startled
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Squirrel!
I have a lot of photos to sort through, but here’s one while I wait for my plane to board. The squirrels in Zion National Park are a little bit fearless. Stop feeding them, for serious!
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Taylor Creek trail in Zion National Park
We got up early yesterday morning to go hiking before temperatures became too unreasonable. Cynthia picked the Taylor Creek trail, located in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. If you take a look at the map, the trail meanders along for 2½ miles, intersecting the creek two or three times. In reality, it turns out that whoever designed this trail really, really likes crossing streams. A lot.
On the return trip, we counted fifty distinct stream crossings. After a fit of Pokémon-esque completionism, I present to you a photo of the creek taken at each crossing. If you ever go on this hike, remember: each time the path meets the creek, you’re 1% closer to the end.
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The Utah Motel Safety Association welcomes you!
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Proper, Hawaiʻian-style shave ice in Utah
The next time you find yourself in Cedar City, you will stop here:These are good people. They have a huge selection of flavors, a good mix of classics like guava and POG, and regional flavors like horchata. All the fixins’ are available, too, so you can get a snow cap or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Pretty cheap, too. The only thing out of place is the “d” in “Shave Ice”: in terms of flavor, this place is legit.Unrelated: it’s about a thousand degrees here. -
How to: long weekend
Step one: fly to Las Vegas.
Step two: get the heck out of Las Vegas.
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A new, modern, first-person shooter
This weekend, I tried out a new first-person shooter at a place called Sunol Paintball. Unlike Halo or Call of Duty, this game somehow made my jacket incredibly dirty!
The game also came with a few more warning labels than I’m used to, and not just about software piracy. On the day we were there, they were trying out the mud and rain variants on their typical maps. That was interesting, but I wish they had stuck with the regular dry and sunny versions given that we had so many first-timers.
The respawning rules were consistent with most round-based tactical shooters, like Counter-Strike or Soldier of Fortune II. The damage model was quite atypical, however: shots to the face were protected by a mask and goggles, so hits elsewhere on the body were much more effective. This reminded me of the damage system in Dead Space, where head shots usually do less damage to the xenomorphs.
In this photo, I was trying to show off my paint-stained jacket, but instead managed to look disaffected from the rest of the group. Oh well!Happy bachelor’s party, Terry! You’ll always be our pretty pirate princess. (And for the record, that one game of “Run, Rabbit, Run!” we played was totally Rob’s idea. But you knew that.) -
So majestic, so deadly!
People who haven’t spent a lot of time around swans have romantic notions about how beautiful and majestic they are. I think swans have romantic notions about disemboweling strikes and eating your organs. They are territorial and temperamental, and look at those terrifying velociraptor claws! While taking this photo, my travelling companions became concerned that I was dangerously close to the evil death-swan, but these are the kinds of risks I take for you, dear reader. -
Dude! Look out! Knives!
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The Berlin music scene
Berlin is a world-famous destination for electronic music, but this city has so much more to offer than just techno! Check out some of these up-and-coming bands! -
How to not get run over by a train
This unremarkable photo from Alexanderplatz shows a remarkable cultural difference between Germany and the US. There’s a light-rail train running right through the middle of one of the largest pedestrian malls in Berlin. There are no fences to prevent people from walking onto the tracks, no gates to control the crossing areas, no curbs around the track, and no signs helpfully warning pedestrians not to get hit by a train. Pedestrians cross the tracks frequently, and somehow manage to avoid being squished in the absence of these safety features. The trams don’t even make much noise to speak of. While I assume they have a horn of some kind, I never heard one used.
In contrast, a forklift being driven at a slow walking pace through Home Depot must beep incessantly while accompanied by a second employee who walks alongside and shoos shoppers out of the way.I’ve noticed far fewer guard rails, warning signs, and posted restrictions in Europe: people are expected to pay attention and avoid obvious dangers on their own. Messages like “Don’t get hit by a train” or “Don’t fall into the canal” are left implicit. A stop sign is a rarity, but yield signs are commonplace. The general message from the urban environment is “Use your best judgement.” I have no idea how well this strategy works, but it does feel nice to be treated like an adult.
