Nationwide Dream

WOW! Two posts in one day!

Two weeks ago I was at the Nationwide Tour (PGA Tour AAA league) event in Eugene. I was working the Pro-Am, and we had a few hours of break at the sales tent. We were stationed right on the range, I mean just feet away. So we got to see all the players there practicing. The Amateurs in the Pro-Am were allowed to hit on the range, so during our lull (all the am's were on the course, leaving some pros to practice) I started to hit some balls.

After 20 minutes of me just striping it, I noticed I was hitting it just as well as the two guys I was inbetween... Now I haven't played in a while, and haven't played well since spring time, but man was I clicking! I was covering the flag with whatever I hit, and I was able to do whatever I wanted with the ball. I had to stop and kind of dream for a little bit... I mean here I was hitting balls with all of the Nationwide guys, and I was not out of place. I continued to hit for about an hour, and it never went away. Sure I had a few miss-hits, but in general I was smoking it. Even my worst club in my bag, my driver, was flying just perfect.

Made me really wish I would have gone down a different path somewhere in my life... But I know this life is not for me, at least I think not. Just wish I had some backing to find out if I ever could do it...

NATER

Google Earth Fun

So I was really bored tonight and I was playing in Google Earth. Noticed that Karen's and My place is finally on there, it was just a field... I also looked up Karen's address in Catania.


Her place is at the top of this intersection, I think... Man you just gotta love Google Earth! Oh check this out (if you got Google Earth that is, if not you suck).

I have been working on my Australia Journal website and it will be up shortly. I will hopefully have nice interactives with Google Earth, i.e. locations we went and stayed, geotagged pictures, and cool things.

NATER

No Luck for Nater

I don't understand my luck with jobs this year. I have always had great luck with getting the job I want, but this year has just sucked!

To start the year, I wasn't even hired for the full-time position of what I was currently doing (that Assistant Professional job at the Reserve). And I was great at my job, just ask anyone...

Then I had all those issues with Wafertech about my starting date. Ultimately ending with me having to turn down a great paying starting job over a miscommunication.

And now after being called in to Nike for a position that wasn't even created at the time, and talked to like I had the position. And then spending over two months waiting. I find out at the end of last week that I didn't get the job. I asked them if there was anything that I could have done better or improve upon for next time (I only did this since I feel like I know them fairly well now), and I got a very reassuring response that I did everything right and there is nothing I could really do to improve...

So now I have no job, and have to look for a real job. There have been quite a few open positions that I have applied for, but still haven't got a response for any. I was told that they are expanding quickly at Nike R&D, and I know they are trying to build a new test facility here in Beaverton, so they could want me in the near future... But I am not going to wait.

The thing on my mind now is if I take a job somewhere, and then I get an offer from Nike, how do I tell them I am leaving...? I mean if its 6 months or a year down the road no problem, what if its like 2-3 months???

Oh well I guess I will answer that question when I come to it. As for Golf R&D Engineering, I am now trying at different manufacturers. I think I would be real good at this, and man what a dream job!

Nater

Odonater Update

Good news and Bad news. Good news = I hit 200 miles this week. Bad News = My knee is starting to hurt again. And without having any Health Insurance right now, I can't afford to blow out a part of my knee. So I will be taking some time off from running again. I will have to use the elliptical and the stair-stepper now...

NATER

Keeley and Rick's Wedding

Last night I went to Keeley and Rick's Wedding, which was held in the Portland Art Museum. It was a real nice medium sized wedding. Everything looked great (as I expect from Keeley and Rick :D)! The food was good, the drinks were great, the ceremony was short and sweet, and the Bride looked fantastic in her dress!

It was a fun wedding, and the whole Reserve Gang was there. Which made it easier without Karen being around. Right about now Keeley and Rick should be getting into Cabo for a week of sun and fun...

Congratulations Rick and Keeley, all the best to you!

NATER

Check out this Moron!

Ok it's an Oxymoron, sort of... Take a look at this ad I got from one of the fly fishing sites I subscribed to sent me.



So it is a rally to help stop the extinction of Salmon, but at this rally they are having a Free Salmon Bake.... I don't see how this is very helpful???

NATER

Fantasy Football Week #1

Hello, and welcome to Nater's Random Thoughts Fantasy Football Update. Let's get straight to last weekend's highlights...

A very stressful weekend for me turned out to be okay. THANK YOU Chargers Defense!

In the ultra-competitive $25 buy-in league, I scored a victory. It was extremely close going into Monday Night Football, but the Chargers Defense shut-down the Raiders offense. Thus my opponent only got 1 point from his RB, when he needed 10. I ended up winning 84.22 - 75.34.

In my league I kicked Burch's ass! Burch had Jake Plummer for his QB, and he ended up throwing three INTs and lost a fumble for -8 points... :0 He also played a player that was out this week. I ended winning this game in a more comfortable 25 - 8. This league is lower scoring since it mostly rewards only actual scoring plays and not yardage performance.

And in "real" football UP lost to rival North Carolina 1-0. NC's goal was shit if you ask me, totally fouled (a bad body check) the keeper... This loss now has them at 3-2-1, which sucks since they went undefeated last year and had only 1 or 2 losses the year before (i think). Before this game UP was 6th in the National Polls after starting the season at #1, and they will probably drop a couple more spots because of it.

UP's next game is Friday at OSU in Corvallis. I will be in Eugene all day for a demo, so I will most likely stop by and watch the game on my way home.

This has been your weekly Fantasy Football update, thanks for watching Nater's Random Thoughts. I am Nater, see you next week.

NATER

NIKE DAY

Today is Nike day here on Nater's Random Thoughts, but what day isn't... Bombsquad Golf went out and released scans of next years product catalog from Nike, must be okay now since reps are showing them around and pics are popping up everywhere. Looks pretty interesting! Can't wait to hit them myself, seen them in person and am really excited.

(Pictures removed due to me being scared of Big Brother and

trying to get a job there I don't want to piss anyone off.....)

There are also pics of their new irons the CCi, which the CCi was suppose to be the current half-cavities but they don't look nearly as good. But then again I haven't seen them in person. And then there are a few pics of the new putters that look awesome!

And then I stumbled across one of the greatest Nike things ever. Its a new add for the Juice Ball coming out. They launch it through their air cannon and destroy things! The two guys in the videos I know. The one that is facing the camera is Jeff, he would be my new boss if I get this job. And the guy launching the air cannon is the grunt of the Nike R&D department, they work him hard. I would basically be hired to do the same thing as him I think... Which would be to basically run all of the machines (like this air cannon) and tests.

The Juice Ball Cannon

Just think, if they would have hired me a month or so ago, I might have been in this commercial...

NATER (nate: all pictures obtained from Bombsquad Golf)

First Day Fly Fishing

Yesterday Matt and I went and did some fly fishing on the Sandy River. Matt took me to this little location that he knew of. We had to hike about a mile to get down into this place, but when we got there it was worth it!


We hung out and did some fishing for about 3 to 4 hours. I got a bite and Matt got a few bites, but no fish... We both kind of suck at fly fishing and we are still beginners so we will keep trying. We were also there in the middle of the day so that didn't help, but we just wanted to get out of town for the day.


We had a great time though, and that is all you can ask for... I am going to try again soon, but I need to go get some more gear. Got kind of cold standing in the river in just some fly-flops and shorts!

NATER

Some Interesting Photos...

I got an email from Megan today telling me that she had posted her pictures from her recent trip to Australia. And as I was looking through them, I noticed something strange... See if you can see it... (feel free to click on them to enlarge, you might need it)

Megan's Pics - Summer 2006


Now maybe you didn't notice anything strange in those photos... How about now...


Karen's and My Pics - Summer 2002


I first noticed, in the first posted pics for each of us, that we had the same rock formation in our photos. Then later on, I saw the pic of the girls standing between that same rock formation (last 2). And then a few pics later, I noticed that we took the same exact picture of the hills (middle 2)! We did not intend to do this... It totally just happened... I am still shocked... Here is the amazing side-by-side (Megan's on the left, Our's on the right).




















NATER

Karen is in Italy!

Well I tracked Karens flight the other night, watched her go across the Atlantic. I found some really cool webpages that do this. First off was FlightView, which gave you a fairly straight forward radar tracking screen as seen below.
And then I found FBOweb, which is a really cool website that Google referenced. And you can open a flight tracker in Google Earth, which is really cool! I took a screen shot as Karen left U.S. Airspace, the plane path tracer is not very long since I found this a little bit late into her flight.

I got a voice mail from her about 20 minutes after I went to sleep last night, sounds like she had a good flight across and even got some sleep. Alitalia's computers were out so she didn't get onto her Rome flight until noonish (suppose to leave at 9:30). So I bet she got into Catania a little bit tired. I am sure as soon as she gets situated she will post on her blog about the trip across.

Camera Update

I went in today to get the price for the camera altered since it went down to $199. So the lady at the counter "returned" the one I bought at $238, and rung up "a new one" at $199. They were then offering a free printer after rebate with a camera purchase of $199 and up. So naturally I purchased it, since it looked like a really good printer.

Well the deal was that the printer was on sale for $129 and then there is $130 in rebates. So my total for the exchange and the printer should have been $129 - ($238 - $199) = $90. For some reason my total was $42.49. The cashier then asked the manager if this was correct, and he stated it was, it was the exchange that made the difference in price...

I paid with my credit card and watched as the rebates printed up. I was keeping my cool, since I did the math quickly in my head, and knew there was a mistake somewhere. When I got outside I looked at my receipt...

I was right, there was a mistake! Somewhere in all of the code entering in the cash register someone pushed in a Promo Code to give me an extra discount of 15.15% off of both my camera and the printer!

So I paid $238 + $43 = $281, then after $130 in rebates, I will have paid $151 for our new camera. And if I can get Best Buy to give me store credit for the printer, which is like $180 there when not on sale, we will have made $30 on this purchase.

I am the King of Thrift, Slick Nater, is my name...

NATER

RIP Steve Irwin...

I was cruising the websites late tonight and noticed the posting on Google News about an hour ago. Steve Irwin died in a diving accident this morning off the coast of Port Dougles, on the North-East coast of Australia. He was punctured through the chest by a Stingray. It sure is a bummer, he was a blast to watch, and his zoo was incredible! I feel fortunate to have seen his Croc Show. And I think he did a lot of good things for wildlife. Almost his entire zoo is made up of animals that he and his team have rescued...

Rest in Peace Steve...

NATER

NEW CAMERA!!!

Karen and I bought a new camera the other day, since our old one is 4 years old and only 2 megapixels. We picked up a Sony CyberShot DSC-W50 at Office Depot for $235, and I just found out it is going on sale for $199 so I will get that price-matched next week...

So far its a pretty sweet camera. You can't use it for a webcam though, so no video-phone calls to Karen until she gets a cheap webcam.

NATER