Costume College!

Costume College happens every summer down in SoCal and I've been drooling to go ever since I heard about it.  for some reason I thought it was hugely expensive, and was surprised to find--once I actually checked--that it's not, at all. So I sent my check and got the packet in the mail today.  I plan to peruse it in the car on the way down to Load for Ravenswood. Can't wait.

Costume College, here I come!

One Way Trip to Mars?

I read this article from the Atlantic today, and it made me think a bit.  The question is whether you'd volunteer for a space mission if you knew you wouldn't be coming back.  As in, you'd die there, never to return to Earth.

If you are at least 18 years of age and curious and capable and resourceful, with a capacity for self-reflection, an ability to trust other people, and a deep sense of purpose, then you can to go to Mars. Maybe. The Mars One project, which is planning to send a group of people to colonize the Red Planet, has officially opened its applications process to public voting. If you are one of the people ultimately selected for the program, if all goes according to plan, you will depart Earth in 2023 to follow in the epic footsteps of Magellan and Gagarin and Armstrong, staking a claim for humanity's extension into a new and unknown world.

The only catch? You will not be coming back.

I highly recommend reading the article, and ask yourself the question:  would you do it?

Oh yes we did...

I'll leave it to you to figure out where we were over the Easter holidays...more later.  :)

It's been ages, I know.  But my beloved iMac finally went to that big circuit board in the sky, and I've just now replaced it.  Posting on with the iPad is more trouble that it is worth, so fergit about it.  Expect to hear more from me now!

One More Day...

...of preservice, with students arriving on Thursday for the first day of classes. after that it's intense for the next ten months, and me with an overload. I can only hope it goes by as fast as four weeks in Europe did. :)

So it's Ryan...

...I can live with that.

Good luck to our beleaguered republic!

2012 Sacramento Color Run

Before I left for England I posted a pissy little post about how much I hate ruffles, remember?  And I said that I'd post photos of the results later on when we'd done the race, which we did on Saturday morning.  It was a BLAST.  Definitely worth the pissy ruffle tantrum, because they were perfect at the Sacramento Color Run last weekend.  

Here's Elizabeth in her white getup.  The point of the color run is to come dressed in as much white as you can so that you can be coated with color by the end of the race.

The much less hated ruffle, and no, there were not 90k people in the race, only about 15k, but that was a lot.

When you pick up your bib and t-shirt you also get this packet of color--in this case blue.  What it basically is is colored cornstarch, and as you go through the various color stations along the 5 k race they have volunteers pummeling you with the colored powder.  But not this bag, it's for the end when you get in a big crowd and everyone throws their powder into the air.

This was the before, while we were waiting for our friend Sharyn who was also braving the color.

We also got temp tattoos.  Mine's finally starting to fade after a week, alas!

Here's the start, looking towards the Tower Bridge.  We were going to a bridal shower for my niece after the race (although I use the term loosely, as we lollygagged and enjoyed the experience), so we got up near the front to be in the first wave.

This is what it looked like looking back towards the Capitol.  The crowd stretched all the way down the street, and they let us go in groups of about 1500 every five minutes.  We wanted to be in the front so that we could get to the shower in time.

Above is Sharyn and Elizabeth approaching the 1km mark and the first color.  We were among the first, so the air wasn't as yellow as I'm sure as it was later on, as you can see below with the blue.

Here are Sharyn and Elizabeth running the yellow gauntlet.  The volunteers were very enthusiastic.  Elizabeth, as you can see, got into it.  :)

Elizabeth after the yellow.

Sharyn after the yellow.

In the near distance you can see all the runners that were being sent off every 5 minutes.

Orange.

Me (and my thumb) after the yellow and orange.

I was having fun, can you tell?  But you ain't seen nothing yet, check out the blue below:

Sharyn getting her blue on, and as you can see, the volunteers were literally COVERED in powder.  It was in these big squeeze bottles that they'd squirt power from on you as you came by, and the closer you were to them the more they'd put on you.

By the time we got to blue the ground was thick with the powder...

...and so was the air.  And so were my teeth, only it was brown after you got a few colors going.  Ewww.

Color!

Color!

Elizabeth and me at the end. Do we look happy?  

Elizabeth's phone will never be the same!

At the end when they have everyone throw their bags of color up in the air?  You get it all again, as you can see by my hand.

My hat is still blue.

Color!

Awesome.

Sharyn's color run t-shirt with...COLOR.

I was covered.

So was Elizabeth.  We took a shower before the shower.

Anyway, if you ever get the chance to do it, I highly recommend it.  We really had fun, as you can probably tell.