coreyshields.com

(btw, I have turned off twitter blog updates while in Singapore, so I don't wake up a bunch of people who are getting my tweets on their cell phones.. Also I heard that some people are watching my blog since I am in Singapore, so I'll try to post more)

So my days in Singapore have started typically around 5:00 AM (2:00 PM back home). This is so I can get up and spend a couple of US working hours sorting things out with my team. So, once that is caught up, I've showered, and had some breakfast, I call home via Skype. For those under a rock, Skype is an audio and video conferencing application. Before this trip I picked up a VGA portable webcam that clips to the top of the laptop, and Nicole has the iMac with a built in webcam.

I have to say that I am amazed at the quality of the video and audio that comes through skype. There is a bit of latency between Singapore and the US West coast (~230ms), and we can do full screen video both directions with great frame rates and good audio. It really helps the kids (and me!) to be able to see each other. I can still make faces at Trevor and watch him smile.

During today's call, for whatever reason, some of the audio was cutting out and sounded choppy. We ended our call a bit early and switched back to IM for the conversation.

Didn't think much about it until now. I mean, how awesome is it that I am in a small tropical island-nation, 24 hours of travel to get home, and I can have a real time full-video call back home (not to mention without a per-minute fee). That is quite a feat, something that 15 years ago, the BBS days, was unheard of.. And then there was CUSeeMe with the grayscale quickcams. That was so choppy, cheesy, and crappy looking that it was a joke. Today, such technology is a reality.

...and the sad thing about it is that I feel put out and inconvenienced when it doesn't work just right like this morning. Shame on me.. I really am quite happy to live in such an awesome time in tech.

Today's Singapore cuisine: For lunch we had some local chicken (roasted) and rice, with a very spicy dipping sauce, some garlic green beans, curry vegetables, and these rocking chicken wings that had a sauce unlike I had ever tasted before. Sweet yet roasted flavor. Dinner was a higher-end Japanese restaurant, where I got my Katsu fix. Jumbo Katsu with 3 different sauces, some cabbage, and miso soup. yummmy.. I could eat Katsu every day if the roof of my mouth could sustain the grinding effect.

:)

In the last month and half I've gotten a passport and been to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo for work.. I'm now on my second trip to Singapore. Staying for a few weeks while we build out a cluster of online gaming servers.

Singapore is great, I love it! The city is beautiful and clean, safe and well kept. If you had asked me 6 months ago to prioritize places in the world to go see, Asia would have been at the very bottom. The language barrier freaks me out, and even moreso where I can't at least guess the meaning of a word because it doesn't use a similar alphabet. This is definitely the case in Tokyo.. Singapore, however, is as much English speaking as any other language here (mainly English, Mandarin, and Malay are spoken here). So I get the comfort of my singular language skills with the total Asian experience. Suddenly this place jumped to the top of my list of places to visit.

I didn't know much about this place until I was told I was taking a trip here (the boss gave me a generous 3 weeks notice before my first international trip). I knew all about the whole graffiti caning incident back in the Clinton days (I always respected Singapore for having such strict rules and punishments.. USA is weak). Beyond that I didn't know much. Turned to the Singapore article on wikipedia for more info. I'd recommend reading it just as a quick trivial knowledge boost. Lot of interesting stuff surrounding this little island country.

I've had a lot of interesting food in the past couple of months.. Tried escargo last night which was not bad, but anything is good when you drown it with enough garlic butter. Had sashimi (raw fish) in Tokyo, see the pic below. The sashimi experience was the absolute best.. I don't think I will ever do raw fish back in the states, but this was prime fresh and prepared just right.

So I'm still here in Singapore for a couple of weeks.. Very busy (as I have been the past 2 months, too busy to blog unfortunately). Hopefully I'll get more pictures this time too. For now it's work work work so I can get back home to Nicole and the kids as soon as possible!!

Whoops! Looks like all of my linkedin mail has been getting bounced so I've missed a ton of requests.. Going through them right now. Sorry if I've missed your request for so long.

[Nicole] You know the star of the new Transformers movie?

[Me] Yeah..

[Nicole] Did you know he is Fergie's boyfriend?

[Me] No.. No, you said the "star" of the new Transformers movie.. The real star is Optimus Prime. Anyone else would be a supporting actor.

[Nicole] . . .

she just doesn't understand.....

I'm moving my blog to my domain, and switching to Drupal. I have yet to find a Wordpress 2 to Drupal 5 migration script, so the old posts may not make it into this setup. I'll keep looking..