Crazy Lawsuit Game

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.

Labels: bicycle, business idea, Clemson, environment, litter, writing

Jerome Chang and Chris Chen have seriously outdone themselves. Ed Levine reviews their Dessert Truck, which is exactly what it sounds like. A truck that serves dessert. They start at 6 pm and sell until they feel like going home. Pure genius. I think those are work hours even J could get behind.(she likes to sleep. Alot.)

If you're ever in NYC and have a hankerin' for some delicious on the go sweets and don't like menus that take 20 minutes to read through (they have 6 desserts, hot chocolate and chocolate bark), then you might have found urban nirvana, the real kind not that questionable store.

8th Street and University Place, Manhattan, Dessert Truck. GO!

Labels: business idea, restaurant reviews

I think J and I should start a non-profit organization. It's such a great tax shelter and you get to help people while dodging taxes. Not that we pay tons of taxes but still. I keep hearing about all these pro athletes that have non-profit organizations and it's such a great idea. It's definitely a win-win-win situation. The athlete wins because he pays less taxes because he donates lots of money to his organization. His family gets a paycheck by running the non-profit and they give back to the community. Lastly the community wins because there is a non-profit helping them out and they can get some national coverage fairly easily because they're connected to a pro athlete.

Of course I don't think any of that would work if you didn't actually want to help people. The non-profit that helps no one but has lots of money only helps themselves. You gotta give back.

It would probably revolve around promoting reading to kids and adults, or spaying and neutering feral cats, or helping the environment. I think a non-profit that helped improve public parks and land would be really cool too but I don't have the botanical knowledge for that. I don't know. I do know that I have to get out of grad school so I can start implementing all these plans.

I really want to start a hydroponic garden. I don't know why but I'm really drawn to the idea of growing things without dirt. Plus I could recycle the water and hopefully make it eco-friendly too. I have also heard of aeroponic where you grow things in air, but that seems a bit too crazy for me.

It was almost freezing this morning. Ski season is just around the corner! J and I are planning our late Honeymoon for mid-January and we'll be going skiing. I can't wait. Hopefully it snows like mad in early January.

Labels: business idea, skiing

I'm not really burnt out on blogging, but writing my dissertation has somehow sapped me of my creative writing desires. You figure it would be a great outlet after writing all technical-like to come over here and just spout off about whatever I want, instead of what my results dictate.

Money has been popping into my head recently. Nothing major just that J and I don't have tons of it, but we don't live in a box either.

The autocross on Saturday went well enough but I got beat by someone by 1.5 seconds. I had previously beaten this guy at the Doublecross and I'm fairly certain I have no idea where to make up almost 2 full seconds on that course. I'm at an impasse. I don't think the car can go faster as is and I don't think I can go faster as is, so the next step is to invest in a driving school or buy some more go fast parts. At the same time autocross really is just a hobby and I don't want all my spare money to go towards it. I spend enough as it is. My true passion is rally and I know that is going to be wicked expensive. I have decided that my current plan is to save money and every upgrade will be legal for rallying first and useful for autocross second.

I also got to ride in a 2005 Lotus Elise! Damn. I really do love that tiny little car. I was almost sitting on top of the driver as she was flying around the course. Would I give up rallying for that car? Maybe. Depends on a few factors but it's definitely a possibility. But if I did that then I would still have expenses by taking it to the track and I would still need the tow vehicle and trailer.

Maybe I should become a Buddhist so I don't have to worry about these material possessions anymore.

I was building my tow vehicle today on Chevy and Ford's websites. Shouldn't air conditioning be standard? Does anyone really not want that as an option? I would love a diesel. So much torque and a turbo and if I came across a vat of used filtered vegetable oil, I could convert it into fuel.

I read Roland S. Martin's column in CNN.com. It deals with lust and greed and how the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) all preach how lust and greed are bad. But that doesn't mean that sex and money should be taboo subjects. As a Southern Baptist I was raised that sex before marriage was bad, mmmkay but thankfully my parents also mentioned that sex in a marriage is a wonderful beautiful thing that should be enjoyed, so I'm not as screwed up as some of the poor souls out there.

But a business venture popped into my head. It would be kind of like Real Sex but for poor sexually repressed Christians who were only taught that sex was bad and dirty. Maybe a book or a video or a traveling workshop where Christians who want to spice up their marriage come to J and I, give us some money, and then we give them some ideas and pointers. Not a bad idea. Maybe after this degree is out of the way I can come up with something more concrete.

Labels: autocross, business idea, sex and religion