Travel challenge update

I just returned from a couple of weeks in Southeast Asia, so it's probably a worthy time to post an update on my travel challenge.  Assuming that I can count the 5-hour tour to Seoul during my layover in South Korea, I am now ahead in both states and countries.  While I've actually crossed off a few places from my last five-year travel plan, I'm not sure where I'm headed next.  In any case, here's the updated list:

#	Country	State
1	Argentina	Alaska
2	Australia	Arizona
3	Austria	California
4	Brazil	Colorado
5	Canada	Florida
6	Chile	Georgia
7	China	Hawaii
8	Czech Republic	Idaho
9	England	Illinois
10	Estonia	Indiana
11	Finland	Iowa
12	France	Kansas
13	Germany	Louisiana
14	Greece	Maryland
15	Indonesia	Massachusetts
16	Italy	Michigan
17	Japan	Minnesota
18	Kuwait	Missouri
19	Malaysia	Montana
20	Mexico	Nebraska
21	Netherlands	Nevada
22	New Zealand	New Jersey
23	Nigeria	New Mexico
24	Norway	New York
25	Paraguay?	Ohio
26	Peru	Oklahoma
27	Russia	Oregon
28	Singapore	Pennsylvania
29	South Korea?	South Dakota
30	Spain	Tennessee
31	Sweden	Texas
32	Switzerland	Utah
33	Thailand	Virginia?
34	Turkey	Washington
35	Ukraine?	Wisconsin
36	USA	Wyoming

A new travel challenge

My coworker Nick Dare told me about a friend of his who has resolved to have visited more countries than her age for the rest of her life.  I thought this was an interesting challenge, and that I am probably close to my age on both number of countries visited and number of states visited.  Having recently turned 35, that is my target for the next year or so.  Below is my current list of both countries and states.  For both, I am only counting places where I have spent a night and/or done some sort of activity besides transiting through.  I'm within striking distance in both categories, though I am far more likely to reach my age in states sooner than in countries - due to being closer, ease, and plans in the works.  I hope to conquer the challenge for states in the next year and maintain the lead in that category until I turn 50.  I'll need to pick up my game in terms of international travel.

#	Country	State
1	Argentina	Alaska
2	Australia	Arizona
3	Austria	California
4	Brazil	Colorado
5	Canada	Florida
6	Chile	Georgia
7	China	Hawaii
8	Czech Republic	Idaho
9	England	Illinois
10	Estonia	Indiana
11	Finland	Iowa
12	France	Kansas
13	Germany	Louisiana
14	Greece	Maryland
15	Italy	Massachusetts
16	Japan	Michigan
17	Kuwait	Missouri
18	Mexico	Montana
19	Netherlands	Nevada
20	New Zealand	New Jersey
21	Nigeria	New Mexico
22	Norway	New York
23	Paraguay?	Ohio
24	Peru	Oregon
25	Russia	Pennsylvania
26	Spain	South Dakota
27	Sweden	Tennessee
28	Switzerland	Texas
29	Turkey	Utah
30	Ukraine?	Virginia?
31	USA	Washington
32	--	Wisconsin
33	--	Wyoming

Lessons from DTA

As you may or may not know, I've been living in Seattle for the last seven months while on a domestic temporary assignment (DTA) for work.  It's been great.  I've loved the chance to live in and explore a new and interesting place, even despite not yet having the best weather of the year.  But I also really like the idea of having the stability and comfort of my home in St. Louis.  Reflecting on the experience so far has begun to formulate a life goal for a decade or so from now.

I imagine having a career that I can productively undertake anywhere in the world with a sufficiently fast Internet connection (not a stretch as a software developer).  I imagine being completely debt free.  I imagine being able to decide without hesitation that I want to spend the next couple of months in some new place in the world - living, working, and exploring as I desire.  I imagine having the ability to return to my comfortable home when each adventure is complete.

I realize that I am very fortunate to be born into a position where this is a possibility.  But why not seize the opportunity to make this happen?  We'll see what the next ten years bring.

New digs for the next 16 months

 

After almost two weeks, I'm pretty much settled into my apartment in Seattle.  There are still a few things to clean up or put away, but everything major is in place.  As for an explanation...I am on a ~16 month temporary assignment here for a new position that I accepted at Boeing.  So there also an adjustment process underway at work.

My first impressions during my short time here so far are that I will probably enjoy my stay, despite the fact that it has rained more days than not since I've been here.  I like my apartment building and the Junction neighborhood here in West Seattle, especially because most things that I need are within easy walking distance.  I plan to initially try to use the excellent bus system (the light rail is no better than St. Louis, though) to get around town except for my short (~20 minutes) commute to/from work, as well as to get to/from soccer games (when I eventually start playing again).  We'll see how that goes.

The process of moving up here has made me reflect on things quite a bit.  I came to appreciate even more the situation that I have in St. Louis, even as I grew excited for this PNW adventure.  I will consider StL my home for the foreseeable future, and I look forward to the continued development that attempts to restore the city to its former glory.

Meanwhile, though, I will try to make the most of my time out here in Seattle.

In search of a new five year travel plan

Last time I did this, I had a pretty specific list of places that I wanted to go in each of 2011-2015.  And I ended up visiting most of those places in the years that I specified - this year being the most out of tune with the original plan.

This time around, I don't have plans that are nearly as specific, and I am running out of new places that I really want to visit.  But in any case, here are some places that I am considering traveling to in the next 5 years if I am able...

• Hawai'i
• Alaska
• Land and cruise
• Antarctica & Patagonia
• Another Nordic tour
• This time include Iceland, some fjords, Denmark
• Another Asian tour
• Seoul, Bangkok, Bali
• Middle East, North Africa, and India
• Cairo, Dubai, Mumbai

As you can probably tell, this is a pretty haphazard list at the moment.  And it's possible that I could end up combining destinations in a different way (e.g., include India in an Asia trip).  But I'm just getting some thoughts down for now as a starting point.  The first two (Hawai'i and Alaska) may be the next destinations, as they should be easier to get to from Seattle.

Eurotrip 2015 travelogue is live

You can check it out on that other blog I write.

If all you care about is the photos, check out one of these links:

• Google+ Photos Album
• Includes photo sphere functionality, but Google is (in their infinite wisdom) apparently shutting down Google+ Photos in less than 2 weeks, even though...
• Google Photos Album
• Photo spheres don't work here; hopefully they will in the near future if G+ Photos are going away.

Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard

This one goes in the category of solving first world problems...  One of the reasons that it took so long to post my Brazil 2014 travelogue is that the quality of the original composition is questionable.  Back in 2008 or so, I realized that I have a terrible memory, so composing the travelogue after the trip didn't work too well.  So I started typing up the travelogues on a mobile device while on the trips.  Well, it turns out that I'm a terrible phone/tablet typist, on top of the fact that typing on those things sucks anyway.  Despite this I persevered, and continued to crank out travelogues.  But this sucky typing experience makes for poor quality posts.  And this is further exacerbated by my robotic matter-of-fact prose style.

All of this is background info for why I was in the market for a more "typable" mobile device this year.  I initially considered something like the Surface Pro 3, or a similar convertible tablet type thing, but decided that $800 (or even $500) was far too much money to spend on something that I would essentially only use for one two-week trip every year.  So I was pretty excited when a couple of months ago I stumbled across an article touting the upcoming release of the Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard.  I just bought one last week (see picture above), and can definitely understand why the black model is in short supply.

First, the product basics.  It is a Bluetooth keyboard that folds up for easy transportability.  It has a supposed battery life of 3 months (it comes with a USB charging cable), and supports paring with up to 3 different Android, iOS, or Windows devices.

As for my thoughts after playing with it for a few minutes...  I like it a lot.  Well enough to post about it.  One thing that I was initially concerned about was the 3 device support - the device switch has 3 positions, one each for Android, iOS, and Windows.  So I figured that if I wanted to switch between pairing it with my phone and my tablet, which both run Android, I would have to redo the pairing process while keeping the device selection on Android.  Well, it turns out that the keyboard will pair with Android devices even when on a non-Android switch position - I accidentally tested this out with my Android tablet and the Windows switch position.  The downside is that you lose the OS-specific functions (which are a really nice feature) when you mismatch, but most things still work great.  And I guess it's a little confusing to have to remember that the Windows position is actually for the Android phone/tablet, but you would have to remember the pairings with a generic 1/2/3 switch anyway.

The other minor "complaint" I have is that the keyboard is pretty cramped.  This obviously makes sense when you consider that mobility is one of the goals, but I did find myself making quite a few typing mistakes the first couple of minutes while using the keyboard.  I got used to it pretty quickly, though, and my error rate began approaching normal.

Overall, I'm really glad Microsoft released this product.  The compact design is great for traveling, and typing isn't too terrible on it.  And I love the multi-OS support.  This should hopefully improve the quality of next year's trip's travelogue.  While this keyboard doesn't end poverty or bring about world peace or anything like that, I feel that it is an excellent product that is worth the $80 and my recommendation if quality mobile typing is a use case that you have.

Brazil 2014 pictures and travelogue finally posted

Better late than never, right?  I finally got around to organizing all my (and Raj's) pictures and editing my travelogue from my trip to Brazil 1.5 months ago.

The travelogue, organized by day (with pictures for each), can be found here (in reverse order, sorry): http://excursions.obezma.com/search/label/Brazil%202014

If you only want to see pictures, my favorites can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111166923064372764694/albums/6045651244470199489?authkey=CIverLze2aqKGw

Lastly, for a bit of amusement...  While I was uploading my selection of Raj's pictures, Google+ prompted me to tag some faces in the set of pictures.  I found the screen presented pretty funny, due to all the various faces that I made in the pictures:

Eurotrip 2012 travelogue

Considering how rarely I post on this blog these days, I'm not sure why I still have a separate "excursions" blog. But in any case, I have started my travelogue for my current trip over there (http://excursions.obezma.com) . Unfortunately, though, I may not be able to post pictures (from my proper camera) until I return.

Five year travel plan

2010 is the first year since 2005 that I have not taken a big international trip (no, Montreal/Quebec does not count).  I tried to go to the World Cup in South Africa this year, but that ended up not working out.  I'm not terribly sad about that, though.

Anyway, I've come up with a (very) tentative plan for trips for the next 5 years (assuming that my life continues pretty much on the same path that it has been going).  And one of them isn't international...

• 2011 - Europe (Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Zurich)
• 2012 - Europe (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo)
• 2013 - USA (Western road trip with stops @ Grand Canyon, Highway 1, Yosemite, and Yellowstone)
• 2014 - Brazil (World Cup)
• 2015 - Middle East (Turkey, Israel, Egypt)

Consider this an invitation to join any of the above.

Remind me next time not to use my cell phone in Canada.

I can't say that this came as a surprise, because I fully expected it.  So this isn't really a rant.  But when I was in Québec City last month I used Google Maps on my phone to find the hotel when we got lost on our way there.  And once I had already taken the plunge I decided to look up the meaning of flashing green lights in Canada.  And, coincidentally, I happened to receive a phone call during that time.  At the time I estimated that I had used between 5 and 10 MB of international roaming data, and expected an additional charge of between $50 and $100 on my next bill.

Well, I just received that bill.  The additional charges are as follows:

• $1.58 for 2 minutes of international voice roaming (@ $0.79 per minute)
• $82.52 for 5498 kB of international data roaming (@ $0.015 per kB)

In case you're curious, AT&T is my wireless provider.

I fully knew that this would happen, but I agree with Galen's remark that it's a little ridiculous that cell phone companies charge this much for international roaming.  It clearly does not cost that much to send a few megabytes of data through the tubes, even if it is in another country.

So my advice if you are a smartphone user traveling to Canada, or another country...  Don't expect to use the smartphone services that you have grown so attached to*.  Alternatively, you can buy an international data plan - AT&T offers monthly add-ons between $25 for 20 MB and $200 for 200 MB.  I actually did this when I went to South America, and it worked out alright (though I still payed extra for roaming in some areas that weren't covered).  You can add and remove these features at any time without any penalties, but you get a prorated cap limit depending on when you do so.  If you have a GSM family phone you could also try buying a local SIM card that may offer data at a cheaper rate.

It's too bad that AT&T doesn't define "international" the same way that American Airlines does.  Galen still had to pay the fee to check his luggage because AA only allows a free bag for "international" flights...and Canada is *not* international to them.

* UPDATE - As Joe P. astutely pointed out, I forgot to mention that you can still use your smartphone at free Wi-Fi hotspots.

The Amtrak experience.

This weekend I rode on Amtrak for the first time for a trip to Kansas City to visit Justin and Ashley. I have to say that I was quite satisfied with the experience. The round-trip ticket from StL to KC cost $52, about $10 more than I would expect to pay for gas. The trip was also longer (5 hours and 40 minutes vs. ~4 hours), but I didn't have to drive (w00t). The accomodations on the train were pretty good - there's lots of space between the seats, and a 120-volt outlet is provided for every seat. The ride was also surprisingly quiet - the loudest part was when they would blow the horn. I would definitely consider using Amtrak more in the future, but the only major cities with direct service from the Lou are KC and Chicago.

An interesting take on the U.S. rail system.

I've been an advocate for enhancing the national rail system in the United States, especially after riding the trains in Japan. I knew at least one person (Michael Schwartz) shared my sentiments. I now know that there are others. This article has some interesting ideas on the issue. The guy who is interviewed basically wants to create a system modeled after the European one. It would be viable, more efficient, and more eco-friendly alternative to flying.

Asia travelogue.

I have started my travelogue for my trip to Asia. You can find it here.

DEFCON 16

It's been a while, so I figured I should post on here just to prove that I'm alive. Anyway, this past weekend was the second of four consecutive weekends out of town, and I spent pretty much all of Friday through Sunday at DEFCON 16 in Las Vegas.

I arrived at the Riviera early Friday morning (~9:30 Vegas time) and didn't leave the hotel until I caught a shuttle to the airport Sunday evening (~18:00). Note that this made for a very early Friday (flight left St. Louis 7:00) and a very late Sunday (flight arrived in St. Louis 1:00 Monday morning). The conference itself was pretty good. The DEFCON badges are pretty cool, and they supposedly turn TVs off, but I haven't tested this yet. There were many interesting talks, including one on hacking social networks (especially MySpace), one on hacking Internet kiosks, one about the security of e-voting, and one about hijacking internet traffic using BGP. Of course Dan Kaminsky's DNS vulnerability was also big news (from Black Hat a few days earlier), but I did not brave the large crowd that turned out for his talk. Another significant development was the restraining order that prevented one group of presenters from giving their talk on hacking the Boston subway payment system...too bad their presentation had already been given to all the DEFCON attendees on CD. See the DEFCON site for more info on these and other interesting happenings. Also, here's my new favorite t-shirt (that I don't own...yet):



The weekend before I was in Chicago for Lollapalooza. This weekend it's off to Toronto for my fourth Radiohead concert this summer before a roadtrip to Bloomington (wedding) and Indianapolis (air show featuring F-22) the following weekend.

Back from Oz.

http://www.obezma.com/excursions/downunder2007

NYC travelogue is up.

Check it out here.

A couple of tidbits.

I just returned from a snowboarding trip to Cascade Mountain in Wisconsin. I had a lot of fun and didn't injure anything. I can't quite say the same for our bus, though, which was hit head-on by a car which skidded out of control. Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

Also, I am apparently giving up soda for Lent, as decided by one Greg Wilcox. Don't worry...I'm not turning religious anytime soon.

The Eurotrip 2006 travelogue is finally up.

Check it out here.

Just arrived in Athens.

Italy was great, despite not getting my luggage until yesterday. About 300 pictures taken so far. More to come soon.