Man Weekend

This years Man weekend was filled with all sorts of manly events, and I have the wounds and lack of hair to show for it. Manly men doing manly things such as dragging trees through the woods with an ATV, exploding substandard domestic beers in the firepit, and human flame retardant experiments with everclear (exhibit A to the right). Ah.. such a gratifying weekend. I think i'll go belch and scratch myself for awhile now.

Brian and Janet's Wedding

Brian and Janet's Wedding
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Two weekends ago Brian Tweddle married Janet Daig. I had the pleasure of playing the role of Best Man for the days festivities. There were some worries the night before at the rehearsal because the pastor could not remember Brian's first name, nor pronounce his last name. On top of that, he randomly inserted crass jokes such as "What are the two ingredients to a successful marriage? Good cooking, and good lingerie" Which isn't that bad I suppose, but they added up after awhile. For the actual ceremony he was much more professional, and I think everyone was relieved. My largest task was to keep control of the ring bearer during the service. Eventually I ended up making the executive decision to allow him to go back to his mom after standing still was no longer even plausible. :) He sprinted down the aisle to everyone's amusement.

Thought Provoking Article

On Google news, I sumbled across this article:

Wild Kingdom

Talks about the relation of Old Testament stories to modern cultures.

I don't remember leaving my bike up there??

I don't remember leaving my bike up there??
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

IMG_1275.JPG


This past weekend I was in Sacremento for the Joint Propulsion Conference where I presented my work on low specific impulse Hall thrusters. I had purposely delayed my flight back home by a few days so that I could tour Sacramento. Turns out, Sacremento is REALLY boring. So I hopped on the Amtrak towards San Francisco where I met up with Robin and Grant. When we 'attempted' to leave the San Francisco Brewery I found my bike had been elevated 8 feet by store gate that I had locked it to! It took me about 20 minutes to get it unlocked and lowered down (climbing skills put to good use). The back half of the kryptonite lock was the most difficult. The next day the three of us ate at a semi-traditional Indian restaurant. I'm generally partial to meat, but these guys can cook up some awesome vegetables. San Francisco was awesome, two thumbs up. As for Sacremento.. leave it to Schwarzenegger

Click on the picture to see others, including me trying to get the bike down.

Superman Returns ??

Anybody else seen this movie yet? I was appalled at the lack of morality in the choice of a plot for this film. The entire movie plays as soap opera episode. I'll try to speak in ambiguities to avoid ruining the film. The end of the flick was the only chance where the movie had the opportunity for damage control and tie up its scandalous loose ends but failed to do so, I presume, for the opportunity for a sequel. Superman is iconic representation of truth, justice and morality, and this film destroys his principles and makes him less honorable than the average person watching the movie!! Lois Lane isn't much better either. I'll cite specifics in the comments section and welcome you to do so as well.

Last Weekend

In an act of self punishment I ran an 8k race Saturday morning followed by a 30 mile roundtrip kayaking adventure on Lake Superior. I heard about the race Friday afternoon from my friend Kristina who coaxed me into it. Then she proceeded to destroy me with a time of 29'30+". I came in at 36'14" which is running 7 minute miles. I was actually pretty happy with that. I'm not sure if I even had a month of training that I could have gotten 6' miles.
Immediately after the race Adrian (who flew in from Stockholm last week) and I strapped all of our camping gear on to our kayaks and headed down the Portage towards Superior. At 9PM we found a sandy beach to dock at, ate, set up camp and passed out. The next day I awoke with an urge and realization that we didn't bring any toilet paper, papertowl or even kleenex. To the inexperienced/unprepared oatmeal packet wrappers are AMAZINGLY versatile. The paddle home left us with a sun branding that i'm still placating with aloe three days later.

Joke!

Little Mary Margaret was not the best student in Catholic School.
Usually she slept through the class.
One day her teacher, a Nun, called on her while she was sleeping.
"Tell me Mary Margaret, who created the universe?"
When Mary Margaret didn't stir, little Johnny who was her friend sitting
behind her, took his pencil and jabbed her in the rear.
"God Almighty!" shouted Mary Margaret.
The Nun said, "Very good" and continued teaching her class.
A little later the Nun asked Mary Margaret, "Who is our Lord and Savior?"
But Mary didn't stir from her slumber Once again, Johnny came
to her rescue and stuck Mary Margaret in the butt.
"Jesus Christ!!!" shouted Mary Margaret and the Nun once again
said, "Very good," and Mary Margaret fell back asleep.
The Nun asked her a third question..."What did Eve
say to Adam after she had her twenty-third child?"
Again, Johnny came to the rescue.
This time Mary Margaret jumped up and shouted, "If you stick
that damn thing in me one more time, I'll break it in half!"
The nun fainted...........

Skype

Skype has just announced that all phone calls in the US and Canada are now free. If anyone is unfamiliar with the program, head over to www.skype.com Many people (including me) believe that Skype and other VOIP services will replace all land lines in the near future. There are those who even believe that as wireless hot-spots increase, we could see the extinction of the cell phone as well. Personally I think the latter is far from fruition.

Whitewater

This past weekend the MTU Ultimate Frisbee team went to UW-Whitewater for a tournament. Unfortunately, we did not do very well, but that was expected for the most part. We did have a lot of fun though. On the way home I got bored and made a webpage for this tournament and one from last term. I may or may not update it in the future.

Click Here!

Intelligent Falling

Hilarious Onion story.

Link

Spring Break

Spring Break
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

For Spring Break Kelly and I headed down to New Orleans to help with

the Disaster Relief. I think we should market it as a weight loss

program: manual labor, insulated suit, double golved, double booted

and a respirator in 70 degree weather! Sweat yourself thin.

Decisions, decisions!

FACING a big decision such as buying a car or a house?

Don't think about it too much if you want to avoid an expensive mistake.

Complex decisions are best left to the unconscious mind, because it can juggle lots of facts and figures better, a study shows.

Full Article

Dating Chain

It has never been uncommon for people to attempt to "marry up", but even within the dating world this hierachy system undermines potential relationships. Girl A likes Boy A who likes Girl B who likes Boy C... It's as though we are programmed to seek out someone just out of our reach. We want someone who is better than us as a psychological conquest where we increase our own self image of worth by being with with an individual who stands on a taller imaginary pillar. If you date 'beneath' you, a sense of settlling overcomes and these perceptions (cuz thats all they really are) damage relationships.

So ideally we would find someone on par with our own image. Furthermore, the potential mate must also deduce a false sense of equality within you.

Fortunately, I have no desire to date right now, but i'm not exactly ethused about the mating dance i'll have to perform when that feeling subsides.

Muhammad-Drawings

Have you been following the news on this? Back in September, a Danish newspaper printed political cartoons depicting several of the world religious figures less then favorably. A sketch of Muhammad included a turban in the shape of bomb. This month several other newspapers in Europe have reprinted the images stressing the freedom of the press. Since then the Islamic community has been in uproar.



"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.



These protests are puntuated with gunmen firing into the air and surrounding government buildings threating to take Europeans hostage. Some of the governments are apologizing, some of the newspapers fired responsible employees (out of fear I suspect) and all of this over some cartoons. Apparently i'm missing something. I honestly don't understand the situation at all. Your thoughts??

Honda creates a self driving car!

"The Adaptive Cruise Control is your regular radar variety, but the Lane Keep Assist System keeps you headed in the right direction by using a camera on the rear-view mirror to watch the white lines and turn accordingly. Honda was quick to point out that their system isn't exactly set up for you to take a nap, since the ADAS system will beep every 10 seconds to make sure you're paying attention, requiring you to touch the steering wheel to inform the car you're still in charge, but we're sure someone is going manage an accident and an ensuing lawsuit or three out of this "convenience".

Link

First stance taken by the new pope.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI warned in his first encyclical Wednesday that sex without unconditional love risked turning men and women into merchandise.

Article link

Chicago

i'm in Chicago right now visiting Kelly. Lindsey and I drove down last night. The drive itself was an adventure with seven inches of snow falling over a period of four or five hours. We were driving through 3-4 inches of standing snow on the interstate at 35 mph. Hence it took us almost twice as long ~11 hours to get here. Today, however, the temperatures were decently above freezing and most of the snow is already gone. Kelly and I went to the Water Tower and the Hancock building. Tonight we are attending a house party and then going to see the Sports Comedy Improv troup at midnight.

Quotes

A friend of mine sent me the following quotes (my initial thoughts in
() ):

1. Nobody is perfect, until you fall in love with them. (how true!)

2. The hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love someone
else (?!?!)

3. Don't cry over someone who isn't crying over you. (k... easier
said then done)

4. Everything is okay in end. If it's not okay, then it's not the
end. (naively optimistic)

I wasn't sure if those were suppose to make me feel better or
worse?? I suppose, if read in that order, they offer some positive
reassurance. Cliches are a dime a dozen when the rose colored lenses
fall off.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

We watched the fireworks show from a hilltop Church in a large park in Stockholm. Click on the picture to see a movie clip!

New Years Resolutions

To my knowledge, this is my first New Year's resolution of my life. So, I will make it nice and easy:

I 'resolve' to make 2006 better than 2005

What are your resolutions?

Sweden

Today is our last full day in Sweden (Adam, Scott, James and I), and the first time that we've had internet access. In checking my email, I found that I missed a credit card payment, have a million ebay questions/complaints to address, and have a pile of work waiting for me up at Tech. Instantly, all of the daily burdens that i've shed since break started landed back on my shoulders. I forgot how nice it was to be without worries. Oh well, for the next two days, I will do my best to ignore all of my problems since I can't possibly do anything about them right now anyway :)

New Years Eve here was amazing. Easily the best of my life. We were standing high in the air at a Church perched on the top of a hill in a park in central Stockholm. Fireworks were going off all around us on the church grounds as well as over the whole horizon. 360 degrees of lights and explosion for almost an hour with champaign to boot. Not a bad night overall. Pictures to come. Tonight we are going out on the town. Our first chance to experience the night life in Stockholm through local bars and dance clubs.

Two days ago we woke up at 9am and went to bed at 10am the next morning (25 hours). Yesterday we woke up at 6pm and went to bed at 2am (8 hours). Much of our vacation has been in entire desregard of scedules, clocks or any other patterns that might inhibit our desired activities. It's been great, with more card playing than you could shake a stick at. Where did that phrase originate??