It's Never Sunny in Southwest New Jersey

Sunny Faces, Sunny Places

2012-02-06T19:35:00.003-05:00

So, since I'm in the mood for finding destinations and things to see, and I'm going to Florida in about two days, why not one for there, too? Obviously there's less to see than most places, considering sanitized tourism took over the areas long ago, but there are still some gems left over!

First of all, a call back to a time without Disney's stranglehold on the region: The Citrus Tower. The tower is over 200 feet high, and when it was built in the mid-50's offered a stunningly beautiful view of the pristine orange groves in the area. Most of the groves are gone now, but the tower still stands to show off the development in the area. Eight counties are visible from the top. The tower is open from 9-5 Monday through Thursday, and costs $4 per person for the view. The Citrus Tower can be found at: 141 North Hwy 27, Clermont, Florida 34711.

The Monument of States serves as another old school attraction in the area. The Monument features a stone from every state in the union, a collection first begun in 1942 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The monument has stood since then in Kissimmee, topped with a model of the world and a bald eagle, and surrounded with stones from various world locations. It's free to see and open during the daylight hours. The Monument is located at: 300 East Monument Ave., Kissimmee, FL.

Next up is the Bok Singing Tower and Gardens. The rock tower opened in 1929 and features 57 bells of differing pitch. The tower is said to be pretty impressive, and the bells toll and play frequently. Also in the area is a nice garden with lots of local flora to entertain yourself while you wait for the music to play. The garden is open from 8 - 6 daily and is free. The tower is located at: 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales, FL.

For all the lovers of giant statues built for the sole purpose of advertising stupid things (aka me), there's a giant golf ball on a tee in Kissimmee. Definitely pretty great. It's an advertisement for a mini golf course. Located at: US Hwy 192, south side at Florida Plaza Blvd.

In 1993, a theme park opened in the already theme park-saturated area of central Florida. This park was called Splendid China, and featured rides and performances based on this theme. Included was the rotating cast of acrobats visiting directly from mainland China - many of whom fled the park and applied for asylum in the United States. After the closure of the park in 2003, the property changed hands several times, and the park was finally destroyed for good in 2011. All that remains is a Winn-Dixie Supermarket filled to the brim with kitschy Chinese memorabilia fit for a theme park. The supermarket is open until 11pm most days and is located at: Formosa Gardens Blvd., Kissimmee, FL.

Finally, there's Celebration, Florida. Most recognize Celebration as the Disney planned "community of the future," and others were reminded of existence when the town of about 7,000 experienced its first murder a couple years back. The whole thing gives me a weird "Stepford Wives" kind of feeling that makes it irresistible to at least drive through.

Anyway, there are a few other interesting things to see, it seems, but quite a bit of driving away from where I'll be staying. If any of them seem a bit more enticing, however, I'll definitely be posting them here.

Coming Attractions: Paris

2012-02-04T02:44:00.006-05:00

The day after I arrive in the lovely city of London, Dana and I hop a Eurostar train midway through the day and head in the direction of France. We're staying for a weekend in Paris (just missing Valentine's Day by two or three days!) and I'm compiling a list of things that could possibly be interesting. First of all, to get them out of the way, some of the more obvious ones:

- The Eiffel Tower (48.8583N, 2.2945E) How original. Built in 1889 for the World's Fair, it's Paris (and for that matter, France's) most famous landmark.

- The Arc de Triomphe (48.8738N, 2.2950E) Also very original. Commissioned by Napoleon and finished in the 19th century, it was the largest arch in the world until a knock-off was constructed recently in Pyongyang.
- The Louvre (48.8620N, 2.333686E) The most-visited art museum in the world. Contains the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and so many more iconic works of art. It originally opened near the turn of the 19th century.
- Parisian Catacombs (48.8337N, 2.3322E) The catacombs of Paris hold the remains of approximately six million people who perished in the 12th century and onward.
- Musée des Arts et Métiers (48.8658N, 2.3554E) Parisian museum of arts and crafts. Specifically, the Foucault Pendulum, which was the first experimental proof that the earth rotated.

Now, a few from the depths of Atlas Obscura:

- Fragonard Museum (48.8127N, 2.4221E) One of the oldest museums in Paris, opened in 1766, which is quite similar to Philadelphia's Mutter. Made up of the collections of Honore Fragonard, a physician who was declared a madmen for his flayed figures and displays of pathology.
- The "I Love You" Wall (48.8847N, 2.3388E) A 400+ square foot wall covered in lava tiles that each bear the words "I love you" in a different language.
- Arènes de Lutèce (48.8450N, 2.3527E) The remains of a Roman amphitheater inside Paris proper. Said amphitheater played host to the gladiatorial and animal fights that Rome was famous for. Since its rediscovery, it has been restored, the 17,000-person and 2,000-year-old piece of history standing as a marker of the city's past.
- Musee de Plans-Reliefs (48.8546N, 2.3124E) Starting from as far back as 1668, the French monarchy created over a hundred models of various cities a territories that were used by military planners.
- The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species (48.8433N, 2.3637E) Part of the Grand Gallery of Evolution, this room showcases over two hundred animal species that have been pushed to the brink of or past the brink of extinction over the years.
- Mini-Paris (48.7772N ,1.9634E) A miniature model of Paris meticulously built over twenty years by a single man.
- Pomze Paris (48.8750N, 2.3169E) A restaurant that resembles an Iron Chef competition with the special ingredient "apples." Over 120 apple-inspired dishes. Features the motto of "Let yourself be tempted and enter the world of apples."

Enter: Japan!

2012-01-12T04:34:00.003-05:00

Hello, friends!

So as many of you know (many of you being one), I am currently in Japan. I arrived on Tuesday and had my first day of work on the base today. I'll hopefully be mindful enough to catalog my adventures here extensively!

So, first of all, my flight connected through Chicago, so the road to Japan was rough. The thirteen hour flight wasn't all that bad - I watched two movies, got a good night's sleep, and listened to a couple podcasts, but it was still pretty grating toward the end. Anyway, after landing, our crew went through customs and immigration, and caught the "YCAT" bus from Narita to Yokohama. After that, check in was fairly painless, and after the necessary shower dropping my stuff off, I went out to eat with the coworkers. I had a beef-and-potato coquette, nothing fancy, as I wasn't really that hungry.

Wednesday was open for us to just rest and get our bearings in the new time zone. I took the opportunity to exchange $200 more into yen and get a few things in order. After that, I was eager to explore the area. Underneath the hotel is a large mall-ish subway called The Diamond. There's pretty much everything you could ever need there - fashion shops, restaurants, convenience stores, and of course a KFC. It's pretty easy to get lost down there, but after a couple hours of wandering, I'm managing quite well.

That evening, I headed outside to look around, and stumbled upon a crazy little area of town that had more arcades than I've ever seen in my life. Neon signs abound, I wandered into a land of video games, pachinko, and weird anime signs. It was daunting, and all I could do was stumble around as people shuffled by me, probably making fun of me in their native tongue. Either way, it was a great experience! I even purchased something from one of the odd looking vending machine - a tiny bottle of lemon soda that set me back Y120.

Today, work was filled with walking, something that did not go well with the fact that I had purchased (but never worn) my new pair of steel toed shoes. Lots of blisters, but hey, it's an excuse to soak in a tub a few times.

I spoke with Tom today about traveling up and seeing him in the coming weeks, and he'd recommended to me in the past about getting a JR East pass. This pass essentially allows one unlimited travel up and down the east portion of Japan (the majority of the main Honshu island) for about $208 at current exchange rates. Of course, it's never that easy!

I first headed down to the Yokohama Train Station and spoke with the tourist information counter. She was friendly, as everyone is here, and directed me across to the ticketing office. I headed over there, and the very friendly man inside directed me to the office next door - after looking a little panicked and heading behind a curtain for a good three minutes. After going next door, it appeared that the ladies there knew what I was talking about! The language barrier was cumbersome (they seemed to not understand why I gave them my travel itinerary until late in the transaction), but everything worked out. I am the proud owner of a 4 day flexible JR East pass!

Schedule for Week Ending 12/31

2011-12-23T16:22:00.002-05:00

Monday - HOLIDAY (8 hours)
Tuesday - 10:00 to 18:00 (16 hours)
Wednesday - 07:30 to 16:00 (24.5 hours)
Thursday - 07:30 to 16:00 (33 hours)
Friday - 10:00 to 17:00 (40 hours)

Schedule for Week Ending 12/18

2011-12-12T13:14:00.002-05:00

Monday - 12:00 to 18:00 (6 hours)
Tuesday - 13:00 to 24:00 (17 hours)
Wednesday - 12:00 to 18:00 (23 hours)
Thursday - 13:00 to 24:00 (34 hours)
Friday - 14:00 to 20:00 (40 hours)

Schedule for Week Ending 11/18

2011-11-15T17:38:00.002-05:00

Monday - 08:00 to 16:00 (8 hours)
Tuesday - 16:00 to 24:00 (16 hours)
Wednesday - 00:00 to 04:00 and 14:00 to 18:00 (24 hours)
Thursday - 14:00 to 24:00 (34 hours)
Friday - 00:00 to 04:00 (38 hours)

I can't be arsed to figure out where the other two hours are coming from so let's just say V for two hours. :|

Nerdiest Thing I've Ever Done

2011-11-02T11:09:00.023-04:00

So with Halloween having passed, for some reason I'm still getting my arts and crafts on. Approximately one week ago, I fell in love with the idea of making my very own Portal gun. There are plenty of guides on the internet, some of which I've paid attention to in bits and pieces to customize the way I'm crafting the thing. This post is to document the progress and describe exactly what I did, step-by-step.
The things I've purchased so far include:

MATERIALS

4" inner diameter PVC pipe, three feet
3" inner diameter PVC pipe, three feet
4" PVC coupling (x2)
3" PVC coupling (x2)
3M all purpose filling putty
Half-inch hex bolt, one inch length (x3)
3' fluorescent bulb protector
Plunger with acrylic handle
Four-pack of exercise foam mats
Rustoleum spraypaint primer (white)
Epoxy
Rustoleum spraypaint glossy white
Rustoleum spraypaint glossy black
Rustoleum spraypaint clear top coat
Popsicle sticks
Dixie cups
PC power cable
Duct tape
Scotch tape
Paper (for patterns)

TOOLS

Dremel tool
Saw
Metal ruler
Exacto knife
Sandpaper (course, medium, fine, ultra fine)
Soldering iron and "helping hands"
Printer

ELECTRONICS

1x 1.5W KingBright LED
3x red LEDs
2x 10 ohm resistor
2x 100 ohm resistor
1x 18 ohm resistor
1x 5 ohm resistor
3x 3 ohm resistor
4x 0.7V drop diode
Radioshack project board
Solder
Wire

Wednesday, October 26
After the first (of many) stops at the hardware store, I undertook the first steps of the project. The first thing I did was sand two edges of the 4" couplings with medium paper to promote proper adhesion with epoxy. I glued the two together to create one double-length pipe, then set that aside to dry overnight. Next, I used my saw and cut down the 3" PVC pipe to about 15". It was a bit longer than necessary, mostly to facilitate sanding and a little insurance in case I made mistakes. By design, the length of the 4" and 3" pipes doesn't matter so much as some other pieces. Since I had yet to buy the Dremel tool at this point, I left everything until the next day.

Thursday, October 27
Woo, new Dremel tool obtained! It's hard to believe that I managed to go several years without one of these babies - they're so useful for pretty much anything you need to do, hardware-wise, especially when I have no garage to store a belt sander or circular saw. Anyway, taking the epoxied-together 4" couplings, I eyeballed a few of the designs on the web and cut a hole. After sanding down the edges a bit, I had the below:

From left to right, 4" couplings, 4" PVC (uncut), 3" PVC (cut)

Cut 3" PVC inside the glued-together couplings

Next, I cut down the 4" PVC to about 11.5" with my handsaw, again to leave a bit of room for sanding and budgeting for mistakes. After sanding the edges down to be reasonably straight, I marked up the remaining length for the cuts I planned on making. As you can see in the picture below, I left some straight, diagonal edges to later be sanded down to a curve. I also sanded the inside of the 3" coupling to ensure that the 3" PVC pipe could be threaded all the way through.

Cut 4" PVC without sanding. The 3" PVC is threaded through the 3" coupling in the front

Everything fit together pretty well at this point. I got out the Dremel sander and sanded the 45" cut to a smooth curve, as in the image below.

Sanded down to create the curve on the inside of the barrel

Friday, October 28

The next step was to cut down the 3" PVC in a similar fashion. The 3", as can be seen above, had to be a fair bit longer than the 4", since it has to extend further forward to form the ultimate barrel of the gun. I used the 4" to trace onto the 3" PVC in order to guide my cut, which ended up looking like the below.

U-shaped cuts done in the 3" and 4" PVC pipes

As can be seen in the above picture, the next step was to cut one of the 3" couplings in half and sand down the insides to allow them to slip comfortably over the 3" PVC pipe. The halves can be seen above on the left side of the picture, one underneath the 4" PVC rim to allow the two PVC pipes to fit together comfortably. You may notice also that I trimmed down the rim at the front of the 4" PVC pipe to ensure it looked more like the reference pictures. Finally, as can be seen to the left of the barrel, I cut the fluorescent bulb protector tube to a more manageable size, about 10".

Saturday, October 29
Most of the cutting was done, so I finished up a little more sanding and began the process of putting on the filler putty. I used several batches to bond together the 4" and 3" PVC pipes. They had a bit of a gap between them, as was expected, so I filled that in with the filler putty. It took quite a few batches, but eventually it was all nicely filled in. After letting it dry, I sanded it more or less flat, nice and contoured.

As you can see in the above picture, I cut out the little holes from the putty when it was partially dry with an Exacto knife. The whole process was pretty laborious, and I broke the knife's tip in the process, but it came out looking pretty much like the "real" thing. I also bonded the 3" coupling to the barrel on the forward end of the gun and tapered it. It's finally starting to look like what it's supposed to be! Additionally, I filled in some of the space between the 4" coupling and the larger PVC pipe and sanded that as well as I could.

Next, I placed the second piece of cut 3" coupling over the end of the barrel and puttied that into place, and properly sanded it. In order to create the illuminated rod in the center of the gun, I took a cheap plunger and cut the handle to the proper length. Then, I sanded the result down to reflect internal light a bit better. Below shows it mounted inside the barrel with an LED flashlight providing the illumination. I plan on wiring up a circuit featuring one or two RGB LEDs to produce any color in the rainbow.

After sanding, testing the mounting of the "glowing" rod

Sunday, October 30, 2011
Today was an experimental one. When we got back from New York City, I managed to pick up a four-pack of the exercise mats that I'd been eyeing. With them, I cut out a few circles to mount the plunger handle inside of the gun, and attempted to cut out one of the shells. It was a bit too small, but it worked in that it was a proof of concept for the final shell.

Additionally, I cut out a small piece of foam and glued it onto the 4" rim. I then covered this with the putty and sanded it, before drilling a couple holes in this little nub. I screwed a bolt into the gun as shown below, which would be painted black with the rest of the barrel.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011
I began the final step before priming for paint on the barrel of the Portal gun - building up the end of the barrel to approximate what it looks like in game. At the moment of writing this, I'm partway through the sanding and articulation of this portion of the barrel. Hopefully I can finish it up this evening and then prime for painting tomorrow.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Wednesday didn't give me much time (or inclination) to work on anything but continuing the sanding of the barrel tip. I patched it up a few times and got it into a pretty nice shape. I have to keep telling myself that it'll never be perfect and get on with it already! Today, however, I picked up my electronics parts from FedEx before work. After heading home, I went back out to the Radio Shack to pick up some wire and some flux, a must for good soldering.

First, I tested the LED with a fairly simple circuit to get a feel for the operation of the LED and the brightness. Needless to say, it was blindingly bright - whenever it would blink on it'd leave spots in my vision for quite awhile. Anyway, after testing, I breadboarded a circuit that would be similar to the one inside the gun. This would also allow me to tweak resistor values to get the best mix of color for each of the gun settings: an orange and a cyan, roughly matching the colors from the game.

Simple breadboarded circuit

The hardest part of the entire wiring process was getting wire leads on the surface-mount LED. It took a few tries, but I managed to get it soldered in a reasonable fashion and taped together so the wires wouldn't shift and short one another. The only thing I'm worried about is overheating, so at some point I'm going to need to install some kind of heat sink, considering that in the "cyan" mode, the LED is buzzing with a little over a watt of power, creating a lot of excess heat.

Anyway, after I tweaked the current going through the different colors depending on the setting, I was ready to wire everything up on a project board. I had one laying around that was a bit small, but large enough to accommodate the simple circuit. It ended up being pretty packed in, as seen below.

Nest of wires

Once I got all the various wires (two for the battery pack, three for the three-way rocker switch, and four for the LED leads), diodes, and resistors soldered into place, I flicked the switch and tested it out. I duct taped the LED to the end of the central "rod" that will be the centerpiece of the portal gun once it's finished. Tape will probably be what I use in the final piece, since it won't be visible inside the barrel's body. Anyway, here's what it looks like on each of the "settings":

Orange

Blue

The one snag here is heat dissipation. With one watt of sustained power pumping through the LED on the cyan setting, it's heating up to unacceptable levels. Tonight I ordered a heat sink and some thermal paste so I can mount the LED on the sink and hopefully keep the LED underneath the 85*C max operating temperature. According to the data sheet, it's probably heating up rather quickly to around 275*C, which probably isn't great for the lifetime of the poor little LED.

Additionally, I cut out a piece of foam that would become the back shell. The hardest part is going to be shaping it into the "dome" shape of the real gun, but I'm sure I'll figure out a way.

Friday, November 4

Today was paint day! After getting off work, I put down a piece of cardboard and covered the barrel with spray paint primer. After waiting an hour, I turned it about 120 degrees and did it again, then repeated one more time. It seems like the majority of the barrel now has a nice, white coat. I plan on sanding it in the morning once the primer is dry, then laying down another coat. That should hopefully be enough!

Coat #1

Anyway, I also had an unshaped bit of foam that would become the back shell. In order to force it into the correct shape, I made a "spine" from another foam cutout of the profile view of the shell, then made a couple "ribs" to give the shell its proper shape. I duct taped everything together, and now it's prepared to lay down a coat of the Bondo. This will force the foam to keep its current shape once it hardens. More tomorrow!

Saturday, November 5

A lot of progress today! First, I took the shaped back shell foam and began covering it with the putty. After allowing it to dry for a bit, I sanded it down nicely. Unfortunately, I'm just about out of the hardening agent for the putty, so I may need to pick up a bit more to finish the project. Below is the before and after the first coat of the putty.

Additionally, I started laying the first black coat on the barrel after sanding down the second coat of primer. I'm going to let it dry for about twelve hours before laying on the second coat, but it's already looking pretty great!

Sunday, November 6 - Thursday, November 17

Through the majority of this week, I was down in Dahlgren, Virginia for work, so working on my portal gun ceased for a bit. I have picked up, however, and am hoping to make some progress this weekend!

Anyway, this week has been a bit hectic with odd hours at work and a big injection of Minecraft. I managed to layer on a few coats of primer on the fairly smooth back shell. There are a couple of cracks in the facade I have to take care of before layering on more coats. Additionally, I've got to make the little "nubs" where the black cables originate from.

Speaking of said black cables, I cut lengths of cable from a computer AC cable that I didn't need anymore. I stripped them down enough to isolate the cable underneath in order to wire it properly into the red LEDs I intend to mount on the front. I cut out the front shell and shaped it in a similar fashion to the back shell, using a spine and a pair of ribs and taping everything together with duct tape. As of right now, I've spread a couple layers of putty over the front shell. Since it's a good deal smaller than the back shell, I plan on putting even more putty on it to keep it a bit more rigid.

Although it needs more work and some coats of paint, here's an image of the back shell laying in the proper position on the barrel:

Friday, November 18

Today I layered on a bit more putty for the front shell and made a few spines to go inside to allow for the connection of the shell to the barrel. These, additionally, were covered in putty and sanded down to allow for a good connection between the two pieces. I also took the opportunity to place the electronic guts inside the gun. After a couple scratches to the paint on the inside of the barrel (ouch!), I was able to mount everything fairly well inside. I capped it off in the back with the piece of foam that holds the switch for the gun color. It worked quite well!

Barrel plus shells, together at last

Saturday, November 19

Today I continued work on the shells. I opted to begin attaching the "nubs" to the shells that will allow for the mounting of the cables that attach between the back and front of the gun. In order to do so, I cut out the shapes from the foam and attached them to the gun with the bondo putty. After covering them with bondo and finalizing the shapes, I sanded them down properly and ensuring each was nice and solid. After allowing the bondo to dry and sanding it, it was time to paint the shells again with spraypaint primer. Once it dries, I'll sand again and repeat the process until I've got a pair of shiny, smooth shells!

Shell with mostly finished "nub"

The three nubs on the back shell in differing stages

Portal hat on Dana!

Wednesday, December 8

So, I've gotten into the swing of things once again with the Portal gun! I dropped by the grocery store and got a piece of tupperware that I felt would work well for the "claws" on the front of the gun. After a bit of work with the Dremel and a pair of scissors, I managed to get a general shape for the plastic pieces of the claws. Each claw is made up of three pieces of plastic and a bit of foam at the end. Below are the pieces and the rough assembly:

Very annoying to cut out!

Everything fitted together on a spare piece of foam

Additionally, I layered on a couple more layers of primer on both shells and sanded them down. I figured I've gotten about as far as I'm going to get on the back shell, so I put on the first layer of white. I plan on coating it a few more times and then topping it with a nice clear coat, and then I'll be done with it!

Sunday, December 11

I've finalized the back shell, hooray! Today I also spray-painted the lengths of wire, continued work on the front shell, and cut out the remainder of the claws for the front. I soldered the red LEDs to their respective cables and spray-painted all the nuts and bolts for a nice black appearance.

Additionally, I drilled a hole in the back shell to mount and glue in a screw which holds the assembly in place without needing glue. Eventually it'll be glued in with the final product, but for now it makes more sense to have it still be removable.

The front shell is looking pretty good. I've tried a lot to smooth it out more, though I think I'm going to call it good. I sprayed on two layers of white - after some sanding work and a couple more layers, I'll top coat it, and hopefully it'll look just as good as the back one, if not better.

Bottom claws look a bit long

Monday, December 12

Almost finished! Today I did a bit more work on the front shell by adding a couple more coats of white paint. It's got some imperfections, just as the back shell does, but I think it'll look just fine in the finished product.

I took all the electronics guts out of the gun barrel and rearranged everything a little to make it a bit more compact. Unfortunately, there were a couple loose connections, which I mostly fixed with a little application of solder. The cyan looks great, though the orange looks a bit red still. Oh well.

I made sure the red LEDs worked when wired in before screwing in a dolly in the back of the gun that would serve as a back handle. After that, I threaded the cables through the holes in the back shell and duct taped the shell onto the barrel. Eventually I think I'll end up coming up with a better way to mount it, but for now the tape should do, since it's not visible from the outside.

Finally, I mounted the middle red LED on the cable to the front of the barrel and painted it with nail polish to make sure that the black color is uniform. Once I'm done with the front shell, all that's left is to glue it on, glue the LEDs into the base of the claws, and then voila, portal gun! It's been a long and arduous road, but I'm so close!

Tuesday, December 13 - Friday, December 16

In order to keep the back shell on without having to glue it down, I drilled another hole in the back of the barrel to accommodate a screw. I glued a screw into the back shell, which will thread through the barrel and be secured with a nut. That way, I can re-open the gun for battery replacement and possible future upgrades.

I cut the two bottom claws a bit shorter (trimmed maybe 3/4" off of them) so they didn't look so long in comparison with the one on top. Then, I glued the front shell onto the barrel with high strength epoxy, letting it dry overnight. After that, I attached the two remaining claws to the front shell. Only a couple steps left!

Schedule for Week Ending 11/4

2011-10-28T15:21:00.002-04:00

Monday - 12:00 to 24:00 (12 hours)
Tuesday - 12:00 to 20:00 (20 hours)
Wednesday - 11:00 to 20:00 (29 hours)
Thursday - 12:00 to 19:00 (36 hours)
Friday - 12:00 to 16:00 (40 hours)

Schedule for Week Ending 10/30

2011-10-24T22:31:00.005-04:00

Monday - 12:00 to 19:00 (7 hours)

Tuesday - 13:00 to 19:00 (13 hours)

Wednesday - 11:00 to 24:00 (26 hours)

Thursday - 12:00 to 19:00 (33 hours)

Friday - 7:30 to 14:30 (40 hours)

867-5-9-9-9

2011-10-17T21:26:00.005-04:00

So, with the race for the Republican Presidential Candidacy race off to a running start, Herman Cain has been the flavor of the month. At the forefront of his debate rhetoric has been his 9-9-9 plan - named for its nine (point one) percent tax levied across the board: 9.1% on personal income, 9.1% on corporate income, and introducing a 9.1% national sales tax. This sounds particularly simple, and that's one of the reasons why Cain has been surging in the polls. "THE DARN TAX CODE IS TOO COMPLEX!" yell a lot of Tea Party followers; they cite it as one of the reasons government it out of control, because no one person can really understand and know the entirety of the US Tax Code.

But I wondered. How would it change things? What kind of tax burden would this result in? How would it affect the revenue of the government? So, woo, another nice statistical diversion! Note that all data for this analysis comes from the 2010 US Census data, unless otherwise noted.

Anyway, the census looks at about 118,683,000 households. Within those households, I divided them into quadrants:

Lower quadrant makes underneath $29,670.75 gross income per year. Second quadrant is between this and $59,341.50. The third goes up to $89,012.25, and of course the top quadrant is unbounded at the top. These equate quite neatly to $30,000, $60,000, and $90,000, so for the sake of easier math, I'll round up in each case. Here are the various take-home amounts for someone making federal minimum wage along with all the other borders currently. Also included are a couple, much higher, incomes. To note, I am using the Single filer for a "worst case" (highest taxation) scenario.

$15,080 -> $13,243
$30,000 -> $25,925
$60,000 -> $48,875
$90,000 -> $71,183
$250,000 -> $182,603
$1,000,000 -> $672,686

Now, this is just the income tax, of course. Additionally, social security taxes and Medicare taxes are also levied. Social Security is taken at a rate of 4.2% up to $106,800 and Medicare at 1.45% of all wages. Presumably, Mr. Cain wishes to roll all these up, along with deductions, into the 9-9-9 plan. In order to deal with this, I have to use the average deductions for each income level along with the Medicare and Medicaid numbers. This is where it gets even more complicated, and so I have to break it out into "individual stories".

Our minimum-wage earner is paid $15,080 in gross income. Let's assume she's a single mother of one, and manages to deduct a fair amount of her income due to medical and taxation deductions, but makes no charitable contributions and does not save because she has to spend the majority of her income. After the 4.2% and 1.45% for OASDI and Medicare respectively, that comes to about $14,237. Assuming deductions of about $8,000 for medical and taxation (the average for $15k-$30k is about $10,000), her taxable income is about $6,237, which is taxed at 10%, about $624. Finally, since she has a child, she receives $3,050 in earned income credit. Thus, her final take home pay is about $16,663.

Whew, that was complicated! Anyway, without factoring in state income tax, our hypothetical person ends up with a little over 110% of her gross income in take-home pay, mostly thanks to her kid. Under Cain's plan, the same person would be taxed at 9.1% for income and another 9.1% on everything she purchases. Assuming she's reasonably thrifty (as anyone at this income level would need to be), she is likely to spend her income mostly on food and shelter. The latter would be untaxed, and would likely take 25-40% of her income. Assume 10% of it is spent on used items such as appliances or furniture. Thus, her final take-home pay less any taxation due to the sales tax, is about $13,146. So she's about 20% worse off in this system.

Next, I'd like to talk about our $60,000 earner. Let's assume he's unmarried as well, with no children. After OASDI and Medicare are taken out, it leaves about $56,646. Assume Mr. Sixty has a 401(k) and a few investments, spends relatively little on medical care, and earns a fair bit of interest on bank accounts, making his deductions total about $22,000 - again, fairly average for his bracket according to the IRS. That leaves a taxable income of about $34,600. The effective tax rate on this income is 13.8%, leaving a take-home income of $51,825.

Under the 9-9-9 plan, 9.1% is skimmed off the top, leaving $54,540. The average single filer making $60,000 is reasonably well off, so let's assume he spends 25% of his income on rent or mortgage payments, saves 20%, and spends the rest on food and entertainment. This results in a take-home income minus federal sales tax of $51,810. So he's about as well off as he was before under this plan.

Finally, for now at least, is the $250,000 earner. Let's say this is a married couple making this amount jointly, and filing jointly. After SS and Medicare, that leaves $241,889. Both have 401(k)s, several investments, and they have a single child. Their deductions total about $65,000, which is again, fairly average for their income level. This leaves about $177,000 as taxable; after federal income tax at a rate of 21.26%, they take home $204,369. They earn nothing from their child or children, as they earn too much to qualify for the Earned Income Credit.

Under the 9-9-9 plan, 9.1% is skimmed from the top of their income, leaving them with $227,250 in take-home pay. Assume they have a nice home and spend about 20% of their income on the mortgage and manage to save about 40% of their income per year, leaving them with $90,900 to pay for everything else. This is taxed at a 9.1% consumption tax rate, leaving $218,978 in total income. So they're about 7.1% better off.

So we can see that this system is inherently a bit more regressive than the one we have now. Now, on the flip side, I'll take a look at revenue differences in the two systems.

In the United States Budget for Fiscal Year 2009, the IRS counts government receipts via taxes at $2.7 trillion. An estimated $340 billion comes from corporate taxes, which we'll deal with later. It hasn't been stated whether excise and customs taxes will be removed for the 9-9-9 plan, so we'll remove that $100 billion to add back in later, assuming they will be kept. That leaves about $2.26 trillion that comes out of personal income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate taxes.

Going back to our data from before, there are about 118 million households in the country. This totals an average of about $19,152 per household. Mean income was about $60,500 in 2004 - following inflation, this would be about $71,000 today. Thus, the average effective rate on all households is 27% when factoring in all federal taxation.

Given that information, the average household under the 9-9-9 plan would be paying $6,461 in federal income tax, generating $762 billion in revenue. For the national sales tax, we need to take a look at consumer spending in the United States. The Gallup organization has it broken down nicely for us, and below are spending numbers on an annual basis:

$6.42 trillion on home improvement, furniture, etc., excluding rent/mortgage

$6.62 trillion on food and drink

$2.75 trillion on travel and leisure

$5.56 trillion on car repairs and gas

$8.83 trillion on generic shopping

$8.16 trillion on health and wellness

The only category that would possibly not be eligible for the 9-9-9 plan's national sales tax is "health and wellness", since it includes taxes on insurance plans. The total of the other categories is $30.18 trillion, taxed at 9.1%, generating $2.74 trillion in revenue. Finally, we add in the corporate tax rate. Currently, the rate is capped at 35%. Obviously, corporations find ways around this - there's no real reason to believe more corporations will pay their mandated amount. Let's assume that 33% more corporations will be willing to part with their money due to this, generating about $120 billion in revenue.

So, what do we end up with? Well, a 34% increase of revenue to about $3.6 trillion, the majority coming from the national sales tax. So what are the problems with this? I'll have to continue this post once again!

Schedule for Week Ending 10/10

2011-10-04T01:23:00.002-04:00

Hey, I haven't done this in awhile.

Monday - sick day (8 hours)

Tuesday - 12:00 to 24:00 (20 hours)

Wednesday - 13:00 to 17:00 (24 hours)

Thursday - 12:00 to 24:00 (36 hours)

Friday - 12:00 to 16:00 (40 hours)

The Travel Bug

2011-09-28T13:32:00.005-04:00

I've been bit, I think, and it's not going away any time soon.

After having a long conversation about potential places to visit in Europe last night and poking around on Atlas Obscura, I feel restless. Just as I had been feeling like the "weird"-flavored places were starting to dry up in the area, I have a whole new database to poke through.

Anyway, since I'm reading about interesting places and sights anyway, I figured I'd compile a little list with descriptions, for my own reference and for (hopefully) the benefit of my reader. Readers? No, probably the former!

Northlandz - a collection of model trains that is apparently second-to-none. It features thousands of train cars being carted around by engines, over eight miles of model track, a forty-foot bridge and a thirty-foot-tall model mountain. Last I checked it costs $13.75 per adult to get in, but from the sound of things it's well worth it. Open until 5:30pm on Saturday and Sunday. Located in North Jersey. Driving distance from home: 74 minutes.
Monument to the War of the Worlds - in 1938, a broadcast of the War of the Worlds by Orson Welles on CBS radio sparked controversy and set a few people into a panic, thinking the Martian invasion to be real. The first landing of the alien crafted was reported that night was in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Erected at this supposed landing spot is a monument to remember the occasion, a rock slab featuring one of the tripod landing craft. Located in North/Central Jersey. Driving distance from home: 50 minutes.
Fonthill Museum - a castle constructed at the turn of the century for the collections of Henry Mercer. It's filled with artifacts from the everyday lives of those living in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries. Costs $9 per student to get in, and it's open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Located in Northeast Pennsylvania near Doylestown. Driving distance from home: 56 minutes.
The Land of the Lost - a bunch of dinosaurs built out of car parts created by Jim Gary, who died in 2006. He is the only person to have a solo exhibition displayed in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The dinosaurs are located scattered around a yard in Central Jersey near Asbury Park. Free. Driving distance from home: 71 minutes.
The Holmdel Horn Antenna - a twenty-foot aluminum antenna that was first used in the 1950s and 1960s to discover the origins of the universe itself: the Big Bang. The antenna is retired and is now mounted in the middle of a field and is open to the public. Driving distance from home: 86 minutes.
Popcorn Park Zoo - a home for rescued animals in the New Jersey pinelands. Apparently it's fairly unusual and has a lot of exotic animals you wouldn't think to find here. It costs $5 and is very near the town of Double Trouble, New Jersey. It's open until 5pm every day. Driving distance from home: 80 minutes.

If we hit all of them, it'd take about six hours and a little under $40 admission. Sounds like a fun Saturday to me!

An Historic Meal

2011-09-24T18:32:00.005-04:00

I really just named that post that because I wanted to write "An Historic." Though this is pretty historic, nonetheless.

After realizing that sorbet was out of reach last night, I went out today and acquired a few new food processors - a blender and an ice cream maker. Yes, I'm really getting fancy now, it seems. I prepared a couple things pretty much simultaneously:

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

Two bananas

Ten strawberries

3/4 cup of milk

3 Tablespoons of sugar

6 ice cubes

Wash and rinse the strawberries and cut their stems off. Toss everything into a blender and use the ice crush setting until the ice disintegrates a bit, then blend it all together nice and smooth. Easy, quick, and tasty!

Raspberry Sorbet

Ingredients:

Three cups raspberries

One cup sugar

Half cup water

One Tablespoon lemon juice

Put the water and sugar into a sauce pan and put it on a low simmer until the sugar melts. Stir it to allow the sugar to melt and dissolve into the water, and remove from heat to allow it to cool.

Throw the raspberries into the blender and puree them until they're reasonably smooth. Pour the result into a mesh strainer and crush the contents through the strainer into a bowl - a potato masher is probably best, but a measuring cup did in a pinch for me. Juice a single lemon for the juice and combine it with the raspberry juice, stirring it up a bit.

Get as much juice out of the raspberries as you can!

Combine the water and raspberry/lemon mixture and put it into the fridge to cool off. After it was reasonably cold, pour it into the ice cream maker and let it mix it up a little, and put the results into the freezer until it's nice and firm.

Finally, was dinner! We decided to make US Senate Bean Soup, famous for the fact that's it's been on the US Senate cafeteria menu for over a century. Unfortunately, apparently all the groceries in south Jersey seemed to be out of ham hocks, so we had to improvise.

US Senate Bean Soup

Ingredients:

Half a bag of navy beans

A dinner ham

Half a tablespoon of black pepper

A tablespoon of salt

Three stalks of celery

One small onion

One medium-sized potato

7 cups water

Two chopped cloves of garlic

A pinch of parsley

First of all, combine the Navy Beans with the water in a large pot. Heat it to boiling and then remove from heat. Leave the beans for an hour to let them soak.

While waiting for the beans to soak, chop up the celery, onion, potato, and garlic. Combine them all in a bowl with pepper and salt. When the beans have soaked enough, place the ham into the pot and put it over a simmering heat.

Hot Ham Water

Dana dicin' up the ham

Let this cook for about an hour and fifteen minutes, then remove the ham and dice it into small chunks. Put the diced ham into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix them nicely before dumping them all into the pot with the beans and water. Continue to simmer the mixture for another half hour, or until the potatoes are nice and soft.

After the soup is done cooking, put in a pinch of parsley and a little more salt to taste. Ladle it out and enjoy! It was a lot better than even we expected. I got to eat the same soup the likes of JFK, Barack Obama, and Bob Dole ate! And Mitch McConnell... and John McCain... hmm.

Looks tasty

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend it!

New Culinary Direction

2011-09-24T01:52:00.003-04:00

So over the last two weeks, Dana and I have set out to cook more than we have. Well, by that I mean cook at all. A couple of my friends suggested that we blog about what we're making. We've started with some really simple recipes, but hopefully we'll branch out soon enough.

Tonight we gathered some ingredients for raspberry sorbet, but then soon realized our biggest obstacle: I don't have a blender or an ice cream maker. So, we ended up with raspberries, sugar, and three pounds of lemons. So, in a stroke of brilliance, we decided to make some raspberry lemonade!

Needs:

Some large bowls

Citrus juicer

Mesh strainer

Pitcher

3-4 medium-sized lemons

One cup sugar

A dozen raspberries

A medium sized (8-10 cup) saucepan

First, put about six cups of water into the saucepan and mix in the cup of sugar. Heat until it boils for about two minutes, then remove from heat to let it cool. After it's reasonably close to room temperature, pour the sugar-water into a large bowl and put it into the fridge to cool it further.

While you're waiting for the water to cool off, cut 3-4 lemons in half and squeeze the juice out of them with your juicer. Place the mesh strainer inside a bowl and pour the pulp-and-seed-filled lemon juice into the strainer to separate out the juice. Place your dozen or so raspberries in another bowl and mash them up - I used a spreader, but a spoon would probably do in a pinch.

Once the water is nice and cool, pour it into the pitcher and combine it with the lemon juice and raspberries pulp. Stir it up nicely and repeat the process you did with the lemon juice - pour it through the strainer into another bowl. Return the newly seedless mixture back into the pitcher. Add about half a dozen ice cubes and return it to the fridge to cool off.

To serve, we poured about two and a half cups of the stuff into each of two mason jars. We added a couple more ice cubes to each mason jar and a splash of vodka in each just to make things interesting. Anyway, it turned out a nice, pretty pink color:

Voila! It could have used a little more lemon juice (it had a much stronger raspberry flavor than lemon), but it was pretty great. Tomorrow, we're aiming to make some US Senate Bean Soup. Wish us luck!

Delilah

2011-09-15T02:45:00.005-04:00

Tonight I found out that an old friend, Delilah Wooldridge, passed away on Monday night. She and I were pretty close back in high school - in fact, she was probably the closest thing I had to a "girlfriend" up to that point. I never met her in person, but we dated for about three years via myriads of IMs, e-mails, phone calls, and snail mail. As with anything, those three years had their ups and downs, and eventually she broke it off to pursue something else. It was pretty soon after that I let it go and forgave her, mainly because I understood that an exclusive relationship with someone long distance was something that was difficult to maintain.

Either way, we reconnected late in 2008 when I got a message from her on Facebook out of the blue. She told me she regretted the way we lost contact, but she would like to reconnect, so we did. We talked a bit about life and kept up with each other loosely, through a once-every-couple-weeks text conversation. She liked to send me pictures of her ferrets, and for awhile there I got one every day, which I liked a lot.

Delilah had changed in the four years we didn't speak, but she still seemed, at her core, the girl that I met back in the year 2001. When we spoke, whether on the phone or online, you really could get a feel for how witty she could be and how much she had genuine affection for me. Life was difficult for her now, I could surmise that much - she had a job that she didn't particularly like and made lots of plans for moving to places that weren't Oklahoma that really never came to fruition. But she trotted along, still hoping, still making those plans.

A couple anecdotes about the Delilah I knew. When we first met, we did so in a chatroom, so we were basically just anonymous strangers. After a couple weeks of talking to her regularly, we steadily revealed more and more about who we were. One day she consoled me when we had to put our cat George to sleep. George was sixteen years old (nearly a year older than me, if I remember correctly) and had been suffering from cancer for an extended period before we took him to be euthanized. Delilah said not to worry, that she'd do her best to make me feel better, and that she could be my new cat. Hence, her nickname, Kitty, since she always hated her name. That's what I called her until we lost contact in 2004.

I remember the loneliness Delilah seemed to have when her family moved to Oklahoma from Oregon. I had never moved, much less to a different state, at this point in my life, so it was hard for me to empathize, but I did my best to try and make her feel better. I distinctly remember the times she would be sitting at school, waiting to be picked up by her parents, when she would call me and we'd talk for awhile. If I helped her even a little bit to grow accustomed to her new surroundings, I'm glad.

Delilah took her own life on Monday, September 12. She was twenty-four and six days old - her last birthday was September 6. I found out tonight when I was listening to music at work and stumbled across an Everclear song. Everclear was the only band she liked when I knew her previously - her musical tastes had expanded since, of course, but I will always associate her with that band. I listened to the song and brought up her profile to post it there for her, and on her wall were the messages that alerted me to her passing.

It's difficult to think very rationally about the situation in the haze of confusion that I feel right now. I wish I could have done something or said something that would have compelled her to get help, but the truth was that I never would have guessed she was depressed or would be likely to take her own life. That seems to be the trope, though, about people who commit suicide - nobody could have known, nobody would have guessed. And the other universal truth? It can never be undone.

I miss you, Delilah. I wish I could have met you before you died. I saw a side of you that was tremendously sweet and beautiful, and I hope that you are at peace.

No Wawas in Mahwah

2011-09-10T22:50:00.005-04:00

So what could Dana and I possibly do for a follow up to the gigantic road trip we got home from barely a week and a half ago. Well, for awhile, I've been wanting to go up to New York City to check out the new World Trade Center building. Currently, the building stands at over seventy stories tall, with thirty or so to go before they open. Considering the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks is this weekend, what better time to go up?

Anyway, that was the plan, so I decided to use the last of my Hawaii Hilton points to book a hotel up in Mahwah. On the way up, we had a few stops planned, most of which were straight out of Weird NJ - our favorite! We ate a little breakfast and managed to get on the road before four o'clock to head up north.

Our first stop was Belle Mountain, an abandoned ski hill site. We walked up what was once the ski hill, but the trail was now overgrown. To be honest, it didn't seem very steep, either, the trail only being about a quarter of a mile long, if that. It was a nice little hike to head up the hill and back down, and on the way back down we saw the ruins of the ski lift. The hill was last skied in the late nineties, a victim of the mild winters of that time period and a general lack of interest.

Just down the road was the fabled Lambertville High School. Dana had read about it many times in the pages of Weird NJ, and it looked like a tempting place to go visit. However, the school is now privately owned and the owner doesn't hesitate to bring lawsuits against people who trespass. Additionally, there is absolutely no parking along the single-lane road leading past the school, and I feared for a moment that my car was wrecked after slipping into the sinkhole in one of the roads. So, we took a look at the school on the hill and moved on.

Next up was the Paulinskill Viaduct, a railroad bridge over the Paulins Kill river in North Jersey. For five years after it was completed in the 1910s, the viaduct was the largest concrete structure in the world. Although there are access doors that allow people inside the titanic structure, Dana and I decided to move on since the bugs were starting to get a bit thick. It was an amazing sight, either way!

It was pretty impressive. I couldn't help but notice how high every single river we drove by had crested, considering the rain that had been falling in the area lately, including two massive tropical storm remnants. There were a lot of bridges out and parts of roads washed away thanks to the high crests of the area rivers. In point of fact, this made it difficult to visit our next stop. We budged past a few "RESIDENTIAL TRAFFIC ONLY" road blocks, but ran into a terribly flooded stretch of road that forced us to skip Walpack Center, or so we thought.

Walpack was a town in the Delaware River watershed, its origins dating back to the early 18th century. The town was first mentioned in historical literature in about 1731, long before the creation of the United States of America. The area the town lay in became known as the Delaware Water Gap. In the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers obtained the land through eminent domain for the building of a dam. The dam would create an artificial lake that would flood much of the region for hydroelectric power generation. Thus, the federal government kicked everyone out of their homes in the area (save a few stragglers), but ultimately the dam project was never executed. The land was later donated to the National Park Service, with several towns surviving with extremely low populations. Walpack is one of those, with around 16 remaining residents as of the 2010 census.

A pretty interesting story, to be certain. It was about an hour or so to get to the restaurant from here, so we got back on the road. Dinner tonight was at an Afghani restaurant, which strangely enough served some American fare as well. I got a pair of kebabs and some buffalo wings, which oddly enough went very well together. It was a great meal to end a really fun day.

Our final stop was the hotel, another Hampton Inn, a brand which had become very familiar with us. Tomorrow we'll head into the city to scope out some sights, eat some cupcakes, and pay some respect to those who died ten years ago. A good weekend already!

Schedule for Week Ending 9/18

2011-09-09T11:06:00.003-04:00

Monday - ~~10:00~~ 12:00 to 16:00 (4 hours)
Tuesday - 00:00 to ~~10:00~~ 08:00 and 20:00 to 24:00 (16 hours)
Wednesday - ~~08:00 to 12:00~~ 00:00 to 08:00 and 20:00 to 24:00 (28 hours)
Thursday - 00:00 to ~~12:00~~ 08:00 (36 hours)
Friday - ~~04:00 to 12:00~~ 12:00 to 16:00 (40 hours)

This week is gonna suuuuuuuck.

The Rest... of the Story

2011-08-31T14:37:00.006-04:00

Day Nine, Saturday, August 27

The time on the road was starting to catch up to us, so we decided that our day in Vegas would start out extremely relaxed. Basically, we sat around in the hotel room and watched the news coverage of the impending doom of Hurricane Irene's landfall on the east coast. Later in the day, we headed to the Sunset Station Casino for buffet, Las Vegas' signature "dish". Donna Mae and her sister both had two-for-one coupons, so we ate free - fine with us! The food was pretty good for buffet and the desserts were excellent. I think I got my money's worth.

Dinner!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and prepared to go out on the strip. First off, we headed into a different area of the city to pick up one of Dana's best friends from high school, Katrina. It was great to meet her after a year and a half of hearing stories about Dana and Katrina, and she seemed to like me pretty well. We then headed into the strip and met Meaghan, another of Dana's friends from when she was younger. Meaghan was staying at the Mandalay Bay, being put up by Gamestop as a store manager and attending a video games-related convention.

We walked up the strip a bit and into the Bellagio to gamble away some money. Dana and I both let about $12 apiece walk away from us just playing the penny slots. It was pretty worth it just to say we gambled a bit in Vegas while we were there. I think the trio had a lot of fun reminiscing and getting a bit sloshed. After the casino, we bid Meaghan a good night and Dana, Katrina and I stopped by a parking lot filled with food trucks outside a bar. If only we were more hungry! Still, we managed to get some delicious Hawaiian style shave ice.

The Strip

Waiting in line to go back to Mandalay Bay - three best friends!

Hawaiian Shave Ice on the Mainland!

Yum!

We hit the hay fairly late, but it was neat to meet (and re-meet) Dana's friends and see plenty of the Vegas strip. Even though we only ventured onto the strip once, I think I had my fill of Las Vegas.

Day Ten, Sunday, August 28

Our last day was reasonably quiet and a fairly short drive. On our way out we picked up some delicious In'N'Out and we were on our way. We didn't have too many stops thanks to the fact that the majority of the drive was through the desolate areas of eastern California. There wasn't a whole lot to see except straight, flat desert for quite awhile, but once we got into the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, there were a couple stops we decided to make.

Cullyfohnya

Pretty Warm

Our final Madonna of the Trail was in a city called Upland, California. We pulled into a McDonald's parking lot and walked over to its resting place, overlooking the highway from a small median on a sidestreet. She was like all the others, of course, but this was number five out of a total of twelve, and our last of the trip. She was special!

After a brief discussion about how most of the pedestrian crossing buttons are placebos, we were on the road again. Before long, we were in Los Angeles proper and decided to make one final stop before reaching our final destination: Dana's uncle's house. It took a good ten minutes to find proper parking (perplexing given the fact that you basically have to have a car to get around), but it was worth it.

Challenger Disaster Memorial

The Challenger Memorial stands in a pretty non-descript area of Los Angeles, but it's really tastefully done. Obviously, it takes the form of a large space shuttle and a few plaques commemorating the loss of the shuttle's crew. This stands in the "Little Tokyo" area of the city, hence the bilingual nature of the memorial and its specific appreciation of Colonel Onizuka. Entertainingly, there was also a nice little shop we wandered into a little shop filled with Japanese stuff.

Really awesome art on the side of the store

Dana bought the creepiest thing ever

So, with all those miles traveled, we headed to Agoura Hills. We arrived and hung out for a little while with Christopher before he took us to the hotel he'd made reservations at. Hurricane Irene had blown through the east coast this last weekend, and Chris told us it might be a day or two before we could fly home. So, we settled into our final hotel of the trip.

That night, Christopher and his wife Veronica took us out for Indian food - it was lovely. We were dropped back off at our hotel to get some rest for our (unplanned) free day in Los Angeles!

Day Eleven, Monday, August 29

This ended up being a pretty low key day, with just a few exceptions. The first was thanks to the horrible traffic in Los Angeles. It really hadn't bothered me the last two times I drove in LA, but in the span of about four hours I almost got hit by three different drivers who nearly slammed right into me. I used my three annual car honks in one day.

Anyway, we headed to the beach just to say we'd seen the Pacific. Venice Beach was nice, and walking up and down looking at the "freaks" was entertaining as always. Later in the day we grabbed some ice cream to top off the day and retreated back to the hotel for an early wake-up.

Venice Beach

Day Twelve, Tuesday, August 30

We roused from bed at about five in the morning in preparation for Chris arriving and taking us the airport. Thanks to the hurricane, the only flight with potential space was flying to Dulles, so we decided to strike while the iron was lukewarm. We were a bit out of it, but getting on the flight turned out just fine. We said goodbye to Chris (and the car) and piled onto the 777.

After landing in Dulles, we figured out that we needed to take a bus to the heart of the District of Columbia. From there we hopped two trains to Union Station, and from there we caught the Amtrak up to Philadelphia. The ride was a couple hours, so we settled in to what turned out to be an Acela train. Thanks to flooding caused by the rain from the storm, no trains were running north of Philly, and a bunch of trains were delayed or stranded up north. So, we got a super great train with WiFi, and even got to make a stop at the cafe car for some dinner. Before we knew it, we were at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Dana's dad showed up a few minutes later and before we knew it, we were home.

Great trip with an interesting end. For whatever reason, even after driving for more than sixty hours, I'm ready to go again! Thanks to everyone for reading about our adventures - I'll make sure to keep you updated on the future!

Enter Las Vegas

2011-08-27T11:01:00.009-04:00

Day Eight, Friday, August 26

The day started more casual than most, with me stopping down at the lobby to grab some breakfast and no real urgency with when we were leaving. Well, until eleven rolled around and checkout was fast approaching, that is, at which point we got everything packed out and headed out, leaving Flagstaff in the rear view.

Our first stop of the day was the Road Kill Cafe on Route 66. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of places with this moniker and the jokes that my father would make when I was a kid about "you kill it, we grill it" were aimed at a more generic concept, but it was cool to stop in and grab some lunch.

The food was okay (as the sign said, "lousy food, hot beer") but acceptable. Dana's sandwich, however, was amazing, so maybe I just ordered the wrong thing. It was pretty cheap, too, since it was obviously just a themed diner like any other. Our next stop was a ways down the Mother Road - a zoo, actually, in the middle of the desert.

Llama that loved following us around

Anthony the baby lion

It was reasonably cheap to get in for a zoo ($18 apiece) and the animals were beautiful. They had at least a dozen tigers alone - I would assume they're all rescues from the nearby Las Vegas area. Keepers of the Wild is a non-profit habitation shelter for animals that are unable to be released back into the wild. They don't believe in breeding them, and for all intents and purposes are more of an animal sanctuary than a zoo. They have the simple goal of taking in abused and neglected animals and allowing them to live out a peaceful and reasonably happy life. A lovely and admirable stop on the adventure!

After the habitat, we headed further down Route 66 and stopped to take a picture of a giant thing (yes!) on the side of the road. Dana was a little worn out from the heat and sun, so she took a picture from the car.

A big tiki! Pulling up to it, it reminded me of a great big green moai statue, like the ones on Easter Island. Route 66 was peppered with nostalgia, not the least of which were a few sets of the old Burma Shave signs, warning variously about speeding and starting forest fires with their trademark clever rhymes. We exited the historic road and merged back onto the interstate briefly before taking a US highway north toward the Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam was absolutely spectacular. The scale of the entire thing and the fact that it was built eighty years ago is still daunted, as is the new bypass bridge right next to it. If you're ever in the area, go see it, and take the tour, too - it's $11 a person and you get to go down to the bowels of the dam and see the actual generators operating.

After the Dam, we decided to head the hotel and relax for a bit. Dana got in touch with her friends and family to work out times to go visit, and that evening we headed over to her step-grandmother's apartment. Donna Mae was an excellent conversationalist and a lot of fun to be around, and Dana appreciated another point of view on familial events of the past few months. It was great to meet her and we're heading to dinner tonight with her and her sister. It will be lovely!

Anyway, today is set to be a relaxed day in the hotel, and tonight we're going to the strip to hang out with Dana's friends Meaghan and Katrina. Hopefully afterward we'll have some opportunity to drive an hour out of the city for some primo stargazing, as well. Until then!

States: Arizona, Nevada

Cities: Flagstaff, Boulder City, Henderson

I Like Big Buttes and I Cannot Lie

2011-08-26T00:35:00.006-04:00

Day Seven, Thursday, August 26

Action-packed day today, to be sure, despite the fact that we only really had three destinations. We woke up and were on the road a little bit earlier than usual, aided by the fact that we were now in the Mountain Time Zone. We grabbed a quick bit of breakfast from the lobby and we were off, headed up toward the first stop of the day, the Four Corners. On our way up, we caught US 491, formerly the Devil's Highway, US 666. Spooky! After crossing the border from New Mexico and into Colorado and back, we were there!

Dana at the Four Corners

All the states have these cool seals on their quadrant

It was a fairly cool monument. Additionally, it was surrounded by little shops operated by the Navajo, selling jewelry and t-shirts. Interestingly, in our drive from Farmington to Four Corners, we crossed into the Navajo Nation, a largely independent region occupying pieces of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. We would remain within the Nation on the drive to Monument Valley, our next stop.

And speaking of, as we drove through the Utah area, we'd began catching sight of the huge red-brown rocks, called variously buttes and mesa, depending on how broad they were on the top. They were absolutely beautiful, but nothing really prepared me for the awe-inspiring Monument Valley.

The Three Sisters

East Mitten

West Mitten

View from the restaurant, "The View"

Lunch was delicious - I had an "Indian Taco", which consisted of blue corn fried bread with a topping of beans, chicken, salsa, and tomatoes. Absolutely delicious and great. After we ate, we headed out in the car to stumble our way to the monuments. The long track was about seventeen miles long, so we cut it a bit short. The going was rough, but the Infiniti did a heroic job of bouncing over the rocks and bumps.

The final stop for the day, after about a three hour continuous drive, was the fabled Grand Canyon. Of course, I knew what to expect to some extent, but what I saw surprised the hell out of me in a wonderful way. Absolutely stunning!

We wandered around the Grand Canyon National Park for a bit and decided to take off toward the hotel a little before sunset. We enjoyed a lovely light show provided by the thundercloud off to the southeast as it got darker and darker. Desert thunderstorms are beautiful and seem to rarely come with rain. We arrived at the hotel a little after eight and, after a quick Del Taco run, settled in for tomorrow.

States: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona

Cities: Farmington, Grand Canyon Village, Flagstaff

On the chopping block for tomorrow:

Heads roll
Dam it
Aminals!

See you in Las Vegas!

Time to Break Bad

2011-08-24T23:35:00.012-04:00

Day Six, Wednesday, August 24

Ah, long day of driving once again over with!

We awoke a little earlier than we had the past few days, mainly so that we could head down and grab some breakfast in preparation for a long day; we probably wouldn't be eating lunch until closer to dinner time. We hit up the Wal-Mart in Amarillo on our way out of town to pick up some spray paint and off we went.

Our first stop was the Cadillac Ranch, just outside of Amarillo. Similar to (and inspiration of) the VW Ranch from yesterday, it features ten of the eponymous vehicles with their noses buried in the ground, sticking up and covered in graffiti. That's where the spray paint comes in! I got "True Blue" and Dana got a fluorescent pink, so it worked fairly well to spray down a coat of blue and then spray pink over it.

D'aww. Of course, right after writing that, the wind caused a lot of my spray paint to fleck all over Dana. Boo. Stupid me. We stopped at a nearby gas station to clean up a bit and booked west on the interstate once again.

After awhile we exited onto what was once Route 66 and drove it for a dozen miles or so until we came through a town known as Adrian, TX. Adrian is notable in that it's the midpoint of the former Route 66. There's a little "Midpoint Cafe" at this spot and a few signs marking it as such.

There's me trying to decide which way we're supposed to go. Anyway, we dropped by the gift shop and I picked up a cool sign that shows all the cities that Route 66 goes through all the way to Chicago in the east and Los Angeles in the west. Pretty boss, I must say. Oh, and the Route 66 memorabilia didn't end there, since our next stop was a vintage sign on the Mother Road.

Pretty cool, right? I thought so. After some research, we found that many of the communities that were once situated on Route 66 were boomtowns in the middle of the century, but gradually declined once the interstate superseded it. McLean and Shamrock were probably victims of this, which is why they look basically like ghost towns now. Well, that and the fact that it was well over one hundred degrees, anyway.

Next up was Albuquerque. Our first stop was the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, which featured an array of historical information and artifacts about the development and use of nuclear weaponry and technology. It was really enlightening, and the array of artifacts and models they had was impressive.

Nuclear artillery cannon

The Davy Crockett, the only single-man-capable nuclear weapon

Models of Fat Man and Little Boy

In the midst of looking at all the missiles, planes, and land vehicles out back, Dana looked behind her to find a snake slithering past with a distinctive diamond pattern. It was neat to see the little reptile crawling through the dirt, since we don't really have snakes of even that size back in New Jersey.

Next up was lunch/dinner, which we bought at a high-rated Mexican place called The Taqueria Mexico. As one would expect, the food was absolutely fantastic and authentic. After polishing off our food, we headed south to check out Albuquerque Studios, a television and film studio where, among other things, Breaking Bad is shot. Of course, we couldn't see much on the lot, but it was cool to see, and on the way we even saw a giant stone snake built for the University of New Mexico.

Main gate of the studio

Big snake

Right near the lot. Look anything like Breaking Bad scenery?

Our final stop on the way out of town was our fourth Madonna of the trip, placed downtown in Albuquerque to mark the coast-to-coast route of the National Old Trails Road. This one was relatively easy to find, and we parked for a second just to walk over and take a few pictures. It was good to see her again after over 1,100 miles.

Four Madonnas down, eight to go. Well, we won't see them all this trip, but it would be pretty cool to make it a goal to see the rest of them on future travels. After the Madonna, we'd worn out our Albuquerque welcome, so we headed northward toward our hotel for the night in Farmington, New Mexico. After hitting a traffic jam and watching some really sweet desert lightning in the distance, we were on the open road. We stopped to take a few pictures on the way.

"The Mexican Hat"

Western New Mexico was absolutely beautiful, and oddly enough, it rained quite a bit on our trek up north to Farmington. As we headed across the desert, our elevation breached 7,300, and we crossed the continental divide: the division where the watershed changes from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. We got to our hotel at around nine, checked in and promptly collapsed on the bed.

States: Texas, New Mexico

Cities: Amarillo, Albuquerque, Farmington

Coming up tomorrow:

Grand Canyon
Four Corners
Monument Valley

Yeah, no kitschy stuff tomorrow! The real deal. See you in Flagstaff!

Drive Friendly - The Texas Way

2011-08-23T23:40:00.013-04:00

Day Five, Tuesday, August 23

We woke up in Oklahoma and, well, it was Oklahoma. Finally, we had some blank CDs, so I decided to throw some music and podcasts on them to supplement the radio surfing we'd been doing for the trip so far. Dana woke up eventually and got ready, and we were off.

I was pretty nervous on the drive over, as our first destination of the day was Stillwater, Oklahoma. It was a bit out of the way, but we were headed to a Thai restaurant to meet a friend of mine from THE INTERNET, Lauren. I'd known her for nearly six years online, but never actually met her in person. I wasn't exactly surprised by how nice she was, since she never led me to believe she was horrendously mean or anything, but it was nice to hang out and have lunch with her. I completely spaced getting a photo with her, but hopefully there'll be a next time!

After lunch we parted ways with our guest star and headed toward Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, Dana's friend never got back to her about hanging out, so instead we headed to the Oklahoma City Memorial, dedicated to the memory of those killed in the April 19, 1995 bombing. It was surreal to remember the event that happened over sixteen years and had a pretty profound effect on my understanding of the world.

The memorial was wonderfully touching and a great tribute to those who died, those who survived, and those who came to victims' aid. I took a lot of pictures, but they really don't do justice to how touching and great the memorial was. Check it out if you're ever in the area.

The bomb detonated at 9:02am - the other side of the pool reads 9:01

Tribute to those who died

Reflecting pool

Oklahoma City Skyline

Tribute to those lost

Letters from children

After spending an hour or so looking through the museum, we headed back out to the car and left Oklahoma City behind. We had a long way to go, but we had plenty of stops to break up the monotony of driving. We moved back and forth throughout the way between I-40 and Historic Route 66. It surprised me to learn that Route 66 does not actually exist officially, though many states post signs as below to mark the historical significance.

The next stop was on said Route 66 - a gas station that had been restored back to presentable condition. It's really cool to see these old buildings and imagine what life would have been like serving the folks traversing the Mother Road.

Fill 'er up

During our continuing drive, we had popped in the CD I had burned with part one of Craig Ferguson's American On Purpose autobiography - it was great, especially the part about the Scottish accent. Definitely a good time to listen to a book, especially one Dana and I both really enjoyed.

Our next stop was the National Route 66 museum, but unfortunately we were a bit late to the punch, arriving around a half hour after it closed. Either way, we wandered around the fake-looking storefronts that represented the way things used to be on Route 66.

ROAR

Although we were dejected, we were able to pick ourselves up with a trip to the Braum's down the road. Ice cream and good times were had by all, though it seemed like our servers were having a bad day. While mixing my "Freezer," the guy at the counter basically had lime sherbet explode all over him thanks to the mixing machine. Before we knew it, we crossed the border into Texas.

We continued down the interstate for a bit before pulling off to Route 66 and heading into the small town of Shamrock, TX. All the signs advertising it were of a decidedly Irish theme, and we had two sights to see in the town. Once off the main dragging looking for our first target, it became clear that Shamrock was one of the victims of the Route 66 decommissioning, much of the town just seeming incredibly empty. Our first stop in Shamrock was to see the "Blarney Stone," purportedly a piece of the original stone which had been chipped off and encased in concrete to stand in a local park.

Not too exciting, but seeing the town was pretty interesting, and a little depressing. On the other side of Shamrock was another old gas station. This one was rather ornate and known as the "U Drop Inn". It featured a diner in its heyday, flourishing in the days of Route 66, but quickly fell out of vogue once the road was decommissioned.

McLean, Texas was next, featuring the third and final vintage gas station of the day. This one had a kitty laying near it, so it was clearly the best of the day. The other neat thing about the area near this final station was that Route 66 was a ghost town; aside from us I'm not sure we saw more than two or three cars drive through town. This led to, of course, us running around in the street - it was weird to be on a town's main drag and not seeing anyone.

As the sun hid behind a gigantic cloud in the humongous Texas sky, we raced down the interstate to our final sight of the day. Since we had been doing nothing but driving west, it seemed that there was a lot more daylight to go around. We made it to the Bug Ranch with time to spare, and it didn't disappoint.

It's actually a one-off attraction, an homage to the Cadillac Ranch on the other side of Amarillo, which we'll be hitting up tomorrow. Before we go, however, we need to find a place to buy some spray paint to "make our mark" and take a photo.

Dinner was at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, a ridiculous tourist trap inside of Amarillo. All the waiters and waitresses were dressed in white shirts, bolos, cowboy boots and hats, all the tables were draped with holstein-spotted tablecloths, and they even had a 72-ounce steak challenge: if you can eat the 72 ouncer in an hour or less, you get it for free. I managed to eat about ten ounces of my steak, so I wasn't even going to try.

After dinner, we headed to our hotel and here we are. Overall, another great day with some great things to see. The most striking thing happened when we left Oklahoma City, where the predominant color seemed to pass the tipping point from green to brown. We had noticed the trees getting more and more sparse as we drove through Missouri and Oklahoma, but it didn't become evident that we were definitely in the Great Plains until the Oklahoma-Texas border. No doubt that tomorrow that this trend will continue into the desert.

States: Oklahoma, Texas

Cities: Tulsa, Stillwater, Oklahoma City, Amarillo

Tomorrow:

The Madonnas return!
Big booms
More Route 66 goodness

See you in Farmington, New Mexico!

Missour-ee or Missour-uh?

2011-08-23T00:39:00.011-04:00

Day Four, Monday, August 22, 2011

We woke up to another lovely day and, as we promised ourselves the night before, we managed to get down to the lobby to eat some breakfast. The food was mediocre but filling, and after fueling up both ourselves and our vehicle we were off around 10:30 in the morning. It took a whole five minutes to get to Missouri from our hotel, and our first stop was the Saint Louis Arch, which, interestingly enough, you can see pretty well from Illinois.

After standing in awe of the arch for a few minutes, we headed to a neighborhood of Saint Louis known as "The Loop". It was a pretty cool area, featuring a comic shop, a great indie book store, a record shop, and a lot of great food. We spent a little over an hour touring around and looking at everything. Of particular note was the "Planet Walk," which was a to-scale model of the solar system. We managed to find everything up to Uranus, but we didn't really want to walk to Neptune's plaque.

Angry Birds Shooting Gallery

Chuck Berry was a giant

Dana in her Heaven

Planet Walk

Before leaving The Loop, we headed to a sandwich shop called Snarf's to get some food for the road, and then headed to our final Saint Louis stop: a sculpture park. It was full of some great and creative stuff, all strewn out in a beautiful little park area.

Giant Eyeball

Pickin' that nose

After all that, we finally parted from Saint Louis, heading southwest toward Tulsa. This was the longest continuous part of the trek, so it was nice to get it out of the way early. Our next stop was in Marshfield, Missouri. In 1889, this town produced a man named Edwin Hubble, who would grow up to prove the existence of other galaxies in the universe, and for whom the Space Telescope is named. To honor their native son, Marshfield has a model of the Hubble Telescope sitting in front of a building. It's pretty cool to see!

We continued to the southwest, racing toward the Missouri-Oklahoma border. It was already late afternoon and we had a couple stops left to go. Our next stop was the American Legion in Springfield, which had a particularly interesting sight. Where Moorestown, NJ has a ship jutting from the ground, the American Legion features the sail of a submarine jutting from the ground. The sub is SSN-661, the USS Lapin, which was decommissioned in 1992.

After Springfield, we headed down I-44 toward Oklahoma, only to take Exit 1 and head up in the direction of Kansas. We had a single stop in Kansas, mostly just for the novelty of adding another state to our trip, but also because the stop was fairly interesting in its own right.

The Rainbow Bridge is the last of the Marsh Arch Bridges on Route 66. There were hundreds of these single-span bridges built in the early twentieth century, but the vast majority were torn down. Only a few remain, most preserved due to being registered as historically important. By the way, we had been driving on Route 66 the majority of the day - well, what used to be Route 66. In most of Missouri, the historical highway had been redesignated and repaved as I-44.

Anyway, we canceled last stop due to the fact that the sun was going down - it was a gigantic cartoon blue whale that you could walk through. Oh well, bed feels just as good. Dana and I hit up Waffle House for dinner and planned on relaxing the rest of the evening. Another great day!

States: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Missouri (again, briefly), Oklahoma

Cities: Saint Louis

Next stop, Amarillo!

PS: Oh, and tomorrow!

No shortage of gas stations
The next best thing to Cadillacs is obviously VW Bugs
STEAKZ
Some girl named Lauren guest stars

Fight On, Dear Old Muncie!

2011-08-21T21:25:00.013-04:00

Day Three, Sunday, August 21, 2011

After yesterday's successes, we had some high hopes for today. We managed to get a fantastic night's sleep thanks to Jason's wonderful hospitality (thanks again for accommodating us!) and woke up a little before ten to start getting ready. I had come up with the itinerary for the day just as I had the day prior, though Jason suggested we make a small detour to see the Moraine GM Plant. The plant had closed in 2008 and thus had been abandoned for about three years. Great place for some post-apocalyptic, hellscape photography!

It's a pretty eerie place, and kind of shows how quickly the traces of civilization can start to disappear. Anyway, we moved on, and fairly quickly we were in Indiana, hooray!

Our next stop for the day was just over the border in Indiana - our second Madonna of the Trail in Richmond, IN. Just like the Ohio one, it was situated near a golf course, though this one was considerably easier to find. This statue looked a lot more pristine than the last.

Like the other Madonna we saw (and the one we'd see later), this one stands near Route 40, surveying what was once known as the National Highway. The construction of the national highway was okayed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1806. The highway eventually became designated as part of US Highway 40, and several statues were erected to honor the historical context of the original road - to create a safer and speedier gateway to the west coast for settlers.

Next up was a little less historically-interesting monument. After driving a bit further down the highway, we pulled off to observe, what else, another giant thing:

Not much else to say, really. Giant sneaker, on the side of the road, in front of a seemingly unrelated motel. Yep. Moving on!

Once we reached Indianapolis, the weather had shifted from sunny and pleasant to downpour. Fortunately, we managed to reach our lunch destination prior to the real stuff rolling through. Dana had picked out a place called Yats known for its delicious cajun food - sounded absolutely delicious after not eating anything all morning.

It was sunny just a minute ago...

Quirky eatery

Chicken Chorizo, delicious

Dana got the chili served over rice

It was an extremely good lunch and pretty cheap too! The rain had subsided by the time we got done with our meals, so we headed down the street to find the Indianapolis Art Center. It was a pretty neat place, with sculptures scattered around the grounds and a nice little park setting. The crown jewel - the thing we came to see, anyway - was the "twisted house":

After leaving Indianapolis, we were in for a long drive - about three hours until our next destination. So we both hunkered down for the long ride - I got comfortable and Dana got really comfortable and promptly took a nap in the car. While she slept, we passed into the next state in our path - Illinois.

Much of the time, we kept the radio in the "scan" mode, since most of the time the radio stations were fleeting at best. Maybe three of the twenty or so frequencies we'd come across time and time again were Christian stations with ministers and priests ranting and screaming about something. Oh how appropriate this ended up being.

Yup, that little speck at the base is me

That's right, Illinois has what's claimed to be the largest cross in the world. There is apparently a larger one somewhere in Florida, but they still call this one the "largest". Oh well. All I know is that it was huge (about two hundred feet tall) and we couldn't stop saying "Baby Jesus" in Jeremy Clarkson's accent over and over.

We had two stops left, and the bulk of the driving was over. The sun was hanging low in the sky and turning a nice vivid orange as we came across the last two sites in the wrong order! We encountered this fellow on the side of the road.

A giant metal dragon that, rumor had it, breathes fire! We went to the nearby liquor store and bought a couple tokens to put into the slot, $1 per shot, this better be good! Dana had her camera at the ready to take a video of the big steel beast shooting out propane-powered flames, but the only thing that happened upon insertion of the token was a sparking sound. I put in the other token. Nothing. Oh no, maybe he needs more fuel? Either way, we enjoyed Mr. Dragon for what he was and moved on without making much of a fuss about him being broken.

The final stop was similar to our first planned of the day: another Madonna. This one was in Vandalia, Indiana, the western terminus of the original National Highway. We found her on the side of Highway 40 as it moved through the town, complete with some convenient parking spaces right next to her. Easiest Madonna to find yet!

In doing a little more research on these monuments, there are apparently twelve of them in total, in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Hopefully we'll be seeing a couple more on the way out west!

After the final stop for the day, we headed to our hotel, the Hampton Inn and Suites in Collinsville, Illinois, just outside of Saint Louis. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we were upgraded to a suite room with a jacuzzi, which we enjoyed thoroughly!

States: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois

Cities: Indianapolis

Coming up tomorrow...

A whale of a good time
Eyes on the prize
Some confused submariners
A fake telescope

See you in Tulsa!

Round on the Ends and High in the Middle

2011-08-20T23:27:00.011-04:00

Saturday, August 20, 2011

As Dana mentioned this morning: What's round on the ends and high in the middle?

The answer is, of course, Ohio! We woke up in West Virginia after my alarm failing to go off, causing us to miss the complimentary breakfast. Either way, we got ready and were on our way by about 11:30.

Our Hotel Room

Big things happening in Weirton!

Our first destination was quite a ways down the road, and the first of many giant things along our route - a giant golf ball. After stopping at the nearby Best Buy and purchasing a car charger and (non-working) cassette adapter for the car, we headed to the aforementioned golf ball on the side of the road. Some lady looked at me funny when I was posing next to it, but doesn't she understand that novelty is to be enjoyed?!

Don't I look excited?

Next, we headed into Columbus, home of Ohio State University. Our destination for lunch was the North Market of Columbus, a nifty little market not unlike the Reading Terminal back home. Dana had planned for us to eat at a place called Kitchen Little. I had a bison burger with rice on the side and Dana got chicken with a side of collard greens and duck-fat-fried potatoes, and both were absolutely delicious. For dessert, we got ice cream at what turned out to be one of the top five ice cream parlors in the country according to Yelp, Jeni's. Obviously, it was also great.

Bison Burger, though you can't see much burger

North Market

Kitchen Little

The ice cream place was so good, even Finn and Princess Bubblegum wanted some!

Dana's flavors were an interesting mix of salted caramel and a flavor called Queen's City Cayenne, which features cayenne peppers, kind of an odd addition to ice cream. She said it was amazing, however, so maybe next time we come through I'll have to get some of my own. I got lavender wildberry, which was also pretty amazing.

Anyway, we soldiered onward to our next landmark, and it was a strange one. I didn't really realize how extensive it was until we saw it - a field of giant concrete corn cobs sticking out of the ground. I thought there might be a dozen or so, but it turned out there were around a hundred of the things, along with some plaques that told of the important history of corn and its cultivation in Ohio.

Corns

Dana got a little hungry

I LOVE CORN

Next up was Springfield, Ohio, which contained our last two sights for the day. First, there was the Hartman Rock Garden, which was basically a back yard of a house that contained a ton of rock sculptures. There was a family there, and the older woman explained to us that it was her father, Ben Hartman, who built all the sculptures in the 1930s. He died in 1944, but the house has been passed to the Kohler Foundation, who has made sure that the garden is kept in good condition. The garden consists of dozens of sculptures of buildings and scenes, most right out of real life - some depict men going to war, others a serene street with houses and a shop. Most impressive is probably the castle in the back.

Dana and the Castle

The Rock Garden contains more than a quarter of a million stones and has been standing for over seventy years. The garden is open from dawn until dusk every day and is free to enter, but gladly takes donations. Oh, and we have no idea if Dana's related to the creator - but as Ben's son-in-law said when we were talking about that issue, "I don't remember there being any red-headed Hartmans!" The mystery remains.

Our final stop for the day was a little more tricky to find. We went to the address reported on roadsideamerica.com, but our target, the first Madonna of the Trail of the trip, was nowhere to be found. After a little more searching and a small hike, we were able to find her: standing watch on the side of US 40 at the edge of a park.

Ohio's Madonna of the Trail

As can be gleaned from the above plaque, the Madonnas were erected as a tribute to the pioneer mothers of the westward expansion. They were all built along the National Old Trails Road, the first national highway. We'll be seeing quite a few of them along our trek, with two showing up in tomorrow's travels for Indiana and Illinois!

Anyway, after our driving was done for the day, we pulled in to greet Jason at his apartment. We grabbed some Chinese and Japanese food for dinner and sat around watching TV for awhile. Pretty soon we'll grab some sleep and do it all over again!

States visited: West Virginia and Ohio

Major cities traversed: Columbus, OH and Dayton, OH

Tomorrow we'll see a giant shoe, a fire breathing dragon, and some pretty ladies! See you in Saint Louis!

Soggy Bottom Boys

2011-08-20T10:07:00.005-04:00

Day One, Friday, August 19, 2011

Welcome to day one of the cross-country road trip! We kicked off right around 5:30pm after I got done with work and we loaded up the car. We were in a bit more of a hurry than we'd thought thanks to the looming storms on the horizon - of course, carrying stuff out to the car would have been miserable in the downpour.

It ended up being a fairly uneventful drive. As we drove through Philadelphia, we ran into a couple big storms, but they cleared up by the time we drove through the middle of the state. Considering there isn't much to see in Central PA and the fact that it was night most of the drive, we didn't really miss much. Our only stop was at a rest area about halfway through our drive where we devoured some Burger King, used the restrooms, and moved on. We arrived at the hotel just before one in the morning, checked in and promptly hit the hay.

Our trip today spanned about 350 miles, of which 250 of them were on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Interstate 76. Including stops, our trip took just over seven hours. Large cities we drove through included Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. We touched New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia today.

Anyway, a preview of tomorrow:

A giant golf ball
Giant ears of corn
Giant mortarboard
A rock garden named after Dana
Our first Madonna of the Trail
JASON

See you then.

PS: Oh! Additionally, I'm going to see if I can get photos of all fifty states' license plates on the way out west. Since it was nighttime, I started slow, grabbing New York while I still could. One down, forty-nine to go.

Hawaii Time

2011-07-13T02:32:00.006-04:00

So, for the past four and a half days, Dana and I have been in Hawaii. I figured I'd better start writing stuff down before the details escape me, so here goes.

On Friday morning we set off - our flight was on time and left Philadelphia at about 6:30am. Dana and I had picked up a rental car the day before that was scheduled to be dropped off that morning, so there was no problem getting there. We had some issues with the boarding passes of the second flight - apparently they weren't ready to print them off, as they had some issues with the plane. We arrived in San Francisco a little before ten and ran into a nice line of people waiting at the gate for their boarding passes. Joy.

Anyway, eventually we got onboard the Boeing 777 bound for Honolulu. Dana managed to again sleep through the majority of the flight, leaving me to entertain myself with stupid cell phone games and podcasts. It didn't seem that long, though when we landed it felt more like 7pm than 1pm for obvious reasons.

The rental counter was full of my coworkers and thus took forever to get through. We drove to the hotel and eventually found the way in - I gave my keys to the valet and we headed over to check in. Initially we got a room with two double beds, but thankfully we managed to get it changed to a king right then. We were placed in the Kalia tower, pretty much the second lowest rung on the Hilton Hawaiian Village totem pole - not to say it's bad in the least, though.

View from one end of the room

View from the tenth floor at night

Rainbow!

We're on the tenth floor and have a view of the inland, but it's still pretty beautiful, construction site or no. Anyhow, we got in and relaxed for the most part the first evening. We walked around a little and settled on the food court in the International Marketplace. It was mainly filled with tourists, but the Chinese noodle/chicken plate was acceptable. For dessert we got pineapple ice cream and then head back to the hotel.

The next day I had to head into work for about four hours - it was mostly shuttling stuff back and forth from the office and moving heavy things. It went quickly, and when I returned Dana and I were off to Diamond Head to climb up quick, which would leave plenty of time to go out for a nice dinner. We hiked up fairly quickly and took some pretty great pictures of Waikiki and the rest of the island:

Waikiki from the top of Diamond Head

Looking out toward the ocean

More Waikiki

Dana!

We headed back down the mountain and went to dinner with four of my coworkers at a place called Gyu Kaku, where I had arranged 6:30 reservations. It wasn't far from the hotel and I've been there before - it's great for groups of people. You order several little platters of about three ounces each of variously spiced and sauce-slathered meats and you cook them yourself on the grill in the center of the table. We ended up showing up right at the end of "happy hour," where many of the entres are half-priced. We were able to order plenty, and about an hour later we were stuffed with steak and beef.

Well, that's it for the first part of the weekend - I'll write about Sunday a bit later. It involves snorkeling, some North Shore fun, and lots of delicious sunburn.

The Long Way Home

2011-06-27T21:38:00.018-04:00

June 25 and 26, 2011

After our second night in the Seven Seasons Hotel in Montreal, we decided to start heading back a day early, mainly to prevent an 8+ hour travel day from occurring immediately before our days back at work. Our original plan on Saturday was to head to the city's namesake, the triple-peaked hills of Mont-Royal, though the occasional steady rain put a damper on that plan.

Instead, we decided to ride the rails a bit more and find some record stores to poke around in. Our first stop for the day was Tim Horton's, the Dunkin Donuts of the great white north. After fumbling a bit with both language and money, we got our food and polished it off. We headed back to the hotel to make a list of the places we'd like to hit up and then we were off.

The first place we came to didn't have much Dana was interested in - although the basement was filled with tons of vinyl, it was mostly classic rock stuff. We moved on to a place Dana had found called Aux 33, and apparently it was a jackpot. She had a hard time picking through everything and picking out the precious few she wanted to purchase.

Anyway, we headed back and checked out of the hotel, and by four we were on our way. We crossed the border after a few quick questions by the border guards. The only thing I declared was the tincture of maple syrup I had bought for my parents, so obviously there wasn't much searching involved. The scenery of upstate New York was gorgeous, and unsurprisingly rivaled Vermont and New Hampshire, mainly because they're all so close together.

We arrived at the hotel and went to sleep fairly soon after arriving. We also made a few plans to continue our legacy of Weird NJ tours of the state, picking out a trio of possibilities to fill the drive home.

Upon waking, we got ready and checked out by noon before heading to the infamous Clinton Road in North Jersey. Supposedly the hangout of several ghosts, KKK members, aliens, and who knows what else, it wasn't exactly all that scary during the day. It seemed like one of those disused, abandoned roads that most people avoid for the sake of their commute not taking longer. We turned around to head back to where we started and I pulled off to do some business quickly, since we were in the middle of nowhere. Dana advised me to get back into the car and directed my attention to what appeared to be an adolescent black bear padding across the road. Definitely didn't have to tell me twice!

It was reasonably creepy in the daytime, though, so I could only imagine how weird it might be at night, especially in knowing all the rumors about the place. We drove toward the next destination, the mysterious Luna Parc, stopping off at a festival we randomly drove by. The festival happened to be the famous Olde Lafayette Village's HOT DOG FEST. No, we hadn't heard of it either. We walked around for a few minutes just to soak in the worship-like fascination of the hot dog.

Hot dogs. We didn't stand in line for this.

Anyway, diversion completed, we headed to Luna Parc. When we saw the row of cars seemingly a mile long on the side of the road, we assumed we were in the right place. We parked and walked about a quarter mile to a strange-looking mailbox with a couple modest balloons attached.

After admiring the artistry of said mailbox, we headed onto the actual property. Almost immediately, we were quite blown away - the artistry that the owner, Ricky Boscarino, had put into the place was incredible and left us more or less speechless. I snapped a ton of pictures - here are a select few:

Quite the collection

Some stained glass in the bathroom

The little "Life Church" out back

They even had free popcorn! After marveling for a good forty-five minutes we decided to move on. We were extremely hungry, so we decided to make our next stop a restaurant. Dana found a lovely little place called Sammy's on the way. I ordered a chili dog and Dana got the chicken sandwich. Both were absolutely excellent, as was the raspberry shake I ordered to drink, and the whole place was decked out in a bunch of retro Coca Cola machines.

Places like this are, sadly, rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Visible from the lobby of Sammy's were a Taco Bell and a Sonic, probably doing their best to drive the competition from the area. I hope Sammy's continues to be profitable and just as tasty as it was the day we went there.

The last stop on the way home was to see a few metallic-industrial dinosaurs up in North Jersey. It was actually in the same town as Sammy's, but unfortunately it seemed that the whole place was part of corporate grounds. We couldn't discern any way to get in, so I snapped a couple pictures and then we were home-bound.

T-Rex in the distance

On Friday, July 8, we're Hawaii-bound! Stay tuned.

La Fête nationale du Québec

2011-06-24T22:01:00.005-04:00

Friday, June 24, 2011

Unbeknownst to us, we had chosen a weekend of significance to Quebecois when we decided to come up this weekend. We had no idea until the day we arrived in Montreal - we were made hip to the fact that June 24 is a holiday in Quebec. La Fête nationale du Québec (something like National Quebec Day) is a celebration of all things Quebecois.

Actually, it's a pretty interesting bit of history. In the early nineteenth century, there were two major sections of Canadian territory, known as Upper Canada (part of modern day Ontario) and Lower Canada (part of modern day Quebec). Upper Canada had issues with financial solvency due to incompetence in management and over-extension of resources; Lower Canada was mostly an agrarian society that resisted being rounded up in a province that would levy taxes on them. Both Canadas thus had rebellious populations and, in 1837, rebelled against their British leadership.

Both rebellions were crushed by the British, who responded with declaring martial law and passing the Union Act, which by 1841 unified both these provinces into one, the Province of Canada. Upper Canada, which was composed of mostly anglophone British and American citizens, got the better end of the deal - despite having over 60% of the population of this new province, Lower Canada and Upper Canada were granted equal voting rights in the united parliament. Additionally, anglophone minorities in the Lower Canada region exploited the lack of secret ballot in the province and suppressed voting rights of francophone French populations.

In 1867, after almost thirty years of union, the two Canadas were again separated - not into separate nations, but into Ontario and Quebec. In all, Canada became a federal state of four provinces (adding Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) in that year due to several pressures, not the least of which was their unification in response to America's Manifest Destiny doctrine and the British colonial doctrine of no longer wishing to maintain soldiers in their colonies. This meant that the smaller Canadian provinces, by themselves, were open to invasion from the south and annexation of territory. A united Canada provided much more protection from this threat.

Quebec has a fairly interesting streak of its own as far as its political history. Quebec has always considered itself as fairly unique from the rest of Canada, in language, culture, and heritage. Quebec has from the beginning been populated by French immigrants (first being dubbed "New France" by Jacques Cartier, who claimed the land in the name of King Francis I) who overwhelmingly speak French. There have been several separatist movements with aims to declare Quebec a sovereign nation, though support on a national level has never truly been enough to allow this to happen.

La Fête nationale du Québec, originally known as "Saint John the Baptist Day" after Quebec's patron saint, was secularized in the late 1960s and rapidly became a holiday focused on Quebecois national movements and sovereignty. As recently as 1970, a small group of separatists kidnapped government officials and even murdered one of them. Of course, the Parti Quebecois at large is devoted to using political and not terrorist means to achieve its goals, and has managed to pass a symbolic bill which declares Quebec a nation within Canada. Some of the bills brought to vote by the Quebec assembly really remind me of similar movements within America with English/Spanish involved instead of French/English - chiefly Bill 101, which aims to define French as the official language of the province, dissolving need for English on street signs or job offers/applications.

Anyway, now that the history lesson is over, here's what we did!

We woke up and got ready, and were out the door by about eleven. After hearing that the 24th was a holiday, we looked up the activities and celebrations associated with Quebec Day and decided to head to the annual parade. Luckily enough, the Berri-UQAM Metro stop was barely a block away from the hotel, and it happened to be essentially the hub for the entire city's subway transit. After figuring out that my debit card didn't work in the ticket machine, I withdrew $40 of Canadian money from the nearby ATM. Of course, the Canadian $20 bill has a gigantic picture of the queen on it and some interesting aboriginal-looking sculpture on the back. I fed it into the machine and we got two all-day passes and were on our way.

Montreal's subway is pretty well put together and exceedingly easy to use, whether or not you speak French. We headed up to the stop we had planned out and walked about two blocks before we saw the people lining the streets in blue-and-white-printed fleur-de-lis-spangled banners. The parade got to us around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Dana and I waiting for the parade

I bought some Quebec flag buttons from a guy!

This fellow headed up the parade and was yelling something about accompanying him to NEW FRANCE

It turned out that the event was known as "The Parade of Giants," and at its centerpiece were about two dozen 15-20' tall replicas of significant people in the formation and history of Quebec. Below are a few of them.

Jacques Cartier, a French explorer who declared what is now Canada for France. He mapped out much of the Canadian east coast.

Samuel de Champlain, an explorer and administrator who founded Quebec City and "New France". He was part of the first party to explore and map the Great Lakes.

Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786 - 1871) was the leader of the Patriote movement whose goal was Quebec independence. In the mid nineteenth century he led the Lower Canada Rebellion, which failed, and resulted in the unification of "lower" and "upper" Canada.

René Lévesque (1922 - 1987) was a reporter and politician in the government of Quebec. He was the first political figure since the Lower Canada Rebellion to attempt to negotiate political independence for Quebec.

Joseph Henri Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, Sr. (1921 - 2000) was a NHL player and longtime star of the Montreal Canadiens. He led the Canadiens to eight Stanley Cup wins and retired as the most prolific goal-scorer of all time. He was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961 with the three year waiting period waived. Also, he gets the prize for creepiest giant in the parade.

The parade was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to attend an event where everyone was waving a flag that wasn't American. Of course, it wasn't the Canadian flag they were waving, either, but the Quebec flag. I made sure to pick a miniature one up for a souvenir later that day.

After the parade ended, we headed back to the hotel for a bit to get our bearings and plan out the evening. On the way back, however, we found time to sit down and have one of the famous foods of the area - poutine. Basically, it's fries and cheese curds with gravy poured over the whole thing. Extremely unhealthy but absolutely delicious. Our waitress was extraordinarily nice and apologized to us for her English at one point when we didn't understand her - of course, her English was far better than either of our French, so we told her not to worry.

I ordered the Boucane

And it was delicious.

We next took the train to Olympic Park, home of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The first thing we were greeted by upon exiting the Metro station was a couple of futuristic-looking domes. One was the Biodome, which hosted a few events (track and judo) during said Olympics, but was now a sort of zoo featuring four of the North and South American ecosystems: the Tropical Rainforest, Laurentian Forest, Estuary, and Arctic/Antarctic. It was pretty pricey but was very cool to see - the penguins and puffins were the best part, obviously, and Dana was surprised at how huge actual beavers are. The larger of the domes was accompanied by a huge structure jutting high above us. This was the Olympic Stadium, built for the 1976 games.

A view of the Biodome with the stadium behind it

Dana + Stadium spire

Puffinz

Beaver

We headed up through to the celebration. The park was titanic in scale, and for the festivities they had moved in an entire carnival and a huge stage. It had been raining on and off all day, so the whole thing was filled with mud, but it was cool to walk through and see all the Canadians having fun and celebrating Quebecois heritage.

Poutine on the go!

The stage

We didn't stay for any of the musical performances in lieu of heading to the waterfront and exploring. Dana had been there before and wanted to show me the shops and a couple of interesting buildings. So we hopped a couple more trains and spent a couple hours wandering around, collecting souvenirs and checking out the sights.

The main parliament building has an interesting facade

The waterfront

A stuffed polar bear you can apparently purchase for $37,000

Ruby! She and the polar bear live in a fur store. Not the biggest fan of fur, but since my ancestors were probably French fur trappers, I can't really judge

Dinner was a crepe with ham and cheese, along with maple syrup

It had been a long day, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We settled in and watched some of the coverage of the live music event from the CBC, along with a news report about the "Wet Fete" that talked about how the rain put a bit of a damper on the event. But of course, Canadians are strong and hardy people, and won't let a little rain, well, rain on their parade.

Montreal - June 23

2011-06-23T23:10:00.008-04:00

Wednesday, June 23

Now, the day where we finally make it to the destination!

We awoke reasonably early and set off northward and toward Montreal. On the way out, we decided to gas up before leaving Massachusetts and followed the GPS to a gas station that turned out to not be a gas station. It was a worthy detour, however:

Giant chair in the middle of a field

Old, cool buildings

Horse of "Toy Town", aka Winchendon, MA

Horse plaque

It drizzled and rained the majority of the day, but it was still reasonably nice driving weather as we moved through Massachusetts and soon entered New Hampshire!

"Live free or don't."

Our first stop was the town of Keene, where we had found a little cafe we figured we might as well stop at for breakfast. Considering neither of us were hungry, though, we decided to briefly check out the record store there and head back. It was a nice little city, though; we were caught a bit off guard by the cars stopping for us in anticipation of our crossing the street. You know you live in New Jersey when this surprises you.

Charming little town

I'm a nerd and found this funny

Anyway, we continued on and pretty soon we crossed the river into Vermont. Vermont was absolutely beautiful and lived up to its motto: The Green Mountain state. I also never noticed that Vermont resembles words like "vermillion" or the Spanish "verde." Again, incredibly apt.

BEARS

We spent a lot of time just gawking at the scenery before we decided to find something to eat in Burlington, Vermont. I suggested sandwiches and Dana magic'd up a place called Four Corners of the Earth that was right on the way. We arrived and the place was fantastic in more ways than one. All the sandwiches had been named after cities or places and didn't enumerate what was in them. Perfect for experimentation.

Four Corners of the Earth decorations

Cat/Cat Stuff/etc.

Dana waiting for sammich

My "Hawaiian Ham" sandwich, with ham, pineapple, onion and honey mustard

Now it was time to head for the border. After stopping briefly at a grocery store for a toothbruth and bed bug spray, we were off. They border guard asked a few questions (got whiny with me for not being specific enough at one point) and let us on our way. Ahhh, smell that Canadian air! Well, it was a bit like fertilizer for awhile, since there wasn't much to see between the border and Montreal. Eventually, though, we found our way to the second largest French-speaking city in the world.

I mean eventually, though. We got stuck in traffic for about an hour and a half while being within fifteen minutes of our destination according to my GPS. Oh well. We got to listen to plenty of CBC (which has amazing accents) on the way into the city. The hotel was a bit hard to find, being the hole in the wall it apparently is. We had to park in a nearby ramp that's either $20 a day or $20 for 24 hours or more - we really should figure that out tomorrow. Oh, and the rain was stopping finally!

Double rainbow all the way across the sky

So intense!

We got up to the hotel room after parking the car and sprayed down the bed nicely with our bed bug murder spray. I didn't see any sign of critters in the bed, so we should be safe, fingers crossed. We decided to head out and find some French cuisine, and we found a nice little cafe called Les Deux Gamins. Dana ordered a delicious looking flank steak and I ordered the salmon with rice pilaf, and both were incredible.

Oh, and apparently we came to Montreal right as they're preparing for a holiday devoted to Quebec and its (hopeful) independence. Tomorrow there is a parade and fireworks apparently. We've got good timing!

Nous allons à Montréal!

2011-06-23T10:01:00.004-04:00

Thank god for the long weekend, I was really starting to get annoyed with work lately and getting through eight hours was growing difficult. Hopefully Monday I'll be a little more rejuvenated - but no reason to think of that now! Without further ado...

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

We set off around 4pm and headed up the Jersey Turnpike toward DESTINY. We had about five and a half to six hours of driving to get under our belts before we could rest, and the first few went off without a hitch. We headed up through New York City and into Connecticut by the time we started getting hungry.

Dana hit up Yelp for New Haven and we found what was described as a great Peruvian eatery in "a bad neighborhood". When we got there, the neighborhood was maybe mid-tier Philadelphia fare or looked like something you might see in parts of South Jersey. You know, different standards to judge by, I suppose.

Anyway, we re-rolled our Yelp search and found a pizza place called Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana. After a decent wait (maybe 20 or so minutes) for a table, we sat down and ordered our tomato pies. Of course, I piled mine high with toppings while Dana opted for a bit more spartan pizza. It was excellent, some of the best pizza I've had outside of New York City.

'Za!

After eating, we had about two hours left in our drive, so we set off. As we neared Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the location of our hotel, things started getting a bit dark. After turning off the freeway, we were basically driving through a giant tree-tunnel. Fortunately the place was deserted, so I powered up the high-beams and we scooted on through. After running into a closed-off road (twice!), we figured out a way around to the hotel. The interim was really spooky, though - it was downpouring and extremely dark due to lack of lightposts, and Dana didn't help the situation by playing Boards of Canada to "fit the mood". Anyway, we eventually made it and our hotel (which I booked with 10,000 Marriott points rather than the $130 price tag!) fine.

More space than we need for a one night stay, but hey, it was free

Today we head toward the unknown Canadian wilderness via New Hampshire and Vermont. Our hotel has some bad reports on TripAdvisor, but with a little bed bug spray and a lot of gumption we should be perfectly fine.

Tally Hall - "&"

2011-06-21T02:50:00.000-04:00

New album comes out today! Woohoo.

To Canada We Go

2011-06-21T02:37:00.005-04:00

It's only a day and a half away! Since we're heading Canada... uhhh, Canada-ward, I figured it would be appropriate to share a bit of the plan of attack. We decided it was prudent to leave a day early and stay at a halfway point. It would kind of suck to marathon a nine hour drive and just barely get to our destination before crashing - much better to use hotel points and stay somewhere on the way!

Anyway, as below, we'll be heading from New Jersey up through New York City. After passing through Connecticut, we'll stop in Massachusetts for the night, which should only be about a five and a half hour drive. Kid stuff compared to the weekend before last! From there, we'll take the route northward from Massachusetts up through New Hampshire and Vermont before entering Quebec and reaching our final destination.

Should be a lot of fun. I should probably start putting together a weekend's worth of clothing by the time I head into work tomorrow, lest I find myself unprepared!

Weekend Redux

2011-06-21T01:52:00.010-04:00

So, from here on out, my summer is going to be incredibly busy. In an effort to keep more updated and have plenty of ~*~lovely memories~*~ going forward, I'm going to do my best to document what I do. I don't really use this blog anymore for political rants and whatnot, so it may as well serve some purpose.

Anyway, this last weekend was relatively uneventful compared to ones that will follow or the one preceding, but we did end up doing plenty of stuff. Dana came over late on Friday after a Guided by Voices concert with her friends - it worked out well, since I worked fairly late myself. We tried to get to sleep reasonably early for the events of the next day.

Saturday started with driving up to Stockton, New Jersey for the modestly-sized farmer's market there. Immediately when we entered the building (it's an indoor market, which I presume is pretty rare), we ran into my old friend Caitlin, who I hadn't seen in quite some time. For about a year and a half now, she's worked on her mother's farm. Primarily, Tullamore farms sells farm fresh eggs and beef from cattle they raise. While we were there we had some incredible (if a bit pricey at about $12 apiece) sandwiches, bought a pound of ground beef, and ate some ice cream that was made that morning. Dana opted to get the salted caramel flavor, which seemed like an odd combination but tasted incredible. Already we're planning on going back and getting a quart!

Best sandwich ever

Tullamore Farms makes awesome grass-fed beef

After heading back from Stockton, we only had a few hours before we had to head out again for the concert that evening, Architecture in Helsinki. Dana had to finish up some homework and I headed into work to print off the tickets, and then we were off to Philly. After finding a place to park on Walnut and realizing the doors didn't open until seven, we decided to wander around. Little did I know, Dana had an agenda! We ended up in a record store about fifteen minutes away by foot and Dana bought two singles - she knew it was a good place immediately since she saw two things she wanted without even sifting through.

Next up was the concert, and since we were there super early, we were the second couple up on the mezzanine. You really don't appreciate how great it is up there until you see it. The layout consists of a front row of couches and a row of bar tables immediately behind them. Behind that, it resembles more of a restaurant than a concert venue - we had a great dinner prior to the show thanks to the excellent waitstaff who continually checks on you throughout the show. Pretty awesome service!

The concert was excellent. The first opener was Norwegian Arms, who were a bizarre duet consisting of a lead vocalist playing what appeared to be a lute and the percussionist who played a blue garbage tub. Next was Hooray for Earth, who I didn't really care for - they seemed to be trying too hard to be an edgy 'indie' band. Architecture in Helsinki was amazing as expected, and had an incredible amount of energy, pretty much as I expected.

Norwegian Arms

Architecture in Helsinki

Architecture in Helsinki - so many keyboards!

HEART IT RACES

We were exhausted from the non-laying-around activities, so we headed to bed to rest up for the next day. On Sunday, we drove to Dana's dad's for a Father's Day cookout after stopping by to get some additional supplies. We stocked up on chips and hot dogs in addition to the ground beef we'd gotten the day before.

The cookout was wonderful and the grass-fed beef was amazing. The one hitch was when the door got left open and the cat (Binks!) escaped and decided to chill out underneath the deck. After about a half hour of chasing the big fella around I managed to corner him and snatch him up by the scruff of his neck. He was hissing and howling at me but, as any cat-lover knows, if you get a good hold on the back of their neck they're pretty much paralyzed. Not a single scratch or bite!

Anyway, that was the weekend. Stay tuned for an even more exciting EXTENDED edition next week as Dana and I journey to a foreign land - Montreal, Quebec!

Centralia, Pennsylvania

2011-06-13T02:28:00.006-04:00

So this weekend has had its up and downs, but the major theme throughout has been Centralia, Pennsylvania. We talked about it, watched a documentary about it, and even traveled there, so I figured it'd be appropriate to summarize what we saw and felt.

Road buckling due to underground fire

Centralia, Pennsylvania was a coal-mining town incorporated in 1866. At its height, it claimed more than three thousand residents and was considered a boomtown in East-Central Pennsylvania. In 1962, however, an untended garbage burn ignited the coal beneath the town. Despite attempts to douse the flames, the fire has continued burning to this day, causing various issues for residents, including fissures opening up in random locations and deadly gasses in high concentration emanating from the ground.

One of the first bits of graffiti. Unsettling!

The town, as one might guess, is all but abandoned. The land was condemned and reclaimed by the state in 1992 and the town lost its post office and ZIP code in 2002. Only a few people live there now. The documentary we watched was filmed in 2007 (The Town That Was) and featured prominently one of the town's most fierce advocates, Mr. John Lokitis. In doing a bit of research, however, his own home was demolished in 2009 and he was forced to relocate.

Trees sprout from the middle of the abandoned road

Anyway, we drove around the abandoned streets that we later realized were the local streets of Centralia, roads that had houses up and down them at one point. It was completely unrecognizable as a town at this point - all evidence of human habitation was all but gone save a couple scattered houses and a police office. Even on the office, several letters spelling CENTRALIA were missing as if the ambulance and fire truck still inside were left for dead with the rest of the town.

Maybe not all of the residents moved...

The bulk of our expedition led us to a section of Route 61 that has been closed for several years. After a long time of continually repairing the cracks and buckling of the road caused by the underground mine fire, the state re-routed the road and closed the damaged section. The result was something out of Omega Man, cracked street with bushes and trees growing in the center. The asphalt was split in large fissures in various places, and in others was pushed up to form a three foot hump. The road was exceptionally warm despite the fact that it was an overcast day. In one particularly significant fissure, smoke rose from the underground fire and the heat from below could readily be felt. The alien landscape of Route 61 had graffiti virtually everywhere, as well, with dates and names and crude designs scrawled onto the abandoned road. If that were missing and you took a stroll down the abandoned road, you could very well feel as if you were the last humans on earth scrounging for food or shelter.

The largest fissure in the road, dubbed "the smoking crack"

Centralia still holds a couple cemeteries that people regularly return to in order to honor the dead of their town, despite the fact that they've moved on to safer territories. In 2016 it is speculated that many of them will return for the opening of a time capsule buried for the town's centennial. If at all possible and if I still live in the area, I think it'd make a wonderful trip to see this ceremony. It would be the least of effort to let all the people displaced from their hometown that they - and their plight - have not been forgotten.

Schedule for Week Ending 6/5

2011-05-31T17:30:00.004-04:00

Monday - OFF (8 hours)
Tuesday - 1400 to 2400 (18 hours)
Wednesday - 0000 to 0800 and 1600 to 2000 (30 hours)
Thursday - 0400 to 1600 (42 hours)
Friday - 1200 to 2400 (54 hours)

Schedule for Week Ending 5/22

2011-05-14T13:56:00.003-04:00

New format due to the tons of stuff I'm doing right now. Each color is a different shop order. :)

Schedule for Week Ending 5/15

2011-05-05T21:11:00.003-04:00

Monday - 12:00 to 24:00 (12 hours)
Tuesday - 00:00 to 06:00 and 20:00 to 24:00 (22 hours)
Wednesday - 00:00 to 04:00 (26 hours)
Thursday - 00:00 to 06:00 and 16:00 to 24:00 (40 hours)
Friday - 00:00 to 04:00 (44 hours)

Weird, weird week.

Schedule for Week Ending 5/8

2011-04-28T21:20:00.007-04:00

Monday - ~~14:00 to 24:00~~ 15:30 to 23:30 (8 hours)
Tuesday - ~~18:00~~ 16:00 to 24:00 (16 hours)
Wednesday - 00:00 to 03:00 and ~~14:00~~ 13:30 to 24:00 (29.5 hours)
Thursday - ~~00:00 to 04:00 and~~ 14:00 to 24:00 (39.5 hours)
Friday - 00:00 to 04:00 (43.5 hours)

Schedule for Week Ending 5/1

2011-04-22T10:45:00.004-04:00

Monday - OFF (Colbert Report)
Tuesday - ~~13:00~~ 12:00 to 24:00 (12 hours)
Wednesday - 00:00 to 00:45 and 14:15 to 24:00 (22.5 hours)
Thursday - 00:00 to 04:00 and ~~16:00~~ 12:00 to 24:00 (38.5 hours)
Friday - 10:00 to 16:00 (44.5 hours)

~~Three hours HF!~~ Hey, at least I got Monday off. Good week.

Schedule for Week Ending 4/24

2011-04-18T13:09:00.003-04:00

Monday - 12:00 to 24:00 (12 hours)
Tuesday - 08:00 to 14:00 (18 hours)
Wednesday - 12:00 to 24:00 (30 hours)
Thursday - 16:00 to 24:00 (38 hours)
Friday - 08:00 to 20:00 (50 hours)

Moo.

Schedule for Week Ending 4/17

2011-04-06T17:39:00.005-04:00

"Oh boy!"
- Link

Monday - ~~16:00~~ 11:00 to 24:00 (13 hours)
Tuesday - ~~13:00 to 24:00~~ 00:00 to 00:30 and 12:00 to 21:30 (23 hours)
Wednesday - 08:00 to 24:00 (39 hours)
Thursday - 16:00 to 24:00 (47 hours)
Friday - 10:00 to 20:00 (57 hours)

Probably will end up having more after I get assigned for MEIT. Hopefully I can get out of here early on Tuesday night and get some rest. :)

Schedule for Week Ending 4/10

2011-04-04T13:10:00.009-04:00

The horror. The horror.

Monday - 11:00 to 17:00 and 20:00 to 24:00 (9 hours)
Tuesday - 00:00 to ~~04:00~~ 01:00 and 08:00 to 16:00 (18 hours)
Wednesday - 00:00 to 06:00 and 16:00 to 22:00 (30 hours)
Thursday - ~~OFF~~ 10:00 to 18:00 (38 hours)
Friday - 08:00 to 20:00 (50 hours)

~~Actually a light week since I'm taking Thursday off. If I can take it off, that is.~~

Life is Like a Parking Lot...

2011-03-28T09:38:00.002-04:00

Last night I managed to finally get to a film that's been burning a hole in my Netflix Instant Queue: The Parking Lot Movie. It's no secret that I really like documentary films, and I've watched plenty on seemingly droll subjects. Dana and I watched an entire doc about a typeface, for instance. This fell into that category, but I'd heard good things, so I figured I'd sit down and watch the 70ish minute film.

The Parking Lot Movie explores a lot in a short time, and managed to relate it all to the titular parking lot. Said lot is the Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville, Virginia, right across the street from a University of Virginia campus. As one might expect, this means that the vast majority of those who staff the parking lot are [poor] college students or [poor] college grads. As the movie spins it, the folks who end up working at the Corner Parking Lot tend to view themselves as misfits - disillusioned philosophy, anthropology, and sociology majors that graduate and use their illustrious degrees to sit for eight hours a day in a small booth.

The most interesting (and, in the end, the most overarching) point the film makes is about the separation people seem to experience when dealing with parking lots and driving in general. If the internet allows people to say what they truly think about topics and real life makes people hold back, the car is somewhere in between. It offers enough separation and enough protection that people feel free to flip one another off and honk when they never would face-to-face. The car offers not only a way to get from point A to point B, but it allows us a mobile space that is closed off from the world at large. It has a controllable speed, controllable music and sound, and even a manipulable local climate.

The current and former staffers of the lot wax philosophic about how this affects people. It makes people feel entitled. The separation, as well as the usual "rules" of society, tend to make people think that they are owed a parking space after purchasing their $45,000 luxury SUV. It's inconceivable to them that after driving down a "free" road and getting out of a car that they own, that they also have to pay for the privilege. This leads to my favorite part of the film - a montage of arguments with drivers over a few dollars and people fleeing without paying. Of course, the staffers have plenty to say about these people. It seems pretty common that someone driving a car worth more than some houses refuses to pay a $2 parking fee. When someone decides to flee a sub-$10 ticket, we see one of the workers chase after the car, kicking and punching it as it stops at an intersection and waits to turn. It's pretty clear that the damage done to the cars (plus the subsequent police fines) are significantly more pricey than the fee.

The whole movie is a good reminder that people are people, no matter where they work or what their socioeconomic status might be. People have personal struggles of various magnitudes in their lives, but everything is relative. The least we can do is at least treat one another with a little bit of civility, whether the person you run into the street is a high powered CEO or cleans toilets for a living. In the end, that's probably the most human thing about us - actually treating one another with a little humanity.

Schedule for Week Ending 4/3

2011-03-24T10:03:00.003-04:00

Monday - 08:00 to 24:00 (16 hours)
Tuesday - ~~10:00~~ 11:00 to ~~18:00~~ 17:00 (22 hours)
Wednesday - 08:00 to 21:00 (35 hours)
Thursday - 08:00 to ~~16:00~~ 17:00 (44 hours)
Friday - 12:00 to ~~17:00~~ 20:00 (52 hours)

XTREME.

Schedule for Week Ending 2/27

2011-03-22T09:48:00.003-04:00

Leave a message. Beep.

Monday - 08:00 to 24:00 (16 hours)

Tuesday - 00:00 to 00:30 and 11:00 to 18:30 (24 hours)

Wednesday - 09:00 to 20:00 (35 hours)

Thursday - ~~08:00~~ 7:30 to ~~16:00~~ 18:00 (45.5 hours)

Friday - 10:30 to 16:00 (51 hours)

Long week, but the worst is already over.

Schedule for Week Ending 3/20

2011-03-10T17:00:00.003-05:00

Monday - 11:00 to 19:00 (8 hours)
Tuesday - 08:00 to 16:00 (16 hours)
Wednesday - 08:00 to 20:00 (28 hours)
Thursday - 10:00 to 18:00 (36 hours)
Friday - 10:00 to 17:00 (43 hours)

Schedule for Week Ending 3/13

2011-03-08T10:15:00.005-05:00

Monday - 08:00 to 16:00 (8 hours)
Tuesday - 03:30 to 14:00 (18.5 hours)
Wednesday - 09:00 to ~~20:00 (29.5 hours)~~ 20:30 (30 hours)
Thursday - ~~12:00~~ 11:30 to 20:00 ~~(37.5 hours)~~ (38.5 hours)
Friday - ~~09:00 to 17:00 (45.5 hours)~~ 10:00 to 20:00 (48.5 hours)

More OT than I thought I'd have. Oh well.

Schedule for Week Ending 3/6

2011-02-25T16:14:00.003-05:00

No more time off for quite awhile, woo.

Monday - 08:00 to 24:00 (16 hours)
Tuesday - 12:00 to 20:00 (24 hours)
Wednesday - 09:00 to 20:00 (35 hours)
Thursday - 12:00 to 24:00 (47 hours)
Friday - 12:00 to 16:00 (51 hours)

Monday will be rough (testing 8-12, 16-20 and 20-24), but hey, more OT is nice.

Road Trip Planning

2011-02-22T16:06:00.040-05:00

Occasionally I get bored. On these occasions, I tend to do random things like make a blog post about our possible summer road trip fun. And here it is.

It'll be twenty-three days of cross-country madness and I can't wait to do it. I figured I'd come up with another way of presenting the information.

Day 1:
Starting point: Moorestown, NJ
States: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.
Ending point: Chicago, IL
Drive time: 12:40
Mileage: 794 miles
Highlights: none

Day 2:
Chicago, IL
Highlights: Hot Doug's hot dogs, Molly's cupcakes, visit John and Steph

Day 3:
Starting point: Chicago, IL
States: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota
Ending point: Rochester, MN
Drive time: 6:12
Mileage: 348 miles
Highlights: none

Day 4:
Rochester, MN
Highlights: Corn water tower, Snappy Stop, visit parents

Day 5:
Starting point: Rochester, MN
States: Minnesota, South Dakota
Ending point: Rapid City, SD
Drive time: 9:15
Mileage: 575 miles
Highlights: Wall Drug, Mitchell Corn Palace, Mount Rushmore, Black Hills National Forest

Day 6:
Starting point: Rapid City, SD
States: South Dakota, Wyoming
Ending point: Cody, WY
Drive time: 6:21
Mileage: 391 miles
Highlights: Bighorn National Forest

Day 7:
Cody, WY
Highlights: Yellowstone National Park

Day 8:
Starting point: Cody, WY
States: Wyoming, Montana
Ending point: Kalispell, MT
Drive time: 8:41
Mileage: 508 miles
Highlights: Flathead National Forest

Day 9:
Kalispell, MT
Highlights: Glacier National Park

Day 10:
Starting point: Kalispell, MT
States: Montana, Idaho, Washington
Ending point: Seattle, WA
Drive time: 8:56
Mileage: 525 miles
Highlights: none

Day 11 and Day 12:
Seattle, WA
Highlights: Space Needle, Olympic National Park, Microsoft, Nintendo, visit Dustin

Day 13:

Starting point: Seattle, WA
States: Washington, Oregon
Ending point: Portland, OR
Drive time: 2:55
Mileage: 174 miles
Highlights: none

Day 14:
Portland, OR
Highlights: Visit Dana's friend

Day 15:
Starting point: Portland, OR
States: Oregon, California
Ending point: Novato, CA
Drive time: 10:28
Mileage: 625 miles
Highlights: Redwood National Park

Day 16:
Novato, CA
Highlights: San Francisco, visit Dana's aunt and uncle

Day 17:
Starting point: Novato, CA
States: California, Nevada, Utah
Ending point: Salt Lake City, UT
Drive time: 11:43
Mileage: 726 miles
Highlights: Bonneville Salt Flats, Mojave Desert

Day 18:
Starting point: Salt Lake City, UT
States: Utah, Wyoming, Colorado
Ending point: Denver, CO
Drive time: 8:18
Mileage: 536 miles
Highlights: none

Day 19:
Denver, CO
Highlights: Thin air?

Day 20:
Starting point: Denver, CO
States: Colorado, Nebraska
Ending point: Lincoln, NE
Drive time: 7:34
Mileage: 488 miles
Highlights: Flattest land of all, visit Will

Day 21:
Starting point: Lincoln, NE
States: Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee
Ending point: Nashville, TN
Drive time: 12:38
Mileage: 753 miles
Highlights: none

Day 22:
Starting point: Nashville, TN
States: Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia
Ending point: Roanoke, VA
Drive time: 12:40
Mileage: 637 miles
Highlights: Blue Ridge Parkway

Day 23:
Starting point: Roanoke, VA
States: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey
Ending point: Moorestown, NJ
Drive time: 9:25
Mileage: 412 miles
Highlights: Blue Ridge Parkway

Driving days: 14
Stationary days: 9
Longest driving day: Day 1 (12:40) and Day 22 (12:40)
Mean driving (including stationary days): 5:34
Mean driving (excluding stationary days): 9:08
Percentage of time driving: 23%
Total Mileage: 7492
Total Drive Time: 127:46 (5 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes)
Average Speed: 58.6 mph

It's important to note that the last two days could be shortened considerably by avoiding the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's very scenic but extremely winding. If it was avoided completely, day 22 would be 7:02 and day 23 would be 6:50.

Schedule for Week Ending 2/27

2011-02-18T09:22:00.003-05:00

This is going to be a wild, wild week.

Monday - 11:30 to 24:00 (12.5 hours)
Tuesday - 00:00 to 00:30 and 12:30 to 24:00 (24.5 hours)
Wednesday - 07:30 to 16:00 and 19:00 to 24:00 (37 hours)
Thursday - OFF, Daily Show
Friday - 12:00 to 16:00 (41 hours)

Ugh.

Music Exploration for 2/15

2011-02-15T15:58:00.003-05:00

Today will probably be pretty short, considering the fact that I only brought one album, despite having a lot of (unanticipated) free time.

A concept album in a place where you wouldn't expect to find one, Zen Arcade (1984) is one of the intermediate works of the hardcore punk scene begun by Black Flag and D.O.A. earlier in the decade. The result varies a little, but in general is fast and grungy, lyrics shouted over the din of distorted guitar and uncomplicated rhythm. The result continues the trend of early punk rock artists further into "do it yourself" aesthetic and becomes more about energy than anything else. The usual punk lyrics of disillusionment show up here in spades; the entire album is about a protagonist running away from home and all the boredom it represents to discover that the world around him is even more bleak. There's actually not a whole lot to say except that Hüsker Dü is a good representation of hardcore punk, which, if you're into the genre, is a great listen. That said, there's plenty of variety, as well.

Artist: Hüsker Dü
Album: Zen Arcade
Genre: Hardcore punk
Hardness: 4-7
Rating: 8
Best Thing: Great for times when I'm not feeling so mellow. Also they're from Minnesota, woo.
Reminds Me of: Black Flag, early Bad Brains

Music Exploration for 2/14

2011-02-14T11:44:00.006-05:00

I averted disaster by inches this morning. I walked into my cube and apparently I hadn't left my headphones at work as I previously thought. My coworker Brian is out however, and stealing his headphones has been a common way of avoiding a boring day at work in the past. So we're up and running!

First up was Lungs (2009) by Florence and the Machine. Ever since I heard her single on the radio a couple months back, I've really found it to be particularly catchy and the vocal performance strong. Seeing her perform on the Grammys last night really lit a fire under me in terms of listening to more of her, and thus far I'm pretty impressed. Lungs has poppy hooks, a little bit of soul mixed in, and some nonstandard instrumentation thrown into the mix. The majority of Florence's songs are light and feature plenty of percussion, but usually a pretty buried bassline. Basically all the non-rhythm features of the music are provided by the vocals themselves, and occasionally a harp or what sounds like a xylophone/electric piano. At times, said vocals remind me of both Kate Nash (mostly in the inflections of her voice) and Bjork (during flourishes). All told, pretty good album. As a final note, how can you really not like eccentricity like this?

Artist: Florence and the Machine
Album: Lungs
Genre: Indie pop/rock
Hardness: 1-3
Rating: 7
Best Thing: Great voice and vocals. Fantastically done especially on the soul-inspired songs.
Reminds Me of: Kate Nash, Bjork

The next recommendation I got is Double Nickels on the Dime (1984) by the Minutemen. It's forty-five songs of punk-mixed-with-all-kinds-of-other-stuff. The majority of the songs are a minute or two long, a hallmark of punk. The vocals vary from spoken word over soft guitar melody to punk's trademark angry and matter-of-fact rasps. Many of the lyrics are oriented toward political concepts, rebellious as always toward war, materialism, and disillusionment in America. The title of the album itself is a reference to an imposed national speed limit of fifty-five, using it as a metaphor for being held back by authoritarian powers that be from one's real potential. What is pretty rare for a punk-rock album is the fact that the lyrics become positively abstract at times; metaphors in punk are rare enough, considering it's a staple of the genre to be pretty up front with your messages. Instrumentation is usually what you'd expect from a punk band, focusing on rhythm over all, though a funk influence can definitely be heard in the more complex basslines.

Artist: Minutemen
Album: Double Nickels on the Dime
Genre: Punk, Post-punk
Hardness: 2-4
Rating: 8
Best Thing: One to two minute songs are definitely easy on my ADD. Obviously, with 45 songs, you get plenty of variety. Also, Jackass theme is on here. Sweet.
Reminds Me of: Gang of Four, softer flavors of Rancid

Finally for today is Slint's Spiderland (1991). Basically the polar opposite of the last album, considering its songs generally come out to be 6-10 minutes apiece. The whole thing is a fairly standard post-rock affair, which makes a lot of sense - it was one of the first albums to be considered to fall squarely in the "post-rock" genre. It's pretty low key for the most part, but when it gets going, Spiderland tends to lend itself to plenty of distortion but also a lot of non-standard rhythm. Wailing guitars remind me of post-rock and shoegaze while the soft, repeating, and complex melodies seem to be forerunners of the math rock collective. Vocals appear a bit sparingly, but when they do, they tend to be soft and harmonic, blending into the background. It's fairly easy to see the connection between this album and its children. Slint in general and Spiderland in particular bridges a gap between post-rock's humble beginnings (Velvet Underground and various krautrock outfits) and its present, inspiring several high-profile bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky. Elements of ur-grunge can also be detected, particularly in "Nosferatu Man," where the lyrics are alternately spoken and shouted. Overall, a seemingly low-profile album thrust into the spotlight by its timing and innovation.

Artist: Slint
Album: Spiderland
Genre: Post-rock, math rock
Hardness: 1-5
Rating: 8.5
Best Thing: You can hear the influence of this album ooze from its lyrics and bassline and come thundering clear during the crescendo walls of sound near the end of several of the songs.
Reminds Me of: Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden

Schedule for Week Ending 2/20

2011-02-11T16:50:00.005-05:00

How fitting, four hundredth post is a schedule!

Monday - 1100 to 1700 (6 hours)
Tuesday - 1000 to 2000 (16 hours)
Wednesday - 0330 to 1200 (24.5 hours)
Thursday - VACATION (32.5 hours)
Friday - VACATION [with supplemental work to release status :( ] (40 hours)

All these trips so close in temporal proximity is really killing my motivation to work.

Music Exploration #1

2011-02-10T12:18:00.020-05:00

Last night I was in a strange mood. I was sifting through TVTropes as I am apt to do and discovered a band called Bull of Heaven, cited as having the longest recorded piece of music ever. In fact, they have a song called "Like a Wall in Which an Insect Lives and Gnaws" which clocks in at fifty thousand hours, or slightly short of six years. The band is in a genre known as 'drone' which is a minimalistic type of music, using simple patterns and having only slight variations over the long run. Obviously, the music isn't recorded live, but is rather designed by computer, which generates the ridiculously long piece.

Anyway, it sparked a pretty fervent search for other novel genres and music out there. I ended up re-reading a lot of information I'd read before, but it's always good to go back and read about Math Rock and Doom Metal, isn't it? What it all resulted in was igniting a bit more curiosity when it comes to music. So, who's the person I go to for more music to consume? The all-knowing Dana, of course!

I asked for recommendations and I'm working through them right now. Time to review.

The first album I decided to listen through today while working was Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996) by a band called Stereolab. My guess as to their genre would place them somewhere between ambient rock and indie rock, since much of their music is light (some songs have only drums and bassline along with vocals) and it serves very well as a background music to working. I noticed that many of the songs feature vocals in French, which adds to the already-reasonably-noticeable variation between songs.

Artist: Stereolab
Album: Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Genre: Post-rock, lounge rock
Hardness: 1-3
Rating: 7.5
Best Thing: They use moog pretty extensively in a lot of their songs. Awesome.
Reminds Me of: Hammock, Boards of Canada, Heavenly

Next up is Exploded Drawing (1996) by Polvo. The first two songs on the album are fairly standard indie fair, even crossing over just a little with noise at times. The true nature of the album comes out in its third song, though, "Feather of Forgiveness," which has dissonant chords and sine-wave-esque sound zipping off sharply angular guitar riffs. Certain songs also exercise several instruments more associated with Eastern music, with use of sitars and other Asian strings, before zipping off into more conventional indie fare. They seem to have a tendency to play with meter and pacing a lot, as is pretty expected with math rock. Polvo is also a fan of distort, pumping up the hardness of their music considerably at times ("High-Wire Moves") to contrast with slower, lighter pieces. The vocals are generally pretty good, much of the time half-spoken, half-sung over the music. The melodies tend to be fairly repetitive if quite complex.

Artist: Polvo
Album: Exploded Drawing
Genre: Indie rock, math rock
Hardness: 2-5
Rating: 6
Best Thing: The meter changes are interesting, as well as the pacing - many of the songs begin with slow sitar and evolve into faster-paced, more punk-inspired bits.
Reminds Me of: Soundgarden, Nirvana

Animals (2010) by This Town Needs Guns is another math rock album, this one British. All the songs are named after animals, and as is almost a requirement of math rock, each one is pretty complex musically. From the debut song "Chinchilla," it becomes clear that the band is fond of strange time signature and has a style that seems to chase itself across the musical staff. Disjointed jumps from chord to chord are the norm, as are irregular stopping and starting of the tempos. It all comes together quite well with the vocals, which don't seem to follow anything but their own melody. Guitar strokes hop around the scale much more rapidly than in most music; the bass moves to become more guitar-like by playing the melody. This is particularly noticeable in songs like "Badger":

I'm a big fan of the complexity of the rhythms matched up with the mellowness of the lyrics and presentation. The juxtaposition of This Town Needs Guns and Polvo really illustrates each end of the genre - This Town Needs Guns is like jazz, constantly changing melodies, where Polvo sticks to the rock formula and chooses a very complex melody to adhere to.

Artist: This Town Needs Guns
Album: Animals
Genre: Math rock
Hardness: 2
Rating: 8.5
Best Thing: Really great vocals.
Reminds Me of: Incubus

The last album for today is Blonder Tongue Audio Baton (1993) by Swirlies. The title is certainly word salad, and the lyrics tends to lean that way as well. The music is interesting in a dream-like, wall of sound way, and sometimes the lead singer's vocal style and voice reminds me a lot of John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. It's a bit strange moving from This Town Needs Guns to Swirlies, particularly because of the shift from no guitar distortion to heavy distort and use of the effects pedal. This is a signature of shoegaze, however, a method of blending the music into one long, 'bent'-sounding note that encompasses all of the instruments, sometimes even including the vocals.

Artist: Swirlies
Album: Blonder Tongue Audio Baton
Genre: Shoegaze, post-rock
Hardness: 3-5
Rating: 7
Best Thing: Another perfect album for background listening; very ambient and dream-like.
Reminds Me of: They Might Be Giants, Hammock

Why Yo Gabba Gabba is the Best Show Ever

2011-02-08T03:44:00.004-05:00

Evidence below.

Schedule for Week Ending 2/13

2011-02-07T14:50:00.002-05:00

Monday - 1430 to 2400 (9.5 hours)
Tuesday - 1200 to 1800 (15.5 hours)
Wednesday - 1100 to 1900 (23.5 hours)
Thursday - 0800 to 2200 (37.5 hours)
Friday - 1130 to 1600 (42 hours)

Schedule for Week Ending 2/6

2011-02-03T12:43:00.001-05:00

Monday - TRAVEL (8 hours)
Tuesday - TRAVEL (16 hours)
Wednesday - 1600 to 2000 (20 hours)
Thursday - 1100 to 2400 (33 hours)
Friday - 1100 to 1500 (37 hours)

Plus three holiday float to round out the week.

Hawaii Weekend Part 1

2011-01-17T22:25:00.022-05:00

I've been in Hawaii for three whole days now, and man there's a lot to go through. I figured I should start writing it all down while it's fresh in memory. So without further ado!

Friday, January 14

Travel day. My first flight was five hours from Philadelphia to Phoenix. It actually ended up pretty good; I didn't have an assigned seat immediately, so when I brought this up to the counter, they gave me an exit row seat. Plenty of room to stretch out and enjoy the flight, as you can see below. On the way into Phoenix, I was also treated to some spectacular views of what are probably either the Superstition Mountains or the McDowells.

The second leg of my flight took me to Honolulu. It was a bit more cramped and seven hours in coach isn't exactly fun, but it was certainly tolerable with plenty to listen to and a few hundred games of Bubble Blast. When I arrived at the baggage claim and waited for all the luggage to empty out of the chute, my bag was nowhere to be found! I eventually did find it, however, near the baggage services counter.

I was a bit worried about this in the first place. You see, I had tried to reopen the ancient suitcase that morning in order to put a few extra things in it, but the zipper had jammed. Looking closely at the zipper revealed that it had skipped a tooth - in other words, the zipper was jammed.

It was hopelessly jammed. I decided just to leave it closed and I could exacto it open once I arrived at my hotel. Unfortunately, however, it seemed the TSA baggage handlers were feeling inquisitive - the zipper had been forced and the whole bag was unable to close. I approached the desk to ask for some duct tape or something to patch the thing up, resigned to purchase a new piece of luggage in Hawaii. The second I pointed out my bag, to my surprise, the guy at the desk pulled out a new piece of Eddy Bauer luggage to replace it. Free bag to replace one I was going to toss anyway, score.

Anyway, Honolulu airport is basically open air, very few outer walls. I was pretty impressed by the 78*F weather, so I took a picture inside the airport.

I headed to my hotel, accompanied by the fireworks being lit off of the Embassy Hotel. I ordered some room service for dinner and rolled into bed for the night around 10pm Hawaii Standard Time. Keep in mind, that's about 3am my own time! Below is the view from the balcony of my hotel room.

Saturday, January 15

I woke up at about six in the morning and was ready to go by seven. I waited around for a little while and headed over to the USS Arizona Memorial. Admission is completely free and the site is absolutely beautiful. It's a fitting tribute to the hardships that befell Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. There were plaques representing each of the ships which were sunk on that morning, along with a list of their crews, "On Eternal Watch." There were several museum ships in the harbor as well, including the USS Bowfin, shown below with a couple of the aforementioned plaques.

A few more images I took while on land.

The USS Arizona's anchor.

Visible from across the harbor, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar.

BB-63 (USS Missouri) and the USS Arizona Memorial. The Missouri was the setting of the end of World War II, where the Japanese signed a surrender agreement. It has since become a museum ship.

A beautiful day.

Bell and plaque from the USS Arizona.

Draft of FDR's speech announcing the declaration of war on Japan.

Model of the USS Arizona.

The National Park Service provides tickets for exhibitions of the memorial at half hour increments. I managed to get to the park early, so I got an eight o'clock showing. To begin, everyone's herded into a movie theater to watch a short film about the Pearl Harbor attack and the history of the monument and locale. It was informative and quite stirring to learn much more about the attack that brought the United States into World War II.

Next, everyone's herded onto a Navy vessel (a tiny little shuttle boat) over to the memorial. The USS Arizona Memorial is understated but powerful. It consists of a single corridor which spans over the center of the ship without actually touching it. Windows allow park-goers to look down at the ship, permanently left where it sank nearly seventy years ago.

Commemorative plaque.

Those lost.

The USS Arizona leaks oil into the harbor.

The decapitated super structure of the Arizona. It was cut off and salvaged.

View from the inside of the memorial.

View from the boat back to shore.

External view of the monument.

I was done at the Arizona by about ten in the morning, so I decided to head back to the hotel. After a short trip to the beach, I relaxed in my hotel room until a couple of my coworkers (Randy and Becky) told me to meet them for dinner. After trudging over to the Embassy Suites across town, the three of us waited awhile for a table at a place called the Ocean House Restaurant. I had a variety plate that featured shrimp, scallops, and mahi mahi.

After dinner, Randy and I decided to have a day of it tomorrow, planning to head over to Diamond Head and hike up to the top. I ended up falling asleep around ten again after an hour or two just spent relaxing.

Sunday, January 16

Biiig day! I got up and ready, and went down to find Randy in the lobby. We decided just to hoof it to the crater, which was a little over a mile, as shown below.

It wasn't too far of a hike, and climbing up Diamond Head wasn't too rough. The trail was winding and never really all that steep, and getting to the top was pretty rewarding in the view that it provided. Essentially, the hike goes from the crater itself up one of the sides and through to the outside. Toward the end, there are about ninety-nine steps that you get to climb up at once; definitely rough on the calves! Anyway, here are some views.

Early in the morning, before we entered the crater.

Partway up the inside of the crater wall, looking back at the visitor's center. It's weird because once you go through a tunnel to the park itself, you're completely surrounded by the mountain.

View from the top, toward the ocean.

View from the top, toward the ocean.
View from the top, toward Waikiki Beach. You can see my hotel!

View from the top, inland.

Going down was a lot easier than going up, that was for certain. On the way down I utilized Yelp, the most useful application ever, to find a good place for breakfast. Thus, Randy and I headed for Bogart's Cafe, a great little hole in the wall that apparently only accepts cash. I got a delicious breakfast burrito; Randy went with an egg-white omelet. Even he had to admit that we never would have found this wonderful place without Yelp.

We reconvened an hour or so later, deciding to head to the Sony Open for [to be continued!]