austinbest.org

Has taken up most of my life since the end of September.  What was once a great escape from the boredom of sitting around a house is now something that has destroyed any glimmer of a social life I could hope to have.

My job is 40 hours a week (if I go over 40 hours in any given week I get written up).  I have two days off a week, though they are forbidden to be consecutive so I can’t go anywhere on a day off that’s more than a couple hours away.  Each day off is preceded by an extended closing shift that usually goes past 11pm (in the Christmas season it was unusual to get off before 1am) and is followed by an early opening shift which requires me to be there at 7am. So there is no time to see anyone the night before or on my day off.  And a large portion of the day is taken up by trying to reclaim a few hours of sleep.  My schedules have never been the same one week to the next and I rarely finish a week with the same schedule I start with.  This tends to render me unable to make any plans that are good for more than a day and a half in advance.

The computer software giant that I have, for the last 6 six years, been fighting to keep down has won me over.  And here’s how they did it:

Windows Live -   A free suite, put out my Microsoft’s Live team, comprised of an e-mail client, instant messenger, photo gallery/editor, blog writer, movie maker, and a toolbar.  I personally use the photo gallery and blog writer on a daily basis.  Up until I got my new phone, I used the Live E-mail client as my only client, now I use Outlook to keep the phone up to date.  Everything has a “lightweight” feeling to it, and I’ve probably used every feature in all of the programs at least twice.  There’s no bloat to any of them.  The movie maker team took that to the extreme.  There are so few features in it, that it’s almost unusable except for the simplest of slideshows of pictures.

Microsoft Surface

An amazing piece of technology and furniture all rolled into one.  The device is a huge multi-touch sensitive screen that allows for interaction not just with people but with the devices we carry every day such as cameras and phones.  You have to see the videos to see what it can do.

Microsoft Research

There are so many projects going through here, it would be impossible to talk about them in any depth.  Everything from new programming languages to a different way of ensuring the visitors on a site are actually human.

Office Labs

Some great projects and teams here.

- pptPlex - a plug-in that explores an alternate method for presenting a PowerPoint slide deck. Using pptPlex, you can present your slides as a tour through a zoomable canvas instead of a series of linear slides.

- Touchless - enables touch-like control without actually touching a screen by using a webcam to track color based markers.

My last one for now.

PhotoSynth

I’ll just copy and paste the description, because I don’t think I can do it any better:

You can share or relive a vacation destination or explore a distant museum or landmark. With nothing more than a digital camera and some inspiration, you can use Photosynth to transform regular digital photos into a three-dimensional, 360-degree experience. Anybody who sees your synth is put right in your shoes, sharing in your experience, with detail, clarity and scope impossible to achieve in conventional photos or videos.

Synths constitute an entirely new visual medium. Photosynth analyzes each photo for similarities to the others, and uses that data to build a model of where the photos were taken. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

I have just finished a very defining summer at Philmont Scout Ranch.  I say “defining” because it has given me new life goals and career paths.  My new course is set towards becoming a doctor (MD) for now focusing on emergency and wilderness medicine.  I came to this decision mostly because of the Wilderness First Responder course I took at the beginning of the summer.  The 70+ hours of class was my first real introduction to medicine outside of my family and very simple first aid courses that teach “shock” as something curable by throwing a blanket over someone and propping their legs up. (Through the course, I also found some of my favorite quotes “All bleeding stops eventually,” and “In wilderness medicine… we bury our mistakes.” 

I still plan on finishing my Computer Science degree, however not at UT Dallas.  I am taking a year off not only to re-align my priorities, but also to apply to new schools both in- and out-of-state.  Right now, I am job hunting.  From retail, to food, to tech and office jobs, I am trying to find a source of income to help me to my next goal:  Wilderness EMT.  I have found a WEMT course that starts in January and is a month long.  It is based out of Washington, just west of Seattle.  It covers the EMT-Basic material, but also includes Foley catheter insertion, IV therapy, narcotics, suturing, and a couple of other skills that EMT-Basic doesn’t cover.  It effectively turns the Urban EMS “Golden Hour” into the “Golden Day.”  The course also gives the US Coast Guard’s Medical Person In Charge (MPIC) certification which teaches maritime emergency medicine.

I thought this time would be going quite faster than it seems to.  However, my one week back in Texas feels like 3.  It is strange not having classes to get to and homework to do; I am trying to fill that time with projects, reading, and other activities until I start getting some interviews and jobs lined up.

The last of the philmont photos have been added to the gallery.

More photos have been posted of the summer.  I am still missing one of my memory cards that contains some shots, so hopefully it will turn up in the next couple of days.

The summer was good.  I worked with a good crew of people and got to meet some pretty cool people.  Like every season, I guess.

I have decided not to go back to school this semester.  I will be getting my EMT-Basic and applying for new schools for either the spring or fall ‘09 semesters.  The summer season has put me onto the path of medicine for a future education and career.  I plan on finishing a degree in Computer Science, however I will be applying to Med Schools when I am done.  Some of my family is in the medical field as nurses, corpsman, or doctors and I would like to hopefully follow as an MD.  I don’t think I have enough experience in the field to give a particular concentration, though general practice or emergency medicine seems to be the most interesting so far.

I used the Med students at Philmont as a resource this summer to help me get information and suggestions and advice for applying to med school and they really seemed to help out a lot.

I’ve already been courted on a few projects for programming and others so that I will keep my CompSci skills up while not in classes.  I hope this semester off to be fairly productive.

Tomorrow at 8:00am we start the amazing Scatter Process in which we finally make our move out to the backcountry camp.  Beaubien will officially become our home for the summer until Gather on the 21st of August.

We’ll pile all of our personal belongings, program items (brands, lassos, dutch ovens), food for the next couple of days, and everything else that goes out with us into several trucks and suburbans.  Once we arrive at the camp itself we will quickly toss everything out of the beds and trunks of the vehicles and then proceed to get the camp ready by “dehanting” the cabins, sweeping, mopping and sanitizing everything.  Then moving our beds in, and getting everything ready to go.  Once the kitchen, refrigerators, and pantry are all cleaned out, it will be my job to get everything stocked and organized.  Then, I’ll work on getting lunches made and helping out with the rest of the camp setup.  I’m glad I am able to offer my staff popcorn and kettle-corn this summer as snacks.  It is the one snack that I’ve truly missed throughout the summers.

We’ll be scattering with our “‘ists” (Conservationists) as well who will be conducting the conservation program at our camp this summer.  The Wranglers will also be going out, but they have their own things to do.

We’re also trying to think of a way to get a foosball table up to the camp, as it has become the Official Game of Beaubien Staff ‘08.

We’re nearing our final phases of training.  In the past couple of days we have gone through Western Lore training which included learning how the cattle-ranch aspect of Philmont actually worked and the meaning of the clothes the cowboys wear and how to lasso.  I still need work on the last part, but I hope to get to a point where I can incorporate that into my cooking.  Why walk to the pantry when I can lasso the salt without moving from the stove?

Yesterday we went through Round-Robin where we learned about Leave No Trace, Fire and Range Management, Sanitation in the Kitchen, and how to properly operate the maps, UTM, and the Radios.

And, we have a new member to our crew at Beaubien: Stew the Cat.  His name came from a joke about if he got on my nerves I would cook him.  He wouldn’t have enough meat to be used for anything else but a stew.

Chuck Wagon training was pretty uneventful, but we’re heading into Taos tomorrow as part of our Staff Bonding experience.  We all have lists of things to buy and do while we’re in town.

Three days until scatter.

I’m trying out a new post style.  I’m going to try to include a relevant picture with every post.  The pictures will be linked to their larger version in my actual photo gallery.  I’ve tried this on the past couple of posts, and it looks good.  I think it adds a bit of style to the blog that wasn’t there before and now more closely matches the site’s tagline: “Photos, and life.”

I’ve been trying to do a day-to-day journal, but it has been coming spurts.  This will be replaced later by a weekly or probably fortnight-ly update due to being in the backcountry and the days off schedules.  There has been a lull in photos as I have not really had the chance to take many, but I’m going to start carrying my camera around more in order to get some snapshots of the early training days.  Some of my favorite pictures are of people during our “Heritage Day” last year.

I now have everything to complete my “modern day” cowboy look for Beaubien with the acquisition of cowboy boots from the Backcountry Warehouse’s interp closet.  Bryce is ever so kind to remind me everyday how I will look as a cowboy.

The Beaubien crew went out to lunch at Burrito Banquet for lunch and the Gallery for dessert.  We seem to be bonding well and should hopefully be pretty tight within the next few days, especially after a trip to Taos, and the scatter process. Burrito Banquet is a little over-rated here.  The burrito itself wasn’t really that good.  Besides the tortilla, it just tasted bad.  The salsa that came with the chips, however, was amazingly good.  It had absolutely no spice or hotness to it and had amazing flavor instead.  This is truly what salsa is about in my opinion.  It didn’t require drinking a gallon of water to try to dull down a burning sensation in the mouth, instead it made you want to eat every last bit of it.  I’ve made a note to find out who makes the salsa.

Today’s training included the basics of backcountry hiking, basecamp operations, and rules and regulations.  Really, everything we went through with our Camp Director two days ago, but drawn out over 3 hours instead of 30 minutes.  I got a lot of sun, and am probably going to be in pain tomorrow.  I tried to take some advantage of the sun and tan a little bit more, but I’m not sure how effective it was.

After training Katie, Bryce and I decided to go out to Simple Simon’s Pizza in town.  It was really good.  Surprisingly good, actually.  It’s great hanging out with friends again.  UTD is a little anti-social for my tastes.  Its really hard to get into good friendships out there.  Here, they are made or strengthened every day.

I almost attended the key-note speaker tonight.  However, I ran into Alison King who I had a good chat with.  Afterwards, there was a dance.  Hesitant at first, I decided to go anyway and I had fun.  I need to work on my dancing.  That’s the key.

I’ve found the job for me next summer if I return:  Health Lodge Driver.

Seeing Bryce and Katie was great.  They make a really great couple and its awesome that both of them are friends of mine.  More friends should also come in today, which will be good to see them.  There seem to be a lot of people who have met and remember me, but I can’t for the life of me remember ever seeing them let alone their names.  A lot of people seem kind of hurt or disappointed when people don’t remember their name, but honestly its been a year since I had seen them, and then I had only met them once or twice and it obviously wasn’t under memorable circumstances.  This is the same for people who came through Pueblano or Cyphers’ the year before and then joined staff.  I can’t be expected to remember every name and face of the thousands that went through.

I have officially started PC training.  The Beaubien staff is shaping up to be a good crew.  Hopefully once we get everyone here we’ll be good.  We will have a total staff of around 20:  8 camp staff, 2 cooks, 3 ‘ists, and some wranglers.

Good People.  Good Times.

Most of my Camp arrives today. I’m excited about meeting them and getting to know them over the coming months. I’m a little hesitant to be in such a large camp as cliques are likely to form that would ruin a lot of the close brotherhood I’ve come to assosciate with during the past summer. But I’m the cook. Everyone has to be my friend.

Along with other friends from previous years, Katie and Bryce also arrive today. I haven’t seen them since California, and it will be good to hang out with them again. I find more and more people that I knew arriving everyday. And some that I didn’t know, but are definitely great people to meet.

I’m glad to be out of the Dining Hall. I talked to the Backcountry Managers and was able to get out of duties there in order to complete PC training on the pretext of wanting to be better connected with my staff.