I suppose you could say "no news is good news." That doesn't work forever though. My apologies for the lack of new bloggish material.

Salmon fishing in Alaska was every bit the grand adventure I hoped it would be. There were good days and not-so-good days, but on the whole, I really enjoyed the experience. I couldn't ask for more amiable companions as captain and crew, my living space was nice, and 3 huge meals every day kept me running even with insufficient sleep.

In the photo above, you can see a seagull nesting near our cabin. I have a new hatred for seagulls after fishing (they peck eyes and gills out of fish) but I can't deny their beauty. We had awesome sunsets quite frequently and since we were so far north during the summer, sunset started around midnight and sunrise started about 3 am. 20+ hours of light every day took some getting used to ;)

Here is a photo of me with the largest King (chinook salmon) that we caught - 42 pounds! Neoprenes, gloves, raincoat, and hat were a necessity to avoid fish slime.
Here you can see part of the equipment before we went out fishing: webbing + lead line + cork line = one net ready for fish.

Here you can see the 2 cabins we stayed in (plus the luxury outhouse). No running water, no electricity, and surrounded by bogs/mud/mosquitoes. What more could anyone ask for? It was a great place though - awesome weather a very cozy home. I'm still a little puzzled about the smoke. Either another cabin is on fire or someone is burning trash.

Friends, I am off to go fishing in Alaska. I have no idea what it will be like, but plenty of pictures will be taken. I just hope I don't drown :D

Finals went really well - so glad to have that out of the way. Time to check out of the dorm and be on my merry way! My summer reading list contains:
Tao Te Ching
Bhagavad Gita
Selections from the Qur'an
Readings in the Philosophy of Science
and about 6 quantum physics books

(not to mention full blown research for next year's writing class). Time is going to fly!

I'm an uncle - what a scary thought... On the upside, it should be a lot of fun - I can spoil my niece, Shanna, rotten! I won't get to to see her in person for month or two, unfortunately, but from the pictures she looks pretty human ;)

I'm under a tough load at the moment, but in 3 days I'll be free and done with finals! Leaving for Alaska a week from Tuesday as well, so that's cool!

So I haven't posted anything substantial in a good long while. I'm one week from finals and life is getting "interesting" you might say. Classes are good but challenging and I've been playing soccer, ultimate frisbee, and doing a bit of climbing. Here's a photo or two from a recent rockclimbing trip:


Aside from climbing, I've been up to the usual mischief. Oh and I'm leaving for Alaska in 2 weeks!

Now for something completely different, I did some research on liquid dance and popping recently. Check out this video - best part is about half way through!

I'm not dead yet. More news soon. Sleeeeeeeep...

This quarter looks as scary as any before it. It's largely responsible for my lack of posting, actually.

My plan at the beginning was to get to bed by 11pm every night, get up at 6am to exercise, practice dancing and rock climbing, and generally do everything!

I think it only happened two days so far - not a great track record. I'm hanging in there. Here's my lineup:
Ordinary Differential Equations
Physics (3rd quarter)
Dynamics (3rd quarter)
World Religions
Honor's Writing 2
Philosophy of Science
Rock climbing 2

Fortunately, there are other things to keep me busy in all my spare time: math tutoring, rock climbing, soccer inter murals, and yes (I hesitate to admit it) some computer games with friends.

Oh yeah, I also spend my time practicing the algorithm march!

So it's been a long while since I've posted anything - it's not for lack of stuff happening though... I had a funtastic spring break with these excellent friends of mine! We went hiking in the hills of Walla Walla, had a St. Patty's party, visited Tillamook, drove the Washington coast, explored a rainforest, went Salsa dancing in Seattle, and generally enjoyed good company. Huzzah for roadtrips! There were many "you had to be there" moments that just won't work as a blog post. I had a great time - we'll leave it at that.
A sweet fire we got going with chocolatey-marshmallowy-banannas in foil - the new "smore" substitute!
Two of my great friends Janelle and Jen - as seen from underneath a sidewalk!
Green mashed potatoes are awesome!

I went on a sweet scuba trip this quarter. We had our share of unfortunate circumstances, but it all worked out alright!

We drove out Wednesday afternoon, but a huge wreck in the mountain passes kept us from arriving at Rosario until 1:30 in the morning! We slept in our cabins until late morning and then started our training. Lots of talking and then time to gear up! Sadly, there were not enough wetsuits in my size, so we went to a nearby dive shop to rent. They didn't have enough either. Thus, I ended up wearing a small woman's suit. It didn't quite fit right and after about 20 minutes it flat out hurt, but I did look pretty sexy :)

The second day was a lot better - more fish, plants, and we hit 50ft instead of just 20 from the first day. I even got to borrow a fancy underwater camera (eventually I get those pictures)! Now that it is warm and sunny outside, it's easy to forget that it was snowing as we got into the frigid water.

Anyways, I loved the experience and it only gets better from here - better visibility, warmer water, more wildlife, etc.

My good friend Yong just cooked up a beautiful Korean meal Sat. night for some friends! Hot Kimchi, rice, soups, and tea - lots of fun! So that's Mexican, German, and Korean. I think African and South American are next on the list...

I'd had my eye on the movie "300" for a while. It caught my interest because it was based on a graphic novel and it was historical. I didn't have high expectations, but went to the midnight showing last Thursday. I was quite pleasantly surprised - a solid entertaining movie that got some of the main facts right! Even better, a bunch of crazy college students were dressed up, driving around the parking lot at the cinema, and yelling. Basically being macho. Almost as entertaining as the movie.
300 is a retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans held a pivotal pass through the mountains for several days against Xerxes and his Persian army. There are a wide range of estimates on the size of the army - Herodotus claimed 2.6 million, but even at modern conservative estimates of more than 200,000 the odds weren't pretty. King Leonidas and his small group of soldiers delayed long enough for the rest of Sparta and Greece to assemble forces and effectively defend against the Persians. An epic story to say the least.