Crazy Lawsuit Game

Hello from FoCoCO!

2011-08-18T20:33:00.002-06:00

No one really calls Fort Collins, Colorado "FoCoCO" but they totally could. Some already call it "FoCo". For TBTL purposes we will call it Fort ColTENS, because listeners of the show are called Tens and Tenver is just down the road.

You don't know what TBTL is? It's only one of the greatest pop culture/news/music/life podcasts/radio shows on ye olde interwebs! Hosted by Luke Burbank, Jen "Flash" Andrews and "Japan's #1 Mixer" Sean DeTorre! It's great and pretty much the only podcast J and I listen to on a regular basis.

So J and I moved to Ft. Collins. I quit my full-time teaching job in Denver and am trying to break into the renewable energy industry up here. No, I don't know what I was thinking quitting a full time job with benefits in this economy. Seriously. I had shed a few tears over that decision but we're trying to make the best of it. My back-up plan is an evening chem course at another college. My back-up back-up plan is a server position with this restaurant chain. So there is money coming in and our rent is cheaper but it's still tight.

I'm networking and trying to get my name out there, so people know my skills and what I'm looking for and what I would be good at. It's scary in this country right now and I read in the week that salaries are at their lowest levels since the 1950s and all the record profits are due to the companies not paying their employees much and still raking in the cash. Go capitalism!

Another reason I'm bummed is I had to abandon my beautiful garden in Denver, I mean Tenver. Six tomato plants, one out of control cucumber plant, some dead pea plants and seven foot tall sunflowers. All gone. I had one lousy tomato before I moved out. Colorado and their short growing season. Nothing goes in the ground before mid-May and sometimes early June. Seriously June! This Southern boy cannot handle that. I'm used to late March and April plantings with 'maters poppin' by May or June.

I always toy with whether or not to keep this blog "professional" since it's indirectly findable via my twitter name. That's too much work though, so no super taboo subjects but not stuffy and uptight either. I still can't say y'all. I might have to skin it at the restaurant if I'm sat an especially redneck table, but otherwise I'll keep my Southernisms to myself, although I've always been against y'all for some reason. Don't worry; I still love biscuits, okra and grits, just not "y'all".

Hmmm, Ruthie wanted to know what else has been going on besides biking. Currently it's networking, applying for positions, toying with a grilled cheese cart idea, getting ready for class next week, hanging with J and the cats, light gardening, unpacking, moving furniture, and getting to know our new town of Fort Collins.

Y'all come back now; y'hear! (See, I should not say y'all cuz it only leads to phrases like that one)

Fort Collins Bound!

2011-07-12T15:10:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone! J and I have decided to move up to Fort Collins to be closer to her school (Colorado State University, go Rams!). She had an apartment up there and would commute home on the weekends last semester. It was brutal. I missed her so much that we decided to move to Fort Collins so that we can live together!

Renewing the job search has been tough and frustrating but also promising. There are lots of great companies in Fort Collins that have open positions and I'm trying everything in my repertoire to snag an interview. Networking, social media, job fairs, industry organizations and even driving around! All are being tried and I have not lost hope! Sure I'll lose hope for a few minutes and have a micro-pity party, but then I'll find a new source of energy from Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter or even a book and feel much better and more positive!

Recently I've been enjoying racking up points on Foursquare. Sure it's a bit creepy people knowing where you are, but only your friends can see it in real time. I need more local friends too. It's sad having to zoom out to see my friends in DC and what they're up to.

Thanks for sticking around! Back to resumes and cover letters! Good thoughts!

Yes, I know I'm at work

2011-01-31T13:53:00.003-07:00

This won't be too long and then it's back to work.

No biking today. Snow turning into more snow turning into single digit weather tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll bike Thursday or Friday.

I'm planning on crashing some of the talks at the Colorado Bicycle Summit. I'm crashing it because I don't have $85 to spend on a short conference. Also I would have to cancel class to attend the second day and that isn't going to happen.

I'm really interested to hear what Denver Mayor Bill Vidal (did I miss the Denver mayoral vote somehow? Or is he acting mayor since Hickenlooper is now governor?), Tim Blumenthal, President of Bikes Belong, and Dan Grunig, exec. director of Bicycle Colorado have to say about the future of cycling in Denver. I'm going to try and not take lunch even if presented the opportunity. We'll see if my conscience or stomach win that fight.

That's all Monday and then on Tuesday, there's a ride from the Curtis Hotel down to the Capitol Building. That just sounds like a fun Tuesday morning ride in Denver. I'm always down for a cruise. Even at 8 am.

Now for my other wheeled love, cars. Guess which cars are stupid expensive here and you should buy them in other states and sell them here? Subaru WRXs! Good grief! They're not made of gold people! Have not seen one on Craigslist for under $7900 and that includes the 2002 launch year models. Other Subarus are being given away.

Volvos are wicked cheap and plentiful. I just need to research them a bit more to figure out the easiest way into a RWD wagon.

Yes I want RWD. Yes I know live in Colorado. Yes I know it's snowing outside. After riding in Focus with her super serious and amazing Michelin X-Ice Xi2 tires (my first snow tires and MY GOD! are they amazing) and then in a friend's new 4WD Patriot with all-seasons, I will admit that you do have more traction when accelerating in the snow. I don't know how the Patriot handles while sliding around in the snow because the driver was being boring and needlessly cautious. There was no cars around and not even any parked cars around and he totally could've goosed it a bit, but oh well, he was driving, not me.

If I lived in the mountains and seriously needed 4WD, well it would probably be a truck of some sort. But whilst living in Denver, biking and RTD commuting to work, and driving for fun and the occasional errand; Give me RWD and some snow tires. Oh and a nice open parking lot or deserted never used road.

Bike to Work Day!

2011-01-19T14:41:00.003-07:00

Today was my first bike to work day of the new year! Hooray!

Plus with my fancy new office, I put up my bike rack and have nice super secure warm bike storage, and as it just started to snow, I can either ride home or take the lightrail. We'll see how hard it's snowing tonight because I forgot my ski goggles which are life-savers (eye-savers?) for snow biking.

My biking tips are as follows:
1) Dress warmly and in layers (and maybe take a couple extra layers in case you didn't dress warmly enough!)
2) Have some sort of storage on your bike, whether that be baskets like mine, a backpack, waterproof panniers or a trailer (I just love being able to carry more stuff than just me on my bike)
3) Definitely get fenders so you don't get nasty riding in the snow and/or wet
4) Get lights so you can be seen at night and in low-light situations
5) Ride safely and always expect to get hit (more on this in a second)
6) Time your driving commute versus your biking commute (I think you'll be surprised)

Also bring a shirt. That kind of fits with the "bike storage" rule. I'm a sweater. I sweat. I know this and ride in a different shirt to work, cool down and then change. Biking home I don't have to change because the cats and Joan don't care if my collared shirt is sweaty when I get home.

Okay, riding safely. If I see a car coming, I stop at stop signs. If a car is not coming (check twice or thrice!), I'll roll through the stop sign. I don't have many red lights on my commute, but I generally wait at red lights because I know how I drive through green lights (quickly and with very little looking out for red light running cyclists) and I don't mind waiting. Although I have ridden through red lights when I could see both ways and was sure there was no traffic coming.

I do move to the side of the road so other traffic can pass me. Not all the way because there are parked cars and I need some road space to pass them along with the driving cars.

When riding on the road, I expect to get hit. I haven't yet, thankfully. But expecting to get hit just means using common sense, assuming no car driver ever sees me, and a little practice reading license plates while riding or falling off a bike.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but that's pretty good for now.

Man is it dusty in here!

2011-01-06T16:54:00.002-07:00

I totally need to update ye olde blog, but we all know that would require more effort than I am clearly putting in right now. So we'll deal.

Hello! It's been a while! Last post was, ah, June. Which means that I rode 25 miles in the Subaru Elephant Rock, which is a bicycle ride in Castle Rock, CO (That's the state code for Colorado if you ain't from 'round these parts). They have various lengths of rides from 25 miles to 100 miles (40.6 km - 160.9 km) and some friends, their family and I rode the 25 miler. It was a bright sunny day with the Colorado sun beating down on us, but a lovely breeze was blowing from the Rockies. I completely have no idea how long it took us, but at that point it was the longest I had ever ridden! I stuck around waaaaay too long to see if I would win a door prize. Nope! But I did get a vicious sunburn. On the tops of my legs. Oops, forgot about putting sunscreen there. They also served us a great barbeque lunch that was pretty decent.

Sunscreen is a year round thing in Colorado.

Since then I have been thoroughly exploring Denver's bike paths. I guess I was exploring them before that too. So my longest after the 25 miler was 30 miles from my house near Washington Park (the cool kids call it Wash Park) down to Dartmouth (St? Rd? Ave? Blvd? I don't know, and also does anyone call Dartmouth University D-Mouth cuz that would be incredible, but not if I actually went there) where I hit the Highline Canal Trail. This badboy runs pretty far from Aurora down to Littleton and I caught it somewhere sort of maybe near the middle. I rode it south to the C-470 Trail and then caught the lightrail home (for free(ish)! Thanks eco pass from my employer, my $40, and RTD). The RTD fare checker guy gave my school ID a double-take because my sticker was a different color from the students. I then explained that I taught the students and he left me alone. That's actually the only time I've ever had it truly scrutinized. Most other checkers recognize it as an eco pass instantly.

Let me add some links to the above paragraph real quick. Nice. Man I love all the bike paths and trails and lanes and how bike friendly Denver truly is!

Let's see here. Rode with the Denver Cruisers for Golf Pros and Tennis Hos night. Lots of fun and the "Circle of Death" mid-way was truly a sight to behold. They're mostly shut down for the winter but I know they're out there riding somewhere in (hopefully) very warm clothing.

What inspired this bicycle laced post was I compiled my bike riding stats for 2010 courtesy of my first (awesome) and second (barely counts as a) bicycle computers. The first one wasn't even that fancy but it recorded mileage, average speed, maximum speed and time ridden. #2 does mileage and fastest speed and that's it. So this isn't super accurate data for all you data nerds. Huge errors can be found in the following numbers:
Total miles ridden: 343.2 miles
Average max speed: 28.5 mph (Fast: 47.6! Slow: 19.3)
Average average speed: 10.67 (Highest: 12.7 over 49 miles Lowest: 8.59 over 13 miles)
Total time ridden: 22 hours, 58 minutes and 6 seconds

Very neat! That 47.6 mph was downhill (obviously) after a very long climb and was fantastic and very scary going that fast on some metal and rubber. (I guess motorcycles are bulkier and designed to go that fast which why they're slightly less scary, at least at 47.6 mph on a flat road after a downhill). Almost riding for a full 24 hours. My new longest ride is now 40 miles that took me about 4 hours.

I don't have any super serious road biker spandex except for a helmet and padded shorts of which I won both as door prizes during an cycling talk about training for the Elephant Rock at our flagship REI store near the Platte River in Denver.

I think I'll need a new chain and rear tire before next summer, not that I'm not riding now. Trust me. That 40 miles was on December 18th and I thought I was going to lose a toe or two. I don't really know the symptoms or pre-symptoms of frostbite but I was thinking alot about what they might be the last mile or two. It was in the mid-40's for the high and of course drops like a rock once the sun goes down. Thankfully I remembered my lights for the last mile on streets at dusk.

Also what inspired this was I wiped my computer. Completely factory restored it. It's a bit faster but I love not having all the stupid error messages from defunct programs and losing all the programs I never ever used. Yes I backed up my dissertation and my music first.

Posts to come:
Denver Restaurants
Seth's Bike Riding Tips

Robbed!

2010-06-18T11:10:00.002-06:00

Let me get this out of the way now. The US Soccer Team made an incredible comeback to tie Slovenia (Slovenija) and should have won if not for an incorrect offside call.

Denver is an amazing soccer town and 100% deserves to be a site of the 2014 or 2018 World Cups. Outside the British Bulldog last Saturday on a chilly rainy morning, I enjoyed watching the USA mount the first comeback of this Cup after a goal in the 8th minute. The streets were blocked off and a TV (very low quality but large, I considered leaving twice so I could see the game clearly) was raised from a semi. I would estimate 600 people present. J slept.

J was up and awake for today's game before work (hers, not mine, no Fri classes), grabbed our change bag and headed downtown to Katie Mullen's for their Irish breakfast and the game in HD. Great downtown bar and very close to the light rail. The team went down early again (13th minute) and then again at 42' just before the half. Yikes but still lots of soccer to play! And we're Team America! Landon Donovan (all-time USA goal leader with 43) shows the team how it's done, nearly taking the keepers head off in the process (48th minute). The US team saw that it could be done and started winning challenges and scored the equalizer in the 82nd minute. Then shenanigans on a free kick. Bleh. We get a free kick off to right of the top of the box. Perfect cross towards the back post. Of course it goes in, everyone goes crazy, then realizes they called a guy offside even though he literally had a defender hugging him (which probably is why the ref didn't see him).

England vs. Algeria starts soon.

It's 7 am; do you know where your chemistry professor is?

2010-05-12T07:22:00.003-06:00

So it's early. I finished grading everything last night. Such a relief. I literally was entering grades at the deadline of noon, which I learned of at oh, 10:30 am, last semester, NEVER AGAIN!

So they're not quite finalized but I figured I'd give my kiddos a few hours for any freak out emails begging me to round up or add a few "participation" points and round up. I'm still a new softy, so that does happen occasionally.

Teaching isn't as bad as I thought. The two massive pluses are scheduling and stress levels. The schedule is amazing, and if I didn't teach summers (I am cuz we're broke as a joke and want a house one day) my full time (9 months) pay is spread out over 12 months so I would still have money coming in in the summer for doing nothing. NOTHING! That part sounds sweet. The down sides so far are crappy pay and not a whole lot of job satisfaction. Not that teaching isn't rewarding but as a lab rat, I still have a burning desire to research and be in a lab with test tubes and instruments making chemistry happen. Playing god of my small "world", if you will. Right now that isn't really possible. No money, no space, no instruments all prevent me from research. BUT I can write grants, the students just passed a new fee to pay for a new building and as luck would have it, we share campus with 2 other institutions who both have instruments that aren't constantly being used.

I just wrote a small proposal to NASA as part of their Space Grant program. It isn't much ($6250) but our goal is to build an autonomous robot that will test water to determine potability and also test atmospheric conditions. It was my first official proposal and went over really well. And let me tell you, that's where the money is in academia (as opposed to industry where my friends Acura and Protege who now should be Mazdaaspeed3 I guess, but maybe we'll just stick with Mazda, both PhDs who live and work in Houston and love their jobs but they only get 2 weeks of vacation a year until they've worked there for 2-4 years. No wonder they get paid so much.). But the money is in grants. All faculty get to skim off their grants and it's totally legal. It's actually in the proposed budget! For each grant! Faculty usually get 10-30% of their grants depending on various factors. So they get their salary from the university, which usually has auto pay increases, and then all the grant money. Of course, you have to write the proposals and then get them accepted, and then actually do what you said you were going to do, but you can always worry about that once the money starts rolling in. It's when you buy cars and jewelry for people that the granting agencies get pissed off and call for your head.

Do I see myself still teaching here for the next 20 years like some other faculty? Hell naw. Do I enjoy it now and will continue to enjoy it for the next few years while I write grants, write papers, improve our chemistry department, become a better teacher and scientist while looking for better jobs? Hell yes!

It's still a new job and to avoid getting Dooced, I figured not naming the school was the best idea. Also I'm on probation for the next 2.5 years, after which I think I'm still on some sort of probation thing. They don't have a tenure track, which might actually be a good thing.

Also in freaky deaky Denver spring weather, we woke up to an inch or so of snow. So for those keeping track, it can snow at any time from October to May. It doesn't but it might.

Seth's Wed. To Do:
Taste test the tea I made while writing this to see if it's okay to serve to peeps.
Get a haircut.
Iron regalia for graduation tonight.
Go to retirement party for Calculus prof.
Check email, finish grades, email grades to students who emailed me.
Hang out until graduation starts.
Graduation.
Home.
Also remember a winter jacket cuz it's freakin' cold out there!

Seth's To Do for the next coupla weeks:
Update Linkedin profile.
Play with the cats.
Study the weather patterns to determine if I can actually plant my tomatoes and squash!
Get the backyard pumpkin patch ready.
Prepare for summer classes.
Get outside and enjoy Denver's amazing climate and geography!
Love my wife and make her feel appreciated!

Now that's it's 8 am, let's see if someone does early haircuts. Also it's kinda weird getting used to the Mountain timezone. And a little tip for Central and Eastern timezone residents. Call late at night (for you), do NOT call early in the morning, especially important for East Coast peeps. 10 am is 8 am here. Too early for phone calls.

Last Woman Standing

2010-05-04T11:55:00.004-06:00

It's been a rough year grandparent-wise.

My paternal grandfather passed a week before I was born.

Dr. Leven Savage Hazlegrove, my maternal grandfather, passed last August. He was a great man and clearly where I got my chemistry genes. He taught chemistry at Samford University for 33 years and luckily my grandmother kept copies of his masters thesis and PhD dissertation for me. He is survived by his wife, 3 daughters, 3 son-in-laws and 3 grandkids (myself, brother and cousin). I couldn't find a good online pic of him, but I'll scan a couple and get those up. More info here and here.

Mrs. Marjorie Stepleton, my paternal grandmother, passed this morning. A wonderful woman who was a proud ambassador of Albertville, Alabama wherever she went. Born, raised and lived her whole life there where raised 3 boys, survived her husband's untimely passing and prepared countless meals for her whole extended family. She was a staple at Wal-Mart where she worked the boys' section and then as a greeter. "Granny Wal-Mart" as she was lovingly known, she would introduce everyone to us like the whole town of Alberville was part of our extended family, which is really is. She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and never fully recovered after the chemo treatments and has now joined the rest of our family in heaven. Her sister had just passed in April and now can worship and have a big family reunion in heaven (a core Christian belief, I don't think that is just Southern Baptist, it really helps with the feelings of sorrow and despair at a time like this).

Unfortunately Joan and I will not be able to make it to the service as it is the end of the semester and I have to give exams this week and early next week, but our tickets are already purchased for next Friday. We'll be going to Albertville to see her final resting place and introduce Joan to Grandpa Stepleton whose resting place is next to Grandma's.

Thanks for letting me post this. It has helped a bit. It's tough feeling like I abandoned my family by moving out here. I know that isn't true, but the thought still creeps up. We are really looking forward to spending time with my one remaining grandmother.

Freakin' January?!?!?!?!?!?!

2010-04-28T21:57:00.003-06:00

Egads. I checked in on ye olde blog the other day and saw some comments and felt bad, so here we go.

No way! I finally met my first real live blogger! Smoove D flew into town to use the last of his Kodachrome a few weeks ago and we had brunch. Our previous missed meeting was back in Clemson and we ran out of time at Ikea and didn't meet up.

(No Denver doesn't have an Ikea. Closest one is in SLC, Utah. I hear that's what the cool kids call Salt Lake City. Our theory is that a Denver based company American Furniture Warehouse is blocking them from coming because they would lose a great deal of business....

Okay, got to go for now. I promise 6 months won't go by before the next post.

Ha! Funny joke

2010-01-16T16:44:00.003-07:00

I finished some of my improvements from my list. Not as many as I'd hoped, but nonetheless.

I'm full time now at CCD. I thought this would mean health coverage and more pay. I was wrong. The cheapest for just me was $50/month and J and I would have been $300/month. So we still don't have health insurance (although life ins. was free) and I was making more being part-time at 2 institutions, but I still teach 1 course at the other place, so it isn't super dire, but it'll be tight.

Of course J feels compelled to renew her active job search. We both got a little burned out after only a few interviews and hearing nothing back, so I think it's time to open her options a bit. She did have a nightmare about serving, so that probably isn't a good sign. We'll see. We're not living on the street yet.

Gorgeous day in Denver today. High in the mid 50s. Too bad we didn't leave the house until 3:30. That won't happen tomorrow.

Advertisting IS Graffiti.

2009-12-17T09:34:00.002-07:00

Thinking on my post from the other day I can't believe I didn't admonish the outdoor advertisers for their graffiti as well. Billboards do not enhance a community. They only clutter our sight and space.

This is a great post on the great NY Street Art Takeover. Those bills and flyers at eyelevel in NYC are illegal and a group of people decided to do something about it. From AntiAdvertisingAgency.

Finishing up grades and then cleaning house a little bit.

Last night at dinner in an oversalted chain restaurant after doing some trampolining at Jumpstreet, a really cool trampoline video game inflatable play area store/activity center, where I almost landed my front flip and probably bruised my sternum attempting a back flip, everyone said goodbye around 9 and I thought to myself "I don't have to get up and go to work tomorrow!" and it made me smile.

Off to finish grades and think about ways to save money and make our house a little more sustainable, so that maybe I can have the "I don't have to go to work tomorrow" feeling everyday!

I am Jack's nasal cavity.

2009-12-15T09:29:00.002-07:00

I can't remember the last time I've done this but I read an entire book yesterday. And if you know your pop literature and/or Brad Pitt/Ed Norton movies you correctly deduced the book I began and finished was "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk. I'll link it because I got it from the library, so I'm at least supporting Chuck a little bit.

I'm a fan of graffiti. Not all graffiti, but graffiti that is more of a mural and helps the community instead of just some lame tag or your name in bubble letters. As J points out, she could do that easily. So far we haven't been affected too much, besides the van that is medium abandoned in our alley being tagged roughly on Nov. 20 or Nov. 27. DD Larue is a Denver artist who delved into tagging in the mid 90s. I couldn't find a picture of her cheshire cat but I'll try and upload one. She originally started tagging as a way to brighten up her alley and dumpster. Note not to prove she's a bad ass and put her name on things that don't belong to her but to improve her community. She got out of it when the city started cracking down on taggers and didn't differentiate between the gang-like tags and community building "paintings", if you will.

But wait! Now there is more than one way to beautify your community and get in a healthy dose of civil disobedience and better yet, it doesn't piss people off! It's called yarnbombing or yarn graffiti and it's glorious! A few adventurous souls decided to improve their community without waiting for red tape and are doing it by knitting. Yes knitting, just like grandma used to do but grandma never knitted leg warmers for a cold statue.

At least I don't think she did.

In Denver we have our own society of yarn taggers, the Ladies Fancywork Society. Better yet they already have a sister city and clan in Amsterdam, so keep your eyes open Denverites and Amsterdamians! You might run across some of their handywork and hopefully it makes you smile. At the very least I hope it doesn't make you angry because it isn't permanent and can very easily revert back to harmless yarn.

Another photo, just to show you how awesome our Ladies Fancywork Society really is:

Downtown here in Denver, we have 2 giant statues that are supposed to represent ballerinas or something, but everyone calls them the "Dancing Aliens". Our Ladies thought their legs weren't warm enough and knitted a seven foot leg warmer! There's also a video. Legendary Leg Warmers

For all you Londoners, yes you have your own yarnbomber over at Knit the City.

I have never been more interested in knitting and crocheting than ever before! I want to knit massive leg warmers or tree warmers or creatures of the night like Knit the City's Yarn Corps:

Semester's over! Seriously.

2009-12-05T20:11:00.002-07:00

First semester is basically under my belt. Exams are given, just need to grade them, input grades, go to a Christmas party and that's about it.

Things on my To Do list for the um, Winter Break, we'll call it:
Professional development: 1)work on "active learning" classroom activities, studies keep showing that traditional lecture is not the best way to learn for most people
2)keep fingers crossed that I get the full time gig at CCD
3)look around for grants and research ideas for non-traditional undergrads
4)write grants and work on my professional writing
5)put together a blog for my classes which will contain assignments, downloadable assignments, syllabus, class info, interesting links to Youtube videos, lectures, etc.
6)update resume and apply for traditional and non-traditional chemistry jobs
7)increase my online professional presence-google page, Linkedin profile, hmmm, any others that I'm missing?

Personal development: 1)finally update this blog-best of, template change, etc.
2)READ! Also I'll be keeping a list of books I've read and some reviewish ideas and impressions
3)get used to exercising in the snow or do more indoors-get into skiing shape which mainly involves developing stamina in my quads and core
4)use my free time efficiently
5)keep developing the budding friendships we've made in Denver so far
6)keep nurturing friendships with friends who I don't live near anymore
7)begin each day with a something physically stimulating, even if that's taking a walk outside

Other fun stuff:
1)watch gobs of college football bowl games, predominately online: thanks Justin.TV and CBS sports!
2)probably watch some movies
3)probably play some video games
4)fix the problems that Focus is having (freakin' suspension rattle) and change Tercel's blown lightbulbs
5)work on my winter driving
6)go back to Alabama for visiting family!

That's enough for now. My December 2009 resolution is to take a huge chunk out of this list.

I'm watching the Clemson Tigers hopefully win the ACC championship right now! Go Tigers!

Fall Break!

2009-11-22T20:26:00.002-07:00

It's Fall Break! My schools combine Thanksgiving and the standard two day Fall Break into one Super Kinda Late Fall Break! We get a week off for Thanksgiving, come back for 1 week and then exams. So hopefully the students don't forget everything they learned during the week off.

My Fall and soon to be Christmas Break will involve development on many fronts. More on that later!

I haven't forgotten about my tiny corner of the blogosphere!

Storm's comin' Stu

2009-10-27T16:33:00.002-06:00

So let's pretend we're in the South, probably the Deep South, say SC or AL. There is a winter storm warning predicting snow from Tues. night through Wed. evening, 6 to 12 inches. Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! No bread, milk or water to be found in a 50 mile radius. Schools, businesses, everything closes.

Now let's pretend this is in Denver. No one cares. People ask the newbies if they're ready. Newbies inquire if they ever cancel school or close anything. Nope, only if there is 4 feet of snow in a day or something.

So yep, that's what is on the horizon for tonight. I'm not super worried. Trains don't slip and slide in the snow too much and I have warm clothing. We'll see how many students show up; some were already working on their Thursday "too much snow, live too far away" excuses.

I'm going to consider this our first "real" snowfall. There have been 2 already but both melted within hours or never really stuck much to begin with. The snow falling is really pretty though and it means the slopes are getting better and better.

No skis yet. No snow tires yet. No snow shoes yet. But hopefully soon. If someone would give J a job those things could be purchased MUCH sooner. Please? Anyone?

Gah! Where does my time go?

2009-10-26T15:55:00.003-06:00

Oh yeah, it goes towards exploring Denver by bike and car, grading, getting lesson plans together, cooking and cleaning.

So Denver is very cool. Kinda screwball weather though. For example it was in the high 50s, low 60s on Saturday. Then it snowed on Sunday. The high today is in the 50s again and yes it's snowing on Wednesday. Crazy.

I went to Veloswap, which is a massive bike expo and swap meet, on Saturday. Tickets were $6 beforehand or $8 at the door. What really caught me off guard was the 7 freakin' dollars for parking!?!?! This was nowhere NEAR downtown or any sporting event. Paid more for parking than my ticket, blerg. So next year I think I'll park a tad further away and then walk or bike to the place, which was the National Western Complex. Subaru is the title sponsor and they have some other vendors and what-not but it's mainly a place for bike shops and people to get together and sell some bike stuff. There were also a few tents, packs and clothes, which seemed a little weird. I picked up a more street oriented tire, new seat (saddle), some pedals, a headlight and some nice ergo grips for a grand total of $39, which brought my daily total to $52 with ticket and parking. It's a great place to find some cheap used items, cheap new items and some discounted bikes. I saw complete bikes ranging from $50 to $3000.

My absolute favorite of the day was Panda Bicycles out of Fort Collins, CO. We're growing bikes is their slogan and they are. Bamboo bikes. $1250. Done. Gorgeous bamboo with a 2-part epoxy slipped into metal joints. Really pretty and if I'm spending that much on a bike, it might as well be out of bamboo. I've heard they ride really well to boot.

How cool is that!

So yes I've been bad about maintaing this blog. Still haven't updated it or done a "Best of" series like I've been promising for ages. But I'm still here! I'm still blogging! And I'm out of grad school! And I'm a reluctant teacher who actually cares and wants to get better!

So we'll see what direction the blog takes. Obviously it'll still be in my voice, still about hiking, biking, the outdoors, the environment, cars, Focus, Tercel, J, Leon and Foxy, with the new added twist of being in Denver.

Upcoming posts:
Denver restaurants
Denver neighborhoods
F1 watching in Denver (I'd like to start a group if possible, so please email me if you're interested, my email address should be over there on the left)
Still not having cable but watching TV and sports
Bicycle commuting in Denver

Sit down! Shut up! Aaaaaiiiiieeee!

2009-08-28T23:10:00.003-06:00

Luckily those are things that have never come out of my mouth in any of my classes. I did medium yell at some whiners who were complaining about an ambiguous question on a quiz. Of course I caved and just wanted them out.

This isn't becoming a "teaching" blog, but since that's how I'm paying the bills now, it'll probably pop up every once in a while.

Upcoming post preview:
Denver restaurants
Denver parks
Ford Foci (Focuses)

The Denver Public Libraries are AMAZING! Check out whatever you want, and return at any branch. We picked up 5 DVDs today and paid nothing! Ah. Also Blockbuster does 1 day rentals of non-new releases for $1. Great for burning through TV shows if a certain significant other is addicted to say, Desperate Housewives. I wouldn't watch it on TV, but on DVD it doesn't make me want to kill myself. The dark twists keep me mildly interested. And Marc Cherry did a cameo on Arrested Development, so he gets my professional support, and Blockbuster support.

We Netflixed Order of Myths by Margaret Brown and watched it last night. It's about Mardi Gras in New Orleans and how race is related to it. Very interesting insider look into Mardi Gras and race relations in Mobile, Alabama. Not many people know the first Mardi Gras took place in Mobile, 15 years before New Orleans (or Nawlins) was a city. Great history of Alabama, Mobile, race relations and Mardi Gras. I highly recommend it. Also another little known fact, the last slave boat to come to America sailed into Mobile, after the slave trade was abolished.

We have arrived!

2009-07-31T11:51:00.003-06:00

Wow, so far we abso-freakin'-lutely LOVE Denver! What a neat place, and we haven't even seen most of it. J and I found an awesome place that is near the light rail, so I can commute to work downtown easily and it's near a really cool street with coffee shops, restaurants, pet supply store and even a garage/auto repair shop!

I'm still wrestling with corrections and revisions. The current snafu is converting from old Word (no online pdf converting service recognizes Word '07) into a pdf file. The text moves around a bit, which moves figures and captions. Of course the free online converter (courtesy of the National Institute of Health and the National Library of Medicine) is slow and takes about 15 minutes to convert my massive 234 page document into a pdf file. Then I review the pdf, try and predict what changes are needed, predict how to make those changes in Word so they look right in the pdf, convert, wait 15 minutes and do it over again. And of course we're in Mountain time now, so it's early afternoon back in SC and Clemson shuts down at 4:30. Ugh. I don't think they'll take away my degree for this, but I'd rather not tempt fate.

Upcoming post preview:
Template change?
Previous post highlights?
Driving 1800 miles in a Penske truck full of stuff, towing a '92 Tercel, being followed by a '04 Focus with 1 wife driving and 2 cats periodically sleeping and howling
Getting to know Denver

Freaking out

2009-07-03T10:08:00.002-06:00

Just got done reading this gem of an article from the NYTimes about how the unemployment rate is 9.5%, the worst in 23 years, and the fact that this is the economy in which I'm looking for a job. We're planning on moving to Denver, which I just calculated will cost about $2300, but we'll have all our stuff and enough money saved up to live for 2 to 3 months. CO has a stronger economy right now, especially compared to circling the drain SC with a top 3 unemployment rate in the nation, and it just seems like a really cool place to live. Southwest flies out of there, so I have a cheap way to get to B'ham if a family emergency comes up, or want to see my folks this fall. Plus J and I want to get out of SC and the South and experience a real winter.

So far our plan tentative plan is to load up the U-haul and head towards St. Louis, where PoP has graciously offered a place to stay (I think and I hope the offer still stands!) on Sat. night, then after lunch or so, head to Omaha and see J's sister and newly moved Mom, then probably Monday or Tuesday, head to Denver with 2 chemists, 2 cats and a small houseful of furniture.

Of course all this hinges on my defending my dissertation successfully on July 20th, and getting it formatted, reviewed, and printed at least a week before that and then the same process after, then we'll move. Yikes. Send any positive thoughts you can spare my way. The small upside is that I'm mostly done with my writing, so I actually have a bit of free time so I can physically exert this stress away!

So......tired

2009-06-17T14:39:00.002-06:00

I'm tired of writing and being tired. This too shall pass.

Halfway there!

2009-06-07T18:57:00.002-06:00

4 out of 8 chapters are written and need to be reviewed.

We're at Beef 'O' Brady's, which is a wi-fi hotspot for free!, in Clemson and I'm surrounded by TVs. J is at the bar for a better view and I'm in a booth working, and honestly I'm ashamed to move because I'm working on J's pink Dell laptop. There I said it. It's yet another personal motivator. Plus I want her to be able to be the primary user instead of me.

The job search has been unfruitful so far. It will kicked in to hyper-drive once writing is done though.

Congrats to Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel on 2nd and 3rd for Team Red Bull in Istanbul, Turkey this morning. Nicely done! Huge congrats to Jenson Button and Brawn GP on their 6th win out of 7 races!

Dr. George Tiller

2009-06-01T06:38:00.004-06:00

George Tiller, M.D., was shot at the start of the church service he attended on Sunday morning in Wichita, Kansas.

A provider of abortions for more than three decades, Dr. Tiller, 67, had become a focal point for those around the country who opposed it. In addition to protests outside his clinic, his house and his church, Dr. Tiller had once seen his clinic bombed; in 1993, an abortion opponent shot him in both arms. He was also the defendant in a series of legal challenges intended to shut down his operations, including two grand juries that were convened after citizen-led petition drives.

He is survived by his wife, 4 children and 10 grandchildren who issued a statement through Dr. Tiller’s lawyer, which read in part: “George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality health care despite frequent threats and violence. We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere.”
President Obama issued a statement, saying, “However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”

Thank your for your work and dedication Dr. Tiller. America lost another hero.

-quotes excerpted from a NY Times article by JOE STUMPE and MONICA DAVEY

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T10:08:00.002-06:00

Thanks to all those who fight in the name of our country, fought and will fight.

Mmmmmm, sleep

2009-05-18T08:28:00.002-06:00

I think I was really tired last week. Working late and arising early caught up with me about Thurs. morning. After a good night sleep on Thurs. and sleeping in this weekend, which was of course coupled with writing here and there, I feel much better today and ready to take on another hellacious week.

Still writing and still in grad school for those keeping tabs.

2+ decades of school is starting to wear on me

2009-05-14T06:18:00.002-06:00

I really want to finish strong. I do. It's hard. So much working and not enough play and sleep make Seth a tired cranky boy.

J has been good about nagging me and I've been better about not needing to be nagged, but last night we came up with a good scenario so I can also occasionally nag her. After this I'll be ready for both of us to be nag free.

Also our lease expires on June 30th. I'm planning on defending mid-June. Think I can find a job in less than 2 months? I hope so too.

So many plans and possibilities are rolling around my head and I can't entertain a damn one because my sole life focus right now is dissertation.

Why can't I just ride my bike around picking up trash?

Brushing with excellence

2009-05-04T07:39:00.002-06:00

This post will eventually detail our trip to Birmingham where we hung out with friends and family and spotted Julie from the first ever Real World and chatted with Ben Bostrom for a couple minutes. I could have talked with him for hours, how he got started racing, how often he bicycles, how crazy a 24 hour mountain bike race is, does he do any 4 wheel racing, does he follow rally, etc... but we were in Whole Foods and both had places to be, so it was just a chance encounter. Really nice guy and of course, wicked mutton chops.

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T13:03:00.003-06:00

April 22nd is the day when we celebrate the Earth and all she's given us. It's also the day that we can be over the top annoying about helping the planet because it's Earth Day. The other days of the year, we go behind people, pick up their trash and hope they don't do it again. Today we can go find that person, throw their trash back at them and then publicly harangue them for being a no good stinky litter bug.

Although not all trash is courtesy of people. I was waiting next to my bike this morning when I saw a Clemson squirrel go into the trash can, take out something wrapped in paper, gnaw at it, and then not put it back in the trash. I guess animal littering is okay?

Also saw the PeePoo bag. It's a biodegradable (45% post consumer recycled content, with plans to get that to 100%) plastic bag coated with urea that breaks down human excrement into ammonium hydroxide and other nicer compounds and fertilizes the ground where it is buried. Great for hikers, hunters, and citizens of 3rd world countries that don't have access to sewage treatment plants or running water!

Up next is an article written by Joe Lederman, an editor with asbestos.com, which is a Mesothelioma cancer resource website. Asbestos is a silicate (silicon oxide) containing mineral that is mined and has great flame retardant properties. Unfortunately the fine fibers and particles can get into our lungs and cause all sorts of nasty side effects. There are many green options for insulating your house (recycled blue jeans being my personal favorite) so please look into what's in your house's walls now or before you buy. Hope you enjoy the guest post:

Green Insulation Alternatives Make the Use of Asbestos Obsolete

In the world of home construction, there are many things that should be taken into consideration. Many older homes could need repairs or additional renovations in areas that are susceptible to natural disasters. Often appearing in roof shingles, popcorn ceilings, piping and insulation, asbestos became one of the most popular building applications of the 20th century. One of the main things that can go unnoticed is taking simple precautions to avoid asbestos exposure.

The implementation of eco-construction and alternative energy solutions will play an important role in the transformation to a healthier and sustainable world. Building green will have profound impacts on many facets of our daily lives.

If you locate any suspected asbestos in the home, most experts suggest leaving it un-disturbed until a home inspector can examine your property, take evaluations and determine the safest course of action. Disturbing asbestos in good condition may cause its fibers to be released into the air. However, if removal is necessary, it must be performed by a licensed abatement contractor who is trained in handling hazardous substances.

Long term exposure to damaged airborne asbestos fibers can lead to the development of a severe lung ailment known as mesothelioma . With a latency period that lasts from 20 to 50 years, it isn’t until the later stages of progression when physicians usually are able to accurately diagnose. The amount of asbestos-related incidents throughout the world has resulted in mesothelioma lawyers advocating and protecting victim’s individual rights. Many are unaware to the wrongdoings done in the contraction of diseases associated with asbestos.

Many cities and states in the U.S. are pushing for green sustainable technologies to be utilized in the public and private sectors. Everyone strives for clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. Unfortunately, many modern conveniences increase pollution and health problems.

Green alternatives to asbestos include the use of lcynene foam, cotton fiber and cellulose. The use of cotton fiber foam has demonstrated to reduce energy costs by 25 % per year. There is no need for any products used in construction to be made from asbestos, yet over 3,000 work and home-based materials still contain this toxin. Many locations throughout the United States are swiftly changing their construction practices to suit the environment and the health of human beings.

Implementing green methods of building can have positive environmental, health and economic benefits. These include:

-   Conservation of natural resources

-   Enhance air quality and protect ecosystems

-   Energy sustainability

-   Increase property value

-   Improve quality of life

-   Improvement of pulmonary and cardiac health

-   Reduce waste

4-21!

2009-04-21T07:10:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was of course 4-20 aka Hitler's birthday aka April 20th. I hope you enjoyed it. It was great weather down here.

Earth Day is tomorrow! Hooray! Thankfully, it will be nice and sunny so I can ride my bike in and then swing by the Earth Day booths on campus. I would like to volunteer but that doesn't make the priority list right now.

J is really helping me with my writing. I was going down a bit of the wrong path, or wasn't on the right path long enough, but she has really stepped up and given me guidance and feedback and it's paying off.

I burnt our lab's water pump to a crisp over the weekend. I left it at 50C for 3 days, it ran dry, caught on fire, tripped circuit breakers and made me ever so distraught yesterday.

I'm not a huge PETA fan, because if the animals are treated humanely and fed a natural diet of grass and hay, they're delicious! But I absolutely understand it takes way more resources to get meat on my plate than veggies, so J and I are trying to live a little more "3rd World" style and limit our protein to mostly veggies and beans and not too much meat, and even when we do have meat, make sure we don't eat tons and it was responsibly harvested.

So we made vegan-ish blueberry pancakes (we have vegan butter from my week long vegan experiment but it's flavorless, so these were cooked in butter) which have no eggs and soy milk. We used basically this recipe but added a splash of vanilla. Delicious! Really light and fluffy and the frozen blueberries we used didn't break and turn the batter all purple.

Later that day we made a shepherd's pie with ground goat purchased from Split Creek Goat Farm, and that goat was tasty!

So for Earth Day, carpool, walk, bike, take public transit, eat some vegetables, plant some vegetables, get outside and enjoy Earth!

Help is on the way!

2009-04-15T07:46:00.002-06:00

J has been recruited to help revise my writing. It's nice to get another opinion on my writing style and help me focus on my results instead of so much background. She's also helping me set mini everyday goals. Off to work on that now.

If I don't post for a while, I will eventually.

New cars!

2009-04-07T07:20:00.002-06:00

Hooray! It's that time of year again when all the new cars start popping up in your local dealerships.

So far my short list of new cars to look at are:
Honda Insight
Hyundai Genesis Coupe
Nissan Cube
Kia Soul

Now, as you know, I'm still in grad school and will not be purchasing any new anything for a good bit, but these will be slightly used cars by the time I'm in the market, so here we go.
2010 Honda Insight: Honda's new hybrid to compete with the popular Prius made by Toyota. It's cheaper, handles like a Honda (not that most Honda drivers know what that means) and basically looks like a Prius except has a big "H" on the front. BUT it looks like Honda is still not gay friendly, so they just lost their direct link. Ouch.

Actually it turns out that only Nissan is a gay friendly company, so only they will get photos and a direct link, which will make writing this post easier.

Hyundai Genesis Coupe: SuperBowl ad with the fabulous Rhys "Mad Skills" Millen, who is a Kiwi and comes from some amazing rally heritage courtesy of his dad Rod, and it's basically almost my dream car. Rear wheel drive, turbo charged 4 cylinder (with an available V6), and kinda lightweight (at around 3000 pounds, 1360 kgs) and it doesn't look half bad. But the very gay friendly Subaru and Toyota should have their version of that coming out soon and I can't freaking wait!

Kia Soul: Funky looking mini SUV thing that has a really neat red on black interior. And it's a Korean company which J supports for "country of her birth" reasons.

And finally, some pictures and a link to the amazing new Nissan Cube! It's one of those "lifestyle" vehicles that come in a box. 122 hp 1.8 liters of 4 cylinder fury, 6 speed manual, power windows and locks, ABS, 6 air bags, 60/40 fold down seats, and traction control (although I can't imagine why). All standard (peep the trim levels on this pdf) and starting at $14,000. Not too shabby, plus it's so cool looking. If you're looking for a car with tons of cargo space, great interior, and easy driving due to the huge greenhouse, I would highly recommend a Nissan Cube. And look at all the colors!

I seriously have no idea what car I want next. Obviously I want my WRX wagon, my Lotus Elise and a couple motorcycles and bicycles, but in reality I have no clue. I think it depends on where we end up once I get a job.

Blindness

2009-04-03T10:05:00.002-06:00

J and I watched Blindness over the previous two nights. It is based upon the book by 1998 Nobel Prize winner in literature Jose Saramago called "Blindness". The premise is a city (filmed in lovely Montevideo, Uruguay but unnamed in the book) is stricken by a plague of white blindness. The first people are quarantined to an older unused hospital. It goes from scary to depths of humanity pretty quickly. Most everyone is blind except for the doctor's wife (played by the always great Julianne Moore aka Maude from The Big Lebowski) who must be the sole eye witness to the depravity and vile sanitary conditions. A group of people (maybe criminals) take over one ward and take all the food and extort the other people. They eventually figure out that the soldiers at the gate are gone and they can leave and see what happened to the city. The small band of main characters make their way to the doctor's house and pick up a cute dog on the way. Their blindness eventually goes away and supposedly life returns to normal.

Definitely not for kids, not too much language, some female breasts and lots of asses. The one complaint I have is the removal of one of my favorite scenes from the book. Julianne's character finds a staircase at the back of a virtually empty grocery store which leads to a locked door where they keep the extra food. Since everyone is blind, they did not see the key hanging on a nearby hook. Doc's wife goes down, feels around, finds some matches, grabs some food, leaves and FORGETS TO LOCK THE DOOR! She comes back a few days later and the blind people have found the cache of lovely food, created a stampede and she returns to find the place on fire and basically hell on earth. Doh! Maybe next time she'll remember to lock the best place to find unspoiled food in the city that only she knows about.

The movie leaves that part out presumably because it didn't add much to the story, but I liked that part of the book. Even though she can see doesn't mean she catches everything.

I've always wanted to try a blind day or at least a blind hour or so. I think I'll do that once I'm done writing.

RIP Shane McConkey

2009-04-01T07:38:00.002-06:00

Shane McConkey was one of the great big mountain skiers. He was instrumental in ski design and eventually decided to ski off a mountain with a parachute strapped to his back. He pushed the envelope of skiing and human achievement. He was skiing in the Dolomites in Italy, did a double back flip and his chute failed to open. He is survived by his wife Sherry and daughter Ayla.

For a brief glimpse into who Shane was, please check out the Outside Online tribute.

Photos courtesy of ShaneMcConkey.org
Vid from youtube

Coming down to the wire

2009-03-31T08:37:00.002-06:00

My original defense date was yesterday. I am not done writing and revising. J is pissed. I am pissed at me too. The next date should be in May or June. Writing is still happening, and the chapters keep growing. I have all my chapters at least started and need to finish up a few, then finish the intro and summary chapter then the abstract. So that's why I haven't been posting much and certainly nothing of interest.

While riding my bike I have been collecting the reflectors off the street that the snow plow scraped off (I think). I need to ask the city if they can be reused and I plan to pluck out the reflectors from the broken ones and put them on my bike. I also came up with the idea (once I graduate) to write a grant for an educational bicycle from which I can pick up trash and teach people about not littering, recycling and getting outdoors to interact with nature instead of viewing it as their trash can. I would like to have a flat screen on the bike but I just remembered those things are wicked heavy so maybe a scrolling LED marquee or something. This idea came to me while cycling in the rain and wanting some extra light while I stopped to pick up litter and also to remind people to not litter.

I'm on Twitter now, same user name as the my blog URL. I don't "tweet" much but plan to in the future. I think I'm up to 6 followers who are either racing friends, blog friends (ESC, Sloth, Evil Julie) and my Congressman, which is pretty sweet I think.

I voted for Clemson City Council today and hopefully we can get someone on there who recognizes that sprawling student housing is not the answer. I think Christy Medeiros is that person.

Everybody's writing for the weekend

2009-03-27T12:23:00.002-06:00

J and her mom made it in safely. Then drove to Charleston for an event that was webcast. Now they're back and MIL leaves Sat. I went for a wet evening bike ride on Wed. that was way too much fun. I might go for a rainy ride tomorrow morning too.

Writing, writing, writing.

RIDE!

2009-03-23T09:14:00.002-06:00

My ride yesterday was nice and dirty. I did a bit of trail riding, then realized I didn't want to ride back up that hill and then rode around the banks of Lake Hartwell to get back to the road. Lake Hartwell is wicked low (since we're in an extreme drought) and I was actually riding on what was formerly the bottom of the lake.

Writing has reached a fever pitch as I try and finish this bloody thing.

I've been in a "bloody" phase again recently.

J had to admonish me that I was being too sarcastic and jerky to her and her mom this weekend. It's been a while since I've spoken with loved ones in real life. I didn't mean to be so snarky but it was built up. The cats didn't seem to mind.

The Mexican Drug cartel violence has finally spilled over into the States in a very noticeable way. We might need to think of changing tactics since the past 30 years of stopping the supply hasn't worked, mmmmm, AT ALL! And now the Mexican Drug cartels have loads of money, man power and guns, all financed by Americans looking to escape their daily lives who should be thrown in jail according to the US Drug War policy. What about reducing demand? What about admitting that people loves drugs (in addition to nicotine, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals) and controlling the flow of drugs OURSELVES?

Bah, back to writing about synthesis of alkali lanthanide fluorides.

Getting warmer

2009-03-16T07:01:00.002-06:00

As I reach the end of my writing and because it's supposed to be sunny and in the 70s this week.

I'll be around.

Somber Thursday

2009-03-12T07:50:00.002-06:00

Please keep the families of all those involved in the recent shootings in your thoughts. Also the families of the modern day slaves.

I hope you find some hope today in this messed up world we live in.

WEATHER!

2009-03-10T11:20:00.002-06:00

Snow last Monday. 75 degree sunny Saturday. 80 degree Monday. Predicted rainy 45 degree Thursday. That is Southern weather in a nutshell. Don't try and rush any season or you'll freeze to death or roast to death. Just check weather.com and dress accordingly.

I miss J. She's been in Orlando for 2 weeks yesterday. She'll be back one week from cold rainy Thurs.

My dad mentioned buying the land next to my grandma's house and putting up a renewable building material house. He contacted whoever you contact about building codes and they said they didn't really have any for alternative material houses. They also haven't issued a building permit for a new house in 8 MONTHS! So they'll probably be open to the idea.

Back to writing. Happy Tuesday.

Albequerque Freak-out! Part II

2009-03-09T08:30:00.002-06:00

It's coming down to the wire. Writing for me is nearing the end which means revising can continue and be the primary focus. I have some meetings planned with committee members this week too.

Our lease is up on June 30 and we will be leaving SC for good then, if not earlier. Hopefully I'll have a job that I can jump into, but if not, it will be a big step into the great unknown. We're still thinking Colorado. Probably Denver or Boulder and staying the hell away from Colorado Springs. I've lived in the South for many years and am moving to CO to get AWAY from that stereotypical mentality. It will be nice to be surrounded by Priuses and bicycles instead of trucks and SUVs. At the very least they weigh less so if there's an accident, I have a better chance of being okay.

The weather was unfreakin' believable this weekend. Sunny and highs in the mid 70s. SoCal weather basically with the added fun of snow on the previous Mon. It should last until Wed. evening and then cold rainy weather returns to snap us out of our "spring is here mentality". I love the weather in the South, but you have to roll with the extreme temp changes. Don't be stubborn if you were wearing shorts yesterday, bust out those long johns again cuz the high is 48 sucka.

I went for a bike ride of about 8 miles on Sunday morning. It was very pleasant. I recreated my friend's morning commute from his old house. That would be a very long gradual climb to school every morning. Now I don't feel so bad about my short steep hill on the way home. I need some padded shorts though cuz my taint cain't take much more. Now if I could only eat less, I might lose some serious weight. So far (from my max of 235) I'm down to 222-225ish. So not bad, but obviously still not good.

Okay, back to writing. Thanks for stopping by!

Linguistics might be my true calling that I missed. Maybe if I'm near a school with a good linguistics department I'll take a few classes to see if I actually like it or not. I do enjoy languages and trying to see if my ear can "hear" them.

Why must I be a teenager in love

2009-03-05T07:46:00.002-07:00

As Lenny and Karl would say, why don't they make any more oldies? I of course was raised listening to the golden oldies. It's just such a toe tapping good time and most of it is happy and upbeat. I still remember some tape we bought for around a buck at a gas station for filling up; we listened to that tape like it was going out of style.

I haven't been posting too much because of writing and work mostly. No internet at home really hurts too.

Our heat doesn't work really well; it just spits out lukewarm air and that coupled with our barely insulated house (you can see light coming through our front door, I wish I was kidding) means that we spent $94 on power last month. Since J is in Orlando, I have taken it as a challenge to see if I can get that down. I now see the benefit of a programmable thermostat. I would love for the "heat" to come on around 7 am or so and start to defrost the house but since we have an old school one, I came down stairs (after putting on double layers) to a chilly 47 degrees F. Yikes. Good thing the cats have those warm fur coats. Also the Clemson Snowfall of '09 ripped half our gutter off (which hasn't been cleaned in 1.5 years, at least), and that combined with the termites in the crawl space, the upstairs toilet that needs a minor overhaul, makes me glad I don't own this place and can just walk away without dealing with realtors and buyers. Plus they may or may not be building a new strip mall/Publix across the street from us, so it's a good time to GTFO!

Biking to work was nice this morning. I need to time how long it takes to load up the bike once I get an actual job and have to be there on time. The high is supposed to be 62 today and the weekend should be even warmer. I can't wait. J is driving me crazy telling me how nice the weather is in Florida. Although she did miss the snow and since we live in the South, we actually enjoy and appreciate the snow instead of cursing it with every breath like people in, um, Buffalo.

Get back to work! *whip crack*

Snow Day!

2009-03-02T08:07:00.003-07:00

I don't have any pictures up, but Clemson got their Snow Day! My grandmother (who lives in Northern Alabama) called around 3 pm on Sunday just to chat and asked if we had any snowfall. Nope, but it was good talking to her and catching up. Then around 5:30 I noticed the rain (which is sorely needed and had been going since Saturday) looked bigger. Then it switched to lovely snowflakes and snowed for about 4 hours. I went outside, played around, made the beginning of a snowman, quit and went back inside. Then it snowed again for a couple hours which means the SouthEast is closed. Most of the roads are clearish so even though Clemson University is closed, the infamous Governor Mark Sanford, is forcing offices to open at 1 even though classes are canceled.

Bicycling in the snow was a pretty cool experience. I threw on my waterproof pants, threw the laptop in my waterproof bag and headed out. Luckily my bike was stashed behind our house at our neighbor's apartment complex, so I didn't have to venture down our big hill. I rode to Blockbuster to return some of J's Grey's Anatomies, then rode to school, stopping to watch the sledders enjoying Kite Hill. Today I was certainly glad I still had my knobby mountain bike tires. The snow and slush proved no match. The only nasty parts were the iced over chunks of snow, but that's true of most vehicles.

I think I'm ready. I've cold biked, cold/rainy biked, and now snow biked. I think I'm ready for some bike commuting when we move to Denver (or wherever we wind up after Clemson).

Like a bolt in the night

2009-02-26T07:41:00.002-07:00

J up and left me. Don't worry; she has a return ticket. She flew home for several weeks for vacation and to help her folks straighten up the house. Yesterday she tackled their back porch which was a tool storage area since the floor remodel 2 years ago. I think the garage is slated for this weekend. She may or may not bring her bike back.

What is the protocol for abandoned bikes? There is one on campus that I park next to that has been there at least a month. The chain is rusted, the lock may or may not have been locked at one point but has now come loose. I think it's abandoned but want to be a bike rescuer and not a bike stealer.

But more importantly than that, J's time away from the house is supposed to give me less distractions so I can write. So far it's worked pretty well although the cats are making up for her distractions by being extra cat-tastic. It's going to be a nice one today in the mid 60s. Yesterday it was in the lower 50s and you could see people trying to force Spring to come early. I saw a guy running in just shorts and people laying out. Bunch of crazies, it isn't even March!

Also the Clemson men's basketball team lost a heartbreaker to the Virginia Tech Hokies last night. We have 3 more games until the ACC tournament and hopefully we'll have a rematch against UNC for the ACC title! Bring it Tar Heels!

This is what happens Larry!

2009-02-17T07:38:00.003-07:00

I try and try to educate people. I've told you before that monkeys and apes are cute but are wild animals and need to live in a habitat or the outdoors. Yes chimps are my personal favorite but I also realize that one does not belong in my house. I'll spare you the pictures but please read here about the dangers, and this National Geographic article.

Also from CNN.com (like the first link up there) comes this list of 5 places to visit before they don't exist anymore. Global warming, changing weather patterns, over fishing are all blamed. But this sounds like lots of fun besides the fact that they won't exist anymore.

Writing is coming along. Bicycling to work was chilly. I love my wife, J.

Merry VD Eve!

2009-02-13T06:08:00.002-07:00

Or VuhDeve, if you will. Since J and I are all super budgety and junk, I will be handcrafting her Valentine's Day card/gift. If you've never been to Instructables.com and like to create things by hand, then you are in for a treat.

Here are my suggestions for last minute Valentimes gifts made by you:
Kissing Cards by Helix the Cat
Glowing LED Heart Light by YoChuck (nice if Radio Shack is nearby)
Make a Cut-Out Valentine Card by fungus amungus
Etched Minty Valentines Candy Box by photozz (a tad involved since you're etching the metal candy tin with electricity, but what a science class demo!)

Some other awesome Instructables that are worth hanging onto:
High speed photography for beginners by Spl1nt3r C3ll (basically save up for a Casio EX-F1)
Quick and easy homestead uses for plastic bottles (#1, PET) by velacreations
Also be sure to check out Vela Creations' website for tons of useful and intriguing green ideas
In that same vein, you can watch and learn from Anna and Mark at Walden Effects about how they're living more simply and eating fresh fruits vegetables, eggs and the like. They also teach you how to track animals, which could come in handy.

For J's present I'm leaning towards the cut out card or kissing faces card. It should turn out really well either way.

Now for fashion news: Apparently androgeny is back. The NYTimes fashion blogger, Elizabeth Spiridakis, is enamored with 3 fashionistos (right? cuz they're guys) who are stepping up their fashion game. Bryan Boy, Yu Masui and Jean-Paul Paula are at the cutting edge of fashion. They see the influence that men's clothing has on women's clothing and wonder why that can't be a two way street. They all dress to make themselves feel good, which is what fashion really should be all about, and do so by pairing classic guy pieces with an accessory or shirt that would be traditionally called "women's clothes". Seriously, they're so fashion forward it makes my headspin. Check out Liz's piece "Boys with Birkins". I think my favorite look has to be this one from Yu Masui:

It challenges everything I've ever thought about clothing. The shoes, the headband, the top and clutch, and right there, smack dab in the middle of everything, something every guy has in his closet, a pair of khaki shorts. Unreal.

What’s your fashion philosophy? “Look ridiculous in the best designers’ clothes. I’ve never wanted to look cool in my life. My entire life is like a joke anyway. But I don’t like wearing costumes on the street. A costume is not fashion, and what I try to do is fashion.”

See? He definitely took the red pill of fashion and is not looking back.

I'm glad there are people like Anna and Mark of Walden Effect and Yu Masui out there challenging our "status quo".

I promised J and myself a camping trip once I'm done writing. I'm also thinking about using the space in the middle of my bike frame to advertise for Earth Hour, which is that new widgit thingie to your left that takes so long to load. Sorry dial-uppers!

Earth Hour 2009

2009-02-12T08:38:00.003-07:00

Earth Hour is a global movement to turn off the lights for 60 minutes at 8:30 pm local time to symbolize that you are serious about saving energy and also about reducing light pollution. I wish I could be in Vegas for that; there will be so many stars out there in the desert! Check out the map and see if your city is taking part.

It's on March 28th at 8:30 pm local time. Break out the candles and board games!

Post #1013 in a series

2009-02-11T09:03:00.002-07:00

So I'm currently addicted to TBTL aka Too Beautiful To Live on 97.3 KIRO FM out of Seattle, E-Loh, Ryan, Lyric and their squirrels turned me on to it and I must say it's pretty hilarious. Luke Burbank, Jen "Flash" Andrews and "Japan's #1 mixer" Sean DeTorre are the personalities and they're all pretty awesome. They talk about the news, pop culture, themselves, Seattle, music and splice in quotes from TV, movies, the interwebs, and others. They are fans of Futurama, Arrested Development, The Simpsons and some other actually popular shows that you might like too. I am what they call a "timebandit" because I don't listen to the show live but instead grab it on itunes. I highly recommend you check it out if you think your local radio sucks or are tired of downloading or paying for mp3s.

Also if you're wondering why you're fat, this website might shed some light on the subject. This is why you're fat. Be warned though some of the images are disturbing. The hot dog on a stick covered in fries almost made me pass out. Also how the hell are you supposed to eat a corn dog pizza?

Is your friend's birthday in 3 weeks? Do they love vodka? Do they love bacon? Do you have a nice empty bottle, some vodka and some bacon? Then what are you waiting for? Go make them some Bacon Vodka! Courtesy of Brownie Points Blog and McAuliflower.

Somber Friday

2009-02-06T08:23:00.003-07:00

Got some bad news from my adviser last night. I'm going to try and fight but it might be August before I'm done. Shitty.

Also Dr. Thomas Corts, the president of Samford University and my undergrad institution, passed away Wed. morning at the age of 67 due to an apparent cardiac infarction. Corts is survived by his wife of 44 years, Marla, two married daughters, a married son and six grandchildren. He was president of Samford from 1983 until 2006. We'll miss you Dr. Corts.

How 'bout them Tigers?!?!?!

2009-02-05T07:47:00.002-07:00

The Clemson Tigers men's basketball team last night put a 27 point shellacking on the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team. Duke was #3 in the nation and we were #10. We improve to 19 wins and 2 losses (Wake Forest and North Carolina) and take over second in the ACC.

The rest of the season should be exciting and hopefully we can do well in the ACC tournament and then in the NCAA tournament in March.

Since we don't have TV anymore, we heard about the score via Facebook and then from my co-workers.

Writing is still coming along. We're entering hardcore time. I'll keep you posted.

J is tasked with finding me a job and also increasing my professional online status. I just googled myself (eeewwww) and cleaned up a link or two. My technorati profile had my full real name along side my screen name. It's like that a few other places but you would have to click on them to figure it out instead of being right there in the search results like the technorati link was. I also need to professional up this place. I'll leave the NORML links because I believe in that cause and honestly think it would help with the current state of our economy, it would also cut down on the war just across the border in Mexico. Check out the NYTimes article if you haven't heard about the bodies piling up on account of our ineffective drug policy.

The game that must not be named

2009-02-02T07:29:00.003-07:00

We went to a friend's house for the SuperBowl. They invited another couple who were pretty cool also. We grilled steak, shrimp and zucchini, they brought a wonderful beef brisket chili, the German potato salad was bacon-y delicious as was the brownies and boursin cheese.

The game was close and exciting. J and I were pulling for the Steelers because I have friends who are Steelers fans as is J's dad.

No money was riding on the game so there was some Mario Kart Wii in the 3rd and 4th quarter. That game will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

My favorite commercial was by far Rhys Millen and the new Hyundai Genesis coupe. That was the yellow car that was sliding around a race track. I really hope it sells well. In fact, go buy one! 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe! Lightish weight (below 3000 lbs.), RWD, 3.8 Liter 6 cylinder, and pretty cool styling. I had hoped for around 2000 lbs. and a 4 cylinder but I think Nissan and Toyota/Subaru will deliver on that front, at least the 4 cylinder, probably not the 2000 lbs. It isn't a Lotus. Edit: Haha! I was checking out the e-brochure and it comes with either the 306 hp 3.8L V6 or the 210 hp turbo 4 cylinder! Hooray! (power numbers at the flywheel probably)

The new supercharged Audi A6 had a pretty cool commercial. Jason Statham, of Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels fame, was shown to be driving, not sure if he actually drove it or not.

In that weird, old vs. new, Pepsi Co. commercial, you got a quick view of the new Nissan Cube, which should give the Scion xB a serious run for its quirky boxiness.

The cars.com commercial sucked because that super confident guy was looking at a Pontiac Grand Prix on his phone! A freakin' Pontiac! They made the Aztek you know, and yes I'm still pissed about it.

Other people like the Budweiser Great American Lager (owned by Belgians) horse ads. The cg bug Coca-Cola ad was also liked by others.

We also went to a party on Saturday night and I got drunk for the first time in a while. J was my designated driver and she did a wonderful job.

Back to the grindstone!

What's that flashing red light?

2009-01-28T08:07:00.003-07:00

That was the first thought I had when I encountered a flashing red bicycle light. And of course since that's where I was looking, I instinctively started veering toward the cyclist. I did realize I was dangerously close and moved away, unlike the new black Volvo wagon as I was riding home last night. I'm working on reading license plates as they zoom away since that might come in handy one day. I fully expect to get hit every time I get on my bike.

I love my flashing light. I used the "blink" setting this morning as I was wearing a grey hoody on a foggy morning. The "KITT" setting is my personal favorite though. That was Michael Knight's (J didn't know that was David Hasselhoff, so I'm telling you in case you don't know either) car from Knight Rider with the flashing red lights.

I really need to get a high visibility/highly reflective vest to wear while riding. They're not expensive and can come in handy at other times: walking at night, jogging, working on a car by the roadside, working an autocross, decoy while being chased at night, etc...

Ah, also J and I went to see "Slumdog Millionaire" which we both really enjoyed it and as Abbi the Curly Comedienne commented, it's like visiting India without the plane ride and mass of people. J mentioned last night that it was directed by Danny Boyle (who also directed Trainspotting, one of my favorite movies) and Loveleen Tandan. Danny also directed 28 Days Later, which I enjoyed. Super fast zombies are awesome.

Don't call my escorts whores!

2009-01-26T08:56:00.002-07:00

- Gob Bluth played by the riotous Will Arnett from Arrested Development.

Writing is. It's officially crunch time and I will become a hermit except for this Saturday's party. Home, work, grocery store. That's about it. We did go see a matinee of Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday. Amazing movie and if you've never seen real abject poverty, prepare yourself. It's pretty hardcore. J mentioned that people were offended at how they portrayed India. I don't see how you can get upset at the truth. It's like me being offended that someone portrayed America as a place where education isn't valued, teenagers become parents, and the masses toil for the rich elite. I might be offended but that doesn't mean it isn't the truth.

I lost some weight and gained it back over the weekend. Dammit. Such a vicious cycle.

At least Obama repealed the "Global Gag Rule". Hooray! Sorry fetuses!

What else am I going to do? Stay here and learn?!?!?!

2009-01-23T09:52:00.002-07:00

-E.L. played by Seann William Scott in Road Trip

Yes we're watching more of our DVDs now that we have no TV. I still haven't tried cramming a wire in the back for broadcast, but that wouldn't work in a few months anyway. Also most TV is available for free online. J and I watched 2 episodes of "The Colbert Report" at Super Bi-Lo yesterday. Thanks to Fosters for the few commercials!

J and I worked out our "Worst Case Scenario" last night. Basically if I graduate and can't find a job we get to "boomerang" back into her parent's house in Orlando, find any job we can, save up money while we both look for real jobs and then move out. We would stash our stuff in storage up here and the cats might have to live at J's brother's house because her dad is pretty crazy allergic although he hasn't been around our cats, so that remains to be seen. Seriously last time we were down there I pet a neighborhood cat and his eyes watered halfway to the airport just with my fingers being inside the car. But that cat was hairy and dirty, very unlike our sweet kittehs.

Crunch time

2009-01-22T07:23:00.002-07:00

We're entering crunch time. I've been focusing a bit too much on background and introduction and will now almost solely focus on my results and conclusions. Background and intro is important but not more important than MY results!

J is doing well. She's looking forward to quitting her job. I'm looking forward to finding one. We're both looking forward to moving out of SC and the South. It's time for a change.

I've been much better about my diet. I've lost some weight and want to lose more and keep it off. Fat people don't get job offers, okay they do but not as many.

My newly ($200!) tuned-up bike will help me keep the weight off and take more off.

I wish I had the time and knowledge to fix the bike myself. I'm going to need to ride A LOT to work that $200 off in gas. But now that my bike is almost as good as new, that shouldn't be too hard.

If you see a guy on a red bike with silver baskets on the back and a matte metallic red helmet riding around Clemson, don't hit me! Or any other cyclists for that matter.

HOPE

2009-01-20T06:58:00.002-07:00

It's Barack "Hussein in the Membrane" Obama's big day! He will officially be sworn in at 11:30 am today. I'll be out at the research park but hopefully I can catch some of it online. Apparently Big Media is falling over itself to offer as much online coverage as they can.

J and I canceled DirecTV. We were paying about $82/month for TV and we went ahead and decided to turn it off since TV is a luxury and most TV is available online anyway. If only we could get our phone bill down. You're next AT&T. This bell tolls for thee.

I stick by that.

2009-01-16T07:43:00.002-07:00

I'm still boycotting Israeli products but did some reading to educate myself on the whole situation and maybe get closer to a solution. Here's a couple Op-Ed pieces by Thomas Friedman and Jeffrey Goldberg.

Basically Thomas suggests there are only two possible reasons for bombing Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza. One, to complete wipe Hamas out and probably many Palestinians in the process, or two, to over-react to Hamas attacks and kill at least 10 "terrorists" for each Isreali killed, taking a few women and kids with them, to convince Hamas (and Iran and other Islamic Death to Zionists) that Israel isn't going anywhere and to hopefully convince the Palestinian community to convince Hamas to stop bombing Israel and help them fix what little country they have.

The reason I'm boycotting Israeli goods is to convince Israel that might does not make right. And yes I'm looking at you too Mr. President-for-only-4-more-days.

My bike ride into work in high teen-low 20s wasn't too bad. I upgraded (J and I can't use that word anymore without thinking about Mike Judge's Idiocracy and the pimp named Upgrayedd played by Scarface) my gloves to my ski gloves, long sleeve shirt underneath my jacket, and ski goggles. My usual 2 layers on my legs would've been upgraded (hehe) to 3 layers if my ride was longer or had more downhills.

Also my stupid crankarm came loose again because it hates me but my bike goes into the shop tomorrow for an overhaul/tuneup and will be replaced. Serves it right.

Enjoy your weekend and I hope that warm weather front hits you soon!

Storm's coming Stu; his storm!

2009-01-15T09:38:00.003-07:00

- Old black lady from the TV adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand", Gary Sinise plays Stu if you were wondering

The cats were kicked out of our room last night. Foxy first, then Leon, then Foxy again. J and I went to sleep and I dreamed that I had a motorcycle. No defining characteristics but I seemed to dream it was used. I rode to the bank on a cloudy day and while I was there, the other customers and I watched the bank get hit by 3 tornadoes, the last one ripping off a front office and some of the roof.

If you see me pull up to your bank on a motorcycle on a cloudy day, it's probably best that you get the hell out of there.

The Big Stank in the West Bank

2009-01-14T07:31:00.002-07:00

The seemingly never-ending Palestine Vs. Israel conflict seemingly keeps getting worse and worse. I don't have a good solution but I don't think bombing every building in sight is the answer.

Obviously America's party line is to support Israel in everything they do no matter what. They're the only "democracy" in the Middle East. I wonder how they enforce their first amendment?

In protest of Israel bombing Palestine and by the same accord Palestine bombing Israel, I will be boycotting all Israeli and Palestine goods. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for Palestine, they don't produce many (if any) so my boycott will mainly focus on Manischewitz, motzah balls, and probably anything else in the Kosher section of the local grocer. Although I did just see that Manischewitz is headquartered in New Jersey, so they're probably okay. Here's an Israli goods website. And here is the boycott Israeli goods website with a list of American companies who invest in Israel (and it's quite a list, Ben & Jerry's!) Here's another nicer boycott site.

I left my ski mask in Focus last night, J took it to work, and my face was freezing on the ride to work. It's only going to get colder in the morning, so I'm gonna need that back.

Costco

2009-01-12T11:54:00.002-07:00

J and I had brunch with friends, then went to Costco. I had never been but heard rumors. They were all true. It makes Sam's Club look like a truck stop swap meet. The produce was gorgeous and cheap, although I did feel bad for buying 2 lbs. of Chilean blueberries, they were only $4!

Their liquor store was pretty awesome too but they didn't have any of the comically huge bottles. They stopped at liter bottles and really wanted a massive 1.75 L bottler of Gran Marnier or Jagermeister. Oh well, guess I'll have to stick with regular liquor stores for those behemoths.

Of course then J reminded me of the Costco scene from Idiocracy and it made me sad.

For brunch however, I made (what we're calling and might actually be called) ho cakes. 2 cups of self-rising cornmeal, 1 cup of sugar (or less to taste), 1 cup of hot water. That's it. We played around a bit with the amount of water but it was all delicious. No syrup needed for these sweet cakes but our friends' fruit salad on top was just what it needed. And some bacon. Simple and delicious.

Then we threw down on some Mario Kart Wii. I did okay but there is definitely a learning curve. As soon as I'm done writing and defending, it will be mine.

Hope you have a great week!

One Thousand!

2009-01-09T08:17:00.003-07:00

It's finally here! Quadruple digit post count! Hooray!

Not many people like slavery. Some people even think slavery is dead. I have some bad news. According to a few groups, there are actually more slaves today than there have been in the past. Some people focus on sex slaves, but in Uttar Pradesh in India, there seems to be entire towns that are slaves via the old indentured servitude route.

One survivor, Somaly Mam, has started a foundation to help these modern day slaves by educating them and teaching them a trade, like craftwork or cosmetology. Nicholas D. Kristof wrote an Op-Ed column for the NY Times about sex tourism in Southeast Asia.

Here is a story by Dan Harris about how to buy a child slave in 10 hours. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and the people trade is alive and well.

Legalized prostitution is a possible solution to this problem, but that's a bit too crazy for people to hear.

Use your imagination for the "After" pic

2009-01-07T08:11:00.002-07:00

Yes I shaved. Yes pictures were taken but I forgot an "after". Not that that one is hard to get since "after" also happens to be "right now".

Getting food and beverages stuck in the stache is not missed, but I do miss playing with it and waxing it up in the morning. And the general nostalgic feeling I got from seeing that handlebar in the mirror. The few disadvantages are absolutely worth it. Do it. Grow a mustache, a stache, a mo. Especially if you've never tried. Trim it only a tad for a month or 2. I think it was around month 3 where it really started curling and coming in to its own. If you can't grow a handlebar, don't worry. There's lots of different types.

J and I went to the Clemson/Alabama men's basketball game last night. Clemson is now 15-0 and one of the few remaining undefeated teams left. The real conference challenges are still coming though.

Without further adieu:
Before

Before

Before

During

You can hold up a finger over the half-stache to get the after. My idea was to go as a half-man/half-woman with a half-stache for Halloween. Sew together a suit and dress, stick on half a wig, but it didn't happen. It's still a good idea.

Also, you view larger photos right here.

I just blue myself.

2009-01-06T07:18:00.003-07:00

- Tobias played by the hilarious David Cross from Arrested Developement

I rode to work in the rain again. J and I might be moving to Portland, so I figure I better get used to it. It's not so bad except for steep downhills where your speed propels stinging water droplets onto your face.

We "borrowed" (and returned) a neighbor's bike the other day for a J&S bike ride. [edit: I guess some back story is involved here and also a tip to number dial bike chain users. The bike I bought had a dial chain with it but it seemed pretty crappy and flimsy so I upgraded to a 6 footer with a key. But I did remember Subaru saying that it was only one number away from the right number, so when I ran across our neighbor's nice bike with a dial chain, I tried out that trick to see if it was common. Yep!] It was a lot of fun and can't wait to get J's bike from Orlando. She also has some furniture there which would be cool to bring up here. Getting it here is the only problem.

The other bike was very nice. I wasn't super crazy about the twist gear changes. The brakes were very nice, basically they're a step up from the old school inverted V brakes, but just below the hardcore radial brakes. The seat had springs in it which made it a tad wobbly in turns but otherwise was nice. It had a nice relaxed handlebar position, which I'm looking into a bit. The thing that really blew me away was the tires. They were not as thick as mountain bike (MTB) tires but weren't as super thin as road bike tires. They really cut down on the rolling resistance. I'm thinking those would make an awesome birthday present.

The local bike shop quoted me $125 for a tune-up. That would replace the chain, rear cassette (back gears), brake pads, true the wheels, replace the cables and the crankarm (what the pedal sits in) that is bent and loosens periodically. Sounds like a pretty good deal considering I could do all that myself but I'm a tad busy with writing. He said it would be almost as good as new and since it's an older bike, it is less likely to get stolen. Honestly I'm not super worried about it being stolen. I have a super beefy bike chain that I generally run through the frame and my basket and sometimes through the rear wheel, and around the bike rack of course. I figure if anyone really super wants my dirty old front wheel, they can have and give me an excuse to get new tires and wheels!

Group meeting went well yesterday. Our new group member seems to be working out but it's only her second "official" day.

Oh, I almost made it to school with pictures, but I changed into my waterproof pants for the ride here and left the memory card in my comfy pants at home. Doh! Clean shaven Seth pics coming either tonight or tomorrow. Promise.

Happy 2009!

2009-01-02T14:15:00.001-07:00

It is gone. Pics coming.

Sometimes you just have to grab on to that brownish area by its points and you don't let go no matter what your mom says!

2008-12-29T09:22:00.002-07:00

- Buster as portrayed by the wonderful Tony Hale, and no I'm not just saying that because we graduated from the same university, from the first season of Arrested Development.

Back at work today. We came home from Alabama late Saturday. Drove down Thurs. morning with shockingly little traffic and some wicked fast speeders (seriously, at time I was going 80 getting passed very quickly, there was a red dealer plate Corvette in ATL doing triple digits easy), had lunch and presents with Mom's family, then drove to Dad's mom to spend a couple days. It was very relaxing and a great time was had by all.

On the way home, we purposely went the long way from Northish Alabama through Marietta to stop at the infamous Marietta Diner from Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-ins & Dives". The wait wasn't bad at 20 minutes on a busy Sat. night at around 8 pm. The interior was very warm, both aesthetically and temp-wise. The menu is massive with pretty much anything you can thing of from breakfasts to homemade Greek entrees. J went with the Greek platter and I stuck with the pastichio. Everything was outstanding and as we were waiting, we even saw the owner (who I recognized from the show) help out and bus a table. That is always a good sign of someone who cares. Huge portions and everything made from scratch and delicious! If you're ever outside the perimeter of ATL on the northwest side, I would definitely recommend stopping by.

We got home and unwrapped our Christmas presents to each other. The fenders for my bicycle should come in handy and now I can at least entertain the option of riding to school in the rain or wet. No I didn't ride in today. Just didn't feel like it and plus Parking Services won't be back until Jan. 5th, so it's a parking free-for-all on campus!

Do you have any plans for New Year's?

Almost there, almost there....

2008-12-23T14:17:00.002-07:00

I have spent the day galavanting around Greenville, taking J to the doctor's, dropping her off at work again, picking up prescriptions and generally killing time and working. Whole Foods in Greenville opens at 8 am and has free Wi-fi if anyone was wondering.

After lunch, I went to the mall which was pretty crowded considering some people are still at work this week. Brookstone willingly exchanged $30 for a LED magnifying glass for the grandparents. Hmmm, I wonder if that needs batteries. Better check, I hate receiving gifts only to have to scrounge the house for batteries; I don't want to be that gift giver. J has really turned me into a better gift giver. The little hints and tips that people drop, I've started picking up on those. It makes getting them gifts much easier.

This year we're highlighting local products. Split Creek Farms had some lovely goat milk soap that will be great in our "Local Products" gift bags. They also had some massive Great Pyrenees to protect the goats and they were the first of the breed that J or I had ever met before. Nice but their size made them a bit intimidating, so we channeled Cesar Milan for some calm assertive energy.

Happy Cow Creamery had some great preserves and cheeses to complete the bags. J wanted to put the gifts in baskets but if we can't find those, then reuseable grocery bags will be great substitutes, and eco-friendly of course, which is the whole point of highlighting local products: to spur our family to investigate their own local products. I'm sure there are some wonderful farms not too far from Birmingham. It's freakin' Alabama for farm's sake!

If I don't see you all before Thursday, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Festive Kwanzaa, Blissful Festivus, or a Transcendent HumanLight!

Only 6 more to go!

2008-12-19T07:21:00.003-07:00

Unfortunately I'm not talking about pages in my dissertation. It's still a work in progress. But it's 6 more posts to 1,000! I'll be sure to let you know when that happens. Maybe then I'll actually update my template and spruce up this place. Yes, you're right, that won't happen until I'm done writing and maybe even not until after my defense.

I rode into work today and yesterday. It's been unseasonably warm all week but it is up in the low 70's today. Very strange.

So here are my first few commuting to work on a bicycle tips:
1) Take an extra shirt. You will get sweaty and stinky no matter what the temperature is.
2) If you carry more than a small backpack, get some baskets. I pimped my bike with two metal baskets on the back that screw into the frame so they're beefy and easily swallow up my messenger bag and J's laptop bag. A bungee cord is a great way to strap everything down while jumping off of curbs. Yes, I found that out the hard way.
3) Get some lights and reflectors. Trek makes a really cool 7 LED rear light that I opted for over their 3 LED rear light. More light cannot be a bad thing especially given my penchant for wearing dark clothing while night riding. I haven't picked up a reflective vest yet but I have my eye on something like these. There are lots of options for headlights but since I already owned a headlamp that wasn't seeing lots of use, I put the headlamp on my helmet. It's quickly removable and the light is up higher making me more visible and allowing me to move the light as easily as turning my head. Plus you feel like a spelunker.
4) Get some fenders. I found a set for $25 and it will hopefully be my Christmas present. Riding in the rain is in my future but for now it would be nice to ride in the wet and not get goopy rain water flung into my mouth.
5) Obviously get a serious lock and helmet. Both will come in handy and hopefully you'll never really need to use either.

Currently my plan is to use this bike for the time being and slowly upgrade parts. Hopefully I can upgrade parts that will carry over to a new bike when that time comes. I realized today I have 6 gears on the back whereas most current bikes have 7-9. Working on bikes is much easier than cars and far less expensive. Healthier too. I love not buying gas to get to work and exercising on my way there.

I'll be around early next week but no other co-workers will be here. It will be lonely writing for Seth.

Blogger friends have been found on Facebook and then friended.

I'm planning on buying some stocks with our meager savings and try to use this recession as a buying opportunity like all the rich fat cats do. Yes I'll probably buy some Apple because they are awesome and I am white.

I spoke with my friend who is a new dad and it was lots of fun but I was the first to tell him that Charlton Heston and Michael Crichton are both gone. His daughter is fine though.

Thank you Bettie Page

2008-12-12T13:24:00.002-07:00

You have provided me some great times and you will be missed. I hope you inspire many strong independent women.

LA Times article

Exams!

2008-12-09T08:34:00.002-07:00

It's exams week, so campus is dead but the library is packed!

It rained today so I took the CATbus to school instead of my bicycle.

Focus is getting the new header, timing belt and water pump on Wed. or Thurs.

I'm worried about finding a job, but also excited to move on.

I bought some of these from Photojojo and can't wait to make something.

Science writing isn't horrible but I don't want to do tons of it for the rest of my life (i.e. no patent law in my future).

I love our real Christmas tree! Cut it down with my bare hands (around a saw) then J and I carried it back to the car. Great family tradition. Urban families might have to do some serious driving for this same experience, but it's worth it.

You're being so obtuse.

2008-12-08T07:45:00.002-07:00

From the wonderful "Shawshank Redemption", and in case you were wondering how Stephen King's novella was different from the movie. I didn't know it was based on a Stephen King story either until Cynical Chris clued me in.

I ran across this last week. It's a "find the next American rally driver" search. They're running it out of the rally school down in Starke, FL. I'm seriously thinking about going. It's going to be $350 for entry plus gas, food and I'll probably camp to save money if I go. Maybe I can convince J to make that my Christmas present. We'll see. I still have plenty of writing to do before I can even think about something like that.

I won our college football pick against the spread competition, so I win bragging rights. Hopefully I can repeat last year's bowl pick'em victory with this year's round of bowl games.

Writing is coming along. I'll be taking a break to replace Focus' exhaust manifold (because the current one is cracked) and also the timing belt and water pump. This will be the first time I ever actually crack open an engine even if it is just the valve cover (that plastic piece on top of the engine, no not that big removable one, the one below that). Speaking of which I hate those big plastic engine covers. They're so stupid and pointless. I think they're supposed to make the engine bay look nicer, but really just get in the way.

My friend called last week and asked some car advice. His car had been running bad for about a month. It just started running rough all of a sudden. He replaced the PCV valve and various other easy accesible inexpensive parts that probably should've been replaced anyway. I suggested that it might be his timing belt slipped and his timing was off, making it run poorly. Thinking about it the next day, I remembered that it might also be a bad spark plug. I called him back and it turns out that he melted one of his spark plug cables, so sometimes he was on 4 cylinders and sometimes he was running 3. Thankfully that is a very easy fix.

Crap. Just saw that my 30 library books are all overdue. Time to go see if I can weasel out of a steep fine.

Keep on keeping on

2008-12-05T07:38:00.003-07:00

Not much has been happening with the blog recently. I'm still going to keep it up though. I like it and still enjoy blogging.

Writing is coming along. I'm focusing on one chapter at a time now, so they should start being cranked out now. It's taken long enough. Also the job search will officially start. I'll work on my resume and CV this weekend so I can start sending them out and look for my first real job.

Happy Friday everyone and Merry Weekend!

Yes I'm still riding my bike into work. I haven't resorted to full face coverage yet since it is usually in the 30s-40s for the morning commute.

Bloody Friday

2008-12-01T08:17:00.002-07:00

In honor of Black Friday, J and I eschewed our consumer responsibilities and went hiking. We did a loop of about 5 miles, it was moist, cool and very nice. One section of trail was actually one of the earliest roads between North and South Carolina. I haven't heard any stories of Black Friday deaths or injuries around here but I haven't been looking for them either.

Cynical Chris found a few: Xbox Wal-Mart scramble, and the death of a Wal-Mart worker who was trampled to death by maniacal bargain shoppers. So please keep the family of Jdimytai Damour, 34, in your thoughts.

Also keep everyone in Mumbai in your thoughts as they deal with the recent terror attacks. Photos from The Big Picture.

We did go shopping a bit on Saturday and we didn't even have to kill anyone.

I'll give you something for which to be thankful!

2008-11-25T13:23:00.002-07:00

Does that title make sense? I originally had "I'll give you something to be thankful for" but in an attempt to not end sentences with a preposition, I changed it to that. Here is what Doc Durden has to say about it.

Writing is coming along but another student just gave his final seminar so it's now a race to see who gets done first. This sucks and I'm gonna have to kick it into overdrive if I want to finish before him and in a reasonable amount of time. Thank goodness it's a holiday and I stay at home and write.

J and I will be going to the Westin in Greenville for their Turkey Day buffet so we don't have to wash dishes or cook. I like to cook but the dishes blow, so we're giving this a shot. Of course I'll have a review and maybe some pictures. No promises on the pictures.

I might have a post tomorrow. I'll be carpooling to work with J and then going to Barnes and Noble or somewhere to write and use their wi-fi.

Safe travels and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

My brain goo is comin' out all artistical thanks to you!

2008-11-21T10:52:00.002-07:00

-Moe when Lisa arranges his post-it note snippets into a poem from the Moe 'N'a-Lisa episode of the Simpsons

The 3rd Triple Threat Challenge happened again today. For the past two occurrences please go here and here. The Fernow cheerleader is plying all those standing in line to try the Triple Threat; a small tower of a burger at 3 patties and 3 bun pieces. I went simple although the guy in front of me upped the ante with bacon, but I knew to enter drawing for the $50 gift card, you only had to finish the basic burger, no bonus points for getting fancy. Meat, cheese, buns, ketchup and mustard. Before I tucked in for the eating, I got a couple extra ketchups and a BBQ sauce. The condiments really help it go down and cover the forcefed saturated fat laden beef I would be eating. Yet again, splitting it up into a open-faced single patty and a full double burger worked like a charm. I checked out about the same time as another competitor and was done by the time he was halfway through because I wasn't stretching my jaw with every bite. My friends estimated about 6 minutes. Sounds about right; it didn't stand a chance.

The Triple Threat is a big burger if you hadn't ever heard of a 20x20 at In'n'Out burger or the other massive burgers out there (like Denny's Beer Barrel Pub SIX pound burger).

Ever feel like you have too much blood?

2008-11-19T07:23:00.003-07:00

Sometimes I do. So I just get rid of it! There are organizations that will gladly remove your blood for you and in return, you get drinks, snacks and a free T-shirt! Usually the t-shirt design sucks but the fact that it is long sleeved and orange more than makes up for it.

Yes J and I donated blood yesterday. I think J does it to help people and I do it for free stuff. I just wish there was a plasma donation center closer, that and sperm are where the big bucks are. Ladies, selling your eggs brings in about $3000 a pop and it would take a lot of meat beating and blood-letting for us to catch up to that. Also I hear if you ever need a blood transfusion, they don't charge regular blood donors for the blood, so another bonus. They are still very prejudiced against gay men though; one of the questions is still "have you ever had sexual contact with a man, even once" and if you answer yes, bam no blood for you, although you might get a sympathy t-shirt.

This blood drive is the annual U of South Carolina/Clemson University blood drive which proceeds the intensely heated rivalry football game (which is actually next weekend but you know, Thanksgiving = no students). It seems that whenever we "lose" the blood drive, we win the football game, but we'll see what happens this year if the Clemson Tigers can whoop up on the South Carolina Gamecocks.

My bike ride into work this morning was brisk, upper 20s brisk, but with my trusty long johns, and winter coat, I was more than prepared. You never really notice elevation changes too much while driving but you get lots of time to ponder inclines while cycling. The one in front of our house is brutal. So far I've only had to walk up it the very first time but it isn't getting much easier. Also I've been pimping my bike (much like this guy) and have added rear baskets, a serious bike chain, and a rear light with a very wicked Knight Rider setting and I'm not talking the shitty new show on NBC. So far I have only ridden at night once but with my fancy LED rear light, my headlamp strapped to my helmet and a light colored shirt, I felt moderately safe. I've been looking for a reflective vest and tape to really make myself stand out for any future night riding. Oh, I also would like a rear view mirror thing on my helmet so I don't have to look over my shoulder; I seriously almost ate it the first time I did that.

Of course since I am me, I have been dreaming about moving much farther up the bicycle scale from my current $40 bike to a sweet carbon fiber bad boy similar to this one but I barely have one thousand dollars sitting around let alone the twelve of thousands that bikes costs. I figure lugging around all this non carbon fiber aluminum will help me get into shape faster.

I hadn't had too many encounters with cars yet, other than a few tires crossing the bike lane line ahead of me and making me super extra wary of most drivers, when this morning a silver Toyota 4Runner decides that it doesn't want to stop behind the white line but keep rolling, and rolling, never mind their light is red, but they were almost blocking the bike lane, so I moved over a bit and gave their hood a pat that really sounded like I threw a brick at her truck.

I of course do not condone vandalizing other people's cars. In fact, much like Vincent, John Travolta's character in Pulp Fiction, I consider it to be one of the lowest acts you can do. The only thing I'm okay with is letting the air out of people's tires. They aren't out any money, just time and a major inconvenience. They don't have to get a new paintjob, or replace their tires, they just need some air; anything else is just wrong. Much like this douchebag.

Okay, off to keep writing!

Writing

2008-11-17T10:59:00.001-07:00

Still writing. It's getting a bit easier but it's still a big project that is taking a massive amount of time.

Happy Monday!

Still think there is good in everyone?

2008-11-14T07:26:00.003-07:00

I'm always amazed by people who think that there is good in everyone. Nope. That's wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Some people are just pure evil. If some people are pure good (they're out there) then it of course makes sense that some people are pure evil.

To prove my point, here is a video from CNN about a 6 week old kitten who was being kicked like a football by teenagers in Kingland, Georgia. Fortunately for the kitten, someone saw it, rescued the kitten and took him to Dr. Michael Payne of the Laurel Oaks Animal Hospital. He diagnosed a severely dislocated shoulder and extensive nerve damage and had to amputate the kitten's front right leg. Story from Jacksonville, FL News 4. Here is little Polly aka Tripod:

Personally I would love to adopt a tripod cat or dog. They're just so cute and really loveable, just like a dog from the pound they know that they were in trouble and you saved them. Friend for life.

This also brings to light why J should not be an animal cop. She is a strong believer in the "eye for an eye" policy when it comes to animal abuse. You kicked and threw a kitten like a football? We're going to kick and throw you like a football. You chained a dog outside and didn't give it water or food for 2 weeks? Now you get to experience that. Good luck.

She has no sympathy for bad pet owners and people who mistreat animals. As she repeatedly says, abusing animals is one strong precursor to abusing and killing people. Here's a couple links to studies with very strong evidence.

If you wouldn't do it to a human, don't do it to an animal. And if you would do it do an animal or human, please raise your hand so we can take you into custody.

Eco-Garages

2008-11-12T07:53:00.003-07:00

Personally I think one stop shops are the way to go, assuming you use the space efficiently. Drop your motorcycle off at the mechanic, grab a beer and a sandwich, email, blog, maybe get a tattoo? Doesn't that sound like a great idea? Well if you live in Oakland, CA, you can go there today! It's called Godspeed and it's a motorcycle shop, dyno, gear store, cafe/bar, and tattoo parlor all rolled into one! (Although on a very sad note a dear friend to their garage Norton Aaron passed away recently. Please keep his friends and family in your thoughts.)

This one isn't a one stop shop but is definitely an ecogarage. Luscious Garage specializes in hybrids (probably Priuses but I assume they do others like Camrys, Escapes, Vues and the new Honda Insight) and do tune-ups, repairs and even convert them to all electric. They have a range of 12-15 miles of all electric but considering most trips are within 2 miles of your house, that's a decent range. It's also the only hybrid garage run by a woman and that woman is Carolyn Coquillette. NYTimes article via San Francisco Journal by Felicity Barringer.

Yes both of these garages are in the Bay Area in Cali, but hopefully this will catch on in other areas. I think it's a very ecofriendly use of a business and space as well. It's also insulated a bit from one general area. Especially considering motorcycles are a summer heavy industry, the cafe could still be open year-round and making money.

Almost forgot, if you're near Godspeed on a Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm, they do an all you can eat waffle and bacon brunch featuring a never-ending mimosa. Sounds like heaven!

Thank You Veterans!

2008-11-11T07:02:00.003-07:00

Be sure to thank the men and women who made this country what it is! I specifically thank my Uncle who served in Vietnam and both grandfathers who served in World War II. Of course also Dr. Sean at Doc in the Box for keeping our men and women healthy on the front lines. Thank you all for selflessly serving this country.

Cynical Chris posted this link to Boston's The Big Picture blog, which, if you haven't visited please kick yourself, is a collection of unbelievable pictures from around the world. But it has inspired me to pursue research in Antarctica! I know J would like to observe penguins and seals, I could help with ice core samples or wherever a set of hands and a sharp mind is needed, and we would both love the other-worldly setting of Antarctica. I just saw that you get a medal for being below 60 degrees South for 30 days straight, so I think that means it's really tough both physically and mentally. Of course a short position would definitely help with the cats since I don't think they would like the South Pole and also wouldn't like being in some strange house for 6 months to a year. Yes I know, first things first and I have to graduate before that happens, but it would still be pretty awesome. The job search is starting to ramp up as the dissertation nears completion (no not that close yet) but I'm still just looking now, not actually applying.

So in that vein, back to writing!

Sometime you fondue, sometimes you fondont

2008-11-10T07:17:00.002-07:00

We bought some delicious cranberry cheddar from Whole Foods (via Vermont) in order to make fondue for a late anniversary dinner. We never got around to it but that should happen this week sometime.

I missed an autocross to write yesterday. It hurt but I performed quality work and am now closer to finishing and graduating.

I present in group meeting today and will show various positive results.

A co-worker, his wife, his wife's sister, her man, J and I all went hiking on Saturday. It was nice. I miss camping though. I would've loved to stay near our final destination, pitch a tent, scrounge for firewood, cook dinner over a fire, lay down, look at the stars and sleep in my comfy warm sleeping bag, instead of hiking back down the mountain, getting into a car and eating chicken fingers from Guthries.

Real post and pictures coming later this week. Feliz Monday everyone!

Feeling blue surrounded by red

2008-11-07T10:24:00.002-07:00

Hmmm, I'm trying to think of a good simile for that image but can't. Ice cube in Kool-aid? Blueberry in a cranberry bog?

Our county voted for McCain by 72%. They voted 78% Bush in 2004, so I guess some GOPers came to their senses or lots of Obama supporters came out of the woodworks. J has encountered some fellow Obama supporters at work.

Lunchtime! Back to finish later.

Last things first

2008-11-06T07:40:00.003-07:00

We bought the cats an early Christmas present! 6 feet of cat insanity! Check it:

That would be around $300-$500 in a store and we got it for much less than that on eBay of course!

To recap the last race of the 2008 F1 season, first a little background. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro is ahead in the manufacturer's championship followed closely by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. (Got to keep those sponsors happy!) Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Mercedes is ahead in the driver's championship by 7 points over Ferrari's Felipe Massa. The only way Felipe can win is if he finishes first, and Lewis finishes 6th or lower, or if Felipe finishes 2nd, if Lewis finishes 8th or lower, so it's basically Lewis' championship to lose but Felipe is racing in front of his hometown crowd in Sao Paolo, Brazil! He literally grew up racing go-karts in the shadow of the race track they will race on. Qualifying is going well with fast times being traded back and forth in the 2nd session. But in the third session, you cannot add fuel to the car so you must start the race with that amount of fuel on board, so the cars are slower and strategy is all important.

Felipe qualifies on pole! In front of thousands of screaming Brazilians! And his family! Jarno Trulli does an amazing job for Panasonic Toyota to get 2nd. Kimi Raikkonen (Felipe's teammate) puts his Ferrari right behind Felipe in 3rd. The Mercedes boys are right behind them in 4th and 5th for Lewis and Heikki Kovaleinen. The amazing young German Sebastian Vettel puts his Ferrari powered Red Bull in 7th and proceeds to have an amazing race. His teammate Sebastian Bourdais starts in 9th and doesn't have a great race.

The race start is delayed because of an out of nowhere storm that soaks the front stretch and starting grid, so the FIA pushes the start back so the teams can put on some rain tires. But then the race starts and poor David Coulthard, in his last career race after 246 F1 starts, was knocked out by a combo of Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima both of AT&T Williams Toyota. In the following interview David commented on how he started his F1 career with Williams and it was kind of fitting that they would end his career too. His car wore a special livery (the car color and sponsors) that all the teams OK'd for the race to support the Wings for Life spinal cord research foundation. Tough break DC and good luck next year commenting for British TV. Hopefully you can maybe do a guest appearance for SpeedTV's coverage so we can hear your charming Scottish brogue once again.

The race progresses and Felipe is off like a bandit with Jarno and Kimi in hot pursuit. Lewis is chugging along in 4th. Everyone is on dry tires now and at 17 laps left, I think the race is over with Felipe winning but Lewis winning the championship. Then the weather report comes in. Rain in the next 10 minutes. Everyone waits for the rain and see who will flinch first and dive into the pits for wet tires. There they go! Most everyone pits and Felipe retains his lead. The Toyota boys, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, stay out on their dry tires in hopes that the rain stays soft and then can eek their way to a couple higher positions. Everyone comes back out but wait! With Timo Glock not pitting, he's now in 4th, which means Lewis Hamilton is in 5th and that is the lowest position he can finish and still win the driver's championship. No big deal, but here comes Sebastian Vettel in his Scuderia Toro Rosso! He's in 6th and chasing Lewis down. There are 4 laps left and Sebastian gets by! Lewis got stuck behind some lap traffic and Sebastian pounced! Lewis is now losing the championship! Sebastian tries to pull away but Lewis keeps it close. 4 laps left, 3 laps left, 2 laps left, white flag, one lap left! Lewis NEEDS to get by Sebastian. The rain is starting to pick up which suits their rain tires just fine but where is Timo? He's still on dry tires and is struggling to stay in 4th. Lewis must get by, he must. Sebastian rounds the last turn before the long pedal to the metal (or carbon fiber) straight away followed closely by Lewis, but who is that white and red car slip sliding around? It's Timo!

Lewis passes Timo on the absolute last corner to regain 5th position and the world championship. I was on the edge of my seat with my mouth agape. I couldn't believe what I was watching. Unbelievable season for Lewis Hamilton and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes so congratulations to him and congratulations to Ferrari for they won the manufacturer's championship and can still claim to be world champs.

Good luck practicing in the off-season, hiring and firing drivers, and developing cars for the new 2009 rules. See you in March in Australia!

Congratulations Barack Obama and Joe Biden!

2008-11-05T09:09:00.001-07:00

Happy 2nd Anniversary to J and Seth!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-04T09:34:00.003-07:00

Ha, almost forgot to post that, and we're planning a lovely date night for Friday and then there will be homemade fondue on Sat. 2 years of marriage is delicious!

As I was running errands this morning, I swung by East Clemson Baptist Church to scope out the line. It was barely out the door and I didn't feel like waiting, so I went back to the bank which hadn't opened yet and then to school. About an hour of work and then back to vote! Of course my plan of not waiting was ruined because the line was about twice as long. I also couldn't help but notice all the signs at the entrance to the polling place. I need to check and see what the law is, so those might be okay but there was a McPalin sign at the far edge of the parking lot, like someone had measured the night before. I took my(okay J's) Obama magnets off the car as I parked in fact, just to make sure I wasn't breaking any rules. Waiting in line wasn't bad. The sun was shining, a nice cool breeze was blowing and people were chatting in line. They found my name, okayed me for voting in the local elections and then powered up my touch screen voting booth. I actually skipped the presidential and voted for senate first. I wrote in Brian "Ryan B" Doyle for Congressman, Bob Conley for Senator and then went back to President. I really like Ralph Nader and would love to see him as President, but J wanted me to vote Obama and I almost did since his grandmother died yesterday. In the end I went with my 2nd choice of Bob Barr because I wanted to vote 3rd party to protest how influential corporations have become in governing this country and the 2 party system plays right into that. However, if Obama loses SC by one vote, feel free to hold me accountable. I'm pretty sure McCain has it in the bag though.

J will hopefully be voting tonight. I'm meeting her at home at 5:15 and then going to our old polling place because when she updated her license, she forgot to double check that they updated her voting registration, which they did not. You have to watch those DMV people like a hawk!

It's going to be an exciting election. Oh, one older lady I was talking to after I shared the story about the 106 yr. old black lady in Georgia who voted for Obama, said that one of her friends wanted to vote and "make history". She said she didn't care about history and just wanted to live (which to me said McCain and old white lady in SC, that's a safe bet), but it was a nice talk before we voted.

Tomorrow, congrats on the election and recap of the last race of the F1 2008 season and the new champion!

Post in the works!

2008-11-03T07:28:00.001-07:00

Feliz Dia de los Muertos!

2008-11-01T00:04:00.002-06:00

I did zero exciting things for Halloween.

I rode my bike to school twice this week, drove the other 3.

Writing is still coming along and it will come along much more tomorrow bright and earlyish.

We're hiking somewhere on Sunday.

I wrote at home today and it was very nice. The cats enjoyed it and I did too until the cats got on my nerves with their constant attention cravings.

J and I really enjoyed the university's climbing wall competition on Thursday because they put up all new routes and problems. Of course Fall Break is Monday and Tuesday so we won't be able to climb again for free until next Thursday. Jerks.

I'm going to go upstairs and get some sleep before writing tomorrow and then some college football, the Georgia/Florida game to be specific.

Hopefully I'll have some election coverage and my voting preview on Monday. Mostly local but I'll also highlight some big ballot initiatives around the country.

1946 feet straight up!

2008-10-27T07:34:00.004-06:00

J and I conquered Table Rock Mountain (3124 feet) yesterday. It's an elevation change of 1946 feet from the nature center where the Table Rock Trail starts. It is of course in Table Rock State Park, right off scenic SC 11. The trailhead sign says to allot between 2 and 3 hours one way. We did it in just under 2 hours. For reference a particularly in shape and virile Russian faculty member did it in 1.5 hours. We had lunch overlooking trees as far as you could see.

Yes my legs are a tad sore today, not as bad as I was expecting halfway up though. I also rode my "new to me" bike into work today. I paid $40 for a used Specialized Hard Rock and it's in pretty good shape. It could probably use some new tires and a decent cleaning but we can worry about that later. The derailleurs (metal things that change gears, pronounced de-rail-yours, thanks Clemson Cyclery!) work pretty well and I was shifting gears like mad.

The traffic was fairly heavy and I rode on the sidewalk for a bit but decided I should use the bike lanes and force the traffic to acknowledge my presence. Yes I was wearing a helmet. I would rather not but J told me horrible head injury statistics and I like my melon in one piece, plus it's another use for my all purpose skiing/climbing/bicycling helmet.

I need to work on luggage carrying capacity though. Ideally I would like to ride to the grocery store and pretty much anywhere in a 2 mile radius and the laptop, lunch and some papers pretty much maxed out my backpack. We'll see. It's okay for now and I need to prove to myself that I will use it regularly before I go dropping money into it. The locking chain and cordless air compressor I bought about equal the cost of the bike but I can use the air compressor for the car too so that evens out.

The last F1 race of the 2008 season is in Sao Paolo, Brazil which means it will be on at a reasonable hour! I'm guessing 11 am or noon on Sunday. The driver's championship is almost locked up by Lewis Hamilton but he has to finish the race Sunday in a decent position and Felipe Massa must win to even have a chance. Good thing Felipe likes racing in front of his home crowd.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Cynical Chris' Question of the Day

2008-10-24T08:58:00.002-06:00

Our dear friend Cynical Chris posed a QOTD last Thursday "What was your first job?" and received many answers because he has many readers.

My first job was working day care at our church. Then it was "Chip Shots Golf Photography" which was me taking pics of golfers swing and then a group shot, passing the film to a runner who got the pics developed, then we would put an individual pic and a group pic in a book type frame and sell it to the golfers. We mostly worked organized tournaments but the thing I remember most (aside from how big a scam and easy it was) was that on the way to my interview I wasn't paying attention and was headed towards a redlight at 40 mph in my turbo minivan. I slam on the brakes and spin my way into the intersection. Luckily it was a large interstate intersection so I had enough room to back up and wait for the light while people stared and drove around me.

My favorite job was room service at the Sheraton Civic Center. Lots of great stories which I will share later.

But the best response came from Cynical Chris' reader Johnny. Enjoy:

Flavorland…

I worked at Flavorland in the Clifton Country Mall (Clifton Park, NY) from ‘82-’85. It was taken over by Friendly’s around ‘84, if I recall correctly. The menu was pretty much a variation of the Friendly’s menu, anyway, so it wasn’t like it was a hard transition for us. We hated our new Friendly’s overlords, and most of us left or got fired within a year. Gonna see miss Liza, gonna go to Mississippi.

I started working there nights doing the dishes, then ended up as a fry cook (insert joke here), then on the rest of the line. Fabulous job. Used to take the garbage out at night with the other dishwasher and do whip-its from all the whipped cream empties we saved during the shift, or get high.

Friday nights were fish-fry night. Just bin after bin of haddock that you’d drench in flour, drown in a batter and heave into the fry-o-lator. Your hands would get so caked with batter that you’d be able to pull out the fried fish with your bare hands. Edible gloves dripping with scalding hot grease.

We had gloriously ugly red polo shirts with a yellow smiling sun over one breast. I would kill for one of those shirts now. You’d get a brown stain across the front where you’d rub up against the line cutting board or the dishwasher if you worked there long enough. Sure, you’d have an apron on over it but the grime would just seep right through, giving you that special stain that old, fat mechanics have on all their shirts. Sixteen year old kids with brown stains over distant-future beer guts.

One of the most heinous jobs you’d get stuck with was emptying the grease trap. In the back room where you’d toss the garbage and store the spent fryer oil was a metal trap door in the floor. Comparing it to the opening to Hell wouldn’t be hyperbole. You’d have to open the metal door, sometimes slippery with grease, and empty out the pit with a plastic sour cream tub into a mayonnaise bucket double-lined with clear plastic garbage bags. Why we used clear bags I’ll never understand, because if any of you have seen restaurant waste its really not something you’d want the public to see.

Anyway, all the Flavorland restaurant sinks emptied into a single sewer line. Grease floats, so the sewage would empty into the trap, the grease would float and the water-based shit would drain out from below this raft of grease, I guess into the Clifton Park sewer line. Six-hundred miles to the west of Clifton Park, and only six years earlier the Feds shut down and evacuated Love Canal. “We are breeding..monsters..”

So you’d get all this grease into four or five of these giant mayonnaise buckets lined with bags, and then you’d have to truck this crap through the mall to the other damn side of the mall where the dumpsters were. These were heavy-ass bags of grease and sewage and we were just skinny little punk dishwashers, either stoned or going mental on whip-its. The Man wanted the mayonnaise buckets back, so you’d sort of hoist the bags up to you shoulder like an olympic dead-lifter, then kind of heave/shot-put them up over the side of the dumpster. Sometimes you’d miss-heave and the bag would catch on the side of the dumpster, rip open and dump this sludge all over the place. Sometimes you’d heave and your arm would punch right through the bag covering you with sludge. In the 80s, minimum wage was $3.15.

The major winter-time draw at CCM at that time was the Boat Show. A great week for the Mall, but pretty much a mall employee’s Vietnam. We’d have people lined up out the doors wating for booths. These were nightmare shifts for the bussers/dishwashers and the fry cook. Really intense shifts that you’d hope wouldn’t go by too fast because when it ended you’d be cleaning up and doing the grease trap.

One bizarre phenomenon endemic to these family restaurants is the booth vomit. Kids are going to vomit. They’re kids. They eat too much, get too excited and puke. But, they never puke onto the table. They always jam their heads under the booth table and puke down there. So, the poor dishwasher has to go into this puke-cave with a dust pan, a bucket and a roll of paper towels, clean up the mess without puking himself, put the whole mess into a clear plastic garbage bag and carry it through the restaurant.

Flavorland.

Teas' Tea

2008-10-22T11:18:00.002-06:00

They had Teas' Tea on sale at Bloom the other day and they were barely over my single serve max tea price of $1 at $1.09, so I picked up a couple. Delicious! Unsweetened and brewed with loose leaf oriental teas. The teas are made and marketed by Ito En and made a national appearance on Entourage in Ari Gold's office (Jeremy Piven's character). I highly recommend picking up some of Teas' Teas.

Of course, the best way to make tea is to make it yourself. It's much much cheaper and YOU get to decide what type of tea you make. Can't find a good unsweetened chai tea? Brew it yourself! I have been on a British and Irish tea run so I've been brewing lots of Earl Grey, British Breakfast and Irish Tea, most of which are heavier black teas. The main difference between Teas' Teas and mine are that I don't add ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) to my teas. I eat enough veggies and fruit that I'm pretty safe from scurvy.

The Atlantic Online ran a story written by Jeffrey Goldberg about airport security with an interview of Bruce Schneier who is a security expert. Very very interesting and eye-opening. I've always thought the TSA wasn't doing anything but making lines longer at security checkpoints and there were still many holes (vulnerabilities) to our nation's airport security. One I've always noticed is the shocking lack of security at baggage claim. What is to prevent someone from stealing a bag or bringing a non-scanned bag into the airport? Not a
damn thing.

The writing is still coming along.

100,000 hits!

2008-10-20T06:39:00.003-06:00

Thanks to all my visitors for taking me over the 100,000 mark! Hooray!

Protege and Acura were here this weekend. They flew in from Texas (which is still recovering from Hurricane Ike) to come back and visit everyone. They have mostly been busy with work and renovating their "new to them" house. Parts sounded pretty gross. They installed some bamboo flooring themselves and it looked really nice.

We (minus J who was tired) went downtown and hung out with friends. Since I've been writing I haven't hung out with them socially probably since around July, so it was good having real conversations instead of short pleasant exchanges on campus.

There was talk about them trying to get tickets for the Georgia Tech/Clemson football game, but since we lost to Maryland and then Wake Forest, Clemson's ACC conference win and decent bowl game dreams have gone up in smoke. So we had a wonderfully relaxing Sat. afternoon (seriously I was the only one up before 10 am, well me and the cats) and I had a pleasant Sat. morning where I watched a little TV, straightened the house, walked Leon and then walked downtown to retrieve Tercel because I rode in (we have a paparazzi name for Protege and Acura in "real" life but what could their blog 'razzi name be? Pracura? Actege?) their rented white Sebring convertible since that last Wild Blue (by Blue Dawg Brewery in Baldwinsville, NY apparently bought out by Anheuser-Busch) was an 8% alcohol by volume doozy and I was in no condition to drive home. Yes I realize that I live in South Carolina and drinking and driving is just what people do here, but that doesn't make it right!

So I had a lovely stroll downtown (also side note: they don't allow overnight parking in the new fancy pants Clemson parking deck, so if there is a small chance your car won't make it home, park it on the street, walk, or take the CATbus) about a half hour before kick off. So I hop into Tercel, stop by Starbucks, call the house to see what everyone wants (large black iced coffee, small nonfat Mocha, and a small PSL for J) and then return home to fire up the grill. Flounder, salmon, zucchini, potatoes, all were deliciously and lovingly grilled by yours truly.

Relaxing, football, some F1 qualifying and then it was time for dinner. Actege treated us to sushi that was amazing. Protege commented that the bill wasn't bad but then remembered he was in backwoods SC where the cost of living is low especially compared with big city Houston. We came back and watched National Geographic's Giant Crystal Cave show which is truly freakin' unbelievable. More on that in another post.

Then we went to another friend's birthday party, drank, chatted, played with the dogs at the party, met some new people, then came home, woke up and our guests left. Thanks for visiting! And yes we will come to Houston as soon as we can.

Post previews:
Crystal Cave of the Giants
F1 China Qualifying (and race report once I watch it)
Writing update?
Stolen Obama magnet

Which reminds me that I saw John McCain's quote of "I like being the underdog" on CNN's front page. Uh John? You're an old white guy running for President in America, you'll never be the underdog.

Clemson University Entomology Club

2008-10-16T13:07:00.002-06:00

They had a sale today and I bought some honey! Hooray for local honey! Hooray for supporting student clubs! Hooray for bugs!

I forgot to ask if they eat bugs or know anyone who produces bugs to eat.

In an effort for equality, I looked around for some black supremacist groups. I'm pretty sure you can appreciate your culture and heritage without hate. I know I can; can you?

Fuck the Klan

2008-10-16T08:17:00.002-06:00

After the DVR was finished with Cesar Milan: Dog Whisperer (which is an awesome show and if you own a dog or want to own a dog you should be watching it. He knows dogs and as he says he rehabilitates dogs and trains people. Exercise, discipline and affection will keep you and your dog happy. Thanks Cesar!) it left the TV on the National Geographic channel.

The next show coming on was KKK: Inside American Terror. As someone who fights injustice,will possibly be bringing a mixed race child into this world, and a Southerner, I found this show very interesting. It did some brief history, which you can read on the wiki page, and then got into what they're currently up to with its estimated 3,000-8,000 members scattered around the country. The strangest part (okay, one of the strange parts) was that even within the KKK there is arguing. Some associate with neo-Nazi groups and want a worldwide effort towards white supremacy, other groups want to get more political and shy away from violence. That last bit was the other strange part. David Duke started to get more political and now claims he is not a white supremacist but is a white nationalist. This sect of the KKK shies away from the violence, promotes community and Christian values and (I'm assuming) segregation, since that is the only way for them to not see non-whites without killing them or shipping them back to their home lands. The new area of focus is now on illegal immigrants and Hispanic community. Yes they still hate Jews and Blacks and Orientals and Race Mixers, but their main focus is Latinos now. Thomas Robb is the leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a Baptist preacher. His group claims that other cultures are threatening their white culture and they don't hate other cultures they just REALLY like their culture. It's the kinder gentler face of the KKK. Peace Love and Bigotry, if you will. Oh also when they say they hate immigrants, I of course assume that they don't hate white immigrants since white people can go wherever they want. So the fact that the Indians were here first doesn't matter because they weren't white. I also wonder how they address the fact that there was a time when there were no white people, that we evolved from darker skinned people by moving away from the equator and lost our melanin.

What really hurt the Klan was their own actions. On March 20, 1981 in Mobile, Alabama, the Klan had a rally and burnt a 3 foot cross on the lawn of the Mobile County Courthouse. That night, the son of the 2nd highest ranking official in the Klan in Alabama, Henry Hays (26) and James Knowles (17) drove around looking for a black person to lynch. Michael Donald was walking back from the store after buying his sister some cigarettes when Henry and James drove up next to him. They beat him with a tree branch, slit his throat and hung him from a tree across from his house. Michael was 19 years old. Photo of what the KKK did to Michael. The police chalked it up to a drug deal gone bad, but with some national pressure, the FBI started investigating and finally James Knowles confessed to the crime. Henry Hays was convicted and was executed by electric chair on June 6, 1997. James Knowles is serving a life sentence without parole.

This story does have a small happy ending though. Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, brought a wrongful death suit on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, Michael's mother. They won their suit and were awarded $7 million, which forced the Klan to sell all its assets including their national headquarters in Tuscaloosa.

Also while watching this I realized that I myself am a bigot. I hate people who hate others based on something they can't control. You can't hate someone because of their skin color, or the language they speak, or any birth defects, because it isn't their fault. There was no choice in the matter. I didn't choose to be white, I am white. Trig Palin didn't choose to have Downs Syndrome, he just has it; no choice.

We must be ever vigilant.

Eco-planet

2008-10-15T07:59:00.003-06:00

Since I like trees and grass and dirt, I want to keep them unspoiled for generations to come. I have reduced my meat intake (but that lamb burger last night was delicious!), upped my veggie intake. I actually have only bought a half pound of lunch meat in the past 2 months, which as a sandwich junkie is a big step for me. My sandwich today is a roasted zucchini and havarti hoagie. Riding the CATbus occasionally has reduced my gas useage and I'm going to pick up a bicycle from a friend so that I can use zero gas and get some much needed exercise on my way to work. J and I are going to the local bike shop, Clemson Cyclery formerly known as Sunshine Bike Co to see what services they offer and if they can upgrade this bike some. Yes I should probably take the bike in and show them so this will be more of a window shopping trip. Bicycling was my primary mode of transportation during high school, besides the school bus. Driving in and of itself was a crazy propositionhere, not to mention getting insurance for a young unlicensed driver, so I didn't drive much and was relegated to terrorizing the barrios on 2 wheels.

Extra added eco-bonus, all of the aforementioned eco-changes save money! Veggies cost less than meat (unless you're hunting, killing and butchering it yourself), CATbus is "free" (Clemson students pay a transportation fee of $33/semester) and the $40 bicycle from my friend Subaru won't cost anything after the initial buy-in. Our credit card debt is under control, our student loans are crazy but manageable (I should have a good job by the time I have to start repaying mine), so every little bit counts. Even with gas as "cheap" as it is now, free is always better than cheap.

I'm slowly making a list of all the items that I will do once I'm out of school to save money and the planet at the same time! I'll discuss most of these links in a coming post but for now consider them a sneak preview:
Chest freezer to fridge conversion-because most modern fridge design fights physics (cold air sinks and hot air rises)
Frugal Eco-living-because being "green" doesn't have to cost a lot of green. Ah ha!
Terracycle Inc-excellent business that packages and creates new products out of your trash!
Compost-don't throw out those veggie bits, turn them into fertilizer...somehow
Andy's Truck Adventure-here's his first post but to save money, Andy decides to live in the bed of his truck

Who is Christian Hosoi?

2008-10-13T11:13:00.002-06:00

I was channel surfing, trying to find something to watch while I folded the laundry. On Showtime 2 (CBS Co., which is actually controlled by National Amusements) they were showing Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi. Honestly I had never heard of him before, but when I put it on to check it out, I saw Tony Hawk giving an interview and saw some contest results that had Christian's name above Tony's. Since I am a fan of Tony Hawk and know he was one of the greats, I figured I would give it a shot.

It seems that Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi were 2 of the biggest names in skateboarding in the 1980s. Where Tony focused on tricks and skill, Christian had those in spades and focused on the overall experience. He continually changed his clothes, hair styles and had a huge flamboyant personality that drew people in. His father artist showed him that money wasn't the only thing in life, so Christian readily shared what he had with friends. He was one of the first professional skateboarders and had a great time traveling, skating and partying with his friends. Drugs were also a part of his life. He would regularly smoke a joint with his dad or friends before skating. It was Southern California in the 1980s, what did you expect?

As I was watching this I kept wondering, why haven't I heard of this guy? Why did Tony Hawk take up the skateboarding cause and not Christian?

It seems Christian started to spiral out of control when he tried methamphetamine for the first time. He started eating it, then snorting it and then ultimately smoking it. He had a full blown crystal meth habit. He said he had it under control and he would stop if it started to change his appearance. Huh? That's when you know to stop? When you look like the Faces of Meth poster? Yikes.

So he spirals deeper and deeper, hanging out less with his skater friends and more with his tweaker friends. Even some of his skater friends would go pick up some drugs and go to a very dark scary place and see Christian hanging out in that drug den. Christian missed the first X Games in 1995, a massive event now and possibly could have thrust him into the national spotlight and forced him to clean up, but instead kept using and abusing and finally got caught in the Honolulu airport with one pound of meth and was charged with intent to distribute. He served less than half of his 10 year sentence after finding Jesus, getting clean and really changing his life. He is now an associate pastor and skates professionally.

As I sat there folding clothes and watching it, then discussing it with J afterwards; why do so many people need to learn this lesson themselves?

I'm glad you're clean, skating and have a loving family Christian. You're one of the lucky ones.

Are you threatening me?

2008-10-10T06:40:00.003-06:00

Ugh. I just read that Montreal and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve lost their Formula 1 race for 2009 which means no F1 in North America! Boooooo! For those keeping score, now the only worldwide top tier FIA series that races here is the World Rally Championship who races down in Mexico. So now the closest F1 race is...Brazil? Spain?

I saw GayWheels.com (via Jalopnik.com) came out with their "Top 10 Most Researched Vehicles - 3rd Quarter 2008". I went over their 2nd quarter list here. So let's compare and highlight any movement.
1-4) VW Rabbit and Eos, Mazda MX-5 Miata and Audi A3, all unchanged and still awesome (except for the Eos which is not designed for nor marketed towards my demographic).
The #5 Toyota Yaris dropped a few spots but the hatchback is still an unstoppable choice. (I truly loathe the sedan version; it's just so dull and uninspiring) I saw a blue hatchback yesterday that almost brought a tear to my eye. Also I would demand a manual transmission so I could keep the 1.6 Liter engine revved to where I want.

6-7) Saab 9-3, Dodge Caliber, Volvo C30 - The C30 is a very well made and designed smallish hatchback and between Smoove D and I we have seen a total of 2 of them on the road, so if you're looking for exclusivity, look no further than the C30.
8) Smart Fortwo! Hooray for Smart cars! Designed and made by Mercedes but marketed under the Smart brand. It's a 2 seater "city car" designed for shorter commutes although one did compete in One Lap of America this year. Obviously it gets great gas mileage with its 3 cylinder engine and is wicked easy to park. Also starts right at $12,000.

9) Tie for Toyota Matrix and Mini Cooper - I'm pretty sure I've professed my love for all things Mini before so I'll let Mini's amazing website speak for itself.
10) Maserati Gran Turismo! Damn! I guess this economic crisis isn't hitting everyone. And what a wonderful way to show it! Designed and owned by Ferrari with Ferrari engines but without the Ferrari pricetag! ($200,000+) The Gran Turismo is their grand touring 2 door coupe and starts at $110,000. Highly customizable for the discerning eye and the traditional gaping Maserati grille set this car apart from the industrial BMWs and Mercedes. If you have the means, I highly recommend you pick one up.

Maserati's Gran Turismo website (with video so turn your speakers down if you're at work)

The Clemson Tigers lost to Wake Forest last night so all hopes of a decent bowl game and ACC championship are now completely gone and everyone is calling for the coach's head.

Also let's introduce some "new to you" characters. There is Yaris (co-worker) and Hyundai (another co-worker). So Yaris made some cool crystals that jump when they're near a magnet. She was playing with them and Hyundai's wife said they reminded her of the toy where you could move the metal shavings around a bald guy's head and give him hair. I also remembered that, mostly because I could never get him to look like any of the suggestion pictures, but neither of us could remember the name of it. Google hooks us up with Wooly Willy Magnetic Face! Then we talked about other games we played on road trips. The Alphabet Game and the State License Plate Game were played by most. Then I found a Jalopnik post posing the same question "How Did You Survive Long Childhood Road Trips?" My brother and I played those and also had the travel checkers (magnetic and small), books, staring out the window, sleeping and those electronic handheld games (not Gameboy or Sega Game Gear, the cheap ones from Radio Shack and Wal-Mart). My favorite was our trip from The 'Ham to Seattle in my mom's full size van. Dad hooked us up with a TV and VCR that plugged into the car. Those 3 days on the road just flew by. Now I feel sorry for Mom and Dad having to do all that driving but at least they didn't have to break up any fights. Another "game" I played was imagining that I had a sword or laser and would chop everything that our car passed in half. Telephone poles, houses, billboards, trees, nothing was spared the wrath of my mind sword as I left a path of destruction in my wake! I don't think I had an evil intent and probably wouldn't have done it if I had really had a laser sword aka light saber.

Enjoy your weekend and remember since the F1 race is in Japan, live coverage starts late night. Practice aired at 1 am on Speed last night and I think the race starts at 12:30 am on Saturday (technically Sunday) on Speed.

Curly is the new funny!

2008-10-08T09:07:00.002-06:00

As someone with curly hair, in an interracial and intraspecies relationship, I have really enjoyed following the exploits of Abbi Crutchfield, comedienne extraordinaire at her blog Curly Comedy. She is a frequent visitor of Cynical Chris' blog and that was my first exposure to her. I still have yet to see any video of her stand-up but I'm sure it's side splittingly hilarious.

She was recently in a sketch with Tracy Morgan for the 2008 VH1 Hip Hop Awards. Unfortunately all her speaking parts were cut out of what was actually aired but she was on TV!

In other Viacom media conglomerate news, South Park and The Sarah Silverman Show have their season premieres tonight. I should have reviews later this week.

The 2nd round of the presidential debates happened in Nashville last night. J and I once again fled to BBC coverage, thumbing our noses at the Big 6. We haven't actually watched it yet but will soon and then I can give you my 2 cents.

This weekend is the Formula 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway. The driver's championship is coming down to the wire!

There's a recession?

2008-10-07T07:10:00.003-06:00

Remember 6 months ago when the government was trying to assure us this wasn't an economic slowdown? That would've been pretty funny if it hadn't have been so sad and shocking.

I saw on CNN that Micheal Cera is one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood. Way to go George Michael! I knew that kid had potential. Also kudos to Canada for producing another hilarious leading man who has a great career ahead of him. The socially awkward George Michael Bluth was a great stepping stone for Michael on the excellent but cancelled "Arrested Development".

Writing is coming along. Another friend who is writing just set her defense date for Nov. 11, and with the dissertation due 2 weeks before that date, she will be extremely busy in the near future. I'm busy writing but not THAT busy. Maybe I should be?

CNN also covered a guy in East Texas (I'm assuming near Austin) that is building a house out of straw, mud, sand and wood. It really sounds like a great idea. And not terribly expensive. You also wouldn't need to worry about getting your house LEED certified if it's made of natural materials. J and I both agree that if you use space efficiently, you don't really need 6,000 square feet of living space.

I'm not really sure how that would work though. Maybe get out of school, rent a place, buy some land, find an eco-contractor for an advisor, maybe an architect who loves sustainable design and then build a house? Not sure but I love the idea of combining these straw house ideas and using old out of work airplanes for new homes and structures. Hopefully I won't have to chopper the parts in and can build it for less than 2 million!?!?!?!

None of this will be possible without some steady income, so BACK TO WORK!

Who's coming with me?

2008-10-02T07:05:00.002-06:00

Tonight J and I are going to meet a possible 3rd kitteh. He started hanging around one of J's co-worker's house a few months ago. Then one day he showed up after a serious catfight and lost an eye. While he was at the vet they did a little snip job too so he's now neutered. The word on the street is that he's a sweet cat who gets along with her other 3 cats. We're going to meet him tonight. I'm not super excited about a 3rd cat but if he's sweet and cute, it'll be hard to say no. Really not sure how Foxy and Leon would react to a new cat though. Leon might be okay because he lived with Julio (RIP) and was introduced to Foxy. Foxy had around 20 littermates and I'm sure she'll like someone new to play with, so it might be okay.

3 cats seems like a lot though. What's the "crazy cat person" limit? J also really wants a tortoise. I like land turtles too. I already know we're going to be an animal family and I suppose we might as well start now. We try and play with Foxy and Leon as much as we can but I know they still get bored sometimes. Will it be easier to play with 3 cats? Will one feel neglected? Bah, we'll see what happens.

THURSDAY! THURSDAY! THURSDAY! The Ruckus in St. Louis? The Argue in Mizzou? The Fray in St. Louay? Yikes. I should not come up with those. It's tonight in STL at Washington University's St. Louis Athletic Complex (donors needed to rename that STAT!)

Joe "The Fish Aren't" Biden VS. Sarah "Inhalin' and Im" Palin

Please come up with better boxing nicknames as well. It's going to be awesome. Biden might say some wacky stuff and Palin is GUARANTEED to say some wacky stuff. Float like a butterfly and dance around that question like McCain's presidency depends on it.

I might not watch it tonight. A TV-less friend is coming over Sat. to watch it but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to wait that long. I might break it up into several parts. I WILL take notes because I forgot too many good quotes from the Obama/McCain debate.

In other TV news:
I have the first 2 Heroes episodes recorded. I might get to at least one this weekend.
True Blood isn't great but it's an interesting take and I'm a sucker for vampires (pun intended), so I haven't missed an episode yet. Anna does need to stop showing so much flesh around vampires though. Vampire bait is right! I also would still like to know how she can read humans thoughts. Please explain writers!
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia just keeps getting more awesome. Cannibalism? Hunting humans? What was the last show you saw had those topics and was freakin' hilarious to boot? Great show.
The Office and My Name is Earl are back and better than ever. 30 Rock should be coming back soon too.
The Hills I still watch for the 3rd segment drama and because I LOVE hating Spencer. They have a douchebag coach for that show right? There's no way he's really that much of a douchehole, really? He's alienated ALL of Heidi's friends and now he's slowly working on her family. Soon there will be no one left and Heidi will be all his! MWAHAHAHAHA!
The new Road Rules/Real World Challenge is pretty awesome so far with its' new Survivor style isolated island limited rations spin. I still can't believe Abe went home. I miss your crazy ass Abe! You were so far above everyone's games and stupid drama that you shook it all up. Your massive lip after the wasp attack was also freakin' hysterical.

There you have it. A decent mix of GE (NBC), Viacom (MTV), FX (News Corp.), and HBO (Time Warner) shows. All hail our media overlords!

Albequerque Freak-out!

2008-10-01T07:43:00.002-06:00

That was one of the card games Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) played with his grandmother on Tina Fey's show "30 Rock". It's really interesting watching a show on GE's NBC that features both brands so heavily. Most of it is really funny but I did notice during one of Tracy's trademark freakouts that he said he voted for Nader, Nader! Which the conspiracy theorist in me recognizes as further proof that Big Media doesn't want third party candidates to debate or get any significant portion of the vote because they might actually change something. I stumbled across this article written by the one and only Ted Turner about media conglomerates and how the FCC is squarely under their control. If you want to hear some more opinions and want an ACTUAL choice for the presidency, then by all means go to ThirdPartyTicket and put your name on the list (don't worry, I didn't pledge any money either). Look at Ralph Nader's comment on it also.

Okay, back to corporate sponsored sporting events: the inaugural Singapore F1 Gran Prix, oh sorry, the Singtel Singapore Grand Prix. One of the few street circuits on the F1 calendar and F1's first race at night under the lights. They race under the lights so the poor Euros don't have to wake up early to watch a race and so the broadcasters can charge primetime rates for advertisements. Us not important Americans get races no later than noon and no earlier than Japan's upcoming race that starts at 12:30 am. American viewers just aren't as important as European viewers, even though Honda, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota's biggest market is here. I also know that most Americans don't care because major network stations (CBS-Viacom and Fox-News Corp.) only carry 4 out of the 17 races. Sorry, 18 races. Nice. Don't even get me started about American's attitudes towards rally racing.

Enough soapboxing, let's get to race reporting. Qualifying was tough and exciting. Fernando Alonso (2 time world champ) had trouble in his ING Renault and qualified 15th. Ouch. The Scuderia Ferraris looked unstoppable and qualified 1 and 3 (Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikonnen respectively) split by driver championship points leading Lewis Hamilton in his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel coming off his first career win at Monza qualified his Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari in 7th. Full Quali results.

It looked like a solid win and a driver championship were in Felipe and Ferrari's grasp.

Then the race started. Felipe is off like lightening! Lewis is in pursuit but falling back. Kimi is hot on his heels. Then, just as the first pit stops need to come, Nelson "Don't call me Junior" Piquet smacks his Renault into the wall which brings out the gorgeous Mercedes AMG SL 63 safety car (pace car) and also the awesome "you can't have it America" C63 AMG medical wagon. They close the pit lane but Nico Rosberg (Williams Toyota) and Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) come in anyway and both suffer 10 second penalties (which is actually longer since they have to serve it in their pit stalls and with the slow 80 kmh (50 mph) speed limit, that's a long time). Nico takes his penalty after laying down some very fast laps and eventually finishes the race in 2nd! Great job Nico! They open the pits up and guys are running on fumes. Since the lap is so long (almost 2 minutes) most teams decide to stack their cars up and let the 2nd car wait while the first one gets gas and tires. Several teams do this, Ferrari being the most prominent. Felipe is in the pits from first, tires go on, he's getting gas, then he takes off! But they didn't unhook the fuel hose! He bowls down 3 or 4 pit crew and stops at the end of the pit lane! Kimi comes in, gets tires and fuel from the back-up fuel rig and then the pit crew runs down to help out Felipe. The fuel nozzle is stuck but they get it out and get him going but he dropped from first to 16th. Yikes. Looking at the replay he did get a green light from his pit stop light, so it was a team error or an electronics error. Not Felipe's fault. Scuderia Ferrari's dreams come crashing down. Tough break guys. I couldn't believe it when I saw it.

The rest of the race was just as exciting. The exact same thing almost happened to David Coulthard. He was in for his last pit stop and the guy holding the lollipop (the sign that tells him he can leave, they don't use lights like Ferrari) completely spaces out and lifts it up too soon! He luckily puts it down quickly and the crew is able to get him out after a couple more seconds of struggling. In the replay you can clearly see the lollipop guy's head look at the fuel hose, then he looks down at the front of the car and then for no reason decides that it's time for DC to leave. Aaaaaah! What happened Red Bull Renault lollipop guy?

Excellent race by Fernando Alonso, he improved 15 spots from his 15th grid spot to finish first! Great job Fernando and Renault!

Lewis hung on to finish third and get some much needed driver's points to increase his lead over Felipe Massa. David Coulthard finished 7th and his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel finished fifth. Full results.

Only 3 races left, the driver's championship is far from over with Lewis Hamilton having 84 points and Felipe Massa 7 back with 77. Robert Kubica is 13 back from Felipe with 64 points. The next race is October 12th in Japan, then Oct. 19th in China, then the last race is home turf for Felipe in Sao Paolo, Brazil on November 2nd. Who has nerves of steel to put the championship race out of the mind and just drive? We all get to find out in a couple weeks.

Precondition, precondition, precondition

2008-09-30T06:39:00.002-06:00

I'm very glad I wasn't playing a McCain buzzword drinking game during the debates. I would have had alcohol poisoning after the 17th "precondition". Things I took away from the debates:
McCain really likes to repeat his strong points either because that's the only way his supporters will remember them or he forgot he has already said it once or twice before.
Obama really needs to get into specifics in the first 30 seconds of his answers (out of 2 minutes) and not the last 30 seconds. You lead with the good stuff. Don't hide it behind fluff.
McCain's points spoke to his constituents concerns and values. He's going to take care of veterans and will not meet with any foreign leader unless they subject to an anal probe or some other ridiculous "precondition". Even those shifty Spaniards.
Obama is very willing to meet with any foreign leader and apparently realizes that many meetings will take place to actually fix the world's problems. One magical preconditioning meeting isn't going to fix anything.
BBC America is by far the best channel for watching the debates. They have cool British accents, are fairly impartial, and they had correspondents from around the world immediately after discussing their thoughts. Beijing didn't give a shit and were glad China wasn't mentioned. They had people walking in space anyway so that took precedence. Moscow was a bit concerned by McCain's comments about renewing the cold war and didn't like either one condemning their actions in Georgia. The guy in Baghdad watched but I can't remember what he said.

Next round: VP debates! I'm very excited and can't wait. Be sure to tune in to BBC America for live coverage or you can opt for one of the six American media conglomerates for coverage.

In tragic news, the great and wonderful Paul Newman has passed. He was an amazing actor, amazing racecar driver and motorsport enthusiast and owner, and was also a huge environmentalist (ecoist to use Bob Redford's term) and made a mean pasta sauce. My first foray into Paul was via Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Great buddy Western film and also made me a long time Robert Redford fan. Later I would watch The Sting and then Cool Hand Luke which cemented my image of him as one of the greats.

Newman is on the left and the "other guy" is racing legend Mario Andretti.
You will be missed Paul. The world will miss you. Please look at Paul Newman's wiki page and his imdb page as well.

Nothing just yet

2008-09-29T08:12:00.002-06:00

I'll post up about Paul Newman, the debates, the debates that should include 3rd party candidates, the upcoming VP debates, Singapore F1 night racing (once I finish it) and Black Lake Michelin Proving Grounds autocross (with pictures).

So until then...

When the lights go out in the city

2008-09-26T07:51:00.002-06:00

F1 this weekend is in Singapore. Practice might be going on right now. I know qualifying is at 10 am tomorrow morning. Wouldn't that make it nighttime in Singapore? Yes it would! That's why this is a very rare street circuit and the first ever night race for Formula 1 and should be an amazing race. I can't wait. The cars actually drive under the grandstands. Just imagine the sounds of 20 V8 engines revving to 19,000 rpm and then all that sound bouncing off the walls. I'm really looking forward to the race live at 7:30 am on Sunday.

This weekend is my lone autocross. I have taken time off from it because of the writing but am taking a break on Saturday. It is at the Michelin test facility near Greenwood, SC and it's called the Black Lake. It's 1400 x 400 square feet of perfectly black asphalt. It's basically the biggest and flattest area most of us have ever driven and for me might be a once in a lifetime thing, so I couldn't pass it up.

I'll let you know how it goes and I might actually remember to bring the camera and take some pictures. Michelin is so great (merci!) for letting us use part of their tire testing facility and have a few rules to protect their baby. No sharp metal touching the surface. No direct canopy legs on the pavement, no jacking a car up directly on the pavement, etc... Hopefully everyone cooperates and we are allowed back again.

I've been busy at work and didn't get much writing done this week. We did learn that Protege and Acura are coming back for a visit! Hooray! They didn't suffer too much damage to their house but there was some flooding to the first floor. Remind me again why there aren't more houses on stilts in low-lying states? I'm looking at you American coastal areas.

Tonight is wrenching on the car a bit, just checking bolts and replacing some suspension bushings. I need to order a timing belt for Focus. Ford says I can wait until 120,000 miles but I don't trust them and have heard of them snapping soon after 100,000. She hit 99,000 on the way to Ikea ATL last weekend. The new shelf is awesome but it was a tad long and had to jam its way between the front seats for the ride home, so I had to lean forward if I actually wanted to see J.