Little Missouri River National Grasslands Campsite

Medora, ND: Almost Home

I've drove for nearly 18 hours since yesterday and decided to make my last stop before home a slightly longer one. That is where Medora, ND comes in. A small town, filled with historic shops, and more tourists then residents...
Medora has a surprising amount to offer. A massively expensive (but still delicious) pizza at the Badlands Pizza Parlor Saloon, and a Wicked Cheap cinnamon roll (which was larger then my pizza) filled my gut to the brim. Its an agreeable place, with amazing cellular coverage for North Dakota's standards (using cellular tethering to my laptop right now) and despite the blistering 110 degree weather, feels like a great place to go camping. Still on the agenda is a 2.5 mile hike with camp gear in tow, maybe a free musical tonight, and a campfire with strangers. There are a few cautions I've been given... don't bother the prairie dogs (they don't like strangers) and watch out for yellow rattlesnakes. Hopefully I will get some swim time in tonight before bed. I have a solid 8 hours to go tomorrow.

A few interesting sights along the way:
Flocks of birds playing chicken with my care (some didn't win)
prairie dogs watching as cars zoomed by (considerably more cautious then the birds)
Giant plastic Jelly beans at Cowboy Lyle's Candy and Western Wear
a Traffic jam with cows
A Tree growing out of the road
rudimentary weather machines
amazing sunrise and sunset in Montana
windmill blades trucking down the highway
an old lady that flew passed me on the highway (I was going 85!)
Crop dusters flying too close for comfort
Joey "O" the Acrobatic Golf Comedian

Lets see what tomorrow has in store!

A Fond Farewell to Seattle Summer - Skatepark

Woodland Skate-park is one of the many amazing skate-parks in the Seattle area. But it was a whole lot more than that to me. I met some of the coolest people, smartest kids, and learned so much myself. I spent a large amount of time there, whether I was rollerblading, slack-lining, running rails, or just hanging out. I cleared over 5 feet of cones on rollerblades, taught over 80 people how to slackline, but most importantly, it became a large part of my experience while I was here and I am glad that it happened. The best part about it was the people that I encountered. I met new friends for life (Brennan) there, ones to teach me a thing or two about life, and others for me to teach. I became part of a small community of people that are out to have fun, enjoy life, and stay out of trouble. One group especially stood out. Although only 12-14, these kids understood many of the simple mistakes that even adults make. They don't smoke, don't drink, and don't do any drugs, unlike many kids their age are trending towards. It was really about enjoying a common interest (skating) and having fun through the summer.

Joe, Tim, Paul, Amara, Garrett, Liam, Silver, Tino, Taylor, Andrew, Tyler, and all the others, you are all good kids, try and stay out of trouble!

My webcam phone intergration

Travel Again, maybe?

As I have been waiting for a while to hear about the various positions that I have applied for, I came up with the solution for my lack of something to do over the next month.

Ever since my first visit to Europe about 9 years ago, I have been fascinated with the continient. Even to the extent that on many an occasion, I don't really feel American. I don't care about many of the things Americans do, I prefer the atmosphere of the outdoor shops and pubs, rather then the flourescent rigid structures you see in the majority of the United States.

Now, with a little time to spare, and a shockingly low travel cost (750 dollars round trip to Europe rather then 450 dollars round trip to Minnesota. I just might be ready to go back. You may be wondering if this is wise, considering it is in the "off" season. But in fact, that is exactly why I am going. I want to visit the people, as much as the places. In the off season, I will have the chance to get the real perspective of what europe is like, without having to battle the crowds.

Now cost may seem like an issue, but it really is not. I will be couchsurfing the entire time. My rail pass is going to be unlimited travel for 1 month, so even if i decide to change itineraries, it wont affect my cost, and because it is the off season, it will be incredibly cheaper.

I plan to keep a weblog of the entire journey, so you should see way more posts across the next month. Until then, happy reading.

Last post, Continued...

I didn't have enough time, or desire to jot everything down from the last few months all at once, but I have a few min so here is the update, part 2.

I got the droid for Xmas, yay. That's mostly it, a few nice things from my niece and nephew, and my sister pitched in for some nice suits a while back, but I must say.... best gift ever.(at least this time around) I am practically obsessed with this phone, to the extent of boasting as if I were the phone myself. It has lead me to the conclusion, however, that I need to seriously be working on my Contacts overhaul. I am through A and B, and have over 1000 contacts to go through left. It's going to take a while.

On a completely unrelated note, Before the winter break, I made a stuffed animal bear for the unborn daughter of a family I work for. They didn't seem to think that I made it, and still refer to it as "the bear TJ 'CLAIMS' he made." Their beautiful daughter was born right before my break. She was a little early, but had hair about 4 inches long already.

On a somewhat tangentially related note, I have begun working with yet another family to teach their kids various things. For lack of a better term, I refer to it as being a 'Universal Tutor.' For the first day, we even built a paper machee volcano, and learned about geometry, plate tektonics, volcanoes themselves, a bit of history(read:pompeii) and a bit about arts... it has been going well so far, but I will be leaving in a few weeks to go on Co-op so Monday will be my last day. ;(

This next note isn't even on the same sheet of paper. I have officially begun my application process for the Peace Corp. It takes at least a year to complete, and even then it is not a guaranteed. I think I will really enjoy doing that, however. Even if its not right now. My goal is to head over the great big ocean to Thailand (that is the Pacific for those of you needing a refresher on your geography) although I really am not that picky, other then not wanting to go to Africa because of the dry weather. I really don't want to go someplace that is frigid over half the year either. As I was looking up on youtube the MTV Cribs equivalent of PC volunteers' homes, I really started to see in perspective. I am quite ashamed now of what I see in my own room. I have so much crap, that it overflows into other rooms in the house. I am slowly working on trimming that back, so I don't feel so over consuming.

There are quite a few things going on with my future now so I had to do some serious planning.

So basically the breakdown is this:
If I have a full time job established before I graduate, I will go and do that.
If I get a job in california, I am going to try and get my masters at stanford.
If I get a job elsewhere, I am going to try and get my teaching degree also.
If I do not get a good, solid job, then I will work hard to try and get into the peace corp, and do that for 24-27 months.

I should mention, that this is just a tentative outline, and may in no way resemble what I end up doing. Just saying.

So that pretty much catches all of you up to date. I know I've said this before, but I will try to write more often. Maybe, just maybe, I will even get some followers?

I just can't stop

Ambition should be my middle name. I have the desire to learn everything, to understand everything, and to be apart of everything. Sometimes this comes at a cost. This time, it came at the cost of my barely existent sanity. My marbles have been officially lost this time.(probably on ebay already) Here's a breakdown of the first two quarters of school:

Fall Quarter:
I started off the school year sick as a dog, i had flu-like symptoms for nearly a month covering week -2,-1,1,2,and even part of week three. During this time, I moved into a place with a very nice Jamaican lady and her two boys. Although they were a nice family, It was just too far and two expensive for me to stay there. I quickly found a new place that was about twice as close with an interesting feller named Joe. Hes a local, born and raised, and its worked out GREAT so far. (we'll see about the next 3 weeks) I spent the better part of fall quarter catching up, and trying to get my club back up and running after being away for over 6 months. Now about week 6, I decided I needed a bit of a change. It just so happened as I was walking past the post board and thinking how cool it would be to start a fraternity, (although realizing that I knew absolutely nothing about how to start one) I saw one post out of thousands, that simply said "Interested in starting a fraternity?"

This story tumbles out of control from there. I became one of the seven founding fathers of the Sigma Chi Omega Colony(to be named later) and have been woring hard at it ever since. I did go home for Winter break, which was a welcome relief from school, and the major stress it brings me. Cody and I enjoyed a few movies, Beat the new super mario brothers game on my parents new wii in 2 days, and just relaxed most of the time.

Winter Quarter:
The new quarter marked a beginning of the huge effort to get the numbers we needed to file for our DOI, (and currently our phase 1). Fraternity Life, more so planning and events and the like, has become a huge part of my contributions to the RIT community. I have continued still as the president of my club, working hard to take it to w whole new level, recruiting a ton of people (being that we lost quit a few) and making an effort to improve the overall structure of the club. New things to come:

Trips and tours to local companies, speeches by famous people, more projects and finishing old ones, formal documentation and an online presence, funding!!!!, and maybe even a trip to CES next year!

As recruitment chair I have spent a good chunk of my time trying to find new members, which is harder then it seems during week 8, winter quarter. We still have a few events coming up, yay, and I sincerely hope we can get the numbers of good, moral men for the betterment of the brotherhood.

So that is where I am at right now, nearly 6 months away from the last time I wrote, but it was worth the wait wasn't it?

Well, going to be getting up early, so I will continue the new as of late tomorrow. Heres a hint, Peace Corp, Universal Tutor, a baby, and the droid.