I’ve just had an entire month of nonstop work days, and another 3 weeks to come. It’s so crazy that I barely have time to do anything else that I had planned to do. Well at least I managed to complete all the bookings for the accomodations for the trip, and took all the necessary vaccinations. Also got some supplies like some long sleeves nylon shirts, mosquito net, sleeping bag, pillow, mosquito repellent, hand sanitizer/wipes.

I pre-ordered the Olympus E-5 but the worst had happened - Vistek.ca doesn’t have stock and they don’t know when are they coming in. My order is in “back order” now. If they can’t ship it next week I most likely will have to cancel the order I really want to bring it to Africa..it’s going to make so much difference.

Halloween today by the way, although there isn’t really anything festive going on in my world - well maybe will go see a free fireworks tomorrow. Edited this picture of the ruin a the Rhyolite Ghost Town, I thought it was a little creepy.

Since it’s really hard to rent cars with automatic shift in Europe, I was thinking perhaps I should learn driving manual. Angela was actually willing to let me use her car and also gave me a driving lesson tonight. I practiced in the Lansdowne parking lot as it’s nice and open. The most difficult part is to be able to get the car moving. I should actually document some of the rules here before I forget:

• Press on the clutch to start the engine. Keep it in neutral
• Press on the brake and release the handbrake, keep the left foot on the clutch while switching to the 1st gear. Slowly press on the gas *while* slowly releasing the clutch at the same time
• Step on the clutch again and switch to 2nd gear when it revs up to ~3000RPM. Do the same to switch to the 3rd gear and so on
• To make a turn without stopping, go down to the 2nd gear and make the turn. If need to stop completely at the turn, go down to the first gear.
• To reverse, do the exact same thing as in the 1st gear except to put the shift in reverse
• When shifting gears, make sure to release the clutch *and* step on the gas at the same time, at the same rate. i.e. if releasing the clutch quickly, need to press on gas quickly as well.
• Always press on the clutch when the car is fully stopped
• To do a hard brake, press on clutch and brake at the same time.
• Optional: When stopped at a light, put the gas in neutral and then release the clutch, so you don’t have to keep foot on the clutch all the time
• DO NOT RELEASE THE CLUTCH without putting in any gas, it will STALL the car

I only stalled once today! Although it was a pretty bad one and I had probably freaked the guy in the car behind me… I want to try it again before leaving for the trip just to refresh my mind. I think I should be able to do it….hopefully!

So I’m at Chicago for work today. 4 hours flight, pretty good flight, with just a drink, not even snack. Walked around the city in the evening, checked out the Millenium Park, Marina City, Sears Tower…etc. Somehow I got really tired perhaps due to the flight as I hate sitting in a confined space. The Mariott hotel is decent though, got everything except for the toothpaste. Going to be a long day tomorrow full of meeting…and an even longer day day after…

Can’t really remember what I did in the past week except work. Well today I had a chance go for a photo walk with the flickr group again, it was pretty nice. Walked along China town and the Strathcona area. These places don’t really have anything super unique but that was the whole point - to be able to see/find things that don’t stand out and then be able to “make” photographes out of them. I had my Leica Summilux D 25mm f/1.4 on for the day, and thanks to the large aperture I had quite a few interesting shots.

Been listening to songs from band called Infected Mushroom lately. They are god-like. Their stuff is pure awesomeness. As I discovered more of their albums and compilations, I just couldn’t resist from playing them all day. It actually inspired me a lot in terms of creating music. I want to start writing songs again, was thinking to start last night but was too tired. Maybe tonight.