The Visa Collector

Planespotting: Airbus A380 at LAX

VisaC — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:02:43 +0000

2011 was a very quiet year travel-wise. Only one trip to Canada, and that was it (lots of snow-related observations on that trip, but that’s for another post). 2012 is shaping up to be more interesting.

One of the side-benefits of travel is plane spotting. This is the first Airbus A380 I ever saw. Thanks, [...]

Home: Sunnyvale, CA

VisaC — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:17:58 +0000

My wife and I have been renting an apartment in Sunnyvale since 2004. It’s been a nice place to live, but I had always looked at it as a temporary place to live. Things changed on the 28th of March, when I finally bought my own townhouse — still in Sunnyvale. So now, this place [...]

2012 A.D.

VisaC — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:16:00 +0000

My wife and I welcomed the new year in San Francisco. We booked a room at the Hyatt Regency, had dinner at E&O Trading Co., and proceeded to the Sinbad Restaurant parking lot to watch the city’s fireworks show. The show actually lasted 15 minutes, but I only took 3 minutes of it so that [...]

Why you shouldn’t use cellphones on planes

VisaC — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:06:01 +0000

The following ABC News reports provides some insight into the rationale behind those warnings about cellphone usage during take off and landing. They are, reportedly, more of a concern on older aircraft that lack specialized shielding.

Passport @ Mall PH

VisaC — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:48:06 +0000

Looks like the Department of Foreign Affairs is looking for ways to improve their services. Passport processing at the mall. Great idea. With both the Gaisano and Robinsons groups taking part, that means that this won’t be just a Metro Manila-only offering.

Need passport? Go to the mall By Tina G. Santos Philippine Daily Inquirer [...]

Bike pump: Topeak Road Morph

VisaC — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:13:22 +0000

My wife and I were supposed to go out for a bike ride today. But as I retrieved the bikes from our rack, it became apparent that our tires needed re-inflation. We didn’t have a tire pump ever since our car got broken into (more on that story on another post) and our air compressor [...]

US green card holders and Canadian visas

VisaC — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:06:45 +0000

While processing my visa for a business trip to our Canadian office, I was directed to the following interesting factoid:

http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/san_francisco/consul/faq.aspx?view=d

Visas and Immigration

Q. I am a US permanent resident and I hold another country’s valid passport. Do I need a visa to go to Canada?

A. As a US permanent resident (green card [...]

Green to brown: New passport arrived

VisaC — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:13:15 +0000

Finally got my replacement passport last Friday. I’m all set till 2016.

Unlike the good old days of the plain green passport, which you turned in for renewal in the morning and then picked up in the afternoon after lunch, the new brown passport with embedded electronics takes weeks. The standard timetable, as per the [...]

First Gigwalk 100

VisaC — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 05:10:00 +0000

Finally broke $100 with Gigwalk. So I’m celebrating this milestone with a post. It took me 22 gigs to reach this amount. Thirteen of these gigs were panos (short for Photosynth panoramic photographs), and 7 were for closed businesses that were only worth $2.

I focused on closed business for the first few gigs till I [...]

Gigwalk: First paid gig

VisaC — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:05:29 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, friends brought up how they had signed up for Gigwalk (http://gigwalk.com/). My wife chimed in and mentioned how the company behind this had actually been on the news recently since it was slowly picking up steam. Here is CNN’s report on this concept.

I’m a veteran, honest, Foursquarer, [...]