Week 5

Ha! This is the 5th week of the Quarter! Do you know what that means! It means that there is only half a quarter left in my first year at college. Wow! It has gone by quickly.

Spring has come!

Spring has come and with it beautiful days. The days are still cold but the skies are getting bluer and the clouds are running. Last Saturday a group of us went out to Lummi Island. It was actually petty boring but being with friends was still enjoyable.



Time to lay back and smell the flowers.







Tyler, Chris, Jon, Levi, Sarah and Genna. It was cold and windy but you could see all the mountain ranges in stark contrast. It was beautiful.
We had a long wait for the bus ride back so skipping rocks (and other things) filled our time.
Jon was stoned.

The Ultimate Viking Challenge (Day 1)

The Ultimate Viking Challenge (UVC) was last night. Teams of 4, two girls and two guys, compete in different challenges to be the Ultimate Vikings.
I did this competition with Sean Edwards, Kelsey Hinde and Anna Holt. It was really fun.
There are five events in the challenge, three on the first day and 2 on the second.

There is Power ball, a fast game where you try to run a ball and dunk it into a trashcan while 3 large football players try to knock you away from it with large pads. It was a blast.
The second event was The Joust, an inflatable jumping gym where you stand on a small circular section of the inflated thing and try to knock the other guy off with a giant padded quarter staff.
The last one was the Pull and Plunder, one on one tug of war in which you try to get to a rag that seems to be just out of reach.
Unfortunately, the person in charge of taking photos did a rather poor job and didn't get that many of the competition. Here are the ones he did get. Also, the second day is two weeks from now and includes an obstacle course and flipping an 800 pound tire.

Left to right,
1)Ben, Will, Chris, Jon, Brooks, DK
2)Levi, Mike, Sean
3)Brooks pulling and others
4) Nicole pulling, Jesse on left, then Sarah then Kelsey in black ninja suit and Sean on right
5)Group photo with multiple teams. Don't know everyone.

I need your thoughts.

What do you notice?
What details do you notice in each passage? These details should be publically verifiable details NOT opitions. Leave your responses as comments.


#1
“To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a sublimated murder-a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.” (Sontag 197)


#2
“As photographs give people an imaginary possession of the past that is unreal, they also help people take possession of space in which they are insecure” (Sontag 193)

Roland Fryer-Economist

Today I went to a lecture by Roland Fryer and very well know economist that introduced the controversial incentives program in the New York public school system a few months ago. It was facinating and I cant even begin to tell you all the interesting things he said. Just know that you should all keep an eye on this man and if you get the chance, listen to him. His backgournd and views are very interesting and his stand on reforming public education could save the US or at least will have some radical changes.

Sorry that I havent postes in a while, school has been crazy! I have been totally overburdend with things to do. It should calm down a little bit. So I am catain of two different intramural soccer teams as well as on a team for the Ultimate Viking Championship. A campus wide activity that is kind of like the TV show American Gladiator with teams of 4 people. I will post pics of it soon. The event is this Monday.

Classes are quite busy and I have definelty had my hands full, not that they still arent.

Okay, more stuff soon.

Prayer

Please pray for Mrs. K's knee. She had knee surgery this week and we want it to heal quickly and completely. She injured it a couple years ago while hiking the Grand Canyon and is now trying to let it heal fully.

So, that means that for you, you need to finish reading this and then pray for her knee that it may be fully healed. Pray for her life in general, for stress and difficulties and anything that God my put upon your heart. Okay, I am done now so go pray...

Yo ho yo ho a students life for me...

I dont really know what to write about but I guess I should do something to show all my dedicated viewers that we are still going.

Hmmm...lets see...

Classes are going okay so far. I havent made any friends yet in them but I am still hopeful.

It is raining up here. (again)

Oh! So I got back to school on Monday and unloaded my car and moved back in. Then about 2pm it began to rain and then it started hailing and then snowing. It snowed for about 20 minutes until it quit. An hour later the sun was shining.

My Etec project this quarter to to design and manufacture an ergonomic hand tool. We actually get to create a prototype as well in the FDM machine. Pretty sweet.
Anybody have any ideas on an interesting tool to create? They have done everything from snowboard wax scrapers to knives, from avocado piters to guitar string tighteners. Pizza cutters, wrenches...anything that is used my your hands to give you a mechanical advantage over something. Come on people, don't leave me hanging. Give me some ideas.

Oye!

I am back at school now. Classes start Tuesday, April 1st.

Just in case you were wondering...