Big Noggin

It's 4:28am CST, and I'm in a hotel in Plano, Texas. I really wish I could get my body back on a normal sleep rhythm. You see, I travel alot and the last few weeks have been particularly challenging. I've been on business trips for the last 9 weeks. I've mainly been traveling to California, but I have also been to Boston, Dallas, and of course Thailand.

The jet lag from Thailand was pretty bad. I got home late on Monday night, and Wednesday morning was on my way to California. Just enough time to kiss the kids and to do some laundry. I woke up at the strangest times, and found myself dying for sleep around 8pm. One night, I awoke and was completely disoriented. I've heard about that happening to people, but had never experienced it. I was looking around for my wife, convinced that she was here, but having no idea where "here" was. It was like that feeling you get when a word is on the tip of your tongue, but you can't remember it. That was me trying to tell myself exactly where I was at that moment.

That Friday, I returned home, but took a very unconventional route.

I flew from San Jose to Portland, then Portland to Seattle, then Seattle to Vancouver. Then, finally I took the red eye back from Vancouver to Toronto. There was a good reason for the stop overs (work stuff), but it was certainly a "thrill" going through airport security 4 times in one day.

So today I'm in Plano, and Wednesday I head to Austin, then home on Thursday. I just learned that I have to fly back out to Plano early next week. Great!

The one trip I'm really looking forward to starts March 8. We're all going to Disney World! I've never been (and neither have our kids) so there's much excitement and anticipation.

Anyhow, I've been Executive Platinum for 7 years, and almost always fly AA. I'm also Platinum with Hyatt, Starwood and Gold with Marriott. I look forward to the day when I don't have that status.

Well, I'm going to try and get to sleep. Today will be a busy day.

mJm

And now the results....

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker (although I'd rather Peter O'Toole win)
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin (I loved Slums of Beverly Hills)
Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen is supposed to be great)
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (cause I recognize her name)
Best Animated: Cars (amazingly awesome, and the only one I saw)
Best Director: Martin Scorsese (because Goodfellas didn't direct itself)
Best Picture: Letters from Iwo Jima (although I think The Queen could win)

So, 4 right, 3 wrong. That's 1 better than half right. I guess I'll stop thinking I'm some kind of psychic when it comes to the Oscars. I didn't watch much of it. I miss Billy Crystal.

Some girl who was rejected on American Idol won the Oscar for Supporting Actress. Go figure. It's good that Marty won both Picture and Director. I was guessing that the Academy would only give him 1 of the Awards because the I can only assume the reason he doesn't already have an Oscar is that he seriously p#$$#d someone off years ago at the Academy.

Well, it's back on the road again today. Off to Dallas and Austin. Later next week, we all go to DisneyWorld (for the first time!)

mJm

I've seen basically none of the movies nominated, so here is my clearly informed prediction. I'm doing this mainly because I have this belief that I'm really good at predicting the winners, so while I figure out this blogging thing, I'll record my major picks here. We'll score me later.

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker (although I'd rather Peter O'Toole win)
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin (I loved Slums of Beverly Hills)
Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen is supposed to be great)
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (cause I recognize her name)
Best Animated: Cars (amazingly awesome, and the only one I saw)
Best Director: Martin Scorsese (because Goodfellas didn't direct itself)
Best Picture: Letters from Iwo Jima (although I think The Queen could win)

Oh man do I hope that Borat wins for Best Adapted Screenplay. The network censors will be poised with fingers on the red button the moment they hear Baron Sacha Cohen's name. Hopefully he points out that his movie was satire and not a documentary. Wow, some folks are really stupid.

I am something of a nut for motorsport, specifically Formula 1. There's just something about the combination of advanced engineering, speed, aerodynamics, exotic locations, supermodels and high performance brands that gets my adrenaline going.

As a kid, I watched F1 on and off, and followed Jackie Stewart (because he sounds like my Dad), Nigel "Il Lione" Mansell, Piquet, Villeneuve (Sr.), and Senna. There was always something very exciting about watching guys race close to 200mph wheel to wheel. If you're interested, there's tons of web sites relating to F1, but my favorite is Autosport Magazine.


Anyhow, back to F1. Seeing the circuits in person, especially Monte Carlo really helped me appreciate exactly what these drivers are made of. The street circuit in Monte Carlo is open for regular traffic throughout the race weekend, and in places, it's only about 2.5 car widths wide. Imagine doing 200mph heading into a blind corner with steel armcos on each side. Skill or lunacy, or maybe lots of both.


I've been going to the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. That weekend is always one of the highlights of my year. I have gone each time with a good friend from my U of Waterloo days who lived in Calgary and would fly in for the event.

Our first souvenirs would usually be a yellow piece of paper signed by some guy named "Officer Lalonde" from the Cornwall OPP. Let's just say that the 14.7" cross drilled brakes in my M5 usually get pretty well tested when they start looking for customers. My last invoice from the OPP was for 134km/h in a 100 zone. Under "heavy braking". As an aside, the M5 is electronically limited to 155mph (248km/h) but I can state with some confidence that the limit on some of them is a bit higher than that. 'Nuff said ;)

Montreal is a great city any time, but during the F1 weekend, it takes on a city-wide party atmosphere. Crescent Street is closed to cars and becomes a total F1 house party. Bands, beer, fashion shows, beer, exotic cars, beer, F1 art, beer.

In 2006, I managed to secure some tickets to some private BMW events. We got to visit the BMW Pit Lane Park when Jacques did his laps in the wet.



Poor guy, they put full wet rubber on his car and expected him to go do donuts for the crowd. There was just too much grip with the full wets. I had my big 400mm lens on my camera and got some very good pictures of Jacques in the cockpit with a less than pleased look on his face as his pit crew pushed him back from the wall.

We also managed to get 2 tickets to the BMW VIP party at Jacque's restaurant NewTown (get it, Villeneuve == New Town) on Crescent St. We met many intersting (and some not so interesting, but very attractive) people.

The highlight was having a beer with Dr. Mario Theissen, head of BMW Motorsport and the Team Principal for the F1 team. We were really curious about how Heidfeld and Villeneuve could have done so poorly in Qualifying when they were putting in great lap times during the final practice. I readied myself for what I was sure was going to be a deep, technical explanation involving track temperatures, out-lap tire temperatures, downforce compromises in favor of speed. Dr. Theissen looked squarely at us and said "No, they drove too slow!"

I happened to have the aforementioned speeding ticket in my jacket pocket, and thought it would make a great souvenir if I had Dr. Theissen autograph it. Well, he did, but was disappointed though with the lack of pace I had demonstrated. Back to my day job I guess! And this year, I doubt the party will be at New Town since Jacques is now driving around afternoons making left turns in his new Chevy on the NASCAR NexTel league. He was replaced mid-season by the Polish test driver Robert Kubica.

The race was tremendous, and as usual, over the weekend I took over 1000 pictures. All the ones on this blog are mine. I'm a big believer in taking lots of pictures to help you figure out composition and ensure that you start to understand and recognize what makes a good vs not good picture.


I have my tickets in hand for the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, my buddy won't be going with me this year, since he moved to England last Fall. The good news is that I am planning to attend the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July! In his place, I will be bringing my wonderful wife to her first F1 weekend. I know we'll have a great time.

But I wonder if I'll be able to spend as much time with the "Budweiser Girls" as before...Time will tell!

Labels: BMW, F1, Montreal

A few years ago, I took the leap and bought my wife a Mac. It was a leap because for years I made fun of them as toys run by zealots who didn't know that MacOS (pre-X) was junk. But the iMac was (and is) a very attractive object, and it fits very nicely with the decor of our kitchen. My wife really enjoys working with digital photos and home movies, and we quickly learned that the Mac was absolutely the best tool for these tasks.

I however, make my living mostly from PCs. I've been a Windows user since 1.0, and have "suffered" through years and years of building and managing the building of software for this platform. But wow, when I recently got a MacBook Pro (17") my life changed. I love the Mac, and I love MacOS X.

I have for several years been very passionate about digital photography. I purchased a Canon EOS20d a few years ago, and have been diligently adding to my lens and accessory collection. The combination of great digital photography equipment and the MacBook Pro is beyond description.

It's SO easy to manage, edit and publish pictures. So the Mac has become a very important part of my recreational life. In my recent trip to Thailand, I left the PC at home, and brought the Mac. Being 12 hours ahead of home was actually pretty good for us, because we were able to use iChat to see and hear our kids twice a day! In fact, sitting in the airport lounges in Phuket and Tokyo was actually fun because I could goof around with my kids who were literally half a world away.

I even had a video chat with them as I sat in a lounge chair on the beach in Phuket! This is technology with a soul, and one that genuinely improves human relationships. I heartily recommend the Mac to everyone!

"Mark has come to a sad realization about the PC, Accept or Cancel"

Click here to see the greatest commercials ever produced.

Labels: Canon, MacBook, PC, Photography

I promised myself after my trip to Phuket, Thailand that I would start a blog. It was mainly driven by my desire to make the many pictures I take on trips available to friends. Picasa does a great job of making photo sharing easy, but there's no where to fit in my "insightful commentary".

So who am I? I'm a Canadian guy who works for a large global software company. I will not be referencing anything in my blog that is work-related because I like to keep my peas and carrots separate. I've been married for 13+ years to a wonderful woman who has built a beautiful life together with me, and the greatest kids a man could ever hope for. My elder daughter is our future singer/writer/actor/dancer/scientist/researcher, and my younger son is "mini me" (how many 5 year olds do you know can name nearly all the F1 teams, drivers and constructor logos?). I live in a small town near Waterloo, Ontario, home of the Blackberry and the Perimeter Institute!

My apologies in advance for any meandering postings. I suspect I'll be doing most of the writing at airport gates and Admiral's Clubs around the planet. The power of the web is that anyone can have a blog. You must decide if this is a blog that you want to waste your time on ;)

mJm

Labels: Photography, Phuket, Thailand