Almost There (18)

Well I'm starting to get close to finishing the required blog posts for my writing class. The closer I get the more excited I am to actually finish! I am enjoying writing about whatever comes to my head and tell you what my thoughts and opinions are about the experiences I've had. If I have any sort of advice it would be to check class requirements and make sure you're staying on top of them so you don't have to do it all at once and hope you at least finish! That way you're not only focused on getting it done, but that you're actually able to focus on doing it well. I'm not saying that this isn't a good blog. No way, I'm too prideful for that! I am saying, however, that this blog would be so much better if instead of writing it all right now, I could be perfecting it and adding more details and fun little mix-ins. Just remember that, pals. It'll serve you well!

Soar (17)

I don't know about for you guys, but flying has always been something that has caught my attention as something I want to do. I'm not talking about flying from here to California, or any sort of commercial flying, although very convenient. I'm talking about flying my own vessel! I want to control where and how I fly. To be able to have the freedom of a bird to dip, dive and fly as high as I can is what I want. In search for these flying opportunities I went skydiving a few times. Although skydiving is very exciting and gives an adrenaline rush, it wasn't quite the flying experience I was looking for. I then decided I would try hang gliding to see if that fulfilled my needs. I went for a tandem flight at the Point of the Mount to try it out. All I can say is that there's nothing like it! The wind picks you up and without any sort of propeller or thrust you can climb higher and higher if you know your way around thermals and other wind formations. The ground is no longer a limitation and you aren't stuck in a two dimensional plane, you can go wherever you want!

I decided that hang gliding was something I wanted to do. I already had a friend who was into it and had his own glider so it wasn't hard to get connected with the right people and as of yesterday, I was able to get my hang one rating! The hang one is the first rating they give out which means I'm only allowed to go under supervision of an instructor and in certain wind conditions, but I am now well on my way to becoming a hang gliding pilot!

Here's one of my first take-offs at Rock Canyon Park

Sailing (16)

The same uncle that I go rock climbing with and I actually have a lot of things we like to do together. Another activity is sailing. When I got home from my mission, my uncle and I decided we wanted to buy a boat. We found a nice Nacra 5.8 for sale and we each paid for half of it. The 5.8 is a catamaran used for racing and that's just what we wanted to do with it. My uncle grew up sailing and I had taken some sailing classes in Boston when I was younger so we decided we'd probably have a chance. We started entering in some races around Utah and had a great time! We didn't always get first but we were often in the top 3. Unfortunately, we managed to snap the mast a one point last year so for the rest of the season we didn't get to sail but last winter we drove out to Washington to buy a new mast and get back into it this year. However, at the end of the summer this year, we managed to bend the mast at a race at Bear Lake. We're not sure why we are so hard on those masts but we're really good at ruining them.

Although the boat has been out of commission, I still like to think about sailing. It's such a different experience. Learning how to use the wind to get where you want is fun and when you can use it to get where you want at high speeds is even more fun! There's no feeling like having the wind blowing in your face as water splashes when you cut through waves. It's fun to go in calm winds and just enjoy being out on the water, but my favorite conditions is when it's so windy waves are forming and white capping. That's when things start to get interesting!

Fake Rocks (15)

Well since I've gotten myself talking about skiing and snowboarding, I decided I wanted to talk about the other things I like to do. One of these favorite pastimes of mine is rock climbing. Before my mission I used to be pretty good. I went quite often and also from playing on the drumline in high school my grip was pretty strong. Now I don't have the same capabilities as I used to but I still love conquering walls and making it to the top of hard climbs. There's nothing better than climbing in the mountains on real rocks but you need to have a lot of equipment that's pretty expensive. I often go with my uncle outdoors, he has everything you need: ropes, draws, etc. All I really have are shoes, a harness, and a belay device. When I get the chance to go outside I take it but it's not very often. Since it's hard to plan to go outside, climbing gyms are very convenient for when I just want to go. Gyms are fun because they have specific climbs set up for all sorts of different climbing levels. Although it's not nearly as fun as climbing outside, it's nice to be able to hang out with friends and easier evaluate your climbing skills on those plastic hand holds.

Snow (14)

It's starting to get cold out and as everyone knows in Utah, that means snow! (unless we have another year like last year, meh) I absolutely love the snow. A lot of the people I come in contact with don't really understand why I like it so much. Most people like bright sunny days, palm trees, the beach, and that sort of thing. Don't get me wrong, I like all those things too of course, but there's something about snow that I just can't get over. I'm sure part of these feelings come from the fact that I enjoy skiing and snowboarding. I got to go snowboarding for the first time this year last week and it was so much fun! I went with a few of my friends from high school and we had a blast!

We went to Park City and started out in the terrain park playing around on the jumps and the rails they had set up. Even early in the season they already had 20 ft. jumps and creative rail combinations to mess around on. After a few runs there we went to got meet up with my friend's cousins on som other runs. At first we couldn't find them so we decided to race. We have an app that tracks how fast you go and we decided to see just how fast we could go. We did this a few times and reached max speeds from 48 to 55 mph. Almost as fast as my personal record of last year, 61 mph.

The adrenaline rush of going fast and going off jumps, cliffs, and other obstacles keeps me coming back and trying new things! All of this only made possible through the snow. If you don't like the winter maybe try some of these activities and you won't be able to be patient enough for the snow to come back next year!

Here's one of the jumps we had so much fun on.

Steam Reflections (13)

I think when I said I should crank up the steam, I started to think about all the other sayings that had to do with steam: Run out of Steam. Steam it off. Full steam ahead... and other phrases like that. I thought about how the first machines and even some today use steam to operate. In this sense we compare ourselves to machines. It's kind of an interesting thing to think about. We don't run off steam but it makes sense what the idioms mean. Figures of speech often have strange origins that, if you don't understand, would make the phrase seem very odd. Sometimes, however, I enjoy using a very literal interpretation when people use idioms. I'm sure this practice is very annoying to others but it makes me giggle and I'm selfish sometimes so they'll just have to deal with it.

Steam (12)

Now looking at what I have accomplished in these last few minutes, I've realized I've got to crank up the steam if I ever want to finish this thing.

It's strange that I refer

to my body to a machine,

maybe I'll consider

thinking that I'm a crafty fiend.

My abstract ideas

and my random thoughts of genius,

show that I function as

a human that is devious.

Sorry about that, I just wanted to make a wee poem. I'm sure you all get that urge sometimes. Not really sure where the idea came from either. I'll see if I can diagnose the cause in my next post.