Friends

06:59 am - Montpelier: Day 7
Oh my God, faceless aliens are invading London, run for your lives!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1031062/Faceless-aliens-spotted-crowd-Wimbledon.html

...this has nothing to do with Montpelier, but those are seriously creepy and for anyone familiar with Doctor Who will immediately conjure up images of the first season starring David Tennant and "The Wire" which stole people's faces.

...all of this, of course, has nothing to do with Montpelier. I am bored, and it's kinda lonely here and I don't have the charger for my cell phone so it's not like I can call people.

I did, however, watch Bandidas last night, which totally made my evening better.

~ Bryon ~
Current Location: Montpelier
Current Mood: [mood icon]

bored

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July 2nd, 2008

06:26 pm - Montpelier: Day 6 or "D&D out of nowhere!"
So something really strange happened during my course today. I arrived and had sat down and was eating my meal of pop-tarts when the strangest conversation began. After a brief class conversation about the Harry Potter books and a local pastor's dislike of them because of witchcraft, the conversation took an unexpected turn. The professor, who must be around sixty, began talking to the class about D&D.

I froze, like a deer in the headlights. Where on Earth did this conversation come from? What was going on? I waited to see what people would say: would it be positive things or the kind of negativity drummed up in the early 1980's about Satan worship and witchcraft? Then much to my amazement, some of the people in class began to pipe up that they had played.

REALLY!? I mean, it's not like it should be so great a surprise, but in a room full of adults of various age ranges and proclivities, I expected to be the only former nerd there. Half of the class beyond myself was either familiar with the game through children who played or had themselves played.

We talked about this for some time, and I mentioned that the game was still around and in fact a new edition of it had just come out. Everyone seemed surprised it was still going. We then talked a bit about computers and computer D&D, group dynamics and the benefits of learning involving pleasurable activities and play.

It was just a really weird kind of day.

On a wholly unrelated note, I'm also growing restless and a bit bored out of my skull. I don't really go anywhere, or do anything, other than the occasional parcel of work. Mostly I watch Rome all day. I am beginning to develop some acquaintanceships with some of the people in the program, but I'm slow to get to know people. I don't know how I feel about things overall, but we shall see. I am already looking forward to getting back to my place in West Brattleboro.

~ Bryon ~
Current Location: Montpelier

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lordandrei

08:32 am - You know... I don't really want to call it jetlag...
I typically get about 6 hrs of sleep per night. And that seems to be okay.

Since getting home its been a bit more. Last night it was about 8 1/2 hrs

On the one side its good. I sleep deeper. I dream more. I have more rest cycle.
One the one side... it's not so good. I awake very groggy. Not all my dreams were great fun.

Currently I'm on the bus wanting a pillow.

There will be a full weekend report coming. With everything that happened in L.A. as well as everything going on at home... there was a lot to take in.

But big props and thanks to

ardras156

maeghanne (and everyone at Hazard house whos LJ's I don't have) and especially

sesa777 for amazing OTO-style hospitality. Thank you for making my weekend so special and welcomed.
Current Location: Bus to work
Current Mood: pleased

Tags: hospitality, oto, thanks, travel

July 1st, 2008

04:43 pm - Swimming for four hours in the middle of the day without sunscreen? Not my best idea ever.
It had never really occurred to me that you can get second-degree burns from the sun. I always thought of sunburns as just, you know, your skin turns red, sometimes it hurts, sometimes it peels, and then you're done, unless you make a habit of it, in which case you'll eventually get cancer.

HEY it turns out that you can get sunburns so bad that the pain is incapacitating and you sit around for days slathering aloe on yourself while you develop tiny terrifying blisters and your skin looks and feels about ready to split but is not actually peeling off at all, just developing little horrifying canals of OH MY GOD WHY.

I look like a boiled lobster, and I am sad.

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09:37 am - Montpelier: Day 5 or "Are you really that stupid?"
Edit: I also forget who got me reading "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal," but I think it was the T. I got to this comic and it makes me laugh: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=672#comic

So the days continue to wear on. I am feeling kinda bleh of late, and a little spacey. I have seen very little of Montpelier or Barre (pronounced Barry) which is the other closest town. I am debating spending some time investigating the place, but on the other hand as far as I can tell there really isn't a whole lot out here. There is the state house which I'd like to see at some point, and a few neat little odds and ends (there's a random cafe on a random corner over a steel truss bridge which is large enough to hold a car and a half yet regularly holds two, and is named Kismet).

Everything is moving either are a highly accelerated pace or at a languid and far too simple pace. For instance, I need to write what I intend to study for the next two years and come up with a preliminary booklist by Thursday, as well as my overall plan of study. This is a bit tough, since I'd neither been thinking of nor considering these kinds of issues prior to the residency. The classes themselves though are very simple - I for instance need to write something about a single book featured in the High School English canon and examine the benefits of different curriculums teaching it. I need to do this by August. I can easily get ahead of myself in this program and buy a goodly amount of breathing room by working hard now.

This is definitely a program designed for people who aren't used to school anymore, or who have busy working lives. Not being these people, I almost feel as though I have an unfair advantage in getting everything done. I am also, so far as I can deduce, the only single person in the entire program. Everyone else seems to have lives and is settled places and has kids. I don't have kids! I don't even want kids right now, the very thought of drooling, needy, clutching things who require attention from me most waking moments makes me think of puppies.

And I certainly don't want puppies right now, either.

So yesterday I witnessed a beautiful moment of sheer brilliance. As I was coming back from the campus (which is a fairly short drive) I saw a motorcyclist wearing a helmet, a red t-shirt and a pair of jeans. His bike was leaned pretty far to one side and then he pulled up and kept on going. The distance he chose to lean seemed odd to me, but what do I know about bikes, right? Still, something seemed surpassingly odd and then I realized what it was as I drove past him (we were going in opposite directions).

He was riding side saddle on the bike, and running it with just one hand.

SIDE-SADDLE! MOTORCYCLE! 40 MILES PER HOUR!

I cannot stress the ingenious combination of wits and testosterone which was needed for this to seem like a good idea to this guy. While I didn't see his inevitable crash and burn (and would likely have felt some kind of uncomfortable moral responsibility to call the police or something) I wonder how long before he does himself a severe injury.

I'm rewatching the first season of Rome presently, and intend to finish the series by the time I leave here.

~ Bryon ~
Current Location: Montpelier

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June 30th, 2008

seileonne

04:29 pm - Skeleton Cave
So we've been working on a new project these past few weeks that we're currently calling Skeleton Cave. It's a karst in Lanesboro with a series of large sinks in a major ravine. There's an insurgence about 1000 feet upslope from the dig, and a resurgence about 400 feet down the ravine and about 100 feet lower in elevation. Mike and I walked the area exactly one year and one day ago, June 29 2007, and noted all the sinks and possible digs in this as well as another nearby karst. A few weeks ago, Bob checked the area and found one of the smaller sinks on the side of the ravine blowing air like crazy. We've since put in five days of digging and trenched roughly 100 feet of crawl, with assorted side leads and small dead-end rooms. On Saturday we broke through into a large room, about fifty feet across and ranging from 2-5ft high with many formations and a series of continuing leads. There are several drains as well as a crawl that continue from the room, and Sunday was spent on a survey of the cave so far and checking two of the leads. More pushing/digging remains to get to the "trunk" section that we are presuming exists. So far the cave has a very mazy, joint-controlled character, but we're still only in upper level bedding/infeeder passage. Lots of potential.

Some photos below:

Bob above the Formation Drain

Bob and Mike next to the Crown, which doesn't look like a crown from this angle, but does when you are crawling into the room.

( More... )

The rest of the photos are in this gallery, which is also linked to the right.

Anyhow, that's all for now. More in two weeks after we dig some more leads and (hopefully) break into the main section of the cave.

Tags: skeleton

deadtreepride
[kickmyhabits]

12:35 pm - Housemate Sought
Hello Everyone,

I'm seeking a responsible housemate for a nice little house on Elliot Street. E-mail me at sscogin@marlboro.edu or drop me a line at 802-377-0604 if you're interested. Rent is somewhat negotiable.

pepperedmoth

08:47 pm - Books, books, books.
I couldn't possibly be as bookish as I am and NOT do this. With commentary, of course.

"The premise... is that the average person hasn't read more'n six of these. As one or more of my flist have said, haven't most people been to high school?"

"Bold the ones you've read.
Italics for the ones you intend to read.
Underline the ones you loved.
Strikeout the ones you hated."

This is a pretty eclectic bunch . . . my goodness. I have read many more than six.

( Read on, gypsy, read on. )

Final count: 48 (NOT 68 as previously posted- jeepers, where'd I get THAT number?) read, 6 more I'd like to read. Wow. So: of those I haven't read, and haven't already indicated I'd like to, which would you recommend?

Tags: books, memes

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June 29th, 2008

03:18 pm - Book Meme!
Well, everybody else is doing it.

( Books )

So that makes my totals: 13 read, of which I hated 3 and loved 5 and 17 (or more) that I want to read.

~ Bryon ~
Current Location: Montpelier

10:56 am - Montpelier: Day 3 or "Bryon moves up in the world"
Edit: The alternative title for this entry was: "Yes Bryon, you can has cheeseburger." since I ate at McDonalds last night (eating on a budget). Then I forgot to mention that! Well, fixed now!

So things are definitely looking up for Bryon! Last night a sticky note was left on my door letting me know that a new room was available for me. I grew rather concerned about this - considering what I'd heard about some of the other rooms at the Hilltop Inn, I wasn't in a rush for something which might be worse than my other room.

After all, I'd heard from one guy that he had something inappropriate splattered on the bed post.

Yeah, so considering that fact, the burns on the floor didn't seem so bad.

But I got moved into a room with two beds, no burns, a big and pretty fancy room. All in all, I am a success! So far the only real downside of the trip is the rather limited budget I've allowed myself for food. I'm going on about $10 bucks a day save Sundays, where I'll have something more expensive.

And so I now enjoy television and wireless internets!

~ Bryon ~
Current Location: Montpelier

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pepperedmoth

05:00 pm - The Appalachian Trail
Rob: Let's get married!
Me: Let's thru-hike the AT, instead!

OK, it didn't go down exactly like that. But when a young couple is eager to test their commitment to each other, but is not yet prepared for a permanent, legally binding relationship- what better than to take to the trail for six months and 2,175 miles? Not much, say I. Not much.

I have wanted to thru-hike the AT since I first set foot on it, at the age of 14. Rob has wanted to thru-hike it even longer than that. In December 2010 I finish my degree. Soon after that both Rob and I will both be eager to quit our jobs, leave our apartment, and move out of Chittenden county, as we both dislike this, the most urban part of Vermont.

This presents and tantalizing, and possibly unique, moment in our lives. Will we ever have another chance like this? Truly, when else will we be quitting our jobs simultaneously? When else will we be able to put all of our possessions into self-storage? Never, I say. Never. Or at least not until retirement, and that is far too long to wait.

Our itinerary is in its infancy, but currently we plan to leave Springer Mountain, in Georgia, in early March 2011. This leaves ample time for us to prepare- and especially time for me to whip myself into shape.

I read an article about training to hike the AT that suggested, 'Every time you want to give up, tell yourself: if I don't run this mile, I won't be able to summit Katahdin. With this amount of burning pressure, you will stick with your exercise regimen.' Good idea. Now I need to hop in the shower to prepare for going out to dinner and a dance, or Rob will kill me and I'll never be able to summit Katahdin.

Tags: the appalachian trail

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June 28th, 2008

11:49 am - Montpelier: Day 2
So I find myself with, for the moment, very little to do. I have deduced that Montpelier is quite a strange place and not entirely what I anticipated it would be like. I feel perhaps a bit over-prepared Post-Marlboro, and by a bit I mean completely. My Marlboro Curriculum was like a more complex version of this stuff, though hopefully the classes will still provide a challenge.

I need to write out what I'm planning to do, more or less, for the next two years by Tuesday. This is sadly a lot less daunting than it sounds. I am staying at the Hilltop Inn, which is very shitty and has burn marks and weird stains on the floor. I have no real food plans per se, save that I know there's a grocery store down the road and some shitty fast food down another road. Also, there are vending machines on the campus. I will be living off of these three things for two weeks. I can manage that.

I've my first class at 1:00 p.m. today, and may yet decide to keep posting regularly about this since it's something of a shift for me. I'm really shitty at posting (as many of you have likely noticed) but hey, I am in fact still alive and active in the world and what-not.

~ Bryon ~
Current Location: Montpelier

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June 27th, 2008

01:32 pm - Highlights from Patton Oswalt's Top 5 lists
This is almost half a year old, and it still makes me laugh:

From his top 5 books of 2007:

Laconic
Cormac McCarthy
A terse, adjective-free tale of murder, revenge, regret and then way more murder. Adam Sandler and Tyler Perry's adaptation is the film I'm most looking forward to in 2008.

And from the top 5 albums:

Pig Bladder and a Trundle Bed
Kanye West
West's genius new rap album, a 14-song cycle based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, was a bold gamble that paid off huge dividends. "Pemmican Girl" was the king of the summer crunk.

The whole thing is here.

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June 25th, 2008

lordandrei

06:08 pm - BAD DAY! Blues Song: Uranus Retrograde: F'ing Seahawks Fans
So, lets skip over the fact that Verizon turned off my INternet at home with no warning.
Let's skip over the fact that I spent the better part of 8 hours on the phone playing tag and getting rudely chewed out by a tech support ass.

No.. Then, as H is on the way to pick up A at daycare... Some moron runs a red light and rearends her into the next car.

My second car in Washington has been totaled and yet another Steelers bumper sticker is toast.

This is a bad day!

H is shaken but 'for the most part' undamaged. (Bumps, bruises... We'll know more after we get to a doctor)

More once everything plays out.

Very not pleased today
Current Location: $tarbuck$ Bothell.
Current Mood: pissed off

Tags: accident, car, total

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June 24th, 2008

sparkleplenty03

02:01 am - How can you sleep in a time like this unless the dreamer is the real you?
By the time you read this, we'll have left the States for Tallships in Victoria, BC, eh. Be back in a week. (Wanna geek out, Kaiotte? Nina is the epitome of replicas, all hand tools; built by 8th generation boatbuilders in Brazil; with sisal, manila, and Hemp-ex line; linen(!) and canvas sail; and tarred deck and hull -no red bottom paint here. She's beyond ridiculous.)

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June 23rd, 2008

lightwalker

12:07 pm
Happy Birthday, Dawn!

June 22nd, 2008

10:38 pm - George Carlin died.
Shit.

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June 20th, 2008