This is great. Legos are one the greatest inventions of all time so you can imagine how happy I was to come across this article.
1949 – The Automatic Binding Brick -later to become- “Lego Mursten”, Danish for masonry
Well, we didn’t make it. More correctly stated, my body couldn’t make it. hahaha…
So we started out our day as planned and everything went as expected. Got up in our usual style… SLOW. Prior to leaving we each weighed our packs, out of curiosity mostly. TioTony’s weighed in at 49 pounds and mine at 45 pounds. Yes, quite hefty. Well, we got up and past Halfway Camp on our way to the evening’s destination, High Camp. About halfway between the two, my body decided to stop. Heart racing, shortness of breath, and (to state it nicely) stomach wanted to make itself empty, I pretty much shut down. Exhaustion kicked in, and it kicked in hard. Thought I could try to rest it out but taking three steps uphill kicked it right back in.
So, long story short, we made the call to backtrack down to Halfway Camp and made that home for the night. TioTony recently bought a very nice new 2 person 4 season Mountain Hardware tent. I figured there was a possibility to rest and try again since we packed for 2 nights, but, after a night of about 1-2 hours of sleep due to the above mentioned symptoms we made the call to head down the mountain.
I did take a few pictures and will post them soon. Not positive they’ll be as nice as Prince Roy’s summit trip of Yu Shan in Taiwan, but they should be nice. 
I would have liked to have made the summit, but, I’m not sad I didn’t. I believe that’s one of the things I enjoy about hiking; either way is rewarding. In a way you can look at it this way; knowing when to stop is probably even more important than actually making the summit. Allowing to remove the ego, at least enough to turn around and go back down, is enough of a reward for me.
So TioTony and I are planning a trip to summit San Gorgonio this weekend. Our previous attempt was unsuccessful, but, e also tried to lug ourselves up in in a day. This time we’re allowing ourselves three. The plan is to meet at his house Friday morning, hit the trail head as early as possible, and make it to High Camp that evening. This should allow us time to acclimatize a little before heading off for the summit. Last time, when we attempted a day trip up, each of us heard the little voices in our heads saying “no silly, this is as far as you’re going”, and stopped around 10,500 feet.
Then Saturday morning, we’re planning to wake up have a wonderful breakfast of instant oatmeal and instant coffee, then head off to summit. This should make us successful, if not, we’re just sad and probably will never make it. haha.
Here is some interesting information about the mountain from gorp.away.com: ’11,502-foot Mount San Gorgonio—the highest peak in southern California.’
Wish us luck, I’ll talk to you after the trip to let you know how we do.
So we’re live now, yet, I’m just not completely happy with the website. I mean, it gets the job done, but, Joomla just seems a little bloated and clunky for what I want. And it’s a little ugly to me. Seems to work for some sites. Jerid’s site looks pretty good actually, but I just am not having a good time with it for the magazine.
So, that said, I’ve begun my journey to a hacked version of WordPress. Oh trusty WordPress. Why do I love this software so much… hahaha
I’ve found found a few good articles that will be a massive help:
O’Reilly – From Weblog to CMS with WordPress
&
Leon Kilat – How to use WordPress to run a magazine, news website
and so far, I’m likely going to use Bharath Kumar’s 3ColumnK2 template. K2 goodness, extra column to fit things into, widgets; seriously good stuff here.
So I’ve begun moving things over, making the changes needed so far. This is all in a test subdomain though, I’ll write again once it’s live. Also, I need to figure out a good way to integrate a nice looking photo gallery, event list, movie gallery (?), etc. I’ll keep you posted; wish me luck.
It’s been a hectic week to say the least. Hell, it’s been a hectic month. Work is the busiest it’s ever been, and it’s only promising to get busier. The coming months should be quite amazing though – as busy as it’s going to be, I’m honestly excited about it.
This weekend will be great. I don’t get to hang out with Matt too often, so this Sunday will rock. Little Man and I get to hang out while the girls have the baby shower. (which btw, any of you that know me, know that I’m of the ‘new school’ of fathers who believe in sharing the parenting 50/50. So, this whole ‘girls only’ baby shower isn’t a popular subject with me, but hey, whatever )
They are going to make such great parents. Michelle is an amazing person. Seriously. Always kind and caring, the type of person you really do know is completely special. (and those of you who know Matt, can imagine the level of patience she has. hahaha j/k Matt) Matt is one of the most unique people I’ve ever met. I’ve told the story time and time again, so what’s one more time….
I was working at <the place that shall remain unnamed for fear of losing my sanity> and saw this dude wearing a Cthulhu t-shirt. Went over and told him what a cool shirt I thought it was and we started talking. After a while I saw his desk. Now, we’ve all seen the typical cubicle farms that office workers are shoved into and this place was no different. Most people have books, food, whatnots up in the overhead bins of their cubicles. On no – not Matt. He had every happy meal toy imaginable from all fast food places in a 12 mile radius of the place! And not only that, they were arranged into this intricate diorama with complete story on how the M&M guys were robbing a bank, but the animal doods were the local armed forces trying to stop them, while the stuffed animal thingys were the horse cavalry trying to raid the local quiki mart. Or something like that (Matt, if you’re feeling up to it, please comment with the full story – cuz I know you remember it). Well, as you can imagine, I just had to be friends with this person. He was wayyyyyy too unique NOT to be friends with. And ya know, he’s been one of my best friends since. In a strange way, this is what lets me know the kind of Dad he’ll be. He is seriously smart, insanely creative, and incredibly imaginative. And I know he’ll be able to help their child be as creative as he is.
Well, enough said. This is going to be a fun weekend.
“If this dog is humping another stuffed toy I’m killing it”
So we went to my little sister’s baby shower today. It was nice to see all the family again, strangely, that’s not a common occurrence any longer. (funny how life turns out, ain’t it) They received a lot of very nice things for the baby as well. As promised, I didn’t talk politics with Dad either – yay. I think he and I both know it’s best that way – we don’t agree on it much. hahaha.
Should be having breakfast with Mom tomorrow before she drives back home. (Dad left today) Little Man and I will be having a fun day tomorrow.
I must say, I’m feeling very blue right now. And that’s not a bad thing.
………and it looks like America is finally starting to enjoy a more intelligent color as well.
more soon. 
The most recent issue of Wired magazine has a story titled ‘The New Atheism‘.
Now, looking around CNN.com today, it seems that Time magazine has an article titled ‘God Vs. Science‘
It’s quite interesting to me that two, highly circulated magazines have articles like this in such a close time period. Those of you who know me, know which side I stand a bit closer to. I think one of the things I’ve always felt makes Buddhism unique is it’s openness to science. Do all things in Buddhism ‘check out’ with science? Well, depends on how you look at it, but safe to say closer to no. And that’s fine. What it’s really taught me is that you daily life, what you do for others, that’s the key. All religions truly are VERY similar in their teachings related to day to day living. Of course there are huge differences as well. Do I believe in a creator god? Well, no. Does that mean I’m going to stop others from doing so? Well, no, not really. hahaha. If it helps you be a good person, that’s what the belief is for. Once it is used to take rights away from others, stop scientific progress for the better of man, used as a tool to wage war, used to control people unintelligent enough to think on their own without being spoon fed,,,, that’s when I have a problem with it.
but, I digress. Like I said, life is getting really interesting right now.
…For the times they are a-changin’.
I’m happy to say, Wil and my first issue as editors of Buddha’s Light Magazine of Los Angeles is done. Venerable has sent it off to the printer, and I’ve posted it to the website. http://www.blmla.org
The website is being announced as well with this issue. This is quite exciting as it’s been a goal of mine for a while now to help the temple in this way. I’m still not completely satisfied with the look of the site, but, it is a work in progress. Joomla seems to be great in some ways, and completely horrid in others. It is in no way as intuitive as I would like. But I’m getting used to it. I should be able to continue to improve it over time.