My Electric Postcard

Right now I'm in a Comfort Inn in Portage Indiana. Tomorrow I'll drive about 40 miles to begin my new life in Chicago. Yesterday I drove 11 hours from Worcester MA to Morgantown WV to visit my old Clark friend Evan. It was great to see him again, and I wish I could have stayed longer for more QT. Anyway, I want to thank him and his wife Rebecca and his awesome kid Cormack for hosting me. I hope I get the chance to repay the favor. Today, I drove another 10 hours to get here. It feels strange to be at this point. Much of my life over the last 6-8 months has been building up to this new life. Yet, in the back of my mind, my life is still in Worcester, MA and that I'll be returning at some point. Later this weekend I hope to blog my homage to Worcester. A little celebratory salute for hosting me these last 7 years. I had hoped to blog on my move sooner, but my time has been so limited. My last weekend in Worcester was filled with parties, packing and visits. Da...

So several months ago I decided to be bold and do a triathlon. I asked around to see if anyone would like to join me and my friend Ian stepped up. I'm not sure what made me so ambitious, especially considering that I already had a lot on my plate, but I'm glad I did cause it was a blast! I have a little photo diary of the events on Picasa. Go ahead and check them out. Training for the triathlon was important. First, I needed to know I could swim 1/4 mile. I wasn't so worried about the 11.8 mile bike or the 3.1 mile run, cause I had done those distances before. Just never at once. So first order of business was to make sure I could push myself through the water for 10-15 minutes straight. In the Clark University pool, a 1/4 mile equates to about 8 laps. I started off for 4 laps the first week, then planned to add a lap each additional week. After about 3 weeks I got fit enough to where I could easily swim 10 laps. Mind you, this is more doggy paddling/breast str...

Hey y'all, So if you go to my Picasa site HERE , you can gander at a few of my photos from Malaysia. Brian and Eileen have even better photos HERE . ... and Cathie's are just plain killer! While I have your attention, you can check out some of my friend's blog sites on the bottom right. Andy out....

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – OK, so I guess when traveling you have to experience a few bumps in the road right? About a week ago my computer started dying. For some reason it wasn’t re-charging. I basically used it until the battery ran down and I thought that would be the end of it for the rest of my trip. Well, I don’t know what happened since then, but given that I’m using it now, something got fixed. Perhaps it’s more likely I was screwing something up, but whatever. Comparatively more serious was loosing my wallet at the Park Royale Hotel during the Asian Mycological Conference. Word to the wise, don’t wear cheap ass shorts from Target with shallow pockets, stuff them with an oversized designer wallet then sit down on a over-stuffed lobby chair. It’s going to squirt out of that pocket like you’re stepping on a tube of toothpaste. I didn’t know I had lost it until 2 hours later. Luckily the myco-gods were smiling on me since some kind person turned it in to the reception desk. Perhaps...

Penang, Malaysia – So I’m here at the Asian Mycological Congress that is being held at the posh Park Royal Hotel. It’s good to be back in Malaysia. This signifies an end to what was a pretty challenging semester. To be honest, I can’t think of a better way to end it than on a beachside tropical resort, socializing with friends, both personal and professional, new and old, foreign and familiar. This is my first trip to Penang and I’m glad I made it. My friend Cathy wasn’t so lucky. She was waylaid by storms in New York, ended up missing her flight out of Hong Kong and had to stay an extra 24hrs. I guess it wasn’t too bad since her airline fed her well and put her up in a hotel. I had my own bumps in the road to get here. I flew out of Boston on a Thursday morning and went through Long Beach on my way to Oakland. Jet Blue however decided to ship my luggage from Long Beach to Salt Lake City. I arrived in OAK at around 3PM and my flight for Kuala Lumpur was going to leave out of San Franci...

One of my concerns about traveling in Malaysia was the cost. Little did I know that the low cost airline, Air Asia, would for me re-define the meaning of... well... low cost airline. I had to get four flights to travel in Borneo, and the prices ranged from RM270 ( First stop, visit Grand Perfect Sdn. Bhd. in Bintulu, Sarawak. The company works with the Forest Department of Sarawak to develop an environmentally stable source of paper and pulp though planting Acacia trees (http://www.plantedforestsproject.com/#). There I finally got to meet with Joannes Unggang who, along with Rob Stuebing, has been my main contact with the organization. Both help manage the department of conservation for Grand Perfect. I had diner with Joannes (Rob was away) and two co-workers Jacinta Richards (who would be my guide for the visit), and Belden. They explained they appreciated having someone bring a new kind biological experience and perspective to their conservation work. Much of their work has be...

After a long flight it’s hard to do much else but take it easy. The Dukes of Hazard, the one with Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke, was on HBO in my hotel room when I got to Malaysia. Every time I’m traveling down some twisted Malaysian highway I hear Willie Nelson singing that goofy theme song, “...Straight'nin' the curve... Flat'nin' the hills.”. Those lyrics followed me all the way up to Fraser’s hill. Fraser’s hill is named after some British recluse who lived in the mountains bordering Selangor and Pahang provinces. He had a mule and traded in tin. The local Bishop made a point of keeping track of him and when he failed to make his regular visit, he put out to search. Finding this area where Frazer apparently lived. It looked like like a good place to set up a regular outpost.Fraser never turned up... so the area was named after him. The forest in the mountains around Fraser's Hill is thick with steep, sometimes plummeting, slopes. People have gone missing recentl...