Grand Junction Once More

A few more days in Grand Junction, Colorado highlighted by a drive through the Colorado National Monument in a less than monumental Chevy Aveo. Great views of Fruita, Grand Junction and the surrounding valley.

On On to Southeast Asia!

Here is a complete list of all of my business trips in the past year and a half.

Birmingham 2/1/06
Burbank 02/05/07
Burbank 10/09/06
Burbank 11/13/06
Calgary 4/24/07
Calgary 7/8/2007
Charlotte 2/18/07
Chicago 03/15/06
Chicago 6/5/06
Chicago 7/10/06
Detroit 2/13/07
Grand Junction 5/14/06
Grand Junction 7/16/06
Grand Junction 7/22/2007
Harrisburg 4/10/06
Harrisburg 6/19/06
Harrisburg 7/11/06
Hilton Head 4/3/06
Hilton Head 6/11/06
Houston 5/14/07
Indianapolis 3/19/07
Los Angeles 3/20/06
Minneapolis 5/22/06
New York 1/23/07
New York 7/30/06
Omaha 8/27/06
Pittsburgh 10/30/06
Pittsburgh 12/4/06
Portland 8/13/06
San Jose 3/20/07
Savannah 2/15/06
Toronto 5/7/07
Tulsa 4/17/06
Tulsa 4/9/07
Tulsa 5/8/06
West Palm Beach 2/26/07

On August 9th, I am heading off to SE Asia for work. I will be there for a period of 6 to 9 months. I will be based in Hong Kong but am expecting to be working in Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Some much needed Asian flavor to add to my list up above.

Stampeding in Calgary

I am in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for 3 days of on site training. By sheer luck, one of the largest rodeos in the world is taking place here, the Calgary Stampede. The entire town of 1.1 million people is totally engrossed in all things country. Pretty much every single storefront/office building downtown here where I am staying has some type of decorations: Faux wood fencing to imitate a barnyard; random hay bales sitting out everywhere; plus scary cartoon cowboys painted on the glass corporate office storefronts.

Last night I had the chance to go to the Stampede itself. While I was only there for a few hours, it had the air of a state/county fair times 100. The Fairgounds there are sprawling, it must take a heck of a computer system to organize it all; oh wait, that’s ours. I joined two gentlemen I worked with, one a cockney Londoner and one a native New Yorker. So the three of us in the midst of all this countryness was pretty humorous. We bought tickets to the Chuck Wagon Races which consist of a team of six horses pulling a cart followed by two other guys pulling up the rear. With a few beers and some friendly wagering, we got into it pretty nicely.

It is rather unfortunate that I busted out my camera the first night to shoot some aforementioned cartoon cowboys only to find the battery completely drained. I would love to provide evidence that 75% of people on the street here are wearing cowboy hats. Or that in various public spots in the city every morning, you can get a nice pancake and sausage breakfast for absolutely free. Or that even at 10:30 at night, you can see the sun ducking over the mountains in the west from my 20th floor hotel room. To be able to get out of the regular 95 degree high humidity heat of the Midwest is very nice as well.

Back to reality tomorrow, for a little while at least.

Myanmar Ceremony Video

I shot this footage on an excursion to Mt. Popa while visiting Bagan, Myanmar. It was an amazing display of musical extravagance, colorful outfits and a plethora of food and drink offerings. I do not know the reason for this ceremony but imagine it was some kind of funeral/memorial or an offering to some diety in this devoutly Buddhist country.