It Has Arrived!

My waiting impatiently for the new laptop is over! Amazingly it was delivered 2 full weeks before the estimated ship date (October 5th), awesome! Looks like they got caught up on their production issues.

To commemorate the occasion here are pictures of the "Unboxing".

Advice Care Package

As my brother prepares to go off to college and begins to blaze his own trail in life, I have decided to put together a little care package of advice for him.

First, everyone should watch this video at least once:



The most important message of this video is to wear sunscreen, whether you burn or not, the sun breaks down your skin and makes you age. If you want to keep looking young as long as possible always wear sunscreen on your face, neck and hands. Or if you enjoy the tan look you can always try looking like this.



Second, here are my personal tidbits of advice.

On Money:

Spend less than you make - With credit cards and loans being so freely given these days it's easy to fall into a debt trap. Most people only look at the minimum payments instead of the total cost. They don't realize they may be paying 10%-20% more for the product in the end and ultimately spending more money than they have or make. Also even if you have money, don't keep the mentality that I have money so I can buy this or that because A) The idea is to increase your balance so eventually you won't have to work, not try to reach a zero balance each month and B) You end up buying a bunch of crap you don't really need.

Save at least 10% of all of the money you earn - Many people are living paycheck to paycheck not because they aren't making good money but because they are spending all of their money keeping up with the Joneses, trying to impress people, and living in the now. Instead of trying to live a life of image try to live a life of substance. Thanks to the modern technology of direct deposit it is easy to have a portion of your paycheck go into a savings account so you won't even see or miss it. Also it's easier to save your pay raises since you've already been living at your current level and won't notice any difference.

Create an emergency fund (with 3-6 months of expenses) - Life is full of the unexpected, some good, some not so good. For those not so good times that involve money (car repairs, job loss, speeding tickets) it is always good to have a fund that can cover those issues, at least that's one less thing to worry about during life's little speed bumps.

On Relationships:

Treat others as you would like to be treated - The tried and true "golden rule", basically meaning to respect others. Although there are people out there that may take advantage of your respect the number of good people to bad is a lot higher so getting burned once or twice for the 1000's of people who deserve your respect is an acceptable ratio and will get your further socially.

Keep friends on your level or higher - It's a rather simple fact that the friends you keep influence your behavior and decision making. Having bad friends will eventually have you behaving badly and having good friends will help keep you on the right track. If you find friends that share your same interests and values be sure to listen to them as they will help keep you on the right path and as such you should do the same for them.

On Life:

Keep your life balanced - One of the keys to success in life is keeping everything balanced. Maintaining all things in moderation is an ongoing task. Much like a propeller, each blade has to be even or it can't fly straight. Too much of something can be unhealthy and I'm not just talking about what you eat. You should try to keep things even both mentally and physically in every facet of your life.

Be thankful - Appreciate life and everything you have, don't focus on what you don't have or want. Just in living America means you're better off than 98% of the world. Simple as that. It's a given that there will always be people out there that are richer, smarter, and even luckier than you but you can dictate your own happiness starting with being thankful.

Know that people love/care about you - As cliche as it sounds sometimes the world can be a cold place, the stars align and nothing seems to work out in your favor, but just knowing that there are always family and friends that are there for you will help you make it through the days, weeks or months of hell. It's always temporary because eventually things have to get better.

Well there's plenty more advice to dispense, but I've listed most of my top tips.

Additionally here is a link to advice specifically for the college experience.

I came, I saw, I conquered...continued.

Okay so to recap, I hiked Mt Whitney last week. The tip top of that mountain was my intended destination.


We started the hike at 6AM. Which was a tad later than we planned (5AM) due to my hiking buddy's watch stopping at exactly 10:45PM...weird. I certainly didn't mind the extra sleep, although it meant we were going to be coming back in the dark, but we had headlamps for that.


We had to cross a pretty cool log bridge.


Made our way through a pristine hidden valley.


You can see the "timberline" here and you'll see how much higher we went.


Let's just say I wasn't exactly in a joyous mood at the time this picture was taken.


Especially after hiking these steep rocky trails for hours.


Finally, I can see the top (designated by the "hut")!


Some official signage as evidence.


On top of the U.S.!


I can see my house from here...

Okay that's the gist of the pictures. Now for the rest of the story.

Basically on the way up, I was focused on a single goal, the top (14,487 feet). Well that and don't become the laughing stock of the department by NOT making it to the top. So I tuned out the pain, tiredness, distance, and difficulty as I ventured to reach my destination. The problem is, once I reached the summit, I then realized that I still had to go ALL the way back down. That's when I came to feel the pain and dreaded the long distance I still had to travel to get back to base camp. So we made our way back down, the whole time I was thinking, I don't remember seeing this part during my hike up and questioning if we were even on the same trail. Luckily we got past the granite mountainside trail and into the forest before dark.

We ended up finding a cell phone along the way and since we kept a pretty good pace, actually caught up to the owner. She was a older woman and it appeared she was having trouble walking. It turns out that she had thrown her back out on the way down, so we offered to take her pack and I lent her my two hiking poles so she wouldn't fall again and had her follow us. By this time it was dark so we were using headlamps to get down the mountain. On the way down we heard some rustling noises so we look over and see a deer 4 feet from us and it didn't even flinch. Hiking at night seems like you're going in circles because you can't tell how much progress you're making considering you can only see in a 15 foot radius around you at all times. Yet we made it down to the campsite parking lot slightly after 9PM and I had never been happier to have my feet touching asphalt.

As soon as I reached the car I threw off my shoes and put on my sandals (such sweet sweet relief). We then drove to a hotel, cleaned up, ate at a cafe and promptly crashed.

Next morning I hit the road to Vegas to meet up with a few friends. I drove through Death Valley which was pretty scenic for a pretty much lifeless desert. After arriving at our room at the Sahara I was still pretty sore so I may have fell asleep a couple times. The naps did helped me prep for a night out on the town. We then spent the rest of the weekend mostly relaxing.

On the trip home we visited Hoover Dam, so here's some Dam pictures.






We made so many Dam jokes you'd think we were 7 years old.


I finally arrived home after hours and hours of driving. I can conclude it was quite the trip. I probably won't even want to think about hiking for a least a month though. ;)

I came, I saw, I conquered...and I'm sore.

Well.....I did it! I challenged my mental and physical limits and made it to the top of the highest peak in the contiguous United States. It was a 15 hour hike from 6AM to 9PM, ascending to 14,497 feet and traveling 22 miles round trip. Pretty much everything below my waist hurt after it was over and even today my calves are still sore when I walk up stairs. But it was totally worth it.


The very next day I was off to Vegas to meet up with some friends.


I'll post more tomorrow, right now I'm still unpacking from Whitney and Vegas. Glad to be home though.

PS Whoever put the "Easy Button" at the top is a bastard!


PPS I got offered a swig of "Yukon Jack" (a whiskey liqueur) from a guy that climbed Everest (as well as the other 7 Summits).

I'm Off to Conquer Mount Whitney

Well the moment of truth is upon us (or me rather). It is what all of these T.O.E. hikes have been building up to, the annual hike of Mount Whitney. 14505 feet of pure character testing dirt and rock. Okay so I may be building it up some, but regardless, I am up to the task and I shall prevail. Depending how I feel after surviving the whole ordeal, I might have another trip in store. ;)