dont be strangers

as part of my 'americas big three' city scramble, i hope all yall far and wide might make an effort to schedule quality face time if youre in
chicago, nyc or la over the next 2 wks. call marty.

chicago (now thru sept 4)
new york (sept 5-8)
los angeles (sept 9-10)
--> asia

travel channel update

for the past couple of days, ive felt queasy about going to pakistan. the us dept of state has issued a travel warning discouraging 'non-essential travel' due to precarious terrorist threats, which egged on feelings that karachi was perhaps too far off the beaten path. 'sectarian violence in punjab province has eased, although christians are still occasionally targeted' (sounds like my kind of place). but in the 2 hours i spent frantically creating an itinerary for the pakistani consulate general, i got re-enthused about the subcontinent. my lonely planet book couldnt conceal its disinterest in karachi, but was effusive about lahore, pakistans cultural center to the north. so ill spill some extra rupees for the additional flight into the hinterlands. plus... it only took 2 hrs to get me my $120 pakistani visa at their consulate on michigan ave. im sure my name and pic are already on their way to homeland security. look for my mug with 'half-korean al qaeda' on ur local news.

in terms of the bigger travel picture, its amazing what happens when you actually start doing some research about the places you plan to go. all of a sudden ive found logistically problematic holes in what looked like a fine itinerary. one or two scheduling snafus can be renegotiated thru an extra flight or by nixing a particular destination, but when u realize that your schedule has you missing asias biggest annual homo circuit party by mere days, an overhaul is mandatory.

so here she is. the additional $250 in change fees sucks, but im oh so much happier with my new schedule, which includes previously unscheduled days in japan:

9/4-9/8: nyc
9/9-9/10: la
9/11-9/17: kuala lumpur
9/17-9/19: penang
9/19-9/24: taipei
9/24-9/28: singapore
9/28-10/7: ho chi minh
10/7-10/8: hong kong
10/8-10/15: bali
10/15-10/20: hong kong
10/20-10/23: phuket
10/23-11/1: bangkok
11/1-11/7: karachi/lahore
11/7-11/8: seoul
11/8-11/11: daegu/jeju island
11/11-11/22: seoul
11/22-11/27: tokyo
11/27-12/4: seattle
12/4-... : ?

ill be a schizophrenic deaf mute by the time i return if i dont have any travel buddies... currently accepting qualified candidates. please?

reunitied and it feels so good

dear socialist rep. of viet nam,

thank you for returning my passport in due haste with a multiple-entry visa enclosed. i was fearful for a time, given the fact my pops was in the war and my submitted photo resembled the 20th hijacker. plus, it was just kinda scary to send my american freedom voucher so far away. i promise to be good.

yours truly,
pants

baby and the burbs

we went to the very fancy wilmette pool today. such is the life of the retired manny. zuzu wasnt her typically wild self, tho the water felt nice and its always a hoot to be around throngs of tweens.

the dust settles: zen lite

i enjoy undiagnosed ocd. since that fateful day a few months ago when i picked up a mac version of sim city, ive found an almost perfect creative hypnosis. after cautious experimentation, i spent several hundred hours creating my perfect gotham. 'central city' was an impressive beaut. in those quiet wee early morning hours, i built complex public transit systems that crisscrossed the grid via tunnels carved through mountains and plunged beneath rivers. miles of parks lined the perimeter of an island laden with skyscrapers inspired by a manhattan-meets-vancouver aesthetic. i was especially proud of my shore-conforming seawalls that manicured the shipyards and waterfront. at the risk boasting, these impressive public works were made while amassing a $17 million simoleon surplus and enjoying the highest mayoral rating possible! (prideful curtsy)

to many of you i sound no different than the techie geek living in his mothers basement who masturbates to the hybrid woman-cat cartoon warrior vixen he sketched. but to those of you in our large secret sim city society, i can feel your collective brows sag in genuine sympathy when i tell you that... purse, blink and gulp... central city is no more.

(moment of silence)

i was poised to enjoy a 3.5 hr flight with just me and my city. instead, not just these three hours but every hour henceforward must be endured without my simtropolis. (fyi: never restart your computer while sim city is loading). my reaction was surprisingly understated. after a few moments of disbelief, i felt a blanket of calm overtake me that a corpse might envy. perhaps its just my mandarin pop songs that keep me buoyed, but lately it seems like life dont much faze me. sure, losing ones fake city may not be the best way to demonstrate personal zen, but it reminds me that im increasingly appreciative of why things turn out the way they do and, accordingly, dont find myself resentful of the outcome. also, id rather not focus on the inordinate amount of time i spent making something meaningless that now, with it gone, seems even more pointless. i could also describe my evolved state as emotional death, but thats not flattering.

lately ive realized that time away to process the difficult environs of my childhood has helped me see that the worst is behind me and that when difficult times do arise, i can deal. its a liberating and safe feeling. when amongst others, however, given my own angry reactions to people telling me to 'calm down,' its never a good idea to ascribe your own adversity threshold to others. pants knows that you simply cant dismiss how folks feel.

sure, i miss my pritty city, but its abrupt destruction is prolly a good thing. more important than helping me acknowledge some fundamental absurdity and meaninglessness of life (im kidding), i got 3 wks before takeoff and i aint got no itinerary. so refrain from sim city, my pet! build me once, shame on you! build me twice, shame on me! get to work, marty!

metamorphosis

last night a young frenchman and canadienne slept on my couch, thanks to globalfreeloaders.com. since i am relying on this site to land free digs in asia, i thought it proper karma to offer my own home to seattle-bound travelers for the few days that im here.

so, at 12:01 am jeremie calls to say that he is here and asks if it is alright for a lady friend he just met to join him. eh, why not? double the pleasure, double the fun. sure, having two young strangers (to me and to each other) sleeping ensemble in my home was new and mildly awkward. them filling my neti pot with vegetable oil for massage purposes was interesting. tho thoughts of bodily fluids, theft, damage and/or assault passed through my head, they seemed like good kids and the prospect of being ripped off or soiled didnt seem like a big deal anyhow. plus, with my own travels around the corner, i thought it would be interesting to pick these far more bohemian brains for tenets of their travel philosophy.

dont stop the presses, but recent events make me feel like im chilling out and coming out of my antisocial shell. compare obligatory shmooze events during my mavin days, when i would retreat to the corner with social lubricants in hand and with my eyes strictly above or below others sight lines to my uncharacteristic chattiness with my row mates on recent flights; or, my complete non-reaction to missing my flight the other day... eh, whens the next one?

its pretty cliche that personal transformation would happen during my months off the job. whats mildly unnerving tho is how quickly its happening. generally i embrace the fear and discomfort change inevitably brings. its just taking me a bit to catch up with myself and to integrate everything into my understanding of who i am. the growth is exciting, but big parts of me feel foreign. this is fun if not mildly spastic.

t minus 30 days

just 2.5 more days before my encore trip to seattle wraps up. my international guest has departed, my furniture is slowly but surely being snapped up by the public, and ive had the pleasure of spending a good part of my final hours with a very charming taiwanese-canadian guy who just moved here from chicago. god bless jesuss zany humor!

with exactly 1 month prior to asian bonanza, chicago means four weeks of planning madness. so whats got me most antsy to get on back to chitown? a certain saucy lil señorita who awaits my return.

fleeting glimpse of an azn homo posse

in the coupla days following van pride and before koko mean bean flew back to the land of the morning calm, i had a fleeting asian homo homie posse experience. whats that you ask? the satisfaction of traveling en masse, of forfeiting a bit of ones individuality for the sake of the collective, of being amongst a coterie of like-minded or like-looked mankubs, of simple strength in numbers. ive always been a bit of a loner, so the organic birth of our multinational asian homo delegation on a random seattle summer evening was memorable. thanks guys! (oh yeah, if u want me to play matchmaker with these eligible bachelors, dont be shy... me thinks theyre all single.)

canada loves homos

im publishing this after the fact so im a lil low on inspired in-the-moment critique, but here are a coupla photos from vancouver pride. i thought it would be good to show my guest from incredibly homophobic korea homo pride north american style. although not nearly as emotional for me as prides past, seeing the two ladies in wedding gowns with the sign 'just married' was a tear jerker. imagine that, we can get married in america jr! it just so happened that az and i were able to meet up with some taiwanese canadian gays from none other than fridae.com, who made our weekend lots more fun.

vancouver part deux

im sitting in the opus hotels complimentary business centre, which is a good thing since the in-room internet would run me CAN$17/night. thats steep even in funny money. im loathe to pay much for hotels, so reconciling $365/night was a hard sell. i was swayed by the memories of my first stay a year ago when my ex and i enjoyed a sleek and gorgeous deluxe room with an enclosed glass soaking tub for a spontaneous weekend up norte. im here again, this time with korean mean bean and thousands of homo americans eager to celebrate pride in a place that doesnt outlaw our relationships and families.

my expectations were unrealistic. the past few minutes have brewed a tenseness in my stomach borne of unrealized expectations. ive heard it said that expectations are a precursor to resentment. how true. call me naughty, but im on the verge of a tantrum. sure, i have travel diva tendencies, but the less than impeccable hotel check-in process was preceded by a maze of construction fencing. once registered, we found our tiny room adjacent to the workout facility. both boasted prime voyeuristic views of the busy restaurants across the street. when i opened our curtain, the movement and proximity caused three people eating dinner to look at me. just minutes ago, the friendly woman from housekeeping offered me two sets of earplugs for saturday morning construction. t-minus ten seconds to hollering.

i have been in host mode for the past 10 days. as a solitary bloke, 24/7 cohabitation is an exhausting experiment made more challenging when playing the role of key to the city for an international guest. im in rare form right now and fear what the next 24 hrs will bring. with disaster looming, i secretly hope for absurd decibels of construction noise tomorrow am so i can channel all of my personal chaos into a bitchy (yet well-crafted) letter to hotel management demanding a refund.

a coastal adventure

as a kid i did a fair bit of campin and still enjoy the occasional tent pitching, fire making, seal hunting lifestyle. you caught me. the last one is illegal. anyhow, since my guest was born and raised in one of the worlds largest cities in one of the worlds highest density places, i thought it would be fun to drive out to washington states olympic peninsula, home to the usas only temperate rainforest and millions of uninhabited green acres.

we hiked the 11 mile trail, set up shop, made yummy soon doobu and while he was snoring i saw a beautiful meteor shower sans urban light pollution. i cant tell who looks more stupid. me or the fish. oh wait, its undoubtedly me.