Greetings from Iceland, I touched down about 24 hours ago and other than trying to get used to the time change and the almost 22 hours of sunlight, Chelsea and I have done some exploring of the capital. We are staying at the city hostel which is quite nice, having clean rooms and well equipped kitchens. We took a walk to the city center for a bit, but most everything was closed on Sunday. One place that was open was one of the slags or baths, a swimming complex where the water is heated by the local volcanic activity. In the hot tubs, the water is warm and nicely non-chlorinated. The pools were definitely where the locals go to socialize. Today I'm hoping to get out on a puffin or whale boat to see some more nature and perhaps a run along the trail between the city and the sea. Hopefully in the next few days Ill be able to upload some pictures of the city and surrounding area.

                       Peace and chow,
                            Jacob

Posted via email from Ranok’s Ramblings

Greetings! Hallo!
  This afternoon Chelsea and I are boarding a bus for Boston Logan and from there hopefully catching the red-eye to Iceland (avoid as much of the ash as possible). Once we arrive we will spend the next 3.5 weeks exploring the whole country (focusing on the north-west and south) getting around by foot, bus and hitch-hiking. We are also trying out CouchSurfing and will hopefully meet some people who can point us to interesting things to explore. We picked Iceland as it is a very pretty country and is full of outdoor areas to explore (for those who don't know me, I prefer the open outdoors to a big city or a mall). I am bringing my Sony D-SLR and all of the lenses and equipment to hopefully take some stunning shots of this little island nation. I hope to use my Archos tablet to keep everyone updated as I travel, and I can find a computer, I will upload pictures as I take them.
  Trip aside, I have kept busy over the past few weeks, graduating from Clarkson with my BSc in computer science, finding a nice apartment in Rome, NY for when I return to work, and enjoying a little respite at my home in Vermont. Our family recently purchased a mountain board to use in combination with the power kite for kiteboarding in the summer (picture of my brother riding attached). I also spent some time in Potsdam running calls with Potsdam Rescue Squad and enjoying biking on my new Cannondale road bike and running (13 miles!) every few days. For those who have not heard, it is my intention (and Chelsea's as well) to run in the Quebec City marathon, so our training is in full force, running one 'long' run at least once a week and many shorter bike rides/runs throughout the week to build stamina for the marathon in August. Being a computer scientist and not having played very many sports in school, it was a tough adjustment for me to make to start running so far, but the reward at the end of the run is well worth the effort.

                               I hope to keep you updated when I arrive,
                                     Jacob

Posted via email from Ranok’s Ramblings

Now that I have finished school and can relax for a little bit, I have started playing with my family’s new toy, the mountain board, soon to be paired with the existing kite surfing kite. The mountain board is pretty fun once you get a hang of it but should be more interesting with the kite and some strong wind. I have also been playing with my new Droid Incredible which I am loving (and actually typing this post from quite quickly). I still have quite a bit more to learn but hopefully this summer I’ll get a chance to play some more.

Peace and chow,
Ranok

Posted via email from Ranok’s Ramblings

During my trip to Iceland I will try to keep everyone up to date via my Archos Android device. I figured I would test out how easy it is to post to my blog. I have attached a picture for demonstration purposes that I took over the summer.

Posted via email from Ranok’s Ramblings

While I have very much enjoyed Wordpress, the frequent updates and overhead have made Posterous a very intriguing option. It lets you post via email, intelligently dealing with the attachments, which could be a very nice feature for blogging from a small mobile device with an email client but limited web-browsing. My Posterous site can be found here, please take a look and let me know what you think. I have imported my posts from before, however the comments and tags have been left behind.

                Peace and chow,
                   Ranok

Posted via email from Ranok’s Ramblings