Was having this conversation earlier in the week with Fearless Leader about how interesting it would be to look in on our lives a year from now and see where we all are.

I couldn't imagine that exactly one year ago I would be where I am now. The major changes are that my long term relationship (19 years last may) came crashing to an end and that Tactical Tech would turn into such a solid organization with such kick-ass projects.

It was an extremely disorienting moment.  Fearless leader and I had disembarked a plane after a 10 hour journey from Amsterdam to Bangkok, into an Airport we did not recognize.  We had both come through Bangkok several times, me as recently as last August.  But the airport we emerged into looked nothing like the Bangkok airport we knew and loved.  Bangkok airport is a chaos of shops, stalls, restaurants and bright neon that tells you immediately that you are in Southeast Asia, but the Airport we were emerging into was a cold soul-less space made of concrete and glass that could have bee

This is proof that the Tactical Tech team has actually made it out of the hotel here in Phnom Penh.

http://blip.tv/file/186998/

This is courtesy of Melissa Gira, who has been consulting with us on this project.

So, I'm leaving Rio behind... And with a heavy heart.

Yeah, its gorgeous and yes, somewhat dangerous.  Made it through without the joy of getting mugged, but met quite a few people who did.

Here's some tips about how to get the most out of visiting Rio.

If you go during Carnaval:

- Avoid the parties and clubs you have to pay for and stick with the Banda's - the outdoor street parties and parades.  There a lot more fun and you'll meet a lot more

- Definately go to the Sambadromo, though heard a promising report that its well worth it to wait and see the parade of champions rather than the competition.  The Parade of Champions is apparently much cheaper (and a tad shorter).  The food in the stadium is horrible, be sure to eat ahead of time.

Bags are packed and I'm ready to hit the road. Walked down 8th avenue this morning and watched the frozen rain coming down and thought "this ain't so bad, should be able to get on my flight no problem."

But thats not how its meant to be. Delta has other plans with the weather.

As I'm rushing around the apartment in my final fervor before heading out the door, I think I better check the flight status. Sure enough, cancelled. I take a deep breath and pick up the phone.

An hour later, the agent is telling me I'm not going to get to Rio until Sunday (today is Wednesday). I freak, I plead "I'm going for Carnaval GOD DAMNIT, I'll miss it totally!." She sighs in my ear and puts me on hold.

I have to say I initially was caught a bit off guard - but I was seriously dissed at Asia Source II by a camp participant who apparently found me to be an arrogant american.   What was fascinating about it all was that it started out as a bit of fun by the Participants in the track I was facilitating.  They decided to prepare a short skit for morning circle that included them imitating the facilitators of the track.  Before the day was through, I found myself being seriously dissed on the camp blog, cries of homophobia being voiced by some of my closer friends at the camp and a series of events occuring that initially had me very troubled but ended up with me becoming very proud of the response by the camp participants.

Here's a map of the countries I've visited (so far!):

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

This is a cute little google hack. I've been looking for some sort of visual representation of places, I've been for a while - including Plazes, which ended up being too much of a hassle.

Ok, there really isn't much I don't like about being queer. Sure, occasionally there's some fucked up homophobe I have to deal with, particularly when I have a job that takes me to many different lands where I get engulfed in many different cultures. But the cool thing about being gay with this job is that its kind of like belonging to a secret club and you can meet members of this club no matter where you go in the world.

Case in point is this last weekend in Istanbul, which is a pretty typical example of how a gay person can land in a place and get connected pretty quickly to local folks who can give you a very different understanding of what the local life/customs/culture is really like.

To think I'm landed in Chiang Mai exactly one week ago and I couldn't wait for the week to end. Now I'm sorry that Friday has arrived and I only have one day left of sessions and shouting "skillshare!" when ever the mood takes me. I've learned a lot this week, mostly from the participants but then quite a bit from my fellow-facilitator's as well. A bit of what I know about doing training has been reinforced - those things being:

- You can never be overprepared.
- You should be ready to through whatever you've prepared out the window and do what you're gut tells you to do.
- Be flexible