Update on Life

in an effort to write more I will be posting again. I know I always say that, but here is something to read if you've lost touch with what I'm up to this year. I like having a blog that nobody reads because I can post things on here without worrying that I'm spamming my facebook friends with attention seeking internet attention-whore stuff.

It's been a while and I figured I'd write an update. Lets just start out by saying that I had high hopes of being really fit this summer and I definitely didn't get the training in that I had hoped for. Beach life does that to you, especially when you don't have a Swiss boy to chase around and motivate with. here's a look at my summer so far.

Point O Woods and the Grand Canyon were both part of another good summer with all things considered. 

The Grand Canyon trip went really well. I forget how much I like it down there. Life is just simpler, and you kind of get into a rhythm. I remember looking forward to getting off of the trip around day 12 of 16, but now I miss it. I felt like I had good runs where it mattered (I nailed it in Lava, probably best run of our trip that day). We had 1 flip and 1 hole punched in a dory, both were committed by the trip leader. The flip happened in Horn Creek, which is the first rapid after the Phantom Ranch passenger exchange. It's gotta be crazy to be a passenger at this point. Basically people hike down from the rim, meet us on the shore, have lunch, and then get in the boats to run one of the biggest rapids in the canyon. We give them a brief safety talk of course, but they have no clue what they're really getting into on that day. The ding that cracked a hole in the boat happened at Lava Falls.

It's eerie approaching Lava. First, you haven't had any real rapids for a couple of days. There's this strange feeling because you visit some spectacular side attractions in the days leading to Lava, but the absence of rapids on those days makes you wonder what's around the bend. Next, there's a lot of worry about catching the river at the right water fluctuation. We camped about 10 miles above Lava the night before, and did a lot of calculating to make sure that we got there at the right time of day when we would be expecting to be on the low water from 2 days previous (it is so weird that we were far enough away from the dam to be floating on yesterday's releases). But I'd say the scariest thing about approaching Lava is coming to Vulcan's Anvil which marks 1 mile from the rapid. Here you get an ominous looking volcanic rock in the middle of the river reminding you that Lava Falls was formed because of a lava flow which dammed up the river momentarily (geologically speaking). We scouted the run and ran it all together in-stead of running in groups so that people could see each others runs. I was glad to get it over with and didn't want to have to sit on the shore being nervous any more. All I remember about the trip leader's boat wreck was seeing her disappear below my horizon and hearing a load thud. I then saw her again after the rapid pulled onshore with the other wood boats. I guess she was too tight on the hole we were supposed to clip the corner of at the top and ended up catching a piece of the chine on the rock that formed the hole. We had the whole trip pull the boat up on shore and had the bow up in the air on a inflatable tube, while the other dory boatman mixed up some epoxy from the repair kit. nothing too major though, just a small crack in the foot well. We camped soon after that and broke out the tequila.

All in all a great trip. The water was clear in May. I had never seen it like that. We also had really good whether. Typically in spring there is some pretty stiff wind in the afternoons, but it wasn't bad at all.

Now on to NY. It didn't have the magic that it had last year, and that was probably a combination of things. I think I was more used to how things ran on the island, and I also had more work to do with both the sports field and the teens. I did more sailing this year and am happy about that. I got to go out on a boat a few times, and I know a few more knots that I think will come in handy on the river too. I also tried to stay true to my mountain roots by enacting a little project I called "summit sunday". Maybe you've seen the pics on facebook, but I decided it was my duty as a mountain man to get on top of something in that flat-land each Sunday. I had to get creative.

Right now I'm in SLC living at my parent's for a bit, looking for work. I just got done working on a fence with my dad, but I'm looking for something else maybe a little more permanent to do (maybe something eco/conservation oriented. That or ski coaching, of course!). I have an interview for an internship with the Utah River's Council, but I think it's only for fall, and I'm not sure it is paid. I've got a buddy who has offered me a room to live in here, but I don't want to accept until I know what I want to do next. I've also been toying with the idea of a move to Tahoe. I'd love to be in Tahoe City doing something environmental and skiing my guts out, but I don't know where to start looking and am not quite brave enough to just move out there without a job lined up. We'll just have to see I guess.

I turn 24 on Tuesday and my mom defends her dissertation for a PhD in disabilities studies on Thursday, so next week will be a big one. We're looking forward to celebrating at our family cabin that weekend.

Okay, I think I've begin to ramble, time to go,

G-unit

Some Passions Can Never Be Tamed

Please forgive me for claiming old age in the paragraph below, I am an old soul at heart. I also think my nostalgia is being influenced by my recent reading of Cormac McCarthy's "All The Pretty Horses".

I saw on John Green's twitter that Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer be printing volumes of their encyclopedia, due mainly to internet competition. you can read an article about it here:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/13/technology/encyclopedia-britannica-books/?hpt=hp_t2

After hearing the news, I found myself conflicted and full of that dangerous fondness for the past. Is it strange that I want a volume now, and that a small part of me hopes for a future in which the gearwheels of electronic media come to a rust-filled, grinding halt. Is it wrong to hope for collapse? I feel assured of my nostalgia, and that it is a sign of my aging, when the word "newfangled" no longer slides to the front of my brain as a funny word, used half-ironically because of its quirkiness, but that now it feels right. And it feels right to hold a book in your hand, looking at it, knowing where it came from and how it might have been made. I don't know what happens to country, but I know there's none of it for old men.

G-unit

Superstition

A Far West Senior Team Blog Post
http://farwestnordic.org/seniorblog/2012/02/superstitious-snow/

Bummer

A Far West Farm Team Blog entry
http://farwestnordic.org/seniorblog/2012/02/its-not-spring-and-its-not-fall/

Jaunito's Fiesta Bag of Tortilla Chips

"There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine and petty frustration." -David Foster Wallace


Having been out of college for nearly three months, I am starting to understand what he meant in that quote. I know that three months isn't nearly enough to really get it, but I can at least imagine it from the taste of the real world I've had. I was a little depressed during the first few weeks of being out of school, and I'm just now feeling able to talk about it. I've settled into a new schedule of working, commuting, and reading for fun. I wanted to share the beginnings of a journal entry I wrote last December:

Jaunito's Fiesta Bag of Tortilla Chips
I've graduated, but it's not much of a party at the kitchen table on this late December day. No snow. no work. Just a couple bananas with brown spots and a bottle of wine. I'm feeling older too, but not in the expectant and "mature" way you feel on the threshold of 18 and 21. now 23, but slowly rounding on 24 and sitting here, stains on my sweater, a novel propped open with one hand, shoveling chip after chip in with the other hand because the salsa's too hot to stop. When the party is over, I'll loaf back to bed.

Thinking Back to December, I'm wondering about the nature of nostalgia. I wonder if it's only when the future weighs heavily upon us that we escape by looking back fondly upon the past, to the glory days. It's an escapism on par with the kind people seek in drugs, or exercise, or work, or literature. But, like the john Green said in Looking for Alaska, there's also a kind of nostalgia in imagining the future. I think we get too caught up in where we were and where we're going, and both are dangerous because we forget to live in the present (wow that sounded cliche). The universe demands to be noticed, so I've decided to be okay with where I am right now, graduated and living in Reno, and feeling things as they demand to be felt.

G-span

Welcome Home

Welcome Home

A Farm Team blog post

Trains

Thanksgiving weekend
my first train ride home.


The station: Just what I imagined.coffered ceilings, pine benches, a giant clock, and a mural depicting an adolescent version of a western town


The train's motion: oddly like rafting down the river. where's the engine? better write that down.

The old people in the seats a couple rows back: Idle-old-people-gossip and a peculiar fluid friendlness with strangers. envious. determined to practice social skills with passengers at dinner. what's the right amount of eye contact.

The train bore me inexorably onward and the light faded through my window, as it fades in all places.\

asked the first official-looking person who walked past when the last time a train robbery occurred. He looked at me from over the top of his spectacles with the expression, "dude, I just punch the tickets and collect the trash", and said, "I dunno, maybe when the trains started getting faster than the horses."

When I arrived in SLC the mountains were silhouettes. The only distinct boarder was the ridge-line between the earth and sky, and I tried to remember what the foothills looked like.
  
In SLC there were lots of old friends and old jokes. I won the fastest "resident" of Cottonwood Heights in the 5k turkey trot. We had Thanksgiving dinner like we used to before I was away at ski camps every year. There were so many "it was good to see you"s and a couple of "it was nice to meet you"s which felt genuine.

But the trip's over, and I'd best be getting back.

Read donne's words on parting: Though I must go, endure not yet a breech but an expansion, like gold to airy thinness beat.
all this travelling has me feeling like copper to under penny thickness beat beneath the wheels of a train

They're not cut-offs!

In the spirit of Kim Jong-Il looking at things I wanted to share with you all the pictures I could find of me wearing my favorite pair of Patagonia Baggies. I've decided to dispel all of the rumors and tell you that they are not jorts or cut-offs or in any way made of denim. I also thought it was too easy to upload every picture of these shorts, and have opted to only feature pictures taken on separate occasions (one picture= one day) and pics where the baggies are featured prominently

Lower Salmon 2011. "Strapping"

Grand Canyon 2010. "Who needs nature when you can pose in front of people in nature"

Grand Canyon 2010 eminence camp. "Accessorizes Well With Shoulder Bag"

Redwall Cavern 2010. "Not Off The Ground"

Dorm Room 2008. "Dorm Daze"

Confluence of Snake and Salmon River 2011. "Captain"

Mt Tallac 2011. "lightweight and durable: these baggies will give you wings"

Fire Island 2011. "Bay Watch"

Fire Island 2011. "Epic Fail"

Holiday, Utah 2010 "5k of looking good"

Reno IM Field 2010. "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other"

San Francisco 2009. "Reno 911: Gay Cops on Exchange"

4 blocks plus the one in my brain

I'd like to preface this poem by saying that I was struck by a line from Elliott Smith's Needle in the Hay which goes "gonna walk, walk, walk... four more blocks plus the one in my brain," and I wondered what that might mean. This poem has little to do with the song other than it borrows the title and the image of a needle in a haystack. The longer a poem is for me, the more I feel like it isn't a poem anymore and more like a disorganized ramble. I'm working to lengthen this poem and get more in there without it feeling weird. As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

Four Blocks (plus the one in my brain)
 
Two pieces of tiny dangling silver,
like the flint and stone of jealousy, hung upon each lobe;
which in turn drove him from the bar to the alley,
and across the four city blocks
back to a lonely bed.

Two needles in the hay, come to surface unexpectedly
to prick his ears for a woman taken for granted.
It wasn't the new guy that bothered him, but this which he kept repeating on the 5th block home:
"she was wearing earrings.
she hardly ever wears earrings."


Currently listening to Coldplay's "yellow" and a live Fleet foxes show streaming on youtube from Austin City Limits

Graduation

As it is that time of year again, I thought I might take just a minute to think about the value of education. Is there real value to what we do while sitting in class? Right now my head is spinning with a mixture of literary criticism and organic reaction mechanisms as we approach final exams, so it is quite impossible for me to express my views on education as pointedly or insightfully (which Firefox is telling me is not a word) as I would like, but I'll give it a try.


I will admit I am taking the easy route and simply quoting somebody else when I say that the value in education is awareness, and that a real education is not about acquired knowledge but about consciously choosing what to think about. I've summarized David Foster Wallace here (may he rest in peace), so I might as well give you the whole thing. Here is his commencement speech he gave to Kenyon College for the class of 2005. It is one of my favorites. It is kind of long for most casual observers, but anybody getting a liberal arts degree should hear it or read it. It's called "This is Water"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5THXa_H_N8&feature=related (part 1)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSAzbSQqals&feature=related (part 2)

One of my goals upon coming to college was to "figure out a good answer for 'What do you do with an English Major?'. You know, one that puts both my chemical engineer grandfather and my diet-coke-drinking-Mary-Kay-makeup-saleswoman aunt Connie in their place." -as I wrote in my scholarship application which you can read here:
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1558500071#!/note.php?note_id=150171138893 

for me, "This is Water" is the answer to that question; you consciously choose what to think about.

In The Library

So, I don't know why I get the urge to blog while I have other homework to do. no. wait. Of course I know why, but it did serve as a nice introduction to tell you where I am and why I'm writing. I'm working on an analysis paper examining the values of stewardship and sacrifice in LOTR and how it relates to issues in sustainability literature. But that has really nothing to do with the quote that popped into my head which I wanted to share.

it is from Madame Bovary and it goes like this:
Le plus médiocre libertin a rêvé des sultanes; chaque notaire porte en soi les débris d'un poête
which translated goes like this:
"The most halfhearted libertine has dreamed of sultans' wives; every notary carries within him the remains of a poet."

What do you think? I'm going to expand on this in some future post, but I just wanted to publish the quote somewhere right now so that I don't forget to think about what it means again, sometime after I've finished my sustainability paper.

-Gus

Looking out. Looking in.

In the library
Searching for the eyes searching for mine
It occurs to me that I’m no different
From those walking billboards and tools of self-interest
With three Greek letters on their shirts.
ΠΚΦ, ΦΔΘ, “ΣΚΙ”

The Social Network

"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author." ~J.R.R. Tolkien


I agree with the man; such one-to-one analogies are simplistic and do not do justice to the complexity of human narratives, but I also think that modern culture has taken too much stock in applicability. They see something applicable to their own life and deem it great art. To recognize is not to realize. The Social Network is not a work of nonfiction, and don't take it as such. This has been the experience of many a recent film or book. Just because you can apply it to something you know, or that you've experienced recently does not make it good social commentary, or even well made for that matter.


in drafting this post I started with, "I, for one, didn't like The Social Network", so I will end it with that statement. I will leave interpretation of this post up to the freedom of the reader, but I (for one) did not like The Social Network.

I'm currently listening to Black River Killer

The Truth Resists Simplicity

I hate to be the link puppet of Vlogbrothers videos, but these sentiments often mirror my own. Occasionally I ask myself if I am merely making caricatures out of real people. I tend to judge people's intelligence, personality, and depth by what they say in class, the way they appear on campus, or their attitude towards professors; but then it occurs to me that I
often share ill formed thoughts in class, and have bad hair days. I hope then they wouldn't take it to heart as a sign of who I am.

don't over-analyze, but also don't reduce a person or idea to stick figures.

Today's Music Link: how about MarsRaps

Preparation

a link to a Far West Farm Team Blog.... Click Here

Advice

The single most useful piece of advice I got about being an English major in college was to invest in audiobooks. I remember the advice came from my 10th grade teacher Miss Clark, and somehow it just stuck with me. There is simply too much reading for a person with aspirations of doing anything extra-curricular to get through it all. Audiobooks have helped me find time to do homework while simultaneously accomplishing the necessary mundane tasks of day to day life (commuting, waxing skis, folding socks etc.)

I now own a subscription to audible.com and consider myself an audio-bibliophile.

I'm currently listening to Madame Bovary, but I wanted to share some music today also.
here is my favorite kazoo solo

Tahoe XC

Tahoe XC is a lot of fun. I skied up there for the first time this year, and it will certainly not be my last. I've been there before for The Great Race, but this was the first time I'd been there for training purposes and got to see a lot more of the trail system. I can't wait for The Rim Tour tomorrow. Let's hope for easy waxing

now for the best part: Music. I've been a huge fan of Take Away Shows from LaBlogotheque since I was in high school. This song was recently played on a car commercial and has gotten some radio exposure in the last couple years: 1901

If you've got time to waste on live performances from hipster-indie bands, go ahead and spend it on http://www.blogotheque.net/

Also, I'm super excited that the new The Decemberists' album "The King Is Dead" is finally out. I'm listening to it as I blog!

-Gus

They be diggin everywhere

An email I recieved today that i thought I'd share
--------------------------------------------------1
An unusual incident occurred yesterday on a University construction site. Work has commenced on the new residence hall at N. Virginia St. and College Drive. Yesterday, in the course of initial construction site work involving heavy equipment, the construction crew discovered a grave, as indicated by the presence of remains with a casket. Work was immediately halted and the University, in partnership with the general contractor, began a process of notifying appropriate agencies starting with University Police and the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office.
 
The history of this site provides important background. The site was once the location of a cemetery which was owned by the Catholic Church. It was purchased by the University decades ago from the area diocese of the Catholic Church and, related to that purchase, the diocese oversaw the relocation of the cemetery and re-interment of remains at the current Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Cemetery in 1963. The University has notified the diocese of this matter and is working with the diocese to determine appropriate next steps to be taken relative to re-interment. Construction site work will remain suspended during this period and care is being taken to treat this matter with dignity.
 
- Jane
_____________
Jane Tors
Special Assistant to the President for Media Relations

Welcome Back

Welcome to Gus-iseverybodyin. I think I created this blog 4 years ago, and seldom used it (mostly for tortured teenage poetry and to keep track of my training for ski racing. The title of this blog springs from The Doors movie with Val Kilmer, I don't know why exactly, I just kind of liked The Doors back then. I am making a commitment to start blogging again for the rest of the winter. I have commitments to blog at least once a week for the Far West Farm Team in skiing so I figured I would forward those blogs here as well. I will try to do some blogging outside of ski racing as well, and I think that this place will be the perfect format to do so. If you are so inclined to look over my previous blog posts, I want you to know that I wrote most of them a long time ago and hope you do not judge so harshly. Some were so painfully teenage angst ridden that I had to delete them before making it public.

Here is to a future of literary blogs ;)

-Gus


P.S. I will end each blog with a link to a song I'm listening to or would recommend. here is the first one I'm currently listening to: Shout

I’m Back in the Sierras

A link to a Far West Senior Team Blog
I'm Back in the Sierras