Well, I’m starting up my blog again, writing posts as I’m in line and/or waiting for various things on campus…which means that info may not be particularly timely but at least it’ll be there.

And yes, I’m at college now. Classes start tomorrow…I’m at Colorado School of Mines.

Anyhow, I got up at 7:10 this morning and headed out, helmet in hand (they had given me one Saturday) and more-than-ten-pound rock in the other, to the school’s Intramural Field to start the famous/infamous “M Climb”. No, I didn’t eat breakfast.

What followed was relatively insane but I survived…

First, our helmets were spray painted. Then out of the mass of upeerclassmen that were generally administrating the affair burst the school fight song…I’ll probably quote it in a latter post but let’s just say it reflacts the fact that Coors came a year before Mines…and Coors is just down the road.

We then walked out of the field and toward the big white “M” made of whitewashed rocks that was a prominent feature of a nearby low mountain. Then the fun began…at least it was fun for somebody…

Water balloons started pelting at the group. For the first bit…I am no judge of length of distance…most of the balloons were misses, only getting the class of ’11 wet indirectly. But as we progressed, direct hits became way too common. One such hit got me in the foot, leaving me limping for the next minute or two. I survived a few such direct hits and am thankful for the helmet that protected me from the slightly more lethal headshots that knocked other’s headgear temporarily off.

Oh, and at random points roadblocks were set up along the road, full of people chucking water balloons at us…and for some people flour balloons as well…who would only let us through after we had sung the fight song.

Finally, we got to a point where we were being given water in cups instead of blloons. But then the hard part began. For what seemed like at least a quarter mile we struggled straight up the mountainside on what couldn’t legally be called an improved trail. I had the bright idea of, at the end of the ascent, throwing my rock slightly ahead of me, then climbing up after it. Problem was that it would roll down, at one point catching my hand in the middle of thins, leaving a few abrasions.

We finally got to the road again, and started up a much better trail toward the M. As we got closer to the open gate at the lower-right corner we saw anews helicopter flying around…I wonder if I was in that video.

We finally got positioned around the M…and waited…for an hour…while eeryone else came up. Meanwhile we handed buckets of dirty water up to I have no idea where, then handed them back down. I suppose that they might have been mixed with paint to form whitewash…

More later..

Well, I’ve looked around a little and here are my favorite podcasts (i.e. the ones that I’ll actually listen to\watch). Funny how some of ’em are Mac-related and I passed up the iPhone for a Sprint Mogul…and these are relatively in order of interest…

1. This Week In Tech
2. The Daily Giz Wiz
3. MacBreak Weekly
4. InDigital
5. Net@Nite
6. SecurityNow
7. Windows Weekly
8. CommandN
9. The Tech Guy
10. GigaOM

InDigital and CommandN are both video podcasts. The rest of the 10 are audio. Yes, theyre all tech-related. Just thought I’d note these…

Okay, not really, but here’s what I’ve got running on my dual-screened system:

3x Internet Explorer, 5 tabs open total across two monitors
Microsoft Word 2007
Microsoft Excel 2007
Microsoft Outlook 2007 (has open a journal entry that I use as a time clock for work)
Notepad (for quick notes)
WIndows Media Player (miniplayer mode)
AIM & Windows Live Messenger (tray mode)

So, total, I have seven windows open, eight programs, eight instances of various programs plus two running in the background, all on a machine that I bought for $700 a year ago (though I upgraded the hard drive recently…same with the operating system). 🙂