Slice of Life

(You'd think I'd be really good at this photo taking deal, but I was so caught up on this dinner I completely forgot too.)

The school year is slowly coming to an end for me and like always everything possible falls into one place, at one time, all at the sametime. By this I mean homework, papers and projects. I have quite a lot to do still. Stressed? Uh-huh.

But tonight was a fun night, after work I was invited to go eat at 1899 Bar and Grill at North campus ( 307 W Dupont Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86001) with some friends. 1899 Bar and Grill is a high-end restaurant with business/hotel management students work to earn bonus points on their resume. Don't let the idea of students taking part in the structure berate it's quality. They mean business.

1899 Bar and Grill Website

Our dinner started around 6:30 where the five of us were seated at our table and served fresh jalapeno bread. I ordered a side Caesar salad to go with my Navajo Lamb entree. Their description the Navajo lamb is a 'Smoked shredded lamb, with juniper berries and rosemary, red and blue corn meal (ploenta), braised root vegetables, fry bred, all covered with a green chile sauce'. It sounded simply mouthwatering. After a bit of talk, (Jens was on the news, if you hear about a flagstaff school and a chemical leak, he was directly involved with the story. It's much more hilarious then any of the newspaper spins) our food was placed in front of us.

It looked as mouthwatering as I expected.

The bottom of the plate was separated into three sections of red corn meal, blue corn meal, and green chile sauce, with the expertly grilled Lamb laying on top with (instead of the berrys) grilled carrots and potato's resting next to the meat and two cuts of fry bread at the very top of the plate. The juices from the lamb were stirring with the ploenta, adding a rich brown and red color to the meal. I had a tender piece of lamb, with only bits of fat still attached on a few pieces to inhibit, my otherwise fantastic dinner. I cleaned the plate dry.

1899 on a sunny day.

After dinner we moved onto dessert. The menu was actually a plate with fresh samples for a viewing, which I  thought was a creative way to introduce a menu. I order the Key Lime Pie, where the rest of the table ordered the chocolate chip and peanut-butter cookie bar with accompanying ice cream. I have not had a Key Lime Pie in a very long time, as I'm usually not fond of this type of pie, but I was feeling brave tonight. I made a very good decision it turns out. The pie separated easily with a push of my fork, the under crust held together just enough to dissolve into bits of crumb, and the cream on-top only served as a messenger for the lime-middle.

Anyone wanting to try wonderful food or just relax at the bar, I would highly suggest 1899 if they wish to remain on campus. 1899 is also the spear-point of NAU, directing it's customers to explore the beginnings of downtown NAU. However it's really easy to end up spending a few hours at 1899 if you're not careful.

(Photo's from Twitter and 1899barandgrill.com)
( I don't think the hyper link up top worked, http://1899barandgrill.com/)

Aaaaaaaaaah

So, this is exciting. I'm renting an apartment. No more dorm life woohoo! Living life by my own ways.
ohmygod what am I doing?!

So, I'm a senior at NAU, and I've lived in a dorm for four years now, and it's about fricken time I have my OWN room with my OWN door I can close and open as I see fit. It's very exciting mind you. The decision of getting the apartment took about two months, but really about three hours.

Josh (friend) and I have been looking for a place to live for quite some time, we'd been looking for one since February, but we're both mildly lazy/ busy with school/lazy and time blew by so fast. This Wednesday (before the Planetary Defense Conference with Bill Nye) I went out with him to my apartment of choice, three hours later, a few phone calls, and BAM we had signed off on an apartment.
I'm so poor now.

It really surprised me how I could've made such an important, really life changing, decision in such a short time. So I'm freaking out a bit. I also found out that I don't actually own furniture, like a bed or a desk. I'm working on getting those as we speak (actually, as of today I have a desk and couch, yay friends!). But holy crap, what, I'm living completely away from home. This is a first for me. While I live here in Flagstaff for 9 out of 12 months of the year, going home was always, kind of the same thing. Home.

However, Home is different now. It's an apartment, with new carpeting and my own food and problems. I've lived with Josh before, and it did not go so well, and this time I'll be working a lot more. In fact, if all goes well, I'll be running 2-3 jobs over the summer. Money is important and I'd like to be financially safe once school starts. 
Over the break all I plan on doing is playing games and working. Without school, I will have the time to take 40 hour work weeks and spend the rest of my time catching up with friends and playing games. It's going to be great! But this plan of mine has to work, because I'm in it till next year. Chained down. Without a paddle. In it for the long run. During the entire process of signing the lease I was asking, 'so where do I sell my soul" and " when do I mark with a bloody thumb print?"

The last of the paperwork needs to be completed, but now, at 22 years old, I am completely dependent on myself. Woo!...

(sorry no photos this post)

The NAU Planetary Defense Conference and Bill Nye

So I hinted at Bill Nye last post. Well. He was at NAU Wednesday, as was 300 other scientists, engineers astronomers and other science field related subjects. NAU was hosting an astronomy symposium for the week where hundreds of big names gathered into our campus for a week. Ironically I had no idea it was happening until I went to the show, campus didn't seem any more stuffed or space like.
Really, I think that's NAU's fault to not publicly announce it as they should have, for the conference was so cool.

By a stroke of good luck, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go see Bill Nye, which was an easy answer. The guy had me hooked on science and space and dinosaurs for my childhood. I would go as far to claim that there's not many students my age who don't know who he is.
Would you like to see him?
Oh, and I didn't get the best of images for this event, camera phone and no flash whathaveyou.

Tada. (Sorry for the far away image)

Yes, I got to see Bill Nye, in the flesh, crack jokes and talk about space. But you know what, everyone else there was cooler then he was. As much as it pains me to say this, the pedigrees of the committee was super impressive, more then being 'Bill Nye'. 900 people (300 people were top-notch members of their fields) were stuffed into Prochnow Auditorium (it's a gigantic movie theater essentially) to sit and listen to the heads of Planetary.org (   http://planetary.org/ ) discuss Near-Earth Objects and space. To quote Bill Nye, "900 people gathering to talk about rocks in space is a very cool". 

Oh, and the guy who opened the stage was Geoff Notkin from the series Meteorite Men. Have you heard of this show before? I sure hadn't. But after listening to him, I'm a fan. 

More Bill, sorry for the image quality. 

Essentially, the entire three hour talk was about protecting the earth from meteorites causing havoc. It was said that, this is the day and age that we as humans can stop a natural disaster (being a meteorite) and these Near-Earth Objects are a real threat. For me, it was a lot to take in, but I highly suggest you to check out planetary.org and wait for a podcast of the Flagstaff symposium. I'm not a space enthusiast anymore like I was growing up, but sitting in the crowd and remembering my old passion while being able to listen to these amazing talented people was truly wonderful.

 I walked back home that night looking up at the stars. 

(photos by me)

Work, Fun and Sleep (oh and School) Part 1

So I've already talked about my work, so let's skip that bit.
And I've said before that I am student at NAU, studying English. I'm emphasizing creative writing and rhetoric in my studies, but I've always been leaning towards the video game industry since I started school. So recently I've been thinking about adding the tag 'Game Theory' in my titles of study. Essentially I'll be able to say, I have my B.A in English with emphasis in Creative Writing, Rhetoric, and Game Theory.

 I grew up playing video games from a very very young age, I want to say before second grade. My first system was the wonderful PlayStation 1, it was a Christmas gift.

This one to be exact. 

Since then video games have been my life, I don't say in my life, I mean are my life. I've made friends because of video games, I became a writer because of video games, I've even traveled because of video games. Now I'm studying to become involved in the process of creating video games. On my free time I play many video games.  

To the lower left is my computer.

So, last spring I built a computer. As much as I love my mac, it's old, it's dated, it doesn't play many games. That white brick in the corner is instead my remedy to that. Like car people have their project car, I have my project computer. It's not the most spectacular thing ever, but I didn't make it to be. Mostly because of costs. But, the inner Lego enthusiast inside me wanted to build something that I could, in time, make better. 

And oh man, playing video games on VERY HIGH is beautiful, oh it's like eye candy each time I boot up a game. I can't run everything on max, but nearly everything I play, I can run on the best settings possible. I think the only time I've had a problem with graphics is when I was playing Hawken (playhawken.com) with 29 other players on the highest settings. That was laggy, let me tell you. 

League of Legends is my biggest go-to game as of my college experience goes. I started playing it three years ago, back in beta. School did get in the way, so I don't play it often, but I do consistently and always with friends. Always with friends. Other times I'll jump around from title to title or whatever is on my Steam account. Though I admit I have too many titles and too little time to play them all. And when I can actually buy them (cause ya know, money is important, so are games, but so is rent). But really, video games are an integral part of my life and I wouldn't be who I am now without their wonderful involvement in my adolescent and current life. 

Ok, This topic is going to need another post. Next time I'll talk about my joining beta obsession and my life as a professional gamer.

And this happened. My machine exploded. It really sucks. 

Oh, and for tomorrow, I have something really cool for all of you, and it starts with a "Bill Nye"
(photos from howstuffworks.com, and shot myself)

The NAU culture

There is quirky culture here at NAU. People like to do stuff. It's a bit hard to explain.

This should give you an idea.

Ok, so we're a bit weird. But it's the little things dotted around campus that make you feel a little better inside. When it snows students take their time to make snow canvases of epic battles or snowy white Tardis's. Over Easter another student hid Easter eggs around campus for everyone else. 

'Magically Caffeinated!'

I can't really explain the phenomena of how so many quirky students end up living in one place, but it happens. Of course I'm a little bias, as I've never studied at another university, but everyone else calls us weird and something to do with 'thin air' and our brains. And we do have an odd bunch and I swear they multiply. For example, one guy rides around campus on a multilayered bike (one bike stacked on another), and now there are other people riding around with their own 'custom' bikes.

Though I'm no stranger to being weird too. It spells 'Adventure-phones!'

It's in the water or something. 

  

A Letter for college.

So this post is for my sister as she's ready to venture off to college.

' I understand that you've been looking around for some colleges and even have a few scholarships lined up for you. I also understand that one of those scholarships is to NAU. While I do suggest that you pick whatever college you feel like, but scholarships are pretty helpful.

But secondly, are you still unsure what you wish to study? I remember last time you wanted to study photography. I'm not sure if that is still the case, I don't keep up with these things. BUT! NAU is a pretty chill place ( no pun intended) and if you do want to study photography  there's so many sources to shoot and help with your artwork.

Particularly, downtown Flagstaff has many art galleries and there's a monthly custom here called the 'Art Walk'. At the beginning of each first Friday of every month, all of the shops, galleries, bars, and restaurants open up to the street and the entire downtown becomes a huge art gallery, this the Art Walk's name. For one night, a few square miles becomes a flashy, bright, and colorful collection of images and art.

 Downtown Flagstaff is already pretty amazing, it's like it was ripped from a Hollywood set and dropped in Arizona.Now think in terms of photography. You'd be able to get amazing shots every first month, while having fun and essentially diving headfirst into the local culture. Which is something I know we cannot do from home, even if you do have the car. It's all walking distance from campus.

Oh, and there's bound to be other photographers doing their thing too. '


(Photos by flagstaffartwalk.com, Solvitur Ambilando of walkingflagstaff, and lagunabeachbikini.com)

Something Close

I guess for once I'll actually be talking about food that isn't coffee. Which also means I won't have many photos in this post.

A few years ago I wrote for the schools newspaper 'The Lumberjack' as a writer for the Entertainment and A&E sections. My friend and I went around and co-wrote articles on upcoming video games, movies and local restaurants.

http://jackcentral.com/ae/2010/10/om-nom-nom-burger-time/

Our favorite article was this piece. When it comes to local food, I look for burgers. I would go to say that hamburgers are the American stamp of legitimacy in a restaurant. You can almost always order a hamburger in any establishment you go to. Of course there's many examples that disprove my last statement, but if you think about it, any sit down restaurant has some kind of burger on the menu.

That article was posted in 2010 and the burger landscape of Flagstaff has hardly changed since then. With just a fair few changes. Mama Burger is no longer located downtown, but instead by the mall, which means it's nearly impossible for me to eat at anymore. I haven't been back to Galaxy Diner since that article. Bunhuggers remains the same. Burrito Burger almost killed me once, so that's easy to assume what my stand on that establishment is now.

The only burger joint that really lasted to me was Diablo Burger.

Check them out! http://www.diabloburger.com/Diablo_Burger/home.html

I'm not the only one who thinks of Diablo Burger when I think local or Flagstaffian. It's a locavore's heavenly resting place. Seriously, check out their website if you haven't yet. Don't read any further until you've clicked that link.

They are committed to only using locally grown goods for their products. I don't know if you've ever tasted really fresh ingredients from a restaurant that's in a landlocked state, but it's uncanny. One of the times I've been there, they were just receiving their shipment of vegetables and greens. Easily the best grilled onions I've ever had the delight to consume. It's like the onion was cut from the ground and placed on the burning grill.
    
Whenever anyone out of town visits me, I almost always suggest Diablo Burger to them. It's in the middle of ancient Downtown, with that mural spanning its walls. You can't miss it, and anyone, literally anyone can point you to it if you manage to get lost.

Bring cash.

(image of Diablo Burger taken by Paleo Friendly)
(Diablo Burger own's their own name)