Tag Archives: Life

A Quick Note…

Four things:

1.I drove through six counties in Utah today and there was snow falling in all of them. That my friends is awesome.

2. I got a new job working with my friend Ryan at BrideAccess.com. I am pretty pumped about the job. I will be doing some graphic design/web/editing/stuff. Sounds like it will be fun and low stress. That is what we all need right?

3. I interviewed the other day to pick up a small part time job working at Simmons Media Group, (the guys that own X96) to work locations at KALL 700. I would work all of the Utah football and basketball games, driving a new truck and run the BBQ. Sounds like fun to me.

4. Got an email the other day finally giving me the go ahead to start writing for LifeInTheOffice.com. It is a fansite for the office, and so far has been a lot of fun with the season premiere on Thursday.

That’s about all, until next time.

Principles and Guidelines for the Modern Photowalker

Saw this on Scoble’s Twitter page. Interesting notes on photography, and can really be applied to any passion. This was interesting.

9. Money spent on gear is almost always worth it. Yes, one downside to photography as a lifestyle is that it is ****ing expensive. And the more it begins to live inside you the more you begin to physically NEED that new 14mm ultrawide lens or that Hasselblad that you know you can’t afford but that you know would just look fabulous on you, etc. etc.

Spend the money. You’re making making art. Art is more important than money.

Link

The Tubing Mishap

Or how to utterly destroy your face…

Well, here is the long story with all the gory details…

Boating started out pretty normal Wednesday, the 18th of July. I jumped onto a boat that had been rented for the Management Retreat at Pirates Cove. We rode out and prepared for a day of tubing, and wakeboarding. Two tubes were inflated and, and the first group got into the water. After going for a little while, we decided to have a line change, and the five that were in the water hopped into the boat, and the five of us that were in the boat hopped into the tube.

It started out great, we went left and right, we went up and down. We got moving pretty quick, and the tube that I was in, went right over the top of the other tube. At this time, the guy that was behind me cracked his forehead right into the back of my head. He fell off the tube, and into the water. I was pretty sore but held on. The guy who fell out said that he was blacking out and that he might have a concussion, so he hopped back into the boat, and another guy jumped back on. This time when we took off, it was with a little more speed than before. The boat’s speed climbed, and it planed out. My speed estimates were somewhere around 25-30 miles an hour.

This is when it got a little crazy

As we were flying down the water, the driver took us into a sharp left turn. In the tube, we flew out to the right side of the wake and then flipped over. At some point during this flip, I caught the knee and hit knocked me bad. When I came up out of the water, I felt my teeth and could tell that I was in bad shape. I thought that I had lost a lot of teeth, but it turns out that wouldn’t happen for another week. I did however manage to somehow rip off half of my lower lip in the process too. There was a large gash running under my chin and several small lacerations around my lip.

I hopped back into the boat, along with the other injured people. The dude whose knee I hit had a huge gash that was surely from my teeth. We rode into the marina and waited at the dock for an ambulance to arrive.

When we arrived at the dock, the local Forest Rangers were contacted, and they proceeded to call for an ambulance. After a few minutes of waiting, I heard the sirens and headed out of the boat. It turned out just to be the Rangers, but they were anxious to help. I had left the boat with no shoes or shirt, so, as can be imagined I was getting hot standing on the baking concrete of the boat ramp. They instructed me to go and sit on the dock.

While sitting there, I started to feel a little queasy, presumably from all of the blood that had gone down my throat, and I started throwing up all over the place. The Rangers thought that it was imperative that I have an IV placed to get some fluids back into my system. They placed the IV in my left arm, and let it drip for a few minutes. It was quickly realized that it wasn’t dripping right, so they went after the cause. At the same time, I looked down to see a golfball sized bubble of saline solution in my arm… They decided to start over, this time on my right arm. After feeling the prick, and hearing them grimace, I looked to see my right arm now covered in blood. They got it in, but not without letting me bleed all over Lake Mead. After nearly 45 minutes of waiting, a backboard showed up, and they decided to strap me in. My neck and back were feeling fine, but I complied with their every request. In the process, the IV was ripped from my arm, thankfully permanently. The person who received the concussion, we were loaded into the same ambulance and were taken to Henderson to the hospital.

It was at the hospital that I met some of the friendliest, most caring staff ever. The ER doctor quickly brought in a well qualified Plastic Surgeon who stitched me up great. In the process, I did have to undergo what he called “Nerve Stoppers” which deadened the area around my lips.

I have never understood why it takes so much pain to heal something…

At this time some of the upper management was gracious enough to fly my wife down to be with me. It was very thoughtful, and I really appreciate it. The next day after seeing an oral surgeon in Vegas, we flew back to Utah. It was good to be back home.

This has been a really traumatic experience, and there have been a lot of people who have been by my side helping me every step of the way. It will be a long recovery, but true friends and family will stay by my side. Thank you to all that have helped, I appreciate it so much.

Jake

WordPress in Facebook?

Could life get better? I submit that it cannot… It has been a crazy week for me. For those that don’t know, I had a pretty serious accident last week involving my face, and Parker Harriss’s knee. I have a longer post coming that has all of the gory details. Maybe a few pictures too. Thanks to everyone that has called, emailed, and stopped by and offered help. I really appreciate it.

Trailside Park

Or, How to crash on your bike while you are standing up…


Well, after one week of having our bikes, I really wanted to have some fun with them, so we checked out Trailside Park up in Park City, UT. It was a blast, there are a lot of fun features that you can hit. Ramps, teeter-totters, and big jumps make the area a blast. The ramps and stuff that you see in the movies makes it look really easy, however, it is a lot harder.

[Posted with ecto.]

Memorial Day Weekend

Or, How To Convince Your Wife To Get New Bikes

Well, it was a good weekend… We finally hunkered down and bought bikes. My wife and decided, after much deliberation, to go with the Diamond Back, Response Sports. Link. We were pretty pumped, and decided to go up the canyon and go camping/biking the next day. I found a good trail that looked pretty fun. We set up camp, and planned on an epic day of riding the next day.

We started camped at Salamander Flats, and then drove down to the Timpanooke trailhead. Our epic ride consisted of climbing up a really steep mountain. Getting to the top, and then turning around, and going back down. We had a good time, I guess this was the baptism of fire that we where looking for with out new bikes.

A Day At The Beach…

Or, how to get nasal enemas.

Nick and I decided to head down to the beach today and catch some fresh waves. We took the scenic route down Highway 17, and enjoyed how green northern California is. Arriving into Santa Cruz, we hit up the Mike Fox Skatepark. It surprised me with the size, it looked a lot larger in the pictures. The most notable feature was the 20′ full pipe. I got some cool footage of Nick doing what he does best… Shredding.
After riding there for a while we hit up a local surf shop and came away with some wetsuits and body boards. We found some nice waves and had a good time riding them, and crashing on the shore. If you are wondeirng how to completely clean out your sinus’s, try body boarding.
It was a special day as we where able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the with traditional mexican food prepared at a the local grease pit. From the sound of it, it wasn’t anything like the Aller/Schafer Party. Though we had a good time anyway.

A Day At The Track

Or, How I Made A Mess Of Myself

For the last semester, in my advanced cinematography class, we have been involved in producing some marketing footage for Kirkham Motorsports. Kirkham makes replica Shelby Cobras. It has been a really fun project that was broken up into three sections. We had a shop day where we filmed promo footage at their shop. A day was spent at the Nebo loop, part of the Wasatch mountains, and, the last was part was spent at the Miller Motor Sports Park. I was really excited to be a part of this, especially after being raised by my gear-head father. I spent most of the day near the track, filming close shots with Chris Hill and Brandon Beckham. It was a lot of fun watching these cars making 130 mph passes. It wasn’t long befire I was really itching to have some of the action to myself.

During lunch, the opportunity arose to do some in car filming. Me and Chris both jumped at the chance to do it. Chris hopped into a Cobra, and I jumped into a brand new 2007 Subaru WRX Sti. Now, many people may balk that I would rather jump into a Subaru then hit the Cobras. I have been a huge Subaru advocate for a long time, and thought the idea of doing 90 mph all-wheel drive drifts sounded like a good idea. So, we took a few laps, it was great. We played chase camera to the Cobra, and got some good footage.

The shooting was pretty intense. It took every muscle in my body to try and keep the camera straight, and true. I ended up wearing a full face helmet that after a few laps started to get a little stuffy. Now, I have been snowmobiling for most of my life, and am used to wearing a helmet. This helmet, as soon as the lid shut, latched shut, and I was unable to open it…

As we raced around the track, I was giddy for joy. I just about giggled, but I thought the dude next to me might think less of me, so I restrained myself, and pushed ahead. Lap after lap, as the g-forces worked on me, I started to get a little queasy. Now, when I was a kid, I used to get car sick really easy, so I put down the camera, and just focused on the road ahead. I decided that some air would help, and I tried to lift the mask of the helmet. It wouldn’t move. It decided to just stay fastened shut. I used both hands to try to get the helmet open, but nothing would get it open… I started to get nervous, and a little bit of claustrophobia settled in on me.

It was the last lap, and the driver asked me if we were done. I was eager to finish. And we headed for pit row. I put the camera at my feet, knowing that it was valued around $7000, to the cars $35,000. I pushed and pulled to do everything that I could do to get the helmet off, but to no avail. I ended up puking into the helmet before I got it off. Then, all over the car. Then all over the sidewalk. It was way embarrassing… What a way to end the semester, puking all over yourself in front of your peers and a client.

In the end, I was able to get it all cleaned up, and the driver of the car was way cool about it. I feel bad knowing that he was only able to get a few laps in his cobra, and only a few more before the Subaru got destroyed for the day. I hear that we are going to have another track day, I will stay out of the the car, and there might be a little less mess at the end of the day.

My Hockey Final…

Yes, I had to write a final for my hockey class… So, we are asked to write a great paper that is interesting and humorous about a time when we attended a hockey event. I will tell you, this has been the most hockey-fueled semester of my life. Aside from being an avid Mighty Ducks fan when I was a kid, (I later grew out of it… quack, quack, quack…) I have never really been that into hockey. About a year ago, a friend talked me into attending a drop-in event. I was a little leery, but, up to a challenge.

As we arrived to the ice, with modern-day giants stood looming over me, I took a moment to consider the options before me. On one hand, I could duck and cover and take the easy route and seriously avoid bodily harm, or, stand boldly, and go where no Spurlock has gone before–to the goal. I decided to go with the latter.

Side note…

For a few years, my family had season passes to Cottonwood Heights Rec Center. We went ice skating all the time, and I thought that my abilities where strong…

That was then, this is now…

So, as I paraded down the ice, waiting for the puck, it dawned on me that I have absolutely no hockey abilities, and that I would be better suited warming the bench or perhaps folding towels… As I smashed into the ice, and fell on my a$$, I gained a new found respect for nice thick pants.

Now a year later, and a semester of professional hockey lessons, I am feeling a little more comfortable on the ice, and the butt pads and cup that I got are really helping that out…