As you may remember, I had some bad experiences in Cameroon, mostly because of the tour operator. I talked about that here. Despite my problems with Victor, the actual two guides we had were great, especially Patrick. I just got an email from Patrick yesterday, which made me very happy as I haven't had any contact with him since the beginning of October. But he told me he is getting his own tour business going, which is good news.Cameroon actually has a lot to offer in the way of eco-tourism because it has both savanna and deep central-African jungle. Josh has a great posting of it here with pictures. My bad experiences there overshadowed my good ones, but I would recommend Cameroon to people, as long as they stay away from Equatorial Tours. Now that Patrick is in business, he'd be the guy to go with. If you are interested in Cameroon, let me know and I can put you in contact with Patrick.
January 2008 Archives
Utah and the West have been in a pretty serious drought for around 7 yrs. The arid west highly depends on the winter snowfall for continued water throughout the year and this year winter wasn't looking too good. At least until mid-December. Then we got dumped on. Seriously.We got probably the biggest storm of the season this morning, leaving somewhere between 12"-18". I just got back from playing in it, riding my snowboard as a sled down the street. I think I lost about 20 yrs. Anyway, here's a picture from my front door - you can see some of the snow piles. My driveway is practically a canyon with banks on each side that are 5' - 6' high, due to shoveling and plowing.
I've had a lot of cell phones in my life. I don't remember when I first got one, but it would have probably been back around '99 and possibly '98. For the most part, I tolerate phones, but by no means love them. My most recent experience with a Nokia E62 and AT&T wasn't pleasant. That was probably the slowest phone I've ever had to deal with and AT&T has horrible service at my house.I've been having my work pay for my phone in the past, but when I recently changed jobs, it became necessary to get my own service. Given AT&T's bad signal I opted for Verizon. There were several options for phones (which are unfortunately still stuck on CDMA instead of GSM), but I was able to work a deal with a kiosk at the local mall, and got the Blackberry 8130. I love it. The price was steep with data service, but I figure I can claim it as an un-reimbursed business expense. There's a bit of a learning curve, but I've found that nearly everything is customizable with screens and screens of options to change. It does email quick and easy, even if you don't have a blackberry server. It's fast too - very little lag. Call quality is alright and so is voice. It's also a great size that easily fits in the pocket - a must!So yeah, I finally found a great phone. If you're looking for a smart phone and can fork over a little money (I'm getting a rebate), I'd highly recommend it. Also, my brother has the cousin - the Blackberry curve and he loves it too.
