No internal monologue

Went to see Talkdemonic at the Cavern last night.  Awesome show, but I felt completely terrible for the band because beside myself and the following band, there were only 3 other people in the audience.  That’s right, 3.  I think this is the least attended show I have ever been to and I felt very awkward.  I did feel pretty good about myself for making it out because I am usually such a hermit and just getting out can be pretty difficult for me sometimes.  I wish A could have come with me because she used to play the viola and would have enjoyed the show, but her schedule got changed around for the whole iPhone hoopla and she couldn’t make it.

As a whole, my journey over to Iceland was nearly completely uneventful.  Upon my arrival to Minneapolis, I discovered as I went to retrieve my bags from the baggage claim that as of 3/14/2007, Icelandair is flying out of the International terminal at MSP and not their main terminal.  This meant that I would have to wait outside to catch the shuttle, which wasn’t too bad, except it was 40 degrees outside, so it was at least a little preparation for the weather that awaited me in Iceland.  After a short shuttle ride to the international terminal, which apparently is on the ass end of the airport, I checked in at the Icelandair ticket counter in what was the quickest check-in I have ever encountered. After walking directly up to the counter and not waiting in line, the agent asked for my passport, typed some stuff into her computer and then no more than 30 seconds later, she was attaching the tags to my bags and directing me to my gate.

The plane was a 757-200 and the interior appeared to have been recently renovated.  The seat was quite comfortable and the plane was more than half empty so I actually had an entire row to myself.  The total flight time was 5 hours 30 minutes, comparable to flying to Kona from LAX.  The coolest thing was that all the announcements were in Icelandic first and then English second. Also, before the plane took off, one of the flight attendants was walking down the aisle with a little cart of newspapers and magazines, but they were speaking in only Icelandic as apparently everything on the cart was in Icelandic only.  The food was edible, nothing great, some kind of swedish meatball/mashed potatoes main dish, along with a cold pasta/ham salad and a chocolate chip brownie as a desert.  The flight as a whole was fine, I tried to sleep, but I never really can sleep on planes, so that ended up being a wash.

Now arriving in Iceland at Keflavik was a bit trippy as everyone from the plane was basically funneled towards “Passport control,” which is like Customs or whoever it is that handles incoming foreigners in the US.  We had to wait at the bottom of some stairs for everything to open up and then at the top we were subjected to another security screening, which seemed odd, but apparently was due to the fact that usually people are on their way to connecting flights to other parts of Europe, so they handled everything at the same time.  The security was comparable to US security, but the screeners were a little bit more polite.  Upon reaching the passport agent, I merely handed over my passport, she stamped it and sent me on my way with not a word spoken.

After that, I went over to pick up my bags and before hitting the baggage claim there was this huge duty-free shop.  Since I was pretty tired, I didn’t look around too much, but I did pick up some Brennivin for Sara and Jason, so that worked out quite well.  After getting my bags I picked up my rental car and upon leaving the airport, it was dark and snowing. I had to walk across a large parking lot to get to my rental car (a red Toyota Yaris), so by the time I got there, I was completely frozen.  I was too frozen and too tired to take a real good look at a map to know where exactly I was headed so I pretty much started up the car and headed out, hoping I would be able to find my way without getting way lost. (Jesus, this has been long)  Now the drive from Keflavik to Reykjavik is about 50 km I think, so it took me about 35 minutes.  I was flipping through the radio stations and came across a French language station, a traditional Icelandic music station, an English evangelical station (WTF?), several Icelandic talk stations, an American pop music station and the BBC world service live, which was pretty awesome.  As I was driving to Reykjavik, I was amazed by how much it kind of reminded me of the Big Island, except covered in snow.  The area right outside of Keflavik kind of looked like a lava field and people had taken pieces of lava and made statues along the road, so there was kind of a weird deja vu sort of feeling.

Upon hitting Reykjavik proper, I realized that I probably should have spent more time actually looking at a map since all the signs are in Icelandic and I in fact had no idea what the address for my hotel was so I was basically driving blind.  I knew my hotel was kind of close to the Hallgrimskirkja, which I could see as it is the tallest structure, so I navigated towards there and decided I would just drive around until I could stop and check a map.  Amazingly enough, when I turned off the main highway and after consulting a map, it turned out I was within blocks of my hotel.  All hopes of fortune were soon dashed when I discovered the parking situation around the hotel kind of sucks.  I drove around for the next 20 minutes trying to find parking and when I finally did, I discovered that although all the nearby spaces are metered parking, it is from 10:00am to 6:00pm and it was only 8:00am.  Luckily, I was able to check in at the hotel and this will have to be continued…

I hope I get better at this.  Since the weather finally got better this weekend after our recent “wintry mix” (BTW, one the stupidest phrases), I finally got around to changing the oil in my motorcycle on Sunday.  Aside from lubing up the chain, this is my first major piece of motorcycle surgery I have attempted and everything was going fine, despite making a major mess spilling oil everywhere, until, as I was tightening up the bolts on the oil filter cover, I was thinking, hmmm, these bolts don’t seem to want to tighten.  I re-read the part about closing everything up and sure enough, it explicitly stated not to overtighten the bolts.  I then went back to tightening the bolts and the next thing I knew *snap*, “FUCKKKKKK,” I overtightened the bottom bolt.  Immediately I began to envision the horrors of what should have been a $15 job into a $150 job, just because I’m a dumbass.  Luckily, in reading up on the forum of knowledge for my motorcycle (www.gstwins.com), this is a pretty common problem and an even easier fix, you just need to have the correct bolt.  Knowing all the dealerships were closed on Sunday, on Monday I started calling around and discovered that apparently no dealership keeps these parts in stock, so I had to go online to order the bolts.  As a temporary stopgap measure, I managed to fashion a replacement bolt out of one I found at a hardware store (not Home Depot, which has fuck all for metric sized bolts) by cutting off the head with my rotary drill.

My other bit of motorcycle shenanigans has to do with my attempt to purchase a pair of electrically heated gloves.  I know a couple posts back I was boo-hooing over how cold my hands get and gloves don’t seem to work, so I began poking around and found a company that makes what appear to be pretty good heated gloves.  I found a place way out in Plano that sells them and when I went out there I found out that they did not have the proper harness in stock.  I still bought the gloves (although even a small appears to be too big) and when they finally got the harness in yesterday, I went out again, bought it and stupidly forgot to check to see if it was in fact the correct harness.  When I got home, I discovered that although I do need the harness and this one would work, I was still lacking the fucking battery connector cable.  So now I’m going to have to order and wait some more.  Luckily the weather has improved, so there no longer is a time issue involved and I can wait, but still, what a fucking pain in the ass.  Also, knowing my luck, were going to have an early spring and it’s going to already start heating up next month, so I may just need to return the gloves altogether.

Cold today, 37 when I left Dallas, but 43 when I hit Arlington, definitely a noticeable change.  I’ve got to remember to start carrying around some kind of hand lotion because my hands are getting kind of fucked up from the cold and wearing gloves.  It still amazes me that the rest of my gear: my jacket and overpants, can keep me warm while my gloves basically do fuck all.  It also seems as though there isn’t much I can do as my next step up would be to get some kind of heated handles for my bike, which would be too expensive, so I’ve basically got to suffer.

Okay, well, I managed to not post anything yesterday, so I figured I’d post today to make up for it. It was about 45 degrees, so not too cold. Nothing exciting to report, standard commute. Since UPS didn’t leave my package, I actually had to go and pick it up, so I got to ride out to somewhere new.  It was quite fun, but I think I really need to get better at turning.  Luckily, I seem to have the power to deflect cars from driving around me as it seems whenever I am out riding, there are never any cars around me (although this could also have to do with the time of day that I usually ride).

While I was waiting at the UPS center for them to find my package, there was this woman who was picking up a COD package.  Apparently she had called and they supposedly had told her it was $234, so she got a money order for that amount; however, the real total was $235 and they would not accept cash to cover the $1.  Now this woman got seriously irate, to the point where she was going to give them $5 for the $1, which they still would not accept.  What was sad and hilarious at the same time was when the woman asked to speak to the manager, who just happened to be standing there also and he goes on to say that they do not accept cash no exceptions.  She then started saying that she was going to sue UPS, which the manager, almost cheerfully, told her to go ahead, they have a “battery of lawyers.”  eventually she ended up leaving to get a money order for $1.  Shitty situation all around.

Another cold morning.  I think it was about 40 degrees, so my hands got cold, but I was able to make it the entire way to work with only minimal discomfort.  Also, once I hit Grand Prairie, there was a train going through which was quite excellent because that changes all the lights to blinking yellow which let me ride straight without stopping all the way into Arlington. I remembered to throw my camera into my bag, but as luck would have it, the sunrise wasn’t anything spectacular this morning.

another cold morning.  Not as cold as yesterday, my hands didn’t really start feeling cold until after about 10 miles. Being able to listen to podcasts has definitely made it less monotonous; however, I hope I’m not seriously fucking up my hearing by having the volume up so high. Oh well, like my cousin, an audiologist told me, by the time my hearing is fucked, there will be technology available to fix it.  Another gorgeous sunrise this morning.  I’m gonna have to start bringing my camera with me so I can take pictures (even though it’ll most likely just be pictures from my parking lot, but oh well).

Onto other issues, after having received my annual stability pay check (which is pretty decent this year) I’ve decided that I’m going to upgrade my good ol’ freeiPod. After doing some research yesterday, I’ve settled on the Cowon A2. It’s a pretty cool device, about the size of a DS Lite, 4″ screen, 10 hours of battery life for videos. That’s outstanding, considering the 5.5g iPods can only do about 4 hours. It also has a buttload of codec support and can even play ac3 audio file.  The only thing I have against it is the fact that it only has a 30gb hard drive.  I suppose for the price it’s alright and it is still 10gb larger than my current iPod, but other than that, it seems like quite the little handheld.  My only other concern is that shortly after I obtain it, I just know they are going to release the A3.  As much as I’d like to have a single device that does everything I need or want, it will probably never exist. As it stands, once I have the A2 my standard device loadout will consist of the A2 for videos, long haul MP3 usage and text reading, the Ditty for podcast listening, and my SDA for PDA types of things, which still leaves with me 3 devices (used to be Axim 30 for video/text reading, T610 cell and 4g iPod).

Okay, while it’s not technically freezing, 41 degrees, with the wind chill factor, it sure as shit felt like it. Upon waking up and feeling how cold it was in my room alone, I seriously considered not going to work today; however, upon further contemplation, I realized I should probably come in today and save it for a colder day. I think this may be the coldest temperature I’ve ever ridden in and thank the gods that it is going to be in the 60s on the way home. It was so cold that my legs and feet even got cold, which they usually don’t.  I’m going to have to seriously research getting some cold weather gloves that actually work or else I’m going to be in some serious trouble.

Enough bitching, on to some observations. I’m definintely feeling more confident as a rider, even being able to swerve out of the way of some asshole who cut me off (although in my freezing state, I was barely able to signal and honk, and luckily, due to my superior situational awareness, I was pretty competent there was no one in the lane I was swerving into).

Too windy today, no riding for me. On the ride home yesterday, I discovered that I can listen to podcasts if I put the volume a little bit louder than normal, which is definitely a plus.

In the interest of keeping a record of my daily commute, which I realize is probably boring to everyone else but myself, I’m going to see if I can manage to maintain a record of the days I commute to work by motorcycle. By way of introduction, let me say that a little bit less than a year ago, I purchased my first motorcycle, which is a 2001 Suzuki GS500. I decided on this bike because it’s not too underpowered, but at the same time, not too overpowered and was within my price range of being around $1,500. I haven’t really ridden the thing seriously until about the last few months and that’s mostly because I’ve moved about 25 miles away from work, which means I can no longer bicycle to work which I had been doing when I used to live about 5 miles away.  (as an aside, one of these days, I have to bicycle to work at least once. Crazy, yes, but it will definitely be an adventure. Maybe I can take that as an opportunity to snap some photos, hmmm). The commute is completely straight forward, south on Inwood, west on Fort Worth Ave. until it turns in 180, and then straight on until I hit work.

This moring I had a bitch of a time trying to get the motorcycle turned around in the garage and I once again managed to have to Austin Power it around.  I’m probably going to end up poking a hole in the wall if I’m not more careful in the future, so I’ll have to continue to experiment.

For once, I think being jet lagged from Maui is a good thing because I popped right up pretty much at 5 when I woke this morning and didn’t really feel tired at all, but that will more than likely change as the week progresses.  I think if I can manage to get out the door by 5:45 that should work out the best, I got to work today at around 6:40, which gives me plenty of time to take off my gear and relax from riding.

The neatest thing happened as I was riding. When I left the house, it was relatively cold (about 55 degrees according to the internets), but just before I got to the intersection with 180 and Westmoreland, the air got slightly warm, almost as if I had crossed some type of temperature gradient. The ride for the rest of the way was rather pleasant, not being too cold. I have to say, I think 55 degrees is about the best temperature for me to ride in. It’s cold, but not too cold and my hands weren’t completely frozen by the time I got to work.

Finally, I’ve got to say, the sunrises in Texas are probably some of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen, beautiful vanilla sky.

1. The Be-Good Tanyas – the littlest bird

2. Aimee Mann – Deathly

3. Arab Strap – (If there’s) no hope for us

4. Asobi Seksu – New Years

5. Beulah – popular mechanics for lovers

6. Bloc Party – this modern love

7. Calexico – Deep Down

8. Albert Hammond – In Transit

9. Broken Social Scene – Da Da Dada

10. Broken Social Scene – Stars and Sons

11. The 6ths – Falling out of love (with you)

12. Cody Chestnutt – Boylife in America

13. James Figurine – You Again