Somewhere in California…
Just in case you didn’t know, I took off to San Diego this week for a bit of a vacation. Here’s how it started…
Hating On the Black (Clothed) Man…
Although customs waived me through, the nice security people wanted to get to know me better. Unfortunately, they didn’t even buy me dinner before putting on the rubber gloves. Apparently, they randomly select people from the crowd to do the extra security check with, but I think that they saw me dressed all in black and decided “He’s the One”. Why does everyone seem to hate on the men in black?
This will probably be the only glimpse of the behind the scenes workings of the airport security checkpoint that anyone will ever get. Kelly got an earful for pulling out her camera and snapping this shot. She almost got her camera taken away which would make it the second camera that she lost in a month. Apparently she missed the big sign at the entrance that said no recording devices of any kind…that means cameras too.
Sneaking In Some Last Minute Internet Time…
This would probably be the last time for at least a day till I could grab a stable Internet connection. The Traveling Techie gear I’m sporting includes the ASUS U1F that I picked up in Taiwan. This is a fantastic, ultra portable laptop that is just too expensive to buy in North America. But it’s so cheap overseas! I’ve got it placed on top of the Lapworks FUTURA Laptop Desk. I’ve gotta admit, this thing works pretty darn good. It holds my coffee well, and it keeps my laptop from burning…umm….stuff.
Other goodies include my SOLIO Solar Powered gadget charger which is charging my phone in the picture, and the Tom Bihn Zephyr laptop bag. Both of which were featured in the Futurelooks Back To School 2007 Guide. I’m not sporting a digital camera in this picture because the plan is to buy it when I get to the states.
If you didn’t know already, the US Dollar is now lining the cage of the Loonie. Though it sucks to make US Funds, it doesn’t suck to buy stuff in the US. To give you an idea, the cameras that I’m looking at are at least $100 to $150 LESS than the lowest sale price in Canada. This is bad news for Canadian Retail because even with duty and exchange from shipping up product or just the cost of driving over the border, it is still WAY cheaper to buy your stuff in the US. Analysts have already mentioned a retail slow down in Canada, which makes sense with the sudden plummet of the Greenback and the reciprocal rise of the Loon.
More later including a visit with victims of the “Root of All Evil” at the San Diego Zoo.