A welcome houseguest

Fred came to stay for the last four days and I've got a few things to list that I know to be true:
1. A labatts in maine tastes the same as a Labatts in NY.
2. A labatts with fred always tastes great.
3. Dave Duhalde is really loud. All the time.
4. Fred is probably Jon Todd's brother he never had.

If anyone thinks of anything else defining about fred why not post them here.

Keep moving forward!!

I've learned something about myself. Whatever the last pixar movie that I watched is always the best movie I've ever seen.

The most recent:


The movie is all about scientific ingenuity and how you (really you there reading this) could invent the future!!!

And the plot moves wicked fast.

The best bumper sticker I've ever seen

Even better than the darwin fish:

Buy one

Say What?

Words.

Is there anything that unites people the way common language does? Words are complex, elegant, and simple. But I really never stop to think about words.

Here are two documentaries that I've seen that really made me think about words and their place in my life.


Wordplay

A great movie about crossword puzzles, the people who do them, and the people who create them. In my mind the under two minutes nytimes crossword solve contained in the film is equivalent two the crazy kids who solve rubic's cubes in under 30 secs.


Helvetica

This movie is a little slower, and not as exciting, but extremely interesting. Seemingly benign, fonts have a really interesting history brought forth in this very swiss movie.

Good Watching.

Cell phones

Lots of cool stuff coming out of the Mobile World Congress (I can't explain Robert Redford either). Many new phones and the line between computers and cell phones are blurring.

An observant pursuer of information would notice the complete lack of mention of Apple. When do we get iphone 2.0?

The Best meal I've ever had cooked for me

Lila just made me this extremely good fried shrimp dish out of "The Silver Spoon" cookbook. Those of you who know lila, know that she is a great cook. This recipe was so good that I've decided to risk copyright infrigement yet again and post it.

Fried Shrimp in pink sauce

Ingredients:
4 table spoons of tomato paste
3 tablespoons heavy cream
juice of 1/2 lemon, strained
1.5 cups dry white wine
1 teaspoon grated fresh root ginger
1 garlic clove
16 large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 egg whites
vegetable oil, for deep-frying
all-purpose flour, for dusting
salt and pepper

Combine the tomato paste, cream, and lemon juice in a bowl, season with salt and pepper and set aside. Pour the wine into a dish and add a pinch of salt and the ginger and the garlic. Add the shrimp, mix well and let marinate for about 1 hour. Stiffly whisk the egg whites in a grease-free bowl. Drain the shrimp and immerse them in the egg white. Heat the oil for deep frying in a large pan. Spread out the flour in a shallow dish. Holding each shrimp by the tip of its tail, dip it in the flour, then put it in to the hot oil and cook until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spatula and drain on paper towels. Season with salt and serve the pink sauce, handed separately.

Good eating

Nerdcore kinda

was just shown this by lila's older brother. And yes, I'm really excited about adding youtube videos to my blog.

Tim Burton scares me again

This was one seriously scary movie. There were funny bits, and sad bits, but mostly just scary bloody bits. You should probably go see it.

Voices from Macworld

Jon and I left Macworld yesterday and I thought I'd post some show photos as well as some thoughts.

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This was the Apple show floor, pretty much the dominant feature of the expo. There was this big stage and pretty much every hour there was some sort of presentation. The focus of many of these was of course the...

The Macbook Air!!

Here we can see many Apple fans checking out the new ultra-portable. It is really cool. Although it doesn't come with a CD drive, it is able to use any other wifi enabled computer's cd drive. In my opinion the perfect companion to the Air is the mini. you could run a headless mini somewhere out of sight and just use it for storage and the drive.

Of course many other companies were at Macworld. Google had a cool booth...


Naturally there was no where to sit, few power outlets and the wifi didn't work...


All in all we had a really good time. San Francisco is a great city with lots of good food, fun places to visit, and plenty of bars. Also everyone is trendy. So we felt right at home.

Steve and Barry's

Lila's brother, Joey, is on a budget and he needs new sneakers. What should he get? Can he be stylish and cheap? I suggested checking out Sierratradingpost but no, thats not cheap enough. Can you look cool and be cheap? Yes!! At Steve and Barry's you can!! You can be as cool as either, Stephan Marburry, Venus Williams, or Sarah Jessica Parker.

Encouraged by Joey, I checked out S&B's for gifts and yes I did buy some. But let me tell you why I won't do that again. Steve and Barry's occupies the niche that none of us knew existed between Old Navy (its a step below) and Walmart (its a half step above). Its kind of like target but only with clothes and the clothes aren't as nice.

To be fair, I know its nice for people to be able to get the gear that the pros wear at those prices (Marburry and Williams both compete in their own footwear). And if you want to look fasionable, well we all know that Sex in the City has told us that SJP is hot. So I guess shopping there is appropriate for some, but I don't think its for me.

The force is strong with this one

As evidenced by my last post I've been thinking about evolution and religion recently. The question has been raised, can one reconcile religious belief with science? And I've come to the conclusion that at least I can't. If you are the strictest definition of a religious person, you hold content of your religious text to be true. What science proposes as the history of the universe, including all interactions on our own planet, is really at odds with religious texts. Can you really believe in evolution and believe in the bible or the koran or anything else at the same time? I personally can't.

I was telling lila that I don't think I believe in anything religious and that I think I'm an atheist. But then I decided that isn't really true, I believe in science. And one of the central tenants to all science is the first law of thermodynamics. Energy is conserved. Also, for something to exist it has to have some energy. Check out this debate. So one might say that energy flows throughout everything, binding everything together in one universal manner? Sound familiar? I'm not an atheist, I'm a jedi.

Creationism makes you dumb

Watching a pbs video on evolution and it is striking. As an educated science type, you loose sight of the fact there are actually a lot of people out there who don't believe in evolution. To which I say: Are you out of your mind?

I recall an old doonesbury cartoon in which a doctor tells a patient they have cancer, an ever changing evolving disease. He then asks the patient what type of treatment they want, the creationist treatment or the evolution treatment. The guy asks the difference and the doctors says well in the evolution treatment we give you drugs and chemo, the whole nine yards. In the creationist treatment we pat you on the back, give you some penicillin and send you on your way. The patient, a creationist, asks to hear more about the evolution based treatment.

Recently in a wired magazine, I read an article from the international congress on science, in which they were discussing doing away with the word "theory" and replacing it with the word "law" as its basically the same thing anyways.

A lot of misunderstanding of science derives from a lack of understanding of normal words in a science context. While ignorance is unfortunate, what's even worse are the people who do understand what the words mean and take advantage of it.

And to top it off, this idiotic debate makes us the laughing stock of the rest of world. Health care, education, and now science ed. I hate this country.

What to Eat on thanksgiving

OR


Truthfully I really don't like thanksgiving food. Turkey is ok, with barbeque sauce but everything else is not want I want to be eating. I'm always hoping that the thanksgiving dinner will fail and we'll have to go out to a Chinese Restaurant since they'll be the only ones open. I guess I'm not too american but thats just the way it is. You try eating salt free, fat free, skin free turkey and bad kugel for thanksgiving your whole life. You'd want Chinese food too.

Bowdoin from Birth

Last night, Lila and I went out to dinner with my family and some other non-family but very close family members. In total there were four bowdoin grads, and adam who we figure is going to get in (college application process is kind of like the NY Lotto, hey you never know). We ended up singing Beneath the Pines (my favorite).

Also in other news, I, who normally surf the web and play computer games got a perfect score on my writing & literacy midterm. I'm the Fred of my TC class. Except I don't play Casey at the Bat and Requiems at the same time and throw stuff at people. It'd be hard to throw stuff at myself.

Fanfare please

Happy to announce that Lila and I became engaged on sunday right before the 4pm sea lion feeding at the central park zoo



We are both very happy. We have not set a date yet, but don't worry we will.

A Public Apology

Ok. When I didn't hang out too much with our friends, no one blacked my face out of a photo. Eric, I'm sorry you couldn't come to homecoming. You're a great friend, a great scheduler, and I'm sure you'll be a great lawyer.

I tried to come up with a good republican joke but I couldn't think of one that wouldn't make what I wrote above less meaningful. This is the closest you're going to get to getting a hug.

Results are in

Despite having the opportunity to hook up with jonelle, drink lots, have a good time, and escape the stigma of being a republican, Eric Penley did not come to homecoming.



Perhaps we should all have a moment of silence in memory of his passing the dark side.

Fact: Jon is really good at changing his oil

No, its the opposite!

It'd be true if being really good at changing oil included: dripping it all over your face, loosing washers, not tightening bolts enough, losing said bolt on the highway, draining all your oil at 65mph and making your car smoke. And trashing the engine.

At least friendly tow truck drivers, tom, dave, and a cave man were all ready and willing to help.

Actually I feel bad for Jon. But nobody tell him.

Thank you for dynamite

Apparently Al Gore is the favorite for a nobel prize this year. Check it out here.

The quality of teaching

So a classmate of mine recently observed a bio lesson. During this lesson the teacher told the students that two animals of different species could not mate and reproduce. A student raised his hand and asked, what about the platypus? Doesn't it come from the reproduction of the duck and the beaver? To which the teacher replied, "Oh well, thats an exception."

I don't think I'm going to make a joke about it because although it is funny, it isn't.

Bling Bling

Get a grill or get this, the nerd's version of a grill.

Lawsuit Against Apple

So I don't know if you've heard but there as a lawsuit out there against Apple, Steve Jobs, and AT&T related to the iphone price drop. Check it out here.

This is way funnier though, It was a response I found trolling the comments from the linked article.

Originally Posted by dh87
Last week at Whole Foods, I paid $2.29/lb for apples. This week apples were only $1.69. I am suing Whole Food for $1 million dollars, which is a conservative estimate of my actual, emotional, and spiritual damage. As the eponym of the product in question, I may sue Apple as well.

Fred, do you have any take on this? Does the chick have a case? Can I sue eric penley for not coming to homecoming? I can't even describe the emotional damage.

Virtual Insanity

Today's adventure:

Got caught for copyright infringement!

Upon returning to my computer, after going to work this morning, I discovered that I could no longer get online. I had a "self assigned ip address." Thats what a computer does when the service provider revokes their IP address for some reason.

Well I went to find out the reason and it turns out that I got caught by the lawyers from HBO for downloading Entourage. This is approximately how the conversation with the head of computing went:

Me - Hi, you need to see me about copyright infringement?
Him - (looking up from playing second life) Yeah, we got contacted by some lawyers
Me - well I guess I shouldn't have been downloading things.
Him - You understand the implications?
Me - yes, I'm sorry.
Him - its ok, just don't do it again.
Me - ok, I won't.
Him - you seem pretty tech savvy, do you want a job?
Me - thanks, but no thanks. I've already got one.
Him - ok, great to meet you.
Me - thanks for helping me out.

Anyone get the irony? Offered a job b/c I was breaking the law?
To quote Jamiroquai, "its a crazy mixed up world, we're living in"

Day Trading Worse than Away Message Checking

Recently, I've started paying a lot more attention to the stock market. I mean, I want my money to be working for me, right? Well E*Trade is a lot worse than either World of Warcraft, or watching youtube, or checking away messages or any of that stuff. I mean thats your money either growing or not growing. Watching it is mezmerizing.

But I've found something even better than fooling around with your own money. Try trading on the PPX, Popular Science's virtual exchange. There you can buy "future stocks" that predict things like: "Will the FDA clear deep-brain stimulation as a treatment for clinical depression by September 30, 2008?" That's the current IPO, on a the market at $50.00/share. There are a number of other "stocks" available, probably around 100, and they all have different prices, reflective of peoples opinions on how accurate the statements are. And you get to start with $250,000 so there are plenty of options.

Another example, I own 230 shares of this: Flying Car by 2025 - Will a flying car become commercially available by 2025?


Seems like a good thing for people who are at work who'd rather be fooling around online. Avery.

How Many Days Until Homecoming?

No Reservations

So watching the Travel Channel Show, "No Reservations" recently on my ipod I learned a cool fact. Chef, Anthony Bourdain is from New Jersey. Specifically Leonia, NJ. Who else is from Leonia? Its up to you to find out.



The Leonia Volunteer Ambulance Corps. insignia

Click here for more Leonia info

Not Funny but Cute

Some may have heard. Lila and I have adopted kittens. Their names are scarlet and chowder. You might be under the impression that they are named after scarlet begonias and a classic maine soup but they aren't. They came with those names. Thats why we adopted them. And they're cute.

Triple Cheeseburger model for the five paragraph essay

The buns represent the introduction and conclusion. The three meat patties represent the three body paragraphs of the essay, while the cheese, lettuce, majo, and other toppings represent the writing flourishes like vocabulary, sentence structure, and verbiage. This model has obvious limitations. Students might think that the introduction and conclusion should be indistinguishable (since they are both buns). While they are somewhat similar, there are clear differences. Next, toppings are stacked one on another in a burger, but in a paper, vocabulary and sentence structure are part of the meat (i.e., not stacked on the meat). Finally, and perhaps too obviously, burgers are eaten while essays are read. One could say both are examples of consuming, but essays not dissolve in the stomach acid, but rather digest in the brain of the reader.

This paragraph was submitted as part of a homework assignment by a classmate of mine. He gave me permission publish it on my blog

Republican Penley: The Evidence builds

An unnamed source today reported to me that in fact the 25 page paper due wednesday (eric's excuse not to come to homecoming) is in fact a 10 page memo due friday. This raises two key points.

1. Thats not that much work and really eric has no excuse to not be at homecoming.

2. He committed perjury (he may not have known he was under oath when we were chatting but he was) when he LIED to me making his workload sound larger and more pressing. Naturally, I'm lumping him together with the other lying republicans, Cheney, Rove, Bush, whoever you want.

So in the name of all that is good, Eric, come back to the light. We don't want you to be a republican. We want you to go to homecoming.

Penley to join GOP Imminent

Its been on all our minds recently... When will Eric Penley show his true colors and admit to being a republican? The evidence for it is as follows:

He's moved to a red state and is taking classes. This map is from the 2004 presidential election. Virginia is clearly red.



Secondly, he says he's not going to homecoming. From a conversation with him earlier today:
1. "yeah, so I'd love to make it to homecoming but I don't think I can"

2. "one reason I really can't come is that I have a 25-page paper due the following week"

3. "part of what makes me pretty good at stuff is that I make responsible decisions in times like this, and don't fuck myself over at a critical time in the semester"

Finnally, when asked if he was a republican, he said no, but then told me that he was surrounded by conservative racists.

Only time will tell.

WoW!!!

So after ten days away from fast internet I'm ready to admit that I miss playing World of Warcraft. Its fun, anti-social, and it doesn't require me to shower or anything.
Rest assured. I will play all day tomorrow.

Who'd win in a fight?

It's no secret that I read a lot of US weekly and pay plenty of attention to celebrity happenings. Really there's no question that Brad Pitt is one of the celebrity world's leading men. Entering into that world now that he lives in LA is David Beckham. So naturally the question arises, who'd win in a fight?



Brad Pitt has got the sreet cred - anyone remember fight club? He can obviously take care of himself. Also the Ocean's 11 movies show us that he's got brains as well. Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Brad knows how to use a gun. And a minivan.



Then we've got Mr. Beckham. He's no cushy londoner. Raised in a blue collar family, he worked his way through the international soccer world. He works out every day and has to seriously exert himself to earn his multi-million dollar paychecks.

So who'd win in a fight? Both these guys are tough, cool, and strong. So I look at the wives. What is Victoria's effect on David vs. Angelina effect on Brad? Posh keeps to herself, is quietly supportive, and just pouts a lot. Angelina on the other hand trucks brad all over the world and makes Brad play Robin to her Batman.

So I'd give to Beckham, he'd definitely take Brad in a fight. Maybe if Angelina took Brad's balls out of the steel box she keeps them in and gave them back to Brad, Brad could stand a chance against Beckham.

what am I doing right now

Ways to procrastinate your special education final which is due in two hours and nineteen minutes:

watch all the apple "I'm a mac..." commercials

update your blog

stare off mindlessly into space

check out all the new apple products and spec each one out optimally for your use just to see how much you can't afford one

tell yourself that you are going to take a short nap only to accidentally take a long nap

write your name, the name of the class and the date at the top of a piece of paper telling yourself thats its ok you are procrastinating since you have already started

this list could go on and on but I guess I really need to do this final now.

Horseshoe crabs - blue crabs - garden spider

what do these have in common? They are all arthopods and are in the Super Phyllm, ecdysozoa. We're dissecting them tomorrow. It is going to be intense.

Additionally, I spent the weekend working and playing video games. Time management? A skill I will never learn.

In the world of mac, fake steve jobs was outed by a guy from the nytimes. He's the senior editor of forbes magazine!! I heard an interview with him and he does not speak in any way like his alter-ego. But either way, forbes is going to sponsor the site and not edit what he writes. I think it will be pretty funny to have a corporate magazine sponsor a blog which basically just trashes on everyone who is anti-apple or a lunatic (larry elison), especially when so much of the forbes readership probably falls into that category.

Also, I've been trying to like Cramer from mad money. I just can't do it. That guy is worse than doctor phil.

On my own

Since my classes are going to run for another week and half, and lila was done with hers, she decided to go to the adirondacks to work at her camp. So I'm going to be on my own for about two weeks.

I know what you are thinking. I will sit around in my underware, play video games, watch tv, sleep, eat and generally make a mess everywhere.

But no!! In fact I will go to work everyday (not weekends), do homework, take finals and just generally be responsible.

Sounds pretty boring.

So to make life exciting I'm accepting recommendations for stupid stunts:
Rules - the stunt can not have a high probability of landing me in the hospital. (low probability is fine. Secondly the stunt can't have a high probability of getting me arrested.

Other than that, the skies the limit. Once my readership at large has submitted a good list, I'll post it and you can vote. I'll perform the task suggested by the winner. They also get a quarter.

good luck.

Live from amnh

So its my lunch break right now - sitting in my classroom in the museum. This is a pretty fun job and the students are great. They are pretty much ideal as they have all chosen to be here and undergone a difficult application process. So things are going well on the museum front.

As some of you may know, I was initially opposed to the iphone thinking it was not as great as it was cracked up to be. Well since then I've gone to an apple store and played with one and I'm thoroughly impressed. I want one. Of course it would cost me 200 bucks to terminate with sprint, then another 500 for a phone then a new at&t contract. Thats a lot of money, honey.

It makes me think, have pretty much all the people who were going to get an iphone already gotten one? Are people going to keep buying them? It seems that they are cost prohibitive to most. Any thoughts from the avery's of the world?

thnking about iphones an apple in general, the apple enthusiansts should all be reading this. Its worth your time.

I'll be in nyc through august 18th. then Lila and I are going to Maine
ine and new Hampshire. We're coming back on the 27th or something like that. So visits are in order.

Orinoco River Basin or Upper West Side?

I set my aquarium back up we moved back to the city. It styled as a south american black water aquarium. You can look it up if you care. Either way it has Discus Fish and angelfish.

My new job

I attended a 7 day institute at the Museum of Natural History on evolutionary biology and creating trees that show evoluntionary relationships between creatures. From that institute I found out about an open position to teach for The Museum for a program called the Lang Science Team.

Well I got hired and I start tomorrow. I'm teaching ten ninth graders for three weeks and then every other saturday throughout the academic year. I'm teaching them about frogs, Ecdysozoans, and coaching them through a research project. Today I have to go to The Museum to learn about frogs and Ecdysozoans so I'm prepared.



Additionally, I get a museum staff pass and guest passes so if you want to see dinosaurs - come to nyc.

Do I exsist? (before you go thinking I've gone all Matt Spooner, read on)

What does it mean to exist? Pretty existential I guess but I have my own personal answer. You exist where you spend your time (duh). So when Lila pointed out recently that I spend all my time online, I got to thinking. If I spend more time online, interacting with the web, than I do taking to people, do I exist online? Sure. But If I don't contribute anything, I'm more like a ghost roaming the 0's and 1's of the metaphysical. (whatever that means)

So morty's world is back. With a new look. A promise for more updates. Thoughts. Experiences. And trying to seem more witty than I actually am.

See you tomorrow

To Infinity and Bed, Bath, and Beyond!!

Well once again I'm back at the wash 'n wifi. Lila and I have moved to vermont succesfully.

We had a fun summer at sea and a good time this fall at chewonki.

We now rent an apartment in rutland vt. Its got room for guests so I encourage you to visit. You being, emma or fred, or avery, or SEA people, or Chewonki people or all sorts of people provided I already know you.

We bought a sweet LCD tv and now we have a home theater. I watched toy story on it. Man, woody sure looks hot in hi def.

The apartment has a sort of office room, which is being used for, well.. an office, and my indoor garden.



There is a four foot two bulb fluorescent light fixture and 4 compact fluorescents in metal work shields lighting the plants. Total output 12,000 lumens. Total energy cost less than 3.5 60 watt blubs. There is also a fan on a light timer which goes off four times a day to create an artificial breeze to cut down on insects.

I'm growing six varieties of peppers, basil, cilantro, marjoram, oregano, mint, rosemary, and thyme. There is also a small orange tree. As jon todd will contest, it is an ornamental orange tree, but the oranges are 100% edible and taste basically like a cross between a lime and an orange. They are nice in a gin and tonic.

Also I'm trying to get a job for the next 6 weeks or so until ski season really starts rolling. So far I've applied to the home depot, and as soon as I finish this I'm going to go and apply for jobs at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Dicks Sporting Goods, Staples, and Radio Shack.

I've also been selling stuff on ebay. So far I've sold a Gameboy and a Guitar Effects Pedal. I will be selling a guitar and a wallet (people have bid but the auctions aren't over) and I just listed an audio interface.

I just finished drinking a coke and now I'm going to bed bath and beyond.

Back from the dead?

So my non-exsistent readership may have thought that I sailed off the edge of the world, (the world is flat you know) but really I've just been either lazy or distracted for two months.
Done lots of fun stuff, sailed, visited friends, spent time with lila, computed, been outside, visited grad schools, all sorts of things really.

A little while ago I went to mexico with lila.



We had a good time although mom came too and she was real stressful. Never try playing tennis with her.

This is what manhattan looks like from New York harbor. We sailed under the Verazzano Bridge and up the east side to the 79h St. Boat basin. It was grey and rainy the whole time.



I'm going off to maine in a few days. By this tuesday afternoon I'll be a few miles from the Canadian border leading a canoe trip.

More updates in the future...

Hello from below the Mason-Dixon Line

So readers, you find me for the first time below the mason-dixon line. I don't count D.C. or florida because although they are in fact geographically "southern" states, I don't really think they count.

Charleston, SC. is ok. This port stop actually hasn't been as great as we'd be hoping. The dock is nice, there are some restuarants in walking distance, there are a few bars, some decent shopping but something over all just irks me and a few other people and as a result the stop hasn't been as relaxing as we'd hoped.


I've decided that I'm going to try to get into the patagonia catalouge. This picture is one of my early efforts, its a work in progress.

Camden called me a yesterday. She'd never called me before so I was pretty surprised but it was really great talking to her. I hope the rest of you all are all well.

Soon we'll be off to Norfolk, VA. If I get a chance I'll update again! I bet you can't wait.

Its been three months since the last update!

Well, in the past three months, lila and I have finished working at killington, and now we are working on the boat. We're sailing on the Corwith Cramer for SEA. We just finished our first trip, an alumni trip. We sailed from key west to the Dry Tortugas. There is an old fort out there called Fort Jefferson.


Its basically a small island (no fresh water) with a fort built on it that covers the whole island. There is decent snorkeling around the island and it is kind of cool to walk around. Its in very good condition.
I'm working as an asst. scientist. We haven't done lots of science yet but we will be. We did catch a tiny octopus and we are trying to get halobates (marine insects) to lay eggs.

Lila is doing well, she's cooking on the boat along with another girl (a close friend) named Danielle.

Refer to the email I sent to see where the boat is going to be at anytime and I'll talk to everyone/anyone soon.

Emma

This post is not meant to embarass emma (as she might think) but, simply to honor her. Whenever you need someone to talk to, she's there. If you need someone's opinion about whether the stunt you are about to pull is over the line or not, ask emma. The person who will worry about you when you're drunk, emma. Basically emma is really great and deserved a shout out a long time ago but she didn't get one. For some reason. Mostly because avery and me on each other's laps is funnier. Not to say that emma isn't funny. Because she is.

First post of new year, and my mom is visiting

Hi all, mom came to visit, she sleeping in my living room. She hasn't done anything super ridiculous just yet but we can cross our fingers. We skied her all over the mountain yesterday and things were mildly successful. But don't worry fred, she'll probably do something to cause my blood pressure to shoot through the roof soon enough.

I got new skis.

I had demo'd a bunch of skis and i liked this one the best, the elan magfire 12. Its the top of the line do anything go anywhere ski. Just like a little black dress. Its the little black dress of skis. Its also a lot of fun.

I went to Washington DC. I saw the declaration of independence and the constitution and the bill of rights, and the WWII memorial and the Vietnam memorial, and the lincoln memorial, and the Washington Momument, and Eric, Fred, Avery, Conor, John Haines, and Dan. It was fun. They were fun too.

Mostly I just go skiing, and think about skis. In fact, I'd say that I think about a ski or ski related idea for about 80% of the day.

My toilet is leaking.
and I found my digital camera so maybe finally I'll post some pictures of my apartment.

New Years at Killington

So its been a crazy world here at Killington over Christmas week. Boatloads of kids (180 is our max, we usually go up to 185, however the room we operate out of is only rated for 100 people including instructors) come in everyday and its my job to teach them to be badass. But the good news is that the parents love me. I now get booked for private lessons all the time and if I don't get privates I do pretty well in tips. In tips, I made 45 today, 55 yesterday, and 25 the day before that. So thats good, it pays for my ticket to D.C.

So I'm going to do D.C. Fred and I are going down in mid jan, I'll be there from the 19th to the 21st, I think fred is there from the the 18th to the 22nd. He has more time off than me. I think fred called it "Son of New Years." Conviently coencides with Dan's birthday. Also Dan, I'm getting on the shopping for skis for you thing.

So I'm hanging around the ground hotel tonight until tenish when lila gets off work. Then off to various locales along the access road with other people from work. Right now they is an acoustic guitar player performing in the lobby by the fireplace. He's playing "How sweet it is to be loved by you." Its corney here but fun.

If anything remarkable happens to me I'll tell you.

Once a King of Narnia, Always a King of Narnia

Just got back from seeing the Narnia Movie, "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe." It was incredible! Basically I liked it because they kept to the actual story, they didn't really change anything. It was awesome.



this image was taken from http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_moviebob_archive.html

Lila and I have been doing well, we've been skiing a few days and now that we've got lots of snow things are starting to pick up around the mountain. I've been teaching mostly small girls and usually they try to manipulate me to get me to do things like give them extra cookies and carry their skis. Usually it works.

Yesterday I hung out with ella in burlington for a little bit. I was trying to claim jon todd's old telemark gear from the outdoor gear exchange but it turned out that they had actually sold the equipment already so the trip was for naught.

Tommorrow, Lila and I are heading down to Woodstock, NY to attend her family's yearly solstice party. Mostly people just eat and make fun of each other. There is also a Cut Throat Santa game that I"m going to have to come up with a gift for. I'm sure I'll find something in the back of my car as most of the world is hidden there.

I'll be back in VT on monday evening courtesy of amtrak. Come visit sometime!

Wash 'n WiFi

So right now Adelphia cable internet sucks and is not functioning at my house. Naturally, they can't get a technician there until monday afternoon. So I figured, this is a great opportunity to do laundry! At Wash 'n WiFi - I can do laundry as well as check my email and surf the web!!

Kudos to Fred who is long overdue for a shout out (which I will post sometime in the near future, i.e. when I find a funny picture) as the only person besides lila who reads my blog. And Lila only reads it so she can make fun of me a little for having a blog in the first place.

Got my uniform today, fancy ski jacket and pants. Also got a locker at the mountain and went skiing with my boss this morning. And I didn't fall on my ass and I actually skied fairly well so that was good. Lila made her first turns yesterday and were going again tommorrow.

Snow tires were put on my car today - i now feel invicible so I will be sure to drive headfirst into a snowdrift as soon as possible. I assume that were we still at bowdoin, and I got snow tires, someone like avery, conor, fred, or anyone I know at all, would be encouraging me to "test them out." So I will, everyday, in the parking lot which is continually unplowed.

So far I've skied 7 days this season. I'm going to try to keep track and let everyone know so Libby can be jelous and jon todd can point out that alta has recieved like 8 feet of snow in the last few days while killington's gotten an inch or two.

Signing off from the wireless network "Clothesbasket" ...

Its been a long long time together, through the hard times and the good

I've got to celebrate you baby.


not me

Yeah so I'm pretty sure that fred is the only person who still checks this as I rarely update, but I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things. And fred, I'm seriously considering getting a job at the local blockbuster.

So, I spent a week on the snow during which we skied on everything from ice, to dirt, to grass, to really weird icy looks like the surface of the moon snow, to actual snow to powder. So it was quite a week. I know understand why eskimos and vermonters need so many words. Sugar, powdered sugar, sluff, eastern hardpack, I could go on. But got a job, just finishing up the training sessions now - today we went through Torn ACL prevention seminar. Fred, you could make a lot of money working as a personal injury lawyer at a ski resort. But, I know you don't ski, but there are hot chicks. Then again there are also hot chicks in the caribean and I assume surfers get hurt too. Blue Crush? Fred you could be the Blue Crusher.

The apartment is good, moved into, gotten internet and a digital cable package which allows us to rewind, pause and fast forward certain channels. We also got 4 inches of water in the basement this morning when a seal on the water heater burst. But luckily our basement actually has a plug, like in the tub, which you can pull to allow drainage. But alls well on that front now, just have the sleeping bag to dry out.



So for avery and jt and ryan and anyone else using a mac and reading this, check out Gunroar. Its a totally sweet game and its got a great techno soundtrack. Check it out in twin gun mode. Its also available for PC with more features but I don't know where.

So things are good. My car's left turn signal now works so people hopefully don't think I'm crazy or a bad driver when I change lanes. Come visit, lila and I can get you deals on lift tickets, mid-week is the best deal, cheap ticket, no one here. We've got a couch and a blow-up sofa. and Cable.

backward emoticons

So for all you looking to damn the man and save the empire type your emoticons backwards!!!

rather than typing :-) and having it changed to some idiotic looking smiley face why don't you type (-:

Go ahead!! Add the wink or the ever popular open mouth 0-: or even the winking open mouth for when you are trying to slyly communicate a level of stupendous surprise!!

Here is a picture of a smiley face



Here is a picture of some throwing stars



Get the idea? Watch out all those who use emoticons otherwise you'll hear a guitar wailing and you know whats about to happen.......

Not as irrelevant as my last post

So as no one reads this anymore I've decided that I should try to update all the time!! Oh the irony. In any case - today is my last day in maine. I am leaving tommorrow for home and then for vermont. Lots of stuff has been going on. Lila and I went to ikea - it was awesome. So awesome in fact that I'm going back on wednesday. Lots of cheap items. Last trip we purchased two chairs and a dining table. I'm going back to get more chairs, some misc. kitchen things (forks, knives, spoons) maybe a desk chair (maybe) and basically see what else useful stuff I can find. Lila also now has skis. We went to the ski shop, talked turkey with tony (the manager) got hooked up with a discount and got her some stuff. Now I'm in maine, waiting for the morning to do some final packing and cleaning and its back to "the cliff." This is what young people from ridiculously upscale briarcliff refer to our town as to make it sound more gangsta. Upon arriving in "the cliff" I'm immediately going to the Sleepy Hollow Country club (of which my family are NOT members) for lil' bro adam's end of season soccer banquet. He was MVP so its a big deal. I am going to wear a shirt and tie so I will probably look real good and feel real uncomfortable at the same time.

Today was seminal in that I made a final trip to scarlet begonias. I'm on a first name basis with with some of the waitstaff there from such frequent visits and I'm sad to say goodbye. However, I'm also going to buy a painting from them. A lovely water colour of the bowdoin chapel, it will be a present for dad for christmas from the brothers.

Not a whole lot else is going on. I talked to avery today because I thought he was in maine and that we could go get a drink together but he isn't and won't be until tommorrow which is exactly when I won't be here but perhaps later this week or early next. Also I miss jonelle a bit but haven't called her yet because I don't have a cell phone and she hasn't realized yet that I have a landline.

I'm going to be getting internet in vt and a phone so soon I'll be back in the loop a little bit. We all know I've never been in the loopy. Perhaps loopy but not in the loop.

I leave you with this soothing image of the NGC 346 star cluster.



Quoting the Nasa Website "This view of one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. At the center of the region is a brilliant star cluster called NGC 346. A dramatic structure of arched, ragged filaments with a distinct ridge surrounds the cluster." (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_448.html) The image gets credited to: NASA, ESA and A. Nota (STScI/ESA)

I figure I better add that credit stuff otherwise I'm probably breaking the law.

How are you Gentlemen?

All your base are belong to us
To find out more...

time for another post...

Which no one will probably read as I haven't been updating very frequently. Well, time at Chewonki is winding down and let me say that although I'm going to be sad to leave, I'm not unhappy about having a break from kids. Its hard being responsible all the time.

Moving to Rutland on the 15th of November. The apartment will be pretty bare for the first few weeks as I traverse new england and pick-up the furniture which has been arranged. Grandparents, parents, and ikea will be furnishing my new home. Ski school training starts on the 28th. Actual work starts on the 3rd. December should be slow until christmas and then we'll be going like gangbusters until mid april. The weekends at Killington are always busy and the mid-week rental packages are priced to help bring people to the mountain so we're basically always going to be busy.

Vacumed out my car today.

Its been a while

Its been a while since I've updated and a lot has gone on. I don't really have the time for a full blown update right now so I'm just going to bring people up to speed on the important stuff.

Lila and I, last weekend, went to the killington job fair (killington is a large ski mountain in VT) which claims to have the longest ski season in New England. I have been hired as a ski instructor. Lila has been hired as health club attendant. We then spent sunday apartment hunting in Rutland (about twenty minutes from Killington) and found a small but very nice apartment in a nice house close to the cute part of rutland (as opposed to the strip mall part of rutland). We are going to do a lot of skiing (I'll be working five to six days a week on the mountain).

I move in on nov. 15th, lila comes about a week later. We are both starting work on the 28thish.

Many other things have happened. Lila and I have both been hired by the Sea Education Association to sail for them for the summer starting in May. She will be a steward and I will be a scientist.

Today was lila's birthday and we had a pretty good day. It was staff enrichment day which was sort of a drag but we had a good dinner at Scarlet B's.

Saw all my friends at Bowdoin and had one of the best times I've had in a long time. Wish I could've hung out more but we had to make a ridiculous trip to VT (and it paid off soo....)

Didn't see jon because he is a butthead. Actually he's not, I just don't have a cell phone anymore and he didn't realize.

More to come later...

A thing I forgot

While i was on my saltwater canoe trip we had to poop in bags and once while I was pooping a mosquito bit me on my nuts.

I'm very tired..

So I've had a wicked busy week with many tiring things hence why its been so long since my last update. All last week I was on a saltwater canoe trip. We were on the water tuesday through friday with wednesday, thursday and friday consisting of thunderstorms, fog, and wind. Paddling a canoe against the tide and the wind is a little hard for me, and really really challenging for 12 year olds. We did that for about two hours wedensday afternoon on our way to check out this shipwreck.



On thusday afternoon it thundered and we had to lightning drill which consisted of the kids sitting in their tents crouched on their sleeping pads to insulate themselves from the ground, while rachel (my co-leader) and myself extended our nap.

Over the weekend I visited the grandparents in lewiston and changed their wire screens to the glass ones and then grandma went on a twenty minute rant about Bush. She says she hates him as much as she hates hitler. Thats pretty strong considering she is a german jew who escaped the holocaust. She really hates him. I think that eric penley would enjoy talking to her for an hour or so. I also want her to get a computer so she can start anti-bush movements and stuff. She'd be wicked dangerous with a computer. And she'd probably stop sleeping too. Next post I'll relate some funny stories about her and my grandpa. Like the time grandpa got dehydrated. Or the time he tried to check if the phone still worked. He's 93 and blind.

Sunday - today - I particpated in the MaineShare Hike and Bike. I did the biking and rode 36 miles to help raise money to support local bussinesses and organizations. It was pretty fun and very tiring. I haven't been riding a lot recently and 36 miles is the longest ride I'd ever done. There were three categories 25k, 50k, and 100k - I did the 50k and finished first out of everyone who did the 50k. In fact I finished before all the 100k people too but they had to ride twice as far as I did so thats not something to really brag about... This is me and a friend (also from chewonki but she only did the 25k) Katie after the race.



Post race Lila and I went to Portland to have her birthday present installed in her car - an alpine car stereo and two boston speakers. The stereo sounds absolutely fantastic. I made several mix cds to test it out with different types of music - classical, rock, electronic, it sounds great playing all of them. The tweeter store is a good shop - very proffesional. I highly recommend it.

This coming week I'm on a day program which means I don't have to sleep in a tent and that I'm done each day after 4pm so there may be a mid-week update relating funny stories about my grandparents.

A very good weekend

So I had a very good weekend - sat morning - slept in, went to breakfast, reading the paper. Lila says "Sweetie, did you know about the maine state air show?" I didn't we read about it, and then went to it, and it was totally awesome. We arrived to see SOCOM jumping out of planes in formation and doing this crazy acrobatic stunt skydiving. Pretty ridiculous. This was followed by these biplanes that did various sorts of manuvers. One of the manuvers involved them speeding down the runway, only 20 or so feet from the ground, from opposite directions, towards each other. Right before they met each other a large truck, with two jet engines mounted on the back of it, roared past both planes, exceeding them in speed. According to the anouncer the truck was going over 300 mph.



Also participating at the air show were the Blue Angels. Let me tell you these guys are incredibly. When they fly in formation it looks as if they are one plane - there is zero margin for error at the distance they are flying at. Seriously incredible stuff.



So I realize no one has any idea what the house I live in looks like - so I took a picture of our living room common area which should give you some idea. It consists of two bedrooms (one is a GUEST room, that we also use for storing gear and such) Lila and I sleep in the other bedroom. We've also got a bath room, a mudroom, and a common room area. We've got a two burner hotplate, a fridge and a microwave. Some aquariums some tables, and we've got DSL. Lots of plants and artsy posters courtesy of lila.



On sunday lila and I did various things around Chewonki, then we went fishing in brunswick. Post fishing we went to the seadog and ordered the beer sampler. It was pretty cool. For two people its a good amount of beer too, and you get to try all sorts. Let me tell you, I don't like the blueberry ale. If you want beer that looks like pee and doesn't taste like beer get the blueberry. Ugh.

I've discovered my purpose

So, I've discovered that my purpose in life is to yell at kids and tell them what to do. Nothing makes me happier - "Alex, go pack a daypack with a waterbottle, warm layer, and some sunscreen." Anne - marie, quit bothering me about how dirty your hands are, we're in the woods" - "Alex, stop eating dirt" - "katie, quit throwing pine needles at alex" - "Alright, everyone in your tents immediately!!" That was what my week was like.

I also got bit by a pig.

This coming week, I'm on a bit chiller trip, a five day saltwater canoe trip around this part of coastal maine - we are staying on chewonki owned island and will be paddling around checking out various things. I think I'll bring the digital camera on this trip to get some photos for the ol' blog. So some people may have no idea what my job at chewonki involves, rather than me post a lengthy explanation click here to find out what its all about.

Much thanks to fred for posting a very short little post saying thanks.

Thing I'm most excited about right now - iPod Nano!! I've been watching the steve jobs presentation of it on quicktime - the thing is just about the coolest mp3 player I've ever seen. Its so small and sleek and it comes in black which is super classy. Wow. I'm mean wow!! The thing is cool.

This weekend - may be doing some fishing, cleaning and restoring lila's old huffy bicycle.

Most recent sweet lila and dave interaction : I accidentally just kicked lila, i said, "I'm a big behemoth," she says, "But you're my big behemoth."

The bite from the pig didn't break the skin.

After lots of traffic free labor day driving

Figured out how to add pictures to the blog.

So for everyone to know and directly for fred - you no longer have to join my blog in order to post stuff. Also look for a new section in the side bar which will have weekly shout outs for whatever I deem shoutoutable.

Very little traffic this weekend, it was kind of nice being one of the few cars traveling north on 95 today (monday). Also, I had previously thought that the best rest stop in the state of massachusettes was the Charlton Service plaza but today i discovered that the plaza in Lee is just as nice (relevant for people like libby who drive right past it) and plus today it had a rather dour looking clown making ballon animals for free.

Caught two (pretty big) crayfish in lila's house's stream on sunday for lila's cousins (two little girls, 1 year oldish and a 6 year old) who basically thought I was the man.

So I get kids tommorrow - took a walk out to the campsite I'll be staying at, its called Lower Club. It doesn't have enough wood, I'm going to make my kids haul big ass logs out there tommorrow so we can have enough wood to chop for the week. I'm really looking forward to actually starting my job. There are two "Club" campsites upper and lower, and lower is actually a little nicer. Were anyone to come visit they'd be more than welcome to check out a campsite.

Set up my wireless network today and basically I think it is the coolest thing ever. I also love how in the instruction manual for the router, there are pages and pages for the windows install and setup and all it says for the apple setup is "plug it in" & "reboot computer." Its a D-Link router, I picked it because it is small and after rebates which I still need to mail in, will only cost me 24 dollars. Which is pretty good.

I'm pretty beat right now so I'm going to go to bed - were emma to read my blog she'd find out that there is construction currently on 290 so I suggest bypassing it and staying on 495 all the way to the masspike.

At lila's

So training for chewonki is done and I get my first captive audience on my own, this tuesday. Lila and I have a done a large amount of driving on this labor day weekend meaning that we have seen plenty of traffic plus plenty of cars. Meaning cars that I haven't seen before - such as the Volkswagon Phaeton and the dodge magnum. Both of these cars ugly. Particularly the phaeton. German engineering has failed to produce an attractive car.

Also I've learned a lot more about biodiesel recently and as we are all getting older and getting closer to buying cars, also considering the rising price of gas, biodiesel is currently less expensive than gas and diesel is less expensive than regular gas, so... Buy diesel. I would but I have a big maroon ugly taurus.

Also bought a wireless router today - want to keep my friends updated on purchases.