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I met up with a very old friend of mine, Vu Bui who I haven’t seen in about 4 years.  He asked me, “So no more APM’s?”  I had to explain to him how it has been more of a posting malaise, since I have been keeping active these last few months, just not writing or documenting much (any).  I’ve also had a few things that I’ve wanted to write about but I’ve just been reluctant to.

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I’ve heard it said that all that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.  If there’s a need and you have the capacity to fill the need and do nothing, you bear the responsibility for that failure.

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I respect Hugh’s spirit of adventure and hope to be half that spry when I reach his age.  Thank you Vu for forcing me to write again.  It feels good, though I may take this down if I even put it up.

So, as usual the big Sierra backpacking trip can be summed up in a few words:

• Tiring
• Beautiful
• Full of last minute changes

I’ll write more soon(ish) and put up some pics as well.  For now, just be content with knowing the two of us covered over 50 miles, had almost 14,000 feet of ascent over the trip, bagged two peaks; one a classic Sierra trek and one that had a 24 mile approach and a death defying nighttime ascent along with a bivy on top and we came back healthy and whole.

So, here are three pics from the trip and a request.

There are the pics, enjoy. The request now, I have recovered from the severe beating I received at the hands of the last photography contest I entered and entered another one.  This one is not so much a contest as an attempt to capture the lifestyle in Ventura County and it is creatively named, Capture Ventura County. 

The Ventura County Star (newspaper) is putting together a collection of photos to put into a book.  The photos are voted on (by you!) and the top vote gainers and editors picks go into that there book.  I’d be happy to have you fine readers vote for those you consider the best, mine you say?  Well I never would have thought.

I just signed up for the Death Valley Marathon 2009.  Exciting times indeed, the last one was just plain fun despite my inherent dislike for running in general.  It’s in stunning Titus canyon, it’s not a big race with lots of wankers and douchebags, it is just a bunch of dedicated runners (and people like me) doing what they love in a beautiful place.

Here’s another reason why I love the DV Marathon.  Without knowing it, I finished third in my age group thereby getting me a ribbon for this minor achievement.  Since I didn’t know it, none of us attended the award ceremony that night.  A couple weeks later I get a letter in the mail with the ribbon and a congratulatory letter.  Well, this year I plan on going to that awards ceremony and I’m going to go hollywood actor style in my acceptance speech.  Someone will have to physically drag me off the stage this year.

Hopefully the gimp and pimp combo will be able to overcome their fear of the outdoors or whatever the issue is before February so they can see the ceremony this year.  And as always there are tons of things left to explore in DV itself making for a really great weekend of the pimp wearing his medal and the gimp experiencing narcoleptic fits.

The last Death Valley Marathon writeup.

White Mountain III, a long foretold return to WM by the original crew from White Mountain 2003 fame is on the calendar.  September 15-18, 2008 are the dates.  Aaron, Bonnie, Jarr, Lan, Vu, I and any others who want to roll are all on the roster this time around.  The first two trips were the definition of memorable events, thankfully in a largely good way.

The last time we did this was 2003, and it was so fun we did two of them.  Then we all went our seperate ways, trying to recover from the trauma that we all suffered at the hands of defeat that summer.

An interesting aspect of this trip is that there will be three professional photographers/videographers/wankers and then there’s me, so there’s apparently going to be way too many cameras here.  But, at the very least there should be good pictures everywhere, unlike when it’s only me and Gant, who’s pictures I never see anyway.  Though, you likely won’t be able to say anything stupid without it being caught on one or more cameras.  Since I put together the first WM03 movie and made everyone look like jackasses, I’m sure I’ll have to watch myself very carefully for the sequel.

Well, Lan has spearheaded this new attempt.  Within an hour of him sending out an invitation email there were dozens of emails flying this way and that.  I can’t wait for this, it’s just plain old White Mountain, but it’s beautiful to me.

I have high blood pressure, it runs in my family.  I was officially diagnosed today by my doctor and I’ve got mixed emotions about this.  A) (good) I’m glad a potential long term medical condition has been identified and is in the process of being treated. B) (neutral) I’m likely going to be on medication for the rest of my life.  C) (bad) This is just another reminder, a pretty prominent one at that of my own mortality.

I had six vials of blood drawn today, and I’ve still got many more tests to run before all is said and done with this diagnosis.  El doctoro expects all the results to be normal as I’m pretty healthy, active and (relatively) young.  So, in the end it will be chalked up to genetics.  I’ve got my dad to thank for this apparently.

Thanks dad.

I bought an Enya CD after I got all this crappy news and am listening to that right now.  Music plays a huge part in calming me down.  I know I’m high strung but I also know listening to classical music and beautiful vocals like Enya relaxes me.  I can feel my pressure dropping already, or at least I feel more serene at the moment.

That and the fact that I got some potentially good news about the gimp and the pimp maybe being able to make CoS ‘08 trip today.  It’s all about timing; the gimp might need a later launch date than what is currently scheduled and the pimp might be able to get time off later than what is currently scheduled.  So, with just about a month to go before the trip, again all the variables are up in the air which just does wonders for my blood pressure.

Thanks guys.