o canada!

Going to Toronto tomorrow. That will finish my July tour of the three biggest Canadian cities: Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto. Yay me.

mmm.... Chinese food....

sniff...

After so many years of success, the bottom has dropped out on CMU's premier athletic program... RoboSoccer.

Not only did we not win, we didn't even place. Some of you may think that I'm just mocking the event and that my disappointment isn't genuine. I assure you, it is. It's not that I was ever a huge RoboCup fan, or a big CMU fan. I'm not and I probably never will be. It's the fact that I can no longer jokingly cheer on the CMU RoboCup program.

Sigh... at least it was funny while it lasted...

latest itinerary

This weekend I'll be going to Toronto (to complete the tour of big Canadian cities... did Montreal and Vancouver earlier this month).

October I'll be in NYC/NJ for a weekend. Albert, can we crash?

December - still planning on Bangalore.

Somewhere in there I'll probably hit up DC to visit Darin and the TC.

hilarious

Thanks, Gizmodo...

Caution: Explicit material... May scare young children?

The Body Bouncer

And don't forget to watch the intro movie!

travel finances

Thanks to the first week of the trip being covered by Progressive, I was able to pull off the three week excursion within my typical $1,000/week budget (damn airfare was literally half of it).

Airfare - Approx $1,500
Trains - Probably another $500
This makes hotels and rental cars seem really cheap.

On a related note:
Visa charges 1% for ATM transactions - CHEAP! (in Canada at least)
Mastercard charged 3% - EXPENSIVE!
Changing currency at AAA charged 8% - FUCKING RIDICULOUS!

So next time, I'm still going to use the ATM, and avoid using my MasterCard whenever possible.

india

December?

That's still half a year away. October somewhere anyone?

more travel

Let's face it. I need another trip before the end of the year.

Anyone interested in any of the following destinations?
South America
Spain, Greece, or someplace in Europe
New Zealand
Australia
Grand Canyon

I'm open to suggestion too.

in progress

Currently in progress:
Uploading of all of the photos taken from the Mt. Fuji hike.

Unfortunately, that maxes out my 2GB upload limit for July. Damn. Thankfully, it's almost August. :-)

See them here on Flickr.

grumble

So I finally made it back home. Hopefully I'll have some photos up shortly so that people won't feel somehow cheated by my vacation.

Anyway, about next year's travel plans, the location for the 2006 UPA conference seems awfully lame. I don't play golf, which means that there is almost *nothing* to do. Sucks. Someones deserves a demerit for this.

i'll be back

Last post for a little bit. I'm leaving for Japan in about 9 hours, and I'll be back on the 18th.

...and no, I'm *not* bringing my laptop with me. That's another 7 pounds that I can easily do without. Heck, I'm even considering throwing out my boots for the return trip so I won't have to carry them. In case you haven't noticed, I love to travel light.

now with better graphics!

I've uploaded almost all the pics I've taken so far this trip. Check 'em out.

They're a little disorganized now, and they have hardly any descriptions. But a picture is worth a thousand words, right? RIght???

happy july 4th!

So I decided to come back to the US for July 4th this year. This morning we took the ferry from Victoria, capital of British Columbia, back over to Port Angeles, here in the states. Saw a few whales on the way, checked out some subalpine meadows, some temperate rainforest... now I'm chillin in the Quality Inn watching the whole town of Port Angeles try to burn itself down with a large public display of fireworks, offered by individuals across the town. I'd take pictures if I wasn't afraid of getting hit by rockets (seriously, they're shooting them all over... across streets, at buildings, they don't give a shit). Fun!