I posted some photos from my trip on my flickr account HERE.
I'll try to give everyone a detailed recap here at some point in the near future, but I've got a ton of things to do around my apartment. AND catch up on sleep.
For the time being...
Tuesday: Sightsee around Denver. Drank some Fat Tires.
Wednesday: Copper Mountain. Sunny day, hard snow.
Thursday: Vail. 12" of snow. We skipped lunch to ski all day, and hit alot of the acclaimed backside bowls & basin, but missed at least half of the mountain without skiing the same run twice.
Friday: Winterpark. Some overnight powder, nice day, some wild tree skiing.
Saturday: Rest. Coors brewery, Red Rocks, Gentleman's Club.
Sunday: Breckenridge. 12" blizzard. Cold, but perfect snow. Nail biting 5 hour drive to the airport to catch my flight. Got home around 1:30am.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Colorado
The plane landed safely and Brian & I are now in Denver. I took some sweet photos of the sunrise from the airplane. It was above the clouds, so few of us were able to appreciate it.
Today, we relax, check out the city, and get ready.
Tomorrow: Copper Mountain
Thursday: Vail
Friday: Winterpark
Saturday: ???? Relax, Sightsee.
Sunday: ????Decide on a mountain, ski, Fly home.
Monday: LOTS OF COFFEE AT WORK.
Today, we relax, check out the city, and get ready.
Tomorrow: Copper Mountain
Thursday: Vail
Friday: Winterpark
Saturday: ???? Relax, Sightsee.
Sunday: ????Decide on a mountain, ski, Fly home.
Monday: LOTS OF COFFEE AT WORK.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Good News. Bad News. Sort of.
I saw my asthma doctor today, who told me to come back in a year. This is ground breaking, because I've always had semi-annual visits. Turns out this year has improved my asthma far beyond what it's ever been.
My lungs still also have about 50 percent greater capacity than normal people's lungs. This explains my ability to outrun, outswim, outbike, & outsex non-asthmatics. In the past, my doctor has repetatively told me "you have a V12 underneath your ribs that usually runs on 8 cylinders." I suppose this is a decent genetic consolation given the fact I didn't grow up to be tall. Although I've also wondered that this might be product of my years of competative swimming...(being used to being out of breath is also probably a factor)
He did note, however, that one of my medicines --when used alone-- has a high propensity for killing people. Particularly those of African descent. Which is freaky, but it's difficult to get this medicine these days by itself. It's now packaged directly with a cordicosteroid, apparently making it safer according to the study above.
This is still very unsettling to me. I don't like putting things into my body that are unhealthy. Would not taking this medication be more healthy than taking it? I still have my albuterol, a.k.a. "rescue inhaler," but I can still run miles without using it. My doctor would say "NO!" but I really wonder about what toll it will have in 20, 30, or 50 years. Inhalers have not been around very long, relatively speaking......
My lungs still also have about 50 percent greater capacity than normal people's lungs. This explains my ability to outrun, outswim, outbike, & outsex non-asthmatics. In the past, my doctor has repetatively told me "you have a V12 underneath your ribs that usually runs on 8 cylinders." I suppose this is a decent genetic consolation given the fact I didn't grow up to be tall. Although I've also wondered that this might be product of my years of competative swimming...(being used to being out of breath is also probably a factor)
He did note, however, that one of my medicines --when used alone-- has a high propensity for killing people. Particularly those of African descent. Which is freaky, but it's difficult to get this medicine these days by itself. It's now packaged directly with a cordicosteroid, apparently making it safer according to the study above.
This is still very unsettling to me. I don't like putting things into my body that are unhealthy. Would not taking this medication be more healthy than taking it? I still have my albuterol, a.k.a. "rescue inhaler," but I can still run miles without using it. My doctor would say "NO!" but I really wonder about what toll it will have in 20, 30, or 50 years. Inhalers have not been around very long, relatively speaking......
Hey you! New Years Resolutioneers!
Get the hell out of the gym! I'm not paying all this gym membership money to wait in line for you to career off the treadmill squirming with angina. FYI, It is not necessary for you to go to the gym everyday, and working out everyday could probably instigate an occlusion in your cheeto-lined coronary arteries. To drive my point home, last week a man collapsed at my gym as I was leaving and ended up following the ambulance out of the parking lot.
New Years resolutions are hogwash, humbug, and bullshit. The fact that we have completed a revolution around the sun will not ease your laziness. Although people do change, today is the same as yesterday, and the only way you can make changes in your life is overcome your weakness of self control.
Billy Corgan was quoted as saying, "If you're not doing what you want right now, you never will." I'm not sure I completely buy into that extreme, but I do know that you cannot change unless you really want it. Without an ample supply of motivation and commitment, your attempts to create change will be futile. Unfortunately, those qualities are pretty scarce in our society.
When I decided I wanted to stop smoking, I threw my nearly full pack of Winstons out my car window and drove to the local Cub and bought the patch. I was taking an inventory of my life and decided that I needed some serious changes to enjoy life more. That's how you make a resolution. These insipid resolutions (NewYear-ian, Lenten, et al.) are destined to fail if you're making one because "that's what you're supposed to do." You have to do it for You.
but I think anyone with three digits in their IQ should already know this, so I'm going to discuss something else more fun. 2 blogs for the price of one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Isn't the MP3 player just the most awesome workout tool, EVER? There's just something about some songs that make me feel like I'm an invincible titanium machine. Like a Terminator on a treadmill.
Do you understand what I'm talking about? Is there a song, or even a part of a song, that instantly soaks your muscles with adrenaline, raises the hairs on your back, and makes you bare your teeth like a wild animal? I've been through many iterations of a workout playlist, and although I do get sick of some songs, there's a few that are absolutely mandatory for a workout playlist.
Maybe you'll think so too.
Super-Workout tracks---
Ted Leo - Me & Mia
Ted Leo- Shake the Sheets
Audioslave - Be Yourself
White Stripes- Hardest Button to Button
Soul Coughing - $300
Soul Coughing - Miss the Girl
The Beta Band - Dry the Rain
The Vines - Get Free
The Vines - TV Pro
also good
Death Cab - Sound of Settling
Spoon - Jonathan Fisk
Spoon - I didn't come here to die
Sage Francis - Slow down, Ghandi
Radiohead- Planet Telex
White Stripes- Girl, You have no faith in Medicine
Anything YOU'VE found to work? I'm waiting....
New Years resolutions are hogwash, humbug, and bullshit. The fact that we have completed a revolution around the sun will not ease your laziness. Although people do change, today is the same as yesterday, and the only way you can make changes in your life is overcome your weakness of self control.
Billy Corgan was quoted as saying, "If you're not doing what you want right now, you never will." I'm not sure I completely buy into that extreme, but I do know that you cannot change unless you really want it. Without an ample supply of motivation and commitment, your attempts to create change will be futile. Unfortunately, those qualities are pretty scarce in our society.
When I decided I wanted to stop smoking, I threw my nearly full pack of Winstons out my car window and drove to the local Cub and bought the patch. I was taking an inventory of my life and decided that I needed some serious changes to enjoy life more. That's how you make a resolution. These insipid resolutions (NewYear-ian, Lenten, et al.) are destined to fail if you're making one because "that's what you're supposed to do." You have to do it for You.
but I think anyone with three digits in their IQ should already know this, so I'm going to discuss something else more fun. 2 blogs for the price of one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Isn't the MP3 player just the most awesome workout tool, EVER? There's just something about some songs that make me feel like I'm an invincible titanium machine. Like a Terminator on a treadmill.
Do you understand what I'm talking about? Is there a song, or even a part of a song, that instantly soaks your muscles with adrenaline, raises the hairs on your back, and makes you bare your teeth like a wild animal? I've been through many iterations of a workout playlist, and although I do get sick of some songs, there's a few that are absolutely mandatory for a workout playlist.
Maybe you'll think so too.
Super-Workout tracks---
Ted Leo - Me & Mia
Ted Leo- Shake the Sheets
Audioslave - Be Yourself
White Stripes- Hardest Button to Button
Soul Coughing - $300
Soul Coughing - Miss the Girl
The Beta Band - Dry the Rain
The Vines - Get Free
The Vines - TV Pro
also good
Death Cab - Sound of Settling
Spoon - Jonathan Fisk
Spoon - I didn't come here to die
Sage Francis - Slow down, Ghandi
Radiohead- Planet Telex
White Stripes- Girl, You have no faith in Medicine
Anything YOU'VE found to work? I'm waiting....
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Is humanity Doomed?
Stop reading if you, like me, didn't get to read Lord of the Flies somewhere in your education. Go read it, and then read this.
In Lord of the Flies, Ralph is saved from the band of savages by a boat of soldiers. The island had been devolved into to two tribes, the more aggressive of the two set to assimilate or annihiliate the other.
Golding claims that Ralph's salvation by the soldiers is not intended to have any symbolism in contrast to the reflection on humanity throughout the remainder of the story. It was there to make a great ending to the story. I'm not so sure about that claim. Is it there to give us some ray of hope?
The soldiers were attracted to the island by the huge forest fire set by the savages trying to "smoke out" Ralph from his cave(sound familiar?). Is he trying to say that armageddon will bring innocence or salvation to society?
I think he might be trying to say that we might be saved by Extraterrestrial Aliens. They could be on their way right now.
As the Cheneys and Rumsfelds and Bin Ladens reap the earth, closing in on the Freudian Superego of society into the corner, ready to deal the deathblow.......a giant ship comes down and beams us up, whisks us along with them......
......on their mission to smoke out & destroy their enemies.
Ok, ok, ok. I realize there could be some religious implication, but the last bar still holds. All mainstream religions(the ones I think suck) claim that man was fashioned after God himself. I'd rather not believe in an intelligent creator than believe in a creator who is malevolent. God creates the devil just so he can fight him?
Who the fuck is going to save us from God? Maybe Humanity and Divinity are both doomed. At least the Greeks could acknowledge that there was divinity that was evil.
Or will, when there is nothing left but ashes & burnt carcasses behind him, will Jack Merridew/Bush/Cheney/Nugent become repentant? Can we return to a peaceful society?
What is to be done when Jack Merridew is inherent to this planet? I realized that Ralph had an opportunity to stop Jack early in the book, when Jack was leader of the hunters and they had disobeyed him by hunting instead of keeping the signal fire burning. Jack should have been demoted or punished, but he was not taught the rules of society from the beginning.
In Lord of the Flies, Ralph is saved from the band of savages by a boat of soldiers. The island had been devolved into to two tribes, the more aggressive of the two set to assimilate or annihiliate the other.
Golding claims that Ralph's salvation by the soldiers is not intended to have any symbolism in contrast to the reflection on humanity throughout the remainder of the story. It was there to make a great ending to the story. I'm not so sure about that claim. Is it there to give us some ray of hope?
The soldiers were attracted to the island by the huge forest fire set by the savages trying to "smoke out" Ralph from his cave(sound familiar?). Is he trying to say that armageddon will bring innocence or salvation to society?
I think he might be trying to say that we might be saved by Extraterrestrial Aliens. They could be on their way right now.
As the Cheneys and Rumsfelds and Bin Ladens reap the earth, closing in on the Freudian Superego of society into the corner, ready to deal the deathblow.......a giant ship comes down and beams us up, whisks us along with them......
......on their mission to smoke out & destroy their enemies.
Ok, ok, ok. I realize there could be some religious implication, but the last bar still holds. All mainstream religions(the ones I think suck) claim that man was fashioned after God himself. I'd rather not believe in an intelligent creator than believe in a creator who is malevolent. God creates the devil just so he can fight him?
Who the fuck is going to save us from God? Maybe Humanity and Divinity are both doomed. At least the Greeks could acknowledge that there was divinity that was evil.
Or will, when there is nothing left but ashes & burnt carcasses behind him, will Jack Merridew/Bush/Cheney/Nugent become repentant? Can we return to a peaceful society?
What is to be done when Jack Merridew is inherent to this planet? I realized that Ralph had an opportunity to stop Jack early in the book, when Jack was leader of the hunters and they had disobeyed him by hunting instead of keeping the signal fire burning. Jack should have been demoted or punished, but he was not taught the rules of society from the beginning.
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Sometimes it's not so bad being an engineer...
So I got pulled into my bosses office, expecting to get reamed up one side and down the other for difficulties in my project; most of them having to do with my decimal-in-the-wrong-place type fuckups, but instead he gave me a 5 percent raise.
sidenote: When I got my monster raise this past summer, I was taking an absurdly long lunch/coffee break with Rose and was checking my work voicemail from my cellphone, and heard this angina-inducing message..."Andy, you weren't at your desk when I stopped by; why don't you stop in to my office when you get this?"
Either I'm way smarter than I think, he's a dumbass, or I'm really good at CYA. (covering your ass, for those of you not in the corporate world.) Probably a combination of the latter two.
And he told me that I'm still getting another 5 percent at my upcoming 4th year milestone at my company. (today was about 3.5 years)
Not to gloat, but this aint too bad for spending most of the time crunching numbers or dreaming up new shit in front of a computer while listening to whatever I want on my headsets for most of the day. And I have coffee in hand whenever I want it. Shitty office coffee, but it's still coffee.
And taking just about as many E-mail breaks as I want--I've got a corner cube with my 19" flatscreen monitor turned juuuust soo....IS hasn't said a word to me in all this time.
There's an adage that goes something like this: "Be sure to measure your success by what you give up in order to obtain you goals."
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