Jul
07
I recently joined a large portion of my extended family on a cruise from Galveston, Texas to Mexico. This was my first cruise and an enjoyable experience.
Highlights:
- (This is a lowlight.) A young man committed suicide. The 18 year old was nearly killed three months ago by two teens and jumped overboard while a crowd of onlookers watched. The full story is here. This happened early in the morning, and I awoke to the strong vibrations of the ship circling back to the body. Soon thereafter, the cruise director announced that we had a man overboard and were preparing to rescue him. I quickly confirmed that this person was not a member of our 20-person group, nervous that one of my nephews fell off. Perhaps an hour later the captain gravely announced that the man was retrieved but dead.
- I learned about the James Bonds of cruise ships. Major ports require one person called the harbor pilot to pilot all large ships into and out of a given port. They enter incoming ships from small boats as the ship approaches and leave outgoing boats as they leave. This all happens at full speed. I watched this happen as we left Galveston, and it was surprisingly entertaining. A small ship approached from the side and stayed right on the side of the cruise ship. The ship made a large, sweeping turning (presumable to shelter the boat from wind and waves) and the harbor pilot jumped from the ship onto the boat. The boat then sped away to the shore. I wish I could make such grand exits from my work.
- I promised coworkers I would reincarnate into a bronzed Jeff, but instead I got a thorough burn while kayaking in Cozumel, Mexico. The raccoon eyes were a crowd favorite.
- The highlight of my trip was visiting the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. The pyramid-shaped castle, temples and other structures were jaw dropping and have held up surprisingly well. My favorite portion of the ruins, though, is the ball court. It is 185 meters long and 70 meters wide with tall stone walls on each side. These walls each have a vertical stone ring in the middle six meters from the ground and are decorated with carvings of the participants. Details of the game are unknown, but each team tried to send the ball through one of the rings. The game was extremely violent with players dying or suffering from extreme injuries. Oh, and the victors decapitated a member of the losing team. This act, complete with gushing blood, is carved in detail on one of the walls. Additionally, the court’s structure was designed to allow one to talk in a normal tone and still have someone from the other end (185 meters away) still here them. Clapping one’s hand inside the court resulted in about six quick echoes.
- The nightly shows were entertaining in spite of (and partly due to) being really bad. One show, complete with Gob-style 80’s music and cheap light effects, surveyed American History, the Wizard of Oz, and some other random things I have blocked from my memory.
- There was no shuffleboard! I was bummed. But putt putt golf on the windy, rocky top deck was fun. Be careful on hole 6. If you are short the wind will blow the ball back to your feet.
- Oh man, there was no shortage of food. I need to bring an Ab Lounge and Thigh Master to work.
May
12
I spent a long weekend in Austin, Texas to attend my cousin’s wedding. I always enjoy visiting new places and comparing them to Seattle, my home town.
Observations:
- Texans love their big cars. Pickups and SUVs were aplenty and I can’t recall seeing a Mini.
- Texans have a lot of civic pride. The area was decorated with flags (Texan and American) and there was an abundance of references to the University of Texas and there alleged superiority to the Aggies of A&M.
- There is no shortage of barbeque. (Russell reminds me that this isn’t true BBQ, which is found in North Carolina, but it definitely entails consuming a lot of meat.) My favorite meal was at a restaurant in the sticks called Salt Lick. There was no pretense, just enormous amounts of slow cooked ribs, sausage and other meats. I wanted to die afterwards (in a good way).
- The cost of living is ridiculously low. The prices of beautiful new homes just outside the city were laughably reasonable.
- The humidity is a hinderance. This was in early May, but I always sought the comfort of an air conditioned room or car.
- Thanks to abundant, cheap land they were able to design an interesting freeway system. At least it was novel to me. The freeways were coupled with frontage roads (I think that’s the term): one way streets paralleling the freeways with infrequent merges into and out of the freeways. This seemed to reduce congestion by limiting the number of merges and allowing them to occur at higher speeds. In other words, they avoid a bunch of Mercer Weaves.
I spent the majority of my time in the suburbs where my relatives live so I wasn’t able to experience the actual city too much.
One thing I enjoy about traveling is that it reaffirms my love of Seattle. Even after visiting beautiful areas like Sydney, Puerto Vallerta and Tokyo I still want to stay in Seattle. I have yet to find a place with the character and beauty.
Apr
30
Yes, I did return from my Australia trip. That was a week ago, but I just haven’t gotten around to blogging about it yet.
It took my body several days to readjust to this crazy time zone Seattle is in after a brutal set of return flights.
Rather than write something coherent, I’ll jot down some observations:
- Their Burger King is called Hungry Jacks. Their menu and everything but the name is the same.
- There are a lot of stores labeled “Chemist.” I guess they are pharmacies.
- The crazy “drive on the left side of the road” thing is confusing for pedestrians, too.
- Sydney is beautiful. It reminds me of Seattle (it even has a monorail).
- Australia has amazing beaches. But watch out for the undertow.
- They have a completely different coffee system. I ordered “long blacks” the whole time, which did the trick. I think they are americanos.
Evidence of our domination of Sydney and Cairns is here on Flickr.
Apr
06
I am off to Australia today with a buddy of mine, David Erickson, for a much needed vacation.
We are spending five days in Sydney followed by five in Cairns (hint: the locals pronounce it “cans”). A rough list of things we hope to see or do:
- visit the famous beaches
- check out the Great Barrier Reef
- explore the Blue Mountains
- visit the Jenolan (sp?) caves
- attend an Aussie Rules Football or rugby match
I am super excited. I have only heard good things about travelling in Australia. Is there a simple way to superimpose my basic travel path over Google Maps? I know I can plot multiple points on Google Earth.
My main work-related goals are to decompress and to reflect. This is the first times in my brief career that I feel like I really needed some time off. There aren’t any specific reasons for this, though. Alan and Phil make Jobster a great place for a developer to work. They seem to have internalized Peopleware, allowing developers the space and autonomy to get their work done and the freedom to build whatever may help the company. Innovation and side projects are highly encouraged. (I’m trying to not sound like a complete suck up here.)
But anyway, I’m excited to decompress and come back fully recharged.
Mar
07
I will be spending a week and a half in Australia with a buddy of mine, David Erickson. We’ve agreed upon tentative dates but need to figure out what to do with our time their.
Can anyone suggest places to go and things to see?