close to the hotel I tell them that I’m not sure if I have reservations or not, so could they wait for me while I check. If I don’t I’ll need to pay them to take me to another place. With all the $$$$$ in their eyes they were more than happy to wait. Once inside I find the hotel manager and ask him if this was a fair amount. They could be OK, I don’t know. Well when the manager sees how much this guy is trying to charge me his eyes get real big and makes a shocked noise. He asked me who is charging me this so I point them out. I also tell him they still have my luggage. The manager tells me these are real bad guys then runs out and starts yelling at them. He gets my luggage and tells them to get out of here. I ask how much is fair but the manager says not to pay them I didn’t want to look over my back all week so I said I didn’t mind paying fair value. I gave them about $10 which was just under fair value and left. The most amazing thing was the shocked and hurt look this guy had when he figured out that I had played him. He looked genuinely hurt that I didn’t trust him.
Anyway it all worked out very well. EDS got a discount, I found the bank that I would not have otherwise and they got me to the hotel about 20 min faster than a regular taxi.

Mars at it’s closest

This was me at the top of my hotel. I tryed to take a picture on the night Mars was the nearest to Earth it was going to get in my lifetime.