I’ve been playing with this really cool GPS app for the iphone. If you are rockin’ a 3g or 3gs, you should be rockin’ this app. It will let you do most of what you’d want to do with a dedicated hand held gps (maps, tracks, waypoints, etc.), plus it lets you download those maps over wifi or the cell network, take and geotag photos, and share your location via FB, twitter, or email, send yourself kmz or gpx files of where you’ve been. In addition to google and bing maps, you can download maps from the totally open source OpenStreetMap, which I didn’t even know about (Zmurder, did you?). I seriously think that in a post iphone world, electronics that are not connected to the interwebs will seem increasingly dumb.

The light version is free and awesome, but I think the 2.99 upgrade is worth it, if for no other reason than to support what they are doing.

Magnificent Seven of JttM,

By now you should have received your invitation to my hitchin’. In case you only read digital text, it will be on August 1st in Tulsa at the University of Tulsa chapel. That is a Saturday at 2:30pm. There is also a website . The “save the date” link is sure to delight.

Since all of you are fairly far away, I don’t expect a full showing, although Mohsen has confirmed his attendance. Obviously, I would be thrilled if you can make it. Even more thrilling would be your presence at the bachelor party festivities which will probably take place on Thursday, July 30.

If you want to get in on that action, please shoot an email to my friend Michael. Some of you might remember him. He and I grew up together and sweat it out in the Hump Dump our sophomore year while you guys were luxuriously lounging on the Brain’s futon in Holcombe. He uses gmail; roadbikr is his handle.

As for the wedding, if you are planning to come and need a place to stay, two of the dudes in the party have extra bedrooms, and I have extra floor space and air mattresses.

Sorry to hijack JttM for my personal uses. I’ll try to keep future posts up to snuff. Thanks!

It’s been a hectic summer for me. Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York. And that’s not counting weekend trips for ultimate. I took pictures of all those places, but had the most fun taking them in Philladelphia (and a few in NYC). Partly because it was my first time in Philly (I really liked the city), but mainly because I got myself a new camera.

I love the camera, and am relearning why I liked taking photos in the first place. I’ll soon be writing a post on why I love it and why, if you enjoy photography, your next camera should be a low-end DSLR, but in the mean time I thought you might want to see a few pics.

Just thought I would give a personal update in the spirit of things! I bought a house! No just kidding… still homeless. We will be leaving Cairo July 22nd and heading to New York. Me an Lizzie are going to stay with her sister a week and poke around New York. Going to see the Lion King, Monty Python Sir Spamalot, the MET (which I plan to spend 2 days in), and maybe some crappy modern art museum that will make me puke (in a modern way I swear). Then heading back to Fayetteville around July 1st. I plan on being in Fayetteville through November and not sure after that.

I’m planning on seeing Daniel in July when me and Joel drive that direction for Grub. And I’m planning on visiting Seattle at some point to visit M and Zmurder. Especially Zmurder considering I haven’t seen him in a hella long time and owe him some fooseball games (even if I have to go to the cheese state?). Me and Joel will be in C town around July 28th to 30th for a computer conference if anyone wants to fly in and hang out! Small possibility I’ll be in San Jose and Vegas during the next six months for conferences too.

After November I’m not sure what I will be doing, I’ve been looking at the visas for southeast Asian countries like Hong Kong and Singapore but I will figure that out once I get back to the States. I made a small blog post on Egypt which you can read here and some pictures here. It is a nice play to visit for a few weeks but a hard place to live in when you are so outside normal society. Anyway, hope to see you guys soon!

ps, anyone been watching the TV show jericho?

I would like to propose we set a date to hang out at Daniel’s cabin or Las Vegas even if its just for a long weekend. Joel suggested Vegas and I think that is a solid idea. We can make this happen.

So what dates are good for everyone? Post in the comments so we can figure this out, I’ll update the thread as they come in.

Ben: I’m fine with either location and pretty easy on dates, maybe late summer or fall sometime?

Also, if this happens and it is at Daniel dad’s cabin maybe ahead of time we can order a Foosball table to be delivered? If we split it would be not too bad.

Thoughts? Ideas?

PS. I’m still in Cairo Egypt and will get back to the states in late June..

When booking my ticket to Cairo (about which I’ll blog more later) I was going to have a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam. Since this seemed too short to actually do anything in Amsterdam I instead opted for a 15 hour layover in hopes I could see a bit of the city. Schiphol Airport is so well set up for travellers, and getting to the city center from it is so easy that 6 hours would have been enough. 8-12 hours would have been ideal. 15 was a bit too much, simply because I got tired and went back to the airport early to sleep a little. Despite the extra time, It was a great way to spend my layover, and I wrote up a little guide, mainly for Renata, who is flying through Amsterdam in a week, but also for anybody else who might get the chance.

1. Download this map of Central Amsterdam. I’ve marked some key locations
2. Sleep (Optional) - I arrived at 6am, it was still dark (and cold) outside and I was tired already. Plus I wound up with extra time to kill. In retrospect this would have been the perfect time for me to snooze in the comfortable looking lounge chairs above Lounge 2 near the resteraunts.
3. Put your extra stuff in a locker - These are scattered around (before you go through passport controll). The smallest ones (still way bigger than I needed) were 5 euros for 24 hrs (pick wisely what you put in or you’ll have to pay again after you open the locker).
4. Head towards the Baggage claim, pass it, and go through Passport control
5. Head out into Schipol Plaza, find a train kiosk and buy a return ticket to Amsterdam Centraal - you can use a credit/debit card and it was 6.20 euros for my return ticket. trains leave about every 10 minutes
6. Figure out which platform you need, go downstairs and get on your train the ride only takes about 15 minutes, and it will be pretty obvious which stop is the Central Station
7. Check out the CityThe station is on the north end of the city center, and all the streets and canals essentially radiate out from there.
8. Allow enough time to get back to the airport for your flight.I’d allow 2.5-3 hrs but I’m usually overly cautious about stuff like that.

It’s a great city to just wander around in, but the “attraction” that I enjoyed were The Van Gogh Museum, which cost 10 euros to get in. It’s a really nice size: you can see the whole thing in an hour, but you can easily spend two or three. Since it’s all about one artist, it feels a lot more unified and coherent than most art museums.

If you are interested, here are Some photos of Amsterdam I took.

You see that guy? That’s me. You see that bummed look on my face? That’s because I’m in Lisbon, at some second rate modern art museum. Outside, they’ve got this Calder sculpture hanging out, by itself in the middle of a vast, ugly concrete expanse, as if it was an afterthought. Why bummed? Because pretty much the exact same sculpture is the signature piece of Seattle’s new Olympic sculpture park. Afterthought in Lisbon. Flagship piece in Seattle.

More pictures from my otherwise awesome trip are here.

I think most of you know but I’m going to be in Cairo Egypt from August 07 through June 08 while Lizzie is studying at the American University. So far it has been great! We landed around August 18th and scrambled to find an apartment we liked, we saw about 6 or 7 the first day and ended up finding one we loved. Unfortunately due to some communication problems what we thought cost 3100 Egyptian pounds was actually 3100 US dollars, it was an amazing 12 foot ceiling view of the nile apartment. Anyway we found another one we liked down the road that was in the right currency and love it. You can see some pictures of it here at my SmugMug setup.

We have an extra room so if anyone wants to visit we will be here all year except for some time during Christmas. It is super cheap to buy food and get around and everyone is incredibly nice! We went to Alexandria this weekend on the Med coast and Lizzie just posted some pictures here.

Life hacker has a post with cool news: Now, when you are usingGoogle Maps for driving directions, you can drag and drop your route if you want to modify it. This is a great feature I’ve wished for ever since I first used mapquest.

I have a proposal for you toss around a bit. My dad has a cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Range, which is about 2.5 hours South of Denver. I’d like to get the whole JttM crew together for some quality chilling and hiking. I’m thinking we should leave the girlies behind (but bring a foosball table). I’d like to do this summer, but I’m leaving for San Fran for five weeks or so (I’m not sure, but I think its from June 20th or so until end of July). Maybe next summer would be better, since we can all start planning now. What do you say?

For the last several years, there has been a team pack rat ice climbing trip to Ouray, CO. I made it two years ago, but not last year. Just as I did, two years ago, I am asking myself why I live so far away from the mountains.

This time, Renata came along, and she’s wondering the same thing. She’ll be done with school soon, and we are thinking that within a year, we will be moving somewhere with mountains (i.e. not of the Ozark variety). Argentina is seeming the most likely, but if we’re in the U.S., Colorado and the Pacific Northwest are contenders.

I’ve got more photos of this years trip on my webpage.

I would like to come to Fayetteville and meet up with some of ya’ll over the break. I think it should be good (and possibly wholesome) fun. Z-Linds said that he’s up in thar from the 22nd - 28th. Will anybody else be in town in that period? We could have a small party or just go to play mini-golf and go to Taco Bell. Doesn’t matter to me…..

MSN ranks Fayetteville, Arkansas as one of its “8 Cheap Places You’d Want to Live.” Springdale did not make the list.

This weekend, I’m a tourist in New York City, and today, I went on a long walk: 8.25 miles. Here’s the route. I think that’s a a one-day personal best for walking.

I’m finally back from my nearly month-long excursion to Turkey and Greece. You can see pictures of my adventures on my Google website. Highlights:

Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul was amazing, my favorite part of the whole trip. The city itself was much more western than I had realized. It felt very much like a European city. And like Seattle, Istanbul is surrounded by various bodies of water, the Bosphorous, Golden Horn, and Sea of Marmara, gracing the city with an abundance of pleasant vistas.

Even despite the declining strength of the dollar and the growing strength of the Turkish lira, the city is comparatively inexpensive. We stayed in clean, comfortable hotels (with an excellent breakfast included) for no more than $30 per person per night. As long as you avoid the overly touristy streets and resturants, you could score a half a liter of excellent Efes beer at an outdoor cafe for only $3 and a nice meal anywhere from $2 to $7. Aside from the affordable prices, the Turkish people were amazingly hospitable (except for those who hang out in the predominately touristy areas and are only interested in swindling tourists’ money). I highly recommend Istanbul.

Ayvalick, Turkey. We called Ayvalick, a small town on the Aegean coast, our “vacation from our vacation”, away from the hectic pace of Istanbul and the tourists traps of Kusadasi. Although I’m sure there were other westerns around, we didn’t meet a single native English speaker in Ayvalick (save one Turkish-American who was visiting his parents in Ayvalick). The beaches are actually a 15 minute bus ride away, and the town itself retains a sleeply, peaceful aura. In the alleys surrounding our hostel, there was the constant din of dozens of neighborhood kids playing and singing, and in the morning there was the occasional (and seemingly appropriate) rooster crow to remind us that, yes, our neighbors keep roosters.

Santorini, Greece. Compared to the Turkish people, the Greek people we encountered were intolerably inhospitable. In fact, I’ve made a personal pledge to never step foot into this country– except for Santorini.

Santorini is an impossibly beautiful island that only a massive volcanic erupiotion could create. Just check out this view. Given its beauty, the island is flooded with tourists, but the endless vistas make up for the crowds and concomitant pollution. And there are still parts of the island, specifically my day trip to Pyrgos, a hilltop town destroyed and since partly abandoned by a 1950 earthquake, that are calmer and more secluded. So, if I ever go to Greece again, it’s to fly into and out of Santorini.

The music at pitchfork was great. In particular I liked Band of Horses, The Mountain Goats, Art Brut (who like Zach I didn’t expect to like), Yo La Tengo, and of course Spoon. Unfortunatly, hour long sets are really to short. The spoon set was good but not great, but the band and crowd were just getting good when they announced they could only do one more song…

Nevertheless, something unexpected made up for the short-set shortcoming: The impromptu hipster fashion show was alone worth the price of admission. I’d say 75% of Chicago’s hipster comunity was in attendance (along with about 5% of the hipster population from the rest of the continent) and several of these folks wanted there to be no doubts about their hipster cred. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a camera for day one (when we saw the most elaborate costumes), but we got some good pics on Sunday for your viewing pleasure.

Also, if you want to check out a few more Chicago pictures from our trip to stay with Zach and Lauren, I’ve got some up on my photo site.

Hey guys,

I know some of you are seasoned travelers and I’m looking to join your ranks. Now that I’m about to have money to burn on travel, I need to find a good system whereby I can buy the cheapest tickets with minimal time wasting. Does anyone know anything about websites/airlines that will notify, via email, of cheap flights based on certain specifications?

Here’s an example:

I’m looking to make two roundtrip flights this summer from Little Rock
to L.A. and Chicago. I was wondering if there is a better way to go
about finding the best deals available than just continually searching
on Expedia, Travelocity, Farechase, Kayak, Sidestep, etc. for the best
deal. I don’t care what the dates are really — just looking to go for
about 5-7 days to each place.

1. Is there any way I can have these kinds of Online Travel Agencies, aggregator search engines (or airline companies themselves) email me when the price for a round-trip
from LIT to ORD for a defined period (e.g. July 7-July 14) of time
drops below a certain number?

2. Secondly, is there any way I can have these kinds of OTAs,
aggregators (or airline companies themselves) email me when the price
for a round-trip from LIT to ORD for an indefinite period of time (e.g.
anytime in July) drops below a certain number?

Appreciate your help/knowledge on this!

If you were considering visiting me here in Chicago, may I suggest the weekend of July 29-30? That weekend, Union Park in Chicagooo will host the Pitchfork Music Festival, perhaps the GREATEST CONCERT EVER (since Fiona Apple opened for the Counting Crows in Fayetteville). Already on board are Spoon, Yo La Tengo, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Art Brut (who suck), Silver Jews, Devendra Banhart, Futureheads, and so many bands I wish I’d heard of.

If you wanna come, you can bunk at my place.

Patagonia is Fucking Awsome. It’s that simple.

I’ve been a lot of places overseas that made me want to stay longer and made me want to go back to them. Every time, though, I’ve said “maybe I’ll come back someday… but there are still so many other places I want to see first.” Patagonia is the first place that I’ve been to that I would gladly take my next overseas trip to.

Most of Patagonia, actually, is basically empty steppe with grazing wild horses, guanaco, and ñandú. But what it lacks in topography and vegitation, it makes up for with amazing skies. There are almost always clouds of somekind. Often they are of two or three distinct kinds at two or three distinct altitudes, and it’s not uncommon for each layer to be moving at a distinct speed or direction. Daniel, you would love it. I didn’t really come to appreciate the clouds until late in the trip, but this folder has some cloud shots I took on the long long bus ride up route 40 to Bariloche. These were all in one day, and the clouds and sunset on this day were nothing out of the ordinary for this area.

The clouds aren’t why I’m gonna go back though. I’ve always been a sucker for mountains, glaciars, and sheer granite walls. Patagonia has lots of mountains, and there is a huge icecap covering much of southern Chile with tons of glaciars spilling off of it in all directions. This by itself would make Patagonia an amazing place. But the most exciting places are where huge granite batholiths and latholiths have been carved up by glaciars. the result is like mixing the southern alps of New Zealand with the carved granite of Yosemite and the active glaciars from Alaska. For my photos of two such places check out this folder, and even better, this folder.

Because there are still so many glaciars down there, much of the really good stuff is accesible only to parties with mountaineering skills and equipment. I hope to be aquiring both over the next year or five and then I’m headed back.

Just thought I´d let you know I´m alive and well in Patagonia. I´ve also been wearing some of my Patagonia brand clothing and it seems perfectly suited for the cold, wet conditions!!!!!

We did some backpacking near Bariloche at the northern end of Patagonia before heading to Rio Gallegos via a 28 hour bus trip. Rio Gallegos is pretty cold and boring, but as the only major town (90,000 people) in the area most of the bus traffic goes through here. later this afternoon we are headed to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile (pictured above) for about a week. Hopefully being there over the holidays will mean fewer people. After that, we head back into Argentina and north a bit to see the Fitz Roys.

Then we´ll make our way (hopefully through the temperate rainforrest of southern chile) back to the sweltering heat of Mendoza. Soon thereafter, Renata will be flying back home for the start of the semmester. I´ll have about two more weeks in Mendoza, during which time Tanner and I are going to climb some peaks in the Cordon del Plata Range. We have a definite goal of a peak at 5,400 meters, and if we are really feeling good at that altitude, a possible goal of a peak just over 6,000 meters.

I´ve bought my ticket home, and will be getting back to fayetteville on the morning of Feb. 1st 2006

sorry I´m missing the fun in f-town over x-mas