Tag Archive for 'roadtrip09'

Kubrick and Me

Jan 8, '10  ·  7 Comments Tags: , , , .

Kubrick for WordPress

I met up for an interview with the gracious Tina Daunt in Santa Monica (oh wonderful Santa Monica) during our US roadtrip, first slated for the LA Times, before they started firing people left and right, now up at Huffington Post.

The new 2010 theme is slowly starting to take shape, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what that’ll be about. Meanwhile my, until recently, neglected second child, K2—a spiritual followup of sorts to Kubrick — just went 1.0 before the holidays, and we’re well on our way towards a great 1.1 release.

I’ve got a couple of other projects I should have started a long time ago coming in 2010, and I can’t wait to unveil them as we get nearer to summer. Yes, one of them is a new WordPress theme.

It was great, while it lasted, honestly pretty crazy for a while, and I very much enjoyed it; but its retirement is timely, if not overdue.

Kubrick, by the way, was born in the summer of 2004, which makes it almost five six years old this year. I would never have thought it could have lived for this long.

Thanks Stanley. And sorry.

Skywalker Ranch

Dec 17, '09  ·  6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

We visited the Ranch during our three-week US roadtrip a few months ago, and I’ve been longing to go back ever since. Nestled in the hills a 40-minute drive north of San Francisco, hidden from view of the road and comprising all the land around it, as far as you can see, and about ten times more, Skywalker Ranch is without a doubt the geek haven.

The Front of the Main House

Continue reading ‘Skywalker Ranch’

And, Exhale

Sep 26, '09  ·  5 Comments Tags: , , , .

The lack of chronicling from our recently wrapped three-week roadtrip through 3500 miles of magnificient US countryside and cities isn’t from lack of wanting to bore you to death with the details; but between a whirlwind trip to see various parts of the family trees and a waterlanding of a ‘back to work’ start, in which I managed to get the cold before lunch was served, time and energy has taken a toll.

Continue reading ‘And, Exhale’

The Day by Day Map

Aug 28, '09  ·  3 Comments Tags: , .


View Roadtrip 09 – Day by Day in a larger map

Posted some photos on Flickr, by the way.

And We’re Off

Aug 27, '09  ·  3 Comments Tags: , , , .

Put 250km behind us today, from our Holiday Inn Express just south of SFO over the Bay Bridge, off the freeway through some surreal all yellow hillsides filled with windmills — and locals tail-gating me to push past the 55mph limit — into Modesto, ate at Denny’s, looked across the street and saw Lucas Plaza, where a statue commemorating American Graffiti has been erected (yeah, as if I wasn’t already looking for it; but it was by chance we found it nonetheless). Quick photo op, and then on down to Merced where we’re currently staying at a motel.

Lessons learned so far: Easy to drive over here, people don’t seem to be assholes about driving, like they are in Denmark. Everybody goes at least 5mph past the speed limit. At least. It took me a while to figure out where to turn on the lights on the Mustang. The Mustang has a USB port and line-in, making it hella easy to play music from iPods etc. Oh, and it’s a very nice ride. Oh, and automatics… Droooool. Finally, if it’s hot now, how will it be in Death Valley? The mind boggles.

Before we left the San Francisco area, we stocked up on various supplies and bought a TomTom XL 340-S, despite having bought the US TomTom app for the iPhone. But getting a signal on that was a royal pain in the ass, and I wasn’t going to bet our trip on something so frail, so… And what a pleasure the real thing is to use. How people roadtripped before GPS, I’ll never know. I’m currently updating the maps and hoping to install Homer Simpson…

Anyway, mind is melted. Tomorrow the mountains.

CPH > SFO

Aug 25, '09  ·  1 Comment Tags: , , .

Despair, Oh Frail Human

Aug 24, '09  ·  4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Spielberg, Hemmingway, Einstein, any number of presidents not named Bush, that guy at the gas station, the gal at the drive-in, you and of course, me. We’re all connected in that great human struggle: Our inability to chose books for travels.

Or so I like to believe.

It’s one of those things I spend the most time on when going traveling, and I often find myself skimming through and reading passages of about 10 – 15 books, stacking them this way; that. Trying to insure myself against that harshest of human realizations; the 80-page-in realization of “shit dude, this book sucks”.

Currently I’m leaning towards bringing a single previously unread book, which is currently Alastair Reynolds Absolution Gap, though Cryptonomicon has been drawing me for some time, it having been 8 years or so since I last read it. Also, I’ve got World War Z just sitting there, staring at me, begging me to prepare for the coming Zombie apocalypse…

Now, had I owned a Kindle, this wouldn’t be a problem, but this is Denmark, a country so small and cozy that Amazon wouldn’t touch it with a stick tied to another stick.

Ugh.