Tag Archives: Travel

New Years Resolution

Sarah and the Sunset - (P365-43)This past year was not a great year. I kept thinking through the year that “man I wish this year was done” and “ 2013 was incredibly shitty”. That being said, when I look back on it, and especially in comparison to some other folks I know, it was not as bad as I originally thought.

So instead of focusing on all the crap that went wrong in the year, I decided to focus on the positive and highlight some cool things that happened this year. With the help of my Project 365, I can actually look into the way-back glass and see where I was at what time and what happened. NONE of this could have happened without the wonderful people in my life.  Friends, Family, and this amazing woman I know who somehow, despite all my misfortune, still manages to want to be around me! (most of the time).

So yeah….when you look back on it without the doom and despair eyes, 2013 wasn’t all that bad!  Yes, Bad things happen all through the year, it happened to us, and it happened to lots of friends we know.  But we need to not look at just the bad!  I would encourage all of my friends and family to look back on the year and not focus on the the bad that happened, but look for the good.

JCCC3 Day 1 Random PicturesOh, and my New Years Resolution?  Well, I thought about this one quite a bit.  I used to always see other people, be it celebrities, or artists, or even just folks that people I know know, and think “Man, it would be awesome to be friends with that person, I bet we would have a lot in common.”  Well, the problem with that is that I am not currently friends with them, and really there is no incentive for that person to be friends with me.

So I resolve to not try and be friends with people I don’t know, but to be a person that the people I don’t know want to be friends with.  I think I would much rather focus on someone that other people look at and think “Man, it would be awesome to be friends with that person, I bet we would have a lot in common.”

Happy new year everyone!  Lets be friends in 2014

An American Nightmare in Kuwait

This isn’t exactly how I wanted to approach my next post on the site, but things being what they are, this is where I am now.  I am pretty sure that there is a list of horrible things that can happen to a world traveler while visiting another country.  Towards the top are things like Killed, Sold into slavery, imprisoned, etc.  But somewhere, probably pretty low on the list, is Loose Your Passport and Wallet.  While I hope to avoid any of the upper parts of that list, sadly, I can check that one off.

Yup, I lost my passport.

So what happened was that Sarah and I went to the Avenues Mall to get a desk and chair for her to use for her work.  We had just purchased the chair at Office Depot, I used my bank card out of my wallet there, and we headed out towards the Ikea, where we parked.  We loaded the chair into the car and went back in to see about a desk at Ikea.  I reached back and felt that my wallet was gone.  Panic mode sets in and I instantly start re-tracing every step.  I scour the car and go back and forth to Office Depot.  Nothing

Well shit.

I head to lost and found and file a claim and they said they would call me.  At this point my brain is a mix of “Can’t Handle this” and “FIX ALL THE THINGS!” I spoke with my boss and explained what happened and at this point it was a “Wait and see” thing.

The next day we went back to the Avenues to speak with the Police officer in the office there.  One of my co-workers passed on a website for the Kuwait Embassy stating that we need to get After checking in with Lost and found once more, and with Office Depot, we went to the Kuwait Police office in the Avenues Mall.  Where we were instructed that the officer would not be in until 4 pm.

So we waited.

At 4 pm on the nose we spoke with the officer who worked with the CCTV team to see if they could locate it.  He also informed me that I could not get a report done there, but needed to go to another police station.  There is a different police station, near Avenues Mall, that could help us, but I should speak with the Chief there, and he wouldn’t be in until the next morning at 9 am   So we left our phone info with the CCTV folks and headed back to our apartment.  Later that night we did get a call, but they said they couldn’t see anything fall out or look bad.

Que up this morning!

We left around 8:30 am to visit the police station near Avenues.  One of the things I have learned here is that there really are no street addresses or markers.  If you want to know where something is, it’s “Over there” or “Near that other thing”.  The instructions I got for the location of this station were about as good.  I checked 3 buildings in the area and finally found the police station.  I approached the desk and said “I am a US Citizen and I have lost my passport, I need to file a report”.  All 4 of the officers behind the counter looked at each other, and then at me, then one said, in perfect English  “You should speak with the captain” and then they went back to chatting among themselves.  The Captain they pointed to was talking to someone else, so I waited.  When he was ready I explained my situation.  He stated that this wasn’t the right place but that I had to go somewhere else.  I told him that I was instructed to come here and talk to the chief.  So we did!  He led me into the Chief’s office, which was very large and extravagant, and talked with the boss for a bit before both of them said “Not here. Over there” and pointed out the window.

I whipped out my handy Android phone with Google Maps on satellite view and said “Where?”  They poked around on it and eventually narrowed down the area I needed to get to.  So I left police station #2

Arriving at Police station/building/area #3 I found an office where I was told again “Not here, over there” with vigorous pointing. This led me through stations/buildings #4 and #5 where I finally found a nice man that offered to take me over to building #6 which is where I needed to go.  He was a local Civilian, BTW.  He drove me over to an office that, in no way resembled a police station, or anywhere you would file a report as such, but they at least sounded like they knew what they were talking about and were able to look up my passport to see if the number was used recently.  They printed out some sheets, all in Arabic  and said I needed to take them to the Airport to get a stamp and an approval.  This was the closest I have gotten to an actual process so I said “Sure!” and we left for the airport.  To aid in finding which office in the airport (because the directions were as expected) they wrote down in Arabic  the office I needed to go to, so when I got there, I could just show that to someone and they would direct me.

map

Next stop, Airport!  I walked into the main part of the airport and found a police officer.  I showed him my handy placard that stated where I needed to go (which I am pretty sure just said “Hey, show this dumb american where the approval office is”) and he said…..wait for it….. “Not here. Over there!”  He didn’t even point, he just motioned at an area that pretty much covers the whole airport, and then walked away.  Thankfully I found another clerk that was able to point me in the right direction.

At this station, I explained my whole spiel “Blah Blah, Dumb american, lost wallet, etc”  The guy looks at me and asks for my passport.

I just looked at him and stated again, “I don’t have it, it’s lost, that’s what I need you for” and pointed at the photocopy of my passport.  To which he replied (and I really wish I were kidding) “No, no copy, old passport”  I just stared at him again.  “I don’t HAVE my passport, it’s gone, I need YOU to give me a report so I can get a new one!”  After a few strange looks back and forth, he punched some keys on his Apple IIE computer on his desk and printed out another sheet, all in Arabic  then wrote some stuff on the first sheet I gave him and said “Take that back to them” and dismissed me.

Whatever, it seemed like progress.

Sarah and I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the airport and then whisked ourselves back to Office #6 to continue this “process”.

When I got back, I handed them the new papers and they went about typing in their system and then told me that I had two civil ID numbers in their system and they couldn’t do anything for me.  If I wanted to I could fill out a Lost Passport report and then come back with 4 passport photos and they would process me.  Either way, I should go.

What?!?!


It was at this point that I figured I would contact my Sponsor here in Kuwait and have them get involved.  Most contractors have sponsors here that kind of “grease the skids” and handle a lot of the Kuwaiti side of paperwork and such here.  I tried my darnedest to do things the right way and follow all the appointed rules and was met at roadblocks for each one.

Thankfully my sponsor figured out what needed to be done and has set the wheels in motion to get the process done.  Unfortunately, that process is going to take time.  I may not get my beloved police report until Sunday, after a number of hoops have been jumped through.

In case you were wondering, I also contacted the emergency number at the US Embassy and was greeted with a lovely automated system where every option was “E-mail us”.  Who uses e-mail in an emergency?!?!

So that’s where I am.  Stranded but working in a country that claims to love us but wants in no way to help your average person.  I am going through the motions while still trying to get some actual work done over here, so don’t worry too much.  I know I am not the first person this has ever happened to.

I posted to twitter earlier, but I can’t emphasize it enough.  I have never, ever, met a police officer (or force) that was so rude, dismissive, and non-helpful as what I was introduced to today.  Not a single officer genuinely wanted to aid me in getting this process done and gave me the attitude that I was only taking up their time that could be spent doing anything else.

Catch up Post!

What a dump! (P365-122)
Of course I realize the irony of the last post I left here being that I was searching for the Highway of Death, and then I don’t post anything for a long time.  (Ok, it was a little funny for me.)  The truth is that I have had both a lot of things going on, and then too little motivation.

So, as per usual, it’s catch up time!

I got to go home for a week!!  I know, I was excited too.  I had some work to take care of back at the home office and it required me being there in person.  The downside to this was that I could not take Sarah with me.  She stayed here in Kuwait and held down the fort while I went home and gorged myself on pork and alcohol.  (It was a hard ordeal, but I think I left some pork in VA, but not much)

Things here are moving forward as per usual for this sort of work.  Lots of “hurry up and wait” which you get used to.  We do our best to keep busy and entertain ourselves. I think we have worked our way through a good number of TV shows tat we have meant to catch up on.

Desert Tree (P365-118)My Project 365 is going well.  I have not yet gotten tired of my camera and it has given me the chance to experiment with some different shooting styles.  Not to mention being able to look back on the last 134 days (so far) and see a snapshot of what my year has been like.  I may have to compile a little book once the project is done.

I know it’s not a great catch up post, but that’s what there is to tell.  I will try and post some more soon, since we have some interesting trips coming up.

Oh, and we still couldn’t find the Highway of death.  Turns out it was cleaned up a few years ago.

bummer

Kuwait Adventures continued!

Crane on the beachRapidly closing in on finishing up my full month in country, I have to say I have certainly learned and seen a lot so far.  With my Project 365 task, I have tried to keep the pictures themed to what I have been doing here and some of my experiences.  I can look back at these pictures and probably tell you all about what happened that day.

 

Recently I had a great adventure when I met up with a local, Mohamed, who got in contact with me via Reddit.  I know it’s not the safest or wisest thing to do, meeting random strangers on the internet and having them take me through a foreign country, but hey, I like to live dangerously.  (Also a fan of not getting raped or stabbed, thankfully that didn’t happen)

This meetup was to show me what gaming culture was like in Kuwait.  Boy did I learn all about it too.  I don’t want to put too much into this post because the whole reason for researching this was to have some great knowledge for the next RetroNick Radio podcast.  All my findings will be there!

In the meantime, you get to catch up on my P365 photos.  Also, don’t forget to check out the Trooper Adventures!  These Lego guys are out on a tour of whatever they can find.

Blue Ring (P365-27)

Blue Ring (P365-27)
When I got here to Kuwait, it was VERY dry. Back at home I am used to higher humidity levels so I went out and bought a humidifier. I found one in a place downtown, it cost me about 18KD (close to $60) but it really is amazing. And it looks cool too.

Fighting at the White Tower (P365-26)

Fighting at the White Tower (P365-26)
This one is more of a snap shot of something I went to do today. I was guided by a great Local guy to one of Kuwaits main gaming communities. The White Tower (Facebook.com/whitetowerq8)
Here you will find the elite of the Kuwait fighting game league. It was a great glimpse into Kuwaiti gaming life. Much more about this trip will be covered on the RetroNickRadio pod cast. Www.retronick.com.

Keyboard Conundrum (P365-25)

Keyboard Conundrum (P365-25)
Spent a lot of the day working, which meant typing away on a keyboard. This one is not my regular laptop but one from a small netbook sized laptop I bought while here. I have been using it as a media PC running XBMC.
You can see from the keys that it has both english letters and arabic letters. Just in case I need to write out some letters to the locals.

Pop Pop relief. (P365-24)

Pop Pop relief. (P365-24)
I mentioned on my blog that I had a minor crisis when I left for Kuwait. I left my battery charger at home. Yeah I know! My battery normally lasts around a week, two if I conserve. You would also think I could just buy one here, but alas, no. I tried 12 places and no one had any DSLR chargers. (not even Canon ones!)
Thankfully, my lovely wife slipped my charger (and fully charged spare battery) into the mail and about a week later, it arrived. She loaded it so full of bubble wrap it was comical.
This bubble wrap may show up again. Just warning you now.

Play time is over (P365-23)

Play time is over (P365-23)
Another walkabout brought me upon this old abandoned playground. I have to imagine that there were many days of kids swinging and laughing here. On the plus side, across the street from here is a large park with a new playground that looks much safer.

Night Transit (P365-22)

Night Transit (P365-22)
Wanted to try for a long exposure night shot of the road in front of my building here. There are always cars zipping by till pretty late, and the cross road is sually pretty busy as well. My angle for the view isn’t the greatest but it gave me a chance to play around with it.

Fishing boats in the Mists (P365-21)

Fishing boats in the Mists (P365-21)
Went to the local open air market and found some of the fishing boats that supply it. The fog rolled in today so I took advantage of it.

Smug Camel is Smug (P365-20)

Smug Camel is Smug (P365-20)
We went to visit the camel breeding and trading post today. While we did not actually find the trading post, there were plenty of camels around and all of them were very friendly.

A taste of home, abroad. (P365-19)

A taste of home, abroad. (P365-19)
I love ginger beer. Back home I would find all sorts of brands to test. Here in Kuwait is almost impossible to find. Thankfully one of the stores imports Barr brand from England.
This was a backup picture I took as a “just in case”. I have started the habit of shooting a few things through out the day just to have something for later.

Chillin like a goat (P365-18)

Chillin like a goat (P365-18)
Came across this guy while I was out on a little expidition. I love the way he is staring longly at his watering hole conteplating his life……… as a goat.

Machine City during the day (P365-17)

Machine City during the day (P365-17)
The nearest large refinery looks amazing both during daytime and night time. It really does look like a giant machine city. I’ll work on getting a shot at night with all the lights.

Pocket Stuff (P365-16)

Pocket Stuff (P365-16)
At any given time I almost always have 4 things in my pocket, and my fitbit clipped to the side. Two are very basic, some lip balm (which is more for Sarah than for me), and a USB stick with some basic documents on it. The more interesting items are the 20 sided dice and the brass acorn.
Most gamers know that your dice are sacred, they have a connection to you. This one has been in my pocket for years and is very connected. Also, you never know when you may have to make a roll to resist temptation.
I always get asked about the acorn. When we started dating, Sarah and I were out for a walk and she randomly picked up an acorn and handed it to me. Not thinking much about it, I put it in my pocket. At the end of each night, I take the stuff in my pocket out and put it on the dresser, then the next morning it all goes back in my pocket. At my bachelors party, the real acorn disappeared and I was devastated. Sarah found the brass one online and gave it to me just after the wedding. It’s been in my pocket ever since.

FishEye view of the coast (P365-15)

FishEye view of the coast (P365-15)
Decided to give the DSLR a rest today and broke out my GoPro camera for a nice super wide angle view from my balcony here in Kuwait. Even in a foreign country, I still end up on the East Coast!

Old habit with new things. (P365-14)

Old habit with new things. (P365-14)
I am a big tea drinker. I had thought that coming to the Middle East would open up the types of tea I could try. Turns out that’s not the case. They are a big fan of Lipton here. I found this Red Label tea that’s not too bad, but kind of strong.
The mugs in my apartment are tiny, so I picked up this one on the base.

6000 Miles from home

Trooper Adventures - It looks so tall!Howdy folks!  Live from Kuwait City It’s Satu…wait, no it’s Monday for me.  Well, I have landed and been on site for almost a week.  There is certainly a level of adjustment to living in a Middle East nation.  Things are a LOT more conservative here than back home, but for the most part, it’s not that different.  I am staying in a simple 2 Br apartment in the Fintas region.  We have Cable TV and the internet is not terrible.  Only now and then do I run across the “This Web Page is Blocked.”  The work here is good, it’s keeping me busy and most of what we are working on is done from our Apartments with the occasional trip into the Datacenter.

 

 

There are a few things I wanted to try and see/do during this trip.  Of course, one of them is to keep up with my Project 365, which I have done pretty well so far.  As an added challenge to my photography project, I managed to leave the charger for my DSLR battery at home!  Sarah mailed it to me but it can take up to a week to get anything.  I have been very sparing due to this.  You would think I could just buy a new charger out here, but I have hit, and I am not kidding, 12 different places and NONE of them carry the charger.  I did manage to buy a backup battery (because you can never have too many) so I should last until the charger arrives.  I still kept up on the pictures and I’ll add them at the end of the post.  Another is to scope out some cool places to see when Sarah comes out in March.  And the latest addition to the agenda is finding a Gaming culture.

In the Americas we have a rich gaming culture.  Be it video games, board games, card games, or dice games.  There is usually something for everyone.  Out here, it’s a little harder to find, but I think I just need to dig a little deeper.  (Not speaking arabic is a hurdle as well, but I have google translate to help me with that.)  One of the saddest things I have found here was in a park near the beach close to where I am staying.  It would appear that there is a “Fun Times” park that has an arcade, go-karts, and family fun area just across the street.  In a fenced off area near by I found this:
Arcade CabinetsYes, that is a bunch of arcade cabinets just sitting out in the elements.  I don’t know what games they are, but I can see the PCB’s and CRT’s still intact.  I cried a little.

Another thing I am working on is a project that I will detail in another post later this week, but it involves those little guys at the top of the page.

Now, for the catch up on Project 365.

Kuwait Towers (P365-13)

Kuwait Towers (P365-13)
I had been waiting for the chance to get out to the Kuwait towers, today was the day. Beautiful clear sky’s and a nice wide angle shot from below the towers.

Kuwaiti Sunrise (P365-12)

Kuwaiti Sunrise (P365-12)
The first time I have ever woke up early enough to get a sunrise picture. Normally I hate waking up early but I took advantage of the time change effect on my system.
Lesson learned from this shot, I really need to work on my landscape pictures.

Rough Ride (P365-11)

Rough Ride (P365-11)
While driving through the desert we came across this car that had been in an accident and abandoned. This is commonplace around here. You can see a bit of a dust storm off in the distance.

Reflection on conversions (P365-10)

Reflection on conversions (P365-10)
The weather today was incredibly bad. Lots of win and sand everywhere. This made any sort of outside shot despicable. So I fell back on some of my travel accessories.

Traveling Man (P365-9)

Traveling Man (P365-9)
We arrived a bit late for me to get out and see some of the local scenery so today’s picture is about the transition.

Ready for take off? (P365-8-2)

Ready for take off? (P365-8-2)
Bonus Pic! Quick shot on the plane. See you in 12 hours

Late Night Flight (P365-8)

Late Night Flight (P365-8)
in the airport looking for a good shot for today, saw the reflection in the window and thought I would play a little.

P365 Progress and Getting ready for travel.

I told you I probably wouldn’t be posting the P365 pics here as I take them, but to catch everyone up I wanted to post what I have so far.

BUT FIRST.

A few notes about my trip.  I leave on Tuesday the 8th….yeah, tomorrow.  Flight leaves at 9:50pm and is a 12 hour jog over the Atlantic to land in Kuwait City at 5:50pm.  Kuwait is 8 hours ahead of EST so no one call me in the middle of my night!  Actually, you can’t call me since my phone number will be voice mail only.  You can call and leave me a voice mail, it will get sent to my e-mail and I will get it.  I will be available on IM, Skype, and through e-mail.  I should still have access to Facebook and Twitter, so for most folks it will appear as if I never left!

The Project 365 is going pretty well.  I haven’t hit any sort of wall about what to shoot.  I am approaching it with the idea of shooting what I am doing/working on for the day, that way it documents my year as well as practices the art.  Here is the catch up:

A Long Time Ago? let's test that! (P365-6-2)

A Long Time Ago? let’s test that! (P365-6-2)
Bonus Pic!
Since I caved and used Auto on the group shot earlier, I felt I should do another one. This may lead into a series of pics with these two guys as they take the Tardis to different locations. I wanted to grab this shot as a bonus pic since I am leaving the country soon and wasn’t sure if I would have the chance, and I already have the next two shots planned out.

 

RetroNick Radio (P365-6)

RetroNick Radio (P365-6)
Just a fun picture of the RetroNick Radio crew. I cheaped out and went auto for this shot because I just wanted a quick shot of the guys.

 

Days gone by (P365-5)

Days gone by (P365-5)
Today we went to a convention called Magfest. It’s mostly about games and gaming, kind of a “Pax-lite”. Still fun and they had a lot to see and do there. I wanted something that represented the time we spent there. Classic consoles are always a favorite.
No flash this time, all natural (well, indoor con based) light.

 

It was a Dark and Stormy Adventure (P365-4)

It was a Dark and Stormy Adventure (P365-4)
Friday is our game night. This was our first run together playing D&D, normally we stick to card/Board games.
The drink is called a Dark and Stormy, rum and ginger ale.
Simple shot, with an on camera speed light.

 

That time of year (P365-3)

That time of year (P365-3)
Yup, it’s time to toss the tree and tear down Christmas!
For this shot, since it was late in the evening, I used both of my strobe lights. One positioned down and to my left, the other I held at arms length above and to the right of my POV. Both were remotely triggered.
This was also post processed on the iPad using Snapseed. I like the iPad for some quick touch ups and adjustments.

 

Light Orb (P365-2)

Light Orb (P365-2)
Always wanted to try this trick with long exposure. A friend gave me a small blue LED light so I tied it to a string and went out for a twirl.
Nikon D5100, 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 200, 103 second exposure.

 

The new year, and new things. (P365)

Mirror BallWelp, here we are at the end of the year!  Looking back at the roller coaster that was 2012 and I just don’t even know.  Some many ups and downs.  One thing that’s for sure, it would appear that 2013 is going to be quite the adventure.

I hinted at it before but I can say with about 90% certainty that the biggest adventure is that Sarah and I will be doing a lot of traveling.  My work is sending me off to Kuwait for a contract and it’s for an extended period.  We thought, the best way to not get lonely, would be to take Sarah with me!  My company needed a tech writer and she is more than qualified so they hired her up and we head out in the beginning of the year.  A good friend will be moving into our house and taking care of the cats while we are gone so it works out great for him too!  This means that for almost ALL of 2013, Sarah and I will be world travelers!

This leads me into my New Years Resolution.  I am making the pledge to do Project 365 for 2013.  Project 365 is  where you take one picture for each day of the year.  It can be anything, but should focus on technique and using your camera well.  I am teaming up with Louis from over on Gamut of Geek and we are both going t try and stick with it through the year.  Of course, the challenge level for me being that some of the countries I am visiting have stricter photography laws, but at the same time, they are new and interesting.

The rules we have set down for each other are simple.  Use our DSLR for as much of it as possible, but if we see something great and only have our cell phones, we take the shot.  Also, no repeats.  (I am sure no one wants 300 pictures of our pets)  Uploads are not always important for every day since there may be days when we can’t get to the internet, but a picture must be taken and the EXIF will show the date.  Uploaded when possible.

I’ll set up a Flickr set specifically for my P365 as well as a folder in my gallery.  I may not post every picture on my blog, but I will try and update with what pictures have been taken.

Sunset on the Dunes
2013 is going to be a fun year.  Stay tuned!

A month of travel.

So i finished up a full month (maybe a tad over) of traveling for work.  Not just the typical “Go there, be gone for a month, come back”  Nope, I would fly out for a week, fly back for the weekend.  Destination: Sierra Vista AZ.  It was hard on the body but at least I got to spend my weekends with Sarah.

 

 

Here are a few things that happened while I was gone.  (Both good and bad)

Just because I wanted another fun travel pic.

That should bring us all current with what’s going on.  Now we approach the new year and it looks like there will be much in the way of travel for the year 2013.  This time there is a good chance that Sarah and I will both be doing the traveling together.  More on that as it develops.  With any luck, you will see lots of posts about Photography and Gaming from overseas.  Will be interesting to see what the culture is like in other places.  (like we did in London!)

 

 

Speaking of gaming, Sarah and I wrapped up Borderlands 2 (although she is still playing to get all of the extra stuff), I picked up and finished Halo 4 (still working on Spartan Ops), and I am playing The Walking Dead from Telltale games on my iPad.  I still get out to play some Ingres, but I hit the level cap and am having a hard time finding more to do it.  I hope that will pick up soon.

Sorry things are not more upbeat.  I was hoping to have more to write about but the end of the year is just….well, the end of the year.

World Traveler

Huge sorry for the lack of content for the last few weeks. Things have been a tad bit hectic as of late. You see, I have been traveling around for work and working very long days, so I haven’t had a lot of time to write. After the London trip I went back out to North Carolina for a week, and then off to Arizona for a month or so. The downside was a serious lack of time, but the plus side is I got to see some cool stuff and even take some great pictures.

I was down in Sierra Vista AZ and the landscape looks amazing. Armed with my trusty camera travel kit (aka, “My Bag” stuff to the right —> ) I set out to capture some great sunsets. Below are the results:

Sunset at Sierra Vista
Looking towards the mountains in Sierra vista lends to a great sunset shot.

Tombstone Cemetary
In Tombstone AZ, just about a 30 min drive from Sierra Vista, there are two cemeteries. The one most people know is Boot Hill, which is where the victims of the OK Corral are buried, and then the main cemetery, where everyone else goes. The real one is MUCH better looking (Boot hill looks like someones Halloween decorations).Cross at Sunset

The graves there date back to the foundation of the town.

For comparison, here are the Boot Hill graves:

Seems Safe
While venturing out (by myself) I ran across this sign and thought it might not be a good idea to be out, at night, so late, alone.

Shot for a shot
Back in Tombstone, at Big Nose Kates Saloon, I had a great shot of this whiskey. When the Barkeep asked if I wanted a picture of the bottle, he whipped out all the props for it!

After one of the trips to Arizona, I took a side trip to Parris Island South Carolina to watch my Son (who, you may remember, went off to the Marines) graduate Basic Training (aka, boot camp (aka, 3 months of hell)). Proud Father is Proud.

And lastly, not that I am back, I am trying to get back to normal. This means attending events like the local DC Metro MINI’s annual picnic! Where we got together and took this great shot:

Click to Super Embiggen

So, yeah. It’s been a bit busy. I will try and keep things updated more now that I am home (for now)

On Holiday

Cheers mates!

Just a quick post to say that we are heading off to jolly ol’ England for a bit of a holiday!  Many gadgets will be used and pictures will be taken.  An interesting note, we are not planning on taking any laptops!  This will be a little bit of an experiment.  Sarah and I are only taking the iPads and our phones.  I’ll stock up on Memory cards and clear off the iPad to use for storage for pictures, but yeah, no laptop.

We rented a flat in London and it is supposed to have Internet access.  to spread this into WiFi I picked up a [amazon_link id=”B004T8FC66″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]ZuniConnect Travel Router[/amazon_link].  So far this thing is awesome.  It will bridge the connection from a wired LAN to WiFi, or the reverse, Or echo an existing WiFi!  This will work out great to share the connection with the iPads and phones.  So far I have used it to extend my WiFi connection to a wired only machine and it worked great.  More reports to come.

We have a huge list of things to see and fun to be had, including a day trip out to Stonehenge!  Keep an eye on Twitter for some potential updates along the way!