Scattered Thoughts

I got bored on my graveyard tonight and decided to re-design this page. It's not a huge re-design, but as you can see by clicking here and switching from one to another, there are small differences in the designs. Overall I like this one better, but there is still some tweaking to do. It was inspired by my spring break trip to the Florida Sea Base in the Keys. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comment box or send me an email. The more eyes I have scrutinizing it, the better the end product will be. Everything should work since I took the main templates from the last theme.

Here's a side by side of the two designs.

Will has offered to go to the SRSC with me on Mondays and Fridays for the rest of the semester, and Luke has offered to go climbing with me on Wednesday and Sunday. This is great news because now I'm more likely to go to the gyms since I'm meeting someone there. Anyone else who wants to join is still welcome to come along, especially climbing — the more the merrier.

Work tonight was really boring. There wasn't anything going on this graveyard, which is a change from normal. Things are usually decently busy in here but tonight — no dice.

This evening (read as when I wake up from my post-graveyard nap) I have an exam for Z302 and then a fraternity formal function. More excitement here because I get to hang out with the brothers I haven't seen most of the semester tonight.

I updated the Photoblog with the first of many images from Spring Break, so you should check it out.

I also printed out some color copies of the High Adventure Rigging Handbook. It's really sweet and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The only problem is that I forgot to include a section on setting up the zip platform for zipping. Oh well, not like it'll be too hard to write. Check it out here (pdf).

Yesterday, during my pre-graveyard sleep, I started thinking about this summer and some changes I would like to make to the tower. Well, it made me pretty excited so I wasn't able to sleep past 8:00 — I usually sleep until 10:00. So I got up and showered then wanted to do something to keep myself busy — I wanted to play WoW. I go to login and the 1.10 patch that was supposed to fix some things and make gameplay get better broke the WoW system. All of the realms were down and I couldn't play. I wasn't too happy, so I cleaned up the house a bit instead.

Good things come from servers being broken — sometimes.

Aaaaand my toe still hurts from when I dropped plotter paper on it.

Anyway, I think that's about it. I've rambled on for long enough about random topics.

peace out
tm

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown
Song of the Day — Play That Funky Music — Wild Cherry
Villain of the Day — WoW Patch 1.10 for breaking EVERYTHING!
Current Mood — — Excited

Until the next post…

I'm so out of shape, it's not even funny.

This weekend, I went out to Ransburg to help the C.O.P.E. and Climbing Committee get the course and tower ready for the spring season. Usually that entails putting up the Giant's Ladder, the tires on the Tire Traverse, putting the shear reduction devices on top of the tower/C.O.P.E. Course, and making sure everything is in good shape for opening. This year in addition to those things, it included hanging a new tire on the Porthole, re-affixing the Zip Line cable to the new pole at the end of the line, testing the Zip Line, adding a gate to the top deck of the tower, adding a permanent anchor point to the center of the tower for the free rappel, putting a new cable on the Tire Traverse, replacing some of the decking at the top of the tower and finishing the bouldering wall.

Needless to say we didn't finish our work this past weekend, so I'll be heading out to Ransburg again next Saturday to finish.

The reason I'm so out of shape is this… It's two days after the work and my deltoids and triceps are still sore. I need to start getting into shape before the summer, so here's my plan (if anyone wants to join me in my get-into-shape plan, let me know):

Monday after work — SRSC time, weight training and cardio.
Wednesday evening — Hoosier Heights time.
Friday afternoon — SRSC time, more weight training and cardio.
Sunday afternoon — Hoosier Heights time.

I really need someone to hit up HH with me because I can't climb on my own. But if I follow that for the next few weeks, I should be back in shape for the summer.

Something else that may be of interest to some of you is that the lake is currently 10′ above summer pool, meaning the breakwater is four feet underwater. If we keep getting all this precipitation, I have the feeling that come summer, the water level will be dropping considerably each day. Translated: The Aquatics Staff will be moving the docks a lot this summer.

And my last bit of news from this weekend… Smithville Telephone has put a Cingular tower at the substation just past Ransburg on 446. I asked Keith while I was at the course this weekend if Cingular was added to the tower at camp. His answer was no, so I asked why I have full service at the C.O.P.E. course when in previous summers, I had to climb to the top of one of the poles to have even a little bit of reception. He then told me that Smithville Telephone had built a tower and that there's a loophole in the zoning ordinances that allows their tower to have lights on the top of it. In Monroe County, unless you're a public utility, you cannot have lights on the top of any towers.

Good news about that is that I have phone reception down at the course…

The bad news… we can now see the Cingular tower from the parade field at camp…

…stupid progress…

tm

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown
Song of the Day — Chariot — Gavin DeGraw
Quote of the Day — "teh cart iz mega-sux. lol! ftl!" — Matt commenting on the paper cart we have for moving paper from lab to lab. It only works for boxes.
Hero of the Day — This guy
Current Mood — — Sore

Until the next post…

Do not drop rolls of plotter paper on your toes. It hurts a lot and most likely will leave a bruise.

Thought you all would want to know.

tm

Yea, that's where I spent my Spring Break — Blackbeard's Backyard. Yes, I'm talking about Blackbeard the Pirate a.k.a. Edward Teach. His hideout was very close to where I spent all of last week.

If you didn't know, I was one of the adult leaders on one of T119's Sea Base crews. They had three overall (I think) — Two did the Keys Adventure (my crew) and one was on the Out Island Adventure. The Out Island adventure is where you spend all week on Munson Island i.e. not my idea of a good time, really. The Keys Adventure is where you spend some time sailing, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, on a beach, visiting some of the local nature preserves, in Key West and on Munson Island.

If you want to read a day to day summary of what happened throughout my Spring Break, you'll have to click on the "Continue Reading" link at the bottom of the post.

I will tell you that it was possibly one of the best weeks I've ever had. I got to know the kids on the trip extremely well and was able to see them overcome some of their fears/reservations about certain activities. All of them tried something completely new at some point during the week.

Overall it was a relaxing and fun week. I was excited to leave for the trip, couldn't wait to get home to see everyone, and now I miss it.

That's all I've got for the basic summary of the week. Remember if you want the in-depth day by day description, check out the continue reading link.

peace
tm

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown
Song of the Day — Somebody Told Me — The Killers
Quote of the Day — "I'll buy you a pop if…" — Josh to us at various times throughout the week.
Hero of the Day — Thea for causing a fit of laughter over spilled staples in the IC today.
Villain of the Day — SNOW
Current Mood — — Tired

Until the next post…

Continue Reading »

Alright all… this is my last post before I head to the Keys for Spring Break.

I didn't post on Monday… oh well. I didn't really have anything to write about. As for today, I don't really have much to write about either, but I do have one thing I want to rant about and that one thing is the Iliad.

First of all, what is the Iliad:

The Iliad is a fictitious publishing company for which you will assume the role of Vice President for one business day. The Iliad is an assessment center designed to test your management skills.

Translated to:

The Iliad is a bunch of crap jammed into a little red book. The only thing it assesses is your ability to waste time on completely useless and non-beneficial activities. In the end, you are not a better manager or leader after attending the Iliad; however, you are turned more against the philosophy of business as a whole.

Suffice it to say that the three hours I spend in this "day" of work was a complete waste of three hours of my time. By being in the class (did I mention this is a class event?), you receive one of three grades for the Iliad — a 95, 85 or 75. The lowest of which is a C. Why did I even bother going to this damned event? Because I'm trying to be a good student and I want to graduate. Those are the only reasons. They sound awfully similar to the reasons why I'm taking Z302 instead of some other business class.

Now, the Iliad has four parts: 1) Meet with a group and make a group decision, 2) Answer questions about a prospective job applicant for the role of CEO for Iliad, 3) Give a three minute speech on where you think Iliad should expand internationally and 4) Complete a series of questions based on "inbasket" memos. The skills that should be garnered from these tasks: Public Speaking, On-your-feet thinking, working effectively in a group and prioritization of action items.

The parts in which the Iliad is successful are:
:cricket:

I wasn't too happy that I 1) missed the end of the IU Michigan game and 2) wasted three hours of my Saturday.

I'm just glad I haven't bought the book for this class, because that too would have been a waste of resources.

In other news, I'm feeling better than I was on Friday. For some reason I woke up feeling hung-over when I didn't have anything to drink the night before and I was plenty hydrated. This lasted a few days and finally completely went away on Monday. I assume it was just some flu/cold bug that has run its course.

I really don't have much else to write about and it's about time to go pay the parking meter, so I am going to cut this post off.

The next post will follow my Sea Base trip, so look for that in two Mondays.

peace!
tm

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown
Album of the Day — Hot Fuss — The Killers
Quote of the Day — "I understand liking Jesus, but thanking him for everything?" — Tim A. about a guy who went nuts thanking Jesus for bringing him to the Price is Right and getting him on stage… cause chance didn't have anything to do with it…
Villain of the Day — Iliad
Current Mood — — Tired

Until the next post…