Inspired By Iceland! (The Photo Recap)

I wrote a number of unpublished blogs and attempted to upload a number of videos whilst we were on our Icelandic excursion... but had issues with internet connectivity after the first few days and ended up not being able to upload more than photos to Facebook... and I uploaded A LOT.  So if you saw those, you pretty much have a good idea of what we did.

Now that we're back (and the internet is no longer working against me) I've been able to upload some of our original update videos which are not really relevant anymore. They cover the basic story.  I stuck them at the bottom of this blog... in case you're REALLY bored.  Yay.  

More importantly, back at my own fancy computer, I was able to go through my photos on a bigger screen and pick out some of my favorite non-people photos and get them into a blog so you can see some of the same incredible stuff we saw.  

Incredible.  

My camera and shoddy camera skills can't really even capture everything I saw.  Plus a good number of these photos were shot from a moving car...but. Still.

Námafjall - It looks like Mars and smells like rotten eggs smothered in moldy athlete's foot.

Námafjall - Bubbling Boiling Mud Pools

Námafjall - A Stinky Stinky Fumarole

Jökulsárlón - Glacial Lakes

 

Jökulsárlón - Blue Iceberg

Driving around Southern Iceland

Driving Around Southern Iceland

Vík í Mýrdal - Black Sand Beach - the Southernmost Tip of Iceland

Þingvellir - Continental Drifting

A touch of Lake Mývatn

The Blue Lagoon

Dettifoss

Icelandic Moss - Actual Color!

The back side of  Eskifjördur - my dad's hometown.

Eskifjördur's waterfall (where we shot our travel update video #3!)

Some of us go to Húsavík for the whale watching... some of us go to Húsavík for a very unique museum... just sayin'.

Húsavík Church - a two minute walk from that extra special museum... just sayin'.

Icelandic Geese in Reykjavik

Icelandic Horses in Eskifjörður

Icelandic Sheep off to the side of a 4WD only road that we had to take to get to the waterfalls in North East Iceland.

Icelandic Spider... chillin near Skógafoss.

Jökulsárgljúfur National Park

Laki Lava Flow -  1783 the largest historic lava flow.

 Flowers Growing In Mountain Rocks.

Flowers Growing In Mountain Rocks.

Mýrdalsjökull Glacier

Driving around North Iceland to Akureyri. 

Reykjanes Fog

Planes over Reykjavik

Selfoss

Skogafoss

Þingeyrarkirkja - the church my great, great, great, great, great grandfather - Ásgeir Einarsson - built.

The inside of Þingeyrarkirkja

The altar at Þingeyrarkirkja

So, that's it for now.  There were a couple other photos I remember taking that I liked, but I couldn't find them in my late night stupor to get it uploaded here. Maybe I'll find them later.  Maybe I'll keep them just for me.  In any case it was an amazing trip - filled with incredible sights, great family and awesome adventures.  

We'll be back.

And for those of you with time to kill... I present Fast Movin' Fog

Comic-Con 2010 - Thursday Part One

Well here we are – day one of Comic-Con International in San Diego.  We were here last night for the “Preview Night” and were able to pick up our badges and check out some of the stuff in the main exhibit hall before the official start to the week and visit some people we knew working the booths while it wasn’t too insane. We were also to preorder our passes for next year since this has become a pretty sure thing.

Right now, it’s about 8:50 AM and we’ve been in line for Hall H for about an hour and a half  and we’re about in the middle of the crowd.  Meaning, there have been hundreds of people waiting in line for significantly longer periods of time to get into Hall H before us.  The kicker is that nothing starts in Hall H until about 10 AM… so.  We’ve got a while to go. 

The big thing everyone in this line seems to be the most excited about is the TRON panel.  They’re looking to see the cast and the exclusive previews that they’ve brought along for the panel.  Last year they showed a tiny segment of some of the CGI scenes and some shots of the bike and people went bonkers.  So, this should be exciting.

I’m also in costume today. It was a last minute decision made over dinner tonight since I wasn’t really planning on dressing up this early in the week, but I wanted to be able to wander around and take pictures of my brother, Rhonda and Matt in their costumes (probably on Friday) so this was the day to do it.  I’m dressed as a character from Neon Genesis Evangelion – Misato Katsuragi. I’m wearing a purple wig.  I look kind of ridiculous, but it’s Comic-Con… you have to do it. I mean really. This costume is also not the most comfortable for waiting in line – it’s all pleather – so thank goodness it’s cold right now.

We stopped by to visit our old friend, Tommy,  ex-detective, retired police chief now big boss security guard who helped us tremendously last year when my phone was lost/stolen by a peon security guard.  He remembered us. He is awesome. 

So yes.  Comic-Con day one.. Exciting.  Also exciting? Staying at the Omni… right across from the Convention center and never having to deal with parking.  Brilliant.

My goal this year is to not lose my phone, so hopefully that should be something I’m able to stick to.  I’d also like to party all the time at night.  Also, I’d like to see all my fellow geek friends this time, since I won’t lose my phone.  Also, Venture Bros. Yay.

Gadgetry

There's this silly little gadget that I found today. You enter a part of your blog writings into a box, it "analyzes" it and comes up with a famous author with a similar writing style. I wanted to write like Joyce Carol Oates. Even though I know I could never write anything like she could, I would be so tickled if I had a doofy internet gadget that said I wrote like JCO.

So I copied a blog entry and pasted into the little form and hit submit.

I got this:

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

James Joyce. I know the name and kinda-sorta, know why he's famous, but I have never read anything James Joyce has ever written and after perusing his Wikipedia, I'm pretty sure my blog writings have nowhere near the class or charisma of anything Joyce has ever jotted on paper.

So I picked a different blog entry and entered again.

James Joyce.

I reloaded, thinking it's a random glitch, entered in the same blog entry... James Joyce. Picked yet another entry, and still, James Joyce.

This gadget machine must be broken.

So I picked an entry that was so obviously not in the style of the blogs I entered before... and got this:

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I don't even know who that is.

One more try, a different entry. JCO FTW.

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I'm sorry, who?

I think the gadget must work by calculating your average paragraph length. It has nothing to do with my actual writing or skills. What they don't tell you is that this gadget has an unmentioned, unintended side effect.

Suddenly, I feel really... really. Stupid.

I need to read more.

Beeeeeeeez

It's hot enough today that I'd rather not run my AC and risk overheating my lovely antique car.  It's pretty much your standard Southern California day and there's a nice cool breeze constantly moving things around outside.  It makes me want to turn up the tunes, fly past the scenery and just feel the air mess up my hair.  It's pretty much the only time I ever enjoy driving.

Days like today are also the days that bees like to go for a swarm.  They get all hot and bothered, I imagine, because all the humans are out...doing things. Bees have such short tempers, you know.

I've actually plowed through a swarm of bees in my car three times in the last couple years, so days like today are the days where I imagine myself, trapped in my car with 1/3 of a swarming hive, being stung and attacked by bees because I couldn't get my automatic windows to roll up before the impending collision of swarm and car. 

I end up driving down the road, with all my windows down, feeling the wind only to quickly roll them up if I drive by what appears to be a hive friendly tree or bee bustling plant.  I scan the horizon for that telltale grey moving cloud and imagine what exactly I would do if I couldn't get out of it's path and how long it would take me to get my windows up in time.

So I practice. I push the buttons and have all 4 windows roll up.  It's safe inside my cabin. 

And also, hot.   Very hot.

Remembering how awesome the weather outside is and how it's still not hot enough to warrant turning on the AC, I roll down 3 windows instead of all 4. Because of energy.  Or something - somehow getting 3 windows up is actually faster than all 4.  Trust me.  I've tested it.

Of course, at some point, the breeze will pick up and a handful of leaves will brush past my passenger side window and I'll see it out of the corner of my eye and immediately think OH. EM.GEE. IT'S A SWARM AND THEY ARE HERE TO KILL ME.  I'll repeat the process and up go all the windows.

Moments later, I'll be driving around again, I'll have two strategically open windows, until a car buzzes by sounding suspiciously like a giant bee... and eventually I'll be down to one window by the time I get home.

I don't think I was ever paranoid about swarming bees getting into my my car until I drove through a swarm of bees.  The sound and sight of hundreds of tiny little bee bodies slammed and squished against your windows and doors is upsetting and frightening. I felt guilty and sad for the little hunny bugs, but at the same time I was desperate to quell the growing panic from imagining a lone survivor of my drive-by, clinging for dear life to the outside of my car and trying to work his way into my cabin through the air conditioning vents to take his revenge.  Right on my jugular before heading to join his pals in honey heaven.

What a sad cycle of violence, right? Also, I'm sure my childhood spent watching Killer Bees on TV didn't help.

 A hive of bees in the park outside my parent's house.  

Flailblog

The past few days I've been feeling a bit like this:

For no specific reason. Probably more because of a multitude of tiny reasons. 

Laundry. Calendars. Things. Sleep.

Yes, I can flail like that.  And I do.

I'm looking forward to July and August and the vacation they bring.

Soon.

Internet Armageddon

Sometime in 1994, my family got our first family computer that was capable of accessing the internet... by 1995 (after daily pleading) my brother and I had convinced my parents to sign up and pay for the AOL service that came with that computer so we could actually go online.  I remember setting up the account with my dad and picking a main screen name for our main account and e-mail addresses - one that I still use a variation of today - and attempting to log on for that very first time.  The modem used to dial-up connect was loud enough to wake the neighbors and once you finally got online each page would take FOREVER to load.  Our home line would be busy for hours while we were online and the monthly subscription to AOL was not cheap at the time - but my mom seemed to understand that we'd need to know how to use the internet in the coming years, so she pushed to keep it (and later threaten to take it away when we didn't do what we were told.) 

The internet looked ugly. The AOL program itself was simple enough, but actual internet pages were slow, overloaded with awkward text, limited colors and questionable information.  Chat rooms moved quickly and instant messenger became the most fun reason to go online when you're 12 years old.  You could chat with other people around the country about all sort of stupid crap and see what other stupid people were doing and talking about.  Rooms were broken down by a number of categories - age, interests, subject, sex, etc. and my brother and I knew that while the internet was AWESOME, the internet was also dangerous.  We learned quickly (and my parents reminded us regularly) of what information we should never give out.  If we were sitting there using a fake persona, lying about our age and where we lived, we had to assume almost everyone else was doing the same. We figured out what websites we could and should not click to visit without a net nanny or child-safety options.  We learned by making some mistakes and more often, through information gleaned from other user's mistakes. 

By the time my brother and I were in high school, the internet had developed exponentially and we had grown with it.  We entertained ourselves by anonymously playing pranks on other weirdo users. We had an arsenal of fake screen names and a few scanned photos of teenaged girls from photo frames which we used for our pranks. One of our favorites was on a guy who admitted to having a foot fetish in one of the chat rooms. We just HAD to send him a private message with our super cute photo and of course, he took the bait.  We chatted about some stupid nonsense for a few minutes and then he asked for a photo of her feet.  My brother has big hairy feet - and I think he had some kind of injury on his toes at the time, so his feet looked DISGUSTING (and obviously perfect for the request) so, we snapped a couple photos with our brand new webcam and sent it over.  The guy's reaction to our photos was an immediate "THAT'S DISGUSTING!  What is WRONG WITH YOU!" and "IS THAT A GROWTH!?"  Our teenage pranks left us laughing for days and every time we’d end up berating the user for being an internet perv and hitting on high school kids.  We were essentially the precursor of “To Catch A Predator” – except we thought we were funny.  Eventually we became bored with chat rooms, my brother delved into the world of MMORPGs and message boards and I leaned into the world of blogging and Geocities (helping to make the internet uglier one page at a time!)

So.  Why is it that after having a steady, cautious and loving relationship with internet for 14 years, I HAD MY FIRST MAJOR FAIL YESTERDAY?! 

I was attacked by malware.

On my work computer.

And I couldn't fix it.

It's more embarrassing than anything else.  I felt like such a newb.  I know better than to open weird files, click strange links, or get a free iPad for anything... but sometimes you just get drive-by-installed and boom, you're screwed.  The one I got was the "AV Security Virus"  which looks EXACTLY like the Windows Security Center - shield and all. (Quick PSA: don't risk clicking any links for anything called "AV Security" anything.  They have malicious links that show up as a top search result in search engines and will seriously harm your computer if you click them, so only read about it from a website you already know and trust.) So when a little pop up notification came up from my taskbar saying that "Windows has detected a threat on this page" and giving me the option to stop the threat and run a scan, I brainlessly clicked yes. Within minutes, my computer was going insane.  

Duh. I should have known better.  I was on GOOGLE.  Not some crazy website. The insanity wouldn't stop once I clicked to acknowledge the annoying sucker.  It prevented me from being able to run task manager, open web pages, and do pretty much anything - including turning off my computer using a normal shut down.

I had lost. 

There were red pages popping up, warnings for every click I made, fake security scans and now every pop up was telling me it could all be stopped if I would just buy the full price version of the AV Security Suite, which roughly translates to: let me steal your credit card number ya dummy. 

I'm lucky it wasn't one of those password stealing spyware hacks or a data destroying worm, but still.  My face was red as I apologized profusely to our IT guy while he took away my old computer and replaced it (with a faster, quieter one - silver lining!) He assured me that it happens to the best of us and that it has happened before in the office.  I was still embarrassed.  And, for the first time ever, I was kind of afraid of the internet. 
 

Just to be safe, I went through and changed all my passwords for everything - which I had just done about a week before.  I had to come up with new, super secure passwords, which incidentally, is becoming very difficult.  Coming up with new passwords that I can a) easily remember and b) have all the crap that super secure passwords have (with numbers, symbols and text) is next to impossible at this point.     It took me about 20 minutes to think of something I know I'd remember.  And by the time I got home - I HAD FORGOTTEN what I was pretty sure I could remember.  

Luckily I wrote myself a cryptic code to help myself remember in case I accidentally forgot, right? Yeah, except it took me another 20 minutes to figure out what my cryptic note meant.  I read about creating a new secure password easily by using a mnemonic device to remember them - such as: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Me Nine Pizzas would be: MVEMJSM9P. Which on the surface looks AWESOME, but it turns out, that's only a semi-secure password!  You need a symbol in there too!  HOW DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU PUT THE SYMBOL?!  And then I have to think up 40 new AND different passwords for all the websites I visit regularly?  AND REMEMBER ALL THAT?  Arg.

Maybe it's time for me to move into a cave. 

A warm cave.  With cable TV, an ocean view and a Tempurpedic bed.

On the internet.

Yah.

Vegetables Are Friends... I Dont Eat Friends. Normally.

My first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Basket has finally arrived!

It actually comes in that basket.  Too cute.

Ever since Huell Howser went up to the Central Coast and featured a CSA program out there, I had wanted to subscribe to something similar in So. California.  Eventually a couple of friends signed up for an organic produce delivery program and sure enough, I developed produce envy. The hunt began. 

Most of what I could find wasn't exactly what I had in mind. The places that were willing to deliver to my home were expensive and often had produce coming from the Central Coast - which is local compared to the produce at the store coming from Chile or Washington - but I wanted really local... Orange County local... so I could eat fruits and vegetables that were in season right where I lived. 

Considering Orange County's farming history (most of us who grew up here remember endless orange groves,  avocado trees or lima bean fields near our homes that are now nowhere to be seen) there is only a dwindling handful of organic farms left in Orange County. Most of them do offer a CSA program but none of them dropped off anywhere near me and because I am too lazy to drive 25 minutes to the nearest pick-up locations, I slogged along buying my produce at Henry's down the street (in my defense, I have crappy work hours and I would have missed a number of the pick-up times anyway.) 

The problem with picking up my own produce at the store is that vegetables are scary.  Even with the aid of my trusty Veganomicon (I'm not vegan, but seriously a great cookbook: Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook) I don't know how to prepare half the vegetables on the stands and thusly end up with the same 5 bits of produce in my cart: tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, and onions. 

One time I got an eggplant.  It was overwhelming.

So imagine my excitement when about 2 months ago, my favorite local restaurant - The Old Vine Cafe - sent out an e-mail to it's mailing list members saying that they were going to be a location for the South Coast Farms bi-weekly CSA drop off.  The Old Vine Cafe!  We walk there!  It was a sign from the heavens!

Except, I was the only person to sign up and they wouldn't start deliveries until they had 5 people committed to the drop-off location.  So, I waited.  And about 4 weeks later I get the call.   Week 8 of the Spring CSA quarter, my first basket would be ready and waiting for me at my favorite place to eat, drink and be merry (seriously, if you haven't been to the Old Vine Cafe, go... now. Dinner is my favorite, but breakfast/brunch/lunch is amazing too.)

So here it is.

Another view of all the goodies

I got an e-mail the day of the delivery with a list of the items in the basket and a couple of recipe ideas. In this first basket are:

Valencia Oranges

Parsley

Broccoli*

Avocado

Grapefruit

Red Leaf Lettuce

Strawberries

Green Onions

Cilantro

Lemon

Sweet Pea Flowers

Chard**

Beets**

Kale**

Cabbage**

Kohlrabi***

* This is not what broccoli looks like at the store.  Are we sure this is broccoli? This looks like Top Chef broccoli.

**I have seen these items on my plate at a restaurant or in a cookbook, but have no idea how to cook them.  Send recipes and instructions please.

*** What!?!?

 

This is all the goodies in the basket unpacked.

I think these are beets? I've only seen them in crinkle cuts from a can.

The basket was packed!  I wasn't expecting so much food, but it makes sense for a bi-weekly drop off. The cilantro and the green onions smelled incredible and after dinner I got to work washing and prepping the lettuces Alton Brown style for easy use later in the week. The washing process is much more labor intensive than with grocery store produce - there's still tons of real dirt on most of the food and I wasn't sure how to prep the chard, beets, kale, cabbage or  kohlrabi, so I kind of just left them in their dirty glory in a separate spot in the fridge.

Can we discuss kohlrabi?

Kohlrabi - part of my first CSA Basket

I had to Google it to find out what the heck it was. It's a type of turnip.  I've never eaten a turnip.  My first turnip experience will be a kohlrabi - which is clearly an alien species. Can anyone suggest any incredible recipes for alien turnip? What does one do with all the tentacles? 

Anyhoo.  I'm looking forward to the eating experience and if you have any recipes that include any of the items in my basket that we should try, please send them my way!!!  And Sardean - if you read this, I think I need my Veganomicon back soon... haha I need directions!

With all this amazing produce, I'm sure you're all wondering what I made for dinner too. 

Let me start with the excuses.

I didn't get home until about 8PM.  I had to go pick up the basket after the gym (which already makes me pretty late getting home on a daily basis…remember my crappy work hours?)  and I was tired and overwhelmed after seeing all the produce.  So, I pick out the thing I know.  Strawberries.  To eat as a side dish.  For hot dogs.

HOT DOGS.

Granted, they were the organic-certified-humane-grass-fed-hormone-free-all-beef-uncured-dogs on whole grain buns... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a twinge of irony sitting at my dining table surrounded by gorgeous veggies, eating a hot dog.

Did I mention we had my mom's homemade cookies for dessert? Because we did.

Yeah. We'll eat healthy tomorrow. Promise.

Shake, Rattle & Roll

Ahh, what a lovely day... perfect for a quick lunch-time blog...

I'm a native Southern Californian, which means that when I was born, the doctor checked my vitals, informed me that "The Big One" would strike at any minute and that I should be prepared to duck and cover. What only made it worse, was that "any minute" in geological terms meant the next 30 to 70 years which is exactly the time frame I would need to be panicked about the impending destruction for my ENTIRE LIFE (granted, I was an easily stressed out kid... floods, tornadoes, smallpox, fires, necrotizing fasciitis, the LA riots, cannibalism, super volcanoes ... I was pretty sure I was going to fall victim to everything I ever accidentally watched on the news.)

It was a given, that at some point we would either be floating off the coast of the USA as a brand new vacation destination called Californisland, or I would suddenly become a resident in a lovely post-apocalyptic beachfront community.  When I was little, I remember more than one earthquake striking while we were watching the Flintstones.  To this day, I harbor some resentment for Fred and Barney. Obviously they caused the earth to shake.  It's the same resentment I harbor towards the other animated earthquake inducing fiend, Ricky The Raindrop, better known as Ricky, The Harbinger of Doom.

  

And oh, the aftershocks.
 

As an adult, I'm not as panicked about your run of the mill, every day earthquake anymore.  In fact, I like the little ones because they aren't The Big One.   I'll still haul ass to find the nearest doorway or crouch under a sturdy desk.  I keep a flashlight and sturdy shoes near my bed and plan out my quickest route to an emergency exit wherever I go... but I'm not panicked about the thought of The Big One hitting any minute the way I was when I was a kid.

That said, there are definitely some places I hope to NOT find myself when The Big One finally decides to let us move on with our lives. San Andreas Fault... please work with me on these.

1) The Bathroom.

In the shower or on the toilet, I do not want to be in the bathroom.  Inevitably you'll either be nekkid or you risk some questionable toilet backsplash. Lose-Lose.

2) At the Dentist 

As if I really needed another reason to enforce my phobia. And this extends to any sort of procedure involving sharp instruments.

3) At SD ComicCon

100,000 nerds, cramped into 61,000 square feet of convention space.  Wearing costumes.  In July.  And, I might lose my spot in line.

4) At An Amusement Park

Especially not on Knott's Ghost Rider.  Because I'm pretty sure it's just an elaborate toothpick constructed rollercoaster.

5) Driving on a Stack Interchange

Or up the road to Big Bear.  Or anywhere not flat.  Or anywhere where there are cars or other things.

6) The Pacific Northwest

Because their Big One is supposedly going to be way bigger than our Big One.

7) The Inland Empire

Because if I thought traffic was bad before, it will only be worse trying to get home after the 91 disintegrates.

8) SLO and SFO

Because their buildings are so old that they actually put metal plates on the sides saying "Dude, this building is definitely going to crumble and hurl bricks in an earthquake, so walk by it at your own risk because The Big One will strike at any minute."

9) Yellowstone

Ok, so I'd just rather not be at Yellowstone ever.  That whole place is going to blow and it ain't gonna be pretty...  I think I'd take The Big One over The Big KABLOOEY any day.  Our trip to Iceland later this year will be peppered with some hefty kablooeys, but even Laki's worst features are nasty ash and flooding... not having an entire state EXPLODE.

10) The Zoo

Two words.  Escaped Gorillas.

 

Now, my top 5 choices for where I would like to be when The Big One hits:

1) On an airplane with all my friends and family and our pets on our way to a two week vacation in Switzerland.

2) In outer space

3) Sleeping in an Earthquake proof bunker.

4) In the middle of an open field with no power lines, trees, rocks or bugs.

5) At home.  Because I know where the snacks are.

And lastly, I leave you all with some helpful survival information for when the next Big, Medium, or Little One hits.

What To Do During An Earthquake

The Triangle of Life