Blight

Disneyland Dreams

I have returned from my company sponsored foray into the wonderful world of Disney. The trip was definitely a blast! I got to go on all the rides for both Disneyland and California Adventure (the new adult friendly park owned by Disney) and hit a couple shows as well. My favourites were the haunted mansion, the hollywood hotel, the space mountain "in the dark" rollercoaster, and the Indiana Jones temple adventure ride. I definitely recommend checking those out if you go.

The only thing that was not as great as I expected was the food. Now they had amazing stacks and racks full of so much crazy candy that I almost went blind but as far as proper food they only really had snacky food. To supplement this I purchased a tin of Pringles, and a V8 at a local convenience store.

Now after a full day of trekking through the land of happiness, Dalban (who joined on the trip) felt like taking a rest so we walked back to our hotel. After watching the Super Tuesday results start to come in, we headed back out to get the party started.

We were treated to great buffet food and open bars. I had a smattering of different drinks, including a triple Courvoisier on the rocks. I didn't feel too affected by the alchohol, but I think that comes with the effect of stomping beats and mashing bodies in a seething mass of dance. However, video evidence obtained by a fellow coworker proved otherwise, and she kindly entertained my other coworkers with footage of my dance moves.

Who'd have thought that I would get caught dancing under the influence at Disneyland?

On the way back from the party we decided to walk this female coworker back to her hotel, seeing as it was after 1am and she had quite a bit to drink. Well while we were on our way, trying to find her hotel, we had a run in with the law... a squad car pulled up along side us as we walked on the sidewalk and stopped.

The officer rolled down his window and asked us if we had been drinking that night. Of course we answered that yes we had. He then proceeded to ask us if we knew what we had done wrong. Of course we answered that we did not. Well long story short, he accused us of having run through a red light, which none of the three of us believed that we had. In any case, we just agreed with him and apologized because he threatened to take us down to the station if we continued to lie to the police. He gave us a warning and we hurried her on her way via taxi while we made it back without further incident.

Anyway nothing bad happened but it was a shocking incident nonetheless.

Labels: business trip, California, Los Angeles

posted by Blight @ 5:20 PM 6 comments

Going to Winnipeg...

Actually, this plane isn't going to Winnipeg. It's going to Disneyland! Forgive the allusion to the famous Canadian Tire advertisement.

Anyways, my employer has seen fit to send me and a few of my coworkers down to the magic kingdom for a week of fun. I don't think we'll be doing any work down there, other than bonding with each other over the course of our stay.

The best part: the park should be child free during our stay!

I have no complaints - and I plan to diligently enjoy this business trip!

Labels: business trip, California, Los Angeles

posted by Blight @ 1:53 AM 11 comments

New Beginning

First of all, some fairly huge news: my Toronto working life is on hiatus, as I have resigned and taken a position at another company.

Secondly, you may notice that I have added a disclaimer to my blog. Although it should be obvious, it is needed for legal reasons to make it clear that any content expressed here are my views and are not necessarily shared by my current employer.

Sunday night I successfully made it through USA customs and immigration's secondary screening area (also known as the zone where dreams are crushed and hopes are dashed) without being turned away with tears streaming down my face - as was the case for the half dozen people ahead of me - and hopped on a flight to San Francisco. Mere hours later I would be starting my first day of my California working life at the #1 company for tech hopefuls in the world.

It has been exciting and delicious so far. The free gourmet food has been the most apparent perk, but the 30" LCD screens don't hurt either.

Unfortunately aside from those details I cannot divulge anything further due to the sensitive nature of my work.

I have a lot of immigration and relocation issues to work through... my temporary housing only lasts for 30 days.

Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco

posted by Blight @ 8:33 AM 4 comments

Horrifying Zombie State

On the run up to the executive briefing for a major grocery company, I found myself working 13-16 hour days. That included working over the weekend, and driving back to Pleasanton from SF in the wee hours of the morning.

I arrived at the Pleasanton Hilton just in time to get some sleep before waking up Monday to work more than 30 hours in a row without any sleep. You may have seen 28 days later, or be thinking about watching 28 weeks later. Well let me tell you that while both of those are scary, 28 hours later isn't much better.

My coworker and I found ourselves playing chicken with the negative productivity zone, and occasionally we would break out into giddy laughter over something mundane like the "don't rock the pop machine" sticker. I'm not sure what my manager thought of all that, but he managed to retain his composure and let us get it out of our system. We were all huddled around a tiny desk in my manager's hotel room, my coworker and I having wheeled the chairs from our rooms over.

It was intense, and while a good bonding experience (comrade-in-arms), it was not something I would like to re-experience immediately.

In the end we were very successful, and it felt rewarding, but now I'm in San Jose (just ate lunch here at Don Don) doing another customer pre-sales educational activity. This time I will be explaining our programming model and how you can expose pieces using web-services.

Hopefully I eventually find my way back home. I ran out of clean clothing a week or two ago.

EDIT: Just ate supper with Dalban, we went to Gooyi Gooyi, and had the best marinated korean bbq I've eaten in a long time. Tomorrow I get a ride to Cupertino to sell my wares.

Labels: business trip, California

posted by Blight @ 6:13 PM 5 comments

Back in San Francisco - Westin St. Francis

I find myself in San Francisco again, continuing my travels around California. Now I'm staying at the "Westin St. Francis", the oldest hotel in SF. I'm staying in the historic wing, which means that everything is old. In some ways it is cool because the hallways and doors look like something out of an old 1930s detective movie. In other ways it is annoying because the hallways smell like mothballs.

It is quite obvious that the place is pricey, and I wouldn't be staying there on my own dime. I recommend dropping by for coffee though.

Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco

posted by Blight @ 10:00 PM 3 comments

Hollywood - Happy Madison

Here you can see the Happy Madison offices for Adam Sandler, and his sweet ride.

Labels: business trip, California, Los Angeles

posted by Blight @ 2:35 AM 4 comments

Hollywood - Santa Monica

If you look closely at the full image above, you can make out the iconic Hollywood sign off in the distance. We took a drive out to the sign to take the requisite tourist photographs of it.

Then we drove off to Pink's, the most famous hot dog stand in LA. I had a Rosie O'Donnell 10" stretch chili dog with sauerkraut. It was delicious, and the price was very reasonable. Although the lines were quite long, it was totally worth it.

After eating we went out to Santa Monica beach and strolled out on the pier. I lathered up with some sunscreen this time, I had a bit of a burn from the previous day. I guess I wasn't ready for all the sun they get down here.
Finally time caught up to us and we had to head back on I-5 to Pleasanton... this time it only took us 5 hours. It was a great little break.

Now off to bed and back to work!

Labels: business trip, California, Los Angeles

posted by Blight @ 3:41 AM 5 comments

Hollywood

I had a big post but Blogger ate it. So I'll keep it short and sweet. I hit Beverly Hills (pictured above), Rodeo Drive, the Sony Pictures International Headquarters, and Korea town.

Cameras were not allowed on the movie lot, so I had to secretly snap this picture of a huge inflatable spider man mounted on the side of a sound stage.

I saw Brad Pitt's trailer (he's working on a new movie... about a boat and snow - secret stuff) and Adam Sandler's pimped out golf cart.

Oh, and when I walked up to the famous Chinese theatre in the morning, after eating breakfast at the Saddle Ranch Chop Shop (warning it's noisy), I found my star on the walk of fame.

Labels: business trip, California, Los Angeles

posted by Blight @ 4:45 AM 5 comments

Cali Coast

Yesterday I drove down the California coast on a twisty-turny trip from silicon valley to Las Angeles with my co-worker. The view was spectacular, but it was definitely the slow scenic route. Blind turns and the threat of plunging over cliff edges kept us well within the posted speed limits.

We stopped pretty often to enjoy the view, snap some pictures, and say hi to the elephant seals.

The throttle opened up a bit once we got closer to LA, and we made the trip in a total of 10 hours.

We're staying at a nice hotel on Sunset Blvd in west Hollywood. Last night we walked up and down the strip and saw blinged-out babes in crazy-tight jeans, richy-riches with status-symbol sports cars, and a good share of wannabes.

Today I'm meeting up with an old school buddy who will be showing me around the local movie studio. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse of someone's trailer...

Labels: business trip, California

posted by Blight @ 1:45 PM 1 comments

Pleasanton Remix

Well I'm back in Pleasanton again. This is trip number 3 down here, and hopefully the adage of "the third time's the charm" will prove true. This emergency opportunity is huge, strategic, and unfortunately ripped me away from my long-awaited Las Vegas trip.

So far everything is going great, and my team was treated to some high-class Mexican dining. Right beside the neon sign pictured above is the "Blue Agave Club", where I tried a tasty dish called mole poblano. Mole poblano is a tender boneless breast of chicken, stewed for hours in a dark rich sauce made with chocolate, chilies, seeds and nuts. Hungry yet?

I'm not sure if I'll be able to return to Toronto for the weekend - this is a long haul march - but I'm doing my best to finish all my tasks early. Otherwise my babies might die while I'm gone!

Labels: business trip, California

posted by Blight @ 11:49 PM 2 comments

Pretty Things

Today I had the immense privilege of presenting to the CIO of one of the world's great luxury brands. I donned my best suit, tie, and shoes - coiffed the coif, and headed in.

Fortunately, and to my surprise, Monsieur is a very jovial guy. It was a very comfortable and easy-going meeting, with jokes being made in both English and French.

Unfortunately, they don't offer discounts or give out free samples as souvenirs.

$450 key chain anyone?

Also - this advertisement (youtube) is very cool

Labels: business trip, France

posted by Blight @ 9:59 PM 4 comments

Cold Welcome

I flew in from San Francisco last night, and this time I was prepared for the cold weather. I took a photo from the plane and in the Toronto airport. They have made many improvements to the main terminal - Terminal 1 - which is the home for all of Air Canada's flights.

I can't complain this time because I got to fly business class both ways and no-one stole my luggage. The service was nice, and the food decent. I didn't bother watching "Dream Girls" and played my Nintendo DS instead.

There were some interesting characters in business class. You have the frequent fliers (like me), the upper-crust and comfortable, and the rich glitterati. I'm not sure which category the man behind me fit in, but he seemed to like to hit the back of my seat. But the girl ahead of me and to the right was super glitterati wannabe diva style to the max. She had a diamond ring hat was really 6 diamond rings, with diamonds all around them. Also, she sported snake skin cowboy boots and other cheezy accessories.

After arriving and ignoring the scoopers (undercover drivers trying to get passengers despite having no license), I was just glad to be headed home.

My plants (Thai basil) were still holding on, and intelligent life had not arose out of the dirty dishes in the sink.

AND I had a new game in the mail from Game Access - "Contact". I will write about in at The Game Chair in the near future.

Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco

posted by Blight @ 10:05 PM 5 comments

California Reprieve

You may or may not have heard of the wicked winter storm that hit Toronto and most of southern Ontario. Freezing rain, trees falling over, power outages, delayed and cancelled flights were all part of the unfortunate mess we found ourselves in here in Toronto. In fact the police had to close Front street because of huge pieces of ice falling from the CN Tower.

In addition to the effects of weather, we're also dealing with a severe fuel shortage which has left almost every gas station displaying a "00.0" - unfortunately meaning no gas, not free gas.

Fortunately, I'm heading back to California tonight (if my flight isn't cancelled) and I'll be able to enjoy the warmer weather there for a couple days. It's for work, a re-visit of the last stint I pulled there, and this one will be much more intense.

Essentially I'm responsible for doing a 4 hour programming content style bake-off versus several major competitors. This would be challenging enough but I have to deal with this little extra: my every move will be projected on a screen in front of the decision makers.

To the Pearson International Airport!

Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco

posted by Blight @ 5:41 PM 4 comments

Happy Lunar New Year!

Tonight I celebrated the lunar new year at the Empress of China restaurant with Dalban and his circle of friends. We were actually already stuffed from eating handmade noodle soup and dumplings at a Korean restaurant in Sunnyvale's Korean town, so the two of us barely touched the dishes but the rest of the group made short work of them. I love fortune cookies so I made sure to grab one before they were all gone. My fortune is pictured above, and I'm pretty satisfied with it. One question though, why does it say "will be" ?? I kid.

Then we tried to hit a local bar on Grant street, the heart of the famous San Francisco China Town, but it was full of creepy old men in trench coats. Occasionally one would wander out to the door, fish something out of his coat, and throw it into the street.

BOOM!

I thought it was a gun shot, but it was just a firecracker.

We wrote fortunes for each other on pieces of paper, stuffed them in red decorative envelopes, and randomly handed them out at midnight. My fortune said "Porky was a pig, and look how far it got him. Where's the yayo?" but I have no idea what that means. The funniest was "When the sunshine hits your face and wakes you in the morning you will find a black thong on the floor." I wrote a nice one for whoever got it, with a cute drawing of a happy pink pig.

Happy lunar new year!

Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco

posted by Blight @ 6:12 AM 4 comments

Dining at Google

Last night I met up with Dalban and had a delicious meal at the Cheesecake Factory before heading back to his place in Palo Alto. That was just a prelude to the amazing buffet of "smart water", organic beverages, food, and geek-core tech goodies that surrounded me during my visit to the Google campus today.

Google has a ton of buildings down in Mountain View, CA. We signed in and met up with Dalban's UVic buddy who proceeded to show us just how cool the work environment here is. It's very social, very convenient, and very tempting. I admit that I was filled with a reasonable amount of geek-envy at the multiple 22" widescreen LCD monitors and machines adorning each workstation.

The social atmosphere reminded me of my time in highschool when I shared an art studio with Derelict. These days my own team is so often working on disparate projects that we need a weekly bulletin just to realize what each other is doing. Personally, I would love the kind of collaboration that seems so ingrained at the Googleplex.

Benefits that stood out:

• Google shuttle service equipped with wireless Internet to commute from San Francisco
• 20% flex time to work on your own projects
• No questions asked hardware requisitioning; want another 22", no problem
• Smart and motivated co-workers
• Working on some of the illest and newest tech and web solutions
  
• 360 degree peer reviews influencing bonus payout
• On site haircuts, oil changes, and $5 massages
• Free food, beverages, and electric scooter rides from building to building
• Being able to invite buddies over to "visit" and enjoy the free food too!
  

The weather is pretty nice down here too... no need for a jacket these days, it feels like late spring, early summer, at least for Edmonton.

Tonight and tomorrow I'll probably head over to the city (San Francisco) to check out the Lunar New Year (it's not really CHINESE new year - other cultures recognize it too) festivities.

One note of caution... if you searched on Google's website today, I might have seen it. You see, they have a wall where they project the current searches people are submitting, filtered for obvious nasty words I assume. It was pretty neat seeing searches coming in from all over the world, it really hit home to me just where I was.

Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco

posted by Blight @ 5:57 PM 6 comments

Snowstorm Avoided - Pleasanton, California

From snowstorm to peaceful serenity, I managed to barely escape the rumbling dump of snow hitting southern Ontario and catch a flight to the solace of San Francisco last night.

I was rather lucky because it seemed that half of all flights were cancelled. Likely because they were unable to make it in from their origins in the storm affected regions of the USA.

I arrived around 11:30pm, drove my Neverlost GPS enabled Ford Taurus for a good 30 minutes (doubling back a couple times for good measure), and arrived at the Hilton Pleasanton just in time to spend Valentine's day alone in an unfamiliar city.

Today will be an intense set of preparation for my 90 minute blitz with my customer tomorrow. Then I plan to stay a couple nights hanging out with Dalban, probably going out for Korean food at some point. Although I'm sure that in California the Mexican food is a must-try. Oh! I can't forget to revisit the delicious In-and-out Burger!!

Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco

posted by Blight @ 12:38 PM 4 comments

Swimming in Gordons Bay

Yesterday I flew from Brisbane to Sydney to meet up with Cibbuano and enjoy a day - a Jack Bauer kind of day that steadily ticked on for 24 hours and showed no signs of slowing down.

He dropped by the Radisson on Liverpool, and we exchanged secret gang signs under the whir of an overhead monorail.

After grabbing some Chinese dimsum that was delicious but barely tolerable by my then alchohol weakened stomach (my last night in Brisbane was intense), and following that up with a refreshing honey milk tea, I started to slowly regain my strength. With the colour returing to my face, we hopped into his Falcon and headed down Anzac Parade to Alison Road, final destination: Gordons Bay.

The view of the bay from the cliffs above was beautiful. This was truely a little gem that C & R had found. Unlike Bondi Beach or the other popular places to be seen in the sun, Gordons Bay is a sheltered alcove that focuses more on the beauty of nature than the beauty of Aussie metermaids.

Once I was out in the water, I felt amazing. I also realized how incredibly lucky people are in Australia's coastal cities to be able to access nature this way.

After that highlight of the day, Cibbuano showed me his diner, and while he worked I took a walk up and down Oxford street. There were a ton of cool restaurants and stores, unfortunately most of them were closed but I did manage to get a really nice bottle of wine at a little boutique shop called "The Five Cellars".

With work out of the way, we checked out the local pubs until 2am, picked up his girlfriend, and then set out for Kings Cross. A requisite of hitting "the Cross" is indulging in the vice supplied everywhere, and indulge we did until 3:30am.

When I got back to my suite, I had 2 hours of sleep to look forward to before checking out of the hotel and checking in at the Sydney International Terminal to start my multi-day journey. Actually with the time zone magic involved in crossing the date-line, my trip back consisted of only one day (Sunday) but easily consumed more than 32 hours. Take that Jack!

Cibbuano's take on the day can be found here.

Labels: Australia, business trip, Sydney

posted by Blight @ 11:07 PM 5 comments

30 Hour Voyage

The trip here was an ordeal. From door to door, it definitely took more than 30 hours.

I was packing until 2 hours before my limo-taxi would arrive, after a couple winks (not quite 40) I took a shower, rushed downstairs and jumped in. Off to the Toronto Pearson International Airport.

I slept most of the way to Vancouver, aided by my decently sized business-class seat. Before we landed I woke up and took in the impressive beautiful view from my window. I had to get my thoughts together because shortly after landing I would have to get on a conference call with colleagues in Australia and the United States.

That done I collected my bags in US customs and sent them on their way again. Of course I couldn't have known at the time that would be the last time I would see my laptops.

Next stop, Honolulu. Unfortunately on these trips I always get in to Hawaii late at night, and the airport is totally dead. It's a horrible layover because it's like a slap in the face. It's a tease. It's warm weather and beautiful scenary just out of reach, a gentle spray of mist from an ocean you can't see caressing your face.

Getting back on the flight, I travelled to Sydney, and then after a brief layover I continued on to Brisbane.

After a short taxi ride, I arrived at a very nice 5 star Hilton Brisbane. The location is great, it's right off the "Queen Street Mall" - which is a pedestrian only street lined with stores and multi-level malls on either side.

Labels: Australia, Brisbane, business trip

posted by Blight @ 7:20 AM 6 comments

Stolen Laptops

Labels: Australia, Brisbane, business trip

posted by Blight @ 1:12 AM 7 comments

Surfers Paradise

Labels: Australia, Brisbane, business trip

posted by Blight @ 7:21 AM 1 comments

Lost Bag

Air Canada does it again.

While I travelled Toronto Vancouver Honolulu Sydney Brisbane, my bag somehow forked off to Los Angeles.

Now I don't have my laptop, which I need to do my work.

Great.

So... off to the beach?

Labels: Australia, Brisbane, business trip

posted by Blight @ 10:45 PM 3 comments

Toronto Vancouver Seattle Vancouver Edmonton

I saw this face a couple times. It's in the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge at the Vancouver international airport, and looks spookier in person. The best thing about the lounge there is that they have showers, the VIP kind where you get a private room, hair-dryer, towels, and the floor is dry.

Anyway, this face marked a mid-point in my journey as I travelled from Toronto to Seattle and took a brief rest in the lounge while waiting for my next flight.

Seattle unfortunately didn't have much to offer me because I barely saw it as I took my smokey rental car to Issaquah to prepare for my face-to-face with a potential customer. I worked for several hours, then met up with a colleague for a late lunch (my stomach told me emphatically that it was supper time on the east coast) to discuss the meeting. I worked until midnight and woke up at 5 am.

I showered, shaved, dressed, and headed down for breakfast - but not before I called my travel agent and arranged for my return flight to take a little stop-over in Edmonton.

Fast forward to after the meeting and my return to Seattle airport and I'm getting some trouble from security. It turns out that when the nice lady (Atsuko Satsumo if I recall) at the check-in counter wrote "SSSS" on my ticket, that wasn't a good thing. I got special treatment to be certain. I got sent to a special line, I had 3 TSA staff waiting on me, it was great. One man even gave me a special full body massage. If you also want to enjoy the special pleasures of this experience you need only a BIC pen and the courage to try writing "SSSS" on your ticket.

After all that excitement I definitely needed the shower in Vancouver, I didn't feel "clean" anymore. To be honest though, the TSA staff were very polite and cordial. I mean, the masseuse even told me that if I didn't feel comfortable at any point, we could go to a private room. I tried my best to feel comfortable.

So Edmonton is where I am now, and today I ventured down to Whyte Avenue to view "Ice on Whyte" and the associated ice sculptures. Great stuff, it's so nice to be back even if it is just for the weekend.

Labels: business trip, Seattle, Washington

posted by Blight @ 3:37 AM 4 comments

Cleveland Take 2

I just got back from another week of business travel. Cleveland again, and I still didn't get a chance to see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or anything other than the inside of two airports, one rental car, two hotels, one restaurant, and one office building.

Two hotels you ask, well I thought I would be coming back earlier and checked out of the first hotel before I realized that I would have to stick around for another night. The first hotel had pillows that were just too hard, and the second hotel had pillows that were too soft. I guess if I had ended up staying in a third hotel it would have been just right and Goldie Locks would have taken my bed!

Actually the business partners I was working with were pretty cool. Their office has this crazy coffee machine that takes drink packets and then instant-brews whichever drink you throw in it. They had hot chocolate, various coffees, lattes, and even Japanese macha. It definitely had a "dot-com" feel to it, what with the $1000 designer chairs and curved white-board walls.

Despite several wink-wink nod-nod attempts to recruit me I made it back to Canada with the same employer as I had when I left.

One odd thing, was the reaction of customs when I came back. "Two laptops? Why do you have two laptops? I don't even own one laptop." And then I was sent to the bad place where they inspect your stuff. I was let off once they realized that yes I had the laptops when I left the country in the first place, and the laptops were company property.

Labels: business trip, Cleveland, Ohio

posted by Blight @ 2:35 AM 9 comments

Cleveland Rocks

Labels: business trip, Cleveland, Ohio, Providence, Rhode Island

posted by Blight @ 11:00 AM 7 comments

Cambridge - Churchill College Freshers Week

Yesterday I had the most amazing time here at Churchill College thanks to the Beav and The Wife.

I became a "Fresher", a new student in UK parlance, and all it took was a wink and a nod, and a name-badge with my name scrawled across it. After splitting up into groups I followed our new leader "Betta", an Italian Bella studying Bio-Physics, down to our first hostel on our "Hostel Crawl".

We started by playing quarters (or 10p pieces here), launching coins into the wooden table trying to get them to bounce into a glass. The next hostel brought a new game, one where we threw bottle caps at the other person's crotch trying to knock the bottle cap off their cleverly placed beer bottle. Next we played beer pong where we tossed a dirty ping-pong ball at a group of beer glasses, forcing our opponent to drink the now soiled beer if our ball managed to find its way in. Finally we engaged in Beav's own "Beaver Game" - a game requiring all of our brain power combined, but unfortunately at that point we didn't have much of that in supply.

Sure there were rules and such but in the end it boiled down to drinking, having fun, getting to know your co-freshers, and drinking.

All the Freshers were very cool, especially my group, and I'm now painfully aware of why Beav is not itching quite so vigorously to return to Canada. Damnit, I'm considering getting a PHD in something, anything if it means I can hang out with all the cool peeps I now know.

There's Clay the cowboy, David the Guelphster, Chi the Bombayer (because he prefers that to Mumbai), Viviane the Invertibrate Paleontologist, Betta the Bella, Adam the guy that gets hammered from apple juice, Soon the Math3 guy who managed to knock my bottle cap off 3 times in only 4 throws!, and our game leaders Max, Justin, Jonathan, Rams, Rob, and Huwe (affectionately known as "not Rob") -- and that's not even mentioning Beav or The Wife, which have very thoughtfully let me stay with them this weekend.

Today I will join them for a Fresher's lunch, and ... well I'm really enjoying this weekend. It is some very much needed R&R considering how crazy this last week has been.

Having your laptop die on you while you are mid-project on-site and out of country is never good. The less said about THAT, the better.

Labels: business trip, Cambridge, UK

posted by Blight @ 2:37 AM 15 comments

London - 97 Great Russell Street

Yesterday at 8:45pm (Greenwich Time) I arrived in London. London airspace at least. It took another 45 minutes before the plane had secured a landing slot at Heathrow and touched down. Some people clapped, I didn't really care anymore.

After a train ride to Paddington station, I took a cab with my manager to Great Russell Street, where my hotel is situated. It is actually a much nicer hotel than the place I stayed last time I was in London, and I think the oil paintings at the entry area are very cool and surreal. They look like old renaissance paintings except that the subjects face is unfinished.

I feel inspired to do something similar someday.

After trading my inflated Canadian currency for the doubly inflated British pound, I feel much poorer and breakfast (at 16.50 pounds!) alone cost me enough that I may think twice about it tomorrow. Actually I'm taking a train out to Winchester and then a taxi over to Hursley tomorrow so hopefully things are cheaper out there. At least they were last time I went.

Besides tea, crumpets and whisky, does England have something I should be bringing back with me?

Labels: business trip, London, UK

posted by Blight @ 12:43 PM 15 comments

Sweden - Assemble Your Own Furniture

I may or may not have been whisked off to an unnamed customer located in Sweden. Shhhhh it's a secret, don't tell anyone!
And although I didn't take photos of them, Sweden is just teeming with hordes of hot blonde girls on bicycles.

Labels: business trip, Sweden

posted by Blight @ 7:08 PM 7 comments

Scandic Region - Denmark and Sweden

First I managed to catch a train going to the wrong city...


To rectify my destination woes (I was in Helsingor by mistake), I hopped on a ferry to cross into Sweden to arrive at Helsingborg.

One thing I noticed is that people here are on average much taller than a run of the mill Canadian.

Oh, and I met this eccentric/odd/tired old woman on the train who was searching for her family's lost estate. The "House of Vigor" or something, a large white castle/mansion that her grandfather defended from the Nazis. She is supposedly an heir to a royal family in Denmark. More on that later. But first: She had a very odd way of slipping the word "Dichotomy" into every third sentence.

Labels: business trip, Denmark, Sweden

posted by Blight @ 5:20 PM 2 comments

San Francisco - Final Tour

Yesterday I had a wonderful tour guided by my co-worker. We hit the Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium (where we volunteered to help build part of the nanoscape exhibit), the "famous crooked street", and finally Korean town in San Francisco.

Actually, the first stop was the "In and Out Burger", and I have to say that was the most delicious burger I have ever had. Unfortunately they only have chains on the west coast so take the chance if you get it. Supposedly they also have secret menu items that you can only order if you know they exist. For example, they only list a double-cheese burger, cheese burger, and hamburger but they also have an "animal-style burger" - you'll have to order that to find out what it is.

San Francisco seems to be a great place to visit, and to live in. The downtown was MADE to be enjoyed on foot... just ignore the beggars.

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 9:58 AM 4 comments

San Francisco - Sailing

I had some great fun today sailing out and around Alcatraz in the San Francisco bay. We headed over to "Sam's", a bar on the water with a dock built into the side of it, a place full of hot bikini-bound women who love to hang out to gold-dig rich men with large boats.

We were invited aboard a huge all-wood power-sail boat to drink and socialize with a group of 30-something socialites. It was interesting although I was at a loss with all the use of sailing terminology. Every rope and piece of the boat has a fancy name...

That's Alcatraz in the background:

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 1:47 AM 5 comments

San Francisco - Bootcamp

Here I am after having a delicious sandwich for lunch from a local bakery. I'm minutes away from beginning my first presentation of the week. In the next photo, I'm caught in the act of outlining the changes in architecture of some fancy shmancy software.

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 1:39 AM 7 comments

Winchester Cathedral

I walked from the Winchester Hotel last night, down Andover road, across City road to Jewry street, and then down High street and Little Minster street to arrive facing the beautiful structure shown in the photo I took above.

Winchester Cathedral, being one of the oldest in England, is over 800 years old. Of course they don't make things like they used to, but they don't usually spend hundreds of years on a single structure anymore either.

I was disappointed to find out that they had finished with their "Cracking the Code" exhibition for the day. They used the cathedral for some of the scenes shot in The Da Vinci Code, and I suppose if you show up before 5 pm you might be able to check it out for yourself. Make sure you arrive before June 21st though, because that's when the exhibition ends.

However, what I was able to participate in was an Evensong service. A quire of 20 or so men in white and red robes sang out in exultant praise to the holy trinity as I read along in the prayer book. I didn't know the customs of when to sit, stand, turn to the altar, and when to call out "Dear God" with the others. However it was quite an experience listening to the voices carry through the ribbed ceilings and in such beautiful harmony.

After the service, I headed down to The Royal Oak, which claims to be the oldest pub in Winchester. Of course what pub doesn't claim to be the oldest? Anyway it was a small little place stuck down a back alley beside "ASK", an Italian place I had eaten at earlier in the week. I tried a couple beers, "Leffe", "Champion" and "Speckeled Hen". Of those, I liked Leffe the most. Champion was a tough stout and not really my taste.

In 40 minutes my taxi will take me back to Heathrow to head back to Toronto. I don't know if I'll feel safe back in Canada. After all, knives haven't been banned there yet.

Labels: business trip, UK

posted by Blight @ 2:59 AM 6 comments

Working at the Big House

Now generally I don't like to write about my employer, and I only mention my job in bits and bobs... but I have to share the amazing manor house that he has out in the English country side.

Surrounded by forested groves, large sheep enclosures, murders of crows, and twisty little roads, this mansion is as full of history as it is impressive to look at.

Originally built sometime around 1720 (Wikipedia says: "built by William Heathcote between 1721 and 1724") it was remodelled and restored in 1902 to be what you see in the photo above. It has been used as a military hospital during WWI and WWII, and during WWII it served as the R&D birthplace of the Spitfire!

The Hursley House is an impressive place, although I can't imagine what someone could do to fill 3 stories and hundreds of large rooms. The heating bill must be pretty severe in the winter too, or at least it would be in Canada.

Despite the horrible jet lag I have been suffering for the majority of this week, I have had a great experience working with business partners from many different countries: Spain, Italy, Germany, Ireland, England, India, etc. They were pleased when they found out that despite my accent, I am Canadian and not American. I can tell that G.W. has not done much to improve the image of the US abroad.

Tomorrow after my conference is finished I will explore Winchester and maybe check out the cathedral used in the Da Vinci Code movie.

Saturday morning sees me return to Toronto. Boy do I really miss my bed... because this one feels like a 500 lb man was jumping on it. Seriously, I'm rolling into the middle of the bed its so saggy. It's almost like being in a hammock.

But I'm so sleepy and tired now that nothing can stop me from catching my Zs.

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 6:07 PM 6 comments

Hopback Summer Lightning

There is a major advantage to living in the UK, and I'm sure that this - as much as The Wife - is a huge part of Beaver's reason of sticking through the overpriced EVERYTHING else.

Yes I'm talking about BEER.

Today I went to a fine ale house called "The Dolphin" in Hursley - for lunch mind you - and tasted this liquid gold: Summer Lighting, a great beer from Hopback.

A testimonial (from someone else I don't know):

Hopback Brewery - Summer Lightning
Undoubtedly the best beer ever brewed and to be drunk by me. It wins awards, and for very good reasons: Post ride, this is better than water it is so so so so refreshing, light, a bit bitter and you can drink five and still feel good. The perfect ride would have Hopback pubs all along it, this stuff is on a higher level.

So grab a seat out back at The Dolphin and let's toast to the delicious brews that abound here.

I might see if I can get some bottles of the stuff, but I'm not sure if that will be possible or not. I don't see many liquor stores around - everyone just goes to the pub!

Labels: business trip, UK

posted by Blight @ 9:43 AM 2 comments

Air Canada - Craptastic Service

This Monday, I was up until the wee hours preparing for a business trip. I woke up early, caught a taxi to Toronto's Pearson airport, and after making it through customs (I didn't get asked ANY questions this time... weird) I proceeded down to my gate to wait for my flight.

And so started a 12 hour ordeal that should have been a short 4 hour trip...

The initial indicator of a problem was the fact that we were scheduled to leave at 9:45 am, and yet at 10:15 am we were still sitting in the plane waiting for it to back off from the gate. At 10:30am they tell us that we have to de-plane. Why?

Technical problems. A hydraulic pump of some sort had failed or was broken. As nice as it would have been for them to have found and fixed that a little earlier in the program, I echoed a fellow traveler's sentiments "Good call!" someone declared. No one would have wanted to take off and have that discovered mid-flight, or perhaps mid-crash.

So no, the technical problem and the de-planing are not really the source of my feelings of resentment towards Air Canada and their delightfully craptastic service. No, I don't blame them at all for having to de-plane us. These things happen. Amazing the plane made it in with the wrecked pump though...

On to the rant: So now we get off the plane and are shoo'ed onto a little bus to take us back to the main terminal. When we get there, the one Air Canada employee at the gate is absolutely clueless. She doesn't know we were coming, she doesn't know where we are supposed to go, and she doesn't say anything to the huge crowd (a recently de-planed plane full of people) gathering at the bottom of the bus-loading area for the gate.

People wait, and wait. Finally people start to get pissed off. We're standing around with no idea what we are supposed to do. We just had our flight cancelled (without them telling us that directly) and many people have connecting flights or meetings to attend at the other end of that cancelled flight.

Finally a lady who knows something shows up and leads the train of passengers through tight back corridors and at last we emerge... back where we had originally started our airport adventure: at the terminal entrance.

So now we haven't been told where our bags are, or what Air Canada is going to do for the 50 or 60 of us to get us to our destination. In fact, we've just been rather unceremoniously dropped off at the door and told to fend for ourselves.

Even at the "Executive Check-In" counter (where I am fortunate enough to be able to bypass the incredibly long lines mere mortals use) they feign impotence and tell us to "Go through the double doors, and go to the left... there are some phones there. Pick one up and talk to an agent."

I wander around, get my bags from a lower level, come back up, go through the magical double doors, and head over to a table with a dozen cheap plastic phones. The funny part is the phone books. Yes, they have lots of phone books on this table, and yet the phones have no buttons. They are hard-wired to call Air Canada agents as soon as you pick up the phone. So are these useless decoration? Not really, they serve as an expressive outlet for pissed off patrons. It's impossible to find a phone book that doesn't have its cover ripped off and "AIr CanADa SUcKS!" scribbled on it.

I did make it to St. Louis, 9 hours later than I was supposed to, and 6 hours after my customer meeting was already done. I had to go away from my final destination, fly to New York (JFK), and then transfer to fly back to St. Louis. Of course I should mention that when I arrived at JFK, they had us run to the other end of the terminal, just to tell us that the gate was changed to... wait for it... the exact same gate we just ran all the way FROM.

I won't even waste your time complaining about the Hilton suite I stayed in where the bathtub was clogged with hair, the sink stopper was broken (so it wouldn't empty my tooth-paste-saliva-spittle on its own, and I had to hold the stopper open with my hand), and the TV changed channels on its own.

Nope, because you have better things to do. Like avoid giant sink-holes.

EDIT: (updated link to PDF file... last one disappeared)

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 8:07 PM 7 comments

California - Santa Clara

No photos. I didn't feel inspired by anything I saw. Maybe Dalban will forward a few to me.

I came back from another business trip, this one for a major game industry company. While I was down there I ate out at a couple great restaurants, treated by our sales guy. I think it's true that it takes money to make money. How could a small company afford to send people flying around and buy them $200 bottles of wine?

One thing that has become very evident to me. Sales people can drink like frat boys. Like aggies even! Like aggie frat boys! I guess it goes with the territory.

I didn't mind being given a couple free drinks. But it was madness to try to keep up with these guys. Plus, I have to accomplish technical stuff before the next day, they just have to be full of confidence.

Parting sentiments: Cali is a sweet place. Amazing weather. Pretty girls. Google gives their engineers dual 26" LCD monitor display set-ups.

I might consider working down there some day.

PS - I have decided not to pay the money that I definitely do NOT owe Standard Parking.
PPS - I added "Las Vegas - Shibuya" but set the date in the past... so I can keep my different trips in order. Check it up if you want sake tips, or tips on how to get $30 tips.

Love Psychedelico - a relevant song "California"

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 1:33 AM 16 comments

California - Standard Parking, I hate you

"Aarrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

I don't swear for the heck of it. But I am so fucking pissed off right now.

I just got back from a nice business dinner with clients and coworkers.

Something wrong with the business meeting today? No.

How about the food, did someone forget to put sprinkles on your creme brule? No.

So what is your major malfunction Blight?

Hmm let's see. My coworker paid $7 for my vehicle to get all night parking. I parked for about 2 hours. My coworker forgot to give me the ticket... so I'm stuck trying to get out of the parking lot without a ticket. I don't have any American money so I can't pay EXTRA just to get out.

The very very annoying part is that the lady that is not letting me leave is the EXACT same one we paid a couple hours ago. She RECOGNIZES me. She KNOWS that I already paid. In fact, she GAVE ME A COPY OF MY RECEIPT for the $7! Despite all that, she won't let me go until I sign a "legal agreement" that states I owe Standard Parking another $7. Does that make ANY sense to you? The receipt shows the time I paid (and parked), and the amount ($7). How does it make any sense that I owe them any additional money??

Meanwhile they threaten to charge interest which "will accrue at the highest interest rate permitted by law".

My company will pay for parking, that is not the issue. The issue is that this is just the shittiest service (as if any "parking" company ever gave any kind of service anyway) I have experienced recently.

So Standard Parking, I hate you.

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 2:46 AM 16 comments

Las Vegas - Ka

I had an amazing Thursday night after completing my conference session successfully. So much stuff happened that I couldn't possibly fit it all in one succinct post, so I'll devote this one to a major highlight of my evening: Ka!

Ka is the Chinese word for fire, and is also the name of the new show by Cirque du Soleil that just opened last year. No words will be able to convey the spectacle, and no images either for that matter. You really need to experience it for yourself if you get the opportunity to hit Las Vegas.

One critical piece of the magic that unfolded was the incredible 300,000 pound stage that raised, lowered, and rotated 360 on all 3 axis. The details behind this incredible feat of engineering can be found at both of these links:

• Link 1 - Details written by a Cirque du Soleil backstage contractor
  
• Link 2 - Article on an industrial scale manufacturing website
  

Great stuff! For a taste, check out the videos on the Cirque du Soleil website.

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 11:37 PM 5 comments

Las Vegas - Arrival

I arrived in Las Vegas mid Sunday, and took a brief respite before continuing my grueling preparations for the conference session I am running this Thursday. So I hopped on a bus, and headed off into the desert.

Nevada is a pretty beautiful state, in much the same way the Moon or Mars is. It is very barren, but the landscape is awesome. I even saw honest-to-god tumble weeds migrating down the valleys.

Yes I went out to the middle of the desert to engage in some dangerous and lung-destroying activities. I was inhaling fine red dust, sand, and exhaust - all while enjoying the comfort of my 4 wheel ATV.

The tour group had about 16 of us running through various crags and valleys, being every mindful not to run over the prized and endangered "Desert Tortoise". You can net a $25,000 USD fine just by *intimidating* a desert tortoise. Don't do it.



They gave us 2 breaks to restore our fluids. Our throats were parched from the never ending supply of red dust and sand that flew into our nostrils and mouths. Thank god they supplied goggles, but if I had known better I would have used a bandana at the least. It was a little chilly, but a fleece "jumper" (to you Brits aka CAB) and gloves seemed sufficient. When we were done with the water we walked around a bit to explore.

I took advantage of that and seeked out a nearby outcropping of red stone to climb up on. No safety equipment, and the rock cleaved naturally with too much force... but I made it to the top. It was a good view, and it wasn't long before others wanted to usurp my precarious spot on the rock to get their own shot of glory.

Nevertheless, I made it back - the night driving was exhilarating and my confidence on the ATV had grown so I was starting to take more risks - going off the path, darting between trees, and doing both the forbidden activities I has sworn not to do: "fishtailing" and "hot-dogging".

Actually I still don't understand what "hot-dogging" is.

So I leave you with the view from my hotel room - at the MGM Grand.

Labels: business trip

posted by Blight @ 2:57 AM 8 comments

From Stratford to Dick and Doms

Yesterday morning I took a bus to Stratford with Kirstin and Kathy where we explored the birthplace of William Shakespeare (or W.S. as he likes to be called by his homies), and the houses of his various relatives. Unfortunately his line has completed died out, no direct decendents exist. A shame really. We need more W.S. DNA don't you think?

After hanging out there, we took a train through Birmingham to London, and then to Cambridge. Arrived quite late to a KUI. Kevin under...

Today we'll probably "punt" around, whatever that means. I've been enjoying watching "Dick and Doms" on the Telly this morning though. That show is seriously pure comedy gold. The best part had to be where they were having a crying contest. Whoever can cry tears first wins. To help get the right crying atmosphere, they started playing some sad orchestral music. Then they brought out a little kid who looked all sad walking with his Grandma. She looked REALLY happy, and was licking a big scoop of vanilla icecream in the cone. I guess the kid was sad because she took it from him? Well anyway then she DROPPED the icecream and then she and the kid looked all sad. THEN a little dog came up and started eating the icecream and they looked even more sad. Then to top it all off, a pitifully sad looking man starts walking on stage with a big hamster cage. Sticking out of the top of the cage is a piece of paper that says "My only friend". The camera zooms in and... in the cage is a big rat, but its dead. hAHAHhahaa HIS ONLY FRIEND IS DEAD... man I was cracking up.

Why don't we have shows like that here!?

Labels: business trip, Cambridge, UK

posted by Blight @ 5:23 AM 3 comments