Days 17-18: The home stretch

Our final event was in Chicago’s Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower), which is the tallest building in the city. We were on the 99th floor and got passes to the Sky Deck! The view was awesome.

We had a lot of people this time around, and demoing services, presenting devices, and meeting with IT Pros went very well.

After the AM and PM events, I said goodbye to some of my managers/colleagues, and joined some MSFT folks in the Signature Lounge at the Hancock Tower, which is the second tallest building in the city. Apparently Jerry Springer lives in that building…? Some random person told us that, anyway…

This morning, I said goodbye to Ariel (or, rather, he woke me up as he was leaving so we could say goodbye) since he had an earlier flight than I.

I got up soon thereafter, and went to a delicious pizza place called PIzano’s and ate in the bar (getting a lemonade of course). I’m getting used to the whole, “Can I see your ID?” business…just wondering how long it will take before people stop asking. xP

Here are some final shots of the city I took during my walk around today (two of pictures are me doing a handstand on the Sky Deck from last night):

Because today isn’t over yet, I may edit this post and update it!

Days 11-13: Oh, Canada! (Sorry, I just had to)

LA’s event was a good one, I got an opportunity to create some Surface Pro 3 art:

Maybe I’ll post more of what I drew later. 🙂

The next day I got up early (incredible early…) and got to the airport. Ariel and I were about three hours early to our respective flights. So I watched a movie on Netflix to pass the time.

I went on to Air Canada because my next stop was Toronto, Ontario! I decided to go visit my friend Whinnie, because I’d never been able to meet her in person before!

So going through customs was interesting…because I had to explain to the officer that I was going to Canada to visit a friend, who I had met online, specifically Twitter, and was a fellow Sonic the Hedgehog fan…yeah, anyway, luckily he told me that he’s heard much weirder stories before.

So eventually I got to the lobby of the airport, and met up with Whinnie! Since I’ve known her (about two years or so) this was the first time we were able to meet in person.

So that evening she introduced me to one of her roommates, recommended a Chinese restaurant for dinner, and showed me around her university, UW (not University of Washington, University of Waterloo. Apparently the two get confused sometimes).

The next morning, we hopped on a buss and headed to downtown Toronto. Whinnie had a planned list of things to do there, so we went to the CN Tower (which until 2010 was the tallest building in the world),  Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, and to Eaton Mall. The view from the tower was breathtaking! There were also glass floors that we could look down through and see to the bottom. We also embarked on an exciting motion ride that had seemingly nothing to do with the tower, or Canada, or…much else. But it was fun nonetheless! Then we went to the aquarium which was very impressive. We probably spent like an hour and a half there! Here are some of the pictures below.

We spent the whole day down there, and it was so much fun! Getting ready for sleep now, because I have yet another flight to catch tomorrow…

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.”