Sarf's Travels

Vegas baby! VEGAS!

2012-01-09T14:18:00.003-01:00

Well I am moved to Vegas, the stuff will hopefully be picked up today and arrive some time in the second half of the month.

the apartment complex I am living in is allot like a hotel... or at lest it has that feel, a workout room, pool, spa, with a nice view of the mountains. The lot next door is a solar farm so there is a nice view across it to the mountains :)

Today is also the first day of work, got the first day jitters.

So here is hoping for a good day 1.

PS. Photos coming soon(tm)

So long and thanks for all the fish!

2011-11-26T22:15:00.002-01:00

Well computer is all packed up, and I am posting this from the iPad. Tommorow i will board a plane for Canada and not be back to Iceland for a few years,mwell maybe for fan fest :)

It has be a interesting 4 years and I am going to miss this country, and a lot of people. K, D, and S will be especially missed. The ocean has grower on me, I love it, I even like the wind here, except when it is cold.

Iceland I will miss you.

The 20%

2011-11-06T16:56:00.002-01:00

As most of you know now, CCP had 20% layoffs, I was part of them :( So the chapter of my life spent living in Iceland will be coming to a close.

I am going to miss living here, there was something about living in Iceland that resonated with my being. Even the blowing rain sideways could not make me dislike living here. Sure it was not all roses and butterfly's, but the ruggedness of the country appealed to me.

AS of the 27th I will be flying out of here, probably not to return for many years, but I will come back at some point, there is still more of Iceland that I want to see.

I am going to miss the fireworks at new years, the crystal blue sky that goes on forever during the summer. The moss covered fields and rugged piles of dirt they call mountains... :P

I will be leaving behind a group of wonderful co-workers and a few good friends that I will miss dearly.

Every door closes eventually, but the future could be even more exciting.

Went Down under...

2011-07-30T19:41:00.004Z

Well not Australia, but underground. On Friday Kenny, Diana, Stuart and I went on a cave spelunking tour.

This isn't the entrance, the entrance is this small hole that you need to drop through, my t-shirt and jacket where riding up around my armpits when I got down.

The first room is the ice room, during the winter the whole room covers in ice and icicles, now only another kilometer to go to the other end...

I had expected something like walking along a cobble stone street when I think of lava tubes, this was nothing like that! This was scrambling over lose shifting rocks from the size of a baseball, up to a small piano in size. You had to test every footstep before going. And to top it off I had a flashlight that kept flickering off.

About 600m in I felt like I was at the limit of my endurance, I was taking longer to recover each time I stopped and was stopping more often, to top it off I slipped and landed on my ankle and it HURT! ALLOT!!! Had to sit that one for a bit.

The problem with sitting is that you get hot moving, but when you sit you get cold fast, it is only about 6C in that part of the cave. So you cooled down fast! No matter how tired you where you got up and kept moving to stay warm.

We came across many interesting rock formations, I didn't dig the camera out for each of them, but we saw ledges like in Indiana Jones movies, we sat rock that had dripped down the side of the cave, we saw puddles of rock that had cracked clean through and we saw this where the rock had cooled while dripping from the ceiling.

We got past the 700m of rock scrambling and hit the lava tube, this part went smooth as it really was as smooth as a cobble stone street.

Saw a 15m deep lava pit, didn't take a picture of it, looks like a hole in the ground. We had lunch at the lava pit.

Then we realized we would have to do it all again to get back out..

The return trip went faster, I think as we knew what to expect. And made it back fairly quick, at least it seemed faster. Our guide I swear could teleport! I would be looking for a footing and he would be behind me by a few meters, then I would look up and he would be 10 meters in front of me... On the way back I think I figured out part of what he was doing. It seemed like the trick was to plan a half dozen steps ahead of time, then go, let your momentum carry you from one rock to the next and the next... He would stop and look then move across the tops of the rocks. He obviously didn't have a bum ankle like me, I tried what he was doing but my ankle would scream and I would falter.. I did get along better and if I pushed through the pain knowing that the next step would re-leave the pain I got along good.

We got back to the entrance and scrambling out that hole was challenging, we where then presented with the walk back to the van, that was another half hour walk in a traditional side-ways rain storm with a touch of hail added.

All toll it was not enjoyable but well worth the time and pain spent to see the lava tube, once I have recovered I will have fond memory of the trip.

Its the longest day of the year...

2011-06-21T08:15:00.001Z

Welcome to the longest day of the year, and we have nice sunny weather here today..

A wee walk, and climbing on fairy homes

2011-05-04T09:18:00.002Z

I started the morning with a walk up to the towner on the hill, the group wasn't getting going until 9:00 am so I had lots of time..

The path had this neat anti-rockfall mesh, like giant chain-mail.

the tower was kinda small, but neat to look from

We then got together and headed for the river Leith(sp?) where it is told is the tears from a Scottish giant maiden that was crying over her lost love that went to Ireland. The legend goes that those who put there face into the river will have beauty for the rest of there lives.

We then went to a light house on tip of the isle of Skye and had to walk down, and up and down the hills to get there. Lots of UP :(

Then we headed to the Fairy glen and climbed on there home.

It is said that stacking the rocks and leaving tokens for the Fairy will bring you luck, so I left a 50Isk coin on the rocks.

The next day we where on our way to Inverness, Castle Dun Vegan, and loc Ness.

A wee trip to the higlands

2011-04-30T16:55:00.002Z

Well day two we left early and headed to Pourtree, a Town on the isle of Skye. We took the ferry across so had to be there by 5:30 to ensure we made the 6:00 ferry (the last of the day)

Our first rest break was a Hamish the Highland Coo..

There was also a loom set up there on how they weave tartans.

We stopped at the Onich hotel for lunch, Had a good lunch and had some time to walk on the beach.

Then we where back on the road again and our next stop was the Harry Potter Bridge :) It was in the first movie as the Hogwarts train steamed across the bridge.

It is also known as the glen Finn-en monument

Any who.. we made the ferry at 4:30 so caught the 5:00 one so where where ahead of schedule. There was a cool statue on the docks that we saw as we set sail.

We got to Pourtree early and got set up in hostels, B&B and hotels and then wandered for dinner.

After i wen't to bed i flipped on the TV and was watching the movie "The brides made' at one point in the movie they are in Scotland and they all hop in the range rovers and head to the pub. And there was a shot of the cars going along the docks to the pub. So look at the above picture and picture a line of ranger rovers driving past the buildings.. It was cool, I was there...)

For the record the pink one is not a pub as the movie shows it, but a hotel.

Anyway end of day two, i start the morning with a walk up to the tower you can see above the hostel.

Scotland and a wee birthday.

2011-04-27T19:51:00.002Z

Well i went to Scotland for Easter, flew into Glasgow and took the train to Edinburgh. That night I wandered around the Nelson Monument.

Then wandered over to the royal mile and had dinner at a nice Italian registrant.

The next day was my free day, started the morning at 9:30 am opening of the castle.

I totally lucked out, they where doing a 21 gun salute for the queens official birthday. But first I did the free guided tour of the castle, learned a lot about the castle and it's surrounds, went in and saw the Scottish crown jewels and Stone of Destiny... More on the stone later :)

The sky was overcast but so bright it washed out most of the sky on my photos, it was kind of annoying, and neat. It was like having a large overhead fill flash..

Anyway I stayed around for the noon salute and watched them fire the guns :)

After that I walked over to the botanical gardens, it was a long walk, and the weather was warmer than it looked. Stopped for pizza along the way and then toured the gardens.

Went on the hot house tour, and that was cool, there was also a science center set up and that had some really interesting things. The gardens weren't in bloom yet, but there was the odd bloom, and lots of planting and work going on.

Anyway after that I walked back to the hotel and put in a really early wake up call. The next day was the start of the tour to the isle of Skye. Had to be at the bus stop at 8:30 am.. Good thing there was a hour time zone change, it made the wake up call that never came pointless...

Sore feet

2011-04-21T16:07:00.000Z

Started at the castle at 9:30 and the at noon headed to bot botanical guarden.

Scotlandi ho...

2011-04-20T06:26:00.001Z

Well sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight to glass glow.. Then I will take a train to edundbrough and then a bus tour of thenisle of sky.
More posts to follow

News, get your News here

2011-03-27T22:46:00.002Z

Well I have a bunch of pictures used by a e-zine that I took at fan fest.
Eve is real!

But before you go to read it... I should let you know it is in finish!

But my name is down there at the bottom. I put my pictures up under the creative commons non commercial use, but for this one I said they could use with accreditation.

I am bouncing on the inside..

The Beast!

2011-02-11T18:47:00.002-01:00

It came in the Night
It's howl starting as a soft and soothing moan.

As it came closer it's anger began to be heard.
It's howl becoming a shrieking,
soon it's bellows rattled doors and windows.

It's spittle sheeting across the windows.
Dripping through the cracks, drip, drip drip.

Then it's claws began to pelt the windows non stop.
rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat, faster and faster until
it was a continuous sound that almost drowned out it's roar.

Sleep was impossible, huddling in bed against the memory
of cold that it's howling, beating sounds invoked.

The only good thing about the rain is it got rid of the snow...

:)

Edit: The news said 30m/s winds with gusts to 55M/s...

cool video of landing in LA

2011-02-04T18:00:00.003-01:00

good book

2011-01-23T14:30:00.002-01:00

I don't get as much time as I used to to sit in bed and spend the day reading as I used to. But i did today and finished a wonder full book called Mercury Falls

Robert Kroese has written a wonderful tale about the apocalypse. If you are a fan of Douglas Adams then you will love this nonsensical and whimsical book of the dealing of angles and how some people just don't get it.

Well here is my attempt to publicize a book I enjoyed.. Hope you are tempted to pick it up and read it, warning though it will leave your brain in a twisted mess of spaghetti. It is not as bad as Hitch hikers guide, but comes close at times...

Enjoy.

Snow

2011-01-17T07:00:00.002-01:00

We had one inch of snow last night, Guess what we are all still at work,a nd the city hasn't shut down..

Ha take that Atlanta!

Drunk scientis

2011-01-13T12:26:00.002-01:00

Drunk scientist make better super conductors

Proves to you that some things are just better with wine.

home again

2011-01-09T08:22:00.002-01:00

Well X-mass with the family was good, got to ce nieces have grown up. Cara has become a small person that knows 3 words, Saide(sp?) has become a wonderful little girl! She has a smile that lights up a room, and she likes to pose for photos (this is a rare trait in our family)!

Did the loot day thing, and the big family boxing day dinner, spent a bunch of time connecting with Friends, missed one we played telephone tag the whole trip.

Glad the flights are done, sad that vacation is done. Now need to stay awake for another 12 hours and do a crash conversion to Iceland time in time for work tomorrow morning.

Going to call some friends and see if they will help keep me awake, Probably go swimming, the cold water and exercise should help and maybe play Santa today.

two more sleeps till i fly

2010-12-15T07:42:00.001-01:00

bounce, bounce, oh wait 12+ hours in airports.. sigh, oh well, bounce, bounce...

:)

and Let it snow, let it snow.

2010-11-03T16:29:00.000-01:00

yep it is snowing in Iceland.

This is not as common as most people think... and my parents are off in Australia where it is nice and warm, being summer there...

There she blows...

2010-10-25T18:23:00.001Z

Well winter i think has officially started, we just got our first winter storm of the year.

High winds, sideways rain and all, limited daylight...

I want to be a monster!

2010-10-09T21:32:00.003Z

sigh that time of year again

2010-09-03T20:59:00.002Z

Well the great birthday is coming again. this year i will be 6 X 9 :)

it is a year of knowing everything :P

Sunsets and other new pics

2010-07-24T21:16:00.004Z

Can hardly tell where the three lamp posts.

That is all..

Be Proude to be Canadian!

2010-07-20T10:39:00.002Z

Great video, and thanks sis for the cool like!

Le Photos...

2010-06-28T23:16:00.002Z

The photos are up, see if you can spot the removed people and wires, and posts, and oh yea a whole freaking Crane!

good news, good news, bad news

2010-06-27T17:58:00.001Z

Well back from France and I had a wonderful time. Got some good pictures.

My i-pad was waiting for me.

My bike was stolen while i was away, found the lock cut around the tree.

more later...

Last day

2010-06-26T07:00:00.000Z

Well it is the last day here, we fly out tomorrow.

Yesterday was a busy day. Started the day with a half day trip to versie(sp?) And the in the after noon I had a bus tour of the city with a cruise on the river afterwards.

Ended at the tower, didn't go up as the lines looked to be a couple hours long.

Caught the metro rail back to the hotel

Going to rent a bike today

The three person 225kg elevator

2010-06-24T17:41:00.000Z

The elevator in my hotel has three person elevator, and considering the number of stairs to get to the fifth floor...

I am glad, granted it was either me or my suit case in there it is nice to have a elevator :)

Today is the last day of the conference, tomorrow I have a tour to verislle (sp?) And then a bus tour and river ride ending at the eifel tower. Don't know what I will do on Saturday.
More to come from Paris!

I am in paris

2010-06-22T13:29:00.000Z

Well I am here, didn't prepare very well. Ended up following two other guys from iceland that are going to the conf also.

Have now been on the rail and metro here in paris :)

More later

Pathfinding to paris

2010-06-19T14:41:00.002Z

Well next Tuesday I fly to pairs for a conference and then have 2 days vacation. According to Google I am 1:32.14 walk to the Eiffel Tower and on the way I pass the Lover.

The conference I am going to is put on by AIGAMEDEV.com and is there annual conference on AI and game play.

All told next week should be a lot of fun, except the 4:00 am wake-up to get to the airport for a 7:40 am flight :(

The secrets of Time.

2010-05-29T12:12:00.003Z

Came across this really neat video of how we perceive time and how it influences the kinda of person that we are and how we relate to others. At the End he also makes a interesting statement about education and video games. One of the things that he mentions is that most kids become adults they have played 10,000 hours of video games.

A TED video that is watched said that if you spend 10,000 doing anything you become a expert at doing this. Most kids also spend 10,000 hours in school by the time they become a adult, so you can say by the time a child is a adult they have a good education and are well educated in video games.

One of the points this professor makes is that kids have become rewired for interactive learning, you put them into a classroom where they have to sit there and listen to a teacher. They go 'that's boring' and one statistic is one child drops out of school every 9 seconds in the US.

So if we took traditional school teaching and reworked it so the same knowledge is presented in a interactive way, would students become eager to learn again.

In any case this is good food for thought, recommend that you watch it, he is a not bad white board artist also.

blub bloob blib!

2010-05-21T07:37:00.003Z

Translation from drowning: Swimming going good!

Still swimming been 3 times this week and am up to two 20 min sets of laps, taking about 1 min per lap, yea I am slow...

I was having problems getting into the motion of swimming and turning you head to get air. But have solved that holding your breath for the full length of the pool works great!

Just kidding I have a mask and snorkel and swimming with the snorkel makes it a little easier and I don't keep getting a lung full of water.

One thing I have noticed is that I don't go as fast as I did when I was a kid and the extra weight that I have makes it harder to tread water. I have kinda a weird body makeup. I have most of my weight on the gut, but my legs are relatively fat free from biking all the time. So the legs are much more dense and sink while the top part of me floats better. So when floating my feet always sink and my head bobs up, unfortunately it appears that my buoyancy level puts the water level at my forehead :(

Progress meeter: 6 lbs.

Of biking and swimming

2010-05-16T15:10:00.002Z

Diana dragged me to the pool the other day and this got me thinking of swimming to help lose weight.

so yesterday and today i started out with a nice 2 hour bike ride around by the light house and then off to kringlan, then on the way back I stopped at the pool and swam laps for 40 min (there was a few breaks in there)

Now the trick is to keep it up with either swimming twice a week or a bike ride twice a week and both one day each weekend.

it will be pain full but good for me. I hope.

Mexico Day Four

2010-05-09T20:38:00.003Z

Well day 4 was a half day and then a long flight. But the morning was like most mornings up and having breakfast, went to the beach.

Halldor was doing yoga on the beach with his wife.

Then stood and took photos of Kenny and Diana playing in the surf.

My little camera does not bad at full digital zoom. :)

Chatted for a bit then they convinced me to go back in with them :)

Before we left it was a picture perfect moment, made you really not want to get on a plane. :(

And then when we got to the airport with 340 CCP waiting to get checked in the airports computers crashed... so they wrote boarding passes by hand. "In case there is a joke in here somewhere it takes 8 people to make a hand written boarding pass :(

Saw this guy on our way out :)

That was the end of our Mexico adventure, back to the land of volcano's and liquid sunshine. :)

Mexico Day Three

2010-05-07T21:23:00.002Z

To day was the "work" day, we started the morning with a seminar on how to make new ideas and how to take said ideas to the next level of implementing them?

Not much photos from there, Just our tables glorious leader.

There was one cool thing they handed out Nerf darts and we where to right Ideas onto the dart and fire them off into your coworkers.

After the course the darts made it to the pool and a 3 hour Nerf war!

Loads of Fun had by all.

Near the end of this I saw Perla and co heading to the beach in there belly dancing costumes. I had to follow and take some photos.

The best picture of that was ...

Then that evening we had the grand gala, to get there we took a bus to a boat, then a hour boat ride to a private island. The water was a tad rough and several people where sick by the end of the trip.

Dinner was good, and the setting was great, but it did start to rain a bit.

There was a stage show of fire juggling and stuff, then we saw the new trailers, and this years crop of funny videos that are made in house.

The boat ride back was much smoother and allot of fun, if the ride out had been like that then people would have been much happier.

When we got back to the hotel they had set up the lawn area with table and a bar and the party continued late into the small hours.

Went to bead so I could get up early and enjoy the next morning before the flight home.

Mexico Day Two

2010-05-06T19:02:00.013Z

Day two started by waking up about 5:00AM mostly because of the timezones and then i rolled over and went back to sleep...

About 7:00 AM i got up and headed for breakfast, met people from work and got ready for the canopy tour... Well that didn't happen they had neglected to tell anyone that there was a 250 lbs weight limit.

So I spent the morning with my underwater housing for my Canon G11 and took pictures from in the pool.

Anne borrowed my camera for this picture.

This is anne.

In the afternoon I had the Green Zebra jeep trip. It was fun and I got very dirty and dusty. Not many opportunity for pictures but allot of fun.

At the mid point of the ride we stopped at a ranch for tequila tasting and nachos.

The evening was sitting around the pool and visiting with people.

Mexico Day One

2010-05-05T12:41:00.015Z

Well the first day was really a continuation of the previous day. As we had just arrived at 6:30 AM. The hotel staff was awesome, staying up way late to check us in, and they had sandwiches and drinks waiting for as we walked in the door 15h late.

I stayed up and had breakfast at the hotel, the Triton restaurant was cool and open air at the same time. The birds just flew in and apparently have learned that anything on the dirty dishes tray was open game. They would actually sit on the back of a chair and not touch a plate on the table, but where all over the clearing trays.

At 8:00 I got on the buss for the tour to San Blas. It was a two hour drive so I slept on the bus for that part. But before we got out of the city I saw some construction where they where installing this.

Before we got to San Blas we stopped at a crocodile farm. To get to it we had to take a 30 min boat trip. The boat trip was through canals and along the way the guides spotted many animals. How i have no idea cause as they parked the boat right under them it was still bloody hard to see them.

Once we got the the farm the biting began, there was MANY MANY mosquitoes :( but we saw crocks!

I saw a jaguar :)

ps. The camera slipped into the cadge, my hand did not and the cat was watching me the whole time. I am sure that if I had moved another six inches the cat would have had a snack!

Once we where done with that it was on the San Blas. The old fort was a big disappointment as you got shuffled through it very quickly and the fort was way to spiffed up to get a good feel of how old it was, and the rest of the ruins where being "preserved" so you couldn't go there. They had also cemented the canons into the walls :(

For lunch we went to McDonald's, there we had authentic Mexican food, it was Good. The town was nice also and there was a bit of a outdoor market.

While we were walking around this guy came out of a registrant and putt a funnel into the manhole cover and started poring something in, while talking with the police officer.

You would never get away with that the police would be way to suspicion of you in north America. You would probably get charged with illegal dumping.

That night we had our arrival dinner around the pool at the hotel. They had a mariachi band playing and dancers.

After that it was drinks and socializing.

Mexico Day -1 should have been -0.5

2010-05-04T13:10:00.003Z

We where scheduled to leave at 7:00 AM on Wednesday but the Volcano didn't get the memo and we had to sit in the airport for 15 hours :( Finally got out at about 21:00.

It started out about noon we took the buses out to Keflavik and where hoping to fly at 13:00 but that didn't worked, the next update would be at 18:00. So we sat around and visited and played cards...

Then at 17:00 we found out we would be going, so we started checking in. When we got to security they where not there so we had to wait... Then when we got food and got to passport control. they weren't there, seeing a trend?

I ran into a small snag there, since I had me passport renewed in Iceland, so the poor customs guy went through my passport three times looking form my entry stamp. Had to explain I had it renewed here and then it was OK once he checked where it had been issued.

Anyway we then got to the gate and low and behold no plane.

And our plane showed up for the trip :) The Airbus 340 is a BIG plane, I could easily stand in the engine intake and have room to wear a sombrero.

We all piled on and took off for sunny Mexico, I felt sad for the flight crew they had been up since 6:30 AM in case we flew at any of the windows.

Out of Mexico

2010-05-03T23:52:00.001Z

Flew home today and arrived at 6:30 AM. Spent the day Processing photos and uploading them then went and saw Iron Man 2!

I will post a trip blog posts with photos over the next couple of days, but have a release to get out the door.

In mexico

2010-04-29T08:33:00.000Z

3:30 am but here

Mexico

2010-04-28T20:33:00.000Z

Past customs and they just towed the lane to the gate. Should be boarding in 30 min

Mexico

2010-04-28T13:03:00.000Z

Sitting in airport next ash report at d:00 pm

Busses on hold indefinitly

2010-04-28T09:35:00.000Z

We where scheduled to depart at 9:30 but the buses have been canceled and there is no ETA on if the airport will open today :(

keflvik scheduled to open at noon

2010-04-28T06:48:00.002Z

so our departure has been delayed, we will depart at 13:00 instead of 07:00.

Camping the Met reports

2010-04-27T15:45:00.003Z

We won't know for sure that we are on our way to Mexico until the plane takes off. Current;y we are on schedule for departure at 7:00 AM tomorrow from Keflavik. But and there is always a But, We are possibly flying out at 7:00 is from Akueri. If this happens then we get on buses for a 5 hour bus ride to that airport and then fly to Mexico. But, there are two in this. the ash has been creeping north and could close it also.

So we are watching met reports, and email to make sure that we know when to be at the office and ready to go. So with luck I can sleep in to that late time of 2:30 AM and then get up and have a shower and take a cab to the office.

And we will be off, hopefully. We won't really know untill we are flying if we are going. I will try to post by cellphone what is happeneing and when.

Hopefully Mexico bound - rob.

Mexico

2010-04-21T19:33:00.001Z

1 Week to go till sunny Mexico.
Can hardly wait.

"No boom?": "No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow."

2010-04-04T08:21:00.008Z

Well back off the volcano.
It was awesome trip, even if I did get home at 2:30 AM.

Got picked up at about 2:00 pm and we had a even bigger super jeep than the first time. On the drive out had a chat with the other passengers, had 2 from England, 2 dutch, Gummi from Iceland and myself. I didn't recognize him at first (only met him once) but he is the brother of two people at work :)

I slept a bit on the way out and a bunch on the way back. But we soon passed some familiar waterfalls on the south cost that are frozen, we didn't stop but it did look cool with all the ice around them.

We soon turned off and started the trip across the glacier. Part way up it started snowing and getting cloudy.

I knew that the big jeeps used a low air pressure in the tires to ensure better traction. What I didn't know is they do this several time, they lower the tires to about 5 PSI at the bottom, then on the way up they stop and let more air out. As we climb the air pressure drops and the pressure in the tires increases. So by the time we got to the summit we where running on tires with just 2.5 PSI in them. On the way down we stop and put more air in the tires.

We got onto the actual glacier and started climbing for the summit by the time we got there we where down to less than 10m visibility but our driver kept going by following his last path on the GPS.

At the top 1499m we where right over Katla cone, we had 700m of ice between us and a BIG volcano. Katla is the big one that is mechanically linked to the volcano that is erupting right now. In history when one has erupted the other has followed suite shortly after. Shortly in a geological way ie +- 50 years.

We got to the first rift and it was blowing cold and snowing but we where a hour and a half early. So we drove around to the different vantage points and took pictures then hopped back in and warmed up...

We drove down to where the lava falls where and they are all frozen over. But it is interesting to see new mountain still steaming and with the odd glowing crack right beside big Ice sheets. During this time the snow stopped and the clouds cleared off :) but it stayed cold -12 with heavy wind chill. I am glad I brought a toque and scarf, but couldn't find my warm gloves so fingers got cold fast. Especially as I had to take them off to push buttons on the cameras.

We finally drove around to the new rift and it was way more active than the first and new lava river was just starting, we saw a lot of it form over the night. starting from a little protrusion and growing to a wide path of lava down to the steaming ice.

One spot we stopped we where to close and got told off. 'stay 200m from the lava' we where close enough that that cold wind was nice and warm! It was cool seeing the leading edge of the lava as it pushed out and small rocks tumbled down the side revealing the glowing interior.

After it got dark the picture taking was harder but the scene was spectacular. Mom would love to have been there, She has always wanted to see a volcano and this would have been perfect. You had the jets of lava pulsing and splashing up the sides of the cone. The sound was cool also almost like a heart beat, Tumpsh, Tumpsh, Thumpsh as each jet shoots out and the sizzling in the background of the cooling rock.

We then headed back to Reykjavik we stopped at the summit and looked at the norther lights, it was a strong green display with no purple or white. Saw several curtains of lights dancing and pulsing. Didn't try to take pictures, others did and got some nice pictures.

PS. Title is a quote from Susan Ivonavich from the TV series Babylon 5"
PSS> There are more photos on flicr, see link in page header!

IMG00130.jpg

2010-04-03T17:01:00.000Z

Climbing onto the glacier

Jeep vs Volcano pt.2

2010-04-03T08:07:00.002Z

Well i have a Jeep tour today to the cone of the volcano.... There was also a second rift that opened up about 300m away.

Found this picture of where we are going.

Pic

This should be a much nicer trip than last time, but it will also be colder :(

We will drive across a glacier to get there.

SUPER jeep to the volcano

2010-03-29T18:50:00.004Z

Well I took the super jeep trip to the volcano.

The trip was fun and we drove for 2 hours to get there, when we got there the wind was blowing and it was COLD, COLD, COLD!!

This is Ana a friend from work.

And without further a due.

Yep that was it, we got to within 3KM of the volcano and that picture was with maximum zoom :(

My room mate and others hiked 15km each way to get to see the following, I am looking for a tour company that will take me there. Here is what they saw!

Keven photos
Eruption in Iceland photo essay

Hiiii HOOO it is off to the Volcano ?!?!?

2010-03-27T22:06:00.001-01:00

Well tomorrow night I am going on a Volcano tour with Super Jeep. They will take as close as is safe.

Hopefully i will have some good photos when i return at 1-3 AM...

Volcano Update and scuba

2010-03-24T19:58:00.003-01:00

Well the volcano has been active and grown a bit, the magma chamber is still increasing pressure so it is anticipated to keep going for a while.

Video

In scuba news did the first outdoor dive and it did not go well.

First the water was 2.2C deg, but that was OK. As some of you know I have never been comfortable with tight things around my neck (mom can attest to my dislike of dress shirts and ties!

Well the Dry suite has a very tight rubber neck, and coupled with a bit small hood I felt like I was being choked. I was fine paddling around on the surface, but when 10M down I was very uncomfortable and I apparently hadn't been inflating my dry suite properly, but that was besides the point.

The neck thing was what was really bothering me and as a result I was very focused internally and not paying attention to my suroundings. So I surfaced and sat out the rest.

Finni will try and find a bigger dry suite for me and hopefully with less pressure on my neck I will be able to pay attention and complete my dive.

I think i will bow out of the diving in mexico if I can just to be safe. Don't want to pay alot of money for something I won't be able to do.

Going to see if I can change it to the trip to the old ruins.

The Trip!

2010-03-24T07:21:00.002-01:00

So I have the itinerary for Mexico :)
It will be a 10 hour flight there departing at 7:00 AM getting into Puerto Vallarta at Noon there time. Hope my Ipod battery lasts that long :P

April 28th Wednesday
Atlanta, Reykjavik and Newcastle arrival and check-in Puerto Vallarta
No formal activities or schedule

April 29th Thursday
Morning Scuba diving for 5.5 hours, then the Beach!
Shanghai participants arrive at hotel and check-in
Full unity welcome dinner at the hotel at 19:00

April 30th Friday
Morning Canopy Tour Zip-Line thought the jungle canopy
Afternoon Dune buggy through the hills and country side.

May 1st Saturday (The CCP Work day)
10:00-15:30 CCP Assembly
17:30 Depart for the boats to CCP Fiesta Grande
- There is a 1 hour boat ride each way to the festivities
00:00 Arrive back at resort, organized CCP after party

May 2nd Sunday
Check out for all Icelandic, Atlanta and Newcastle participants
Fly back

more volcano news

2010-03-22T17:26:00.002-01:00

Video

Well more video and the rift has widened to about 2km in length. It is expanding towards Ketla.

And Reykjavik excursions are offering tours (6 hours and 9900 isk) but they are a a little vague on what you will see or how close you will get.

Volcano

2010-03-21T09:16:00.003-01:00

A volcano has erupted about 130km from Reykjavic

http://http.ruv.straumar.is/static.ruv.is/vefur/innklipp_eldgos.wmv

The people below the glacier where evacuated within 5 hours and the danger of flooding is low

Update more video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx9QQU5bU8I

Into the lake

2010-03-20T18:39:00.004-01:00

Well tomorrow is the first outdoor dive. Current weather is overcast with wind and rain. Hey when you are underwater you don't notice the rain :)

It shall be interesting, I understand we will do two dives tomorrow.

Then next saterday we will our final dive.
Assuming I pass everything then I am ready for Mexico.

Bounce Bounce.

UPDATE: weather to bad, scuba postponed a week

O winter you do love me!

2010-02-25T06:29:00.002-01:00

After a surprising mild winter, we haven't had allot of snow, just light rain and mostly at night.

Last night it started snowing, and blowing wind. This morning we have 5cm of snow and 50km/h winds with -10C temps. The forecast predicts this will continue till the end of next week :( Worst is that next week we will start having highs of 2C and lows of -5C so we will have lots of snow and rain and ICE!

This is one sad panda! :(

Paris!

2010-02-23T14:21:00.002-01:00

Well I just signed up for a conference on Game AI in Paris this summer :)

The conference is Wen, Thurs (23, 24th) but I am flying back on Sunday :)

So what I want is comments of what to go see in Pairs on my 2 free days, suggestions and ideas are welcome, there is a couple of things that I must see (Eiffel tower,) and so forth.

What else is good, and what is the best way around Paris. The conference is a block from the metro station so that will probably be my mode of transportation.

Let the comments flow.

Scuba, Scuba, Some More

2010-01-27T16:01:00.002-01:00

About to head off to the second pool session, Last week was a blast and i loved it. But my sinuses and lungs have been weird all week.

I suspected it is because the air int he tanks is so dry.

Scuba Scuba , doo

2010-01-20T20:24:00.002-01:00

Well had the first pool dive for the scuba lessons, and it was FUN. Had a little problem with my ears, but I think I can manage. Just need to spend a little longer balancing the pressure.

next pool class is in a week. then classroom work...

this will be fun

Things that go boom!

2010-01-04T08:39:00.002-01:00

Well the fireworks are done with and here are some photos from that night.

First up was Nathan inspecting the load of explosives we had.

And now for some explosions!

Last day of the Year.

2009-12-31T10:59:00.000-01:00

Well it is the dawn of the last day of the year.

Have party to go to... Check!
Have many big boxes of Fire works .... Check!
Have large bottle of Rum .... Check!
Have camera ready to go .... Check!

Well see you next year!

80k up in smoke and something weird..

2009-12-29T14:41:00.003-01:00

Well just went and bought fireworks :) < please note this grin does not come close to the size of the real one!

I bough a bunch of fireworks for new years at work.... and some fire crackers and stuff :)

The something weird is I was laying in bead last night trying to sleep when I noticed my light on the ceiling flickering.

This is odd since the light was off.

At first I thought it was catching the light from the search beacon on top of the Perlan but then realized the light flicker didn't match the light patch on the wall from the search light...

Well I think I have figured it out. I have a compact florescence bulb in the light and I think it was flickering from the RF signal from the airport beacon. Most airports have a radio beacon the planes can use to triangulate there position. The beacons have a pulse at a regular interval so you can identify each station.

I figure as i am close to the airport the radio beacon is powering my light briefly. :) Mystery solved, I think!

morning lols.

2009-12-28T09:35:00.003-01:00

got this from here and i found it funny.

the cool thing is the formula is correct.

Merry Loot Day, umm a day late

2009-12-26T16:02:00.001-01:00

Well merry Loot day. Hopefully the Jolly fat man with the red suit brought you all you desired, and if not that all that you need.

:)

Almost the Great Loot day.

2009-12-23T13:23:00.002-01:00

Well x-mass is almost on us, this year the great loot day is looking kinda sparse :(

I have gifts from family and work of course, but I have been using my gift to my self for a month or so now. 160GB SSD drive for my computer.

Anyway sorry for the long laps in posts, but between work and other things I haven't felt like writing in a while. I will try to be better in the new year.

In any case have a Merry Loot Day, and a Happy New Year. :P

ps. I will post pictures of the fireworks again this year.

Winter muesings

2009-12-03T18:00:00.002-01:00

Well the snow has fallen, the thermometer has fallen and the wind has risen, guess two out of 3 isn't bad.

We got snow the other day, and -15c temps, and the wind picked up, one of the blogs I read called it Windkill :) aptly appropriate don't you think.

But alas it all washed away last night and the temp is on the rise again. We are down to a few hours of daylight again and the days are starting to blend together.

But the release went well and we are in hotfix and patch mode. Starting to plan the next release and getting the bug counts down.

that is all for me, and sry it has been so long.

well the cursed windows 7 is installed

2009-11-10T18:07:00.002-01:00

It is up and running, a little less stable that the Linux install, but less hassles to get things running.

offline for a bit

2009-10-29T17:09:00.001-01:00

I have broken down and bought a copy of windows 7. So i will be off-line for a bit while i reinstall the os.
See you all in a bit, if you need to email me, that will go to my phone.

We had a bit of a blow up.

2009-10-10T09:24:00.004Z

Had a Huge wind storm here last night, One that puts what Karen experienced to shame. I heard that wind speeds out over the ocean was in excess of 50m/s in Reykjavik we had 30-40 m/s winds and light rain.

Light, lol, at those wind speed light rain HURTS!

In other news some of the GM's at work did a video. There is some strong language but it is hilarious, especially if you play games and get some of the inside jokes.

Anyhow it is cool, and well done. If you don't get a joke, or comment drop me a comment and i will try to explain the situation.

Oh to be a ambasador

2009-10-06T09:12:00.002Z

Went to the Canadian embassy yesterday and guess what, they are open between 9:00 am and noon. Wow I would like to have a 3 hour work day to, The cost pinching part of me hopes the ambassador is on a hourly wage. The realist thinks he probably has a lot of social duties outside of work hours.

sigh, summer gone

2009-10-06T09:09:00.001Z

We had snow on the ground this morning, so summer is officially over :(

Round, and Round you go and where you stop is where you started.

2009-09-20T16:22:00.005Z

I spent a good part of the day processing photos and getting them uploaded.

The trip was amazing in that we had some good weather, some blaa weather and a day of full on extreme Icelandic weather.

Should back up, for those that don't know my friend Karen came for a visit from Canada and we rented a Jeep and drove around Iceland. We had 8 days on the road and saw allot of cool things.

The day of extreme weather was the last day.. Karen has a photo of a waterfall not making it to the ground. The wind was blowing so hard that the waterfall was getting broken up into mist and becoming rain. It was not a small waterfall either, and it is a neat photo of the waterfall cresting the edge and falling about halfway down before dissolving into mist in the wind.

I don't have a photo of it, I was busy trying to keep the car on the road in high winds and sideways rain. I also said I would not post her photos until she has posted them.

There was several place before that I found interesting, the drive into to lanmanalaoiger(sp!) was cool. We where fording rivers in the Jeep and that was neat. and again no photos of us ploughing through rivers, we where in the car.

Another place we stopped was near the big glacier where there is arm of ice is breaking up and flowing into the ocean. There was chunks of ice the size of buses, and the current was strong enough to stop the tied and make the waves break offshore.

Another cool place was Vik we had a nice sunset behind the bluff, and a nice walk down the beach.

We drove back into a small town and saw a couple of neat waterfalls and Iceland's biggest canyon.

The road was 50km of bad washboard and huge potholes, like the size that you drove around for fear of losing your vehicle in one.

On the way back to route 1 we passed through this little town that was just gorgeous. It was a picture perfect location and Iceland's capital of wale watching (on the north east cost)

We had lunch in this small restaurant on the docks, the food was great and the view out the windows was like in the movies. Didn't have my camera with me for lunch but got this photo after. The restaurant is one of the roofs in the bottom of the photo.

So that was the trip and it is back to work tomorrow :( I will let you know where, and when Karen posts her photos.

Not a nice day

2009-09-14T10:32:00.000Z

Borganess and the last night

2009-09-13T17:04:00.001Z

Yesterday we drove to acurari (sp!) And spent the night. It is named for corn and coast so the town roughly translates to corn coast.

Tonight we are staying in borganess and tomorrow heading up the penisula and back to Reykjavik.

Trip is almost over.

PS: get well soon kathy!

Oh the pain!

2009-09-11T16:04:00.000Z

Karen made me hike here! She said it is only 1.5km there.

BUT IT ID ALL UP HILL!!!!!

Trip to Hofn

2009-09-10T16:21:00.000Z

Well we set out this morning to drive to Hofn, and we got there with lots of time to spare!

Along the way we came to a spot where the glacier is calfing off chunks of ice. That than flowed down the river that is created by then melting ice. Then when the tides goes out you end up with large ice cubes stranded on the beach.

Photos when I download the camera

In Vik

2009-09-08T18:45:00.000Z

We stopped at the water falls along the way to vik, checked into the hotel and then went back to vik for dinner. We went to the place where mom really liked the lamb soup. We had the marinated lamb chops.

Mmmmmm

At the golden water fall

2009-09-08T12:17:00.000Z

We have been to thinker and geyser.

Now at the water fall and karen thinks I am taking to many photos

Prune simulation

2009-09-07T13:57:00.001Z

So we did the blue lagoon and we are distinctly prune like!

Next is the mall as Karen left her sun glasses on thee t*blue in Edmonton.

This evening we met Devon & Kate and Diana and Kenny for dinner and this great little Indian restaurant. Dinner was GREAT! and only 34k :)

We then went back to there place and played a game called Apples vs Apples. It works like this, you have green apples cards and red apple cards. Everyone starts with 7 red apple cards and whose ever turn it is turns over a Green apple card. The cards all have words so for Instance if the green card was the word Rich. Then each player looks at there hand of cards and picks the card with the word or phrase that best goes with the card and tosses it into the middle. For isnatance there was cards tossed in like cheesecake., and monopoly, movie starts,... and the peron whose turn it was picks that red apple card that best goes with the green apple card. In this case it was Rich Cheescake. so the person who tossed in Cheesecake gets the green apple card.

The goal is to get 6 green apples to win (if playing 6 person game)

Alltold it was a good night, and Karen loved Diana's coffee.

The arival of Karen.

2009-09-07T07:06:00.002Z

Alarm goes off at 03:30 , what does the 0 stand for, "Oh my god it is early".

Yes i got up at 3:30 am and then drove out to the airport after the shower, breakfast...

In case you are wondering I did leave a bit of extra time in case... as a result i sat for about 45min, I could have slept in more, Then it took almost a half hout for Karen to get her lugage and wander past customs.

For the record Karens flight landed at 6:20 am and the sun rose at 6:25AM so she beat the sun here.

We then headed to my place in Reykjavik and fed her breakfast. Dumped the luggage and headed out for a walk, took her along the cost from the Viking ship down to the sea wal near work. Karen's comment was "Is it possible to take a bad picture here?"

Stopped at work and gave her a tour, and then had hot choclate in the lunch room.
Wandered a little more than caught a cab back to my place.

Sat around for a little while, then we took the car and drove up to the Perlan and had lunch and looked over the city, then we drove over to the beach and had a wander. Last we drove out to the light house and wandered along the beach for a bit.

Then it was time to head home and make supper, made spagetii for Karen, willem, and Roary (sp?).

It is now the morning of the next day and sleep head is still sleeping...
Today the plan is to go tot he blue lagoon and to pack :)

Tommorow will be on the road.

Travel e-zine

2009-09-04T18:18:00.001Z

Well my photo was selected, you can see the guide here.

My first published photo... :)

The grand trip, ccp style

2009-08-28T20:40:00.003Z

The next grand trip has been announced.

Puerto Vallarta for 4 nights of partying :)

So I will be in Mexico for April 28 to May 2

Woot!

O.o hmm that is intresting

2009-08-21T17:21:00.002Z

It appears that one of my photos has been short listed for inclusion in a travel map.

The tourist map is a free publication, and is within my share and accredit usage.

Will find out early sept if it will be used.

The funny thing is of all the pictures of Venice I took,the pick the one of the garbage scow :)

Flying higher than a kite...

2009-08-15T14:48:00.004Z

Well yes I was higher than a kite, but not really that high.

Dr. Eyjog was going flying this weekend, so I went with him. :) It was overcast to the south, so we flew north west for about a hour and a half.

This is a picture of work, form a different point of view :P Kind of like this view of work a posed from the inside.

We flew north from Reykjavik up along the Fjord that the allies used to park convoys in during WWII.

From there we flew north into the highlands and around some mountains, the cloud cover was at just the right level that you could not see the glaciers. Well you could see them but it was white ice with white clouds above them, so couldn't really see them.

Then on the way back we followed a glacier fed river and a fresh water river. Where they both enter the ocean it is a interesting mix of silt filled water, fresh water, and salt water.

Then it was back to Reykjavik.

On the way back we flew past some land makes and places of interest. The first was the swiming pool that my parents and I went to when they visited.

On the way into to land we passed the Perlan.

You can see the runway that we landed at on the far left of the picture.

A visit from the past.

2009-08-08T18:32:00.001Z

We have a visitor from the past here in Iceland.

A Russian sailing ship has come to port. It was built in 1926 by Germany and then handed over to Russia as war reparations.

Anyway it is kind of neat to see this old lady still sailing.

Trip planning

2009-07-28T13:47:00.002Z

Hmmm trip planning.

Karen and I have decided what we are doing when she visits. So far it involves doing stuff.

The plan:

We are going to rent a 4x4 and drive around Iceland. we will have about 8 day of travel time to see things and with a 4x4 we will be able to head off onto F class roads.

Class F roads are a dirt tracks, that will most likely involve crossing streams. So it will be neat to go anywhere in the back country.

Other than that we don't have much of a plan yet, but it is coming along.

Home again :(

2009-07-16T00:32:00.003Z

Well i am home, flew in last Sunday on the 6:50 AM plane. Had most of Sunday to try and recover from a lack of sleep. I had a nap until noon, then went biking, I figured that if I fell asleep while biking the fall would wake me up :)

Sunday was the most gourgous day i have seen in iceland for a while, and has still been nice. I guess I dragged the rain to Alberta and the sun back here, both needed the other. :)

Other than that back into work, and I have the photos downloaded but not processed yet.

Grans birthday

2009-07-04T23:03:00.001Z

My ran mother had her 98th birthday party on the first.

It was a good time, my mom invited 26 but only 23 showed.

All told there was enought left overs to feed Iceland for a week. :)

Off with Karen for the week end, we are driving down to Banff through jasper and spent the first night in lake louise(sp?). And the hiked. Up to the tea house. My poor sore feet!

More later

almost time to fly.

2009-06-25T16:47:00.002Z

I can't wait for Saturday, flying back to visit friends and family :) Also have a bunch of shoping to do, been getting orders from people to bring things from Canada.. I think my suitcase is going to be loaded with chocolate and goodies on the way back.

Summer

2009-06-12T13:13:00.002Z

It ius finally feeling allot like summer, IE I can't sleep cause it is bright out side from 3:00 am to 11:56 pm.

I have found there is slight down side to this, when you want good pictures with really nice sky's in them you need a hour or so around sunset and sunrise.

So not allot of nice photos lately.

Other than that I am starting to get excited about going back to Canada for a visit. but strangely enough all I am thinking about is all the foods that i can't get here that I love. I am almost to the point of looking into a Purdies choclate franchise just to import hedgehogs to Iceland :)

Well I am going to enjoy the weekend, hoping for no rain and lots of biking opportunity :)

They are Done!

2009-05-19T07:54:00.004Z

Ok got the last photos processed and uploaded. These include the Vatican, and fountains, and the coliseum. All in Rome!

Now to wright a email to everyone on the tour :)

And to write the trip report, hard to believe it was a month ago now :(

On the other hand we have has some of the most beautiful days here. So far from Saturday to now we have had 15c+ days and clear blue sky's. Been out biking again as I got the winter tires changed off and it is so east to pedal again. and we are getting close to 19hours of daylight right now. So there is a lot of nice Day.

YAAA Summer is here.

On another topic, check this out. This is like google, but searches computable data. For instance if you search for sunrise it will figure out where you are int he world and then figure out what time sunrise was and sunset and other related information. If you enter math formulas it will solve the formulas and display the results.

It is kinda cool.

PICTURES

2009-05-06T20:04:00.002Z

well only one day of photos to filter, process, and upload till I have all of the Italy trip done, put up 2 more days tonight.

sorry

2009-04-21T13:31:00.003Z

Joined a new raiding guild in wow, and they raid hard, Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon nights. But the times are good, they start about 6:300 and end by 10:00 my time. But it has not left allot of time to edit photos.

But I give you the smart Police...

... Car. :)

Hopefully I will get another days worth done tonight.

first set of photos,

2009-04-12T12:58:00.000Z

They are in no order yet, but the first set of Italy is up

Touchdown!

2009-04-10T17:22:00.000Z

landed and unpacking gifts...

Home

2009-04-10T06:16:00.001Z

The heart is warm.
The feet sore.
Time to go home.

Vatican and the rocks

2009-04-09T18:31:00.001Z

This morning we did a tour of the vatican museum. We where supposed to see st. Peters cathedral, but the pope was washing some feet :)

So we didn't get to go in :(

In the after noon we did a fountains and squares walk. This was nice and we saw a lot of things.

Then afterwards chris and kenna and I went and saw the coliseum, big pile of old rocks :)

Also looked a bit at the form and walked to the monument that. Celebrates the unification of italy.

Fly home tomorrow and will start getting photos up and post better trip reports

Dinner at the three pines

2009-04-07T18:24:00.001Z

We are having a group dinner. It is traditional Italian dinner.

They just brought in the flaming bore

David

2009-04-07T13:07:00.001Z

Nuff said