Vajanyatek. aka What's the Deal with Pandapas

Heh... well. it seems like as good a time as any to say this stuff.

It's been a weird couple of days. I'm in the midst of studying for my pe exam.... stressed as sh*t.... about the test, about work stuff, about the new member of the household(snoopy).

lately i've been thinking about wtf i've been doing for the past few years. Since college graduation I've lived in a few different places Got married. Changed jobs. Built some bikes. Took some kayak trips. Took some bike trips. yadda yadda yadda.

I had an idea a few years ago for an 'outdoor lifestyle accessory'(the iBucket) make a few prototypes.. i even sold one (I got a check for it... I photocopyed it and stuck it on my wall. It was check #666 from sleepy g. yup.)

anyhow... the website names. ( one of them). Why Pandapas? well... i went to school at Vajanyatek(I had a bumper sticker on the back of my 87 k car that said that when i graduated), Aka Virginia Tech. Sick0Jerk and my sister, (shes Mrs Kaptain Krunch) was there at the same time for a couple years too. It's a great place to live, great school, great people. Sick0Jerk and I had a lot of fun down there. Here are a my favorite places and things about bburg, which I'm sure you've all heard about before.

brush mountain
old farm road
kim and eddie's video
wuvt (say wooo vit)
the new river
south main cafe
...and of course... pandapas pond

Pandapas Pond is a small man made pond just outside blacksburg. It had lots of trails around there that went up brush mountain, it was a pretty mellow place and made even more on occasion. a good place to have campfire. it is around 3 miles from campus out 460, or straight up and over brush mtn by bike. It was named after James Pandapas who had bought 500 acres at the end of Poverty Creek, and made the 7 acre pond, was operating a sawmill and intended to use the timber to build houses with. He then used the land to help attract people to work at his factory by giving them exclusive access to hunt, fish, and enjoy the place. Eventually, they named the pond after him.

Anyhow.. long story short, i spent six years in bburg between school and co-oping, then finally left. During that time I spent lots of time at Pandapas Pond with Sick0Jerk, his (then)wife MB and toddler son Lil B. Now Lil B is 12. We'd head out there after a long week, have a fire, enjoy a couple 22s(cause 2x22s are less $ and have ten percent more beer than a forty, yes we were engineers then too), and well yeah.

It took a while for it to soak in what a professor told us on the first day of EF(engineering fundamentals) ... he said "You won't realize what a special place Blacksburg is until a couple years after you leave". Which... was true. Blacksburg is an amazing combination of an outdoorsy hippie, high tech, laid back, cheap living shangri-la you need for a few years in your life. What happened there yesterday was freaky and horrible. Thats all I'm goign to say about it.

anyhow just a few more days till the exam when i will hopefully be a whole lot less stressed and i'll be back full time with BFB and iBucket updates.... stay tuned.

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