I’ve recently come across an old friend from high school on mySpace, and, in his blog, he’s brought up a great point of view about the immigration mess that’s been making the political rounds lately. This cracks me up: Scott’s going to Stanford!

It probably would be easier doing it that way for him, as he’s married with a kid, he could go at his own pace and integrate more slowly. He may as well get a doctorate in Mathematics, there’s probably an Ordinary Differential Equations class starting soon… never mind he got a B.A. in Business Admin, and probably never made it to Calc I, he’ll probably pick it up as he goes.

Who ever came up with the title for this article on USA Today is an idiot… or a genius — as a geek I was definately drawn to it — Her goal: Put MS out of business

.:.
Oh, and here’s a joke I saw on SlashDot:
How can you tell an extroverted computer geek from an introverted computer geek?

…The introverted computer geek will look at his shoes while he talks to you. The extroverted computer geek will look at your shoes while he talks to you.

Adam and I decided to go for a bit of a hike this weekend, starting out on Friday afternoon. Our original plan was to head out from the Ice House parking lot (near the Mt. Baldy area) toward Ice House saddle, day trip the three T’s (three peaks along a ridge line), and then on Sunday hike through to Middle Fork road and be picked up in the Lytle Creek area.

It was a lofty enterprise of about 20 miles… in the snow. The majority of the trails up there are covered and are therefore mountainous traverses across terrain that would make most people turn back… which is what we were eventually forced to do.

We took our time getting to the Saddle Friday afternoon as we were both getting used to new snowshoes. My MSR Lightnings absolutely rock… there wasn’t anything I didn’t feel comfortable on (except following postholed tracks), I could definately use them on some crazy stuff that I wouldn’t dream of taking my old pair (old-school, wooden racket style) on.

My boots however, did not fit the bill for this hike. I was litterally swimming in water even though my gaitors were doing their job. Since my leg strength and stride length allows me to hike faster than most, everytime I had to stop for Adam my feet were dying from the cold. By the time we set up camp, I thought I was going to have permanent damage to my toes. Luckily there was none, and climbing into my sleeping bag made me feel right as rain.

We bivy sacked on exposed snow that night, and it worked out pretty well, except that trying to stay warm while cooking was imposible. Next time I’m carrying a tent, or a snow shovel (for snow-shelters).

The next morning we were a little slow to start, but got our butts moving before the trail runners caught up to us. Because of our slow traveling the day before we decided that it would be wise to push on through, forgoing the three peaks, but after we made the saddle and started our descent into the canyon on the backside we came accross a lone hiker who had attempted passing the way we were going, but turned back. The steepness, we were told made it an extremely technical trail, and while I felt confident, Adam didn’t feel comfortable enough (possibly having a child recently might have softened him a little :)), so we turned back. We made it down in no time, and I was at home before dinner time on Saturday.

Today, since I had a completely open afternoon, I worked in my garden some more. For the last couple months I’ve been digging up all of the overgrowth and nastyness that was the garden that I inherited from the last occupier of my apartment. It’s slow going, and I think I’m actually going to have to break down and buy a shovel that I will only use for this project, but maybe I can finish the digging up part of it within another full day’s worth of work. Then it would be only a matter of a little time here and there to plant some annuals in the front, and some perrennials in the rear (the side facing my apartment). I’m also thinking of adding a few vines to cover my laticed fence for privacy. We’ll see where my budget stands, as none of this is coming from the landlord, only my sense of wanting a nice place to live.

Last week I took some time to pick up a several window boxes and fill them with some kitchen herbs, so I’ll now be cooking with fresh spices and herbs. All I need now is a habanero plant in a hidden, sunny corner and my kitchen will be very happy.

Mel Brooks is thinking of doing a Broadway production of Young Frankenstein! I’m elated beyond belief… even though I said I’d never go back to New York again… I guess I’m going to have to make an exception sometime in the near future — Destiny! Destiny! No escaping! That’s for me!!!

Being my second favorite scene in the movie, I think I’ll die laughing when the monster sings Puttin’ on the Ritz. Sorta funny that they had a play-like, Broadway-esque presentation within a movie they are making into a Broadway play!

If you don’t feel like reading the whole article I linked to, the coolest line I gleaned from it was in the last paragraph:

Now Brooks says his challenge is to do the musical on Broadway with a black and white set, with all the mists and moodiness of the original movie…

The set is going to be in black and white!? I can’t imagine the possibilities of what that could entail. I also can’t wait to see and hear what else he comes up with!

By the time these words are seen around the world, I will be back in the war.

Michael Yon has gone back to Iraq… I’m expecting some interesting reading soon. Sometimes, when I read what he’s experiencing, I regret not pursuing my high school fantasy of becoming a photojournalist… and then I go back and read some of my writings about my own adventures and realize I can’t write worth a darn.