things!

[jazzfish]

My email provider has been hungry lately. For patches of an hour or so over the last two or three days all mail to me goes curiously missing. A Missing Email Report has been filed but the police can do nothing. It's getting on time to take matters into my own hands. (Cue dramatic music.)

Here, have some links from the past month or so.

Grammar, from merseine0613.

John Kerry, funnyman: "Q: On what types of products do you never go cheap, for the sake of quality? A: Ketchup." (via adamcadre)

I LEGO N.Y., from Making Light.

ML also gives us Peanuts Watchmen.

Speaking of Watchmen, there's Saturday Morning Watchmen. It's been a very long time since I've seen that much sheer wrong packed into one minute thirty.

Terror: The Director's Cut: "Black is an identifiable thing. What I faded into wasn't identifiable, because identity of anything had gone away. It's impossible to describe what I 'faded' into, but I'm going to try my best." (via salzara_tirwen)

And I leave for OMG Vancouver in two days. My knowledge of Canadian telecom suggests that net access will be Spotty At Best. I /think/ the hotel we got has wireless. . .

Suggestions of things to do or not do are welcome.

Comments

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

We're not *that* backwards up here. :) Lots of stuff costs more (although the exchange rate is greatly in your favor these days) but we've got pretty much the same stuff - hotels with wireless, libraries, cafes, etc. :) Finding email when traveling can be a hassle, but it's not worse in Canada. (Except, of course, that you have an iPhone and are now used to having internet access anywhere - which I am horribly jealous of. :) )

Glad to hear you're excited about the trip! Are you nervous because it's out of the country, or just 'cause it's somewhere new to you? (You don't have to answer that... I'm just curious if travel to Vancouver is somehow more nervousness-inducing than travel somewhere else.)

[jazzfish]

I was kind of disturbed by the number of hotels that /didn't/ provide internet access with the room. Some had it for an exorbitant fee, and more seemed to not have it at all.

The Device /is/ rather handy. :) I've gotten a bit spoiled by being able to check email (or, more importantly, a map) anywhere and anywhen. Still not a fan of the screen keyboard thing, though.

Nerves. . . Partly it's the first time E's been out of the country ever, and the first time I've been since I was five. It's more that it's a new city, with no native guide whatsoever. And there's a slight worry that E (or I) won't actually like Vancouver and we'll have to start all over again trying to find a place to live.

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Ah! I didn't realize you were so seriously considering it as a place to move to (in the relatively near future?), although I do think you mentioned it vaguely the last time I saw you. That would certainly explain the nerves.

I also didn't realize that neither of you had been out of the country ever/in a long time. Canada's pretty easy- they more or less speak the same language :) and the customs/immigration and airport security people tend to be nicer here. (Actually, everyone tends to be pretty nice - it's one of those stereotypes that's clearly grounded in reality - and we've noticed it particularly with bureaucracy.)

Hmmm... if I'd realized this earlier, I'd have given more advice, but you're probably gone by now. The main thing that comes to mind is that while your credit cards will almost certainly work, people occasionally have problems. Ours didn't usually work at gas stations at the outside pay-at-the-pump but they worked inside, so if you rent a car, that's good to know. ATM cards have always worked fine for us.

Unfortunately I heard from my boss (who lives in Vancouver) that the weather is supposed to be boring and rainy all weekend, so I hope you packed rain jackets.