Trooper Adventures…..the strip.

Posted by on August 27, 2013 No comments

So on a whim, yesterday, I decided to try and make a comic strip.  So, I can’t draw for crap.  I have loads of talented friends who can draw so I am always jealous of them.  Occasionally I get some decent ideas on something that I think would be funny in a strip but that lack of drawing kinda puts a damper on things.  And don’t give me the whole XKCD argument, that boy can really draw.

What I can do is take pictures, and I have lots of material to use.  So I give you the first Trooper Adventure strip!
Strip (P365-238)

I am still working on formatting and such so if I do more they won’t be near as big.  Also, I may not stick with just the troopers.  It’s a work in progress.

The joys of Unemployment

Posted by on August 20, 2013 No comments

Chillin (P365-224)The emotional roller coaster that is Job Hunting is still ongoing.  Some weeks are great with lots of phone calls and emails back and forth.  Then there are the weeks where everything is in motion and all I can do is wait.  Various interviews, both in person and on the phone, where I get to be the subject of “Stump the dummy”.

It’s kind of exhausting.

The best part about it is the comedy that it generates.  I have gotten pings from jobs that are nowhere near what I have listed on my resume.  Things like Insurance salesman, car salesman, iOS Developer, and then there is this guy:

“Your resume was selected because it includes words or phrases that indicate these qualifications.  In order to continue expanding the sales force, I am conducting preliminary interview meetings for top-level candidates to fill these business-to-business sales positions”

When I asked him what the job description was:

“Thanks for sending me your information (Which I didn’t). I’d love to work out a time for us to meet and go over our position. I cover and hire for all of Northern Virginia, but my office is in Fredericksburg, which is where I conduct interviews only.”

Again, I asked him for a job description and how it fits my resume (which he claimed he had).

“The person I am hiring will be responsible for making personal visits to owners of companies in order to continue or improve upon their existing benefits. This is not a door to door sales position.  I will be happy to explain further and answer any of your questions in person if you choose to meet with me.”

After pressing the 3rd time for an actual job description, I haven’t heard from him since.  I was seriously very o_O afterwards.  Good chance I would have probably gotten raped down in Fredericksburg.

So the search continues.  If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen some of my various “Cover letter” jokes.  These will continue until I find a job!  (And they may get worse so you should pray that I find a job soon!)  The plus side to all of this is that I was thinking of rolling the whole experience into a routine and trying out one of the open mic nights.

In the meantime, I am taking things slow.  Reviewing the jobs I am applying for and making the most of the time off.

Creativity Vs. The Blahs….Ready, Fight!

Posted by on August 2, 2013 No comments

HalfsiesSo I think the biggest difficulty I am having with this whole “Not having a job” thing (aside from the “finding a job” thing) is what to do with my spare time.  You see, I have a lot of it now.

viagra soft tabs canada

 My left brain is all “Man, I have so many things lined up for us!” where my right brain is more like “Things suck, you suck, this situation sucks!”  The downside to this is that it would seem that lately, the right side is winning.  This doesn’t stop ol’ lefty from giving it the good college try.

Everything from story ideas to crafting projects to outdoor projects have been flowing through the noggin, but then they hit that right side firewall and somehow aren’t making it through the filter.  Instead, right side is cracking the whip with “Search for more jobs, provide..PROVIDE…PROOOOVVVIIIDDDEEEE!!

I try and explain to herr rightenheimer that things are going ok.  We have 5 possible leads as well as a billion and a half resumes out in the wild.  We have enough in savings to take care of things for a long while, we can afford to take this time off and pick the right job in the right place.

Unfortunately, he’s not listening.  So I sot down to write and I make a blog post about arguing with myself instead.  (That counts, right?)

Anyone want to come over and punch the right side of my head?

Officially Unemployed!

Posted by on July 15, 2013 No comments

Interview Time! (P365-191)And just like that, I have officially become a burden on society. Didn’t realize it was that easy. So July 12th was my last day on record at my previous job, and as if yet I have had no offers from any of the 50 places I have submitted to. I do have one hopeful that I feel the interview went well, but we’ll see.  (If you have any leads, please feel free to e-mail me!

Fear not, Sarah and I have enough socked away to sustain us for quite some time. So, in the meantime I am catching up on my photography and writing (thus this post) and looking into other things to keep me busy. I am not going to fool myself into thinking that I am some future great novelist or think that my Photography can sustain me. Mostly it’s just things to occupy my mind so I don’t go crazy.

In other news, I broke my toe! Yeah, great segway right? On the 4th of July I became a statistic by going into the emergency room with a non-firework related injury! What happened? Well, after our little BBQ and meet and greet, when everyone else had left (except James, who got to witness this delightful event) I went to get an ice cream out of the freezer. On the way back to the family room I was walking down the stairs and slipped. My left foot shot straight into the metal railing and I fell the rest of the way down the stairs.

After screaming in pain for a good 5 minutes, I finally got around to asking Andrew to remove the sock on my left foot. I took a picture of the result, but to save your stomachs, I have decided to use this artist’s rendition of what my foot looked like. As you can see, I tried to make it a little happier. The actual foot looked much, much worse.

Mah Toe

After screaming in disgust for a good 5 minutes, everyone else in the room decided that a trip to the emergency room was in order.

Fun fact about me. In stressful situations, I use humor as a defense mechanism. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed. On the way out to the car, I made sure that Sarah grabbed my phone and my iPad (so I have them) but totally forgot about things like, my insurance card, my shoes (at least 1 of them) etc. I needed my phone because I totally needed to post a picture to Facebook and twitter, right!?

When we arrived at the hospital, we didn’t see the normal patient entrance to the emergency room, only the ambulance entrance. I rolled down the back seat window and asked one of the paramedics “Where do I go for this?” with my foot outside the window. He happily pointed us in the right direction.

Thankfully the emergency room was fairly empty and we didn’t have to wait for hours on end to be seen. The whole staff was great and dealt with my “current state” with a smile. I got dosed up on morphine and the doctor straightened out my toe (to much screaming from me).

If you are really interested in what it looked like, the x-ray can be seen here. (warning, it’s not pretty)

That’s been my July so far! My project 365 is still going strong. I think it’s really helped me work on some of techniques, as well as getting over my fear of taking pictures of other people. Turns out that the average person doesn’t mind an artistic picture taken of them!

Here is a link to my Flickr page with all of the latest pics on it!

The hits keep on hitting (The recap post)

Posted by on June 25, 2013 No comments

Objects in Mirror (P365-163)I would really like to start this post with something like “The nightmare is over” based on my last post, but I don’t think it would work out that well.  You see, we managed to escape Kuwait!  Yeah, I know, that part sounds great, but the circumstances in which we left make for a much worse story.  Sure there is the usual parts about my passport being stolen and going through all hell to get a new one re-issued.  The problem, of course, is that the process for getting my work visa so that I can continue to do my job there was already started using my old passport.  If I have a new passport number, that process had to start over again.  This meant that it would be that much harder for me to get on base to do my job.  This is just how Kuwait works.  It’s stupid and corrupt and they seriously need an overhaul of their government processes.  (I can say that now that I am safely in the U.S.)

The other problem we experienced was with our team.  Sarah and I were both working on this project, her as a tech writer and me as an engineer.  With all of my issues with getting on Base, Sarah was tasked with driving some of the folks who were in the middle of the visa process and couldn’t drive (yet another f’d up thing).  This meant that most of her day was spent on base working in the data center with a bunch of guys.  Now, we all know how guys usually talk, and for the most part it’s not too bad or usually very tolerable.  Sarah is also pretty thick skinned and can dish it out as much as the next guy.  But there happened to be one individual who took Misogyny to the next level.  Lots of comments about women in the workplace, can’t trust something that bleeds, etc..  This got to be a bit much and it was VERY obvious that Sarah was uncomfortable around him.

We mentioned it to a few folks in an effort to have someone maybe mention to him to stop being a douche.  No one did.  Finally, after some more comments, I urged her to send an e-mail to our boss back in the states and put it in writing.  The response that we got back was about on par, mentioning that an e-mail would go out and they would ask people to behave themselves.

What happened was completely different.

The e-mail went out all right, saying that someone from the company would be coming out to do a sensitivity training and that folks would be coming in on their day off, charging a code to the company, to attend.

The team started freaking out.  They instantly jumped on the defensive.  Some of them remembered that we mentioned the one individual so they knew what was going on and who was involved.  The next morning, what we thought was going to be the typical morning meeting was dead silence and awkwardness.  When the meeting was over, I went upstairs and Sarah went to drive folks in.  Only they had gathered up in a group and were discussing something in private.  When Sarah asked if they were leaving the comment “We need to prove this isn’t a hostile environment” was made and the group, sans the accused, went to a different car and drove off.  This left Sarah to drive in the guy she accused……alone.

Trapped in a car for an hour, he spurted out a half-hearted apology that was more of a “I’m sorry that you got mad” as opposed to the “I’m sorry for what I did” and then tossed it back in her face saying she should have said something to him and that it was her fault.

Upon arriving at the base, feeling sick and stressed, Sarah came back to the apartment and we made the decision to head home.  I was only a few days away from getting my Passport back and she needed hers back from our sponsor.  The next few days were pretty rough.  We had told the bosses what happened and they seemed ok with us heading out.  The team, seeing me as an extension of this “issue” shut me out.  I could hardly talk to any of them and had to funnel everything through our team lead, who actually was the nicest of the bunch and helped us out.  It was very clear that we were being shunned.

Here is where things get (more) wacky.  We spoke to our bosses back in the states.  We knew that contract work can be tough and that the company can only put so many people on any given contract.  They mentioned that there may not be something for us, but there was some things in the hopper that could become available.  Even better, as we got closer to returning, we were told that there was another Data center move down in NC that we would be working on.

Things looked ok, we were leaving the hostile environment, we still had work, and we felt much better.

Then we got home.

Surprise! (P365-125)Turns out the NC move got delayed and we went into a meeting with one of the company bosses.  They were giving us a 30 day employment window but they had no work for us.  While there were two contracts that could be won soon, they didn’t have any guarantee, so our expected termination date was July 12th.  Originally, they explained that they really expected to win these contracts within the next two weeks and that we should “Keep checking our e-mail” to hear word, but that we didn’t need to come into the office and we may want to start looking.

I took it as it was presented and was hopeful for upcoming work.  Then I got home to find that my work e-mail had been disabled.  The next morning, the termination letter was in my g-mail inbox (still reading July 12th).  This sounded a lot less like “Wait and see” and a whole lot like “You need to leave”.

I mentioned to them that it was kind of fishy that we were asked to leave so soon after filing a complaint against someone.  The response was that we were warned that there may not be work, and that we came back voluntarily.  I hardly call escaping such a hostile environment as a volunteer move.

So here we are now.  I am looking for new work, as it seems that even if the company does win something, I doubt my phone will ring.  We managed to stock a lot away in savings so we are fine until something comes along, which hopefully will be soon.

I have had a lot of people tell me that I need to “Lawyer up” and get all I can out of this.  To be honest.  I just want to move on.  We both do.  We are home and safe, no one was hurt (much), and we just want to move on with our lives.  The folks that work in the company aren’t bad people, they are just doing what makes the most business sense.  The folks on the team have to live with the type of people they are.  It’s not worth to effort to cause trouble and burn bridges.

So, anyone know of a place that’s hiring?

An American Nightmare in Kuwait

Posted by on May 21, 2013 No comments

This isn’t exactly how I wanted to approach my next post on the site, but things being what they are, this is where I am now.  I am pretty sure that there is a list of horrible things that can happen to a world traveler while visiting another country.  Towards the top are things like Killed, Sold into slavery, imprisoned, etc.  But somewhere, probably pretty low on the list, is Loose Your Passport and Wallet.  While I hope to avoid any of the upper parts of that list, sadly, I can check that one off.

Yup, I lost my passport.

So what happened was that Sarah and I went to the Avenues Mall to get a desk and chair for her to use for her work.  We had just purchased the chair at Office Depot, I used my bank card out of my wallet there, and we headed out towards the Ikea, where we parked.  We loaded the chair into the car and went back in to see about a desk at Ikea.  I reached back and felt that my wallet was gone.  Panic mode sets in and I instantly start re-tracing every step.  I scour the car and go back and forth to Office Depot.  Nothing

Well shit.

I head to lost and found and file a claim and they said they would call me.  At this point my brain is a mix of “Can’t Handle this” and “FIX ALL THE THINGS!” I spoke with my boss and explained what happened and at this point it was a “Wait and see” thing.

The next day we went back to the Avenues to speak with the Police officer in the office there.  One of my co-workers passed on a website for the Kuwait Embassy stating that we need to get After checking in with Lost and found once more, and with Office Depot, we went to the Kuwait Police office in the Avenues Mall.  Where we were instructed that the officer would not be in until 4 pm.

So we waited.

At 4 pm on the nose we spoke with the officer who worked with the CCTV team to see if they could locate it.  He also informed me that I could not get a report done there, but needed to go to another police station.  There is a different police station, near Avenues Mall, that could help us, but I should speak with the Chief there, and he wouldn’t be in until the next morning at 9 am   So we left our phone info with the CCTV folks and headed back to our apartment.  Later that night we did get a call, but they said they couldn’t see anything fall out or look bad.

Que up this morning!

We left around 8:30 am to visit the police station near Avenues.  One of the things I have learned here is that there really are no street addresses or markers.  If you want to know where something is, it’s “Over there” or “Near that other thing”.  The instructions I got for the location of this station were about as good.  I checked 3 buildings in the area and finally found the police station.  I approached the desk and said “I am a US Citizen and I have lost my passport, I need to file a report”.  All 4 of the officers behind the counter looked at each other, and then at me, then one said, in perfect English  “You should speak with the captain” and then they went back to chatting among themselves.  The Captain they pointed to was talking to someone else, so I waited.  When he was ready I explained my situation.  He stated that this wasn’t the right place but that I had to go somewhere else.  I told him that I was instructed to come here and talk to the chief.  So we did!  He led me into the Chief’s office, which was very large and extravagant, and talked with the boss for a bit before both of them said “Not here. Over there” and pointed out the window.

I whipped out my handy Android phone with Google Maps on satellite view and said “Where?”  They poked around on it and eventually narrowed down the area I needed to get to.  So I left police station #2

Arriving at Police station/building/area #3 I found an office where I was told again “Not here, over there” with vigorous pointing. This led me through stations/buildings #4 and #5 where I finally found a nice man that offered to take me over to building #6 which is where I needed to go.  He was a local Civilian, BTW.  He drove me over to an office that, in no way resembled a police station, or anywhere you would file a report as such, but they at least sounded like they knew what they were talking about and were able to look up my passport to see if the number was used recently.  They printed out some sheets, all in Arabic  and said I needed to take them to the Airport to get a stamp and an approval.  This was the closest I have gotten to an actual process so I said “Sure!” and we left for the airport.  To aid in finding which office in the airport (because the directions were as expected) they wrote down in Arabic  the office I needed to go to, so when I got there, I could just show that to someone and they would direct me.

map

Next stop, Airport!  I walked into the main part of the airport and found a police officer.  I showed him my handy placard that stated where I needed to go (which I am pretty sure just said “Hey, show this dumb american where the approval office is”) and he said…..wait for it….. “Not here. Over there!”  He didn’t even point, he just motioned at an area that pretty much covers the whole airport, and then walked away.  Thankfully I found another clerk that was able to point me in the right direction.

At this station, I explained my whole spiel “Blah Blah, Dumb american, lost wallet, etc”  The guy looks at me and asks for my passport.

…

…

I just looked at him and stated again, “I don’t have it, it’s lost, that’s what I need you for” and pointed at the photocopy of my passport.  To which he replied (and I really wish I were kidding) “No, no copy, old passport”  I just stared at him again.  “I don’t HAVE my passport, it’s gone, I need YOU to give me a report so I can get a new one!”  After a few strange looks back and forth, he punched some keys on his Apple IIE computer on his desk and printed out another sheet, all in Arabic  then wrote some stuff on the first sheet I gave him and said “Take that back to them” and dismissed me.

Whatever, it seemed like progress.

Sarah and I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the airport and then whisked ourselves back to Office #6 to continue this “process”.

When I got back, I handed them the new papers and they went about typing in their system and then told me that I had two civil ID numbers in their system and they couldn’t do anything for me.  If I wanted to I could fill out a Lost Passport report and then come back with 4 passport photos and they would process me.  Either way, I should go.

What?!?!


It was at this point that I figured I would contact my Sponsor here in Kuwait and have them get involved.  Most contractors have sponsors here that kind of “grease the skids” and handle a lot of the Kuwaiti side of paperwork and such here.  I tried my darnedest to do things the right way and follow all the appointed rules and was met at roadblocks for each one.

Thankfully my sponsor figured out what needed to be done and has set the wheels in motion to get the process done.  Unfortunately, that process is going to take time.  I may not get my beloved police report until Sunday, after a number of hoops have been jumped through.

In case you were wondering, I also contacted the emergency number at the US Embassy and was greeted with a lovely automated system where every option was “E-mail us”.  Who uses e-mail in an emergency?!?!

So that’s where I am.  Stranded but working in a country that claims to love us but wants in no way to help your average person.  I am going through the motions while still trying to get some actual work done over here, so don’t worry too much.  I know I am not the first person this has ever happened to.

I posted to twitter earlier, but I can’t emphasize it enough.  I have never, ever, met a police officer (or force) that was so rude, dismissive, and non-helpful as what I was introduced to today.  Not a single officer genuinely wanted to aid me in getting this process done and gave me the attitude that I was only taking up their time that could be spent doing anything else.

Catch up Post!

Posted by on May 15, 2013 No comments

What a dump! (P365-122)
Of course I realize the irony of the last post I left here being that I was searching for the Highway of Death, and then I don’t post anything for a long time.  (Ok, it was a little funny for me.)  The truth is that I have had both a lot of things going on, and then too little motivation.

So, as per usual, it’s catch up time!

I got to go home for a week!!  I know, I was excited too.  I had some work to take care of back at the home office and it required me being there in person.  The downside to this was that I could not take Sarah with me.  She stayed here in Kuwait and held down the fort while I went home and gorged myself on pork and alcohol.  (It was a hard ordeal, but I think I left some pork in VA, but not much)

Things here are moving forward as per usual for this sort of work.  Lots of “hurry up and wait” which you get used to.  We do our best to keep busy and entertain ourselves. I think we have worked our way through a good number of TV shows tat we have meant to catch up on.

Desert Tree (P365-118)My Project 365 is going well.  I have not yet gotten tired of my camera and it has given me the chance to experiment with some different shooting styles.  Not to mention being able to look back on the last 134 days (so far) and see a snapshot of what my year has been like.  I may have to compile a little book once the project is done.

I know it’s not a great catch up post, but that’s what there is to tell.  I will try and post some more soon, since we have some interesting trips coming up.

Oh, and we still couldn’t find the Highway of death.  Turns out it was cleaned up a few years ago.

bummer

In search of the Highway of Death

Posted by on March 23, 2013 1 comment
Cloudy Desert Sunset

Cloudy Desert Sunset

Sounds like it would be the start of a great epic crime thriller right?  If only the outcome was as good as this fictional story.  Last weekend Sarah and I set out to find the Kuwait Highway of Death.  What is this dreaded driveway?  This scary street?  It would be the stretch of road that the Iraqis used to drive in and out of Kuwait.  It so happens that while on said road, the Coalition forces attacked and devastated their forces.  Problem is that the amount of damage and the types of rounds used by the Coalition forces (depleted uranium) meant that clean up after the war would be difficult.  Many people were afraid to approach the wreckage due to the radioactivity and the gruesomeness of the scene.  From what we heard, to this day there are still exploded tanks, trucks, cars, and in some cases, even people, left on that road.

So naturally, I wanted to go see it.

Sarah and I planned for a full day’s excursion to see this place.  We set out and determined that the road must be highway 80 since that was the one leading to Iraq in the most direct manner.

We chose poorly.

Kuwait Map

Kuwait Map

We drove all the way to near the border of Iraq (no way I am getting too close) and didn’t see anything.  Sadden and defeated we turned around and headed back.  On the way south on 80 we found an interesting site of Ruins.  It would appear that a very small village got abandon around the time of the invasion.  We stopped so I could take some pictures.  We noticed that there was no visible war damage.  No bullet holes or explosions.  it looks like the buildings were just left and the desert was working on swallowing them back up.  A local sheep herder was using the area for some of his sheep, but was not there at the time.  After a while we packed up and headed home.
More Kuwaiti RuinsMore Kuwaiti RuinsOdd goat bagMore Kuwaiti Ruins
More Kuwaiti RuinsMore Kuwaiti RuinsKuwaiti ruins (P365-76)

So, what we thought was the HoD, was just a road.  Apparently it’s a smaller road to the west of 80 that claims the name Highway of Death.  This means that this coming weekend, we have a new plan!  Keep an eye out for the potential actual finding of…..The Highway Of Death!

Camel Racing in Kuwait!

Posted by on March 10, 2013 No comments

Yesterday, Sarah and I spirited off for a small adventure in western Kuwait.  We visited the Kuwait Camel Racing Club.  So let me explain how we came to this point.

When I was slated to come to Kuwait the first time, (back in January) I did some searching around on Google Maps and Google Earth to find some things that would be interesting to go do while I am in country.  One of the things I noticed was, what looked like, a racetrack out in the middle of the desert.

Click to embiggen

I did some more digging and found that there is a huge camel population out in that region.  Putting 1 and camel together I figured out that it was a Camel racing track!  When I arrived in country, I made a point to head out there and see what it was all about.  Some of the websites I found on the subject (there aren’t many) mentioned that Saturday is the day to go.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a free Saturday, but I thought, “What the hell, Camels!” and went anyways on a Sunday.

The area around the racetrack is mostly desert with a small village in the middle of it.  Many of the villagers have pens where they keep camels.  These camels were VERY friendly and wanted to know what this weird white guy with a camera was doing.  This resulted in my first batch of pictures from the area.

A few months later, Sarah and I arrive and I tell her about the camels.  Saturday comes around and we have some free time so, TO THE CAMEL RACES!!!  ONe of the important lessons we learned is, the place I had found that had the sign out front and was, what I thought, the location of the races…..wasn’t.  If you follow the road to it’s end you find a large building with lots of flags, which is the RIGHT building.  We entered the building and headed to the grandstand area where there were many plush seats and screens showing where the camels were.  The track was HUGE and you could just make out the trucks that were following the camels in the distance.

The great part was that I could venture right out to the track (and in some cases on it) and take pictures.  There were many different varieties of camels at the track.  Some were outfit for riding (my guess was that these were ridden in as we would drive a car in) and some were obviously the racers.  Interestingly, you will notice that the racing camels don’t have anyone riding them.  Instead there is a small robot on the back that spurs the camel on.  It’s equipped with a small whip that is remote controlled, probably by someone in one of the many trucks and cars that follow the camels around the track.

Taking the camels to the races.

Just rode in from the desert

The start of a race!

Here they come!

Close up!

Couldn’t let the post go without a little Camel Toe.

Making tracks.

I am sure we will venture back out again for more camel racing fun!

Moving right along

Posted by on February 26, 2013 No comments

Heading Home (P365-35)Sarah and I are packing up and getting ready to go!!!

That’s right, end of February marks my return to Kuwait and this time I am taking Sarah with me! (that sounds much more ominous than it is.)  For the next 10 months (roughly) She and I will be working out of the Fintas region of Kuwait. (you know, should you want to stop by if you are in the neighborhood.)

 

So what does that mean for things around here?  NOTHING!  I’ll still have internet out there (as proven from the last trip) and it should be even better than before since I am looking at upgrading our apartment with a MADA Wi-Max connection.  Pictures will still happen and fun will still be had.

And now, few words on JoCoCruiseCrazy3:JCCC3 Day 7 Concert
If you go to Thesaurus.com and type in the word “Awesome” you get the following result:

Awesome
Main Entry: awesome  [aw-suhm]
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: amazing
Synonyms: alarming, astonishing, awe-inspiring, awful, beautiful, breathtaking, daunting, dreadful, exalted, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frantic, frightening, grand, hairy*, horrible, horrifying, imposing, impressive, intimidating, magnificent, majestic, mean, mind-blowing*, moving, nervous, overwhelming, real gone, shocking, something else, striking, stunning, stupefying, terrible, terrifying, wonderful, wondrous, zero cool

These Synonyms do not even begin to describe the cruise Sarah and I went on.  We had heard of JCCC for the past few years and thought about attending, but either time or money didn’t match up and we just couldn’t do it.  Then we would see all the pictures and video from the folks who went and instantly regretted not going.  This time, we pulled the trigger and were not disappointed.

Hey it's us!I am not even kidding that each and every Synonym in that list is represented.  There were 700 other geeks and nerds to meet and a lot of times that process of reaching out and doing something that you don’t normally do is terrifying, but also wonderous! (see what I did there?)  The group we were with was so embracing and understanding, it really was like an extended family.

Each night of the cruise we sat at a different table and talked with different folks.  That alone was one of the best experiences.  Each table we approached, if they had room, welcomed us in.  I don’t want to drone about it too much (too late) but I will say that I would choose this cruise and the people on it over every DragonCon and every other convention, any day.  Don’t believe me?  Come on the next one and test that theory.

Anyways, expect more travels!  Sarah and I are planning on visiting some remote locations over the year so keep an eye out for that.  In the meantime enjoy some pictures!

The full JCCC3 Slideshow:

Get caught up on my Project 365:

Check out those wacky Trooper Adventures!