To the Lassies

Doug asked me to give a traditional toast "to the lassies" for Burns Night. Below is the poem I wrote and delivered for the toast...
***
"To the Lassies"
The lassies with us here tonight,
Are graced with many gifts,
We count ourselves as lucky friends
Although they give us fits.

For sure, they’re wise and beautiful,
Fair-skinned, with eyes that glisten,
But when they open mouths to speak
We resign ourselves to listen.

And on you go, ‘bout many things:
‘Bout Glee and Harry Potters,
‘Bout knitting, running, vampire men,
And even circus otters.

But that’s not all, as we well know,
For more we often hear,
Of Percy Jackson, word twist games
And even schnabeltiers.

You study eyes, you study books,
And other information;
You work to keep things nice and cold,
and work with animation.

You wrangle germs and viruses
With great dexterity;
And one of you does something strange:
‘sustainability.’

And though we tease, we clearly know,
Your worth to us as sisters;
Without you we would merely be
Sad and lonely misters.

And so, to end this silly rhyme,
I do what just seems right –
I borrow from Sir Burns himself
To celebrate this night:

"Auld Nature swears the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes;
Her ‘prentice han’ she tried on man,
And then She made the lasses!"

Dear Beth, Christina, Chelsea, Jane,
To you, we raise our glasses.
And Megan, Sarah, Erica –
We toast you, all fair lasses.

Time away

Christmas break has finally arrived! I finished my last final on Tuesday, so now I have – quite literally – nothing to do for three and a half weeks. Doubtless I'll fill most of my days with reading, episodes of LOST, Age of Empires III and random acts of tomfoolery. I'll be heading home to Cincinnati for a few days on either side of Christmas. Over the New Year's holiday, Sarah and I are heading to New England to visit Lake Champion, Sarah's brother's family in New York City and my sister's family in Portland, Maine, where we'll hopefully go skiing (Sunday River) and hit up the L.L. Bean Outlet in Freeport.
I'm also going to make a point to photoblog during break – especially during the New England trip. Without schoolwork to do, I'll need something to focus on!

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I decided to start off my Christmas break by taking a personal retreat. After spending some time looking for a location, I settled on St. Meinrad, a Benedictine Monastery and seminary in southern Indiana. The seminary had some interesting history – it was founded in 1852 by Swiss monks who were looking to expand their abbey to the United States as an insurance policy against the anti-Catholic Swiss government of the time. If the Swiss government became too oppressive, the monks planned to pack up and move to America. However, that never happened, and by the 1870s St. Meinrad had become an independent monastery.

I arrived Wednesday afternoon and pretty much spent all of my time in reading and prayer. I took an hour in the afternoon to walk around the grounds and take photos, and also attended the evening Vespers service in the monastery. The most interesting reading I was doing was from Tim Keller's "Counterfeit Gods," an excellent book about modern idolatry. When I'm finished with it I may have to devote a post to it.

Anyway, here's a few pictures. These were all taken with my Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. I'm digging the superwide.

When pigs fly.

Well, I'm in for it now.

I've signed up for the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati on May 2. It's 206 days away -- and there's a lot of running to be done between now and then.

To date, I've run four half marathons (soon to be five) with mixed success. I've finished them fine and generally felt good, though I've not really improved my time. I decided that it's time to put some dedicated effort into it and finish at least one full marathon.

Cincinnati is a great choice, too. It's not the flattest course (see the elevation profile below), but I'm from Cincinnati, it's a great marathon, and I should be able to have family and friends there to cheer me on.

And let's be honest -- the Flying Pig marathon? The moniker is perfect. I'm reminded of the "Pigasus," a personal stamp used by John Steinbeck with the latin motto Ad astra per alia porci (to the stars on the wings of a pig). The pigasus was supposed to symbolize Steinbeck's "earthbound but aspiring" nature, as he was a "lumbering soul but trying to fly...(with)...not enough wingspread but plenty of attention." Sounds a lot like my running. I'm currently researching training, but hope to come up with a plan soon!

                             

Lake Monroe

Last weekend, I was able to head out to Lake Monroe (Indiana's largest lake) to help teach a Coastal Kayaking Class. We went to the easternmost part of the lake, near Crooked Creek, where few motorboats venture and where the lake, apart from a few channels, is less a lake and more a large, swampy marsh, full of eagles, herons, ducks, geese, fish, snakes and sucking mud.

It was a beautiful weekend, and getting outdoors and on the water was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of grad school. I'll just share a few photos...

We made pizza on the fire – it was amazing.

After beautiful weather on Saturday, storms and low clouds rolled in early Sunday morning. Though it made us wet, the lake was beautiful -- it felt like we were paddling in Alaska or British Columbia. Indiana has its moments. 

This last picture is of the largest caterpillar I've ever seen in my life ("like a pickle," as one person put it -- just much, much hairier. And probably less tasty). I looked it up when I got home -- turns out it's an imperial moth: not overly rare (but large, with about a 5'6" wingspan), but rare to see as a caterpillar.

Vacation, briefly

I don't have much time to compose a post this morning, but I thought I'd post a couple pictures from the vacation so far. It's amazingly beautiful here. The weather has been great, the travel easy, and we've seen an incredible amount of things in just a few days. We were in Yosemite National Park the last couple days and today are back in San Francisco. We're going to do some things here today (Golden Gate Bridge, etc.). Should be a fun day!

The Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Forest:


The view from our backcountry campsite in Yosemite:


On a random dome in northern Yosemite:

Sunsets + Summer Reading

Ah, summer is finally here. I went camping last night at Yellowwood to kick off the summer properly. Since I changed the blog design the photos show up kind of small, so a reminder that if you click on them they'll expand to full- screen.

More blogging to come now that exams are done!

Everything is amazing, no one is happy

A friend sent me a link to this youtube clip of a comedian – Louis CK – on Conan the other night. I've never heard of him, though I appreciate his simple message in this clip.

My backyard

One of the reasons I moved into my current apartment was because I liked the fact that it had a nice, wooded backyard that – complete with a fire pit – that was dark at night.
Well, my landlord really hasn't turned out to be such a great guy. The place isn't so hot either. For the last couple weeks they've been doing some kind of mysterious work to the apartment downstairs (the one that always has bass coming from it, regardless of the hour) – and so this is what the backyard looks like.
This picture was inspired by the fact that the guy that my landlord hires to do stuff decided to mow today, so he just literally mowed over and around all this crap. Classic.


And here's the challenge. Can you all of these things in the photo? If you can, you win!
- Snow shovel
- (4) half-cinder blocks
- One FULL cinder block
- Croquet set
- Taco bell cup
- McDonald's cup
- Coffee mug (with coffee still in it)
- Tire
- Bag of cypress mulch
- Mysterious cable
- Empty bottle of mountain dew.

Heed the forecast

this is what happens when you ignore the forecast and have to bike home in the pouring rain.

THA NK YOU FOR ISITIN GTHE GV SSOM AEROPLE X

I'm currently up near Kokomo, Indiana at a training session put on by the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. The session is "Introduction to Emergency Management," and covers a lot of the basics of emergency management, including the various functions and phases. I don't know how I fit in to all of this exactly (career-wise), but I know it's good to be here learning and making these connections. Most of the people here are much older than I am – of the 40 people here, 33 are probably white men in their 50 – and all of them have more things on their belt and flashing lights on their SUVs and trucks than me.

The class is at the dilapidated, somewhat-melancholy Grissom Joint Air Reserve Base (named for Gus Grissom). A few decades ago, the base must have had a thriving little community. It was originally a training and testing base, and has been greatly downsized in the last decade. One of the guys at the training is a local – "grew up just on the other side of that fence there," as he says – and talks about how he used to come onto the base to play with the military kids. It feels a lot more like a ghost town. Really, this picture says it all.

The base isn't entirely inoperative – there's still a squadron of KC-135 refueling planes that operates out of the base, and it's also been opened to civic use. The base might have been closed were it not for an accident that occured in 1964, when a B-58 (a supersonic bomber) skidded off the runway with five nuclear devices.

"On December 8, 1964, during a routine Operational Readiness Inspection, a B-58 strategic bomber skidded off the runway) at Bunker Hill AFB, IN (later named Grissom Air Force Base). The consequence of the accident was a fire and destruction of five nuclear weapons on the aircraft. The high explosives in the weapons did not detonate, but melted and burned, leaving some residual radioactive contamination in soils adjacent to the runway. The contaminated area was excavated and buried along with the aircraft wreckage at a different location on base. In June 1996, the Air Force Safety Center conducted a review of both classified and unclassified documents in its possession and concluded that sufficient data did not exist to support closure of the site. Since that time, the State of Indiana and this organization performed small- scale scoping surveys that identified a small area with elevated gamma radiation exposure levels. Soil samples collected from the area indicated the presence of depleted uranium."

Oops. Anyway, I guess that's a good reason to not close the base. Back in Bloomington tomorrow!

Quinzee!

No, Quinzee isn't a new take on Yahtzee. A quinzee is a type of snow survival shelter – something you could make if you were stranded in the snowy tundra of ... say, Dunn Meadow for a few days.

Basically, you make a huge pile of snow – the bigger, the better – let it sit and sinter for a few hours and then dig out the middle, making a sort of igloo/sow cave combination shelter. It was actually quite warm inside, and you probably could have slept three people in the shelter we built. As it was, we had five of us sitting inside fairly comfortably at once.

Anyway, pictures:

Once more...

So much for getting back to blogging more frequently, huh? Since I last posted, nearly a month ago, life – work, specifically – has been a bit of a whirlwind, and I've hardly spent any time on the computer. Not that I'm complaining. Less time on the computer is always nice.

My time here has been well-spent, and there's nowhere that I'd rather be. After working 18 consecutive days from the end of May into June, averaging between 12 and 16 hours of work a day, things have finally calmed down a bit and I can step back and gain some perspective. It was hard work getting the camp ready for summer, especially with a brand new dining hall. There was lots of new ground that had to be covered, but now that we're running (we're into week three of summer camping) things are going much smoother.

I love this part of New York in the summer. The weather is fickle at best – in the course of a day it can change from rain to sun and back to rain several times. In June alone we've had swings from 45 degrees to 95 degrees; humid to dry; sunshine to hail. It keeps things interesting.

My focus now is to just use the rest of the summer to serve and to grow in my relationships with others and with the Lord. And to cram some fun activities into my free time when it comes along.

Here's my short list of what I still want to get done with my days off this summer:
- Trip to Cincinnati (forthcoming, for a family reunion) where I'll see all of my family, a Reds game, run a 5k and see Zimmer, who's been in Thailand.
- Go to NYC.
- Go to a Mets game.
- Go to a Red Bulls game (hopefully versus FC Barcelona).
- Go to Portland to visit my sister and her family.
- Go to Fenway.
- Make dentist and optometrist appointments (before I'm a poor grad student!)
- Spend a night out practicing wilderness survival with friends.
- Backpack into Pine Creek Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania."

There's more I want to get done, too... we'll have to see what I have time for!

To summer.

Well, a lot's been happening in my life lately, and I've not blogged much about it. I'm sure I'm going to have lots of adventures this summer in New York I want to write about though, so I've decided to get right back on the blogging horse – so to speak.

I had a wonderful, busy last week in the Midwest before departing for New York. I went to three baseball games with wonderful people, all of which the home team won (the Indy Indians won two, the Reds won one. Oh, and Doug – I swear all baseball games aren't militant.) It always feels like summer hasn't really started until I've been to a baseball game – three in one week means the season can really start.


I also had the chance to finish up a freelance project shooting a bald eagle nest – it was really incredible how close I was able to get to such amazing birds. The chicks were a captive audience, but the mother was very wary of me, and any time I'd get close she'd fly off. Luckily I arrived one day while she was away, and when she returned she didn't spot me right away. I had about five minutes in which to capture some cool images, including this one. The full gallery can be found on my Flickr site here.


After packing up, cleaning, finding a place to live next year and finishing up everything I had to do in Bloomington, I was ready to drive to New York. After spending 12.5 quality hours in my car on Sunday, I finally arrived at Lake Champion. It was great arriving and seeing a place that I really do love, and more importantly, seeing people that I really care about. I was also greeted by a midnight soccer game in the gym, which I somewhat regretted participating in after spending so much time in the car.

So now I've had a few days to get settled here. I've been thrust immediately into a really busy work situation, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the people I'm working with and I love the cause I'm working for. I really could make a life out of this property staff thing.

The highlight of yesterday was seeing the rather large bat pictured below. It was the biggest bat I've ever seen not in a zoo, and after some Internet research, I'm pretty sure it was the Hoary Bat – which has an average wingspan of 15.7 inches (thanks, Wikipedia). I thought it was pretty cool to see.

"O" my!

So my co-worker Jessica and I just went to the Women's Little 500, and as we were walking in, Barack Obama's motorcade pulled up. No one was sure if Obama was going to make an appearance, but it was widely rumored that he'd show. The rumors were right.

Jess and I had perfect timing to get a spot along the railing near the bus and wait for Obama to emerge from his bus. After 10 or 15 minutes of waiting, he emerged to cheers and walked along the crowd shaking hands, and yes, even kissing babies (see below).


Luckily he walked in my direction, and I was able to shake his hand! It was pretty cool. I'm still not sure if I'm going to vote for him, but I can certainly understand the power of personal appearance after today. It makes sense that politicians tour around doing these things – it really does get people excited about them.

Anyway, Obama hung around inside the track before the race began, shaking the hands of the women's riders before getting back on his bus to head for (presumably) Terre Haute.

The women's race was fun, too, and the weather was fantastic. What a great start to the weekend.


Right after shaking my hand.

Plans!

Well, after a long, long season of prayer and waiting, I'm excited to say that I have... plans! Of course, plans can always change, but I'm excited to have an idea of what I'll be doing with this next period in my life.

In a crazy week right before Spring Break, things started to come together in an amazing way. It's one of those times in your life where you can't possibly deny a higher power working to bring things together – God really knocked down some obstacles and plowed a road for me. I am incredibly blessed.

May 14 will be my last day of work at the School of Journalism. I'll put my stuff into storage for the summer, run the half-marathon on the 17th in Indianapolis, then head to Lake Champion for the summer – where I used to work.

I'm incredibly excited at the prospect of returning to work for a Young Life camp for the summer. Being around the people there, sharing in rich Christian fellowship and serving the Lord, will be a real blessing. Additionally, I get to spend all my time outside – and that makes me happy.

Just last night I was looking forward to living in the middle of nowhere again and falling asleep to an amazing chorus of frogs and locusts.

I'll stay at Lake Champion until late August, at which point I'll return to Bloomington to become a full-time student in SPEA (the School of Public and Environmental Affairs). I'm planning on pursuing my Masters in Public Administration, focusing on non-profit and public management. While Emergency Management isn't a concentration choice at SPEA, I am going to customize my experience as much as possible to gain experience in that area.

So – a summer away, then another two years in Bloomington. I'm excited to stay here with the people I've gotten to know and enjoy this Indiana life for a while longer.

Happiness is...

Happiness is a warm nap in the sun.

Another fantastic day yesterday. More work - I ended up taking a lot of photos of people golfing – but then more play, too. We went down to the beach near San Diego and had a great time. We saw a bunch of seals up on one of the beaches, too, which was cool.

All the photos here.

Joshua Tree

Well, if you didn't know, I'm in San Diego on business. My friend Mark got a gig covering a biotech company's annual sales conference and needed a hand, so he and I are out here doing audio/video coverage of the conference. It's not a terrible amount of work – in fact we have quite a good amount of free time.

Today we had the most amount of free time we'll have all week, so we rented a car from the hotel and drove to Joshua Tree National Park – a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. Mark and I had a U2 moment in front of one of the Joshua Trees (also, the middle picture is Mark's, you can find more of his here) and really enjoyed the awesome views. The weather was great, too – not too hot or cold.

The only downer today was finding out Arsenal lost to Manchester United 4-0. Blech. That's okay, though... we'll beat 'em in the league!

My full set of pictures can be found on Flickr here.

'San Diego'

The view from my hotel room in San Diego as of 5 minutes ago. :) I'll have to write more about what's going on a bit later... off to dinner right now.

The Enneagram...

I'm a Type Seven – an Enthusiast. The Seven is a person who wants to constantly have new experiences, who wants to be constantly exploring and finding joy in new and simple things in life. The Enneagram Web site has this to say about the Type 7:

Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain
Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled
Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

It goes on to describe Enthusiasts at their healthy levels and at their unhealthy levels. I'll just post a bit and highlight what I feel like describes me best:

Level 1 (At Their Best): Assimilate experiences in depth, making them deeply grateful and appreciative for what they have. Become awed by the simple wonders of life: joyous and ecstatic. Intimations of spiritual reality, of the boundless goodness of life.

Level 2: Highly responsive, excitable, enthusiastic about sensation and experience. Most extroverted type: stimuli bring immediate responses—they find everything invigorating. Lively, vivacious, eager, spontaneous, resilient, cheerful.

Level 3: Easily become accomplished achievers, generalists who do many different things well: multi-talented. Practical, productive, usually prolific, cross-fertilizing areas of interest.

Level 4: As restlessness increases, want to have more options and choices available to them. Become adventurous and "worldly wise," but less focused, constantly seeking new things and experiences: the sophisticate, connoisseur, and consumer. Money, variety, keeping up with the latest trends important.

Level 5: Unable to discriminate what they really need, become hyperactive, unable to say "no" to themselves, throwing self into constant activity. Uninhibited, doing and saying whatever comes to mind: storytelling, flamboyant exaggerations, witty wise-cracking, performing. Fear being bored: in perpetual motion, but do too many things—many ideas but little follow through.

I admit I can see both my strengths and weaknesses in that description. I didn't post any of the "really unhealthy" levels (7, 8, 9), but I don't see much of myself in those anyway. In the Type 7 description by Richard Rohr, he says, "The Seven is the 'eternal child.' Peter Pan could be their patron saint, or Mercury, the messenger of the gods wearing his winged shoes, with which he disappears into a wonderful world of fantasy... Sevens are curious. It's as if what they already know or have is never enough. They need change, stimulation, new experiences... Sevens are not specialists, but 'generalists.' They always have several irons in the fire, because they always want to leave all their options open and unconsciously want to avoid committing themselves too deeply to a thing or a person... because if you totally devote yourself, your own limits might become visible – and that would be too painful. Thus many Sevens master the art of bluffing; they are all-around diletantes and evoke the impression of being many-faceted in their gifts, of knowing all about everything. A handful of facts, cleverly combined, sometimes suffice to create a comprehensive image. They often have a hard time tying themselves down to one career."

Wow. Has Richard Rohr been spying on me? I really can't add anything in my own words that's better than the description above. I love new experiences and find joy in them - but it can be taken to a fault, too, to where I'm bored if I don't have constant new stimulation and I'm afraid to commit to any one thing that might limit my experiences.

More Philly...

We got the tour of Independence Hall today! It was really cool to be in the room where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were debated and voted on. I didn't find any clues to a giant masonic treasure, but I'll keep looking.


Also, as we were talking to the historic district of Philadelphia, we passed a McDonald's with this trash can out front – and for some reason the clever graffiti made me laugh out loud. So apparently one graffiti artist thinks McDonald's is murder – but another says, "Hey, who cares? It's delicious!" Maybe this is only funny to me ...