Happy Halloweeeeeeen

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated the holiday last Friday night; I was Flava Flav (read as FLAAAAAAAAVAAAAAA FLAAV)

Good times.

What are you for Halloween?

For the second year in a row, RPI men's hockey is ranked in the top 20 in the nation (17th). We're coming for you Miami (maybe, if we're feeling lucky). It's good to go and feel victorious vicariously through the team. My intramural team on the other hand....

We started out the season with a stellar 4-0 victory. Then it was all downhill. Picked up a 9-0 loss. Then a 8-0 loss and tonight was a 8-1 loss. There's a couple of ways to look at this. We are, in fact, steadily improving. At this rate we'll be kicking uber butt by 2012.* Anyway, it's fun to play, so no worries.

*I didn't actually do the math.

Vocabulary

"I think I used to use bigger words before"

-Jeff Cain

This needs no explanation. He has been playing jump rope with a power strip in my room for ten minutes now.

Ah Engineering!

Catskillzzzzz and road biking

Two weekends ago I went hiking in the Catskills on the Escarpment trail. The leaves and colors are changing around here so it's a pretty clutch time to be outside. Here's some pictures:

Views!




Leaves!



This weekend I borrowed my roommate John's road bike and went for a cruising ride in the farm-ish area around Troy. This was my first ride on a true road bike and that thing was pretty darn squirrelly. Going from having tires that are more than 2 inches wide to tires that are a 1/4" wide is humbling. Gravel, potholes, and curbs all seem like imminent death. But that thing flies. I think I hammered out 20 miles in about an hour and a half. Not fast fast, but by mountain biker standards definitely ludacris speed. I hope everyone else is enjoying Fall!

Canoeing!

This weekend some Outing Clubers grabbed some canoes and headed to the Connecticut River for two days of chillin on the water. We started out pretty late and by the time we got to the River it was practically lunch time. We paddled for about a mile before stopping at an island for lunch. We saw a bald eagle flying around which was pretty darn neat.



We ventured forth and quickly found ourselves in a headwind. Our plan for the day was to paddle about 11 miles; we ended up running into dark before finding camp. Officially, we got to camp three minutes before sunset; the sight of campfires from other people was very welcome.

A Mac'Cheese'n'Ham dinner lead to S'Mores and a quality campfire. This inevitably lead to playing with fire.




It was stormy the next morning and we were VERY thankful the wind was going downstream. We even formed a raft and attempted to act as a sail.



We stopped for lunch at a picnic area and had an apple sauce eating contest. I was sadly beaten by Nathan. He may be the quickest apple saucer this side of the Mississippi.

At some point, you gotta have a waterfight.



We moseyed into the take-out by mid-afternoon and headed back to Troy. A quality weekend trip!

HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY

Canoeing trip this weekend was pretty stellar.... photos and details should occur in the next couple of days....

Today was RPI's first hockey game of the season against the mighty foe that is Bentley College. Ha! In the usual RPI tradition we played a pretty worthless team the first game and walked away with a 4-0 win. Good to be back being obnoxious and yelling stuff.

I also just got the schedule for intramural hockey this season. I'm on The Pirates team with a first game tomorrow night at midnight (nothing like a good late game). I missed intramurals last year and am pumped to play. I'm not sure if I've skated in over a year so it could be a little funky....

Little Falls!

A couple of weekends ago, John (my hairy roommate) led a climbing trip to Little Falls. Little Falls is a sweet top-rope-able area about an hour and a half West of RPI. As I am essentially a rock climbing newb, this trip was a pretty good time. We set up five ropes and I climbed four of them probably up to a 5.6/7 ish range (with several easier). Here's some pictures:




That's Chris climbing and Dan belaying. Chris has officially acquired the I'm-going-to-beat-this-thing angry face. I'm becoming more convinced that success rock climbing is proportional to one's grunting and angry face factor.



Dan then went huge and climbed this route. Is that a cast on Dan's arm? Yes, he climbed the route one-handed (and with the other dangling like a club). There's nothing more humbling than watching a gimped person school you.

Going on an overnight canoe trip this weekend. I hope you enjoy the long weekend if you have one!

Mmmm Carrots

Carrots are strange. At first glance, I can't help but think they're going to be kinda nasty. I think some sort of conditioning has taught me that vegetables taste bad. No exceptions. And yet, whenever I start eating carrots, I can't stop until they're gone. The taste isn't really good. But it's not bad and I keep coming back. There's my deep thoughts on vegetables for the day.

I passed a nursing home positioned across the street from a graveyard while running a couple of days ago. I hope that if I'm ever stuck in a nursing home (please, no), I'm not right next to a graveyard. A room with a view just wouldn't be the same.

Funky Solutions

I was procrastinating and reading the September issue of Backpacker magazine (which is their "global warming" issue) when I stumbled across a part on poison ivy. Apparently, Ecologist Jacqueline Mohan "used a pipe system to boost CO2 levels in a North Carolina forest to the exact concentration expected by the year 2050" she then concludes that "the vines grew three times larger and produced a more potent form of [the stuff that makes you itchy]".

This report is terrifying. I'm mostly terrified to hike in North Carolina now. We've spawned a poison ivy MONSTER down there in the name of science. I bet it's breeding it's way north now to destroy us all.

An advertisement later in the magazine is for a gold pendant filled with snow from the summit of Kilimanjaro. The tag is "act now before the snows of Kilimanjaro are gone forever (Proceeds will help fight global warming)"

So, by melting the snow... from the summit... and sending it to people in little key chains... we'll help put more snow up there? That we already melted? Come again?