Ft. Pulaski

Yesterday I went to Ft. Pulaski. (I also went to Ft. Jackson, but as it was a flooded, malaria ridden piece of trash, I can't recommend it to anyone). So Ft. Pulaski was a huge brick fort commissioned by Jefferson, then had a big nasty artillery battle in the Civil War. The South held it for awhile, until Union troops blasted at it for 30 straight hours using 13 inch exploding mortars from over a mile away. The South surrendered, the Union took over, patched her up, and used her to help enforce the Northern blockade of the South during the war.

Oddly enough, despite having 1000 or so Union troops just 10 miles from Savannah, Savannah itself wasn't ever conquered/evacuated until General Sherman's March to the Sea (when he burned Atlanta and wrecked havoc to Georgia). So this fort was a Union fort completely surrounded by the Confederacy for most of the war.

On a related note, I'm of the opinion that traveling alone sucks. Maybe some people like it, but count me out. I think traveling should be done with a friend. Nevertheless, while in the Mellow Mushroom, this hippie pizza place here in Savannah, I read the following quote from St. Augustine:

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering."

Wormsloe

So after work today I went and checked out an old estate called Wormsloe from the original colony. There wasn't much left of the original buildings other than a few old walls. But, I did learn a few things about Georgia. I'll take them point by point.

1) These woods make for easy walking about, but they're freaky because all the birds make a ton of noise above you, and are constantly knocking stuff about, so I kept thinking someone was walking nearby, only there was nobody there.



2) So when people moved here 200 years ago, if they were lucky enough to get a land grant, and could afford the labor, they could really make some sweet landscapes. This was way cool, closer to the vision of Georgia I had in my mind before coming here.

3) Problem is, 200 years ago, much like today, there was incredible disparity of wealth in Georgia. Most people didn't get big land grants, and even if they did they couldn't clear the land. So they stayed poor. While touring a museum I came across this little treasure.

4) Then Georgia actually was such a failure that it had to surrender it's charter back to the King. This means that it couldn't sustain itself, so went back under the King's control and became royal colony.

So what did we learn? That unless you have money, Georgia sucks. It's always sucked for poor people, and still does.

Chills

So today after work I went to the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum. It was kinda neat, they had some old planes, some videos, and a lot of generic WWII stuff. But the display which showed the rise to power of Nazi Germany had one item which literally sent chills up my spine. A giant, evil, authentic banner from Nazi Germany. Similar to what was on display here.

Yuletide Tales

So I left Georgia last Friday, the 21st and flew home to Dallas for a few days with the family over Christmas. It was nice to spend some time with my family, and my parents are settling nicely into the new house. It's really a nice house...

Then, after the gifts were opened and dinner was eaten, I hopped back on a plane for Georgia so I could come into work this morning and type this while wondering how long the guys here in the office will wait before playing video games.

Tiger Woods

So basically Tiger Woods is amazing. My favorite part is at the end of the article...

"I view my life in a way … I'll explain it to you, OK?" he told his small audience in Florida. "The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today. And that's how I look at my life. I will be better as a golfer, I will be better as a person, I will be better as a father, I will be a better husband, I will be better as a friend. That's the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better."

Weekend Update

So what does a single LDS dude do in Savannah Georgia for a weekend? Well, not a whole lot, but I tried to stay busy...

On Friday I went and saw I am Legend. I've learned over the past few years to just go to the movies by myself when I want to see something and can't find others to go. Such is the case in Savannah... But the movie rocked.

On Saturday I went down to the Savannah River and walked around downtown in a misty rain. It was kinda cool, but all the shops were super touristy and full of junk. But it was kinda cool just relaxing by the river and watching the ships.


Then today I went to church - I gotta say, this was by far the UN-friendliest place I've ever been to church at. I pretty much had to force some people to talk to me so I could find Sunday School and Elder's Quorum. Just more people talking the talk but not walkin' the walk when it comes to being a Christian/good Latter-day Saint.

After church I went to Hilton Head, which is a resort island in South Carolina about an hour away. Walked on the beach for awhile, relaxed, and came back to the hotel. Pretty exciting life!

The Devil went down to Georgia...

So, after my finals, I figured I should just sit around for 4 weeks between semesters, being a mooch at my parent's place and the like. Oh wait, that's not me... No, I set it up so I took off the day after finals to go work in Georgia for L-3. I arrived yesterday, meaning that today, my birthday, was the first day back on the job.

Work, well, work still sucks. 4 months off, no change - there's still nothing to do. The hardest thing about today was installing Half-life 2 on my laptop so I can play the other guys in the office. Other than that, the other hard thing was deciding where to go for lunch. As for real work, well, there was none. So basically, the next 3 1/2 weeks are basically an all expenses paid vacation to Savannah Georgia for me. I've been to Savannah, and hopefully working through Christmas won't be a horrible experience and I can find things to do... Not that Savannah Georgia has that much to do, but I'm going to find everything outside of work to do that I can.
(a shot of the moss hanging from the trees all around town. watch out, it's full of Chiggars).

Today, to celebrate living for 29 years, I went to the Atlantic Ocean. Oceans in general are pretty sweet, but they also kinda intimidate me. Something about endless, really deep, water. But despite the intimidation, there's also a nice rhythm and peacefulness to the ocean that I really enjoy.

Oh, as something of a report card - I do my yearly goals based on my birthday. Unfortunately, I only achieved 1/5 goals last year - the one goal I achieved was being able to play 5 songs on the guitar from memory. Hopefully I'll do better in my 30th year of life.

Done with Finals

So I'm finished with my first semester of law school. I'm tired, exhausted, and ready for a nap. It's kinda fun being back in school, though I think I'm pretty jaded from having worked a couple years before going back. Everytime someone says you "have to do it this way," I just think to myself, "never associate with that person." But law school, and law school finals, were almost exactly what I expected... though I'm not quite sure how to articulate what that expectation was. I just haven't found too many surprises - other than some of the things my professors put on the exam, that is... those surprised me good.

I wish...

I wish I could be part of something like this... Thanks to my friend Laura for the tip!

Exams

So I think I'm finally stressed - since my first final is in 9 hours I guess its not unexpected. It's the first time I've felt stress like this in years. I don't like it. I tried going to bed - that didn't happen... so now I'm up, writing this and checking facebook. Maybe trying to call some of you to chew the fat until I'm so exhausted I crash...

It's been nice not feeling this way the past couple years - not having to put months of work and effort into a 4 hour block of time and see what comes out. And considering I'm still not totally convinced I want to be a lawyer, is this really worth my time? My money? My life?

I just tried to recall the last time I could remember being stressed... I was a little worried about running the 8 miles in the Turkey Trot last week... but I think the last time I was stressed was when I nearly ran out of gas in my rental car while off-roading in the Mojave last year. I know I didn't like leaving Provo - but I don't think that was stress as must as 'leaving pains.'

I'm gonna try and fall asleep now.

Texas

Yet another piece of wisdom from Law School. Nicholson v. Smith
986 S.W.2d 54 : "Nature, in Texas, is a rich mixture. A great deal of it is compatible with human happiness and safety. But some is not. Nature is not tamed in Texas and those who seek the outdoors are exposed to its dangers. A good deal of the vegetation in Texas stings, sticks or stinks. Any number of insects and animals can hurt, or even kill you."

Into the Wild

200th post to the ol' Blog. Wow, time flies.

So this past week I went home for Thanksgiving, had a job interview, watched way too much football and didn't study nearly enough. But before leaving Lubbock for Dallas, I caught the movie Into the Wild. This was a movie I had waited for for sometime, and while I enjoyed it immensely, and it was exactly what I expected from having read the book, I would caution anyone thinking it's going to be an uplifting movie. It's not. In fact I'd put it in the same category as Legends of the Fall and Life is Beautiful. Movies I love, but are incredibly sad.

But I was inspired to buy the soundtrack, and it's got some really sweet music on it by Eddie Vedder. Here's 2 clips/songs. The first is the theme song of the movie, and if you're looking for an easy understanding of the movie, watch the video.


This second clip is my favorite song from the soundtrack, called Society.


Now I gots to go study some more.

Fried Pickles

So tonight I hooked up with my friend Becky and we headed on over to Po Melvin's in Irving for some Po Boy's. A Po Boy is kinda like a sub, only with twice as much meat as one would normally put on a sandwich - making it impossible to close, and a nice chore to fit inside your mouth. They're about the size of a nerf football.

Anyway, so me and Becks goin' to eat some Po Boy's, we sit down, and she starts a talkin' about fried pickles. Now, I've had lots of stuff fried, but never pickles, so I'm intrigued... and then I go to order an appetizer, and lo an' behold, at Po Melvin's they serve fried pickles. Of course I had to order them.

The verdict? They weren't half bad. And I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to try something different on Thanksgiving Eve.

I learned something useful in school

So I’m studying at the library on a Saturday. It’s awesome. OK, not really. Anyway, so I’m doing these notecards, and I just learned something interesting I felt like passing on.

What four elements determine whether an activity is abnormally dangerous? (the more of these questions that are answered yes, the more likely it is that the activity will be found abnormally dangerous)

1. Does the activity involve a high risk of serious harm to people/property?

2. Is there no way to perform the activity with complete safety regardless of how much care is taken?

3. Is the activity not commonly engaged in in the particular community? (E.g., blasting in a desolate area – no strict liability; in an urban area – liability).

4. Does the activity’s danger outweigh its utility to the community (a balancing test).

I just broke my rule.

There was man-on-man on my motorcycle tonight. I offer no apologies - it was a married man who needed a ride home, but still...

If you love freedom...

You'll love these links.
Cowbell
Pumpkins
Name not totally family appropriate, but very good website

In other news, I'm feeling better. Still not back to 100%, but we're getting there. And if you read the Pumpkins link, I want that shirt.

I've been sick

I've been pretty ill this week - which is not good since I only have 3 1/2 weeks until my first final. I've been trying to study a ton while falling asleep incessantly, and it stinks. Too much to do, too much to learn/review, and too sick to do it. Anyway...

I really enjoyed this article by Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy) on espn.com. I love that the Patriots are running up the score on teams - especially teams that suck. Part of this is because Tom Brady and Wes Welker are on my fantasy team. OK, that's a big part of it. But the other part is that I don't think there's room in sports for mediocre efforts.

And that's a big reason why I get frustrated in team sports. I don't get nearly as frustrated with the guy that just stinks as much as I do with the guy that just stands around and doesn't try. What, you can't run after the ball? Too tired? GET OFF THE FIELD THEN!

And in watching sports its often the same situation - the Patriots, like them or not - have set themselves up for a great season this year, while other organizations have not. Through the efforts of their players and the upper level management in getting players that will work, they are succeeding, and if other teams had tried as hard physically and mentally as the Pats they would succeed as well. Physically Tom Brady doesn't have anything over Vince Young or most of the other quarterbacks in the league. Once you get to that level it's about effort and decision making - areas that the Patriots management have succeeded in.

Anyway, that's my little rant on sports and stuff. So when I get feeling better I'll go run hard, box hard, and lift hard - without trying to rely on other people to do the same, because unfortunately they won't.

It never gets old

Chuck Norris went to Burger King and ordered a Big Mac - and got one!

These people are Morons

So I'm currently sitting in a required meeting at law school, on internet researching. On the surface, this sounds like a really good idea. On the surface.

However, having a brain this is a complete waste of time. Things I've learned in this meeting:

• the internet changes!
  
• not all internet sites are reliable!
• you can do complex searches using boolean connectors (like AND, OR, and stuff).

I swear, these people are morons. I got an idea - if you're going to teach law students that LIVE ON THEIR LAPTOPS how to use a computer...

1. Don't get a 50 year old to teach this crap. I promise they don't understand computers/the internet well enough to teach 20 year olds.
   
2. Don't make us go to this stuff outside of normal classes.
3. Grow a brain before you teach - aka, don't be a MORON.

Oh, Happy Halloween.

Shrunken Head

So at Family Home Evening a week or so ago, we made Shrunken Heads. We took apples, skinned them (peeled?), carved faces in them, and rolled them in lemon juice with salt. A few days later, mine looks like this:

Pretty sweet.

Trip to Dallas

So I traveled home to Dallas on Friday, then back today (Sunday). It was nice to go home for a day and a half. Good to spend time with my Dad working out, helping my Mom with the yard work, and my sister Staci with her Calculus.
Also, it was nice to see my home again - my parents are moving soon to a brand new house nearby, but this was the house we've lived in for the past 20 years. It's always been Home, and I wanted to see it one last time before we're moving everything out (i.e., how Ryan's spending Thanksgiving). Anyway, sob sob, here's the house I grew up in.
Two other things:
1) There are BIG bugs that like to smash into your windshield during Cotton Harvest in West Texas. Here's a pic I took at 70 mph of the cotton fields.

2) Look who I ran into!

Frustrated.

Here some pics of my hands after trying to relieve some frustration bare-knuckle boxing (well, bare-knuckle hitting-the-bag).

It's hard to hate a sunset

So I'm not a big fan of Texas, but this was still a beautiful sunset.

Eating Out

So tonight I'm going out with my sister and brother-in-law. We're going to Texas Roadhouse, and should be delicious.

Why does this matter? Well, it's the first time in 2 months I'll be paying to eat out. I've eaten some food other people have bought for me (especially here at school) - but I haven't bought food at a restaurant since leaving Utah.

The effect has been good on my pocketbook and my gut, which has almost entirely disappeared. I'm stronger and leaner than I think I've ever been - last week I put 225 up 4 times unassisted, and I 'hit the bag' 3-4 times a week (boxing).

Anyway, I guess the whole point of this post is just to say that while I believe eating out to be a fun social experience and a nice break from the routine of life, it most certainly isn't healthy or financially sound to do so. But some Chicken Fried Chicken sounds good...

A couple of quick thoughts...

1. I'm exhausted.
2. I miss having cable TV. But then, I also miss having time to watch TV.
3. Because of #2, I am super thankful for NBC.com and VH1.com
4. The fact that T-rav* bought an AK-47 doesn't truly surprise me.
5. Congrats to Jared for passing his optometry boards.
6. My parents are going to Salt Lake this weekend for General Conference. I found this out Sunday about 10PM, when I called home to see if I could come visit this weekend. I'm doing great at keeping up with my family.
7. Halo 3 is fun, but I think it's good I don't have more time to spend playing it. (Nevertheless, I quickly Finished the Fight...)
8. I have hopes that Into the Wild will come to Lubbock, but I'm not holding my breath. From appearances, this looks to be an excellent movie which, along with The Fountain, Waitress, and Children of Men, most people will ignore, which is very unfortunate. Regardless of how the movie turns out, the book was excellent.
   

Things not to say.

This place is full of 'interesting' people. What did Ryan learn this weekend? Don't tell someone you just met at a singles dance...

• you're getting over a "Nasty Divorce."
• or that you just finished your last round of "Chemo" last week
• or proceed to introduce your 11 year old son.

Yup. Good times. Awesome dating scene.

My fridge

So I bought some new magnets in the $1 bins tonight at Target, and they make me happy enough I felt like posting a pic of it.
If you zoom in enough you can read the magnets: click here to read more about them...

Texas Resident

So I still haven't gotten my Texas driver's license and all that jazz, but I did get word yesterday that they're giving me residency for school - basically saving me about $4000 a semester, a nice $8,000 for the year. This is very good news.

Also, since moving here a little over a month ago, I haven't eaten out once. Now that I'm going to have a little more money, that might change - but I'm hesitant to do so. From the changes to my diet I haven't lost any weight, but my pants are all way loose and I can tell I'm getting leaner, which is neato.

So I went for a bike ride

Ever since my accident riding my road bicycle a little over a year ago, I just haven't ridden much. I still really enjoyed it, but with the Utah hills beckoning, I did a lot more mountain biking. So yesterday I needed a break, so I decided to take out my road bike for a ride. I did about 19 miles, half of which were into a fierce headwind (not fun).

That's a sweet story, but the interesting thing was how many deceased animals I saw. Yesterday I saw:
2 dead birds (sparrows?)
1 Turkey? (It was pretty mashed up...)
1 Skunk
and I think I saw an armadillo...

Prepare a Wild-Caught Rabbit for a Meal

The first thing you want to do, after catching a wild rabbit, is to calm the rabbit down. A panicked rabbit does not make for a pleasurable dining experience. It taints it. Pet the rabbit. Maybe say something soothing, like "Easy, Brownie, easy" (if the rabbit is brown) or "Easy, Gray boy, easy" (if the rabbit is gray). You might just say, "Easy, little bunny." (But, really, can't you come up with some kind of name besides "bunny"?)

Feel the belly. It should be plump and fuzzy. But skinny is fine too. Feel the ears. They should be soft and pink. Man, I love the ears.

If you like your rabbit spicy, try rubbing him with wild sage or wild mint.

Place the rabbit on a rock with good drainage. Next, take out a long, sharp butcher knife. Try not to let the rabbit see the knife. You may not want to look at the knife yourself, as some of them are kind of scary-looking.

Hold the rabbit down firmly with one hand. With the other hand, take a carrot out of your backpack. Still holding the rabbit, place the carrot on the rock and slice it with the butcher knife. then feed the carrot pieces to the rabbit. If the rabbit doesn't eat all the pieces, feel free to eat the leftovers.

Let the rabbit go. For fun, throw the knife at a tree trunk, to see if you can make it stick, like Jim Bowie or something.

(P.S. The reason you want a rock with good drainage is in case he pees.)
- Jack Handey

I'm a capitalist

So the other day I'm eating my breakfast (which I believe was a wonderful egg sandwich with ham and cheese) when on the Today Show said they were going to talk to a Freegan about not spending money for a month. Being in a money crunch mode myself right now, I thought that this sounded like a great idea. I mean, I love free stuff, and love for people to give me free stuff, so maybe I could be a Freegan too!

Well, I didn't get to watch the piece - had to run to school, but while taking a break from reading more law this afternoon I decided to look up Freeganism.

At least it brought humor to my day. And while I will continue in my pursuit of free stuff - particularly free meals - I don't think my imperialist and capitalist points of view will allow me to ally myself with such people. Oh - nor will my work ethic. Lazy trash diggers - get a job.

Labor Day in Lubbock

So I decided I needed to do something different today, but not wanting to spent much in the way of monies on gas, I decided to go mountain biking. Therein lies the problem, for you see, in Lubbock there are no mountains. I decided a dirt road in the middle of Nowhere, West Texas would suffice.

So I went riding about 25 miles today, 12ish miles each way, got chased by some crazy dogs, saw lots of crops, and when I decided to turn around, this is what I saw:

To the North

To the East

To the West

To the South

So now you all know what you're missing out on...

Uh oh...

While taking a break from reading about how to cite legal documents, I was IMing my friend Shannon (aka Shanno) and mentioned how amazing THE GOOGLE is. Well, now I'm even more impressed. Check it out!

What's new in Lubbock?

Well, there's not much new in Lubbock. I study a lot. I'd guess last week I did somewhere around 50 hours, and I certainly wasn't pushing it. This week I'd guess I'll be up closer to 70...
On the other hand, I did find this website today that I'm excited about. It's called Texas Escapes and it has all sorts of stuff about the small towns here in Texas. Like the ghost towns and such. I'm hoping to explore the neighboring towns/counties on my bike(s)....

My first day of classes

So I just finished the first day of classes here at Texas Tech law school. It wasn't as intense as I had pumped myself up for - despite everyone during orientation saying that there would be no introductory class, every class was simply an intro session. So far, so good, but now I have a ton of reading and briefing to do. But, since this is my first post in a week or so, I figured I'd put down a little about the transition to Lubbock.

Umm... it's had its hard points. Leaving Provo was a good thing, but a really tough thing to do. I'm very thankful that my sister Kristi and her husband Justin are here so I at least know someone (and their son Caden, whom I discovered is very ticklish). I've moved into an apartment right next to the Lubbock Temple, about 2 miles from Kristi. Here's the view out my bedroom window.
Yup, that's Moroni. Ironic that I move from Provo UT to Lubbock TX and I'm now living the closest to a temple in my walking life (when I was an infant, my parents lived in Wymount).

Also, it's kinda fun being 'the Mormon' again. So far I've found 2 inactive LDS law students - both of whom sit right next to me in all 3 of my major classes - so I have some fun missionary work to do. And after I get through studying today, Texas Tech has some pretty nice boxing equipment. So that's where I'm at - but I'm also getting a hankerin' for some adventurin'.

The sad farewell

I'm finally leaving for law school, in about 5 hours. I'm packed, the farewells said, and I leave first thing in the morning with my dad, almost exactly 10 years after he dropped me off for my freshman year at BYU.

I'm excited for what lies ahead in the coming weeks and years, but right this moment I'm sad to be leaving my friends behind, and a place I love, for Lubbock Texas. To all, thank you.

Mandy

If there's one thing I'm aware of, it's how horrible Barry Manilow is. Forced to endure countless hours of his music while on road trips as a child with my parents, the torture probably warped my mind in ways nobody should discover.

And this, well, this is incredible

Before leaving Utah

Before leaving Utah, there are somethings that need to be done. Such as climbing to the restaurant at the top of Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. Here's the view from the bottom. The restaurant is at the top.T-Rav had hiked this a few weeks back solo, and said it was kinda nuts. Well, it was. We crossed the river, that was fine. We went up these ropes, that was fine. Hiking an hour or so in the river got old, but other than that this was really a sweet hike. Very difficult - I would discourage most everyone from doing it, but if yous gots the guts, it's a sweet hike. The restaurant is still in pretty good shape, the view was amazing, and T-Rav and I left our marks.

Oh, and in the restaurant, I got some very good advice.

Watch this

Saw this on Tyler's Blog. Very worth watching.

3 sweet things

3 sweet things occurred this week

1. I got a 7% raise at work. Yes, I'm quitting here in 3 weeks - but I'll still take some extra monies.
2. I discovered my cadaver's worth$5225.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Free Online Dating

3. So I googled myself the other day, typing in just RyRy into the search bar, and I was #2! I think that's pretty frickin' sweet. Of course, then the webs shifted their alignment, and I'm once again nowhere close to #1.
   

   
   

Harry Potter Spoiler

Harry Potter 7: the Deathly Hallows comes out this weekend. I've become privy to some insider information I've decided to share. I'm sure that some will be disappointed by this action, but given the adult themes in the newest Harry Potter, I think you'd be well advised to read on.

************* SPOILERS BEGIN HERE *****************

• Ron dies - by Harry's hand!
• Hermione gets knocked up
• Harry dumps Ginny for Neville
• Snape and Lucius are seen on the Marauder's Map together quite often after hours
• Harry's owl Hedwig, sick of being 2nd fiddle, eats the retarded elf Dobby
  
• The Dementors start up a polka band

************* SPOILERS END *********************

The Grand Tetons

So I went to the Grand Tetons this weekend - it was wicked awesome. Took off Friday about 1, got up there, and got a campsite at the north end of the park.
On Saturday we went hiking. What started out as a small hike ended up as an all day, 16 mile hike. It was pretty sweet though. Then we showered (the benefits of a National Park), grabbed some food at Bubba's Barbecue, and crashed. Drove back Sunday morning.

I really like the Grand Tetons for a number of reasons, but one of the primary is that it's pretty empty. Everybody is either in Jackson being a tourist, or in Yellowstone in bumper to bumper traffic. While I love both of those places as well, the Grand Tetons were almost empty once we got out of camp, and this in their prime season.

I highly recommend a trip like this to everyone who loves America.

The Solstice

So to celebrate the summer solstice, my buddy Trav and I took off for to Wendover, then turned north and went 40 miles on a dirt road to the middle of nowhere. Our destination: The sun tunnels.



There we met some friends, including this sweet hippie dude named Jim (that's Jim with his shirt off in this pic with some of our new friends)



So the idea is that you wait around and watch the sun set through these tubes that are perfectly aligned with the summer and winter solstici. While waiting, more and more people showed up - eventually about 35 people came - it was a pretty good crowd for the middle of nowhere.


So we all watched it set

















and hit the road back to Provo.



Well, after I got a picture with Jim that is...

Eco Challenge 2007

So I did the Eco Challenge with the football team again this year. I did a lot better this year - still finished about half-way through the pack, but cut an hour off my time from last year to finish at 6 1/2 hours.
The Eco Challenge consisted of:
1 mile swim in the Richards building
An obstacle course - shuttle run, bear crawl, 600 pd tire flipping, sled pulling, pushups, sled pushing, farmer's walk, parallel beam walking on hands thingy, and 20 rope pullups. Lots o'fun.
35 miles of biking uphill on a mountain bike - up to Squaw Peak, then Southfork canyon, then up to Sundance.
Hiking/running up to Stewart Falls, then on to Arrowhead summit.

Overall I enjoyed the event a whole lot more this year, in part because it was warmer making the bike ride more enjoyable, and because I just hiked quickly instead of running, saving my strength and moving faster the entire way along.