Advice from each other

Prompt: If you could give us all one piece of advice, what would it be?

Don’t ride donkeys downhill…seriously…it’s terrifying.

Value your family and keep them close, no matter how far apart you are in distance.

Be yourself.

Live life in the present.

Surround yourself with people who you care about and who truly care about you. Be with people who make you happy and want to make you a better person. When you find these people in your life you will know, don’t lose them. To have the feedback about someone where you think “I couldn’t imagine my life without them” is a great thing.

The importance of understanding other cultures and religions around the world. To be able to gain new and different perspectives and help open people’s eyes to the world around us. I wish more people had the opportunity to travel and live and experience a completely different country with their values, traditions, way of life.

Make time for yourself.

Be intimate with as many people as possible: physical, emotional, whatever.

Don’t waste your time with Mac OS X – the architecture will be hard pressed to adapt to the new software environment originating from open-source software and cloud computing.

Do not make assumptions about people that you do not know very well.

Don’t be lazy; through personal experience the things in the world that I regret are those things I didn’t do. From playing a sport to trying foods, just go for it. Don’t wait around for something to happen, make it happen.

If you have a compliment for someone, tell them. It usually make them smile and helps a friendship grow.

A positive attitude and a smile can turn your day around and make someone else’s tremendously better.

Take the time to build relationships with people. They are the ones that will be there when times get tough. Forget the things that stress you out for another day and take the time to be with your friends.

Make yourself happy before you try to make others happy.

Question everything. Ask stupid questions. Be curious. You will find many intriguing things/ideas/concepts you would’ve never imagined. Don’t be ok with the ebb and flow of a “normal” life. What does that even mean? Get deep. Get even deeper.

Always come prepared to things that are important to you.

Take the time to help someone other than yourself at least one time everyday. This will bring happiness that you could never imagine.

Be honest with yourself and those around you.

Stop regretting. It doesn’t help you move on.

Stop being lazy. Get up off your ass and do something.

Do what you want to do, not what others want.

Packing List

Hey,
So here is a packing list that should be pretty complete.  The list includes some things you might want to bring, but are not required.  Please use your judgment, especially if you need help deciding on what you need to bring to stay warm (preferably in bottle form…just kidding?).

A side note:  One of the unique things about backpacking is the ability to leave the rest of the world behind.  So please consider this as an opportunity to leave your cell phones behind (or turn them off), be in a great place with your friends with out camera flashes constantly documenting for facebook, and to listen to the music provided by mother nature .

Enjoy the wind through the trees, the crackling of the fire, story telling, and let go of your worries for a night.

Clothes:

• Wool socks
• Shirts
• Pants
• Shorts for hiking (if warm)
• Underwear (optional)
• Fleece pants / Fleece sweater
• Beanie
• Coat
• Raincoat (weather dependent)
• Shoes: Boots or Tennis Shoes

Gear:

• Flashlight (headlamp preferred)
• Sleeping bag (rated to at least 20deg)
• Sleeping pad (thermarest or something else)

Misc:

• Toiletries
• Sunglasses
• Sunblock
• Deodorant
• Water bottle (probably should bring at least 64oz / person)
• Glasses / contacts
• Meds
• Pillow
• Fork + Spoon or SPORK (spork because they are badass)
• (camping chair)

Group:

• Tarps
• Tents
• Stove
• Gas
• Med kit (epipen)
• Rope
• Cooking supplies
• Food (smores?)

Group Misc:

• Frisbee
• Hacky sack
• Slackline
• Baseball
• whatever else

Also, if anyone has any serious medial conditions from asthma to allergies, wether it be to bees or to tomatoes, please please make sure that a “leader” knows and that if you need an EpiPen or something of that sort that it is around for you.

http://weinterrupt.com/2009/08/malawian-teen-dropped-out-of-school-and-built-his-own-windmill/

This is a short, interesting video about a 20 year old who had to drop out of school in Africa due to his family not being able to pay school fees.  This guy build a working windmill based off of photos in a book and he is pursuing his passion, his dreams in a life where most people would have thought all opportunity had been lost.  Enjoy!

Michelle Akers, U.S. Women’s Soccer Hero

Michelle Akers, arguably the best women’s soccer player ever in the United States has moved beyond her career in soccer to fulfill her passion for horses.  ESPN recently aired a special on her, but it is not on youtube yet.  However I did find this youtube clip of her.  Check it out it is a pretty cool story.  Also below is the link for her website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOecFFkglkM

http://www.michelleakershorserescue.com/

Favorites Page

Hi everyone,

So just like the goodies page that Michelle created, I have created a “favorites” page.  This is a place where everyone can share their favorite places/activities in Tacoma or favorite books, movies, music… whatever!  The best way to share is to just leave it in a comment.  Check it out!

Rainiers game this Thursday

Hey everyone, one of my favorite things about Tacoma is the Rainiers (I know we wanted to put together a list of awesome Tacoma places at some point). For any of you who don’t know, the Tacoma Rainiers are a minor league baseball team that play right by Fred Meyer. Their first game is this Thursday and I’m going and wanted to invite all of you. The game’s at 7 and I’d love to see any of you there!

Available Gear/Who Needs What

Please post on here what you can provide to other class mates so that people can start claiming things and so that we can work together to help people find gear to use.

Bryce: (2) backpacks (cheap but will work)

(2) two person tent

(1) sleeping bag (mikey)

(1) sleeping bag

(1) size large water proof rain shell

(2) pairs of warm socks

(1) fleece jacket

More coming….

Feel free to claim any of it.

Attendees: Michelle, Hannah, Trevor, Mikey, Bryce, Adam, Molly, Jeni, Ashley, Leechew,  Sophie, Elle, Gordon

“Goodies” section

Dearest Peers,

Our blog now has a “Goodies” section that will contain documents such as our scheduled meeting places and the bucket list. If anyone has other documents of relevance, feel free to post them there. I think that the easiest way to go about would be to post a comment and Upload/Insert media, but feel free to experiment. We are all administrators after all! Have a terrific Tuesday.

BW

Overnight Backpacking Trip

Hello everyone. So for those of you that have not been in class the past few days, or for the ones that have but have learned to block me out when I speak, we are trying to put together a overnight backpacking trip on Saturday May 1st and May 2nd. I am still in the process of trying to find a hike that is within reasonable driving time, will be snow free, and will not be too difficult.

We discussed in class today that we should start figuring out who has what and who needs what. So start asking people if they have stuff you can borrow, anything else that you need can be rented from the Expeditionary. Prices:

Backpack        $6

Sleeping bag $10

3 person tent $10

4 person tent $12

Cookware        $4

Tents can obviously be divided by 3 or 4 and the cookware could be divided by four or more.

Here is a list of things that you should bring individually.

Warm socks plus a change

Warm pants/ Jacket

Waterproof jacket/rainshell

Gloves

and of course t-shirt and undies (if you choose).

Ill add to this list over time.

Please start asking your friends, housemates, acquaintances, to borrow their gear so you can save some cash.

Something to Listen to?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_d6Km3QJFc . One of Pearl Jam’s new songs. I think it’s pretty good. If you don’t enjoy it, maybe you will like this (Will Smith when he was in his prime)? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIduOvEoVeQ