Category Archives: Travel

My travels on this planet called Earth.

6 Weeks Away and Everything Changes

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I go away for 6 weeks and everything here changes. Its a strange feeling. When you live in a place for so long, that everything seems in stasis but its not. Maybe I am just noticing something everyone knows about.

So while I was away, my best friend Dmitri and his girlfriend Sarah got engaged. Now they have been dating for a few years. But the news of their engagement… Wow! Congratulations!

All the other news pales in comparison. When in Italy, I met and hung around with a girl named Laura. To make a long story short, Laura and I are unofficially in a girlfriend-boyfriend long distance relationship. Now I will definitely admit that I don’t have too much confidence in long distance relationships normally but… I guess I am kinda in love with Laura.

Also Carmen Hung, one of my friends from university finished her undergraduate studies. And she started blogging too. Congratulations and welcome to the blogosphere Carmen! You can read up Carmen’s blog here: http://carmenhung.blogspot.com/

Finally in less interesting news, I joined the Steam Community Beta. Unfortunately I don’t have too much time to play nowadays. But I might be online sometime in the evenings. Beside I am saving up my gaming time for when Half-Life 2 Episode 2 comes out.

I think that about covers most of the news from my side now. I will keep you updated as the situation progress.

Home Again, Home Again…

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Back in sunny, and fortunately not scorching-hot Toronto. Actually, I flew in on Wednesday but I need about two days to unpack, clean up and readjust. Everything around the house is still in various levels of disorganization, disaster and chaos. So nothing much changed since I left, at least around here.

Anyways, currently I am employed at home cleaning up. Hopefully in the evening I will start my job hunt. A slightly daunting task to say the least, but I need to get off my lazy bum and start earning some money. After all the 8 hours transatlantic flight allowed me to come with a shopping list of things I need… and want. The vacation gave me many things to think about. But I do not feel comfortable listing out all my personal thoughts here. I already posted too much information about myself thats floating around the web.

One thing that I want to start up again, are all the open source projects I left off. Also I need to start writing again, but this time for actual publication. There is so much I want to do. Sigh. Where should I start? Maybe a round of UT2004, and then I will take it from there.

Chilling in Umbria

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Okay. I admit it: I have been too lazy to write updates in a while. Instead I am enjoying the “high” life in Terni, Italy. Mostly just learning Italian (Mia italiano e povero, perche sono canadese e non sono italiano.) via translation from Polish (yes, its doable), travelling and chilling. Travelling certainly expands one’s perspective of the world. I learned how a subtropical climate looks and feels. I learned why siesta is a great idea and a great excuse for sleeping in the middle of the day. I learned how difficult it is to learn a new language. I even may have experienced how its feels to be desired. Apparently my profile resembles that of Tom Cruise’s. w00t!

Anyways, I could not describe all the things I experienced in this past week. Or I could of just grown truly too lazy to exert myself. The hot, dry Mediterrean sun has that kind of effect on a person. Or I might be enjoying Terni and its welcoming people too much. Its funny, how my Northern European attitude towards at least some form of organization, is seen as workaholism by Italians. Seriously, guys wanting to clean up after my own mess and me being lazy are not mutally exclusive.

Its getting late. Maybe I will write more tomorrow. Maybe.

In Reverse Chronology

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Yesterday, I turned 24. Or 109 in dog years. I feel old when I think about it that way. But then again, reflecting back these past 24 years have been eventful. Thanks to everyone who helped, guided and positively influenced me over the course of those years. I just hope that the next 24 years will be just as fascinating, exciting and important as the past 24.

Monday, I officially received my diploma. Tired from lack of sleep, and a dentist appointment in the morning, I showed up just in time for my celebration. Now I have a real degree in my hands. I heard that someone cheered my name when my turn to shake the chancellor’s hand. That day I realized that I could achieve a dream. Further more, I was not just another name. I was a someone, at least for someone other than my own family. And again when I met up with my friends after the ceremony. Thanks Rob, Dan, Albert, Arnold, Konrad, Adwoa, Scott and Miranda for all the happy university memories, for making me feel special and for graduating together with me. Congratulations!

Today, I paid off my university loan. And the preparation for my adventure in Europe begins!

Travel-o-mania

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Okay today was catch up day. Too tired to write much. Too much planning of the trip, and getting the front yard done. More stuff tomorrow, promise. Maybe.

At least I finished editing the Style Guide for the justCheckers project. Also played a bit of World of Padman and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., both are quite fun and impressive in their own right. But I will not write a review of World of Padman, until I have the time to play around with it more. Whenever that will happen.

Goodnight.

Too Much Trip Planning

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Its late, but I feel obligated to post at least a short blog post. I wanted to write the article today, but time did not permit. Hopefully, I will have more time tomorrow.

Anyways, I started the day with the hope of completing a good chunk of the “landscaping” project. But I started late in the day. And then we got a call from Ewa from Poland. The rest of the day shaped out into a long day of buying airline tickets. So its official, I leave for Poland and Italy, late June. No going back now.

Tomorrow, I will try to accomplish all the work I was supposed to today. Too sleepy to think or continue now. Night.

When Things Fall (Part 1)

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Consistency, journals and me are three words that I think will never join in perfect harmony. The weakest link being between me and consistency. However, I do have an excuse… I was err… busy… (what follows is a list of busy excuses).

(Sunday) …going on a road trip to Niagara Falls. Now I am not the type to become excited about going to a popular tourist attraction. Its not that I am anti-social. I am introverted not anti-social. Its not that I am anti-tourist. I like seeing tourist attractions, and sometime in June become one myself. Its just I don’t subscribe to the Hollywoodish-glitz-idol-worship type of tourism that Niagara Falls seems to radiate. But Rob invited me to come so I did.

So Rob, Tanguy, Echo and I left Mississauga for Niagara around noon. Had a unexpected stopover in Hamilton. Everyone ate and enjoyed ribs at Tony Roma’s. Arrived in Niagara around 5:30. We all were kinda overdressed for the trip. Echo stated the need for fancy attire to get into the Casino. She probably watched too much Casino Royale, as we later found out. The weather turned out chilly, and Tanguy and Echo ended up hugging each other for warmth for most of the trip’s duration. Noone wanted to take the Maid of the Mist trip. I can report that Niagara Falls are still there. And still are falling. Lots of tourists. Lots of glitsy wax figure museums and “haunted” houses lined the streets in the downtown.

After a quick coffee, we proceeded to Casino Niagara. Got carded. Twice. Because having a single piece of photo ID is not enough. As my first time at a casino, I was cautioned not too overspend. I took one look around… and saw the most boring “gamespace” games invented by mankind. How could anyone sit, and toss coins into a slot machine beats me. As a game developer, I could code a slot machine in a matter of minutes, play and not loose any money in the process. If I were bored.

Instead I followed Rob around for a bit, observing entranced people. After starting to read McKenzie Warks’ Gamer Theory, I believe that casino games are the worst games. They work and reward players in a gamerspace manner, will giving the illusion of a game with the perfect rules and equality of other games. Needless to say, I became bored. And started to think about ways to play in the casino… which would of led to my person being banned from casinos. Instead Rob and I went off to buy cards played by the casino. Those turned out cheap both in terms of expense and quality. We decided to extract Tangay and Echo out the casino.
We ended off the day by walking back to the Falls, and watched the well done pre-Victoria Day fireworks.

I must leave off here. I will continue what happened Monday and yesterday a little bit later.

Attack of the Lettuce Monster, and the Return of Work

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After disappearing for a few months, I went back to the justCheckers website again. Much to my horror I discovered a group of spammers decided to “borrow” my forums. Now I have to engage in anti-spamming. The forums are cleaned of NSFW content, and I began the process of deleting and banning users. Joy. I think that sailors feel the same way, when cleaning barnacles off their ships. Spammers are just as pesky, and I don’t have the online equivalent of a high-pressure water hose.

Even my brother is not as pesky. Even when he turns into the dreaded Lettuce Monster, and begins eating all the lettuce leaves before I can finish the salad, my brother is not as pesky. Nor obnoxious as a earn-a-quick-buck spammer. Bad comparison, but my brother wanted to be mentioned as the Lettuce Monster in my blog.

In other news, I need to tie up a bunch of loose ends before I leave for Europe. After a few summers of work or school, I decided that I need a vacation. But I need to finish off my work and plan for the trip. I am still figuring out the itinerary. I wonder when should I start looking for a job too. So many decisions.

My friend and fellow justCheckers admin, Chris Bellini recently switched over to Ubuntu from Windows. And he nuked his Windows too. Wow. Even I am not quite prepared to leave my Windows yoke complete due to some of the PC games I bought. But 2007 really seems like the mythical year of the Linux desktop, with all the talk of switching away from Windows. But I think we still need more commercial game studios to start making Linux clients, before we see a more dramatic exodus.

The Compressed Life

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I can finally confirm, that there is a life after university. And a compressed one at that too. I could go through the details, but I feel too tired to remember all the details. And too lazy to write them all down today.

Last weekend, I went to Montreal for the Taizé event. Got to experience life in a predominately francophone city. Experienced a desire to get closer to God and people. Sang my vocal chords to extreme soreness. Meet a few folks from the Polish youth group. And a few Filipanas from St. Kevins. And now I found an excuse to learn French.

The rest of the week consisted of hosting my Polish godfather and his wife. Became an impromptu tour guide of Downtown Toronto. (Now if only I could find the entertainment district. 🙁 ) And when I did not have to travel, or work at home, I attempted reinstalling Windows XP for a client. The gremlins came out to play, and turned a simple recovery and reinstall into a few days exercise in futility. Now, I remember why I enjoyed Linux and Ubuntu Linux especially.

Yesterday I met up with Robert and his roommate. We hoped to tour Toronto, but Rob’s car broke instead. So we caught up on old times. And “invented” a new cocktail, the LimJim, since thats what guys do when bored. Also looks like I might end up installing kUbuntu on his system too.

And I discovered Facebook and I am hooked. Now if I can find time to write.