Hey all,
As my beloved readers, you've all been deprived of my wonderful postings for nearly 6 months now. My break from blogging was good, but now I'm ready to get back into the swing of things.
Here's my life:
1. I still work at King Soopers. I stack fruit all day. Customers are dumb and rude. End of that story.
2. I have a beautiful, wonderful girlfriend. Her name is Caitlin Murphy, and we will have been together for 6 months at the end of this month.
3. School is kicking my butt. Between the 700 pages of reading every week, and 30-40 hours of work, I have put sleep on the shelf for a rainy day.
4. I am going to run a marathon in September, so expect frequent updates on my training.
As you can see, I've changed the overall appearance of the blog, but the formatting will stay roughly the same...news, personal twaddle, and probably some ranting and raving. This time around though, I am also going to be mixing in some current events for the Boulder community and the surrounding area.
Today's post is going to be rather quick, for which I'm sorry, but this time around I think you can count on me for more. :)
I look forward to having you all back in my life.
-Brad
2.19.2010
9.24.2009
Alright...
Hey all,
So, my life is full.
I seem to have less time for you all.
But soon, I will be totally revamping www.blogdelafloggart.com for your viewing pleasure.
I love you.
-Brad
So, my life is full.
I seem to have less time for you all.
But soon, I will be totally revamping www.blogdelafloggart.com for your viewing pleasure.
I love you.
-Brad
9.01.2009
You can FedEx almost anything these days...
Hey all,
Well, I'm moved in.
I'll post pictures of the house and whatnot later.
I officially started classes once more as of August 24th. Things are going well in that area, other than evil Spanish. Thankfully, it's my last semester of it, and I'll never ever have to do it ever agian.
As for my other classes, right now I'm taking Literary Analysis, a poetry workshop, and Geology. Funny story...my geology professor, randomly in the middle of class when he heard a cough, freaked out and informed all of us that there were four kids in our class that had confirmed swine flu, thusly exposing all of us to it. Then he told us to lick the person next to us all over so as to become resistant beings. He's a trife odd.
News time.
A zoo in Brookfield, Illinois recently decided it needed to move it's bottlenose dolphins to a new zoo for the Fall and Winter seasons. The zoo picked for relocation was Minnesota Zoo, in Apple Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis. Now, how might one move a dolphin from the Chicago area all the way to Minneapolis? FedEx! Zoo keepers actually boxed up the dolphins in specially built metal framed boxes, and sent the off on a big ol' jet plane. I was amazed. More here.
While I'm talking about smart mammals, I have a story on pigs. It's just to good to recap, so here's the entire article.
Pigs halt Coventry woods gay sex trysts
Sep 1 2009
"RAMPAGING pigs have put a stop to gay sex trysts in a picturesque wood on the outskirts of Coventry.
Farmer Richard Fonge became so exasperated by the sordid shenanigans in the shady dells of Roughknowles Wood, off Crackley Lane, near Kenilworth, that he agreed to unleash a couple of dozen Tamworth porkers.
In addition he’s felled a row of about 30 beech trees, erected steel fences, barbed wire, and a number of ‘Private Keep Out’ signs.
The 64-year-old, who lives at Hurst Farm, just north of the wood, said he was “mightily relieved” that the trespassers had now been flushed out after a long-standing battle.
The area, which boasts some of the most exclusive homes in the area, first became a venue for sleazy assignations 15 years ago.
He now believes that those responsible have migrated to nearby Crackley Wood, which is owned by Warwickshire County Council.
The Telegraph revealed in 2005 how Mr Fonge had made repeated efforts to stop people entering the farmland.
The dad-of-two had become so outraged, after finding a makeshift bed and used condoms, that he placed tree trunks where Cryfield Grange Road meets Crackley Lane, to try to deter men from parking up.
The woods form part of the farm’s 280 acres.
Mr Fonge said yesterday: “We’re mightily relieved that it’s off our doorstep.
“We got permission from the Forestry Commission and the county council to chop the trees down, and it seems to have done the trick.
"It was the son of the landowner who had the idea to put pigs there.
"I’m not homophobic, I just don’t like trespassers.
“The police didn’t want to know.""
All I can say is wow. Just wow.
To see this article in it's original context, click here.
And lastly, the Los Angeles area is on fire as many of you know. I just want everyone to think about how lucky we are. (Unless you're an LA resident.) Here are some tragically beautiful pictures of whats going on.
Next time you see a firefighter, or hear about them on the news, think about what it is they do for a living exactly. I think it's sad how much crap they have to put up with, and all they get in return is some mild gratitude and a meager paycheck. All off these men are heroes, nothing less.
For more, click here.
Anyway, that's about it for now.
-Brad
This is just time-lapse, but it says a lot.
Well, I'm moved in.
I'll post pictures of the house and whatnot later.
I officially started classes once more as of August 24th. Things are going well in that area, other than evil Spanish. Thankfully, it's my last semester of it, and I'll never ever have to do it ever agian.
As for my other classes, right now I'm taking Literary Analysis, a poetry workshop, and Geology. Funny story...my geology professor, randomly in the middle of class when he heard a cough, freaked out and informed all of us that there were four kids in our class that had confirmed swine flu, thusly exposing all of us to it. Then he told us to lick the person next to us all over so as to become resistant beings. He's a trife odd.
News time.
A zoo in Brookfield, Illinois recently decided it needed to move it's bottlenose dolphins to a new zoo for the Fall and Winter seasons. The zoo picked for relocation was Minnesota Zoo, in Apple Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis. Now, how might one move a dolphin from the Chicago area all the way to Minneapolis? FedEx! Zoo keepers actually boxed up the dolphins in specially built metal framed boxes, and sent the off on a big ol' jet plane. I was amazed. More here.
While I'm talking about smart mammals, I have a story on pigs. It's just to good to recap, so here's the entire article.
Pigs halt Coventry woods gay sex trysts
Sep 1 2009
"RAMPAGING pigs have put a stop to gay sex trysts in a picturesque wood on the outskirts of Coventry.
Farmer Richard Fonge became so exasperated by the sordid shenanigans in the shady dells of Roughknowles Wood, off Crackley Lane, near Kenilworth, that he agreed to unleash a couple of dozen Tamworth porkers.
In addition he’s felled a row of about 30 beech trees, erected steel fences, barbed wire, and a number of ‘Private Keep Out’ signs.
The 64-year-old, who lives at Hurst Farm, just north of the wood, said he was “mightily relieved” that the trespassers had now been flushed out after a long-standing battle.
The area, which boasts some of the most exclusive homes in the area, first became a venue for sleazy assignations 15 years ago.
He now believes that those responsible have migrated to nearby Crackley Wood, which is owned by Warwickshire County Council.
The Telegraph revealed in 2005 how Mr Fonge had made repeated efforts to stop people entering the farmland.
The dad-of-two had become so outraged, after finding a makeshift bed and used condoms, that he placed tree trunks where Cryfield Grange Road meets Crackley Lane, to try to deter men from parking up.
The woods form part of the farm’s 280 acres.
Mr Fonge said yesterday: “We’re mightily relieved that it’s off our doorstep.
“We got permission from the Forestry Commission and the county council to chop the trees down, and it seems to have done the trick.
"It was the son of the landowner who had the idea to put pigs there.
"I’m not homophobic, I just don’t like trespassers.
“The police didn’t want to know.""
All I can say is wow. Just wow.
To see this article in it's original context, click here.
And lastly, the Los Angeles area is on fire as many of you know. I just want everyone to think about how lucky we are. (Unless you're an LA resident.) Here are some tragically beautiful pictures of whats going on.
Next time you see a firefighter, or hear about them on the news, think about what it is they do for a living exactly. I think it's sad how much crap they have to put up with, and all they get in return is some mild gratitude and a meager paycheck. All off these men are heroes, nothing less.
For more, click here.
Anyway, that's about it for now.
-Brad
This is just time-lapse, but it says a lot.
8.25.2009
2 months have passed...
Hey all,
So, it's been just over two months since I made a posting. For this, I am sorry.
Here's what you need to know:
- I worked. A lot.
- My connection to the Internet was not stable.
- When I wasn't working, I was generally sleeping or spending time with the family.
Anyway. To sum up the rest of my summer, I worked at City Market 445 right up till August 6th. That job was terrible. I don't feel the need to tell you about it.
After that was over, I spent as much time with my friends as possible, and packed up all of my worldly possessions and began moving to Boulder. Now I'm here in a townhouse with my new roommates. I'll update you on all that, as well as post some pictures in the near future.
Also, I'll be making more frequent posts now that I'm back in school and at my computer 24/7.
I've miss you all...
-Brad
So, it's been just over two months since I made a posting. For this, I am sorry.
Here's what you need to know:
- I worked. A lot.
- My connection to the Internet was not stable.
- When I wasn't working, I was generally sleeping or spending time with the family.
Anyway. To sum up the rest of my summer, I worked at City Market 445 right up till August 6th. That job was terrible. I don't feel the need to tell you about it.
After that was over, I spent as much time with my friends as possible, and packed up all of my worldly possessions and began moving to Boulder. Now I'm here in a townhouse with my new roommates. I'll update you on all that, as well as post some pictures in the near future.
Also, I'll be making more frequent posts now that I'm back in school and at my computer 24/7.
I've miss you all...
-Brad
6.23.2009
Next time you go to the barber, try not to sell crack.
Hey all,
Well, there's not too much to report on lately.
I went for a good long drive today before work with my friend who we'll just call Freddy, because he wishes to have his identity remain a secret (like my blog is a source of slander..psh), and we were admiring all the pot-holes around town. Well, on one hand, I could complain about how you either have to drive through all of them and basically ruin your car or weave around them...or I could present an alternative case. I got to thinking about it, and actually, it's probably in the county's best interest to just leave all the roads in such a bad state. For one, they wouldn't have to spend any money on fixing them obviously. For two, there is the potential to boost our local economy.
Now, how could that be possible?
Well, the way I see it, if everyone has to drive through all of the pot holes, it's pretty inevitable that at least a few of us are going to throw off our alignment. Big O charges about $60 an axle for an alignment, so they have a huge potential to make some money...
Our local EMS might also get in on this. If you're anything like me, you like to drive around the pot-holes. Well, just as it's pretty inevitable that people will mess up their alignment, some will probably have fatal, or near fatal accidents while manically swerving around the nasty pits. EMS will come, take the victims away for treatment and make some money on the deal. How neat. Oh, and chances are pretty good that the fire department will get called in too.
Anyway. That's enough sarcastic ranting.
So.
Here is a video that I love.
Now that you're done with that....
It's time for more Grand Canyon adventures.
The Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 4
Picking up at our arrival at the creek...we promptly set up camp and made dinner. Dinner in the Grand Canyon every night consisted of Ramen noodles, Parmesan cheese, and either prepackaged tuna or chicken all mixed together into one tasty concoction. That may sound pretty gross, but it was dang tasty at the time. After dinner in the dark, we went to bed.
Well, we neglected to hang our food in a tree, and instead we put out our sleeping gear in in a triangle and piled the rest of our equipment and food in the middle, not expecting any trouble from the denizens of the canyon. I think it's also good to mention now that we didn't bring a tent, and slept under the stars every night. Anyway, as I drifted off to sleep, I thought I felt something crawling around near my feet, but I was too tired to do much about it. I found out the next morning that there was in in fact something crawling around down there...a very large rat had visited us in the night. Mr. Rat had crawled across Chances chest, played on my feet, munched on our trail mix, and then went to visit Forrest. Forrest, not being so sleepy, woke up when the rat scurried across his had and managed to throw the animal off into a large clump of cactus. Which is what it deserved.
The next morning came early and cloudy. When I woke up, I wanted to die. My whole body was in pain. It would probably have been a good idea to stretch before I went to bed, but alas, here I was feeling like a North Korea had used my muscles as a test site for their nukes. After we managed to pull our selves out of our sleeping bags, we discovered that we had been visited by our little rat buddy, and as soon as that situation had been assessed, we ate breakfast. Breakfast in the Grand Canyon consisted of instant vanilla pudding and heaping amounts of granola, which is very good by the way.
After eating our fill, we decided to scope out the next day's route. The park service literature and our guide book suggested that we take the short scramble down into Phantom Box canyon, and then make our way back down to where we had been the day before. Well...it was just our luck that there had been some intense flooding since our material had been written, and there was no "short scramble" down a "talus slope" into the box. After about an hour of searching for a way down, we found a rope. I assume some other poor soul had been in the same predicament, and had donated their rope to the cause. Well, after some ponderation and assessment of the situation, we climbed down the rope into the canyon. These sort of activities really frighten me. Just so you know. I'm always afraid of falling down, or somehow getting my foot tangled in the rope and swinging into a flaming cactus or something terrible like that.
Anyway, we got down there into the bottom ans started checking things out. It was pretty neat. We followed the creek from the Phantom Falls down about two miles. Then Forrest and I got hungry. We decided to go back for some lunch, and Chance scouted on for a while. When Forrest and I got back to the falls, he climbed back up the rope, no problem. Then I tried. Here is the turning point in our journey. I couldn't make it back up the rope to save my life. My legs were just a few inches too short to make the last foot hold, and my upper body isn't anything special, so I couldn't just man up and haul myself out either. It was a bad situation. After an hour or so of trying over and over again, and become exhausted, Chance showed back up. Needless to say, he wasn't really expecting these circumstances, and he tried to help out. Nothing worked. In the end, we just decided to down climb the box canyon with our packs, and find another campsite. I still feel bad to this day that the events following happened, mainly because of me...
But we'll save that for next time.
Till then, I want you to look at this:
This is probably the most hilarious mugshot I've ever seen.
This man's name is Marcus T. Bailey. He was at the barber, getting a new hairdo when he saw some potential customers out on the street and had to step out to sell them crack. The cops showed up, and look what we have here. The worlds most embarrassing mugshot. More here.
Anyway, that's all for now. This has taken three days to complete. I'm sorry. I'm working on it.
I love you all.
-Brad
P.S. In my next post, be sure to see the section on North Korea.
Well, there's not too much to report on lately.
I went for a good long drive today before work with my friend who we'll just call Freddy, because he wishes to have his identity remain a secret (like my blog is a source of slander..psh), and we were admiring all the pot-holes around town. Well, on one hand, I could complain about how you either have to drive through all of them and basically ruin your car or weave around them...or I could present an alternative case. I got to thinking about it, and actually, it's probably in the county's best interest to just leave all the roads in such a bad state. For one, they wouldn't have to spend any money on fixing them obviously. For two, there is the potential to boost our local economy.
Now, how could that be possible?
Well, the way I see it, if everyone has to drive through all of the pot holes, it's pretty inevitable that at least a few of us are going to throw off our alignment. Big O charges about $60 an axle for an alignment, so they have a huge potential to make some money...
Our local EMS might also get in on this. If you're anything like me, you like to drive around the pot-holes. Well, just as it's pretty inevitable that people will mess up their alignment, some will probably have fatal, or near fatal accidents while manically swerving around the nasty pits. EMS will come, take the victims away for treatment and make some money on the deal. How neat. Oh, and chances are pretty good that the fire department will get called in too.
Anyway. That's enough sarcastic ranting.
So.
Here is a video that I love.
Now that you're done with that....
It's time for more Grand Canyon adventures.
The Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 4
Picking up at our arrival at the creek...we promptly set up camp and made dinner. Dinner in the Grand Canyon every night consisted of Ramen noodles, Parmesan cheese, and either prepackaged tuna or chicken all mixed together into one tasty concoction. That may sound pretty gross, but it was dang tasty at the time. After dinner in the dark, we went to bed.
Well, we neglected to hang our food in a tree, and instead we put out our sleeping gear in in a triangle and piled the rest of our equipment and food in the middle, not expecting any trouble from the denizens of the canyon. I think it's also good to mention now that we didn't bring a tent, and slept under the stars every night. Anyway, as I drifted off to sleep, I thought I felt something crawling around near my feet, but I was too tired to do much about it. I found out the next morning that there was in in fact something crawling around down there...a very large rat had visited us in the night. Mr. Rat had crawled across Chances chest, played on my feet, munched on our trail mix, and then went to visit Forrest. Forrest, not being so sleepy, woke up when the rat scurried across his had and managed to throw the animal off into a large clump of cactus. Which is what it deserved.
The next morning came early and cloudy. When I woke up, I wanted to die. My whole body was in pain. It would probably have been a good idea to stretch before I went to bed, but alas, here I was feeling like a North Korea had used my muscles as a test site for their nukes. After we managed to pull our selves out of our sleeping bags, we discovered that we had been visited by our little rat buddy, and as soon as that situation had been assessed, we ate breakfast. Breakfast in the Grand Canyon consisted of instant vanilla pudding and heaping amounts of granola, which is very good by the way.
After eating our fill, we decided to scope out the next day's route. The park service literature and our guide book suggested that we take the short scramble down into Phantom Box canyon, and then make our way back down to where we had been the day before. Well...it was just our luck that there had been some intense flooding since our material had been written, and there was no "short scramble" down a "talus slope" into the box. After about an hour of searching for a way down, we found a rope. I assume some other poor soul had been in the same predicament, and had donated their rope to the cause. Well, after some ponderation and assessment of the situation, we climbed down the rope into the canyon. These sort of activities really frighten me. Just so you know. I'm always afraid of falling down, or somehow getting my foot tangled in the rope and swinging into a flaming cactus or something terrible like that.
Anyway, we got down there into the bottom ans started checking things out. It was pretty neat. We followed the creek from the Phantom Falls down about two miles. Then Forrest and I got hungry. We decided to go back for some lunch, and Chance scouted on for a while. When Forrest and I got back to the falls, he climbed back up the rope, no problem. Then I tried. Here is the turning point in our journey. I couldn't make it back up the rope to save my life. My legs were just a few inches too short to make the last foot hold, and my upper body isn't anything special, so I couldn't just man up and haul myself out either. It was a bad situation. After an hour or so of trying over and over again, and become exhausted, Chance showed back up. Needless to say, he wasn't really expecting these circumstances, and he tried to help out. Nothing worked. In the end, we just decided to down climb the box canyon with our packs, and find another campsite. I still feel bad to this day that the events following happened, mainly because of me...
But we'll save that for next time.
Till then, I want you to look at this:
This is probably the most hilarious mugshot I've ever seen.
This man's name is Marcus T. Bailey. He was at the barber, getting a new hairdo when he saw some potential customers out on the street and had to step out to sell them crack. The cops showed up, and look what we have here. The worlds most embarrassing mugshot. More here.
Anyway, that's all for now. This has taken three days to complete. I'm sorry. I'm working on it.
I love you all.
-Brad
P.S. In my next post, be sure to see the section on North Korea.
6.16.2009
Oh herrrooo....
Hey all,
So...since the last post, the only truly exciting thing I have to tell you about was an amazing trip I took to Flagstaff, AZ, to attend the Good Times Music Festival.
I had an excellent time. Here's how the trip went: Worked from 4 AM to 8 AM Friday morning, hopped in Pepe, my friend Chance's zippy little Mazda, and we took off for the Four Corners area, via US Highway 160. Being as I had to work so early, I slept for a good portion of the trip. Now, when I sleep sitting up, especially in a car, I tend to drool a little bit. It's sort of gross. But anyway, my point in bringing that up is I found out upon waking that my soul patch is actually a pretty good drool catcher - just one of those more intimate facts about me... :)
So anyway, we made pretty good time to Flagstaff. We had set up camp and all that jazz by about 3 PM. From there we just hung out around camp, made some awesome fajitas, and I stayed up late waiting for our dear friend Forrest. He rolled in around midnight with his girlfriend, and we all crashed pretty soon after. The next day, we all got up, had some wonderful eggs for breakfast. The festival started at noon, and we showed up a little bit late. Overall, the show was amazing. The line up was sweet. I've been to a number of shows now, and I've decided that outdoor venues are the best. Later in the night, there were fire dancers and the like, and the entire atmosphere was just grand.
The next day, I got up early, and we headed home. It had been a good trip.
Anyway, I started this post like a week ago. I'm finally finishing it this morning, Monday, at 2:24 AM. What fun.
Since this post was started, I've already broken my promise to keep up on my postings. I'm sorry. I'll try.
Well, here's a story .
The other day, I was at work. I was stocking some apples. I looked up to see a very large obese woman standing near the candy stand. She didn't see that someone was watching her, and she grabbed a Snickers. I gaped as she reached up under her shirt and tucked the candy under one of her rolls and casually walked out of the store. It was disturbing.
In other news, I purchased my domain name. No more blogspot in my URL. YAY! (Should be fully functional in three days time.)
So, next time, you can expect to see the next chapter in the Grand Canyon series, and some other fun things.
I'm going to sleep.
-Brad
So...since the last post, the only truly exciting thing I have to tell you about was an amazing trip I took to Flagstaff, AZ, to attend the Good Times Music Festival.
I had an excellent time. Here's how the trip went: Worked from 4 AM to 8 AM Friday morning, hopped in Pepe, my friend Chance's zippy little Mazda, and we took off for the Four Corners area, via US Highway 160. Being as I had to work so early, I slept for a good portion of the trip. Now, when I sleep sitting up, especially in a car, I tend to drool a little bit. It's sort of gross. But anyway, my point in bringing that up is I found out upon waking that my soul patch is actually a pretty good drool catcher - just one of those more intimate facts about me... :) So anyway, we made pretty good time to Flagstaff. We had set up camp and all that jazz by about 3 PM. From there we just hung out around camp, made some awesome fajitas, and I stayed up late waiting for our dear friend Forrest. He rolled in around midnight with his girlfriend, and we all crashed pretty soon after. The next day, we all got up, had some wonderful eggs for breakfast. The festival started at noon, and we showed up a little bit late. Overall, the show was amazing. The line up was sweet. I've been to a number of shows now, and I've decided that outdoor venues are the best. Later in the night, there were fire dancers and the like, and the entire atmosphere was just grand.
The next day, I got up early, and we headed home. It had been a good trip.
Anyway, I started this post like a week ago. I'm finally finishing it this morning, Monday, at 2:24 AM. What fun.
Since this post was started, I've already broken my promise to keep up on my postings. I'm sorry. I'll try.
Well, here's a story .
The other day, I was at work. I was stocking some apples. I looked up to see a very large obese woman standing near the candy stand. She didn't see that someone was watching her, and she grabbed a Snickers. I gaped as she reached up under her shirt and tucked the candy under one of her rolls and casually walked out of the store. It was disturbing.
In other news, I purchased my domain name. No more blogspot in my URL. YAY! (Should be fully functional in three days time.)
So, next time, you can expect to see the next chapter in the Grand Canyon series, and some other fun things.
I'm going to sleep.
-Brad
6.10.2009
One month later...
Hey all,
It's been a very long time since I've made a post. One month in fact. Since May 10th, 2009 I've done a lot of stuff...and I mean a lot.
The day of my last real post was Mother's Day. At that point I was out of school and had been hanging out Fort Collins for a few days. I participated in a massive BBQ with my friends Alaina, Emily, Kaeli and Laura...and I got to cook the meat. And being as we're all college kids, we bought really cheap burgers...like 25% fat content. What this means is I got to deal with a large grease fire. By the end of the two hour meat cook-off I had no arm hair left and the hair on my head (which at the time was really long) got terribly singed. Oh well. It was fun. Thanks to all of you for the good times. :)
The next day I spent some time with my Aunt Julie and Uncle Scott and caught a movie that evening, this time being X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I won't really go into all the tedious details, but I thought it was a pretty decent movie. My friend Emily came along and ever since has been imitating Deadpool's falling head into a nuclear reactor. It makes me smile. After the movie Emily, Alaina and I all went to Wendy's and got some frosties and hung out for a couple hours...it was a really good time. I want to go back soon and do it all again. :)
The following morning I hopped in the car and headed for DIA. This was a big day for me because up to that point, I had never flown. Now here I was getting ready to head out to Tennessee to see my long lost cousin, Sheridan.
Here's some background: Sheridan and I have known each other, or at least of each other since infancy, but we really never got to know each other as kids. The last time I had seen Sheridan was about 7 years ago at a funeral for our great grandmother, but because of modern technology (i.e. Facebook) we got back in touch. It started with short little IM chats, and eventually led to phone calls and texting. I even helped edit one of her school papers at one point. Essentially over time, we went from Facebook friends to best friends. :) I think there hasn't been one day since February that I haven't talked to her.
Anyway, this friendship led to me going flying out to Tennessee for her high school graduation. I must say, this experience was by far one of the most memorable for me to date. For one, I got to fly. That was really cool. I want to fly everywhere now. Screw cars. Secondly, I got to see my wonderful cousin. Thirdly, I got to meet a lot of new people, who I'm technically related to, but had never met before. The hospitality I was met with, not only from my Colorado family, namely Scott and Julie, but also the folks in Tennessee, nearly brought me to my knees. I was treated so well by everyone there. They all acted like I was one of their own, and it was overwhelming how much love I felt. It was one of the most touching experiences I've ever experienced. A big thanks to all of you: Julie, Scott, Sheridan, and all of the new family. :D
While in Tennessee it seems like all I did was eat. Eat eat eat eat eat. Lots of eating. I ate BBQ, southern fried cat fish, and a plethora of other things that made me fatter, but very happy. :D
As for Sheridan's graduation, it was good, but looong. It took quite a while for her school's faculty to read out nearly 500 names. Oh well, it was worth it.
So that was way cool to see... The rest of my time in Tennessee was spent roaming through Nashville. I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was way cool, and we also went to the Parthenon, which is aptly names, as it's a full-scale reproduction of the Greek Parthenon. It was way cool.
There were all these recreated busts and other art, and an amazing centerpiece, Athena.
She was pretty big.
So all in all, it was an awesome experience. I'd like to go back sometime...
So since then, I've been back in Pagosa. I went back to work at the store. This time around, I'm over in the produce department. It's not the most fun job in the whole world, but work is work, and I'm happy to have it.
Shortly after coming back I also attended my little sister's graduation. It was really good to watch her cross that stage. Now she's going off to college...just like me. It's so exciting! Even if she's going to CSU. :P
I also went camping with my Fort Collins friends. That's a whole different story though. I'll touch on that later.
Other outdoor adventures include hiking with Michael, something I plan to do more of soon.
But being home makes me realize that I do really miss all my Boulder friends.
Oh man. I can't wait to go back. Looking back, my freshman year of college was probably the the most fun, interesting, and difficult nine months of my life. Fun because I moved out of my parent's house and got to make my own rules. Interesting simply because of the people I met and the things I did. Hard for both the aforementioned reasons. I'm was really unsure about living on my own...leaving a structured life behind was really hard for me, and I kept fighting the urge to call and ask my parents for their approval before I did things. Moving on was difficult. I also had some stressful relationships that I had to deal with, but that was part of the experience. I'm glad, in retrospect, that a lot of the tough stuff that happened, happened. It has shaped me in ways that I'd never really expected, and it's a good thing.
Anyway, here's to all the people I met and the new friends I made in Boulder. I miss all of you guys soooo so much. Pat, D-Link, Katie, Michele, Taylor, Karl, Hannah, Chris, Adam, Jack, Kyle, Nick, Blackmon, Kevin A, Kevin B, McCoy, Mike...I lived with you guys for a nine whole months. It was awesome. I miss eating dinner with you guys. I miss all the parties and good times in the Bat Cave. Jack...I miss our outdoor adventures. Karl, I miss your yams. Mike, I miss your art. Gah. I miss all of it.
Sydney, Lissa and Meghan...you girls are wonderful. I look forward to a lot more good times with all of you. Sydney...wow. You showed me a lot of things about myself that I needed to see. And there's always Jimmy Corrigan. You know. :) And Lissa and Meggers. I still can't believe we're living together. It's amazing. It's gonna be an awesome time. I miss you two so much. You don't even know.
Ah. Sigh. Enough sappy stuff.
So. This coming weekend I'm taking a break from work and going to see Bassnectar in Flagstaff. I'm pumped. :) Here's a sample.
Simultaneous - Bassnectar
It's gonna be sooo fun. :D
The rest of the lineup looks like this:
CROWN CITY ROCKERS
ACEYALONE (WITH LIVE BAND - SLIPPERS)
BREAKESTRA
PIGEON JOHN
AFRO CLASSICS (FEAT. SCARUB & VERY)
THE GASLAMP KILLER
DRUNKEN IMMORTALS
DJ ELEMENT (B-BOY EXPO PROVIDED BY NBL)
CRUSHER SOUNDSYSTEM
FOOT SOLEJAHS
DJ TRICKY T
DJ SOE
DJ REFLEX
DJ TERRA (AKA XIAN 1)
So that's life lately.
I hope you all are well.
Now that I've had a month off, I'm back to three posts a week. Keep coming back for more.
With all the love my fingers can muster,
-Brad
This got the number one top viewed video on YouTube a few days ago. I wanted to puke.
P.S. A couple of you voted on the news. I'll try and do less from now on. Thanks for the input.
It's been a very long time since I've made a post. One month in fact. Since May 10th, 2009 I've done a lot of stuff...and I mean a lot.
The day of my last real post was Mother's Day. At that point I was out of school and had been hanging out Fort Collins for a few days. I participated in a massive BBQ with my friends Alaina, Emily, Kaeli and Laura...and I got to cook the meat. And being as we're all college kids, we bought really cheap burgers...like 25% fat content. What this means is I got to deal with a large grease fire. By the end of the two hour meat cook-off I had no arm hair left and the hair on my head (which at the time was really long) got terribly singed. Oh well. It was fun. Thanks to all of you for the good times. :)
The next day I spent some time with my Aunt Julie and Uncle Scott and caught a movie that evening, this time being X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I won't really go into all the tedious details, but I thought it was a pretty decent movie. My friend Emily came along and ever since has been imitating Deadpool's falling head into a nuclear reactor. It makes me smile. After the movie Emily, Alaina and I all went to Wendy's and got some frosties and hung out for a couple hours...it was a really good time. I want to go back soon and do it all again. :)
The following morning I hopped in the car and headed for DIA. This was a big day for me because up to that point, I had never flown. Now here I was getting ready to head out to Tennessee to see my long lost cousin, Sheridan.
Here's some background: Sheridan and I have known each other, or at least of each other since infancy, but we really never got to know each other as kids. The last time I had seen Sheridan was about 7 years ago at a funeral for our great grandmother, but because of modern technology (i.e. Facebook) we got back in touch. It started with short little IM chats, and eventually led to phone calls and texting. I even helped edit one of her school papers at one point. Essentially over time, we went from Facebook friends to best friends. :) I think there hasn't been one day since February that I haven't talked to her.
Anyway, this friendship led to me going flying out to Tennessee for her high school graduation. I must say, this experience was by far one of the most memorable for me to date. For one, I got to fly. That was really cool. I want to fly everywhere now. Screw cars. Secondly, I got to see my wonderful cousin. Thirdly, I got to meet a lot of new people, who I'm technically related to, but had never met before. The hospitality I was met with, not only from my Colorado family, namely Scott and Julie, but also the folks in Tennessee, nearly brought me to my knees. I was treated so well by everyone there. They all acted like I was one of their own, and it was overwhelming how much love I felt. It was one of the most touching experiences I've ever experienced. A big thanks to all of you: Julie, Scott, Sheridan, and all of the new family. :D
While in Tennessee it seems like all I did was eat. Eat eat eat eat eat. Lots of eating. I ate BBQ, southern fried cat fish, and a plethora of other things that made me fatter, but very happy. :D
As for Sheridan's graduation, it was good, but looong. It took quite a while for her school's faculty to read out nearly 500 names. Oh well, it was worth it.
So that was way cool to see... The rest of my time in Tennessee was spent roaming through Nashville. I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was way cool, and we also went to the Parthenon, which is aptly names, as it's a full-scale reproduction of the Greek Parthenon. It was way cool.
There were all these recreated busts and other art, and an amazing centerpiece, Athena.
She was pretty big.
So all in all, it was an awesome experience. I'd like to go back sometime...
So since then, I've been back in Pagosa. I went back to work at the store. This time around, I'm over in the produce department. It's not the most fun job in the whole world, but work is work, and I'm happy to have it.
Shortly after coming back I also attended my little sister's graduation. It was really good to watch her cross that stage. Now she's going off to college...just like me. It's so exciting! Even if she's going to CSU. :P
I also went camping with my Fort Collins friends. That's a whole different story though. I'll touch on that later.
Other outdoor adventures include hiking with Michael, something I plan to do more of soon.
But being home makes me realize that I do really miss all my Boulder friends.
Oh man. I can't wait to go back. Looking back, my freshman year of college was probably the the most fun, interesting, and difficult nine months of my life. Fun because I moved out of my parent's house and got to make my own rules. Interesting simply because of the people I met and the things I did. Hard for both the aforementioned reasons. I'm was really unsure about living on my own...leaving a structured life behind was really hard for me, and I kept fighting the urge to call and ask my parents for their approval before I did things. Moving on was difficult. I also had some stressful relationships that I had to deal with, but that was part of the experience. I'm glad, in retrospect, that a lot of the tough stuff that happened, happened. It has shaped me in ways that I'd never really expected, and it's a good thing.
Anyway, here's to all the people I met and the new friends I made in Boulder. I miss all of you guys soooo so much. Pat, D-Link, Katie, Michele, Taylor, Karl, Hannah, Chris, Adam, Jack, Kyle, Nick, Blackmon, Kevin A, Kevin B, McCoy, Mike...I lived with you guys for a nine whole months. It was awesome. I miss eating dinner with you guys. I miss all the parties and good times in the Bat Cave. Jack...I miss our outdoor adventures. Karl, I miss your yams. Mike, I miss your art. Gah. I miss all of it.
Sydney, Lissa and Meghan...you girls are wonderful. I look forward to a lot more good times with all of you. Sydney...wow. You showed me a lot of things about myself that I needed to see. And there's always Jimmy Corrigan. You know. :) And Lissa and Meggers. I still can't believe we're living together. It's amazing. It's gonna be an awesome time. I miss you two so much. You don't even know.
Ah. Sigh. Enough sappy stuff.
So. This coming weekend I'm taking a break from work and going to see Bassnectar in Flagstaff. I'm pumped. :) Here's a sample.
Simultaneous - Bassnectar
It's gonna be sooo fun. :D
The rest of the lineup looks like this:
CROWN CITY ROCKERS
ACEYALONE (WITH LIVE BAND - SLIPPERS)
BREAKESTRA
PIGEON JOHN
AFRO CLASSICS (FEAT. SCARUB & VERY)
THE GASLAMP KILLER
DRUNKEN IMMORTALS
DJ ELEMENT (B-BOY EXPO PROVIDED BY NBL)
CRUSHER SOUNDSYSTEM
FOOT SOLEJAHS
DJ TRICKY T
DJ SOE
DJ REFLEX
DJ TERRA (AKA XIAN 1)
So that's life lately.
I hope you all are well.
Now that I've had a month off, I'm back to three posts a week. Keep coming back for more.
With all the love my fingers can muster,
-Brad
This got the number one top viewed video on YouTube a few days ago. I wanted to puke.
P.S. A couple of you voted on the news. I'll try and do less from now on. Thanks for the input.
5.20.2009
Update
Hey all,
Life has been full and amazing lately.
I promise to fill you all in sometime soon.
Probably tomorrow.
I hope all is well.
-Brad
Life has been full and amazing lately.
I promise to fill you all in sometime soon.
Probably tomorrow.
I hope all is well.
-Brad
5.10.2009
Nice to meet you unborn alien brother, how's my driving?
Hey all,
I hope all of you are well on this fine Sunday afternoon.
Do you know what today is, by the way? It's Mother's Day!!!
Sadly, I'm not home to be with my mom. I'm a little bummed out on that one, but life goes on.
Anyway, I got to thinking...where did Mother's Day come from? What's the history behind it? So I did some research.
This is what I found:
Mother's Day was founded in 1907 by a woman named Anna M. Jarvis to honor her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She had to solicit to government officials and a lot of business men, but the idea caught on, and we now have the nationally celebrated holiday. The very first observance was a church service, and the day of the week has stuck since. World wide, the second Sunday of May is the most popular day to celebrate Mother's Day, although there is some slight variation.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you.
So go honor your mom, and leave me a comment about how you spent your Mother's Day.
Now, some news.
I have come across a few interesting stories...this first one concerns the great city of New York. It's common knowldge that in large places like Denver, or Albuquerque, or New York, there is a hefty amount of homeless people. To help out with this issue, a lot of big cities will set up homeless shelters. Well, it looks like New York City officials are going to start charging rent at homeless shelters. This decree will only affect those that actually make money, but at this point, it looks like they may be charged up to 50% of their income. Initially, I thought about this and decided it was a bad thing. Then I looked at it again and thought maybe it was an okay thing. I went back and forth, and now I have decided to ride the fence. On one side I can see that this could be a good deterent for those people that exploit the situation and bum a free night's sleep...it would keep the lines shorter for those that actually need a place to stay. On the other hand, if there are people staying at homeless shelters till they can get back on their feet, you know, save up some money so they can get an apartment and feed themselves and possibly a child, I think that they are being placed at a disadvantage by this proposal. It really reminded me of the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, staring Will Smith. For those of you who haven't seen it, the basic premise is this: We have a man who goes from entrepanuer to homeless in the blink of an eye. He sleeps in homeless shelters with his son till he gets back on his feet in the most inspiring sequence of events. It's an excellent film, and the fact that it's biographic shows that sometimes these things really happen. I just don't know what to think about this situation. More here.
Here's a trailer from the movie.
Okay. Enough sappy stuff.
Apparently there was a minivan stolen from a Sarasota, Florida water treatment plant a couple nights ago, and when the employees showed up the next morning they noticed it was missing. Okay that was a really dumb sentence, but I'm going to leave it. :)
Anyway, a few hours later, in Manatee county, someone spotted the minivan speeding around town, topping 100 MPH at one point, and said person decided to call the number on the "How's my driving?" sticker on the back. The driver was aprehended shortly thereafter and arrested. The minivan suffered no damage, and no one was hurt, but I find this story absolutley hilarious for two reasons: For one, who wants to go joy-riding in a minivan? Secondly, I think it's awesome that someone turned him in using the "How's my driving?" sticker. It just cracks me up. The whole story can be found here.
Lastly, I have a very strange story for you.
The man to the right is named Gavin Hyatt. He is an ex-firefighter turned plumber. He is 30 years old, and in very good health. He is one of the most average guys on the planet, but Gavin recently had something very rare and traumatic happen to him...he gave birth to his own twin brother.
How?
Well, it turns out that in the third or fourth week of his mother's pregnancy, his twin brother died in the womb. Gavin's own fetal body absorbed his brother's body, where it stayed for the next thirty years. Gavin had been examined by multiple doctors to see what the little lump in his abdomen was, and there were never conclusive reports. Most doctors thought it was a minor cist, or possibly a badly in-grown hair, and he was otherwise a very healthy man. One day on the job though, he began to suffer from intense abdominal pain, and before he knew it, there was something actually being forced out of his stomach. He drove himself straight to the hospital (what a tough dude) and was promplty treated. Medics thought it looked like something from the 1979 film Alien. They reported back that the growth was Gavin's parasitic twin (which I think is a terrible name by the way), his 4 centimeter identical brother. Needless to say, Gavin was stunned at this news.
Gavin now keeps his brother in a jar, and calls him "Little Gav." Of the experience he said, “Then one said it could be my undeveloped identical twin that I absorbed at a very early stage. I feel absolutely fine now but it has not sunk in yet that I could have had a twin brother. I have him in a jar at home and I call him little Gav. I haven’t told many people. I feel like a bit of a freak.”
Gavin's doctor had never seen anything like it before, but has announced that Gavin is in just fine condition. I say good for him. I don't know what I would do if I had a dead baby pop out of my abdomen one day at work. Mad props to you Gavin.
More here. Photo credit: The Sun
Now I present you with The Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 3:
The next morning came early. 4:30 AM in fact. We packed up camp, drove to the backcountry office and caught a bus over to the South Kaibab trail head. At this point it was just about 5:15. We filled up our Nalgene bottles and Camelbacks and after a quick picture, taken by a pair of very nice European women, we started off down the trail. At the moment, it felt like the adventure of a lifetime...a feeling that didn't go away anytime soon. The initial leg of our hike was a seven mile switchback laden drop into the main canyon. Going downhill never really appears strenuous, at least not till you do it for seven miles straight. About 4 miles in my quads were burning like someone had thrown them on a charcoal grill. You know, not a searing burn, but a slow, steady, constant one. Anyway, after we got to the bottom, it was 115 degrees outside. We stopped at Phantom Ranch and decided to grab some lunch, one thing that could have not been better at the moment.
After lunch time was over, we decided to scout out our options for the next leg of our journey. One option was to up-climb the box canyon on Phantom drainage. The other was to ascend to the Tonto layer, and manuever around the box canyon and drop back in at the top. We tried out the first option first...and about 6 steps into the scouting expidition, I fell into the creek. My camera was in my pocket. It was a sad time. Anyway, we got about a mile in and found a 40-some year old woman lying on a rock, tripping mushrooms. We talked to her for a bit, and met her son, who was also tripping. I became slightly afraid when she wouldn't let go of my arm and kept telling me I had "good energy." After a little more conversation, we scouted a bit longer and decided to take the other route, as this one would be pretty hard to do with full packs. We said goodbye to our tripping friends, and headed back to Phantom Ranch.
We took a nice nap which was a welcome change of pace, and decided to tackle what we thought was going to be the last 3-4 miles of our day. The initial ascent was a butt kicker. It was very similar to summitting a mountain top, if you know what I mean. It was at this point that I began to hike in my underwear and a bandanna. The heat was incredible. We soon came to a place called Piano Alley, which gets its name from the curious formation of all the rocks. You guessed it! They are all shaped like grand pianos. It's a really awesome sight...huge slabs of sandstone that have flaked off the canyon walls, all in one shape...one of those things that you have to see to understand.
We left Piano Alley after a brief snack and headed out across Utah Flats. This is a place where it's red, and flat, and apparently looks like Utah. Anyway, this is where we began to realize that all of the maps/park service literature that we had recieved was wrong about distances. We were supposed to be at our destination, but from what we could tell, we still had 5 miles to go. It was getting darker by the moment too...what a doozy. We walked and walked and walked. Then it actually got dark. We had no choice but to go on. (Oh yes, I forgot to mention, this is an unmarked route that pretty much no one takes. Just a side note there.) We had to break out the headlamps at one point, but then the slight excuse for a trail took a downhill turn. This had to be it.
The three of us started to scrabble down the slope. Running into prickly pear and agave plants, we could not stop. It was dark and unpredictable. After another hour or so, we could hear moving water. We knew we were in the right place. As I approached the edge of the creek, I looked down at my pedometer and was blown away by what it read - nearly 20 miles. It was also 11:00 PM. Needless to say, it had been a long day.
The rest is to come.
Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took.
Wow. This has taken me two hours to write. Goodness. I hope you like it. :)
Lastly, here is your YouTube entertainment for tonight.
Bye. Have fun. Don't die.
-Brad
I hope all of you are well on this fine Sunday afternoon.
Do you know what today is, by the way? It's Mother's Day!!!
Sadly, I'm not home to be with my mom. I'm a little bummed out on that one, but life goes on.
Anyway, I got to thinking...where did Mother's Day come from? What's the history behind it? So I did some research.
This is what I found:
Mother's Day was founded in 1907 by a woman named Anna M. Jarvis to honor her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She had to solicit to government officials and a lot of business men, but the idea caught on, and we now have the nationally celebrated holiday. The very first observance was a church service, and the day of the week has stuck since. World wide, the second Sunday of May is the most popular day to celebrate Mother's Day, although there is some slight variation.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you.
So go honor your mom, and leave me a comment about how you spent your Mother's Day.
Now, some news.
I have come across a few interesting stories...this first one concerns the great city of New York. It's common knowldge that in large places like Denver, or Albuquerque, or New York, there is a hefty amount of homeless people. To help out with this issue, a lot of big cities will set up homeless shelters. Well, it looks like New York City officials are going to start charging rent at homeless shelters. This decree will only affect those that actually make money, but at this point, it looks like they may be charged up to 50% of their income. Initially, I thought about this and decided it was a bad thing. Then I looked at it again and thought maybe it was an okay thing. I went back and forth, and now I have decided to ride the fence. On one side I can see that this could be a good deterent for those people that exploit the situation and bum a free night's sleep...it would keep the lines shorter for those that actually need a place to stay. On the other hand, if there are people staying at homeless shelters till they can get back on their feet, you know, save up some money so they can get an apartment and feed themselves and possibly a child, I think that they are being placed at a disadvantage by this proposal. It really reminded me of the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, staring Will Smith. For those of you who haven't seen it, the basic premise is this: We have a man who goes from entrepanuer to homeless in the blink of an eye. He sleeps in homeless shelters with his son till he gets back on his feet in the most inspiring sequence of events. It's an excellent film, and the fact that it's biographic shows that sometimes these things really happen. I just don't know what to think about this situation. More here.
Here's a trailer from the movie.
Okay. Enough sappy stuff.
Apparently there was a minivan stolen from a Sarasota, Florida water treatment plant a couple nights ago, and when the employees showed up the next morning they noticed it was missing. Okay that was a really dumb sentence, but I'm going to leave it. :)
Anyway, a few hours later, in Manatee county, someone spotted the minivan speeding around town, topping 100 MPH at one point, and said person decided to call the number on the "How's my driving?" sticker on the back. The driver was aprehended shortly thereafter and arrested. The minivan suffered no damage, and no one was hurt, but I find this story absolutley hilarious for two reasons: For one, who wants to go joy-riding in a minivan? Secondly, I think it's awesome that someone turned him in using the "How's my driving?" sticker. It just cracks me up. The whole story can be found here.
Lastly, I have a very strange story for you.
The man to the right is named Gavin Hyatt. He is an ex-firefighter turned plumber. He is 30 years old, and in very good health. He is one of the most average guys on the planet, but Gavin recently had something very rare and traumatic happen to him...he gave birth to his own twin brother.
How?
Well, it turns out that in the third or fourth week of his mother's pregnancy, his twin brother died in the womb. Gavin's own fetal body absorbed his brother's body, where it stayed for the next thirty years. Gavin had been examined by multiple doctors to see what the little lump in his abdomen was, and there were never conclusive reports. Most doctors thought it was a minor cist, or possibly a badly in-grown hair, and he was otherwise a very healthy man. One day on the job though, he began to suffer from intense abdominal pain, and before he knew it, there was something actually being forced out of his stomach. He drove himself straight to the hospital (what a tough dude) and was promplty treated. Medics thought it looked like something from the 1979 film Alien. They reported back that the growth was Gavin's parasitic twin (which I think is a terrible name by the way), his 4 centimeter identical brother. Needless to say, Gavin was stunned at this news.
Gavin now keeps his brother in a jar, and calls him "Little Gav." Of the experience he said, “Then one said it could be my undeveloped identical twin that I absorbed at a very early stage. I feel absolutely fine now but it has not sunk in yet that I could have had a twin brother. I have him in a jar at home and I call him little Gav. I haven’t told many people. I feel like a bit of a freak.”
Gavin's doctor had never seen anything like it before, but has announced that Gavin is in just fine condition. I say good for him. I don't know what I would do if I had a dead baby pop out of my abdomen one day at work. Mad props to you Gavin.
More here. Photo credit: The Sun
Now I present you with The Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 3:
The next morning came early. 4:30 AM in fact. We packed up camp, drove to the backcountry office and caught a bus over to the South Kaibab trail head. At this point it was just about 5:15. We filled up our Nalgene bottles and Camelbacks and after a quick picture, taken by a pair of very nice European women, we started off down the trail. At the moment, it felt like the adventure of a lifetime...a feeling that didn't go away anytime soon. The initial leg of our hike was a seven mile switchback laden drop into the main canyon. Going downhill never really appears strenuous, at least not till you do it for seven miles straight. About 4 miles in my quads were burning like someone had thrown them on a charcoal grill. You know, not a searing burn, but a slow, steady, constant one. Anyway, after we got to the bottom, it was 115 degrees outside. We stopped at Phantom Ranch and decided to grab some lunch, one thing that could have not been better at the moment.
After lunch time was over, we decided to scout out our options for the next leg of our journey. One option was to up-climb the box canyon on Phantom drainage. The other was to ascend to the Tonto layer, and manuever around the box canyon and drop back in at the top. We tried out the first option first...and about 6 steps into the scouting expidition, I fell into the creek. My camera was in my pocket. It was a sad time. Anyway, we got about a mile in and found a 40-some year old woman lying on a rock, tripping mushrooms. We talked to her for a bit, and met her son, who was also tripping. I became slightly afraid when she wouldn't let go of my arm and kept telling me I had "good energy." After a little more conversation, we scouted a bit longer and decided to take the other route, as this one would be pretty hard to do with full packs. We said goodbye to our tripping friends, and headed back to Phantom Ranch.
We took a nice nap which was a welcome change of pace, and decided to tackle what we thought was going to be the last 3-4 miles of our day. The initial ascent was a butt kicker. It was very similar to summitting a mountain top, if you know what I mean. It was at this point that I began to hike in my underwear and a bandanna. The heat was incredible. We soon came to a place called Piano Alley, which gets its name from the curious formation of all the rocks. You guessed it! They are all shaped like grand pianos. It's a really awesome sight...huge slabs of sandstone that have flaked off the canyon walls, all in one shape...one of those things that you have to see to understand.
We left Piano Alley after a brief snack and headed out across Utah Flats. This is a place where it's red, and flat, and apparently looks like Utah. Anyway, this is where we began to realize that all of the maps/park service literature that we had recieved was wrong about distances. We were supposed to be at our destination, but from what we could tell, we still had 5 miles to go. It was getting darker by the moment too...what a doozy. We walked and walked and walked. Then it actually got dark. We had no choice but to go on. (Oh yes, I forgot to mention, this is an unmarked route that pretty much no one takes. Just a side note there.) We had to break out the headlamps at one point, but then the slight excuse for a trail took a downhill turn. This had to be it.
The three of us started to scrabble down the slope. Running into prickly pear and agave plants, we could not stop. It was dark and unpredictable. After another hour or so, we could hear moving water. We knew we were in the right place. As I approached the edge of the creek, I looked down at my pedometer and was blown away by what it read - nearly 20 miles. It was also 11:00 PM. Needless to say, it had been a long day.
The rest is to come.
Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took.
Wow. This has taken me two hours to write. Goodness. I hope you like it. :)
Lastly, here is your YouTube entertainment for tonight.
Bye. Have fun. Don't die.
-Brad
Long time, no talk...
Hey all,
So, I haven't made a post in ten days. For that I apologize. I have been all over the place. Since we last spoke, being April 29th, 2009, I have done a number of things worth noting:
- Study for finals
- Took finals from Friday, May 1st till Tuesday, May 5th.
- Tuesday was hellish. I started with Spanish at 7:30 AM. I finished with
History at 10:00 PM. What a day.
- Moved our of my dorm on Wednesday, May 6th.
- Headed to Fort Collins to see some old high school pals.
- Now I am in Windsor for the night. What fun.
Anyway, after I got here today, I played with my cousin Jack for quite a while. He's 11 years old, and is just full of energy and pep. We played with sidewalk chalk, and some whiffle balls, and made paper airplanes and all sorts of fun things. It made me realize that I hadn't drawn on a sidewalk in nine or so years. But I fixed that.
That's life right now. This coming Thursday I'll be taking my first plane ride out to Tennessee to see my cousin Sheridan for her graduation. It should be a fun time. Speaking of which, you can read her blog here: http://littlebitathis.blogspot.com/
So, I don't feel like doing news tonight. I'll do it later today.
I'm going to sleep now.
Bye, have fun, don't die.
-Brad
So, I haven't made a post in ten days. For that I apologize. I have been all over the place. Since we last spoke, being April 29th, 2009, I have done a number of things worth noting:
- Study for finals
- Took finals from Friday, May 1st till Tuesday, May 5th.
- Tuesday was hellish. I started with Spanish at 7:30 AM. I finished with
History at 10:00 PM. What a day.
- Moved our of my dorm on Wednesday, May 6th.
- Headed to Fort Collins to see some old high school pals.
- Now I am in Windsor for the night. What fun.
Anyway, after I got here today, I played with my cousin Jack for quite a while. He's 11 years old, and is just full of energy and pep. We played with sidewalk chalk, and some whiffle balls, and made paper airplanes and all sorts of fun things. It made me realize that I hadn't drawn on a sidewalk in nine or so years. But I fixed that.
That's life right now. This coming Thursday I'll be taking my first plane ride out to Tennessee to see my cousin Sheridan for her graduation. It should be a fun time. Speaking of which, you can read her blog here: http://littlebitathis.blogspot.com/
So, I don't feel like doing news tonight. I'll do it later today.
I'm going to sleep now.
Bye, have fun, don't die.
-Brad
4.29.2009
Little Quickie...
Hey all,
So, my cousin Sheridan was telling me the other day that she's dissapointed in the fact that she can't have any real outdoor adventures where she lived. I suggested she start doing some parkour. Instead of explaining this, I'll just let you watch the video:
I just think this is one of the coolest urban sports ever. :D
Oh, and I love the artist, Rob Dougan, who did the song.
Here's another.
Anyway, I think I'm going to bed now. To close, here is some more YouTube entertainment. This guy is AMAZING with keyboards.
There will be a news update and more of the Grand Canyon Adventures soon.
Goodnight,
-Brad
So, my cousin Sheridan was telling me the other day that she's dissapointed in the fact that she can't have any real outdoor adventures where she lived. I suggested she start doing some parkour. Instead of explaining this, I'll just let you watch the video:
I just think this is one of the coolest urban sports ever. :D
Oh, and I love the artist, Rob Dougan, who did the song.
Here's another.
Anyway, I think I'm going to bed now. To close, here is some more YouTube entertainment. This guy is AMAZING with keyboards.
There will be a news update and more of the Grand Canyon Adventures soon.
Goodnight,
-Brad
My ears will never be the same...
Hey all,
Here is the much awaited update, etc.
Okay...my life lately has been busy busy busy. These past few weeks have been full of paper writing, studying, and as of late, packing. I really had no idea just how much stuff I crammed into this little dorm room. I stayed up till about 2:00 AM yesterday morning packing up all my non-essential clothes and stuff. Also, I have fallen a bit ill...I probably have swine flu, but you know, finals first.
Oh yes, I wanted to be sure to tell you about fruit golfing. I experienced it last week. My friends Jack, Adam, Nick, Kyle and I all smacked some fruit from the dining hall into the pond out front. It was really fun. I recommend it to anyone needing to alleviate stress. Oh, and in our case, the turtles really dig it. :D
Anyway, it's about 2:00 AM, and here I am blogging. I just got back from one of the most intense experiences of my life. I don't know if you know, but one of my passions is live music, and I went to a concert last night...the line-up of which was like this:
(I've included a 30 second clip of each band, just so you can get a feel for their style. If you would like to listen further, simply click the "click here to hear full song" link in the box.)
Municipal Waste
Substitute Creature - Municipal Waste
Unfortunately, we showed up a bit late and didn't see Municipal Waste, but I wasn't too disappointed. The artists I came to see were on later.
God Forbid
Antihero - God Forbid
God Forbid threw down a good set of songs, and I really enjoyed them.
Children Of Bodom
Hate Crew Deathroll - Children of Bodom
Children Of Bodom have been a long time favorite of mine. They are a Swedish Black Metal band, and their frontman, Alexi Laiho has been rated as one of the worlds best guitarists, and to many is the figurehead for metal guitar. We found out early in their set that Alexi had broken his shoulder while being drunk on the tour bus, but he played the whole show, solos and all. I was very impressed.
As I Lay Dying
94 Hours (live) - As I Lay Dying
The above song was As I Lay Dying's closer, and the first full song of theirs that I ever heard. I really enjoy this group a lot, with their blend of American Metal and a little bit of California punk vocals. The set they shared with us was intense, and it was then that I really started to mosh. For those of you who don't know what a circle pit is, let me explain. A circle pit is a group of crazy hyper metal head freaks running around in a giant circle, pushing, shoving, and punching, depending on the show. This particular circle pit probably involved a solid hundred people or so, and I only stayed in for a single lap. I got elbowed in the back of the head and poked in the eye a couple of times, so I decided to hang on the edge and push everyone else around.
Lamb of God
Now You've Got Something To Die For - Lamb of God
Lamb of God is one of my all-time favorite bands. A lot of people don't know it, but I went through a huge phase where all I listened to was metal. I was sort of obsessed. Since the end of my junior year of high school, I have expanded a lot, and I listen to a lot of underground hip hop and some alternative rock now, but my roots still lie in metal. Anyway, Lamb of God have been a part of my life for a long time, and it was a huge privilege to see them in the flesh. The above song is one that they played midway through their set, and is one of my favorites. I'm also very happy to report that Randy Blythe has his hair back. :)
Anyway, that was one of the most exciting things I've done in a long time, and I don't know if I'll be able to walk tomorrow after all that moshing, but it was well worth it; a very good break in pace before finals.
Okay, that's life lately...here is the Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 2:
After the oil changing fiasco, it was time to head out. We left bright and early and the weather was phenomenal; a perfect day for a drive. As we left Pagosa and got out on the open road, our attitudes took a dive. We began to notice that the car's automatic transmission would not shift any higher than fourth gear. After the tachometer got to about 4,000 RPM, the car would buck a little, and just stay in fourth gear. This was a bit of a problem, not to mention a huge irritation. It required hills and a lot of time to reach actual highway speeds in this current state, but what to do? We couldn't go back now.
We made a stop in Durango, CO, an hour away from Pagosa to buy stove fuel. Then it was off to Arizona. As we drove the mountain pass right outside Durango, it became increasingly evident that it was going to take us a very long time to get to where we wanted to be before the end of the day.
After we left Colorado, and all of it's cool airy-ness, we began to descend into the New Mexico/Arizona area. We decided with the current state of affairs that it would be bad to use the A/C, so we just toughed it out. I was in the backseat with the giant pile of gear next to and behind me, and I got very hot. Forrest didn't roll down the windows either, for the sake of aerodynamics, so I, being a large hairy male, got really sweaty. I ended up taking off all my clothes, short of my underwear and passing out. I think that Forrest got jealous of my slight comfort and whenever I would drift off into a nice, warm, peaceful nap, he would open all the windows and startle me awake. I got sort of angry at this, so I made extra sure that he knew just how much sweat I was tarnishing his interior with. It was quite the ride.
We drove like this for many hours out across the flats of Arizona, making a stop every now and then to use the restroom and buy a cold drink or a snack. We got to the Grand Canyon National Park at about 5:00 PM, about two hours behind schedule. Before finding that evening's camp site, we decided to visit the visitor center. By this point, I'd drank a lot of tea and/or Gatorade and quite frankly, I needed to pee. I had to run across and through the visitor center like a freak so as not to humiliate myself.
After our brief touristy visit, we found a good spot in a campground to stay the night. We set up our bedding under the stars and set the alarm for 4:30 AM.
To be continued in Chapter 3.
I'll talk to you soon!
-Brad
P.S. Here's your entertainment.
Here is the much awaited update, etc.
Okay...my life lately has been busy busy busy. These past few weeks have been full of paper writing, studying, and as of late, packing. I really had no idea just how much stuff I crammed into this little dorm room. I stayed up till about 2:00 AM yesterday morning packing up all my non-essential clothes and stuff. Also, I have fallen a bit ill...I probably have swine flu, but you know, finals first.
Oh yes, I wanted to be sure to tell you about fruit golfing. I experienced it last week. My friends Jack, Adam, Nick, Kyle and I all smacked some fruit from the dining hall into the pond out front. It was really fun. I recommend it to anyone needing to alleviate stress. Oh, and in our case, the turtles really dig it. :D
Anyway, it's about 2:00 AM, and here I am blogging. I just got back from one of the most intense experiences of my life. I don't know if you know, but one of my passions is live music, and I went to a concert last night...the line-up of which was like this:
(I've included a 30 second clip of each band, just so you can get a feel for their style. If you would like to listen further, simply click the "click here to hear full song" link in the box.)
Municipal Waste
Substitute Creature - Municipal Waste
Unfortunately, we showed up a bit late and didn't see Municipal Waste, but I wasn't too disappointed. The artists I came to see were on later.
God Forbid
Antihero - God Forbid
God Forbid threw down a good set of songs, and I really enjoyed them.
Children Of Bodom
Hate Crew Deathroll - Children of Bodom
Children Of Bodom have been a long time favorite of mine. They are a Swedish Black Metal band, and their frontman, Alexi Laiho has been rated as one of the worlds best guitarists, and to many is the figurehead for metal guitar. We found out early in their set that Alexi had broken his shoulder while being drunk on the tour bus, but he played the whole show, solos and all. I was very impressed.
As I Lay Dying
94 Hours (live) - As I Lay Dying
The above song was As I Lay Dying's closer, and the first full song of theirs that I ever heard. I really enjoy this group a lot, with their blend of American Metal and a little bit of California punk vocals. The set they shared with us was intense, and it was then that I really started to mosh. For those of you who don't know what a circle pit is, let me explain. A circle pit is a group of crazy hyper metal head freaks running around in a giant circle, pushing, shoving, and punching, depending on the show. This particular circle pit probably involved a solid hundred people or so, and I only stayed in for a single lap. I got elbowed in the back of the head and poked in the eye a couple of times, so I decided to hang on the edge and push everyone else around.
Lamb of God
Now You've Got Something To Die For - Lamb of God
Lamb of God is one of my all-time favorite bands. A lot of people don't know it, but I went through a huge phase where all I listened to was metal. I was sort of obsessed. Since the end of my junior year of high school, I have expanded a lot, and I listen to a lot of underground hip hop and some alternative rock now, but my roots still lie in metal. Anyway, Lamb of God have been a part of my life for a long time, and it was a huge privilege to see them in the flesh. The above song is one that they played midway through their set, and is one of my favorites. I'm also very happy to report that Randy Blythe has his hair back. :)
Anyway, that was one of the most exciting things I've done in a long time, and I don't know if I'll be able to walk tomorrow after all that moshing, but it was well worth it; a very good break in pace before finals.
Okay, that's life lately...here is the Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 2:
After the oil changing fiasco, it was time to head out. We left bright and early and the weather was phenomenal; a perfect day for a drive. As we left Pagosa and got out on the open road, our attitudes took a dive. We began to notice that the car's automatic transmission would not shift any higher than fourth gear. After the tachometer got to about 4,000 RPM, the car would buck a little, and just stay in fourth gear. This was a bit of a problem, not to mention a huge irritation. It required hills and a lot of time to reach actual highway speeds in this current state, but what to do? We couldn't go back now.
We made a stop in Durango, CO, an hour away from Pagosa to buy stove fuel. Then it was off to Arizona. As we drove the mountain pass right outside Durango, it became increasingly evident that it was going to take us a very long time to get to where we wanted to be before the end of the day.
After we left Colorado, and all of it's cool airy-ness, we began to descend into the New Mexico/Arizona area. We decided with the current state of affairs that it would be bad to use the A/C, so we just toughed it out. I was in the backseat with the giant pile of gear next to and behind me, and I got very hot. Forrest didn't roll down the windows either, for the sake of aerodynamics, so I, being a large hairy male, got really sweaty. I ended up taking off all my clothes, short of my underwear and passing out. I think that Forrest got jealous of my slight comfort and whenever I would drift off into a nice, warm, peaceful nap, he would open all the windows and startle me awake. I got sort of angry at this, so I made extra sure that he knew just how much sweat I was tarnishing his interior with. It was quite the ride.
We drove like this for many hours out across the flats of Arizona, making a stop every now and then to use the restroom and buy a cold drink or a snack. We got to the Grand Canyon National Park at about 5:00 PM, about two hours behind schedule. Before finding that evening's camp site, we decided to visit the visitor center. By this point, I'd drank a lot of tea and/or Gatorade and quite frankly, I needed to pee. I had to run across and through the visitor center like a freak so as not to humiliate myself.
After our brief touristy visit, we found a good spot in a campground to stay the night. We set up our bedding under the stars and set the alarm for 4:30 AM.
To be continued in Chapter 3.
I'll talk to you soon!
-Brad
P.S. Here's your entertainment.
4.26.2009
I am sick.
Hey all,
I will update you more on things, as promised, but till I feel like typing that much, I pose to you a question:
How crazy would a stampede of Furbies be?
As you may have inferred from the title, I have fallen ill. I have the beginnings of some sort of chest cold. Or it's really bad allergies. Anyway, I'll be able to tell soon...and in the meantime, I've been pounding back the EmergenC and Echinacea.
I'll update you more on things later today, when I'm not sleeping/studying for finals.
-Brad
I will update you more on things, as promised, but till I feel like typing that much, I pose to you a question:
How crazy would a stampede of Furbies be?
As you may have inferred from the title, I have fallen ill. I have the beginnings of some sort of chest cold. Or it's really bad allergies. Anyway, I'll be able to tell soon...and in the meantime, I've been pounding back the EmergenC and Echinacea.
I'll update you more on things later today, when I'm not sleeping/studying for finals.
-Brad
4.24.2009
Oh no, please President Obama, I implore, don't shut off my Internet!
Hey all,
So, I came across an interesting story recently concerning the internet. Being an avid user of the internet, this story struck me fairly hard. It seems that there is a bill working it's way through the house right now that woulde essentially allow government executives (mainly President Obama himeself) to turn off the internet at their (his) liking. I am not a fan of this proposal. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) issued a report called "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th President" in which they recommends the creation of the office of cybersecurity czar, called a National Cybersecurity Adviser, who will oversee national network security. "Thanks to the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, the cybersecurity czar will be advised by a panel stakeholders from government, private, academic, and nonprofit sectors, much like the signatories to CSIS’s report. Also under the longer bill, the President can order the disconnection of any federal or private critical infrastructure network during emergencies or for reasons of national security. “Critical infrastructure” could include the networks attached to financial, power, transportation, medical, communication or any other network deemed critical that could be the target of a cyber attack" (www.prowebnews.com).
Now, what does this mean for the average American internet user? This means that your internet banking can be shut off, your online hospital/medicare billing can be shut off, your bus schedules will be taken down, and you probably wont be able to email anyone. Well, that doesn't seem too bad at first glance, but think about this: If the government can shut the interent down, don't you think they can probably take a peek at what anyone in the United States is doing online at any given moment? Beyond that, don't you think that this power will be abused? It just screams, "Please congress! Please Mr. President! Abuse me!" Say...just hypothetically speaking, there was to be a mass uprising against the government, for reasons legitamate or otherwise, and the internet got shut down, how much communication would be cut off? Actuall phone services use the same technology that your computer does to communicate with other computers...so the potential for phone lines to go down is high as well. The government could essentially destroy a mass movement, which technically, is our right to perform as a people, should we see it fit. This is one of the most massive attempts to censor the American people that has ever been seen. The sad thing is, have you heard about it? I didn't think so. That should tell you something right there. More here.
Enough paranoia.
So...Chapter one of the Grand Canyon Adventure, just as promised.
Chapter one: Trusty Crusty
As you can probably infer, once upon a time, I went to the Grand Canyon. This particular occasion was my senior trip. My best friends, Chance and Forrest, and myself all decided to do a week long backbacking trip in that giant ditch in Arizona. Our story begins in Forrest's driveway. Since he volunteered to drive his beautiful car, a Subaru Forester named Trusty Crusty, on the adventure, I volunteered to pay for an oil change. I drove out to his house with all the oil changing amenities: oil, funnel, oil filter, rags, etc. We were out tinkering away when Forrest's dear old dad, Tony, decided to come out and "help." His helping in essence ended up with him taking the transmission filter off, draining the fluid out of the transmission, filling the oil pan up with the prescribed amount of motor oil and trying to start the car. Those of you who actually know what I just said will know already that the car didn't start, simply because there was no transmission fluid in the transmission. We couldn't figure out why the car wouldn't start for about an hour...and then it dawned on us: there were two filters under the car labled "oil filter." It didn't take long to figure out what had happened. Once we drained half the oil, essentially not changing it at all, but diluting it, and put more transmission oil back into the transmission, the car started once more. How joyous. We didn't know till the next morning just what the consequences of these actions actually were...
More to come in chapter 2, The Drive.
And now, here is an example of YouTube abuse.
Anywhoozer, I guess now that your are thoroughly disgusted it's time for a personal update.
Here is my life since my last post:
I wrote a lot of papers. I didn't sleep a lot. I got to the point where I decided I don't like college. Then I changed my mind. It was quite the week of ups and downs. If you can tell, I'm sick of typing. I'll fill you in more on my life tomorrow. In fact, that's all I'll talk about. I promise.
Here is the same YouTuber, again abusing YouTube, but this time it sort of reminds me of me. Enjoy.
Goodnight.
-Brad
So, I came across an interesting story recently concerning the internet. Being an avid user of the internet, this story struck me fairly hard. It seems that there is a bill working it's way through the house right now that woulde essentially allow government executives (mainly President Obama himeself) to turn off the internet at their (his) liking. I am not a fan of this proposal. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) issued a report called "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th President" in which they recommends the creation of the office of cybersecurity czar, called a National Cybersecurity Adviser, who will oversee national network security. "Thanks to the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, the cybersecurity czar will be advised by a panel stakeholders from government, private, academic, and nonprofit sectors, much like the signatories to CSIS’s report. Also under the longer bill, the President can order the disconnection of any federal or private critical infrastructure network during emergencies or for reasons of national security. “Critical infrastructure” could include the networks attached to financial, power, transportation, medical, communication or any other network deemed critical that could be the target of a cyber attack" (www.prowebnews.com).
Now, what does this mean for the average American internet user? This means that your internet banking can be shut off, your online hospital/medicare billing can be shut off, your bus schedules will be taken down, and you probably wont be able to email anyone. Well, that doesn't seem too bad at first glance, but think about this: If the government can shut the interent down, don't you think they can probably take a peek at what anyone in the United States is doing online at any given moment? Beyond that, don't you think that this power will be abused? It just screams, "Please congress! Please Mr. President! Abuse me!" Say...just hypothetically speaking, there was to be a mass uprising against the government, for reasons legitamate or otherwise, and the internet got shut down, how much communication would be cut off? Actuall phone services use the same technology that your computer does to communicate with other computers...so the potential for phone lines to go down is high as well. The government could essentially destroy a mass movement, which technically, is our right to perform as a people, should we see it fit. This is one of the most massive attempts to censor the American people that has ever been seen. The sad thing is, have you heard about it? I didn't think so. That should tell you something right there. More here.
Enough paranoia.
So...Chapter one of the Grand Canyon Adventure, just as promised.
Chapter one: Trusty Crusty
As you can probably infer, once upon a time, I went to the Grand Canyon. This particular occasion was my senior trip. My best friends, Chance and Forrest, and myself all decided to do a week long backbacking trip in that giant ditch in Arizona. Our story begins in Forrest's driveway. Since he volunteered to drive his beautiful car, a Subaru Forester named Trusty Crusty, on the adventure, I volunteered to pay for an oil change. I drove out to his house with all the oil changing amenities: oil, funnel, oil filter, rags, etc. We were out tinkering away when Forrest's dear old dad, Tony, decided to come out and "help." His helping in essence ended up with him taking the transmission filter off, draining the fluid out of the transmission, filling the oil pan up with the prescribed amount of motor oil and trying to start the car. Those of you who actually know what I just said will know already that the car didn't start, simply because there was no transmission fluid in the transmission. We couldn't figure out why the car wouldn't start for about an hour...and then it dawned on us: there were two filters under the car labled "oil filter." It didn't take long to figure out what had happened. Once we drained half the oil, essentially not changing it at all, but diluting it, and put more transmission oil back into the transmission, the car started once more. How joyous. We didn't know till the next morning just what the consequences of these actions actually were...
More to come in chapter 2, The Drive.
And now, here is an example of YouTube abuse.
Anywhoozer, I guess now that your are thoroughly disgusted it's time for a personal update.
Here is my life since my last post:
I wrote a lot of papers. I didn't sleep a lot. I got to the point where I decided I don't like college. Then I changed my mind. It was quite the week of ups and downs. If you can tell, I'm sick of typing. I'll fill you in more on my life tomorrow. In fact, that's all I'll talk about. I promise.
Here is the same YouTuber, again abusing YouTube, but this time it sort of reminds me of me. Enjoy.
Goodnight.
-Brad
Oy...
Hey all,
It's been too long. Far too long.
I've been trying to prepare my next post for over a week with no avail.
I promise I'll do it tonight.
I haven't even had time to keep up with Youtube. Which is pretty sad. Anyway, I'm not one to neglect my fans...So here's something fun for ya.
Anyway, int the next post you can find:
Some news.
Personal update.
Chapter one of the Grand Canyon adventure.
More Youtube.
Thanks for your patience and stuff. :D
-Brad
It's been too long. Far too long.
I've been trying to prepare my next post for over a week with no avail.
I promise I'll do it tonight.
I haven't even had time to keep up with Youtube. Which is pretty sad. Anyway, I'm not one to neglect my fans...So here's something fun for ya.
Anyway, int the next post you can find:
Some news.
Personal update.
Chapter one of the Grand Canyon adventure.
More Youtube.
Thanks for your patience and stuff. :D
-Brad
4.17.2009
ANGRY!
Hey all,
There is a poll over there on the right, just below that fun litle slideshow, for a reason.
It says, "Who are you?" at the top.
I would like to know who my reader demographic is.
I know that I don't have only 4 readers.
If that's all I have, 4 of you have viewed this blog repeatedly, over and over, until I somehow got upwards of 550 views. That's about 138 views for each of you. If you are doing this, you have no life.
Those of you who have not voted, please do.
After this polling period is over, I'm just taking the stupid thing down.
-Brad
There is a poll over there on the right, just below that fun litle slideshow, for a reason.
It says, "Who are you?" at the top.
I would like to know who my reader demographic is.
I know that I don't have only 4 readers.
If that's all I have, 4 of you have viewed this blog repeatedly, over and over, until I somehow got upwards of 550 views. That's about 138 views for each of you. If you are doing this, you have no life.
Those of you who have not voted, please do.
After this polling period is over, I'm just taking the stupid thing down.
-Brad
4.16.2009
Steam rollers, breasts, and Simon eating his words.
Hey all,
I'm just gonna dive right in.
First, please watch this. I almost started crying. Unfortunately, I can't embed it, so please click the link. Please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
For more on this amazing woman, click here.
Now, onto some news:
First, lets talk about drinking. Now, if you've had a few to many at the local brew pub and don't really want to walk home, what do you do? Call a cab? Grab a ride with a friend? Suck it up and stagger home? Some would say that these are all viable options, but not one man from Pflugerville, Texas. Last night, Pflugerville police found 32 year old Ronald Howell driving a steamroller home from the bar. The $180,000 Dynapac Vibrator Roller was sitting at a construction site, and I guess Ron got cold and felt like he needed to drive home instead of walking. The police report states that the vehicle was actually weaving in it's lane of traffic, and to worsen the danger, it was 4:00 AM, and the machine did not have any lights on. Ronald was arrested for drunk driving. I think that's funny enough by itself. I don't have anything else to say. More here.
Next, a more serious issue. Yesterday was April 15th. Not only is that my darling Grandma Margy's birthday, it is also the last day to file your federal income taxes. Now, I have many issues I could talk about here, including just how unconstitutional it is to impose income taxes and the fact that there is no statute saying you have to pay your taxes, but I would like to instead discuss the highly debated TEA parties that happened all over the country. TEA in this sense stands for Taxed Enough Already, and the movement was lead primarily by Republicans. Essentially the point that protesters wanted to get across is that the government is spending our hard earned income irresponsibly. I have a few friends that were bashing these demonstrations, and I would like to counter with a few points. First off: This is a prime example of freedom of speech. I don't care what they were protesting. Every citizen of the United States of America has the express right to peacefully demonstrate their own point of view, and I stand by this right. Censorship leads to ignorance and narrow mindedness. Even though you may think something is stupid, at least it motivated you to think, or at least form an opinion, a practice that seems to be disappearing. Secondly, If you take a peek at some of the spending that the White House has already done this year, you will see that the earmarks put into the budget are downright absurd. $160 million dollars went to farms in the Midwest to study the odor caused by pigs. Why did this show up in our spending budget? Especially when we are faced with a giant recession...that our President keeps promising to get us out of? I have the answer. It's about who you know. Lobbyists in Washington can manipulate their demographics, and work their own agendas into national matters. I don't think this is necessarily wrong, but I don't think pig odor research is as important as saving our country's ass. On the flip side, where do we draw the line? If we institute regulation on these matters, we are straying away from what it means to run a democracy. Anyway, before I get too off-topic, this is what I think: The people that got out there and tried to point out that our government is not spending money as wisely as it should be are doing what they should do. They are expressing their thoughts and feelings as every American should.
More here.
Okay, enough politics. I have some advice for all you ladies out there: Don't get breast or buttock implants anywhere but a licensed implant institute. That may seem like pretty obvious advice, but read on...A man was recently arrested in Spain for running a small side business out of his home. He had been using veterinary injection instruments to perform the aforementioned procedures for ultra cheap. His house was found to be filthy and inhabited by three dogs, a parrot, and two cats. He was only caught because one disgruntled customer submitted a complaint due to her sub-par breast enhancement. More here.
Last news story for tonight...I think this is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. I gave up all hope for humanity. Yesterday in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, a woman hit a teenage boy with her Honda. He was knocked onto the hood and windshield, and then the ground as she came to a stop. He didn't appear to be injured too badly, and the woman got out of the car. She then handed the boy a $5 dollar bill and told him not to tell on her. Then she drove away. Luckily, the kid wasn't stupid, and he called the police. He sustained minor back and knee injuries, and the Myrtle Creek police department is investigating the hit and run. More here.
Now, all I have to say is, "What were you thinking? You and the drunk steamroller guy! What is this?" I'm sorry that I report on stupid news stories like this, but I feel like sometimes it's better to acknowledge the idiots around us and learn from them to just ignore them. Oh well. I'm amused either way. :)
Okay. My life.
I declared an English major today. I'll let you know how that progresses.
I have started submitting some of my poetry, which can be found here to on online magazine called Illiterate Magazine. They are pretty cool. Check it out. I'm trying to get published. :)
And really, that's life at the moment. I have some new surprises coming soon for the blog, but you just have to wait. More on that later.
I love you all,
-Brad
P.S. Here is your entertainment for tonight.
I'm just gonna dive right in.
First, please watch this. I almost started crying. Unfortunately, I can't embed it, so please click the link. Please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
For more on this amazing woman, click here.
Now, onto some news:
First, lets talk about drinking. Now, if you've had a few to many at the local brew pub and don't really want to walk home, what do you do? Call a cab? Grab a ride with a friend? Suck it up and stagger home? Some would say that these are all viable options, but not one man from Pflugerville, Texas. Last night, Pflugerville police found 32 year old Ronald Howell driving a steamroller home from the bar. The $180,000 Dynapac Vibrator Roller was sitting at a construction site, and I guess Ron got cold and felt like he needed to drive home instead of walking. The police report states that the vehicle was actually weaving in it's lane of traffic, and to worsen the danger, it was 4:00 AM, and the machine did not have any lights on. Ronald was arrested for drunk driving. I think that's funny enough by itself. I don't have anything else to say. More here.
Next, a more serious issue. Yesterday was April 15th. Not only is that my darling Grandma Margy's birthday, it is also the last day to file your federal income taxes. Now, I have many issues I could talk about here, including just how unconstitutional it is to impose income taxes and the fact that there is no statute saying you have to pay your taxes, but I would like to instead discuss the highly debated TEA parties that happened all over the country. TEA in this sense stands for Taxed Enough Already, and the movement was lead primarily by Republicans. Essentially the point that protesters wanted to get across is that the government is spending our hard earned income irresponsibly. I have a few friends that were bashing these demonstrations, and I would like to counter with a few points. First off: This is a prime example of freedom of speech. I don't care what they were protesting. Every citizen of the United States of America has the express right to peacefully demonstrate their own point of view, and I stand by this right. Censorship leads to ignorance and narrow mindedness. Even though you may think something is stupid, at least it motivated you to think, or at least form an opinion, a practice that seems to be disappearing. Secondly, If you take a peek at some of the spending that the White House has already done this year, you will see that the earmarks put into the budget are downright absurd. $160 million dollars went to farms in the Midwest to study the odor caused by pigs. Why did this show up in our spending budget? Especially when we are faced with a giant recession...that our President keeps promising to get us out of? I have the answer. It's about who you know. Lobbyists in Washington can manipulate their demographics, and work their own agendas into national matters. I don't think this is necessarily wrong, but I don't think pig odor research is as important as saving our country's ass. On the flip side, where do we draw the line? If we institute regulation on these matters, we are straying away from what it means to run a democracy. Anyway, before I get too off-topic, this is what I think: The people that got out there and tried to point out that our government is not spending money as wisely as it should be are doing what they should do. They are expressing their thoughts and feelings as every American should.
More here.
Okay, enough politics. I have some advice for all you ladies out there: Don't get breast or buttock implants anywhere but a licensed implant institute. That may seem like pretty obvious advice, but read on...A man was recently arrested in Spain for running a small side business out of his home. He had been using veterinary injection instruments to perform the aforementioned procedures for ultra cheap. His house was found to be filthy and inhabited by three dogs, a parrot, and two cats. He was only caught because one disgruntled customer submitted a complaint due to her sub-par breast enhancement. More here.
Last news story for tonight...I think this is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. I gave up all hope for humanity. Yesterday in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, a woman hit a teenage boy with her Honda. He was knocked onto the hood and windshield, and then the ground as she came to a stop. He didn't appear to be injured too badly, and the woman got out of the car. She then handed the boy a $5 dollar bill and told him not to tell on her. Then she drove away. Luckily, the kid wasn't stupid, and he called the police. He sustained minor back and knee injuries, and the Myrtle Creek police department is investigating the hit and run. More here.
Now, all I have to say is, "What were you thinking? You and the drunk steamroller guy! What is this?" I'm sorry that I report on stupid news stories like this, but I feel like sometimes it's better to acknowledge the idiots around us and learn from them to just ignore them. Oh well. I'm amused either way. :)
Okay. My life.
I declared an English major today. I'll let you know how that progresses.
I have started submitting some of my poetry, which can be found here to on online magazine called Illiterate Magazine. They are pretty cool. Check it out. I'm trying to get published. :)
And really, that's life at the moment. I have some new surprises coming soon for the blog, but you just have to wait. More on that later.
I love you all,
-Brad
P.S. Here is your entertainment for tonight.
4.13.2009
Three Little Birds
Hey all,
Life has been very busy lately and I really haven't had much time to update you on things. First lets talk about some news!
First, I would like to relate a story to you about a certain consequence that came about due to the ban put in affect by President Obama against the use of torture at places like Guantanamo Bay to obtain information (holy cow that sentence is long and really confusing, but I'm not changing it). Essentially what has happened is PETA is looking to find a way to make this ban apply to animals. I quote: "Thousands of live animals are shot, stabbed, dismembered, burned, and poisoned every year in Department of Defense (DoD) training exercises designed to train medics and infantry in how to treat various human battlefield injuries. PETA is asking President Obama to issue an executive order requiring the DoD to replace animals with non-animal methods. These methods are readily available and already in use at several military installations. The non-animal methods include rotations in military trauma hospitals and the use of the DoD's own Combat Trauma Patient Simulator." Now, I understand that it is sort of inhumane to do these kinds of things to animals, but I must say that this is sort of a stretch. Most of the "testing" done on "live animals" in a military setting is actually done on dead pigs. They simulate human flesh very, very realistically. Anyway, that's not really the point. While it still remains true that there are animals used in military tests and they do usually die in somewhat cruel and unusual ways, but it is my personal opinion that its better for these tests to be done on animals than on humans. I mean, how would you feel if the US military was actively testing new weapons, such as, say...automatic grenade launchers, on humans? I think that's even more inhumane. PETA really wants you to write about to your congressman about how bad it is that goats and pigs are stabbed and monkeys are poisoned instead of humans in a polite, short, prewritten e-mail. If you feel like you would like to do that, please click here.
Next, I'd like to address a religious issue. It seems that a man in England has recently become dissatisfied with his baptism. John Hunt is a 56 year old resident of Croydon. He stopped believing in God at age 11 and stopped going to church. Now the atheist has asked the church to basically un-do his baptism on the grounds that the ceremony was not contestable by him in his infantile state, and he wants that pesky baptism thing off his chest. The church said that a baptism can't really be deleted because its a part of history...but the National Secular Society (NSS) shot back with a "de-baptism" certificate. It reads: "I reject all its creeds and other such superstitions in particular the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed of original sin." This form has now made it's round, and a lot of people have managed to get ahold of one...what a trend. More here.
Another amusing story I found involves a library in the Schaumburg Township District in Chicago. They are putting a ban on offensive odors. It's probably the most transparent attempt to eliminate homeless people from an establishment I've ever seen. Basically, it seems that there have been some people there that smell so badly that it has induced vomiting. I really doubt this fact, but anyway, the library is adding to its list of policies an ordinance on odor. I'd call that discrimination, especially in a public space, but hey, that's just me. More here.
My last news tid-bit involves the Finch Arboretum in Spokane, Washington. It seems that the place has recently been overrun by ground squirrels. The squirrels are known to dig tunnels that innocent folks can step into and fall down, as well as eat or damage tree roots. In response to this rising problem, the agency has brought in the big guns. A special machine called the Rodenator Pro is going to be used to "detonate" the squirrels. The Rodenator Pro works like this: it pumps the tunnels full of oxygen and propane and then sends in an electrical shock, igniting the gasses and killing the rodents. The residents living near the arboretum have been warned not to be alarmed if they hear sounds similar to gunshots or experience minor shaking or vibrations in or around their property. The company that makes and distributes the Rodenator is based out of Midvale, Ohio and claims on it's website that their product will take care of even the most serious problems, including but not limited to "Sabertoothed Gophers." You can find more here.
As for my personal news, I would like to recap my birthday events. As I recently mentioned, all of my friends up here threw me a little surprise party that even included a cake! It was a good time. Thank you all again! I also forgot to mention last time that while in Fort Collins, my Aunt Julie (who I call "aunt" here, but in reality she's my cousin) made me a batch of down-right fabulous cookies! I've eaten them all up by now, but they were wonderful down to the last bite.
As the week went on, I received quite a few birthday cards from the family. I decided to share them with you.
This first one, although a little odd was very funny. It came from my uncle Aaron and aunt Christina and their kids Samantha and Zoe. The gift that came with it was very very cool too, but I'm gonna come back to that in a later post. You'll see why.
This next one actually came with the aforementioned cookies, and is related to a previous post about my heritage. :) (please forgive me for the excess white space, the scanner was finicky...this is one of those cards that makes noise (toilet flushing), so the speaker got in the way a bit and didn't allow for smooth scanning)
This one came from my grandparents on my mom's side, Grandpa Harvey and Grandma Margy. :)
This one came from my other grandparents, Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Red. I love the Mercedes reference. :)
This one came from my Aunt Emily. :D
This one came from Emily's sister, Sheri, and her husband Jason, and their daughter Sarah. :) This one plays very serene music with chirpy birds.
This last one came from my parents. I love it. :)
Anyway, now that I've shared all those with you, this is the rest of my week....
Friday, I headed up to Denver to see my best buddy, Chance, and his girlfriend, Ginny, as well as a couple of other friends, Carolyn and Kelsey. Ginny baked me another cake, which was AWESOME! I think this is the only birthday that I've actually had two cakes. I was stoked. Needless to say, we had a good time. Thank you again Ginny for your hospitality. You are a wonderful girl, and I'm super duper excited Chance found you.
Saturday morning, well actually afternoon I guess, I caught I-25 up to Fort Collins to see some more friends. I had the opportunity to see my friends Cameron, Maddy, and Mike on campus at CSU, and we had an awesome time. After I left there, I headed over to my friend Alaina's house and got to meet her roommate, who she just happened to be having a dance party with in the kitchen. It was a fun time. We watched Fight Club and had wonderful angel food cake. So...here's a shout out to Alaina: THANK YOU SO MUCH! She even let me use her Wall-E pillow! I was super excited. :)
The following day was of course Easter! I went and saw some family, namely Aunt Julie, her husband, Scott and my little cousin Jake. We headed over to my cousin Mara's house and hung out and had lunch with more family and friends. More thanks goes to all my family, but especially to Julie and Scott, who I've really taken a liking to. Julie and I hadn't seen each other, at least not really, for a number of years, and I hadn't seen Scott in over 13. Its been really good to get to know them a little bit, and I hope to see them a lot more over the next few years.
After the Easter festivities, I headed back to Boulder. Yay for school!
Anyway, I think you all are up to speed by now.
There's only one thing left to do.
I have a really good friend out there, who also just happens to be my cousin. Her name is Sheridan, and she's Julie's daughter. I've recently had the privilege to get to know her as well, but it's just a wee-bit different: she lives in Tennessee. We got back in touch after about 7 years through good ol' Facebook, and now I don't go a day without talking to her. Right now she's going through that rough but wonderful time in life called "Graduation." She's all stressed about the ceremony, the family, and about college. Well, having lived through it, I'd like to dedicate this song to you Sheridan.
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Just remember: One foot in front of the other. Breathe...it's condusive to living. You're gonna come out of it just fine.
With that said, I think I'm gonna go to bed.
Goodnight,
-Brad
Life has been very busy lately and I really haven't had much time to update you on things. First lets talk about some news!
First, I would like to relate a story to you about a certain consequence that came about due to the ban put in affect by President Obama against the use of torture at places like Guantanamo Bay to obtain information (holy cow that sentence is long and really confusing, but I'm not changing it). Essentially what has happened is PETA is looking to find a way to make this ban apply to animals. I quote: "Thousands of live animals are shot, stabbed, dismembered, burned, and poisoned every year in Department of Defense (DoD) training exercises designed to train medics and infantry in how to treat various human battlefield injuries. PETA is asking President Obama to issue an executive order requiring the DoD to replace animals with non-animal methods. These methods are readily available and already in use at several military installations. The non-animal methods include rotations in military trauma hospitals and the use of the DoD's own Combat Trauma Patient Simulator." Now, I understand that it is sort of inhumane to do these kinds of things to animals, but I must say that this is sort of a stretch. Most of the "testing" done on "live animals" in a military setting is actually done on dead pigs. They simulate human flesh very, very realistically. Anyway, that's not really the point. While it still remains true that there are animals used in military tests and they do usually die in somewhat cruel and unusual ways, but it is my personal opinion that its better for these tests to be done on animals than on humans. I mean, how would you feel if the US military was actively testing new weapons, such as, say...automatic grenade launchers, on humans? I think that's even more inhumane. PETA really wants you to write about to your congressman about how bad it is that goats and pigs are stabbed and monkeys are poisoned instead of humans in a polite, short, prewritten e-mail. If you feel like you would like to do that, please click here.
Next, I'd like to address a religious issue. It seems that a man in England has recently become dissatisfied with his baptism. John Hunt is a 56 year old resident of Croydon. He stopped believing in God at age 11 and stopped going to church. Now the atheist has asked the church to basically un-do his baptism on the grounds that the ceremony was not contestable by him in his infantile state, and he wants that pesky baptism thing off his chest. The church said that a baptism can't really be deleted because its a part of history...but the National Secular Society (NSS) shot back with a "de-baptism" certificate. It reads: "I reject all its creeds and other such superstitions in particular the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed of original sin." This form has now made it's round, and a lot of people have managed to get ahold of one...what a trend. More here.
Another amusing story I found involves a library in the Schaumburg Township District in Chicago. They are putting a ban on offensive odors. It's probably the most transparent attempt to eliminate homeless people from an establishment I've ever seen. Basically, it seems that there have been some people there that smell so badly that it has induced vomiting. I really doubt this fact, but anyway, the library is adding to its list of policies an ordinance on odor. I'd call that discrimination, especially in a public space, but hey, that's just me. More here.
My last news tid-bit involves the Finch Arboretum in Spokane, Washington. It seems that the place has recently been overrun by ground squirrels. The squirrels are known to dig tunnels that innocent folks can step into and fall down, as well as eat or damage tree roots. In response to this rising problem, the agency has brought in the big guns. A special machine called the Rodenator Pro is going to be used to "detonate" the squirrels. The Rodenator Pro works like this: it pumps the tunnels full of oxygen and propane and then sends in an electrical shock, igniting the gasses and killing the rodents. The residents living near the arboretum have been warned not to be alarmed if they hear sounds similar to gunshots or experience minor shaking or vibrations in or around their property. The company that makes and distributes the Rodenator is based out of Midvale, Ohio and claims on it's website that their product will take care of even the most serious problems, including but not limited to "Sabertoothed Gophers." You can find more here.
As for my personal news, I would like to recap my birthday events. As I recently mentioned, all of my friends up here threw me a little surprise party that even included a cake! It was a good time. Thank you all again! I also forgot to mention last time that while in Fort Collins, my Aunt Julie (who I call "aunt" here, but in reality she's my cousin) made me a batch of down-right fabulous cookies! I've eaten them all up by now, but they were wonderful down to the last bite.
As the week went on, I received quite a few birthday cards from the family. I decided to share them with you.
This first one, although a little odd was very funny. It came from my uncle Aaron and aunt Christina and their kids Samantha and Zoe. The gift that came with it was very very cool too, but I'm gonna come back to that in a later post. You'll see why.
This next one actually came with the aforementioned cookies, and is related to a previous post about my heritage. :) (please forgive me for the excess white space, the scanner was finicky...this is one of those cards that makes noise (toilet flushing), so the speaker got in the way a bit and didn't allow for smooth scanning)
This one came from my grandparents on my mom's side, Grandpa Harvey and Grandma Margy. :)
This one came from my other grandparents, Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Red. I love the Mercedes reference. :)
This one came from my Aunt Emily. :D
This one came from Emily's sister, Sheri, and her husband Jason, and their daughter Sarah. :) This one plays very serene music with chirpy birds.
This last one came from my parents. I love it. :)
Anyway, now that I've shared all those with you, this is the rest of my week....
Friday, I headed up to Denver to see my best buddy, Chance, and his girlfriend, Ginny, as well as a couple of other friends, Carolyn and Kelsey. Ginny baked me another cake, which was AWESOME! I think this is the only birthday that I've actually had two cakes. I was stoked. Needless to say, we had a good time. Thank you again Ginny for your hospitality. You are a wonderful girl, and I'm super duper excited Chance found you.
Saturday morning, well actually afternoon I guess, I caught I-25 up to Fort Collins to see some more friends. I had the opportunity to see my friends Cameron, Maddy, and Mike on campus at CSU, and we had an awesome time. After I left there, I headed over to my friend Alaina's house and got to meet her roommate, who she just happened to be having a dance party with in the kitchen. It was a fun time. We watched Fight Club and had wonderful angel food cake. So...here's a shout out to Alaina: THANK YOU SO MUCH! She even let me use her Wall-E pillow! I was super excited. :)
The following day was of course Easter! I went and saw some family, namely Aunt Julie, her husband, Scott and my little cousin Jake. We headed over to my cousin Mara's house and hung out and had lunch with more family and friends. More thanks goes to all my family, but especially to Julie and Scott, who I've really taken a liking to. Julie and I hadn't seen each other, at least not really, for a number of years, and I hadn't seen Scott in over 13. Its been really good to get to know them a little bit, and I hope to see them a lot more over the next few years.
After the Easter festivities, I headed back to Boulder. Yay for school!
Anyway, I think you all are up to speed by now.
There's only one thing left to do.
I have a really good friend out there, who also just happens to be my cousin. Her name is Sheridan, and she's Julie's daughter. I've recently had the privilege to get to know her as well, but it's just a wee-bit different: she lives in Tennessee. We got back in touch after about 7 years through good ol' Facebook, and now I don't go a day without talking to her. Right now she's going through that rough but wonderful time in life called "Graduation." She's all stressed about the ceremony, the family, and about college. Well, having lived through it, I'd like to dedicate this song to you Sheridan.
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Just remember: One foot in front of the other. Breathe...it's condusive to living. You're gonna come out of it just fine.
With that said, I think I'm gonna go to bed.
Goodnight,
-Brad
4.10.2009
Sorry...
Hey all,
I just want you to know that I've been meaning to make a post for like a week now...but things have been very busy. I promise I'll give you an update soon.
:D
Thank you,
-Brad
I just want you to know that I've been meaning to make a post for like a week now...but things have been very busy. I promise I'll give you an update soon.
:D
Thank you,
-Brad
4.03.2009
Cake and Beetles...
Hey all,
First of all, I want you all to see this bug.
This bug is named Floggart II. He is the second beetle found in some desertous region that one of a nortorious trio (Forrest, Chance, or I) has named Floggart. The original one was found in the Grand Canyon in a place called Sumner Wash. The aforementioned trio was tired and hungry and in need of a good nights sleep when they stumbled upon a small beetle burrowing in the sand. Even though he was small, he was mighty and thriving in the harsh desert. The trio named him Floggart the Destroyer as they watched him quickly scurry about and then dissapear into the warm sandy bottom of the wash. They never saw him again, but they will always remember his efforts. As they hiked out of the canyon in the next days, one of the boys seemed to be hiking harder and faster than the rest, thus earning him the nick name of Floggart the Destroyer, this time as a human.
I hearby dedicate this edition of my blog to all the Floggarts out there...whether you work hard in school, at your job, or just strive to do your best at whatever you do. You see, here are countless men and women out there who do amazing things everyday...and we never give them the respect the deserve, just like this little beetle out in the desert. There are people out there across the ocean fighting for causes that are so diluted that no one is sure what's going on, but they stick to it. There are people out there working through the night to keep your lights on and your home secure. There are people out there that work all day at jobs that no one would want, but have to be done nonetheless - trash collectors, street sweepers, night stockers at the supermarket. They all work to make everyone's life a little easier and more enjoyable, and I don't think they get nearly enough credit.
That being said, I'd like to share a story of a man who has lived up to his potential, even at 97 years old.
George Moyse, of Great Britain is believed to be the worlds oldest person to complete a 120 mph skydive at 10,000 ft. Mr. Moyse will be turning 98 on Wednesday. Even at his age he says, "I do not sit around, I get about, I go for a walk every day and I do my own cooking, washing, ironing, everything. I have just been lucky to be so agile." This is an awesome attitude for anyone in my opinion, especially someone that has lived nearly a century. He did the jump to raise money for charity and ended up liking it very much. He claims that he wasn't in the least bit scared and has decided to do another jump for his 100th birthday. I think this just goes to show that life is what you make it.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSrL4YrIWv8
Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7983045.stm
I for one can't even imagine living such a long life, let alone be able to provide for myself at that age, let alone skydive. Actually, I can't imagine skydiving period. I really want to do it someday though. :D
Now for some depressing news.
Recently in Magnolia, AK, a woman started a brawl at a funeral service when another attendee allegedly walked in carrying a can of beer. Anna Sindelar, who is 52 years old, and Cynthia Hall, 46, are facing third-degree assault and battery charges after Sindelar marched into the service as mentioned above and refused to leave. She then supposedly grabbed a mans face, leaving bloody scratches, and Hall, who apparently was the man's mother, slapped her. Hall then went on to kick another woman in the chest. The police report ironically claims that Ms. Sindelar became very passive aggressive and said, "no backwood country cop" was going to take her to jail.
More here.
In other news, I went to Windsor this weekend to see my family. My mom and sister and brother were in the area looking at colleges and stuff. (My sister is probably going to go CSU. Grr.) I also got to go birthday shopping with my mom, which was waaaay cool. I got a lifetime membership to REI as well as a new camp stove and a compact rain jacket. I'm pretty stoked. :) Click here to see my new stuff: Stove, Jacket.
I got back here today and got settled in...went to dinner...and then my friends threw me a surprise birthday party!!! It was so exciting!!! My friend Katie made me a cake!!! It was sooo good!!! I'm putting exclamation points on everything!!! Exclamation points!!! WOO HOO!!!
Okay. Enough of that.
Anyway, I don't really have much more to report for now.
But I have one other question...Do any of you want to hear the rest of the Grand Canyon story? Leave me comment and let me know.
I love you all...
-Brad
First of all, I want you all to see this bug.
This bug is named Floggart II. He is the second beetle found in some desertous region that one of a nortorious trio (Forrest, Chance, or I) has named Floggart. The original one was found in the Grand Canyon in a place called Sumner Wash. The aforementioned trio was tired and hungry and in need of a good nights sleep when they stumbled upon a small beetle burrowing in the sand. Even though he was small, he was mighty and thriving in the harsh desert. The trio named him Floggart the Destroyer as they watched him quickly scurry about and then dissapear into the warm sandy bottom of the wash. They never saw him again, but they will always remember his efforts. As they hiked out of the canyon in the next days, one of the boys seemed to be hiking harder and faster than the rest, thus earning him the nick name of Floggart the Destroyer, this time as a human.
I hearby dedicate this edition of my blog to all the Floggarts out there...whether you work hard in school, at your job, or just strive to do your best at whatever you do. You see, here are countless men and women out there who do amazing things everyday...and we never give them the respect the deserve, just like this little beetle out in the desert. There are people out there across the ocean fighting for causes that are so diluted that no one is sure what's going on, but they stick to it. There are people out there working through the night to keep your lights on and your home secure. There are people out there that work all day at jobs that no one would want, but have to be done nonetheless - trash collectors, street sweepers, night stockers at the supermarket. They all work to make everyone's life a little easier and more enjoyable, and I don't think they get nearly enough credit.
That being said, I'd like to share a story of a man who has lived up to his potential, even at 97 years old.
George Moyse, of Great Britain is believed to be the worlds oldest person to complete a 120 mph skydive at 10,000 ft. Mr. Moyse will be turning 98 on Wednesday. Even at his age he says, "I do not sit around, I get about, I go for a walk every day and I do my own cooking, washing, ironing, everything. I have just been lucky to be so agile." This is an awesome attitude for anyone in my opinion, especially someone that has lived nearly a century. He did the jump to raise money for charity and ended up liking it very much. He claims that he wasn't in the least bit scared and has decided to do another jump for his 100th birthday. I think this just goes to show that life is what you make it.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSrL4YrIWv8
Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7983045.stm
I for one can't even imagine living such a long life, let alone be able to provide for myself at that age, let alone skydive. Actually, I can't imagine skydiving period. I really want to do it someday though. :D
Now for some depressing news.
Recently in Magnolia, AK, a woman started a brawl at a funeral service when another attendee allegedly walked in carrying a can of beer. Anna Sindelar, who is 52 years old, and Cynthia Hall, 46, are facing third-degree assault and battery charges after Sindelar marched into the service as mentioned above and refused to leave. She then supposedly grabbed a mans face, leaving bloody scratches, and Hall, who apparently was the man's mother, slapped her. Hall then went on to kick another woman in the chest. The police report ironically claims that Ms. Sindelar became very passive aggressive and said, "no backwood country cop" was going to take her to jail.
More here.
In other news, I went to Windsor this weekend to see my family. My mom and sister and brother were in the area looking at colleges and stuff. (My sister is probably going to go CSU. Grr.) I also got to go birthday shopping with my mom, which was waaaay cool. I got a lifetime membership to REI as well as a new camp stove and a compact rain jacket. I'm pretty stoked. :) Click here to see my new stuff: Stove, Jacket.
I got back here today and got settled in...went to dinner...and then my friends threw me a surprise birthday party!!! It was so exciting!!! My friend Katie made me a cake!!! It was sooo good!!! I'm putting exclamation points on everything!!! Exclamation points!!! WOO HOO!!!
Okay. Enough of that.
Anyway, I don't really have much more to report for now.
But I have one other question...Do any of you want to hear the rest of the Grand Canyon story? Leave me comment and let me know.
I love you all...
-Brad
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