Fel's Big Adventurous World of...Adventure!

Adventure in my backyard

2011-12-07T11:26:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post, going nearly 8 months without a post does an injustice to my followers and sponsors. My last post was made from Shenzhen right before I left for Hong Kong. But nothing has really been going on as far as traveling since I left Hong Kong, which I neglected to blog about and will do so in a short while.

Just what have I been doing? Well, I managed to land a job in Pleasanton, not far from my island of Alameda. So for the last 8 months I've been doing the pharmaceutical validation gig and not really venturing outside of the narrow corridor between my place and work. Most of my extracurricular activities have been focused on fixing and repairing guitar amplifiers and sharpening my luthier skills as I got very interested in building the instruments themselves. I plan to blog about these experiences on my other other blog, dnagent.blogspot.com.

Other than that, the only notable news to come down the pipe as of late has been my termination from my current job, and hiring literally the next business day later. What's interesting is that the job I was fired from and the job that I got hired to do less than a couple days later are in the same building. Long story. But the ramifications are bound to create fodder for a whole slew of adventures as I now get to do some international travel in this new and exciting position.

Personally I'm not surprised I got fired only to be rehired to a new position. Hell, I didn't even have to move my desk. I really believe that I am always exactly where I need to be when I need to be there. In the case of my last and current job, I was hired to that position so I could find out about and be hired for the next one. Life has a funny way of giving us exactly what we need when we need it, so long as we recognize it as such.

So in the next few months, I'll be blogging about the sights, sounds, and perhaps the smells of the destinations I get to go and visit as I do my job. In the meantime, I'll blog about a destination that probably doesn't get a lot of coverage in travel blogs. I'll preface my take on this destination by telling you that someone made me realize that even though I'm not traveling to exotic and interesting locales and just sitting at my home base on Alameda island doesn't mean that it isn't exotic and interesting to people who have never been there.

Excellent point, Miss Caitlin, and I thank you for giving me some inspiration to blog about a place near and dear to me, the island city of Alameda, California.

As I'm practically an expert about the place since I've been a resident for the last 5 or so years, a single post won't be enough. In fact it may take several posts to do my island justice.

So, first off, an overview of Alameda.

It's an island. That in itself isn't that interesting, but what is interesting is that it didn't used to be. It was a peninsula connected to Oakland until 1902, when the marshy area south of what is now downtown was dredged in order to provide expanded shipping facilities. Most of the soil dredged to make the canal was used to connect Bay Farm Island to the the mainland, and keeps this name despite no longer being an island.

There are three bridges from Oakland (Park Street, Fruitvale Avenue, and High Street Bridges), as well as the two one-way Posey and Webster Street Tubes leading into Oakland's Chinatown. At the southern end of the island the Bay Farm Island Bridge allows access to Bay Farm Island. There's also the Bay Farm Island Bicycle Bridge, which happens to be the only pedestrian/bicycle-only drawbridge in the United States.

I used to live in an apartment near the Webster Tunnel and Posey Tube, but just recently moved in to a nice Victorian behind Little John Park. It was built in 1895 making it 116 years old, which is old for an American home, but barely a teenager when compared to the 400 year old home I was staying in when I was visiting friends in London's Kensington area.

You've probably seen my previous posts about Memorial Day activities on board the USS Hornet. The Hornet is permanently docked here as a floating museum. Inside, you'll learn about her history as an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War 2, and the roles it played during the Vietnam War and the Apollo missions to the moon.

The Hornet is located on the Northern part of Alameda island in an area that used to be a huge Naval Air Station. It's probably more famous these days for being the place where the Mythbusters go to blow things up, like a hot water heater whose safety devices had either been removed or circumvented. They did this little experiment just outside of the gym I go to that occupies a former Navy hangar.

That's just a quick overview of some of Alameda's many charms. Next posting: when Alameda was the Coney Island of the West.

Three years later, in China, the return of the Lizard (now with 100% more Laser)

2011-04-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

Back in March of 2008, I posted an entry about a conversation I had with one of the representatives of NAVO, the tour company that was helping me plan my itinerary for driving in to China. What's strange and funny is that I had a nearly similar conversation with a booking agent for a hotel in Hong Kong. Here's how I related the incident to my Executive Admin Katie during a recent chat on Skype:

[4/13/2011 10:40:10 PM] DNAgent: [Having a discussion about astronomical projectors at a planetarium] I could have run it, looking back it would have been fun to try. Meteor showers and asteroids every time Fel runs the show. Also lasers.
[4/13/2011 10:41:09 PM] DNAgent: Speaking of lasers, I was on the phone to a few hotels in Hong Kong. "Is this room for laser?" was a question I got at one place.
[4/13/2011 10:41:26 PM] Katie: huh?
[4/13/2011 10:41:31 PM] DNAgent: "Uh, excuse me?" "Laser or business?"
[4/13/2011 10:41:46 PM] Katie: ha ha
[4/13/2011 10:42:11 PM] DNAgent: Seriously, no joke. Another one said something that sounded like "lizard." "No, just me and my phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range, thanks."
[4/13/2011 10:43:04 PM] Katie: I hate to resort to it, but LOL
[4/13/2011 10:43:58 PM] DNAgent: So, can you bring a plasma weapon with you into a hot tub?
[4/13/2011 10:44:09 PM] Katie: I don't see why not
[4/13/2011 10:44:52 PM] Katie: you never know when a zombie attack will occur

LOL

How Do You Move a 400 Pound Incubator?

2011-04-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

Here in China, labor is so cheap that sometimes their solution to getting something done is akin to using a shotgun to kill a fly. Last week I was sitting in my office and felt the floor rumble as a large 100 ton crane rolled into the courtyard and started extending its outrigger stabilizers. I was wondering what it was going to lift. You don't see that kind of hardware unless you plan to move something heavy.

Nope. They just needed to move a 400 pound double door incubator to the 2nd floor. It wouldn't fit into the freight elevator so the called in the nearest crane they could find.

I know how much this incubator weighs because I saw the specified shipping weight when we ordered it. It was a good thing that the window could accommodate the incubator. I'd almost expect them use C4 explosives to make an entry through an exterior wall.

Mexican Food in China

2011-04-04T02:18:00.000-07:00

Finding food, particularly Western food, in Shenzhen is a challenge. It's a huge city of 10 million people, but unlike Shanghai, Beijing, or Hong Kong, Shenzhen has grown so fast and has so many transplants from all over China, that it hasn't quite established much of a cosmopolitan culture. Most of the restaurants cater to more rural Chinese tastes since most transplants to this sprawling city come from smaller countryside towns. Food at the local restaurants ranges from strange to unidentifiable, one restaurant that smelled good was later identified by my Chinese co-workers as exclusively serving soft-shell turtle dishes. Upon closer examination of the inside of the restaurant, I could see rows of tanks, each containing a swimming turtle.

Sundays are the days to go over to the expatriate part of Shenzhen called Shekou. Westerners also know it as Sea World and it's known for an ocean liner called the Minghua that's been decommissioned and set in cement. Of interest to me is the fact that there is a Mexican restaurant and once I heard about it, I spent the rest of the week thinking about having a burrito. I was made aware of its existence by a Texan who is working here implementing SAP at a nuclear power plant. He said that it pretty good. When a Texan from San Antonio basically recommends a Mexican restaurant, you know that it has to be good.

Looks pretty good from here, if only it wasn't a third the size of a "normal" burrito

Even though the "Smothered Burrito" was smaller than what I'd normally get in California, it was still very good, a very close approximation of the kind of Mexican food I've been craving since I left. Instead of satisfying my need for good Mexican food, instead I found myself more homesick than ever. It's going to be another round of reverse culture shock coming back to California, and like the first time I returned from Mongolia, I fear that I'll be spending hours and hundreds of dollars at my supermarket the first week I'm back. I'll also be gaining the weight I've lost while here in China along with a couple more pounds from indulging myself after being away for 10 weeks.

Photos aren't showing up

2011-04-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

Due to a problem with Blogger, my awesome photos haven't been showing up. This is a known issue and it should be cleared up soon. Hang tight and you'll see photos soon.

For example, in the above space, there should be a photo of me flying an '80's era Mig jet fighter. Alas, Blogger has problems. Or the photo below, that shows me wrestling a crocodile. Bummer that Blogger isn't working.

See you all when the problems are resolved.

Cool view, no mushrooms in the shower

2011-04-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, finally a better hotel with a view and a hot tub. You have no idea how much this means until I describe the bizarre conditions at the last hotel.

When I first arrived in Shenzhen to work, my colleagues and I were placed in a hotel that at first glance seemed to be acceptable. Things took a bad turn from the moment I checked in. When I arrived 6 weeks ago, the weather was cold and windy, probably in the low 50s, so I was looking forward to getting into my hotel room and warming up. I was surprised when I got to my room that there was no heater. None. At all. Since Dameisha is a resort town that normally caters to tourists during the summer, this particular hotel had decided to save a lot of money through the omission of finance-draining utilities like heat. An unorthodox yet effective strategy from the financial viewpoint of the hotel, but annoying and lame from the viewpoint of the guests. I had a small thermometer on my bag and the lowest temperature I recorded in my 2 week stay there was 47F.

Additionally, the place was in such a bad state of maintenance and cleaning that there were mushrooms growing in my shower and closet. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I regret not taking photos of them, but at the time I was so disturbed by the fact that members of Class Agaricomycetes were my my roommates that I just wanted to be as far away from that hotel as possible. As if the mushroom roommates weren't enough, sometime during my second week, workmen started assembling scaffolding around the entire hotel and when they were done erecting it, I was startled at 6am by the sound of jackhammers. Apparently they were chipping away the old plaster on the exterior and had orders to complete the work as soon as possible. This meant starting as early as possible and ending just as late. Unfortunately for the guests this meant at least 5 hours of incessant pounding and hammer noises not unlike the sounds of a mass escape of all the inmates of Alcatraz. I awoke one morning to the sound of what seemed to be pipes being dropped on my balcony and I was surprised at how accurate my assumption was.

After 12 days of this intolerable environment, a collective complaint was made to our client and we were immediately moved to better quarters down the beach. My worst complaint about my new room is the mosquitoes that come in, since there are no screens I have to be diligent about making sure that I close the sliding glass door behind me so they don't get in. Other than that, it's a very nice upgrade that will make my remaining weeks all the more tolerable. Now, if only I could find a decent burger joint...

I ate a whole bag of...what?

2011-03-31T19:39:00.000-07:00

I ate the whole thing

One of the things I look forward to doing whenever I travel is finding out what the locals like to eat between meals as a snack. It’s one of those universal traits all humans seem to have. We all get hungry and need something that will get us through a long afternoon.

A few days after I arrived in China, I was at a local corner store looking over the ubiquitous prawn flavored chips, chocolates, and dried peas with a variety of different coatings like wasabi and barbecue. I also saw some things that would probably never go over well in the States: plastic-packed meats that had been irradiated to ensure their shelf life, eggs and chicken feet in vacuum packs, and spicy (and presumably) stinky tofu skewered on thin bamboo sticks. I do have a fondness for dried seafood and was happy to find dried cuttlefish. I picked up a package of the stuff and continued to peruse the aisle, trying to figure out some of the more exotic-looking packages. Since I have no idea how to read Chinese characters, I was left to make educated guesses at the contents of some of the packages based on the pictures on them. One had a nice photo of either duck or chicken and that led me to think it was something along the lines of duck jerky, and it turns out I wasn’t too far off. After getting back to my hotel, I opened the package and had a taste of one of the pieces. Not bad, kind of spicy, definitely jerky-like. Five or six pieces later and I started to notice that they were all similarly shaped and about the same size. Interesting but not a showstopper and before I knew it, I had finished the small bag.

Thinking that I might want some more later, I bought another bag and brought it to work, so I could enjoy a snack and also have one of my Chinese co-workers identify just what it was I ate. Surprise! They were duck tongues. Cue the "Psycho" shower scene music, please.

Mmmmm, duck tongues.

I wasn’t horrified or even slightly sickened by this revelation, just amused more than anything else. I don’t know if I’ll be buying them again, though, not because I’m put off by the fact I ate a bag of duck tongues, or bothered by the mental image of a bunch of duck tongues licking the inside of my stomach (the snack that tastes you!). No, it's because I probably will never find these things in the US. I don’t want to get so hooked on the things that I won’t be able to satisfy my craving, conversely, I don’t want to eat myself sick getting my fill before I leave. Best to just leave well enough alone.

Shenzhen, China - soon to be the largest city on the planet

2011-03-30T01:39:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since my last post, but here I am again to post an update and give you some insight on what's happening on this side of the planet. I've been here a few weeks now and will be here for at least a couple more months. It's been pretty much the same thing day after day, as would be expected with any kind of work assignment. Not a whole lot worth blogging happens from day to day, I spend between 9 and 10 hours a day in an office/lab 6 days a week. I also happen to be in a part of town where not much happens, and I would have felt bad blogging the minutiae of the day to day activities of a Pharmaceutical Engineer.

This is, after all, an adventure travel blog, so on the Sundays that I have off, I head out the door in search of adventure in Shenzhen worthy of blogging.

So, Shenzhen. Not a lot of adventure. Not that I've found, anyway.

There are some interesting places, however, that cause a slight needle deflection on the Adventure Meter and at least deserve a mention. I gots nothin' else.

Shenzhen point of interest 1: Huaqiangbei (华强北)

Huaqiangbei (Hwa ching bee) is a huge market area of Shenzhen that caters to electronics enthusiasts of all kinds. The photo shows just one floor of one building of one block of this electronics megacenter. You can find anything from discrete electronic components and test equipment to computers, cameras, and vacuum tube stereo equipment. I scored a totally cool radio frequency generator. But that's too geeky to even mention in an adventure blog. Huaqiangbei also happens to have one of the 2 Burger King restaurants in Shenzhen. Considering that there are over 9 million people in Shenzhen, the rarity of this restaurant and the fact it is empty most of the time are interesting facts in themselves. It's one of the reasons I take the 40 minute cab ride to Huaqiangbai. Flame broiled goodness.
Most adventurous aspect: dodging the large flatbed carts that deliver pallets of electronic goods to the vendors. Adventure meter rating: 0.1

Shenzhen point of interest 2: Cavernous shopping malls many stories high

There are so many malls like this in Shenzhen, all of them have the same stores that they all start to look the same. Think of a typical American indoor mall and then turn it on one end. Shenzhen is such a crowded city that in some parts the real estate is so expensive the only way to go is up. Most adventurous aspect: The vertigo from looking over a rail from 7 or 8 stories up. Adventure meter rating: 0.0 This rating would go up significantly if they allowed bungee jumping into the central atrium.

Shenzhen point of interest 3: the 9th tallest building in the world, Kingkey 100.

The yet to be completed Kingkey 100 (I'm not making that up) will be over 442 meters (1449 feet) tall when it is finally finished later this year, making it the 9th tallest building in the world. Out of those 98 floors, 68 floors will contain office spaces, 22 stories will be a six-star business hotel and the top four floors of the skyscraper will hold a garden and several restaurants. Too bad it isn't finished now. Most adventurous aspect: The vertigo from looking 98 stories up. Adventure meter rating: 0.0 Just like the cavernous shopping malls many stories high, this rating would go up significantly if they allowed bungee jumping.

I'm sure there are some very cool places in Shenzhen that would be more worthy of this blog, I just haven't had the chance to go out and find them yet. Having only one day a week off and being 40 minutes away from the city center make looking for fascinating things to see and do sort of tough. But I will be taking some time off after my assignment and I'll spend the time to find the more interesting, cool , and hopefully, adventurous.

你好來自中國

2011-02-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

The title of this post 你好來自中國, or Hello from China, should give you a clue as to where I've been working recently. Not one to pass up a business opportunity on the far side of the world, I decided to take up some pharmaceutical work in Shenzhen. The pay is good and I need the money to fix the Geo for the trip that got me started on this blog in the first place.

I realize that it's been a huge long time since I've made a post to this blog, probably not since the last time I was in China. There's lots of catching up to do, and I hope to get around to doing that soon, but the problem here is that China has blocked the use of some social media sites like Facebook and Blogger is one of them.

Not to worry though, I found a solution to that, even though it costs me 8 bucks a month and sometimes my hotel connection to the internet is a bit dodgy. Like I said, I'm working in Shenzhen, but I'm not anywhere near the actual city center. Shenzhen is a vibrant and active city with lots to do, unfortunately I'm situated in a somewhat sleepy beach town called Dameisha about 40 minutes away from Shenzhen proper. During the summer months it looks like the ideal place to be near the ocean and do all the things associated with the beach, but in winter it's kind of dead and, well, sleepy. It's about 50F (10C) around here, and have yet to see the sun since arriving. It's a stark contrast to the Southern California town of Carlsbad where I was last working where it was 80 (26C) on January 8th.

It's at least interesting, well interesting to me, and I can usually amuse myself with finding the unusual things in a city or town. It's not that hard to do when you're in another country and most everything here is competing for my attention. As sleepy as the area is where I am, there's still plenty to explore. There's an area up the mountainside that looks like an extreme rollercoaster straddling the top of the mountain. I have only seen it through binoculars, and I want to check it out when the weather gets warmer and the sun is out. I also like going to the grocery store and trying to figure out just what some of the things on the shelf might be. Pictures on the outside might offer some clue, but then again might not. I'll just have to buy a few and find out for myself.

I'm not sure how long I'll be here in China, but now that I've figured out how to get through the firewall that the Chinese government put up to keep their citizens from accessing the cool social media sites, at least I'll be able to post things to this blog.

Number One Most Best Quality Beijing Trip

2010-08-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

Being new to the International travel scene, I'm pretty much fascinated by anything that happens, even when it goes wrong. Since I'm the CEO of Go Help, I want to try to lead by example and try to be as thrifty as possible, and wanted to get to Mongolia this time as inexpensively as possible. Last time I flew Korean Airlines, stopped in Seoul, and took a connecting flight to Ulaanbaatar and did the same in reverse when I went home.

This time around I decided that flying out to Beijing and catching the train to Ulaanbaatar would be the most economically feasible, as it only cost 1064USD to fly to Beijing and another 200 for the train, almost cheaper by a few dollars than the last time. The caveat being that I would have to endure a 30-36 hour train ride in a "hard sleeper" car. But having an adventurous spirit and a desire to be a cheap CEO I decided that I would at least be able to say I did it and have no regrets for doing so.

I landed at Beijing's Terminal 3 after a long 12 hour flight that amounted to being in a flying schoolbus. I had the luck of flying with a large contingent of Chinese tweens that had been visiting the U.S., at least that was what I gathered they had been doing. As soon ans the seatbelt light went off, they spent their free time moving freely about the cabin, taking flash photos, making squealing noises over the photos of Zac Efron on their iPads, standing in the aisles, and gathering in small groups right behind my seat. Seatguru.com had described this seat as one of the best in the plane, however they did warn me about people gathering behind it. I thought that the gatherings would be of mostly quiet adults stretching their legs or using the bathroom, not camera-toting tween Chinese girls fawning over images of American teen heartthrobs. To make matters worse, I had the particular misfortune of having forgotten to charge my iPod fully, so blocking their chatter with the blissful sounds of AC/DC and KISS was completely out of the question.

Terminal 3 of Beijing is, for lack of better terms, completely awesome. It's an incredible architectural feat that boggles the mind in both the stunning interior and the sheer size of the place. One of the largest structures by area on the planet, Terminal 3 is easily one of the nicest airports I've seen, and I've been to Heathrow's Terminal 5. The staff were very nice, customs was a breeze, the luggage carts were free and brought to you, and finding your way around was exceedingly simple. One of the things that made the experience almost fun compared to other airports were the feedback terminals in front of each customs officer. I'd never seen anything like it. Basically you get to rate your entry and exit experiences by pressing one of the four "face" buttons. The terminal had the passport officer's badge number and each button had a face that ranged from "extremely satisfied" to "not satisfied."Being the extremely satisfied visitor I was, I pushed the button that depicted the widest smile. After getting my luggage, I took some time just to admire the immensity of the interior. Snapping a series of photos, I later stitched them together for this panoramic shot of Terminal 3.My amusement continued as I followed the signs that led me to the taxis. Fortunately I was smart enough to print out my hotel details, unfortunately I didn't have the name and address printed out in Chinese. Fortunately again, I had been sitting next to a Texan who was returning to China after three years to teach English again. The people that met him were more than happy to translate the name of the hotel and address for me so all I had to do was show the driver and I was off to downtown Beijing.

I had found a very inexpensive hotel near the CCTV tower called the Super 8 Hotel. Apparently there are 888 of these hotels all over China, 8 being a lucky number. Check-in was fairly easy as the clerk spoke English, and I was eager to get to my room, shower off the 14 hours of jet cabin smell, and look for something to eat. When I got to my room, I found it rather...adequate. Of course what should I have expected for 37 dollars and change? I'm not sure that you can get any kind of hotel room back in the States for that much and if you did I doubt you'd want to actually sleep in it. Sub-40 dollar hotel rooms in the states are the domain of hourly rate places where you'd go for, er, recreational activities.

This room, however was completely fine for sleeping. There were a few peculiarities of the room that are worth noting. Indeed none of these things made the room awful, they just made you wonder, sometimes out loud to yourself.

Peculiarity 1: A complete lack of a shower cabinet.This made me wonder out loud. "This," I said to myself out loud, "this is totally AWESOME. Why why why do we not have this set-up in the States? Not one but two, TWO floor drains!" As a bachelor living alone, a bathroom like this would be pure heaven. Imagine if you will the typical bachelor bathroom. Not a pleasant thought, is it? Now what if that particular bachelor had the ability to spray down and wash every surface with the shower head, with no worry about getting the carpet wet, or having to don gloves and use various brushes and sponges to get all the nooks and crannies to excise that special filth that bachelors seem to invoke from hell itself? Imagine being said bachelor, and having exactly 5 minutes to clean the bathroom before the discriminating female eyes of your girlfriend survey just how much of a man-pig you really are? In 5 minutes she'd never need know the far-ranging extent of your man-piggishness, if you had a spray down, wash-and-use bathroom the likes of this. At least she'd never know looking at your bathroom. The kitchen, well, that's another place that would benefit from a floor drain or two. Two things I'd add to this setup to make it completely bachelor-awesome: a real honest-to-goodness, stand-up-to-use aim-anywhere-within-a-180-degree-arc urinal, and a high pressure washer attachment to blast away the nastier grunge that seems to accumulate after 7 months of neglect.

Peculiarity number 2: "Approximate" EnglishLost in translation is especially true in the Asian countries. Be Caution. Pilot Lamb. Signs elicit responses ranging from mild bemusement to utter hilarity.

Peculiarity number 3: Unregulated building standards.Yep, that is the view out of my window. I love it in the morning to be able to open my window and take a deep invigorating breath of...masonry. What made me laugh is that they bothered to put curtains up, as if a brick wall wasn't enough to keep prying eyes from looking in. Then again, maybe the curtains were there to keep my prying eyes from looking out and seeing a brick wall.

More Beijing most quality fun in the next post.

Back In Mongolia!

2010-08-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

Finally back to the blog after many months of working for Go Help, dealing with vehicle rules and vehicles and returning from Mongolia.

This entry finds me back in Mongolia to meet the arriving teams and do some other work related to the running of the Mongolia office. It's been quite a difference coming back here as the last time I was here, there was snow, freezing temperatures and a very obvious lack of green anywhere. Flying into Chinggis Khaan International airport, I could see that the landscape has changed dramatically with the rains that came shortly after I left the first time. It was even more dramatic looking out of the Go Help office as the dry brown landscape had been replaced with resplendent green and the trees that had looked like dead sticks were now actual trees.

I had arrived at about 10:30 in the morning and had meant to surprise the staff by just showing up at the office, but the surprise was mostly blown when I had to call up to the office after the taxi driver insisted on being paid an additional 5000 Tugrug after we had agreed to 10000 at the airport. After Miga came down and paid him, I was back at my desk and opening my computer to check my messages.

I had about 45 minutes to myself when Paul and Matt of Team All Weasel, No Beaver walked in the door. I was glad to personally greet them when they walked in and we had a great time talking about their trip. They had all kinds of good advice on how to get through the craziness that is the Mongolia Charity Rally, and I looked forward to more stories over beer and dinner. The next day we took Matt and Paul and Christine from Team I Meant To Do That to the Book Ger, one of the projects that Go Help and the ralliers helped fund.
Christine had brought a self-contained portable printer to take photos of people along the way from London, and we all thought it was a brilliant way to meet people and make friends. She spent some time taking photos of the kids and printing out their portraits.

Christine had another gift for the kids, and I guess the best way to show that is in this short clip I filmed.

We had a great time, the teams had a chance to see where their fundraising efforts go, and afterward I got to treat them all to a well-deserved congratulatory beer.

Eat mutton like a Mongolian! A 7 year-old expat Mongolian shows you how!

2010-04-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

A visit to Kindergarten and Nursery Complex No.10

2010-04-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Yesterday I visited Kindergarten and Nursery Complex No.10 in Ulaanbaatar district 13, a small rehabilitation center that Go Help had partially funded. It was a somewhat dingy building that didn't look at all inviting at first, but once I got inside, I realized that the outside of the buildings here in UB really don't reflect the insides. Inside it was bright, cheerful, and very much a children's place. It looked like a lot of nurseries I've been in the US, with the notable exception that all the decorations and posters were in Cyrillic. Even the Disney posters on the walls were in Cyrillic.

Dulguun and I spent a few hours touring the place. The staff were wonderful and the children were happy and I could see that many of these kids were benefiting from the attention the nurses were giving them. Many of them were learning to read and write. There was also a program that got the parents involved in the therapy sessions so that they could supplement their child's development at home.

The trip wasn't without a bit of sadness, however. During the tour one of the things I saw was what was supposed to be a children's hydrotherapy room where the kids would have been using a neutral buoyancy pool for rehabilitation and exercise activities. It was in a state of non-use being built completely wrong and not to specifications. What had happened was that the contractors hired to build it cut corners to save money, taking advantage of the fact that there was no specialist oversight on the project. The pool was even built without a drain, making it completely useless. I was angry to think that people would take advantage of a situation where children in need are involved. The pool now sits, covered by boards. The room is basically now storage, and not even a good storage room. Since they skimped on the installation of insulating material in the walls, the room literally becomes a freezer during the winter when the temperatures drop below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. What made me especially angry was the quote to fix it so that it could be used. Not only does the room need to be built to meet specifications, it literally needs to be gutted so that they can start all over again. Total cost to rectify this mistake is over $100,000 US dollars.

Still, despite these setbacks, the staff works around the lack of the hydrotherapy room and the children are getting top-rate care despite the lack of this much needed rehabilitative resource.

Dzud relief going to Mongolia

2010-04-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

One of the things I was coordinating before I left California was getting relief supplies to Mongolia. The Mongolian community in the San Francisco Bay Area was extremely helpful in getting donations organized and sent to Ulaanbaatar at a greatly reduced price.

Tsolmon's Tailor Shop in Fairfield was especially helpful in collecting clothing, toys, and other items for delivery.The hardest part of this was getting a reasonable shipping price as a few calls to commercial carriers proved that using their services would be prohibitively expensive. That's where the Mongolian community came to the rescue. I learned from the Golden Gate Friends of Mongolia that there were monthly shipments that were going to Ulaanbaatar. Organized by local Mongolians, boxes are shipped in bulk to Ulaanbaatar in a cargo container. Once they arrive, families are called to collect the packages relatives sent from the US. The cost for the boxes we sent: $50 which was a great deal cheaper than the $650 per box that a commercial shipper wanted.We're still continuing to collect items and hopefully there will be regular shipments. It's not only the dzud that causes the need.

I'd like to offer a very special thanks to Ono Ganzorig for helping us find a shipping solution. This would not have been possible without her valuable help.

If you'd like to donate funds to ensure Go Help's involvement in this effort please make a donation here.

State Department Store, Comrade!

2010-04-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

One of the things I get to do while I'm here is assemble a working computer for Hallie, our student intern and scholarship recipient. She does all of the accounting on the Mongolian side of the organization and is going to get a computer that will be significantly better than the laptop she's borrowing. I had to carefully pack all of the components into my suitcase and now that I'm here I get to reassemble them into a working computer she can use.

Unfortunately I had forgotten to pack the all-important cordless screwdriver (aren't all screwdrivers cordless?) and decided to just pick one up here when I got a chance. Last evening I mentioned wanting to see the State Department Store so Dulguun and her fiance indulged me and took me shopping.

I just wanted to window shop and look around, not thinking that I was going to buy anything. The State Department Store has been around for 90 years, being established during the Soviet era, and when Mongolia became a self-governing country, it continued to provide people with goods. Going in there now is more like going into a big vertical mall. My hope to see things that were specifically Mongolian was somewhat dashed once we headed in as the first floor was mostly cosmetics and jewelry. Revlon cosmetics, Ray Ban sunglasses, and Casio products were on display so getting that Poljot or Volmax watch was kind of out of the question. I'll probably have to dig around more for those.

Up on the 4th floor was home electronics and home improvement tools. That's where I saw something I told myself I wasn't going to leave the store without. It was a Russian branded cordless drill. I couldn't read any of the Cyrillic, but the package was self-explanatory.
It even comes with a 3 year guarantee although I wonder how I'm going to take advantage of that if anything goes wrong.

At least I can put that computer together for Hallie while I'm here.

Ulaanbaatar Mongolia

2010-04-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's been weird for me to think that exactly 3 years ago today I bought a $500 car with the intention of driving it to Mongolia. Today I'm in the Go Help Office in Ulaanbaatar working as their CEO. I didn't get here in that $500 car, but then again I made good on my promise to get here eventually.

Funny how things turn out.

Today I'm familiarizing myself with the office, Ulaanbaatar, and answering some emails and generally catching up. I have some meetings scheduled next week and will be updating this blog frequently. I still have trouble believing that I'm actually here.

I got in to the airport at about 10pm local time and was met by Dulguun and her fiance. Dulguun as you probably know from previous posts is the project coordinator here in Ulaanbaatar. I didn't get to see much of Ulaanbaatar last night but this morning I got to see a little of it from the back off a taxi. But once I got to the office I got a nice panoramic view from the top floor. You can see the Blue Sky Building off the the left and the mountains off to the distance. I have a big list of things I need to get done while I'm here, but I'll also find the time to tour and show you the sights and sounds of Mongolia. At this moment, I'm fighting some 16 hours of jet lag and can feel my displaced circadian rhythm dragging me down. Hopefully the next posts will have something more interesting than photos of the office.

One more week and I'll be in Mongolia

2010-03-24T23:47:00.001-07:00

It's been a while - 8 very long weeks since I've posted to this blog.

Let's catch up.

Since getting involved with Go Help, I've been busy handling vehicle approvals, working with the trustees to get things organized, and generally helping out where I can. Some time ago, I'm not sure who mentioned it first, I remember that the idea of me going to Ulaanbaatar was being kicked around. Basically I'd go to there to get a better bearing on what's going on and how I can assist with getting this charity driving adventure to Mongolia a little more organized. Seemed like a good idea.

One of the things I've been working to get done is getting together whatever I can to help the victims of the dzud. Dzud is a Mongolian word (Зуд) that describes a situation where a drought is followed by an unusually harsh winter. To the herders that rely on their livestock, this essentially means that their herds didn't have enough to eat during the fall to make it through the harsh winter. The combination of drought and the unforgiving cold winter months has caused massive losses in livestock, the lifeblood of these nomadic herders.

Before I knew it, I was booking tickets and making itineraries and helping to coordinate the shipment of relief supplies to the herders in the Dundgovi province. Talk about total immersion, and I haven't even gotten on the plane yet. So this week I get to collect those supplies, get them to a shipper, and see them off. Once in Mongolia, I hope to be able to see exactly where those relief supplies go. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone there at the Mongolia office; it will be great to meet Dulguun, Hallie, and Tsevendavaa in person.

In addition to that, I'll also be working with the Mongolia team in Ulaanbaatar to help organize an arrival event for the teams driving in from London and elsewhere. I'll also get to work on vehicle imports and provide answers to the teams that are undertaking this adventure. I'll be setting up a new computer in the office, and doing whatever I need to make their jobs easier. I'll get to meet the people behind the charity projects that Go Help supports and get updates on what they plan to do this year.

I think back to the days when I first embarked on this crazy idea to try to get to Mongolia, it seemed like such an exotic and faraway place that it constantly made me wonder what it was like to be there. It started with me buying a broken rusting car, and through a series of meetings with new friends, it has led me to this. Next week I board a plane to Korea to catch another to my final destination in Ulaanbaatar. I'll be blogging and recording video clips throughout my stay there and you'll get a firsthand picture of the dzud and how it is affecting the citizens of this country. I've a billion things to do in the next 168 hours, one of them making sure that I keep up to date with my blog postings.

But don't worry, I wouldn't want to leave any of this out of my blog. It's one of the reasons I started it in the first place.

If you want to make a contribution to Go Help's relief efforts, please click here. Any and all contributions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks and keep coming back. There are going to be some interesting posts coming up soon.

Keeping up and living in 4-8 time zones at a time.

2010-01-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

Despite being unemployed, I've somehow managed to actually be busier than I was when I was working for pay. Over the last few months, I've been playing catch-up in helping Go Help put up a vehicle approval page as well as the vehicle rules. I've also been spending a great deal of time talking to people all over the planet. I have to remind myself that the nearest person to me that is working on this effort to organize these charity rallies is Dave and he's 2902 miles away in New York City. At least he's in the same country. Dulguun and Hallie, the project coordinator and accountant in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia are 5795 miles away, literally on the other side of the planet and into the next day. It's still disconcerting to me to be blanketed in darkness here in Alameda, and be able to look out their office window and see sunshine streaming in.Most of the trustees are in London, and I have regular calls with them as well. I've even been up at 4am to handle a conference call between a trustee in London and Dulguun in Mongolia. It's all made for some interesting conversations and I often forget what time it is here at home.
You may wonder how I've been keeping track of all these time zones. It's easy thanks to the web. I've enabled Yahoo widgets and I've downloaded some clocks and a Geochron-type map to help me out as well as keep me from making the mistake of calling someone at 3am. From left to right are Alameda time, Eastern Standard Time, London or GMT time, Ulaanbaatar Mongolia time, and the mini Geochron that tells me where it's daylight on the planet. These tools come in handy when making international calls as well as telling me the date as some places are ahead of the international date line.
One of my responsibilities is to help ralliers select vehicles that will be both tax exempt and provide maximum benefit to the charities we're helping in Mongolia. I've been fielding calls and emails this week from folks that want to know what to buy in order to avoid the potentially hefty Mongolian import tax. Instead of emails, I've been encouraging the teams to use Skype since that's the fastest most efficient way to get their questions answered, especially if they're bidding on a car in an auction and don't want to miss out on winning it.Selecting just the right kind of vehicle can be a trying process for these teams, but being able to call and see that someone is on the other end helping to make the selection has been a relief to a lot of these teams. Luckily I don't sleep much and I like exchanging stories about the rally and I've been having a pretty good time talking to people.

This sure beats working at a real job.

Mongolia Charity Rally Vehicular Rules

2009-12-25T21:46:00.000-08:00

Holy cow, things are moving fast. I've been doing lots of Skype calls and conferences with people that are involved with this year's Mongolian Charity Rally. What's strange it that all of these people are very far away from me, the nearest is Dave, who lives in New York City. I've been living in 4 time zones: mine, here on the island of Alameda, Eastern time, GMT, and Ulaanbaatar time. My days start fairly early in the morning, typically 5am and end with a phone conference with Dulguun at 1-2am. Finally, something I can do that fits my sleep schedule. Being awake for 19 hours a day has benefits.

One of the things Dulguun and I have struggled with were the vehicle rules for the 2010 rally to Mongolia. She's been keeping her finger on the pulse of things over there in Mongolia. The government has imposed some fairly strict rules and hefty import taxes on vehicles entering the country which means vehicles that would have been all right and tax exempt in previous years are now subject to tighter scrutiny at the border. This means a tougher time selecting vehicles if one wants to donate it at the end of the trip. So if you're a rallier who wants to take part in this adventure, here they are:

MONGOLIA CHARITY RALLY 2010 VEHICLE RULES

You can take any vehicle you want to Mongolia! What’s the catch you ask? Here it is! If your vehicle is tax exempt, you’re ready to rumble. If your vehicle is not tax exempt, you will have to pay the import tax.

We operate a pre-clearance system: once you’ve settled on the vehicle you want to take, please fill in the vehicle approval form on the website . Your vehicle will then be approved as tax exempt, or we will tell you the tax that will be payable on it, within two weeks. You should submit your vehicle for customs clearance before you buy it. If you don’t, we are not responsible for any costs you incur!

TAX EXEMPT VEHICLES

Example of a tax exempt vehicle

Taking a tax exempt vehicle is not only the cheapest way to get to Mongolia, it is also a better way to take part in a Charity Rally like this, as the tax exemptions are set for vehicles that are useful for the people of Mongolia. So we encourage you to take a tax exempt vehicle!

Rule 1: Tax exempt models for 2010 can be no older than 9 years old, therefore for 2010; your vehicle has to have been manufactured after 2001.

Rule 2: To be tax exempt, your vehicle must be one of the following:

· Single cab pick-up truck (see models below – if you have a model in mind that is not on our list, email us and we’ll see if we can get an exemption for it).

· Ambulance (requires separate cabin, room enough to carry gurney and medical supplies)

· Truck/lorry (must be single cab, NTE 3½ tonnes).

Please find below an indicative table of the models that are exempt. We will supplement this from time to time.

Table of tax exempt vehicles
Make	Tax Exempt Model
Land Rover	Defender Ambulance
Nissan	Navara (Single cab)
	Cabster
Ford	Escort
	Transit cargo vans
	Minibus/school bus
	Medium duty trucks
	Pickups
Mitsubishi	Canter
Isuzu	Trucks
Mercedes	Ambulance

NON-TAX EXEMPT VEHICLES

If you really don’t want to take a tax exempt vehicle, no problem! But you can pay the tax man! You will need to transfer the import tax to us before you leave for Mongolia.

There are two tiers of tax exempt vehicles:

· Preferred non-tax exempt vehicles

· Non-preferred non-tax exempt vehicles

Regardless of which type of non-tax exempt vehicle you take, your vehicle cannot be older than 9 years old, so must have been manufactured in or after 2001 for the Mongolia Charity Rally 2010.

Preferred non-tax exempt vehicles

You need to:

1. (a) Review the table below of preferred, non-tax exempt vehicles, and if your vehicle falls within it;

(b) Proceed to review the tax brackets below to see what tax will be payable on your vehicle.

2. If your vehicle is not in the table below, please proceed to the “Non-preferred non-tax exempt vehicles section” below.

Table of preferred non-tax exempt vehicles
Make	Taxed Model
Land Rover	Defender
	Discovery
Nissan	Terrano
	Patrol
	Pathfinder
	Navara (double cab)
	X-Trail
Toyota	Landcruiser
	Highlander
Mitsubishi	Pajero
Isuzu	Trooper
Subaru	Forester
	Tribeca
	Legacy
Jeep	Cherokee
	Patriot
	Liberty
Mercedes	GLK Class
	GL Class
	M Class
Honda	Pilot
	CR-V

Tax payable on preferred non-tax exempt vehicles
4x4 Import Taxes		Import tax amount (in USD)
		Year since manufacture
Size of engine		0-3 years	4-9 years
1	1500 cc and below	500	1000
2	1501-2500 cc	1500	2000
3	2500 cc and above	2000	2500

Non-preferred non-tax exempt vehicles

A non-preferred non-tax exempt model is anything that is not listed above. You are welcome to use such a vehicle on the Mongolia Charity Rally, but please be aware that (1) there will be a higher import tax due on the vehicle; and (2) it will be harder for us to sell to raise money for charity.

Please remember that your vehicle cannot be older than 9 years old, so must have been manufactured on or after 1991.

Tax payable on preferred non-tax exempt vehicles
4x4 Import Taxes		Import tax amount (in USD)
		Year since manufacture
Size of engine		0-3 years	4-9 years
1	1500 cc and below	500	1000
2	1501-2500 cc	1500	2000
3	2500 cc and above	2000	2500

Thanks for supporting Charity Rallies! If you have any questions on vehicle approvals, please email: fel@gohelp.org.uk

Whew!
More in the next blog posting soon.

From Engineer to CEO in Two Weeks

2009-11-22T08:02:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened in the weeks since I got laid off, so I have a lot of catching up to do in this post.

Since leaving the stressful life that was pharmaceutical engineering, one of the things that I managed to do is adopt a healthier lifestyle. Case in point: my blood pressure the week before I was laid off was extremely high, something on the order of 175 over 110, and that had me totally freaked out since I was on the fast track for getting a stroke. The last thing I needed was a job that would kill me, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. Literally three days after I got laid off I took my blood pressure and was surprised to find that my systolic had dropped by 45 points to 130 and my diastolic was now 81. It was obvious from this one parameter that this job was literally going to do me in and I was glad to get rid of this potential menace to my health.
Aside from the obvious health benefits, about a week after I was laid off I got a call from David Griffiths from Go Help. It seems their organization was in need of someone who could oversee all their projects, and provide a fresh perspective with regards to how the organization is run as a nonprofit. Basically what they needed was a CEO, and I was more than happy to accept the position. In addition, David was keen to start a similar nonprofit here the United States. Luckily I already have a corporate name and the preliminary paperwork done for establishing a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization, but he and I can get into that later. Right now my priority is to get the vehicle rules for

Mongolia

established, do a review of their financial status, and see about providing support to drive certain projects so that they get finished in a timely manner. One of things I’m really driven to get finished is a hydrotherapy room for the kids in Ulaanbaatar, something that, for whatever reason, is put on hold. So lately I’ve been reviewing a lot of project proposals and determining where I can provide support for these projects.

My contact in Mongolia is a nice young lady named Dulguun who can use the support with not only last year’s rally, but also this year’s current influx of cars completing the 2009 Mongolian charity rally. My task is to see to it that she gets all the help she needs to make the rally a sustainable success in Mongolia. I'm going to try to do everything I can from the Island of Alameda, but it may take an actual trip out there to make sure that projects are completed on time. I have construction management and field coordination experience, but I don't have any of that kind of experience with Mongolian work crews. Now that might be interesting.
The really cool thing is technology has made it simple and practically free to communicate with someone on the other side of the planet. What’s sort of not cool is the fact that her time zone is 16 hours ahead of mine. In fact, everyone's time zone is ahead of mine here in California: David is in New York City, the majority of the trustees are in London, and Dulguun is in Mongolia's capitol city. What that means is that I’ll be spending some late hours in front of the video conferencing camera trying to sort out all the details of what’s going on in three other time zones. The most surreal thing is seeing sunlight streaming through a window in Ulaanbaatar while there's nothing but inky blackness outside my window. That “deer-in-the-headlights” look on my face is the result of trying to understand vehicle import tax rules, rally car mechanical woes, and finances at 3:00 AM Pacific standard time.

Obviously this position is going to require some adjustment on my part but I am reveling in the fact that I am now directly involved with an organization whose primary objectives are charity and adventure. One of the best things about this position is that I now get to travel to London and possibly Mongolia and Tajikistan as a part of running the organization. Go Help had great success this last year with the Roof of the World Rally to Tajikistan, and I'd like to see this rally grow in popularity. There was much celebration at the end of that rally, and Tajik TV caught some of the participants at the finish.

We also have potential rallies in the works for Cambodia and Nepal, but I’ll fill you in about that in another post.

So what does this mean for my GEO-Circumnavigation rally? Well, I wouldn't be a very good CEO if I didn't lead by example, right? It's still on, baby, and I'm now in the unique position to use the resources that Go Help has been providing to the ralliers for the last few years. China remains a problem (as always) but we're developing that angle as we'd like to be able to drive ambulances to Nepal. Obviously, driving to Nepal poses extraordinary challenges because of the routes involved. One can live extremely dangerously and take the Turkey-Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India route into Nepal, or - if we can manage to pull this off - quite possibly the most incredible route conceived: Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Tibet into Nepal.

In the meantime, I have my work cut out for me these next few months.

In Memoriam

2009-11-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

Lost my best friend Kim five years ago today.

FREEDOM!

2009-10-15T08:21:00.001-07:00

Exactly one week ago today, I was summarily dismissed from my job duties.

Boohoo?

No, more like Booyah!

Ah, the luxury of time. I now have as much time as I need to really develop my rally as well as several other projects that had been stalled because of, well, work getting in the way.

So far, this week has been a double layer cake made of win slathered with victory frosting. Keep an eye on this blog.

Sorry, I can't hear you over how awesome this is

2009-09-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

The gentleman pictured above drove into Hyder, Alaska at 4:48pm Pacific time today. This may not sound impressive at first, but consider that Dave Schaub started driving his 1932 Ford hot rod roadster on September 9th, 2009, and managed to drive through all 49 continental United States in just nine days. That's right. Nine days. And he did it all to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford. In case you're unfamiliar with the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, it's a place where children with life-threatening illnesses can have a home-away-from-home and be surrounded by a supportive community while receiving specialized treatment at local hospitals. Dave Schaub has managed to raise $74,981.37 so far for the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, and I'm dedicating this post to celebrating his amazing journey, his safe arrival in Hyder, Alaska, and the amazing effort he's put into raising funds for his charity. He's still a bit short in reaching his $100,000 goal, but I'm sure he'll make that once more people learn about his trip. If you want to help Dave reach his $100,000, please click here.

You can also read more about Dave and his journey by clicking on the link on the left. They will be offering some items commemorating his drive, like the T-shirt above, with all proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford. Dave still has to drive his roadster back to California, but at least he won't be on a such a tight timetable.

Congratulations, Dave, you're a tough act to follow.

Driving around the world would be easier with a new engine

2009-09-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

Since I began this endeavor to drive around the planet in a Geo Metro 2 years ago, I've done all manner of things to the nearly dead carcass I found rotting away in Watsonville. Rocinante has gotten a new paint job, new seats from a Saturn, a roof rack, a stereo, new tires, a ruggedized interior, and a rebuilt head. Now, it seems, it's time to really take things to another level and replace the old (and now dying) engine with a quality rebuild. Things took a turn for the worse last week when I noticed a substantial drop in power. As I suspected, cylinder 2 isn't quite holding compression, and I suspect either a burned valve or some serious ring blowby. At first it seemed to be a spark plug wire shorting against the block, but after changing all the wires, the problem didn't go away. A compression check told me that the cylinder wasn't holding pressure and it that it is now time for a new powerplant under the hood.

Fortunately, three cylinder engines for this car are relatively inexpensive and can be bought online. What I was lacking was a garage and a person with superior mechanical skills who could act as a mentor to help me to get the old engine out and the new one in. Chris Normile, who was responsible for all the mechanical upgrades to Rocinante so far and had planned to be my co-driver had the gall to get married and have a kid so he's traded his workshop for a nursery and shan't be driving around the world with me in a tiny car until his son is out of college.

Luckily a chance meeting with an on-site ergonomics specialist solved not only the problems of my poor posture and potential for repetitive injury, she also happens to be married to an ace mechanic whose current obsession is competing in the 24 Hours of LeMons endurance race. After she spotted a small poster of the Rocinante and Hoa Hele and I explained the mad journey I planned, she suggested that I get in contact with her husband Jim, who might be willing to help me.

I called him, and much to my surprise, he offered to not only help, but act as a mentor to guide me through putting a new engine into Rocinante.

I feel very fortunate to have Jim on my side. Later on next month I plan on having the engine delivered. And then the real work begins.

test

2009-08-25T15:43:00.001-07:00

Another test of the ARL NorthAm blogging system, this time through my Yahoo account linked to the HTC. After a long day playing with liquid nitrogen, I plan to have dinner here.

Not down and not out...ever?

2009-08-25T15:06:00.001-07:00

Ah, my trusty G'zOne phone. I've put this phone into situations that would turn most other phones into useless piles of e-waste. Great com device but not the best at blogging. I'm sure I'll still be using indestructo-phone to blog pics and short messages from places the HTC dare not go. I love this phone so much that I have another one, new in the box, awaiting the first's destruction, which may not happen anytime soon; perhaps not in my lifetime. A legacy for my grandchildren, if CDMA networks still exist in the future.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime 6.5 or higher is required.

New mobile blogging device - Online!

2009-08-25T13:47:00.001-07:00

As cool as indestructo-phone is, it suffered from two problems that kept me from unrestrained blogging while out and exploring. One was the lack of a proper QWERTY keyboard. You can only tap out messages on a numeric keypad before it gets really old, and it did so very quickly. The other reason was the lack of international usability, which would have come in very handy the last time I was overseas. So I begrudgingly got a new smart phone, the HTC Ozone, that has both of these features. I am quickly becoming fond of the little guy as it makes blogging on the go a true mobile experience. Oftentimes in the past I'd want to blog on the spot to take advantage of the spontaneity of the moment, and it was a major pain to wait until I could get to my computer and a connection to post something. With all that can happen between that blog-worthy moment and when I got to a keyboard, I'd be lucky to remember a third of the details. I hope this little tool makes my postings a little more interesting, and I won't have to rely completely on my memory to get details right.

Still, I wish they would come out with a Mil-Spec MIL-STD-810F version. I guess no blogging from my canoe out in the middle of the San Francisco Bay unless my Ozone is in a drybag.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime 6.5 or higher is required.

2009-08-17T13:21:00.001-07:00

Testing new mobile blogging device.