I suppose I should join the legions of other bloggers bitching about gas prices. Well, $2.89 per gallon here in Houghton, you know, the cultural center of the universe. For whatever reason, I was walking by a gas station on my way to Subway and I briefly lost it and told the guy walking around his gas tanker truck to fuck off. He gave me a strange look much like that of child the instant you bust them doing something wrong and then looked away. There is a lot of evil in the world, and in my mind, much of it circles around that wretched crap called oil. I feel bad for using him as a symbolic representation for the industry he works for since I doubt he means anyone much malaise. Anyway, I’m sure I’m not the first to snap at an agent of the oil industry and certainly won’t be the last so long as this stuff keeps up.

With that in mind, I cast a weary eye towards the future and wonder if I shouldn’t run to Europe one last time before World War III breaks out and we degenerate into some sort of Mad Max existence. That could also be a shameless justification for me entertaining the possibility a trip with some friends to Stockholm for a little New Year’s vacation. A foreign exchange student who went here for a year lives near there and apparently would take good care of us. I don’t know him that well, but Jerry who is sort of spearheading this operation does. Thoughts anyone?

Oh yeah, and I’m going kayaking this afternoon out at Redridge again (the one with cool water falls), so with any luck, I’ll start populating the Fall 05 gallery.

I suppose I should join the legions of other bloggers bitching about gas prices. Well, $2.89 per gallon here in Houghton, you know, the cultural center of the universe. For whatever reason, I was walking by a gas station on my way to Subway and I briefly lost it and told the guy walking around his gas tanker truck to fuck off. He gave me a strange look much like that of child the instant you bust them doing something wrong and then looked away. There is a lot of evil in the world, and in my mind, much of it circles around that wretched crap called oil. I feel bad for using him as a symbolic representation for the industry he works for since I doubt he means anyone much malaise. Anyway, I’m sure I’m not the first to snap at an agent of the oil industry and certainly won’t be the last so long as this stuff keeps up.

With that in mind, I cast a weary eye towards the future and wonder if I shouldn’t run to Europe one last time before World War III breaks out and we degenerate into some sort of Mad Max existence. That could also be a shameless justification for me entertaining the possibility a trip with some friends to Stockholm for a little New Year’s vacation. A foreign exchange student who went here for a year lives near there and apparently would take good care of us. I don’t know him that well, but Jerry who is sort of spearheading this operation does. Thoughts anyone?

Oh yeah, and I’m going kayaking this afternoon out at Redridge again (the one with cool water falls), so with any luck, I’ll start populating the Fall 05 gallery.

Today I realized for certain that I truly have a mind like a steel trap . . . just not the flattering version of expression. Instead, when I reach into my steel trap of a brain, it usually goes off, leaving my hand a bloody stump. What prompted this? A pop quiz this afternoon in my Electron Materials class. Needless to say, after allowing my brain to atrophy over the summer I have some work to do. I certainly wasn’t alone in the struggle, but at the same time I was amazed that although I knew exactly where to find what the questions were seeking in my textbooks, that information had long been reduced to a casual familiarity with a footnote to references. It usually comes back quick though so I’m not so much concerned as I am caught off guard.

In other news, if you’ve been trying to call me the last day or two . . . good luck. I spent a half hour trying to get one of my calls through this evening before I just gave up. Houghton needs more cellphone capacity that much is for sure. So mom and dad, no I didn’t die.

As of this instant (when I started writing this), there are still 26 minutes left of what I would call Summer 05. No better time then right now to put some words to what I really thought about this summer. Unless you’ve been living in a box, it is pretty much common knowledge that this has been the best summer of my life. Though not perfect, I’ve made advances in all of the themes usually covered on the site. From the successful bismuth hall thruster test, to tremendous progress on the third floor, from all those days spent rotting in my kayak or on my bike seat and of course to all the hours spent holding down my roof/couch/a chair on Mack’s porch I’ve had absolutely nothing to complain about.

Another great part of this summer has been all the new people I’ve met though. Going into summer, I didn’t have any real expectations of meeting new people as most everyone has left for the summer or left permanently. But through random parties and camping trips, stuff like that, I’ve developed a social network that is similar to what I had when I was an undergrad. It is great being able to dig through the phone and find someone who wants to do something.

I’ve heard people say this a million times “That really was a great time, . Too bad I was too young to really realize it”. Well, as tomorrow brings a start to third year of graduate school, seventh year of college and my nineteenth year of schooling, I’ve certainly been around the block more then once. The great part is (for me anyway), I know that I’m having the time of my life and I’ve grown to understand what that really means (heh, yeah I know in 10 years I’ll probably just shake my head at what I stupid kid I was). This summer I’ve been living with very modest responsibilities and have allowed myself to basically do whatever the hell caught me at the moment. I’d liken it to social BASE jumping. It is a very liberating existence that allows one to mentally maximize the experience. Take everything in. Look a bit closer at something then you’d otherwise would. I’m much more of a hippie then I was this time last year, but have also gained a little bit more holistic view on things. Where am I heading with this? Beats the hell out of me. I know, a toast, the Summer Crew of 2005 and the University that brought us all together. Catch you on the flipside.

The real world resumes on Monday. So unfortunate. For today though, horse shoes and beer.

Ok, I’ll give in to the growing peer pressure to post something on the blog. This week has been another filled with no real responsibility, and yet stuff actually managed to get done. For instance, this chance to sit down and chat is brought to you by the machinist’s lunch break (I’m killing time at the moment). The house has been filling up and I’d love to post pictures of how great my room looks with new carpet, but I seemed to have misplaced my camera. Not a huge surprise since my room is currently a total disaster but there was that moment terror when I was afraid I didn’t take the camera out of my pants before I did laundry.

Anyway, I do have some pics to share though. Last week Brad took the research group on his dad’s boat for our annual blow off work day (although that probably happens more then once a year). I posted all of them in the Summer 05 Gallery which sadly I’ll have to retire at the end of this week but hopefully Fall 05 will be just as photogenic.

Everything is wet. Or at least it was a little while ago. There has been so much painting and staining going on that really nothing is safe to touch around here. I’d write a long essay about this, but I’m really tired, not to mention dirty and if I keep at this much longer, I won’t have the good sense to take a shower before I go to bed. However, I have some picture goodness to share to give a feel for how fast things are moving now. The first is a shot of my room after I put the first coat of paint on (just got done with the second).

Next is all the trim I bought to complete the third floor. This is taken from the little window in my loft. Tomorrow it gets installed.

Yet another absolutely stunning evening in Hancock. I have no idea where these summer days like this were last year, but this year has been a veritable paradise. So I’m just hanging out on the roof relaxing with my thoughts, laptop and a frosty cold beer and from where I’m sitting, it doesn’t get much better then this. Even better though, I can reflect upon the last 10 hours with a sense of accomplishment. Despite being really sick this weekend (sore throat and 200 degree temperature) I managed to get sufficiently drugged up to spend the majority of the day painting on the third floor. Tomorrow I’m going to go and drag the carpet guys over and have them take measurements to install the remainder of the carpet on the third floor. I have to say, I’m amazed at how well it is turning out. It doesn’t feel like a war zone anymore as much as it feels just like a semi-dirty room. The 750 lbs of construction debris I hauled away on Saturday probably had something to do with that. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow when the light is better. But for now, I’m just going to lean up against the chimney and watch the sun set.

I got chewed out today by a city employee for slowly riding my bike down the sidewalk. There are signs posted everywhere saying don’t ride your bike on the sidewalk, but my destination was sort of in the middle of a block so I thought I’d be ok. Nope. Some lady jumped out in front of me and made me stop. I briefly explained why I was doing it and she told me I should walk it then or ride on the road with traffic instead. I was in one of my verbally playful moods so I told her that if I ride with traffic there is an excellent chance I will be smoked by a car or worse yet a logging truck leaving me unable to pay taxes therefore causing the city to loose money on the deal. Apparently she doesn’t like wise-asses though as her previous scolding-mother demeanor quickly morphed into “you’re lucky I don’t have a gun, punk” state. So I bolted out into a gap in traffic and did the 200 foot balance to my destination cheating death on US-41.

So my friend Eric (who is actually hosting this site now) was lucky enough to make it down to Kennedy Space Center to see the space shuttle launch a couple of weeks ago. Now that it has returned safely, he made available the photos that he took of the launch. Check them out. All I can say is lucky bastard.