100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places around the wor...

I am relaxing today. Saturday was a long day (Following a long Friday afternoon and evening). Being the co-chair for the Toastmasters conference took quite a bit out of me. I was running from 6:00 AM past 10:00 at night all with a suit on in a social gathering/public speaking setting. I emceed the award ceremony luncheon for the deputy mayor of Binghamton; it went well, I was speaking and leading all day and all night. The hotel bill indicated that the 150 Toastmasters must have had a good time as well. It all adds up, dinners, lunches, breakfasts, snacks, speech contests, educational presentations, and all the other stuff. We spent more than we originally planned, but we made more as well. We have to finish paying the bills, reporting the finances and basically cleaning up. They gave me a nice plaque for my efforts. I was glad it rained all day Saturday; I didn't mind being stuck inside all day. Overall it was a good experience and good project management training. Most people avoid things like this because it is uncomfortable. The trick is in realizing that there is often growth and learning in your discomfort. Believe me, I don't like discomfort either. Doses of it can be beneficial. Enjoy and look for the benefit (maybe it is there, maybe not). Like mentioned in one the excellent speeches... "You are preparing for something."

I cut my finger pretty bad the other day and I used one these new hydro collodial bandages, weird. It seems to work super-well, so well it seems a little scary. It got me curious about nanotechnology and I have been reading up.

Microjets aka VLJs have some interest today as well. Perhaps all economy has to do with moving things around including information, we are slaves to transaction costs.

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