Posted in Location-based, Mexico, Personal, Photography, Travel on Nov 19th, 2007 No Comments »
They say the hard part is controlling the kite. Focus on the kite, they said, and the board will follow.
But I have wind experience (windsurfing, sailing), and not board experience (skateboarding, snowboarding), and so for me, the hard part came when I tried to get up on the board in the water.
My instructor, Gerardo [...]
Posted in Belize, Location-based, Moose, Photography, Travel on Nov 9th, 2007 1 Comment »
I was wearing my I-Kuh-Fish t-shirt as I boarded the ferry from Caye Caulker to neighbouring San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. The captain of the ferry asked me where I’d found my shirt. He was surprised to hear it was from Dahab, in Egypt, where the shirt’s classy, timeless design is available at every tourist [...]
Posted in Belize, Location-based, Personal, Photography, Scuba, Travel on Nov 8th, 2007 No Comments »
The Blue Hole was, without a doubt, my single most memorable scuba dive to date.
Thankfully, one of our fellow divers, Australian Rohan Ashton (facebook / email: rohanashton(at)yahoo.com.au) was shooting photo and video footage during the dive. I am very grateful for his permission to post some of his footage here, because otherwise, I wouldn’t expect [...]
Posted in Belize, Personal, Photography, Scuba, Travel on Nov 4th, 2007 2 Comments »
This is my beach-front cabana on Caye Caulker in Belize. I sent the photo to Flickr using my wireless connection here - because the really cool guy who runs the cabanas at Ignacio’s offers wireless for free. So don’t believe anyone who tells you Belize doesn’t have the internets. Or gorgeous beachfront cabanas that go [...]
Posted in Guatemala, Location-based, Personal, Photography, Travel on Nov 1st, 2007 3 Comments »
Long before they served as the Rebel moon base at Yavin IV, the skyscrapers of Tikal were part of an important Mayan urban area that sprawled over 100 square kilometers. The Temples that remain today, which date from as early as 600 BC, poke through the jungle in the lowlands of El Peten, about an hour’s [...]
Posted in Guatemala, Location-based, Personal, Photography, Travel on Oct 29th, 2007 4 Comments »
Arriving at Lake Atitlan from Guatemala City was an adventure in itself. I was the only foreigner on one of the jam-packed “chicken busses” owned by Rebuli, a company that ploughs the route between the capital city and lake town Panajachel with repurposed American school busses. The trip made for a great introduction to the [...]
Posted in Canada, Gaming and XBox, Ireland, Location-based, Microsoft, Personal, Tech, Travel on Aug 8th, 2007 16 Comments »
I’m writing this post in case anyone else out there wants to know what will happen to a European XBox 360 (in my case, from Ireland) if it’s moved to North America (in my case, Canada). [update] The story started out not particularly great, but now, a few updates later, it is significantly better. By [...]
Posted in Egypt, Personal, Photography, Scuba, Travel on Aug 3rd, 2007 1 Comment »
…fish! (And eagle rays! And giant moray eels!)
For the second half of my diving in Dahab and Ras Mohammed, I shot video footage instead of photos. Here’s a 2-minute highlight reel, in YouTube format:
The shots were taken on dives in Egypt, at Dahab and Ras Mohammed (between Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef). They feature [...]
Posted in Egypt, Jordan, Personal, Travel on Aug 1st, 2007 No Comments »
Here are two unanswered geological questions from our trip to Egypt and Jordan:
1. Why is the desert sand red in Jordan?
High iron oxide content in the sandstone from which the sand was formed.
2. Why are there black streaks in the rocks in the Sinai Peninsula?
I can’t find this one out. My working theory is that [...]
Posted in Personal, Photography, Scuba, Travel on Jul 31st, 2007 1 Comment »
Safe Scuba Diving is about redundancy and routine.
On the redundancy front, not only do you learn backups and workarounds for the unlikely event of an equipment failure, but you also dive with a buddy, making some of your equipment quadrupally redundant.
On the routine front, the gear is assembled “just so.” A “buddy check” before you [...]
