Andrew Ferguson dot NET

As July finishes up, so does my summer vacation. Less then three weeks remain before my final year of college starts. This summer has been a rather interesting one. If I had to put word to it, I’d describe it as: low-key.

Many of my friends have graduated from college and are getting jobs in The Real World©. My brother and one of my best friends are on mission trips in Europe for the summer. The dynamics have changed for sure.

That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed my summer. On the contrary, I love returning back to Seattle. Sailing and hiking are definitely two things I enjoyed doing and I wish I had more time to dedicate to them. I haven’t been climbing or camping yet, which is sort of a bummer. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to those before I start school.

Heads up: any outstanding chits, beers, IOU’s, etc should be redeemed before I leave Seattle on 14 August.

And guess who sighs his lullabies - through nights that never end
My fickle friend, the summer wind

Ben recently told me that a casual acquaintance of ours, Sarah Plants, had recently passed away due to cancer. I didn’t know her very well, but saw her quite a bit since she played Ultimate Frisbee on the UW team. Doug, her husband, also lived at Your Mom’s House last year with Ben and Quinn, so she was over quite a bit. I last saw her at Thanksgiving and she seemed very happy.

From thedaily.washington.edu:

Plants, 22, died Feb. 7 of a brain tumor linked to Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, the same rare hereditary disorder that claimed the lives of her father and brother. She was diagnosed with the disorder in October.
…
Plants had survived cancer as a toddler. She suffered from adrenal cortical carcinoma, or cancer of the adrenal gland above the kidney, and went through chemotherapy at 16 months old.
…
Plants was 29 credits short of earning a degree in Public Health. When she died, the University gave her an honorary degree. She had planned to go to graduate school to study nursing.

She was captain of the UW Element women’s Ultimate Frisbee team and the coach of an Ultimate team at Whitman Middle School.

Death is a bitch, cancer even more so.

Quinn sent me his list of great movies a while ago (many years ago). It has resided as a page, but I’m now moving to a post.

This is Quinn’s Movie List:

I’ve made a list of great movies (some of them are just great comedies, not really great movies). If you haven’t seen all of these, make sure you do. This is a rough list so far, and I will certainly revise it in the future. These are in no particular order:

• The Usual Suspects
• The Godfather
• The Godfather Part 2
• The Godfather Part 3
• The Matrix
• The Matrix: Reloaded
• The Matrix: Revolutions
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Kill Bill Vol. 1
• Kill Bill Vol. 2
• Pulp Fiction
• American History X
• American Beauty
• Braveheart
• Gladiator
• The Passion of the Christ
• Vertigo
• Rear Window
• North by Northwest
• Kramer v. Kramer
• Taxi Driver
• Apocalypse Now
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Full Metal Jacket
• The Deer Hunter
• The Exorcist
• Scent of a Woman
• Goodfellas
• The Italian Job (new)
• Ocean’s Eleven (new)
• Fight Club
• Forrest Gump
• Top Gun
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• Dumb and Dumber
• Supertroopers
• Gangs of New York
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Primal Fear
• As Good As it Gets
• Casino
• Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to
• stop worrying and love the bomb
• Spartacus
• Paths of Glory
• The Shining
• Amadeus
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Red Dragon
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Barber Shop
• White Men Can’t Jump

I forgot to mention some of the other important year end numbers, so here goes:

Number of posts: 326
Number of comments: 683
Number of comments by me: 208
Number of unique commenter’s: 217
Most prolific commenter (other then me): Quinn with 21 comments

Brian and Quinn both just let me know that it’s snowing in Seattle and sticking. Looks like I got out just in time. My flight yesterday was delayed 30 minutes so they could de-ice. I slept the whole way. I’m good on the plane like that.