36 DAYS TO GO

MOROCCO

Well, fuck. I was really hoping that would stay stable long enough for me to get in there. Yeah, I realize it is a totally self serving reason for not wanting them to go through a revolution but I really would like to see it and the rest of Northern Africa soon.



GERMANS AND THE HOFF

Apparently, the great love the Germans have for 'the Hoff' isn't made up. This is so strange. The article linked is in 'Der Spiegel', a German newspaper. Apparently, it's not just Eurotrip that believes Germans are obsessed with 'the Hoff'.



MONEY

One of the things I'd like to do is to write up how much things cost. I've been watching a lot of travel documentaries and they usually don't mention the cost of things unless it is amazingly cheap or outrageously expensive. I'm going to try to get the cost of things more into my blog to give people an idea of what they'd actually spend.

We'll see how that plan works out once I get on the road.

I think it would be nice if I had a film crew following me around but I'm not really seeing that happen. I've noticed that most of the people are much better looking than I am who do these things. And in better shape, the bastards. For some reason, a fat, cripply guy wandering around I just don't think is going to make it onto the TV.



LONELY PLANET AKA GLOBE TREKKER

The show gets worse and worse the longer you go on. You can pretty much watch the first couple seasons and be done with it. Not only do they show the same exact journeys over and over in later seasons (like nobody will notice) but then they start splicing together two you've already seen before into a single episode. It's not a really good value. Given the talent they've got and the amount of places that they haven't explored, I'm thinking it was purely a money decision and is a good explanation of why the show got cancelled. I'm thinking that even the people who only watched it as it came out caught on to the fact 'hey, this is the same shit as before'.



MOVIE REVIEW

Gulliver's Travels. This movie gets this award:

On my movie scale, 3 stars out of a possible 10. IMDB gives it 4.7, I think that's way too generous.



SLEEP NOISE

One thing I can't do well is sleep without some sort of constant background noise. I've got a device that makes it rain but lately I've been working on instead using my MP3 player. There are two reasons for this - first, I don't think everyone else would like me playing my 'rain machine' in the room (well, I don't know that for sure) and second, I don't want to carry it.

So, I'm working on instead using my MP3 player.

The big problem with this is that I normally sleep on my side. This is because if I fall asleep, I will make a snore sound and wake myself up. Frightening. So, I've got to sleep on my side. Which doesn't go well with headphones.

So, I'm experimenting right now. It's looking like the 'one head phone in, the other not' is what I'm going for currently. We'll see how that works out. I figure I've got a month.



TV SHOW REVIEW

"Long Way Round". Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on motorcycles go around the world. I'm two episodes into it thus far and it seems pretty interesting. Surprise, surprise - they had/are having a lot of trouble getting visas to go through Russia. I like that they are showing all of the preparation they have to go through. It appears that they are going to be camping out rather than staying in hotels and such at this point. I'm thinking that's just crazy - they may switch it up later. Thus far, the show is entertaining. I'll do a follow up review when I'm done watching all 11 episodes (10+special feature).



PACKING NEWS

Well, unfortunately, the razor my dad gave me is absolute shit. It seems to cut every other hair and makes me look a bit weirder (if that's possible) than normal. My plan is to use my other electric razor I normally do my head with to shave off my beard every week. My hair grows faster than a bears so within a week, I'll have a full beard. My current plan is to keep it shaved so that I look somewhat like my passport photo. When I get abroad, I'm going to stop by local barbers and stuff to get it shaved off every so often, as well as getting my head shaved. So, that's a bit less weight I get to carry about with me.

Now, I'm thinking that if someone just started reading this they're probably thinking 'What the fuck is he going on about an electric razor for?' Well, I'm wanting to show the entire preparation and thinking on it. When I chuck out other stuff from the pack later (it probably will happen), I'll write about that too.

Due to my current headphones getting a bit scratchy - I think the cord may be coming loose or something - I went an purchased two more $10 headphones. The bubble cases they're in are NOT waterproof. I'm thinking I'll be sticking them in a plastic bag somewhere later. Might put them with my extra glasses in a crush proof case or something, not really sure on that.

After the campaign ends I'm going to do another repack; lie everything out on the tables and try to figure out clever ways to put it in, maybe photograph it for people, stuff like that. Guessing that's probably 3 weeks off.

Lets track down Michael Palin

LOGAN'S OPINION OF WORK


[BTW - If you think this is 'safe for work' you are wrong, wrong, wrong.]



LANGUAGES TO LEARN

Most spoken languages in the world - interesting. I can communicate (abet badly) in #3 and #10 and have downloaded #2 and #4 (and French which didn't make the list) for later perusal. I don't think I'll get very good at any of them but if I can make myself understood - and maybe understand someone else) eventually. I'm still working on forcing German into my brain. It goes slowly. [Disclaimer: Germany is one of the places I would live at (at least when it is not cold) if I had the cash. I've always liked it and the people there.]



MOVIE REVIEW - RUN LOLA RUN

I've been watching Run Lola Run (auf deutsch but with subtitles). It has the same hot girl from The Bourne Identity in it. It's a weird ass movie that seems to involve her running everywhere because she had her moped stolen buying smokes. So, I guess you can smoke then go run like six miles. At least in the movies. The beginning of the plot of the movie is that the main girl (Lola) has a dumbass boyfriend who loses a bunch of money he was suppose to be delivering to some gangster types. It's one of those 'interconnected story' type of things. The girl seems to have a super power where if she screams in frustration, glass breaks. After twenty minutes of the film, I think the best thing about it is a) Franka Potente (who you get to see running a lot and with bright red hair) b) hopefully it's helping me with my German. Other than that, it's meh. It's a very weird movie with frequent bouts of animation thrown in for some reason. I don't recommend watching it unless you need to build your German language skills. Or want to see a bizarre movie. I remember reading on the site I got the title from that it was one of the student's favorite German movies for learning the language from. If that was one of their favorite movies, I know why the USA is in the lead with the whole movie industry thing.



VOLTAGE

I was doing some studying on foreign voltage and such. I checked out this webpage and found that my products had the potential to be dual voltage. After closely examining the cords for my netbook and kindle, they both turned out to be dual voltage. Happy dance. That should mean that the converter I already have should work fine. Now, that doesn't mean that it won't cause it to blow up when I get there, but I am able to harbor under the happy delusion that I don't need to spend an extra $60 right now.



BURDEN

For entertainment, I was thinking about taking one of my one terabyte hard drives packed with movies. A TB of movies is enough to keep me entertained for quite awhile. The plan has several downsides. I would need to keep the HD in a box well wrapped to keep it from getting jostled around. Bert told me hard drives don't like jostling. I would also need to take my external hard drive enclosure. Which needs electricity. As the power converters and such are really heavy (for my weak ass) I could only have either the laptop OR the enclosure plugged in at one time. I'm not sure if it makes sense to carry it. The pack is already pretty damned heavy. I know that the new netbook is only suppose to weigh a couple pounds but it feels like more - especially with the cords and all. So, I'm pondering that. I suppose that if I didn't have the movies to watch, my blog would get even more verbose. I'm not sure if that's a good thing.



TRACKING DOWN MICHAEL PALIN

Apparently, he lives in London, England. As opposed to London, Canada. Not sure if he wants me to drop in though. In addition to the wonderful Monty Python stuff I've been watching his numerous travelog's. My God, he's been everywhere. It is interesting that despite his extensive travels, the thing he will always be best known for is Monty Python. I'm not sure how he feels about that. Think about it - you did a TV show for three years thirty-seven years ago and that's still what you are best known for. Kind of weird.



Top secret cover sheet

Ah, the memories. (I know sticklers will point out the last picture is actually from Vietnam, but I say this.)



EXPAT PLACES

I was looking at some websites that give expat information. I'm going to wander around and see what I like before making any decisions but gathering information never hurts. It seems that it is possible to expat to the Czech Republic. [The Czech reaction.] You just have to start with a short extension on staying there then build up. If I decide I must live there for a long time, I'll look into it but I don't have the money to hire Jana to be a permanent translator and the alternative would be having to learn Czech. Plus, they have winters there. Not thrilled about winters.

Pain in the ass countries

Welcome to "Pain in the Ass Countries" where Logan bitches about other countries restrictive tourism policies!

Today, we've got two BIG countries for you!



Welcome to CHINA!

Really big. Loads and loads of history. Interesting stuff there. Cheap to live. However, it costs just under $200 to get a 30 day pass into it. And 30 days is the max.

Did the leader, see Team America and say “Screw that!” to tourism?



Welcome to RUSSIA!

Apparently, you need to get INVITED into the country. And you pay for the invite to the tune of $300. Plus the visa itself. Which can take a couple weeks. And quote "If you don't make it through this bureaucratic loop, you may have problems leaving the country." Plus, naturally, you have to pay for the visa itself - and it's complicated enough that they have their own flow chart for you to follow around. Don't know - articles like this make me wary about visiting.


The problem - with China, virtually none. I can go around it and not really worry about it. But - for Russia? It's frigging huge and dominates a lot of area. If I wanted to travel from Europe to Asia, I've got two basic routes - through the Arabic lands the US seems intent on bombing and 'police actioning' (gosh - that doesn't sound too good) or cut through Russia. Or fly over either and hope like hell not to get shot down. It's looking like I could get all the way to Turkey before being confronted with Iran and Afghanistan. I'm not seeing them wanting to express a lot of love to me. I suppose it is possible to go across the Mediterranean and into Egypt (nice folks there) then into Saudi Arabia. Reading the State Departments thing, al Qaida doesn't seem to have been active there for three or four years. Risky but not as hot as Iraq/Iran. Then onward to Pakistan/India and Asia, skirting the southern reaches. We'll have to see about that.



The bag test



I tried reversing the bag and filling it with water. It didn't leak immediately so I left it over night to see what happened.

After leaving it overnight, it still appeared to have all of the water in it. No drips and such. Hence, the bag seems water tight. Now, I'm not sure if this will be a better thing than say zip lock freezer bags (which you and TSA can see into) but I'm sure I'll find a use for them when we get closer to 'show time' and do the big repack.






The three choice plan

After I get back from the first trip, which I'm referring to as my 'shake down' trip, I should know better if I'm happy living out of a backpack. I figure when I get back, I'll have three different options:

A. Get out quick

This is the "I've got four days to clear out of where I'm living. First step - buy a plane ticket on line. Thank the guy I've been renting my room from and go go go. I imagine it would involve a lot of dumping stuff outside, maybe putting up a sign that says "Free shit". Bribe TJ with gas money to roar down in his truck and grab the Cthulhu stuff I promised him. He and his wife said they'd be fine holding onto some of my crap as well so maybe squirrel away a couple of things. After spending a couple days with him and his wife (they live near D.C.) I can fly out from the nation's capital to 'somewhere else'. My reasoning is that if I'm not paying rent somewhere I can afford to be elsewhere. Even if all of my costs (rent, food, entertainment) stayed equal but I was living for three months at a time somewhere more interesting - I'd still be living somewhere more interesting.

B. Spend another month

As above but a more leisurely pace. I've noticed that already I am starting to dump stuff out. Being that I am not a 'pack rat' (a person who habitually saves shit, even if it is unlikely to ever be used again) I really don't have all that much stuff. Aside from my computer and Cthulhu books, I really don't have any emotional attachment to anything material here. And my friends? Well, I only have a couple close friends here and I can see them after I have some more interesting stories to tell. Plus, gods know we get together on skype and such quite often. God bless Skype. [Note that if you are not on/using Skype, you are really missing out.]

I suppose this one would be needed either if some stuff comes up I don't know about or if I couldn't get a plane ticket out at a decent rate on that short of notice.

C. Figure out a better plan

This is my 'well, fuck I can't handle living out of a backpack and I'm too crippled' option. If I hit this one, I'm going to have to come up with a better plan. In this option, I would continue living here and renting here. Note if my land lord is reading this blog - PLEASE DON'T RENT MY ROOM UNLESS I DESCRIBE PLAN A OR B to you!




Movie Review

I've been watching Michael Palin's New Europe. He is going into some very interesting areas. Some with 'land mine hazards'. One of the kind of sad recurring themes that I've seen in the former communists countries is they miss it in a nostalgic way. Sure, they had no personal freedoms or liberties - but they had jobs. The countries now affected with freedom are now economically screwed. On the plus side, I can now afford to actually live in some of them for a bit and check them out.

One really nifty place I saw on his show was Istanbul. I'm really wanting to go there but have no clue why - just want to go.

The disadvantage of this show is that they are covering so much, they really don't have much time to do more than just a very little in each place. Kind of like the buffet line for thin people.

One interesting thing about Europe - things that are 'new' are about as old as the USA.

Overall, I think the 7 part TV series is really only good for those with an interest in traveling to those places mentioned. Michael Palin isn't really funny at all in it and the series isn't what I'd call 'exciting'. But interesting.



The Ball

Remember all the bitching I did that Walmart no longer carried balls?

I found one in my place. Weird.






How to be a better edgy (insert appropriately edgy field here)

affectation

1. A show, pretense, or display.
2.
a. Behavior that is assumed rather than natural; artificiality.
b. A particular habit, as of speech or dress, adopted to give a false impression.

The half glass of wine.

Rules of the half glass of wine:

You can never finish it - if you do, then you're stuck with a dirty glass and you look like an alcoholic. You might as well have crushed beer cans littering your workplace.

The wine must not be white. While it is true that red whine is a bitch to get out of carpeting should it spill it looks much better. If you are worried about spilling it, use a larger glass. Do not use a brandy snifter! Should you be clumsy enough to spill even a drop, you must replace the carpeting or again you will look like an alcoholic.

The wine must be real. Should anyone ever discover that your wine is fake (or worse yet - non-alcoholic) your reputation will be in tatters. The cost of the wine will not increase your social standing should it be discovered but it can downgrade it. If you are working at a nice place and drinking 'wine out of a box' people will think you are cheap and worse, have no taste. If your business is small or new and people discover you are drinking a '78 Le Montrachet, they will think you are a fool. Something consummate with your station but realize that people will usually not find the bottle. Again, you cannot leave them lying around. The wine bottle must, however, be allowed to breath and should be left open somewhere - not in a refrigerator!

There should be no other wine glasses on the premises - nor anything that can be used as one. If you are harboring secret shame and have to refill the wine bottle that is your status from one which is not, you don't want anyone to 'join you' in a glass of wine. Should you get a wine 'affectionado' the scandal will kill your business.

This affectation works better with either supervisors or those rare professions that only have one hand free. Obviously, it does no good unless you have customers on your premises.

Since you are stuck holding the wine glass nearly all of the time and when you do get to taste any of the wine within it should only be the merest sip as you cannot empty the glass until the end of day, I suggest not starting one until near the end of the business day.

The 'wine glass' would not work for overly technical professions such as a computer programmer - nobody wants you to be edgy while you're doing code. It would certainly not do for something like a construction worker on the 'high steel'. I'm not certain how full of angst or edgy I want my doctor to be. This would work well for supervisors in interior decoration, hairdressers and artists. Those professions can proudly hold their wine glass disdainfully in their hand and declare "Oh what a bitch of a day I've had!"