Owwwww

So a friend of mine from high school was like "hey I am going rock climbing at Smith Rocks this weekend, you should come." So I did. I grabbed a tent and sleeping bag and hopped into her car Friday night, not really knowing what to expect other than climbing rocks and sleeping in my tent. Turns out we were going with the Santiam Alpine Club ( Read more... )

Things I learned on the AT:

1. I should not go backpacking too soon before Britt's wedding this summer. I think insect bites clash with purple dresses.
1b. You should probably go ahead and wear that bug repellent, even though it's May and there aren't that many mosquitoes.
2. Whoever blazed the Rampao-Dunderberg Trail was a sadistic bastard.
3. In ( Read more... )

Daniel, friendfromOregon Gina, and I got up at 4:00 today to see the meteor shower (meteor, singular). As you may have guessed, it didn't turn out all that well... we went to Inwood park, where you can escape from the immediate glare of the street lights if you climb the forested hill. But then you're in the forest. And still in New York ( Read more... )

Dan is at drill today. I'm sure doing terribly important things related to our nation's security. He calls me because two of his colleagues are having an argument about whether Strider's (from Lord of the Rings) real name is Aragon or Aragorn. After I cracked the book to check the correct spelling, I tried to defuse the situation by pointing out ( Read more... )

I guess I didn't mention that I was going. But, yeah. Rented a car, drove 500 miles to Baxter State Park, home of Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine.

I was kind of making fun of it on the way up. I mean--their tallest mountain, only about 5,000 feet? You call that a mountain? You ain't got nothin'. Etc. Well, it kicked my ass up one side and ( Read more... )

I am hereby retiring the phrase "Fear and curiosity warred within [him/her]" and banishing it from the English language. Henceforth, fear and curiosity shall forever be at peace--authors, you will have to find a different cliché. That is all. Thank you.

Agatha Christie's oeuvre may show the progression of Alzheimer's
...measured mainly though the decline of vocabulary and the repetition of phrases.

7-year old girl "I think the only reason I would want to ever have kids is so I could scream at them."
Mother: "You think that's a good thing?"
Girl: "Yeah, it sounds cool.  
Mom: "It's not--"
Girl: "I think I'd like to be a teacher.  So I could scream."

*blink*

Nothing says "I had a good weekend" like a second-degree sunburn.

 I came across this little article, for no particular reason at all: "Why So Many Academics are Lousy Writers."

"At the same time, academic writing is a stereotyped joke -- a museum of passive voice, obscure jargon, and stilted phrasings."

It has nothing to do with what you think I'm alluding to, though.  Of course not.  Promise.

I love you, honey.