davedlg

I've got to second the HP photosmart comment. I've owned two of them now and I'm really impressed with the color those little digital cameras get. I just picked up a Canon digital Rebel Xti (a bit more expensive than you were looking at) and I love the picture quality and the ease with which you can manipulate settings and everything. I used to have a film SLR, but I'm blown away with the pictures you can get with a digital SLR being able to get instant feedback. I can't wait to play with this camera more!

I was a whitewater raft guide during my summers in college, and I still guide every now and again. It's a great job, very similar in a lot of ways to being a skydive isntructor. A close second would be driving busses in college. See NWflyer's description of the job above. I did the exact same job at a different college.

Have fun! I spent many long, dreary nights in that evil building in Boulder. Just wait till your first day of class when you have to find ECAE 1B23 or something like that. I swear they designed that building just to weed out people who can't find the classes. A cold shiver runs down my spine everytime I'm in Boulder and catch sight of that building. Seriouslly though, congrats. CU has a great engineering program and some great facilities. I keep finding myself wising I'd gone the aerospace route instead of Civil....

Yeah, it's a hell of a lot of driving, but definatly possible. Back in College, I went on a road trip where we covered 5200 miles in 9 days. We drove from Colorado to Florida, all around florida, and back over spring break. We drove out there in a single day (well, 34 hours) and it sucked. These days I try to limit my single day mileage to around 1000 miles or so. It take about 15 hours and I really cant get much further without serious awake issues. So 5200 miles, 19 days? Definatly feasable. That's 5 big driving days and 14 days of hanging out. No problem. Of course you'll probably break it down into even smaller drives, which is even better.

I got my civil engineering degree here in Colorado (CU), and I had to do my fair share of that stuff. I think I took deviance in US society, History of Jazz, along with a few others. I cant speak for what the kids down the road at Mines were doing though.

Doubt it. most GPS's dont have any kind of two way communications. All they do is recieve the signal and figure out where you are. They really dont have any way or reporting the location to anyone remotely. Sorry, that sucks.

Congrats! I've got one of those around somewhere. No go enjoy your solo x-countries. Those were some of the most fun flights I ever did.

I second that! Laphroaig is great stuff. It's one of those scotch's that people either love or hate though. Guess you've got to like that iodine and peat flavors. Of course if it's from scotland, it's "whisky", "whiskey" is from the US

I know enough about GIS to get by (I use it weekly at work, and I've installed it) What kind of system are you wanting to implement? Just a single workstation? Or a server with multiple people able to connect? What kind of themes do you envision? How big of an area? Any idea what kind of extensions you will need to be using? My experience revolves more around the single workstation installations but we work with all kinds of data from many different sources.

Actually, a woman with a gun

I've thought that for a long time. Obviouslly the news stations have to report it, but I think it's time for them to self impose a blackout on information about the shooter themselves. With our current 'myspace society', eveyone is after attention and fame, and I really believe that these shootings are a form of that, and I think that the media organizations encourage these kinds of events by prying into every detail of what the shooters left behind. Look this most recent incident - he said "I just want to go out with a bang...I guess now I'll be famous" The Virginia tech shooter went so far as to send his material directly to NBC. The coumbine shooters left behind all kinds of video and writings. Even the Unibomber was after some attention for him and his manifesto. I would venture to guess that most of these kinds of random shooting events are fueled by the media storm that follows. The media should report what happened. They should not report the shooters name, background, motives, pictures, writings, etc. This just further 'glorifies' this kind behaviour to others in the same position. I am not saying that the gorvernment should have no say in this...government censorship of the media is a very very slippery slope. A self imposed blackout by all the major media outlets is what is needed. Reporting this kind of information should be considered harmful and discouraged, not a good scoop or exclusive information.

Do you have (or have you ever gotten) a FAA medical? That triggered all kinds of AOPA junk mail for me. I refuse to join AOPA soley on the basis that I know that my funds will only be used to harass people with junk mail to join.

I went two years ago. It was a really good time, but I do not think I would go back. Yeah, the strip that night was a huge party...they basically close down the whole street and everyone parties it up. Open containers of alcohol are allowed on the street there...it was a little weird to be carrying a cup of beer down the street and have no one say anything. The final countdown to midnight is pretty cool too...all the jumbotrons up and down the strip switched to a countdown. The fireworks show that followed was the best I have ever seen...it was shot from the top of many of the casinos and synchronized to music. We didnt go to any clubs that night, but I have heard you will pay top dollar to get into them on New Year's Rooms are very very expensive....and hard to find.We stayed with some friends who live in the outskirts. The traffic getting to / from the strip was bad. Finding parking was worse. We ended up parking in the MGM Grand garage...it took us 2 and a half hours just to get out of the garage. Have Fun

With that much time, I'd stay off I-70 as much as possible and check out southern utah. That area is very, very cool. Lots of National Parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Grand Staircase Escalante, Canyonlands, Arches.... I would even consider checking out the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Um, yeah. Lots to do. That's a long drive. I've done it several times in one day. How many days were you thinking? Here's some stops I would make.. Go hiking (or just on a scenic drive) in Zion National Park Go hiking in a slot canyon in San Rafel Swell (west of Green River, Ut) Make the detour to Moab, Go hiking or Mountain biking in Moab or just drive around Arches National Park and take in the scenery....some of the most amazing in the country. Make sure you take the river road along the colorado river on your way back to the highway. Or Detour through all of southern Utah and see Bryce Canyon NP, Escalante NP, Boulder, Ut. then work your way up through Moab Go to the Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs, CO. Go skiing or snowboarding at any of the numerous ski resorts within 15 mins of the highway.

A number of my friends bought a 7.1 megapixel, waterproof olympus stylus 720. It takes great pictures and is completely waterproof. I really like it and it is what I would buy if I were in the market for a camera right now.

Maybe not quite as much as Las Vegas, but they're around. Ever heard of bikini skiing?

I've lived in Colorado my whole life and never found a place I like better. There is so much to do here. Aside skydiving and having a kickass tunnel, there are so many different things you can do in the mountains. Think along the lines of whitewater rafting / kayaking, mountain biking, hiking / backpacking / mountain climbing, rock climbing, etc... And yeah, you can jump in the winter here too. I actually like landing in the snow!

Use a blacklight. Cat piss glows brightly under one.

I assume you are joking...I wouldn't call two lawyers with an expensive house a 'hippie'..... Well, that's the Boulder brand of hippie. Lots of money, big house, drives an SUV with a "Free Tibet" bumper sticker.

For our big trips we use a katadyn expedition water filter. The key to making the water filter work fast, keep it from clogging and stay efficient is settling the water for at least an hour before pumping, then decanting the top layer off and filtering that. If the water is very muddy, we mix some Alum into the bucket before settling the water. This has the added benefit of removing a lot of nasty stuff with it, since a lot of bacteria and viruses like to attach themselves to sand and silt particles. After pumping the water we put 5 drops of chlorox per gallon in and let it sit for an hour before drinking. This is basically a miniature version of the same process that most municipal drinking water plants use to purify their water. As for the funny taste, that's usually due to the cholrox. If you add a bit too much, it can be really overwhelming to taste (but still safe). Mixing the water with lemonade, gatorade, or the like usually covers up the taste. There is also a new solar powered water filter that I've heard good things about....you just sit the solar panels on the raft, put the intake hose in the water, and let it pump all day while you are on the river and you're good to go. I want to get my hands on one of those.

Wow, that's beautiful. Being a boater from Colorado, I really hadn't ever considered that there could be 'decent' rivers in Texas for a multiday river trip. After seeing a few of these threads you've posted, I'm thinking I should go visit a few of these places. I'm really impressed. Someday I'll put up a thread with some of my rafting pictures from the Grand Canyon, the Yampa River, or the middle fork of the Salmon River.

I'm going saturday in Denver. I'm excited about the free tix (or really 2 for 1, unless you can get up on a weekday before mid-december). Looking forward to it!

If that doesn't work, try Ace Hardware. Sounds weird, but they always have a huge number of them at the one by my house (Lakewood).

Keep going on your undergrad...even if you don't know exactly what you want to do with it, the momentum you have now will help when you do decide. Find a job doing something you really like - It doesnt have to be in the career you will always be in, but it will buy you some time to assess your life and your goals and get stuff figured out. I worked for a few years as a whitewater raft guide and professional ski bum right out of college and they were some of the best years of my life. They really helped me figure out who I was and where I wanted to go in life. Once I figured that out, it was pretty easy from there because I had my undergrad degree in place and I went from there... Good luck...