Hello all. I realize I have done a terrible job of keeping things tidy and up to date around here lately, and for that I sincerely apologize. Of course, it would be ridiculous to completely fill you in on everything that’s been going on, so I’ll condense the key points and present them in the form of bulleted briefs.

• Happy Super Tuesday, first of all. The latest I heard was that Obama’s pulled to an early 13 point lead over Hillary in California, but it’s not even 12pm PST right now and there’s a long way to go. Fingers crossed for the big day, though.
• Secondly, Happy Fat Tuesday. Because I’m in Miami, and not in New Orleans or Rio, there’s not much for me to say on the subject. For my British friends, enjoy your pancakes.
• I’ve been dating an absolutely wonderful girl for about a month now, and I have to say I’m very happy and excited. There are more remarkable things about her than I could reasonably fit in here, but I will say that she speaks Japanese (way cool), has a razor-sharp sense of humor, and is gorgeous. I’m a lucky dude.
• I made it back to Portland a couple of weeks ago for a weekend ski trip with Julie (the absolutely wonderful girl). It was an awesome, impulsive, thrilling and relaxing thing to do. I’m now a particular fan of last minute trips. I’ll post some photos at some point.
• Speaking of photos, I’ve been trying to shoot more recently. I got a new lens a while ago and I’ve really been trying to step it up a bit. I had a day in the Everglades recently where I got some nice shots, but not much. Then I had the chance to shoot Rachel (see the post below) a week and a half ago. There’ll be more to come. I’m working on moving most of my stuff to Flickr, so that’s where you’ll find any new stuff I post.
• The MINI is doing great – almost ready for it’s 2nd Level I inspection. And I recently noticed my tags are good through February 2009 – so take that Florida, I’m keeping my salmon plates.
• Work is great! Thanks for asking. I’m transitioning from the buying side to the planning side and am coming up on my one year anniversary (that blows my mind). Maybe there’s a new pair of agency flip flops in it for me?
• Oh, and, Comcast can go suck an egg. I’ve had it with them.
• That is all.

Hey all. I am here back in Oregon for the first time in 10 or so months. After spending a great day with my dear friends Jenny and Tawny, I scooted down to the beach in the middle of a blustery, dreary storm. And the storm has yet to let up. This morning, for instance, the power cut out for about 3 hours. Meanwhile, it’s 80 degrees in Miami. I guess you can’t have everything. But, it is really good to be home. I’m looking forward to spending some good R&R time down here followed by some skiing followed by drinking at the New Old Lompoc come Saturday. It’ll be so good to see all of my friends again. So, hurray for being home. With that, I have to get back to the family crossword puzzle that’s goin on.

So, it’s no secret that Miami International Airport is one of the suckiest on the planet (I know there are a lot of contenders), but it’s like they don’t even try. Here’s the background: I have a friend flying in. I went to the airport website to, you know, find out where to pick him up. This was the map, the only map, they had. Ok, it wasn’t the only map. There was one for baggage claim that, I swear I am not making this up, had the concourse letters, two garages outlined, and 22 inconsistently sized numbered boxes that represent baggage claims 7-15 and 19-31. If your bag is headed to carousel number 16, god help you. There were two little icons spread out, one saying “Customs B Third Level” and “Customs E First Level” next to the baggage claim boxes, but what the hell does that mean? Can’t you make a map that shows you where the international greeting areas are labeled by airline? You’d think. Maybe, even, what airlines serve what concourses. That could help. I dunno, anything. Just don’t make a map in MS Paint and slap it on your website. Good god.

MIA WTF.

Yo ya’lls. Not only am In in Boulder right now, but I was met at the Avis counter with keys to a Prius…with Oregon plates. I don’t think life could possibly be any more perfect that it is right now. And while I can’t say I’m too keen on the handling qualities of the car, that’s hardly worth noting.

Crispin has an office out here equally as large, if not larger, than the Miami digs. I thought it would make sense to meet some of the media folk out here, and since I was already planning on being in Kansas City for the back-half of the week, I thought what the hell. So, here I am. Now all I’m trying to do is figure out how to get all my stuff out here. At least I know where to find a Penske truck in Miami.

As a new American Airlines AAdvantage member (I had to – they own Miami International), I decided to see how their program stacked up against my two other programs: Northwest and Delta. In short, a mileage program is a mileage program. There’s nothing too exceptional about any of them. Actually, it’s interesting, but my feeling is that the programs are not for customer retention at all. They’re for customer acquisition – or, rather, they’re likely primarily for credit card customer acquisition. Anyway, this is all beside the point. The point is, once you give them your name and mailing address, you’re pretty much history to them.

Back in June, I found out, American Airlines announced that they were halving their 3 year account activity window to 18-months. You now have a year and a half to use ‘em or loose ‘em. And that’s not terribly surprising. It’s actually becoming a trend. But what’s great is their public statement, buried deep in a Q & A, as to why they’ve chopped your chances at a free* vacation:

Q: Previously, miles didn’t expire until there was no activity in an account for 36 months. Why are you shortening that to 18 months?

A: One of the goals of a mileage expiration policy is to encourage members to be active in the program, earning and using their miles. A 36-month non-expiration period does not keep program usage and benefits top of mind. We hope that by shortening the length of time to retain miles, members will be more engaged. They will earn more miles, use more miles, and get more out of their membership.

So, there you have it. It is, essentially, your fault. If only you’d engage more, you wouldn’t have to worry about saying hasta to your hard earned miles (and when I say hard earned, I’m talking about the blood sweat and tears it takes to board an airplane these days).

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The photos are up – 79 of ‘em in total. I even managed to get them posted in chronological order. Fancy that. Hope you enjoy!

PS Yes, the Norway Frosh pictures are included at the end.

Well, I made it back safely last night. I got in at about 10:30pm and was in bed shortly thereafter. Here I am back at work. Kind of surreal, actually. So, I’m about to head to lunch, which feels like dinner, which suggests I’m gonna get pretty sleepy pretty soon. I’ll see if I can take off a bit early today. It’s not like I accumulated anything on my desk while I was gone, or anything. Hahaha.

Oh, I should throw in this one anecdotal nugget. Two days ago (that was Monday, right?), I flew into London from Bergen. There I met Zak for one more overnight. We met up with my Dad (who happened to be in town) for a fantastic dinner, and afterwards went out for a few pints. The theory was a few drinks and a minimally abbreviated sleep would knock me out on the flight the follow morning.

Well, the plan went a bit askew and we stayed for a few + several more drinks. Problem was we found a great jazz band playing at this club, and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave. So, we got home, I reckon, around 2am (though that’s just a guess). I felt I had set my alarm, but I somehow didn’t quite manage. I was planning on being out the door by about 6:15 to catch my 10:10am flight from Gatwick.

Somehow, by the extraordinary grace of god, I woke up at 7:11. I’ve never moved faster in my life. I was struggling to throw everything into my bags, standing half-naked in Zak’s living room, when his roommate walked by. I don’t know that she had a heads up that I was staying over. So, there was a fun moment.

I rushed out of the house, walked down to the bus number that I thought Zak had mentioned I should take. Ran from the stop to King’s Cross, caught the Thames Link train and arrived at Gatwick at about 9:00am. I floated around the wrong terminal for a few minutes trying to find the Delta desk. I was told I needed the North Terminal (duh, I should have known that), and made tracks for the terminal train. I got to the desk at precisely 9:15, 5 minutes past the check-in closing time. But, I played extra nice and they let me through.

For the first time in my life, I was within seconds of missing a flight. And that’s one flight I would not have wanted to miss. I’ve pretty much expended all of my travel karma. I think I’ll stay put for a while. It’s good to be home.

Swarms of students kept the Scandinavian legend of liberal clothes management alive yesterday during the University of Bergen’s last day of frosh week, and Ragnhild and I were asked to join her friends in organizing a part of the fun. Teams of incoming students had to go around to various different posts and complete some sort of challenge. Points were awarded, in this order, for Livlighet, Kreativitet, Smisk, and lastly, Konkurranse. I was informed that that translates into Liveliness, Creativity, Shameless Sucking Up, and lastly, actually Completing the Challenge.

Our table was made up of the science department newspaper (I was made an honorary foreign correspondent), and so we had the teams spell out the name of the paper, QED. Photos were taken and the best one would be used for the next issue’s front cover. That was the extent of the rules. After that, it was all down to creativity, but mostly just Smisk.

Smisk, for us, was the best part. These students would stop at nothing to bribe us. They gave us beer (that was actually kind of mandatory if they had any hopes of winning), massages, beer and more massages. While the bribery was being conducted, their fellow teammates would hash out their plan. Some were creative. We saw a human pyramid and another group used their bodies to form the letters standing up. Lots of groups, however, just generally shed their clothes and used them to form the letters. Or they just shed their clothes.

I have to say that it wasn’t at all bad sitting behind the table and being treated like royalty while a bunch of hooligans organized themselves into silly poses trying desperately to cover their bits with scraps of newsprint or anything else they could find to retain a shred of decency.

So, now that Ragnhild and I have managed to wear off a bit of the hangover, her friends are coming over to help us choose the victors, and I’ll be sure to post the winning photo.

Hello all. I made it to Norway on Tuesday night and have been mesmerized ever since. Saying this place is beautiful doesn’t even come close. Wednesday, despite pouring rain (seems to be a theme in my trip thus far), Ragnhild took me on a tour of Bergen, her gorgeous city. Between fits of rain we’d try to see as much as we could, and then when the downpours came, we’d pop in to a shop or a cafe. It was kind of a neat way to see a city.

Yesterday, Ragnhild and I went on the Norway in Nutshell tour, which is exactly what it sounds like. We departed by train from Bergen and headed to Myrdal. From there, we took the train down one of the steepest non-cogwheel grades in the world to FlÃ¥m, a nice little town at the edge of the Aurlandsfjord, which is a tributary of the Sognefjord (Norway’s longest). There we got onto a boat and headed through the absolutely stunning passage to Gudvangen, where we picked up a bus headed towards Voss, a town that apparently has a penchant for producing Olympic gold medalists. This bus drove along what are here considered “major roads”. At one point, it headed up an old section that shot straight up the side of a hill some countless meters up. If I remember correctly, this two-way, one-lane road had 18 hairpin turns and had the steepest grade in the country – a whopping 18%. I thought I was going to die.

From Voss, we caught the train back to Bergen. All in all, it was a full day packed with the most breathtaking scenery I’ve probably ever seen. It was one of the few times in recent history where I managed to fill my entire memory card in one outing. There was just that much stuff to photograph.

You can see a map of the entire route here: Norway in a Nutshell.

Today, what with the relentless rain and all, I think we’re going to take it a wee bit easier. Perhaps we’ll catch a flick, and I’ll probably do a bit of souvenir shopping. But, keep in mind that when a 13oz beer costs more than $11, there’s not a lot of shopping to do. Perhaps I’ll bring home a key chain, or a postage stamp, or something.

Until then, nanu nanu.

London is still an awesome town. Every time I come here, I’m amazed at how easy it is to be entertained simply by walking around. I got in last night and met up with my friend Zak from my grade school years here in the UK. Without hesitation, we went out for a pint and it was great to have a seat and catch up. I hadn’t seen Zak in years, so it was about time we hung out.

Today, I woke up rather leisurely and headed out on the town. I took the Tube down to Russel Square, wandered around my sister’s old haunts and made my way over to Tottenham Court Rd to browse the windows of all the electronics shops. After that, I went over to Covent Garden (cause what’s a walk around London without a visit there). There’s always tons going on around the shops there, and I spent an hour or so just hanging out and shooting photos.

All in all, it was a rather cathartic day. To think the most relaxing day I’ve had so far was in London! It really has been nice being down here, though. If you’ve never done the London thing, well, you have to do it at least once. It’s a helluva neat place. But bring a few wallets, because it ain’t cheap here.