1 AUG 05: I started a new website a little while back (23 June) and I'll probably be posting more over there instead of here. The address is alpinesummit.blogspot.com. Make sure and check it out! I figure the details of my life are available to those interested enough to ask me, so I may find a new use for this space- perhaps as a place to keep pictures featured on the new site. Either way, don't expect too many updates here anymore.
22 FEB 05: Happy New Year! Oh wait, that was a couple of months ago, huh? Anyway, my friend said I needed to update my page. So, here's my update! Busy (as usual) more to come! By the way, if you're ever at the University of Wyoming, NEVER- I repeat- NEVER take a class with Prof. Richard Elmendorf. Horrid teacher.
9 Nov 04: The procrasturbation continues. It's been a hectice month-and-a-half. Shortly after starting up school, I got involved with the College Republicans. I ended up being appointed PR Chair, Webmaster, and Newsletter editor. The newsletter was a small 2 issue 200 copy distribution, but I'm proud of it nonetheless. I ended up writing most of the stories, too. Not because I'm egocentric like that, but because Republicans have some bizare disease where if they're in a majority at the moment, or if their ideology is safe from challenge, they tend to get complacent. So, that took a pretty nice chunk of my time. If you want to see the College Republican website I'm managing, click here. It's nothing fancy, but I would like to think it's at least useful. There's a picture of me at a football game on the gallery page if you want an up-to-date picture of me.
So, thanks in part to my small, meager efforts, GW was elected for another 4 years. Hooray! I'm still glowing with pride in the ability for 52% of Americans to recognize genuity and leadership in a man, and priority in national security. Bush isn't wasting time, either. As I type this, Marines are shelling Fallujah. Awesome. Apparently, the hardcore liberals are suffering from "post traumatic election syndrome." For crying out loud! These people try to sound all manly and tough on issues, but when you get down to it, they're just whiny pencil necks (liberals like Colmes, Zell Miller and Obama notwithstanding).
Lacey came out with a new movie: "The Brooke Ellison Story." Terrific performance. I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but she seems to play a better quadraplegic than she does anything else. It may just be her best performance overall, so maybe I'm just reading it wrong. Anyway, the show is on every so often on A&E. I highly recommend it. It had the feel of a Lifetime movie, but the father in the story didn't rape/beat/desert the family, so it probably wouldn't have gone well with Lifetime's regular programming. As some of you may know, this is the movie Christopher Reeves finished just before he died. It is a fantastic movie that speaks to the limitless will of the human spirit. I think I empathized with the father the most. He seemed to be quite absent from the story, and the movie really downplayed his contribution to the family and Lacey's character. He took care of finances, raised the other 2 kids, earned the only income for the entire family (of 5), crusaded for his daughter where medical experts were pessimistic around her, etc. Also, there's a goof in the final scene before Lacey's entrance. The girl moves her hand (tee hee). Other than those few things- great movie.
I've also been doing the usual school thing. 15 credits in uppder-division classes (plus homework). It's been fun. Anyway, I can hopefully resume my updates. I have some thoughts I would like to post at some point, but they'll have to wait. Right now, I need to get back to homework.
17 Sep 04: I've been meaning to put this picture up for a while. It's a picture of my friend Dave, Senate hopeful Pete Coors, and fold singer Lee Greenwood (he sang "Proud to be an American"). Clearly a high-point in my summer vacation. My sister finally got back from Italy and sent it to me. Anyway, without further ado:
Cool, huh? I'm the one with the Pete Coors shirt on. In other news, school is 3 weeks in, and I'm enjoying it! You'd think business degree students are bored to tears... well, you'd be right if talking about beginning stuff. This semester is awesome! In one class we actually get $50,000 in real money to invest in the real stock market! That's just one class, too!
Also, last night was the second college republicans meeting for the semester, and we held "elections" which entailed raising your hand if you wanted to serve in some capacity. I got PR chair and Web Site Chair. It should prove fun! I have lots of plans :maniacle laughter: !
19 Aug 04: So, summer is coming to a close, and in 11 days I'll be back at it. Unfortunately, I have a busy week coming up. My friend's roommates are coming back on the 26th but I'm not able to move to my new place until the 28th. That presents a problem since 4 people can't possibly live in this place. Luckily, it's only a 2 day thing and I have another buddy who can store some of my stuff. So, I figure I can just sleep on the couch for those couple of days... it should be all good. In other news, I went home to see my mom. She came back from Scotland a few days ago and brought me this cool tiny box with a celtic knot on the lid- with an amethyst in the center. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, not much else happening. Lacey was at a mall in Michigan which one of the guys from the forum I visit went to. The big news there is that she did a thank you sort of thing for everyone at fanhost... so she knows I exist! Oh, happy day! Yeah, I know. Not really that impressive. Oh well. She's coming out with a new teen movie called "Dirty Deeds." It's described as being an "American Pie" type of movie. So it should be good. I'll probably write again after I get settled in for the fall semester.
5 Jul 04: Well, all-in-all it was a pretty good holiday. I went to Worland, WY to visit my grandparents. I got there Friday night. Saturday went well, I went swimming with my grandfather in Thermopolis; about 30 miles from Worland. They have hot spring pools there. Not the best place for cooling off during the summer, but it was still pretty fun. That evening, I helped "prune" the trees in my grandparents' yard (butcher would be a more appropriate word). Sunday I went to a Rodeo in Ten Sleep- about 30 miles NORTH of Worland. It lasted WAY too long (4 freakin' hours), but was still pretty cool. The wild horse race was the best. This morning, I finished up the trees- under the watchful eye of the grandmother this time. After lunch, I left to come back to Laramie. So it was fun. We were going to see a parade before the rodeo, but misread the ad and came about 24 hours too late. No fireworks either. I wasn't really up for them anyway. We caught the celebration thing they did in Washington D.C. on PBS. Pretty good holiday if I do say so myself... I don't know how it could have possibly been better. Just thought I'd put down some thoughts on my holiday weekend.
29 Jun 04: I know! ANOTHER update and it hasn't been several months! It's just that this DSL, combined with all the free time I have, has led me to post more often. Anyway, I wanted to say my friend and I went to a press rally for Pete Coors for Senate (yes, he owns the brewery). Sure, I'm not able to vote for the Colorado Senator, but it doesn't mean I can't root for him! His HQ just happened to be right next door to the 96 hour victory team for the Bush/Cheney campaign. I got all kinds of cool stickers and ran into a bunch of really cool people. I got my picture taken with Lee Greenwood AND Pete Coors. I'm hoping to put the picture up here soon. Everyone was just awesome! I find that a distinguishing characteristic between liberals and conservatives is that conservatives are just more pleasant to be around. They're less angry (if at all). When my friend and I were waiting for one of the Bush/Cheney volunteer's daughters to get us t-shirts, she commented; "they're going to be republican no matter what." I thought that was awesome (the daughters were probably about 7 or 9 years old). Another thing I found interesting was the number of Coors' volunteers was that they were my age! I guess college is a big bubble of liberalism. I never run into these sorts of people in school. I guess that's one thing to look forward to when I get out into the real world. This is just a stream-of-conciousness post, so forgive the scatter-braindedness of it... or something.
24 Jun 04: My dad sent this to me over e-mail and I thought it was appropriate to post here:
I guess that we average Americans are expendable!
Here's a multiple choice test that every American can identify with. Do you remember?
1. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbitt
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzeneger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
2. In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
3. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
4. In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
5. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year-old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davy Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
6. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a U.S. Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
7. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
8. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
9. In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
10. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the
remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and
Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
11. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
12. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
And we can add Paul Johnson to the growing list.
Nope, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?
So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners
will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, Secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning former Governors, and leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 & 40 alone because of profiling.
19 Jun 04: So far, this summer has been going pretty nicely. All I've been doing is work. My cat had to be put to sleep last week, and that was pretty rough for the whole family. I was 4 when we got her and she truly was a member of the family. My dad's friend said it all when she said: "They only live long enough for us to learn to love them, then they're gone." Oh well, c'est la vie.
My friend left for China to "teach english" through a christian group he's with for a month. In the mean time, he's letting me stay at his place (pick up mail, etc). I've half moved in right now since my lease at my old place is up on July 12. He gets back July 13- that is, if the Chinese don't throw him in jail. One of the perks of being in my friend's place is that he has DSL! So, after 11 months of dial-up, I'm finally back on a respectable internet speed. As my friend told me: high speed internet and cable tv are necessities now.
Speaking of necessities, I got a cell phone! I decided I didn't want to pay 60 bucks a month for a land phone when I can pay 40 for a cell phone (I knew that microeconomics class would come in handy). It's an LG VX6000 camera phone. So far, I haven't had anything interesting to take a picture of, but that's more a matter of my not really going anywhere lately. I'm sure it'll pick up once school starts.
You may have noticed, this front page is a bit shorter than usual. I decided to clean it up a bit again.
7-29-00 Updated the Lacey page, and cut-and-pasted a little something I found on a message board. Click here to read this wonderful description of Rosie O'donnell.
6-3-00 I have started my Ocean-City- Maryland-by-way-of-Hong-Kong trip today. Click here to read the journal I wrote during the trip.
