So goodbye, blog world, at least for now. Thanks for the good times.
Labels: thoughts
Sunday, August 01, 2010
done.
I think I'm done blogging. I've been trying to make myself post, because lots of crazy fun stuff has happened. At this point I have posts on my to-do list including: the camp boat race, karaoke... four times, heaps of running, a trip to LA, etc. The thing is, I'd rather keep doing fun stuff than sit around writing about it in front of my computer. There are just too many hikes to hike and songs to sing and friends to laugh with.
So goodbye, blog world, at least for now. Thanks for the good times.
So goodbye, blog world, at least for now. Thanks for the good times.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
This is how I feel right now
In case the link continues to misfire, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg
Labels: videos
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Geocaching Redux: Fun times and epic failures
Now that camp is over, those of us who live here in town decided we should try our hand at geocaching in the real world. My buddies Casey and Fletcher and I decided to go out hunting this week, but then Casey decided to have croup or something instead. Lame, Casey! (kidding, feel better!) Fletcher and I did what any good friends would do and went without her.
We grabbed some coffee and headed for my digs, where we logged onto the website to find some new treasures to seek. The idea was to target one area and look for three separate ones. Then even as bad at this as we are, we'd have to find at least one, right?
The first one was my favorite, because it included a puzzle. To get the coordinates for the cache, you had to decipher up through row 15 of a code:
Before I could even start the wheels turning, Fletcher had things all figured out. The Morris Sequence! You people and your left brains... Anyway, from there we counted how many of each number was in each row and plugged that into given equations, and the equations gave us the numbers for the GPS coordinates. Very cool! We Googled our findings and they gave us an actual spot in the right area-- whew!
We came up with two simpler caches to seek after that and then went about figuring out what treasure to take along for any exchanges we needed to make. Luckily I found a laser pointer shaped like a mouse that was meant for my cat. She just looks at my hand and makes a why-the-crap-are-you-waving-that-around face when I try to get her to play with it, though, so it was perfect.
Also, the laser pointer mouse makes a variety of exciting shapes. Who wouldn't be happy to find this!
After a decent trek, we came to the spot we'd puzzled out. The final clue was "magnetic." We searched all over and came up with freakin' nothing, like most of the other times we've geocached. This would make sense when we'd return home later and check our answer on another website-- wrong coordinates, dudes! We'll have to try this again.
I started to get that feeling I get when I need to eat right now or I'm going to get moody, so we stopped in at a neighborhood pub and got food. I was trying to take a picture of Fletcher's beer when the waitress asked if we wanted her to take our picture. I kind of hate being in posed pictures, but we said sure and she snapped this. Cheers to good friends and good eats! (We did eat, the food just hadn't come yet...)
Next we made the trek to Two Plum Park, a little one block greenspace that I didn't know existed. This place is super cute! It even has swings, and it's always good to know lots of fun places in town that you can swing.
Armed with my GPS, we figured this would be simple to find if we just dug through the foliage. We slowly crept toward the exact coordinates and saw a bush in just the right place. And the bush was full of... poo. Oh, cruel fate! Replacing our treasure with a dog turd.
My GPS can be a little fickle though, and it also liked this tree. I even got in the damn tree, but we found nothing. Again.
And location number three? We ran out of time and didn't make it there. But soon we will get a recuperated Casey and we will FIND SOME STUFF. Mark my words.
Even amid our total failure, it was a great day of walking and chatting in the sun. And as a side note, later that day I went out with my friend Jen and gave her the mouse. She loves the mouse!
Geocaching and friends FTW!
We grabbed some coffee and headed for my digs, where we logged onto the website to find some new treasures to seek. The idea was to target one area and look for three separate ones. Then even as bad at this as we are, we'd have to find at least one, right?
The first one was my favorite, because it included a puzzle. To get the coordinates for the cache, you had to decipher up through row 15 of a code:
1
11
21
1211
111221
...etc.
Fletcher solving life's mysteries
Before I could even start the wheels turning, Fletcher had things all figured out. The Morris Sequence! You people and your left brains... Anyway, from there we counted how many of each number was in each row and plugged that into given equations, and the equations gave us the numbers for the GPS coordinates. Very cool! We Googled our findings and they gave us an actual spot in the right area-- whew!
We came up with two simpler caches to seek after that and then went about figuring out what treasure to take along for any exchanges we needed to make. Luckily I found a laser pointer shaped like a mouse that was meant for my cat. She just looks at my hand and makes a why-the-crap-are-you-waving-that-around face when I try to get her to play with it, though, so it was perfect.
Sideways picture of awesome mouse laser pointer!
Also, the laser pointer mouse makes a variety of exciting shapes. Who wouldn't be happy to find this!
This is only one step down from Laser Floyd
After a decent trek, we came to the spot we'd puzzled out. The final clue was "magnetic." We searched all over and came up with freakin' nothing, like most of the other times we've geocached. This would make sense when we'd return home later and check our answer on another website-- wrong coordinates, dudes! We'll have to try this again.
The place where cache #1 definitely isn't
I started to get that feeling I get when I need to eat right now or I'm going to get moody, so we stopped in at a neighborhood pub and got food. I was trying to take a picture of Fletcher's beer when the waitress asked if we wanted her to take our picture. I kind of hate being in posed pictures, but we said sure and she snapped this. Cheers to good friends and good eats! (We did eat, the food just hadn't come yet...)
Yay fun!
Next we made the trek to Two Plum Park, a little one block greenspace that I didn't know existed. This place is super cute! It even has swings, and it's always good to know lots of fun places in town that you can swing.
Armed with my GPS, we figured this would be simple to find if we just dug through the foliage. We slowly crept toward the exact coordinates and saw a bush in just the right place. And the bush was full of... poo. Oh, cruel fate! Replacing our treasure with a dog turd.
There should be a log to sign, not dung.
My GPS can be a little fickle though, and it also liked this tree. I even got in the damn tree, but we found nothing. Again.
Cool tree, where we didn't find cache #2
And location number three? We ran out of time and didn't make it there. But soon we will get a recuperated Casey and we will FIND SOME STUFF. Mark my words.
Even amid our total failure, it was a great day of walking and chatting in the sun. And as a side note, later that day I went out with my friend Jen and gave her the mouse. She loves the mouse!
Geocaching and friends FTW!
Labels: geocaching
Friday, July 16, 2010
Death by caffeine
I've developed a bit of a coffee addiction of late. It's just so darn delicious, and it makes life so much better!
I am, however, very sensitive to caffeine, and I've had jittery hands quite a bit the past few days, along with some nasty afternoon energy dips. I've often wondered how many cups it would take for my heart to actually explode. My guess was twelve, but this awesome website tells me differently:
73.65 cups of brewed coffee + me = death. Also interesting? My very favorite thing ever, Espresso Love flavored GU, is an even slower path to destruction. I can pound these babies until the cows come home!
More fun facts:
I am, however, very sensitive to caffeine, and I've had jittery hands quite a bit the past few days, along with some nasty afternoon energy dips. I've often wondered how many cups it would take for my heart to actually explode. My guess was twelve, but this awesome website tells me differently:
73.65 cups of brewed coffee + me = death. Also interesting? My very favorite thing ever, Espresso Love flavored GU, is an even slower path to destruction. I can pound these babies until the cows come home!
More fun facts:
- I enjoy that the button says "Kill Me."
- It would take 79.17 doses of No-Doz for me to leave this mortal coil, meaning Jesse Spano on Saved by the Bell was really in no danger at all.
- One of the most lethal drinks I found is called "Who's Your Daddy."
- I just realized that I have inadvertently told the world how much I weigh in the above screenshots, and now I'm too lazy to blur it out.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Attempts at geocaching
I had been trying for a few weeks to figure out what would make a new fun, flexible, inexpensive hobby. Then band camp came along and the perfect pursuit fell right into my lap: geocaching!
For those unfamiliar with the practice, it's like a treasure hunt where you get GPS coordinates and a riddle. Then when you find the treasure, it's not gold but a log to sign. On larger caches you might find a trinket to take, and you leave a trinket of your own behind.
Geocaching is an ideal undertaking because it's convenient, free, and very exciting when you find something. To get started all you do is register on geocaching.com, and you can search by location for caches nearby. I was shocked by just how many there are out and about. Also shocking? How totally bad I am at finding them.
Casey, Fletcher, John, Jamecyn and I first went hunting after an outing at the local pub, when it was terribly dark outside and the only thing we had to guide us was Casey's iPhone app, which was not the fastest tool in the world. The cache was hidden in the botanical garden on campus, so we dug around in the shrubberies for a long time and found... nothing. (I did, however, begin heading down the path of total mosquito bite misery that evening.) With no first glory under our belts, we vowed to return when the sun was out.
Upon returning, John diligently searched under every rock in and around the waterfalls, but we once again came up empty handed. It didn't help that the person who planted it and wrote the online riddle had horrible grammar and capitalization, but it did make him an easy target for our blame and disillusionment. We knew we were right there, but the little bugger wouldn't show itself.
A third search was similarly fruitless, but in-between we did manage to find our first cache jammed in a post outside the train station. Woohoo! We also failed again at finding one on a bridge near the hospital. Our average was a little sad...
Right before the final campfire of our two weeks, we saw an hour window to go find another cache, so we headed a few blocks north to our second dose of success! John, who had previously joked about being a jinx, was the happiest of the bunch, and after we signed the log we let him keep the little toy car we retrieved from a bush as our pirates' booty.
Now that camp's over and I'm home, my friend Fletcher and I have already been out once more. Stay tuned for another story of totally fun failure at geocaching!
For those unfamiliar with the practice, it's like a treasure hunt where you get GPS coordinates and a riddle. Then when you find the treasure, it's not gold but a log to sign. On larger caches you might find a trinket to take, and you leave a trinket of your own behind.
Geocaching is an ideal undertaking because it's convenient, free, and very exciting when you find something. To get started all you do is register on geocaching.com, and you can search by location for caches nearby. I was shocked by just how many there are out and about. Also shocking? How totally bad I am at finding them.
Casey, Fletcher, John, Jamecyn and I first went hunting after an outing at the local pub, when it was terribly dark outside and the only thing we had to guide us was Casey's iPhone app, which was not the fastest tool in the world. The cache was hidden in the botanical garden on campus, so we dug around in the shrubberies for a long time and found... nothing. (I did, however, begin heading down the path of total mosquito bite misery that evening.) With no first glory under our belts, we vowed to return when the sun was out.
Botanical garden by day
Upon returning, John diligently searched under every rock in and around the waterfalls, but we once again came up empty handed. It didn't help that the person who planted it and wrote the online riddle had horrible grammar and capitalization, but it did make him an easy target for our blame and disillusionment. We knew we were right there, but the little bugger wouldn't show itself.
John literally left no stone unturned.
A third search was similarly fruitless, but in-between we did manage to find our first cache jammed in a post outside the train station. Woohoo! We also failed again at finding one on a bridge near the hospital. Our average was a little sad...
Casey expresses her amusement and disbelief at our ineptitude.
Right before the final campfire of our two weeks, we saw an hour window to go find another cache, so we headed a few blocks north to our second dose of success! John, who had previously joked about being a jinx, was the happiest of the bunch, and after we signed the log we let him keep the little toy car we retrieved from a bush as our pirates' booty.
Happy John!
Now that camp's over and I'm home, my friend Fletcher and I have already been out once more. Stay tuned for another story of totally fun failure at geocaching!
Labels: band camp, geocaching
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Healthy Living Update 7-13-10
Band camp healthy living: Weak but totally fun, consisting of sporadic running, boat race upper body straining, excessive beer intake, very little sleep
Today, however: Ran seven hilly miles in exactly 60 minutes (in FiveFingers)
Smoothie: Banana, blueberry, pineapple, cinnamon, vanilla protein powder, orange-flavored cod liver oil, chia seeds
Weather: Perfect: 72 and sunny with a light breeze and warm sun
Sweat Rorschach of the Day: Sweating is for sissies.
Current listening: Salsa!
Other activities of the day: Caught up on all of my band camp backlog, bought delicious groceries, ate fresh blueberries, organized my life, watched Days of Our Lives
Status: Completely and utterly blissful
Today, however: Ran seven hilly miles in exactly 60 minutes (in FiveFingers)
Smoothie: Banana, blueberry, pineapple, cinnamon, vanilla protein powder, orange-flavored cod liver oil, chia seeds
Weather: Perfect: 72 and sunny with a light breeze and warm sun
Sweat Rorschach of the Day: Sweating is for sissies.
Current listening: Salsa!
Other activities of the day: Caught up on all of my band camp backlog, bought delicious groceries, ate fresh blueberries, organized my life, watched Days of Our Lives
Status: Completely and utterly blissful
Labels: healthy living updates