Since our failed attempt in 2010 to take some culinary classes in Cozumel, we had hoped to try again when we went down for Nicole’s 2013 birthday. Unfortunately the chef in question wasn’t available while we were down there, and so we ended up deciding to play it by ear when we got to the port. And while we didn’t manage to get out of the port itself, we did get a lot of shopping done, and discovered some of the best Margaritas we’ve had in some time. Tucked away …

For Nicole’s 2013 birthday we decided to take a weeklong cruise out of Miami. Here’s some fun footage of Nicole bustin’ a move on the seven seas (video’s just over 4:20 long) as she performs Young MC’s ‘Bust a Move.’ Perhaps a mainstain of cruise line entertainment, karaoke is almost always on the day’s itinerary. Apologies that the footage is a little dark.

Bringing some of my favorite things together I came across this and had to share. In an effort to encourage interest among inner city students in advanced science teachers in New York are using rap. Joining their cause is the legendary rapper GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan whose upcoming solo album ‘Dark Matter’ covers topics like the Big Bang. Performing some of the material at Bronx Compass High School, GZA has joined forces with Columbia University professor Christopher Emdin and ten New York City public schools where they intend to …

While tentative confirmation of the Higgs Boson particle was made on March 14, 2013 after a previously unknown particle with a mass between 125 and 127 electronvolts was discovered back in July 2012, I thought I’d revisit the ongoing efforts at the CERN organization and how exactly they’re managing all of the data they collect from the millions of collisions produced in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) each second. Generating approximately one petabyte of data every second none of today’s computing systems are actually capable of recording such rates of …

Now that we’ve both been down to Disney World for our respective birthdays I thought I would revisit a post Nicole had made about hers and do a little comparison with my own experience at the Magic Kingdom. Given how much fun we’d had for her trip I felt obliged to go for mine own, rationalizing to myself that we’d both get a chance to see what the park looks like for Halloween and to check out the Chase Food & Wine festival that Nicole helpfully pointed out would coincide …

Came across this great time-lapse video shot by Javin Lau that illustrates how Toronto always seems to be on the move despite what the weather might be doing. The footage of City Hall at night is especially nice. Video runs about 3 1/2 minutes long. Hope you enjoy!

Toronto is Home from Javin Lau on Vimeo.

As you know, we’ve cruised a few times, and covered it here, and though we’ve cruised the now-somewhat-beleaguered Carnival Cruise Lines, we had no issues during our short trip. In fact, we really enjoyed our time on board the Imagination, and liked the Carnival experience more than the Royal Caribbean in some ways. (Given there’s so much discussion on differences between the two, we may have to do a comparison sometime.)
However, given Carnival’s recent issues with their ships and the fact that we’re hoping to do a Carnival cruise shortly …

For those looking for a good recap of last season – or at least one from Daenery’s POV – check out Adam WarRock’s remix of theMarySue’s Game of Thrones hip-hop song. Only one more day to go!

Both times I’ve been to Ifrane, I was pretty sure I was going to die.
The first time, I’d been up for over 24 hours and Gary and I were as yet unused to the joys of travel in Morocco by Grand Taxi, so could be forgiven for equating the lack of seat belts or traffic rules with possible death. The second time, we’d gotten used to the whimsical aggressiveness of Moroccan drivers (in comparison to our boring ordered traffic), but it was night and dark and winter, making the …

For Gary’s 2012 birthday we decided to return to Disney World and take in some of the parks we weren’t able to visit when we were there earlier that year for Nicole’s birthday. Over at Disney Hollywood Studios we couldn’t get enough of the Star Tours ride, but did stop long enough to grab some footage of the Jedi Academy and the padawan training. Typically sixteen or more children are picked from the audience to participate. We however were sad that it’s only open to kids as I’m sure we’re …