Spain and other things.

Where to go from here is the only possible question floating in my head at the moment.

I came back from Spain with a sense of focus and determination to get things done.

My future
So first order of business, I’m interested in pursuing a management role at some point in my career.

I also realized I have a special quality, I think outside the box. I won’t mention specifics since I don’t know if a few people read this blog but the incident proved to me that I did and I was very proud of myself for that 🙂 Especially since it happened at Yahoo.

Terrorism and airport security
I find it a bit amusing to think that terrorist believe blowing up jetliners, crashing into tall buildings, and blowing up their own people can drive a message to anyone. Its like saying a criminal can drive home his message of social injustice and the lack of proper alternatives in his area by murdering and stealing. Don’t think that adds up. If at all, I feel that terrorism pushes people to do the opposite, hate their message.

I also noticed a few things while flying overseas during the latest fiasco in Amsterdam. While in Amsterdam I realized there were no bomb sniffing dogs, yet when landing in LAX there were. Didn’t the guy want to blow up the plane WHILE in the air? And NOT on the ground already in the airport?

Another observation. Restrooms in airplanes. They make me nervous everytime someone goes in there. People can take allll the time in the world in there. Who knows what they are doing in there. The airline industry needs to have some type of way to know when the cabinets or the toilet seat are being tampered with. Please don’t tell me it’s just that stupid blue sticker on the sides of the toilet which can be easily seen while you’re standing.

Here’s another point. What happens when there are 2 or more suicide bombers in the plane? Sure the general public can stop one. While everyone is focused on suicide bomber number 1, suicide bomber number 2 is busy doing his thing. That is what scares me. I had this similar idea while the Iraq war was going on and there were tons of cars smashing into gates with bombs. I told my girl friend, “Wow these are some pretty stupid people. Watch someone is going to come up with the bright idea of having 2 cars. A lead car has a low level bomb which blows up the gate and any obstacles in its way, the second car will just drive up and actually make it to the target.” Guess what happened about a month later…you guess it there was an attack which followed such a plan.

Also to the security checkpoint personnel. PLEASE don’t look at someone that looks like a terrorist and ask him/her tons of questions. They are more than likely not the person your looking for. Please focus your attention on the man who just walked passed you? Yes that guy with the nice suite on that is a bit too big for him and shoes which obviously DONT go with the suit. Look at him! Don’t just smile at him and tell him he will be notified when his suitcase will be on board for the 10th time he’s asked about it (shouldn’t that ring a few bells to begin with???).

Security checkpoints and their personnel are the biggest issues. Pay them more to care more. If John Doe is getting paid 30k and is asked to look the other way for 100k just for one second…your telling me he/she won’t? Sure, you might say, “but they care blah blah blah. And we hire people who wont blah blah blah” and I will say, “Wake up idiot.”. I’ve gone through countless checkpoints where the security personnel simply want to get people through. Hell, I even went through a checkpoint where no one took of their shoes just recently. Soo…we need to drive home the theme, “keep vigilant! Your fuck up can mean lives”.

The biggest mistake America has is its lack of imagination. Thinking up ways to bring chaos to the world should have its own department.

Why do I write this? Because I don’t want to feel stressed, well more stressed when someone goes into the bathroom and takes a day and a half to use it. Get your shit done US government.

By the way the new full body scanners…yea they don’t pick up plastic explosives. Big improvement…*sigh

My Spain Trip
So I took a long vacation in Spain and realized I take about a day to get the rhythm of the city down. Yes all cities have a beat, a rhythm people follow. If you notice the pace in which a person in Los Angeles walks or talks or even lives life it’s much different than someone in San Jose. So too Spain is different to me. The small things people do sets the tourist from the native.

It’s not even that either. I’ve driven in a few countries, Scotland, Mexico, and now Spain. And even the driving is different, the pace in which people drive is completely different. But I think I got it all down and weaved around the VERY narrow streets of Seville. Great fun.

All in all I loved Spain more than I thought I would. Like I told a friend, “people can have Paris as the love capital of the world. To me Spain’s Seville is truly romantic!”

Airplane etiquette.
On the flight to Spain, well to Amsterdam from LAX I sat in the center. Between my girl friend and some guy. At first I thought, “Cool he seems like an nice dude we might talk about stuff along the way!” Not so.

The first sign of trouble was the fight for the arm rest. He had his; he was seated in an aisle seat. At the 4 hour mark he started to go over the arm rest and into my area. I slowly pushed him off and he came back for more. I said, ok whatever. He then ordered 2 red wines, drank them, and went to sleep. He was oh so comfortable that he LITERALLY placed his elbow on my shoulder to get more comfortable. I grabbed his arm and tossed it to the side making a point to calm the fuck down. He looked at me as if mad and I just gave him the “fuck off dude” look I give people (I’m sure you’ve seen it before). That’s when things got much better. But what I’m trying to say is, does it really need to come down to that? Someone giving someone else a big “fuck you” look to make people understand that in tight quarters people need and appreciate their space? What’s happening to people’s sense of respect for others?

Arrogant American
I was having tapas in Spain when I heard a small conversation go like so:

American: Do you have a menu?
Spanish Bar tender: huh?
American: Do.you.have.a.menu? Why can’t you guys learn English!
Spanish Bartender: Se dise “Carta”! And you’re in Spain we talk Spanish here, why do I need to learn English YOUR in Spain YOU learn Spanish!
American: (I’m sure felt stupid…if he didn’t I wish he did) *Sat quietly at the bar.

My point. Don’t go into another country thinking that everyone knows English or feel insulted if someone doesn’t know English. Not everything revolves around English. So far I’ve noticed 3 major languages that everyone seems to know outside the US. French, Spanish, and English. I place English last since that’s the least one that I’ve noticed spoken.

There was a waitress in a restaurant in Seville which wasn’t that hot but became hot when she started to speak in Spanish, English, French, and Arabic. Out of all of them Arabic sounded very nice. Not bad.

Vacationing.
I’m going to start going to Mexico from now on. I’m going to hang my Europe and even my Asia coat for now and just try to see much of Mexico. Let’s see how that goes.

Armando Padilla – on “Sick”