Living is Simple...

I sit here sweating. I am playing basketball for the 3rd time in as many weeks since the doc ok'ed me to go back to normal activities.


A year ago in February I tore my ACL on this very court with many of the people in the photo there to witness it. I had surgery on December 17th to repair the tear. When the doc got in there he found that it had repaired itself. Apparently this is rather rare even with partials.

I enjoy Basketball because you see how people really are on the inside. Emotion comes through in a way that is socially acceptable and inturn reveals the true personality.

I honestly am scared everytime I have stepped out on the court. Afraid of tearing my ACL again. But with that in mind I refuse to sit on the side line in life. I demand participation in life and to not be one of those that sentenced themselves to a lifetime of things they wish they had done.

Sometimes You're a Tourist With a Camera...

Sometimes I wonder how my kids will envision the past. I know currently a lot of people see past events in black and white. I am not sure I completely do this but...I do envision some events in the color of the paintings, photographs of the time. For example: I for some reason I envision the 70's as being very vibrant in colors along with a lot of earth tones but without the sharpness of modern images. Almost in a slight blurred way that differentiates hd television from normal (analog?) televisions.

Here is a picture of a sign I took not too long ago. The place was called Venture. From what I can remember they were something like wal-mart before wal-mart built super centers. The only thing I really remember about the store is that when they were closing I bought probably the 2nd or 3rd cd that I had ever bought...The band was called "Jimmy Ray" and the title of the album was self titled...Jimmy Ray...I bet you cant guess what the lead singer's name was...
Maybe he is a bit narcissistic?

Anyways back on point...this sign...

I am afraid this picture will become my main memory 20 years from now of a store that I barely remember now...but will I remember it in this version...or will I think of it in what ever future variant of photos...eh odd I know.

Digging My Potato

I am in love...







Why yes I did just buy her cd based on the cover art.

Sorry to my future wife/girlfriend. She is hot and mainly I see her now yet you are no where to be found at this time. So I don't feel bad in saying this girl is hot!


UPDATE: 01-20-10
Ok the cd came in. Her voice is as amazing as her picture above. I guess I should actually tell who she is...From the best I can tell from Wikipedia...Her name is: Alison Sudol, she was born 27 days after I was....also from reading...and I am making an assumption here...I would guess she is a Christian (Woohoo!) as well just by looking at some of the authors (such as CS Lewis, and writing a Narnia style book series) she likes. All that given...why cant she live some where near me...then again maybe not...That might freak her out if I tried to meet her lol.

anyways here is the cd

The band is called "A Fine Frenzy"
Album is "One Cell In The Sea"

Houston, we have uh-oh

So... It has been a long stinkin time since I have wrote here. I really could care less who if anyone reads this. I have given up on looking at page counts to focus on content.

This will turn into a space for me to read later on. Therefore I will put my random thoughts and quotes about what is going on.

Let's get started shall we.

Currently reading: Blue Like Jazz

Great book so far. More thoughts about it tomorrow.

Also have started up reading the new testament again. I am in the middle of Luke. I have never made it this far in reading straight through. Of course I have read bits and pieces here and there in church and what not. I have read through Matthew probably 10 times but never could make it though Mark for some reason. Not that Mark was bad. I just became unfocused. Needless to say I am running into a few random things I have never read before. But nothing ground shaking. i.e. I read about the brothers of thunder wanting to call down fire from heaven for not accepting them into a town. Odd...

And I am listening to Dune Messiah on audio book now. So far I preferred the original Dune to this book. This one is too much political cloak and dagger stuff so far.

All for now.

Drive around the lake

just a little too fast...

The last breaths of this semester are occurring. And with this is generally a sign of projects needing to be completed, exams, homework, and late nights in the engineering building.

Some times you are granted a gift though...and in this case we went and visited Beaver Dam. It was an amazing experience. I took as many pictures as I was able to and will talk about the rest.

Beaver dam is apart of a lock and dam system that covers NW Arkansas and SW Missouri.

This particular dam was made back in the 60's. The design shows on the inside. The insides are painted in colors that I imagine the 60's coated in. The control room walls were a mix of soft browns and a light green. The kind of green you see on all old machines. I couldn't tell you what half the things do in there or how they are operated. Everything had lights and knobs as if it were from the Star Trek series of the same era.

We were able to see the, for lack of better words, giant axles that are connected to the turbines. They consist of a solid metal shaft that is some where in the neighborhood of three feet in diameter. When spinning they were only spinning at something around 90 rpm. I can only imagine the amount of force to get that much weight moving that quick.

Now for the Dam part of the operation. (And yes our group revisited every single "dam" joke from Vegas Vacation and then some) The dam itself as you can see from the pictures is pretty big. It is from top to bottom about 250' tall. Yeah like looking down the length of a football field. The width at the bottom if I remember correctly is in the neighborhood of 170'. And there are tunnels all through it. I had never realized it but most dams have tunnels through out their structure. One of the reasons is to help with drainage since concrete "leaks". Another is to have instruments. One of the main ones is the "Tilt-o-meter". This meter is a string that goes from the top to the bottom of the structure through a pipe. Basically this device shows how much the dam is tilting due to pressure of the water. There was a red line on a little beyond where the pendulum was and asked what that was for and what they would do if it got that far. The operator just looked at me and said, if it gets that far I am running. The red line was apparently the point break for tilt-age.
















This picture is looking out over the top of the dam. They had no restrictions in taking pictures in this area. To give some perspective...those blocks on the right are about the size of a VW Micro-Bus

















This is a picture showing the height of the structure.

















This is looking straight down. Notice how small the door way is in the center of the picture.















This top of the dam, but suprisingly isnt the main control center.















The Feds will be after me for this picture...I took a picture inside of the restricted area....ahhh....I think if I remember correctly it is just a bathroom in there and some stairs.

Needless to say I am staying vague on some details because I dont know what is acceptable to talk about. I am keeping to stuff that could be found on wikipedia and really dont want a goverment agent to come knocking on my door. Especially since they know who I am since I signed my name....although it didnt have a NDA on it...