The moment you've all been waiting for
A real update for the first time in approximately a month! Good Lord, where have I been?
My trip to New Mexico with Monica was absolutely magnificent. Our first day driving from my grandma's house to the Sand Dunes was sort of interesting, since we tried to use Microsoft maps to get directions. I was pretty sure I knew how to get there, but I just wanted to check. Anyway, MS Maps sent us to Music Pass, which is a hiking trail. We got to a tiny dirt road in the middle of nowhere and turned around to try another route. That route led us to Mosca Pass, which is also a hiking trail. That time, we got to a severely rutted road that tried to eat my car, so we turned around a took the long way to the Sand Dunes, down around the Sangre De Cristo range. On the upside, though, we saw some amazingly beautiful Colorado scenery. We had a good time kicking around the dunes by the time we finally arrived and every time I go there I realize how incredibly odd they are. If you've never been to the Sand Dunes before, I highly recommend you go; there's nothing like it. You're just driving along and you see funny yellowish foothills from far off, and then there they are: massive sand dunes in the middle of Colorado. WTF? It's a good time though and I discovered that the sand throws everything out of proportion. I walked 20 feet from Monica and she looked amazingly distant. So odd.
Day two was mostly driving and we wound our way (no interstates here, folks) down to Angel Peak recreation area. Angel Peak, like the Sand Dunes, is also both odd and stunning. The Angel Peak area overlooks badlands and descend straight down from the horizon as you drive towards the campground. You can't see it from the highway; there is absolutely no indication that this natural wonder is right in front of you. The only problem was that we were camped on top of a mesa, which meant lots of wind and blowing sand. Not so good for camping. It is good for quick access to Chaco Canyon though!
You see, Chaco's camping was limited to about 30 spaces (of only 50 or so to begin with) due to construction and flooding, so we wanted to get there super early and snag a space before everyone else got there. It worked and we had no problem getting a camping spot right next to a ruin. Sweetness! For those of you who haven't heard of Chaco Canyon, it's a 2000 year old cultural center for Pueblo peoples in the American southwest. At its heyday, an estimated 20,000 people could have lived in the canyon at one time. Of course, this is highly debatable, since the area is quite dry and resources may have limited sustainable living. The coolest thing about Chaco, for sure, are the various lunar and solar timekeepers that range from spirals etched into walls to entire cities constructed on the solar and lunar axi (axises?). Chaco is most famous for the very unique Fajada Butte "sun dagger." On the equinoxes, a dagger of light exactly bisects a spiral set in the wall. shining in between three rocks stacked against the butte. On the solstices, a large dagger frames the spiral and a small dagger bisects a smaller spiral. But it gets better! The Chacoans also charted the 18 year lunar cycle and they are the only recorded ancient civilization to do so. On the lunar maximums and minimums, which occur every 9 years, a dagger of light will frame one side or the other of the same spiral. During the yearly lunar maximum, the dagger of light follows the lines of the spiral exactly from year to year. The amount of observation it must have taken to record the lunar maxima is astounding. And of course, these people were building these buildings in 900 AD. We were building great churches and palaces then and yet our ancestors still had the nerve to call these people savages. Interestingly, the buildings were built in stages, which shows that every single building was master planned to line up not only along solar and lunar axi, but also within themselves. Each building is connected to another both by massive roads but also on a spiritual level through similar axis patterns, all of which intersect at Pueblo Bonito. Absolutlely specatcular.
Most of the buildings in Chaco Canyon are aligned with the sun's path on the exquinoxes, so that the shadow on the longest disappears on that day. In Pueblo Bonito, the other major wall in the city is aligned exactly on the North/South axis and the shadow on the wall disappears at the highest point of the day. Monica and I even looked like weirdos and watched it disappear :) It's real, I promise!
In short, I'm a super history nerd and I like hiking, so Chaco was spectacular. We hiked on top of the south mesa up to Tzin Kletzin. Once up there, you can see absolutely nothing for miles and miles. There's no sign of human habitation, no sign of human intervention. There are no power lines, no roads. Nothing. It was refreshing to see that there are still places that suburbia hasn't touched.
Sadly, we all have to return to suburbia at some point, and we headed to Albuquerque Wednesday to visit Monica's parents. Surprisingly, Albuquerque is a really nice city. It certianly wouldn't be my first choice of residence, but I could definitely manage it. Mostly we tooled around the city, hung out with Monica's parents, and had a little bit of summer vacation time. We met up with my friend Derek, who relocated there to work for Sandia labs-- talk about a trip, he's a real adult now, talking about eventually raising a family.... oy gevalt.
The drive back to Colorado wasn't quite so pleasant since we just blazed up I-25 for 7 hours. Oh yeah, and gas was $3.50 a gallon in Trinidad. I wanted to cry. But hey, I'm sure it will be worse in July.
Immediately upon returning I started my new job with CU Facilities Management(or FacMan). In the last two weeks I have caulked 137 showers, installed 158 towel racks, assembled 42 bulletin boards, and walked every single floor in Will Vill at least 10 times. Hey, at least it keeps me busy. I'm actually learning some useful skills, like how to correctly (not that we do it correctly) caulk a shower or install a faucet. I feel so handy. Unfortunately, I work by myself for 8 hours straight and I get really bored. Oh well, I think I'm going to make GRE flashcards to keep my brain busy.
By the way, GRE questions are scary. Here's a sample:
She cried "Laura," up the garden,
"Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
squeezed from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me:
For your sake I have braved the glen
and had to do with goblin merchant men."
1. This stanza is from a poem by the same author as
a. "Dover Beach"
b. "The Lady of Shallot"
c. "A Birthday"
d. Sonnets from the Portuguese
e. "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church."
The answer is C and the author is Christina Rosetti, the poem is "Goblin Market," which I'm pretty sure I've read. No, I didn't know the answer to that question. I have a 15 page suggested reading list that frightens me. So I guess that's what I'm doing with my summer...
Anyway, I'll try not to complain too much... But hey, good things are happening too! I moved in yesterday! It's kind of wierd to be living here and be in the house alone. I love being close to work and close to Alex and Monica, but I'm definitely still adjusting. I have the whole basement to myself, which is awesome in about a hundred ways. I wish I could live here all the time, but then I'd have to get a real job. Boo.
Also! It's time for Kerry's Book List of the Month! Guess what? KBLM is three years old this month! Holy cow!
A Wizard of Earthsea-- Ursula K. Le Guin
The Tombs of Atuan-- Ursula K. Le Guin
The Farthest Shore-- Ursula K. Le Guin
Tehanu-- Ursula K. Le Guin
At my thesis defense Prof. Krauth asked me if I had read this series and was appalled when I said I hadn't. Alan has been pestering me to read them since September and I'm so glad I did! If you like fantasy at all I highly recommend you read at least the first one. Le Guin's writing is simple but effective and both her storyline and style feel incredibly organic as you read. I couldn't put it down; the story grows as it lingers in your mind yet Le Guin doesn't delve into excessive plot sidebars. The books are short, but they certainly pack a punch. I'm torn between A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan as to which is my favorite, but all four of them are wonderful. Tehanu was written well after the other three and it definitely feels more like an epilogue than a true part of the rest of the story. Her characters are realistic, lovable, and consistent from book to book; you absolutely fall in love with them as each novel progresses. Definitely a must- read.
Rating:*******
The Phantom Tollbooth-- Norton Juster
I picked up this book because I remember enjoying it as a kid and I thought maybe I could write my subscription for the Children's Literature Association Quarterly about it. I'm not so sure about the article, but I did have a fun time reading the book. I'm not entirely sure if I understood all the humor and wordplay when I read it at 8, but I still enjoyed it at 20. Our stalwart protangonist Milo drives himself through a tollbooth that mysteriously appears in his room to the land of Expectations. From there, he goes to Digitopolis and his given a quest to rescue the missing princesses Rhyme and Reason. After an unfortunate detour to Conclusions (you get there by jumping) he gains the support of the Mathmagician and sets off to invade the mountains of Ignorance. I think you probably get the point. I enjoyed it though the constant punning gets old after a little while.
Rating: *****
The Other Boleyn Girl-- Philippa Gregory
This is my one 600-page trash novel for the summer. It's more than a little ridiculous; a historical fiction chronicling the life of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, through the eyes of her younger sister. It's full of gossip, intrigue, historical inaccuracy and mediocre writing to fit the bill. It's midly entertaining and once you get started it's rather difficult to stop. If you haven't got much else to do, there are certainly worse things you could read.
Rating: ****
My trip to New Mexico with Monica was absolutely magnificent. Our first day driving from my grandma's house to the Sand Dunes was sort of interesting, since we tried to use Microsoft maps to get directions. I was pretty sure I knew how to get there, but I just wanted to check. Anyway, MS Maps sent us to Music Pass, which is a hiking trail. We got to a tiny dirt road in the middle of nowhere and turned around to try another route. That route led us to Mosca Pass, which is also a hiking trail. That time, we got to a severely rutted road that tried to eat my car, so we turned around a took the long way to the Sand Dunes, down around the Sangre De Cristo range. On the upside, though, we saw some amazingly beautiful Colorado scenery. We had a good time kicking around the dunes by the time we finally arrived and every time I go there I realize how incredibly odd they are. If you've never been to the Sand Dunes before, I highly recommend you go; there's nothing like it. You're just driving along and you see funny yellowish foothills from far off, and then there they are: massive sand dunes in the middle of Colorado. WTF? It's a good time though and I discovered that the sand throws everything out of proportion. I walked 20 feet from Monica and she looked amazingly distant. So odd.
Day two was mostly driving and we wound our way (no interstates here, folks) down to Angel Peak recreation area. Angel Peak, like the Sand Dunes, is also both odd and stunning. The Angel Peak area overlooks badlands and descend straight down from the horizon as you drive towards the campground. You can't see it from the highway; there is absolutely no indication that this natural wonder is right in front of you. The only problem was that we were camped on top of a mesa, which meant lots of wind and blowing sand. Not so good for camping. It is good for quick access to Chaco Canyon though!
You see, Chaco's camping was limited to about 30 spaces (of only 50 or so to begin with) due to construction and flooding, so we wanted to get there super early and snag a space before everyone else got there. It worked and we had no problem getting a camping spot right next to a ruin. Sweetness! For those of you who haven't heard of Chaco Canyon, it's a 2000 year old cultural center for Pueblo peoples in the American southwest. At its heyday, an estimated 20,000 people could have lived in the canyon at one time. Of course, this is highly debatable, since the area is quite dry and resources may have limited sustainable living. The coolest thing about Chaco, for sure, are the various lunar and solar timekeepers that range from spirals etched into walls to entire cities constructed on the solar and lunar axi (axises?). Chaco is most famous for the very unique Fajada Butte "sun dagger." On the equinoxes, a dagger of light exactly bisects a spiral set in the wall. shining in between three rocks stacked against the butte. On the solstices, a large dagger frames the spiral and a small dagger bisects a smaller spiral. But it gets better! The Chacoans also charted the 18 year lunar cycle and they are the only recorded ancient civilization to do so. On the lunar maximums and minimums, which occur every 9 years, a dagger of light will frame one side or the other of the same spiral. During the yearly lunar maximum, the dagger of light follows the lines of the spiral exactly from year to year. The amount of observation it must have taken to record the lunar maxima is astounding. And of course, these people were building these buildings in 900 AD. We were building great churches and palaces then and yet our ancestors still had the nerve to call these people savages. Interestingly, the buildings were built in stages, which shows that every single building was master planned to line up not only along solar and lunar axi, but also within themselves. Each building is connected to another both by massive roads but also on a spiritual level through similar axis patterns, all of which intersect at Pueblo Bonito. Absolutlely specatcular.
Most of the buildings in Chaco Canyon are aligned with the sun's path on the exquinoxes, so that the shadow on the longest disappears on that day. In Pueblo Bonito, the other major wall in the city is aligned exactly on the North/South axis and the shadow on the wall disappears at the highest point of the day. Monica and I even looked like weirdos and watched it disappear :) It's real, I promise!
In short, I'm a super history nerd and I like hiking, so Chaco was spectacular. We hiked on top of the south mesa up to Tzin Kletzin. Once up there, you can see absolutely nothing for miles and miles. There's no sign of human habitation, no sign of human intervention. There are no power lines, no roads. Nothing. It was refreshing to see that there are still places that suburbia hasn't touched.
Sadly, we all have to return to suburbia at some point, and we headed to Albuquerque Wednesday to visit Monica's parents. Surprisingly, Albuquerque is a really nice city. It certianly wouldn't be my first choice of residence, but I could definitely manage it. Mostly we tooled around the city, hung out with Monica's parents, and had a little bit of summer vacation time. We met up with my friend Derek, who relocated there to work for Sandia labs-- talk about a trip, he's a real adult now, talking about eventually raising a family.... oy gevalt.
The drive back to Colorado wasn't quite so pleasant since we just blazed up I-25 for 7 hours. Oh yeah, and gas was $3.50 a gallon in Trinidad. I wanted to cry. But hey, I'm sure it will be worse in July.
Immediately upon returning I started my new job with CU Facilities Management(or FacMan). In the last two weeks I have caulked 137 showers, installed 158 towel racks, assembled 42 bulletin boards, and walked every single floor in Will Vill at least 10 times. Hey, at least it keeps me busy. I'm actually learning some useful skills, like how to correctly (not that we do it correctly) caulk a shower or install a faucet. I feel so handy. Unfortunately, I work by myself for 8 hours straight and I get really bored. Oh well, I think I'm going to make GRE flashcards to keep my brain busy.
By the way, GRE questions are scary. Here's a sample:
She cried "Laura," up the garden,
"Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
squeezed from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me:
For your sake I have braved the glen
and had to do with goblin merchant men."
1. This stanza is from a poem by the same author as
a. "Dover Beach"
b. "The Lady of Shallot"
c. "A Birthday"
d. Sonnets from the Portuguese
e. "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church."
The answer is C and the author is Christina Rosetti, the poem is "Goblin Market," which I'm pretty sure I've read. No, I didn't know the answer to that question. I have a 15 page suggested reading list that frightens me. So I guess that's what I'm doing with my summer...
Anyway, I'll try not to complain too much... But hey, good things are happening too! I moved in yesterday! It's kind of wierd to be living here and be in the house alone. I love being close to work and close to Alex and Monica, but I'm definitely still adjusting. I have the whole basement to myself, which is awesome in about a hundred ways. I wish I could live here all the time, but then I'd have to get a real job. Boo.
Also! It's time for Kerry's Book List of the Month! Guess what? KBLM is three years old this month! Holy cow!
A Wizard of Earthsea-- Ursula K. Le Guin
The Tombs of Atuan-- Ursula K. Le Guin
The Farthest Shore-- Ursula K. Le Guin
Tehanu-- Ursula K. Le Guin
At my thesis defense Prof. Krauth asked me if I had read this series and was appalled when I said I hadn't. Alan has been pestering me to read them since September and I'm so glad I did! If you like fantasy at all I highly recommend you read at least the first one. Le Guin's writing is simple but effective and both her storyline and style feel incredibly organic as you read. I couldn't put it down; the story grows as it lingers in your mind yet Le Guin doesn't delve into excessive plot sidebars. The books are short, but they certainly pack a punch. I'm torn between A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan as to which is my favorite, but all four of them are wonderful. Tehanu was written well after the other three and it definitely feels more like an epilogue than a true part of the rest of the story. Her characters are realistic, lovable, and consistent from book to book; you absolutely fall in love with them as each novel progresses. Definitely a must- read.
Rating:*******
The Phantom Tollbooth-- Norton Juster
I picked up this book because I remember enjoying it as a kid and I thought maybe I could write my subscription for the Children's Literature Association Quarterly about it. I'm not so sure about the article, but I did have a fun time reading the book. I'm not entirely sure if I understood all the humor and wordplay when I read it at 8, but I still enjoyed it at 20. Our stalwart protangonist Milo drives himself through a tollbooth that mysteriously appears in his room to the land of Expectations. From there, he goes to Digitopolis and his given a quest to rescue the missing princesses Rhyme and Reason. After an unfortunate detour to Conclusions (you get there by jumping) he gains the support of the Mathmagician and sets off to invade the mountains of Ignorance. I think you probably get the point. I enjoyed it though the constant punning gets old after a little while.
Rating: *****
The Other Boleyn Girl-- Philippa Gregory
This is my one 600-page trash novel for the summer. It's more than a little ridiculous; a historical fiction chronicling the life of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, through the eyes of her younger sister. It's full of gossip, intrigue, historical inaccuracy and mediocre writing to fit the bill. It's midly entertaining and once you get started it's rather difficult to stop. If you haven't got much else to do, there are certainly worse things you could read.
Rating: ****