Thursday, February 26, 2009

Made in Viet Nam

Could be on the runway a week from about right now.

I bought some shoes today for the trip. I went where any smart person who is in tune with the cutting edge of fashion would go, DSW. (For the WMass locals, Holyoke Mall moved the DSW from the food court to where that dumb sports place used to be next to the Old Navy. And Toys 'R Us is now Babies 'R Us. I guess in 4 or 5 years, they'll have to change it back to Toys 'R Us.)

I remembered that I wanted a pair of cheap-o flip flops to wear around sometimes and wear in the shower as well. DSW had a pair made by Teva that looked about right for $23. They were made in Viet Nam. I decided to wait til I get over and see how the selection is more locally.

Also picked up some strong repellent. No pictures today but I'll post a couple links for anybody who hasn't been.

Click here for Crazy Guy On a Bike. This an awesome site run by a guy named Neil Gunton who is the original Crazy Guy. This site is for the journals of touring cyclists specifically.

To see how I roll, click here for the Turning Fire to Steam tour journal. This is my solo bike trip from Springfield, MA to Nelson, British Columbia (May 29, 2007-July 12).

In Cog We Trust tour with my buddies Mike McBrearty(Vancouver to San Francisco) and Zack Alexy(Portland to LA).

Photos from these journals were shot with a junky refurbished Olympus FE-190 that crapped out just south of the redwoods. Some of Mike's photos are mixed in from the coast tour. Somewhere along the way I got pretty frustrated with the lack of creative control in a point & shoot and knew I had to take the next step in photo. Slippery slope.

Here's a photo after all. Photo by Beth Joy Callis, a wildly talented artist and graphic designer who will one day have an impressive website. She took this photo to save the image for reproduction in another medium after the pears went south, or better yet, got eaten. Cheers.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Hey Brandi

Welcome to the new blog. Two days ago I realized I really hadn't been up to much lately. Work was a bit slow. I decided to take a trip to Cambodia and Thailand. I leave a week from tomorrow.

I will try to keep this Weblog going for friends, family and anybody.

I'm interested in suggestions related to the following things:
-where to go
-where to stay
-where to eat
-foods to try
-things to do
-things to take
-things to watch out for
-things to look for
-things to photograph
-people to meet
-how to backup RAW photos to the internet

The trip will have an emphasis on photography. If all the camera gear gets stolen, I'll come up with a new emphasis for the trip. My past travels have generally had an emphasis on food and that should hold true here. Usually my hunger causes me to forget to photograph the food, but I'll make an honest attempt to do so before gobbling it.

I suppose I'll try to put up a photo or two in each post. I haven't been to Southeast Asia yet, so here's a couple other pictures.

Here's a shot of my sister, Natalie, with her newly gotten Double Masters diploma (Social Work and Public Health) from Columbia. Congratulations there. f/5.6; 1/50s; ISO800.






Here's a shot of the author one night in the cold winter of '09. f/5.6; 1/160s; ISO200











Stay tuned for
-packing list
-photo gear packing list
-maps

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