As I write this, I’m flying home from an epic two-week adventure in the Philippines, my first trip back to the homeland in more than 15 years. The impetus for this trip was to participate in the 2015 Philippines Verde Island Passage Marine Biodiversity Expedition sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences. You can read all about…
Category: Travel
Holy Carp, I’m Flying to the Philippines Tomorrow!
Early tomorrow morning, I board the first of several flights that will eventually get me back to the homeland, the Philippines Islands! Incredibly, it's been seventeen years since I've been to PI! That's me as a much younger man above, during my second trip in 1998. This is the first time I'm going home without…
Mounting an iPhone on My Buddy Scooter Safely and Securely: the Ram X-grip
One of the challenges of riding on a scooter is navigating while driving. Pulling out your phone is out of the question, and it's hard to hear audio directions amidst all of the traffic noise. How can you put your phone or GPS unit in your line of sight securely and safely? Enter the Ram…
Lindy Focus 2014: All that Jazz!
This past week I got to experience my first Lindy Focus, in lovely Asheville, North Carolina, along with 1,000 other lindy hoppers and jazz musicians from around the US. I had almost zero expectations for the event, having only viewed a couple of videos and chatted with some friends about it. There are a lot of…
Lindy Focus: A Dance Camp, Non-stop Party, and Jazz Jam in Asheville
I’m currently having a grand time at “Lindy Focus,” a weeklong celebration of lindy hop and swingin jazz in Asheville, North Carolina. Held in the Crowne Plaza Resort in Asheville, the hotel basically gets overrun by 1,000 or so lindy hoppers and jazz musicians for seven days of festivities. There’s classes, jazz jams, vintage clothing…
Scooting to Lands End and Back (video)
I bought a mount for my phone on my scooter and decided to try out taking videos of my ride. Here's one of my favorite rides in the city, from my apartment to Lands End and back. On the way there I shot a timelapse video. And on the way back, I shot a…
Highlights of Walt Disneyworld: African Safaris, Scary Drops, and Spell-casting
Last week, I and some friends had an amazing time visiting the Walt Disneyworld and Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando. It was a fantastic opportunity to catch up on the explosion of themeparks since the last time I was there about 18 years ago. Walt Disneyworld is of course the grand-daddy of them all,…
Disney’s Sci-fi Theater Restaurant and Creating “Woah!” Spaces
Last night, some friends and I ate at the "Sci-Fi Theater Restaurant" in Disney's Hollywood Studios themepark in Orlando. It's a good reminder to me of how evocative and inspiring well-designed spaces can be. The Sci-fi Theater is actually a pretty hard place to get a reservation at, in my experience. I've been visiting Disneyworld…
Disneyworld Adventures Day 1: The Magic Kingdom!
Today was day one of my trip to Disneyworld with some friends this week. It's been nearly 20 years since I've been to this Disneypark, and it's long past due. On this first day we tackled the centerpiece of the multi-park complex, The Magic Kingdom. We hit up a large majority of the park between 9am…
My Weekend With Frankie: Broadcasting 15+ Hours of Frankie100 to the World
So here's a little story about what me and some buddies did last weekend. We took a trip from San Francisco to New York. We might have overpacked a little. Not Pictured: Patrick and Natasha's luggage and our backpacks full of electronics. We were there for a modest dance event called "Frankie100." The purpose was to…