Bash Bish Falls at Low Tide

A weekend of partying, followed up by 4 hours of sleep and a run/hike up Jug End should not provide fertile ground to then clamor up Bash Bish Falls and jump from rock to rock. Yet it was the most adventurous outing at Bash Bish in many years.

Going out on a limb


The spectators


The Falls




Jumping Jehozaphat Geeha!



No persons got wet in the making of this blog.


Water and Time carve a channel below the falls.






That's me in the alcove on the left in the above pic.


Low tide reveals rockin' weathered features.


From the top...


Can you spot my spectators?




Should I jump?


I shouldn't...






Logs get trapped at the top of the falls.


The falls from the side. You can see part of the large boulder on the left.


Another large boulder that fell in the forming of the falls.


Where another boulder cracked upon landing.




Behind the falls






To sum up, this is how I felt yesterday:

Presenting the LOLKat.

Tale of Ticks and The Hair Brained Hooligan

Well, it's that time of year again... for ticks and hair brained bloggers (well, actually, as it happens I'm hair brained all year round.)

Last year I did an update on how to deal with ticks. Yesterday I found out an easier way. If you spot the tick on you early enough, you can simply douse the tick and surrounding area with Tea Tree Oil and the bugger will either die or back out. That's what I did last night when I found a tick attached to my inner thigh (same place I found a tick on me last year....)

One reason I prefer to do things spontaneously rather than planning is that God laughs at those who plan... he certainly is laughing at me! It's cycling and house painting season again. So we started painting a house on a multimillion dollar property up in Monterey. It just so happens the house is right near Del Martin Automotive--a great mechanic but located out in the boonies. So I made an appointment to get my car fixed there since it has an oil leak and I can easily drop the car off and get a ride back with the boss. Well, turns out it's been raining every day (maybe you noticed) so Doug reluctantly decided to pick up some indoor work at the Splendorios. Well, dropping my car off suddenly became complicated as we were no longer going to Monterey to work today. But, then I came up with a workable plan. I'd drive the car up to Del Martin right after work with all my biking gear in the back and catch up with the Tuesday riders. Only problem with this plan is that the route they were doing as per the weekly email was in the opposite direction of where I was dropping my car off to get fixed, making hooking up with the riders difficult. So I sorta forewent that plan and decided I'd just ride the bike home from Del Martin as it is mostly down hill and I've only gone on two short bike rides this summer (one 6 miles and the other 11). Plus, I had forgot to bring my lunch to work, so I would have no energy for the Tuesday ride (did I mention hair-brained? It gets better).

At work the weather service kept repeating all day the threat of severe thunderstorms and small hail and strong winds so I'm thinking.. riding in the rain is one thing, but being pelted by hail is another one entirely. On the way over to the mechanic I saw two girl road riders and thought I recognized one of them as a Tuesday regular and thought it odd they were riding early (4:50pm at this point) so I decided they were just doing their own thing...plus, they were not riding the route outlined in the email. I also realized at this point I brought no backpack to carry my work clothes back with me as I would need them the next morning. I also remembered at this point that there is no service whatsoever in Monterey. I asked Del Martin if I could make one phone call; he said sure, but that he needed to leave in two minutes. So I called Sajad who was to pick me up after dropping Maria off at weaving if I decided to bail out on riding back, but as soon as he answers the line goes dead. I call back and he tells me Gillian has dropped Maria off and that I should call her to get picked up. So I call her and her phone rings and rings but doesn't answer. Del Martin is being relatively understanding for my need to make multiple phone calls.... At this point I don't know what to do and explain to him my plan of riding to G.B. and he advises me against it on account of the imminence of inclement weather and mentions that he needs to get going to close the windows in his house as the wind picks up, but also mentions that the weather probably isn't as bad at his house as it is in Great Barrington (being farther west from where storms come). A light bulb should have gone off in my head at this point but dim witted I remained, perhaps on account of all the paint fumes from painting in doors. I then tell him that he can leave and that I'll figure it out. He offers for me to make one more try on the phone. I try Gillian again but still no answer and no option to leave a voicemail. I think for a bit and then decide to call home. Dad answers and I tell him my predicament and he says the storm is brewing and indicates in so many words that I'd be nuts to set out now. I wait on the phone for another couple minutes for him to find Sajad but the line goes dead again. I call back and he tells me Sajad will pick me up. So I thank Del Martin for his patience and then we get to talking about my car and he mentions that there is ANOTHER Honda Civic VX for sale that runs excellent but the body isn't in great shape. He tells me where the car is and then gets on his merry way. I then pull the car up to the edge of the driveway so that Sajad will not miss me when he is looking for the sign to the shop. So I'm sitting there like a cop waiting for speeders (except that I have paint all over me) and guess what I see coming up the road....

Go on guess.


Seriously, make a guess.






A train of pain!
What is a train of pain you may ask? I'll give you a hint. It involves skinny tires and has no hitches and is legal on roadways (though scorned at by some). I see a train of about 6 cyclists chugging along at a good clip coming up the hill. I'm like... no way that's Berkshire Bike and Board.... I watch them go by, feeling like Tintin with a white puff of hair sticking up from painting sloped ceilings earlier in the day and still in my painters clothes, thinking how odd I must appear to the passerbys. My brother signals to me as the train speeds by and gives me a look. I hear his voice echo in my head: "way to wimp out loser!" I just watch them go by, dumbfounded. I realize then of course they changed their route on account of the weather! I would have considered changing real quick and trying to catch them but of course that would have been futile. I then see another two riders coming... the DeRis brothers go by, both recognize me sitting there in the car, and Mario gives a look like.. what the hell? Then I see another train coming... oh.. of course... there's the B group too.. (the not as fast riders) led by Dick Clark, BBB partner in crime. None of this matters, though, since two minutes later Sajad arrives. If the day hadn't been a string of hair brained absentmindednesses (yes, that's a word, I'm an English major) I would have been on my bike headed home and unexpectedly greeted by the Tuesday riders with "you're going the wrong way!" and.. "get on the train of pain!" instead I was an odd spectacle parked on the side of the road as they rode by. Well, I'll hear all about it next Tuesday of my epic fail. And this time I'll be sure to make it.

Global Warming on hold...

Therapsid powerpoint: http://www.sendspace.com/file/14ff96

This just in. Global warming on hiatus until further notice...
Regional temps as of 5am 1/16
Below temps do not consider windchill factor.
Wind chills where there is a breeze easily drops any of the below temperatures by 15 degrees. For example, a 5mph breeze in Caribou, ME makes it feel like -49 which is 83 degrees colder than freezing.

-8 at Berkshire Village, Egremont
-14 in Amherst, MA
-20 in Greenfield, NH
-34 in Caribou, ME
-11 in Brattleboro, VT
-19 in Burlington, VT

Have a nice day.

Berkshare$ Currency

Steffen Root tells you why you should buy local with local currency.

Maine Marine Ecology field trip

Chucky slaying the ladies again.


Reflection in the water of a student holding a crab.


A non-interdimensional wormhole


A translucent worm plucked from his non-interdimensional home.

the mind boggles...

The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have
Ford's Fiesta ECOnetic gets an astonishing 65 mpg, but the carmaker can't afford to sell it in the U.S.

???

It can't afford NOT to sell it in the U.S.
Read the full story.

In other news... Michael Moore has a new movie out... and it's free!
slackeruprising.com

Cycling Obsession

This here blog is liable to turn into a cycling journal primarily.

"If one is approaching a convex hill, applies power early, and powers over the hill, the speed is much greater than if one simply gears down as one approaches. You may think, but surely this is a tactic for racing alone! But the truth is, I use it often in touring. Sometimes I am crossing a bridge, so I need to keep my speed high, to get off of the narrow bridge as quickly as possible. But I have another strong reason for using these tactics when touring: I can save energy over grinding up the hill. However, the extra weight of the bike and also the fatigue of a long day do create limits to these strategies." --http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/skills/uphill.htm

I am racing on Sunday in a 22 mile very hill race. check out the hilliness:

Schule auch vertig los

uhh... my German isn't what it used to be. Translate as: all done for the summer. I'm predicting a 3.5 for the semester. But I really don't know how I did on my last two papers.

Someone needs to learn them when they're young how to hypermile, because that right there is gonna net him nothing but bad FE.

Easter and Other shenanigans

I never did the Easter Update. Photos taken with dad's camera of the Easter walk, before Leslie and I had arrived....

From top down: Aaron, Zane, Nadia and Gillian


John and Gillian


Doug and Gil

I arrived late to the Easter Walk because I had to wait for Leslie to get dressed. By the time we arrived, everyone was numchuckles near ready to pack it up. I didn't realize this at the time and wanted to do some hiking behind the falls, so Tobias and I set off. We both took pictures of the gushing falls still encrusted in ice. On the way down I told him I wanted to get more pictures from a vantage point I suspected to be a ways to the left of the steep wooded slope we were hiking down. He couldn't be bothered and continued down. Easter Sunday 2008 is a story in pictures.















When we reached the top, everyone had gone.






Nad had waited at my car with Leslie and Zane. When we got back I realized I had left my green cashmere sweater at the falls. Steffen had brought it up while Tobias and I were behind the falls. He left it on the railing, assuming I'd see it on my way out, but I think someone else saw before I got back down. Tobias and I drove back to Bash Bish later that evening at dusk. The last dull glow of the sunset the only light hovering on the horizon. I looked where my brother said he had left it but it wasn't there.

After I had scoured the area and didn't find my sweater, I walked back up to the road but the car nor Tobias did I see. Perplexed, I started walking up the road. After a short while, the probing beam of the flashlight spotted a shape laid out on the pavement. I squinted and upon approach, made out that it was Tobias.


What was Tobias doing lying on his back in the middle of the road? Was he dead? As I puzzled through the possibilities he suddenly came to life.




Switching Gears

Doug is one cool dude.


Doug gets a kiss from Christina


I'm no guppy!

"Hey Bucky"

Ben's gym nearly done.


A lady at Ganga Extravaganza was walking around with a pet python. Ganga Extravaganza is a festival of young, stoned, students campaigning to legalize marijuana. Really it's an excuse to get stoned without being harassed (not really sure how that works.) There were a few live bands playing, but otherwise it was pretty low key.

Tick Season means Lyme Disease

Well, Seekonk seems to be tick heaven as half the people living in that low lying wooded area seem to have contracted Lyme Disease. I went for a very lovely stroll through the woods and, no surprise, when I woke up early this morning before the light to get a glass of water felt an itchy sensation near my bum and when I drowsily went to scratch it noticed that little tell tale flap of tick attached to me. After unsuccessful attempts with small medical scissors to remove the tick (they only served to cut off part of its backside) I tried the other method I was most familiar with: trying to burn it off with a burnt chopstick. But when that didn't work either, I went online to find out the best method for tick removal. I found one unsubstantiated claim that rubbing soap on it encourages it to leave, so I tried it but the tick didn't respond. I then found recurring websites that stated the following:

1. Do not use petrollium jelly, nail polish or nail polish remover, soap or other ointments to get the tick bothered enough to give up its host (you). While these methods may work, they may also incite the tick to regurgitate its meal, increasing the chance of injecting you with disease, even if it hasn't been 24 hours since it became so attached to you.

2. Do not try to burn the tick out. For the same reason. The stress of being burned can cause the tick to regurgitate saliva or gut contents, besides the fact that more often than not the tick will not remove itself... and the risk of burning yourself.

3. So how DO you remove a tick? The best way is to use good old fashioned tweezers. Get as close to the skin as possible and grasp the bugger firmly and pull straight out. Avoid jerky movements or twisting the tick. A firm, steady hand is all that is needed and is the best method. Jerking the tick or twisting it will only increase the chance of having mouthparts being left attached to your skin. Two reasons for getting as close to the skin as possible: one, you'll be less likely to upset the tick, and thus incite it to regurgitation, and secondly, it will remove easier the closer to the skin you grasp it.



Alternatively, a method used by fishermen may be employed which does not risk squeezing the tick's thorax. Use 18 inches of fine weight fishing line. The line is tied in a simple overhand knot that is tightened slowly around the tick's head. If the line is pressed against the skin while being gently pulled, the knot will tighten around the tick's head. Slowly pulling the ends of the line will then dislodge the tick from the bite site with a reduced chance of leaving the head attached. This method also works with sewing thread.



4. Once tick is removed, disinfect hands and site of bite and put the tick in a plastic bag and note the date on the bag (or on a piece of paper in the bag) and place it in the freezer. If you get sick later, you'll know precisely how long its been since you were bit, and you can have the tick analyzed later to see if the tick is really the cause for your flu like symptoms.

5. Its best to remove the tick less than 24 hours after being bit as this reduces the likelihood of contracting Lyme Disease or other tick caused illnesses.

My devour is the same as your devour

So a student told the professor during lecture. Just about everyone in lecture agreed that they had the same devour as the professor, except for one student who really didn't see anything wrong with saying "The children and adults from mars told Klem that the cat might devour."

The professor was saying that without saying what the cat might devour, the sentence is incomplete. The student who raised her hand and said "my devour is the same as yours" was stating that she agrees that it doesn't sound right to leave no object after devour. Most the rest of the class also agreed. The professor told the student who didn't agree that his devour must be different from the professor's. You can't say "Tomorrow the world will devour" but you can say "Tomorrow the world will eat." So the question is, what is the difference between the two verbs "to eat" and "to devour" that make this difference? 'Ts interesting.

Elsewhile when the professor sees the students might not be entirely enthralled with the material being taught he writes on the board: "The large dog has shat on the elf" to get their attention. The effect works. This isn't a random sentence though. We have been studying ambiguity in sentence syntax. Most of the time the former pupil of linguist Noam Chomsky has the class laughing--part teacher, part comedian. A couple classes he actually brought in a pet elf a former student had given him to demonstrate the subtle syntactic differences in meaning in a given sentence: "Some angry guy smashed the elf on the table." What does this sentence mean? Well, it actually has several meanings. To demonstrate, Kyle climbed up onto the table/podium in front of lecture to differentiate that "some angry guy smashed the elf on the table" and "some angry guy smashed the elf on the table." See the difference? No? It's okay, I didn't either at first. I'll explain. So in the first, some angry guy smashed the elf while he was standing on the table. Whereas in the second, some angry guy smashed the elf that was on the table. We draw syntactic trees in class to differentiate between all the meanings a sentence like this has. Adjectives and prepositional phrases introduce ambiguity of meaning into sentences we take for granted as having one meaning, when they actually could have many. To show the difference in these two, Kyle climbs up on the podium (which he has a little bit of difficulty doing) and then, standing on the podium, starts smashing the elf. He then gets down from the podium and puts the elf on the table and then starts smashing the elf again. Then the elf starts singing a crazy tune about having no friends because it's a misfit... do you think the student who gave it to Kyle was trying to give him a hint?

Here's a picture of the fine professor:

They don't call it ZooMass for nothing.

New Soul - Yael Naim

You've all probably heard the new MacBook Air ad. Well, if you haven't, you haven't missed anything but a great song. I thought I'd post the song by Israeli Yael Naim on here blog.



Better yet, go to www.pandora.com and sign up if you haven't already. Then create a new station called "new soul" -- very nice, chill music.

Speaking of notebooks. I'm typing this blog on my new laptop! Very cute little portable. I feel like I've suddenly been launched into the future. No more chicken scratch while taking notes in lecture anymore.
Also: stay tuned for the Easter walk update coming soon.

Spring Break... just a little bit

Approaching the end of my spring break. Not quite as fun as Fraser Island in Australia I'm afraid....


Lake Mckenzie, Fraser Island, Australia, 2006? Yeah, good times those were.

Rather posthumous photos to be surfacing now, but one of my friends from my Australian trip just posted these on Facebook.


setting up camp.


getting slammed against the rocks--not sure what the appeal of this was now, but at the time it looked like a great idea.

Another one of Champagne Cove








whose the dork with his shirt on? Afraid of a little sun are we? Well, yes I am, thank you very much.

Fun times indeed! We all went sledding, running and tumbling down the sand dune.

we had a race at one point, but I think I ended up faceplanted in the sand somewhere... I don't quite remember. Dave was just happy not to be last.

A dingo. In numbers they can be a threat to humans.


wayward ship.

The Devil's Arcade

so apparently (according to Shauana, my roommate whom I went to the Bruce Springsteen concert with) Bruce Springsteen covered a song by the Arcade Fire. Not sure if the title of this blog post and song is an homage to The Arcade Fire or not, but at any rate, a great song by da Boss on his latest album "Magic".

So it turns out I like large concerts. Never really knew I did, but definitely would like to see him again in the summer. Was one of the biggest natural highs liberated by a little alcohol I've experienced--good times dancin' in the dark. So after the superlative performance by Bruce an' company the radiator hose on my car came loose as we were driving out of the parking garage (a 20 minute episode in itself) and overheated. No biggie, went to a bar and borrowed a pitcher of water to replace the missing fluid and put the hose back on; finally found a gas station and bought some coolant and a flathead screwdriver and tightened the hose down good; problem fixed; no exploding engine on the ride home.

let's hear it for the good samaritan

What do you do when you leave your lights on and come back to your car? Don't panic. Well, if you are in the middle of town on a busy street with a lazy red light keeping traffic at a crawl, just hook up the jumper cables and stand next to your car. You don't even have to wave; two minutes later someone will stop in the middle of the street, and hopefully the cables are just long enough; and 30 seconds later you're on your way. If you're me, you learn early on to keep jumper cables in the back of the car. Uhh.. maybe someday I'll buy another camera, until then it's edge of your seat exciting moments like this to dazzle and entertain.

Magic

The writer's job and challenge is to take two dimensional words; to arrange a bunch of squiggles that make up language in a way as to illicit in the reader's imagination and stores of experience a visceral, three dimensional understanding of something they may have never actually experienced themselves. This is obviously not easy and I have class in a few minutes so all I'll say right now is the Boss is still the boss and Bruce Springsteen is a Living Legend. The concert was Magic.

I'm giong to a Bruce Springsteen Concert!

Tomorrow I'm gonna see the Boss perform live in Hartford with the E Street Band!! Somehow I know not how, I scored two free tickets valued at over $100 a piece. I've invited one of my roommates along who has a similar opinion of the Boss as myself; not a raving fan, but definitely not going to pass up an opportunity to see a living legend rock out only the way the Boss knows how. VERRY ROCKIN' Check back soon for an update on the show! In other lucky news, I picked up a nearly new $100 printer/fax/scanner for $20 because some lady was moving and didn't use it much. I also scored a circa $2000 88 key electric piano that sounds like a real high quality piano (but has great functionality for hooking up to a PC) for $600. I'm just all sorts of scoring lately.