Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Brad's Boxers

Last night, I was invited to go the Illinois vs. Michigan State basketball game. It was a blowout, 75-51. I think this means that Illinois has a share of first place in the Big Ten. I don't really know. I'm not a big sports guy. Actually, last night was my first Illini basketball game ever. I was a student for four years, and I never made it. Only when a coworker had a complimentary ticket (I think he got it from another coworker who works for DIA; not sure) did I finally make it to a game. I'm glad I finally went to a one.

Right now I'm reading a great book. I think it might go down in the record books for me as the fastest read ever. It's called Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson. It's a true story about these two guys who are climbing a mountain in the Andes. On their way down, Joe falls and breaks his leg. He said that the bottom half of his leg went up through his knee, shattering it. His climbing partner, Simon, has been lowering him down the side of the mountain, 300ft of rope at a time. Eventually, they're out of rope and Joe is hanging from a cliff. Simon is falling. Joe feels jerking as he falls...inch by inch as Simon loses control of the belay. Simon had to make a decision to cut the rope. Either one of them dies or both of them die. Joe managed to survive the fall, but Simon doesn't know that, leaving Joe and his broken leg in the bottom of a crevasse. That's as far as I've read. It's very easy to read, and the imagery is pretty vivid.

In my previous entry, I wrote about laundry and how underwear is my litmus. Brad told me that he never washes his underwear. He just wears each pair once and then sells it on ebay. I thought that was pretty funny. How much would you bid for a pair of Brad's dirty underwear?

3 comments:

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by czarina .] Bill donated his boxers to charity, and Hillary itemized them on their taxes.

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Bud .] I wanna see one of those auctions, I won't actually bid on it, but I want to send it to people, maybe even post it to the DS list as a NWR. As for touching the void I can tell you how it ends, they are making a movie on it and it is due out this spring or early summer. That guy who broke his leg is a freaking maniac, he is a manimal. It's funny b-c him and the other guy went on this climb and left a complete stranger at their base camp who was a total tool -- Joe and Simon get together to make the movie with the guy and it just reminded him how much of a tool he really was. Moral of the story, trust the person who is supposed to be watching your ass and make sure you know his last name.

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by travis.] Yeah, I know they're making a movie, that's how I heard about it. Joe was on Letterman a week or two ago. Watching him speak, the way he explained it all...how he thanked Simon for saving his life despite the fact that he cut the line and left him for dead. That's why I bought the book. Richard, the stranger they left there, was just describied as a drifer they met up with. Those guys are crazy!