Caution: Singularity Ahead: Travel

Another Snowy May in Calgary

Thu, 24 May 2007 16:38:04 GMT

So we're visiting my parents in Calgary for the last time (they're moving to Nova Scotia)

In May.

And of course, it snowed. Wheeeeee.

The ducks, you see...

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 04:43:13 GMT

We went to Disneyland for three days last weekend. Despite all being sick, and despite them (once again) making Space Mountain suck so hard a 4-year-old-was-disappointed (Caspian enjoyed it last year with the star effect; this year with the rock lighting he though it was lame), we had fun.

There are lots of good tales to share from this year. For example, on the last day (ever?) for Tom Sawyer Island, he spent 40 minutes in the tree-house, hanging out and making friends. (Su was sick down by the millhouse. I was at the base of the tree-house relaxing in the shade.) Last year I obsessed a bit over the sheer age of some of the rides - Su and I like to look at how worn the wood handrails are on some of the classic rides, after decades of hands rubbing the softer wood away. This year I confess I had a bit of a "how did that fit that in here?" fetish going on about the Pirates of the Caribbean (which was closed last year!). It's just huge!

(Tangent: IMHO, adding a touch of Depp doesn't suck, but it does stick out. Also IMHO, they could update the look of the rest of the pirates without compromising the feel of the ride. Su and I spent an hour or so going over the rides one by one and most could survive careful updates, as they've done with many rides over time including Haunted Mansion and as they're planning for TSI. It just needs to be done with an understanding of what is cool because it's classic and cheezy!)

One of the potential highlights of any trip to Disneyland is getting an actually humorous guide on the Jungle Cruise. No luck this year - our guides were by-the-book. So I'll share a snippet from last year's Jungle Cruise guide, during a dramatic turn of the boat:

Star Tours? What are you doing here?

This is a combat zone! It's restricted!

Ease off on your main thruster!

The ducks, you see... represent TIE Fighters.

That guy earned his whuffie.

Nearby Galaxies and Stars

Wed, 03 May 2006 00:25:51 GMT

Note to self:

One cool thing about staying several days in Queenstown is that we finally had (1) clear skies, (2) no skyglow, and (3) enough energy to stay out after dark a few days in a row. We took blankets out to the lake shore right in front of the hotel. The view at night was really amazing, since there is no build-up on the far side of the lake. So apart from having a mountain blocking part of your view, you're not having to fight with city lights if you have something like a tree behind you.

I was able to point out the Milky Way to Caspian - I haven't seen that in a few years - and got to see the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds for the first time. Not all that impressive to look at unless you know what they are. Then it's humbling.

We'd managed to pick up a map of the southern skies after a few mishaps - Su accidentally left the first one she bought at the store thanks to a little distraction, and on the second attempt she had downloaded a map of the northern skies into her computer's cache. (There was no WiFi on the beach; connectivity in NZ was really bad.)

Back outside with the map it was fun to identify the brightest star in the sky as Rigel Kentaurus - a.k.a. Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, the closest big stars to ours. (Proxima Centauri is closer but it's a red dwarf star, and there are may be some closer brown dwarf stars).

Farthest N E S W

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 04:45:38 GMT

Sarah tried to start a meme using the mapping sites to track "Farthest North, East, South and West" you've travelled from your current location. My map is below.

North: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

East: Nice, France

South & West: Queenstown, New Zealand

Note that the resulting shape isn't a convex hull of my travels. To do that it would have to include London, England and Hawai'i, USA.

And yes, I could have done the map with New Zealand on the right, so I'd have a bigger area, but that would be cheating.

Back home

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:01:24 GMT

Free WiFi was sketchy from the hotels in NZ and we didn't want to take Su's laptop everywhere, so there wasn't a lot of travel blogging. Pictures to come, though.

In Auckland

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:17:48 GMT

Leaching WiFi in the hotel room while waiting for our first outing. (Hotel ethernet charges by the MB.) We got in to the airport at about 5:30, to the hotel by 6:15, and our room wasn't ready until 9:30 so we wandered down to the harbour to pass the time.

The view from the hotel was worth the wait, though.