Ideas for 2017

I am about the travel life or that is what I want to be about. I want a hobby, I need a hobby and this is what I love.

The short list for 2017.

Berlin
Barcelona
Hong Kong

Finish off 2016

Before I look into 2017, there a few things left to do in 2016.

Going home to Saskatchewan in a week and going on a New England cruise for our 10 year anniversary.

I have a few work trips in the works as well. Japan, Ottawa, and Dublin before January.

Long way to here.

So. Despite all the plans to travel six years go, our travel has been rather undocumented and poorly planned.

A friend's 10 year anniversary in Jamaica, family trip to Dominican Republic, and a family trip to Amsterdam/London.

A family ski trip to Steamboat and a wonderful cruise to Alaska.

Rho finally traveling on work trips with me now she is retired. Tampa Bay/Saint Pete and Sardinia /Rome this year.

Summer Expedition Numero Uno

Last week we were faced with yet another family vacation roadblock. It turns out the youngest boy is taking his visitation with his military father earlier in the summer than expected and this destroyed our six month plans of hitting Utah/Grand Canyon.

We went back and forth whether or not to pull the plug on everything but at the last moment Friday during lunch, I booked two tickets to Seattle for the week. I will be able to visit my Granny who is recovering from some nasty surgery but we will also visit Portland for the first time and Vancouver for our first time as a couple.

We clearly have little to no formal plans other than two plane tickets, a new Osprey travel bag, and one night at a Seattle hotel near Granny's crib.

Brussels By Stumble

Google has failed me so now I am searching for things to do on Friday through StumbleUpon.

This should have some interesting results.

footnotes:

It turns out it is easier to use work to travel than to fund my travels through yard sales and ebay.

Family Travel

It seems my pyramid scheme to sell garage sale items on Ebay has failed. Here are the reasons that I think aided in my failure

• I have no niche expertise that allows me to filter the crap from valuable items amongst the heaps of baby clothes and abused toys (we did find some cool place mats).
• I have no true motivation to get out and "Garage Sale". It is not a social event for me.

So....

I am trying a new technique called "Funding Travel with my Salary".

Here are the plans or more correctly the windows for travel left in 2009:

• Thanksgiving - 21 November to 29 November
• Xmas - 19 December - 3 January

Buzz Items:

• Possible Amtrak trip over Thanksgiving
• Possible Ski trip over Xmas

The Prize - Travel

I have not looked at things with a realistic eye nor should I. This is an experiment and I am going to dream big, bold, and unrealistic.

The three locales that jump to the front of my mind when it comes to spending my moneys earned are:

• Switzerland
• Fiji
• Aruba

A caveat to Aruba is that a coworker of mine is bashing it from her trip. In her words it is a desert with a beach and is infested with man sized iguanas. These are the words of diva and have yet to sway my plans.

So now I need to jump start my eBay/Garage Sale empire but what is my niche? Where does my knowledge base center?

No hits on my Items on eBay

The first road block has arose with funding my travel to far off exotic places. My two items, the first items, did not sell and no money was made. Actually to be clear I am $1.00 in the hole in my mini-project to raise enough through eBay by January to travel somewhere cool.

I have made an observation:

• I am not going to move enough items at $ 0.50 to fund my travel if I am selling two items at a time.
• There are too many video games posted on the internet to make any steady sales, I need a niche market.
• I need to visit more garage sales, I have only visited that one since starting this social experiment.

We will see if I can right the ship before it become too late

First Two Items Purchased

Over this past weekend, I made my initial investment of $1.00 into my eBay store. Two video games were purchased at a garage sale and now are posted on eBay.

This is my first time putting something on eBay so I don't know all the tricks and such.

Wish me luck. At .50 cents a pop this might be a long long trip to Switzerland.

Ebay Store from Garage Sales to pay for Travel

I read a post on one of my favorite blogs called Get Rich Slowly and it got my mind to spinning wildly out of control.

I am a man of three's as a rule of thumb so here are my observations:

1. Ebay Store
2. Garage Sales
3. Travel

This is going to be my $100.00 experiment. I am going to purchase $100.00 worth of Garage Sale stuff and sell it on Ebay to see if I can raise enough in 6 1/2 months to take my Diva and I on a Vacation.

Rules:

1. Experiment ends Jan1, 2010
2. 100.00 in crap plus shipping and handling (I will pay back shipping and handling from profits so in the end it is genuinely only $100.00 invested.)
3. Vacation must be realistic

Caveat: I purchased a bunch of soft cover books at a thrift shop awhile ago and tried to sell them on Amazon with no success.

Why I don't blog anymore

I have noticed over the past few months how my blog or online diary has really tailed off to become a series of depth challenged lists.

At the time I started the blog, I was working at nights and had a great deal of time on my hands but that is not the case these days. I had so much time on my hands that I wrote a novel which as per one of my New Year's resolutions I will be sending off this month. Yes, I am hunting for my first rejection letter for '08.

I think my blogging has been hampered by the following two things:

• I have no energy. I work on the other side of river and it takes me an hour or so to get home at night. After I get home I have to play Daddy which I am new at, this takes up a grand amount of time also.
• I have read so much about becoming a professional blogger that I mistakenly looked at my blog as a passive income source although I am not writing to a niche market and do not have a single subscriber. When I made it feel like a job, it lost my interest.

I am going to attempt to make this blog more about me and my feelings. Maybe it will be resurrected from recesses of my mind.

Have a nice weekend.

Fireworks: A Louisiana Xmas Tradition

I have lived in the state of Louisiana for about six years this time around but the fireworks fetish possessing local residents really hasn't come to my attention until recently. I think the trigger was the fact we moved out of the slums in out into the country.

It seems like every night we are treated with another barrage of artillery fire but no pretty lights as the fireworks are the cheaper type that don't reached way up into the heavens. Nope we basically get the Friday night in Baghdad version minus the cruise missiles and low signature F-117 Nighthawk with radar reducing rubberized skin.

Anyways....

It is cool enough to light up the good ole chimneia and burn this weeks worth of bills and snail mail spam. It is a good bonding exercise and hopefully a good tool to instill fire safety. Fixed a bike and shopped a vegetable stand. Not your Xmas traditions of snow blown Canada but it is nice to wear shorts in December.

Happy Holiday Season to Christians, Jewish, and Pagans alike,

Capitalism: The True Reason for the Season

There is something extremely special about Louisiana. I grew up on the flatlands of Canada and have seen queer sights but none so queer as the one I have seen living here in the bayou. (Kinda stole that from Robert W. Service.)

The whole Xmas parade at 82 degrees where the Red Truck driving Ronald McDonald is more popular than ole Saint Nick. A parade where they throw beads just like Mardi Gras but I did not see any bare chests this year. Only in Louisiana. I don't know if the economic woes as of late drove the attendance skyward but there were some definite characters on hand to beg and act crazy for candy and beads - that was the adults.

I hate Xmas not because it forces us to spend more time with our kids or gives thanks regardless of our chosen religious affiliation but that so many folks go into debt trying to buy every toy off the shelves of Walmart. I hate the expectation for riches from children regardless of how much money you make.

Have a great week,

Last Day of Class

Tonight was the last night of my classes and I will welcome the break until late January. Unlike my undergraduate years, I will not be heading off on a wonderful hiking/climbing trip. I have evolved to a hippy with a job. I will find my wanderlust but I will do so now with plenty of planning and thought. Greece, Scotland, Fiji, or New Zealand.

LSU is heading to the national championship and we bought a deep freeze this weekend. Life can not get any better. Next on the buy for the house list is a oval crock pot.

Oh the Xmas tree is up. This is so unlike growing up as a boy on the Canadian prairies where we would put the tree up in September and not take it down until March. We will have to see how this tree lasts with the feral cat in the house.

Have a nice one,
BD

Suburban Life

Well the last time we spoke the Canucks were sucking on the ice but today they are riding a three game shut out of opponents. I really should blog more.

Things are the dull sweetness that is the lazy suburban life. The grass is in hibernation and LSU is still playing football so I have ever excuse in the world to sit on my ass and turn into a vegetable.

Not much to report other than the fact I got a humidor for my birthday, our kitten is teething, and the fall semester is almost over.

Having a devil of a time scheduling classes for the spring but I will find a way.

Have a nice weekend,

BD

What is wrong with the Vancouver Canucks?

I will tell you what is wrong with the Canucks:

1. Markus Naslund is not living up to his 6.0 million dollar contract.
2. The defense is playing terrible this year with sloppy play, turn overs, and weak checking
3. Roberto Luongo play this year has been pedestrian at best.

I am glad that I finally have enough to buy the package for all the NHL games now that Vancouver is on route for one of their worst seasons in years.

Well its better than being a Colorado fan any day.

Have a nice one,
BD

How to Handle Westboro Baptist Church

I was reading a disheartening article that came across my screen from the likes of Digg. The article paraphrased was about a father of a United States Marine whom was suing a hate group out of Kansas called Westboro Baptist Church. Read article here. The group protested and picketed at the Marine's funeral.

Here is my solution. Using the Intraweb, folks should search out the names of the congregation of WBC and this is where a dose of patience is going to be need. Taking the names gleaned from cyberspace a database shall be erected with names of congregation and their family members. The database will be dynamically linked to the obituaries so that when one of the congregation or any member of their families pass away that folks are instantly notified.

Veterans, patriots, and family members harassed by this group shall band together and accumulate around the funeral of above mentioned WBC person. This is well within the rights of freedom of speech and would be darn fun.

What would you put on your sign?

How about "Satan is into anal sex, enjoy Hell!"

New Orleans Trip

I know you are visiting my little corner of the interweb and expecting a colorful account of Las Vegas.

*I will get to Vegas in later posts but for now you must read at your own risk about Nouveau Orleans.

With some stroke of Karma it turned out that my favorite childhood band was coming to NOLA. The Tragically Hip are the greatest Canadian band never to come out of Canada. We got our tickets quickly and it was off to the House of Blues.

One of our friends gave us the heads up on a cool little bohemian joint called Angeli on Decatur which turned out to be quite a jewel. I would love to link you to their website but it turns out it is just one big montage of Adsense banners. Anyways it is at 1141 Decatur Street in NOLA. Try the Sampler with the tomato paste and Hummus. The pizza we had there rocked and was on par with a joint like the Mellow Mushroom.

From Angeli's we simply walked back up Decatur toward the HOB but had to poke our heads into The Cigar Factory. I have picked up the expensive habit of cigars as of late but compared to Casa Fuentes this place was bargain basement. We bought two cigars. Good smoke.

The show was good but nothing is as good as you remember it to be. The front man is quite a character and has some odd energy on stage but I have no regrets. Like U2 and pearl jam, I miss Tragically Hips old stuff.

LSU Tigers won and from what I hear it was best on my heart that I didn't watch the game. Tiger football and Vancouver hockey will both be the death of me.

Have a nice weekend,

More Smoke at Fuentes and Battling Pianos

I have taken so long to post these travel blog entries that I have almost forgot about what happened. I am doing them in bullet point so you can use your imagination about what happened.

• Casa Fuentes
• Spent too much time and too much money smoking cigars and drinking beer. The cocktail waitresses were extremely easy on the eyes and the smoke was great.
  
• toby keith's bar
• The ribs were nasty and the videos on the big screen televisions did not match the music overhead. One girl was turning 18 and a dude was turning 70 something. They danced in the center of the room and I wonder if that made the old man's year or decade.
  
• piano bar
• I love battling pianos. I love when the pianists are smoking hot ladies. I love it more when there are three pianist and two of them are twins. Enough Said.
  
• monorail nazi
• The monorail was a great plus to the city of Las Vegas. The empowered Monorail sweeper turned Nazi was a great minus when he jumped four old ladies that were having issues. I did my civic duty and ridiculed/taunted/ and cussed at him behind his back.

Good times by all.

Morning Adventures to Fremont Street and Ugh another Buffet

Just like in my previous post on Las Vegas, I am sending this in bullet format as the memories are fleeting and need to be captured.

• Fremont Street Experience
• Fremont Street in the day may lack the awe factor that watching the overhead show at night but it was quaint enough. Oddly enough the restaurants were not open and the casinos were of the older fashion. This is where we picked up all the cheap traveling gifts.
  
• CAT
• The CAT was an interesting experience. We drove the strip in the CAT's double decker bus and it was cool to see the sites. Much much slower than the monorail.
  
• Monorail at the back of the casinos
• The only complaint about the monorail is that it is located at the back of the casinos and you must walk for what seems like hours to get into the heart of the action.
  
• Garden Buffet - Champagne
• The buffets in Las Vegas just continued to disappoint me. The one at the Flamingo was subpar and overpriced, the one in Marksville, LA is much better.

Enjoy