Pat yo rats on yo back/Take some time out yo waltz
And tell your loved ones that you love 'em every so often...
- E-40

That's from "The Story" which, as you will discover if you go on sing365.com and search for "The Story", is both a meaningful meditation on life, loss, and hope, but also a pretty damn common name for a song. Anyway, thanks to all for the props on the blog - glad to entertain you and stay in some form of 'touch' via the blog action. And now, let me list a few things from all of you for which I am thankful, 8 thousand miles away, in no specific order:

- Photos
- Kind emails and words of love
- Other people's blogs
- Dreamcatcher
- Instant messages
- Blank journals to fill
- Books
- Power adapters
- Beanie Pepe
- Dope hip-hop mixes
- Tour guides
- Vicodins
- Parking space
- Good times and fond memories
- Taking care of my life while I'm gone

Thanks, everyone. Ok, on to the next thing. I guess I should throw in a little something about work, since that's why I'm here. I think I'm going to also commence my 'random thoughts' insertions, a part of the blog when I just insert a random remark about something, i.e.

Random Thought: Tom Cruise is a dorkus malorkus, and so is Harrison Ford. Anyone who thinks it's a suprise that Ford is with Calista - man, the joke's on you. She's PERFECT for that cat. You ever see him get scared and tough, like that film in which he's the President? Well, the reason he's so good at being scared is that he's soft like butter, and that tough thing he does? Jesus! I think about dudes who are hard for real, like Ramon's boy Junior, and they must cackle when Ford pulls out that shit. They must just laugh like hell. For years, we all thought he was Han Solo and Indiana Jones and all that, but man, we got played hard.

Or like this:

Random Thought: The Village is wack. M. Shite Nyamalan is a one-trick pony, and The Village should be called Unwatchable 2: The Wackness.

On to work. I work on a really high floor, which is awesome. Still haven't gotten over the view. I can see my apartment window from the conference room - not sure why that is cool, but whatever. You can see all of Central and Victoria Peak, and to the right you can see a pretty good chunk of the harbor. When the sun sets, the reflection of the conference room windows shows three suns, and I once again (huh?) feel like young Luke Sywalker, standing atop the hill and being pissy about not making it to the Academy this season. Oh, why did I have to be a farmer...stupid Uncle Owen and his harvest...

The people with whom I work are very nice - level headed and smart and not at all neurotic or eager to push the panic button in an attempt to demonstrate conscientiousness. The work seems to go in fits and spurts - last two weeks were fairly mellow, but next week is full of deals and announcements and meetings - generally, however, the work flow is manageable and I'm learning a lot about business in Asia. I have already gone out for drinks with the CEO, who is an awesome dude. Anyway, he's a good guy, understands the value of press and what we do, makes himself available, and inspires loyalty without making anyone get all weird and cultish about it. So that's cool. Throw in some Aeron chairs, a fridge full of stuff to drink, and even a little housekeeper-type woman in the kitchenette who always keeps the tea brewing, and you've got yourself a pretty good setup. Oh, one more thing about the view: there are hawks (something big - not totally sure) that fly around right near the window, just cruising on the currents and periodically diving straight down to work and jerk something on the ground. I saw one perched on the building across the plaza, and it must have been right on the ledge outside someone's office. Very cool. They come within 20 feet of our building, and it's just another amazing little feature of the view. The setup reminds me of my old days at WTC 7. We could see the twin towers, the harbor and New Jersey, and we had a great view during Fleet Week when the ships would cruise up the Hudson to dock for the week. And the sunsets are beautiful - dropping down behind the high peaks of Lantau to the west.

That's quite enough of the work stuff, don't you think? I will move on to my emotions. As many (most? ALL? dammit!) of you know, I have been no stranger to the mcherbals over the years, and the past two weeks have been herbs-free for me. It has been an interesting and enlightening experience. I thought I was going to go through the usual agitation and restlessness and lack of appetite that accompanies a dimunition - or, in this case, elimination - of usage, but things have gone surprisingly well. Save for some troubling stomach pain during the first week, all is well and the shift has been an easy one. My appetite returned quickly, and my stomach problems have faded. As for agitation, I think I just had too many new things in front of me to be distracted by the addiction and I have been able to get to sleep quickly. Interestingly enough, even the crazy dreams were absent in the first week, though they sure are kicking it now! Over the past week, I have pursued a serial killer, been stabbed, have traveled all over the world, and even been a little boy again. What a trip. Some of you (what uuup, majik149!) know exactly what I'm talking about, and it just reaches a point where it can only be funny. You go to bed wondering what the hell adventure you're in for next in dreamland, and most of them aren't scary so it's cool.

But the one thing that is most blogworthy is the change in the depth of emotion that I feel. Being free from the mcherbals has instilled in me a degree of emotional access that is at times hard to believe. I stepped out on my first Saturday to go shopping and cranked up the ipod and found myself just reeling from a tidal wave of emotion - not happiness or sadness or anything specific, just a rush of emotion that nearly caused me to stop walking. Just...the whole shit, you know? I mean, I was brutally hung over, and I'm sure that played a role, but I was listening to some pretty upbeat music and I still had to fight back this powerful rush that filled my head and brought tears to my eyes. It's pretty cool, actually, and I hope that I never go back to that semi-numbed state in which I have lived for a while now. I went up to Victoria Peak yesterday and found that some things simply put a smile on my face; things that previously would have been kind of boring or unremarkable, like watching little kids slide down one of those inflatable slides (think Moon Walk, except a slide version), now made me grin widely and un-selfconsciously, and I felt like I was getting a little bit of my youth back. Ah, good times, good times. And for those of you who are saying 'duh, of course, nice discovery you brainiac', you can wait out in the car to tongue my balls, ya heard? Ok, just kidding, make fun all you want. I'm good like that.

So...I'm thinking that I might save the update on what I've been up to for the next blog - will flow one in here soon. I have discovered some new places to eat and bars to drink - oh! Dig this, cats - the bars stay open all night, but it's a total pain in the ass to get food after like 12.30am! Totally not jivin' you. There's like one place in SoHo that serves pizza until 2am, and that's pretty much it. Of course, you can drink until 8am, so this is something of a Bizzaro World compared with NYC. And you can still smoke in the bars and restaurants here - it's a real tobaccan town. Nearly everyone smokes, even my homies who are planning to run marathons in a couple months. Speaking of that, can I get some love from my peoples out there who have never run one? I always feel chumpular when I'm around these people who have run a marathon because it's something that I cannot do, have never done, and may well never be able to pull off (I'm not even sure I want to), so spread love among those who have not, including some to me. And I'll throw some love right back, WHAT!!!

Love (see?),
Chucky