I am fully hotel’ed, sitting here in the Luxor looking down on the pool I’m going to go jump into. McCarran was awesome, I sat down at a food court table when my plane landed and about 5 people came up to talk to me…. just randomly. The best was this man from Washington, DC who walked over and said, “Can I join you Mac buddy?” Since there was a lack of seating I figured I could spare 1 of my 4 chairs. He sat down and told me about how he and his wife are new Mac converts and how they just got their heads around how *easy* it is to use a Mac.
I had to take off shortly after to grab my shuttle and everyone I met after that has been nothing but rude. This town is a business and when people ask questions or make someone deviate from their script, the attitudes come out. I’m not going to sweat it since I’m only here overnight.
This place smells like a steakhouse and the elevators (inclinators) go up sideways, that’s what happens when you have a pyramid-shaped hotel. I just wanted to log on and post a photo of Bourton – my sister and Tanya’s well-traveled sheep from Bourton-on-the-Water England. You can follow his adventures on his Facebook group.
I’m going to meet up (hopefully) with some other attendees of tonight’s shin dig in about 2 hours so I better get moving if I want to get in some pool time.
Update: Hospital Music started streaming at midnight on MatthewGood.org, and concert dates were announced on the FOX this morning as well – Happy Birthday Matt!. My sister sent me a text that I received here in Salt Lake – she was trying to win tickets by answering a trivia question: What high school did Matthew Good attend? She knew, but wasn’t the right caller. Ahh radio station contests.
My live blog will begin later tonight, hopefully I’ll have a couple posts up before then… maybe… the pool is calling. For Leg 1 of my trip, read below…
Update: Now in Vegas, 12:04pm (PS – McCarran rocks for having free wifi)
I fell asleep watching Harry Potter last night, I woke up around midnight and realized it was still on, checked my phone to make sure my alarm would wake me up at 3:30, and went back to sleep. When my sister picked me up there were no other cars on the road. We were post-bar crowd and pre-rush hour so we were able to get from North Surrey to the border in about 20 minutes.
Pulling up to the Pacific Highway truck crossing the border guard asked why I was going away, when I told her she lit up, “Oh cool!” then let us pass. About 20 more minutes down the I-5 we arrived at the Bellingham International Airport. I’ve been to my fair share of tiny airports but I have to say I think this one is the tiniest. About 10 feet from the entry doors are the ticket counters. Once I had my boarding passes I pivoted 180 degrees and walked about another 10 paces to the Security Area. Now I’m not sure if it was just the luck of the draw or the fact that I was using my BC Driver’s License as ID but I was chosen for one of their extra special Security Checks. I have to say though, that they were SUPER nice (and gentle) the woman who patted me down asked if I wanted a private screening, to which I replied “uh, will I be taking anything off?”, she said “no” and laughed. The two men checking my carry on bags were sifting through my unmentionables and swabbing every piece of electronics I had with me: a laptop, camera, cell phone, 2 ipods, and a microphone. I had thought ahead and placed my toothpaste and hair gel in ziploc bags, which they appreciated until they came across my mascara, lip gloss and foundation cream. It wasn’t a big deal, I was just told that “next time” I should include these items in the pouch as well and to make sure not to bring peanut butter or ranch dressing either.
I turned the corner, walked another 15 paces and was in the waiting area that had two signs, “Gate 1” and “Gate 2”. The woman who handed me my boarding pass earlier now donned a safety vest and was directing ground traffic. I thought to myself, for such a small mickey mouse airport they sure had some nice brand new leather seats in the waiting area, which I appreciated greatly. Completely ignoring the fact that a child passenger was running up and down the ramp on the other side of the security door that lead to the runway. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
When John first downloaded a couple episodes of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch I was skeptical, but then it sucked me in and has grown to be one of my favourite shows on television. I’m finding myself drawn to those TV shows that make you laugh hysterically, cry, scream at the screen and be amazed all in one episode (a la Rescue Me).
This is reality TV at its best, it’s *real* people working one of the most lethal jobs on the planet. To top it off, their crabbing seasons are narrated by Mike Rowe, whom we all know and love (at least I do) from Dirty Jobs.
Deadliest Catch is a documentary-style television series that documents the events aboard fishing boats in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and Opilio crab fishing seasons. The Aleutian Islands town of Dutch Harbor is the base of operations for the fishing fleet. The show is named Deadliest Catch because the crew of these boats are at a high risk of death or injury due to the conditions of the sea during the seasons they fish, earning the title of most dangerous job in America (if not the world). [wiki]
Each captain and crew member of the fleet is interesting in their own way, they’re real people, with attitudes, passion and one tough job to do. The men are scruffy and gritty and so is the work – not only do you come to know and appreciate the various personalities on each boat featured, you soon learn the dangers that they face every day that they are out on the water. We watched a “behind the scenes” episode last night where Mike mentioned the Coast Guard has saved 48 lives over the last couple of seasons… although they have also lost 44 to the Bering Sea.
I have a soft spot for every crew member on all the featured vessels which include but are not limited to: Sig of the Northwestern who *knows* his stuff, Johnathan of the Time Bandit whom we saw save a man’s life this season, and Phil from the Cornelia Marie who needs to stop smoking but he’s got a heart of gold and man… his sons must drive him nuts hehe.
Not only are the crew members dynamic and interesting creatures but the cinematography of the show is phenomenal. The unique angles and shots above the water and below are far beyond anything you’ll see in Prime Time. In this last season we saw a shipwreck, open ocean rescue, people getting stitched up, men overboard, mental and emotional meltdowns, broken propellers, busted engines, and 30 foot waves crashing over the bows of these vessels – all with men on deck. You have to wonder what makes these men put it all on the line every season… aside from the thrill, the payout is amazing. We just watched the last episodes of the Opilio crab fishing season and boats that caught over 1,000,000 lbs of crab walked away with over that same amount in dollars. Basically for a week-straight of work during Opilio season a deckhand on a boat that brought in that much made about $40,000.
The show airs Thursdays and Sundays on Discovery Channel, if you’re looking for some good TV this summer (if you’re not out at the beach when we eventually get some sun) I highly recommend giving it a try.
This afternoon we met up with Duane and Keira for some food, which soon lead into a photowalk of Stanley Park. It was a super fun time that can only be explained and blogged about with photos…
The rest of the pics are up in this set on Flickr.
Yes, there’s a new media conference going on and John & I are *not* there, although we’d love to be. Podcasters Across Borders (PAB) is a weekend-long conference for podcasters to get together, eat, drink, network and talk about podcasting. This is the second annual international meeting of podcast veterans and rookies alike, coming together in Kingston, Ontario – mostly thanks to Mark and Bob from the Canadian Podcast Buffet. John and I had a chance to meet Mark this past February at an impromptus Vancouver Podcast Meetup and last year we listened to several episodes of our favourite podcasts to get their take and feel on the whole event (such as Andrew’s trip to PAB last year the on Geek.Farm.Life podcast).
This year I got the Twitter that Tod Maffin [todbits.com][todbits.tv]was heading to Kingston and we’ve been watching the blog posts and Flickr pics roll in, checking in on everyone and the awesome time they are having. John woke up this morning and told me to go watch “Tod Maffin with cowbell.” Our podcast hero donned a cow bell for a wonderfully kooky performance with the band Uncle Seth, so I’ve scooped the video from his blog post (and YouTube) as well as the comparison, in case you have never heard of the hilarious “More Cowbell” SNL sketch.
This place smells like a steakhouse and the elevators (inclinators) go up sideways, that’s what happens when you have a pyramid-shaped hotel. I just wanted to log on and post a photo of Bourton – my sister and Tanya’s well-traveled sheep from Bourton-on-the-Water England. You can follow his adventures on his Facebook group.
Yes, there’s a new media conference going on and John & I are *not* there, although we’d love to be.