Days 9-10: San Fran event, meetup, and LA!

Yesterday’s event at San Francisco was great. I really do enjoy presenting Surface Pro 3 and Windows Phone 8.1 Preview. There’s something especially fulfilling for me when I answer people’s questions and/or show off features of the device.

While taking notes during the Q&A sessions, I decided to try my hand at drawing something on the Pro 3. Here’s a snippet of something I tried:

It was surprisingly easy to draw this with the advanced tech of the Pro 3. My wrist wrested perfectly against the screen as I drew and didn’t interfere with my drawing at all.

The next day, I finally was able to sleep in. Some friends of mine from Twitter, Edwin Rodriguez-Duplesis and Shawn Jackson, live near the area so Ariel and I met up with them around noon or so and explored China town and a few other places in the San Francisco area.

We got into a plane to LA, and this was a great flight because I was the only passenger in the plane that had an empty seat next adjacent to me. LEG ROOM! I was able to upgrade myself to a window seat, nonetheless.

I was able to use my Lumia 1020’s 1080p video capture to record both the take-off and landing out of the window. Maybe I’ll upload it to YouTube when I get back home!

In the meantime, I have another event to prepare for! Signing off.

 

Day 3: Arriving in Atlanta

Today’s will be brief…went to Johnny’s Luncheon for breakfast in NY (great little place) and met up with Ariel to embark to our next destination: Atlanta!

We had dinner with a group of Microsofties and it was delicious…but took a while to get there.

And by take a while, I mean now it’s 11pm. OK well it wasn’t that bad.

Gotta be up early for what I’m doing tomorrow. Signing off.

Edit: Pictures!

Day 2: Surface Event Day!

As you all know, today Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 3. This thing is a beast. It essentially is the official “laptop replacement” tablet. You can read all about it here if you’re curious.

I was involved in one of the Surface events today in NY. I had the pleasure of meeting Destiny, the rest of my team of three, as well as many other Microsoft people including the other team of presenters.

I was at one of the events, and it was fun. 🙂

But now my feet hurt because I think the dress shoes I wore were too small. Oh well. The sacrifices you make for quality work.

Planning on sleeping tomorrow – we’ll see.

Day 1: To New York!

This morning I woke up at 3:30am, said my goodbyes to my mother,  and left SeaTac around 7.

The plane.

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier again.

YES! They had Jeremy Messersmith’s newest album on the plane (the only good album they had…)!

Typically, accomplishing something as simple as finding my gate would be a difficulty considering my directional competence (or lack thereof). Luckily, however, my comrade Ariel Zlatkovski met me at the airport and helped lead me to the correct gate.

Ariel is part of the team with whom I will be traveling on this trip. I better be careful what I say about him because he might read this sometime. But he is now sitting behind me in the plane and cannot see what I am writing for the time being.

After the plane landed (and at least one complete listen through to Epica’s newest album, The Phantom Enigma), Ariel and I met up with Steven who’s a Microsoftie in charge of our team (and a whole lot of other things), took a cab, and headed to our first hotel in New York City.

Once we settled in and got our rooms in the Hilton Fashion District hotel, we ventured to the heart of NYC and saw some awesome places. We ended up visiting a farmer’s market and eating pizza in Madison Square Park. See the pictures below!

What a deal.

This guy made Ariel’s and my pizza.

These are random people.

The park!

This little dog, Buddy, was fascinating with the birds and squirrels. He watched them for the most part, but would randomly jump and try to scare them.

One of the victims.

It was a beautiful day today!

Although New York is a fun place to visit so far, I must say…it may not be some place I’d want to live necessarily. 🙂 And I thought Seattle’s traffic was bad…

A few days ago I had contacted the competitive Smash Bros. Melee player Lil Chen (or “Milktea,” to which she is referred in the Smash community) and asked her about meeting up in NY and chatting (since that’s where she lives). I had discovered her on the web via Twitter and a part of the renowned Smash Bros. Documentary, and as a long-time player of the Smash series (since ’99) and a recent admirer of the competitive scene myself, I thought it would be fun to meet a real Smash champ. During the evening, she and I met and talked about the Super Smash Bros. Melee community and how we could find new ways to be more welcoming of new members (she also agreed to sign my GameCube controller). Super stoked to have met her!

Now I am ready for the event tomorrow…or at least, I think I am. My blazer and slacks are hung up and ready for tomorrow and everything (that means I’m ready, right?)! Time for some sleep!

PS. Let’s play a game in the picture above called “I Spy Ariel.”

Welcome

Welcome to my travel blog! I’m glad you’re here. I’ll be posting updates about my experiences of exploring the world…and beyond (that is, of course, assuming I eventually get the opportunity to travel to outer space).

My first opportunity to do this will be when I travel with Microsoft from May 19 to June 6th, to New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Chicago, and of course, Seattle. During the weekends, I’ll be able to visit family in San Diego, and my friend Whitney Chen in Toronto, ON, Canada.

How??

I received this opportunity via Presenter Group, a Microsoft vendor which focuses on providing trainings, demonstrations, and other services to Microsoft. I got acquainted with the owner, Jared Marino, about a month ago while seeking a job opportunity to help him with Presenter Group’s website. Before our second meeting started, he told me that a special opportunity had come up, and asked me whether or not I’d like to travel the country presenting devices with Microsoft. I was thrilled at the proposition and eagerly accepted, and had the opportunity to meet Lillian Eng, Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft. Following our meeting, I was given non-disclosure agreements to sign, and was welcomed to the team.

Leaks and NDA

Now to respect Microsoft and its partners, I will be dutifully asking permission before I post anything on this site. I will not be posting anything here that compromises any agreements I’ve made,  rather I will dedicate these posts to sharing what I can about my traveling experience and the people I meet.

Brief Disclaimer

Anything posted on this site is my own and in no way reflects the views or opinions of any of my employers, including but not limited to Microsoft and Presenter Group.

Enjoy!

You can track my travel-related posts here or just my Microsoft trip in May-June of ’14 here.