Bad night…

So last Sunday in the Little Lebowski Urban Achiever(LLUA) basketball finale, I managed to mess up my leg. Not just one specific part of it, but pretty much the whole damn thing. OK, maybe not the whole damn thing, but at the very least I: sprained my knee, strained(maybe tore) my hamstring, and strained(maybe tore) my calf. Because of this I have been unable to drive all week and have been hobbling around on crutches, all while unable to even look forward to coming home and crashing in my bed in my favorite sleepy-time position(on my side/stomach). The last of these has been, until now, remedied by the Vicodin that the docs gave me which has been putting me out at night, but now that I’ve run low(and am actually out now, having just taken the last pill out of desperation) the tables have turned.

This whole night has just been incredibly so shitty, almost to an astonishing degree. The only way that I can describe it would be through a list of mini-rants, so here goes.

1. Fuck you Apple Computer. Who’s idea was it not to include a damn AC adapter for your 5G iPods. I mean, for God’s sake, how much could it possibly cost you. Due to the lack of inclusion, when I charged my iPod earlier, and forgot to unplug it from my computer before I shut it down, it erased all of my motherfucking music. The one thing that could’ve helped take my focus away from the throbbing pain in my leg would be a little bit of music, but because you fuckers are too cheap to give me an AC adapter with my $300 music player, I didn’t have that luxury, so I’m now waiting as my music is being transferred back onto my iPod.

2. My sheets fucking smell like a skunk’s ass(or stink glad, or whatever). Somehow when I was washing my sheets a couple of days ago a skunk somehow managed to get its rank scent into the drier while my sheets(and pillowcases) were in. Despite washing them again, the scent of skunk still graces my shit. If one more wash won’t take it out I’m going to have to buy all new fucking bed linens(which really isn’t that big of a deal since I was going to need new sheets when I move to Austin in August anyway). Fuck you nature. I don’t even live in the country or some shit like that, but somehow one of nature’s frat boys managed to fuck up my laundry.

3. My leg fucking hurts. I don’t even need to really describe this but shit, it’s really getting to me right now.

4. The leg brace. After my injury I had to go to the emergency room for treatment, and they gave me this massive fucking leg brace. From the perspective of keeping my knee immobile, it’s fucking great, but since I also have pretty serious injuries to my calf and hamstring, the giant metal rods in this piece of shit just ensure that by the end of the day, regardless of where/how I sit, my leg is going to fucking hurt. Not to mention, the leg brace is the primary reason I can’t drive(since I haven’t been taking the Vicodin during the day).

5. The internet is pissing me off. No, I’m not having technical difficulties or any of that crap, but when I can’t sleep and I’m waiting for my iPod to upload 3500 songs, I find myself getting lost in the information collection that is Digg. Don’t get me wrong, I like Digg and find it very entertaining, but in my already agitated state the completely overwhelming presence of “liberal” woe is me douchebags just pisses me off to no end. I know it shouldn’t, and it usually doesn’t, but right now it does. All these emo little bitches crying about how we are losing our civil liberties and the US is turning into a fascist need to just shut the fuck up for an hour or so and buy a fucking clue. But they won’t. Instead, these self-righteous little pricks run around talking down(and digging down) to whomever disagrees with them. What the fuck ever happened to respect? This shit isn’t just limited to the internet, but right now I am in a foul mood and on the internet, so it’s an easy target. These bastards even have the audacity to make jokes about natural selection in the context of people dying in tragic ways. We get it, you think you’re a big deal, now shut the fuck up and go back to your technical school classes.

To summarize this article in only one word, I conclude with this: FUCK!!!

Global warming with Soviet ties?

Recently the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report stating that it was “very likely” that the global increase of temperatures over the last fifty year has been caused by human activity. Hoping to get some real information from their report I looked through several varying articles until I stumbled upon something interesting, a map showing the areas of greatest temperature change over the last half-century

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By looking at this map it is pretty obvious that the largest area of concentrated warming has occurred in or around Russia. I found this surprising for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that due to its continued bleak economic state for the last, it would be fair to say that there are substantially fewer cars being driven on a day to day basis in Russia, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots that few cars=few greenhouse gases. Alright, I realize that vehicular emissions play only a small role in terms of total greenhouse gases emitted, in fact according to UN Food and Agriculture organization vehicular emissions produce fewer greenhouse gases than livestock. So what about livestock? Due to its harsh land and climate, despite their growing beef industry, livestock in the Russian Federation is much less a factor than in most other areas of the world.

Now we have made it to the big daddy of green house gas production in the former Soviet Union, completely unbridled burning of fossil fuels and other industrial emissions. Yes, the vast majority of power plants in the largest nation on Earth(in terms of land size) are all poorly maintained and engineered coal power plants, and it is true that what few environmental regulations they place on their hard industry of soft and rarely enforced, but I still think we should look past these issues to tackle the true explanation for global warming, the Soviet Climate Control device.

It’s no secret that during it’s rein the Soviet Union produced many top-notch scientists, who were put to work in the fields of weapon development and making even smaller dolls to stack inside of other dolls. While developing microscopic dolls, it seems entirely plausible to me that Russian scientists would not consider this work fulfilling, and being unable to leave the USSR to pursue opportunities in the private sector, these scientists would need to find a way to stimulate their creative minds. Finally, after years of discussion, leading scientists were able to convince Soviet authorities to let them start on a climate control device. The Ruskies at the top believed that this device would allow them to create natural disasters wherever they wanted, but the real motivation of the scientists would escape them until now.

So why would a bunch of Russia’s top doll-making scientists want to develop a climate control device? For the challenge, the prestige, the power? No. Because it’s cold in Russia. Unfortunately for them the Soviet Union fell and so did their funding so they were only able to raise the average tempurature by about 1 degree, and right now they aren’t even sure if they did it or if it’s just coincidence, but they do know one thing. It’s still cold in Russia.

I fought nature…

and nature won.

So over the past year or so I’ve taken up backcountry backpack camping, and yesterday I decided that I was ready to move past what State Parks had to offer and go tackle a mountain, Emory Peak in Big Bend N.P. to be specific. This was a bad idea for a multitude of reasons, which I will all cover in this post.

So my first mistake of the trip turned out to be going to Big Bend to begin with when I only had two days off of work. It’s pretty far away from Waco, and when I say pretty far I mean like the same distance as Mississippi. So after a long day of driving I roll into the park at about 5:30 and make my way to the Chisos Mtn. Basin. Once there I am quick to realize my second mistake, I forgot my boots. If this were one of my normal trips out to the hill country, then I would just realize that going backpacking without boots is a bad idea and head home, but at this point I am approximately 500 miles from home, so I decide that my sneakers will have to do.

So after getting all my stuff together I take off on the trail. This is mistake #3, not so much taking off on the trail but thinking that it would be a good idea for my flabby self to choose to camp at the top of the tallest mountain in Big Bend, when up to this I had never even driven up a mountain much less climbed one. Anyway, so about a quarter of a mile into the trail, there is a long steep climb. Now I have yet to mention it, but it becomes immediately relevant that I haven’t eaten in quite some time, which combined with my utter out-of-shapeness left my completely spent after taking on this first hill on the path up the mountain.

Now if I wasn’t a stubborn fool I would have quickly realized that I should probably just go back down and car camp, then day hike Emory Peak. But, as everyone should know by now, I’m a stubborn fool so I decide to press on. Now fast forward three hours of me struggling to lag my huge backpack up a mountain, and I have finally made it to the top. I am dead tired, damp from hiking through clouds/wearing a cotton overshirt, and in a completely desparate mindset. Despite all of these things, I was pretty optimistic about setting up camp and getting some sleep.

At this point it’s actually looking like I could win my fight with nature, as I was able to set up my tent quickly and get some warm dinner. Then disaster strikes. Mistake #4 comes in the form of the cold weather sleeping bag I bought two days ago, specifically my deciding not to give it a test run before I took it out into the field. The zipper broke. I tried to fix it, but to no avail. I tried to just use it in combination to cover up with, but it was too cold for that. At this point, I made the mental transition from rugged manly man to desparate cold camper on top of a mountain. In this anguished mental stat, I made a rash decision. I grabbed my camera gear, my flashlight and just headed down the mountain as fast as I could. Yes, that means I left all of my gear on the mountain, and yes I realized that it is a pretty horrible thing to do from the perspective of an outdorr enthusiast, but at the time I didn’t care.

So upon making my way down the mountain I got to my car and tried to sleep, which didn’t work out so well. At just about midnight, a mere six hours after I had entered the park, I fled. Just after getting out of the park on Highway 385, I got stopped by border patrol, nothing really happened but I thought I would share. Ultimately the drive home was a long one full of barely concious confusion. Fortunately I was able to find an open store in Ozona where I could get some refreshing cold beverages to wake myself up, which combined with listening exclusively to music which I could sing along to fueled my conciousness for the long drive home.

In the end, I fought nature, and nature won.

P.S. Just a random aside, I was able to pick up 1660 KRZI in Big Bend. It was interesting to listen to Tom, Butch and Intern over 500 miles from Waco.

Winter wonderland?

The maintenance crew…

Originally uploaded by athrasher.

This picture was taken up at Baylor as the maintenance crew braved the cold temperatures and ice to do their job.

A new year, and a look back…

So it appears that yet another transformation from December to January has snuck up on me. Seriously, the past couple of months have just gone by in one quick blur. It really feels to me like Thanksgiving was just a week or two ago, and now here we are just 10 days from my 20th birthday.

20. I specifically remember years back pondering about what turning 20 would be like, and looking forward to being able to distinguish myself from being a “teenager”. But now, the difference to me seems negligible, and in fact the approaching milestone in my life seems to be as terrifying as any I’ve faced up to this point as I have accomplished nothing aside from dropping out of college (though I still have myself convinced that I will go back) and becoming a spirited advocate of raising minimum wage, because it would give me a raise. Fortunately, I have a moral obligation to put things in perspective, which forces me to know that I have plenty of time to turn my life around. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel that way.

Anyway, this year promises to offer some big changes in my life, which I will both welcome with open arms and a sense of apprehension. The old adage “the first day of the rest of my life” could be very appropriately applied to me, for this year really will be the first in what promises to be an interesting(if nothing else) life. 

Finally Victorious

Finally Victorious

Originally uploaded by athrasher.

For the past few months I have been participating in the weekly poker game at The Java Hut, vying for supremacy(and the $10 gift card that comes with it). Finally, on this 14th day of December(exactly one month before my birthday). Woohoo.

A Country Night Sky

A Country Night Sky

Originally uploaded by athrasher.

So tonight I took a trip out into the country to try to get a picture of the Geminid meteor shower. Unfortunately, after 30 minutes of futility, it became apparent that I had not prepared for the elements and was getting really cold, so I decided to pack it in and head home. Once I was exiting onto Hewitt Dr I saw what appeared to be a firework dropping into the Woodway area, though I heard nothing of the sort. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a meteor, but just in case news breaks tomorrow about a meteor crashing into Waco/Woodway. Texas, I wanted documented evidence that I saw it.

Cloudy, Cloudy Night…

The Moon and the Clouds.

Originally uploaded by athrasher.

I am definitely enjoying my my new camera. Took this picture tonight and decided that the title should serve as a tribute to Don McLean’s classic song.

Photoblogging…

So I’m thinking of using this primarily as a photoblog, since I just got a camera of my own(I had been using my mom’s) and I rarely feel motivated to really write, though I am by no means abandoning that aspect of this blog.

Jenny

Jenny

Originally uploaded by athrasher.

Now our only dog with the departure of Penny to the great doghouse in the sky.