(me) = M.I.A. (a pretty good album too)

So heres a quick update from the life of Andy:

Past: 3weeks ago Jeff came to visit, we toured seattle, ate really well and had some nice nights out on the town. Jeff was also fortunate enough to "come to work with andy" for an afternoon where he was put to work measuring and analyzing skis, thanks jeff for helpin out. Then 2 weeks ago BRodine came to visit, we had an amazing day skiing sat, went out sat night for some great fun, watched some planet earth sunday (buy this dvd set, yes its 60$ but worth every penny to keep funding like this happening for movies like this.) This past weekend I made the annual pilgramage to las vegas, home of my sisters birthday. Myself, Megan and 5 of her friends from SanDiego enjoyed a weekend of sunning, eating and of course a few clubs. While i'm not the clubbing type I had a great time and want to do it again. I also realize theres nothing wrong with 2 guys going to vegas with 5attractive women, JapanJob i'm looking to you to recruit 20girls for our next trip there.

Present: I'm currently in Lake Tahoe for the first time of my life. We are shooting catalog and testing 09-10 ski ideas. Our days will hopefully have sun-filled skiing, goggle tans and well received ideas. Eben and I have been working 16hr days for about the past month getting ready for this, really since I got home from Cabo its been crazy busy for these 3 days.

Future: On Sunday Eben and I fly back to Seattle for a day of rest/preparation for the coming week where on monday its off to Mt.Baker. KampK2 will be in full swing for a week of similar skiing shenanigans, sleeping in RV's and of course socializing with some new friends. The following monday I fly to china for 2 weeks.

I'll be updating with some pictures tomorrow or thursday, until then stay classey, miss you all.


o
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a
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New Animal #1

Well I dont have time to write a real entry, so instead I will introduce you to the Musk Deer:

Thats right, tonight I was watching Planet Earth and surprise to me, a Deer with fangs.


















Hope you find this as amazing as I have found it, good night

Whats the happs on the craps?

To fill you in on my life this week here goes:

Monday: Finally resumed 3hrs of meetings on mondays because other engineers are back in the office, so naturally Monday came and went without too much sweetness to report.

Tuesday: Lots of parts for skis being made at work, I burned a hole in the vacuum table for cutting cores and metal, got shit for this from co-workers and explained its because i'm so much more efficient that I light the machine on fire. No fire extinguisher necessary, just a mini bucket of water. Tuesday night little park session at central, rails are comin along there and i'm still very bad at half-pipe, i'll fill you all in on my progress assuming I make any. If anything else this serves as a log to how i'm not progressing.

Weds: Still making parts, no real cool things going on at work. Skiing afterwards with different posse, this work/skiing schedule is really cool and I think i'll take a night off thursday.

Thurs: Didnt bring ski stuff to work but turns out I like going. Quick trip home around 6pm then off to the mtns for a park session till 10:30, moderate improvement in half pipe, still skiing like a girl.

Fri: scheduled for city race league at alpental, then hopefully i can go to a ride park. This will be my inaugural race with the city league work team this week, hopefully I dont disappoint, I'll be racing on next years Line Blends, a nice little twin tip against all the other GS skis.

Sat: off to Cabo, going to be an amazing trip coming back the following sat, You probably wont get any blog postings, and in fact most the people reading this will be in cabo with me, Jeff/Jordy you'll just have to imagine how crappy it'll be down there, probably not even 90degrees.


A pair of my shoes fell apart yesterday, so now i'm wearing pair number 2, which isnt nearly as exciting as pair #1 now blown apart. Also, I think i've exhausted my chipotle gift card I received for christmas, this has been a true lifesaver up here and i'm sad to see it go. Turns out I've been too spendy with the chips and guac. Anyways its midnight, early drive to the airport for my roommate tomorrow, some working then some skiin, then Mexico for a week, then hopefully more skiing. ok, that is all, time for bed.

Lastly for Jordy, I am not responsible for your cute heart shaped whisk appearance, although I wish I had been involved somehow.

2 month summary

Well its been a while, Jordy this ones for you, as I assume everyone else has given up on my correspondence. Anyways, today will be a pictoral summary of the last 2 months of my life, a brief snapshot into the hectic life i've been living.

December 07-
Christmas was spent at home, seeing most my friends and family as well as skiing a little bit.

-Japan Job











In addition to friends we had some family time, and lots of dogs.




















Christmas was great, family didnt get as many pictures as dogs but thats expected, then back to seattle I came for some snow.
Its been a fairly ridiculous winter, most mountains have a 150"+ base and about a foot falls every day, I've had more powder days here this year than I have in my life, and the snow is terrible so anyone out there should stay skiing elsewhere, keep the crowds down here, but do come visit, just to see what your missing. Rodine, I suspect after a weekend here you'll decide your ready to leave Cali in about 4years, maybe sooner.

Shortly after getting back here it was time for work, so our dept spent 3days skiing at Crystal, some pictures below of our adventures.














This picture is the snow we skied everyday, i've never had such consistently good runs as I did that trip. The picture to the right is Eben eating a squirrel, this in itself is a story that will hopefully follow in a future posting.

After this come NFL postseason, some of my friends have seasontickets and I was lucky enough to be invited to the playoff game.














Thats Me, Kono, Rich, Nick, Casey and Katie, super Seahawks fans and fun people in general.

After football came well some more skiing, and of course work. We've been prototyping, Dale made the first pair of skis out of Seattle.
Dales been at this since high school and it shows. Last week I had the honor to have dinner with he and his wife, Sandy. Sandy knitted me the greatest ski hat in the world, complete with decorative ball atop, with sweaters to follow. Dales knowledge in ski making is vast, seeing every pair of skis prototyped and often produced since well before I was born, its actually an honor to have him teach me.

After work comes, well more skiing. Last week Alpental got about 4' of snow, the roads were closed all week and when it finally opened I was there, in its full glory. Skiing 30" untouched with a soft layer below was the payoff to a delayed start to work that day. Here I am, wearing the hat Sandy Gimblett knitted me




















Theres actually been a lot more than just that in my life, but this all the time i've got to write today. I wont take 2 months to post the next one, jordy keep up the good work on yours, much appreciated.

Just a final picture - these are the lines we skied last weekend, we were at the big rockface on the right, didnt have the clear skies or visibility needed to go higher.

in-commucado

Many apologies for the lack of postings, this lame posting will fill you in on my recent adventures, I didnt post this but a friend from work named Rom did, and heres the link to where i was for the last 5 days.

http://www.newschoolers.com/web/content/news/news_id/1761/

killing time

So i've got about 45mins before dinner, I just took a walk through the park so now its time to unwind with some local tv, heres whats showing at 4:15pm on a saturday afternoon in Guangzhou China

Before PETA gets after me about that picture to the left, that creepy crawly crawled into the glass during the night, long after I was asleep, a drunk little cocroach in the morning we woke up to. He was having a nice little friday night and into saturday


Channel
1-6 Red static - I assume its a patriotic thing
7 China pink shirt vs china in blue shirt ping pong, both have short shorts on
8 news, no idea whats going on, some guy moving propane tanks with his bicycle
10 anime cartoons, i'll come back to this later
11 cell phone commercial
12 cell phone commercial, i think its the same one
13 soap opera, 2 cute girls talking about something dramatic, and now their in the doctors office
14 horse racing, yellow helmet is leading at the 1200 mark
17 kite flying by what i imagine samuri's wore in the day, this one deserves a picture, it'll be posted later.
19 british version of blues clues or the wiggles, IN ENGLISH!
24 circue de solei? local version i think
27 old karate movie, mustache wearing hulk hogan haired guy with huge upward pointing eyebrows
29 asian man pattern baldness commercial, hosted by totally bald man
31 scooping of beans, pistachios, and other round objects i dont recognize, now guy in wrangler t-shirt bragging about whats in his bag
33 CMTV, e's in the background as decor
36 ultimate tree house, soap opera occuring in this amazing swiss family robinson looking creation
37 credits of a karate fight movie
44 chinese version of what looks like saved by the bell, but more dramatic
45 looks like the spanish channel sunday programming
47 phil mickelson teeing off in golf tournament IN ENGLISH!
54 walker china ranger, i think, lots of guns, suit wearing guys vs actual army. note to self, bamboo is aparently bulletproof
55 collegiate vollyball
57 monkey dressed guy, seems to be a series show of planet of the apes, riding pony's, and wearing crowns.
64 "cover queen" the local version of proactiv
68 Ernie from burt and ernie puppets on a mans shoulders, giving him advice in song, looks like that e station again. Ends with one of the ernies dressed up in SF Giants baseball jersey.
69 school girls in catholic schoolgirl dress, and guys in male equivalent. leaving school
76 looks like local version of desperate housewives, and guys in sweater vests
77 cirque de soleil is back!
78 karate punch to the adams apple, intro to soap opera
79 Miss Chinese cosmos pageant, this girls talent is gutting a fish with a huge knife, and dancing now... i think i'm going to stop changing channels

82 SpongeBob SquarePants IN ENGLISH! ok now i'm watching this about 15mins after watching and not understanding any of Miss Chinese Cosmos

Now you get the idea of what there is here on TV, its pretty amazing.

Heres some pictures for you visual people















that dragon is about 12' tall, standing i'd be up to about his flames nearest his mouth

Southeast Asia take 3, part I

Well my third and possibly final trip of the year to Asia is underway. A nice little 4hr layover in Narita Japan has left me full of new sushi tastes I’ve not experienced stateside, I guess this is the product of ordering the Deluxe Chef’s Special, it only cost me 3,500 Yen, I’m still not sure how many dollars that is, I’m hoping somewhere around 30$. Uneventful flight seattle to narita, except that I sat next to a doctor who was coughing the whole trip and had bad breath, 10hrs of that was about enough. I still hold my record of going (or rather not going) to the bathroom on a flight only one time in the last 2 years, and that was on a 15hr flight to HongKong. Something about in flight bathrooms make me uncomfortable. I thought I was lost in narita airport for a while, no other humans existed for a good 20mins of my walk, I felt like I was in the movie iRobot, just with how clean and sterile this place is. But alas I’ve joined with my fellow brethren and now sit in a mustard colored leather seat awaiting my ANA flight to HongKong. And let me tell you quick about ANA airlines, they have a camera in the nose of the plane and let you watch takeoff as if you were laying down in the nose of the jet, its on for landing too, a pretty incredible feature.

Its 2am for my body, 6pm for where I am, and soon to be 1030pm when I land in HK. Not sure which one of these timezones I’m in, but I’m approaching the tired one. Japan sure is green, I’d like to make it back in the future to explore it a bit more, they have some really awesome “samurai” tshirts in the duty free shops here but I cant bring myself to spending 20$ per shirt, I’ll haggle a deal in china for something way better.

I feel united with the other gringos I see in the airport. We have a certain unspoken connection, we look at eachother and its like “hey, we could understand eachother if we decided to talk, then again maybe your French so we couldnt” then I continue surrounded by the 90% of other Japanese people who could also understand me, but I don’t feel that same connection.

OK, time to board my plane, nap time for a few mins, then watching some flight of the conchords, then a nice little evening in HongKong. Not sure when I’ll have internet again, somewhere between weds afternoon for me, so Tuesday midday for most of you, this will get posted. Many pictures to follow, I’m going to look like that crazy camera carrying guy this trip.