mikeShriver

Kyle and Yuki have let. Their visit only lasted about 10 days. We visited Tolu and Cartagena, and spent some quality time with the beaches, islands and Historical sites on the coast of Colombia. The time there was very enjoyable, and passed too quickly. Torin and I are back at his house, and the sweating, itching and burning are back in full force

I have got another two weeks here fending off the sun, bloodsucking bus, and energetic children with no-one else to bother. This will probably be the most relaxed part of this trip, though. Here, a lot of time is spent indoors, or swimming at the canal. and a significant amount of time will be spent just preparing food.

At this point in my trip I have broken both my primary and spare cameras, and had to send my beloved Fujica home with Kyle. The Canon backup has to be wound with pliers for now, because I have lost the crank. I can make do with it for now.

While we had internet at a hostel in Cartagena, I purchased a used Nikon F2 on Ebay. It will arrive in Seattle while I am here, but will likely be by photographic equipment for the next year or so. I have resolved to get a case for it so that it doesn’t share the same fate as my current equipment. I will probably also purchase a replacement for the ST-801 because I love that camera so much, and it’s glass is so good.

Tags: South America, Travel Journal.

Kyle and Yuki arrived today. Torin and I had a 5 hour bus ride from Sincelejo up to Cartagena to meet them. It was enormously unpleasant and I found myself despising everything about this country. I am severely sunburned, my legs have been aching for 3 days, and my hair is uncontrollable; constantly in my face and unwilling to be tied back. Somehow, settling into our place in Cartagena and eating a huge steak repaired almost all of my complaints (The sunburn still kills).

Torin’s place is surprisingly basic, merely a few cinderblock and concrete walls with fiberglass panels for the ceiling. The plumbing in s minimal, and requires an electric pump be switched on to use. The water is undrinkable, and they collect rainwater from the roof to consume. Electricity is pretty unstable and usually goes out about once a day for an hour or so. Torin’s place is about the most luxurious in the village he inhabits. There is a fridge, which makes it a watering hole for the local kids, at least two of whom seem to be around at all times.

It’s primitive living, although I guess you get used to it. Torin has been there for several months, after all. Three week of this living will be a challenge for me. I’m hoping I will at least pick up some Spanish while I’m here, though.

Tags: South America, Travel Journal.

I have been keeping this journal poorly so far on this trip. Now that I have a chance to sit in a B.A. Cafe, a few moments, I will scribble a few words. The basic overview of the last few days goes thus:

Three nights in a Mendoza hostel, we managed many cafe hours, a winery tour by bicycle, a directionless walk in an endless park, and countless conversations with strangers that never seem to go anywhere.

The days in Mendoza felt different from most of the other international trips I have taken so far. They were more relaxed, for certain, than the days I spent in India. Probably a lot of it has to do with hostel culture- which is inherently laid-back and friendly.

Since coming to Buenos Aires, though, it has gotten more frantic. There is much to see here, and so far we have spent much of our time walking or riding the bus.

Yesterday we stumbled upon a passover festival in Palermo, the neighborhood where Cash and Kristen’s apartment is located. There was a live demonstration of B.A.’s prominent street artists. B.A. is known for its street art scene, and I am going to try to take a tour of the street art here on Wednesday.

I realized in my last entry that I was boring myself, so I stopped writing. Since then I have found it difficult to pick my pen back up, and my journal has thinned out.

Tags: South America, Travel Journal.

Joe’s parents opened up their house and his mom made us a corned beef meal. Here I slept in the most comfortable bed of this trip so far.

Joe’s friend from high school threw a birthday party and it ended up being a lot less of a drunk fest than I was anticipating. We drank homebrews, talked food and gardening and completely blew my initial perception of Joe’s hometown friends into another plane.

Sunday was a day of close deadlines. we missed one Metra train into the city and that put me in a rush to catch my flight. I ended up alone halfway across town with 2 hours to my flight and only a vague working knowledge of the Chicago transit system. With a nearly constant sprint, I ended up making the flight with a few minutes to spare.

Once in Mexico City, I found that my connecting flight was delayed 7 hours and had to spend an uncomfortable night in that airport. I arrived in Buenos Aires after dark, and got a very limited idea of what the looked like only from the shuttle that took me from the airport. When I arrived at the shuttle terminal, I was immediately rushed to the bus terminal where Cash, Kristen and I boarded a 14 hour bus to the Argentine city of Mendoza.

Argentina is a beautiful country. It is more laid back, less hectic than India was. It is nearing Autumn here, and the weather is temperate and pleasant, with lot’s of sun. Once our bus had reached Mendoza in the morning, we settled into our hostel and spent a nice lazy day wandering the city square, drinking coffee and hanging around in the lovely cafes here.

Tags: South America, Travel Journal.

Yesterday we purchased used bikes and we have spent the last few days cycling around the fictional city of Chicago. It’s great to be on a bike, I’ve got to get as much quality cycle time in as I can before the 5 week bicycle famine of South America.

The weather has been unseasonably warm here. The last few days and today made it up into the 60′s, perfect for leisurely two-wheel tours of the city. So far we have hit a few of the major tourist spots, and Today we took the yellow line out to Skokee to check out a violin making school that Joe is interested in attending.

Cornelius’ sister lives in an apartment int he shadow of Wrigley field, directly on the Brown line. L trains roll directly past the windows all night long, casting every shifting geometric shapes on the plaster walls. It’s like something of a great American working-man’s play.

St. Patty’s day was relatively mild. We did get some green beer, but the expected partying never materializes as the major celebrations this city is famous for happened last weekend, just before my arrival here. The streets in this area contain a large number of Irish bars, though, and the streets at night have been pretty rowdy. Usually this happens after we have turned into bed, and is mostly drowned out by the trains.

Tags: South America, Travel Journal.

Joe got in today. We spent a few hours in old town. I picked up a chai spice mix, walked to the Ukrainian village section of town for dinner/lunch.

Tags: South America, Travel Journal.

The first leg of my trip is domestic. I fly to Chicago to spend a week in that city in celebration of St Patty’s day. This portion has been planned for several months, since Cornelius and Shauna left Seattle late last year.

I’ll meet with them today and stay the week at Cornelius’ Sister’s flat in Wrigleyville. I haven’t seen either of them for several months and I expect to spend most of this week in a drunken haze. Joseph Arrives tomorrow, and will serve as my party tour guide for the week. I expect there is no preparing for this.

I don’t feel as if I am traveling internationally and this leaves me worrying about whether I should feel more unprepared for the Journey ahead. It’s also my first time traveling semi-solo. I feel as if I don’t yet know what I am missing for this trip. I’m also starting to think that is a normal part of traveling.

Tags: South America, Travel Journal.

Several months ago, Costco had an amazing sale on HP all-in-one printers. That week, the helpdesk that I work at got hundreds of calls from users asking us to install the drivers for these devices. The device comes with a factory supplied CD-ROM that includes drivers for the printer. It also comes with about 200 MB of additional software: Imaging software, the HP ‘Solution Center,’ something called WebClips, and about eight other programs. I have never seen any of these programs used, and in fact, I couldn’t even begin to guess at the functionality that these applications are supposed to add.

Installing the drivers from the CD is a process that should be simple, and take 15 minutes at most. HP’s installer, though, automatically attempts to install all 200 MB of software that is included on the CD, dragging the process out to 45 minutes or an hour. It is enormously frustrating for an analyst who is measured by call handle times to have to sit and babysit this process. The easy solution is to plug the printer into the machine, turn it on and let Windows automatically install the driver for the printer, then take HP’s CD and place it in the microwave. This process is easy, and takes about 5-15 minutes, depending on how long you spend in a vengeful rage watching the CD meet it’s deserved fate. This will work 100% of the time, and results in a far more stable working printer.

I suppose that it is in the interest of self-preservation, then, that the CD has a large, and very scary looking warning printed directly on it outlining this exact process, and admonishing the user against this course of action:

Caution! The printer’s USB cable must be unplugged before proceeding!
Do not plug USB cable in until instructed to do so by the installation software!

I can only conclude that this is a deliberate gesture of belligerence on HP’s part. I can’t fathom how any company’s QA department could let software this poorly written get into the world is beyond me. I can’t even figure out why HP would have taken the extra effort to write and bundle this software, since it doesn’t seem to add any useful functionality.

The propagation of intentionally deceitful information to get a user to install software they otherwise wouldn’t is a defining characteristic of malware. In this case, the software (hopefully) unintentionally exhibits another characteristic of malware, the disruption of compter function.Any hardware that comes intentionally bundled with such destructive software, is not hardware I am going to recommend to anyone whose computer I am likely to end up supporting, and certainly not hardware I am going to purchase myself, even if there is a great deal on it at Costco.

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One of my favorite things is going to a used bookstore and finding the personal notes left behind in the front covers of my most loved books. Tonight I found this inscription in the front cover of a copy of Vineland, by Thomas Pynchon:

Rachel– after you read this book all things will become clear and understandable– we are all of us in Vineland! -Jose

I found this gem at Mercer Street Books in lower Queen Anne. Left inside this book was a photograph of a hillside very similar to the one on the cover. I liked the copy enough to buy it, and will probably tear into it a third time, soon. So far, each time I have purchased this book, I read it once and left it somewhere for someone else to find, and (hopefully) enjoy.

Tags: favorite things, pynchon, used books, vineland.

I’m extremely excited about the most recent accessories I have purchased for my bike, a set of panniers. These beauties were handmade by a front-room operation here in Seattle called Swift Industries. I first came across these when I was looking for patterns to make some Panniers for myself, and I have been jonesin’ after them for quite some time now. Thanks to some saved up Christmas gift money, I was finally able to put in an order. Since they are hand-made to order, it took about three weeks for me to get them, and it was completely worth the wait.

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Tags: Cycling, fuji superia 200, Panniers, Photography, ST-801, Swift Industries.