I have concluded that I will not do a "newsletter" at the traditional Christmas/New Years. That means shifting a time-consuming endeavour to a less busy time of the year AND it avoids the traditional flood of newsletters that plagues some of us like the overdose of candy on Halloween.

Instead, let me give the typical quick update on my recent life experiences.

Dining. Holy cow. I've eaten out at more restaurants in the past two weeks than the rest of the year combined. I feel like a restaurant reviewer or something. Italian, Chinese, Mexican, American - you name it. Gourmet to all-you-can-eat buffet... The whole break seems to have centered around dining. Here, I must digress and point out a major difference between eating and dining. As a child, I could not recognize a difference.

Eating is a personal and core part of our existence as humans. Dining is sharing that life-core with other people. It is sacred in the same style as bathing or sleeping. I've come to truly appreciate the magic of dining. That being said, I had the BEST dish at the Getty the other night: Venison in a red currant sauce with cashew puree and carrots. Incredible - I can still taste it :)

Michelle! I was soooo happy to spend time with my awesome girlfriend again! We only had about 10 days, but we made the best of our time: sledding and hot tubbing (big thanks to Bob and Susan up in the mountains), shopping, visiting Hollywood, dining, hanging out with Sharona, touring the Getty, tromping around Disneyland, practicing Salsa, watching movies, hugging, and yes, even kissing. Sadly it looks as though I won't see her for quite a while, but that's the way the cookie crumbles at this point in life. Whooha for love!

More later ;) For now, I'm headed to bed high up in the mountain air above the L.A. smog...

Many of you know that I'm a very hug-friendly sort of person. In fact, I LOVE hugs! That's why Free Hugs Campaign caught my eye with an awesome video that has been seen by almost 8 million people...

I spent the better part of an hour at www.freehugscampaign.org watching a dozen videos of people in Korea, NYC, Mexico, Japan, Moscow, and Australia making the world a happier place by simply giving hugs! This is something I would love to get involved in...

So hugs from me to you - whoever you may be!

I've got finals! (sounds like a disease ... which isn't too far off perhaps) Yes, I'm running through the gauntlet. First, I duked it out with Calc 4. The battle was fierce and line integrals drew some blood, but I hobbled on past to the lurking Mechanics. A scary looking creature indeed, but not as tough.

After a moment of soaking in a hot tub and a brief rest, it was on to the surprisingly weak Physics final. Motivated by this success, I wrestled quite effectively against Digital Logic - once again, surviving relatively unscathed.

Sadly, the most treacherous and powerful beast of them all lies waiting ... waiting as I fall into a false sense of security. Circuit Analysis is going to throw everything it has at me - complex power, differential equations, and phasors (almost like phasers in Star Trek). I only hope I can make it through alive.

On the bright side, it is the last obstacle before Christmas break when I'll get to see many, many awesome people I've missed!

Aside from finals, I've been quite good - wearing crazy hats, hiking around Southforks, playing the occasional game, cooking with/for friends, and generally making the most of my college experience.

So I came across this web comic from my roommate Mikey and my great friend Kristin (she wants to be famous)... Some very clever stuff here - check it out if you've got a few minutes to burn: Toothpaste for Dinner

This quarter, I'm starting to actually feel like an engineer. I'm out of the "intro engineering" classes and into some of the core subjects. For example, just this quarter, I've learned how to:

Extract next-state-logic from state diagrams and Karnaugh maps.
Analyze structures by taking moments around the body-extended.
Find the characteristic equations for first-order linear homogeneous ordinary differential equations in circuits.
Analyze rolling objects using torque, inertia, and angular acceleration/velocity.
Find the curl of a non-conservative vecor field in space using gradients, cross products, and partial derivatives.

Now, I probably won't use most of it in my career, but hey - who wouldn't want to know cool stuff like that?!

In addition, I'm getting more and more interested in the Putnam math challenge. I sat in on the training class for it this quarter and might take the test next year... 6 hours, 12 math problems, 10 points per problem. A score of 1 out of 120 is considered "good" and places the person around the 50th percentile... The test is actually taking place today, as I write this. It just seems like a fun challenge to tackle once I get a few more math classes under my belt...

Ahhhh, I'm so happy :) Christmas break is coming up in just 2 weeks and I'll see Michelle, most of my family, and a few close friends! I'm reall loving the aura that Christmas brings. Last night I watched the soft glow of lights on a small Christmas tree for hours with great friends and Cypris - just relaxing and soaking it all up. It felt like a family somehow... Earlier last night I had a great time at a History club dinner last night with taco salad and an interesting talk about Robert Baxter and Erasmus - two amazing men in England's reformation period. It reminded me how much I really do love history. I'll have to make more progress on that minor sometime soon.

In my desperate need to be cool, I've been wearing a santa hat to class every day! It keeps me from taking life too seriously amid the projects, homework, and tests. It also makes people smile, which counts for a lot. The social activites are going through the roof for the next couple weeks: history club events, cross country races, an engineering party, the midnight breakfast, boxer run, open house, rockclimbing, a jump start party, drama productions, etc. I'm so glad I freed up a little time by doing some homework over Thanksgiving break!

Well, I've been waiting for a picture of some sort that really captures an event in the last few weeks, but nothing turned up...

So, what has happened recently? Well, I made it to Thanksgiving break - and almost to the end of the quarter! I actually finished a good chunk of homework this break (unlike all previous breaks). Fortunately, I wasn't stuck in my room the whole time doing calculus. I got out with friends for some really good Mexican and Mongolian food, went running, played some LAN games, and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving meal at a friend's house! Oh yeah and lots of sleep!

I had a chance to think about Christmas break - only 26 days till Sharona arrives in the U.S. and only 20 days until I get to see Michelle again!!! I haven't really figured out what I/we are really going to DO in L.A. for Christmas break, but I doubt we'll get bored.

Not a whole lot else going on - just enjoying life!

This Friday, I participated in a 5k run with the CrossCountry Club and got 2nd place! (which isn't particularly impressive if you knew how many people ran...) It was a great way to finish a Friday of classes and homework (particularly since it was too windy to have a successful game of ultimate frisbee).

I went on an amazing walk with some friends at Rooke's Park a couple weekends ago - so beautiful!!

Here's a snapshot of some of the design work I Michael and I did a couple weeks ago for digital logic... A bunch of nonsense to most people, but there is actually some meaning behind it all ;)

Awareness of religions is important to me, but somehow FSM slipped through the cracks... You can view the official church site as well.

I hope you too will be touched by His Noodly Appendage!

Natalie shows off the awesome cow-mobile! It's even got the pink fender and bumper :) It's still for sale as far as I know...

I just can't quite get the Dr. Evil look down...

Yes, I participated in the mudbowl again this year!! Which reminds me that my blog is just over 1 year old...

Good college fun!!! Actually, you are looking at 3 very full glasses of apple juice for a spaghetti dinner at a friend's house.

Our whiteboard is very very useful :P

This is what it's all about! Different cultures, genders, majors, ages, eye colour, hair styles, skin colours - all coming together for community and education. I LOVE COLLEGE!!

We all had an awesome hike up at Southforks last Saturday afternoon. You can see: Me, Natalie, Jessie, Irving, and Johnny - all great people! Jen is sadly missing from this picture, but I'll make up for that ;)

A new "look" for a new year of college... Yes, it actually happened - I have no more long hair! Actually, it has received far more support and approval than I expected. I enjoy long hair, but showers are so much shorter without it :P

This is what I imagine I'd look like as a... Cherokee Indian? Chinese goldminer? Tibetan monk? Give me some suggestions, people :P

So, Sharona and I had a free day and our good friend Clinton was naive enough to lend us his car (bless his soul)! We left for the Glasshouse Mountains and spent the day climbing up and down. Basically the mountains are the dense centers of volcanoes that have deteriorated over time - big columns of rock in the middle of nowhere.

Now, in the U.S., the National Park Service has signs like this one - cautioning visitors about the challenging nature of the trail ahead. These signs are greatly exaggerated in most cases (because Americans are lazy? because Americans complain? because Americans like to feel good about themselves? - who knows). Anyways, the point is that this sign almost made me laugh. Yeah right "experienced climbers" - that means if you could crawl around your house as a baby, you'll be fine...

Um yeah. Apparently the Aussies go the other extreme. This sign shouldn't have read "recommended for experienced climbers." It should have read "certain death lies ahead for non-experienced climbers." Frankly, I consider myself an adventurous, semi-experienced climber and parts of this freaked me out... Quite exhilarating though :P

I even checked the oil, thinking this might be the cause of our car problems. No luck :(

My car maintenance skillzzz clearly need some work...

THIS is why we don't let Sharona drive anymore - it was a nice rental too :( It all happened on a back road in the Glasshouse Mountains north of Brisbane...

I'm still living in the past glory of my Aussie trip :) This was taken along the Great Ocean Road south west of Melbourne... This was an awesome roadtrip with Bonnie and Shaz!!! I got to drive most of it along the winding coast - listening to music and talking with my mates. Such a beautiful place *wistful look* ahhhh.

Anyways, I'm headed back to WWC tomorrow - just packing up and listening to Armin van Buuren's latest weekly dose of trance radio. I'm looking forward to getting back although I know it heralds a heavy work load.

I got this quite a long time ago and have no idea what the original source was... It should prove amusing - particulary for those who studied history and literature ;)

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

Plato: For the greater good.

Karl Marx: It was a historical inevitability.

Machiavelli: So that its subjects will view it with admiration,
as a chicken which has the daring and courage to
boldly cross the road, but also with fear, for whom
among them has the strength to contend with such a
paragon of avian virtue? In such a manner is the
princely chicken's dominion maintained.

Hippocrates: Because of an excess of light pink gooey stuff in its
pancreas.

Jacques Derrida: Any number of contending discourses may be discovered
within the act of the chicken crossing the road, and
each interpretation is equally valid as the authorial
intent can never be discerned, because structuralism
is DEAD, DAMMIT, DEAD!

Thomas de Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll find out.

Timothy Leary: Because that's the only kind of trip the Establishment
would let it take.

Douglas Adams: Forty-two.

Nietzsche: Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road
gazes also across you.

Oliver North: National Security was at stake.

B.F. Skinner: Because the external influences which had pervaded its
sensorium from birth had caused it to develop in such a
fashion that it would tend to cross roads, even while
believing these actions to be of its own free will.

Carl Jung: The confluence of events in the cultural gestalt
necessitated that individual chickens cross roads at
this historical juncture, and therefore
synchronicitously brought such occurrences into being.

Jean-Paul Sartre: In order to act in good faith and be true to itself,
the chicken found it necessary to cross the road.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The possibility of "crossing" was encoded into the
objects "chicken" and "road", and circumstances came
into being which caused the actualization of this
potential occurrence.

Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed
the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

Aristotle: To actualize its potential.

Buddha: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken-
nature.

Howard Cosell: It may very well have been one of the most astonishing
events to grace the annals of history. An historic,
unprecedented avian biped with the temerity to attempt
such an herculean achievement formerly relegated to
homo sapien pedestrians is truly a remarkable occurence.

Salvador Dali: The Fish.

Darwin: It was the logical next step after coming down from
the trees.

Emily Dickinson: Because it could not stop for death.

Epicurus: For fun.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: It didn't cross the road; it transcended it.

Johann von Goethe: The eternal hen-principle made it do it.

Ernest Hemingway: To die. In the rain.

Werner Heisenberg: We are not sure which side of the road the chicken
was on, but it was moving very fast.

David Hume: Out of custom and habit.

Jack Nicholson: 'Cause it (censored) wanted to. That's the (censored)
reason.

Pyrrho the Skeptic: What road?

Ronald Reagan: I forget.

John Sununu: The Air Force was only too happy to provide the
transportation, so quite understandably the chicken
availed himself of the opportunity.

The Sphinx: You tell me.

Mr. T: If you saw me coming you'd cross the road too!

Henry David Thoreau: To live deliberately ... and suck all the marrow
out of life.

Mark Twain: The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.

Molly Yard: It was a hen!

Zeno of Elea: To prove it could never reach the other side.

Chaucer: So priketh hem nature in hir corages.

Wordsworth: To wander lonely as a cloud.

The Godfather: I didn't want its mother to see it like that.

Keats: Philosophy will clip a chicken's wings.

Blake: To see heaven in a wild fowl.

Othello: Jealousy.

Dr Johnson: Sir, had you known the Chicken for as long as I have,
you would not so readily enquire, but feel rather the
Need to resist such a public Display of your own
lamentable and incorrigible Ignorance.

Mrs Thatcher: This chicken's not for turning.

Supreme Soviet: There has never been a chicken in this photograph.

Oscar Wilde: Why, indeed? One's social engagements whilst in
town ought never expose one to such barbarous
inconvenience - although, perhaps, if one must cross a
road, one may do far worse than to cross it as the
chicken in question.

Kafka: Hardly the most urgent enquiry to make of a low-grade
insurance clerk who woke up that morning as a hen.

Swift: It is, of course, inevitable that such a loathsome,
filth-ridden and degraded creature as Man should assume
to question the actions of one in all respects his
superior.

Macbeth: To have turned back were as tedious as to go o'er.

Whitehead: Clearly, having fallen victim to the fallacy of
misplaced concreteness.

Freud: An die andere Seite zu kommen. (Much laughter)

Hamlet: That is not the question.

Donne: It crosseth for thee.

Pope: It was mimicking my Lord Hervey.

Constable: To get a better view.

Famous in our own lunchtimes
Della tagged me with Famous in our own lunchtimes. So here goes!

1. What do you like most about where you live?
I really enjoy listening to the cicadas and crickets at night as I fall asleep... When I originally moved to Atlanta (15 years ago), the natural sounds seemed so foreign and unwelcoming. Now they are an essential part of home. Along with the sounds, I just love the green that pervades everything in the spring.

2. Is there anything strange about where you live?
Strange is a relative term. I'm a strange person, so of course this place is strange! I suppose having 5 or so large malls within 30 minutes of driving is strange... Really, though, it's a pretty normal place.

3. What's one of your all-time favourite music albums, and why?
Unfair question. I love music too much to be restricted to a single album! I might choose Coldharbour Sessions 2004 by Markus Schulz if I was in a pinch... This perfect mix of trance/chillout always hits the spot - regardless of what mood I'm in.

4. Did you have a passion for something as a kid that you still have now? (If not - what is one of your passions now?)
I still have a passion for enjoying the outdoors. My other childhood interests like stamp collecting, magic tricks, coin collecting, juggling, etc have been replaced by new ones. I try new things and so I'm constantly discovering new potential passions.

5. What do you like most about having a blog?
A blog lets me share news about myself to the people I care about without spamming mass e-mails. Comments are a big part of having a blog (hint hint). The links to other blogs are very useful too - I end up using my blog as a hub for visiting other blogs.

Pick 3 (or more) people and give them the opportunity to be famous in their own lunchtimes! :)

I'm tagging Michelle, Jen, and Shaz to start with.

*I don't normally do these, but hey it was from Della and it's been too long since I've updated my blog...

Ahhhh Mr. Daniel. What a character! I went up to Avondale and it brought back so many memories. Most of the students were off for break, but Daniel was still around. We used to play some intense games of squash, so we went to the courts again. We'd been casually passing taunts over the past years about how badly we would crush the other person if given the chance. Now we had the chance to make good on our threats.

Frankly, Daniel whipped my butt. I could list numerous excuses for why I lost (some very good ones in fact) but it doesn't change the results. 5 games to 1. Sad. We both put so much energy, effort, and soul into the games that we were both practically crippled the next day. I felt like a bus ran over me. Still, it was great to play again and even greater to spend time with an old amigo. I gave him a good run for his money ;)

"...points often become a war of attrition. At higher levels of the game, the fittest player has a major advantage." (wikipedia)

This is the edge of Manly Beach - probably Australia's most famous beach second only to Bondi Beach. I went running along the beach with Sharona for a while and took this photo at the end. I seem to have a thing for rocks and ocean - fortunately I was not injured in this adventure, however.

I've gotta get a moongate sometime - they're just so cool! It might be a challenge to get those in a house for doorways, but I'll find a place someday... This is actually in the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour, Sydney. Mike is also "so cool" in case you were wondering.


Sharona, Becky, and me having a smashing good time at the Chinese Gardens. Shaz and Becky both classify under the "so cool" catagory as well.

Everybody, I'd like you to meet my Salsa Momma! Her real name sounds like... "Kachi" and I met her up in Wisconsin at a family reunion with Michelle. She's from Mexico and makes some tasty food (particularly salsa)!

Language is such a funny thing... I recently watched a pirated Chinese copy of the Bollywood Indian movie Jajantaram Mamantaram - dubbed and subtitled in English. The dubs are hilarious by themselves (not to mention the movie itself) but the subtitles are even better. The make an attempt at sounding like the right words even if the meaning is completely different!

Translation has a rich and humourous history. For example, Engrish.com and the Engrish wikipedia page...

Close to my heart resides a classic gaming mistranslation. The Sega game Zero Wing was famously butchered during the translation, leading to possibly the most famous (and hilarious) opening cutscene ever. Phrases such as "All your base are belong to us" (see picture above) and "Somebody set up us the bomb" have become internet legends now. Check the story out at wikipedia's page or watch the original intro and flash animation which made it so popular in the first place.

Most recently, I stumbled upon a brilliant non-legit subtitling of a Chinese pirated copy of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith aka "Star War the Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West." This stuff is hilarious. Somebody took photos of some of the more amusing scenes and posted them on his blog with comments. Even people who are not particularly Star Wars nerds should find this hilarious. So, I leave you with these thoughts and sites to ponder. May the wish power are together with you!

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
It's not warm when she's away.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and she's always gone too long
anytime she goes away.

Wonder this time where she's gone,
wonder if she's gone to stay
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and this house just ain't no home
anytime she goes away.

And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know

Hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone,
but ain't no sunshine when she's gone,
ain't no sunshine when she's gone,
only darkness everyday.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone,
and this house just ain't no home
anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.

Sad... she left Sunday morning and I shan't likely see her for quite some time :(

Now for something completely different... I've recently become rather fond of Eddie Izzard's highly intelligent humour mixed with biting social criticism. An excerpt from the Dress To Kill transcript may show what I mean:

Stalin killed many millions. Died in his bed. Well done there.

Pol Pot killed ... million Cambodians.

Died under house arrest, age ... Well done, indeed.

They got away with it because they killed their own people.

We're sort of fine with that.

"Oh, help yourself.

"We've been trying to kill you for ages, so kill your own people."

Seems to be.

Hitler killed people next door. Ohhh. Stupid man.

After a couple of years we won't stand for that, will we?

Watch out, you Walla Walla College freshmen :) I just got a job as one of the Jump Start leaders this year. That means I'll be guiding these poor newbies through their transition from highschool to college life. I'll work for a week before college starts: showing my group around campus, answering questions, getting to know the students, attending "sessions" (whatever that means), leading social activities, and then following up throughout the quarter to make sure they are doing ok. It's really a pretty cool idea and I see a few major benefits for me:

1. Leadership. I'll be growing my leadership abilities whether I want to or not. This is outside my "comfort" zone, but I know it will be good and useful for me.
2. Friends. It's an easy way to scout for friends in the freshman crowd - they have to meet me :P
3. Money. Granted, it's not much, but I'm not going to complain about making some extra cash.
4. Time. It'll get me to college a bit early which means I'll have time to settle in to my room, time to hang out with friends (hoorah!), and time to get a routine of excercise/sleep/work together for the coming quarter.

It wouldn't be Australia without genuine kangaroos ;)

Here, you can see my very limited Aussie travels. Most of my time has been spent in Sydney (or near it). The green line indicates the roadtrip I went on with Jen a week ago, and the blue represents the travelling I will start tomorrow with Sharona. We are going: down to Melbourne for a few days, flying up to Brisbane for a few days, back to Sydney for a day, and then flying back home. Should be exciting ;)

Clearly someone stepped in kangaroo doo one too many times... Jen and I came across this piece of art in Kosciuszko National Park - this sight was almost woth the entire roadtrip in itself.

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Well folks, I'm back home. In Australia... I suppose home is wherever friends and family are, but there's something about the culture here that sets it apart.

I've tried writing this blog post many times and it never comes out the way I want. Sydney, friends, the wedding, the animals, the sounds - it's all fantastic, but I lack the elequence to write about how much it means to me. I'll keep working on it, but for now it is enough to say that I'm loving my time here in Australia and it is every bit as good as I remember and hoped it would be!

There are so many stories, memories, and adventures to tell. It's rather daunting actually. Oh yeah and pictures are on the way, of course ;)

After much pressure from the Jen Mafia (thank you!), I finally emerge to make a blog post! Sorry - no pictures yet, but I do have some!

What has happened since the last post... Ouch - a lot actually!

First, exams. I blazed through my finals in a beautiful streak of glory. Maybe not beautiful, but I didn't sleep through any finals and I pulled the grades I was hoping for. The Discrete Math final actually turned out to be quite fun and entertaining, actually - logic puzzles and a couple challenging proofs. It felt like a game :)

Monday was my birthday and I celebrated with Calculus and some group projects. Hardly anybody knew it was my birthday, but when *somebody* found out near midnight, she pulled a small celebration together in a mere 10 minutes. It was fantastic just to celebrate a great friendship, toast to the future, and take a break from studying! THANK YOU! ...And sorry ;)

Coming down to the last day of finals, Michael Roth and I still hadn't finished our engineering final project (a small - but very packed - circuit board), so Wednesday afternoon we were pushing hard to finish. After ultimate Frisbee of course (gotta make sure to get priorities straight).

Janelle and I had been planning on contra dancing Wednesday night for quite a while and ALL our friends bailed on us at the last minute *insert guilt trip for Jen, Nate, Ashley*, but Michael was interested and so the three of us danced in the gazebo at Pioneer Park for an hour or so. It was quite a nice break from finals week and some excellent exercise. Big thanks to Janelle for driving, inviting me to come, and getting me involved in the first place. I miss her :(

Aaaanyways, finished up our project at midnight and then I was supposed to head out the next morning for Seattle airport to head home. I stayed up most of the night packing and cleaning my room and then caught a short nap. Instead of leaving at 10 am as planned, the guy I was riding with started packing at 10 and we didn't leave until 4:30pm. Tempting to complain about, but it was actually really cool because I had extra time to eat breakfast and lunch with Jen. It was sad, saying goodbye, but I wouldn't miss it! Chris and I finally left and I made it to the airport half an hour before my plane left and barely managed to get on.

Back in Georgia with my family, I had a few days to recover and pack for my summer travels. I also packed in a graduation party (for mum), a birthday party (I got a guitar - thanks Richie!), some youth group stuff, and two days of contract work doing circuit board layout. An excellent way to start the summer!!

Palouse Falls is a beautiful national park about an hour from college. I'd never really heard of it, but Janelle invited me to come along with a bunch of friends Saturday afternoon and we explored the place until about 9pm. Based on the surroundings, I never would have guess such a large body of water existed!

The weekend was a perfect break from the stress of college life and now I'm facing a mere week of classes before finals! The weekend ended on a happy note with a tasty meal I cooked up, delicious choclate smoothy drinks that Janelle made for us, and the slapstick comedy Fun with Dick and Jane. I am truly grateful for the time I get to spend with awesome friends!

Me, Janette, and Nate inside the hills - the three of us decided to take the more adventurous (and significantly shorter) way back to the cars after exploring Palouse Falls.

It was a great weekend and we ended up hanging out at Janette's place quite a bit - (mostly eating and napping). Her family is really welcoming - I had a great time playing tennis with her dad and I've been dancing with her mum a couple times in the past months. It was so nice to get out of the dorms for a while and enjoy a real house with a real family ;)

A rather large marmot I encountered at Palouse Falls. He looked a little hungry so I fed him this grahm cracker. Looks at that mouth though! Reminds me of Tim's ominous warning: "death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth" - fortunately it was a marmot and not a rabbit.

A small group of friends went up to a hill overlooking Walla Walla and we all sat in the wheat fields to enjoy a sunset. Quite a cold evening, but the clouds, stars, and city lights were beautiful! I was having fun with my camera and thought this one was particularly interesting.

Meet Nate. He's quirky, authentic, deep, spontaneous, considerate, hilarious, thoughtful, a great listener, insightful, and fun. All around, a great guy!

Yesterday marked the 1 year anniversary for me and Michelle! It seems like so long and so short at the same time... I get to be with her again in a mere 33 days :) I LOVE YOU!!

In other news, I'm sick and behind on homework. But in spite of that I managed to have a terrific afternoon playing ultimate frisbee and eating out on the lawn. It is truly beautiful out here and I'm soaking it all in.

This past weekend was amazing!! I studied hard all week (yes, even Friday afternoon) and was able to release ALL the stress for at least a solid 36 hours! I went to the history club vespers at the Emmerson's house and enjoyed some tasty food as well as the fire and company of great friends! Afterwards, went back to Jen's appartment and reposed for a few hours - talking about various things and most of all, just enjoying time to relax. I don't know if it was the couch, the appartment, Jen, my feverishly busy week, or a combination of them, but it was the most relaxed I've been since I started school this year.

Saturday morning, I headed out to South Forks with the group in the picture above (from left to right: Eric, Jay, Joe, Melody, Lichelle, Dave, Steph, Kent, Dezra, Cody, ..., and Becky). We had a lovely time hiking up the trail a ways, eating loads of great food, detonating cans of root beer, playing capture the flag, throwing water-baloons, etc. When we got back in the evening, I had the opportunity to go swing dancing! I have very limited experience with any kind of dancing, and without a partner/group I was almost inclined not to go... BUT, I'm so glad I did! I learned some basics with several kind (and patient) females - and even if I hadn't, the music alone was worth it! I'm really looking forward to my next opportunity for dancing (watch out Michelle!)

After dancing, I spent a great evening swapping music and pictures with Jen and fell asleep on one of the couches (that llama llama llama blanket is so ridiculously comfy!). Egg and cheese mcmuffin/biscuit/sandwhich things the next morning which were super tasty and then, the homework fun began.

A few days of insane homework, a nasty throat cold, and here I am! 4 weeks till exams are over and I head back home. I'm suffering from mild college burnout at the moment, but I'll make it! (Big thanks to all my awesome friends, family, and girlfriend for supporting me and keeping me sane!)

Chem lab - one of my more interesting classes... It's the only class (so far) where we actually get to burn or melt things. I believe in the picture above, I am in the middle of a freezing point depression experiment - analyzing the temperature dropping with different concentrations of solvent.

In the lab I just got out of (qualatative cation analysis), I truly felt like a chemist! I had my lab book with experimental plans, data collection/analysis, and then combining previous weeks of work into a decision tree, I was able to easily identify the 4 aqueous cation solutions that Prof. Lee handed out today. It was really pretty cool - a few drops of NH3, a litmus paper test, a few drops of Na3Fe(CN)6, a flame test... and presto - the unknown is now known!

My awesome girlfriend Michelle, went to Union College's masquerade banquet recently and I MISSED OUT :( Fortunately I did get pictures... which made me realize just how much I missed out!

She's almost done with her semester and a few weeks after that, I'll be with her again. IKES she's beautiful!!!

Llama llama llama!

Hey everyone, I've been crazy busy over the last few weeks and haven't posted a whole lot on my blog :( BUT, I'm still hanging in there ;)

I must say that last Saturday was fantastic - I spent most of the day with Jen, Janelle, and Nate. The photo was taken on the way to our afternoon hike out at South Forks and these llamas were super cute!! We also went to a Jewish synagogue and salsa dancing in the evening - all around, a very busy day, but a great break from the normal college homework.

The weather around here has been unbelievable - warm and sunny practically every day and I've started eating outside most of the time.

This coming week is going to be tough - loads of projects, tests, and homework, but I'll make it through somehow.

I'm blog-stealing again, but this time from Jen and this time for a better cuase than my own humour. The Invisible Children is a project started by youth who made the effort to uncover and change a horrible situation in Uganda... You can see their documentary film and find out more about their history/goals etc at their official website. Here is another good site with information about the situation and current fundraisers.

If you do nothing else, at least watch the documentary - it's less than an hour long and better than the tv show you were planning on watching tonight. And if you don't feel like watching this because it's not nice to see the darker side of the world, you especially need to see it...

Ahhhh, I'm a thief, so after seeing the following excellent Mony Python quote on my good friend Dr. Della's page I absoutely had to steal it for my own uses ;) Actually, I've been looking for this particular skit for nearly 2 years since I saw it on Ben's live DVD. So here you go. Enjoy!

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, 'e was right.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, 'e was.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Cardboard box?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.
ALL:
They won't!

I found this picture on a guy's MySpace site and thought it was good that I had to steal it!

This picture is only funny for those of you who are familiar with the cult classic "Napoleon Dynamite." People either hate this film or love it... It's like an ugly stpuid dog that you either despise or like... because it's ugly and stupid :) This morning at the caf, I heard both sides. One of the guys was rejoicing that the actor Jon Heder OD'd on crack and thus a second Napoleon Dynamite was narrowly avoided. From what I can tell, however, he is alive and well and is in several upcoming films... Whew!

Everything is illuminated in the light of the past....

I had the opportunity to watch an interesting movie this past week with Jen: Everything Is Illuminated. It's an amazing film and I would recommend watching it. I won't even try to explain why it is good - just to make you more curious.

Two weeks into the quarter and I already feel intimidated... Oh well, at least I have Saturday to repose. (Sunday is a full study day)

So far, life has been looking great though! I'm learning a tremendous amount in every class (really interesting stuff) like how to test infinite series for convergence, types of logical proofs, why a gaseous state of egg doesn't exist, methods of searching tree data structures, and 3D models of parts in AutoCAD for example. Rigid homework has been flowing forth from practically every class, but I've been studying with Johnny (freshman bioengineering) quite a bit recently and it's nice to be around someone who views homework as a challenge and opportunity rather than a dreaded chore.

Aside from school, though, life is also looking great. I'm getting plenty of exercise between running, tennis, rockclimbing, and my new area of exploration: swimming. Walking to the pool at 6:20 am is less than "fun", but after a good swim I really feel awake for the day - and it should help for some of the triathlons I'm hoping to participate in this quarter. If only my Speedo wasn't so hard to get on. I thought about asking for help, but that sounds a bit... dodgy. My Speedo swim cap, people... sigh... ;)

I went to a really premium concert twice last week called "Prism." Basically the music department here at WWC collected a lot of musician students and made a great program consisting of 5 minute pieces of music (solos, choir, orchestra, or small groups). The best part was that it didn't all take place up on the stage. Some performers were scattered around the venue and as they began, a spotlight focused attention on them. It made for a really unique and enjoyable evening and I have a new love of the xylophone (the piece performed reminded me of the music from Riven). It's just too bad I couldn't take Michelle along - it would have made a great date ;)

Whew, the quarter is barely under way and I'm already burried in homework! Well actually it's not that bad - all my classes look interesting and challenging. I've managed to stay on top of everything so far, but then agian, it's only been 2 days...

My current roommate is leaving for Portland to continue with the nursing program and that meant no replacement roomy for me. I found out yesterday that if I wanted to keep my treasured double-room, that I'd need to meet the dean that day with my roomy for next year. SO, things just happened to fall in place and I mentioned my situation to Michael Roth at lunch (the guy I did that crazy programming project with) and we are now set up for next year! You should have seen his eyebrows pop up as he said "you have that really nice double room eh?.... HMMM." We are both really laid back, so I think it should work out fine.

Oh another cool thing - I've avoided homework by escaping to Jen and Janelle's place a few times! It's so cool to hang out with great friends and not see an engineering textbook ANYWHERE ;)

Time to place your bets for round 3...

In the left corner of the ring, we have Brandon - an engineering student at Walla Walla College, weighing in at 145 pounds...

In the right corner we have Calculus 3, Discrete Maths, General Chemistry 3, CAD and Drafting, and Algorithms and Data Structures 2 weighing in at 18 credits.

The round begins Monday, March 27 and finishes Thursday, June 8

The next day of our hike, we had awsome buritos down at a lower camp. I think all food on hiking trips automatically tastes 3x better. Anyways, we set up our socks and shoes around the campfire in an attempt to dry them out. It actually worked reasonably well!

The funny part, though, was later that night when I was in the tent, Jay and Mitch were using fuel to catch a log on fire... The flames jumped up really high and all of a sudden I heard Jay: "my sock - MY SOCK IS ON FIRE!!" He grabbed it and threw it in the snow, but in the process he caught Mitch's sock on fire as well :) It provided some good entertainment for the evening - especially with their short "aAH!" exclamations just like Homer out of the Simpsons...

We didn't count on snow... Basically instead of hiking along a nice trail, we climbed up the side of a snow covered hill. Our shoes and socks were all wet and it was quite cold. It was rather rewarding, however, to finally make it to the top!

So, for break I didn't end up going to BC for hiking, but I DID go over to Idaho's Blue Mountains with Jay and Mitch. For some reason, this photo reminds me of the kidnappers Buttercup meets in the forest (Princess Bride). Jay really isn't THAT tall - it's a weird optical illusion...

Anyways, we left late Sunday morning with 40-50 pound packs and began our adventure!

I just got out of an amazing workshop on called Metaphorical Alchemy with G.C. Waldrep. Basically taking a good look at metaphors as an amazing tool for looking at reality in a new light or explaining the unexplainable. Very eye-opening and here is a one of the amazing poems we looked at... (picture from South Forks)

Snow (by David Berman)

Walking through a field with my little brother Seth

I pointed to a place where kids had made angels in the snow.
For some reason, I told him that a troop of angels
had been shot and dissolved when they hit the ground.

He asked who had shot them and I said a farmer.



Then we were on the roof of the lake.
The ice looked like a photograph of water.

Why he asked. Why did he shoot them.

I don't know where I was going with this.

They were on his property, I said.


When it's snowing, the outdoors seem like a room.

Today I traded hellos with my neighbor.
Our voices hung close in the new acoustics.
A room with the walls blasted to shreds and falling.

We returned to our shoveling, working side by side in silence.



But why were they on his property, he asked.


I just think this is a fantastic poem! I love the imagery of a snow around you being like a room with the walls blasted to shreds - falling down around you... Or that ice looks like a photograph of water - a moment in time magically preserved...

...and besides, it's really funny!

The poem came from Actual Air (Open City Books, 1999)

This is a sample of the beautiful stuff I got to enjoy last weekend at South Forks.