Small Fish, Big Pond

First the major common ones that everybody should know:

-Start slow. Work your way up to difficult hikes.
-Let the slowest person in the party set the pace.
-Hike in a group or if you can’t let people know where you’re going and when you’ll be back.
-Plan ahead. Plan for any eventuality.
-Stay on trails. Only bushwhack where it’s allowed and if you’re a good navigator (without resorting to using GPS)
-Drink lots of water.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind that may not be commonly known:

-In addition to drinking lots of water keep in mind that water only helps you if it’s IN you. If you “save” it in your canteen it’s doing no good. Try to keep sipping a small amount of water at regular intervals so you don’t get too much and have to pee it out, but you don’t have too little and start suffering from it.
-Drink a lot of water to pre-hydrate before you hike. Better to have to pee when you get to the trailhead than to drain your canteen in the first 100 yards because you were dehydrated before you started.
-When hiking a strenuous trail try to keep your heart rate at a steady rate as if you were jogging. When it’s flat walk fast, when it’s steep or rocky slow your pace.
-Step over logs and rocks rather then up them and back down. There is no use lifting your body mass up 2 feet only to drop down one stride later. Hiking is all about using your energy in the most efficient way, usually slow and steadily.
-Stop in the shade if you can. Pretty obvious but you’ll cool down much better if you hike just a little further and rest where it will do some good.
-KEEP YOUR FEET DRY! Moisture invites friction, friction causes blisters. I put a ton of baby powder on my feet before a hike, the talcum soaks up sweat and keeps your feet dry and blister free. Keep a pair of clean dry socks and a small bottle of baby powder in your pack incase you step in a puddle or ford a stream.
-Hiking poles help more than you think. A lot of muscles are used just to keep balance, poles allow them to relax a bit and save some energy for the hike. And going downhill with poles is a dream that your knees and shins will thank you for.
-Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Better to be ready for anything and have nothing happen than to not be ready and have everything happen.

In regards to the last one I’m a bit of a fanatic to when it comes to being prepared, for me half the fun of hiking and camping is preparing your gear and knowing that you’re prepared for any eventuality. In fact even though I always hope for a safe enjoyable trip a part of me is hoping that the weather will turn to a torrential downpour, or I’ll be stranded and have to live 3 days in the mountains till rescuers can get to me. I have the gear to make it, but I’ve never had to test how well prepared I am.

Maybe one of these days I’ll purposefully spend a couple nights in the mountains living off my daypack contents, just to see if I can.

Here’s my pack. I got it for free for test driving a Nissan Xterra back in 2000. I already knew I wanted to buy one, but some friends on an internet message board pointed me to a deal where you print out a flyer, test drive the Xterra, then get your choice between the day pack or a pair of FRS radios.

To this day it’s still the best daypack I’ve ever seen. Although I had to add the Velcro loop to keep the hiking poles strapped in.

It even has this cool rain proof cover that zips up into the bottom of the pack. It keeps the shoulder straps free when it’s on so Cover+Ponco = dry hiker and gear.

Here’s all the gear I carry. In reality all you need to survive is shelter and water (you can go 3 weeks without food*), the rest of the gear is really just enough to keep you comfortable and make the hike pleasant. Obviously the more you carry the more weight you have on your shoulders, all this is 15 pounds; but I carry it on every hiking trip so my body is conditioned to feel that this is a normal amount.

-Tube Tent
-CamelBak
-Spare Pair of dry socks
-Solid Fuel Stove
-Space Blanket (Mylar blanket)
-MRE, one of the best additions I’ve made. Nothing is better than getting a warm meal at the end of your hike. It’s also very good to keep your strength up, see below.
-First-Aid Kit (with extra moleskin)
-Gloves
-Commercial survival kit
-20ft of parachute cord.
-Signal mirror.

-Map and compass
-Aerial Flares (got them at a boat store)
-Rain Poncho
-Flower ID book (My parents know them from memory, I want to learn too)
-headlamp style flashlight
-antihistamine (I get bad allergies)
-Baby Powder
-Suntan lotion
-Bug lotion
-antacid
-Candy for snacking along the way.

The solid fuel stove I got is pretty cool, it all folds up to the size of a deck of cards but I can’t remember where I got it; all the printing on it is in German. The survival kit is the metal tin for boiling or cooking water, remember that you can’t use a stove without a water holding metal cooking container. Canteen cups from the Army/Navy Surplus store would also work well.

The survival kit is pretty cool too, but again I can’t remember where I got it. But I do remember making my own in a wilderness survival class I took in High School.

One very important thing I’m currently missing is iodine tablets to purify water. I usually fill the 1 liter CamelBak up and carry an extra 1 liter bottle for backup. But if you’re isolated from civilization for more than a day you’ll likely use that amount up and will need to purify water from a stream.

More pics here: Flickr Hiking Set.

MRE’s

I want to say a word about MREs. When I was in the Army I lived off them for about 3 months, it wasn’t the best of meals but it was still better than some shitty food I’ve had in the US too.

Real military MRE’s are balanced in their nutrition content. They’re designed so that one MRE a day can keep a man alive indefinitely, and 2-3 a day will provide enough energy for an active soldier that is expected to hike 10+ miles a day. I’m proof that you can live off 2 a day for months, and we had problems where we were actually gaining weight eating more than 2 a day.

The reason why is because the food in the MRE is fortified with vitamins and nutrients. Ironically the main meal isn’t much more than filler carbs for energy, the crackers and peanut butter are like a vitamin pill, the beverage powder has electrolytes like Gatorade. With the Military MREs they recommend that if you can’t eat a full meal that you eat a little bit of everything to get all the vitamins that different parts of the meal are fortified with.

And in the last decade the military has done a good job of making them palatable now; they’re not just emergency rations, they’re shelf stable meals that are actually more balanced an healthy than your standard fast-food fare. Plus the fact that they’re designed to energize highly active soldiers makes them ideal for hiking and camping (the Army word for it is “Force-Multiplier”).

I definitely recommend having one in your pack for when you reach the end of your hike or when you get up to the peak and are taking a break before heading down. You’ll find you recover a lot better when you’re properly nourished throughout your trip. The trick is finding them, the government doesn’t allow sale of them since 1997, the survival stores have civilian versions that are put together using the same components. Luckily they’re common on Ebay if you want the real thing. If not just get the civilian kind, they’re basically the same and for one meal it won’t matter if it’s not as well balanced as the menus for the real ones.

You can find more info here:
www.mreinfo.com

And BTW. Yes the “chicklet gum” is a laxative. And yes you should chew and swallow it.
With the way an MRE diet will back you up you need mild laxatives just to return to normal. Being backed up for a week then finally dropping an MRE brick is one of the most unpleasant experiences you’ll have.

*The rule of threes for survival:
-You can go 3 minutes without air.
-You can go 3 hours without shelter (in extreme conditions).
-You can go 3 days without water.
-You can go 3 weeks without food.
This can help you get your priorities straight.

One tradition most all of us have on the first nice days of spring is to take the car to the carwash and spray off winter’s accumulation of road salts and other muck from the last 3 months. For car lovers it’s practically a holiday and marks the true beginning of spring.

There are a few different ways to go about this, the best is to spend the most of your weekend doing an intensive hand wash and wax in your drive-way.
The most expensive is to pay $50 to $100 dollars to have professionals detail the car for you.
The most useless is to pay the local cheerleader squad to clean it for you; too expensive and poor quality. And if you want to look at soaped up girls in bikinis you’re already on the internet; honestly figure it out (but read my blog post first).

Most of us are lucky if we can find time to spend $5 at the local coin-op wash waving a wand over our car and hoping for the best. Here’s how to make the most of that coin-op wash and get results close to what you get after a weekend hand wash. Best of all how to give you car a great wash in 20 minutes and as little as $4 dollars.

What you need before you wash:

-Enough money for two wash cycles, most coin-ops take $2 to get started.
-A Chamois (check the local auto parts stores)
-A clean rag or towel you don’t mind getting dirty.
-A decent coin-op wash
-*Optional* Rose Royce – “Car Wash” on your iPod while you wash

As for finding a good place there are a few things that you want, first is a “Foam Brush” option.
This is a must!
Second is just simple quality, some car washes don’t mix much “product” in their systems; also look for a wash that has a “Spot Free Rinse” option. You can only find this by trying different car washes and shopping around; some places recycle water without properly cleaning it so the rinse cycle leaves spots.
Optionally look for a wash that has a wringer for removing the excess water from your Chamiois.

Rules to keep in mind:

-Check the local weather report (if it’s raining tomorrow you may want to wait).
-Keep moving, keep things wet. Dry soap leaves spots.
-Use Gravity. Wash and rinse from the top down.
-It takes about 10-15 seconds for the sprayer wand to change modes.
-The best clean comes from physically touching the car, avoid “touchless” washing.
-Every time the hose slaps the side of your car it’s a potential scratch. It can’t be avoided but try to minimize it. NEVER use a carwash that has metal connectors midway on the hose where they may hit your car.
-Most selections on the dial can be skipped. All you really need are “High Pressure Wash”, “Foam Brush”, “High Pressure Rinse”, and “Spotless Rinse” in that order.
-Best time to wash is just after sundown. Drying off in the hot sun can lead to waterspots if you’re not quick.

How to wash your car at the coin-op

1. Before you put in any money get everything prepped.
Lift Windshield wipers into the upright position. Have your change ready, usually two stacks of quarters for two separate cycles. Make sure your car is centered in the bay and you can easily get around with the wand and brush. Check the Foam Brush is relatively clean. The last guy may have been scrubbing mud off his ATV’s and you don’t want to smear that into your paint. If it’s dirty remember to give a quick spray from the wand in the next step.

2. Set the dial to rinse. Put your money in and wet the car down, if you have any extra change you want to use it in this first cycle. Since you usually use $5 in the change machine I use $3 for the first cycle, $2 for the second. Don’t wait until it beeps, put the extra in now.

*****Important*****
The trick to a quick cheap wash is knowing how to get the most out of your limited time. Try to divide the car into quadrants and constantly walk around the car washing those quadrants. A simple car will be:
Top, Front, Driver Side, Back, Passenger Side, Underside&Wheels, usually in that order.
Some cars will have hard to reach areas, you’ll get a feel what places you need to focus on.

3. Once you’ve gone through all quadrants wetting down the car switch to “wash” to cover it in some soap. Again you’re not looking to scrub anything off yet, just cover everything in soapy water. Remember the 15 second delay, switch to “wash” about 10 seconds before you need it.

4. By now you should only be about a minute into your allotted time (usually 4-5 minutes); switch to the foam brush. Spend the remaining time covering the car in a good lather; let the timer run out without putting in more money. Even after the time runs out there should be plenty of suds to scrub around and the brush still works without the timer running.

Make sure that when your time runs out you’ve at least covered the car in suds. Once it’s covered you can take any extra time you need to scrub bad spots. I like to make one quick trip around to cover the car in suds and a second to really scrub it down. The timer runs out on the second pass but there is plenty of soap on the car by then.

5. Try to leave scrubbing the wheels, underside, and wheel wells to the end since they will have the most dirt and you don’t want to spread that onto the rest of the car.

6. Once the car has been scrubbed but before the foam starts to dry put in the rest of your money and switch to the “High Pressure Rinse” mode. Make one quick pass over the whole car to keep it wet and keep the foam from drying.

<7. Now start at the top and rinse everything down. Soap likes to hide in cracks and seams, spray parallel to the seam to get it out. Work as quickly as possible but be thorough; try to spray soap down and off, not from one side to the other.

8. Once you’re confident you got the soap off switch to “Spotless Rinse” and finish rinsing the car down until time runs out. “Spotless Rinse” is kind of optional; it’s better to get all the soap off than it is to make it to the “Spotless Rinse” step (using a chamois will get all the spots anyway).

8.5 If you want to use a spray-on “wax while you dry” product, now is the time to put it on. They aren’t a substitute for a proper wax job but they do maintain an existing wax job pretty well. I prefer Meguiar’s version of the stuff.

9. Once you’re out of time get the chamois and dry off the car. The coin-op “code of conduct” is that if people are waiting that you vacate the wash bay and dry off in the vacuum area. However if it’s a hot sunny day and nobody else is waiting feel free to make use of the shade to dry off. Otherwise the sun will dry the car before you can, leaving water spots.

10. Wring the chamois out often. Don’t worry about the windows too much, there will be spots on them no matter how hard you try to get them, you’ll have to Windex them when you get home.
For the underside of the running boards, bumpers, and wheels use the rag/towel. They never seem to get 100% clean and will dirty up your chamois.

11. Now you can head home but when you get home check the back of the car, around the gas cap cover, and handles for more water to wipe up. The eddy-currents caused while driving will suck water and soap out of cracks you didn’t know you had and will streak if you don’t dry them now. Wipe off and polish any chrome and your automotive badges so they have that extra shine.

12. Finally Windex and Rain-X your windows. Then step back and admire your handy-work because if Murphy’s Law has anything to do with it it’s going to rain tomorrow.

This old ad I saw from Wired Reread reminded me of a recent discovery I made.

I found out that the really nice Technology Park I work at used to be WordPerfect Headquarters.

Old timers know the significance but new computer users may not. WordPerfect was the killer app to have on an IBM PC computer back in the 80’s and 90’s. Along with Quattro Pro they made up the dominant office applications that made a PC worth owning (besides SkiFree).

However the 800lb gorilla, Microsoft, bundled a group of office programs in a suite that had limited interoperability between them. While initially an inferior product the simple interaction between word docs and spreadsheets was too powerful of a feature and WordPerfect and Quattro Pro fell before the Microsoft Juggernaut.

Today the owners of WP spend their immense wealth on a giant arboretum/garden/golf course at the north end of Utah Valley. The office park was sold and now the building are leased out to other tech companies. AT&T where I’m soon to be unemployed, Omniture which was recently acquired by Adobe, Bungee Labs, Intuit, Open Solutions, Orange Soda, and some other startups.

From a tech history perspective it’s kind of amazing being among the “ruins” of a company that ran a virtual monopoly on the tech landscape in the heyday of the PC.

Imagine working at 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino 20 years in the future at the GoogleSkynet building, data-mining personal information to fuel the US-China Ad War, and spending your lunch break reminiscing about when people here were so worked up over a phone that could surf the internet.

In today’s high-paced tech world nobody can remember back 3 years let alone 20-30 years. But it’s good to remind yourself from time to time that the latest tablet craze, or Google’s latest move into *blank* technology is just a passing moment that will be forgotten in less than half a generation. And in the future people will look back amused at us just like we do when we think back to a day when a simple word-processing application would be the main reason people got desktop computers.

An overcast day at the old WP site.

Better than being stuck in line at Best Buy
Originally uploaded by Kerensky97

Time for a twitter “what I’m eating now” style post.

Chicken Pesto Pasta, with Roma tomatoes, fried mushrooms and asiago cheese. $10 at Faustina.
Spend Black Friday doing something fun.

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Even though it may never happen I think this is a great idea to help tie the western US a little closer together. Infrastructurist links a story thatmany metropolitan centers in the intermountain west are beginning initial studies for highspeed rail lines.

While in Japan I was amazed at how quick and efficient the Target=blank>bullet train (Shinkansen) system was. Of course having a rail pass that gave me the ability to get a ticket and go at anytime without worry of the price was a big plus but the ability to be anywhere I wanted in the country within just a couple hours was liberating. On a whim I went to a concert in Osaka during my Tokyo stay; it didn’t require much rescheduling since I could walk into station and be 515km away in less than 3 hours.

For more local comparisons that is the equivalent of traveling from here in Salt Lake City, to Las Vegas (580km) in about 3 hours.

By car that same trip takes 6-7 hours if you go legally, 5 if you go at 120mph (through mountains and winter snow). I flew to Las Vegas from SLC and factoring in typical airport delays along with flight time it also took 3 hours so really the time by train or air is the same between here and there.

SLC to Los Angeles is about double the distance. My cousins are in LA and when we visited them we’d drive 12 hours down there; basically leaving in the morning and arriving that night. Via bullet train we could eat an early breakfast in SLC, and be having lunch in LA, then be back to SLC in time for dinner.

Plus travel by bullet train is more comfortable since you get decent leg room and much more visually stimulating since you can actually see things as you pass rather than just the tops of clouds. But the main thing that caught my eye was an advertisement for the new N700 trains. Bullet trains are electric and the N700 uses 15% the amount of fossil fuels (or carbon output, my Japanese is limited) for the same Tokyo to Osaka trip.

That’s not 15% LESS, it’s 15% OF or in other words 85% reduction. In today’s “Green” world that is a nearly unobtainable goal in carbon reduction. And the trade off isn’t bad at all, a slightly slower transport but a much more enjoyable transport as well. The 15% carbon is still coming from something but since the trains are electric it’s entirely possible to use alternative electricity sources and lower that number further. After all its alt easier to squeeze the most efficient energy out of hydrocarbons at a plant rather than in an internal combustion engine in the train.

The only problem I can see is there are less populated cities across the west. The Tokaido line from Tokyo to Osaka passes through other huge cities such as Yokohama, Nagoya, and Kyoto. With a comparable distance Salt Lake to Las Vegas line the biggest cites passed would be Provo, and St. George. Obviously long distance commuter traffic will be much less, but of course running less trains isn’t hard at all. The planes only travel one or twice a day, with 15% energy reduction running three trains a day would still be more efficient per day. Plus as with Japan you can also run freight trains on the tracks in between bullet trains, although I’d hope that the US would change it’s rail policy and give passengers priority over freight.

Running from SLC to Denver could be complicated (but doable) by the Rocky Mountains but SLC to Vegas would be cake. Run it down past Provo, you could even run it on piers along the edge of Utah lake to keep from running through residential neighborhoods. Past Nephi run it out to Delta, besides connecting the most remote large city in the state it’s also the site of the power plant that powers much of the west from Salt Lake to Los Angeles and a perfect place to tap power for the electric bullet train. Then head south through Cedar City, St. George, and finally the straightaway to Las Vegas. Most land is relatively flat scrubland, and there are plenty of open places for wind farms to supplement the juice powering the rail line.

Another line heading west could pass Wendover, head to Reno then punch through the Sierra Nevada into Sacramento before ending in San Francisco.

I really hope that the future sees high speed mass transit lines tying the western cities a little closer together. Besides being a greener way to travel they could revitalize trade between western metropolises and boost usually remote cities the same way key refueling points on the transcontinental railroad did a century ago.

Is Japan’s culture dying

Originally uploaded by Kerensky97

I’ve been reading "Dogs and Demons" a book which points out some of the cracks in Japan’s seemingly perfect image. In the process of modernizing since World War II Japan has forsaken much of its historic beauty and style for the sake of being what they now define as modern.
I was noticing that this restaurant looks much more "Japanese" than alot of the places I ate in Japan. At least as far as Japan’s traditional Edo style is concerned. Even from the outside it looks more Japanese than concrete and steel rectangles that define modern Japanese architecture.
It doesn’t show in this pictures but the front is even planted with Japanese maple, now a brilliant red.
Its quite a statement when a Japanese restaurant in the US has a garden not seen outside of a Temple in Tokyo.

Playing Foursquare

Originally uploaded by Kerensky97

Lunch at Kyoto again. This teriyaki donburi is massive, with the california roll I dont think I will finish.
Yay for the weekend!

Gathering of Scions SLC
Originally uploaded by Kerensky97

I got a letter in the mail about a Scion gathering today. I used to be in an Xterra club so I thought I’d check it out and find some other people enthusiastic as me about the car. There were some really good looking scions with some impressive work done on them. I’ll have to see if I’m willing to dump money into it like I did the Xterra.

The good looking tc on the end is mine BTW.

Having the wherewithal to buy tickets to Flogging Molly before the show I was actually able to get in this time since they regularly sellout the venue, a few outside weren’t so lucky and resorted to begging for tickets. It’s surprising they’ve grown this much considering the first time I saw them play In SLC they were just an unknown band on tour with Bouncing Souls people were waiting on to finish the set and get to the main act. Now they’re huge.

They’re touring with Hepcat an old school Ska band that has been around forever but doesn’t release a whole lot of new CDs. And frankly I enjoyed the Hepcat portion of the show more than Flogging Molly. I like energetic ska music like Suburban Legends but sometimes some good ska music to just chill out with is great. The two lead vocalists Greg and Alex were great at setting a good mood to groove to some great ska.

I made a point to go buy a couple Hepcat CDs at the swag table before the post Molly rush crowded the place too much. I was surprised to see Flogging Molly was smart enough to have a credit card reader that their table to run cards. I make a point to bring plenty of cash to shows but I always see countless others who don’t have the experience to plan ahead and end up passing on buying merchandise. Considering how much the artists make off merchandise sales at a show I’m amazed more artists don’t bring card scanners.

I usually don’t have any problems with the staff serving drinks at In the Venue/Club Sound; the servers are usually pretty nice and take care of people well. This time I was pissed however, I think we can all agree that people who cut in front of line when there are 20 people waiting to get a drink are the scum of the earth and deserve a special place in hell. Especially the ones who give that smug look at you after they get served as if to say, “Suckers!”

And what can you do? When I got close enough to the front I’d give a, “Hey!” with a thumb over my shoulder to the back of the line; but even then most people got their drinks anyway, and the people in line with me just looked at the floor and saved their criticisms for muttering under their breath when the line-cutter moved on. Mandy Patinkin does a great job of how we all wish this kind of scenario would usually play out:

But even with people shouting that they shouldn’t be cutting Club Sound’s barmaid Carrie served them anyway. So if line-cutters are assholes that deserve to be kicked out, what does that make her for being the staff that serves them anyway?

I’ve noticed this problem alot in the service industry that goes along with the “The customer is always right” proverb. Some jackass ignores the implied or posted rules but the staff helps them anyway because they don’t want to risk losing a single sale. But what about the 20 other good rule-obeying customers they just alienated by helping somebody that cut in front? Logically a business proprietor would tell the rule breaker to fuck themselves and an lose the 1 bad customer and better serve the 20 good customers, instead in the vein of “The customer is always right” they commonly serve the asshole and screw over the majority.

The sad part is that people put up with it anyway like sheep. Even after remarking, “I can’t believe she’s serving them even though they obviously cut!” I watched a girl leave a substantial tip anyway. Well I’m sticking by my response to the girls comment, “I’m closing my tab, not tipping, and never buying a drink from here again.” Although that’s a lie, I did leave a tip on my recipt:

“Tell Carrie not to serve people who cut”

If a business provides bad service they should receive a bad tip if any at all. They’re lucky we don’t walk out when the staff symbolically joins in the “Suckers!” slight given to the people who waited patiently for them to do their job.

I know that tips are shared among servers and bartenders so good servers at Club Sound are punished as well. Which is too bad since I know two of them are great bartenders and deserve big tips, hence the “Tip” on the receipt that a coworker’s bad decisions are costing them as well and they should set her straight or do themselves a favor and replace her. Because the tip they lost from me is nothing compared to the fact that I refuse to get drinks there from now on. I’m not a frequent customer but losing $15-20 each time I go is more substantial than their share of one nights tip.

That may seem a bit extreme but really it’s more of the straw that broke the camel’s back, the $14.40 price above is for TWO draft beers, and one of those was Coors Light (All other taps were dry at the time, I had no choice); I could get 3 pitchers at Cheers to You for that price. So fuck Club Sound, their overpriced drinks, and lousy service. I’m never buying a drink there again and I recommend you do the same if only to send a message that a tip line on a receipt is no guarantee that you actually deserve the tip.

Back to the concert.

After 30minutes in line I missed Flogging Molly’s opening of course. I was one of the first in line when the last band ended too. I’m sorry for those behind me, they probably missed half the show. The crowd was out of control; people crowding around the bar entrance were jumping up and down or moshing and they’d invariably bump into people coming out with drinks in their hand then complain about it. “Screw you, you jumped into me, what did you think would happen?” I slid into a relatively calm corner and watched the show.

I have to say Flogging Molly is great but I think alot of the music is better listened to as it is on the albums. That is more introspective, music and not “mosh-pit, kicking and shoving” music. Songs that are introspective ballads on the albums were sped up to bouncing high-energy songs, and high energy songs from the albums were so high tempo it was hard to sing along with them. I almost feel sorry for poor Bridget Regan working a fiddle at that speed. She must have massively strong arms to play shows like this every night.

Speaking of which it was great that the normally bad sound mixing at In the Venue was good enough that the fiddle and penny whistle sounded really good. I noticed that Rancid the night before had good sound too. Did In the Venue get a new sound guy or has he finally figured out how to mix for the site?

It was a great show but the crowd that Flogging Molly gathers is kind of an irritation to me. A UK friend at last.fm once mentioned how all Americans pretend to be what they think of as “Irish”. Maybe a bit of an overstatement, we’re not all like that, but Flogging Molly sure draws that crowd. It’s almost like they’re there because they think it gives them some tie to a non-existant Irish heritage even though Flogging Molly is a US band playing Irish-American Punk and far separated from traditional Irish music and culture. It’s the same crowd that claims the reason they drink too much is because “I’m 1/16th Irish!”. No you’re just a drunk. The same crowd that think all Irish people dance like Michael Flatley or Riverdance even though Flatley is American. I actually saw some girls in the crowd doing their own approximation to step dancing during the show!

Most kiddies seemed like they were there for the scene and not the music. Whenever the word Irish came out of Dave King’s mouth a loud cheer would go up regardless of the context. But when there was a reference to the seminal “Irish-Punk” group The Pogues less than half the crowd cheered or understood who they were. Earlier when talking to a self described “Huge Fan” of Flogging Molly I asked if she liked The Pogues or The Tossers as well and all I got back was a blank stare. I think alot of the self professed diehard fans here were those group of newbies that like them because it’s cool in American to claim to be Irish and listen to Irish-American music. Which is fine so long as you don’t start to confuse yourself into thinking that it really means you know something of or are connected to real Irish culture.

Other than spending 30 minutes waiting to get an overpriced beer it was a good show, with Hepcat really being the highlight of the night in my mind. Flogging Molly was overrated. They were still great, I only say that in context of the fact that all the kiddies coming out of the show were acting like it was a transcendent experience when it wasn’t. It was a good show, but I’d hardly agree that “I could die happy now”, as I overheard somebody say on the way out.

CDs Purchased:

7-11 has brought on NHK’s mascot for their new slurpee promotional campaign.

I think it’s interesting that this made it across the ocean. Sushi and other Japanese cuisine makes sense because being the melting pot it is America adopts the cuisines of anybody who has moved here. Anime has been growing for a while and you only have to watch one Hayao Miyazaki to know that they can go toe to toe with the Disney machine in terms of quality animated productions.

But Domo hasn’t really got more than an internet meme about kittens, masturbation, and a wrathful god. Seems kind of surprising to be used as a marketing tool in the west.

The original Domo TV commercials:

Yesterday it was 85 degrees outside and I was in shorts and a t-shirt. Today its 40 in the valley and Timpanogos has snow on it.
I guess that’s a sure sign that our Indian Summer is over.

When bands come to town they seem to come in waves, and always in fall for some reason. Thursday was Rancid at In the Venue with Authority Zero and Resistor Radio.

I saw Resistor Radio a few months ago when they were here and they’re really good, not at all what I’d expect from the “local bands” that usually open shows. It’s not going to take long before they get more popular; in concert they have alot of energy and even though they only have one indies EP out (currently unsigned) it’s a good disc with some really good music.

I’ve heard a bit of Authority Zero but always as part of a compilation disc like “Warped Tour ‘03″ or something so I’m not really up on their music. I was amazed! The band has great energy and reminds me of going to shows back around the 1998-2002 timeframe when I was listening to alot of bands like Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly who’s music was going from “walk to run”.

It made me nostalgic for those days of being 20, in college, spending the nights partying with my friends, and catching punk shows as often as my low paying job would afford me to. And like Less Than Jake, Dropkick Murphys, and Street Dogs it’s always great having a lead singer (Jason DeVore) that focuses specifically on singing and getting the crowd riled up. Not that leads with a guitar aren’t as good but there’s something to be said for climbing around the speaker stacks encouraging the people on the balcony to get moving.

Although as much attention that is paid to the lead singer and guitar players it was the drummer (Jim Wilcox) that I thought was really amazing. People always groove the the guitarists grinding away on the axe but if you watch the energy, speed, and precision that a drummer cranks out during a highspeed punk song you start to realize how much talent it takes to get a good drummer.

In The Venue isn’t being as big of dicks as they have in the past. The bouncers were a bit more relaxed and were helping people have a good time rather than playing the “Respect my Authority” game with the people who paid to be there. Even tossing out bottles of water to the kids in front and in the pit (water which had to be bought in back at the “21 and under” bar near the entrance. Giving water out is probably good insurance against possible lawsuits from kids with heat stroke too but before they seemed comfortable to watch you suffer or add to it.

Rancid was off the Friggin’ hook this time. I was a bit critical of them last time they played here because they were so joyless and un-engaging with the crowd. Enough to officially declare they lost the position of my favorite band to Street Dogs.

That tired, old Rancid didn’t show up to play this time.

Instead in their place was a powerful veteran Rancid that came in to show everybody why they’re arguable once of the most influential punk bands in the 1990’s and 2000. Ok, they’re a bit past the time where they could climb up and do backflips off the stacks but they could belt out their definitive punk anthems with and energy that shook the walls. And even though Tim and Lars get plenty of acknowledgements it’s the bassist Matt Freeman that I think really deserves alot more attention. Bassists and Drummers are often relegated to the background but watching Freeman’s technical abilities is amazing at times, keep an eye on his hands when you see these guys and imagine trying to do the same while making it look easy.

There was a good mix of old songs from “…And Out Come the Wolves” for all the causal fans here to see legends, plus a good smattering of songs of the newest album “Let the Dominoes Fall“. Tim and Matt’s ska influence from “Operation Ivy” showed through at times, plus they slowed it down for a few acoustic songs from the new album (be sure to buy the deluxe version so you get the acoustic disc!).

Alot of my favorite songs from Let the Dominoes fall we’re played. “East Bay Night”, “Last one to Die”, “New Oreleans”, and the tribute to the troops (which hits home especially hard for me) “Civilian Ways”. Finally after coming back out for the encore Branden Steineckert (drums) came out in a Real Salt Lake football* jersey, probably given to him by the team who had VIP seating for the show. Lars came out the San Jose Earthquakes jersey on, obviously staying true to his home team. But it’s nice that they had some fun with the local football team.

I’m glad that the definitive punk band Rancid can still perform, I was afraid after the last show that they had passed their prime and were in decline. Luckily it seems that they were just having a bad night that one time. Although no matter how they play live Rancid is still one of the few bands that I can quite honestly say that each consecutive album has set the bar higher than the one before it.

CDs Bought:

Authority Zero
12:34

I already have all the Rancid CDs.
Although while I’m on the subject I want to mention that Rancid is following the method I recommend for maintaining physical CDs in this digital climate (wow that article was 2 years ag0):
-Releasing singles of key songs that will appear in the forth coming album as they’re written.
-Then when the album comes out with those singles, plus some new songs (that aren’t filler).
-Plus releasing a “Limited Edition” of the album with additional bonus tracks and a DVD of the music videos and/or live footage.

This is why indie labels are maintaining while the dinosaur big four are dying.

*Football being the world famous game played by kicking a BALL with your FOOT. Not the often confused American game “HandEgg” where and EGG shaped ball is carried in a players HAND.

While surfing around in Google Earth I was tracking the portion of the Bonneville Shoreline trail I hiked from City Creek to Hogle Zoo. I was thinking it would take me in front of the giant “U” on the mountain but it went behind it. While tracing the path I noticed an odd structure hiding up one of the valleys that looked like some old pioneer structure.

What the hell is it? (View Larger)

I have an odd curiosity about old abandoned structures across the west, I always wonder what it was like for people who lived and worked in those places. We quickly forget but this entire state was once the “Wild West” you hear about in movies. That wild west doesn’t exist anymore but we live right here in the middle of it. Ever since reading “The Time Machine” I’m occasionally curious what would happen if I were to travel along the fourth dimension. A seemingly mundane location may be a very exciting and different place in the past or in the future at least from our perspective in OUR present time.

People never look forward into the future from a building you live or work in; you may wonder what the future holds but you never really wonder who or what will be standing in our place a hundred years in the future. I bet never in a million years would a person working in this structure ever imagine that in the future somebody would spot it from a satellite image, navigate to it using a GPS enabled wireless phone, take pictures using a filmless digital camera, and upload them to worldwide communication network for others to see.

Anyway I was trying to figure out what this building was and the internet came up with a big fat blank. I decided that one lazy day I’d use it as an excuse to discover something new in here at home.

It’s barely accessible from the road due to housing on either side staking their claims to the area. As I was coming back out a local homeowner was walking his dog past and wondered what I was doing taking pictures. He didn’t even know there was an old structure back there and wandered up as I headed back to my car.

This is what the building looks like from the ground.

This is the description marker on the building turns out it’s a Lime Kiln and this is Limekiln Gulch, named for all the Lime Kilns that used to be in it. This restored one was one of three. The lime created in the gulch was a key component in early construction of the buildings that makeup Salt Lake City, everything from plaster and construction materials to antacid food additives.

This is what got me curious from the satellite image.

Pretty nice view of the valley from here. You can see why people are always building expensive homes up here.

I wonder what that guy in the picture on the plaque saw when he was looking over the same city in his time? I wonder what he’d think if he could see what I see, and what would I think if I saw the city 100 years from now?

This was originally a bunch of individual posts but I wanted to keep it all as one. When posting from my phone it’s easiest to post with a single picture each time so rather than a separate post for each picture I want them all together (in chronological orger from top to bottom.

Wasatch wild Raspberries [liveblog]
Up behind Brighton right now. Wild Raspberries are ripening, I’m suprised to see them, the wild strawberries never have berries on them.
Too scared to eat one, I was taught at a young age not to eat berries in the wild.
White = Poison
Red Clusters = Dangerous
Red Single = Usually safe
Blue = Safe

Cool beautiful Stream [liveblog]

This is why I took the day off work. The summer went by too fast I never was able to get into the mountains or Southern Utah to go camping. I miss hiking around ice cold mountain streams surrounded by alpine flowers and green ferns.

You can’t tell from the picture but there is also a cool draft flowing past my legs from the tumbling water coming down the mountain. And the rushing sound of the water drowns out everything else.

Twin Lake Reservoir [liveblog]

This was the goal for the afternoon. If anybody else has a desire to head up into the mountains I suggest you make a point of it this weekend. Remember its already September, the summer is unofficially over as of Monday (labor day).

Twin Lake reservoir must have been two lakes before they dammed it up for water storage. Really wishing I had remembered my real camera now. You can see the full waterline around the reservoir, at the end of the summer alot of the water has been let out to feed the lawns and trees of all the buildings down in the Salt Lake Valley.

Its amazing how full of life this place is [liveblog]
Ok I’m going to have to consolidate all these posts into one when I get home. I’m probably swamping my own page and any aggregator I’m on (sorry everybody), but I need to get some thoughts out in the open.

Sitting by the lake here is very peaceful, except for a few other people at the other end of the lake the only noise is the birds, distant rushing water, and the occasional fish jumping out of the water.
The lake is full of fish, most just little 3in long bottom feeders but when the sun comes out the water becomes clear as glass and you can see everything down to the bottom.

The fish are migrating southward end of the lake right now (who knows why) and move in a school of thousands just like in those nature programs on public TV. But here instead of the ocean it’s all contained in an area the size of a small living room. They weave around the rocks on the bottom as one giant mass, shimmering like a field of grass waving in the wind and dispersing in a rush when a larger fish comes rushing at them.

I wish I had an HD camcorder to capture the movements, its hypnotic.

Definition of a babbling brook [liveblog]
Its settled. I’m getting an HD camcorder so I can record this, loop it, and make it the background for my computer. Nuts to those videos of a crackling fire, this is much more soothing.

I know it’s kind of nerdy but it’s cool that my phone camera registered that the phone was on its side taking this picture and uploaded it to flickr with the correct orientation. I was afraid it would show up on the net on its side in landscape rather than upright like this. Technology really can do some amazing things, even when you’re up in the mountains getting away from it all (Brighton providing 3G for snowboarders in the area deserves some credit too for keeping me connected everywhere I wander.

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Subject: Fire
Originally uploaded by Kerensky97

"Dear sir/madam, I am writing to inform you that a fire has broken out..."

Smoke has Utah valley down to only a couple miles visibility. Its odd being in the foothills and not being able to see all the mountains. The question is where is it all coming from?

The New Harmony fire is too far away to be this bad (unless it got alot worse). The Schofield fire is downwind (unless thw wind is blowing an odd direction). The only other option is the LA Fires but its rare they get this much smoke 700 miles away unless the wind is just right and the fires are massive.
Anyway the sunsets should be blood red for the next couple days.

If you live in a dry area be careful.

Here's the link for the people who didn't get the joke of the subject line (IT Crowd Rocks!)]]>