Random web site to check out: List of neologisms on The Simpsons

So this weekend was interesting. Saturday I actually got up at a reasonable hour (perhaps even early for a weekend) and went to a few different Sabbath morning activities. Of particular interest was a presentation by my Chemistry lecturer Dr. Rittenhouse. He talked about his trip this past summer to Peru as part of a small mountaineering group. Rittenhouse has amazing talent at public speaking - very soft, methodical, precise, and well executed. Not full of emotional phrases or vast hand-waving gestures. And yet I couldn't help but be inspired by his passion for mountaineering.

The whole idea of taking yourself away from the routines of life and pouring your energy, focus, and soul into a single purpose - climbing a mountain - seems like a very soul enriching activity... The trust and companionship made with fellow climbers is uncommon in relationships... The beauty of the vast earth we live on - clear and untainted when viewed from the highest altitudes where humans haven't yet made an ugly mark... He showed us incredible things. The photos were nice, but it was his descriptions and depth in his voice that made it clear how powerful the experience really was.

So I want to go climb mountains in Peru some day. Before that, I will need to build up years of experience climbing other mountains, but it seems a worthwhile pursuit.

Also of interest. I just finished reading "My Mentor" by Alec Wilkinson. It is required reading for my Honours College Writing, but I really found myself sinking into the book - something I haven't done in ages. I've also started writing in the margins and underlining - activities I always dreaded and despised - and I've actually found that they let me engage the contents of the book on a whole new level. It also makes finding those meaningful quotes a lot easier to find when flipping through the book ;)

The book describes the mentorship that Wilkinson experienced under William Maxwell - one of the greatest editors and novelists of the 20th century. A great many quotes and ideas stand out and I will try to remember to sprinkle them throughout future posts whether they really fit the subject or not. For starters:

"It is hard to be an original person, an individual. No one cares for it, really. Very few people will congratulate you on the accomplishment. At close hand a truly original person is almost always disturbing. Indulgent and self-consciously outrageous behavior, show business boy and girl behavior - attitudes and mannerisms summoned in the attempt to bring notice to a negligible personality - is not the same as being original, because it is necessarily in response to something. A reaction to someone else's point of view...." - p 44

"He was fond of a remark by the critic John Hall Wheelock that writing involves the imposition of a line of words on a line of feeling." - p 99

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!! Yes that's right, it starts in just 3 hours 7 minutes - a day to celebrate Australia. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is akin to 4th of July - a time to take off work and celebrate being Australian.

Check out more details here Australia Day - I'll be celebrating by wearing my Aussie hat tomorrow all day ;)

So for our engineering project, our team (Ventus Engineering) was required to construct a bridge to span 15" using a maximum of 100 drinking straws, and 20 feet of string with a goal of suspending 1 brick. After much reasearch it became clear that we could aim for a "truss" style with many small triangles:


- but we wanted to do better. SO after much brainstorming we came up with the basic ideas sketched at the top - a flat boxy grid with loops of string through the straws and hanging below as a harness for the weight (bricks). The idea developed further and further. The plan came to fruition after a good prototype and here is the first test of the final product:


We used some great strategies such as packing 6 slit straws inside of each Dairy Queen straw for strength and using a tight lashing with string to strengthen the joints in the middle of the bridge.

The day of competition came and our bridge had an unknown strength. We didn't want to load it to the point of failure in our testing sessions because we were afraid it would permanently weaken the bridge. So the moment of truth came - all teams passed the initial requirement of holding one brick, but then came the fun part: loading to the point of failure (see the previous team as they try to add another brick):


Our bridge came last - no other teams' bridge could support more than 6 bricks (and that was with "questionable" brick placement). We loaded our bridge. And kept loading. And kept loading :) We ran out of bricks after the 7th one and resorted to a can of Mt. Dew (in honour of Jason and the professor). It never did fail and our bridge has now been donated to the professor's collection.



I admit I was on a high for the rest of the day and today too for that matter. Jose (the guy behind the Mt. Dew) and I put a lot of time and effort into making it work and it performed beautifully. It is a great feeling to see an idea come through the way you hoped it would.

Now we just have to write a big paper about the process from beginning to end that is due tomorrow...

Apologies to all my faithful readers for a severe lack of writing... Here's a quick news briefing before I hop in bed and the weekend is officially over.

LOTS OF HOMEWORK. Tests, projects, memorization, presentation, etc. It is keeping me on my toes - much more than last quarter somehow. All interesting classes fortunately though.

I've spent many evenings lately rockclimbing - which is now much better thanks to climbing shoes, chalk bag, and other equipment I got for Christmas from my dear family :) So fun and great stress relief. I usually go with Mitch - a new friend of mine who lives off campus.

Gaming. Yes it's sad. I still squeeze game time into my life instead of doing more useful and productive things like writing in my blog. Sometimes I play with friends back home or in Australia - but more often than not it's just me. Oh well - some play is alright I guess.

Movies. I've watched several movies in the past month - mostly on the weekend. They have included: Broken Flowers, Life Aquatic, A History of Violence, Rushmore, Madagascar, Avalon, and Lord of War. Plenty more to watch, but I'm trying to pace myself.

I've also thought more about learning Japanese. And that's about as far as I've gotten... Jason and I will conquer it someday!

Talking with SHAZ - I got two great phone calls from her this past week and it was awsome. I'm looking forward to visiting this July so much :) I MISS MY MATE!

Also - I got my mobile phone set up again - all in all a fairly busy and productive week. And I wish I had more time.

More later... really! And maybe even pictures!

Well I'm only just into my second quarter at Walla Walla College - still working on my Computer Engineering degree - and it's intense. More so than I expected it would be. I used to laugh (not out loud of course) at people who use the palm pilot organizers, but I totally understand now. Between social events, volunteer meetings, club events and meetings, homework, and classes... You get the idea.

Still, I will not complain - life is different but that's not such a bad thing. I've still had time to spend with people and even some time to play games or watch movies. It is a bit disheartening though to find myself looking forward to the weekend so I can get ahead on my homework by a day or two.

"The intelligence can only be led by desire. For there to be desire, there must be pleasure and joy in the work. The intelligence can only grow and bear fruit in joy. The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running. Where it is lacking there are no real students, but only poor caricatures of apprentices who, at the end of their apprenticeship, will not even have a trade.

It is the part played by joy in our studies that makes of them a preparation for spiritual life, for desire directed toward God is the only power capable of raising the soul. Or rather, it is God alone who comes down and possesses the soul, but desire alone draws God down." - Simone Weil

That is what I must memorize for Honors College Writing. Our class will be reciting it at the beginning of every class period for the next year. Pardon me while I rave about this class. I am truly honoured to be taking it - the resources provided to me are far beyond most writing classes. There are only a dozen or so of us students. The professor is an older man, published author, and rarely have I seen a more authentic genuine human. You can tell he is pouring himself into the class and he takes a specific personal interest in every one of us. Every assignment is read and graded by him and by one of his three graders. Help is available any time and the assignments are truly creative. This class strays so far from the style I'm used to - a welcome push outside of my comfort zone. There is no syllabus. I don't know what I am graded on. I get the sense that grades will reflect the student's motivation, effort, and improvement rather than on skill alone. Thank goodness!

I expect great things will come from this class. I must remember to thank Jodi (a friend from Avondale) profusely for strongly recommending it over the standard College Writing classes offered.

Enough ranting for now. Calculus 2 is good, General Chemistry is good, Data Structures 1 is good, U.S. History 2 is good, Intro Engineering 2 is good. Well there is more to say about each of them of course, but I wouldn't want to do anything rash by discussing them in great detail right now.

For something completely different, today was official "Pajama Day" - I was in my element with pj's, robe, and slippers all day to classes, the cafeteria, and meetings this evening. So comfortable - I should wear this every day...

Quotes are fascinating things - so short and concise, yet they accomplish more than any lenthy writing I attempt. Part of my new interest in quotes stems from my college writing class in which we are required to quote a particular passage at the beginning of every class. I'm in search of one that truly matches me and in doing so, I've stumbled upon a great many insightful quotes. Expect to find them randomly sprinkled through future blog entries.

I am sure no other civilization, not even the Romans, has showed such a vast proportion of ignominious and degraded nudity, and ugly, squalid dirty sex. Because no other civilization has driven sex into the underworld, and nudity to the W.C. - D. H. Lawrence

Without picking it apart and ruining the magic of a well phrased quote, ... how true is it!! The more our culture attempts to suppress sex and nudity, the more distorted they become. So much for our "advanced" civilization.

I just got a call from my best friend and instead of the usual random chatter, I found that his grandfather died the night before... Death isn't easy.

Most of us die with much of our beautiful music still in us, un-sung, un-played. - Grant M. Bright

Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five. - Benjamin Franklin

Two intriguing quotes.

Death sucks - yet it is an essential, inevitable, and natural part of life. On a side note, I wonder if more focus should be made on living and our response to death than to delaying or avoiding death itself.

What am I supposed to do...?

Well let's lay it out here - I was supposed to fly Atlanta - Charolotte - Seattle. Then meet a student from college at 10:45 am and drive back to Walla Walla. Easy enough you might think.

Here's how things actually went. Got everything checked in and sat at the gate for my first flight. Then things go bad - apparently they can't pull the plane into our gate because ... it is too close to nearby planes or something? Some weird reason I've never heard of, but it resulted in a 2 hour delay which meant I wouldn't catch my connecting flight. This led to the first of a series of unfortunate events: my baggage and I were seperated. I got routed through Dallas while my baggage went off to Charlotte to ... age for a while.

I made it to Seattle eventually, but of course I was several hours late and my ride back to college had already left. "No worries" says I, "I'll just catch a bus or something!". The second unfortunate piece falls in now. Greyhound discontinued their service to Walla Walla. So with some quick decisions (cheers for resourceful mums a phone call away) I bought a pricey ticket on a plane out to Walla Walla.

So I'm here now! I made it. My baggage was not so lucky. It is stranded in Seattle. I called the local airport today to ask about it and apparently I'll be "lucky" if I get it by the 5th... All the flights are full and due to the small aircraft size they can't accomodate extra luggage (and besides that, they are backlogged with lost luggage apparently).

I guess I offended the travel gods somehow. clothes are overrated anyway.

On the brightside, I did get to ride firstclass part of the time, strangers were very generous in letting me borrow mobile phones for calling home, and Ashley was nice enough to give me a ride back to college from Walla Walla airport.

Aim small, miss small...

Nobody suspected it, but in my secret double life I'm a ballistics expert. Of course, this skill is used only for good - to protect my friends all over the world...

I love guns. Actually, weapons of all types are beautiful. Art with a purpose. Guns can be used the wrong way, but it really is true that guns don't kill people. People kill people. Or more accurately, death kills people. The gun is no more "bad" or "evil" than a kitchen knife.

Jeff and I were invited to a firing range last Thursday by a good friend to shoot some of his arsenal. He actually owns 42 guns currently and practices about once a week. 42 may sound a bit obsessive, but really I can see why - each one is different and unique. I had a chance to fire about a dozen of them including the M1 Garand (WW2 rifle), AR15 with and without scope, a couple other really nice rifles, a magnum revolver, a couple 22's, and some 9mm handguns. 3 hours shooting targets and learning about guns - a great evening to say the least!

I dont' know if I'll ever get into buying guns (kinda pricey), but they are heaps of fun!

So I found out that this break, one of my Aussie friends (who is actually from Brazil - THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD) was going to be within driving range of my home...

Thursday morning I drove up to the Chattanooga Convention Center where the SDA youth conference was being held and met Kelly, her sister, and a few of her friends! So Kelly and I took off and wandered around the banks of the Tennessee river for a while - checking out the art, parks, and town while talking about everything from news back at Avondale to discussing the evils of killing and eating animals (while nibbling on chicken fajitas and a chicken pasta dish at Chili's).

Unfortunately, it was quite cold and overcast - I remember last time I was up that way, the whole riverfront area was thriving with weddings, joggers, bikers, kids, art, etc. In comparison the place felt DEAD. Oh well - it was still great to see Kelly!!