travis' brain dump

So walking to the bus today I saw a homeless man standing ther with a sign that read, “anything is a blessing” and it made me stop and think…

If someone who has nothing deems anything a blessing, how should someone who, by comparison, has everything view what they have?

Everything is in fact a blessing. No matter how much we feel we lack or what we feel has been taken from us, we should always appreciate those things which we do have. Hard to think like that sometimes through all of our human imperfections, but it’s a solid lesson that can definitely change one’s outlook on life in the bigger picture.

Man, I must be getting old. Lol

Wow…

And that’s all I have to say about that… It’s been a little over 24 hours since completion and I’m still feeling like I just got done. If there was ever a course on the planet that could make you feel every ounce of just how out of shape you could possibly be, this is it. Blistered, burned, bruised, scratched and cramped should about sum it up… Major thanks out to Randy and Nef for dragging me through that last bit… I never would have made it without them. All in all not too shabby… I do have to admit, I skipped a couple obstacles – I had to… Mostly due to pure exhaustion and a throbbing pain in my hand/arm from having it stepped on in the cargo net, but hey… that’s part of the game right? 20/25 obstacles is still OK in my book when you look at the scope of what that course is like. Next year I must best it though. 🙂

I do have to say though… I’ve never experienced anything like that before and the training I did to prepare for it was GROSSLY INADEQUATE. There will definitely be MAJOR changes to what I do to prepare for it, should I decide to submit myself to that kind of torture again. Two things on my list… hill running and cold water treatment. Those are the two things I need to focus on because traversing 4200+ vertical feet of Beaver Creek on foot is no joke nor is swimming through sub 40 degree water. I quite honestly thought I was going to collapse from the shock of that alone.

I still don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to do electricity though… That particular obstacle I had no physical reason to skip, that was all a solid wuss move. Electrical current is just something I can’t purposely subject myself to. lol

Props out to anyone who tried that event yesterday, bigger props to anyone who finished and ultimate respect to all those who completed all the obstacles and finished. Amazing.

Ok, I love Science Fiction. It’s fun, it inspires and overall it’s pretty entertaining anyway… But I feel that SyFy has pretty much killed mainstream delivery of any quality science fiction.

Last night I watched the season/series finale of SGU. After watching it, I kinda wish I hadn’t. The ending was a great season finale, but a horrible series finale. It just didn’t fit well and quite honestly was a blatent banner for how horribly mismanaged that company is. Upon reading up on some things this morning and seeing the giant axe driven into the chest of the Stargate Franchise by SyFy I couldn’t help but feel as though SyFy has done nothing but KILL science fiction over the last few years. Don’t get me wrong, some of the shows out there are pretty decent and whatnot, but overall they seem to wipe out the really good and interesting shows in lieu of something less appealing. Looking back specifically at the StarGate franchise, they cut short SG-1 leaving only a DVD movie to finish the series out;  they cut Atlantis, albeit at least with a decent ending but nothing really out there to wrap up the story and then left you hanging out to dry with SGU right when it was finally getting interesting… It wasn’t the best SG series ever, but it was finally gaining some traction in the story line and actually had me intrigued as to what would happen next.

So, I’ve come to a conclusion… I’m done with SyFy… I hope some others of you feel the same way and do what I’m doing. While I enjoy Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary, I’m sick of getting invested in shows that the network just seems to come along and wipe out without any possibility of a solid wrap-up. It happens constantly and they continue to blame the shows when they should be blaming themselves… I’m deleting my DVR schedules and ignoring the pathetic offering SyFy has out there. I’m sure my life will be much better off because of it … Since when did wrestling belong on a channel that was supposed to be dedicated to science fiction? It’s fiction, yes, but there is no science to it. LOL

I took a good long look over the last few years of what SyFy has done and I was just appalled. I remember being able to see some pretty interesting (albeit some even short-lived) shows fill in the gaps during the days that were dedicated to the story theme of science fiction and be ramped up to get into Sci-Fi Fridays with some friends and such… but slowly but surely they’ve replaced those shows with re-runs of semi-reality shows and the removal of good ole b-rated scifi flicks filling in where they lacked content for shows… it reminds me of the loss of MTV to “reality” shows in the 90’s… on a side note to that: it’s disturbing that Beavis and Butthead are being brought back… what will they talk about? the latest episode of 16 and pregnant? *rolls eyes*

While I’m bashing in SyFy, I think it’s fair to say and worth mentioning that I think TV in general has gone down the tubes… looking over most of the shows I used to watch and watch now… I spend FAR less time watching TV now than I did even 5 years ago. I guess that’s a good thing though right?

Ok, so this was on heck of a project, lol. Ordered up the kit from Sam’s Club (thanks to my parents for letting me use their Sam’s card) for about $1400 shipped. We recieved the boxes, all 5 of them (4 plus the slide) about 4 days after ordering, I was pretty amazed. Here’s the outline review of the process. I wish I’d had more time in single days to dedicate to the project, but overall it didn’t take too terribly long. The first couple of days were hard to work on the project as I only had a couple hours after work.

Day 1 (2-3 hours work):
Unpack the boxes, review all the parts, etc.

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Amanda, supervising the unpacking of the parts.

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The piles growing in the back yard staging area.

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That’s a whole lot of parts!

Day 2 (1-2 hours work):
Let the assembly begin!

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A good chunk of Day 2 was spent not only getting the framework together but leveling the dang thing. Nothing says awesome like having to dig into the ground in odd places to shave off some land to get the main playhouse level.

Day 3 (3-4 hours work):
Finally, some visual progress!

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While I didn’t get quite as far as I had wanted to this day, at least the floor, the picnic table and all the primary supports were in place. The framework was also anchored into the ground at this point.

Day 4 (4-5 hours work):
This was a Saturday. While I’d hoped to get more work in today, it was cold in the morning then a busted cordless drill set me back an hour or so. Had to go get another one from Sears. Bummer.

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I was hoping for a little more done today, at least get the slide and the steps up, but alas, it wasn’t in the cards. Kiddos will have to wait til Day 5 and me skipping a few steps to get the slide in so they have something to play on while I finish this thing. lol

Day 5 (4-5 hours work):
Much more progress today!

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Coming along nicely, next stop, the roof!

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Finally a roof! Assembly of this wasn’t too hard at all. Just more time consuming due to the smaller parts being assembled all over.

A lot got done today visually, but it really wasn’t much more work than Day 4. Still, it was finally coming together and looking like something!

Day 6 (5-6 hours work):
Finally almost there! Major progress visually, despite the fact it only took a few hours to get the monkey bars and the swings operational.

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Day 7 (1 hour work): FINISHED!

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All in all it wasn’t a bad project. My only complaints were some of the upper portions (where the use of smaller parts is more common) didn’t quite fit correctly. Not much modification was needed but you needed to know how to spot some of upcoming problems of placing a piece in a location that you might have to move it from later. Accuracy of the instructions to the parts, I’d give it a 7 out of 10. Nothing structurally problematic though, just mostly cosmetic. The only major issue I had with this was the lack of enough 3″ lag screws and 3/4″ truss bolts/barrell nuts and lock nuts. Those things were the bane of my existance. Nothing a trip to Home Depot didn’t fix, however.

I most certainly wouldn’t say this thing is sturdy enough for adults to play on, but the kiddos… you could load up about 5-6 on there without a single hint of strain. I for one am glad to be done with it. The last day just bugged me getting the final little pieces finished and all checked out. Can’t complain too much though as it sure beat buying something similar from Backyard Adventures or Rainbow for twice as much. Just an FYI, this set is made by a company called Backyard Liesure Holdings which just so happens to be the same company that creates the following playsets:

– Create-N-Adventure™
– Adventure Playsets™
– Backyard Adventures™
– Leisure Time Products™
– Backyard Builders™
– Politron™

Pretty interesting. So all in all I got the same product (for the most part) as Backyard Adventures for about half the cost, although I had to put in the ~24-25 hours of work. Still worth it in the end to see the kids having a blast playing on it. If you’re looking for an affordable, large scale playset. I can’t say I’d warn you away. Just make sure you take your time, read the instructions and assemble the parts properly. 🙂

Now comes the fun part of destroying the old swingset and playhouse… muhaha!