Questivus for the rest of us... [Pt. 1]

A few weeks  months (I'm bad at posting regularly) ago I participated in an event called "Questival." It was an epic 24-hour adventure race/scavenger hunt -OR/AND- a brilliant marketing ploy for a new outdoor gear company, but either way, it was a lot of fun. Cotopaxi, is a new company that claims that it does, "Gear for good." That is to say, for what you buy of their products, the donate to NGO's and Charities around the world. Anyway, I've already provided enough free exposure for them, myself and over a thousand other participants, so if you are curious as to the particulars, then go ahead and click on the hyperlink above.

On to our team, and the fun times we had. Our team consisted of 4 Men (although some might dispute that distinction for some of us), Alan (AKA: Old Man Beardsly), Shawn (AKA: Potato Biker), Gluch (AKA: in-it-to-win-it) and ME (AKA: Mr. Plantastic). (Not actually known by any of these nicknames, but I feel A-Team rip-offs are in order). Politicchic picked out a swell name, #atdawnweride for us.

Alan is my brother-in-law, and Gluch is my main villian from mission days, and Shawn is Alan's friend and grabbed the whole family and drove down from Idaho, he's that hardcore. We had a few overly long planning sessions before the race actually occurred, because the list was released before hand. What list you ask? The list of tasks. The big draw for a lot of participants was that you got a $30 backpack for the sign-up cost of $10. This was incentive to participate, as well as a way to ensure that the tasks were completed properly with members of the team present (I'm pretty sure there was some egregious cheating going on, but who cares? the rules were ambiguous enough and you can only do so much for people's honesty).

Enough of that, the quests: Click Here (It was easier to put it on my old portfolio website then anywhere else, just scroll down, its all there)

As you can see, there is quite an extensive list. I'll chronologically list out achievements over the course of questival.

Friday April 11th at 2 PM: Alan arrives at my apartment, and we await the arrival of Shawn. Gluch was at class or something, so he was meeting up with us later.
Previous to the competition, I had made Llama rights signs and a brownie shaped like a llama. I was terribly proud of both, but sadly the challenge involving picketing for llama rights was stricken from the final rules list. We did it anyway, as you will see later.

Somewhat before 3, Shawn and his wife arrived, and he jumped in with us and we headed down to the start off point, South of BYU. (Since I had the best vehicle for the adventure [a Ford Escape named "Bruce,"] and no smart phone, I was the driver for this escapade.)

3 PM: We arrived to a good line, that grew very quickly. We were lucky to get in when we did, because in no time at all, the line stretched around the block. There were some real go-getters that sold lemonade as per a quest item to the people in line as soon as they got their backpacks. Alan and I betrayed the team and bought lemonade from them.

We got our Backpacks, Mine was blue and white, and ran to go do our first task.

3:15 PM- Took a picture with Professor McKonkie, a really cool guy. Also thanked him.

3:20 PM- Alan, Sean, and myself then went to the Food and Care Coalition to perform an hour of service. Gluch met up with us there.

4:20PM- We then hustled to the Provo High Track to run a mile. Which I did while the rest looked on. Gluch ran a lap, but was in jeans and street shoes, so just waited for me to finish.
Before:

 After (Note Gluch's feigned exhaustion):

While there, we also threw a sticker on my vehicle, whose name is Bruce, and took a picture of my Llama cake/brownie.

4:45 PM- We booked it on over to the Utah Valley Conference Center to shake the Mayor of Provo's hand. Apparently, he got an tsunami of requests to do this, and so set up to 10 minute periods to get it over with, at his leisure. Smart guy. We also "clocked", and "planked" there. I had no idea what "clocking" was. Apparently, you hold your hands out like the hands of a clock in some diverse location... and "planking" is laying prone somewhere. These are stupid trends. But alas, they were tasks to complete, and so we completed the hell out of them.

Somewhere around 5 PM, we rushed to perform the task of eating a hot dog with hot sauce in a hot tub while wearing hot pants.

Sorry.

Anyway.

Gluch also seized the day and planted a flower in the planter outside the apartments where the hot tub was located.

5:30 PM- We drive down to Spanish Fork to visit the Krishna Temple.

There we do the following: selfie with a llama, yoga pose in a scenic location, and best of all, we shoot a sweet little training video with my camera that I had planned previously. Gluch (Dave) really rose to the occasion. =

And the Video:



At 7:15 or so we watched the sunset.

We will continue the tale on the next few posts.

And at the conclusion of Each I will include the following:
http://cotopaxi.com/pages/questival-raw-unverified-scores

Some of the Ugliest Vehicles on the road today... (in my humble opinion)

Not need to beat around the bush. These vehicles are hideous. Sorry if you like some, but they really are.

1)Pontiac Aztec

This is the car on Breaking Bad... I know. Good for it. Still hideous. I imagine the writers for that show sat down and asked each other, what is the ugliest, non-gangster car that we can get on the cheap for this low budget series? Someone timidly raised their hand and proffered.... "How about an Aztec?" They then were subject to much ridicule and people probably swore at them. But alas, when they looked at their budget, they had to go along.



2) Chevy SSR

Not much to say. The picture speaks louder than words. Fails as a truck. Fails as a car. Succeeds as an instant wrath generator.


3) Nissan Cube

Nice back windows... NOT! The wrap around was surely some designer's hope that a trend would emerge. That trend didn't catch on because it is stupid and ugly.

4) Toyota Prius

Many kinds of Prius, all of them ugly. If this is what it takes to save the environment, then maybe we should consider if the environment is worth saving...

5) Chrysler PT Cruiser

Eggplant on wheels? It would probably look better if that were the case. I like to think that it was this car that caused Chrysler to declare bankruptcy in 2009.

6) Mercedes (I think?) Smart Car

I admit, it would be a dream to park. However, so are bikes, and a bike would provide marginally better protection if you were to collide with another vehicle while using one.


7) Subaru Outback

See the SSR's comment.


8) BMC Mini-Cooper

Featured prominently in "The Italian Job." Is that a plus? I don't know, but these are ugly.

9) Chevy Avalanche

Super ugly.

10) Not a car, but rather what people do to their cars. This could be its own post, but the thing I hate most is a dropped pickup with skirting...

This hurts my soul.


And for your amusement:

*Addendum:
No sooner had I completed this post when I drove across town and saw more ugly cars. This is actually a whole subset I'll call "tacky futuristic SUV's". Category includes: Nissan Murano, Dodge Nitro, and the Ford Edge. There are a whole bunch of others in this category (some already listed above), but it is past time to stop thinking.

My new roommate: Why we are the odd couple.

My new roommate... *sigh.

Nice guy.
Divorced with a 7-year-old daughter. That is no problem. He is fine with sharing, and largely occupied with his own life.
So wherein do we become the odd couple?
WELL.
I am cleaner than pretty much everyone that I have ever lived with. This includes every mission companion that I have ever had and a slew of roommates over the years. (Joe is also pretty clean). The current roommate, who we will call "T" is not clean. He is not filthy, but it swiftly became apparent that I have different standards of clean then he does.
My first hint were the shoes that appeared by the door.
I didn't find this an issue initially. Some people get into the happen of removing their shoes upon entering their house to protect the carpet. We don't have nice carpet. BUT, before he came here, he MAY have had nice carpet, so I was willing to overlook it.
Until they never moved.
They just sat there. One week. Two weeks. A month went by before something happened. What happened you ask? Not removal, no no, it was joined by a pair of jeans with the belt still in them. Seriously as if they had been removed upon on entering. They ALSO didn't move for several days.
THEN, to round out the party: a grocery bag full of what appeared to be dirty laundry. WHAT?!
So that continued for a few more weeks. And finally, all disappeared. More mystifying than crop circles.

He also sucks at doing dishes. I detest pulling out a cup or bowl only to discover that there is a film of SOMETHING coating a part of it. It makes me wonder about the cleanliness of all of the dishes in the cupboard. This is obnoxious. Also, the penchant for washing only HALF of the dishes, and never cleaning the counters or the floor. This is something that I am used too, but still annoying. Particularly because of this other trait that T has: he fancies himself a health eater.

SO! Constantly scraping flax seed gunk off of the stove top. There is a myriad of blending devices and juicers cluttering up an already crowded counter space. The man doesn't exercise much, but he buys a ton of fresh vegetables and things and makes a LOT of smoothies and other things that make a mess. Which he infrequently cleans. (You can say what you want about my diet, but pop tarts, cereal, and hot pockets do not make much of a mess).  This brings us to yet another annoyance: the 3 week old chicken. You know those rotisserie chickens you can by at Smiths for around 6 bucks? Imagine 3/4ths of one sitting on the second shelf of your fridge for a month. Guess what? It stinks. I nearly get up the nerve to chuck it, when it is magically replaced with yet another rotisserie chicken, and thus the cruel cycle begins anew...

He just started the #*$@ing horrible practice of burning incense. I am neither a hippie, nor trying to cover up the smell of pot, ergo, I am not an incense fan.

And then there is his girl friend.
She seems nice, but crazy clingy. He will NOT do better, but he wants to dump her for some reason. This has led to a series of loud, LONG, DTR's (determine the relationship) until all hours of the morning. The walls of this fine apartment are (shocking, I know), thin. So I get to hear about how he doesn't seem to care, and how he is mad at her judging him, and bla bla bla bla bla.... bla. I never thought something was worse than having that conversation. I was wrong. Listening to it ebb and flow for hours as you try to drift off into slumber every day for most of a week is worse. ALL THE TIME WITH THIS. Now they are in my living room, monopolizing my TV, with a TON of dishes and whatnot dirty from their Valentines dinner. I am not passive aggressive, merely a jerk, so it has been difficult for me to not let fire fly forth. Thankfully, because he usually corrects the mess eventually....

And then there is his daughter. She is not really loud, but I'm not a huge fan of kids. I like some, but by and large, I prefer when they aren't in my living space. So, every now and then, I am surprised when I awake or come home to find one underfoot. I want to eat, but she's coloring on the table. I want to watch TV, but she's watching cartoons. Strange world I live in. Oh, and T usually uses the kitchen table as his laptop viewing area, so eating there is rather uncomfortable. Can't talk, he is watching stuff on his computer, so rather than doing that, I eat in my room.

He also runs the heater WAY more than I ever did pre-T entering the picture. Granted, I liked to keep thinks about 62, which to some people is unreasonable, but I pay the gas bill straight up for simplicity's sake, and last month I was appalled.

I use a lufa in the bathroom. I love lufas, not one of my more many admissions. He has no lufa. He has no rag. Unless he just squirts bodywash directly on his body, he must be using my lufa. ...
...
I want you to think about that.


Lastly, and this isn't so much a negative: he currently has a 2 year supply of food storage. We don't have a lot of storage space, and what we have is now filled to the brim with food storage. If the apocalypse happens, I will simply poison him and then be set.

So there you are, I am the clean, organized one, he is the other one. Together, rather than hilarity ensuing, I just spend more time than usual cleaning. At least I spend the bulk of my time at school.

*Much later note by me-- The guy isn't that bad, I just use this blog as a platform for venting, as I am sure you have noticed by now.

I was born in the wrong era...

I love adventure stories. I am currently reading a book for my Water Law class that starts out with a huge and probably unnecessary story about mountain men and John Wesley Powell. He was so hardcore, he explored the Colorado river with 4 wood boats in a time when nobody had a clue what was there, and he did this with only one arm. Reading this reminded me of some other cool explorers, like John Goddard, and Percy Fawcett. Also Marco Polo, and Lewis and Clark. There are too many to name, but something occurred to me. THAT WOULD BE AWESOME. (Exploring the unknown, that is).

Today, there is no place on Earth left to explore except maybe some of the deep rain forest of S. America or the bottom of the Ocean. The former might work, but the latter doesn't really do it for me. And our space travel options? Nill (or is it?, see below). So here I am, born in the age of satellite imaging, and instant communication, and I feel like I would have had a real nice time shoving off into the unknown.

I recently heard about something that I regret that I did not have a chance to sign up for: the Mars One mission. The sign up process ended last year in August, so I guess I missed that boat. But here is the kicker, there will be subsequent missions. Maybe I should try to go? It is a one way ticket, and as of right now, 8 Utahns passed the first round of screening to go on the first trip. Lucky bastards.

Way  back when I began my undergrad, I took archaeology, geography, world history, etc. Kind of dreamed of becoming Indiana Jones I guess.

 (Thanks jas-tham)

I feel like Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagon, which you need to watch if you never took the time


I need to get moving on my bucket list. If I haven't gone to Australia and Brazil in the next 5 years, be a darling and put me out of my misery.

So... long break, but oh well.

Lot happened, too much to recap. But bullet point:

Law School happened...

Ok, maybe not so much to recap. I worked in Chile for a firm, that was fun, then for the 4th District Court here in Utah. Also fun.

Came back to school, less (no) fun. Ok, we are up to date. (Also got a roommate, whom I seldom see, so he is great).

Things you should check out on the internet if you enjoy wasting time as much as I do:

1) Honest Trailers
2) How It Should Have Ended
3) CGP Gray
4) Reddit
5) Especially Reddit/awww
6) Schlock Mercenary
7) Apple Trailers (better than watching the actual movie 90% of the time
8) Spotify

There are many more, but that is enough to get going on.