• Moab (Arches National Park)
• Mesa Verde (Pueblo Ruins)
• Las Vegas (Financial Ruins…)
• Grand Canyon
• Bryce Canyon
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Whatever else looks cool

I’ll be heading out of Vail from April 13-22 so if I know you and you want to get some late season skiing in you are welcome to stay at my apartment. I’ll be posting pictures as the vacation proceeds. I am also going to be meeting my friend Mary in Vegas on April 15th for her birthday.

Part skateboard, part Segway, part tank, the DTV Shredder ($TBA) is one of the craziest contraptions we’ve seen this year. It features a normal skateboard deck and trucks, which are mounted to a powerful motor, and two tank threads — mounted below and to the sides of the deck — capable of going over snow, sand, dirt, ice, and nearly any other non-paved surface you can think of at speeds of up to 30 mph, or plenty fast enough to give you some gnarly injuries should you happen to shred a bit too hard. [Uncrate]

Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab

In 1951, A.C. Gilbert introduced his U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, a radioactive learning set we can only assume was fun for the whole math club. Gilbert, who Americanmemorabilia claims was “often compared to Walt Disney for his creative genius,” had a dream that nuclear power could capture the imaginations of children everywhere. For a mere $49.50, the kit came complete with three “very low-level” radioactive sources, a Geiger-Mueller radiation counter, a Wilson Cloud Chamber (to see paths of alpha particles), a Spinthariscope (to see “live” radioactive disintegration), four samples of Uranium-bearing ores, and an Electroscope to measure radioactivity. MUTUALLY ASSURED INSTRUCTION Junior Einsteins had everything they needed, except a hazmat suit And what nuclear lab for kids would be complete without an Atomic Energy Manual and Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom comic book? (The latter was written with the help of General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project.) Kids do the darndest things, but not, apparently, nuclear physics. The toy was only sold for one year. It’s unclear what effects the Uranium-bearing ores might have had on those few lucky children who received the set, but exposure to the same isotopeU-238has been linked to Gulf War syndrome, cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma, among other serious ailments. Even more uncertain is the longterm impact of being raised by the kind of nerds who would give their kid an Atomic Energy Lab.

Check out this documentary.

To the point. Here are my photos from California.

I also made some cool HDR Photos from my travels. Check these out:

I settled in finally and skied every other day or so. High altitude drinking was a problem because I wasn’t yet acclimated and I was having the worst hangovers of my life.

I was lacking friends. Denise was cool but we have quite different personalities. She had a volleyball team that played every wednesday so I joined in on that. We lost every game but the good thing was that I was able to recruit enough players to start a soccer team in Edwards.

The facility in Edwards at the WECMRD building is amazing. Probably the nicest facility I have ever played upon.

We were a rag-tag band of Lift operators at Beavercreek and some professionals here and there. Again, the Volleyball curse was still intact and we lost every game. It’s a building season I tell them.

Well, my time was coming up with my current roommate. I rented it for 1 month and she had another person coming in after me. So I had to move. Luckily scanning the Vail Daily I was able to find a cheap, simple apartment at the Vail Racquet Club. They have an amazing fitness facility. Heated lap pool, 2 hot tubs and a full fitness center. All inclusive. They also have tennis courts which I’ll check out in the summer.
So I signed a lease until May.

I also started a Meetup.com group called Vail Adventurers. We have 26 members now. As the temps get higher we’ll be doing some cool stuff.

So I had no furniture and an empty apartment. So… I had to start rebuilding. Internet and Cable installed. No TV yet but my laptop has Netflix so that’s solved. I bought a nice air mattress at Walmart and got some basic living necessities. I needed some furniture. I bought a nice sectional at American Furniture Warehouse (the Ikea of the Valley) and got a decent TV at Costco.

Amazon Prime is something everyone should have. I ordered so much stuff on Amazon with Free shipping that I must have cost them a fortune in shipping. 150lb bed frame, bar chairs, etc. I finally have a nice bachelor pad. Here are some photos.

Now it’s april. Beavercreek closed on the 11th and all my soccer team save 1 or 2 people are gone to whatever miserable state they live now.

Oh. Lindsey Vonn of Olympic fame calls Vail home too. Her homecoming was a big deal.

Soccer season over. I have wednesday Karaoke nights now that I go to which is a blast. Talking with a guy named Sandman who runs them about setting up a comedy night. He want’s to do Improv comedy. Not my bag but we’ll see how it goes.

Now that all of the friends that I have made are now gone I have to restart again. I am putting together a new team soon. I have a few friends that I have made at Karaoke. I guess it’s the nature of the transient seasonal nature of the place.

I am also training for a 10k soon which is marketed as the “Hardest 10k” in the country. This fact because it occurs mostly above 9000′. Running here is much much harder than sea-level. I can barely crank out a 5k without some suffering.

More updates coming soon. Here are some flickr photos to check out.

A Blue bird...duh...

I think if you have any interest in following my travels you would best follow my Twitter account which is http://twitter.com/Dugindc

It’s hard to post on the road and twitter can capture the banality in high tech precision. “Hey, that dog looks stupid…Tweet!”, “Hey, look a sign that has a funny thing on it…Tweet!”, “Look, my dignity just fell out…Tweet!”

Anyway, for what it’s worth enjoy…

I still think there is something wrong with the truck. I thought the Fuel pump was going bad but I don’t have classic fuel pump failure issues such as issues with cold starts, etc… The culprit may be that the Induction service was done after my new plugs were installed which would pretty much ruin the new plugs. I hope the mechanics are not that stupid but you never know.

I have some engine weakness when climing hills. Not a good thing when I am going to be driving through the rockies. Given that Clive has made this trip before in much worse shape I have confidence I’ll make it to Colorado where I can afford to have it sitting in the shop for a week or two getting fixed.

Wish this post had more “dreaming of the west” quality instead of the mechanical shop talk. More to come!

The vail bus system is large and removes the need for personal transportation.

I am at my friend Chris and Anjali’s home where they have kindly put me up for the night.

I remember reading Charles Bukowski when I was a kid around 16 years old. It shaped me when I was young. Perhaps it made me jaded too soon. I remember this poem in particular. It is even better when read by Bukowski.

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art

I was curious what the oldest photograph was. Not sure why but I looked it up. Nicephore Niepce was one of the pioneers in photography using a tool called a Heliograph.

In stark constrast we have one of the most advanced photographic techniques for producing Gigapixel quality photos. Sorta interesting how the old Heliograph shares a rusticness to it that the Gigapxl camera also exudes.