Grand Canyon: Entry Two

11/21
The first day of my trip was all travel: Storrs to Boston to Vegas. We landed at 8:30 Vegas time and got our first view of the strip as we drove to our hotel, Circus Circus, which is apparently in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. There was some confusion with the location of our rooms and we finally got to them a few hours later. We walked through our hotel, got an idea of the endless casinos, and went to bed.

Sun. 11/22
Woke up at 4:30 AM for our ride to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was still dark out and the Vegas lights still on in all their obnoxious glory. 14 of us packed into two mini-vans and embarked on a 6 hour drive from Vegas to the Canyon. At 7:30 we passed over the Hoover Dam and stopped for some brief sightseeing.


700 foot drop. The dam is massive


Me in front of the bridge being built over the dam. Amazing sight.

The drive from the Dam to the South Rim was beautiful, like most everything I saw this week. Mountains spanned the entire drive. The terrain is obviously much different than New England. I'd planned on sleeping the entire drive but I couldnt because everything was new to me.

Grand Canyon: Entry One

This Thanksgiving Break is going to be a bit different than my normal one. Instead of going home tomorrow, I'll be staying at UConn getting ready for my week-long expedition from Connecticut to the Southwestern United States. Instead of eating Thanksgiving dinner over my Nana's house, I'll be in Las Vegas. But the main focus of the trip is the four days of backpacking inside the Grand Canyon.

A friend of mine, Craven, lured me into signing up for the trip and I'm glad he did. We're headed to the Canyon with 10 other students and faculty through the UConn Outdoor Center.

This will be the first of several entries covering my trip (likely one for each day). However, they won't be posted until I get back to civilization as I won't have a computer (or a cell phone for that matter). I'll be taking tons of pictures to document the experience and I'll post some here.



Above are all the items in my pack. I've got the following:
underwear - 2 pair
spandex - 1 pair
socks - 3 pair
shorts - 1 pair
running shorts - 1 pair
t-shirts - 2
long sleeve shirts - 2
fleece
rain coat
hat
winter hat
gloves
water bottle
Camelbak
headlamp
bowl
sunglasses
sunscreen
camera
contacts
moleskine
toothbrush/ paste
IPod
On the Road - Kerouac

This is my full pack:

I may have to do some rearranging as I just realized the fine print on my itinerary: "Only sleeping pad should be outside pack." Wretched. That's going to be tough to fit. Once we get to the Canyon, we'll go shopping and I'll have to fit some food in there too.

Usain Bolt Commercial

Pretty funny Sportscenter commercial with Usain Bolt

Calhoun postgame

 
Some interesting insights from Calhoun. He says last night was "a very good win" because we were down 9 and came back in the last minutes. On the other hand, I dont think we should have been down at all for any reason. A lot of it boils down to inability to rebound. Hofstra outrebounded us 39-35 with 16 offensive boards to our 7. On the positive side, Oriakhi had 14 boards. He's a beast.

Calhoun also says that Donnell Beverly is emerging as a leader on the team, rather than Sticks or Dyson like one might expect. Beverly got more minutes than I think I've ever seen and he was solid. I think he'll be solid all year if he keeps getting more minutes.

UConn vs. Colgate

I saw about five similar alley-oops/ put backs by Stanley "Sticks" Robinson last night. He went 8 for 8 from the field with two threes. Calhoun has said he is more athletic than Rudy Gay was while at UConn. I believe it. He may be one of the best athletes in D1 basketball. He's good for at least 3 ridiculous dunks per game, usually oops from Dyson or Kemba. You can see this just watching him during warm-ups. He'll just pop into the air and do a windmill with no effort. When he jumps he stays in the air for a couple minutes.

The team looked good in the second half last night. Solid contributions from freshman Jamaal Coombs, a much improved Gavin Edwards and Stanley Robinson. Kemba Walker had 16 points, 6 assists and 5 steals. Jerome Dyson had 10 and 6 assists, not much compared to his 27 last game. He was only 3-15. Pretty bad considering he had 27 the other night. Frosh Alex Oriakhi, my favorite newcomer, had 8 boards but doesn't know how to post up.

UConn looked almost as bad in the first half as they did in Friday's game against William and Mary. That game was one of the worst UConn performances I've ever seen. I thought this game was going to go the same way until we came out strong in the second half. Sticks and Gavin took the game over and showed what UConn should/ can be doing for a full 40 minutes.

Dock Ellis

The legend of Dock Ellis. It's actually him speaking. The animation adds to it. Ridiculous story

poetry paper

Every couple weeks I write a five page paper on about 20 lines of poetry for my poetry class. Analyzing these poems is a painstaking process, but I am grateful for being in the class. Once you learn how to anatomize each individual word of a poem, your whole perception of literature changes. Now when I read novels I pick them apart just as I would a poem and their meaning is elevated to a level I would have never previously understood.

This is the poem I'm writing about for tomorrow:

"Sugar Dada"

by J. Allyn Rosser

Go home. It's never what you think it is,
The kiss, the diamond, the slamdance pulse in the wrist.
Nothing is true, my dear, not even this

Rumor of passion you'll doubtless insist
On perceiving in my glance. Please just
Go. Home is never what you think it is.

Meaning lies in meaning's absence. The mist
Is always almost just about to lift.
Nothing is truer. Dear, not even this

Candle can explain its searing twist
Of flame mounted on cool amethyst.
Go on home—not where you think it is,

But where you would expect its comfort least,
In still-black stars our century will miss
Seeing. Nothingness is not as true as this

Faith we grind up with denial: grist
To the midnight mill; morning's catalyst.
Come, let's go home, wherever you think it is.
Nothing is true, my dear. Not even this.

are you serious, lady?

I saw surveillance pictures of this the other day on boston.com. The video is just ridiculous. I requested the drunkard on facebook.

Fort Hood

a double dose for the folks who love it most

mint song i just discovered

Bob Dylan |MTV Music

house of the rising sun by the animals. this guys voice is intense. the band's nonchalantness is wild

The Animals - House of the Rising Sun from musicki24 on Vimeo.

Meb on Letterman

invisible man

Liu Bolin: the invisible man

In the Room Where You Sleep

late for Halloween but awesome

where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?

http://fiftypeopleonequestion.com/

NYC Marathon

Meb Keflezighi won a stacked NYC Marathon, becoming the first American to do so since Alberto Salazar 27 years ago. This is a HUGE deal to the American running community (as you can see here). In the last few miles Meb dropped four time Boston Marathon champ Robert Cheruiyot and came home powerfully. As if running 26.2 miles wasnt enough, he did a push-up after crossing the line to kiss the pavement in Central Park.


Ryan Hall, the "Great American Hope" in distance running, finished fourth in what was a solid effort but less than he (and the rest of us hoped for). There were 6 Americans in the top 10, which is ridiculous.
Top Male Finishers
Top Female Finishers