Wedding roundup...

Well, I'm married now. w00t!

Our photographer, Kate McElwee, posted a teaser gallery of photos here. More will be coming as soon as we get the final pics from her.

Honeymoon pics are available here on Flickr.

Videos of a helicopter tour of West Maui and Molokai are available here on YouTube.

Back In the Saddle...

The Route
Originally uploaded by BernieC

It's been a while since I took a decently long ride. Well, it was a stunningly gorgeous day today and I managed to get out on the road for a ride around Mt. Rainier National Park. Here's the route. Check out the Flickr set.

In other news, I turn 30 in 10 days. Woo.

;-)

Diesel vs. Gasoline

I drive a 2002 VW Jetta GLS TDI.  It's an automatic.  I bought it back in 2005 when gas prices were a lot different than they are now.  I ran a comparison of prices with my older car, a 1995 VW Jetta GL.  So here's what it looks like today after I paid $4.22 for biodiesel (B5).  Granted, these are highway figures.  My old Jetta got around 25mpg in city and the diesel Jetta gets about 32-33mpg in city; 35mpg if I'm really babying it.  These prices are current as of today.

I think this guy should take a look at my comparison.  He's paying way more than he should.

Gas: $3.42 - 31mpg on highway
BioDiesel: $4.22 - 39mpg on highway
DinoDiesel - $4.09 - 41mpg on highway

400 miles of travel

Gas - 12.9gal used - $44.12
BioDiesel - 10.26gal used - $43.30
DinoDiesel - 9.76gal used - $39.92

$ savings in %:
BD and DD are 1.8% and 9.5% cheaper tank for tank than gas, respectively.

fuel savings in %:
With BD and DD, you use 20.5% and 24.3% less fuel than gasoline, respectively.

Rockin' the Macworld

If only I was. I'm quite excited to to see what Apple introduces in a few hours. As you may remember, four years ago I went to a Macworld. It was pretty spiffy. Take a look at the picture, for proof.

MacBook Air? Time to wait and see!

Wild West Rally 2007

Paul Eklund's 2004 WRX STi
Originally uploaded by BernieC

This past weekend I went east to Pullman, WA with Erin, Dave, Sarah, and Scott. We met up with Derick (who lives in Pullman) for the Wild West Rally in Pomeroy. Being the first time that this rally was run in Eastern Washington, the rally saw a lot of retirements. The roads looked to be smooth and fast, but with some very technical bits which caught almost half of the teams out.

I brought my camera with me, but accidentally left it in my bag at the hotel. The pics I have were taken by Erin and Derick: Flickr Photo Set

In other news, will it please stop raining so I can ride the motorcycle? :-)

Labor Day, as it actually happened.

The ride's actual route actually turned out to be very close to what was planned:



Highlights from the trip included:

• A nice chat at Seattle's Colman ferry dock with a gentleman carrying a parrot. His duck was in his truck (I kid you not.).
• Another nice chat with a septuagenarian Texan who was traveling the country in his small SUV. He had a very impressive setup in his vehicle for documenting his trip.
• Taking "action shots" of Dave and I on the road up to Hurricane Ridge. Hopefully I'll get some pictures from him soon.
• Saw a former coworker and friend of his (a guy who used to park his motorcycle next to mine at my office) at Hurricane Ridge.
  
• Lunch at a diner just outside Port Angeles with slow service because one of the two cooks had gone to jail during the weekend (doh!)
• The first 23 miles of highway 112 were recently oiled and graveled, making traction less than ideal. Dave told me later on that, at one point, his bike was not responding to steering input on one stretch of road. I just noticed that the bike felt a little bit looser than normal.

So, all in all, a good trip. Hopefully I'll be able to fit another trip in before October.

Leavenworth

Went on a ride today. Out to Leavenworth. Nice day for it too. Here's the route...





Overall, it was a damn good weekend. No complaints from me. More pics of the trip are here.

Bernie and the Wee-Strom

50s in Seattle, 40s on Snoqualmie Pass, and mid-70s in Ellensburg, Washington. Ya gotta love Washington state's weather. Today was a beautiful day for a ride out to the Yakima River Canyon and to have lunch with my friend Derick at the Yellow Church Cafe in Ellensburg. Happy Memorial Day. I won't forget this weekend for a while - it's been a fairly eventful one.

I've posted pics of that trip as well as some others here. Enjoy...

Vegas 2007

Here are the pics. It was a dang good trip. Good company, good food, good shows, and I came out about even on gambling. I can't complain...

http://technojunkie.org/berniec/galleries/vegas-2007/

What. A. Year.

Well, folks, this has been quite the year. Let's take a little trip down memory lane...

January: Celebrated 6 years with my then girlfriend in Victoria. Watched her leave for India for 6 weeks before I left for India, myself. Started building a friendship with someone who was, at that point, only an acquaintance.

February: Left for India at the beginning of the month for four weeks in Bangalore for work.

March: Returned from India to a life that had changed a bit. Started socializing more with friends. Had a very fun and interesting welcome back party. Continued building friendship with the person who used to be an acquaintance.

April: Ended my six year relationship with my girlfriend. Road trip to Vegas with a friend, and on the return, San Francisco. Start friendships with several people and become part of a new circle of friends.

May: Started seeing someone I knew in high school. This did not last for long (see below).

June: The fit hits the shan and thus begins the worst summer of my life.

July: Yup, the fit's still in the shan and summer still sucks, but I took a motorcycle training course and I bought a motorcycle. Woo!!!!

August: The fit's no longer on the shan. I take a deep breath and life starts to simmer down. I turn 28. I take another road trip with a different friend - this time to LA to see the Price is Right, and through the Bay area. One of the best road trips ever! I got to go to Disneyland!!!! For the first time!!!!!

September: A minor crisis averted. And a long motorcycle trip around the Olympics.

October: Nothing much to report here. Did go to Oregon Trail Rally near Tillamook, Oregon.

November: Nothing much to report here. Did go to the Seattle International Autoshow.

December: Wild West Rally at the beginning of the month. Then, a trip to Connecticut to see my grandmother, whose health had been progressively getting worse. Then back home for a week, and then back to Connecticut for her funeral. Happy Holidays, yo!

A very eventful year. Ups and downs. But through it all, my friends have been there and I end the year with more friends than when I started. I love my friends. Being 3000 miles away from my real family, my friends ARE my family.

I'm back...

I don't even know quite where to begin about this month. It's just been shitty. This has not been an easy time. Don't know how else to put it.

Merry Christmas. I'm back from Connecticut (again).

To all of my friends who have supported me throughout this, thank you again. I'd do anything for you and I know you would too.

Grama Case

Obituary

I leave for another trip to Connecticut tomorrow morning. This time it's for my grandmother's wake and funeral. She was a great woman.

Thanks to all of my friends who have been so supportive throughout the last couple of weeks. Now I really know I won't forget 2006. So much has happened this year. I just hope 2007 is a better year.

I gots me 2 quarts of WMD!

TSA searched my checked bag. I had two 1-quart bottles of maple syrup. I'm sure they thought they were bombs. This isn't the first time they've searched my bag, and they were nice enough to leave a note. How sweet.

Deliciously improvised explosive devices! Maple syrup - yum!

Casedom

About my trip to Connecticut...

The flights from SeaTac were completely uneventful. Thanks to a generous helping of frequent flyer miles I was able to score first class tickets this go-around. I feel pretty lucky to get this and the customer service rep at Northwest was incredibly helpful in helping me out with this. It was a redeye out of Seattle at 12:50am and I got into BDL at 11:15am. My dad met me there and after a longish walk to the car, we were on our way (he parked at the wrong terminal - doh!).

Seeing my grandmother for the first time in 6 months was great, but she's in really sad shape. She's on oxygen, has pneumonia, and has fluid in her lungs that she's having a hard time clearing out. My Aunt Sally and Uncle Fred spend all of their spare time with her and really have busted their butts to try to make sure she's comfortable and is going to somehow beat this. But seeing her like that was so incredibly tough. This is a woman who stands not much over 5 feet tall who takes shit from nobody. If ever there was someone who was full of piss 'n' vinegar, it'd be her. She's one hell of a woman.

Every time I visit with the family I learn something new about it. This is the trouble with having grown up 3000 miles away from the core family. I just didn't have the exposure to them over the years. Let's see what I learned...

• Case Avenue in Winsted, CT, is not named for my family. There's apparently another Case family in Winsted and there's no relation. My family is based in Colebrook.
  
• My grandmother is an institution in Colebrook. In the wintertime, she bakes and gives food to the guys who plow the roads by her house. They gave her a cute card with all of them holding out their stomachs with some cheesy poem about how they'd miss her cooking this winter.
  
• Apparently there is such a thing as "Case temper." My cousin Mitchell and I talked about this. Cases are usually very happy-go-lucky, but once the fuse is lit, get away. Our temper is not a pleasant one. Anybody who knows me well might have seen it at some point. If you have, sorry.
  
• I learned more about how my Great Uncle Paul lived in his final days, and how everybody else in the family took so much care of him. He had his last cigarette the day before he died of lung cancer. He was a cool guy.
  

I'm sure there are more little tidbits I'm forgetting, but those are the ones that stick out.

Friday was a rough day. Grandma was incredibly frail and weak in the morning. She was having a really hard time breathing. Things were looking really bleak, and she was given a dose of morphine. By 6pm, she was up and talking again and was doing a lot better. But things were rough and I must've been on the verge of balling my eyes out at least 3 or 4 times. My poor cousin Mitch spends all of his spare time with her. I've got so much fucking respect for him after seeing how much time he spends with her and how much he loves her. It makes my 4 days here seem insignificant.

Mitch is 4 years younger than me and he reminded me of one of his earlier memories of my visits out to Connecticut. I exposed that poor boy to 2 Live Crew. He was 9. I was 12 or 13. Talk about corrupting the youth. The thing he didn't know was that his father caught me exposing him to it and luckily I didn't get the shit beat out of me. And my parents never said a word to me about it. I don't get it. And Mitch said that we looked at a Penthouse, but I don't remember that. He joked that he didn't know what the hell he was looking at at the time (in reference to female anatomy). Ah, good times.

Mitch and his wife, Renee, have been very warm and welcoming. Had drinks with them Friday and Saturday night at their apartment and watched Garden State and bunch of TV with them. Mitch and I talked about how there is such a thing as a Connecticut accent, and we compared notes on pronunciation of common words. Considering Renee's a speech and language pathologist, this was even more interesting. This trip has been great considering all of the time I've spent with my family.

But, my grandma. It's anybody's guess when she's going to go. Yesterday we thought was it, but by the evening she was better. And today she was weak in the morning but by 8pm she was up and talking again. And with the steady stream of visitors today, how could she not be. These past four days I've seen so many people that remember me when I was "this high." Do I remember them? Not so much, but the family here is so well known it's amazing to me. This is something I don't have in Seattle, and it's very appealing. I got to see my aunt Barb (removed via divorce) for the first time in 10 years today. Of course she gave me shit for not calling her, but I got to see her for a little while.

So that's Connecticut. It's yet another family reunion of sorts. It's emotional because of my grandma's situation, but she might pull through enough to at least go home. My mom's an RN and worked in nursing homes, so I've been exposed to it before. It's just tough to see someone as vital as my grandma in the same sort of place. It hurts.

Sunday's events with her were pretty good. I got to spend a couple hours with her alone and she filled me in on some of the events in the family. I was hoping to ask some more historical questions but most of what's on her mind is stuff that's happening right now to certain people in the family. She's holding on to what she's got so she can see this family stuff through.

Today was better for her. She actually managed to have more than just a smoothie, and had a bit of a turkey grinder my Aunt Sally brought me. Yum yum yum. I'm going to miss grinders, but I think there's a place in Seattle I can go to get them.

Overall, this was a really good trip. I bonded with more of my family (particularly my cousin Mitch and his wife) and really got to see my grandma more than ever. I'd like to try to go back twice a year, if possible. We'll see how that works out.

So, I'm back. And happy for it. I missed all of my friends.

Seat 01-A

I'm off to Connecticut tonight, folks. My grandma's been in declining health and the family's not sure when she'll be better. So I'm heading out tonight for a short trip to see her, my dad, and other relatives. It's been a few months since I was back there (May) and I hope to get to spend a lot of time with her.

I'll be back late Sunday night. I'm still available via cell phone while I'm gone. Enjoy!

About my weekend, and another ride report

Was back out on the Olympic Peninsula this weekend. Met up with a bunch of friends in Sequim and saw a friend's band play at the 7 Cedars Casino. Had a great time with them Friday night and ended up pretty sloshed, but I managed to get some riding in on Saturday.

The weather called for rain later in the day, and luckily I managed not to get caught in any. I started in Sequim, and rode up 101 to highway 112. Highway 112 is an interesting road. Heading west, most of the road is downhill and some of the twistier stretches of the road are downhill making for some interesting riding. Perhaps it was the previous night's drinking, but I felt like I was not quite riding as well as I could. The two times my foot grazed the ground had me either worried or laughing, as I was riding pretty hard. In any case, I still had a good time. I then made the mistake of riding down highway 113 to get back to 101. I should've turned around and rode 112 back to Port Angeles. 101 before Lake Crescent is really boring, and then I got stuck behind several cars on 101. Ah, well.

The rest of the ride was uneventful and I managed to get onto the Edmonds ferry just in time. The weather's really starting to change, so some of the colors I saw on this ride were stunning. In any case, I hope to keep being able to ride even as it gets cooler.

Ride Report - Around North Bend, Carnation, Duvall

Today I took the first of what I hope will be many rides with 3 other guys, two of which I met for the first time today. My friend Dave, who has a Ninja 250, met up with me at Fry's Electronics in Renton. Joining us was the leader of the group, Tim (Ninja 250), and Mike (Suzuki SV650).

Tim knows the roads really well, and led us all on about 5 hours of riding some excellent twisties. Went up Highway 900 from Renton to Issaquah, and then road up to Fall City. Road out to Tiger Mountain, and then to Rattlesnake Lake. Then had breakfast at a place called Gordy's. Not a shabby place for breakfast.

Tim then took us up to some excellent twisties up around Snoqualmie Falls. There was a bit of rain the night before, so some of the roads were a bit wet, but had no major issues with them.

After Snoqualmie, we went further north, all the way up through Carnation and Duvall, and then ended the ride in Monroe. Dave and I broke off from the group and rode back down to Renton so he could get some warmer gloves for our ride tomorrow.

Two close calls, that certainly had the "pucker factor": 1) Locked up the rear wheel on a downhill 70 degree right turn. I was taking up the rear, and had to do some hard braking. I braked in the turn and the back wheel locked and then started fishtailing. I got control back and did not have any problems. 2) While entering a very congested I-405 in Renton, I almost rearended a car that stopped in front of me while I was changing lanes. Got within inches of his rear bumper, but did not make contact.

For all of that, I'm OK, the bike's OK, and I'm looking forward to another ride tomorrow.

Tomorrow - the Olympic Peninsula

Ride Report - Snoqualmie Falls

Today I took a little ride. Started at the house, and rode up I-5 to SR520. Rode SR520 to Redmond and then took SR202 (Redmond-Fall City Rd.) into Fall City. It's a fairly benign road, with few major turns, but it meanders through what's left of rural King County farmland.

The map I had was printed and stored in a pocket of my jacket, but I was not studying it. So, navigation was done just through road signs. Upon entering Fall City, I could have stopped for lunch, but instead I decided to head up to Snoqualmie Falls. And that's what I did. A quick 15-20 minute stop there, a few pictures, and I was back on the road. I continued through Snoqualmie and then stopped for lunch in North Bend.

Lunch was had at Twede's cafe, apparently a showpiece in the TV show Twin Peaks. (I never watched it, so I wouldn't know). I had a patty melt and fries. It was about what I expected for road food - pretty dang greasy. Then, back on the bike. I rode out to I-90 and instead of getting on I-90, I just kept riding. Not for long, though, as I hit a dead-end. After flipping around, I decided to ride I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass.

Nothing of consequence to note from the trip from this point on. I tailed a group of Harleys on the way back to Seattle. And I learned just how severe some of the wind gusts on I-90 can be as I was blown around a bit.

A short ride, but a good one. Hopefully next weekend I'll be heading out to the Olympic Peninsula for a day, if the weather's good.

TPIR trip update

Bob Barker looks about the same in person as he does on TV. There's just so much makeup on him that you will never know how bad he looks underneath it. But the show was great, and I managed to get my first real amount of sleep today. We left Saturday morning at 6am and got into our hotel at 1am.

The hotel was horrendous - ants in the bathroom was the first thing my travel partner, Sheila, noticed. But we were both too tired to care. The next morning, though, Sheila found that the shower was inoperable. And after being moved from the double room we were in to a single room with a working shower, we decided to check out of the hotel early. We got reservations at a much nicer boutique hotel. Totally worth it.

Sunday we went to Disneyland. My first time there. I had a really great time. Sheila's been there a million times so she ended up giving me the commentary track as we walked around. I really had a great time there.

We checked into our new hotel around midnight Sunday. Then we were up at 4am to go to line up for The Price Is Right. It was a really really long day, but the show was great and it'll air on October 27th.

Last night we went to the Santa Monica pier. Got a bit lost trying to find a gas station that sold diesel. But Sheila put me in the right direction and we got fuel before running out. But the pier was really cool.

Today we're going up to the bay area and then tomorrow, home. Great trip so far.

Come on down?

Road trip. To Los Angeles. Leaving August 19th. On the 21st, The Price Is Right.

I cannot wait.

The Price is Right. Seriously. Awesome.

A little something about my family....

So the wedding isn't for another 90 minutes or so, but it would seem there's a bunch of drama going on with the family here. Plenty of crap happening and I wish I could make it better for the one full day I'm here. But I can't, and they're so far removed from my life that what happens here doesn't really affect me. It seems like it's just a collection of stories that serve to give me more reason not to relocate out here. Ugh...

But out of this comes a very interesting article from the Litchfield County Times monthly magazine about the town where most of my dad's side of the family lives and some great words about my late grandfather, Ed Case:

Warm Welcome in Colebrook

ORD

This weekend is a cousin's wedding in Connecticut so I'm on my way back. Looks like my flight to Hartford is a bit delayed so here I am sitting at Chicago O'Hare airport waiting. Only another 3 hours or so. Gonn have to find a power outlet soon.

Plenty of interesting things are happening in my life right now, but I won't divulge as I really don't wish to jinx my recent good fortune. I'm getting happier, socializing more, and getting past the crap of the breakup. Soon I'll start looking for a new place to live as it looks like I won't be getting a roommate at my current house.

All in all, it would seem some good news might be coming my way soon.

Vacation wrap-up

So the MAF sensor was replaced in the car yesterday and we didn't have any problems whatsoever on the trip back to Seattle. We got here about 11:30am. The hardest part about the trip back was just how damn tired I was. Maureen and I ended up splitting the driving duties almost evenly.

After getting a nap and a shower, the laundry has been started. Much laundry to do, and there's a bunch of other household stuff that needs to be done.

It would've been nice if I hadn't had so many troubles on this trip, but it was certainly better than sticking around in Seattle being bored for a week :-)

MAF failure

So the dealer says that the mass airflow sensor failed in the car. Luckily it's covered under warranty. What I told them was that I am using a K&N air filter, and I was worried that the oil from it might've contaminated the MAF. I'm going to get a new air filter for the car when I pick it up later. No more K&N filters, I'm afraid. I just replaced the MAF sensor on my older (1995) gasoline Jetta. Same problem - they said the oil from the K&N filter had fouled the MAF.

They said they didn't have the MAF in stock, but there's one on its way coming from San Jose. We should hopefully be leaving here tonight. And if there are no further problems, we'll be back in Seattle early early tomorrow.

This vacation has had its ups and plenty of downs. Right now it's not feeling like a vacation, though, so I'm ready for it to be over. If I can get back to Seattle by tomorrow then that'll mean I won't have to go back to work until Monday. I could use a few days to recover.

We made it to San Francisco?

The turbocharger issue with the car apparently was pretty serious. We left Vegas around noon today and about 500 miles into the trip, the check engine light came on. This is after noticing that the turbo had, once again, stopped working.

So I was faced with a tough choice - limp the car to San Francisco, and then immediately take it to a dealer the next morning; or, get it towed to the dealer to try to keep the car from really getting fucked up. I chose the second option. I have AAA Plus, which gives you 100 miles of towing per incident. Good thing - the dealer was 99.3 miles from where we stopped the car. So now the car sits at the dealer in San Francisco, and I will need to go over there at 7am to get them to fix it.

Please please please let it be an easy fix that can be done in one day. I wouldn't mind staying longer in San Francisco, but that means I would have to buy a plane ticket for my friend Maureen to get back to Seattle by Wednesday afternoon. And then I'd have to drive back alone. Does not sound fun.

Fucking cars! ARGH!

The good news about this trip is that I've made several new friends through Maureen, the tow truck driver was fucking hilarious, and hey, we really are in San Francisco now.

I'm in Vegas now...

So I've made it to Vegas, with the help of my friend Maureen who was gracious enough to join me on the drive down and helped out with the driving. Highlights:

- Gorgeous sunset outside of Pendleton, OR
- Got a speeding ticket in Utah, around milepost 171 on I-15. 89 in a 75. I think my speedometer actually was at 95, but I'll take the reduced fine.
- Got into Vegas a bit early so we went to Hoover Dam before going to the hotel.
- I had been driving the Jetta TDI so much that the turbo in it stopped working on the way into Vegas. It made getting to Hoover dam a bit slower as I was missing about 40% of power in my car. The turbo started working when we left the dam.
- Got a rock chip in my windshield. I'm going to have to get that repaired while I'm here.
- I'm wearing the most obnoxious Hawaiian shirt right now. Oh man, this thing is loud.

Enough typing. Time to go have some fun.

Argh...

I forgot to sign my tax return. It came back to me yesterday. I didn't e-file this year because I was a cheap bastard. That worked out well.

And in other news, all sorts of shit is happening. I'm going to Oregon Trail rally this weekend with some friends and then I'm going to Vegas with a friend the following week. Both are road trips, and I have high hopes that both will be a hell of a lot of fun.

Fun is what I need. This has been one incredibly bad month.

Good news everybody.

I'm back in the states. Currently at MSP airport waiting for my last flight home. Here's a little rundown of what's happened so far on the trip.

* All of my NiMH batteries got confiscated in Bangalore because I couldn't show the agent there how they'd be used. This is because Nicole took my camera back with her to the states. Jet Airways said they'd send the batteries up to Mumbai for me, but they didn't make it. They gave me 8 AA alkaline batteries. That'll have to do.
* Flew 1st class from BLR to BOM (Bangalore to Mumbai). Was nice. It's good to get a full meal on that flight because once in Mumbai, I have a 5-hour layover.
* Flight from BOM to AMS (Mumbai to Amsterdam) was uneventful.
* Was able to use my company iPass account to get online at AMS and chat with Nicole a bit.
* Got all through security at AMS at the gate, and then they did a gate change. That delayed the flight getting into MSP by about 30 minutes.
* Had 43A and 43C on AMS-MSP leg, which has no at-seat power (the first section of coach does). The aft galley in that plane has 110 outlets and the attendants back there were kind enough to let me charge my 3 dead batteries on that flight. Phew!
* NWA's A330s have multi-player trivia games in the inflight entertainment system. That was fun with 4 people. Some guy in 1A had the nickname of Booger. Now that's 1st class, baby!
* I usually get two seats when I travel and NWA apparently upgraded me to 1st class on the the MSP-SEA leg. I'm not complaining. Seat 5C here I come.
* No problems with immigration or customs.
* Had a burger for lunch. Looks like I'll be having more for dinner in Seattle. That's the first red meat I've had in a month.

How appropriate....

Update (23:50 UTC 4 March 2006): I'm at MSP airport now and my uncle has apologized for sending this out. He's a good man, and I appreciated his apology as I know he'd do anything for anybody, if he could.

So I get this "the US shouldn't be in the UN because a bunch of countries hate us" email from my uncle. I'm at Amsterdam airport right now, and seeing this email forced me to respond. First, the email, then my reply.

On 4 Mar 2006, at 3:22 AM, Bernie's uncle wrote:

President Bush wonders why everyone is against United Arab Em. taking over our ports.

Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 10:26 PM
Subject: Fw: Attention Everyone

This oughta upset everybody:

How they vote in the United Nations:

Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:

Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time

Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time

Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time

United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.

Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.

Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.

Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.

Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.

India votes against the United States 81% of the time.

Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.

Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.

U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:

Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.

Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Pakistan votes 75% against the United States

Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

India votes 81% against the United States; receives $143,699,000 annually.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes (and gasoline).

Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know. And send to your congressman, who should be disgraced but couldn't care less.

Disgusting, isn't it?

======

My reply:

Sitting in Amsterdam airport, waiting for my flight back to the U.S. after a month-long trip to India, I can say that we've got a lot better than they do. While our gas prices are around $2/gal, theirs are near $5/gal. And when you consider the disparity between the average income of an American and an Indian, you'll understand how much it hurts them more than it does us. We've got it good.

Americans like to talk about their "hard-earned dollars." Until we've seen someone breaking rocks with other rocks with their hands in order to lay a rockbed for a new highway, or someone breaking tiles with a small hammer in order to prepare for a new floor to be laid at the airport, we should just keep quiet.

Just go to a 3rd world country sometime. When you see old women, limbless people, and starving children begging for money, you might get why it's a good thing that our government gives this Aid.

By the way, India contributed aid after Katrina, so it's not like we're alone in this world. There are countries that DO care about us. And we should care about them, too. (http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/08aid.htm)

Thanks,
Bernie

India update - 4 days left

I'm in the home stretch. First time being away from the states for a month, and it wasn't so bad. 4 days left and I'll be heading home. At least work has been keeping me very busy and Nicole's heading back to Seattle today. It was great to have her here for a week. I'm really looking forward to getting back to my American life back home.

I'm positive I'll be back to India again. There's no doubt in my mind about it.

AppleCare in a foreign country

Having AppleCare is a good thing. My power adapter on my 15" PowerBook bit the dust last week. I took it into the local Apple office here in Bangalore and got it replaced. First time I've had to get a repair on this computer outside of the normal 1yr warranty. AppleCare will expire on this computer in September. Very good purchase. I'd highly recommend it for anybody that has an Apple laptop. It's that whole, piece of mind thing.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1532

Office party in India.

My driver needs to seriously stop making me drinks. Seriously.

Had a great time. Now trying to head off the inevitable hangover. I keep telling myself tonight was a bonding exercise. Yeah, that's what it was.

Stare, gawk, laugh.

Being an American isn't just enough.

Being fat isn't just enough.

It's when you're on your way towards your ride back to the hotel when you slip off the curb, trip, and land on your hands and knees in the process, in front of the people on MG Road in Bangalore. That's just good entertainment, folks.

I was quite the show today. Even before the tripping incident on MG Road (in front of the Spencer's Super (formerly Food World)), I had plenty of people staring, gawking, and laughing at just me. I'm a freak here, I know. It's fun at first, but like Japan, it gets old after a while. I had to, somewhat angrily, turn down the group of guys at the botanical gardens that wanted to take a picture with me. Argh.

The whole day out and about started with me needing to find a battery charger for my NiMH AA batteries. I brought a 240v-110v converter so that I'd be able to use my Energizer compact charger. So I plugged it in, and about 5 minutes later, pop and a poof of smoke comes from the charger. Not gonna mess with that pile anymore. The new charger supports 110-240v 50/60Hz so I'm set now. And I'll be able to buy the right type of plug when I get back to the states (or just use a converter).

The helpful room service order taker

So last night I decided to go outside my comfort zone a bit and order Indian food for room service. My choice - Garlic Naan and Tandoori Murg (chicken). These are two things I really like, so I wanted to see how the hotel would do them.

As I made my order, the order taker said, "Are you sure you want it to be spicy? Foreigners usually don't like it very spicy." This is true - I have a hard time how spicy food is here in S. India. So I asked for it to be less spicy. He said he'd be able to do that, and we ended the call.

A short while later he called back. "We can only make it medium spicy," he said. Adding, "If we make it less spicy, it just won't taste the same." So I agreed to medium spicy, and when the food arrived, it was actually great.

I just thought it was interesting how accomodating they were for my palate.

Watching the Super Bowl in India...

...is a nice break to all of the cricket matches.

Go Hawks.

(it's Steelers 21-10 Seahawks right now)

You're welcome, hotel guests

Yes, it's true. I fixed the Internet.

(The wireless router is right outside my room - a quick power cycle and the Internets work now.)

Bangalore - 4 February 2006

Another 28 hour trip from Seattle to here is complete and it's now 4pm in the afternoon in Bangalore. The sun is out, it's probably about 80 degress outside and I have my usual post-arrival headache. Flights here (SEA-AMS-BOM-BLR routing) were pretty uneventful - some European chick on the SEA-AMS flight was singing whatever music she was listening to. I just turned up the volume a bit more. It was nice to have at-seat 120v power on the NWA flight (A330).

I slept through most of the AMS-BOM flight, and the BOM-BLR flight was actually a lot better than last time I came through because the armrests go all the way up on the ATR 72-500 aircraft. The KLM attendant in Amsterdam complimented me on the fact that I get two seats (I'm a passenger of size, in airline terms), and Jet Airways in India had a hard time understanding that I was getting two seats for myself. Oh well.

I was met by Prakash, my driver, at BLR airport and I'm staying at the Hotel Ramanashree, which is much cheaper than Le Meridien and maybe 1.5 stars less than LM.

Nicole's up in Bhubaneswar and will be coming to BLR on 23 February. So I'll have a week with her here before we both head back to the states. That's still 19 days away, but it's not all that far away. At least I can talk to her a lot more frequently now.

So anyway, I'm in Bangalore for the next month.

370HSSV-0773H

Programming note: tomorrow I leave for India. I'll be there until March 3rd.

Osama contacts Bush

After numerous rounds of "We don't know if Osama is still alive," or "I
really don't think about him much anymore," Osama himself decided to
send George Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was
still in the game.

Bush opened the letter an it appeared to contain a single line of coded
message:

370HSSV-0773H

Bush was baffled, so he E-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides
had no clue either, so they sent it to the FBI. No one could solve it at
the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NSA.

With no clue as to its meaning they eventually asked Britain's MI-6 for
help. Within a minute MI-6 cabled the White House with this reply:

"Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."

Back to Bangalore

Today Nicole left for India. She's going to Delhi first for about a week and then she's going to Bhubaneswar (pronounced Boob-a-nesh-var) for school until February 28th. It just so happens that I will be going to Bangalore from February 2nd thru March 3rd. I'll be back in the states on late Saturday March 4th.

It started to dawn on me just how much I'll miss her while she's away when I dropped her off at the airport. It'll be 6 years together for us on January 28th and I've grown incredibly accustomed to her presence.

I'm planning on a rendezvous for us after February 28th. I'll most likely fly her down to Bangalore to be with me for just two days before I fly back to Seattle.

I think it's going to be a long month.

In Victoria, la dee da.

It's been a long day. Nicole's going to India next weekend for at least 5 weeks on study, and then I'm going to India (a different part of India) for a month on the 2nd of February. More work stuff.

But this weekend was our little getaway from Seattle. I made reservations on the Victoria Clipper a while back as our 6 year anniversary is on the 28th. Welp, we got to the clipper for an 8am departure. Boat was delayed by two hours leaving Seattle. More coverage (and pic) from Nicole here.

So we're finally on the boat, and we're about 15 minutes out of the dock and the boat slows down. Then they mention there was a problem with the exhaust manifold and one of the engines had to be shut down while the engineer tries to fix it. Another 15 minutes later, and we're informed that due to this problem, the boat's being turned around and we'll be returning to the dock.

So now, the lady across from us is balling her eyes out and I'm trying to laugh the whole damn thing off. Nicole and I talk about whether we want a refund, whether we go up to Victoria by car, or find another hotel and stay in Seattle. We chose to continue onto Victoria. I used my bluetooth connection and T-Mobile T-zones service with my laptop to make reservations on BC Ferries Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay run. We made it up to Tsawassen on time. The border had a less than 5 minute wait. Perfect....

But there was still more fun - this time it's a guy who has a gun or something. And the cops are yelling at him to obey or something. Hard to say, we were too far away to see what the hell was going on.

But anyway, we're here. The hotel's really nice. I'm just happy as hell to be here and we're going to try to enjoy our little vacation as much as possible.

NJ and CT

I guess I really only write JEs when I go on trips now. Hrm.

I'm in Somerset, NJ until Friday for training on a new product my company will be selling sometime in late January. After the training, I'll be taking a train up to CT to visit my Dad and family until Tuesday when I fly back home. Needless to say - it's December, and it's cold as usual, a lot colder than I'm used to.

What is there to say about NJ? Well, the NJ scowl I've noticed in previous visits still exists. It took a little work but we finally got our waitress to smile tonight. Ahh, the sports bar at the Holiday Inn. What good times it is to narrate all of the interesting people there - the spikey-haired sales guy who displaced the college age guy to hit on a large chested woman. The thin, balding guy, in a black top sitting alone at a table, with a glass of wine, stealing glances at the pretty brunette across the room. The young girl who looks like she's not old enough to drink who comes in and sits next to some guy who's reading a book at the bar. We named her volleyball girl. Oh, good times.

Training so far is going well. I think the product has potential, but there are a lot of rough edges that MUST be smoothed out in order to really make me feel more comfortable about supporting it. I'll be going back to Seattle to train my group on this.

I called my dad today. I told him where the train was dropping me off and his response was, "Couldn't you take a bus that takes you all the way here?" I hate the bus. A 30 mile trip to pick me up isn't that hard. Even if it is at midnight.

Anyway, this is the most I've written here in months. We'll see if there's more to write soon, but today was a pretty decent day.

I'm back.

Pics

I'm going to have to write up another journal just about the trip. India is a pretty interesting place.

Kickin' it in Bangalore

How do you say "Awwws Yeah" in Hindi? No matter...

Last week it was Kansas City for an onsite install. From yesterday until the 30th, I'm in Bangalore, India, to do some technical and procedural training.

The trip here was a killer. Seattle to Amsterdam (10 hours), 2.5hr layover in Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Mumbai (10 hours), 6 hour layover in Mumbai, and finally Mumbai to Bangalore (1.5hrs). At one point, I felt like I was a contestant in the Amazing Race. I hear Northwest is going to add direct service from Amsterdam to Bangalore. That'll be nice. Let's just hope their bankruptcy doesn't screw that up.

A couple other Americans and I all hung out in Mumbai. One was here to see her spiritual advisor, and the other was a missionary from NC. Cool people, and they both had some helpful hints for me.

Yesterday was all about sleep. I got into the hotel at 6am, had breakfast, then slept from 8am to 5pm. Then I just got caught up on emails. Today a bit of sightseeing, and a chance to see if I can buy a bottle of Patron tequila for our office manager here. And who knows what else.

Woo, off to MPLS again, and other stuff.

Well, I'm off to Minneapolis next week to go do some install work at a very large corporate customer of ours that is headquartered there. Should be interesting, and it'll be a new experience for me -- I've never really been on point for an install like this before, but the customer seems to like me so they asked for me specifically.

More importantly, I got some news today that an old friend from high school was in a boating accident while on vacation in Alaska. Sadly, he did not survive. It still hasn't quite hit me yet. We stayed in contact after high school and we visited each other several times over the past few years whenever our paths crossed.

I think back to high school, and I remember how much of an uptight little perfectionist I was. I was so angry at my personal situation that I couldn't take a joke. Some of that remains with me today, but I have mellowed a lot over the years. And he was the one person who flat out told me - stop taking everything so seriously. After he did that, sometime around 10th grade, I was finally able to start coming out of my asshole shell and start socializing more without feeling like everybody hated me or was making fun of me behind my back. Oh, I was still an asshole through the rest of high school, but I think it was his encouragement, and encouragement from others that started to change me.

It still hasn't quite hit me yet. It probably will when I go to the funeral or memorial service back home. I just hope I don't miss it due to being in MN.

So I'm back...

Got back on the 16th. And it's been insanely busy at work. They want my technical workload to decrease and me to start moving more towards managing the team. It'll be nice when we get to that and it looks like we'll be hiring more headcount to help distribute the load more evenly.

In other news, I may be making a trip to India to train our Indian support group (no, they aren't replacing us, just covering their 12 hours of the clock). No firm details, and if one of the other guys steps up to do it, they might end up going. I'm not sure how I feel about flying to Bangalore. It's a 36 hour trip (!!!!!!).

The TiVo got updated on Friday - finally I have TiVoToGo. And I managed to get the .tivo decryption document working so I can watch the files on my Mac. Pretty neat. Now to see what 802.11g adapters work with the TiVo. 802.11b for huge files just ain't cuttin' it.

Hrm, what else is new - worked a 14 hour day on Friday. On purpose. I managed to get a major document done, much to the benefit of the group. Got some testing done, too. It was pretty nice but I got home at the same time Nicole did (around 10).

Watched Dakar and Monte Carlo rallies this weekend, played around with iMovie HD and iDVD 5, and relaxed. Got quite a bit done.

Ah, warmth.

I'm sitting here in wonderful, warm Honolulu today. Spent a bunch of time at Waikiki beach today and watched the sunset. Then walked through the International market with Nicole and her friend she's here with. This is a welcome 5 day rest from life in Seattle, where the current temperature is 30 degrees F. Brr.

In Honolulu, it's breezy and 75.

Free wifi at Kimo Bean Coffee's outdoor stand. Otherwise, I have to use GPRS with my cell phone, which is dog slow and not always 100% functional.

Going to rent a car tomorrow and drive around the island, and try to catch sunrise on Sunday morning. I'll be back in Seattle late Sunday night and Nicole will be back on Monday night.

Alooooooha. Maholo, that is all.

Argh.

Work. Too much of it. Not enough people. Can't catch up. I can only do so much in 8 hours. I'll do my best not to work more than I have to, but while I'm there I won't slack. Argh. Argh. Argh.

It was so nice last week when everybody was at work, and then this week and we're down by 3 (out of 7). And the work piles up, and customers get pissed. Argh.

But hey, I'm going to Hawaii in January, but only for a weekend. Wooo. Something to look forward to.

Video

It's late, and I picked up a cold on the plane ride home from Japan, but here are the videos anyway. Enjoy...

Nicole's journal

Nicole has her own journal with much more articulate and interesting entries about the Japan trip than mine. Mine's all pictures and poo-eating primate talk. Hers is much more interesting. Go check it out...

We're Back!

Back in America! Hooray!

We got back this morning, came home and slept for a few hours, and then got busy unpacking this afternoon. I have to work tomorrow, so I need to get to bed, but I've got pictures online. Videos coming soon.

Here ya go: http://technojunkie.org/berniec/galleries/japan-june2004

Typhoon; departure.

Yesterday a Typhoon passed through Tokyo, and by this morning it was completely gone. Nicole wanted to experience the water and wind and ventured out on her own. I, on the other hand, stayed in the hotel where it was plenty dry. The typhoon managed to shut down bullet train service near Osaka (due to a roof from a hotel being blown onto the power lines). And, on the news, they showed footage of some very dumb people walking on a jetty in the middle of the 15 foot waves crashing into the shore, and then getting swept into the sea. Nicole caught in the translation that two of them didn't survive. Ah, natural selection. Even for all of its education systems, even Japan has some dumbasses.

Tomorrow we take a plane from Narita back to Seattle. For those not accustomed to travel around the world, we leave at 3:20pm from here and will get into Seattle at 8:05am on the same day. We lost a day getting here. Tokyo is 17 hours ahead of Seattle.

I've really enjoyed the trip to Tokyo, but I'm ready to go home. I love travelling, but I also really miss the states. It'll be nice to be in a familiar and less crowded place. I'll miss the people-watching here in Tokyo. If there's anything to do here, it's people-watch.

Today Nicole and I walked up to Sunshine 60, the tallest building in Japan (at 60 stories) and had a good peak of the Tokyo skyline. We followed that up with a trip to the aquarium in the same building. An easy day... but we had to go out and by another bag for all of the gifts we're bringing back with us.

I anticipate pictures will be uploaded probably late on Wednesday. Videos might take a little longer.

Only a few more days left. :-(

Highlights of Japan, so far (we still have a few days left):

- Akihabara at dusk
- Mos Burger
- Shinjuku station at morning rush hour
- Bullet Train ride to Hiroshima and Kyoto
- Watching two Americans getting mobbed by Japanese schoolgirls in Kyoto (complete with schoolgirls yelling in unison when they said goodbye)
- Schoolchildren saying hello to us (sounded more like "Harro") in Hiroshima, only to have their shyness show through when I responded
- Tears in Hiroshima at the sight of the A-bomb dome
- Old woman praying for our happiness when she saw our sadness.
- Nicole overhearing drunk people on the Yamanote line train saying "they shouldn't allow foreigners on JR trains." This is funny considering how polite Japanese are when sober. I read somewhere that alcohol is used in Japanese society as a way to remove politeness. I really do feel like an alien here, in some situations. I'm used to being stared at, but everybody here looks at us.

I'm going to miss Japan. No matter how expensive it is, how crowded it is, or how different we are.

And, here's a picture of the trip so far. From Akihabara. More coming soon.

Hello From Tokyo!

Hello from the Apple Store in Ginza! It's currently 14:30 here on Tuesday afternoon (+17 hour time difference from Seattle). So far, we've just been dipping our toes into Tokyo. We're staying in Ikebukuro, and took the subway here (20 minute ride, by the way, which is very quick for the distance) to the store to get some free Internet before heading out again into the city.

It's quite warm and humid here - 80 degrees or so.

The flight wasn't bad. Long, but what else is new? We browsed Bic Camera (a large electronics chain here) in Ikebukuro today and got a good look at some of the cool electronic goodies Tokyo has. We're planning on a trip to Akihibara to browse there probably in a couple days.

Tomorrow - who knows. I'm going to at least make a trip to Tokyo station so we can figure out how to get to the bullet train platforms for a trip we booked to Hiroshima and Kyoto on Thursday.

All in all, the trip is going really well. And yes, everything is really expensive here - I paid $50 for breakfast buffet at the hotel today. A 500ml bottle of Coca Cola at AM/PM is about $1.20, so as long as we stay away from the hotel we'll be fine.

I'm taking pics as we go. I picked up a PowerShot A80 for the trip, and it's been doing a great job so far. The camcorder's not getting used as much, but I think I'll take it out for the trip to Hiroshima and Kyoto.

Who knows when I'll be on the net again. The trip here is quick so it might be in a couple days.

See ya...

Just a few minutes and the airport van will be here to get us. Off to Japan we go. No guarantees on Internet access - not like I want to spend my entire trip surfing the Internet :-)

Crap.

http://daveahlman.com/daveinjapan/toilet/toilet.htm

I had to practice my flat foot squat tonight. Didn't do too bad, but I have to be keenly aware of balance or else I'll topple like a poorly built outhouse. Needless to say, there will be NO dilly-dallying in the squat toilets. The flat foot squat is painful right now.

5 days...

The date is fast approaching, and I'm just trying to get all of my ducks in a row before we fly out of here. I spent a good chunk of Sunday figuring out bullet train timetables so we can go to Hiroshima and Kyoto. I haven't even looked at the Tokyo subway system yet. That's going to be a challenge. I've been finalizing my list of stuff that needs to be packed. I'll start packing on Saturday. The flight leaves Sunday at 2:35pm.

I'm pretty nervous and excited right now. I haven't had much time to learn any of the language, but I've been doing a fair bit of reading/documentary watching on the culture. I wouldn't consider myself a "Japanophile" by any stretch of the imagination, but I have an appreciation for the culture now that I wouldn't have had before my "research." Seeing it in person should be quite enlightening.

Good news on the TiVo front - yesterday I got the upgrade hard drive from 9thtee.com (who gets their drives from PTVupgrade.com). The drive installed beautifully, and booted perfectly the first time. It's obvious they're using some fancy customized TiVo image, as they've got their logo added to the startup screen, and they have far more channel logos than the stock TiVo software ever did. Not to mention that their setup for TiVoWeb/telnet/ftpd is incredibly easy. I had TiVoWeb up and running in 5 minutes. I remember spending several hours with the old drive, yanking it out of the TiVo, plugging it into a PC, copying over telnetd and tivoftpd, manually hacking rc.sysinit to get them to start, then praying I didn't screw anything up. Which is funny, because I once accidently forgot to make rc.sysinit executable. Well, there went my fully booting TiVo. And again out comes the drive to be fixed via that PC. Sigh.

Hats off to PTVupgrade.com's NetReady TiVo drives. Super easy installation, good documentation, and quick procedure. And 24 hours after installation, no TiVo freezes. Wooo!

The fixed TiVo's now fulfilling Nicole's TV habit. And now there'll be less Spongebob and Beavis & Butthead on the living room TiVo :-D

11 days...

11 days until Nicole and I fly to Japan. I'm excited, but extremely nervous about going over there. I've been reading up on Japanese culture the last few months. Even still, I know I'm nowhere near being prepared, but it'll be an interesting trip. Pictures and video will be available soon after we return.

The ol' TiVo died, or is in the process of dying. I went out and got a 40-hour Series 2 unit (and USB-ethernet adapter), and ordered a replacement boot drive for the old one. The new TiVo's a lot smaller, a bit quicker, but overall doesn't offer much that the old one did. A trial of TiVo's Home Media Option got activated today on the new unit and so far I'm a bit underwhelmed. The only feature in it that I really want is remote scheduling, but I don't think it's worth $99 just for that feature.

With TiVoWeb on the old Series 1 I had remote scheduling. Ok, so it wasn't easy to setup, but I had it, and it worked, and it was free. The music and photo sharing features of HMO are useful, but the music feature leaves me wishing for more: AAC support (ok, I understand if protected AACs can't be supported, but most of my library is in unprotected AAC format), album art support, and better MP3 playback. I occasionally got a slight skip or stutter on the beginning of some MP3 tracks I played. Most of the time it worked fine.

In all, I don't think HMO is worth $99 considering you then have to spend another $25-30 or so for a USB network adapter. I would pay $20 for remote scheduling, though.

Update, 6/9:
Tivo made the Home Media Option a full feature today.

Americans are fun. Hai!

Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Godzilla ga Ginza hoomen e mukatte imasu!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!

I can't wait to make an ass of myself when I get drunk in Tokyo and greet everybody with that. ;-)

Woah. I'm going to Japan.

I just made air and hotel reservations for a vacation to Tokyo this June. Damn... it's gonna happen. Nicole and I are really going.

Meanwhile, my frequent flyer miles balance will be getting a huge boost.

Back to Roseville for a week...

Yep, more training. I leave Sunday and will be done on Friday. Hopefully this'll be the last of the training for a while.

So, anybody in the Twin Cities wanna show me around a little? Please? Anybody?

Lollapablahblah

Saturday, Nicole and I went to the White River Ampitheatre for the newly reincarnated Lollapalooza. Not a bad show, but I have to echo some complaints I've seen:

• No staggered seating, which creates horrible sightlines to the stage.
  
• Pretty abysmal sound (although if you wear earplugs, it's almost bearable)
  
• Uncomfortable seating. Take a cue from Safeco Field in Seattle, and aim for the seats they use.
  
• Long lines at the bathroom. In fact, so bad, we saw a line of guys pissing behind one of the restrooms.
  
• Who wants to go to a covered ampitheatre?? I mean, c'mon, that totally fucked the sound up.
  
• Not very diverse food choices. After waiting in line for ten minutes, a woman came out and informed everybody that this was the beer line. Oh great, thanks for putting up a sign!
  
• Pretty bad traffic before and after. When leaving the ampitheatre, we couldn't turn left (west) to get back to Seattle, so we had to drive east past the long line of cars and then turn around. It was pretty funny to see a Canadian getting handcuffed after failing a field sobriety test, though. I'm glad I didn't drink.
  
• It faces away from the sun, which is actually a disadvantage. Seeing a concert in front of a beautiful sunset was one of the nice things about going to the Gorge.
  
• No view! One of the things about the Gorge is kicking back on the lawn, sunning yourself and catching the view of the Columbia. But at White River, you get a little bit of Mt. Rainier through the Seattle haze, and that's it. Oh, there are some trees off in the distance. Woo.
  

Apart from that, the show was good. Audioslave rocked my ass off, and Jane's Addiction brought a little tear to me eye when they played Jane Says.

Oh, I don't know if this has anything to do with the urinators, but at about 9:30pm, we noticed the smell of manure wafting its way through the ampitheatre. Yeah, so the ampitheatre's out in the middle of farmland, but it was pretty foul.

White River's all shiny and new, and I'm sure there were some deals struck to get acts to come play there, but I'll stick to the Gorge for concerts, where possible. It's just a better venue.

Breakin' the law... breakin' the law... (and gettin' caught)

I turned 25 on the 13th. I don't feel much different now, although now I know what getting pulled over on the freeway feels like.

78mph in a 60mph zone, or that's what the trooper said. And, I was on my way to my mother's wedding (there's no way I could make that up in a pinch). Fine: $153. After running a quote on Progressive.com, it looks like my insurance might not go up - I fall into the 19mph and under category for speeding. I'd imagine 20mph and over might make insurance worse. Who knows.

I guess I've gotten to used to speeding for the past couple of weeks. I'm bummed I got caught, but it just goes to show why Washington drivers don't go much over the speed limit, at least on the freeways. I've never seen more state patrol cars than on I-5 between Seattle and Olympia. I think I counted 8 total on Saturday the 16th. Tricky fuckers.

My radar detector caught the cop, but he was quicker than me - by the time the detector squawked, he was already moving out of the median turnaround.

Oh well. Had to happen to me sooner or later. :-)

Pics and coming of age...

The company I work for is being bought. I found this out during the cross-country trip in Menomonie, Wisconsin at an overnight hotel stop. A little nerve-wracking, to say the least.

Oh, what else is going on - Here are some photos from the trip. Enjoy. Comments are very welcome.

Tomorrow I turn 25, and according to a long-since laid-off co-worker, I'll finally be an adult. Of course, he told me this when I was 18 or 19, so I can understand his point. Of course, he was a bitter and jaded old man, so perhaps I shouldn't have read too much into what he had to say. No big plans for tonight or tomorrow... I'm still recovering from 7221 miles of road tripping. Happy Birthday to me!

We're home...

So, two weeks on the road have brought us back to our humble abode in Seattle. It's great to be home, but now we have to return to real life and unpack our gear.

We came back to a different color house (the owners decided to paint it two days after we left)! Instead of the little red house we had, we now have a white house. I'll get photos up soon.

What really sucked is that when we came home almost all of the windows were sealed shut with paint. I managed to get the bedroom window unsealed, which gives us our window fan again (thank goodness), but the rest will be a chore. Fun fun.

As soon as we passed into Idaho, the Washington drivers slowed us down. I just don't understand why they don't understand the concept of stay right except to pass! I want to pass all of them, because yes, I'm in a hurry. Just move the fuck over and let me by. I won't tailgate them or flash my brights at them (although I'll think about it), so just they should stop it with the "2 mph faster than the next lane over" crap, and move over. I want to go fast!

Anyway, the road weariness is taking over and I need to get to bed. It's going to be so nice to sleep in my own bed tonight. It's nice to be back in Seattle. It's right where we left it.

In Billings, Montana now...

I'm typing this from the KOA campground (or is that kampground?) in Billings, MT. They have a small little closet-like thing with a power plug and phone jack. I've only managed to get a 31200 connection, but I'm not complaining - it's certainly better than nothing. In fact, it's downright cool. They have some full hookup sites with phone lines. I would've loved to have gotten one of those.

Barring any unforeseen problems, tomorrow should be our last day on the road. Since I last wrote, we've been to quite a few places - Gettysburg; the Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota; the South Dakota Badlands; Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota; and Mt. Rushmore.

This has been one incredible trip and I've got many pictures to show from it. Nicole and I are holding up pretty well, considering being stuck in a Jetta for the past 4 days. Traffic through South Dakota was great, giving me hours of 90 mile-per-hour driving. Today I managed to get the little beast up to 120mph.

The Sturgis motorcycle rally has been going on for the past week and there are motorcycles up the wazoo. We've got a group of bikers from Alberta in the next camping spot over from us. And man, have they been nice to us... not once, but twice, did they offer to take a picture of Nicole and me at the areas we've visited. Very cool. Of course, we did see one guy with a swastika tattoo and underneath that, another that said "Born to raise heil!", but overall they've been great.

Due to the great success of this trip, I foresee many future roadtrips like this. Any suggestions of routes to take? Perhaps a more southerly route, or more through the middle of the country, rather than the northerly route we took.

Anyway, time to go read up other /. journals. Happy trails!

Back on the road...

Today Nicole and I left Torrington, CT, bound for home, in Seattle. We didn't get as far as we had hoped, thanks in great part to major traffic backups through New York City and Philadelphia. But, we did made a stop at the Quick Stop in Leonardo, NJ, featured in Clerks, and at the Apple Store in King of Prussia, PA. Right now, I'm typing this from a Motel 6 in Harrisburg, PA.

New Jersey is one piece of shit state. Really. Just about the only thing going for it was separate lanes on the turnpike for trucks and cars, but other than that it pretty much sucked. Everybody in the state had this horrible scowl on their face like they were mad at the world. Maybe they're just mad that they're stuck in New Jersey. I would be. But hey, at least we got to see some of the sights featured in the Sopranos opening, like the Hydro P.U. plant, and the Drive Safely storage container. Woo.

Pennsylvania, once again, is a beautiful state, once you get out of the built-up areas. Gorgeous farmland and plenty of scenery to keep me happy while driving. I've made up my mind that we're going to Gettysburg tomorrow morning and then we'll continue on to Columbus. Because we left Connecticut a little bit early, we've got extra time to do some sightseeing on the trip home.

Getting back to today's traffic backups - the one in NYC was particularly funny. A car with a license plate holder from "Rent-a-Wreck" had broadsided a semi on I-95 in the Bronx. How appropriate. Less than a mile away, another wreck held up traffic. I think those two accidents delayed us about 90 minutes.

Tomorrow I'd like to make it almost all the way through Ohio and into Indiana. If that happens, I'll be happy, but from here on out the states start getting bigger so we'll be in them a lot longer.

I'm going to try to compile a few stats about this drive, but I don't have fuel usage details because I stopped doing mileage in Montana on the way out. But, in the meantime, here are the states we've driven through:

Washington
Idaho
Montana
North Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
New York
Connecticut

Seattle here we come.

The air's thick here....

I've been to Connecticut several times, but never can I remember such incredibly humid weather. Current conditions in Torrington are 72F with 94% humidity. Earlier today it felt like a freaking rain forest.

So, Nicole and I went down to New York City today. We drove into Manhattan, checked out Times Square, SOHO, the Empire State building, and the subway. It was really a fun trip, but the heat and moreso the humidity put a damper (really, really damp) on the fun. Nicole and I have decided that we want to go back again, but in late fall or spring, when it's a lot cooler.

The air in NYC is a mix of other peoples' stink, urine and/or excrement, and auto exhaust. Sweaty was another way I could describe it, and it's about twice as worse in the subway. I was covered in sweat pretty much the whole time I was in NYC and it was pretty embarrassing.

The only assholes I encountered were the ones stuck behind me in traffic. Sorry Mr. Cab Driver - I do NOT block intersections. Being familiar with Seattle traffic, I know how annoying it is when this happens to me. Besides, I would have done it in front of a cop, so um, no, not gonna do it.

The sheer madness of the city amazes me. Parts of it are so incredibly run down that it makes me wonder how they function. The subway has this greasy look and feeling that transfers all the way from the walls and floors to the handrails. I wasn't sure if I was feeling handrails that had been tampered with by some joker, but since every one I grasped felt greasy, I figured it was normal. At least the subway cars are air-conditioned.

My car's still in one piece, luckily. Driving through Manhattan is like driving through a never-ending series of potholes, and it really sucks. I feel sorry for anybody who's unfortunate enough to own a car in Manhattan.

So anyway, Times Square is fascinating and I do think it should be seen to be believed. Next time we go, I want to see it at night. Wow.

Nicole wants to see some covered bridges here in CT, so we'll probably make a trip down to Cornwall to see them. I also still have a lot of family to see, so we'll be busy with that, as well.

Hooray, we made it!

Nicole and I have made it to Connecticut - Torrington, to be more exact. After our brief trip to Chicago, we decided to drive all the way here, overnight. It took us about 14 hours to do the drive from Chicago to Torrington, making Mapquest surprisingly accurate in its estimate.

Connecticut so far is well. My sister and her kid flew in today so it's been a bit of a family reunion. Our plans right now are to visit family, and then either go camping out on the Atlantic coast (weather permitting) or go down to NYC for a day of sightseeing. A day certainly isn't enough time, but we've got a list of things we want to see.

The trip home will probably involve making a stop at the Quick Stop in Leonardo, New Jersey, and then heading out to Columbus, Ohio to visit a friend of Nicole's. From there, we'll be off to Mt. Rushmore (and the Badlands of South Dakota), with a possible stop at Wall Drug. And, time permitting, a stop at the Sturgis biker rally. We'll take it as we go.

Still truckin'

Nicole and I are now in Chicago - and I'm typing this from the North Michigan Apple Store in downtown Chicago. What a gorgeous store... really, really gorgeous. And, they have a free Internet cafe. I wish I could tell the woman across the table from me that her music stinks and that she should USE HEADPHONES, but oh well.

So anyway, the drive so far has been pretty good, but traffic in Chicago sucks to holy high hell. As soon as we're done here, we're going to head off to the Sears Tower (sorry, I just have to go to the tallest building here!) for some sightseeing. And then, I think we're going to drive the rest of the way to Connecticut.

Traffic oasises (or is it oases?) in Illinois are pretty dang interesting, although it seems like either the gas station or the restaurant is always being upgraded/replaced. One had a working gas station, but no working restaurant, and vice versa. Interesting.

Drivers in Chicago are nucking futs. So far, we've seen three cars passing us on the shoulder. This is unheard of in Seattle. Drivers in Wisconsin weren't much better, although they didn't pass in the shoulder. Instead, they just tailgated. Hey buddy, I'm doing 90 in a 65 and you're still tailgating me?! Sheesh!

Alright, I think it's time to go now. Next update might be from Connecticut. We'll see.

Makin' progress...

As I type this, Nicole is speedily driving us toward our next destination - Minneapolis. There we're going to make two quick stops at each of the local Apple Stores. And then after that, we'll try to find someplace to relax for the night.

Last night we camped in Medora, ND and left the campground at 8am. Due to the bumps we hit in Idaho and Montana, we made a stop in Bismarck to have the car's dangling tailpipe looked at. It needed to be replaced, so we had the guy put on a new tailpipe and rear muffler. That set us back by about an hour and $75.

It's hard to appreciate the incredible diversity in landscapes until you drive the country for yourself. Just yestrday we crossed the continental divide and started seeing some spectacular rock formations in North Dakota. Today we've seen the flat wind-swept prairies of ND and the rolling farmlands od Minnesota. Very cool.

1720 miles down. Many more to go.

The trip has begun

Right now I'm sitting in a hotel in Missoula, Montana. It's a little after 10pm, and we spent a good 10 hours on the road today. Car's doing just fine, and getting better than expected fuel economy. We stopped in Yakima today to visit Nicole's parents and then hauled ass here. I didn't think we'd get this far, but the real test comes tomorrow. We have Montana and North Dakota to negotiate, and if we can get to the far side of North Dakota (or at least through half of it), I'll be very pleased.

Getting this hotel room was a bit of a challenge... when we called, the concierge said this room had just opened up. We got lucky - most of the other ones we looked for were all smoking rooms. Not good.

Observations so far:

- Miner's in Yakima makes very good burgers. I always try to go there whenever I'm in the Yak.
- Ellensburg to Spokane is really boring, but the rolling wheat fields are very pretty.
- Lake Coeur d'Alene is unbelievably beautiful. Like, wow.
- I-90 in Idaho sucks, and is very rough. There's quite a bit of work being done in the Idaho panhandle and western Montana. Never before have I seen an entire side of a freeway closed while the other was turned into a two-lane highway. It certainly worked, although it slowed us down a little bit.
- Nicole noticed this, and I agree - people here in Montana are very very nice. Even with all of Nicole's piercings, my "No, I will not fix your computer." t-shirt, and Nicole's "RTFM" t-shirt, people here have been incredibly nice to us so far.

So, more to come as soon as I get more Internet access. Connecticut here we come!

Saturday (the big trip) approaches...

This Saturday, Nicole and I will be setting out from Seattle on a cross-country road trip to Torrington, Connecticut, to visit my dad and all the rest of the family out there. I'm a Washingtonian, through and through, as I was born and raised here. Still, because my sister and nephew are flying out there, I wanted to be there at the same time she and the boy is. Since my parents were divorced six years ago, I haven't seen my dad nearly enough.

I'm getting pretty nervous at the thought of driving 3000+ miles (each way) in my aging 1995 VW Jetta (it'll turn 104,000 miles by Saturday). I've recently had a fuel filter replaced, and just had the tires rotated and oil changed today (changed the oil myself, even). Even still, this should be a trip to remember.

My parents moved out west from Connecticut in 1977, after getting married, to escape their overbearing parents. They settled in a small town in North-Central Washington called Twisp and by the end of their first day in town, my dad had a job with a logging crew. I was born in August of the following year. My parents briefly moved back to Connecticut for about eight months before relocating once again to Southwest Washington, were I spent my youth and adolescence. Eastern America seems so alien to me sometimes, especially coming from the "left coast."

Our planned route is to go through Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York before finally entering Connecticut. On the way back, the route will look similar, but we're planning to go through South Dakota so we can see Mt. Rushmore (and maybe even stop in Sturgis for the rally). I'm really looking forward to getting to Chicago, as I really want to take a look at the Chicagolands from the top of the Sears Tower. I imagine on the way we'll probably make some slight detours for sightseeing, but that's what I'm hoping for.

Once on the east coast, Nicole wants to see the sun rise over the atlantic. So we'll be making a trip to Massachusetts for that. I don't think we'll have time to go to NYC, unfortunately. Another time.

We've given ourselves about 2 1/2 weeks for this trip. It's going to be grueling, but I hope it'll be a great experience, hopefully somewhere along the lines of our Vegas trip in July 2001.

Cellphone coverage between Billings and Fargo is pretty non-existent as far as I can tell, so unless we happen to find some WiFi or Internet cafes, I don't think you'll be hearing to much from me. I do plan on writing about the trip and posting it to my journal when I can.

I welcome any suggestions on things/places to see, so long as they're along/near I-74, I-84, I-90, or I-94. I think that's all of the major ones :-)

Yar! Thar be brats on the field, matey!

Pirate fined for assaulting sausage

My favorite line: "...Simon took a half swing at the Italian sausage character, hitting her from behind and causing her to tumble. When she fell, she knocked over the woman dressed as the hot dog."

Good thing I'm going to be making a couple stops in Milwaukee at the end of the month during Nicole's and my trip to Connecticut. This could get interesting.

Back to regular life....

Our flight out of SFO was delayed Friday night by about an hour and a half. Alaska called me while we were out at Alcatraz. No biggie. We caught the flight, and made it back here okay. But, now it's back to normal life and all of the crap that comes with it.

The pilot light had gone out on the furnace. At a rate of $234, we called a tech to come out and relight it for us. Well, it's out again this morning, and I'm not calling anybody to relight it. I'll just go find a decent portable heater and make do until the landlord gets back. I can't afford to dump any more money into this money pit of a house. I'm stretched thin as it is.

The guy who relit the pilot light yesterday told us of the condition of the furnace: it's 27 years old, it's possible that there's a rusted out heat exchanger tube, and we should get a new furnace. Oh, and the kicker is the estimated efficiency of the furnace - 60%. Most modern furnaces nowadays have an efficiency rating of 80-90%.

Well, at least we have electricity, right?

Weird... that's a funny magazine!

Nicole and I made it into a picture on Wired News about the line atmosphere at the keynote. Go to http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,57117,00.html and click on the picture of the two boys with laptops (it's on the left). Nicole's there taking a nap on my leg. It looks like she might be doing something else, but she's not, so buggar off!

If you're goin' to San Francisco....

...make sure to visit MacWorld Conference & Expo.

Nicole and I went to Steve Jobs's keynote yesterday. It was incredible. I've been keeping up with the keynotes for the past couple of years, and this one was a biggie. I won't bore you with all the details, as there are plenty of sites out there that will do that already.

The only thing that sucked about the keynote was waiting in line for it, however I did get to meet some very interesting people. And, true to the power of wireless networking and Rendezvous, an ad-hoc Rendezvous network sprung up and I was chatting with other people in line that were on the "iChat over Rendezvous" network. That was very cool. We got into line at about 4:30am, with about 50 people in front of us. The seats we got in the Esplanade weren't too great, but they weren't too bad, either.

I must get a 12" PowerBook. I've been saying for a long time that I wanted a 12" iBook, but that I'd hold off until it had a G4. Well, now the PowerBook's here, and it's beautiful. The 17" PowerBook is massive, but also very well designed. It definitely is a desktop replacement machine.

Today starts the Users' Conference at MacWorld, and Nicole and I are going to a few of the scheduled talks. Apart from that, we're going to try to do a little sightseeing, and visit SFMOMA today or tomorrow. Time to go look and see if MUNI has a trip planner.

Ah, sweet relief....

The cable's been reconnected. What a wondrous day. This means no more dialup Internet, or antenna for TV. I'm very happy.

There's still the matter of fixing the gutters, fixing the fence, and removing the tree, but apart from that we're moving right along. The electrician is almost done with his work, and soon we'll get our permanent electrical connection from Seattle City Light.

Nicole and I are off to San Francisco on Monday night for Macworld. I can't wait, although some of the rumors I've read have not been very encouraging. If Nicole's Sidekick works fine from within Moscone center, we'll probably update this journal in real time. Neat-o, eh?