Vancouver 2009: Vancouver Aquarium

On Monday morning, we drove to Stanley Park. We started off with a trip through the Vancouver Aquarium. Their big attraction there is the Beluga Whales, but they weren't doing any whale shows because one of them had just given birth.

Vancouver Aquarium Gallery

Vancouver 2009: Gastown and Waterfront

After Chinatown, we headed to McDonalds (yeah, yeah... shut up) for liquid refreshments and then headed toward Gastown and the waterfront. We were enjoying a nice breeze at the cruise ship terminal and convention centre while watching the tugboats clear some barges out of the way for a large cruise ship to leave... and then some beggar started harassing us, so we left and headed toward the seawall. Later that evening, we walked back to the hotel to drop our stuff, then headed (on foot) to Yaletown for dinner, where we found a great Thai place.

Gastown and Waterfront Gallery

Vancouver 2009: Chinatown

For the first album of the 2009 road trip to Vancouver, I present to you the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park and Garden and other areas around Vancouver's Chinatown. Upon arriving in Vancouver (very, very late) Saturday night, we went straight to bed. After breakfast on Sunday morning, we took a cab to Chinatown.

The cabbie dropped us off about 10 blocks past the entrance to the garden... probably to make an extra buck off of some American tourists. This is the last time we took a cab in Vancouver... it took us a half an hour of looking at bad maps to figure out where the hell we were and where we were supposed to be going. The first pictures are from the park outside of the garden, which is a free city park. On the other side of the moat is the actual garden that requires paid entrance. We took some pictures in the park first and then headed into the garden in time for the noon tour.

After Chinatown, we headed toward the adjacent Gastown neighborhood. This is somewhat like San Diego's gaslamp quarter in the sense that there's tons of trendy shopping and other crap there... and it's near the waterfront, but separated by heavy and light rail tracks.

Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park and Chinese Garden Gallery

Server DNS Update

Hopefully nobody will notice, but I made some major changes to the back-end of the site tonight. Same content, different computer hosting it. Some DNS records were modified in the process, so it's possible that some links that used to work are now busted. If you find anything, let me know.

Vancouver Itinerary Materializing

Darrick and I took some time this evening to sit down and hash out the details of our Vancouver road trip next month. We need to start booking hotels, and before we can do that it helps to know which cities correspond with which nights.

Here is a road map of the proposed trip. The tentative schedule is as follows:

Saturday 8/22: Travel to Seattle. Rent Car. Dinner in Bellingham. Hotel in Vancouver.
Sunday 8/23: Vancouver. Hotel in Vancouver.
Monday 8/24: Vancouver. Hotel in Vancouver.
Tuesday 8/25: Drive to Whistler Early AM. Do touristy things. Hotel in Whistler.
Wednesday 8/26: Spend morning in Whistler, afternoon drive/ferry to Victoria. Hotel in Victoria.
Thursday 8/27: Victoria. Hotel in Victoria.
Friday 8/28: Drive/ferry to Seattle Early AM. Do touristy things. Hotel in Seattle.
Saturday 8/29: Spend the morning in Seattle, return rental Automobile, and travel home via Planes and Trains.

If we keep to this schedule, we'll be out of the country for about 5.5 days. If we can't find at least one hotel in Canada with free WiFi, we may both go through some pretty serious Internet detox withdrawls.

Eyewear Experiment Update

So, the new $34 glasses arrived on Saturday. After a quick trip over to LensCrafters to have them adjusted to fit my face, they have been available for me to use.

I think I need to take them and get them adjusted a little bit more -- they still sit too high on my nose and are a little loose behind the ears, but those are things that can be easily fixed. Aside from the adjustment issues, the only real complaint I have with them is the anti-reflective coating. Either they forgot to add it, or the one added sucks. There's plenty of glare (from any light source) on the lenses when I wear them indoors.

As far as the frame goes, it's pretty representative of the picture they provided on the website. The metal surrounding the lenses is a bit shinier than I expected, but hopefully I will wear this off quickly. If I'd had the opportunity to try them on in the store first, I suspect I would've vetoed them on account of the color. For the price I paid though, I'll quit complaining. The most important thing -- the prescription -- is correct, as far as I can tell.

For anyone else who wants to try their luck with blind* shopping for their optical needs, they can find the web site of the company I bought my glasses from here.

I'll post a photo once I get my new camera on Friday.

* pun intended.

Minor Updates

I made some minor changes to the blog layout yesterday. Over on the right column, I added a "recommended reading" section. This section shows the most recent posts on some of the blogs and news feeds that I follow on Google Reader. I was toying with the idea of adding a Google search box as well, but I didn't like the way it looked on the screen. Let me know what you think.

Mobile Posting

Testing out "Mobile Posting" for my blog. Says the Blogger autobot: "Success! Ur phone is verified. Snd msgs 2 BLOGGR 2 post 2 ur blog.Txt STOP 2 stop receiving SMS, HELP 4 info. Blogger.com Std msg chrgs aply"

Wow. Someone must've spent some time on that.

Sac Visits

For anyone who cares:

I am currently planning to be in Sacramento from August 7 through 10, October 1 through {undefined*}, and November 24-27.

* Undefined = 10/5 or 10/10 depending on several external circumstances such as: (a) whether I can actually take that much time off work, (b) what the weather is like while I'm up there, and (c) whether I can stand sleeping on that horrible twin mattress for that long.

Camera

Last month when I was in Ohio with my sister, I used her camera to take some pictures. I had brought my SLR, but found that most of the time I was there I didn't want to use it because it's too bulky and a bit of a pain for just taking simple snapshots of things. I have an old Olympus C740UZ camera, but it has essentially been retired because it is (a) too slow, (b) too bulky for a point and shoot, and (c) only takes 3-megapixel images.

Fast forward to today: I received a small amount of compensation for participating in a survey. Also, some rebates came for me in the mail last week. Though normally I'd be stingy and put that toward the "buy a house" fund, I decided to actually spend it for once. I liked Nicole's camera when I was in Ohio (with the exception of its being pink) and decided to buy one for myself because it was on sale for $50 off. Currently it's listed for $179 at Amazon if you get the silver color, and $199 for the others. Here's what it looks like:

Canon PowerShot SD1200IS Front View

Canon PowerShot SD1200IS Rear View

Some statistics: This camera has a 6.2-18.6mm 3x Image Stabilized zoom lens, which equates to about a 35-105mm range on a standard 35mm camera. Or, if you have a Canon SLR like mine with the 1.6 crop factor, it equates to about 21-65mm. I take most of my pictures within this range anyhow. It can shoot 1.4 frames per second and takes SDHC memory cards. Supposedly, an 8GB card (sold separately, of course) holds about 3,000 pictures or just a shade over 1 hour of 640x480 video at 30fps. A single card should be more than adequate. The CCD comes in at 10 Megapixels, which is actually a 25% improvement over my 8MP Digital Rebel XT.

Most importantly though, this camera weighs a whopping 4.23 ounces and has dimensions of 3.48 x 2.16 x 0.86 inches. At nearly 5 pounds fully equipped, my Digital Rebel is roughly 19 times as heavy.

If the shipping gods look upon me favorably, I should have this new toy in my hands in time for Walter's wedding next weekend.

Canada Trip = Large Phone Bill

From AT&T's website:

International data roaming can get expensive quickly. For example, opening an email with a 5 megapixel picture in it, or downloading a 3-minute video on YouTube, each takes about 2 MB of data. The cost would be almost $40, based on pay-per-use international data rates of $0.0195/KB.

$24.99 per month - 20 MB Data Global Plan (Overage is $0.005/KB)

Translation: Good thing I checked this before leaving. Options: Turn off data entirely while out of the country, or pay at least $25 to check email in the mornings and hope I don't need Google Maps.

Sending Text Messages When Outside the U.S.: $0.50 per message sent. Home package rates apply to all text messages received when roaming internationally.

Translation: You can send, but I may not respond. This seems somewhat lenient for AT&T.

Calling and Traveling to Canada: AT&T Canada ($4.99 per month; $0.59 per minute while roaming in Canada.)

Translation: I can pay $4.99 for the right to only pay 59 cents per minute to use my phone in Canada. Without this plan, it costs 79 cents per minute. The break-even point on this is 25 minutes. Will I use my phone for more than 25 minutes the whole time I'm in Canada? Hmm...

Rattles

On Friday, I came into the office (company holiday) to make some modifications to my office in hopes of stopping all the annoying rattling in my ceiling. I popped out the HVAC return register and lined the ceiling grid with felt... then put it back in. It stopped those rattles.

Problem is, now the supply register is rattling. I may have to do the same with it. Hopefully, once I do that it won't extend the problem to the light fixtures -- but it might. My office is cursed.

Experiment Update

Got an e-mail today saying that my new eyeglasses have shipped USPS. The Saturday holiday will surely screw with the timely delivery of said package, but it should be here early next week nonetheless.

UPDATE 7/11/09, 1:31 AM: "Your item was processed through and left our SAN DIEGO, CA 92186 facility at 12:24 AM on July 11, 2009. The item is currently in transit to the destination. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later."

Sounds like they should be delivered tomorrow (well technically, later today.) Hooray!

Hard Water

Also received the annual "Drinking Water Quality Report" in the mail today. It tells me that the average Total Hardness of my drinking water is 241ppm. Google tells me that this falls well into the "Fairly Hard" category, which should not be a surprise to anyone who has ever frozen San Diego tap water and then melted the ice cubes...

Jury Summons

Received a Jury Summons in the mail today. According to this blog, I served on a trial a little less than two years ago. If you've served at any time in the last three years, you're exempt from reporting. Shouldn't the county keep better track of such things, and mail my summons to someone who isn't exempt? They're just wasting money. Plus, it cost me a stamp to mail it back to them.

Upcoming Roadtrip

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be taking another road trip this summer. I should be saving my money to buy a house, but I can't be a cheapskate ALL the time and still stay sane. Also, I have lots and lots of vacation time that I have to either use or forfeit soon. Using it seemed to be the better option.

The details are still sketchy, and complicated by the fact that though my airfare and rental vehicle have been booked, lodging for the trip has not yet been secured. Though with how much the SUV and airfare cost, we might be sleeping in the car and/or some really borderline hotels.

Here's the general structure of the trip:

Saturday, August 22: Fly to Seattle. Arrive around 4:00 PM. Rent SUV. Act like tourists in Seattle.

Sometime after August 22: Drive to Vancouver, BC. Act like tourists. Maybe go salmon fishing. Maybe just stay on solid ground.

Sometime after that: Drive up to Whistler. Act like tourists. Try to find venues for 2010 Olympics. Maybe do some hiking or photography.

Once that is done: Drive back to Vancouver, then back to Seattle. Be tourists in Seattle.

Saturday, August 29: Return vehicle. Fly home.

Connections

I think I rather like having a family member who works for a car rental agency. She just saved me almost 50% (nearly $400) on a one-week SUV rental for my upcoming road trip. Plus, the rate comes with a free additional driver AND the collision damage waiver insurance. In other news, check out these rental car fee and tax rates at SeaTac Airport:

Surcharges:
Customer Facility Chg 5.00/day
Concession Recovery Fee 11.10 Pct
Vehicle License Recovery Fee .31/day

Taxes:
Rental Car Tax (9.70%)
Sales Tax (9.50%)

That comes out to a total of 30.3% over the base rental rate plus an extra $5.31 a day. Maybe this is not so bad on a single-day mid size rental paid for by your corporate office, but for a week long SUV booking going on someone's personal card, it gets real ugly real fast.

Experiment

Recently, I've been annoyed with my current eyeglasses. I don't have to wear them ALL the time, but I've started to notice when I do wear them that the frame itself is a little bit too narrow for my face. They are probably also a bit mis-adjusted, but that's not such a big deal. I compared the physical frame for my regular eyeglasses with my prescription sunglasses (which fit comfortably) and found that the eyeglass frames are a full 10mm narrower than the sunglass frames.

This got me to thinking about how I was going to get a new pair of glasses back around November, but never followed through with it because all those designer frames at the Optometrist, though partially covered by my insurance, would still cost me several hundred dollars out of pocket to get ones that don't completely suck. I'm cheap, and this cost was unacceptable, so I put the idea on indefinite hold.

While searching for frames back in November I came across a web site that promises to sell high quality, accurate prescription eyewear for a fraction of the cost of any traditional provider -- as low as $8 for frame+lenses, and another $5 shipping. At this cost, I can afford to try out new styles to see how I like them without sinking a large amount of money into the process. The worst-case scenario here would basically be that I end up with a marginal-quality pair of backup glasses that look ugly on me, so I figured it was worth a shot. (I don't currently have a backup pair of glasses that is even close to my current Rx.) How do they keep their prices so low, you ask? I suspect it has something to do with China's cheap manufacturing and blatant disregard for international copyright. I'm OK with that.

Thus, I bought a pair of cheap eyeglasses. I present to you:

Cheap Glasses! (Click image for full size)

Oh, did I mention that UV and anti-scratch coatings are included in their low, low price? In a moment of weakness, I decided to shell out the extra $5 for the anti-reflective coating as well. Probably just as well, since they'll probably get most of their use while I'm driving. I did not, however, fork over the extra $4 for a clip-on polarized 80% sunshade because I already have a pair of prescription polarized sunglasses that work quite nicely. For those of you keeping score at home, that's a grand total of $33.85 (Though stingy, I am also incredibly picky and ended up choosing pretty much the most expensive frames they carried) for a pair of prescription eyeglasses with UV, anti-scratch, and anti-reflective coatings as well as 180-degree spring hinges on the arms. They should arrive by July 15. I'm excited to see what I end up with.

Ohio Trip 2009

From June 4 through June 9, 2009 Nicole and I took a trip to Ohio. Officially the purpose of the trip was to attend my cousin Mason's high school graduation party, but we also managed to see lots of family, friends, and places while we were there.

We flew into Cleveland on the 4th, got in (very) late, and headed to my Aunt's house in Bath (just outside of Akron) from the airport after renting a vehicle. We stayed there all day Friday, for the Graduation Party on Saturday, the actual Graduation on Sunday, and Sunday night. On Monday morning, we headed across the state to Jewell to see Grandma. Tuesday morning, we headed from there to Findlay for a whirlwind tour to see some friends and what was left of our old house. After that, we drive straight back to the Cleveland Airport and flew home. That's the trip in a nutshell.

Pictures Link: http://photos.panning.us/v3/2009_06_04_Ohio/

Grandma's Pond

Death Valley/Vegas Trip

Darrick and I went to Racetrack Playa in Death Valley and to Las Vegas recently. He has posted the photos, I have not done so yet. I'll get around to it eventually.

Darrick's Vacation Pictures

Darrick finally posted his version of the pictures from our September road trip. Specifically, everything from the Grand Canyon onward are ones I haven't gotten around to posting here yet. There are also others from earlier in the trip that aren't posted here, because I was far more ruthless in deleting photos that weren't so great. Plus, he posted all the panoramas. I haven't done that yet, either. One of these days I'll get to it... maybe... Anyhow, click here to see them.

Photos: Zion Narrows

Click below for the photo gallery from the Zion Narrows hike. Possibly the best pictures from the entire trip. I want to go back. As I've said before, the Panoramas will come later. (Though, most of the panoramas from this particular hike are of the vertical variety as opposed to the horizontal due to the landscape.)

The Virgin River near the Temple of Sinawava. Click for Gallery.

Photos: Hoover Dam

This is another small gallery. On our way out of Vegas, we made a stop at Hoover Dam to go on a tour of the power plant and the Dam itself. Click to open the gallery in a new window.


Hoover Dam

Photos: Las Vegas at Night

This is a small gallery, just a few photos from Las Vegas at night. Most of the photos that turned out from this night are parts of panoramas which will be posted later. Most of the rest just flat out didn't turn out.

After checking into the hotel room around 2:00 PM, we went straight to sleep... woke up... went to dinner... and got back out just before midnight to take these pictures. We were hoping for some of the water show at the Bellagio, but just as we were walking up, the last show of the night (midnight) was wrapping up.


Las Vegas at Night

Photos: Death Valley at Sunrise

The first photo gallery from the road trip: Death Valley at Sunrise. Only minor editing of these photos has occurred. Panoramas to come later.


Desert Sunrise (Opens in a new window)