National Geographic Shoutout: November, December & January

I had fallen a little behind during soccer season of staying up to date on reading my monthly National Geographic.  That was partly because I started to watch more television and Netflix offerings, but alas I have recommitted myself to reading through the articles and admiring the photographs that grace the pages of this esteemed monthly publication.

Over the past two months I've read the November, December and January issues.

The November issue had articles about storm chaser Tim Samaras and his untimely death doing his research this past May. A return to a reef in Papua New Guinea after seventeen years, the conflict and social divide present between northern and southern Nigeria, and the unique and picturesque coast of Norway.  The article about Tim Samaras was the one that hit closest to home. I remember growing up in southwestern Ohio during the summers and waiting for severe weather to roll through. As a family we used to sit on the front porch or in the living room watching the sky darken, the winds gust, the rain fall and the lightning strike. It was always a sight to see the power of a storm. When tornado sirens would sing we would head to the basement to ride out the storm. Well, all of us except my dad who always seemed to find his way outside to look for a funnel cloud and continuing to watch the storm rage.  I always wanted to stay as well and watch the natural show, but mom rarely let me till I was older.

Decembers' issue chronicled the first part of a 21,000 mile journey that Paul Salopek is undergoing to follow our ancestors path out of Africa to the southern most tip of South America. This is a scheduled to be a seven year journey that will be on foot, except when crossing oceans and seas. This issue also looked at the comeback of the cougar population in the USA, the use of lasers to create digital records of the wonders of the world including Mount Rushmore, Atlantic walruses, and tumbleweeds. I really enjoyed reading the cougar article and how one cougar has made his home in Griffith Park in Los Angeles as well as the tumbleweed story. The tumbleweed is just that it's a weed that was brought over from Russia. The article told the story of how the author had bought some land outside Santa Fe and started squaring off against this invader. It reminded me of what turned out to be one of mom's favorite past times; pulling weeds from her flower bed and the sidewalk. I don't know if she'd have the stamina to fight the good fight against a tumbleweed infestation, but I'm sure she would at least try if she needed to.

And that brings us to this months issue:

January enlightened me to how a native tribe in the wilds of the amazon have been able to adjust to the modern world around them in ways that suit them while also fighting for their land and maintaining their unique culture. This issue also had articles  about guest workers in the gulf states of Oman, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, Komodo dragons, the Sochi, Russia area that will be hosting the Olympics next month and a group of rock climbers doing "deepwater soloing" on the coast of Oman. 

The two human interest stories in this months edition are what I found most interesting. I really enjoyed reading about the "Kayapo" tribe in Brazil who have fought the Brazilian government, development of dams, logging companies, and oil interest to maintain their way of life and cultural heritage. They have had to find a balance of learning how to navigate the modern world while staying true to their traditions and heritage.

I also found the article about guest workers very interesting. I was shocked to see the amount of people who leave their homeland and families for years and years to make more money to send back to their families, so that they can have a better and more comfortable life back home. The article focused on a woman from the Philippines who is a guest worker in Dubai and her husband. They have four children. The two older children live in the Philippines with her sister. The sheer number of guest workers in Kuwait, Qatar, and the U.A.E is staggering. In the U.A.E and Qatar nearly 89% of the population are guest workers from other countries. And of those guest workers they send billions of dollars back to their loved ones in their countries of origin. In the U.A.E for instance the 7.3 million non-citizen population sent 20.3 billion dollars home in 2012. I completely understand why the guest workers make the decisions that they do and the sacrifices that they make for the ones they love. But, I also cannot imagine how difficult it must be to be so far from the ones you love for so long with little to no contact. I fractionally know how this feels as I live on the other side of the country from my parents with a weekly phone call and a yearly visit. and I still miss being able to see them and spend time with them more regularly.

Sports Talk with Dad

This entries' genesis comes from the conversation I had with my dad today. In reality sports is the foundation of my relationship with my dad. Sports have always been a part of my life. I remember as a kid going and watching my dad and grandpa play softball. When my brother and I started playing youth soccer our dad was often on the coaching staff. And during baseball seasons dad sometimes would find himself umpiring behind the plate.  When we weren't participating in athletics dad could be found watching whichever sport was on ESPN; basketball, baseball, football, hockey, auto racing, etc. Sports offered me a way to bond with my dad and is a big reason why I was a student athletic trainer and manager in high school and have continued on to study athletic training and currently work in that field.

Now to the purpose of this post. During my talk with my dad he asked me if I was watching the football games. I let him know that the Broncos beat the Patriots in the AFC and that the 49ers and the Seahawks were about to begin. Dad wanted the Seahawks to win because "they hadn't been to a Super Bowl." to which I replied "I am pretty sure that they played the Steelers in a Super Bowl a few years ago". Our conversation went back and forth a little bit on the topic, so during the game I decided to do some research on the Seahawks and am now sharing what I learned with all of you and more specifically with dad.

Courtesy wikipedia (Yes, I know the most reliable source of information on the internet),
1. The Seahawks began playing in the NFC in 1976 then transitioned to the AFC from 1977-2001.
(Point Dad)

2. In 2002 the Seahawks transitioned back to the NFC when the NFL expanded to 32 teams and developed the current four team/four division model for the AFC and NFC.

3. The Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl in 2005 where they played and lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers (Point Me)

Final tally: 

Dad: 1

Me: 1

Well, the conference championship games have been completed and this years Super Bowl will pit Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos against Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks.  At first glance this looks like a pretty good match-up. The Broncos seem to be an experienced cool, calm and collected group on the field while the Seahawk are youthful and play with a lot of emotion. The Broncos have Peyton Manning one of if not the most seasoned quarterback in the league while the Seahawks have Russell Wilson one of the young guns making a name for himself in just his sophomore season. The Broncos have had one of the best offenses in the league all year setting all sorts of records in the process, and the Seahawks have one of the best defenses in the league. 

This is going to be an interesting game; outside in the elements, in New Jersey, in February. 

Back to work

This week marked the beginning of spring semester. All the students are back as we begin the slow trudge through the sixteen weeks leading to summer vacation. Overall this week was a decent one and a fairly easy transition back to working regular hours. Don't get me wrong being at work at 8am on Monday was a struggle and an unwelcome change from sleeping till 9 or 10 each day.  Luckily most of my athletes are fairly healthy at this point, so I currently only have a couple of rehabs to do and some maintenance work with another. But with this decrease in working my athletes is made up for by working with everyone else's when they are busy, not around, or just don't want to deal with them. It's kind of funny, the past couple of years my co-worker Amber has helped pick up the slack with the rowing team and I tend to end up working with the majority of the track team. Oh, well it gives us something to do right?

Outside of a pretty slow week at work I've been able to keep a decent workout schedule going. We'll see how this goes as the semester gets busier and the athletes get more injured and need more attention. I started out doing some running over the winter break and then last week started to incorporate some lifting into the routine. My goal is to get down to 160lbs by June.

With work and getting workouts in I haven't really left myself a lot of time to watch television, but I was really excited to see that the third season of "Being Human" was added to netflix.  I'm trying to limit myself to watching one episode a day. I also caught a little bit of the "American Idol" auditions. After the past few seasons I thought this show might be on it's way to becoming a thing of the past, but the addition of Harry Connick Jr. to the judging panel and some editing choices has rejuvenated it. He's not as direct as Simon with his criticism, but at least he's not afraid to tell it how it is.

Well, that was pretty much my week. Hope everyone else had a good week.

Oh, I almost forgot! Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week was the National Women's Soccer League draft on Friday morning. I am excited to say that two of the seniors from this years team were drafted by the Seattle Reign. I am very proud of the two of them and am excited that they get to live their dream of playing professional soccer.

Cannon Beach Sunset

Portland has been enjoying some unusual weather this December and January so far. Unusual, in the fact that we have not received much precipitation. I've been watching the news a lot during my winter break from work and the weatherman each night keeps saying that we are now over 8" behind average for rainfall  since October 1st; the beginning of the rain year. This lack of precipitation has also resulted in a lack of new snow on Mount Hood.

On the bright side though the weather on the coast has been clear and sunny. So, I decided to get out of the apartment and the city for a bit yesterday. I headed out on the Sunset highway and made my way to Cannon Beach to capture some photos of the sunset at Haystack Rock.

Photography Walk

A few shots from my first photography walk of the year:

Selfies

Well, since the term "selfie" has been officially added to the lexicon of the english language I'm going to share a selfie from today. I've kind of become a self proclaimed selfie master. I often take a lot of my adventures and outdoor pursuits by myself, so the need to actually have photographs of myself necessitated the need for my perfecting of the art form.

January 1st, 2014

2014 the year to be...

Okay, so I have not put a blog post up in an uber long time. But, that is going to change. I am going to do better and blog at least once a week for the rest of 2014.  I am not entirely sure what I am going to blog about, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

So, for my first blog entry of 2014 I came up of a list of things and/or places that I want to do this year and I am going to share that list with all of you.

The first thing on my list is to visit the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood here just east of Portland, OR. I cannot believe that I've lived in Portland for almost five years now and I have not been that far up the mountain.

The second thing on my list is to visit and do some hiking around Mount Saint Helen's. This another locale that is so close to Portland that the only excuse I have for not doing this sooner is because I've been lazy about pulling the trigger and actually making the trip.

The next thing on my list is to revisit Victoria, Canada and go on a whale watching trip. I first had the opportunity to do this when I worked with the men's basketball at UC Santa Barbara. It was such a great experience to see orca's in the wild rather than at Sea World.

Along the same vein I also want to visit Vancouver, Canada to witness the Vancouver celebration of light. So, what is the celebration of light? Well, essentially it's an international fireworks competition. Three firework companies come to Vancouver and put on a twenty-five minute firework display.

I also want to make a trip down the Oregon coast to the Redwood National Forest in Northern California as well as visit Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

I'm sure I will be adding more to this list as the year progresses past its infancy, but it is a solid start.