The next trip tickets have been purchased! Claudita and I are heading to Puerto Rico! We're going during the week of 4th of July - doing our best to hold to my mantra of never spending Independence Day in the USA. However, Puerto Rico is actually a US territory, so we're not really leaving the country. (damn!) This was done by design however, becuase my pobrecita colombiana is having some VISA paperwork delays and would be unable to accompany me outside the country anyway.

So, time to head to the '51st state'! Can't wait to hit the beach, its almost a month away already. If you have any advice about what to see and do in the country - please add it to the Puerto Rico wiki page.

Check out the newest Gillshmack phone - the Samsung M610. Not only does it sounds like the name of a fighter pilot - but it also has a battery that will allow me to use the phone for more than 20 minutes without needing a recharge. It seems pretty nice so far - w/ 'broadband quality' internet connection also. I tried watching some vidoes on it and it seems like a big improvement over the old one. Also cool was Sprint's little tool to migrate my phone book from old phone to new phone - really slick. I'm psyched about the 2 Megapixel camera on this guy too - should make for more interesting blogging in the future :)

Haven't blogged in awhile - but I've been busy w/ work and visiting family! Here's a pic from dinner last night at Chez Zee in Austin.

That's right, the latest invention to catch my eye is the 'Robotic Camel Jockey'. Seeing is believing --> Check out this youtube video of the robotic camel jockey in action.

Here's a Wired article on why robotic camel jockeys are used in Qatar. Turns out that they used to have 4-year old starving Sudanese boys be the camel jockeys, much to the displeasure of human rights activists everywhere. Some Swiss engineering company has put together this robotic replacement for an underfed boy to ride camels in Qatar's camel races that take place in the 120 degree heat. How bizarre!

New Photo Album

"Come join some Burnet Road residents for the one day of the year we celebrate our thoroughfare and all the fine establishments it has to offer." The ole' Burnet Road Pub Crawl has not happened in full force since 2005; it was hard to recreate the magic. It was just an old school pub crawl. Check out the album by clicking here.

The four "Champions" of the night were Anu, Steve R, Claudia and myself. We made it to all 7 stages (Stage 1 -> C-Hunts Ice House at 6pm, Stage 2 -> Bagpipes at 7pm, Stage 3 -> Plucker's at 8:30pm, Stage 4 -> Trudy's at 10pm, Stage 5 -> Highland Lanes at 11pm, Stage 6 -> Sherlock's at Midnight, Stage 7 -> 1:30am at Jim's Breakfast Eatery). And then got up the next day and went to an 8am meeting. Beeeeautiful.