I’m human… not bots or AI here. I started this blog decades ago and used it to develop my skill as a writer while satisfying an insatiable need to explore. I still travel but stopped blogging about it when the internet became a cesspool of trolls and AI generated spam–fuelled by ad revenue, politics and scams.
I now write fiction… because it’s hard, complicated and uses imagination. Blessings to everyone who has found there way to this tiny piece of blogging history.
I promise to keep the device graveyard updated.
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Travel, travel, travel. I love new places, new smells, new food, new people, new stories, new experiences, and the list goes on. Fortunately, I have had a job that gives gave me the opportunity to travel around the world and live in different cities. Unfortunately, having a Niña doesn’t make travel and relocation easy. But she adapts fairly well and is beginning to appreciate extraordinary life experiences. I just wish I had her ability to rapidly overcome jetlag.
About this site: this site (or some rendition of it) has been around for most of the 2000s; it was in 2007 while on a trip to New York that I was inspired to start writing about travel. Days later wend.ca/travelgeek.ca was born.
About me: I’m Canadian (a.k.a. Canuck)… was born in “Upper Canada” (Ontario), spent most of my childhood buried under snow in the Maritimes (Nova Scotia), went to school in Alberta (and got stuck there for a decade), lived in the United States… Europe… India, and recently moved to Québec. I have university degrees in History/English, Archaeology/Anthropology, and part of a Cinema, Television, Stage, Radio and Multimedia (CTSRM) diploma.
I’m a swimmer. Always have been. Always will be. This means that I can be cold, wet, miserable, in pain, starving to death… and still keep going. That’s what swimmers do.
Jobs I’ve had include working as a lifeguard, police research assistant, fitness instructor, archaeologist, geek, photographer, writer, and a berry picker. Believe me, you don’t know hell until you’ve mucked around in mud and berries for an entire summer.
I believe in finding ways to help others be awesome. This includes helping with research and genealogy. My superpower is finding things and people (like here). Feel free to reach out to hello@wend.ca to start a conversation! Please don’t suck!
Cameras and devices used:
- Canon EOS 5D Mark II
- Canon EOS 40D
- Canon Rebel XT (modified)
- Lumix FS 65
- Pentax Ricoh WG-20 14MP Waterproof Digital Camera
- I resurrected an iPhone 3G. It’s a good solid phone, and retro too.
The device graveyard:
- Google Pixel 6a (Given to my mom so she could call us in N. Ireland. It was used once and now lives in a closet.)
- iPad mini, which I now use as a phone. (Killed by time and permanently attached to my rowing machine)
- Google Nexus 6P (2018) (Killed in Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia while kayaking.)
- HTC 10 M10 (Died in Hunt’s Point, NS after acting like a diva for months.)
- Google Nexus 6P (2017) (killed in Repentigny, Québec after sliding off my dashboard and landing glass first onto my Canon 5D… the gorilla glass actually survived but everything under it shattered!!)
- Google Nexus 5 (stolen in Magog, Québec; it’s a mystery how… but it was stolen… and we were forced to do a remote kill on the device.)
- Canon SX-280HS (killed by dropping on a cement floor in Toronto, ON.)
- Galaxy Note II (GPS died in Jackson, CA. Was resurrected but stopped booting in Los Angeles. For some reason LA is not kind to phones.)
- Google Nexus 4 (died in Los Angeles; I’m not sure why but it suddenly stopped booting; it was later stolen by a construction guy in Calgary. I hope he enjoys the dead phone.)
- Lumix LX3 (killed by too much sand, sun, snow, water, + general abuse)
- MacBook Air (2013) (killed by Vancouver airport security during a secondary search)
- MacBook Air (2014) (killed in Mountain View CA by a friendly dog and a large soy latte)
- Google Nexus One (killed by Calgary airport x-ray machines, which I could repeatedly reproduce)
- Samsung Galaxy S2 (killed by Vodafone Network in Ireland)
- Pentax K-1000 (killed by sliding off Grotto Mountain in Canmore)