matt-writer writes rhyming rubbish ([info]matt_writer) wrote,
@ 2008-07-04 15:39:00
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Current mood: tired
Entry tags:fun, summer, trip

Ziplining

 

My dad has always been pro-outdoor fun, wanting to do things such as canoeing, bicycling, etc. But yesterday, we did something that was amazing: ZIPLINING. 


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So here’s how my day went:

We started by driving in the car for two hours. I read Pratchett’s THUD! again. Heh. Amazing book.

Anyway, we were actually rather close to the American border when we arrived. There were huge hills, which is very odd for the plains.

Basically, the place to do ziplining had been started by a family of 4, because the dad’s company bankrupted. They built everything themselves, which was really cool. Everything looked very basic.

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So they hooked us up in harnesses and we were ready to go! The first line down which we slid was 500 feet, and went up to 20 miles an hour. Then we had to walk up this huge hill to go to the second line, which was exhausting! But it was worth it: from there, we went on amazing ‘slides’. They reached 1000 feet, took 30 seconds to go down, and it was just wicked. You could hang upside down – which I did, of course, and it was very fun – or lay down or do whatever you fancied. And below you, the ground would just be pretty close, and then suddenly, it would just completely open up. It was amazing.

There was this little stream with rocks dividing the valley in two. I think that that touch made it all better, because it felt as though you were in the rainforest or something.


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Sorry for the horrible pics, by the way. They’re just screenshots of the video.


Matt


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[info]potterfreak0515
2008-07-05 04:23 am UTC (link)
Oh, I've been ziplining before! Well, twice. It was just a small thing - not nearly as fun as yours sounds - at a Girl Scout camp, but I enjoyed it! And I'm sure the fact that I was six and seven made it seem a lot bigger than it was. And we could only sit up - not go upside down or lay down!

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any ziplining places near me. And I doubt my mom would drive for two hours to go ziplining because it's not athletic enough. :(

Also - I went to the library the other day to get some Terry Pratchett books, but they didn't have THUD! They had about ten or so books, but they were all from the Discworld, but they didn't have the first one. And I just checked Wikipedia, and it says, "To a greater or lesser degree, Discworld stories stand alone as independent works set in the same fantasy universe." That's actually the impression I got from browsing the summaries, but I wasn't sure, so I only got one book (The Fifth Elephant). But before I read it, I wanted to ask you if they are really stand-alone or if I should wait and read the first one.

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*snores*
[info]matt_writer
2008-07-05 06:49 am UTC (link)
I should really, really go to bed. I'll answer properly tomorrow morning, promise.

About Pratchett, though, I haven't read that many of his books yet, so I couldn't really tell. But of what I've seen you can start anywhere you like, because he re-explains stuff all the time. However, the best explication will always be the first one, in the first book it appeard. I remember in The Colour of Magic he talked for 2 medium/big-sized paragraphs about some plants, then they got mentioned again in Mort, where he only took a couple of sentences to roughly describe them.

So yeah, you should be fine. :)

Good night!

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Tomorrow morning...
[info]matt_writer
2008-07-05 05:17 pm UTC (link)
Ziplining twice? Cool! Too bad you could only sit up, though, 'cause going upside down was really, really fun.

It's too bad there aren't any places near you. But when you need to climb huge hills, yes, ziplining is very athletic!

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Re: Tomorrow morning...
[info]potterfreak0515
2008-07-06 06:16 am UTC (link)
Try telling my mom it's athletic. She's weird. Last weekend, she woke me up all of a sudden to tell me we were going to the zoo, which she suddenly decided upon waking up. The zoo is like an hour away, but she yells at me for asking her to take me to wizard rock concerts that are 20 or 40 minutes away. Or even to drive me to the library which is a mile away!

Point of story: If she wants to go, she'll force me to, but if she doesn't, she won't do anything. She also wants me to go kayaking and on about 50000000 hiking trips when we go to Alaska. Including one if which we have to wade through a freezing river at one point. And I suppose we'd have to wade through it, too, although she didn't specifically mention that. I don't mind hiking, because it's just walking, really, and that's fine as long as I don't have to run. But kayaking? That's scary! What if it flips over? Aren't you hooked in or something? And I won't get any breaks from rowing because there's only one person! I've been canoeing before, and that's fine because I have someone who can take over rowing if I need to take a break (which I did frequently because it was a two-day trip. We slept on the beach overnight). It was six hours of rowing each day. And my arms were never the same.

Oh my god, I rant a lot. You can just skip the whole beginning if you like.

And thank you for the advice about the Terry Pratchett books! Are there any (besides THUD!) that you'd particularly recommend? I think I actually asked that question before, but I don't remember offhand what you told me. So I'm going to go look it up! But if there are any others that you haven't mentioned to me, I'd appreciate it!

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Re: Tomorrow morning...
[info]matt_writer
2008-07-06 06:45 am UTC (link)
Appart from THUD!, I can tell you that 'Mort' is absolutely hilarious. But I haven't read many of his books, so I'm not the best one to ask!

"Try telling my mom it's athletic. She's weird."
Yeah, so it seems! Heh. I'd get so angry at my parents if they randomly decided to go to the zoo like that. Especially cause the zoo's really not that great.

"take me to wizard rock concerts"
Since I can't decide whether this is really cool or really not, I'll just settle on the (pathetic) "Ah". ;)

I find kayaking a lot easier than canoeing, actually. I think it's because it's smaller and more... Dunno. I like it a lot better, to be honest. And chances are you won't flip. I've never even came close to flipping, and besides, depending on your kayak, anyway, it's not hard to get out of it. :D

I feel very, very bad for you for having to row for 6 hours. First, because it's tiring, and second, because that must be pretty damn boring!

For the freezing river, I'm jealous, quite frankly! I like freezing water! We went to the cabin this April, and the lake was still pretty much ice-covered (just to give you an idea of the water's temperature) and I walked bare feet in a little stream. It was burning cold, but very, very fun! :D

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Re: Tomorrow morning...
[info]potterfreak0515
2008-07-06 07:37 am UTC (link)
Oh, they actually have two copies of Mort! I didn't get it, though.

I know! I don't get what's so amazing about the zoo! You go and stare at animals in an enclosure, and they usually just lie there and don't do anything. The scariest part, though, was that there was a spider in one area, but it didn't have a glass thing covering it! Like - it was part of the exhibit, but they claimed that it wouldn't move from it's web because it gets food and stuff. But what if someone did something to piss it off? Then there'd be a huge sodding spider on the loose! The only fun part was watching the sand cats because they're so cute! I love cats! *huggles Mr. Lupins - my cat, not the character*

Although, I did learn that the zoo we went to is free! Apparently most zoos used to be free, but now this is the only free one in the Chicago area. I don't know how this escaped my notice as I've been to that zoo before. Not recently, but before.

I like cold water if I don't have to get soaked in it! Stepping in streams is fun, and when I get a cut on my hand, I soak it freezing water (that sounds very New Age and I have no idea if it actually makes sense, but it feels right - it's sort of like instinct - so I do it anyway), but this is an actual RIVER. I'll have to get soaked all the way up to my waist! Or at least past me knees. And my mom says the weather in Alaska is really cold right now. Not like winter cold, but like autumn cold.

Wizard rock is totally cool! Really! It's the new big thing in the fandom. Alex Carpenter is cool, at least. *fangirls Alex for a bit* He doesn't ship Remus/Sirius, though. Someone in front of us in line to get his autograph at a show in October asked if he could sign her copy of PoA, and my friend Anna remarked to me that he should sign the place where Remus and Sirius "embrace like brothers" and Alex overheard us and said, "Wait - you guys aren't into that, are you?" at which point we kind of dissolved into giggles. But he was still awesome! One of the t-shirts he sells says, "Make Love, Not Horcruxes"! And his motto is "Fight evil. Read books." Which is really what the whole movement is about! Fighting evil (wrock is a huge supporter of charities. They do a bunch of stuff with the HP Alliance - which is a huge thing whose main focus is Darfur, but they do a bunch of other stuff too - and they release CDs like Wizards and Muggles Rock for Social Justice, Jingle Spells, Wrocking Out Against Voldemedia, and the EP of the Month Club, all of which have the proceeds sent to various charities/causes), and getting people to read more! Like one summer when Harry and the Potters posted a list of books, and anyone who read one of the books and wrote a small report on it got a free toothbrush!

And the music isn't stupid, either! Well, some of it is. But the mainstream bands are really good! The Whomping Willows are hilarious, and every one of his songs is from the point of view of the Whomping Willow. And he managed to write more than three CDs full of them (because he's one of the huge charity supporters and writes a lot of songs for compilations that go to charity). His first album has lots of innuendo, too. Some of the songs are, Crawl Through My Treehole, When You Touched Me in that Special Place, I've had HP Inside Me, and Whore for Dumbledore. The last one doesn't have innuendo, it's just about how Dumbledore uses him to guard the Shrieking Shack when he wants to do lots of other stuff, but my point is that it's not just some stupid thing for kids who are obsessed with Harry Potter!

I actually did a powerpoint presentation about wrock for my Information Processing class. It was very long.

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