snow

Denver, Colorado To San Francisco

Jacob Redding — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 01:45:55 +0000

On Saturday night my body was twitching from a caffeine overdose and I couldn't concentrate long enough to move one foot in front of the other. My body, deprived of nourishing food and kept alive on caffeine, shut down about 10pm. My brain died quickly thereafter.
Fortunately my wonderful host, Tony, had a quick fix. A free pass, gear and board to the Mary Jane snow park at Winter Park. I went to bed early (well 1am) and woke up early (yes.. 8am is early in my book). The drive to Mary Jane only took about 1 1/2 hours with several stops.
We arrived at the park around noon and rode until our (at least my) legs gave out; which was about an hour later (ok, ok 5pm).

It was the first time that I had been on a snowboard in almost 2 years! I definitely needed the break. The video, shot on my cell phone, is Tony pulling some fattie air! (ya.. like I'm totally a rad snowboarder dude n' stuff)

My only regret for the day was unintentionally ditching Ann. We had loosely-defined plans for visiting some nearby hotsprings. Sorry Ann!!

Which brings up my new side project (I need more time for side projects).
http://maps.wiredgeek.com

Bare bones at the moment but I have plans and I'm working on some Drupal modules to add tons of functionality (well maybe not tons). If you're a hot springs/nature fan and want to help build out a simple website geared towards a niche group of "hot springers" send me an email!

In other news. I'm in San Francisco now. I flew out this morning at 11am and arrive at 1pm PST. Feels good to say PST vs. EST. I love the west coast, its a completely different vibe out here.

Don't get me wrong though, the east coast definitely has it highlights but the vibe on the west is completely different.

like fer'shure n' stuff, dude!

Its official Snow hates me

Jacob Redding — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:59:00 +0000

Yes it is true and officially certified. Last Friday at 11am I left New York bound for Portland, Oregon. Only a few hours after I left a blizzard covered the city and dropped about 2 feet of snow in a 24 to 48 hour period. I returned to New York on Monday night with snow still on the ground. By Friday all the snow was gone, every last little flake melted, and washed away.

I don't know what it is but snow definitely hates me.

In other news things are going well. Diana and I are working on a new website (yes I know I barely even keep this one updated), work is going well and I'm preparing for my trip to China. The mandarin lessons have stalled bit due mainly to the unfortunate news of last week (If you have no idea what I'm talking about just know that it has nothing to do directly with me but involved a very good friend and it spawned my quick, unannounced visit to Washington).

I don't really have much else to say except that I'm still working on getting my old pictures and old blog entries back online. It'll be a while for those though as it is not a high priority. They will eventually get back to my site.

Ok.. back to the 17 degree weather.

Snow hates me

Jacob Redding — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 20:28:00 +0000

Only the first of the six years that I lived in Portland did the ski resorts not complain of low snowfall. Now that I do not live in Portland anymore the ski resorts are having record snowfall levels.

But... i live in New York. A town that is known for blizzards and blindly cold weather.

except..... this year.

The current temperature, and mind you this is mid-January. Just one degree shy of 60 degrees.

I don't think snow likes me.

Hell Hath Frozen Over

Jacob Redding — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 07:51:00 +0000

Yes it is true! Today hell has frozen over. How else can you explain the reasoning behind my sudden uploading of a bunch of pictures into the gallery?!?

Yipee! Pictures in the Gallery! (if you say that with a southern slang it rhymes)

Oh yes, and they are glorious pictures too.. Well not really, but they are pictures!

As weird as it sounds my life is starting to calm down the closer we get to the holidays. I checked airfare and, unfortunately, I cannot afford to fly to Washington or Florida, because of the holiday rates, so I will be spending the holidays right here in NYC. I am truly fine with that because NYC is absolutely gorgeous right now. The piled up snow on the road sides combined with the clear skies and brisk temperatures make everything very picturesque.

Today I rode my bike into work. At 8 am. It was a nice and brisk 30 some-odd degrees and I wore minimal clothing. Jeans over thermals, a thin jacket over a polyester plaid button shirt over an undershirt and a pair of converse high-tops. I also wore a pair of fingerless gloves and a beanie. It was an awesome ride.

From my house, in Brooklyn, I rode down Jay Street to the Manhattan Bridge. I crossed the Manhattan Bridge into Chinatown and crisscrossed over to 1st Ave. I rode from 1st and 1st to 60th st when I turned left in front of the Queens Borough Bridge and rode over and into Central Park. I crossed Central park emerging at Columbus Circle. The whole ride took me about 45 to 50 minutes allowing me enough time to grab a hot chocolate and a bagel before opening the door to my office at 9am.

It was a great morning.

Today at work Hans, a freelance network geek I hired, came in to help me out for the day and for a few more days in the future. I needed helped getting a solid Linux firewall in place and while I can do the work I have been swamped with another, more pressing, project. He was awesome and was able to get the firewall up and running very quickly and it is very robust.

It was really nice to have some help at work today and I came home with much less stress than in previous days. Even though I worked from 9am until 10:30pm.

Well I better get some sleep. Hopefully this is the start of a very good trend.

Dry snow and 3 extra inches

Jacob Redding — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:09:00 +0000

7:30am Sunday morning January 2nd of the year 2005. The snow report for the day called for several inches of fresh snow and the lifts opened at 8:30am. A chance at first tracks over soft, light and dry snow motivated us to wake up at the crack of dawn and head for the mountain at 8:15. The total group included approximately 8 people although I drove up to the mountain with only one other person. John's girlfriend Lisa both of whom I had met at a New Years Eve party and had ridden with the day before. Lisa and I hit the lifts at approximately 9 am and I took the first line down the mountain. The area was closed due to low snow coverage but I picked my lines carefully and hit some of the best snow that Mt. Hood has seen all season. At one point I skated up a small hill only to drop down the steep backside of the closed run creating luscious lines through the untouched snow.

Light, dry, cold and perfect.?

After our first run Lisa and I met up with the rest of the group whom had dragged their feet coming out of the lodge. I guess it was too early for them. At approximately 9:30 am we headed to the top of Cascade express; the highest lift-accessible area at Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort. The wind was blisteringly cold but it kept the snow dry and light or in other words; perfect. Lincoln (another snowboarder that I had met at the New Years Eve party and had ridden with the day before) and I became impatient waiting for the entire group to strap in and decided to ride together since we possessed equivalent riding abilities (although secretly I know he is a lot better than I).

I led.

We dropped in and picked a line straight through the trees. We hit the first group of trees and the freshly fallen snow was several inches deep. Our boards carved curvy lines through the snow and rounded each of the trees as we weaved back and forth spraying snow in every direction. We emerged from the trees a few minutes later and hit the groomed runs for a bit. The terrain was not very steep and we needed to maintain our speed. I choose a line to the left of a group of trees and Lincoln stayed to the right. The group of small trees was approximately 50-75 yards in length and at the end of the group I decided to cut over to the right hitting a patch of untracked snow between two small trees. I dug in my back heel (I ride goofy) and my board carved a tight line straight towards the patch of snow. As my board flattened out my speed increased and I leaned back so as to glide over the top of the snow.? My line was flawless, my speed perfect and my balance impeccable; I hit the untracked snow in the most perfect manner possible.

And then??

BAMM!!!!

The nose of my board sunk about 1 inch into the snow hitting a stump and wedged itself under one of the stump's stubbed branches. Because I was leaning back my boarded flexed and when inertia kicked in the board acted like a spring board sending me flying forward into the unknown mass of snow. My body twisted slightly while in the air and I came back down to earth with a mass of force behind me. The upper left portion of my left leg made contact with a rounded rock that was buried just below the surface of the snow and my body came to a sudden halt. The mass of energy that had sent me flying into the air was now concentrated on a single area of my body and because the rock could not absorb the energy the muscles around my leg absorbed the full brunt of the force.

I laid face down in the snow with the wind knocked out of me and completely stunned. My body must have gone into instant shock because I could not feel my legs or anything below my waist for a solid 30 seconds. After 30 seconds had passed the sensation slowly came back like a lit fuse at the end of a bottle rocket. I could feel my toes, then my heel? no pain? the sensation moved up to my ankle and then to my calf. Still no pain. Sensation returned to my knee? nothing. As it crept up to my thigh that is where the fuse made contact with the bottle rocket of pain. The pain immediately soared from my thigh straight to my brain and exploded.

Already out of breath my body attempted to suck in more air to alleviate the pain but my lungs still hadn?t received the signal to start billowing and even if they had I would have sucked in pure snow. Despite the pain I forced myself to roll over. Another 30 seconds passed before my lungs decided to accept air that my mouth and throat was attempting to suck in. I laid in the snow, my legs contorted and my eyes staring straight into the sky. The sounds of the skiers and boarders riding by me fading into oblivion and I laid in my own surreal world.
It was a good twenty minutes before I could force my body to sit upright and it took another 5 minutes to stand up. I knew that I had to get down off the mountain and the longer I waited the more painful it would be. I bit my lip, strapped into my board and began the long decent to the ski lodge. What would normally take about 5 minutes took over 40. I made it down and headed straight for the bathroom to exam my wounds.

The bruise on my thigh was not more than an inch in diameter. I had no lacerations, no scrapes and no indication of a broken bone. Nothing. Everything appeared to be normal with the minor exception of the pain.

5 days later?.

The damage is beginning to surface. The bruise has grown to a nice and full 9 inches long by 7 inches wide. A new bruise appeared on my inner thigh which received no direct impact but suffered from the shear amount of force to the front of my leg; it has a 2 inch diameter. My left thigh measures a full 3 inches larger than my right thigh and I have an additional 2 inches of swollen mass just above my left knee cap as compared to my right.

The doctor has checked out my leg and I appear to have no broken bones, nor small fractures or damage to my ligaments. My leg has just suffered an unusually strong amount of force and she expects the remainder of the bruise to surface within the next few days. When it does about 60-70% of my thigh will have visible bruising.

Luckily it has not snowed this week and by this time next week the snow should be really good and my leg should be healed enough to go ride it.
Wish me luck on my next ride!

Thanksgiving Weekend (just a bit late)

Jacob Redding — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 04:26:00 +0000

Wednesday

I woke up and arrived at work earlier than normal so that I could leave as soon as possible. Although I had a ton of work to do I was able to get through the majority of my work in time to leave work just after 12 pm. I drove downtown as quickly as I could and met everyone at the state motor pool at approximately one in the afternoon. After picking up the vans we met everyone at the plaid pantry on campus at 2pm. It only took us 30 minutes to get everyone loaded in the 3 vans and we headed out for BC.

We arrived at Big White at 11pm that night.

Thursday

Our day began at 9am with a ride on the Ridge Runner express which was the only non bunny hill lift open. The early morning snow was awesome. Soft, light and fresh powder covered the mountains and if you took it on the heels and burned your thighs a bit you could cut over to some of the runs that were open and had an abundant amount of powder. It only took about an hour before the day warmed up enough to ruin a lot of powder by causing it to become a bit more wet and heavy. Riding down an ungroomed blue run was impossible due to the heavy snow, blacks were also very difficult but fresh lines could be cut down double blacks although it took a lot of muscle and work to turn.

I cut down one blue to black diamond run, riding away from my pack. The others did not want to get stuck in the heavy snow and opted to instead let me go it alone. I rode for about 300 yards before I became stuck in the heavy snow and had to unstrap and hike out. I was not the only one, however, I met two other snowboarders that had also become stuck and were hiking out. Once the three of us had hiked out of the area we strapped back in and while they decided to continue on the blue run I opted to ride down the black diamond. Halfway down the run I came across a person laying face down in the snow, motionless. Since there was nobody else on the run I stopped about 20 feet from the person and shouted out asking if they were ok. No response came from the person and I again yelled out if they were ok. Again I received no response. Fearing that they may have hurt themselves I unstrapped and hiked down to the person.

The person turned out to be Jennifer Schmidt, a good friend of mine. She had become so tired from fighting the snow that she decided to stop and take a nap on the side of the mountain.

The rest of Big White was average.

Thursday Night

We left Big White at 4 pm and headed for Apex resort. The trip only took a few hours and we made it to the Apex hostel just in time to hit the bars before they closed at 9pm. After the bars closed we headed back to the hostel cooked dinner, made Frangelico hot chocolates and relaxed. We went to bed shortly before midnight.

Friday

Apex was disappointing with only a t-bar open. The 5 or 6 lift mountains had a vast amount of skiable acreage but most of it was inaccessible due to the lifts being down. Since I was traveling with a snowboard club we did what any snowboard club would do; we hiked up the amount. After asking around we learned about a nice green run on the other side of the mountain that was closed but groomed daily. It would make a perfect trail up to the top of the mountain and the perfect access to several untracked double black diamond runs. Eight of us headed for the trail at 10am Friday morning.

The hike took us just over one hour to reach the top of the mountain and along our hike we were intercepted by one unusual character; a snowcat operator. Shortly before reaching the summit we head a snowcat coming up behind us. We stopped to let it pass but, as we expected, the driver stopped and asked us what we were doing on the closed side of the mountain. We were honest and told that we intended to ride down one of the several double blacks on the mountain. After we told him this we entered what seemed to be a bad episode of Scooby Doo. In a thick Canadian/Scottish accent the driver began to tell us a tale of a ? inch wire that is ran from the bottom to the top of mountain and attached to a wench. If this wire were to become taunt as we were riding by it the cable would, and these are his words exactly, ?Cut your head off?. He then began to tell us about a snowcat operator on the Whistler Mountain that came across a snowmobile with a headless body on top of it. The head of the driver was 30 feet behind the snowmobile and had been cut off by this mystery wire running from the bottom to the top of the mountain.

After he told us this story we all looked at each as if he was crazy and indeed we do believe he is crazy. His ?horror? story failed to convince to stay off the mountain, however, because he gave away the secret at the end of his speech. The wire cable is attached to a wench and is used to groom the green and blue runs on the mountain. We, however, were going to drop down a double-black diamond which has a face too steep to run a cable wench up and down. We were safe.

The crazy snowcat driver left and we immediately continued to the summit. After reaching the top we stopped for a quick bite to eat and dropped down into some of the lightest, driest powder I had ridden in a long time. The run was awesome, powder came up to our knees and we cut back and forth on the mountain creating the first lines of the season.

After our ride we packed up and headed out for Sun Peaks in Kamloop BC.

Friday Night

The drive to Sun peaks was rather interesting. I rode in a van with Nick at the helm and the other two vans rode out to Sun Peaks independently (for various reasons). Nick thought that the route to Sun peaks went right through the town of Kelowna but, unfortunately for us, the road turned towards the west about 20k before the town of Kelowna. This, of course, was only a problem because the van had a finite supply of gas and the road towards Sun Peaks went over a mountain pass. 15 k after turning onto the pass the Van?s gas tanks quickly emptied and we had to pull over. Fortunately for us Jennifer and Mich were following us in Jennifer?s personal vehicle.

It took about 2 hours for Jennifer, Mich and I to drive back to Kelowna find a 5 gallon ?cherry can? (as they are called in Canada) and bring back 5 gallons of gas to where the van was sitting. After that 2 hour detour it took us another 2.5 hours to make it Sun peaks.

The hostel was interesting. The 18 of us piled out of the 3 vans and 1 car, grabbed 18 snowboards, 18 boots, 18 helmets and 18 bags and walked into the hostel. Having already been there once before and haven already had reservations many of the members headed for their rooms. The manager however had a different agenda. She yelled at us to stay in the lobby until they could check us all in. So we had to fit 18 people and all their gear into a spot that was made for 6 people, max. The manager was a bit worried that because we were a club we were going to party and trash the hostel. Although last year we were the ones the cleaned the entire hostel, did everyone dishes and cooked meals for everyone at the hostel. Oh well, preconceived notions of snowboarders, fun stuff.

Saturday

Excited about the potential of really good powder everyone was awake by 8am and ready to go by 8:20, the time the first van left. We crammed 12 people and all their gear into the first van and headed for the lifts at exactly 8:20. The drive to the lifts is only 1.5k and we flew down the road. After getting our tickets we took a quick ride down a crappy blue run just to kill time until the bubble chairs that would take us to the crystal chair that would in turn take us to the highest point of the mountain and some of the steepest double blacks on the mountain.

The Crystal runs were great. The sanctioned runs were full of deep powder that ranged from a minimum of a foot deep to waist deep. We hit the runs as a group 2 times before separate groups started to form naturally based upon skill level, speed, etc. Mike, whom I met on this trip, and I rode together the rest of the day. We found some insanely sick runs through the trees and found many clearings with fresh powder that nobody had ridden all season. Towards the end of the day we went over to Mt. Morrissey and found some great powder.

At 2:30 Mike and I decided that we needed to find the best powder on the mountain. That powder would, of course, be located on the closed side of the mountain. Our destination was a double black diamond run that was only accessible via the closed lift and that required us to do a bit of hiking. After taking the lifts to the highest point that they would take us we hiked for another 20 to 30 minutes to top of the summit at 2080 meters. After a short hike on the top of the summit we found the run.
The side of the mountain had been untouched all season and the snow looked like smooth white frosting delicately applied to the side of the mountain. Mike and I both looked at each other and we knew that the line we were about to take down the face would be one of the best rides of our lives.

Leading the one I dropped in first and headed the face. I elected to make nice S curves through the snow as I charged for the valley below. At points I was waist deep in powder and the snow just seemed to get lighter and smoother with every turn I took. Watching the snow fly like a giant wave of white powder after every turn was definitely an experience that can not be duplicated (until next year that is). When Mike and I reached the valley floor we took a moment to look back at the lines we had created down the mountain. My line zigzagged back and forth down the mountain whereas Mike elected to simple bomb down the mountain and his line was perfectly straight.

Charged by the exhilaration we both experienced on that run we hunted down a second double-back diamond run. The next destination was ?Freddy?s Nightmare?; a double black diamond that runs right next to the closed lift. We found the mid-mountain lift station where the run was supposed to start and decided to take a short-cut through the woods. After all everyone knows that the best powder can be found in the trees. The powder we found in the trees was just as light and soft as the powder at the top of the mountain and we were set for yet another great ride down the mountain.
As we progressed down the side of the mountain we noticed that trees grew thicker and thicker. We found ourselves stopping periodically to assess the situation and pick new lines down the mountain avoiding stumps, small trees, branches and whatever else was on the side of the mountain. The pitch was steep and the riding was awesome so we kept on down the mountain searching for the best lines and riding the biggest snow mounds we could find. Unfortunately after riding down the mountain for about 15-20 minutes we discovered that we had made a big mistake. Instead of cutting through the trees over to Freddy?s Nightmare what we had done instead was to ride straight down into a ravine and the only way out was to hike.

It took us 2 hours to hike out of the ravine and back to a single black diamond run that would eventually lead us back to our Hostel.

Sunday

Everyone started crowding in the vans by 8:30am and we hit the road at 9am. Many hours later we arrived in Portland.

Schweitzer and Terrorism

Jacob Redding — Mon, 05 Apr 2004 21:13:00 +0000

Last night I came home from the last snowboarding trip of the season, this time I headed up to Schweitzer, Idaho. The club left on thursday afternoon but I had class on friday so I had to drive up by myself on friday. The trip took approximately 6.5 to 7.5 hours and it was an incredibly boring drive. I arrived at the cabin at approximately 8:30 at night. Everyone was worn out from riding that day and from driving all day on thursday so they weren't very active. Friday night we all just sat around watched TV, listened to the radio, kicked back in the hot tub and just relaxed.

Saturday was the day, however. Nick, as always, woke up at 7am and the lifts didn't even open until 8:45am. I do not know why this boy always gets up early but he does. Slowly everyone else in the house began to wake up and by 8:30am we were all waxing down our boards and getting ready for the spring conditions. Nick, Charlie and I headed out to the lift lines at approximately 9:30 or so, leaving behind 7 or so other members. It was a late start but the lines are much much smaller in the spring so it doesn't really matter. The weather was nice, around 40 degrees, sunny with very low winds. I had donned all my normal winter gear and was sweating like crazy within an hour. At noon Nick, Charlie and I headed back to the lodge to shed some of our winter gear in favor of lighter clothing, eat some lunch and pick up the rest of the crew. By 1pm the whole crew was up on the mountain minus two females that decided to not ride that day.

It was a good day for riding. The snow was slushy as was expected but at least it wasn't icy. The slush did make for a ssslllloooowwww riding day BUT we stayed on single and double black diamonds all day since the steepness makes up for the slow, sticky snow. The lift lines closed at 4pm and we all snaked through the trees and made our way back to the cabin. Ski-in, Ski-out lodges are the only places to stay!!

As this was the last trip of the season and our school terms had just started I think we all decided to hit it pretty hard that night. Since I had driven my personal vehicle up we were able to use it drive down to the bars in town. We hit the first bar at approximately 8pm. There were nine of us hitting the Sand Point Idaho "scene". When we walked into the first bar we tripled the population of the bar. There were two old men and two young women sitting at the bar when the nine of us walked in. Normally you would think that this would be really lame, but think about it. We dominated the bar, we essentially had two pool tables, a foosball table and a bar at our disposal. One of the people in our crew had met the cute bartender the night before and she was hooking us up all night, drinks were cheap. It was good times.

After kicking back at the bar for a few hours we added four more girls to our group. The two cute girls from the bar, the bartender from the night before and the bartender's friend. Our count was now up to 13. Sand point doesn't have much of a scene, so we hit the VFW Eagles lounge next. Yes I do mean the Eagles as in the old-man eagles club. We quite honestly walked in the door, looked around and walked back out. The next stop was a bar called the backdoor, because it was located behind another bar (hhmm.. I wonder if that bar was called the front door). The backdoor was an interesting bar, they served hard alcohol had nothing on draught and played alternative rock and industrial music. The lighting was dim and the furniture was very industrial/modern looking. Very interesting. The rest of the crew was definitely into the bar though because they served shots in 3 ounce glasses and the shots were cheap.

Just in case you were wondering, I was the DD so I was drinking soda and water all night while at the bars.

Sometime around 10:30 or 11pm we decided to migrate the party back up to our cabin which was nine miles up the mountain (Sand point is in the valley below Schweitzer resort). The 13 or so of us made it up to the cabin and kept the party going, it made for good times. I, again the DD, took a "shuttle" service back to town around 3 or so in the morning to take a few of the girls back home. People may have been drunk but they were still respectful of the opposite sex, we didn't have a "girls gone wild" house. After I got back the party was pretty much done and over with, I watched some TV to get myself to sleep and finally dozed off around 4 or 5am. I woke up the next day (sunday) at 8am, helped clean up the house and then made my way back to Portland.

I am glad I went, it was a much needed break and I feel refreshed and ready to tackle another term of school.

OK, Ok. I'm sure you're wondering about the title "Schweizter and terrorism". Well during the evening I was kicking back in the hot tub with this girl Jess, sitting opposite of each other. We were talking about all kinds of stuff and then she brought up the infamous topic of politics. The topic started out by referencing talk-radio shows. She is a regular listener to Rush limbaugh, Lars Larson, Michael Savage and a few others. Her few points definitely reflected her listening too. Wow, I hope and pray that she never votes or we're all screwed. Ok, so what's the point of the word terrorism in the title. Well the topic of course veered over to that of war and she expressed deep concern over the fact that there is mass immigration from the middle east to France (and also to Germany but she didn't mention Germany). Her reasoning was that France and Germany are harbouring large terrorism networks to specifically attack the United States.

I, of course, asked a very simple question. "Do you think that some of those people that immigrated to France and Germany are simplying trying to escape their own war torn country, to essentially save their own life?" Of course not!!! that can't be it, Why would anyone from a middle eastern country want to save their own life?!? I mean they are born to kill other people by blowing themselves up, right?? She actually honestly believed that was what people from the middle-east did. They had no regard for the life of others nor their own, they were born to kill (notice the word born and not the word raised, she argued for born). Seriously now, just take a step back and think about that statement.

Request: Can someone out there find this study for me because I can't locate it. She stated that someone had done a study in which a 2 yr old child from the middle east was placed in a room with a 2 yr old american child. The 2 yr old child from the middle east immediately attempted to harm the american child. Supposedly this "experiment" was repeated and the results were the same. She stated that the study concluded that the effects of the "hundred years" war are deep rooted into every child born in the middle east.
****Note: The hundred years war had everything to do with western europe, but that's what she said and that's what I am trying to figure out. Personally I think this study was done by some whacked-out republicans with too much free time on their hands (note: I am registered open, and I don't adhere to a republican/democrat/green party title because all the parties are off their rockers, it's just that republicans seem to have utter disregard for others so I'm not fond of the modern hard-core conservative republican.

Ok so moving on. She also stated that what America really needs to do is to close its borders and get themselves out of the UN. I will only say a few words on this.

Closing our borders: (1) This defeats the entire purpose of America. (2) 80/20, 80% service 20% goods, that is what makes up our economy. If you close our borders other countries might not be as keen on trading with us or more specificially importing to us. What will that do to us.... think about it. We make hardly anything in this country instead we buy from other countries (or outsource), yes that makes us dependent. Is that good? I don't know how much do we rely on the other parties?

Also to me, this statement demonstrates the complete selfishness of the person making the statement and that person's utter disregard for the happiness of others. But then again maybe those of us currently living in America were chosen by a higher being to always be better than everyone else in the world.

Get the US out of the UN: I won't even comment... it's a silly idea.

I'm not going to spend anymore time refuting this girl's ideas, because they simply aren't worth the time. I can only hope and pray that she does not vote.

Ya'll have a nice day now, ya hear!

Snow and Bruises

Jacob Redding — Tue, 23 Mar 2004 16:09:00 +0000

Over the weekend I went snowboarding at White Pass Resort in Washington with the Portland State University Snowboard Club. The club rented a fairly decent sized house for two nights and crammed 18 people into it, it was actually quite comfortable. The house was pretty nice especially because it had a pool table, fireplace and a very warm (108-110 f) hot tub. The hot tub was an oh so welcome sight when everyone came off the mountain beaten and bruised. Danger Dave and myself were the most bruised out of the lot.

Danger Dave has his nickname for good reason, the guy attempts crazy tricks and is always riding hard and going big, unfortunately he also tends to fall quite often hence the danger part. If you check out the pictures up on the SBC website he'll be the one with the box cast on his arm. His first fall of the weekend yielded him a demolished binding base plate, bruised ankle and a call to Ski Patrol. Unfortunately Ski Patrol decided not to pick him up and he had to walk down the mountain.. poor boy. Several hours later he had fixed his binding and rested up enough to hit the mountain again. He fell.... This fall was hard enough to justify Ski Patrol bringing him down the mountain and fixing up a nice box sling for his arm.

Now myself I don't ride that hard. Although I am attempting new tricks and I have been partial to hitting the half pipe when it is available. I can get up and out of the halfpipe and do a 360 but that is the limit on my tricks. I want to try out handplants n' such just because those were always fun to do when I was younger (done on a wood halfpipe, not snow). At 10pm on saturday night I did take a nice big fall off the Funbox. I got the wind knocked out of me and gave myself a nice internal bruise on my hip. It is now five days later and the bruise is finally starting to poke through on the surface and it still hurts. Although beaten and bruised I'm still waiting to hit the mountain again. The season is almost over and I have to hit it as much as possible before everything melts.

Check out the pictures on the PSU SBC website.

Snowboarding

Jacob Redding — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:30:00 +0000

Some of you have already received an email from me but for those of you that haven't...

The Portland State University Snowboard Club (of which I am a member) is participating in the Vertical Challenge put on by the American Cancer Society. In short the deal is to ride as many vertical feet as possible in a 24 hour period from this Saturday at noon until Sunday at noon. As this is a fundraiser I need to raise some cash. So get a tax deduction and donate to the ACS and send me riding all night this weekend. Click here to go to the webpage and make your donation.

I am expected to raise at least $35 bucks.. so come'on help me out.

A pic of me on Mt. Hood

Jacob Redding — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 03:28:00 +0000

This picture was taken a few days ago (thursday), but I thought someone out there might want to see it. Clea and I went up to hood to ride some pretty nice corn snow that day. This picture was taken at the top of cascade express.
By the way my car is A-OK, now.