travel ← the blixtra blog

I’m going to GUADEC 2012 2

Jul

2012

Thanks to the generous travel sponsorship from the GNOME Foundation, I’ll be attending this year’s GUADEC in A CoruÃ±a, Spain. This will be my 3rd GUADEC and my first trip to Galicia. I’ve been head down in a couple interesting endeavors for the last few months and am looking forward to having a good chunk ...

Expat tips: Tunneling Traffic with ‘ssh -D’ 10

Feb

2012

I’ve been living outside the US for over a quarter of my life now. With this comes some minor annoyances. One annoyance is that certain Internet sites work ‘better’ when connecting from the US. Luckily we can easily make it look like we are connecting from a US location with the help of the following. ...

Politics as the Great Divider 2

Sep

2006

I just read a post by Philip Van Hoof discussing his decision to not travel to the US. Having read many of his other politically-oriented post, I’d say we have quite similar political views. I take issue however with this last post however; not because of the political views expressed but rather the action (or ...

RyanAir has a sense of humor

Sep

2006

I mentioned a few posts back that RyanAir also thinks the security measures at airports are a farce. Well, it also seems like they have a sense of humor about it. The following image can be found through this link. The caption is “NEW AIRPORT SECURITY PROCEDURES, PUT FUN BACK INT0 FLYING” UPDATE: Just noticed ...

Airline Insecurity

Aug

2006

Just read Chris Toshok’s blog entry about his experience with airport security. In it, he had the bravery to confess he had taken a bottle of visine on board. I commend you for you bravery Chris. As it turns out, I also have a confession to make. About a year or so after the September ...

Another World Cup “Public Viewing”

Jun

2006

Last night Annika and I went to the Adidas Arena to watch the Italy vs. USA match. The Arena is made to look like the Olympiastadion in Berlin and holds about 10,000 people who can watch the action on 2 not-so-big screens. The Arena is located on the lawn between the Reichstag and the Kanzleramt ...

Back from Bodensee (Lake Constance)

Jun

2006

A couple nights ago I got back from my week-long trip to Bodensee in the south of Germany. The weather didn’t play nicely however and I spent most of my time reading rather than riding my bike around the lake. The last 2 nights were especially bad. There were only 2 days with half a ...

A Guide to Berlin Via Google Maps and Wikipedia

May

2006

Soon many people will be coming to Berlin for the 2006 World Cup. For many it will be their first time in Berlin, so I thought I’d provide a tour of the places that I’ve found interesting in my 6 years here in Berlin. Some you will have heard of while others may be new. ...