I went hiking last week down by Santa Cruz, the Skyline to the sea trail, through the redwoods. It was absolutely beautiful, and it might have been one of the coolest places i have ever been except for all the bugs (you get kind of spoiled here in Nevada). It was Mike, Craig, April, Sara (spelling?), Mary, and Mark (super boyscout). I think we all had a good time, except for Mark burning his knees and going into shock, me getting bit by a tick, Craig burning his hand on the lantern, and realizing that Sara was only carrying 15 to 20 pounds. No, we had a blast and i put some of the pictures up. If anyone has opinions on which ones i can delete to streamline it a little cause there are still quite a few, that would be fantastic, and i think they pretty much explain everything.
Pete is in town, so is Ham (but i haven't got ahold of him yet because i don't remember Lee's cell phone number), Great America this weekend with Mary and her youth group (i am a chaperone, does that scare anyone else) and pete might come along, which would be cool, Mt. Shasta in two weeks with Uncle Hugh, Mike, and Josh (that should be awesome) and Andrew might come along, and lastly i think Pete and i are going to go try to bag some Nevada 11000+ peaks in a week or two. Hopefully it will all come together.
Mary's graduation was on saturday. It was pretty exciting seeing all the people going off to face the real world. But the ceremony was pretty weak, the speeches weren't so good, they didn't play pomp and circumstance or whatever it is called and there was no hat throwing at the end. If i was Mary i would pretty peeved right now. But she enjoyed it, so that is what counts.
I am calling it right now as a 2 A's, 2 B's, and 1 C (systems, yes, i did struggle very hard to get that C), but we will see in the next few days. Oh well, not like anybody really cares.
Jamie, i think your blogs have substance.
At work today i was getting ready to leave when i thought i heard a lawn mower right below my window (i just moved to an office with a window, it is sweet, perfect view of the southwest) and this didn't make sense because there isn't any grass right below my window, then i heard what sounded like somebody peeling out, so i looked out the window to see a guy on a Harley high centered on the top step of a set of about four steps, just gunning it trying to get down the steps. This lasted for about five minutes till somebody helped him back up, then he just gunned it and drove off the steps, he proceeded for about 50 feet when he realized there was a wall/railing in front of him, and then he just plowed into the railing, going ten or fifteen miles and hour. At this point i remembered i had brought the camera to work today. The first picture is of the guy chilling, trying to get back on the bike after he crashed and fell off. We realized at this point he was completely wasted out of his mind, either drunk or on drugs. Of course for the next twenty minutes he kept falling off the bike and going forward a few feet.
I got a good video of him spilling into the bushes and then taking off to continue his mayhem. Of course the cops were nowhere to be seen even after the guy from the Mines building was sitting there for half and hour with his cell phone trying to get them to come up there (but they are always there when you roll through a stop sign on a bike or go 27 in the 25 zone). The guy proceeded off toward the quad and as the video shows, he hung a left. People who are familiar with that part of the campus will realize there is a flight of about 20-30 stairs. He apparently realized this, because by the time i got down stairs and ran out to snap a few more pictures he was already at the other end of the quad stuck up against a tree, billowing out smoke. All in all it was a great way to end a monday afternoon. I put the pictures in the gallery but i don't remember how to link to them on this site (Andrew if you read this drop me a line and let me know)
Sorry the pictures aren't that great, they were the best i could manage at the time.
I was pretty dissapointed with how finals went (really bad) and the milk shake wasn't enough to get over it so i decided to go snowshoeing on sunday. I decided this about 9 or 10 that morning so i had to pick somewhere close, i chose Snow Valley Peak, which is right next to Marlette Lake and the highest peak in Carson County at 9000+. It was a great trip and i put up some new pics in the photo gallery, hopefully i can get another peak next weekend.
When i was in West Point in March for nationals, we vistited the West Point Museum. It was a really interesting museum and it just had a lot of character or charm or something, but the most interesting part to me was a stone tablet with a bunch of quotes on it. Earlier i sent an email to the museum director asking if there would be anyway of getting a picture or transcription of those quotes, and just yesterday they came though. I have listed them below. So if anybody ever goes through West Point make sure to stop by the museum and tell them how cool they are. I was going to write some commentary on how it is only the generals who see the cost of war and not the politicians, but i don't think i could pull it off and i don't know if it is true anyway, so here they are.
"Peace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on."
Thucydides, 471-400 b.c.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
Plato 428-347 b.c.
"The next dreadful thing to a battle lost is a battle won."
Duke of Wellington 1769-1852
"It is well that war is so terrible -- we would grow too fond of it."
Robert E. Lee 1809-1870
"Nothing is worse than War?
Dishonor is worse than war.
Slavery is worse than war."
Winston Churchill 1874 - 1965
"Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory."
George S. Patton, Jr. 1885-1945
"Men acquainted with the battlefield will not be found among the number that glibly talk of another war".
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890-1969
I was pretty excited this weekend because Joel was having his first Euro3000 race in Germany. I spent all weekend trying to find an english site, or just a message board with english postings so that i could find out what happened. Eventually i ended up just using Google's translation services to translate an italian site i found that appeared to be updated regularly. When i did, here is what i saw:
1 - Gianmaria Tawny - ADM
2 - Augusto Farfus - Draco - to 3"4
3 - Matteo Grassotto - Towings - to 5"2
4 - Babalus - Famà - to 33"0
5 - Peter Boss - Village - to 37"8
6 - Roman Rusinov - GP Racing - to 40"8
7 - Milos Pavlovic - Energy - to 46"2
8 - Nicky Shepherds - Famà - to 46"5
9 - Rafael Sperafico - ADM - to 51"4
10 - Joel Nelson - Village - to 1 turn
This may not seem like a big deal but all i could picture was this horrendous crash on the first turn. I don't know if it is silly but i have been pretty worried, i mean he is driving at over 100 mph, with 13 other people also driving over 100 mph, and only the slightest mistake could cause you spin out of control and hit the wall in a firery crash. So i tried to think happy thoughts, and luckily today he posted to his website and everything is okay.
I know he is fast enough to win this series, and hopefully like he says this was just getting all the bad luck out of the way so that he can gave a flawless season. Also, don't just rote for joel to win, we need that bastard Rusinov to lose, and lose bad.
"So over the years I've done lots of expeditions and projects in remote parts of
the world - some big ones and many small ones. I've stood at both the North and
South Poles as well as on the world's highest peak. When i look back over my
life, though, I have little doubt that the most worthwhile things I have done
have not been getting to the summits of great mountains or to the extremes of
the Earth. My most important projects have been the building and maintaining of
schools and medical clinics for my dear friends in the Himalaya and helping to
restore their beautiful monasteries too."
Sir Edmund Hillary
From a recent National Geographic spread on Everest (or Chomolungma, my WT prof didn't think anyone would know that, ha, but i didn't remember the other name Sagarmatha, too bad)
This might become my new quote on the right, i haven't decided. It is a pretty powerful comment though, something i hope we can all take to heart. It is weird how you can hear something a hundred times, but sometimes you just hear it clearer or something, or maybe it is because it is somebody i admire, i am not really sure. I hope somebody appreciates it.
We finally finished our mechanical bull project today, it has been eating all of my time up for the last two weeks. I am scared though, he seemed to like it, and he took it from us (meaing we got the 2 bonus points (out of twenty, yeah, twenty percent of my grade, and the other 30 percent is next week on the final, 50% in one week, no joke) which will come in handy i think) whereas most of the other people he was telling them to go work on it some more, so i think that is good, but he was also trying to leave to go home, so maybe he was just sick of dealing with us, who knows, but at least it is done.
There is something about Snyder, i think it begins with the name, it is very sinister sounding. It is like how saroman and sauron's names are so close together, didn't anyone think that maybe they are both evil. I don't know what that has to do with Snyder, except that he is evil, in the best kind of way that makes me push harder than i have ever pushed and makes me think he is the best teacher i have ever had, but besides that, he is still evil. Also there is the reacuring (spelling?) of him always teaching in room 101 (think 1984, "what is in your room 101?" , i know old line, sorry, but it still creeps me out)
Hopefully there will be some time for some snowshowing this weekend, i need to get out of the house, school, and work and enjoy some mountain air. I also want to get the dynamic vibration absorber (the guys arm) working on our bull design, just so i can prove to him that it will work, he doesn't think my design will) In a week i am finally done for this semester, i really need a holiday, just two or three days when i don't think about school at all.