Italiaspanglish

I'm writing this post from a hotel lobby in madrid because they can't get my internet working in the room. This trip has been cool, 10 mins after checking in the hotel caught fire and I was evacuated. The ethernet port in my first room was dead so they downgraded me because all the better rooms were full. Second room and mac address is being rejected by the hotel system because it says I just checked out. On the plus side, the guys in the spanish office are a lot of fun, and the hotel comped me a huge plate of mixed ham ( ham is a big deal to the spanish) and a bottle of wine to make up for the other issues. I think I can safely say that 2 years ago I never would have pictured myself nursing an overpriced beer in a hotel lobby in madrid, writing blog posts using wifi, and compaining about having to evacuate because of fire. The worst thing about this trip is actually that it's playing hell with my ability to speak any language, Every time I reach for a word in spanish it comes out in italian, and my english sounds like transliterated italian and spanish. At least I can understand most people. Life is odd, but good, damn good.

One URL to rule them all, one search engine to find them, one index to bring them all, and in the browser bind them

Well folks, it seems to have happened. I now have a consistent start point for every time I open a browser in the morning. Google has made a portal and it should scare the hell out of microsoft, yahoo, and aol, cause hell, I'm for it but it still give me the willies.

RoadTripper

"You can never go home again, and the world is an alien place." However you can roadtrip there with a bunch of friends and acquaintences from middle school, and talk about how everything's changed. This summer I will be driving with an elite crew of former brightonians from NYC to the 716 yo. That's right we'll be hittin up Rochester NY, Brighton specifically, and possibly continuing into Canada to give love [America] a bad name. I've wanted to do a rochester related roadtrip for some time, if only so that I could experience that specific moment where you get the full realization that where you came from is gone, plenty of things are the same but you or your hometown have irreversibly changed, and I think a road trip beats a flight cause it builds the anticipation. It'll be a hell of a good time if I can get enough of the key faces back together, amazingly enough I have managed to stay in touch with a few of these people since I left rochester 11 years ago,without seeing some of them in the flesh for nearly a decade. I can't wait to hit the place, I'm already planning on going to a few clutch eateries out of nostalgia ( swiss chalet, dac hoa, the coal tower, aladdins, house of poon (no joke, though many will be made)).
hrmm I'm really beginning to think my life is way too centered around food.

24 hrs in the Cote d'Azure ( beats 2 days in the valley)

Last Saturday I flew out to Nice to visit the folks, and thanks to bad ticket prices and various strikes, my flight out was scheduled for 24 hrs later. Thanks to exceptional timing I got 3 great meals with many snacks between, 2 good walks around antibes, and plenty of time to hang out with the folks. All and all it was a fantastic weekend, hell I even got a tan. The weather was fantastic, and it was exactly what I needed to unwind a little. Between travel and involvement with a few projects I was starting to get crushed under the load, it's amazing what a little fresh air, a few walks, and a lot of rich french food can do to make a man feel like a million bucks. I'd say I'm now completely re-energized and ready to deal with the impending shuffle and travel over the next few weeks (including a new country, a new apartment, throwing a couple parties, and potentially a couple new projects). I just have to manage to do a weekend like this once every month or so and I'll be fine.

Roadtrip plans coalesce

So thanks to the following travel blog: Montreal| Gridskipper and Tommy Sh'Oaks' insistance, my first summer point to point has been decided. NYC to Montreal for some good cheap canadian livin on the weekend.
I have decided to break my summer vacation into a few small road trips. For other destinations I'm thinking...the south east ( got some friends in florida), maybe more northeast to see those ivy kids, and finally there's a chance of a wild DC to austin trip with the legendary R. Agamemnon Yang. Vegas and New Orleans were thoughts, but I think I want to avoid obscene heat so I'll only hit sweaty climates where I have a few friends.