Andy’s Blog

So my boss was putting a sound card into one of the computers we use at work. It’s a Dell PowerEdge that was used as a server, but is now being used as a workstation. It didn’t have a sound card in it due to its sever nature. So he pops off the side of the machine, grabs the PCI sound card and goes to put it in.

Quick lesson for all of you who know nothing about computers: The PCI Bus is split into two sections a smaller section and a larger section. The smaller section is towards the front of the computer and the larger section is towards the back of the computer.

So anyways he grabs the PCI card and goes to put it in, only the two sections are inverted. Whoops. Manufacturing Fail. =)

I’m still quite a ways away from actually making my trip to Europe, but planning it is proving to be extremely exciting to me. My original plan was to visit maybe 2 adjacent countries in Europe for my trip. This soon changed when I actually just started playing around with Google Maps and realized that Europe is much smaller than I originally expected. I knew it wasn’t big, but I in no way expected it to be as small as it is. (I’m obviously no geography expert.)

I’m starting to look at different possibilities now that so much more has opened up to me. I’m pretty set on wanting to visit Italy while I’m in Europe so that may be my first destination. I’m not 100% sure where I would fly in to though…maybe fly into Rome and make my way north through the country. The other place I could fly into would be Milan, but then I’m missing a good portion of Italy by cutting a few hours of travel time. I’m also thinking about stopping in Germany to visit a friend that I met back in Arizona to catch up, not only to visit him, but I would like to visit Germany as well so it’s kind of a win-win situation.

Another interesting thing I found out today is how cheap airfare is from country to country. So this also got me excited because it opens up even more possibilities for myself. Obviously airfare varies quite a bit but just from a quick glance and only from one website without any real research I found a trip from Germany to Ireland to be only $120. So that could be another destination to add to my list. I gotta tell ya I’m getting pretty excited just from the research of this trip, and from watching my buddy at VirtualWayfarer.com’s videos.

On a lower note, saving up the money for this trip is proving to be harder than I thought with my various different bills and my student loan payments have started this month. The student loan payments take up almost a quarter of my monthly pay and that’s without the other bills I have to pay. It doesn’t help that my car is in desperate need of repairs so trying to put money away while fixing my car isn’t easy. But nevertheless, I’m still managing it.

Anyways I just wanted to give a little update on my future plans. As always comments and criticisms are always welcome.

So last night I decided to make Tempura Fried Ice Cream based on the suggestion of a friend. First of all I didn’t even know what Tempura Fried Ice Cream was so I had to look it up and get a basic recipe. Anyways the batter consisted of 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp of baking soda sifted together. Then 1 egg beaten, then a cup of water added along with a tsp of vanilla extract. Once the wet ingredients were well blended they were added to the dry ingredients and mixed together. I tried to get as many of the lumps out but the recipe also said that some where bound to happen so I left it. I tasted the batter and wasn’t too happy with it so I decided to add a quarter cup of sugar in to get that sweet edge. It turned out much better so I was going to use this. The ice cream balls (I just used vanilla) were in the freezer for about an hour before I started to heat the oil. Once the oil was hot I took the ice cream balls out of the freezer and put one of them in the batter. After that I quickly dropped the ball in the hot oil and let it cook for about 30 seconds and took it out. I let it cool off before trying it and it turned out really good! The crispy outside turned out to be more of a elephant ear type of taste but that’s fine with me. Unfortunately the first one was the only one that turned out right. I should have expected this because I didn’t keep the ice cream in the freezer along with the batter cold in between cooking. I should have known this was going to happen since I’ve made Mozzerella cheese sticks with the same outcome. I still have two ice cream balls left in the freezer so I’m going to try them again when I get home and do it right this time. There is a short video below of the first one that turned out good.

First of all I just realized I used the word “Eurotrip” which is actually one of my favorite, but incredibly stupid comedies. But anyways back to the important stuff.

Some minor updates on my trip to Europe. I’m still hoping to do this next year but I may have to push it back a few months due to some issues with my car. It seems to be getting in worse shape every day and I’m still so conflicted in whether or not it’s worth fixing or to just get a new car. But I’m still going to strive for next year probably fall.

But as far as the actual trip is concerned a friend of mine directed to me the Eurail website which they have some really cool deals called “Regional Passes” which is basically rail travel within and between one or two countries. The price seems pretty reasonable at around $200-$300 for a two week period. And one of the regions that they have is Italy-Greece which could influence my decision on where I want to go. But I still have a ton of time to make that decision but at least now I have different ideas in my head which is always a good idea.

Anyways just a small update just wanted to try and keep myself going with writing my thoughts down about this trip seeing as how excited I am about it. Happy 4th of July everyone!

So, I’m going to start getting into blogging again especially since I’m going to start planning a trip to Europe next year.

Personally I’ve never been out of the United States…ever. Not even to Mexico or Canada, so I’m really excited to start planning this trip. I know it’s WAY in advance considering I won’t be traveling until next year, but I think the more prepared I am for it, the less shock it will be a month before the trip. For now it’s pretty much getting mentally prepared of being on my own for a couple of weeks thousands of miles from home. My first concern for now is money which is probably the first thing anyone thinks about when taking a long trip anywhere. I’m not too worried about it as I plan to start saving now putting away $200 from each of my paychecks and I should have my goal of $4000 put away within 10 months. While I don’t plan on spending $4000 by any means I do want to have a surplus just in case. It’s always better to have more money than not enough. My plan with that is to have ~$2500-$3000 in my checking account as I will be primarily using a debit card not a credit card and leave the rest in my savings and let someone back stateside be able to transfer the money if need be. Not sure how much safer that is but it sounded good in my head.

My buddy Alex has written up a fantastic site that pretty much goes very in depth of what to expect, what to pack, and what to do in certain situations while traveling. The site is Ultimatepackinglist.com. I give major kudos to Alex on this one since I’m going to be basing most of my research from this site and the external resources it provides.

So why do I want to take this trip? Simple answer: because I never have. But that’s just the simple answer. As long as I can remember from social studies classes, history classes, and from the three years I took in French is that people are different. Learning about other people and cultures has always fascinated to me in some way shape or form. After all America only occupies ~5% of the world meaning there is so much to learn out there. You can only learn so much from textbooks and teachers. I honestly believe there is so much out in the world to discover and this trip I’m planning next year is just the beginning.

As far as where I want to go? I haven’t really decided on that yet. There are 4 main countries I would really like to visit in my lifetime. The United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, and Greece. Obviously those are just the ones I REALLY want to visit and of course I want to visit more but they are on the top of my list before I die. As far as this trip is concerned I would like to visit one of the four and possibly another (on the list or not, it doesn’t really matter just as long as I have a great time). So I would love to hear anybody’s experiences from anywhere in Europe to help make my own decision. Just as a guideline maybe I’ll pick something completly different. That’s the nice thing about starting to plan now…I have plenty of time to make the decision which I gotta say will probably not be easy.

Well thanks and I hope to hear from you all soon!

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