1:01pm
A testament to the amount of anal-retentiveness in America.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/11/26/master.term.reut/index.html

I don't know what's worse, that someone actually complained about this, or that someone took the complaint seriously.
Sandoval, try pulling that kind of shit in the private sector. You'd be scrubbing toilets in a week.
..and really, isn't the mandated removal of the terms offensive to the S&M community? *grin*
No wonder why CA is in a budget crisis, paying the salary of this guy to spend his days making computer terms more PC correct.

09:16pm
Got another 14er and 13er in..i'm cruisin'. Me, Rob, Scott, and Nate on Mt. Bierstadt and Spalding Mtn.
Pictures here

Okay, so i'm off to Africa tomorrow! Wish me luck! I'm all excited, except for the plane ride..just soooo loooong. I'll be back on the 21st, unless of course I decide to make a snap decision in Amsterdam on the way back, and just backpack through Europe for a while. Hey, my job ended on Friday, so it's not like I have work to come back to.

6:23pm
I climbed my first 14er, woohoo! On saturday, scott and I went to Leadville, about 2.5 hours from Boulder. We camped out overnight in the forest, and then early sunday started a climb of Mount Massive (14,421 ft). We reached 3 summits over 14k, and what a long day it was. 9 hours for just about 9 miles. While it sounds horrible at 1 MPH, a lot of time was spent mountain gazing, and route-finding, and we swear the mileage was wrong..so our MPH had to avg. higher than that. So beautiful from up there..what a perfect day.
Pictures here

Made it back from my little east coast tour. Saw a purely amazing show in Hershey, and had a lot of fun with a new friend, Danielle, in VA beach. Hi Danielle!

Probably won't be hitting too much travel after Africa, as I'll need to start saving up again, after a LOT of spending this summer travel-wise. Will probably be staying here for both thanksgiving and xmas, which i've fine with.

9:20am
Vrooommmm!! I'm getting a new ride. Yesterday I ordered a new (2004) BMW M3. See here for all the drooly details. Should have it by mid to late november. I was going with the 325XI, and then they said I couldn't get the SMG transmission in the XI, which was depressing, and strange enough, even though i said the AWD in the XI was important to me, i made this huge leap to the M3 for the SMG, and non-AWD! Odd. And i lost the blue color I picked for the 325 and went with silver-gray. Yet again..odd.
I need a good personalized plate though for when I get it. I've been trying to think of one and so far, these are the ones I came up with. If you have suggestions, let me know (max is 7 chars!).
REDLINE
GOBABY (i actually wanted GOBABYGO, but 1 char. too long)
MINE
VROOOM
FATTONY
NCFMUTA
1BADM3
2FAST4U
ZXY M3

Went to Bear Peak on Sunday, with full pack on. Rough hike. Got cooold at the top. The rain made the class 3 scramble at the top very tricky.. big wet rocks, exposed ridge, light hail, 'nuf said. Met a couple on the way down that was training like me. She's going to Nepal next month. We talked about that, Europe, italy, the seven summits, going in debt for hiking..nice chat.

6:10pm
So I got my vaccinations for Africa yesterday. Cost me $400 for them, but I should be good for years. Got 4 at one time. Gawd, I was sleepy afterwards. Yet I went to the Rockies game, and hung around LODO with Ergon a bit, ate at P.F. Changs, and didn't get home 'til close to 1am.

Still have things to do before I leave. I'm leaving around Oct 2nd now, so I can hit Munich and Rome for about a week beforehand. Need travel medical insurance, get my VISA back, still need some gear, and test some gear.

Came back from another DMB concert, 'bout 3 weeks ago in NJ. Got 3 more shows left. Hershey, Bristow, and VA beach, on the 11th, 13th, and 14th. Still have NO idea where I'm staying in Bristow. Thought I might find a free place to crash from a DMBer in exchange for a ticket or ride to VA beach.

Got some more pics in my photo album. Most notably pics of me and rebecca, the Yankees game in NYC, Charlie and Philip's Wedding, and some old pictures of my family. Gawd I love these. esp. of my grandfather and great-grandfather.

8:12am
Ok, here's the stupidest quote of the week so far:
"We are committed to the cease-fire, but we will respond to every aggression by the enemy" -Statement from Hamas militant group

What is with these israelis and palestinians?! They've been at each others' throats for like, a gazillion years, and they're still the same place they were. Could they BE any more idiotic. One bombing, a retaliation, a retaliation to the retaliation..hello! pattern! And each side is too damn proud to back down, or not retaliate. So it's just gonna go on and on. It gets me very upset.
Sometimes I think we should just nuke both countries/states and be done with it. It's so horrible to say, but I hate it that this is the shit I worry about on a daily basis. At least stop giving both of them billions of dollars in aid every year (which I might add, isn't helping our strapped economy one bit)

On a lighter note, I test-drove my new BMW 325xi yesterday. Very yummy car. I still want to test-drive an SMG version before I decide to get that or a manual. And I thought I wanted the Mystic Blue for the color, but I saw it and I liked the darker Orient Blue better.

I met an amazing woman recently. Mia Bella. More than my equal. Comfortable, sexy, beautiful, just amazing. Our first date went better than I expected. One of my best dates ever. We laughed, we talked, we had fun. I can't let this one get away.

6:31 am
Me and Jenni had sooooo much fun last night. Dave matthews was playing a short solo set, along with fellow ATO pals North Mississippi All Stars, Bew Kweller, and Graham Colton Band. We waded through GCB and Ben with a lot of drinks and talking (Ben was amazing by the way), and then Dave rolled on, and the small GA floor of the Fox theater packed us in.
He started with the Stone, my first time hearing it acoustic, and ran it into his classic Elvis 'fools rush in' outro, which is just soooo sweet.
Dave was very talkative throughout his set, and threw in some new ones off his upcoming solo album.
Two other things to note. I didn't know how sold out this show was! I mean, Fox Theatre is small, a large bar if you wanna call it, and Jenni said that they only sold 112 tickets to people. And over 300 people stood in line for them..some people camping out for 2-3 nights. And i'm just like, "The fan club emailed me about the show, I emailed back, and I had 2 tickets" I felt like I should have earned my tickets more somehow.
Secondly, the guy (and his wife) that me and Ergon sat next to at the DMB concert in Denver, I saw last night! I thought that was hilarious. But he's a dave freak like I am, so it was all good. He said he actually paid $750 for 2 tickets! To this Fox show, not the Denver one. I know he paid a lot more for the Denver ones, because so did I.

7:37am
Went to the DMB concert on Monday with Ergon (his first one). Great as always, esp. front row..except for the knife-throwing incident (someone threw a knife in the stage), which prompted a loooong break after the first set and an announcement by Dave about it. "leave your knives at home and just bring your love". It prompted Carter to return with a hard-hat on, and some girl to throw her bra on the stage. :-)

Finally did Mt. Audubon on the 8th. Doing the SE ridge was VERY cool. Windy as all hell on the summuit. Could barely stand up.
Pics here

11:02pm
Going to Mt. Audubon tomorrow. Try #2, after the whole car breaking down fiasco, which still isn't over.

So i finally got some real-life high altitude training in yesterday. Me and Gary headed out to Montezuma, CO, west of Denver, in what only looks like it could have been a mining town. Montezuma sits at 10,400 ft. with mountains all around it that loom above 13,000. (Gary drove back to Keystone Ski area to practice his biking, and leave me to my mountains). I intended to do this one 14 mi loop trail and well, missed a trail, and got a little lost. Well, lost in that I couldn't find the damn loop, but knew 100% how to get back. So i just said screw it and climbed anything that looked cool :-). I ended up doing around 18 mi from 10am-6pm, seeing some amazing scenery, esp. from above, climbing up and down ridges that didn't even have trails, seeing some old mines, and getting on the continental divide for the first time. (for those not in the know, The Continental Divide is a ridge of mountains in N. America (any continent except Antartica really) that seperates the streams that flow west, into the Pacific, from those that flow east, into the Atlantic)
All in all a great day. And my body hasn't really complained. Surprisely, the high altitude didn't have much of an affect on me. No headaches, no wheezing, no gurgling coughing, all that icky stuff that comes with being oxygen deprived.

Pics of the trip are here

Mood: Nervously Excited
Music: David Gray: Live at the Point: Coming Down

09:30am
Went to the Rockies game last night. We got beat, but the after-game fireworks were great. They sat everyone in the outfield sections down on the field.

Going to see mom and DMB on July 10th in St. Louis.
Car broke down last weekend before I was going to Mt. Audubon. And it's still not right, so I probably can't go this weekend either. So frustrating!
That's all, just little tidbits



And in the night I could be helpless
I could be lonely, sleeping without you
And in the day, everything's complex
There's nothing simple
When I'm not around you


Mood: Musical
Music: The Cranberries: When You're Gone

10:06pm
So i'm going to Africa in Sept. to climb Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro. So many things to do and so little time. Gear to buy that's gonna put me in debt, high-altitude training to do, passports, visas, shots, blah blah.
Tried out some of my gear today, mostly my new backpack, which you could fit a corpse
into!

Got this new makeshift list of places I want to go, timetable of things to
climb, gear i want, here

Going to PA soon to be in my cousin's weeding, go to a Yankee game. Been to 1 Rockies game this year, and going to one on the 24th, and hopefully more to come!

Mood: Relaxed
Music:

7:30pm
Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Ya

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today


Mood: Worried
Music: Marvin Gaye: What's Goin On

12:14pm
So have you heard about this thing a couple congressmen are doing in House offices and even the Capital building in D.C.? They renamed french fries to 'freedom' fries and french toast to 'freedom' toast. How looney tunes is that??? Pretty soon they'll be Freedom kissing, Freedom ticklers, Freedom vanilla ice cream, and Freedom roast coffee. You'll be saying Viva La Freedom! and Pardon my freedom. Americans are even going so far as to be hostile and threaten companies having to do with french. French hotels, cheese shops, wine stores. Fuckin' americans burn me up.

Mood: Enraged
Music: Dave Matthews Band: Folsom Field: So Right

6:10am
Goin' home and to NYC this weekend. Sarah and I are going to see Tori at Radio City on Thursday.

Sis is coming to visit the week after. She seems to really like it here. Who wouldn't?

Saw a hippie VW bus on Pearl st. the other day that had a sign in the back, that said, "You can bomb the world into pieces, but you can't bomb the world into peace". But for some reason I kept reading "peace" as "pieces", so I'm like "what?, i don't get it" Hadda read it about 10 times before I read it right.

Mood: Memorous (it's a word!)
Music: Radiohead: Kid A: Everything in its Right Place

9:49pm
Went to BJ's today for our weekly meeting. On the way back, on Pearl St., we had this guy ask us if we would like to make a contribution to the " I'm broke" foundation. I felt like giving him money just for being original.

Watched "Not Another Teen Movie" that Ergon lent me, and maybe i'll watch "Vanilla Sky" again.

Mood: Relaxed
Music: Pomeroy: Rebound

11:25pm
I wish I had a river,
I could skate away on

Mood: Imaginous
Music: Joni Mitchell: Blue: River

2:19am
Tonight I had dinner with Ergon's family and two friends of his. After dinner, back at his place, his friend's wife asks me if I have kids. All I could say was, I need a wife first. All I could think was, I can't wait to have kids..and did I look or act like I should have kids?

Mood: Amused
Music: Alanis Morissette: Under Rug Swept: So Unsexy

8:39pm
Got a new computer. 1Ghz athlon, Asus mbrd 200/266 FSB. 2 ATA66 and 2 ATA100 (w/raid) connects. 512MB stick of ram, 40G ATA100 drive, ATI AGP, 4 USB, 52x cdrom, Creative sound, network card, winxp pro and win2k server. $140
Stuck in my tv tuner card, scsi cd-rw, my other 30g drive, a 3g drive, still my current 17" monitor, which still kicks ass with its speakers, even if it only refreshes at 60hz. a few fans for xtra cooling. running schweet so far. *grunt grunt grunt*

Finally saw Star Wars: Episode II. WAY better than Eps. I. Lot more action. Better storyline, even though I already knew the whole storyline beforehand. Natalie Portman is AMAZING. I never get tired of looking at her.

Bought 'Vanilla Sky', which is just an amazing movie. Complex, simple, thought provoking, sad, and you realize something new each time you watch it. Might make it into my top 10. Plus the soundtrack kicks ass.

Still need someone to go to the David Gray concert with me in feb. Going to see Dave in NYC in march. Ani here in april.

Found a pic on DMB's website where you can see my dad (and almost me) at the Hershey concert. Thought that was REALLY cool. Pic here

Have been thinking about buying a new car. Not new though as in a 2003. A classic which will appreciate in value, and is simple, not tons of computer chips and parts that cost $500 to replace. Something like this would be the lead runner. Mmmmmmmm

Mood: Care-free
Music: Johann Strauss: Be Embraced, Millions, op 443

8:38am
the days are growing.
the number of them with the increasing people ignoring the blue skies and red clouds. the sadness in that. being able to see it.
feeling like a black man of the 60s. pleading your case to the world,
but noone hears you. a daily minority.
the days are growing, and the walls will not hold much longer.
when will we jump the wall and accept their vision, for fear of being an endangered species forever?

Mood: Confused
Music: The Cranberries: Dying Inside

4:17pm
I don't want to be unique anymore. Or special. Or different.
I want to be "just like the rest", the same, grouped..not singled out.
I don't want to be remembered. Thought about. Wondered about.
I want to be forgotten. A forgotten name. A forgotten face. A fleeting thought on the wind. A comparison.
I don't want anyone to bask in me, or revel in me.
I don't want to be counted on, depended upon.
I don't want to have relationships, grow roots, branch out, or establish ties.
I want to pop in and pop out at the speed of light.
I want to perfect the art of blending in.
I want to become attached to material things. I want to know they don't feel anything for me.
I want to be evanescent. transient. seasonal.
I want to be red. personified. botanical. ephemeral.

Mood: Detached
Music: Counting Crows: August and Everything After: Raining in Baltimore