Tag Archives: travel

Personal Blog

Chicago

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We went to Chicago this weekend to visit D Flo! By we I mean Scott, Kyle, and myself. Scott gives a full account of the adventure if you want to read, but I will say that Body Worlds 2 was cool as hell. And of course Scott was as giddy as a kid in a candy shop…or a PhD anatomy student in a room full of plasticized cadavers…whichever.

Seeing D Flo and Ezzie was super nice, and it was very fun to have Kyle along as well. I did, however, forget to clean Kyle’s car today, like I was meaning to. Kyle! Come to Maria’s tomorrow for empanadas! I will then clean your car!

In other news, I have 4 scholarship deadlines fast approaching and am rather worn out. However, I will be going to New York in 2 weeks to visit Carleton, Matt, and hopefully Ian and Yale. Yay for visits!

Personal Blog

California

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So my boss and I are in Folsom, CA, for the aforementioned training. I have a feeling this week will be exhausting, but we did get a chance to see the sights yesterday a bit.

We went into Sacramento to the zoo. They have a hyena there! I love hyenas! They also have a giant anteater. Those things are awesome!

Later we wandered around historic Sacramento, which seemed to have been founded on candy shops. We then returned and poked around Folsom, which has some pretty bike paths and such.

The rest of the week will be training and eating, I think. Anyone near Folsom want to visit?

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Chicago

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First of all, thank you guys so much for your congratulations, it really means a lot to me! I feel all warm and squishy inside knowing I have so much support.

In other news, Scott and I went to Chicago this weekend to visit D Flo, and it was tons of fun. We got to meet Ezzie, who is D Flo’s little Maltese puppy. She is a fluff ball of playfulness and love, and has reshaped my previously bad experience with Maltese. D Flo needs to video her and post for all to see.

On Friday, Scott and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was tons of fun, though Scott had his hopes raised because Body Worlds 2 was on our map. However, it doesn’t open until next week. Hopes crushed! We still had lots of fun at the museum, and we saw a cool Omnimax about Deep Sea Volcanoes.

That night we went to see D Flo in a sketch Comedy show at Donny’s Skybox at Second City. The show was written by the Second City Conservatory writing students, and was quite entertaining. D Flo remains the funniest man I know.

On Saturday we went to the Shedd Aquarium. We saw the sharks and the rays and the dolphin show, the belugas, the sea dragons, and so on. I love aquariums, but it tempted me to run out and buy another betta, which I can’t do right now. Sadness! That night we ate out to celebrate my grad schoolness, and I got to see Squirt, who I haven’t gotten to hang out with in aaaaaaaaaaaaages. Yay Squirt!

The rest of the trip was all Guitar Hero and Mario Party, but I am very happy I was able to see D Flo. Yay Chicago!

Personal Blog

Visiting Sunny LA

I am in California! Yay for visits!

Visiting Will has been fun times and adventure thus far. I am glad to be here, even though I will miss the Saturday Basketball Extravaganza.

The only downer is that Will’s computer conveniently crapped out just before my arrival, so a certain amount of time is being devoted to getting that up and running. It’s been Murphy’s Law all over the place though. Stupid computer.

Besides that things have been leisurely. I got a drive-by tour and saw some of the studios, and we lazed and swam and went to the grocery store and cooked up a delicious meal.

Today Will is taking me to work with him, so I will get to see the innards of Cartoon Network. Hooray! Tomorrow we are going to the La Brea Tar Pits, which I am more excited about than anyone apparently should be. If luck has it, I might even get to go eat with Sanela, who I haven’t seen in quite some time.

Adventures resume!

Personal Blog

Traveling Adventures

Well, here I am in Pittsburgh. I ended up having to make the journey alone, but it was not so bad. In fact, I sometimes forget how recharging long spells of alone-time can be.

It turns out that my dinky little mp3 player will play protected wma files afterall, so I was engaged for most of the journey with listening to Dracula. (For those who do not know, you can download audiobooks for free from the public library. Their selection isn’t immense, but big enough that you’ll likely find something you like.)

It seems I am pretty good at listening. Dracula is a book I have started no less than three times by seeing it laying at someone’s house, and picking it up to read. I’ve never acquired a copy long enough to finish it, though.

I won’t say I get excited about long road trips, but I find traveling pleasant for the most part, and I do enjoy pretending I’m on some grand adventure, or making attachments to the car I’ve been following for the past 100 miles, or stuff like that.

When I stop for a break, I like to find those small pocket places that have no business existing except to cater to the needs of the road tripper. You know, the sort of outposts just off the interstate that have all the necessities for the traveler clustered together: fast food, gas station, armor merchant…

My brother told me of this, but I experienced it myself to verify: driving into Pittsburgh is bizarre. You have just spent a good amount of time driving on the interstate, through rolling hills and trees as far as the eye can see. Then you go through this tunnel, and on the other side you are suddenly smack in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh. It is quite strange! I bet they have a portal in the middle of the tunnel.

Anyway, I’m up here safe and sound, and will spend the evening taking advantage of every nook the hotel has to offer. I’m excited about my visit tomorrow. Updates soon!

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Atlanta Adventure

The perk of working at a school is that I get most of their breaks for myself, so I plotted to give myself a for-real vacation over fall break. I flew down to Atlanta for some good fun times and adventuring.

I came in Friday night and met up with Marji and Hanna, whom I met through Will via the not-so-secret-anymore-secret-summer-project (that being JamJams, which Will outlines a bit in his journal). They are good awesome folk and made me feel right at home.

On Saturday Will and Cari drove up from Savannah, and the group of us went trouncing around in the city. Most of it was idle wandering, but we did at least get to the Center for Puppetry Arts and had a good look around. They have some Lion King mask prototypes there, as well as a skekse from the Dark Crystal. It was a fun place and I’m glad I was able to go (in spite of the terrifying “Puppet Storeroom” exhibit). Our former plans of also visiting the Coke museum were thwarted by the infrequency of the MARTA, so we headed back to Marji and Hanna’s for video games and cooking. Pie also happened.

Sunday was mostly lazy napping (on my part), homeworking (on Cari’s part), and visiting Cartoon Network while Hanna went to pick up work stuff (on Will’s part, much to his enthusiasm). We all reconvened for video games, which was very fun, and Will and I beat yet another Dynasty Warriors campaign. That night, we accompanied Marji to a Radical Axis party for the opening of Squidbillies, on which she works. I was fearful of a major social event at first, but fortunately for me it was an evening of exhausted animators all watching cartoons, with little to no need for mingling. Hooray! (yes I know, I’m a social cripple).

Monday, while Hanna and Marji were at work, I spent the day with Wheeler, who has conveniently relocated from Sante Fe to Atlanta. We went to the zoo, and then spent the evening at the arcade. We played quite a bit of DDR, and I’m proud to announce that my former panicky “I CAN’T DO ANY MORE THAN 3 FEET!!” bar has been raised to 4 feet, comfortably. Strother would be so proud! *tear*

We also played a bit of pool, Time Crisis 3, and then I had a go at Ms. Pacman. I immediately regretted this, for I had forgotten that Ms. Pacman is actually a VERY stressful game, most of which I spent panicking. Also, I affirmed the fact that I’m good at those light-spinny ticket games by winning the jackpot of 316 tickets, which I used to buy Marji and Hanna thank-you presents for being good hostesses. Anyways, it was great to hang out with Wheeler again.

That evening I cooked dinner for Hanna and pie happened a second time. All in all it was a fantastic visit, and I hope to make another one in the future. I feel very rested and ready to spring back to work. Boing!

(note, i haven’t forgotten about the activity i posted last entry, I’ll follow up on that soon)

Personal Blog

Mountain Trip to Japan

Well, I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for my adventure!

First stop will be Chicago, where I will spend the day hangin with D Flo, who I haven’t seen in FOREVER. It will be awesome fun.

Monday morning I start the big flight, and some hours later will land in Nagoya, Japan. I’ll be there 2 weeks, and will have all manner of adventure.

I am very excited about going to Japan, yes, but equally excited to see my friend, Andrew. I haven’t seen him for several years now, and it will be awesome to hang out and catch up and play.

So yeah, I’ll possibly update from time to time, but I’ll be back June 06. Take care, you guys. Have fun, stay safe, and wish for good traveling for me!

LOVE! Bye.

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Massachusetts Visit

I just got back from a weekend visit with Steph and it was a blast and a half! Or no, make that 2 whole blasts.

After a tasty lunch, we went to this awesome candy store. You can pick out your own assorted chocolates, so it’s like getting a box of chocolates, only just with the kinds you like, and no scary surprises. I also got a sucker in the shape of a lobster (don’t worry, it was not lobster flavored)

Steph showed me around Salem, MA, and we went to some dinky-but-fun history museums about the witch trials. We also hit up a comic store, where I *finally* indulged myself in snagging the last volume of Bone, only to see the new color reprints! Now I want the whole set all over again. We also rooted through a secondhand bookstore, snagging children’s books with inspiring illustrations out of the 50% off box.

We spent the rest of the evening playing various video games, with a brief break for sushi. After a bit of gaming the next morning, we went out for lunch, and then adventured on the shore (we did not find any critters, only a shoe-full of cold water, oh well!)

I’m really glad I got to visit! It was good fun, and I also got to see a bunch of Steph’s art up close, including her in-progress raven thief sculpture. I also got to meet her sweet little rat, Oreo, who is adorable and has inspired me to add rats to my “potential pets” list Yay for visits!

Personal Blog

NYC

I could talk about Singing Forest right now, but I don’t think I’m ready to talk about that yet, so instead I’ll give a simple weekend review.

I went with Carleton to New York to visit his friend, Mike. I hadn’t been to the city since the 6th grade, and that trip mostly involved me scurrying to keep up with my dad and uncle, occasionally gazing at the tall buildings because that’s what I figured tourists were supposed to do.

It was a nice train ride from Milford (which is just near where I work, and has free parking on the weekends for their station, woo!). Mike’s apartment is in the Upper West side of Manhattan and is quite nice. Friday night we went to the planetarium for some music-and-show-off-computer-rendering deal. ‘Twas nice.

The next day we went to get bagels, at some place that Carleton spouts is the best bagel place in the WORLD!!! (Just tasted like normal bagels to me, perhaps my palette for bagels is just not sophisticated). The main mission of the day was to help Mike buy a betta. I wish I’d brought my camera so I can add Rocky’s picture to the growing list of “Friend’s Bettas”.

That night we went and saw Carleton’s Cousin play a set at some club/bar place. His music is very good, and we’d seen him play at a coffee shop in CT last weekend. This time he was with a band, and it was a very lively set.

We then retired to Mike’s apartment and watched City of God, a very powerful and awesome movie. Mike’s mom is from Brazil, and used to teach in the City of God, and apparently said that the movie is quite accurate as far as how things are there. The individual story is very uplifting, but the truthfulness of the situation is rather depressing.

Overall, a very nice visit. It’s much more pleasant to visit the city when you are with people who know how to get around.

Personal Blog

“There are 2 good things about long weekends, the first is that the weekend is longer…” -Carleton

I really enjoyed my Labor Day weekend trip to Vermont, it really is a very lovely state. It reminded me a lot of Kentucky in some ways, with the exception of being surrounded by mountains. Carleton’s grandmother lives right on Lake Champlain, so he took me out sailing, which ended up being quite awesome. We also lingered around Burlington, ate at Ben and Jerry’s, saw a moderately decent and good-humored street performer, and ate lunch at the infamous Al’s French Frys twice (yes, they really spell “fries” like that). All in all, a good weekend spent.

Thanks for the support about my Nana, the surgery went very well and she is recovering in ICU right now.

I miss you guys back home (Ken, how is New Orleans?).