Tennis Masters Cup - 2007

Another Tennis Masters Cup Tournament is in the books-

If you weren't following it, Federer schooled James Blake big time...
6-0, 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 43 minutes.
A far cry from last year's 4+ hour match between Nalbandian and Federer.

Tennis Masters Cup - Main Page

Final scores


Official Photo Gallery

Some photos from the Tournament...

The Product


Videowall Cubes...ready to be assembled.

Why wideo wall cubes? Because we can rotate a larger number of sponsors for more exposure...


See that China Union Pay logo on the wall?
Great exposure for sponsors...they love it.


Even from a distance...


The view from the cheap seats is good...

We did content for the scoreboard videowalls...


Match Statistics


And schedules...

The Stadium (QiZhong at Minhang)

The stadium is pretty impressive:


Main Gates


Food and Exhibition Tents

The People


The $3-a-day guys...

Videowall Guys

Fixing a blownout cube on the Lighthouse side.

Yours Truly


An aerial view of YT at work...


Breakdown

After the last match we made record time breaking down and packing our equipment.


All I need are these flowers and this beer...

Getting out - Getting home

We had a 5:30am car to the airport...
After we arrived at the airport, cleared the ATA Customs check with our equipment, got checked in and cleared security, we had a good 20 minutes before boarding time.

K-Flan hadn't had coffee yet... A necessity for him to function properly.
In leiu of breakfast, he ordered a coffee (which took forever to arrive) and a large orange juice. The OJ arrived- and provided much entertainment until the coffee showed up.


The festive OJ...

The return flight was almost non-eventful.

The 5-page complaint letter I sent to Northwest airlines didn't do much good...
No complimentary upgrade was waiting for me, so no love there...

Months ago I reserved an emergency row seat... That held out, so at least I had someplace to put my legs on this trip. Thank Ghod for small favors...
Only a small delay on the Shanghai-Tokyo leg, and a short delay (one hour) on the Tokyo-Detroit flight...
I got my bags and made it through customs without the rubber-glove treatment, but just barely...
Why "just barely"...
Throughout the day on Monday, a constant tirade to all and sundry was going on...
Redneck, who hates airtravel, and US-based airlines specifically, kept a constant bitching to anyone with an ear...
He was mostly silent from the hotel to the airport, although I know he wanted to bitch, he really didn't have any foundation for it...
But once we got to the airport the lack of coffee started to get the best of him and the memory of our inbound issues began to wear on him and he decided to see if he could get some satisfaction out of NWA in the form of an upgrade to Business Class, in order to compensate for his discomfort on the inbound flight...

Do you remember the old saying- "You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."
This is K-Flan's modus operandi...except in this case, the "gun" is his profanity-laced baritone voice, which carries across the check-in area like an angry wave. Alas, he is carrying on, loud and long, in a East Arkansas dialect, which the diminutive Chinese NWA ticket agent doesn't understand...
Colloquilisms such as "...beatdown like a red-headed stepchild" and "he's gonna get hit so hard he's gonna hum like a ten-penny finishing nail struck with a greasy ball-peen hammer" make absolutely no impression on people who speak English as a second language. All they do is look at you funny and say "one minute prease" and go find someone else who might speak a little more Engrish to pass the buck onto...
Meanwhile, K-Flan just has another opprtunity to voice (long and loud) his displeasure with NWA, and how this kind of run-around is EXACTLY the kind of problem he's talking about...
Problem two: He does this everywhere. To everyone.
Even people that don't have any connection to NWA or any reason to listen to him.
Like the people in the coffee shop in the Shanghai airport.
Yo! K-Flan... Learn which windmills to tilt at, dude. The waitress (who only understands basic Engrish works like "coffee" "coke" "sandwich") doesn't understand when your coffee order goes something like "Coffee, and it better be better'n the black sludge that North-F$@#ing-West bankrupcy-operatin' Airlines drains from their broken down septic treatment systems and the mo-ron flight-incompetent-attendants serves up to their paying customers..."
It only scares the waitress...thinking your are ordering something she doesn't understand and that she'll get yelled at because she didn't understand...

Also... (Because it could possible affect me)
I don't care if you verbally harass the filght attendants or whomever, especially since we sit far away from each other...nothing to connect him to Yours Truly...
(Because a Flight Attendant with a hot pot of coffee standing near him might be tempted to "accidentally" spill some on him during a bout of "turbulence" nudge-nudge-wink-wink)
But- once you are off the plane and you are in the netherworld of Customs and Immigration, it highly recommended to Shut The F#$@ Up until your have passed through all the inspection areas... Uncle Jay's Rule of Airport Survival # 3- Do Not Draw Attention to Yourself....

So, while we are waiting in line and the Customs Inspector is reviewing paperwork, when the inspector asks him for his declaration form, he starts in on NWA's uselessness in providing forms and how they are incompetent in serving their customers...
Hint: If you talk too much, you look suspicious. Shut The F$#@% Up.

But- even with all the bitching whining and moaning, he was still stuck back in steerage with trhe rest of us cattle.

But we made it back...

And, once again... just to add insult to injury... we run into Jacksonville International Airport's inability to get bags from the plane to the baggage claim in a timely manner...

It was a record-breaker last night...
57 minutes before the bag claim started running.
The bags came out about 1 bag every 15 seconds... That's right. 4 bags per minute...
I got 2 of my bags in 20 minutes... the third bag never showed up.
(Not JIA's fault. It didn't make the plane from Detroit, although I can't figure why the 2 heavy equipment cases made it but the bag with my clothes in it didn't.

I waited until conveyor belt stopped moving then headed to the complaint office...
The nice lady in there took my claim check numbers and tracked the bag- it was still in Detroit.
She took the info and said they'd deliver them when they came in...

And I finally got to leave...

So, just to put the final numbers to bed...
Expected ETA in Jax - 5:30.
Actual arrival time - 5:45
Ground wait in Jax because another plane was still at our gate: 21 minutes.
Depart plane: 6:12
Arrive Baggage claim: 6:17.
Baggage claim starts running: 7:14
Bag one arrives 7:30
Bag two arrives 7:33.
Bag claim finishes 7:45.
Lost bag claim filed at 8:04 (4 other people in line before me.)
Depart JIA : 8:15.

Why does it take 2 hours to get (or not get) bags at this airport?

And now this...
Jacksonville Registered Traveler Program

Hey, JIA-
You'd be better off taking some of that money and instead of building a lounge for frequent flyers, hire a few more baggage guys...

Amazing- Out.

Closure issues

I never finish anyth

Pincushion.

The quote of the week from K-Flan:

"Well... It's going to hurt until it gets better."
Well, duh, Captain Obvious.

Somewhere there is a voodoo doll going
"What the hell is going on? My arm is killing me!"

K-Flan has spent the last few mornings in the room we are affectionately calling JoAnna's House o' Pain.
And every morning she puts in a few more needles than the previous session.
The poor bastard is going to look like a sea urchin pretty soon.


"Hi. I'm K-Flan. Better keep your distance."

But seriously...
She's making him look like a porcupine...

A little antiseptic never hurts...


"I haven't even put a needle in yet..."


That's one down, six to go...


Let's see how many needles we can stick into his elbow...


White knuckles. Do you think he's a little tense?


Some of these babies are in deep!



I'm in my happy place... Nothing can bother me...


...until this bastard comes in and starts twisting the needles....



And Joanna just laughs and laughs...

Oooo... she's evil.


Famous, out.

The Great Firewall of China

If you are in a country where Interweb access to Blogger sites are blocked, I have found a little goodie to help you keep up with your favorite sites without incurring the wrath of the Ministry of Information's minions.

Typically, the firewall tables mask out all sites with string "blogspot" in the URL.
There is another censoring entity that does this, but we won't discuss it here...

In any case, if you'd like to peruse a Blogspot site in an area of restricted access, log onto www.pkblogs.com and type in the first name of the desired Blogspot address.
(This is the only tricky spot... for instance, my site is www.l2uj.blogspot.com, not www.listen2unclejay.blogspot.com. It takes a little digging to get the correct URL.)

Anyway- pay a visit to pkblogs.com and get the full scoop...

TBG Out-

Shanghai: The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Lots more fun and games here in Eastern China...

Out and about:

Paul does some sightseeing in a local tourist attraction.


Did she wash those in Windex?
'Cause I can really see myself in her pants tonight...


In the interest of protecting reputations of the International Visitors to Shanghai, the management of www.listen2unclejay.com has elected to practice some selective censorship...


We wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble with the folks back home, you understand.

K-Flan's elbow has been bothering him for the last few months... It's a variation on tennis elbow caused by motorcycle riding. The arm position and posture causes some discomfort that is a cross between tennis elbow and carpal tunnel.
Obviously, this has ruined his sex life completely (which is too much information and I could really care less about that...)
More importantly, it means he can't tote and lift equipment, which means I have to do it... and that, me Bucko, is something we simply cannot abide.

So... The fair Joanna, physiotherapist to the players at the TMC suggested a course of accupuncture.
Heh heh heh...
(Remember Jay's Blog Postulate No. 1: Someone else's pain, discomfort or misfortune is the basis of all comedy, and thus, makes for a good blog post.)
So today before start of play we hunted Joanna up and got her to dust off her instruments of torture healing and she went to work.


"You might feel some discomfort or maybe pass out."


Joanna: We will need to put in 4 or 5 more needles...
K-Flan: You're gonna need 4 or 5 more people to hold me down to do it...


Ouch!

---

Were...were there monkeys...?
Terrifying Sea Monkeys?

So I'm shopping at the Family Mart this morning picking up some of the tasty little triangular ricecakes... The ones with the tuna filling are especially tasty...

I found this next to the carbonated beverages...


I'm not sure what this is, but the stuff suspended in the liquid is/are little fuzzy things reminiscent of Sea Monkeys...

But just because I bought it, that doesn't mean I have to drink it...

Amazing, Famous!
Out!

Gee. What a shocker.

We interrupt our Shanghai 2006 coverage with this breaking story from the world of entertainment...

From our "Who didn't see this coming" Department:

Reports: Britney Spears Sex Tape Real, Fed-ex To Sell It

(I love it... K-Fed is now Fed-ex. Those wacky tabloid writers...)

Famous, out-

We now return you to our coverage of WWF: Redneck vs. The Celestial Kingdom. Now on pay-per-view.

Taken out of context... And Funny Fotos!

From our "I guess you had to be there" Department:

• K-Flan: Ok... I just realized we were under the balls...
  
  
• Sam: If it tastes good, it was meat.
  
  
• YT: Look, I know *how* to rob banks, but I don't go out and *do* it.
  
  
• K-Flan: A loud native pruning? Oh... *Allowed* native pruning.
  
  
• YT: He's the anti-Samson... The longer the hair gets, the weaker he gets.
  
  
• Alex: Do not bullshit the Frog... (Spoken with an outrageous French accent)
  
  
• YT: Don't talk to the street critters. They will follow you home and present other difficult problems.
  
  
• YT: Since we didn't get napkins, the sofa we are sitting on will make an adequate hand towel. (Perhaps a bit difficult to wipe one's face with, but useful none the less...)

--------------------------------

More Shanghai photo goodness... Now with Retsyn!


Oh, yeah. Oooh. Ahhh. That's how it always starts. Then later there's the running and the screaming.


Celebrity sighting 1.
Gil the crab from the Honda Element commercials.

Mmmm... Tasty.


Celebrity sighting 2.
The worlds lamest mascot:
Dumb Lion-Dog-Thing Mascot for the Tennis Masters Cup.

This thing is pitiful...

Even worse than Brutus:

The Ohio State Buckeye mascot...

K-Flan looking for a nice shirt to go with his leathers...

Does this shirt make me look fat?


The Killer TV

This is the possessed TV that took a bite out of my head last week... See the blood dripping from it's fangs...

Dude. The ears. Seriously.

Better do something about those...

You have to like traveling next to a truck carrying toxic explosives...

With a happy face skull-and-crossbones.


Stefan & Froggy...

A shocking gesture at the churrascaria...

Don't come between K-Flan and his meat.

Just leave the whole skewer here and no one gets hurt...

Let's see... What else can we dispense from a machine?

Mmmmm! Simply delicious mashed potatoes!

And finally-
Mal and Michelle catching a bite between the singles and the doubles...

How's that Udon and pizza?


Famous!

Shanghai 2006 - the adventure continues

So we've been kicking around the the site and the city...

I thought got stared at alot...

I was wrong. Walking around with K-Flan is interesting...
The locals look at him with a mixture of suprise and fear. Or maybe it's the combination of the both of us...
Hiw wardrobe doesn't help. He must have a never-ending supply of bootcut jeans and black t-shirts, most of which have a Kiss or other heavy metal band name on 'em.
Add the enginneer boots with the 3 inch heels, the long hair... Well...
They just look at him and marvel.


Locals taking snaps of the Travelin' Redneck
in front of his native environment...

Even though we were 24 hours late into Shanghai, we were able to get alot of our installations done on Tuesday. Both video walls went up without problelms and by late Tuesday PM we were up and on-line...


Chairside wall- the old Lighthouse 6mm product


Cameraside wall- the Chinese wall.


This is the signal cable for the cameraside wall...Commonly referred to as a "widowmaker".


Touch the wrong pair of these bare wires and you will remember it for a long time.

It took several more days to finish the details of building the walls, but in the end it was all good.
A lot of care went into the design of the buffer walls-the walls built to keep the crowd from knocking over the video cubes\\\ when they rush the court for autographs.
More on that later I'm sure...

We were able to get out and about a bit...


During our travels to PuDong we saw the big TV tower...

Over in PuDong there is a new Hooters Restaurant.
(Two of them here in Shanghai now... I'm liking this place more and more!)


Mmmmm... Chinese wings.

We did a little drinking at a joint down on the HuangPu River across from the Bund. The had decent beer, if you're into that kind of thing, and a live band...
The disturbing part was when they played the Macarena and all the *guys* got up to dance... Only the guys. Appalling. Simply appalling. And frightening.


Ewwww!, Macarena!

And the 'Neck made the sojourn to the JinMao tower...88 scary stories high.


I don't like being this high off the ground without an airplane around me...

More fun stuff to report as the Tournament gets underway...


TBG out...

The (un) Usual Suspects

These photos speak for themselves.

What they are saying is a totally different matter...

Yours Truly as Mikhail Gorbachev

The spot on my oh-so-expansive forehead is my new hood ornament where I hit my head exiting the bus yesterday morning. Note the cleaning crew/highwire act in the background.

And K-Flan's Cred Photo...


How is this guy NOT in prison?

The hits just keep on coming...

TBG out-

Back to Shanghai, again.

Dateline Shanghai



Hi Constant Readers...
Well... we made it. It wasn't pretty, though, and as I said in the previous post, Northwest Airlines is on my shit list.
The trip to Detroit was passable. I even got an upgrade, but oddly enough, for a 8AM flight there was no breakfast.
Ken and I fixed that... We hit the Fox Skybox at DTW and had a bite... About 45 minutes before the Detroit-Narita flight, we heard the overhead page go off for a last call for our flight... we hit the ground running and got to the gate in time...

Northwest's seat map is somewhat misleading... my seat was a bulkhead with absolutely no legroom... they stuck a bathroom in the space between the seat and the exit door, so no leg room. Bastards. They don't show a restroom on the seat map...

Add to that, an unwashed old Chinese woman who was an absolute pain, and I was starting to dread the next 13 hours...
Fortunately, Saint Joseph of Cupertino, (patron Saint of flyers) interceded on my behalf, or so I thought...

The captain (not, alas, Captain Morgan) came on the overhead...
They were having difficulties with the landing gear door... The captain said they were going to "try a maintenance maneuver" to fix the problem...
They gave the plane a mighty shake and then a few minutes later he came back on and said they had fixed one problem but in doing so, they had caused a new problem with the other set of landing gear... They gave the plane another shake, then came back on... they couldn't get it fixed so we were heading back to Detroit...
Uh oh...
Well, I wasn't too concerned about making my connection... Flight 11 *was* the connection flight from Narita to Shanghai, so I figured as long as we were on this flight, we wouldn't miss our connection.
(so very, very wrong)
So, after we dumped a huge amount of jetfuel into Lake Michigan we made our way back to DTW...a 3 and a half hour false start...

As we were heading back, they were prepping another plane for us... I guess they had a spare 747-400 laying around...
We got back on the ground then 'Neck and I made our way to the new gate. That's when they told us there was no way we'd be in Shanghai any time soon. We'd all have to spend the night in Tokyo and they'd re-book us on a new flight to Shanghai the next the morning.

So we stood in line to confirm our seats on the flight...
(I changed mine to get away from the old lady with B.O.... I got an aisle seat about 8 rows back.)
Ken decided he wanted to change his seat too, and wound up getting my old seat. Poor bastard, had I know I would have warned him... He regretted his decision about 30 minutes into the next flight. Heh.
My new seat wasn't so bad... As we got seated, I suggested to the guy in front of me that if he leaned his seat back on my knees I would visit bodily harm upon him, and oddly enough, he never adjusted his seat through the whole flight...smart dude.

The guys next to me were some Japanese college students- about 6 guys traveling together heading home from Harvard. They were inoffensive at best... No problems really.
At one point early in the flight I saw Ken had exited his seat near The Smelly One... He was camped out near the emergency exit reading a Clive Cussler novel...I went up and chatted with him for a few minutes. Appearently it was self-preservation, she was bugging him so much, having him pronounce words in Engrish for her... He was ready to take her for a swim in the blue water in the airplane bathroom.
With a silent chuckle, I headed back to my seat and settled down for the long haul.

We got into Tokyo without too much more in the way of issues... No other specific death threats, no violence.

Nice Engrish there, Skippy.

You will notice the "no camera" sign in this photo...

Upon arrival we got more bad news. We were informed that we would not be able to get our bags... I was of two minds about it... I didn't relish the thought of schlepping the cases & bags through Narita and to the hotel, nor the thought of having to clear Japan customs and get the Carnet stamped, and then having to get them re-stamped the next morning... The down side was they we'd have to wear the same clothes and have no access to our other stuff... Oh well... Convenience vs. comfort...

So we stood in line in the Narita terminal to get our new flight info- a JAL flight at
9:30 in the morning, and our hotel vouchers. After that we got to stand in line to go through the immigration and passport check...Then we stood in line again to get our transportation voucher to get to the hotel, then we stood in line to check into the Raddison in Narita.


K-Flan in line at the Raddison

We stood in line to get breakfast, and we stood in line to get on the bus to go back to the airport, and we stood in line to get checked back in on the new flight...
A slight hitch occured at the JAL check-in.. Of course I'm going to ask for a bulkhead or an emergency row. There was a look of fear in the ticket clerk's eyes as The Redneck and I stood at the counter waiting for our seat assignments...
There were no bulkheads, no emergency rows... and no windows or aisles either. Nothing but center seats...I think they were expecting a more, um, violent reaction, but at that time we so tired from the run around and standing in line and we just wanted to get our tickets and go stand in line some more to get on the JAL flight.

Bad enough that we both had middle seats on the JAL flight...
It was adding insult to injury that the seats on the JAL 747 were more sized to fit the average Japanese ass, whereas I am possessing of a more-then-ample American-sized ass...
And of course the seat spacing was more adapted to a Japanese leg-length; as a consequence the 3 hour flight from Narita to PuDong was *the* most uncomfortable I have been on an airplne in, oh...say... *ever*.


Tight fit.

My size 13 ass in a size 10 seat, no where to put my knees, and the top of the headrest on the back of the seat caught me right between the shoulderblades...

You will NOT have to remind me never to ride coach on JAL ever again.

We got into Pudong around 2:30... I was a bit worried that our bags would be delayed or lost; That worry was back-burnered quickly when we saw there were about 800 people in line to clear customs... It was the longest line we'd had to stand in so far, and it was a doozy.
It ended up taking over 90 minutes just to clear C&I in Shanghai. As a matter of fact, we actually bailed on the "Foreigners" line and stood behind some Indian nationals in the "Chinese Only" line...

All our bags made it... Miracles of miracles...
The only other comment I have on the situation is that at at least I have a finally encountered a situation where the elapsed time from getting off the plane to the time of getting our bags was longer than the average time to get baggage in Jacksonville...
(not because of a delay in getting bags, but because it took two hours to get from the plane to the baggage claim. But a record is a record... The folks at JAX will be pleased that there is a new title holder in that category.)

We cleared the ATA Carnet customs inspection and after one last bout of standing in line to get a taxi, we finally made it to the hotel...


'Neck in the taxi...

Now the real strangeness begins...

TBG out-

It's gonna be ugly...

Many lines of ranting to come about this trip, kids...

To give you an idea, I'm stuck in Narita Japan, enroute to Shanghai.

Northwest Airlines is on my shit list.

Whilst I write, y'all go celebrate Guy Fawkes Day or something...




Remember, remember, the fifth of November!


TBG out-

My one-time obligatory election season post...

First and foremost-
Get off your ass and vote.

I really don't care WHO you vote for, but for cryin' out loud, get out there and do it.

If you don't, you have no right to bitch and moan about how poorly the country is being run, or what a jerk this-or-that politician is... Do something about it.

One of my favorite authors, Robert A. Heinlein, had this comment about voting:
"If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for...but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong. If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires."
"Time Enough for Love" 1973, R.A. Heinlein

So... Get out there and vote.

Second-

“I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform.” — Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)
apologizing for his "poorly stated joke" in a written statement

What is he saying?
(Not that what Kerry says matters so much, but it is typical of (all) politicians to twist and spin when they screw up)

• I'm sorry you can't take a joke.
• I'm sorry that uneducated soldiers can't take a joke.
• I'm relieved that a carefully crafted denial will diffuse any lingering stigma of my poorly-worded attempt at humor at the cost of the current administration.
• I'm sorry I had to resort to poor attempts at humor to get people to listen to me.

---------------

If you've been living under a rock the last few days,Kerry stuck his foot in his mouth when he told a group of California students that individuals who don't study hard and do their homework would likely "get stuck in Iraq."

What was the 2004-election-losing senator (yes, he lost...) from Massachusetts doing talking to California students anyway? It seems like California, the quintessential-leftist Democratic state is about to re-elect their Republican governor. I guess the Democrats need to pull out all the botox-injected stops to woo voters.
I guess they don't believe the ha-ha-ha "Unbiased" media who are all predicting a wholesale slide to the left come Tuesday.

News from the Left:
"Democrats have privately told outsiders they have locked up 10 of the 15 GOP-held seats they need. Polls indicate several dozen additional races are competitive, far more than appeared possible at the outset of the campaign, and too many for Republican comfort at a time of opposition to the war and low presidential approval ratings at home.

In the Senate, Democrats claim they are on track to defeat four Republican incumbents, including Sens. Mike DeWine in Ohio, Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania, Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island and Conrad Burns in Montana. Republicans tacitly concede DeWine and Santorum appear headed for defeat, but the party's senatorial committee has launched television commercials in the campaign's final week in an attempt to save Chafee and Burns.

Barring a dramatic shift in opinion in the campaign's final days, that leaves only a handful of races in significant doubt, principally three Republican-held seats in Tennessee, Missouri and Virginia."

Now, I might be wrong, but this is OPINION and CONJECTURE...not NEWS.

It ain't over until it's over... Get your asses out there and vote, otherwise a much-too-small sampling of special interest groups will be deciding for you.

As for John Kerry and his "joke"...
Aides said the senator had mistakenly dropped one word from his prepared remarks, which was originally written to say "you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq." In that context, they said, it was clear Kerry was referring to Bush, not to the troops.
Took them 2 days to spin it... But again, what are they saying?

"If you don't study hard and do your home work, you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."
So, poor students will become Republican presidents?
Californian students have poor study habits but will still do well politically?
Good students will never become president?

I give up.

GO VOTE.

TBG out-

Because my cholesterol isn't high enough yet...

Fried Coke.

Famazing, out-