Back in the USSR

I’ve been eager to write. The people want to know. Now, you shall hear of my magnificent voyage to the exotic land of Russia and the unusual circumstances surrounding my late return to this world… The World of Stuff.

Or whatever.

I guess the best way to start this story is to explain why I was going in the first place. I met Kate (in Russian, Ekaterina or Katya) while I was in Europe in ’09. Since then, she’s visited me not once but twice. In November, she broke her leg, and then she went to recuperate at her parents’, so I decided to visit her there.

I got my plane tickets and visa through a travel agent (AAA is also a travel agency, apparently). She ended up applying for the visa through CIBT, which is what I was going to do anyway. So I could have done everything myself, and maybe I should have, but it was good to talk to an expert since I had no experience applying for a visa. That is how I rationalize it.

So. I got the visa, no problems (thanks, Margaret!), and I had my tickets. I would fly from Orlando to St. Petersburg, with a layover in Frankfurt, Germany.

Sunday, December 19. My parents dropped me off at Orlando International Airport, which I was starting to get pretty familiar with by now. The check-in line was long, but I didn’t think I would be there for more than half an hour. Or an hour. Or two hours. Boys and girls, I stood there for three hours. The flight was delayed due to snowstorms in Europe and a bunch of people had to rebook their next flights, which was evidently like pulling teeth considering how long it took (that metaphor doesn’t quite work; bear with me).

I wasn’t quite sure whether my flight from FRA to LED (St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad) would have to be rebooked, and I stood around for a while in indecision (so yes, part of the three hours was my fault). A guy and a girl about my age said I should stand in the rebooking line to find out just what I would have to do. Finally, I did. I was able to commiserate with them a bit as the people in front of me in line were taking FOREVER.

Eventually, it was my turn, and I was told that I should reschedule my second flight if I didn’t want to have to run for it. So I instead of arriving in St. Petersburg in the afternoon, I would arrive at night. Kind of threw a wrench into my plans, but there are few things I want to do less than run through an airport trying to catch an airplane (burn myself alive, hug a bear with chainsaw arms, watch TLC).

All that standing around had made me ferociously hungry, so when I was done, I thanked the guy and girl and went off to get some food. Next, I went through airport security, and I did not get selected for the naked body scanner, so I didn’t get groped either. Yay. Once I was at the gate, I had some time to write a blog post (so yeah, I’ve written about some of this stuff already), and then it was finally time to board.

On the plane, I found myself sitting next to the young guy and girl whom I had talked with earlier. Their names were Aaron and Rachel. They looked like a couple of people I used to know from my church youth group. Aaron was olive-skinned and wore glasses above a prominent nose. Rachel had fair skin, twinkling eyes, and an impossibly big smile. I told them about my travel plans, and they said they were going to India to meet some of Aaron’s family.

Most of the time during the flight, I just sat there and didn’t do anything. I can’t sleep sitting upright (or semi-upright, as in a reclined airplane seat), and for some reason I tend avoid to making myself as comfortable as possible on planes, trains, and automobiles. Something in me says it’s not worth the trouble to try to sleep, or to try to listen to whatever music they have playing, or to try to watch the movie.

Finally, we landed in Frankfurt, Germany. I was in Europe again, just like that. It was the morning or the afternoon or something. I didn’t really know.

Frankfurt’s airport is vast and has all the sleek modernness one has come to expect in the reunited Germany. I didn’t want to waste too much time looking around, though. Aaron, Rachel, and I followed the signs for connecting flights, and we were led to an area where all of the terminals could be reached. We had to go in different directions, so I wished them the best, and we parted ways.

I found my gate, and I had lots of time (the other people there were waiting for an earlier flight), so I got out my netbook and found free Wi-Fi. I couldn’t find a place to plug in, though, so I eventually switched to reading a book.

“English major?” asked the woman sitting next to me as I read Hamlet.

“Actually, computer science,” I said. “I just like Hamlet.”

She said she had recognized me from the flight from Orlando. We talked for a while. She said she couldn’t sleep on the plane either. She said that she had taken a computer programming class when she went to the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She was an accountant.

I’d taken an accounting class, I said, but I had already forgotten… which was it…?

“Debits on the left, credits on the right,” she said. (Actually, I still don’t remember, so maybe it was the other way around.)

She was taking a leave of absence to visit her family in Morocco. I let her use my laptop so she could check her Facebook, but it was taking so long to let her log in with all the you-are-logging-in-from-an-unfamiliar-location stuff that I had to leave before she could actually log in. As I was shutting down my netbook, she proposed that we add each other as friends on Facebook, so we wrote our names down for each other on pieces of newspaper that a guy sitting next to her graciously provided. We wished each other good luck, and I entered the gate.

It was dark now, but I could see snow falling outside. I had seen snow before, but not snowfall. It was mesmerizing. But before long, it was time to go. We actually had to go outside and take a bus to the tarmac, where our plane was waiting for us. I thought they didn’t do that anymore, but I guess they do when there are too many planes and not enough gates.

After a pleasantly brief flight of only three hours (but with a meal!), dimly lit highways came into view from the window. Soon, the plane made contact with the ground, and a disturbingly large number of people applauded. I had only heard of people doing that at precarious airports and/or on dilapidated airplanes, and I was fairly sure a Lufthansa Airbus jet and the international airport in a major world city would be pretty top-notch.

As the plane was being taxied, I looked around to see what I could see. I could hardly believe it myself. There I was in the land of Kate.

Here’s something I missed while I was gone: posting links. This is a good one that will give you some things to think about this New Year. (Via waxy.org)

Have yourself an early little Christmas

I went to my parents’ on Friday night, and we celebrated Christmas early since I’m going to be in Russia for the holiday. We had a big fancy dinner and everything. Oh yeah, and presents. I got more warm clothes.

So here I am, once again blogging at Orlando International Airport. The snowstorms in Europe have delayed my flight by a couple of hours, causing me to have to take a later flight to St. Petersburg. Hopefully everything will work out okay. At least I’m not like the sad people at the gate next to us, whose flight to London is delayed ten hours.

Just as my last international flight from this airport (to London, as a matter of fact) was filled with British families going home from Disney World, so this flight to Germany is filled with Germans going home from Disney World. Well, not all of them are. Some people are catching a flight from Germany to India. Poor them; I was behind them in line at the check-in counter, and because the flight was delayed they would miss their flight to India, and they didn’t have the papers to be able to stay. Not sure what happened to them.

Incidentally, I stood in that line for three hours. Much of that time I was waiting to rebook the flight to St. Petersburg.

Also, I’m happy to report that I didn’t have to go through the evil naked body scanner or get groped. Others weren’t so lucky. I heard a TSA agent say “I need a female over here,” and saw a girl younger than me get invasively patted down.

As I said, hopefully the rest of my journey will go smoothly. I think things will work out.

In Russia, Jordon visits YOU!

The rumors are true! I’m going to Russia soon to visit Kate.

“But Jordon,” you say, slowly taking off your glasses with a gaze of concern mixed with disbelief. “It’s winter in Russia. It’s cold in winter in Russia!”

I’m aware of that. But she’s at her parents’ place, recuperating from an accident. No, it’s not serious, but it’s not too pleasant for her either. I’ve been wanting to visit her, so I figured now would be a good time.

“All right,” you say, leaning back in your chair, twirling your straw in a glass that you didn’t have a moment ago. “But when did you decide to do this? Are you prepared? Do you have a passport?”

Of course I have a passport. I went to, like, a bazillion countries last year, remember? I decided last month that I wanted to go, and I got plane tickets and a visa. I’m all set.

“What’s your itinerary?” you say, raising an eyebrow.

Well, I’m really not there for tourism. But on Sunday—

“This Sunday??”

—this Sunday—I’m setting off for Saint Petersburg, and I’ll be arriving there the next day. I’ll have a few days there before I can go to Kate’s hometown. Then, after spending time with her there, I’ll come back. I’ll be back here before classes start in January.

“And you have warm clothes, right? Lots of them? You’re going to freeze. You’re going to die, like, literally.”

Thanks. Yeah, I do.

“Do you have a hat?”

I think so.

“You’d better make sure. Did you know 90% of the heat from your body escapes from your head?”

I don’t think it’s that m—

“And gloves. And you have boots, right? You’ll be walking through the snow. There will be a lot of snow there.”

I’ve got it covered.

“What is in Russia, anyway, besides snow? Oh, are you going to see that weird colorful church with the big things?”

That’s in Moscow.

“And…?”

No.

Esperanto in the USA

Last year, just before Andy and I left for our European vacation, Andy made a quick trip to St. Louis for Esperanto-USA‘s national congress (convention). At the time, I said,

Although he makes spontaneous trips like that all the time, I wasn’t ready to take a plane trip halfway across the country on a few days’ notice. He called me a few times and seemed to be having a good time. I wish I could have been there. Maybe we can go together next year with some more planning.

Well, with a little more planning, we’re going. This year’s congress is in Washington, DC, which I first visited only a few months ago with some other friends. There were piles of snow everywhere then, and now it’s probably as hot as it is here, so that should be interesting. Oh, and I have my own camera this time!

I’m in Gainesville, and Andy is in South Florida, but isn’t stopping us from traveling together. Tomorrow, Andy’s taking a flight that goes from Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville and then to Baltimore. I’m going to get on the plane in Jacksonville. Andy’s dad is going to pick us up in Baltimore and take us to Bethesda, Maryland, where the congress actually is. We’ll be staying with friends of Andy’s dad. On the way home, Andy and I (and Andy’s dad’s car) are taking the Auto Train from Lorton, Virginia, to Sanford, Florida, overnight. From there we’ll drive back to Gainesville, hopefully in time for my class.

It’s funny. I never used to consider myself a big traveler. Before last year, I had only flown in an airplane twice. Tomorrow I’ll have flown five times in 369 days!

Anyway, when we’re not traveling, we’ll be checking out the sights in Washington and spending time with some cool Esperantists from throughout the country. I expect to have a good time and do a lot of interesting stuff. I’ll be sure to write all about it when I get back.

Wired presents: science! How to Make a Solar Cell with Donuts and Tea.

A capital weekend

In my last post, I talked about how I went to Washington, DC last Friday. It was a big day. I rode in a limo, an airplane, and a train; I saw snow for the first time; and I almost literally rubbed elbows with a presidential appointee. You’ll have to go back and read about it if you want the deets. At this point in the story, it’s Saturday morning, and we’re getting ready to go to Free Culture Conference 2010, which is what we went to Washington for.

The four of us set out with Gavin to George Washington University, which was only a few stops away on the subway. Unlike the University of Florida, GWU is an urban university with its city’s street grid running right through it. We walked quite a few snow-covered blocks to get to the right building, which was at the edge of the campus. We got our first glimpse of the Washington Monument as we approached the building.

We arrived late. We checked in and got the t-shirts we had each bought upon registering for the conference. There were two designs to choose from. Mark, Kris, and Jennifer all chose one with a drawing with a pile of electronics and stuff, and I chose the other, which had the copyleft symbol.

All of the day’s events were held in a particular lecture hall. First, some panelists were discussing net neutrality and similar issues. One of them was a guy from the FCC, which I thought was pretty interesting. I was still tired, and I was trying to warm up due to it having been extremely cold outside, but I tried to pay as much attention as I could. Next, there was a speaker who talked about fair use, an important but increasingly ignored part of copyright law. After that, there was another panel with speakers talking about open access, which I thought was especially interesting because I don’t know as much about it as I do about other aspects of the free culture movement.

For lunch, the four of us followed Gavin and some other people to Potbelly Sandwich Shop, which is apparently a chain. This particular location was off Pennsylvania Avenue, just a block away from the White House. We were so close that I could get a glimpse of it. I wanted to steal away from the group for a little while to check it out, but I figured I wouldn’t have time. I got a large sandwich and a cookie, which ended up being too much food. I ate it anyway, figuring I wouldn’t have to eat as much for dinner.

Back at the conference, there was a keynote speaker, a panel about open educational resources, and then another keynote by Jonathan Zittrain, perhaps best known as the author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. (If that still doesn’t ring a bell, he appeared on The Colbert Report to promote the book.) Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make it to the conference, so he delivered his address via a video conference. I expected it to be boring since he wasn’t actually there, but his presentation was easily the most entertaining. One of his main themes was to explore the different ways people have used the Internet to obtain information. At different times he brought up examples such as an old newsgroup posting, a Yahoo Answers question, and an Amazon Mechanical Turk task (all of which asked, “What’s the difference between vanilla and French vanilla ice cream?”). And, like any good speaker, he answered questions at the end. It was as if he were actually in the room.

With that, the official events for the day ended, and we had some time to kill before the evening festivities. So the four of us decided to walk toward the Mall and see what we could see. It was really cold, and I didn’t bring my gloves because they made it hard for me to use the camera that I borrowed from my dad.

It got dark by the time we reached the Washington Monument. After posing for some pictures there, we walked to the World War II Memorial, where we got a picture with Florida’s pillar (which still had a bit of snow on it). It was very cold, and my hands were so cold that I felt like my thumbnails were going to pop off, but we continued toward the Lincoln Memorial, walking alongside the reflecting pool and trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) not to slip on the ice. The walk seemed to take forever. I actually saw some people walking on the pool, which had frozen over, and wondered if they had an easier time.

Finally, we made it to the Lincoln Memorial. It was lit up and still had a ton of snow on it. We made our way up the small section of the steps that had actually been shoveled.

You know how, in the movies, someone goes to the Lincoln Memorial and it’s all quiet and there’s no one around except for them and the giant statue of Abraham Lincoln, which somehow inspires them or gives them a chance to reflect on whatever they want to do? It’s not like that in real life. I mean, there are other people there, so it kind of ruins any moment you might have. But it is pretty quiet. There are signs asking you to be quiet, and it really feels like a religious shrine to Abraham Lincoln, as if he were some sort of god or something. The place looks like a Greek temple, after all.

We wandered around a bit. I read the text of the Gettysburg Address, which was engraved on one wall. We also went to the gift shop. We wanted to have our picture taken in front of the statue of Lincoln, so we got someone to do it for us.

By then, everyone was really cold, so we decided to head toward George Washington University’s student union, where the after-conference festivities would be held. Fortunately, we weren’t too far away, and we were even early. The plan was that everyone would meet to go bowling, but no one was really there yet, so we went to the restaurant next to the bowling alley. There were a lot of TVs there, and there happened to be a Gator basketball game on. We got to cheer on our school for a few minutes and then watch them lose. Then we got some food. I got some chicken strips and fries, which also ended up being too much food.

After that, we made our way over to the bowling alley, where Gavin and some other people from the conference were bowling. I didn’t feel like joining them, so I just hung out until everyone was done. Then we went back to Gavin’s apartment with him.

On Sunday morning, the four of us left Gavin’s apartment and set out back into Washington. We had considered attending the second day of the conference, but we would only have a few hours there, so we decided to do a little more sightseeing instead. It wasn’t at all cloudy that day, so it was warmer and more pleasant.

We started by going to the White House, which, it turns out, is next to the Treasury. The Treasury is much larger and more imposing, but it’s the White House that always has tourists in front of it. We were at the front of the building, which doesn’t seem to be the side where most people have their pictures taken. It’s a lot closer to the street, though, so we got some good pictures. Then we walked down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol, passing by all the three-letter-acronym buildings (DoJ, FBI, EPA, FTC, IRS…). After what seemed like forever, we made it to the Capitol.

Before that, we were going through a parking lot in front of the capital. Since it was Sunday, there weren’t many cars parked there. A Capitol police officer was hanging around in his car, waiting for us to jaywalk. We stuck to the crosswalk, though, so he went away. I guess they have nothing better to do when Congress isn’t in session.

We got as close as we could get to the building, which wasn’t very close since they had the staircases roped off. There was a police car up there too, right by that fountain. So we weren’t very high up, but we had a great view of the field out in front and the Mall, which were still covered in snow. So, after taking a few pictures of ourselves there and seeing all that there was to see, we went around to the other side of the Capitol. On the way, I saw some people (kids, probably) sledding down Capitol Hill. I didn’t think they would let you do that, but no one seemed to be stopping them.

We checked out the other side of the Capitol, and then made our way toward the Library of Congress, which the others wanted to check out. We had found out that it was closed on Sunday, so we couldn’t go in, but we walked by it. From there, we went to the nearest subway stop and took the subway out to Greenbelt, Maryland, where we connected to a bus that took us to the Baltimore airport, where we arrived early for our pleasantly brief flight to the Orlando airport, where Kris had parked his car, in which we rode back to Gainesville, where Kris dropped me off at my apartment.

I wish I could have seen more stuff in Washington, but we were really there for the conference. I did get to see all the main touristy places and, for the first time in my life, snow. (It’s wetter, colder, and icier than I imagined, but I like it.) The best part was that we’ll be compensated for most of our expenses by UF’s Student Government and by Students for Free Culture. Hopefully we’ll be able to go on other trips in the future.

Check out my photos from the trip! They’re posted on Facebook, but you don’t need a Facebook account to view them. I was too lazy to include any of them here, although I know it would have gone a long way in breaking up the sea of text that is this post.

(Those of you with an eerily good memory may notice that this post’s title is similar to one I used for another post about Washington, DC in January 2005. I think after five years I’m entitled to use it again.)

Many of Norman Rockwell’s paintings were based on photographs that he staged. Here are some of them! (Via waxy.org)

There are some weird stadiums in the world. Here are twelve of them! (Via The Presurfer)

There are a lot of actions that demand the death penalty in the Old Testament. Here are all of them!

Mr. Kalilich goes to Washington

Last week, I mentioned that I’d be going to Washington, DC for the weekend to attend Free Culture Conference 2010 with other members of my school’s chapter of Students for Free Culture. Well, I’m back, and here’s how it went.

On Friday, I had to skip my classes and go into work early. It was raining, and I had brought a duffel bag with some warm clothes (and a camera) borrowed from my parents. As I waited for the bus, a pink Porsche SUV limo pulled up to the bus stop. One of the other people at the bus stop turned out to be in on it; she said our apartment was giving free rides to campus in the limo, presumably as a gimmick to get people to renew their leases. I was expecting to see a camera crew at any moment, like I’d end up in one of those commercials where they surprise random people by going to their house or whatever.

Anyway, we all got inside the limo, where they had granola bars, Rice Krispies treats, and bottles of water for breakfast. I expected to be lectured to about the benefits of renewing my lease, but nobody said much. It was kind of awkward, actually. The limo followed the route that the bus would have taken and dropped us off at the usual bus stop on campus. I thanked them for the ride.

After working at my job on campus, it was time to go. Kris, Jennifer, and Mark picked me up, and we drove to the airport in Orlando. It was the same airport that Mark and I flew to Europe from last year, so it brought back some memories. I didn’t have much time to reminisce, though, because we were almost late. We hurried through everything until we made it past security, when we had a few minutes to get some food.

The flight was slightly delayed, but we got on eventually. I was seated between two people in the emergency exit row. It wasn’t very comfortable, but I didn’t mind much. I spent most of my time thinking about the trip and reading that day’s issue of the Alligator. I didn’t even get to finish it before we started our descent into Baltimore. I strained to look out the window. The clouds parted, revealing an endless, twilit landscape of barren trees and little neighborhoods covered in white. I had never seen snow before, and there it was—lots of it.

We landed at the airport. The runways had been cleared, but everything else was covered with a thick layer of snow. I became giddy. I didn’t have much time to be giddy, though, because we were almost late. We hurried out of the airport to catch a bus to the nearest train station. We made the bus with a few minutes to spare, and then we made the train with a few minutes to spare. In the meantime, I did notice that the cold was a different, more tolerable kind of cold than what I was used to in Florida. It just felt like being inside a freezer. I guess there was no humidity.

The train took us to Washington’s Union Station, where we took the DC subway out to Arlington, Virginia, where we met up with Gavin Baker, the founder of our chapter. He had graduated and moved to the DC area, and he let us stay in his apartment for the weekend. We made our way to the apartment (I also tried to run around in the snow and throw snowballs) and got settled in. Then Gavin took us back into DC to have dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant called Lalibela. Apparently there are a lot of Ethiopians and Ethiopian restaurants in the city.

It was a small place, and a lot of the table/booths were right next to each other. I was sitting on a bench next to another group of people. Still, it was pretty cozy, and Gavin had a suggestion for what to order. We got a communal dish consisting of some portions of various meats and vegetables served on a type of flat, doughy bread. We each had our own piece of flat, doughy bread, which we tore pieces off of and used to pick up the meats and vegetables. It was fun and delicious.

During the meal, Gavin surreptitiously showed us a Wikipedia article on his iPhone. He was almost certain that the guy I was sitting next to was Vivek Kundra, Chief Information Officer of the United States. I had read about him on some of my nerdy news web sites, so I was pretty pumped. I couldn’t help but try to pick up on the conversation he was having. His friends were talking about his past job as CTO of DC and how he had been on the cover of a magazine. Definitely Vivek Kundra. We decided not to talk to him, though. More often than not, public figures want to be left alone.

We went right back to Gavin’s, where we wound things down and went to bed. We had a couple of big days ahead of us tomorrow.

Speaking of going to bed, I’m pretty tired, so I’m going to continue this story next time. Soon, probably. In the meantime, here are some links:

Here’s a spectacular NSFW animated short in which almost all of the scenery and characters are logos and mascots: Logorama. (Via waxy.org)

The webcomic xkcd is pretty funny, but I don’t think anybody ever gets the punchline every time. Fortunately, we have Toby, Dave & Ian Explain XKCD, a blog in which the humor behind every comic is explained.

Panoramic Europe / America ’10

During my European adventure this summer, I took a lot of panoramic photos. Well, I took the individual photos that I would later stitch into panoramas once I got back home. And once I got back home, I did just that. Then I posted them on Facebook, which didn’t really do them justice because they were all resized to be all tiny-like. I’d been meaning to post full-size versions of the best ones here on The World of Stuff, so I’ve done that now. Enjoy Panoramic Europe!

The summer of ’08 consisted mainly of me hanging out and throwing around baseballs with some of my friends, but that’s not to say we didn’t have big plans. My friend Nick, a history buff, floated around the idea of going on a road trip to see some Civil War battlefields, possibly the next summer, but that didn’t materialize.

Now, it’s official. Nick, Mike, and TJ asked me if I wanted to go with them on a two-week road trip in June 2010. They plan to visit Atlanta, Washington, New York, Boston, and Gettysburg. It won’t be all battlefields, as I could have guessed. Nick and TJ plan to go to a pizza restaurant near Atlanta to see if they can eat an 11-pound pizza in an hour. And I’m sure that won’t be the only crazy hap to happen.

I told my parents about the plans, and they didn’t say I could go, but they also didn’t say I couldn’t go. I figure that if they let me go to Europe for two months with people they didn’t know, they’ll let me go up north for two weeks with people they do know. Ah, to be trusted. It is good.

It might sound strange that I want to go on this trip because I just said that I don’t have enough money to go on another trip to Europe. But the projected cost for next summer’s road trip is much less than what I spent on plane and train tickets before setting foot in the airport in May. We’re talking apples and oranges here. Well, more like apples and… tiny apples.

Inevitable misreading: “Panoramic Europe-America ’10?” I put spaces around the slash for a reason. No excuses.

Here’s a video showing Every Nickelback Wikipedia Page Vandalism Ever. Warning: there’s Nickelback music, so turn your sound off. (Via waxy.org)

This would be fun to try if I were good at making stuff: Secret Knock Detecting Door Lock. (Via Lifehacker)

Thanksgiving Eve

‘Twas the day before Thanksgiving, and all through the university, people started putting up Christmas decorations and saying “’tis” and “’twas” a lot.

On Monday, I and some other folks from Get Carded (the student organ donor awareness group I’m a part of) went to some sorority houses to talk briefly about the benefits of organ donation. I had never wandered around Sorority Row, which is actually more of a neighborhood than a row, so it was all new to me. Also, I didn’t know that sororities (and probably also fraternities) allow just about anyone to come in and make an announcement during their weekly dinner. Yay for captive audiences.

Right after that, I accompanied my co-workers, Bonnie and Mark, to Wal-Mart Walmart to buy some toys for a needy child (and a gift card for his parents), as we had decided to do last week. A little boy is going to be very happy with the new toy trucks he asked for.

I think my professors should get into the spirit of the season by canceling classes the day before Thanksgiving. I mean planning not to have class in the first place. I e-mailed all of my professors last week, and they all said they would hold class as usual. On Monday, two of them changed their minds after finding out how many students were going to be there. Meanwhile, I had already made plans to get picked up on Wednesday afternoon. Le sigh…

Anyway, in a little while I’m going to my grandparents’, where I’ll be spending the holiday. I’ll get home either late Thursday night or on Friday.

Here’s a pair of Ask Jordon questions from my friend Justin.

Justin: Would you be willing to go on (another) expansive trip throughout Europe? I wish to backpack around the Mediterranean.

Not for a while. Though I had a blast this summer, my bank account also had a blast. As in, it, like, blew up. Okay, that didn’t work. I spent a lot of money is the point.

Also Justin: Would you consider telling Luke that I miss our friendship?

Sure. Luke, Justin misses your friendship.

Kind of cool, kind of creepy: a piano that “talks” by playing a bunch of notes that are extracted from a recording of human speech. (Via J-Walk Blog)

Every Beatles fan must hear this: analyses of the multitrack tapes of “She’s Leaving Home,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Come Together.” They’re originally segments from a BBC radio program(me). Hear different tracks isolated and even some stuff that didn’t make the final mixes.

Nine days and five hours away

I had a little get-together for my birthday on Friday night. It was also a sort of coming-home party. I got to see some friends I hadn’t seen in a year or two and also some friends I hadn’t seen in a day or two. I got a slideshow going of all the pictures I had taken in Europe. It would have taken four and a half hours to complete, but everyone (including myself) left long before it could finish. The fun moved to TJ’s house. That’s where the fun usually is. I’ve also been there several times since to spend the night. I wish I could do that during the school year, but alas, college is five hours away.

I usually do a good job of following the news, but while I was in Europe for two months, I was basically living under a rock. I found out that Michael Jackson died, but that was about it. (That was the night we spent in Pisa. It was late, and Andy was outside the hotel room, making calls on our computer. I was channel surfing [we actually had a TV] and saw that Thriller was playing. When it was over, I saw “Michael Jackson 1958-2009″ on the screen. I couldn’t believe it, so I flipped to some other channels, including the BBC and CNN, which were all over the story. When Andy came back, I told him the news and jokingly asked if he had heard of Michael Jackson. The day before, I had found out that Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett had died; Andy had never heard of either of them.) (Oh, and I also found out that Billy Mays died. I wasn’t completely cut off from the world.)

But when I came back, I learned that the government was providing cash for clunkers, that Microsoft had rebranded its search engine, and that there was a new reality show called Police Women of Broward County. As a citizen of Broward County, Florida, I thought it would be interesting to see how the area would be represented. I actually watched an episode. The show is every bit as horrible as it sounds. As a show that showcases crime, it’s inherently unflattering to the region, and I can only wonder what went through the heads of the BSO brass when they decided to try to give our county a bad reputation across America.

When I upgraded to the latest version of Ubuntu in April, an annoying new bug/feature was that the operating system would only check for non-critical updates once a week irrespective of my preference to check daily. Or something like that. I was gone from my computer for two months, okay? Anyway, the official fix didn’t do anything (or maybe it did but I didn’t get any non-critical updates after that). The instructions I found here seemed to do the trick. In short: sudo chmod ugo+x /etc/cron.daily/apt, followed by the official fix (gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false). Of course!!

The New York Times has a lengthy article about The Beatles: Rock Band, which comes out next month. If you’re particularly interested in The Beatles or Rock Band, have a read. (Annoying registration possibly required; use BugMeNot.) (Via waxy.org)

This is what the Internet is all about: Cats That Look Like Hitler.

Here’s the true and exciting story of the little-known State of Franklin. (Via The Presurfer)

Return to form

Well, now what?

During my trip to Europe, I spent so much time writing for this blog that I thought I had almost forgotten how to write normal posts. You know, ones that don’t include 18 pictures or chronicle everything you’ve done over a period of several days in minute detail. Ones that have how many links at the end? Two? Three now? Is that too many? Whatever. I come across a lot of cool links. (I actually did forget at one point.)

Before the trip, I had messed around with panoramic photography, aided by Hugin and Autopano-SIFT. During the trip, I made sure to take panoramic pictures whenever I saw something particularly breathtaking (or wide). Well, they wouldn’t be panoramas until I stitched them together, but you know what I mean. Now that I have free time (and a reasonable amount of processing power), I’m making them. You can see woefully tiny versions in a dedicated Facebook photo album that I’m continuously updating. Maybe when I’m done with all of them, I’ll put them on this site. Maybe. (I get charged for exactly how much storage and bandwidth I use at all times.)

I’ve also spent the past few days playing Peggle at TJ’s house (again) and having dinner with some relatives I don’t often see (again). Apparently a lot of my relatives have been reading this blog as well. The ones without computers have been reading the print version courtesy of my dad’s laserjet. The attention wasn’t just on me but also on my second cousin Jared, whom I hadn’t seen since he was yea high. Turns out he’s the lead singer of a band back home in Minnesota. Pretty cool. (Minnesota or the band? Probably both.)

Random observation: I just realized that my last post wasn’t my first called “Back in the USA.” The automatically generated post slug (“back-in-the-usa-2″) in the URL tipped me off, so I got curious. Although I rarely leave the country, I wrote about my friend Kevin being back in the USA after a trip to Honduras in 2005. The title of my last post was a reference to the Chuck Berry tune of the same name, continuing my streak of (mis)appropriating song, movie, and book titles; schoolyard rhymes; Olive Garden dishes; and other familiar phrases.

Just as I’ve written about my trip to Europe, a BBC correspondent writes about what it was like to spend eight years in the USA.

Dead At Your Age is a site that can tell you what famous and accomplished people you’ve already outlived. Here’s what it says for me today:

You are 20 years and 27 days old today.

That’s exactly half the life of somebody famous. In another 20 years and 27 days, you will have lived exactly as long as Vitas Gerulaitis. He was a tennis player who won 24 singles and who, with Bobby Riggs, lost the 1985 Battle of the Sexes match who died at the age of 40 years, 54 days of carbon monoxide poisoning.

(Via The Presurfer)

Somebody programmed some sort of laser cutter thing to move around just such that it plays the Super Mario Bros. theme. Well done. (Via waxy.org)