lumensoutdoors.org - Page 16

• Back on the internet - December 7, 2006

  A technician from Covad came today and hooked up he DSL connection at the new apartment. We had him hook it up in the closet since there was a block of phone equipment in there already. After working in there for a while, he informed us that we had networking cable running to all the jacks in the apartment. He called it cat5, which we soon discovered was wrong, but it was still exciting. This meant we could hook up the jacks in our bedrooms with ethernet and not have to run big long cables from the bedrooms back to the closet.

• Christmas brewing - November 28, 2006

  Last night, I made the first beer here at my new place. The recipe is an idea Sarah and I came up with last winter for this year’s Christmas seasonal. The basic idea is a stout with chocolate and cherries added. I used my Oatmeal Stout recipe as the starting point. I removed the oatmeal, added a body-enhancing grain, and added real chocolate. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time agonizing over the details of the recipe for once. I decided to go with a pound of baker’s chocolate and cherry extract. Working with real fruit is really difficult and adds a lot of time to the procedure. Since I’m trying to have this drinkable by the end of the year, using the extract speeds the process up quite a bit.

• One last hike before winter? - November 26, 2006

  I meant to go hiking on Saturday so I could spend today making beer. Instead, I decided to get to bed late Friday night and wake up several times so it was basically impossible for me to get up when the alarm went off at 5am. So I went hiking today instead. Of course, I also overslept today but not too badly. Luckily I already had my gear ready and was out in the car at 6:30am. My only stop was in Concord, NH for fuel, breakfast, and lunch supplies. By 9:30, I was in the parking lot at Crawford Notch getting my warm clothes on and my pack ready.

• Moved, etc. - November 24, 2006

  Well it has been a very long time since I last updated things here. In the last week and a half, a whole lot of stuff has happened. First off, I moved into the new place at Clocktower last Wednesday. David and I rented a truck to move all our furniture and large boxes. It took the entire day (as in, we were still moving my furniture in around 9pm) and we got a $100 parking ticket because of it, but we got it done. It was a horrible chore involving walking several miles and lifting everything we own at least four times. But we got it done. With this stuff moved, I was able to stay in the new place that first night. I got all the other essentials like kitchen things, clothes, and bathroom stuff moved in fairly quickly too. Most of the nights since then have involved trips to and from Royal Crest with my car full of junk. I almost have it finished now - just a couple more trips plus cleaning and I’ll be all moved out.

• Moving day is here - November 14, 2006

  Tomorrow is moving day around here. I’m mostly packed and ready to start hauling things off. The plan is to head up to Clocktower tomorrow morning to pick up keys, inspect the place, and take some pictures. Then we’re going to go pick up a rental truck and carry all our furniture and boxed up things. Hopefully by evening, the bulk of my stuff will be at the new apartment and the old apartment will only be what’s left.

• Rocking out - November 13, 2006

  I have been spending a lot of time the past two nights playing Guitar Hero 2. For the uninformed, it’s a video game where you have a guitar-like controller and you play along with famous rock songs. It’s the guitar equivalent of Dance Dance Revolution or Karoke. The controller itself is a pretty reasonable approximation of a guitar in that there’s a couple fret buttons, a strum button, and a whammie bar. You play chords by holding down several fret buttons at once, instead of contorting your fingers to hit all the strings. If it were too much more realistic, it would turn off all the people like me who can’t actually play guitar.

• Calling all artists - November 9, 2006

  A while ago, I made this block stacking game by the name of skf. It was a rousing success among my internet friends for its difficulty and simplicity. While I think I did a pretty good job of programming it, the graphics were just slapped together and there is no music at all. I’m just not good at those sorts of things. I’d like to push this towards a final release with completed artwork and music, as well as adding some more polish on the programming side. If you are talented in either art or music (songs and sound effects), please mail me at [email protected]. I’d love to get some help and finally get this game out there for good.

• Vote! - November 7, 2006

  This is a reminder to the nine people who read this thing to go do their civic duty today and go vote. There’s no excuse. You can always get time off work to do it and if you can’t, you should go get a different job while you’re at it. I went and voted at the elementary school on East Dunstable Road today, and here’s how it went.

• Back to Franconia Notch - November 6, 2006

  Another weekend, another trip up Franconia Ridge. This weekend, Lon and I hiked Little Haystack via the Falling Waters trail. This is a 3.2 mile trail that climbs 3000’, passing several waterfalls at the bottom before a fairly steep final ascent going up above treeline. It was colder and windier than my last hike a couple weeks ago but we were well prepared with lots of warm clothing. From the parking lot, the peaks all appeared to be covered in clouds though this would pass as the day went on until it was quite sunny. We got lucky with the weather yet again.

• Equipped - November 3, 2006

  In preparation for some upcoming hiking, I added a few more pieces of gear this afternoon. I picked up a long sleeve insulating shirt for under my sweater, a headlamp, and iodine for emergencies. I think this covers me from head to toe for the whole winter, unless the conditions get really ridiculous. I’m not planning on heading out into anything too crazy this year so I can probably go without an ice axe, snowshoes, goggles, or a balaclava. Maybe if this year goes well, I will pick up some of those things for next year and try heading into the alpine regions.

  I’m also quite tired of spending money on this stuff. The sweater was really cheap and a great buy, but I’ve shelled out money for the insulating pants and shirts. Hopefully what I’ve got now will carry me through the whole winter as long as I stay inside when it’s storming and don’t try to tackle something like Washington. Of course, the problem here is that you don’t expect conditions to get bad but you should always be prepared for that possibility. I think I am adequately prepared, however.