Summer began last week. The heat hasn't become unbearable yet. Although I have 9 credit hours left to complete my curriculum, I was able to walk the stage at graduation on Friday May 19th. For the four years of hard work I put into my degree, I was rather disappointed by the anticlimactic end! Most Americans before graduation announce their ends to their education and may have family fly in from the different corners of the nation. It's a little more difficult for me with relatives in Australia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, England, Mexico, USA and maybe more...
I've been thinking of an alternate means to let everyone know what's been going on in my life these last few years without boring you and without overloading you, because there's been a lot! With a concoction of ideas and suggestions, I've decided that doing a blog would be the most appropriate means in this day and age ;)
So, here my blogging begins, Summer 06:
I love the feeling of sweating profusely. Gross maybe, but its true. I've been pushing myself fairly hard to develop a running routine, and now more recently an additional canoeing routine. I've bumped my 30 minute 4.5 mile to a 7 mile (not gonna say a time until I have some consistency on this one) Now I am planning to run the Dallas White Rock Marathon in the Fall. My uncle Tom on the other hand has been my mentor when it comes to canoeing. Tom's been training for a 260 mile canoe race with his mate Ralph. Trouble is, Ralph just pulled out of the race... so without much ado, Tom recruited me... This race is intense. We are in the aluminium class of boat (which has a maximum hull speed of about 6mph when we paddle like animals) and so we are aiming at finishing the race in 72 hours. The maximum time permitted to complete the race is 100 hours, but as one might imagine, it becomes increasingly less productive as the time drags into the 3rd and 4th day. Tom has the system down. He's equipped me with some pretty cool gear including a bottom-cut-out-urinal (which also is used as a bailer), four water bottles (2 filled with cytomax - an energy drink) with long tubes that clip to ones shirt so you only miss one paddle stroke when inserting this home-made camelback into your mouth. We have ziplock containers attached with neat clips to the insides of the canoe so we know where they are at all times, and we have best of all, $190 paddles!!!!! I know, I was in shock. I'm going to take some sweet pictures to put up on the blog (with labels) and I may even put up pictures of me at the end of this monstrous race! We had a practice race last weekend which was 18 miles long (the last stretch of the long race) which was interesting to say the least. I got a sighting of a roseatte spoonbill as well as an alligator which was really neat. First bit of good wildlife I've seen in a while! The fishing down there also looked like it'd be marvelous, although you'd have to pay me more than a lot to eat anything out of that water. We caught sight of some dodgy looking stuff in the river including a monstrous head (either a massive catfish or a cow) that had turned white under the water surface... delightful! The one thing I really want to do that I'm looking into is developing some kind of fundraising effort in conjunction with the race in which the proceeds go to a charity that helps the environment or people in hardships back home in Zimbabwe. I'll keep you posted with this as it progresses.
So its not all about running and canoeing... as I said I have 9 credits to complete and I have a strong desire to push to excel in these last 3 classes as it'll set me up fairly well for applying to graduate studies. At this point in time I think biomedical engineering research is what entices me the most, although there are many other fields I'd like to learn more about (just to name a few: law, medicine, NGOs like WWF, environmental development, ski resorts and recreation, teaching, third world development or disaster preparedness) before I make up my mind. I have my career with Kimley Horn starting up in August or sooner, although I think I will wait until I am done with class just so that I can completely focus on my career. I don't want to start off with other things on my mind and do anything half-assed, so although I'd love to get my signing bonuses right away I think it's best I wait till I'm ready to focus on just my job.
So there you have it, my summer plans in a nutshell. And when summer ends, I've got a 3 day pass to ACL festival!
I've been thinking of an alternate means to let everyone know what's been going on in my life these last few years without boring you and without overloading you, because there's been a lot! With a concoction of ideas and suggestions, I've decided that doing a blog would be the most appropriate means in this day and age ;)
So, here my blogging begins, Summer 06:
I love the feeling of sweating profusely. Gross maybe, but its true. I've been pushing myself fairly hard to develop a running routine, and now more recently an additional canoeing routine. I've bumped my 30 minute 4.5 mile to a 7 mile (not gonna say a time until I have some consistency on this one) Now I am planning to run the Dallas White Rock Marathon in the Fall. My uncle Tom on the other hand has been my mentor when it comes to canoeing. Tom's been training for a 260 mile canoe race with his mate Ralph. Trouble is, Ralph just pulled out of the race... so without much ado, Tom recruited me... This race is intense. We are in the aluminium class of boat (which has a maximum hull speed of about 6mph when we paddle like animals) and so we are aiming at finishing the race in 72 hours. The maximum time permitted to complete the race is 100 hours, but as one might imagine, it becomes increasingly less productive as the time drags into the 3rd and 4th day. Tom has the system down. He's equipped me with some pretty cool gear including a bottom-cut-out-urinal (which also is used as a bailer), four water bottles (2 filled with cytomax - an energy drink) with long tubes that clip to ones shirt so you only miss one paddle stroke when inserting this home-made camelback into your mouth. We have ziplock containers attached with neat clips to the insides of the canoe so we know where they are at all times, and we have best of all, $190 paddles!!!!! I know, I was in shock. I'm going to take some sweet pictures to put up on the blog (with labels) and I may even put up pictures of me at the end of this monstrous race! We had a practice race last weekend which was 18 miles long (the last stretch of the long race) which was interesting to say the least. I got a sighting of a roseatte spoonbill as well as an alligator which was really neat. First bit of good wildlife I've seen in a while! The fishing down there also looked like it'd be marvelous, although you'd have to pay me more than a lot to eat anything out of that water. We caught sight of some dodgy looking stuff in the river including a monstrous head (either a massive catfish or a cow) that had turned white under the water surface... delightful! The one thing I really want to do that I'm looking into is developing some kind of fundraising effort in conjunction with the race in which the proceeds go to a charity that helps the environment or people in hardships back home in Zimbabwe. I'll keep you posted with this as it progresses.
So its not all about running and canoeing... as I said I have 9 credits to complete and I have a strong desire to push to excel in these last 3 classes as it'll set me up fairly well for applying to graduate studies. At this point in time I think biomedical engineering research is what entices me the most, although there are many other fields I'd like to learn more about (just to name a few: law, medicine, NGOs like WWF, environmental development, ski resorts and recreation, teaching, third world development or disaster preparedness) before I make up my mind. I have my career with Kimley Horn starting up in August or sooner, although I think I will wait until I am done with class just so that I can completely focus on my career. I don't want to start off with other things on my mind and do anything half-assed, so although I'd love to get my signing bonuses right away I think it's best I wait till I'm ready to focus on just my job.
So there you have it, my summer plans in a nutshell. And when summer ends, I've got a 3 day pass to ACL festival!
posted by Paxton and Plowes at 11:42 AM
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