Anti-Matt

Going Global

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:32:00 -0800

As I sit on my balcony over looking the Red Sea in Egypt, enjoying the 23 degree day and sipping on my perfectly chilled Luxor beer, the iPod shuffles to Coolio’s Gangsters Paradise and I can’t help but reflect that shit is nice.

The start of this adventure has been like a David Bowie outfit; intense and surreal. Departing Vancouver was an event and a half and the awesomeness that occurred during that final week was probably unsurpassed in my entire time there. It made leaving considerably harder and telling yourself it was the “right time” to go is all well and good but when a gorgeous girl is involved logic often gets left behind. In fact logic probably never even heard the wake-up alarm and slept through the whole event.

Concerned that I would do the same, I decided not to sleep on the final night before my flight out and instead spent the hours talking to pretty much all of my closest friends spread out across the globe, from London to Singapore to Perth and a small farm in New Zealand (yes apparently they do have the internet in NZ, who would have thought!?) Not sleeping for 36 hours, however, has some obvious side-effects and the resulting crash is dramatic. Fortunately the plane didn’t follow suit as I slept for almost all of the Vancouver to London trek.

Arriving in London I went into shock, the most improbable event had occurred…there were blue skies and pleasant temperatures. It is the truth I tell you! I attempted to recover from this shock in the only way possible, getting drunk with my sister and her boyfriend at classy establishments in Notting Hill. I probably spent more money on cocktails that night than I will on living in Egypt for the next week. But sometimes family comes first.

So after a half a world of travel and the indirect killing of at least 5 polar bears with my carbon emissions we finally made it to the organised chaos that is Egypt. Sharm el Sheikh is hardly the culture shock I was anticipating, I think it might have something to do with the Vegas style casinos, the huge resorts and that every 2^nd person is Russian. Globalisation has definitely taken away some of the excitement of these journeys. But you know, when you have a coral reef on your doorstep and cloudless skies above, you tend to be more forgiving… or maybe that is just the beer speaking.

Speaking of which….time for another. Back in a week.

Beers on the beach with Scotty.

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:26:59 -0800

Beers on the beach with Scotty.

Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:25:53 -0800

Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

Sheraton Resort, Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:51:00 -0800

Sheraton Resort, Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

There should be more of this sort of stuff at...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:16:50 -0800

There should be more of this sort of stuff at University.

threesheetsintothewind:

Student brings typewriter to class. Awesome.

Xmas bauble at Canyon Lights, Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:13:04 -0800

Xmas bauble at Canyon Lights, Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Top 10 science stunts for Christmas parties « Richard...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:28:32 -0800

Top 10 science stunts for Christmas parties « Richard Wiseman’s Blog

“So that’s my hypothesis. A rocket got out of control,...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:44:14 -0800

“So that’s my hypothesis. A rocket got out of control, perhaps losing a stabilizer, and started to spiral. The two spirals, different in shape, size, and color, indicate something happened in the middle of all this (the rocket second stage fired while still spinning, or something else started leaking out), changing the rocket’s direction. Then, when the fuel or whatever ran out, the white spiral began to disappear from the inside out as the material expanded in space.”

Concise, rational explanations don’t make this any less cool.

lkm:

Awesomely bizarre light show freaks out Norway | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Crazy and awesome. Science wins this...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:52:22 -0800

Crazy and awesome. Science wins this round.

threesheetsintothewind:

This is crazy.

debutantedebut:delacroix:nihilnoetia:johnzanussi: “This music was recorded by Voyager I and II as they crossed paths with Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. They weren’t captured with a microphone: Audible sound can’t travel through space, so Voyager was listening to the electromagnetic waves around the planets and moons. Waves produced by space phenomena, like the planet’s magnetospheres interacting with the Sun’s radiation.”(via Gizmodo)

GPOYW - People watching in LAX. It is like a parade of the...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:45:00 -0800

GPOYW - People watching in LAX. It is like a parade of the strange and wonderful.

Into the Wild

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:07:15 -0800

This brings us to the end of my photo spam. I can only assume that you are now all planning to move to Canada. If not, you should be. I know I need to keep reminding myself why I’m leaving… and after this week even that has stopped working. I’ll definitely be back.

But the show must go on. I will be in Egypt and India for most of the next couple months, so my presence on here will drop significantly. Hopefully I’ll be able to throw a couple photos in the general direction of the internet occasionally.

Much love to all of you. But especially you.

See you on the other side.

A final sunset

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:00:00 -0800

A final sunset

Canyon lights at Capilano Suspension Bridge

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:50:00 -0800

Canyon lights at Capilano Suspension Bridge

Vancouver 2010

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:40:00 -0800

Vancouver 2010

Then the rain started… and didn’t stop.

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:30:00 -0800

Then the rain started… and didn’t stop.

Photo

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:20:00 -0800

Lost Lagoon

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:10:00 -0800

Lost Lagoon

Photo

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:00:00 -0800

The Fall.

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:50:00 -0800

The Fall.

Stock-standard party photo.

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:40:00 -0800

Stock-standard party photo.