Painting Timelapse

This is awesome...

Rock Creek Falls

Took a short hiking trip last Saturday with Sara, Mom, and Aunt Dolly.  I didn't want to do too many miles because I had the half marathon Sunday morning, so we went to Rock Creek Park in Unicoi.  There, we took the relatively short hike to Rock Creek Falls.  It was about 4 miles round trip.  Really a beautiful area very close to Johnson City.  The trail follows Rock Creek the entire way to the falls.

Bluegrass Half Marathon

I finished my first half marathon yesterday.  I went back to Johnson City for the weekend to run the Bluegrass Half Marathon.  I wanted to run my first race in Johnson City.  I have started training three or four times to run a half in the last couple years, but never followed through with it.  This time, I finally did.  I started training a little bit while I was in Rome but never truly started running until I got back to the States.  I got about 8 weeks of decent training in averaging between 10-20 miles a week.  I didn't officially sign up for the half until about a week and a half ago.  I was never fully confident that I would be ready for it.  I did a couple long runs the last couple of weekends and felt ready.

It turns out I did much better than I expected.  I was hoping to average 8:30 per mile.  I didn't really know what to expect so this was my conservative estimate.  I felt great the entire race and finished in 1:43.56, which is 7:57 per mile.  I am pretty pumped.  I came in 71st overall (out of about 450) and came in fourth in my age group (20-24).  Almost got a trophy on my first try.

Thanks to Sara and mom for coming out and supporting me.  Overall it was a great experience.  I'm really glad that I did it. ready to do another one...or go for the full marathon.

Dirty Guv'nahs . TN Theatre

Sara and I went to Knoxville a couple weeks ago for the Vols first game against Montana and to go to the Dirty Guv'nahs concert at the Tennessee Theatre that Friday night.  I took some video with my phone and finally put it together into a video.  Not the highest of quality but a little sampling of what the concert was like.  Great venue, great concert.

The Dirty Guv'nahs. Tennessee Theatre . 9.2.2011 from Kyle Jacobson on Vimeo.

ASLA Student Awards

The 2011 ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) student awards came out yesterday.  LSU made a mark on the awards.  5 different projects got Honor awards.  Impressive showing.

Check it out:  http://www.asla.org/2011studentawards/

Check out all of the projects.  They are very cool.  Cool for me to see projects from people that are at the same level as me.  I didn't submit any projects this year but I plan to submit a couple for 2012.  We'll see what happens.

Bears Season Preview

Now that the first week of the season is over, it seems like an appropriate time to give my season preview for the Bears.  Yeah, probably should have done it before the season started but oh well.  I won't let the beat down of the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday cloud my judgement (yes I will).

I have been reading and hearing a whole lot of hate on the Bears this year from the so called experts.  Even heard in a podcast, "The Chicago Bears could be the worst team in the NFL this year".  HAHAHA, what?  Newsflash, the Bears went 11-5 last year and made it to the NFC Championship game.  Not to mention they barely lost any players from last year.  They didn't add much but they also didn't lose much.

OFFENSE
Everyone hates Jay Cutler, this has become very obvious.  He may be smug and boring but he is not a bad QB.  In his second year in Martz's system he is gonna throw for a zillion yards.  I'm sure he will still have his INT's but thats the way he plays.  Has a strong arm and takes some chances (see: Brett Favre).  I worry, once again, about the offensive line.  They have got to protect better than last year.  Hopefully rookie Gabe Carimi can help solidify the line a little.  Matt Forte is a stud and needs to be paid.  I look for him to have his best year yet. Marion Barber will be a solid backup, although I am not a fan.  THE Roy Williams is the addition to the Bears receiving core.  I am completing buying into the fact that he was a stud when he played for Mike Martz in Detroit so he will once again become a good NFL receiver.  There is no possible way he could be worse than he was in Dallas.  Oh yeah, and Devin Hester is still returning kicks and punts.

DEFENSE

The Bears D is the Bears D.  Always strong.  Every year the 'experts' think there will be a decline but there never is.  Lovie Smith still has them playing the old school Tampa 2 and its still rock solid.  The DL will be is stellar with Peppers and Idonije.  They are going to rack up the sacks this year.  Briggs and Urlacher are two of the best linebackers in the NFL and have got to stay healthy this year.  It is absolutely critical to the defense's success.  Hopefully Major Wright can step up as free safety.  That position has been a revolving door for the past 5 years.  If they can escape any major injury issues, the Bears will have another season of creating turnovers and owning field position and my fantasy team will thank them.



PREDICTIONS
1.  10-6 final record.  2nd place in the NFC North.  Lose in first round of playoffs.
2.  Culter throws for 3800 yards, 25 TD's, and 10 INT's.
3.  Forte runs for 1500 yards and 12 TD's.
4.  Peppers, Forte, Briggs, and Hester make the Pro Bowl
5.  The offensive line doesn't suck after Week 4.
6.  Bears crush the Falcons in Week 1 of the season.

Remembering 9/11

9/11 is a day that all Americans will remember forever.  Tears well up inside of me almost anytime that I see any of the documentaries and/or remembrance ceremonies that come on TV.  These are both tears of sadness for all the victims of the attack as well as tears of joy for how proud and lucky I am to be an American.  The stories of people who lost loved ones and the stories of survival and heroics of all who went in to save lives are heart wrenching.  America was rocked to its core that day but also showed what a great country we are in the following days, and years.

Anyone who watched any of the 9/11 programming on TV today saw the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site that was built in the exact location of the old towers.  This memorial was design by a landscape architect and an architect.  This is a very cool and exciting thing for me to see how my profession can positively affect so many peoples lives through a project about remembrance and honoring those that died.

The project is very interesting.  The design is based around two voids in the earth at the footprint of the towers to give the towers, and those lost, a permanent presence on the site.  Beautifully lit waterfalls occupy both of the voids with the victims names engraved on the edges.  The surrounding grove of 416 oak trees provide a place for remembrance and provide a park to escape the hustle of city life.  The site also includes a memorial museum and glade to accomodate annual ceremonies.  I really like the design because it gives a physical form to the memory of the towers and all those who were lost.

Pretty cool time lapse video of the project being built:
http://video-embed.cleveland.com/services/player/bcpid619326673001?bctid=1151722551001

Some links about the project ---
http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/21444
http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2011/09/new_yorks_new_911_memorial_is.html
http://www.pwpla.com/national-911-memorial/landscape-design

Fantasy Football

This year I have gone a little overboard...not one, not two, but three fantasy football teams.  I don't really even know how I am going to handle it.  It's a good thing I have no school work to worry about this fall...I would never get any of it done on the weekends.  A look at three winnings teams:

In the fourth (or fifth?) annual Grundle Mansion league:
QB - Tony Romo
RB - Jamaal Charles
RB - Ryan Mathews
WR - Reggie Wayne
WR - Wes Welker
TE - Antonio Gates
W/R - James Starks
DEF - NY Jets
K - Mason Crosby
BN - Reggie Bush
BN - Sydney Rice
BN - Roy Williams
BN - Ben Tate
BN - Kyle Orton

In the new auction/keeper league created by Ahop:

QB - Joe Flacco
RB - Chris Johnson
RB - Rashard Mendenhall
WR - Reggie Wayne
WR - Santonio Holmes
TE - Brandon Pettigrew
W/R - Knowshon Moreno
DEF - Chicago Bears
K - Mason Crosby
BN - Mario Manningham
BN - Tim Hightower
BN - Reggie Bush
BN - Pierre Garcon
BN - CJ Spiller
BN - Kyle Orton
BN - Jordy Nelson

Finally, in the Peter Summerlin and friends league:

QB - Tony Romo
RB - Chris Johnson
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew
WR - Dez Bryant
WR - Anquan Boldin
TE - Jimmy Graham
W/R - Shonn Green
DEF - Chicago Bears
K - David Buehler
BN - Sydney Rice
BN - Steve Smith
BN - Daniel Thomas
BN - James Starks
BN - Devin Hester

Three teams, three wins.  This will either be really fun or a little annoying.  Either way, the NFL is awesome.

Backyard Patio

Been a busy past week here at home.  I went back into manual labor mode.  Dad and I started working on a new patio in the backyard.  This is something that we had been talking about doing for a long time.  I actually did the original design my senior year at UT in my landscape design class.  It has gone through a lot of tweaking since then but it's now all coming to life.

Neither dad nor I have ever done any serious hardscaping so it has been an interesting, but fun, process.  We have been feeling our way through different materials, machines, and installation techniques along the way but I think it has all come together nicely so far.

There are three sections that all tie together to make one large patio that connects from our driveway, onto the existing concrete slab under the deck, and then all the way over to the hot tub area.  The first section is made out of 12"x12" concrete pavers and serves mostly as a connecting walkway.  There is a garden space and another landscape bed built into this area.  The middle section, which is the only part not completed, is going to be made out of flagstone.  The third section is again 12"x12" concrete pavers.

The process:

Step 1:  We killed the grass at the beginning of the summer to prep.

Step 2:  Ground prep.  We dug the outline of the patio and tilled all of the dirt to level the area.  The existing sidewalk in the bottom right of the picture was also removed.

Step 3:  We created a border for the patio with natural rock pavers.

Step 4:  Filled in the patio area with block dust and used a plate tamper to create an even surface for the pavers and flagstone.

Step 4 continued

Step 5:  Layed 12x12 pavers in place and filled gaps with more block dust to lock them in place  to complete the process for this section.

Step 5: Same process as above for the section connecting the driveway to the flagstone patio.

The flagstone area is the only area that hasn't been completed so far.  There are a couple smaller projects as well before the process is completely done.  The plan is to put river rock under the stairs, build a small fence around the AC units, and plant shrubs in the small bed in front of the AC units.  Then mom gets to go to work on her garden.  I will post pictures when everything has been completed.

This has been a fun project for me to work on.  Its been fun to design, problem solve, and install with dad.  I think its going to look great when it is all finished.

Headed to Durham this afternoon...internship time.