While I own several guitars, I previously have never attempted flying with a guitar. A quick Google search on the Internet reveals a lot of confusion about the process, as well as a few horror stories about damaged or stolen guitars. An infamous story of breakage ended in a viral internet video known as “United Breaks Guitars”: When I was in Argentina in 2011, I ended up having more free time than I thought I would have. In those moments, I really missed having access to a guitar that I could pick up and play. I went down to a local guitar store thinking I would buy something cheap, but it’s ...

I was just lying in my hotel bed here in Richmond, about to go to sleep, when I realized I hadn’t written anything about heading out tomorrow. On the last round of travel I did, I couldn’t wait to write a post and get the ball moving. But with my cousin recently dying, and the last minute shuffle to get everything back into storage, I’ve actually been pretty wiped out lately. But in about 12 hours I’ll be heading to Vancouver International Airport and getting ready to head to Thailand. I have a 10.5 hour flight to Tokyo in the morning following by a 6.5 hour flight to Bangkok. Together ...

I don’t like to fly. In fact, I would say that I pretty much hate it. First, airports involve delays. You generally have to wait in line to check-in or check bags. Then you have to wait to go through security. Then you have to wait in the waiting area to board you plane. Then you board, and have to wait inside. Ideally your plane will leave on time, but often it doesn’t, and you’re stuck waiting on the plane. Next, you’re cramped into a small space, usually sitting next to one or two other people who probably don’t really want to be on a plane either. If you’re lucky, they smell nice. ...

On my original flight from Houston to Buenos Aires I commented on the fact that we hit some turbulence near the equator. It was probably about 2am for me and I was a bit groggy from ativan, so I didn’t really take too much notice. But I thought at the time that it may be related to crossing from the nothern hemisphere down to the southern hemisphere. Clouds in the ITCZ, Photo from Wikipedia Sure enough, there’s a region of unstable air around the equator called the Intertropical Convergence Zone which often causes turbulence for flights crossing between the two hemispheres. Sometimes the turbulence ...

Almost time to get in a plane. Tomorrow night I’ll pack everything up and get ready for a trip down to the states on Friday. Definitely looking forward to the weekend, and also being on the other side of it since it’s the last real event of the summer before I can downshift a few gears and take things a bit slower again. I probably won’t post again until WordCamp, but who knows. ...

Tomorrow I’ll be packing up and making the long journey back home. Truthfully, I’d probably rather leave tonight if that were at all possible — not because I’m not having fun here, but mostly because tomorrow is just going to involve sitting around and killing time before our flight. I fly out of San Francisco in the early evening, and will land in Seattle sometime around 9pm. From there, we have to find my car and drive back to downtown Vancouver so I can drop Rebecca and John off at home. While they’ve offered me up their couch for the night, I’m looking forward to hitting my own ...

I do tons of flying compared to most people. The last few years haven’t been as busy as normal, but for a while there I was getting on a plane on average of about once a month to go somewhere with work. I chronicled some of my trips over the last few years here. One of the things I’ve always sort of snickered about on planes is the need to still blatantly point out that smoking is not allowed on a plane. I always thought it was fairly self-evident that one shouldn’t light anything while sitting on top of several thousand pounds of kerosene, but apparently I was wrong. It turns out some idiot ...

It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was down in California with my sister. Strangely enough, tomorrow I’ll be making my way south once again, this time for WordCamp San Francisco. While I’m pretty excited to go down and meet a lot of new bloggers and WordPress enthusiasts, I can’t say I’m looking forward to driving to Seattle tomorrow for my flight. For whatever reason, flying from Canada is super expensive these days, and I’m saving about $300 just by flying out of Seattle. I’m going to burn a few new CDs before the trip, so hopefully I’ll have a bit of music to keep me company. At ...

I’m not a big fan of flying, so whenever I hear a story about a plane breaking apart in mid-air, I get a bit worried. Today a Qantus 747 busted a hole in the fuselodge in mid-flight, causing the oxygen masks to come down and the pilots to execute an emergency landing. Passengers described hearing a loud bang and seeing debris fly into the cabin. As the plane depressurized, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and cabin crew members shouted to passengers to put them on. “There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward” into the first-class area, a passenger, Dr. ...

Well, I’m sort of packed. Given that I no longer have a dryer at home, I was forced to dry most of my clothes out on the patio over night. Good news is that most of my clothes are completely dry. Bad news is some of them aren’t dry yet. It’s a nice sunny day in the Bay Area today, so I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt. In fact, today seems like a pretty warm day in Vancouver as well, so for all of you people hanging out at home, enjoy. I’m heading down to the airport right now. **Update – First, big thanks to Dan for helping me get through the custom’s line in short order. That easily ...

Well, in exactly 12 hours I’ll be getting on a plane and heading to Calgary for the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards. I haven’t really had time to get excited or to even think about what I’m going to do for three days in Calgary. I picked up a few new clothes today, including that fun black shirt I’m wearing in the photo. All my camera equipment is charging in the other room, and I’m slowly adding stuff to a suitcase (and having a hard time deciding how big of a suitcase to bring). I’m heading over to Miss604’s house in a sec for some quick Thai food, and to borrow some podcasting equipment ...

I currently just flew past Kelowna, and according to the in-seat GPS unit, am hurtling across BC at around 32000 feet. It was raining on the ground in Vancouver, but the sun is shining way up here amongst the clouds. Latest weather report from the cockpit says it’s -6C in Calgary (I should have packed some warmer clothes), so it’s going to be a slight adjustment when I land. I spent the last 15 minutes reading all the emails I’ve been sent from the Junos media committee (something I probably should have done a few days ago). It turns out there’s a lot more going on than I originally realized, ...

Last night I met up with John and Rebecca to watch the hockey game down at Fogg ‘n Suds. I’m not super familiar with the Canucks line anymore, so being around super hockey Canucks people is a bit intimidating. That being said, I did manage watch some of the game and to lose myself for a time in the high-ball fishbowls that they were serving there. John and me, hanging out at John and Rebecca’s house – not sure why we put hats on I’m smack in the middle of packing for my trip, trying to figure out what to bring and what not to bring. As the first leg of the trip is work-related, I ...

Well, I’m exhausted. I can rarely sleep on planes, and this trip was no different. We landed about 20 minutes ago, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and have a nice sleep, but unfortunately I have to transfer plans in a bit and head to Ottawa. Normally I’d find a chair and try to sleep, but given that my body is about 8 hours behind on sleep now, I don’t think it’s a good idea to close my eyes, since I probably will sleep right through the boarding call on my plane. The flight out here was rather uneventful, although I have to say flying in business class kicks some major ass. ...