Drill Field Frisbee Golf

This past weekend our friends Big Dave and Sara got married. We took pictures for them at rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and as side photographers during the reception. I think we got some pretty good shots. They should be up in a couple of weeks.

Anyways, after dinner Dave invited a bunch of guys to the drill field to play a frisbee golf course that has been passed down through several classes of students. I hadn't played it in a while so it was good to get a refresher and let some other people in on it so it can continue being passed down. The last time I played I broke one of the globes on a lamp post. So I also needed to get that out of my system. There is a disc golf course on campus, however I don't own a disc golf set and that course doesn't have the character of the created one on the drill field

I wanted to write down the course so I could remember it through the years. There are variations on the course, but this is what I remember.

Hole 1
Tee: Circle of bricks surrounding bust of Stephen D. Lee
Target: Sign for McCool Hall

Hole 2
Tee: Sidewalk in front of McCool Hall
Target: Bottom left pane of glass on the main entrance to Carpenter Hall

Hole 3
Tee: Concrete ledge next to front stairs on Carpenter Hall
Target: Lamppost on curved portion of sidewalk between Swalm Hall and McCool Hall

Hole 4
Tee: Curved sidewalk next to lamppost
Target: Sign for Allen Hall

Hole 5
Tee: Even with or behind Allen Hall sign
Target: Metal plaque to the left of main entrance doors to Allen Hall.

Hole 6
Tee: Second rug from the left on Allen Hall entrance
Target: Front side of stop sign at intersection of Creelman St. and President's Circle

Hole 7
Tee: Sidewalk next to stop sign
Target: Front side of Allen Hall sign.
Stipulation: Frisbee must pass through one set of columns of side entrance to McCool Hall

Hole 8
Tee: Curved sidewalk leading into Swalm Hall that branches off sidewalk in between Eternal Flame and Sonny Montgomery statue.
Target: Library drop-off box to the left side of entrance doors
Warnings: Watch out for the globe lights. They're very fragile

Hole 9
Tee: Stay behind line of bricks in sidewalk heading north.
Target: Top colored portion of two toned fire hydrant in between Library and Carpenter Hal

Hole 10
Tee: Circle of bricks surrounding lamppost next to fire hydrant.
Target: Hour glass portion lamppost at the end of the sidewalk that passes in between Carpenter Hall and Library

Hole 11
Tee: Circle of bricks surrounding lamppost
Target: Pass the frisbee through arm rest of bench to the left of entrance to Bowen Hall

Hole 12
Tee: Beginning of sidewalk in between Etheredge and Carpenter Halls.
Target: Trunk of Oak Tree at the entrance to Drill Field

Hole 13
Tee: Circle of bricks surrounding lamppost next to oak tree
Target: Pass the frisbee through the hole of the 'A' looking statue
Note: Feel free to make jokes about a certain way to phrase the target

Hole 14
Tee: Next to statue
Target: Garbage can next to Drill Field entrance of Union. Frisbee must hit can while in the air.

Hole 15
Tee: Sidewalk next to garbage can
Target: Bottom left pane of glass on entrance to second level of YMCA building.

Hole 16
Tee: Concrete ledge next to stairs of YMCA building
Target: Trash can on patio of Union.
Stipulation: Frisbee must touch concrete ledge while teeing off

Hole 17
Tee: Behind small brick wall next to garbage can
Target: Side entrance door to sun room of State Fountain Bakery

Hole 18
Tee: Area right in front of doorway
Target: Sign for Cafeteria (This may no longer be there)

Hole 19
Tee: Grass next to sign
Target: Lamppost in between McCool Hall and Union.

Hole 20
Tee: Sidewalk next to lamppost
Target: Top steps to Swalm Hall
Stipulation: Frisbee must cover one of the lights in the concrete on top of stairs.

Hole 21
Tee: Top of stairs of Swalm Hall
Target: Flagpole

Hole 22
Tee: Brick ledge surrounding flagpole
Target: Bust of Stephen D. Lee

Virus

I have managed to come my entire life without getting a computer virus until yesterday. At home, I've been on a Mac, so the threat is considerably less there, but I still use a PC at work.
Yesterday, I was looking at rental cars for my upcoming trip to California for American Society for Horticulture Science conference and my browser shut off. A pseudo anti-virus program starting scanning. I knew the University had switched anti-virus, but this name didn't sound familiar. It told me my computer was infected with all kinds of spyware, trojans, etc. and asked if I wanted to get them off my computer. Having to answer yes or no, the yes answer then informed you to buy the full version of the program. This confirmed my suspicion of it being the virus itself. I could still kind of use my computer, but I constantly got messages about stuff being corrupted and to buy the anti-virus software. Its amazing how when something in your routine gets disrupted, how helpless you feel to do anything. I also got concerned if it was stealing credit card, bank account, and password information from me.

This is similar to what it looked like.

                                                     
We put in the request to ITS and the guy who helps our department, John, came and helped me out. He had seen this one before in various forms and called it scareware. They scare you into giving them your credit card number. Its neat to watch a tech support guy navigate through a computer's dark alleyways with such skill and ease and find the little file that caused all the problems. He ran several scans, updated my virus software, and got me up and running again. It took about two hours in which we discussed computers, biking, viruses, and ate some animal crackers. He said the virus probably got onto my computer through an ad on a webpage through non-updated flash, java, etc. I was unaware that was possible.

Deep Rooted

The past couple of days I have spent a little time in the greenhouse emptying out my pots I used for my research this past Spring. I was growing 'A4' Creeping Bentgrass in the pots, a common species on high end golf course putting greens. The pots needed to be used for another experiment, but not the grass, so it ended up in the trash. The soil was still good, so I had to shake off the sand from the roots. As I pulled out each plug I was reminded of the extensiveness of the root system when compared with what you see above ground.

The turf itself may be an inch tall, but the roots extend all 12 inches to the bottom of the pot. Developing this deep root system allows the turf to utilize water and nutrients from all depths of the soil. If a time of drought comes, the plant is able to survive by having those deep roots. I have heard this numerous times in the classroom, but it always puts a greater emphasis on it when you actually see it.

This feature of turf reminds me of what should be our faith nature. We need a strong root system so in times of trouble we are anchored securely and have plenty of nutrients to get us through tough times.

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." - Jeremiah 17:7-8

One of the things I greatly enjoy about working with turf, plants, creation, is getting to see the beauty of God's handiwork. The fact you can put a tiny seed into soil, add water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, light and the right temperature, and it will soon turn into a much larger plant. Its a beautiful and amazing thing. Its easy to break it down into formulas, components and processes involved and think you have a handle on things. Yet we can't recreate these things. I often see two reactions to creation that are understandable, but only the beginning of the real truth.

• People see creation and want to worship the creation itself, not the creator of creation.
• People see the science of creation and want to worship the science, not the creator of science.

 When you worship these things you are only seeing the a small aspect of a much grander picture. Creation and science both point to the Lord. Whether it be artists, musicians, athletes, architects, etc. we praise the talents of people. None of these things we praise we assume happened on their own, there was a creator behind what we're praising. Why is nature the exception? Rather than worshiping the creation itself, it should point us to the ultimate creator. Science attempts to explain all the aspects of creation.  What is the ultimate goal here? If we got to the point of being able to explain everything that happens what then? If each experiment is in hopes of getting through another window of science, what happens when you run out of windows? The order of nature and the fact we can study it, points to a design, not a random chance of events.

I think man wants to be able to create. The sin of Adam and Eve, wanting to be equal with God, is still rampant today. If you become 'one with nature' or 'understand nature' then you can consider yourself equal with it. Just like our ancestors, that is our nature today, whether realized or not.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." - Romans 1:20

My Late Night Shift

A friend recently passed along a little gig working at a basketball camp for several nights. Basically we get paid to sell pizza, cokes, cookies, and popcorn to campers from 9:30 to Midnight. Easy job at not such an easy time, but for a few nights not a bad deal. We also got a free t-shirt and whatever pizza was left over. The first night our monopoly sold 27 pizzas and the second 40. I'm sure it was the customer service we offered.

Tonight is the final installment. The past two nights David and I were stationed at Hull Hall. It brought back many memories of hanging out there freshmen year so long ago. The tiny rooms made me wonder how we fit all of our stuff in there for a whole year.

Life's Certainties

I remember hearing the saying, "The only things certain in life are death and taxes." As I wade into the beginnings of adulthood the latter part of that phrase is becoming more and more prevalent.

My last post was on a benefit of having a photography business, this one is about one of the negatives. I have been reluctantly exploring the correct method for starting a small business over the past couple of months. I knew we needed to be legal in Uncle Sam's eyes, but he doesn't exactly make it real clear on the approved approach for doing this. They all tell you about the business side of things, not the legal, pay your taxes, requirements.

Anyways, Rebecca and I finally decided to not trust our own knowledge and go see someone who does know what to do. We went to Helen Grissett at Columbus Tax and Accounting. She was a Dave Ramsey ELP for small business. She was kind enough to sit down with us for about an hour free of charge and walk us through getting an Employer Identification Number (EIN), filling out sales tax form with the state, and answering all of our ignorant questions on the subject.

Our next step was to go to the bank and get a business checking account set up. That took about another hour. So now we don't have to ask people to rewrite their checks when they make them out to Rebecca Long Photography.

The third step of getting a business license was halted because we have to get approved by the city to work out of our apartment. That will take a separate form for that and then we can apply for a business license.

I'm beginning to think businesses biggest competitor is the government. I'm not looking forward to doing our income taxes.

Big Mac

One of the perks of my wife having a budding photography business is that we have gotten to purchase lots of cool stuff. Our most recent purchase is not what you immediately think of when it comes to photography, but it will probably get used much more than our cameras.

Up to this point Rebecca has been working on her laptop and aided slightly my a 19" Dell Monitor to process the pictures. She can't really use the monitor to edit pictures because it has a poorer resolution than the laptop so it isn't as accurate. Her laptop is great, but gets to be small. So to solve the problem, we purchased a 27" iMac, which she now refers to as Big Mac, and big it is. It is like a TV on her desk. The screen is beautiful and much more conducive to editing pictures.

We may even take it downstairs to watch a movies on it.

Memorial Day Weekend on the 11 Point River

As stated in previous posts, I was incredibly pumped about our canoe trip. We got back from the long weekend yesterday and I must say the trip lived up to expectations.

The Franci rode with us to Memphis on Friday afternoon. We stayed at Emily's Mom's house. She was quite the pleasant host and made the stay quite enjoyable. She treated us to Memphis Pizza Cafe that night. The rest of the evening we spent packing our gear and food for the trip. With the amount of stuff we had you would have thought we were staying longer than the 38 hours we were gone. I will say we used all of it in some capacity. Our semester lost friend to grad school at Texas A&M, Hayley, was in Memphis for the weekend, so she came and saw us for a bit. I did not sleep that well with all the anticipation of leaving. I think a lot of it had to do with there were still things that needed to be packed.

We met up with the Poschels, Holmes, David, and Nicole Saturday morning a little after 6 AM. We hit the road for Missouri. The canoe outfitters were completely booked up for the weekend so thankfully we had reservations. We got shuttled to the river and off we went.

It was a little more crowded than last year, but certainly not as bad as I feared. The water and weather was gorgeous. Rebecca did a good job in the front of the canoe. Our whole crew did very well and no one tumped (our new favorite word for the weekend). A lot of the people on the river were not so graceful and provided entertainment for our group.

We decided to stay on an nice little island for the night. It had been used before and had nice sandy flat spots, plenty of firewood to gather, and a gorgeous surrounding of fast moving water. It also was great because it served as that entertainment from what we'll call the 'daytrippers,' characterized by the neck koozies, coolers filled only with beer, large guts, and foul mouthed women. There was a fallen tree in the middle of the rapids by our island. The entire afternoon as we set up camp we got to witness people come by, hit the log, and tump over. The chilly water was a shock to the canoers, and the unstrapped coolers emptied there adult beverage contents into the river. There was a shallow slower moving stretch just down the river so they were all able to gather themselves and floating belongings after a sobering ride in the water. The best instance was a group of 7 canoes that decided to go down the rapid tethered together side by side arms interlocked, thus no one was paddling. The current took them straight to the 'tumping log' and one by one all but 2 canoes emptied their passengers into river. It was a hilarious sight once it became apparent everyone was okay. It was like watching cattle running off a cliff together.

The Tumping Log

We got our tents set up and cooked dinner. Everyone brought some type of kabob that were quite delicious. We also cooked s'mores as we sat around the campfire. The rushing water around us provided a picturesque backdrop, topping off the fantastic day.

 

We slept in the Franci's tent because of a probable lack of suitable tent spots. 

We woke up Sunday and had a lazy morning around the campsite. We set off around 10 and headed down the remaining stretch of the river. We took a long lunch on one of the sand bars and played in the water.

We also stopped at Boze Mill Spring to play in the even colder water.

We finished the river mid afternoon and caught the shuttle back to the outfitter. After a stop at Dairy Queen we made our separate ways back. We had a shorter trip back to Emily's Mom's house. We all slept like rocks in the real beds.

The only downside to the weekend was it had to come to an end. We all agreed we should do it again next year. I also was not too thrilled with my pictures. There is a fine balance between taking too many pictures that you miss out on the moment vs. not being able to remember the moment down the road. Its also hard to take pictures when you have to get it out of its waterproof container and you could tump at any moment.

The Whole Crew

I would be remiss to leave about the beauty of the creation we got to experience. When you are in that kind of solitude with no cell phones or TV, and surrounded by absolutely gorgeous surrounding it allows you to sit back and be thankful for each day. A God that can design something so vast and yet so detailed, can handle my little issues.