What is Hypersomnia? | Jam Everywhere Vlog, Episode 4

Trying my hand at this video blogging thing again.

[I will be adding real captions to the video (as opposed to the auto-generated ones) and putting a transcript here in a few days.]

Also, welcome to my written blog, if this is your first time here. Highlights of this blog before this point include:

• Before I left Ireland, I did a solo cycle tour around about 3/4 of the Irish coastline; daily blog starts here: http://jameverywhere.blogspot.com/2012/07/day-one.html
• In 2013, I cycled across Virginia with some friends and family in an attempt to cycle across America (they made it--I didn't); daily blogs start here: http://jameverywhere.blogspot.com/2013/05/transamerica-cycle-2013-day-1.html 
• In August 2017 I took a vacation to Alaska to visit my dad and his wife; blogs of that start here: http://jameverywhere.blogspot.com/2017/09/alaska-day-2-onward-to-mccarthy.html

Video of my 25 mph wipeout from day 14

Finally started sorting thru the videos on my contourROAM since coming back early from KY after my injury.

The most exciting/frightening video is, of course, the video of my 25 mph wipeout downhill in VA. It's described, and my injuries are pictured, in my blog entry titled TransAmerica Cycle 2013, day 14.

Have a look at it below:






All I can say is, I'm really fortunate that I passed Jenn in the beginning of the video, so at least one person was behind me when I crashed. Everyone else kept cycling and it took me and Jenn like 6 or 7 miles to finally catch up to them at the bottom of the hill--and that's when I get the first aid from the 2nd half of this video. It would have been a lot more disheartening and difficult to proceed if I had been by myself for all of it.

Freaking gravel after a blind turn >:(

As for the rest of my footage, there's some nice downhills and things that I managed to film in VA, some of which may find their way to my youtube channel (jameverywhere). Mostly I think I will give the best clips to Dan so that when he makes his video of the entire trip, once they return from Oregon, he can use my clips in the beginning part.

It's a shame I won't be finishing this trip with them but I have a lot on my plate right now, physically and emotionally and professionally, and I just can't bring myself to get back on the road at this time.

I will, however, continue to cycle and continue to go on cycle tours every few years--but maybe not 3-month-long ones, maybe 2 to 5 weeks is a better time frame for it.

I will also attempt to keep blogging here. For those of you who came to this blog purely to follow the TransAmerica Cycle, I'm sorry that I will not be writing any more of it, as I will not be continuing the trip with my fellow Handlebarbarians. Perhaps I will explain why in detail in a later post. My blog will turn back to my life and my attempts to follow the Jam Everywhere philosophy described in Jam Everywhere episode 2 (which you can view here).

Thank you all for reading and supporting my blog during our cycling adventures. I hope some of you might stick around for what comes next.

pax.

spiders on the way to work

^ short video for you guys. And some pictures. I think these are all wolf spiders--anybody know for sure?

As you may know by now, I work part-time, for minimum wage, at a King Soopers (aka Kroger or City Market) about 2 miles from my house. I typically walk there, and half the walk is thru a greenspace, away from traffic, so that's nice.

I even like the spiders. Black widows and other *poisonous* spiders creep me out to no end, but I don't see why I should be afraid of something like this that can't really hurt me, even if it is pretty darn big. Check out the detail in those smartphone photos, tho', huh? so. boss.

Missed posting last week. When I'm alone I'm fighting a mild but persistent depression since moving back here. I have no motivation to do much of anything. Cue spiral of self-hatred and despair. I'm sure a lot of you guys have been there, too. Not to worry, tho'--there's still hope yet.
pax.

Jam Everywhere Episode 3: Phoenix Park

Meet Aisling! My best Irish friend ever :3

This was filmed and mostly edited too back in May, but due to being sick or on vacation for all of June, I'm just now putting it up.

I will probably also only talk about my UK vacation a month or more after I took it. I do intend to update this blog in real time while on my cycle tour, however! (If you come here through facebook, and are interested in my next month or so of travels, please bookmark and check for updates or find a way to follow me directly from blogger as I will not be posting the links on facebook after uploading new content due to lack of internet!)

pax.

sickly jam

So, yeah. I'm sick today and it sucks.

I did the Tour of Louth yesterday though. The weather was absolute rubbish, which is especially sad because today is a BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY and it's like the universe hated us. We even cycled in a big circle but the wind was in our faces the WHOLE TIME like it KNEW where we were and wanted to spit at us...

I only made it on the 50 km course and didn't continue to the 100 km because I didn't want to die. However, I did that 50 km as fast as I could and am proud of myself for that, especially considering it was my first sportive and all.

I would have brought my camera or video camera to the event, but there was no point because of the rain and wind--you wouldn't have been able to see or hear anything anyway.

I'm not sick because I went cycling in the rain, by the way! First of all, it's an old wives' tale that wet/cold can make you catch a cold or flu. Second of all, I was already sick before the cycle. Just a bit of a masochist and did it anyway. My head was so stuffed up, I couldn't hear anyone out of my left ear... DX

Anyway. Have a click below to listen to my sickly rambling.

--

philosophy of Jam Everywhere, et addendum

So--I've got another vlog episode up! check it out, folks.



--

Yeah, it's a bit rough, but practice makes perfect, so.

In other news, tomorrow is my last day at work... I'm not sure I ever wrote about this job on this blog yet. Basically I work for a mobile phone insurance company, with offices right next to the Baggot St. Bridge over the Grand Canal. I started out working for them as a temp through Julia Ross, and after a month of that they offered me a five month, part-time contract. Then, after two months of that, they added a month to the contract and brought me on to full time. o_o

When my supervisor first wanted to talk to me privately, when I was still a temp, I thought she was telling me that my temping time was over. I went in super nervous and afraid I hadn't been doing well. When she offered me a job, I didn't know how to react. I asked her if I could sleep on it, then said YES PLEASE OMG THANK YOU the next day because they were offering to pay me basically twice as much as I got paid as a temp, INCLUDING things like annual leave days and paid sick leave. It was amazing. And just like that, I became a salaried office worker starting in December 2011.

Everyone in the office is super lovely and even-tempered. While my job was not exactly the most exciting--I was basically proofreading insurance documents, filling out endless spreadsheets, and scanning things--I had a great time working for them and really felt like part of a team. I mean, I had my own work email address and everything! And I was regularly corresponding with people in, like, Belgium and Germany and stuff.

But, of course, all good things must come to an end, so tomorrow it's over. Just in time for summer, though, which is perfect. I sold back my days of annual leave to the company and got a small pension on the last few months of my contract, so with that, my last paycheck, and what I've been saving from the start--the rest of my summer is entirely funded by this job, without my having to touch the savings in my American bank. I also bought a 1200 euro bicycle, insurance for said bicycle, quite a bit of cycling kit, some quality camping equipment, and a ton of other things with this job. I'm super stoked about all the travelling I get to do from here on out--I'd better start planning it for real, I suppose!

For being my first "real" job, working at NTI/MTIS was a really good one. Good for the resume, I'm sure, too.

Gonna go out for drinks with my colleagues tomorrow after work. Then, the summer starts fer me...

pax.

Cycle4Life writeup

All right! I'm trying to start writing about cool things I did RIGHT AFTER doing them, rather than weeks or months later, so here's my little bit on the Cycle4Life!


EDIT - the error with picasa web albums was finally fix'd by google on 4 June, so I'm finally adding in the pictures below.

--

May 19th -- first annual D.I.D. Cycle4Life in Dunboyne, Co. Meath!

I woke up with JUST ENOUGH time to spare. I quickly got dressed, then made a breakfast of scrambled eggs and hemp protein powder. They were green! Unfortunately, I had no ham.

When I arrived in Dunboyne, it was SUPER COLD. I was wearing my horrendously mismatched cycling clear (see last picture below), and coated in a light layer of sweat from the 15 km cycle from Dublin. I had meant to take my windbreaker and a light balaclava/headband/kerchief/multi-purpose thing I'd bought specifically for cycling trips, but of course I forgot them at home. Sat on a bench and spent 30 minutes mentally kicking myself for not bringing them.

Kickoff was at 9:15. Place was packed with people gearing up for the cycle!

[picture depicting a road jam-packed with cyclists, the starting line consisting of a yellow arch in the distance]

I started off somewhere near the middle of the pack. I was alone, but didn't mind too much. I decided to just talk to everyone along the way and enjoy myself. The first person I struck up a conversation with turned out to be my cycling buddy for the rest of the day. His name was Paul.

[picture of a middle-aged dude in cycling gear, with sunglasses and bleached hair]

He was on a rickety-looking hybrid, and I thought at first that I was gonna outrun him fairly soon, but the guy moved at a much faster clip than I thought he would. I was faster than him on the uphill portions of the course, but he always caught up to me on the downhills. I do think he was more destroyed than I was at the end of the day, though, but considering the bike he was on he was doin' pretty well. (If you're readin' this, Paul, 'twas fun times.)

We averaged about 18 kph and talked about stuff 'n' things. He gets an automatic 20 degrees of awesome for thinking Captain Picard was the best Star Trek dude. (side note: yes, I measure awesome in degrees. There is a science behind this.)

As fer the cycle, everyone was talking about how the hill of Tara was gonna be SO HARD, and I'm used to cycling up Howth head so I was expecting something, like, Howth-sized or bigger. The hill of Tara was like half of Howth, haha. It was a bit steep toward the end, but I geared down to the granny ring in front and managed to cycle up it without stopping or having to stand up out of the saddle to grind. I did feel super fit and a bit smug when I passed a whole bunch of people walking their bikes up the hill. XD ...at the same time, I was kinda "cheating" 'cause my touring bike has lots of super low gears for towing trailers and stuff, but I wasn't weighed down by anything at the time. (There were lots of people grinding really huge gears the whole time, though; idk how they didn't wreck their knees doing that. If you're not getting at least 70-90 rpm on the bike you're not doin' yourself any favours, that's for sure.)

Here's a the view from the top of the hill:

[picture of green fields and trees stretching off into the distance, with some kind of stone tower in the middle. on the left side of the frame is a guy carrying a camera past me; I guess he was taking advantage of the scenery too]

We stopped for some bananas and some coffee at the top. Then I remembered that my little sony camera has video capabilities and asked Paul if I could make a video for you guys to showcase his cool accent. While he grew up in Ireland, his dad's British, so he's got like the perfect "received pronunciation" thing going on. Click below to watch:





The rest of the day wasn't all downhill, but it wasn't all uphill either. The sun even came out for a little while, and it was never cold as long as we were movin' on the bikes. The countryside of Meath was gorgeous. I love the smell of farms, I love the fields of cattle and sheep, the green of the grass, purple wildflowers, trees and hills and little creeks and bridges. Cycling through all that makes me super excited for my July cycle tour of Ireland!

I've decided that I actually like cycling up hills, too. I used to dread hills--I liked hiking trails but hated the uphill parts; workout machines like stairsteppers just seemed evil to me. Now, after doing Howth a few times, and even carting full panniers around Achill island, I like hills--I like the sense of accomplishment you get when you top the rise, y'know? And all I know is that I'd better get used to hills 'cause I'm gonna move back to Colorado before long, and them thar's MOUNTAINS...

Anyway, we spent a little longer at the food stops than the other people so we ended up finishing a bit later than them. Actually, toward the end we got LAPPED by some of the lads who were doing the 140 km cycle--yeah, they started an hour before us or something, but they were going TWICE AS FAR! And when they passed us they must have been going like 45 kph. I tried to keep up with them for a sprinting finish in the drops but lasted like 10 seconds. :(

We reached the finish and cycled through together, a real team. It was great. (Total time on the bikes: 3:40 over 67 km--not too bad really.) After, we stopped to pick up our goodie bags--I got a stuffed seal, some gummy bears, cheese crisps (which I promptly gave to Paul), some headphones, and a kids' movie? Um, ok. I'm on the lookout for a kid to pass the stuff along to--Aisling, don't you have like little nieces/nephews/cousins? lemme know...

After that Paul and I parted ways and I made a little video (click below) that makes no sense out of the context of this blog post. WARNING. I swear in this, because sometimes I forget that "shit" is actually a swear. I'm becoming Irish apparently.



(from description of video on youtube: Anyway, yeah, the maths on this video don't seem quite right, do they? 67 km + 15 km doesn't equal 100 km, Jam!

no. but it's more like 17 km to my home, and I cycled out there in the morning too, so 17 + 67 + 17 = 101. There. Pwned.)


And that was that! I felt pretty good at that point, like I could keep going all day, but about halfway through the 15 km cycle home I realised that I was actually knackered and had hit my limit. Made it home at like half three or something. I laid in bed for the rest of the day watching youtube, iirc. I even decided I'd earned the right to eat dinner in bed so now I have buckwheat cracker crumbs floating around in the sheets, haha...

--

So. I want to thank my generous and amazing sponsors for their contributions to the Temple Street Children's Hospital on my behalf. All in all, I raised 325 euro--FOUR TIMES my original goal of 80! I couldn't have done it without you guys; you really are the best. I was super excited and proud to be able to hand that money over to this wonderful charity. Too bad I won't be around for the same thing next year--I'd do the 140 km route that time, and maybe keep up with the crazy lycra lads with the aerodynamic helmets and carbon bikes this time! (or not)

Finally, here is a picture of my getup on the day in question:

[picture depicting me wearing the blue and white Cycle4Life jersey, with orange bib shorts, purple tights, black arm warmers, and red gloves--nothing in the ensemble matching whatsoever. Also, I've got my sleek new surly long haul trucker bike! OMG I LOVE HER.]





p.s. -- Keep on checking back here for more posts and updates. Below I said my goal would be two posts a month, but I want to post once or twice a week if possible. If I don't, feel free to hound me in the comments until I do!

giving vlogging a try

Hello Mama. And possible but unlikely other people who happen to read this blog.

I've decided to give vlogging a try. My youtube username is "jameverywhere". Feel free to subscribe if you want, but at your own risk: my inexperience and lack of ability is painfully apparent here.

Here is episode one!















p.s. -- the youtuber with the beautiful eyes is Wheezy Waiter. He also has a beautiful beard. He's also hilarious and extremely entertaining, but it took me watching like three of his videos before I could see anything besides his eyes D:

seagulls

I love seagulls. I don't know why... I s'pose it's because seagulls mean you're by the sea, and I like to be by the sea. Sure, they're effectively pigeons, but they're a lot more attractive than pigeons.

I have spent most of my life in Japan, Hawaii, Alaska... it was so weird to be inland in Colorado and see a blue horizon and think it was the sea but it wasn't. I'm not a huge fan of boats and swimming at beaches, and I don't fish or surf or scuba-dive or do anything particularly related to the sea,  but I love seafood and I love talking walks on docks and along the shore. There's something free and open and wild about the sea that I love.

Not the biggest fan of gulls this afternoon, though, when I was trying to take a nap (I think jetlag is finally starting to catch up with me. Or maybe it was all that dancing last night). Gull stood right outside my window and made this pitiful gull-noise for like fifteen minutes... I took a little video of him for the last few seconds. Here it is:



I'm slowly getting accustomed to Dublin. Know where the best shopping is and so forth. I applied to 5 jobs yesterday (pathetic, I know) and I have an interview with a temping agency on Monday. I'm going to relax and explore this weekend, take some pictures maybe, and then really get crackin' on job stuff on Monday after my interview. Then, at the end of my first week at the hostel, I'll rebook for another week and spend that week finding a decent apartment since I'll have sorta tested the job waters beforehand. We'll see, we'll see.

All I know is I have to start eating better at some point. Mostly all I eat is breakfast at the hostel (canned fruit and boiled eggs and tea, everything else has gluten in) and cheap fruit that I buy at little stands on Moore street. And rice and canned peas. There is a tesco dwn the street though, with good cheap whole foods so I'll be all right. I'm just too lazy to cook is all.

pax.