I just went over my budget estimates again and it looks like I’m on track, even with the damn dollar sliding faster than a California house in an earthquake. Flights are booked, I’m in some great-looking hostels on the ways in and out, everything looks good. I just

Big brass ones. This guy ripped into the President and FOX News at the White House Correspondence dinner – from 5 feet away from them. Pretty much called the President of the United States an idiot to his face, and did it all with a big grin! Check it out: (the

Wow, holy cow, and I am impressed! The Eurail pass came in the mail today. Why can’t everything I buy show up that fast? (And don’t say because everything I buy doesn’t cost $650.) I just want to say thank you again to my Grandma and promise

Well it’s done and I did it. I am soon to be the proud owner of a Eurail Youth Pass. I went with the one-month unlimited railpass, good in all 18 Eurail countries (covers Western Europe and Greece, essentially). I won’t start using it right away, and it

My wonderful Grandmother offered to buy my Eurail pass, which saved me almost $650 and let me get a decent camera to take on the trip, as well as letting me live just a little more comfortably, so Thank you, Grandma. Other than that the trip is still on as

Here’s my new rough sketch of where I’ll be in Europe: * 6-9am, 18 May — Breakfast at Heathrow * 18-22 May — Ireland (Based in Dublin, Abraham Hostel) * 22-24 May — Paris (Absolute Paris Hostel) * 25 May – 1 June — Spain/Portugal * 2-9 June — South of France * 10-17 June — Italy * 18-21 June –Berlin

Time to correct an injustice: I have gone far too long without mentioning a great website, a hell of a community, and some of the best backpackers I know: everybody at TravelPUNK.com [http://travelpunk.com]. The people on there have helped me with so many of the little stupid

Well there have been a few changes in the past month. But on the other hand, I actually have some tickets purchased and some hostels booked. Here’s the current itinerary: * 18 May — Arrive in Dublin * 22 May — Flight to Paris * 17 June — Arrive in Berlin * 21 June — Flight to

Bought tickets today, got my passport a while ago. I’m now set to actually get there. A word about buying tickets. E-tickets are obviously cheaper and if you save the e-mail (in something like GMail) you can print them from anywhere – no worries about losing them. However, e-tickets are

It’s January 2nd and I’m still planning the trip. I’m trying to figure out exactly how much I’m going to need if I go for around a month. Plane tickets are a big question. If you look at documents from a few years ago, they suggest

Well it’s December. Finals start tomorrow and we finally got some crap up on our walls. Ken actually had some stuff up most of this whole time, but it was syllabi and e-mail addresses, nothing fancy. I’m also going to apply for a passport tomorrow so I’ll

There is one inherent problem with Eurail passes: they are mother-fucking expensive. So, while It would be great to get a two month, unlimited rail pass, I simply can’t afford it. (They do exist, for those of you with the money.) What I think is the most common is

As promised, some more info about my upcoming EuroTrip. The goal is to head out pretty soon after school’s done, around my birthday. I want to bum around for a while, and end up in Germany to catch some of the World Cup. I’m aiming for coming back

I am hopefully going to be conducting a seminar on using and maintaining your computer on the MSU network during Welcome Week. While I’m mostly targeting freshmen, anyone is welcome. The seminar will cover a variety of topics including: * Connecting to the internet. * Keeping your computer healthy. * Staying secure