Next Stop: Korea

As Rocketboom kicks off a new era with a new interim host, I'll be on a plane to South Korea. Get ready, this is a mouthful! I'll be attending the OhmyNews International Citizen Reporters' Forum 2006, courtesy of conference speaker and thought leader J.D. Lasica of OurMedia. JD says, "I think you owe me a beer!"

I've been gearing up for this trip - literally. Too much. My aresnal now includes a sweet 15" 2.16 Ghz MacBook Pro, a new video iPod loaded with fresh tunage and vlogs, a Canon PowerShot S60, and a Kensington Saddlebag. There are certainly far cooler laptop bags out there, but the Kensington was cheap and has hidden backpack straps - a valuable feature for jaunting about foreign lands. The S60 was a bit of an impulse buy, a demo we found reasonably cheap. This model is about 2 years old, but it has a lot of manual control and a wide 28mm angle lens. Should make a pretty decent travel camera, though I just found out it only records 30 seconds of 640x480 video and 3 minutes of 320x240. Hrm. I think I'll be taking my 20D with me anyway, and of course my little Sony high-def camera. GEAR GEAR GEAR!

I also bought some Korean language CDs and put them on my iPod, and a Korean phrasebook. I'm sure that was not the best idea, since English is apparently very common. Still, I'd like to have a little familiarity with the language, not to mention the culture. Yes, all of this for a few short days!

I leave Monday morning and arrive on Tuesday at 4:30pm. Partyin' with Kim Jong-il at the Best Western every night. See you next week!