Crazy Lawsuit Game

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)

Labels: Denver, Fort Collins, Foxy and Leon, job search, moving, podcast, TBTL

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!

Labels: CSU, Denver, Fort Collins, job search

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.

Labels: 4WD, bicycle, conference, Denver, Focus, FWD, RWD, Subaru

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.

Labels: bicycle, cars, Denver

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

Labels: bicycle, Cruisers, Denver, Elephant Rock, Subaru, Wash Park

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.

Labels: Acura, Denver, garden, Protege, teaching

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.

Labels: Denver, Ikea

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.

Labels: Denver, teaching

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:

Labels: Denver, yarn grafitti

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?

Labels: Denver, job search, snow

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

Labels: bicycle, Denver, environment, Subaru

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.

Labels: Denver, movie, preview, restaurant reviews

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

Labels: big moments, cats, Denver, moving, road trip, South Carolina, writing