Hi, my name is Blogstin

New Toy: Sony Reader Wifi

2011-12-14T17:00:00.000-05:00

Warning: another boring post!

So, I've found a surpirsing lack of documentation online for an often overlooked, but in my estimation, a great eReader, the Sony Reader Wifi. This has bothered me a little and I had a free moment to put into writing how to do small tasks for those deciding upon which eReader to choose.

Options for filling up your device

Calibre
Great free software that you can use not only to download books to your device, but also:
-organize versions
-download and edit metadata to clean your books up
-reformat so the text actually looks good, deDRM (only for the adventurous and if you know where to find the right plugins. I had varying degrees of success on this count.)
-download periodicals (everything but the NYTimes seems to be free)
-find books across all online stores (it searches everything and points you where to go to buy).
All-in-all, it's a nifty little program once you get used to the UI.

Reader Store (Sony)
Their vanilla software that comes on the device is pretty easy to use and seems competatively priced. A Reader Store account creates an Adobe Digital Editions account as well, as that is the way that books are DRMed by choice. Not much to say here, just browse on the device, buy, download, and enjoy.

Google Books
This version of the Sony Reader has a Google Books shortcut hard coded onto the second start page. It is convenient, but is really a portal into the Reader Store's version of Google Books. I have a few Google Books already on my google account (which is my Reader Store login account), however the Google Books bookmark does not show me my already purchased Google Books that are available at books.google.com. In order to get one of those books onto my device, you can use two methods.
-[Sony Reader Browser method] In the browser on the Reader, go to the Google Books website (instead of the shortcut). You can then download the pdf or epub there directly to the device. Touch the top bar in the browser to view the downloading files. Note: don't exit the browser while downloading as it will stop.
-[Home computer method] On your computer, go to google books in your favorite browser there, download, upload the book to Calibre, and then upload to your device that way.

Local library
This is also pretty seamless all from the device. It utilizes the browser and overdrive to get the DRMed book onto your device. Worked just fine for my test book that I borrowed. Nice thing about this is it's free and you don't have to worry about dropping off at the library since the DRM copy of the book will just stop working on your device. Easy.

External store (Kobo)
The one store that I had books to download from is the Kobo store. That store required the use of Adobe Digital Editions, which the Reader can use. So the kobo store's "my library" page allows you to download a link that the Adobe software uses to validate autenticity of the account and then it get's the book and puts it in the "My Digital Editions" folder on the PC. (I haven't gotten this to work on my Lion Mac, I think adobe needs to update it's software). From there, I used Calibre to load the epub onto my device in all it's glory. I had tried this with a kindle before, but it required a conversion that rendered the book almost unreadable. I'm very pleased with the result. One note is that I haven't tried to get books from the Amazon Kindle store to the Reader. I imagine headaches and poorly formatted, DRM stripped ugliness.

DC Summer Nut Brown

2011-12-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

So this blog post and potentially some after it, are largely for my own record keeping and entertainment. It will serve as, more or less, as a glorified journal entry about my home-brew. Most of it will be so I remember what I have done so when my beer tastes less than palatable in 6 weeks, I might be able to find what went wrong. You have been warned.

So, it has been about 7 months since my last brew. Unfortunately, I've lost most of my notes on the previous beers I brewed. They were 2 stouts, 2 Ales, and a lager (I think). They were all using malt extracts or malt syrups, no actual milled malts like I did this time. Also, I'm using hop pellets and wyeast or "smack packs" for added flavor and a more reliable yeast solution.

So beer VI is a Northern English Brown Ale, pulled from a few different recipes here and there with my own technique coming from various books, blogs, and friends that I've come across. I'm far from being technically proficient in the terminology and farther from really understanding some of the tweaks that you can make to the nuts and bolts.

Here's the recipe I used:

milled at the beer store:

1/4 lb Black Patent malt

1/2 lb Dark Cyrstal malt

syrups:

6.6 kg (2 cans) of medium malt extract

hops:

2.5 oz Fuggle hop pellets (added for 60 minutes of boil)

.5 oz Fuggle hop pellets (added at last 5 minutes of boil)

yeast:

1 ... wyeast slap pack (can't remember the name right now)

At the start of this, I slapped my yeast pack so it would activate and puff up. It said that it takes 3 hours to activate at room temp (it had been in the fridge), so I knew that it would not be quite ready when my fermenter was ready to take it. After consulting my expert friend, he said that the wort could sit in the fermenter before taking the yeast and getting sealed up with minimal danger of contamination, so I proceeded with preparing the wort.

In a 2 gallon pot, I heated a gallon of water up to about 155F, turned off the heat and I steeped the malt in a self styled tea bag using cheese cloth. That brewed for 30 minutes at which time I took out the malt and threw it away. I saw some stuff online about a sparge, but it looked kind of optional, so I left it out.

I turned on the heat and once it was close to a boil, I added the 2 cans of malt extract. The guy at the beer store told me that you get more out of the milled stuff pound for pound, but they produce the same effect. That is about 1.4lb of malt syrup is equivalent to 1lb of malts that are steeped. I haven't verified this, but it sounds ok to me.

As this comes to a boil, it gets frothy, but with stirring and removing from the heat for small amounts of time, this goes away and the boil becomes stable and doesn't need 100% of your attention. I then added 2.5 oz of the hop pellets, retaining .5 oz for the end for aroma (or so I'm told).

The hop pellets dissolve and look like they added some silt or small pieces of hops to the mix that rise to the top and give the wort a less smooth and more textured feel. I'm not quite sure if they should have been scooped off or somehow drained off in the end of the boil, but I didn't do anything of the sort and everything in the wort went into the fermenter.

After boiling for 55 minutes or so, I added the last bit of the hops. At 60 minutes, I took off the heat and added the wort to about 2 gallons of lukewarm water already in the sterilized fermenter. I had a little time until the yeast would be ready yet, so I topped it up with hot water to 5 gallons and let it sit.

When the yeast hit 3 hours, it was nice and puffed up in it's package, however the wort was still too warm for the max 75degF that the yeast package said. After sitting in the bath for a little bit with some cold water, it was still on the warm end of things in the 80degF+ range. It was getting late and I had to fly out in a few hours, so I just wanted to be able to seal everything up. I risked it and put the yeast in the 5 gallons of warm wort and sealed it up with an airlock with sanitized water in it.

~~~~~ end recipe ~~~~~

The good news is that it is now happily bubbling away. I had thankfully not killed my yeast and it is now eating all of the sugars in the fermenter and spitting out social sauce and CO2. The plan is for about 2 weeks in the fermenter. I'll then prime with some additional dextrose (basic sugar) that will give the yeast a little something extra to munch on while in the bottle. That will effectively carbonate the beer over the next 4 weeks or so. 6 weeks if you want it to taste as good as it is going to get.

The result of a bottle carbonated system like this, is that there is a little sediment from the priming sugar being eaten by the yeast that will be in each bottle. For that reason, it is best to pour the beer into a beer glass, stopping the pour as soon as you see the dregs start to come out with the beer (really you only lose a few drops because of this).

Contained here is pretty much all I know about brewing beer. Previously, I have never made the malt steeping bag or used any hop pellets (I think everything was the malt extract syrup and I forget what form the hops came in). The hops I used this time produced about 8.5% alpha acidity (I didn't pay too much attention to this as I was just following the recipe). I'll have to read more about this to get a better understanding. Also, I had used dry yeast, which gets sprinkled on the top of the warm wort as it gets put in the fermenter. It get's the job done, but the wyeast allows another opportunity to influence the beers flavor with what goes in it.

That's all for now. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks time.

A Magician's Tools: Save Web Images Without the Right Mouse Button

2011-01-25T12:01:00.017-05:00

So the Windows 7 taskbar is pretty sweet, however it does have its limitations. Ever had something you wanted a functional recycle bin pinned to your taskbar? The Quick Launch toolbar that we know and love from XP is missing by default in Win 7, but it's still available to use and is extremely handy for these cases. Check this 'how to' out: http://www.techspot.com/guides/196-recycle-bin-on-windows-7-taskbar/

After you have reinstated the Quick Launch Toolbar, I've found that the same concept could be expanded. For instance, say you want to download an image from a web page. Google Chrome allows drag and drop saving of images; however if Chrome is maximized, where are you going to put it? Enter the Quick Launch Toolbar (again)! On the freshly reinstated toolbar, drop a shortcut to the desktop from Windows Explorer and you're good to go [image 1]. Just drag any image straight from Chrome to the desktop shortcut [image 2].

Image 1.

Image 2.

This is useful to me since I use my desktop as a temporary workspace. I keep it clean except for what I am working on at that moment. You could use another location just as easily though if you so choose (just drag a shortcut from Explorer to the Quick Launch Toolbar). I've stripped my Quick Launch Toolbar of all other applications, opting to start them from the main taskbar or Start menu and added the Recycle Bin (as per the link above), my 'Super Control Panel' (link), and the Desktop shortcut.

In review, follow these steps:

1. Reinstate the Quick Launch Toolbar per this link.

2. From Windows Explorer, drag the folder you desire to the Quick Launch Toolbar. It will say "Move to Quick Launch" in the hover text.

3. Drag image (or whatever) you wish to move to shortcut in the Quick Launch Toolbar and drop.

Note: There are lots and lots of ways to do similar things...like this, or this, or this. However, the way I highlighted above is the easiest and most useful to me. I hope it's useful to you as well!

A Magician's Tools: What to do? When to do it?

2011-01-14T09:51:00.003-05:00

I'm lucky enough to have a group of friends that does stuff together from time to time. I don't work with them or see them on a daily basis so I only see them when I make time to do so. One tool that has been instrumental for a group decisions is doodle. It's online, doesn't require logins, and is an extremely effective way of getting everyone on the same page without annoyingly protracted email conversations.

The most helpful poll is the "Schedule an Event" which gives your friends possible dates and times for them to give their availability. Also available is one for generic decisions.

This is great for everything from deciding upon a date for a bachelor party for dispersed friends from college to what movie to see on Friday.

A little example:
http://doodle.com/3w8r52m2humhhbqs

The base site:
http://doodle.com

Thanks for turning me onto this site Mr. S.

A Magician's Tools: Fastest way from "new tab" to "directions from home" without having to type/click much

2011-01-04T10:04:00.005-05:00

Techy tip of the day. In Google Chrome, use a search engine to quickly find directions from home in one step.

Instructions:
Alt menu > Options > Basics > Manage (next to default search) > Add
Name: maps.home
Keyword: maps.home
URL: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=from+cn+tower+toronto+ontario+to+%s

(Change the address in the url to your own obviously, separating the spaces with +'s)

Result:
Type maps.home (tab) in the omnibar and your search will produce a map from your house to the place you want to go. Easy peasy.

Additional results:
Use this to easily search sites you often use. More commonly used search engines that I have setup are lifehacker.com, imdb.com, filestube.com, and allrecipes.com. If you are having trouble, let me know and I can help.

Update for the comments:
Here's a couple more examples of working urls. Hopefully the syntax makes more sense after seeing a few different ones (I'll also include my lifehacker search url) I found it by doing a search, finding where the search criteria are in the url and then replacing that portion (making sure not to mess any of the other characters up) with %s, chrome's search replacement characters.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=from+17+main+st+hartleton+union+pa+to+%s

(alternate url syntax that also works)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Badlands+National+Park,+Scenic,+SD,+United+States&daddr=%s

http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all;q=%s

http://lifehacker.com/search/%s/

Let me know if you're still having issues :) thanks.

#89 NZ in review slideshow

2010-04-24T15:45:00.002-04:00

Where did #44 through 88 go? I totally was blogging the entire time I was in New Zealand, but they must have gotten lost... :)

Well, here's a photo montage of our time in NZ. Enjoy!

#43 Ma Akaroa

2009-12-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

Kia ora!

Well, it has been more than a few days since you last heard from me and I do apologize. I also wish that I had a slam dunk excuse for my absence from the blog. I'm afraid I can't offer that to you, but I can give you the skinny on everything that the group has gotten into.

First, we are still in Akaroa. Summer is working at the Bakery, on Rue Jolie. I'm working at Ma Maison. We are living on Rue Lavaud near The Grand Hotel in a place that makes up for its lack of charm with space, price, and location. It is certainly nice to have "our area" again after having it confined to either a dormatory storage rack at a hostel or in the back of Bessie.

The rest of the crew is at Chez la Mer, doing a little WWOOFing to cover their rooms. Chris is at 4 Square, working as a grocer. Christy is at the Madera Hotel on the bar. Liesl is at By the Green cafe. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and celebration back in November. We've gone sea kayaking, hiking, and spent day trips in nearby Christchurch.

I feel much better with my role as a waiter now, though nothing makes me look forward to a career job back in the states more. There is definitely a learning curve to overcome and I have gained great respect for those who wait tables and do it well.

Small Towns

It is amazing what happens when you live in a small town for more than a few weeks. There's one ATM, one grocer, one dairy, one bank, one bakery, one butcher. Everyone who lives here knows each other (and has distinct opinions).

Small Touristy Towns

One thing about Akaroa is that it is a tourist destination. The town alledgedly grows from 500 some to several thousand from Boxing Day (Dec 26) through Janurary. There are 'baches' (pronounced batches) which would be the equivalent of a cabin in Minnesota or a summer home on the east coast. A bach may sit dormant most of the year, but come Boxing Day, they fill up and the town is hopping. Supposedly, that's when all of our work hours pick up and we become travelers with money again.

Small Touristy Expensive Towns

Unfortunate consequence of being a tourist town that is busy from Dec 26 through Janurary: there is nowhere to live. Everything is booked on a per night basis (aka too expensive). Places to live are found by word of mouth, which is how we landed our apartment. The internet is extremely expensive. It's either NZ$2 for 20 min at the cafe, NZ$5 for 50MB on the paid wifi, it's 1 hour free at the library (if you can get on), or for the truely desperate, you can hold your laptop in the air above your head in our place and for someone's unsecured wifi that will allow you to get on and maybe get to one or two pages before it realizes the connection is too weak, but you can't download anything from iTunes and you can't run any substantial downloads. Looking back, I miss the days when I felt I was getting ripped off with the $35/month 5MB/s connection back in Madison. At least you could upload pictures and surf without a ticking clock over your head.

The internet is just one piece of the puzzle. It is expensive to live here, plain and simple. We are thankful that it is supposed to pick up in the next week and we might get more hours at our respective places of business.

Small Touristy Expensive Beautiful Towns

I've vented for the last few paragraphs, but here's the time where I am grateful for where I am, who I am, and everything about our situation.

Akaroa sits on the Banks penninsula, near Christchurch on the south island of New Zealand. An inlet reaches up to Akaroa from the Pacific, offering a bit of gentle beach and the wildlife that goes with such waters such as dolphins, paua, and plenty of fish. The surrounding hills offer great treks with great views that include plenty of sheep.

I would like to thank my parents. Without their loving guidance, I would not be enjoying life like I am today. I would definitely not know phrases like 'sweet as' without you.

My thoughts are constantly with my sister, her hubby, and my niece. I feel a bit weird saying 'my niece' because I still need to actually see her (and not just through the lens of a camera).

Thanks also to my trip-mates, because you lend an air of legitimacy to our travels. What on earth would I be doing here if 4 other, seemingly sane people weren't with me.

Those are my thoughts right now, so I'll have to update more when I have some more time.

#42 Employment

2009-11-20T15:45:00.002-05:00

Whew, yesterday was quite a day. Of the group, 3 of us found jobs in Akaroa.

Bam! Hired on the spot

Summer managed a job at "The Bakery and Cafe," down on Rue Jolie. Christy is right next door from Chez la Mer Backpackers, where we are staying, with a waitressing/bartending position at "Madiera Hotel," a bar and restaurant. Liesl is at "On the Green", near the park a few blocks down Rue Lavaud as a front-end helper in the cafe. Check out the map at the top of the blog. I've added the different places we've been. :)

Chris and I, the only ones that didn't get hired on the spot, but we have several other opportunities. A guy from the Akaroa Village Inn said that they would be hiring and would call me on Monday. They need pickers/lawnwork done at Folly Farm, about 30 minutes away from Akaroa. Chris has a meeting with a job opportunity today and I think something about an office assistant for the Akaroa School District.

All in all, it was a freakishly productive day in assailing our fears of running out of money and being destitute in New Zealand.

Not all fun and games

We have work to do as well...uuuuggh! Liesl and I are working today on a sailboat, the Fox II! We are getting paid today as we are running two chartered groups. We're pretty excited. The rest of the group is doing a little chore work in a horse paddock owned by Roy and Sara to pay for our internet, laundry, and beds here at the hostel.

That's about it for now. Ciao!

#41 Akaroa at last

2009-11-19T03:53:00.001-05:00

written at 9pm NZ on Nov 19

Ahhhh, beautiful Akaroa. More important than the lovely surroundings are what it represents: a rest from wwoofing and a stable home base.

It certainly has been fun getting to know all of the wonderful people that we have met and do the things we've done, but I for one am eager to get to the business of finding a job and a stable locale to call my own. I can't say enough for the hospitality shown by others, but sometimes it is nice not to have to rely on other's kindness for your well being (though they usually get the better bargain).

Akaroa

Akaroa is a beautiful little town past Christchurch on the Banks Peninsula. It is the only French settlement on the islands (before the British established their dominance here) and it certainly is proud of it's heritage (blue, white, and red everywhere). Listed in all our guidebooks as a top-notch hostel is 'Chez la mer' or 'On the sea' as my high-school French would translate. The owner/operator is Sara, from near Madison, Wisconsin. Liesl met her back in the states and after exchanging info, we have linked up and have been offered work in the hostel and the sailing business that Sara and Roy own. The Fox II, is featured in Akaroa's guidebooks as well. In return for helping with a few sailing lessons (which I am excited to start Monday) and cleaning up the hostel a bit, we are able to get our rooms taken care of and even earn a little extra spending money from a weekend manager position in the hostel.

All around the hostel are restaurants, shops, cafes, and bakeries. Sara has the hookup and when we met her this afternoon, she gave us a good idea of who was looking for help as well as the person in charge of a local job placement organization (who we had contacted about wwoofing separately, oddly enough).

Anyways, for the most part, the group is enthused about the job opportunities and the prospect of being in a more stable location. We are creatures of habit and schedules as much as social beings. Having a working schedule (and the pay that goes with it) is rather like a gulp of fresh air after a long dive underwater.

This situation is still tricky, because Christchurch is also a prime target for job finding and settling down. Akaroa is such a beautiful place though... Another argument is that it would be really nice to have a non-hostel living quarters, though as part of our current offers, it would be part of the job payment. It is just too hectic and crazy generally for long term living. Bah! Humbug! So many things to think about. I am giving up for now; we'll discuss that tomorrow after seeing what jobs are available.

#40 Trimming Motueka

2009-11-16T23:17:00.002-05:00

After staying with Ian and Mandy for a few days, we were off to Motueka, up toward Golden Bay. Shaun, Mandy's brother, and his wife, Lisa, took us in for a few days in exchange for a few coats of paint on their house. We were happy to oblige. After painting the house, we were free for the weekend.

Motueka is very near the southern end of the Abel Tasman Track, a multi-day tramp through bush up on the northern end of the South Island. Though Chris was absent in order to catch a ultimate frisbee tournament in Hammer Springs, the rest of the team headed into the wild to do some true backpacking.

Anchorage #2 and Te Puketea Bay

A day's hike up the coastline into Abel Tasman, there's a campground on Torrent Bay called Anchorage. We were glad to get off our feet. That night, after a threat of rain, the sky opened up and it was a gorgeous stargazing night. Save small patches that were still covered by clouds, I think it was the most starry night I've seen ever.

In the morning, a short trip to the other side of the peninsula-ish thing that were were on brought us to our next campsite, Te Puketea Bay. The plan was to head inland for a day hike, but we were all pretty knackered from the previous day and we were seduced by the empty beach, clear skys, and our books.

Though we were happy with the sleeping bags that we got when outfitting for the trip, 4 people sleeping in a 3 man tent, combined with a lack of sleeping pads lent to rough nights. It's not very pleasant to have to wake up every time you need to turn over and relieve whatever side you were sleeping on, which invariably was sore from the hard ground. Needless to say, we were ready to sleep on mattresses again.

Now we've come back through Motueka, saying goodbye to Shaun and Lisa. Currently, we're back in Havelock and it is early morning on the Tuesday (which is midday on Monday for most of you). I'm afraid that my usual attempts at making these things readable and humorous didn't go into this one because I really just wanted to get it out there before I got too far behind again. I apologize for that.

That being said, we're back in the place with amazing views. Here's a snapshot that I took a few minutes ago.

Here are pictures for the last month: All the pictures are tagged with locations, so feel free to click the link to Picasa Web to see the map.

#39 Fresh off the boat

2009-11-11T21:19:00.000-05:00

Scrub-bar: a Skil-saw on a stick.

Quick shot of the Marlboro Sound area from the ferry...

The Longest Driveway

It was quite a stressful time for the Hauge family. A few days prior to our arrival, Ian went into the hospital for a knee replacement. Ian had a post-surgical infection that prevented him from coming home immediately. In addition, Rebecca, Ian and Mandy's daughter moved back home the day we arrived. Without Ian to mediate, Rebecca and Mandy tended to drive each other up the wall (which we found out fairly quickly).

Starting on the 5th, we were given the task of clearing the driveway of weeds. This doesn't seem like a big deal until you first see the weeds that overhang the driveway (they are substantial) and the driveway (it is about a km long and a very steep climb).

The truck pictured above is an interesting one. Every night, the battery runs dead and needs to be started by rolling and popping it into gear, so you had to be very conscious of where it was left. It seemed that every piece of machinery came with similar stipulations. The 4x4 didn't have a key, the clutch didn't stay in place, the mechanism used to get it into reverse required instruction, and you should use engine breaking because the breaks couldn't take the decline of the driveway. The Isuzu of course couldn't be started unless you were parked on the hill, the gas tank had a hole in it, so it could only be filled about 20 liters or else it would spill out and waste the fuel. The scrub bar and chainsaw were mostly stipulation free, but did require getting to know the machinery.

Anyways. That's about it for now. More to come on our most recent adventures. Here's a spoiler: we're painting.

#38 Since Dannevirke

2009-11-11T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a recap of our trip since mid October, when I last truly wrote.

Epicurean

In our final week or so at Epicurean, we finished up our work with mostly weeding. There was this huge black cabbage field that was almost completely overrun. It was pretty brutal work and it took ages to clear just a few meters. As I wrote about before, we had planned on our Halloween party as a big going away party, with which we succeeded. Games and costumes were found and we entertained ourselves to no end. Christy was Rosie the Riveter, Summer was a cop/Fidel Castro, and I was a gladiator. Here's a photo.

Check out the badass tat.

After a morning of saying goodbye to our friends we headed out for Dannevirke, stopping along the way at a tent sale that was going on at the local show grounds. With new tent in hand ("The Beast"), we headed south to pick up Liesl and Chris from the rest of their stay with Kim and Karen.

Wellington

In order to get to the south island, which is where we are headed, one needs to find a ferry to make the journey across the Cook Straight, through the Marlboro Sounds and to Picton. Wellington, located at the extreme southern tip of the North Island was our destination. Eager to try out our new tent (and to prevent any money hemorrhaging from our hands), we stopped along the way at a park and campground a few km off the main road about an hour or so out of Wellington. The place was near Otaki Forks and I've found it on the NZ Travels map which is at the top of the blog if you're curious (this was the night of Nov 1). About 15 km down very windy, very steep, and very narrow unsealed roads we found our destination. A lovely park overlooking a river gorge, where we were able to freedom camp. Freedom camping is a common thing here in New Zealand and is available all over (most beaches and a lot of parks allow camping without paying a fee). The Beast is a 3 man tent so the overflow sleeps in Bessie on her flat folding backseat cushions. The trick about the whole situation is that our bags, previously stuffed in the back of Bessie need removal and repacking into the front two seats.

The morning of the 2nd, we had lots of very important things to do:

1. Visit Cuba Street

2. Walk to Te Papa Museum (national museum of New Zealand)

3. Run out of time and go find another campsite.

Here's a piece of advice: never cook premade spaghetti straight in the can on your camp stove. The taste of aluminum is still in our mouths, blech. However, we did find that our PB&J sandwiches that accompanied the spaghetti to be the best food we had ever had. Weird how that works :).

The morning of the 3rd, we had more important things to do:

1. Coffee on Cuba Street

2. Errands, internet, food

3. Buy a pot

4. Mt. Victoria, offering views of Wellington

5. Miramar Peninsula

6. Head into the hostel for showers and a good rest before the trip to the big south island.

#5 was fun because we got to drive past where my parents lived when they were here before I was born. Unfortunately, an apartment building now resides on the spot, rather than the old house. We also got to see the Weta Cave while we were out there. Weta is the company that did the Lord of the Rings special effects and art, which of course was all shot in New Zealand because of its beautiful landscape and variety of environments.

South Island

The morning of the 4th, we had important things to do:

1. Board the Kaitaki, bound for the South Island.

2. Be amazed by the Marlboro Sound.

3. Find our way from Picton to Ian and Mandy Hauge's for dinner.

4. Be amazed by the view from the Hauge's deck.

More to come. We had a very interesting stay with Ian and Mandy, so stay tuned.

#37 Macrotriponomics

2009-11-05T16:25:00.001-05:00

Here's a bit of catchup since I've been a bit dodgy on my blogging.

Elevator story

In 500 words or less...

The team is myself: ready for a career path change from the software company I was working for in Madison. Summer: my wonderful girlfriend and Bucknell co-alumni. Preparing to enter study as a graduate student, the time for travel seemed either to be either now, or many years from now. Liesl: worked in Summer's lab in Madison and was of the adventurous spirit. Christy: another lab co-worker who signed up for the trip of a lifetime. Chris: like me, ready for a change from the medical software industry, but knew Liesl through their ultimate Frisbee team.
What we've been doing for the past month: WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms). WWOOF is a website/organization that puts those who are traveling, or just looking to help out in touch with people who open their homes, gardens, and pantries in exchange for a bit of labour. This is how we've been able to survive without buying much more than our van (Bessie), a tent (the Beast), some petrol, a ferry ticket, and an odd drink or two.
Where we've been: New Zealand consists of two major islands. They are inventively named the North Island and the South Island. Until very recently we've inhabited the north island exclusively. The Hawkes Bay region is known for their vineyards, thermal pools, and a generally active faultlines (New Zealand is where the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate meet). Hastings, a city in Hawkes Bay, is where we lived, worked, enjoyed the scenery/beaches/rugby matches for the last month, working on two farms; Epicurean and the Phelp's farm. More recently, we have left Hastings and traveled to Wellington, at the extreme southern tip of the north island.
Where we are now: On the 4^th, we took the ferry Kaitaki to the larger, wilder south island, where we are presently. Near Picton, we are situated on a property overlooking a branch of the Marlboro sound. The mountainous terrain surrounds us, a view of the sound is in front of us, spring in New Zealand has arrive and is giving way to summer.
Next up: Though we are not losing any money by WWOOFing at present, and it has been a good way to see the sights while we travel. We are all anxious to get paid positions. After a week or two in this region, we are heading south to the Cantebury region, home of Christchurch and Akaroa, two likely candidates for where we will settle down and get jobs.
I will be writing more detailed updates in the next few days, but this should suffice as a stop-gap as I prepare more detailed accounts of my adventures.

#36 No internet, but we are well

2009-11-02T17:29:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of new posts, but we don't have a consistent internet source. I'll update and really sit down and get pictures uploaded once we get to the south island.

Currently, we have left Epicurean and headed south to Wellington. We went to the Te Papa Museam, Cuba Street (cafes and indian food). We are seeing more sights today. Talk to you all again soon.

Love, Austin

#35 Seals, Dannevegas, Falls

2009-10-24T00:35:00.002-04:00

Car Blog, Part I (written 23/10/2009 6pm)

Sorry I haven't updated this for a week, but not a whole lot has happened since last weekend. We spent the majority of the time on the farm working, and the rest of the time eating and resting, so we can work later. Last Thursday, Chris and Liesl left for Kim and Kate's place down in Dannevirke (or Dannevegas, whenever our host Clyde is around, because I guess it has a reputation for the stuff that goes on there). Summer, Christy, and I were pretty much stuck on the farm as Chris and Liesl had Bessie. That lead to lots of work, food, and cards. Not a whole lot was exciting for the last week, so I'll leave you with just a few notes:

1. Best lunch/breakfast is a grilled cheese and egg sandwich.

2. Garlic is the best thing to plant.

3. Weeding is fun, depending on the type of weeds and the crop you are protecting.

4. Meteor showers are misleadingly named. It's less of a 'shower' and more of a 'drip.'

Disco Explorers

Luckily, when our last day rolled around on Thursday (Friday is Labour Day), Chris and Liesl came up and got us so we could get off the farm for a bit. First stop was the seal colony at Cape Turnagain. A bit of a trek to get out there, through the windy, backcountry routes, but we finally made it to the beach. A few kilometers tramp up the beach, and we were among the seals. There weren't a ton like something you would see on National Geographic, but there were a good number still in habitation. The seals winter there and I suspect that the numbers were thinning out as they left the colony.

Factoid: you should not get between a seal and his escape route to the sea. They get aggressive. Seals bite. The bleeding has gone down, however I don't think any of the bones in my hand are broken, so that's not too bad.

Just kidding about last bit. We were careful not to excite them. However, those weren't the only animals we ran into on our trip. The land next to the beach was privately owned and used for cattle grazing. The herd of cattle were coming right at us on the beach. When we walked by, they looked like they were confused. It's kind of weird seeing cattle on a beach.

Tonight, we are having a bonfire and sleepover with Chris and Liesl's host near Dannevirke. That will have to wait because we're arriving now.

[time passes]

Car Blog, Part II (written 24/10/2009 noon)

Good morning, we have spent a wonderful night with Kim and Karen (Kim is a guy) on their farm. We had some 'weed salad' picked from the garden outside along with some veggie-burgers, potatoes, and a nice cut of beef. After a little rugby on the telly and some playing with the puppies, Max and Ben (pronounced Bin), Chris and Liesl had the fire going. It was a huge bonfire, with several small trees and a bunch of wood on the pile. It took a very long stick to get the marshmallows close enough without burning off our eyebrows. The night was a bit chilly, but the passing clouds allowed stretches where the stars came out and the Orionoid meteors would fall once in a while.

One thing you should know about homes in New Zealand...they rely on layers and hot water bottles to stay warm during the winter. None of that pansy 'heating' that you saps in the states need.

In the morning, unheaping the 20kg worth of blankets off of us, we set to morning chores and breakfast. Kim is hilarious. When I met him last night, he walked up with a rifle on his back and bragged of the several magpies he shot. Side note: Magpies have been in New Zealand for a while, but are not native. They tend to scare away the native birds, so Kim and Karen have little sympathy for them, hence, the shooting. Scrambled eggs, feeding the ducks, feeding the cows, dropping off a dead calf in the ***pit*** (seriously nasty gross), feeding the bulls (not so friendly), spreading out some mushroom feed. The last chore of the morning was the best, since Kim told us two stories. The first was the "Surviving the Northern Lights" and the second, "The Creation of Sam McGee." Oral tales that are really lyric poems. It was very impressive. But that's the kind of thing that you just have to expect from a guy like Kim.

After chores, we said our goodbyes and headed off to Waihi Falls. A bit of a drive from Dannevirke; through lots of backcountry twists and turns. As I type this, that's where I am. I'll pick up the story after the hike (and swim?).

[time passes]

Car Blog, part III (written 24/10/2009 2pm)

Wow. No words, just pictures. We didn't go for a swim; it was too cold, muddy, too swift a current, and the approach wasn't very easy to get in/out. We'll get a good swim in sometime (maybe after summer takes more of a hold in December).

[Pictures to be inserted here]

Next up: back to Dannevirke, lunch, then up to Hastings again to cook dinner at Epicurean for the rest of the Woofers.

Reader feedback

We are going to host a halloween party on the 31st, the day before we leave for Wellington/South Island. We're fresh out of ideas for costumes. Help us!

Also, it might be fun to do a little movie while we're here. We're trying to think of movie plots (or maybe a mock ad or something). If you have any ideas, let us know.

#34 Come on the Bay! Black, White! All right! Come on the Bay!

2009-10-15T15:14:00.002-04:00

What is the meaning of this title? It is a distressingly catchy cheer at the Hawkes Bay rugby team home games.

"Give us a toot!"

Here are two funny points about rugby games in New Zealand:

The advertising is in line with the rest of Kiwi advertisements. The ad is more afraid of being seen as untrue than being an actually persuasive argument.

The 'wave' is an internationally respected sporting event institution. Here however, when the wave comes, it not only includes standing up and waving your arms. It also involves throwing whatever is in your hands high into the air and down into the field area, whether it be a program or empty beer can.

Last night, we attended the Hawkes Bay vs Canterbury rugby game. The two are regional teams akin to the NFL in the states; complete with cheerleaders, facepainted (and ill-tempered) fans, and sold out stands (though on a slightly less grand scale as American Football). Hawkes Bay, ranked number 2 in the Air New Zealand Cup at this point was playing the dominant Canterbury side, ranked atop the field. ...the stage was set. It took a game's length of constant commentary by me, but I think Summer and Christy now have at least a working knowledge of the game. If you want a recap of the game we saw, you'll have to go here because I don't feel capable to use enough Kiwi slang to make it entertaining for you: recap Plus Hawkes Bay lost in the end and I'm still a little too upset about the result.

Bessie is with Chris and Liesl down in Dannevirke as of yestersday, so we needed a ride to the game. The french couple, Antoine and Lity (sp?), were happy to ablidge as they had not seen a rugby game in their 3 months of New Zealand travel either. Before the game, we stopped off at 'Burger Wisconsin,' a burger chain in New Zealand (not 'Wisconsin Burger' as I stated in #32). It lived up to the hype.

When we went to purchase our tickets, we were approached by a guy who was looking to give away free tickets in the stands. Those were $30 tickets that were sold out at this point. He had purchased too many for his business group and so he was simply giving the rest away. Lucky break!

Sorry, no pictures yet, but soon.

I best be going now, as I am starting the weeks last half day of work before the weekend. Cheers!

#33 Losing ourselves

2009-10-14T03:00:00.003-04:00

Some Pictures since last update

Kia ora!

As I write this, we are winding through the New Zealand country side. We were going to hit up the "greatest day hike in New Zealand," however this plan failed to materialize as we first started out a bit too late to take advantage and then we got lost in the New Zealand countryside trying to find a shortcut. Rethinking our plan, we are now heading to the area around Lake Tutira about 30 km north of our current location. We had to double back to get gas after we got lost. Until this point, we've traveled for about 3 hours and we're really only 20 minutes from our starting point, though we now have a full tank of gas. Not an auspicious start, but at least we made it through the windy roads of the New Zealand backcountry without a wreck. [I now stop blogging until after the day's activities]

Te Mata

In the wee hours of the morning, I was able to look across a few kilometers of New Zealand countryside backset by the Pacific Ocean and a beautiful sunrise. The team (those able to awake s piled in to Bessie (from here on out, be advised that we have named the van Ol' Bessie) and headed up the mountain at 5:45 or so, arriving just after 6. The sunrise was something else. There was a distant cloud that blocked the crest of the sun on the horizon, but it was perfectly outlined in gold, which was equally wonderful. Also, as a note, not only did we get up at the crack of dawn; we also had to endure the chilly environment. It was kind of cold, so you should be impressed. :)

Later that day...

Since Taupo didn't work out, we stuck closer to Napier/Hastings. That still left us plenty of action. First, we went up the Pacific Coast Highway just a few km and went to White Pine Bluff Scenic Reserve. There are some huge trees down here. They seem to be very fast growing and numerous. The gigantic White Pines are something to behold.

Next up: Te Ana and Tangoio Falls. Skinny dipping! It was pretty tempting to do so in the pool below Te Ana falls, however it was far too chilly to even think about it. Also, for the parents and family reading this; we would never do such a thing anyways...gross! We did, however, brave the water up to our ankles and took a couple group pictures with the stunning falls in the background. Walking out of the pool, our ankles and feet turned lobster red as the limbs slowly pumped heat back.

After that: It was time to hit the beach. Waipatiki Beach offered some good frisbee and ultimate ninja. For those of you unfamiliar with the game of ultimate ninja...I feel bad for you. Not bad enough for me to go into a full explanation, though. Hopefully there is a wikipedia article out there for you. If I have time, I'll upload a video of Christy, Chris, and Liesl playing on a rock by the ocean. It is a really fun game and has helped us pass the time when we're bored.

That's about all for now. Ciao!

#32 Free Beer!

2009-10-09T02:08:00.000-04:00

...got your attention, didn't I? :)

Wisconsin

We simply can't get away from Wisconsin! Of all things, the best burger place in New Zealand is called "Wisconsin Burger." We find this a little amusing as whenever we say that we are from Wisconsin, people ask if we have had one of their burgers. A bit ironically, all of the beef is grass fed here, which apparently changes the taste a bit (as opposed to the corn fed cows that Americans are used to). I will report back to let you know if they stand up to real American burgers.

Things to do

For those of you reading this unfamiliar with New Zealand geography, the place that we are residing at is along a corridor known for having much thermal springs, along with high siezmic activity. Earlier this century, there was a major earthquake that transformed the land, rising some of it out of the sea in Napier. There are many places to go if you would like to take advantage of the geothermal heat. One such place is called Tarawera Hot Springs. It really is just the side of a hill that drips out some hot water. There are two tubs that were built in order to enjoy.

The great thing about the tubs is that they are off the beaten track (though they are just minutes walk from the main road that runs through the region). Yesterday, we purchased a scrub brush, and drove to the springs. After a quick 10 minute tramp through the woods, we made it safely to the tubs. We hopped in for a nice soak, though it would have been better if the pub right at the entrance of the area was open (so we could enjoy a beer while we waited for fresh water to fill to pool). We had to deal with just having semi-fresh water that was still nice and warm. Also, tainting the experience was the knowledge that the area was supposed to become overcast that night. I have yet to really take advantage of the southern sky and do some good stargazing. What better place than in a natural hot spring, overlooking a gushing river.

I hold out hope that we will be returning that way in the future, so we may take advantage of the tubs for stargazing. It is still early in the spring, so if we venture there again, it will hopefully have warmed up substantially.

Notables

Partial list of things that they don't have in New Zealand:

Real coffee

Ketchup

Enough street signs

Partial list of things they do have in New Zealand:

Nutella

Weird cars

Lots of roundabouts

Overly simplistic ads on the radio like..."We really ARE a credit union!" as if it were in doubt

#31 Blisters & Beaches

2009-10-03T22:44:00.004-04:00

Trip updates

Though we were quite rushed on our first day, things certainly worked out pretty well. We were very lucky to find a great van for pretty cheap (comparatively). Plus we now have a good idea of how to sell the van when we are leaving. We have also lucked out with the place we are working now. We are WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) for free room and board. For 3 1/2 days of work, we get lodging, food, and good company. There are a total of 14 WWOOFers here, which is the most that the farm has ever seen. I have to say, it is quite cramped since there is really only one shower. Our host Clyde, is also hosting three Germans, two Canadians, two French, and two Malaysians along with our group of five Americans.

The work itself has been fulfilling enough so far. Summer and Liesl have become experts at tomato planting (little seedlings into individual planting tubs). Chris, Christy, and I have mainly been planting everything from fennel to cucumbers, along with some hoeing.

We have managed not to spend any real money since getting down here (other than the things on the first day, to get started), which is a good feeling. I am glad to see that WWOOFing is a valid plan and is fulfilling on its own if finding a job and settling down is fruitless.

A couple of notes on New Zealand: 1. it is generally accepted that bundling up is a better solution than turning on the heat. 2. It can rain all day. Without a break. At all. 3. It is amazingly beautiful as I found out first hand, mainly from Saturday's excursion.

Saturday's Excursion

The place is a little known beach up the east coast of the north island. About 20km from Napier and 15km out to the coast on windy, mountainous roads. It is called Aropaonui Beach (as far as we could tell). It is not actually labeled, but the road that leads out to it is called Aropaonui Road, so we believe that is its name. (see the NZ Travels map here:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104653215696284058713.00047403a41d73d5dfad7&z=7

or on the left. It is labeled with a blue push pin for Oct 3rd.)

When the road begins to descend towards the coast, it opens up over a broad valley (pictures). To get to the beach, we had to dodge a couple of sheep and cows in the road, as well as slosh through a couple of mudpits. The beach itself is not marked by anything other than a small sign warning of hiking near here. There was just one other person fishing while we were there, far down the beach. After playing a little in the water and throwing around a frisbee, we decided to hike down past the beach and see what we could find. There, we found a little cove with a rather trecherous decent to get down (see the pictures). After navigating our way down, we got a couple pictures and returned to the van, as it was getting a little dark at that point.

In any case, finding a secluded beach to play around on was a delight.

My pictures are about loaded up, so I'll share those with you and call it a day on the blog. Check em out here:

#30 Rolling

2009-10-01T05:10:00.003-04:00

Emotions: stress (but this is much abated now, after getting the van), excitement, and pride

We successfully have: 1. flown to New Zealand, 2. navigated our way through our first few days in country, 3. purchased a van, 4. gotten phones (except for me), 5. driven on the left side of the road (currently writing on hour 4 of our 6 hour trip to Napier from Auckland), 6. had a lot of fun doing acheivements 1-5.

Day 1

First off, our flight. We left San Francisco in the early hours of Monday, winging it to LA. We ate our last American meals at IHOP and Pizza Hut with Summer's Aunt Echo and Uncle James (along with Addison, Gannon, and Sloan, her cousins). I certainly have enjoyed getting to know Summer's dad's half of the family as I met her Aunt Laura in Denver.

Meeting up with Chris, Christy, and Liesl in the airport, we took a few pictures and started our looong flight on the Qantas Boeing 747 across from late night on the 28th to landing on the morning of the 30th (international date line was crossed a few hours before hitting the NZ coast). After landing, we got through customs quickly enough and rode a shuttle to our hostel called the Pentland Backpacker's Hostel in the Mt Eden neighborhood in Auckland. The animated shuttle driver was kind enough to impart some Auckland geographical knowledge on us. For example, Auckland was built on the site of a bunch of volcanos (38 or something) that are not very big, but are all over the city and surrounding area.

At the hostel, we were happy to drop our stuff off in our tiny room. There was not enough space for our suitcases to be put flat on the floor in between the 5 beds. It was cozy, but nice. In the hostel, there were also a bunch of other travelers. There was a French couple, Dutch couple, a few from Britain, a girl from Germany, and a nice woman from Pueblo Mexico that had lived in California for 7 years.

But there was no rest for the wicked as we had things to do and precious little time to do them. First, National Bank of NZ gave us some money. Then, we hit up Vodafone, to get phone SIM cards and some minutes. This was all just down the street from the hostel. We then walked into downtown (about 40 minutes) in order to see used vans at a car market. We were not happy with the prices and selection, so we went to Starbucks to use the internet. I left to try to unlock my phone at a place across town while the rest of the group shopped around and mailed a couple of prospects. They did great and I did not as they found the best van, being sold by two nice Canadians who were working/traveling in Auckland.

Facts about our van: it is a 1993 Toyota Estima, Green. It has 250,000km on it, but runs well, has new tyres (that's how they spell it here), and a new set of shocks. It seats all 5 of us comfortably with all our stuff, which is a big deal.

Facts about getting lost on the way to the stupid phone repair shop that is supposed to unlock your phone: the streets in Auckland are crazy, they change name all the time, and whenever you walk somewhere, it decides to pour rain. Also, the phone repair place cannot unlock the latest iPhone software version, even though I asked specifically about that on the phone before I made the 40 min walk to the store.

As it had been raining pretty steadily all day, we were all drenched when we got back at 5pm-ish. The Canadians came by with the van that the group had found online, which we liked a lot (and setup the time the next morning to purchase). After a pasta dinner in the hostel's kitchen, around 9pm, we crashed.

That last part was kind of a lie...I crashed. The rest of the team stayed up and played a round of Euchre and hot chocolate, then crashed.

Day 2 (so far)

Our internal clocks, still a little screwy, got us up at about 5. I got up and did a little reading before the day. At 9:30, we met the Canadians to secure the car and transfer ownership at the post office. We left Auckland at 12am, driving on the left side of the road. I drove the first few hours, then Chris, and as I am writing this, Christy is at the helm.

Notes on driving on the left side of the road: It is quite easy to make the switch, just a little weird at first. You need to constantly remind yourslef to look "right, then left" when turing onto a road. Additionally, our van doesn't have a conversion from km/hr to mph; so judging how fast you're really going is a little weird, though you can generally equate 100kph to 65mph. Also, buying petrol is pretty rough, since litres don't mean anything to me. I did the translation once from km/litre to miles/gallon, but I forget the rate now.

Anyways, I writing this on the road and will post it a little later. One final note for this one. It is a good thing that we are using digital cameras and digital pictures are cheap to store, or else we would run out of film. We have been snapping a bunch of pictures out the windows of the car as the country in this part (particularly from Taupo on down to Napier/Hastings) is absolutely gorgeous. Check out Lake Taupo here:

We are on our way to Epicurean in Hastings. Check out the map on the left to keep up with our travels in New Zealand:

Kia ora!

#29 Landed

2009-09-29T18:17:00.000-04:00

We're in, safe and sound. That's all for now, but I'll update soon.

#28 Street cars, the Beatles, and Bondage

2009-09-25T13:27:00.008-04:00

UPDATE: see bottom for new pics

(Good title, right?)

Foggy San Fran

Welcome to the foggy city with the bay. We have had quite the adventures in SF. Tomorrow, we will quit from the United States to embark on our New Zealand adventures. But first! Here's what we did/are doing in SF before going.

Amazing Start

It is really difficult to describe what happened immediately after landing in San Francisco. Our friend Lily, whom we are visiting along with her fiancee, Josh, found a free wine tasting online that we thought might be fun to go to. Hearing free and wine tasting in the same sentence, we thought 'why not.' What we didn't really know until we got there was that it was a Altered Barbie themed art show. It is called Altered Barbie because the artists use the barbie dolls as a medium to point out that Barbie is a model of negative body image and has unhealthy proportions and really shouldn't be used as a role model. A good message to be sure; however it was quite an experience seeing the barbie dolls in duct tape bondage, melted onto a baking pan, and fashioned into a barbie doll dress. Here's a gallery: http://alteredbarbie.com/artwork/exhibition. Prepare to be wowed.

Trolley-wharves

There are those things you must do when visiting any city. We were able to accomplish a lot of those in a short amount of time here. We of course hung on the outside of the trolley cars going down Powell Street, visited Fisherman's Wharf, took a picture with Bush 43, ate seafood on Pier 39. Please see slideshow for picture evidence.

Tour de Fat

My favorite beer is New Belgium's Fat Tire, so it was fun to see New Belgium's traveling festival of beer and bikes called Tour de Fat (http://www.newbelgium.com/tour-de-fat). The event came complete with crazy bikes, good brews, good company, corn, live music, puppet shows. The event was held in Golden Gate Park and is held to promote bikes as a solution to pollution and over-reliance on cars. A worthy event, to be sure.

Rock Band: Beatles

On Friday night, we sat down with 15 people and played through lots of Beatles songs for about 5 hours. It was a marathon to be sure, but the game is a lot of fun, especially when you have a full room of people stop their conversations and sing

Iowa Beats #5 Penn State (again)

This was a good last football game to see before New Zealand. Hello Rugby!

CTFL & bondage

Today, we're hitting up two last American things before leaving tomorrow. First, we are obviously obligated to attend the Folsom Street Fair. For those of you who aren't in tune to the bondage/S&M/fetish scene, it is the largest street fair for that sort of thing in the world and is decidedly 'San Francisco'. Though it isn't necessarily our cup of tea either, par se; we're told that it would be criminal not to attend if we are in town.

Also, we're hitting up the CTFL event this afternoon. Don't know what the CTFL is? I will allow this link to educate you. I'm not sure if I can find the words to do it justice. Needless to say; we're excited for today. http://www.tubeduel.com/sf/events.html

UPDATE: (this is about 360 degrees, check out the angle of the streets)

Panorama of Corona Heights on CleVR.com

#27 Last bit in Minneapolis

2009-09-22T19:00:00.002-04:00

Going Wild

As you may know, I enjoy a game of hockey every once in a while (in addition to most sports). Luckilly, the Wild were playing in town on our brief stop off at my parents house in Minneapolis. Here are a couple pics from the game, and of my family with our wonderful spaghetti bibs, and lastly my grandpa. Here you go (remember to click the talky bubble to see comments!):

Recap of recent travels

Last time I spoke on our travels at length, we were in Custer, SD. In the black hills, our travels manifest in hikes, tests, and Mt. Rushmore. First, we did a great hike to the top of Little Devil's Tower, as discussed in #25. After that, Summer had to get down to business as she was studying for the GRE so she could take it before leaving the states. We made the trip up to Rapid City to allow her to ace the GRE. On our last day, we hit up Mt. Rushmore (see pictures from #26).

When the time had come, we drove through SD to Sioux Falls. We had to stop at Wall Drug for some 5 cent coffee, buffalo burger (for me at least), and pictures with the Wall Drug jackalope (see #26). Then we took the Badlands loop and saw some amazing country and rock. Check this out...

(not sure what the best way to share this is...)

Panorama of Badlands on CleVR.com

After spending a night with the Schwerin's in Sioux Falls, we made it safely into Minneapolis. Some good family time ensues with the Wild game, seeing my grandparents (see above).

That's a fairly linear and boring recap, but the pictures were sure fun to shoot. See Summer's Facebook gallery for some more pictures of our adventures (mostly what you see in the Picasa galleries though).

#26 Black Hills 2

2009-09-20T00:00:00.001-04:00

Black Hills, hikes, Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug etc

Listen y'all! It's only 9 days until the big hop to New Zealand! You should join up as a follower to this blog! (you should be able to follow if you have a google account, I believe)

Summer and I recently arrived back in Minneapolis from the black hills. Horray for internet! No time to talk now, but enjoy the wonderful pictures of our adventures.

Next stop: San Francisco (to visit Josh and Lily) on Wednesday.

pictures...

#25 The Black Hills

2009-09-15T19:00:00.000-04:00

Black Hills

We are now in the black hills at the Scherin's amazing cabin. The place is gorgeous, as is the surrounding country. Yesterday, we hiked up Little Devil's Tower, located here:

View Larger Map

The hike yesterday was amazing with a great view of the back of Mt. Rushmore (can't see the heads), the surrounding hills, the needles highway, and a buffalo that we saw on the way back to the cabin. Here's some pictures (click the little talk window to see comments):

Don't have too much time, so I'll have to leave it at this. Also, check out the Picasa album to see the location of the photos to give you an idea of where we are. I'm still working on getting the location to jump over from iPhoto to Picasa (I had to do the location twice this time :/ ). I'm using Picasa Web Uploader for Mac, which works great for everything except this. Any suggestions??? I'm hearing good things about the web album slideshows. It's really easy and I think I'll continue to use this until my 1GB of space runs out for Picasa.

#24 Rugby replaces Football and Denver/Boulder

2009-09-12T19:00:00.001-04:00

Something that I will miss in NZ: Football.

Football Talk
Iowa's dominant performace against ISU was promising for Iowa's season, since last week definately left something to be desired. Notre Dame losing to Michigan was wonderful (go Big Ten!). Michigan has something special in that freshman QB Forcier. Iowa will have their hands full in October when they meet. Sadly OSU lost to USC in the 4th quarter. Wisconsin winning in OT was good, but it seemed to be a theme that the Big Ten teams were squeaking by both last week and this week.

Basically my cheering hierarchy: Iowa > Big Ten > Anyone else > Big Twelve > Iowa State. I like a strong Big Ten, which makes Iowa victories better. Enough of football.

Rugby Talk

As many of you know, I've played a little rugby in high school and college. For those of you who don't know about rugby, it is similar to football mixed with soccer. Very fluid gameplay is coupled with hard hits.

Some differences in play with football:

There is no play stoppage after someone gets tackled,

there is no blocking allowed,

you can't throw it forward (you can kick it, though),

if the ball goes out of bounds, it is the other team's ball (opposite of football),

touchdowns are called 'tries' and they are 5 points each,

extra points are worth 2 points.

Here are the positions:

I played as a lock (#4/#5) in high school and as a fullback (#15) in college.

A basic correlation to football is #10 fly-half is like the QB, the scrum is the line, fullback is like a free safety.

Ok, enough of sports and back to current events.

Traveling to Colorado

While Summer was in Boston seeing the girls, I was able to drive cross country to Denver, stopping in Iowa City. Summer arrived the next day and we spent two days with Summer's Aunt Laura Rozzi. We also were able to visit University of Colorado - Boulder to see their grad program (Summer met with two possible faculty program runners). I won't comment on these as it is obviously an in process thing and this is going up for all to see on the internet.

After that we went to stay a few days with my sister, Heather and her husband Russ, who are 8 1/2 months pregnant. Heather is pretty much ready for the baby to come out, but overall things have been going very smoothly. It has been wonderful to get to see them for a few days and the baby shower is set for today.

Here are some pictures from Iowa City to Denver (press the talk bubble to see descriptions):

That's enough for now I think. After the shower, we'll be heading up for South Dakota to stay with Liesl in the cabin in the black hills.

#23 Madison Farewell

2009-09-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

Travel Summary

This map has the travel so far. It does not show Summer going to Boston (where she is now), but it shows some of the places we will likely be and the dates at which we traveled them (lines are named for the dates).

View USA Travels in a larger map (click here for more info on the trip)

Goodbye Madison.

Happy trails Madison. Bon Voyage. Outie. After a fun visit from Sheinbein and Connie, Summer and I have both left.

Summer is currently in Boston, visiting with Anestasia, Connie, and Sarah P. It sounds like they've been having a good time. Before departing we held a going away party at the Brocach which was a lot of fun, and thanks for everyone who came out. Here's a slideshow of some hijinks (press the little talk cloud to see comments during the slideshow):

After that night, Summer and Connie took off for Boston and Sheinbein and I were given a few days to catch up before leaving Madison on Monday morning. We went to the Wisc v NIU game, hit up some Madison staples like the capital, Taste of Madison, State Street Brats (for game day), Camp Randall, and Lake Mendota (we went out on a rented Catamaran). Here's some pictures from that:

Goodbye Iowa City.

Monday, I drove to Iowa City and spent evening with Ben, Clark, and his gf Erin. It was an eventful day: Driving Sheinbein to the airport at 3:30AM (in Milwaukee...), driving back through Madison to finish cleaning up, getting to Iowa City, seeing Ben's folks, eating some dinner, playing some shuffleboard/pool at TCB, and 10% of a movie, I was ready to sleep.

Now it is the morning after, and I'm enjoying a cup'o'joe at Java House. I'll be picking up a few books (Matt McCue's book about Coach Brown, An Honorable Run). Please check it out; it is about my brother's and my cross country coach at Regina HS in Iowa City and the lessons taught. Here's a link:

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20090908/OPINION04/909080303/Pay-honor-to-Bob-Brown

After this last cup, I'll be heading out to Denver to pick up Summer and see the pregnant sis.

Talk to you all soon.

#22 A semi-real post (check back in 27 days)

2009-09-01T21:00:00.003-04:00

A few facts:

I have less than a month until I am in New Zealand.

I am staying with Christy in Madison currently and there is no internet in the apartment. Thank god for coffee shops and their free internet!

Being unemployed (but with a plan)

When unemployed, time goes quickly during the day. With no need to hurry through a morning workout, I find myself spending a lot of time running and doing workout stuff. I can't see this keeping up as getting up at 8 and getting out of the shower at 11:30 is not a very reasonable way to operate for extended periods.

The plan (being a smallish landmass in the southern hemisphere) at least offers me some consolation as to my drifting attentions. It also offers something to do. Thinking about what the most efficient towel to bring would normally not be a big deal, but it seems to require at least a few minutes of contemplation in these times.

Along the same thread, I have a nagging fear that I will be a messy traveller and when I direly need a specific item, I will not be able to find it in the 65 liter backpack and overhead size piece of luggage that contain everything I will be using for the next 12 months. This fear, combined with unprecedented amounts of time unplugged from the internet have lead to packing lists and predefined pockets/locations for pretty much everything I have.

I am 27 days from New Zealand, don't have a job (which I am happy about), and am restless :/.

Summer's Birthday

Aug 28 - we had a great time in Madison at the terrace for Christy's last day and Summer's birthday. After some wonderful wings at BWW we hit up Paul's Club. It went pretty well overall. More pictures will be posted a little later on.

Feedback

How do the Picasa embedded picture slideshows work for people looking at the blog? I've found this is a pretty decent way to do it, but I'm open to suggestions! Please leave comments for yea/no!

#21 More links

2009-08-31T21:00:00.000-04:00

More links! (just so I don't loose them, mainly)

http://www.mytrashmail.com/ - don't get spam anymore

http://s4ve.as/ - share files easily!

http://www.songbeat360.com/ - questionable legality, but potentially amazing

#20 Links

2009-08-30T21:00:00.002-04:00

Some cool links

I don't have to use stinking MS Office anymore, YAY! But I did find this as something that might be useful to those who hate the way Excel/Word windows work:

http://74.125.95.132/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://hi.baidu.com/officecm/blog/item/19de9c6dcf6276f2431694b0.html&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhidW2lS5RhGTiEbl6xH0uSFxlYViQ

Stars! Useful for those who don't know the southern sky :)

http://lifehacker.com/5341292/stellarium-turns-your-computer-screen-into-a-planetarium

Chromium (Chrome beta for Mac), not dissing Firefox or Safari, but I like it just a little bit better, though it crashes for certain types of pages.

http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

Some more pictures from Minneapolis:

#19 Seeing Sarah

2009-08-24T19:00:00.001-04:00

In this section: Sprendergast, Christmas party, 12 tired souls, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and P90X!!!

While in Minneapolis, we had a nice visit from Summer and my friend from Bucknell, Sarah from Boston. She stayed the weekend and we had a pretty good time and a lot happened during her visit. On her first night, we were harassed by the bartender at a local tavern because we all had different state's IDs. Summer from Alaska, Sarah from Mass, and myself from Wisconsin. I don't remember having as much trouble in Madison with Summer's extremely suspicious and very-out-of-state DL, but I think that's kind of telling about the different cultures at play.

After a pretty low key day on Friday, we hit up the Madison Sculpture Garden because no visit to Minneapolis is complete without a picture of a big spoon. Pictures to come after Sarah get's back home on Friday.

After my brother, Spencer's Ragnar team finished and all 12 of them invaded my parent's house after the 194 mile trek, we headed to uptown for a Christmas party (complete with crazy sweaters) at Rob's place up on Bryant. We enjoyed some dancing and friends that I hadn't seen for quite a while. Joe and T moved away from Madison about a year ago and they haven't been back, so I've only seen them once or twice this last year.

Sarah shared the P90X workout videos with Summer and me, so we are going to try to get in shape. Sheinbein, if you read this, I think you would be a good workout video trainer person because the guy kind of reminds me of you. He's pretty intense, but the arm/shoulder workout we did this morning, left us sore. Here's some pictures from this weekend, I'll upload the gallery with more when I get them:

#18 Relaxin'

2009-08-16T19:00:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhh...

Finally some peace and quiet. After a very hectic week with the end of work on Wednesday, accompanied with the constant grind of moving/cleaning, Summer and I are finally out of Madison with one suitcase and one backpack per person. We made it into Minneapolis through the rain clouds to meet my friend from high school at his parent's party (Pirate themed!). After visiting our grandmother, Spencer has left to go back to Madison. He was in Minneapolis to see off Sara, who we just heard landed in Oman a few hours ago. After all of the action, I'm finally able to settle down and update the blog and read my email on my parent's porch, which is quite comfortable this afternoon. Here's a picture or two:

Next up, I'll be playing around with developing iPhone apps, reading, and catching up on life and family.

#17 Last day @ work

2009-08-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

I have not been very good about updating during August. Here's the latest schedule.

8/12 - It is my last day at work
8/13 - I will be finishing packing and cleaning tomorrow. Moving stuff tomorrow evening
8/14 - Friday will be a last day at work for Summer. party at the Terrace
8/15 - Saturday we will be leaving to go to Minneapolis
8/27 - We will be back visiting Madison
8/28 - Summer's birthday and Christy's last day
8/4 - Final going away party for Summer and Austin @ the Brocach
9/8 - We will leave Madison after Ryan and Connie both leave
9/9 - We will be in Denver
9/13 - Sister's baby shower
9/14 - We will be in South Dakota
9/16 - We will be in Minneapolis
9/23 - We will be in San Francisco
9/28 - We will be in New Zealand

#16 <1 Week Left at Work...exciting

2009-08-07T21:00:00.000-04:00

Blogging and Photos

Hey guys, sorry it's been over a week since my last update. I'm going to try to update it at least once a week while abroad so I need to get in a good habit of doing it often here.

Does anyone know of a really good way to update a blog with photos? I really don't like the photo upload on Blogger... I've got a Picasa Web Gallery that I'm loading all pictures to. I'll just add the really special ones directly to the blog.

Samba

During restaurant week, we ate at Samba, a Brazilian grill. I highly recommend it. I also had a taste of South America there with a 'pisco sour'. It was nice because when I was about done with my drink a blob of meat was cut off one of the meat skewer that they had being toted around by the rancheros (right?). The meat piece landed in my drink and they brought me a fresh one. Good thing, because pisco is apprently a specialty drink that fetches a good price, though I had just seen it on Three Sheets: Chile so I needed to give it a shot. By the way, Three Sheets is now on Hulu. And their first episode this season is about New Zealand, which was cool to see.

See pictures of Samba (and a picture of Phun, a Phish cover band we saw recently) here:

Samba and Phun

Health care debate

I've been having some good debate with my aunt and uncle about health care, spurred on my some recent posts to the blog. I'm enjoying the debate, something I can do in email form, but I don't think I'm concise enough to attempt it in conversation. I can see getting on some debate show on cable news and getting bombarded and not holding up my side of the argument. Luckily, no one is stupid enough to let me do something like that, and I'm not going to pretend that I'm qualified to be on TV, though they let Glenn Beck on, so it can't be too high a bar. :)

#15 Brute Man-Force

2009-07-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/akathol/MadisonInJuly02?feat=directlink

A wonderful Summerism: Brute-man-force, n. the amount of strength it takes to change my futon from sleep to awake mode.

Boy Bands and Albert Clifford Slater

Our fledgling trivia team of Patrick, Dani, Summer, and myself turned a nail biting finish 4th place Sunday at the Brocach. Our Achilles heel? Boy bands and A.C. Slater's first name. We didn't win anything, but it does give us hope that we will prevail at least once before the end. Also, I have picked out the name of my first born, boy or girl. You guessed it, Albert Clifford Kathol. He'll be known at the Max (their hangout) and around Bayside High as A.C. Kathol, nicknamed "Brute-man-force". On, second thought, maybe not...

Visa Approval

Summer has been approved to travel to New Zealand! That makes everyone all set to take the hop September 28.

New 2nd Cousin or Cousin-once-removed

What do you call the daughter of your father's sister's son (i.e. the daughter of your cousin)? They should just make a new word for that rather than the crazy 'degrees of cousinhood' that they have going on right now.

Welcome to the world Kenna Gatteau! Congrats Ty and Hillary!

UPDATE: instead of doing 'research', I like answers submitted to me :). My Second Cousins Kenna and Aspen are doing well. Thanks Aunt Suzanne!

#14 Lots of stuff going on

2009-07-25T23:00:00.000-04:00

Healthcare Rally

Today, I attended the Wisconsin unified healthcare rally on the capital steps. We walked up to the capital and heard Tammy Baldwin, my favorite member of the house of representatives (happens to represent me). I'm glad to see an outcry of support for my choice for a national healthcare reform, single payor.

Dane County Fair

Some facts for you: Summer has a problem with carival rides that allow you to be in freefall. Goats will bite anything that is within reach. Chicken types are named for how they are best prepared.

These facts add up to Summer getting upset with me for taking her on a carnival ride that put you in a freefall, getting nibbled coats by some adventurous goats, and seeing chickens with breed types: "roasters" and "broilers". Kind of a scary thing, to be named for the way that you will leave the world.

#13 Rants and Endorsements

2009-07-18T21:00:00.000-04:00

Political Section

Every once in a while, you hear or read something that makes you think "Boy, I wish they were in charge." Something like that happened a while back; specifically May 2007 when I read Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them by Al Franken. The book is certainly enjoyable, and it certainly hits the nail on the head about certain figures in the political world. Though the book may not be a perfect platform to base public policy (it was more about why the other side is very wrong), the sense that was used in writing the book indicates to me that the man knows bs when he sees it and has the balls to stand up to it. Some would say he's not dignified for public office, with his comedy roots, but he is smart and goshdarnit, I'm happy that he has been given power. Way to go Minnesota! www.alfranken.com

Healthcare Section

My problem with insurance companies is that their entire business model is based on figuring every way to deny care possible. A system that allows for sick people to be rejected based on preexisting conditions results in them either dying or bankruptcy, which can tie down entire families with debt, is a broken system. A system that requires emergency rooms to treat uninsured Americans and makes the healthcare companies eat the cost of those who can't pay putting the additional cost back onto the premiums of those paying insurance is a broken system. A system that focuses on seeing as many patients, as many tests as possible to drive up the bill while not holding the best possible patient care at the core of every decision is a broken system.

How do you fix it? Single payor. It puts the incentive back onto patient wellness, not care delivery. It should be a national priority to do it, and do it in a SMART way.

Maybe, not a full on England/Canada style plan, but something like a Belgium/Netherlands/Germany style plan, at least to start. Also, to complete the rant, mental health parity. Do it!

#12 Rocks and more!

2009-07-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

New Zealand. Don't expect too much - you will love it. ~Flight of the Concords

Moving to New Zealand News Bulletin 7/17/09

People are social beings. If we don't interact with other people for long periods of time, we'll die. Thank god for that fact because, thanks to talking and random connection #3,691,491,887 we have a potential job offering located on the south island near Christchurch! Liesl met some lovely Americans at the North Face who live in New Zealand and own hostel and tour boat in Akaora, NZ. Here's the link: http://www.chezlamer.co.nz/index.htm It looks amazing. They said that they hire people and that we should contact them. We would be working crew on their sailboat, the Fox II: http://www.akaroafoxsail.co.nz/ In addition, we could work at the hostel doing cleaning and such. I think it would be easy to get jobs at a local tavern/bar/imbibery for the evenings (or those who wouldn't be able to be put up by the same family). This is great news! Liesl asked the couple why they lived in NZ there and they said "you'll see."

This picture is funny

Sorry to you republicans/religious out there, but here's a little something I found amusing

#11 Essen Haus Boots

2009-07-11T15:03:00.000-04:00

UUUUGGGH

Rough morning, but that's what happens when you get to the Essen Haus at 8...

Essen hausing

#10 And he literally exploded

2009-07-10T09:22:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, we had a 4th of July camping experience. Blue Mound State Park offers great views of the surrounding country as it is way up on a big mound (oddly named, I know). Here are some great shots from it. They include an amazingly concealed centipede, us being cute (the sunset in the picture did not come and was pretty amazing in real life), everyone cooking, and everyone eating. We were able to see homegrown fireworks overlooking this town from a bluff supported, 4 story tall viewing tower. Pretty neat! Plus, we had beersbee. Overall, a successful camping weekend.

Directly before we had some birthday celebrations for me and so here are some photos from that...

And I'm going to be incredibly late to my 9:00am meeting today. I hope you're happy!

That's blog #10 and that's all she wrote.

#9 Style

2009-07-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

I just want to note that there is not a whole lot of traveling going on and this blog will really start in earnest when that happens, being more about experiences. Right now I'm just using the blog to iron out writing style and get used to the blog structure.

#8 Austin Goes "America" All Over Everybody's Asses

2009-07-02T23:02:00.000-04:00

Fact: It's July and I'm 24 now

The summer is officially here. I know because concert on the square has started. I think that is the symbol of good ol' American summer. The gnats are out and people sit around with blankets on the grass and there are fireworks (at least at this one there were) and it gets dark after 8. Also, I'm a year older. My birthday is always a bit boring. I don't mean that the people who are around me do a bad job celebrating, but rather that I feel bored that it is my own birthday. There is way too much going on between camping trips, concerts, planning trips to exotic locations, etc to care about a simple birthday, even if it is your own.

New Zealand lesson of the week

Political system:

Republican = National Party (colour: BLUE)

Democrat = Labour Party (colour: RED)

Currently in power, the National Party (prime minister: John Key)

Prime minister is technically appointed based on who controls the parliament by the Governer-General (Anand Satyanand) who is appointed by the head of state, the queen of England.

I don't get how the queen still has a say as to what actually goes on in New Zealand. Even as a figurehead, I'm not sure how I feel about this relationship. Hopefully she doesn't start sending troops to live with us or make us pay extra for paper and tea or I will have to 1776 on her ass. I think it's high time that New Zealand takes a page out of USA!'s book and tells the old lady that she's not the boss of them. Worked out pretty well for us twice; I say it'll work just fine for them too.

On top of being back on the crown's soil, another thing that will be weird is that the politcal system coloring scheme is backwards. I need to figure that out before I join the wrong political movement.

Latest New Zealand trip news

On Wednesday, the entire group going to New Zealand met for the first time. So far, it has been great. We're still looking for a traditional Kiwi shot that we might be able to bond with, but so far; no luck. We met for a few beers at the Brocach since two won't be able to make it to my birthday party on Friday.

Summer has sent out a birthday party invite for Friday. I am looking forward to it more because it involves Friday and friends, less because it was my birthday this week. Then Saturday comes and we'll be on our way to camping for the weekend with Keith and Danielle at Blue Mounds State Park. I wish we could have had more people, but when we booked (thanks Danielle!) the only place where there were spots left were pretty small campsites.

Some background reading for you:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/ (I got a 2/10 on the "National News Quiz" down in the bottom right, which is worse that the statistical average if you just guessed on all of them, which I did :))

http://gizmodo.com/5306475/magnetic-big-wheel-or-ring-of-death

http://gawker.com/5306543/mitt-romneys-foreign-policy-in-powerpoint-form

"Only if America succeeds will freedom endure"

...because apparently the only powers in the world are 1. America, 2. China, 3. Russia, 4. Jihadists, and 5. N. Korea.

Anyways, that's blog #8 and that's all she wrote.

#7 This Post Proves My Inability to Write

2009-06-20T15:45:00.000-04:00

Bittersweet

Yesterday, Summer has started packing her place up. Her lease ends on my birthday, June 30. She will be temporarily staying with me while we both start storing boxes and furniture. Moving has to be one of the most bittersweet feelings in the world. The sweet feeling that you are getting things accomplished and things are actually coming together. The bitter feeling comes because moving just sucks. It's sweaty, disgusting work. The clean feeling you get based on the empty ex-apartment is offset by the mess of crap and semi-packed boxes of the new place. Luckily, we won't have to deal with that feeling until after we fly back from New Zealand. Our 'new place' is actually a 10'x 20' tin can in Middleton. So it's all sweet for us.

Gadgets

I'm typing this blog on my wonderful new Macbook Pro 13". The transition is surprisingly easy as I move away from my behemoth desktop and onto this tiny, slightly underpowered piece of art in engineering. I think I'll be set after the latest bit of computer candy comes in the mail. I got a tiny little 500GB hard drive that is powered solely by the USB cord and the extra RAM that I got for the MacBook when I found myself burning through the 2GB I have now. I knew I should not have installed Windows 7 64 bit as it would eat through my measly ram, but I'm happy that I know enough to be able to install it myself and save about $100.

Party

Last night, Summer and Erin threw the last party in their place. It was a lot of fun, though we were happy when we got some Advil this morning.

Packing

Ok, I can't stay as I have some packing up to do (clearing out Summer's place now).

That's blog #7, and that's all she wrote.

#6 There's a snarler in my nappy! Squiz!

2009-06-18T16:46:00.000-04:00

Above: we are excited like walri.

"Operation Kiwi" Invasion Gaining Additional Coalition Members

We have upped the number of people in our group. We are now at 4 people strong for certain, with a strong possibility of a 5th being added. I can't post their names yet, since I think this would not be a good place for their boss to find out about their departure. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that our hosts would be able to support 5 (four is the maximum). Hopefully we'll all be able to stick together! :(

History Lesson: New Zealand
You better watch out New Zealand, if that is your real name. We're coming for you.

Actually, it is not their original name. Originally known as Te Ika a Maui (North Island) and Te Wai Pounamu (South Island). Te Ika a Maui is apparently considered to be the capital of the culturally Polynesian islands in the Pacific. Maori tribes on New Zealand were prosperous before the English came and mucked it up. They were apparently unfit rulers as in 1840, they negotiated a treaty that established New Zealand's sovereignty (despite keeping the head of state as the British Monarch; a paradox to me, but I guess I've never had a king or queen, so maybe they're wired differently). They were so hasty in declaring independence due to an inability to properly defend against French interests and if they declared themselves a separate nation, I imagine the French wouldn't really care as much. This seems awfully like fighting siblings, only interested in something because it's owned by their little brother. And after the brother gives it up, it's not so important to them.

Cultural Lessons: New Zealand

Some of the more funny lessons from: http://www.nz-immigration.co.nz/lifestyle/slang-words.html

Scarfie = University student

Rattle your dags = hurry up

Mad as a meat axe = angry

Hoon = Young adult driving fast

Drongo = fool (From Flight of the Concords fame)

Cotton buds = Q-tips

Wobbly = a temper tantrum

Whingle = complain

Wop-wops = out of the way location

Who boy, it's going to be fun getting used to these words. I fully intend to interject these into everyday conversation:

Have another scroggin in the sparrow fart, you randy sheilas. I'm going to have a fizzy drink! Ta!

Fin

#5 Celebrate...in slow motion

2009-06-15T19:12:00.001-04:00

#4 Sharing cool things

2009-06-14T18:43:00.000-04:00

I have several things that you may be interested in.

1. Windows 7

I've installed Window's 7 on my home computer...which I have posted to Craigslist :(. I love Window's 7 and you should too. They offer a free version that is remarkably stable and such on microsoft.com. Just do a search for Windows 7 Release Candidate to find a link to download. You will be given a CD key (write it down) and you must burn an image to an install DVD.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx?icid=editorschoice_windows_7

Things that I love about this OS are the toolbar that groups everything under the icon of the program and the previews that you can see when you scroll over them, the aero snap window resizing for reallly easy resizing of windows, and the simple fact that none of the programs I use have had any trouble making the switch. Plus it is FREE until June 2010 (but you have to get it soon because there are limited downloads).

Want a sweet computer that I'm selling with Windows 7 already on it??? For anyone who reads this blog, I'd obviously make a special deal. I've put about $1500 into it and I am sad to see it go, but I'll get a better price for it now. Hell, it also has about 80 GB of music, 109 movies, and 20+ TV shows. http://madison.craigslist.org/sys/1221324620.html This is really more of a joke, since I don't think you guys would be interested, but maybe you know someone who needs an amazing computer.

2. If you can't make the switch, you can use this portable app that does some of the stuff that the Windows 7 taskbar can do.

http://lifehacker.com/5288408/viglance-converts-the-vanilla-taskbar-into-a-windows-7+like-superbar

I've tried it out on XP (it works on Vista too) and it's pretty sweet, but that may be because I'm already used to the Windows 7 taskbar.

3. Lifehacker.com & Gizmodo.com

http://lifehacker.com/ http://gizmodo.com/

Simply awesome sites with great tips, programs, and random stuff.

4. 13 inch Macbook Pro.

My new toy is in Madison (from China) and should be delivered tomorrow. My plan is to chop 200 GB off of my OS X Leopard partition and install Windows 7 via boot camp, though I'll use Leopard as my primary OS. Also, I think it would be a fun project to start to develop iPhone apps, which is something I could potentially do during my free time in New Zealand. I'll need to read up on it. I think Gerry is learning the ropes for that too, so maybe I'll talk to him about it.

5. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-13-padilla-lawsuit_N.htm

Go constitutional rights! Though the prosecution may be a terrorist, it is good to see that there is hope that there are repercussions for those that break the law, even if they are in the government.

6. This picture from shrit.woot.com:

Anyways, that's blog #4, and that's all she wrote.

#3 Buying things and WWOOF

2009-06-09T23:35:00.000-04:00

This is how buying things works. Research for 3 weeks or so, then impulse buy. Technically, it's not an impulse buy because you've researched it for 3 weeks. But it sure feels like impulse. I spent time, mind-fighting with prices and features. Then when you actually get to purchasing the thing, you see the upgrade is only a little bit more. Then then next upgrade is a little bit. Next thing you know it, the prices you haggled with for ages go out the window. The price isn't that much more if you upgrade the ram...and the hard drive...and well you have to get the protection plan, right?

Anyways, a new Macbook Pro is on it's way to Wisconsin. Mark getting a computer to travel with off my list. Next up, a backpack, NZ visa, selling a bunch of stuff.

We now have our first stop in New Zealand laid out. We are going to be working at Epicurean Supplies Ltd in the fields. They are an organic food grower in Hastings (see site) http://www.epicureansupplies.co.nz/. We will be staying there for 2 weeks in October at the start of the summer.

Lily, any thoughts on what to look for in a WWOOF site would be appreciated.

In addition to Liesl, Summer, and I, we may have another travel partner. I won't release her name to the interweb due to work people concerns, but she says she'll get back to us in the next week or so about joining kiwifest 2009. I'll have to kick up the manliness, since I'll be jet-setting around the world with 3 ladies.

Anyways, that's blog #3, and that's all she wrote.

#2 New Zealand is on

2009-06-03T21:02:00.000-04:00

Final day is set at August 12. After that, it's off to Denver for a bit, South Dakota for a spell, and then it's off to the land of the kiwi.

Quitting is tough. Sure I feel like an idiot, but I'm sure it'll work out. It's tough putting in your resignation in this economy but signs of hope are everywhere, right? Look at movies like 'Up'. They make you want to change plans and turning in your tickets to buy a load of balloons. And a dog.

That's something that is hard to resist. Trouncing around a foreign country with a young dog sounds pretty good no? Until you think about getting it back to the United States, it pissing all over the place in someone elses house and all that. See, we're planning on taking some time to travel around and do a work program on organic farms. It's not just farms, but cafes and stuff too. I know you are jelious just reading this.

Obviously, a dog is not going to be condusive to staying at other people's places, especially if it's a pup. So here's my thinking. We go over there. Work/couch surf for a bit. Settle down after a month or more (whenever we get bored), get a dog, appt, temp job. Visa allows us to stay and work for a year.

Anyways, that's blog #2, and that's all she wrote.

#1 - This Day in History

2009-05-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

May 26, 2009: North Korea tests missles and a nuclear bomb. California upholds same-sex marrage ban. Sonia Sotomayor is nomiated by Barack Obama for the suprime court. Austin Kathol writes on his blog for the first time, though stilll not quite sure how he feels about it.

Hello, I'm testing the new blog out. Note that "Blogstin" is short of "Blog of Austin".

We've had a busy couple of weeks. First, going up to Alaska two weeks ago. Zoe's (summer's sister) graduation from high school was a big event for the Rozzi family. Graduations are a mixed blessing. I'm not quite sure they are 100% enjoyable to everyone involved. Graduates are just ready to walk out of that god-forsaken high-school for the last time. Parents, though proud of their son/daughter's acheivements, must tune out for the other 99% of kids that they didn't raise. Family are likewise somewhat a captive audience, especially with less than enthralling staff speakers. The boyfriend of the graduate's sister, though, had a great time.

I was lucky enough to be there when it was very nice, weather-wise, which is a blessing in Alaska. Can't argue with 1 million hours of sunlight a day. Seriously, it is a backwards place where it doesn't get dark until midnight. That makes it a wee bit difficult to not only judge when to go horizontal, but also how to stay awake when you return to real life. I came up with the solution of taking a nap toward the tail end of work. But when your office neighbor shows up asking a question, it is difficult to relay to him that you: A. did not hear the question that he just relayed and B. am going to need a few minutes before words make sense. The sort of disorientation I feel after a nap is on par with a seizure. Yup, you heard it from me, Alaska causes epilepsy.

This weekend, I was back home in Minneapolis. I got to see my pregnant sister (with her pre-world daughter, who is going to be a wonderful addition to the family). As decided by my brother and I, the baby will be a great new resource. It can serve as a paperweight, rental baby for those who need her for their own, baby-free xmas card portraits, and countless other uses.

Anyways, that's blog #1, and that's all she wrote.