Project 365

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January 26th, 2010

As one of my goals for the year, I have decided to attempt the massive undertaking that is known as “Project 365″.  If you are not familiar with this concept, Project 365 is a photography project where you take one photo everyday for one year.  The idea is to get lots and lots of practice which will hopefully improve my photography skills.  I also hope to learn some new techniques and figure out how to use the manual settings on my camera.

This is something that I have talked about doing since around 2007.  After finally buying a DSLR camera and following my friend Eric Wilfong’s Project 365 last year, I am finally ready to give it a shot myself.

I have created a new photoblog specifically for this project - http://timchurch-project365.tumblr.com.  The photos will also be posted to a set on Flickr.

Goals for 2010

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January 14th, 2010

Sticking with my annual tradition, here are my goals for the year:

1. Get married!
2. Project 365 - 1 photo everyday for a year  [photography]
3. Visit 1 new country  [travel]
4. Read 36 books  [reading]
5. Graduate from CLSC  [reading]
6. Read 3 programming books  [career]
7. Build and launch 1 new website  [career]
8. Finish lifestream and webtemplategenerator.com (carried over from last year)  [career]
9. Increase traffic on devcheatsheet.com 10x to 1k uniques/day  [career]
10. Max ROTH IRA contribution  [finance]
11. Save $10k toward retirement  [finance]
12. Improve eating habits - smaller portions, more fruits and veggies, daily vitamin, less fried foods, less pop  [health]
13. Weigh 215 lbs or less  [health]
14. Improve flexibility  [health]

An Inadvertent Around-the-World Trip

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January 13th, 2010

Without meaning to, I have just completed my second trip around the world.  That’s right, I unintentionally circled the globe in 2009.  Let me explain.

I was in the USA over the summer, then I flew back to Zurich for the fall, with a stopover in Ireland on the way back.  Over Christmas, I went to Thailand for vacation with a stopover in Qatar on the way.  Then, because I had accidentally overstayed my visa in Switzerland, I couldn’t use the return leg of my Zurich->Bangkok flight.  Instead, I bought a new ticket back to the USA.  Since I was in Asia, the shortest way to get to the USA, especially the west coast, was to fly over the Pacific Ocean.  And with that flight, my RTW trip was complete.

Here is the summary:  Seattle -> Chicago -> Dublin -> Zurich -> Doha -> Bangkok -> Tokyo -> Seattle

3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos - Part 2

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January 13th, 2010

Continued from 3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos - Part 1

Koh Phangan, Thailand

From Bangkok we traveled the cheap, backpacker way and took the overnight bus to a ferry to get to Koh Phangan. The bus was surprisingly comfortable and we both were able to get some sleep. This 12ish hour journey only cost 600 baht each (~$18).

In Koh Phangan, we went back to Haad Rin, where we had been 4 years earlier on our RTW trip. For people that know Emily and I, this may seem like a surprising choice since Haad Rin is best known for its crazy full moon parties on the beach. We weren’t there for the parties, it was just nice to go back to someplace familiar; plus Koh Phangan has decent beaches, beautiful sunsets, and most importantly - delicious chicken schnitzel! We are both obsessed with these delicious non-Thai treats. Almost everyday we would go to “Mama’s Schnitzel” for lunch where we would get a chicken schnitzel sandwich and a fruit shake (coconut, pineapple, and orange). The sandwich is very basic - a bun with fried chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and sweet chili sauce - but it is amazingly delicious. I wish Mama Schnitzel would franchise and open up in the US/Switzerland!

Most of our time in Koh Phangan was spent relaxing on the beach or sharing a Chang beer while watching beautiful sunsets. We took one day trip to Koh Samui to extend my visa (apparently when you cross the border via car or train you only get a 15 day Thai visa as opposed to 30 days when you enter by plane…). We also took a longtail boat over to Hat Yao one afternoon, where I proposed to Emily. (She said yes!)

Koh Tao, Thailand

We took the short ferry from Koh Phangan to Koh Tao to get a change of scenery and to meet up with our friend CK. On Koh Tao, we headed to Hat Sairee and were lucky to find a good, cheap, basic bungalow right on the beach. Our first choice was all booked (as many places were since this was just a few days before Christmas) but they had room left at Crystal Dive Resort. Our bungalow was very basic - just a wooden shack with a bed, a fan, and a bathroom, but it was all that we needed and it was right on the beach.

In Koh Tao we met up with our friend CK and her friend Ty. (We had recently seen CK when we visited her in London a month earlier). CK and Ty stayed on a different beach than us, Mae Haad, but we met up with them everyday on the beach and for dinner.  It was a lot of fun to see some familiar faces and hang out with them.

Koh Tao is famous for its scuba diving. I did some dives here on the RTW trip back in 2005 and was excited to get back in the water. Since I hadn’t been diving since 2005, I decided to take the PADI refresher course at Seashell Divers. The refresher course consists of a brief classroom session (~30 minutes) and reviewing all of the 20 skills from the Open Water certification in the pool. I remembered how to do everything right away, but I felt more comfortable after taking the refresher course. The next two mornings I went on double dives, so I did 4 dives total. The first day we dove Green Rock followed by White Rock. Green Rock has some nice swim-throughs but is otherwise rather disappointing. White Rock has a lot more diversity of fish and coral, and I really enjoyed that dive. The next day, which happened to be Christmas Eve, we went out to Chumphon Pinnacle first, where I had an amazing dive. We saw at least 8 bull sharks that were each 6-8 feet long. Even besides the sharks, there were lots of other stuff to see including huge schools of fish and tons of sea anemones. This was by far the best dive of the trip. My final dive was back at Green Rock and was nice and long but otherwise unmemorable.

We spent Christmas on the beach in Koh Tao.  It felt very strange to be away from home and in 90 degree weather for xmas, but at least there were enough tourists and expats that we saw lots of Santa hats and heard some Christmas carols playing.  On Christmas morning, Emily and I filled stockings for each other, mostly with cheap Thai trinkets.  We both put a lychee instead of the traditional orange at the end of the stocking (well, traditional in my family at least).

From Koh Tao, we took another ferry and overnight bus back to Bangkok.  We only had a day in Bangkok before we had to head back to the airport where Emily flew back to Zurich and I flew to the USA (I couldn’t go back to Switzerland due to the visa issues).  Overall, it was an amazing trip.  It felt like we were gone forever.  Long enough to forget which day of the week it is, which I think is the sign of a good vacation.  Now it is back to reality…

All Thailand photos on Flickr

3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos - Part 1

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January 13th, 2010

After my visa issues and stopover in Doha, it was on to Southeast Asia for 3 and a half weeks.  I feel very fortunate to be able to say that this is not the longest vacation I have ever taken (3rd longest, I think).  I spent 3 days in Laos and the rest of the time in Thailand.  This was my 3rd time visiting Thailand - its combination of beautiful beaches, great food, friendly people, and cheap prices makes it one of my favorite countries in the world.

Vientiane, Laos

I arrived in Bangkok on December 6th with one night reserved in Bangkok and no other set plans.  I was on my own until Emily arrived five days later on December 11th.  I decided to do a quick trip to Vientiane since Laos was the one place in SE Asia that I had still not been to yet, and I wanted to check it out.

To get to Vientiane you can either take an overnight bus, overnight train, or fly.  I chose the overnight train from Bangkok to Nong Khai, followed by a quick train across the Friendship Bridge into Laos.  Unfortunately, I made the bad decision to go 2nd class on the way there.  The bed was fine but they left the lights on all night long so I didn’t get any sleep at all.  So when I arrived, I was suffering from some serious “trainlag”.

Maybe it was due to my sleeping schedule being off or maybe because I got sick while I was there (cold), but Vientiane didn’t really impress me.  I stayed in a cheap guesthouse near the river, or rather, near the riverbed.  The Mekong river was extremely low (I assume just because of the season?) and it only filled about a third of the total riverbed.  So instead of eating dinner overlooking the water, I had a rather unspectacular view of dirt.  The food in Vientiane, however, wasn’t bad and was dirt cheap.  I really enjoyed the chicken laap, a traditional Lao dish.  Laap, or larb, is minced meat mixed with a lot of herbs and chilis and usually served with sticky rice.

I did get out and do some sightseeing in Vientiane one day.  I took a tuk-tuk/jumbo to the Patuxai monument and then walked back from there.  [Side note - negotiating with tuk-tuks is much more difficult in Laos than in Thailand because they are run like a cartel - the driver must get the price approved by the leader of the group before he can leave.]  Patuxai, or “Victory Gate”, is Vientiane’s Arc de Triumphe.  There is a funny story behind it; the US government gave Laos concrete to build a new airport in the 60s but the Laos government used it to build this monument instead, which is why it is often referred to as the “Vertical Runway”.  After Patuxai, I also stopped by the Talat Sao market and the That Dam stupa.

Pictures from Laos on Flickr

Bangkok, Thailand

Emily and I met up in Bangkok, after she flew in from Zürich and I took the train back from Laos (1st class this time).  We stayed in a guesthouse on Soi Rambutti, just off of the main backpacker strip of Khao San road.  We had been there on our around-the-world trip so we were already familiar with the area.  It is a bit crowded and chaotic there which was fun for a couple days, but then we were both ready to get out of Bangkok and down to the islands.

We did manage to get away from Khaosan road a couple times.  One night we took a tuk-tuk to the flower market, and another night we went to Chinatown and ate dinner at T&K Seafood, which had been recommended to us by a friend.   We ate outside on the crowded sidewalk and had a great meal.  I had the crab curry and Emily tried the sweet chili fish.  Both were great.  Emily also ate a couple of the biggest oysters I have ever seen in my life.  Even after cutting them in half, they were still enormous.

Continue to 3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos - Part 2

All Thailand photos on Flickr

Follow-up on 2009 Goals

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January 7th, 2010

Final Count:  7.5/15

2009 was a crazy year for me with an international move, tons of travel (15 countries), unemployment, and an engagement.  But even with all of that going on, I was able to accomplish alot.  Here is the summary:

1. Weigh 205 lbs - Nope.
2. Finish 1 major race (marathon, 1/2 ironman, or century bike) - Half credit.  I trained for five months for the Amsterdam marathon but was unable to run the race due to an injury.
3. Move abroad - Emily and I moved to Zürich, Switzerland in February (although I am still working on a visa so I can stay full time).
4. Visit 3 new countries - Visited 9 new countries:  Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Czech Republic, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark, Qatar, Laos
5. Learn a new programming language - Learned Python (and Django) to create devcheatsheet.com
6. Build and launch at least 1 website - Done -  devcheatsheet.com
7. Finish lifestream and webtemplategenerator.com - Didn’t get around to finishing these; focused instead on launching DevCheatSheet.com
8. Read 4+ programming books - Only read 1 programming book:  The Definitive Guide to Django
9. $100/month passive income - Not yet…just starting to get some traffic so hopefully I will be able to start making a little bit of passive income in 2010
10. Max ROTH-IRA contribution - Done.
11. Save $25k - I was on track for this goal until the startup ran out of funding and I was out of a job.  Since then my bank accounts have been going down instead of up.
12. Learn a foreign language - I’m going to give myself credit for this one after finishing a 3 month intensive A1 German course (although I am still a beginner).
13. Read 30 books - Read 37 books - full list on LibraryThing.com
14. Write first draft of movie screenplay - Never started.
15. Photography class - No class, but I finally bought a DSLR and have taken a lot of photographs this year.

We’re Engaged!!

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January 6th, 2010

I am slow in posting this big news, but Emily and I are engaged!  I proposed on December 16th when we were in Thailand on the island of Koh Phangan.  Emily and I have been together for nearly six years, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her.

Engagement pictures on Flickr

Quick Stopover in Doha, Qatar

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January 3rd, 2010

On my way from Zürich to Bangkok (about a month ago), I managed to fit in a short stopover in Doha to visit my friend Josh Weiner and his wife, Stephanie.  I wanted to stay longer but the best I could arrange was to arrive at 6:30pm and leave at 8:00am the next morning.  When I booked the trip, I didn’t realize that Saturday night in Qatar is like our Sunday night since the weekend is Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday.  Oops.  Even though it was a very short visit, it was still great to get the chance to see a new country and catch up with old friends.

Josh and Stephanie picked me up at the airport and took me to the old Souk, where we got an amazing dinner of Lebanese food at Le Gourmet.  Then they drove me through downtown Doha and past all of the Qatar foundation buildings, where Stephanie works.  Afterwards, we went back to their villa and had a couple drinks on the balcony.  The drinking laws are very strange in Qatar - as I understand it, only hotels are allowed to sell alcohol and only expats and tourists can buy it.  And expats must get a special license to buy alcohol to drink at home too.  They obviously have a very different attitude toward alcohol in Qatar than in the USA or Europe (or anywhere else I’ve ever been).

In many ways Doha reminded me of Dubai - lots of huge highrises, everything under construction, and surrounded by desert (plus both are Arabic speaking, Muslim countries).  Like Dubai, Doha seems like a booming city with lots of money.  Qatar is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but I was surprised to learn that they get most of their money from natural gas, not oil.  I was also surprised to learn that there is no income tax in Qatar.

Although almost everything in Doha is new and modern, much of the city still feels rather temporary or unfinished.  For example, the villa where Josh and Stephanie live is very nice but there is no paved road to get to it (and no plans to ever pave it).  After turning off the main road, you have to drive offroad on the dirt to get to the building.  Also, I heard that it is a common practice in Doha to tear down relatively new buildings (1-2 years old) to make room for new construction.

The traffic is crazy in Doha.  They have the biggest, scariest roundabouts I have ever seen in my life.  Seriously, we are talking about 4 to 8 lanes of cars, nobody paying any attention to lane markers, and people diving across all the lanes to exit from the innermost lane.  Crazy.

Finally, I was surprised to see so many US and western companies in Doha.  I saw far more international chain restaurants and retail stores in Doha than in Zürich.  I even saw some smaller chains such as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in addition to the bigger ones you may more likely expect like Dunkin Donuts.

Pictures from Doha on Flickr

Even More Visa Issues

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December 31st, 2009

[After a nice, long vacation in Thailand, I am back in the USA. I’ve been putting off writing this blog post both because I was upset when it first happened and because I just wanted to relax on the beach for awhile before dealing with it again. But now the time has come to revisit this issue and catch up on lots of blog posts.]

Unfortunately, the great Swiss visa saga of 2009 continues.  When I was leaving Switzerland on December 5th to go to Thailand, I was stopped at passport control.  I was prepared for this inevitable event with a detailed spreadsheet of all of my travels for the year to show that I have stayed within the legal limits of my tourist visa by only staying in Switzerland for 90 days out of 180.  Unfortunately, although I had been careful to follow the rules, I had been given bad advice by a Swiss lawyer so my accounting was inaccurate.  The actual rule is that I can stay 90 days out of 180 in ALL SCHENGEN AGREEMENT COUNTRIES, not just in Switzerland.  So even though I was in CH for less than 90 days, I had been in Schengen countries for 101 days, meaning I had overstayed my tourist visa by 11 days.  Doh!

So back to the passport control at the airport.  They noticed that I had overstayed my visa and sent me into a back office with another police officer.  They locked me in a large room with one older woman who was bawling and apologizing profusely for overstaying her visa by over 90 days.  I had to explain my situation to the (very nice) officer and fill out a form.  Then I had to pay a fine of about 250 CHF, but luckily since I was about to miss my flight, the officer accepted the 60 CHF that I had in my wallet as full payment.  Then I had to sign another form that basically said I acknowledge that Switzerland/Schengen area may deny me entry in the future because of this incident.  However, the officer said that since I had only a minor violation that this would probably not be an issue for me.  So let’s all keep our fingers crossed that I am not permanently banned from Europe…

Thanksgiving in Zürich

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December 7th, 2009

Emily and I had a bunch of our friends over on the Sunday after Thanksgiving for a traditional American feast.  The menu:  turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, and pumpkin muffins - plus Rich and Julia made a homemade lemon meringue pie for dessert.

It was a bit difficult to find all of the necessary ingredients in the Swiss grocery stores, but we managed to find just about everything.  We bought the only turkey they had at the Coop near our apartment.  It weighed a little over 8 kg, or about 18 pounds.  And turkeys are quite expensive in Switzerland too;  the price was CHF 120 but luckily happened to be 50% off.  The other big challenge was that the ovens are very small in Switzerland.  The turkey fit but it filled up the entire oven (it was on the lowest rack and the foil covering it touched the top).  So we had to cook the muffins the day before, the stuffing after we took out the turkey, and everything else on the stove.

All of the food came out perfectly, if I may say so myself.  Literally everything.  The turkey was nice and juicy, Emily’s famous stuffing was delicious, the buttermilk mashed potatoes were a big hit, and even the gravy was great (even though Emily had never made it before).

The group ended up being 10 people including us.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, but I think the biggest hit of the night was the turkey baster.  Apparently turkey basters are exotic and fascinating in Europe, who knew?  After dinner, everyone hung around our apartment and played Taboo.  We all had a great time, and it was fun for Emily and I to be able to share this American holiday with some of our European friends.