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apparently I did whitney for some reason

wakeup: 2 am  leave hotel in lone pine (best western frontier motel): 3 am arrive at portal: 3:35 am?  poop, get stuff packed, take photos... actually start hiking: 3:56 am summit: 12 pm (yeah) finish: 7:30 pm  thoughts:  probably not doing that again. apparently from 2012 I forgot how hard it was.  the starlight at the start is absolutely beautiful. holy crap. like stepping into the little dream world of mine where you can see into the heavens and every night there is a meteor shower. it was like that made real. you could see nebulae and so many stars.  by mile 10 or so, you start to think "I am never going to get off this mountain" because your brain is cooked but you have to get to the summit then all the way back down  my watch said 22.2 miles, not 22, and that extra 0.2 sucked i almost got eaten by a horsefly at the summit, but was saved by a brown bird  i was farting a lot. so much freaking farting. eventually i had to stop because it was go...
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not to be morbid, but:

Maybe I should be a med school cadaver after I die, unless Bryan Johnson discovers eternal mortality or something.  Imagine haunting a bunch of stressed out pre-meds. I've always respected people who work hard in school, so why not make their lives more exciting?  PATRICIA! YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED STUDYING FOR O-CHEM OOOOOOOOOOOO 👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻 ok if I make it to like 90 I'll get on a list, otherwise, sorry pre-meds
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outdoors as identity? not really.

The first time I did Whitney, I didn't really get nervous about it.  I was just kind of...on Warrior Cats Forums and listening to T-Swift until we got out of the car. I mean, I don't think the internet was that good, but I was at least trying.  Then we hiked, I ate a crapload of food, got back down to the car, went back online. On the RP: "sorry I was gone all day, was on a hike to the top of a mountain!" then back in business.  Then we got some pizza I think?  IDK. It wasn't a big deal. I've always been an anxious person, but I did not worry about Whitney.  But in Utah, there's a ton of outdoors-as-identity types that have basically caused me to overthink it so badly. You've got to be THE HIKER, THE OUTDOORSMAN, and I'm just...not.  Sure, I can be described as outdoorsy. Outdoorsy nerd is an archetype and it's probably one of mine. But I think of myself as: Writer, artist, developer, IT guy, gamer, musician, engineer, coaster enthusiast, multi...
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Lagooning results

Verdict LogRide has me at 46 total experiences, with 43/56 attractions ridden. This is almost certainly the best I've done.  Actual times I exited rides Ran 4 miles on lagoon trail and showered at campground 9:50 terroride (yee) 10-10:15 cannibal  10:15-10:28 spider 10:28-10:35 wicked 10:44 rc (out) 10:53 re entry 10:58 blastoff 11:07 Sam 11:18 bat 11:26 bomb 11:39 ice (as in, I bought Italian ice and got brain freeze) 12:02 finished lunch which was mostly tendies and fries 12:09 time tinker  12:17 steamworx 12:29 wild mouse  12:47 air race 12:57 aces 1:02 tilt a whirl  1:11 space 1:26 colossus BREAK AND RECON 1:56 dracula 2:25 paratrooper but 2 cycles 2:39 centennial 2:56 sky Ride  3:07 musik 3:24 rocko 3:31 tidal 3:39 turn ICE CREAM @ PV 4:19 nuts PRETZEL 4:51 odysea BREAK TO LAB LAB but some kid puked so I only got the Pipeline tower (x2 shout, wipeout closed), Outrigger, and 20 minutes queueing for Liquid Lightning BURRITO 7:37 Merry go round 8:15-8:20i...
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Lagooning prep

Rough draft of all the rides and activities I'm committing to. I generally skip anything that's awkward to do solo, like bumper cars or river rapids. I also skip anything where an adult cannot fit comfortably, even if you can fit technically and allowed as per park rules (basically Flying Tigers and Engine 86).  Some rides cannot be done solo, mainly the ferris wheel. And the train is CLOSED.  The hardcore version includes extra coaster laps at night.  The ultra hardcore version involves also doing all rides at Cherry Hill.  Lagooning A Tier: Cannibal, Nutcracker, Spider, Rocket Re-Entry, Rocket Blastoff, Wicked, Roller Coaster, Wild Mouse, Samurai, Bat, Bombora Sweaty: Time Tinker, Air Race, Space Scrambler, Tilt a Whirl, (Dinosaur Drop, Ladybug Bop = may skip), Flying Aces Lmao: Paratrooper, Rock o Plane Not Too Bad: OdySea, Steamworx, Sky Ride, Centennial, Dracula's Castle, Tidal Wave, Turn of the Century, Colossus Primordial: Primordial Lagoon a Beach: Outrigger,...
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Things to remember about Whitney

1. It's not freaking K2. The articles are greatly exaggerated about the difficulty. It's a normal hike with altitude that takes forever. It's not even mountaineering. And you don't need multiple days.  2. At the same time, you see unprepared people on the mountain. People get turned around at the switchbacks a lot. I've been on the mountain twice, and summited once, with a third summit attempt coming up, and there is often at least one person in my group that I'm worried about.  So basically: train seriously but don't freak out. 
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New job is great

Commute is a bit rough, and you have to wear pants, but it's only 2 days a week and public transport is still better than driving.  Otherwise, it's great. I'm very pleased. The engineering pipelines run smoothly - AND I'm FINALLY learning Google Cloud. Will hopefully learn Terraform as well.  Phew. 
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