Levi, I recommend renting for your first few times, and taking a group lesson.
Also, if you have knee pads from a diff sport (i.e. Roller-skating or whatever), wear those as well. Snowboarders fall either forward on their knees or backwards on their bums. Just remember, whenever things feel like they are getting outta control, you can always just ‘gracefully’ fall on your bum by ‘sitting down’ into it.
I have been thinking about retirement savings more and more as I get older. I don’t have much saved. I have two 403Bs (401K equivalent in non-profit settings) from previous jobs and just started another at the new job. The new(er) job, where I’m working 3.5 days, is also in the teacher’s retirement system, so that’s made me feel a little better. I started the 403B on top of that because I feel like I’m far behind and I wanted to supplement the fact that I’m not in the teacher retirement full time yet. I think I’m going to have to work til I’m 80.
How many fucks Putin and the Russian parliament give about Obama’s stern warning that “there will be costs” if Russia uses military force in Ukraine?
Though I could not caution all, I can still warn a few: don’t lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools…
How many fucks Putin and the Russian parliament give about Obama’s stern warning that “there will be costs” if Russia uses military force in Ukraine?
I really wish the US government would stop this crap. Everyone knows that the US will do nothing about this. Making these stupid veiled threats just makes us look soft and exposes us as a dog with no bite. Just shut up, US.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-hills-explain-vladimir-putin-invading-the-ukraine
http://www.buzzfeed.com/miriamberger/a-35-step-guide-to-understanding-why-russia-decided-to-follo
yes i’m using buzzfeed as my #1 GEOpolitical news source.
Geodesic-Jeff
Wow, Jeff’s feeling spherical these days.
^That second one was pretty helpful, actually.
yeah it is, like cliff notes, helped me understand the situation.
at this point Crimea should just be made part of russia, the majority are russians and favor russia anyway… as for the rest of ukraine, it should be left an independent state… and if they want to join the EU then so be it. hopefully Putin doesn’t get it in his head to try to force the whole state under his rule.
I have two covers on my bed, a blanket and then a comforter on top. Every once in awhile I wake up and I have somehow flipped them in my sleep and the blanket is on top. Not just a messy, twisted flip over either, but a perfect, like the bed was made that way, reverse stacked order.
^you flipped your negatron for your positron, or was it your positron for your negatron?
consider that we are made up of atoms. atoms make elements, elements make compounds and we are a collections of compounds that go to phish shows… in some cases.
atoms made of particles. electrons and such. SO:
oh where oh where has my positron gone?
i think this answers everything.
ok back to candy crush.
btw i blame voivod for that thought
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpHYyute-_4[/youtube]
but nevermind that, piggy’s guitar feedback throughout that song is f*c&ing bada$$.
I’m sitting in a cafe, alone, like the only customer. And box of rain just came on over the radio. And a small wash of emotion came over me. And now Tuesday afternoon. Something smells hippie.
I have never heard of at least 75% of the Bonnaroo lineup this year
I’m pretty sad right now. So sad I can’t sleep. I happened to be up late with a fussy Piper when I saw a Facebook post from a friend stating he missed a mutual friend of ours, Dixon. I was devastated to find out he died in 2010. I had no idea 
Dixon was the guy who called you from some random number every 6 or 8 months because the last “new number” he gave you had been disconnected since a month after he gave it to you lol. I got a new number when I moved to Asheville in 2008 so we lost touch, but I never forgot him… It’s funny. I’ve actually been thinking about him the past few months and even tried looking him up on Facebook a few times hoping to reconnect with him. This just breaks my heart!
I met Dixon on the very day I saw my first Phish show. He was best friends with Matt, a guy who went with us…the same guy who said he missed him tonight. We went to Matt’s house to pick him up to leave for Tennessee but the bastard wasn’t home because he was at Dixon’s house getting stoned lol. So we went to this run down looking trailer and out comes this tall, skinny blonde kid with long, stringy hair and tons of acne. I would be lying if i said he didn’t scare me a little ha. It only took a few minutes of talking to him to figure out he was absolutely the kindest person you could imagine. Big, sweet, shy smile, very kind eyes, warm hugger. Just a fantastic human.
About 4 years later, he was living in Auburn working at the bar we frequented so we started hanging out a lot. We spent that whole summer together. We would come home from the bar completely wasted, hold hands, and run through the sprinklers outside my apartment then dance in the moonlight. He was pretty broke and often his water and electricity was turned off so he would crash with me for several days at a time. I would feed him and buy him cigarettes. He was kinda pitiful but akways grateful and never lost his smile.
He loved Phish and music. He was my partner in crime for the inaugural Bonnaroo. I will nevet forget eating a mushrooms and dancing the night away to Karl Denson because we were too fucked up to know Keller Williams Incident was playing next stage over. Soon after, he moved back to Birmingham for some better work and I was pretty sad when he left. True to his word, he kept in touch and about a year later came to visit with a couple if his buddies. When he wwalked up onto my porch where I was having a cigarette, I talked to him for a good 3 minutes before I realized it was him! I truly thought he was one of the buddies who came with him. I didn’t recognize him. He’d cut his hair, acne was gone, he was wearing a button up shirt instead of a raggedy t-shirt, his jeans and shoes were clean, and he had on a nice watch. I was stunned. He was freaking HOT lol. We went out and had such a great time. I took my video camera and recorded some of our tomfoolery…hopefully I stilll have that footage. That night was to this day the last time I puffed, and he was the one who passed it to me. That was the last time I saw him, but we kept in touch until I moved here and changed my number because, of course, the last number I had for him was no good. I am so sad knowing I will never get another random call from my Dixon
Truly sorry for your loss, Ollie. Your post is a great tribute to your friend and the bond you shared.
I just realized that Dixon brings the list of guys I was once involved with but are now deceased to a whopping 5. Wtf, am I some sort of black widow or something? !
Sorry Ollie 
That’s a pretty wild stat too!
Went to Dunkin Donuts last week, and they sold me on the hash browns. “Would you like to get the hash browns and make it a meal?” they asked me. I was like, “You know what? Okay yeah, gimme the hash browns.”
Their surprise at someone actually agreeing to the suggested-sell was kinda funny. I was like, “how often do people say yes?” and they were all, “Almost never. Will there be anything else?” I was like: “Actually ketchup for the hash browns please.”
When I got to the window, they were like, “you said ‘yes’ on them hash browns right?”
“Yeah man” I say.
Drive away: No Ketchup.
Following week. Same DD’s. Order Egg & Bacon Snack Wrap and a medium hot coffee. Not a hash brown in sight, and no mention of it from either party.
Drive away: Ketchup in the bag.
Seems ur ketchup got caught in the DD time bending wormhole. Or teenagers.
Remind me to never have sex with Ollie. 
^I know, right?!! If I was 65, perhaps this number would be a more reasonable number, but at 34 years old, that’s just not okay. I was long since split with any of them before they met their demise. Both my daughter’s father and Brandon Geiger crashed their cars driving drunk, Wiley Wood (my first date) died a couple of years ago, but nobody knows why since his family opted not to do an autopsy (OD, is my guess), Wheeler Price died last month after battling cancer, and I just found out Dixon, died of a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2010
It’s been a rough 12 hours for me. I didn’t expect to take it so hard. My usual reaction to finding out someone passed away is a gasp and a “Oh my gosh,! How awful!”, but this hasn’t been that off the cuff. I couldn’t sleep after I found out. I immediately located the footage from my last visit with him. It’s mostly footage of his silly friends having a drunken conversation with each other on camera. I pan over to Dixon for maybe a second or two. Not very long at all. He looks up from the food he’s scarfing down, smiles at me, then shakes his head at his friends behavior before I pan back over to them. Quite disappointing. I’m not sure I could go to Oak Mountain this summer. You have to drive right by his mom’s trailer in Pelham to get there. She lives only a couple miles away from the venue. We talked on the phone several times, but I don’t know if she’d remember me or not and I certainly don’t want to upset her. In trying to find out what happened to Dixon, I found out that his older brother died 11 months after he did. I’m sure she’s out of her mind now losing 2 sons that close together. Or maybe she would like to know that he hasn’t been forgotten, that people still love him and miss him.
I wonder if I will forget and keep looking for him on Phish lot. I felt certain he was there last summer. The world feels sad and dark to me knowing he didn’t wake up in it today. I’m so very sad that my friend is gone 