dria.org

Yep, it’s that time again. Got sick to death of looking at my old theme so started digging around for something new and shiny. Found this. It’s a little more…brown than I’d normally go for, but maybe I’ll spruce that up into a nice purple or burnt orange sometime. Going to continue looking for themes because this is what I do and I might get sick of this one in a day. It happens.

[05:50:32] <dria> i’m facing sunrise right in the _face_
[05:50:45] <dria> the question stands: make coffee, or hope to catch an hour of zzs?
[05:51:55] <phik> hah
[05:52:02] <phik> I just had my coworker shut the blinds
[05:52:07] <phik> because every night, the sunset blinds me
[05:52:17] <phik> THAT IS THE SAME SUN!

My friend phil lives on pretty much the opposite side of the planet. I talk to him a lot more (like daily) than I speak to most people who live in the same city. This is one of the reasons I really love the internet.

Update: I made coffee.

I changed my Twitter password a few days ago and for whatever reason that seems to have broken the Twitter plugin I used to have over in the right column here. I’ve removed it for the time being, but you can follow my twitters over here in the meantime.

toothpastefordinner.com

Rob and I just got back from a two week vacation in the south of France where we drank wine, ate cheese, and spent a bunch of time hanging out with Zab and Alice. Being the photo nerds we are, of course, we took a bunch of pictures. You can see Rob’s at his Flickr set, and mine are in my Flickr set.

Part of my vacation was getting away from the computers as much as I could (seriously, I was offline for 14 days, more on that later when I’ve had a chance to reflect), so I took a decidedly minimalist stance regarding what gadgetry I packed. I had to take a camera, of course, but I took a very, very stripped down kit that included only:

• Nikon D80 body
• Nikon 20mm f2.8 prime lens
• Nikon 35mm f2.0 prime lens
• 2 8gb memory cards (of which I used one)
• An extra battery, a lens brush, and a microfiber cloth

This all fit nicely into my de-badged Domke F-5x shoulder bag, which is about 1/3rd the size of my regular camera bag. The kit was a little limiting, but the limitations were challenging in a fun way. (More than once I did find myself very much wishing I had 85mm and 135mm lenses with me, a few instances where a tripod would have been good, and I really should have included a polarizer filter.) I ended up taking around 650 pictures over the course of two weeks, of which I’ve posted around 190. I’ll write more about the trip later on sometime, but it should be said that a good time was had by all, although I may be ruined for cheap wines and not-French butter now.

From John and Ben and Rob…:

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

As far as I can tell, from my three-or-four day experiment, Feedburner is just totally broken. At very least, the WP plugin doesn’t work, or something. Alas. The mystery of my subscriber numbers and “reach” shall remain just that. Should be back to normal feeds now, please let me know if anything is broken (if you can read this, but if you read via feeds you probably won’t see this if it’s busted). Ah teknology.

Getting to Whistler was a 13 hour trek even without any delays or mishaps. The trip home was a bit more adventuresome (and, honestly, a hell of a lot more fun). The rockslide on Route 99 between Whistler and Vancouver really screwed things up.

Friday

Pictures from Friday’s adventures are over on Flickr: Escaping Whistler.

• 7:30a Pacific – Wake up, shower, pack.
• 8:30a – Hotel restaurant for a buffet breakfast. I’ve long since learned that traveling is a lot more pleasant if you have a full stomach. Schlepping luggage through airports does actually require calories.
• 9:30a – Meet fellow hooligans in hotel lobby. Floatplane dispatcher is contacted because weather is looking…questionable. He says, “Yeah, so the weather is looking questionable, but we’ll try.” Taxis are called.
• 9:45a – Our taxis arrive and promptly get poached by other hotel guests (wtf?). More taxis are called. We pile in.
• 10:00a or so – Get to floatplane dock at Green Lake. The weather is looking increasingly iffy. We wait. We wait some more.
• 10:30a or so – It begins to rain. More phonecalls. Travel plans are looking dire.
• 11:00a or so – Whistler Air guy says “I have a plane leaving at 1:00p, but it’s in Squamish. You want to take that?” We confer. We agree to do that if first floatplane can’t make it.
• 11:15a or so (standing on a dock in the rain, your sense of time sort of goes weird) – Floatplane guy calls back. Pilot tried to make it in to Green Lake but waved off due to weather. The floatplane is not coming. Travel plans are looking dire, indeed. We book and pay for Whistler Air flights, then continue standing around in the rain on the dock at Green Lake waiting for a bus to Squamish at noon. Air Canada is called many, many times. Travel arrangements are rescheduled since we’re now missing all our original flights. I rearrange my flight to be for Saturday since there’s no possible way to make the final connection from Toronto to Moncton at this point.
• 12:00p – Whistler Air-provided shuttle bus to Squamish arrives. Huzzah. We pile in with our luggage and sundries and several other passengers.
• 12:45p – We arrive in Squamish. Whistler Air guy there says, “Erm, planes are late,” (or something to that effect) “You have an hour to kill.” Already-rearranged travel plans for many are already beginning to look dire-ish. Awesome bus driver guy says, “I’ll take you all back into town to use the facilities and get lunch.” There is great rejoicing.
• 1:15p – Back on bus heading back to the Greater Squamish Floatplane Airport after using facilities and wolfing down Wendy burgers, coffees, and donuts.
• 1:45p or so – Group splits up. We can’t all fit on one plane. Big plane is ready to take folks who have earlier flights to catch today or who otherwise just want to get the hell to Vancouver. Mconnor, Lucy, Robcee and I valiantly stay behind.
• 2:15p or so – Small plane arrives but fills up with a family of 6. No big deal, we have time to spare.
• 2:45p or so – Finally get a plane. Pile on in, get the shortest and most to the point airplane security briefing ever, which is roughly: “If you need to open the door, pull the handle towards you then up. Buckle up.” Vroom. Flight is scheduled to last a whole 12 mins, but possibly slightly longer since they have to route around blasting (at the rockslide site). Many pictures are taken. Best flight ever. I seriously want a floatplane.
• 3:15p or so – We arrive in downtown Vancouver at the floatplane dock. I’m giddy and take a million pictures of floatplanes because it turns out they’re frakking awesome.
• 3:45p or so – Standing on a corner in Vancouver with Mconnor, Lucy, and Robcee trying to find cabs. Mconnor and Lucy get the first. Robcee and I get the second and head to the Radisson near YVR since both of our flights are on Saturday.
• 7:30p or so – Dinner is obtained (and is surprisingly awesome). Darkness falls. Time passes. Two episodes of Weeds are watched. Exhaustion sets in.
• 11:30p – Sleep.

Saturday

• 8:00a Pacific – Wake up, shower, pack. Use the internet while it’s available.
• 9:45a – Head downstairs for a buffet breakfast. See above re: traveling on a full stomach.
• 10:15a – Check out. Get on shuttle to airport.
• 10:45a – I get off shuttle at Domestic terminal. Robcee heads on to International.
• 11:00a – Find myself at the end of a ridiculously long line of people checking in. I’m checked in but still have to print boarding passes and check luggage. Apparently Saturday is Cruise Day at YVR. There are eighty billion people.
• 11:30a or so – Checked luggage, have boarding passes. Flight is scheduled for 1:45p so I make my leisurely way to my gate.
• 12:00p – At gate, clinging to the outer fringes of the free wifi at YVR. Tired, but content.
• 12:35p – Notice sign at my gate now says “Departure: 13:45. DELAYED: 15:45″. No longer content. 2 hour delay means I miss the last connection from Toronto to Moncton. Despair sets in. I suddenly stop having fun.
• 12:50p – Gate agents are dealing with people who are going to miss their connections as best they can. Some non-connection-requiring passengers are being…jerks. I finally get to speak to an agent who informs me that an earlier flight has available seats. He prints me a boarding pass and says, “Um, you better hustle.” It’s already boarding and is a fair hike away. I hustle.
• 1:00p or so – I arrive at the gate and am immediately able to board. Huzzah. Better still, I have seat 12H (bulkhead row, tons of legroom). Better still, 12K (window seat) is empty. When the doors close I shift over. Window seat, bulkhead row. I am no longer despairing.
• 8:20p Eastern time – Land at YYZ. Connection doesn’t board for an hour so I take the time to get dinner (chicken ceasar salad + a smirnoff ice). Pay $6 for an hour’s worth of wifi so I can update folks on my whereabouts. It is at this precise moment that I realize I may actually need a cell phone. May have to look into blackberries again.
• 9:00p – At gate using up the last of my wifi hour downloading free stuff on my iPod from the Apps Store. Turns out free stuff mostly sucks except the Sodoku.
• 9:20p – Board. End up in wrong seat. Move to correct seat. No one’s beside me, yay. Attendant asks me if I would be so kind as to move to the Exit row since there are currently kids in it. I oblige and get extra leg room again. Pwn.
• 12:50a Atlantic – Land at YQM.
• 1:00a – Luggage obtained.
• 1:10a – In cab on way home. Chat with driver about the Eagles concert (which was tonight), the upcoming Elton John concert, and the Casino. Find out his niece is in her fourth year at Acadia and the names of a few of the other folks who live on our street. Further chat about kids these days and whatnot. I’m definitely back in the Maritimes.
• 1:30a or so – Home. Finally.

• Total door-to-door (Whistler-Moncton) travel time: 40 hours.
• Vehicles involved: Taxi, Bus, Floatplane, Taxi, Shuttle, Airplane, Airplane, Taxi.
• Meals eaten: Breakfast (Whistler), Lunch (Squamish), Dinner (Vancouver), Breakfast (Vancouver), Dinner (Toronto), journey-ending beverage (Moncton).
• Cats who met me at the door: Two.

Posted some shots of our post-Summit fun-but-not-wholly-successful adventure over on Flickr: Escaping Whistler. We all had to move our flights. We all almost had to move our flights twice. I’m stuck in Vancouver ’til tomorrow, but that’s ok. More (and properly processed) pics to come after I get home.

Update! Rob has posted some pictures, too.