Watch this little mini documentary about it at FutureStates.tv and enjoy your long weekend saturday!

For those of you keeping up on our where-abouts you should fully know it’s been 4 months since we made the last leg of our journey to home. During this time I’m sure you also all noticed our blog entries died down to pretty much a sudden stop. Adjusting back to the real world has been some awesome fun, lots more work then we are used to, busy busy busy, and we can’t forget about the gambit of emotions to go along with all that!

Luckily we did not jump back into the work force right away and planned to have 2 months of seeing friends and family, espcially since we did not have a home yet. Our condo still had renters in it until July 1st. So, we stayed mostly with my parents, with sleep-over extended visits to various friends houses here and there.

The start to life back in Canada was a short visit to Calgary. Our great friends Steve and Karen who traveled with us for 2 months through Europe were great hosts for these couple of days and made us one of the best dinners we had in a long ass time. We love steak, especially Triple A Alberta Beef. You’ve never have beef until you have eaten this. Trust us! We tried steak all over the world and nothing came remotely close to Alberta Beef. Our friends showed up Gordon Ramsay in their own backyard. No fancy gourmet kitchen or posh restaurant with a ridiculous priced menu. Take that Gordon!

We then flew home to Vancouver filled with extremely happy family/friends to see our return. Welcome home BBQ’s, parties, simple get togethers, outings and repeat. We truly felt missed and were quite thankful of my parents letting us live with them until we got our condo back.

However, on top of all this hub-bub, we really had a hard time getting out of bed and doing anything during the day. We were still quite used to sleeping in and then relaxing all day on a beach or in a pool. Plus, I’m sure we had a large dose of jet lag in our systems as well.

May long weekend we drove out to Salmo B.C to help PK Sound with the Village stage tear down at Shambhala. Demolish parts of the stage and clean up the forest during the day and drink with friends around the giant bon fire at night.

After May long we drove back to Calgary for a couple weeks to do some much needed renovations on our loft in order to get a new renter for July 1st. New paint, new carpet, replace some light fixtures, replace the bathroom door, hang up curtains, clean it up, list it, and interview possible renters. When I look back at the work we did it doesn’t sound like much. But, like most renovations things never go as planned and ended up being quite the headache. It sure felt good once it was completed! I wanted to move back in after pouring my heart and soul into it. It looks SO good and in result rented quite easily. Unfortunately we were so down to the last minute we completely forgot to take after photos!! =(

Another highlight for us was participating in our first scavenger hunt with Alex and Heather. We named our team Gang Green, wore all green clothing, and decorated my car for some extra bonus point team flair and scavenged the city for items and photos. It was a blast and we won second place!! Can not wait to do it again next year. Much thanks to Mike Awesome for hosting this!!

Suddenly July long weekend approached us and that meant three things. First, Scott would be going back to work at his old job. The second was one more weekend spent at The Village helping now with the beginnings of the new stage construction. Third, we got to move back into our home! It was a busy week of driving, constructing a stage, moving, unpacking, and Scott adjusting back to the work life.

As great as it actually was to live with my parents for the past two months. We truly have an amazing relationship with them. Which was only made stronger when they both traveled all the way out to Thailand for a month with us. It’s now amazingly great to truly and finally be home.

We still have a ton more stories to share from our travels. Vietnam, Cambodia, and one last week in Thailand are still to come, even some tales from on the road in Canada. Also, coming up are more things to share about our adjustment back home and stories about the music events we have attended. I’m sure Furry Friday will also make a big come back appearance soon enough!

Sorry to have been on such a hiatus. But really… we are not sorry! We’ve been really enjoying life and every moment of being home. Hope your summer was as awesome as ours.

I know, I know. The title says “save” the world and the sign says “take over” the world. But really, when I take over the world it will be saving it. Have you ever watched your Members of Parliament, Senators or whatever your elected figures are on TV? It’s seriously like watching a bunch of children debate. “He said this” “She said that” – stand up and booing. Repeat. I wonder when they get to the job of serious issues like helping the homeless, stopping war, reducing the deficits and increasing our qualities of life?… hmm.. right.

But before I can “save” the world I have to do some training. And this is where you come in. Everyone knows that training takes money. And not well wishing money but hard currency. In this case US dollars. Luckily Canadian dollars are just as good these days as the old green back. Who knew a loonie would ever beat the greenback? And while I would take happy wishes, they need cold currency. I know, I know. It’s not fair. I can try sending them an email saying I’ll review their shooting range for some free explosives, but I don’t think it’ll work. And our beer habit blew through our budget 2 months ago and we’re running on vaporous. Its your help or nothing.

You may be asking yourself what kind of training is involved? Very simply, shooting very big effin guns (BFGS). In Cambodia I can shoot RPG’s, M60′s and Ak47. But at a cost of $200 for the RPG and $1 a bullet for the rest. The M60 shoots something like 20 rounds a second, so it can be pricey.

I promise to video the whole event, and be extremely happy about it. So what do you say, got a couple bucks to spare? $5, $10, $20 – it’ll all help. A $50 or $100 will get you something special in the mail. If your in Canada, email money transfers work great, otherwise Paypal is also perfect.

I’ve included a F.A.Q. with this post to answer any more of your questions!

Q: How do I know you just won’t spend the money on hookers and blow?
A: Great question. First of all, Dee’s with me so that kills half of it. Secondly, shooting BFG’s is a bit more exciting. And after that Bangkok incident, well.. ’nuff said. Plus I promise videos in full HD quality.

Q: I really don’t think learning to shoot some guns is going to help you take over the world. Won’t I be wasting my money?
A: Not at all. If I do manage to take over the world one day, wouldn’t you rather be with me than against me? Us Dutch are known to have big noses and long memories. Secondly, what if Zombies attack? You need someone in the know to help you out.

Q: Zombies? Really?
A: Of course. Who knows, chemical neurological weapons are made daily. Think the US, Russian and Iranian governments aren’t researching this? Just look back at the LSD experiments in the 60′s when they dosed soldiers so they can’t fight. Who said those experiments stopped? What about crazy asteroids? H1Q1? Nihilist Virus? Crack heads? Shit can happen my friend. Best be prepared.

Q: That’s why we have soldiers. Police. First line responders.
A: That’s exactly right. First line responders. And when they get overrun, who’s left? Have you ever fired an M60? Thrown a grenade? Launched an RPG? Oh no? Wouldn’t you rather have someone on your side who has? Who can help defend you? Or do you think twitter can save you from a blood thirsty monster? Tweet tweet. Crunch.

Q: I know you. You’ve played a ridiculous amount of video games. Isn’t that training enough?
A: It’s a good step 1 of training. And I’ve put thousands of hours into it virtually. Both strategy and twitching. Now it’s time for the real thing.

Q: So your saying you won’t save me in-case something bad happens? When I come knocking on your door, you just gonna pass over all the good times we’ve had?
A: Well, let’s be serious for a moment. The worlds ending, of course I’m going to help you. But it’s going to take some begging and pleading. And I’ll never let you forget that you never helped me out with the training. I’m kind of an ass that way. I’m sure there will be something you can do while I’m blowing the shit out of things and saving our asses. Underwear to clean and such.

Q: Well yeah, that’s only if “Zombies” attack.
A: Think it’ll be any better if I do manage to take over the world?

Q: $50 US is a bit expensive…
A: For Canadians, not really. Have you noticed how the dollar has dived lately? Much like the US Olympic Hockey team, it’s gone waaaay down. It’s almost like $49 Canadian dollars, a deal for you! So just go ahead and send me $50 Canadian and we’ll call it even. And to my American friends, donate sooner and it’ll be cheaper for you!

Q: How do I know your going to do what you say you’ll do?
A: This is it in writing I suppose. I’ll even mention you here on this blog for special accolade to let everyone know the names of the people who helped me. And who’ll be protected in the future…

Q: What if I want to be a cabinet minister?
A: The more money you send, the higher your position will be in my government/post apocalypse organization. Pure and simple, dollars talk today.

Q: I don’t have any money to spare. Times are tough. Will you still help me?
A: Pretty much.. no. Read above. If that appeals to you, well sure. But I only have so much underwear. Times are tough for me as well! That’s why I have my hand out to you asking for money, which I never do. But remember, this is a trade for your future. For less than a Starbucks chai tea latte, you can help. And if your willing to give up a whole week of coffee, your pretty much set.

Q: OK, you’ve convinced me. Training you to fire big weapons benefits me. How do I donate?
A: Paypal works great. Canadians can send me an email money transfer to scott at dreamalittledream.ca Remember, even $5 buys you protection.

Q: I heard that you were going to shoot cows and chickens? What’s up with this?
A: Well, my initial excitement for bloodlust and realism was a bit much. I had a meeting with KFETOCCOA (Karen For The Ethical Treatment Of Chickens, Cows and Other Animals) who persuaded me that static targets and perhaps cars would be a better substitute. So don’t fear, no living being will be harmed by this. For now.

EMAIL MONEY TRANSFER: (for Canadians only)
Send to: scott at dreamalittledream.ca
Password: zombies

PAYPAL: (for everyone)
just click on the handy thumbnail below!

I want to do this in 3 days, so don’t delay! Send money now!

You don’t want me or yourself to become a Zombie! Send money now!

We’ve been without internet the last 3 days and have come to find our site is down. All of our posts, pages and comments had vanished. It seems our web host, hostpapa severs went down and around the same time we lost everything and our database shrunk to 0mb. Sent an email to hostpapa support and got a response saying “We don’t backup customer files, it’s up to you. case closed”

I have to say it’s pretty shitty customer service from hostpapa.ca No apology, no explanation why the servers crashed, no nothing. The only way I knew their servers went down (which they didn’t admit) is because I have a third party reporting service for outages. Also a friend of ours uses hostpapa and she actually got an email.. where the hell was ours?

Anyways, so we drank our troubles away through many pitchers of BeerLao, pool with the A-Team and many whisky cokes. This morning instead of tubing we nursed our hangovers and got ready to get our dream back up and running again. Lo and behold, I do an upgrade to the newest version of WordPress and it magically all reappeared like nothing happened.

My guess is that hostpapa realized that killing baby kittens is wrong and decided to make it up with this magic. But really, did wordpress magically have a backup we didn’t know about somewhere in cyberland?

None the less, sorry for the hiccup, we’re now back to our regularly scheduled program starting Monday.

We know, we know! Your all begging for more!

Hello from Thailand! It’s been awhile since we have shared any of our travel stories; it’s been a great and busy start to the new decade. First we had our friends Alex and Heather come out over New Years to spend a week with us, which much like Europe lead to many full days and nights of partying and no time to write on our blog. Then on the same day we hugged goodbye to our friends we meet up with parents who will now be enjoying Thailand with us until the 28th. So once again we’ve been busy spending time with them. We have now landed to Koh Lanta with plans to stick here and enjoy the beach for the next week. Which hopefully means we once again find ourselves some time to continue sharing our stories with you.
Let’s just cross all of our fingers we have some good wifi connections to do so!

Anyways, so we last left you off with the end of our European adventures and planning our next leg in Baden Baden. (This was back in October) So stay tuned for our upcoming posts about our time in Cairo to explore the pyramids! We are currently sitting by the beach and writing them now!

And yes, this still means we are 2 months behind in sharing our tales… Bah!!

I’ve been using computers since the early 90’s, and other than learning to type on a Mac II with B&W screen, I was always a Windows man. When my wife bought her first Apple computer while in school for Graphic Design 5 years ago, the seed was planted in our household. Upgrading from a desktop to a MacBook, she slowly started to convert me with the ease of use. After her second MacBook and showing family how easy it was to make photo albums, more of my family converted. And when I bought a MacBook Aluminum in January of 2009, I went all in. This MacBook is the single best computing machine I have ever used, and I am happy to be part of the Apple family. It’s so well designed, easy to use and just simply always works, much like all Apple products these days.

We love your Apple Store downtown Vancouver, and have been to the stylish store in New York. Conveniently located with the newest products, it’s such a great experience going into the stores to see what’s new. So when I lost my power adapter while traveling and found myself in Rome wanting to write on my blog, I didn’t hesitate to lookup the official Apple Store in the city.

Quickly going to Apple.com and doing a quick search, I was happy to see that there was an official store located in Rome. Called RomaEst, I didn’t recognize the address but luckily there was a Google map. Not knowing the location I plugged the information into Google and saw that I had to take a train and walk a short distance to the mall that it was at. I was so glad that you provided great directions that my wife Deidra and I went out right away to get the missing charger with our train stop in mind.

Taking the subway and then having to transfer to a train, we thought it was a bit odd but hopped on. As the train drove along through many stops, we anticipated the location shortly coming up and a little under an hour our location was called. Stepping off the train onto a platform, it almost felt like we were getting off a train in the old Wild West, with a road leading from the train station and a small store/bar at the station but nothing else around. I walked up to this store and asked them if they knew where the Apple Store was, sure that it must be close and conveniently located.

When the nice lady pointed at Apple Juice, I knew my little grasp of the Italian language wasn’t going to cut it. We’d have to figure it out ourselves, with nothing more than the memory of what the map looked like from your website. It didn’t look too far from what I remember, and we grabbed a couple quick espressos and a bottle of water. Walking out of the store past the five old Italians gambling on a game of poker, I felt confident we’d find the plug and be back downtown Rome in no time. Out on the road we came to a junction with a choice to go either left or right. Left led us into an area with signs of civilization and right led us to the entrance of a busy highway with no sidewalk. So, using our common sense we headed towards civilization with a spring in our step.

Unfortunately the spring in our step only lasted for half an hour due to the extreme heat, and finally came onto some streets with older looking homes and barking dogs. As we continued to walk through this area I couldn’t image an ultra-modern Apple store being located here. But on we went walking until it was obvious the store wouldn’t be this way – we were bound by the far curve of the highway and hills with forest and agriculture on them. We now had no other decision but to turn around and walk back the hour to the train station.

Oh Glorious Commercialized Civilization!

On our way back I decided to climb a hill that was adjacent to the road to get a better idea of where in Rome we even were. From the top of the hill I could see a giant glowing sign in the distance – down the hill I was on, across a farmers field, across what looked like a dirt-bike track, then the highway and finally, the largest building in the entire area, a supersized mall. With doubt in Deidra’s eyes I made the executive decision to cross this expanse so we could savor the sweet juicy power of Apple.

As we made our way across the fields, I wondered how much like the Wild West this area really was. We obviously weren’t anywhere near anything, and would a farmer shoot us out here for trespassing? Our questions were answered as we walked by a shantytown on the edge of the dirt-bike field, complete with burning garbage, stolen shopping carts and some scrap metal makeshift homes. Deciding to avoid this area we quickly made our way across the barbed wire covered ditch after being charged by a Ram protecting 8 other sheep. Never being so happy to set foot on the pavement of a highway before, we used our childhood Froger skills to cross the eight lanes to the urban miracle of a shopping mall. Looking back at our feat of an adventure through the Wild West we noticed the hill we climbed down was now filled with a giant herd of sheep. Wondering to ourselves while we entered the mall doors what would have happen if we were still on that hill as all those sheep arrived with the farmer and his dogs…

Getting our power adapter at your store was uneventful, and with our purchase we then ran into our next problem of this adventure. It seemed that this mall was so far out of town that to get a cab to the train station ended up costing us as much as the power adapter. Not that we were that far away from the train station – probably only 5km’s down the major highway with no sidewalk – but that they had to call the cab in from downtown Rome which took just under an hour. There were no other cabs around, and by this time we were just happy to be done with it all as it was now getting late. As the cab dropped us off at the train station, we were up for our next surprise.

Walking to the entrance there was a Police officer and four armed military personnel with him. It was around 9:00pm and there was a train going to Roma in half an hour. With an odd look and quick nod to the contingent of military at the entrance we sat down to wait for our train. Around us we were gated in with 10-foot high metal bars and the only entrance was where they stood. Looking over at the military and police sizing us up, we started to wonder what was going on. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long as the policeman walked over to us and struck up a conversation. We chatted about where we were from in Canada and he mentioned while he was in the army, positioned in the U.N., he had a commander from Ottawa and liked Canadians. A little bit more small talk and then the question came out;

“Just out of curiosity, what are you two doing here? You don’t look like you belong…”

I’m glad he asked because I was wondering why a platoon of soldiers was guarding a tiny train station, so telling him our story of the afternoons adventures gave me a perfect setting. While he was laughing at what happened, I asked him,

“Why are you and the army here?”

His face got serious and said, “For your protection. This is a very dangerous area.”

Just then a military van drove up and he excused himself, saying he’d be back in a few minutes and that he had to check in. Unfortunately a moment later our train came and I wasn’t able to continue the conversation and find out more about what was going on. Taking his words to heart we hopped on the train and were off back to Rome, feeling lucky and wondering to ourselves the many different ways our day could of ended up.

Steve, as I mentioned earlier, there are a of couple things that I’ve come to expect with Apple products and stores. These things are: Easy to use products, modern stylish stores and safety knowing that things just work. I don’t expect to need to pack for a field expedition to purchase a simple power adapter, or need an army platoon for personal security. To say that your Apple Store is in Rome is akin to saying Cupertino is in San Francisco. It may be in the bay area, but hardly in San Francisco city.

May I suggest you update your website with better directions and a warning of distance and danger? Or better yet use one of the thousands of buildings in the City of Rome and design something that better upholds the Apple style. I’m sure you can do a hell of a lot better than this.

Thank you for your time,

Scott

The four of us – Steve, Karen, Dee and myself – had just finished a relaxing evening in the hotsprings in Bath, and a few drinks in a chill little pub playing some drum’n’bass, and were on our way back to the Travelodge. Walking through the empty downtown streets, it was a cold night even though it was the middle of summer. Enjoying ourselves and chatting it up, we stopped at the crosswalk outside the main bus station to wait for the crosswalk to change when a large Englishman and his lady friend came up beside us.

Just then from far across the street, we hear some random yelling. Knowing this was England and they get a bit out of control, I figured it was just some guy blowing off some steam. But the yelling didn’t stop, and in the shadows from across the street a figure of craziness and destruction appeared. This guy was kicking garbage cans, body checking bus stops and being loser drunk. As he swayed and swerved up to the very same crosswalk we were about to cross, my eyes met Steve and we knew there was going to be trouble.

Someone got far too drunk and was now looking to cause a ruckus. He was pretty young, probably 21 or 22, but looked like he had fallen down all the way from the next town’s bar.
Sizing the situation up, I looked over next to the guy with his lady friend standing beside us, and he reminded me of Dolf Lundgren. About 6’4 and at least 220lbs of lean muscle, he looked like a man who could handle himself. Just then the drunk started yelling in a drunkish slur: “whooo are you? Whoo smuchka fee??” Other negative sounding babble poured from his mouth and just as the crosswalk turned green, the drunk started to cross the street, continuing his incoherent yelling. Steve and I started to walk in front of the girls and kept our eyes on the drunk, knowing in our minds something was bound to happen.
What happened next happened so fast. In the middle of the crosswalk the drunk came running up to Dolf, and literally jumped to swing at his head. Taking the punch like it was from Jean-Claude van Dam, Dolf swung around and proceeded to punch the guy 10-12 times in the head, all within 3 seconds! The drunk was now on the ground with blood coming from his lip. Dolf and his girl starting walking away as did we, all thinking that ordeal was said and done.

But no, the drunkard hadn’t had quite enough and started yelling at Dolf shouting, “Shake my hand asshole” and coming up to him again in a threatening manner. I have to give it Dolf as he stayed calm and kept walking away until the guy pushed him from behind. Another 15 punches in 5 seconds pursued and then it was completely over. The drunk was again knocked down to the ground. Finally, we all made it to the other side of the street and gave Dolf the nod and some praise.

An unbelievable 3 minutes later we saw the drunken guy again, smashing into the bus stop and yelling at nothing. I wonder what the 6 security guards inside the bus station were doing, almost certainly avoiding this loser.

Both Steve and I were pretty happy Dolf happened to walk into our lives at that moment, he certainly saved us a bunch of trouble that night. So my hats off to you Sir, I know who I’ll be rooting for next time Dee watches Universal Soldier on TV.

Jeremy currently lives in Dayton Ohio and is planning his very own “dream” trip around the world, hoping to embark in August 2010 once he is done his graduate research. Jeremy has already traveled to many countries in his life, but still has mad case of the travel bug.

We had a great time answering Jeremy’s questions and wish him all the luck in the world for his trip preparations and upcoming adventures.

Check out the spotlight here at Jeremy’s blog, and while your at it add his site to your RSS. It’s full of great planning tips and some stories from his past adventures. And if your on twitter, give him a follow!

Thanks again Jeremy for the spotlight!! We look forward to reading your future traveler spotlights and would love the chance to talk again about our Asia experiences once we land back in Canada.

Well, as some of your might of noticed… Scott and I are EXTREMELY far behind in our blog postings. Our anniversary in Venice was on August 5. That makes this blog 2 months behind. Holy crap!

We have been some busy travelers. But now we have slowed down to an almost halt. Our friends have flown back to Canada and our Eurail passes have expired. So, we are back in Baden Baden for awhile and staying in my relatives guest apartment which has a constant internet connection. (something we didn’t come across too often in our travels)

It’s now time to immerse ourselves in a bunch of good for you R’s. Relax, Recharge, and more importantly research! With Europe now a been there done that concept it’s time to figure out our next leg of adventures. Shall we go to Eygpt? India? S.E. Asia? All would be nice but Europe really took a bite out of our budget…. thus why we have taken a mandatory pitstop so we can really look everything over and make some smart decisions.

Guess what this means for you the reader! It means we are also going to take this down time opportunity to catch ourselves up on this blog. So stay tuned for great stories, photos and video coming up real quick.

Some topics to tap your finger and wait for:

• Getting Creeped out in Vienna
• Mountain Climbing in Prague
• Pumping Muscles in Brussels
• Participating in our own “Tour de France”
• Our thoughts to Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, and Steve Jobs
• Essential Clean Ups in London
• A Sanctuary that Belongs to the Cats
• Oktoberfest Insanity
• The beautiful under belly of Berlin
• and so much more!!