First Static Line Jump

Last weekend, me, Henry and Matt went down to Archway Skydiving in Vandalia, IL to skydive.


Actually our first jump was the static line jump. Basically, we were attached to a static line that was attached to the plane. The static line made sure that our parachute deployed immediately after we left the plane. After sitting through a 5 hour class going through the basics of parachuting and the many "what-to-do-if-this-happened" scenarios, we were ready to jump. We climbed into the Cessna 182, which took us up to our jumping altitude at 3,500ft.



Here we go.....

The person at 3:09 is me.

Now, our landings.....

The person at 2:00 is me.

After our first jump, we were very eager to go up and jump again. However, there were no more open jump spots for the day and we would need to come back next weekend. Oh well, we would have to do our second jump another day.

Videos taken from YouTube.

Colorado: August 2009

Woot! I made it out of Colorado alive! With the start of a new school year, I am still readjusting to the busy school schedule. I will blog about my trip as soon as I find the time to do so.

Here are some highlights of the trip:

Me, Henry, and his friend Matt went into the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness in the White River National Forest in Colorado. Maroon Lake is about 15 miles from Aspen, CO and we took a shuttle bus from Apsen Highlands to the trail head at Maroon Lake. Then, we hiked about 1.5 miles to Crater Lake.

Buckskin Pass and Willow Pass are two mountain passes that are really close to our campsite at Crater Lake. We spent one day climbing up Buckskin Pass and I spent another day climbing up Willow Pass.



A picture of the Maroon Bells from Maroon Lake


From Crater Lake, the trails to Buckskin Pass and Willow Pass share the same route till it gets above the treeline. Then the trail "splits" off to the two passes.


Buckskin Pass



A view of Snowmass Lake from Buckskin Pass.



Willow Pass



A view of Maroon Bell North from Willow Pass.


A view of Willow Lake from Willow Pass.

June Recap: Chicago etc.

Woa, it is already more than half way through July and I am still not done with the June Recaps. But here is the last one: my trip to Chicago.

After an enjoyable time in Sidney, it was time to head up to Chicago to see the Illini 4000 team there. I have already met the team when they rolled through Champaign-Urbana, and I was going up there to see them again and to ride with them at the ride-a-long in Chicago.

As a result of the storms from the night before, the tracks were blocked by fallen debris. That was the cause for the train delays in the morning. When I arrived at the train station in Champaign, I found out that the 6:10am City of New Orleans had not arrived yet. When it did finally arrive at around 8:45am, the 9:15am Saluki (the train I was taking up to Chicago) was over an hour behind schedule. After a really long wait, I finally left Champaign at 11am and got into Chicago Union Station at around 2pm (2 hours late).

The Illini 4000 was staying at the UIC dorms in Chicago and they were really generous to let me stay with them there. After dropping off my bike there, I headed out to Millennium Park to see a concert by the Grant Park Orchestra. On the way there, I found out that my friend Shawn A. was in Chicago for the day and we decided to meet up in Millennium Park. As Shawn was from Miami, he was very impressed with the city. Armed with his new camera (a really good one), he was taking pictures of almost everything he could see.

Summer brings in the Grant Park Music Festival by the Grant Park Orchestra. For almost every summer since I was in Chicago, I had been to at least one concert for the summer season. The lineup for that night was Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 and the World Premiere of Torke's Plans. I had head Rachmanioff's Piano Concerto No. 3 on Discovering Music a few months ago and I was excited to be able to hear it played by an orchestra live. Torke's Plans was commissioned by the Grant Park Music Festival in honor of the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burcham's Plan for Chicago. Chicago had grown a lot since the Burchman Plan was reveled and it had a lot to look for in the future. The piece did a good job in portraying the dreams and hopes that Chicago had in the past and for the future as it would continue to grow.

Here are some pictures from the concert. I took some of the picture and found some really good ones that Shawn took.







Photograph taken by Shawn A.


Photograph taken by Shawn A.

I was waken up early the next morning to join the Illini 4000 team at the ride-a-long from the Bean in downtown Chicago to Highland Park. After a couple delays with flat tires, the team headed out of Chicago. Here are some images of the Illini 4000 getting ready to leave.




This year, the ride to Highland Park went smoothly and compared to last year, we got to Highland Park faster. It was great being able to see the team and its supporters. But soon, it was time for me to head back to Urbana.

A message to the Illini 4000 team who are currently in Montana: You are almost there.

More Music

Thanks to listening to radio at work, I get to know more new music. Here are some new favorites.

You Never Know - Wilco

Video from YouTube. Posted by okeastron2008.

Know Your Enemy - Green Day

Video from YouTube. Posted by GreenDayMusic09.

June Recap: Sidney Barbecue

Levi, one of the workers at the Energy Farm, invited me to his barbecue party with the other Energy Farm workers at his home in Sidney, IL. Even though I had to catch a 9:15 train the next morning, I decided to go as Levi would be really happy to see me there.

As Sidney was about 14 miles southeast of Urbana, Rhea, another worker at the Energy Farm, offered to give me a ride there. The evening started off with rain which grew into a big storm. I was biking back from the Post Office when I got caught in the rain a street away from my apartment. As soon, as I got back, it started hailing outside. After the weather cleared up, Rhea arrived and we headed out to Sidney. As we turned out into the cornfields, we heard that a tornado warning was issued for Champaign County and a tornado was spotted in the area around Homer, IL. That was a little scary as that was really close to where we were. However, it did not take long to get to Sidney.

As soon as we got to Levi's home, we had trouble in figuring out where we should set up as the rain would go on and off. Soon, the tornado siren went off and the neighbors came over and told us that there was a Funnel Cloud coming towards us. We headed over and it was a interesting sight.

More people came as the weather died down again. With more people showing up, we had more food. Some highlights included the Pig in a Blanket and the Pepperollies from Monical's Pizza. Also, I learn a new way to grill the corn that Rhea brought in.


Picture from Wikipedia.


Picture from the Monical's Pizza Website.

Other than food, there were other things to entertain us. The Slip and Slide made its appearance twice - first in the evening and then later at night. With the rain, it made things more interesting. It was really cold when I went on it at night.

Soon, it became late and it was time for us to go. As we headed back, we saw one of the most amazing thing that I would ever see. The sky was clear and we could see the stars in the sky. However, in the distance, we could could see the clouds and the flashes of lighting in the night sky. Woa, that was beautiful.

June Recap: Planting

June went by really quickly. Here is a recap on what happened in June.

Planting
With summer soon approaching, it was time to plant the Miscanthus plants in the plots. For some days, I was loaned out to help the people at the Energy Farm plant a 9 acre plot. Last year, Miscanthus was planted in that plot. Unfortunately, due to bad weather and/or bad management, the Miscanthus plants did not get to live through the winter. Now, the entire 9 acre had to be replanted.

The planting process involves us hand planting the plants into the soil. The good thing was: we were able to use this device called the "Pottiputki " to plant the young Miscanthus plants into the ground.

Here is an image of the Pottiputki device we used for planting:

Image taken from the Government of South Australia PIRSA Forestry website.

Below is a diagram showing how the Pottiputki works:

Image taken from the Government of South Australia PIRSA Forestry website.