Travels

Jul 13 2012

Heading north to Inuvik, NT for the weekend

I have lived in the north practically all my life but I’ve never actually been to Inuvik, NT. I’ve actually been to more of western Nunavut than western NWT. I’ve been to Cambridge Bay, NU, Kugluktuk, NU, Bathurst Inlet, NU and so on.

I’m excited to see what is going on in Inuvik. The terrain has always intrigued me and been somewhat of a mystery to me. It is further north than Yellowknife but is still below the treeline and lies along the arctic coast.

The point of my trip to Inuvik is business but I will have the flexibility to explore the area and find out what is going on up there. My goal is to try and experience Inuvik as if I am a tourist and record everything I am seeing and doing.

While I’m in Inuvik the Great Northern Artists Festival will be taking place, which will be one of the events I’m going to check out. The festival features artists from all over the north showcasing there art and taking part in workshops.

Tomorrow I may even get the chance to go to Tuktoyuktuk, NT, which is an even smaller community.

Let the adventure begin.

Mar 15 2011

REVIEW: Free Supper at Lou Malnati’s Pizza

Okay I’m back on Fort St John now, so I suppose I really should catch up on all the blog posts I wanted to do on my trip to Chicago. I figure a good way to continue posts about Chicago I should tell you about Lou Malnati’s.

Lou Malnati’s is a famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizzeria. The pizza is like no other. A thick 2″ tall crust, cheese underneath pizza sauce and all the ingredients. It is almost impossible to eat by hand it is so hardy.

The atmosphere of the place is great, so was the service. You could see the history on the walls and in the staff.

What makes our story of Lou Malnati’s so special was the fact we ended up with a free meal, which we can thank Andrew for once again. While our waitress was serving us our drinks her tray lost balance and tipped towards a wall behind Andrew. So Andrew reacting to the falling glasses reached out to prevent them from falling further, unfortunately one of the glasses had broken before hand and sliced one of Andrews fingers. There was blood, but it didn’t seems all that bad. Martin and Andrew disappeared to bandage him up. You could instantly tell the restuarant was very sorry about it and did everything they could to accomidate us.

We ended up with a completely free meal with dessert. Thanks Andrew.

[flickr-gallery mode=”tag” tags=”chicagolm” tag_mode=”all”]

See all the photo from Lou Malnati’s on Flickr.

Mar 09 2011

Day One at Drupalcon Chicago

Alright I’m not the greatest at actually writing about the sessions I attended. That being because most of the sessions I am attending are only somewhat related to my field of work, therefore I only really take in half sessions.

Nonetheless though, I’m having a fun time. Obviously it was good to listen to Dries early in the day. Then I went to the Media Session. After that though I ended up meeting up with our Web Designer, Steven, and hitting up the Exhibit Hall for free swag. Then I sat in on Andrews Bird of a Feather on local news sites, which was interesting, but only a small turn out and finally I listened to a session with Project Manager, which was neat. Of course the final, final thing I did yesterday was attend the Drupalcon Field Museum Party.

I have to say I got a little overwhelmed at certain points yesterday. There were just so many people and I did the stupid thing and didn’t really pay attention to where I needed to me. Today though I have a plan of attack, read the schedule a head of time.

Something I was told when I started playing with Drupal, although I haven’t gotten far, was to never hack Core.

The only thing I am regretting so far at Drupalcon is not being more out going in person. On Twitter I’m a little Social-lite, but in person I keep to my own in a sense. Wouldn’t mind meeting other people along the way and hearing their stories.

Feb 10 2011

Why can’t I work anywhere!

Earlier today a web development company, much like the one I work for here in Fort St. John put it out on twitter, that they were looking for a web manager. Now I have no idea what that includes, but it did bring up some ideas.

I re-tweeted it and then a lot of other people in Yellowknife were suggesting that I apply. I’m of course torn, I have such a good job down here in Fort St. John and an awesome friend space, although small. This got me thinking a lot about Yellowknife, and I can say that I do dearly miss it.

I miss my family, I think I have to say that. I miss the rocks and the lakes. I miss the atmosphere, the city in a small town. I miss a lot of things about Yellowknife, I do want to go back someday. I just don’t know when that will be.

This got me thinking though, why can’t I go back. Why can’t I do it I’m doing now and work from wherever I want. I decided to take a look at what I do in a day. I answer e-mails, I talk to clients, I act as technical support, I work with websites and I create content. There are other things that I do, but those of the gist of things. From what I can tell most of those things can be done from anywhere, after all we do work in the world of the Internet. With technologies like Skype and GoToMeeting, it should be perfectly possible for me to work remotely. I should be able to Skype consulting calls with clients as needed.

I’m happy with the position I am in at work and I hope my employer is as well. I hope to develop my position in the future, that will allow me to move around as I need to or as I want to. In my line of business I don’t see why I couldn’t have clients all over the world. I truly believe that’s the way this type of business is going. I don’t want to have to situate myself in one location permanently.

It seems like a lot to ask for a 20-year-old, but if I work towards it I don’t see why wouldn’t be possible. – WMRGUMEAJ3HC –