April 26, 2006

End of it all...

9 more days until slope day....it's in the 10 day forcast (weather.com says in the 50's and no rain!). With the glorious day on the slope comes the end of the school term, minus exams and study week. I've got pretty much no work between now and when exams start, which means I should get my butt in gear and start studying. Also, there seems to be a ton of stuff that I should have gotten done earlier, and now i'm really kicking myself. I won't bore you with the details, but it's kinda bad. Anyway, I'm in this no-work-slump that is very hard to get out of, it takes a lot more energy than if you just keep doing work all the time.

It just seems like we ran out of time...I don't want school to be over! Luckily though, I'll be staying here over the summer, and it turns out a bunch of my friends will be too. I can't wait to hang out in the evenings (after work dad, don't worry) and go swimming on the weekends :D. However, it's going to be very sad not being at home very much. I'll be able to stay at home for about a week or so at the begining of the summer, and probably another week in the middle to either go to the cottage, or home. I'm sad that i'll probably be missing "the lake" too...perhaps we can work out a night to sneak down there and sleep by the water. So this summer looks like it'll be fun, but at the same time I'll probably get really homesick.

To move onto a happier subject, I went slacklining again with Julie and some other people I work with at the wall. The weather was beautiful and it was a ton of fun. I noticed that it really works my back muscles because i'm usually contorted into this weird posture when i'm on the line. I guess that's a good thing. Some of the guys were doing crazy tricks and falling all over the place, it was awesome. I'm still working on walking it when it's pretty loose and turning around (which is very difficult!). I'll probably find some trees to set one up over the summer and Julie and I can just get really good :).

OK, Alias is about to start, so i've got to claim the TV while I still can.

Posted by agutwin at 07:32 PM | Comments (3)

March 12, 2006

fun times in the library

OK, so i'm sitting at this computer in Olin (1st floor, i.e. best place to be on a friday night...except it's not friday...but anyway) minding my own buisness, just doing some microbiology work, when this girl getting up from her chair catches my eye. In big, bold writing across her butt is "juciy"....The first thing that comes to my mind is this day old colt I went to see with Melissa a few days ago. The barn manager comes over to say hi as we're looking at this pretty boy and makes the comment about how he's unfolding nicely, but his butt is a little "gooey" (it's tough being a day old, all the systems don't quite work right off the batt). I think that's the term she used, but gooey and juciy can often times mean the same thing. I wonder why people would want to put such odd phrases on the back-side of their pants. I also saw a pair being worn by an overweight girl about 14 years old that said, "soft-ball"....she obviously wanted to show her love of the sport...but c'mon, buy the wrist band! All right, I should get back to work, here's my upcoming week: farm animal behavior mid-term tuesday, orgo prelim tuesday, microbio mid-term wed, neuro brain quiz wed, resume due friday, starting that on wednesday...fun stuff. Then spring break! (oh, appropreate family in VT, i may be coming home for a day/night, but we still need to work out the details). Sorry for the spelling/grammar errors, i'm too lazy to find, then fix them... :-P

Posted by agutwin at 09:46 PM | Comments (1)

January 03, 2006

Pictures

Kellie Coffey - At The End Of The Day:

"Throw the covers off my head
Shake my body out of bed
Stretch my arms up
And look out the window
Sun is rising
birds are singing
I am greeted by the gift of another new morning
And I know tonight as my head hits the pillow
I will ask myself as I look out the same window

At the end of the day
Did I laugh and dance enough?
Did I tell my friends how much they really mean to me?
At the end of the day
Did I really push myself?
Or was I too afraid
To give my heart away"

I'm not going to lie, these pictures are intended for Cris, but anyone is more then welcome to look too. Click on a picture to make it bigger. Enjoy :)

Posted by agutwin at 12:45 AM | Comments (1)

December 26, 2005

Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas at the Gutwin house. There was a ton of stuff and everyone had fun playing, laughing, eating, and being merry. I must say that the best gift of the day was the "Super Suduko for Kids" puzzle book Becca gave me. Rebecca Collins (on the far left in the photo) was a new, but pleasant, addition to our usual activities. The rest of the people are (L->R): my brother, Karl, my mom, my sister, Becca, and me!

Here's a few side notes: first, there are more pictures for anyone who has access to a facebook account. Second, I forgot to say in my e-mail, but Cris, I did not get your text message :( and lastly, random question, but I was wondering if you still have your textbook for 222.

Posted by agutwin at 06:55 PM | Comments (1)

December 24, 2005

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Greeting cards have all been sent
The Christmas rush is through
But I still have one wish to make
A special one for you

Merry Christmas darling
We're apart that's true
But I can dream and in my dreams
I'm Christmas-ing with you

Holidays are joyful
There's always something new
But every day's a holiday
When I'm near to you
The lights on my tree
I wish you could see
I wish it every day
Logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say

That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year, too
I've just one wish
On this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you

Logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say
That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year, too
I've just one wish
On this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you
I wish I were with you
---------------------------------

Haha, this song came on and I thought of you, Cris. To all my friends that I'm not able to be with: Merry Christmas, love you lots and cya soon :)

Posted by agutwin at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2005

boo

"When we finally kiss good night, how I hate going out in the storm,
but if you really hold me tight all the way home I'll be warm,"

I seem to have come down with sickness. It started last night with a sore throat and headache, and today it's full blown ouchiness. I feel like I have a cat down my throat, I can't swallow very well. I had to go out christmas shopping today with my sister...that was not fun...i felt like i couldn't stand up. I'm not thinking very clearly and hopefully the present i got my dad will be good. OK, i'm going to go lie down...I hope you're safe and sound, Cris, I look forward to talking to you again.

Posted by agutwin at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2005

Cris and Anna do NYC

"If you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says,
when she says she loves me" - Tonic

I'm actually on the train right now, I'll post this when I get home I guess. The end of school was kind of a blur of library and exams and sleep. I'm not sure how I feel about how well I've done on them, I kinda just had one after the other and not much time to think in-between. It seems so long ago that the semester started. Julie's moved out of the room, and it looks extremely empty. I'm sure going to miss having someone there to talk to, but I'm excited to (cross fingers) have a room to myself. I'm going to loft Julie's bed and put a hammock underneath, as well as rearrange the desks so I have one for my computer and one to do homework on. Well that's the plan for now....

I spent this past weekend at Cris's house in Yorktown and it was the perfect end to a stressful two weeks. On Saturday we walked around the "rich" mall and goofed around. We went into an Apple store and Williams Sinoma and Cris got to see me go nuts over all the stuff (btw, I'd like a new iPod with video, oh and one of those super big screens and a G5....) I also got to see his town and hang-out spots (and we got to go ice skating, haha). On Sunday we went to the city and hung around time square, rokafeller square area. We went into a couple stores (including Orvis, Dad, because I know how much you like it), saw the tree (apparently it's from NJ) and walked around A LOT. Haha, hey Cris, remember that time we went to NYC and walked around for like 20 minutes trying to find the movie theater? and we got a large popcorn and coke and both got sick as we waited an hour for the movie to start :-P The crazy Toys R Us store, and running to catch the train (and when we got there we realized we were actually the first ones there, we even beat the condoctor). Yea, that was fun.... :)

Posted by agutwin at 12:18 AM | Comments (1)

December 09, 2005

:(

Ummmm.....so that thing about going to bed....well I couldn't actually fall asleep - for the whole night! I think i must have slept a little bit, but i was still up at 2, probably 3:30, then at 5:30 I got so fed up I got up, went to the bathroom, got a drink of chocolate milk and tried again. I'm really tired now, but the construction started at 9AM so I doubt I'll be able to fall asleep through that.

It was odd, I actually forgot how to go to sleep...there was one point when i first got in bed, that I was almost there, then julie came back to the room and woke me up again. Then when I tried to go back to sleep, I had chemistry reactions running through my head and I was wondering why I wasn't writting them down. Then I remembered that when you go to sleep, you don't write stuff down and I was really confused....it was a weird time.

The problem is, now I need to be awake and studying. Even if I could fall asleep, I've already wasted so much of my time that I simply can't do it and still have enough time to get all my studying done. I don't know what's going to happen with tomorrow when I need to teach rock climbing at 9AM....hopefully I'll be able to grab a little more tonight....

Posted by agutwin at 09:48 AM | Comments (2)

snow, exams, and buddies

(Sorry about the spelling, I'll too lazy right now to run it through a spell checker...feel free to correct me)

Exams are upons us once again. I had my first one this morning, animal nutrition. I studied a ton for it, and I think i did fairly well, but we'll see. I think exam season is a funny thing, mostly because you see a two fold increase in the number of sorority girls in the librarys. It's also a time of great stress...to say the least.

I've noticed a common theme on the Cornell campus around exam time. It seems that the majority of students cling to eachother like Kismet on Becca. I've seen many couples walking through the cold arm in arm, taking a study break in the lounge while leaning on eachother, or simply cooking dinner with a bunch of friends. The secret to not letting the stress get to you is to have someone who can hold you and tell you it's only school, and that everything will work out.

Speaking of stress, I've got organic chemistry coming up this tuesday. It's going to be one long climb...but after tuesday....I don't think i can think about it at this point. But it's snowing, and that makes me happy. Walking home from the library and knowing i'm going to go to sleep soon is an awesome feeling. So sleep I will, with the snow piling up outside, and my warm comforter inside...mmmm boy! G'night

Posted by agutwin at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2005

Quickie

I'm going to try and make this short, I've got to leave for class in ~4 min....

So I got my orgo exam back (not the one I took last night, but the orgo lecture exam) and I got a 46%....Now before you freak out, the mean was a 58 with a SD of 18.....so it's not the end of the world i guess....There's still the final, which counts as much as 2 prelims, so I can bring it up.

Other than that, the orgo lab exam I took last night went ok i think....it was long, but not epic (sorry, for non-adventure type people, epic = taking a trip where a lot of bad/unexpected things happened, for example, if you got lost in the woods and ran from a bear, that'd be epic). So anyway, we'll see about that one. The only bad thing is that it counts for 30% of your grade in a 2 credit course, which is almost a full credit :O but i don't think i did too horribly.

OK, this is getting too long and i need to walk in the rain to my next class (behavior, were we're actually getting back our exams!). Hope everyone has an awesome day

Posted by agutwin at 12:01 PM | Comments (1)

November 15, 2005

Almost...

So I've got my computer back - 60 gig HD and all. It's been a little annoying chaning all my settings and stuff back, but I guess it's a small price to pay. The only problem is that my laptop dosen't go to sleep when you shut the lid....kind of an important feature... The guy who put the HD in forgot to put back this magnet thingie that puts the computer to sleep when it's closed. I guess it's a common problem with replaced HDs. I'm pretty sure they'll fix it for free, but that just means sending it in again...oh well.

So I have one more prelim tonight, chemistry again. This time it's Orgo Lab, a separate course from orgo lecture. I'm kinda worried, but it's only a 2 credit class so i'm not going to stress out too too much. I also have a paper that I just finished. If you care to read it I guess I can attach it here (download file). I don't really like it when classes make you write these "scientific papers" because I've worked on a "real" one that actually went to a journal for review, and it's very different than these class projects, much more challenging and fun. I guess it's just not practical to have students write journal quality papers....

Oh, and I've looke around a little on Cornell's Study Abroad page. I'm thinking about James Cook, in Australia. "North Queensland is well known for embracing a relaxed tropical lifestyle." and they advertise, "year-long sun and perfect days"....hmmmm....sounds more like a vacation than school... :)

OK, i'm off to study some more....in overcast Ithaca....

Posted by agutwin at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2005

Orgo is done, computer is ready

So Julie and I are pretty much back to normal, which is a plus. I've definitly had my fair share of roomate-anger-issues and she's such a great friend to have around.

Also, my computer is all set, no logic board damage *phew!*, with a nice and big 40 gig HD (almost double what it was before). I may be able to pick it up today (if Cris gets out of his lab before 6) which would be awesome, but I've lived this long without it that i can survive another weekend. The drive cost $120+tax, the labor is at least $70, so we'll see how much it comes too....hopefully not too too much.

And the orgo exam is done - I don't think it went well at all though, so that's really disappointing to put so much effort and time into studying without much reward....oh well, there's always the final...After the exam was over I got to watch Cris play in a piano concert, which was nice. At least I had something to look forward to.

I'm going to grab some lunch now (nachos!!) and hopefully some sleep after my lab practical today.

OH! and it started snowing a little yesterday :) it's very nice, I can't wait for winter

Posted by agutwin at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2005

Random issues

I've got a ton of stuff going on - work, homework, exams, my computer, housing...everything is demanding my full attention. I don't think I get stressed out often, I have a lot going on normally, but I can handle it most of the time, I just grin and bear it. However, there are a few times, probably twice a year where I have a breakdown. Unfortunately last night was one of those times and poor Julie took the majority of my rath.

I'd been hanging on the edge for a while, with so many prelims, a group project that wasn't coming together, living without full access to a computer, and on and on. So I had called Julie and left her a note saying that I'd be back to the room late (I was going to be in the library) and that it would be great if she could leave her notes for chem out on the desk so I could copy them when I get back (when she's sleeping so she won't be missing them at all). I was really looking forward to having them and maybe actually being able to understand this chemistry. However, I get back to the room and they're not there...I had left so many notes and voice-mails that I was sure she got the message, but just didn't help me out. So I went to bed in a very bad mood because there's really no good time that I can copy her notes now and she's the only one I know in orgo that actually goes to class. OK, so in the morning she's really upset that I'm mad at her and gives the excuse that she was confused as to why I would want her notes, saying that she got back to the room at 1 when she got my voice mail and note. Also, she said that I should have gotten them earlier if I had wanted them so badly. Her final argument was that I could simply go to this random office, "sign in" and get the notes. In my defense: I went to bed a lot later than 1 (currently running on <8 hrs for the past 2 days) and if she had any questions, she could have called me because I was obviously not sleeping...and even if she did have questions, all I wanted was her to leave her chem notebook out on her desk. I admit that I should have gotten them earlier, that's totally my falt. However, I thought my request was simple and it wouldn't require her to give up any time with them. Lastly, I had class all day today, until this office closed, and it would be really nice to be able to actually study from them rather than look them over the day of the exam (it's tomorrow at 7:30 pm). So long story short - I still think I have a right to be ticked off, especially since I've done her plenty of favors and this one wasn't that big. But I appologized (in a letter, she had to leave for class) for being so angry when in reality, I will most likely live past thr. even if I get another D. I'm going to live here in the library until about 1-2 again, so I probably won't see her until after the prelim.

(Side note: I missed 2.5 lectures for various reasons, that's why I needed the notes)

I'm fine now - breakdown is over - and I'm excited that I've reached the point where I don't think about sleep anymore. This means I've got plenty of time to be very confused (i.e. study). Oh, and the stress of exams and such dosen't end on thr. I've got one on this friday, next tuesday (and a major paper due on tue), and again on friday. *Sigh* I know I need sleep, but I really need to pack in a lot of study hours.

Finally some semi-good news: my computer's HD did in fact fail, and they're going to replace it with a 60 gig (the only one in stock) for $120 plus tax (plus $70 for confirming it failed). They'll hopefully do that by tonight and I can call tomorrow morning to see if anything else needs to be fixed (they mentioned something about how the logic board may have gotten something spilled on it - i'm crossing my fingers). So I really hope I'll have that back up and running soon, which will take a lot of stress off my shoulders.

Sorry if I spelled anything wrong, or wrote horibble sentances or anything like that. I'm going off to study orgo some more...eat dinner...study...coffee..study...study...sleep :) Poor Jam is having all his stuffing squeezed out of him from all my stress...sometimes he's the only thing that keeps me sane :-P

Posted by agutwin at 05:23 PM | Comments (2)

October 31, 2005

Good news at last

So last night Cris and I were finally successful in backing up my hard drive onto his computer, no need to spend $70+ trying to save a few pictures of my pony. Now I'm in Mann attempting to repair the HD myself (with the OS X DVD in). So far so good, I ran verify disk and it said "Volume Bit Map needs minor repair"....ok...so I clicked "repair disk" and now it tells me it's done - "1 HFS volume repaired". Hmm...so I guess i'm going to try starting it up again...? here goes nothing...maybe...maybe...ok, we have a background...oh man, this is getting my hopes up...oh my goodness I don't believe it! So it's working fine now! good as new! well I guess that is good news :D I'm gonna head off to class now, phew, one thing off my mind...

Posted by agutwin at 11:37 AM | Comments (1)

October 25, 2005

Hot Drinks

*sigh* it's still raining outside, I had half-hoped that it would stop. I don't like the cycle of cold and wet, wet and warm, finally dry and warm, to cold and wet again as I shuffle from building to building. I've given into just wearing my hat all the time now, although the wool smells a little odd when wet. But, as Katie pointed out, not many people are going to be smelling my head...hopefully.

So I think in these next few days I will consume my body weight in hot drinks. This afternoon I got hot cider - mmmm :) it's so tasty. I'm so tempted to curl up in a corner of the library (I'm in Uris now) with my hot drink and my iPod :) I started listening to "The horse and his boy" after lunch....I'll get my homework done sometime, I always do.

And now for something almost completely different. After googleing "Hot Cider" I found this image and thought I'd practice my conformation evaluations for my horses class, so here goes:

This is a Thoroughbred named "Hot Apple Cider" by "Forbidden Apple"

This horse has a good expression, with alert ears, and a good eye. The lips are a little loose, but not too bad. The neck is shaped well, with a clean attachment at the throatlatch and is set high on the chest. The shoulder is long and has a good angle, which is important in athletic ability. The withers are set far back and (it's hard to tell with the mane) relatively prominant. The back is a little long, but there is adequate muscling on top and in the hind quarters. The front legs appear to be free of deformities, but it's hard to tell from the picture, the cannon bones are long, however. The hind legs have good angulation, and are neither camped out or in. Again, the cannon bones are long. Overall, from the side this horse appears to have very good breeding.

Posted by agutwin at 04:44 PM | Comments (1)

October 18, 2005

yey! - it's over!

So I think it went ok. There were some I definitly knew and some that I BS'd completely...oh well. I'm taking the night off - which means I should go to bed early...but I think i'm going to watch a movie :)

Posted by agutwin at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)

Chemistry is the devil

So the third orgo prelim in in a little under 2 hrs away and my brain feels like it's going to explode. The way my schedual worked out this time I did the bulk of my studying yesterday and today. That means i've had it up to here with alkenes, bonding, hydroboration, ozonolysis, chair conformations, ugg. I think studying before an exam is like trying to see how much water you can fit in your mouth. At first it seems like no problem, then pretty soon you realize there's no way you can get one more drop in without loosing some or, in this case, your mind. Then, when the actual exam comes, you can only hope that the squeezing on your cheeks makes the water come out in one big squirt rather than down the tube in one big choke. I think i'll do all-right on this one (I just can't figure out resolving enantiomers....grrrr) but I want to do REALLY well...that would probably mean going back in time at this point. Oh well, there's always the third prelim.

On a happier note, I finally got back my behavior prelim, and I got an 86 and the mean was a 77, so i'm happy (although I don't know the standard dev.). That class is fun and dosen't require much hard thought to do well. All my other classes are going all-right too, I'm just about the mean now, wich is an improvement from last year. I'm slowly refining my study habbits so that I do better and better. By the time I graduate I'll be ready to get a 4.0 :-P

But for now it's back to the books, and hopefully not just to sleep on...wish me good luck for 7:30

Posted by agutwin at 05:46 PM | Comments (1)

October 12, 2005

Library Fun

I'm waiting for Katie and Laura to go to dinner, so I figured i'd waste time here...So I've finally gotten good at actually using the librarys, especially to study. The one on the left is Mann library, located near my animal science classes. It's nice and new and has 3 floors that have long rows of desks and stacks nearby. It also has computers/printers on the first floor and, I'm happy to say, 4 macs (power macs) that are almost always available. One problem with Mann though, is that it's not open past midnight on weekdays, and not past 6 or so on weekends. It's also kind of far away from my room, so I use it in-between classes mostly.

The library on the left is called the A.D. White reading room or something like that. It's located in Uris library and is open 24/7 (although, get there early on sat to get a seat!). This is my hard-core study area, if I'm there, I'm gonna be there for a while and I'm gonna get some serious work done. I like this room a lot because it has three "floors", with spiral stair-cases in the corners and lots of open space. My imagination definitly goes to town in this room, it's easy to get lost in time. But Uris holds many other great places to study, including the fish bowl, the coctail lounge, and a large room with just desks. Uris has only 3 macs (again, power macs) but they get the job done.

I love the librarys, walking down the stacks and just knowing how much information is packed within those bindings. Walking though Mann is particularly interesting, just today I found a book called "Fishes in North American Deserts"...hmmm. Other days I have found books ranging from Native American horses to Tomatoes for processing. Every day in the library is an adventure :)

Posted by agutwin at 05:16 PM | Comments (1)

September 28, 2005

Outrageous

http://www.cornellamerican.com/main/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=78

OK, so I'm Christian; some may call me conservative, I like the label liberal better. Be that as it may, I feel this issue is not dependant on politics, but on humanity. Humans should not judge a group based on what their background is, period. I am outraged by the article that the "Cornell American" wrote; I am even more outraged that Cornell funds this paper. Not only is the information politically incorrect, it is also scientifically false. We can barely understand issues like violence, love, and jealousy, let alone do accurate scientific studies to find a gene for these behaviors. Sure, there may be a correlation (emphasis on "may be") between race and violence, but there is not nearly enough evidence to cause such deep wounds in a culture. I could say there is a correlation between whites and the ability to be such pricks, but people would call me crazy. Grrrr is all I can say....

Posted by agutwin at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2005

Ramen

I was finishing up a very good bowl of Ramen and about to start my chem reading when I thought it'd be cool to know a little more about this fascinating food. So after a quick search on google I came about an entry in "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Here's just a little section:

"Despite some health concerns, ramen is a popular food item among college students due to its ease of preparation and extremely low cost—as of 2004, one packet could be bought for as little as 10-15 U.S. cents. Ramen is also very resistant to spoilage and can be easily prepared with boiling water, making it a favorite of backpackers."

One might read this and say, "hey, I didn't know there were health concerns! Tell me more!" Well if you're one of those people, the website also stated:

"Being a popular dish, ramen has often been criticized for its potential health risks. Some of these claims are justified, while others could be made against any diet which contains too much of a particular food.
A serving of ramen noodle is high in carbohydrates and low in vitamins and minerals, so eating a cup of instant ramen with only an egg as topping for every meal is not a wise choice. Adding a serving of boiled spinach or cabbage to ramen improves its nutritional value.
Ramen soup, especially the instant variety, contains a high amount of sodium. Ramen noodles themselves contain very little sodium so one can avoid drinking the soup if a low-sodium diet is recommended for health reasons. Many Japanese people also believe that ramen soup contains a high amount of fat and also that pre-fried fat from the noodles seeps into the soup. However, a typical serving of ramen, even when drinking all of the soup, has less food energy than a fast-food menu consisting of a hamburger, soda, and fries.
Some brands of instant ramen use hydrogenated vegetable fat (ie. trans fat), which is known to be harmful to the body."

There also seem to be an abnormally high amount of MSGs as well...

OK, so there may be a few reasons not to enjoy a brick of ramen, but my view is: life is short, eat Ramen. It is cheap, salty, and if you eat it quick enough after adding the water, it's crunchy too. I hope we all learned something from this experience, I sure have.

Posted by agutwin at 05:34 PM | Comments (2)

August 29, 2005

Swimming and Slacklining!

Sunday was a near-perfect day. Well I guess a little bit of that came from hanging out with Floris the night before (an episode of Alias always equals a good time to me). Anyway, while Katie and I were on staff training for COE we got to thoroughly embarrass ourselves on the slackline that was set up. For those who are not so versed in this climber past-time I'll explain: Slacklining is basically where one ties a long strip of 1" webbing between two trees (fairly close to the ground) and then tries to stand, walk, turn, etc. on it. So after having fun on the one on sat we wanted to have more fun by setting one up on Sunday. Thanks to Katie's "old" webbing and a couple trees and 'biners we got fairly good at it, but most importantly we got addicted! So that and a relaxing morning set the day off right.

Possibly even more fun than slackling was swimming. Katie, Laura, Stephen, Floris and I went down near the suspension bridge and splashed around. If I need to state the obvious: I love swimming. A pool, a lake, an ocean, it doesn't really matter as long as I can paddle around in the water and have fun. It was a pretty hot day to begin with and the water was soooo nice. Luckily Floris is pretty good with a camera and took these awesome pictures:

That's me playing in one of the many waterfalls

A bee we found on one of the plants

A view from above. I'm on the left, Stephen, Katie and Laura are in the middle. It's very deep after that waterfall so you can dive/jump in

One of the mini-waterfalls

Basically the whole thing

Posted by agutwin at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

July 04, 2005

FirEwORks!! (and fire-field)

OK, here's a letter i'm going to be submitting to our town's newspaper. It was a pretty interesting night :P

The Williston Fireworks were good, but what they started was even more entertaining. After the start of the show the gentle wind picked up a bit, causing a little concern for the viewers on the bike path behind Allen Brook School. Glowing embers were soon seen scattering the near-by field after a particularly large blast. After many shouts of "fire in the field" a handful of brave citizens were inspired to run to the corner of the field, reportedly stomping the four to five foot in diameter flame to embers and then dousing it with a water bottle. The fire had been sucessfully extinguished when an official came driving by on the bike path, and, despite having directions given by an onlooker, proceeded to speed past the location and drive in the wrong direction. After some time a truck entered the field equiped with people searching the grounds. A fire official reported seeing the flames when they started. However, one would think that live embers landing in a dry field would cause the fire department to be on high alert. If any official had been watching for fire common sense would suggest they would be the first ones to contain the flames. I think it is inappropreate for citizens (who were supposed to be watching the fireworks) to react quicker and more efficiently than those paid to watch for fires. That being said, I have a great respect for our Country's firemen and there was no point during the evening that I felt any real danger. I believe we had a great display of pyrometrics, but a poor show of our town's professionalism and responsiveness.

I bet there are a ton of spelling and grammatical mistakes in there, but i'll fix it tomorrow. All right, i'm wicked tired, i think i'm going to bed.

Posted by agutwin at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2005

photo contest!

OK, I know you faithful readers are out there :P Now's your chance! I'd greatly appreciate your vote on which picture you like out of the selection below. Please judge mainly on composition and less on subject mater. Feel free to comment on why too. Oh, and if you don't pick one, I will hunt you down and there will be consequences...For those who have never commented to this type of blog, it's realy easy, just enter your name and any e-mail address, you don't need to be a special person to do it. Ok, go.

(click on any image to see it larger)

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Thank you :)

Posted by agutwin at 07:02 PM | Comments (4)

June 16, 2005

new haircut :P

So here it is, a little more styled than I'll probably wear it, but still good. Feel free to comment :D

Posted by agutwin at 11:07 AM | Comments (1)

June 15, 2005

"Black like me"

I'm reading the book "black like me" now. I think it's a good book, well writen, etc. but I also think it's so very sad. He describes the feelings he has as a "black man" and how hated he is by a lot of whites. Growing up in Vermont I was never exposed to a lot of people from different races, I don't know if this influenced my opinion today. I was always taught to not descriminate, and those who judged based on skin color where just plain stupid. So to read about the point of view of a black person in the south, it's a little surprising. It makes me upset that people could act in such a blind hateful way. At first I was glad that this sort of treatment isn't going on today, but then I realized that it still is, just quieter. I remember my friend (I'm not naming who) made some racist black jokes that where funny until you thought about all those people who where unfairly condemmed by so many. I just want the world to be able to get along in peace, and hopefully I can help in that somehow.

Posted by agutwin at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2005

something to fill up the space

all right, back by popular demand...or just regular demand...ok, fine, there was no demand at all but I feel like it. Anyway, I'm home sweet home once again, which has it's ups and downs. I enjoy seeing my family and pets again (Becca, you fall into the latter category) as well as all my old "stomping grounds" as Grandpa would say. However, I often find myself bored and greatly missing the friends I made in Ithaca. What makes it harder is that I have a couple really good friends who are there now and I'm extreamly jelous and am itching to hitch a ride with anyone I can find. But for now I guess I can sustain myself with talking on the phone and IM when possible.

So I'm sure my sister alreadly flogged this topic to death, but the VT City Marathon was yesterday, and again we had a gangle of friends and family running in it, A.K.A Anna's job was to run around and try and catch everybody on multiple spots on the course to encourage them on and take pictures. I always enjoy marathons (except at the end when there is the great possibility for puke-age). I love seeing my "city" fill up with people from all over and seeing some familiar faces in the croud. I managed to run into 2 former teachers from highschool as well as a few friends. As for the people running this year, here's how it laid out: My friend Monika came up from NY city to run and she came in with a impressive, but above her goal time of around 3:30 (she was aiming for 3:20 or under). Unfortunately we didn't get to hang out much, but I'm sure she was awful tired. Then there was my Dad, who came in over 4 hrs, but no big deal. My friend from NH also ran for the second year in a row and came in with a time of 4:09, and got her first blister! There's a couple I sometimes babysit for who came in with impressive times, Joe was ranked 14th with a 6:20 pace and Sue a little slower (but give her credit, she's had 2 kids, one just recently) with a 7:10 pace ranking her 64th overall. There's also some of my mom's employees and such, but I don't think i'll bore you with the details. Anyway, I have grand hopes to run one day, but that means i'll need to get my cardio and knees all set first...I'm working on it. I cannot let it stand as the only one in my immediate family to run (I know Becca hasn't yet either, but I'm scared of her determination, I know she could walk outside and run 26.2 mi right now if she had an inkling, that is, if it didn't get in the way of rowing). But now I've got to tend to a naughty bird and an empty stomach.

P.S. the best time for the marathon was 2:25:27 (average pace 5:33) by a guy from Texas.

Posted by agutwin at 06:24 PM | Comments (4)

May 07, 2005

almost done

Ok, so yesterday was slope day here at Cornell. Snoop Dogg, The Starting line and The Game gave concerts on our beautiful Libe Slope. It was pretty fun, I got to hang out with Danielle, Laura, Katie, Chris and Evan most of the day which was awesome, they're very fun people. Plus I found that not all the people on my floor are crazy, which is always a good thing.

I know I haven't posted in a while. It's one of those things that seems like a chore, but after it's done it feels a lot better. Oh well. So I'm going home pretty soon, which i'm not terribly happy about (sorry family :P) I have found so many cool things and people here, although the work is very hard. But I think that I'll have fun at home too, because it's home. Uggg, my neck is still hurting from the chemistry exam....i talked with one person and she said i'm probably carrying all my stress on that one muscle in my shoulder, so it's getting all tensed up and big.

So i think i'd better study some more, then go to bed.

Posted by agutwin at 11:10 PM | Comments (3)

April 14, 2005

Mom is Safe :)

So I just got a call from my mom, she's done her shoulder surgery and everything went reallly well. She's going home now to sleep, but there's not much pain right now. Just thought i'd give an update.

Posted by agutwin at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2005

:(

So I just got done my chem prelim, and I'm pretty sure i failed. I hate it when people say they failed (almost everyone does...) when they really mean they got a B. There's a girl on my hall who whines a lot and pouts, yet she has a 4.0 GPA so far...grrrr. Anyway, I, on the other hand, always tell the truth....so I really think i failed. I left a lot of questions blank, which is never good. I really don't know how I can do sooo poorly. I thought I was clever and smart and could figure all of this out. But it feels as if all my brain power just went to zero. I don't understand the concepts well enough i guess...or be able to reproduce them on an exam. I just want to do well, I don't have any super ambition to get an A in all my classes, but I just want to hit the mean every once in a while. I guess that means more work, but it feels as if i'm running on full speed. But the plan for next time (the final, ahhh!) is to study 3 weeks in advance, get organized and find which topics I need to work on, find a lot of practice problems and try and do them without notes, and if I don't understand a concept, I'll go ask a TA. Sounds like a good plan to me, hopefully if i get an A on the final, it'll balance out the C- and whatever I got tonigh :(

Posted by agutwin at 10:02 PM | Comments (2)

April 10, 2005

Pie

Ok, so i had to work at the climbing wall from 1-8 (bah) so by the time they finaly let me out of there, I was pretty hungry. The dining halls close at 8:30 and I just made it in time to Appel to grab some food. However, as i was sitting there, by myself as they were closing up, it made me think of just how far away from home, and life "back then", I really am. Also, at the climbing wall there was a group of younger kids, and an adult mentioned something about going home, and it made me remember when I would just go home - after climbing, after school, whatever. It didn't help that I was trying to choke down a piece of surprisingly tastless piece of rhubarb pie that obviously had too much red and not enough rhubarb, my grandma makes pies 10 times better! I'm not homesick, or particularly miss a whole lot because I LOVE Cornell, but it just made me think. I can't wait for Becca to come back from SA, and the summer to be here, and dad to come up to visit, and seeing kismet and mom again, and eating REAL pie with my grandparents. But for now i can enjoy the sun that's shining down (well, not right now...) and the work I have to do, and the friends who make it all better (or worse sometimes....) Yup, it's not particulary better or worse - just different. But i should go study some chem now...

Posted by agutwin at 09:01 PM | Comments (1)

April 08, 2005

taking a breath

Ok, so i got done my an sci exam - i think it went ok, we'll see....now on to chemistry and anthropology.... but for now i'm taking a little break, going climbing tonight, then hanging out with a few friends with any luck. I'm super excited that it's starting to get warmer out (it's 55 now). I think we agreed that cornell has a secret weather machine that they turn on when all the pre-freshman are visiting - so that's where all the tuition goes to! Oh well, it's nice out, and that's fun. Hopefully i can fit some paddling time in, my friend david has a car (yes, the same car that got in the accident...no, it's still safe to drive w/him) but the only problem is that it costs $25 for a day to rent a boat, which is not too bad...but if you get my drift, it's too much ;) ok, so i've got to run and grab some dinner before i go to the wall.

Posted by agutwin at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2005

Screen shot

After viewing my sister's page, i realized two things: 1) that mine is super un-cool and 2) I could make it cooler by adding pictures once in a while. So having no really good pics at the moment, I decided to take a screen shot of what my computer normally looks like when I'm doing work. I'll point out a few things - first, that the temperature at the moment is 59 degrees, which is extreamly warm and makes me sad that i need to be inside doing work. Second, that I have Dee Dee Bridgewater's The Tokyo Blues playing - which always reminds me of my dad's condo and brings back fond memories. Thrid, that I have my fancy AIM in the upper corner which allows me to view at a glace if there's anyone important enough for me to get destracted with :). Finally you can note in the bottom left corner is a little sign that displays the current song's information. I have it set up so it shows up for a few seconds every time the song changes, and being the fancy mac that it is, it can even show up when I have other program windows open and on top. This is extreamly helpful when I'm listening to new stuff and trying to learn the names and artists. Ok, I think that's all for now. Oh, one last note: it's very confusing to have the picture of the screen open when you just took the pic. (oh, and dad, if you don't know how to do it, it's shift-command-3 or shift-command-4 to get a cursor to pick a section of screen to take a pic. of.)

Click on the picture to get a bigger image

Posted by agutwin at 05:38 PM | Comments (2)

April 04, 2005

yea...

ok - note to self - naps are not very conductive to studying....

Posted by agutwin at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2005

Warm Weather

It is so nice outside today. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the wind is gentle. Actually, it's so warm i'm sitting here in my room with my window open and a tank top on. This kind of weather really makes me want to be outside doing anything. but alas, nobody I know want's to join me outside, so I'm stuck in here....wasting time until I can go climbing tonight. Besides, for all I love being outdoors, I cannot think of things to do - any suggestions?? I could go for a bike ride, but I don't have a bike....I could go for a walk, but nobody can join me....and it's not quite warm enough to go for a paddle....plus that might be a little ambitious. Oh well....I guess i can take a shower, maybe take a nap, or be super cool and do some of the hw i had put off during the begining of the week. But I'll probably end up sitting on my butt watching another movie :/ at least I'm hanging out with my future roomate tonight which should be awesome. Oh, and climbing is good too - but again, I have nobody to join me....darn it, it looks like i need to get some more available friends. Ok - off to take a shower now, we'll see what happens after that - life is a big adventure and you never know what's coming next.

Posted by agutwin at 02:57 PM | Comments (3)

March 13, 2005

Wise old men

here's an exerpt from my anthropology reading (p.s. sorry for the language - I thought I'd rather give the original text):

"Suppose you and I are walking on the road," said Swamiji, the holyman whose storytelling I was researching in 1985. "You've gone to University. I haven't studied anything. We're walking. Some child has shit on the road. We both step in it. 'That's shit!' I say. I scrape my foot; it's gone. But educated people have doubts about everything. You say, 'What's this?!' and you rub your foot against the other." Swamiji shot up from his prone position in the deck chair, and placing his feet on the linoleum, stared at them with intensity. He rubbed the right sole against the left ankle. "Then you reach down to feel what it could be," his fingers now explored the angle. A grin was breaking over his face. "Something sticky! You life some up and sniff it. Then you say, 'Oh! This is shit." The hand that had vigorously rubbed his nose was flug out in a gesture of disgust.
Swamiji turned back towards me, cheeks lifted under their white stubble in a toothless and delighted grin. Everyone present in the room was laughing uncontrollably. I managed an uncomfortable smile.
"See how many places it touched in the meantime," Swamiji continued. "Educated people always doubt everything. They lie awake at night thinking, 'What was that? Why did it happen? What is the meaning and the cause of it?' Uneducated people pass judgment and walk on. They get a good night's sleep" .... When he settled back into his deck chair, he turned to me again. "It's not that you shouldn't study," he said, voice low and kind. "You should gain wisdom. But you should realize that in the end this means nothing."

-this story makes me laugh. I think that sometimes we get so caught up in grades and tests that we realize we are here to gain the most important thing - widsom.

Posted by agutwin at 11:58 PM | Comments (4)

Haha

Does this need a description?

Posted by agutwin at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2005

Yea...don't really have a title

ok - so to all those dying to know what happened with my anthropology paper: it is in safe and sound....see...i knew i'd make the deadline...

On another note - I just checked my e-mail and found that a hat that I had ordered online has finally arrived. Actually, that was pretty quick seeing as how i ordered it on tue and it came from the west coast, the mail these days is excellent. oh, here's a picture in case you're not geoff and don't know what i'm talking about:

I have mixed feelings about the hat. Some of you might know how obsessive i have become about my red one - I think this comes from the fact that I stole it from my mother, so it reminds me of her. Also, i took it on my outward bound trip, which was also very important to me. Plus, it fits my head...so we'll see if it can be replaced, it is starting to show it's wear just a little (sorry mom!).

Oh, and on a side note - I made a comment today to Kendall about something....i think it was the chem lab...and I said it was worthless and retarted. I've been trying really hard lately to not use words like that - I know they are hurtful to others, but sometimes I don't even think about what's coming out of my brain. Uggg

Posted by agutwin at 11:03 AM | Comments (2)

Shoot!

So I have this anthropology paper to write for today at 10:10. I really was going to finish it last night, but I was having a bit of a writers block and so decided to take a 30 min nap around 10. I woke up this morning at 6 thankfully. So it's now 7:15 and I'm finding the same trouble I ran into last night. I'm trying to write this paragraph on the different types of teaching that one can do - active vs. passive. I guess my main problem is that I'm not sure if i'm using legit terms, active and passive teaching?? I donno, it sounds cool, hopefully that's all that matters. Ok, it's now 7:19 and I really should get done squeezing a few inches out of this sucker - I can't even make it 3 pages! Oh well.....at least there's hockey tonight and I got a good night's sleep.....?

Posted by agutwin at 07:14 AM | Comments (4)

March 09, 2005

What I'm Missing

I was looking through my pictures and came accross this one and it made me smile. I think this is what I miss most here at Cornell - having that constant source of love. Well I guess it's still there, just farther away. So here's a shout out to all my family wherever you are - I love you!

Posted by agutwin at 06:36 PM | Comments (1)

March 08, 2005

Desk

As promised, here's a picture of my speakers on my desk! enjoy

Posted by agutwin at 10:20 PM | Comments (3)

March 02, 2005

Dying Dreams

I remember back in high school reading a poem about dying dreams that ask if they just wither up in the sun or burst like a balloon. Well I think that it's more of a combonation of the two. First there's a burst where you realize what's happening and feel all broken up. This thing that you've dreamed about for so long is suddenly not there. It's hard at first, to re-learn everything that you've been doing, to learn how to live without that hope. Then the slow degredation begins, where at first you convince yourself there's still hope and you try and fall into your old routein. However, you soon look back and see that there is in fact no hope left. I think it leaves you very empty and confused. Then you try and find what drew you to the dream so strongly in the first place and it comes down to nothing, a whisp of smoke that turned into a tornado, but only in your mind. I think though that the dream still lives on deep in your heart, desparately seeking protection from all the previous battering. Yet it's allowed to come out once in a while, when it's safe, and then quietly crawls back. So we live our life.

Posted by agutwin at 10:56 PM | Comments (1)

Yummies

I got a package from my grandparents today! It had very good things to eat in it, like Junior Mints and Anna's Ginger Thins. I really enjoy food, especially if it's from people i love. The ginger cookies reminded me of the good times of going to my grandparent's house after school, having a snack, then playing with my horse. Everything seemed so simple back then, now there's prelims, classes, and my future to worry about. I think i still have time though, i don't need to make such big decisions quite yet. But the food was good.

I also had to go shopping today :( i'm not a big fan of going to the mall, but I think it needs to be done once in a while. I only bought a few things, but it turned out to be a lot of money. I don't like the idea that people feel the need to spend a lot of money on clothes to make themselves look good. I think that one needs to be comfortable and warm mainly, but a lot of what's out there is unnecessary. That's my opinion though. Then the point comes up about having "extra" money to spend. If you've got it, then i'd say look around - most people don't. This dosn't mean that you should give away all your hard earned cash, but it's a nice quality to look around and see all the need. Well i think that's enough for now.

Posted by agutwin at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

Apple makes me happy

I'm in Williard Straight Hall now on this beautiful computer - a G5 power mac thingie, with a screen that cost over $1,000. Ahh, it's so nice to have people who understand the value of a good thing! I wish i had this setup (not that i'm complaining about my iBook, it's doing ok) but i think it might be a little unnesissary...for me at least. I'm content to ooooh and ahhhh over it, and come here and marvel at the wonders of Apple.

Oh, about sledding last night - it was quite an adventure, and yes, i used a tray. However, there were a bunch of people there which dampened the fun just a little. But hot chocolate in the middle of the art's quad in the snow was a good wrap-up to the day.

Ah, I can't get over how pretty this looks, although i would make a few changes, like a better background and the dock that pops up - but it still looks good :)

Posted by agutwin at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2005

Test

Yey, I just finished my chem 208 prelim! I think it went ok, I think I got a solid 24 points out of 100 - if that's all i got, then they're well merited. I think that's enough for now - i'm going sledding on Libe Slope with Jen at 10, it should be an adventure. Ah, i'm just so happy to have that over and be able to settle down again and listen to my music :D

Posted by agutwin at 09:32 PM | Comments (1)