| Out of curiosity, I wanted to figure out how far I traveled in 2008 by various means of transportation. So for your amusement, here are the numbers:
By plane: 7,951 miles
By car (only counting trips of 2 hours or more): 1,762 miles
By train: 1,423 miles
By ship: 801 miles
By ski-lift: 15,975 ft. (~3 miles)
Grand total: 11,930 miles
My plane, car and ski-lift numbers are pretty accurate, while the ship and train numbers are more of a wild guesstimate. In any case, it'll be interesting to see how I do in 2009. | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment   |
| | I'm happy to see that history has been made tonight. I only wish that Obama's grandmother could have lived to see this. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| One of my hobbies that have developed over the last two years is cooking and trying out new ingredients and dishes. I often find myself thinking "Gee, that would be fun to make", but I keep forgetting to write them down. So I'm going to try to maintain a "wishlist" of things I'd like to try over the next few months. If you've made any of these items and have some advice, let me know. Or, if you live in the area and want to come over for dinner, you're always welcome to come on over. :)
General/American
-Make bread from scratch (I've tried 3 times so far without success- on my next attempt I will be trying a different type of flour which should work better)
-Black bean/veggie burgers
-Spinach dip (I might make this next month when the girls come over to my place).
Italian
-Eggplant Parmigiana (Will be making this later this week)
-Make a pizza crust from scratch (Once I figure out how to bake bread correctly, I'll take a shot at this next)
-Make pasta from scratch
Japanese
-Tempura
-Sushi
Indian
-Naan bread
-Some kind of dip for the bread
Spanish
-Empanadas
-Salsa
Thai
-Pad Thai
-Chai tea
And these are just ingredients that I want to use in a recipe sometime.
-gnocchi
-scallops
-this funny plant called "name". I've never heard of it been used in anything, so it's piqued my curiosity. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| I have a confession to make- I really enjoy grocery shopping. Cooking is a hobby for me, so I love going to the store and finding new foods that I've never cooked with before. I especially love looking through the ethic food aisles. It's like traveling through other countries without ever leaving town.
But grocery shopping is also a fun challenge for me. How can I get the most food for the fewest dollars? Grocery stores are always offering coupons, buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) deals and discounts on various items. Every week the local grocery stores around here mail out a flyer listing their deals for the week. I use to just toss these out, but after reading some personal finance blogs, I got motivated to see how I much I could actually save.
I started by picking recipes that used ingredients that were on sale. I also kept an eye out for deals on things that I buy all the time, even if I wasn't out of that item at the moment. That way, I could stock up and not have to buy them later when it's not on sale. Such simple tactics have help to reduce my grocery bill by about 10-20% and don't require much extra time to do. Since I was already doing things like figuring out what I'm going to cook ahead of time and making a grocery list; looking at flyers and such adds maybe 10 minutes to the planning process.
This month, I'm seeing if I can reduce my overall grocery bill by 25% without having to resort to eating ramen noodles. This will require a bit more effort then just looking at flyers. I'm not a big coupon-clipper, but I decided to try collecting coupons and seeing what I could do with them. I started collecting the coupons last month by pulling out of flyers, checking the newspaper at work and by getting them from the little coupon dispensers at the store.
I didn't find many useful coupons, but I was able to get some for some of the cereal that I like to buy. And lo and behold, the grocery store is offering a BOGO on some name-brand cereal this week! Plus they had a lot of other BOGOs on other stuff I like to buy. Between all the BOGOs and the coupons, I was able to save about 35% off my bill! And this is after I do things like buy generic brands and sticking to my list.
Who knew grocery shopping could be so fun and rewarding! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| One of the fun things about flying is checking out new airports and airlines and finding all the cool features about them. It's also fun to mark off all the routes I've flown and slowly create a neat spiderweb of flights. However, keeping track of those flights has been getting harder to do with every flight I add to the list. One tool that I was using to track and share my flights with others has been the Great Circle Mapper. It's a website that allows you to type in your route and it will calculate the distance between your flights. By typing in the airport codes of the places I've been to, I was able to quickly create a free map that shows all the routes I've flown so far.
This tool can be used for more then just pretty maps. It can also be used for planning purposes by calculating distances for future flights. This is particularly useful if you're trying to earn or burn a certain number of miles for a frequent flyer award.
However, the downside of this map is that it can't be saved anywhere through the website (I ended up bookmarking the finished map URL in my online journal). It also doesn't provide any way to add additional information about the flights, like what airline they were on or the type of plane flown.
Enter Flight Memory. This website allows you to not only enter all the routes you've flown, but also all kinds of information about each flight, including the flight number; date and time; the type of airplane; plane registration number; seat number; whether it was for vacation or business and lots more information. It even has a box you can use to type in additional notes about the flight. After entering in all your information, the website will save it so you can reference it later. It will also provide a statistic page showing not only how far you've flown, but how long you've been in the air, how many times you've circled the earth and other interesting information. It's probably more information than the average flyer would want to keep track of, but it's fun for plane geeks to play around with. The downside is that it can take a while at first to enter in all your previous flight information. It took me about an hour to enter in thirty flight segments. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I've had a lot of free time at work lately, so I created my own Flightmemory page. So if you're really curious about what flights I've taken throughout my lifetime, how many days I've spent in the air, or you're just bored and need something to read, feel free to go take a look. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| If you know a child who is excited about all things travel-related, you might encourage that passion by giving them a toy plane, model train, a boat or even an entire airport to play with.
However, Playmobil decided to take those simple toys one step further by creating the "Playmobil Security Checkpoint" set, complete with mini TSA agents. Yes, now your child can have the pleasure of making passengers suffer by having them dump all their liquids, take off their shoes and subject them to secondary screening. What more could any aspiring young traveler want? The only thing the set is missing is freedom baggies and about 300 more passengers to simulate the mobs at a real checkpoint. I'm just waiting for Playmobil to introduce a second set featuring the bodyscanner next.
And if you have a spare moment, the product reviews of the checkpoint are quite hilarious to read. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm back from my amazing trip! Whistler was an awesome place to visit- it snowed every day! I first saw snow going along the sea to sky highway. It didn't look real. It looked like someone had dumped mounds of shaving cream along the road. Outside of the hotel I picked up a ball of snow and it felt exactly like ice from a snowcone machine. The first night it snowed I couldn't stop staring at people's clothes because I could see tiny snowflakes on them. It was just so cool being in a winter wonderland for a week.
I did try skiing and started to get the hang of it towards the end. It was also great seeing my family from Atlanta and meeting my future cousin-in-law for the first time. Vancouver was also a fun city to walk around in, especially along the waterfront and in the huge Stanley Park area.
I fear I've become addicted to traveling. I don't have any more big trip plans until October, and that's six months away. The thought alone of going so long without a fun trip makes me a little stir-crazy. Granted, I do have some plans and ideas for fun things to do around FL. But I'd still love to get out and go somewhere on a weekend trip, especially once the heat and humidity kicks in around here.
One of the first things my future cousin-in-law said to me is "I heard you're the professional traveler in the family." While I don't think the comment is quite true, it is flattering and rather cool that people think I travel a lot (one of my co-workers said to me "don't you travel like every two months?" when I told her I had no plans until October). It's one indicator that I'm living out my dream of traveling and seeing the world if other people are starting to take notice of it.
I'm already pondering trips for next year. I'd love to go overseas, as I've never traveled outside of the North American continent. I would also like to get back into traveling to do volunteer work. When I was in middle and high school, I took a week-long trip every summer and went to several states and Canada to do major home repairs for people who were either physically or financially unable to do it themselves. I like doing volunteer trips because not only am I leaving the world a better place, but I get to see the world as the locals do. It will take time and sacrifice to make these trips happen, but they are well worth it. :) | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| Greetings from beautiful Seattle, WA! I got here last night without any difficulties. My flights were delayed for 15-30 minutes, but since I made my connections and was in no hurry to get here, everything worked out fine.
The city is absolutely beautiful. I spend most of the morning walking around and taking in all the sights like the flying fish at the Pike Place Market to the boats sailing into the Puget Sound harbor to all the art that's around here. I had lunch along the waterfront which provided lots of opportunities to people- and seagull-watch. In the afternoon I did the Underground Seattle tour (quite funny and interesting) and went up to the top of the Space Needle. If I had more time, I would have loved to visit the Electronic Music Project; the art museum and aquarium, and maybe take a ferry to Bainbridge island or hop on a bus and visit some of the other neighborhoods in the city.
It was just so nice to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of a city I've never been to before. It was so fun watching the fish mongers throw their wares around and sing and shout together. Seeing the underground revealed some of the wacky charm and unusual roots the city developed. I felt like a local when I walked the streets with a coffee cup in hand. And I had a wonderful Seattle zen moment when I was sitting at the top of the Space Needle drinking Starbucks coffee and watching the sun begin to set over Puget Sound.
I've also met some interesting people in the city. I shared a taxi from the airport with a charming Canadian couple and their son. When I got to the hostel last night, a girl from Chicago and I ended up talking for nearly an hour about our lives. I did the underground tour with a couple from Denver and had dinner with a bunch of random people at the hostel. Just because I'm traveling alone at the moment certainly doesn't mean I have to be alone. :)
I'm heading off to bed tonight after I finish this entry. I'm a bit tired, either from jet-lag, being up for 24-hours straight yesterday or just general sleep-deprivation (probably a mix of all three) I have an early (well, not that early by my standards) morning tomorrow as I'm making a break for the border. I'm taking a train up to Vancouver to meet up with family there, and then we're traveling up to Whistler. If the rest of the trip was anything like today, it's going to be an amazing trip!
I don't know if I'll post another update before the end of the trip- I don't know if I'll have internet access or not. I have my cellphone with me, but I'm keeping my calls to a minimum due to international calling rates. In any case, I'll give a full report when I get back. I'll also post pictures too. I already have some great photos- from the amazing descent into Denver to the people of Pike Place to the beauty of the waterfront and much more.
Take care, dear readers, and try not to go too crazy while I'm gone. ;) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | "Float On" by Modest Mouse | | Time: | 07:39 pm |
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| It looks like my vacation is already turning into an adventure already! I went into work tonight and found out that Southwest is grounding 41 of its planes (about 8% of their fleet) in the wake of the inspection situation.
Guess which airline I'm flying tomorrow?
I was able to check in for my flights online fine, so they haven't canceled them yet. It'll be interesting to see how this situation plays out and how it'll impact SWA's operations tomorrow.
In any case, if you're flying with SWA sometime in the next few days, you should double-check your flight status.
EDIT: I just read a post from a SWA staff member on Flyertalk that the grounded planes should be back in service by tonight. So hopefully everything will go without a hitch tomorrow. :) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Over the weekend I finished two books that I would recommend to other folks looking for something new to read. The first is Howard Schulz's Pour Your Heart Into It. Howard describes how he got the idea to bring Italian-styled coffee shops to the US and leverage it into a very successful business. I found it hard to put the book down- the passion that Howard has for people and coffee comes pouring out of the pages. At the same time, I'm not a huge Starbucks fan. I've been a little suspicious of their huge expansion to every corner of the world and their strong corporate image. But Howard addresses these concerns and others towards the end of the book. He is a very intelligent guy and it's clear why he became the CEO of such an incredibly successful company. The downside of the book is that it only covers up to about 1997- so the book badly needs an update.
The second book is The Universe Next Door by Marcus Chown. It's like the Elegant Universe, but on crack. The ideas presented are pretty wild and out there, such as finding alien garbage on Earth, but it's still fun to consider the possiblities. If you're ever looking for ideas for that next sci-fi novel, you'll find them here. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| President Bush earlier this week approved the economic stimulus package, which means that taxpayers are going to receive a check valued somewhere between $300-$600 later this year. On one hand, it'll be nice to get some money back from the government. On the other hand however, this package is going to push our country even further into debt and it may not do much to help the economy since many people are saying they are going to save the money.
So for all you US taxpayers out there, what are you going to do with your tax rebate? I'm not going to spend mine. I'm planning to stash it away in my emergency fund that I'm building up. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| After the Democratic debate earlier this week, there's been some discussion of a possible Clinton-Obama ticket or vice-versa. While neither candidate has committed to this, they also haven't denied it either. But if they did get together, they would make a very strong ticket. The Republicans would be hard-pressed to come up with a ticket that could rival that pair. Between Obama's charisma and connection with younger voters combined with Hillary's experience and connections, they could very well end up in the White House together.
Personally, I would love to see this happen and would seriously consider voting for them if they ran together. Quite frankly, the people that the Republicans have presented don't excite me as much. Sure, you have Ron "Just Saying It Like It Is" Paul that been fun to watch in the debates for his honest, straightforward opinions but he just doesn't have the support to go anywhere. Mitt has more support, but not as much as McCain does at the moment. A McCain/Huckabee ticket might be the most viable thing the Republicans can come up with, but with that pairing I don't think the elephant will be tromping about the White House much longer. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| My fellow Floridians: stop reading this and go vote! Because here in Florida, we are fortunate to live in a state where we can vote early and vote often. So go, because your vote counts and counts and counts . . . ;)
And on a slightly less sarcastic note, I was please to see that my county is still using optical-scanning with paper ballots technology as oppose to the electronic voting format. Otherwise, I would have had to edit my "I Voted" sticker to "I think I Voted". | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| I went to work early this morning. Absolutely nothing crazy happened beyond the fact that it was raining heavily. Ended up dozing off in the audio booth for a while for lack of anything better to do. But hey, if the company wants to pay me overtime for sleeping, I'm not going to complain.
I also booked my first international flight this afternoon. I'm going from Vancouver to Orlando by way of Seattle and Houston. Sure, Vancouver's all of ten miles from the border, but it's still technically an international flight. I'm also going to try out Southwest for the first time. I'm looking forward to it since the airline has developed a rather unique fun-luving culture. It'll be interesting to see if the hype meets reality (and whether the experience even remotely resembles anything that happened on that Airline show).
And if I ever find my camera's USB cable, I'll post some pictures of some manatees that I saw earlier this week at Blue Springs.
That is all. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Guess who gets to go to work at 2:45 in the morning? That would be yours truly. ;) A nasty storm that's been wreaking havoc in many southern states and it's heading this way. Of course, the storm's timing is impeccable.
In any case, I'm pretty sure this is a new personal record for me, as the earliest I've been at work before is 3am. I don't really mind though getting up at 2 in the morning. It'll be nice to get the overtime.
Still, I wonder just how crazy I really am if I don't mind getting up so dark and early. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Merry Christmas, Happy (belated) Hanukkah, Happy (early) Kwanzaa, Happy (Belated) Winter Solstice, Happy Festivus and just in case I missed somebody, happy December 25th! I hope it's been a good day for you (especially to all of you who had to work today like yours truly) and hope that you and your family and friends have a fun, safe and enjoyable holiday season! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I hope it's a good holiday for everyone and that you get a chance to spend time with loved ones near and far. :) | | comments: Leave a comment |
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