http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/ the ramblings (or "blog" if you really need to use that word) of mike beauchamp @ mikebeauchamp.com en (c) mikebeauchamp.com 1999 onwards mike beauchamp's ramblings to rss: rss.php http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=218 Being excited to see Brunswick Sardines in the grocery store is a sure sign that you miss Canada. In other news, the kitchen at the New Zealand Department of Labour is now quite stocked with Brunswick Sardines in Mustard Sauce.... Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:04:12 -0700 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=218 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=217 After a few weeks of sending resumes around, I had my first real interview. I had a few interviews at New Zealand temp agencies already and in fact I had one an hour before this interview, so I had to run to get to this one. This was for a "real" job at a "real" web design firm. You know a web design firm is real when they occupy a loft floor of an old warehouse with unfinished walls and exposed cement pillars. And of course no dot-com company is complete without a fooseball table, which was prominently displayed in the center of the room. The job was for an "HTML/CSS Programmer" and the... Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:12:13 -0700 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=217 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=216 It's 4PM on Tuesday (12PM on Monday in Windsor), and I'm sitting at my desk at the New Zealand Department of Labour. A lot of things have happened since the last update, and I don't even know where to start. A few hours after my last update, Melissa's grandparents came to pick me up to drive us to Detroit Metro Airport. I spent the last hour pacing around the house, wondering why I only have a half-full backback. Now, I pride myself on the fact that I can pack pretty light, but this was insane. I picked up one of those fancy-shmancy "look at me, I'm a backpacker"-type backpacks for $40, wh... Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:04:58 -0700 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=216 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=215 Almost 6 months ago, I met a pretty cool girl here in Windsor who had a 1-way flight to New Zealand a few weeks later. She moved the flight as far back as her Working Holiday Visa would let her, which was until today. So, it is almost 4:00AM and in 3 hours, I will be heading to Detroit airport with this girl and we'll be heading to Fiji for 10 days and then to New Zealand. The basic plan is to get jobs and an apartment in Wellington. The bigger, lofty plan is to live in New Zealand for a year, teach in Korea for a year, spend 6 months in Malaysia, check out some other countries, hop the ... Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:54:08 -0800 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=215 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=214 Well I'm home from California and the trip was awesome.. very awesome. I was slightly worried because I put the trip together pretty quickly, leaving certain details for the last minute. But everything worked out great and I don't think a single thing went wrong that I had control of. Earlier, I said I was regretting taking the bicycle along on this trip since it was such a hassle to deal with a big bike in a box at the airport, etc. I still believe it was a bit of a hassle, but after the first day of flying down a mountain on a tight and twisty road, pushing a box around wasn't a big deal.... Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:18:14 -0800 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=214 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=213 I'm in San Francisco right now, hanging out with Scott Schiller while he's on a conference call to Flickr. On Saturday, I flew from Detroit out to LA where my cousin Angie is living. I boxed up my touring bike the night before, and tossed a sleeping bag and tent in there as well. This was originally going to just be a backpacking trip, but a few people really convinced me that I should have my bicycle down here to ride along the Pacific Coast Highway. Getting around LAX and stuff with a bicycle in a box was pretty hard, especially since I had other bags to carry as well. It makes me won... Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:59:44 -0700 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=213 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=212 I remember thinking to myself "I should probably update this thing before the new year", but now of course it's almost the end of April. Woops. On the plus side, a good way to make it sound like you haven't been sitting on your ass is to update your journal once every 4 months. There's going to be a book launch party for a book called "Never Sleep with Anyone From Windsor" by my friend Jon Fleiger. The book is going to have a few pictures by me in it, including the cover, which should be cool. The book launch party is an open thing and it's happening this Sunday (April 22nd) at Pause Cafe ... Sat, 21 Apr 2007 03:00:51 -0700 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=212 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=211 About a month ago, my friend told me about some abandoned warehouses on the west end so I went and checked them out with him. I had my digital camera with me and snapped some pictures, but couldn't do much without a tripod, etc. So last night we decided to go back, this time I filled my backpack with a tripod, the digital camera, a wide angle lens, the film camera and a few lenses. I also brought the only flashlight I have, which is a 6-D maglight (does anyone want to buy this?) which is probably the least portable flashlight ever. We stopped so I could get some pictures of some large gra... Thu, 14 Dec 2006 07:11:18 -0800 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=211 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=210 Ahhh.. there's nothing like finding paint on your body in the shower to remind yourself that you are dating an art chick! For the past few months, I've been slowly going through all the Cross Canada footage and logging everything I have. I finally got done with that and moved on to cutting a 9 minute long preview type thing, so now I have something to show. This is also the first time I put together the footage with all the music I've been recording for this. You can check it out on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMTu--gB2w I'd love some feedback on this, since I'm still t... Wed, 06 Dec 2006 07:04:58 -0800 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=210 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=209 About a week ago, I had this dream where I discovered that an old water treatment plant was for sale. I had already been inside of the building to see a concert, so I knew what it looked like inside and I even explored all sorts of tunnels underneath it that led to a nearby University's hospital. It was this really cool brick building that was round and looked like it was built to last forever. At one point, it was owned by this crazy artist guy who did all these weird psychedelic paintings on the walls that fluoresced under black-light. It was only $25,000 so I emailed the real estate agent a... Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:55:02 -0800 http://www.mikebeauchamp.com/ramblings/index.php?id=209