I just realized that the two greatest events that will happen this year in Reno, happen within the next two weeks. Starting today, the Rib cookoff, which is 5 days of the most wonderful, sweet, succulent, tasty, mouth watering ribs you could ever imagine. Also, on the 11th of September, i will get to hear the single most beautiful sound that man has ever engineered (besides a building falling down or a Saturn V blasting off) a P-51, followed by a Sea Fury, followed by a Bearcat, with a Wild cat blasting past down low (I can almost hear pete and his dad making the noises for me, yes 2 people, 4 plane noise, i didn't believe it either). Yes, my friends, it is time for the air races. The low grumble of the T-6's, the precision flying of the Blue Angels, and hot tarmac beneath your feet; i can't wait.
Oh yeah, school started, and it as expected it sucks again, but what are you going to do. Vibrations should be all right, Control Systems is going to hurt again (it is snyder, again, in Room 101, again, and oh yeah, i got a 40 on my final last semester HA HA HA HA HA HA!, so obviously i didn't get it the first time, but oh well), the senior design class might be cool, the professor is really into team roping, like for the rodeo, so we are designing a better Heel-0-Matic (I didn't know what it was either, apparently you tow it behind a truck and it simulates a calf or something) so it doesn't look there is a lot of potential for it being fun, but you have to be optomistic. One thing that might save that class is the professor was one the lead engineers for the sidewinder missile back in the day, so that could be cool. He has used the sidewinder 3 times so far as an example in his lectures, which i enjoy, but i don't think anybody else understood when he was talking about the rollerons (or whatever they are called, the little wheels on the rear fin of the missile, that I played with one year out at the Fallon Air Show) being an example of a damper for an unstable system. My microproccesor design class seems alright, except it is all based off of stuff from classes i took my freshman year, so i was a little rusty on the quiz we had on the first day, but it should come back to me, and Big Joe is in there. He graduated and is now taking classes as a grad student, so that should be a blast actually. The last class is western traditions 202, which is all about the renessaince and stuff like that. It is just another college class and i don't think it will be too bad, write a couple of essays, take a couple of tests, etc. The one cool thing is that the prof has a Phd in Geology, and one in literature, so his training is in the sciences, but his love is the arts, and i think it makes a really good teaching combination.
Lastly, it was Mary's birthday last night so we went up to the Lake to some place in Carnelian Bay that was really nice. I can't think of any witty comments about how she is more "mature" (read old) than me but i will keep trying. And shooting starts today, and we didn't loose anybody, and we picked up a few people, most notably ryan's little brother mike, who i think we will step up and become an important part of the team right away, and then Mary's roomate, Annie's little sister Corrie, so it will be interesting seeing if she is anything like her sister (Annie and i don't really get along i don't think, and i am not positive why, i think it is just because i argue back with her, and i don't think she has really ever been forced to continue to interact with somebody like me, she is just very kind of stubborn, and i am kind of stubborn, there is just a little bit of anymosity, it is very interesting to watch) And the other Corrie (i hesitate to call her big corrie, she already freaks out about her weight enough, even though she is super skinny and probably can't give blood and never eats anything and wonders why she always shakes) got married this summer in a sort of shotgun fashion apparently, which is why Ryan and i weren't invited. But i will get up to Montana someday.
Hopefully a little camping this weekend, eat a few (read 4 full racks just by the weekend) ribs, and then back to the grind. I hope everyone is enjoying classes, i know i am. (can you hear it, off in the distance, is that the sarcasm bell?)
I forgot about going and seeing modest mouse a couple of weeks ago. The show seemed a lot different from when i saw them in Salt Lake back in the day. There it seemed like they just played constantly for the whole show, not stopping, each song fading into the next, and all the songs were very layed back and just kind groving along. (this is why i am not the show reviewer like pete) But here in sparks they kept stopping a lot, i guess to tune their guitars and stuff, and they just didn't really seem into the whole show. They played more of their intense songs that i like (i like the others too, but the fast exciting screaming songs are way better). The second half of the show seemed a lot smoother, with more playing and less standing there. It is weird, every now and then i just really need modest mouse.
But what really made the show so interesting was not the songs they played or the weird opening act, but all the people that were at the show. As i walk in the door, who is the first person i see? None other than Trevor Deihl and his girlfriend. Now i haven't seen Trevor in probably 5 years, except for the one time i think i remember running into him in the compusa parking lot, but i am not really sure that happened. Trevor is like a ghost, an enigma, he doesn't exist, you here stories about people seeing Trevor, but then when you ask them they heard it from somebody else. (that line was in a movie recently i think, but it gets the point across) To be honest it wouldn't have suprised me if he turned up dead. We had to many good times with Trevor, Joel even more than me. Trevor was just a guy living on the edge, teetering on the brink of collapse, and yet was one of the two or three people that made middle school (and some of highschool, until he dissapeared) bearable and actually enjoyable. Hopefully that conveys just a little percentage of weird it was to run into him.
And if that wasn't enough, i then run into Kyle Akins, my old next door neighbor. Now kyle was completely trashed out of his mind. (well, maybe not, that could have been how he is normally now, but he acted trashed to me) Kyle is another person i haven't seen for probably 4 years, at least since high school, or whenever it was he moved. There were stories of him living in a shack in the woods, running drugs from canada, going to music recording and mastering school (i think this one actually happened based on his mumbling and falling down) and other worthwhile activities. Kyle and i also had a lot of good times back in the day. I think it would cheapen a lot of the stories to try to explain them here. Sorry.
Then i run into west gill, some his friends and guys from the venture crew whose names i can never remember. Then geff kazza and his friend (i can't remember his name either) that i ran cross country with. They are both going to really cool schools on running scholarships and doing engineering. I still like to think that i could take both of them, but we never won state in track and cross country while i was on the team, so maybe not. And i am still in Reno, lucky bastards. Then i saw Andrew's friend Will Truce. What probably took the cake though was running into Jeni there. Here is a recount of our conversation:
Me: "Hey"
Her: "Hi"
Me: "How's it going?"
Her: "Good, you?"
Me: "Good"
There was probably more to, but you get the point. Luckily i only really dated one other person than Mary so i only have to worry about running into one ex, dan on the other hand ran into four of his ex's, now that sucks. Jeni and i are on good terms and everything, and it doesn't bother me seeing her, but i have enough of pete's mentality that i still made a quick scan for the closest escape route, go figure.
Now there were others, but i can't remember their names so it probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to list a bunch of descriptions. Either way it was weird, it was like a big high school reunion kind of. What i found really interesting was all the different paths everybody was on, how we all started out at one common point (in a sense, i now there were a lot of other things affecting where we would end up, but we did share a common time together) and yet we are all going to end up in such different places and circumstances.
Now i just really need to see the faint again, too bad i missed them when they were in San Fran.
I had to get two fillings this morning, and i have to get my wisdom teeth pulled in October. Sucks.
Okay, well not really 10 hours, but it feels like it, and any excuse to quote a line from the Butter Battle Book (best doctor seuss book ever) is a good excuse. Sorry about not updating in a while, i just never really felt like it when i had the time and when i did feel like it i was busy, but Pete so gently reminded me that i need to update my blog (and i quote: "UPDATE YOUR BLOG. DON'T KEEP ME IN SUSPENSE."), so here goes.
I don't think i ever wrote about Lundi Canyon. It is down by Yosemite, and has got to be one of the most beautiful places i have been to yet. It wasn't as spectacular as Yosemite but it had some really awesome rock, tons of waterfalls all over the place, and at the top of the canyon were the Sierras. There is something about the being in the Real Sierras (no, Mt. Rose is not really in the Sierras, at least that is what my book on the Geography of Highway 395 says, and in my opinion the Sierras don't really start until Bridgeport). My boss was the one who told me about the place and he never goes back to the same place twice because he thinks there are just too many beautiful places, but this was one place he said he would return to if that means anything. The only problem was that at the top of the crazy climb up by this waterfall, i enter this huge basin of rocks and lakes, probably at 10,000+ feet, and what do i see, tons of day hikers all over the place, even old women and little children. (oh yeah, one other thought, my boss had told me he made it up to the first lake with his wife (he called the steep part by the waterfall the part that seperates the men from the boys, maybe the pictures will show this, i don't know) so i had to one up my boss, so i went up another 1000 feet or so the top of this ridgeline just to see what i could see, ha) That was when i realized that there was a really easy way into the basin, like a three mile hike (in the pictures you can kind of see the trail, but it looks more like a road) from the road going into Yosemite, but oh well, i was hardcore and did it the right way, and if i go back i will go over the pass further to the right, where sain people just don't go. I guess on monday i can try to upload some of the pictures. I was going to title that entry finding the Sierras part 1, on the false assumption that i would be returning, but the fates conspired against me and i haven't been back yet, and it doesn't look like i will, as each weekend is eaten up with other activities (as equally fun, and probably better because they are with or for other people and not just for my own selfish needs)
I also went over to San Francisco for Rudy's birthday and because Zaynep was leaving to go back to Turkey. He is only going to get to see her like two more times over the next year until they get married next summer in Turkey, but they will make it.
I moved out of the McQueen house in July and moved into my Brother's old house, the Katherine house. We finally just got the internet so that is why this is getting updated. Ryan, from the rifle team from the other house, and Dan Gingold and his little brother Steve are all moving in, so it should be pretty exciting, hopefully there isn't any drama. I figure everybody will either be with their girlfriends or busy with school that there shouldn't be much time for drama, but you never know.
One part of moving into the new house was that my mom wanted to remodel the kitchen and bathroom. We are finishing up on the kitchen tonight and who knows when we will get to the bathroom, but the kitchen looks awesome. My Uncle Ed, who is a real contractor, came down and pretty much did the whole thing for us. I guess he has come to the rescue a few times before when he has heard my mom was going to be doing any sort of work on the house because he just couldn't bear to see it done badly. He is awesome though, just amazing to watch. Also he opened over 24 beers over the course of the week, but the key is he did it with a different tool each time, it was really cool. The other funny thing was that at the Pasta Mill when the kid asked him if he wanted water, he responded "waters for washing your feet." It was great. At some point i will see about getting the pictures my mom took and posting them.
Lastly (i think, more stuff that has happened will probably come back to me later) Mary and i went up to see A Midsummer Nights Dream up at Tahoe. It was really nice, we made a little picnic and i bought a picnic basket and we sat on the beach and ate food and went for a swim. The play was done really well i thought, but that doesn't mean much. It was the first part of Mary's birthday present and she seemed to really enjoy it so that was nice. Tahoe can be very romantic if you want it to be, and someday i will actually learn how to make it that way.
Pretty much i have been working a lot, trying to ride a lot (i messed up my knee running so i had to go get physical therapy for the last few weeks, but it seems to be all better now, but i couldn't run for the longest) dreading school starting in a week. I am just not excited yet. Honestly i just don't want to see snyder because of how bad i did in his class, i am ashamed of the quality of work i turned in and i don't want him to think less of me. I think i am kind of tired of the book work side of school, hopefully the senior design class will actually have some real engineering in but that might be a lot to ask from UNR. But i am really excited to start shooting again, i have one more year to beat Mary's record of 1144 (I shot 1143 at nationals last year, but best yet) but maybe i will just let her keep the record, or at least that will be my excuse when i don't break it.
Oh yeah, one other funny incident. Two of the people i work with, Becky and Adam are both leaving the NSBDC so we had a going away party for them. To make a long story short, i got trashed on "Strong" Island Ice Teas, somebody put a bunch of salt and pepper shakers and drink glasses in my bosses backpack, he pours them out on the table, breaking about half of them, we are loud, noisy, obnoxious, and just having a good old time while everybody else at the Silver Peak was trying to have a nice quite dinner (picture back and forth from the bar to whatever table has empty chairs, repeated over and over again), as we were leaving this little greasy kid (looked like milan heninger, just not built, shorter, and with a pony tail) comes down and tells us (six of us, two of us are on the Stanford football team (i am not really sure where they came from, i think they were mark's friends), and my boss the Marine) that he didn't appreciate the mess we left and wanted us to be quite. Now, he was probably correct in everything he said (i don't really remember this, i only learned of it the next morning when we were all sitting in the office suffering together) but there are certain times when you just don't say certain things. I guess Mark walked up to the guy (and Mark is not a fighter) and said "these two guys are with me (pointing back to the two football players) so if you want we can go discuss this somewhere." At this point my boss rode (we had both ridden our bikes) with me over to my house. Let me tell you, that was a really rough ride, lucky for me i had both lanes to try to stay in. I ended up laying on the grass in front of the house for quite some time.