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A Lake Named Rachel

As many times as I had been hiking in the past decade or so, I had never officially gone backpacking. Come to think of it, I probably hadn't been camping since I was at Meadow Lane, the stomping grounds (and educational whatnot) of my youth. So, having a free weekend and being around so many picturesque landscapes, I found myself strapping thirty pounds of weight to my back and heading up to a semi-remote lake in the Cascades with my friend Barney (yes, that's really his name.)

The first few miles of the hike were quite steady and frequently wandered past gargantuan boulders and through groves of shoulder-length ferns and flowers. Eventually we arrived at the ridiculously steep portion of the trail (1300 ft up in less than a mile.) The thirty extra pounds of weight coupled with aching calves made it a hard haul, but eventually we reached the top and found our destination - Lake Rachel! (yes, that's really its name) An attempt was made at swimming in the lake, but alas Rachel is a truly cold mistress. So then we set about making camp and greeting the dozens of mosquitos who came to welcome us. Their welcoming was so intense that we had to walk around in circles while eating lest they greet us too warmly. Relaxation/exhaustion followed. In closing, a couple memorable and entirely unexplainable quotes from the trip:

• Barney: It may not seem like it, but I'm kind of asexual.


• Barney: I think there's about eight in the group.
  Me: No, I think there's more...maybe seven?

posted by Jason | 9:36 PM
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Hay and Mennonites

I took a short spur-of-the-moment jaunt down to Oregon last weekend and stayed at my friend's family's farm. His family used to be Mennonite and the locale was quite idyllic and serene - even the graveyard that dominated their frontyard. I rode in a combine for the first time (slightly ironic), had a horn-imitation contest with his three-year-old niece, enjoyed delicious homemade ice cream and pancakes (not together), tried to explain what the Flaming Lips sound like to a conservative Mennonite and generally had a relaxing distraction from everything else. I also determined that the smell of a paper mill is probably the most off-setting odor on Earth.

posted by Jason | 6:12 PM
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It's MY Island

Stumbled upon this place over in Queen Anne. Too bad it's a complete dive...

Photo credit:Toadgee

posted by Jason | 12:26 AM
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Blue Screen of Stupidity

For all the times that your system has locked up on you or thrown indecipherable messages at you, it's good to know that sometimes things really are programmed by idiots.

posted by Jason | 12:10 AM
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Yay for Space!


NASA has some really incredible video up from the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on the 4th:

- Collective views of the Discovery launch.
- Great view of takeoff and splashdown from a camera on one of the boosters.
- An amazing shot of the detach of the shuttle around the 2:58 mark.

I wonder what the gas bill is for a machine that burns half a million pounds of fuel in 8.5 minutes...

posted by Jason | 3:59 PM
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Happy 4th and God Bless America!



"You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that."

-Jefferson Smith
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

posted by Jason | 3:50 AM
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