Whattheheckever

Many years ago, I was standing on a bridge which went over a creek.  I found myself looking upstream rather than downstream.  I associated the water flowing towards me with my future and when I turned around looking in the other direction, I saw my past.  As I watched the water, it was getting farther and farther away with each passing moment.  I naturally turned around to see what water may be coming my way.  For some reason, watching the water coming towards me (my future) was more appealing to me.

Recently I was sitting in the passenger seat of my fiancée’s car and watching, as we all do, the scenery as it is approaching.  It made me think about that creek many years ago.  I associated the approaching scenery and the road ahead with my future, and of course, the road behind with my past.  We all would like to see our future as it approaches so we can make better decisions regarding the important things in life.  It may effect our choice in lottery numbers also.

Well, this is my own unique way of interpreting life and some of the things which may or may not lead to the decisions which I make.  Ah, about the headlights….  Cars have lights in the front and in the back.  The lights in the back are nowhere near as bright as the ones in front indicating that we should not focus too much on the past.  The reason cars have headlights is so that we can see life as it approaches at night (or in the rain).  The headlights also help us see the big yellow warning signs for the hazards which life throws in our way.  Lastly, the headlights also indicate that our future is brightly illuminated while our past is still lighted, but nowhere near as brightly.  This is why cars have headlights.

A search engine is a website that helps us to find information on a subject or answers to questions.    If you remember back in school when we learned about the card catalog in the library, this may help understand a little.  The library housed thousands of books and the only way to find them was to refer to the card catalog index.  Search Engines are essentially the card catalog index of the digital information age.

The Internet is home to billions and billions of pages of information consisting of any possible imaginable topics.  More and more pages are added every second of every day.  As you can imagine, having some sort of organization to all of this information is an absolute necessity.  A search engine has numerous “Crawlers” which continuously search or crawl all of the pages of the web looking for new information.  When these crawlers find new information, they index them within the existing pages.  The indexing of all of this digital information keeps it organized in such a way that when someone searches for certain information, the search engine can find that information quickly and return it to the person searching.

The above is essentially what happens when someone searches for a certain topic however, there is so much more behind the scenes that must take place in order for that information to be found on the internet.  For every page on the internet that has been indexed, there is another page which has not.  There are criteria or rules which must be addressed in order for a search engine or crawler to not only find, but also to read and understand these pages.  Only then, can the pages be indexed.  When this process is done properly, the indexed pages will be returned when someone searches for a certain subject.  These search engines have made searching the internet not only fun and entertaining (Open Google and type in the search box “Do a barrel roll”) but, ridiculously easy also.

So, have you ever considered just how big the Internet is?  Or, perhaps how much it weighs?  Random thoughts like the ones above do cross my mind on occasion, however I am not going to attempt to rationalize those thoughts.  The one that tends to intrigue me the most is this:  If the Internet were a library, how large would that library be?

Considering the fact that 5 years ago, Google was indexing over 1 trillion unique URL’s across the Internet, I am not going to begin to fathom where that number now lies.  While flipping through resources, I have come to the conclusion that there is no real way to quantify this thought.  We would have to consider everything from emails and emails with attachments, to videos and music as well.  The answer to this question in my opinion, will be a hypothesis, an educated, but subjective guess, that is.

So, if the Internet were a library, just how big would that library be?  If I were a mathematician, perhaps my answer would be a little different.  I think of a single story building covering roughly the same number of square feet as Lincoln, Nebraska.  Literally hundreds of thousands of miles of shelves filled with publications of all types.  Now, keep this in mind, this building also has construction crews on every side, working 24/7, 168 hours a week, constantly increasing the square footage.  How would you build this library?

As we leave Virginia Beach behind us, we prepare ourselves for a trip across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  In 1964, upon its completion, it was given the distinction of being named as one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world.  It connects the Hampton Roads Area (Consisting of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth to name a few) of Virginia to the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland as well as New York and New Jersey.   The Bay Bridge Tunnel also provides travelers a peaceful option to the busy Interstate traffic on I-95.

As I look out the window, I notice we are only 30 or 40 feet above the surface of the water.  I briefly imagined the drive during a storm or even a hurricane, wondering just how high the ocean swells reach.  Out one window lies the peaceful Chesapeake Bay, its natural beauty and thriving wildlife while a glance out of the other window lends view of the powerful Atlantic Ocean.  It is just far enough from shore to shore where you cannot see the other side, which creates an interesting image of a bridge going nowhere.  The official length from shore to shore is 17.6 miles.  If the distance alone does not offer enough time to enjoy the journey, there is a rest area with a shop, a restaurant and a fishing pier.

The reason it is called the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is that there are two segments of the span where the roadway drops below water level down to the floor.  Each tunnel is about a mile long and serves as a passing for larger boats including sail boats and cruise ships, as well as the massive Naval Vessels coming out of Naval Station Norfolk.

As we approach the other side, we are treated to one of my favorite sights in life.  The sun was preparing to set which left us with a view of the bridge behind us and the light glimmering off of the Bay.  This is definitely a trip worth taking someday if you have not yet done so.  The beauty alone removes us, though temporarily, from the busy day to day city life and everything that accompanies living in this metropoliptic, Mid-Atlantic Region.

Which Browser are you using?  When I created the graph above, I compared numerous sources and determined that my own would be a little easier to understand.  Basically, Internet Explorer as you know, has dominated since it’s innception in the mid 90′s.  At that point, it was boosted in popularity primarily because it was part of the Windows Platform.  Internet Explorer’s current popularity is due in part to some users not knowing that other options are available or even caring.  In other cases, older computers are still being used from the days prior to Chrome’s entry into the browser war.

For those that do know and care, Firefox (Mozilla) and Chrome are both extremely viable and in most cases, much better options.  As we spend more time on the web, we begin to understand the need to customize our browser to optimize our web experiences.  In addition to customization, speed and stability should also enter into the equation.  There are numerous other browsers from which to choose.  Download one of these other options and give them a try.  The web just may offer quite a bit more than you ever realized.  For myself, I prefer Chrome and believe Google’s market share will continue to rise and in the coming years, overcome Internet Explorer.

Happy Browsing

“How many roads must a man walk down, before they call him a man?”

We have a dream of exchanging our vows in one of the most beautiful settings imaginable, which of course would be Lake Powell.  What better way to do this than surrounded by our family and friends in a fun and casual way, embracing the beauty of the landscape.  While not what one might consider a traditional destination wedding, it is truly the perfect setting for us.  It is our hope that you might share in this very special time.

We will be picking up a houseboat at Bullfrog Marina on Thursday, June 28th and returning it on Monday, July 2nd of this year.  The Ceremony will be held on Saturday the 30th of June and will be presided over by Captain Tony Anderson.  The actual venue will be somewhere along the shores of this majestic desert oasis.  If you are interested in attending the ceremony or perhaps even coming along on the boat for a long weekend, please send us a note and we will provide the details so you can decide if it is manageable for your schedule, budget and sense of adventure.  For our East Coast friends and family, if you have an opening on your vacation schedule, this may be an opportunity for you to see just where Mother Nature spends her holidays.

For our more “local” friends, if you have a boat, what better reason could there be for planning a few days at Powell?  If you do not have a boat (or a friend with one), check with us as there may be either a spot on our houseboat or we may be able to provide transportation to the campsite.

• Formal Lake Powell Attire is required: Your nicest suit (bathing, that is), flip flops and sunscreen.
• To avoid any possible confusion, this part of Lake Powell is Bullfrog, Utah, not Page, Arizona.
• Again, the date of the ceremony is June 30, 2012 with the time TBD.

*Visit www.lakepowell.com or do a search to learn a little more.  Leave any questions in the comment box if you do not have our contact info.

By Lin Sorenson

(Published April, 2001, Utah Outdoors magazine)

We’re chugging into Bullfrog Marina on a sunny summer morning, our houseboat running at half speed. The group has gathered on the front deck to enjoy our last few minutes of time outside “reality.” Bill, my best friend at the time and our official “partymeister,” breaks the silence by asking, “I wonder what has happened in the real world since we’ve been away?” I look at my scruffy boatmates, take note of the tanned, peeling noses, monster hair, happy grins.

Four days earlier, we had converged at the appointed hour on the dock, carrying sleeping bags and swimsuits, sunscreen and hats, food and music to share, and books that we’d never open. Like kids on a stolen summer vacation, we’d slept in swimsuits. (Why change? We’d just have to put them back on in the morning.) We grilled steaks for breakfast and munched on breakfast bars at night, lost all track of time in the conventional sense, and developed a nightly ritual of gathering atop the boat to await the brilliant display of stars in the moonless sky. Now it was ending, and we were all reluctant to let it go.

Lake Powell is an otherworldly place. Even when you’re there in person and seeing it all firsthand, you can’t quite believe it. Boats zipping over glassy green-black waters against a backdrop of brilliant blue sky and glowing orange stone. Water that changes color constantly, sometimes reflecting the cliffs so you can’t tell where they begin and the water ends.

Houseboats are popular at Lake Powell because it’s so remote; you have to bring everything you need with you or buy it at one of the five marinas. Page, Arizona is the only major town close to the lake, which is surrounded by National Park Service, BLM and Navajo Indian Reservation lands. There is no private or commercial land, hence, though both Wahweap and Bullfrog have lodges and restaurants just off beaches and overlooking the water, there are no beachfront hotels, shops or restaurants once you are out in the channel. Gasoline, groceries, food services, boat rental and repair, and other basic services are all provided by ARAMARK, the concessionaire approved by the park service.

Houseboats are like cabins with all the amenities, and they’re mobile. You can take your home base with you wherever you go, and enjoy different scenery from your own deck every day if you like. Just find a beach, anchor your boat and claim the space. And with almost 2,000 miles of shoreline and 96 side canyons, you can find a place at Powell to call your own on even the busiest weekend.

If you want more mobility, or you’re interested in fishing and water sports, add whatever you want to your fleet and tow everything behind the houseboat: a small skiff if you want to fish, a powerboat for exploring, skiing and wakeboarding, and personal watercraft and other toys for playing in the water. At minimum, it’s a good idea to have a smaller runabout boat. Houseboats are hard to maneuver because of their bulk, and they can’t go far into the smaller side canyons. They’re also slower (12 to 15 mph at top speed) and burn lots of gas. Find a nice beach in an area you want to explore, anchor the houseboat, and use a small boat to explore by water, or hike in areas with ruins and other interesting sights.

In February of this year, a few of the Utah Outdoors crew made a winter trip to the lake. It was a very different experience from the busy spring and summer seasons. We had the place to ourselves. Even the main channel was quiet and serene. In our condo-on-the-water, we floated through scene after spectacular scene, passing side canyons that opened briefly to provide a brief glimpse inside, then disappeared from view. I felt a familiar sense of curiosity mixed with regret. What secrets were we passing by? It’s the same feeling I get in old European cities, looking down narrow, winding streets and knowing that choosing one by default eliminates many other options. So many options, so little time.

Because the lake is so remote, there’s no light pollution. Because of the narrow canyons (even the lake is narrow and long), there are minimal waves. At night, it’s eerily quiet. In the black sky on a moonless night, stars seem close enough to touch, and so numerous it’s difficult to make out the constellations. The silence is huge. It’s so still, there’s not even a lap of water against the boat to break the spell.

This was my first trip to the lake in winter. Now that I’ve visited in all seasons, I can say that they’re all good — you just have to know which time is best for you, based on what you want to do. If you like water sports, June through September is the best time to visit (September and October are best for kayaking). For fishing, May through June and August through October are ideal; for quiet and solitude (and cool-temperature hiking), it’s October through April. When our powerboat broke down, the two bass fishermen who rescued us (in one of only three boats we saw all day) said they prefer this time of year because there are few boats on the lake. They have no wakes to battle, and the water is glass.

You can rent a houseboat from ARAMARK and pick it up at one of the marinas, or regular visitors to the lake might consider buying a share in a houseboat. For our February trip, ARAMARK furnished our crew with a top-of-the-line 59-foot Admiral class boat with everything plus the kitchen sink. (It even had a trash compactor, which would come in handy if you had a large crowd for several days, since there’s no place to “take out the trash” on a boat.) We had sleeping quarters for 10 people, with a load capacity of 12, and there was plenty of space for all 10 of us to gather at meal times and at the end of the day to chat about the day’s events. Since it was cold, the sleeping capacity was important, as no one wanted to do beach camping or sleep on the upper deck.

As you decide what type of houseboat to get, consider the time of year you’ll be going and the type of group you’ll be traveling with. If you’re just using the boat as a base camp and plan to spend most of your time exploring, skiing, wakeboarding or fishing, amenities are less important. In that case, spending less money on the houseboat and more on water toys or a powerboat would be a good plan. If you’re there for lounging and scenery and plan to spend lots of time on the boat, or if you are visiting during wintertime, amenities and space will be more important.

I’ve taken most of my trips on low-budget rentals, although I once spent a weekend on a private boat with a fully stocked bar and a hot tub on the upper deck. We had plush carpeting, tinted glass windows and real furniture. Everyone was well-groomed and fully sunscreened, and typical conversations included business trends in the oil industry and the difficulty of finding a good nanny. No one slept in a swimsuit or did a cannonball off the deck to wake us each morning. The real world was never far away. I missed Bill.

If you go

Buy a map of the lake, and pay attention to your location while you’re boating. The red and green buoys keep you oriented in the main channel, and there are marker buoys at the entrance to each canyon off the main channel. (Canyons on the Escalante and San Juan arms are not marked.)

If you’re exploring canyons in a powerboat, take a marine radio so you can call for help if you have mechanical problems. Some canyons are not frequently visited, and you could wait a long time before anyone comes by to help.

Don’t be in a hurry. It takes time to get instructions on safety and boat operation. It also takes time to refuel the boat and go through the check-in process. Allow plenty of time for this, and just relax and make it part of the experience.

Air Force General: Mr. President, we’ve just invented an invisibility cloak for Air Force One.

Obama: No way!

General: That’s right, sir. The plane will be invisible. Will you be going along on its maiden flight?

Obama: I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

General: Have a good trip, sir.