Tag Archives: Kuwait

The hits keep on hitting (The recap post)

Posted by Steve on June 25, 2013 No comments

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.

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 Steve 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.

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 Steve on May 15, 2013 No comments

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.

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 Steve on March 23, 2013 1 comment

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

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.

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 Steve 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!

Kuwait Adventures continued!

Posted by Steve on January 28, 2013 No comments

Rapidly closing in on finishing up my full month in country, I have to say I have certainly learned and seen a lot so far. With my Project 365 task, I have tried to keep the pictures themed to what I have been doing here and some of my experiences. I can look back at these pictures and probably tell you all about what happened that day.

Recently I had a great adventure when I met up with a local, Mohamed, who got in contact with me via Reddit. I know it’s not the safest or wisest thing to do, meeting random strangers on the internet and having them take me through a foreign country, but hey, I like to live dangerously. (Also a fan of not getting raped or stabbed, thankfully that didn’t happen)

This meetup was to show me what gaming culture was like in Kuwait. Boy did I learn all about it too. I don’t want to put too much into this post because the whole reason for researching this was to have some great knowledge for the next RetroNick Radio podcast. All my findings will be there!

In the meantime, you get to catch up on my P365 photos. Also, don’t forget to check out the Trooper Adventures! These Lego guys are out on a tour of whatever they can find.

Blue Ring (P365-27)
When I got here to Kuwait, it was VERY dry. Back at home I am used to higher humidity levels so I went out and bought a humidifier. I found one in a place downtown, it cost me about 18KD (close to $60) but it really is amazing. And it looks cool too.

Fighting at the White Tower (P365-26)
This one is more of a snap shot of something I went to do today. I was guided by a great Local guy to one of Kuwaits main gaming communities. The White Tower (Facebook.com/whitetowerq8)
Here you will find the elite of the Kuwait fighting game league. It was a great glimpse into Kuwaiti gaming life. Much more about this trip will be covered on the RetroNickRadio pod cast. Www.retronick.com.

Keyboard Conundrum (P365-25)
Spent a lot of the day working, which meant typing away on a keyboard. This one is not my regular laptop but one from a small netbook sized laptop I bought while here. I have been using it as a media PC running XBMC.
You can see from the keys that it has both english letters and arabic letters. Just in case I need to write out some letters to the locals.

Pop Pop relief. (P365-24)
I mentioned on my blog that I had a minor crisis when I left for Kuwait. I left my battery charger at home. Yeah I know! My battery normally lasts around a week, two if I conserve. You would also think I could just buy one here, but alas, no. I tried 12 places and no one had any DSLR chargers. (not even Canon ones!)
Thankfully, my lovely wife slipped my charger (and fully charged spare battery) into the mail and about a week later, it arrived. She loaded it so full of bubble wrap it was comical.
This bubble wrap may show up again. Just warning you now.

Play time is over (P365-23)
Another walkabout brought me upon this old abandoned playground. I have to imagine that there were many days of kids swinging and laughing here. On the plus side, across the street from here is a large park with a new playground that looks much safer.

Night Transit (P365-22)
Wanted to try for a long exposure night shot of the road in front of my building here. There are always cars zipping by till pretty late, and the cross road is sually pretty busy as well. My angle for the view isn’t the greatest but it gave me a chance to play around with it.

Fishing boats in the Mists (P365-21)
Went to the local open air market and found some of the fishing boats that supply it. The fog rolled in today so I took advantage of it.

Smug Camel is Smug (P365-20)
We went to visit the camel breeding and trading post today. While we did not actually find the trading post, there were plenty of camels around and all of them were very friendly.

A taste of home, abroad. (P365-19)
I love ginger beer. Back home I would find all sorts of brands to test. Here in Kuwait is almost impossible to find. Thankfully one of the stores imports Barr brand from England.
This was a backup picture I took as a “just in case”. I have started the habit of shooting a few things through out the day just to have something for later.

Chillin like a goat (P365-18)
Came across this guy while I was out on a little expidition. I love the way he is staring longly at his watering hole conteplating his life……… as a goat.

Machine City during the day (P365-17)
The nearest large refinery looks amazing both during daytime and night time. It really does look like a giant machine city. I’ll work on getting a shot at night with all the lights.

Pocket Stuff (P365-16)
At any given time I almost always have 4 things in my pocket, and my fitbit clipped to the side. Two are very basic, some lip balm (which is more for Sarah than for me), and a USB stick with some basic documents on it. The more interesting items are the 20 sided dice and the brass acorn.
Most gamers know that your dice are sacred, they have a connection to you. This one has been in my pocket for years and is very connected. Also, you never know when you may have to make a roll to resist temptation.
I always get asked about the acorn. When we started dating, Sarah and I were out for a walk and she randomly picked up an acorn and handed it to me. Not thinking much about it, I put it in my pocket. At the end of each night, I take the stuff in my pocket out and put it on the dresser, then the next morning it all goes back in my pocket. At my bachelors party, the real acorn disappeared and I was devastated. Sarah found the brass one online and gave it to me just after the wedding. It’s been in my pocket ever since.

FishEye view of the coast (P365-15)
Decided to give the DSLR a rest today and broke out my GoPro camera for a nice super wide angle view from my balcony here in Kuwait. Even in a foreign country, I still end up on the East Coast!

Old habit with new things. (P365-14)
I am a big tea drinker. I had thought that coming to the Middle East would open up the types of tea I could try. Turns out that’s not the case. They are a big fan of Lipton here. I found this Red Label tea that’s not too bad, but kind of strong.
The mugs in my apartment are tiny, so I picked up this one on the base.

6000 Miles from home

Posted by Steve on January 14, 2013 No comments

Howdy folks! Live from Kuwait City It’s Satu…wait, no it’s Monday for me. Well, I have landed and been on site for almost a week. There is certainly a level of adjustment to living in a Middle East nation. Things are a LOT more conservative here than back home, but for the most part, it’s not that different. I am staying in a simple 2 Br apartment in the Fintas region. We have Cable TV and the internet is not terrible. Only now and then do I run across the “This Web Page is Blocked.” The work here is good, it’s keeping me busy and most of what we are working on is done from our Apartments with the occasional trip into the Datacenter.

There are a few things I wanted to try and see/do during this trip. Of course, one of them is to keep up with my Project 365, which I have done pretty well so far. As an added challenge to my photography project, I managed to leave the charger for my DSLR battery at home! Sarah mailed it to me but it can take up to a week to get anything. I have been very sparing due to this. You would think I could just buy a new charger out here, but I have hit, and I am not kidding, 12 different places and NONE of them carry the charger. I did manage to buy a backup battery (because you can never have too many) so I should last until the charger arrives. I still kept up on the pictures and I’ll add them at the end of the post. Another is to scope out some cool places to see when Sarah comes out in March. And the latest addition to the agenda is finding a Gaming culture.

In the Americas we have a rich gaming culture. Be it video games, board games, card games, or dice games. There is usually something for everyone. Out here, it’s a little harder to find, but I think I just need to dig a little deeper. (Not speaking arabic is a hurdle as well, but I have google translate to help me with that.) One of the saddest things I have found here was in a park near the beach close to where I am staying. It would appear that there is a “Fun Times” park that has an arcade, go-karts, and family fun area just across the street. In a fenced off area near by I found this:
Yes, that is a bunch of arcade cabinets just sitting out in the elements. I don’t know what games they are, but I can see the PCB’s and CRT’s still intact. I cried a little.

Another thing I am working on is a project that I will detail in another post later this week, but it involves those little guys at the top of the page.

Now, for the catch up on Project 365.

Kuwait Towers (P365-13)
I had been waiting for the chance to get out to the Kuwait towers, today was the day. Beautiful clear sky’s and a nice wide angle shot from below the towers.

Kuwaiti Sunrise (P365-12)
The first time I have ever woke up early enough to get a sunrise picture. Normally I hate waking up early but I took advantage of the time change effect on my system.
Lesson learned from this shot, I really need to work on my landscape pictures.

Rough Ride (P365-11)
While driving through the desert we came across this car that had been in an accident and abandoned. This is commonplace around here. You can see a bit of a dust storm off in the distance.

Reflection on conversions (P365-10)
The weather today was incredibly bad. Lots of win and sand everywhere. This made any sort of outside shot despicable. So I fell back on some of my travel accessories.

Traveling Man (P365-9)
We arrived a bit late for me to get out and see some of the local scenery so today’s picture is about the transition.

Ready for take off? (P365-8-2)
Bonus Pic! Quick shot on the plane. See you in 12 hours

Late Night Flight (P365-8)
in the airport looking for a good shot for today, saw the reflection in the window and thought I would play a little.

The new year, and new things. (P365)

Posted by Steve on December 31, 2012 No comments

Welp, here we are at the end of the year! Looking back at the roller coaster that was 2012 and I just don’t even know. Some many ups and downs. One thing that’s for sure, it would appear that 2013 is going to be quite the adventure.

I hinted at it before but I can say with about 90% certainty that the biggest adventure is that Sarah and I will be doing a lot of traveling. My work is sending me off to Kuwait for a contract and it’s for an extended period. We thought, the best way to not get lonely, would be to take Sarah with me! My company needed a tech writer and she is more than qualified so they hired her up and we head out in the beginning of the year. A good friend will be moving into our house and taking care of the cats while we are gone so it works out great for him too! This means that for almost ALL of 2013, Sarah and I will be world travelers!

This leads me into my New Years Resolution. I am making the pledge to do Project 365 for 2013. Project 365 is where you take one picture for each day of the year. It can be anything, but should focus on technique and using your camera well. I am teaming up with Louis from over on Gamut of Geek and we are both going t try and stick with it through the year. Of course, the challenge level for me being that some of the countries I am visiting have stricter photography laws, but at the same time, they are new and interesting.

The rules we have set down for each other are simple. Use our DSLR for as much of it as possible, but if we see something great and only have our cell phones, we take the shot. Also, no repeats. (I am sure no one wants 300 pictures of our pets) Uploads are not always important for every day since there may be days when we can’t get to the internet, but a picture must be taken and the EXIF will show the date. Uploaded when possible.

I’ll set up a Flickr set specifically for my P365 as well as a folder in my gallery. I may not post every picture on my blog, but I will try and update with what pictures have been taken.

2013 is going to be a fun year. Stay tuned!