Costa Rica Day 2 and 3 (part 2)

Day 2 included walking around flooded streets while attempting to find some breakfast.  Strolling into a hotel opposite of ours, we enjoyed a typical American breakfast only because the waitress told us that the Tico breakfast wasn't that great.  Even though I asked for fried eggs, I guess Costa Ricans interpret them as sunny side up.  I'll take that for the road next time I order to ask for fried all the way.  

The entire day continued to drench us and there would be no end in site.  We decided after hearing that there was a chance of bridge closures to forgo staying the night in Coco Bay and head back to Liberia via autobus.  We ended up hitching a ride back to the city with Jose and bought him and his son some lunch as thanks.  He then took us to a couple of different hotels but without getting any deals, we paid $52 USD for a crappy room with no A/C.  Not that we needed the A/C, the only upside was that it was near the locale. 

More pictures after the jump!

While we scoured for cover underneath various awnings, Matt and I toured a church, walked around various shops and ran into a crazy looking mannequin.  So, of course Matt had to take a picture of it. Strolling around the grocery store, we took another picture of a fridge full of Imperial Beer and then walked around a little more where we entered a local high end bar (we had no idea) and retired there the rest of the night. 

We met a guy named Otto who originated from Costa Rica but lived in the US for the past 10 years and he was nice enough to hang.  He told us a couple of stories, drove us to the other club which was a bust, drove us back to where we met, which ended up closing and then took us back to our hotel. 

That was it really, we woke up two hours early due to our phones not being calibrated to the local time zone, had some breakfast (still then eggs were over easy) and got conned into taking a cab to the airport.  You see, the cab driver initially charged us $20 USD for a 10km ride, but when we started walking away, he started up his taxi and came riding over to us.  He lowered his price to $15 and when we told him that we were going to talk to the bus station, he told us a lie that the bus doesn't take us directly to the airport.  That was a bust!  We found out later that there are buses to the airport from a security guard who chatted us up a bit.  I bought some coffee and a couple of souvenirs from the duty free shop (expensive as heck) and then we boarded up and took off.  The plane ended up full so we got coach seating but it wasn't too bad. 

After all the rain that came down during the trip, at least we learned quite a bit so that our next trip to Costa Rica will be that much better!

Tropical Depression #13 vs. Costa Rica (part 1)

Looks like Matty P and I got the best of the rain during our 3 day excursion to Liberia, Costa Rica.  Arriving Tuesday early afternoon, sitting in Delta's First Class, we met up with what would have been our tour guide had the weather worked out the next day, Jose Avispas.  Avispas Adventures was highly recommended by my captain and after doing a little bit of random internet research, we knew that they would be a perfect choice for our quick trip.  It was easy working with the company and they came and picked us up as promised even on short notice.  They dropped us off at a hotel in Hermosa Beach, taking care of all the reservations, called Villa Huetares that they recommended costing us $45.00 USD /night w/o extras.  They did have WIFI using a long WEP key, two computers that were open for use, clean rooms but because of the timing, the villa looked like a ghost town.  The website shows a couple of pictures of the place it definitely shows off the best of what they have.  It wasn't a 2 or 3 star place, but it was a cheap place and "better" than a Hostel. 

It wasn't looking good for us at the time due to the torrential down pour, but it cleared up after a bit so Matt and I decided to head to the beach.  We met a local fisherman selling us a boat trip and with little haggling, we got a 3 hour trip for $120 ($100 + $20 tip).  Included was the boat, fishing poles, a crew of three (don't know why) and the guarantee that we would have a great time "fishing."  We caught two bait fish and hung out for a bit, but ended up with nothing.  The view was great, the boat ride gave us great views of the coastline including the all inclusive Four Seasons Resort, and I would have to to admit that it ended up being worth it.  Albeit disappointing with no catch and a couple of nibbles, but hey, it's fishing and we were in Costa Rica!.  Little did Matt and I know that it be the last tourist thing we would do. 

   Click for more!

That night, our tour local guy recommended that we eat at a local bar where we ordered Garlic Buttered Grilled Fish.  It was definitely a great eat.  I should have taken a picture of the plate but by that time, 1900 local, we hadn't eaten since the plane ride.  Hoping tomorrow would bring up better prospects, we decided to take advantage of the night as it cleared up and head out to Coco Beach. 

After arriving and searching around Coco Beach, we came to the conclusion that it was definitely a better place to stay so we asked around a bit on the going rate.  Coco Bay hotel was going to charge us $80 USD /night where as the hostel was around $15 USD.  We found a bar with some expats who offered us tourist advice and sat down.  We had quite a few beers, met some random locals, became friends with the bar tender (relocated from Gulfport, MI) and the cashier who chatted us us. 

Being a Tuesday night during the off-season along with the rain, no one was touring the area except for the few hookers and guys hanging about.  Definitely not the right time to come, but who would have known?  

Getting a ride back was easy after the local guy we were hanging out with called us a cab and back we went with no plans for the next day except to have some breakfast back at the restaurant where we had the awesome fish!

On the Way to Kos-tah Ree-ka

I'm on DL353 from ATL-LIR (Liberia, Costa Rica) travelling with Matty P in row 4! What an awesome way to start out the trip on first class with a short rib meal and New York cheesecake. We planned out a 3 day / 2 night trip on the whim and are basically just winging it. Should be a blast though as some of the plans are coming together slowly but surely. A captain recommended me to use a company called Aviapas which is owned by an American women and her Costa Rican husband so we thought we would give it a try. So far so good in that she found us a $45/ night hotel at Playa de Hermosa and their trips seem definitely doable budget wise. AT&T charges $2.29 per minute without the international rate plan ($5.99 month) which would lower the cost to $1.99 / min. Basically, you would have to break 20 minutes of talk time just to make it worth while. Text msging is defintely the way to go at 0.50 each way or better yet, I could find a wi-fi signal and try out fring! Data roaming is $0.0195 per KB which the operator told me would be quote a bit if I pulled up a YouTube video. She advised that one should turn off data roaming, push services, fetch services, 3G and any other extra curricular dealios on the iPhone in order to avoid any crazy charges. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you could "purchase" 20MB for $24.99 which I think is a ridiculous ripoff. I wish that they just had a plan skmiliar to the Blackberry International pacakge. Oh well, I guess try still have a lot to learn...hopefully they will listen.

Up in the Air Again

I'm finding myself having to ride Mainline Delta quite a bit more these days as my AirTran options have diminished from 4 flights a day to San Diego from Atlanta to only one or two and even an occasional none.  It's a little frightening on how it will impact my commute as the Delta flights are pretty much always impacted and oversold, but I guess I'll have to make due.  My schedule for October is going to be as financially successful due to the lack of available trips to pick up and the fact that I had to cut one of my trips in half to an obligation in Fulton County.  If you forgot already, I'm set for a court appearance in relation to my speeding ticket that I got a couple of weeks back while driving to the airport. 

This is only my 3rd time using Qumana, a free blog editor for Mac OSX and I have to admit that I sometimes find the interface much more accommodating than the Windows Live Writer.  The reason for the transition back to using my Powerbook Ti is because I miss it.  It's the truth but the 667 MHz is sometimes just frustrating.  The battery life is long lasting and the size is great but the 30Gb hard drive also is a handicap.  I wish that I just had two good computers to use and stick with instead of being all over the place.  I have a broken HP dv1000 laptop at home that needs to be diagnosed (might need a new hard drive), a dual Pentium 3 1GHz tower that I've had for years which should still run, but I have no clue why it's not booting up and a box of parts sitting in Atlanta waiting to be put together. 

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The October Schedule

I finally converted to using Google Calendar and Nuevasync with sully, the name of mi iPhone blaco, and with that, my schedule will be posted and updated on a regular basis (<-- whatever regular means).  Nuevasync offers a free solution in competition with Apple's MobileMe (failure) but since it is in its infancy, certain features such as multiple calendars and colors still have yet to be implemented.  It's an awesome application and setup was a breeze.  Check out the link to the right or click here for my calendar.  If you have an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch, I would highly recommend checking out one of the best "how-to's" at theiLife.com written by Kevin Hobin.  If you follow all his set directions, I don't see how you could go wrong.  Be forewarned though that all your current contacts and calendars will be erased and replaced with the information on their servers.  Backup first and be sure to read the full instructions on how to do it without the sacrifice of your data. I'm not sure if I mentioned that I finally got my first speeding ticket in the Atlanta area, but because of my recklessness, I have to appear in court on October 9 somewhere in Fulton County.  I was, of course, going with the flow of traffic and was in full uniform on my way to work.  What makes things a little more difficult is the fact that I have to work on the day of my set appearance. 

Apparently, the state of Georgia or Fulton County what have you, doesn't mail you anything in terms of instructions or any corresspondance in accordance to the ticket/fine.  It is up to you to look up your fine, get a cashier's check and mail it in or visit the court house in person.  That's pretty backwards really and I can see how a lot of citizens could simply become tardy in that manner.  From my friend's experiences in California, you at least get a formal letter / citation telling you and giving you much clearer instructions.  It's just all a mess down here.

The 100 Credit Month!

I'm commuting on Delta Flight 1038 from SAN to ATL trying to get to my last two day trip of the month.  September concludes with my schedule being completed @ 89% on-time arrivals and departures and the awesome fact that I was able to break the 100 hour credit mark!  The Captain was an awesome character to fly with as we always went out and enjoyed the town.  We always had some lunch or dinner with great conversation and even visited some random places like the mall in downtown Stamford, Connecticut or Orange Country Choppers in Newburgh, New York.  It was one of the best months that I have had here at ASA.

The paycheck on the 15th of October is something that I'm really looking forward to!  I've been working hard with the commute and all so hopefully it will it will pay off in one way or the other! :)  You have to realize that I usually get credited about 70-80 hours a month and with the extra ~20 hours, it's going to boost my pay about a third of my usual.  I'm young right so I should be trying to do this each month, but it just really depends if you could hack it.  Exhaustion is something that I hate feeling, but when you fly with a good crew and have good trips, it only adds to the pleasure. 

Being back home in San Diego more and more helps out in the "being grounded" feeling department but with the split of our crashpad in February, finding another place in Atlanta is up in the air.  I'll have more on the living situation later but being with friends during the weekend in San Diego helps in recuperating the lost time. 

With the impending launch of a new Macbook Pro, rumored to be announced on the 14th, my paycheck is going to be accounted for.  I've been waiting for almost 7 years now and am in bad shape with my Titanium Powerbook 667.  (I've been mainly using my IBM T43p on trips though so it hasn't been that bad)

Preposterous-ness of My Flight from ATL-MCN

So check this out.  My flight tonight was scheduled from Atlanta to Macon, Georgia: Flight ASQ4222 operating for Delta Connection.  It's a quick 18 minute flight from takeoff to touchdown for a total of 75 miles to the southeast of Atlanta.  Of course, we end up blocking about 40 minutes for total flight.  That time includes the taxi time around Atlanta and Macon thus concluding that the taxi time is longer than the flight by about 2 minutes.  That's normal for some of our quick hops, but now get this.

The van ride from the Middle Georgia Regional / Macon Airport is approximately 24.2 miles back to the north west for a total of 30 minutes in van ride!  Granted it was a nice Honda Odyseey and not a Ford Van that absorbs no shock or bump whatsoever, so it really wasn't that bad but tell me that's just not right!

So, now I have about 8 hours until I have to wake up (aorund 6:15 and be downstairs by 7:15 ready to go in the hotel lobby for a 30 minute van ride back to Macon Airport, followed by 5 legs concluding at 1600 then take a flight back to San Diego.  It's going to be a doozy!

Finally...a Digital Camera That I Like

It's about time Canon took the lid off their newest additions to their digital camera offerings.  Set to be available at your local retailed by October, Canon is updating their Amateur, better than just the normal point and shoot, G10 and both point and shoot SD990 IS and SD890.  Both cameras offer Canon's new DIGIC 4 image processor and shoot a high 14.7 megapixel. 

The G10 is more focused towards the guy who doesn't want to lug around a Digital SLR but wants a little more features than the P&S cameras.  The 990 varies from the 890 with the inclusion of a view finder but thus sacrificing the given space for a smaller LCD, which we all know doesn't matter.  The view finder is definitely more important than and extra half inch of screenage. 

 

I'm still tinkering with the idea of replacing my 4.0MP Sony P9 that I bought in 2002 for $600 or so dollars, which by the way still performs and captures what I need it to do, but I have to admit that after borrowing a few of my friends newer cameras, it just puts mine to shame.  My flash takes forever to recharge, the LCD is tiny the battery life is shot and the storage capacity of the older Sony Memory Sticks require me to dump my photos very often.  

I just can't quite decide which camera I want though.  I'm all for having a digital SLR, but again, I don't want to lug it around with me to a club, where as the SD 990 would be a perfect substitute for that.  Having an DSLR and a P&S would be ideal, but currently, I'm all for just having one piece of good hardware for now.  So, which will it be --  A P&S or a mid range sub-compact?  Straight from SizeEasy, here is a cut out of the dimensions side by side in 3D.  Obviously, the yellow image is the larger Canon G10 while the purple displays the SD990 IS. 

With the downturn in the economy, the rumor of a new Macbook Pro from Apple and the salary that I get, looks like I'll be working extra hard in the next few months to finance the new toys.  :-)  Oh yeah, Christmas is coming too...

Below are Gizmodo's two blogs on the cameras. 

Gizmodo: Canon PowerShot G10 14.7MP Flagship Sub-DSLR Goes Wide-Angle

Gizmodo: Canon PowerShots SD990 and SD880 Offer Image Stablization, Shininess

Review: Contour Showcase for the iPhone 3G

It's about time that I'm able to finally review the Contour Showcase for the iPhone 3G.  I've been flying around the Eastern Seaboard without a case on mi iPhone blanco for the last month and half ever since Contour replied to my inquiry that they were in fact releasing a better case.  So, without further adieu, I bring you some photos.  Staying true to all other Contour products, the packaging remains the same except for name of the product on the lower left hand corner of the box.  It's definitely a little confusing when actually trying to find the right case in the Apple store when all the Contour cases are hanging in a vertical configuration with all the same black boxes.

The case comes with a side clip for those tools like me that like to have their pockets free from clutter.  You can clip the device to the holster either face in or face out, your choice.  If I did carry the phone in my pocket, I would have a lot of scratches on the device, so it definitely adds to the longevity of the device.  You can configure the clip at any angle, whether you like it horizontal along your hip, perpendicular or prefer some type of cowboy angle.  The releasing from the hip clip is a little more tricky and sometimes it feels like you need to use two hands to release it but you get the hang of it after a while.  It's just a little tight when you first start using it.

The case itself opens from the top with ease but shuts securely around the device.  The iPhone drops in from the top and fits snugly into the bottom fourth of the case leaving the bottom open to allow syncing with a cable.  Since I don't have the newest dock, I'm not sure if it will allow for dock usage, but I'll update this soon when I try it at the store.  The case itself allow access to all the side buttons and headset jack without any obstruction while the top sleep button is covered but easy to trigger.  You won't even know that it is covered as the response is great compared to other cases.

The front of the Showcase protects the top quarter of the iPhone 3G leaving an opening for the speaker while the bottom quarter protects the area around the Home button.  The Showcase has a clear back shouting out to the public the version of device that you own.

Conclusion: The Contour Showcase is the must have case for the iPhone 3G due to the premium construction of the molding.  "Starting with a base chassis of light weight (dual injected) polycarbonate, each Showcase is then bordered in a supple rubber finish."  This provides for a good shock absorber for those clumsy moments and trust me, you'll want the extra insurance.  It was a long time waiting and after going through 4 different cases, I'm glad that I was finally able to get my hands on one while having an overnight in Stamford, Connecticut.

Pick one up online at Contour's Website or at your local Apple Retail Store.  The stores haven't been able to keep a steady stock on these cases, so I'd call in advance.  Enjoy! rating: Perfect 10

The last picture below just show how much of a tool I am with the hip clip situate horizontally along my waist.

Over Exertion

Sometimes I do go overboard and my mind and body cannot keep up with one other causing me to become out of sync.  To others, I'm just lifeless or much slower than normal but inside my head, my mind spins rapidly creating scenarios and ideas causing me to just take in life (present reality) without response.  Not the usual me but I have to learn how to deal with it.  Instead of giving up and continuing the funk, I need to just wake up the next day and try to get back up on the high horse.  Drowning out the my own thoughts is the best way that I can figure out how the heck I get back to myself. 

Today was a rather slow day, kind of nice, but there is a whole bunch of things that I need to take care of.  Too much clutter we have made in this life. 

Decompressing

After another one and half weeks of shifting around life, I find myself pulling an all nighter in Springfield, Missouri playing around trying to turn on my stupid iPhone 3G.  Because of the hassle, I wake up.  To no avail, I'm forced to schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar so that they could issue me a new one and or diagnose my problems.  It's more than just a hassle but not having the utility of a phone is quite a handicap.  Of course while waiting forever for the boot cycle, I reorganize, got into cleaning and putting things in order and felt a lot better.  When I say a lot, I mean exponentially better!

I'm finally able beginning to find the ground that I need in order to function on the high that I want to stay on and as long as I keep that in the back of my head, I could be much more useful and quite the go getter.  I hate having the feeling of restless sleep, endless seconds upon seconds and the boringness that sometimes over shadows and clouds my thoughts.  The fact that grays surround my thoughts shouldn't hamper my potential, but the blessings that envelop me should provide the fuel alone to keep on charging 110%.  Here's to the beginning of September. 

On and Off Again...

It really sucks to be "on and off" in terms of mindset.  It's like one day I'm on automatic and the next requires so much mental capacity and thought process that I just sit and vegetate.  I haven't opened up my computer in over a week and just have been absent when around friends or colleagues.  I'm sure that this week will pose to be a lot better being that I'm back in action.  I guess just getting into the rhythm of things is something that I have to stay atoned to.  Here we go!!!

The Good Feeling

Over the last few weeks, things have just been going a little too well.  It's definitely been a little bit since a major stretch of bliss, but I'm able to recognize that things are good again.  At least for the most part, the flying has been tremendous and the commuting hasn't really been all that bad.  I've been updating trelijah quite often as it's really easy to upload / email pictures to the site and the format is actually what I have been looking for in terms of quality.  The photos are almost full resolution!

I'm once again on the commute back to San Diego on AirTran enjoying the exit row eagerly awaiting the dry weather.  I'm about to head out tonight with one of my friends Joe who is back in town for a week vacation prior to starting up his last year at dental school in Boston.  Should make out for good times. 

I watched the Olympic Women's Beach Volleyball finals match last night which was amazing!  It's crazy to see that the two-some has won a total of over 100 matches in a row!  I haven't been on top of the olympics really this year as I've been preoccupied with some personal stuff including flying my butt off an going right to bed.