Author Archives: benfranske - Page 36

the snow has arrived

Posted by on October 20, 2002 Comments Off on the snow has arrived

Here in Western Wisconsin we actually have a small accumulation of snow on the ground tonight and by the time it’s all said and done, they’re estimating 4-6″ in this area. This is all fine and dandy with me because I don’t have major travel plans and I’m ready for snow, but I know it will dissappoint many.

In other news, I know I have been really bad about updating this, but life calls you know? This semester is turning out rather busy actually. In some ways it’s hard to beleive it’s going to be halfway over this week, seems like school just started the other week, in other ways I’m ready for Christmas break. Hopefully things will let up a bit once we get into November though, I think they should.

My laptop is somewhere in Michigan being repaired right now, it needed some backlight and floppy drive repair. Luckily I’m not using it for notes in any class this semester and I should have it back this week I think. The joys of electronics.

Things are progressing well with my Amateur Radio Licence studying and I think I’ll be well prepared for the test on November 2nd. I’m in the midst of writing a speech for speech class right now so that’s the big project at the moment. I am slightly concerned about a Lit midterm coming up this Thursday, mostly because it’s a huge part of our grade in the class and I haven’t experianced this prof’s exams before, hopefully I’ll do well. It’ll be quite a relief to be through that in any event.

how busy is too busy?

Posted by on October 1, 2002 Comments Off on how busy is too busy?

So I’m stuck in a Student Association (Senate) meeting right now and thanks to 802.11b wireless networks I’m able to browse the net; it’s a lifesaver I tell you. Anyway I realized that it’s been a long time (almost a month!) since I updated my blog and I must say I’ve been extremely busy.

School has been going well for me this semester so far. I have a number of very interesting classes this semester and can honstly say I’m learning quite a bit. Thanks to my superior scheduling skills I have no classes before 12:20PM and no I don’t sleep in every day, but it is a nice option.

I again have two jobs on campus this year. I’m working two days a week in the Ameritech Telecommunications Lab and a few more days a week as an event service technician in the student center.

I seem to have more reading this semester than I have had before, this is not neccecarily a bad thing as I tend to enjoy most of the reading, but it does stress my schedule just a bit more than previous semesters have. Hopefully I’ll be able to update this more often as the semester progresses, I know that the second quarter will be less stressful as I’ll be through two more industry certicfications by that time.

busy as busy gets

Posted by on September 8, 2002 1 comment

I feels like it’s been a really long time since I’ve blogged. Probably because it has been. My summer turned out to be a lot busier than I had origianlly invisioned and the time just wasn’t there to blog, hopefully now that I’m back at school I’ll be able to get one in at least weekly if not more often. Better catch you up on my summer first though.

I got home towards the middle of May and jumped right in with the upcoming Current Jam concert at that time. I’ve already blogged quite a bit about that I think so I’ll leave that as is. For the last month of school though I had been looking for an interesting summer job and hadn’t found that yet. I didn’t want to be one of those average college kids home for the summer painting houses or whatnot. As luck would have it one of our vendors for Current Jam which is responsible for the intellegent lighting rental was looking for some extra work as their business was growing rather rapidly and they also needed someone with a bit of computer experiance to straighten out the network at the office. After a lunch meeting with them I was offered a job that would provide me with around 15 hours of work a week, which sounded pretty good to me, plus it was doing something I really enjoyed. As it turns out we were even busier than we had imagined and they ended up needing me for 40 hours a week which was fine with me because it was a blast working there. I got some great experiance and got to work on some interesting projects for them. If you’re ever looking for intelligent lighting rental or installation in the Twin Cities be sure to give the great folks at Light N Trax a call.

This kept me pretty busy weekdays after Current Jam so things at home piled up for me and I spent most weeknights and weekends dealing with those times, leaving little time for, yu guessed it, blogging about the summer. You must be saying to yourself that even with all this work I must have had a little time to myself or I’d go crazy. You’d be right, I did and it did stop me from going crazy. Now you’re asking yourself well great, but what did he DO with that time? I’ll tell you that too.

Towards the end of June the lake my Grandma lives on where we usualy have the boat and go waterskiing was flooded out. We quickly got the boat and dock out of the lake, anticipating it would stay out for the rest of the season. After haveing the flooded engine cleaned and checked out we kept the boat in our garage at home, this made it very convenient for us to go and chaeck out the skiing on a number of lakes near our house, specifically Bryant Lake in Eden Prarie. I got to ski more than I probably would have otherwise which is great because it’s something I love to do. The last few weeks of August it actually got low enough we took the boat out twice on my Grandma’s lake and I got in a few more ski runs. There are some pictures of me skiing on Bryant Lake in the Ben and Family Galleries located at http://ben.franske.com/gallery/ be sure to check those out.

I also got a girlfreind this summer, something I haven’t had before, it was never quite right until now. Katie and I have been good friends for a few years and over the first part of the summer we grew closer as we learned more about each other and spent quite a bit of time together. Towards the end of June we both got honest with each other and admitted we liked each other a lot and agreed to start dating. As the summer progressed we spend even more time together, walking around some of the lakes and parks in the cities. We went out to see the Music Man at Chanhassen Dinner Theater, and to see Sum of All Fears. At the beginning of August we took a one day trip up near Duluth to a camp where I usually spend a week during the summer but didn’t have time this year. We also started whittling down the James Bond movie series, Katie admitted to only having seen one or two and since they are such a look into the periods of American history since the 50s I thought we should watch all of them, we got through most of them and have just a few to finish up. Just before we left for school we decided together that we didn’t want to see anyone else, so we’re keeping up our relationship via phone, email, letters and occasional visits. It’s interesting that only 30 minutes by car seperates you a lot more physically when you don’t have a car. In any event we’re doing quite well and both have a great outlook on our future together.

I moved back to school right at the end of August, but after visiting the fantastic and unparalelled Minnesota State Fair. Classes started the day after labor day and I came back home for labor day weekend for one last ski run. More on that and my first week of school to come in a future blog, this one got long enough!

Photos Up Now!

Posted by on July 31, 2002 1 comment

All six rolls of film I shot on vacation are now availible online check them out and leave some comments… Ben’s California 2002 Photos!

First Pictures From California

Posted by on July 30, 2002 Comments Off on First Pictures From California

I’ve been really busy since getting back, catching up with people and work. The first batch of photos from the trip has come back, these are just prints so I’m only posting a few, many more will come after my digitally processed prints come back in the next few days. This will have to do for now though. Check Out Our California Vacation

Home Again, Home Again

Posted by on July 27, 2002 Comments Off on Home Again, Home Again

Friday July 26, 2002 – I got up about eight fifteen this morning and we left the hotel without breakfast by nine intending to make it home today. Our first movie of the day was chosen by Josie who selected On the Line which has a couple of the ‘NSYNC kids in it. I found the entire movie highly amusing. We finished up our tape on the building of the transcontinental railroad and stopped for lunch once we got into Iowa a little bit. When we got close to Des Moines my Dad let my Mom take over driving and I started watching our final movie Antitrust. This is a movie I really like, as good as the story is I also get a good kick out of the fun they poke at Microsoft. After we finished that I listened to some music and read more in my CWNA book. After a while everyone else started watching two Gilmore Girl’s episodes but I continued with my reading and music. Once we got to Albert Lea, MN we stopped for some gas and ice cream cones and I took over driving. This is at least the second road trip where I’ve driven the final stretch home and I enjoy doing it, getting into familiar territory again and steadily progressing toward home finally pulling into the driveway after two weeks away, collecting and sorting the mail from neighbors and resorting life to some sort of normalcy. Don’t get me wrong I love exploring the country and taking a vacation but it makes you appreciate even more the beauty of home. It was another great trip for our family and we should have some great pictures and this great story to tell everyone soon! I’ll be sure to post those pictures here once I get them back so keep checking for updates, don’t know how many real logs I’ll get a chance to post before I head back to school, but I’ll try. –Ben

from the mountains to the valleys to the plains

Posted by on July 25, 2002 Comments Off on from the mountains to the valleys to the plains

Thursday July 25, 2002 – I got up today about eight in the morning; we didn’t really have a breakfast at the hotel and were on our way by nine towards Denver. We stopped for brunch after about two hours. The views along the interstate in Colorado are really breathtaking. Streams and rivers run with the interstate winding between the rocky peaks of the mountains. In some places massive tunnels were bored through the mountains to allow for speedy passage on the interstate. The mountains here are covered in trees like none of the others we’ve seen on this trip. We continued to listen to our tape about the building of the transcontinental railroad which was even more fascinating considering the great mountains right in front of us. We watched Ocean’s 11 first and then after another break Anna watched Bed of Roses which I thought was a good story although it might have been cast better. Once we got near Denver the mountains disappeared and gave way to great plains as we turned North on interstate 76 we also changed drivers Mom taking over for Papa. Once we got to North Platte, NE we stopped for dinner and had some great authentic Nebraska steaks. After dinner we changed drivers to me and continued along interstate 80 East, the same route we drove out two weeks ago. In Nebraska after dinner we hit our first serious rain on the trip, there were a number of thunderstorms rolling across the plains tonight and we hit them one after another as we pressed on, aiming for Grand Island, about 100 miles from Lincoln, NE. I enjoy driving at night and in the rain so it didn’t bother me at all, though I think it made Papa just a bit anxious. While I drove through the rain and just contemplated life everyone in the back was watching The Final Countdown. We made it to Grand Island and found a hotel taking the last two available rooms for the six of us and are preparing to finish the trek home tomorrow morning.

Bountiful Destert

Posted by on July 24, 2002 Comments Off on Bountiful Destert

Wednesday July 24, 2002 – Today was a day for early rising, we got up at 5:30 to make sure we could head out by seven. We ate a continental breakfast in the hotel, packed the car and were on the road just after seven. The traffic around LA was surprisingly good and within a reasonable amount of time we were headed towards Las Vegas. We exited the freeway in Vegas and drove down the strip and through the older downtown sections of the city. Western California was desert landscape; the land was dry but covered in a variety of low shrubs that resist drought. While driving through western California and Nevada Anna watched Harry Potter. In my continued defiance of this marketing blitz I listened to music and read my CWNA study guide which is a certification I hope to have by the end of the summer. After the movie was done we continued to listen to a tape we had started earlier in the day which is a book on tape about the building of the transcontinental railroad, I found this a very interesting tape. We stopped in Mesquite, NV, just before the Arizona border, for lunch and having yet to try a Jack in the Box restaurant we decided to stop there for lunch. I think we found it about the same as any other fast food restaurant. After lunch I took over driving and took us through just the northwest corner of Arizona and then into southern Utah. Southern Utah is very different than northern Utah was. The landscape covered by rock here, but not the kind of desolate land southern Wyoming had. Here the rocks vary in color and there is a variety of low shrubs covering the hillsides that aren’t sheer. Many of the colors in the canyons, passes, and rock outcroppings here are beautiful. As I drove through the mountain passes in this part of Utah I was continually amazed by the beauty that this desert could hold. We made our way to Green River, UT near the Colorado border where we stopped for dinner at a truck stop; the food was welcome after our travels across nearly 700 miles of the country. We decided that we should press on to Grand Junction, CO where there are a number of hotels where we could try and find lodging for the night. After checking a few hotels we were able to find some rooms where we’re spending the night, tomorrow we don’t have a set destination yet but we plan to be on the road by nine so I should probably be getting to sleep because we lost an hour today as well.

The Warner Brothers

Posted by on July 23, 2002 Comments Off on The Warner Brothers

Tuesday July 22, 2002 – We got up about eight today and had a small continental breakfast in the café adjoining the hotel. We were soon packed and headed south along the Pacific Coast Highway to Beverly Hills, CA where Josie got out and took some pictures of Rodeo Drive. After a brief stop there we continued on to Hollywood, CA where we parked and got out and looked at the sidewalk prints in front of the Chinese Theater, I took a picture of Sean Connery’s prints. We walked a few blocks to a Hollywood history museum where we got to walk through some of the original Star Trek set and the Cheers set as well as look at a variety of movie and TV props from many eras. We didn’t stick around there too long because we had to grab some lunch quickly and head to Warner Brothers Studio for a 3:00 VIP studio tour. We arrived and got our passes, rode a shuttle to the tour office and watched a brief history of the Warner Brothers Studios. After that we got to walk through a Warner Brothers on site museum that had artifacts out on display without cases from all sorts of classic Warner Brother’s films and actors as well as a Harry Potter artifacts exhibit. After we finished looking at the exhibits they took us around to a few of the soundstages seeing the Friends set as well as some of the Gillmore Girls interior set. We were unable to see the West Wing set because they had started taping today. We also got to see a number of their exterior sets, which we were able to take pictures of. Many of these have been reused for a number of pictures from The Music Man to Gillmore Girls, Batman, ER and more. We also got a close up look at their old west set and Sherwood Forest from Robin Hood. After our tour finished we found our hotel and just rested for a bit before finding a local rib place for dinner. We had a great time at dinner, probably one of our best, the atmosphere was perfect and their was a house magician to entertain us while our food was being prepared. Now we’re getting ready for bed because we want to try and avoid the traffic into LA tomorrow morning when we have to start heading for home. After a bit of discussion it seems like we’re planning to get home sometime Friday evening or night as opposed to Saturday, this means some longer days and not seeing a whole lot on the way back, but it’s going to be good to be home again.

Malibu Sun

Posted by on July 23, 2002 1 comment

Monday July 22, 2002 – We got up a little later today. After packing up Papa and I went to wash the car at a manual car wash which I haven’t done before and got quite a thrill from doing, puts you more in touch with the car I’d say. Afterwards we picked up Mom, Josie and Noah from downtown San Louis Obispo and checked out of the hotel, picking up Anna there. We all headed out to the Apple Farm restaurant for breakfast which was a charming place and had pretty good breakfast food and bakery items as well. After we looked around, and Mom shopped, there we headed back south on US 101 to Malibu which took quite a while even though the mileage wasn’t that far. Along the way I chose to watch Gone In 60 Seconds which takes place in California. When we got to Malibu we checked into our hotel and changed into swimsuits to head down to the beach. Noah and Josie really went out and played in the waves but the rest of us did get a little wet watching, we just didn’t go all the way in. After we finished playing at the beach for a while Noah and Josie went for a swim at the hotel and the rest of us took showers while Papa explored the town a little bit. After we all got cleaned up we went out for dinner to a local Italian place, they didn’t have the best food but the atmosphere was great. Tomorrow we need to get started a bit earlier we’re planning to see the Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank and drive around Hollywood a bit before we spend the night in Burbank. Well I should be going because we do want to get started earlier than we have been tomorrow.