Steven Johnson

2009 New Year Resolutions

Steven — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:30:35 +0000

Workout at least four times per week (emphasis on running and climbing)
Play sports for fun
Go to the BWCA this summer
Expand my website beyond the blog
Design a WordPress theme
Learn PHP
Cook at least once a month
Try Zazen and yoga
Learn to play my guitar

Dumper Dan’s Charter Fishing

Steven — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:57:12 +0000

This August my dad and I went charter fishing on Lake Michigan with Dumper Dan’s Sportfishing Charters. Dumper Dan’s is the largest charter fishing fleet in Sheboygan, Wisconsin with five clean and up to date boats available. Dan and his crews are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. The crew set up several lines for each of us with lures selected based on their experience with fishing in the area.

One of Dumper Dan's other boats fishing nearby.

The first mates use cell phones to call eachother so that the fleet as a whole can find out where on the lake, what depths, and which lures are working to improve the odds of catching fish and to brag a little. After a half day of fishing we caught two large and two medium king salmon; over 50 lbs of fish, which is more than enough to last us for a while.

The first salmon I caught; it weighed about 18 pounds.

After returning to shore, the first mates offer various ways to clean and fillet your fish at a modern cleaning station located by the docks. We got a recommendation for a pizza place (Nicky’s Pizza) which brought a delicious thin crust pizza to our hotel. The Sheboygan marina has rescently been updated and is a pretty nice place; next time we’re there we plan to try some of the waterside dining and to explore a little more.

Overall fishing with Dumper Dan was great, and I recommend them or the Sheboygan area to fishers or anyone interested in visiting nice-sized lakeside city.

Surprise! Backordered.

Steven — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:12:05 +0000

Over the summer I bought a bike from a guy who works with my dad. It has clipless pedals and I didn’t have shoes for it so I went to a few bike stores to figure out my sizing in a few brands (and to figure out how European sizing worked). I wanted to get the most for my money so I checked out nashbar and performancebike, two cycling supply sites for deals on shoes. After checking cleat compatability and comparing various offerings, I finally found a pretty good shoe for roughly $100 off the usual price in my size. I ordered the shoes and the cleats I needed for my pedals, excited to go for a ride without as much foot-bouncing-on-pedals action.

The cleats arrived that week, but the shoes didn’t. Strange. They hadn’t been listed as backordered on the site. I called Performancebike a few days later and they told me that the shoes had been surprise-backordered. How does that happen? Is it some sort of warehouse prank where they hide the stock or ship it to another warehouse and then say: “Surprise! Everything’s backordered!”

The long-awaited bike shoes.

After another week and a half of Performance not having the shoes and USPS having janky tracking and possibly slow driving, I finally got my shoes. Right when I was moving back to campus, which coincides precisely with me having much less time for rides. I still want to try to fit them in though, so right now my bike is shoved into my tiny dorm room. I need to move it back and forth between my fridge and closet when I want to get into one of them.

My bike blocking my fridge.

Regents Hall: What a building that won’t be done in 5 days looks like.

Steven — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:43:55 +0000

This fall will feature the opening of the brand new science complex at St. Olaf College: Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Not a cool Nordic name, but it will do (when abbreviated). Construction crews, faculty, staff, and students have been busy getting the building ready for the the start of the term on September 3rd. Today is August 29th. While much of the West end of the building will be ready for classes, the East wing, the link to the Old Music Building, and the landscaping, are far from finished.

I have spent the summer working for IIT on campus, and while recording some ethernet jack numbers yesterday, I decided it would be interesting to check out how the lecture hall my Anatomy class would be in starting the 3rd was doing.

I've already picked out my seat for class: right next to the third wrinkle in the carpet.

So that’s a picture from the 28th of August at the end of the construction day. While the lecture hall obviously leaves something to be desired, I can vouch for the readiness of the lab. Not only is its floor installed and clean, but the cabinets are full of all kinds of skeletons.

RNS 150 rack. Or rather, where it will be eventually (yes I'm inside it).

The new science library has made incredible progress in the last few weeks. It’s no longer a smoking break area / cafeteria for construction workers. It’s now a minimalist industrial design storage room for book shelf parts.

Looks cozy.