The Amtrak experience.

This weekend I rode on Amtrak for the first time for a trip to Kansas City to visit Justin and Ashley. I have to say that I was quite satisfied with the experience. The round-trip ticket from StL to KC cost $52, about $10 more than I would expect to pay for gas. The trip was also longer (5 hours and 40 minutes vs. ~4 hours), but I didn't have to drive (w00t). The accomodations on the train were pretty good - there's lots of space between the seats, and a 120-volt outlet is provided for every seat. The ride was also surprisingly quiet - the loudest part was when they would blow the horn. I would definitely consider using Amtrak more in the future, but the only major cities with direct service from the Lou are KC and Chicago.

An interesting take on the U.S. rail system.

I've been an advocate for enhancing the national rail system in the United States, especially after riding the trains in Japan. I knew at least one person (Michael Schwartz) shared my sentiments. I now know that there are others. This article has some interesting ideas on the issue. The guy who is interviewed basically wants to create a system modeled after the European one. It would be viable, more efficient, and more eco-friendly alternative to flying.

Asia travelogue.

I have started my travelogue for my trip to Asia. You can find it here.

DEFCON 16

It's been a while, so I figured I should post on here just to prove that I'm alive. Anyway, this past weekend was the second of four consecutive weekends out of town, and I spent pretty much all of Friday through Sunday at DEFCON 16 in Las Vegas.

I arrived at the Riviera early Friday morning (~9:30 Vegas time) and didn't leave the hotel until I caught a shuttle to the airport Sunday evening (~18:00). Note that this made for a very early Friday (flight left St. Louis 7:00) and a very late Sunday (flight arrived in St. Louis 1:00 Monday morning). The conference itself was pretty good. The DEFCON badges are pretty cool, and they supposedly turn TVs off, but I haven't tested this yet. There were many interesting talks, including one on hacking social networks (especially MySpace), one on hacking Internet kiosks, one about the security of e-voting, and one about hijacking internet traffic using BGP. Of course Dan Kaminsky's DNS vulnerability was also big news (from Black Hat a few days earlier), but I did not brave the large crowd that turned out for his talk. Another significant development was the restraining order that prevented one group of presenters from giving their talk on hacking the Boston subway payment system...too bad their presentation had already been given to all the DEFCON attendees on CD. See the DEFCON site for more info on these and other interesting happenings. Also, here's my new favorite t-shirt (that I don't own...yet):



The weekend before I was in Chicago for Lollapalooza. This weekend it's off to Toronto for my fourth Radiohead concert this summer before a roadtrip to Bloomington (wedding) and Indianapolis (air show featuring F-22) the following weekend.

Back from Oz.

http://www.obezma.com/excursions/downunder2007

NYC travelogue is up.

Check it out here.

A couple of tidbits.

I just returned from a snowboarding trip to Cascade Mountain in Wisconsin. I had a lot of fun and didn't injure anything. I can't quite say the same for our bus, though, which was hit head-on by a car which skidded out of control. Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

Also, I am apparently giving up soda for Lent, as decided by one Greg Wilcox. Don't worry...I'm not turning religious anytime soon.

The Eurotrip 2006 travelogue is finally up.

Check it out here.

Just arrived in Athens.

Italy was great, despite not getting my luggage until yesterday. About 300 pictures taken so far. More to come soon.

Looking for a gay-friendly travel destination?

If so, check out Orbitz's Gay and Lesbian Travel page. The fact that they have one is pretty amusing...in a slightly awesome kind of way.

On a side note, did you know that Gay Games VII will be held in Chicago this year? Go to their official site for more information.

Even though it's a few days overdue...

I added my Michigan trip to my Excursions page. I also modified a bunch of the pages by adding real thumbnails so that they load much, much faster.

My first Boeing travel opportunity.

The head of my department invited me along on a recruiting trip to good old Champaign, Illinois. This is not a common occurence, so I'm taking advantage of it. I'll be there on September 13 and 14. Ah, I remember the days when I went to the career fairs looking for job opportunities...now I'll be on the other side of the table.

Pics from Seattle/Vancouver.

I added material from my most recent trip to the Excursions section. I apologize for not making proper thumbnails...this makes the pages load excruciatingly slowly. On the positive side, you don't have to reload the images when you click on them to link to the full size.

Dust Tour 2K6.

Next year's vacation destination is a romp through Greece and Italy.

Here's who's in so far...
For sure: Me, Andy Maxwell.
Probably: Jarrod Ross, Greg Wilcox.
Maybe: Adam Tsacoumangos, Andy's friend.

Eurotrip 2005.

A log of my recent trip to Europe can be found here. Enjoy.

Thanks for caring, Pete.

I guess I have a new fan...

I am currently at an internet cafe next to my hotel in Madrid, and will be returning to the States in a couple of days. It´s been good not caring about what´s going on over there, for the most part, for a few days. When I get back, I plan on posting an entry or two detailing my journey.

On a completely unrelated note, non-American keyboards and menus/messages in ¨foreign¨ languages are slightly annoying, but kinda cool.

Greetings from across the pond.

I arrived in London 3.5 hours ago, and am readying to check into my hotel. I'm both excited and scared about the next 10 days. I've resolved to make this the best vacation EVER. It is almost 11 AM here (5 AM in StL) and the tour doesn't start until 6 PM, so I have 7 hours to kill.

The most interesting person I've met so far: Margaret, a 37 year old scientist who was born in Australia to Chinese parents but now lives and works in North Carolina...I sat next her on the plan from Raleigh/Durham to London. Honorable mention go to the engineer I sat next to on the flight from St. Louis to Raleigh/Durham, the ECU chick I met in the Raleigh/Durham airport, and the fair trade chick I met two gates down.

Europe better be fun.

I'm missing the following concerts (here in StL) which I would normally go to because of my trip:

The Roots
The Killers
Kasabian
Dave Matthews Band*

* - I get back the day of the concert.

Eurotrip 2005.

Arrangements have been made for my trip to Europe this summer. My itinerary is as follows:

May 20 - Depart St. Louis.
May 21 - Arrive London. Join tour group.
May 24 - Travel to Paris w/ tour group.
May 26 - Tour ends. Travel to Barcelona.
May 29 - Depart Barcelona on overnight train.
May 30 - Arrive Madrid.
June 1 - Depart Madrid and return to St. Louis.