Author: Joey deVilla

Last week, in was in Tampa, hanging out with the girlfriend and getting a head start on summer activities:

But that didn’t mean I was idle. I managed to get a fair bit of work done, even while on the road, thanks to some handy mobile technologies…

…as well as an ability to get the job done any place, anytime. This was my view from a wifi-equipped stadium, where I took a call via Skype, took notes with Evernote and did some quick lookups and email with Safari:

On Sunday, I made my way back to Toronto, but I wasn’t headed home yet.

Toronto was the first leg of a business trip to Calgary to do a client consultation. I’m here all week to help them sort out their mobile technology strategy.

Here’s the obligatory “after ten hours in airports and planes” “selfie”:

And here I am yesterday morning on my way to the client’s office:

Like Portland, Calgary has a light rail system that’s free as long as you’re just travelling within the downtown corridor:

From my hotel, I went east a couple of stops and then walked north a few blocks towards this area:

The client some very nice space and was kind enough to loan me a corner office for the week. The windows look north and east, providing a spectacular view of the Bow River valley:

…and here’s where I’ve set myself up until I head home on Friday:

The difference between the Czech Republic and Chechnya,
for those who are a bit confused about the two.

It’s never too late for a geography lesson! An excerpt from an article titled Meet the Chechens:

Americans tend to be rather bad at geography, and often find out that a country exists, and where it is on the world map, only after their troops invade it. That’s how it used to be; now that America is too broke even to pay their own air traffic controllers, never mind stage military invasions, the moment of discovery will occur when people from some country or other come over and settle scores by attacking Americans. What goes around comes around.

America’s latest voyage of geographic discovery has taken it to Chechnya, where, following the collapse of the USSR, unbeknownst to most Americans, their government offered covert support to “pro-independence forces,” “separatists,” “insurgents,” “terrorists,” or whatever the increasingly tongue-tied US State Department decides to call them next.

Some facts about this circle, which were observed by one “valeriepieris” on Reddit:

• This circle is mostly water.
• It contains the two most populous countries in the world, China and India.
• It also contains the most sparsely populated country in the world, Mongolia.
• There are more Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists inside it than outside it.

…and less relevant to the general discussion and more relevant to me: Yours Truly was born inside this circle.

There’s more about this circle on io9 and Reddit.

Here’s a hint:

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

My recommendation if you haven’t done so already: go see Iron Man 3, then go out for shawarma.