John’s goal was to start this past week with creating an illustration of what he saw around town everyday. Luckily we’ve been swamped with work and illustrating for clients this past week, the downside is that he’s not quite able to create a drawing a day as hoped. But here’s the first couple, let’s encourage John to keep it up!

Day 1: View From Our Office The Day After The BSC Championship

Day 2: Morning Commute Sight: Tall Bike Guy & Smart Car Lady

Day 3: Its a nice, warm January day. And sometimes the people in the hotel across the street don’t realize we can see into their windows.

*[ a Fictional Graphic Blog Episode sprinkled with tidbits of truth?]

Excerpt from Travelouge: October 31, 2010

Something is going on. I’m sure of it.

The clues have always been right there, staring me dead in the eyes, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve been able to put them all together.

I remember when it all started just earlier this year. It was a strange news story, but nothing to make a big deal over. I didn’t even give it a second thought…until now.

But looking back I see that it was a piece of the puzzle. And as the year progressed and more seemingly unimportant and trivial news stories aired, I began to notice a pattern. A connection. And when all these stories, all these puzzle pieces are viewed as a whole then you can really see how they paint a bigger picture. A shocking and horrifying picture that may very well rock the foundation of mankind’s civilization.

I first became aware of this revelation in April of this year. Stephen Hawking had just completed a documentary about the universe for the Discovery Channel. It was creating a mild buzz with little public interest, as most science news stories do. ‘Who cares what are the latest advances in cancer research. Just tell us when the next iPhones are coming out.’ The intrigue over Hawking’s documentary stemmed from some controversial speculations he made warning mankind to cease any attempt to contact extraterrestrial life existing elsewhere in the universe. Hawking theorizes that intelligent life would most certainly present a hostile threat to earth and its inhabitants.

The subject was put up for debate by a panel of “experts” on Larry King Live. The panel included futurist, physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, senior astronomer of the SETI Institue Seth Shostak, David Brin astronomer and futurist, and Dan Aykroyd. At the time I saw this, I thought it was ridiculous and laughable. Humanity certainly has its laundry list of problems to face, (such as over-population, war, shortage of resources, disease); however, I didn’t foresee extraterrestrial life being an immediate threat…

…until now.

After the Larry King Live debate I immediately forgot about the imminent alien invasion. It neither concerned nor interested me. But since then I began to notice other news stories that seemed to be touching on a similar theme. “How should mankind prepare for a first contact with beings from other planets?”

In late September, the United Nations made a surprising announcement by appointing the First Ambassador to Alien Worlds. The new appointee, Mazlan Othman a Malaysian astrophysicist and director of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs will, in theory, be Earth’s representative to future visitors. This definitely peaked my curiosity. I can appreciate the fact that the United Nations would want to plan for any and all possibilities. But why this one? To me, governments are not exceptionally keen on planning long-term strategies for possible threats in the distance future (but that might be because I’m an American). The fact that they are doing something about it, makes me wonder if there was a reason that it needed to be done. Its as eerie as finding out that your government has established a strategic plan in the event of a zombie holocaust.

Perhaps mankind has already made first contact with alien life. And slowly and carefully we are being fed clues in small doses to prepare us for the eventuality that intelligent life does exist elsewhere in the universe…and that its already here. Maybe the leaders of our world have known about this for some time. For instance, in 2008 the Vatican City announced that it is a possibility that alien life forms could exist and that believing in that would not be contradictory to a faith in God. This announcement really freaked me out because the Catholic Church does not have a long history of agreeing with astronomy theories. And while the earth’s spherical shape and its rotation around the sun maybe a scientific certainty, an evolutionary theory is still up for debate. What could be more shaking to a person religious faith than the arrival of alien beings from another planet? Is the Catholic Church attempting to prepare its followers for such an event by establishing a doctrine that would make Christian faith and alien existence coincide with one another? The Catholic Church is a very important power on our planet. And when an important power makes such an uncharacteristic announcement, I think it should be treated with serious interest.

And the most recent peculiarity in this series of bizarre news items occurred this past month in New York City. Dozens of New Yorkers were drawn from their office buildings and into the streets of Manhattan to stare at the curious spectacle of several unidentified objects hovering over the city. Air traffic controllers were unable to pick up the objects on radar even though they were clearly visible to the people and news cameras watching from below. The phenomenon had police and the Federal Aviation Administration baffled and no explanation has yet been given.

Something is definitely going on. The powers that be are assuredly covering something up from the general public. But I’m onto them. Of course, Alyson doesn’t believe me. She usually dismisses my theories as outrageous and mere paranoia. This has led me to suspect that she may be in on it. She has always been a bit strange, and if alien life were already among us she definitely an obvious candidate. We are on the precipice of something BIG and its only a matter of time until we take the plunge off the other side. Until then…trust no one.

WE LOVE TO TRAVEL! We love meeting new people, learning about other cultures, trying new foods and hearing new types of music. It’s part of what makes this world so great. We’ve also been fortunate enough to make some really good friends in the places we’ve visited. People in general seem to be warm, friendly and helpful; however, on the rare occasion you may cross paths with a “ne’er do well scoundrel“.

I was thinking (and laughing) the other day about the time I was pick-pocketed in Colombia. It was funny to me that when I was being robbed I had absolutely no idea. And later when I did discover my missing money I instantly knew the exact moment when it had happened. Those pesky pick-pockets are true masters of their craft. I even met a man who had both pockets picked while his hands were still in them.

I got to talking with other travelers about their experiences. This inspired me to create a helpful little infographic blog illustrating some common pickpocket schemes. So, for all you travelers and wanderers out there, here are some things to look out for.

The Point and Grab:

This method was made known to me by my South African chum, Otto.

In this two man operation, the victim is momentarily distracted by the first thief while the second thief grabs their goods. This method usually works best in crowded tourist areas, but it’s also useful for stealing your friend’s french fries.

A. The mark (or targeted person) is attempting to take a photograph of a friend, landmark, or event.
B. Thief #1 diverts the mark’s attention by tapping on their shoulder.
C. The 2nd thief stands close by to make the grab.

A. The mark turns to see who has been nudging him.
B. Thief #1 has already begun walking away unassumingly.
C. Thief #2 springs into action and grabs the mark’s camera while they are distracted.

A. Thief #2 then runs and attempts to disappear into the crowd.
B. The victim is surprised and hesitates long enough for the thief to make a get-away.

The Disappearing Act

Most thefts will happen in crowded streets or at events with many people, but keep a look out for your valuables even in quiet, deserted cafes.

A. The mark is enjoying her coffee in a quiet relaxing cafe. Her mind is occupied with thoughts of her trip.
B. A young well-dressed woman sits behind her. Based on her appearance, she doesn’t seem the type that would steal.
C. The mark has carelessly hung her purse from the back of the chair.

A. The mark is still enjoying her coffee.
B. When the time is right the thief will quietly and carefully reach back and take the purse.
C. The thief then sly conceals the stolen purse in her larger bag.

A. The victim will eventually turn around and realize her bag has disappeared.
B. By this time, the thief has long been gone.

Stealing Money From a Blind Man

This is how I was pick-pocketed while enjoying the Independence Day festivals in Cartagena. Luckily for me, I had left all my valuables back in my room and only brought enough money for a couple of beers. I never even knew I was pick-pocketed until much later. And other than this singular incident, we never had any problems in Colombia.

A. The mark (or me) is watching the parades or contests in a crowd of people. I personally was distracted by the contestants for the Miss Colombia Pageant during the swim suit competition.
B. Thief #1 is lingering close by and unknown.

A. Thief #2 runs through the crowd with a can of spray foam. He douses the victim in the face and momentarily blinds him. This doesn’t seem unusually because the foam is sold by vendors as a toy, and everyone is spraying foam at each other.
B. The victim attempts to block the foam and clear his eyes.
C. Meanwhile, Thief #1 silently steals a person’s money or wallet.

A. The victim is left wiping his face clean of foam and unaware of the robbery.
B. Both thieves discreetly walk away.

So there you go. A few things to consider when going out and about with your valuables on your person. If anyone has uncovered any other pick-pocket methods let me know. I would love to add some more to my collection.

Hi everyone!!

We’ve just launched our travel gear store! It’s been a creative outlet and fun side project for us and we wanted to share what we’ve made with you.

Alien Attack! Be Prepared With A Cool Tee

You will probably notice right off the bat, with the aliens and retro model shots, that this is not a typical travel store. The truth is this is our playground that we want to invite you in. While traveling we were disappointed with both the overall quality and lack of originality in the destination souvenir t-shirts. So while out roaming about, we began sketching ideas for shirts we wished we could have gotten. This site is where we will be showcasing the designs.

The store is a work in progress, we still have a sketchbook full of ideas and designs to put in. But we’re eager to get the feedback from our fellow traveler what they think! We are creating a contest (posted shortly) for our fellow travel bloggers where we will be giving away the TBEX 10 NY shirt. The rules will be quite simple, submit your top 5 unique things to do while in New York and from the entries we will choose the top five we think are the best, then we will have a poll on our facebook page for everyone to vote on the #1 top 5 unique things to do in NY!

TBEX 10 NY Shirt To Rock The City In

We’re working out the details and will post the official contest on our blog today.

Excerpt from Travelouge April 1st, 2010

We were now somewhere in the middle of the Gulf of Paria. Alyson and I were both uneasy. Neither of us had stopped scanning the horizon since we had entered the “Boca del Serpiente” Channel just before sunrise. The Paria is a small body of water separating the isle of Trinidad from the Venezuelan mainland, and it’s notorious for pirate attacks. Passage through the gulf can only be made through the two separate channels leading in and out of the Paria. Entry from the south via the Mouth of the Serpent and from the north by the Mouth of the Dragon.

“In the mouth of the snake and out the mouth of the dragon.”

A route we would rather have avoided, but weather conditions dictated that we had to sail today…and this was the quickest passage. Sometimes it is hard to decide who to fear more…man or Mother Nature. Hopefully, if all went well we would be passing out of the “Boca del Dragon” Channel in a couple of hours.

The winds had been picking up steadily since day break. A 20 knot breeze out of the southeast kept us on a broad reach making between 6-8 knots. Despite the increasing winds, we carried on under full genoa and main. We were anxious to put the Paria and its rumors of pirates to our stern.

We hadn’t been in the gulf long, but it had already seemed like an eternity. We tried to relax our tensions by joking about swinging over to Trinidad to pick up some rum.

“Maybe some coffee will help to ease our tensions…” Alyson suggested as she made her way below to the galley.

“Shhh! Do you hear that?”

The barely audible buzz of an outboard motor could be heard in the air. I grabbed the binoculars and started scanning the horizon as Alyson scurried back into the cockpit.

“There!” she shouted pointing to off our port bow.

Sure enough, the small silhouette of a pirro boat could be seen thudding over the waves.

“Probably, just a fishing boat” Alyson tried to assure us. Usually, that would be the case. Small fishing boats of locals and islanders was not an uncommon sight. But here… in the infamous Paria…it seemed unlikely.

As they approached closer we got a much better look at them…and unfortunately, they got a much better look at us. They were a swarthy looking group, leering at us with malicious intent as they slowly cruised by. Alyson grabbed my hand. We could spot their automatic weapons lying low in their boat. The sight of two white gringos alone on board sent them into a frenzy. They smiled at such easy victims and shouted taunts at us while waving their machetes in the air.

The rusty outboard of the pirro boat rattled with acceleration. The pirates passed to our stern and began to loop around to our starboard side. Soon we would be boarded, and then…?

We had seconds to act.

I reached to the cockpit locker to grab our handheld VHF radio. Maybe the Trinidadian Coast Guard could get here in time, but it was highly doubtful. As I threw open the lid I was struck by a sour odor. Some of bottles from our stash of beer had busted, and the entire locker was filled with a foul stench of beer, salt water, & gasoline. Then I spotted our one weapon we kept on board…our emergency flare gun. An idea began to quickly develop in my mind.

The pirates were now coming along side. I could hear their sinister voices and the outboard’s rev getting louder. I handed the flare gun to Alyson and took the helm.

“What’s this for?!?” she asked in surprise.

As the pirate vessel came along side, I pulled hard on the tiller. Our little boat “the Jaunt” turned quick on a beam reach ramming the side of the wooden fishing boat. The pirates were pissed. Alyson quickly trimmed in the sails and the Jaunt heeled over dramatically raising our starboard topside. A clever move that shielded us from the pirates momentarily.
The angry pirates fired on the Jaunt putting a few bullet holes in our hull and ripping the main sail before looping around to make another pass on us.

Taking advantage of the situation, I grabbed the gas can and a couple of empty beer bottles from the cockpit locker. “Fill” I told Alyson. The pirates were looping behind us once again. This time making an approach to our port side. The cockpit floor filled with gasoline while Alyson dumped the contents of our gas reserve into the two empty beer bottles.

We were both crouched low in the cockpit now. As we heard the pirates near the boat, I passed her the flare gun. “On my signal, shoot! Got it!”

Just at that moment, one of the pirates peered over into our boat. They were coming aboard. He spotted the flare gun in Alyson’s hands and the makeshift Molotov Cocktails. His eyes widened. He turned to shout something to his comrades in the boat alongside. Before, he could open his mouth I grabbed an oar. With as much force as I could muster I jabbed the oar into his throat, and sent the pirate reeling backwards into the Paria’s waters.

The commotion of a man overboard distracted the pirates. This was the moment. I nodded to Alyson. We both took a deep breath and time seemed to stand still.

“Now!”

We both leaped up from the cockpit floor. I took sight of the pirro and hurled the gasoline-filled beer bottle at the fuel tank of their outboard engine. It shattered into pieces sending glass and gasoline in every direction. The startled pirates looked up to stare at us in disbelief and then…

the small click of the flare gun trigger…