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!

one more day

So the week is winding down to a close and tomorrow I'll be heading off to my second destination. Montreal was fun. It's a great city. Good food, and lots of stuff to see.

I finished off the day by running up Mont-Royal. Took about an hour round trip. Oh, and I had my first dry heave while running! Whee!

happy birthday!

I was out last night and I got a call from my friend Maia, whose birthday is June 28th, the day before mine. I was about to tell her happy birthday, but she caught me off guard by telling happy birthday to me! But it wasn't my birthday yet. It was her birthday!

Actually, we were both right. Maia, being in Japan and all, was calling me the morning of June 29th, her time... my birthday. I got the call the evening of June 28th, my time... her birthday. So even though we don't have our birthdays on the same day, we were able to both say happy birthday to each other at the same time on the right day (for the speaker). Neat...

Now we only need to swap places one of these times so we're not both confused when we hear the other person say happy birthday on what we think is the wrong day... :-)

learning

Day 2 of the conference. I didn't have any tutorials scheduled for today, so I spent a good bit of time walking around the city. I started off at about 8am and walked over to McGill with Todd, which was having his tutorial by there. I then spent some time stalking my dad's old digs at McGill. Found his old place here. Pretty nice street.

I then walked all over the park behind McGill, coming down the other side. On the way down I saw this one interesting looking church that was about a mile away. Since I had all the time in the world, I decided to check it out. In the process I found the street my dad mentioned (St. Laurent) and also this breakfast place that was recommended (Eggspectations). I eventually found the church, which was in a eastern style (as in likely Orthodox). I then swung back towards the St Lawrence river to check out Old Montreal. On the way, I stumbled across Chinatown and also Nortre Dame, two other places I was told I should check out (but wasn't given directions). Eventually I worked my way back to hotel along Victoria Park.

After I got back to the hotel I checked out the map that I had and apparently I traveled about 10 miles on foot during this 6 hour excursion. Not bad. I then took a half hour nap. Needless I was a little tired after being out in the sun for that many hours. I guess that means I'll have a big steak dinner tonight!

futurama

So last night at around 11:30pm I remembered that I should be watching [adult swim], so I turned on the TV in search of the Cartoon Network. I didn't see it on the channel listing, but I did see this channel that seemed like it had cartoons....

I changed the channel....

Viola! Futurama! Then I noticed that something wasn't quite right. Bender was talking, but his voice sounded funny. Then I realized that it was in French. It was amusing at first, but then it got kind of annoying because I couldn't really tell what was going on and also because Zoidberg had a normal voice. What's up with that? Non! I say! Non!

montreal - day 1

Got into Montreal safe and sound last night. Staying at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. Nothing too eventful so far. We had dinner at Vargas, which is right down the street. Very good place, especially if you're getting reimbursed. :-) I had the gigantic prime rib. Tasty.

I was originally thinking of going for a run this morning, but decided against it after checking out the possible route on Google maps. Ended up that the walking path that looked so nice on the CAA (Canada's AAA) map went straight through this shipping area. Not exactly what I had in mind for the St. Lawrence River. I'll still probably walk over there tomorrow though. I plan on spending most of the day wandering.

Oh yeah... I came here expecting to get free high speed internet access in my room. I am, but not through the hotel. Apparently I still have to pay $CAD 13.95 a day for it. Right now I'm getting a decent connection off of someone's wireless hub. Not sure who, but it doesn't really matter. ;-)

i'm out

Got my bags packed and ready to go. No, it doesn't feel like I'm coming back, but I'll be back here 7/18.

events

I got the new Better than Ezra album, and it's pretty decent. Something for me to listen to on my trip.

I still need to pack and everything, but at least I have all my laundry done. I'll be leaving tomorrow in the early afternoon and I won't be coming back till July 18th. :-D Technically I'll be back for an hour or so on July 1st, but aside from that stopover in Hopkins, I'll be out for a while.

I've got all my gear assembled, and I'll try to have some updates at least during my first week at Montreal. I may even have some updates when I'm in Vancouver or Washington, depending on whether those Choice hotels have free internet access. We'll see.

product idea of the day

For the makers of animal crackers:

• Animal heads
• Headless animal crackers