Merry Christmas

Hello,
Merry Christmas to you if you happen to be reading this. I just wanted to write a short note about how precious life is. To anyone and everyone I know and have ever known, I love you. To the whole world, I love you. To my friends and family, I love you. To those least fortunate, and those most, I love you. To everyone and everything that exists and is therefore a part of everyone and everything else, I love you. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. I hope it finds you well.
Love
Chris

Group Project

In the Business School at CU every single class involves doing a group project. For my Strategic Management class this semester we actually had a fun one. We competed against other groups in our class in this business simulation game, which we won handily largely because of how incredibly smart I am. At the end of the game we had to make a video telling the story of our experience. The only real requirement is that it's funny. We had a blast making it, so I thought I'd share it with anyone who still reads this blog. Enjoy.

AmericaFree

This is a pretty cool website. Free video and TV shows and stuff. They always have something streaming. Pretty soon we'll have omnipresent wifi and internet tv will be the new thing. So check out AmericaFree.tv when you're bored.

Here's a late Halloween photo, and a nice metaphoric image of our four fine candidates. So I'm a few weeks late with them, oh well. By the way, yay for Obama, right?

A page from McCain's bible

Matt Damon

On incredulous absurdity of Sarah Palin:

Who's That Girl?

Here's a little Youtube clip on just who Sarah Palin is:

Campaign ads

A few pics

A few funny photos I've come across lately

Well here we are folks. Here I am anyway. It's been a long time since I've written regularly, almost a year. I've had some pretty wild experiences in that time, how about you all? The short update is that I'm back in school full time, I've got maybe two and a half semesters left to go and I can definitely see the light. I'm working at a bar/restaurant now, which is way more fun than my cafe job, which was more fun than my desk job. I must say I haven't been perusing the internet for funny and interesting things much these days. I've been working a lot, and climbing a little, and part of me feels that all that junk on the internet is simply that, junk. But I understand, and I remember what it was like to be stuck in front of a computer all day. You want to be stimulated, because your job or your schoolwork or perhaps your social life aren't quite getting the job done. Can we talk just briefly about the presidential race? How wonderful was that speech Obama gave at the convention? I gotta tell you folks, he's a quantum leap ahead of anyone we've seen in a long time. He is the first politician I've ever seen speak about love and hope instead of fear. That alone is enough to get my vote. It's about time somebody realized that we're all in this together. But I like what Bill Maher has been saying, isn't it time for someone to come out against war, totally against it? Not just to pick the smartest or most reasonable war but to actually acknowledge the fact that war is not a way to resolve conflicts, it is a way to create them. Anyhoo, I hope you're all doing wonderfully. And who knows, maybe there are some funny and interesting updates coming to you in the future. After all, I still knowwhatimdoin ;)

Lock Crimbing

Here's some climbing photos from the past few weeks. Crimbin' and stealin', it's a way of life.

Music Television

Pitchfork's pitchfork.tv debuts today and it's pretty sweet. This is precisely what the world was missing. Youtube helped, but let's face it, what we really want is for someone to hand it to us on a platter. Screw typing in searches.
p.s. Does anyone still read this?

The Salacious Salt

Well we've returned from our five day adventure on the Salt River. Here are a few photos I took during the trip. I didn't even pull out my camera until day 3 so my selection is limited. But I managed to catch a few nice images. The Salt was definitely more involved than we realized. Lots of rapids and a continuous gradient made for an exciting trip. Unfortunately my group photo is missing our eleventh member, Jen. But you get the idea. The rest of my photos can be found at my photobucket page, here. Pizzy

Attn: White People

Go here to find out what you like. And of course, if you're not white, you can visit this site to find out what really matters to white people. It's all laid out in plain language, and it's dead-on. Thanks to Erin for sending me the link.
Here's a quote from the site that I particularly enjoyed.

When white people go to concerts at smaller venues, what to do they do? They stand still! This is an important part of white concert going as it enables you to focus on the music, and it will prevent drawing excess attention to you. Remember, at a concert everyone is watching you just waiting for you to try to start dancing. Then they will make fun of you.

World's strongest dwarf

This is a fantastic article with photos about a 2'9" dwarf from India named Romeo who lifts weights.

And this gem is a photoshop job sent to me by Rich. Hilarious


In other interesting small people news, Gary Coleman gets married.

Killer whales toss sea lions 50 ft. into the air.

Funny video about a guy on a brownie 'sugar rush'.

An interesting video depicting melting chocolate bunnies.

Passage of time

On occasion the passage of time reveals things to us that we may have otherwise considered impossible, or not been able to imagine at all. Such is the news I bring to you today. I am going home, back to Colorado. I'm leaving behind someone who has one of the biggest hearts and is one of the most beautiful people I have ever known. I can only say that her presence in my life has been so enriching to my heart and mind that I can never forget her, nor thank her enough. I can only hope that the future holds as much fulfillment and joy as we have shared together. I am deeply saddened to have to share this news with you. Please know that we part as friends and with mutual good will.

Photo Update

Here are some photos from the Baths on Virgin Gorda and from some of the beaches on St. Thomas, St. John, and Jost Van Dyke and Norman Island in the BVIs. Hope you enjoy them.

Two girls, one producer

Ok, if you haven't seen the internet short film entitled "Two Girls, One Cup" then you do not want to watch this clip. If you are familiar with said video, then you will enjoy this clip immensely. That's it, use your own discretion.

USVI

Well good morning. I know this is the moment that many of you have been waiting for. This is my first blog from St. Thomas, USVI, and this is the beginning of the rekindling of this blog's three months extinguished fire. To start things off we have a photo of myself sitting on the balcony of our hotel room near the airport the second night we were here. And the photo above is of the view from that same balcony.


The story is as follows. We arrived a week and a half ago on a balmy Wednesday evening in St. Thomas. We rented a car for one day, loaded our considerable baggage into it's trunk and proceeded to take several wrong turns on our way to the Best Western Carib Beach Hotel 200 ft. away. We were able to get a quick meal at their restaurant on the beach and then crashed out hard in our bed back in the room. The next several days were spent making phone calls trying to find a place to live and a long term car rental and staying at the other Best Western across the bay. The beach there was nice, but we were both hoping to find some relaxation and get settled. On Saturday afternoon we were able to get our permanent housing and long term car. So we showed up at the Regatta Point condo complex near Bolongo Bay on the south side of the island. Our place was pretty nasty. Ants and musty mold in every corner. We took a trip to a grocery store recommended to us by the girl at the car rental place and encountered an immediate and significant experience of life here on the island. The food was old and incredibly expensive - and we thought we were at the cheap grocery store. Jodie and I strolled down the aisles, our jaws agape, in a crowd of island locals amongst whom we were the only white people. She asked me if I wanted to get cereal (a favorite food of mine) and I shook my head no, I'd just passed a box of frosted flakes marked 12 dollars!! When Jodie spotted one particular young man cruising the store with a gun in his pocket, appearing not to be shopping but simply staring at people we decided our cart was full enough and promptly left. We have not returned.

Over the next couple days Jodie started her job and I cleaned the house, spraying for ants and scrubbing out cabinets. The kitchen is now in relatively usable shape and the bugs are at least out of sight. Jodie's job on the other hand is an interesting experience to say the least. There have been a few occasions on which we have experienced a degree of racism from the locals, not being served at a food vendor, being ignored or refused help when we've asked for things like directions, or even quiet disdain from a grocery store clerk. But these pale in comparison to the degree of scorn Jodie's co-workers seem to have for her and the other white hospital employees. And as one's relationship with one's co-workers is often the most important factor in having an enjoyable work experience, well I'm sure the situation speaks for itself.

Nonetheless, Jodie and I are incredibly happy to be here. The time we are able to spend together and at the beach more than makes up for any challenges we've faced. Yesterday we joined our three neighbors (also travel nurses) and one of the ER doctors for a trip over to Jost Van Dyke in the British VIs. The boat ride there, into the wind the whole way, was incredibly rough but it was well worth the trip. I've never seen a more perfect beach - fine white sand, clear bright blue water, beautiful palm trees and a perfect clear, sunny day. We brought a bunch of beer and a couple of bottles of booze and relaxed in the sun and in the calm water all day. Unfortunately we forgot to bring a camera with us, but one of the girls brought hers, so eventually I'll get a few pictures from that day.

Anyway, things are wonderful and we're all settled in now. Our neighbor two doors down has opened up his wireless internet signal to us so we have internet at home. Here are some photos of our place and of the view from our place. Pretty much every single day here is gorgeous. If you're jealous then you're reading this correctly. That's all for now. Take care, we miss you, I'll be updating much more frequently now. Peace.