Woke up under the stars on a beach. Had some excitement during the night when Jake stopped my tent from blowing into the fire because the wind picked up. No one was in it but I set it up in case someone wanted to use. No one did so I ended up taking it down in the middle of the night and going back to sleep.

Woke up and enjoyed watching the river flow. Woke up the rest of the crew and we packed up the raft. Then waited for the Chalet rafting crew to venture down the river. We nade a water gun out of our pump and also Brian was jumping off a cliff and doing cannonballs. We all took a go at jumping and it was pretty fun. Brian had some great splashes  (see pictures from Day 3, jumped the gun a little bit).

Jumped into the raft and did some more rafting, I took a turn at steering some more as did Amy. I have no clue how to read a river. It takes some getting used to.

Met up with the drop point and headed back to the Chalet. Amy and I did a quick turn around, packed our bags for hiking, grabbed some lunch and food for the hike and headed out to meet Nate and Dana at the Back Country Office (BCO).

Talked to a guy named Alanzo at the BCO and discovered that many of the units were full. The park itself is broken into around 40 different units based on geography and other unknown means. He recommended a unit but Amy wasn’t too keen on taking it. So we reserved it and waited for Nate and Dana to show.

While waiting, Jess (met her at Alex’s neighbors Salmon Bake) came into the BCO and gave us a spectacular recommendation that we ended up taking. Spend the first night in unit 26 on Mt. Margaret and the next night in unit 15 at Wonder Lake.

Dana and Nate showed up and after a joyous greeting we headed over for some food (where we got 50% off, thanks Amy!) at the visitor center before hoping on a shuttle into the park. Departed at Snake River and headed up Mt. Margaret.

The scenery is amazing. Mountains everywhere! So different than Ohio. So exciting and awesome. Hard to describe but truly awe-inspiring.

Also amazing is the fact that there is virtually no path. You can choose any way you want to climb the mountain. Any path at all. It is very strange to not follow a path. To choose your own way. So different than usual. To not have a direct line or way, to choose where you go and how. Not knowing if it’s the best way or even if it will lead you to your destination.

Thankfully, when the destination is the top of a mountain it’s pretty difficult to get lost. If ever in doubt, just keep going up. Which is what we did till we reached the top. It was surprisingly flat and there were plenty of places to setup camp. One factor that was interesting was the wind. It was super windy, I’m no wind expert but I imagine it was winds of 15-20 mph all night long. They never ceased. I was concerned my tent would blow away when I went off to dinner (in a sheltered rock outcropping that blocked the wind). Thankfully no tents went flying and we had a great night.

One thing of note was the sheer amount of food we packed. Amy and I were sharing a bear canister and we didn’t plan too far ahead for the trip so we ended up with a ton of random food. For instance, we had a whole tupperware thing of Fruit Loops (no milk), 4 pieces of pizza (already cooked), beef jerkey, 6 bagels, some fruit, some dried fruit, cheese, trail mix, cheese and peanut butter on crackers, granola bars, twizzlers, and possibly some other odds and ends. This trip was only going to be 3 days and 2 nights so it was a ridiculous amount of food for 2 people. Nate and Dana carried all their own food so we had plenty to go around. One thing we didn’t have that Amy was craving was a Snickers bar. Somehow we overcame this oversight and survived the first night.

I also took some pretty sweet panorama picture. They give a little glimpse of the immense size of the mountains and the breathtaking views we saw. They are huge, so they may do crazy things to your computer. Hopefully they are viewable.

Yowza, had a busy day.

Writing this on 8-03 while sitting on the side of the river by our camp. Laser, Cupcake, Brian, Mitch, Amy and I went on quite a white water rafting adventure yesterday on the Nanana (I liked calling it the Na-na na-na). We embarked around 10 or 11 pm. It never really gets dark so leaving late wasn’t an issue. Hard to explain all the fun we had, just doesn’t seem like writing it down will give it justice.

We did hit some big rapids, checked out an old train tunnel, ran from a train (not in the tunnel), did some riding of the bull, some mistrust activities and had a great time. Started a fire with some shavings and a handkerchief. Listened to some ridiculous stories from Jake. One involving a stupid box and a hitchhiker and another one involving a orchestra conductor. Both ridiculous but told very well.

Backing up to the beginning of the day, this was my first day at the Chalet. Hung out with Amy in the morning and picked up some meal tickets. Amy had to work at noon so we grabbed some grub. Amy found out that some peeps were going to go Kayak rolling that day, one of the guys being her good friend Brian. So I gave Brian my number and headed out to give Alex his car back.

Alex was working at the visitors center and so I went in and asked the dude at the front desk where Alex Lindeman worked. He must not have been expecting a question not relating to the park because he just looked at me and said, “huh?” So I repeated the question and he pointed me to an employees only door and said “Go upstairs”. So I did but there were a few different rooms at the top of the stairs. I found it strange that I was allowed to just wander around aimlessly. I took a guess and found Alex on the first try. Gave him his keys and promised to call him once I got out of the back country on Thursday.

Then caught a shuttle back to the Chalet and met up with Brian and Mitch to head out to do some rolling. Headed to a lake (can’t remember the name) and got all suited up in a dry suit (doesn’t let any water in), helmet, life jacket and headed out on the lake.

Rolling a kayak is pretty technical, it is when a kayaker flips his boat and is sitting upside down in the water with his whole body underwater. Obviously this is a bad position to be in so it’s important he knows how to flip himself back over if and when this event occurs.

Mitch is a great teacher and though baby steps and lots of patience I was able to do a hand roll (a roll with no paddle). It was pretty sweet and a lot of it is a mental game. It’s so easy to psych oneself out. The biggest thing is to not panic. It’s quite amazing how long someone can stay underwater.

Ate dinner with the guys and then headed up to see when Amy got off and what was going on that night. Decided to go on the rafting trip mentioned above and ended up chilling down by the river a bit till Amy got off work and we made plans to head out on the river.

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Dreams – had some pretty interesting dreams last night. One in which I missed the train because I was playing the lead role in a musical I hardly knew and was just ad libbing. Crazy stuff.

Also Eddie arrived and left about 3 times during the night. Not sure what the hork was going on. It wasn’t an issue, I just went back to sleep but it was strange.

My calves are super sore from running yesterday in my 5 fingers. Haha, did it to wear myself out and got more than I bargained. I’m sure they will loosen up as the day progresses.

Headin’ to the train in a bit. That should be pretty sweet.

On the Train from Anchorage to Denali and due to a plane crash at the air force base which the train passes though we had to take a bus ride to the train. And as it turns out we are going to be riding the train backwards. Since the train can’t pass through the base to get to the main depot to turn around. Should be interesting.

I’m sitting next to Emily who is a law student from St. Louis who has an internship in Anchorage for the summer. Her and her parents are traveling to Denali to see the sites.

One of the leading causes of death for Eagles in Alaska is drowning. This is due to the fact that once eagles grab a fish with their talons they cannot let go. Sometimes the salmon is heavy enough and strong enough that it can pull the eagle underwater and drown it.

Which journey sounds more difficult?

• 100 men set out to cross Alaska. They cross 5,000 miles over rough terrain over the course of 3 years and 3 winters. 50 of the men perished.
• 50 men set out across Russia. They crossed 7,000 miles over rough terrain over the course of 3 years and 3 winters. There were no casualties

Interesting how we determine the difficulty of something by the percent of failure.

Met Alex at the train station and he met me with a hug. It was great to see him. We caught up on each others lives a bit as we waited for my luggage and then jumped in his jeep with his dog scout to head to the McKinley Chalet where Amy works.

Seeing Amy was great. She got super excited and I was able to introduce her to Alex. The plans for the evening involved going over to Alex’s and helping his neighbors package the 100 Salmon they caught and then having a fish fry. Amy was gonna get off early so Alex and I headed out to get drinks while she finished her shift.

Hanging out with Alex is sweet. I haven’t seen him in about 5 years and didn’t know him too well as he was growing up. But we found plenty to discuss and it was good to hear how he was doing.

Amy caught up with us and we headed up past Healy to Alex’s place. Checked out his sweet house, his green house and then headed over to his neighbors, Jared and Bridgets. There we joined in a fish packaging operation with lots of Alex’s friends that I can’t recall all their names. But it was a good time. 4 people had caught and cleaned over 100 Salmon and we were packaging them up to be stored in the freezer. We were also smoking some and baking some to be eaten. It was delicious.

While at Jared and Bridget’s we checked out their dog kennel operation which was pretty sweet. Tons of dogs (perhaps 15 or so) were all chilling together and it was something to experience.

It was interesting meeting so many peeps. All of whom were not native to Alaska. Still have yet to meet a native. But people come here from other states with a high majority seeming to originate from the west. Not sure why that is the trend.

Alex let Amy and I borrow his car and we gave Stephanie a lift back to her cabin since it was on the way.

Once back at McKinley Chalet we met up with Becca and Brian to form a funeral procession for their friend Thanksgiving. He (or she) was a small bunny they found while camping. It had a broken leg and they were going to try to nurse it back to health. But it perished after a few nights. Becca made a funeral boat so we marched to the river where there was a group of their friends celebrating a birthday. We momentarily interrupted the birthday bash and after some debate decided to put Thanksgiving on the roaring bonfire instead of the burning ship. The bunny returned to the earth from where it came.

And we returned to the chalet and ended up watching an old James Bond movie. Went to bed around 2ish.

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Trip so far is great. Plane ride was a bit long but sat next to Arron from Day to Minn. He’s a defense contractor for the airforce and goes to AFG to work for extra moolah. Talked about daily rocket attacks against his base. The Base over there is the size of Troy. Crazy! He was going to his friends wedding in Troy. Paul Atkins. Drives a red and white charger type car and lives on Heather road. I don’t know him but apparently he went to Troy High School and is my age. Interesting stuff.

Thing I wouldn’t see in Troy – 3 High School age girls standing outside a coffee shop in Anchorage. Dually truck with full tailer with army-type jeep vehicle on the trailer and room to spare pulls up. The girls excitedly jump in and drive off.

Ate dinner at the Downtown Deli. Had Halibut Fish and chips, coleslaw and tarter sauce. It was all delicious. Interestingly, I have never liked coleslaw but decided to try it out and found it quite agreeable.

Gonna try to stay up till 9. Timezone is 4 hours behind so 9 is about 1am eastern time. Gotta catch a train at 8:15 tomorrow so I’ll be up early.

MOUNTAINS! So cool.

Roomate is named Eddie. He’s a dock worker up north and in town for his daughters birthday. Cool guy, talked about seeing a bear at work and how he’s never been to Denali. He also really wants to visit Cleveland and Akrin to see where they make the Goodyear blimps. Didn’t realize that was an attraction.

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One interesting experience is eating dinner alone in public. I didn’t have any problems but it was a bit strange. I’d recommend trying it out just because it’s so different. It’s as if all the things society expects one to do while eating are gone and it’s interesting discovering ways of staying occupied throughout the meal. I solved this by people watching, luckily I was by a window and has a whole street full of people to watch.

My first night in Alaska went great. Adjusting the the almost eternal daylight wasn’t a big issue. I usually don’t have an issue falling asleep and this trip was no exception. I did wake up a few times when Eddie came in and out of the room. I can’t quite remember what times but it was very strange, seemed like it was around 11, around 1 and then at 4. When I woke up in the morning he was gone but his stuff was still in the room. No idea what was going on with that and I never saw him again so it’s going to be a mystery. It didn’t bother me since I just rolled over and went back to sleep each time I awoke.

http://www.giyudojo.com/Articles.html

Recently I had the honor to test for the rank of San Kyu (Green Belt) at the Gi Yu Dojo. As a Mu Kyu (White Belt) I was looking to advance to a Green Belt as the next step in my training. I approached the challenge knowing I would learn new techniques, become more confident and gain more mental fortitude. I was surprised to find that on top of these skills I also learned about my character and how I interact with the world, something I desperately needed to see.

I vividly recall standing in front of Sensei Sukh and the Black Belts at the end of my testing. I was physically exhausted with sweat dripping off my face onto my already drenched gi. Mentally, I was aware and alive. It was as if nothing mattered more in the world than being present at that very moment in that very place. It was exhilarating. I had just passed through a trial by fire and was able to stand at the end. Having survived through the application of my training and experiences learned at the dojo.

The verdict was still out as to whether I passed or not and one by one Sensei Sukh called us White Belts forward to inform us of the collective decision of the teachers present. As I walked forward I was uncertain as to whether or not I passed. Before he let me know, Sensei Sukh gave me a blindingly accurate snapshot of my life and how I was living. He said that while I showed innate talent and ability for the martial arts, my lack of discipline and dedication was evident in my execution of the techniques. He called me a natural but at the same time showed his disappointment in the fact that I chose to not apply myself to gain my full potential. He went on to inform me that I did successfully gain the rank of San Kyu but the real victory that day was a glimpse of myself that I had not seen before.

When I first started training Sensei Sukh told a story from his past. I shall attempt to summarize it. There were two boxers who trained at the same school. One was a naturally gifted boxer, he had the moves and techniques without practicing or giving them much thought. He was made for boxing and he knew it. The other was very poor at boxing, but what he lacked in skill he made up for in discipline and determination. As the story goes, the naturally gifted boxer would skip out on practice and not take boxing seriously since it came so easy to him. While the disciplined boxer spent every available minute training and striving to improve himself. Time passed and the boxers had a fight in the ring. The disciplined boxer emerged victorious and the moral of the story is sealed. No matter how gifted or talented we may be, without hard work and discipline that talent is wasted.

Now that I know I am the “gifted” slacker, I can see that pattern repeated through my past. I can see myself in college doing just enough to get by without actually applying myself and excelling. I was content with mediocre grades because it was easy and didn’t require much work. But I’ve found through my experience at the Gi Yu Dojo that many things in life are worth fighting for and worth mastering. It isn’t enough to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. That is the same as being a lukewarm drink, it’s boring and will be spit out. It’s much better to focus ones energy to become a master at disciplines that truly matter in life.

This stark analysis of my behavior has given me a new outlook on life. I now recognize where I am lacking discipline and choosing to drift by on skill alone. Now that I can see the problem I can take steps to correct it. I am working on strengthening my spirit and will power. To choose discipline and hard work over laziness and mediocrity. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight. But each step in the right direction is one less step in the wrong direction.  And by choosing the right direction one step at a time, I will reach my goal.

Testing for San Kyu taught me a valuable lesson on how I am living my life. I am very grateful to have a Dojo and a Sensei that care about my personal well being with such sincerity. Who strive to show me a better way of living. And who are setting examples of how a true warrior should live in the way they conduct themselves. It is a lesson I will remember for the rest of my life.

I’m interested in what you think. Specifically, what you think of me. This question cropped up from a recent situation at work where we hired a new person whom some of my coworkers met before me. This got me thinking of how a person who knows me would describe me to someone who did not. So my question to you is, how would you describe me? Leave out any physical traits, a mirror is all I need to see that side of myself.

This curiosity is by no means a way of fishing for compliments, please be completely truthful and don’t worry about hurting my feelings. My friend Greg setup a way for you to remain completely anonymous so I’ll have no idea where the comments are originating. This whole exercise is an effort to get a better grasp of what other people think of me and to take a good look at myself to see areas where I might improve my public relations.

Head on over to http://greghendricks.net/survey.aspx and take your best shot.

I always thought U2’s Beautiful Day was a song of inspiration and about living each day to it’s fullest. A song of encouragement and hope. But after reading the lyrics it’s clear that Bono has no idea what da hork Bono is talking about and his arguments for why it should be a beautiful day are weak at best.

Beautiful Day – U2
The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground (starts off the song with a good ‘love conquers all metaphor, pretty dec)
There’s no room (now we’re claustrophobic)
No space to rent in this town (and homeless)

You’re out of luck
And the reason that you had to care (no idea where he is going with this line)
The traffic is stuck
And you’re not moving anywhere (another metaphor saying our lives are in stasis, this one goes along with the claustrophobic and homeless line, it’s not sounding good)

You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place (sounds good, get us out of here)
Someone you could lend a hand (wait, weren’t they going to rescue us?)
In return for grace (grace is a favor rendered by one who need not do so; usually not repaid)

It’s a beautiful day (sounds pretty awful so far)
Sky falls, you feel like (feel bad for certain)
It’s a beautiful day (I’m an optimist, but even I know it’s possible to have bad days, this sounds like one)
Don’t let it get away (please, let it to be over)

You’re on the road
But you’ve got no destination (nice)
You’re in the mud
In the maze of her imagination (what da hork? drugs, that’s the only explanation for this line)

You love this town
Even if that doesn’t ring true (what?)
You’ve been all over
And it’s been all over you (um, what has? the road?)

It’s a beautiful day (still not seeing why)
Don’t let it get away (make it go away)
It’s a beautiful day (false)

Touch me
Take me to that other place (another place would be nice)
Teach me (teach you what?)
I know I’m not a hopeless case (hopeless at explaining what you mean)

See the world in green and blue (that’s nice)
See China right in front of you (China? what does that have to do with anything?)

See the canyons broken by cloud (say what?)
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out (where is he going with this?)
See the Bedouin fires at night(I had to look this up, Bedouin are a predominantly desert-dwelling Arabic group)

See the oil fields at first light(this appears at first to be related to the Bedouin, but upon further investigation it is revealed that the Bedouin are nomads and farmers, not oil sheiks)

And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth(a Biblical reference, a sign of hope, finally something that makes sense; it stands for life and starting over)

After the flood all the colors came out (rainbow and a promise a terrible disaster will never happen again,  a great reason for it to be a beautiful day)

It was a beautiful day (true if only looking at the last 2 lines above; everything else seems either obscure or bad)
Don’t let it get away (hm…)
Beautiful day (repeating the same phrase is not convincing)

Touch me
Take me to that other place (the tuna fleets? the Bedouin fires?)
Reach me
I know I’m not a hopeless case (still no idea what he is talking about)

What you don’t have you don’t need it now (I’m homeless, stuck, out of luck and have no food; but it’s a good thing I don’t need anything I don’t have)
What you don’t know you can feel it somehow (what I don’t know, I can feel, somehow; right)
What you don’t have you don’t need it now (I may)
Don’t need it now
Was a beautiful day (why dont’ we need it? because it was a beautiful day)

The only uplifting part of this song are the following lines:
See the world in green and blue (not polluted)
And see the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
It’s a beautiful day

Otherwise the song is depressing, filled with nonsense, and confusing. First we’re homeless, and trapped in a city, then we’re stuck in traffic, next we’re on a road, then we’re in mud and a maze of someones imagination, then we go all around the world and see some unrelated events and then end up with the great advice, “What you don’t have you don’t need it now.” What a mess. At least it’s catchy.

Let’s see, where did I leave off? Whoa, back in March.

Quick update on life in no particular order.

Visited Greg – Settlers, XBox and Pay Per View
Kings Island – Greg, Nate and Glenn, good times
Moonlight and Magnolias (Play) – Lame-o
Sogeti Soccer win – Finally a win!
Clodbusters (Vintage Baseball) first game – 1 win, 2 losses, lots of fun
A Chorus Line (Musical) – Decent, more of a ballet type thing than a musical, 4 out of the 8 I picked made it at the end
Lake Loramie – Lake, food and XBox 360 fun
Painting Dave’s – Never going to be a handyman
Red’s Game and Fireworks – Parents and Drew
Dayton Dragons Game – Cub Scouts
Lydia’s (cousin) Graduation – Cornhole challenge (me vs. Drew, he won but it was close)
Extension at WF1 – woo!
Dojo – still going pseudo strong
D&D – Healing rox
Mother’s Day – Spent in Cincinnati with the fam

I was planning on going into more detail but lost all motivation. That’s gonna have to do.

First, let me state the positives (when someone says that you know they didn’t enjoy the experience, this story is no exception). It was different, the opening was pretty neat, the performers were talented (wandering around on stage in a huge aluminum tubes cannot be easy), it was short, and it had potential.

With that being said, the overall feeling I got from the show was boredom. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen but it never did. There was a lot of melodramatic music (I was hoping for techno), movement on the stage, strange costumes and of course aluminum but somehow they didn’t come together to form something enjoyable. Two scenes or ideas seem to stick out from the show and hopefully these will give you an idea of why I didn’t find it interesting.

The first memorable occurrence happened at the start of the show. 3 aluminum clad figures emerged and proceeded to give gestures and meaning to a disembodied voice that gave instructions. It was the same idea as a plane stewardess at the start of a flight. The figures had lamps embedded in their hats and I got a big kick out of their gestures and accompanying sound effects. This started the show off on a good food and I was a bummer that this turned out to be my favorite part of the show.

The next thing I remember is a long (excruciatingly long) scene in which the aluminum clad people build a giant aluminum person. Doesn’t sound so bad right? And actually could have been kinda cool. However, combine it with sleep inducing music and make everyone move in slow motion for about 10 minutes (it was definitely longer than 5). What was created was an effect similar to watching paint dry.

I would have overlooked this painfully slow buildup if the giant aluminum dude actually did something interesting. But it was not so. They had him walk around a little bit, sit down and then walked him through the audience sitting below (we were in a balcony so we missed whatever it did down below us).

Which brings up a good point. My friend Glenn pointed out that the show may have been more enjoyable if we were actually sitting level with the performers and got to participate in the numerous times they shot, threw, launched and gave different kinda of aluminum to the audience. Sitting in the balcony we missed most of this excitement and we could see how they were doing some of the “tricks” because apparently the show was not meant to be performed in buildings with a balcony.

The show lacked a “wow” factor. It never built up to anything big. There were some neat moments but nothing really worth mentioning. There was no definite storyline or song choice or theme to the show (besides doing everything with aluminum) and it left me confused and disappointed.

In closing, the show could be pretty entertaining and cool if a little more thought was put in with regard to making it fun for the audience. The actors looked like they were having fun and some of the stuff they were doing was neat but they lost the audience somewhere along the way (me right at the beginning) and didn’t stop to pick us back up.

It was some pretty fun stuff.

A smaller video is also up on my Dojo’s Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144195759248&ref=ts