New York, Ny adventure

The big apple supplies some great stories and interesting conversations as the big city was explored

Sites included dinners on 78th street, Yankees stadium, Hoboken, Irish pubs, little Italy, many more

The New York City skyline as seen from Hoboken, NJ.

This trip to New York happened primarily because of the NFL draft that Brandon Boyd, the sports editor at the newspaper I work for (the Behrend Beacon), wanted to cover this year.  So with his motivation, he, I and the other managing editor (now editor-in-chief) Shannon Ehrin made our way to the big city from Erie, Pa during the last weekend in April to see the draft at Radio City music hall and explore the city a bit looking for stories.  And did we ever find stories. Through the three nights and four days we were there, we were definitely exposed to some culture.

Spring break 12' landed us in the Great Smokey Mountains

Smokies yielded great views, great company, one very cold night on Appalachian Trail

Mt friend Aaron peers over the edge at Charly's bunion. About 4.5 miles north of Newfound Gap Parking area.

This 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip had us encounter the last remnants of the winter season but brought us great times as we met a ton of people along the way.  College kids were all over the trail as everyone had the same idea we had by coming to hike the trail for spring break.  We met kids from Georgetown, Georgia, two groups from Michigan, Eastern Tennessee and Florida just to name a few.

New articles section

Check out the new "Articles" tab for some interesting reads. Headlines include:

Libertarian Gary Johnson has been overlooked by America, but he deserves to be heard
Johnson, the former Republican Governor of New Mexico (1995-2003), was bidding for the Republican backing with a “common sense” campaign that was based more on cost-benefit analyses than ideology before being forced to change his party to Libertarian.

A documentry explains how marijuana can single handily take the economy from rags to riches
In a documentary by journalist Christof Putzel named The War on Weed, he clearly shows the economic benefits, among other interesting information.

Is technology helping or hurting the development of society?
Some People are naïve enough to think that advancements in technology only benefit society, whether that be by increasing efficiency or just by making life generally easier. There are many cases throughout history that refute this point though.

Why consumption spending is not the answer for the American economy
Need versus want comes up in a variety of classes especially marketing and economics; however they are viewed slightly differently from each viewpoint.


Is the NFL just another exploitation of corporation control in America?
The league has been labeled “entertainment” in numerous court cases, and I agree with this assessment. With all the halftime shows, the fireworks and half naked cheerleaders, the game sucks every last penny it can out of every season.

Killington, Vt Ski Trip - Day 4

Last day of the trip produced great views, funny stories, one great video

A couple of crashes ended the day on a week long of fun

This was the view we were blessed with late in the day today coming down one of Killington's black diamonds on the K-1 side of the mountain.  Visibility went on for miles and the sky was magical.  It was surreal to ski down all day long.

Today was a great day of skiing.  All the runs that were getting blown with snow were perfect and the crews changed the guns to other runs which only allowed for better skiing on the new runs.  Some great photos came of today highlighted (in my opinion at least) above as the sky was changing colors all day.  During another five hours of skiing I was able to snag a great wreck by Bob on video, along with a few other videos too.  Check them out below the pictures.

Killington, Vt Ski Trip - Day 3

Killington revealed her best skiing of the week as

snow machines added over a foot of base last night

A day filled with snow machines, powder, and a few falls

Here lies Outer Limits, the steepest mogul run in the east.  I have paid homage to this great run for the past three years but have only ever conquered this beast once, two years ago.  We did three runs and it was all our legs could handle because it was some of the most physically demanding skiing I have ever done.  

We finally woke up to about an inch of fresh natural snow in the morning and it was nice to see on the slopes after two days of ice and bare spots.  The crews have not stopped making snow all week long and it all payed off as today was by far the best day of skiing, even though we were skiing in a cloudy mist for most of the day.  I have a video posted below of a snow maker up close, and what they do when ski gloves are put in their path.

Killington, Vt Ski Trip - Day 2

I took this from the chairlift on the way up, it was worth the freezing hand that I was left with.

Great skiing in the morning today.  Early birds got the worm today as there was plenty of snow that eventually washed out to ice later in the day.  Very cold still, close to zero when we walked out the door, and the wind chill made everyone freeze.  We were on last chair though for the second day in a row and had a blast nonetheless.

Killington, Vt Ski Trip - Day 1

From the top of K-1 Gondola.

Nothing like seeing the great state of Vermont again.  I started going to Vermont to ski two years ago with three buddies from school and from back home that I knew. That group grew to ten of us that drove up the ten hours from Greensburg, Pa to Killington, Vt. for four days of skiing and a week of fun in the green state. Only problem was the lack of snow.  Just take a look of what we saw the entire drive up, no snow until we arrived in our condo parking lot.