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Brazil Travel Log (also Reflection on Love and Irony)

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Zero day. Flip. I shut my passport flat after briefly marvelling at the reflective hologram on my Brazilian Tourist Visa sticker. I imagined all the pieces the universe helped assemble to get me to where I was. Saving up funds, gathering visa documents together, planning where to stay and what to do, etc. Brazil was calling for me. God wanted me to be there. Day one. I landed in Sao Paulo only to discover my checked in luggage had been left in Mexico. After sorting out the paperwork, I was assured it would arrive the morning after. They would reach out to me when the box arrived. I left customs and was greeted by Bruna and Caio, both received me with incredibly warm affection. Bruna handed me some coxinha and pão de queijo. Yum.   After a brief tour of Sao Paulo, they dropped me off at a cafe where I would wait for Tais. Tais arrived shortly after, I saw her and for the first time in my life, in all its entirety, I felt butterflies in my stomach. Day two. I...
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Rome. A travel log.

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Visiting Rome was my childhood dream come true. It was surreal seeing the Colosseum for the first time - a pure serotonin experience. But my experience with the city itself, as an adult, I "glazed" it from a critical lens, and I see things differently now. Day One.  I arrived at Leonardo DaVinci airport hot, exhausted, and a little hungry. The punishing 40C weather in Rome with minimal AC didn't help either. I quickly made my way to the Airport Express train station, got my tickets and boarded. The view from train was surreal. I kept thinking to myself how incredible it was to be here. It almost didn't feel real. Fields of rural and urban life. Small villages, old homes abandoned or sparingly occupied. Ancient ruins, chapels, and small churches. Graffiti. The atmosphere though felt distinctly Italian. Spicy and warm. The train ride was short just 30 minutes. I rushed to the bus boarded and made my way to the hotel luggage in tow. After check-in I turned on the AC full...
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India. A Travel Log.

Oct 28 Click. I wrapped up my eBook purchase on Google Play. My brain needed something to chew on for the 20 hour trip to Mumbai. 12 hrs YVR to Beijing. 8 hrs Beijing to Mumbai. The title of the book "Around India in 80 Trains" by Monisha Rajesh. I felt this book appropriate enough to give me a crash course on India. In it, the author gave a colorful account of India's many faces, from the hustle and bustle in Mumbai to the scenic resort town sleepiness of Goa all the whilst braving the craziness of riding the Indian railway. Erika looked excited and frightened. I shrugged it off with a smile. I switch my phone to airplane mode. We board. We fly. Tomorrow, India. Oct 29 Survived the 12 flight to Beijing. I miss this place. I joked I would cancel the rest of the trip in lieu of Beijing. I can stay here forever. Erika seemed too tired to humour me. She played along anyway. "Too late for that, I think", she said. We board for Mumbai. The passengers were al...
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New World Order.

As I write this, the world is on the brink of an AI revolution. It feels like we're on the verge of achieving AGI, that's the promise anyway. I started this blog a little over 10 years ago to track my thoughts on the impending technological advance we were being pushed through. Things have changed for me personally as well, I've completed my BRICS run, got married, and got a kid. I'm currently working a job, in automation, that I love.  The New World Order will be achieved through robotics. That was my assertion 10 years ago. It holds to this day. We're almost there.
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Philippines. A Travel Log.

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It had been about 15 years since I last stepped foot in the land of adobo and tinikling (and Moros). When I booked our family tickets, Yulia and I had very different ideas of what this vacation was going to be about. Yulia wanted a week long R&R on a beach, tanning and paddleboarding. I wanted something more, I wanted to reconnect and reinvigorate the Filipino inside me. I wanted to reconcile my Filipino identity with my Canadian identity. Instead of continually trying to suppress my genetic and cultural roots, I wanted to give it a voice this time. Give it power. Day One. We landed at Terminal 1 at NAIA (Manila International Airport). After a quick and smooth deplaning and baggage pickup, we exited the area only to find dad missing. Frantically, we activated our SIM cards and called dad over and over again until we finally got a hold of him. He was at the wrong terminal, but he quickly made his way to us and we drove to our new generational house in Las Pinas accessing...
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Turkey. A Travel Log.

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Remnants of a magnificent city past is what makes Istanbul. The Byzantine empire defined area for a little over a millennia and a half before the Ottomans took it. Don't get me wrong Istanbul is amazing in its own right as manifested by the Turks, but just imagine what Constantinople was like at its peak. Stories of a city embossed in gold, aristocrats and scholars strolling about the streets engaging in intellectual dialogue, supernatural events occurring on the regular. You don't see that anymore (for obvious reasons) but what saddens me is the ruins left behind by the Eastern Roman [Christian] empire were no longer sacred nor properly preserved by the current government. There were instances where some remains of a fortress or palace were being used as a garbage dump, graffiti etched forever onto a millennia old structure. Despite this, I was still able to appreciate all that was left behind by the Romans (read Byzantines).  Day 1. We went as a family. Yulia, Sofia and I. Af...
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Reboot

Russia is (purpotely) on the brink of war and I've got heavy things on my mind so I decided that now is probably a good time to reboot this blog. I want to be able to track my thoughts moving forward.  I've got a family now, with a kid who is half-Russian. Sofia. She's my universe. One day, I can give her this blog so if she ever cared to trace back her dad's history she can do so here. The most burdensome weight on my mind right now is propaganda. We're not free from it anywhere we live. Right or left. Conservative or liberal. East or West. It's all propaganda. 
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