Time to Throw in the Towel

It's that time, folks. It's finally come. For better or worse, I am here to admit — wait for it, this one's a real shocker — that I may not be the most adept athlete that has ever graced this earth. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Oh come on, he caught, like, nine passes during four seasons of varsity football, and surely he had at least a sub-.200 batting average in three seasons of varsity baseball... And didn't he *almost* win like four intramural volleyball playoff games during college?"

Random DittiesLogan T. HansenJuly 29, 2016football, baseball, sports, golfComment

Reflections: The Place I Call Home

Home, as we know, is one of those words that, on its own, says a thousand things at once. It is a place, a feeling, an idea; it carries its own aura, makes you long for it, causes those nostalgic flashbacks to play in your mind. It is very much a noun capable of heavy lifting, of calling out to us and touching us in a way that tugs at our heart strings.

Random DittiesLogan T. HansenJuly 21, 2016home, Northern Michigan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Manistee, Lake MichiganComment

'Ten Thousand Lightning Bugs': Experiencing Firefly Music Festival in the Woodlands of Dover

It was mid-February when I decided to drop $350 on a four-day weekend pass to a summer music festival. I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at a friend's place, looking over the details online — who would be playing, where we would stay, etc. — when he and I pulled the trigger and signed ourselves up for the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware, the capital of America's first state.

Reflections: Beyond the Deck

As a kid, that arboreal enclosure was more than pine cones, sappy tree branches, and pokey pine needles; it was my Narnia, complete with three separate tree forts — what I called tree forts, anyway. There was a proper entrance and a secret exit; prickly-bushed fortifications and invisible soldiers to carry out orders; heights to climb to and an “elevator” of branches to bring me back down. Fragmentary visualization is the only way I can see this magical place from my childhood nowadays; I don’t think I even have a photograph.

Random DittiesLogan T. HansenJune 7, 2016Northern MichiganComment

Israeli Days/Jordanian Nights: Day 17

Two final activities awaited us on the last full-fledged day of #Israel2016, the first of which was a trip to the Orchard of Abraham's Children in Jaffa. The Orchard is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2011 by Ihab and Ora Balha; its primary mission is to create a sense of community and connectedness between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israeli Days/Jordanian Nights: Day 16

Due to scheduling snafus and the fluidity of our schedule in general, we were able to drive back toward Masada this morning and climb the beast in much better weather (only in the 70s this time around). To do so, we left the hotel in Jerusalem right around 5:30 AM and made our way southeast for about an hour and a half into the Judaean Desert where Herod the Great's solitary fortress stands.

Israeli Days/Jordanian Nights: Day 15

Today began on a somber note with a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust remembrance center. We were given audio tour guide devices and headphones, and then let loose to examine the exhibits in the Holocaust History Museum — one portion of Yad Vashem — at our own pace.

Israeli Days/Jordanian Nights: Day 14

As opposed to the previous day, Day 14 was chock full of sightseeing and activities. In the morning we set out with our ever-faithful, ever-trumpet-toting tour guide Yair to the Mount of Olives, where a grand view of the city of Jerusalem can be enjoyed by the eyeballs. The Mount of Olives, named as such due to the olive groves that in times past graced its slopes, is, according to the Acts of the Apostles, the place where Jesus ascended into Heaven forty days after he rose from the dead.

Israeli Days/Jordanian Nights: Day 13

In a word (or two), Day 13 was low key. The agenda called for climbing Masada in the morning, but, as expected, the heat kept us from attempting to do so. Instead we spent about a half hour at the Masada Museum in Memory of Yigael Yadin — an Israeli archaeologist whose many finds are on display, such as ancient water/wine jugs and some exceedingly-vintage coinage.

The Latest