~lazaruslong

Wowie, has it been a while or what?

I hope you all are doing well, 2020 has been an absolutely garbage year for almost everyone, so here's hoping 2021 sees us all on the upswing.

My last journal was almost 2 years ago, so let's do a nice in-depth recap of everything since then.

Feb 2019: Did my first mountain climb and summit, along with my first proper backpacking trip, loved the hell out of it, officially addicted
Mar 2019: A nice little trip out to Mojave National Preserve, some offroading and hiking was done
April 2019: Had my first proper "I almost died" experience on a mountain climb, fell in snow and started sliding down off the trail very fast, taking the time to learn how to self-arrest saved my life
April 2019: Went to Las Vegas for the first time as an adult, was told "Prepare yourself!" but it was like a church compared to a furry con, I was unimpressed
May 2019: BLFC 2019! Hell yeah!
May 2019: Another visit to Goldstone Deep Space Communication Complex
May 2019: Permits for the High Sierra Trail approved
June 2019: Began training for the High Sierra Trail
July 2019: Successfully summitted the mountain I almost died on earlier in the year
July 2019: Successfully summited my first 14'er and first Ultra
August 2019: Successfully completed the full High Sierra Trail along with a successful summit of Mt. Whitney, 72 miles over 9 days
September 2019: My Dad passes away after a long battle with kidney problems
October 2019: Turn 31
November 2019: Attend Formula 1's US Grand Prix in Austin, and explore Texas for a week after.
December 2019: Attended MFF 2019
January 2020: Attended FC2020
February 2020: Another backpacking trip with a successful mountain summit in it
March-Now: Working at home
November 21 2020: Present at Vandenberg AFB for the launch of Sentinel-6 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, getting me my 20th Launch and 2nd Landing!

So I've dug through my archives and found a ton of photos for me to upload, so over this upcoming weekend I'm just gonna be dropping a load of neat things I did over the past 4 years but have just never bothered to upload for whatever reason, and also some very cool art that I have of Laz that I've never uploaded either.

I'm also looking at getting back into photography, gotta have something to do between sleeping, eating, working, and spinning in circles in my chair. I'm mulling over doing a 365 Project for 2021.

So: Hello again everyone! Nice to see y'all. Keep in touch, I'm on Twitter as @/ROCKETDRAG, Telegram as "ROCKETLAZ", and Discord as ROCKETLAZ#1765, y'all are welcome to hit me up there!