Wanderlust

05 August 2005

File sharing and money well spent

File sharing

I am going to finish my last post shortly. First, I have a general question. Does anyone know a way to post files and make them available on the blogger? Video or mp3 files for example.

Money well spent

I'ld like to share another thought while I am here. When one is poor, one must think about money quite a lot. Value, depreciation, and versitility of everything becomes an issue. Today, I am adding another thing to my short list of well spent money.

Here is my list.

1. Food has alwasy been first on my list. I have to eat and I might as well. If it comes down to gas or food. Food is a renewable resource and walking or riding my bike far more efficient in terms of energy expenditure. Walking/running = ~120 kcal/mile, biking = ~25kcal/mile, driving costs an incredible 660 - 3300 kcal/mile. (A statistic from Ken Kifer's Bike Pages. An addmitedly unscientific source, but you can do the calculations yourself if you want.)

2. Bicycle. For some of the same reasons listed above, ie. fuel efficiency and general health. But also, because I can buy a $30 part for a repair to a bicycle and it will run fine for a year or more. Thousands of miles. Try fixing anything on your car for $30.

And the new addition.

3. AAA. If you must drive. I don't know how many times I've called AAA but I'm sure they are keeping track. At least twice, recently, on trips to LAX. Locked keys in car, dead battery, dead car. With towing at $2/mile or a locksmith at probably more than $50, it's worth having that roadside insurance. To make it even more worth your money, use somebody elses money. I actually don't know how much it costs since I have been on my mom's plan for as long as I have been driving. Thanks ma.

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04 August 2005

Catching up

I am really behind now, but I'll start catching up. I don’t expect much will happen worth writing about now that I’m back in Loma Linda.
Maybe I'll become creative like my friends doing their own blogs.

I’ve been gone from LLU for most of the summer so far. That’s pretty much the way I like it.
I think the only reason I would call this place home is that it's shorter than "Daniels Residence
Complex at Loma Linda University.

So, where should I start? There was the other half my trip to Washington that I was going to finish.

More Washington

I’ll just share some photos real quick.

There were these sea flakes on the beach. Crunchy but not like corn flakes.

Me and Bradley fought like crabs to decide you got to lay in the sea flakes.

The next day we went to the Tillamook Cheese factory, which was really cool but I don’t have any pictures. Then we had some time so we stopped at a windy part of the beach.

We went back to Vancouver and my Aunt Tina came to visit.

Then Ceri left on Friday and that was sad. I didn't know it yet but I would
see her again pretty soon.

[I have a limit to how many photos I can upload per month so we’ll see how many you get to see]

On my drive home the moon was gigantic over Mount Shasta.

It doesn’t look like it in the picture but I read about it in the news when I got back to school. click here

Oh, yeah! Another thing I saw on the way back to Loma Linda was big trees. These things are seriously large

Loma Linda

Ok, so I was back in Loma Linda for like two seconds. I had to move into my
dorm room.
Which is ok for a dorm. Then I went to Oceanside and Camp Pendleton for a week to work for
Ecorp. Have I mentioned Ecorp before? I like it. I feel like they treat me well.

Unfortunately, I got my camera in the water while fishing with Ecorp. It never recovered so there are going to be a couple weeks without pictures.

I came back to Loma Linda and realized I didn't have any work for another three weeks and almost everyone was gone.
Alex had just bought a ticket to leave on Monday. So I bought one too, for Ohio.

Ohio

I flew into Columbus on the 4th of July. I thought I would be able to see some fireworks from the air,
but there really weren't very many going off. Ceri have packed a picnic but we couldn't find any fireworks to watch,
so we found a dock on a river and ate there in the dark. We ate cherries and spit
the pits into the water. Frogs were croaking
around us. It as really nice.

The first week I was in Ohio Ceri had painting class. That took most of the day so while she was painting I
formatted my computer. It runs much faster now.
In the evenings we ate and watched movies. We watched kind of a lot of movies.

Sometimes we went to the coffee shop or library and worked. Ceri did center stuff and I did parrot stuff.

Her painting looks really good. I went up to the studio to check it out while she was in the process and
I think it is one of the better paintings that was in the room.

On the next Monday, Bill (my professor recently back from the Bahamas) called to find out where I was at.
When he found out I was in Ohio he thought that was close enough to Washington DC that I might as well hop on over there.
So, that week I spent a lot of time getting tools and measuring equipment together. And figuring out travel plans.
And I bought a camera.
Ceri was awesome about the whole thing. She was really supportive letting me use her car and coming with
even though she really didn't want to go.

The day before we left for Washington and New York we went to church in Toledo, drove to Michigan on accident,
and ate at a really good Indian restaurant.

I really like the church building and location.
You can get distracted by the green outside.

This is the Tandoor on Reynolds Road in Toledo.

Another Washinton

This one is on the other end of the country. There's not really much to say about here. But I thought it deserved a bar and a bold heading.

Bill's parents were really nice and let us stay with them in their house north of Washington.
We would take the commuter bus in and out of downtown. It's really the best way to go. It dropped us off
one block from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Ceri went to the art galleries while I was working with the parrots.
You may have already read about it in her posts on the
18th and
19th of July.

Ok, I'm tired and I have to stop for now. I'll
finish this tomorrow or this weekend for sure but this hold you over until then.

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25 July 2005

Sudoku excuses

While I was in Ohio with Ceri, we would regularly go to the coffee shop or library for internet access. We would do our work and school work. Ceri would update her blog and that would have been a perfect time to update my blog. But no, I played sudoku. It all started with a search for a crossword puzzle in the USA today. It was Wednesday, and because the NYT comes by mail to the library in BG we had done the Monday crossword puzzle. Wednesday’s paper comes on Friday, of course. Ceri had just kicked my ass in a race to finish and was eager to do it again. We didn’t find it Wednesdays crossword, but we did find sudoku. Now I am an addict. I’ve already played two this morning and it’s only 7:30. My best time is 5’30” which is pretty good because I haven’t been able to get close to that time again. I think my average is around 8 min.

If you haven’t heard of Adam Felber before, you might check out his blog. He made a good point on it
today.

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20 July 2005

LLU to BG to DC to NY to LLU

I added a link on the right.

I have been doing a lot of traveling lately. There was Washington which you read a little about already. Then Oceanside where I took a dip with my camera while trying to fish dead beaver out of the water. Then I was without a camera for few weeks when I decided to go to Ohio. But then I needed a camera because I decided to go to the other Washington in the District of Columbia. Now I am in New York staying with a friend from Lincoln and eating excellent pizza by the slice.

I'll share some pictures and maybe go into more depth later when I get back to California.

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24 June 2005

Trip to Portland

Hello people,

Ceri has started her own blog and has been doing a lot better job than me. I added a link to her page on the right there so you can see it.

I'm going to start with some pictures from my most recent trip. First I had to get Bradley and Sunny from the airport. It was a six hours to get from Loma Linda to LAX and back. That includes waiting for two hours for Bradley and Sunny to come out of the airport.


So I guess this is what happens to you when you live in Spain for 9 months.

Bradley and Sunny flew to LAX and I was to take them to Vancouver, WA. In addition to Bradley and Sunny I took all of my stuff because I moved out of my apartment. They were good and helped me pack and clean.
It took us about 25 hours to drive from Loma Linda to Vancouver. This was because the trailer would sway back and forth if we drove faster than 50mph.

On the drive I finished my assignments for class and emailed them when I got to Vancouver. I spent a couple hours with my mom and then drove to Walla Walla to see Ceri.

Ceri and Deanna

It was April's graduation and there were a lot of Ceri's family and friends there. You can see a picture of that on Ceri's blog.
On Monday we met Bradley and Ma at Multnoma Falls. Later that day we got some ice cream with Ceri's friend Deanna. It was some good ice cream too.


Ma got a lot of ice cream for just herself but Bradley helped her finish it	Bradley and Sunny still looking goofy

On Tuesday we went to Smith Rock State Park in central Oregon. We should have gotten up earlier because we didn't start climbing until about 2:30pm. I definately want to go back sometime to finish Wherever I May Roam. It's 5 pitches and we only made it to the top of the second pitch before evening.


Bradley is on the second pitch here. It's a 5.10

Ceri at Smith Rock

Smith Rock is a really cool place to climb. There are a lot of bolted routes for those who are to poor to buy trad. They paths are very well maintained with stairs to the routes and leveled off areas for the belayers. Fences keep people away from the vegetation and on the path. I would recomend the park to climbers of any level.

Ceri's parents were staying at a resort near sisters and they came out to see the park while we were climbing. Unfortunately, Asterisk Pass to the other side were we were climbing when they arrived was more difficult than I had anticipated and they weren't able to see any of us climbing. I was impressed with my Ma for going over the pass which I would call a 5.2 or 5.3. Bradley set a an anchor and top roped her.

That evening we ate spaghetti which the Myer's were generous to offer. We camped at on a lake near Big Lake Youth Camp where Ceri worked for two summers.


Big Lake	This was Ceri's cabin

On Wednesday morning we visited Big Lake.

Then we went to the coast south of Lincoln City. We met my Aunt Lettie at the aquarium in Newport.

Ceri's grandmother has a trailer close to the beach in close to Lincoln City and we were able to stay there for a night.

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28 May 2005

Here is how to find me.

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15 May 2005

April in Loma Linda

So I read my site meter report today and discovered that some people really are visiting my site. Although not leaving any comments and probably not people that I actually know. So I’ve decided to update it for those random people and the occasional non-random person.

Past

I’ll start with telling you what I’ve been up to since spring break, because when I’ve tried to tell you what I will be up to soon, well it just wasn’t true. I guess I have no idea what I will be doing even a day or two in advance.

My mom came to visit me for a week at the beginning of April. She brought Victor with her and he fixed the brakes and steering knuckle on the Jeep while I was at school. That was pretty nice of him. Then for the weekend we drove to Anza Barrego State Park and drove up Coyote Canyon on a rough road with my mom’s CR-V. She started to worry when it got sandy so we turned around and played in the creek for a while. We drove around the Salton Sea, saw some cool burrowing owls, and camped on the northern shore of the sea. The sea smells bad but the view is nice. The next day we drove through Joshua Tree National Park. People always say, “Now that it is a national park” but its was established in 1994, over 10 years ago, so I think we should accept it as a national park and move on. We saw a desert tortoise, a red racer snake, and a lot of cholla and Joshua trees.

Then there was some school and some wondering about my thesis project.

Then I went to Camp Pendleton for a week and helped Ecorp with a project there removing exotic species of fish from the margarita estuary. I am now a te

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04 April 2005

Spring Break

So, I’m back for spring break and I should update my blog to let you
know how it went. It was a good spring break. I went Ohio to visit
Ceri. I’m glad I bought my ticket back in January because I am super
poor now. Actually, I was poor then as well but now my credit card is
maxed out making it difficult for me to buy anything.

(Sorry about the spaceing. I can't figure it out)

Here are a bunch of photos I took with some captions.

After my finals on the 16th, my professor gave me a ride to the
train station in San Bernardino. I was worried about missing my flight
because I had to get all the way to LAX and I don't trust interstates
in LA at all. People drive like their suicidal here. Everyone complains
about the traffic and now believes it's their fault. I am convinced
that trains and subways are the only way to get to the airport. For
$6.50 I took the 1 o'clock MetroLink train from San Bernardino to
downtown LA. This took about 1.5 hours. Then I took the subway from
downtown to the airport. My metrolink ticket worked for the subways so
I didn't have to pay anything more. Trains are so efficient I don't
know why I was worried about making my flight. Then I took the free
shuttle to the terminal I needed and made it all the way from San Berdo
to the airport in about 2.5 hours.

Ceri, picked me up in Detroit around 12:30am on the 17th and we finally made it back to her apartment around 2 in the morning.

The spotted one and the striped one are brown
eggs, cage free vegetarian.

These are some of Ceri's friends in Bowling
Green, Matt and Michelle. They wanted to paint eggs for Easter so we
brought over some brown eggs. I think they turned out pretty well.

Oops! They didn't all make it to the end of
the night.

I made sure to bring my climbing shoes with me and we went to Ceri's climbing wall twice while I was there. She was really excited to show me all the routes she does and wore me out getting me to climb one after the other. (This is Ceri's collage)
I was impressed by how well Ceri was climbing, unfortunately she needs to work on her falling. She fell from the over hang onto the edge of the crash pad.

Look at how happy she looks with her twisted ankle. Her bruises make a smiley face, too.