This past weekend I had the interesting adventure of basically roughing it all the way down the side of a mountain. I went with some friends of ours, though I was the only one from my family on the trip. I must say it was very fun and fulfilling in a way. While it may not be the absolute craziest thing I've done, it was probably one of the more ambitious adventures I have taken on.
We started at the trail junction of the Appalachian trail on Richard Russel Scenic Highway. There may be more than one of those but unfortunately the name of it is failing me right now. Either way, it's the one closest to Helen. We went up the trail to Cow rick, like normal hikers, which I have done several times, but that it where the real adventure started. We knew the trail going from that junction over to the old Kellum Valley toll road went straight down through the valley below Cow Rock, so we figured, we'll just go straight down the mountain and run into it, which is exactly what we did.
Te main challenge of the excursion was finding the smoothest route down and getting through all of the various foliage. There were definitely some slick spots along the path down as well. There were several rock faces on the mountain, most of the minor, but there was one humongous rock face that were luck to have hit on the side of. We would not have been able to get down if we had hit somewhere in the middle without making some serious side-tracking. We continued on down the side all the way till we hit a tributary to the creek that paralleled the trail we were looking for. We followed that tributary all the way to the main creek and then most of us went right all the way to the toll road, while two went the other way back up to the road to fetch the car. The plan was for us to be picked up somewhere along the way but we just about got back to the cabins before the vehicle could get back around to the other side.
It was not a multi-day excursion or one of the great adventures of the Appalachian Trail, but it was certainly a great outing that even further helped me appreciate the beauty of nature. I may elaborate on this some more later but I have some AP reading that is pressing my attention.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Long Time, No Post
Hmm I realize I haven't posted in a while. And a lot has happened to post about, actually, and that's actually why I haven't posted. Since I'm covering the fair this week, doing photography, it will be at least another week before I can catch up, but I will eventually. Essentially, this post was just to let all of my imaginary readers that I am indeed still alive.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Back to School...
Well, had the first day back to school today. I must say it was about the most typical day of school possible. My schedule this year is not exactly the greatest. I guess it could be worse, but it wasn’t amazing by any means either. It’s kind of a strange badness too. There’s nothing specifically bad about it that I can put a finger on, but just the way it falls together and the way everything fits, I just don’t like it. The main thing wrong with it is that basically all my friends in French are in the other period for Honors French 2. Otherwise I don’t have all that many friends in my classes and it just seems odd. My locker location also isn’t the greatest. It’s very near my second period but I’m nowhere near it after than, making traveling to it not really an option during the day.
Course wise I do like the courses I have this year for the most part though. The only one I’m not exactly busting with excitement about is Computer Apps, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. At least I’ll get to work with computers a lot, even if on Windows, meh. Also all of my teachers seem to be pretty good, except for one, and another I’m still deciding about.
All in all, I have very mixed feelings about this school year. It feels very awkward and, I don’t know what, but at the same time I feel sort of excited about it for some reason. I guess I’ll just have to give it a couple of weeks and see how it’s going.
Course wise I do like the courses I have this year for the most part though. The only one I’m not exactly busting with excitement about is Computer Apps, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. At least I’ll get to work with computers a lot, even if on Windows, meh. Also all of my teachers seem to be pretty good, except for one, and another I’m still deciding about.
All in all, I have very mixed feelings about this school year. It feels very awkward and, I don’t know what, but at the same time I feel sort of excited about it for some reason. I guess I’ll just have to give it a couple of weeks and see how it’s going.
Back to School...
Well, had the first day back to school today. I must say it was about the most typical day of school possible. My schedule this year is not exactly the greatest. I guess it could be worse, but it wasn’t amazing by any means either. It’s kind of a strange badness too. There’s nothing specifically bad about it that I can put a finger on, but just the way it falls together and the way everything fits, I just don’t like it. The main thing wrong with it is that basically all my friends in French are in the other period for Honors French 2. Otherwise I don’t have all that many friends in my classes and it just seems odd. My locker location also isn’t the greatest. It’s very near my second period but I’m nowhere near it after than, making traveling to it not really an option during the day.
Course wise I do like the courses I have this year for the most part though. The only one I’m not exactly busting with excitement about is Computer Apps, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. At least I’ll get to work with computers a lot, even if on Windows, meh. Also all of my teachers seem to be pretty good, except for one, and another I’m still deciding about.
All in all, I have very mixed feelings about this school year. It feels very awkward and, I don’t know what, but at the same time I feel sort of excited about it for some reason. I guess I’ll just have to give it a couple of weeks and see how it’s going.
Course wise I do like the courses I have this year for the most part though. The only one I’m not exactly busting with excitement about is Computer Apps, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. At least I’ll get to work with computers a lot, even if on Windows, meh. Also all of my teachers seem to be pretty good, except for one, and another I’m still deciding about.
All in all, I have very mixed feelings about this school year. It feels very awkward and, I don’t know what, but at the same time I feel sort of excited about it for some reason. I guess I’ll just have to give it a couple of weeks and see how it’s going.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Last Activities of "Summer"
Well essentially I've got two days of adventures to share here. Though I could say a lot about each of them, the main thing I have to say about both days is one word: HOT. We've had several days in a row in the high 90s (Fahrenheit) if not in the 100s. According to www.weather.com the highest that we have it is still 99º but I think it has gotten hotter than that (our car thermometers have gone as high as 106º. Actual temperature aside, it's still hot.
Friday was a very fun day indeed, despite the heat. My dad took off at lunch and we took off to the lake. Needless to say we stayed in the water a lot, though the water wasn't all that much cooler than the air. We had to go down about 10 feet or more to get a significant relief from the heat, but of course staying there for much more than 30 seconds to a minute at a time wasn't really an option. It was a day filled with snorkeling/diving, wakeboarding, and ridin' around in the boat. A nice way to spend my last weekday out of school this summer to be sure.
Today was probably even hotter. We got up early and headed to Waffle House where we met up with the rest of our motorcycle buddies for some breakfast and then headed up to Jefferson, GA in Jackson county where the first (hopefully annual) Jackson EMC motorcycle ride was set to begin. After just a few minutes of waiting around we were off on a long ride. I think all told we rode over 100 miles (160km) today. The destination of the ride was the Georgia Drag Strip (completely guessing on the name), where we actually got to ride down the drag strip. Luckily we also got to see some dragsters running it as well.
The ride back to the Jackson EMC headquarters was certainly the interesting bit. It seems to be going well for a while, despite the ultra-slow trike behind us that blocked off the rest of our group, and nearly got them lost. I was just glad that we got past them. At one sharp curve though, someone lost control and ran off the road or something. He had to be transported in an ambulance and, if I heard correctly, suffered several lacerations. Probably not the most fun day for him. Much of the ride stopped there to make sure everything was alright for a few minutes, but by doing that we got separated from the leading end, and so had no clue how to get back. Luckily somebody in the group did, so we were able to follow them back to Jackson EMC where lunch and door prizes were waiting for us.
Following the lunch and door prizes (which we won none of) it was time for a hot ride home, but we are finally here, and I'm glad to be siting here in A/C in some fresh clothes. Anyway, looks like it will be time to head back to school Monday, we'll see how that goes haha.
Friday was a very fun day indeed, despite the heat. My dad took off at lunch and we took off to the lake. Needless to say we stayed in the water a lot, though the water wasn't all that much cooler than the air. We had to go down about 10 feet or more to get a significant relief from the heat, but of course staying there for much more than 30 seconds to a minute at a time wasn't really an option. It was a day filled with snorkeling/diving, wakeboarding, and ridin' around in the boat. A nice way to spend my last weekday out of school this summer to be sure.
Today was probably even hotter. We got up early and headed to Waffle House where we met up with the rest of our motorcycle buddies for some breakfast and then headed up to Jefferson, GA in Jackson county where the first (hopefully annual) Jackson EMC motorcycle ride was set to begin. After just a few minutes of waiting around we were off on a long ride. I think all told we rode over 100 miles (160km) today. The destination of the ride was the Georgia Drag Strip (completely guessing on the name), where we actually got to ride down the drag strip. Luckily we also got to see some dragsters running it as well.
The ride back to the Jackson EMC headquarters was certainly the interesting bit. It seems to be going well for a while, despite the ultra-slow trike behind us that blocked off the rest of our group, and nearly got them lost. I was just glad that we got past them. At one sharp curve though, someone lost control and ran off the road or something. He had to be transported in an ambulance and, if I heard correctly, suffered several lacerations. Probably not the most fun day for him. Much of the ride stopped there to make sure everything was alright for a few minutes, but by doing that we got separated from the leading end, and so had no clue how to get back. Luckily somebody in the group did, so we were able to follow them back to Jackson EMC where lunch and door prizes were waiting for us.
Following the lunch and door prizes (which we won none of) it was time for a hot ride home, but we are finally here, and I'm glad to be siting here in A/C in some fresh clothes. Anyway, looks like it will be time to head back to school Monday, we'll see how that goes haha.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Hary Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Well, I have now finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. What an amazing book it was. Seeing as there's not really a good place for me to put a review for it that I know of, like Rotten Tomatoes for movies, I suppose I will post it here. I'll do my best to avoid spilling spoilers on here, but I can't make any promises, terribly sorry if I let something slip.
Rowling has certainly done it again with the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series. This is definitely the most exciting of the series, and is certainly my favorite. The characters are as excellently crafted as ever, and that unique Harry Potter feel is still there. The action starts with a bang in the first couple of chapters and ends with an even bigger bang among the last pages of the book. While I do wish theres was a bit more of Hogwarts present in the book, it's not a huge problem, and the reason for it not being there is a good one; it's not like it just accidentally wasn't included. The action is there, and when there's not much action going on it it still really difficult to put it down. All in all, this is one amazing book, and I recommend it to anybody, but, of course don't read it until you've read 1-6 (unlike my mom, who has only seen the movies 1-5 and picked 7 up and read the last two chapters)!
Ok sorry that's kind of short but it's difficult to write a book review for something like this without giving a lot away. It was a great finish to a great series, but it is sort of sad to know that it's over, that we won't get to see Harry on any more incredible adventures, but then I suppose everything has to end eventually, so might as well finish it in such a great way!
Rowling has certainly done it again with the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series. This is definitely the most exciting of the series, and is certainly my favorite. The characters are as excellently crafted as ever, and that unique Harry Potter feel is still there. The action starts with a bang in the first couple of chapters and ends with an even bigger bang among the last pages of the book. While I do wish theres was a bit more of Hogwarts present in the book, it's not a huge problem, and the reason for it not being there is a good one; it's not like it just accidentally wasn't included. The action is there, and when there's not much action going on it it still really difficult to put it down. All in all, this is one amazing book, and I recommend it to anybody, but, of course don't read it until you've read 1-6 (unlike my mom, who has only seen the movies 1-5 and picked 7 up and read the last two chapters)!
Ok sorry that's kind of short but it's difficult to write a book review for something like this without giving a lot away. It was a great finish to a great series, but it is sort of sad to know that it's over, that we won't get to see Harry on any more incredible adventures, but then I suppose everything has to end eventually, so might as well finish it in such a great way!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Rats and Squirrels
Today was certainly an interesting day. I thought I was going to spend it pressure washing the back patio and doing other things, but when it started raining we decided to change the plan. Since we hadn’t seen Pixar’s newest film, Ratatouille, we decided to drive out to Atlantic Station, which is always an adventure of it’s own, to see the flick. Needless to say, it was a great movie, definitely worth seeing. My full review can be found at Rotten Tomatoes. Usually we spend a little more time at Atlantic Station, but it ended up being a sort of stop and go for us today. After the movie we headed on over to Lenox Square, just for heck of it.
We really had no idea of where to go once we got to Lenox for some food, as none of us had been there in a long time. We eventually just settled on the food court, where I got a not-so-good Nathan’s hot-dog. The main purpose of the trip though, if there was one, was to explore the Apple store, which I have never really gotten a chance to do since I’ve become such a big Apple fan.
I must say, it was one of the busiest stores I have ever seen on a non-special event day. People were everywhere; it was almost to the point that it was difficult to get around. Even so, there were plenty of displays of everything to go around. I barely had to wit to get to play with an iPhone, and there were times that two or three were sitting open, and I didn’t have to wait at all to play with a MacBook Pro, my next target after the iPhone. It was a good and interesting trip to see all of the people there and know that Apple is certainly gaining popularity.
Upon leaving Lenox Square, I witnessed roadkill… yes… roadkill, as it happened. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually watched an animal get hit on the road before. A squirrel hopped down from a tree and started across the road. It tried to dash under the car in front of us and apparently got knocked around by the undercarriage but finally got his footing to where it could try to dash out, but unfortunately the slight delay put him right under the tire. Poor thing came out from under it, and it sort of stood up, it really looked ok, but then it just went rigid and flopped over, almost in a cartoony way sadly. Oh well, I generally hate squirrels so it’s not like I’m mourning or anything, just though it was kind of interesting.
Note- Most of this post was written on Sunday, July 29, however it is all written as if on Saturday, July 28, when all of the events took place..
We really had no idea of where to go once we got to Lenox for some food, as none of us had been there in a long time. We eventually just settled on the food court, where I got a not-so-good Nathan’s hot-dog. The main purpose of the trip though, if there was one, was to explore the Apple store, which I have never really gotten a chance to do since I’ve become such a big Apple fan.
I must say, it was one of the busiest stores I have ever seen on a non-special event day. People were everywhere; it was almost to the point that it was difficult to get around. Even so, there were plenty of displays of everything to go around. I barely had to wit to get to play with an iPhone, and there were times that two or three were sitting open, and I didn’t have to wait at all to play with a MacBook Pro, my next target after the iPhone. It was a good and interesting trip to see all of the people there and know that Apple is certainly gaining popularity.
Upon leaving Lenox Square, I witnessed roadkill… yes… roadkill, as it happened. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually watched an animal get hit on the road before. A squirrel hopped down from a tree and started across the road. It tried to dash under the car in front of us and apparently got knocked around by the undercarriage but finally got his footing to where it could try to dash out, but unfortunately the slight delay put him right under the tire. Poor thing came out from under it, and it sort of stood up, it really looked ok, but then it just went rigid and flopped over, almost in a cartoony way sadly. Oh well, I generally hate squirrels so it’s not like I’m mourning or anything, just though it was kind of interesting.
Note- Most of this post was written on Sunday, July 29, however it is all written as if on Saturday, July 28, when all of the events took place..
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Well it was... interesting...
Well... the bike show was certainly interesting, to say the least. Some bikes looked like they had been through the junkyard while others, like the one pictured here looked quite nice. I guess it wasn't really as big of a show as I had kind of expected but there were still quite a few bikes there. I still think my favorite thing though, as it usually is at motorcycle events, was reading the helmet stickers.
Motorcycle Show
I will be going to a motorcycle show later today with my dad and a friend of his, so I will be sure to bring back plenty of pictures and stories. Right now though, I have just finished doing some work on my driver education course and am just listening to music, making this completely pointless post. I need to go get a picture of the bull for the market or something, but I haven't quite got around to it... hmm, perhaps I should do that.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Call me a quitter....
Well I've pretty much quit band. A very tough decision to be sure, but there were a whole lot more reasons personally for me to quit than for me to stay. For one thing those dang tenors are just too heavy for me, being as relatively small as I am. There were also I don't know how many things I had to miss last year because of band, usually things I much rather would have done than the said band event. The classes I can take in place of band such as photography and video production just suit my interests much better anyway, and are much less time consuming. Sure I like being a musician, and I still will be, playing guitar and such, but I'm just not that passionate about it really.
Practice itself today is part of what pushed my decision ahead. Marching those drums for four hours was I think about the least enjoyable thing I've ever done in my life. I really think I'd rather have my wisdom teeth out all over again that what I did this morning. I know it's something you have to get used to but even so, some people are better suited to it than others, and when it's something I guess I''m not all that crazy about in the first place it just doesn't make sense to push myself that hard, especially when it's something I'll only do until I'm out of high school anyway.
I guess I really have mixed feelings about quitting. It feels like a huge burden lifted off me to not have band to worry about, which is great, it was putting a lot of stress on me, but at the same time I really hate quitting, I know my parents were a huge asset as band boosters and I'll hate just not being part of the band. As I told my dad, I don't want to quit band, but there's nothing I want to do in band. Kind of a strange statement I know, but true.
Essentially to wrap things up, I've just decided that it's not to worth it to me to continue to burn so much time going to practice I don't want to go to in order to do something I'm not that passionate about. Sure I thought I wanted to beyond all reason, but it's just simply come to my realization that marching is not for me. I'll miss all the fun moments that band does bring with it... but for me its not worth all the very un-fun moments when there are plenty of other things out there that I will personally have more fun doing.
Practice itself today is part of what pushed my decision ahead. Marching those drums for four hours was I think about the least enjoyable thing I've ever done in my life. I really think I'd rather have my wisdom teeth out all over again that what I did this morning. I know it's something you have to get used to but even so, some people are better suited to it than others, and when it's something I guess I''m not all that crazy about in the first place it just doesn't make sense to push myself that hard, especially when it's something I'll only do until I'm out of high school anyway.
I guess I really have mixed feelings about quitting. It feels like a huge burden lifted off me to not have band to worry about, which is great, it was putting a lot of stress on me, but at the same time I really hate quitting, I know my parents were a huge asset as band boosters and I'll hate just not being part of the band. As I told my dad, I don't want to quit band, but there's nothing I want to do in band. Kind of a strange statement I know, but true.
Essentially to wrap things up, I've just decided that it's not to worth it to me to continue to burn so much time going to practice I don't want to go to in order to do something I'm not that passionate about. Sure I thought I wanted to beyond all reason, but it's just simply come to my realization that marching is not for me. I'll miss all the fun moments that band does bring with it... but for me its not worth all the very un-fun moments when there are plenty of other things out there that I will personally have more fun doing.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Hmm... time for business
I have just come to the realization that today is just about my last completely free day for a few weeks. Tomorrow I've got guitar lesson and such, so I'll be out and about most of the day. Then thursday we start precamp.... Needless to say, pre-camp is very long. Essentially it's 8am-3pm with an hour for lunch, usually about noon. Granted that's better than last year, when it was 8-4, but it's still a long time. We have that Thur, Fri, then Mon-Wed. After that is full-fledged band camp from Thursday to Sunday, which will be very hectic and probably accomplish nothing but bringing the band closer. We will probably get very little practiced. The week after that we only have two days of practice, but they're pretty brutal (8:30-2:30, 6-9). Anyway.... it's gunna be a hectic few weeks.
Harry Potter and Carriers
Well I said I would be back with a review for HP 5 and here it is! It is one amazing movie. The only thing wrong with it is the shortness, I mean seriously, how does the longest of the first five books end up as the shortest movie? It doesn't make sense. Oh well, what they do give is incredible. The acting is fantastic, and the action and effects are even more incredible. This is one movie I doubt very many people will regret seeing.
On another note, our new drum carriers for band got here... which is a very good thing for me. I'm not exactly the biggest guy on the drumline, so carrying tenors is slightly challenging, especially with a screwed up carrier. We didn't have a decent carrier for me to use so we had to sort of retro-fit an old vest-style snare carrier to temporarily carry the tenors. Needless to say it was extremely uncomfortable, and made marching incredibly difficult, but now our brand new shiny Dynasty carriers here and those days are over. These new carriers are much more comfortable, and hopefully won't leave huge bruises on my legs.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Blogging
Hmm... where to start... Well, really I'm currently in the works of creating a little more of a website, which will contain my blog, along with more stuff, but for the meantime I will keep a blog here. Granted yes I have messed around with blogs before but I'm a little more serious about it now.
I guess this post is more or less just to announce the blog and get it started. I did just see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so I will post my report on that in a little while or in the morning, but right now I will continue working on setting this up. Enjoy!
I guess this post is more or less just to announce the blog and get it started. I did just see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so I will post my report on that in a little while or in the morning, but right now I will continue working on setting this up. Enjoy!
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