LancesWorld.com Journal

Good evening, all. For those of you who don't know it, I did have a life before I started the Lancesworld.com journal. I know that it is hard to believe that Lance had a world before Lancesworld was online, but it is 100% true. To help prove that I had a life for at least a brief period of time prior to my arrival on the blogging scene, I decided that it was time to post a video from my past. Many of you may have seen this video before, but believe me, you don't want to miss a repeat performance. For those of you who haven't yet had the joy and the privilege, I present to you, "The Backstreet Boys: A Mockumentary!"

If the embedded video doesn't work, you can always click here to watch it.

Posted by Lance at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I told you that I was going to add some more video for your viewing pleasure... and here it is.

This video was produced as part of a class that I was teaching at Sunset Youth Services in San Francisco. SYS is like a community center for at risk youth. Many of the kids that come come from broken families, difficult economic backgrounds, or have had disciplinary trouble in the past. Unfortunately, this class didn't really take off the way we had hoped, and this is the only piece that was ever actually finished. This was my re-edit of the footage.

Check it out here!

Posted by Lance at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I am back at Notre Dame for the second time in a week. Yes, I came out here last week for the Michigan game, flew home on Sunday, and have now returned again. I just arrived on the ground less than 2 hours ago. I took a new route to South Bend - Northwest Airlines through Detroit. There is a chance that I took this route once before when traveling to Thailand in 2004, but it is actually very rare that I fly NWA to/from South Bend. It was one of the more unique flight experiences that I've had in that there was NO safety demonstration before the flight and at the end of the flight, no announcement was made to return seatbacks and tray tables to their "upright and locked positions." I was under the impression that the safety demonstration, at least, was a federal requirement, so either this flight violated federal law, or I'm wrong about it being required.

I'm sitting in LaFortune at the moment. I'm telecommuting in to work today, which is nice. I am purposely trying to avoid seeing people I know so that I can get some work done while I'm here. It is three hours later here in Indiana than back at UC Berkeley, so things aren't very active yet in my e-mail box. It isn't even 9 a.m. back west. I expect more communications will start rolling in in relatively short order.

Of course, the main purpose of my visit to Notre Dame today is the NDtv Channel 53 Premiere Celebration! This year, cable went into all of the dorm rooms and NDtv was given control over channel 53 on the campus cable network. This evening they are hosting a party to celebrate the start of their 24 hour broadcast to the campus. I was invited to attend as NDtv's founder and I gladly accepted the invitation. Because it is in the middle of the week, I'm not able to stay long. I'm here only for the day, and I leave tomorrow morning to head back to San Francisco. The celebration starts at 7 p.m. this evening - I'll let you know how it all goes!

Posted by Lance at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I had the intention of trying to upload some interesting video to the site this evening, but it looks like that just isn't going to happen. I would have to walk down the hall and get the tape and then capture the video and then encode it and then upload it and then link it... basically, I don't want to walk down the hall. Sometime soon, though, I think there will be some new video highlights posted to LancesWorld.

I've just returned from Notre Dame. I was there this past Thursday to Sunday for a mini vacation and the Michigan game. It was a devastating loss, but the trip was a smashing success overall. I had such a good time just hanging out at ND with Adam and his family. His family was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I returned to find that a tornado, earthquake, tsunami and Mike Huxley had all been in the kitchen over my four day sojourn to the midwest. Actually, scratch those first three. I returned to find the kitchen a complete disaster. Now, I could really care less about how clean my roommates keep their own private space. It is no secret that my room is usually a distaster. But I really do like to keep common areas clean, such as the living room and the kitchen. When I see dishes that have been piled up in the sink for weeks, I just get a little angry. It really isn't that hard to take a few moments to clean up after yourself after you've done some cooking. Failure to do so is completely irresponsible in my book. So when I discovered the disaster that was the kitchen, I decided that time had come to turn off gas service in the apartment. Without gas, there is no stove, and with no stove, there can be no stove-top messes. I posted a large, rather obnoxious note on the steam hood over the stove saying, "GAS SERVICE HAS BEEN SHUT OFF AS IT IS CLEAR THAT RESIDENTS ARE UNABLE TO CLEAN UP PROPERLY AFTER USE."

We'll see how long that lasts.

Alright, time to clear some things off my bed so I can get to sleep at a decent hour tonight. Keep an eye out for new video coming soon! I (half) promise.

Posted by Lance at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here I sit at the airport in Cincinnati waiting to board my flight to South Bend. I'm very excited to be going back to Notre Dame. I haven't been back since graduation over two years ago! I think it is highly time I get back there. I'll be attending the ND vs. Michigan game this Saturday. After seeing the Irish handle Penn State last week, I am confident that the team has what it takes to beat Michigan, now they just have to execute. Ability and execution haven't always been linked particularly closely in the past few years when it comes to Notre Dame football.

The flight to South Bend this morning is oversold and they've been looking for volunteers to give up their seat for compensation. This is actually one of the few times that my travel plans are flexible enough to do that, but I actually have a lunch engagement already booked, so I decided not to volunteer. Perhaps on the way back to San Francisco, if they need volunteers then. Alright, it looks like we're just about to start boarding... Notre Dame, here I come!

GO IRISH! BEAT WOLVERINES!

Posted by Lance at 5:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to a recent online quiz that I took, I have experienced 68% of life.

You've Experienced 68% of Life

You have all of the life experience that most adults will ever get. And unless you're already in your 40s, you're probably wise beyond your years.

And apparently, this is about as much of life as I could reasonably hope to experience. Which is really too bad, since some of the experiences I wasn't able to check off are ones I think I would really like to experience some day, such as:

• Being engaged
  
• Getting married
  
• Living with someone
  
• Attending graduate school
  
• Buying a house
  

Sadly, it seems that at 68% of life, I've pretty much reached the end of the road. And, of course, since the internet never lies, it seems that I'm doomed to exist in this state of 68% forever. Damn, I knew I shouldn't have flown first class! That ate up 4% of life that I could have experienced elsewhere.

In other news, it also seems that I am not from Earth, but rather from Pluto. Seems pretty likely to me!

You Are From Pluto

You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe. You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart. You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance. You don't like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your stubborness. Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you.

Posted by Lance at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I've been back from Kentucky for a few days now, but haven't gotten around to a new post since my return. The trip was much better than I was expecting, to be honest. I had anticipated some boring, backwater state with nothing to do. And guess what, I was exactly right! But it turns out that I liked being away from the normal hussle and bussle of life in the Bay Area. It was nice to finally be somewhere were there was just peace and quiet. Close to zero traffic, parking was a breeze, open space everywhere - it was really excellent.

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was actually the return drive to the Louisville airport from Berea. I had to check out of the hotel at 11 a.m. and my flight wasn't until 6:10 p.m., so I took my time getting to the airport. I spent my first two hours walking around the Old Town area of Berea, which is apparently the Arts & Crafts capital of the State. Who knew? After that, I took a very scenic drive along some small, two lane highways. The Interstate would have been remarkably faster, but I had all the time in the world.

Now, I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. I just made sure that whatever road I got on was taking me either North or West - towards the airport. South and East were avoided. I had my GPS with me, so I knew that at the worst, I could just have to take me to the airport if I got really lost. After lunch, I ended up on KY 169, a 55 mph road through plenty of nothingness. 55 mph was too high a speed limit for many parts of this very windy road. Given that I wanted to avoid an accident in the middle of nowhere (with no cell reception) I decided to drive at a more modest pace and just soak in the scenery. About 13 miles from Richmond (where I had lunch) the highway I was on suddenly ended. It just ran right into a river. BUT, fear not, friends, the great folks in Kentucky had this figured out. They run a toll-free auto ferry from one side of the river to the other!

I was lucky to arrive when I did, just as the ferry was arriving from the other side. The ferry can carry two cars at once, and since there was only one car in front of me, I made it onto the ferry immediately. Reflecting back on this, it is a good thing that the ferry was operating! Despite only being 13 miles back to the Inerstate, at the speeds it is safe to travel at along that road, it would have taken me a little while to get back. And since it was a holiday (Labor Day) when I made this journey, I suppose there is a good chance that the ferry could have been shut down. As it turns out, the ferry only runs limited hours, as it is, and they don't run AT ALL during high water or during the winter. Check out the Traffic Management Center info for the Valley View Ferry.

Here are some more photos for those of you who might be interested. Click on any to see a larger image.

Another image from the ferry ride.

The ferry captain's bridge.

Posted by Lance at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)