Traveling in the Future

I was recently looking around online for new technologies related to traveling and how we, as people, like to vacation. Historically, all of us are used to seeing hotels as stagnant places you stay when you visit a place. The only exception to being able to stay in your hotel and still be on vacation would be a cruise ship. Cruise ships offer a mode of transportation, entertainment, and luxury accommodation all in one nice package. However cruise ships aren't always the most popular as some people simply don't like the ocean or boats in general as they can get sea sick. Well if you're one of those people you are going to love this.


(Picture taken from Popular Science)

This ship is called "MobyAir" and you can see why. It resembles a blimp but also a plane or spaceship or something. I really can't put my finger on it but it's a flying luxury hotel. According to the article on Popular Science, it is "the brainchild of Igor Pasternak who works for the privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, "

Basically, it's the blimp of the future. It uses helium to keep itself "afloat," so to speak, and will use electric propellers powered by hydrogen fuel cells. It's capacity will be about 250 people and it's top speed is 174mph, but it's range is 6,000 miles. It's pretty much the super blimp and has all the amenities of a luxury hotel including a restaurant, luxury suites, and a casino. All in all, it sounds like a pretty cool way to get where you're going, albeit it will certainly take longer than 10 hours but it follows the spirit of a cruise. It even has an on-board automatic buoyancy-management system that acts like the trim function on an airplane. It will adjust itself based on outside conditions and passenger movement so you will rarely feel a shift and it will be as stable as being on land.


(Picture taken from HowStuffWorks.com)

This article came out in early 2006 and said the expected date for release and completion would be in 2010. I searched and found their website, the link is below and it seems like a really cool idea and one that would really make traveling to your destination 15 hours away by plane a lot more enjoyable when it's spread out over a week and you get to play blackjack on the way there. Did I mention it takes off vertically and needs no runway? Because that's pretty awesome and worth mentioning. I really wanna try this thing! Here's their website with more information and it looks amazing. Last year they started doing flying tests and it looks like it's in its final stages of completion. Can't wait!

Writing into the Future

Hey Everyone,

I was thinking about continuing this blog into the future and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about what I should write about or if I should continue on the same subject. I think travel and new places are inherently interesting and there's always something to write about. Also, in order to build readership I think I'm going to link my blog to Facebook and continue using my social website as a building block. I've been trying to think of ways to get my name out there and Facebook seems to be the most realistic and effective strategy at this point. I have a lot of friends that might be interested in reading but we'll have to see. If anyone has any other suggestions I'm more than willing to listen. Thanks in advance!

Paradise Now Has a Social Website

Hey Everyone,

I recently created a personal page on Webs and here's the link! Enjoy it and post comments or join if you wish.
If you sign up you can also get a webpage and we can share content and comments it's very interesting and very easy. Feel free to write in the guestbook and let me know you visited!

Blog Will Be Over Soon :(

Hey Everyone,

The semester is fast approaching and it's about that time to wrap up the blog. I will probably continue into the future as this has been really fun. But there is a possibility that I won't be blogging at all anymore as school might take over. I hope everyone who has seen it has enjoyed it and it's been a great time. Expect no new posts by next week :(

Awesome Beaches

It's getting towards the end of summer but there's still time to take that one last vacation to an amazing beach before the heat shuts off and the global A/C kicks in. Check out this cool video from Tripfilms showcasing some of the best beaches around for that last summer vacation.

Watch more travel videos at tripfilms.com

101 Places You Should NOT Visit Before You Die

Hey Everyone,

So I was thinking...I've only showed you a bunch of places that you SHOULD go and never places that you SHOULDN'T go. Now I believe that everything should be given a chance but alas, not everyone thinks like me. So if you're traveling on a fixed budget or fixed amount of time and you don't want to be wasting either...here's a video from Vimeo that should help. Enjoy! (Disclaimer! These are people's personal opinions and some are not serious. This is more for enjoyment rather than information but it's still very humorous to hear how people talk about where they've been and where they're from.)

101 Places Not To See Before You Die from 101WorstPlaces on Vimeo.

Top 10 Attractions in Rome

I found a video on Metacafe and it's a well-done video about some of the coolest places to visit while in Rome, Italy. It's well done and in HD which is always nice because you get a really good look at what they're talking about instead of the usual blurry pictures. As they say, when in Rome...

Rome, Italy - Top 10 Travel Attractions. Watch more top selected videos about: Travel

20 of the World's Most Beautiful Places in 9 Minutes

Hey Everyone,

As the title suggests I found a cool video made by the user keksinnot on YouTube. It's about 9 minutes long but it really does a cool job about showing you some places you may not have heard of. Enjoy!

My Quest for Deer: Nichol's Arboretum Video!

Here's a video slideshow showcasing my trip to the Arb and the wonderful things I saw there. Check it out! By the way, excuse the stutter I'm working on it haha.

Travel Podcasts on iTunes!

Hey Everyone,

I was browsing through the iTunes store and I came across various travel podcasts that y'all might find interesting. Here's a few of them and I hope they increase your interest in the beautiful places found on this great planet.

The first one I found is called Amateur Traveler Podcast. It's an audio podcast that describes interesting places from all over the world from Chicago to Italy and talks about the logistics as well as things to do when you get to these fantastic places. It's a really cool podcast that's worth a visit.

Another one I found is called Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase. It's a podcast created by a flight attendant for a major airline. She brings you stories from the airplane, pilots, other flight attendants, and stories from places she's visited. It's more about flying and the experiences she's had and she's very funny and relaxed. Each is about a half hour but all are very entertaining and she's a very likeable person. It's also a good place to learn about logistics of traveling and the experiences you can have on your trips.

I also found a podcast called Tips for Travellers (spelling is on purpose and is the United Kingdom way) and each podcast highlights a certain place in the world and gives tips on where to stay, where to eat, where to go, and how to do it all in the easiest way possible. It's a great way to get a first hand account of an English speaking tourist traveling to all kinds of destinations. He's very easy to listen to and his stories are great and he has a lot of very important information. Each podcast is labeled by the place it's about so finding one on the place you want is super simple.

There is another podcast on iTunes that is very useful and it's called The Indie Travel Podcast and it's all about a couple's traveling exploits and it's a first-hand account of their travels and the wonders and troubles they run into along the way. It was voted "Best Podcast of 2009" by Lonely Planet. They seem very personable and it's a very relaxed podcast that describes where they're staying, how they're staying there, and what they're doing for fun and education at their destination. They seem very kind and respectful to other cultures and they seem to find some very cool things that you wouldn't normally hear about. (Perfect for this blog)

The last podcast I found that seemed to fit my blog, (there's not too many), is a video podcast called Amateur Traveler Video. It's a video podcast highlighting destinations around the world and is perfect for people trying to find a visual understanding of the places they're talking about in the podcasts. They are narrated "travelogs" according to the description and each one highlights a certain event or trip to all kinds of destinations all over the world. It can be used as a companion to the audio podcast but it also has some stand-alone pieces that are very interesting and really are amazing.

I hope these are useful and interesting to you like they were to me. Very cool stuff!

My Quest for Deer at Nichol's Arboretum

Hey everyone, I recently took a trip to the Nichol's Arboretum to find some deer and I did! Here's the podcast and feel free to click on the title of the post or the widget mp3 player right here.

There's Always Something to Learn

Hey Everyone,

So this week I had an assignment to go out and take pictures of a process related to my blog topic. Well, as my blog topic is about finding unique places in our world that are beautiful and scenic, Nichol's Arboretum looked like the perfect place. The best part about it was, I got to go looking for deer. There are a lot of animals in the Arboretum, but deer are the most elusive. I had found them there before but only on occasion and most of the time they will run immediately before you get a chance to take a picture. I was lucky enough this time to find them and they actually stayed in frame long enough for me to get few great pictures. The biggest thing I learned through my experiences this week was how to take a good picture and then put it in a place where everyone can see it.

I also met a few people at the Arb (Nichol's Arboretum) and I was able to interact with them and get a shot or two of them enjoying their time there. It was nice to see that people would rather run in nature and outside than on a treadmill. There are many workout clubs in Ann Arbor but I was always inclined to run outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. I was asked to learn and follow some Kodak Tips, which I mentioned in a previous post, and it really helped teach me the fundamentals of a good photograph. Lighting is very important and your flash can sometimes actually do more harm than good. I had taken a few photos of reflective surfaces and it turned out that these weren't working due to the automatic flash setting on my camera. When I turned it off, the pictures came out perfect.

I also learned that sometimes getting the right shot can put you in some interesting places. For some I had to get down into the dirt and for others I had to precariously stand over some water on a couple rocks. This taught me that sometimes the best way to show people the beauty around them, is to get a little dirty yourself. Some angles just cannot be gotten by simply standing far away and zooming in. You have to get up close and personal with the environment. Luckily, I enjoy this.

I had always known about the Arb and it's existence but I never really looked into it's historical significance or impact on the community until this past week. It's truly loved by everyone around it and it's a wonderful escape from the urban setting that is Ann Arbor. Normally, to go out into the woods and feel isolated you would have to drive numerous miles and try and find a place to park. Here, you can walk to the area, or ride a bike, and be lost in the wilderness in a matter of minutes. It's truly a beautiful place where relaxation, contemplation, and meditation are possible with little to no interruption from the outside world. Such a place, is hard to find nowadays and it really is a paradise on earth, and right around the corner.

My Trip to Nichol's Arboretum Pt. 1

Hey Everyone,

I recently took a trip to Nichol's Arboretum which is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It's a nature preserve and park where anyone can go anytime from sunrise to sunset and you can see some beautiful and pristine forest, riverbank, and open fields filled with all kinds of flora and wildlife. It was started in 1907 as a way to engage and teach people about our environment and the beauty that we must preserve that's right under our noses. "The Arb" as many people call it in Ann Arbor, is a place where you can go and relax or work out as there are over 700 acres of gardens, trails, and natural preserves. It's truly an amazing place and I would like to show some pictures from my trip there:

The first picture is of the bottom of hill after the entrance and it's the first open field you come down when you take the right hand trail. The trail winds around the fields and as you can see it's absolutely gorgeous. The Kodak Tip that I employed was titled "Move it from the middle" and I used the hill and the trail as possible center-points so instead I moved them both to the side and it makes for a nice shot.



I took a second picture of a staircase that leads up to an observation bench and overlooks the whole open field all the way down to where the trail leads into a forest towards the river. The staircase is made of wood and is very picturesque. Another Kodak tip that I employed is called "Getting down on their level." It does not involve an animal but I made sure that I got an animal's eye view of the stairs by laying down on the ground and facing the first step and I think it captures the feel of the how steep this staircase is.



The third picture I was able to get was of 4 puddles that had recently formed after the rainstorm. The light was able to shine on all 4 and make them look as if they were mirrors in the ground. I didn't use the flash as I wanted to make sure the light from the puddles was seen as clearly as possible and it came out great. I employed the Kodak tip called "Watch the light" and it made for a very nice picture as the light bounces off of the water and puts everything around them in a darker contrast.



This place is a very beautiful and unique habitat because it has a large variety of wildlife including deer and fox but it also sits next to the Huron River which flows through Ann Arbor. In keeping with the theme of my blog I thought it was a very cool place that not very many people outside of the city or state know about and it's definitely worth a trip. A unique aspect of this preserve is that it's located right in the middle of a suburban neighborhood and many people drive by the entrance everyday and don't even notice it's there. It truly is a diamond in the rough. Here's their website for more information.

Michigan: Sleeping Bear Dunes

Hey Everyone,

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes near Pentwater, MI. For those of who don't know the geography of Michigan you should hold your left hand up in front of you with the thumb out as this is pretty much what the state looks like on a map, a big mitten. Pentwater is located right near the top of your left pinky finger and is on the coast of Lake Michigan on the western side of the state. It's a very unique and beautiful place filled with food, shopping, swimming, and fun.



The dunes are known throughout the state as a unique and beautiful attraction. They are unique in that they resemble a desert, yet they are surrounded by lush forests and one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the world, Lake Michigan. I recently got to visit here and it was quite an experience. The dunes are absolutely massive and roll like hills across a wide landscape. These dunes are a side-effect of the glaciers that permeated the landscape during the last Ice Age and the national park stretches for 35 miles along the coastline.



This park is one of the most unique and beautiful places in the country but not very many people outside of Michigan have ever been, or ever heard about this place and it's truly a gem of the state. There is camping around the park where you can bring your family and enjoy the outdoors as well as opportunities for kayaking, canoeing, swimming, and fishing. If you have a chance, you should really check it out. Here's their official website.

Rules I Live By Online

These are a set of rules that I have gathered from sources around the net including Poynter. They are a journalism organization that focuses on ethics and the basics of writing for journalism.

1. Be Honest
2. Be as objective as possible
3. Write the story, not the people behind it
4. Don't plagiarize
5. Know what's appropriate
6. Don't slander or libel other writers
7. Be aware of context
8. Check the facts completely before writing the story
9. Do not accept handouts from advertisers
10. Stay true to form and beliefs
11. Disclose how you got the information to the readers
12. Identify your sources
13. Don't go undercover to get information, this is insidious and misleading
14. Don't distort content for personal gain
15. Support open exchange of views and ideas
16. Distinguish between what's news and what's advertising
17. Don't be afraid to write the truth
18. Question the motives of a source when anonymity is requested
19. Be respectful of other cultures and their values
20. Avoid stereotyping in all its forms

Additional Resources

I found some new sites that I think you would also find interesting if you find my blog interesting as well. Happy searching!

• Gonomad.com


• TravelViVi


• eHow Travel


• Traveler's Zone


• NatGeo Travel


• NatGeo Adventure Travel Blog

All of these are good links for the world traveler and have great ideas if you're looking for a new kind of vacation or just looking for something different.

Good luck!

The Deep Web

I recently had to look up a site contained in the "deep web." The "deep web" is a term assigned to the sites that aren't the most common on search engines or contain very specific information about a certain topic that just isn't broad enough for the search engine's spider programs to pick up. I came across an interesting site called Itzalist.com. This site has a lot of things it can help you with but I focused on the travel tab and found a giant, alphabetically organized list of websites that offer tours or trips for certain places. It's very unorganized and almost unsearchable as everything is clumped together in such a difficult fashion to read.

The site has no real style or substance it's just a black background with a few itzalist tags on the sides. The text is either white or turquoise and is somewhat easy to read against the black background. You can already tell by the URL that it's not exactly a commercial site and from the way it's made and maintained you can tell it's done by an individual as more of a hobby than anything else as it's, like I said, unorganized and very plain. The page is not dated so I have no idea how old the information is or if any of the links work. From the way the site looks, I'd be hard-pressed to click on any of the links for fear of a virus or spyware.

The site itself has no actual information that's original work. Every bit of information you would receive would come from 3rd party sources outside of the site. However, the site does offer lots of links for information. So it's almost like a middle man between the other sites and you. An attempt at making a travel-specific Google I suppose. I checked some of the links and found a lot of them worked and most of them were actually useful in regards to their topic. All-in-all the site is o.k., but I'm not surprised it doesn't seem to get more activity as it was very hard to find through Google and doesn't appear to bring much to the table.

Feeling the heat? Go to Austria!

I was reading online about places to cool off during the summer months where the heat can start to get a little tiresome. Depending on where you live, the heat can be nearly unbearable. So I decided to try and find places where heat was the last thing on your mind and hopefully, with a little mind over matter, you can have yourself a little vacation right in your office. Just think very cold thoughts...

The beautiful frozen wonder I was able to find is called Werfen Ice Caves and is located in Salzburg, Austria. These ice caves are the longest on Earth and extend 42km into the mountain; however, only the first kilometer is open to the public. Obviously an ice cave has it's dangers when it's got a large Austrian mountain on top of it.



For about 80 dollars you can get a cable car ride into the "Ice Palace" room and that also includes concessions. The caves themselves are actually just at 32 degrees Fahrenheit so you will need a jacket but if you're feeling the heat, this will feel wonderful for a couple hours. The whole tour takes you up about 400 feet into the cave and takes you back out where you can get a wonderful view of the mountain you just entered. This place is one of the most unique, and largest cave formations in the world and I feel it is definitely worth a look if you ever get the chance. Prost!

Google Sites

Hello Again,

I recently created a Google Site where I have my schedule and my info so if you feel like following along you may feel free to do so. I also posted an original short story and feel free to read it. (It has some vulgar language and may not be appropriate for young children. Definitely an adult short story.)

Have a pleasant week!

Where to begin? Brazil!

Hello Everyone,

I'm John and I'll be writing about, and showing you, some of the most beautiful places I can find that exist on our planet. I have always wanted to travel the world and I have been blessed to be able to visit Europe a few times in my short life. I love seeing the world as much bigger than just where I live and I hope I can share that with all of you.

The most recent place that I found on the web, thanks to National Geographic, is located in the northeastern tip of Brazil.
The place is called Lencois Maranhenses and is now a national park that spreads over 600 square miles and is bathed in sun and sand. During the dry season, the "winds push the sand as far as 30 miles inland and create dunes as high as 130 feet." The result, is nothing short of spectacular.



The national park is open to the public and goat herders even roam the park while their animals feast on the water plants and oases that surround this beautiful place. It truly is one of the most unique places on earth. A desert that's filled with water and life is ever-changing with the wind and the rain. I cannot wait to visit.