Overall Run Trail - 9/15/2007

Over the next few days I’m going to be importing some of my blog entries from a website that I no longer plan on hosting after this coming month. It’s basically a hiking journal, has lots of photos, some product reviews… enjoy!

Well it’s official, I have the hiking/camping bug! It all started a few weeks ago when I camped at Abrams Creek near Mount Storm, West Virginia. That being said, I decided to head to Shenandoah National Park and hike the Overall Run Trail.It was a beautiful day for hiking with a mostly sunny sky and temperatures in the low 70s. Despite hiking alone, I had a blast. Amazing scenery, an abundance of wildlife (though I did feel disappointed in not seeing any of the numerous black bear that have been recently spotted on the circuit), and a relatively well maintained, though quite rocky trail, especially in riparian zones, made for a very enjoyable hike.

I arrived in Bentonville, Virginia a little after 1 pm. I parked off of Thompson Hollow Road, which happens to deadend at a private drive that leads to the Thompson Hollow trailhead. There were just a few cars near the entrance, so I anticipated just a handful of hikers and a relatively quiet day. Perfect for a much needed break from the stresses of everyday life!

You begin your trek on a private road that is roughly a quarter of a mile in length. You soon reach a cabled gate and within a few hundred meters cross a small creek that leads to the Thompson Hollow Trail which you will find on your right. The trail is blue blazed and intersects with the Tuscarora/Overall Run Trail within three quarters of a mile or so.

Most hikers head left on the trail, which is also blue blazed, for a shorter hike to the waterfall outlook of Overall Run. The ascent leading to the outlook is steep as it switchbacks up the ridge of Mathews Arm. At any rate, I chose a less traditional route, and went right at the intersection. For the most part, I did this because I wanted to play in the swimming holes that are located about 5 mins. from the Overall Run trailhead. I did make my way down to the water, however, the dry weather we have experienced this past summer had left the stream quite shallow. Still, it was nice to get wet. I also met a turtle along the way, an added bonus!

Playtime ended, and I soon got back on the trail and followed it for awhile as it meandered alongside Overall Run. After what seemed to be a half of a mile, the trail turned left rather sharply and eventually crossed the stream. The trail began to get rather rocky and remained so until I began the 3 mile ascent of Beecher Ridge. This is where I met the first of about 15 fellow hikers on the trail. We spoke for a few minutes and I learned that he was from New York, living presently in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and like me, had left his better half at home and had decided to enjoy a quiet walk in the forest. Within 5 minutes I was back on my way as the blue blazed Overall Run Trail met the Beecher Trail that led the next two and a half miles up towards the top of Beecher Ridge. The path, now yellow blazed, was steep, cool (thanks to a gentle breeze and change in elevation) and scenic. The hike became more challenging, though I’m a runner and the course presented little in the way of real difficulty minus the presence of a multitude of rocks which are frequently dispersed throughout the circuit. That being said, I highly suggest leaving your tennis shoes behind and wearing a hiking boot with a rugged sole. Remember, when hiking in the summer, waterproof boots will cause your feet to heavily perspire, so I’d recommend against it in warmer temperatures.

At the end of the Beecher Trail you’ll make your way onto Mathews Arm Trail and within a half of a mile you’ll find an intersection which leads upwards towards a campground and left back onto the Overall Run Trail. I went left and began my descent of Mathews Arm. It was here I decided to take a break for lunch, which basically consisted of a few energy bars and water (thanks for the Nalgene bottle, Margaret). Shortly after lunch I saw for the first time that day, a black snake. In fact, I saw 3 within the next few hundred meters. Unlike some, I love snakes, and found this to be quite a treat. I soon came upon a family stopped dead in their tracks, fearing that ahead one of the snakes they had recently seen was a copperhead. I trekked ahead and found a snake making its way quickly into the forest. I was unable to identify it though. I continued on and soon made my way to the waterfall outlook of Overall Run. The waterfall was nearly dried up because of near drought conditions, but still, the sight was impressive, not to mention the amazing view of the Massanutten Range. I rested briefly, enjoyed the scenery and resumed my hike. It was now that I began switchbacking down Mathews Arm. The path was steep, though beautiful, and as the terrain began to level, I found myself in an amazing area where the ground was so rocky and tall grasses so numerous that it was difficult at times to even make out the trail. I loved it! I felt more secluded here than at any point in my journey. Within about 10 or 20 minutes I met up again with Overall Run and began the last leg of my hike. I played briefly in the stream and then made my way back to the Thompson Hollow Trail. Within 25 minutes I had doubled back to the car and had completed my hike, and in amazing time! The hike, with a 30 minute lunchbreak, usually takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 hours, though I made it in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. See Margaret, all of that obsessive working out pays off!

Anyway, I highly recommend this hike. It’s challenging and for a day hike, moderately lengthy at 8.5 miles, but it’s worth it. You can also modify the trail to accommodate those who are not up for the entire circuit by hiking to the overlook and doublebacking along the Overall Run Trail.

Photos from the hike:

Ubuntu Gutsy and Compiz-Fusion Demo

I uploaded this demo of my Ubuntu Gutsy desktop a little earlier to Youtube. It’s a little choppy because of editing issues, but you get the point.Hope you like it!

Ubuntu Gutsy Screenshots

Here are few screenshots from my Ubuntu Gutsy desktop…

Ice Hotel — Courtesy “Beautiful and Depraved”

beautifulanddepraved:

Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden (via dezeen » Blog Archive » Art Suites at Icehotel)

via romeojulietsierra

Comcast Will Charge You $2 To Stop Sending You Junk Mail

Photo courtesy of Tyler Durden

Just a typical Comcast stunt…

We don’t mean to influence the “Worst Company In America” voting, but check this out: if you call Comcast and ask them to stop sending you anything other than your bill, they’ll agree but quietly slap you with a $1.99 “change of service” fee. Like most made-up, totally indefensible fees from cable and cell phone companies, Ian found that a chat with a customer service agent can get the fee removed.

Update: Comcast has responded to this and apologized for the fee.

I noticed a $1.99 “change of service” charge on my most recent Comcast bill. During an online chat, a Comcast rep explained the source of the fee:”It looks like on 2/5/08 you contacted us and requested to have all direct mailers stopped on your account. There is a one time “Change of service” fee associated with making that change on the account.”

I had in fact called Comcast a few weeks earlier and asked them to stop sending me anything except a monthly bill. They were happy to do so, but had not told me that they would try and stick me for $2. They rep removed the fee from my bill.

Your readers might want to be on the lookout for bogus charges on their Comcast bill if they’ve ever spoken to Comcast on the phone. Perhaps this is how they pay for people to fill seats for them at FCC
hearings.

-Ian

Of course Ian is referring to this little stunt. In Comcast’s defense, however, we think with the FCC hearing they were just trying to solve the sleepy technician problem that’s plagued them in the past.We can’t come up with a way to justify charging someone to stop sending them junk mail they never asked for, though.

The Original blog entry can be found here.

Mac vs. PC vs. Linux

I came upon this while visiting Digg.com. I thought it was cute. Enjoy!

By Sixth Grade Nearly One In Six Children Are Alcohol Users

A study by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the University of Florida suggests that ‘tweens‘ should receive alcohol prevention programs prior to sixth grade, when nearly one in six children are already alcohol users.

The study found that adolescents who used alcohol were less receptive to prevention programs. By educating younger children, in particular those between the ages of  8 and 10, to the risks of alcohol use, researchers believe that the successful implementation of programs geared towards deterring children from using alcohol could occur.

It was also shown that sixth graders who had used alcohol prior to exposure to prevention programs were far less receptive to messages concerning alcohol use. “By sixth grade it’s too late; we’ll miss many of the at-risk kids,” said Keryn Pasch, M.P.H., Ph.D., University of Minnesota School of Public Health and first author of the study.

The study, published in the journal Health Education and Behavior, compared sixth-graders who had used alcohol in the past year to those who had not, in a multi-ethnic, urban sample of more than 4,000 students in 61 Chicago schools. Among this sample, 17 percent had used alcohol within the past year.

Another finding in the study was that of those sixth graders who used alcohol, many were likely to be male, engage in violent or delinquent behavior, and have friends who used alcohol.

Factors such as lacking the confidence to refuse alcohol and failing to perceive and value the negative consequences of alcohol use are critical in at-risk children. “These are important to note because they are amenable to intervention,” Pasch said.

Researchers suggest a prevention program prior to sixth grade in which parent involvement is central. Students should receive developmentally-appropriate messages that correct inaccurate perceptions that ‘drinking is normal’ and that provide tweens with the skills to refuse alcohol. In addition, interventions should include parental involvement in order to help create opportunities for increased parent-child communication and provide parents with the skills to increase monitoring.

“Parents and the general public don’t realize how early alcohol use starts,” Pasch said. “However, in early intervention, parental involvement is a key factor in delaying alcohol use.”

Honestly, I find this rather alarming. I can remember being in sixth grade, and for me, my life consisted mainly of homework, chores and Nintendo. I couldn’t fathom violent behavior and alcohol abuse. I suppose we chalk this up to another failing of the typical American home.

Why We Kiss

Research is being conducted into one of the most basic of human interactions, the kiss, and at the forefront of this research is Susan Hughes, an assistant professor of psychology at Albright College in Pennsylvania. Currently, there are few studies that examine the act of kissing in detail, and the aim of this research is to determine what prompts humans to engage in this form of human contact.

Those involved in the study conducted a series of 3 interviews with 1041 students at the University at Albany, New York and proposed three hypothesis:

1. People use kissing as a form of mate assessment — Hughes noted that information is passed “from their breath, the taste of their saliva, things like that…”
2. People use kissing as a form of bonding — Hughes suspects kissing “raises levels of a hormone called oxytocin, which is related to interpersonal bonding.”
3. Men use kissing to induce sexual arousal in mates, thereby increasing the likelihood of engaging in sexual intercourse — Hughes states “Men might use this more to seduce their partners more than women do…”

Hughes and her colleagues found support for each hypothesis, though “provocative differences” were found between men and women. Those findings are reported in the October 2007 edition of Evolutionary Psychology. Women were found to place greater emphasis on the taste and smell of their mate — “That clues us in that females may be using it more to make mate assessments than men…”, says Hughes. The study also found that women refuse sex 85% of the time when not engaging in kissing prior to intercourse. This contrasts sharply with men, as more than half of all males said they would have sex without kissing first. Hughes found that “Women are definitely using kissing to make an assessment about the male. If he’s a bad kisser, then she’s not going to want to have sex with him. She’s getting a lot of information from that kiss…”

Men, on the other hand, expect kissing to lead to sex roughly 50% of the time, compared with women, who expect intercourse one third of the time. “That fits with other research”, says Beverly Palmer of California State University, showing men and women often interpret nonverbal cues differently. “When the woman is first kissing the man, she’s not necessarily sending the signal, `Let’s go to the next stage’ – but the man is reading it that way,” Palmer says.

“Males … like the very moist, wet open-mouth kisses”, Hughes says. “Perhaps males need more saliva to make subtle mate assessments. He may be subconsciously detecting whether she’s fertile or not.”

Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University anthropologist who studies love, was intrigued that men also were more likely than women to think a kiss could end a fight. “Maybe it’s because they know women find kissing more intimate, so they are doing something not for themselves but to win women over.”

Women in Hughes’s study were more likely to say kissing was important throughout sex, and the relationship. “That supports the idea that females are using kissing to create a bond”, she says.

As a male who would like to generally consider himself atypical when compared to the rest of the gender, I was surprised to find that I tended to associate and relate to the vast majority of all men. Oh well. I guess with these rugged good looks comes a certain amount of piggishness. I just wonder if women find that worth dealing with, LOL.

Anyway, I’m curious if after reading the results of this study will I perhaps go the extra mile to be a little more sensitive and understanding of what is typical and/or appropriate behavior when interacting with the opposite sex? Probably not, but a boy, and his girl, can dream, can’t they?

Introducing Wilbär, A Most Adorable Addition To The Wilhelma Zoo In Stuttgart

I have to admit that I’m a sucker for bears. Brown bears, black bears, polar bears, it doesn’t matter, and this little guy is no exception. Born December 10 to Anton and Corinna, 13 pound Wilbär is slowly adjusting to life as a polar bear.

He’s a German celebrity of sorts, despite efforts by the Wilhelma Zoo to downplay his birth. “We are not out for the big money,” zoo director Dieter Jauch said. Interest in curtailing the media frenzy that normally occurs after such a high profile addition was prompted after the birth of Berlin zoo star Knut and Nuremberg celebrity Flocke.

What’s great news for Wilbär is that unlike his fellow German cubs, Corinna, his mother, “is taking exemplary care of her offspring,” Jauch said.

Jauch added that the zoo has had his name — a combination of the zoo’s name, Wilhelma, and the German for bear, “Bär” — registered as a trademark.

The zoo notes that they plan to keep little Wilbär out of the public view until sometime in May. Too bad, as I”m planning a hiking trip in Iceland and Scottland very soon, and would have loved to make a pit stop in Germany to see this little guy!

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

Ubuntu is set to release it’s latest version of GNU/Linux, Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04), next month. As always, we die-hard Ubuntu fans are anxiously awaiting it’s arrival, eager to see which new Ubuntu upgrades, tweaks and enhancements made it into the final release. Ubuntu adheres loosely to a release cycle of 6 months, and just a few days ago revealed the name of Hardy Heron’s successor, the Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10). As you may have noticed, Ubuntu’s version number corresponds to the year and month of it’s release, i.e. in the year 200( and in the fourth month, April (04).

Ubuntu will be focusing on mobile computing in version 8.10, making it easier for laptops to access the internet. I would imagine this would mean wider support for wireless cards. While Gutsy Gibbon was a vast improvement for many in terms of hardware recognition, myself included (for the first time my Broadcom wireless card was easily recognized and installed), there is still a way to before a more widespread adoption of Ubuntu can occur.

Mark Shuttleworth has also announced plans to improve desktop scalability in Ubuntu. An emphasis will be placed on improving the overall performance of the operating system, from high-end workstations to entry level laptops.

I’m definitely excited about the pace at which GNU/Linux seems to be maturing into a viable operating system for the masses. With innovative distros such as Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, OpenSUSE and Fedora leading the way, GNU/Linux is slowly but surely coming into it’s own.

For more information on Intrepid Ibex, click here.