[Mystic Gringo]

Not again.

2009-03-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

I have been doing alot of climbing lately, trying to go 3 to 4 times a week atleast. I have been getting better too, I am onsighting mid 10's, redpointing 11a's and struggling up mid to hard 11's. Pretty much right where I was wanting to be for the start of the season!

Last night there was a gear rep at the Krag who brought some cool shoes to try. So I slipped a pair of pretty aggresive Evolv'e on, and got on the bouldering wall. I did about 4 or maybe 5 moves, decided I wanted to try another part of the wall for this test. As I was all of 2 feet off the ground, I stepped back to walk over to the other part, and happened to step onto the edge of a crash pad. I heard 3 loud cracks, and then hit the ground in pain. Yup, broke my ankle again!

Now it's up in the air, with a bag of ice, and I am mad as hell right now. I was climbing right where I wanted to be, and the weather is warming up this weekend. I should be headed to the Red, but I am sure to be on my couch instead.

Finally joined the revolution

2009-02-12T08:59:00.003-05:00

Monday night I was working on some stuff for a client, and everything was going along smoothly, maybe almost too smoothly. My Dell that I bought from my sister then popped up a strange error... your computer is corrupt, save your work, Windows is shutting down in 60 seconds! No way to stop it. OK, whatever... saved work... chilled... Windows restarts... bluescreen! Ugh... I hate those stupid blue screens of death.

At the top, it says "To protect your computer, Windows has been shutdown." So many thing are wrong with that. What was Windows going to do to my computer? What was my computer without Windows? Why does it need to shutdown? Is it really protecting the computer... I mean, I am getting mad enough to make a Dell frisbee... so its not really so protective.

Anyway... I spent all night trying to get it running. I scoured the internet on my iPhone looking for a solution to my cryptic error. Turns out, the error means that there might be something wrong with my DVD drive... which I wasn't using, and is built into the laptop... and why can't it just boot without turning on the DVD drive.

The only solutions I had was to take it into one of these over-priced fixing places... pay probably $300 for them to say, "yup, its broken"... or to go buy a new machine. I am so sick of these stupid computers... Windows does incredible Mac advertising.

I went to my local Mac store at 9:03 am... tossed my dead machine on a counter, told them I need to replace this piece of junk with a Mac. They laughed, and I walked out at 9:37 with a new Mac, and all the stuff I need to capture my information off the old hard drive!

I bought the cheapest Mac they had, and its loaded, and fast... and is sweet. While I type this blog, iTunes is importing my thousands of songs, iPhoto is importing my 5,000 photos, I have Photoshop and Dreamweaver open, I have a movie playing in the corner, and am IM'ing my buddy about how cool this thing is, and it isn't skipping a beat.

I feel like I just came out of the woods, carrying a club, wearing a bear skin, and am looking down on a world that looks like the set of Blade Runner, realizing that I had been using that club to do my computing for way too long. I know Kung Fu.

Thanks Mac...

Resolutions - the beginning

2009-01-16T11:33:00.004-05:00

Every year millions of people come up with great resolutions on how they are going to be better, more awesome people. By now, most of them have forgotten about their grand schemes, or it has become just talk. I have been equally as guilty in the past of similar atrocities... but I think that this year will be different.

I read something yesterday on Gizmodo from Steve Jobs (mum, Steve is perhaps the most influential CEO of our time, he's the head of Apple) that made me realise why he is so successful, and its something I used to have. He actually was quoting the creators of the "Whole Earth Catalog", which he described as Google before the Internet. On the back cover of the final issue of the catalog there were 4 words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

To me, among other things, it is a battle cry against complacency and convention.

Last year was a rough year for millions of people... money was the focus of most peoples issues and definitely a focus of mine. More than that for me was losing myself in the stresses of life, and missing out on some phenomenal opportunities to live foolishly.

Last year, I was not me... I did not climb as much as I wanted (until towards the end of the year), I definitely didn't sail as much as I wanted, and I didn't live how I wanted. Way too many days were spent watching the TV instead of watching the sunset, cooking from a microwave instead of a campstove, sitting on my couch instead of swinging from a rope, sleeping in my bed instead of under stars....

I don't have all my plans figured out just yet, but I have some goals. Some are small, some are large, but they are all about me, and change. I will sail more this year, I will be a 5.11 climber this year, I will lead alot more trad this year, I will find more joy this year, I will travel more this year, I will dive more this year, and I will be hungrier and more foolish.

What am I doing right now about this... I am headed out to make a snow angel in 7 degree weather!

Nieces and Nephews

2009-01-08T18:45:00.003-05:00

This year I was lucky enouh to gain another nephew, Wesley Morgan Harvey. He, ofcourse, is the cutest zero-year-old ever, and is so far the most talented, and expressive zero-year-old I have met this year.

It took my sister and brother-in-law quite a bit of drama to eventually be blessed with this amazing baby. But, from the smile that has been plastered on their faces, he's well worth it. It has been amazing to see how much he has grown and changed in just a few weeks that I was with him.

I love being an uncle. Usually all it takes to be liked by the kids is a little playing, some goofing off, and occassionally doing stuff their parents don't let them do (like playing in the mud). It's always amazing every year to see how the kids are changing, and then to figure out what caused those changed... which ofcourse is entirely impossible. I love the fact that I can drink beer and play cards with the oldest one, change the diapers of the smallest one, and have 8 others in between. 10 is a good number of nieces and nephews... till the next one ofcourse.

Maybe one day I will be a dad, maybe I won't. Right now, being an uncle is cheaper, less complicated and more fun for me. So thank you brothers and sisters for your kids, they are all amazing.

Been A While

2008-11-27T09:02:00.001-05:00

So it's been a while since I have posted to my blog. It's not due to lack of things to post about though. Probably the biggest event since last time wrote is that I am no longer working at Lorenz Williams. They let me go for what I think, and a bunch of other people think (including many that work there still... shhh) is a very weak reason.

Actually, it's a great relief to not work there anymore. I had some good opportunities, and got to work on some interesting stuff, but my time was done.

I promise now to update this blog more often now, or atleast try too. But for this morning, Happy Thanksgiving, I am thankful I don't work at LWi any more.

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Conspiracy

2008-06-18T10:57:00.001-04:00

Big foot, aliens, and fair elections are all fodder for conspiracy theorists. I have a new one. What ever happened to that little tooth on the back of the tab for your zippers? You know, the one that locks the pull-tab into the teeth of the zipper, so it doesn't magically unzip. It surely can't cost so much more to have that little lock on the tab... and it saves alot of embarrassment.

I believe it is a conspiracy by Chinese manufacturers in an attempt to "catch us with our pants down". Having the fly down is 3/4 of the battle. Too bad they don't realize that is only a expression, not a goal.

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Return of the Tenants.

2008-05-27T08:23:00.004-04:00

Landlording can be funny. When I evicted my tenants, the bailiff showed up, and anything left in there... anything... becomes mine. Its pretty awesome, I have always wanted 1,000 baby socks strewn about my basement... and an old, broke down dryer. Somethings that they left behind though were important to them, which is why they called me that one day asking for a "box of important papers" which had "insurance, and tax information" on it. Well, they left so many boxes and bags of stuff, I never actually found that one box. I really did not feel like digging through the blend of dirty clothes, car-parts, and papers to find out which one she was talking about.

Anyway... I did stumble on some stuff that was probably important to them. Like some mail, their baby's footprints from the hospital, and a whole bag full of photo-albums! I hung onto those things for them, and was going to mail them out. I didn't have the right address for them though (the small-claims suit was returned to the courts unclaimed at the address I had), so I called them to find their new address. I planned on mailing their stuff to them last week, but I broke my ankle, which sucks. So I didn't get to it, as I was getting xrays and seeing the ortho dr. instead.

Saturday afternoon the tenant shows up at my house, with the police! She was demanding I turn over her belongings left behind! I explained to her that because she was evicted, everything she left behind, including her dirty disgusting clothes, became all mine. I gave her the mail that I had sitting there, along with her baby's footprints... but I kept all those photo albums to myself. They owe me over $1,800, and now they show up with the police demanding I turn over the junk they left behind, that made me kinda mad, so why should I give her those items back.

The cops kinda laughed at her for thinking she could get her stuff back. Turns out, her main concern was with identity theft, because now I would have her social security number. Firstly, they wrote their SSN on her application for the unit. Secondly... why would I steal the identity of deadbeats who can't pay their rent?!?! What do I get out of that except for more bills!

I can't wait till their court date, July 9th. That should be fun.

How much is your ankle worth?

2008-05-22T11:29:00.002-04:00

Went climbing Tuesday night at the Krag... went by myself, so I was bouldering. I climbed really well actually... especially for not having climbed much in the last few months. For those who don't know, bouldering is climbing without ropes, and you usually stay pretty low to the ground, and fall onto crash pads, or gravel. I don't like the crash pads, because I am always worried about spraining an ankle as they don't give as much.

This one guy was trying to do a route, and asked me for help, so I gave it a go. I ended up popping off the wall, and landing with my right foot half on the crash pad, and half off it. Naturally, it rolled out from under me, and I heard a popping sound. Awesome....

I walked out of there, and drove home. I did the ice and elevation thing... but finally decided to go see a Dr about it. Got the xrays, and yup, its broken. Awesome. Long weekend, of great weather... and a broken ankle is not cool.

Silver lining... I have the accident/injury rider on my insurance. Called them to get the claim forms, look like they are going to send me a check for $800 for this. I am going to try to get their price list, and next time I can't pay my bills, break something. Just kidding, no insurance fraud going on here.

Gotta figure out how to walk the dog... maybe get a wheel chair, and rig a system for her to pull me down the street... and hope she doesn't start chasing cats!

Bumper Sticker: "Your worst nightmare is my favorite vacation"

2008-05-20T14:04:00.030-04:00

This has turned out to be a LOOONG post... my bad.

Maria and I went to the boat a few weeks for the first sail of the season. Needless to say, I was very excited to get to her (the boat), clean her up (the boat again... not Maria), do some prep, and then spend several days just cruising the Chesapeake Bay with some good friends. Not all (or anything really) went as planned.

We learned alot that week. It didn't start well, when our friends who were supposed to come down on Saturday night kept getting delayed, and delayed... eventually only one of the two of them showed up on Tuesday morning.

Lesson #1: No longer plan around Jeff and Zora... simply tell them when somethings going to happen, and they can choose to take part or not. Maria and I took the week off for this, and I am done catering to people who don't respect Maria's or my time enough to even show up within several days, and constantly want my time, and my vacation which I invited them too worked around their schedules.

So, as we waited for them to show up, Maria and I spent a good deal of time cleaning the boat, and just relaxing. The weather was amazing the first part of the week... sunny, warm, and nice breezes... sure would have been nice to be out sailing, rather than waiting. But, it gave me time to do several things, and spend a bunch of money at West Marine. I bought a much needed battery charger, which I need to install properly still, and several other smaller items I needed. Once we got the batteries freshened up... I tested the bilge pump to be sure it was working correctly... turns out, it wasn't (glad I tested it). The bilge is a remote pump, with a hose to the bilge and remote float switch. There is a small impeller inside the pump that broke. I head to West Marine, as I didn't have a spare, and this little impeller is a $22 special order, that takes 3 weeks to get! Thats no good... for me... ofcourse, it means that West Marine was able to get me to buy a new bilge pump.

Lesson #2: Carry 2 spares for everything. When something breaks, have the spare, and have the second spare for when the first spare breaks while waiting for the order.

I decided that while we waited, I was going to climb the mast, just to do it, and maybe to change some bulbs. Since I climb, I felt more secure setting up prussik knots to ascend a rope, rather than be winched up. I was up there for maybe an hour... and couldn't get one of the light covers off. Which, turns out I didn't need too, that light worked, wish I knew that while I was up there. Then, I lost 1 of the bulbs I got while I was up there, so I never did get a replacement for it. Oh well, it was fun regardless.

Lesson #3: Get a more comfortable harness... and do that more often so I don't freak out if I do that in water with some movement. Climbing is scary enough... and mountains don't move. If the mountain starts swaying while your on it, then the lunch you ate was no good.

Tuesday morning rolls around, and Maria and I go to fuel the boat up, and pump out the head. Turns out... we may have tried to flush too much while at the dock (its a long way to the marina toilets)... and some of the "stuff" may have flowed out the cap at the top of the holding tank... and it may have been one of the most disgusting things I have ever smelled. The holding tank is under master stateroom bed... Maria loves that idea!

Lesson #4: Get a tank monitor... and maybe a more efficient head. Also... check the cap for a good seal.

So... finally... Tuesday morning, Jeff shows up, we have ice, wine, beer, food and dog... and are ready to go do some sailing. We throw off the dock lines, and begin motoring out of the slip. We get about 4 feet... and the engine dies. Note, we used the engine to get to the fuel dock, and the pump-out station just an hour or 2 before. Luckily, we are close enough to grab the dock lines... so we do, and pull ourselves back in... and tie up. Me, not knowing much of what I am doing... decide to change the fuel filter, and see if that works. The filter not only filters, but separates water from fuel. Pretty good thinking, I thought... with the boat having sat, and pumping in some new fuel... alteast it seemed simple enough for me to do. The guy who decided to write the instruction on the filter was an absolute genius... and I would like to give him a hug right now. It seems the incredible hulk tightened the fuel filter on... as I had to take the whole assembly off in order to get enough grip to torque the filter off. Finally, I get the filter changed, and full of fuel (luckily having bought a spare 5 gal fuel jug earlier that week and filled it.

But... not being familiar with the whole process, I didn't know that air pockets kill diesel engines, and that I had to bleed the system... all I knew was that the engine didn't start after that. The marina guys are helpful though, and pointed it out to me without making me feel retarded. So, instead of sailing to a remote deserted beach, in the sunshine, and grilling steaks for dinner... I was crawling around the engine looking for unlabeled bleed screws to turn, and watch for tiny bubbles. In all there are about 6. Luckily, I do have the original engine manual and an awesome diesel book, which I used as my guides... working my way through. After spending a muddling couple of hours (for a 15 minute job), the engine fires up... YAY ME.

Lesson 5: I am pretty awesome.

Wednesday morning, we decide to give this whole thing another go. Its a beautiful day, the weather calls for perfect winds to get us where we are going... sun's out... just perfect. Make some coffee, take the cover off the main, fire up the engine, pull the dock lines, and start motoring out. We get just out of my slip... and the engine cuts out!

Lesson 6: I am not that awesome.

Now, we are in the marina, heading for other innocent boats, with no power. I call for the main to be raised, we will sail her out of here. Luckily the wind is in just the right place... and we can sail out without much effort. The timing of the engine dieing this time is of particular note... we were just far enough away from our last pier to not be able to reach the dock lines with a hook. Timing is everything.

So I spent the day bleeding the fuel lines, running the engine, having it die, going and rebleeding the fuel lines... etc. I figured there's a leak somewhere in the system, so I start looking for it... as we are sailing up the bay. The engine runs for about 20 or 30 minutes before it dies, and there's always air in the fuel filter right after the tank... so there must be a tiny leak at this point. I tighten all the hose clamps, some where loose, try it again. Dies. I tighten all the filter caps... dies. I see a small leak from the one bleed screw on the second filter... tighten that, but still leaks. Hmmm... must be the problem. I clean the washer, and the top of the filter... reset it, it doesn't leak... try again... dies. Basically, this was my morning. I decide that the engine will run long enough for us to set an anchor later... so I rebleed, and prime the system, and then decide to enjoy the day of sailing.

Lesson 7: Don't let engine work interupt an awesome day of sailing.

The wind was supposed to be taking us to this little island where we would have a deserted beach all to ourselves. Basically... an awesome place. But, the wind didn't think we should go there, we were not making good time at all, so I decided that we need to find someplace closer to anchor. I listen to the weather, and figure out where the wind's going to come from so we are being blown onshore, then find us a nice little hole to anchor in... Browns Bay, on Mobjack.

We change our course, and start heading for the anchorage the winds pick up while we are headed that way... wish they had done that earlier. Eventually, we are doing some pretty good sailing. We have to make a tack though to get lined up for the channel. This is where I made my biggest mistake. I let my buddy do the tack. I was going to be right beside him though, so I thought it was ok. We tacked through, and were pulling the headsail in... ofcourse, someone had opened the forward hatch a little... and the sheet got wrapped up in it. I bounce up on deck (I am not sending anyone else on deck that quickly, in these conditions) and free it. Call back for Maria to sheet it in. As she's sheeting it in, the boat starts to heel over. Nobody is totally sure what happened next, either Jeff was freaking out about how heeled over we were and started to steer back up wind, or decided he's going to help sheet in the headsail, and he lets go of the wheel. We end up backwinding the sails, and heel WAY over the other way... either Jeff's letting go let the rudder snap back over, or us heeling over put enough pressure on the steering system that the steering cable broke! Great... all the sails are up, the winds are a little high (not too high but enough to be interesting), we have no steering, and an engine that MAY run for 30 minutes. Seems normal.

Lesson 8: My biggest lesson, and one I am most embarrassed I didn't do better. I needed to give better direction to someone new, I should not have had Jeff skipper through that tack, I should have had more command in that situation.

I run down, grab the emergency tiller... and stick it onto the rudder stock. Tada... steering again. Because of the arrangement of the wheel, and then tiller, and rudder position... I don't get much leverage with the tiller. We drop the sails, start the motor, and start on our way into the little bay. I have them upfront, and ready to drop the anchor for when the engine dies, and I need to re-prime it. We are mid channel, and tada, engine dies... I yell to have them drop the anchor, and keep a lookout. I drop below, and rebleed, and prime the engine in record time (getting good at it now). Start her up, pull anchor, and make it into the anchorage. Yay... we are now pretty safe. We are fairly protected here, but the winds can still reach us... and they were blowing 20 knots or so, with gusts much higher... with the spray coming off the white-caps, I would think around 30 knots at times during the night. Because I wasn't taking any more chances, and my luck was crazy bad today... I had let out alot of scope on the anchor... 12:1. We were the only ones in this bay, so we had the swing room, and I wanted something to go right.

Lesson 9: More scope = more confidence. I have plans on redoing the anchor setup... so that I can sleep at night in these conditions and not worry about crazy things like if I missed a spot of wear on the anchor rode, and it might just snap.

And... here we sat for a few days. We got bored. I inspected the steering cable, and figured I couldn't fix it. I went over the engine like crazy, and found a tiny hole in the fuel line leading to the filter... this had to be the leak... so I wrapped exhaust tape around it. Turns out, I had finally found the problem, and bandaided it. Yay me again... but this time for real.

I made the decision to stay in this little bay for the few days, as the weather wasn't awesome, and I didn't want to compound our getting home by pushing it in weather. I would have no issues sailing in those conditions with a working wheel, or more leverage on the tiller... I could do it... but if I didn't need too, why should I.

Saturday morning, it looked like we had a break in the weather, and had a window to make it home... so we pull the anchor, motor out (works flawlessly, I might add), and set sail for home. The winds are pretty light so as we are "sailing" I decide to tie a rope to me, and jump overboard with a hammer, and clean some winter barnacles from the prop and shaft. Because we are going nowhere... we decide to motorsail. We motor sail for several hours till we hit some pretty good wind 15 to 20 knots. The crew is stressed, so to ease the stress, I decide to drop the sails, and just motor. We make it the whole way to the channel, and make our turn to the marina. 12 minutes, and this adventure will be over. As I am making the turn... the boat decides to serve me with one more test... the head of the tiller, a very thick piece of aluminum, decides its time to break! Are you kidding me... all I needed was 10 more minutes. It had worked for a total of probably around 8 or 9 hours... whats 10 more minutes. Well, now we are in bad shape. I have to make a choice... we could try to drop an anchor just outside the channel, and hope it holds in these winds and the 3 to 4 foot waves... or I could try duct-taping this thing together. I spend 3 seconds deciding this, as someone gets the duct-tape. I wrap about half a roll of tape on it, and give it a try... it works! Lets get this overwith... and head in.

On the way in... we have a few harrowing seconds as the boat decides to try to commit suicide on the sea-wall... which we narrowly avoid. We make it around the bend, and start floating our way down the approach to the marina. I can see my slip from here. I start to gently turn her to head into the slip... oops, slightly too far, turn back... SNAP... tiller broke. No time to wrap the tape around it again... we are headed towards a pier, dock, and innocent and expensive looking yacht. The crew is upfront with boat hooks... I yell up... get ready for the crash, as they are wondering why I am running forward, rather than steering us away. We crunch into the dock... and ride up a little... I bounce off the boat, pulling her back... hitting the brakes... and stop her literally a few small inches from someone elses shiny fiberglass boat. Actually... we were pretty lucky... and I am glad that I was going as slow as I possibly could.

I am glad I brought all that climbing rope with me... as we wrangle the boat around the pier, and into an unused slip for the evening. She gets tied down... and we all congratulate ourselves on not dieing... as we drink any and all of the alcohol we have left. The next morning, we eventually get her pulled back over to her own slip where I tie her up, and she now rests... peacefully planning what she might test us with the next time.

Lesson 10: I bought boat towing insurance on Tuesday morning. No reason to do that again.

There are alot of lessons learned in that one trip... we had good weather for the first part, we all survived, there was no "damage", the broken bits are fairly cheap to replace/fix, I learned more on that trip that any other, and we ate really well. So... while stressful, I call it a good trip. A great trip would have been if we got to that island, and got to sail in the first part of the week when the weather was amazing.

I can't wait to go to the boat again! I miss her.

USCG Documentation renewal

2008-04-25T11:09:00.001-04:00

I had the boat documented with the US Coast Guard as part of the requirements from the bank. They ask that you renew your registration every year, so that they can be sure that nothing changed about the boat, and that you still own it. This is a free service. They do not charge you for this. Infact, its one tiny form to fill out. If your address doesn't change, all you do is sign it, write "owner" and put the date on it. Then fold it, tape it, put a stamp on it, and go sailing.

Optionally, you can use Specialized Yacht Services awesome renewal service. This is a private company which will take all the hassle out of signing your name, writing "owner" and applying those cumbersome stamps for a one time (a year) low, low fee of $75!

For this very low $75, you get to sign your name, write "owner", put the date on a form, write a check (including another date, another signature, write the number twice, and tearing it out of the book) and put it into a provided envelope. Granted... you don't have to affix one of those stamp things... nor deal with tape... but you do have to lick the glue.

Act now, and they will sign you up to receive other awesome free offers via the USPS, and email.

Seriously... $75 fee to fill out twice as much info, but save $0.41 on a stamp.

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Tenants... yay for being a landlord

2008-04-21T09:36:00.001-04:00

Buying a duplex, and renting out half of it seems like a good idea. I mean... when rented, the one side pays for most of the house... which is a good deal... when they pay.

I bought the house with a couple living there, with a few kids, one being a baby. They were late the first month... I forgave them the late fee, to set up a nice relationship. That wasn't smart.

They were late the next month, and the month after... eventually having to wait till they got a tax return to pay off all that they owed me... they paid for December's and January's rent at the end of January... and then... they paid February on time! One month on time, out of 5... not so good, the rent is cheap.

March rolled around... and they gave me a song and dance about how they can't pay the rent, and would have the money in "3 weeks, or 2 weeks... or maybe one week." I gave them 3 days... and then evicted them. I am not running a charity.

It took a month to get them finally out... and lawyers fees, and other costs. But, finally, I locked them out the other day (in the presence of the bailiff). With the rent the owe me, and the other fees I had to incur... and now the cleaning of their stinking place... I am out about $1500!

They left me a nice little note before they finally got all their crap out... saying how I am a nice guy, and how they are sorry, and how they have new jobs which are going to pay alot more... and how there were "no hard feelings." Well... there are hard feelings... 1500 of them. I planned on taking them to small claims court... partially to see if I can get some money back, and partially to learn how the process works. Problem is... they never left me a forwarding address. I tried all of the 5 or 6 numbers I had for them... and somehow every one is disconnected... go figure. I started gearing up to have to search for them... calling their references, calling their work, calling the post office, or the utilities company....

Sunday morning... they called me! Apparently, in their stupidity... they left a box of important papers, in the unit. They asked that I leave it on the porch for them... which I said we had started to go through and clean, and threw some of their stuff away... but if I had their address, I could forward some mail they had, and send this box of stuff to them... they gave it to me!

Instead of a box of papers they needed, they will be getting a summons to appear in court.

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Brilliant ideas log.

2008-03-13T11:10:00.002-04:00

Every once in a while... or every few minutes... I come up with something I think is brilliant... usually its only me that thinks this.

Here's some from this week:

An LED light with battery, and radio beacon to attach to indoor climbing walls for climbing comps so you can change the route remotely... or even as the climber is on it!
Beer Runners... a beer and wine delivery company. Saves everyone from driving drunk. Add pizzas to that, and it basically prints its own money.
Graffiti finder... a website you upload camera-phone photos of graffiti and get more information about it. Maybe even a google-maps of where all those tags are found.

Thats it so far, its been a slow week. I have had to dumb myself down to deal with work. Maybe when I quit I can smarten up again.

Ofcourse, the greatest of all is the Dayton Rickshaw Company... where we are a rickshaw taxi service!

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Dog owes me $64.45

2008-03-13T11:02:00.001-04:00

Patina ate my sunglasses. She ate the ear piece, and bent them enough to weaken them... and the bridge broke. I sent them to Maui Jim to repair... here's my note:

Dear Maui Jim.

I love my sunglasses. So does my dog. Please make your sunglasses taste bad to dogs. It will have to be really bad though, because she eats poop!

-Russ

I hate to smell what they will send me in return.

Ugh

2008-03-03T10:24:00.001-05:00

I no longer want to live in a place where someone says "Hey, its going to be warm tomorrow... in the 50's!" Whats worse is... I agreed, and thought it felt warm!

50 degrees can be described as chilly, cool, not as cold as it has been, warmer than it has been... but never should it be described as warm.

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Patina rules

2008-02-29T08:25:00.005-05:00

Maria and I have been pretty busy working, and doing stuff around the house, and picking up dog poops. Thought I would share some of the moments we have had with the puppy.

She loves to play on the stairs... and is pretty tough.

Sometimes she plays so hard she plays in her sleep.

Back at it.

Advice from everyone

2008-02-08T14:06:00.001-05:00

So, I am sitting in my little cube right now... have been all year. Its cold out, but the sun is shining. I don't enjoy my cube much, so I practice a new form of escapism, where you listen to pod-casts (internet talk-radio) about sailing all day. and I have pictures of my boat up on the walls, and background of my computer, and let my mind wander.

The particular podcast I have been listening too is furled sails... where they interview all these people who are sailing, or doing awesome sailing things. Often they will ask people who have shared a great story about their adventures what advice they would give anybody considering doing something similar.

The first thing that every single person has answered was "go do it". Thats the first advice that anybody ever gives... not what sort of boat to take, sort of gear, when, or how... but that anybody considering something similar, should just go do it.

I hope that some day I will be able to give similar advice.

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Even in Spam

2008-02-07T08:19:00.001-05:00

My buddy Paul always has some displaced Nigerian king wanting to pay him to help out with a little problem he has... or is contacted by someone who works at the bank, and found an error in record keeping leaving untold millions uncollected and wants to give some to him... or some how wins the British lottery (note, Paul sits next to me at work, no where near anything as cool as London).

Me... I win sometimes too... but the consolation prize.

Ref Nr: PBL/CN/6654/CP
Dear consolation Prize Winner,

We wish to congratulate and inform you on the
selection of your email
coupon number which was selected among the 6
lucky consolation prize
winners Your email ID identified with coupon No.
PBL2348974321 and
was selected by our E-games Random Selection
System (ERSS) with entries
fromthe 50,000 different email addresses
enrolled for the E-game.

Your email ID was included among the 50,000
different email addresses
submitted by our partner international email
provider companies.
You have won a consolation cash prize of GBP
1,500,000.00 (One
MillionFive Hundred Thousand Great Britain
Pounds) only.

You are to contact the DPU Officer with the
following details for the

release of your winnings.

Claims Requirements:

1.Name in full:
2.Home Address:
3.Age:
4.Occupation:
5.Phone Number:
6.Present Country:
7.Sex:
Contact Person: Mr Anderson Moore
Contact E-mail: email removed to protect the scammer

TEL: Tel: +44-701-114-7850

Regards
Mrs. Stella Bryan
(Group Co-ordinator

So, not even when its fake, or spam can I win the main prize!

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Sorry

2008-02-01T11:05:00.001-05:00

I am sorry to every other "professional" out there who hates me for wearing pants with integrated belt systems, don't brush my hair, wear alot of fleece, sometimes wear pants with holes in them, don't have a orderly desk, drink alot of coffee, don't act my age, say "thats what she says" every chance I get, wear a tie only once a year, yearn for my uniform to consist of only board shorts, hate hearing myself talk so much that nobody knows what I said, don't believe in umbrellas, and am only friends with people I actually respect.

But, this is not my first rodeo.

Had to get that off my chest.

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Pee everywhere

2008-01-14T14:08:00.001-05:00

We had a bit of a scare with Patina last week... she was sick, wouldn't eat... and pee'd a little blood. We took her to the vet, and turns out she had a little bladder infection... which is getting cleared up.

Life is adjusting to her... which is quite an adjustment. I have taught her how to sit, how to fetch, and how to make Maria mad by peeing in the house. She does all 3 pretty well... and we have moved on to lay down, and bark-all-night. She is catching on to bark-all-night faster than lay down... but I think she'll get it eventually.

Seriously... potty training a puppy with a bladder infection, or Urinary Tract infection is not the easiest thing to do. She seems to pee right after you bring her back in from peeing outside. Once we get her last set of shots, we are taking her to obedience school so she can learn to do handstands, and cartwheels... or atleast how to walk next to me.

She does a good job of not chewing on cords, and helped me paint a room the other day without getting into anything. She has an issue understanding not to jump up on people, jump up onto furniture, and with biting. The vet told us to just act like she hurt you when she bites... so I tried that... she seemed to enjoy inflicting the pain, and bit more, and harder. Now I grab her nose, and hold it closed till she settles... and that seems to be starting to work.

Also... I read some awesome advice which nobody ever mentioned to me. I wasn't sure she understood the pack mentality of being with us... and that she thought she was the leader. Then I read that if you lay a dog on his/her side, and keep her there till she submits, she will realize your the pack leader. We have done that a few times... and I definitely can tell a difference. I am surprised I never heard that before... I guess momma dogs do that all the time when a pup gets out of hand.

I can't wait till she's potty trained... thats going to be an awesome day. I just told Maria last night how good she was all weekend, and how she didn't have an accident, when I caught a whiff of some horrible smell coming from the other room. She came wandering out with that "ahhh... I feel better" look on her, and there sitting in the middle of the room was a nice, steaming pile for us to pick up. So close. Once we can get her potty trained, teach her to not bite, and to stay off the furniture... I think that things will get alot easier at home.

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Family addition

2008-01-07T10:32:00.000-05:00

Maria and I had an awesome break. We went to Vegas for Christmas and New years... and ended up coming home with a new puppy!

She's a 14 week old Vizsla girl named Patina... and she's awesome, and cute, and awesome, and needy, and awesome, and hyper, and awesome, and lazy, and awesome, and whiny... but she's pretty awesome.

Here's the story. Maria and I had looked at her and her litter mates before New Years... there were 8 total puppies rescued. Patina (then called Pumpkin) came right over, and climbed into my coat when we met... then she started bouncing around everywhere. She was adorable, and hyper. We discussed it and decided that we didn't need a puppy complicating our lives.

So, the day we were leaving, we talked again... and changed our minds. Ofcourse, its an hour before we need to be to the airport. We ended up changing out flight to the next day, and started the adoption process. The rescuer had some doubts, but after talking a while figured that Patina would have a pretty good home with us.

The next morning we picked the pup up. We had 2 hours before our plane, so we went to the pet store, and bought her some stuff for the plane. We had to get a carrier because they don't let you just have the dog running around... yeah, I dunno why either. Turns out... she's a bit of an escape artist. We found this out when the guy infront of us asked why there was a puppy grabbing his feet. She had broken the zipper on the bag and was making her way to the cockpit to see what was going on. Luckily she didn't get away... and we got her back into the bag.

She was pretty chill the whole flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta... didn't really complain too much. But the plane was hot, and the only time she whined was when she was over heating. We had a few hours to kill in Atlanta... and I was sure she needed to relieve herself... so we found one of those family bathrooms, and bought a newspaper. She had alot to relieve... glad she waited till them... that would have SUCKED if she had done that on the plane.

We chilled in the airport for a while where we ran into several people who knew that she was a Vizsla, and told us that they are the best dogs in the world... smart, and very trainable... and very well behaved. Thats pretty cool.

She did very well on the flight to Dayton too... although she made it obvious she doesn't like to be in that little bag under a seat.

The little girl is home now, and we have begun settling into a routine of waking up, going outside to potty... come inside, play, clean up her accident, go back outside... don't potty, come back in play, outside to potty, nap, outside to potty, nap, play, clean accident, outside to potty... etc, etc. We have a crate for her to sleep in... which she's doing ok with, when we are around. She complains alot when we aren't around though. She's pretty needy... but she's cute, so she gets away with it.

There will be more stories as she grows up.

A recent forwarded message

2007-12-21T09:19:00.001-05:00

A friend forwarded this on, and I thought this was interesting... it made me think enough atleast to think it might be interesting to other people.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably,if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards.

Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

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What I have learned about owning a home so far...

2007-11-26T08:47:00.001-05:00

So, I have been a home owner for almost a month. So far, so good. I have learned a few things:

The roof will always leak. If its not leaking where your looking now, its leaking somewhere else.
Plaster is a pain to repair... and the holes get bigger so easily.
Appliance shopping makes you feel incredibly domestic... and almost sick to your stomach.
Any project can not be solved with a single trip to Lowes... you must make several trips before you even start.
A case of beer does not last a whole weekend of "working on the house".
You will never put a shopvac filter on correctly the first time, and you will shoot dust all over the house.
Bulbs in the basement always burn out when your trying to catch a bug, carrying something heavy, trying to avoid the water overflowing from the washer.

There will be more... this is all I can think of from a foggy Monday morning.

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Designers are idiots too.

2007-11-01T15:55:00.000-04:00

So I bought a house... yeah, yeah... shoulda done it a while ago. Now I have a house and a boat... still no car. Because its getting cold, and Maria has blood circulation problems, and I love fire... I am looking at a fireplace for the back. I kinda dig this one, but there's an issue with it. Can you see a possible problem? I don't know if people sometimes design these things, and never test them out... because some things are just stupid.

I guess the process works like this... you pull the lid off, stick some logs in, light a fire... put lid back on so sparks and stuff don't burn your friends. Everything is cozy for about 30 minutes, then the fire starts to die down a little, so you want to add more wood. First thing you have to do is grab the metal handle thats been sitting over a hot fire for about 30 minutes! Now you have a nice logo of the manufacturer burned into your hand... and you have managed to toss the hot screen onto one of your friends, ruining their night. Surely someone must have noticed this.

Nope... guess they all think that is a good idea.

Box to live in?

2007-10-29T09:57:00.000-04:00

Today is the 29th and I have to be out of my apartment by the end of
the day Wednesday! I have been working on buying a duplex near
downtown, but we were supposed to close last Friday and move over the
weekend. I didn't close an we didn't move.

Theoretically I will be closing tomorrow and then having a midnight
moving party Tuesday night. But if not, I guess we'll be testing out
those cold weather sleeping bags, and insulated cardboard boxes.

Always lastminute.

Climb-a-thon

2007-10-20T20:42:00.000-04:00

Maria and I just finished a climb-a-thon charity event for the Red
Cross. It was held at the Urban Krag. We climbed 2025 feet combined,
Maria climbed 15 more feet than I did, and harder climbs too. We
raised $257 for the Red Cross.

Here's a photo of our friends Kansas and Eric.

Now I need a car... and a dog.

2007-10-08T16:28:00.001-04:00

I am being booted from the apartment... so I needed to find a place to live. My buddy Paul is wanting to sell his RV, and I came real close to buying it and living... anywhere. My biggest worry was coming home one day and finding my house towed. I imagine the tow-fee's are huge with that. And... where does the pizza guy come to deliver the pizzas? As you can see, there were just too many issues with that.

I could find an apartment downtown somewhere... but then I sign a lease, and just keep handing someone my money all the time. I am sick to my stomach with the amount of money I have given to the Lofts where I live now, only to have them kick me out when ever they feel like it. I guess when someone has power over your living situation, history doesn't matter... only what they feel at that moment. If I had to sign a lease, I might puke.

If I was to sign a lease, it'd be for a year... and the chances of getting out of that are slim. So, my options came down to puke on some nice landlord, or buy a house. I chose... buy a house... and be the landlord, running the risk of someone puking on me.

There's a nice little historic area called Southpark near to Downtown... not quite walking distance, but there's a pub on the way. There's a main street on it, with some really nice houses, and a grocery store not far away. Its an up-and-coming area... with a home-a-trauma on it next week which usually boosts property values. Basically, a nice little area.

Instead of just a house... I bought a duplex, with one side already rented. In the end, I will only be out of pocket about $150 a month to live there... and will own property in one of the areas seeing the most rise in property value in the county. Closing is in 2 weeks... if everything goes well.

In the last 6 months, I went from owning just a couch, TV, bed, and a table... to owning a sailboat, and a house... narrowly avoiding an RV. Anybody know of a nice car I can buy... if I am going to do the "I'm American, and I am in debt to everyone" I might as well get a car. A dog would be a nice companion too.

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State of the apartment

2007-10-01T11:01:00.000-04:00

So... its been a little while since I have made a post to the blog, haven't been sailing in a while... have been trying to deal with a few other things lately.

About a month ago, I noticed that the apartment building took down some doors I believed were there for fire-protection, or smoke barriers. These doors sit at the bottom of the main fire-egress path for the entire 5 story apartment building. I have lived in this place since I have been in Dayton... otherwise known as "too long". I mentioned it to the landlord lady, a insert-bad-word-here woman named Carol. She argued with me about it, saying a fireman had told her it was ok to remove the door. Not to say that fireman don't know what they are doing, but its not their place to authorize the removal of fire-doors. Not that its my place either, but I was pretty sure the doors were at least smoke-barriers.

I came to work that day, a bit perturbed that the landlord of the building would be so frivolous with life-safety. I grabbed our code-book, and spent some time going through it to find the pertinent passages of code which would tell me that door was likely there for fire protection, or a smoke barrier. Yup... found them, basically, the fire stairs need a 2-hour enclosure all the way to the outside. Removing those doors would violate that. NFPA 80 states that fire-doors shall be marked with the ratings and things, and that tag should not be painted over... if the tags had not been painted over, then the fireman would have known that these doors are needed for life-safety.

I gave Carol copies of the codes, showing her the likelihood that these are protective doors. Her response, "this is incomplete." Anybody that knows anything about building code knows that it references its other parts everywhere. Carol in essence wanted me to give her an entire copy of the code, with all the research needed to prove these are fire-doors. I offered to do it, for a fee. The original architects already did this, and they got paid for it... I should be paid too.

I gave Carol's boss a call, to inform him that she had done this, and that she was being non-responsive to my pointing this out... and she was down-right rude, and condescending. He was not there, so I left him a voicemail.

Lets say that there's a fire while these doors aren't there. These doors protect the main path people would try to use to evacuate the building. Removing these doors may lead to a tragic situation, and at the very least much more property damage, and loss. If someone did die, there would surely be an investigation, which would lead to the discovery of the removal of these doors, and to the discovery that the landlord was made aware of the nature of these doors, and yet didn't do anything to restore the building to a safe condition. I am sure the insurance company for this place would have an interesting response, and all survivors would have a pretty simple case to sue the owners for their losses.

So, perhaps me pointing this out to the lofts helped avert a tragic situation, save them a huge hassle, and helped their parent company from facing a massive financial burden. You'd think they would be a little thankful that I helped avoid some of this for them. Instead of being thankful, they have decided to kick me out!

A few days after calling Carol's boss, she left me a nice little note on my door, giving me till the end of October to pack up and leave. I mean... why would they want me around, I am a trouble maker... who wants to live in a building that follows building code, thats just crazy.

Right now, I am in a search for a new place to live. There are alot of things to consider, so who knows where I will end up. When I find a suitable place to rest my head, this blog will know.

Starbucks... on your iPod!!!

2007-09-05T14:02:00.001-04:00

Starbucks just opened a store... in my pants!!!

iPod touch features.

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Mystic Venture trip report - 2007-08-18

2007-08-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Maria and I headed to the boat for our first time sailing with just the two of us. We arrive Friday evening, and got the boat ready to set out in the morning. Saturday we left around 10 or so in the morning... nice and casual. We only needed to make about 20 or so miles, so we had time to be lazy.

Saturday was the kind of day that makes everything worth while. The sun was out, the weather was amazing, the wind was decent... everything was awesome. We had an amazing sail from Salt Ponds to New Point Comfort. We anchored in a sheltered cove, hiding from the north eastern winds. We inflated the dive-yak... and went for its maiden voyage. Turns out, this thing is huge... and stable... and slow. It was like paddling a barge. Good work-out, but didn't get far. Maria saw phosphorescence for the first time... and it was pretty bright. It was an awesome evening.

For as awesome as the day was, the night, and next day was the opposite. Around midnight, the wind shifted to the south, and picked up to 15 or 20 knots or so. Our sweet little sheltered cove became a bumpy, un-sheltered, windy cove. I didn't really sleep that much, as I don't fully trust the anchor on the boat... but she held, without a slip. I was pretty impressed... but I did have allot of line out, I think I was 10:1 at that point.

Sunday we left the anchorage around 8 or so, and headed back. Because the wind was coming from right where we wanted to go, we decided to motor. I did some calculating based on the fuel gauge, and the distance and hours needed to motor and figured we had enough fuel. Turns out I was wrong... whoops. We bumped against wind and waves for hours, and were about a mile from the harbor entrance when the engine started to cut out. We shut her down, and raised a sail. I figured that with the boat rocking like it was, it cut the engine a little early and we would have enough fuel to get to the dock... this time, I was right... barely.

We cleaned her up, and headed home. The 9 hour drive home was not fun... and was made less fun by me completely missing our exit, and thus driving by Lexington KY on the way... only adding a few hours to the drive.

Saturday though... made it all worth it. What an amazing day.

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Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch - New York Times

2007-08-14T16:50:00.001-04:00

"there’s a 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation.”

Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch - New York Times

I just started play World of Warcraft... and I played it while watching the Matrix the other day... did our opperator laugh at that? Or are they too smart for humor anymore.

"David J. Chalmers, a philosopher at the Australian National University, says Dr. Bostrom’s simulation hypothesis isn’t a cause for skepticism, but simply a different metaphysical explanation of our world. Whatever you’re touching now — a sheet of paper, a keyboard, a coffee mug — is real to you even if it’s created on a computer circuit rather than fashioned out of wood, plastic or clay."

There's nothing to see here folks... move along.

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One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008

2007-08-08T10:09:00.001-04:00

Its almost one year till the Beijing Olympics.

Here is a video protest made by the Students for a Free Tibet at the basecamp of Mount Everest. China is planning on taking the olympic torch up Mount Everest, attempting to give legitimacy to China's occupation of Tibet.

These protesters have since been detained, and not heard from.

Here's a blog from Lhadon Tethong, the executive director of the SFT (Students for a Free Tibet), and her attempts to speak with the International Olympic Committee about China's humanitarian issues, and occupation of Tibet.There is an open letter to the president of the committee concerning failed Chinese promises. Since she has been in Beijing, she has been watched by Chinese police and apparently has been detained... nobody has heard from them for about a week.

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Why architects don't design cars

2007-08-02T08:58:00.001-04:00

Zaha Hadid was recently commissioned by art dealer Kenny Schachter to design a car.

As is typical with some architects... while it looks pretty cool, and is shiny and smooth, there are some basic car criteria missing... like headlights. I guess thats what happens when you get an architect who built a firestation too small for the firetrucks.

Check out this page with more info and images.

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Joovc Doovde player... please.

2007-07-25T08:24:00.001-04:00

This is one of the funniest videos I have seen in a while

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Two more photos of the Mudaritaville carnage.

2007-07-18T08:34:00.001-04:00

A fun time was had by all.

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Mudaritaville 2007

2007-07-16T08:49:00.000-04:00

This last weekend saw Mudaritaville 2007 Mud Volleyball for Epilepsy. It was an amazing event, which sold out this year, for the first time in the 16 years its been running. Our team won only one of the 6 games we played but we had a blast losing... we left before the afternoon session as most people on the team were burnt out by then.

A great time was had by all, and I will update this post, or add another one when the foundation finds out how much help we gave to the cause.

A Mystic Venture indeed.

2007-07-05T08:09:00.000-04:00

Wow.... what a trip. Alot of people doubted that 4 people who don't know how to sail, on a boat which is completely unfamiliar, for the boats first trip of the season, and in waters completely unknown would live to tell the tale (or write a blog). Not only are we alive, have all of our limbs, and are better friends than before... but we had an awesome trip.

The crew for this journey are some friends of mine whom I met through climbing. TJ (now known as Consonant J), the legendary Aaron Taylor, and Kansas (who laughs in the face of adverse conditions... literally).

It wasn't all smooth sailing, infact, it didn't start out smooth at all. Our first night was spent sleeping in the parking lot of a VW dealer, which bumped our schedule off a bit... but in the end it was a good thing.

We arrived at the boat Saturday night, and proceeded to unload the tons of gear we brought. To set the mood for the trip... Aaron grilled some steaks to perfection, and we opened a specific bottle of wine... which we shared with the transom of the boat in a slightly ritualistic way. This was the first night spent on the boat.

Sunday was spent preparing the Mystic Venture for the journey ahead. We came to her with 7 bottles of wine, and by the end of the day, we were down to 9 bottles of wine... after drinking 3 since our arrival. We put her name on her, filled the galley with necessities, stowed all the gear, cleaned her inside and out, filled the water tank, bought some spare parts, and enjoyed the thought of the journey to come.

Monday was the sea-trial. The broker showed up, and was much less than helpful with the boat. We started the engine, ran her around the river, checking out the electronics, and being sure everything was operating as listed. In total, this "sea-trial" lasted 10 to 15 minutes because he had to get to another meeting... I would not recommend him to anybody.

Monday afternoon, with the right tide, we finally untied the Mystic Venture from the slip she was in, and moved her to the ocean. We stopped for fuel along the way, spending a total of $22 to fill her tank. The first night we spent on the hook in a little cove called Horseshoe Cove in Sandy Hook Bay... its something amazing to be on your boat, on the hook for the first time.

Tuesday morning, the crew and I woke up as early as we dared venture with the light, and made our way north into New York Harbor for the maiden voyage around the Statue of Liberty! Its quite something to cruise your own boat into NY harbor, and up to the Statue of Liberty for her first voyage! It is something that neither I nor the crew will soon forget. We then made our way to Manasquan inlet to spend the night. We sailed for some of this time, but mostly motored as we were heading right into the wind, and needed to make the miles.

Manasquan was not the prettiest place we stayed. We had to anchor in the harbor due to there not being any transient slips open in any of the marinas. We managed to find a tiny cove to anchor, with some help from a local. This "cove" was a bump in a river in the town... it felt like we were in a parking lot, rather than on the water. The train ran so close that the conductors would wave at us... and we could see which color Slurpee people were buying from the 7-11 across the way. Not an ideal place... but it was semi-secure anchorage for the night.

The next day, our plan was to get to Absecon Inlet, the inlet for Atlantic City. We woke a little late, and attempted to do some sailing, even though the wind was against us... which meant we had to do some tacking to make any headway. We headed about 7 miles offshore at one point, to see if we could find a different wind, which we didn't. We ended up not being able to make it the whole way to Absecon, and instead had to stop in Little Egg Inlet. The weather on the way took a turn for the rougher, and we ended up powering through 4 to 5 foot seas... but the boat handled it with no problem. Water came over the bow a few times, and washed over the deck, but I felt confident in the boat the whole time.

There aren't really good charts for Little Egg because the shoaling keeps changing here... which makes it tricky to find a place to anchor. Once in the inlet though, we spotted a couple of sailboats anchored up for the night, so figured that would be a decent place to go. As we were motoring over to them, we noticed a change in the water color likely indicating a shallow spot, but it could have been a current change also (strange currents in some of these inlets). We crept up to it, keeping a sharp eye on the depth gauge... once we realized it was shallow, we put the boat in reverse, and managed to only tap the keel into the sand bottom. There are two types of sailors, ones that have run aground, and ones that will. We spent the night on the hook here, where the boat sat strangely as the current and wind were in opposition to one another.

Thursday, we had to make up some ground... or water, as we were off our schedule some. The weather looked to be a bit rougher, and wetter. We motored for the entire day to make it to Cape May, NJ. The seas were not as rough as they had fore casted, but there was rain... and we had to don our wet weather gear for the first time. We made it all the way to Cape May in plenty of time, where we re-fueled, bought some fresh crab, and then made our way across the Delaware to a safe harbor on the other side. As we crossed the Delaware, we came across a huge pod of dolphins, probably 30 or 40 or so. They were tail slapping, jumping, and playing. We coasted close enough to see them, and they came over to see if they could surf our bow wave. We anchored that night in a beautiful cove, very protected, with only slight current. It was an ideal location... and would have been a nice place to get in a little earlier, and hangout at. Maybe I have to go back another time.

Friday was a day we expected to do alot of sailing. The wind was supposed to shift to a more desirable direction, and be generally nice for sailing. Turns out the wind was very light, so we decided to power on for most of the day... we had a plan of covering 65 miles that day... which is a big day. Our destination was Chincoteague... and I wanted to be sure to make it there before dark, as this is another inlet where local knowledge is needed... and we didn't bring any locals with us. We ended up finding a cool little spot to drop anchor, and had a great evening.

Saturday turned out to be one of the best sailing days on the whole trip. We woke up early, and began our 70 mile journey to Salt Ponds, Virginia, where the boat will be docked for the next several months. We motored for a while, until the wind picked up. Once we had a decent enough wind... I gave the order to raise sails, and we shut down the engine. We sailed for most of the day, mostly running with the wind, but with a few hours of beam reach. I had grown comfortable enough with the boat that I was tuning the sails at the same time as piloting the boat, while most of the crew lounged, read, or made meals. This was the day that made it all worth it... and the kind of day I hope to live again an again. We made port in the evening... crossing the Chesapeake with hardly seeing any other traffic. I was surprised to not see many others out as the wind was great, the water calm, and the sun warm.

The boat is now safely docked in her newest home-port... waiting for Maria and I to take her out. I can not imagine being able to do this without the amazing friends I took as crew... they all did an awesome job, and it wouldn't have been possible without them. My only regret is that Maria was not there for the trip... but, she and I will have many, many more miles in the Mystic Venture.

Island being formed.

2007-06-21T10:55:00.001-04:00

I found this while wandering around the internets. Apparently, this couple were cruising the South Pacific, and came across some floating pumice... volcanic rock. Strange... but as they kept moving, they saw smoke coming out of the ocean. When they got closer, the discovered it was an island actually being formed right infront of them. How cool.

So, my question is can you claim it as your own... I mean... just walk up, (or sail, or swim) and stick a flag in it (once it cools off a little)... write the UN, and say...

"Dear United Nations,

I'm Russ, and I just found an island thats not anybody elses... so its mine. I am calling it... Larry the Island. Please send me the papers I need to sign for to be President and Ambassador.

My address is:
King Russ
#1 Main Street
Russtown
Larry the Island.

Thanks... I look forward to meeting my neightbors, and coming to the UN's yearly ice-cream social for ambassadors. Tell Fiji I said hi when you talk to them... and to send those palm trees we talked about when they get the chance."

Amphitheater... up again.

2007-06-21T08:11:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note that the infamous Springboro Amphitheater is re-assembled again. Everyone involved is anxious to see what fails next. Now its my first professionally designed project, first professionally awarded project, second actually built project, first collapsed project, and first re-built again project! Hopefully this is the last time this project gets built... again.

Mystic Venture Maiden Voyage - The Plan

2007-06-18T10:23:00.000-04:00

Is this crazy?

Next week I will be captaining my new-2-me sailboat, the Mystic Venture, from Fair Haven (sounds like a postcard) New Jersey, south to Hampton Virginia. The trip is 258 nautical miles. I have never sailed before. This is the first time I will have been on this boat. I don't know the area we are sailing in at all. The boat will have been in the water less than 24 hours when we start this trip. My crew has had little to no sailing experience. Oh... and again, never sailed before.

Never mind... I answered that question.

Somehow, I have found 3 friends who are excited about coming on this trip... I even had to turn down several people who thought that this sort of thing sounded fun. I didn't lie to any of them about my experience... and no, they aren't getting paid! Maybe thats crazier.

Either way... this coming Sunday, 3 friends and I are going to cut the dock lines, and begin our 3 hour tour... or I mean our 5 day cruise down the coast to Virginia. The whole trip has been charted, and planned out to the best of my ability... so either this will be a boring trip, an adventure... or some sort of epic, where this blog entry will serve as a court document. I personally am hoping for somewhere between boring and adventure.

Here is a map showing our intented trip... along with where we plan on anchoring along the way. The fish icons just show other areas we can pull into if we need to escape a storm... or each other. I hope to be able to blog along the way... and upload some photos... so stay tuned via the rss or subscription box on the side.

First Trad Lead

2007-06-07T08:43:00.001-04:00

So... I have been climbing for not really that long. Mostly seconding up a climb someone else lead (for those who don't understand... a lead climber takes the rope up with them, clips it into the wall (either a bolt or some device they put there) as they go... its scary and more difficult). I do lead too... when its a sport route (or pre-bolted). This last weekend I did my first trad lead!

Trad is where you take various devices (nuts, hexes, cams, tri-cams... yada yada) and find a place in the wall to put them as you go, so that if you fall, you theoretically fall to where you last placed a piece of gear. This means that you fall on something you have put there... which if you don't have the right thing, or place it badly, then you can fall allot further. Basically... its one of the scariest climbing styles, but can be one of the most rewarding (for me at least).

I have been collecting trad gear for several months now, but it is expensive, I just bought a #4 Black Diamond Camelot... and it was $80 (its pretty sweet)!!! I have seconded and cleaned gear on alot of routes lead by different people, so I could see how they placed their gear. This is a picture of the route I lead, but that's not me, its stolen from RockClimbing.com. Basically... it was one of the scariest climbs I have done, even though its fairly easy. Its rated at 5.4, but that's an old school rating, so my weak self would put it at 5.7 or so. Maybe its easier, but when your freaking out, everything is harder.

I didn't fall, so I didn't get to see if my gear would have actually held. My buddy BJ went up it after me and told me that I pretty much would have died if I fell on some of the stuff I placed... good thing I didn't fall. Some of the gear was totally bomber, some was way sketchy, and some was just not ideal. Guess I need more practice... this is a huge step for me, and my climbing career though.

Oh, and we camped on top of Bed Time For Bonzo again... not a bad place to pitch a tent. The "we" was Maria, BJ, Kansas, Eric, and myself. Talk about an awesome weekend... I think I climbed 6 or 8 routes... including Party Time again, which is always fun.

I hate the first day of work

2007-05-29T08:32:00.000-04:00

Maria and I spent the last week in Belize at my folks condo with them. Oh ya... I am dating a girl named Maria... let me introduce you to her. Here she is standing at the end of the dock... note, this is not a pose, one leg is actually 7 inches longer than her other leg. Don't make fun of her, she's very sensative about it (and when she reads this, I will also have one leg shorter than the other I am sure).

Anyway... we had a swell time. Spent most of the time just chilling out in the sun, fighting a mostly chemical warfares battle with bugs. I did some scuba diving, saw some sweet stuff. There was kayaking, snorkling, fishing, and much hanging out, we spent a day cruising around San Pedro... which is actually not that cool, its very old-folk-touristy... many floral "I'm-on-vacation" shirts. Caye Caulker is much more interesting. Go to my Flickr site to check out all the cool photos. For those who are lazy... there are some below.

Note: Maria shot herself in the head with a beer, thus she ended up a dead body floating in the water.

14 Years

2007-05-15T09:10:00.000-04:00

14 years is a long time to own anything. Yesterday, I finally sold my truck to a buddy of mine (TJ) who is looking to either repair, or to replace her engine.

This was my 2nd vehicle, and I owned her new when I was 18 years old. We had traveled around the US several times... and she kept me safe the whole way, for 200,000 miles. I will miss her terribly.

Good night sweet truck.

Happy Birthday Bailey

2007-04-19T15:05:00.000-04:00

Bailey's birthday was yesterday... he turned... one year older than he was. I probably should know this... but then, there are alot of things I should know. Here's the birthday boy in Vegas.

Happy birthday Bailey... I miss you.

Closing time...

2007-04-11T10:09:00.000-04:00

Today, April 11th, is the official day of closing on my boat. Not going to lie... its a bit scary.

Now I just need to get some work done, and find a home for her.

1st weekend of season in Red River Gorge.

2007-04-02T08:23:00.000-04:00

This last weekend, a bunch of friends and I went climbing in KY's Red River Gorge. We went down on Saturday morning, early... way early. I was not in the best condition, due to the celebrations of buying a boat the night before. That made Saturday's climbing not so good for me. I felt good until the middle of the first climb... then I was pretty much dead.

We did 3 trad routes on Tower Rock, including the most amazing Arachnid which is an left facing dihedral crack, to a roof, then out to an offwidth crack up to anchors. Awesome. I was pretty much exhausted though, so I was sleeping at the bottom of the route, woke up to do the climb... fell back to sleep when I got done. Felt like a dream, so I like to say I climbed it in my sleep. Ofcourse, I didn't lead, but some day I will. Thats a photo of the route... borrowed from www.redriverclimbing.com

Sunday was a much better day for me climbing. We went to Pistol Ridge and climbed 3 sport routes (a 5.7, 5.8 and a 5.10a... my first lead of a 5.10!), and a few trad routes. I did not second any of the trad... because I was tired, and do not have good crack skills. We then went to Roadside crag where my buddy BJ climbed the picturesque Ro Shampo which is one of the most amazing climbs. The moves are not hard, about 5.10, but the wall is overhung by 15 degrees... and its pretty long. Then we went down the path for an easier route for me to lead (90 foot 5.8).

Some mexican food and we headed home. People are going to wonder about the scars on the backs of my hands from climbing.

Now the hard work

2007-04-02T08:15:00.000-04:00

So... I bought the boat on Friday. Not going to lie... a little scary. Usually the greatest experiences start as being scary.

Guess I should learn how to sail!

New Jersey for a few hours

2007-03-14T08:55:00.000-04:00

The purchase of the sailboat has been moving along a little slowly... waiting for the weather to get itself figured out. On Monday, I spent the day (a crazy travel day... barely made it there, and then barely made it out) on the boat with the surveyor. It was quite the educational experience.

The boat is a C&C 34, with a centerboard keel, which means the main part of the keel is not as deep as a fin keel, but it has a centerboard which you can lower down for better performance. The advantage of this is the ability to get into shallower areas (she draws 4 feet, instead of the 6 feet of a fin keel)... the disadvantage is performance. Since I do not plan on racing her, I am not concerned about the 1/2 a knot of windward performance loss. This picture shows the system to raise and lower the keel.

The surveyor was generally very impressed with the condition of the boat, and her systems. For being 25 years old, she is in awesome shape, and is very strong. There are a few issues with any boat this age however, some of them being more of parts just worn out, others being about bringing her systems up to code (for insurance) and some things have just broken. There was some water-infiltration around this fitting on the deck, and has infact shown to be leaking into the cabin. The leak has caused a high moisture reading for about 3" or so around the entire fitting, but it does not appear to have weakened the deck much. The leak can be simply corrected by bedding this fitting properly, however, the deck will likely not be able to be dried out significantly.

There were a few stuck sea-cocks, a broken shower pump, and a few minor things. The biggest area of concern for me (however the surveyor did not see it as much of an issue) was that there is some separation in the rudder. It sounds like the fiberglass on the rudder has separated from the core... likely due to water in it. It has not caused it to change shape at all, and there doesn't appear to be much effect on structure of it, from what he can tell without drilling holes.

The sail inventory is impressive. It has a new mainsail, a backup mainsail, 3 genoas (110, 130, and 150), a cruising spinnaker, and a racing spinnaker. Only the 130 is setup for the roller furling, so I might have the 110 cut for the roller furling, but that is something for down the road.

Now I am just waiting for the survey to get back to me... but this is a good boat for her age/price, with some issues that the broker and I are going to have to address to get corrected. The deal is not done yet, as it depends on the survey and a few other thigns.

There is a video below that I shot from the deck of the boat... this will give you an idea of how big... or actually, how small this boat really is. This will be like living in a small New York studio apartment, that rocks back and forth. Its a real paradigm shift in lifestyle if I choose to really go forward with these ideas. I am not going to lie... I freaked out a little thinking about this being my home for the next few years... but I think if I didn't getting a little freaked that'd be bad.

I have decide to name her the Mystic Venture. Mysticism from the Greek (mustikos) "an initiate" is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight. Venture is a wonderful undertaking, synonymous with Adventure. Thus... the Mystic Venture is a wonderful undertaking to discover the ultimate reality... or maybe just a way not work in a cube anymore.

If you want to keep up with just news of the Mystic Venture, click and bookmark this.

(The knocking you hear is surveyor's high-tech, german engineered, instrument testing for hull integrity)

Sailboat update

2007-02-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

So... there are some out there asking the stage of the sailboat and stuff... so here is a little update.

Originally the acceptance date was February 24th, and closing date was March 3rd. Before I accepted the boat, I needed to have a survey done, and insurance and financing lined up. To get a survey done, the boat's hull needs a moisture test to determine the integrity of the hull... and the low temperature has to be above freezing for a few days, for this to occur.

Ofcoruse, it has been cold near the boat, but it is warming up... so there is a survey scheduled for next Friday now.

After this, it will be a week for acceptance, and another week for closing... and then I will be a yacht owner. After that... comes the real work.

Before and after

2007-02-28T14:49:00.000-05:00

Oops...

2007-02-26T10:25:00.000-05:00

So... I thought I would share something a little interesting with the small number of readers of this blog.

The Springboro Amphitheater was my first project I designed professionally. It is the first professional project I designed to receive a design award (AIA Dayton unbuilt award), and it is the second project I designed to be constructed (first being McCormick building). On Sunday, it became the first project I designed to have a major structural collapse!!! The lower canopy is now sitting in shreds on the stage.

Cause is being investigated... I am sure it will be some time before we know everything that happened.

As Sergio always said... "better to fail spectacularly than to succeed at mediocrity."

Furniture 2.0

2007-02-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

Pretty sweet.

Stage 2...

2007-01-26T14:52:00.000-05:00

Just a little post to let the readers of this interwebloggy thing know that the seller of the sailboat below and I have reached an agreement on the purchase price of the boat. I now have until Feb 21st to arrange for everything I need arranged, including insurance, financing, survey, blah blah blah... and agree to the purchase.

Its all very cool, and awesome.

She is currently docked in New Jersey... I plan to move her to a more bikini-friendly location this summer.

What parachute?

2007-01-22T10:57:00.000-05:00

Life is filled with defining moments. Yesterday was the start of an elongated moment which will last a few months, and propel me into an even longer life experience... perhaps. 3 or 4 years in the making, and I have finally a concrete step towards an idea sparked forever ago... finally made a move towards a personal paradigm shift.

I made an offer on a sailboat yesterday, and I have to say, it feels awesome, and makes me nervous at the same time. Awesome due to finally moving towards the idea I have dreamt of for a long time... nervous because I don't know how to sail.

Here are a few images from Yachtworld's listing of the boat... she is a 1982, C&C 34. C&C changed some interior elements for 1982, which made me think this is the right boat for me. She is a centerboard design, rather than the fin-keel... which means she has a draft of either 4'-0", or 6'-11" depending on board position.

The process will take some time, but by the end of February I should either be taking ownership, or finding something else to consider. There will be some work needed to get done on her... I will be adding a refridgeration unit, possibly a water-maker, and some solar panels.

I will be holding interviews for deck-hands (bikini clad girls get an automatic second interview).

Christmas / New Years slacker...

2007-01-15T08:43:00.000-05:00

So, I have not been such a good blogger... or friend. I think the rule is that I am supposed to post some stuff for Christmas, and for New Years... and I didn't. Now that the first month is half over, I will attempt to fix that. As my first offering, here is my nephew's version of Jingle Bells... too cute.

Merry Belated Christmas

More to follow.

Office Posters

2006-12-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

Every office has that go-to guy, the one who has been around before shoes were invented, knows everything, and has millions of stories. Our office has one, he used to be a partner, then kind of retired... but does not know how to not work, Dick Roediger. A few years ago, we found an old photo of him from back in the day when he was a lady killer. Opportunities like this are too hard to pass up, and during slow times at work, I have to do something interesting... so I borrowed his headshot, and a movie poster... and... tada:

Since that time, I have made one for every holiday, or every day I get bored. I have made alot of these. Here are some of the better ones. More to follow.

Halloween this year:

Random bored time:

This year's Christmas has a few posters.

Best advice I heard all night

2006-12-08T10:30:00.000-05:00

A beautiful, young red-headed friend of mine once told me:
"Never make someone a priority, when they make you their option!"

And, (now) I always say "always listen to hot red-heads."

Spam of the day

2006-12-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

Spam is not the normal thing people like... but I was bored, so I read some of it. Spammers are always trying to out trick the anti-spam-bots with new and clever ideas. One of the newer ways is to steal lines, words, and paragraphs from various websites and assmeble them into meaningless dribble, which might make you read it. This makes for interesting combinations... here are a few I found this morning. Note, these are taken directly from the e-mail, no alterations.

com allows site owners to "claim" a word for their very own
If I copywrite that word, can I earn royalties?

This site is selling out words quickly, New Specials Each Week! Perfect for wedding and baby showers, kids' parties, or any occasion.
With Christmas right around the corner, you might be unwrapping your very own word.

OUR December HOT PICK IS: ARSS
No comment

Words disintegrate to reveal new letters.
Guess there are use-by dates for all those "words" you bought earlier.

Each month we will send one of our giant Mrs.
They ran out of regular sized Mrs a while ago.

Wind your way through the hive tunnels to find the exit, and smother hapless beekeepers by swarming with the rest of your hive to show the puny humans your queen is boss!
Puny humans... all your queen are belong to us!

And if that scale scares you think about writing a simple program that helps a single student learn something new.
Scale?

But at its heart - computer science
rocks!

With the MS version, you have to look in the UNDO files.
Geekdom version of X-files... a straight to Beta-max release.

Costly mudlogger it reached maximum
Mudloggers are expensive.

Dogs mention poodles equally

Harry invisible children
How does one know if an invisible child is harry?

STRONGEST WINDS OUT OF INTERIOR PASSES

Get reasonable price suffer.
Another great Christmas present idea.

Yes, the headline above is the correct way
of asking "what's your problem?

Theres no containing those show up dogs.

I am sure there will be more to follow.

Searching for a new home

2006-11-27T15:56:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I have been on the search for a boat... actually, this search started a few years ago, then took a break, and has been in full swing for a few months now. I have settled on a few boats which I am looking at more closely. I traveled to Boston a few weekends ago to look at this boat in particular... and thought I would post a little about her, so people can get an idea of what I am looking at.

This is a C&C 34 built in 1980 (the yachtworld listing). She is very well equiped with a decent sail inventory, and some excellent electronics. The previous owner did alot of racing with her, and she always performed well, which is good to hear.

There are a few issues that need figuring out. The only big issue, which I was informed today by the broker that is not such a large issue, is that the keel-hull joint has a crack in it, from grounding in reverse. It has had this crack for a while, and the owner had the keel pulled, and re-seated some years ago, and the crack came right back. It does not appear to be structural, and is not, according to the broker, leaking into either the hull, nor the keel. This is likely a purely cosmetic issue, and not something to necessarily be worried about, however, if I do decide to make an offer on her, a marine surveyor will look more closely at this to be sure.

That is the only big issue as I can see it... although there was a little water in the bildge, so it was difficult to see the keel bolts, and the condition of the bildge. Generally, the interior was dirty, and since the mast was removed, various parts were spread around, making her look a little messy. She just needs a good cleaning.

Here is a video I took of the interior... at one point I turn the camera sideways, don't hurt your neck trying to make sense of it, and don't worry, I turn it back after I realize I am dumb for rotating it. And, yes, I did film the head.

All good things...

2006-11-13T13:35:00.000-05:00

14 years is a long time to have a vehicle. I think most people switch cars every 3 or 4 years... few keep their car for longer than 6 or 7 years. Some times people become very connected to their vehicles (right mum)... and after 14 years, and 200,000 miles, I certainly have become connected to my truck. That's why it hurts so much to have found out that she has a terminal condition, and she only has a few weeks to live.

We were on the way to Chicago, when it appears that the minor coolant leak got very much worse. She has apparently blown her head gasket, warped her heads, and damaged the piston rings. This is an unserviceable situation, and engine transplant is the only solution for her. Right now, she leaves a toxic cloud of smoke if I try to drive her... so thick it blocks out the sun.

She has been everywhere with me... we started in 1993 by traveling the country following the national jetski circuit. Since that time, she has taken me anywhere I asked of her, and back again... even after becoming critically ill, she still made sure to bring me home.

We have camped at the lake many a night. We saw many a drive-in movie. She has gotten me through so many storms. She has protected me in 2 accidents, and twice when we flew off the road due to ice. She drove my world across the country for graduate school. She has moved countless friends... many more than once. Every girl I have dated since high school has been in that truck.

In short... I love her, and it hurts like losing a favorite pet. She has proven to be more reliable, and faithful than any of the afore-mentioned girls. I know if I needed her too, she would take me on one last trip, even if it meant her great pain.

Soon, I will be putting her to sleep. Goodnight my truck. Sleep well, and have good dreams.

Scuba Map V2.0

2006-11-03T13:13:00.000-05:00

So, this is mapping application which is smarter, and simpler to use. The platial map made me make a post to a forum (which I have no idea where that forum is... or who reads it), before it would add a marker to my map.

This one, by Community Walk is pretty handy. Actually, it is simple to setup, simple to edit, and I think simpler to navigate. Let me know which is your favorite.

Scuba Map

2006-11-03T10:50:00.000-05:00

I am trying to find a mapping application which I can display here. I am trying a few different ones, but so far like Platial map Creator the best. This is built on Google Maps, so that means it is cool.

Feel free to pan around, and zoom in on the sites I have marked.

What do Diet Coke, Mentos, and too much time equal.

2006-10-30T14:33:00.000-05:00

A mad farmer, with a mess to clean up.

Kids with lab coats can come up with the greatest things. Turns out, Steve Wynn paid way too much money for his Belagio fountains.

From www.eepybird.com

27 Seconds of a Cow fish

2006-10-27T12:41:00.000-04:00

This is a Cow Fish trying to get away from my camera. These are oddly shaped fish, like a triangle in section... with lots of various fins. These are pretty abundant in Curacao, and through out the Caribbean, we saw several of these every dive.

These are my mother's favorite fish to watch.

27 seconds of squid

2006-10-24T10:54:00.000-04:00

Thought I would throw up a video of some squids we found in Curacao. Squids are cool....

Curacao...

2006-10-23T09:44:00.000-04:00

Just returned from a week in Curacao, N.A. It was a pretty relaxed time, mostly made of diving, and napping... both of which are pretty fun. Curacao is a little island in the Netherland Antilles... just north of Venezuela, with some awesome people, and some awesome diving. The capitol is Willemstad (the typical postcard photo of it here). parts of the family were there, and we stayed at Sunset Waters resort, which is towards the north of the island. Sunset Divers is attached to the hotel, and have some pretty nice dive sites to see... and some pretty fun dive masters to hang out with.

The diving was pretty good... and very easy. This is one of the easiest places to dive I have ever been... there is no current, and the dive boat is very well setup. The sea life is very good, and coral looks to be in good shape... but there is a noticable lack of larger life, such as shark, or rays. I only saw a single stingray in all of my 15 or so dives. There are some unique things though... this is the first time I have ever seen a seahorse, and there are more eals here than I have ever seen. There also seems to be alot of Christmas Tree Worms everywhere... more than anywhere I have seen before.

You can go visit my flickr page to see more photos from there if you'd like. Below are two videos from the trip. The first being an eal which was swimming from one coral head to another one. Rarely do you see eals leave their hiding spots. The second video is of my favorite fish, one I could watch all day long, but I do not know what sort he is. It is also a part of a new series I am going to do called "27 seconds" which will be videos of various subjects which are all 27 seconds long. Why 27 seconds... sounded cool.

Swimming eal, Curacao, N.A.

27 seconds - Favorite fish

My favorite fish... I wish I knew his name... but he is cool. This little dude has some parasites on him.

Red River Gorge

2006-10-09T08:51:00.000-04:00

Last Friday a few climbing buddies of mine and I went to the Red River Gorge to do some climbing. We got to the Red by about 10:30pm... after making a few directional errors. Instead of camping in a normal camp ground, we went up to the Fortress Wall and climbed Bed Time For Bonzo (5.6)... then dragged all our camping equipment up, and slept atop the wall. It was a gorgeous camp site... very exposed, with some good tent sites further back. It was a beautiful night.

The next day, all 5 of us climbed 2 multi-pitch routes. The first being a 5.7 route, still on Fortress (which is an all trad wall) called Party Time. The first pitch of this 2 pitch route ends on a small ledge... with hardly any room for 5 people to hang out on. The whole climb ascends a dihedral which varies in width quite a bit. The summit gives a beautiful view.

The second climb for the day was one of the classic climbs in the Red, Caver's Route (5.3 R). You can actually free-solo this (no ropes or protection) if you want... but as it was my first time on this route... I roped up for one of the pitches (its a 4 or 5 pitch route). The thing with Caver's is the compression of the crack... it is so tight, that in a few parts you have to just wiggle your way vertically up the wall. Its is entirely possible to get completely wedged in a few of the cracks, and get stuck. Luckily, that did not happen to any of us.

More photos to follow (as soon as Matias and BJ get them up on the net).

Canstruction 2006 - Update

2006-10-04T12:46:00.000-04:00

Lastnight was the ceremony for the Dayton Canstruction 2006 event... held at the Dayton Art Institute. It was a good event, with a big turnout, some local personalities, and some really good wine (who ever did the ordering is cool). There were 7 total sculptures entered into this years event, 4 of which had various levels of collapse. I forget who got all the awards, but I know LJB got several for their Pirate ship... which was pretty cool. Notably, they recieved the "Structural Ingenuity" award... ironically, part of their sculpture collapsed just after the jurors picked it for this award.

Our team did not fair so well, the jurors had to fabric an award for us... and I don't think it even had a title. So, we are the grand winners of the "Short Bus" award... the sort of award you give to the kid you feel bad for, and who needs some encouragement. I don't think the team was after awards (we made a cube...), so it is all good. We helped raise a huge amount of food for the food bank.

Protfolio - Necco

2006-09-28T09:28:00.000-04:00

This is the Necco project. One of my first designs as a professional. Located in Southpoint Ohio, this building was to be (it will unfortunately never be built) the headquaters for Ed Necco and Associates. A realitively small project (just over 10,000 sqft.) on an awesome site, the structure is all cast-inplace concrete, and copper panel.

The 3 story building is embedded into the cliff for virtually its whole height, with a giant 1/2 bridge that extends over the valley, about 50 feet in the air. The whole building is designed to be from the site, a discovery, or a carving of the landscape into this form.

I acted as the Project Architect for this project.

Canstruction 2006

2006-09-27T08:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I took part with our office team in the annual AIA Dayton 2006 Canstruction event. This is an event held around the nation by the American Institute of Architects to raise money, and food for various charities such as local food banks.

Our team from Lorenz Williams used over 11,000 cans to construct a Rubic's Cube with Keith Haring paintings on each side. It measured over 8 feet wide and 8 feet tall. We were not sure if the images would read, but as it turns out... they do. We couldn't raise enough cans (probably would have doubled or tripled our donation) to make the whole thing solid, so there are columns on the inside (all made from cans). Its pretty sturdy though, I was sitting on the upper layer, and it felt completely stable. It took our team the whole 8 hours (we actually finished with 12 minutes to go) to finish it... and we actually ended up with left over cans at the end.

The day went without mishap for our team, however, not every team was so lucky. One team built a car at a drive in... and with about an hour to go, their 6 foot tall wall of cans acting like a screen fell over. Luckily, they got it rebuilt in time. There were 7 teams total, and over 30,000 cans that will be donated to the local food banks next week. The event was held at the Dayton Art Institute, which were really awesome, and took care of us very well.

Thanks Matias for the photos.

2006-09-21T16:05:00.000-04:00

For all of you who don't rss... I have added a new way to keep up with this blog via e-mail. On the sidebar, there is a subscribe box. Just punch your address in there, hit subscribe, and tada, you are enlisted.

This will send you an e-mail once a day, on the days I update the blog. No update, means no e-mail. No complicated rss stuff to deal with.

For those of you who don't want to scroll down... here's the subscribe box:

Portfolio - All Projects

2006-09-19T20:13:00.000-04:00

This is a slideshow of all my projects, undergrad, graduate, and professional.

Photo-Blog... PhoBlog... Fauxblog

2006-09-19T08:35:00.000-04:00

The Split
Caye Caulker, Belize.

Comments?

Washington Trip Part Duece

2006-09-14T10:31:00.000-04:00

While in Washington, I had the chance to do some climbing, alpine style, for my birthday. Talk about awesome. The climb we did was the Beckey Route, on the Liberty Bell Mountain (the right most peak on the photo). It was a technically easy, 3 or 4 pitch climb, about a 5.5, or 5.6 with a few 5.7 moves. The Liberty Bell is 7,700 ft in elevation at the peak, and was first ascended September 27, 1946.
Alpine climbing is different to the style of climbing I have been doing. I have been climbing in a climbing gym, and on some sport routes. With those styles of climbing, once you finish a route, your belayer lowers you down to where you started the route. This climb finished with an incredible 360 degree view of the area around it, and then a long rappel (180 or so feet in this case). Its pretty sweet to actually get to the top of something.

This area of the state has alot of forest fires going on at this time, so it was good to get above the smoke, and in the clear air. You can see in this photo how smokey the air was... and in the video below you can glimpse the smoke plume from on of the fires in the area.

Thanks Janice and Scott for taking me on this, and for teaching me alpine style, and some trad protection.

Hit the play button below to get a 360 degree pan of from the peak.

Exodus has begun

2006-09-13T11:04:00.000-04:00

Dayton is like one of those giant rubber bands they use for slingshots. The longer you stay, the more it gets pulled back. How far away you move when you finally leave is based around how long you stayed.

Jabari didn't stay long, he is only able to fly to the NYC.

Can't wait to visit you dude. Hope my rubber band has not snapped by that time.

The new net... pNet.

2006-09-12T14:37:00.000-04:00

The Internet is awesome... it has everything you could want. Movies, TV, music, knowledge, and sweaters. Problem is, it is too big, and you were always stuck staring into a computer to find stuff. Then came the devices, your cell phone, PSP/Gameboy, iPod, iPhone, PDA, smart phone, camera, camera phone, cellular iPDApod, yada yada. These devices usually live fairly independently, occasionally connecting to each other in order to share ability, or minor information.

With these, you can talk to others, listen to music, check your schedule, watch TV/movies, show off your photos, check your stocks, find out the current bid of the Wookie costume on eBay, or check the weather in Bolivia. Each device you have is tuned to do some of this better than others, but who really watches movies on their phones? Have you tried calling someone using a PlayStation Portable? How about making your calendar in your office computer, home computer, iPod, phone, and PDA all match?

I have a solution.

We need a Personal Information Server (P.I.S. for short). What is P.I.S. I hear you asking... it is essentially a tiny hard drive which stores all your media and information. Your music, your movies, your photos, your contacts, and your calendar. There is no screen, no buttons, just a few lights and a wireless connection to any available wifi or cellular network.

Then there are the devices that will connect to your P.I.S. to form a Ubiquitous, Redundant Information Network... or U.R.I.N. for short. Each device does its own thing... your cell phone no longer plays music, it just makes calls. Your PDA doesn't need to play games, it just acts as a data assistant. Your camera can dump photos directly to your server, letting you instantly free that memory card.

But why the shift in paradigm away from the wanna-be all-in-one type devices. They cost lots, when they break your hosed, they never do everything, or anything perfectly, and sometimes you don't want your "cellular iPDApod" with you, but you do need the cellular part of that. Device size alone is a huge reason... now your phone can be small enough fit in your jeans pockets. Another huge advantage is the dreaded upgrade. Upgrading your phone doesn't mean you need to upgrade your camera. Information sharing would also be extremely simple... want to try your buddy's camera out, just tell it to send the photos to your P.I.S. instead, and tada. Your phone breaks, and you need to make a call... grab anybody's phone, pass the biometric security, now your dialin'. Stream your music to your friends sound system.

The system comes alive when it gets smart. Your going to Vegas for your friends wedding, you put it in your calendar... now your P.I.S. goes and gets information from the internet for you. It grabs airfares, hotels, maps, show information, all the standard stuff. It also knows you like to climb, so it gets maps for Red Rocks, and digital guide books for the climbs. You can look at all this information when you are ready too, without needing a live internet connection, until you want to book something that is. When your in Vegas, your pNet suggests restraunts based on your location, it will even serve up the menus.

Apple just released what could be the first step for this. Their iTV Media Router connects your media to your TV without tapes, discs, or cords. It simply streams your media to your device, just like my hypothetical U.R.I.N. stream.

The 'i' is dead... long live 'p'.

Washington Trip Part I

2006-09-11T13:10:00.000-04:00

I just got back from a trip to Washington where I spent the week hanging out on my dad's boat, with my dad, my sister, her husband Scott, and Josh and Jessica. It was a pretty fun time had by all. Dad has put the boat up for sale, so this might be the last voyage under his command.

Here is a picture of 5 year old Josh and 2 year old Jessica cruising around in the Kayak, and a picture of the boat... why ever give this up?

Anything for a thrill.

2006-09-01T08:24:00.000-04:00

Russ prepares his anchor slings
Originally uploaded by Matias3000.

So, our lights in the atrium of our office blew out... normally if your boss wants you to change light bulbs, you should start preparing your resume, and getting boxes to pack up your desk. I not only jumped at the chance, I was the one who asked for it. See... the lights are really hard to get too, you can't reach them with a ladder, and you can't get them with one of those light-changing-suction-stick things. So... like anybody who climbs, I offered to rappel down, and change them myself. Only 2 bulbs got dropped... not too bad.

Thanks Matias for your help with this, and for the photo. Click it to see his Flickr, and other photos of light-bulb changing.

McCormick Building - Architectural Record

2006-08-31T15:21:00.000-04:00

This is a "borrowed" article from Architectural Record on the McCormick building. I borrowed this because you have to register on Arch Record's site to read it... and that wasn't cool.

Constructed in 1913, the McCormick Building originally housed a plumbing supply business. Lorenz Williams transformed the dilapidated 32,000-square-foot structure into a mix of office space, which the design firm itself now occupies, and ten loft-style apartment units. The surrounding neighborhood of Webster Station has also undergone a revitalization, thanks to the completion of Fifth Third Field, a ballpark for the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team.

Lorenz Williams' offices occupy four floors of the building. A grand stair connects these levels. Its ascent takes place at odd angles, modulated by landings and jauntily positioned walls. The materials and jarring shapes create a dialogue with the existing structure's historic backdrop. The architects describe this stair as a “theater of movement” and “an interactive, participatory event that gives meaning to the experience of architecture.”

Although it energizes the space and provides circulation, the grand stair also creates privacy for the offices. It offers those on the stair an ever-changing view of designers at work in their offices, yet staff continue to work unaware of the foot traffic passing above and below them. In contrast to this striking interior, the McCormick Building's exterior was restored to its original appearance—including the windows—and Lorenz Williams' work netted an award from the AIA Ohio chapter.

Location:
Dayton, Ohio

Gross square footage:
30,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$3.4 million

Owner:
City Wide Development Corporation

Architect:
Lorenz Williams
434 East First St.
Dayton, OH 45402
937-223-6500 tel.
937-461-2934 fax.
www.lorenzandwilliams.com

The McCormick Building
Dayton, Ohio
Lorenz Williams

the People

Architect of record:
John Fabelo, AIA

Associate architect(s):
Russ Anderson

Interior designer:
Karen H. Painter IIDA, ASID, LEED and Karen Skupnik, IIDA

Engineer(s)
Heapy Engineering www.heapy.com

Flooring:
Rod Seabolt, CDC Distributors

General contractor
Messer Construction www.messer.com

Photographer(s)
Ken Schory
44 Royal Birkdale Rd.
Springboro, OH 45066
937-748-4874
www.kenschory.com

Renderer(s)
Russ Anderson

CAD system, project management, or other software used
Microstation www.bentley.com, 3D Studio Max www.autodesk.com

Discovery

2006-08-30T08:32:00.000-04:00

So... I figure its time to get to the new webby way of things, and begin my blogging experience.

What do I want this to be? I am planning on it becoming a container for many things, travelling updates, showing off photos, my random thoughts on how the world could be a better place... and life updates.

Stay tuned, could be cool.

[Mystic Gringo]

Not again.

Finally joined the revolution

Resolutions - the beginning

Nieces and Nephews

Been A While

Conspiracy

Return of the Tenants.

How much is your ankle worth?

Bumper Sticker: "Your worst nightmare is my favorite vacation"

USCG Documentation renewal

Tenants... yay for being a landlord

Brilliant ideas log.

Dog owes me $64.45

Ugh

Patina rules

Advice from everyone

Even in Spam

Sorry

Pee everywhere

Family addition

A recent forwarded message

What I have learned about owning a home so far...

Designers are idiots too.

Box to live in?

Climb-a-thon

Now I need a car... and a dog.

State of the apartment

Starbucks... on your iPod!!!

Mystic Venture trip report - 2007-08-18

Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch - New York Times

One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008

Why architects don't design cars

Joovc Doovde player... please.

Two more photos of the Mudaritaville carnage.

Mudaritaville 2007

A Mystic Venture indeed.

Island being formed.

Amphitheater... up again.

Mystic Venture Maiden Voyage - The Plan

First Trad Lead

I hate the first day of work

14 Years

Happy Birthday Bailey

Closing time...

1st weekend of season in Red River Gorge.

Now the hard work

New Jersey for a few hours

Sailboat update

Before and after

Oops...

Furniture 2.0

Stage 2...

What parachute?

Christmas / New Years slacker...

Office Posters

Best advice I heard all night

Spam of the day

Searching for a new home

All good things...

Scuba Map V2.0

Scuba Map

What do Diet Coke, Mentos, and too much time equal.

27 Seconds of a Cow fish

27 seconds of squid

Curacao...

Red River Gorge

Canstruction 2006 - Update

Protfolio - Necco

Canstruction 2006

Subscribe

Portfolio - All Projects

Photo-Blog... PhoBlog... Fauxblog

Washington Trip Part Duece

Exodus has begun

The new net... pNet.

Washington Trip Part I

Anything for a thrill.

McCormick Building - Architectural Record

Discovery