Teej's Secret Box

Red Oxx Manufacturing, Inc.
Billings, Montana
http://www.redoxx.com/
Product: http://www.redoxx.com/catalog/carry-on/p_91018-air-boss.html

It was only recent that travelers have to carry a hundred pound hard-cased luggage, only to sigh in relief as it’s carried away at the check-in counters. Someday, a member of the flight crew hit upon the idea of adding wheels to their luggage. Quite rapidly, this idea took root among the crews, and eventually to nearly the entire luggage industry.

So instead of losing a few pounds in sweat and tears carrying the multi-tons of clothes, hair dryers, and the kitchen sink, the travelers are now only obligated to just drag it behind, akin to the Monty Python’s skit of the grim reaper pulling a cart asking to “bring out the dead!” Not only the heavy luggage are being dragged along, the frequent travelers gladly cram as much in their carry-on luggage, and struggle with great might to stow it overhead. Those flying nerds can not waste time in the lines at Philadelphia’s lost luggage claims, no sire!

Several months ago, I realized as a frequent traveler, I carry too much stuff. Not only that, I carry too much dead weight. As one travel through the airport, a realization that the terminals are still not optimized for the handicapped luggage will be born. The best (and quickest) routes does not lend a friendly hand to these 2 inches set of wheels. To maximize my productivity, I like to go to the airport directly from the office. If I am working at a downtown location in a bustling city, I need to check out of the hotel and lug my luggage through the hazardous streets full of uneven sidewalks, on my way to work the last day.

If one would take a look at travel luggage, you would find that there are a lot of lost space thanks to the space given for the wheel and sticks. In some the newer models of bags, not only do you lose an inch on the width (critical for shirts in its folded form), the curvation they provide eats into the internal space. The bigger (and older) bags I’ve had can only be placed sideway in the overhead bin, not good if you board a plane late, and its space at a premium. The newer bags will fit in straight, but with a lot less space for the vitals in business travel.

So I decided to buck the trend, and find a good travel bag that does not contain wheels, and can be carried. At first, I thought a garment bag would be the answer. Unfortunately, the two bags I have given the full test to fall victim to several problems, the primary being the space for anything other than the shirt and pants. There are barely enough space to hang 6 clothes, with very little space for toiletry, alarm clock with vibrator (once again, I’m deaf), and enough wires just to keep the nearest TSA agent on their toes. The secondary problem is again the weight. Those bags have very poor shoulder straps, and the width/length of those bags is unwieldy. In tight space, they would be bumping against the seats, pissing off the occupiers more than the announcement that no Dr. Pepper is being served on a flight.

With this problem in hand, I took a search online for the ultimate travel bag. My searching came across this company, Red Oxx. Actually, it initially landed on a fellow frequent traveler that also frequently lamented of the poor options of bags for traveling. Near the end of the article, the author noted that he partnered with Red Oxx to produce the ultimate bag, and was pleased by the results.

The price was quite steep ($225 for a carry-on luggage?!) but any protestation of the price quickly died when I received the bag via express shipping. This bag was very deceptively large, almost too much so that I feared it would violate the carry-on sizing rules. A quick comparison with my other bags proved that it was exactly the same size as my newer luggage, and smaller than the older luggage. With a lack of wheels, it is remarkably how roomy this bag can be, leading to my initial fear of being so oversized.

If I would go gun-ho, I knew that I could fit 7 days worth of clothes, including undershirts, plus workout shoes, alarm clocks, workout clothes, toiletries, and even more wires to freak out the nearest bomb SWAT team. Removing the undershirts, I could easily add another few more days of shirts and underwear to last me two weeks abroad without needing to restore to the dry cleaning services or laundry machines. Right now, I am flying with 4 days worth of clothes, with plenty of room to spare if I feel like stocking up on books from Powell’s Bookstore.

This luggage has six separate compartments. Two are designed for the folded shirts and pants with two belts helping to hold these clothes down. One of them could be used as an option for the lighter jackets or suits. There is a central bay for the undergarments, shoes, and socks. One extra full pocket is provided for thinner products, such as cosmetic, or a thin layer of toiletries. A tiny zippered pouch on the other side is currently used for my alarm clock, but can be substituted for the use of food, other toiletries, or folded-up magazines. A single-buttoned pouch complete the compartment count giving the option of storing reading materials, liquid cosmetics in a clear bag that can be easily reached to, and more. It is used as a temporary storage place for the contents of my pockets as I stroll through the security area. This luggage has two short handles, which can be wrapped together by buttons, and a large shoulder strap.

The thing to be noted for this bag is its high quality of parts. Zippers are those thick teeth type, far more durable than the tiny teeth zippers gracing the low end bags. The materials are thicker and well woven in a tight pattern, to reduce the vulnerability to wear and tear. Buttons are big, and made with metal, not plastic. All zippers have an extra cord to help with the ease of grasp. The shoulder strap is made of soft rubber at the center-point, providing far greater comfort than the ‘padded’ straps seen on lower ended luggage. It is easy to pick up and strap up, with no rigidity in any area, allowing the bag to bulge a bit to fit that one last cheap trinket you just had to buy, but will never touch once you reach home. The weight of the bag alone is very significant, beating all but the flimsiest of garment bags, and trouncing the wheeled luggage. Yet, it’s very easy to pack so much that the weight in clothes can be a significant factor, but not much so to make it a challenge for me to carry around. It is very easy for me to adjust the position of the luggage through tight spaces, and after the first adjustment phase of the extra weights on my shoulders, it is now practically invisible for me, compared to the backpack containing my oversized laptop and accessories (now THAT is heavy.) In fact, shifting some of the contents of my backpack to the bag caused an improvement in the feel of weight distribution.

The biggest bonus for this bag is the ease of finding tight spaces in the overhead bins to stock the luggage in, as it lines up perfectly fine in all but the very front of the old 737s (which US Airways finally admitted they’re planning to get rid of soon.) In an Airbus 320, the bins are more than enough for the bag, much to my delight. It is easy to lie out in the hotel room, and easy to repack due to its well organized nature.

One extra demerit on the garment bags is its ability to hold dirty clothes — you have to spend the extra time folding and making a note of the dirty clothes. With this bag, just roll the clothes up and lay it up in the center compartment, and it’ll be ready to go.

I made some further concessions, getting running sandals instead of tennis shoes, along with looking for ways to reduce the items in my toiletries, and finding a smaller alarm clock. But those are just to further reduce the total amount of items to carry, and not a demerit against the bag’s ability to hold the old items. With so much room available in my bag, I always feel a sense of, “Is there something I am leaving behind?” Not once have I said yes ever since having this bag.

It far more than paid its price, and now I can look with disdain on others who keep carrying those oversized over-wheeled luggage, gaining pounds in the process. I’ve lost weight in term of luggage supplies, and going to a diet of wheel-less Air Boss bag caused the biggest loss.

Two thoughts.

Poker

Over the past few weeks, my co-workers came up with a great idea to waste an evening — playing Texas Hold-Em poker. I thought it have to be one of the best idea, considering that our team is approximately 25 travelers strong, and the alternative are not much to sneeze at (workout, hitting restaurants and bars, talk about work, blah, blah, blah).

I had to take a week off the very week they decided to start the poker game, so I came in pretty fresh last week against my peers. After three hours of play, I somehow found myself in first place, squeezing ahead of James who were making a serious effort to have a commanding lead, but couldn’t do so due to lack of chips (we all ended up reselling our chips for hacks who keep having to buy in). This week, with a more plentiful supply of chips, James ended up with a lead that was only threatened once by me, only to overcome with a wicked river card. I ended up second.

The great thing about the whole poker game is that I can pretty much tune off from the conversation, while focusing on the cards or other things associated with it (TV, beer, nuts). Why do I tune out? It takes a lot of energy to concentrate with other folks, trying to understand what they are saying by interpreting the limited sounds that my hearing aids can force by my broken ears, and the movement of their lips. A poker game play to my advantage in two aspects: The table is ’round’ — I am able to see everyone from any spot, with not much of a difficulty; and the conversation is usually linear. Rare are there multiple conversations, everyone opts to either regal a tale or two, discuss about the subject at hand, or just talk about the absurdity of relying on the river card, despite the clear frequency of success doing so for some players.

So I have the ability to tune out, miss a few tales, and yet tune in, and learn a lot more about my co-workers than in any other environments, such as restaurants (multiple conversations), bars (too noisy/dark), and workout rooms (too much sweat = no hearing aids).

I do hope this poker night tradition continues until the end of the project.

Openness

I have never been told as often as I have this week that whatever I may have done should not be done either in a certain way, or not even be suggested at all. Either the paranoia level at this company is at its all high level, or my sense of tact is receding in a very severe way.

As I noted above, I enjoy poker so much that I took some time off lunch to look for some additional chips to stock up the local supply with. I found some halfway passable chips (the 8 gram clay-coated type) for $15 a batch at the Discovery Store (heavily discounted from the $50 retail price). While showing it off to my peers, I was told to put it away, and never to mention that we even play such a game in the office.

Same thing goes with the NCAA basketball pool. Interest in this is at its usual high, and I volunteered to arrange everything, but every step of the way, I was told to keep it on the super-low-ground. “Don’t mention that it is a part of this company!” “Don’t e-mail to the corporate accounts!” “Don’t even show the playing chart in the office!”

Even joking about certain things that may not be taboo is done with a strong encouragement to keep it quiet so that nobody else would overhear the conversation.

Why is there such an extremely high level of fear in the workplace in ensuring that work and fun are not intermixed in any manner, despite evidence demonstrating a higher level of productivity when there is indeed playtime to be had?

I see myself as a more unrestrained person at times, but I can be quite sensitive to any direct sense of offense on anything that may have been done. If I somehow sense (even wrongly) that I may have offended someone out there, I would be quite apologetic, and would cease to do anything offensive anymore around that person. It is just my nature to lighten the moment, but not to harm anyone emotionally.

I do miss the time I had with a few wonderful co-workers in Montreal. We ended up buying bags of rubber bands, and flinging it in creative ways toward each other from time to time. I don’t remember when it stopped, but once it did cease, that assignment pretty much felt like work, and I started plotting to leave that assignment. That story is probably legend among my peers, but not as much as that butter incident that Fran loves to repeat to anyone he meets, that silly bastard.

Is consulting such a serious business these days that it’s an impossibility to even have fun? I do not want to face having to go back to Portland every week till September if I can not have fun, even though it may not be ‘quite proper’ among some circles.

My mother passed away in April 3, 2000.

She left behind a very strong legacy of community support thanks to her efforts at the Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce – ceaselessly advocating for the businesses within the valley in many different ways. She also left behind a loving family – her husband of a few decades, and four children. She also left behind one amazing box.

About a year ago, my father, now living with my sister in a beautiful house, informed me of this box, saying that it contain my things. I was puzzled by this, as I was quite sure I took everything with me when I moved on to my homes and apartments around America. After all, Mom made sure that I had them. So I made all the appropriate noises, and quickly forgot about them. Then back during Thanksgiving, my father rumbled on about mailing me this box, along with the Christmas presents (a pair of beautiful glass/metal structures, and a few interesting books given by my nephew). Again, I made all the appropriate noises, without really caring much about that box.

But this box is different, I discovered.

Finally, in January, I got the box in the mail, safe and sound. The presents were highly appreciated and displayed in my home. I also discovered the true purpose of this box.

This box contained my childhood.

This box is my memory box.

For years, my mother carefully collected bit and pieces of the things I have made, or was a part of, and placed them all within this box. Objects with fond memories, both good and bad, of the time spent earning them, and bringing them home. There are memories that have been long forgotten until now.

After spending a few weeks going through the items, and placing them in a new (and decidedly plastic) box, I realized something. I would forget about these memories once again. Not only that, I would not be able to share them with anyone.

So over the next few months, maybe once a week, I shall pull out a item or two. I will take a picture of them just to share with you, my dear reader. I will tell you the stories behind the items, as uncolored as I could make them. Remembering those moments, the lessons, the challenges, and the errors of my ways — There are so much to share.

One fair warning – if you want to judge me, while reading through my tales – think of your own mistakes, and what you learned from them. Over time, I have realized how so deeply imperfect we all are. Even my father had plenty to share, and it makes me love him more for it. I only wish I had the opportunity to discover mom’s past, if only to open my eyes on how wonderful she have been, despite her flaws.

By doing this, I am giving you an opportunity to understand me a bit better.

Saburos Sushi House
1667 SE Bybee Blvd
Portland, OR

There are two thoughts that most people would have when it come to the word, “Sushi.” The first thought would be, “Eww! Raw fish!” The second thought would be, “Ewww! Too expensive!”

Never mind that sushi is a term given to rice that is spiced up with rice vinegar that are usually mixed on site, and that the whole package is really called nigiri, maki, and so on forth. There is absolutely nothing that specifically defines sushi to contain raw fish. Shrimp (ebi) is usually cooked, so is freshwater eel (unagi), and other fresh water fishes (as they may contain parasites that can cause harm if the fish are not cooked). But we are not limited to raw fishes. Egg (tamago) omelet, vegetables, red meat (beef, sausage, et cetera), and more can be combined to make sushi dishes.

For more reading on sushi, check out Wiki.

To address the second fact, I present to you Saburos Sushi House.

Hidden in a narrow and overtly long shop, with a muted logo in front of an eave, and tucked down the road away from the major street of Milwaukie, this is quite difficult to spot, and can be easily buried in the noise of the shops and restaurants. Unlike Aoki of Seattle which proudly stake its claim on the major thoroughfare, this is your typical hidden breakfast diner-style of shop, taking advantage of the least ideal spot of a retail building in order to save costs.

On a quiet Sunday night, where very few cars would pass by on Milwaukie Avenue, the first thing you would notice is the line. This place does not allow for advanced reservations, preferring to follow a note board/pen format, where hungry customers would place the relevant details to stake their place in line. It was quite fortunate the night was not quite frigid, nor windy as this place provide scant seating within the establishment for those that are waiting for their spot to be called upon.

As is custom in a lot of sushi places I have been to, the sushi bar line up the front of the restaurant, manned by four sushi chefs whipping up solutions to the problem of hunger. Whipping it up, they really do, with insane amount of sushi that belittle the price tag on the menu.

While on assignment in Montreal, I frequented a sushi buffet place (Kanda) with my co-workers. One of them looked at me in awe, as I am able to pop a whole nigiri piece in my mouth, with room to spare. For the vast majority of sushi shops, nigiri pieces are bite-sized, although the ultra-polite citizens would cut them in half anyway.

Saburos is unique in the manner of requiring even me, with my cavernous mouth to accept the reality that I must take two bites for each piece. The hand rolls (temaki) are so large and so full, it requires at least six bites to eat through, compared to two for other sushi shop. Fortunately (?), they do not oversize their beer or appetizer offerings.

To understand the comparison, if you have ever visited Europe, and ordered a large soda, you would get a cup that is usually smaller than or equal to the “small” soda in many fast food restaurants here in the States. This is the oversized sushi for the masses.

There is a place in Phoenix that has a similar concept, Sakana Sushi and Grill. However, as much as I thought that place serves large pieces, Saburos is much larger. I will have to bring a camera next time, and demonstrate in person how big these pieces are.

Now, the quality of the pieces is not something that would bring awe, compared to Aoki or Yoshi. However, to satisfy the sushi fix, Saburos delivers. The rice vinegar mixture used is overtly sweet, and the fishes are standard (albeit huge) pieces that are fresh and decent.

I had 5 pairs of nigiri pieces, a hand roll, along with miso soup, warm soybeans (edamame), and tapped beer. I ended up with three nigiri pieces left, and most of the edamame untouched. For those who do not know me, this is a very rare occurrence, as I always make a point to eat everything I ordered when I go out for sushi. Unlike other restaurants who give you too much, sushi is something I can control, portion-wise. This was my second time there, and it is clear I am still adjusting downward. My first time there, I ordered almost twice the amount (my typical meal can easily compromise 20 pieces of nigiri), and I ended up donating the food to a homeless guy somewhere on the way back.

To add to this amazing size, the prices are downright low. For my meal, the price came to $24. Take out the hand roll and a piece, and I will be rounding out a Jackson with tips.

Huge pieces, reasonable prices. No wonders this place is highly popular on a quiet Sunday night.

Well, that was a nice contrast.

Compared to the deeply depressing rains of Seattle, Washington (which is quite normal at this time of the year), scattered clouds are a welcome change for Portland, Oregon. The temperature is hovering in the high 40s and low 50s, with a gentle (if not non-existing) breeze. The sun is peeking out here and there to warm the exposed skin.

In the coming weeks, I will be visiting quite a few places, and appreciate the sights and sounds of this town. I would like to invite you to give suggestions on places to see, food to eat, and events to go to.

Thanks, and happy reading.