the results so far

Well I wore everything for a day, and then tried to wash them. I used a random, clothes-pin-not-required clothesline that I bought from Canadian Tire and some easy to use laundry soap I bought from Camper's Village. It comes in little leaves that you dissolve in the water.

Anyway, here are the results from my attemps.

Underwear
brand: Icebreaker Beast relaxed boxers with 3-button fly
colour: black (Jet)
weight: almost nothing
material: 100% Merino Wool (sheep in New Zealand)
price: $32.99 on sale at Camper's Village
marketed as: natural, sexy, wicking, odour/moisture resistant, climate contorlled

Day 1 notes:
-Initially very comfortable. More supportive and hugging on the legs than regular boxers. Soft against skin. Feel "cool" as if air is flowing through them. Waistband not noticable. I "feel" that I'm wearing them because they're tighter than my usual underwear.
cleaning attempt:
-They seemed to clean very well, though I've never cleaned things by hand before. They were dry by the morning.
Day 1 tests:
comfort: 10
cleaning: 10
drying: 10


Socks
brand: Smartwool Adrenaline Multi-Sport light cushion
color: white with designs
weight: heavier than regular socks
material: 72 % wool, 26 % nylon, 2 % Elastic
marketed as: sporty, odour resistant, wetness wicking
price: $21.99

Day 1 notes:
-intially very comfy. Cusion is quite noticable compared to regular socks. Feels like my feet are slightly sweaty, not to the touch, but to my feet themselves.

cleaning attempt: These aparently got the dirtiest in that they, well, made the water dirty after washing them. But they seemed to wash well. However, they weren't dry after more than... 8.5 hours of hanging. So that's pretty weak. That being said they were hanging in my bathroom. Maybe they just need to be blowing in the wind. I tried putting them on for a bit to see if that would help them to dry but to no avail. I gave up and wore regular socks today.

Day 1 tests:
comfort: 10
cleaning: 8
drying: 0 (this time anyway)

Shirt
brand: Exofficio Eco
colour: blue
weight: regular shirt
material: 40 % soy fibre, 60 % cotton
marketed as: wicking, odour resistant, natural, eco-friendly
price: $19.99 on sale

Day 1 notes:
- feels like a regular shirt. It's a medium, and it fits my body as such but it's longer than regular medium shirts. Seems to stay dry when the suns beating down on me.

Cleaning:
-effort to clean because it's a shirt, but cleaned well. Hard to hang up to dry because it's much bigger than underwear. It fell during the night so in the morning it was still a wet heap on the floor. Tried putting it on for the morning routine to see if that would help it dry but it didn't, just made me cold. I put on a nother shirt.

Day 1 Tests:
Comfort: 6.7
cleaning: 6
drying: 2

In conslusion, the underwear was the best. The socks and shirt were wet after a whole night of drying. That could be a deal breaker for them. The underwear lives on (me) for another day.

wide angle awesomeness, testing the products,

Danielle and i bought a wide angle lens – at heart-stopping expense when it comes to trip savings. but it'll pay for itself because lenses potentially last for forever... right?

here's a few shots from it. (the first one's an HDR photo)
To make REALLY good photos you with a wideangle, you have to try to distort perspective, not squeeze everything in. That's why the last one looks cool. That's just a regular lens, but Danielle was so close that it made it look huge!

Anyway, I'll walk around town experimenting with the lens and hopefully it'll prove itself worth it or i'll try to sell it!

And here's another random photo I took in Edmonton. The sun was setting and casting a deep red light on this already red random chimney.

That's it for photos for now

TESTING THE PRODUCTS

I sort of ran out of things to write about so I've decided the most logical thing is to test and review my adventure clothes.

I've decided on a few factors based on what I know/learned to expect from travel. They have to be comfortable. They have to be cool (temperature) in the long run. They have to be hand washable. They have to be worn for extended periods of time without becoming smelly and gross, and a few other things.

So to test them, I'm going to wear them for extended periods of time (gross, eh?), try to hand wash them, and wear them continuously to test the above and then give a report. That way, you guys can laugh at me wearing the same underwear for a few days in a row, and I get to see if they'll be good come clutch time, when I can't just change them.

Haha. The be honest. I'm not going to wear the same underwear over and over. I'm going to wear it, attempt to clean it using what I've got in my pack and wear it again. That way I'll know if it's a good idea to do so or if I should change to different brands.

I'll set up a basic test against which everything will be graded, 1-10, ten being the best.

1. How comfortable are they after all day
2. How well do they clean by hand
3. How fast do they dry
4. How comfortable are they after two days
5. Do they ever smell (this one is for underwear and socks)

With this, and some other basic factors, like weight, colour and whatnot I'll post and let you know.

Currently, I'll triple team a bunch of stuff, since I'm already wearing them.

Those are my ICEBREAKER BEAST JET relaxed boxers with fly, my SMARTWOOL MULTISPORT light cushion grey socks, and my EXOFFICIO soy fibre/cotton blend blue shirt.

let's see how they stack up and god, hopefully they don't stink!

Drew's Reality Check just got better :)

Andrew has talked me into making my first adventure post to the blog. Please remember that he writes for a living and I do not.

Today we went to book appointments for our first round of vaccines (not going to be cheap) and we went on another trip to Edmonton to go shopping for more adventure stuff. We came home with a Nikon 10-24 F/3.5-4.5 lens, shirts, sleeping bags and other little necessities to add to everything else we previously bought.

Most everything we've got so far is laid out in the picture.

It looks like lots of stuff but knowing how many clothes I own and that's all I get for six months scares me!

Most of what we've bought is designed for backpacking. The shoes are hybrid runners/hikers (amazing I might add), the pants convert to both capris and shorts, jackets have hoods and are water resistant, socks are wool with temperature regulating, moisture managing, odor control features. The shirts are also part wool with water wicking fast drying qualities. I used to buy clothes because they looked cool now there is all sorts of technology I didn't even realize existed.

We've also got most of our other necessities such as first aid kit, ponchos, water bottles, electric convertors, toiletry kits, medicine, locks, sleeping bags, hats......... I could go on with more but I think you should get the picture. It's weird to think of all the things that I've neglected having in my house on my night stand in my cabinents, I've learned to appreciate the convienience of it all as I try to pack all I'll need for six months into a 55L backpack.

Well, that's the first of what will probably turn into many of posts.

Cheers,

Danielle

A sample HDR

Here's a little sample HDR I made. I'm at work and frying bigger fish so this is just a shot in the back alley of my office.

You'll notice that it looks "different" than regular photographs. HDR photos are essentially 2 or more photos put together so that you can see the detail at every amplitude. This is more how your own eyes see, but cameras can only see one level of light at the time. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the lower examples, which were merged to get all the detail. I'll try to create cooler ones in the future, but in the meantime, look at the leading website on the it: www.stuckincustoms.com

You can see from the orginial photos, how the camera saw the scene in different ways, and then how I used a program to make it look cool.












you can see the difference, and the result is quite cool!

I'll try to make cooler ones, but first I've got to do the job I'm paid to do, that is make a newspaper.

Cheers

what to do

Hello,

Sorry I haven't been writing about stuff recently. I've just been busy with working my two jobs and saving money to really have anythign new to talk about on a regular basis.

What I will do is try to add more photos to my site as I take them, and talk about plans for my trip as Danielle and I make them.

In the meantime, here's an AWESOME photo site. It's uses HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos, which is basically taking all the visible elements of several photographs and sticking them together. I'll try to make one today perhaps and post it.

Check it out! www.stuckincustomes.com