Plucky

Two broken wrists One broken thumb (probably hurt the most) Two broken collar bones Two torn meniscuseseses (menisci?) in right knee Stress fracture in left ankle lots of bumps, bruises and scrapes.......but I've never impaled myself on a fence! Gee, I wonder why it is I'm suffering from arthritis at the tender age of 32? Don't get me started on team sport related injuries........

Sorry, I don't get the chance to check the site much from work. I was supposed to have internet at home last Friday but it was discovered that the 40 year old wiring in my apartment needs to be replaced before it will function. Ughhhh..... To be technical, a lot of what people are calling mini-glaciers or small glaciers aren't actually glaciers at all. Those are simply remnants of glaciers or 'dead ice' as we always called it. An actual glacier must exhibit some form of motion either through internal processes or basal sliding. For this to occur the general rule of thumb is that the

Quote: Originally posted by cal: ...on which one of The Internets is The Google? I forgot which one of those is a series of tubes? Ted Stevens - one of the bigger douche bags in politics. I always got chills when I had to fly in to or out of Anchorage's "Ted Stevens International Airport." The basic premise of politics in Alaska: "If you vote democrat, they gonna take all ya alls guns away. Vote republican! There's plenty of land to hide the meth labs and pot fields from them bible thumpers!"

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: I was looking for a good "fish on!" picture but couldn't locate one. I suspected your words were chosen with the same care as a fly fisherman rifling through his tackle searching for the perfect fly for the conditions Hi Ocean!

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: You can't trust Americans. They say they don't torture people either. Ocean is correct. You can't trust ANY Americans. By the way, I thought I'd share a picture of my bedroom. The Germans seem to dig it! SerreChe - any time on the glacier stuff - as long as it doesn't involve the math related to internal deformation processes

Quote: Originally posted by db le spud: Plucky - the season is slowly approaching, some snow on the Austrian glaciers. I don't think you have been nationalistic for ages, what's up there? What did Alaska do to you? I'm headed down to either Stubai or Kaprun in two weeks for 3 days on the snow! Two weeks after that it's back down to Austria at either Stubai or Kaprun (can't remember which trip is which) for 5 days of skiing. Any trips planned yourself? I can't wait to ski in weather warmer than -30c! I've never been all that nationalistic. I was simply defending the 50% of Am

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: > Our resident kneejerk American nationalist Plucky..... Hi Ocean! Gut zu sehen, dass Sie noch ein Arschloch sind! (Hey, at least I used the formal 'you', purely out of respect)

Emo music is worse than rap. But not as bad as country. However, Cowboys and Gangsters are both more fun to hang out with than Emo people. Quote: I don't hate highschool geeks like American's do On the contrary spudo. Look at America's infatuation with movies such as 'Revenge of the Nerds I/II/III', characters such as Flounder and Pinto from 'Animal House', the lovable nerds from 'Old School', the TV show 'Freaks and Geeks', The Shermanator from 'American Pie', Jerry Lewis - wait, that's the French. You get the drift. Americans better start embracing geeks even more in the fut

Quote: Originally posted by le spud: I'm not a surfer because I live in Germany What do you mean? There are great waves in Germany! (Taken a week and a half ago in Munich) I still haven't tried it but can't wait to. I was with friends in Munich for Oktoberfest and we were pressed for time. Next go around I'm taking a board down. I don't know if I would consider myself a surfer but I sure lived the life for 7 straight years and got more waves than you can shake a stick at (Coastal Oregon, North Shore of Oahu and then living on the beach in Japan). As for Japan, I

Well, we couldn't get the proper tickets booked to make the trip happen. I spent hours on different online sites trying to make it work but it just wasn't in the cards. I was even checking connections through Rome, Madrid, Paris, Brussels, etc.. Lisbon is a popular destination this weekend me thinks. Instead, we're just going to meet up in Prague like originally planned and then head down to Oktoberfest after that. I could think of worse trips I really was looking forward to surfing, however. I guess I'll have to wait until Christmas when I'm planning to head to Portugal with my neig

I'm planning on meeting some friends down there at the end of next week (big swell coming in!). I know you recently did a trip down there and was wondering if you could offer up some advice. My buddy, who is currently in Ireland, thinks that heading down to Fora would be best while I think sticking around the area north of Lisbon would work out better. Some considerations; we would need to rent boards. He didn't bring any from the states and I'm not going to lug mine down there. Also, we need to be in Munich on the 20th in the early evening to check in to our hotel. I think this

Oktoberfest should be interesting. I'm actually glad that I'll be going during the week instead of on a weekend. I've been to a couple of Volksfests in the area already and they can get quite crazy! I'm sure the craziness is a few magnitudes higher at Oktoberfest. I've heard some wild stories..... I still have not made it in to the Alps since I've been here. I really, really need to get down there before the snow starts flying to do some biking and hiking. I've just been too damn busy with the move and entertaining visitors. Things should quiet down after this last round of friends

Quote: Originally posted by le spud: I will be renting a car some time in the next 2 months and exploring down around Munich for a weekend, so I'll let you know. Hopefully it will have cooled down by then. cheers Are you planning on hitting up Oktoberfest? I'm going to be there with some friends from the States on Sept 20th and 21st. Let me know when you do head down this way. Munich is a very easy 2.5 hour train ride and an even shorter drive. I'm a little tentative to drive the Jeep on the Autobahn for that distance, however. It would be great to hookup for a beer in Munich.

Quote: Originally posted by snosurf: That looks like fun..... I used to do a bit of sandboarding at the beach here. All I remember is that it was nothing like snowboarding. You have far less control, in fact i'd go as far as saying you are completely out of control! However this looks different, as long as you are on a real snowboard or skiis I suppose it must have definite similarities to sliding around on snow.... You pretty much have total control once you figure out the right way to distribute your weight over the skis or board. The hardest thing to get used to was using the short s

Quote: Originally posted by Markie: That looks like a bit of fun. What was the temperatures when you were there and what altitude is that at? It was somewhere between 26 and 28 and not a cloud in the sky. 'Bout time too - this has been one crappy August for weather over here. I'm not sure how high the thing is. I plan on taking my gps next week to find out. I'll also get some pics from the top as it is steeper than these pictures indicate. It's probably around 28 or 30 degrees (angle of repose of sand).

Okay, so falling down hurts a bit more than on the snow, you tend to get very, very dirty and the skiing isn't what I would call top-notch. However, this place is a great way to stay in ski shape during the no-snow months providing turns akin to skiing in the wettest, heaviest snow imagineable. Many moons ago I did some dune skiing in Oregon and thought of it as purely novelty. Fun, but not something I'd be doing all of the time. Little did I know that 14 years later I'd move to a place where there existed the largest dune in all of Europe complete with a lift to the top. I 'di

Quote: Originally posted by Toque: Quote: Originally posted by Kumapix: Any good recommendations for a gps for the mountains? any experience with Garmin? Before you get a GPS read some good books on map reading. You'll get a lot more out of your new GPS if you really understand how to read maps. Understanding contour lines isn't enough. I've used garmin gpss quite a lot. But not in the past 3 years. I stopped using gps units just as they were coming out with the ones where you could see the topo map on the screen. Those are interesting but they don't compare to having a much large

Quote: Originally posted by le spud: Is Bavaria treating you well? Very nice! I share a lot of the same sentiments as you and have noticed things to be quite similar where I am at. The people here are generally the nicest I've ever met as far as strangers go. Since I speak German moderately, they really seem to appreciate it when I try, even if I have to stumble around a bit with the words. It opens them up to speak what English they know and they seem to like to practice it on me once they know they can revert back to German if necessary. I'm really digging the city I live in

a 24 pack of Miller Lite 12oz cans on an American base in Germany = 22 dollars a crate (20 bottles) of .5L local Pils or Helles at the market across from my apartment = 12 Euros Hmmm, which is the better deal? I love love love the German beer! However, for each half liter I drink I must do one of the following: play basketball for 30 minutes / ride 5km on my bike / lift weights for 30 minutes After last Fridays German football match I spent the weekend riding 30km (some tough hill climbs), lifted weights for 2 hours and played ball for 4 hours. The celebratory Germans wou

Quote: Originally posted by le spud: I know this isn't the thread for long posts that are indirectly related to the actual matches, but too bad................ I've had basically the same discussion about this topic with my upstairs neighbor. He said he's never seen anything like this in the country before. How did the people on your side of the country handle the loss last night? I've never seen such a dejected mass of people in my life. Thousands were filing out of the downtown area and all you could hear was the shuffling of feet and the occassional I-tal-ia...oohhhhh oh. It

Quote: Originally posted by scouser: England will beat Germany in the next round. They will get much quieter then LOL - I hope so! I don't get 50 holidays a year like the Germans so it's important I get my work-week sleep! This is what it was like when Germany won last week. Pictures taken from my upstairs neighbors balcony. (This is a great pic at it's original size of 42"x38" ) The girl's shirt said "Not everything is flat in HOLLAND" PS - all of these cars were honking and people were screaming for about 3 hours after the game was over.

Hey all The World Cup has been an absolute blast this year. Although I haven't made it to a game, I've had so much fun watching games with the locals in the city I live in (Weiden id OPf). There is definitely a noticeable difference between the WC here in Germany compared to when it was in Japan. The entire country, from the biggest city to the smallest village, is completely in to this tournament. The Germans went absolutely bonkers the other night when they won in stopage time. I was kept up until 3am which made getting up at 6am for work rather difficult! This past Saturday I

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: What are you doing in Germany Plucky? Hey Ocean, I'll be doing 3D terrain mapping, basic GIS and GPS surveying for the Grafenwoehr/Hohenfels Army training areas. That's my niche (the 3D terrain stuff). Maybe I can learn something from the Swiss cartographers while I'm there. They are the best. Hey, at least I'm seeing the world at the US government's expense This should be my last stint with the military, however. I plan on coming back to AK and setting up my own mapping/surveying bizzness. I'm so stoked to live in Germany, though! If

Quote: Originally posted by le spud: Plucky - I'll be in Dusseldorf. Lets have a beer, my shout. You can teach me how to ski over the summer. Sounds like a plan! I'll be in the Grafenwoehr area which is around Regensburg and Nuremberg. You'll have to come my way to do any skiing I'll be there on May 1 and it will take me a month or two to get settled in. I'll PM you when I get set up. The thing I love about Germany is how easy it is to get around on the trains - even easier than Japan! Great pictures!