Byteful Travel

Byteful Travel Blog Carnival #10 – 2012 Jan

Andrew "Adi" C. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:11:41 +0000

Even though winter may be in full swing where I am, the articles in today’s blog carnival are refreshingly tropical!

In fact, I’m really happy to say that, despite being the dead of winter, we had plenty of lovely submissions this time. You’re all in for a treat. (And if you’re new to blog carnivals, they’re one of the best ways to discover awesome new content you never would have discovered otherwise; so you’d best put seat belts on your eyes, because they’re in for a travelistic ride.)

The Best of BTBC #10

If you don’t have time to read all of the articles now, fear not. Each time I publish a BTBC, I love to highlight three articles that really stick with me that you shouldn’t miss. And this time I’d like to highlight:

24 hours of love by Bastiaan Reinink is a very short but gripping story about the beautiful things that can happen if you travel with an open heart.
Scotch and Coconut Water by Curt & Lorrie is a well-documented tale of what it’s like to experience Vieques Island in Puerto Rico, as well as explore some of the islands more interesting features. Cool video clips included, too!
Hiking Trail on Hawaii’s Kohala Coast by The Vacation Gals is a fantastic post about the Ala Kahakai trail on the Big Island of Hawaii, featuring some great photos to support the story. Best of all, it shows how much more meaningful it is when we understand the history and culture of the places we tread.

A Reminder & A Win-Win-Win

And before I forget, if one of your articles is in this month’s edition, I’d really appreciate it if you could retweet, stumble, and “Like” this article on Facebook! Remember, spreading the word multiplies the reach of this blog carnival which in turn helps more people discover your article and grows your site. (And if you aren’t yet a submitter, find out how you too can join in farther down.)

Thanks again for submitting to the BTBC. By doing so, you reach many people, many of which have never even seen your site before, so it’s a real win-win-win situation.

So, without further ado, let’s journey from the warm breezes of Hawaii, to the Fountains of Switzerland, to beaches of Vieques Island, and beyond…

Travel Destinations

Jennifer Miner presents:
Hiking Trail on Hawaii’s Kohala Coast posted at The Vacation Gals, saying,

“Hiking this historic trail on Hawaii’s Big Island adds a cultural experience to a beach vacation.”

Zhu presents:
In The Woods posted at Correr Es Mi Destino, saying,

“On the weekend of November 11, I packed a small bag, left my computer and my city life behind and headed to Bourget, a small village in Eastern Ontario – a world of farms, straight roads and no traffic. Welcome to the countryside.”

Martine presents:
Half of the Wagons go to Lanzarote posted at The Wanderly Wagons.

Martine presents:
And the other half goes to Andalucia posted at The Wanderly Wagons.

Michael Turtle presents:
Rio’s tourism paradox posted at Time Travel Turtle.

AbundantJourneys presents:
5 Bali Tours to Go On posted at Life Is Full of Bloom.

Travel Photography

Indrani Ghose presents:
Fountains of Berns, Switzerland posted at i Share, saying,

“Statues sighted during walking tour of Berns, Switzerland.”

Brooke Allen presents:
Big Sky, Montana, New Year’s 2012, Part II posted at Rambling Brooke.

Travel Stories

Bastiaan Reinink presents:
24 hours of love posted at Perpetual Wonder, saying,

“24 hours of South America. I’ve fallen in love. I’ve broken my heart. Could the next 24 hours please be a little bit less eventful?”

Tui Snider presents:
Venice, Italy’s Warped Sense of Scale posted at Mental Mosaic, saying,

“A recent visit to Venice, Italy got me thinking about the meaning of scale. Check out these photos and you will see what I mean; it’s not trick photography: those huge luxury yachts truly dwarf this graceful floating village.”

Shanna Schultz presents:
Boldly Go: How Travel Has Changed my Outlook on the World posted at There and Back Again.

Bastiaan Reinink presents:
Free hugs posted at Perpetual Wonder.

Curt presents:
Scotch and Coconut Water posted at After the Mortgage.

Travel Tips

Theresa Torres presents:
Travel Guest Post: Fashion Tips for the World Traveler posted at Jetsetera, saying,

“Being able to blend in with the locals when you travel to other places has its advantages. Here are some fashion tips to guide the traveler.”

April D. Thompson presents:
How I Make This Travel Thing Work posted at The Absolute Travel Addict, saying,

“3 Key things to think about when deciding to travel more.”

Megan presents:
Social Awareness Posts: A Preface posted at La Vida en Viaje.

Dawn Xiana Moon presents:
Poutine: La Banquise posted at Kitchen Lore.

Care to grow your blog’s audience?

If you write well (and you’ve written something that relates to travel), and you haven’t submitted to the BTBC before, what are you waiting for? Blog Carnivals are an amazing and free way to get more exposure to your work, so you’d be silly not to take advantage of this opportunity.

I know this from firsthand experience because blog carnivals have been helpful in spreading the word about Byteful Travel. So if you’re a writer, and you’ve written something that relates to travel, submit a piece you’re proud of to the next BTBC by going to the submission form. Just remember to read the rules, okay? (And to see past posts and future hosts, check the blog carnival index.)

Are you ready to become a force for positive connections?

In November, Tui from over at Mental Mosaic stepped up and hosted BTBC #9. She did a great job and got some great attention through social media, as well as getting rated 5 stars on BlogCarnival.com. Thanks again, Tui!

If you have a travel-related blog and you’re interested in hosting the BTBC, please contact me. Not only will hosting attract more attention to your blog, it helps bring the travel writing community closer, too. Remember, whenever you host a carnival, you become a positive force that allows connections to manifest.

Looking for more handpicked travel content?

If you enjoyed today’s carnival, you’ll probably enjoy the Byteful Travel Weekly Recap, as well. It automatically collects the best content from writers I’ve hand-picked from across the web, most of which I’ve discovered because they’ve submitted to the Byteful Travel Blog Carnival. In fact, since it automatically updates every Monday, it always has fresh articles from my fellow travel writers. The other thing I really like about it is that it presents the articles in a very readable newspaper layout, so finding something you like is really easy: Byteful Travel Weekly Recap

If you’d like your content to get exposure through the Byteful Travel Weekly Recap, then submit a quality piece to the BTBC. If you’re included in a carnival, you’ll be added to the BT Weekly Recap list.

Coming up on Byteful Travel:

We touch California redwoods within Muir Woods Natl. Monument, as well as a get a stunning view of the San Francisco Bay from the top of Mount Tamalpais. And after that, we explore Las Vegas, so be sure to subscribe and stay in touch. And until next time, may your travels enlighten your soul to fresh insights, new connections, and powerful realizations.

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How “Tigering It” Helped Me Face My Fears, Drop Anonymity, & Become More Genuine

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:22:03 +0000

Have you ever published something completely anonymously? What were your reasons behind it? If it was out of timidity or fear, was it something your best self would have done? For a long time, I thought some level of anonymity on this site was a good thing, but that time has come to an end.

This wasn’t an easy article to write for me. In fact, out of the hundreds of articles I’ve written for Byteful Travel, this was probably the most challenging to write, but this is an article whose time has come.

Trying to Avoid a Non-Problem

First, I’ll give you some context for how events have led up to the point where I finally dropped anonymity.

In Byteful Travel’s early days, going by “Byteful Traveller” seemed to be a natural step. But after a while, I realized that this wasn’t especially memorable or a good reflection of who I was. So, after much research and reflection, I choose the pen name “Andärin”, which was a Spanish word that meant “walker” or “wanderer”. I liked the feel of it; and for a time, I felt good about using it. After all, I wasn’t the only blogger using a pen name, right?

At the time, I felt this pen name worked well. I liked the idea of the anonymity, and I’d never liked the idea of fame, even teenie-tiny internet fame. I was afraid of it. Sometimes my imagination would run away with me, projecting out scenarios where people I didn’t know approached me on the street, telling me their opinion of my work and who I was, even though they didn’t know me at all. (Admittedly, I was letting my imagination have a bit too much free reign over my mind.)

I thought that a pen name and forgoing using a photo of myself on this site would be an elegant way to avoid that problem. At the time, I felt as though it would simplify my life in some ways. After all, with page views still going up, why should it matter?

Yet over the course of 2011, the feeling that the pen name was actually more rooted in fear than logic kept nagging at me more and more. When I faced these feelings head on, I realized that the writer I wanted to become would not tolerate this kind of lingering feeling. For some people, maybe a pen name is all they’ll ever need. Maybe they’ll always feel great about it. But the more I wrote, the more I realized that it just wasn’t right for me.

Tigering It

Eventually, a horrifying thought came to me: I was hiding behind my sense of anonymity. Being anonymous wasn’t making my life simpler. Instead my life felt more awkward. It became more and more clear to me that, for me, the pen name was a false barrier getting between me and the people I wanted to serve. I wasn’t being my full, true self. When mentioning the site to friends, I felt an inner resistance whenever I explained that I was using a pen name.

When I felt this gut reaction too many times, I knew it was time for a change. But I didn’t make the change. At least, not at first.

It wasn’t until last week, when I returned home from Steve Pavlina’s Conscious Success Workshop, that I had the resolve to make the change. One of the most memorable concepts from the workshop was the idea of “tigering it”, which means charging towards a goal similar to how you would use tiger style in martial arts. (In fact, this was so well-received at the workshop that one of the attendees bought small stuffed-animal tigers for everyone there.)

Basically, using tiger style means you focus all of your energy on the attack and not worry about defense. As you can probably imagine, this is pretty wild to see in person, and a running joke is that if two martial artists use tiger style on each other, one will end up going to the hospital while the other one will end up dead!

As you can probably guess, the Tiger style attitude can be extremely useful when it comes to completing projects, too. If you take a lot of action and avoid succumbing to over-analysis, you can accomplish things that may have seemed impossible before, and usually in much less time. So when I returned home, I “tigered it” and removed the pen name from the site. I didn’t even know what the next step was after that, but I knew I had to do it. And the rest of the steps flowed from there (including uploading a picture of myself). The workshop was the final nudge that had pushed me over the edge, and I’m so thankful for that. (And thanks to everyone who was there for creating such an amazing atmosphere and promoting so much growth in all who attended. You guys really are the salt of the earth.)

Embracing the Odyssey & A Challenge

Atop Lone Mountain in NV

Hello.

My name is Andrew, and I don’t believe I’ve properly introduced myself before. The reason for this was rooted in fear. I was letting irrational fear inform my actions. I wasn’t acting like my best self would act… but that changes today.

And while “Andärin” may have been a cool pen name (someone once said it sounded elvish), it wasn’t me. This is also the first time I’ve shared a picture of myself on a public website, so this is well outside of my comfort zone. But I’ve decided that, as long as there are intelligent reasons to do so, I’m going to push myself to do things that scare me and put me outside of my comfort zone more often, because it’s more likely to help others (not to mention help me grow, as well).

Under the “author” tag, you may also have noticed that I’ve included “Adi” in quotes. This is a nickname given to me by a dear friend toward the end of the Big 2009 Trip, and its significance will become more clear as we finish up the Big 2009 Trip story. (And I must admit that I really like how “Adi C” sounds like “odyssey”.)

After writing periodically on here for years, I’m ready to be my full self, publicly. Not only does it help with credibility, but it also helps me connect with you guys, my readers, on a much deeper level. From where I stand now, I feel that a pen name was a barrier to that. Overall, I feel a lot better having done this. “Tigering It” certainly changed my life, and I appreciate your support as I get used to this new level of transparency. Life is too short to be controlled by fear. Life is too short not to be our full, genuine selves — boldly and courageously.

So my challenge to you is this: if you’ve been creating anything under a pen name (or anonymously), have you consciously examined your real reasons for doing it? What would it mean if you embraced your work and took full ownership of it? Unless you’re doing guerrilla journalism in an oppressive country, it’s highly doubtful that you’ll be harmed for exercising your free speech, so what are you waiting for? Is it possible that embracing a higher level of transparency will be a relief to you on some level (and perhaps push you to do better work, as well)? What would your life be like if you took full ownership of everything you created? What would your best self do?

Just think about it.

We have an incredible year coming up, and the journey has only just begun. Coming up, we touch California redwoods within Muir Woods Natl. Monument, as well as a get a stunning view of the San Francisco Bay from the top of Mount Tamalpais. And after that, we explore Las Vegas, so be sure to subscribe and stay in touch.

No posts relate.

What’s Hidden Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge (Historical Fort Point Review)

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:11:48 +0000

Did you know that something is nestled underneath the Golden Gate Bridge? Something very old; and one a sunny day in September, I had the opportunity to photograph it.

Even though I’d already walked my butt off going up to Coit Tower and then over to Lombard Street, my feet would not relent. They were dead set in reaching the Golden Gate Bridge on the northern end of San Francisco. And little did I know that I was about to stumble upon a huge historical landmark hiding right underneath the bridge itself!

Rare Treats

After walking past a pack of wild segways, I followed a street north up to the bay trail which follows the north shore of the San Francisco peninsula.

But before I reached my destination, I passed by a small food stand. Normally, I wouldn’t stop somewhere spontaneously and buy a sugary treat; but I was on a quest thousands of miles from home, so I gave myself permission to treat myself. I chose something called an “It’s It”, and was instantly glad that I did.

If you’re not familiar with what that is (I wasn’t), it’s basically ice cream between two oatmeal cookies and then covered in chocolate; and I sat down in some shade near the beach for a few minutes and savored it. I wouldn’t have one of them every day, but it was a delicious treat after so much walking.

Other highlights along the path included: a large group of marines marching around in a verdant field, an artist sketching the Golden Gate Bridge from right on the beach, and the most hilarious dog walker I’ve ever met. Just as I was passing the beach, I noticed a guy who was walking at least 10 dogs from one hand. He was very friendly and even let me take a picture of his outrageous dog walking truck, complete with horns. (You can find that in the photo gallery that accompanies this article.)

Through our interaction, I was surprised to learn that professional dog walking can be extremely lucrative if you find the right clients. This may seem obvious in retrospect, but how many dog walkers do you know that make six figures a year?

Follow Your Instincts to Discover

And then I came to a fork in the path. My instincts said I should explore the lower path first, and I’m glad I did. After walking for a few minutes, I came across Fort Point, nestled below the Golden Gate Bridge.

I’d never even heard of it before. Have you?

Turns out, this fort had been built in the 1850s, many decades before the bridge was even conceived. It was now preserved as a historical site, available free to the public. And soon I was inside staring at a spacious inner courtyard, complete with authentic nineteenth century artillery.

I took a curving stone staircase to the second floor and happened to run into a small tour group. I tagged along behind them and got to see some interesting things, including a recreation of what the sleeping quarters looked like. Here’s a hint: Not too comfy.

When you go, don’t miss the lighthouse on the roof. From the top of the fort, you can see the huge superstructure of the Golden Gate Bridge above. In fact, the size of the bridge made this lighthouse, called the Fort Point Light, seem rather small in comparison. And according to a plaque nearby, it hadn’t been lit since the 1930s, when the bridge was completed.

Overall, I’m really glad I stumbled upon Fort Point. It stands as an amazing monument to nineteenth century architecture, and you can check it out completely free of charge! And all photos from this segment are in the photo gallery.

Where’s Marco?

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 26 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. In fact, I’m considering putting up hints that show what he’s near. Would anyone be interested in that?

If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

Can you find him in all 26?
Explore the Fort Point photo gallery —>

Coming up Next:

Even after that day, there was still plenty I would yet see in the City by the Bay. But first, I would explore the giant redwoods in the Tamalpais Valley to the north. More on that amazing experience is coming up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

If I don’t see you before long, happy holidays!
And until next time, make it a year worth remembering.

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Fort Point photo gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

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How I used Intention-Manifestation to stop an Identity Theft (& had fun doing it)

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:11:56 +0000

On Sunday afternoon, I went on a rescue mission.

It’s not often that my explorations have such a narrowly defined end-goal. Usually, they’re more open-ended in nature. But this time, someone’s identity was at stake; so I ventured out into the brisk December air, focused on accomplishing my goal.

The nature of the mission was simple: retrieve a lost social security card that had gone mysteriously missing. It must be kept from falling into the wrong hands. And in the process of searching, I instinctively used the intention-manifestation model of reality (also known as the Law of Attraction) to help me find it, soon realizing that sometimes finding what you really want is more effortless than finding what you don’t.

The card belonged to my brother, who lives nearby; and he had been very concerned since it had gone missing. I can’t say I blame him. After all, identity theft is a serious concern. And even though electronic identity theft gets a lot of attention these days, the majority of theft still occurs through paper means.

Clearly, retrieving this social security card was paramount. (The last thing anyone needs is someone pretending to be them.) And since I had some extra time on Sunday, I decided to wander around the place where he thought he’d lost it. What I didn’t realize until later was that I had instinctively used the intention-manifestation mindset… with unexpected results.

How to use Intention-Manifestation

I’ve already written about how I used the intention-manifestation model to get paid to travel 1,000 miles, but I’m going to restate it here in case you haven’t read that article yet.

Here’s how it works:

I made the decision
From that decision, I stated what I wanted to happen: “I will find the SSN card.”
I had faith that this would be resolved. I let the universe “Make It So.”
I let the intention go. I didn’t cling to it. (This is very important for it to work.)

The best theory was that the card had been placed, along with some other documents, atop a car and then forgotten about. Thankfully, he already had a good idea of where he might have lost it, so I began doing a wide sweep of that area. It had rained recently, but everything had since dried, leaving everything a bit cleaner than usual.

I walked for some time, shuffling through small piles of leaves along the road with my foot. On my way around the block, I came across a small piece of paper in the middle of the road. It was the right size, but was it his card?

No. It was a tiny promotion for some new pop album, and I continued my search. Along the way, I came across other fragments of paper, but they were always receipts or bits of wrapper.

A Clue that Followed Clarity

Nearly back at where I’d started, I finally saw something interesting. With a slightly different vantage point, I now saw a fragment of something white covered in leaves on the edge of the street. I ran over and brushed the leaves aside. It was my brother’s latest bank statement!

“Look gang, a clue!”

He must have had his SSN card folded up inside of it, but it wasn’t in there now. I knew I was close. I could smell victory. I began walking along the edge of the street for a moment, but for some reason stepped up and began walking down the sidewalk. And then, I was stunned by what I saw.

Lying atop green grass, in perfect plain sight, was the social security card.

My eyes widened as I crouched down and picked it up. I had actually found it. With a combination of persistence, faith, and clarity, I had manifested what I was looking for; and when I returned it to him, my brother was quite relieved to have it back. (In case you’re not familiar with social security numbers, I should explain that if I hadn’t found the card, it’s possible that someone could have taken is social security number off of the card and damaged his credit, or worse.)

Make It So!

Only later did I realize that I had used the intention-manifestation model to accomplish my mission. Nowadays it’s become a habit of mine to state what I want verbally and then release the intention with faith. Often, this produces some surprising results. The key is to remember that if you doubt it in your mind, then you’ll find doubt all around you. But by being very clear about what I wanted, releasing the intention with faith, and putting in focused effort toward my goal, I manifested the outcome I wanted with much less effort than I would have ever guessed. In fact, using intention-manifestation can be a blast if you maintain a playful attitude.

Have you ever used the intention-manifestation model? Remember that when you do, it’s key to release your desire with faith. There can be no clinging to a specific outcome. When you release it with faith, you have faith that it will manifest in the most natural way possible.

What about you? What’s your goal? Say it out loud right now, and then tell the universe, “Make it so.” Strange coincidences and synchronicities will arrive, and when they do, follow them.

They may even seem strange, but by following them, you allow your goal to manifest.

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What 3-Year-Old Me didn’t know about Wielding Power & Creating Freedom

Andrew "Adi" C. — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:33:54 +0000

I am three years old, throwing an ashtray across my grandfather’s living room.

Actually, I’m getting ahead of myself. To be completely honest, I didn’t plan on writing this story today, or at all. But when I was out running this morning, fragments of it started coming to me. By the time I got back, I knew I wanted to talk about power and freedom: understanding it, when you have it, and when you don’t. Because unfortunately, many people that I meet, including some close friends, aren’t fully embracing freedom in their lives.

Are you? What could your life look like if you were?

When I was about three years old, my family and I visited my grandparents in California. I loved spending time with them; and my grandmother, who grew up in France, was especially warm and loving. Just being around her was a comforting feeling. I’m sure you know the feeling. With her around, everything would always be OK. There was simply no doubt. And she was pretty easygoing, as well.

My grandfather was different. Having grown up in Brooklyn during the 1930s (and without a mother), his personality had adapted to survive in those unique circumstances. Thankfully, he hadn’t lost touch with his sense of empathy; but like a layer of old bark around a redwood, there was a layer of toughness around it. (Overall though, it was pretty remarkable how well he turned out given his unique childhood.) But even though his bark was worse than his bite, his bark was basically legendary in our family. He was loving, but he didn’t tolerate anyone’s BS, especially three-year-old-me’s version of it.

During the course of our visit, my grandparents watched me a couple times while my parents did other things. At that age, I obviously had a limited amount of freedom, but what I did have I used to its fullest potential. Often I would explore the area around the house for hours. (I know. Huge surprise, right?)

The Wrong Tendencies

Yet at my grandparents’ place, my freedom was even more limited. There were more rules here. There were things you dare not touch, and a fireplace ledge that I wasn’t allowed to sit on. “How dare they!” My 3-year-old self thought. “I’m not hurting anything by sitting on it.” But it didn’t matter. As I soon found out, breaking any of their rules had consequences.

The most famous incident (and the one that my grandfather continues to tell to this day, even in his advanced age), took place during the visit I mentioned above.

Young kids like throwing things. So did I. And though I have no memory of this, apparently I threw an ashtray (or something like it) across the room. For some reason, my grandfather didn’t understand how absolutely fun it was to throw things when surrounded by large glass windows and a sliding glass door. He told me if I did it again, he would have to punish me.

I should have realized the potential consequences, but I was in the mood to test my limits. So a few minutes later, I threw it again within range of a whole bunch of glass. And so, he hit me with a paddle (or maybe a belt), and I cried.

Lesson learned, right? Wrong!

The Wrong Replies

Being somewhat of a strategic child, I told my mother about this. And apparently, she told me he wasn’t supposed to punish me directly.

When my grandfather watched me a second time, I was armed with that information. And as we were walking up the steps to the house, I explained to him (quite proudly, I might add) that he wasn’t allowed to punish me because my mother had said that he couldn’t.

He nearly laughed and then explained how this was his house. If I was going to spend time in his house, I was to follow his rules, especially the rules about throwing hard objects near large panes of glass. Otherwise, there would be consequences.

Thankfully, I realized that throwing things in my grandparents’ house wasn’t the best use of my time, and after that conversation I never did it again. Instead, I played with what few toys they had and explored their backyard, as well.

When it came to learning about so-called “tough love”, my grandfather was one of my first teachers. And even though he could be rough around the edges, he was always very clear and congruent with his reasons behind anything that he did. From a young age, he helped me understand personal boundaries. Since then, I’ve come an extremely long way, as I’m sure any one would say they have since age three. But the fact that we’ve all grown isn’t the point.

The point is the direction in which you grow. Since then I’ve learned to wield my power more constructively and grow in a direction that increased my freedom. I’m pleased to say I haven’t thrown an ashtray since; and even though I’m still a smart-ass on some occasions, I balance it with compassion now.

Marching to the Wrong Drum?

What about you? Are you congruent with your own choices? Do you knowingly wield your Power to create Freedom? This ability is more valuable that gold-pressed latinum, but seeing in use is not nearly as common as it ought to be.

In some situations, your freedom is severely limited for very good reasons. The prime example of this is childhood. Obviously, when you’re a child you simply aren’t intelligent enough to fully realize the consequences (both positive and negative) of the actions you take, not to mention how those choices will affect others. And so, your free will is corralled and limited.

But as an adult, you have complete control to create your life as you see fit. Not all adults have consciously wielded this power to create what they want, but failure to wield your power doesn’t make you any less responsible for the quality and content of your everyday life. Or, put another way, you cannot be anything else but the captain of your ship, whether you realize it or not. As an adult, your power (and consequently your potential for freedom) has grown exponentially since you were a kid, but that only matters if you consciously wield it.

Too Long

If you’re reading this site, then travel has a place in your life, and it’s my job to encourage you to wield your power to make time to travel. It’s my job to remind you that your time on this planet is limited, and there are literally billions of experiences that await you.

What I write about here is a direct reflection of that mission. By writing about my explorations and sharing my sights, I do my best to inspire you toward what is possible when travelling. Yet in the past, navigating the wealth of articles within the Byteful Travel archives was rather clumsy.

No longer.

Although it’s been a long time coming, I’m really pleased to announce that the Byteful Travel Citypages are now fully operational. Some of the new features, such as the coding for the interactive map and its animation, took longer than anticipated (which is why I skipped a week in November), but I’m confident that focusing on these new enhancements was the best use of my time.

By completing these updates, it helps everyone navigate the wealth of information on Byteful Travel much more easily than before. You may even discover a lot of information that you didn’t even know was here. The new features include:

Interactive West Coast Quest Map
- on the Archives page & the bottom of each West Coast article
- includes a subtle animation to imply travel direction
Easier to use Citypages
- wider map viewing area
- reformatted attractions are now easier to click
- an elegant graphical explanation of what pin colors mean
Quest Mini-Map in the sidebar (which leads to the Quest Map)

As I say in the site intro, your time is limited. If you’re not a kid anymore, your freedom is in your own hands. So what are you waiting for? In a way, the world is a huge playing field, waiting for you to explore the game space. Even if you feel like you’ve been on the wrong road for a while, picked up the wrong tendencies, or are marching to the wrong drum, you can change that. In fact, you’re the only one who can. The question is: Will you wield your power and begin your odyssey (in whatever form is meaningful to you), or will you wait until its too late?

You will only have Freedom when you create it for yourself.

Ready to Explore?

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A Visit to crooked Lombard Street & The Pedestrians Who Wanted to Die

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:11:06 +0000

Even though San Francisco’s Lombard Street is better known for its insane, hairpin turns than for its view, what I saw from the top of it on that beautiful summer afternoon was surprisingly beautiful.

But I’ll come back to that in a moment.

If you’re not familiar Lombard Street, it’s the epitome of how delightfully wild San Francisco roads can be, not to mention that it’s now known as the most crooked street on the planet.

Why, you ask?

San Francisco is a city of hills. A LOT of hills (over 40 of them), and engineers in the 1920s really wanted to continue Lombard Street westward. The only problem was Russian Hill, which was at a 27% grade. (That’s really frackin’ steep.) The solution? Curves! The kind of curves that make your tires beg for mercy.

Engineers realized that to build a street on such a steep grade, it would have to curve back and forth in order for vehicles to use it safely. In the end, they built Lombard Street to consist of 8 sharp turns (or “switchbacks”) resulting in one of the weirdest streets ever built.

Coit Tower is pretty easy to walk to even if you’re on the east side of the city. Despite the fact that the Coit Tower looks relatively small in the 2nd picture below, I only had to walk seven blocks from the tower to reach Lombard Street. Just under a mile. And on such a beautiful day as that one, my feet welcomed the opportunity. When I arrived, however, my faith in humanity was challenged.

Standing in an Intersection

Just before the street were a dozen or so people taking their pictures in front it. This didn’t surprise me. The fact that many of them were standing right in the middle of the road was what concerned me. Now, to be fair, the traffic on the road was pretty light, perhaps one car every minute or two; but these people lingered like flies at a picnic. And no amount of shooing was going to work.

Dear Lingerers, I’m sure your photos are radical and great, but I don’t care if you’re Ansel Adams. It’s just not a good idea to linger in the middle of the road unless someone is bleeding or something. Am I wrong?

The sheer nonchalance of these people was somewhat disturbing.

Anyway, brushing aside the pedestrians who may or may not have had a secret death wish, I made my way up Russian Hill. Although cars are only permitted to go one way on Lombard Street (down the hill), I was happy to see a pedestrian path that led upward. And as I scaled the hill, I took some pictures of the view behind me, resulting in my favorite picture from this photoset: the one of Coit Tower and Lombard Street in the same shot. In a single photo, I managed to capture two stunning San Francisco landmarks, and it turned out beautifully.

I love being in the right place at the right time.
And on that day, it happened more than once.

Where’s Marco?

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 7 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. In fact, I’m considering putting up hints that show what he’s near. Would anyone be interested in that?

If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

Can you find him in all 7?
Explore the Lombard Street photo gallery —>

Coming up Next:

And even after walking to Lombard Street, my feet still carried me onward, leading me past a pack of wild segways (a vehicle that is not exactly known for how dignified the driver looks while riding it), along the bay’s coast, and up to the northern tip of the peninsula where I made an important discovery:

There is an entire Civil War-era fort underneath Golden Gate bridge. And I could tour it for free. My explorations of the fort, and my 4 mile journey to it, is in the next article:

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Lombard Street photo gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

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An Auspicious Day: Looking back on Byteful Travel’s History & Looking Forward

Andrew "Adi" C. — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:22:47 +0000

Believe it or not, today marks the 5th anniversary of when I registered Byteful.com; and not coincidentally, it is also the 10th anniversary of day I created my very first website.

So today is auspicious for me.

To be honest, it took me months to settle on a domain name, but once I felt good about getting “Byteful.com”, it happened to be November of 2006. I decided that it would be more fitting to register my first domain on the anniversary of my first website, so I waited a few days until November 17th, even though I had no idea which company I was going to choose as web host or exactly what the site would turn into. But I did it anyway, because I knew that this was the right path. I had faith in my instincts.

By January, I had settled on DowntownHost.com, and I’ve been very pleased with that choice since they’ve treated me very well and have a great team working there. And on February 11th of 2007, I began my journey with Byteful.com by writing my first blog post.

Back then, this site was called “The Byteful Project”; and, like many things ending in “project”, it somewhat amorphous. In fact, the first year was basically a self-directed experiment. I had to ask myself: “If I could create anything for the web, what would it be? What did I really want to make?”

What kind of Tree would You be?

Truth be told, I struggled to find a niche I enjoyed, so I did a lot of experimenting. I wrote poetry. I published desktop wallpapers that I’d originally created just for myself. I published articles on health, spontaneity, and perspectives. And I also published photos. I felt like a germinating seed that couldn’t decide if I wanted to be an apple tree or an orange tree.

But, in the end, instead of finding the answer, the answer found me. By early 2008, I began occasionally writing about my travels, kicking it all off with “Do Henry Vilas Zoo Animals Mock Me?” which was the first in what I called “The Byteful Travel Series”. Little did I know that would become the focus of the entire enterprise.

A Timeline of Transformation

Since then, the vision has grown and transformed. The list of major events in the timeline is a good indicator of how things have evolved over the years:

2001.11.17 — First website I ever created (now defunct)
2006.11.17 — Domain Purchased
2007.02.11 — First article published on Byteful Travel
2007.03.21 — Launch of Byteful Gallery
2007.10.07 — Launch of “InspirationEverywhere”
2008.02.10 — First travel-focused article published
2008.05.04 — First travel video published
2010.06.26 — Launch of Byteful Travel Blog Carnival
2010.12.01 — Launch of the “Where’s Marco” photo game
2011.03.03 — Launch of the Byteful Travel Shop
2011.08.24 — Launch of “Choose a City” pages

And I must point out that it was a stroke of weird luck that, in addition to the two anniversaries I mentioned above, this just happens to be my 200th post.

Strange how life works, isn’t it?

And even after all this, I know I’m still just getting started. There is so much to come that I can barely put my feelings about this into words. The road rolls ever on, and I know the coming years will highlight the wonders of Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Australia, and more. Life is too short, so I’m going explore while I still have time.

Will you join me?

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A San Francisco Secret: The Coit Tower View (Review & Photo Essay)

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:22:06 +0000

A sane person would have taken a bus or a car up to Coit Tower, but I didn’t.

Instead, I walked the wild San Francisco streets up to the top of Telegraph Hill. To scale that 83 meter hill, I even walked up stairs at points; and when I finally reached the Coit Tower parking lot, I was rewarded with a view of the bay and Alcatraz Island in the distance.

Little did I know I was about to get my socks knocked off.

At the ground floor, there’s a rather unimpressive gift shop filled with small pieces of memorabilia and knick-knacks that you might find yourself purchasing if you wanted to send a souvenir home. Yet my intuition told me to hold off buying anything for now. First, I’d see the top.

Ascent to the observation deck is mostly uneventful. To get to the top there’s a small fare and an equally small elevator, and after that they’ve even added some more stairs for good measure. But the view… Such a view of San Francisco I’d never seen before, even from an airplane. Here at the observation deck, the entire skyline was wrapped around me like a blanket, and through windows I could see slices of that skyline in small portions.

To the north, I saw Alcatraz Island and Pier 39. To the east, I could see the Bay Bridge. To the south, I could see the Transamerica Pyramid, the tallest skyscraper in the city. And to the west, I could see the rest of San Francisco atop rolling hills. From here, Washington Square looked like an amazing oasis of green among lightly-colored buildings.

A Freshly-Pressed Memory

Once again listening to my intuition had paid off, because up there on the Observation Deck was a penny pressing machine. For 50 cents you could have the symbol of Coit Tower pressed onto a penny, complete with the words “Coit Tower – San Francisco” imprinted on it.

“Perfect!” I thought and put two quarters in the machine. After waiting a few moments, my freshly-pressed penny dropped into a receptacle below, and I snapped a photo. I instantly knew that this souvenir was for my brother.

He’d love it.

On my way back down to earth, I thought about what else was still in store for that day. It was only lunchtime, after all; and the weather was warm and clear. The sky was entirely clear (a true rarity for San Francisco) and the entire city seemed to be begging me to explore. So I began heading west on Lombard Street to see the most curved street in America.

Just before I arrived at the wildly-curving portion of Lombard, I looked behind me and snapped one last picture of the tower. From here, the tower and the hill almost looked out of place, as if from a slice of another reality, completely different from the urban landscape around it.

An oasis.
And so it is.

Photography

The Building of Coit Tower

When Coit died in 1929, she left one-third of her estate to the City of San Francisco, asking that the money be spent, “…in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of said city which I have always loved.”

In 1931, Supervisor Herbert Fleishhacker proposed using the funds to construct a memorial for the beautification of Telegraph Hill, and the executors agreed. Arthur Brown, Jr., the architect of City Hall and the War Memorial Opera House, won the design competition and, with the assistance of Henry Howard, designed Coit Tower in the Art Deco style with a budget of $125,000. The simple fluted shaft, filled with PWAP murals, is now a San Francisco icon, visited by residents and visitors alike. Congratulations to Coit Tower on its 75th anniversary!

All items, unless noted, courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

~ Plaque at the base of Coit Tower

Where’s Marco?

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 15 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging.

If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>
Can you find him in all 15?

And also remember to:
Explore the Coit Tower photo gallery —>

Coming up Next:
The insanity of the most crooked street in America, a stunning view of two major San Francisco landmarks, and the pedestrians who wanted to die:

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Coit Tower photo gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

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How to Create, Host, & Grow a Well-Crafted Blog Carnival in 7 Steps

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:22:31 +0000

As I’ve said many times before, Blog Carnivals are a really smart way to get the word out about your work, no matter what you write about on the web.

But submitting to blog carnivals is only one side of the equation. Hosting a blog carnival can be far more complex and isn’t always an easy feat. In fact, it can occasionally be somewhat of a headache, especially if you’re hosting one with lots of entries. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Why? Because I have developed a comprehensive system that breaks down the process into 7 steps.

In fact, this is exactly how I put together the Byteful Travel Blog Carnival (BTBC), and I’ve gotten tons of positive feedback about how well those are put together. And as you can probably guess, the quality of a blog carnival depends a great deal on the quality of the submissions, which is why it’s so important to…

1. Pre-Qualify submissions as they come in.

When you are assigned to host a new edition of a blog carnival, you will be sent an email notification whenever someone submits an article to your blog carnival through the BlogCarnival.com website. The first few times I hosted a blog carnival, I would read these as they came in and then forget about them. Over time though, I realized that they could save me valuable time if used correctly.

To get the most out of these notifications, I click the link to see the submitted article and then decide if it fits the blog carnival or not. (Cuz believe it or not, blog carnivals get a fair amount of spam.) I skim the article, and if it looks good, I “star” that email. I try to do this once a week for the BTBC and once every few days for blog carnivals that are hosted more frequently.

By “pre-qualifying” entries, I always have a list of entries that I already know are good. This saves me time on the day I actually assemble the blog carnival and makes everything flow much more smoothly.

2. Use the Opt-In Method for Inclusion

The list of starred emails containing known-good articles is extremely helpful to us in this next step where we make the final decision on which articles are included. I usually do this when BlogCarnival.com emails me a reminder that the carnival is coming up, which is usually right after the carnival’s submission deadline. In that reminder email is a link to the “InstaCarnival editor” which is a wonderful little feature that creates an assembled blog carnival for you. (If you can’t find this reminder email, head over to BlogCarnival.com, log in, click “My Carnivals”, and click on the number to the far right of the list (which is the number of submissions that edition received).

Now, just because the InstaCarnival is great doesn’t mean it does all the work, though. It doesn’t come with any kind of artificial intelligence; you still have to decide what’s included. And when you get to the InstaCarnival editor, you will see a list of submitted articles. The first thing you need to do is check the “exclude” checkbox on all of them, and then click “Save” on the bottom. This may take a minute or two, but it’s totally worthy it because, by doing this, you ensure no spammy articles will get through.

Then, uncheck the “exclude” box for only those articles that you starred back in your email inbox. Even though this opt-in method sound strange at first, it’s a surefire way to avoid any spam creeping into your carnival (the importance of which we’ll discuss in a bit). Once you’ve done that, click “Save”.

3. Fix Categories & Finalize the Preview Draft

Once the InstaCarnival has been saved, click the “Preview Draft” button at the top. You will now see a rough draft of your blog carnival, complete with attribution, links to the articles, and everything broken up into categories. This is a huge time saver! But we’re not done yet. The InstaCarnival isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t always get the carnival right the first time. Be sure to double-check for duplicate categories and ensure that each article is in the category you want it to be in.

If you see a duplicate category, it’s because your entries aren’t grouped by category properly. To fix that, you need to click “edit” and change the order of the entries in the blog carnival so that entries that belong in the same category are grouped together in the list. To change the order of articles in the list, type the corresponding number in the “order” box and click “Save”. For instance, if you see an article that says “order: 50″ and you want it just after the article that is “order: 10″, type in “order: 11″ and click save. It sounds strange, but it makes sense once you do it.

4. Verify Entries & Gather Twitter Names

Now that you’ve got your blog carnival organized the way you like it, take this opportunity to click through to each article and make doubly sure that you want to endorse each of these articles. That’s what you’re doing here, after all; and it’s not meant to be taken lightly. When you include someone’s article in your blog carnival, you are, in effect, saying that “this is relevant to this topic and I support more people discovering this article”; so if you have mixed feelings about including something, think long and hard before you let it into your blog carnival.

While you’re doing that, be sure to look around for any Twitter usernames referenced beside the articles so you can @reply the carnival participants once the carnival is published. In fact, it’s best to keep a list of the Twitter names in a separate text file. To find the usernames, I often view the html source code of a given article and search for the word “twitter”. (How to do this varies from browser to browser. Check the “View” menu or similar.) Ironically enough, looking at the source code can be the quickest way to see what someone’s Twitter username is!

5. Give your Blog Carnival a Human Touch

Making your blog carnival really speak to the reader is extremely important! I cannot overstate this. Too many blog carnival hosts simply take the output of the InstaCarnival page and throw it up on their site. But is that personal? Does that honestly invite your readers, who have graciously given you their attention, to checkout your blog carnival?

In my experience, a blog carnival is enjoyed much more (and therefore catches on much faster) when given a healthy dose of humanity. To do that, click on the “preview draft” button (if you aren’t on the page already). Then scroll to the bottom, and copy the HTML code in the box. Paste the code into a new post in your blogging software. If the code is broken, don’t worry! I’ve encountered this problem, too. Try clicking the checkbox above the box that says “Check for WordPress compatible HTML”. (If the code still doesn’t work after doing that, let me know and I’ll share another solution in the comments.)

Now that we have the actual code for this blog carnival edition, we can write a concise introduction the draws the reader in. I suggest you replace the standard “Welcome to XYZ edition” introduction with something more unique. For ideas, you can see past BTBCs as well as other blog carnivals I’ve hosted.

One great way to introduce a blog carnival is to take a paragraph or so to talk about a couple of your favorite entries. It gives you an opportunity to put your own spin on the carnival, and your readers will appreciate knowing which entries to check out first.

It’s also a great time to write a short outro to the carnival thanking the people who submitted their articles, letting your readers know when the next edition will be, and providing links to the submission page. The InstaCarnival page adds these links automatically, but you may want to phrase them into a sentence. I also recommend you delete the “technorati tags” that the InstaCarnival puts at the end of the carnival since I’ve found them to be largely useless.

6. Proofread your carnival. Aloud.

While this may even sound silly, I always recommend reading your blog carnival out loud to yourself before you publish it. Seriously, say all of the words. This is the best and most natural way to find typos as well as awkward phrasing. Proofreading aloud may not sound that fun, but trust me, your carnival will be much better if you do it. (I even read this article aloud as I proofread it!)

If you’re still resistant to proofing your carnival edition out loud, remember that many people will be seeing this. Try making it a game. If it helps, try reading the whole edition in a StrongBad voice. As long as you read it and understand it, it will make catching errors that much easier.

7. Spread the Word & Tweet all about it!

Now comes the fun part: spreading the word. It’s time to use that list of Twitter names that you made before. Usually I’ll phrase my tweets rather like this:

“Congrats @Somebody & @Someoneelse You’re in the latest YOURCARNIVALHERE carnival! Give yourself a High-5! http://bit.ly/YOURLINK”

Depending on the length of the usernames, I’ll fit two or three usernames per tweet. (Pro tip: put together your tweets and make sure they’re all under 140 characters before you tweet any of them out. Then send the tweets once per minute until you’ve tweeted them all.) By grouping tweets together, I not only reduce the amount of tweets I send out (which reduces the chance of people getting tweet-fatigue) I also help bloggers find out about each other. Think about it. Another interesting bit is that whenever “@Somebody” retweets my tweet, “@Someoneelse” will see the tweet twice in their @mentions section on Twitter. When done correctly (especially when the edition of the carnival has lots of entries) it can create a veritable storm of twitter reactions!

You also may have noticed the example link above is a bit.ly link, and there’s a very good reason for that. I use bit.ly for my links because, in addition to being a great url shortening service, they also let me track how people find the link and where they’re from.

Once you’ve published the carnival, head over to BlogCarnival.com one last time, click on “My Carnivals”, and click on the number to the far right of the list. Viola, you’re back at the InstaCarnival page. From here, click “edit this edition” and click the “already posted” button. Doing this is very important as it keeps the carnival manager at BlogCarnival.com up to date as well as lets BlogCarnival draw attention to the edition you just published. This is even more important when you’re a guest host for a carnival. After all, if you don’t remember to do it, the owner of the carnival will have to do it; so updating this status is a matter of courtesy.

And finally, if the carnival belongs to you, remember to schedule the next edition once you’ve marked the current edition as “already posted”. To do that, click “Schedule New Edition” on the left hand column on BlogCarnival.com.

Conclusion

And that’s it! That process has seen me through many blog carnivals so far, and I expect it will see me through for many more in the years to come.

If you are hosting a blog carnival and have any questions or need clarification any points, please let me know in the comments.

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Computer History Museum Review: 7 Striking Exhibits from the Digital Age

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:22:09 +0000

Less than a mile away from the mysterious Googleplex is another radiant treasure of Silicon Valley: The Computer History Museum. And since the two Austrians and I still had plenty of time left in the day, we took that opportunity to explore the museum after we had explored Google.

What we didn’t know at the time was that the Computer History Museum (aka. CHM) contains the largest and most significant collection of computing artifacts on the planet! So it may not surprise you to hear that they have an Apple-1, the first Google production servers, a Cray-1 supercomputer, and a lot of other great artifacts of the early computer age and beyond.

With over 90,000 objects, photographs, and films (and hundreds of gigabytes of software), in its field this museum has no equal. So, needless to say, we were in for a real treat, and in this article I’m going to reveal the 7 most memorable artifacts I stumbled across that day, including the “Godfather” of the iPhone and a 150 lb. computer that you just HAVE to get your loved one this holiday season.

But we’ll get to that.

1. The Charles Babbage Difference Engine (#2)

When you first walk into the CHM, the Babbage Difference Engine will probably be the first thing you see. This incredible machine (designed by Charles Babbage, the first computer pioneer) is a highly precise mechanical calculating engine, able to solve mathematical expressions completely without the use of electronic components. (There are a LOT of gears.) As if that weren’t enough, it automatically prints an inked hard copy as a record. And all of this was designed decades before anyone had created an electrical computer.

First designed in 1849, this incredible machine consists of over 8,000 parts. The fact that this 11 foot long behemoth even exists is incredible, and only two were ever built (hence #2 in the name). If you want to see it in action, the museum even offers scheduled demonstrations! And even though Babbage never built this machine and died unacknowledged in his time, his machine now stands as a memorial to his work.

2. The Legendary Apple-1

After passing the front desk, I turned the corner and saw shelves and shelves of early computers. And then, at the far end of the room, I saw this unassuming computer behind glass. Even though this unit bares no label, this is an Apple-1. First conceived in Steve Job’s garage in 1976 and designed by Steve Wozniak, the Apple-1 was the first computer ever sold by Apple Computer. (Jobs and Wozniak went into small-scale production when The Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled boards.) I wondered if this Apple-1 that was now behind glass might have been one of those original 50. Probably not, but it was amazing to think that something that now looks so simple to us was part of a revolution.

3. The First Google Production Server

Nearby, I stumbled across an interesting tower of a computer. A sign below explained that this was Google’s first production server, one of many servers designed to process the many thousands of search requests per second from Google users. Of course! Only a server could have this many ethernet cables pouring out of it.

Apparently the first Google data center had about thirty of these monsters; and even though they were difficult to repair, they provided Google with its first large-scale computing system which allowed the company to grow quickly at minimal cost.

And today, Google utilizes over a million servers! (Though they’re much, much faster than this early example.)

4. The Cray-3 “Brick”

Speaking of fast computers and cabled monsters, this quirky little box was probably the best example of tons of power packed into a tiny package in the entire museum. Designed in 1993, the Cray-3 “Brick” contains multi-layered circuit boards submerged in fluorinert. This little guy is so fast that a computation that took Cray-3 only 1 second would have taken ENIAC (which was completed in 1947) sixty-seven years to perform! Behold the power of 15 gigaflops. (And that’s fast, especially considering a gigaflop is a billion floating-point math operations per second.)

5. The Omnibot 2000 “toy” robot

In my exploration of the museum, I also came across some computers that tried to be more human-like in appearance and in behavior. Although they usually didn’t do either of these things very well, their attempts were often amusing and charming. The Omnibot 2000 is a perfect example of this.

Hailing from 1985, this little guy spoke, moved, and carried objects. You could give it commands by remote control or feed it programs on magnetic tape. There were even plans to sell optional accessories like light & sound sensors and even vacuum cleaner attachments! But in this case, I think the Tomy Kyogo company got ahead of itself there, considering that it never made any of these accessories.

Still, it’s a pretty cute robot, isn’t it? Wonderfully retro and droid-esque.

6. The Apple Newton

Some of you may not have even heard of this relic of Apple history gone by, but in the early 1990s useful handheld computers were just starting to appear in the marketplace. And by 1993, Apple introduced the Newton, the godfather of the iPhone in a way.

Along with other early attempts at handhelds, the Newton sold poorly. In fact, handhelds only achieved some success when they focused on doing a narrower range of tasks better than their PC counterparts.

I find it somewhat ironic now that the situation has reversed. Handhelds (like the iPhone) have now gotten so powerful that, far from being an accessory, some people now use one as their primary computer.

7. The Utter Joke that was The “Kitchen” Computer

Out of everything in the museum, this one is probably the funniest and least realistic vision for the future computing. Witness the Kitchen Computer featured in the 1969 Neiman Marcus catalog as a computer that allowed housewives to store and retrieve recipes. Above is a picture of that feature. Did I mention that the interface only included binary lights and switches? Or that it cost over $10,000?

Just imagine: it’s Christmas morning, and your wife spends five minutes unwrapping this shiny behemoth of a computer.

“It’s red!” she exclaims. “My favorite color!”
And you reply: “Even though its 150 pounds and no one outside of a computer science department could ever hope to figure out how to store recipes on it, that’s okay, honey! It’s a symbol of our love!”

Clockspeed? 0.6 megahertz.
Thankfully, there’s no evidence that any Kitchen Computers were ever sold.

Verdict

Simply put, the CHM is my favorite museum in Silicon Valley. Actually, it’s my favorite museum in all of California because no other place comes close to having so much of computer history literally at your fingertips. In addition to being family-friendly, it’s probably the best place in the world to learn how the human race went from the abacus all the way to supercomputers, and seeing that history firsthand is a blast! Oh, and when you go, ask about the free tours that are given periodically. I happened to stumble into a tour during my visit, and I really enjoyed it. (These people really know their stuff and are happy to answer questions.)

Obviously there was a lot I wasn’t able to include in this article, including the haunting red & black Cray-2 supercomputer, the famous PDP-8, the Behemoth Recumbent Bicycle, and much more. To check those (and all the photos) out in high resolution, be sure to swing by the photo gallery that accompanies this article. And when you see the photos, keep in mind that the museum has been renovated since I visited it in 2009, so it’s even more stylish and futuristic now than it was when I visited.

— Bonus —

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 32 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 32?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And remember to:
Explore the Computer History Museum photo gallery —>

Next: A Breathtaking View of San Francisco

This article concludes our exploration of Silicon Valley, at least for the foreseeable future. Next, I moved onto San Francisco itself, and in the next article we’ll explore Coit Tower, the breathtaking view of San Francisco from the top, and the best souvenir a traveller could as for.

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Computer History Museum gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under Creative Commons. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

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Traveler’s Show & Tell – From Cycling in Lucca to a Secret Prison Rodeo

Andrew "Adi" C. — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 07:22:02 +0000

You guys are in for a treat today.

As part of a blog carnival exchange, I’m hosting Tui’s ‘Traveler’s Show & Tell’ carnival this week, and next month Tui has graciously volunteered to host the 9th Byteful Travel Blog Carnival. (That will go live on her site on November 30th, so be sure to subscribe to Tui’s Mental Mosaic blog so you don’t miss it.)

Anyway, I must say it’s an honor to be the first to guest-host this carnival, and I’m really pleased to say (and slightly relieved) that there were plenty of really great pieces of writing submitted to this edition. And if one of your articles is in this month’s edition, please be sure to retweet, stumble, and “Like” this article.

Remember, spreading the word multiplies the reaching-power of this blog carnival which in turn helps more people discover your article and grows your site! (Find out how you too can submit to this carnival farther down.)

Today’s Gems

Because this carnival occurs frequently (twice a month), there are only 7 entries included in this edition. But, as I said, each one is quality work. So let’s dive in and learn about:

the absolute best way to explore Lucca, Italy
what it means to discover your passion
the beauty of Carlsbad Caverns National Park
the secret rodeo inside a maximum security prison
…and more.

Photo Essays

Nicole Elena Robertson presents:
Byzantine mosaics, Ravenna posted at Nicole Elena Robertson, saying,

“A sample of the incredible Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, Italy”

Paula Puffer presents:
Between Midland and Carlsbad – Part 1 posted at Don’t Be a Picklebump, saying,

“Some of the places I found when travelling between Midland Texas and Carlsbad, NM”

Travel

Jennifer Miner presents:
Bike Tour of Lucca, Italy posted at The Vacation Gals, saying,

“A bike tour of Lucca is a great way for a family to explore this historic Tuscan city during a vacation in Italy.”

Ken Lange presents:
Talking about Passion posted at Kenneth Lange, saying,

“A small piece about finding answers in the most unusual places.”

Lanthy presents:
My Round-the-World Bucket List posted at nod ‘n’ smile.

Michael Turtle presents:
Inside Maximum Security posted at Time Travel Turtle.

Cultural Observations

Samantha Wright presents:
Bitch please, I’m from the south. posted at That Place in my Head.

Care to grow your blog’s audience?

As with my carnival (the BTBC), if you’ve written something that relates to travel and you haven’t submitted to the Traveler’s Show & Tell carnival before, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. Blog Carnivals are an amazing and free way to get more exposure to your work, so you’d be silly not to take advantage of this opportunity.

I know this from firsthand experience because blog carnivals have been incredibly helpful in spreading the word about Byteful Travel. So if you’re a writer, and you’ve written something that relates to travel, submit a piece you’re proud of to the Traveler’s Show and Tell carnival by using this submission form. And remember to read the rules. (To see past posts and future hosts, check the blog carnival index.)

Also, please keep the following in mind when submitting:

Include your Twitter handle even if you have submitted in the past. (It really helps the host out.)
Only submit if your site has a comment box. (This blog carnival is meant to promote interaction among travelers, not just be a one-way conversation.)

And that concludes this blog carnival. Please remain seated until the carnival has come to a complete stop before standing up. And if you enjoyed this edition, let me know in the comments. Also, if you enjoyed an article in particular, please let the author know you liked their piece by leaving a comment at their blog. (It means a lot, trust me.)

Coming up next on BT: An up close dive into the stunning Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California (and some great photos along with it). So be sure to tune into that when it comes out.

Update: Computer History Museum Review: 7 Striking Exhibits from the Digital Age has been published!

And until next time, may your travels enlighten your soul to fresh insights, new connections, and powerful realizations.

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Calleman’s Mayan Calendar End Date is Next Friday: Is a Golden Age coming?

Andrew "Adi" C. — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:22:51 +0000

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, dear reader.

Wherever you may be as you read this, I hope that it finds you sitting comfortably with something good to drink nearby, because everything we’ve ever known may be about to change… for the better.

What would you do if you thought the world was going to end in 7 days? Or, coming at it another way, what if you thought the planet was going to be reborn into a Golden Age very soon?

I realize this isn’t directly related to travel; but I feel some responsibility to alert you guys if it’s possible something very important is looming on the horizon… something that may come to light in just the next 7 days. Add to that how rapidly events have been occurring lately, the mounting feelings of uncertainty, and the grassroots financial protests that are currently happening globally, and you’d basically have to be a goon to think we don’t live in noteworthy times.

And, believe it or not, there are a fair number of people who think that something of great significance will happen in the midst of all this, next friday on October 28th. You’ve probably heard some of the hubbub around the Mayan calendar ending in 2012. Well, according to Carl Johan Calleman, who is one of the top Mayan researchers in the world, the December 2012 date was miscalculated. He and others have re-calculated that the real date is October 28, 2011.

Is a Golden Age coming?

To be clear, he doesn’t think the apocalypse is going to happen next week. That would be as foolish as the people who thought that the end of the world was going to happen back in May, spending their entire life savings by the 21st of that month. (Seriously, look it up if you don’t believe me.)

Far from it, he sees it as a slow transformation of the world with people beginning to experience what he calls a heightened ‘unity consciousness’. Basically, this would manifest as you and I coming to a deeper understanding of how we are connected as living beings on this planet. It would reveal the Oneness that underlies all members of the human species and reveal hidden connections.

Signs that We are becoming One People

Calleman sees the Universe as being created in a series of waves, with each wave 20 times shorter than the previous one. Each wave has driven the complexity of the universe to a higher level, starting with matter, then life, multicellular life, animal families, human tribes, nations, planetary awareness, and finally awareness of our place in the Milky Way galaxy itself.

Clearly, we’re not quite at planetary awareness yet, but one thing I agree with Calleman on is that we’re getting close. Just look at the way the web is breaking down the borders between nations. The veil is beginning to fall away to reveal that we have more similarities than differences.

As I said before, Calleman says all of this culminates in what he describes as ‘unity consciousness’. Quite different from a negative event, he sees the end of this huge cycle as the completion of the creation process of the whole universe.

Pretty heady, isn’t it?

Don’t Cling to Expectations, Just Be Open

At any rate, I’m not going to hold my breath that some breakthrough is necessarily going to happen next week, and I don’t recommend you go in with expectations either. What I do recommend is that you enter the next week with a heightened sense of awareness. There is a chance that something truly novel could happen on or around that date, so I’m going to be sure to listen to my intuition on all counts. (By the way, you can read more about Calleman’s interesting views on this subject at the wiki, and I recommend you check out his latest article about the end of the calendar and the changes that the Earth is experiencing.)

Is the end Metaphorical or Literal?

So I ask you once more. What if everything changed on Friday? How would you react?

Incidentally, next Saturday (the day after Calleman’s end date) I have the honor of hosting the Traveler’s Show & Tell blog carnival. It’s poised to be pretty great; and depending on what does or doesn’t happen on Friday, that Saturday blog carnival could be a bit more interesting than usual.

Of course, it’s quite possible that absolutely nothing of significance could happen on that date. Perhaps it’s purely symbolic in nature, intended to remind us of our connections. Perhaps it’s more. In either case, I hope you use the following week to reflect on your awareness of those around you, how much you value them, and how you impact them. After all, humans are tribal creatures, and our connections are our most valuable asset.

Whatever happens, I’m thankful to be living in such interesting times.
Aren’t you?

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A Golden Age, On Paths of Light poem