My parents gave me a ContourHD helmet camera for Christmas. Last weekend we were in Park City, Utah, for the Sundance Film Festival, so I got a chance to try it out while snowboarding. There’s no way to check the footage on the camera itself, so it is be quite hard to get set up properly. As you can see from the following video it turns out I spend a lot of my time snowboarding with a tilted head.
Click the resolution menu and maximize or head on over to YouTube to watch it in full 1080p.
And yes, that is me crashing into a tree at 0:29. And yes, it did hurt. I ended off with rather bruised ribs.
A couple of weeks ago I picked up an old Polaroid Sun 660 from a guy on Craigslist. It was a mere $20, but since Polaroid have stopped production the film is rather more expensive; about $1.50 to $2 a pop depending on expiry date.
A group of us went house boating on Lake Shasta last weekend. We took a tonne of polaroids which Tessa was kind enough to scan.
The camera rocks. It’s big and chunky, and takes a good 20s to charge up the flash, but the noise it makes when you take a photo, and the retro-quality of the prints are awesome.
Lat weekend I did my 6th AFF lesson and was cleared for solo. I then proceeded to jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet… completely alone. The previous 2 lessons had been with one instructor who basically hovers near you as you do excersises and makes sure you’re ok. It was so different being out there on your own, just falling with no one around. I’m now working towards my A-Licence, which involves a lot of self-study and getting advice from experienced jumpers.
On a completely different topic: I’ll be returning to England at the beginning of August for my cousin’s wedding. I’m planning on working from Google’s London office for 2 weeks, then spending the 3 weekends seeing friends and family. If you are around and want to meet up please get in touch, especially since a lot of my contact details are out of date or were lost in a hard drive crash.
So about 11 weeks ago I sent out an email saying I was going to be working in Honduras for the summer. I had meant to send updates about what has been going on, but things have been pretty crazy and I actually ended off working 63 straight days in the forest before getting a break and leaving the mountain.
That was two weeks ago; and today, I drove the last truck load down from Base Camp.
A weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
I started out as a Camp Manager and finished as Forest Operations Coordinator. I feel I’ve done a good job, and we were successful, but it has been a bloody tiring, stressful and, at times, unpleasant few months.
I’m not going to go into any more detail, because I don’t really know where to start, so I’m just going to gloss over it and say I’ve had a very odd summer…
Next: I’m going to travel around Honduras and the bay islands for a while and return to England to prepare for my move to San Francisco. It is a scary, daunting and exciting prospect to be moving continents and to be working with a company such as Google. I hope I can live up to their expectations.
Thanks to the three of you who sent emails asking if I’m still alive; the snakes tried their best, but failed!
I hope you are all well, please reply and let me know what you’ve been up to this summer. I know it sucks that I’m sending mass mails, but I’d appreciate it.
