Well first of all, I am back from China. I got back six days ago–last Friday, but between getting caught up and getting over jet lag and watching two weeks worth of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, I’ve been a little delayed in getting a blog post up and out. But now is probably the best time, so here goes.
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Tags: beer, Beijing, Boys State, California, China, concert, earthquake, Great Wall, illness, itinerary, mock, Sichuan Province, state government, tour, trip

Well, however nervous I may or may not be, today is the day that I’m heading off to China. I’ll be back on Friday, June 13th and hopefully won’t be too far out from jet lag.

You’ll notice on my blog that I’ve added the current Beijing time (they’re 15 hours ahead of San Francisco time) up above and the current weather in Beijing so that you can see the conditions that I’m in at the time. Our trip also apparently has its own blog (obviously NOT designed by me) where you can follow what we’re doing, see our minute-by-minute schedule, etc.

Anyway, it’s time for me to get packing. Here’s hoping that I make it back in one piece!

Tags: Beijing, China, leaving, packing, tour, trip

All right everyone, better get your Little Red Books out and handy because I’m off to China!!!

Uhh, say what?

Well, here’s the idea. My school’s band, choir, and orchestra (with me being a member of the latter of those three) has been invited to tour and perform in Beijing, China ahead of the 2008 Olympics (which seem to be on the news constantly these days, and not for good reasons). We were also originally going to spend a few days in Xi’an, but that canceled a week or so ago due to the recent earthquake and the declining political situation in that region. However, as it is, the trip will be an 11 day/9 night stay in Beijing (with one day lost up in an airplane or two), with a couple of concerts and a hopefully-not-too-overwhelming amount of sightseeing. But before I share my itinerary, how about a little peek at everything that I’ve gone through ahead of this trip, eh?
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Tags: Beijing, China, itinerary, music, Olympics, orchestra, tour, trip

Well, here I go again. You probably don’t even really care much about all my travel itineraries, but I find that it satisfies myself to spend the time writing them up anyways. (If it turns out that you actually like my travel itineraries, let me know in the comments.) However, this week will be the California State PTA Convention again, my fourth one in a row. The difference about this year’s (other than the fact that it’s in Long Beach) is that as a student representative on the State PTA Board of Managers, I now get to be a part of running the thing, which therefore makes me more committed during the Convention and means that I have to show up two days earlier. Want to see what I mean? Here we go…
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Tags: California State PTA, Convention, events, itinerary, Long Beach, meetings, PTA, SAT, Subject Tests, trip, workshops

Well, if you haven’t noticed, I’m back from Sojourn. I’m still a little bit groggy, partly due to the time zone changes and to the general lack-of-enough sleep that accompanies Sojourn, along with the fact that I’ve now got a truckload of make-up homework to tackle over the next week or two. However, I did thoroughly enjoy my experiences on Sojourn and was very glad that I had the opportunity to go.

Now, as you know, I didn’t have any kind of computer/internet/electronics-of-any-kind-other-than-digital-cameras type of access on the trip, and so instead of blogging the trip as I would have, I kept a daily diary of what took place each day on the trip. That’s right, all handwritten. Wow. (Actually, with all of the notes and other homework we had, my handwriting actually got a bit of improvement! Not a lot, just a bit.)

Anyway, I’m going to be publishing my Sojourn Diaries here, on my blog, beginning this Thursday, February 28 and ending on Saturday, March 8–essentially, each post will be made two weeks after the day I originally wrote it. It’s not as great as being able to blog the trip live as it’s happening, but for me, it will be the best way of sharing how the trip was with you and everything that we did, because it was quite an experience.

But anyway, I am back and ready to roll! Once all of that make-up work is done, of course…

Tags: diaries, School, Sojourn to the Past, south, trip

Good morning everyone, and Happy Valentine’s Day (even if I haven’t been paying any attention to Valentine’s Day this year, for obvious reasons). It’s about 3 AM as I’m writing this, and I’m getting ready to head off for my Sojourn to the Past trip. I posted my itinerary a week ago, and so I’ll be back online again on Sunday, February 24th.

However, as I leave, I thought that I’d leave one final thought, which was from Bill Moyers a month ago.

See you all in a week and a half.

Tags: Bill Moyers, civil rights, history, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Personal, Sojourn to the Past, trip, Valentines Day

I have alluded a couple of times recently to the trip (called Sojourn to the Past) that I am going on a trip during this month. (And, I’m still looking for guest bloggers to provide some content during my absence!) However, as per my usual pattern, it’s probably about time for me to share my itinerary with you all.

I first mentioned the trip on my blog three months ago when I was fundraising for it. Well, I completed my fundraising, partly thanks to a timely scholarship award that I was given from the good folks at Peace Action of San Mateo County, and so next Thursday, I will be off. Here is a look at my very busy schedule while I’m gone.
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Tags: Civil Rights Movement, itinerary, School, Sojourn to the Past, speakers, trip

Hello everyone,

I’m going to be going on a school-related trip in the middle of February which will force me to be completely away from the computer and the internet-at-large for about ten days. Now, I had considered not doing anything on this blog for ten days, but I’ve changed my mind and decided that perhaps something that I should do is take the opportunity to invite folks to write a guest blog article to be featured here on Webmacster87.info during my absence, just to keep the blog going.

So here’s how it works. If you would be interested in guest blogging on Webmacster87.info, please let me know in the comments of this post and I will send you an e-mail with additional information. I’m currently just planning to run the guest blog articles while I am away (February 14-23), but if I get an overwhelming response, I may decide to expand them to cover the month of February.

If you indicate that you are interested in guest blogging, your post will need to be submitted to me no later than Sunday, February 10th. (Earlier than 2/10 will be great too.) I will be scheduling the posts in advance so that they will show up on here while I am gone and nowhere near the computer.

What kind of content? I would be interested in any guest bloggers who want to write an article about technology and/or teenage life. (You do NOT have to be a teenager to participate–in fact, I’ll probably be inviting a few people that I know who aren’t teenagers to contribute.) Note that unlike Lorelle VanFossen’s two months of guest bloggers, I will not be entirely opening up my blog to guest bloggers; I will be reviewing guest blogger articles that are submitted to me primarily for decency before I schedule it in the posting queue. However, if you are interested, I certainly invite you to join in and relieve me while I am away from the computer.

(Incidentally, I will also probably be doing another one of these guest bloggerthons for another long trip that I’m taking in June, so this will not be the only opportunity.)

Anyway, I just wanted to extend the invitation to anyone who’s interested. As for the trip that I’m taking in February, stay tuned for more details coming in the next week or two.

Tags: article, Blogging, guest bloggers, invitation, Technology, teens, trip

Well, I’m fresh back from my trip to Macworld Expo, courtesy of the tech group at my high school that I’m an “honorary member” of. (The “honorary” part means that I don’t actually do anything with them due to my busy schedule.) But yep, we got to go to Macworld as a field trip, meaning we got to legally miss all of our classes today to do so. Oh, I can just feel your jealousy rising.

The general consensus among us was that there was too much stuff for the three and half hours that we were there. (We finished getting all registered by 10:40 AM, and had to leave at 2:15 PM.) It didn’t help that there were two exhibit halls in separate buildings, a block apart from each other. Obviously not the ideal setup, but Moscone North was hosting the United Motorcoach Association of America or something like that. Wow. So, my schedule pretty much involved registering at Moscone West at about 10:20, then going through the West Exhibit Hall at 10:40-12:15, then getting lunch nearby until about 12:45, and then spending 12:45-2:15 in Moscone South. Unfortunately, I only got to see about half of Moscone South’s exhibit hall, which is very, very big.

However, this year, I spent most of my time talking with the smaller developers, which took up the majority of the West Hall and most of whom were together in the Developer Pavillion (aka “Tiny Town”) in South Hall, behind Apple’s humongous booth. I actually really enjoyed that, because in general, the smaller developers are much more approachable than these huge companies with the humongous booths, and they’re much more interesting. I actually got exposed to quite a few new apps that I’m going to have to check out (look at wallet, here comes the fire…). So although I obviously didn’t get to see everything I had hoped (the MacHeist, Micromat, and Microsoft booths were all on my to-do list which I didn’t get to), I still had a good time, a much less stressful time, and came back with some great goodies.

Included in my goodies was the official Macworld San Francisco T-shirt, this time a black T-shirt with blue and white lettering. I also got a WireTap Studio T-shirt from Ambrosia Software. WireTap Studio just looks so cool, so I’m really going to have to try it out. One of the companies actually was interested in doing a promotion with PreviewCast, and gave me his card, so there may be some interesting news coming from that soon.

Oh, and I got OmniFocus, the totally-awesome GTD application from the Omni Group for only $30. The regular list price is $80, and I got more than half off through a Macworld discount and a student discount. I’ll definitely be spending some time trying out OmniFocus and you can expect a detailed review here soon.

Don’t worry, you haven’t heard the last of my Macworld experiences yet, but I thought that I’d share just some of what I did at the exhibit hall today. One of these days, maybe I’ll actually be able to spend a full week at the conference.

P.S.: Sorry, but I didn’t get any pictures there this time. But I did get something else just as good! Hint hint…

Tags: Apple, developers, exhibits, Macs, Macworld, Moscone, Omni Group, OmniFocus, PreviewCast, recap, San Francisco, School, trip, WireTap Studio

UPDATE: I have completed fundraising for Sojourn. However, if you are still interested in supporting the organization that sponsors the trip, you can get donation information on Sojourn’s website.

Hello everyone,

I’m going to break away from the regular content on Webmacster87.info to make a more personal post and a request for assistance. I have been invited to go on a once in a lifetime journey with students from my school, called Sojourn to the Past. Sojourn is a ten-day academic tour through major civil rights sites in Atlanta, Georgia; Montgomery, Alabama; Selma, Alabama; Birmingham, Alabama; Hattiesburg, Georgia; Jackson, Georgia; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to visiting such sites as Stone Mountain, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Memorial, Little Rock Central High School, and the hotel where Dr. King was assassinated, I also have the opportunity to meet a number of speakers who are a part of the civil rights movement.

All of the speakers teach lessons about tolerance, acceptance of others, non-violence, courage, compassion, forgiveness, and civic responsibility. Our group will meet Congressman John Lewis, from Georgia, who was arrested over 40 times and beaten fighting for justice and equality. We meet Elizabeth Eckford and Minnijean Brown Trickey, two of the Little Rock Nine, the first African American students to desegregate schools in our country in 1957, fifty years ago. In fact, Minnijean travels with us for part of the ten days! We also meet 85 year old Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who almost single-handedly desegregated Birmingham, Alabama. We meet Reverend Billy Kyles, who was on the balcony with Dr. King when he was shot in Memphis and spent the last hour of his life with him. We meet an incredible family called the Dahmers, whose father/husabnd was murdered in 1966 while leading voter registration drives. This family will share how they never gave up on justice, and continue to believe in the American system. We meet Chris McNair, whose daughter, Denise, was killed in the Birmingham Church Bombing in 1963. He is the father of one of the four little girls who were killed and shares his story of never giving up on justice and not to hate those who did this terrible deed.

The main reason that I want to go on this trip is because a lot of the extracurricular activities that I participate in are based on principles similar to those of the civil rights movement, and this trip is a special opportunity that I want to be a part of. I am intrigued by the thought of not just getting to learn more about the civil rights movement, but to actually be able to interact and meet the people that made the movement a reality. It’s a very special opportunity because these people won’t be around for much longer to share their perspectives. I’m really hoping to be able to go on this exciting trip.

The reason that I am writing this post is that I need to raise a total of $2500 in order to go, and I cannot personally afford the full cost of this trip, and so I am asking the readers of my blog, if they are interested and are able to, to donate so that I can raise enough money to go on this trip in February 2008. There are a few ways you can donate. The easiest way is through the Donate box that is on the left sidebar of Webmacster87.info–that will allow you to donate directly to me through PayPal. Note, however, that if you are donating via PayPal, a small PayPal fee is subtracted from that total (you may want to use the PayPal Fees Calculator to determine how much I’ll actually be getting), and PayPal donations are not tax-deductible. If you would prefer, you can leave a comment in this thread and I will personally contact you via the e-mail address that you specify with information on how you can send a check, which is tax-deductible (I would send you all the info on the various IRS quirks that are necessary to make it tax-deductible). In the Donation box, I have put a suggested default amount of $10, but any amount helps. If the total that I raise exceeds the needed $2500, then the extra goes toward a financial aid fund that is available for other students to attend this program.

If you would like to learn more about the trip, including the itinerary, list of speakers, and other information, feel free to check out Sojourn to the Past’s website.

Thanks in advance for any support you may be able to offer!
–Douglas Bell

Tags: assistance, civil rights, donations, fundraising, history, Personal, request, School, Sojourn to the Past, south, trip