Dylan Schiemann

Will Riley of Lucid Desktop created a cool video showing a code swarm visualization of the history of the Dojo Toolkit. Thanks Will!

On April 25th (ANZAC day!), I slept in a bit and then found a taxi for the airport. ANZAC day is a holiday much like the US Memorial Day, “honouring members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.” The event made traffic a bit of a challenge, but it was worth seeing the great memorial festivities.

I arrived at the Sydney airport and found my way to Singapore Air, which had just confirmed my flight a day before. Unlike all of my other tickets, they had placed me on a stand-by list which they did not clear until the last minute. The A380 is a very popular aircraft, and my efforts to get upgraded to suite class, which had empty seats, were met with laughter.

The Sydney airport was nice, and the lounge had a reasonably good selection of food. When it was time to board, I made my way to the boarding area which had four lanes to handle each class on each deck:

Once on-board this monstrously large plane though, it felt very cozy and intimate. Because the seats are 34″ wide (so wide that two people could sit together in them), everything just felt spacious and comfortable. The mood and comfort of the seats and planes was just all around awesome.

The food and service was excellent, and the bathroom was larger than many hotel bathrooms. The flight attendants were serving a good selection of cocktails which would help me sleep more easily on my next flight. After 8.5 glorious hours, we arrived in Singapore.

The Singapore airport is very cool, including a gym, movie theatre, and more. I didn’t have enough time to enjoy these perks. Because of Singapore’s positioning as a hub for the world, they seemed to have flights at any time of day or night. The airport was the most Americanized of all of the Asian airports I visited, with English being the dominant language. The Singapore Air business class lounge was outstanding, but was also very crowded even late at night. After about 90 minutes, it was time to go to the gate to board. As was becoming more common in various international airports, I had to go through security again before boarding at the gate.

I then had the best night of sleep so far on the trip, sleeping for the first 7 hours of my 13.5 hour flight to London. This really helped adjust my sleep schedule to European time. I really enjoyed my time in the east, and moving on to Europe was a bit of an initial disappointment.

I arrived in London surprisingly refreshed, and then walked through a maze of corridors, took a bus, and then walked through another maze and a security and customs line. All of this, and I wasn’t even staying in London for this part of the trip!

The Star Alliance lounge offered much needed shower facilities which were high in quality, and a decent selection of breakfast foods. The wifi was a bit spotty, but overall it was a great place to spend a few hours while waiting for a flight from London to Amsterdam.

The older parts of Heathrow airport are under heavy repair. BMI switched us to a very small plane so there was no business class for the very short flight which was fine.

The flight itself was an uneventful 55 minutes of waiting and 35 minutes of flying. I arrived in Amsterdam ready to see the city and I was met at the airport by my friend Nikolai Onken.

On April 24th, I walked a few kilometers around Sydney and across the Harbour Bridge towards McMahons Point, the location of Greg Wilkins’ boat. I had some great views of the harbour and other parts of Sydney.

Greg and a friend share a nice sailboat, and after a few months of repairs, they were ready to transport it to a moor closer to Greg’s place in Manly. We spent several hours touring the harbour and eventually did some light sailing when the winds pick up. I’ve never really sailed, but with only the three of us on board, I was put to use. Tourists were taking our picture from their tour boats which was pretty amusing. Sailing around Sydney provides some excellent views of the Opera House, and sunset at the moor created some really great images as well:

Greg, Jan, and I then had dinner at the (arguably) best pizza place in Sydney at the trendy Manly ferry building. We had a great conversation, and then it was time for me to catch the last ferry across to Circular Quay near my hotel in Sydney.

On April 23rd, I walked around Sydney some more, and then had lunch with Pamela Fox whom I met at Web ’09 and a few members of the Google Maps team at Google Sydney. They have a great location with a nice harbour-side view.

After lunch, I walked around Darling Harbour which contains a sea museum as well as an aquarium, and a bunch of shopping, before walking back to my hotel.

For dinner, we had a Dojo Beer event at 3 Weeds, which offered a great combination of tapas and drinks, including some good ciders.

On April 22nd, I woke up really early and caught up on some work. Today was my primary day for seeing some of the more touristy sights of Sydney. In walking around town, I did something I almost never do: shop. And I don’t mean the Apple Store with the longest Genius Bar in the world:

No, I mean the arcades of Sydney including the Strand and the Queen Victoria Building:

The stores here were not particularly large due to the narrowness of the buildings, so they carried a much smaller range of inventory. For example, clothing retailers that might also carry things like boxer shorts in the USA would not do so in the arcade shops.

It’s often difficult to find non-touristy souvenirs. Oddly enough, there were two stores side-by-side that offered a shockingly useful selection of souvenirs for Ireland and Italy, much easier and of the same quality as you would find in Ireland. So yes, if you need to purchase souvenirs for Ireland or Italy, just make a quick side trip to Sydney!

I also took some time to reflect, eating at one of the cafes, doing some writing, watching the tourists walk by.

Finally, I had dinner with a few of the guys from Adobe that I met at Web’09 in Auckland the week before. We had a great conversation, starting with drinks near the Opera House, and then dinner on Darling Harbour at reasonably good steakhouse. I avoided the kangaroo, which I am told tastes like a fishy steak.

I’m Back.

After 76 of the best days of my life seeing the world, I’m back in the USA, waiting for my flight from Charlotte to Phoenix.

I’ve seen and experienced so many amazing parts of the world, and yet I’ve seen and done so little. Sadly, I’m a bit disappointed that my trip is already over. It went by so very fast.

If you have the time and you don’t have kids, I have to recommend you take a round the world trip. I can’t wait to get out there again and see, experience, and learn more. For now, I’ll have to settle for a short business trip to San Antonio tomorrow.

On April 21st, I left Katoomba for Sydney. After 48 hours in Katoomba, I left without a view of the 3 Sisters:

The drive down to Sydney was great, as the fog and rain was limited to the Katoomba area.

I arrived at the Marriott Circular Quay, which is by far the nicest Marriott I’ve ever visited.

The room on the 31st floor offered a stunning view of the Sydney Opera House:

My itinerary said I should take a tour of the Sydney Opera House, so I walked downstairs and found my way to the opera house. Tours were readily available, and I enjoyed the cafe while waiting for the tour. The building has a fascinating history of a design that was picked by an artist that broke all of the rules. The architect that was brought in to help judge the designs was involved with the Arch in St. Louis, which did not surprise me as it was my first mental association when I saw the architecture.

I also randomly met Tara, a musician from Perth who was in the same tour group. My first impression of Sydney is that it’s a friendly city, and combines some of the best elements of the great cities of the world.

April 20th, and still no sisters. I was completely fogged in today, with no chance to view the 3 sisters (apparently if you were standing there looking at them at precisely 11:15 am, they revealed themselves for about 5 minutes). So, I continued to catch up on some work, and I headed to Leura, the town next to Katoomba, which had a great set of cafes and small shops, and took care of some errands and had some outstanding oolong tea at the Post Cafe.

All around, today was a pretty boring day as I didn’t really get to see anything, but I was able to immerse myself a bit in the local culture. Lilianfels again did not impress me as much as expected, but again, the same friendly face for room service. I usually try to not have room service, but having dinner out alone in a romantic town is a bit much. I had breakfast at the hotel restaurant which was good, but Lilianfels and Katoomba is really not the perfect place for someone traveling alone, in my opinion.

On April 19, it was time to bid farewell to the kiwi nation and fly to Australia. Upon arrival at the Auckland airport, I discovered that there was an entirely separate checkin and passport control section for first class, business class, and star alliance gold members, a nice touch. After being returned to the customs counter to purchase an Australian visa for 30 New Zealand Dollars, I was then quickly dropped to the front of the security line which was convenient.

After finding a few postcard stamps, I made my way to the Koru lounge which was, not surprisingly, much nicer than the other Air New Zealand lounges. Also, the flight was a direct contrast to the Tokyo to Auckland flight, as this flight was on an Air New Zealand 777:

Their 777 which has their best lie-flat business class configuration. It’s somewhat silly because their 10 hour flights have their oldest business class configuration, while their short 3 hour flights between Auckland and Sydney have their best seats. I was told that because of reduced flight traffic, this allowed them to keep their non-stop flight from Tokyo to Auckland with a smaller plane (767 instead of 777), and then use the 777 to run a few less flights a day, with a larger plane, between Auckland and Sydney.

The view over Sydney was breathtaking, and when I landed, I caught a glimpse of the Singapore Airlines A380 which will be my next flight in a week.

Both Australia and New Zealand are very tight at customs with regards to not wanting anything allowed into the country that can destroy their island ecosystem. That said, passing through customs was a breeze. I was met by Eric Moore who drove me to Lilianfels resort in Katoomba so I could see the 3 sisters at the Blue Mountains, a sort of shorter but large and green version of the grand canyon just west of Sydney.

Unfortunately, as you can see from above, just beyond the pool is a massive set of fog, so I was not able to see anything today.

Eric was an extremely informative guide about Sydney and the Blue Mountains region, and provided me with a wealth of information about the region.

Because of the weather, I called for a massage at the hotel, but they were sold out for my entire stay. Note to future self: whenever staying at a hotel with the word “spa” in its description, book your massage in advance or they will not have any appointments available. This afforded me time to catch up on some work, and use the gym. I was told that the gym used to be a honeymoon suite, with the last couple to stay their being Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. I think it serves a better purpose as a gym.

Lilianfels resort is a very nice place for couples and families, but I felt a bit out of place being there alone, more so that anywhere else I have stayed so far on this trip. I ordered room service, which was delivered by a lady that is best described as a clone of Natalie Portman.

April 18th was definitely a day to remember. Web’09 had a great group of attendees and a solid collection of speakers. I was up to give my talk after the morning break, and gave a talk on the Open Web. While I have given this talk several times before, each time I deliver it is quite different. The conference had a number of vendor-specific pitches, which gave me some fresh fodder.

Today was by far my best delivery of this talk, if the audience response and Twitter feedback was any indication. Most importantly, I had fun and I think it made the conference more enjoyable all around, which is a rare accomplishment at a technology conference. I also had the new experience of soliciting Twitter feedback during the talk, which gave me some great ideas for future iterations of the talk, as well as a great way to follow-up with people about the talk. I believe the Web’09 people are still working on putting the talks online, but it should be available soon. All in all, it was a very fun experience.

After lunch, I walked around the harbour a bit, and had lunch and drinks with one of the attendees from the conference, and then Rob Coup joined us for a small Dojo Beer event before the conference after-party.

Among the discussions about Dojo and other topics, another topic I’ve often held dear to the heart is a goal of eliminating the term “red head” from the vernacular. Why? Well, because it’s only my hair that is red, and because we don’t call people blackheads, brownheads, or yellowheads. So, for a while I’ve wanted to come up with a new name, and the best I had come up with was “redh” would was an abbreviation for red hair.

However, redh was pretty odd and unlikely to have any staying power, so when I heard that the phrase Ginger was popular in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and Ireland, I immediately took a liking to it, in spite of some potentially derogatory interpretations of it. I hope we can replace “redhead” with “ginger” in the US vernacular asap. I also found it amusing to learn that the term “borange” is used to describe people with orange-brown hair, but that term doesn’t really apply to me.

After the Dojo Beer event, I returned in time to attend the Web’09 after party which was a lot of fun. I talked to a bunch of people that attended the conference and had a great time. To top it all off, Morgan Nichol and Mike Forbes knew that I like cider, and took me to a cellar where I got to try a home brew cider that was legendary. Web’09 was one of the best conferences I’ve had the chance to attend, and hopefully I’ll get invited back next year!