"A Professional in the Skydiving Industry"

Dialing in the last digit of the 4-digit combination lock, I hear a click and give the thing a yank. It unlocks and I proceed to open up the door, which reads STAFF ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT. The automatic lights kick on with the sound of a click and a droning buzz as I step through the spring-loaded door and let it slam shut behind me. More automatic lights mimic the first as I walk through the tandem staging room and proceed to my own natural environment: the packing room floor.

It's a Thursday, and the whole place is cluttered with colorful nylon. I'm lucky that it isn't a weekend, when there's actually business; otherwise, I'd be screwed at this point. However, I'm the only one here, nobody is scheduled to come in on this day, and it's already past sunset. Basically, I'm in the clear to get this out of the way with no interruptions or stress. So after emptying my pockets of my regular belongings and filling them back up with rubber bands (necessary for packing), I get to work untangling a parachute that was cut away after a windy landing and not put back on the harness properly.

Once I have that figured out, naturally I leave the rig there for Jimbo to pack. Since the rig is Winkler's, the Master Rigger at the drop zone whom Jim is close friends with, Jimbo regularly does Wink's free-of-charge (along with Sherry's, one of the owners of the drop zone, whom practically anybody would do anything for). I walk over to a tandem rig, a parachute roughly 2 or 3 times the size of Wink's, and get to work stowing the breaks. I walk the lines, throw it over my shoulder, count the cells out, give it a shake, and go to work organizing the canopy material and lines appropriately. By the time I've done that, wrapped the canopy around itself, and set it on the ground, I hear the grumble of gravel being run over. Sure enough, within a minute or two, I hear the creak of the spring-loaded door followed by a slam, and in walks Jimbo.

As usual, Jimbo is dressed for packing: he has his worn-to-hell jeans on and his crappy shoes, as well as an old skydiving t-shirt. The only thing unusual is the cowboy hat atop his cranium, which isn't necessarily unusual for Jim, as this is his travelling hat. We exchange salutations in the regular manner of random combinations of old, cliche greetings, and with a quick switch of Jimbo's hat we both go to work on rigs. We began cracking the usual series of jokes, and the nylon slowly disappeared before we even knew it. With Jimbo and I having several years of experience each under our belts, even a tandem was no match for our parachute handling skills. Within a few hours, the ten or fifteen colorful canopies had disappeared into their containers and were now haning on or leaning against the wall neatly.

Jimbo and I share a square and are off with the slam of a spring-loaded door and the sound of the combination lock clicking into place. The weekend promises good weather, BLUE SKIES, and plenty more unpacked parachutes.


http://www.youtube.com/embed/IO27Vo_0aOU

ASEC 81

Down in the recesses of the Auburn Science and Engineering Center, here at UofA, back in some hall within the labyrinth of the building, I sit with a few other confused freshmen. We are focusing our efforts toward an experiment for PMT (Project Management and Teamwork) in hopes that we will actually get results this time. ASEC 81, the chemistry lab we are in, is unusually cluttered with tiny fragments of cut up paper as we attempt to create the most surface area for hydrolysis of the paper. The goal here is to expose the polymer, cellulose, in the paper in order to allow for it to be hydrolyzed into its simple monomer state, glucose; then we can find out the glucose concentration of the solution using a spectrometer. However, getting to this point is proving to be a stone's-throw away from impossible given the nearly hieroglyphic instructions we were given. Basically, we all are asking each other for help here, even though none of us know what's going on.

Duh-dah-dah-DAH! Mr. TA comes in to save the day! Not really...The TA hasn't provided anything but criticism at this point. After a confused conversation between about ten freshmen college students and one Middle-Eastern teacher's assistant, we were able to extract a somewhat restructured procedure. However, we couldn't help but ask a question or ten in between each step, since he refused to instruct us step-by-step and insisted upon disclosing the entire lab procedure every time we asked a question. Finally, after we get done with a great job of doing everything he says, he looks dispiritedly at our results, saying, "That'll do." Through a little redundancy in our questions, we were able to get a clue as to what they meant, and finally, after 3 weeks working 3 hours a day, 2-3 days a week after classes, we got through the lab. Ghansus was truly with us.

That was three weeks ago, coming out of present tense (for Ghansus knows what reason). Now, in real present tense, we are faced with more work in the lab. Great. We get to pretend to be chemists by cutting up paper into bits and putting it in water. Sure a little chemicals here, an enzyme there, but we aren't really getting anything out of it. The chemistry professors, who would fail somebody for the kind of work they've given us, are supplying lab procedures with secret messages that apparently only TAs can read! If I don't understand the point of the experiment until I've read it six times, attempted it twice, come to you for help, and made you do it for me and get the results, then I believe there is some revising to be done.

Luckily, we have upper classmen for team leaders that are guiding us through the continuing phases of our team waste paper hydrolysis project. They've kept us updated so far and kept our research on track. I just don't want to be cutting up paper for the rest of my college career. Alright, enough whinin;' I've got bits of paper to cut up.

HOUSE MUSIC

A friend of mine once came back from a trip to Miami, Florida, with an incredible tale of adventure. It was a place that was virtually always summer, had exotic beaches, beautiful women, delicious food, and endless things to do. He also told the tale of the characters he had encountered down there. I knew the friend he went down there for a week to see, since he had been up North here once or twice before, and lemme tell ya, that kid was interesting enough. However, aside from the stories of the great people my friend met and the great times he had, he also brought back a message: Ultra Music Fest was in March, right around spring break. So, wtf is Ultra?

Well, he told me: it is basically a 3 day long House Music Party THAT DOESN'T STOP. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! This upcoming March is the fifteenth anniversary of Ultra; that means the event will be over two weekends, rather than just one. Unfortunately, spring break only spans the second weekend. However, that does not discourage me from going to Miami and having a good time. My friend and I will probably stay with his compadre at his house on the Venetian Causeway, an island away from Lil' Wayne, but luckily we won't be seeing him at Ultra. XD

 Ultra 2012 Mega Crowd

Smack dab in the middle of Miami

So, now I know you have another question: what's house music? Well, basically it's a lot like techno, in the sense that it's electronic, but house music is primarily dance music. A collection of djs from around the world come to perform to around 60,000 people per day making Ultra the biggest music festival in the world. A record 165,000 people attended the 2012 Ultra, as well as over 90 artists; and more than double that is expected for March 2013 because it will be over two weekends. I hope to be one of them.

David Guetta, one of many artists, on stage

Don't panic; I'm back.

Admittedly, I have been procrastinating on my blog recently. So, to make up for lost time, I will do a new blog post every day this week. Hopefully that will catch me up a bit.

Getting logged in was one of the biggest problems I've been having with blogging. For some reason, Google gave me a new email address when I created my BlogSpot, so accessing an account that I didn't even know the information for was a task indeed. Luckily, I have linked my accounts together, so I won't have that problem again.

Walking Dead's Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln

So the new season of Walking Dead just came out last night: something that my friends and I have been anticipating for several months now. For those of you who don't know, the Walking Dead is the most action-packed television thriller of all time. It focuses on the life of the main character, a sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln), and the lives of his "group" of survivors after the Zombie Apocalypse. A virus has spread that kills the host and reanimates their dead body by starting the brain stem back up, giving the newly resurrected person, or “walker," the ability to walk and the desire to eat…nothing more.

 

A Walker

In the show, the zombies outnumber humans 5000 to 1 (according to the Walking Dead Wiki). Many people who didn’t even get infected decided to “opt out,” or commit suicide, due to the severe lack of all hope. This was surely the wrath of God coming down upon human kind. Rick feels that it is his job to protect hope and restore human kind. He is determined to ensure the survival of everybody in his group and is compelled to believe that there is a safe haven somewhere.

 

The Group of survivors led by Rick

Season 3 (the new season) starts off several months after the end of season 2. It is evident, through their apparent skill in handling zombies and gathering supplies, that they have adapted to life after the Apocalypse. The Group has perfected looting, taking out walkers, and has even accomplished taking control of a prison courtyard. Nevertheless, things are still rough, as food and medicine are starting to run out and Rick's wife, Lori (played by Sarah Wayne Callies), is getting closer and closer to the birth of her questionably-bastard child. At the beginning of the first season, Rick wakes up in an abandoned, post-apocalyptic hospital due to a gun shot wound received in the line of service as a deputy. Having been abandoned by his best friend, Shane Walsh (played by Jon Bernthal), who believed that he was dead, Rick is separated completely from everybody he knew and loved. Meanwhile, Shane takes care of Lori and Rick's son, Carl (played by Chandler Riggs), who have stuck with a group of several other survivors. Shane, not knowing that Rick was still alive, ends up falling in love with his wife and sleeping with her. When Rick had found his way back to the group with the help of a pizza delivery boy named Glenn (played by Steven Yeun) who is one of the survivors, the situation got awkward fast. By the end of the second season, Rick had killed Shane, who was trying to kill him anyway. Aside from the main character, there are several other overlapping stories such as this, making the complexity of the story realistic and unreasonably awesome.

Can't we all just get along?

So this season opener, as you can tell, was absolutely mind blowing. The skill that I observed the group execute was just plain EPIC. As always, there was suspense, drama, action, and most importantly ZOMBIES! My ass scooted forward on my seat slowly 'til my dropped jaw stopped me like a kickstand at the very end of the episode. I don't want to reveal any details yet for those fans out there who may not have seen the first episode of season 3 (as if anybody actually reads this).

Although everybody loves the idea of stocking up on food and ammo and going Rambo on one or two hundred zombies a day, I have my doubts of the legitimacy of the idea. I think that even if a virus could reanimate a person's dead body by jump-starting the brain stem 2 minutes and 8 hrs after an infected person's death, the human's vital functions would have to completely dysfunction to get the deterioration of the skin as we see on every walker. This shows lack of circulation to the skin, and lack of oxygen. Basically, the body is dead, but it is walking. Walking requires circulation, but without circulation the body will seize up, as in rigor mortis (which takes roughly 3 hrs to set in). Also, the brain stem would also need oxygen to operate, but it does not seem as though these walkers have any circulation based on their deteriorated flesh. This means that, although a person's body may be able to reanimate temporarily under the conditions of a virus that controls the brain stem, the deterioration of the flesh would cause mobility to be impossible.

Well what if the virus caused the flesh to deteriorate while keeping the vitals intact? Well, if the flesh continues to decay but the zombie is able to breath and has circulation, eventually the zombie will not have any muscle left. This means, again, that the walker would eventually turn into a lay-er (and not the kind you find in the Red-Light District) as it would have no option but to lay in a pile of its own bones and what remains of its clothing and flesh. Besides, if the zombie had circulation, but it's flesh was deteriorating, it would be losing the blood it needed for the body to remain functioning. Again, causing it to eventually perish as only a zombie naturally could.

There is some hope, upon further investigation of the Wiki. The walkers do breathe, and they eat. With the nervous system restored by the "infection" (more so than a virus, as research has revealed), it is also possible for the digestive system to have started back up. This means that if a zombie gets meat (the only thing it will go for) then it will survive somewhat. "If the meat is digested . . . it could explain how some walkers have not yet rotted while others have decomposed to the point of immobilization" (Zombie Wiki). This idea completely turns around my first doubts.

I still think that the food supply will run out eventually. However, it is hard to say whether that will be for the humans or the zombies. Regardless, Rick's prediction of a harsh winter is a hopeful idea that I am willing to hold on to, along with a few of my own that I may reveal later. For now, I am comfortable with the fact that there are no zombies; although, it wouldn't hurt to learn how to shoot a gun.